The nostalgic power of food, and the importance of having a proper perspective of our ourselves – 2 Samuel 23:8–9, Part 3

There is a scene in the film Ratatouille that depicts the nostalgic power of food.  In the film, a famous Parisian restaurant has been in a rut, lacking new creative dishes.  Suddenly, a mysterious new chef appears with inspired recipes, leading the restaurant to become the talk around town.  One day a famously harsh food critic arrives to see and taste for himself what the hubbub is all about.  The mysterious chef makes a dish called ratatouille, a traditional French vegetable stew that would almost never be served in such a fancy restaurant.  The food critic takes one look at the dish, and this happens:

Nostalgia is a powerful force, especially when you’re feeling down.  You want that taste of home, you want comfort food.  When I spent a month in India in 2023, we had pizza a couple times.  But it wasn’t pizza like my favorite, Capricios pizza just around the corner from where I live in Smoketown, PA.  When I got home from India, I wanted Capricios!

As we continue the account of David’s mighty men 2 Samuel 23, verse 13, we read that David seems gripped by nostalgia:

“During harvest time, three of the thirty chief warriors came down to David at the cave of Adullam, while a band of Philistines was encamped in the Valley of Rephaim. At that time David was in the stronghold, and the Philistine garrison was at Bethlehem. David longed for water and said, ‘Oh, that someone would get me a drink of water from the well near the gate of Bethlehem!’”

That’s very precise, isn’t it?  David mentions that he wants water from the specific well near the gate of Bethlehem.  Why is David so into that specific water?  We all have our favorites, right?  Maybe you have a brand of water you really like.  Maybe you are on a well, and you think your water tastes great.  I’ve been to a retreat center in the Pennsylvania mountains that has water with strong sulfur smell. 

At my house, we have a well, and we also have a water filter in our refrigerator for ice and drinking water. I love the taste of our water. It has a natural feel to it.  My church building, however, has public water, and I can taste the difference.  Maybe you use a water filter that makes water taste great.

David wanted Bethlehem well water.  Why?  That was where he grew up.  It was his favorite water.  He wanted the water of his childhood and teenage years.  I suspect David is feeling nostalgic.  In 2 Samuel 23, David is holed up in the Cave of Adullum, his stronghold, and feeling the emotions and frustrations of war.  Do you have a food or drink that makes you nostalgic?  Something your mom cooked regularly? 

David wants water from his favorite hometown well.  But there’s a problem, the enemy Philistines occupy Bethlehem.  It’s frustrating when you want something so badly, but you can’t have it.  It’s not like David is asking for a new palace.  He just wants water from his boyhood home.  But even that he can’t have.  Sometimes we can feel like the world is against us in not just the big ways but the small ways too. 

David’s men, however, are listening.  They love their king and want to serve him.  What they do next is wild.

“So the three mighty warriors broke through the Philistine lines, drew water from the well near the gate of Bethlehem and carried it back to David.”

Those guys risked their lives to get David a drink of water. What courage.  What devotion.  How many Philistines lost their lives that day because David wanted a drink of water? 

You can imagine how proud, how grateful David must have been. Probably shocked too.  I imagine him thinking and maybe even saying, “You did what?  That was stupid.  I was totally fine drinking other water.  I can’t believe you guys took me literally.”

How does David respond?  Did he enjoy this favorite water?

“But he refused to drink it; instead, he poured it out before the Lord. “Far be it from me, Lord, to do this!” he said. “Is it not the blood of men who went at the risk of their lives?” And David would not drink it.

Woah.  He refused it.  Even poured it out!  What a waste, right?  How could David not drink it?  Were his soldiers offended? 

Notice what the narrator of the story says in verses 16 and 17.  David poured the water out before the Lord, then he prayed to God. 

That sounds good.  Pouring it out before the Lord sounds religious.  Prayer is definitely religious.  But it also sounds crazy.  If those men risked life and limb, you’d think David should honor them by drinking the water. 

What is going on in David’s heart and mind?  I think David is feeling a mixture of embarrassment and humility.  He knows he is not worthy of the massive sacrifice those men just made.  They put their lives on the line to get special water for David.  In David’s mind, there is no way he is worth that.  He’s right.  Even though he is the king, he is not worth men risking everything so he can drink his favorite water. 

