Unmet Expectations

 April 30, 2023

The story begins unexpectedly, giving honor to an enemy of Israel:

“Now Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Syria, was a great and honorable man in the eyes of his master, because by him the Lord had given victory to Syria. He was also a mighty man of valor, but a leper.” —II Kings 5:1 

The story continues:

“And the Syrians had gone out on raids, and had brought back captive a young girl from the land of Israel. She waited on Naaman’s wife. Then she said to her mistress, “If only my master were with the prophet who is in Samaria! For he would heal him of his leprosy.” —2 Kings 5:2-3 

Naaman traveled to Israel and to the prophet the little girl had mentioned. That prophet, Elisha, didn’t even meet with Naaman, but sent his servant to tell him to go wash seven times in the Jordan river. Naaman was not impressed with such cavalier treatment.

“But Naaman became furious, and went away and said, “Indeed, I said to myself, ‘He will surely come out to me, and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, and wave his hand over the place, and heal the leprosy.’ Are not the Abanah and the Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?” So he turned and went away in a rage.” —2 Kings 5:11-12 

Naaman’s servants finally convinced him to do what Elisha said, resulting in his complete healing. But the story makes me wonder. How often do we miss what God is doing because he isn’t doing it the way we expected? I wrote yesterday about losing my way. I was expecting God to do things in a certain way, and when he didn’t, I got discouraged…and lost. I wanted his blessing on my terms, which is never a good way to approach life.

In a conversation with my son awhile back, he said to me, “We need to believe in God’s promises, not in the outcomes.” He was right. Too often, our faith begins to fail when we don’t see the answers we expect in the manner or time frame we expect them in. Trusting in God means trusting that he will fulfill his promises even when that fulfillment doesn’t match our image of what that looks like. In short, it means we let God be God, realizing that we are not.

Lost and Found

April 29, 2023

“I wasn’t lost; I was just misplaced for awhile.” Daniel Boone’s response to those who weren’t convinced of his wilderness prowess didn’t work for me. I had been hunting with my father and brother in the hills of Alma, NY. There is quite a bit of woodland between roads, but I was pretty sure where I was. Not so with my brother and father, who reported me lost to my wife. I was calmly waiting by the roadside when their improvised search party caught up with me. Never mind that it wasn’t the road I had expected to come out on; no—I wasn’t lost.

People don’t usually get lost on purpose, nor all at once. It happens gradually, a step at a time. Familiar landmarks fade as the surroundings all begin to look alike until we stumble upon an unfamiliar scene; “I’ve not seen that tree before; that break in the woods doesn’t look quite as I remember.” We lose our way gradually, without knowing it at the time.

In life, it happens in many different ways. One decision leads to another; it’s gradual at first, but begins to snowball. We shave a little truth off our words, fudge a bit on our taxes, find shortcuts to the grade in school, steer gradually towards the edge of impurity.

We can get so busy doing good that we gradually forget why we started in the first place. I’ve been struggling for some time with my work in Cuba. Before I retired, I had in mind to spend more time there in retirement, teaching alongside my good friend Joel. But Willie, our primary connection in Cuba, was feeling some governmental heat and decided to come to the States for awhile. What he thought would be a matter of months stretched into two years. Two years we weren’t able to go to Cuba. Then my friend Joel died, Covid hit, and I lost my way. I thought it was the result of all these external circumstances, but I was wrong.

When I began going to Cuba on mission trips, it was because I realized that I could take three people to Cuba for what it cost for me to go to Mongolia or Nepal where I had worked with Every Home for Christ. It was more important to me to get others to experience mission life than to have different and exciting international missions experiences by myself. I was (and am) convinced that experiencing foreign missions was a key component to jump-starting a deeper and vibrant faith at home. 

Somewhere along the line, I lost my focus. I was looking at the results in Cuba rather than the results in my friends here at home. I began comparing what I was doing to what others were accomplishing, which is never a good idea. As I said, I lost my focus, and when that is gone, life feels as disorienting as being lost in the woods.

Yesterday and today, I had the privilege of spending time with a friend whose work in Cuba is bursting with success. As we talked, God began to reveal to me where I had gone off the rails. I had been thinking the problem was “what wasn’t happening in Cuba,” but the real problem was what wasn’t happening in me. I’m reconnecting with my original purpose, and it feels like I finally have my feet back on the ground. There are still many unanswered questions, but as things come back into focus, I believe most of them will take care of themselves.

When Jesus said, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life,” he wasn’t just making an abstract statement. He was stating truth. When we find our way in him, we discover truth about ourselves, and the life he always intended us to have. 

 

Whose Image?

 April 28, 2023

Sometimes we miss what’s staring us right in the face. This morning’s reading came from Matthew 22 where Jesus is tested by his antagonists. Here’s the incident as Matthew recorded it:

“Then the Pharisees went and plotted how they might entangle Him in His talk. And they sent to Him their disciples with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that You are true, and teach the way of God in truth; nor do You care about anyone, for You do not regard the person of men. Tell us, therefore, what do You think? Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, “Why do you test Me, you hypocrites? Show Me the tax money.” So they brought Him a denarius. And He said to them, “Whose image and inscription is this?” They said to Him, “Caesar’s.” And He said to them, “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” When they had heard these words, they marveled, and left Him and went their way.” —Matthew 22:15-22

Jesus knew this was a setup. It had to be; the Pharisees were the ultra-religious conservatives, while the Herodians were state lackeys. These two groups were mortal enemies, so when they collaborate, you know they’re up to no good.

