Last week we began our walk through James with a discussion on trials, temptations, and suffering. We learned that rather than curse these things, we need to embrace them with a type of joy, understanding that through these undesirable circumstances we build steadfast faith which is eternally valuable. This week James will look at the topic of wisdom. Wisdom is a topic that James discusses frequently in this letter, and today’s passage is his introduction to the topic. First mentions are often worth noting in the bible so let’s begin by reading chapter 1:5- 11.

If any of you lacks wisdom,

God is the source of all true wisdom

First, James describes God as not only the source of wisdom but that He generously gives wisdom to all that would ask without reproach, (or scold or “put down” to use a more common term). This phrase tells us a lot about the character of God. He is generous and kind and wants us to have wisdom. Think about the first temptation in the garden of Eden for a moment. Here the serpent implied to Eve that God was just the opposite. He implied that God was withholding wisdom from them because he knew that if they had it they would be like God. The implication being that God did not want that. In this passage:

James demolishes the literal “oldest lie in the book” with his first sentence regarding wisdom.

God is not “hidden” in the way that many philosophers would fret about. He is ready and waiting to give wisdom to all that would ask. God has opened a path back to Him for anyone that would seek it. But there is one catch…

An important proviso

We must ask in faith. When we sinned in the Garden of Eden so long ago, our first mistake was not eating the forbidden fruit. Our sin began by believing that God is not good, believing that He is holding back good things from us, and therefore can not be trusted. So God’s plan is to provide us with a road back to Him through His Son Jesus. But it is the road of faith, we must repent of the suspicion and distrust of God that brought us here in the first place, and trust in His goodness and generosity. We must believe that he is not withholding wisdom, He is not stingy or cruel or hiding from us, He can be trusted with our whole heart for He is the ultimate good.

Now wholeheartedness seems to be a big concern for James in this letter, it is a theme he touches from many angles. Here he speaks to the “unbelieving believer” that is like a wave of the sea tossed around whichever way the wind blows. Such a request can’t be taken seriously by God because it is not even believed by the one making the request. A person like this is double-minded, he is sure of nothing but open to everything, and he is unstable in all his ways. James bluntly states that a person like this should not expect anything from the Lord.

Wisdom, humility, and reality

Finally James makes a statement that at first blush almost seems like a change of subject. He talks about the rich and the poor. He describes how the poor are exalted and the rich will fade away like a flower. But the poor in this case are not simply the impoverished but the faithful poor. And the rich in this scenario are those caught up in their pursuit of riches and the associated earthly glories. While this is not explicitly said here he will come back to the subject of rich and poor believers in the church later. This I think is a preamble to that discussion.

The poor that James is describing have no hope but Jesus, they are wise in that they are looking nowhere else for help. They may be poor now but because of their faith they will be exalted by God in eternity. Rich believers however are much more inclined to be double minded trying to pursue both God and money.(As if that is possible.)

So what is James trying to say here? Wisdom requires a desire for wisdom, as proverbs often teaches. The poor have this desire forced on them by their need every day. This is difficult for the poor and they feel it, but James reminds them that they will be rewarded for their faith. Wisdom reminds the rich on the other hand to remember that their riches will fade and that their pursuit of riches is ultimately futile. Wisdom brings eternal riches, money and fame do not. Realizing this is the first step toward the wisdom of God. And by the way, if you are “not rich” you are not safe from this double mindedness, sometimes the poor are more focused on riches than the rich.

So how do we walk the path of wisdom?

God will not force himself on anyone, but neither will he hide himself from anyone if they ask Him for wisdom in faith. The first step, as always, is our desire to be wise. This week let’s not substitute information for wisdom. Today let’s spend 20 minutes in prayer rather than 20 minutes flipping through social media. Let’s get true wisdom from God instead of being manipulated by the news and corporate Ad agencies. We can always choose how we spend our free moments. Let’s not waste them this week. Let’s commit to helping each other focus on wisdom. Let’s speak life to each other this week. And may we always pursue things that have eternal value, for that pursuit is the road to wisdom.

