Tag: Scripture

Popularity Is Not Proof of Success

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(2 Timothy 3:14-4:5)

438. That’s how many followers I have on Instagram. 22 is the number of subscribers I have on this blog. 12 is how many average plays each episode of my podcast gets. With those kind of numbers, it’s probably no shock to you that at the beginning of this year I considered donating 100% of my salary to charity and simply living off the income I generate online. 

The reason you’re laughing right now is because you know how unimpressive those numbers are, so it’s quite laughable to think those numbers represent anything remotely resembling popularity. But it illustrates what we tend to accept as general truth today, which is, if something or someone is popular, that makes them a success. We live at a time when something going viral can lead to celebrity success or product or branding success seemingly overnight. What does that reinforce? Popularity proves that something is successful. If a lot of people like it and everyone has to have it, well, isn’t that success? If it leads to more exposure for the celebrity or generates skyrocketing revenue for shareholders, isn’t that success? 

In my previous sermon post, I mentioned that these two messages would serve as compliments to each other. They are both warnings against determining the success of the Word on the basis of its results. Previously, when we saw Jesus just about corralled off a cliff as a result of how unpopular his message was, the point was made that Rejection is Not Proof of Failure. That is, rejection – the deplorable behavior in response to Jesus’ preaching – did not and does not indicate that the Word is a failure or ineffective. The Word always works. The warning this time, though, may be an even more challenging truth for us to accept in our culture: we may have to be even more on guard against the other extreme of allowing popularity to serve as proof of the Word’s success.

If we’re going to focus on success this, it seems a worthwhile exercise for us to step back a moment and check our definition of success. Are you personally successful? What standard of measurement would you use to answer that question? Is it a matter of income – how much you make? What about how impressive sounding your job is? Does a trophy spouse or a large house equal success? Kids that excel academically or athletically? Is it who you know, rubbing elbows with the heavy hitters and name-dropping left and right? What standard or expectation needs to be met for you to consider yourself personally successful?

How would we answer the same question if we asked it of our churches? What standard of measurement would you use to answer that question? Sunday morning attendance? If so, by total number each Sunday or by percentage of members who worship weekly? Compared to other churches our size across the country or just in CA? Compared to ten years, twenty-five, or forty-five years ago? What did we average last year? 99. If popularity is gauged by numbers and numbers equal success, then we’re failing – quite miserably at that! In forty-five years the best we can do is 8 fewer people in church on average each week (the worship average forty-five years ago was 107)??? 

But if we only go back to COVID, our attendance since then has actually increased steadily each year… Or if we look at this or that or the other thing, well, eventually we’ll find something we can count as successful. Offering totals? Building projects? Awareness in the community? What standard or expectation needs to be met for you to consider our church successful? 

Realize something about our measurements of success: it’s natural for us to find them where we want to look when we’re the ones defining success. But that isn’t terribly helpful, is it? There must be some objective metric for success. Hmmm… I wonder where we could ever hope to find such an indicator of success. Call me crazy, but let’s try the Bible. 

As Paul wrote to Timothy, do you suppose he was providing guidance for Timothy on how to kill his church? Was Paul trying to sabotage Timothy’s ministry so that it would fail miserably? Of course not! Paul was giving advice and encouragement to help him succeed in ministry and life. 

Oh, and if you wish to analyze the numbers Paul highlights in his recipe for success, you’ll only come across one mention of numbers – and it isn’t positive. The only time Paul references numbers is the negative impact that large numbers of false teachers will have in fleecing people by telling them “what their itching ears want to hear” (4:3). 

So if Paul doesn’t point to numbers to encourage Timothy toward a successful ministry, what gets his attention? It may be best summarized in verse two: “Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction.” 

This encouragement is the essence of everything that Timothy should be busy with in his life and ministry, given the gravity of what preceded. Paul set a very serious tone by calling God as his witness! “In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge” (4:1). This verse builds up and crescendos in such a way that we’re hanging on Paul’s words. What is it? What is the charge? What is such a big deal to God? 

That we preach his Word.

Because that is what God uses to do his work. He has given us no other charge as his church and his people, and no other assurance that he works through any other means than his Word. There is no, “the Word and…” – just the Word! Paul was communicating to Timothy that preaching the Word was not just the most important thing on a list of many other responsibilities, but rather that it’s the only thing; there really is nothing else at all than preaching the Word! 

So if we want success, if we want to be and do what God is interested in us being and doing, then he must be the one accomplishing that in and through us. And he does it in only one way: through his Word. 

Earlier I wrote about defining success in your personal life and defining success as a church. But I fear such a distinction may be unhelpful, because it leads us to think of them as separate things: there is my church life over here and there is my personal life over there. 

