Title: The Church's Call to Display God's Glory
Author: Robert Dawson
Text: Ephesians 3:1-13
One day last week I was working on some material for "Onward." As I was pecking away on my keyboard, I inadvertently hit the wrong letter. I meant to type "onward" but instead I typed "inward." A simple mistake. A small mistake. An understandable mistake. Afterall, "O" live next door to "I" on the keyboard.
Normally, I would have corrected the mistake and moved on without thinking but as I stared at that word, I realized how big a difference this small slip up really was.
Inward and onward are both legitimate words. My autocorrect didn't even flag it with that squiggly red line. Both are directional words, but the implications in their meanings couldn't be greater. While both convey movement, they express different types of movement.
- The word "inward" describes movement toward the inside, whether physically moving toward the center of something or metaphorically focusing on oneself or one's group.
- Onward describes forward movement. It speaks of advancement and progress.
One is a self-focused mindset. The other is a mission driven mindset.
"Inward" vs. "Onward," it is such a small mistake. Small mistakes, unchecked and uncorrected, can cause massive long-term repercussions. It is the kind of mistake churches are prone to make. Not maliciously. Not intentionally.
- It is easy to slip from being onward focused to inward focused.
- It is easy to drift from pursuing God's mission to maintaining the status quo.
- It is so easy to shift from a God-centered focus to self-centered focus.
That was never God's plan for humanity. We were not created to live life turned in on ourselves. We were not redeemed to live life turned in on ourselves.
Martin Luther had a phrase for this, "incurvatus in se." It meant "curved in on oneself." It was how he described sin's effect on humanity. For Luther, sin is not just breaking God's law but m ...
Author: Robert Dawson
Text: Ephesians 3:1-13
One day last week I was working on some material for "Onward." As I was pecking away on my keyboard, I inadvertently hit the wrong letter. I meant to type "onward" but instead I typed "inward." A simple mistake. A small mistake. An understandable mistake. Afterall, "O" live next door to "I" on the keyboard.
Normally, I would have corrected the mistake and moved on without thinking but as I stared at that word, I realized how big a difference this small slip up really was.
Inward and onward are both legitimate words. My autocorrect didn't even flag it with that squiggly red line. Both are directional words, but the implications in their meanings couldn't be greater. While both convey movement, they express different types of movement.
- The word "inward" describes movement toward the inside, whether physically moving toward the center of something or metaphorically focusing on oneself or one's group.
- Onward describes forward movement. It speaks of advancement and progress.
One is a self-focused mindset. The other is a mission driven mindset.
"Inward" vs. "Onward," it is such a small mistake. Small mistakes, unchecked and uncorrected, can cause massive long-term repercussions. It is the kind of mistake churches are prone to make. Not maliciously. Not intentionally.
- It is easy to slip from being onward focused to inward focused.
- It is easy to drift from pursuing God's mission to maintaining the status quo.
- It is so easy to shift from a God-centered focus to self-centered focus.
That was never God's plan for humanity. We were not created to live life turned in on ourselves. We were not redeemed to live life turned in on ourselves.
Martin Luther had a phrase for this, "incurvatus in se." It meant "curved in on oneself." It was how he described sin's effect on humanity. For Luther, sin is not just breaking God's law but m ...
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