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Shortly after the global economic downturn in 2008, I heard a news reporter say, “Every minute, thirteen people lose their jobs”. This data was shocking to me, but upon reflection, it became a metaphor for the nature of life as well. The statistic reminded me of the sign on the back of a garbage truck that said, “This truck makes frequent stops.” Life has a way of reducing us, exposing our vulnerabilities and dismantling our illusions. We want to avoid the delays and get to our destination. Often, we must stop or slow down. One philosopher said it well, “Life is a hollow bubble vulnerable to the prick of any pin.”

The seventh chapter of the Book of Judges chronicles some difficult days in the life of the nation of Israel. The nation had been reduced to servitude and bondage and was living well beneath her privilege as God’s chosen people. In the Book of Joshua, the nation acts as one man, but in the Book of Judges, one man acts as a nation. Israel’s tragic epitaph is chronicled by the last verse of the Book of Judges, “In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25 KJV).

Disobedience had led to destitution and despair. Their crops were being vandalized, flocks raided, property seized, and they were being treated as outcasts in their own land. Their country was under the control of an ancient enemy, the Midianites. Consistent with the pattern in this book, God intervened in these dire circumstances and raised up a deliverer whose name was Gideon. God assured Gideon of His presence and promised that through him the Midianites would be defeated (Judges 6:16). After some delay and much needed validation of his mission, Gideon issued an appeal and gathered a great army around him. Thirty-two thousand men answered the call to arms. But God said, “You have too many men for me to deliver Midian into their hands. In order that Israel may not boast against me that her own strength has saved her …” (Judges 7:2-4 NIV).

At this point in the narrative, God initiates a series of orchestrated reductions. In the end, only three hundred men were left after the first recorded instance of corporate downsizing in history. These men were valiant, vigilant and, in the end, victorious and won the day against overwhelming odds.

We too can survive life’s reductions. The Lord orders our steps and often places us or permits us to be in situations where we must depend totally on Him. During these difficult seasons in life, our faith is tested, tallied and tempered. We learn to trust in God and to depend upon His Word. You may be experiencing a “reduction” right now. Some loss has left you rocking and reeling. If so, be encouraged by the words of King David who faced not only the loss of his throne but potentially, the loss of his life. He said, “The Lord is [‘keeps on being’] my shepherd; I shall not want” (Psalm 23:1 KJV).

I was sharing with a friend, and he mentioned how excited he gets during the Holy Week Celebration. He said, “I am filled with hope, but I don’t forget the horror of it!” His words haunted me after our phone conversation ended. Hope and horror are not two words that one would normally expect to be used in the same sentence. Yet, in a simple but profound manner my friend unintentionally captured the essence of the weeklong Christian celebration that culminates in Resurrection Sunday.

How horrible that the blessed Savior of sinners was persecuted, arrested, wrongfully tried, scourged and then crucified. Heaven’s absolute best was victimized by earth’s darkest and most diabolical worst. The perfect Son of God who is and shall always be the hope of all humanity was crushed for a brief season by the horrific sin and evil that compelled the Jewish religious leadership and the Roman authorities to put Him to death.

The events of Passion Week that culminates in the horrific death of Jesus on the cross does not diminish the hope that the resurrection brings. Rather, they are the dark background that illuminates the splendor of the crown jewel of the Father’s perfect plan for this world and the world to come. As the Apostle John declared in the magnificent prologue to the fourth gospel, “And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not “(John 1:5 KJV).

There is no dearth of the horrific in this modern world in which we live. What Jeremiah the prophet said about his own generation could easily apply to our own. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9). One must only read the morning paper or watch the evening news to know that this assessment is not unkind or unwarranted. Nevertheless, this season reminds us that there is hope beyond horror. Beyond the most horrific act of all human history is the undeniable echo of an empty tomb and the victorious proclamation of the angel who said, “Don’t be alarmed . . . You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here” (Mark 16:6 NIV).

Moses is one of the most remarkable personalities in the Bible. He is the author of the first five books of the Bible. He was born a slave but raised in Pharaoh’s court as a prince. He made some serious mistakes and came up short more than once but, when we look at the broad expanse of his life, his failure was bookended by favor and fulfillment. In other words, failure is not final.

For many of us, failure can be like the story that noted Pastor and Bible teacher Chuck Swindoll told about Chippie the Parakeet. The bird’s problems started when his owner decided to clean up the seeds and loose feathers at the bottom of his cage with a vacuum cleaner. While vacuuming the cage, the phone rang. The owner turned to pick it up, becoming distracted and guess what, in a flash and with a thud and thump Chippie was gone. Realizing what had happened, the owner turned the vacuum off, unzipped the bag, and there was Chippie, stunned but still breathing. But Chippie was all covered with black dust, so the owner rushed Chippie to the bathtub where she turned on the faucet full blast and held the bird under the icy water. At that point, she realized she had done even more damage, and quickly cranked up the blow dryer and gave soaked, shivering and shocked Chippie a blast of warm air. Chuck Swindoll finishes this story about Chippie the Parakeet by saying, “Chippie doesn’t sing much anymore!”

If you let it, failure can take your song away. It can destroy your self-esteem; erode a marriage or friendship; capsize a career or marginalize a ministry. For almost forty years, failure had taken Moses’s song away. Alone, aloof and alienated, he must have felt as we often do that life had passed him by. F. B. Meyer in his classic commentary on Moses said, “Moses had sunk into an obscure and forgotten grave.” But his failure was not final. Something happened to him and in him on the backside of the desert. You might say that Moses experienced an “upside to a backside situation.” To use, pastor, author and leadership expert John Maxwell’s phrase, Moses “failed forward.” By God’s grace and through faith, he recovered from failure, returned to Egypt, led his people to freedom and was used of God to establish a nation. This former failure’s name is mentioned over seven hundred (700) times and occurs in every major division of the Word of God. So, be encouraged, failure is not final!

“Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13-14 KJV).  These words open the third chapter of the Apostle Paul’s most exuberant and joyful letters. It was written from prison. The seasoned and savvy apostle was occupied with Jesus Christ who was crucified but rose from the dead in the power of a new life. This reality was Paul’s “magnificent obsession.” When reading Paul’s writings in the New Testament, you get the sense that he was haunted by his past sins and transgressions, particularly the persecution of the church which he did “ignorantly and in unbelief” (1 Timothy 1:13). His faults, frailties and failures always seemed to appear in the rear-view mirror of his consciousness. He recognized that his pursuit of excellence could be jeopardized by the pull of the past.

The first time I saw the 1993 movie Groundhog Day starring Bill Murray, Andie McDowell and Chris Elliot, I was intrigued by the storyline. Murray portrays a weather man who is reluctantly sent to a small town to cover a story about a groundhog who he calls a “weather forecasting rat.” This is his fourth straight year on the assignment, and he makes no effort to hide his frustration. On waking the ‘following’ day he discovers that it’s Groundhog Day again!  This happens over and over again. First, he uses this predicament to his advantage, and then comes the sobering realization that he is doomed to spend the rest of eternity in the same place, seeing the same people do the same thing every single day.

Some people live life like that. Caught in a chronological prison, they cannot seem to escape the pull of the past. They wake up every day finding themselves emotionally, mentally and spiritually trapped in the ruins of yesterday’s failures, regrets, mistakes and even successes. Because of fear or lack of faith or both, they are unwilling to move on and live life in the future tense.

There are those who share my belief that the Apostle Paul is the author of the Book of Hebrews. In a passage that parallels the one that launches this article, he wrote. “Since we have such a huge crowd of men of faith watching us from the grandstands, let us strip off anything that slows us down or holds us back, and especially those sins that wrap themselves so tightly around our feet and trip us up; and let us run with patience the particular race that God has set before us” (Hebrews 12:1 – The Living Bible). This is wise and timely counsel in this New Year for anyone who really believes the best is yet to come, who wants to let go of the past and live life in the future tense.

Salvation is simultaneously position, progression and prospect. One way to think about this reality is to understand that all three members of the Godhead (Trinity) are involved in the salvation project. The Father planned it, the Son executes it, and the Holy Spirit reveals it. This is the clear teaching of Hebrews 9:4, “How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!” (NIV).

One can also reflect on salvation in terms of the believer’s actual experience. The moment we accept the Lord as our personal Savior, we enter a relationship that can never be severed. We experience not only pardon but a privileged position. As the guarantor and seal of our new position, the Holy Spirit indwells every believer (See 1 Corinthians 6:19), setting us apart (sanctifying us) but also working in us to conform us to the very image of Christ. This progressive pattern and process is the focus of the Apostle Paul’s teaching in 2 Corinthians 3:18, “And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit”.

Finally, every believer should be energized and encouraged by the hope that looming on the horizon of this world is the promising prospect that we will one day be and live in the presence of God and our transformation will be complete. The Apostle John reminds the church of this in his first epistle, “Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2).

As we celebrate the Advent season, may we rejoice anew at the wonderful work of salvation which God has wrought in us and which is the only earnest hope for this sin-cursed world. Praise God for Christ the Savior is born!

The basic task of theology is to think responsibly about God. Every Christian is a theologian. The only issue is whether we are a good one or bad one. From four primary sources of authority, we articulate what we believe about our God, life and the world in which we live. These sources are Scripture, tradition, reason and experience. Theological thinking is embedded in our worldview. However, the “mountains” we face in life stretch us beyond our limits and move us out of our comfort zone of settled truth and force us to think critically about what we believe. Faith is the fulcrum that leverages our beliefs for the Word of God says, “Without faith it is impossible to please God” (Hebrews 11:6).

Whether wrestling with issues that rivet and rack us with the illusive presence and mystery of God, facing the harrowing disillusionment that visits us when our sinful and selfish detours disconnect us from our destinies or trying to preserve stability when our relationships with others are strained beyond measure, we must confront fundamental life issues that necessitate us to think critically about who we are and Whose we are. The Word of God is the primary precipice from which we launch the theological thinking that seeks to relate facts, however straitening or straining to faith. We do not arrive at our task hopeless and hapless but have at our disposal a treasury of biblical knowledge that encourages us in our strife and struggles to “come boldly to the throne of grace where we find mercy and help in a time of need” (Hebrews 4:16).

The “ostrich with its head in the sand” approach is not an option for the believer who hungers and thirsts for the truth that addresses his or her own origin, morality, meaning, history and destiny. This truth is incarnated ultimately in the life, ministry and mission of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (John 14:6). It is the unshakeable platform from which one may speak a word of hope and encouragement to oneself or others in due season. Indeed, God allows us to comfort others with the comfort that we receive from Him during our own times of struggle and difficulty. This kind of thinking about the truth is the river that empties into the ocean of irrepressible gratitude and buoyant thanksgiving. In its boundless depths, by faith and the exercise of a critical intellect, and while thinking and thanking, we learn to master the language that allows us to “talk to our mountains” (Mark 11:23).

The Gospel of Luke focuses on the humanity of Jesus Christ. He is not only a son of David and Abraham but also the son of Adam. Luke’s two volume work—Luke-Acts, is the narrative of how Christianity evolved from the cradle of Judaism into a world religion. Through His Son and our Savior, the Father reaches out to all of humanity with a suffering love that knows no boundaries and that is incomparable in its manifestation and its operation. In this gospel, Jesus “must be about His Father’s business.” For him, there is nothing more pressing and urgent then revealing the Father’s essential character to those who were hurting, harassed and helpless. Compelled by a compassionate concern for those who were lost, Jesus gravitated toward those who were considered the outcasts in Jewish society. He incited the hostility of the religious leadership with what they considered to be his “unholy fraternization” with prostitutes, publicans and sinners.