But that’s a false distinction, because there isn’t one or the other, but simply the believer’s life. When we read the words of Paul to Timothy, Paul doesn’t make some artificial distinction between what happens on Sundays versus the rest of the week, or what happens at church versus everywhere else. 

No, everything Paul is writing to Timothy has to do with his whole life, and more specifically, the role of the Bible in it. He doesn’t refer to what Timothy does during his office hours in his study at church and then what he does later on when he’s at home. He simply points out how the Word is to work in his whole life, including his personal life. 

When we take a good hard look at the Word’s popularity in our own lives, an honest look will lead us to appreciate how off the mark this idea is that popularity is proof of success. If popularity is the criteria for success, how popular is the Word when compared to the time we give to other interests in our life? Does the Word look as popular as, say, sports, whether watching, playing, or shuttling kids around? How about your favorite streaming service? Reading? Hobbies? And that’s all outside of your job, which of course nobody brings home with them these days. How successful does the Word look if based on its popularity in our own homes? Thank goodness popularity is not proof of success, even in our own homes!

Nevertheless, just as Paul’s encouragement to Timothy with the Word was not just a church thing, but a whole life thing, that same encouragement holds for us, too. Do you realize that the work of the Word in the church is synonymous with the work of the Word in your whole life? In other words, the success of the church depends on the success of the Word in each of our lives. The church that is successful is the one made up of people letting the Word dwell in them richly all the time. 

The work of the church is your light shining in the workplace. The work of the church is Bible stories at bedtime with kids. The work of the church is husband and wife focusing together on Jesus in their marriage. The work of the church is the neighbor you point to Jesus when she’s struggling. The work of the church is you promoting the blessings of our elementary school to other families with little ones.

It’s helpful that Paul points out the ways we apply the Word and put it to work in our lives. We spend the time reading and studying it so that we can be prepared, so that we can correct, rebuke, and encourage one another. So that we can be trained in righteousness. So that we – and many others along with us! – can be wise for salvation, the most important thing of all! And flowing from that certainty of salvation, we apply the Word so that we can be equipped for every good work.

But these blessings aren’t only for your benefit; God intends the way he shapes you with his Word to be a blessing to others, too. After all, when Paul brings about the conclusion of the Word’s work, what is it? “So that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (v.17). And who do you suppose is blessed and served by good works? My neighbor. 

As we look around in the world today, do we see any need for our good works to make a difference? Absolutely! How can we rely on the world to carry out good works when the world has redefined what “good” is? Isaiah issued a warning regarding those who don’t know what good is. “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter” (Is. 5:20). 

The world doesn’t know what good is. We do. But if we aren’t allowing the Word to work in us to accomplish that good, then what right do we really have to sit back and whine about how bad everything in the world is? Change it! Do good! Let the Word work good in you for the good of the world! 

The same author of these verses to Timothy is the one who wrote to the believers in Rome, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:21). The Word will equip every servant of God thoroughly for every good work. Will you let it? 

When it comes to God’s work, popularity doesn’t indicate success. Neither do numbers. 

What determines success is the Word, when we put it to work. If you do – when you do – then you will know what success is. 

Rejection Is Not Proof of Failure

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(Luke 4:16-30)

There were 1.46 billion iPhone users as of last year. TikTok has over one billion users. Netflix has 300 million subscribers. An estimated 203 million will watch the Super Bowl. 

Those are not small numbers. Yet, if we take those same number as a percentage of the total population of people in the world, the numbers take on a different look. Only 18% of the world owns an iPhone. Just 13% of the world has a Tik Tok account. Netflix has a a mere 3.75% subscribers, and only 2.5% of the people in the world will tune into the Super Bow. Suddenly those numbers don’t seem as large.

Nevertheless, we still wouldn’t claim that such numbers are an indicator of failure. Not at all! Those are very successful companies and services we’re talking about. 

So is it really fair for us to have an expectation for witnessing, or the Word in general, of a 100% success rate when it comes to conversions? Might we be a little too quick to conclude that the Word must have failed when it isn’t embraced every single time, but is instead rejected? 

That rejection doesn’t mean it failed. When we sow the seeds of the Word then, whether that work takes place among believers as we serve the found, or in witnessing to unbelievers as we seek the lost, rejection is not proof of failure. Heads up: we’ll look at the flip side of this in the next sermon post, which is that popularity is not proof of success. In this post, though, we give our attention to the matter of rejection when it comes to people’s reception of the Word of God. 

