"The Birthing Narrative"

"Jesus answered him, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.'" ( John 3:3 ) 

I decided while I was continuing some barn housekeeping this past week and preparing to tag and band the new lambs from this spring's fruitful birthing season that I'd listen to Jen Wilken's Bible study in Exodus. I had ordered it earlier in the month from Lifeway and hadn't made time for it yet. I felt a bit guilty and disobedient though as I had not read the Bible passage or completed the homework section in the workbook beforehand as directed. I admonished myself and made a mental note to do it that evening as I started the audio. 

The Passover and Exodus from Egypt, when God delivered Israel out of slavery and onto the Promise Land, is in many ways the central story of the Old Testament. 

In asking the basic questions about the Exodus text, we learned that authorship is attributed to Moses. Since I knew Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, that was no surprise. What did surprise me; however, what I hadn't ever stopped to think about before was 'where' Moses started the story of the Exodus. 

It is God's story, but Moses, most everyone seems to know, possibly in part to all of the movies about his life, Moses is the central human figure in the Exodus narrative: The burning bush, demanding Pharaoh to let God's people go, the ten plagues, the parting of the Red Sea, the difficult wilderness years, Mount Sinai and the Ten Commandments.  

Moses is epic; he's bigger than life it seems.  

But Moses doesn't start his story at what we would consider to be the climatic or epic parts. No, he starts his story with a couple of Hebrew mid-wives. Their names are Shiphrah and Puah. 

Before God raised Moses up to deliverer Israel out of the land of Egypt, mid-wives were already delivering God's children. Literally. 

We learn that the Israelites were still living in Egypt from the time of Joseph. ( Remember him? With his amazing, technicolor dreamcoat? ) Due to extraordinary circumstances Jospeh had become second to Pharaoh in the land of Egypt; he then moved his family to Egypt to care for them when a severe famine struck Canaan. That's how the Israelites ended up in Egypt in the first place. 

Years have past now, and the new Pharaoh won't let the Hebrew people go. 

This Pharaoh doesn't know Joseph and frankly thinks the Israelites are multiplying too quickly and could become too mighty for the Egyptians to handle. He's afraid they will rise up, join with Egypt's enemies, fight against them, and escape, so Pharaoh makes their lives bitter with hard labor as slaves. 

Now there must have been more than two mid-wives within the Israelite people because we are told throughout the account that the Hebrews are multiplying and growing strong. They are a fruitful people. Jen tells us that Shiphrah and Puah were most likely head of the guild, representing all of the mid-wives. Pharaoh calls them to appear before him, commanding the mid-wives to kill the baby boys when they are born, but let the girl babies live. 

Why kill the boys? Why not the girl babies? Because Pharaoh is thinking that the boys are the strong ones, the warriors, the girls can be useful to the Egyptians in "domestic" areas and are of no threat to him, or so he thought. 

The mid-wives of course don't do it; they defy Pharaoh's order. Even when summonsed a second time to Pharaoh so he can find out why they did not obey the order and kill the boys, Shiphrah and Puah lie to his face telling him the Hebrew women are so vigorous that they give birth before the mid-wives can get to them. 

They risk their lives to save lives. 

Then there is Jochebed, Moses's mother, who hides him for the first three months of his life and then constructs a floating basinet and places him in the Nile. ( She uses the same waterproof material that Noah used when building the ark. ) His older sister, who is more than likely Miriam, watches from a distance to see what will become of her baby brother. I can't imagine the pain in either of their hearts. 

As Pharaoh's daughter comes to the Nile to bathe, she discovers the baby boy floating in the Nile. She takes pity on him as she hears him crying and decides in that moment to adopt him as her own child. The young sister watching the fate of her infant brother keeps her head and acts quickly saying that she knows of a "mom" who could nurse the child for her. Pharaoh's daughter encourages Miriam to take the baby to the nurse mom, and she will even pay for his care. 

The story tells us that Moses's own mother did in deed nurse him, and when he had grown older he was returned to Pharaoh's daughter in the palace. She named him "Moses" because she said, "I drew him out of the water."  

You have to laugh at that part of the story. It's like God is saying to Pharaoh, "You think women aren't a threat to you? How about this? I'm sending a deliverer to my people who will deliver them out of your evil hand, and I'm going to use your very own daughter to raise him up, in your very own household, right under your wicked nose."  

The Hebrew women and the mid-wives were Israel's first deliverers. In fact, God was so pleased with the mid-wives, the text tells us that he gave them families of their own. 

Jen pointed out in the study that the Bible gives us such a beautiful picture of female bravery in the lives of these women. I love that she refers to this story as the "birthing narrative." 

And the "birthing narrative" reveals that Moses knew and respected this truth. We are swept away by this knowledge as he finishes the Genesis account and opens up the story of the Exodus, not with a conquering battle scene or him braving the likes of Pharaoh, but with the heroic behavior of the Hebrew mid-wives, his mother, his sister, his Egyptian step-mother, and the daughters of Israel. 

Breathtaking, isn't it? 

I had to stop rummaging around inside of the barn to process what Jen was saying. Tears streamed down my face. This is why expository Bible study is so satisfying, and why I need to make a better effort to do my homework. 

In the digging of the fertile soil of the Word of God beneath the surface and the slow turning and turning of that richness, the Scriptures begin to uncover wounds deep within the human heart and at the same time administer healing. It's the power of the biblical narrative. It unearths and heals the hidden pains we didn't even know were underneath the polished appearance.  

The Scriptures reveal God's heart and his character, and only in finding him first, understanding who he is do I understand who I am and all he created me to be. 

My grandson Jonah, he's four and likes to do every job in the world by himself without help, and whenever he gets in this work mode, my son Josh, his daddy, will say, "Jonah, team work makes the dream work." 

And I think of this cooperative language in not just the Exodus narrative, but in the entire story of God with his creating and ordering of his people, his men and his women, in his purposes, his redemption and his deliverance to one day birth forth out of another precious womb, his Deliverer. 

"For we know that the whole of creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now." ( Romans 8:22 ) 

We all know that there is something seriously wrong with this world. We groan inwardly along with all of creation as if we are all in labor anticipating the day when everything will not only be put right, but made better than before. That desire lies deep within the human soul. 

And the life death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is the answer to that longing; no other religion has a leader with an empty tomb who promises to come again, making all things new.  ( Revelation 21:5 ) 

But you have to know you need him. "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble." ( James 4:6 )) And I see this also in the lives of these brave women who trusted God in the midst of such atrocities. 

You have to acknowledge the brokenness and sin and that you can't save yourself with all of your righteous deeds. It will never be enough. But God's grace is more than enough in the perfect life and death and resurrection of his Son. In salvation, all of this is imputed to us, and we become part of God's family and his fellow workers in his kingdom.  ( 1 Corinthians 3:9-16, 15:1-4 ) 

"...because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." ( Romans 10:9 ) 

You will be delivered! 

You will be born again! 

( John 3:1-21 ) 

💜

( Exodus 1-2:1-10 ESV / CSB ) 

"God of Deliverance" A Study of Exodus 1-18, Jen Wilken 

The Willing Servant

"Behold, my servant shall act wisely, he shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted." ( Isaiah 52:13 )

Yesterday as I engaged in a bit of barn housekeeping, enjoying the welcoming spring weather, I found myself humming and singing the words I could remember to a perennial Easter hymn from the reformed church of my childhood. Pieces of soiled bedding and manure flung out from the dirt floor and met the open fresh morning air, gently sweeping my happy hens along in the melodious labor and breeze. 

But it's one week prior, and we must endure the cross before we can celebrate the crown. 

Pastor Tim Keller used to tell this story in his sermons to help his listeners better understand the significance of what Jesus had done in wrapping himself up in human flesh and experience. He read from an article written by an African-American woman who wrestled with the Christian faith and the existence of God while she was a journalism major in college. Her mother had been beaten to death by her boyfriend, and as one can only imagine, she had suffered greatly as she remembered seeing the bloody hand prints on the wall. 

When she actually heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ for the first time it moved her to tears and belief because of the power of the sacrifice. She said that she was overcome by the reality that Jesus knew what it was like to be beaten to death by someone who should have loved him. 

The reality that Jesus would leave glory and his Father to lower himself into our world, into our suffering and egregious sin boggles the brain. 

I think of a person who works on sewer systems. That's got to be the dirtiest job imaginable. The workers put on this special suit that protects their skin from coming into contact with the sludge and scum in a septic tank or city sewage drain, and then they lower themselves into the cesspool. 

