The Joshua Victor Theory

  Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. Ever since the dawn of mankind, people have tried to push aside God’s rule in favor of our own rule. God’s rule in the Garden of Eden was perfect, harmonious, blessed and peaceful. But Adam and Eve rejected God’s rule in favor of self-rule or autonomy. The logic of sin is: “Better to make our own rules and ignore God’s command.” But the new rule that they ushered into the world was not friendly. Sin and death entered the world and became Adam and Eve’s new slave masters. The question of “Who will rule us?” echoes down through the Old Testament. When the Israelites were ruled by literal slave masters of Egypt, God rescued them. B ut they couldn’t bear the responsibility of freedom and grumbled to have their old easy life of slavery back—craving easy food more than freedom. When they were finally a free nation, they were ruled by Moses, Joshua, the Judges, and prophets like Samuel...

Grace, mercy, and peace to you, from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Today’s message is from Deuteronomy 10. You might be forgiven for wondering what Deuteronomy has to do with our lives today. It is Moses’s sermons to the Israelites, around 1406 BC. That’s over 3,400 years ago, if you’re keeping track. Moses was teaching the Israelites a final time before they entered the promised land, after 40 years of wandering in the desert, because of their unfaithfulness. A new generation of Israelites, were trying to learn from the mistakes of their parent’s generation, and recommit themselves to faithfulness to God. So how does that tie in with us? First a few more facts about Deuteronomy’s importance. In all the Old Testament, it talks the most about passing on the faith to the next generation. A duty for every generation. Also, it strongly promotes the truth that God had specially chosen Israel, of all other nations—as God’s elect people. They weren’t el...

No sermon manuscript this week--just notes and you can go to the podbean link for the audio file of my sermon. A sermon about Psalm 119, and how is a Christian able to have a positive view of God's law? What resolves the tension in us about how we relate to God's Law? Sermon Talking Points Read sermons at:    http://thejoshuavictortheory.blogspot.com Listen at:   http://thejoshuavictortheory.podbean.com Psalm 119 is the longest chapter in the Bible, and is an “acrostic poem.” It’s divided into 22 stanza, of 8 lines/verses each, and there is one stanza for each of the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet (176 verses total). There are 8 key words used in the Psalm that are synonyms for the Law of God. These 8 words show up 177 times in the 176 verses, so that the Psalm “overflows” with words about God’s instruction. Read the section from our Introit, or any other section of Psalm 119. What does the author think of God’s Law? ...

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. Walking isn’t normally a dangerous activity. Walking through your neighborhood or local park or along the beach is healthy exercise. Of course you can add all sorts of dangers into the mix, to make walking a more dangerous activity—walk in the dark; in a dangerous neighborhood; on a treacherous, slippery, or poorly marked trail; or having bad men lying in wait. However, even with potential dangers, many still will take such a walk, and some may even do so unharmed. So even with all dangers taken into account, walking is not normally considered a deadly activity. However, our Bible reading from Ephesians 2 begins by talking about a walk that we’ve all been on—a walk that many people are still walking—that is not only deadly, but everyone who walks it is already dead. “ You were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of...