This incident has spawned a classic line: “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s,” in other words, don’t try to wiggle out of paying your taxes. It all hinges upon Jesus taking a coin and asking whose image and inscription are upon it, and the conclusion that he draws that the image and inscription on the coin indicates that it belongs to the state. It’s the next part we miss because we fail to ask the followup question: “Where is God’s image and inscription?”

As any first-century Jew would know, God’s image is on us. Human beings are made in God’s image; it’s theology 101. The conclusion is clear: as the coin belongs to Caesar, so we belong to God. And in case we didn’t understand the image part, Jesus added that there is an inscription that goes along with the image. St. Paul tells us exactly what that is.

“When Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them.” —Romans 2:14-15 

Did you catch it? The law is written in our hearts, in our conscience. That conscience can be seared by sin, but there are always vestiges of it telling us that certain things are wrong and others are right. Where does this notion of right and wrong come from? If there is no God in whose image we are made, there is no logical reason why we should feel bad if we do ill, or good if we do well. There is no real basis for morality and ethics. “Right and Wrong” is whatever we decide it will be, and is variable as times change. 

If however, there is a God in whose image we are made and who has written in our hearts a conscience, then just as the coin belonged ultimately to Caesar, so we belong ultimately to God, and to refuse to give ourselves to him is a deadly sin. And that refusal is the reason Jesus Christ came to earth. He died on a cross so our sins could be forgiven, rose from death to assure us that he has the power to do so, and ascended to heaven so he could give us his Holy Spirit, the very Spirit who alone can soften the hard heart and lead us to repentance and faith and eternal life. God’s image and inscription are upon us. May we not forget or ignore it.

Bit by Bit

 April 27, 2023

In a conversation with a friend yesterday, he commented on my writing with these words: “I don’t know how you come up with stuff day after day.” To tell the truth, I don’t know, either. There is one secret however, that’s worth sharing.

The weather these last few days has been cool, but dry, so Linda and I have taken advantage of these days between the rains to get some yard work done. In the past week, I got my beehives prepped for summer, mowed the lawn before taking the tractor in for its annual servicing, dug up a garden for three blueberry bushes we planted and mulched, raked, edged, and mulched her terrace garden, and cleaned up some prickers along the creek bank. I fixed a floor vent I’ve been meaning to get to for a couple years, and got some redwood down from the garage loft for a project I’ll start this weekend. All of that is in addition to prepping for our men’s Bible study, rehearsing for Sunday worship, hosting a prayer breakfast with a good friend, watching two tennis matches, and leading our 6:00 am men’s prayer meeting this morning.

Until putting it down in writing, I had no idea it’s been such a busy week! I thought I had been somewhat lazy; it didn’t feel like I got that much accomplished. So here’s the secret; it comes from Isaiah:

“For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, Line upon line, line upon line, Here a little, there a little.”” —Isaiah 28:10

I’ve been fortunate to have been at this for a long time. I preached my first sermon on February 1, 1970, so I’ve had my share of experience which gives me a deep well of experiences and ideas. It didn’t come to me all at once. Like the work in our yard, a little bit here and a little bit there eventually adds up. So don’t despise small beginnings or minuscule progress. One tiny step at a time, and eventually, you get to your destination, whether it’s a tended yard, a responsible young adult, or a life of integrity. As Isaiah put it: “For precept upon precept, precept upon precept, Line upon line, line upon line, Here a little, there a little.””

Fair

April 26, 2023

“It’s not fair!” Sooner or later, every parent hears that plaintive cry emanating from the mouth of their child. I don’t know how parents today respond, but when our kids were growing up, our stock reply was, “Get used to it. Life isn’t fair.”

And yet, we want it to be; expect it to be. And when it isn’t, we get angry or sullen. In chapter 20 of his gospel, Matthew recollects the story Jesus told about laborers in the vineyard. The owner was looking for day laborers to help harvest the crop. He went to the market where those laborers would hang out, waiting to be called. I remember doing that as a teenager, except the day laborers gathered in a building. Every so often, the person in charge would shout, “Three men for an orchard,” or “Two for an assembly line,” etc. It was interesting; I never knew from one day to the next what I would be doing, and I learned quickly that there were a whole lot of jobs I didn’t want to spend my life doing.

In Jesus’ story, the owner called some workers at 9:00 am, promising the standard day’s wage. When he realized he was going to be short, he hired more at noon, and still more in the evening. When it came time to pay up, he began with those who had been hired just before quitting time, and gave them the prevailing day’s wage. Those hired at daybreak began to calculate. “If he paid a full day’s wage for an hour’s work, imagine what I’m going to get!” 

Anticipation turned to disappointment and jealousy when they got only the prevailing day’s wage they had been promised. “Wait a minute—this guy only worked an hour! This isn’t fair!”

The owner stopped the complainer. “I paid you what I promised. It’s my money; if I want to be generous, that’s my privilege. I did you no wrong.”

The people who first heard this story knew exactly what Jesus was up to. They had worked hard to do the right thing, and Jesus was accepting people who had messed up their lives, were living wild and basically were a drain on society. “It isn’t fair” was in their hearts, if not on their lips.

And what about me? The problem is one of comparison. We all do it. We measure ourselves against others, and it never turns out good. If I compare myself with someone who has made a mess of his life, I swell with pride. If I compare myself with someone who has accomplished more and been wildly successful, that comparison turns to jealousy. If I compare myself with hard working people who live in an oppressive society, I feel guilty. Comparing ourselves with others never works because life isn’t fair.

Instead of comparisons, we receive God’s gifts with gratitude and humility. We live in generosity, and the only comparison we make is with Jesus himself. When we do, the only response we can give is that which is found in the gospel: “When we’ve done all we can, we must still say, “We are unprofitable servants.” Life isn’t fair, but it is filled with mercy and grace for those willing to shed the comparisons and simply receive God’s wonderful gift of life in Christ.