Let me close with a familiar quote from Proverbs:

Blessed is the one who finds wisdom,

Have a great week!

Who is James and who is he writing?

As with all of the books of the Bible the letter of James has had its share of scholarly opinion. Shockingly not all scholars agree. I’m kidding about the shocking part scholars never completely agree on anything it seems. But as I have studied and taught over the years I have come to love what is called “Occam’s Razor”. Occam’s Razor shaves away all overly complicated and unnecessary theories. In other words, the simplest adequate answer to a question is usually the best answer.

The simplest and oldest understanding of James was that he was the younger brother of Jesus and the leader of the church in Jerusalem until he was savagely murdered by being thrown off the temple wall and then stoned to death. He was well respected by both Christian and non-Christian Jews in Jerusalem because of his extreme devotion to God and his unending service in prayer. But the gospel then and now is not loved by the “powers that be” either in the spiritual or human realms. So his story ends like the story of so many Godly people throughout history, in tragedy. So with that brief introduction as background let’s begin our study of this letter from James to the Christian Jews scattered around the Empire.

1:1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ,To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion: Greetings. [Be well and filled with Joy]

2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

It’s fun to read the opening lines of this letter while thinking about the fact that James is the actual half-brother of Jesus. Until the resurrection James thought his brother was crazy, but now as he writes to those Jewish believers scattered around the Empire he refers to himself as the servant or slave of God and his half-brother Jesus. James now declares Jesus to be both Lord and Christ.

Each of those titles has enormous weight to a first century Jew. There is only one Lord so to call Jesus Lord is to recognize his oneness with God, and to call him Christ is to declare that Jesus is the long awaited Messiah. To insert the name Jesus into this title reminds everyone that the man Jesus was both fully human and fully divine. These claims got Jesus killed and eventually led to his brothers death as well. I think today these words are often spoken with little or no understanding of what a fearful and awe inspiring title The Lord Jesus Christ really is.

Take some time today and let the full weight of the truth that Jesus is both Lord and Christ sink in. As Lord His authority knows no bounds and as Messiah He is destined to rule the earth forever. His resurrection declared His victory over death and the all the powers of evil. The ESV just ends this amazing opening line with “greetings” which while technically a correct translation, seems like a ho-hum way of translating a word that means something more like “be well and overflowing with joy”. The longer more literal translation seems to me to be a much more appropriate ending to that introduction than simply saying “greetings”.

The first of many unexpected turns

Count it all Joy! (when you encounter trials of various kinds) Huh? I think one of the things I like best about James is his bluntness. Unlike so many today, he gets straight to the point, says what he means, and moves on to the next topic. Suffering, trials, temptations are not words we would ever use to describe joy. But James simply says we should think of all those things as joy, or at least as the road to joy. Because when our faith is tested we learn steadfastness. And it is this steadfast faith that James describes as the true source of all that we need to be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. James lived a life of poverty in constant service at the temple in prayer and piety. So we need to understand what it means to him to be “lacking in nothing”.

The value of steadfast faithfulness

I the very first lines of this letter James is already teaching on the value of things in the kingdom relative to the value of things in the world. This is a theme he will expand on in many ways as he progresses through this short but powerful letter.

By enduring trials and temptations we will come possess something of such enormous value that it can be truthfully said that we “lack nothing”. James is showing us that learning steadfast faithfulness under pressure is a gift of ultimate value. All the riches in the world will not help us if our faith collapses under pressure into unbelief. Trials in a sense then become a source of strength, trials build our spiritual muscles and give us strength to endure no matter what comes. Trials and temptations truly are then a source of joy and hope, by enduring trials we gain the strength to remain faithful and faith is the only source of genuine enduring hope.

How to walk this path this week?

It is silly to look for trouble and to actively cause trouble for ourselves. James is not suggesting some sort of twisted masochism here. But we do not shrink from trouble out of cowardice either. Our culture seems to value a trouble free life as a sort of “highest good”. The bible on the other hand teaches the highest good as God himself. To follow God in a world that refuses to acknowledge the very existence of God will put us at odds with the world. As Jesus himself told us in John’s gospel.