Like those workman, Jesus lowered himself into our painful, filthy world, but unlike them, he didn't first put on any special gear to protect himself. No, he put on human flesh like all of us so he could feel everything we feel and then some. He allowed himself to feel rejection, suspicion, and mocking. He allowed himself to feel the impact of not only every angry insult, but every brutal fist. He allowed himself to be beat so severely that he wasn't recognizable as a human and cut to pieces by someone who should have loved him, his own creation. 

"As many were astonished at you - his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind - " ( Isaiah 52:14 ) 

Every part of Jesus's interrogation, trial, and sentencing was unjust. No justice was given to him, so we could be justified. Jesus was humiliated, shamed, and counted among the criminals, so we could be counted among the saints in light. Jesus became filthy with our sin, so we could be washed clean. God rejected and forsook his Son, so he would not have to reject and forsake us. God showed no mercy to Jesus, so he could show mercy to us. He abandoned Jesus so he could adopt us as his children. 

Unbelievable, and yet it's true. Jesus took our place on the cross. 

And not because God made him do it. 

The reason that evocative analogy of the train switch-tender and his little son playing in the gear area or on the railway tracks, it's got several versions, but the reason it doesn't work is because the son is unaware that his father is about to sacrifice his life for a train full of people. 

( There is the original 1884 tale, however; where the son obediently lies down on the track and his prompt obedience saves his life. )

The first story doesn't work because Jesus didn't die by accident, and he wasn't strong-armed into the cross by his Father. There was no so called "cosmic child abuse" involved in his death. Jesus volunteered. And this changes everything. 

In the Garden of Gethsemane, God began to give Jesus a taste of what was to come. 

"And he said to his disciples, 'Sit here while I pray.' And he took with him Peter and James and John and began to be greatly distressed and troubled. And he said to them, 'My soul is very sorrowful, even to death.'" ( Mark 14:32-34 ) 

"And he said, 'Abba Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me, Yet, not what I will, but what you will.'" ( verse 36 ) 

"And being in agony he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground." ( Luke 22:44 ) 

Jesus didn't sweat drops of blood because of the crucifixion, as horrific as Roman crucifixion was in that day, God began to reveal to Jesus the cup. He would drink the cup of God's wrath for the sins of the world. He would be crucified for us; he would make for us penal substitutionary atonement. 

"The Lamb of God," John the Baptist proclaimed, "Who takes away the sin of the world." ( John 1:29 ) 

Do you ever wonder why a lamb? Why was it a lamb sacrificed at the Passover in Egypt, and its blood wiped over the doorposts? Why not a pig or maybe a calf or a chicken? Why did God tell the Israelites to take a lamb and sacrifice it?  

God's children are compared to sheep in the Bible, and Jesus, the Son of God, not giving up his Godhood to become fully flesh, became one of us. All I can say it that I raise sheep and there are not many things in this world as precious and vulnerable and innocent as a soft, baby lamb.  Hurting one seems unthinkable. 

Nails did not hold Jesus to the cross, love did.  

Jesus could have called down a legion of angels to rescue him from his death, but he went knowing full well the cost he was about to pay for our lives with his own blood. After living a perfect life in our imperfect, broken world and freely subjecting himself to our filth and betrayal, Jesus willingly climbed the hill and lay down on the cross. The Lamb of God stayed on the cross for us. But Praise God, he did not stay in the tomb. 

Sunday's coming. 

Because the cross makes a way for the crown. 

💜

"....the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world." ( Revelation 13:8b CSB ) 

 Bible verses from ESV unless otherwise indicated 

A 'Reason' For Hope

"All the days of my hard service I will wait for my renewal to come. You will call and I will answer you; you will long for the creature your hands have made." ( Job 14:15 ) 

This is one of my "life verses" - it's actually my "go-to" when I'm scared or sad, when I need to fall asleep, when my heart needs a good preaching to. These words have sustaining power. Yeah, a golden promise, seriously, right there smack in the middle of Job.  

Humans are born needing a strong identity, purpose, meaning, satisfaction, morality, a way to deal with suffering, and hope. 

The human heart longs for hope. 

"He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man's heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end." ( Ecclesiastes 3:11 ) 

Aye yes, the divine hiddenness, but many precious truths God has nestled in our hearts, in plain view. 

Remember what I said in my last blog was the secular answer to the longing for hope? That's right. 

"Just try not to think about it too much." 

In other words: "Since we are accidents and are here arbitrarily, since there is no purpose for our existence or meaning, you need to come up with your own identity. Of course this won't be strong enough to sustain a napkin, but it's all we've got. Live with it. Morality just mysteriously appeared, love is an illusion our brains need to survive, and as for that hope you have in your heart, you know the one for love to be real and to live for all eternity with that love, well, just try not to think about it too much." 

Pretend I'm Google or whatever search engine you use.

Did you find this answer helpful? Yes or No.  

Longing means to yearn for in love. So guess what? In all of our constant yearning to live forever with someone who will love us to our "dirty" core, God satisfies that ache in the resurrection of his Son, our hope is fulfilled in him. He is saying to us, "I'm yearning for you too." 

"for the creature my hands have made." 

Please think about this today: 

Not only does the truth of God's longing for us and preparing a resurrection for our bodies, where he will call our name and we will rise to live with him for all eternity, give us hope, but it gives our lives meaning, purpose, satisfaction, a place to root the moral code inside of us, and a way to deal with the suffering we face. 

In the Old Testament in the middle of the greatest of human suffering, God reveals through that pain the beauty and hope of the Gospel of Jesus Christ as Job cries out that he knows his Redeemer lives and at last will stand upon the earth. Job is saying in essence, "Your love is so intense; you won't let me stay dead." "Every verse whispers his name." Even in Job. (1) ( Job 19:25 ) 

Regardless of what secularism is suggesting, they certainly aren't backing up their claims with anything of substance for the neediness that haunts the human soul. Because Christianity does, it is a reasonable faith. It is a livable faith. 

It is a faith we can live with! 

The Resurrection of Jesus Christ answers all of our needs, and the greatest hope of the human heart is fulfilled to overflowing. Longing for eternity with our Creator was God's idea. He put the hope in our hearts in the first place. He's the hunger and the feast. 

One day when he calls, we will rise, all of us in Christ, the creatures he longs for. 

We can live in light of this sustaining truth today and everyday until that glorious moment. 

"Did you find this answer helpful?" 

" A thousand times, Yes!"

💜

( 1 ) The Jesus Storybook Bible; Every Verse Whispers His Name by Sally Lloyd-Jones 

Bible verses from ESV 

Battle of the Narratives

"The wicked flee when no one pursues, but the righteous are bold as a lion." Proverbs 28:1 

I have this "book club" thing with my man children where they designate a novel for us to read and then we discuss it together once we're finished, usually at the next family gathering since we all live miles apart. 

Last year it was Steinbeck's East of Eden which was thoroughly engaging because of all of the spiritual questions tracing back to creation, original sin, and the human will. I love digging into that stuff. We've read Flannery O'Connor's "Wise Blood," Ray Bradbury's "Something Wicked This Way Comes," and on deck is Chesterton's "Orthodoxy." 

Dear Parents, read to your kids daily and take them to the library often; in an economy full of inflation, it is an activity that is still free, but yields precious dividends. However, don't be surprised if they grow up to be smarter than you. Just go with it. 

Both man children along with my nephew Joey who is a well-read English major and always thick in the literary discussions on my front porch, say Fyodor Dostoevsky's "The Brothers Karamazov" is the greatest novel of all time. And believe me it's a hill they're all willing to die on. 

I have to admit that in the last five years, I've heard many teachers, professors, and podcasters say the same thing; however, after a couple of false starts with the massive Russian novel and the consideration of my learning curve, I was granted permission to work my way into The Brothers K. by beginning first with Crime and Punishment. 

I'm half way into the book and already I'm seeing an apologetic argument for the biblical narrative. It's intriguing to me how much of life reflects God's story and speaks into ours when we have eyes to see and ears to hear although I'm sure Dostoevsky planned it this way. But again, why? 

I'm not sure how the novel ends so there's no spoiler alert here. If you've read it you know that the reader is plunged into the mind of a convoluted killer, the protagonist Raskolnikov, an impoverished law school student who thinks himself something of a superman above the law. Even before he goes through with the murder of a cantankerous pawnbroker, he's overcome by a fever and all kinds of fits and creepy dreams just in the devising stage; the madness, which continues in intensity after the crime, is more of a spiritual variety than medical. 

I'm seeing that the "punishment" in "Crime and Punishment" is not the kind carried out so much by a criminal justice system, but the sentence handed down by one's own conscience and self-deceptions. So I have to stop and ask: Where does all of this guilt, shame, and remorse come from?  Can naturalism produce such things? 

