Exegetical Meditations (34)

One of the wild things about the human heart is that it can trick us into boasting in our weaknesses so that others step in and build us up. It’s not humility in those situations; it’s actually pride.

But, to be fair, it’s pride wearing glasses and a hat to look different.

Real humility would be boasting in our weaknesses so we might decrease and Jesus might increase—as John the Baptist said, and lived out. God loves humility. Pride, on the other hand, he does not; in fact, he detests it.

Why?

Because pride is idolatry.

Exegetical Meditations (33)

In the world we all live in, we have standards by which we measure any number of things.

If you want to know how smart someone is you might ask them what they got on their SATs or what college they went to. If you want to know how successful someone is you might ask how big their house is or what kind of retirement account they have. If you want to know how emotionally stable someone is you might ask if they’ve ever been divorced or how their relationship with their children is.

There are standards all over the place, and the question for a Christian is: by what standard do we use?

A Summer in the New Testament

What are your plans for this summer? More specifically, what are you plans for your Bible reading this summer?

May I suggest reading through the entire New Testament?

There are 260 chapters in the New Testament and 92 days in June, July, and August combined. Not including Sundays (there’s 13 of those), and setting aside four “Catch-Up” days, you could read through the whole New Testament in just 75-days by reading a little over 3 chapters a day.

Listen to Old Books and Sermons for Free

One of the hidden gems on the internet is no doubt LibriVox. It’s a website containing a huge number of books in the public domain that have been turned into audiobooks—audiobooks you can listen to for free. The recordings are all done (I think) by volunteers, which means the quality changes from book to book, but the books I’ve listened to have all been done well enough to enjoy.

Exegetical Meditations (32)

All the world generally fits into one of two categories: 1) those who saw Jesus, and 2) those who didn’t. And yet, in at least some sense, even those of us in the second category can see him.

After Jesus resurrected from the dead he made a point to show himself to his followers. For a period of forty-days he appeared to many as way to make it clear that he was no longer dead—that death no longer had a hold of him. In one of the more striking stories of his appearances, Jesus is on a beach while his disciples are out fishing on the lake. They had been out all night and hadn’t caught anything. Jesus, from the beach, called out to them—though they didn’t know it was him—and he told them to drop the net on the other side of the boat. They obliged and they caught so many fish that they struggled to haul the net back in.

Listen to "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God"

The most famous sermon given by any puritan was probably “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” It was preached by Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) in what is now Connecticut on July 8, 1741.

The story goes that Edwards had difficulty even making it through the sermon because of how the congregation reacted. They didn’t react in offense—as some might expect—instead, they reacted as those being convicted by the Holy Spirit and brought to repentance. They pleaded for Edwards to tell them how they could be saved. This was because they had been confronted with the truth of their sin and were coming to terms with their standing before this holy God and, at the same time, they were being confronted by that same God—in Christ—and his great love for them.

Emails to a Christian (3)

Hi Mark,

I’m happy to hear you’re going to church and enjoying it. It really does make a difference in our walk with Jesus to be walking it with others. We weren’t made to do this (mainly) alone, but with the Spirit of God primarily and then with fellow believers.

In your previous email you listed five or six questions about church. I’m only going to give answers to two of them. This isn’t because I don’t think the other questions are worth answering; it’s because I think it would be better for you to speak to your pastor and maybe others in your church about them. I’m happy to have the conversations and I hope they continue but, just so we’re both on the same page, you have a pastor and he’s not me.

Exegetical Meditations (31)

When working through lists of biblical “contradictions” it doesn’t take long before you run into the one with Judas and his death.

The indictment usually goes something like this. In Matthew’s gospel, he tells us that Judas hung himself. But, in Acts, Luke tells us that Judas fell headlong and his body burst open with his intestines spilling out. The “contradiction”—they tell us—is obvious. He can’t both die by hanging and falling headlong at the same time.

The ones leveling this accusation of a “contradiction” often lament that even two gospel writers couldn’t get their stories straight.

Exegetical Meditations (30)

We often hear that husbands ought to love their wives as Christ loved the church. But, that’s really only half the statement Paul made.

He begins that particular section of Ephesians 5 by telling his readers how Christ loved the church. Jesus gave himself up for her and, in so doing, made her holy by cleansing her with water through the word. He did this and then presented her to himself as a radiant church, free of stains, wrinkles, or any other blemish. Because of Christ’s work, she—the church—was and is now holy and blameless. That’s what Jesus did and Paul says that husbands ought to do the same thing.

Exegetical Meditations (29)

Why worry about tomorrow? It’s out of your control. In fact, it’s out of everyone’s control except God’s.

Nevertheless we worry about tomorrow because we think we have control. We raise our kids, go to work, invest our money, buy houses, start companies, retire, move, do all those things because we want to. And, as can happen with anything, after we’ve done anything long enough or watched other people do the same things, we start to think it’s in our hands—we’re the masters of it. The problem is, biblically speaking, we’re not.