Tag: Truth

Morning Musing: Exodus 20:16

1 Comment

“Do not give false testimony against your neighbor.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

I told one big lie to my parents when I was growing up. I don’t mean this was the only lie I told, I’m sure there were many more of those, but this was the big one. They had told me not to throw dirt clods from our freshly tilled garden bed at the shed sitting at the end of the garden because they didn’t want me to accidentally hit and break the window that faced that direction. The trouble was, I was an eight- or nine-year-old boy, and those dirt clods exploded so satisfyingly when they hit the wall. So, I threw them anyway…and I broke the window. But on that particular day, my cousin was there throwing with me. I told my parents he broke the window. Year…I paid for that, and rightly so. Here’s my question: Did I violate this commandment then? Let’s talk about this penultimate of the Ten Commandments and just what it means.

Read the rest…

Does It Matter Which “Truth” I Believe?

Leave a comment

This week finds us kicking off a brand-new teaching series called Confident in the Face of Tough Questions. For the next few weeks, we are going to be tackling some of the toughest questions skeptics and critics alike ask of the Christian worldview. These are the kinds of questions that trip us up and leave us wondering how to respond. The goal of this series will be to better equip you to answer them with confident grace and bold humility. In this first part of the series, we are starting right where we need to with the nature of truth. Does it matter which “truth” I believe? Let’s talk about it.

Does It Mattew Which “Truth” I Believe?

I am not a big fan of Minecraft. I don’t have anything against the game itself or those who play it. I have three fairly active players living under the same roof as me, and I regularly admire the things they have built in the game. Their creativity in there is simply amazing to me. But while I do enjoy video games every bit as much as the next boy born in the early days of the video game era, Minecraft doesn’t represent my gaming wheelhouse. My personal creativity lends itself to different applications. 

Read the rest…

Morning Musing: 1 Samuel 16:7

Leave a comment

“But the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Do not look at his appearance or his stature because I have rejected him. Humans do not see what the Lord sees, for humans see what is visible, but the Lord sees the heart.’” (CSB – Read the chapter)

I’m away chaperoning camp again this week. That means posts will be on a slightly different schedule and will run a bit shorter than the norm. And, instead of plunging ahead into the plagues in Exodus, we’re going to reflect together on some of what the kids are learning. The theme for the week is Beyond the Surface. All week they will be learning about how God sees beyond the surface of our lives into our hearts. Because of that, what kind of a heart should we have? Let’s dig in beyond the surface today.

Continue reading “Morning Musing: 1 Samuel 16:7” →

Digging in Deeper: Exodus 3:13-15

1 Comment

“Then Moses asked God, ‘If I go to the Israelites and say to them, “The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,” and they ask me, “What is his name?” what should I tell them?’ God replied to Moses, ‘I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: I AM has sent me to you.’ God also said to Moses, ‘Say this to the Israelites: The Lord, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is my name forever; this is how I am to be remembered in every generation.'” (CSB – Read the chapter)

This is one of those foundational passages in the Scriptures that serves as the rock on which a great deal of the rest of the ideas they contain rests. Moses asks who it is he should tell the people of Israel has sent him to lead them. In response, God reveals His name to Moses. While this was perhaps the first time Moses had heard it, that may not have been the case for the Israelites. Let’s talk about what’s going on here and what this means for us.

Read the rest…

A Firm Anchor

Leave a comment

If we are going to find peace in a world that has gone mad, we’re definitely going to need to reorient our thinking and turn to prayer, but while those two things are necessary, they aren’t sufficient on their own. We need something more. In this next part of our journey and through the lens of Paul’s second letter to Timothy, we are going to talk about what this something more is. Thanks for reading and sharing.

A Firm Anchor

One of the saddest moments in all of film history was when Chuck lost Wilson. If that’s not ringing any bells, a bit of a reminder may be due. The Chuck I’m talking about is Chuck Noland. If that’s still not ringing any bells, that doesn’t really surprise me. His name doesn’t matter very much and in fact I couldn’t have told you what it was until I looked it up. Wilson, though, just goes by Wilson. He’s white, male, a little round, and wears a handprint on his face. Actually, the handprint is his face. You see, Wilson is a volleyball. Actually, he’s a great deal more than that to Chuck whom you may recognize now as the character played by Tom Hanks in the movie Castaway. After surviving a plane crash and landing on a deserted island somewhere in the Pacific, Hanks manages to survive by cobbling together what he needs from the various packages his FedEx plane dropped in the crash and which washed up on shore. One of these packages held Wilson who offered Hanks what was perhaps his most important survival tool: a relationship. I mean, Wilson didn’t actually have any lines in the film, but by giving Hanks’ character the ability to have the illusion of a relationship, it enabled him not to completely lose his sanity during his terrible sojourn. 

Read the rest…