On Veteran’s day this year (2021) I suddenly recalled that my father, a navy veteran of WWII, had marched in the Sacramento Veteran’s Day parade of 1962.  He was not with the official participants in the parade.  He took up the rear and carried a home-made sign that read, “After the next war, who will fight?”  Instead of applause, he was called names, such as “Pinko!” and “Commie!” But he marched on to the end of the parade route.  What did his sign mean and why were people calling him a communist?

Just a short time before, our country, and indeed the world, passed through one of the most frightening times in human history.  On October 14th, a U.S. spy plane, flying over Cuba, revealed that the Russians were installing nuclear missiles aimed at our country.  Cuba is only 90 miles off the US coast so this vastly reduced the time people could use to find shelter to survive, if possible, the immediate effects of a nuclear detonation. We had been tipped off concerning this possibility by Oleg Penkovsky, a very brave man inside Soviet military intelligence, but the pictures taken that day confirmed it.

President Kennedy, along with his military and civilian advisors, huddled together to decide what to do.  The generals urged Kennedy to launch an invasion of Cuba.  Indeed, a failed invasion, sponsored by the CIA, had taken place soon after Kennedy assumed office and this was a major reason why Castro wanted the Russians to place these terrible weapons in Cuba. Kennedy decided not to invade.  Then, on October 22nd, the president went on television to tell the American public that he had ordered a naval blockade of Cuba to prevent Russian ships, sailing toward Cuba, from landing and reinforcing the missiles already there.

A tense stand-off ensued which lasted for several days.  Today, we know that during this time a Russian submarine was cornered and refused to surface.  Its captain was about to attack with a nuclear torpedo the US warship that had it cornered.  But it required that all the three highest ranking officers on board agree.  The captain and another of them agreed to launch but the one remaining, Vasili Arkhipov, would not agree.  Instead, they surfaced.  Had the torpedo been launched, war would have begun, with the real possibility of a nuclear holocaust. When the submarine arrived back in Russia, Vasili was punished for holding out, while the captain and the other officer were rewarded.  Of course this did not come out until years afterward.

I was eight years old at the time and remember watching these events unfold on the nightly news with my parents.  They tried to allay my fears but I knew they were anxious.  Practicing “duck and cover” at school as well as hearing people talk about building bomb shelters also made me, and other children, sense the seriousness of the nuclear threat.

Finally, the Russian ships turned back and headed home.  Then, through conversations on the phone, Kennedy and Khrushchev, the Soviet Premier, worked out a deal.  The Russians would remove their missiles in Cuba and we would remove ours in Turkey.  By October 28th the crisis was over.  The world had teetered on the brink of nuclear war and survived.  That is why my father marched in the Veterans Day parade just after these events and asked the question, “After the next war, who will fight?” Once nations had these most horribly destructive weapons, who could guarantee that they would not be used once war began?  And once nuclear weapons were unleashed, who would survive to fight another war?

My father, a grade school teacher, went on to start an organization called “The Sacramento Peace Center”.  Its mission was to help Americans understand the need to reduce and hopefully eliminate, nuclear weapons. It was not a “communist front” organization, as was so often charged against any group working for peace in those days.  In fact, my father later told me that some communists did try to infiltrate the organization and he put a stop to it.  He did not excuse the communist world for its nuclear weapons program, any less than ours.  He saw the first sign of hope with the nuclear test ban treaty signed by President Kennedy on August 5th, 1963, that eliminated above-ground nuclear testing and all the radioactive fall-out that those tests pumped into the atmosphere.

There have been many nuclear war close calls since the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.  However, the public learned about most of these after the fact.  One year, within a month, we survived two close calls and we have two brave men to thank for it.  On September 26th, 1983, an alarm sounded in a Russian base that monitored threats of nuclear attack.  The man on duty that day was Stanislav Petrov and he had thirty minutes to decide if this alarm was genuine.  As he checked his sources, all were pointing to this being a real attack from the US.  However, the one source that could make it unanimous was unavailable as night had fallen over that part of the earth covered by Soviet satellites.  He bravely called his superiors to tell them that the alarm was false, even though he could not then be sure of it.   Later, they determined that the source of the alarm was a faulty computer.

Just a month later, NATO began conducting a war games exercise in Europe that would culminate in a simulated “Defcon 1” nuclear attack.  This was at a time when the US was deploying nuclear weapons in Western Europe to counter an earlier deployment of short-range nuclear missiles by the Soviets in Eastern Europe.  Needless to say, both sides were nervous, but none more so than the Soviets.  When they observed the NATO war games, they began to think it was a ruse to disguise a real attack.  The US and NATO were oblivious to this.  But thankfully, there was a high-ranking KGB officer, Col. Oleg Antonovich Gordievsky, who had been spying for the US.  He, at great risk to himself, revealed that the Soviets were seriously preparing to counter what they believed was an imminent attack that would involve the use of nuclear weapons.  Hearing this, the US President at the time, Ronald Reagan, scaled back the exercise and averted an unintended nuclear war.

This same president later met with the leader of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, in Iceland in 1986 when they nearly agreed to full nuclear disarmament.  Both men wanted to rid the world of this nuclear sword of Damocles that hangs over the head of every man, woman and child on the planet.  Reagan wanted to continue developing the so-called Star Wars Defense system that would shield the US and any other country that had it, from most, if not all, nuclear missile strikes.  Gorbachev balked at this.  He thought that he would not be able to sell nuclear disarmament to the Russian military if it did not include a commitment by the US to scrap this program.  We still don’t have a robust nuclear shield but we do have an enormous number of nuclear weapons in the world which, if launched, would reach their targets in even less time than in 1986.

As we look back, it is sobering to realize that we have escaped nuclear destruction on many occasions, several of which can be largely credited to a single brave individual.My father did not single-handedly rescue us from a nuclear war, but if we ever do eliminate nuclear weapons, and indeed, war of any kind, it will be because there will be more such people brave enough to risk derision and even death, to achieve it.And whether a day of universal peace ever arrives, I am certain that those who sincerely sought it will find in heaven the outstretched hand of the Prince of Peace and hear His words, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.” (Matthew 5:9)

 The last Sunday in February, we finished our experiment with an inductive group Bible study called “Fresh Eyes on Jesus”.  We were trying, as best we could, to have a fresh encounter with Jesus through reading and discussing together the first chapter of the Gospel of Mark.  We met on four successive Sunday afternoons for about an hour and a half and read slowly through that one chapter, sharing what we discovered about Him and ourselves in relation to Him.

One word that stood out in that chapter was “authority”.  Jesus was unlike the other teachers, the people noticed.  He spoke as one having authority.  He backed up His words with deeds that demonstrated His authority, over nature and over evil spirits. (verses 21-27, 30-34, 40-42)   His message was one of “good news” that the kingdom of God was “at hand”, that is, it had now arrived and was available to all who would “repent and believe” it. (verse 14)  John the Baptist said, he baptized in water but “one is coming after me who is mightier than I… I baptized you with water but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” (verses 7-8)  This work of the Spirit in our hearts is the very essence of the kingdom as Paul the Apostle would later observe:  “For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 14:17)

While this baptism with the Spirit would come to His disciples later, after Jesus arose from the dead, Jesus demonstrated what a Spirit-filled life was like during His public ministry.  Those who came to Jesus in faith enjoyed the fruit of the Spirit’s work in and through Him.  Jesus provided transformative truth, physical healing and deliverance from evil spirits to all who came to Him.  Later, in chapter two (see Mark 2:5-12), we see that Jesus also claimed the authority to forgive sins and demonstrated its reality by miraculously healing those whose sins He declared to be forgiven.

Jesus did not use His authority to demand service for Himself.  He specifically rejected that abuse of authority.  Speaking to the disciples who were asking for places of prominence in His kingdom, Jesus said, “You know that those who are recognized as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them; and their great men exercise authority over them. But it is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant; and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many." (Mark 10:42-45)

Jesus exercised authority by serving others. In the Gospel of Mark, as well as the other Gospels, we see Him constantly on the move, helping people in need and helping them to see beyond their felt needs to their greater need for spiritual healing and wholeness. In this service there was no selfishness.  He did not seek glory for Himself but was truly moved by the suffering of others.  When a leper came to Jesus, pleading for help, Jesus was “moved with compassion” and not only declared His willingness to heal but also delivered that healing by touching the man. (1:40-45) Touching the leper not only healed his body but also his soul for this poor man had probably felt no human touch since his affliction first became known to others.

Jesus exemplified true authority by demonstrating that He was master over that triumvirate of tyranny, the world, the flesh and the devil.  At the very beginning of His ministry He faced down the devil in the wilderness. (Mark 1:12-13)  Later, He would cast out demons but there, in the wilderness, He defeated temptation and thus proved that He was master over Himself. Self-mastery is the greatest work of authority for many who would command others fail to control themselves.  As the Proverbs says, “Like a city that is broken into and without walls is a man who has no control over his spirit.” (25:28)

Jesus expressed His authority by teaching the Way of Life without compromise, equivocation or hypocrisy.  The people “were amazed by His teaching for He was teaching them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. (Mark 1:22)  The Pharisees and scribes assumed great authority, demanding that people obey their edicts and condemning them harshly for their failures to keep what they called the “traditions of the elders”. (7:3, 5) Those traditions were often contradictory and confusing, based on convoluted human reasoning and legalistic debate.  Jesus rejected these traditions as merely “the precepts of men.”  He taught that holiness was a matter of what came out of the heart and not what people put in their stomachs. (7:17-23)  He was, in essence, acting as though He had the authority to declare the Old Testament dietary laws no longer obligatory since He now brought the reality to which those shadowy symbols once pointed.  Only One possessing the highest authority would dare to do this!

Today, all around the world, people seem to want someone who will take the reins of political power to solve the problems they face.  But there is only One whose rule is safe for us to follow absolutely and without question.  If many more people began to follow Him and those who already believe in Him were to follow Him more closely, the problems we face in our communities, nations and world would be much more easily solved. Racism, greed, injustice, corruption and exploitation would melt away, to be replaced by a beautiful spring of human thriving and peaceful cooperation.  This is that kingdom Jesus came to establish and over which He, with the Father and the Spirit, are alone able to rule.

- Revelation 21:3-4

There is an old saying that criticizes some people for what is deemed an undue emphasis upon the afterlife:  “Some people are “so heavenly minded they are no earthly good.”  Is this criticism fair or accurate? It may well apply to some people who do not see the connection between this world and the world to come. However, the Bible speaks much about heaven.  When you do a word search for the word “heaven” using, say, the NASB translation, you get 463 instances.  If you search for “heavens”, plural, you get an additional 185. “Heavenly” adds 30 more. Clearly, heaven is an important topic in the Bible.  Of course, in the Bible “heaven”, “heavens”, “heavenly” and even “heaven of heavens” can have several different meanings.  It could refer to the sky in which birds fly, outer space in which the sun, moon, planets and stars move, that part of the spiritual realm in which Satan and the fallen angels (demons) dwell and the “higher” part of that realm in which the holy angels, redeemed human souls abide and where God most manifests His glory.

