Tag: Sanctification

Morning Musing: Romans 6:1-2

Leave a comment

“What should we say then? Should we continue in sin so that grace may multiply? Absolutely not! How can we who died to sin still live in it? (CSB – Read the chapter)

When you write a lot of things, you occasionally find when you go to write something new that you’ve written it before. That happened a couple of weeks ago as I was starting to studying Romans 6 in preparation for writing about it as we continue our journey. More specifically, I discovered that I had written about these two verses before. I also found myself agreeing with what I said then. So, with some updates after six years, and for the first time ever in nearly eight years of writing this blog, here’s a repeat of an old post.

What should be the relationship of a follower of Jesus to sin? Obviously we shouldn’t do it, but let’s be honest: a simple “ought not” isn’t usually sufficient to keep us from it. We need to understand the why behind the ought before we’re going to wrap our hearts and minds around it to a sufficient degree that it begins to have the kind of power in our lives it needs to have. Here in beginning of Romans 6, after Paul has just been telling us about the power of grace in light of the power of sin, the apostle explores this very idea. His treatment may not be exhaustive, but it is powerful. Let’s start unpacking this today, and continue with Paul on the idea over the next several days.

Read the rest…

Digging in Deeper: 1 Timothy 1:1-2

2 Comments

“Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the command of God our savior and of Christ Jesus our hope: To Timothy, my true son in the faith. Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Young people need old people. Sometimes they’re fully conscious of it. Sometimes they’re not, but the need is so pressing they are drawn to them anyway. More specifically, young men need older men and young women need older women. Young people need models and mentors they can look up to for wisdom and direction, for encouragement and even for correction at times. When they find someone like this with whom they connect, the bond that forms can be incredibly strong. A couple of weeks ago I wrote a mid-season review of the HBO-Max series, The Penguin, about the rise of the classic Batman villain. Since then, I’ve finished the series. I don’t often come back to a single season of a series more than once, but this one really stuck with me. Let’s talk about the church, being a mentor, and why The Penguin was both great and terrible.

Read the rest…

Digging in Deeper: Romans 7:15

18 Comments

“For I do not understand what I am doing, because I do not practice what I want to do, but I do what I hate.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

As a parent, you quickly learn that every different age your kids go through has its challenges, but also its joys. They’re adorable when they’re babies, but you don’t get any sleep. Toddlers are great comic relief, but the tantrums get pretty old. When they’re in the no man’s land of early- to middle-elementary school they’re the most fun because of how much they are drawn to just play, but that’s also when they can start to become little punks. Well, I’ve got two right now that are teenagers. (Now there’s a sentence that makes you start feeling old…) Teenagers have attitudes. And emotions. In spades. But they are also reaching the point that they are starting to be able to meaningfully process the world around them in ways that reflect real critical thinking. You can start having an actual conversation with a teenager in ways other stages don’t quite allow. They also ask good questions that desire real answers. Today’s post is the result of one of those good questions. Maybe you’ve asked this one before. Here are some of my thoughts.

Read the rest…

Morning Musing: 1 Peter 2:2-3

Leave a comment

“Like newborn infants, desire the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow up into your salvation, if you have tasted that the Lord is good.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

We had a hurricane come through our area yesterday. Thankfully, it wasn’t nearly as bad as it could have been. Perhaps the single biggest challenge was that the family was stuck at home all day and the Internet kept going in and out. For the kids at least, it was like living in the Dark Ages. Maybe the Stone Age. They had to break out an actual DVD in order to watch something on TV. It was rough. As I was out and about some during the day, though, a thought occurred to me that struck me as worth sharing. Maybe not, but I’ll let you decide.

Continue reading “Morning Musing: 1 Peter 2:2-3” →

Digging in Deeper: Matthew 13:10-13

8 Comments

“Then the disciples came up and asked him, ‘Why are you speaking to them in parables?’ He answered, ‘Because the secrets of the kingdom of heaven have been given for you to know, but it has not been given to them. For whoever has, more will be given to him, and he will have more than enough; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. That is why I speak to them in parables, because looking they do not see, and hearing they do not listen or understand.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

One of the arguments of the original postmodernists was that a literary text had no fixed meaning. Rather, the meaning of a certain text was whatever the reader wanted it to mean. In other words, everything was interpretation and no interpretation was incorrect. Everything was dependent on the perspective and experience of the individual. Of course, none of those guys seemed to have appreciated the irony of arguing that nothing could really be understood in one way while wanting to be understood a certain way, but we’ll leave that alone for now. Today, I want to look at something Jesus said about how and whether people were understanding Him. He acknowledged many folks might not, but His reasons were not postmodern. Let’s talk about it.

Read the rest…