Our Friday morning men's group is studying the book of James. Today we were in chapter two and covered these verses: "My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism. Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in filthy old clothes also comes in. If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, "Here's a good seat for you," but say to the poor man, "You stand there" or "Sit on the floor by my feet," have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?" (James 2:1-4) James touches on a common human tendency: to want to impress those who impress you. In so doing, we often look down on those who don't impress us. It's why "average" people fawn over celebrities and then turn around and treat rudely…
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"And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again" (2 Corinthians 5:15). The story is told of a little boy and his sister riding on a wooden rocking horse. The little boy turns to his sister and says, "If one of us would get off there would be more room for me." That pretty much sums up our challenge. For the Christ-follower, the process of maturity is not to make more room for me but more room for Him. We are to look for ways to make more of Jesus and less of ourselves. It's not easy. Our culture breeds selfishness. From the time we are little, we are told that we deserve a trophy just for showing up. If we're not careful, we'll bring this attitude over into the church. The church…
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Here is the gospel in a nutshell: "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich" (2 Corinthians 8:9). We don't often think of Jesus as "poor." It's just as likely we don't ever think of Jesus as "rich" either. It's easy to forget that Jesus didn't arrive on the scene the moment he was born in Bethlehem. Prior to the incarnation (God becoming flesh), Jesus existed in heaven. From the descriptions we have in scripture, it was good living in heaven. Angels attending to his every need. Creatures constantly worshipping him. Streets of gold. Jesus had everything he needed. Sounds rich to me. Then he gave it all up. As Paul writes in Philippians, "Jesus, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to…
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In 2 Corinthians 8 and 9, the apostle Paul is dealing with the generosity of the Corinthian church. While it's true he's primarily talking about financial generosity, the real issue is whether or not we will live with a generous spirit in all aspects of life. People who live with a generous spirit are just as likely to share a donut as much as a dollar. It's not what they do; it's who they are. For Paul, believers who are sincere in their beliefs will have matching behaviors. He writes in 2 Corinthians 8:8, "I am not commanding you, but I want to test the sincerity of your love by comparing it with the earnestness of others." When we think of a sincere person, we think of the person who does what they say they will do. Insincere people, on the other hand, may say all the right things but…
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Every now and then, we are blessed to have a conversation that changes the way we think -- leading to unforeseen changes down the road. For me, one such conversation happened when I was in college. My roommate, Brad, and I were talking about the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20) and what it meant for us and for the church as a whole. I'm not sure who came up with this great insight (so I'll give the credit to Brad), but here it is: God never commanded the world to go to church; he did, however, command the church to go to the world. Granted, scholars and others had known this for centuries. But to two eighteen or nineteen year-olds, this was ground-breaking, earth-shattering news. We didn't know it back then, but this was a call to be missional in how we lived and approached ministry. For Brad, this led him…
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