Rather than just seeing this post as an evangelism encourager or confidence booster, I want you to make it more personal. I want you to think instead of just becoming more comfortable talking about your Savior and your faith. 

Do you know why some in the world think Christians are weird? Because we are. We make it about as awkward as one could when talking about this stuff. We use weird words and terms that others have never heard. We struggle and waffle when someone asks us simple questions, like why we believe what we do. But since this whole subject is the most important thing, shouldn’t it also be the most natural thing for us to talk about?

I mean, let’s be honest, some of us are far more comfortable talking about far weirder things than Jesus and our faith. So let’s focus our attention on working to get comfortable with talking about this stuff so that it becomes second nature to us. We want to be able to speak about our Savior and our faith in him as effortlessly as we share a recipe or bring up last night’s big game, or as naturally as we gush about the latest new series that everyone’s streaming.

We rightly encourage each other when we remind one another that when others reject our message, it isn’t really us they’re rejecting, but Jesus. This account clearly displays that truth. Notice the rather abrupt change in how the people initially received Jesus compared to how it ended up. 

First, “the eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him” (v.20) and they “spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips” (v.22). Imagine having Jesus as  your guest preacher! Imagine how glued to him you’d be! He would have been unlike all the other teachers and rabbis. The Gospels tell us that people heard Jesus and were amazed because he didn’t teach like other rabbis, but taught with authority. He stood out. His teaching was riveting, and they were soaking it all up.

But, as Jesus continued preaching, their mood and reception of him changed. “All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff” (v.28-29). Quite a drastic change! If Jesus was a Netflix special, he went from being the number one streamed show to “leaving this month” – and all of this over the length of time it took him to preach one sermon! How does one go from such a meteoric rise to almost literally getting thrown off a cliff that quickly?1? 

There seem to be two significant matters that Jesus’ fellow Jewish listeners tend to take issue with. One, his family roots. “‘Isn’t this Joseph’s son’ they asked” (v.22b). They remembered he was just a local. One of them. Nothing special about his background, upbringing, or family name. 

Secondly, what appears to turn their effusive praise into furious rage is when Jesus communicates that God’s favor stretches beyond the reaches of his chosen Jewish people, often even skipping over them. Jesus illustrated that when he brought up the widow in Zaraphath and Naaman the Syrian. In those cases, God’s favor passed over his people onto Gentiles, those non-Israelite people from outside nations. 

So it will likely go with your efforts – if you haven’t already experienced it. When others find out your family roots – that you are a Christian, a member of God’s family, they may sour on you just as they did Jesus on that day. Then, after pointing out that the good news is for all people (yes, even the Hitlers of the world!), when you point out to those who scoff or write you off that this foolishness is for others who won’t reject it, that message may not sit well with them. While you likely won’t have to worry about being thrown off a cliff, you might get unfriended or unfollowed. You might get ghosted as your texts go unanswered. Those you used to get together and hang out with may not end up including you in their social plans much more. 

But just as it wasn’t in Jesus’ day, so neither is rejection today proof of failure. Otherwise, we’d expect to see Jesus go back to the drawing board and drum up a different game plan after this incident. But what do we see him doing in the rest of Luke and the other Gospels? 

The exact same thing. Luke tells us it was his custom to go to the synagogue, just as he had been brought up to do, and he would continue to do that. When he would no longer be invited to speak in the synagogue, he would preach anywhere. But he didn’t do anything differently. He continued to point listeners to the Lord. 

Let us do the same. Even when it’s hard. Which is always. It’s never easy, really, is it? One of the reasons it’s so difficult? 

Us. 

We make it more difficult. Consider an experience just about every one of us has had. You were having a conversation with someone you suspect might to be a nonbeliever. You aren’t absolutely certain, but from what little of her you know, that’s what you’d guess. In your conversation, she tosses you a softball, an opening that was custom fit to bring Jesus into the conversation, an opportunity so easy even a caveman could do it. 

But you don’t. 

Why? Because even though you saw the opportunity and you had a pretty good idea of how you’d go about it in your head, you fast-forwarded and anticipated her negative response. You pre-determined the outcome in your own mind because you were sure you knew how she would respond. So you ended up saying nothing. 

Sound familiar? When we drum up an imaginary negative response someone “will probably have,” we’ve just shut the door on that person’s opportunity to hear the absolute best news they could ever possibly hear in the gospel. Let’s admit that in a number of cases, we make this harder than it needs to be.

Because on the other hand, it couldn’t be any easier. We don’t have to figure out some formula; we just have to proclaim his promises. There isn’t a single believer who is not qualified to share the gospel message: Jesus died for sinners like us. It’s that simple. Jesus came to save sinners, which he did by living perfectly in our place and dying to pay for our sins. Because of that, we have peace right now and the joy of eternal life. It really is that simple.

