365 Reflections

1 Corinthians 5:6–7 (ESV) Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? 7 Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Paul is going to take a serious problem head on in 1 Corinthians 5. A man is sleeping with his father's wife. A sin so grievous, even the pagans are ashamed. This, in a culture were prostitution was more than legal and sexual immorality was common and accepted by all. To top it off, the Corinthians were proud about themselves while this was going on! Paul's question in verse 2 is probing, "Ought you not rather to mourn?" Why should they be mourning while only one man is committing this sin? Because "a little leaven leavens the whole lump." In the Old Testament, when Passover came around, they had to completely clean their entire homes of all traces of leaven. It could not be found. The bread f...

Matthew 13:28–29 (ESV) He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ 29 But he said, ‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. We live in a world gone bad.  And we want justice. Usually we want God to do something with the injustice we see, right now... in others. Be careful.  If God instantly took care of all the wickedness in the world it would include the wickedness in you and me... and I fear for many of us what would be left?  Would we be at all?  And if not, is God subject then to our whims and fancy as to when He should step in to stop evil and when He should back off?  Like maybe you are one of the disillusioned people who actually believes they've got nothing but good left in them.  Chances are you're related to someone who could really use a lot of wickedness-removal.  So let us adopt your delusion an...