Academia has been a gift to the body of Christ. I am thankful every day for the gift of 2000 years of scholarly study into the scriptures and all the time and energy so many give to record these discoveries and insights for the benefit of all. Without this effort, we would not even have a Bible to study in our native language, much less all the study materials that help us understand it.

But over the centuries, I fear academia has become a magnet next to the compass of Christian thought and life. Over time, understanding can be confused with knowing. To know about Jesus is not the same as knowing Jesus.

Jesus saw this error in the scholars of His day, and it broke His heart.

You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. John 5:39-40 [ESV]

This may sound weird coming from a guy who has dedicated the last 35 years to mission work and the last 25 years to teaching the Bible, but the ultimate goal is not knowing the scriptures but knowing Jesus. We don’t study to be the smartest guy in the room, we don’t study for recognition, and we don’t study (or teach) simply to make a living. We study to know Jesus, and as teachers, we study to point others to Jesus.

But before you say, “Ya, that’s xackly why I don’t study nothin’,” we need to think a little deeper about this issue.

We can’t know Jesus in 2025 without learning about Him. And that knowledge of Jesus comes from the testimony of those who knew Him when He walked the earth. And that testimony is recorded for us in the Bible. Without the Bible, how else would we ever know he existed or what he was like? Without scripture, how would we test our thoughts, feelings, and assumptions? How will we interpret our lives? How will we know if we are living as disciples if we know nothing of what a disciple should be?

Over the last two millennia, ignorance and even anti-intellectualism have manifested themselves in many ways. At times, ignorance was foisted on the Church by the elite classes and crushing poverty, and at other times, anti-intellectualism was almost a rallying cry among certain evangelicals. No matter its cause, ignorance has never borne good fruit.

However, academia and an overinflated regard for intellectualism are not harmless either. As an old mentor of mine once said,

“You can fall into the ditch on either side of the road.”

Knowledge for the sake of knowledge is as futile as art for the sake of art, maybe worse. Because Christians rarely start out seeking knowledge for the sake of knowledge, they drift into that state. This is what I meant earlier when I said that academia has become a magnet next to the compass of Christianity.

People begin by wanting to know more about Jesus, which is absolutely vital and right. But over time, they begin to focus on the information and forget why they gathered it in the first place. Slowly, gathering information becomes an end in itself—or, if not the end, the means to an end. They begin to see education as the ticket to their self-chosen paths rather than instruction for following the path of Jesus. We want answers to questions, which in itself is not wrong. Still, when our curiosities and desire to know overwhelm our desire to follow the way of Jesus, we begin to bow at foreign altars—idolatrous altars of our own making.

On Walking the Way

This view of academics came as a correction to me several years ago and led me to focus on what it means to “walk the Way.” That is why I started this newsletter and podcast. The Bible is precious beyond words to me, so much so that I have dedicated my adult life to helping people understand it as it was originally intended. But that is the rub; God’s original intention in preserving the Bible for us was not to satisfy our curiosity and certainly not to generate arguments. The Scriptures were preserved for us so that we could know him. The scriptures teach us to discern between the Holy Spirit and evil spirits. It helps us to see the difference between our own thoughts and the Spirit of God. It teaches us the difference between a strange experience and the work of God. God gave us the scriptures to lead us to Himself.

This Week

So this week, as we read the Bible, remember that its main purpose is not to educate in the normal sense of that word. It intends to lead us into a closer relationship with God and instruct us “On Walking the Way” of Jesus.

Have a Great Week!

We live in an angry world. It’s a vengeful and unforgiving world. A world where people are constantly at war, if not with bombs, guns, knives, and clubs, with commerce, and if not with commerce, with slander, defamation, and character assassination. But one thing we are all certain of — is that it is the other guy’s fault. It must be their fault. After all, we are the injured party. So, we have a right to feel this way, to act this way, and even to retaliate.

This world leaves many wounded in big and small ways, but every wound, if left untreated, is another link in a chain that enslaves us. To make matters worse, or possibly better, this slavery is self-inflicted. The treatment is simple but costly. The treatment is forgiveness. The wound lights the fire, but unforgiveness forges the chain. The chain that ultimately binds us and not our enemies. Thankfully, Jesus teaches us how to break the chains of our own unforgiveness.