But, there are a lot of things that are easy – that doesn’t necessarily mean we do them. Just because it’s easy doesn’t mean we’ll do it. 

So what motivates us to do it? The same thing that motivated Jesus: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (v.18-19). The spiritually poor need to hear the good news. Those imprisoned by the impossible demands of the law need to hear they’re free. Those without Jesus who can’t see the right religious path need sight. The exact same work that Jesus began on that day with one of his first sermons needs to be carried out by his people today. 

And what happened to Jesus himself will also happen to us: the message will be rejected. But unlike those wildly popular products and services I mentioned earlier, which aren’t very successful at all in terms of the percentage of the overall population, the Word that you share has a 100% success rate. It will not always result in conversions, but it will work 100% of the time. God promises it. His Word doesn’t return to him empty (cf. Is. 55). It always works. So let’s always work it, and let God be the one to decide what kind of results he’ll get from it. 

DAILY PRAYERS FOR GUYS

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For the Word and Those Who Speak It to Me

Sanctifying Spirit,
Your Word is everything. It holds the key to salvation and eternal life. It guides and directs my steps for this life. It shows me how to worship you with my whole life and equips me to love and serve my neighbor. Your Word is priceless!

But as you so often do, you go even further. Not only have you given me your Word, but you also place caring Christians in my life as your messengers to communicate and apply your Word to me. You provide parents to train me to know and love your Word. You give pastors and teachers to preach and teach the Word, helping me understand it. You sprinkle believers out all over the world both to spread the Word and bear witness to it everywhere. You place Christians in the spotlight through prominent platforms that allow them to publicly praise your name. You surround me with Christian friends and my church family who are willing to rebuke and admonish me, or to encourage and uplift me, meeting my spiritual needs through them. Your Word is a treasure – and so are the people you’ve placed in my life to regularly bring it to me. Thank you!

In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. 

DAILY PRAYERS FOR GUYS

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To Focus on What Lasts

Patient Lord,
As I await your return on the Last Day, I can easily slip into indifference or complacency. I treat your warning like the boy who cried wolf, tending to disregard it as a false alarm with each year and then decade that passes by. Yet it is this very reality that illustrates why you provided the warning to be ready in the first place. Help me to heed it! 

I do that by focusing on what lasts. Ultimately, all of the stuff of this world will pass away and be forgotten. So keep me focused instead on what lasts: your Word. Not only will your Word endure until the end, but it will always be powerful and effective until that time as well. Therefore, let it permeate my life. Rather than just an occasional Sunday morning book reading, let your Word dwell in my life richly. As I focus on it more, use Scripture to sculpt and shape my soul and my mind, so that I live for you now while I look for you in the future.

In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. 

The Courage of “No”

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(Daniel 3:16-28)

As the loud chant bellows out from the nearby minaret beckoning all to bow down in prayer, those around you pause whatever they are in the middle of doing to roll out their prayer rug. They kneel down in the same direction and the sea of random people involved in a variety of activities all around you quickly becomes an ocean wave, curving and swaying as arms and bodies are raised up and then curled back down again in prayer.

You stand out like a sore thumb.

Everyone else is on the ground kneeling in prayer while you are the lone standing figure, as if to announce to everyone around that you are a clueless foreigner. What do you do? Do you go with the flow and lower yourself to the ground, at the very least to avoid drawing attention to yourself? Do you go so far as going through the same motions as everyone else to blend in, even though you don’t worship their false god? 

We can speculate and imagine the mix of emotions that might come over us in such a hypothetical situation. But in Daniel 3, when Nebuchadnezzar’s call and command to worship was sounded, there is no need for speculation over how the three displaced Israelites might have responded. The details of the account are clearly provided for us.

But before we get to their response, it’s important to know that they knew what they were getting into. Prior to their actions, Nebuchadnezzar’s warning had been communicated: “Then the herald loudly proclaimed, ‘Nations and peoples of every language, this is what you are commanded to do: As soon as you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipe and all kinds of music, you must fall down and worship the image of gold that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up. Whoever does not fall down and worship will immediately be thrown into a blazing furnace’” (Daniel 3:4-6). It did not matter what religion a person practiced or what language he spoke, to choose not to worship the ninety-foot image of gold was to face imminent incineration.

