A Witness At Christmas (1)

 This was written at the request of a friend...

We were so excited that our new neighbors, Frank and Maureen, accepted our invitation to our Christmas open house. During the evening Maureen approached me and said, “Of course, you don’t think that Jesus is the only way to God, do you?”

“Well, yes, I do. Thanks so much for asking. I’d be happy to chat with you about Him any time. We are so glad you and Frank are here with us tonight.”

There are many reasons I love Christmas, and they all center in Jesus Christ. To me the idea that “Jesus is the Reason for the Season” means more than wearing a pin with those words on it; in fact, while I do have one of those pins, I’ve seldom worn it. I do have some Christmas ties, some red socks (thank you Red!), and red and green sweaters and turtlenecks that I mix and match during Advent. No, I don’t put reindeer antlers on my car or hang a wreath on my SUV’s grill. 

Yes, I am turned off by stores with Christmas displays during September and October and early November, and also by Black Friday. But I also have sweet childhood memories of department store windows with trains, planes, automobiles and fake snow during Christmas in Washington, D.C. 

While I was nominally raised in a liturgical church, after encountering Christ I participated in churches and fellowships that did not pay much attention to Advent or the Easter season – yes, yes, they recognized Christmas and Easter and some had children’s pageants, but that was the extent of it. However, during seminary I served as an interim pastor in a Congregational church that made a big deal of Advent. Vickie and I participated in the “greening of the church” and I prepared an Advent series titled, “Postcards of Promise,” which focused on God’s promises being fulfilled in Jesus Christ. (If anyone from Cliftondale is reading this, “Thank you!”)

In part, because of Cliftondale my preaching schedule has always included an Advent series and an Easter series, two times during the year that we have extended seasons of reflection, and hopefully witness, to the Incarnation and Crucifixion – Resurrection. Hopefully we have learned to not only observe Jesus Christ in His Incarnation and Crucifixion – Resurrection, but to also participate with Him in His Incarnation and Crucifixion – Resurrection as our Way of Life. 

However, it is not only my preaching calendar that has included Advent and Easter, more importantly it has been my living calendar, including my living calendar in my business career. I recall how, as a young Christian working at a gas station, I gave a Christ – centered Christmas gift to the owner of our chain of gas stations. As an executive, the gifts I gave my bosses and peers and direct reports need not have been explicitly “Christian” in message, but they were in intent. What I mean is that they were thoughtful, of quality, and were heartfelt. I did not buy junk for people, including, if you will pardon the expression, “Jesus junk.” I think I can say that I have never run into a store to just pick up something to give to someone – if anything I overthink my gifts.

But you see, all of this is part of the package of sharing Jesus during Advent (and Easter), because whether Christmas is observed reverently or not, it is all around us; whether it has been prostituted or not, it is all around us and it provides a natural conversation starter about Jesus. 

Because my coworkers knew me, and knew the way I was throughout the year, they naturally expected me to talk about Jesus during Christmas, after all, I talked about Him during the rest of year. During the Easter season they were not surprised if I asked, “Well, what do you think? Did it happen? Did Jesus rise from the dead?”

When I was a young executive, I worked for a Jewish – owned firm and was the only non-Jewish executive with the firm. During Jewish holy days I covered for my colleagues, and during Christian holy days they covered for me. I shared my story with them, and they shared their story with me (and since they represented Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox Judaism I heard more than one story). What would they have thought had I said, “I don’t celebrate Christmas or Easter”? That would have been a great testimony…yes? Would I have been a good steward of the Gospel? 

Vickie and I once worked for one of the finest men we have ever known, Earl was quite active in our city’s Jewish community and a leader in his synagogue. He used to say, “I have a rabbi, and I also have a pastor.” He gave us both freedom to share our faith with others, to be a blessing to others, and we always did so with respect for him and thankfulness for his kindness to us. What would Earl have thought had we said, "O Earl, we don't celebrate Christmas. Leave us out of our company’s festivities”? (We were his two key executives). Would we have been good stewards of the grace of God, of the gift of Earl, of Earl’s gift of trust in us, and of the Gospel?

In my last business position prior to retirement, I again worked for a firm owned by Jewish families. During large corporate gatherings I was often asked to pray an invocation. During our regional Christmas luncheons, attended by employees from around our region, I was able to say a few words about Christmas prior to my invocation. Not only that, but employee groups from different locations performed songs telling the story of Jesus’ birth. Would we have been gracious to our coworkers, and good stewards of the Gospel, had we said, “We don’t celebrate Christmas”? 

Suppose in our offices we had said, “Don’t ask us to help putting the tree up. Don’t ask us to help hanging wreaths”? Would people have understood us? What would they have thought? How would this have helped us share the love and grace of Jesus and the story of Christmas?

Now some folks get worked up over the likelihood that Jesus wasn’t born in December, or that the winter solstice was celebrated by non-Christians. O my, there are a number of responses to these concerns, more than it makes sense to touch on, but we’ll mention a few.

Firstly, we are called to worship God in spirit and truth (John 4:23–24) and “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing” (John 6:63a). We are called to stand fast in the freedom that Christ has given us and not be entangled in a yoke of slavery (Gal. 5:1). 

We have the freedom to celebrate Advent as well as the Easter season, whether Jesus was actually born on December 25 or whether or not He was actually crucified on the day we celebrate Good Friday or raised on the day we celebrate Easter. It would be, I think, dangerous to actually know the date of His birth because then we would make something out of it that would be pagan, truly pagan. When we think we know dates, when we think we know actual locations of certain events in the life of Jesus, we tend to get legalistically religious about those things and attribute importance to them that is earthly rather than heavenly. The holy places of the true and living God are in the hearts of women and men and children, they do not have GPS coordinates.

While I am not opposed to a trip to the land where Jesus lived, if we want to truly visit the Holy Land then we ought to pay attention to our brothers and sisters and get to know them, for the Holy Land is the People of God; it always has been and it always will be. I’m not saying that “place” cannot have a place, but I am saying that there is a holy dance in how we live; we hear the music in Spirit and in Truth, we dance to the music of the Trinity. There is much beautiful music surrounding Advent – in many spheres. Advent can be a special realm in the Holy Land, in our life with the People of God and in our witness to the world.

To be continued...

Finishing the Race – Strong! (17)

 

Continuing from our last post:

5. Faithful obedience to God’s Word and living under God’s authority can be critical in withstanding peer pressure. If we have been bought with a price, the blood of the Lamb, then we do not belong to ourselves but rather to Jesus Christ our Lord. When this is our Way of Life, then obedience to Christ is natural to us, what is not natural is disobedience and when we are disobedient our system is shocked by sin and shame. The world around us lives in rebellion. Many in the professing church are not disciples of Jesus but cultural “Christians.” Many who have come into a relationship with Jesus still pretty much live the way they want to. This cannot be an option for those who claim Jesus Christ as Lord, we have no option but obedience to Him and His Word. 

