When I was a child, we often sang a hymn that admonished us to "trust and obey," assuring us that "there's no other way to be happy in Jesus." The two verbs go together: we obey because we trust, and because we trust we obey. Trust and obedience are well-suited companions, but more. Related, but more. They live in symbiotic relationship, each nourishing and being nourished by the other, each simultaneously drawing life from and contributing life to the other. Trust initiates obedience, activates and motivates it. Obedience expresses, affirms, and confirms trust. Neither is found in its … [Read more...]
God, the gospel, and the nations’ obedience
When God chose Israel as his special people and covenant partner, it was his intention through them ultimately to bless the world. "By your descendants," God promised Abraham, "shall all the nations of the earth be blessed" (Gen. 22:18). God blessed Israel so that, through Israel, all nations would be blessed. The chosen people prayed: "May God . . . bless us, that thy . . . [saving power] may be known . . . among all nations" (Psalm 67:1-2). Israelites who rightly understood their role as God's chosen people gladly invited other human beings everywhere to worship Israel's God, saying: "Praise … [Read more...]
GOD’S SECRET REVEALED
Long before humans existed, God already knew that they would reject him and fall into sin and death, and he graciously planned in exquisite detail how he would rescue them and bring them back to himself. God imagined these details for his own joy and pleasure in contemplation, but he told no one his imaginations in great detail. When the time was right and God actually pulled off this Rescue, it would bowl everyone over in amazement, but that was far in the distant future. For now, God had a secret that would be his alone. Even then, the universe was filled with millions of spirit beings that … [Read more...]
Walking through a strange land home
Do you ever feel a longing for home, but a home not of this world? If so, there is a very good reason, and First Peter just might be what you need to see you through this day. Written originally to Christians in five Roman provinces, it is clearly a legacy for the church at large, consisting of individuals Peter describes as God's chosen ones but strangers in this world. That double (and paradoxical) identity will follow us through the whole epistle. This world is not our home, as anyone who takes seriously God's calling and assignment quickly learns. What is this mission to which we are … [Read more...]
Ask God about Jesus-man in Kenya and you
ASK GOD ABOUT JESUS-MAN IN KENYA AND YOU I do not normally use gracEmail for this purpose (to do so could quickly consume every issue), but I come today urging you to consider a special need in Africa and to ask God if you are to be a part of the solution. George Odhiambo is a Jesus-man in Kenya in East Africa, with whom Sara Faye and I have had contact for several years. He and his wife Lilian have three children (full disclosure: one of whom is named "Edward Fudge Odhiambo") but like many of their fellow-Christians there, they also support his father, other relatives and some village … [Read more...]
what our people must learn
"You will know them by their fruits," Jesus said when warning his disciples about false teachers (Matt. 7:15-20). Teaching and living go together. Say something often enough, or just hear it said, and you will soon be living as if the thing being said is true. Which brings us to Titus. Paul stationed Titus in Crete to amend what he found defective and to ordain elders in every town. The Cretan churches faced two primary issues: the presence of some subversive teaching (Titus 1:9-16), and ongoing problems involving Christian morality. "The grace of God, the goodness and loving kindness of … [Read more...]
GOD HAS SPOKEN TO US
What a sense of awe and wonder Moses must have felt, there in the silence of the wilderness, when God spoke to him from the burning bush! Can we even imagine the awful terror with which the Israelites waited to hear God speak from Mount Sinai--the mountain quaking, its form hidden by smoke, the air charged with lightning on a day as black as night? What awesome joy surged through Peter, James, and John on the mount of the Transfiguration as God spoke from heaven and Jesus shone with the brilliance of his divine glory. Do we wish we could have been there when these encounters took place, or are … [Read more...]
SCRIPTURE AT ITS BEST: SATURATION
A gracEmail subscriber writes: "I want to grow in my relationship with God, but I'm now struggling with where the Bible fits into the equation. How do I approach scripture to apply it to my faith journey?" * * * The best place for learning how to approach scripture is Scripture itself. The 39 books that we call the "Old Testament" were regarded as sacred writings by the Jews before there were any Christians, and also from the first by Christians, who then were all Jews, and who eventually added 27 more books of their own that we call the "New Testament." If we can identify how New … [Read more...]
RULES FOR RICH FOLKS
As we approach this Christmas season--indeed, as we live any day in any year--are there guidelines, principles, or maxims from God to direct our shopping and to guide our giving? Indeed there are, including a healthful cluster of instructions found in 1 Timothy 6:17-19. We might have overlooked them, because they are directed to "those who are rich" and we assumed that meant someone else. However, we need to know that the rich person in Timothy's world, and in most of the world ever since, is any person who is wearing clothes and who owns other clothes they are not wearing. It is … [Read more...]
TURKEYS, THANKS, AND TYPHOONS
As we celebrate Thanksgiving Day in the United States this year, the holiday is a good time to remember that thanks and giving properly go together. For God's gracious gifts to us, we give thanks. The expression "say grace" means giving thanks. Because we are thankful, we give to others in need. The circle is completed when those to whom we give, themselves give thanks to God. This year we enjoy our Thanksgiving against a world background that includes horrific destruction in the Philippines, resulting in incalculable human suffering and loss. I invite you to join me in asking God … [Read more...]