The Joshua Victor Theory

    Children loved by God: grace and peace to you! In a past sermon I talked to you about two different worldviews—a flat, 1D worldview, that revolves around us and what this world has to offer, and a 3D worldview, that revolves around Christ and what His kingdom offers. Faith is like our “3D glasses” to see the spiritual dimension behind things; that there is more to life. A God-centered way to live life, that helps and serves others. It’s the same world, but the believer sees by faith, eyes open to the spiritual struggle between good and evil. Today on All Saints’ Day, we can see something similar at work in 1 John 3:1-3. Believers with their 3D glasses are “children of God.” But unbelievers stuck in 1D aren’t seeing who God or Christ, or even who Christians really are. They may even be antagonistic to Christians. Read 1 John 3 with our 3D faith glasses on: “ See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are .” “See...

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. This past Christmas I was immersed in different versions of the classic story: “ A Christmas Carol”, about Ebenezer Scrooge, his poor clerk Bob Cratchit, and Bob’s son, Tiny Tim. Tiny Tim is crippled, undernourished, and walks with a crutch; but his parents love him dearly. In one scene, after bringing Tiny Tim home from church on Christmas Day, the wife asks Bob how Tiny Tim behaved. “As good as gold” he replies, and then explains how Tiny Tim said the most remarkable thing. Tim hoped that people would see him in church, “because he was a cripple, and it might be pleasant to them to remember upon Christmas Day, who made the lame beggars walk and blind men see.” Tiny Tim hoped he would remind people of Jesus. Today, in church, we remember Christ, who made the lame beggars to walk and blind men see. But there’s another connection to our reading. This touching scene shows Tiny Tim has a...

·          Palm Sunday entry: meets both praise and rejection. Jesus weeps over the grim consequences of their rejection. Passing up a golden opportunity. As if shooting both the messenger and the doctor who holds the cure. ·          God’s heart—Jesus’ bitter anguish—you don’t know what you’re refusing! He sees a great evil coming upon them, that is now irreversible—the destruction of Jerusalem and this temple. And bitterest of all, was they were bringing this upon themselves by rejecting the things that make for peace. Jesus laments: “ Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace ! But now they are hidden from your eyes. 43  For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side 44  and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone...

1. Then the Lord said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? (Exodus 4:11) God made us the way we are for His own purposes—to show His glory; that His works might be seen in us. This man’s blindness was through no fault of his own, or his parents, though the Jews and disciples believed it was. Each are given different gifts or abilities—sometimes also handicaps—but God works through them. Are we “marked” by our circumstances? Find our worth and esteem in Christ, not ourselves or how we compare to others. 2. Sin blindness. Spiritual. Unable to see the truth or the salvation that is in front of us. The Pharisees’ growing spiritual darkness, while a man first sees the light. We don’t want to see, because to see means to recognize our own helplessness, our lost condition—that we need God. 3. John 12:35-43 35 So Jesus said to them, “The light is among you for a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, lest dark...