The Joshua Victor Theory

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen. 1 Peter 2 beautifully pictures our growth and sanctification in the Christian faith, and teaches what the Christian church is. We aren’t lone individuals, but members of the spiritual house of Christ.  Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation--if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.  Peter calls us back to the basics.  Infants crave pure milk because it is their life, their growth, and even the sharing of their mother’s immunity. The pure milk we crave is God’s Word. As a new Christian learns the words of faith, they start to explore what it means to trust in Jesus and follow Him. But even mature Christians still depend completely on God for salvation. Jesus used infancy as a picture of our complete dependency on God.  Jesus’ disciples frequently became competitive in an unhealthy way, glory-seeking, exalting ...

“ For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope” (Romans 15:4). Today the prophet Isaiah gives us a beautiful and encouraging Scripture, written to give us hope. Isaiah lived 7 centuries before Christ, but probably more than any other single prophet, he described Jesus in beautiful detail, showing marvelously God’s inspiration of His Word. Today Isaiah teaches us about God’s powerful and effective Word. I’ve always been amazed and fascinated by the landscape of Maui and the Hawaiian islands in general. In parts of Maui or the Big Island, you can see “fresh lava flows” from as recent as a few days to a few hundred years old. Sharp, hard, black, inhospitable lava can cover the landscape for miles around, like we see near La Perouse Bay on Maui. But amazingly, under the right conditions, you can see green plant life and even whole forests burst out onto those rocky la...

Grace, mercy, and peace to you, from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Today in our reading from Ephesians 3, a tender scene unfolds between the Apostle Paul, and the church in Ephesus, to whom he is writing. In the book of Acts, we learn that this congregation was especially dear to Paul’s heart, as he spent three years there, the longest we know of any of the mission churches he served. And the tenderness of the scene is that Paul appeals that they not lose heart or be discouraged because of his suffering, and he is bowing his knees in prayer to God the Father, praying for their strength. He is already confident of their sincere faith, but now is boldly praying for growth in their spiritual maturity, knowledge, and resilience to suffering and tests. I could say the same, that I’m confident of your sincere faith, and also pray, as do all pastors, for your spiritual growth. Paul’s suffering was that he was writing this letter from prison. As often in...