Caleb

 February 29, 2024

Today’s reading is from Numbers 13 and 14, where we learn the people of Israel refused to enter the Promised Land because they were afraid of its inhabitants. Only Caleb and Joshua gave a good report, saying, “Don’t rebel against the Lord, nor fear the people of the land, for they are our bread; their protection has departed from them, and the Lord is with us. Do not fear them.”—Numbers 14:9 

I’ve thought often about this chapter in Israel’s history. They had seen the power and protection of God; they had been delivered from slavery, guided through the wilderness, provided for when hungry and thirsty, all of which may have been part of the problem: They never shed their slave-mentality. They had been dependent so long that when offered the opportunity to take initiative, they choked.

It is common in church settings today to hear lots of talk about “safety,” or “safe places.” Given the toxic nature of much of what goes on in society, I understand such talk, but it is not the primary concern of the Bible. We are called to challenge the world, to invade a corrupt culture with the Gospel, to be willing to be in conflict with a debased and degenerate society. It can be a daunting task; the obstacles seem overwhelming. 

Twelve spies were sent into the Promised Land. They all saw the same things, but they didn’t have the same perspective. All the ten could see were the problems, the giants. Caleb and Joshua saw that these giants, though big, were powerless before them because the Lord was with Israel.

I confess that often I feel like the ten other spies, and would rather play it safe than to suit up and face the challenge before me. There’s a part of me that says, “This is for younger men,” and “Do you realize how hard this is going to be?” Eleven years ago when Linda wanted to buy the home we now occupy, I told her, “You see the finished product; all I see is the work it will take to get there.” 

But there is also a bit of Caleb within me, and even if I can’t get to the Promised Land myself, I want to be able to help someone else get there, by encouraging, assisting, and when possible, leading the way. We don’t get to see the end of the story until we read Joshua and hear Caleb say, “Give me this mountain!” I’m ready to go; my story begins here, but it will end on top of a mountain because God has given me a different spirit (Numbers 14:24).

Tired

 February 28, 2024

Today’s reading was Psalm 21, words I needed to hear this morning. I sometimes wonder if I’ll ever again wake up not tired. Saturday and Monday I slept in till 7:30, something I rarely do, but it didn’t seem to make much difference in my early morning weariness. When I sit down to read my Bible and pray, it’s a struggle to keep my eyes open. Sometimes it feels like I’m just going through the motions, but I am determined to keep at it.

Psalm 21 begins with these words, “The king shall rejoice in your strength, O Lord.” That’s good news. Revelation 1:6 and 5:10 says we are “kings and priests,” which means I can rejoice in God’s strength even when I don’t feel I have it. Usually, we want to feel God’s strength, or his wisdom, or his guidance long before we actually need it. We want to go into challenging situations feeling strong, or wise, or knowing how it will turn out. Instead, we must go into those circumstances not feeling, but trusting that the strength or wisdom or guidance will be there when we need it. 

If we felt the strength before needing it, we wouldn’t need faith, and God would be wasting the gift of strength by imparting it before it is needed. God wastes nothing, so he waits till the moment we need the strength or wisdom. In doing so, he wastes nothing, and places us where we need faith. 

So even though I woke up tired, I chose to rejoice because I know that when I actually need it, God’s strength will be there. Until then, he allows my weariness so I will be more motivated to seek his strength. 

Ugly-Beautiful

February 27, 2024

When I started writing my evening musings eleven years ago, I followed the “Joy Dare Collection,” a calendar of daily gratitude prompts. Some were easy, some made me think outside the box, and some were just plain difficult. This morning’s prompt was “3 Ugly-Beautiful Gifts.” 

Today is our granddaughter Josephine’s 19th birthday. She brings us her special brand of joy as one of our more independent granddaughters, who aspires to be a commercial airline pilot. In the meantime, she is a volleyball scholarship student at Edinboro University, popping in from time to time on weekends and breaks to say hello before she’s off on another adventure. She is the beautiful part of the ugly-beautiful duo.

There are ugly things going on all around the world, some of which affect us directly, and others only indirectly. I’d rather not comment on those. Instead, the ugly-beautiful today was the death of our Emma. Thirteen years ago when we brought her home from the Warren pet rescue, Linda thought she would be my dog, but Emma had other ideas. She was Linda’s dog through and through.

We watched her go from repeatedly chasing balls the full length of our yard to letting the next generation do her running, but when we opened the back door at her incessant whining, she was off like a rocket, splashing across the creek after something we never could see. In the past few weeks, we had to coax her just to go outside, but she was mobile right to the end. We are grateful we didn’t have to put her down.

