Filed under: Current Events, Scripture Meditations, The Gospel | Tags: Drew
So I’m not the most likely guy to write the sports-related commentary. Ideally, we wait for C.J. Mahaney to write about the current athletic news and relate it to the gospel. Well, CJ seems slow on the take today, so let me relate a conversation I’ve been watching on Facebook.
My brother dropped the news that Michael Vick has signed with the Philadelphia Eagles. Vick, you may remember, was THE star quarterback in Atlanta before he was convicted of running a dog fighting ring and served 18 months in prison for his crime. After showing appropriate remorse, he was reinstated a few weeks ago. The question became “Who would want him?” Many teams declared no interest. PETA was ready to pounce on any takers. He seemed poisonous – who wants to risk the bad press, the fan reaction, the protests? But three weeks later, Vick is an Eagle.
The response on Facebook started with one friend’s “boo.” All over the blogs, folks are shaming the Eagles for embracing Vick. He’s shown his true colors, and he never deserves to play again. He could never become a role model. Why would you reward a criminal? The opinions are sharp and unrelenting.
Now remember, Vick has served his sentence. He has paid the debt society asked him to pay. He’s not starting for the Eagles – he’s in line behind one of the better QBs in the game, Donovan McNabb. He has a massive hill to climb to regain a good reputation and respect. But many would ask that he never play again. You could fall on either side of the debate, but it has made me consider the way we view mercy and reconciliation. (more…)
During a recent meditation on 1John 1:5-10 an aspect of the passage caught my attention that had laid dormant in my understanding and application of the passage until now. John mentions that an implication of “walking in the light” is that we have “fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin” (1:7).
We don’t need to miss the important truth that in commanding that we “walk in the light” rather than “walk in darkness”, John intends that these are pattern of life issues. In other words, the normal flow of your life should be to walk in the light of Christ rather than walk in the darkness of your flesh. A good friend told me last week that he had always avoided this passage because when he read it he always walked away with the impression that we weren’t supposed to sin. I don’t think that is the case at all. As a matter of fact, the issue is that some of John’s audience were either in denial of or living to justify their sin (1:6, 8, 10). Essentially, what John is saying is that everybody sins. The issue isn’t that we sin. The issue is this: “What do we do with that sin when we do sin?”
This is where the new insight comes in. (more…)
If you’re a believer, you probably love Philippians 4:6-7. These are the verses that tell us not to be anxious about anything but to pray about everything so that we might be guarded by God’s peace. But do you know the sentence that precedes these verses? If not, you should. The preceding sentence in verse 5 lays the foundation for the anxiety-killing, prayer-encouraging, peace-filled life described in verses 6-7.
What are you waiting for? Look up Philippians 4:5, read the last sentence of the verse, then connect it to verses 6-7. You will have just been given a solid reason to rid yourself of anxiety through prayer. When worry is close, there is one who is closer.
One of the reasons we compromise when tempted is that not compromising feels hard. We don’t seem to want to work at overcoming temptation, if by work we mean anything other than tossing up a God-help-me prayer, followed by hoping that the enticement evaporates immediately. Judah made the same error when seeking to drive out the inhabitants of the plain: Those iron chariots are going to be really hard to deal with…. (Judges 1:19)
Getting a grip on the truths of 2 Corinthians is like trying to hold a toddler who doesn’t want to be held. If the fussy munchkin wants to escape our grasp, he will squirm, twist, become stiff as a board, or (the funniest to me) go limp as if his skeletal system was suddenly removed. Such moments call for tenacity on the part of the parent.
Second Corinthians is about the paradoxical pathway of comfort through suffering, glory through insufficiency, life through death, riches through generosity, and strength through weakness. These truths are hard to hold, like the resistant toddler. Tenacious faith will be required if we are to get a good grip on these truths and, ultimately, to discover that these truths have gotten a good grip on us. (more…)
