💡 THOUGHTS FROM ME
I. A common misconception people have about God is that they need to clean themselves up before they can come to Him.
Many assume they must do a few good things, fix a few bad things, or get their life together before God would want to hear from them. But Scripture doesn’t say that.
Psalm 51:17 says, “The sacrifice pleasing to God is a broken spirit. God, you will not despise a broken and humbled heart.”
This means any one of us can approach the Lord right now. Not after we improve. Not after we fix everything. Not after we try to make up for the wrong we have done.
God responds to our posture, not our performance.
You can do a lot of good things for the wrong reasons, and if your heart is proud, God is not pleased. And you can have completely blown it, yet if you come to Him humbly and honestly, He welcomes you.
So here is the question for today: Where do you need to humble yourself before the Lord, and where do you need to seek Him? God loves to hear from those who genuinely want to seek Him, which means He wants to hear from you.
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II. In Romans chapter 3, the Apostle Paul explains that every one of us has fallen short of God’s perfect standard. No matter our background or story, we are guilty before a holy God and need someone to stand in our place.
In verses 21 and 22, Paul writes, “But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been revealed, attested by the law and the prophets.” Apart from the law means apart from our good works, because our good works cannot erase the reality that we are not holy like God is.
You can do a lot of really good stuff, but that does not erase the things you have done that separate you from God.
We need something outside of ourselves to reconcile us to God.
Paul continues in verses 22 and 23, “The righteousness of God is through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe, since there is no distinction. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
Every one of us has fallen short of the glory of God, and every one of us is invited into the kingdom of God, not by trying to become a better person but by trusting in Jesus.
We fall short, and Jesus is the antidote. His righteousness is given to all who trust and believe in Him.
📖 UNDERSTANDING THE BIBLE
Paul wrote more than two letters to the Corinthian church.
In the New Testament, we have the books of First and Second Corinthians, but in those books we see that he actually wrote at least four letters to the church in Corinth.
In First Corinthians 5, Paul refers to an earlier letter he had already sent. In Second Corinthians 2 and 7, he mentions another painful letter that is different from First Corinthians.
This does not mean anything is missing from Scripture. It simply reminds us that God preserved the letters His people needed. First and Second Corinthians are part of a larger conversation Paul had with this church, and these two letters contain the wisdom the Holy Spirit intended for us to have today.
💬 1 HELPFUL QUOTE
Sinclair Ferguson on how to bring God glory:
“How do we bring glory to God? The Bible’s short answer is: by growing more and more like Jesus Christ.”
📚 1 BRIEF BOOK REVIEW
A book about how Christians should view those in authority and how to best engage in the political process as believers in King Jesus.
Overall, I was disappointed with this book. There were spots I found helpful, enlightening, and thought-provoking. But overall, it felt like a lot of words without giving a ton of practical help. I can't say I left the book thinking about Christian political witness in any new way.
At times, it felt very much like "take the middle ground" on a lot of issues. Sometimes this is wise, but sometimes it is not. As Christian theologians, they referenced issues like abortion and LGBTQ+ multiple times, but came across as very soft on the issue.
If all life is sacred, then the lives of babies matter. God's design for sex and sexuality matters; it's not an issue Christians shouldn't be clear on like the authors almost seemed to be in the book. It was almost as if the authors championed liberal democracy over following Jesus.
One of the last sentences of the book explicitly says that we should put Jesus first, but I was quite underwhelmed many times in the book by how it was coming across. We should love and care for everyone, absolutely, but we should do that while voting for, living out, and advocating for God-honoring positions that lead to human flourishing.
The book was a dry read and one I had to make myself finish. Parts I found helpful, parts where it felt like the book wasn't saying anything programmatically helpful at all, and parts I simply disagreed with.
5/10
P.S. An email savant…