According to Chapter 15 of this gospel, Jesus responded to their narrow-mindedness with a trilogy of parables that provided poignant portrayal of His Father’s deep and abiding love for those that were lost; the shepherd who had one hundred sheep but left the ninety-nine looking for the one that went astray; the woman who had ten pieces of silver but upon losing one, refused to cut her losses, but swept the house clean looking for the valued coin. But it is the third parable that Jesus shared in response to His critics that is undoubtedly the most endearing and enduring. God’s love is like a man who had two sons. His very existence was consumed with an unrelenting concern for their well-being. He made provisions for their every need and joyfully shared all his riches and wealth with them. One day, the younger of the two sons, weary of his father’s fellowship, burdened by his father’s expectations and disillusioned with his father’s business came to his father and asked for an early withdrawal on his estate account. In so many words he said, “I want my freedom”. “There is something missing in my life. I want to taste life to the fullest and satisfy the deep desires ebbing inside me. Father, I want to live my own life and do my own thing. I can take care of myself; I don’t need your help anymore!”

Bible students know how this story ends. The Parable of the Prodigal Son is one of the greatest love stories in all the Bible. It is a powerful portrait of the unrivalled love and care of the Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. God still welcomes prodigals back home with celebration and not with condemnation, with joy and not with judgment. Far countries are cruel, cold and callous places. The truth of the matter is that you and I can travel to a far country without taking a step if we become careless, casual and cavalier in our commitment to God and God’s business. And God’s sole business is “soul business” for He came to this planet in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ to save those which are lost. It is why God still makes promises to prodigals!

Faith is known by its object and not its operation. The focus of our faith transcends the function of our faith. Someone can believe with all their heart that something is true or that some outcome will occur but if that faith is based on a lie, a myth or a fairy tale, then the exercise of such faith is fruitless. On the other hand, even a fragile and floundering faith directed toward the appropriate object will be rewarded.

This is the primary principle in Jesus’s declaration to His disciples who were unable to heal a demon-possessed child who was brought to them by his father. He said, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you” (Matthew 17:20 NIV). The Gospel of Mark complements this narrative with these words by the Lord, “After Jesus had gone indoors, his disciples asked him privately, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?” He replied, “This kind can come out only by prayer” (Mark 9:28-29 NIV). While on the surface this is a rebuke of the disciples’ failure to pray; but it is more an affirmation of the power of prayer to focus, filter and fixate our faith on the One who is faith’s quintessential Object!

This line of analysis was launched by the recognition that we often experience frustration when we pray, fast or study God’s Word and are rewarded with silence from heaven that leave us perplexed and parched. During these dry seasons, it is important to remember that trusting is more important than trying. It is not self-effort that lays hold of God’s choicest blessings but surrendered effort! “Turn it over to the Lord and He’ll work it out,” the popular Gospel song declares. This is the clear teaching of one of my favorite Biblical passages, ““Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight” (Proverbs 3:5-6 NIV). Are you trying or are you trusting?

Shortly after the miraculous feeding of the multitudes, the disciples of our Lord became engaged in a discussion about what Jesus meant when He told them to “be aware of the leaven or yeast of the Pharisees and of Herod.” They had brought only one loaf of bread on their trip, and their minds raced straight to the kitchen and baking as they erroneously assumed he was talking about making bread to supplement the deficiency created by their oversight. Jesus said to them, ““Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear? And don’t you remember?”  (Mark 8:18 NIV). How could they be thinking about the lack of bread when he had just fed thousands with just a few loaves of bread? The problem was their spiritual vision was impaired.

A few weeks ago, my wife told me she was having difficulty seeing the road while driving at night. She added, “Something must be wrong with the headlights on the car.” I subsequently checked the headlights and found that they were working properly. However, the problem persisted. I took the car to the garage and asked the mechanic to look at it. After a careful inspection, he told me that the problem was not the headlights. The problem was the glass or covers over the headlights. They were caked with film and residue that were not discernible to the naked eye but could be detected on close inspection. He recommended a “headlight restoration” and said that the garage used a product that would guarantee success and enhance visibility. I had not heard of this before, but the price was more than reasonable. After the job was done, my wife’s visibility while driving at night increased significantly.

In the spiritual life, our perceptive lens often become caked with residue and film from neglect, ignorance, disobedience or even lack of faith. Our spiritual environment becomes dark, discolored and at times disconnected. When this happens, a restoration job is required so our visibility can be enhanced. The Holy Spirit uses the truth of the Word of God, prayer, other believers and even our circumstances to improve our spiritual visibility so that we don’t repeat the error of the disciples who “had eyes but could not see.”

We were installing the last of the four window blinds that my wife had been imploring her mechanically challenged husband to do. With the power drill in his hand, my brother-in-law asked a question that has helpfully haunted, hobbled and harassed me. He said, “Do you have a longer extension socket for this drill? I need it to reach the screw for this bracket.” He then demonstrated the spatial disparity and gap we were contending with. Immediately, I rushed to my toolbox (I do have one) and looked for a longer extension, but my search was futile. When I returned empty handed, he said, “We will just use a regular screwdriver and tighten the screw by hand.”

While I may flounder with nuts and bolts, drivers and pliers, wrenches and cinches, I am so humbled that God gives me the insight to discern the extraordinary in the commonplace. Truly, “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky proclaims the work of His hands” (Psalm 19:1 – HCSB). The Apostle Paul wrote, “From the creation of the world His invisible attributes, that is, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what He has made” (Romans 1:20a HCSB). Our senses are often unaware of the presence of God in the rustle of a leaf, the tingle of the wind, the chatter and chirping of the birds, or the rhythmic advance and retreat of ocean tide and surf. The eternal intonation and imprint of the Creator resonates and reverberates in everything that He has made, even the machinations of a power drill.

In life, we often find ourselves facing situations that are beyond our reach or grasp mentally, physically, emotionally, relationally or spiritually. In these tight places we are stripped of our self-sufficiency and the tools that we are accustomed to using just don’t work. While I was unable to find an extension socket for my brother-in-law, God meets us at our point of need and extends us and our limited resources to points and places that are unimaginable and unconceivable apart from assent to the faith that believes, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” (Philippians 4:13 KJV). My brother-in-law, gifted by training and experience accomplished effortlessly what seemed so daunting to me. Extending His Divine essence through forty-two generations and with nails in His hands, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ did so much more! He died on the cross while fixing and fastening the blinds that blocked the scorching rays of a righteous condemnation. Because He did this, anyone who believes in Him can experience the shade and shelter of God’s grace and mercy.

The first three verses of the eighth chapter of the Gospel of Luke describes the unique ministry of the Lord. Those verses record that “…the twelve were with him . . . and certain women . . . which ministered unto him of their substance.” (verses 1b, 2a, 3b, KJV). There is a general naiveté around what the ministry of Jesus looked like as He travelled from one village or town to another. The predominant image in our minds is that of Jesus plowing and plodding about the Palestinian and Judean countryside with the twelve disciples (men) in tow with Him, but these verses shatter that myth and misunderstanding.

Certainly, the twelve were with Him, but there were also “certain women” present as well. Although only a few of them are identified by name, they are shrouded in anonymity but were present nonetheless hovering in the background. They were there ministering to the Lord and helping to support the preaching and teaching of the Kingdom of God. These women of substance were emboldened despite the prevailing social and societal norms, even despite the disdain and discontent of the Twelve who disapproved of their presence. Here they are in our text, determined, dedicated, diligent and connected by a common desire – to be with Jesus.

These sanctified sisters, courageous companions and feminine followers that served the Lord and His disciples formed an unbreakable and unshakeable sorority of sisters. Between the preaching and the teaching, they helped cook. Between the recruiting of converts, they helped to mend and wash the clothes. They not only donated their funds but also donated their time. Like Mary, the sister of Martha, they stole away whenever they could to sit at the feet of Jesus with His disciples and hear the Lord’s teaching. They are mentioned as a group more than once. One woman could be explained away as an anomaly or an aberration, but their common connection conveys a strength and visibility which cannot be denied.

Jesus draws us into His orbit. He is the most magnetic and magnanimous Person in history. His call to “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28 KJV) is not gender specific but rings and resonates in every human heart that responds by faith to His universal invitation. Mothers, God’s special gift to us, represent this unique quality. Real mothers are truly women of substance! In most families, one will find a mother whose towering and titanic love is the relational sun around which all the other planets in the family orbit. At her absolute best, she is a gift from God to us and a common connection that helps hold us together when others and the world would tear us apart.

The pilot in our fireplace burns continually. I could cut it off after the heating season but choose not to do so. The incandescent flame can barely be seen although it is more obvious when the room is dark. If I really listen, I can hear the distinctive sound that it makes as the flame burns. The small flame emanating from the pilot in the fireplace is burning gas that comes from the natural gas supply that is piped into our home and neighborhood. I know that with one small turn of the heat control knob on my fireplace that the small flame from the pilot will transform into a blazing inferno that will encompass all the logs in the fireplace.

This image has become for me a powerful metaphor for what authentic and powerful prayer is. Prayer is the pilot that burns in the heart of every child of God. Inherent in our relationship with God is the privilege of prayer. Prayer connects us to the very life of God. God’s person, presence and power can be experienced when we pray becoming, with a turn of faith’s control, a blazing flame of confidence and assurance as we face life’s many challenges. Prayer is the perpetual flame that God uses to warm our hearts and light our paths.

In a Roman prison, the Apostle Paul experienced the power of prayer. Despite his circumstances, he was filled with joy. Although he was locked in, he was not locked out for the spiritual pilot of prayer burned in his heart. As he focused his faith on God he declared, “But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19 KJV).

It is wise then for us during all the seasons of life to leave the pilot of prayer on. Our lives should demonstrate an awareness that God will never leave us or forsake us but is always available to us when we pray.

As I anticipated sharing with our readers this month, a compelling image has helpfully haunted me. It occurs in the second chapter of the Gospel of Mark. Most of you know this story all too well. Four friends bring their incapacitated and immobile friend to Jesus. Undoubtedly, they had heard about the Lord’s power to heal the sick whether blind, deaf, leprous or crippled. All of us need friends like this band of brothers, who will go out of their way to assure that we are brought close to the Lord. Each man carried a corner of the pallet their injured friend lay so helplessly on. When they arrived at the place where Jesus was teaching, a great crowd had assembled and blocked their path to the Master and momentarily stifled their hopes for a positive resolution of their friend’s condition. However, undeterred they see a small stairway on the side of the building and determined to climb it, each carrying a corner and taking their friend to the top of the building where they would rip a hole in the roof, let him down so Jesus could see him and help him. The Bible says,

“Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven” (Mark 2:4-5 NIV).

Each man got actively involved and carried the corner of the pallet that was assigned to him. Their ability to reach Jesus was the climatic consequence of the creative cooperation and consistent corroboration their determination demonstrated. Of course, they were motivated by concern for their sick brother but each mobilized himself around a particular corner of the pallet and soon discovered that they were stronger together than they were in isolation. The Bible teaches us that you and I have a corner too! Have you thought about what your “corner” of ministry is? For almost forty years as a pastor, whenever a new soul was added to the life of the church, I would say to him or her, “We will never be the same again because of the gifts you bring to this ministry!” Writing to the church at Corinth, the Apostle Paul articulates this very truth,

“There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work” (1 Corinthians 12:4, 6 NIV).

There is something God wants each of us to do. There is a corner just for you and one for me! This is God’s vocational will for us. Knowing this, our hearts should cry out to Him in humble submission, “Thy will be done.” Active involvement in a ministry in the local church where you are a member is not an option but a mandate. Church membership not only has its privileges but its responsibilities as well. Pray and ask God to give you discernment regarding this area of your spiritual life. Seek the counsel of your Pastor or other mature believers in the life of the church. There is important work for us to do and there is the joy of experiencing the wonder of seeing Jesus bless others because of the faith we demonstrate as we worship, witness and work together.

How often have we heard it said, “The family that prays together stays together”? This well-known adage echoes the biblical emphasis on the centrality of the family in the spiritual life of God’s people in any generation. No pun intended but rhythm and blues band, Sly and the Family Stone had it right with their 2012 hit! It’s a family affair! The Bible clearly teaches that the Divine institution of marriage between a man and a woman and the children born of that union is the foundation of a healthy society and nation. Even when this ideal eludes us as it often does in this sinful and imperfect world, single, divorced, adoptive or foster parents are encouraged to embrace the biblical and spiritual principles that form the basis of the family. In the Old Testament, the inculcation of children with God’s Word was a primary concern. A key passage state,

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up” (Deuteronomy 6:4-7 NIV).