The Lord’s Prayer is underrated, particularly in many modern churches where it is seldom used as a prayer. Nevertheless, in it, we are taught to pray for forgiveness in the following way:

and forgive us our debts,

Many read this simple line without really pondering what we are really asking God to do. Jesus is teaching us to ask God to forgive us in the same way that we forgive those who sin against us. If you think I am reading things into this passage, consider the verses that immediately follow, where Jesus clarifies his teaching on forgiveness.

For if you forgive others their trespasses,

When we refuse to forgive, we are doubly, perhaps triply bound. We have the original offense and the damage it caused, the unrelenting bitterness and isolation that our own unforgiveness causes, and the crushing weight of the loss of God’s grace for our own sins against God. Forgiveness unlocks us from everything but the original loss, which typically we can never get back no matter what we do. Forgiveness is costly, but it is far cheaper than the alternative. Forgiveness heals, and unforgiveness multiplies the pain.

Clear Conscious — Light Heart

I have spent far too much time supposedly “stressed out” and unhappy, blaming all the wrong things instead of recognizing that all the internal noise and turmoil were really symptoms of my guilt, shame, and unforgiveness. This was a terrible situation, but in reality, it was far worse than it sounds because, as a Christian, all of it was unnecessary.

Unforgiveness is not a static problem. Like cancer, it metastasizes, mutates, and grows until it destroys us. We will never know a clear conscience until we forgive. Until we forgive, we will never know the forgiveness of God, according to Jesus.

So why don’t we all just forgive? To forgive, we have to admit our own sin and wickedness. To have a clear conscience, we need to not only recognize our sin but actively turn from it. Forgiveness and being forgiven are inescapably intertwined. This is the genius of the Lord’s Prayer. “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.”

Forgiving others is not dependent on their actions. It is a choice that we make to release them from their debt, and in the process, we release ourselves. Forgiveness is not cheap. In the process of forgiveness, the one forgiving agrees to cancel the debt of the one being forgiven. It costs $10 to forgive someone for stealing $10. It cost Jesus his life to pay for the deeds we have done against each other and, more importantly, against God.

This Week

This week (or better still, every day), we need to take a long, honest look at the condition of our hearts. A clear conscience brings a light heart, and a light heart brings joy, kindness, generosity, and a host of other blessings. But a clear conscience is impossible until we have dealt with our own sins and forgiven the sins of others.

Forgiveness is expensive but not as expensive as unforgiveness.

So — forgive — and Have a Great Week!

We are bombarded with information and stories every day. Some are served up with a smile, and others with anger and a side of fear. These stories affect us, even the ones we hate and reject. Many, if not most, of these stories are impossible for us to fully verify, so, in the end, we pick and choose what we want to believe for any number of reasons.

The truth begins to sound like a muffled voice lost in the crowd. It is easy to feel like the psalmist when he cried out in frustration, “I said in my alarm, ‘All men are liars!’”. We start to wonder if there is any way of hearing the truth or if the truth exists at all.

Muddling the waters and making people wonder about the truth - is, and always has been, the Devil’s game. Ever since the garden when the serpent asked Eve, “Did God really say…?” obfuscation and lies have been our daily bread, or so it seems. But is that assessment of the situation accurate? Not necessarily.

The empty tomb of Jesus defeated that old serpent. Jesus is the way; he is THE TRUTH and the life. Though the truth may not be the loudest voice in the room, it is by far the most powerful. But before we can speak it, we need to hear it. The noise inside us is often more distracting than the noise around us. But - if we can quiet our hearts to listen to the truth, we can then be a voice of truth to others. We can be peacemakers in a world at war. As Paul explains to the Corinthians:

For though we walk in the flesh,

It has often been said that “The truth is its own defense.” I think that old saying is true but incomplete, as is the case with all cliches. For the truth to stand, it must first be declared. In this passage, Paul describes his method of warfare against evil. It is not fought in the flesh. It is fought with truth. His warfare carries divine power and destroys strongholds. What are these strongholds? Arguments and “lofty opinions” raised against the knowledge of God. Paul is using the truth to shatter powerful lies aimed at preventing people from finding the knowledge of God.

