We live in a world that holds that our actions or attitudes aren’t wrong unless they hurt others. But I’ve often wondered, is there anything that we think or do that doesn’t harm or help others in some way? Take, for instance, sins of the heart and mind, like bitterness, jealousy, or greed. Don’t those sins affect how I treat…
I’m not sure that I have given much thought to how temptation to sin follows trials. But James sure did. After thinking about James 1:12-18 for the past week, the Lord allowed me to see several moments where this was true in my past. Here are a few examples: In most of these moments, I failed miserably. Looking…
Sunday’s sermon on Genesis 42-43 dealt with one of the more challenging theological ideas in the Bible. I was trying to explain that practically, encouragingly, and clearly. What made this daunting was the unexpected trip to Texas for a family funeral. I crammed most of my study and writing in two days, and one of those was…
I’m a warrior at heart. I like competition, and I don’t mind getting in the fray. However, I have learned through the years that living a “peaceful and quiet life” has afforded more opportunities for the gospel than being loud and aggressive. I have learned through the years when to fight and when to create conflict (even though I don’t believe that’s what happened).
In my sermon on Genesis 20, a question came to me about God’s sovereignty over human sin. I stated that God works with, in, and through human sin to accomplish His purposes. I placed a high view of God’s sovereignty and made it clear that even though Abraham sinned, God’s purposes were not thwarted, and God used Abraham’s sin to accomplish His purposes.
We hit another weird moment in Genesis 9 with Ham’s sin and Noah’s drunkenness. So I thought I would give you an inside look at how to see odd moments, like this, in the Bible.
Romans 6 talks about our real, spiritual union with Jesus. It’s about how God sees our position and status before Him. He not only relates with us based on Jesus’ righteousness, but He frees us from sin’s power and penalty because when Christ died, our old sinful self died with Him, and when Jesus was raised from the dead, our new man was raised with Him. Sin’s power no longer enslaves, and sin’s penalty no longer hangs over our heads. That’s what this text is really about.