 

What Do You Lack?

 April 25, 2023

“What do I still lack?” The young man who asked this question of Jesus didn’t lack for much of anything. Plain and simple, he was rich. Very rich. He wanted to know what he had to do to get eternal life. You can read the story in Matthew 19. 

We often tend to focus on what we lack in life. Politicians salivate at the thought. “You don’t have enough health care. You don’t have enough money for food or housing. You don’t have the opportunities others have. You’re poor…and we will help.” Only, the solutions become the new problem. 

Preachers thrive on our lack. “You don’t have holiness. You aren’t good enough. You lack salvation. You lack Jesus.” All of that may be true, but it may also be true that our real problem is not what we lack, but the abundance of what we have. Earlier in his ministry, Jesus told a story about a farmer who was sowing his field. Some of the seed fell among the thorns which choked out the seed. He described those thorns as the cares and worries of this life.

Jesus told this young man that his problem wasn’t what he didn’t have; it wasn’t his lack of eternal life. His real problem was that he had too much. His life was full. There was no room in his life for Jesus or for the poor. The biggest problems I face have little to do with my needs, but much to do with my distractions. If I want to follow Jesus, there are things I must let go of. I can’t hold onto Jesus and everything else at the same time. The real question is not what I lack, but what do I have that prevents me from holding onto Jesus alone? It’s probably your question, too.

Vain Repetitions

 April 24, 2023

I have a confession to make. It’s something I’m not proud of, but this really happened.

In our men’s Bible study tonight, we tackled Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7. Before when I’ve read it, I would take it one little section at a time, but we’re doing a New Testament survey, which means dealing with large chunks of Scriptural real estate at a time. What I noticed tonight is how much prayer ties the sermon together. It is implied in chapter five,  modeled in chapter six, and worked out in chapter seven. One of the topics we considered this evening was the matter of what Jesus called “vain repetitions.”

So here’s the confession: After coming to Christ in my early teen years, our entire family got quite involved in our church. Sunday mornings was worship and Sunday School, Sunday evenings was youth group and Sunday evening services. Monday was work night, Tuesday was Christian Service Brigade, Wednesday were prayer meetings, Saturday night was Youth for Christ. You could say we were busy for the Lord, but at least on my part, it wasn’t always what it seemed. Take Wednesday prayer meetings, for example.

Prayer meetings were only about an hour long. Pastor Ellis would give a short sermon before we launched into prayer. Everyone who wanted to, participated. We sat in the sanctuary, and if you wanted to pray, you stood and did so. Some prayed long and eloquently, some merely long. There were always a few of us teenagers in attendance. Maybe you can see where this is going.

My story isn’t as bad as my friend Ralph. He and his brother were sitting in the back row at their prayer service, right behind a rather large woman who unfortunately let out a rather odoriferous and eye-watering plume that drifted their way. They did their best, but were unable to stifle their laughter. Their father, the pastor, noticed their amusement as the pew they were sitting on shook with their mirth. He demanded they stand and tell everyone there what was so funny. To their credit, they refused, wisely choosing to face his wrath privately than to expose the source of their chuckles.

As I said, my story isn’t quite so dramatic. It’s simply that my friends and I had prayer contests to see who could get the most “amens” out of the listeners. To this day, I can’t remember who won, but I suspect those prayers were among those Jesus called “vain repetitions.” Any prayer that has as its object anything except the glory of God and worship of Jesus is no more than empty words, in short, a vain repetition. How others respond to my prayers is no measure of its effectiveness. The only thing that matters is how God responds, and that depends on the state of my heart.

These days, I prefer silence to vain repetitions. I’ve prayed many a prayer without words that God has heard, and too many filled with words that in fact, weren’t directed to him, but to others. With the Lord’s help, those days and prayers are gone for good.

The Desert

 April 23, 2023

Deserts are not where normal people live. I don’t say that to belittle the Bedouin or any other ethnic group or people who live in such inhospitable places, but most people choose life in less harsh environments. I’ve noticed however, that God seems to favor desert places. Though life began in a garden, it was in the Garden that we lost our connection with God. It was in the desert that the connection was restored.

Moses was a wanderer in the desert. God sent him there to learn its ways so he could lead Israel through it. The Law was given in the desert, as was the Tabernacle and the priesthood. Generations later, it was in the desert that God revealed himself to Elijah, and even later, where Jesus overcame the Tempter. It was where Paul went to hear from God, and where St. John received the Revelation. We are a desert people.

I shrink from the desert. I don’t like it there; it’s hot, dry, and dangerous. I’m not speaking of earthly deserts, but the desert of my soul. Like Lot, I prefer the well-watered plains of Jordan, but danger lurks there. Lush and lavish living entice the soul and dull the spirit till I am deaf to the whisper of God. Like Elijah, sometimes God drives me into the desert places, forcing me to examine my soul. It’s not pleasant, but if like Elijah, I want to stand before God, I must not reject the desert into which he sends me. I must be willing to endure those dry times under the withering heat that parches my mouth till I cry out for the Living Water.

I wrote the other day about wanting to be for my family like Elijah, the chariot and horsemen of Israel. Elijah didn’t attain that status in cushy, soft places. He stood before the Almighty in the desert where distractions fade and life is reduced to the basics. My human flesh shrinks back from such elemental rugged harshness. I like life to be comfortable, but one cannot stand before a holy God in comfort. Unless I am willing for all else to be stripped away, to be driven into the desert, I will miss the appointment with God that I most desperately need. 

