My good buddy, Josh Honeycutt, has another great post here about the ending to the two books of Kings. You will like it.
Here is an excerpt:
“I don’t believe in randomness in the weaving together of the grand biblical narrative so when something seems out of place that to me is a tell-tell sign that it is important and should be emphasized.”
As of Sunday evening, late, the whole world knew that the U.S. was announcing that Osama Bin Laden had been killed.
Just about as quickly as that news came, it appeared to me that most people were ready to announce via facebook, twitter, text, etc. their own opinions and comments about this historical moment. As I trust that you have already seen, some people celebrated, some were saddened, some doubt that it is true, some see it as a political move, some see it as a work of God, some it as saddening to God, some see it as good for the whole world, and so on and so on. There has been so much talk about Bin Laden’s death.
But as I have been following this huge news release, I found myself thinking about James 1:19 “be quick to hear, slow to speak”. Before we immediately get to commenting on it, Lets listen for a while to those who know and understand more about the whole situation.
This is a huge deal for America. This is a huge deal for Al Qaeda. And I think it is a pretty big deal for everyone in between. And I realize that some people need to be speaking about it or else I/we would not have a way of being informed about it. But for many of us, I think the best option would be to take it all in, think well about it, pray about it, and then try to draw some good understanding and conclusions about it.
Perhaps there has never been a greater and more clearer statement about the Gospel/Christian ministry than what Paul writes to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 4:5:
“For what we proclaim is not ourselves”
Now that is absolutely a loaded statement. Think about that for a while.
Again, there may have never been a better statement ever about the Gospel ministry.
This past Sunday I preached on Luke 5:1-11. You can listen to the sermon here.
As we are walking through the Gospel of Luke, Sunday after Sunday, we are really beginning to see what Luke meant in 1:1-4 when he tells Theophilus that he is writing this to him as “an orderly account” of the life and ministry of Jesus.
So in chapter 5 when we read (Luke writing to Theophilus) that Jesus is calling his first disciples, there is such a nice context. And there is such great detail to help us understand what discipleship looks like and where discipleship comes from.
Here are my 6 observations from Sunday’s sermon from Luke 5:1-11:
Followers of Jesus are not following Jesus blindly. Not at all. Followers of Jesus (disciples) are following Jesus because they have come to know him and understand him as the most awesome and satisfying there is. They see His worth, and so they follow Him.