I've established in past blogs that no one can make an airtight argument for whether God exists or not; neither set of beliefs can be proven empirically. So it begs the question: "Can I believe in something that I can't prove?" 

"Yes."

"How so?" 

We can look at the biblical narrative,  namely "Christianity" and naturalism or what is usually referred to as "secularism" and compare them. ( You may do this with any religion or set of beliefs. Since I'm arguing for Christianity, I'll stick with it. Historically, especially since Darwinism came on the scene, these two faiths are the most debated and pitted against each other. ) 

Yes, secularism is a "faith." Because you can't prove that matter just spontaneously occurred without contingency, and that God doesn't exist, this belief must be taken on faith. You have faith that God doesn't exist and the material world is all there is. 

You are not subtracting God out of the equation and so left with no belief, but instead, you're just swapping one belief for another. ( Charles Taylor is a secular philosopher and takes an honest approach to this issue in his book "A Secular Age" if you are curious and want to learn more. ) 

So even though we don't have an airtight argument on either side, we can compare faiths by asking ourselves a series of questions: First, I can ask if my human experience fits my faith. In other words, is my faith livable? Can I live out my faith? 

Humans are born with certain needs. We need a strong identity, one that can support the weight of our selfhood, not dependent on our merits, achievements, and goodness. We need meaning and a way to deal with suffering. We need satisfaction, purpose, and hope. 

Inside of our hearts we know that we have a sense of morality and justice, and when we go against it, as if secularism is true, saying that there's no right or wrong, so I can make up my own truths, like the murderer Raskoinkov in Crime and Punishment, the results are disastrous because ideas do have consequences. 

We know the world is not as it should be, and that for all our social programs, education, and government systems, utopia has never come and never will. Not here. Inside we know this. 

We see glimpses of goodness, of what the world could be, of what we could be, and we know it must be transcendent. We long for all of creation to be set right. We experience it whenever we watch a movie or read a novel in a "happy ending itch" that longs to be scratched.  

Why would evolution, a process where the strong eats the weak, that randomly moves along without rhyme or reason or intelligent motive, cause us to eventually love each other and experience guilt, shame, and remorse when we didn't? If there's no transcendent being that has set a moral order into creation and I can simply decide what is right or wrong for myself, why do I feel this guilt when I don't obey the moral code?  I'm not baking my conclusion into the premise; this is simply what evolution states. 

And if you listen carefully to the secular argument, you'll find often times that atheists borrow from the Christian faith to explain things in their faith, especially our sense of morality and justice. That's not playing by the rules, is it? If you have to borrow from another set of beliefs to explain your own set of beliefs, well, your faith isn't very consistent or sustainable. It's not livable. It's not going to hold you up. 

The biblical narrative offers answers that fit these needs and can be lived out. 

While it's a huge stretch to believe that evolutionary processes could cause love to develop after cannibalism and then guilt and shame when we don't love or worse, the Christian narrative explains not only where this guilt and shame originates in the doctrine of original sin, but gives us a way to be rid of it in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. 

These are clues. Don't ignore them. 

They are also fair questions, I believe, and ones that help us to sort through and make sense of the existential fear that thrusts us into the depths of despair when we allow ourselves to think that we have no purpose and that nothing we do here matters, or there is no right or wrong, or the love I feel for my family and friends and my precious grandchildren is just an illusion my brain creates to help me survive.

I'm sorry, but everything inside of me screams against this nonsense, and I believe it does in you as well. Why? Why do you think our heart pushes back against this argumentation? Our rebellion against naturalism is another clue we mustn't ignore. 

I have read accounts where atheists, including Thomas Nagel, a well-known philosopher and professor at New York University, instruct their readers struggling with this despair to "just not think about it." This doesn't match the story inside of me that clawed in the darkness to break out into the light. In fact C.S. Lewis said that if we are experiencing this kind of despair, we're not thinking enough. 

I fear if we keep ignoring the yearnings and clues inside of us, either quelling the pain or refusing to investigate the philosophical evidence for Christianity as well as the physical, we will suppress the truth for so long and so hard, in the final analysis, we will convince ourselves the false narrative is the truthful one. What happens if we never have the intellectual integrity to look at the data and listen? 

Self-deception. 

One reality is that some of us simply don't want it to be true. 

If there's a God, that implies that I'm not the one in the driver's seat, the one who gets to call the shots. At least have the integrity to admit this. That makes more sense than believing evolution which now more than a century after Darwin hasn't unfolded the evidence that Darwin himself said should be uncovered in time to prove the theory. It hasn't. 

However many universities unlike back in the day are no longer requiring science majors to take ethics or philosophy classes, so the students are never forced to examine the big questions of life like meaning, purpose or morality. Naturalism is taught from the get-go, and that is a conclusion baked into the premise like a casserole. 

If you're a Christian, I encourage you to embrace the apologetic aspects of our faith as well. It can strengthen our faith, equip us to better defend it, and reveal delightful surprises along the journey. 

All of us have to investigate the clues and decide for ourselves. 

Listen to the story inside of you - does secularism or the biblical narrative better fit what your heart knows is true? That you were created for something more; you were created for something this world can not supply. You were created by and for God, to live with him forever. 

Listen. 

💜

 

The Right Heart

"I was constantly challenged by Christian women and men who thought deeply about the faith and about life. It was at church and among my Christian friends that I first discovered faith, not as a set of ideas to believe but as a true story of the whole universe, a tale of love, loss, promise, and costly rescue, in which we all play a role."  ( Christopher Watkin, Biblical Critical Theory )

"...who thought deeply about the faith and about life." 

Centuries before the socials and the immortal news feed, French philosopher and mathematician Blaise Pascal said that all men's miseries derive from not being able to sit in a quiet room alone. 

Throughout the ages of church history and into our own day, many false narratives have infiltrated and even flourished within the Church. If we are to follow Jesus and serve in the Great Commission, it's crucial we get the Christian narrative right. As Dr. Alister McGrath reminded us in his work that Christianity has a deep narrative structure, articulating a grand story that connects together God, Jesus Christ, and believers. 

And we have a clue we are getting it right when we see the story change our own lives. How can we expect others to listen or care about the story when it isn't beautiful to us? 

"But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are are healed." ( Isaiah 53:5 ) 

This verse is the beating heart of the biblical narrative, God's redeeming response to the human dilemma and agonizing despair of being born destined to sin, covered in guilt and shame. 

For years I went to several churches that used this passage to make a case for physical healing, even building a false doctrine upon it. It was used as a platform to pronounce that it is always God's will to heal physically, and if you're not healed you don't have enough faith or are swimming in some egregious, besetting sin. 

This is a gross misinterpretation at the least. To ascribe physical and mental healing to these verses and use them to teach in this manner is to reduce the most precious doctrine of the Christian narrative - the atonement of Jesus Christ - to a superficial level. 

Of course Jesus healed all types of diseases in the Bible and still heals physically and mentally today; that's not the argument here. It's a very good and proper thing to pray for and desire our loved ones to be physically healed. Storm heaven for them, but this chapter in Isaiah is speaking about the deeper healing of our spirits that gives us peace with God. 

This peace has been erroneously taught as a security in our physical environment, but is in fact, the life-giving truth that because of the punishment Jesus took for us on the cross, we are now no longer regarded as God's enemies. We are no longer at war with God, but we now have peace with him through the finished work of Jesus Christ.  ( Romans 1-9 ) 

When we contextualize this verse, we see no where does Isaiah mention physical healing in this passage. The verses beforehand describe in stark detail the rejection Jesus faced for us, how he was despised by the people he created. And the verse that follows "and with his wounds we are healed" says:

"All we like sheep have gone astray; we turned - every one - to his own way, and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all." ( verse 6 )  These verses deal with our sin, our transgressions and our iniquity; the things that keep us separated from a holy God and enjoying a relationship with our Creator. 

In Mark 2:5 when Jesus told the paralyzed man lying on the mat, "Son your sins are forgiven," before he healed his physical body, he was adjudicating to the lame man, his friends and all those gathered around that this is the deeper healing we need. Forgiveness of our sins. Without this healing, you can't enter the kingdom of heaven. 

It's not just the prosperity gospel or word of faith churches that replace the beauty of the atonement with physical healing; we are all bent toward this tendency because of our fallen nature. We must be intentional in driving the Gospel truth deeper into our hearts. 

When we come to the altar to worship together whether as a church, or in family devotions, or alone on our knees by our bed or in the great outdoors, are we coming for God himself or for what he can give us or do for us? 

