Tag: Obedience

Doing Makes All the Difference

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This week we are finally wrapping up our journey through Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. For the last two and a half months we have been working our way through the incredible vision of God’s kingdom Jesus gave us in these words. Here at the end Jesus doesn’t add any new teaching to the pile. Rather, He offers us a warning and an encouragement. Both are focused on making the same point: If we don’t put all of these things into practice, they won’t do us any good both now and when all things finally come to an end. Let’s dive into these words together as we are reminded that doing really does make all the difference.

Doing Makes All the Difference

I spent three years in seminary. While I was there, I took classes on all sorts of things you might expect a preacher to learn. We studied Greek and Hebrew. We learned various approaches to interpreting the Scriptures. We took classes on theology and church history. We learned how to defend the faith and to make strong, rational arguments in its favor. There were preaching classes, of course. Toward the end, there were even a couple of practical ministry classes and leadership classes. It was a robust program in which I learned a ton. Or at least, I felt like I did. But it’s hard to know how much you have really learned until you have the opportunity to actually put it into practice. 

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Terraced olive grove on hillside with person harvesting olives near a coastal village

Summer Reruns: Humble and Intentional Faith

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I had somebody ask me the other day if I had ever gone back to read an old post or sermon and found that I had written something in the past that I no longer agree with or believe. I was happily able to assure him that this wasn’t the case. I haven’t read anywhere in the universe of every post I’ve ever written to be sure, but my thinking on a number of issues has remained pretty stable over the past decade. I say that because here is a post from way back near the very beginning of the blog reflecting on a passage that I wrote about not too long ago on our journey through Romans. While I bring out some different angles on the passage here than I explored more recently, I still heartily endorse everything I wrote back then. Let take a trip down memory lane today and reflect on the humility and the intentionality the Christian faith requires.

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Morning Musing: Romans 16:19-23

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“The report of your obedience has reached everyone. Therefore I rejoice over you, but I want you to be wise about what is good, and yet innocent about what is evil. The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you. Timothy, my coworker, and Lucius, Jason, and Sosipater, my fellow countrymen, greet you. I, Tertius, who wrote this letter, greet you in the Lord. Gaius, who is host to me and to the whole church, greets you. Erastus, the city treasurer, and our brother Quartus greet you.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

What are you known for? Is it a particular habit? A personality trait? Your vocation? There are all kinds of things people wind up being known for. Not all of them, though, are good. The same thing goes for the church. Churches have reputations. Some are known to be contentious and unwelcoming. Some are just known for being large. Some are known because of all the effective kingdom-advancing work they do. Paul commends the church in Rome here for something they were known for. I’ve got to say: theirs isn’t bad. Let’s talk about it and what follows as the letter draws to a close with the next post.

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Morning Musing: Exodus 40:1-33

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“The Lord spoke to Moses: ‘You are to set up the tabernacle, the tent of meeting, on the first day of the first month’. . . .Moses did everything just as the Lord had commanded him. The tabernacle was set up in the first month of the second year, on the first day of the month. . . .Next Moses set up the surrounding courtyard for the tabernacle and the altar and hung a screen for the gate of the courtyard. So Moses finished the work.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

What does God want from us? More than anything else, He wants a relationship with us. He wants us to be in a right and proper relationship with Him. How do we know when we have that? Because we do what He says. Our faithful, willing obedience is the first and best sign that we understand who He is, who we are, and are willing to accept those two truths wholly. Our obedience is the best proof that we are right with Him. In this final description of Moses’ work with the tabernacle, this is where the emphasis lies: that Moses did what God said. Let’s talk through what we see here and about why this is a good pointer to something that is still true for us today.

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Morning Musing: Exodus 32:15-16

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“Then Moses turned and went down the mountain with the two tablets of the testimony in his hands. They were inscribed on both sides – inscribed front and back. The tablets were the work of God, and the writing was God’s writing, engraved on the tablets.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

All the words of the Scriptures matter. If we are going to understand them properly, that’s a pretty fundamental point for interpretation. The apostle Paul made as much clear when he said that every word of the Scriptures was breathed out by God. Our lack of understanding of some of them doesn’t mean they don’t matter. It means we don’t understand them. Interludes like this one often seem out of place as they interrupt the flow of the larger story in which they sit. Let’s talk about why this bit got included here.

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