Baptized Into Christ

In my previous post I shared what the Bible says Jesus saves us from.  But Jesus doesn't just save us  from those things, He also saves  for  a purpose. For what does Jesus save us? Jesus saves you for self-sacrificial love and humble service to others. (Philippians 2:3-13) Jesus saves you for serving out your vocation of wife. (Colossians 3:18) Jesus saves you for serving out your vocation of husband. (Colossians 3:19) Jesus saves you for serving out your vocation of child. (Colossians 3:20) Jesus saves you for serving out your vocation of parent. (Colossians 3:21) Jesus saves you for serving out your vocation of worker. (Colossians 3:22) Jesus saves you for serving out your vocation of employer. (Colossians 3:23) Jesus saves you for praying and praising God together with other Christians. (Colossians 3:16) Jesus saves you for doing the good works He has prepared for you. (Ephesians 2:10) Jesus saves you for the resurrection from death to life eve...

Often Christians speak of being "saved."  This is good, proper, and Biblical language, however it begs the question: saved from what? Well the Bible tells us the answer to that and it is helpful for us to know the answer because when we do, we will love Jesus more and have a deeper appreciation for what He has done for us. Jesus saves us from the eternal fire of hell. (Matthew 18:8-9). Jesus saves us from eternal separation from God. (Matthew 25:41) Jesus saves us from eternal punishment. (Matthew 25:46) Jesus saves us from suffering while knowing that others are enjoying the joys of heaven. (Luke 13:28) Jesus saves us from eternal destruction. (2 Thessalonians 1:9) Note that "destruction" here doesn't mean that those in hell are destroyed and cease to exist.  Think of it as more in terms of the opposite of construction.  They will be in eternal ruin.  Jesus saves us from a hell that is relentless in its agony.  (Mark 9:48) These are some of the et...

There was once a little branch.  The little branch had been a branch for as long as it could remember.  Day after day the little branch produced fruit that fed people.  Day after day the little branch, being fed by the vine to which it was connected, remained strong and healthy and was able to produce an abundance of fruit.  Day after day the fruit produced fed hungry people. “Isn’t it great that we are able to help people by the fruit that we produce?” an old, big branch said to the little branch.  “It is so wonderful,” the big branch continued “that the vine feeds us and because the vine feeds us we can feed others.” But the little branch wasn’t so sure.  “What do you mean, it’s great?  We’re wasting our time here connected to this vine.  We are the ones producing fruit after all!  That vine is just holding us back!  I don’t need the vine to produce fruit!  Besides, I don’t see your fruit!” The little branch, being...

There were many follow ups to "the dress" intrigue that captured the internet for a day.  One of the follow ups was this piece that details something I had heard about before, but had forgotten. Apparently ancient languages didn't have a word for blue.  There's no word for blue in ancient Hebrew, Greek, Japanese, or Chinese.  Based upon this oddity, some studies were done that seemed to show that without a word for blue, it appears that people actually do not see  blue. From the article... A researcher named Jules Davidoff traveled to Namibia to investigate this, where he conducted an experiment with the Himba tribe, which speaks a language that has no word for blue or distinction between blue and green.  When shown a circle with 11 green squares and one blue, they could not pick out which one was different from the others — or those who could see a difference took much longer and made more mistakes than would make sense to us, who can clearly spot ...

Out of nowhere, yesterday a dress was all over my Facebook feed.  Why?  Because it appeared black and blue to some and gold and white to other people (I'm strange I guess, because it looked light blue and gold to me...). The science behind why some see different colors in this instance is pretty well understood , but the idea of people seeing the same thing in different ways was absolutely fascinating to many people.  My wife, being a scrapbooker and having an eye for color, found the dress interesting because how people see colors is important to how she does layouts and how she takes pictures of them.  To others, it was fascinating because they wanted to know the "why" behind it. To me, it wasn't all that interesting.  Except...I just can't help reading things like this through a theological lens. Some see blue and some see white.  Does that mean that both are right?  Nope.  The dress is objectively a certain color.  It isn't "whateve...

"Where are you God?" It's a question that has been asked and prayed countless times in the history of humanity.  It's a question we ask when things are bad.  It's a question we ask when we are struggling. "Where are you?" It's a question that has been the starting point for so many people in their "search for God."  Countless attempts have been made to "find" God through meditation, fasting, prayer, pilgrimages, and hard work. But humans were not the first to speak this question; God was.  The very first words spoken by God (actually one word איכה in Hebrew) spoken by God after the fall into sin was not a word of judgment, but a calling to Adam and Eve to return to Him. "Where are you?" God asked Adam and Eve.  Of course God knew where they were.  They question wasn't asked for His benefit, but for theirs.  He was calling them back to Him, even in their guilt.  They had sinned against Him and because of the...

Below is what I wrote for our March 2015 newsletter. “Love Must Be Tough” is the title of a book by Dr. James Dobson, the founder of Focus on the Family.  In his book, Dobson writes concerning marriage and the difficulties of marriage. Isn’t it interesting that it is tough to love the person you chose to be with and to whom you chose to commit yourself?  It isn’t as if you were randomly assigned a spouse.  You chose your spouse!   Yet, love must be tough, because even in this relationship in which we voluntarily choose to commit to loving another person, we struggle to love them. That “love must be tough” is shown in our families as well.  As parents age and their children have to make decisions regarding their care, it is tough for both parents and children.  Yet, children care for parents in spite of how tough it is. If love is tough in a marriage and if love is tough if a family, how much tougher will it be for us in the church? ...