Are we entering his gates with thanksgiving in our hearts and his courts with praise for all of the spiritual blessings he has bestowed upon us by his love, grace, and mercy in Jesus? Or are we first seeking signs, wonders, financial help, or physical healing instead of his righteousness and his kingdom?  

Are we coming and seeking for God to expose our hidden sins to us and the displeasing motives of our heart so we can receive forgiveness and help with our inner struggles in our sanctification process? Or are we so busy in the noise of our lives and our needs, we don't come quietly to first seek for him and self-reflect in the light of his glory? 

It's interesting that in his epistles we don't see the apostle Paul praying for physical healing or security, although we know he must have. He prayed for his thorn to be removed, and he raised a man from the dead that he fell out of a window. But for his church plants he prays for them things like to be filled with the knowledge of God's will, to have strength to comprehend together the love of Christ, for church unity, for a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of God, to set their minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth....... 

We can never go wrong by opening our Bibles and praying straight out of the story, then meditating on the truths and preaching them to ourselves. 

We can never stop gazing at the Gospel like a multi-faceted diamond enamored by its beauty and studying each glorious part with blazing intentionality. When the mercy God has had on sinners like us becomes clearer, him redeeming us through the life and death and resurrection of his Son to be adopted as his dearly beloved children to live in a fully healed, resurrected body for all eternity, it changes us. 

The Gospel has transformed my prayers for physical and mental healing and really all needs. I've found that I pray better and clearer now for these things because I understand the narrative better. We will never reach the bottom of this over-flowing well, but may we never stop diving and searching. 

When we understand what Christ has done for us, it radically changes how we live our lives. It changes our worship. The beauty at the heart of the biblical narrative has the power to transform the lives around us, but we have to have the story straight in our own hearts first. 

💜

"He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins." ( Colossians 1:13 - 14 ) 

                                                                                     

The Reason for Reason

"Come now, let us reason together says the Lord:..." Isaiah 1:18 

Don't you wonder why every story you read or movie you watch has this good verses evil tension play out within the storyline? Why is the greatest theme in much of literature and of so many songs the notion that love never dies? Where did numbers come from and why are they so useful? Where did your sense of fairness come from? Why do we long for the story to end happily ever after? Why do we sense that love will last forever? 

In my curious pursuit of Narrative Apologetics, I've become more and more acquainted with and enchanted by the Ontological argument for the existence of God. I don't understand why it is that many believers and even biblical scholars don't find the argument compelling and convincing and down right beautiful.  

Neither side in the God debate is going to give an airtight argument for the existence or nonexistence of God. Like a mystery novel detective, we have to be observant, ask good questions, and follow the clues, and some of those clues exist on the outside of us and some are hidden within. Once the evidence is gathered, analyzed, and presented, we all have to reach our own verdicts. 

Well-known Design Arguments discerning the universe and nature such as the Cosmological and Teleological Arguments, are based on observation and experience. These arguments are based on everything in the universe having a cause, being in motion, or being contingent, in other words, needing a "causer."  

On the flip side of the same coin, the Ontological Argument rests purely in reason and logic to make its case for God, which is why some dismiss it. However, one quote on a Christian website that I also found to be true in my own study of the Ontological Argument said of its wax and wane among theologians and intelligentsia: 

"the Ontological Argument has not completely faded and disappeared. In part, that’s because, the more closely one tries to define its terms, the more the biblical God emerges." ( Maybe that has something to do with why it is dismissed at times. ) 

Both of these arguments are important in our hunt for God.

Works of scholarship abound on the Ontological Argument to challenge I suspect even those with the philosophical chops to think them through to their happily ever abstract ending. Embarrassingly, I found myself rereading Kierkegaard's paragraphs several times before I could understand what exactly he was getting at; however, I believe turning the evidence we find over and over like rich garden soil is where the real struggle lies.  

At some point, we all have to be alone with our evidence. 

We all have to wrangle with the findings along with our observations and experiences, scribbling dilemmas in our journals and working them out like an algebra equation. For me personally the problem of evil with all of its implications, assumptions, questions, and private heartache caused the most pain and gut-wrenching honesty, and tears. But nothing has moved me closer to the presence of God and a deeper knowledge of him and his love. 

So finding out if God exists may require every brain cell we can muster and bend into deep contemplation: for it's the most important decision we will make in our lifetime. You might be saying, "I already believe in God, so I don't need to think about apologetics or worry about Kierkegaard's bright ideas. In fact, Rebecca, I think you're making the question entirely too difficult." Perhaps. But I would respectfully disagree. It's not just about believing he exists. If God exists, what kind of a God is he? There are clues everywhere. You don't need to even read any scholarly literature. 

Many of us have a superficial grasp of our God and historic Christianity. I believe through apologetics we can gain, develop, and appreciate more appropriately and stunningly the richness and strengths of our faith.   

And if you've been trying to find your true self, like Isaiah the Old Testament prophet, our only hope lies in finding God first. ( Isaiah 6 ) And I also know that once we establish a belief in God, many deep and dark inquiries extend the horizon. One blog at a time though. I know I shouldn't be quoting Scripture yet and giving my final analysis, but I can't seem to help myself. 

What we believe about God effects every chapter of our story. If God created me, then I should have more than just a passing knowledge of him. I love how Gavin Ortlund details the search for God in his book "Why God Makes Sense in a World that Doesn't:" (1) 

"It is, first, the most important and thrilling adventure of our lives. Nothing could be more urgent than whether he exists - and if so, what to do about it. For God is held to be the Supreme Good, who alone can fulfill the longings of the human soul. Therefore the stakes of finding him are literally infinite. The question of God is, secondly, the most fascinating puzzle you will ever think about. Whether or not he is real, certainly a more interesting idea has never been conceived. The concept God - the infinite Person, the ground of being, the precondition of reality - is the most staggering, enthralling idea ever to confront the human mind. The mere idea of God outweighs the physical universe in grandeur and importance. Finally the question of God is the most difficult and humbling question we will face." 

And that's another ontological question isn't it? Why do we even imagine a concept of God in the first place? Think about that. Where does it come from? Evolutionary processes? Some make a case for this. 

Interestingly in my research, I also found that when asked what they thought was the most compelling evidence for the existence of God and the hardest to counter in their debates, atheists, agnostics, and skeptics, alike, most all of them say that it is the Moral Argument, not the Design Argument that is hardest for them to combat. 

So I submit my evidence that the Ontological Argument is here to stay. 

Take music for instance. Charles Taylor, in his acclaimed (and thick!) work "A Secular Age," characterizes music in secular contexts as fundamentally mysterious because it conveys transcendence and yet is divorced from any transcendent referent. (1) Other secular people have written similar experiences of being profoundly moved by a piece of music and then feeling a loss because at the end there was no one to thank.  

Why did the skeptic think someone transcendent should be thanked for the music he heard, someone above nature and outside of human being? Surprisingly, many atheists take the argument on music for the existence of God more serious than other arguments. Why is that? I believe because everyone knows that music is powerful with the ability to lift us up, containing a transcendence of its own beauty stretching beyond this world, something supernatural. 

Sometime this weekend find a quiet place, pull up on your phone The Mozart G Minor Quintet or Hans Zimmer's "Chevaliers de Sangreal" or John Coltrane's "A Love Supreme," or your own personal favorite, insert your earbuds, close your eyes, and just listen. Really listen. 

Birds are a part of nature; we can observe birds. And they are so lovely and enjoyable to watch in their synchronized flight patterns, their busy, little work ethic, their diligence, and their fussiness displayed in constructing nursery nests for their eggs in the nooks of my barn. It's an activity I never grow tired of here at the farm. 

But what about their music?  

Researchers, including those who are both musicians and ornithologists, have discovered that the songs of birds are structured like that of human music in their change of tempo, pitch, and timbre, resembling human melodies. 

Birds, however; seem to understand who to thank for their music simply by delighting in and displaying the songs they were created to perform. Everyday in these delicately detailed, fine-feathered friends I see and hear the ontological bridging its way to the observable in musical notes and even symphonies, transcending the skeptical. 

At every turn our universe gives the impression of intelligence and beauty. Can't you see it? 

And don't forget that we live in the universe too, creatures longing for meaning and hope and purpose. Creatures who write music and stories of love and hope, longing for a happy ending, where good, at last, defeats evil forever. Humans are observable. We are also meaningful beings with meaningful thoughts; it doesn't seem plausible to me that we would be created by accident or by an indifferent, untouchable, or boring deity. It doesn't fit our storyline. It doesn't fit with what I can observe nor with what I know is going on inside of me. 