I am not speaking only about obedience in things we might consider large, but rather obedience in all things, including what we might consider small things. There are no small things. Obedience in “small” things, whatever they might be, forms our souls to obey in large things. As I write this, I can’t conceive of a small thing that I might be disobedient in, for disobedience is disobedience and is poison and the introduction of an unholy thing into my relationship with Jesus. As John writes, “His commandments are not burdensome” (1 John 5:3). 

Jesus lived under the authority of the Father, and we are to live under the authority of Jesus. Jesus did nothing out of Himself, and we are to do nothing out of ourselves, our life flows from the Vine, without Him we can do nothing. We live under the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ and His holy Word. 

This Way of holiness forms our souls not only to withstand peer pressure, it equips us to more than overcome this pressure, it forms us to be more than conquerors through Him who loves us. 

6. The sixth dynamic I’ll mention regarding peer pressure is expectation, we ought to expect pressure, opposition, and even persecution. When we expect something we are less likely to be surprised by it, and when we are surprised by it we can more quickly regain our equilibrium. 

The writer of Hebrews tells us that we are to go outside the camp, bearing the reproach of Jesus (Heb. 13:13). Paul tells us that the Cross is a stumbling block and foolishness to others (1 Cor. 1:23; Gal. 5:11). This is not only about what we say, but also about the Way we live. 

In John 15:18 – 16:4, Jesus in the Upper Room gives an extensive teaching on our rejection and persecution. He says, “If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you…If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you.”

Paul writes, “All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Tim. 3:12). If we have never encountered opposition and pressure due to our obedience and witness for Jesus, maybe we ought to consider how we are living, how our lives are being molded. 

When a football or rugby player goes onto the field, he expects to encounter robust physical contact. Imagine the shock of someone who enters a rugby game thinking it is a non-contact sport. Just as such a thing is almost impossible to image, so it should be impossible to imagine a follower of Jesus not anticipating opposition from living obediently under His authority and Word. 

When an experienced quarterback is blindsided, his recovery can be quicker during the play than a rookie player. Since it is not his first or second or third time, his reactions are better. We all need experience, but we will never have experience if we go along to get along and hide our witness for Jesus. Giving into peer pressure is more than hiding our witness to Jesus, it is denying Jesus. 

When we anticipate opposition, according to Jesus’s call to follow Him, we will be less likely to be surprised when it occurs. 

As we conclude this section, I want to emphasize that I am speaking of obedience to Jesus in every area of life, family, work, civic engagement, academic, entertainment, recreation, church. We must not leave Jesus at the door of our office, factory, school, or TV. When we allow the images of certain books and most television to enter our hearts and minds and souls, we are inviting them to form us into their image – and we are fools if we think they don’t. We are bringing idols into the Temple of God. When we acquiesce in unholy business practices we are prostituting ourselves and the Body of Christ, for we are members of His Body.

O dear friends, violence and greed and promiscuously destroy our souls, they become cesspools of poison and numb us to the holiness of our Lord Jesus. The Bible tells us that greed and covetousness are idolatry, yet we obsess over money and possessions and are impressed and intoxicated by their accumulation. How foolish we are. 

This is not theoretical to me, or to my wife. Many times in business we have said “No” because of Jesus. As a result, we have been able to share Jesus credibly with others, to pray with others, to serve others – as our Way of life, as our Way of doing business. One reason I usually had good relationships with wealthy and powerful clients is because my advice and counsel and judgment was not swayed by their wealth, it didn’t mean anything to me, I wasn’t impressed by it at all. I did care about them and told them the truth, whether it was something they wanted to hear or not. Those with whom I did not get along were those who treated others meanly and who did not care about the truth, those “relationships” were usually short lived; I am not for sale, Jesus has already purchased me. 

Nor have I ever felt uncomfortable about not knowing what is happening in Hollywood or Nashville or New York or on television. The content of music and shows and their presentations are, by and large, permeated with violence and sexuality and evil…yes “evil.” These things warp our souls. People who know me, whether at work or in the neighborhood, figure out that there are some things I am not going to know; this does not bother me. They also know that I may make a comment or two about what so impresses them. The really sad thing is that the same holds true for folks in “church” or in Bible study groups – most of them live in the world and are impressed by it. We are to be holy as our Father is holy (1 Peter 1:16). I think we have lost our minds and hearts and souls.

This has been a journey, and it still is a journey. Jesus means everything to me. I also love His People and I do love the world. For the sake of others we must learn to be faithful and holy, always for the sake of others – we must not be self-indulgent with sin, for life is not about us, it is about Jesus and others. If we say we love our families, let us live like it in faithfulness to Jesus. If we say we love and care about others, truly love and care about them, then let’s live like it. (John 17:19; 1 John 3:16).

Again, I write the above to say that this is anything but theoretical to me, it is the essence of my life in Christ. Also, as I hope to share at the conclusion of the entire series, I know what it is to be unfaithful to Jesus and others; I never want to go back there, NEVER!

Finishing the Race – Strong! (16)

 

Continuing from our last post:

The second foundational principle with respect to passages such as Colossians 2:10, 2 Corinthians 5:21, Hebrews 10:10, and Hebrews 10:14, which speak of our completeness in Jesus Christ and our complete forgiveness of sin, is that we are transformed into the image of Jesus Christ not as we look at ourselves and our needs and incompleteness, but as we behold Him and the perfect and complete salvation and new life which He has given us. 

The Scriptures have a lot to say about this, and we usually deny what we read. For example, in Romans 6:11 Paul writes that we are to “Consider ourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” Yet what do we really teach? We teach that we must sin, that we can’t help but sin, and that we are arrogant or prideful if we think differently, and that thinking of ourselves as sinners, rather than as saints, is just realistic. We read what the Bible teaches and then we say, “Yeah but…” 

There is an irony in this in that many of my brethren who criticize folks who can be emotional in worship, such as Pentecostals, say of them that they rely on their “experience” too much. Yet, they don’t see that they also rely on their experience of struggling with sin when glossing over clear Biblical statements and teachings such as Romans 6:11 or 7:6 or Colossians 2:10, not to mention the teaching that we are saints in Christ. We simply ought not to bend the Bible to conform to our experience, our experience is not to mold the Bible, the Bible is to mold us into the image of Jesus.

When we see ourselves as complete in Christ, when we see Christ completing us, then we are transformed from glory to glory, 2 Cor. 3:17 – 18.

While much of our preaching and teaching focuses on our needs, highlighting our problems, the Bible focuses on Jesus Christ and His wonderful work within us. The Bible teaches that we are new creations and that old things have passed away and that all things have become new in Christ. Why the Bible even teaches that we have a new way of viewing people, not according to what they appear to be, but according to the Spirit. (See 2 Corinthians 5:16–21; 4:18).

