Tag: The Gospel

Digging in Deeper: Exodus 20:4-6

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“Do not make an idol for yourself, whether in the shape of anything in the heavens above or on the earth below or in the waters under the earth. Do not bow in worship to them, and do no serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, bringing the consequences of the fathers’ iniquity on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me, but showing faithful love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commands.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

The theme of a jealous spouse is a fairly common one in our stories, and it is a uniformly negative picture. That is, the jealous spouse is always the villain. Here in the second of the foundational commands God gives the people for what it looks like to live in a covenant relationship with Him, though, we find God describing Himself as jealous. He wants us all to Himself, and doesn’t want us putting anyone or anything ahead of Him. Let’s talk about why this is, what idolatry is, and why it’s a good thing that God is jealous for us.

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Reflection on a Life Well Lived

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“For we know that if our earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal dwelling in the heavens, not made with hands. Indeed, we groan in this tent, desiring to put on our heavenly dwelling, since, when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. Indeed, we groan while we are in this tent, burdened as we are, because we do not want to be unclothed but clothed, so that mortality may be swallowed up by life. Now the one who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave us the Spirit as a down payment.” (2 Corinthians 5:1-5 – CSB – Read the chapter)

This life doesn’t last forever. That is one of those truths about which everyone is supremely confident. There’s a reason we have the saying that the only two sure things in life are death and taxes. Now, yes, there are some folks who are theorizing about things like transhumanism and the notion that we can somehow achieve immortality, but even they will wind up facing the veil at some point. These efforts toward immortality remind us that the sheer finitude of life really does bother us. It bothers us because something deep in our bones screams that this is not how things are supposed to be. Well, what we know as followers of Jesus is that this sense is right. It is right because we were made in the image of a God who is eternal. And when we accept by faith that the things Jesus said about this world and the next are true, the fear and loathing death often brings all but vanish. I recently said goodbye to my friend Joyce. She knew all of this very well. As a result, her transition from this life to the start of the next was different from most. Let me tell you about it.

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Digging in Deeper: Galatians 3:27-29

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“For those of you who were baptized into Christ have been clothed with Christ. There is no Jew or Greek, slave or free, male and female; since you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, heirs according to the promise.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. If you are a student or work for a state or federal employer, or a bank, or any one of a number of other places, I hope you get to enjoy your day off. Other than one of our Founding Fathers or Abraham Lincoln, it is hard to imagine another American from our entire history who is more celebrated than King. He’s the only person in our history who has a day named after him. Washington and Lincoln used to have their own days, but those got rolled into President’s Day more generally which is really too bad because all of our Presidents are not equally worth celebrating, but that’s for another time. That all being said, King is rightly given his own day because of the absolutely invaluable contribution he made to our nation. We would not be who we are without his tireless labor to advance the cause of Civil Rights for all people, but especially black people in a day when racism ruled in the hearts of far too many people. Let’s reflect for just a minute on King’s vision, what gave it substance, and how we’re doing with achieving it today.

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Digging in Deeper: Romans 7:15

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“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)

October 7 changed this nation. It rocked the nation of Israel to its core, of course, but it made a change in this nation whose impact will ripple out for a long time. This is because it revealed a fundamental brokenness in our culture that many folks didn’t understand or believe was there. It seems appropriate, then, that not long after this, a movie was released, based on a book, both of which (although the book did a better job of it) explored this tension between the good we know we should do and the evil we actually do. Let’s spend a few minutes today wrestling with this ugly tension through the lens of the latest Hunger Games saga installment, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.

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Grace Upon Grace

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Merry Christmas to you! Blessings to you and your family as you celebrate this special day together. We’ve been talking all this season about Jesus’ coming and the difference it makes in our lives and in our world. There’s one last wonder to marvel over together today: God sent Jesus to save us when we were still in our sins. We weren’t worthy of it. We didn’t deserve it. We hadn’t earned it. But He did it anyway as an act of pure grace. Let’s bask in the glory of that grace as we reflect together this morning on just how good this greatest of all gifts is. As one last note, this will be the only post this week. We’ll get back on our journey through Exodus starting in the new year. I’ll see you then!

Grace Upon Grace

This is a fun day, isn’t it? I mean, it’s Christmas Eve. Who wouldn’t be happy on a day like this? So, on this happy and joyous occasion, I thought we would take a little mental field trip. Doesn’t that sound exciting? Where are we going on this great and special day? Close your eyes for a moment, climb in the mental church van with me (the fun thing about mental field trips is that we can all fit in the same van together without anyone having to worry about being squished in the back), and let’s take a little drive over to one of yours and my favorite places to visit: the DMV. 

Anybody’s eyes pop back open in shock there? 

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