Mission (Not Yet) Accomplished March 21, 2016 Year C (Holy Week) Isaiah 42:1-9 I grew up in the Houston, Texas area near NASA’s Johnson Space Center. Johnson Space Center is known as Mission Control, a place where people work to help astronauts on their missions in space. The time to watch NASA’s Mission Control on television would be when they blasted off and when they landed. In the first part, when they blasted off, there is tremendous anxiety to... Read more
Lessons in Belonging from a Church-Going Commitment Phobe by Erin S. Lane Lessons in Belonging from a Church-Going Commitment Phobe by Erin S. Lane is for people who like the idea of church but feel discouraged by the people who go to church (15). Lane comes from a “progressive-evangelical” perspective of the Presbyterian mainline denomination. Lane reminds the reader about the growing population of religious “nones” which are increasingly made up by Millennials (16). Lane calls people not to go... Read more
Revelation 3:7-13 How to Persevere During Difficult Times When you think of Philadelphia, you may think about many things. For many of you, Philadelphia is the town in Pennsylvania, founded by William Penn in 1682. Philadelphia played an instrumental role in the American Revolution as a meeting place for the Founding Fathers of the United States, who signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and the Constitution in 1787. Philadelphia was one of the nation’s capitals in the Revolutionary War,... Read more
March 17, 2016 Year C Isaiah 54:9-10 When God makes a promise, He keeps it. He swore a promise to Noah that He would never flood the Earth with water again. In the same way, He promises never to be angry with His children (Isaiah 54:9). People may think that God is an angry God, because they see violent acts in the Old Testament. Yet, God delegates His anger to His agents. He does this so that He can keep... Read more
March 16, 2016 Year C Psalm 20:1-9 Many people want to have victory in life. They want to see success in everything they do. Here, David prays for victory in the oncoming battle. He asks for God to hand him victory. He admits that other people trust in other things to gain victory. David only trusts God (Psalm 20:7). But just because he doesn’t trust in other ways for success, that doesn’t prevent him from making the “big ask.” Eight... Read more
A More Christ-Like God by Bradley Jersak A More Christlike God by Bradley Jersak makes the case with the subtitle that there is a more beautiful Gospel when God is made Christlike. Instead of showing Christ to be like God, Jersak makes the case that God is more like Christ. Jersak makes the claim that God is like Jesus, not the other way around. The personality of God is identical to the personality of the man called Jesus of Nazareth.... Read more
Love Trumps Hate Love Trumps Hate is a simple thought reflection that addresses the love of God over political hate. March 15, 2016 “You who love the Lord, hate evil! He protects the lives of his godly people and rescues them from the power of the wicked.” (Psalm 97:10, NLT) I live in Missouri, which holds its primary today for the Democratic and Republican candidates for President. What has struck me during this entire election cycle is the contrast between... Read more
Revelation 6:9-17 A Picture God’s Grace and God’s Judgment The first four seals (6:1–8) function as preliminary judgments that God allows to operate throughout human history, sometimes resulting in the suffering of God’s people at the hands of sinners.1 The Fifth Seal: Persecution of the Saints “When He opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the people slaughtered because of God’s word and the testimony they had.” (Revelation 6:9, HCSB) What determines the killing of people? They are... Read more
March 14, 2016 2 Kings 19:29-37 Many people ask me: “How can a loving God commit such acts of violence?” My simple answer to this question is that He doesn’t act that way personally. Instead, God delegates His anger, judgments, and violence to others. In this scene, King Hezekiah is asking for deliverance from King Sennacherib. The Assyrian king plans to destroy Jerusalem. So Hezekiah prays to God. God answers by saying that He will rescue them (2 Kings 19:29).... Read more
Revelation 6:1-8 The Four Horsemen As we begin chapter 6, we start to see the unfolding of God’s judgment in history. World history begins its end with the seven seals in this chapter. The future timeline now begins to open the scroll by breaking the seals. (This initiates three sets of judgments in Revelation 6–16: seals, trumpets, and bowls, with each using a four-three pattern.)1 This four-three pattern is how we will address each of the sets of judgments. I... Read more
Select your answer to see how you score.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In