Paul’s letter to the Galatians is such a rich study to immerse yourself in because it constantly drives home the importance of living our lives centered on the gospel of Jesus Christ, crucified, risen, and returning.
Continue readingWe are living in difficult times. I do not think I need to list all of the difficult things we are living through as a church family. If I have done my job well enough, then I know, and you know that I know at least some of what most of us in this room are trying to endure. The question that I think we are all asking – and that I think Paul may be asking in the subtext of our text today is this: “How do we remain on the highway to eternity?”
Continue readingI want you to write down these words: Do not use the law to shave with! We will come back to that in a few minutes, but for now, I need to confess on the front edge here that this passage is super intimidating!
Continue readingHow is your relationship with God today? Would you say that you completely trust God in every circumstance? Or would you say that you find yourself sometimes being suspicious of what God is up to?
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The superscription of our Psalm today, helps us to feel the emotional tone of the Psalm and to also understand the context of David’s prayer to God. As far as emotional tone is concerned, just like Psalm 58 from last week, this Psalm is meant to be sung during a regular worship gathering of God’s people because the superscription is addressed “to the choirmaster”. This a community worship song.
Continue readingPsalm 58 is a heavy Psalm to study. It is a Psalm that is full of angry emotion, uncensored accusations, and violent, wartime imagery. One author says that this Psalm “is a prayer for spiritual warriors” who are engaged in spiritual warfare against evil in this present darkness (Eph. 6) because, although this Psalm “is directed against the corrupt and wicked rulers of Israel” we all need “to realize that we are looking not merely at a portrait of others but also into a mirror where we can see ourselves”.2
Continue readingPsalm 53 is a song written by David that is meant to teach; it is meant to instruct us on the horrific nature of sin. Sin is not a popular topic in the modern church. Many church goers in the West would rather hear three practical points to fix their marriage, be a better man or woman, handle their finances better, or be encouraged to stand strong for their political party.
Continue readingPsalm 52 is a course study in trusting God amidst the difficulty that comes with suffering at the hands of an enemy. Where Psalm 51 is a course study of walking in repentance after finding out that you are the abuser, Psalm 52 is a course study of trusting God when you have been horribly abused.
Continue readingPsalm 51 is a song of repentance. The superscription at the beginning of the Psalm sets the context in the immediate aftermath of David’s sin against Bathsheba and her husband Uriah, where the prophet Nathan courageously confronts David for his sin.
Continue readingThe last four words of our text today refer to Abraham as “the man of faith” (v. 9). As I thought about this description of Abraham this week, I thought about all of us in our own unique intersections of this journey of following Jesus as people of faith. Each of us are in our own unique seasons of this struggle to follow Jesus as aliens in a sin-soaked world that is not our home.
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