Tag: Sin

Advent Reflections: Psalm 16:7-11

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“I will bless the Lord who counsels me—even at night when my thoughts trouble me. I always let the Lord guide me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad and my whole being rejoices; my body also rests securely. For you will not abandon me to Sheol; you will not allow your faithful one to see decay. You reveal the path of life to me; in your presence is abundant joy; at your right hand are eternal pleasures.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Have you ever thought you knew how to do something, only to have someone come along and give you counsel on it? Worse yet, was their counsel right and wise and revealed that you didn’t know as much about doing whatever it was as you thought? And if that seems like an oddly specific situation, all I’ll say is this: more times than I can count. This is bad enough when it’s doing a task that isn’t ultimately all that significant. It’s many times worse to find out you don’t know as much as you thought when it comes to doing life itself. Yet this lies at the heart of the Gospel. God knows how to do life better than we do. The Advent season is a reminder of when God revealed definitively that He knows how to do life better than we do. If we will take His counsel, His presence is the reward. Let’s talk about it.

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Digging in Deeper: Romans 14:22-23

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“Whatever you believe about these things, keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who does not condemn himself by what he approves. But whoever doubts stands condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith, and everything that is not from faith is sin.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

One of the lessons many state curricula seek to teach students early on in their education process is how to differentiate between facts and opinions. Of course, such an effort is deeply worldview dependent, and so parents should be actively engaged with those lessons at home to make sure they are properly supporting or else tuning interference if their states curriculum has been primarily shaped by a worldview position they don’t support. That all being said, the effort is worthwhile in the abstract. One reason for this comes out in what Paul writes here at the end of Romans 14. Let’s talk about facts and opinions on sin.

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Digging in Deeper: Romans 13:13-14

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“Let us walk with decency, as in the daytime: not in carousing and drunkenness; not in sexual impurity and promiscuity; not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Do you remember getting left home alone for the first time as a kid? The sense of freedom—at least for a short time—was exhilarating. The only thing that could dampen that joy was a to do list from your parents. The freedom was really a test to determine how trustworthy you were. Eventually they were going to return. When they did, you wanted to be caught doing the right things so you could enjoy even more freedom. Last time, we reflected on Paul’s emphasis on the nearness of Jesus’ return and what that means for how we should be living our lives. In this next part to conclude the chapter, Paul gets more specific on what that looks like. Let’s take a look.

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Redeeming the Broken

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Interruptions are part of life. For the last couple of weeks in our teaching series, When Life Gets in the Way, we have been talking about the kinds of interruptions God’s plans can bring to our lives and what to do in those times. But what about when our interruptions are the cause of our own, sinful choices. What then? Today we are going to explore the story of a Bible “hero” whose choice to sin seems like it should have derailed all of God’s plans for his life. But it didn’t. Let’s talk about why and what that might mean for us.

Redeeming the Broken

People are different. Now, you can take that statement in several different ways, but what I mean is that we’re not like the rest of creation. When Moses was poetically describing the creation process, when he got to the part where God made people, he presented it differently than all the other aspects of creation. He changed the poetic pattern, which would have been a major tipoff that something was different. He said this: “So God created man in his own image; he created him in the image of God; he created them male and female.” In bearing God’s image—His personal characteristics, not His divine ones—God made us distinct from the rest of creation. 

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Morning Musing: Hebrews 13:5

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“Keep your life free from the love of money. Be satisfied with what you have, for he himself has said, ‘I will never leave you or abandon you.'” (CSB – Read the chapter)

I have never been to Vegas. I’d like to go someday for the spectacle alone, and to see some fun shows, but that’s honestly about it. Gambling just isn’t something that appeals to me. I’ve only ever been in a casino once, and that was to eat. I’ve never bet on a sport either. I do play some fantasy sports (badly) with my family, but that’s about it. I recognize that I’m in reasonably small company in that especially given my age and sex. In spite of my own distaste for the practice, sport betting in particular has become a big business in the United States thanks to a Supreme Court ruling a couple of years ago that removed all the roadblocks to its nationwide legalization. There have been many voices along the way warning that this isn’t a good path for our country to be walking down. Some news broke yesterday offering up a perfect demonstration of why. Let’s talk about it.

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