Reading the Bible, Knowing Jesus (2)

 

 

As I ponder the three conversations concerning the Bible that have challenged and shocked me, let me ask; How do you read the Bible? How do you experience the Bible?

 

As you look back over your life, do you read the Bible the same way today as you always have? Has your experience with the Bible changed over the years?

 

Do you read articles, letters, books, cards, and documents the same way? Do you read marketing material the same way you read an email from a friend? Do you deal with spam email the same way you deal with email from a family member or a coworker?

 

If you are in a romantic relationship, do you write and “sound” differently to that special person than you do if you are sending a business email? Is your writing “voice” different when you write to a high school friend of many years than when you email an appliance repair company asking it why it has once again failed to show up for an appointment?

 

In my business career I wrote in many genres. I wrote technical instructions for using software. I wrote advertising copy. I wrote personnel reviews. I wrote contracts. I wrote letters putting parties on notice for contract violations. I wrote letters to government officials. I wrote letters to clients. I wrote thank you notes and letters to vendors and team members. I wrote strategic plans.

 

Each letter or email or contract or procedure I wrote required that I think about who I was writing to, who else might read what I was writing, the purpose of my writing, what I wanted to communicate, how best to communicate…and so many other things.

 

If I was writing a personnel review for someone who had a well – developed vocabulary, I would write one way; if English was a second language I would write another way. If the person needed to receive a strong message that immediate job improvement was critical, I’d write in one voice (at least in part of the review), if the review was more along the lines of continued successful development and coaching, I’d write in another voice.

 

If I am opening mail at home and have five pieces from companies that want to sell me the newest computerized mousetrap, I am going to handle those pieces differently than I will the card from our friends in Munich, Germany. My expectations will be different, my critical thinking will be different, my heart will be different, my defenses are up with mousetrap marketing, they are down with the card from our friends.

 

The way we approach the Bible matters, the way we listen to the Bible matters, the way we communicate the Bible matters, the way we respond to the Bible matters.

 

How do you read and experience the Bible?

 

How would you like to read and experience the Bible?

 

 

 

 

The Mysterious Seb’n

 

 

Is it spelled “sebm” or “seb’n”? Either way is fine. If you’ve never heard it pronounced, you are forgiven for scratching your head. This pronunciation was a mystery to me for 75 years. I used to wonder why my Dad pronounced the number seven as “seb’n”. It was never “seven.”

 

One was one, three was three, nine was nine; but seven was seb’n and twenty-seven was twenty-seb’n. As a young child I wondered about this, and finally at 75 years old I found the answer.

 

I have always been fascinated with language, pronunciation, accents, and alphabets. I recall listening to the speech of my aunts and uncles, my Dad’s brothers and sisters – they did not all speak the same. Those who had formal education and who were doing well professionally spoke one way, those who had little formal education and tilled the soil or turned a wrench or worked retail had another pattern of speech. They all had Virginia accents, but Virginia has many accents – though I suppose as with other parts of the country, they are dying out…a pity.

 

When Vickie and I first moved from Baltimore, MD to Richmond, VA she worked for a state trade association. There were times, when speaking on the phone with someone from “Southside” Virginia, or from the deep southwestern part of the Commonwealth, that she had to ask them to please spell a word – her Iowa ear simply could not understand what the other person was saying.

 

My Daddy had four sisters and three brothers who lived to adulthood, there were two brothers who died in childhood. When my grandmother Rosa was pregnant with her last child, a daughter (Christine), her husband Caskie died at 41 years old (1988 – 1929). A sad irony is that Caskie Withers, Jr., my uncle, died when only 48 (1918 – 1966). I have often wondered about Rosa, pregnant with so many children at home and losing her husband – what must that have been like? What fear? What heartbreak?

 

If you’ve ever watched The Waltons, then you have a pretty fair idea of where my people lived, for Earl Hamner Jr. grew up in Nelson County, VA, just as Grandpa Caskie. Mr. Hamner lived in Schuyler and Grandpa lived close to Roseland. Google Maps tells me it is 32 minutes and 27 miles between the two by car, 2 hours and 24 minutes by bicycle, and 8 hours if you walk. What it is by horse, or horse and buddy, or a Ford Model T I don’t know, but it surely took some time in the early 20^th century to get from “here to there” in Nelson County – a place with hollows and creeks and mountains and twists and turns.

 

Did you know that hell came to Nelson County on August 19, 1969? Those quaint rivers and creeks and mountain sides turned into hell when 25 – 31 includes of rain fell in 5 hours from Hurricane Camille. Over 100 bridges were swept away, 900 buildings along with orchards, livestock, and worst of all, 124 people died. Camille’s devastation in Virginia led to the creation of FEMA.

To be continued...

 

Reading the Bible, Knowing Jesus (1)

 

I have had three conversations over the past year that have challenged me about how we read and teach the Bible. They have forced me to look in the mirror and critique my own communication of God’s Word, they have me questioning myself, with one of the conversations shocking me because it was about me as much as about the Bible. I wonder what “we” who teach the Bible have done, I wonder what I have done, and I wonder if there can be a recovery of reading the Bible and encountering Christ in the Bible in the Western church. I don’t know, things are moving so fast, I really don’t know.

 

Two Stories

 

I recently had a sweet time with a friend in the Scriptures. During this time, as he shared with me the form of his Bible reading, I realized that the translation he is using may be a barrier to his comprehension and reading rhythm. While translations are quite important to me, it is more important that people read the Bible and experience Jesus Christ. I tell folks, “Find a car you can drive; when you become an experienced driver then you can look at other cars that might be a better fit.”

 

I talked to Vickie about us purchasing a certain translation, which I thought would be more accessible and fluid, and give it to my friend. I was looking for an edition without interpretive notes for I wanted my friend to experience the Bible directly, without a mediator – I wanted my friend to meet Jesus, not a human interpreter. I wanted my friend to experience John 16:12 – 15 and 1 Corinthians Chapter 2.

