Tag: The Gospel

Digging in Deeper: Judges 21:25

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“In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did whatever seemed right to him.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

What would you do if you had an animal inside waiting to come out? I don’t just mean that you have a bit of a wild streak you let hang out on occasion. I mean you have a literal animal spirit inside of you that can turn you into said animal at will…once you learn how to control it with the help of some friends. And what if this animal happened to be a 10-foot tall, fluffy, red panda? Well, I suppose in that case you would have Pixar make an animated movie telling your story. We are a couple of weeks past the small-screen opening of the latest Disney-Pixar movie, Turning Red, and it has so far managed to generate a whole lot more conversation and criticism than just about any of its predecessors. The reasons for this are many. Some of the criticism hasn’t been particularly thoughtful, but a fair bit of it has made some pretty sound points. Let’s talk this morning about the movie, the good, the bad, and whether it’s worth your time.

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Morning Musing: Colossians 3:10b

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“You are being renewed in knowledge according to the image of your Creator.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

As far as genre goes, dystopian future novels tend to be a pretty unrealistic bunch. They imagine things being either much worse than they likely will be, much more technologically advanced than they’ll be, or both. They reflect either too great an optimism about the future, too great a pessimism, or, again, both. These features, unrealistic as they may be, are also what make them fun to read. They variously give us hope in what tomorrow might be and comfort that we aren’t as bad as we could be. Of all the entries into the genre, though, there are two that have proven to be the most prophetic of the bunch in their outlook. These are A Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley, and 1984, by George Orwell. Although their respective visions of the future are not the same – in some ways they are opposites – something very similar lies in both of their hearts: The future will be marked by lies. Well, that may be where we are in the future relative to those books, but in another sense, it’s where we’ve always been. This morning, I want to talk about truth, lies, and the Gospel.

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Morning Musing: Ephesians 2:6-7

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“He also raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might display the immeasurable riches of his grace through his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Have you ever received a gift that wound up being even better than you imagined it would be? When you get married, you receive all kinds of different gifts. Some people are really good at picking out practical or meaningful gifts. Other folks…mean well. My parents still laugh at a wedding gift they received. It was a serving dish shaped like a Weiner dog and you could pull out its tail to find a little knife for spreading dips. On the other hand, we received a set of basic utility knives from a friend’s mom that we used for fifteen years before they were finally so dull (and had been sharpened so many times they wouldn’t maintain an edge anymore) that we had to replace them. The gift of salvation is a little like our knives (not so much like the Weiner dog serving dish). In our verses yesterday, Paul told us about the salvation we have available in Christ. Here, he invites us more fully into it to see the real riches our God has in store for us.

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Morning Musing: Ephesians 2:1-3

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“And you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you previously walked according to the ways of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit now working in the disobedient. We too all previously lived among them in our fleshly desires, carrying out the inclinations of our flesh and thoughts, and we were by nature children under wrath as the others were also.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

I was having a conversation with my Student Minister the other day that started when I played for him a song I have discovered recently that captures the story of Scripture and the Gospel better than any other I’ve ever heard. Over the course of the conversation, he made the observation that Ephesians 2:1-10 is one of the best statements of the Gospel in the whole of the Scriptures. I’ve read the passage several times, but not recently. So, when I started a new Bible reading plan and the very first passage was Ephesians 2:1-10, I took it as a good sign I should re-familiarize myself with it. I’m glad I did, because he was right. Let me take you through it over the next few days. It starts grim here, but gets a whole lot better really quickly as the Gospel does. Here goes nothing.

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Morning Musing: Acts 17:26-27

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“From one man he has made every nationality to live over the whole earth and has determined their appointed times and the boundaries of where they live. He did this so that they might seek God, and perhaps they might reach out and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Have you ever felt like you were searching for God? Maybe that’s too on the nose right out of the gate, especially if you’re not really much of a Jesus person. Have you ever felt like you were searching for something in life? Perhaps you were simply looking for more out of life. All people everywhere and in all times have a built-in awareness that there is more to life than our normal get-up-go-to-work-go-home-to-bed-and-do-it-again-the-next-day routine. But we don’t always have a clear sense of what this more should be. This morning, with the help of Paul’s attempt to teach a group of Greek intellectuals this same idea, let’s talk about what this more might be for you.

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