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. Lately I’ve been listening to the podcast “Word without Walls” by one of my New Testament professors, Dr. Michael Eschelbach. He describes two conflicting worldviews: worldly thinking vs. Biblical Christianity. He calls the worldly way of thinking a “one dimensional” world or “Red Pyramid” world, because it’s ruthlessly competitive and gets bloody as everyone tries to climb up the pyramid by stepping on others. It only sees our 1D material life and what we can get out of it. It’s blind to any spiritual dimensions of life. Just this flat material world where we compete for scarce resources and opportunity, and sin and selfishness rule. We all recognize this “1D” way of living. It’s promoted everywhere. The Biblical worldview, he calls the “Green V” or 3D world. A life that is supported and sustained by God, and pours out from God’s bottomless resources of goodness, blessing, and love,...

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...

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. Last week we heard how Jesus healed a man who was deaf and mute. But there was no hint that his condition was anything but physical problems with his ears and tongue. Today, Jesus commands a “deaf and mute spirit” to leave a young boy, who is being tormented and abused by this demon. Both the boy’s desperate father and Jesus also, clearly recognize the demon is causing the boy’s physical afflictions. Comparing the two readings seems to show that some physical illnesses have simple physical causes in the body, while at other times, a spiritual cause can produce physical symptoms. The skeptic in us might already say the young boy was just an epileptic. We’re not to assume that everyone who has epilepsy or seizures is demon-possessed, are we? That would certainly go beyond what the passage is saying. But on the other hand, are we ready today, to acknowledge that some afflictions may h...

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. Today we come to the 3 rd and last part of Jesus’ Bread of Life sermon, that began with a challenge from Jesus to stop working for the bread that perishes—i.e. our everyday food, but to seek the food that endures to eternal life. He is that Bread of Life, He says, and eating Him do not leave us hungry and thirsty, but we find full satisfaction and eternal life in Him. Last week He pushed the point further, to unsettle or disturb the crowds who did not grasp His meaning. He drives them to see that He is the Bread of Life come down from heaven. He is from God. The bread that He gives for the life of the world is His flesh. We, on the other hand, find these words deeply marvelous, that God has come down from heaven in Jesus to feed us, to save us, and give us eternal life. Jesus was clearly driving the crowds to crave more than just physical bread, that would leave them empty the n...