Posts from March 2023

Last week, we wrote here about the problem of temptation. Today, we want to discuss what is in many ways the root of all temptation: pride. The 18th century Anglican clergyman Thomas Adam declared, “Pride thrust Nebuchadnezzar out of men’s society, Saul out of his kingdom, Adam out of paradise, Haman out of court, and Lucifer out of heaven.” Even if I’m not entirely sure about that last one, it is no wonder that Scripture repeatedly calls pride a sin.…

On the night of his betrayal, Jesus poured his heart out in prayer to God in Gethsemane. Then he returned to his disciples. He said to them, “Watch and pray, that you may not enter into temptation.” (Matt. 26:41). Those words were particularly appropriate that night. Judas had already yielded to temptation, betraying Jesus and destroying his own hopes. Soon, the mob would overwhelm Peter and he would deny that he even knew Jesus. The rest of the disciples would…

We have been writing here for the last few weeks about some of the everyday problems that we all deal with, prompted by the practical focus of James that we are studying together on Sunday mornings. One of the struggles that lies close to his concern with wealth is discontentment. Would you consider yourself to be a content? Are you satisfied with your life? It seems that so many of us never are. There is a little ditty attributed to…

By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion. On the willows there we hung up our lyres. For there our captors required of us songs, and our tormentors, mirth, saying, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!” How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land? – Psalm 137:1-3 There are times when all of us are tempted to become discouraged. “Don’t lose your song” is, in a sense, something…

In looking at some of our everyday problems—inspired by our sermon series in James—last week, we considered anger; today, let’s think about the related problem of forgiveness. How do we move from one to the other? As we begin, I think it is worth nothing what forgiveness is not. It isn’t merely ignoring those who wrong us. That’s fine if it’s because the offender is ignorant of what they did, but not if it is because we hold them in…