Tag: Standing firm

Group of diverse people holding hands in a prayer circle inside a church with a cross in the background

Morning Musing: Philippians 4:1-3

Leave a comment

“So then, my dearly loved and longed for brothers and sisters, my joy and crown, in this manner stand firm in the Lord, dear friends. I urge Euodia and I urge Syntyche to agree in the Lord. Yes, I also ask you, true partner, to help these women who have contended for the gospel at my side, along with Clement and the rest of my coworkers whose names are in the book of life.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

A message without application is just information, and people tend to forget information. Paul’s letters are filled with information. But at the end of them, he turns to application. He switches gears to giving his readers some very practical things they can do with all of the information he has been imparting at the Spirit’s direction. For the last three chapters Paul has been encouraging the Philippian believers to stand firm in the Lord in the face of various trials and tribulations. Here, as he begins to draw things to a close, he gives them some examples of what that actually looks like. Let’s take a look.

Read the rest…

Morning Musing: Exodus 5:1-2

Leave a comment

“Later, Moses and Aaron went in and said to Pharaoh, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival for me in the wilderness.’ But Pharaoh responded, ‘Who is the Lord that I should obey him by letting Israel go? I don’t know the Lord, and besides, I will not let Israel go.'” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Stepping out in obedience to God’s command often takes a lot of courage. He occasionally calls us to big and bold actions to advance His kingdom. Perhaps you have taken just such a step of faith before. And perhaps when you did, everything fell right into place, and you enjoyed success and the blessing that comes with faithfulness. But maybe things didn’t go quite as you were planning. In fact, maybe they went the opposite of that. If that was your experience, you have something in common with Moses and Aaron. Let’s talk about their first encounter with Pharaoh and when things don’t go according to plan.

Read the rest…

Morning Musing: Psalms 118:6-7

2 Comments

“The Lord is for me; I will not be afraid. What can a mere mortal do to me? The Lord is my helper; therefore, I will look in triumph on those who hate me.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

What is it that motivates you to courage? Is there anything in particular? Some people seem to have a natural bent toward courage. Some, not so much. But all of us have something we are willing to fight to protect. It may be something genuinely worth protecting, or we may have our priorities wildly out of balance, but we all have that thing. One of the great challenges of our life is to find that protective spirit, that willingness to put ourselves on the line for what we believe is right, harness it, and have it ready to call upon in a variety of different situations. What the psalmist offers us right here is something that can inspire courage in us no matter what our situation may be. Let’s talk about what it is and why it matters.

Read the rest…

Digging in Deeper: Luke 1:60-63

Leave a comment

“But his mother responded, ‘No. He will be called John.’ Then they said to her, ‘None of your relatives has that name.’ So they motioned to his father to find out what he wanted him to be called. He asked for a writing tablet and wrote, ‘His name is John.’ And they were all amazed.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

I saw a chart the other day from the Pew Research Group showing by comparison the percentage of Americans who claim Christianity as their religious identity versus those who claim no religious identity at all. The former has been on a steady decline, and the latter, a steady rise, since the turn of this millennium. In other words, for the first time in our nation’s history, we are finding ourselves living in a culture that is increasingly more likely than not to push back against us for seeking to live out our faith in public and meaningful ways. The question for us is not whether we can turn back this tide, but how we will respond to it. As we continue into the final week of our Advent journey this morning, we are reminded that this is a place God’s people have found themselves before.

Read the rest…

Strong Where it Counts

Leave a comment

As we wrap up our series, Standing Firm, this week, we find the apostle taking a turn from everything he’s been talking about for the past nine weeks. But then again, he’s not doing that at all. Instead, after spending the rest of the letter telling us how to stand firm in our faith without sacrificing our Gospel witness, Peter closes things out by talking about where we can find the strength we need to do it. I’ll give you a hint: It comes from God, but it isn’t found inside of us. Keep reading to find out what is the source of this strength.

Strong Where It Counts

Some of you are builders and so you understand the ins and outs of building and building materials better than I do. But from my rudimentary understanding, concrete is a pretty good building material. It’s stable. It’s sturdy. It’s strong. It holds up pretty well under a whole variety of weather conditions. It doesn’t degrade much over time. It’s low maintenance. There are all kinds of advantages to it. If you’re building something that requires extra stability and support, though—perhaps because of its size, for instance—concrete isn’t enough by itself. It needs a little bit more to make it up to the task to which you are applying it. Specifically, it needs a steel skeleton. To add this, you build an internal rebar frame inside your concrete mold and pour the mixture over it. With the rebar encased in the slab or structure, its strength is increased many times over concrete by itself. Now, this doesn’t mean that concrete alone isn’t still really strong stuff. It is. But when it has that extra element of support, it can withstand just about anything that might be thrown at it.

Read the rest…