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.
Last Sunday I preached through the Ephesians 6 passage detailing the relationship between children and parents. The commands are clear. Children are to obey and honor. Parents are to discipline and instruct. These were things that were filled out in the sermon. However, there is one point I did not fill out properly. I would like to correct that in this blog. It has to ...
Keep ReadingLast month I posted a blog about the surprising depth of foolishness there is in being wise in one's own eyes. We saw this in an astonishing way in Proverbs 26. In that chapter, Solomon relentlessly rubs our nose in the foolishness of the fool. Could there be anything worse than being a fool or even being around a fool? Verse 12 was the shocking answer. Yes, there is som...
Keep ReadingJust asking this question is almost blasphemous in our culture. Today's culture says that dreams are what empower you, animate you, and are the reason to get out of bed in the morning. Not having dreams for your life is considered the only real problem. Since the church is notorious at absorbing current culture, but with a 5-10 year delay, it therefore says the same thin...
Keep ReadingPop 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...
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