Tag: righteous
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Right and Just
Matthew 1:18–21; Romans 5:6–11; Romans 14:1–23 For whom will you die? Your child? Your parent? Your next door neighbor? A murderer? Your nation? Your state? At some point in history, someone responded “yes” to at least one of these. A number of these are conscious choices. Others were forced upon people. Others were an unthought…
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Protected
Amos 7:10–17; Habakkuk 2:2–17 Critique and criticism sound very similar. They are often confused and misused. That they have the same root certainly doesn’t help. Critique and criticism, however, have different intents. Critique is a thoughtful analysis of something with pointers provided for improvement. The pointers are intended to perfect one’s craft and are meant…
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Indulge Me
Matthew 23:23–36 Narcissus was a hunter in Greek mythology. He was the most beautiful person. He was so dissatisfied with those who claimed they loved him that he expected them to kill themselves to prove their love of him. It wasn’t until he passed a smooth pool of water and saw his own reflection that…
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House Building
Psalm 127; Matthew 24:1–2; 1 Corinthians 3:1–11 Unless the Lord is in it, it will fail. This is a common adage heard in the church, and it is based on Psalm 127:1. Yet, the interpretation often is, if it is successful, God is in it. This spiritualizes (or over-spiritualizes) far too many things. The sun…
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Red or White?
Genesis 18:16–33; Jeremiah 5:1–9; Romans 3:5–24 God hates me. God would/could never love me. God doesn’t care about me. No one can measure up to that standard. Any of those sound familiar? When we read stories such as Sodom and Gomorrah it is easy to be overwhelmed by the sheer immensity of destruction. Yet, there…
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If Not Them, Than Who?
Genesis 19:15–29; Isaiah 1:7–17; Matthew 11:16–24 Sodom and Gomorrah had long been on the example list. “Don’t do this, or you will be like Sodom and Gomorrah.” Regardless of which sins you are convinced those two cities are guilty of (though Gomorrah can only be assumed), there is no question that the story of their…
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Who Makes You
…even when God hardens hearts…, it’s not that the hearts weren’t already hardened. It is that God firms their already stubborn and ungodly hearts so that their immediate action will result in the display of God’s glory.
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Barrier Breaker
Luke 16:19–31; Acts 16:1–5; 1 Corinthians 9:16–23 (read online ⧉) One of the more interesting things that is occurring in this event called COVID-19 and its physical distancing are the conversations that are going along with it. There are plenty of political and health conversations (neither necessarily with all the facts or research, and this…