In 2017, while visiting Israel, our group of pastors were the guests in the home of a Jewish family on a Friday evening for a Sabbath meal. The dinner was seeped in Old Testament scripture and tradition and reminded me in an unforgettable way of why family has been so integral to the survival of the Jewish people in ancient and modern history. This is true despite the haunting specter of anti-Semitism throughout their history and the horrors of the Holocaust.

It is well documented that biblical marriage, and the family are under constant attack today. In the family, love is shared, self-esteem reinforced; biblical values are formed, and Christian character forged in the lives of our children. And most importantly, a spiritual firewall is erected around the family as a defense against the sinister, satanic and seductive onslaught of an increasingly secular and carnal culture. Joshua, the great leader of Israel was affirming this spiritual dynamic when he declared to his generation,

“But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:15 NIV).

The family is the basic building block of the church, and healthy families are essential to healthy and growing churches. The Christian family that gathers regularly to pray and study the Word of God impacts much more than their own relationship to God and each other. Let us not forget that when God sent His Son and our Savior to this planet, He was born as a baby in a family. In that family, the Bible says, “And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man” (Luke 2:52 NIV). We would be wise to mimic what Jesus and His earthly family modeled.

A few years ago, I heard a speaker contrast the “end of the beginning” with the “beginning of the end.” It occurred to me upon hearing the explanation that perception and perspective are intimately and inextricably intertwined and interrelated. Contrast the observation that “the glass is either half empty or half full.” In both cases, the quantity of the liquid in the glass is the same but the difference is perception and consequently perspective. The old axiom that “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” is part and parcel of this principle and pattern.

It is a unique perceptive pattern that drives the perspective of the wisdom writer who wrote, “To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven” (Ecclesiastes 3:1). The author was aware of a transcendent Person and Presence who he felt predetermined the events of life. He would later write in this same chapter, “He [God] hath made everything beautiful in his time; also, he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end” (Ecclesiastes 3:11 KJV). The Message paraphrases this passage, “God made everything beautiful in itself and it its time—but he’s left us in the dark, so we can never know what God is up to, whether he’s coming and going.”

The application of this principle at the outset of this New Year is that it is critically important as believers that we maintain the right perspective regarding the things around us and the things within us. However, the pessimism of the wisdom writer reflected in the verses cited must be seasoned with the awareness that through meditation, study, fellowship with other believers, prayer and worship we can discern and know the will of God for our lives.

One of my commitments (not resolutions) during the year ahead is to be more consistent in spending personal and private time with the Lord so that I can listen and hear that “still small voice” that resounds and resonates louder than earthquake, wind or fire. This desire is fueled by the perspective that God has a plan and purpose for my life (and yours too) and that God wants me to know what it is! How else could the Apostle Paul say, “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13). The prophet Jeremiah was in concert with Paul when he wrote, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end” (Jeremiah 29:11).

I encourage you too as we face another year that will surely be fraught and filled with seasons of uncertainty that you earnestly seek to know God’s will for your life so that you may view whatever experiences or challenges you face from God’s view and vantage point and not your own. This is the secret to true happiness and blessing. It is the difference between the “beginning of the end” and the “end of the beginning.”

Some argue that there is no “nativity narrative” in the Gospel of John. But I say they are wrong. There is a compelling narrative, and it is compacted in one verse. It reaches back into eternity past and reaches forward into eternity future. It is a key verse in the most magnificent prologue or introduction in all of literature.

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14 NKJV).

In the table of contents of his interesting book, 100 Bible Verses Everyone Should Know By Heart, Robert J. Morgan includes this verse in what he describes as “the Bible’s Fantastic Four”. The other three members of this quintessential quartet are Genesis 1:1; John 1:1; 3:16. This Gospel and the epic verse just cited reminds us that Jesus is more than just a man! The Gospel of John focuses on the divinity of Jesus Christ. While Jesus was born in Bethlehem, He always existed. Jesus is the unique “God-Man” of human history. He was divine and human. Two natures coexisted in the one Person who is the Son of God. John simply reinforces what Isaiah the great Prophet of Israel foresaw centuries earlier, “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given” (Isaiah 9:6a KJV). The child Jesus was born in Bethlehem, but the Son always coexisted with the Father.

In the era in which John wrote this Gospel, there was controversy swirling around the humanity of Jesus. John insists that Jesus while more than just a man, was not a spirit, phantom or apparition, but real flesh and blood. He grew tired and weary (4:6-7); He was capable of deep feelings (11:33); He openly wept (11:35); and on the Cross, He thirsted (19:28), bled (19:34), and died (19:30). And in His glorious resurrection body, He invited doubting Thomas to touch and feel His body (John 20:24-29).

This is the Christian narrative from which we cannot waffle or waver. This too is the Christmas story! As to His nature, the Eternal Word or Logos – the First Cause of all Causes; the Unmoved Mover, at a particular point in time in history became flesh. When the Spirit of God inspired him to write John 1:14, John boldly goes where no philosopher of his age would dare to go. Jesus was not just a cosmic principle but a Compelling Person. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. described the incarnation of the Word of God as “a crisis of specificity.” Dr. Frank Tupper, my theology professor at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, described this event as God “threading His eternal omnipresence through the eye of the needle of His perfect humanity.” The noted scientist Robert Oppenheimer, a theoretical physicist who was tasked with leading the development of the first atomic bomb once said, “The best way to send an idea is to wrap it up in a person.” Less scholarly but equally profound was the little girl who said, “Some people couldn’t hear God whisper and so God sent Jesus to tell them out loud.”

I needed to resolve an insurance issue with a company that merged with another carrier. The policy involved was dated and my client record hard to retrieve. Yet, the kind consideration and resoluteness of a receptionist whom I had never met spared me the inconvenience of having to listen to audio messages and endure a long wait on the phone to speak to the right person who could address my issue. I told her as I exited the office, “Thank you so much! You have been my angel today!”

This is the sheer essence of Thanksgiving for me. It is not the distant historical precedent for the holiday or even the seasonal celebration of faith, family, food and fellowship but the recognition of the small blessings which hail and help us each day. God did not give the Israelites manna for a year but just enough for one day except on the day before the Sabbath when they received a double portion! Our capacity for thanksgiving is too often hamstrung by the inability to measure and magnify the momentary morsels meted from the Master’s table which are “angels that we entertain unawares” (Hebrews 13:2). When perceived by faith as the echoes and expressions of a benevolence that knows no limits, these unexpected expressions, like fresh dew drops moisten the ground of our being with grace and gratefulness. For me, it was a receptionist whose labor of love not only resolved an insurance issue I was facing but left an indelible imprint on my life.

So, what about you this Thanksgiving? What is your gratefulness the measure and meaning of? Dr. G. K. Chesterton, a great Christian thinker of another era captures the heart of what I am trying to say to you in a wonderful insight on his experiences as a child during Christmas. He writes, “Then I only wondered who put the toys in the stocking. Now I wonder who put the stocking by the bed, and the bed in the room, and the room in the house, and the house on the planet, and the great planet in the void.”

It is this childlike wonder that ought to encourage our sense of gratitude during this season. We must celebrate the crumbs as much as the loaf; the whispers as much as the shouts; the teaspoons as much as the barrels; the inches as much as the miles. More importantly, we must always be ready to bless someone else who needs encouragement along the way. When I needed help, I was blessed by an angel and for this I am thankful. What about you?

Moses led the Israelites to the brink of the Red Sea. There, with Pharaoh’s army advancing behind them, the wilderness on both sides of them and the impassable waters of the sea in front of them, you might say that they were between “a rock and a hard place.” But Moses, bolstered by God’s promises encouraged the people. In Exodus 14:13-14 records,

“And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will shew to you today: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen today, ye shall see them again no more forever. The LORD shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace”.

Staring starkly into the face of their worst fears, neither fight nor flight was possible. Moses told the Israelites to “stand still and see the salvation of the LORD.” In the original language, “stand still” means to “stand or withstand.” They obeyed him and, at the conclusion of the biblical account of this strategic confrontation, after a furious but futile assault by Pharaoh, they were still standing.

Anyone reading this who is “still standing” after going through a challenging time would testify that there are times in life when we can do nothing but stand still. If you have not experienced this, just keep on living. Some years ago, country music star Kenny Rogers wrote an extremely popular song. The lyrics are now legendary.

“You got to know when to hold em, know when to fold em,
Know when to walk away and know when to run . . . “

By faith Moses knew that standing still was their only option. Doing nothing, surrendering our options at an impasse, or being stalled, stagnated and stymied by an obstacle or obstruction that is in our way is not perceived as a positive thing. One reason this is true is because our contemporary culture is plagued with what I describe as “activity addiction.” The noted apologist of another era, the late G. K. Chesterton was right when he said, “Our essential problems do not stem from too much pain but too much pleasure.” He continues, “Because so many have lost or lack a sense of wonder, we are bored.” When boredom replaces wonder, our ability to believe the impossible is diminished. Eugene Peterson shares a similar concern in his book, The Contemplative Pastor. He encouraged pastors to be “unbusy.” He writes, “There are two enemies in ministry, worry and flurry. Worry constipates ministry and flurry frustrates ministry.”

Rather than letting go and letting God fight our battles and, with childlike wonder expecting God to do what only God can do, far too often we get in the way with our confused and clumsy attempts to give God a hand. Therefore, the experience of the Israelites provides a valuable lesson for us today. Remember, they were not in this precarious position because of chance or poor leadership. God had led them there. He placed them in circumstances so daunting that only He could deliver them. Miraculously, the sea opened, and the Israelites crossed over on dry land. When Pharaoh’s army followed, they waters returned and the soldiers were all drowned. And when God was finished that day, God’s people were still standing.

It was the sixth inning. The run that would tie the game was on base. The pitcher and the hitter were locked in a duel. Anyone watching knew that this was a pivotal moment in the ball game. The count was full – three balls and two strikes. The pitcher would throw, and the hitter would counter fouling balls off the end of his bat. Finally, the hitter swung at a ball and missed. He was out on strikes. The commentator said, “He got him with a change of speed pitch!” Even with my limited baseball IQ, I know that this type of pitch is one that challenges the hitter’s hand and eye coordination. It leaves the pitcher’s hand at one speed and either slows or gets faster. Failure by the hitter to calculate the ball’s speed and trajectory usually results in a swing and a miss.

This analogy is true of life as well. The wisdom writer in Proverbs 27:1 wrote, “Don’t boast about tomorrow, for you don’t know what a day might bring.” By its very nature, life can change speeds on us. We are expecting one thing and something else happens. Our plans are disappointed, and we are forced to adjust because things did not work out like we thought they would. It is the essence of folly and foolishness to think that we can control the future. Our yesterdays, our todays and tomorrows are not things we can control. Power, position, prosperity and influence cannot exempt us from the uncertainty that every moment brings. We are setting ourselves up for a “swing and miss” if we believe otherwise.

Faith in God is the only real solution to this dilemma. Faith in God assures us that no matter what a day may bring, God can handle it. And if God chooses not to handle it then God gives us the strength to endure whatever happens. Therefore, Jesus encouraged the disciples not to worry or fret. He said, “Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today” (Matthew 6:33-34).

The batter swung and missed. The side was out. His team still trailed by two runs. He slammed his bat on the ground and walked back to the dugout disappointed. When life throws us a change up, we can be encouraged that the God who sees every moment as “Now,” will use even difficulty and disappointment to bless us. Despite the exile and the suffering, it brought, God told the prophet Jeremiah to the encourage the people of God with this promise, “For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope” (Jeremiah 29:11).

Are you dealing with a “swing or a miss” today? Has life let you down? Has someone disappointed or even hurt you? Are you saddened because your plans were derailed and now you feel as if all hope is lost? Well, there is good news. The inning is not over, and the game is not lost. God is determined “to give you a future and a hope.”