So my soul, “To the desert!” Rise early. Deny yourself. Pick up your cross and follow Jesus into the desert where you will stand before God, and return as the chariot and horsemen of those whom God has placed in your care.

I Don’t Know

April 22, 2023

God’s ways often puzzle me. Why he has chosen to allow some of the things we see going on in the world is a mystery to me. I understand that for love to be possible, there must be the possibility of refusing that love, ie. free will, but does there need to be so much refusal? 

The question of Good and Evil is enough to boggle the most unboggled minds, and since mine is boggled most of the time, I’m not even going to touch that one. How about a lesser conundrum? This morning I was reading in Matthew 17 where Jesus took Peter, James, and John up on the mountain to watch as he was transfigured before them. He began to shine, as did his clothes, and then they saw him conversing with Moses and Elijah. There are numerous explanations why these two got to talk with Jesus; both of them didn’t die in our ordinary sense. Moses was buried by God himself, and Elijah was taken up to heaven in a tornado. Or it could be that Moses was the greatest lawgiver, and Elijah the greatest prophet. But that’s not my concern tonight.

I’m wondering why Jesus chose Peter, James, and John. We know in retrospect that they were  leaders of the fledgling church, but what did Jesus see in them at the time? Or does it even matter? For that matter, what did he see in me that he chose me for himself? If I had been looking for a disciple or better yet, a preacher, I don’t think I would have chosen me. But Jesus did, just like he chose Peter, James, and John.

I don’t have to understand everything I read in the Bible. I don’t have to be able to answer all the questions I have. I just need to believe and be thankful. I like the way John put it years after he saw Jesus on the mountain. When he began penning his Revelation of Jesus Christ, he began with these words:

“Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near.” —Revelation 1:3 

Notice what is missing in this blessing. We are blessed if we read, if we hear, and if we keep these words. Nothing is said about understanding them. This is especially important as we read the Revelation, but it is true for all of Scripture. It’s good to understand, but it’s better to believe and to obey. I don’t know why Jesus chose those three men. I don’t know how the other disciples felt about it, although given how often they argued about who was the greatest, I would guess they weren’t too happy about it. 

There’s a lot I don’t know. But this I do know: Jesus died in our place so our sins could be forgiven, he arose from the dead to give us new life, he ascended to the Father so he could send us the Holy Spirit, he is coming again to take us to our forever home, and wonder of wonders, he chose me. And you. It is therefore fitting that we bow before him in grateful repentance and faiths to receive him and the salvation he offers us.

 

Get it Right

 April 21, 2023

“And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”” —Matthew 16:18-19 

I find it both amazing and encouraging that Jesus would give such authority to his disciples, given that they were so slow to comprehend the simplest of his teachings. Peter didn’t understand doctrinal details (see vv. 5-12), completely missed how God planned to offer salvation (vv. 15-19), but what was most important, he got right: He knew who Jesus was (“You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” (Matthew 16:16).

I can be thickheaded about doctrine. I’ve often missed how god wants to work, but if I get it right about Jesus, all will be well. No matter what else you get wrong, if you get it right about Jesus, all will be well.

The Right Questions

 April 20, 2023

Sometimes we ask the wrong questions, which means we get the wrong answers. When I was a teenager, our church sponsored Christian Service Brigade, an evangelical version of the Boy Scouts. One summer, our troop went canoeing and camping in the Adirondacks, and the first night out, we camped next to a Boy Scout troop that was coming back in from a week in the wilderness. The next morning was a Sunday, and since one of the tenets of the Boy Scouts is “a scout is reverent,” the leader of the troop gave a “sermon” to his boys, while we listened in. 

He was speaking on the Feeding of the 5,000, but with a decidedly different twist than that to which I was accustomed. According to this scoutmaster, when the people saw the boy give his lunch to Jesus, they were so ashamed at their own stinginess that one by one, they began to bring out their own lunches which previously they had hidden because they were unwilling to share out of fear there wouldn’t be enough. There was no miracle; Jesus didn’t multiply anything. It was all an exercise in psychology with a moral at the end: “Be generous.” 

Human reason, the gift and curse of the Enlightenment, was in full blossom that Sunday morning. Years later when I was in seminary, I discovered it wasn’t just the Boy Scouts. It was fashionable to look at the Bible through an Enlightenment, or scientific lens. Whenever the miraculous appeared, scholars looked for a rational scientific explanation of the occurrence. The many accounts of demon possession were dismissed as everything from psychotic episodes to epilepsy, or even worse, hysteria on the part of the Gospel writers. The questions that were asked were, “How do we explain in modern terminology what is recorded in Scripture?” Everything was seen through this critical, “scientific” lens. We asked questions accordingly, and got “scientific,” Enlightenment kinds of answers.

So what if we asked different questions? What if instead of asking how we can interpret the Bible in light of scientific and humanistic paradigms, we asked how we can describe what we see happening in our lives in strictly Biblical terminology? What if the sociopath is in reality acting out of demonic influence? What if the barbarity we see unfolding in North Korea, China, Nigeria, and our urban ghettos are the result of people and systems controlled by demonic beings? What if our lethargy when we read the Bible or hear a sermon is the result of demons  doing everything they can to keep us from a Spirit-filled life? What if the struggles we have against addictions and behaviors we can’t seem to control are spiritual battles against what Paul calls the “principalities, [the] powers, the rulers of the darkness of this age, [the] spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places?” —Ephesians 6:12 

What if the reason we seem so powerless to deal with the intractable problems of our age is because we don’t recognize them for what they are, and are essentially bringing knives to a spiritual gunfight? 

