Tag: The Kingdom of God

Morning Musings: Ephesians 6:14-17

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“Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace.  In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

There has been much attention given to the armor of God Paul describes here.  I don’t need to try and re-say any of that.  What I do want to point out, though, is an observation I have only ever heard once (although it has no doubt been made many more times).  As you look at the various pieces of armor, there is not anything to protect our backsides.  Our role in the kingdom is to push constantly forward for its advancement.  There are not opportunities to turn back and move the other way.  If we try, we are guaranteed to take a shot in the back.  These will hurt a great deal more than anything we might face in front of us.

When it comes to our relationship with Jesus, things only move in one direction: Forward.  What’s more, Jesus is always on the move.  If we stand still, He will leave us behind.  There are times for rest and He will provide that, but our way is always forward.  This armor will do us no good if we don’t use it.

Digging in Deeper: Galatians 2:11

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“But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned.” (ESV – Read the chapter) ‬‬

Two things really stand out here to me. One is obvious, the other is not so obvious. First the former. It took a lot of courage for Paul to call Peter out for his obvious deviation from the Gospel. Peter was clearly wrong, most everybody there knew it, but nobody wanted to say anything until Paul spoke up.  Because it was Peter.  Would you have wanted to call Peter out for this? Read the rest…

Digging in Deeper: 1 Corinthians 6:9-10

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“Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

– ‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭6:9-10

Two things here.  First, the list of sinful behaviors pursued unrepentantly which will keep us from access to the kingdom of God is long and varied.  There are many, many ways to separate ourselves off from God, some of them large and obvious, some of them small and easy to hide.  In some ways it is better to be caught up in a big, obvious sin, because then everybody knows you are doing wrong and you can be called to account more easily.  Sometimes the smaller, more culturally acceptable and easy-to-overlook sins can be deadly traps because we don’t believe we are doing anything worthy of repentance or needing of forgiveness all the while we are on a road headed directly out of a relationship with God.  That’s the easy part.  

Second, this is one of the few passages in the Scriptures that specifically mentions the sinfulness of homosexual sexual interactions.  Read the rest…

Morning Musings: Ecclesiastes 2:1, 11

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“I said in my heart, ‘Come now, I will test you with pleasure; enjoy yourself.’  But behold, this also was vanity. . . .Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun.”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

Pleasures pursued for their own sake will never bring us lasting joy or life.  Human desires run in a million different directions.  We can spend our entire lives seeking to see our desires met.  If we make this our god, though, we will never cease our running.  One desire will give way to another and to another and to another.  There will always be something new and better to want.  We will wind up running until our legs give out and then we will crawl until our strength is gone.  In the end, we will be left with only more unfulfilled desires.   Read the rest…