This blog is Pastor Jay's weekly musings about God's Word, God's world, and God's call to our culture. We hope they encourage, challenge, and inform you. Sign up to recieve them in your email.
Pop quiz: If you could have anything you want right now, what would it be? Don't think about it. Answer immediately with whatever is your most responsive desire. Do you have it mind? Now let's test how worldly you are. I want to try to lay out some categories of possible answers. First, the materialistic answer. If you are wanting things and stuff then you are shot thro...
Keep ReadingUnintended consequences. That is what you call those events which, after certain choices, come like a bolt from the blue. You don't expect them, because the consequence seems unrelated to the original action. Slap a Gorilla, and you will get torn into like a bag of Doritos. That is not an unintended consequence because you can basically see that coming. But if you get ...
Keep ReadingWhile normally I can only accomplish one thing at a time, I do enjoy the killing of two birds with one stone. It makes me happy when I can turn one errand into the accomplishment of three or four. It doesn't always work like that, but it is nice when it does. The magnificent smart phone has given us a help with this. It has made listening to books or sermons while we jog...
Keep ReadingThis last Sunday I preached from Ephesians 5:15-18. It is the fourth "therefore" (4:25; 5:1,7,15) and the fourth instance of "walk" (4:17; 5:2,8,15) that has been driving our sermons since 4:17. The climatic command in the passage this week is wonderfully important: "be filled with the Spirit". However, in my studies I saw something I had not seen before. It involved the...
Keep ReadingGrumbling is everywhere and probably because it is one of those habits that often gets a pass. I mean, when you think about it, grumblers could be characterized as perceptive people. They are quick to recognize problems and quick to air why those problems are problematic. You can't really deny there are problems. This is a broken world after all. Sin really has ravaged...
Keep ReadingBeing irrelevant is a bad thing. Screen door companies should not market to submarine manufacturers, and you don't bring football pads to a nursing home. These things are irrelevant to the stated contexts. Irrelevance is foolishness and wastes time, money and effort. Does this mean that the search for relevance is the wisest and noblest goal for business and churches ali...
Keep ReadingIt is an awesome thing to think that this command in John 15:9 "abide in my love," has been uttered by the infinite God. If ever there was a command to embrace, this is it. In fact, it is made even more mind-blowing when Jesus says immediately before this command that "just as the Father has loved me, so I have loved you." How can this be? Jesus loves us with the depth...
Keep ReadingWhat should the atmosphere of the church be like? Many churches today want you to know what their atmosphere is like. Their websites tell you what you can expect when you arrive. This is understandable and helpful. However, many churches are quick to let you know that they are casual and easy-going. And often times this is only half the truth. The reality is they are fun...
Keep ReadingThe gospel is not only the good news of salvation, the gospel is also good news of fruitful living. But those two things, salvation and fruit-bearing, are not separate and exclusive features. A part of being saved is being saved from barren, fruitless living. In one of the most precious portions of Scripture, John 15, Jesus is teaching his disciples in the Upper Room ...
Keep ReadingIn the book of Jude we find another striking example of how divine sovereignty and human responsibility operate together. Finding divine sovereignty and human responsibility brought together closely, even in single verses, is not uncommon in the Scripture. But in Jude, these concepts stand out all the more starkly because this letter is so short. Jude didn't have a lot...
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