Get ready to start a journey…a journey through the pages of the Bible and the pages of your life.
There is a great story involving Jesus and his disciples that reminds us that even great men and women of God have times of doubt, especially when the storms kick up. Here’s the story from Matthew’s account of Jesus walking on the water and Peter giving it a try.
The armor of God includes a shield as an essential piece of equipment. This shield is needed to “extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one” (Ephesians 6:16). The believer’s shield is not constructed with wood like the ones that the Roman soldiers carried. Our shields are built with faith.
So, what does God do with our sin? I don’t mean to be flippant with that question. I know that my sin separated me from God, and Jesus paid the penalty for my sin on the cross. He took on God’s wrath for sin and satisfied the Father by his amazing work.
The room was tense as we sat around folding tables in a small room at our church. One person had said something to hurt another person. We were there to make things right—to seek and grant forgiveness. Those are hard meetings, and on this day, forgiveness never came. The exchange was sharp; the emotions were high. After much discussion, prayer, and reading Scripture, one person got up and stormed out of the room. He never set foot in our church again.
Repentance is a word that doesn’t get a lot of positive press these days. We would like to blame it on the times we live in, but honestly, people have had trouble with repentance since Genesis 3. Today, let’s consider what action repentance requires.
A friend called my wife, Lori, to say she was troubled, and struggling to grasp any sense of order. She was watching the news, absorbing all that was going on in the world, and was overwhelmed. She saw the mayhem and divisiveness and reached out for encouragement.
Have you read your newsfeed today? Truth has stumbled in the public square again. Right is called wrong, and wrong is called right. We live in a mixed-up, belligerent, dark world. Know why? The world is populated by desperately sick people. That’s why Jesus came.
If we believe that people today are dealing with anxiety, feeling helpless and hopeless, if we believe the words of Isaiah, “justice is turned back, and righteousness stands far away; for truth has stumbled in the public squares,” (Isaiah 59:14), if we believe that the darkness needs the Light, then we should not be taken aback if someone asks us what Jesus saved us from.
Today, we live in a world that is plagued by disinformation, misinformation, and contemptible behavior. Do you agree? A person says a seemingly innocent phrase. Someone else views the phrase as offensive and derogatory, even racist. Social media blows up. The person responsible apologizes profusely and retracts the statement. They are “cancelled” and labeled a pariah. We live in interesting times. But really, nothing has changed.
It was a particularly hot day in Dallas, and I was driving around the city looking for an apartment. Having just graduated from seminary, Lori and I needed to move from the condo we had rented for four years. I had resumes scattered throughout the country but was getting no response, or rather I was getting a response — “No.” We thought we would be looking for a place to live and minister in another part of the country; but, for the time being, we were staying in Dallas. It was a discouraging stretch of my journey.
The human heart is caught in a contradiction. On one hand, God has placed eternity in our hearts, leaving us with a God-shaped hole. We suffer from an inward famine. We are starving for God. On the other hand, we want to be our own god, call our own shots, be in control of our lives. We are afraid to surrender.
The search for a life of confidence is on. Some move from relationship to relationship looking for a sense of peace in a person. Some try to find something to soothe their soul in a bottle, needle, or pill. The recipients of today’s passage must have been putting their trust in the “Almighty Dollar”—the other god. The writer tells them to steer clear of money worship and learn contentment.