Laboring for Love and Glory

I believe it's easy to forget that work existed before the Fall. 

God created the world and everything in it including man. "And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done." ( Genesis 2:2 ) 

God gave Adam work - to tend a garden, name the animals, and to care for his wife. To be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth, and have dominion as the pinnacle of God's workmanship, to care for the earth.

Work is good.

But I believe it isn't so easy to forget that work exists now among the weeds this side of Eden after the sin of our first parents. ( Genesis 3:15, Romans 5:12 ) Work is still honorable and needful and God-given, yet its labor is carried out through groans and grunts, challenges, in the thick of the thorns and thistles that now fill the landscape of our world.

We were created to work. Even in these often difficult conditions, we can find great joy in our work. And we should. As believers, we know that God has ordained "good works" for us to do, ( Ephesians 2:10 ) and he promises to help us complete them for his glory. ( Philippians 1:6 ) 

And all work that we engage in, not just "ministry" work or seemingly "big" work, is in fact considered "big, ministry work," according to the Scriptures. Whether the work be raising our children or the smallest act of kindness we show to others in service to them or preforming heart surgery, ALL work is honorable if done for the glory of God. This is how we must view work.

Nothing is trivial. Not in God's kingdom.

One day when Jesus makes all things new, ( Revelation 21:5 ) God will redeem work. Until then:

"Let your work be shown to your servants, and your glorious power to their children. Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands!" ( Psalms 90:16-17 ) 

Let's labor for our Lord!

Happy Labor Day! 

Where were you? Part 2

 

You have to appeciate the strength and beauty together of God's creatures and His creation. They reflect in some way God's own "eternal power" and "divine nature." ( Romans 1 ) 

They remind us of whom we are dealing with if we'll have eyes to see and stop "suppressing the truth by our unrighteousness." ( Again, Romans 1 ) 

The first thing I believe that is fatally tragic about the "American gospel" is this notion that God is just a big one of us, this tendency in human nature to pull God down to our own level, demanding He owes us salvation and an explanation. 

Who do we think we are? 

I've been going through my parent's home this summer. The emotional strain is endless as you may know from your own story. My mom kept everything. She just packed it all away so neatly that I never knew it was there until I started digging.

I found a song Johnny wrote for her, his grandmother, after my sister died. It was entitled, Where were you? This is a well-known question from the Book of Job.

The song lyrics ask God where he was when our family faced various heartbreaks. The last verse; however, has God responding back saying, "Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?"

"Tell me if you have understanding. Who determinded its measurements - surely you know!"

"Or who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb, when I made clouds its garment and thick darkness its swaddling band, and prescribed limits for it and set bars and doors, and said, 'Thus far shall you come, and no further, and here shall your proud waves be stayed.'" ( Job 38:4, 5, 8-11 ) 

"Where were you when they killed my boy?" The song asked next. 

For four chapters worth God finally gives Job the audience and answer he so desperately seeks. And what an answer it is. In Scripture, I'm not sure anything else, no cross reference, compares to it. 

The interesting thing is that in none of His response does God reveal a reason for Job's suffering. Yet, Job's mouth is shut and his heart is full. 

The reason for his suffering no longer matters. Because Job now knows something better.

Job knows God. 

💜

Job - Where were you?

I tiptoed around the corner of the porch to this old weathered beach chair that belonged to my mom. I was hoping to rest after a long day, but he found me. No rest for the weary. 😂

I'm back in the Book of Job in my 2026 Bible Reading Plan. Even people who aren't familiar with the Bible or claim Christianity, know about the suffering of Job, from the city of Uz. The Book of Job is part of what biblical scholars call "the wisdom literature" along with Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. Everyday expressions and phrases we use originated in the Book of Job such as "skin of my teeth" and "the patience of Job." 

The number one reason people give in various surveys and apologetic debates as to why they don't believe in God is the problem of evil, suffering. Many claim that if there is a God, that God would be good, and therefore, he would not allow room for suffering in his world. 

How do they know that? Isn't that presumptuous and closed-minded? 

Another group that pushes back on suffering is the Word of Faith movement which is a false form of Christianity that rose up in the U.S. in the last century. Think New Thought philosophy and New Age law of attraction. 

Scantly painted with a thin Christian veneer, they teach that one can have what one says and meditates upon, mind over matter. Instead of being based on the Bible, the theology is founded on Napoleon Hill's popular self-help book, Think and Grow Rich. Ken Copeland recently, shamelessly admitted this when he was being interviewed by his granddaughter Courtney. 

The followers claim and confess, speak and write their desires and wishes down on paper, repeating them out loud over and over. "Faith comes by hearing," they twist, a verse that in context describes salvation not getting your Christmas gift list. Faith is a precious and gracious gift from God, not a force to wield like a lightsaber while declaring it is always God's will to heal and make one prosperous and successful in this lifetime. 

The Farmer and I were in this movement for decades and never once heard the true Gospel of Jesus Christ unpacked. Jesus, when mentioned, was simply a means to an end. 