I don’t believe there is a demon under every rock or that every problem we encounter is the work of the devil. We have plenty to keep ourselves busy merely fighting the world and the flesh, let alone the devil. But we ignore the latter at our peril. 

One last question: What if we simply asked the right question, which is, “Lord Jesus, what am I facing right now? You said one of the gifts of the Spirit is the ability to discern spirits. I need to know whether I’m facing a character flaw or one of the spiritual armies of wickedness. Please give me discernment so I can bring the right tools to bear on the problem. Reveal to me what I am dealing with today.” We might be surprised at what God shows us.

Remembering

 April 19, 2023

It’s not unusual for people my age to complain about all the things they can’t remember, like “Where are my car keys?” “Why did I go into that room?” 

One time when our two oldest grandchildren were little, we were driving to Canada. Their parents were in the vehicle ahead of us, but we had the girls. And their papers. At the crossing, the border agent asked who we had with us in the back seat. “Our granddaughters,” I answered.

“What are their names?” My mind went completely blank. Linda was immediately frantic. I think she could see us cuffed for kidnapping.

“Alex and Abi!” she shouted.

The agent leaned into my open window, looked at the girls and asked, “Do you feel safe with these people?” Memory is a fickle friend.

This morning while at breakfast with my friend Rich, we were talking about remembering. We remember past sins so clearly, and have a penchant for confessing them repeatedly. But if God who when he forgives confessed sin also forgets it, is confessing it again an act of unbelief? I can imagine god saying to such confessions, “Didn’t you believe me when I told you it’s forgiven?”

The thought occurred to me that the issue with remembering past sins isn’t confession and forgiveness, but cleansing. Sin, even old sins long since forsaken, has such spiritual filth that even the remembrance of it contaminates like the slimy trail left behind a slug. The sin has been forgiven, but the memory needs to be cleansed, often repeatedly.

Such cleansing doesn’t come through repeated repentance, but through prayerful thanksgiving for the grace and mercy of God, and through the discipline of bringing every thought captive to Christ. 

Increasing and Decreasing

 April 18, 2023

It isn’t easy going from front-runner to also-ran, but that describes more people than we realize; perhaps even you. Even if you know it’s inevitable, even if you knew from the beginning, runners-up are not easy shoes to fill. From the very beginning, John knew that no matter what success he had in life, he was destined to be merely the opening act, but never the star attraction. When he baptized Jesus, he testified of not being worthy to untie Jesus’ shoes. Shortly after, he put it plainly: “He must increase; I must decrease” (John 3:30).

John’s ministry was by all accounts, successful. People came from miles around to hear him preach even though he had no compunctions about hurting peoples’ feelings. Calling your listeners a bunch of snakes doesn’t tend to foster tender emotions.

It wasn’t until after Herod the king, a bit piqued because John dared to be honest with him, threw him into prison, that Jesus began his ministry in earnest (Matthew 4:12). Many of John’s supporters turned to Jesus, which as any preacher knows, bites deep. Hearing of Jesus’ success, John, languishing in a dank Roman jail, sends messengers to inquire about him, receiving in return, a glowing report of Jesus’ success, hardly the kind of news to boost John’s spirits.

Now in Matthew 14, John is executed, the ministry which had such promise and early success, cut off in full bloom. It would have been more kind to John had he been immediately executed, but he languished…and wondered. He never got to hear Jesus’ words of praise, and I wonder if while in prison, he remembered his word about Jesus increasing and him decreasing, and what that had come to mean.

It’s easy to compare yourself with others. If the comparison is favorable, it can easily lead to pride. If instead, it is unfavorable, it can lead to discouragement. Comparing oneself to others is always dangerous. Nevertheless, John’s word is for me as much as it was for himself. As much as I don’t like the thought of decreasing even when it’s part of the normal process of aging, it’s important that I hear these words. Success is sweet, and laying it aside can be a bitter pill to swallow. But swallow it we must if we are to be faithful to Jesus and to the message he (and I) proclaimed. 

That message is clear: life isn’t about me. It’s all about Jesus, and the sooner I let that seep into my soul, the better I will be. Success in whatever we do is wonderful, but sooner or later, we must all step aside. How well or ill we do that is a big part of the measure of our lives. May we be faithful to our calling to point people to Jesus without getting hung up on our own significance, for Jesus, and Jesus alone, is as John said, “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). 

Dreams

 April 17, 2023  

“Be my Dream Master tonight.” In our men’s Bible study this evening, we were discussing how in the Bible, God often spoke to his people through dreams. He came to Jacob in a dream of a ladder reaching from heaven to earth, with angels ascending and descending upon it. He spoke to Joseph and to Pharaoh’s servants in dreams, to Daniel, and in our text this evening, to Joseph and to the magi.  “Has God ever spoken to you in a dream?” I asked. A number of heads began nodding. 

Pastor Roy spoke of a time Jesus appeared to him in a dream, and of other times when he had to wait to discern what God was saying. We spoke of dreams that we knew didn’t come from God.  Finally, I mentioned the importance of what occupies our minds before going to bed. If the last thing we see is the evening news or a murder mystery on TV, maybe those things will influence our ability to hear from God in our dreams. 

In classical Judaism, the day begins at nightfall instead of dawn. To begin the day with God, one starts with evening. How we order our thoughts before bed determines how we start the day in the morning. I wonder how much I have missed of what God wants to say to me because I didn’t order my thoughts at bedtime.   