It is this last sense of the word “heaven” that most comes in for criticism as being irrelevant to human life on planet earth.  The Bible gives a little nod to this viewpoint by acknowledging that “The heavens are the heavens of the Lord, but the earth He has given to the sons of men.” (Psalm 115:16)  God has indeed given us this world as our home and over which we are responsible as its stewards.  It is here, in this life, that we are set to learn the lessons that will shape our eternity in the world to come.  In a sense, this world is the seedbed for another world, the nursery in which we are sprouted and grow to sufficient size and hopeful hardiness to be brought out and planted in that greater world for which we were created.

This greater world is continuous with the present one.  The Bible calls it “the new heavens and earth” because it is like the one in which we are conceived and born, live and die.  We will find it is much like the present earth; in fact, it will be what the heavens and earth were meant to be.  While the heavens belong to the Lord and earth to us, since we have through sin spoiled this one, God has made a new one as our eternal dwelling place. Jesus said He was going to prepare a place for us.  I believe He meant by this that He would create this new heavens and earth and that as each of us who believe in Him depart this life, we enter into it.  Then, at the end of this age, when He returns in glory to this world, and the departed believers with Him, He will make this heaven and earth pass away and transfer all who remain and believe in Him into this new world. Specifically how and when this is all to take place is not ours to know right now but will become clear to us when it happens.

In the meanwhile, we live in this world and prepare for the world to come.  Heaven helps us take this life much more seriously than we would otherwise.  The knowledge that our present life is a preparation for a better one makes us pay attention to what we are doing now.  The truth is, if we are not sufficiently heavenly minded we shall be no earthly good.  A life built on the assumption that this life is all there is, will be a very different one than one built on the hope of heaven. Some people say that the knowledge that this is the only life there is makes them treasure it all the more.

Yes, when one has very little of something one tends to horde it and to keenly feel its imminent loss.  I recently watched a short documentary in which a philosophy professor in his nineties talks about how he feels about death now that it is very near.  He had written many books on philosophy, including one on death in which he claimed that though he did not believe in God or an afterlife he was not afraid of death.  But now that he was much closer to death than when he wrote that book, he had changed his mind.  The idea that he would soon be losing forever consciousness of the things he loved in this life such as the beauty of nature, the joy of music and the warmth of human fellowship, filled him with dread. He felt a profound sadness and regret that he must leave it all for eternal nothingness.

Watching this poor man face the deep despair of his Godless, materialist philosophy saddened me.  The reality of God and His promise of eternal life are not baseless wish fulfillments.  They are founded very firmly on truth and can be confirmed by any number of witnesses, including those of reason, experience, history and science.  Those who believe can afford to “waste” this life on living for a higher purpose than the prolongation of this life in the pursuit of personal pleasure.  They know this life is entrusted to us to give God a return on His investment.  The rewards for us will be great but those rewards are not materialistic or selfish.  They are the joy of helping others to inherit with us the eternal riches of that heavenly kingdom for which we were created.

Not only does the hope of heaven hereafter give this life meaning, it also informs our actions now.  Jesus’s model prayer includes at its heart the petition, “Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:10)  We not only pray for it, we also work with God to make it, as far as possible in this life, a reality.  There is no poverty in heaven, so we work to end poverty on earth.  There is no injustice in heaven so we work to end it here.  There is no sickness in heaven so we work to make people well here.  There is no anger, hatred, war, bigotry or racism in heaven so we work to replace these with heaven’s love and peace down here.  Of course, it will never be as good on earth as it will be in heaven but those whose aim is to enter heaven will work to make this world as much like heaven as possible.  Truly, heaven helps us live better lives here on earth and helps us look forward to a better one to come!

Many today will shy away from the term “religious”.  They will say, “I’m not religious but I am spiritual.”  By this many seem to mean that while they do not subscribe to any particular religion they are not comfortable with a wholly materialistic approach to life.  There must be something “out there” that gives meaning to life and makes them feel good when they do things for others.  It may surprise people to know that the Bible also uses the word “religion” and “religious” sparingly. There are no instances of it in the Old Testament.  Three of the ten instances are found in one place in the short letter of James (1:26-27).  By contrast, the New Testament uses “spiritual” thirty times.

The Apostle Paul contrasts the “natural man” with the “spiritual man” in 1 Corinthians.  He writes, “But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one.”  (2:14-15) This “natural man” is someone who has yet to receive Jesus Christ as his Savior from sin.  He sees things only from the natural point of view which leaves God out and fails to take into account his great need for God’s forgiveness and grace.

Then Paul goes on to describe people who, though believers in Christ, are still in their spiritual infancy:  “And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to infants in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are not yet able, for you are still fleshly. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like mere men?” (3:1-3) They are clearly “in Christ” but are yet “infants”.  This state of being “fleshly” and “walking like mere men” is spiritual immaturity.  It is not a good place for a Christian to remain in.  We should quickly grow out of it and go on to spiritual maturity.

There are a number of ways to measure spiritual maturity but here is one important criterion: it is by how we relate to God.  Do we exclusively or primarily regard Him as one to whom we go to get our needs met?  To relate to Him in this way is not wrong.  We have physical, material, emotional, financial and social needs.  God made us to have such needs and He wants us to come to Him for the supply of them.  He wants us to treat Him as our heavenly Father and to seek Him in prayer when we are facing a shortage of any kind.  But if that is where our relationship with Him begins and ends, we are still spiritually immature and little different than the rest of humanity.  We are “walking like mere men”.  Even atheists in dire straits will instinctively call out to God to help them.

We mature spiritually when we begin to step beyond this mainly “God-who-meets-my-needs” mentality.  We do this when we begin to desire that God’s will may be done and His agenda fulfilled, whether in ourselves or in the world beyond ourselves.  Jesus’ model prayer, the “Our Father”, begins not with our own needs but with God’s will – “Our Father who is in heaven, may your name be hallowed, may your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Even when it goes on to focus on our needs, the petitions are based on God’s priorities, not our usual ones: 1)  “Give us this day our daily bread” – this is really a simplifying of our material needs; 2) “and forgive our debts as we have forgiven those indebted to us” – acknowledging our own sin and telling God that we have extended the same grace to others as we are asking from Him; 3) “and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil” – here, once more, the emphasis is upon doing the will of God rather than what our lower nature tempts us to seek.

Jesus, our example, loved His heavenly Father in this way.  When His disciples went into the Samaritan town to get food, he struck up a conversation with a Samaritan woman about her spiritual need.  When the disciples returned with the food, they urged Him to eat but He said, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.”  When they speculated among themselves whether someone had already brought Him food, He said, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work.” (John 4:32, 34)  While Jesus ate and enjoyed food, His greater enjoyment and ambition was to do the will of His Father by laboring to bring souls into right relationship with God.

What would bring about this transition from relating to God mainly as the satisfier of our material and worldly needs to treating His will as the main object of our desire?  Put simply, it is love for Him.  And isn’t that what happens to children as they mature in relation to their parents and others?  How shameful it is when children treat their parents the same way they did when they were infants, toddlers or teen-agers.  It should dawn on us gradually but surely that our parents have needs too and that they have done a great deal for us, often much more than we could ever do for them. Maturity means that we grow to love them more and more for their own sake and not merely for what they can do for us.

The analogy breaks down, of course, in that God personally lacks nothing.  He has no needs.  He is fullness itself.  But He does have desires and a will.  He desires that His children should know the joy of loving and being loved.  His will is that we should become like Him, loving others as we do ourselves.  When we have drunk deeply of the love God has for us, it should lead us to love Him and want His will to be realized.  The truth is, God has so constructed this world and us that we must play a part if His will is to be done.  He could do it all without us, of course, but if He did we would never learn what it means to love as He does, to create as He does and labor as He does, for the highest good of His creation.  Without this, our joy would be small, little above what a dog may feel when you scratch its stomach.  God created us for joy far greater than that!

And there is a further step in spiritual maturity beyond wanting God’s will to be done.  A spiritually mature person wants God for His own sake.  When we love someone we not only want them to be happy; we also will find our happiness in being with them and sharing life with them.  This is certainly what married love means.  It would not be enough for us merely to send messages, money, gifts and other things to our beloved.  We may have to do this for a while but an at-a-distance romance can last only so long!  So it is in our relationship with God.  God has drawn near to us, as near as possible, but we must draw near to Him or the relationship will never come into being.

God is our highest good.  All other goods pale into nothingness in comparison to the goodness of God Himself.  God’s goodness is enjoyed by having a relationship with Him of loving and being loved, knowing and being known, of pleasing and being pleased with Him.  It is no wonder that Scripture sometimes compares it to married love.  Spiritually mature persons understand such language and think it quite appropriate.  It describes their experience.

So to sum up, step one is when we realize our spiritual and moral bankruptcy and receive the grace of God in Christ.  We know we have no claim upon God’s favor based on our behavior.  We realize that God has paid our debt of sin through the death of His Son, Jesus, and demonstrated His acceptance of that payment by raising Him from the dead. We therefore trust in God’s offer of pardon and peace on the basis of what Christ has done for us on the cross and receive the gift of eternal life at His expense.  This step is vital and many have yet to make it.  Still, there is another step when, as a believer, we realize that God has an agenda too, it’s a really good one we should get on board with it.  We start to see with His eyes and it gets us outside ourselves and into the work of His kingdom.  The third step is when we realize that all the good God wants us to work toward really resolves itself into knowing and enjoying Him.  As David said so long ago, “In Your presence is fullness of joy and at your right hand are pleasures evermore.” (Psalm 16:11) This is why Jesus died for us; this is why we seek to do His will: in order that we, and others, might enjoy fellowship with Him now and forever!

And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this. - Isaiah 9:6-7

 If Jesus is indeed the Messiah (and He is!) then why is the world still so full of wars and conflicts?  Peace on earth was one of the main things the Messiah was supposed to bring about.  Many Jewish scholars say this is why they don’t believe He was the Messiah.  Indeed, even in Jesus’ day His Jewish contemporaries, whether they were His followers or critics, expected that the Messiah would successfully remove Roman world dominion and replace it with His own.  Daniel foretold the rise of a fourth world empire (Rome) and that “in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed, and that kingdom will not be left for another people; it will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, but it will itself endure forever.” (Daniel 2:44) This kingdom is the one referred to above, to be ruled over by “the Prince of Peace.”  It is no wonder then that, when Jesus failed to remove the Romans and their puppet rulers from the Promised Land, even His followers were disappointed.  After Jesus arose from the dead and appeared to them they asked, “Is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?”  Jesus said, in effect, “no” and then told them that prophetic “times and seasons” were not their concern but that they must be His witnesses to the whole world, beginning with Jerusalem. (Acts 1:6-8)

We can empathize with those Jews, however, at least those of us who can remember when the Iron Curtain came down and the Soviet Union was dissolved.  Our then sitting president, George Herbert Walker Bush, declared “the end of history”, that is, the end of wars.  After all, during the “cold war”, the Soviet Union was our main adversary and while we never fought with them directly we did fight their proxies in North Korea and North Vietnam, as well as in other places.  It seemed then that all the wars going on were mainly over communism vs. freedom.  We were all tempted to believe that nothing much remained to fight about.  But then came “9/11” and the spell was broken.  It turned out that the cold war was only a mask covering a thousand grievances, real or imagined, over which plenty of people still wanted to fight.  Religious rivalries, tribal animosities, economic disparities and political ambitions created a witches brew of smoldering and flaming conflicts.  So we lost our naiveté and realized that human nature, being what it is, world peace still remained far off, perhaps even entirely out of reach.

