Always Reforming

"For circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law, but if you break the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision.     This verse from Romans helps us to understand the nature of the covenant signs in the Bible--circumcision and baptism--as well as the sacramental meals.  There are two extremes to which people gravitate when it comes to signs in the Bible.  Some downplay them, ignore them, and neglect them.  This is usually a reaction to the other extreme.  On the other side of the spectrum are those who idolize the signs.  They invest saving power into the signs that God never intended the signs to carry.       Signs are exactly that--signs.  Their very nature is to point to something greater.  Too often we look at baptism and we think that the very act of placing water on a person (or dunking them, if that floats your boat) mystically does something.  Some people believe it removes sin.  Some believe ...

(You'll need your Bible for this one) John 6:22-51     Before reading the passage, establish context.  Verses 1-15 recount the story of The Feeding of the Five Thousand, where Jesus miraculously fed 5,000 men, besides women and children, with nothing but two fish and five loaves of bread.  Verses 16-21 tell the story of Jesus walking on water to meet His disciples.  He had not set sail with them because He had withdrawn into a mountain by Himself because He knew that the people wanted to make him their king.  Jesus stayed in the mountain until evening and then met His disciples and crossed over to the other side of the sea with them.  This is where our story picks up in verse 22.      Read verses 22-27.   This was at the height of Jesus’s popularity.  The people had witness His healing ministry and they had been fed by His miraculous multiplication of the bread and fish, and they wanted to see what else He h...

    A topic that has been on my mind lately is that of experience.  How important is experience?  Many times employers will ignore a candidate with a degree and hire a person with ten years of life experience because, so the thought goes, ten years of doing something is worth way more than three or four years of learning about something.  When it comes to trades and careers, that is usually the case.  My question is, does this cross over into the Christian life?     There are many things I've learned that I feel like I learned from experience.  These are life lessons that I have learned from the many mistakes that I have made.  The question must be then, is that the best or the only way to learn life lessons?  Personally, I think not.     The Bible says that the beginning of wisdom, the very crucial foundation of wisdom, is the fear of the God (Proverbs 1:7).  In other words, acknowledging who God i...