The sheer number of lies and the speed with which they multiply and disperse in today’s world can sometimes make it feel like we are trying to hold back the ocean with a broom. But this is yet another lie. The truth has divine power. The truth, like God, simply is. The truth can not be destroyed; it is reality, and it will ultimately prevail.

How are we to fight the battle for truth?

Again, Paul has advice for us all. This advice comes to us from his letter to the church in Ephesus.

Rather, speaking the truth in love,

We need to speak the truth, but we need to speak the truth in love. Love is - benefiting others at my expense; it is not - proving I am right no matter what. The truth both builds and destroys. It destroys the lies that enslave the ones we love and builds the body of Christ. But we face real dangers when confronting the lies of this age. So, I will leave you with a bit of encouragement from the book of Proverbs.

Answer not a fool according to his folly,

As with all Hebrew poetry and especially in the wisdom literature, wisdom is found by balancing ideas. These two verses placed side by side are not a contradiction they are to be held in tension when deciding what to do. I would interpret them as: Be careful when arguing with a fool or you might become one yourself.

This week let’s be speakers of truth without forgetting the goal.

So, speak the truth in love.

Be careful out there.

Have a great week!

We don’t often think much about the way we understand the world. The short answer is that we know and understand the world through stories, and we share these stories through language. This seems obvious when we think about it. After all, if you ask someone to introduce themselves, they will do it by telling a story about themselves.

Stories are the core of culture. Culture is built on a collection of shared stories and experiences that come together to shape our opinions on everything, often without our conscious knowledge. Christian culture is based on Christian stories and experiences, while Buddhist, Hindu, Islamic, Animist, and various secular cultures all base their assumptions on a set of different stories. When people say things like, “Everyone knows that…” or “Obviously…” they are referencing common stories that they feel everyone should know and respect.

A culture war is a fight over which stories are legitimate and foundational. This is why people fight over statues and the “real meaning” of the Thanksgiving story in the U.S. On the surface, these arguments sound trivial, and by themselves, they may be. But we all know, almost instinctively, that these stories define us and our culture. This is our history; to change it is to change our culture and identity. Stories are incredibly powerful. Today, I thought it would be good to think about that power.

I am currently teaching a Biblical Core Course to a group of young missionary trainees. The Course has many goals, but one of the primary goals is to teach people how to read the Bible in literary and historical contexts. To help them with context, we read the entire Bible in story order, beginning in the Old Testament with all of its often awkward stories and events.

As I introduce the Old Testament and its various literature types, my students are always amazed at how much of it is stories and poetry. (Spoiler—stories, poetry, and songs make up the vast majority of material in the Old Testament.) But it gets interesting when I explain to them how biblical narratives in the Old Testament rarely interpret themselves. They simply tell the story, complete with all the most shocking and, at times, embarrassing details, and move on. Leaving the interpretation to the reader/hearer.

At this point, jaws often visibly drop, and someone will ask, “How are we to interpret these stories?” And sometimes, “Why doesn’t God just tell us what it all means?” I can sympathize with their questions, but these questions overlook the point. Why does God use stories, poetry, and songs to teach us?

Stories have an advantage over other teaching styles. Direct, specific statements typically have a sell-by date. By that, I mean the more specific a statement gets, the more narrowly it applies. The Bible is an ancient collection of writings. These stories carry truths far more timeless than specific statements about situations and events that no longer occur or advice that no longer directly applies to the modern world.

Stories can carry multidimensional truth. Direct statements, for the most part, are what they are. A truly inspired story has layers and layers of application and truth, and the Bible is truly inspired. A better question than “Why all these stories?” would be, “Why have these particular stories been preserved?”

We learn by example. We catch and absorb more than we study and learn. When a story becomes a part of us, it guides us and teaches us in ways we cannot always identify. But over time, the collective effect of these absorbed stories is undeniable.

So, what is the point of this little excursion into the power of stories? Well, we need to “watch what we eat,” so to speak. Our world is filled with stories, some true, some false, some dangerously false. The most dangerous ones do not necessarily come from people we think are rude or on the “wrong side” of the issue.