The structure of Ephesians nicely illustrates this. In Ephesians 4:1 Paul begins teaching how we are to “walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called.” From that point until 6:9 he teaches on how we are to live, dealing with such things as telling the truth, marriage, employment, the language we use, anger, and forgiveness. Why does Paul wait until the fourth chapter to teach these things? Because he first wants to teach us about who we are in Christ. 

Therefore, from 1:1 – 2:9 Paul primarily teaches us about who we are as individuals in Christ; from before the foundation of the world (1:4) to being raised from spiritual death (2:5) to being raised to the heavenlies to sit with Christ (2:6). Then from 2:11 – 3:21 Paul teaches about who we are as God’s One People in Christ (contrary to much teaching today). As has been observed, Paul first teaches us to sit with Christ before he teaches us to walk in Christ. First the work of Christ and our identity in Christ is established, then Paul moves on to teach us to “live as who you are in Christ.” 

Paul first has us focus on our fulness in Christ and Christ’s fulness in us. Paul says that Christ’s Body, the Church, “is the fulness of Him who fills all in all” (1:23). Do we see the connection between Ephesians 1:23 and Colossians 2:10?

We see this same principle in 1 Corinthians. While Paul has much corrective teaching to convey to the Christians in Corinth, he begins with an affirmation of who they are in Christ and who Christ is in them. 

“I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus, that in everything you were enriched in Him, in all speech and all knowledge…so that you are not lacking in any gift…who [Christ] will also confirm you to the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” (1 Corinthians 1:3 – 9).

We might think that such an approach would fail to motivate people to change their ways, and there was much in the life of the Corinthian church that needed to change. However, Paul knew that change does not come about by focusing on our deficiencies, but rather on the all sufficiency of Jesus Christ and of Him within us and us within Him. We must be secure to receive correction, and since Paul had plenty of correction to administer, it was vital that he affirm their security in Christ – otherwise they might view what he had to say as rejection rather than correction. (See Hebrews 12:4–13).

Galatians is a notable exception to this pattern, which ought to warn us of the extreme danger of legalism and works righteousness, we are called to freedom in Christ and we ought not become entangled in a yoke of bondage (Galatians 5:1). The teachers of legalism should be accursed for their witchcraft (Gal. 1:8–9, 3:1). (Why do we have a problem with teaching Wiccan but not with teaching legalism? Especially when Wiccan is typically taught outside the professing church, while legalism in entrenched within the church.)

If we live according to appearances, then when things get challenging, when we have opposition, when peer pressure presses on us, we will be tempted to assume that what the natural eye sees is real, we will lose our ability to look beyond what is “seen” into the unseen, we will be tempted to give up and give in, to drop out of the race. 

When we see who we are in Christ, when our security is in Him, when we realize we have not been given a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind; when we confess that there is not fear in love, but that God’s perfect love casts out all fear, when we realize and confess that we are complete in Christ – then we can withstand peer pressure, then we can finish the race strong.

There are two other considerations with dealing with peer pressure, we will continue with this in our next post in this series. 

Finishing the Race – Strong! (15)

Continuing from our last post:

“In Him you have been made complete” (Colossians 2:10a). 

“By this will [God’s will] we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Hebrews 10:10). 

“For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified” (Hebrews 10:14). 

Along with 2 Timothy 1:7 and 1 John 4:18, Colossians 2:10 was a vital image in my early life in overcoming fear, insecurity, and peer pressure. Peer pressure, insecurity, and fear often stem from the idea that we don’t measure up, that we are incomplete, that there is something wrong with us. However, In Jesus Christ we have been made perfect and complete. In Christ, we will never be more complete than we already are. 

Now it is understandable to think, “You’ve got to be kidding. How can this be? Let me tell you what I did earlier today that I wish I hadn’t.”

Your point is well taken. Indeed, how can this be? How can we be complete and yet act like fools and hurt others? How can we be complete and still sin? 

This is along the same line of mystery that we have in 2 Corinthians 5:21: “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” 

As one of my friends has put it for years, “We are becoming who we already are.” 

John express this in his first letter, “Beloved, now we are the sons of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is” (1 John 3:3). 

There are two foundational principles in all of this, and as all eternal principles they flow from Jesus Christ. The first regards our faith, do we believe God and His Word? Biblical faith has substance, it has a foundation, and it has sight – we see God and eternal things, heavenly things, when Biblical faith grows within us. Biblical faith is not blind faith. (See Hebrews Chapter 11). Biblical faith brings us into union with the Trinity. 

Biblical faith does not mean that we have no fear or doubt, but it does mean that in the midst of our fear and doubt that we trust our Good Shepherd who prepares a table for us in the presence of our enemies. 

This brings me to an equation that I have occasionally mentioned:

I can believe what others think and say about me, or I can believe what Satan says about me, or I can believe what I think about myself, or I can believe what God says about me.

Note that this has nothing to do with self-esteem, and everything to do with God and His Word. 

God’s Word, the Bible, is clear on the glorious work of Jesus Christ in the Incarnation, the Cross, and the Resurrection and Ascension. When we come into a relationship with Him, He brings us to a place in Himself in which we are pure and holy and complete and unconditionally forgiven and cleansed of our sins. We are even said to be “raised up with Him and seated with Him in heavenly places” (Eph. 2:6). 

We either believe this or we do not. Yes, yes, this belief can be a process, a growing awareness that the glorious Gospel is indeed true for us, and its glory is unfolding to be sure (2 Cor. 3:17–18). It is the object of our faith that is critical, not the measure of our faith. 

I have been incredulous when I’ve been in Bible studies and small groups in which the reaction to a Bible passage is, “I don’t believe this. Is this credible? I’ll accept this part of the passage but not that part.” 

It is one thing to wrestle with a passage, it is another thing to attempt to make the passage submit to us when we should be submitting to God’s Word. It is one thing to say, “I don’t understand this.” It is another thing to say, “I don’t believe this.”

The father cried to Jesus, “Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief.” This is a cry that is honest and hopeful and that honors God and that throws itself on our Father’s mercy. 

Someone once said to me, “You have a simple faith.” That was a complement to the glory of Jesus. Yes, I suppose my faith is simple. I believe Jesus and I believe everything that God has said in His Word, whether I understand it or not, whether I see it or not, whether I have experienced it or not. 

When we draw our final breath, we will have only Jesus on the other side to hold us. Why not let Him hold us right now? 

Colossians 2:10 was a source of mediation and confession in the same way that I previously described 2 Timothy 1:7 and 1 John 4:18. I held the image of Colossians 2:10 in my heart and mind and it grew in my soul. James tells us to receive with humility the implanted Word which is able to save our souls, to make them whole and complete (James 1:21). 