For David, it is obvious what must do with this precious water.  He must present this water as worship to the Lord.  In the Bible we often read about the people of Israel sacrificing animals to God, but there is a provision in the Mosaic Law for a daily drink offering to the Lord (see Exodus 29:40 and Numbers 15:4–10)   

It seems that David is performing a kind of drink offering to God, the only one who is worthy of such a sacrifice.  David pours out the water to God, and offers a prayer.  David’s act reminds us to see ourselves in proper perspective.  If you live in a culture like that of the USA, you likely have the financial means to be choosy, to indulge in many ways, big and small.  Do you place yourself in proper perspective like David? Or do you think of yourself more highly than you ought (see Romans 12:3)?

David rightly reminds us that God is the one truly worthy of the absolute best. 

Photo by amirali mirhashemian on Unsplash

How Jesus wants us to get in the zone – 2 Samuel 23:8–39, Part 2

Have you ever heard a sports announcer say, “They are in the zone.  They can’t miss.”  I often hear that about a basketball player like Caitlin Clark who drains long-range three-point shots over and over and over. “She’s in the zone!” It is a thing of wonder to watch a player in the zone.

In the previous post on 2 Samuel 23:8–39, we met an ancient group of warriors called The Three, and they were most certainly in the zone. In that previous post, I compared The Three to superheroes, but they were not superheroes in the way we think of superheroes. None of them had magical powers or high-tech gadgets. Though The Three are not superheroes, what we read about their victory is supernatural. 

Think about their exploits, as described in 2 Samuel 23:8–12. In ancient times, no matter how strong or skilled they were, no matter how battle-hardened, one soldier wielding one weapon would not have a chance against 800.  Each of the stories about The Three are stories of one man alone, by themselves, slaying a huge group of enemies.  They were in the zone, but these men are not alone. 

We know they did not accomplish their victory on their own. True, there were no other soldiers helping them. There was something else. We know this because of a phrase in verses 8–12.  It is such an important phrase, the author repeats it, meaning that the author does not want his readers to miss this phrase, 

“The Lord brought about a great victory.”

The Lord was with the soldiers.  The men were moving with such speed, strength, and precision, that no soldiers could defeat them.  That speed, strength and precision no doubt was due in part to their physique, their stamina, their training, their experience.  But there was something more.  The Lord was with them.  And when the Lord was with them, they were able to get in the zone. For The Three, it was God’s power that put them in the zone. 

Likewise, you and I need God’s power in our lives to accomplish the mission he has for us.  Jesus once taught about this in his famous Vine and Branches teaching in John 15.  He said that he is the vine and we are the branches.  Then he explained the significance of that,

“Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”

In 2 Samuel 23, The Three mighty men were filled with the power of God to have astounding victory.  No one should be able to do what they did.  One man with a spear should not be able to kill 800 men.  But filled with the power of God, everything about the scenario changes. 

That’s what Jesus is saying in John 15. When we are filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, we can bear much fruit.  I’m guessing you know that Jesus isn’t talking about farming in his Vine and Branches teaching.  He is talking about fruit for his Kingdom.  What fruit?  It is the fruit of changed lives.  The fruit is people who do not currently know Jesus, but as God works through us, those people come to know Jesus. 

We need to be filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, though, for that wonderful work to happen. 

Or as Jesus put it, we need to remain in him, abide in him.  How do we abide in him?  Abide is a word of trust, which is related by different from faith.  Yes, we intellectually believe in him, but Jesus didn’t want just believers.  He wants followers, people who trust in him, who actually learn to live as he would live if he were you, and then they choose to live that way.  That trust is significant, it is sacrificial, it is willing to do and say loving, gracious deeds and words that might make you uncomfortable or feel awkward.  To get to the point where the people in your life not only know that you love Jesus, but that you love them, and thus you invite them to be Jesus-followers too. 

Being a Jesus-follower is the best possible way to live. Jesus called it abundant life.  He said in John 10:10, “I have come that they might have abundant life.”  Think about how Jesus wants people to flourish and have a full life. Make it your passion to live and talk in such a way that will invite people to be Jesus-followers. 

An ancient superhero group called The Three – 2 Samuel 23:8–39, Part 1

Who is your favorite superhero? I asked that question as an intro to my sermon this past Sunday, and I gave people in the congregation a chance to answer. The first one said, “Dr. Strange, because he harnesses power for a different dimension.” Another said “Captain America, because he is a regular soldier.” A third said, “My grandson, because he is so kind and good.”