Since their theology doesn't include a category for Christian suffering, as you might imagine, the Book of Job is a real problem for these word-faith folks. 

They have to try to find a way around it, and they do. "I can do all things through a Bible verse taken out of context." I saw that "verse" on a coffee mug. Funny, but true. In Chapter 3 verse 25, Job says that the thing he so greatly feared had come upon him. 

Word of Faith teachers say, "You see? It was Job's fault. He feared, so it came upon him." And presto, just like that, they cancel and delete the entire Book of Job, and ironically, all of the true wealth and glorious riches along with it. 

First off, read in context, this verse reveals what each of us fear as humans, loss of health, family, friends, our vocations. This is part and parcel of life in a fallen world, even, I'd say especially for Christians. It reveals how fleeting and fragile life truly is east of Eden which in turn causes us to trust Christ deeper, as God uses our suffering to transform us from one shade of glory to another, and to depend more heavily on Him, not the world's broken, fatal system that one day will require and eat up our soul. ( 2 Corinthians 3:18 ) 

The reality reminds us to always have our eyes fixed on the life to come, not this one, as Job puts it, "You will call, and I will answer; you will yearn for the creature your hands have made." ( 14:15 ) I know, isn't that beyond astounding? 

Even clearer at the beginning of the book, we are told that Job is "blameless and upright, fears God and turns from evil." 

We are shown God allowing Satan to cause Job's suffering for God's good purposes of revealing Job's good character while also refining him, and then blowing his mind. 

I won't spoil the ending.

Wolves in sheep's clothing are "banking" on people not knowing their Bibles. And atheists often find themselves borrowing from other religions to explain suffering because their world view doesn't hold out any hope or reason for it. Everything just derived from random processes. Nothing really matters. 

However, here, tucked in near the center of the Bible, God actually does reveal to us a great deal about human suffering, revealing that our pain is not wasted, if we will have eyes to see, ears to hear, and a mind and heart to understand. And the courage to read it. 

💜

Homeland

Twenty years ago this week the Farmer and I sat in a closing attorney's office signing on the dotted line for what we thought then was our "dreamland." 

This is one of my favorite pictures taken by a friend our first year there. It always reminded me of C.S. Lewis's Shadowlands.

When we were seventeen, before, when he used to dream of being a farmer, the two of us sitting on the beach together watching the people stroll up and down along the incoming tide, locked pinkies and promised each other we would not get "old" like those poor folks. We would remain forever seventeen. So much for that dream.

We dreamed about our farm. 

That dream too when finally realized was not what we expected. Rarely with God is it ever.

The interesting thing about this picture is that it is not actually of our farm, but rather the view from our farm. 

Today the picture is a constant reminder that this farm and this world are not our homeland. We are looking beyond this world to the world to come where Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father in all of His glory. When He will come one day and make all things new, including us, and wipe away every tear. 

A new heaven and a new earth.

"These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having received them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.

For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland.

If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, 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 for them a city." ( Hebrews 11:13-15 ) 

I'm not so sure I could have explained this to my younger self and convinced her to believe it. I think it's something you have to live.

💜

A People Prepared

 "to make ready for the Lord a people prepared." ( Luke 1:17 ) 

These words were spoken about John the Baptist before he was born, or conceived I should say, by the angel Gabriel to John's father, the priest Zechariah. 

His purpose from the Lord would be to "make ready for the Lord a people prepared." 

"Prepared" by definition means something planned in advance. 

"Make ready" is the act of preparing.

So which is it? Are the people prepared already or do they need to be prepared? 

Yes.

It's both.

Already, and not yet.

"as many as were appointed to eternal life believed." ( Acts 13:48 ) 

"and those with him are called and chosen and faithful." ( Revelation 17:14 ) 

"For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." ( Romans 10:13 ) 

God in his infinite wisdom, a God who spoke the universe into creation, who then scooped up a handful of dirt and formed a man, then proceeded to take one of his bones and make a woman, is not in any way a big one of us. 

We cannot understand his mind or his ways, and yet, he has made us in his image. To reflect such glory.

His wisdom allows the tensions to stick in his revealed word to us. The Trinity. The two natures of Christ. His sovereign choice and man's responsibility. The Holy Spirit doing the entire sanctifying work within his children, and his children working out their own salvation. 

We must embrace the mystery of a God who never contradicts himself.

When we rest our souls in the soft feather bed of a sovereign, all-wise, all-powerful, gracious, merciful, good to the marrow God like this, we find a comforting place for our preparation.

💜

Morning & Evening

Friends, if you're looking to add a devotional this year, I have one I'd like to recommend; although many of you will readily recognize the title. I hope you'll hear me out anyway. Maybe to revisit the tried and true. 

Recent studies and surveys have revealed that the younger generation doesn't want to be coddled when it comes to church, some even stated that it offends them. Many explicitly say that they don't want to be entertained, and they don't want the church to function like a business or a country club either as well as a concert. 

