(R) Adam Davidson

Jesus doesn’t put up with sibling rivalry between sisters and brothers in the family of God. The New Testament is full of examples of Christians getting after each other, back biting, and being all around jerks… and yet the call to unity, reconciliation, devotion to and honoring of someone else… these are key themes in the gospel. And — get this — it’s the first thing Paul says after telling us to overcome evil.

Sibling rivalry is evil. It’s of the enemy. It’s not the good.

Cling to what is good: love one another.

Feeling overcome by evil? We all do from time to time. It’s out there. Paul says “overcome evil with good.” Ok – how? We begin by getting our minds wrapped around what evil is. It’s not a negative power equal to the positive power of God. Rather, evil is the absence of good — it’s the pushing away of the life and goodness of God. We have the capacity to create little pockets of evil in every moment. So… don’t.
Join me this week as we talk about overcoming evil with good.

Paul says “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” Before landing there, he gives a long list of the basic things a Christ follower should do.

Evil is rampant and overwhelming. Are we just supposed to hide?

No.

We fight. But not the way that evil fights — we overcome evil with good.

If you’re the kind of person who looks at the bible and says “just tell me what to do”, this is your series.

See you Monday!

Are you convinced it’s dark outside at noon… because your curtains are closed? Are you sure you’re supposed to be driving on the right side of the road… in London? How does our perspective of God morph our understanding of God?
We go against the flow of the world or we go against the flow of God. It’s one or the other.

1) Jesus was delivered into human hands to be crucified — because God is still God, even in a bloody crucifixion.
2) Jesus ensures them he will die, but on the third day be raised again — the core essence of the Good news.
3) The disciples are grieved by the Good news — and stayed in their grief for a time.
Interesting… do we ever miss the good because of our short-sightedness?

Jesus guarantees
1) trouble
2) peace
And.. specifically… a peace that is greater than the trouble. Take a quick listen and be encouraged today.

Boundaries and grace with people.
Belief in the miraculous.
What does it take? Faith. What do we need more of? Faith.

A family found 1,000,000 pennies in the crawlspace of a recently deceased relative. Worth $10,000 at face value, they plan to sell the copper for $20K, partly because they assume there’s a coin of rare value in the pile AND the banks won’t take them because there’s no room in the vault (except for Scrooge McDuck’s).
We have such a strange connection to money in our minds. This story centers us again, saying it’s not about the money but about the condition of our hearts. Consider these words of Jesus. Does he have a little bit or all of your life?

A tanker truck caught fire on I-95 and caused a bridge to collapse, rerouting Philadelphians on a 43 mile detour that will take months to fix.
We’re all just a few steps away from a major life-changing detour. But what if we’re detoured by God? Here’s what to do:

We talk about this fairly often on RC. There are temporary highs, which we all know about, and durable joy, which often evades us because we’re not looking in the right place.
Are you living on temporary taco bell or durable joy?