 

What I assumed would be an easy purchase turned out to be impossible. I was looking for an edition with just the Biblical text, though cross references would be fine. It turns out that every edition of this translation now comes with free access to an “app” that has interpretive notes for the entire Bible. This app comes with every Bible in this translation, in every single one!

 

Distracted reading is the death of reading and understanding the Bible. I have seen this in Sunday school class after class, I have seen it in small groups, and I have seen it in preachers and teachers. There only ought to be one text on a page of the Bible, just one text, and that is God’s Word (I am not including cross references, they can be helpful).

 

I can’t tell you how many times I have wanted to see adults work through a Bible passage, to wrestle with it, to submit to it, to seek Jesus in it, and they automatically allow their eyes to focus on interpretive notes in their study Bibles and the growth and “aha” opportunity has closed – the possibility for adventure in Jesus has passed, the possibility for knowing Him more deeply has passed, the joy of working through the passage with others has disappeared.

 

An irony is that we have done what many in ancient Judaism did, just as ancient rabbis “hedged the text,” so have we hedged the text. We have so hedged the text of the Bible that few can penetrate the hedge to the living Christ within the text.

 

Another irony is that often those who make much of there being “one mediator between God and man, the man Jesus Christ” (1 Tim. 2:5) interpose themselves or other teachers between people and the Bible, becoming de facto mediators – forcing the minds, hearts, and souls of would-be readers of Scripture into the image of mediators, including mediators in the form of study Bibles.

 

What is the point of having Bibles if we have bought into a mentality that we cannot read the Bible and know Jesus directly in and through the Bible? We might as well go back to the days before Guttenberg’s printing press.

 

It is frankly “nuts” that people are marketing the “John Smith” study Bible, or the “Sally Ann” study Bible, or the “Reformed study Bible,” or the “Pentecostal study Bible,” or the “Cool young person’s study Bible.” It is heretical that others, such as the American Bible Society, now market perversions such as a patriotic God and Country study Bible. What are we doing? We have lost our minds.

 

(There are other ways we have hedged the Bible, which I will focus on in the course of these reflections.)

 

My second story concerns a phone conversation (not one of the above three conversations) a couple of days ago with our friend Pete. Pete and Martha were in our New England parish years ago and our sweet friendship has continued with each passing year. After we moved back to Virginia, Pete and Martha were travelling through our area and stopped to spend the night with us. They had been living in Florida for a few years and were quite active in their local church, leading small groups in their home and elsewhere.

 

During their visit they said to me, “Bob, our home group is finishing it current study, do you have any recommendations about what study material we should use next?”

 

I replied, “Why not try the Bible?”

 

“You mean, just the Bible?”

 

“Yes,” I said, “just the Bible. See where the Holy Spirit leads you. Pick a book of the Bible and go for it.”

 

During our recent phone conversation, Pete said to me, “Bob, we’re still studying the Bible, reading the Bible, gathering around the Bible. Ever since you suggested that we’ve been doing it, and people are excited about it and they are learning to read the Bible and talking to others about it.”

 

It has been about 16 years since I suggested that Pete and Martha use the Bible as their text, trusting Jesus and the Holy Spirit to lead them and their small groups – and they are not only still excited about it, but their enthusiasm has been caught by others. (This does not mean that Pete and Martha don’t prepare for their small groups, it does not mean that they don’t use Bible study resources. It does mean that the Bible is what they and their groups encounter face-to-face, there is no mediatorial filter such as a study guide – the Bible is the first impression.)

 

I have seen few, if any, study guides or Sunday school curricula worth using, I’m sorry, this is the way I see it. Their questions are typically not worthy of consideration, and they fail to present any challenge to the mind or heart – they may be good for promoting boredom or passing the time, but I seldom see any learning theory or Biblical spirituality incorporated into them. Learning should be challenging, it ought to stretch us, it ought not to be cotton candy. If we want fast food, let’s go to McDonalds.

How is the Holy Spirit speaking to you as you read the Bible? (John 16:12 – 15).

 

Before you began reading the Bible, ask the Holy Spirit to reveal Jesus to you. Ask Jesus to show Himself to you. Ask the Father to hear His Voice.

 

I often pray, “O Jesus, that I may touch You and be touched by You.”

 

I hope you will see Jesus coming in the Scriptures today; coming to you, coming for you, coming through you to others.

 

 

 

On A Bridge Over A Creek

 

 

Sixty years ago, sometime in the spring, I stood with my friend Tommy on a small bridge overlooking a wooded creek in the Twinbrook area of Rockville, MD. I took my New Testament and Psalms from my shirt pocket, opened it to Romans Chapter 8, and read aloud:

 

What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.

 

For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

 

My voice was excited as I read, and Tommy’s face glowed as he heard of God’s love for us. Tommy was my best friend, and as I was coming to know Jesus it was natural that I would share Jesus with him. A coworker at my after-school job had shared Jesus with me, it never occurred to me not to share Jesus with Tommy and others.

 

When I first read Romans 8 and its marvelous crescendo, I read it again and again and again. (I have quoted from the King James Version in this reflection, for the King James is what I first read in those early days). I couldn’t wait to see Tommy and read it to him.

 

That was 1966, today, in 2026, as I read Romans 8 once again, I am still excited. How many times have I read this passage? How many times have I quoted it? Times beyond number, perhaps as the sand of sea and the dust of the earth and the stars of the sky. This is one of my most-quoted passages to congregations, to small groups, and in conversations with individuals – it is as natural as breathing to me. I suppose I could say that it is my breath of life in Jesus Christ.