I have said these things to you,

This week lets not keep quiet for convenience or give into temptation just because it’s easier than fighting it. By enduring, by remaining steadfast in faith we gain ultimate and eternal joy. By remembering that overcoming trials and temptation is the road to joy, it will give us strength to endure and a living hope for eternity. Let’s help each other remain faithful under pressure this week and make the world a little bit more joyful and a little bit more hopeful.

Have a great week!

Why do we do what we do? That question is much, much harder than it sounds. In our passage for today Jesus does a bit of very unflattering analysis on this question. He shows us why we are so easily led astray.

I have come in my Father’s name,

Why do we so frequently question God and so casually accept what the world tells us? There is no doubt a lot of ways to answer this, but here Jesus exposes the primary motivations of the skeptical leaders that were challenging him. They would rather have the glory of man, here and now, than the future and more difficult to perceive glory of God. They wanted the glory of man for themselves, so they understood and more readily accepted others that sought their own glory. Someone who “comes in his own name” is the kind of person they understand. Guys like these are trusted by those that are also trying to make a name for themselves.

People are by nature status seekers, whether our circle is small or large everyone knows the pecking order in the circle. We watch celebrities rise and fall as if it is some kind of sporting event. We cheer the winners and boo the losers off the field. While this may seem harmless the motivations that drive it are not. We desire the affirmation of others, this is natural, and like so many other things it can have both a proper and improper place in our lives. Here Jesus is talking about the darkest consequence of this desire - to be recognized and celebrated by others.

What Jesus is warning against in this passage is the way our desires for acceptance and approval forces faith in God out of the frame. To the point that he asks, “How can you believe when you receive glory from one another?”. We will listen to the famous and popular self-promoters of this world all day, but someone speaking the word of God? That is another matter.

The way of Jesus is not the road to our interests or pleasures, it is the road to God Himself. The first commandment is to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. The second is love your neighbor as yourself. The second flows naturally from the first. When we love God we love those He has made in His image. When we reverse this, loving ourselves before loving God, and changing the love of others to seeking glory from others, we are literally running in the wrong direction and faith in God becomes impossible.

It is easy to condemn the world for this behavior but as Christians we are not immune to hardhearted unbelief. Nor are we safe from the danger of allowing our focus to become self-satisfaction and the approval of others. The first commandment is first for a reason, when we obey it and love God above all else it grounds our faith, our thoughts, and our actions in God alone. Then our relationships with others can be healthy, flowing naturally from God through faith and grounded in an honest desire to care for others for their own sake, not our glory.

Now for the difficult questions

Who or what do we love more than anything? And, who are we trying to impress? Because the answer to these questions play heavily into things as basic as our ability to trust God and believe in His Son. If we are concerned about what people think about us or what people say about us more than we are concerned about what God thinks of us we are in trouble. And our current world promotes the fear of social rejection as much or more than any time in history. Whether it is social media, or our neighbors, or those in our church the fear of disapproval or rejection guides our thoughts far more than it should.

So this week, let’s intentionally identify and reject any kind of fear of rejection or desire for social positioning. Let’s focus instead on something that can actually make things better both for us and the world. Let’s love God and obey him above all else by fully trusting his Son as we love our neighbors.

Have a great week!

Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain

Last week we looked at our role in the crucifixion of Jesus. And in this sermon Peter is very bluntly spelling out for all those that were listening to him how they are to blame for the death of Jesus. Of course, for some in the audience they were literally responsible in that they were likely in the crowd that shouted, “Crucify Him!”. But it is worth noting that many in this crowd were likely not in that crowd but were no less culpable. This was a Jewish holiday and those gathered, gathered to celebrate it. They were Jews and Jesus was their Messiah and they rejected him rather than embraced him.

What should we do?

When they heard Peters message and realized that what he said was true they were left in a crisis of actual guilt. Not guilty feelings, but actual guilt. And worst of all they had no idea what to do with their newly realized guilt.