You can see why this is “ugly-beautiful.” Kahlil Gibran said it well when he wrote that sorrow and joy are intimately intertwined, and we only grieve for what has been our delight. I don’t write these words to garner sympathy, but instead to affirm what I have believed for years, that we have a choice in matters like this: we can rail against death, or be grateful for the life we shared these past thirteen years. Emma brought us much joy, and we cherish and are grateful for the memories on this ugly-beautiful day.

 

Hope

 February 26, 2024

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

—Romans 15:13 

There are many benefits to living in modern USA. We have pretty good health care, a standard of living far beyond the wildest dreams of most of the world’s people, opportunities that beckon millions of immigrants, both legal and illegal.

There are some drawbacks too. In spite of the benefits and blessings, the rate of drug abuse and suicide, especially among young people, is catastrophic. I believe much of it is driven by the isolation fomented by social media, the breakdown of the family, the constant barrage of bad news from major media, and the secularization of our society and its resulting loss of faith and hope.

Most young adults don’t know where to turn for good news. They’ve been sold a bill of goods by society; they’ve been told that they are oppressed and deprived, and at the same time, are told there isn’t anything they can do about it. When kids are told they can choose their gender identity without regard to biology, and  that how they feel is paramount and unchangeable, the normal confusion of those years becomes a permanent trap and an unbearable burden. 

If I only look around me, I too, would be depressed and discouraged. There isn’t a lot of good news in the world today, which is why the promises of Scripture are so important to me. My hope is in the Lord who sees and holds the future securely in his grip. He is Lord whether I believe it or not, but it is in believing, in trusting in him that hope springs up. That hope engenders joy and peace. I don’t have to worry about tomorrow if I am trusting in Christ. And if I’m not worrying, I can be joyful and enjoy peace. 

The key to it all is trust. I must decide if I will place my trust in a God I cannot see, or in the events I see unfolding all around me. The flip side of it is this: If I am lacking in joy and peace, it is indication that my faith and trust needs adjusting. And that happens only when I dive into the Scriptures. Earlier in Romans 15, Paul reminds us that it is “through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures” that we have hope (v.4), and that “faith comes by…the Word of God” (Romans 10:17).

Choose

 February 25, 2024

Quite often, I expect God to speak to me as I am reading my Bible and praying, but it’s not uncommon for me get to the end of my “devotional time,” close my Bible and think to myself, “Well, I didn’t get much out of THAT!” 

But then there are those times when God speaks almost out of the blue, like this morning in Sunday School. We were talking about how easily we worry about the future which we cannot control, and how that worry so occupies our minds and hearts that we miss God’s work of grace in the present moment. At the end of our time together, pastor Roy quoted from Luke 10, the story of Mary and Martha:

As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!” “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” —Luke 10:38-42 

I can’t remember Roy’s comment on these verses, but I recall vividly Jesus’ word to Martha about her sister: “Mary has CHOSEN…” So often, we deceive ourselves into thinking that our worry and anxiety are afflictions over which we have little control. Our culture is overwhelmed with anxiety; we swallow pills by the handfuls, trying to medicate away our dis-ease, and pay psychologists and counselors big bucks trying to find some relief from the stress of everyday life.

We fail to see what Mary seemed to have understood intuitively, that sitting at the feet of Jesus is the best antidote to stress, but that one must choose to do so, prioritizing his presence over the pressing issues of life. Too often, I find that I choose poorly, putting time with Jesus on the back burner of life. When I do that, stress intensifies. Time with him puts things in perspective, reducing my worry and increasing my peace. But I have to choose.

Vacations

 February 24, 2024

Leviticus 23-25 outline the various feasts God commanded his people: Firstfruits, Weeks (Pentecost), Trumpets, The Day of Atonement, Tabernacles, and the Seventh year Sabbath, and the Feast of Jubilee. Most of these were week-long celebrations. The latter two involved giving the land an entire year of rest; no cultivating, planting, or pruning. 

Did Israel actually keep the year-long abstinence from agricultural pursuits? I don’t know, but I do know that God values our times of rest more than we do. If we took this many vacations, we would worry about our productivity, or whether people would think we are lazy, but I wonder if our incessant labor is indicative of our failure to really trust God, or of our desire to have more than God intends for us. What do we sacrifice of our relationship with God by our constant busyness?

