Tag: Morning Musings

Morning Musing: James 5:13-14

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“Is anyone among you suffering? He should pray. Is anyone cheerful? He should sing praises. Is anyone among you sick? He should call for the elders of the church, and they are to pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.” ‬‬ (CSB – Read the chapter)

Imagine with me for a minute: Something awful has happened. Who’s the first person you tell? You’ve just had the best day you’ve had in a long time. Who do you tell first? You’ve finally solved that huge mystery you’ve been wondering about for weeks. Who is it you can’t wait to see so you can give them all the details? My guess is the person who’s name kept coming up is either your best friend in the world, your spouse, or both. That’s just about as it should be. James, however, has another suggestion for that list. 

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Morning Musing: James 4:15

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“Instead, you should say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.’”‬‬ (CSB – Read the chapter) 

What are your plans for tomorrow? Do you have any? I do. How firm are those plans? How much are you depending on those plans? The fact is, we all make plans. Even the most free-spirited person still has some vision of what tomorrow ought to bring. And when we make plans, we generally hold to them fairly tightly. In fact, we’re sometimes tempted to stake our hope on them. That’s a problem. 

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Morning Musing: James 4:4

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“You adulterous people! Don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? So whoever wants to be the friend of the world becomes the enemy of God.”‬‬ (CSB – Read the chapter) 

One of the most famous theologians of the 20th century was Reinhold Niebuhr. He was a giant in a number of respects. His equally influential, but less culturally famous younger brother was H. Richard Niebuhr. The younger Niebuhr wrote a famous book I had to read in seminary called, Christ and Culture. In it, he worked through several different approaches to thinking about how Jesus—and by virtue of necessity, His followers—got along with the world around them. His was an important contribution to what has been a much larger question on the minds of thinking Christians for most of 2,000 years. 

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Morning Musing: Romans 12:2

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“Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.”
— ‭‭Romans‬ ‭12:2‬‬ (CSB – Read the chapter) 

We’ve talked recently about how to counter bad religion with the help of some things James, Jesus’ brother, wrote. Christians often have a reputation that we’ve unfortunately worked hard to earn that all we are concerned about is policing the behavior of the people around us. If we really put into practice what Paul says here, we will go a long ways toward fixing both the perception of ourselves and of our religion. 

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Morning Musing: 2 Peter 1:8

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“For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being useless or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”‬‬ (CSB – Read the chapter) 

I want to matter. I want for my life to count for something. That desire pulses deep with every beat of my heart. If I were a betting kind of man, I’d bet that you feel this too. While it may manifest itself in different ways, this desire burns at the heart of every single one of us. We want to be able to look back on our lives at some point and be able to say: I accomplished something of value to this world. One of our deepest fears is meaninglessness. Anything that helps at least sort of scratch this itch gets our attention. Given that, what Peter says here should have us rapt with it. 

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