They cried out, “Brothers, what shall we do?”. I think they wanted to do something to atone for their own sin, but the answer likely surprised them a bit. They were told to change their mind and believe in Jesus but not just believe he existed or that he was good after all. They were to believe in Him FOR the forgiveness of their sins. They had to believe that Jesus was now their source of forgiveness. They were to ask him, as Peter himself had to do not long before this sermon, to forgive them. He was now their only hope and the source of their cleansing and forgiveness. For a Jew in a time that the sacrificial system was in full swing this was a lot to take in. They were being asked to put Jesus in the place of that entire sacrificial system and trust in Him for their forgiveness and cleansing. They really did have to change their minds or “repent” down to the core of their beliefs.

But how?

Like Peter the crowd that day were being forced to look at their recent utter failure. And for those that were being honest with themselves they had to be thinking, “how do I go on without immediately failing again?”. Here again in just a few words Peter gives them an answer they will be digesting for the rest of their lives.

“And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit”

Peter was not telling them to go out and try harder next time, he was reminding them of the promise of God in the prophets and announcing to them that the promise gift has been given to all those that put their trust in Jesus. The Holy Spirit has been given in a way that was previously unknown. That pillar of fire that led Israel through the wilderness was now given as a tongue of fire on each believers head, to guide us all through the wilderness to the promised land. The Holy Spirit has been given to all who believe.

“For the promise is for you and for your children

This week let’s encourage ourselves and each other that walking the way of Jesus is not a matter of trying harder so that, “this time I won’t fail”. It is a matter of trusting Jesus for our forgiveness and trusting in the gift of the Holy Spirit to truly change us however slowly into the image of Christ.

Have a great week!

Passion week is sometimes an overwhelming mix of emotions for me. On the one hand you have the the faithfulness and love of Christ who walks through unthinkable pain and suffering towards the joy of his resurrection which renders death itself powerless. On the other you have a complex and gut wrenching week of human failure on display.

We see the corruption of human leadership and institutions as they plot to kill Jesus to maintain their position and power over the people. We see the fickleness of the crowd as they cheerfully welcome Jesus to Jerusalem only to, just as cheerfully, cry out for his death 5 days later. We see the disciples who with the best of intentions vow to be faithful no matter what, only to run away in terror when things go wrong. Passion week speaks to all the weakness and wickedness of the human heart. And it speaks to mine as well.

Every character in the story of Jesus’ last week has something to say to all of us. If we don’t see that, we risk missing the whole point of the gospel. As long as we are still saying, “I would never…” to ourselves we miss the point. I don’t care if it is Peter or Pilot or Thomas or Judas. Each character has something to say about the way our fallen humanity thinks and acts. As long as we only see this wickedness in others, we are still pretending that sin, in all its horror, is a “them” problem not a “me” problem. And until we recognize that it is our sin and our failure that caused the pain and suffering to both Jesus and His Father, we will never understand the depth of love it took to save us.

Our sin is not a “victimless crime” though we often act as though it is. Nor are we able to conquer it ourselves, though again, we often act as if we can. Sin separates, it separates us from God and God is the source of life. It separates us from each other as well since sin is in its very essence self centered and self serving. Every sin is a rebellion against God, it is saying, “no!” to God and since God is the source of life, every sin is saying no to life, separation and death are therefore the only possible outcome. It is that sin, my sin and your sin, that Jesus suffered for. Justice requires balance and only the death of Jesus could balance the scales of justice against the mountain of human guilt. He was fully human and thus could rightfully stand in humanities place, and He was fully divine making his death enough to pay for all the sins of mankind.

Passion week is a time of embracing the pain of our failure and not simply celebrating the victory of Christ’s resurrection. Without embracing our own guilt and our own complicity in His death we will not fully appreciate the unthinkable depth of His love and mercy for us all. To celebrate the resurrection without recognizing and embracing our guilt in his death is like hearing about a cure for cancer without having known anyone with cancer. With no appreciation for the horrors of the disease, the glory of the cure is never fully felt.

