Tag: Romans 8

Spiritual GPS

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Over the past couple of weeks, we have been talking about prayer. We have talked about what prayer is (a conversation with a God who loves us), and one powerful thing prayer can accomplish in our lives (bring God’s peace). But experiencing these things doesn’t seem to be something we can do on our own. We need help. Thankfully God provides that help for us. As we wrap up our series, Talking to God, today, we are talking about this help and how we can receive it.

Spiritual GPS

Alright, I’m going to split the room into two groups for a minute this morning: those folks 40 and up, and those folks 40 and under. Now, for the first group, do you remember navigating new places before GPS? I remember needing to drive around the city of Phoenix for a couple of days many years ago. Before my trip down there, I got on Google Maps and printed out individual maps of all the places I needed to go—several of them actually. I’m not any good with written or spoken directions. You can tell me how to get somewhere and it will zoom in one ear and out the other. I have to actually see it so I can form a mental map. Then I’m good to go. I suspect that most folks of a certain age have distinct memories of pulling out a map of a new city or maybe even a whole atlas for a long car trip, and navigating your way to your destination. 

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Digging in Deeper: Psalm 44:22-23

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“Because of you we are being put to death all day long; we are counted as sheep to be slaughtered. Wake up, Lord! Why are you sleeping? Get up! Don’t reject us forever!” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Think for a minute about the last time you felt God wasn’t there. Think about the time you felt He had abandoned you to your fate, whatever it was. If you are willing, feel for just a moment the emotions of that place again. Think about that time you looked around and were briefly overwhelmed by the brokenness of the world around you. You may not want to sit there long because those emotions were so painful. You may not have to work very hard to feel them because they are so fresh. There are times as we go through life when we can’t escape any of that. Sometimes we witness it from afar, but other times it lands right in our laps. What do we do then? The sons of Korah offer us one way forward here.

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The Good News

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The great thing about God’s story, is that it doesn’t end after the second act.  In this third part of our series, The Big Story, we finally get to relish the joy of the third act: Redemption.  God’s efforts since the fall have been focused on this one goal.  Read on to see how this played out…

 

The Good News

Let’s start this morning with some trivia.  What do Return of the Jedi, Rocky Balboa, Antwone Fisher, Les Misérables, and Iron Man 3 all have in common?  They are all stories of redemption.  In Return of the Jedi the exciting climax of the movie comes when Anakin Skywalker—Darth Vader—returns from the “dark side,” saves the life of his son, Luke, and puts an end to the evil of The Emperor.  In Rocky Balboa, the washed-up, old fighter proves to himself and the world that he still has what it takes when he comes out of retirement and goes toe-to-toe with the reigning heavyweight champ, Mason “the Line” Dixon.  In Antwone Fisher a young, emotionally broken soldier finds healing and wholeness through the help of a committed counselor, his girlfriend, and the family he never knew he had.  In Les Misérables, the thief, Jean Valjean, is given a second chance at life by a gracious Catholic priest and commits the rest of his life to serving and saving those who were in the same dire straits in which he once found himself.  Finally, in Iron Man 3, Tony Stark at last discovers what’s most important in life and commits himself to using his genius and resources to make the world better. Read the rest…

Morning Musings: Psalm 102:12

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“But you, O Lord, are enthroned forever; you are remembered throughout all generations.”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

In last Friday’s Morning Musing we saw the psalmist here pouring out his heart to God from out of a place of utter desperation.  His world was falling to pieces and it felt like even God Himself had abandoned him.  Now, while there are a couple of psalms that end there in the darkness, most of them make a turn at some point.  Here we find the turn for this one.  Everything was falling apart and it seemed life itself might be ending, but…   Read the rest…