My reflections

Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening reflection for this morning is Micah 2:10 “Arise, and depart”. context Typical note about reflections not being deep study. Also noting that Spurgeon’s meditations are often about what comes to mind from the words of a verse (or part of it) as opposed to the context of the verse. Micah 2:10 Arise and go, for this is no resting place, on account of uncleanness that destroys with painful destruction. So the context of the rest of the verse isn’t that consistent with the direction of Spurgon’s meditation but nonetheless his springboard is good to think about… Someday everyone of us will answer the call to “arise and go” - death comes for us all but death isn’t itself an existential end, it is the time to obey the Lord. At his word, I will leave the world and go to where he calls me. This is true for everyone, it’s an inescapable part of the reality that Yahweh has created for all Creation. Death fills some with dread, but for the Christian it’s the passage t…

Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening today is from Jeremiah 23:6. Warning Again with these reflections, I"m not an OT scholar and I don’t know, or didn’t do a lot of search on, the context of the passage. This isn’t educational, this if a reflection on what God brings to mind through his Word and my time with him, not teaching about the historical context of where the words in Jeremiah 23 actually affect the story Jeremiah 23:6 In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’ The Lord is our righteousness # There’s a lot of tension in the details of the story of the world in how humans and God relate to each other. On one hand, God created everything, and he created humans with a unique purpose to be his seen-imagers in the physical world who carry out his will. On the other hand, humans take that position of privilege and often destroy the world in our sin and dismay. The theology surrounding t…

Galatians 2:19-20 19 For through the law I died to the law, in order that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ, 20 and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me, and that life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. This is one of the most common verse-memory verses I think. Probably there’s good reason for that - Paul has a lot to say to the Galatians, and these 2 verses summarize one of the simple truths of the Gospel - the life a Christian is given is freed from the law of death and make alive to Jesus. The gospel truth is that the law is no longer the thing we answer to - everyone will, certainly. There’s no mistake to be made that every human has accountability for their own agency. In our “free” will, bound to sin and death and to the law for approval, we aren’t free at all but slaves to an oppressive overlord. Jesus frees the Christian to live a life free from that oppression, in the life-giving security…

Style This blog was fully orated and transcribed. I edited the transcript with some links and formatting Okay, so I had this thought about, honestly, just like what I would say. If somebody asked me, why do I say the phrase “by God’s grace” so often? And it’s related to a thought I had a while back where my best friend would, where Michael would say, “praise God”, out of like forced habit. And it developed into a great point of spiritual maturity to say by reflex “praise God” in you know our slightly older age here, in our young parenthood. And so it’s really related to that - I also say “by God’s grace” a lot and why do I say that? I think it’s related to these central themes that have been a part of my reflections of freedom but freedom to what? It is freedom to love Jesus - see Helkyo - What is it for God to draw man to him? And before that, I’m not free at all. Danger I’m just bound by sin. And that paired with believing loyalty and the choices I make every day - And I’m free to ma…

Reflection # Today I am thinking about the blessings in my life… In my opinion, I have a lot going for me - God has been so utterly good to me that finding fault with anything that was outside my control feels near-sinful… In my adult life I have a reached several “checkpoints of success” for lack of a better stupid word… smokin’ hot wife that loves Jesus 2 beautiful daughters stable work that I’m also good at by all accounts - excellent physical health by all accounts - very decent mental health (more on this later) a house, food, water, and the means to do recreation So, it’s very clear that God has been very good to me - and at the same time it’s probably wrong to give the impression that there was no sacrifice, pain, or affliction in my life so far… Here’s what’s on my mind - I kind of think God has given me so much in my adult life as a byproduct of my childhood. This note will not be full of gory details, but here’s one I find comical (though my wife finds it sad… you be the judg…