Sharing Life and Christ

Being Partial Against Partiality I am boldly going to try and make an argument from James 2:1-13 fresh off an hour of comparing and contrasting Melchizedek, King of Salem, with Jesus Christ, King of kings. We’ll see how it goes! (If you didn’t get the humor in that, don’t worry…it’s for geeks like me) I did it again. I made the mistake of opening my Bible to the Book of James. What was I thinking? Reading through James is just asking for trouble. It’s like stepping into a boxing ring with Muhammad Ali. In any case, you’re going to come out battered and bruised. While fighting Ali leaves your body swollen and sore, reading James cuts way beneath the skin, through the tissue, right to your heart of hearts. Since Saturday, I’ve been in a cage fight with James 2:1-13 and I’m losing badly. I’m against the ropes just hoping that the bell will ring to end the round. But, I’m afraid that this round isn’t going to end. The conviction that I’m exp...

I can remember coming across a “feel good” quote back in high school. It gave me confidence that I was being a good Christian. And I think it probably eased some of the fear that I had about actually sharing my faith. As I become more acquainted with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, I realize that the message that I valued so much was wrong and dangerous. It was wrong because it wasn’t based on truth. It was dangerous because it was a misrepresentation of the Gospel. I’ve seen many slight variations of the quote, but here is the general idea: “Preach the Gospel at all times. If necessary, use words.” It sounds nice. It even makes mention of the Good News. But sadly, the second sentence obscures the clear teaching of Scripture. It muddies the definition of the Gospel. It is easy to receive this quote to mean that we don’t have to actually speak the name of Jesus Christ to be preaching the Gospel. We can just live a good moral life and d...

Blessed is the man…[whose] delight is in the law of the Lord, and on His law he meditates day and night. Psalm 1:1a, 2 May God be gracious to us and bless us and make His face to shine upon us, that Your way may be known on earth, Your saving power among all nations. Psalm 67:1-2 I was sitting in Kevin’s Place about to tear into some pumpkin oatmeal pancakes with my brother in Christ this morning when our conversation turned to blessing. In the context of Psalm 67, my friend asked what it meant for God to bless us. Was God’s blessing in the Old Testament different than in the New? Is the blessing that we experience today different than what they experienced? How does our society influence our opinion of blessing? The good news is that there is no shadow or variation due to change with God. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. With that said, we can conclude that God’s method of blessing has remained the same as well. Perha...