The death and resurrection of Jesus is a miracle of God’s grace and love for all of us. It is made more overwhelming by the knowledge of our genuine guilt before God. The eternal Son of God however understood the price, he became a man and felt our pain and carried our guilt to the cross and to the grave, in spite of our fickle and sin hardened hearts.

But God did not leave Him in that grave, God vindicated Christ and raised him up again and now we do truly have something to celebrate. Now life does not need to be a pointless and painful march to the grave. The grave has been defeated and Jesus is alive forever and His Spirit now empowers and transforms all of us as we trust in His work, rather than our own.

This week let’s embrace the process and purpose of the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Trusting only in His work because He has proven Himself worthy and God has verified this for all eternity through His resurrection from the dead.

Let’s close with this word from Paul to the church in Galatia.

But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,

Have a great week!

I think anyone that has been a Christian for any length of time has prayed to God and asked for some kind of supernatural infusion of love. We have all prayed to feel some love for someone who needs it while doing everything in their power to be unlovable. Jesus talked of loving our enemies, and he wasn’t talking about people we disagree with on Twitter, he was talking about real enemies that have done real harm.

Many years ago now, I was praying just such a prayer. I was feeling cold to the needs of others and I wanted God to give me different feelings. I wanted to care more, I wanted to be moved by deep feelings rather than pragmatism. As I was praying this halfhearted prayer, motivated more by wishful thinking than anything else, something surprising happened. God answered me. And His answer surprised me even more than the fact that He answered me. He reminded me of the last line of this passage.

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth,

At first it seemed irrelevant. Then the lights began to flicker on for me, I realized that treasure does not have to be money. Treasure is anything I value, and for me that is my time and my energy as much as it is money. I realized at that moment that love is an action, it is a commitment to the well being of another.

Feelings don’t lead us they follow our love, and love is benefiting others at our expense.

My heart will follow my investment. My will never strays far from the things I value and the things I value are the things I invest in. God was showing me a kingdom principle with this lesson. We often ask for the abundance before we share, when Jesus teaches us to first share, then we will never run out. I wanted God to give me feelings for people, thinking that when I had those my actions would follow. But Jesus told me to love first, to give first, and my feelings would follow my treasure.

This week let’s encourage each other investing our treasure in other people. The banks, as we have seen once again, are nothing like an eternal storehouse for our treasures they pass away like everything else on this earth. The kingdom of God is people. To invest in them this week is to put our treasure into an investment with true eternal value.

Have a great week!

The story we are looking at today is one that is often taught as the three temptations of Jesus. And there are three specific temptations discussed in this story and as we all know Jesus resisted each of these temptations.

Today though, I would like to look at the subject of temptation more broadly and look a bit more at the whole 40 day experience of Jesus in the wilderness. The story of the temptation of Jesus is reported in all of the first three gospels but this is how Luke describes the events.

And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan

To begin we need to understand that the temptations that Jesus faced were not few or easy, but rather they took place over 40 days without food in the wilderness. Jesus was weak and hungry and had been harangued by the Devil for over a month.

Jesus was hungry and certainly tired because the sleeping arrangements were no better than the eating arrangements in the wilderness. I don’t know about you, but after one night of uncomfortable restless sleep I struggle, Jesus had been hungry and tired for over a month straight. And it was at that time that the Devil offered him bread, sort of. What he actually did was tempt him to misuse his power and position for selfish gain. The hunger and fatigue Jesus felt was just adding leverage. The added temptation here was that it is not sinful to eat, all Jesus had to do was misuse his power just a bit for a legitimate need, even if it was his own.

But Jesus said no to food once again, and more importantly he said no to using his power and position for selfish gain, or to prove a point to the Devil, who by now I’m sure had to be getting pretty stinking annoying.

Jesus no doubt was also praying into his mission on earth. Through his death and resurrection he was going to buy back humanity from the slavery and tyranny of sin. He came to gather again all things in heaven and earth back to God through his sacrifice. Remember Jesus is exhausted and hungry and fighting back the dread of his coming suffering when along comes the Devil with this little gem:

“To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will.  If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.”