Since the days Jesus walked the earth until now, fighting among us continues.  So how is Jesus the “Prince of Peace”?  Many Christians would reply, “Jesus gives us inner peace.”  That is certainly true, as millions can testify.  This inner peace is a product of having peace with God, that is, no longer being at war with Him but submissive, cooperative and sympathetic to His designs because they are His.  This is what Paul refers to in Romans 5:1 – “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ…” The realization and faith that God regards and treats us as though we had always been obedient to Him, despite the fact we were not obedient, because Jesus atoned for our sins on the cross naturally brings peace to our hearts.  God’s love for us, revealed by Jesus, overwhelms our selfish pride and brings us into loving harmony with Him.  The prophets foretold that the Messiah would bring this blessing of inner peace to Israel and through them to all nations. (Isaiah 26:3, 12; 27:5-6; 32:15-17; 53:5; Jeremiah 23:5-6; 33:6-9)

Another answer often given is that this promise of world peace would come after the Messiah returns a second time.  The first coming of the Messiah would provide the atonement by which individuals may experience the inner peace that comes from making peace with God.  The Messiah’s second coming will bring about peace between peoples and nations.  This is true, in that when Jesus returns in glory, He will “take out the wicked from among the righteous” (Matthew 13:49) and thus remove those who might cause a conflict.  Nevertheless, the prophecies seem pretty clearly to connect the Messiah’s first advent with bringing about peace among the nations.  There are many examples of this in the Old Testament prophecies but Isaiah 9:1-7 is a clear case.  It mentions both His birth (verse 6) and His appearance in Galilee (verses 1-2) and then connects these with an end to war (verses 4-5) and His ever-increasing reign as “the Prince of Peace” (verses 6-7).  So how does Jesus fulfill these prophecies?

Jesus’ reign is over hearts, not territories.  His kingdom expands as another person submits to His rule.  Jesus’ commands or teachings are found in the Gospels and reiterated in the rest of the New Testament writings.  In the first three centuries following Jesus’ ascent into heaven, the followers of Jesus believed that these teachings precluded them from participation in the wars of men, however justified they might seem.  They believed, instead, that they were called to another kind of war, a spiritual war that would increasingly remove the occasion for outward wars.  The war Jesus called them to wage was “not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 6:12)  They therefore concluded that “the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses” and that “we are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ… (2 Corinthians 10:4-5)  In other words, they changed people’s minds through prayer, preaching and holy example, thus bringing them under the authority of Christ to become subjects of His peaceable kingdom.

Not only did they believe they were fulfilling Christ’s commands by refusing to engage in outward wars they also believed they were fulfilling the prophecies that the Messiah would bring about peace between people of different nations.  Let this quote from a prominent late second century Christian writer serve as one example of many that could be cited:  We used to be filled with war, mutual slaughter, and every kind of wickedness.  However, now all of us have, throughout the whole earth, changed our warlike weapons.  We have changed our swords into plowshares, and our spears into farming implements. (Justin Martyr, paraphrasing Isaiah 2:2-4; 160 AD)  To add another, Tertullian, after quoting Isaiah 2:2-4, wrote, Who else does this prophecy apply to, other than us? We are fully taught by the new law [the teachings of Jesus] and therefore observe these practices. (197 AD)

Under this banner the Church expanded throughout the world for the better part of three centuries.  But in the latter part of the fourth century two influential Church leaders began formulating something that later became known as the “just war theory” by which Christians were not only to submit to outward governments but also to participate in their wars when called upon.  These leaders were Ambrose of Milan and Augustine of Hippo, today revered as “saints” and “doctors of the Church” by millions of Christians.  They were good men and well-meaning but they had introduced an error that seriously compromised the testimony of Christ.  In future, many wars would be waged by Christians, not only against “infidels” but also with each other.  These wars culminated in what we today call World War I.  After this disastrous war between “Christian” empires, Christians would continue to fight, not under the banner of professedly pious kings and parliaments but under those of secular and even atheistic governments.  Having sown the wind, Christians reaped the whirlwind.

During the 16th and 17th centuries, however, some Christians did regain the high ground occupied by those of the first three centuries.  These believers saw the folly of forsaking the “Lamb’s War” (Revelation 17:14) to engage in the world’s wars.  They were called “Anabaptists” and “Quakers”, terms of derision which they accepted and wore as badges of honor.  They were terribly persecuted by their fellow Christians but persevered and today bear witness to the truth that Jesus is indeed, “the Prince of Peace” who, as George Fox testified, has “taken away the occasion of war” revealed in the Bible, that is, “the lusts that wage war in our members.” (See Romans 7:23 and James 4:1)  Increasing numbers of Christians, of many denominations, are beginning to see the detour we took in the 4th century and are embracing, once again, the truth that participation in war is contrary to the teachings of Jesus and His Spirit.  (Continued on next page)

A couple of cautions are in order here.We should not judge those Christians who feel that some outward wars are indeed necessary to fight.Very plausible arguments can overwhelm conscientious minds and lead them in the wrong direction.We must patiently and lovingly plead with them that these arguments aside, Jesus is Lord and we cannot compromise His teachings.We also must not suppose that remaining aloof from the world’s wars is sufficient to satisfy Christ’s commands.Far from it!He calls us to “make disciples of all the nations” and that means we must sacrificially support the spread of the gospel and the gathering of disciples into churches that will bear a full and faithful witness to Jesus as the “Prince of Peace.”In short, we must become the “peacemakers” for whom Jesus’ blessing was promised, that “they shall be called the children of God.” (Matthew 5:9)

 The series of messages I have been bringing over the past month are based on the first four chapters of the book of Acts and upon the idea of momentum.  Momentum is a term in physics that represents the mass of an object and its velocity.  It is measured as mass times velocity over time.  The amount of momentum, in part, determines the impact an object will make on another object.  Christ has called His Church to make a good impact on the world.  In fact, He created the Church, His body, for this very purpose.

Interpreted spiritually, one unit of mass equals one person – you or I or any other believer in Jesus.  To increase our spiritual momentum we must do at least one of two things:  1) increase our spiritual velocity, which means increasing our degree of integration with the Holy Spirit and 2) increasing our spiritual mass by uniting with other believers to accomplish Christ’s mission.  Preferably, we should do both. When a group of believers increase their integration with the Holy Spirit, that is, increase the degree to which they yield to the power and guidance of the Spirit, they begin to experience “revival”.  Revival occurs when Christians regain a degree of momentum sufficient to make a good and significant impact on the world.

Revival is a good thing.  I became a Christian during a time of Christian revival.  This revival was called “the Jesus movement”.  As with all revivals, it began when some believers began praying for it.  They were stirred by the turmoil of the 1960’s, particularly when they saw so many young people searching vainly for the truth in many ways – radical politics, drugs, sex, eastern religious philosophies, etc.  God answered their prayers and soon long-haired, dirty, sometimes “stoned” young people began showing up in their services.  Some Christians felt threatened by these newcomers and sent them away, telling them to come back after they’d had a bath, got some decent clothes, cut their hair and achieved sobriety.  But others realized what God was doing and welcomed them as they were.

The wonderful thing was, they received Jesus and though they didn’t cut their hair and still wore “strange” clothing, they did become genuine Christians.  In fact, they became very enthusiastic Christians and began sharing the good news of their new-found faith with everyone they met. Hippie coffee houses and “head shops” were becoming mission outreach stations, rock bands began turning out wonderful Christian music, Hippie periodicals (called “underground newspapers”) began spreading the good news.  What was wonderful is that they didn’t change the sounds, the “psychedelic” artwork, their terms of speech, such as “far out” and “groovy”, etc.  Because of that, they were able to grow quickly among people who were followers of, or had a fondness for, the counter-cultural movements of their day.

When such a revival happens, that is, when the church begins to regain her momentum in the world, there is also the potential for the momentum to go in the wrong direction.  Even if this wrong direction is ever so slight in the beginning, it will eventually lead to the Church going off the rails, so to speak.  You see, the Holy Spirit not only gives us power, He also wants to give us wisdom.  Our human tendency is to appreciate the power of the Holy Spirit more than His wisdom.  Luke, who wrote the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts, places the emphasis on the Holy Spirit’s power. (Luke 24:49; Acts 1:8)  This was for good reason.  He wrote at a time when the Church was still a small, struggling movement, under imminent external threat.  He emphasized the boldness to face persecution the Holy Spirit gave the disciples in the early years after Jesus ascended to heaven.   The Apostle John, on the other hand, wrote his Gospel at a time when the Church had weathered that initial stormy period and was enjoying a bit of peace, with her biggest threat coming from within the ranks, so to speak. This was the early “Gnostic” movement that threatened to unhinge the gospel of Jesus Christ from its Biblical and historical moorings and set Christians adrift on a sea of endless esoteric speculations.  John therefore, was called by Christ to remind us that the Spirit is “the Spirit of truth” (John 14:17; 15:26) who “will guide you into all truth.” (16:13)

The degree to which we pay attention to the teaching of the Holy Spirit will determine the direction of any momentum He gives us through His power.  This, in turn, will determine the degree to which we make a good impact on the world.  The failure to treasure truth and the tendency to exalt power over truth has led to many bad results.  This is where the devil does his worst.  He sees the Church reviving and regaining her momentum and goes straight to distracting her with subtle lies and half-truths.  There are many of these we could mention, down through history.

One of the worst of these is the temptation to transfer from spiritual to political power.  It is true that we are the “salt of the earth” and the “light of the world” and that therefore the prevalence of Christianity in any culture will tend to reform public customs and government policy in a good way.  Christians are called to be good citizens and to stand for what is right.  The problem comes when we start to compromise with evil in order to gain power, ostensibly for good ends.  While we may thus gain political power for a season, the end result has always been and always will be, a decline in spiritual power.  In the end, the world will reject us as hypocrites and charlatans.  What is worst, they will reject Jesus because of us.  This is happening now, sadly.