David is one of the most compelling characters in the Bible. David mirrors the best in the worst of us and the worst in the best of us. The story of David and Goliath is undoubtedly one of the most familiar and favorite Bible stories of all times. In 1 Samuel 17 David is positioned perilously in a land of giants. Notice that I used the plural form of the noun. In the immediate context towers the giant, Goliath, the champion of the Philistine army. He stood over nine feet tall, and his armor weighed 175 pounds, more than David did soaking wet! However, the historical background of this story includes solid evidence that Goliath had brothers who were equally imposing and formidable in physical stature and ferocity. Tradition has it that David knew of their existence and so fetched more than one stone from the brook that day.

We too soon forget that King Saul, who would become David’s avowed enemy and nemesis, was a “giant of a man” who stood, according to the Word of God, “…from his shoulders and upward… higher than any of the people.” (1 Samuel 9:2b). There pocketed in the Valley of Elah, David was dwarfed on one side by the behemoth Goliath and on the other by King Saul. Yet even though he was an unlikely son, an unappreciated servant, and an unorthodox soldier, he would prevail, because God was on his side.

We live in a land of giants as well. Our giants are varied and vicious. Their numbers include divorce, teen suicide, addiction, poverty, violence, racism, terrorism and hopelessness. Each of us have struggled with our own personal giants as well. Hidden hurts, private pain, secret scars, hobbling habits, silent screams and gagging guilt taunt, tease and even terrorize us. These giants worry, weary, wound and weigh us down. But we can learn from David, and we too can become a David in a Goliath world. God will help us face our giants, advance His Kingdom and plant His banner in this world so filled with sin, suffering and shame. When we face our giant, the paralyzing voices of doubt and fear will cheer, “Your giant is too big to hit!” But the voice of faith will courageously declare, “No, your giant it too big to miss!” So rather than retreating in the presence of a giant who will only take up more territory in our lives, we can by faith face our giant and declare like David, “The battle is the Lord’s, and he will give you into our hands” (1 Samuel 17:47 KJV).

Once a month, I have a scheduled encounter with Psalm 78. My appointment is prearranged as part of a spiritual exercise I began some years ago. This discipline involves reading five psalms each day and the entire Psalter or five books of Psalms each month. Psalm 78 is a recital of the history of God’s covenant people of Israel. The psalm summarizes a period that covers 1,800 years in the Bible and represents a moving and colorful mosaic of Israel’s experience of God’s grace and mercy through promise, miracle, blessing and even judgment. The journey that begins with a promise to a shepherd named Abram ends with Israel becoming a nation-state under the reign of King David. The nation would be destroyed and taken into captivity because of her failure to obey God.

In the context of rehearsing Israel’s tumultuous history, Asap, the author of this psalm, poses a question. It is a question that was raised by some skeptic or doubter of an earlier era. He asks at the end of stanza nineteen, “Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?” The unqualified witness of this psalm and biblical history is “absolutely yes”! To contemporize this response, what I am saying to you today is God can transform any desert into a diner.

We do not use the word “diner” much today. While traveling a few years ago, I observed a painting on the wall of my hotel room. It depicted a couple from an earlier period of our country’s history sitting in a diner on a train enjoying a meal together. Diners were the predecessors of today’s fast-food restaurants. What started with lunch wagons and moved to trains later became prefabricated buildings where larger number of people could sit down and eat. These outlets offered, as well, an affordable path for someone interested in going into the restaurant business that was more cost efficient than opening a formal establishment.

On that day in that hotel room the image of the picture merged with the question raised in this text. It occurred to me that the exodus of the children of Israel from Egypt was the first example of mass transit in the history of humanity. Israel was a passenger on the train called Providence. God was the Conductor and Moses was the Chief Engineer! In that situation God not only led but fed the children of Israel and in one situation after another transformed a desert into a diner. God will do the same for you and me when we place our trust in Him. What are you trusting God for today?

At the entrance into the hospital the words on the large sign caught my attention.  They said, “Pardon our dust, construction underway.” While certainly appropriate for the renovation taking place at the hospital and the resulting disruption of appearance and accessibility, the sign could just as well hang in the foyer or lobby of any local church.

Many a new convert or church member have become discouraged and disillusioned by their unexpected but unavoidable contact with the human dust and dirt that makes up the local church.  This is not a critique of the church’s janitorial service or a verdict on the overall cleanliness of the church building but only a recognition that the souls who gather at the church are under construction, and are imperfect, incomplete and all works in progress.  Theologically, this is called “progression sanctification.”  The Episcopalian pastor and professor Richard J. Neuhaus labels our collective humanity, everywhere flawed, fractured and finite as “not-yetness.”  God is not through with us yet but is conforming or shaping us into the image of Jesus Christ.  This transformation takes place in a community or family of believers and, while the process is not always pretty, neither is it petty.

To expect perfection in the church or for that matter, in us is to invite disabling disappointment.  On the other hand, we can be encouraged by the promise and prospect of God finishing the work He started in each of us.  To fulfill this grand endeavor, we can be sure that God neither slumbers nor sleeps.  The Psalmist says it well, “The Lord will perfect that which concerns me; Your mercy, O Lord, endures forever; Do not forsake the works of Your hands” Psalm 138:8 NKJV).  Therefore, as members of the body of Christ, we should never give up on each other or on ourselves.

After a renovation project at our home, the contractor encouraged us to change the air filter weekly in our furnace for at least a month to collect the excess dust the project had caused.  In the spiritual life, the equivalent is not a filter but a “factor” that each of us must use to help reduce the impact of the dustiness of our flawed humanity, indeed the earthiness in us and in others that so often manifests itself in the life of the local church.  The Apostle Paul shares that spiritual factor and focus while writing to the church of Ephesus.  He says to them and to us, “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you” (Ephesians 4:32 NIV).  It is not our dust that defines us but our dignity as recipients of God’s love and forgiveness that compels us to offer the same to those around us.

In Chapter 2 verse 11 of the Gospel of Luke (KJV) we find these words.  “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.”  This verse points to the two towering peaks in the Christian calendar and faith.  Both of these majestic summits are sighted in this passage.  On this occasion, it is their magnificent merger and unparalleled union that provide the message and the motive for even the angels to erupt in rapturous praise and thanksgiving.  The Gospel of Luke pivots and pulsates around Christmas and Easter.  These two events are Siamese twins and are eternally connected.  God’s eternal Son enters this world of sin and suffering through the cradle so that He might cradle a cross, rescue and redeem humanity from the darkness of sin, suffering and death.

The Gospel writer Luke was delightfully distracted with detail and provides a perspective about the Christmas story that the other Gospels do not give us.   Christmas is not just about the cradle but the cross as well.  The child born in Bethlehem is the Savior of the world.  The word Savior means deliverer.  The depths to which He descends to save us cannot be measured ultimately by His birth as a baby but His death as the God Man on Calvary.  As moving as the angelic chorus was on the night that Jesus was born, their hymn would be eclipsed by His cry from the Cross, “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46 KJV).

The Gospels record a Divine invasion and occupation of this planet.  Like the first man on the moon, Jesus planted two victory flags for those with eyes of faith to see.  One is the cradle and the other is the cross.  Christmas is behind us, and Easter is before us.  Both the ordinances of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper are moving memorials and repeated reminders of what the prophet said, “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given” (Isaiah 9:6 KJV).  This is why the Gospel message is so pregnant with potential.

How should we respond to the child in the cradle and the man on the Cross?  The angels show us how!  We respond with a song in our hearts!  We sing praises to God.  Amidst the contradictions, the cruelty and the uncertainty of our times, we sing “Glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace, goodwill toward men.”  Heaven has come to earth and colored the cloud of our circumstances with the radiant beams of His life-giving and soul saving presence.

I strongly disagree with the person who said, “Marriage is a lottery in which a man stakes his liberty and a woman her happiness.”  The Divine institution of marriage fulfills the very desire that God creates in us for love, companionship, and completion.  In Genesis 2:18-25, it is strikingly apparent that God’s design for marriage is discriminate, deliberate, distinctive, and delightful.   In the first marriage, when God finished the project, and long before the late singer Etta James appeared on the stage of human history, Adam awakened from a deep sleep and experienced an “at last” moment.

“At last, my love has come along

My lonely days are over

And life is like a song.” (Etta James – 1960)

In their pristine and perfect state, marriage for the first man and the first woman – Ish and Issha (Hebrew for “man” and “woman”) was truly a moving and magnificent demonstration of what happens when true love comes along.  God does for Adam what he is unable to do for himself and can never claim as something he achieved on his own.  Adam is fully asleep when the festival of God’s providence and the force of God’s power forms and fashions a perfect complement for him.  He awakens to the fireworks of a love that for a season made his life a song.  At its very essence, marriage is totally God and totally grace.

This truth is quite unlike the story I heard about the elderly couple whose children had thrown a golden anniversary party for them.  The husband was moved by this occasion and wanted to tell his wife how he felt about her.  The wife was very hard of hearing and often misunderstood what he said.  With family members and friends gathered around, as best he could he toasted her with these words – My dear wife, after fifty years, I’ve found you tried and true.”  Everyone smiled in approval, but his wife said, “What?”  He repeated louder, “after fifty years, I’ve found you tried and true.”  His wife shot back to the surprise of all who were present at the event, “Well, let me tell you something, after fifty years I’m tired of you too.”  This is a reminder to all husbands that whatever we say to our wives, we must be sure to choose our words carefully.

God’s perfect match fosters dynamics that are essential to the success of marriage.  Genesis 2:24-25 states, “Therefore shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave unto his wife; and they shall be one flesh. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed” (KJV).   Nestled in the core of this passage are four dynamics that every successful marriage must have.  They are separation, permanence, unity (oneness), and intimacy. Boundaries must be established, commitments made, a magnificent merger effected and truth and transparency experienced so that the well-being of the “other” is one’s primary and pressing priority.  When true love comes along and is experienced in the sanctified confines of marriage, these dynamics are foundational to a healthy relationship.

I remember hearing the story about a young boy of nine years old who lay on a hospital bed next to his older sister.  The sister was extremely sick and required a blood transfusion.  The doctors had confirmed that the young boy’s blood type was a match for his sister and had scheduled the transfusion.  As this young boy lay there, watching his blood flow through the tubes that connected him to his sister, he looked up and with a solemn resolve asked the doctor, “When am I going to die?’  The doctors had failed to explain to him clearly the nature of a blood transfusion.  When he started the procedure, he believed it would result in his death.  But this young boy was gladly willing to offer his life to help his sister get well.

I thought of this story while reading the moving words of Ruth in the text below.  Ruth was the Moabite daughter-in-law of a Jewish widow named Naomi.  She refused to return home to her own people when given the opportunity by her distraught mother-in-law.  Ruth’s response to Naomi’s insistence that she go back to Moab is still compelling today.

“But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you.  Where you go, I will go, and where you stay, I will stay.  Your people will be my people and your God my God.  Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried.  May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me.” When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her” (Ruth 1:16-18 NIV).

This type of commitment and resolve was rare then and it is rare now.  In fact, I would say that if “commitment” was a bird or animal, it would be an “endangered species.”  We need not look any further than our marriages, families and churches to see the evidence that people no longer “say what they mean and mean what they say.”  The self-centeredness and self-absorption that has become so rampant in our society continues to take hostages.  Prenuptial agreement, absentee father, severance, and surrogate are some of the many words and phrases that are used today to describe the shifting, uncertain and shallow nature of our relationships.

Churches face special challenges today because so many people are drawn to ministries because of convenience and not commitment.  This trend has been exacerbated by patterns spawned by a global pandemic that will force spiritual communities to confront a “new normal.” In this new space virtual and visual, online and in space options to worship and serve will collide leaving complacency and indifference in their wake.  “What have you done for me lately?” will become the mantra and motto of more contemporary churchgoers.  When “their” needs are not met, they will leave without so much as a whisper or whimper and start shopping for another church or website that satisfies them.  Self-satisfaction will trump surrender, service and sacrifice every time.

Ruth chose to forfeit any concern for her own security or personal satisfaction.  She was determined to fulfill her commitment to Naomi.  Her faithfulness was rewarded because not only did God bless her with a husband, a “near kinsman” who was able to provide for her and Naomi, but she became an ancestress of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Serving the Lord and others will pay off after while!