Nice… Jesus could avoid all that pain and have the world, if…

But he said no again to this wicked shortcut to his destiny.

The Devil was maximally annoying now and tries to finish him off with a playground styled dare. His was betting that if he could invoke enough anger and frustration in Jesus that he would out of pride and impatience abuse his power just to shut the Devil up.

But Jesus refused again. Physical duress, fear, impatience, pride, anger, and frustration all failed to turn the head of Jesus as he walked toward the cross and his destiny, and ours. But the Devil was not done, only put off. The last line of this story tells us that the Devil left to wait for a more opportune time.

Temptation never ends. When I was young I once asked a very old saint how long it would be before I was spiritually mature enough that the temptation of certain evils would end? He smiled and said with a wink, “I will let you know when I get there!” He has long been with Jesus, so thankful I think he has finally gotten there. But what about us?

This week I want to remember that,

temptation is not so much a sporadic event as a continuous grind punctuated by crucial moments of decision.

I want to reflect on the fact that how I choose in those moments depends on my attitude and trajectory up to that moment. And I want to remember that, although we may fail at times, our hope does not rest on our perfection and holiness, but on the victory of Jesus over evil, once and for all.

Have a great week!

The noise of our culture can, if we let it, turn our lives into a barely controlled panic. Life can start to feel like a run down the cattle chute, blindly following the one directly in front of us, never stopping for fear of the cattle prod. No idea where we’re going but too afraid to stop. The freedom of Jesus is the opposite of this blind death march down the cattle chute.

The freedom we have in Jesus actually begins in death, it moves us from death into the freedom of a new and resurrected life. Let’s consider this passage from Colossians today.

Therefore,

Instead of looking forward to death and all around us to pain, we are told to leave death behind and look up to life. We have already died with Christ and our new life is hidden with Him in God. Not only do we need to look up, we need to seek the things we find there.

What do we find in heaven? God and His eternal Son Jesus, life, peace, love, hope, joy, in short eternal things. These things are very unlike the things of earth which are all passing away at best, and at worst, actively destroying us. Most of all we need to stay focused on Christ who is literally our life and our only hope. In Him we have life both now and eternally, so He is and must always be our focus.

So what does a focus like this produce and inspire in us? Let’s read on:

So put to death whatever in your nature belongs to the earth:

The response to the offer of eternal life in Christ is to turn away from those things that are of this earth and are destroying us. The list of vices above is all too familiar and has not changed in any way since the first sin captured our hearts. These are the reasons the earth and all those focused on this present life and selfish desires fall under the wrath of God. This is our common experience, but it does not have to be our common destiny.

We have a new life in Christ but this reality leaves us with a choice to make. Will we continue in our self-serving, idolatrous, and wicked ways? Or, will we embrace the new life that Christ has given us through His death and resurrection? This life is a gift and it is available to all regardless of race or social status. Our new life is created in the image of God. The old labels have become meaningless.

We live in a world that is constantly dividing itself into groups: nations, skin colors, ideologies, political parties, genders, the list is endless and getting longer. But in Christ the real truth is these labels and affiliations are all irrelevant, in Christ we are all recreated and growing into the image of God. We are one because there is only one Christ. There is only one God. There is only one family. Our old ways and our old labels and affiliations are dead.

This week lets once again commit to embrace reality and walk according to our true identity in Christ. Let’s keep our eyes up and focused on the author of life rather than the noise of confusion and death that surrounds us. This week let’s commit to speaking life to each other rather than repeating the fear and despair that this passing world is drowning in. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.

Have a great week!

There is a lot of talk and honestly, a lot of confusion around the word “freedom” today. Freedom is a word that the New Testament speaks of fairly often, so it seems like a good place to start this study is with Jesus. The first passage we are going to look at is an excerpt from a longer conversation Jesus had with certain Jewish leaders. They seemed to feel that they were already free, they also had come to believe that they had never been enslaved, largely it seems, because of their heritage. They already considered themselves to be a part of the elect of Israel since they were “sons” of Abraham. But Jesus saw the situation quite differently.