All excellent answers. As I mentioned in the previous post, there were ancient superheroes in the Bible. We meet them in 2 Samuel 23. 

I began the Life of David blog series months ago, and what a life David had. We first learned about the prophet Samuel who led the nation until Israel asked for a king.  Then we met the first king, Saul, who was mostly a mess.  Because Saul was a wreck, God sent Samuel to anoint David to be the next king.  But it wasn’t as though David instantly ascended to the throne.  It took years, maybe a decade or more, and lots of drama, until David was King of Israel. Then we watched the many ups and downs of his monarchy, some of the downs his own fault.  Now David is nearing the end of his life, and we learn about some of the heroes that supported David.  When I say, “heroes,” I mean it.  These are guys are like ancient superheroes.  Their feats of bravery and victory are amazing. 

First we meet a group called The Three in 2 Samuel 23:8–12.

Josheb killed 800 men with a spear, in one encounter.

Eleazar struck down so many Philistines, his hand stuck to his sword.  And that was after his troops retreated, leaving him alone.  Have you ever used a tool so fiercely and so long your muscles cramp in place around the handle?  I’ve experienced that splitting wood a few times.

Finally, the last of the three was Shammah.  Alone, he stood in the middle of a field and struck down Philistines.

Can you see why I suggested that they are like ancient superheroes?  Their exploits are the stuff of Hollywood blockbuster movies.  Their victories sound fitting for Iron Man, Batman, Captain America, or Thor. 

But let me backtrack. The Three are not superheroes.  They don’t have magical powers, and they don’t have super suits and special weapons.  There is, however, a very specific reason for their victory.

That reason is in a phrase that is repeated in 2 Samuel 23, verses 8–12.  It is such an important phrase, the author repeats it, meaning that the author does not want his readers to miss this phrase.  See the repeated phrase? 

We’ll talk about it in the next post.

Photo by César Hernández on Unsplash

Introducing ancient superheroes of the Bible – 2 Samuel 23:8–39, Preview

This week I’m celebrating the publication of my book.  While there is no doubt that the process of writing is often a solo endeavor, the reality is that a book cannot come to fruition without a lot of people supporting, encouraging and advising the writer.  That team approach is certainly true of my book, which is especially fitting because the topic of my book is togetherness. Over on my Substack, I’ve been introducing people here and here that had a huge influence on my book.

Here on the blog, however, as we jump back into the Life of David sermon series this coming week, we’re going to meet some extraordinary individuals who seem to achieve massive success alone.  They are called David’s Mighty Men.  The Mighty Men were like super-soldiers in David’s military.  

The first Mighty Men we will meet have the distinction of being called “The Three.”  Sounds like the name of a superhero group, doesn’t it?  Appropriately, The Three have fighting abilities that are the stuff of our modern superheroes.  One of The Three is called The Chief who, we learn, “raised his spear against eight hundred men, whom he killed in one encounter.” How is that possible?

Then we will meet the Commander of the The Three.  The Commander is equally as impressive as The Three. His exploits are legendary. The Commander, we read, “raised his spear against three hundred men, whom he killed.” 300 is not 800, but still?

Next we will meet the Captain of David’s bodyguard who is “held in greater honor” than another subgroup of the Mighty Men called The Thirty.  (So there is The Three and The Thirty.  While The Three and their Commander are the most impressive soldiers, the rest of the Mighty Men are called The Thirty.)  We learn that the Captain of the Guard has amazing solo victories that place him in higher regard than any of The Thirty.  

All of David’s Men are powerful soldiers, and while it seems they are acting alone, there is more to the story of their success. What we will learn is that something special was happening among these warriors.  That something special is perfect to consider at the beginning of a new year.  I invite you to read about the Mighty Men ahead of time in 2 Samuel 23, verses 8–39, and then join us on the blog next week as we’ll not only study the Mighty Men, but see how that something special is available to all of us.  

Photo by Simone Eufemi on Unsplash

How to love like Jesus – Advent Love, Part 4

Love like Jesus. Is it even possible? His best friend John thinks so. This week we have been studying 1 John 4, and in this final post in the series, John sums up his teaching, giving us some practical illustrations about how to love like Jesus. Here’s what he writes in verse 17,

“God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus.”

John is saying, “Because God is love, when God lives in us, we are like Jesus to the world around us.  Our loving action is the primary way that others will see God.” These are the principles John has been writing about throughout the chapter, as we’ve seen here and here. 

