The Transforming Word of God

How fitting that we in Community Bible Study would be discussing Ephesians 5:20 the week before Thanksgiving! I'm going to begin quoting with verse 19:      "...addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ". Do you see the connection between joyfulness and thanksgiving? How can you be overflowing with music if you aren't joyful? How can you complain and be joyful at the same time? Obviously, a grateful attitude overpowers a critical, complaining attitude. The Apostle Paul gives a list of instructions to the Thessalonians which includes: "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, giving thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you" (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18).  While the verse in Ephesians tells us to thank God for everything, these verses admonish us to give t...

On this Veterans' Day, my thoughts have turned to my father and one of his stories that fits somewhat with last week's post. My father was always an extremely patriotic man, very interested in history and current events. Even at the end of his life, he would tear up just at the pledge to the flag. As the world watched the insidious evil of the Nazis spreading through Germany and marching across Europe, Dad was anxious to get out and fight. He was only in high school, yet my grandmother often said he seemed to know just what would eventually happen as he read newspapers and listened to the radio. In preparation for the war, Dad doubled up on his junior and senior years of high school and enlisted right away. He tried the Air Force first and then the Navy, but neither would have him because he was color blind. He said he considered going to England to enlist because they were looking for color blind pilots under the assumption that they could see better at night. But he wan...

Exemption Theology. That's a term I learned this weekend from a recorded message by speaker Matt Heard while attending a weekend retreat with the Leadership Council of our Finger Lakes Community Bible Study. He began by saying that contemporary evangelism has an insidious theology problem, one he labels "exemption theology". We seem to think that the more we obey Jesus, the easier our lives will be; we equate blessing with comfort and ease. That is so true. We live in a culture that worships pleasure and instant gratification. We are self-centered. As Christians, we want to say with John the Baptist, "He must increase, but I must decrease" (John 3:30).  And I'm sure we mean it, but we also find it very difficult. Our natural instinct is to be self-centered. In fact, we're constantly told, "You're worth it." As Matt Heard pointed out, self-centered theology makes us ask if there is something wrong with us when things go wrong. Then we ...