One of the truly remarkable characters associated with the birth of the Christ child is Simeon. Luke 2:25-35 records his story. He was an elderly man whom the Bible says was “waiting for the consolation of Israel.” When Joseph and Mary brought the child Jesus to the Temple for ritual circumcision and Simeon saw Him, he was excited by the presence of the one who was not only the salvation of Israel but the fulfillment of all his hopes and dreams. He took the child in his arms and blessed him. The early Church called the blessing Simeon offered the Nunc Dimittis. It is Latin for the first two words in verse twenty-nine, “Now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace.”

His prayers answered, Simeon looked at death as a friend who offered release, dismissal, and emancipation from the magnificent obsession that had now found fulfillment in the little child who he held in his arms. The prospect of his death was not a source of sorrow, pain, or foreboding but of peace. While his mission in life had been transacted in relative obscurity, it was now completed, and his joy fulfilled.

Christmas is a time for the child of God to hold Jesus in his or her arms and bless Him as the One who now and always fulfills our hopes and dreams. Simeon’s example encourages us as well to be patient at those points and places where the Holy Spirit leads us to trust in God who always keeps His word. The text does not tell us how long Simeon waited for this moment. We do know however by his reaction that this newborn child was worth waiting for.

What is the source of your or my joy during this season? What are we waiting for? Who and what are we holding in our arms and in our hearts? While these questions are relevant, the real issue in life and especially during this time of the year is whose arms are holding you and me? Simeon’s response in this text while literal is, also symbolic. Jesus Christ, the son of God came from heaven’s throne to earth to hold this world filled with sin and suffering in His arms. The salvation of Israel and of the entire world resides in the life of this child who grew up, died for our sins, and now at the right hand of the Father lives eternally to make intercession for us. He stretched His everlasting arms wide on a cross at Calvary and there He died for you and me. We are safe in His arms!

I am intrigued by the series of Farmers Insurance commercials based on real cases that ends with the narrator, actor J.K. Simmons saying, “We know a thing or two because we have seen a thing or two!”  The cases depicted in the commercials and enshrined on the company’s “wall of claims” are comical but a strategic part of the company’s We Know from Experience campaign to attract potential new customers.

My imagination, as it often does, took a sanctified leap from the material to the spiritual realm while recently watching one of these humorous commercials. Our struggles in life should not only “come to make us strong” but “come to make us known” as witnesses of God’s goodness to others.  Our life experiences however challenging, like biblical truth and tradition is a rushing and roaring river that God uses to not only strengthen our faith but to lengthen our faith as we impact and influence others with the knowledge we have gained by what we say and what we do.  As we look back over our lives, we can say too, “We know a thing or two because we have seen a thing or two”.

I can just imagine the three Hebrew boys who were bound tightly with ropes and then hurled into a fiery furnace at the bidding of an arrogant king, checking and chiding the pompous potentate by saying, “King, we are not bowing down to your golden image. We know a thing or two because we have seen a thing or two and we know our God is able.”  Or the Apostle Paul telling Timothy, his son in the ministry, “Son, I know a thing or two because I have seen a thing or two and I know whom I have believed and know God is able to keep that which I have committed unto His hands against that day.”

On the eve of another Thanksgiving, every child of God should be able to say, “We know a thing or two because we have seen a thing or two.”  God continues to bless us and make our personal history His-story for every morning new mercies we see! This is our never-ending story, and this is our perpetual song. Can I tell you what we have seen by borrowing the words of one of the church’s great hymns?

I’ve seen the lightning flashing and I’ve heard the thunder roll,

I’ve felt sin’s breakers dashing; they were trying to conquer my soul,

I’ve heard the voice of my Jesus, telling me to still fight on;

He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone.

It is a good time for each of us to file our spiritual claim not for damages incurred but for the delight inspired as God has answered our prayers and blessed us with the desires of our hearts.

Henry Ward Beecher, the famous 19^th – century American preacher once said, “Every artist dips his brush in his own soul and paints his own nature into his pictures.”  Every single creation whether a work of art, a music score, a chapter of literature or even the children that God blesses us with mirror who we are. During this fall season, the colors are breathtaking. As I view this panoramic portrait, my faith tells me that God, the Supreme Artist, has taken his paint brush, dipped it into the creative and compelling palette of his incomparable essence and splattered the landscapes with colorful hues that hint to all who truly observe and wonder that “God stands within the shadows keeping watch over His own.”  Indeed, in the marvelous march of this majestic mosaic of colors, the words of the Apostle Paul to the Romans ring true, “For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made., even His eternal power and godhead” (Romans 1:20).

From another perspective, the fall of the year marks the end of summer and the approaching advent of winter. The colors soon fade; deterioration levies its inevitable toll and the once pleasing and proud plumage fall to the earth in a timely death. This season is a reminder that life is transient and transitory. Only in a relationship with the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ can we find true happiness and joy. This experience is neither sensory nor seasonal but spiritual.

The times and the seasons are in our Creator’s hands, and He knows what is best for us. Our lives, while constantly subject to the ravages of change and transition are not arbitrary. God made us in His image and then saved us through the offering of His only Son for our sins. In Him, we are designer men and women vested with dignity and destiny. Jeremiah the prophet encountered this wondrous truth when God said to him, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end” (Jeremiah 29:11).

In our lives, endings, and beginnings and all that lay in between, like the seasons of the year are unavoidable. How timely the words of a popular song that describes quite eloquently the constancy of true love,

“Winter spring

Summer fall

These four seasons tell it all

Each has a special way

Of saying my love is here to stay.”

The ancient poet was right when he said, “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky proclaims the works of His hands (Psalm 19:1). Let us celebrate; indeed, proclaim the constancy of the One whose love is here to stay!

Recorded in 1 Samuel 1:9-18 is the narrative of a dispirited, distressed, and desperate woman named Hannah who we find praying for a change to take place in her life. The disciplined and determined demeanor of this woman whose name means “grace” represents a challenge and critique for our own spirituality. I can just hear Hannah’s voice echoing down the corridors of time and saying to anyone like her going through a difficult season, “Why not try praying for a change.”

Hannah’s passionate prayer and pleading was launched from haunting and hobbling disappointment. The Bible says, “The Lord had shut up her womb (verse 5b).” This was problematic for Hannah. She lived in a culture where a woman’s worth was measured by her ability to bear children. One of the reasons a man would choose multiple wives in this ancient society was as insurance if one wife was unable to bear children and especially a son or heir to his properties and holdings. Hannah’s condition was aggravated more because she was the favored wife of her husband (verse 5a). Moreover, it was believed that a childless woman was the object of Divine displeasure.
Are we so much unlike Hannah? There are barren places in our lives where our fondest dreams are dashed and deferred, and our hopes are held hostage by either an adversary or an affliction that overstays their welcome. Our barren place could be . . .

• A child, who defiantly throws away opportunity and blessing for the allure of a far country of fleeting and foolish pleasure
• A marriage or relationship where the currency of commitment has become desperately depleted
• Financial pressures so straining and stressful that there seems to be no hope of any immediate or lasting resolution or relief
• A lingering health condition or crisis like the woman in the Gospels who suffered with a blood issue for twelve long years
• A difficult or tragic loss of a loved one that leaves you trapped in an endless maze of grief and loss
• Or the memory of a failure that picks and pricks at your self-esteem

Such barren places are what the noted Christian apologist and author C. S. Lewis wrote about when he said, “Of unattainable longings, sour is the fruit.” Hannah’s disappointment was magnified by the presence in her life of a hurtful heckler named Peninah, her husband’s second wife and Hannah’s chief rival. Her taunting, testing, and teasing was rude, ridiculing, and relentless. But whatever does not make you bitter can make you better! The name Peninah means “pearl.” Pearls are formed in nature when a small grain of sand lodges inside the shell of an oyster. To reduce the discomfort and pain the oyster excretes a liquid that coats the grain of sand and subsequently hardens it; this is done repeatedly over an extended period until the pain is gone. In the process, a pearl emerges; proof that something painful and perplexing can be transformed into something precious and priceless.

Despite the haunting disappointment and a hurtful detractor, Hannah’s “holy discontent” caused her to pray for a change. She discovered that God has a way of turning every difficulty into a delight, every prison into a paradise, every manacle into a miracle, and every obstacle into an opportunity. Why don’t you experience this miracle of grace too and try praying for a change?

Most Bible interpreters link Psalm 42 and 43 together. Each end with a similar question, “Why art thou cast down, O my soul?” As if standing outside of himself, the author interrogates his own soul which is reeling from discouragement, detachment, and disappointment. The historical context for both psalms is David’s separation from Jerusalem during the Absalom Rebellion. At the center of his soul’s angst and anguish is his fervent yet frustrated desire to worship God there. Oh, what worship would be like if contemporary churchgoers were gripped by this kind of indefatigable passion!

Yet, despite the struggles, he articulates intermittent expressions of faith in these psalms. One of those moving affirmations is, “O send out thy light and thy truth: let them lead me; let them bring me unto thy holy hill, and to thy tabernacles. Then will I go unto the altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy: yes, upon the harp will I praise thee, O God my God” (Psalms 43:3-4). With these rapturous words, there is an acknowledgment of a fundamental truth in every believer’s life. Even in the most difficult circumstances, God has provided spiritual ushers to lead us into His presence.

When David became king, while consolidating his power, he kept his promise to Jonathan, his beloved friend, and sent a military escort to a town named Lodebar to bring Jonathan’s crippled son Mephibosheth to the palace where he was treated as a member of the royal family (2 Samuel 9:1-13). In Psalm 42 and 43, David was thinking of his own spiritual Lodebar (the Hebrew word means barren) and was voicing his faith that God’s light (Spirit) and God’s truth (Word) would find him and usher him into His holy presence.

These spiritual ushers remain at their post even today. In His high priestly prayer, Jesus prayed for the disciples and each of us. He asked God the Father to “Sanctity them through thy truth; the word is truth” (John 17:17). In the prior chapter, He promised to send the Holy Spirit, who would “guide us into all truth” (John 16:13). Will we not allow these ushers to set and seat us in God’s presence today, in that spiritual pew and place where there is hope, help, and healing?

I have observed that education is not merely the accumulation of facts, figures, data, and details nor just the ability to recite or regurgitate them on cue. Real education encompasses the ability, insight, and discernment to ask the right questions in order to get to the heart of an issue.  In this regard, questions can be as revealing as answers.  A mother shared with me some time ago how her seven year old daughter, rocking and reeling from the teasing and taunting of another child at school asked her a probing and profound question, “Mommy, why does God allow people to be mean?”

One of the remarkable aspects of Jesus’ ministry in the Gospels was His ability to get to the heart of the matter in his dealings with people.  So often he did this with questions rather than providing answers or information.  The woman at the well of Samaria who wanted to dip and dab in a discussion of religious ritual was rocked to her core when the Lord said to her, “Go, call thy husband and come here” (John 4:17).  This request launched a marvelous and momentous spiritual transformation in this woman’s heart and subsequently infected an entire city when she ran back and boldly shared her testimony, “Come see a man which told me all things that I ever did.”

While the outcome was not as encouraging, the application is still consistent in my next example.  Approached by a rich young ruler who inquired as to the requirements for inheriting eternal life, Jesus moved to the heart of the matter when he challenged this young man who had been faithful in observing the Law, to “sell whatever you have and give it to the poor,” (Mark 10:21).  Unable to part with that which he prized the most, this would be disciple went away sorrowful because “he had great possessions.”

This is exactly what happens to Abraham in Genesis 22.  Having blessed him and Sarah with a firstborn son and long awaited heir, God said to him, “Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I tell thee of” (Genesis 22:2).  The Bible records that Abraham without hesitation obeyed this order and prepared to offer his only son.  Before he could thrust the death blow with the knife, God intervened and a ram caught in a thicket was offered instead of young Isaac.  Abraham named the place Jehovah-jireh because of his renewed faith that God sees us and provides our needs.  God wanted to know if Abraham placed Him first and foremost.

