Obedience in Mediocrity vs. Sacrifice in Action
Hosea 6:6 NET 6 For I delight in faithfulness, not simply in sacrifice; I delight in acknowledging God, not simply in whole burnt offerings. I’ve been learning this in an unhappily repetitive way lately. It’s come in the form of eager children and eager adults. People tend to really like to please you or really…
They Did It All Wrong and God Loved It
Here is God, overlooking some blatant screw-ups during one of His most important holy days: Celebrated in the wrong month Celebrated by unprepared priests & Levites (should have only been priests that were clean) Celebrated by people that were unclean Celebrated by many people that weren’t even Jewish! Celebrated longer than God ever ordered it to be Celebrated in ways God never intended (with sacrifices from the king in addition to being from the people) Next time you are at church (if you know me, you know I’m the “you” in this sentence) and you want to gripe or be critical about the way things are being done, look at this hot mess in 2 Chronicles 30.
Global Leadership Summit 2011, Part 4: Seth Godin
Next up was Seth Godin. I was pretty exited about hearing him for 2 main reasons: I had read some of his blog posts (confession: I haven’t finished any of his books) I heard he had 142 slides for his 30 minute presentation A lot of the stuff he said struck more an individual and…
The Holy Spirit, Gifts, and Freedom
(I realize this quote starts out kind of arrogant, but stay with me.) We lack for Christians who feel themselves expendable in the warfare of the soul, who cannot be frightened by threats of death because they have already died to the attractiveness of this world. Such Christians will be free from the compulsions that…
Squeezing Yourself through the Eye of the Needle
Mark 10:23-27 And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” 24 And the disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God! 25 It is easier…
Not for the Sake of Making them Mad
[box type=”shadow”] Jesus did a lot of stuff to deliberately make the people around Him mad, but He wasn’t just a nuisance for nuisance’s sake. [/box] I’m reading the Chronological Bible Reading plan and right now Jesus is just going around ticking a lot of people off! He was talking to a Samaritan woman, which…
Whose Peace? Whose Prosperity?
Ezra 9:12 ESV Therefore do not give your daughters to their sons, neither take their daughters for your sons, and never seek their peace or prosperity, that you may be strong and eat the good of the land and leave it for an inheritance to your children forever. Never seek their peace or prosperity. Never…
Comparing Peter and Loving John
When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these They have just finished eating all the fish they could ever want, like a feast, which came from one of the largest catches of fish they had ever brought in. I don’t think that…
Romans 1 and the Created Laws
Back in v. 5 Paul talks about the “obedience of faith” which hints at obedience not coming from the Law. When Paul quotes Habakkuk, it’s kind of out of context for what Habakkuk is talking about, but it still holds true. Judgment was coming on Israel because of their lack of faith in God. They…