In this case, what is true on the larger world stage is also true locally and individually.  We need to be discerning and not believe something because it comes from people who make a big profession of faith in Jesus.  The Bible says to “examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good; abstain from every form of evil.” (1 Thessalonians 5:21-22)

May the Lord Jesus fill us with His Spirit so that we speak boldly in Jesus’ name, proclaiming the gospel without fear, spreading the good news far and wide.But may we also be attentive to the Spirit’s truth as revealed in the Holy Scriptures and as He speaks to the conscience.Then we will be sure not to combine light with darkness, truth with error.Then our witness for Jesus will be bright and clear and attract many to Him!

- Luke 24:49

 Though our souls are immortal, they can, and do, die.  Death does not mean non-existence.  After all, when our physical bodies die, they decay but the elements that made up our bodies continue on so long as the world exists.  So likewise, though our souls continue for eternity, they are only alive if they are in a right relationship with God.  God is the life of the soul.  Separated from God, you are dead, spiritually, even though your soul remains conscious.  Jesus said, “It is the Spirit who gives life…” (John 6:63)  The work of the Spirit is to give spiritual life to our immortal souls.  Even our physical bodies can reap the benefit of the Spirit’s work in our souls.  As Paul writes, “But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.” (Romans 8:11)  This is true, to some extent, in this life but will have its full manifestation in the life to come.

So we need the Spirit of God to give life to us, soul and body.  The Spirit is God, that is, He possesses the one divine nature with all its infinite attributes of power, wisdom and goodnes, as do the Father and the Son.  This nature is indivisible and is fully shared by all three Persons of the Holy Trinity.  Just as one substance, water, can exist in three forms: as a liquid, a solid and a gas, so the one Divine essence subsists as three Persons: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.  These three divine Persons are the consequence of God’s nature as perfect love – “God is love.” (1 John 4:8, 16)  Love has three natural forms:  self-love, love of another as oneself and love of another, together.  This is love at its simplest and fullest and it requires three persons to exist.  Moreover, the three Persons of the Trinity are related to one another in a particular order.  The Son is eternally begotten of the Father’s love and the Spirit eternally proceeds from the love between the Father and the Son.  So the Father is the first, the Son the second and the Spirit is the third Person of the Holy Trinity.

The Father is first because in Him the divine essence resides as the first principle.  The Father is the fons trinitas, the fountain or source of the Trinity.  The Son is begotten of the Father and the Spirit proceeds from the Father through the Son.  The Father’s love finds its consummation in the Son.  The love of the Father and the Son finds its consummation in the Spirit.  In other words, self-love flows out in other-love and other-love flows out in sharing a love for another.  All three members of the Trinity participate in all three forms of love but the existence of the Persons is due to the necessity that there be sufficient objects for each form of love. 

Now, each member of the Trinity has a unique role to play in our salvation from sin.  We need to be re-united with God. In order for this to happen, we must know Him as He truly is.  Satan originated a false belief concerning God.  This false belief denied that love is possible.  If that is so, God is not love.  He is therefore selfish.  And therefore, selfishness is good.  Satan told Adam and Eve that God selfishly withheld from them the knowledge of good and evil.  Why did He do this, according to Satan?  He did this because He did not want them to be wise like God, that is, able to decide on their own what is true and false, good and evil, right and wrong.  That was Satan’s pitch to them.  He had already persuaded himself of this lie because God had denied to him and the other angels the right to be worshiped. God reserved this right only for Himself.  That was pure selfishness rather than a command borne of love – or so Satan thought..

To refute this false belief concerning God’s motives, the Father sent His only-begotten and beloved Son into the world to display the divine love through a life of loving service culminating in His sacrificial death for our sins on the cross.  To show that all our sins have indeed been removed and that eternal life was now ours, the Father raised His Son from death to life.  By doing this, we now we have a perfect revelation of divine Love and an absolute refutation of Satan’s lie about God.  God the Father has made a perfect demonstration of His loving nature in His Son.  Jesus said, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father…” (John 14:9; 1 John 4:9-10, 16, 19) 

This demonstration of God’s love is wonderful and perfect.  But we are blinded by selfishness.  How shall we see it?  We need help to see our heavenly Father’s love for us as revealed in His Son. This is where the Spirit’s role becomes crucial.  The flesh, the world and the devil constantly fill our minds with empty fears and empty promises.  We are therefore kept distracted from the truth of God’s love for us in Christ.  It is the Spirit’s work to bring us into focus on this vital truth until it overpowers the lies that keep us in bondage to sin.

Our part is to pay sufficient attention to what the Spirit is showing us.When we behold the Son by the revelation of the Spirt, we will be saved.“Look to Me and be saved, all you ends of the earth, for I am God and there is no other.” (Isaiah 45:22; NKJV)That look saves us because it brings us to our senses, makes us see our need and motivates us to receive Jesus as our Savior!

The Bible is full of many wonderful promises to us.  Some of them are promises to us as individuals, some are promises to particular groups of people, such as the people of Israel or the Church of Jesus Christ. Some include promises concerning the whole world and even the universe!  Many of these promises have been fulfilled and we can read about them in the Bible and in recorded history or we have seen them fulfilled in our own experience.  What a thrill it is to see how faithful God is to keep His promises!  Of course, we should expect that He will be faithful and to doubt it would be irrational.  But there is one aspect of God’s promises that we sometimes overlook – our own role in their fulfillment.

This is illustrated by what Queen Esther’s cousin, Mordecai, said to her when she told him how dangerous it would be for her to approach the king without him summoning her first.  An executioner stood ever ready to dispatch the person whose unsought presence annoyed or inconvenienced his Royal Highness.  Her predecessor had been demoted and imprisoned for life when she displeased him.  Mordecai replied that the genocide soon to be visited upon the Jews by the king’s order, shrewdly contrived by the wicked Haman, would not stop at the palace gates.  As a Jew, she too would be caught in its maws.  As his queen, Esther stood a chance of changing the king’s mind and that may be the very reason she was so miraculously elevated to her position by the previous queen’s fall from favor.  Nevertheless, Mordecai said, if she failed to act, God would provide deliverance to the Jews through someone else but she and her family would perish.

Why was Mordecai so sure of this?  He knew the promises God had made to Israel.  Though God would test them and discipline them when they went astray, He would not utterly cut them off.  The persistence of the Jewish people down through the centuries is a signal fulfillment of God’s faithfulness to His promises. Can you think of any other group of people who have been so often close to annihilation and yet escaped? Yes, in the twentieth century millions died in the Holocaust, but millions more survived and continue to this day.  So Mordecai was sure God would send help from some quarter if Esther, from fear, refused to do her duty.

But did this let Esther off the hook?  Not at all!  God uses means to bring about the ends He intends.  God most often uses people to fulfill His promises.  From the beginning of the Bible, God promised to make Abraham the father of many nations. (Genesis 12:3; 17:5)  This was actually a promise to save a great multitude from all nations, tribes, peoples and languages. (Romans 4:16-18) He repeated this promise many times through many prophecies found in the Old Testament Scriptures. (Isaiah 2:2-4; Daniel 2:44; 7:13-14, etc.)  But how was this to be fulfilled?  Would God, as it were, snap His fingers and like John the Baptist said, “from these stones... raise up children of Abraham”? (Matthew 3:9) No, He sent His Son into the world, as a human being, to gather and train human disciples and then send them forth into the world to proclaim the good news of salvation and invite people to enter the kingdom of heaven.  (Matthew 28:18-20)

But what if the disciples refused or failed to do this?  To be sure, He would have found others to do the job – but someone would need to do it if God’s promise is to be fulfilled.  To be sure, they could not help fulfill God’s promise without the aid of the Holy Spirit and that is why Jesus told the disciples to wait in Jerusalem until they received “power from on high” before setting out to save the world. (Luke 24:49; Acts 1:1-8) That great work and the final fulfillment of God’s promise to convert the nations to Christ, remains to finished.  You and I, as believers in Jesus, have been equipped and positioned “for such a time as this” to participate in its fulfillment.  But this is not the only promise of God we are to play a part in fulfilling.

I recently listened to a podcast in which the hosts read responses to their appeal for people to get engaged in the effort to combat global warming.  One of the respondents, a well-meaning Christian I would guess, replied with the words, “Relax – God has it all under control.”  I have heard others quote the Bible where God promises, after the Flood, “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.” (Genesis 8:22)  In this promise, they say, we can have assurance that the worst possibilities of global warming will not take place.  I think they are right but not because people will have sat on their hands and done nothing.

Now I realize that there are still some who doubt that humans have anything to do with the land surface and ocean temperature rises that track closely with the increase of atmospheric carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases due to human activities.  So be it, but there are other threats to human life and our planet’s habitability that we as humans have a responsibility to help prevent.  In the beginning, God gave us dominion over the earth, the sea and sky. (Genesis 1:26-28) That means we have responsibility for this planet.  God has promised that our planet will continue to be our home until Jesus returns in glory to make a new heavens and earth but that will be, in part, because enough people took their God-given responsibility seriously.

Let’s take the proliferation of thermonuclear weapons, for instance.  For one brief moment, it seemed as if we would see the end of nuclear weapons in our lifetime.  In October of 1986, President Reagan and Gorbachev, Premier of the Soviet Union met in Reykjavik, Iceland and came very close to agreeing to a total nuclear disarmament.  Both men wanted to do this but Reagan refused to give up on the missile defense program nicknamed “Star Wars” and Gorbachev thought he could not sell disarmament to the Politburo and generals without getting rid of the program.  The irony of this is that “Star Wars” never did become a viable program and the Soviet Union collapsed anyway.  But nuclear weapons have remained and spread to more nations.  One mistake and the vast arsenals of the US and Russia, or those of India and Pakistan, among others, could be unleashed with devastating consequences, not just for the nations involved but the whole world.  People with inside knowledge have disclosed that this has very nearly happened on numerous occasions.  No doubt we owe these escapes so far to God’s providential mercies.  But should we put God to the test indefinitely?  No! We, as Christians and as members of the human family need to make it perfectly clear to our governments that we do not want nuclear weapons and that they should be working toward their complete elimination.  This will be our part in the fulfillment of God’s promise.

There are other threats to our planet and the human race, many of which are not of human origin, such as near-earth orbit asteroids, comets, solar super-flares, biological pathogens, etc.  In these cases, God has given us the ability to defend the world against such threats if we put our hearts and heads together.  President Reagan once asked what would happen if our planet were about to be invaded by aliens from another planet.  Wouldn’t that make the nations of the world lay down their petty squabbles and unite to face such a foe?  I agree with him that we would. While there is no evidence that we will ever face an alien invasion we certainly have plenty of other threats that amount to very much the same. While we owe our continued existence on this planet completely to God’s care and mercy, He expects us to use the talents and resources He has provided to cooperate with Him in this effort.

