More Than Meets the Eye

Sometimes we feel alone. We feel alone when we are all by ourselves. We feel alone when we are surrounded by people. Isolation isn’t a function of the proximity of other people. It’s more often first a mental state. When our circumstances get hard, or when we get into sin of some kind, we start to feel disconnected from the people around us, the people who love us. When this happens, our anxiety starts to grow. Then we start to feel disconnected from God. We struggle to see His help in our situation, and things just get worse. Elijah understood this feeling. He felt isolated and alone and terribly anxious because of it. Today as we continue our series, we are going to look at God’s encouragement to him and what that means for us. Let’s dive right in.

More Than Meets the Eye

I finally finished watching the Cobra Kai series on Netflix recently. If you’re not familiar with it, it’s basically a modern continuation of the Karate Kid story from the trio of excellent movies in the 1980s and early 1990s. To say the whole thing is a remarkable story of redemption and restoration is an understatement. It was fantastic. It wasn’t perfect by any stretch—very little out of Hollywood is these days—but it got Gospel redemption right in some really profound ways. There’s something else it got right as well. 

Read the rest…

Morning Musing: Proverbs 18:1

“One who isolates himself pursues selfish desires; he rebels against all sound wisdom.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

A few years ago, Southwest Airlines did an ad campaign with the slogan, “Wanna get away?” Each of the commercials featured someone accidentally finding themselves in a horribly embarrassing situation. For example, a delivery man grabs a basketball in a driveway after making his delivery to a house, and with the homeowners both working in the yard and watching him, takes a shot on the goal which misses entirely and instead smashes through their garage window. Then there’s the guy trying to impress a girl with his dance moves who accidentally takes out the whole DJ stand, shutting down the entire club. We have all experienced times when we just wanted to get away from it all and forget about everything going on around us. But if we’re not careful, that getting away can translate into wanting to not be around people at all. Having times of solitude is good, but we need people. This proverb reminds us of why.

read the rest…

Morning Musing: Hebrews 10:23-25

“Let us hold on to the confession of our hope without wavering, since he who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to provoke love and good works, not neglecting to gather together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging each other, and all the more as you see the day approaching.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Have you ever been really excited about second place? Have you been totally thrilled to be the next-to-best? That’s kind of an awkward question. I mean, on the one hand, second place may feel like a huge victory. But, on the other hand, if you were striving to win, second place can feel like a total letdown. Why am I thinking about this today? Because right now the church is living in second place and we are realizing just how important winning really is. Let me explain.

Read the rest…

Digging in Deeper: Amos 8:11

“Look, the days are coming — this is the declaration of the Lord God — when I will send a famine through the land: not a famine of bread or a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord.”‬‬ (CSB – Read the chapter)

Did you ever get separated from your parents when you were a kid? I’ll tell you a story of my own in just a second, but there are few things that feel scarier than that. This fear is not rooted primarily in the thought of what could happen to you without them nearby, but rather in something entirely simpler than that: being alone. We weren’t made to be alone. Being separated from people is scary. Feeling separated from God should be even more so. He obviously thinks so in light of what He says to the people here.

Read the rest…