 

It is also what we seem to have missed. We’ve missed it in our churches, in our seminaries and Bible schools, in our small groups, and most certainly in our engagement with the world around us. We have missed the message that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, so that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

 

We have twisted and turned and traduced the Gospel into a worldview, into defective and murderous foreign policy, into nationalism, into sociology, into politics, into an industrial religious cash machine…into any number of things…and we have missed the sacrificial love of God for us in Jesus Christ and we have failed to communicate it to our people.

 

I am at the age where I get to write, “I have lived a long time,” and I will tell you this, the one thing people need to know, whether they are “church” people (God help them and us!) or folks who haven’t a clue about Jesus and religion, is that the Father and Jesus love them. I have never been in a congregation which didn’t need to know this, I have never taught or preached to a people who didn’t need to know this, I have never worked in business with others who didn’t need to know this, I have never had a neighbor who didn’t need to know this.

 

All of our theology, all of the sociology that we’ve imported into the church, all of our slick religious marketing, all of our music, all of the “stuff” we do so very well, means nothing unless we know the love of God in Jesus Christ our Lord. People do not need a better worldview, people need to know the love of God in our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

If we knew the love of God in Christ Jesus, we would be aghast at much of our behavior, we would be shamed before our Lord and our fellow man…and we would be of some benefit to the people around us…we would offer them some hope.

 

There are those who think that when we read the Bible aloud that we ought to read it in a monotone, perhaps the way we’d read a technical manual. Frankly, that is crazy. If we can read Romans 8 in a monotone, then we have never received a love letter, a passionate Valentine’s Day card, and we ought to be checked for a pulse. The Father has given us the Bible to be our book, it began as His Book and He has given His Book to us…and it ought to possess us and we ought to possess it.

 

O dear friends, we are called to follow Jesus, to love Him with all that we have and all that we are and to share His glorious love with others. As a lad I learned Psalm 73:25, “Whom have I in heaven but You? And besides You, I desire nothing on earth.”

 

Is Jesus our love, our passion, our reason for living? Are we sharing His love with others? Do we realize how deeply God loves us? Are we living cruciform lives?

 

If Jesus isn’t everything, then Jesus isn’t anything (Mark 8:34 – 38).

 

Why not read and reread and then read again Romans 8:31 – 39? Why not make it “your passage” for the next 30 days? Why not allow it to live within you? Why not share it with others?

 

Who will you read Romans 8:31 - 39 aloud to?

 

 

More People Than I Can Thank...But I Can Try

 

I had a dream last night that Tim Winfrey and I were in an apartment association meeting in Richmond, VA. We were no longer active in the business, they didn’t expect to see us, and on reflection I imagine that they surely didn’t expect to see Tim because he has been in the Presence of Christ for a few years! Nevertheless they welcomed us and the leader of the meeting asked us to come up front and say a few words.

 

As Tim walked to the front and began speaking I jotted down a few notes on some scrap paper to guide me when my time came to speak.

 

When I started in the business, management was pretty much white, white from the community managers to upper executives, at least in the Baltimore – Washington area. I don’t recall seeing any people of color at industry meetings of executives. That has changed, to what degree I’m uncertain, but it has thankfully changed.

 

Also, when I began my career there were few women in upper management. Women were the community managers and many of them lived on-site, but few women managed portfolios. That has most certainly and thankfully changed.

 

Some things have probably not changed for the better, such as the institutionalization of the business, but this is true of business in general. Metrics have their place, but when they eliminate relationships and ethics and morality then we are well on the road to becoming zombies – but again, this is the world we live in; if we can call this “life.”

 

As I awoke from the dream I thought of dear Tim. Vickie and I had just been talking about Tim, about all the years we had known him. She was reminiscing about an industry event we attended in the early 1990s and about how much fun Tim had been that evening. Then, of course, I thought of his wife Shelly. Toward the end of my career, Tim, Shelly, and I worked together.

 

Then I thought of Letisa, and Ana, and Diane, and Debby, and Alethea, and Lucy and Tony, and Hilda, and Jim, and Robert, and Gloria, and Earl, and Joanne…and the faces and names came flooding into my heart, mind and soul. Well, actually, they didn’t flood into me because they were already in me. O how I thought of the joy and kindness Vickie and I have both experienced from these wonderful women and men over the years.

 

Of course you realize there is always a danger in naming names, for you are certain to leave someone out…but I’m not really leaving anyone out of my heart, I can just only write so many names at one time, names that span decades and joys and challenges and bright days and dark days and days of “getting it right” and days of “getting it O so wrong.” Days of providing (I hope) a good example, and then days I’d rather forget when I was a total ass, a complete and total ass.

 

I should do better at thanking people, at touching base with those still with us and thanking them - I won’t be here forever. I want them to know that they’ve made a difference in my life, a beautiful difference. They’ve been God’s gifts to Vickie and me, God’s gifts…ain’t that something?

 

Can you ever thank someone too much? Or tell them you love them too much?

 

What about you? Who are the people in your life you are thankful for?

Have you told them lately?

Just Showing Up

 

These past few weeks have been trying, a crucible, and a Holy of Holies. The season continues (though in a different “key”), and as it continues Vickie and I continue to trust our Lord Jesus. We have a friend who was once in a small plane crash, I remember him telling us that the adrenalin was such that he could see the propeller turning in slow motion, he was tracking the rotation of the individual blades. Many of us have had experiences when we’ve gone from black and white to Technicolor (to borrow an image from the Wizard of Oz).

 

I have never entered a hospital room knowing what I was going to say, not once. I have never gone into a hospital room, or visited an ill person at home, even thinking what I was going to say. I have, however, entered hospital rooms knowing the two things I wanted to do; be the Presence of Jesus and pray with people. Jesus, of course, was already in the room and I needed to pay attention to Him, to the sick person, and to any others who might be in the room.

