Out of Bounds

Games have rules, and for good reason. Without rules, games would be no fun. Sure, at first it would seem like fun but the ensuing chaos would quickly destroy fun and friendship alike. It’s good to know where out of bounds is. The Christian life is like this. We have been given the rules, commandments, and statutes of God, so that we might go freely in his good ways. Let’s spend time meditating on his commands so we may grow in love for the righteous splendor of Christ, and in hatred for and avoidance of all that displeases and dishonors the One who loves us so. May we pray and say with David,

I will run in the way of your commandments when you enlarge my heart!

Psalm 119:32

The Bill Comes Due

In the 2016 motion picture Doctor Strange, a rigid character named Mordo observes that rule-breaking will always come back to bite us. “The bill comes due,” he famously says. While Mordo is overly righteous, the point is true in general. Our sin and carelessness will inevitably bear fruit in our lives and in the lives of those around us. To think of this can be a remedy against temptation.

However, what do we do when our lives are riddled with failure to obey God perfectly? While we may have to suffer various earthly consinquences for our transgressions, our great hope in Christ is that he himself has paid the bill which comes due before God. To be a Christian is to have the amazing hope that Jesus has paid for our sins, every single one, with his blood. So when Satan reminds us that the bill comes due, let us reply that indeed it does, and indeed it has. Paid in full is how it reads now. Hallelujah!

Heavy Waits

The Christian life is a walk of faith; we are as those who see the invisible. Much of our experience in this fallen world is designed by God to strengthen that spiritual sight. Thus, to be a disciple of Jesus Christ is to know that things are often not as they appear, but are always as he says they are. And, more to the point, things will turn out how he says they will turn out.

Relating this to our lived experience, we have godly desires which we long to see fulfilled, but usually we have to wait. Let us then imitate the faith of our father Abraham, who waited upon the Lord. In due time, he shall bring all our right desires to wondrous fulfillment, in this world or the next. For he himself has said, “No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly” (Psalm 84:11).

An Offer We Can’t Refuse

It’s a funny saying from American crime family lore, but it also happens to be true in the case of our common salvation. The Bible is clear: we were chosen, predestined, and called from death to life by God’s infinite power expressed through the gospel message. Good News it is called and full of great joy for all who have ears to hear. We cannot refuse the offer of eternal life through the beauty and wonder of our Lord’s dying love for sinners like us who have no other hope. “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31). It’s as simple as that.

The Nazarene Gene

And he went and lived in a city called Nazareth, so that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled, that he would be called a Nazarene.

Matthew 2:23

Our Maker became a human being, just like us in all things, except sin. What’s more, he took a humble form of humanity as a despised outsider. “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Why yes, in fact it can. Indeed it must, for that is where the God-Man grew up. And so it is with us, for whom he has died. We are God’s sons and daughters in lowly form. For now!

Longing for Spring

It’s that time of year again. Old Man Winter has been hanging around for a while and he won’t be going away anytime soon either. It seems what we need most of all is that springtime magic which fills the air when the sun beams and the flowers open and the birds sing merrily among the fresh green leaves, when the scent of lavender fills the warm evening air under a gentle crescent moon (not to mention the orchards being in blossom and the first of the strawberries with cream). But until then we wait. And thus it is for the church on earth, bearing as best we can the bleak winter of this fallen world, hastening as we may the certain Day of Spring to come when our Lord will resurrect all things and we will live in his happiness forevermore.

Numero Uno

You shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.

Leviticus 19:18

Like it or not, we are what’s happening in the world and we are what matters. The most important things in our lives are not things at all, they are people who bear God’s image. Things are important to us because we (and our happiness) are important to us. But everyone is a we just like us. Therefore, let’s treat each other accordingly and give thanks that Jesus died for us for all the times we haven’t.

The Reformed Doctrine of the Zoomies

You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall.

Malachi 4:2

I had to look this one up. And lo! I saw that cows get zoomies too. Out they go, leaping from the barn doors into the sun and onto the wondrous springtime grass. If it was Charlotte’s Web, Templeton would serenade them with, “The field is a veritable smorgasbord…”

One day we too shall feel that joy, when our God brings us to the Springtime of the Universe. Then the happier ever after days shall begin. And in meantime, the King said we should get the party started early whenever we suffer for the sake of the Kingdom:

Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven.

Luke 6:23

Heeling

On that day living waters shall flow out from Jerusalem, half of them to the eastern sea and half of them to the western sea.

Zechariah 14:8

Here we have no lasting city but God has promised that one day he will bring healing to this world. He will heal the planet and he will heal the peoples, he will heal the plants and animals and he will heal the stars.

This gift of a new universe possessing eternal life is given freely to all who will take of it—to all who will look to Jesus Christ for salvation. He has won the keys by his skull-crushing death for sin. Now that’s Good News worth sharing.

Form in Chaos

Crazy times, eh? Tensions are heightened by our constant influx of news (usually bad) and our ability to weigh in and discuss (or more likely argue) with others around the world through the amazing tool of the Internet. All that to say, passions are running high. It is an hour for Christians to exhibit self-control, orderly thoughts, and above all, the beautiful truths of God. May the Holy Spirit empower us to be self-controlled and well-ordered in our thinking, feeling, speaking, and doing, both now and always.