Tag: Morning Musings

Morning Musing: Romans 12:16

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“Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud; instead, associate with the humble. Do not be wise in your own estimation.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

A friend of mine pastors a church that’s hard. The congregation has a reputation for being a church that chews up pastors and spits them out. There constantly seems to be discord among the members. Someone is always upset about something. My friend spends a fair bit of his time putting out fires. From the outside looking in, the people there do no live in harmony with one another. It makes accomplishing effective ministry a great deal more difficult than it might otherwise be. A church wracked by disharmony is going to have a much harder time proclaiming and advancing the Gospel than one that isn’t. This is why Paul gave us this next series of commands for living the Christian life well. Let’s continue our exploration of his practical list of how what it looks like to follow Jesus.

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Morning Musing: Romans 12:15

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“Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

I heard a commentary the other day reflecting on the number of adults who are going to summer camp. They aren’t going to summer camp as chaperons for their children’s summer camp. They are going to their own summer camp. Adults – and especially women – in their 20s and early 30s are increasingly looking for week long summer camps they can attend like perhaps they did when they were kids. And while they are doing it for reasons of nostalgia, they are doing it even more for reasons of loneliness. They don’t have many – or any – friends in real life, and they are so online that they struggle making them. So they go to camp in hopes of building the kind of life-giving relationships they are hungering for. What they really need, though, is not a summer camp experience; they need the church. They need the church where they can find real community and build genuine relationships; where they will find people who will follow Paul’s next command here with them. As we continue our walk through some of the basics of kingdom ethics, let’s talk about the power of real community.

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Morning Musing: Luke 23:33-34

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“When they arrived at the place called The Skull, they crucified him there, along with the criminals, one on the right and one on the left. Then Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them, because they do not know what they are doing.’ And they divided his clothes and cast lots.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

My boys are all at or nearly in their teenage years. One thing teenage boys like to do is play. And one of the games we tend to play most around my house is to see who can hit each other with something last. One will hit the other with something – not hard, but playfully – and the other responds in kind. Then the first hits him back, and this continues back and forth until someone wins. How does someone win exactly? Well, in most cases the winner is whoever managed to get the last hit in before Mom or Dad finally tells them to knock it off. If it’s me they’ve picked a fight with, though, I win because I just respond with such overwhelming force that they don’t have a chance. If they start it, I make sure I finish it. Around the house this kind of thing is just playful and fun. It’s teenage boys being teenage boys. But there’s something deeper here worth considering. This desire to get someone back when they’ve offended us is natural. It is natural, but if we don’t control it, it can quickly lead to far more hurt than whatever the original offense was. Unfortunately, we can’t control it. But there is a power that can help. This power was put on display rather poignantly recently. Let’s talk about Erika Kirk and Gospel forgiveness.

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Morning Musing: Romans 12:10

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“Love one another deeply as brothers and sisters. Take the lead in honoring one another.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Hearing that we are to be following Jesus and mimicking His character is one thing. Having an actual set of guidelines to help us know where the lines on that effort are so that we may live comfortably within them is another. We need both if we are going to get it right. Thankfully, in the second half of Romans 12, the apostle Paul gives us just such a list. We started out our walk through this list last week. I had initially planned to tackle the first four verses covering the first eleven of the commands Paul gives, but as I started writing, there was a lot to say about just the first verse, so we stopped with that. My plan as I’m sitting down this morning is to get through verse 12, but as my Wednesday night Bible study group knows, sometimes we don’t get as far as we planned. So, let’s talk specifics on following Jesus, and see how far we get.

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Morning Musing: Romans 12:4-5

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“Now as we have many parts in one body, and all the parts do not have the same function, in the same way we who are many are one body in Christ and individually members of one another.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

The best preachers have illustrations they go back to again and again. This isn’t because they’re boring and unoriginal (they’re the best preachers, not the worst). It’s because the illustrations are so good they’re worth being used over and over. What we encounter here is one of the illustrations to help understand the body of Christ that Paul comes back to more than once. Let’s talk about the body, the church, and what we mean to one another.

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