 

Over the years, when being with people going through hardship, sickness, entering the portal of death, enduring suffering, I have learned that I can confidently speak to them of God’s love for them with every beat of His heart, and I can say to them, “Your heavenly Father and dear Lord Jesus want to reveal themselves to you through this, they want to show you how much they love you. I may not understand anything else, but I know they desire to walk with you through this and for you to know their Presence.”

 

If the person has not yet met Jesus, only God’s love can change that. If the person does indeed know Jesus, only God’s love can comfort them. For sure, this love must flow through us as well, we must be the incarnation of the Message.

 

I am not called to “fix things” in people, or to medicate their difficulties or participate in deadening their senses. I am called to point them to Jesus, always to Jesus…and so are you.

 

Now of course you realize that we self-medicate all the time. We revert to “positive thinking,” to “mindfulness,” to food, to media (television, streaming, social media), to any number of activities that keep us away from our Good Shepherd who wants to embrace us and carry us and draw us ever closer to Himself. Even things labeled “Christian” can distract us from looking Jesus in the eye and allowing Him to speak to us; let us not forget the lesson of Martha and Mary.

 

A passage that has held deep meaning for Vickie and me over the years is 2 Timothy 1:12:

 

“For this reason I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day.”

 

Vickie and I actually believe this, our lives are built on this, and in the midst of uncertainty and fear and disorientation – Christ, as expressed in this verse, is our assurance. As Fanny Crosby wrote, “Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine, O what a foretaste of glory Divine!”

 

Yes, I was frightened when I thought I was losing Vickie in my arms. But remember, I was having three out loud conversations simultaneously; one with Vickie (trying to get her to respond), one with the wonderful 911 dispatcher, and one with Jesus.

 

It is okay to be frightened, it is okay to be tired, it is okay to be disoriented – because our dear Lord Jesus is with us and He will never leave us, never, never, never. We don’t need to fix things for ourselves or for one another; we do need to be there for one another. We don’t need to understand “why,” hopefully we will know His love and the love of others.

 

Let me put this another way. I recently had a conversation with a neighbor who was telling me about a difficult situation her family is facing. I asked her, “What do you sense Jesus saying to you through this?”

 

She replied, “He wants me to have more patience.”

 

As I pondered her response, which is pretty much a stock answer we may have all used at one time, it occurred to me that there may be something else for her to consider. Perhaps Jesus wants her to look at Him, to see His patience, to see how patient He is with her, to see His Presence in her life; so that she in turn can be transformed into His image and be His Presence in the situation her family is facing.

 

I will, the Lord willing, share this thought with her the next time I see her.

 

Do we “know whom we have believed”? If so, then we can be assured that He will keep us and we can assure others that Jesus will keep them.

 

Jesus has been with me during every hospital visit to care for others; yes, it has been working without a net, but isn’t that the way we are to live in Him? Trusting Him, always trusting Him, knowing that without Him we can do nothing, absolutely nothing (John 15:5)?

 

We can trust Jesus to teach us to be there for one another. We don’t need to give advice. We don’t need to make things better. We just need to be there.

 

Another neighbor once said to me, “Bob, you know a friend is someone who shows up, who just shows up.”

 

Yes, I think that is true. Jesus shows up, and we ought to show up…and for sure we are thankful for those who show up for us.

 

 

 

 

Pilgrims and Strangers

 A friend sent me these lyrics, Petra used to sing them she tells me. It seems to me that we all ought to sing them...and live them.

"Not of This World"

We are pilgrims in a strange land

We are so far from our homeland

With each passing day it seems so clear

This world will never want us here

We're not welcome in this world of wrong

We are foreigners who don't belong

We are strangers, we are aliens

We are not of this world

By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he left, not knowing where he was going. By faith he lived as a stranger in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise; for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God. By faith even Sarah herself received ability to conceive, even beyond the proper time of life, since she considered Him faithful who had promised. Therefore even from one man, and one who was as good as dead at that, there were born descendants who were just as the stars of heaven in number, and as the innumerable grains of sand along the seashore.

 

All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen and welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own. And indeed if they had been thinking of that country which they left, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He has prepared a city for them.

From Hebrews 11.

Obedience In The Midst Of Rebellion

 

“For I am also a man under authority,” (Matthew 8:9).

 

“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,” (Galatians 1:10).

 

Yesterday, around 7:00 AM, as I was driving to the grocery store with little traffic, a car came racing up behind me and was soon on my bumper. I was in the left lane, a semi-truck was on my right, so I had no place to go. The road is one with traffic lights, retail stores, and residential communities – the speed limit is 40 MPH. I sped up enough to get in front of the truck and allow the car to zoom ahead. As is often the case, and I derive no little amusement from it when it happens, the speedster was stopped at the next traffic light.

 

When I drive I do so with the assumption that someone will run every traffic light, but I don’t think much about other reckless behavior such as this encounter, even though it isn’t uncommon. Perhaps this is because we seldom drive on limited access highways, nor do we drive at night as a rule, when minds are more likely to be altered due to certain activities. Nevertheless when it happens, as it did yesterday morning, I remind myself that the other driver and I live in two different worlds that overlap, that bump up against each other as tectonic plates.

 

Just as in the days of the Judges, today “everyone does what is right in his or her own eyes.” We do this on the road, we do this at work, we do this in politics, we do this in national and social policy, we do it in foreign policy, we do this in economics, and we do this in the professing church. Whether or not Darwin was right in his conclusions when examining the past may not be such an important question, when we consider that maybe he was prophetic without knowing it, maybe the “survival of the fittest” or of the most brutal, or the strongest, or the hungriest, or the most deceitful, was actually a prediction of where we were headed…just maybe.

