First Presbyterian Church of Baton Rouge

We know there can be no split between faith and works. Works without faith are cut off from the source and fail to enter the grand vision of God’s purpose for the world. Faith without expression in love is a narcissistic piety that would scare anybody with a brain away from the church. We serve a God of magnificent love, a Creator who passionately tends his creation. We serve a Christ of infinite forgiveness and tender mercy. There can be no split between church life and work life. Jesus Christ is Lord of all.

• Mordecai was in the right place at the right time . . . this wasn’t a coincidence; it was divine providence that Mordecai discovered the assassination plot against the king. And it was divine providence that he included Esther in revealing this plan to the king.
• When the king discovered they saved him, he made a record of it in his chronicles. That’s it? Wouldn’t we expect something more? The world isn’t always going to reward us or repay us for our faith in the Lord or our good deeds.
• Why did the king’s servants (Mordecai’s “comrades”) eventually turn Mordecai into the king? Ultimately, because they weren’t Jewish! They weren’t allegiant to the same thing. What united them (their work!) was weak, which highlights how the Jews in Persia (even though dispersed) were united in a much stronger way than they probably realized.
• We see the king here, once again, acting impulsively (this wasn’t a smart decree, the Jews weren’t even a threat to him or the Persian kingdom), and the people responded with confusion. He was out of touch with the people he led, easily manipulated and weak. In contrast, we cannot be weak on the gospel. We cannot be flimsy thinkers, but instead stand firmly and boldly in our faith.
• Mordecai’s identity as a Jew was revealed, and it was this detail that ultimately resulted in a decree to “destroy, kill, and annihilate” all of the Jews in Persia. This decree “just happened” to go out at the time of Passover. So in God’s providence, while the Jews were learning that they had 11 months to live, at the same time, they were remembering how God had delivered them and protected them and saved them at another time in history when they were to be destroyed.
• Sin may complicate our lives and cause unnecessary or unexpected turns, but it can’t thwart God’s plans! 2 Timothy 2:13.

If you want the comfort of knowing the future, you’re going to have to lay down your arms. You’re going to have to lay down your demands that the future serve you. God calls us every moment to repent. To get over ourselves. To surrender to his mission in trust that his future will occur. That change alone leads to refreshment. To breathing the air of heaven amidst the noxious fumes of the world. That turning alone leads to knowing ourselves blessed, kept, and held no matter where history takes us in the short term. A sudden, joyous turn is coming when the Father sends Jesus again. To get in on that joy requires the dramatic, continuous turn of our hearts. That future begins now.

Purpose, deep, fulfilling purpose comes from worshiping, serving and loving the King through offering myself to him anew every day. To do whatever I do for him.

What is Critical Race Theory?
Problems with Critical Race Theory
Excursus on Robin DiAngelo
Conclusions and book recommendations

What is justice?

What is Biblical justice?

What is social justice?

Does social justice=Biblical justice?

A Christian approach to social justice

Critical Theory:
Why should we care?
What is Critical Theory?
What are the problems with Critical Theory?
Logical implications
Conclusions and book recommendations

Death appears to be utter aloneness and darkness. There is no more contact. No more connection. It is the end. Such isolation is hellish. That is the fate of all human beings doomed to die and it fills even our best thinkers with terror. BUT WAIT! The Son of God took up our flesh and blood in order that he himself could die like we do. He has been to the dark regions and filled them with his light. He has endured the utter isolation so that we need never experience it. The life of God has entered the realm of death and nothing has been the same. Love penetrated hell and set it ablaze with light.