The Joshua Victor Theory

    Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen. Last week in Psalm 28 we prayed with King David and felt the emotional tug of war waiting for God’s answer to prayers. Today Mark 9 is a lesson on mature discipleship, faith and prayer. A nameless father has a boy who is suffering terribly with epileptic seizures caused by a demon. The father’s faith is faltering; this has happened since childhood. The disciples’ faith appears absent, as Jesus rebukes them and the rest as a “faithless generation,” when they fail to heal him by failing to pray. Jesus seems harsh, as in several places in Mark. But the nameless father persists and his prayer is answered! Jesus lifts the nameless father and us, from faltering to faith. How do we get from faltering to faith? God will always strengthen faith when we ask for it. When it came to the power of prayer, Jesus shows the disciples failed to even use it! Before the disciples had success in casting out...

  In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. Lent always opens with Jesus’ wilderness temptation. 40 days of testing, and 40 days of Lent. Temptation, sin, and repentance are major Lent themes. Two sides are always at work in the struggle. Temptation vs. testing, Satan vs. God, our sinful will vs. God’s good will. The two sides of the struggle spring up from two different planted seeds. Planted seeds? What do you mean? In the parable of the Weeds and the Wheat, Jesus says the devil sows weed seed in God’s fields after God first plants good seed. The world is filled with bad seed mixed among the good, these two seeds that are planted with two outcomes, two sides in the struggle. James also looks at human sin and temptation as a weed seed that we plant in ourselves by an evil desire. An evil desire is a seed planted, that conceives and gives birth to sin, then matures into adulthood and brings forth death. That’s weed seed and its outcome. On the other h...

Grace, mercy, and shalom to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.  Last week we heard how Jesus re-entered the lives of His disciples in their fear and uncertainty, by bringing His peace or shalom to them by His presence. Today, we walk the Emmaus Road with two disciples, outside the inner group of 11, but clearly recognized and welcomed by the 11 whom they ran to after this encounter.  Jesus finds the Emmaus disciples, Cleopas and an anonymous disciple on a sorrowful journey home. Disillusionment and confusion filled the air as they talked about the events of that weekend. Heaviness filled their hearts. Have you been on a journey like that? Maybe recently? With that choking feeling in your throat or a heaviness in your heart? You know that familiar place down Emmaus Road. And it’s so perfect that God hid Jesus’ identity from them, while He walked along with them. Jesus listened and talked to them unnoticed, before the “big reveal” in t...

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. Discipleship is the word we use to describe following Jesus and all that means for our life. To be a disciple is to be a follower of Jesus. Our reading from 1 Peter 2:21 begins: “For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.” We follow in the example of Christ’s suffering for us? A good Lutheran question to ask is, “What does this mean?” First of all, clearly only Christ can redeem us from our sins by His suffering. Following Christ’s example does not include redeeming ourselves by suffering for our own sins. Jesus has already finished that for us! That chapter of salvation is already completed, the ink is dried, and it’s done! A chapter earlier, Peter tells how Christ ransomed us from our old sinful ways by the price of His precious, innocent blood. So following Christ’s example in suffering, is not about paying for...

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. Today in 1 Corinthians, in two pictures, Paul shows us how to finish the Christian life with Christ—first, a runner competing to win a race, and second, the journey of Israel through the wilderness after their exodus from Egypt. Both picture the dangers and challenges of not finishing that race or journey—but they also point us to the imperishable crown of eternal life that we find only in Christ Jesus, our Spiritual Rock. Each picture has something to teach us about our Christian life, so let’s look at each in turn. First, Paul uses the picture of a runner trying to finish the race. Next month’s Winter Olympics help us remember that it takes dedication and hard work to compete at the highest levels. As he wrote this, Paul might have been remembering the Isthmian Games, which were held in off-years between the ancient Greek Olympics, near Corinth. Ten months of training was required f...

·          Sermon on the Mount: One of Jesus’ most important teachings—goes on for 3 Ch’s, (5-7). 7:15-23 is almost the end. Big structure—sermon has an “entrance” and “exit”. (Dr. Jeff Gibbs). This passage is approaching the exit—people “enter” by way of the Beatitudes—Jesus’ description of the blessed life of discipleship and humility (with persecutions!). Main part of sermon on the Mount is directed to “you” the listener, and the teaching of Jesus about godliness, possessions, and people—and now these closing verses: disciple “exits” to the world aware of challenges and dangers surrounding the narrow path to life. ·          15-23, about false prophets vs. true prophets. How to recognize and guard against: wolves in sheep’s clothing. Deceptive appearance/sheep’s clothing (charming, loving, appealing, etc) fool many people. Pass themselves off as Christians or genuine prophets, but are “ravening wolves”...