“Then Gideon perceived that he was the angel of the Lord. And Gideon said, ‘Alas, O Lord God! For now I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face.’ But the Lord said to him, ‘Peace be to you. Do not fear; you shall not die.'” (ESV – Read the chapter)
Have you ever been so upset about something that you were missing the world right in front of your face? Most of us have at some point. Life doesn’t go our way and we let it put us in a place where we can’t get past what went wrong. All of our attention gets sucked into the frustration and things that most people would say are obvious don’t even register on our radar. Read the rest…
“So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, ‘If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.'” (ESV – Read the chapter)
Jesus says two really important things here. The first gives us the rubric for having confidence in our fellowship. The second gives us the dual result of this state of affairs. Read the rest…
“When the Lord has given you rest from your pain and turmoil and the hard service with which you were made to serve, you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon: ‘How the oppressor has ceased, the insolent fury ceased!'” (ESV – Read the chapter)
At first blush here, it feels a little odd that God would call Israel to taunt Babylon when they are brought low in judgment from the Lord. Isn’t that just cruel? Why kick someone when they are down? This Old Testament god here must be the vengeful, gleeful-in-wrath god we’ve always heard about from our critics. Read the rest…
In this final part of the teaching series, A Word on Reality, we at last wrap up John’s masterful letter. In the end we find a strong reaffirmation of God’s testimony about Jesus and a final call to live comfortably within the borders of reality. It is only there that we will find the life for which we most long. Keep reading for more.
A Final Word on Reality
Well, we have finally reached the end of our journey through 1 John. And what a journey it has been! We have come a long way and have covered a lot of ground since the beginning of July. Some of it has been very encouraging and some has been pretty hard-hitting. What I have tried my best to do, though, throughout this series is to leave you with a clear outline of the boundaries of reality. Surely not all of this life is black and white, but life according to the law of the kingdom is a simple thing. It’s not easy, but it is simple: believe in Jesus Christ the Son of God and act in the light of that belief in every circumstance of your life. Piece of cake, right? Let’s be real here—that is, after all, what all of this has been about. Reality is rarely a breeze, but it is always right. And the call of not only this letter, but of our entire lives is to live in God’s reality, not the world’s fantasy. Before finishing out the letter this morning, let’s look back over where we’ve been so everything is fresh. Read the rest…
Yesterday morning in our journey through 1 John we finally got to the point of defining love. What is love and what are the five implications for getting it right in our lives that John outlines? Keep reading to find out.
Love Flows Out
Near the end of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus looked at the crowd gathered around Him and said this: “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.” Read the rest…