The flames of jealously spreading from other officials ensured that word would quickly spread regarding the three foreigners who had the audacity to ignore the king’s command. Those three, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, were brought before King Nebuchadnezzar, who was beside himself that anyone would so brazenly disregard his command. He said to them, “Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the image of gold I have set up? Now when you hear the sound of the… music, if you are ready to fall down and worship the image I made, very good. But if you do not worship it, you will be thrown immediately into a blazing furnace. Then what god will be able to rescue you from my hand?” (v. 14-15). Talk about a terrifying threat!

But Nebuchadnezzar’s overconfidence would be outshined by the courageous confidence of the three men who stood up to him. “Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to him, “King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up” (v.16-18). 

See how courageous they were! Compare their courage with today’s version of courage, where activists throw tomato soup or some other liquid on works of art. Where groups of people park themselves in the middle of the road. Where protests are organized and rallies are coordinated. How much real courage do such actions require?

But take note of the radical approach taken by the three. They said “No.” That was it. They didn’t have to coordinate some widespread effort. They didn’t rally the other exiled Israelites to join them in some major rebellious protest. They didn’t manufacture something online in an effort to make it viral.

They simply refused to heed a command to sin by worshiping an idol. Think of it: one of the most legendary of all Sunday school narratives – this account before us – was simply a matter of having the courage to say “no.” Before we jump right to the miraculous conclusion of this account, let’s just linger here a bit on the power of “no.” 

Today (Reformation) has historically been a pretty big deal in the Lutheran church. We are observing the Reformation. It may be a relatively unfamiliar term to many, but Reformation refers to a period of church history often considered to have been set in motion by an event that took place on October 31, 1517. That was the date on which a monk named Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenburg, Germany. Through these theses, his intent was to establish points for discussion with the leaders of the church of his day over concerns he had about what was being taught and practiced. 

Luther had been doing a “dangerous” thing: reading his Bible. Doing so allowed the Holy Spirit to bring to light legitimate concerns that weren’t lining up with the Word of God. At stake amidst these concerns was the very foundation on which the whole of Scripture stands: justification by grace alone, through faith alone, revealed through Scripture alone. The more the Reformation was fanned into flame through the words and writings of men like Luther and other reformers, the more the church of his day dug in its heels. It refused to acknowledge that it had not only drifted away from Scripture in its teachings, but was brazenly contradicting the clear teachings of the gospel, that we are not saved by our own works, but by faith in Jesus’ merits alone.

On numerous occasions, both formally and informally, Martin Luther was expected to take back his words and writings opposing the church so that he might remain in good standing. The most famously recorded incident was before the Diet of Worms, on which occasion he is famously quoted as saying, in response to the church’s demand that he retract and recant, “Here I stand. I cannot do otherwise. God help me. Amen.” If you allow me to paraphrase what Luther said and simplify it just a little bit, Luther said directly to the sacred and secular authorities who demanded his compliance, “No.” The refusal that three young Israelites in Babylon had boldly uttered before Nebuchadnezzar was boldly uttered before the highest authority of Luther’s day, too. “No.”

Yes, it takes great courage to say “No.” But there is also great power in “No.” And we don’t have to stand before princes or kings to utter it. In fact, it isn’t likely that any of us will ever find ourselves in that position. But that doesn’t make our “no” any less powerful. Your “no” to the social hour invitation after work that inevitably ends up with inebriated coworkers is powerful. Your “no” to your significant other’s invitation to cross the line sexually is powerful. Your “no” to another of your child’s club team tournaments because it’s on a Sunday morning is powerful. Your “no” to “just try” the drug everyone else around you is high on is powerful.

Your “no” is not nothing. It is much more. It is a yes to what is right. It is yet one step further removed from the edge of the abyss that sin beckons us to stumble over into unbelief. It is a yes to my identity as a believer and child of God who is walking in the light. It is a yes to the blessed paths of righteousness that hold out so much more for us than any invitation to sin ever can or will. 

Notice also that the “no” of the three before Nebuchadnezzar did not need to be accompanied by added insults or denigrating of the king. There refusal was, in fact, carried out quite respectfully. There was no badmouthing behind his back or even to his face.

Could we learn from that? Could our “no” be just as effective – dare I say even more effective, when not accompanied by the disparaging remarks that are so common in our culture today? Can we politely disagree without tearing down the person with a different view? Can we show our disapproval of the words or actions of another without raising our voice or boiling over? How puzzled would others be to see such responses that are so out of the ordinary today? What might result? Could the reaction of others look something like that of the Babylonian King?

Note again his reaction after the three men’s “no” resulted in a date with the incinerator, only for them to walk back out of the furnace, bearing not even the slightest hint of flame, no smoke or singe of even as much as a hair on their head or hands. King Nebuchadnezzar said, “Praise be to the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who has sent his angel and rescued his servants! They trusted in him and defied the king’s command and were willing to give up their lives rather than serve or worship any god except their own God” (v.28).