Yes, we must pray but we must also work.  As the old Puritan maxim states, “Pray as though everything depends upon God and work as though everything depends on you.”  The spread of the gospel of Jesus Christ should substantially contribute to the fulfillment of God’s promise that earth shall remain a habitable place for us.  But if we spread the kind of Christianity that says, “Leave it up to God and live like there are no consequences to our bad choices” we will fail to do our part to fulfill God’s promise. Still, God will fulfill His promise somehow and through those who do heed His word; of that we can be certain.  Let us, therefore, remember Mordecai’s warning and exhortation to Esther.  He told her that God would fulfill His promise to preserve the Jews but that if she did not use the opportunity God had given her to achieve this end, she would be destroyed.  And indeed, when we opt out of doing our duty in the face of peril we do damage to our immortal souls, damage which, if not repaired in time may render us forever unfit for service in God’s kingdom.For as Jesus said, what does it profit a man if he gain whole world and yet lose his soul? (Mark 8:36)

 What beautiful letters Paul writes to his beloved spiritual son, Timothy!  In this, his second letter to Timothy, Paul is giving final encouragement and instructions as he knew the time of his “departure” (death) was near.  Not long afterward, early Christian historians recorded, Paul was executed by the Emperor Nero.  Knowing this was his likely fate, Paul’s letter is full of emotion and urgency.  Paul remembers the tears that Timothy shed at their last parting and expresses his longing to see him again.  In the meantime, Paul continues to pray for Timothy day and night.  He affirms his own sincere service to God, following in the steps of his faithful Jewish ancestors and also the sincere faith of Timothy who has followed the example of sincere faith demonstrated in the lives of his Jewish mother and grandmother.

All of this is leads to Paul’s exhortation:  “kindle afresh the gift of God which is in you…”  The Greek word translated as “kindle afresh” is made up of three root words: 1) ana, which means “again”, 2) zoon, something alive, and 3) pur, which means “fire”.  The result (transliterated) is anazopureo, rightly translated as “kindle afresh” or “reanimate” or “relight” the gift of God within you.  This one verb lets us know that the gift within Timothy could be likened to a living fire which needed stirring up lest it go out.  Timothy, Paul knew, was facing a challenge that would, with Paul’s death, soon become even more challenging.  Paul knew Timothy’s strengths but, more importantly, he also knew his weaknesses.  These weaknesses could all be addressed by a single effort:  stir up and fan the flame of the gift he received when Paul (and the elders – 1Timothy 4:14) laid their hands upon him and prayed for him.  What was this gift?

Yes, it was related to his calling as a minister of the gospel.  But is this relevant only to those who are called to preach?  I think not.  Everyone who truly receives Jesus, also receives the gift of His Spirit.  With the establishment of His residence within the believer, the Holy Spirit also bestows gifts of service.  For Timothy, it was the gift of public preaching and teaching.  In several places, the Apostles Paul and Peter mention other spiritual gifts believers might receive, such as those of healing, administration, service, discernment, etc.  But what Paul is focusing on here is not a particular gift of the Spirit but the gift of the Spirit Himself.  This is clear from what Paul says about the Spirit in verse 7 and how he relates the rekindling of this glorious gift to Timothy’s weaknesses.

Timothy suffered from timidity.  This is a common enough weakness.  However, the ministry that God had called him to fulfill required him to overcome this weakness.  He could not back down in the face of persecution; he could not give way to contentious or strong personalities among the believers who, if not countered, would destroy the church.  He would need the strength to confront sinful behaviors and deal faithfully with those who had fallen into them.  Are these challenges only faced by those in public ministry as Timothy was?  No.  While we may not have responsibility over the spiritual well-being of a congregation or the task of proclaiming the gospel to crowds of people, we do have a responsibility for ourselves and even for those whom God has placed in our circle of influence.  But let us first focus on ourselves, as Jesus advises (Matthew 7:3-5).  Timothy had a problem with fear.  It affected his ability to make bold, decisive efforts, it limited his capacity for love and it rendered him weak in the face of temptations.  We see all this from verse 7. 

We can identify with Timothy as it sounds similar to problems we face in living as God intends for us.  And remember, Timothy was no slouch!  He was a godly young man, serving the Lord and, so far, faithful to his calling.  But he needed to be reminded to rekindle the fire of God’s Spirit in his heart.  So how do we do that?

Jesus calls the Holy Spirit, the “Spirit of Truth”. (John 14:7; 15:26; 16:13) It is our will that must be brought into line with God’s will but God does not force our wills.  Rather, He moves our wills through the presentation to our minds of the appropriate truth, the truth we need to know in order to overcome the influence of the world, the “flesh” (our feelings, basically) and the lies of the evil one.  Jesus said, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” (John 8:31-32) The work of the Spirit is to take the truth of God and make it come alive to our minds, thus moving our wills.

Now, we can read a menu in a restaurant and know what is on it, but not until the food is served and we taste it do we know it directly and experientially.  The Holy Scriptures are the menu.  The enjoyment of the meal is the work of the Holy Spirit.  But again, Paul is telling Timothy to do something, to “kindle afresh” the gift of the Spirit in order to overcome his weaknesses.  What is he telling him, and us, to do?

Put in its simplest terms, we must bring God’s truth before our minds and let the Spirit make it come to life.God’s truth is multifaceted and there is some truth that is needed for every challenge and other truth that is necessary for specific ones.The Spirit will guide us to both kinds of truth.He will not usually do this unless we take the initiative.We must have frequent and regular times of exposure to God’s truth and then respond to it with prayer, rejoicing, praise, confession and obedience. This will make all the difference between victory or defeat before our spiritual enemies.When we do what the Spirit wants us to do, to “think God’s thoughts after Him”, then the fire of our “first love” (Revelation 2:4) will be rekindled and we will be well prepared to face our foes! (There’s a lot more to this, but enough for now.)

-1 Peter 2:9-10

 Human beings have always placed a lot of value on their group identities.  We tend to feel most comfortable with people we identify as being like ourselves.  These kinds of people become “our people” and people of other groups can easily arouse our suspicions and fears.  We group-identify in all kinds of ways: by language, physical appearances, cultural beliefs and practices, economic status, etc.  Today’s heated political discussion and commentary frequently mentions the way “identity politics” is used to galvanize support for parties and candidates.  Most people condemn what they perceive to be identity politics or at least condemn their political opponents for it.  The national motto of the United States is the Latin saying, E Pluribus Unum, which means, “Out of many, one.”  We like to think of ourselves as a “melting pot” of diverse peoples who form one united nation – united in allegiance to the ideals of democracy, equality under the law, the rule of law and the guarantee of basic human rights for all.  That is a wonderful foundation for our nation and one we should all work to preserve.

However, even with such a wonderful heritage, fractures and harmful divisions continue to plague us and the resolution of these differences through adherence to the ideals of our way of government sometimes seems threatened.  This is because we humans so easily succumb to an “us vs. them” mentality, a fact which would-be leaders exploit to their advantage.  It has led to the hatred, persecution, violence and all-out wars plaguing our race from the dawn of history to the present day.  God does have a solution for this problem and we find it in what the Apostle Peter says in 1 Peter 2:9-10, quoted above.

Peter is writing to people from at least two diverse groups, Jews and Greeks, who have become one through faith in Christ.  He says that they have become “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession…”  Notice how each of these describe categories over which people divide.  They divide by “race” (that is, descent from a common ancestor), status (“we deserve to rule”), “we are holy”, that is “we are unique”, and especially the idea that God or “the gods” favor us.  But in this case it is all turned to the opposite purpose.  Instead of being a call to fear or dominate others, these names for the new nation God formed with the coming of Christ, point to their role in solving the problem of human divisions and animosities.

Notice first the reason Peter gives for God calling Christians by these exalted names, for giving them a very special group identity:  in order that they might proclaim the excellencies of Him who called them out of darkness into His marvelous light!  It is not so they can exalt themselves over others but to exalt Him who rescued them from darkness and revealed His glory to them.  They are not called to force others to believe but to give them evidence of God’s goodness and thus draw them willingly to surrender to Him.  They are chosen to serve as Christ did, to seek the lost and help them come to God. They are God’s special possession, the instrument by which He saves a selfish and fear-filled world.

Under the Old Covenant, God sought to preserve a people through whom He would lay a foundation of truth and righteousness.  The people of God under that covenant were given many rules that would separate them from the nations around them.  They were to guard the messages and prophecies until the time came for their fulfillment.  But once Christ came, God formed a new people for Himself which included those Jews who believed in Jesus but also included people from every tribe, kindred, tongue and nation who likewise follow Christ.  The job of this new nation was to share the good news with all nations and invite them to the feast of God’s kingdom, offered freely through the blood of the Lamb.  If the members of this new nation preserved their identity and made it primary, then they could never enter into the world’s wars and conflicts.  Christ taught them to love those who were their enemies and who persecuted them, to overcome animosity and fear with love and the faithful proclamation of the gospel. 

The problem comes when Christians forget that their racial, national, or other identities are as nothing when compared to their identity in Christ.  Any appeal to ethnic solidarity, nationalism, or any other group identity other than that of being a follower of the Lamb, must take second place.  Sadly, many Christians down through the centuries have allowed just such rival claims to supersede those of Christ.  The results have always been disastrous, not only from a purely human perspective but from the perspective of Christ’s kingdom.  When the Hutus slaughtered nearly a million Tutsis in Rwanda the saddest thing about it was that both groups were largely Christian!  Tribal identity superseded Christian identity.  When the European powers went to war in 1914, Europe was a solidly Christian continent.  Even when threatened by non-Christian groups, Christians who make their identity in Christ paramount will follow His example and teaching by not returning evil for evil.

So what is your primary group identity?Is it based on your skin color, your national origin, your political party, your sex, your economic status?Whatever it is, other than your identity as a Christian, it is an idol and needs to be abandoned.Not until enough Christians have forsaken these idols will Christ’s kingdom make real progress in the world and the fractious divisions among all people be healed.

She was the daughter of a Methodist minister and married the son of a Baptist minister who became a businessman in West Virginia.  It is estimated that she bore between eleven and thirteen children but only four survived her.  Health conditions were very poor in those days and many children never made it to adulthood.  Epidemics of cholera, diphtheria, measles and typhoid fever swept through Appalachia in those days, not to mention tuberculosis and a host of other perennial diseases.  Anna became a leader in the health and hygiene movement, founding chapters of the Mothers’ Day Work Clubs in several towns and cities in Virginia.  These clubs raised money to pay for medicines, food and other things needed by poor women as they struggled to raise their children.  They would pay for other women to assist mothers as they cared for their newborns and older children.  They also held classes for mothers to teach them about good hygiene practices.  Since there were no government consumer safety agencies in those days, they carried out a campaign to inspect milk to make sure it was safe to drink.