Pastor Roy then told us how he begins his day with a prayer at bedtime: “Be my Dream Master tonight.” That’s a good way of looking at it. I’m going to begin tonight with that same prayer, and wait on the Lord to see what he will say to me when my heart is open to him while I’m sleeping. It’s great to hear from the Lord when reading my Bible, listening to a sermon, or worshipping in song. To be able to hear from him during sleep will be an added blessing! “Lord, be my Dream Master tonight.”

Bees

 April 15, 2023

It’s Saturday evening, and after yesterday’s Buffalo trip to Roswell to visit a friend and pick up Ian from the train station, the overnight with the grandkids, working my bees today and a wedding shower this evening, I’m tired. And it’s Saturday—Sabbath. I don’t often take a day off from writing, but sometimes my brain needs the rest, so tonight I’m treating it to one. 

I will say this however: Those unbitten by the bug wouldn’t understand, but I took great satisfaction looking into my bee colonies and seeing healthy brood patterns. One hive had more drone brood than I would like, but rather than cutting it out like many beekeepers do, I think I’ll let the bees handle things the way they see best. After all, they know more about bees than I do. 

Nerd

April 14, 2023

Meema and Beepa night has been pretty quiet lately. With grandkids married, moved on, or in college, and various sports activities, the Friday night crowd has gotten pretty thin, so tonight having Ian home from college, his girlfriend Jordan, Nathan, Mattie, Eliza and Gemma, we have everyone except Nate and Deb’s girls. 

There was plenty of laughter around the dinner table, and as I write, they are all outside playing Ghosts in the Graveyard, kinda like Hide and Seek, but with a few local twists. Earlier today I read a post by a high school friend who is missing having her grandchildren around. Linda and I know that day will come; we’re already seeing the early warning signs of the future that remind us to be thankful for the blessings of having been and continuing to be such a part of their lives as we have been.

As I write, I’m having to shake off weariness; it’s been a long day. The kids are merely gathering steam; that’s the difference sixty years makes. Tomorrow Abi will join us for breakfast, and soon after, they will scatter to their respective homes while Linda and I recuperate. I’m not sure how she’ll do it, but I expect to be checking on my bees. Which brings me to my last observation for the evening.

Last night, I attended the monthly Chautauqua County Beekeeper’s Association meeting. It was informative, as we discussed spring management and the new law about registering our colonies with the state. Being an unseasonably warm evening, I rode the bike. I was almost home when I noticed a campfire at our son Nathan’s home and wheeled in to say hello. Nate asked me where I had been, and when I told him, he laughed and said, “What a Nerd!”

Well, I mean to say I put him right! I told him, rather emphatically, “If you saw the rest of them, you’d consider me Mr. Cool!” Another round of laughter, so I came home. He’s right, after all. What else can you call a guy who is completely unathletic, plays the bassoon, and keeps bees? Paul Newman I am not. Happy I am.

 

Rest

 April 13, 2023

Matthew 11 is everyman’s story. John the Baptist had faithfully preached, lived sacrificially, and is now in prison from which he would never emerge alive. A dank, dark cell is a far cry from the open spaces and fresh air of the desert, and he was questioning. Sending some of his followers to Jesus, he asked, “Was I mistaken? Did I get this Messiah thing wrong?”

Jesus’ response is hardly encouraging. “Look at what I’m doing! People are being healed, the blind see, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the Gospel is being preached to the poor.” Jesus’ success is hard encouragement in the face of John’s failure. I wonder how John received Jesus’ words.

In the rest of Matthew 11, Jesus praises John, ridicules the never-satisfied opposition, and condemns the cities that refused to repent. Then come verses 28-30, which seem strangely out of place.

“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.””

Is he speaking to discouraged Joh, and therefore to us in our discouragement and disappointment? We worked hard, were faithful, but failed. The revival we sought never came, the success we imagined never materialized. Others were popular, their ministries and families thriving, while we waste away in a prison of dark, damp despair. We long for the exciting days of wild freedom, of crowds hanging on every word, of a family living in love and harmony instead of conflict, deceit, and abuse. Like John, when they were unleashed against us, we second-guess our decision to confront the Powers with their sin.

To all the Johns in the world, Jesus says, “Come to me and find rest.” When life is falling apart, when success is an illusion, when opposition threatens to swallow you alive, hear Jesus say, “Come to me and find rest.” And with Peter, I say, “Lord, where else could I go? You have the words of life.”

Courage

 April 12, 2023

The courage and boldness of many of the young adults I know is impressive! When I was a teenager, I was very timid about sharing my faith, afraid to be too vocal about going against the crowd. I was active in our church—worship, Sunday School, youth meetings, Youth for Christ, Christian Service Brigade—but at school, other than my not swearing, drinking, smoking, or seeing girls as sexual conquests, I pretty much kept my faith to myself.

In the early to mid-sixties, our culture was only beginning to cast loose from its Christian heritage. Christian values were honored, if not always kept, and being a member of a Christian church was almost always a requirement for political and social status.

So much has changed. Teachers can get themselves fired for refusing to parrot the party line on everything from gun control to the latest “woke” agenda. I’m seeing it up close and personal with the abortion debate. My granddaughter attended the Right to Life March in Washington DC last January, coming home fired up for the pro-life cause. Her mother being executive director of our local pro-life pregnancy center certainly didn’t detract from Eliza’s passion for life. On their way home, Eliza told her mother she wanted to start a pro-life club at school.

She did her research, secured a faculty advisor, and put up posters advertising their first meeting. They were promptly torn down by persons unknown. Eliza is unshaken. “I expected that,” was her only comment. She has been engaged in online conversations with pro-abortion people, armed with facts. The reactions she gets range from ridiculous to desperately emotional. She takes it all in stride.