God indeed sees and knows our hearts and will within the promptings of His powerful and purposeful Providence test our faith and love for Him.  Is there some Isaac today that is keeping you or me from being all that God would have us to be?  If so, it is time to “give up Isaac” and be reminded anew that the Lord will provide.

Nadia, is the oldest of our ten grandchildren and the first one to call me “Pa Pa.”  This title is less formal and more personal than “grandfather” and, from my point of view doesn’t date me as much as “granddaddy.”  Her reference point of course and mine is the love, trust and endearment that has accrued in our relationship from the unforgettable moment my eyes first fixed on her as a newborn to the present time.  Nadia’s birth hurled me happily into the realm that King Solomon spoke of when he said, “He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men . . . “(Ecclesiastes 3:11a).  Holding the flesh of my flesh in my arms for the first time was a moving and almost mystical experience bringing me close to the veil where time melds into eternity.

In Mark 14:36, as Jesus prayed in the Garden, from the depths of His agony He cried out to God, “Abba Father, all things are possible for You.  Take this cup away from Me; nevertheless, not what I will but what You will” (NKJV).  Like “Pa Pa”, Abba was a term of affection and endearment; it is how Jewish children addressed their fathers exuding both closeness and tenderness.  This form of address was deeply personal and represented unconditional trust on the part of the child.

It is this term of endearment that Jesus uses as He recoils and then eventually relents at the prospect of the cup of suffering, He would have to drink to fulfill His Father’s purposes and plans for the redemption of humanity.  Was it the prospect of the physical and emotional pain and abuse that loomed before Him which He would suffer at the hands of His accusers that burdened Him?  I do not think so!  Rather, I believe it was the anticipation that in the unparalleled union of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and at the point where “He became sin for us” (2 Corinthians 5:21) He would experience the Father’s abandonment until every human life was ransomed from the slave market of sin.

Today, too many children have been marked and marred by a different type of abandonment namely the absence of the father physically or emotionally in the marriage, family, and home.  These children are broken arrows whose flight to maturity has been stymied and stalled by the lack of a father’s love. Many of us bear the scars of this abandonment.  Yet, where sin abounds grace abounds even more and in the context of a saving relationship with Jesus Christ, we too can transcend the bondage of the past and cry out to God, “Abba, Father.”  Many of us who experienced this type of brokenness have been mended and molded by the matchless love of God.  Who is better qualified to reach out and touch the life of some child who needs to know and to feel the “Abba” or Pa Pa love of God in us?

As I contemplated writing this article in the immediate wake of Mother’s Day, several outstanding mothers in the Bible began vying for my singular and solitary attention.  First in line in this maternal march into my consciousness came Eve, whose name means “mother of all living” and whose story is recorded in the first chapters of the Book of Genesis.  In scripted cadence behind her appeared the Shunammite woman of 2 Kings 4:8 who showed kindness to the prophet Elisha and was described as a “great woman.”  Ruth, the beautiful Moabite girl, daughter in law to Naomi and ancestress of King David followed closely in their wake.  Her resolve to stay with Naomi against all odds is still riveting and remarkable!  Next, entered Hannah into my already flooded consciousness arrayed auspiciously in a garment of praise and thanksgiving.  She was the mother of Samuel, the first judge of Israel.  I heard Hannah pleading, “Say something about me!”

But her voice was soon muffled by the intense, intimate, and incessant intercession of the Syrophoenician woman in Mark 7:25-31 whose critically ill daughter was healed because her tenacious faith and steely resolve in the presence of Jesus and His disciples refused to accept “no” for an answer.  Completing the parade of matriarchs that passed by in this breathtaking spectacle outside the picture window of my mind was Mary, the mother of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ whose willingness to be a mother was etched in her compelling capitulation to the angel Gabriel, “Be it unto me as the handmaid of the Lord” (Luke 1:38).

However, the woman and mother who ultimately won my heart and head as the object of this brief spiritual exploration and literary excursion in the Bible is Jochebed.  She was the mother of Aaron and Moses.  Her story is recorded in Exodus 2:1-10.  She exudes the characteristic faith that mothers down through the centuries have modeled, mirrored, and mastered as they served and sacrificed for their children and families.  Her faith was marked by its courage, compassion, consistency, and consequences.  She placed her faith in God and placed her infant child in a makeshift ark when it seemed to be the only way to save his life.

God intervened and arranged for baby Moses a royal dowry and destiny and orchestrated his new state and stature as the adopted son of Pharaoh’s daughter who retrieved the baby from the Nile and raised him as her very own.  And just for the record, Jochedbed was summoned to the royal court to care for her own child and received a government salary for the privilege!  Such Divine acts and antics often caused my Grandmother to declare, “Ain’t God good!”  It did not matter to us then nor now that her affirmation of grace trumped her attention to grammar.  A nineteenth century poet shared a similar sentiment so fitting for mothers.

O spotless woman in a world of shame,

With splendid and silent scorn,

Go back to God as white as you came —

The Kingliest warrior born! – – – — Joaquin Miller (1839-1913)

So, on another Mother’s Day, I salute all the mothers who have touched our lives in so many special and unforgettable ways. We thank God for you and for your magnificent march through our hearts and our lives. I pray that God will continue to bless each of you with His favor.

On the backside of a desert while tending his father-in-law’s sheep, Moses, formerly a prince of Egypt but now a fugitive from justice experienced an encounter with God that transformed not only his own life but would impact the destiny of an entire nation.  To use the images in the text, the life of this once “wanna be liberator” was transformed from a desert shrub of dismal failure to a burning bush of Divine favor.  These words are recorded in the opening salvo of Exodus 3.

2 There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. 3 So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.” 4 When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!” And Moses said, “Here I am.” 5 “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground” (Exodus 3:2-5 NIV).

In these verses, Moses experienced three things that are fundamental to authentic worship.  First, he experienced a new position. He determined that he would “go over and see” when he encountered the phenomenon of a bush burning but not burning up.  The King James Version translates the Hebrew of this phrase as “turned aside to see”.  This is the appropriate response when we are in the presence of God.  Too often, our ability to sense the presence of God in our lives is crippled by the myriad distractions that keep us from making this critical pivot. Fundamentally, true worship is a powerful turn from the “mine” to the “Thine”. Anyone who humbly and willingly makes this pivot joins the distinguished company of those Jesus spoke about, “But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him” (John 4:23 KJV).

Bishop William Temple who served as the Archbishop of Canterbury in England during World War II (1942-1944) shared a classic definition of the multifaceted and multidimensional nature of authentic worship.  He wrote, “To worship is to quicken the conscience by the holiness of God, to feed the mind with the truth of God, to purge the imagination by the beauty of God, to open the heart to the love of God, to devote the will to the purpose of God.  My professor and noted Bible expositor, the late Dr. Warren Wiersbe described worship as “the believer’s response of all that he [she] is – – – mind, emotions, will and body – — to all that God is, says and does.” Worship therefore is a spiritual pivot and posture that engages and energizes us on three primary levels that are fundamental to the way God created us – conceptual, emotional, and volitional. Through the operation of our free will and the recognition that we are in the presence of the Holy One, we “go over and see or turn aside”.  Our priorities, plans, perspectives, prayers, and passions should reflect this pivot.

Secondly in this encounter, Moses experienced a new perception.  The Bible says, “And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him.” The reality is that God will not speak through us until He speaks to us. Faith is the primary means of perception in the Christian life.  The Bible says, “Without faith, it is impossible to please God” (Hebrews 4:6).  Not only can we not please God without faith but neither can we understand the things of God.  When we turn to God in faith then we can “see the kingdom of God” (cf. John 3:3; 1 Corinthians 2:14). Faith is the key that unlocks the vast treasures of spiritual truth. It is the hinge on which pivots the door that connects Divine viewpoint with human understanding.  It is the interface that engages the ever-expanding horizons of biblical interpretation.

Finally, when Moses turned aside, from the midst of the bush he heard God’s voice saying, “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground” (verse 5b). Worship is holy ground.  It is the place where spiritual transactions take place between the Holy God and sinful men and women.  It involves a new purity that God ultimately initiated and subsidized by offering His Son on Calvary to free us from the penalty, power, and presence of sin in our lives.  Worship is not an intermittent excursion that we experience on Sundays but involves all that we think, say, feel or do the rest of the week.  A “little dab” just will not do it!  The Psalmist states the case emphatically for commitment and consistency in this area.  He said, “Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name; worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness” (Psalm 29:2).  We do so with a new position, a new perception, and a new purity.  In the spiritual life, these things distinguish desert shrubs from burning bushes.  Which are you?

Like a harrowing scream in the canopy of an endless, dark night, reports began emerging on last Tuesday evening about another mass shooting.  This one took place in metro Atlanta, Georgia and involved three spas where a total of eight people were senselessly murdered and another seriously wounded.  Because six of the slain were of Asian descent, the carnage was connected by many to the well documented evidence of the increase of hate crimes against Asian, Indians and Pacific Island Americans in our country during the past year.  Again, I have prayed for the families of the victims and for our country which is becoming increasingly a culture of dysfunction, dissension, division, and death characterized by a deepening disregard and disdain for human dignity and life. Tragically, there is the real danger that the frequency of these horrific events could anesthetize us to the sickness of which they are symptomatic.  This shooting was yet another stark reminder that each of us and those we love, and value can at any instant move from being vulnerable to being a victim. This inescapable reality fuels our worst fears.

As the Christian community approaches the celebration of Easter, is there a message of hope?  Is there some light amid this dark night? Careening into my consciousness are the words of the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:55, “O Death, where is your victory?  O Death where is your sting?”  Quoting Isaiah 25:8, Paul amplifies and accentuates the declaration of the ancient prophet that the “Lord of Hosts . . . will destroy death forever”.  It occurred to me that at the heart of our faith is the belief that the priceless precedent, redeeming residue, and transformative truth ensuing from the preexistence, life, ministry, death, resurrection, ascension, and intercession of Jesus is the death of death. Jesus, our Lord and Savior, and the Son of God died and then He rose again.  Death could not keep Him in the grave!

I am reading once again, Dr. Peter Kreeft’s insightful book, Love is Stronger than Death. Like a criminal profiler, he examines the behavior of this sinister, seductive, and serial predator and reasons that death is once and at the same time an enemy, stranger, friend, mother, and lover. Regarding the Pauline passage I cited, Kreeft notes, “St. Paul taunts, mocks, sneers, and jeers at death like a child thumbing his nose”.   He then references Hebrews 2: 14-15 which says, “Since the children have flesh and blood, he (Jesus) too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death – – – that is the devil”.  Kreeft then writes,

“The fear of death casts a spell of bondage, uneasiness, and fear over a whole life-time.  There behind all the flowers is the same grinning skull. But ‘no evil can happen to a good man, whether living or dead.’ Even death has no sting.  For a Christian, the answer to Paul’s taunt, “O Death, where is thy sting?” is a simple and dramatic one: it is in the body of Jesus on the cross.  Death cannot harm me because it is a stingless bee; its stinger is lodged in Christ” (p. 96).

I choose not to live in fear knowing that the love the Savior has for me and for you is stronger than even death. Easter or Resurrection Sunday is an annual reminder that our hope is not trivial or tragic but anchored in the endless life of the One who is the first fruits of those who sleep.  The preeminent symbol of Christianity is not a cross but an empty tomb!   Jesus conquered death and the grave and stands in the shadows of our deepest fears, tragedies and losses ever keeping watch over His own.

This week, the words, “I love you with all my heart” or some variation of them will cascade and careen from countless lovers’ lips like waters rushing over the peak of a magnificent mountain.  Many of us will observe Valentine’s Day.  Perhaps the most enduring symbol of the day set aside to celebrate cupids cooing, caressing, cuddling and coupling is the heart. I am stirred by this recurring symbol and the lessons it embodies.  It reminds me of the pivotal place the heart holds in Christian thought and life.  And yes, in more ways than one, the heart of the matter is the matter of the heart!  Valentine’s is a good day to do a heart check.