Could a random collection of molecules, emerging from nothing, heading nowhere, eating each other to survive, have turned from erratic blobs of monsters into affectionate, "civilized" beings now displaying love and creating art, because the blobs somehow realized developing a sense of morality and justice would be better survival techniques than the strong eating the weak? 

To me, you'd have to stretch the daylights out of that secular narrative to make it work let alone fit our world and be consistently livable. 

And anyway, how can you trust such a development of morality rooted in nothing but randomness? Or more importantly, why would you trust it? How could I trust my own thoughts for that matter, knowing they derived along a pathway that arbitrarily forked off from an already accidental main road and just kept going devoid of map and motive? 

What if the morality path we ventured down per chance instructed us it would be useful to eat our spouses like a black widow spider? Moral nature in the case of evolutionary biology is an illusion tricking our brains rather than a clue pointing us to the good verses evil drama we encounter in all of our stories and "the infinite Person and the ground of being." 

We all have to decide where we land in the argument for God. Even for those who get stuck and unsettled in the valley of indecision, the thought continually provokes the mind: Could a meaningless, indifferent deity or an accidental nothing produce such creatures as us? Creatures full of talent, purpose, justice, hope, and love? 

Be reasonable. 

Follow the clues. 

I visited this delightful book store recently in the quaint, little town of Monroe, GA 

 

The Stories That Surround Us

"There have been great societies that did not use the wheel, but there have been no societies that did not tell stories." Ursula K. Le Guin 

Last Sunday as usual I was hurrying to check on everyone and make sure all of the hungry mouths had a morning meal so I could get ready for church. At the sheep field before I could start the head count, I noticed a set of twin lambs born two days prior running around frantic without their mother. And she had proved a good, attentive mother. 

All sheep were accounted for except the mother ewe. That was strange. Even if a coyote managed to get through the fencing, the sly predator would have never made it past the watchful eyes of two Great Pyrenees, and still a coyote wouldn't have attacked a big sheep with such easy prey as vulnerable babies in the field. It didn't make sense. 

I scooped up the lambs as I proceeded to walk around basically in circles, wondering where in the world the mom could be. Then all of a sudden I heard a faint, muffled baa. "Oh Jesus, help us!" The voice came from under a heavy round bale of hay that had fallen over on its side. I couldn't even see any part of the mom at all; she was completely hidden. I shifted the lambs to one arm and grabbed my phone to call the Farmer. 

"Come now with the tractor a bale fell on a sheep; hurry!" 

When the Farmer arrived and lifted the bale with the hay spear, I handed him the lambs inside of the cab so I could help their mom. She was lying on her side, and I expected her to be as flat as a pancake. 

Amazingly she seemed okay. Sheep aren't known for being the brightest beast in the animal kingdom, but if a hay bale is tipping over, they usually have enough sense to get out of the way. I immediately saw her problem. 

She must have been eating deep inside of the hay because a piece of hemp bailing twine was wrapped around her ear tag so when she went to move, she couldn't. Poor thing. I untangled her and slid her out into the field. Her front leg was hurt, but the Farmer assured me it wasn't broken that she just needed to get the circulation going in it again. He was right. 

Sheep get unbelievably stressed at the least little thing, so I knew this scary ordeal had to have traumatized her to the core. I gave her a bucket of water, a pan of grain, her lambs, and some space. The Farmer and I stood there for a bit in the chilly air watching her from a distance, mesmerized, thanking God. It was one of those moments you cherish because you know it doesn't always go that way. 

Then we went to church. 

In "Narrative Apologetics; Sharing the Relevance, Joy, and Wonder of the Christian Faith," Oxford University professor Alister McGrath writes: 

"Humans are storytellers and story-dwellers. Some stories are received, some are discovered, and some are simply invented. C.S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia are fundamentally about discovering a story that makes sense of all other stories - and then embracing it, because of its power to give meaning and value to life. But which is the true story? Which are merely its shadows and echoes? And which are fabrications, tales spun to entrap and deceive?" 

This is a crucial question Dr. McGrath asks because all of us live by the story we believe.  

Christian Smith points out in his book "Moral, Believing Animals," that there are eleven contemporary meta-narratives that he believes shape the thinking of Western people. ( I won't list them all just some of the most common.)  

The Progressive Socialism narrative. The Scientific Enlightenment narrative. The Capitalist Prosperity narrative. The Expressive Romantic narrative. The Chance and Purposelessness narrative. The Christian Meta-narrative.   

Dr. McGrath offers helpful guidance to his readers in deciding which stories about our world and ourselves we should choose and how to know whether it is truthful and reliable: 

"Which 'grand story' allows the best rendering of our complex universe? Which meta-narrative offers the most illumination of our shadowy world?"

Likewise in Lewis's Narnia we see the same perplexing dilemma faced by the Pevensie siblings as they listen to stories about the true origin of Narnia. They realize that they must make decisions about which persons and which stories are to be trusted. Will they believe the narrative of the White Witch or the one of the mysterious Aslan whose return is expected at any time? 

This is the work of Christian apologetics: To concentrate on the question of the trustworthiness of the Bible narrative, the Gospel of Jesus Christ and its power to illuminate and then change our lives. 

Later that day I leaned against a fence post in the sheep field and watched the mama ewe and her twins. They were stretched out together on a soft layer of flattened hay sleeping in the afternoon sunshine. Thankfully they rested content, none the worse for wear. 

I thought about how God seems to create stories to swirl and echo around us in our everyday lives. Stories that don't just encircle our ordinary routines, but actually draw us into his grand narrative. 

Stories, some happy, some sad, but both challenge the latest cultural narratives of our day or of ages gone by, stories that excite the imagination and give us a glimpse of some glorious, eternal future we long to embrace. 

Stories that whisper of One who will rescue and redeem us from sin and a wicked, deceiving enemy who relentlessly pursues us. A Shepherd, who is firmly, but also gently, sliding us out into his marvelous light, into the story that resonates with the cry of every human heart while dispelling existential despair. A story that ends, but really begins, when we are finally guided safely home to rest content in the arms of Jesus, having been removed from the entanglements and entrapments of this "shadowy world."   

But the question remains: Which story will you believe? 

The Stories Within Us

"I believe in Christianity as I believe that the Sun has risen - not only because I see it, but because by it, I see everything else." C.S. Lewis  

The Farmer was up at daybreak last Monday morning to load a Hereford steer onto the livestock trailer so he could head to the beef processor before his work phone started ringing. The day before as I was filling up the water trough in the cow field, the steer moseyed over for a drink. While he lapped up the water with his huge tongue I thanked him for his sacrifice. In supplying our family with food his life possessed great worth, purpose, and meaning.  

"Thank you, Buddy. I'll see you on the other side." 

Animals give so much to mankind in the way of friendship, protection, nourishment, clothing, joy, and if we have ears to hear and eyes to see a reason for God. 

Sadly, they were subjected to their fallen state because of us. ( Romans 8:20-21 ) Some animals however, seem to hold a measure of compassion and forgiveness toward humans. Dogs, favorite cows and possibly a few cats. 

Last year I experienced two difficult losses. After a long, never long enough, productive life here at Healing Brook, leaving behind a legacy embodied in the shape of ten adorable litters of puppies and a stellar guarding record of the farm and his food bowl, my lovable Atlas died in July. 

When the end was near I was able to cradle that big old head in both hands and tell him no other dog will ever live up to him. Although his grandson Aslan is gaining much ground, Atlas was simply the best.

I was reminded of the Elizabeth Barrett Browning quote: "His ears were often the first thing to catch my tears." It wasn't the first time Atlas caught my tears, but it was the last. 

In November I found myself again cradling the big head of yet another favorite animal close to death. My cow Starlight. 

Starlight was the first baby moo born here, and she had given us many healthy calves since and much joy. But this time she was pregnant with twins, and the labor did not go well. We weren't able to save her or her young. Before the end, I had "my moment" with her. Before she slipped away into the grassy cow fields of heaven, her huge, furry head was soaked in my tears and snot. 

Since my spiritual awakening five years ago and the desire to pursue my faith with more of an academic passion, I've found that in chasing God with my mind and not only my heart has actually helped to make sense of the desires, both good and bad, residing in my heart. Sound biblical doctrine has slowly reordered the loves of my heart, helping to identify and banish the idols that lived there while at the same time driving the Gospel deeper into the empty crevices vacated by the inordinate loves.  

One new love is the study of Christian Apologetics. ( Defending the faith ) I never realized there were so many subsections in this field, nor did I realize until my sabbatical that my life long curiosity in stories and especially the same apparent story in all of us, is actually a thing: "Narrative Apologetics." 