This morning’s reading came from Matthew’s gospel:

““Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves…brother will deliver up brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death. And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake. But he who endures to the end will be saved.” —Matthew 10:16, 21-22 

Eliza has not yet experienced physical violence due to her convictions, but others have. It’s not surprising; if someone has no qualms about violently ending the life of the most vulnerable, it shouldn’t be surprising when they resort to violence against anyone who refuses to bend the knee to Molech. 

Pray for our kids. The world they inhabit is so much different than the one we faced as teenagers. They are courageous and determined; so is the Enemy of our souls. Our kids need our prayers and our support. Let’s not fail them!

Still Here

 April 11, 2023

“What is your favorite Easter memory?” My son Nathan asked this question at our pastor’s prayer group this morning. Some mentioned family experiences, others of Easter preaching, a couple spoke of people who came to Christ or were baptized on a particular Easter Sunday. Nate said simply, “I’m still here.”

A week before last Easter, we weren’t sure he would be. I was in Cuba on a mission trip and to attend my first Cuban wedding when I got an urgent call on Wednesday of Holy Week. It was Linda. “Nate has been taken to the hospital with a brain bleed,” she said through her tears. I was thunderstruck. I told my hosts what had happened, called our mission leaders so they could pray, and spent the rest of the evening trying to, but not finding the words to pray. To this day, I am thankful for St. Paul’s words that tell us, “the Spirit…helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered” (Romans 8:26). Wordless prayers are still prayers.

My team leaders arranged an emergency flight home, and the next evening I was standing by Nate’s hospital bed listening to him tell of being able to witness to the nurses the night before. He was home later that week.

It’s been a whirlwind year. He’s received treatment for the tumors inside his brain, two of which have disappeared, and through it all, we’ve all experienced in a deeper way the wonder of our salvation. From last year when we didn’t know if we would have another Easter together, to Sunday when he and his youngest daughter sang, “Our sins they were many, his mercy is more.” It surely is, and because it is, the reality of eternal life is more to me than a mere doctrine written on pages of a book. 

St. Paul said it: “If in this life only we have hope, we are of all men most miserable” (1 Corinthians 15:19). Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Nate is still here, and every moment we have is holy, for life is sacred, both now and eternally.

Prickers

April 10, 2023

This afternoon, I fought Adam. Along the creek bank in our back yard lies a line of old concrete barriers that were placed there years ago after a flash flood took out most of our back yard. Gravel was hauled in, our back yard was reconstructed, but with these huge concrete break walls along the creek. We mow up to them, but beyond is a briar patch that would make Brer’ Rabbit proud. Last week, Linda had hired one of our teenagers to help her cut them down, but there were still plenty they hadn’t managed to eradicate. I decided to take up the challenge.

Linda came out to help, and together we made headway, but it came at a cost. Even wearing gloves, the thorns, or “prickers,” as Linda calls them, were able to snag my shirt, embed themselves in my hands, and tear at my arms. Adam’s curse is very real.

“Then to Adam [God] said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’: “Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, And you shall eat the herb of the field.”

—Genesis 3:17-18 

Adam and I had a bit of a falling out, and though I managed to cut down some of the prickers, Adam was able to draw his blood. It made me wonder about the crucifixion. Was the crown of thorns more than just the mockery of bored Roman soldiers? Is it possible that those thorns that drew blood on Jesus’ brow were God’s way of saying Adam’s curse has struck its worst blow, but in three days, that curse will be broken? 

We know that Jesus took upon himself the curse we deserved, and today as Adam and I battled it out, I remembered, and know that though scratched and bleeding, I won in the battlefield of my backyard, and will win in the battlefield of life because Jesus wore the thorns in my place.

 

Angelic Commands

 April 9, 2023

Today is Easter! Christians all over the world have gathered to sing and pray, to hear the Gospel proclaimed, and to shout, “He is risen! He is risen indeed!” Joyous celebration is the order of the day even in the midst of heartache, suffering, injustice, and disappointment, for the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the beginning of our own and the assurance that death and destruction have not the final say.

The fact that people today greet one another with these words rests upon two women who in their grief, trudged their way to a garden tomb to prepare a body for burial. In Matthew’s gospel we read that an angel appeared and said to the women,

“Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. And go quickly and tell His disciples that He is risen from the dead, and indeed He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him. Behold, I have told you.” 

So they went out quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to bring His disciples word.” —Matthew 28:5-8 

The angel gave two commands: “Come and see,” and Go and tell,” words that are still instructive for us today. Had they not obeyed these words, there would be no Good News today. The Gospel is held by this thinnest of threads. 

In their fear, the women might have declined to come and see, in which case, they would have had no reason to go and tell. Or they might have looked into the tomb and merely wondered what this all meant. Instead, they did exactly as the angel commanded, and when they did, something wonderful happened: they met Jesus along the way.

We come to church to meet Jesus, but often come away disappointed. The music wasn’t to our liking, the sermon was dull, the people unfriendly. Or any other excuse we may care to mention. We read the Bible, pray, and sing, and yet our hearts are still cold and stony. We wonder why this is, while the answer lies before us all the time. We didn’t actually come and see. We were looking to the music, the sermon, the friendly greetings to fill the emptiness of our souls; in other words, the focus was on us, not on Jesus. We came to church, but didn’t come to Jesus. 

And if we actually came to Jesus, we left, but never went to tell someone else. The message died with us, and because it did, we never gave Jesus the opportunity to meet us on the way. I’ve discovered that often it’s while I am on the way, obeying the angelic word to go and tell, that I meet Jesus. 