 

However, for the servant of Jesus Christ, for the man or woman or young person who professes to know Him, to truly know Him, well...we belong to Another, we belong to Jesus, He has purchased us with His blood, called us to Himself through His love, and we are  His bondservants, we belong to Him.

 

And this means that as disciples we live lives of obedience to Him and service to others. It means we love and pray for those who oppose us and our Lord (Matthew 5:43 – 48). It means we lay down our lives for one another, just as Jesus laid down His life for us (1 John 3:16). It means that we reject demonic vitriol and hatred, self-aggrandizement (religious and political, indeed, in all areas of life), it means that we sow seeds of peace (James 3:13 – 18).  

 

It means that as the world is losing its mind, that we live in the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2:16; Phil. 2:5; Col. 3:1 – 4; Rom. 12:1- 2).

 

You and I are to be the Presence of Jesus Christ, every day, every moment.

 

We do not run from a world of evil, we stretch out our hands in peace, we bear our breasts, our hearts to the world, and we say, “Come to Jesus, come to Jesus, come to Jesus.”

 

“We are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God” (2 Cor. 5:20).

An Irony of History

 

An Irony of History

 

I do not know when history as we know it will culminate. I do not know when Father Time will blow his trumpet and the Shadowlands will be no more. I do know that we see the ebb and flow of great rivers in the Bible, I do know that the headwaters of Genesis reach to Revelation, and I do know that Jesus Christ is the River that we ought to swim in – there is poisonous bacteria in all other rivers.

 

Should there be future generations, historians will look back at the irony that those professing Christians who made much of End Times teaching, who made much of the Rapture and the Beast and the Mark of the Beast, were deceived by the mystery of lawlessness into supporting and propagating the wickedness which they once warned against; they abrogated their citizenship of heaven for an earthly citizenship that enslaved their very own people. They brought the idols of the world into the hearts of their people.

 

Eschatology which is not centered in Jesus Christ has tragic consequences, just ask people here and abroad. Our religious playthings kill people.

 

Historians will note that whereas the early Christians stood separate from the Imperial Cult and suffered for their confession, that these professing Christians heartily embraced it, thereby denying the Lord who bought them with His blood. An ironic tragedy of history.

 

How is it that we think we can teach Matthew 24 without also teaching Matthew 25? How is it that we think we can teach about His coming to us and not teach His final Word on His coming? And what is His final Word?

 

“Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me. These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life” (Matthew 25:45 – 46).

 

“I was hungry, and you gave Me  nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink; I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me, sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me” (Matthew 25:42 – 43).

 

Are those hospitality houses we’re building across our land?

 

When governments use the Bible in their propaganda, when they purport to represent Christ and the Gospel – and when they use the Bible to kill and destroy, and when they seduce and purchase the souls of religious leaders and their followers – O shame, shame, shame on us, on all of us for not speaking and living the truth and standing with Jesus Christ.

 

“Another horn, a little one, came up among them, and three of the first horns were pulled out by the roots before it; and behold, this horn possessed eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth uttering great boasts” (Daniel 7:8).

 

“He will speak out against the Most High and wear down the saints of the Highest One, and he will intend to make alterations in times and in law, and they will be given into his hand for a time, times, and half a time” (Daniel 7:25).

 

“Out of one of them came forth a rather small horn which grew exceedingly great…It grew up to the host of heaven and caused some of the host and some of the stars to fall to the earth, and it trampled them down. It even magnified itself to be equal with the Commander of the host; and it removed the regular sacrifice from Him, and the place of His sanctuary was thrown down…and it will fling truth to the ground and perform its will and prosper” (Daniel 8:9 – 13).

 

“A king will arise, insolent and skilled in intrigue, his power will be mighty, but not by his own power, and he will destroy to an extraordinary degree and prosper and perform his will; He will destroy mighty men and the holy people, and through his shrewdness he will cause deceit to succeed by his influence; and he will magnify himself in his heart, and he will destroy many while they are at ease, he will even oppose the Prince of Princes, but he will be broken without human agency” (Daniel 8:23 – 25).

 

“Then the king will do as he pleases, and he will exalt himself above every god and will speak monstrous things against the God of gods…” (Daniel 11:36).

 

“Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God (2 Thess. 2:3 – 4).

 

“There was given to him a mouth speaking arrogant words and blasphemies…and he opened his mouth in blasphemies against God, to blaspheme His name and His tabernacle, that is, those who dwell in heaven” (Revelation 13:5 – 6).

The Most Beautiful Word You Can Hear From Jesus

 

 

“She turned around and saw Jesus standing there, and did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” Supposing Him to be the gardener, she said to Him, “Sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where you have laid Him, and I will take Him away.” Jesus said to her, “Mary!”” (John 20:14 – 16).

 

O to hear Jesus speak our name! To hear Him speak my name to me, for you to hear Him speak your name to you. Mary’s eyes did not know that she was looking at Jesus, she thought Him to be a gardener. But her ears! Her ears! She knew His voice!

 

How her heart leapt. How her face beamed. How her pulse quickened. How a fountain of joy and delight welled up within her soul. It was as if she, herself, was coming out of a tomb, a tomb of despair, of grief, of confusion, of a broken heart. While an angel rolled away the stone of the tomb where the body of Jesus lay, Jesus rolled away the stone of grief and despair from Mary’s heart.

 

Does not Jesus say in John 10:3 – 4 that the Shepherd of the sheep “calls His own sheep by name…and the sheep follow Him because they know His voice”?

 

O dear, dear friends. The most beautiful word you or I will ever hear from the lips of Jesus Christ is when He calls us by our name. He calls us by our name because He knows us and loves us and draws us to Himself. He calls us by name because we are His sisters and brothers (ought we not to know the names of our siblings?). He calls us by name because for the “joy set before Him, He endured the cross, despising the shame.”