Then, as if he has a new thought, maybe one he forgot, he adds in verse 18,

“There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.”

What a stark contrast between love and fear.  Our world is filled with fear.  Fear motivates. But we Christians view life through a lens of love, not fear.  Because God is love, and because he lives in us, we need not fear.  Instead, we can live confidently, hopefully, and thus sacrificially loving.  That’s precisely how Jesus lived.  He became one of us because we needed him.  That is some sacrificial love.  Likewise we can sacrificially give our lives in love to those who need us. 

What does “sacrificial” mean?  It means we make changes, and often sacrificial love means we give something up for our beloved.  We sacrifice for them because we love them.  Astoundingly, though “sacrifice” sounds awful and harsh, our actions of sacrificial love bring joy, to the people we sacrifice for and to us.

Finally John concludes with a clear application of how to love sacrificially in verses 19–21,

“We love because he first loved us. Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.”

Who are you having a hard time loving?  What can you do to love them?  What sacrifice can you make to show love?

Love does not mean we need to be close friends with every person.  There are many levels of relationships that are still loving.  Best friends, close friends, casual friends, acquaintances.  You can be loving to people in all those levels, and of course your action of love will likely look differently depending on the level of friendship.

In verses 19–21, when John refers to brothers and sisters, likely he has in mind the church family.  A man in my church is in a rehab facility, and when I visited him recently, he and his wife mentioned the numerous people from our church family who had visited them. The wife remarked that our church is such a loving family. 

The love that God wants us to have toward others also applies to our own family.  Sometimes family is the most difficult to love.  Here we are at another holiday season, and that means family gatherings.  My family had three so far.  Your family probably has some family Christmas and New Years gatherings too.  Maybe there is someone in your family who is difficult to love.  What will it look like for you to share God’s love with them?

Remember, John was handing over leadership to the next generation.  He wanted the next leaders to live as Jesus lived, a life of sacrificial love.  When we are connecting with God, in relationship with Father, Son and Spirit, accepting his love, we can sacrificially give this love away to others, and they will see God in us. 

What a gift Jesus gave us.  Humbly, sacrificially showing us how to love.  What an act of love!

Photo by Shaira Dela Peña on Unsplash

How Christmas is all about love – Advent Love, Part 3

In the first post in this series, I asked you to consider the first five words that came to mind when you heard the word “Christmas”. In that post, I linked to some online articles that suggest the words most associated with Christmas. Those articles listed hundreds of words, but not the one word I believe is the most important Christmas word. We’ve been studying 1 John 4 this week, and in verse 8, John writes, “God is love.” There it is. The most important Christmas word. Love.

In the previous post, I mentioned that love is an active power that emanates from God.  In 1 John 4:8, we learn there is more to God’s love than that. Now John tells us that love is what God is.  Love is who God is.  Of course God has all sorts of other characteristics like justice, mercy, grace, holiness, and so on.  John is saying that love is more than simply a quality that describes God.  Those other characteristics modify what is central about God, his love. 

God is merciful love.  He is gracious love.  He is holy love.  You can attach any characteristic as an adjectives to the central core, which is love.  God is all those characteristics, but only insofar as they describe his love. 

When John writes, “God is love,” John is not viewing the love of God as just an idea.  God’s love is not just an attitude or posture that God has toward the world. John says God proves that he is love by his actions. 

Notice how John continues in verses 9–10, “This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”

What John is referring to started with the Christmas story.  In the Christmas story we see the love of God clearly in view when Jesus, who is God the Son, became one of us, to save us, because God loves us.  John himself wrote about this in his Gospel, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (Jn 1:14)

The Word became flesh.  That’s a strange sentence.  What does John mean?  The Word, John reveals, is Jesus.  Jesus is God who took on flesh. God became human.  God was born as a human baby, just like we all were once born.  Why?  Love.

Think about what Jesus sacrificed so that we could experience God’s love.  Imagine what Jesus gave up, the perfection of heaven he left behind, for the purpose of connection with us, for relationship, to rescue us.  That’s love.

God who is love, became one of us so that we might encounter his love in a very real way.  John points out in verses 9 and 10 that God’s desire was that might live through him.  There is a difference between living through him and living apart from him.  When we live apart from God, we are disconnected from him, and the word that John concludes verse 10 with becomes a huge factor.  Sin.