Jesus answered them,

Jesus was unconcerned with politics and physical heritage as he spoke of freedom, the freedom he was talking about was freedom from the tyranny and slavery of sin. Those who sin are slaves - slaves are not sons - but the true Son can set you free. And if the Son sets you free you will be truly free. The freedom Jesus spoke of existed both in this life and eternally. He was discussing a freedom from their own evil desires and the bondage that comes from living as slaves to these desires.

He was also hinting very strongly in this passage that freedom from sin changes a persons status from slave to son, and so makes that person an eternal heir and a true member of God’s family. A slave in that culture was not a member of the family only sons are heirs.

Our freedom then is a freedom from our sinful desires where our actions are not dictated by the relentless desires of our lower nature. True freedom is escaping all of that, and being free to live as “sons” in Christ.

If such frequent use of the word “sons” is jarring to you, relax. The New Testament was not written to sooth modern sensibilities it was written to address the audience of its day. We are all sons in Christ because he is The Son. We all share in His status in the family and we are now all heirs with him. In the ancient world daughters were not the heirs, sons were. Son was a status in the family not just a description of biological sex. We are now all heirs in Christ we are all sons in Christ. And we are all, whether male or female, the “bride of Christ”. So females are sons and males are brides don’t get triggered, but understand why these terms were used.

Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord,

This passage is from Paul who is reminding his readers not to be, once again, taken captive and enslaved. But here the slavery is a more specific form of slavery than the sin that Jesus broadly described in our first passage. The slavery Paul warns of is submitting to philosophy and lies, serving ideas based on human tradition and the so called “elemental spirits of the world”. These are all things that flow, not from Christ, or His Spirit, but from the world and its “zeitgeist” for lack of a better word.

The question for modern students of Paul’s words must be, what is the current spirit of the age? What philosophies, lies, and human traditions are trying to enslave us now? What ideas are simply not of Christ? This last question is where things get very odd in our current world.

Today even Jesus is often re-imagined and re-created to fit whatever odd idea is in vogue at the moment. One of the things that I think describe the current spirit of the world as well as any is the obsession to redefine, re-imagine, and re-identify everything until nothing has any meaning at all. Ironically even the word nothing has been redefined such that scientists can make the claim that everything came from nothing, although by nothing they mean a quantum vacuum which in fact is not - nothing. So here we sit in a world where each person is imprisoned in a jail of their own definitions unable to even talk to our neighbors because they are locked in prisons of their own.

Every person while seeking personal freedom is enslaving themselves in the prison of their own desires and isolating themselves from every other person on earth. The desire for personal “freedom” has in fact created a self-imposed solitary confinement.

These self-centered desires for freedom are the essence of the sin Jesus was describing in the first passage. Ironically, in trying to find a freedom of our own we lose the very thing that we seek. We can’t set ourselves free, when we try all we find is anarchy and violence. The book of Judges ends with the phrase, “and every man did what was right in his own eyes”. The next thing you see in the history of Israel is a nation begging for a king, the anarchy and violence had become too much. When they were told that a human monarchy would lead to oppression they cried, “we don’t care! give us a king!”.

Ever since the garden of Eden the devil has been trying to convince us that what we want and don’t have is more desirable than what God has provided for us. We need to reject this urge and turn back to God. And Jesus is the way that God has provided for our return. The road to freedom is Jesus. He is the way, He is the truth that frees us from the lies of the current spirit of the age. And He is the life we seek to create but so often fail to embrace.

For you were called to freedom, brothers.

This week let’s encourage each other to walk in the freedom that only Jesus can give. It’s also the Lenten season, so instead of giving up sugar or something, let’s give up our selfish desires and take the opportunities God gives us to help and to bless those around us. As we forget about our own self-serving freedoms may we all find true freedom in giving ourselves for each other. Because when we walk that self-sacrificial road of the cross we will find we are not walking alone but with Jesus and with everyone else that follows Him. And we will at last be truly free.

Have a Great Week!