 

O beloved, you are the joy set before Him, I am the joy set before Him, we are His joy and delight. Just as we love to hear Him speak our name, so He loves to speak our name – for we love to utter the names of those we love and who can fathom the love of Jesus for you, for me, for us?

 

 Can you hear the joy in His voice as He says, “Mary”? Can you hear the laughter, the delight, the glory? If we love to surprise people with good things and good news, how much more did Jesus love to surprise Mary with the Resurrection! Now my friends…there is indeed a surprise…and what a waste it would be if Jesus did not enjoy it!

 

Listen…listen ever so quietly…can you hear Him? Can you hear Jesus speaking to you? Can you hear Jesus saying your name?

 

When you do, you will realize that it is the most beautiful word that you will ever hear from His lips.

 

Listen.

Barabbas or Jesus?

 

 

“They cried out all together, saying, “Away with this man, and release for us Barabbas!” (He was one who had been thrown into prison for an insurrection made in the city, and for murder.)” Luke 23:18 – 19.

 

“The chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowds to ask for Barabbas and to put Jesus to death.” Matthew 27:20.

 

From Palm Sunday to Good Friday is less than a week, we can measure the days. Can we measure the chasm between shouting, “Hosanna. Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!” and then crying out, “Crucify Him! Give us Barabbas and crucify Jesus!”? Can we plumb the depths of this chasm…the depths of our own souls?

 

How is it conceivable that the crowds who were shouting “Hosanna” on Palm Sunday and rolling out the red carpet for Jesus to enter Jerusalem, within less than a week were ushering Jesus out of Jerusalem onto the blood red way of the Via Dolorosa to Golgotha?

 

And what shall we say of the priests and elders? These holy men were, on the one hand, preparing to celebrate Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and on the other hand were lying and scheming to ensure the murder of Jesus.

 

These leaders of the people were inciting the people to cry, “Give us Barabbas! Crucify Jesus!” The religious and civil leaders were teaching the people to choose between the Lamb of God and a murderer and insurrectionist – they were calling the people to choose death over life, murder over peace, hate over love.

 

Pilate saw the insanity. Do we?

 

The challenge of celebrating Palm Sunday is to look in the mirror on Good Friday. Those who were shouting “Hosanna!” on Palm Sunday were crying out, “Give us Barabbas and crucify Jesus!” on Good Friday.

 

When we choose insurrection, we reject the Lamb of God. When we justify insurrection, we align ourselves with Satan. Jesus tells us that Satan is a murderer.

 

The chief priests and elders taught the people to cry, “Give us Barabbas and crucify Jesus!” on one of the holiest days of the year, Passover. How is this possible? How could they not see what they were doing?

 

Jesus says that “My Kingdom is not of this world.”

 

We say, “We have no king but Caesar.”

 

The spirit of Barabbas, the spirit of insurrection, is the spirit of the “man of lawlessness” (2 Thess. 3:3).

 

“Another horn, a little one, came up among them, and three of the first horns were pulled out by the roots before it; and behold, this horn possessed eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth uttering great boasts” (Daniel 7:8).

 

“He will speak out against the Most High and wear down the saints of the Highest One, and he will intend to make alterations in times and in law, and they will be given into his hand for a time, times, and half a time” (Daniel 7:25).

 

“Out of one of them came forth a rather small horn which grew exceedingly great…It grew up to the host of heaven and caused some of the host and some of the stars to fall to the earth, and it trampled them down. It even magnified itself to be equal with the Commander of the host; and it removed the regular sacrifice from Him, and the place of His sanctuary was thrown down…and it will fling truth to the ground and perform its will and prosper” (Daniel 8:9 – 13).

 

“A king will arise, insolent and skilled in intrigue, his power will be mighty, but not by his own power, and he will destroy to an extraordinary degree and prosper and perform his will; He will destroy mighty men and the holy people, and through his shrewdness he will cause deceit to succeed by his influence; and he will magnify himself in his heart, and he will destroy many while they are at ease, he will even oppose the Prince of Princes, but he will be broken without human agency” (Daniel 8:23 – 25).

 

“Then the king will do as he pleases, and he will exalt himself above every god and will speak monstrous things against the God of gods…” (Daniel 11:36).

 

“Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God (2 Thess. 2:3 – 4).

 

“There was given to him a mouth speaking arrogant words and blasphemies…and he opened his mouth in blasphemies against God, to blaspheme His name and His tabernacle, that is, those who dwell in heaven” (Revelation 13:5 – 6).

 

I am puzzled how professing Christians can cry, “Give us Barabbas,” ignoring the fact that to do so is to also cry, “Crucify Jesus!”

 

On the Feast of Passover the religious leaders led their people to crucify Jesus by the hands of the Romans. The same thing can happen with professing Christians.

 

All but a few worshipped the golden image of Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 3). Do we seriously think things are different today?

 

Can we not hear Jesus saying, “My Kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36)?

 

Perhaps the only real question on Good Friday is whether the Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Christ is enough for us, whether He is our All in all. Perhaps the question is whether we belong to Jesus, and only to Jesus.

 

Yes, I think that is it.

 

Our Great Temptation

 

 

“From that time Jesus began to point out to His disciples that it was necessary for Him to go to Jerusalem and to suffer many things from the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and to be killed, and to be raised up on the third day. And yet Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, “God forbid it, Lord! This shall never happen to You!” But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on God’s purposes, but men’s.”” Matthew 16:21 – 23.

 

The things we think are good can be bad, very bad.

 

“When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate” (Genesis 3:6).

 

Suppose Jesus had heeded Peter’s words and gone along with Peter’s plan to spare Him suffering and death? Where would we be?

 

Look closely at Peter’s words. “God forbid it, Lord! This shall never happen to You.” Peter is both rebuking God and invoking God. In the Name of God Peter is opposing God. In the Name of God Peter is playing the role of Satan.