Ann was a devoted Christian and taught Sunday school in her church.  As the nation began to drift toward war, she did her best to prevent it, striving to hold together her Methodist denomination as members in the south, where she lived, wanted to separate from the northern Methodist churches on the issue of slavery.  When the war broke out, she refused to take sides and organized nursing care for both Union and Confederate wounded soldiers.  When the war came right into her neighborhood and a union soldier was killed she was the only one willing to offer a prayer at his graveside.  After the war, she organized meetings of former soldiers from both sides that sought to heal the understandably bitter resentments between them.  She was, in the words of her Master, a peacemaker.

These are just a few of the marvelous things this mother did and it is no wonder that her daughter, who stayed by her side until she died and cared for her, was inspired to fulfill her mother’s prayer that there would be a national day to honor all mothers.  I too, have had the privilege of being intimately acquainted with the mothers in my family, especially my own dear mother who is now in heaven and my wonderful wife who continues to serve her family and many others in many ways.

But beyond my own family, I constantly see the great work that mothers do and inspire others to do.  For instance, just last evening I was honored to bring the word of God and prayers at a memorial for Margaret Crutcher’s mother, Ruth, who died last week in Kenya at the age of 89.  Here too, was a woman who was full of good works, a devoted mother and who traveled here to America where we at Sacramento Friends Church had the privilege of getting to know her.  Back in Kenya she not only cared for her own family but also for many AIDs orphans. At the memorial, held at Margaret and Toni’s home, there was a wonderful display of that motherly care provided by the members of ALIA (African Ladies in America) a society of African immigrants who, upon such occasions, provide food, and raise funds to assist with the funeral and travel expenses so heavy for those whose family are at a distance from the deceased.  On top of this, they provided a beautiful choir for the memorial whose songs ministered much cheer and comfort to the family and guests.  We have heard them also at memorials held at our church for our other Kenyan friends who have lost precious family members.

Ruth’s memorial was in the afternoon and evening of that day but just that morning in our regular service we were privileged to publicly dedicate four lovely children to the Lord and pray for His blessing on their lives.Again, it was another evidence of the uncountable value of mothers who have brought us all into the world.So let us, by all means, honor them on that day (and every day), and remember the mother who first inspired her daughter to help make it a national holiday in this and many other countries around the world. – Jim Healton

Today, we need another and even better wave of conviction and conversion to Jesus among young and old alike.  Jesus’ resurrection was the harbinger and foretaste of the new world to come in which all evil, sin, injustice, disease and death will be replaced by eternal life, love and peace in God’s long promised, “new heavens and earth.” (Isaiah 65:17-25; 2 Peter 3:10-13; Revelation 21:1-4)  This hope is not a basis for resignation and complacency with regard to this present world, however.  Paul points out that even now, when anyone is in Christ “there is a new creation.  The old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” (2 Corinthians 5:17)

Some translations (including the KJV) translate it as “he is a new creature” but this is limiting it and misses the point.  Paul points out that “all things have become new” because the person who is in Christ sees everything from a new perspective.  Already, they see the new creation shining through the old.  The world, like the skin of a caterpillar, has grown dry and rigid but underneath a beautiful butterfly is taking shape.  Moreover, the world to come inspires those in Christ to seek this world’s redemption and work to establish, as much as possible, the kingdom of heaven on earth.  They will be found at the forefront of efforts to establish peace on earth and to provide for the welfare of all God’s children.  Acknowledging that nothing will be perfect this side of Christ’s glorious Second Advent, they nevertheless seek the highest possible realization of Christ’s kingdom before He returns.

At Easter time, and every day, when we remember Christ’s triumph over sin, death and the devil, we know we have reason to hope, and to labor for His cause.  We can be certain that He who leads us is leading us every day further on toward the final and fullest installment of “the new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.” (2 Peter 3:13)

MENTAL ILLNESS EPIDEMIC AMONG YOUTH, YOUNG ADULTS

In a recent article at The Conversation, Jean Twenge, Professor of Psychology at San Diego State University, revealed the results of a study she and a colleague conducted based, in part, on a general population survey of 600,000 Americans.  The survey was called “The National Survey on Drug Use and Health” and was conducted by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.  Analysis revealed that there has been an alarming increase in mental health problems in youth and young adults, especially anxiety and depression.\Here are the main findings of her analysis of the survey:  “From 2009 to 2017, major depression among 20- to 21-year-olds more than doubled, rising from 7 percent to 15 percent. Depression surged 69 percent among 16- to 17-year-olds. Serious psychological distress, which includes feelings of anxiety and hopelessness, jumped 71 percent among 18- to 25-year-olds from 2008 to 2017. Twice as many 22- to 23- year-olds attempted suicide in 2017 compared with 2008, and 55 percent more had suicidal thoughts. The increases were more pronounced among girls and young women. By 2017, one out of five 12- to 17-year-old girls had experienced major depression in the previous year.”

\To what does Professor Twenge attribute this dramatic increase?  She observes that it is occurring among young people who, more than any previous generation, depend on electronic media for social interaction:  “Compared with their predecessors, teens today spend less time with their friends in person and more time communicating electronically, which study after study has found is associated with mental health issues.”  Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram and other social media have especially affected young females whereas young males devote more of their time to electronic video-gaming.  But both kinds of electronic interaction reinforce unrealistic perceptions of themselves, others and the world around them, promoting anxiety about social acceptance and hopelessness at attaining real worth.  Other negative results are failure to form good friendships and good judgment in social settings.

Twenge and others advise postponement of smartphones for children as long as possible and otherwise paring down their time on electronic media.  But the positive side of their prescription is where we, as Christians, especially have something to offer.  Christ encouraged gathering together and serving one another: real face time with real people!  Bringing youth and young adults into the circle of Christian friendships, fellowship and service is a powerful antidote to despair and anxiety.  There is no better place for young people to discover real love and meaning than in a faithful, loving fellowship of Christian believers.

That is why we of Sacramento Friends Church are renewing efforts to reach out to the youth and young adults within our circle of influence.Stay tuned for announcements of new activities for youth and young adults this quarter!

Throughout history many groups of Christians have had very strong opinions as to what the Sabbath is and what its significance is for followers of Christ. Today, Sabbath is no longer as central to American culture; so people are often confused about what exactly it is. There is really no need for confusion, though. The Sabbath is one of the few religious traditions in ancient Israel that includes both explicit instructions and the reasoning behind them. I hope to unpack them a little and explore what they mean for Christians today.

A Holy Rest

The first reference to “Sabbath” is found in the Pentateuch and it simply means rest. So when we read “Sabbath year” the Israelites would have understood it to mean “year of rest.” The special meaning that has come to be associated with the term was established by the instructions Moses received from God.

The first instruction God gave was to establish a weekly Sabbath on which no food was to be gathered or prepared. (Ex. 16:22-30) When Moses received the Ten Commandments, more explicit instructions were given for this weekly rest. The Israelites were told that no work of any kind was to be done on the Sabbath either directly or vicariously, through servants and animals. In some places this type of Sabbath is referred to as a “Sabbath of complete rest.” (Ex. 35:2) It was described as a holy day, a day which was to be different and sacred, a day dedicated to and belonging to God. (Ex. 20:8-11) In addition to every seventh day, many feasts and festivals were also Sabbaths “of complete rest.” Typically these Sabbaths were paired with national holy days on which the covenant was read or sacrifices were offered and the weekly Sabbath was no exception. (Num. 28:9-10)

The second type of Sabbath God instructed His people to follow was a Sabbath year. Every seventh year and every fiftieth year (the year of Jubilee) they were told not to plant, tend, or harvest their crops. This is different from the previous Sabbaths because they could still do other types of work. Working the land, however, the primary means of acquiring food, was forbidden. (Lev. 25:3-7)

Why?

God’s stated reason for establishing the Sabbath days and years was different from what you might expect. He did NOT say “Rest on the seventh day because you worked hard for six days and you deserve it.” He said that the Sabbath was a sign “throughout the generations, that you may know I am the Lord who sanctifies you,” and that it is a “perpetual covenant.” (Ex. 31:13, 16) In typical God-fashion, however, the instructions He gives have both primary and secondary purposes. God knew that as humans we need rest, and so he gave a mandatory weekly Sabbath. God knew that there would be poor, and so he commanded the Sabbath year as a way to care for them. While crops were not to be planted, tended, or harvested, the Israelites, and specifically the poor, were permitted to eat what grew on its own. (Ex. 23:11, Ex. 25) As a side note, it is for this reason that I believe God may have intended each family to have their own Sabbath year. That way, every year would be a Sabbath year somewhere. In addition, debts were to be canceled on Sabbath years, and property returned on the year of Jubilee. But wait, there’s more!

Probably the most important secondary purpose for weekly Sabbaths and Sabbath years was to demonstrate God’s abundant provision and give his people regular opportunities to show their trust in Him. This started in a very simple and obvious fashion in the wilderness. Mana rotted after 1 day except on the Sabbath. To make it even more obvious, mana didn’t even appear on the Sabbath. (Ex. 16:22-27) The Israelites had to prepare for the Sabbath on the day before. God promised that he would provide for them in the same way in the land they were going to, but on a grander scale. He said that the seemingly unpredictable harvest would be guaranteed to last two years (or three in the case of Jubilee) if the followed God’s instructions. (Lev. 25:18-22)

We have seen that the weekly Sabbath (which is what most people refer to when they use the term) is not distinguished from other holy days in Mosaic Law except in their frequency. We have seen that it was a day of “complete rest” and a day of worship, both through sacrifice and through remembering their covenant with the Lord. God’s primary reason for instituting it was to remind His people that it is the Lord that sanctifies his people and is the source of their blessings. His secondary reasons were to take care of the poor and establish a healthy rhythm of life. Biblically speaking, there is only one main point left to be made.

Is The Sabbath Still Relevant?

In the New Testament, the term “Sabbath” is only mentioned twice in a way that does not merely refer to a particular day of the week or to the institution I just described. In Colossians 2:16, Paul groups together Sabbath days with other Jewish holy days as matters of law which Christians (and gentile Christians in particular) have no obligation to follow. His line of reasoning is that these laws are “a mere shadow of what is to come,” with the substance found in Christ. The author of Hebrews seems to have a similar idea describing a “Sabbath” that God’s people can now enjoy if they are faithful to Him and should pursue diligently so that we don’t lose it. (Heb. 4:1-13)

I think that it is impossible to grasp this New Testament understanding of Sabbath unless we first draw the connection between Sabbath and peace–harmonious relationship. (Lev. 26:6, Deut. 20:10-11) The OT Sabbath was God’s reminder that he was at peace with them. When they broke their covenant with God, they lost their Sabbath and their peace. Today, we receive peace with God and enter the promised Sabbath when we accept, by faith, that Jesus has covered us with his righteousness and given us the gift of peace and through it, true Sabbath. We enter into the Sabbath rest when we invite God into every area of our lives and find rest in his presence. However, there is a difference between peace and Sabbath. Peace is the state of our relationship with God, while Sabbath is a manifestation of that relationship. Because we have peace with God, we can rest. We no longer need to work to earn a place in God’s house. This is the first and most important thing to remember.