Yes, the miracle was absolutely amazing, but what was it that truly struck King Nebuchadnezzar? They were willing to die for God! They were willing to give up their lives for the Lord rather than bow down to an idol and easily escape death in that way. 

Yet even on the heels of such a bold show of courage, it wasn’t Shadrach, Meshach, or Abednego whom Nebuchadnezzar praised, but God. Let that sink in! Their “no” resulted in an unbeliever praising God! And their “no” results in believers praising God today, as we are still inspired by their courage. Surely if three young believers in a foreign country can utter a “no” to the face to he most powerful authority in the world at the time, we can courageously do the same much more frequently.

But it isn’t easy! It takes courage! So what empowers our “no”?

Our Savior who said yes.

No, not to sin, but to the condemnation resulting from sin. Jesus knew the furnace of hell awaits all who challenge God’s command of perfection and rebel against it and he said yes to that condemnation anyway. He knew Satan’s relentless efforts to convince him to call the whole thing off and not give his perfect life up for repugnant mankind would only intensify during his weakest moments at the end, and still he said yes. He knew the Father, to whom he had turned again and again during his life and ministry, would turn away from him in excruciating abandonment, and still he said yes. Jesus, and all that he willingly said “yes” to in our place to spare us from eternal hell – he is what empowers our “no.” 

If you’re familiar with the Jack Pine, you know what it takes for its seed to spread and eventually sprout. It takes heat. Not just a hot day, mind you, but the heat of a flame. Only the heat of flames are enough to soften the resin surrounding the seeds that are protected inside the pine cone. So the wildfire, the very source of destruction of so much else in a forest fire, is what allows the Jack Pine to reproduce.

So it is with our faith. Life is relatively easy when all is well. When it is, though, our faith is like a fallow field, resting, unused and mostly inactive.

But when the flames are kindled or when the fire is raging in our lives, faith cannot remain fallow. It will not. Faith responds to the fire by burning brighter, fueled by the gospel and charged by the Holy Spirit. Faith is inspired by the believers who have gone before us, the Shadrachs, Meshachs, and Abednegos, the Martin Luthers, our forefathers and our grandparents and parents. Emboldened and all the more courageous because the fires demand its response, faith grows, it thrives, and tears down enemy strongholds, calling out Satan and those in service to him and with a gospel-generated fearlessness that can’t come from anywhere else. And what does such a bold, courageous faith proclaim? It says… “No,” one of the most courageous words God’s people can ever speak.  

DAILY PRAYERS FOR GUYS

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To Appreciate My Reformation Righteousness

Righteous Savior,
On this Reformation Day, I am grateful for both your gift of righteousness by faith, as well as the gift of your Word, by which you reveal this truth. What a blessing that so many today will never know the despair of men like Martin Luther and others, who were distraught over their inability to attain the perfect righteousness that you demand. 

Instead, through the sacrifices of many, the good news of the gospel continues to be clearly taught and preached. Therefore, we know and believe that the righteousness you demand of us is also the very righteousness you credit to us by faith! I so easily take for granted both this truth and the Word of God by which it is revealed. Continue to reform and renew my own heart, that I may regularly ponder these gifts and more fully appreciate them!

In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. 

DAILY PRAYERS FOR GUYS

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To Be a Man of Your Word

Righteous Savior,
Help me to be a man of your Word. Anything I aspire to be or do as a Christian man comes down to the work the Holy Spirit must accomplish in me. Since the Bible is his tool of choice to shape and develop me into the godly man I want to be and you call me to be, considerable time in the Word must be a non-negotiable for me. Through your Spirit, free me from any other unnecessary attractions or addictions that have for too long robbed me of potentially precious time in your Word. Expose any weak excuses or lies that I have told myself to justify my neglect of your Word. 

Let your grace and forgiveness wash over me and renew me. Create in me a yearning desire for time in your Word. Satisfy me with your powerful promises and through them build me into a bold, confident Christian soldier, well-equipped to carry out your will and to face the enemy. Daily refresh and rejuvenate my spirit with your Word and let me find great joy and delight in every moment I share with you through it.

In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. 

