Sermon Video: The Way of the Righteous - Psalm 1

The psalm chosen to begin the collection of music brought together as the book of Psalms highlights two stark and divergent paths.  The righteous path delights in God's Law (his Word), studying it and living by it, and is rewarded with a steadfast and fruitful life (prosperity using God's definition).  In contrast, the wicked lack this anchor and nourishment and are ultimately unable to stand in the face of God's judgment.

As Robert Frost wrote, there is a choice of paths, but it isn't a question of which is more or less traveled by, the true question is: which path leads to God?

Sermon Video: God rejects moral equivalence - Malachi 2:17

It has been evident throughout human history that virtue is not fully rewarded and wickedness is not fully punished; in fact, at times wickedness seems to be rewarded and virtue punished.  This state of affairs have led some to conclude that God does not exist and therefore right/wrong are simply arbitrary constructs based upon human consensus and thus open to redefinition.  Others have attempted to fix the problem by claiming that God himself (whether personal or impersonal) is not wholly good, but contains within himself both virtue and wickedness.  While both of these attempted solutions are unacceptable (especially since they're not based in reality), what is the answer to the problem of the existence of evil?
The prophet Malachi rejects the attempt by the people of Israel to embrace moral equivalence, telling them that God is wearied by willingness in their ignorance to blame him for the evil in our world.  God is holy, having no part in anything immoral or evil, that such things exist in our world is our fault, not God's.  In the end, the "success" of the wicked will probe short-lived, the justice of God will prevail, and righteousness will be rewarded.

To watch the video, click on the link below:

Is mankind wicked? Is there any doubt? Jeremiah 17:9

The prophet Jeremiah, a man called of God to warn a people gone astray who did not listen to him, wrote this chilling thought, "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure.  Who can understand it?" (Jeremiah 17:9)  While it would be easy to speak of the wicked/fallen nature of humanity based upon historical events like the many genocides exemplified by the Holocaust, reading my local paper this past week provided, unfortunately, ample evidence.  In just one week, our local paper (which is excellent by the way) reported on two ongoing cases involving the trials of local teachers accused of a sexual relationship with a student, of two men accused of raping children, one of whom was also his own child, and to top it off, a two year old child found naked in the middle of a busy road while his parent was passed out drunk on the couch with a second one year old child being neglected in the crib.  Are you kidding me?  This isn't the big city, our county only has 53,000 people living in it, and yet these five incidents represent evil that was both reported and prosecuted, in other words, there is more than this going on, these are just the people who were caught.
The old saying, "ignorance is bliss" isn't true.  Would I rather not know about child rape and endangerment going on in my community, of course, but only if it wasn't happening.  How can we combat evil if we don't recognize it?  Still trying to cling to the notion that people are essentially "good" and in no need of help from God?  Good luck with that, me, I'll continue to trust in the saving power of Jesus Christ to rescue us from our woeful state transforming those who trust in him through the power of the Holy Spirit, and I'll continue to share that message of hope to a world sorely in need of it.