I’ll touch on the second foundational principle, the Lord willing, in the next post in this series. 

Believing God and His Word is critical to finishing well and strong.

Finishing the Race – Strong! (14)

 

Continuing from our last post:

Two verses which were vital to me in confronting fear are 2 Timothy 1:7 and 1 John 4:18. Another verse which was linked to these two verses is Colossians 2:10. When I say “verses” I mean not only the words themselves, but the images and reality behind the words, that is, what the words mean. As long as the Bible is “out there” and external to us it means little, but when it enters into us and becomes one with us, then transformation into the image of Jesus Christ occurs. The verses in the Bible are not some kind of magical pills that we take and then go on with life as we see fit to live it, but rather the Bible as a whole communicates God to us and draws us into relationship with Him. Peter writes that we are partakers of the very nature of God through the promises in His Word (2 Peter 1:4), now that is something to both ponder and experience!

Therefore, when I write that for an extended season of my life, a season of years, that I meditated on 2 Timothy 1:7, 1 John 4:18, and Colossians 2:10, I mean that I repeated them to myself verbally and in my heart and mind, that I walked through them as walking through a door, that I entered into them as entering into a room, that I rested in them as I’d rest in a chair, and that I ate them as I’d eat bread out of the oven. 

I also learned to invoke them, to remember them, and to declare them when confronting fear and uncertainty. As I came to understand that some things and situations tended to trigger fear, that I had certain patterns within me, I learned to see these situations coming toward me, much as an ocean wave at the beach, and I prepared myself by recalling the reality, in Christ, of these three verses. This is akin to an American football quarterback learning to read the opposing team’s defense, the quarterback learns to call an audible to adjust to the opposition’s alignment. 

It is also important for me to say that these verses, as I hope to show us, are really first about Jesus, they are not primarily about you or me. These passages made a liberating difference in my life because they reveal Jesus Christ, it is only as we see Jesus that we are transformed. We ought not to buy into the thinking that people need better self-esteem, that is simply not Biblical. What we all need is more of Jesus Christ and less of ourselves, for in Jesus we find our true selves as our Father created us and meant for us to be. We will never find our true selves until we see Jesus Christ and know Him living in us and know us living in Him. 

“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, of love and a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7). 

“There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love” (1 John 4:18).

With respect to 1 John 4:18, when confronting fear I learned to recognize that in my Father’s love there is no fear, that He was not the author of the fear that I was confronting. I also believed that His love was working within me at that very moment, in that very situation, to cast out the fear I was facing. This led me to trust Him in the midst of fear and uncertainty and in the temptation to accept the fear and the old patterns of life. Another way of putting this is that I surrendered to our dear Lord Jesus and trusted Him to shepherd me through the situation. I learned to have joy and confidence in the notion that there is no fear in the love of God, and that His love casts out all fear from our lives.

2 Timothy 1:7 was a constant reminder that our Father is not the author of a spirit of fear, He does not give us such an evil thing. Rather, our Father has given us a spirit of power – a strong and courageous spirit; a spirit of love – of course God is love, we ought to realize this; and a sound and disciplined and thoughtful mind – a mind with definition and purpose that will not be intimidated by darkness. 

The above is about what our Father and Lord Jesus have done for us, it is not about anything that we have done or achieved or merited; it is really all about the incredible love of God for us and the salvation and wholeness we have in Jesus Christ. We are called to receive from God, not achieve from God. 

We see these same images throughout Romans Chapter 8. For example, in Romans 8:15–16 we read, “For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, ‘Abba! Father!’ The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God.” 

Then we have the grand question in 8:35, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” 

The answer? “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38–39). 

When we contemplate our Father’s incredible love for us, and that His very Spirit lives within us; when we consider that nothing can separate us from His love in Christ Jesus; when we remember that our Father absolutely has not given us a spirit of bondage and slavery with its fear, but rather the Spirit of sonship, of adoption – then we can learn to live free from fear and in the love and freedom of the daughters and sons of the Living God. 

Then we can run the race laid out for us in Jesus Christ and we can finish strong. Then we need not fear peer pressure. 

We’ll look at Colossians 2:10 in our next post in this series. 

Finishing the Race – Strong! (13)

Continuing from our last post:

4. A fourth reason that we succumb to peer pressure is fear. We may be afraid of disapproval, afraid of not being part of the “group,” afraid of losing our sense of identity. We may also be afraid of losing our job, of not getting a promotion, of conflict; there are likely other things we could add to this list. If we are dealing with fear, whether in ourselves or others, we ought not to minimize or dismiss it; fear in its many forms is real and it can be paralyzing. We don’t seek elimination of fear, rather we seek the Presence of Christ and courage and assurance in Him as we confront fear. Paul writes, “When we came into Macedonia our flesh had no rest, but we were afflicted on every side: conflicts without, fears within” (2 Cor. 7:5). 

Our Good Shepherd will care for us amid fear. “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; You rod and Your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You have anointed my head with oil; my cup overflows” (Psalm 23:4–5).

When we fear, our Good Shepherd is with us and will protect us and walk with us through our fear. Knowing Jesus includes knowing Him when confronting fear. Our first response to fear ought to be to call upon our Lord Jesus and seek Him and trust in Him. As Jesus trusted His Father in the Garden and on the Cross, so we learn to trust Jesus and our Father in our own gardens and as we live in the Cross of Christ and the Cross of Christ lives in us. 

Let me please share two verses with you that have been vital to me throughout the years. I’ll begin by saying that I grew up in fear and insecurity. I fit one of the classic profiles of a child of an alcoholic. I don’t talk about this much, and I don’t write about it hardly at all, because I tend to keep away from the autobiographical, I want to focus on Jesus, always on Jesus. I think that the autobiographical route can lead to much speculation and “what ifs” and unhelpful analysis. I don’t think we find peace and healing in perpetual self – analysis, I think we find wholeness in the Person of Jesus Christ. Also, regarding my Dad, because he came to know Jesus during the final weeks of his life, and because a few years before he died our relationship was better than ever, I want to recall how Jesus worked miracles in my Dad (and in me!), not those earlier years. 

I should probably also write, in case it might help someone reading this, that there are times when understanding the dynamics of our fears can either dispel them or dissipate the fog surrounding them. Sometimes this is possible, sometimes it isn’t. In my case, when I was in my late 30s, I read about the adult children of alcoholics and I said, “That’s me!” I realized that my own fears and insecurities were rooted in the violence and uncertainties of my early years. Yes, yes, of course there were spiritual dynamics in all of this, we ought to view things holistically; but life experiences can open our souls to accept things which are not of our kind heavenly Father, and when those things, such as fear, are embedded within us, we have poisonous weeds in the garden. 