The most dangerous lies are the ones we accept without examination.

The ones we feel are right because “everyone says so.” The world is wrong in a great many ways. We should never accept the world’s so-called “common knowledge” uncritically. Remember Jesus’ warning in the Gospel of John.

“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. John 15:18-20 [ESV]

This passage is not easy, but it is an important reality check. A story is not true simply because it is commonly believed and often repeated. We need to fill our minds with the right stories, with God’s stories, even when they are difficult to understand, because stories shape our thinking, our lives, and our futures. We need to relearn to tell stories to each other because stories anchor our identities and guide our choices. I will close today with this final encouragement from Paul.

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you. Philppians 4:4-9 [ESV]

Have a great week!

Ever since I was young, the book of Proverbs has fascinated me. There was just something about it—all those short little sayings that you could read in a couple of seconds but end up thinking about for the rest of the day. Now that I am an old man, I have come to realize that the proverbs are not designed to answer questions; they are designed to cultivate wisdom.

I think this was brought home to me years ago when I was looking and laughing at the following two verses:

Prov 26:4 Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest you be like him yourself. Prov 26:5 Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes.

Well… do you or don’t you answer a fool according to his folly?

These two verses seem to contradict each other, and they have been located right next to each other in the scriptures for thousands of years. This is no accident. This is not an error; it is the lesson. I would interpret it as something like this: sometimes, you have to engage with fools because it is the only way to help them, but in engaging with fools, we run the risk of becoming one ourselves. There is no black-and-white answer for how to respond to a fool. Wisdom is the only thing that will help us in these situations. Through the guidance of these proverbs, the Spirit of God, coupled with experience, will give us the needed wisdom.

Today, I want to look at another Proverb I have often enjoyed. One that runs a lot deeper than it would appear on the surface. This is a proverb about the wisdom of small creatures, but again, it teaches us wisdom, not zoology.

Four things on earth are small, but they are exceedingly wise:

This collection of small and helpless creatures each has a trait that the wise will learn from.

Ants

Ants are not strong. Individually, they can be easily killed, but they work together to gather food when it is plentiful in the summer. They don’t gorge and starve. They don’t waste opportunities. They think about the needs of the future and take steps to prepare. I am ashamed to say these little guys are often wiser than me. They are more persistent, too, if you’ve ever watched them go after a food supply.

Ants also work together, knowing that together, they can do things they could never do separately. If you have ever watched a chain of ants doing their work, you know something amazing is happening. It may be an annoying thing to watch in your kitchen, but it’s still amazing.

Rock Badgers

The rock badgers are also small and easy prey, but they are wise. They fortify their weakness rather than arrogantly assume they can handle whatever comes their way. They live and work from a position of safety, high above the fray.

Locusts

Locusts work together without anyone forcing them to obey. They move and work together without leadership. They know that together, they are safer than they are as individuals—a volunteer army without a commander.

The Lizard

The lizard here likely describes the lowly gecko. In warmer climates you will find these little guys patroling the walls in the most unusual places. They eat bugs and don’t bother anyone, so in most of the places I have been, they are considered little household friends. They are unassuming and don’t make any noise, and as the proverb states, they are not that hard to catch. Yet you will find them in the most amazing places. The wisdom of the gecko is that it quietly goes about its work and minds its own business. It is not ambitious or self-aggrandizing, but you will find it quietly doing its job even in kings’ palaces.

This Week

Since it’s the new year, it’s always a good time to do something new. Try taking a month and reading a chapter a day in Proverbs. Or if that does not work read a shorter passage but give yourself time to meditate on the wisdom being offered. Instead of blurring your brain and numbing your soul with news and social media first thing in the morning, enjoy a few minutes of peace, taking in some ancient wisdom. (I take mine with coffee ;)

Have a great week!

Another new year has begun, and with it comes the hope of a fresh start. Over the holidays, I spent a bit of time thinking about tradition. Traditions are important. They give our lives rhythm, but more than that, traditions anchor us to history. They give us a sense of where we have been and serve as reference points from which we calculate our path to the future.