Sin is when we do, think or say what is not in agreement with God and his love.  When we live apart from God, our sin is not dealt with.  When we live apart from God, our sin is still a factor in our lives.  Another way to put it is to say that apart from God, we are living in sin.  That doesn’t mean that people living in sin are totally awful, horrible people.  Living in sin means that their sin is not dealt with.  They have not confessed their sin, they have not repented of their sin.  That word repent is important.  Repent is the picture of a 180 turn away from sin and toward God.  Repentance is when we actively make a change to restore the brokenness in our lives, whether between God or others.

When we repent, we turn away from wrong habits, selfish patterns of thinking, greed, or whatever the sin is for us, and we turn toward the love of God.  Jesus is the one that makes that turn possible.  In verse 10, John mentions Jesus’ atoning sacrifice for our sins. John is referring to Jesus’ birth, his perfect life, his death and resurrection.  Jesus gave his life for us so that God who is love could be in our lives and so his love could flow through us.  That is what John means when he says that “God showed is love among us, he sent his one and only son in the to the world that we might live through him.”

The Apostle Paul put it this way: “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Ro 5:6–8)

That is the wonderful message of how God in his love defeated sin, death, and the devil. That victory started when Jesus was born as a human baby.  That baby would grow up and give his life, the ultimate gift of love, for us.  Jesus himself taught, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (Jn 15:13)

Love is what Christmas is about.  When you see the lights of Christmas decorations, see God’s love in Jesus.  When you see the Christmas dinner table filled with food, see God’s love in Jesus.  And especially when you see the gifts given and gifts received, see God’s love in Jesus in every single one. 

And when you think about the gift of love that God has given the whole world, when you think about the gift of love that God has given you, what should you do?

Here’s what John says in 1 John 4:11–12,

“Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.”

John learned this from Jesus. Hours before Jesus was arrested and crucified, Jesus said to his disciples: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (Jn 13:34–35)

God is love, and when his love enters our lives, we receive his love and we seek to share his love with others.  As John writes in 1 John 4:7, when we see love flowing from our lives, this love is evidence that we have truly been born of God, that God is with us and in us, and evidence that we truly know him.  That is what John means in verse 9 when he writes that people can live through Jesus.  We are alive with his love and his love is working its way out through our thoughts, our body language, our mouths, our tone of voice, our hands and our feet. 

As John says, “God lives in us.”  When we love one we are showing that God is alive and well.  When we love one another there is a new incarnation taking place.  “Incarnation” is from the Greek, “en carne,” which is where we get our word “carnivore,” a meat-eater.  “Carne” is translated by our English words “meat,” “flesh,” and “body.”  In John 1:14, John writes, “The Word became flesh,” which is his way of saying that Jesus took on a body. Jesus was “en carne,” God in human flesh, and that’s why Christmas describes the Incarnation, the enfleshment of God. 

John describes this more precisely in the next few verses,

“This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.” (1 Jn 4:13–16.)

That is some radical, world-changing teaching.  God, who is love, wants to live in people, so that what flows out of those people is love to other people. In other words, when people see you loving them, they are seeing God in your flesh.  You are not God.  God is not you.  But God is in you, and when you love others, those people get to see God alive and well. 

When we love, we make God visible to the world.  When we are living in right relationship with God and we are receiving his love, his love will flow out of us and others will see it.

What do others see when they observe your speech, your body language, your actions? Do they see love? Do they see God in you?

In the next and final post, we’ll look at what John says about how to show the love of God to others.

Photo by Brigitte Tohm on Unsplash

Three tests to determine if teaching is true or false – Advent Love, Part 2

In the adjunct courses I teach, I require students to use quality sources to support their essays. But what is a quality source? I use words like “academic,” “peer-reviewed,” and “scholarly” to describe quality sources. I do not allow them to use blogs, church sermons, or devotional commentaries. If they are uncertain, I encourage them to ask me about a source.

This concern to evaluate teaching is applicable beyond our internet era. Since day one of the church, there have always been people who are unfaithful teachers. But how do you know if a pastor, preacher or podcaster is faithful or not? In this post, I share three tests you can use.

This week we are studying 1 John 4:7–21. In verses 1–6, John talks about false teachers. John wants to make sure people stay true to Jesus’ teaching, but there were teachers who had other ideas.  Those other teachers were trying to deceive the Christians away from the teaching of Jesus.  The presence of false teachers has been a reality in every era.  There is false teaching in our era.  John wants all Christians to have the tools to identify false teaching.