These “vacations” weren’t merely times to get away from it all. They were given as opportunities for us to draw closer to God. Vacations that merely focus on what we want to do miss the point. Our focus should be on what God wants. If I am feeling agitated because I’m not getting anything done, it could be indication of how far I’ve drifted from God’s intention. If I’m not resting in Jesus, where am I resting? Do we use our “vacation” time to draw close to Jesus, or do we cram it so full of activity that we are more worn out when we return to work than when we left?

 

Heart’s Desire

 February 22, 2024

”May the Lord answer you in the day of trouble; 

May the name of the God of Jacob defend you; 

May He send you help from the sanctuary, 

And strengthen you out of Zion; 

May He remember all your offerings, 

And accept your burnt sacrifice. Selah 

May He grant you according to your heart’s desire, 

And fulfill all your purpose.“

Psalm 20:1-4 

This psalm is a wonderful prayer for protection and help in time of trouble, but there is a detail often overlooked in the midst of it. We love to quote the fourth verse—“May He grant you according to your heart’s desire, And fulfill all your purpose,” but it’s easy to take it out of context. What if my heart’s desire is for revenge, or lust, or extravagant accumulation of wealth? What if my purpose is nefarious? Will God grant those kinds of desires?

That fourth verse is dependent upon the third verse—“May He remember all your offerings, and accept your burnt sacrifice.” We don’t offer burnt sacrifices any more. Jesus’ death on the cross was full payment for our sins, but what the third verse tells us is that the one who first prayed this prayer was careful to obey the will of God as revealed in the Levitical law. He acknowledged his sins, and sought forgiveness and cleansing, all of which means his heart’s desire and his life’s purpose was to be in fellowship with God. 

The only way we can expect God will grant our heart’s desire is if that desire is to do the will of God. If my purpose is to honor God, I can pray this prayer confidently, knowing that my purpose aligns with his. 

Mercy and Justice

 February 21, 2024

Suppose I had been driving under the influence, crossed the center line and in the head-on crash, your child was killed. I was arrested, tried, and sentenced, so it could be said I paid my debt, but nothing I can do would restore your child to you. You are a genuine Christian, so through your tears, you forgive me. That would be mercy, but wouldn’t restore your child. The law might say justice had been served, but though you were merciful, you wouldn’t necessarily feel that justice had prevailed.

In the Levitical Law that many of us have been reading, animals were regularly offered as sacrifices. An innocent animal was slain because mercy isn’t enough to set things right. Human sin always robs someone of something that cannot be replaced, even if it isn’t a material object. My lie robs you of truth; your betrayal robs me of trust. Everything is out of balance. Someone always pays the price of sin. It may be the sinner, or it may be the sinned-against, but someone always pays.

The Levitical sacrificial system wasn’t able to actually even things out; it merely pointed to the Great Sacrifice Jesus made when he was the Lamb of God, slain for our sins, offering his blood as a covering for our misdeeds. In Christ, God in his mercy swallowed the injustice, the imbalance our sins had caused. As the psalm says, “Mercy and truth have met together; Righteousness and peace have kissed.” (Psalm 85:10). In Christ, the balance has been restored, and one day, it will be manifest for all to see.

Age and Wisdom

 February 20, 2024

In addition to these (almost) nightly musings, I’ve been sharing a weekly Scripture and a short commentary with my grandkids. It is a challenge, but hopefully helpful as they navigate trails they’ve never taken, but which are pretty well worn by the time you get to my age. 

Our culture is youth-obsessed. Historically, the aged were revered for their life experience and wisdom; today, people look to young media “influencers” as examples to follow. Anyone with enough technical savvy can generate thousands of followers on various social media platforms, often simply by doing stupid stuff. It doesn’t help that the technology moves faster than we gerontological denizens can manage. 

It is therefore puzzling to me that in the political sphere, we as a nation are battling tooth and nail for either one or the other presidential candidates who are well on their way to fossildom. What a crazy, mixed up world we live in!

I’ve given up imagining that I can change much of that, but though I cannot change the world, maybe the musings of someone whose shoes are wearing out with the journey can change the world for my grandkids and whoever else has their ear to a glass against the wall.

I can only hope that Proverbs 16:31 can be said of me: “The silver-haired head is a crown of glory, if it is found in the way of righteousness.”

Humbly Grateful

February 19, 2024

This evening we bid farewell to one of Sinclairville’s saints. ZoAnn Shields was a pillar of Park church, matriarch of her family, and lover of little children. She rocked, sung to, and prayed over entire generations of infants and toddlers in the church’s nursery. I’ve known Zoe for more than forty years, watched her raise her children, love little tykes, and struggle with her health. 

I learned something from (not about…from) Zoe tonight, a quote that bears repeating. “We can be grumbly hateful or gratefully humble.” The rearrangement of just a few letters makes all the difference. Simple. Memorable. Applicable. 