Bounce Back to the Word

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(John 7:40-43)

Five years before the world was introduced to Harry Potter, JK Rowling was a struggling single mother living on welfare. She wrote while working as a teacher at night, and her manuscript was rejected 12 times before finally being published. Walt Disney’s first animation company went bankrupt, he experienced other failures, and some of the most loved characters today were initially panned by critics. Rowland Macy had four failed retail stores before opening his first Macy’s, and even his first Macy’s had to close because it didn’t bring in enough. Not until he opened another one fifteen years later did the store stick. Abraham Lincoln failed at multiple businesses, lost one election to Congress, two elections to Senate, and even the vice-president election before becoming the 16th President of the United States. Great as all these stories ended up, you know what it sounds like? It sounds like they all went through their own 2020. They all had their share of experiences that they wouldn’t have asked for at the time, but which allowed them to get where they ended up! Bitter before the sweet!

Will 2021 be your comeback story? Will it be the year that you bounce back? Will you turn a set back into a comeback?

If so, the single greatest key to your ability to bounce back in 2021 is to realize that it doesn’t depend on your ability to bounce back. Rather, it depends far more on how much you depend on the single greatest comeback story of all time: Jesus Christ. There’s no greater comeback story that will ever be written than the One who bounced back from death to rise up and live again. And don’t dare forget that he did not accomplish this for himself, but for you. He came back from the dead so that your comeback story could be written. Christmas was the start of what would become the greatest comeback story ever written. So if you want to bounce back in 2021, hear me out: doesn’t it make good sense to make the greatest comeback story in history a bigger part of yours?

That was basically the issue at hand as our text today picks up the people’s response to Jesus. What did they think of him? Who was he? Was he of any benefit to them or not? Was he to be followed, his advice acted on, his counsel considered, his teachings to be trusted? Guess what? “On hearing his words… the people were divided because of Jesus” (v.40, 43). Not everyone came to the same conclusion about Jesus’ place and role in their lives. Some acknowledged his place as a prophet. Others saw him as Savior, the Messiah and long-awaited answer to sin and salvation. Others still struggled and were on the fence with questions and answers that didn’t add up for them. 

It’s no different today – outside of the church to be sure. Prophet, preacher, pacifist – opinions vary, but there is a consistent theme to the world’s view of Jesus: they use him as they see fit. There is no small amount of animosity toward Jesus when his teachings don’t approve of a certain way of life that a person insists on living. Most, though, will not direct their disdain at Jesus himself, but ease their own consciences by claiming to be just fine with Jesus, while pretending the problem is with Christians themselves or with organized religion – as if those are in some separate category into which Jesus doesn’t belong. They become experts in their own minds at using Jesus’ words against Christians to point out where his followers are failing. Such people clearly are not familiar with Jesus’ own words to comfort his followers, “The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that its works are evil” (John 7:7). No matter how they may disguise it then, the world’s differing views of Jesus are ultimately a dismissal of Jesus.  

But that wouldn’t apply to those of us inside the church, to believers, would it? Surely our words and actions couldn’t be perceived as a dismissal of Jesus… right? What would a quick glance back over the course of 2021 reveal? Did we ever find ourselves as activists more concerned about a movement or a cause than about Christ? Did we ever stoop into the darkness to dabble in debate with others steeped in the dark rather than letting Christ’s light shine through us? Did we look to worldly solutions – sometimes even destructive ones – to console us and help us cope with crisis, rather than to Christ? Ah, then perhaps we shouldn’t be too quick to deny dismissing Jesus the way the world does, for the ugly reality is that we are quite adept at it. In fact, we’re so good at it that we even manage to pull the wool over our own eyes so that we don’t recognize how frequently we dismiss Jesus. 

2020 also provided us with another challenge to reflect on our relationship with Jesus: our relationship with church. Gathering restrictions have forced us to think about the role a local congregation may or may not play in fostering our faith in Jesus. In our case, some leaders were concerned that if members couldn’t meet for worship, some may not be spiritually disciplined enough to personally keep growing in their faith on their own. Others saw a positive opportunity for individuals to take more ownership of their faith, rather than presuming that worshiping for an hour on Sunday is sufficient for spiritual growth. I don’t know that anyone can claim to have the answer, but the past year has required us to evaluate our connection to Jesus and his Word and where our church fits into that.

But enough about the problems and challenges. While we could spend all day discussing such matters – and much of it would be very profitable to be sure! – let us instead focus on the solution, for the solution in all of these matters of what one thinks of Jesus is the same solution: the Word. Truly, if 2021 is to be a bounce-back year, the Word alone will serve as the catalyst to make it happen. Sure, there are certainly other solutions that will help in other areas of life, but if this year is going to count in the one area that matters most – our walk with Jesus – then let us get back to the Word. 

