Godly Insights for the 21st Century Life

 This Sunday, my church had its first service in the sanctuary in over a year. There are quite a few restrictions we need to follow, such as wearing masks the entire service, using only every other pew, not singing, and not passing out bulletins or the offering plate. Admittedly, I'm not thrilled with the restrictions, especially since the people at my temporary church home have been unmasked and singing with abandon for months. However, it was worth it to me to be around my church family even if it meant dealing with a little inconvenience. While the restrictions are a bit frustrating, there was a certain beauty to be found in them as well. Without having the bulletin, I was less focused on what came next and more on what was currently happening. I also feel like the absence of them made for a more intimate service, despite the distance between congregants. Not singing allowed me to really listen to the words of the songs. (Admittedly, I did mouth along with the words for one song...

"and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor." ~ Luke 6:16 "[Judas] said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it." ~ John 12:6 "Throwing down the pieces of silver in the temple, he departed, and he went and hanged himself." ~ Matthew 27:5 These three verses are a summary of the life of one of Jesus' twelve apostles: he was a traitor and a thief who killed himself. Yet I think there has to be more to the story than these verses convey. Jesus chose Judas for the honor of being one of the twelve apostles, and Jesus would not have chosen him if He didn't have a good reason. We know from Acts 1:21-26 that there were other disciples that could have been promoted because, by the end of this passage, Matthias was. Jesus had to have a good reason why Judas was in the top twelve and Matthias wasn't. Unfortunately, that reason is something we will never know because...