Ever since I was young, I found myself a bit frustrated with the Gospels because I wished Jesus would just teach me what I wanted to know. I often wished that the Gospel writers would have spent more time on the teachings of Jesus and less time on his travels to and fro and the various people and interruptions he met along the way. I mean, here is the greatest teacher of all time, and the gospels don’t really focus on his teaching - or do they?

In the first 10 of my 32 years working in missions, I worked in what could be called the logistics of missions. I have been responsible for the care and maintenance of the 50+ structures on this campus. I have led our accounting department and created the IT department as we moved from the analog world of the ‘80s to the digital world of the ‘90s, led the design team, and acted as General contractor for the administration building and many smaller projects. I wrote software for our accounting department and eventually ended up as operations director. I learned all these things by experience, trial and error, reading, and watching others who knew more than I did.

But after ten years of serving in this way, God led me to take a sabbatical and spend 60+ hours a week immersed in the word of God while completing a School of Biblical Studies. About halfway through the course, God led me to the story of Peter and Jesus in the final chapter of John. Since Peter was a fisherman, he decided to go fishing, yet he caught nothing. Jesus showed up, and he immediately caught more fish than he knew what to do with. After this, Jesus and Peter have a little talk, and Jesus asks him, do you love me more than these? Now, this question is ambiguous enough that it can legitimately be understood in several ways. But at that moment, I knew that Jesus was asking me a very specific question. Do you love me more than you love the things you have known and become skilled at? You see, I took Jesus to be asking Peter if he loved him more than the fish. He was asking Peter, in effect, do you want to go back to being a fisherman, or do you want to get back to your calling and be a fisher of men?

The instructions Jesus gave Peter were simple, “feed my sheep.” It was a moment of truth for Peter, and it was a moment of truth for me. Would I continue to do what I was good at and comfortable with, or would I change my entire focus of life and feed the sheep of Jesus? It was at that point that my entire focus changed from physical and administrative ministry to teaching and pastoral care.

But here is the ironic part: was that a move into “ministry” or away from it? The answer, of course, is neither. Jesus was just introducing me to the next lesson he had for me. You see, when Jesus taught his disciples, it was not simply a cerebral process, though he did challenge their thinking constantly. Neither was it simply “on-the-job training,” though he did a lot of that as well.

The teaching style of Jesus was focused on transforming people into the image of God. To restore the image of God that was lost to sin ever since the garden. And transformation is a holistic process involving mind, body, desire, and will. The teaching of Jesus focused on all those things together to one unified end. He was transforming people sold out to sin into disciples and children of God. Jesus understood that knowledge is not simply the accumulation of information.

In the end, you really only know the things you can do.

Typically, the bible speaks of knowledge as something more akin to “knowing” the piano than “knowing” the multiplication tables. The knowledge that the bible typically describes is gained when information is coupled with experience and becomes a living part of a person. Knowledge involves input, embodiment, and expression. Knowledge is as knowledge does.

The measure of a disciple is not their ability to repeat ideas they have heard, it is the expression of that knowledge by their life. Jesus instructed his disciples to judge teachers by the fruit they produced. We also need to assess our own lives based on the fruit we produce. Consider this familiar line from Galatians.

But the fruit of the Spirit is

The healthy, honest disciple of Jesus will increasingly bear the fruit described in this passage. This fruit is the fruit of true knowledge of God.

This challenge was given to me in the heart of the COVID nightmare when I was unable to travel or teach, and our schools were all shut down. Jesus took me back to the gospels to walk with him through his teachings again and to let them transform me. He told me to change my focus from knowing to doing. And he led me to start this Substack, which was to be a series of reflections, “On Walking the Way,” not just knowing about the way.

So this week, join me as I travel back to that road that only Jesus knows. Let’s walk the path instead of talking about the way things ought to be. Let’s encourage each other to trust the Master as we leave our safe and known lives to follow Jesus into the unknown of everlasting life. So, I leave you with this thought to ponder as you return back to your life:

Over time, our actions describe our beliefs better than our words.

Have a great week!