The New Year is one such tradition. It is a time to reflect on the past and make resolutions for the future. It is a time of hope and new starts. We start new diets (often out of necessity), ponder our vocations, and consider our options. It is also a good time for Christians to take stock of their faith. I fear we often assume too much when it comes to our faith. We lean on our past experiences, sacramental rituals, or even our interaction with other believers without properly assessing the fruit of the Spirit and the condition of our faith. For example, when was the last time we asked ourselves:

—Have we grown in our faith over the past year? —Do we make decisions based on faith? —Do we seek guidance for everyday living or only when we’re in trouble? —Do we follow Jesus every day, or do we generally run the show while asking Jesus to help us?—Does our life reflect the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control?

Confession is a spiritual practice that has been dropped in many church traditions. But I think that is a mistake. We need traditions and habits that build and transform our character. Confession, particularly corporate confession, is a tradition that builds regular times into our lives when we must stand together and honestly assess our performance as human beings and as children of God.

As we consider the year before us, let’s take the time to reflect honestly on the year we have just lived. Do we love? Do we live in such a way that we seek to benefit others at our expense? Jesus did — and we are following him. I know that comparing our lives to Jesus is a high bar to jump, and I am not saying that I have succeeded in all categories or anything like it. But the new life that Jesus has given us is real and powerful. It is far more powerful than we often give it credit.

Believing in Jesus is, at its core, believing he was successful in his mission. It is believing we are not only forgiven but also changed — and changing every day. We are being transformed into the image of God each day we follow Jesus rather than our old desires.

This year, we have been given another opportunity to walk in the grace and power of Jesus. We have the Spirit of God at work in us and through us to do the things we could and would never do on our own.

Let’s begin this year right, with thankfulness and hope. Hope that is built not on our efforts but on the grace and faithfulness of God. Let’s examine ourselves honestly but without fear, remembering Paul’s encouragement.

I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy,

And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more,

Deb and I want to thank all of you for your faithfulness to us over the years. We stand with you as you walk into this new year.

May you all have a very blessed new year!

Christmas has a way of filling the air with anticipation. For me, it is a time filled with memories. A time with family and friends and singing. A time of warmth in a cold world. As a child, it was a time of mystery, of wondering what Christmas would bring for me. Although I have to admit to being thoroughly carnal about it as a child, there was still something about it that seemed much bigger than the gifts. I didn’t fully understand it, and I doubt if I fully understand it even now. I think it was the dark church, lit only with the giant Christmas tree and sitting next to my Dad as we sang Christmas songs together. The church was always creepy to me at night, with dark shadows playing off the ornately carved altar with a statue of Jesus standing in the center of the altar backdrop with his pierced hands extended toward me. But being in the pew with my family while my Mom played the organ made it feel warm, safe, and almost magical.

Now, my Dad and Mom have both passed, and I am a lot older than they were when I was young. The world seems much less magical; it seems instead to be a darker and, at times, almost sinister place. But it is exactly this kind of world that needs Jesus the most. It is this kind of world that Jesus was born into over 2000 years ago. Sometimes, as I look at all the evil in the world, I wonder what this place must look like to God, and I am overwhelmed at the thought. How can God, in His holiness, even look at this mess? The words of Isaiah take on a deeper meaning.

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light;

And then — I remember John 3:16 and I am left speechless.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son,

The deeper the darkness, the more beautiful is the light.

The light has come! It’s Christmas!

God, despite all the evil of this world, loved us. He did not love us from afar, but He became one of us in Jesus. He came to save us, He gave His life for ours, that we might spend eternity with Him. The hard work of salvation is done, it was begun on that first Christmas long ago, and finished on that blessed resurrection morning. However, though the hard work is done, the project of salvation is ongoing. We celebrate the beginning while we grow into the image of God, until that day when Jesus returns and restores not just our souls but all of creation, a new heaven and earth. On that day, there will be no more darkness, no more pain, no more evil. The king who was born to rule will finally take His throne.

Christmas is a celebration of past blessings, present grace, and future hope all rolled into one.