No matter what apologetic course we choose, the longing for transcendence deep in the human soul points us to God even if many in our current culture need to be awakened first beneath the heavy blankets of doubt, unbelief, fear, and hopelessness. 

Someone prayed for me to wake up, so now, I pray for others. I want to encourage the uncovering of these existential questions and administer permission to breathe and feel them; denying they exist in our human experience doesn't make them disappear. The self-deception only adds to the angst and existential despair we feel whether we believe in the existence of God or not. Christians face doubts too. I see now that God allows this and even leads us this way at times. 

A healthy faith keeps studying and asking questions, plunging the depths to grasp more and more of God. 

Saying we arrived at our current destination by the strong eating the weak and now we must stop all of that cannibalism and start loving each other doesn't work for me. And I don't think it works for you either. I don't think it works for the 'new atheists' like Richard Dawkins even though they don't have the guts to admit it like the older atheists. Bertrand Russell, Aldous Huxley, and even Nietzsche at least had the integrity to admit that in subtracting God out of the equation of life we also subtract out our very basis for morality. 

But no matter what areas we embrace to appeal to our Christian faith, I can't help but wonder if God is shouting to us through nature and paradoxically through the allowance of suffering, questions, and divine hiddenness: "Here I am! Here I am!" Before we can hear his voice we have to have the courage and integrity to awaken to the questions inside of us and wiggle out of our comfortable sleeping bags. 

Why is there something and not nothing? Have you really ever thought about nothing? It's not black or empty or dark because black and empty and dark are something. Why is there beauty? Why do we feel a connection to others and to animals? Why are the same stories inside of all of us? Why these longings? 

Could these yearnings and glimpses of mystery and beauty be bread crumbs guiding us to something wonderful and warm and deliciously hopeful beyond this world? 

In an effort to shorten my blogs, I'm stopping here, but I'll take this up in my next post. 

Recently, I encountered another sad loss - my friend Bernie. Bernie passed away January 22nd at the age of 87. He read each of my blogs, and then waited to discuss them with me at church. His interest in my abstract wonderings meant a lot. And why is that? He asked many questions concerning the things I wrote ( one bluntly being, why are your blogs so long? lol ) while leaving me with many things to think about. So in memory of Bernie, I'm working on conciseness. I will miss his friendship and encouragement greatly. 

"Thank you, Buddy, I'll see you on the other side." 

Atlas the Great 

Holier Than Thou

During my social media sabbatical, I caught some of the news from the recent Republican primaries, the mudslinging between political parties as well as within political parties, and the concerns our nation is facing. At the same time, I was determined to shield myself from the anxiety that can begin to mount after being exposed to all of these issues, talking points, and opinions. 

We've heard it said that America was build on godly principals, on the Judeo-Christian tradition. It seems if we were really built on these good things that we would not be, how can I say it? At times, seemingly going down the toilet. There's much debate about just how accurate this knowledge is of our founding fathers being Christians and of the formation of America, only God can perceive a heart, but we can in fact find biblical truths embedded in our founding documents. ( 1 Kings 8:39 ) 

So why are we such a mess? Because all people, whether we realize it or not, are such a mess without the Gospel. 

"Hey, I thought you said that America was built on godly, biblical principals?" 

I did, and that's just it. Biblical rules and commandments never saved anyone. Without the underpinning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ beneath our morality, as our firm foundation in all of its truth, beauty, and grace, we become legalistic, rigid, and no better than the Pharisees as we attempt, consciously or unconsciously, to build a nation on a foundation of moralism. Constructing our own way to salvation or to a healthy nation through a list of rules and regulations sets us up for failure. 

Jesus said that unless our righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees we will never enter the kingdom of heaven,  ( Matthew 5:20 ) so we had better get a handle on what exactly that pharisaical righteousness is that Jesus is talking about in this text. 

Digging into the gospels, we see that the Pharisees, the religious leaders of Jesus's day, were all about keeping the law, even adding their own traditions to it while enforcing it upon the people. And yet throughout the four gospel accounts, Jesus calls the Pharisees a brood of vipers, hypocrites, white-washed tombs full of dead bones, fools, blind guides, children of hell, and serpents. 

I want to be clear: Legislating laws in America, or any nation we live in, based on biblical truths that promote human flourishing is something followers of Jesus should always take a stand for and work towards. I want to be clear on this because Scripture is clear on this. ( See Romans 13 ) 

"When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; but when a wicked man rules, the people groan." ( Proverbs 29:2 )  

How much groaning has echoed down through the ages? Or now? How many times did "righteous" rules and rulers result in wars fought in the name of religion, god, or "Christianity?" 

All government systems are flawed, some more than others, but even still we are called to work within these broken regimes to bring order out of chaos. Think about Daniel working inside the government of the Babylonian Empire.  

Some Christians are called to work inside of the government, and they need our prayers daily as satan has been infiltrating and corrupting government systems since the very beginning of time. If the enemy can control a government, imagine how many people he can get under his thumb. It's no surprise that government leaders are one of his main targets. Our brothers and sisters working within governments need our prayers as they navigate through the lion's den. Yes, Daniel again. 

I love my country, and I pray everyday for righteous leaders to rule and be elected. However, what I'm saying is that it is not enough to legislate and execute laws based on biblical rules because the rules alone will not save us - they can't. They do not possess the power to do what only the Gospel of Jesus Christ has the power to do. 

In light of the legalistic teaching of the Pharisees and their rejection of him, Jesus stressed awareness to the crowds that followed him of the danger in attempting to live by their own right standing. The Apostle Paul worked tirelessly to unravel this truth to his church plants in the Gentile communities, but mainly to the Jews living in those cities who were bent on obedience to the law producing salvation.   

"So, what is the Gospel?" I'm glad you asked. 

Romans 3:23 - 25: "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith." 

Please don't be intimidated by the terms justified, grace, redemption, and propitiation; once we understand the meanings, they will string together around us like a strand of precious pearls. Take time to process the above verses, meditate on them, research, study, self reflect, and dive deeply into the richness. These are some of the greatest words ever written. 

If the law could save us, Jesus's sacrificial atoning death would not have been needed. Jesus did not die, contrary to what some believe, to just show us how to love and forgive. No, Jesus died as "the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." ( John 1:29 ) 

But we have to know that we are sinners desperately in need of the sacrifice he has given on our behalf and repent, meaning to turn from our sin and our own righteousness, which actually amounts to "unrighteousness" and "filthy rags."  ( Isaiah 64:6 ) 

Then we must believe; meaning we must trust Jesus and what he has done for us. God doesn't believe for us. We must believe. Once the Gospel truth takes hold in our hearts, we have not only the desire to obey, but the power to do so. The commandments are important, however; we obey now, not out of fear or obligation or self-righteousness, but because of the grace God has upon us. The transformation that took place in my heart and the continued growth is something that never fails to overwhelm me with joy, even in the midst of suffering. 

Is the good news of the Gospel overwhelming us and taking our breath away because it seems too good to be true? Are we sharing it with those around us or are we just trying to get them to behave? Jesus commanded his followers to spread the Gospel, not a list of dos and don'ts, to the ends of the earth.  

Never stop looking into the Gospel - we never get beyond it. It has no bottom. It's both the journey and the destination. 

Paul wrote to the Philippians that as much education and prestige as he may have gained from being a Pharisee he now counted all of that "righteousness" as a loss and as rubbish ( Greek word "skubalon" meaning animal excrement - in other words, manure or poop ) 

"in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith and the power of his resurrection... " ( 3:4-10 ) 

We see at least two other Pharisees in the Scriptures who got it besides Paul, Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea. Their story together is beautiful. 

During my sabbatical I also joyfully experienced being in the midst of brothers and sisters in Christ living out the Gospel in their every day lives and sharing the live-giving message with others. It's exciting to be a part of this work. 

I've come to realize that despite the problems we face here at home and abroad, as in all of church history, as he promised, Jesus continues to build his church. He builds through all types of cultural landscapes and social structures. The church, through the ages and presently, moves out into the world boldly, not intimidated in desperate times, but being a light, sharing our hope; church growth historically has been exponential in times of persecution. 

I've realized that the church is growing strong in the margins, in the fringes of society, in the nooks and crannies of this world. 

I see the church growing and flourishing in small churches, in big churches too, but especially within small Bible studies and life groups where people are hungry for the Gospel and gather at any expense to hear the Truth and fellowship with each other. 

I see the growth in believers working and volunteering in the mental health field who are heartbroken by the amount of disenchantment, despair, and loss of meaning found in people throughout our modern western culture. They tirelessly pour themselves out daily to bring hope and healing to these who suffer so intensely. 

