Tag: Morning Musings

Morning Musing: Romans 7:12-13

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“So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good. Therefore, did what is good become death to me? Absolutely not! But sin, in order to be recognized as sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that through the commandment, sin might become sinful beyond measure.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

I love a good mystery story. I tend to let myself get taken into the story such that I’m fully along for the ride. I rarely figure the best ones out until right at the end, which, in a really good mystery, should always be the case. One of the best I’ve ever seen is the movie, The Usual Suspects, starring Kevin Spacey. Spacey plays a criminal who, after being arrested, convinces the police with an elaborate—and entirely false—story that he is innocent even though he was the mastermind behind the whole thing. One of the best lines from the movie is a quote attributed to a 19th century French poet and essayist, Charles Baudelaire. “The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.” When we become convinced that evil isn’t really evil, that sin isn’t really a thing, we find ourselves able to justify all sorts of things. Law serves as the only effective restraint when we walk that path. Sin, though, is bad enough stuff it can corrupt even that. Let’s talk a bit more today about the relationship of sin and the law.

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Morning Musing: Matthew 16:15-18

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“‘But you,’ he asked them, ‘who do you say that I am?’ Simon Peter answered, ‘You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.’ Jesus responded, ‘Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about the church lately, what it is and how it was designed by God to work. I’ve been doing this as my own church has been going through a season of growth, especially with kids and young families. I’ve been doing that as more and more reports keep coming in from more and more different places about the growth of the church in parts of the world that have been deeply secular for a very long time. Through all of this, I’ve come away even more impressed with the profound uniqueness and goodness of the church. Let’s take some more time today to think about all of this together.

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Morning Musing: Romans 7:7-11

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“What should we say then? Is the law sin? Absolutely not! But I would not have known sin if it were not for the law. For example, I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, ‘Do not covet.’ And sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind. For apart from the law sin is dead. Once I was alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life again and I died. The commandment that was meant for life resulted in death for me. For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me, and through it killed me.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Some people are rule followers. If you give them a rule, they keep that rule. They may look for loopholes in the rule, but as far as the rule itself goes, they’ll toe the line. Others…aren’t. If you give them a rule, not only will they break it, they’ll make sure you are watching when they do so you can see them breaking it. In fact, with these folks, the quickest way to guarantee they do something other than what you want them to do is to tell them not to do it. They probably weren’t even considering doing whatever it is you don’t want them to do until you told them not to. Then the die was cast. They’re doing it. It was the rule itself that led to their breaking it. In this situation, we should ask an interesting question: What is the source of the problem here? The rule itself or something else?

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Morning Musing: Romans 6:23

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“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

One of the classic approaches to sharing the Gospel from the last century was to take unbelievers along the Romans Road. This was a series of verses in this incredible letter that spell out the basic Gospel message, leading the listener to the point of making a decision to follow Jesus. This verse is one of the major stops on that road. Paul here spells out the result of sin. Let’s take a look at this and talk through just what it means.

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Morning Musing: Romans 6:21-22

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“So what fruit was produced then from the things you are now ashamed of? The outcome of those things is death. But now, since you have been set free from sin and have become enslaved to God, you have your fruit, which results in sanctification—and the outcome is eternal life!” (CSB – Read the chapter)

When Dr. Phil was doing his regular, daytime talk show, one of the lines he became famous for was a simple question: How’s that working for you? People would come to him with complaints about their lives, and he would lead them to tell him about the things they were doing. What were their patterns? What kind of choices were they making? Then he would ask his question: How’s that working for you? His point was that the outcomes we experience in life are the result of the choices we make. The path we are walking determines the destination to which we are heading. Paul would seem to agree. Let’s look at what he says next.

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