They want to gather with simplicity among other believers around Christ's Word and the sacraments - baptism and the Lord's table. They want to sing, read, and pray the Scriptures. They want to hear it preached and explained to them. Isn't that definition of church what we find in the Bible? How beautiful is that? Let's please not fail them. 

After all there is nothing else that can save and feed the lost and hungry soul. Although unbelievers are always welcome to worship with us if they choose, the church service was designed for Christ's church. I think that truth needs to be recovered. That's why we ask for unbelievers to please allow the bread and cup to pass them by, but also one reason we make sure the Gospel is thoroughly explained each service. 

The church gathers to be tended and fed, and then dispersed into the world to the share the Good News. 

I believe you have to get up pretty early in the morning to beat Charles Spurgeon's timeless devotional, "Morning and Evening." The great London preacher of the 1800s unfolds for us one Scripture in the morning along with our Bible reading to start our day and one in the evening before bed to rest and sleep on. 

I also believe there may not have ever been an age since Spurgeon's when we needed the teaching of God's Word more. After all, it is Spurgeon who is attributed with the frequent quote, "A time will come when instead of shepherds feeding the sheep, the church will have clowns entertaining the goats." I think we've arrived. Don't you? 

To strengthen my argument I'm including the reading from last night. I pray it blesses and encourages you as much as it did me. And perhaps causes you to revisit the pages or begin for the first time. Or read it with our little ones. 

 January 5 / Evening 

"And God saw the light." Genesis 1:4 

This morning we noticed the goodness of the light, and the Lord's dividing it from the darkness, we now note the special eye which the Lord had for the light. "God saw the light"-he looked at it with complacency, gazed upon it with pleasure, saw that it "was good." If the Lord has given you light, dear reader, he looks on that light with peculiar interest; for not only is it dear to him as his own handiwork, but because it is like himself, for "He is light." Pleasant it is to the believer to know that God's eye is thus tenderly observant of that work of grace which he has begun. He never loses sight of the treasure which he has placed in our earthen vessels. Sometimes we cannot see the light, but God always sees the light, and that is much better than our seeing it. Better for the judge to see my innocence than for me to think I see it. It is very comfortable for me to know that I am one of God's people-but whether I know it or not, if the Lord knows it, I am still safe. This is the foundation, "The Lord knoweth them that are his." ( 2 Timothy 2:19 ) You may be sighing and groaning because of inbred sin, and mourning over your darkness, yet the Lord sees "light" in your heart, for he has put it there, and all the cloudiness and gloom of your soul cannot conceal your light from his gracious eye. You may have sunk low in despondency, and even despair; but if your soul has any longing towards Christ, and if you are seeking to rest in his finished work, God sees the "light." He not only sees it, but he also preserves it in you. "I, the Lord, do keep it." ( Isaiah 27:3 ) This is a precious thought to those who, after anxious watching and guarding of themselves, feel their own powerlessness to do so. The light thus preserved by his grace, he will one day develop into the splendour of noonday, and the fulness of glory. The light within is the dawn of the eternal day. 💛

Amen  

Soli Deo Gloria

💜

"War and Peace with a Holy God"

T.G.I.M. First Monday of the New Year 🎉

"The word 'access' is crucial to anyone who has ever wrestled with a holy God.  

We see signs all around us about access. One sign may read, 'No Access,' and another reads, 'Limited Access.' At one time in history a 'No Access' sign was posted at the gates of Paradise. Even the Old Testament temple allowed ordinary people no access to the throne of God.

Even the high priest's access was 'limited' to once a year under very guarded circumstances. A thick veil separated the Holy of Holies from the rest of the temple. It was off-limits. Restricted. No admission was permitted to the rank-and-file believer.

The moment Jesus was slain, the instant the Just One died for the unjust, the veil in the temple was torn. The presence of God became accessible to us. For the Christian, the 'No Access' sign was removed from the gates of Paradise.

We may now walk freely on holy ground. We have access to His grace, but even more, we have access to Him. 

Justified people need no longer say to the Holy One, 'Depart from me, for I am a sinful man.' Now we can feel welcome in the presence of a holy God. We can take our questions to Him. He is not too remote to hear our cries.

We come as those covered by the righteousness of Christ. I repeat: We can feel welcome in the presence of God. To be sure we still come in awe, in a spirit of reverence and adoration, but the tremendous news is that we can come:

'Therefore since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are - yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.' ( Hebrews 4:14-16 )

To be bold or confident must not be confused with being arrogant or flip. But when we come we must remember two things: (1) who He is; and (2) who we are. 

For the Christian the holy war is over; the peace has been established. Access to the Father is ours. But we still must tremble before our God. He is still holy. 

We are to fear God not with a servile fear like that of a prisoner before his tormentor but as children who do not wish to displease their beloved Father. We come to Him in confidence; we come to Him in boldness; we have access. 

We have a holy peace."

💜 

( quoted from The Holiness of God, RC Sproul, Chapter 7, War and Peace with a Holy God )