Mirror See
But go and learn what this means: I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.
Matthew 9:13
The goody-goodies scolded the disciples for their Teacher’s questionable affiliations. When Jesus heard them, he clapped back with gospel rounds, out Bibling the Bible guys: God doesn’t want your self-righteous sacrifices; he wants your broken spirits.
Had the Pharisees instead embraced their fellow-sinnership with the despised crowd and reclined at table with Jesus, they too would have found salvation that day. Let us not fall short of it. May we prioritize our Christianity like so: get mercy, show mercy, love mercy.
The Reformed Doctrine of Keeping It Cool, Part 2
Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?
Matthew 8:26
The quickest way to test if we are doubting God is to ask ourselves, “Am I afraid?” The disciples were thrown into a panic by the storm. But Jesus, after rebuking them with his question, coolly calms the storm with a word.
What are we afraid of? Is not our Lord the God of waves and winds and storms and seasons? He governs all. He’s never worried, never scared. Therefore let us rest in the sweet care of our Heavenly Father even in the midst of the storm. He takes more thought for every moment of our lives than all of us have ever taken for ourselves combined.
High Beams
The eye is the lamp of the body.
Matthew 6:22
Just as the eye admits light into the body, allowing us to see the world around us, so too does the mind allow the light of heaven into the soul so that we may see things as they really are. If our thoughts are clouded by worldliness, we will live our lives in darkness and sin will fester freely. But if our mind-eye is clear, open upon the bright beauties of the invisible God, then we will be illuminated. We will see ourselves, others, and the world more clearly. So let us bask our minds in the light of him who is the very radiance of God’s glory.
The Other Shoe
Apprehensions about the future can haunt us like monstrous shadows in the night, but turn on the light and we realize it was only a shirt hanging over the clothing chair. We give life to our creations of fear but that does not make them real. True, the future may bring grim tidings our way, but even if so, we will find ourselves supported in that hour by the incomprehensible peace and presence of God. And when all the scary things our worldly future has in store for us are gone and done, the other shoe will drop: a gospel shoe shod with tidings of joy which will hasten us into an eternity of transcendent well-being and heavenly delight with the Lord Jesus, who went through the real horrors for us on the cross.
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.