In 1 John 4:1–6, John provides two tests which can help us evaluate the content of any teaching to determine if it is true or false teaching:

First, the Christ test. Look at verses 2–3.  John asks: “Do the teachers acknowledge that Jesus came in the flesh and is from God?”  Some might say Jesus came in the flesh.  Some might say he came from God.  Authentic Christian teachers affirm that Jesus is both 100% human and 100% God.  That is the Christ test. 

Second, the Apostle test.  Look at verse 6.  John says, “Whoever knows God listens to us.”  In other words, does the teacher affirm apostolic teaching, the doctrine of the New Testament?  Are they teaching in line with genuine Christian teaching?  That is the Apostle test.

Those are the two tests in 1 John 4, verses 1–6.  With those two tests, John teaches the Christians living near the end of the first century how they can distinguish between true and false teaching.  As we continue studying our passage for this week, 1 John 4:7–21, John proposes a third test in verse 7, “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God.”  This is John’s foundational principle for Christian relationships: We love one another, because love emanates from God. 

John envisions love as not just an idea or an opinion; John envisions love as an action that flows from God to us and then through us to other people.  God is the source of love.  It is almost as if John sees love as an active power than is work in the life of the God, such that when God is in us, his love flows out from us to others.  This presence of love is absolutely essential for John.

The presence of love is the third test.  In addition to the Christ test and the Apostle test, now John gives us the Love test.  Do you see love emanating from the life of the teacher?  If not, then they might be a false teacher.  In other words, actions speak louder than words.  What is the person’s personal life like?  Are they loving?  That is the Love test. 

A teacher who impacted me greatly was Ravi Zacharias, a powerful preacher of the Christian faith. Unbeknownst to most everyone, though, Zacharias lived in an unloving, abusive secret life. He passed the Christ test and the Apostle test, but not the Love test.

John has a lot more to say about the Love test.  In rest of the verse 7 and 8, notice the contrast, “Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God,”

If someone says they are a Christian, but they do not carry themselves in a loving way, there is a problem.  So observe a person. Is love emanating from their lives?  Do they love others?  When you observe the actions of the person, are they clearly a loving person?

The Love Test suggests that a person can have all the right doctrine, but if they do not love, that doctrine, that knowledge is worthless. This reminds me of what Paul said in the famous love chapter of the Bible, 1 Corinthians 13:1–3,

“If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.”

A person can look really good outwardly, but if they do not have active outward love, it is all for naught.  Why?  Those people are still doing some amazing ministry, right? Isn’t that loving?  Doesn’t their extreme generosity to the poor count for something? Yes, I’m sure those who receive the donations will be happy.  But Paul’s point, and John’s point is that there is something deeper.  We’ll learn about that something deeper in the next post.

Photo by Phil Hearing on Unsplash

Handing leadership over to the next generation can be emotional – Advent Love, Part 1

John is getting old.  He sees the end of his life coming, and it’s close.  He’s lived a long time, and all his old friends have passed away.  There is actually no one left from the original group except him.  Some of them, including his brother, passed away long before.  Gradually, one by one, they all died.  Now John is faced with being the last living founding member.  John knows he must pass leadership to the next generation. 

Have you ever had to hand the reins over?  I had to do so a year ago.  I was the volunteer director of my denomination’s non-accredited program to train pastors who are not going to seminary.  If you are wondering why pastors would not go to seminary, let me explain.

Frankly, I wish pastors would go to seminary, and if you are a pastor or considering ministry, I encourage you to take a look at Kairos University. Their approach to education is accessible and affordable, and they are breaking down barriers. But there are numerous legitimate reasons why a person might not want to go the accredited route.  Maybe they are older, and don’t want to invest thousands of dollars and many years getting a Master of Divinity.  Maybe their life situation makes seminary difficult. For example, some of pastors must work full-time non-ministry jobs and at the same serve as part-time pastors because of the size of their churches.  That kind of bi-vocational ministry makes it very difficult to add seminary studies, which can be intensive.  It took me eight years to get my masters degree, when I was a full-time pastor and the church allowed me time to go to school.  If I had a full-time job, and a part-time pastoral job, I would have really struggled to have the time and energy to get through seminary. 

So my denomination has an option that is more feasible for some pastors.  Our non-accredited training program is shorter (only twelve classes), inexpensive, and not as intensive academically.  For three years I ran the program, and I was excited about where it was headed. A group of other leaders and I began laying groundwork to implement creative ideas to expand the program. 