I hope that those readers who cannot relate to what I’m saying will bear with me, I didn’t intend to go in this direction. I also hope that those of you who can relate, in some measure, to what I’m writing will take courage – Jesus is indeed our Good Shepherd and He loves us so very deeply. 

Well now, this is a blog and not a book or a full-length article, so I will pick this back up in the next post in this series and hopefully we’ll consider two verses that have been vital to my life when confronting fear. 

Finishing the Race – Strong! (12)

 

As we continue to consider Peter, Paul, and Barnabas in Galatians 2:11 – 21, and Peter’s surrender to peer pressure, let’s remember that, as far as I know, we are all susceptible to peer pressure and to think that we aren’t puts us in a dangerous place. As Paul wrote, “Let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall” (1 Cor. 10:12). 

Here are six things to consider regarding peer pressure:

1. Our identity is rooted in Jesus Christ. We belong to Him, He has purchased us with His blood and we are no longer our own. As we learn to live in Christ as our identity, as our All in all, we can better withstand peer pressure for we see it for what it is, a temptation to repudiate Jesus Christ and our identity in Him. Peer pressure says, “Identity yourself with us.” This is especially strong in the religious world, in the Christian world, where self-righteous conformity is strong. We all want to belong, and often to belong means to conform – we don’t really want a functioning Body of Christ, we want confinement and conformity. 

Regarding the world, when our identity is in Jesus Christ, when we live this Way every day, saying “No” to the world is simply what we do. On the one hand we love the people in the world and are always seeking their good, on the other hand we refuse to drink the poison of the world and deny our Lord Jesus. This is simply who we are in Jesus. I write “simply” because it is a first – tier fact, a foundational reality. We live in unity with the Trinty, we are children of another world.

2. Peer pressure attacks the issue of security and insecurity, it seeks to make us insecure and to succumb to it to gain (temporary and illusive) security. Caving into peer pressure makes us perpetually insecure. When Christ is our identity, He is also our security. When David writes in Psalms that God is his refuge, rock, shelter, and hiding place, one of the things he is saying is that God is his security.  A blessing in reading Psalms every day is to be reminded that God is indeed our security and identity. One of the great themes of the New Testament is that we are “in Christ.” Over and over we read that we are “in Christ.” These are precious statements and treasures in the Word that we tend to gloss over, but O the glory we can experience “in Christ” when we enter into them. 

3. Peer pressure raises the issue of approval, whose approval are we seeking? This is another issue that ought to be foundational to daily life. It ought to be a “given.” Paul wrote, “For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ” (Gal. 1:10 NASB). Since we are all purchased by Jesus Christ, then we all should be living as His bondservants, and His approval ought to be what we are seeking, not the approval of others.

Jesus asked, “How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God?” (John 5:44). Again, this has to do with how we live our daily lives – we are talking about a Way of Life, and that Way is Jesus Christ. This is how we think and feel and surrender our wills – every day is to be a New Day of koinonia with our dear Lord Jesus, a Day of abiding in the Vine. When we live in Christ we are better able to see peer pressure for what it is, it is the serpent asking, “Has God really said this?” It is also Jesus saying, “I Am your Good Sheperd, look to Me, hear My Voice, surrender to My care.” 

The Lord willing, we’ll consider three other elements of peer pressure in the next post in this series. 

Bonhoeffer Movie

There is a new movie being released about Dietrich Bonhoeffer; I hope it is good – portraying his life and thought and their complexities. From the safety of the United States Bonhoeffer returned to Germany to suffer with his nation and his brethren.

As I wrote to a friend yesterday, there is nothing simple about Bonhoeffer. If the movie gives you closure then it has fallen short, but if it gives you something to wrestle with the rest of your life, well then it was likely worth viewing. 

I was 15 or 16 when I first read Discipleship, that was 1966; it continues to challenge me. When I read Bonhoeffer’s statement, “When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die,” my heart was captured for it melded into Mark 8:34 – 38. Some things you only have to read once to remember, you only have to read once for them to be burned into your soul. Any expression of Christianity that falls short of Christ’s call to discipleship is another religion. It is either all for Jesus Christ or nothing for Jesus Christ. If Bonhoeffer had not believed this he would have remained in the United States.

Now how Bonhoeffer worked this out, especially in his final years, here we have the complexity which defined his life and ministry and ultimately his civic engagement. To know his life in more than a superficial fashion is to realize the complexity – even if we can’t swim in the deep waters that Bonhoeffer did. 

If you have never read Bonhoeffer, then I think Discipleship, Reader's Edition, published by Fortress Press is the place to begin. It is translated by Barbara Green and Reinhard Krauss - a wonderful book by Bonhoeffer.

The definitive biography is, Dietrich Bonhoeffer A Biography, by Eberhard Bethge, Revised Edition, Fortress Press. It is worth the journey at over 900 pages. By the end you'll know more than when you started.

Bethge was not only married to Bonhoeffer's niece, but he served in ministry with Bonhoeffer and was the executor of Bonhoeffer's literary estate. He also edited 6 volumes of Bonhoeffer's collected works and numerous other Bonhoeffer writings. Bethge was Bonhoeffer’s friend. 

A few years ago a “popular” biography of Bonhoeffer was published that was not only poorly written on a literary level, but which has inaccuracies. When historians pointed out these inaccuracies the author accused them of nitpicking. Sadly, this author is currently misrepresenting Bonhoeffer and twisting Bonhoeffer’s thinking and actions for political ends and to promote Christian heresy. 

I will likely wait to stream the movie when it is available and then perhaps share some thoughts on it. Hopefully the movie portrays complexity to some degree, and challenges us to live for Jesus and others, to wrestle with life and live in tension, being faithful to Christ, always to Christ. Hopefully the movie will not give us closure. 

Finishing the Race - Strong! (11)

What do we see in the conflict that occurred in Antioch between Peter and Paul? What can we learn? (Galatians 2:11 – 21). 

Peter, who Christ had expressly spoken to about calling no man unclean (Acts 10:1 – 11:18) and who had brought the Gospel to the non-Jewish peoples, was visiting Antioch and fellowshipping with Gentiles, including eating with them. Eating with others is a special form of fellowship, is it not? Is not our Lord’s Supper a sacred element of our koinonia with one another? 

But then “certain men from James” showed up and he distanced himself from the non-Jews when it came time to eat, holding himself “aloof” and “fearing the party of the circumcision.” When the rest of the Jews saw this, that is those Jews who were living in Antioch, “they joined in the hypocrisy” and even Barnabas “was carried away by their hypocrisy.” 

Before we get too judgmental about Peter’s behavior, let’s be thankful that the relationship between Paul and Peter (and Paul and Barnabas) was secure to the point that Paul could write about this after the fact to help others understand the Gospel and the grace of God. This is not something that needed to be hidden and not ever talked about, but rather something that the Galatians could learn from, and something that Christians have hopefully been learning from for the past 2,000 years. 