 

Consider that this passage is preceded by Peter’s glorious confession of Jesus as the Christ. “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16). This was revealed to Peter by the Father (16:17).

 

One minute Peter is receiving revelation from the Father and confessing that Jesus is the Messiah, the next minute Peter is playing the role of Satan invoking the Name of God.

 

Peter was tempting Jesus and Jesus responds, “You are a stumbling block to Me.” We may think of Jesus’s temptation in the Wilderness (Matthew 3), we may think of Jesus struggling in Gethsemane, but do we think of Jesus facing the temptation that Peter presents Him with in the words, “God forbid!”?

 

The temptation is to spare Himself. The temptation is to think that perhaps the Father has another way, a way other than the Cross. Maybe Peter has special insight, after all the Father has just given him revelation concerning Jesus as the Christ, maybe the Father is giving Peter insight into a way other than the Cross.

 

But Jesus knows the Way of the Father, the Way of the Cross; from before the foundation of the world He has been the Lamb slain, destined to be both Priest and Sacrifice. Jesus loves us too much to love Himself more. Jesus will become a curse for us so that we might be freed from death and live by the life of God. Jesus will be made sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Cor. 5:21). Jesus will “taste death for everyone” (Heb. 2:9) so that we may “pass out of death into life” (John 5:24).

 

Are we tempted to say to Jesus, “God forbid!”?

 

Is the idea that Jesus must suffer and be rejected by the religious leaders too much for us? Is the thought that Jesus is rejected by the national, political, military, economic, and social powers of this present age too much for us? Have we deceived ourselves into thinking that Jesus can be made palatable to the powers and authorities and peoples of the world – including to our own nation?

 

Let us be clear, “The word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Cor. 1:18). The Gospel is a message of “foolishness” (1 Cor. 1:21); to some it is a stumbling block, to others it is foolishness (1 Cor. 1:23).

 

If we think that the economic and political and national powers of this world, if we think that any system in this world is endorsing Jesus, is following Jesus, is adhering to Jesus, then we are deceived. The Cross of Christ and the Christ of the Cross bring an end to all things, most especially our egos, our self-centered agendas, our self-glorification, our wars and fightings, our vitriol. The Cross is self-sacrificial, those who follow Christ live cruciform lives – this is not the way of the world, it is not the way of politics or worldly economics or the way of an imperial cult.

 

Nor is it the way of the world’s religion – just as the religious leaders who were supposedly the heirs of Moses engineered the crucifixion of Jesus, so those who are supposedly the heirs of the Gospel often do the opposite but with the identical motive – they seek to keep Jesus off the Cross so that they may keep their lives (and ours!) off the Cross, so that Jesus might not be an offense to them, to us, or to the world.

 

For what follows Jesus’ words, “Get behind Me Satan!”?

 

“Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what good will it do a person if he gains the whole world, but forfeits his soul? Or what will a person give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and will then repay every person according to his deeds.”” (Matthew 16:27).

 

In other words, Jesus is saying that just as He is going to the Cross, so we are to go to the Cross (Galatians 2:20). And let us make no mistake, there is shame associated with the Cross of Christ, shame that is repulsive to the world and the powers of the world – shame that offends our religious self-righteousness. Hence the writer of Hebrews exhorts us to “Go outside the camp, bearing His reproach” (Heb. 13:13).

 

Our great temptation is to spare ourselves the Cross. It is to avoid the Cross. The temptation of pastors is to spare themselves and their people the Cross, to avoid the call of Jesus that we must deny ourselves, lose our lives, and follow Him. We do not want the Cross to be our way of life, we want success and prestige and comfort and affluence and glittery self-affirming religion to be our way…why we may even fall prey to desiring theological constructs that appeal to our desire for knowledge but avoid the Cross and the Cruciform Life. 

We do not want a Jesus who hangs on a Cross in shame, who eschews the wisdom of the world, who serves the poor, the stranger and immigrant, the unclean, the disenfranchised. We do not want a Jesus who is not a showman.

 

Our great temptation this Holy Week, as it is every week, is to say with Peter, “God forbid it!”

 

“May it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Galatians 6:14).

 

 

 

 

The Cross - Our Way of Life (7)

 

 

“Jesus, crying out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit.” Having said this, He breathed His last” (Luke 23:46).

 

We see fellowship restored, our High Priest has offered Himself (Hebrews 9:11 – 10:14), He is both Priest and Sacrifice. We cannot see what transpired when darkness covered the land, but we can see fellowship restored, for the Father has accepted the offering of the Son. Let us always be clear, that on the Cross Jesus was the perfect and complete sacrifice and reconciler, that “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them” (2 Cor. 5:19).

 

“He [God] made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that we might be the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:21). O dear friends, there has never been anything written as precious as this, never anything that so communicates the mystery of the Cross and those dreadful hours when holy darkness covered the land, never anything that comes so close to communicating, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”

 

To think that “while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son” (Rom. 5:10). To think that “having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life”! (Rom. 5:10).

 

O dear, dear friends, the love of God is overwhelming in its depth, its vastness, its Nature…no wonder Paul writes that he desires us to “know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God” (Eph. 3:19).

 

One day you and I will breathe our last. We do not know where we will be, we don’t know the day, we cannot discern the circumstance, we don’t know if the experience will be sudden or prolonged. We don’t know if we will be with friends and family.

 

But we do know two things. We will not be alone, for our Father and Lord Jesus will be with us, as will the blessed Holy Spirit. We also know that we can say, “Father, into Your hands I commit my spirit.”

 

We know this because of God’s Nature, His character (if we can use such a word), His Essence. We know this because Jesus is our perfect and eternal High Priest. We know this because God is love (1 John 4:16).

