Hey, to the mom that scolded her son for asking too many questions after church:
Please answer the questions and love your child the way Jesus loves you.
We don't need another kid growing up into a Rob Bell.
Where is the gospel in Proverbs (or James)?There is no magic formula to ‘find’ the gospel in Proverbs. Rather, if we read Proverbs as wise words from a father who loves his children too much to let them ruin their lives through ignorant folly, we will receive it as God means us to, and be strengthened in a way that is grace-flavored.And remember, from a macro-perspective, Jesus is the ultimate wise man. Paul said that Jesus "became for us wisdom" (1 Cor. 1:30). Jesus is the wise man, and we fools, united to him by faith, share in that wisdom.Where is the gospel in Leviticus?All over the place. Leviticus is an elaborate accounting of the sacrificial system that God mercifully instituted for Israel, to atone for their sins. It is virtually impossible to plunk down into a random place in Leviticus and not see God’s gracious provision of a way out for filthy people.And Jesus himself brought that entire sacrificial system to fulfillment. The New Testament tells us Jesus was not only the priest who offered the sacrifice, he was also the sacrifice itself, the lamb—and he was even the temple in which the priest offered the sacrifice. As we read Leviticus as Christians, then, we can be ever mindful of what all those bloody sacrifices were anticipating.Where is the gospel in Ecclesiastes?Ecclesiastes insists that the good things of life—food, work, sex, wealth, honor—cannot serve as the ultimate things in life, and that if we make this mistake (as Solomon did) we will come to the end of life exhausted, frustrated, and disillusioned. Only God satisfies.Jesus really had it all, even more than Solomon. He had unbounded wealth and honor in heaven. He had everything Solomon chased after. To an infinite degree. And he emptied himself and gave it all up and came to earth and suffered and died. Why? So that you and I, wayward sinners, can have real wealth, real riches, real honor, in the new earth, forever.
NYC traffic is not a nightmare. Nightmares are shorter.
Broadway is not all that broad.
Malachi 1:1-5
The oracle of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi.
“I have loved you,” says the Lord. But you say, “How have you loved us?” “Is not Esau Jacob's brother?” declares the Lord. “Yet I have loved Jacob but Esau I have hated. I have laid waste his hill country and left his heritage to jackals of the desert.” If Edom says, “We are shattered but we will rebuild the ruins,” the Lordof hosts says, “They may build, but I will tear down, and they will be called ‘the wicked country,’ and ‘the people with whom the Lord is angry forever.’” Your own eyes shall see this, and you shall say, “Great is the Lord beyond the border of Israel!”
1 Corinthians 15:1-2
Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.
God will probably admit with us that things aren't perfect now. At the present we struggle to be spiritually pure and we suffer much in light of the sin within us and around us. But that struggle is indicative of something greater at work: daily resurrection power.
The gospel gives historical assurance of God's love on the cross -> breathtaking anticipation of eternal basking in his love.
It be crazy encouragement mang.
