The Joshua Victor Theory

Grace, mercy, and peace to you, from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. Some of us are the types who dread an unexpected visit to our homes, where someone drops in unexpectedly, and discovers the mess or the chaos you live in. For some, that’s an embarrassment we’d do everything to avoid. Others just don’t mind whether their home is cleaner or messier, and if anyone sees it. What do we do when Jesus pays an unexpected visit to our hearts? When He opens up all the closets and checks out the garage and our storage areas, and sees what we’ve been keeping in our hearts? What do we think or feel when Jesus lays our hearts bare, with everything to see in His plain sight? Vulnerable? Exposed? Ashamed? Or defensive? Defiant? Or we act as if we simply don’t care? Think of another context—in relationships. Whether it’s a very close friendship, or in your marriage, between you and your spouse. In the best of marriages, a husband and wife can have true transp...

The readings I selected for this Midweek service are Hosea 2:6-23; Ephesians 5:25-27; and Psalm 78:32-42 spoken responsively. In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. Last week we talked about the theme of forgetting and remembering, and the tendency of God’s people to constantly forget both Him and His commands, and how God restores our memory, and how He never forgets. Today, we consider what the cost is, both of what is forgotten, and also what is remembered. We look to the prophet Hosea, who lived through a “Silver Age” of sorts in ancient Israel, during a time of great prosperity, which was quickly sliding into idolatry, wickedness, and decline. God’s people had become full and satisfied, and began to forget who was the source of all their blessings. They became complacent and forgot God, and in the words of Hosea 2, they chased after other lovers, not knowing that their blessings came from God. Hosea saw firsthand the cost of what the people f...

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. In the Gospel reading today, we hear a section of Jesus’ great Sermon on the Mount, where He teaches on the 5 th , 6 th , and 8 th commandments in particular. The commandment on murder, adultery, and lying. Jesus’ teaching will confront us on many angles and leave us all convicted of our sin. He is rooting out our sinful human tendency to try to escape from God’s law by various tricks. Sometimes we try to narrow down God’s command into a category that doesn’t apply to us, so we don’t recognize that we’ve disobeyed. In particular, when we think of the law only outwardly, and not applying to the heart and mind—or when we try to find loopholes that will justify our behavior, saying the law doesn’t apply to our situation, so we can still feel we are righteous. But instead of allowing that, Jesus closes all the loopholes, leaving us condemned by the law. The law finds us out, and there is no escaping it. If the La...