The secondary things that Sabbath accomplished, however, are still important. If we choose not to observe the Sabbaths that God commanded the Israelites to follow, then we should ask ourselves this question: “Are we are throwing out the baby with the bathwater?” I will look at the three secondary purposes mentioned and offer a few suggestions.

First, establish a healthy rhythm of life. Regular rest and worship is not just healthy, but necessary for spiritual growth. These can be established on very short time scales or very long time scales. You can have “Sabbath minutes” between activities during your day. You can have “Sabbath hours” every night. You can have “Sabbath days, weeks, even months or years” if you plan for it. I must be careful to distinguish, however, between a “Sabbath” and a “vacation.” A Sabbath is time given to God, to worship Him and to learn about Him and to experience Him. A vacation is time not working, but doing the things that YOU want to do instead. When trying to figure out how often to engage in this “Sabbath rest,” remember this principle: RHYTHM MEANS REGULAR INTERVALS. Whatever you decide to do, make it a habit, daily, weekly, monthly, yearly. If you do not make Sabbath rest a habit, it might help you for a while, but it won’t change your life.

Second, you can rest from slavery to the self by being generous. Forgive people’s obligations to you and freely share what God has given you. Maybe it is a friend who never returned something. Maybe it is that guy who doesn’t have enough money for fuel at the gas station. Maybe it is something really hurtful that has been said to you. Rest from the obligation to make things right and fair yourself, recognizing that Jesus has already paid the price for all sins and that everything we have is a gift from God.

Third, practice faith. God asked Israelites to trust that every seven years God would provide for them when they followed his commands. Look for opportunities to trust in God’s strength rather than your own. We can do this in two ways. 1) We can recognize that God is ultimately responsible for the success or failure of all our endeavors. When we lift our needs and our cares up to God and trust that He will provide, we are exercising faith. 2) We can commit to things which we are not sure we can do, but are in God’s will for us, and trust that God will provide to make it happen. Whatever you decide to do, remember to ask two questions: “What is God asking me to do personally?” and “How is God providing for what I can’t do?” As we step out in faith, we must be willing to humbly obey God’s direction and to accept his provision even when it doesn’t look like we thought it would.

The Sabbath pictured in the Bible is rich both in how it portrays God’s plan for his people as a whole and in how he cares for his people individually. Now that we are free from the law and have peace with God, we should rely on the Spirit to guide us into a true Sabbath that permeates every area of our lives, “pursuing it diligently so that we don’t lose it.”

I was driving to work a few mornings ago and about 10 miles into my drive, I became suddenly aware that I was not listening to anything – no audiobooks, no podcasts, no music and not the morning news. Wow! It was a wonderful thing and my discovery was not an unhappy one, but I was struck by the reality that this was quite a rare occasion.  How refreshing not to be anxiously filling the sound void.

We live in a very noisy time! It is so rare to find times of silence and stillness and yet Scripture and those who would know the Lord most intimately, declare not only the value, but the necessity of silence. As Friends, our heritage significantly informs our understanding and hopefully our experience of this truth. Consider with me the reasons that silence must be a part of our personal and corporate Christian life 

Wonder and worship

 “The Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before him.”  (Habakkuk 2:20) Silence is the natural response of awe in the presence of a God who is at once merciful, loving and almighty. We are rash and proud to have any other response.  We use the expression in relation to events that we find stunning – ‘speechless’.  How often do you find yourself speechless?   As we stand-sit-bow before God, we need to have more times of being speechless. This applies to our personal and our collective response to the Divine.  “When they heard these things they fell silent. And they glorified God, saying, “Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.” (Acts 11: 1) The disciples were amazed at the incredible truth that the Gentiles are included in the great work of the kingdom. So amazed, that they fell silent.

Scripture further tells us that silence is a form of worship – not just something that makes it possible. Psalm 65 begins with a declaration that those before the throne of God will be silent.  – “There will be silence before You, and praise in Zion, O God, And to You the vow will be performed.  O You who hear prayer, To You all men come.”  The word and is added to the text, but it appears that it is not entirely necessary and may give a different read– that ‘there will be silence before You – praise in Zion, O God.’ Our silence before God can be a form of praise! Note that silence is not what we praise or worship – it is a potential means of worship, praise and spiritual formation.  

Discipline/self-control/soul training

The fact that staying silent is so uncomfortable for many of us is evidence of the role it can play as an act of discipline or soul training (If you are an apprentice) for self-control. All of us can probably think of times when remaining silent would have been a better option than the one we chose – to answer back with harsh words, saying more than we meant to, perhaps gossip – perhaps boasting or humble bragging. These are all times when silence would have been obedience, if we are honest.  Proverbs speaks to this:  “If you have been foolish, exalting yourself, or if you have been devising evil, put your hand on your mouth." (30:2)

Here are some other passages that likewise encourage silence:  “Then Moses and the Levitical priests said to all Israel, ‘Keep silence and hear, O Israel:  this day you have become the people of the Lord your God.  You shall therefore obey the voice of the Lord your God, keeping his commandments and his statutes, which I command you today.’” (Deuteronomy 27:9-10) “Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore, let your words be few. For a dream comes with much business, and a fool’s voice with many words.” (Ecclesiastes 5:2-3) “Whether you turn to the right or the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it.”  (Isaiah 30:21)

If we are going to hear the voice of our guide, we need to allow times of silence. When our minds and hearts are full of the loud and even the not so loud noise intended to dull our ability to hear the Shepherd, we must choose the still small voice. Words may help and silence may help, but the one thing needful is that the heart should turn to its Maker as the needle turns to the pole. For this we must be still. This 20th century Friend, Caroline Stephen, reminds us of the need for words and silence in finding truth:  “Our own times of corporate open worship are the opportunity that we have as a body to experience silence and stillness together. It is privilege to share this sacred time together. It is an incredible testimony to our amazing God and to the grace that comes only through sharing this holy time and space.” 

It will be true that, at times silence will be uncomfortable for another reason. As we sit in stillness before the Lord we may learn that we need to make a change, we may feel convicted about something God has wanted to bring to our attention but we would not hear it.  Lamentations 3:26-28 reads, “It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. Let him sit alone in silence when it is laid on him.”  And in Isaiah, “For thus the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, has said, ‘In repentance and rest you will be saved, In quietness and trust is your strength.’ But you were not willing.”  (30:15) Let us give up bearing the burden alone and wait in the quiet for the strength of our God.

At other times, the Lord desires to pour His love out upon us, to call us His own. We must be still to experience the promise of Zephaniah 3:17 -  “The Lord your God is in your midst, A victorious warrior. He will exult over you with joy, He will be quiet in His love, He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy.” In your quiet, the void of noise will allow you to rest in His love for you.

I will leave you with this quote from William Penn: “True silence is the rest of the mind; and is to the spirit, what sleep is to the body, nourishment and refreshment.” May you make time for silence in the days ahead and may you have the joy of experiencing the silence with your brothers and sisters during times of open corporate worship.

I stumbled on a provocatively titled article in the September 2017 issue of Smithsonian magazine: "The Cave-dwelling Vegan Who Took on Quaker Slavery and Won," by Marcus Rediker (Volume 48, issue 5, pp. 34-41). The article proved to be a sympathetic and respectful review of Benjamin Lay's contribution to the kingdom of heaven.

Benjamin Lay was born in Essex, England, in 1682. He was a third-generation Quaker in a region known for textile manufacturing, protests, and religious radicalism. In the late 1690s, as a teenager, Lay found satisfying work as a shepherd on a half-brother's farm in eastern Cambridgeshire. When it came time for Benjamin to strike out on his own, however, his father pointed his son in a different direction. The elder Lay apprenticed Benjamin to a master glover in Colchester, Essex. Benjamin disliked the work and in 1703, at the age of 21, he went to London to be a sailor.

For the next 12 years, Lay lived between London and the sea lanes. While aboard ship, Lay worked closely with multiethnic crews and had much exposure to the horrors of the slave trade and ownership. The plight of slaves in Barbados was especially grim in Lay's eyes. I wonder whether knowledge of George Fox's early visit to the island provided an additional push into Lay's staunch abolitionist stance. We know from his later writings that Lay's study of Quaker history also convinced him that no man had the right to control another human's conscience or to attempt to exert such control.

The earliest known record of Lay participating formally in Quaker business dates to 1717, in the British American colonies. Lay had sailed to Boston to request a certificate of approval to marry Sarah Smith of Deptford, England. Smith was a little person like her husband-to-be, although she was a popular and admired preacher in her monthly meeting - in contrast to the esteem in which Lay was held in the London monthly meeting. Lay's meeting did say that he was clear of prior marriages. Benjamin and Sarah soon married.

In the middle of March, 1732, the Lays took a ship to Philadelphia, eager to take part in William Penn's Holy Experiment. The City of Brotherly Love was then North America's largest city and boasted the second largest population of Friends in the world. At the center of the city's religious and civic life was Philadelphia Monthly Meeting.

A discordant element of life in this Quaker country was slavery. The abominable practice was commonplace - much more so than in the Lays' native England. What was more, Friends both owned slaves and engaged in human trade. Galvanized by the early death of his abolitionist friend Ralph Sandiford (also a Friend), after May 1733, Benjamin began staging public protests to startle Philadelphia Friends into an awareness of slavery's immorality.

Lay's early protests included the condemnation of tobacco smoking and cultivation because of its reliance on slave labor and health depredations. Lay had brought three pipes into the meetinghouse on a first day and rose to speak toward the end of worship. He dashed the pipes on the floor and railed against slavery and smoking.  On another occasion, Lay waited in deep snow outside the meetinghouse and thrust a bared leg into a snow drift as Friends passed him. Several Friends admonished Lay to take care not to expose himself to the elements. Lay responded that their concern must be feigned, as they make their slaves go half-clad all winter long.  Lay's public condemnation of slave-holding Friends was so ardent and persistent that Philadelphia Friends appointed a constabulary to keep Benjamin out of worship meetings.

At the end of 1734, the Lays moved 8 miles north of Philadelphia to Abington. For their transfer, Philadelphia Monthly Meeting gave Sarah a letter of good standing. Not so for Benjamin. Sarah died of unknown causes in late 1735; Lay partially blamed Robert Jordan Jr., an overseer in Philadelphia Monthly Meeting, for Sarah's death.

In 1738, Lay had Benjamin Franklin print a book, All Slave-Keepers that Keep the Innocent in Bondage, Apostates. It was part autobiography, prophetic pronouncement against slavery, description of slavery in Barbados, writings by others, and account of Lay's struggles with Philadelphia Quaker slave owners. Lay continued to attend meetings and protest slavery.