 

When Jesus says, “Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit,” He says this not just on His own behalf, but He speaks for us all; He speaks with assurance of His Father’s love so that you and I may speak with assurance of our Father’s love. Does Jesus not teach us to pray, “Our Father”?

 

Paul writes that “We groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven…so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life…Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge” (2 Cor. 5:1 – 5). In other words, we long for that moment when we too will say, “Father, into Your hands I commit my spirit.”

 

As our lives move deeper and deeper into intimacy with God, we sense what Paul was feeling when he wrote, “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain…having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better” (Phil. 1:21 – 24).

 

Let us not think that we can be so heavenly minded that we are of no earthly good, this is foolishness. It is only as we are heavenly minded that we can be of true earthly good, for this world desperately needs to see heaven, to taste heaven, to sense heaven – which is all to experience Jesus. We are citizens of heaven (Phil. 3:20), and as citizens of heaven we are called to live. We are children of another world, and as the children of our Father we are to live and we are to die, and dying is but a portal into our eternal home and glorious destiny.

 

One day the Spirit of our Father will call us home; whenever that day is, wherever we may be, whatever the circumstance, it will be a glorious call from the One who loves us beyond measure, from the One who desires us to be with Him and with our brothers and sisters, from the One who has prepared both individual and collective destinies for us – and we will see the Lamb and be enveloped in His glory and love and peace and joy, and every tear will be wiped from our eyes, and there will no longer be any pain…NO PAIN! O hallelujah!

 

And the Name of our God will be written on us, and the Name of the Lamb, and the Name of the Holy City…and O dear friends…O dear dear friends…and we will see His Face! O my, O my, O my…we…you and I…we will see His Face.

 

Now I ask you, how can we not look forward to that day? How can we not long for that glorious day?

 

When Jesus said, “Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit,” He said it for Himself, He said it for you, He said it for me, He said it for us.

 

Let this be our daily prayer of consecration, and our daily prayer of expectation…yes?

 

“Father, into Your hands I commit my spirit.”

 

AMEN.

The Cross - Our Way of Life (6)

 

“It is finished!”

 

“And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.” (John 19:30).

 

This is, my friends, the watershed of the cosmos, of the ages, of our lives. Before these holy words, before this eternal declaration, this triumphal cry, was proclaimed on earth and in the heavens, you and I had no hope, no ray of sunshine, no possibility of returning to our Father, no remedy for sin and death and wickedness, no expectation that the Sun would arise over the horizon of eternity’s ocean and bring light and life and warmth to our cold dead souls.

 

But now we have the assurance that Jesus Christ has accomplished all on the Cross for us, for His Father; that a holy offering and transaction and healing and redemption has occurred that is beyond our comprehension, but not beyond our experience. Indeed, we are all invited into the experience, into knowing the love of God, the life of God, the mercy and grace of God, the joy of God, the peace of God in Jesus Christ. A Table has been spread and we are invited to live by the Bread of God, the Blood (Life) of God, the essence of God in God the Son, Jesus Christ (John 6:26 – 69).

 

“By this will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all time. Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time onward until His enemies are made a footstool for His feet. For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified” (Hebrews 10:10 – 14, NASB).

 

“And the Holy Spirit also testifies to us; for after saying, “This is the covenant which I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put My laws upon their hearts, and write them on their mind,” He then says, “And their sins and their lawless deeds I will no longer remember.”

 

“Now where there is forgiveness of these things, an offering for sin is no longer required. (Hebrews 10:15 – 18).

 

Do we believe these words, dear friends? Do we believe that Jesus has done all that can be done? Do we believe that Jesus IS all that can be done? Do we believe that we can add nothing to Jesus Christ, nothing to His Person, nothing to His work?

 

Do we realize that “the one who has entered His [God’s} rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His” (Heb. 4:10)?

 

Did not Jesus constantly violate religious notions of the Sabbath in order to demonstrate that He is the true Sabbath? Jesus is our true and lasting rest.

 

Perhaps He challenges us in our own sabbaths? Might it be that most of us have practices or beliefs that we think make us more righteous than those who don’t have those beliefs or engage in those practices? Is it not possible that our distinctive beliefs and practices are sources from which we derive self-righteousness, thinking that God has bestowed a special righteousness on us because of our distinctives?

 

Naturally we would teach against any such notion (or maybe we wouldn’t), which would make the notion all the more dangerous, much like the person who rejoices in his humility.

 

O how I love Paul’s statement that “while we were without strength [while we were helpless!], at the right time Christ died for the ungodly” (Rom. 5:6). We could not help ourselves dear friends; we could not help ourselves then and we cannot help ourselves now – we must trust Jesus Christ for everything. Our righteousness, sanctification, redemption, and wisdom are all found in Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 1:30; Col. 2:1 – 3).

 

We look to the Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Christ for our source of life, our assurance, the ground of our being. Life flows from the Cross, forgiveness streams from the Cross, our old identity is killed on the Cross and we are clothed with the New Person of Jesus Christ (Romans 6; 2 Cor. 5:14 – 21; Gal. 2:20).

 

Our merciful and faithful High Priest is both our priest and sacrifice and His self-offering is completed and perfect – perfecting us in Himself – accepted by the Father, ushering in the “new and living way” into the Holy of Holies, into the koinonia of the Trinity (Heb. 10:19 – 25; John 17).

 

“Come to Me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is comfortable, and My burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28 – 30).

 

O dear friends, Jesus says to us, “I have done it all. I have paid the price for your sins. I have taken your sinful self into my holy Self and bestowed Myself on yourself to give you a new self, a new identity in Me. I have completed all for you because My Father and I love you and we are bringing you Home to where you belong – in relationship with Us; come Home My daughter, come Home My son, come Home my child.”

 

Is this not a good Day to come Home to Jesus?

 

Is it not a good Day to bring others along with us?