The church is growing and maturing in individuals waking up early excited to feast on the Word before the events of the day take hold. It's growing in families gathering for times of devotion together and in humble parents falling on their knees begging God for mercy in a job like child rearing that is far above their pay grade. 

The church is growing in humble, grass roots ministries where believers care deeply about their lonely neighbors, coworkers, friends, and the waitress struggling to make ends meet for her children. 

It's growing in believers who aren't afraid to get their hands dirty in the lives of addicts and prostitutes and those incarcerated because they understand everyone is created in the image of God. They know we are all clothed in soiled garments until Jesus cleanses us in his blood, and they'll stop at nothing to share this Good News with everyone. 

Because they have been changed and healed by the Gospel story being driven deep into the recesses of their broken souls by the power of the Holy Spirit, the church is growing. You can not stop the Gospel. No government organization can stop the Gospel. Look at China. 

The Church is growing in people whose names we will never know on this earth. But God knows. 

We will never come to the end of the Gospel and the desire to gaze into its never-ending beauty and grace and holiness.

The Gospel awakens in us a continuing beauty and grace as well, growing stronger the more we look into its loveliness and power. We come and are accepted as we are; but praise God that Jesus doesn't leave us as we are! He saves us, keeps us, and grows us. 

Jesus is building his Church in much the same way he built his earthly ministry: Not in the way people were expecting. He is not building it on an endless, rigid list of rules and regulations; no, he is building it upon himself.  And that glorious structure will stand for all eternity. 💜

The Old New Life

"I am at rest in God alone; my salvation comes from him." ( Psalm 62:1 )

During January I've decided to take a social media sabbatical. During this time of spiritual detox, I'll continue to post farming blogs which usually end up being more about theology than farming. 

And anyway to me the two are forever intertwined since our Maker saw fit to form man out of dust from the ground and then place us in a garden paradise. A garden God himself planted for mankind to work and keep. In that sense, we are all farmers. Now you know why you love animals so much or develop this urge in spring to push your bare fingers through rich, turned up soil and set a tomato plant.  

During the last eighteen years as I've walked about my little chunk of garden earth here east of Eden, I'm constantly reminding myself to listen to nature. Like most of us, I tend to get in a rush with my duties overlooking the wisdom standing unrestrained before me; God's handiwork directs my preoccupied mind to hush up and pay attention. As I've put my listening ear to the air, I do hear that nature sings. 

Even in its fallen condition groaning to be redeemed and restored along with mankind, creation in every wing and fin and tiny vegetable sprout still hums and harmonizes in praise of its Creator.  

This year I read John Updike's "Pigeon Feathers," a short story about a fourteen year old boy on a farm who is searching for someone to give him proof for the existence of God after H.G. Wells smashes his faith. His parents, catechism classmates, and even the apparently faithless and unreliable reverend teaching the class not only fail poor David but humiliate him as well for his questions. 

Then God moves like only the great Creator can when we are in our crisis of faith. As David begins to bury the dead pigeons his family instructs him to shoot with his new birthday rifle because they have invaded the barn, he encounters his God moment. 

As he examines the perfection and intricate design of the pigeon's feathers for flight and warmth and beauty, he becomes astounded and overwhelmed that such detail and precision could be given to such birds exterminated as pests, and thus sure of the existence of God. 

"And across the surface of the infinitely adjusted yet somehow effortless mechanics of the feathers played idle designs of color, no two alike, designs executed, it seemed, in a controlled rapture, with a joy that hung level in the air above and behind him." 

Nature sings. 

The dogs and I walk. 

I rest next to the creek while Aslan and Shasta lap up its cool refreshment. I notice the brook trout and minnows teaming in schools, swirling in unison with the trickling currents that flow around the huge creek boulders. As the dogs splash into the water the fish quickly disappear in the foam and bubbles. With glistening, flipping tails they seem to swim so happily together in that living stream.  

I see that fish have a relationship with water. 

If we were to scoop them all up in a net and fling them onto the earth, their happiness would end, their purpose and in fact their very lives would be snatched away.  

Fish were made for water. It's where they not only survive, but thrive. It's home. 

Standing up on my feet from the creek bank, I am small and humble under the huge shapely American sycamore trees that line the shore. A multitude of round, prickly pods dangle in the soft morning breeze. The trees' otherwise bare limbs out stretch in festive welcome as if into a magical land inhabited by hobbits and elves.

The dogs and I continue on to the sheep field as I admire the stately oaks and hickories along the way. Shells and acorns crunch and pop beneath our feet on the loamy trail. Rounding the curve at the top of the driveway back at the house, we are greeted there by the Farmer's dormant chestnut and fruit trees. The stark branches remind me not to be hopeless. In spring, their bleak and empty arms will become pregnant and heavy with leaves, blossoms, and then full of rich, ripe fruit.  

I see that trees have a relationship with soil. 

Their life is found in the dirt. If we were to bulldoze them over and uproot them from their earth home, they would wither and die. They can only prosper and bring forth a harvest as long as they are rooted in soil. 

If you feel like you are exhausted and empty and can't catch your breath, if you feel as if you're unplugged from a power that can make you whole, it is because you are not connected to your life source. 

Like the fish swimming inside of water and trees planted deep within soil, you were made to be connected to something. 

You were made for God. 

Mankind has been disconnected from our life blood since the sin that took place by our first parents in the Garden of Eden when they disobeyed the only commandment God gave to them. Their sin transferred to all mankind separating us from God, and it continues to pile up day by day as we desperately live out of our own meager, borrowed resources.  

God could have walked out of our lives at that moment in the garden not ever looking back, and he would have done us no wrong. But he didn't. He made a covenant with Adam and Eve. There would be thorns and thistles, consequences, yes, because of sin, but there would also be a Rescuer. God himself would provide a sacrifice for us. The only One that could save us from our sin. He would send his Son Jesus. 

Being called a sinner may offend you and sound like abuse, but true love speaks the truth even if it hurts. If you saw a person beating on someone's chest, you might think that they were assaulting them. But if you knew that person had stopped breathing and the person pounding on their chest was in fact trying frantically to save the person's life, you would be urging them on, perhaps shouting and praying for success. 

We were made to worship God, and if we are not connected back to him, we will worship something else instead. Something else that will never satisfy the longings of our aching soul no matter how hard we try. 

Career, family, romantic partner, identity, status, reputation, addictions, wealth, health, talents, homesteads, revenge - we will worship something. Something will take up residency in our empty heart. 

But that heart was made to be the home of a King. A King who reigns supreme in righteousness. 

In the end the things we make our idols will crush us, and we will crush them with our demands. No one can carry the weight of our emptiness but God. No one can sustain us but him. 

Yes, God stayed in the garden, and Jesus stayed on the cross. 

But he didn't stay in the tomb. 

Our Redeemer lives. 

So, like David in the story your faith may be shattered and you're looking for answers. We all have questions. If we understood the depths of an all-knowing, infinite, holy God, we wouldn't have questions. 

But that's just it! I do understand those things: God is all-knowing and all-wise, loving, good, and great. I understand he loved me so much that he sent his only Son to die so I could live. However, I have two sons and a grandson, and I can't even begin to understand demonstrating that kind of love and grace and mercy toward rebellious creatures who think they know better how to live their lives than the transcendent One who created them. But I believe he did it. 

I've learn to root what I don't understand in the fertile soil of what I do understand. I guess you could call it 'spiritual farming.' 

I can't explain it but, somehow, someway, we are going to be better for having been lost and found again. 

"For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls." ( 1 Peter 2:25 ) 

Come back to him. 

Repent and believe in the One he sent. 

Happy New Year! 🎉

"I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing." ( John 15:5 )  

Unspeakable Joy

"... and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy." ( Psalm 19:5b ) 

Often when people hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ presented to them, they make the mistake of thinking that they will consider it to see if it "fits" them and their family. They will take into account how Christianity will help them achieve their goals and dreams; they might ask it they can still live in a particular lifestyle or ask if they have to give up this or that thing before they commit. 

Sometimes people will have kids and think that they need to raise them in church because they need to learn moral values, to make sure they build good character. I thought this. 

When I'm sharing my faith with someone who is closed off to Christianity I tell them that they need to at least investigate the claims of Jesus Christ because he was the most influential person to ever walk the face of the planet. No one man left greater and deeper footprints in all of human history in every facet of human life, and they owe it to themselves to check out those claims. There is too much at stake not to do that. 

Even though this knowledge alone will not save a person, I still stick by my plea. 