If you worshipped today and came home feeling that somehow it all passed you by, listen again to the angel’s commands: “Come and see.” Look to Jesus. Then “Go and tell.” Jesus will meet you on your way.

Answer the Door

 April 7, 2023

This morning I woke with the heaviness of past sins weighing upon me. The thought of lost opportunities, forfeited spiritual power, compromised labor haunts me. In one word—regret. Juxtaposed on that regret is the sure knowledge of forgiveness. I remember all too clearly what God says he has forgotten: “I will remember your sins no more.” (Jeremiah 31:34). If Jeremiah didn’t make it clear enough, that promise is repeated twice in the New Testament (Hebrews 8:12 and 10:17).

“But in all things we commend ourselves as ministers of God: in much patience, in tribulations, in needs, in distresses, as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.”

—II Corinthians 6:4, 10 

Jesus himself taught us to forgive as we have been forgiven. We usually apply that to other people, but sometimes the hardest person to forgive is ourselves. Yet we are commanded to do so. Forgiving ourselves is not optional; it is commanded of us to let go of all that is past so we may live for today and eternity. St. Paul said it well: 

“Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended (or “arrived”); but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

—Philippians 3:13-14 

Paul had persecuted Christians, rounding them up and sending them to jail and death. If anyone would have reason to live in regrets, it would have been Paul. Instead, he lived in joy. How, you say? He knew that in Jesus Christ, his past was wiped out so completely that it was dead to him. Listen again to his wisdom:

“But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.” —Philippians 3:7-11 

As far as Paul was concerned, his old life was dead and buried. He was raised with Christ to new life:

“And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.”

—Colossians 2:13-15 

Tonight I am so grateful to know that God has wiped away the record that stood against me. Sure, the devil keeps knocking at my heart’s door, trying to remind me of my past. When he does so, I just ask Jesus to answer the door. When he does, no one is there!

Blessings

 April 6, 2023

“God has blessed me so much!” How often I’ve heard these words; how often I’ve spoken them myself. It’s true. I feel at times like I’ve led a charmed life, except for the fact that such a statement borders on the occult. What is interesting to me is how we use those words to describe situations we deem advantageous. We are blessed if windfall money comes our way, if we narrowly escape an accident, recover from serious illness, or enjoy a healthy family life.

I can’t remember anyone saying they felt blessed when their house burned to the ground, they became disabled from an accident, or were robbed and beaten by a thug. I have heard two people describe their serious illness as a blessing. I recently watched a video of David Ring, an evangelist who was born with cerebral palsy and sees it as God’s gift enabling him to reach people “normal” preachers cannot. My son has described his cancer as a blessing, drawing him closer to Christ than ever before.

But most of the time, difficulties are seen as the work of the devil, or at best, roadblocks God puts in our way to correct us. In what we know as the Beatitudes, Jesus redefines “blessing” for us.

“Blessed are you poor… 

Blessed are you who hunger now… 

Blessed are you who weep now…

Blessed are you when men hate you, 

And when they exclude you, 

And revile you, and cast out your name as evil, 

For the Son of Man’s sake.”

—Luke 6:20-22 

When was the last time you considered ridicule, ostracism, criticism, and slander to be a blessing? Jesus’ way of looking at life is quite different from ours. Much of contemporary Christian teaching extols the “blessings” of prosperity, of success and popularity. Being a laughingstock, getting assaulted for standing up for the unborn, or targeted for simply stating biological fact that DNA is what determines one’s sex, while it may be considered a badge of Christian honor, it’s rarely seen as a blessing. 

I am grateful for the blessings that encourage and edify me, but I am also praying to be able to see more clearly as Jesus sees, and to look for the kind of blessings of which he spoke .

Stones

April 5, 2023

Nearly 20 hours on the road yesterday—a trip with son Matthew to Moneta, VA, delivering the old Harley 45 to Resurrection Cycle Works for assembly. It’s a small company operating out of the owner’s garage. Steven LeMay, the owner, lived outside my hometown for years, and has been working on these old bikes since he was a kid, following in his father’s footsteps. On top of that, he is a Christian, as might have been gathered from the name of his company. His website has as much space devoted to the Gospel as it does to bikes. 

Matt and I had a great time together, with times of both conversation and quiet. It was a tiring day, but O, so worth it!

Today’s reading came from Matthew 4, the Temptation narrative where the devil attempts to seduce Jesus into abandoning his calling by settling for a lesser, less costly “salvation.” Jesus of course, refused. May we do the same.

The incident begins with Jesus’ 40 day fast, which is more than enough to make anyone ravishingly hungry if it hasn’t killed him first. So the devil’s first foray pressed Jesus where he at the moment was most susceptible—hunger. “Turn these stones into bread,” the devil slyly suggested. As I read these words this morning, in my mind the scene changed. It wasn’t just Jesus who has been offered this dodge; it’s you and me.

How often I’ve tried to turn stones into bread! I’ve tried to satisfy the hunger of my soul with the stones of this earthly sphere. I’ve tried filling the ache within me with distractions—TV, scrolling the internet, accumulating stuff that promises much but delivers little. I’ve used work to give life meaning, hobbies, activities, people, places, things…all stones, while the Bread of Life sits on the table getting stale with disuse. Every day I am offered stones to eat, and too often, I’ve broken more than a few teeth on them. 

Lord Jesus, you are the only Bread of Life! By refusing this temptation, you proved yourself worthy and able to fill hungry hearts with good things. Had you yielded to this temptation, your salvation would have been as gravelly and worthless as the stones beneath our feet. And if I yield to it, my offering to this broken and sad world will be as hard and unyielding, as lacking in nutrition as those same stones. but in you, we have, and we offer life to the world!