So, let’s not forget the magnitude of what we are celebrating this week as we are overwhelmed with events. Find a quiet moment, or better yet, create a quiet moment at some point this season to remember how unworthy we all are of such a priceless gift. Let’s rehearse it with our children and grandchildren to perpetuate more than an empty tradition. Try reading these passages out loud together.

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given;

And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in strips of cloth

Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet,

Merry Christmas! And have a great week!

When people talk about Jesus, they often regard him as a simple person with a simple purpose. And often, sometimes comically, they transform him into the person they want him to be rather than the person he is. However, as we will see today, even the early prophecies of Jesus describe a person who is anything but simple. Goodness, wisdom, power, and authority are not things that fit neatly into a corrupt and wicked world. He is a wise judge and counselor who brings justice to the poor, but he is also a conquering king. He is gentle with the weak yet unblinking in his judgment of the wicked. He was born in humility, but he was born to rule. Isaiah describes him like this:

There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse,

On Christmas, we are surrounded by songs and images of the baby Jesus. It is a symbol of hope and peace — and it is exactly that. But maybe not in the way we sometimes think. This child is quite literally one of a kind. This tiny baby was born to rule. He was born to judge the wicked. He was born to reconnect us to God. In fact, Jesus is God becoming one of us — to fellowship with us.

The brain-busting part about Jesus is that he is all of these things and more. The wicked will not go on forever, committing one atrocity after another. Evil people who lived long, prosperous lives and died of old age did not “get away with it.” There is a king who will judge with righteousness, and there is coming a day when everything that has been done will be brought into account. And this humble child is both the judge and eternal King. Creation itself will be brought back into order.

Our hope is not that one day we can rule our own lives and live in peace. Our hope is in a king who became one of us so that we can become one with him in his kingdom. We are now a part of God’s family again. God bought us back from our rebellion and our slavery to desire; He took the cost of our sins upon Himself. We have a future now and forgiveness for our past. Judgment is no longer a dread that looms in the distance.

Jesus has come, and with him came the grace we need to be restored, fully restored, forever restored. We have a living hope that evil will not reign forever. Justice is coming. So this week, as the symbols of Christmas surround us, let’s not forget that Christmas is much more than a pleasant memory or a happy thought. It is a memory of this baby Isaiah predicted who came to give his life to save us. But his work is not over. It is just beginning.

Advent is a time of hope for the future. We now know the name of this child that Isaiah foresaw. However, as we can see from this prophecy and many others, his work is still in progress. He is coming again to judge and to rule. And we have a lot of work to do to prepare for our coming King.

This week, share that hope with someone. Be intentional about it. Live into the coming kingdom we all hope for, and remember, Advent is not a time of looking back. It is a time of looking forward to our coming King. Let’s serve Him well this week.

Have a great week!

Christmas is a time of hope. Hope is the fuel that gives us the courage to go on. Hope provides us with the strength to fail and keep going. Without it, we wither and die. I wish that were an overstatement, but the older I get, the more convinced I am that — without hope, everything else collapses.

Today, we read from Isaiah, who saw hope for the future nearly 2800 years ago and shared it with us all.

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light;

The Advent season is here again. The holidays and their pressure, possibilities, and responsibilities overwhelm us again. It’s ironic, really, that the time we set aside to celebrate hope and peace is so often stolen from us by our own busyness (business) and anxiety. But Advent is a time of hope, and we don’t have to let the pressures of this world steal that from us; we do have a choice in the matter, no matter how we feel sometimes.

Coming out of a highly political and divisive season in the U.S., it might be hard to focus on where our hope is found. Every election is the same in one way: no matter who is elected, they will be sinful and flawed. Our hope is not in human strength or excellence. It is in Jesus, who is the Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and — the Prince of Peace.

For Isaiah, this was a future hope. For us, it is both a memory and a future hope. A memory of a young girl who was promised a child of hope but also a child of pain. A memory of Jesus who gave his life for a world that didn’t seem to care. But it is also a memory of His resurrection from the grave in glory and his promise to return as the ultimate king of kings. In all of these, we find a foundation for hope. It is a genuine hope, not wishful thinking. His resurrection is well attested, and his prophecies of the coming judgment of Jerusalem came true in shocking detail.