It’s not just the rearrangement of letters, though. Hateful to grateful and grumbly to humbly requires a rearrangement of priorities, a complete change of heart the likes of which only come through a faith in Jesus Christ…similar to Zoe’s. 

So which will it be? Grumbly hateful or humbly grateful? Choose wisely. Choose Jesus. 

Encouragement

 February 18, 2024

This morning’s sermon was about Epaphroditus, one of Paul’s helpers whom he sent to Philippi to encourage them in the faith. When I first read this text, it seemed quite unpromising to me, but God is faithful and drew my attention to a single word Paul used as explanation for sending this man to this church. He said it was NECESSARY to send him to you. Earlier, Paul talked about wanting to encourage the Philippian Christians because they had heard Paul was in prison and that Epaphroditus had been seriously ill.

My point is simple: encouragement is not optional. All of us face times in our lives, situations that feel overwhelming, discouraging, and difficult. We do our best to keep trudging on, but life can wear you down. Everyone at some point or another needs encouragement. It may be that teenager being cyberbullied, the single parent worn out with two jobs and three kids, the person with chronic illness, the one who failed miserably and now feels there is no future. Sooner or later we all need encouragement.

It’s not necessary to have “the right words.” Your presence is more important than your platitudes. Just be there for them.

Two questions follow: 

1. Who has been an encourager to you?
2. Who do you know who needs encouraging?

You can be the vessel through whom Jesus speaks encouragement to someone this week. Do it. It’s almost impossible to go through a week without meeting someone who needs encouragement. As Paul said, it’s not optional. It’s necessary.

Priestly Sin

 February 17, 2024

Someone once asked a preacher if it didn’t bother him that there were things in the Bible that he didn’t understand. “It’s not the things in the Bible I don’t understand that bother me,” he replied. “It’s the things I do understand that bother me.”

That’s how I feel about the Scripture I read this morning:

“If the anointed priest sins, bringing guilt on the people, then, concerning the sin that he has committed, he shall bring a young bull without defect for Yahweh as a sin offering.” —Leviticus 4:3 

When I was pastoring, this, more than any other Scripture bothered me. The thought that my sin would bring guilt upon those entrusted to my pastoral care scared me. It would be bad enough to someday have to stand before God and give account of myself; to be responsible for guilt I’ve brought upon others was almost more than I could stand. 

The worst words to hear would be for someone who sat under my teaching to say, “Your sin led me to sin.” I want someday to stand before God and be ab;e to say, “Here am I and the children whom the Lord has given me! (Isaiah 8:18).

Sacrifices

 February 16, 2024

It was nothing like the pictures I saw as a kid in Sunday School. The priests in charge of the Hebrew Tabernacle were depicted wearing pristine and almost glistening white robes. Everything was neat and tidy like the Baptist Sunday School I attended. The scenes described in the Bible were anything but. The Tabernacle must have looked more like a slaughterhouse.

Bulls, goats, sheep, calves, birds were all ritually slaughtered, their blood caught in bowls. They were butchered, parts to be burned on the altar, parts to be given to the priests. Fact is, there were LOTS of animals sacrificed every day. It was a dirty, smelly, bloody business. There must have been quite a cacophony of bleats, bellowing, birds screaming, and priests shouting commands to one another. The price exacted for the nation’s and individual’s sins was ugly, violent, and unsettling. 

In today’s sanitized religious world, the cost of our sin is almost hidden away. As Christians, we know Jesus died on the cross to pay for our sins, but that was long ago, and apart from Mel Gibson’s portrayal of the crucifixion in the movie “The Passion of the Christ,” we know very little about such things. The ugliness and devastating destruction of the human soul caused by our sins is lost on us; we have such a shallow understanding of good and evil, especially that which is in our own hearts, that we cannot fathom the depth of God’s love nor the cost of our salvation.  

Sin is gruesome. It’s ugly. It’s destructive, demeaning, and demanding a sacrifice unimaginable so we can be set free. Ponder the sacrifices in Leviticus 1 and 2, and take time to turn from sin and humbly give thanks for the great love of Christ to which they point. 

Behind the Door

 February 14, 2024

Happy Valentine’s Day! It seems a bit incongruous that this year, Valentine’s Day falls on Ash Wednesday. Are we supposed to repent for falling in love? Linda and I celebrated Valentine’s Day by me leaving her at the airport. She flew to Virginian to care for a friend who had major surgery yesterday. If you knew how little Linda likes to travel, and how she dreaded doing it by herself, you would know the meaning of Valentine’s Day. Her time in Virginia, away from the home she loves, is a true gift of love. We’ve had fifty-three of them together, so I guess we can sacrifice one for a friend.

