Gospel – Page 20 – Three Minute Bible

January 20, 2020January 20, 2020

Affirmation Monday – Happy Ending

If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

— Romans 10:9

Do you want to be saved?

One day I took a small sailboat out on a large lake. I had not sailed on this lake before and I did not know its tricks and traps. My sailboat ride started very pleasantly. The sky was blue and the sun was bright and warm. I had sailed perhaps a mile from the park where I had launched the boat when I noticed the wind was picking up. It was blowing me away from the boat launch so I turned the boat around and started sailing into the wind.

January 13, 2020January 13, 2020

Affirmation Monday – Philippians 1: 6

… being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

Confidence

In the opening lines of Paul’s letter to the church at Philippi, he shares an eternal truth: God is not a quitter.

Think about the persistence of God. Before he created the earth and the stars he created the angels. One of them went bad. Then this bad egg, Satan, enticed many of God’s angels to follow him.

When God created the universe and all that is in it, he understood the risk. He had already seen corruption in his creation of the angels. When he created the earth and all that we know, he was not surprised when Satan corrupted his creation again.

January 12, 2020January 12, 2020

Psalm Sunday – Psalm 2: 11-12

Serve the Lord with fear
    and celebrate his rule with trembling.
Kiss his son, or he will be angry
    and your way will lead to your destruction,
for his wrath can flare up in a moment.
    Blessed are all who take refuge in him.

Picture Perfect

Imagine if you will a placid beautiful lake. The lake is surrounded by rolling hills, fruit orchards, and lush fields. Animals play in the fields and birds fill the air. You and others are in boats of some kind; canoes, sailboats, paddle-boards, all enjoying the water and the sunshine.

At the far end of the lake stands a large figure. In our imaginary world, this is God, the Lord. He rules the land and the people on the lake. At his feet there is a cleft in the rock and the lake flows into a narrow ravine. The Lord guards the way and has commanded all the people to stay away from this place, to enjoy the lake and the surrounding hills, but to avoid the river.

January 6, 2020January 6, 2020

Affirmation Monday – John 1:12

Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.

A Child’s View

There are moments when life seems simple. They are moments when everything comes into focus at once and makes sense. I wish those moments could last forever. Of course, someday they will.

For now, in this life, we are consigned to a complicated world. Sometimes even trying to reconcile the Word of God with itself can seem complicated. How are we to understand the Old Testament? How do we understand the New Testament? How do we even begin to get our minds around the concept of Creation or God himself?

January 3, 2020January 4, 2020

Salt & Pepper – James 1: 18

He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.

By now we have seen that James is a salt and pepper kind of guy. His writing is not bland or detailed. He is a man with a mission and he wants to fulfill that mission with as few words as possible. This sentence in James 1: 18 is a perfect example. Let’s unpack it a bit and look at all the treasures James has placed here.

December 30, 2019December 31, 2019

Affirmation Monday – Romans 5: 8

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Whose Rules?

Yesterday, Psalm Sunday’s post generated some interesting discussion on what it means to be wicked and righteous. From God’s point of view, we are all unrighteous in a practical sense.

What I mean by that is that a practical righteousness would be sufficient to allow a person into heaven without any help from God. In effect, such a person would be as good as God himself. The Pharisees in Jesus’ time measured their righteousness by their compliance with the laws of Moses. Unbeknownst to them, there was a little flaw in their measurement system. Because they wrote most of the rules, they were a bit blind to how well they fulfilled them.

Imagine that you want to play baseball. You make the rules so that the pitcher can only pitch balls to you that you can hit. Then you demand that the umpire is a member of your team. Better yet, the umpire has to be a relative and a member of your team. When you hit the ball nobody on the other team is allowed to touch it until you have made it safely to home plate. Sound like a fun game? It is if you are on the right team.

December 26, 2019December 27, 2019

Trials – James 1: 12

Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.

Why do we receive the crown of life? Is it something that we earn? Is it something that we can earn?

James’ letter stands out as unique in the New Testament. James presents a “no-nonsense” approach to believing in Jesus. But remember, James himself is unique.

No other New Testament writer grew up with Jesus in the same family. No other writer knew Jesus as a child. No other writer gave Jesus such a hard time when he was alive – before his resurrection. James carries a special perspective on Jesus and a special kind of guilt for his past behavior.

December 25, 2019December 26, 2019

Wisdom Wednesday – Merry Christmas!

And I will put enmity
    between you and the woman,
    and between your offspring and hers;
he will crush your head,
    and you will strike his heel.

Genesis 3: 15

The Perfect Gift

Today’s “Wisdom Wednesday” text is not from the traditional wisdom literature in the Bible. Instead, we are looking at the wisdom of God in action.

Today we celebrate the birth of our Savior. The reason we need a savior is that Adam and Eve could not resist the wiles of Satan. Having sinned, they became spiritually dead, separated from God. At the same time, they were able to see something they had been protected from while they were alive in God. They could now see evil. The tragedy was (and is) that people do not always recognize evil for what it is.