His Spirit is in us, testifying to the truth, and the word of God holds steady while empires rise and fall. Hope does not come from new ideas. It comes from the ancient promises of God. Isaiah knew this all those years ago and ended this passage with, “The zeal of the Lord of Hosts will do this.” The “Lord of Hosts” was an ancient title for God, even in Isaiah’s time. Isaiah was not hoping that a better idea or political system would come along. His faith was in the ancient but certain promises of the God who created and maintained all of creation. God himself was coming to us to be our prince of peace. The name of this prince is Jesus. And He is coming again. There is hope.

This Week

As we enter this Advent season, let’s remember why Christians long ago felt it was so important to build this season of remembrance and hope into the church calendar. Let’s re-anchor our hope in the Lord of Hosts, His only Son and coming king, Jesus. This week, let’s share that hope with someone who needs encouragement.

Have a great week!

Thanksgiving is a holiday that, like most, is faithfully observed but often underappreciated. For Christians, giving thanks is both a privilege and a discipline. It is a privilege because God, in His grace through Jesus, has forgiven us and made a way for us to know Him and fellowship with Him again. God has given us everything from our very existence to our daily bread. And thankfulness is the only proper response.

Thanksgiving is a discipline because the persistent choice to be thankful restores our souls and changes our focus and outlook. Thankfulness restores our strength, our health, and our minds. Thankfulness brings us peace, no matter the circumstance. Thankfulness reorients our thinking and helps us understand our proper place in creation.

As I was thinking about being thankful this year, I started to read the Psalms because so many of them directly or indirectly focus on giving God thanks. I finally settled on the 23rd psalm because it is very familiar, and yet, I have not heard anyone teach on it for years. So, let’s read this beautiful song again.

The LORD is my shepherd;

He cares for us body and soul

Shepherds lead and care for sheep. This is so basic that I usually read over the opening line without giving it a thought. However, the opening line is not just a statement of fact. It’s David’s personal declaration that he has made the Lord his shepherd. David has chosen to put his life into the hands of the Lord. As I read this psalm, I realized that all the blessings that follow this opening line depend on the fact that we have placed our lives and futures into the hands of the good shepherd — Jesus.

We must all place our lives in His hands to know His care and provision. We are sheep; we follow the shepherd, and He cares for us as we do. Every bite of food and every sip of drink is a gift from Him as he leads us on. Our strength, our work, and our rest are all blessings, the blessings of following our shepherd.

He cares for our physical needs, but more than that, He cares for our souls. Our shepherd restores us to wholeness, body and soul. The road we walk wears on us, drains our souls, and steals our joy. When our strength is gone, we can’t restore ourselves. But we have a shepherd who has walked this road before us. He will lead us and restore us again.

But this song is not a lullaby of pleasant thoughts.

The next line tells us that he leads us and protects us even when we walk through the valley of the shadow of death. No place is so dark that our shepherd can not lead us through it, so we need not fear. It’s the comfort of knowing that He is with us that gives us courage in dark times. When we have made the Lord our shepherd, we always know exactly where we are going. We are following Him. We know that nothing can touch us when we are next to Him. His rod and staff are all the protection we need.

He not only protects us from our enemies, He prepares a feast for us in front of them. Our shepherd, Jesus, has conquered all our enemies — even death. There is a day coming when we will celebrate this victory with Jesus at the great marriage supper. A day when all of our enemies are subdued, and we are vindicated and comforted in the presence of God. Life may get very hard, but it is not hopeless. We follow the good shepherd, who will bring us home again, and that homecoming will be glorious.

“Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life.” In a sense, we are already home when we are with our shepherd. Goodness and mercy will follow us all of our days because we are with Him. And we will live in His house forever. We are not simply waiting for a better future. We know His goodness and mercy now, and His blessings stretch into eternity. We have a lot for which to be thankful.

As we give thanks this week

This week, as we consider again all the blessings of God and our unworthiness to receive even one of them. Let’s say it out loud. Let’s not only be thankful but share thankfulness with everyone we meet. Let’s spread thankfulness through our families, communities, and businesses, and in so doing, let’s help to reorient everyone’s thinking to our shepherd and toward the eternal blessing he leads us to.

Have a great week!