THE TWELFTH DAY OF APRIL IN THE YEAR OF GRACE TWO THOUSAND AND FIFTEEN Today we are accustomed to hearing the gospel presented as if it were addressed to one person at a time, assuring him or her of Gods provision for sin through Jesus death and resurrection, and urging that person to make a decision for Christ, to profess faith in him, to be baptized and begin to live as a disciple of Jesus Christ. The payoff or reward for this will be to escape the punishment that awaits the unredeemed, and to enjoy eternal life with God and with his people forever. It is not that those details … [Read more...]
HE IS RISEN INDEED!
THE FIFTH DAY OF APRIL IN THE YEAR OF GRACE TWO THOUSAND AND FIFTEEN The acknowledgement came slowly and with much hesitation, but the sequestered disciples finally said it: The Lord is risen." Indeed (Lk. 24:34). This from Jesus hardcore survivors. Roughly ten dozen of them--if anyone is counting. Unlike other rabbinic clusters, this one includes women right alongside the men. To Jesus they all are the same, but most males in the company will die before they share his thinking on this point. So here they are this Sunday morning, 120 men and women waiting together for God knows … [Read more...]
THIS IS HOW GOD LOVED (2 of 2)
THE TWENTY-NINTH DAY OF MARCH IN THE YEAR OF GRACE TWO THOUSAND AND FIFTEEN Click here for Part 1 We are thinking about three sentences in a context, of which John 3:16 is the second, central, and climactic sentence. The statement that God "so loved" does not describe the intensity or extent of his love (as if it said "s-o-o-o loved") but rather tells "how" God loved--it is the same "so" we saw in the first sentence and, like that one, it points to the text immediately before it. How did God love the world? The answer is found in an old story about poisonous snakes. "As Moses … [Read more...]
THIS IS HOW GOD LOVED (1 of 2)
THE TWENTY-SECOND DAY OF MARCH IN THE YEAR OF GRACE TWO THOUSAND AND FIFTEEN We are familiar with Jesus' comforting words in John 3:16 about God's love and the believer's eternal life. But, as my preacher Jeff Christian noted recently, we often read or quote verse 16 in total isolation, are surprised to discover that the verse has a context, and are shocked to realize what that context says. In fact, John 3:16 is the climactic center and high point of four supposed-to-be-inseparable verses (John 3:14- 17) that include the two sentences Jesus spoke immediately before and after it. … [Read more...]
Jesus’ personal prize and inheritance
DAY TWENTY-TWO OF FEBRUARY, YEAR OF GRACE TWENTY FIFTEEN A gracEmail subscriber writes: "The author of Hebrews says that Jesus "for the joy that was set before him endured the cross" (Heb. 12:2). What is that joy? Paul prayed for his converts to know "the riches of [God's] glorious inheritance in the saints" (Eph. 1:18). Is this saying what it sounds like? Are the saved themselves somehow a part of Christ's own reward? * * * God has named Jesus "heir of all things" and that includes every human being he rescues from destruction (Heb. 1:2). They all will be presented to him as a gift and … [Read more...]
A MESSAGE SIGNED WITH BLOOD
THE TWENTIETH DAY OF FEBRUARY IN THE YEAR OF GRACE TWO THOUSAND AND FIFTEEN Last Sunday, the jihadist group calling itself ISIS (The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria) martyred 21 young Egyptian Christians working in Libya, one of Egypt's four next-door neighbor states. Ramez Atallah, a leader in gospel outreach worldwide, is general director of the Bible Society of Egypt. Within days of the executions, Atallah published an article in the Society's Newsletter titled "A MESSAGE SIGNED WITH BLOOD," which he addressed to fellow-Christians everywhere as "THE NATION OF THE CROSS." In the … [Read more...]
inspired scripture
A gracEmail subscriber writes: "I was wondering what you would say to the average person who was questioning how to believe in the innate infallibility of our biblical canon." * * * It seems to me both misguided and profitless to obsess about the precise canon of Scripture, or to become engrossed in hair-splitting definitions of infallibility, inerrancy and other such terms, especially if one limits the applicability of these words to the original autographs. The church was not built on a doctrine about either the canon or infallibility, but on the apostolic testimony about Jesus of … [Read more...]
Obedience and trust as fruit and root
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...]