The Joshua Victor Theory

  Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. Today we’re in Mark 7, where last week we heard about the Pharisees trying to go “above and beyond” God’s Law, in a way that hurt instead of helped. Jesus showed them that God’s heart is not found in the regulations. God’s heart is found in the Gospel, the Good News that Jesus Himself went “above and beyond” the Law by doing all it required and far more, by dying on the cross for our sins. God’s heart comes to us in the Gospel. Jesus concludes the conversation today about clean and unclean. In this whole discussion, what is the matter? In effect, Jesus answers: “The Heart is the Matter.” Let’s open our hearts to God’s Word. Jesus gives a heavy diagnosis about our heart. But if you read carefully, Mark 7:1-23, last week and this week, Jesus never prescribes the solution. He only diagnoses what cannot make us clean, and what makes us unclean. He never says how we become clean or ge...

  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. Our OT reading from Exodus 20 is the giving of the 10 Commandments on Mt. Sinai. I’ve substituted Hebrews 12 for the regular Epistle reading of the day. Hebrews contrasts two mountains. Mt. Sinai on the terrifying day when Israel came to the mountain to hear God directly speak the commandments out loud to them. And secondly, Mt. Zion, where we the gathered worshippers have come to this second mountain, and to Jesus Christ. Consider God’s work for us and our salvation at each mountain. First, Mt. Sinai. God delivered volumes of teaching, instruction, and laws to Moses and the Israelites on Mt. Sinai. Most of the 5 books of Moses. Sinai was the place of His revelation, God speaking to His people. But of all that God revealed to them, only the 10 Commandments God spoke directly to Israel without a mediator (Deut. 5; Ex. 20). Everything else came by Moses. But at the scene in Exodus and Hebrews 12 they heard t...

  “This one will write upon his hand–‘Belonging to Yahweh.’” Isaiah 44:5. Rob Poulos is a walking piece of literature. He has tattooed on his left wrist, “ B-A-C-K – period.”   Like it was lifted from the end of sentence. It was.   A few years ago Poulos joined a worldwide effort to help author Shelley Jackson tell her story on people’s bodies. Appropriately titled Skin , the “book” has 2,095 words. Each person bears on their body just one word. “It’s not that everything I do has to be tricked out with gimmicks and games,” she said. “I’m just interested in exploring the range of what a text can do.” Poulos heard about it in a literature class at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. He said, “I always told myself that if I got a tattoo, it had better be important.” At last count, Shelley Jackson was still looking for 400 people to bear her final 400 words. Just think, we could contact her after church, offer our human hides, and be part of an alternative publi...

  In the Name of the Father who is “well pleased” with His Son Jesus, and the Holy Spirit who rested upon Jesus in His baptism. Amen. Questions of identity are inevitable in life. Knowing our identity steers and guides our life for better or worse. Without a clear identity we stumble and stagger without direction and get lost. If our identity is intertwined with our sin, then it will steer us down the wrong path. We can surrender our God-given identity to a self-created identity which we choose to define by our sins. On the other hand, with a clear identity of who we are in Christ Jesus, we walk with direction and purpose, with joy and peace. It’s not enough to simply define identity on paper or in words…but we need to live out our identity in Christ Jesus. If we know who we are in Christ Jesus, He will keep us on the narrow path that leads to eternal life. Today, our readings point us to questions of identity—who are we? How can we live in that identity? Knowing who we are in ...

              Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. Our verses today from Paul’s prison letter to the Philippians echo Moses’ farewell speech to the children of Israel. Both Moses and Paul were at the end of their life and ministry. Moses had spoken God’s law one last time to Israel. Then he warns that if they forsake God’s commandments and turn back to other gods, they would no longer be God’s children because they’re blemished—a crooked and twisted generation. Paul echoes these words in his letter to his beloved Philippians: “ Do all things without grumbling or questioning, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain .” ...

  Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. Just last week we heard in Romans 11:33, “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!” Since God’s wisdom and ways go far beyond our knowing or understanding, there are many things in life that just don’t make sense to us. We often grapple to understand His plan in our lives. The disciples likewise grappled with God’s mysterious plan surrounding Jesus’ death on the cross. It was a turning point in human and salvation history. Jesus tried to prepare them. In Matthew 16:21, Jesus brings it up for the first time. The Gospels record three distinct times when He openly told them about His coming death and resurrection. Listen again: “ From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on t...

·          What we see in creation: beauty or suffering? The positive: the case for design/creation; beauty, engineering, puzzle. The negative: the thorns, the parasites, diseases, COVID, natural disasters, death? Led many evolutionists to doubt and reject God. ·          Rom 8—creation groaning—subjected to futility. Futile: ineffective; failure; lack of purpose or success. God subjected the world to this b/c of sin—Adam’s first sin opened the world to futility and subjugation. Sin is an ongoing, thorough devastation of the whole creation, not just humans: entire physical universe. The Christian understands this from God’s Word, that sin has infected everything, and that the world is not as it was or should be, but that what we see now is the corrupted world. But others may look at the defects, diseases, and death in the world and think God didn’t know what He was doing, or that He wasn’t a good designer....