My thoughts for this evening actually go back a couple days. Our daily reading through the Chronological Bible have been a bit challenging recently, as they have focused for a couple days on details of the construction of the OT tabernacle and the vestments for the priests. Aside from being extravagantly expensive and beautiful, it has been hard for me to glean much from these chapters. So I turned to my gratitude calendar to help me focus my thinking. The offering for the day was “three gifts found behind a door.” Hmm.

The first two were easy. For me, the first gift behind a door was the warmth of our home when I come in from a rather chilly outside. Sitting by the fire is a heavenly experience, and I get the first indication of that warmth as soon as I open the front door. The second gift behind a door is actually the first in importance: Jesus said, “I stand at the door and knock. If anyone opens the door, I will come in to him, eat with him, and he with me.” Sometimes it feels like there is a wall between Jesus and ourselves. In fact, there is; it’s our sin. But there is a door in that wall, and Jesus is knocking, waiting for us to answer so he can come in and wash away the sin and the filth accompanying it. The Gift behind that door is Jesus himself! You can’t get any better than that.

I had trouble coming up with the last gift behind a door. It took me two days before it dawned on me. Actually, it sang to me. For Christmas, Linda gave me a gift I had been wanting for years—a cuckoo clock! On the hour, the little door opens, the bird pops out and sings. It’s whimsical and utterly nonessential, but when that door opens and the bird pops out, I smile, and am thankful.

Three doors, warmth, wondrous salvation, and whimsey. I am truly a blessed man. One other door awaits; In a few days, the automatic doors to the airport will slide open and on the other side will be my Valentine, my wife.

Belly-crawling

 February 13, 2024

I should have known better, but I was only a dumb, naive kid. 

Today when I interviewed with the Jamestown Striders to become a mentor to an at-risk boy, one of the questions was, “Have you ever been arrested?” I suppose with our current drug epidemic, it’s getting harder to find people who answer in the negative, but I answered that I had not. On the way home however, an incident when I was about eight years old, came to mind; thus the above comment on being a dumb, naive kid.

A friend invited me to go with him to pick strawberries in a field behind our house. Today the area is all suburban tract housing, but back then, the new construction hadn’t extended to behind our own yard. Fields lay beyond. 

I should have suspected things were a bit fishy when my friend told me we would be crawling to the strawberry patch on our bellies, but again, I was a dumb, naive kid. I instantly became a smart, experienced kid when while enjoying a particularly juicy strawberry, a pair of shiny black shoes suddenly appeared in front of me. I looked up into the not-so-smiling face of a member of the local constabulary. I wasn’t arrested, but that might have been easier on me than being taken to my parents. Those strawberries weren’t quite so appealing thereafter.

The good news is, at eight years of age, I was too young to be arrested, even for a misdemeanor. It might not go so well with me if the scenario were repeated today. As I write, I can think of no profound lesson other than be careful who you listen to, and if a friend says you need to crawl on your belly to reach your goal, you might want to find a different friend.

Rest

 February 12, 2024

“Now therefore, I pray, if I have found grace in Your sight, show me now Your way, that I may know You and that I may find grace in Your sight. And consider that this nation is Your people.” And He said, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”

—Exodus 33:13-14 

Things weren’t going so well for Moses. While he was on the mountain receiving the Ten Commandments, the children of Israel were cavorting around a golden idol. God saw it all and was ready to destroy them all until Moses intervened. God relented and told Moses to get ready to lead Israel into the Promised Land. Moses however, wasn’t quite so eager to do so…unless God promised to go with him. Israel had already proven themselves to be a stiff-necked, recalcitrant people, and Moses wasn’t about to try to handle them himself.

So God agreed to go with him, but how would Moses know for sure he would do so? After all, God couldn’t be seen with human eyes, and it’s pretty hard to be sure someone is with you if you can’t see them. To ease Moses’ concerns, God gave him a way of knowing: “I will give you rest.”

If I am feeling overwhelmed, over tired, and worn out, it is an indication that a distance has opened up between God and me. If the sign of his presence is rest, restlessness is a sign of God’s absence. God is only absent when I have crowded him out of my life with my busyness, my sin, or my negligence. Restlessness is a warning sign to step back and take stock of the state of my soul. Rest even in the midst of activity is the sign of God’s presence. Jesus himself undergirds this with his statement in Matthew 11:28 

“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” —Matthew 11:28