Why? Because looking into the evidence for Jesus has been known to lead skeptics to further study into the Scriptures ( sometimes attempting to disprove him )  and thus right into the saving grace, knowledge, and arms of Jesus Christ, not only as their Savior, but as the Lord of their lives. He has to be both. In their pursuit of denying him, they became passionate followers of him. I think of Tolkien and C.S. Lewis and others.

We can't think of the Gospel as something we look into to see if it "agrees" with us. That's missing the entire point of the Christian faith. For one thing, it will never "agree" with us entirely. How will it change us? The Gospel of Jesus Christ isn't something we "take up" - rather, it's something that takes us up. The late Dr. Tim Keller continually stressed that point in his preaching.  

When you sense you are being called and overwhelmed by a power greater than yourself, it's starting to happen. God is drawing you. 

Believe.

Ezekiel 11:19: "And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh"

Ezekiel 36:26: "And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh." 

God draws us and that drawing looks different for all of us. 

However, our struggles, questions, and suffering do not cease when we are drawn by God into this kingdom. No, in many ways, they are just beginning. When we become disciples of Christ, we quickly learn that as Paul said in Romans 8:17: "If we are children of God, then we are fellow heirs with Christ, providing we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him."

Paul goes on to say that he considers that the suffering we face in our lives is not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us." ( verse 18 ) 

In this life, we are to "look to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. ( Hebrews 12:2 )  

The Christian life is joy and suffering. 

That's the cost of discipleship. 

We tend to lean in one direction or the other, but the Scriptures clearly point out that it's both. 

You can't have one without the other. 

It's the crucifixion and the resurrection. 

We must face the afflictions so they can prepare for us the promised eternal weight of glory. ( 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 ) 

However, here's what I was thinking this week as the dogs and I walked through the sheep fields: One day our suffering, for all of its agony and unanswered interrogations, will be banished from our lives, and I'm sure our questions along with it.  ( Revelation 21 )  

Suffering will one day end, but joy will not. Isn't that the most beautiful truth? That's our hope, and we must determine that we will hold onto it like a life raft through every hurricane with our eyes fixed on Jesus seated above the flood, by the Father's right hand. And one day we will stand before them perfect without spot or blemish because Jesus endured the suffering for us. Praise God.  

"Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning." ( Psalms 30:5 ) 

In fact, joy will not only not end, but our joy will increase. 

That's the hope I hold in my hand as I walk through this life in all of my shortcomings, failures, and sins, through a world of suffering. That's the hope I must hold onto this Christmas. You can too when you see the beauty of Jesus and he becomes both the Savior and Lord of your life. 💜

"You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore." ( Psalm 16:11 ) 

"So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you." ( John 16:22 ) 

"Joy to the world, the Lord is come

Let Earth receive her King

Let every heart prepare Him room

And Heaven and nature sing"

Merry Christmas 

The Prince of Peace

"And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone around them....For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord... 

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, 'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased.'" ( Luke 2:8, 9, 11,13, 14 ) 

A year or so ago my oldest man child called me because he said that he had an epiphany while grocery shopping at Walmart. "This ought to be interesting," I said. He went on to say that almost every time he's in the store John Mayer's "I'm just waiting on the world to change" is playing over the sound system. 

He said that in exasperation he lifted his head up toward the ceiling and said out loud, "Hey John, you're going to be waiting forever because the world is never going to change." 

"It isn't, Mom, I finally see that. No social or educational program, no government agenda or system, no new generation, no self-help advice is going to save the planet. The world is never going to get better, and there is never going to be world peace." 

It was intriguing because he wasn't having a bipolar episode; he wasn't depressed. He just at long last saw the truth, and he was embracing it. 

But isn't that what Jesus came to bring us? World peace? Isn't that what Christmas is all about? Isn't that the message that was announced to the shepherds that First Noel while they kept watch over their flock? 

Jesus said it wasn't. 

"Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you." ( John 14:27 ) 

So Jesus does give us peace, but not in the way that the world gives or expects. 

We know this peace Jesus gives is not an end to war because in Matthew 24 when his disciples ask him what will be the sign of his coming back and the end of the age and Jesus replies that you will hear of wars and rumors of wars and nation will rise against nation. So Jesus wasn't promising world peace. 

He says in Matthew that he has come to set family members against one another. I found people who like to say that Jesus always talked of love and lovely things have never actually read what Jesus said. I was like that too, and became shocked at many of his statements. "Do you think that I have come to bring peace. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword." ( Matthew 10:34 )

This isn't a literal sword. When Peter drew a sword and swiped off the high priest servant's ear in the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus rebuked him, told him to put the sword away, and he healed the man's ear. ( John 18:10, Matthew 56:21, Mark 14:47, Luke 22:50 ) 

Although Jesus made it clear that violence wasn't the way into his kingdom, we do see that this peace isn't that everyone's going to get along either, happily singing campfire songs together. This text reveals that even within a family there will be tension and disagreement because of the gospel.  

To be clear, there is a peace that we experience in this life as Christians, but it is a temporary peace. Sometimes I feel it, and sometimes I don't. I certainly don't feel this peace when I listen to the news. It's a subjective peace. The Bible tells us that its like a river and a part of the fruit of the Spirit. I have a peace that floods my heart at times, but there are times when I'm anxious and afraid. One day this peace will be complete but for now it isn't as we continue to live in this "already but not now" kingdom.

As we wait for Jesus's return and the Kingdom of God to be fully established, we are commanded in Scripture to be peacemakers, to work for human flourishing and to carry out the great commission. That's how Jesus wants to find his Bride when he returns for her.  

So if that peace isn't the peace the angels rejoiced over above the shepherds that Christmas night, then what is it exactly? Look what Luke 1:76-79 says:

This is Zechariah, John the Baptist's dad speaking: 

"And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace." 

This is the peace that is imparted to us at salvation because of the mercy of God for the forgiveness of our sins. 

But why do we need this peace? 

Because we are at war with God. 

When we read the account of the angels appearing to the shepherds that glorious night, it's actually the middle of the Christmas story. It's hard to understand what's going on in a movie if you come into it halfway through. It's like opening a novel and starting in the middle - it makes no sense. 

We have to go back to Genesis in the Garden of Eden where God created man and woman to live in a perfect, life-giving environment. When our first parents sinned by disobeying God and eating the fruit their sin was imputed into the entire human race. We aren't enemies of God because we sin, but because we are born sinners. It's the nature of our heart. We no longer live for God, but for ourselves, just like Adam and Eve. 

When I look around our world, this makes perfect sense to me. 

"None is righteous, no not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one....the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes." ( Romans 3:11,12, 17, 18 ) 

When we believe in Jesus, this peace is given to us as a gift in salvation. 

"There since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." ( Romans 5:1 ) 

Paul goes on to say in next verses that this grace in which we now stand causes us to rejoice - just like the angels that night above the shepherds.  

We stand in it. 

The peace that Jesus came into the world to give to those who believe in him - "those in whom he is pleased" - is not a comfortable, tranquil, feeling that fluctuates. No, it is a new and permanent standing with God. No circumstance or person can take this peace from us. Jesus has reconciled sinners back to God through himself. We are no longer enemies of God, but in Christ, we are now dearly beloved children. 

How do we get this peace? By laying down our "weapons" - our pride, our lofty arguments against God, our own self-righteousness, our selfishness. By seeing our sins and our neediness and coming to him because we realize that we can't save ourselves. If we don't see ourselves as we truly are - helpless sinners in need of God's mercy and grace, we will never repent and come to him to be rescued. 

If we don't see that the Christian faith isn't me just trying to live a bit better, behave, or turn over a new leaf, but a desperately needed, radical heart change found only in Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit, we will never understand what Jesus came to give us that glorious night. 

He came to give us a changed heart. 

A heart that is reconciled back to God through his life and death. A heart that can love God. And all of these changed hearts, will work to change the world. Not by creating a government system or military force that will usher in world peace, but by proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ until he comes again to establish his kingdom as he will wipe away every tear, set all things right, and make all things new. 

This promise of peace truly is the greatest announcement in the history of mankind. 

In fact, this peace changes more than the world. It changes everything. 

May we treasure this reconciliatory peace in our hearts more than ever this Christmas season and everyday of our lives. May we seek to continually worship and understand at a deeper level God's indescribable gift to us in his Son. 

May we never stop sharing the Good News with the world as the Lord and his angels did that night! 💜

"Hark! The herald angels sing,
'Glory to the newborn King;
Peace on earth, and mercy mild,
God and sinners reconciled!'" 

"For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; and the government will rest on His shoulders; and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace." ( Isaiah 9:6 ) 

Aslan and Shasta watching over the flock