Why? Because it works. “For the word of God is alive and active” (Hebrews 4:12). God says through the prophet Isaiah, “[My word] will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it” (Is. 55:11). The Word works. We want stuff that works, right? More than ever, we don’t have patience for things that don’t work. How many times would you guess you’ll Google something this year to find out how to do something or where to buy something? Whatever you’re searching for, the desired outcome is the same: you want a solution that works. You don’t want to purchase something that doesn’t work. You don’t want to learn a new tip or fix-it trick that doesn’t work. You want what works – we don’t have time for what doesn’t. 

Friends, we have 100% guarantee that this (Word) works! It is alive and active. It will accomplish what God desires and purposes. It will work. If. We. Work it. See, it doesn’t matter if we have a solution that works if we never bother to use it. When I make pizza dough for pizza and a movie with the family on Fridays, yeast does a great job of making the dough rise… if I use it. It’s not so effective, however, if it doesn’t ever get mixed in. Your phone is a great tool for keeping in touch with family members who live in another state… if you use it. A dumbbell will help you add muscle and build strength… if you use it. You get the point. 

So it works, if we use it. Here’s the bigger question: why should we use it? Ultimately, we’re only interested in using something that works if it achieves something I am interested in. I am glad your curling iron works, after all, but I don’t have much of a need for it. Unless we see why it matters for us that the Word works, we aren’t likely to use it. Now I could go a step further and tell you it matters because it will strengthen your relationship with Jesus, but you might naturally go the next step and ask, “So what? Why does it matter that I have a stronger relationship with Jesus? After all, I already have faith and I know I’m going to heaven – isn’t that good enough?”

You know why you want a deeper relationship with Jesus through his Word? Because he is the only one who will be 100% real with you all the time. He isn’t going to be fake with you to suit his own purposes. Neither is he going to cater to your every whim and demand, like so many are willing to do in this cancel culture. He isn’t afraid of showing you tough love. He isn’t going to tell you one thing and then do another. He won’t make a promise and then break it. He is 100% real with you all the time.

That can be extremely painful when he is blunt about how disgraceful our sins are and how much he despises them. He will not buy our excuses or accept our ignorance when we try to downplay our violations of his commands. He will not hesitate to be completely transparent about the hell we deserve for dismissing him and despising his Word for so much of our lives. He will be real with us, and it will hurt when he exposes what’s really buried within our hearts. 

But he will be real with us as well when he lavishes us with an unwavering love that will not be deterred by even our worst sins against him. He is 100% committed to you, proving it by his willingness to have his body pounded to a cross while his own life was slowly drained from him. He was not interested in seeking out revenge for all the wrongs you’ve done against him, but seeking out forgiveness for them, not so that he could get even, but so that you could have peace. No one – NO ONE – on this earth will ever care enough about you to show you that level of commitment. That kind of loyalty, that kind of love, will never be found but in Jesus Christ. You want 2021 to be a bounce back year? It’s got to include more of Jesus and less of anything and everything that gets in his way.

Fast-forward to New Year’s Eve, Friday, December 31, 2021. Look back on this year. Will you reflect on this year and see it as a bounce-back year from 2020? That depends on what happens after today. What happens this week? next month? this summer? I will boldly guarantee you this: if you are committed to reading and applying the Word of God this year like never before in your life, 2021 will easily exceed your wildest expectations.

Not So Shocking

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Photo by Aaron Burden

Is it really that shocking that a book like the Bible would have what appear to be contradictions? 

Have you considered its length? It is made up of 66 books, ranging anywhere from 1 to 150 chapters each. 

Have you considered its depth of content? Everything from the account of how the world came to be to how the world will end and everything in-between is covered in a variety of styles and genres, including history, prophesy, prose & poetry, genealogies, letters, etc. 

Have you considered the period of time over which it was written? A span of around 1,500 years passed between the writing of the first book and the writing of the last book.

Have you considered the number of different authors? While not every author of each book is identified by name, enough are to reasonably conclude that around 40 different authors penned the Scriptures.

Is it really that shocking that a book like the Bible would have what appear to be contradictions? 

Here’s what I think is even more shocking than the alleged number of contradictions: the scale of content that is in agreement (like, all of it!).

Try to find the same scale of agreement today among a sample of tweets, blog posts, academic course books, etc. which claim to cover the same event or subject matter and see what you get.  

Through and through, the theme of the Bible is echoed loud and clear:

The Holy Scriptures… are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.”

(2 Timothy 3:15 NIV)

Jesus himself acknowledged,

These are the very Scriptures that testify about me.”

(John 5:39 NIV)

Oh, and if you’re still wondering about those “contradictions,” you’re just as likely to come across as many plausible explanations for them in the same way you likely discovered the “contradictions” – a simple Google search. But if you’re interested in something that can provide you with even greater results than a Google search, I’d highly recommend a Scripture search.