When the Word of God refers to the heart, it is not the blood pumping cardiovascular heart that is in view but a reference to the place in the center and core of our being where emotion, intellect and will collide and converge.  “I will praise thee, O Lord with my whole heart; I will show forth all thy marvelous works,” the Psalmist declares in Psalm 9:1.  In Psalm 119:10 he says again, “With my whole heart have I sought thee; O let me not wander from thy commandments.”  The phrase “whole heart” occurs repeatedly in the Word of God.  See Psalms 111:1; 119:2,10,34,58,69;138:1; Isaiah 1:5; Jeremiah 3:10; 24:7; 32:41. God informs the prophet Jeremiah concerning the nation of Israel, “I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the LORD. They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me with all their heart” [“whole heart” in the KJV] (Jeremiah 24:7 – NIV).  This is encouraging because God blesses us with the capacity we need to love, know and obey Him.

It is important that we serve the Lord with a healthy and whole heart.  In the physical realm, heart health is improved significantly by a balanced diet and proper exercise.  Heart rate is the number of beats the heart makes every minute.  It is believed that a normal heart rate is about 70 beats per minute for males and 75 beats per minute for females.  We improve our heart health with diet and exercise. When exercising, the heart rate increases.  Strenuous exercise will increase the heart rate significantly.  One measure of fitness is how quickly the heart recovers after exercise.  People who are very fit will see their heart rate drop quickly after exercise.

The metaphor still rings true.  Spiritually, a whole heart is a healthy heart.  We exercise our hearts by reading, studying, memorizing and applying the Word of God.  This daily discipline will encourage powerful praying and wonderful worship. It will strengthen our witness and restore and reinforce relationships with spouses, children, family, friends, and others. Healthy hearts survive and strive, discovering that while trials and tribulations in life stretch and strain us, they also make us stronger.

In the heart of Jeremiah’s prophecy is a powerful promise and a remarkable reminder of how much God loves us!  God says, “Yea, I will rejoice over them to do them good, I will plant them in this land assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole soul” (Jeremiah 32:41 -KJV).  This month do not forget to celebrate the greatest love of all.  God gives to His people nothing less than His “whole heart and soul.”  God gives us God’s whole heart and soul.  Should we respond with anything less?

On January 6, 2021, I watched with great alarm and growing sadness images on television of a mob storming and entering the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C.  I witnessed with millions of Americans and a global audience this assault at the very heart of our democracy.  No rational person should have been surprised.  We were seeing in real-time the horrific harvest of the toxic lies and incendiary rhetoric sown around the integrity of our recent election. In light of what we now know about the security of the election and the absence of any widespread fraud, the misguided appeal to “stop the steal” could very well be framed as “trash the truth,”

The violence was the offspring of the dangerous union between division and demagoguery. The pernicious and persistent erosion of truth by the secular siroccos of relativism, materialism, and postmodernism in recent decades in our culture has metastasized over the past four years. Truth has been labeled and libeled as fake and alternative facts and disinformation have ascended to its vacant throne. Truth has been relentlessly pushed from the public square by the purveyors of prejudice, power, and privilege; truth has been denied, diminished, dismissed, and denigrated.  This growing cancer is destroying our democratic ideals, weakening our institutions while leaving in its wake a nation sorely divided and disrupted in our pursuit of a more perfect Union.

On an even deeper and disturbing level, the unfounded claims of widespread election fraud focused primarily on states with large black and brown populations and the assault on the “People’s House” have once again ripped the bandage off of America’s original sin and repeated lie – racism and white privilege starkly reminding us of our nation’s failure to live up to the true meaning of its creed that “ We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”.

I feel much like the biblical poet Asaph in Psalm 73 who was deeply disturbed and painfully perplexed by the condition of his nation but found comfort, clarity, and confidence in the presence of God.  He wrote, “When I tried to understand this, it troubled me deeply till I entered the sanctuary of God, then I understood their final destiny” (Psalm 73:16-17).  In the wake of the tumult of last week, the Spirit of God transported my troubled psyche to the spiritual sanctuary located in the Gospel of John that records the words of Jesus, “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32). Later the Gospel writer would record Jesus saying, “I am the way, the truth and the life; no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” (John 14:6).

In concert, these verses portray truth as perceptible, powerful, and Personal.  Truth is accessible to every child of God who desires it, frees us to advance in the plan of God for our lives, reveals our destinies, and finds its ultimate expression and embodiment in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This is the Truth revealed and recorded in the Word of God that every Christian and every local church is a custodian and steward of, and which becomes pregnant and powerful when disseminated by precept and example (our talk and our walk) in this broken world in which we live. It is the objective basis of our dignity, duty, and destiny as human beings made in the image of God and for whom His Son suffered, died, and rose again.

Last year, I watched on television with great interest a documentary about the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building located in Dubai.  It rises to 2,716 feet and consists of 200 stories.  The documentary focused on the construction of the building.  I was especially captivated by the great care and attention the architects and engineers gave to the design and laying of the foundation that supports this massive structure. 58,900 cubic yards of concrete weighing 110,000 tons were used to construct the concrete and steel foundation.

Biblical and spiritual truths were the concrete and steel used in the constitutional foundation of the American Republic.  Our nation needs to rediscover that truth now more than ever.  For that to happen, churches and true believers everywhere must pray, confess our sins, repent, rise above our disagreements, debates, and divisions and be salt and light speaking the truth in love with one voice to everyone who will hear.  There is no other way!  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., whose birthday we will celebrate this month believed that technology has made our world a neighborhood, but only the truth as revealed in the Word of God can make our world a brotherhood.  The choice is clear – either Truth or consequences.

Jesus was born in a stable in Bethlehem and is, according to the Bible, the Rock of our salvation. I believe the psalmist had this season in mind when he wrote, “O come, let us sing unto the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation” (Psalm 95:1). Considering the immensity of the One who is the redeeming Rushmore, the eternal Everest, and the great Gibraltar of our faith, one hymn writer appropriately commended Jesus by saying, “He’s sweet I know.” Jesus is a sweet Rock! This captivating combination, moving mixture and amazing amalgam of solidity and sweetness, of firmness and flavor and of density and delight plays a kind of melody in my heart and mind as I think of Christmas. Perhaps Samuel Rutherford, the 17th century Scottish pastor, theologian and author was thinking of this paradox when he wrote, “It is faith’s work to claim and challenge loving-kindness out of all the roughest strokes of God.”

All this reminds me of an experience I had while vacationing in Scottsdale, Arizona a couple of years ago. Sitting on a bench in front of the welcome center at the resort where I was staying, I observed bees swarming within and around a small crevice in a large rock. Their activity seemed choreographed because the rock that had become their focus and field of their labor and relentless comings and goings was next to a water fountain. The careening, cruising and cascading waters and resultant sprays from the fountain seem to orchestrate the flights of the numberless swarm to and from the rock. I am not sure if the bees were attracted to something sweet or fragrant within the rock’s crevice or were committed to making this recess in the rock their home. But as I observed the spectacle, my thoughts transported me to the words of Psalm 81:16.

“He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat: and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee” (Psalms 81:16 KJV)

Psalm 81 is a lament about the failure of ancient Israel to trust in God. Their lack of faith and obedience caused them to miss the opportunity afforded those who “Sing aloud unto God our strength and make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob” (stanza 1). God is prepared to use might and miracle to affect the deliverance and delight of anyone wholly devoted to Him. In the rugged and rocky terrain of the most difficult of circumstances, God can satisfy us with the honey of His presence, power, and provision. Facing difficulty, distress and disaster, King David fled his royal capitol from a son turned rival who was intent on taking his throne and his life. However, he paused, envisioned the rock of his deliverance, and punctuated the timeless truth that gave him strength amid his struggles. He wrote, “For in the day of trouble he will keep me safe in his dwelling; he will hide me in the shelter of his sacred tent and set me high upon a rock” (Psalm 27:5 NIV). As we continue to face the challenges of this unforgettable year, we can be encouraged by David’s example of faith.

The inevitable “rocks”, the barriers, boulders, and burdens in life do not have to become our undoing but can become the scenes of great and unexplainable blessing for those who put their trust in God. By faith, we do not fear these straitened yet sacred spaces but fly to these rocks, stand on them, and secure shelter in them recognizing that it in these unlikely places that God brings strength out of weakness, favor out of failure, healing out of hurt, light out of darkness, and truth out of the lie. Figuratively, spiritually, and most importantly experientially, God sustains and satisfies us with honey out of the rock.

I will be habitually yet helpfully haunted and hobbled by the question of what attracted the bees to the rock. But I have no doubts as to why I fly to The Rock! I encourage you to search for the Sacred in yet another Advent season. No matter what you are going through, hear and heed the words of the Psalmist who said,

“Hear my cry, O God; listen to my prayer. From the ends of the earth I call to you, I call as my heart grows faint; lead me to the rock that is higher than I. For you have been my refuge, a strong tower against the foe” (Psalm 61:1-3 NIV).

It was late on a Saturday evening when my plane landed in St. Louis on a return flight from Miami, Florida. I traveled there to attend the funeral of the mother of one of our beloved and dedicated church leaders. Weary from my travel, I exited the terminal, hailed, and boarded the shuttle that transported me to the long-term parking lot where I left my car the previous day. After exiting the shuttle, I gave the driver a tip as he placed the last of my bags in the trunk of the car. He took the bills I placed in his hand, thanked me, and began walking toward his shuttle. Then, he erupted with excitement. His unexpected outburst startled me! His rapturous response roused me from lingering fatigue. His repeated refrain, “Thank you, boss, oh, thank you, boss!” betrayed a Jamaican accent. I said, “You are welcome”, but thought, “This brother is messing with me. I know he is not that excited about a two-dollar tip.”

When I got in my car, I was still puzzled by his response, I reached inside my coat pocket for the bills that I put there to pay for parking. Then I realized what had happened with the driver. I did not give him the two dollars I had planned but had tipped him with the twenty and ten dollar bills I had set aside to pay the parking fee. No wonder he was overcome with appreciation!

So many times, during my life I have been surprised because God gave me so much more than I deserved or expected! I know you have experienced this too. The parking shuttle driver was the beneficiary of an unplanned and unexpected gesture. Yet, each day of our lives, we are blessed by the providential, purposeful, and pleasing generosity of God “who is able to do above and beyond all we ask or think” (Ephesians 3:20). Surely, we ought to erupt with thanksgiving. My driver should be our model, mentor, motivator, and measure. If he could be so thankful for a thirty-dollar tip, don’t we have so much more to be thankful for? He reminds me, and I pray you too, that Thanksgiving is not just the observance of some distant historical milestone or even the seasonal celebration of faith, family, food, and fellowship but, more importantly, the recognition of and response to the unexpected and so often unmerited blessings we receive from God every day.

Yes, we are all to some degree or another, Covid conflicted, pandemic pummeled, sanitizer saturated, mask mired, zoom zapped, school stretched, cabin cramped and distancing drained but we are still here and we should be thankful because God is faithful and so full of what I call, “sacred surprises”! Surely on Thanksgiving during this unforgettable year when we still face so many unexpected challenges and uncertainty, we can say “thank you” to our Heavenly Boss and Benefactor for His goodness, grace, and gratuity. And, while thanking Him, we can be kind and thoughtful to others. As one wise person said, “If you haven’t all the things you want, be thankful for all you don’t have that you don’t want”.

Faith and freedom are spiritual realities rooted in the mind, heart, and will of God who made all human beings in His image.  Faith is defined by the writer of Hebrews as “the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1).  It is one of the three ways of knowing and is the only means of perception in the spiritual realm.  The passage continues with the affirmation that “without faith it is impossible to please God” (verse 6).  During creation, God invested Adam and Eve with volition or free will; the right or freedom to choose their own path.  While the wrongful exercise of their freedom resulted in woeful consequences for themselves and their descendants, God did not create them to be robots.