Paul was a good model for Barnabas in Galatians 2:11 – 21, and I think that Barnabas was likely a good model for Paul in Acts 15:36 – 41. Hopefully John Mark learned by observing both conflicts, and I am sure he especially learned in seeing the reconciliation between Paul and Barnabas, however that played out. 

We finish strong when our relationships are strong, when we are committed to one another, when we learn and grow through conflict, when our mutual commitment to Jesus Christ transcends our relational difficulties. 

The appearance of this “certain group from James” reminds us that there are professing Christians who don’t care what the Gospel really teaches, their religious traditions and self-righteousness are more important than Jesus and others. In spite of the teaching of Jesus, in spite of Jesus’s words to Peter, in spite of the Council in Jerusalem (Acts 15), in spite of the working of the Holy Spirit and the unfolding of the grace of God, there were professing Christians who insisted on keeping old ways of thinking and living, who taught that their righteousness before God rested on their religious works.

We still see this in congregations, in denominations and movements, in cities and in regions. As Paul writes in Galatians 4:29, “But as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so it is now also.” 

It is really a copout when we say, “Well the church isn’t perfect, it is made up of sinners.” The Bible doesn’t teach that, the Bible teaches that the Church of Jesus Christ consists of saints and that when we encounter sin, including hypocrisy, that we ought to repent of it and live as those who belong to Jesus Christ and who are members of one another. 

Hypocrisy hurts the innocent, it crushes those young in Christ, it drives people away from Jesus, it makes us stink and look ugly in the eyes of the world, a world than needs Jesus. Again, what Jesus taught meant nothing to these “certain men from James,” what mattered to them was maintaining their false Gospel and their self-righteousness. These people are still with us, and they are often so successful in their messages that we don’t see them, in fact many of us follow them rather than the Lamb of God. Others are so entrenched in their religious power structures that their predatory behavior is virtually unassailable, and their practice of secrecy and crushing the opposition by sheer power, ostracization, and money overwhelm those who raise a voice against their perfidious practices. 

Still, let us take care that we are not too harsh with Peter and Barnabas. Let us not be so foolish as to discount peer pressure. 

Have you ever been having a joyous time with people when all of a sudden something happened to take you aback, to hurt you, to shock you? What was that like? Did you recover? How long did it take you to recover? How did you recover? 

I think Peter was having a ball in Antioch, I think he was enjoying his time with all of the brothers and sisters, Jew and Gentile. I think Peter was looking back on his vision of the great sheet filled with clean and unclean animals (Acts 10) and of his time with Cornelius and saying, “Thank you Jesus. Thank you Jesus. O thank you Jesus.” I think the worship was great, I think the teaching times were great, and I think the meals were wonderful – just think of the different types of food Peter might have experienced in Antioch – a cosmopolitan city. Can you see him asking, “What is that? Who made that? That’s your grandmother’s recipe?”

I think Peter was enjoying himself, maybe having the time of his life. I think that in his innocence his guard was down, and then it happened, “certain men from James showed up.”

Friends, let’s not dismiss out of hand the power and surprise of peer pressure, especially when we don’t see it coming. 

Now maybe I’m off base about the situation with Peter, but I’m not sure about that and I want to think the best of Peter. I think Peter was a “what you see is what you get” kind of man. Now should Peter have done better? Of course, especially considering his position as one of the leading apostles. I imagine Peter learned through this, as hopefully we’ve learned when we’ve been confronted with peer pressure and hypocrisy. 

We’ll continue to ponder this in the next reflection in this series. 

Finishing the Race – Strong! (10)

 

People who are on the same team and passionate about something are likely to have conflict. People who are in love with Jesus and passionate about Him are also likely to have conflict with one another. Conflict is not, in and of itself, bad; it is the nature of the conflict that can be bad and whether the conflict is resolved to the glory of Jesus and our friendships and partnerships strengthened. Sometimes conflict can blindside us, other times we see it coming. 

Before Mark set out with Barnabas in Acts15, in the midst of conflict between Paul and Barnabas, he witnessed another conflict in Antioch, this one was between Paul and Peter, and I think the importance of this conflict and its result cannot be overstated. I also think that Paul and Peter demonstrate things we need to learn about relationships and the lordship of Jesus Christ. We read about this in Galatians 2:11 – 21. 

[11] But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. [12] For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. [13] And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. [14] But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, “If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?”

[15] We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; [16] yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.

[17] But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not! [18] For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor. [19] For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. [20] I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. [21] I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose. (ESV)

What do you see about Peter, Paul, and Barnabas in this passage? What can we learn about the relationship between Paul and Peter? What might we have thought had we been witnesses to this? 

We’ll pick this back up in our next post in the series. 

Finishing the Race – Strong! (9)

 

 

“But Paul kept insisting that they should not take him [Mark] along who had deserted them…and there occurred such a sharp disagreement that they separated from one another.” (See Acts 15:36 – 41).

 

When Barnabas and Mark showed up in Cyprus and folks wanted to know where Paul was, I wonder how Barnabas responded? When Paul and Silas traveled through Syria and Cilicia, and the brethren asked about Barnabas, I wonder how Paul responded?

 

Not only would Mark come to be a trusted fellow worker with Paul, but Paul and Barnabas worked through their sharp disagreement. While we don’t know the details of this, can’t we surmise that for Paul to come to value Mark, that he also must have valued Barnabas’s firm commitment to Mark in Acts 15? Perhaps Paul looked back and thought, “I didn’t see what Barnabas saw”?

 

Subsequent to Acts 15, Paul writes this to the Corinthians, “Or do only Barnabas and I not have a right to refrain from working?” (1 Cor. 9:6). Paul could have used an example other than Barnabas, but he chose his old friend and fellow laborer.

 

Little did Paul realize that in the sharp dispute with Barnabas over Mark, that Barnabas was preserving the calling of a brother who Paul would come to value and desire to be with him during his last days on earth. “Pick up Mark and bring him with you, for he is useful to me for service” (2 Tim. 4:11). Can we imagine the conversations that Mark and Timothy had when they traveled together? Did Timothy say, “Mark, tell me what happened in Antioch between Paul and Barnabas”?

 

What did Mark learn through the experience? How did he think and feel to see two dear friends argue over whether they should include him or not? Did he feel remorse at his earlier abandonment of Paul and Barnabas? Was he yearning for a second opportunity to be faithful in ministry?

 

O friends, Barnabas’s faithfulness to Mark brought us the Gospel of Mark.  

