Tag: The Gospel

Digging in Deeper: Ephesians 4:26-27

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“‘Be angry and do not sin.’ Don’t let the sun go down on your anger, and don’t give the devil an opportunity.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Anger is a challenging emotion. It is also a masking emotion. Anger can serve as an easy emotional substitute for whatever it is we are actually feeling. Often we don’t or can’t put word to what our actual emotional state is, and because anger is easier to both understand and express, we just let that take over. Sometimes anger is the right emotional response to a particular situation. More often it probably is not. But in spite of the good that can come from righteous and proper anger – anger over injustice, for instance – when anger gets in the driver’s seat of our lives, it can cause all sorts of chaos. I’m thinking about anger this morning because that complicated emotion lies at the heart of the newest Marvel offering. Let’s talk about Captain America: Brave New World.

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Digging in Deeper: Philippians 3:17-20

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“Join in imitating me, brothers and sisters, and pay careful attention to those who live according to the example you have in us. For I have often told you, and now say again with tears, that many live as enemies of the cross  of Christ. Their end is destruction; their god is their stomach; their glory  is in their shame; and they are focused on earthly things. Our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly wait for a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Films and series about villains don’t typically do very well. There are a handful of exceptions to this, but not many. Sony’s attempting at creating their own Spiderverse (mostly) separate and apart from the MCU is a great example. They took a bunch of villains, removed the hero who gave them substance, and tried to sanitize them by making them complicated antiheroes. And most of them bombed. Badly. The Joker 2 is another good example. By all accounts it was unbelievably awful. A villain-based series from HBO Max, though, seems like it could be an exception. I’m only three episodes in, but the story is pretty good, if frustratingly depressing. Let’s talk about The Penguin.

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Digging in Deeper: Romans 2:13-16

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“For the hearers of the law are not righteous before God, but the doers of the law will be justified. So, when Gentiles, who do not by nature have the law, do what the law demands, they are a law to themselves even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts. Their consciences confirm this. Their competing thoughts either accuse or even excuse them on the day when God judges what people have kept secret, according to my gospel through Christ Jesus.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

It doesn’t happen very often, but every now and then you hear about a judge getting arrested for violating the law in some way. Those always feel like rather scandalous stories because judges are supposed to be the ones who know the law best as well as what the consequences for violating the law are. They are the ones who set the consequences for violating the law. They should know better than anyone else not only what not to do, but why not to do it from at least the consequences side of things. And yet knowing the law and doing the law are two different things. One does not necessarily or naturally lead to the other. As Paul continues to challenge the Jewish background believers in his audience, this is what he seeks to help them understand next. Let’s unpack this with him.

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Digging in Deeper: Romans 2:9-12

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“There will be affliction and distress for every human being who does evil, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek; but glory, honor, and peace for everyone who does what is good, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek. For there is no favoritism with God. For all who sin without the law will also perish without the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

We love the concept of judgment for sin. If that sounds funny to say, allow me to clarify. We love the idea that people who have done what we recognize to be wrong will face the just consequences for their misdeeds. It doesn’t sound quite so bad when you put it that way, does it? In fact, if you recoiled a bit at the first statement, you may have found yourself nodding along in agreement with the second. That’s because, deep down, we love the concept of judgment for sin. There’s a reason for that: we were created in the image of a God who does too. Let’s talk about why judgment is a good thing, and the way God approaches it is best.

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Morning Musing: Hebrews 11:13-14

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“These all died in faith, although they had not received the things that were promised. But they saw them from a distance, greeted them, and confessed that they were foreigners and temporary residents on the earth. Now those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a homeland.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Sometimes life is hard. It’s hard for all sorts of different reasons. Sometimes it’s hard because we’ve made it hard. Sometimes it’s hard because somebody else has made it hard for us. The end result generally winds up being the same regardless of the starting place. We’re left looking around and wondering how we got here. More than that, we’re left looking around wondering how long we have to stay here or even what we can do to get out of here. But the truth is that in so many of the hardest hards in our lives, leaving isn’t a viable option. What if, though, there was a way to transform the hard into something else entirely? A song I’ve been listening to recently offers a bit of reality both of the now in our hard, but also a window into what could be. Let me share it with you today.

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