But here was a change in bishops, and in my denomination, the bishop has the prerogative to select new leaders for numerous leadership roles in the denomination.  As a result, about a year ago I handed leadership of the program to someone else.  I gave him all my files, and I invited him to meet and talk.  He said thank you, and that was it.  No meeting.  No conversation.  

The thought crossed my mind, “My colleagues and I just put a lot of work into revamping the program.  Will it be lost? What if the new leadership throws my work in the trash and takes the program in a different direction?”  They could choose to change things. That’s leadership transition for you.  Happens all the time. New leadership takes an organization in a new direction, making changes they feel best.

Remember John, who I mentioned above? John is wondering about his organization. The founding members of his organization did what founding members do. They laid a foundation. As John passes leadership to the next generation, will the foundation he helped lay be discarded? 

You know the John I’m referring to?  John the Apostle.  Jesus’ close friend.  60-65 years earlier, Jesus had started a new movement that we now call Christianity.  After his death and resurrection, Jesus handed responsibility of the new mission to his apostles, and those apostles, empowered by the Holy Spirit, launched the movement we call the church.

John was the last guy alive who had walked with Jesus, who had learned directly from Jesus.  Now John is staring into the soon-coming future wondering if the Christians who never knew Jesus will stay faithful to the foundation Jesus and the apostles laid.  Given that John believes Jesus is the way, the truth and life, and that no one comes to the father except through Jesus (John 14:6), John is very passionate about making sure that the Christians who take over leadership from him will stay faithful to the truth. 

So John gets to work writing down the truth.  Many others had already written stories about Jesus’ life, and those others had written letters filled with good teaching to churches.  People like Matthew, Mark, Luke, Paul, and Peter have written to help the next generation of church leaders stay faithful.  But John wants to add his two cents.  So he writes and he writes. He writes the Gospel of John.  He writes three letters (1, 2, and 3 John).  He writes the Revelation.  All of these books are clearly intended to help people see that Jesus is who he said he was, and therefore the up-and-coming Christians can be faithful to him, even though times were tough. 

That is what is going through John’s heart and mind, and thus what flows out of his pen.  What John has to say is all about the most important Christmas word, which I asked you to guess in the previous post.  In the next post, we begin learning how he makes his case to this new generation of the church to remain faithful, and his focus is on that Christmas word.

Photo by Riccardo Annandale on Unsplash

What is the most important Christmas word? – Advent (word), Preview

Grab a piece of paper and pen, or open the notes app on your phone.  Write down the first five words that come to mind when you think of Christmas.  Then come back to this post and keep reading. Go for it!  Maybe even ask the people around you for their five. 

Now you’re back…what five words did you write?  What were the first five words that came to your friends and family’s mind?  If I had to guess, I suspect the most famous Christmas words are in two categories.

First, the religious words: Baby Jesus, Angels, Shepherds, Star, Manger, Nativity, Mary & Joseph, Wise Men, and Bethlehem.

Second the nonreligious words: Santa, reindeer, elves, Christmas tree, presents, cookies, mistletoe.  

Did I cover most of your words?   I doubt it.  There are so many holiday words.  I searched online for articles about the famous holiday words, and my list of words is tiny by comparison.  There are articles suggesting the Top 50 Christmas words, or even the Top 200, or this one that has words starting with every letter of the alphabet.  Skim through those articles, and see if they covered all of your words. 

But there is one word missing from those lists.  I wonder if your lists included this word.  I believe a case can be made that the word I’m thinking of is the most important Christmas word.  If you have been following my Advent blog series, you might already know what that vital word is.  Why? Because my Advent blog series is about the four words of Advent.  So far we’ve studied Advent Hope, Advent Peace, and Advent Joy.  Do you happen to know the fourth word of Advent? I think it is the most important.

Join me back here on the blog this coming Monday to find out. For a clue, read 1 John 4:7–21.  Actually, that passage is more than a clue.  I think you’ll find 1 John 4:7–21 declares the fourth Advent word as if it were on a flashing hi-def billboard. 

Photo by Mel Poole on Unsplash

Evaluating YOLO, FOMO, and Bucket Lists – Advent Joy, Part 5

You know the acronyms YOLO and FOMO?  “You only live once,” and “fear of missing out.”  Those phrases describe a passion to have amazing experiences. As we have been studying the Apostle Paul’s perspective on his incarceration in Philippians 1, it almost sounds like he is using a version of YOLO or FOMO. But is he?

