First Presbyterian Church of Baton Rouge

Does Moralistic Therapeutic Deism work? Is it true? When we get trapped in making up a god who exists mainly to assist us in living our dreams and being nice to people, we can reach a point of desperation. Like we want to blow up our routines. Shatter the shiny, shallow surface of the good lives we lead. We want to set it all on our fire and we don’t even know why. When we enter a relationship with the God who has spoken to us through his Son, though, he sets our lives on fire. His fire, however, doesn’t destroy us. Rather, he burns up our fantasies of self-determination. He incinerates the idols of ourselves. And then places the flame of his love inside our hearts. He lights us with a purpose bigger than ourselves. He shines through us.

Does Moralistic Therapeutic Deism work? Is it true? When we get trapped in making up a god who exists mainly to assist us in living our dreams and being nice to people, we can reach a point of desperation. Like we want to blow up our routines. Shatter the shiny, shallow surface of the good lives we lead. We want to set it all on our fire and we don’t even know why. When we enter a relationship with the God who has spoken to us through his Son, though, he sets our lives on fire. His fire, however, doesn’t destroy us. Rather, he burns up our fantasies of self-determination. He incinerates the idols of ourselves. And then places the flame of his love inside our hearts. He lights us with a purpose bigger than ourselves. He shines through us.

The Lord can turn ugliness into beauty. Death into life. This is the kind of God we worship today. A God who has taken our sin and has given back something beautiful—his grace.

The Lord can turn ugliness into beauty. Death into life. This is the kind of God we worship today. A God who has taken our sin and has given back something beautiful—his grace.