Thoughts of the Day

Thought of the day: I think the Church has now passed the time for focusing on apologetics in public discourse. Why do I say that? Imagine two men: First is a man who actively practices all sorts of ungodliness: voodoo, astrology, drunkenness, masturbation, contentiousness, slander, and so on. And he relishes it all like a… Read more: From Apologetics to Holiness

Thought of the day: The Scripture passages, “we preach Christ crucified,” (1 Cor. 1:23) and “I desire to know nothing among you except Christ and Him crucified,” (1 Cor. 2:2) are often taken out of context. In particular, I will sometimes hear people use these passages to say that the gospel message that Christians preach… Read more: Preaching Christ Crucified

Thought of the day: Law and Gospel describe how we give and handle criticism. There are two ways to criticize another person. The first is to tear down, and the second is to build up. There are likewise two ways to perceive criticism. The first is that the critic is tearing you down, and the… Read more: Law & Gospel of Criticism

Thought of the day: What do we envision that our life together in the resurrection to be like? No more pain, no more sorrow, no more hurting each other by our words or deeds, no more death. Why will these things be? Christ will be our King and will provide for us and will lead… Read more: Citizens of Heaven

Thought of the day: Why is self-control a fruit of the Spirit (as Paul says in Galatians 5:22-24)? And why, more broadly, do we practice self-discipline? (1 Corinthians 9:24-27) God’s creative work is a work of creating distinctions (separating the light from the darkness, the sky from the sea, the land from the water, living… Read more: Self-Discipline for Distinctions

Thought of the day: God’s kingdom is not about you. Are we sons of God, or are we servants/slaves of God? Yes. We are both. I think that as Christians today we especially like to identify with the former. We of course pray “Our Father….” And it is written, “See what kind of love the… Read more: God’s Kingdom is Not About You

Thought of the day: Jesus said, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.” (Luke… Read more: Whom Do You Follow?

Thought of the day: Confession is not a substitute for repentance. And repentance is not a substitute for confession. They should go together, but they are not the same thing. What is repentance? As a vicar in Bible study recently put it to me, repentance is like when you are driving down the highway and… Read more: Confession is Not Repentance

Thought of the day: The Gospel is NOT that you are forgiven. Read that again: The Gospel, the Good News, is not that you are forgiven or justified. (Hear me out before you get your tar and feathers.) The forgiveness that we have in Christ is at the heart and center of the Gospel, but… Read more: The Gospel is Not Merely Forgiveness

Thought of the day: Is it okay for me as a Christian to consume any kind of fiction? Should I read Harry Potter? Should I play Dungeons and Dragons or Magic the Gathering? Should I watch Star Wars? Paul says, “All things are lawful, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful, but… Read more: Discerning Fiction

Thought of the day: Why has God given us some details and not others? We often like to think about what daily life might be like for us after judgment day and we are raised from the dead for life with God in paradise. Will I play board games with King David? Will I play… Read more: What We Look Forward To

Thought of the day: How does one keep the mind of Christ throughout the mundane daily life? “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you…. And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.” “When he was… Read more: Mindset of Holy to the Lord

Thought of the day: The event of Peter walking on the water to Jesus is not just an image of how we should not be afraid here in times of trouble. It is that, but it is also an image for how we are to hope. Specifically, how we are to hope for Christ’s kingdom… Read more: Walking on the Water in Hope

Thought of the day: Is it okay to wish that God would call home an aged loved one who is in great suffering in this flesh? On the one hand, we should not wish for the death of anyone. Death is evil. We should not wish evil on each other, but should pray for each… Read more: Praying for our Inheritance

Thought of the day: I recently read a post someone made in which they shared an article that called out a nominally Christian denomination for its open acceptance of things like abortion and homosexuality. I also saw that a number of people commented below that post to tell the poster that he is unloving, and… Read more: Modern Jezebel and Holiness

Thought of the day: We devote a lot of our time and energy toward avoiding decay. I don’t just mean thing like putting food in the fridge and keeping our buildings in good repair. I mean all the little practical nuggets of wisdom we accumulate in life like, “Break in a new paperback book before… Read more: Knowledge Passes Away

Thought of the day: The American culture today raises us to value being unique/weird/special. I grew up with the mindset that I ought to try to do something worth recording in the history books or else I’d be wasting my life. This is a lie. Your job is to love your neighbor and do your… Read more: A Blessing to be Mundane

Thought from church this morning: Wouldn’t it be cool to have the Easter procession start in the graveyard outside, looking at the graves with people we know have gone before us, and we say of Jesus, “He is not here, He is risen!” He is a real man who died as viscerally as any man… Read more: Easter Graveyard Procession

https://wbznewsradio.iheart.com/content/2022-02-09-bored-security-guard-drew-eyes-on-850000-painting-on-his-day-on-the-job/?fbclid=IwAR0mvCLwx82MFMa4e9UmeFON_bBrOjaw0Kc-nHsyQCCbTH-p5IahMg718-I Recently I read this article about how a security guard in an art museum got bored and doodled on one of the paintings on display there. This, combined with unrelated musings, inspired an analogy for God’s creation in my mind: Imagine God’s creation as a masterpiece painting. God created the world and gave humanity… Read more: Receiving God’s Design for Creation

Thought of the day. Part of the picture of why we as Christians can tell the demons off: Through Christ we will live forever, in the flesh. Death has no hold on us. The demons, however, are going to perish (in hell eternally) when this earth does. And they know it. Basically, right now they’re… Read more: Mocking Demons