The Christians in Corinth struggled with their two identities: their culture allowed them to pursue freedoms that their faith simply didn’t allow. Paul wrote to help understand whose they were in order to shape their sexual attitudes and behaviors. Yes, they could be Christians in a Corinthian culture, but they could not pursue Corinthian sexual practices as Christians.

Christians should be different. The way we handle conflict should be different. Our relationship to things should be different. The way we handle sexuality should be different. When one of us is not different, it reflects badly on the entire church. Choosing to be different is what we do. Becoming different is what God does in us.

Paul confronted a church that existed in a culture as sex-saturated as our own. His complaint wasn’t with the culture, though; it was with the Christians. That one of their members openly defied God’s sexual ethic was bad enough. That the church had no problem with him doing so was far worse! Paul understood Jesus didn’t die to free us to sin but to free us from sin. He told the Corinthians their sexual behavior impacted the whole church. It still does.

God created. All that God created is good. At the pinnacle of his creativity is humanity. The rest of creation was spoken into being, but God fashioned man in his own image and said, “It is not good for man to be alone.” From the man God fashioned a woman, intending for the two to live together in community. Just like Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God created man and woman to become one flesh reflecting his image. And when he had done so God said, “it is good.”

We all need people in our lives who will call us out when we mess up. They hold us accountable for doing the right thing and, perhaps more importantly, they can help us avoid doing the wrong thing. But only if we heed their advice. Abigail was a wise and beautiful woman who was married to a surly, churlish oaf. He never saw her for the treasure she was and it cost him his life. On the other hand, David listened to Abigail. In doing so he not only saved his reputation and helped solidify his future reign, but he also gained a wife.

Judges 4 is a story of “sin, supplication and salvation.” The Israelites repeat a cycle of sin, oppression and deliverance as God sends judges to lead them to freedom from the consequences of their disobedience. In this instance, God uses two fierce women to free his people from oppression and demonstrate that he sometimes chooses leaders we wouldn’t expect to lead his people.

Jochebed’s name is nearly lost to history. Were it not for Moses’ genealogy in Exodus 6 we never would have known it. Her actions are monumental. She defied the King’s decree to save her son’s life. She obeyed Pharaoh’s law – technically – yet remained faithful to God. Warren Wiersbe wrote, “When the Lord wants to accomplish a mighty work, He often starts by sending a baby.” In this instance, He sent a mother.

Mark’s Gospel is the one with the crazy ending: the first to witness Jesus’ resurrection couldn’t testify in legal proceedings because they were considered unreliable. The same three women slink away from the empty tomb too fearful to tell others what they saw. And then Mark just ends the story. As abruptly as his gospel began, it ends. The funny thing is: while Mark’s gospel has a crazy ending, the resurrection is neither crazy, nor the end. It’s just the beginning.

The old ways of connecting with God are done. No longer just the God of the sons of Moses, Yahweh demonstrates through the Son of David – Jesus – that He is a God for all people. Jesus' final trip into the holy city is punctuated by helping a blind man see, and by helping his followers understand God’s vision for overcoming sin and death.

Jesus upends our understanding of service. Instead of focusing on self-service, Jesus reveals God’s paradigm-shifting alternative: “Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be the slave of everyone else (Mark 10:43-44)”. A radically counter-cultural perspective, this kind of service can only be accomplished by relying on the One who commanded it.