Faith and freedom were pivotal pillars and principles in the founding of America.  It is the basis of the claim that America is a “Christian nation”.  The reality is, while our nation was founded on biblical principles, even then a significant part of the population was enslaved and were being systematically denied the exercise of both faith and freedom  Over two and a half centuries later, on the eve of a national election, perhaps the most pivotal in our history, our nation struggles still to live up to the true meaning of our creed that, “All men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights – life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

2020 has been a momentous year!   We are still being ravaged by a virus that has killed thousands, decimated families, disrupted our way of life, leaving millions unemployed and businesses closed because of the resultant economic fallout.  All of this has been exacerbated by the paucity of a committed, coherent, and consistent response to the pandemic by our federal government and the divisive politicizing of proven mitigation measures.  The tumult of this year includes as well the relentless toll of natural disasters – wildfires and hurricanes and the continuing civil unrest stemming from police shootings of people of color that have brought into bold relief this country’s tainted legacy of racial injustice and systemic racism.

Jesus said to His critics, “If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples; indeed, and ye shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free” (John 8:31-32).  Ultimately truth is personal and, according to the Word of God has been revealed in the One Who said, “I am the way, the truth and the life, no man cometh to the Father but by me” (John 14:6).  Truth is the spiritual adhesive that binds faith and freedom together.  But for some time now, this Absolute Truth has been under siege. The conceptual descendants of Pontus Pilate who asked Jesus at his trial, “What is truth?” (John 18:38) are many, myriad, and multiplying.  Beginning in the nineteenth century, the counterclaims and denials of the worldviews of secularism, naturalism, moral relativism, and postmodernism have taken an insidious toll on our apprehension and appreciation of biblical truth, tainting, tattering, and tearing the fabric of our institutions and exiling faith and freedom to the privatized closet of individual and personal experience. Truth’s eviction from the public square has left faith and freedom displaced spiritual orphans in a country that is becoming increasingly secular and carnal.

In this void and vacuum, the church alone has been called to be “the salt of the earth and the light of the world” (Matthew 5:13-14).  We are God’s ambassadors and custodians of the truth that weds, wields, and weighs our faith and freedom.  Yet, at a time when salt is needed most, “the salt is losing its savor”.  In real-time, we are witnessing a widening racial and ethnic divide in the evangelical church.  This fracture is being fueled and fanned by political division which exposes and exacerbates historical racial, ethnic, economic, and cultural differences in the body of Christ.

Evangelicals of every hue are bowing in obeisance to a false dichotomy. In one corner are the justifiable concerns of religious conservatives about abortion, immigration reform, biblical marriage, family values, law and order, and the co-opting of religious freedom.  In the other corner is the irrefutable outcry of those who lean left politically, believe that black lives matter too, seek economic justice and opportunity for all, the strengthening of voting rights and who believe no measure of political or judicial gain compensates for the crudeness, duplicity, greed, corruption, insensitivity, and divisiveness that is being practiced, paraded and parroted at the highest levels of our government.  The Truth of which the church is the primary custodian and that undergirds our faith and our freedom lies in what Pastor Andy Stanley calls “the messy middle”. This is the non-partisan, non-political high ground Christians must ascend to if we are to be more than just thermometers that measure the temperature of our culture but rather thermostats that impact it.

“God is no respecter of persons” (Romans 2:11) or for that matter, political parties.  Regardless of the outcome of next week’s election, neither political party can resolve all our issues because ultimately our problems are spiritual.  Knowing this, the church, unlike Esau, who sold his birthright for a mess of pottage, cannot forfeit her spiritual authority, autonomy, and stewardship of the truth for to do so would imperil both faith and freedom as God has willed them.  We dare not give up what is timeless for that which is temporal, surrender biblical principle for political expediency and abdicate our responsibility to be the salt of the earth, the light of the world, and the couriers, conductors, and communicators of God’s timeless truth to the purveyors of power in whatever political garment they adorn.

“Righteousness exalts a nation” (Proverbs 14:34), not political correctness or compromise! The church is the steward of the truth that set men and women free to be all that God has called us to be.  If the church fails to address our divisions, find common ground, become hostage to the horizontal and not fulfill our divine calling during this perilous time, history will rightly record how God’s people became lax and listless, sentimental and satisfied, political and petty, and vulnerable and vain, giving up the high ground in a conflict where ideas have consequences.  If we fail to renew our commitment to what Dr. J. P. Moreland calls, “the soulful development of a Christian mind” the consequences for our nation may be irreparable.  The Apostle Paul understood the stakes all too well.  He wrote,

“For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:3-5 NIV).

G. K. Chesterton, a Christian apologist of another era said, “Once people stop believing in God, the problem is not that they will believe nothing; rather, the problem is that they will believe anything.” The denial and denigration of absolute truth in American culture has perpetuated Satan’s lie and unleashed a horrific horde and lethal legion of deadly consequences upon us including family dysfunction and disintegration, violence, crime, racism, moral degeneracy, teenage suicide, corruption, rampant materialism, marital discord and divorce, sexual promiscuity and perversion, and the list goes on.  It is late in the day and the time is now for every local church and every true disciple to renew our commitment to “Love the Lord God will all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your mind” [emphasis mine] (Matthew 22:37).  Only then can we be salt and light in a nation that is losing its moral and spiritual footing.

The phrase “All things work together for good” is nestled in the interior of the familiar and often quoted twenty eighth verse of Romans Chapter 8.  This text makes the astounding statement that our circumstances, whatever they may be, are gainfully employed.  They have been given only one dictate or directive from God.  That is, “to work together for good to them that love God.”  There are no “duties assigned from time to time” in this job description but this one surpassing aim – FOR GOOD which means that which is good in its essence and its effect.    The word in the original language that is translated by the phrase “work together” is SUNERGEO – it is the word from which we get our English word – SYNERGY.

God mobilizes our circumstances to work together for good!  The tense of the verb here communicates continuous action in the present time.  In other words, “All things . . . KEEP ON WORKING.” There is no layoff, strike or work stoppage here!  For sweet assurance and encouragement in our trials, just lay these words alongside Psalms 121:3-4, “He will never let me stumble, slip, or fall. For he is always watching, never sleeping” (TLB)

We struggle to embrace and believe this truth because of a tragic lack of understanding regarding the sovereignty of God.  Nothing happens to us apart from God’s direct, permissive or over-ruling will.  Unfortunately, leaning too heavily on our own understanding we experience the paralysis of analysis and forfeit the comfort that this promise brings.  As G. K. Chesterton once noted, “Our thoughts are but a drop in the ocean of God’s intelligence.”

Our circumstances are not at liberty to do as they please.  They cannot act unilaterally or go in business for themselves.  A striking biblical example of this truth is found in Psalm 133.  This psalm is a powerful portrait of the blessing that the believer experiences in community,

Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!  It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron’s beard: that went down to the skirts of his garments; As the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion: for there the LORD commanded the blessing, even life for evermore (KJV)

Note that the psalmist ends with the statement “for there the LORD commanded the blessing.”  This passage is teaching us that even before we experience God’s blessing or, for that matter, God’s chastening, they have to appear before the throne room of God and be dispatched or dismissed to do their duty. Our circumstances leave His presence empowered to do His bidding and business and to bring blessing to those who love the LORD.

There is a line in one of my favorite poems that says, “And behind the dim unknown, standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above His own.”  There are seasons in life when we must deal with what I call the “silence of the sacred.”  We face challenges, failure, loss, disappointment, experience the betrayal of family and friends and the attack of enemies, all the while feeling estranged from the presence of God.  He is silent, obscure, muted and there is no comforting sense within us that God knows or cares about what is happening with or to us.  Of course, our faith tells us that this is not true and is only a lie that is forwarded to our disconsolate minds and spirits from the depths of hell.

The Book of Esther is a compelling literary demonstration of this reality in the believer’s life.  God is not mentioned at all in this Old Testament narrative.  But a closer examination of its pages will reveal that He is present in every scene, sight and sound and somehow manifests His goodness during crisis and chaos.  Like a stagehand in a Shakespearean production, He is behind the thick and dark curtains, planning, prodding, prompting and promoting the events that would lead to the deliverance of His people.  There are no spectacular displays of fireworks or rapturous trumpet blasts that signify His timely intervention, but He is there on cue, moving silently in the shadows.

Because hindsight is always “twenty-twenty”, I now look back at many points in my own spiritual journey and can discern more clearly the presence of God during those times when I felt lost and alone.  I rejoice now when I recognize that He was there to pick me up when I had fallen and whisper in my ears, “do better my child, do better!”  He was there in the shadows permitting the problem that ultimately strengthened my praying and strangled my pretension and pride. I now know He was there in the shadows rocking me lovingly in His everlasting arms when the battle was raging around and within me.

From the cross, Jesus cries out, “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34).  In this moment of abandonment and forsakenness, which is well beyond our ability to comprehend, God the Father and God the Holy Spirit recede into the shadows of their unfathomable essence, unity and intimacy with the Son as He takes on Himself the sin of the human race (2 Corinthians 5:21).  This estrangement is only momentary for the darkness soon surrenders to the light and the Son shouts in victory as He releases His spirit, “It is finished (John 19:30).  Divine fellowship is restored, and an unspeakable tragedy has been transformed into an unparalleled triumph. And so, even in the experience of abandonment, Jesus can “be touched with the feeling of our infirmities” (Hebrews 4:15).  It is when God seems farthest away from us that He is nearest and working in the shadows.

I am fascinated by the subject, substance and significance of leadership!  This gift is a fundamental factor, essential element, irreplaceable ingredient and compelling constant in the progress of humanity in all its varied expressions.  Marriages, families, churches, ministries, governments and businesses rise and fall around the impact of this vital variable that is at the heart of our relationships.

Award winning author Taylor Branch wrote a sprawling account and sweeping chronicle of the Civil Rights era that he titled Parting the Waters.  In the book, he narrates the providentially timed impact of the leadership of a young Baptist preacher who had recently received his doctorate from Boston University and was starting his ministry as the pastor of the Dexter Avenue Missionary Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama.  Like Rosa Parks, a woman whose courage and resolve gave birth to a movement, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr,’s life, love and legacy is now indelibly etched in the consciousness of this nation as a drum major for justice, freedom and equality.

In another time and place, a young nineteen-year-old preacher named Charles Haddon Spurgeon was called to the Park Street Baptist Church in London, England as Pastor. While the church had a seating capacity of fifteen hundred, only two hundred people were attending worship on a regular basis. Nine years later, under the anointed preaching and leadership of their young pastor, the church outgrew its facility and constructed a new one, the Metropolitan Tabernacle that seated six thousand people.  For years, this facility was filled as people flocked to hear this uniquely gifted preacher and pastor.  Yet in 1972, seventy-five years after Spurgeon’s retirement from the ministry, on an average just eighty-five people attended the worship service on a regular basis.

What both examples have in common is the impact of a leader or leadership on any organization or entity. One of my favorite biblical passages addresses this principle.  In 1 Chronicles 12:32, we find these words, “And of the children of Issachar, which were men that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do; the heads of them were two hundred; and all their brethren were at their commandment.”

This text emerges in a chapter in the Bible that records the migration of those who aligned themselves to David, the true and anointed heir to the throne of Israel during the years that he was being hunted, hounded and harassed by his nemesis King Saul.  The children of Issachar were part of a motley militia of misfits characterized by debt, discontent, distress and disconnection yet they made their way to the wilderness stronghold of David.  They were leaders who not only embraced a relationship with the future king but who also exercised recognition of the times in which they lived and encouraged the respect of their countrymen. Relationship, recognition and respect are non-negotiable components of leadership in any situation. Leaders who ignore these fundamental factors will find that no one is following them, and they are just taking a walk!

It is this principle that encourages the Apostle Paul to write to his son in the ministry Timothy and share these words, “You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others” (2 Timothy 2:1-2 NIV).

Effective leaders, like the sons of Issachar and the Apostle Paul are characterized not only by their production but their reproduction.  Pastor, author and leadership expert Dr. John Maxwell says, “We teach what we know but we reproduce who we are.”  Ultimately, in the Christian life, it is our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who is reproducing Himself in every believer through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Because of this reality, we must say by faith today, “Have thine own way Lord, You are the Potter, we are the clay!”