Romans 15:17-33 What is it that we’re doing? What are we doing with our lives? Are we just breathing air, taking up space, occupying time, working to pay bills so we have a place to live so we can work to pay our bills . . . ? I know all of you have had moments like these, where you wonder, “Is that all there is?” “Is that all there is?” Peggy Lee sang: “Is that all there is, is... Read more
Romans 15:1-16 I love books. At my last count (taken several years ago), I have over 2000 books now – and counting. Every time we move (which has been way too often in the past), Jackie and I are struck by how many boxes of books there are to move. Usually, I have to lift and move them all by myself. After this last doozy of a move, some of them are still orphans or foundlings. I have books on... Read more
Romans 14:13-23 What would your day look like if from the first thing in the morning until the last thing at night you acted completely in love? Take a few moments (if not now, then at the end of today’s Give Us This Day) and visualize your day in terms of what it would look like if you resolved to act only from love today. To do this, we need a working definition of love, which may be defined as... Read more
Romans 14:1-12 One of my favorite things that came out of the Reformation was a renewed interest in and discussion of adiaphora. Yes, adiaphora, those cute little creatures that are neither essential nor exceptionally important but in which there is Christian liberty. A few of the things that St. Paul lists as adiaphorous are: food and vegetarianism; days of fasting (this was the consensus of the church Fathers’ on the meaning of the observance of days, sandwiched, as it is,... Read more
Romans 13 What is the strongest substance known to man? On the Moh’s scale, it is diamond, which is a 10. To be more precise, the hardest substance now known to man is aggregated diamond nanorods or, ADNRs, which are an allotrope of carbon believed to be the hardest and least compressible known material, as measured by its isothermal bulk modulus; aggregated diamond nanorods have a hardness measure of 491 gigapascals (Gpa), while a conventional diamond measures 442 GPa. Or,... Read more
Romans 12 For 11 chapters now, St. Paul has spoken logically, fervently, and powerfully about the grace of God in your life by which you have a faith that saves you. All arguers and arguments that would raise themselves up against God and His mind have been bulldozed by Paul’s Acme Spiritual Bulldozing Co. You are left naked with only a few undeniable truths. First, that God is absolutely sovereign, and you are not. Second, that you are sinful and... Read more
Romans 11:22-35 St. Paul was a man who liked to live on the edge, especially since that’s where God put Him. Come to think of it: that’s where many of us will end up if we passionately and courageously follow the Lord wherever He tells us to go. Paul followed His Master to the city where they crucified His Lord and slew the prophets, he followed Him into the hands of superstitious Gentiles, he followed Him into the sea... Read more
Romans 11:1-21 As with a lot of the book of Romans, the thorny issue of election and predestination sprouts up here in Romans 11. But this time in a different way. This time, though St. Paul reminds us of Israel’s election (verse 28) and that the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable (verse 29), he also lays before us the terrible possibility of apostasy. The truth is that though God is absolutely sovereign and elects His chosen people, we... Read more
Romans 10 What were you thinking about right before you started to read Give Us This Day this morning (today)? What’s the default mode of your inner existence? When the distractions of the world are stripped away and you lie awake and still at night, what whispers in your ears and heart? The word that ought to be near to you – swimming in your blood and singing in your heart; on the tip of your tongue and in the... Read more
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Monday of Trinity 13 – Matthew 1
Matthew 1 “Hello, I’m your host, Guy Smiley. And now it’s time to play Fun with Genealogies, that wacky Bible trivia game in which our contestants try to see who can come up with the most creative way to stay awake while reading biblical genealogies. Last week we had a woman who stapled her eyelids open and a man who installed an IV drip of Starbucks into his body. Our contestant this week is Father Charles Erlandson who has a... Read more