 

Isn’t this what we would expect from Barnabas? In Acts 9:26-27 we see that after Paul’s conversion, when he went to Jerusalem to meet with disciples, that “they were all afraid of him, not believing that he was a disciple. But Barnabas took hold of him and brought him to the apostles and described to them how he had seen the Lord on the road, and that He had talked to him, and how at Damascus he had spoken out boldly in the name of Jesus.”

 

Later, when Barnabas arrives in Antioch, after assessing the situation with the new disciples, we read that “he left for Tarsus to look for Saul [Paul], and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch” (Acts 11:19 – 26).

 

Barnabas was committed to people, and he was gifted in bringing people together – he saw gifts and graces in others that perhaps they did not see. Not only did his faithfulness to Mark result in the Gospel of Mark, his faithfulness to Paul resulted in much of the New Testament.

 

We are called to be committed and faithful to one another as we run the race and finish strong. We cannot tell what the future holds, we seldom see clearly and then not for a great distance. We do not know the full stories of others in our lives, but we ought to know that we are called to faithfulness – faithfulness to Jesus and faithfulness to one another.

 

Let it never be said of us that we abandoned a brother or sister. Let it rather be said that we were committed and faithful to others as we ran the race and finished strong – helping others to cross the finish line.

 

Witnessing (1)

 

 

I can understand when people are afraid to witness. I cannot understand when people have no desire to witness for Jesus, to tell others about Him. Nor can I understand when there is no remorse when we don’t witness.

 

How is this possible?

 

After all, Jesus commands us to tell all people about Him. Jesus is the source of salvation, of light and life and hope and joy. How can we not tell others about Him? How can we not feel remorse when we don’t tell others?

 

Worst of all, how dangerous it is when we justify our silence – for we place ourselves above the Word of Jesus, the commands of Jesus. He commanded us to tell others and He commanded us to love others as ourselves – when we don’t witness we reject His Word. When we don’t witness, do we not reject Him?

 

To have the Bread of Life and not offer it to others – to live in a world of famine and drought and have Bread and Water and hoard it, to keep it to ourselves, how is this possible? And to justify such behavior?

 

This tragedy does not seem to bother us.

Finishing the Race – Strong! (8)

 

“Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner, sends you his greetings, and also Barnabas’s cousin Mark (about whom you received instructions; if he comes to you, welcome him)” (Colossians 4:10).

 

“Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, greets you, as do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, Luke, my fellow workers” (Philemon 23 – 24).

 

“Only Luke is with me. Pick up Mark and bring him with you, for he is useful to me for service” (2 Timothy 4:11).

 

We began this series with Demas. In Colossians 4 and in Philemon, he is a fellow worker with Paul. Then in 2 Timothy 4:10 we read, “For Demas, having loved this present world, has deserted me.” Demas started strong, but he did not finish well; he went from honor to dishonor. Yet, we have another story in these passages. Do we see it? We have the story of a man who did not begin very well, but who finished strong, of a man who went from dishonor to honor in Jesus Christ. His name is Mark.

 

In Acts 13:5 we see that Barnabas and Paul had John Mark with them as their helper on their first missionary journey (in Acts 12:12, 25 and 15:37 note that he is termed “John, called Mark”). After their time in Cyprus we are told, “Now Paul and his companions put out to sea from Paphos and came to Perga in Pamphylia; but John left them and returned to Jerusalem” (Acts 13:13).

 

After Paul and Barnabas returned to Antioch (Acts 14:26 – 28), and after they made their important trip to Jerusalem and returned again to Antioch (Acts 15:1 – 35), they decided to revisit the young churches they had planted. However, Barnabas wanted to take John Mark with them, but Paul would have none of it.

 

“But Paul kept insisting that they should not take him along who had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not gone with them to the work. And there occurred such a sharp disagreement that they separated from one another, and Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus. But Paul chose Silas and left, being committed by the brethren to the grace of the Lord” (Acts 15:38 – 40).

 

Mark left Paul early in Paul’s apostolic ministry, yet he would become a partner in the Gospel with Paul; indeed, Mark would come to write the Gospel bearing his name. Peter will call Mark “my son” in 1 Peter 5:13, so we see that Mark had a significant ministry, laboring alongside Barnabas, Paul, Peter, and many others. Mark may not have started very well, but he certainly finished strong.

 

Let’s recall that Colossians and Philemon were written in prison, and that Mark was with Paul when Paul wrote those letters. Being identified with Paul at that time carried with it the possibility of also being imprisoned, which in turn carried with it the possibility of torture and execution. Mark did not abandon Paul in this time of extreme danger.

 

Let’s also consider that Paul was in his final imprisonment when he wrote 2 Timothy, facing execution, and that when he instructs Timothy to bring Mark with him that he writes in the confidence that Mark will come and not avoid the danger. What a reversal from those early days recorded in Acts 13!

 

O dear friends, we can all experience redemptive reversals. Those of us who started strong but have veered off the path of faithfulness to Jesus and our brethren can return to be a blessing to others. Mark must have witnessed many miraculous things, as well as persecution, because of living in Jerusalem among disciples – see for example Acts 12:1–17. He lived through the great persecution described in Acts 8:1, and he likely knew both Stephen and James who were martyred in Jerusalem.

 

By living in Jerusalem, Mark knew about pressure; he knew there was a price to pay for following Jesus. Perhaps he should have known that going with Paul and Barnabas was going to be challenging, maybe he should have expected hardship. Was he prepared for the confrontation with the false prophet Elymas on Cyprus? What was happening inside Mark when he and his companions were before the proconsul Sergius Paulus, facing Elymas? Did he anticipate being arrested? Torture? Execution by the Roman official? Did he think that he would never see his mother in Jerusalem again? Was he relived when they finally left Cyprus? Was Mark yearning for a place of safety?

 

Well, we don’t really know the answer to all these things, but we can put ourselves in Mark’s place and ponder the possibilities, for we share a common humanity with him.

 

What do we see in Barnabas through all this? What can we learn from him? What can we learn from Paul?

 

We’ll continue to explore these questions in our next post in the series…the Lord willing.

 

 

 

 

Finishing the Race – Strong! (7)

 

Comeback Stories

 

I love comeback stories, for they give me hope. Growing up in Maryland and following the University of Maryland football team, I’ll always recall listening to the November 10, 1984 game between the Miami Hurricanes and the Terrapins. At halftime the score was Miami 31, Maryland 0. Then quarterback Frank Reich, who had been injured in a previous game, came off the bench to lead his team to 42 points in the second half, winning the game 42 – 40. At the time it was the biggest comeback in NCAA history.

 

Then on January 3, 1993, while Reich was playing for the NFL’s Buffalo Bills, with his team trailing 35 – 3 early in the 3^rd quarter, he once again led his team to a remarkable comeback, winning the game 41 – 38 in overtime. At the time, it was the greatest comeback in NFL history. I can remember turning the television off in the first half, thinking the game was over!

