“Your ways and your deeds have brought this upon you. This is your doom, and it is bitter; it has reached your very heart.” (ESV – Read the chapter)
Much of the judgment heralded in the prophets is tough to read. It is gloom and doom that sometimes seems to roll on for pages without reprieve. But, if there’s anything we can take from all of this today it is this: Our choices have consequences. Read the rest…
“Let us lie down in our shame, and let our dishonor cover us. For we have sinned against the Lord our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even to this day, and we have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God.” (ESV – Read the chapter)
Genuine, heart-felt repentance is tough to do. It requires a couple of things that we are pretty loathe to give. It requires first a recognition that we have done something that was not right. It was wrong, not in an abstract way, but in a way that was deeply personal for us and also for the other people who were affected by it. This is tough in and of itself. Often, when we have gotten caught doing something wrong we recognize the abstract, but not the personal. We are inconvenienced by the attention to our misdeeds, but not truly sorry we did it. This is the politician’s apology. In other words, we are more sorry that we got caught than that we did whatever it was we have been caught doing. Read the rest…
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…
“…for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the foundation of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.” (ESV – Read the chapter)
When we reject the One True God, we make two mistakes. We turn from the one source of life in this world. And, we turn toward something that is by definition not a source of life. More directly, it is a source of death. When we turn from God toward something else, we are necessarily turning toward nothing. We are rejecting what is in favor of what isn’t. This is never a good trade. So why do we make it? Read the rest…
“They know not, nor do they discern, for he has shut their eyes, so that they cannot see, and their hearts, so that they cannot understand. No one considers, nor is there knowledge or discernment to say, ‘Half of it I burned in the fire; I also baked bread on its coals; I roasted meat and have eaten. And shall I make the rest of it an abomination? Shall I fall down before a block of wood?’ He feeds on ashes; a deluded heart has led him astray, and he cannot deliver himself or say, ‘Is there not a lie in my right hand?'” (ESV – Read the chapter)
This and the few verses on either side of it is one of my favorite passages in the whole Old Testament. It ranks up there for me as one of the best in the Bible. That may not be a very spiritual answer to the question of what this preacher’s favorite verse is, but read it again for yourself. It’s hilarious. No other passage in the Bible captures the sheer idiocy of idolatry quite so well as this one does. And it does it with a sarcastic sense of humor that resonates really well with my own. Read the rest…
The Nexus 