Dig A Little Deeper

I am reading a book called "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell. It is an interesting read about how people become successful. One section I was reading this morning was about a woman who spent 22 minutes figuring out one math problem. Most of us would have quit seeking to solve the problem after a few minutes, but this woman was not to be deterred. She did the hard work and solved the problem.

I think it's like that with Bible study. We give up too quickly when we don't get the immediate gratification of understanding a text from a cursory reading. If we would dig deep into the Word like this lady solving a math problem we might just find a great treasure for our souls.

Imagine that you are digging for a buried treasure. You dig about two feet deep and you don't find anything. So, you give up. A little later, someone starts digging in your hole and to your surprise they find a treasure chest about two inches deeper than where you quit. That would stink. I think that's what happens to us sometimes. We give up too soon and miss out on what could be ours.

Solomon said it like this in Proverbs 25:2, "It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; to search a matter out is the glory of kings."

Christmas Sermons

I think Christmas story is often hard to preach. I get the sense, even though no one has said it, that everybody is coming with a "been there and heard that" attitude. Am I wrong about this?

Hacked Off?

I have come across a few articles and blogs written by my brothers and sisters in Christ over the past few days. They are hacked about the fact that the world does not agree with them about Christ, morality and other similar issues. I know how that feels. I let that kind of stuff bother me way too much. But the more I think about this, the more I think my emotion is the wrong reaction. My response is not really biblical; instead, it is personal.

I think it's good and right to have holy anger with sin, especially my own sin, the sin that pervades the church and the destruction it causes in the world. I mean God's glory is at stake, right? But, honestly, I don't think that's why many Christians are angry. I think that our anger is rooted in the personal disappointment that American culture no longer verifies our beliefs. We are seen as being misinformed and stupid. Our glory has faded in the eyes of the culture and we don't like it. But Christ said that this would be the norm in Matthew 5:10-12. Paul reiterated the same idea in 1 Corinthians 2:6-16. So, why all the anger? Jesus said to rejoice in this fact. It's evidence of our fellowship with Jesus and our forefathers in the faith.

We don't need the world to verify our faith. We believe because God has revealed His grace to us in Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. That's simply all the verification that we need.