 

Thanks to DVDs, I have watched both games in their entirety, marveling at two amazing comebacks.

 

There are comeback stories throughout history. Ulysses S. Grant was pretty much a failure at everything he did until he saved the Union. Churchill was considered an eccentric failure, out of touch with reality and blackballed from the BBC until he was called to save democracy. Lincoln, though he did have moments of success, had a long list of failures prior to being elected President.

 

Life is a marathon and we are called to finish the race on the course that our Father has set for us. If we should veer off course, it is never too late to return to our destiny and to fulfill it, finishing the race strong. If we ask, “How is this possible?” We need only look to Jesus and the redemption He has purchased for us, we need not understand how these things are possible, in fact we can’t really understand how they are possible, but we can trust in the Nature and Character of our Father and our Lord Jesus, and in that trust and by God’s grace we can finish strong.

 

In Matthew 21:28 – 32 Jesus tells a parable about two sons and their father. One morning the father asked the first son to work in the family vineyard that day and the son said “No.” Then the father asked the second son to also work in the vineyard and he said “Yes.”

 

However, the first son regretted what he had said and went to the vineyard and worked, while the second son, even though he said he would work in the vineyard, never showed up. Jesus asks a question, both of His immediate audience and of us, “Which of the two did the will of his father?”

 

It is how we finish the race that matters. The first son began the day in rebellion, but he changed course to obedience. The second son began the day in obedience, but then went off course into disobedience.

 

Some of us reading this may have led lives of consistent faithfulness to Christ and others, O how I rejoice in your testimony. Thank you for your wonderful fidelity to Jesus and the Gospel! You have been an inspiration to me.

 

But to those of us who have not been faithful in our Father’s vineyard, it is never too late to show up for Jesus, it is never too late to get back on the course of discipleship, it is never too late to make a difference in the lives of others by showing them Jesus and telling the Good News. It is never, ever, too late.

 

In the beginning of the book of the prophet Joel, God speaks of the results of sin and disobedience, in part we read, “What the gnawing locust has left, the swarming locust has eaten; and what the swarming locust has left, the creeping locust has eaten; and what the creeping locust has left, the stripping locust has eaten” (Joel 1:4).

 

Then, in Chapter 2, as God speaks of His redemption and reconciliation, as we see our call to repentance, He says, “Then I will make up to you for the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the creeping locust, the stripping locust, and the gnawing locust” (Joel 2:25). How can this be? How can God make up for our foolishness and waste? It is inconceivable. Yet, God is God and God does what only God can do.

 

O dear friends, we can trust Jesus to do the impossible, we can trust Him to redeem our lives and to lead us into a strong finish – no matter how far we have departed from the original marathon course. There are still people for us to touch in Jesus, still people for us to bless, still people for us to tell about Jesus, still people for us to love, to serve, to care for, to show mercy and grace to.

 

And so we have Hebrews 12:1–2:

 

“Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

 

Wherever we are today, whether on the course or off the course – in Christ we can still finish strong as we trust in Him. If we are off course, isn’t it time to return to Him…today…right now?

 

Isn’t it time for the greatest comeback of your life?

 

The Real Bridge Over the River Kwai

 

 

“Our rags were taken from us and burned. We were given green jungle shirts and trousers, soap and towel, tooth-brush and tooth-paste…Next morning, when one of the nursing sisters entered the ward, she said, ‘I’ve never had patients like these in all my nursing experience. Every one has made his own bed, and men are competing for the privilege of sweeping the wards.’ This expressed the attitude of the POWs. They lived not to be served but to serve.” To End All Wars, Ernest Gordon, Zondervan, 1965, page 217. Italics mine.

 

“Our feelings were mixed as we waved farewell to Rangoon, the East and our years of captivity. The jungle had been challenging, there had been comradeship of the highest order, and we had found a way of life that proved to be vital, meaningful, and beautifully sane. By the deaths of so many of our friends we were tied to those places with invisible cords that could never be broken.” Page 217. Italics mine.

 

“I was musing by the rail [of the ship taking them back to Great Britain] when I noticed my friend John Leckie standing next to me. ‘Well,’ he said, ‘it’s all over. I wouldn’t have missed it for anything. It was rough, all right. But I learned an awful lot that I couldn’t have learned at the university or anywhere else. For one, I’ve learned about the real things of life, for another, it’s great to be still alive.

 

“I knew exactly what had made him say this. The experiences we had passed through had deepened our understanding of life and of each other. We had looked into the heart of the Eternal and found Him to be wonderfully kind.” Pages. 217 – 218. Italics mine.

 

Ernest Gordon lived the real story of the Bridge Over The River Kwai. As he wrote in his introduction to To End All Wars, “We were exhausted, sick from tropical diseases and starvation, overworked, injured, dying off at a preposterous rate. Sixty thousand Allied prisoners of war were forced into slave labour as well as 270,000 Asian workers. More than 80,000 died during the railway’s construction. That’s approximately 393 lives lost for every mile of track laid, - a hideous cost.” Page v.

 

When Gordon and his fellow POWs reached Liverpool they found that the dockworkers were threatening to go on strike for higher wages. The POWs were worried that if they did so that people in Britain would not be able to eat; for much of Britain’s food was imported. (Britain had rationing into the 1950s. Among the letters we have from C. S. Lewis are letters thanking Americans for sending food.) The POWs volunteered to work the docks but were turned down.

 

Gordon writes on page 218, “We thought we had come home to freedom. While we were prisoners we had been free to contribute to the general good, to help create order out of disorder. Here in a society which paid lip service to freedom, we were prohibited, apparently, from applying the lessons we had learned.” Italics mine.

 

Ernest Gordon and many of his fellow POWs met Jesus Christ while building the railroad of death. They learned to serve one another and to show mercy to their captors. They “had looked into the heart of the Eternal and found Him to be wonderfully kind.”

 

There is only true freedom in serving our Lord Jesus Christ and our neighbor, in laying down our lives for others. What fools we are to think otherwise.

 

The words and behavior we see around us in much of the professing church is “earthly, natural, demonic.” The “wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy. And the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.” (see James 3:13–18).

 

There is no dual citizenship for the disciple of Jesus Christ, for Jesus said that we cannot serve two masters. We are either going to live as citizens of heaven or not (Phil. 3:20).

 

O dear friends, our neighbors need to see Jesus Christ within us, His love, His kindness, His gentleness, His mercy.

 

Are we willing to be identified with Jesus, and only with Jesus?

 

How is that Ernest Gordon and his fellow POWs lived as free men under hideous conditions, and we live as slaves in the most prosperous nation in history? Is it possible we are prisoners of pleasure and “self,” rather than prisoners of Jesus Christ?

 

Much love, much, much love,

 

Bob