Tag Archives: Time

Satur-deja Vu

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December 25th is not really Jesus’s birthday. This is not breaking news. Let’s stop pontificating on when sheep are kept in fields, whether or not it snows in Israel (it does) and making arguments for when his actual birthday is. Christmas has been celebrated on December 25th since A.D. 336, during the reign of Emperor Constantine. He made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire. Setting that date may have been an effort to weaken established pagan traditions, rather than following them. Hanging wreaths, decorating trees and lighting candles (and by extension strings of lights) have pagan origins. Celebrating the birth of Christ – the incarnation – is uniquely Christian. It’s not about a baby in a manger; it’s about the fulfilment of Old Testament prophecy. It’s about John the Baptist leaping in his mother’s womb and Mary and Elizabeth being filled the Holy Spirit. It’s about the angel appearing to Joseph and Mary and the faith it took for them to travel to Bethlehem. It’s about angels bringing good tidings of great joy and wise men traveling from afar to worship him. It’s about the deity of God being robed in flesh and walking among us. It’s about the point of contact between heaven and earth. It’s about the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, the first page of a story that ends at the cross… which for us is only the beginning. So don’t worry about the day. At this point the Julian calendar is off by 13 days and observant Jews probably ignored it anyway.

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Satur-deja Vu

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I saw a meme of John Piper in the pulpit, his hands are all over the place, and the caption said “God created coffee for the glory of Christ.” If you are familiar with Piper it kinda’ sounds like something he would say and since it’s about coffee you will probably see the meme first thing Monday morning. I thought I’d do about 10 seconds of research and see if maybe he really said it. The tweet above is real and he linked to this article not written by Piper himself but appearing on his Desiring God website.

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Time and Sin

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The post Time and Eternity was my attempt at concisely putting together some ideas that kind of spiraled out of control when I preached them from the pulpit. I wanted to outline the main points, support with scripture, and come as immediately as I could to a conclusion. I am pleased with the way it turned out, except for later realizing I had left out what could be an important consideration.

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Time and Eternity

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God created time. Whether you believe in a literal seven day creation week or take a more symbolic view of those “days” I would direct your attention to Genesis 1.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. 3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day. -Gen. 1:1-5

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Let’s Talk About Eternity

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The Heritage Singers once said “Forever is a long, long time.” That’s the way many of us probably think about eternity; a very, very long time. A verse of Amazing Grace starts out “When we’ve been there 10,000 years…” The truth is that eternity takes place outside of time. It’s not made up all time but is rather the exact opposite of time.

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The Reason for Seasons

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Screenshot 2019-08-12 at 8.13.32 PMSo if you’ve been paying attention to the Satur-deja Vu you may have noticed I ranted about fall two weeks in a row. I honestly did not realize I had addressed that topic the week before. It’s not the season of the year I was ranting about so much as everyone excited about it while we’ve got some summer weeks left to go yet. I don’t want to rehash all that a third time but rather consider this topic: Why do we have seasons?  Continue reading →

How Long Will Heaven Last?

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Screenshot 2018-11-16 at 10.10.38 AMI was thinking this morning about life being short. Find a person you think of as old – I’m not going to judge how many years that is – but ask a person older than you by some number of years if they would agree life is short. Even if they have lived 80 or 90 years I’m willing to wager they would at least agree it goes by quickly. I was thinking about the oldest member of our congregation; compared to eternity that person has lived but a moment. Consider though: how long will we live in Heaven? What is the time frame of eternity? Continue reading →

Best Dressed Man of the Year

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Francis First, Pope Francis was selected as Time’s Man of the Year. That was a very classy choice. Now he has been honored with a title that I imagine he is less thrilled about: Esquire Magazine’s Best Dressed Man of the Year. This pope is known for his acts of humility, such as packing his own luggage and moving into a small papal apartment. But it may be that sense of modest style that earned him the recognition. Check out this headline from the Daily Mail:

Screenshot 2013-12-30 at 6.50.26 AMHe was selected ahead of Joseph Gordon Levitt and other Hollywood types for his “unadorned style” and “humble clothes.” I think Martin Luther would approve.