In verses 22–23, Paul remarks that in his near future he will learn if he lives or dies. He is on house arrest awaiting a plea hearing before the Roman Caesar who could acquit him or give him the death penalty. No surprise that Paul is wrestling with these options.

I appreciate Paul’s honesty as he debates life and death.  He writes that it would be absolutely amazing to actually be with Jesus.  To be done with the struggles of this life.  To reach the goal.  But even still, he says that if he lives, he knows that in this life he will have fruitful labor for the mission of Christ.

Do you see what this mean? It’s not about what’s in it for Paul.  Sure, departing and being Christ would be better, for him.  But not necessarily for the Philippian church.  For Paul, the focus is not on himself and what is best for him.  The focus is outward.  If he dies, the focus is Christ because he will be with Christ.  If he lives, the focus is still on Christ, because he will be able to help more people know Jesus.

Paul’s focus on Jesus, whether he lives or dies, is what got me thinking about YOLO and FOMO. We humans can believe that we will be fulfilled in life when we have lots of amazing experiences or purchases.  Some people plan their lives based on YOLO and FOMO.  They create a Bucket List, goals they want to accomplish throughout their life. Over the course of the years, they set out to do them.  Could be traveling to various parts of the world.  Could be to perform some kind of physical feat.  Run a marathon, for example.  Could be to have a certain experience.  Like view the rings of Saturn through a really powerful telescope.  Could be to read a classic like Crime & Punishment. 

As I compare YOLO/FOMO philosophy with what Paul writes in Philippians 1, they don’t seem to line up.  You might say that Paul has one item on bucket list: Christ. 

I recently read Charles Marsh’s excellent biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Strange Glory.  Bonhoeffer was a German pastor who lived in Nazi Germany.  Three weeks after Hitler came to power, Bonhoeffer was on the radio and writing public statements boldly opposing Hitler and Nazi philosophy.  Bonhoeffer watched in horror through the ensuing years as the German church caved and sold itself out to the Nazis.  Bonhoeffer was part of the confessing church that remained faithful to Jesus.  He even started a seminary to train pastors for the confessing church in the midst of Nazi Germany.  Eventually, he got thrown in prison, and right near the end of the war he was hanged in a concentration camp.

During Bonhoeffer’s incarceration, in his Letters from Prison he wrote:

“We used to think one of the inalienable rights of man was that he should be able to plan both his professional and his private life.  That is a thing of the past.  The force of circumstances has brought us into a situation where we have to give up being anxious about tomorrow.  But it makes all the difference whether we accept this willingly and in faith or under continual constraint . . .there remains for us only a very narrow way, often extremely difficult to find, of living every day as if it were our last, and yet living in faith as if there will be a great future.”

Bonhoeffer sounds like Paul. It’s clearly not about him. It’s about Christ. As Paul writes in verse 21, “For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain.”

Paul is so clear.  If he goes on living, his life is all about Christ!   If he dies, then fine, it’s gain because he gets to be with Christ!  Paul had a singular focus in his life.  It was Christ.  Paul is saying, “How can I live for Christ?  How can I die for Christ?  All I want is Christ.”

When Christ is your focus, the chains that bind you just don’t seem so strong.

It was almost as if for Paul, the chains didn’t even matter.  He didn’t need to focus on the pain of the chains.  He didn’t need to focus on the possible outcome of death when he stood trial before Caesar.  His focus was on Christ.  Christ was his all in all, and he could rejoice, though he was in chains.

Because his focus was on Christ, if he lived, it meant fruitful labor for him which would lead to the Philippian church grow stronger.  That, too, made him rejoice!

Because his focus was on Christ, if he died, he would be with Christ!

Evaluate your focus on Jesus.  Are you allowing anything to get in the way?  Do you have an unhealthy focus on your chains?

“For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”  Can you hear Paul rejoicing in those words!

Will you say these words throughout the week, as an act of intentional joy?

When you repeatedly direct your focus on Christ like Paul did, no matter what the chains are that you’re struggling with, you’ll notice that because you have Christ, the chains lose their power over you.

In this week three of Advent, we have been focusing on the joy that Jesus brings.  As the angels declared at this birth, “Joy to the world, Christ is born!”  Jesus the Christ has made it possible for us to have joy no matter our circumstances. 

Photo by Emmanuel Hernandez on Unsplash