We welcomed recent days of steady rain in these west Houston suburbs. Now I welcome this break in the rain for a neighborhood hike. Scattered rain-clouds, flung in a wide sweep across the sky, hide the evening sun on this Texas Gulf Coast. Developers planted our Katy prairie land with trees two and three decades ago, and they now form a trekker's pleasant canopy overhead. Around and below me, the gentle wind rustles through the grass and flowers and trees. Overhead it moves the clouds across the half-darkened sky. I think of Jesus' comparison of God's Spirit to the wind. Both are invisible … [Read more...]
ENCOUNTERING GOD IN THE CATHEDRAL
I can scarcely imagine a cathedral more magnificent, or one more conducive to fellowship with the Maker of heaven and earth. Fiery-red sumacs form a natural vestibule into this holy place. Their branches, thick and low-lying, rightly compel a pilgrim to bow when entering. Inside, white-barked birches and crimson-leafed maples spire upward, directing the mortal gaze heavenward in thanksgiving and adoration. A gentle wind rustles the leaves overhead. The first October frost has come, like some secret Michelangelo to his Sistine Chapel, bequeathing a ceiling which dazzles with a living palette … [Read more...]
ARCHWAY INTO GOD’S FUTURE
A diffused glow spreads across the sky, as if someone is shining a light beyond the horizon and just below it. "Diffused," I say, because this glow is neither direct nor clear. Not a typical sunrise, to be sure. Fog, perhaps, or haze. I am not wearing a watch on this early morning walk, but I judge the time to be about 6:45 a.m. I try to listen to God on these walks, although my brain often has difficulty staying focused. Thoughts flash in rapid succession, thoughts holy and profane, significant and worthless. There must be three persons vying for attention, I think -- God, Satan and … [Read more...]
ORIGIN OF RACES
A gracEmail reader in Ohio asks whether the Bible explains the origins of racial and color differences among humankind. * * * People in all nations share an original ancestor -- we all are from one blood (Acts 17:26). Because God created us, we are his "offspring" by nature, made for fellowship with him -- and with each other. Because sin has radically altered and distorted the human condition, reconciliation and ultimate fellowship are enjoyed only by divine grace, as we become children of God through faith in Christ Jesus (Eph. 2:13-16; Gal. 3:26-29). The author of … [Read more...]
MORE BATTLEFIELD REFLECTIONS
After reading my recent reflections concerning the Battle of Franklin and the Civil War, an African-American brother in Georgia responded with some pertinent observations of his own. I found his comments insightful and provocative, so I share them with you today. My original remarks are quoted first, followed by his responses in italics. I have added two further comments in brackets. * * * "No visible signs remain that this yard . . . once witnessed a carnage so terrible that battle-hardened soldiers were sickened by the slaughter. . . . The only remaining evidence of war lies beneath … [Read more...]
REFLECTIONS FROM A BATTLEFIELD
The battle began about 4:00 p.m. on November 30, 1864, and it raged for five hellish hours. Some 20,000 Confederate troops, commanded by the egotistical and miscalculating Gen. John Bell Hood, launched a suicidal, frontal assault along a two-mile front, across 400 yards of open fields. Their target -- the considerably smaller but well-entrenched and heavily-armed Union Army that earlier had captured the picturesque village of Franklin, Tennessee, a dozen miles south of Nashville. When the sun rose the next morning, more than 6,200 Southern soldiers and nearly 2,500 Union men lay dead on those … [Read more...]
KILLING IN WAR
A gracEmail subscriber who is a U.S. military officer asks how he should view killing in war. "I have an allegiance to Christ and to my country," he writes, "with the latter subordinate to the former. Can you provide any guidance?" * * * The Old Testament distinguishes between criminal homicide (murder, punishable by death), accidental homicide (for which asylum was provided in the Cities of Refuge), and justifiable homicide (self-defense and holy war). The New Testament forbids murder and makes no provision for "holy war" by the church, which is a spiritual rather than … [Read more...]
ISRAEL AND PROPHECY
A gracEmail subscriber asks if the return of Jews since 1948 to the modern state of Israel is a fulfillment of biblical prophecy and a sign of Jesus' soon return. * * * The Old Testament prophets repeatedly anticipate a time when God will gather Jews who have been scattered around the world back to their ancestral homeland (Isa.11:10-12; 52:1-10; Ezek. 36:22-24; 37:1-12; Zech. 10:6-12; 12:3,6). Many biblical scholars believe that these prophecies will be fulfilled literally. Other scholars note that the New Testament sometimes explains such literal-sounding promises in … [Read more...]
JUBILEE
A gracEmail subscriber who is reading through the Bible has come to Leviticus 25 and God's instructions for observing the Year of Jubilee. "Did Israel practice Jubilee?" he asks. "If so, for how long? I don't recall any mention of it in Judges, Samuel, Kings or Chronicles." * * *As you know from your reading, Jubilee was part of a group of ecological instructions that God gave to Israel long before "green" was fashionable (Lev. 25). Every seven years, the Israelites were to give the farm land a sabbath (rest) year by not planting any crops or working the soil. The year after the … [Read more...]
ISRAEL’S PROMISES AND OUR CROPS
A gracEmail subscriber writes: "God told the Jewish nation if they obeyed him, he would bless their fields and orchards. I believe as an individual Christian that I am a 'true Jew.' Does this mean that God will protect my garden and fruit trees from rabbits and deer if I do not put up a fence?" * * * We believers in Jesus from among the nations are spiritual descendants of Abraham, but we are not "true Jews," in my understanding of the Bible (Rom. 4:9-18). Jews are Jews -- although not all Jews are God's elect as evidenced by their lack of faith -- and Gentiles are Gentiles (Rom. 9:6-7; … [Read more...]