Lay eventually left his Abington house and built a home in a cave to live a simpler life unencumbered by unwitting contributions to the slave economy of Philadelphia. His new home had room for a spinning jenny and a large library. Lay gardened, kept bees, and planted fruit trees. He observed a vegetarian, nearly vegan diet, and made his own clothing.

By 1757, at the age of 75, Lay's health began to deteriorate. He ceased traveling. The following year, word reached Lay that a process of internal purification had begun in Philadelphia Monthly Meeting. Participation in the slave trade was forbidden among members of the monthly meeting, although slave ownership was tolerated for another 18 years. Nevertheless, Lay praised God for moving the hearts of his fellow Friends. Benjamin Lay died at home on February 3, 1759, and was buried in Abington cemetery. The Abington Monthly Meeting register of burials recorded the fact of Lay's burial, but did not indicate him a member of the meeting.

Soon after reading this article, I asked Jim and Tyla whether the monthly newsletter might have room for a few notes about Benjamin Lay. A few reasons present themselves. It's not often that Christian's receive positive treatment in scholarly or semi-scholarly journals - and accounts of Quakers are rarer still! The article reminds me how Friends have a special place in God's service and also in American history. I feel that both of these things are worth us celebrating - the former because of the joy in ministering under Christ's easy yoke and the latter as a record of Christian ministry. Lay's life can also remind us that the injustices with which he took righteous umbrage are relevant today. The forms of human bondage in America are different today than in Lay's time, yet human trafficking is all too real. He was concerned about the treatment of food animals long before veganism was a household word in the western world (I am not advocating for veganism here; I view that as a matter of individual health, conscience, and expression of faith). Most importantly, the shackles of sin and estrangement from the author of life continue to plague the human race. I see in Benjamin's life a clarion call to patient, faithful witnessing and loving kingdom living

(Note:The author of the article Gabriel read also wrote a full-length biography called The Fearless Benjamin Lay: The Quaker Dwarf Who Became the First Revolutionary Abolitionist.It will soon be available in the church library. – Jim Healton)

The Church is a community based on generosity. Giving to meet the needs of others is a constant theme in both teaching and practice. This can be traced directly back to the Founder of the Church: Jesus Christ. He taught and exemplified a life of sacrificial giving, culminating in His death on the cross for the sins of the world. His giving did not end there, however, for He continues to give to a needy world by His Spirit and through His representatives, His followers on earth. Our little church is one such band of His followers and it amazes me to think of all the giving that has been done through her members down the years.

Giving costs those who give but there is a cost we sometimes overlook and it is called “compassion fatigue”. It is especially a hazard for those we say are “on the frontline” of giving: people whose jobs are all about giving to those in need, such as nurses, doctors, social workers, law enforcement officers, emergency “first responders”, as well as those who are caring for dependent family members, such as young children or those suffering with dementia. The demands for care from these people are relentless and take their toll over time. Compassion Fatigue can become for them a clinical diagnosis that requires specific treatment. But there is a lower level form of compassion fatigue that, while it may not require therapeutic intervention, still leads to apathy, resentment and a shutting down of empathy for those for whom we would otherwise care.

This season of Advent and Christmas is particularly treacherous time for feeling overwhelmed by the amount of need in the world and the many hands stretched out toward us with an invitation to give. First, there is the giving we need to do for friends and family, not all of whom really need our gifts but for whom it is an annual sign of our heart-felt (or dutiful) ties of affection. On top of that are the many charities and church requests for funds or time commitments. And, on top of that, there are the many victims of fires, floods, poverty, war, exploitation, crime and civil unrest whose plight is portrayed in news broadcasts and other kinds of media on a daily basis.

It is no wonder, then, that there are many Americans for whom the “Caravan” victims of gang violence and poverty in Central America inspire more alarm than compassion. The fierce and widespread condemnation of John Allen Chau, the young man who was killed by the Sentinelese tribe people when he tried to share the good news of Jesus Christ with them shows how Americans may have lost an ability to understand such self-sacrificial giving. A couple of generations back, the deaths of four missionaries at the hands of the Auca tribe people they were trying to reach with the gospel was generally seen as meaningful and heroic. Their widows were interviewed by the media and treated with great respect. Numerous books, articles and even movies have favorably portrayed their martyrdoms.

So how can we overcome common-place compassion fatigue? First, by remembering how much we owe to the compassion of others. Even the most “self-made” successes are never fully self-made. We stand on the shoulders of countless others who have sacrificed, not always specifically for us, but definitely for the common good. And let us recall that greatest of all givers, our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave His all for our salvation. Next, we need to realize that God does not require us to serve beyond the strength and resources we have – unless He gives us extra with which to do it. We must consult with Him about what our share of the needs of the world happen to be. Yes, our level of giving should limit our ability to indulge some of our personal desires but they must not negate them all. Jesus did sleep, enjoy a meal with friends or rest by a well while His disciples went into the town to find food. (John 4:4-6) He once even tried to take His disciples on a brief vacation after they came back from their missionary journeys – however, the crowds of needy people found them and His heart was moved with compassion to help them. (Mark 6:7-13, 30-35) But at least we know by this that taking a vacation can be the right thing to do! Finally, God freely offers us the refreshment of His presence and blessing as we take time to replenish our souls with fresh draughts of His glory and love. Rejoicing in the Lord is indeed our strength! Remembering the tender mercies of the Lord to us and others over the years of our lives up to the present moment can do wonders to our perspective and renew our will to do good for others.

 Our Ministry & Counsel Committee has been discussing and praying about our church’s identity and vision for the future.  We, and others in the church, are sensing a need for renewal and growth.  Sacramento Friends Community Church began, officially, in 1945.  It grew out of the ministry of a Methodist woman lay minister (Harriet Cowan) who started a Sunday school outreach to the people of Gardenland (adjacent to North Sacramento) in the 1930’s.  She was not a Quaker.  But in the providence of God, she came to be acquainted with members of the Citrus Heights Friends Church, particularly their youth group and pastor, Eugene Coffin.  These Quakers helped her in various ways as she ministered to the people of Gardenland.  So when, in 1945, the Sunday school mission had grown enough to become a church, they decided to become Friends!

In 1967 we moved to our present location.  Over the years we have maintained our identity as a small Friends church of the pastoral and programmed worship tradition.  So then, what does it mean that we are a Friends church?  The words of Jesus quoted above give us the answer:  we are called to be friends of Jesus Christ.  And so, what does it mean to be a friend of Jesus?  Jesus tells us:

1) It means that we do what He tells us to do.  That is not the usual definition of a friend.  We usually do not require our friends to do what we tell them in order to be our friends.  But Jesus is not the usual friend!  He is “King of kings and Lord of lords”!  He was sent by the Father to redeem us from our sins and restore us to fellowship with God.  You are not acting as a friend of the King if you reject His rule.  Mind you, Jesus is the “friend of sinners”, (Matthew 9:10-13; 11:19) that is, He is the friend even of those who do not keep His commandments, even of those who hate Him!  But we are His friends if we follow Him and do as He tells us.  And notice the command He especially wants us to remember and do:  that we love one another.

2) It means that He tells us what He has learned from His Father.  We are not mere servants.  We are on intimate terms with Him and we listen to Him because He speaks to us.  Friends are well known as believing that Christ continues to speak to us, teaching us and encouraging us along our life’s journey.

3) It means that Christ has called us to bear fruit that remains.  He has called us to make a permanent difference in the world and in the lives of our fellow humans.  In Matthew 28:18-20, we find Christ’s “Great Commission” to His Church:  that we make disciples of all the nations, teaching them to observe all that Christ has commanded us.  This is the fruit that remains; for in following Jesus we are not only prepared for life here but also for life in the world to come.

4) It means that we are a people of effective prayer for the Father knows we are Jesus’ friends and are asking in order that His desires may be fulfilled in the world.

5) And finally, it means we do, truly, “love one another”, for Jesus said, “By this will all men know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” Notice that Jesus’ friends are a community, for love cannot be practiced by oneself.  It has to be practiced in a community.  And that is what a Friends church or meeting should be – a community where love flows among its members and overflows to embrace everyone they meet.

Sounds great, doesn’t it?  So let’s be Friends!

Our church has, over the years and to the present, participated in a number of activities that fall into the category of “social concerns”.  It is one of three ministries our “Wider Ministries Committee” has under its care, along with supporting World Evangelization (Missions) and administering our Benevolence Fund for those in need.  That is why I was very interested to read a document recently published by a group of leading Evangelicals called “The Statement on Social Justice and the Gospel” (hereafter, the SSJG).  The pastor and prominent radio Bible teacher, John MacArthur, is one of its leading authors and proponents.  So far, over nine thousand Evangelicals, including many pastors, Bible teachers and theologians, have signed its online version.

I read the statement and find many things in it with which I agree but there are a few places where I think its authors have strayed from a fully Biblical understanding.  One of these goes to the heart of their perspective on what the gospel of Jesus is and what the Church is about.  Here is a section (under “VIII - The Church”) that is a bit wobbly, Biblically:  “We Deny that political or social activism should be viewed as integral components of the gospel or primary to the mission of the church. Though believers can and should utilize all lawful means that God has providentially established to have some effect on the laws of a society, we deny that these activities are either evidence of saving faith or constitute a central part of the church’s mission given to her by Jesus Christ, her head. We deny that laws or regulations possess any inherent power to change sinful hearts.”

Is the gospel of Jesus Christ only about personal salvation in the life to come?  It certainly is that but to separate it from personal or social change is not at all according to the teaching of the Bible.  If the gospel has no reference to how we treat others or efforts to bring justice to the nations, then a good part of our Bibles and its teaching on salvation must be eliminated – including much of what Jesus taught!  First, let’s look at what the Bible considers part of the gospel or “good news”. In Luke 3:1-17, we find John the Baptist, Jesus’ forerunner and herald, calling on his fellow Jews to repent of their sins and to reform their ways of living.  He tells those who have two tunics to give one to him who has none, tax collectors to “collect no more than what you are ordered” and soldiers not to extort money or accuse anyone falsely (these soldiers were essentially policemen).  He warned of dire consequences if a thorough transformation does not take place.  Then, in verse 18, Luke summarizes what John was doing:  “So with many other exhortations he preached to the gospel to the people.”  While John was not trying to change laws he did call upon people to obey God’s law, whether or not it was consonant with man’s laws or customs.  And what is most important to notice is that this was considered preaching the gospel.  In the end, preaching this gospel landed him in prison and led to his execution by King Herod.

What did Jesus’ preaching of the gospel include?  Was it only about forgiveness of sins and eternal life in heaven?  No, Jesus taught how we should live here on earth and this too was a part of His gospel.  His “Sermon on the Mount” (Matthew 5-7) and His “Sermon on the Plain” (Luke 6:20-50) are full of statements that have social as well as personal implications.  When He preached in His home synagogue of Nazareth, He said He came to announce, “the favorable year of Lord” according to Isaiah 61:2. (Luke 4:14-21) This was a call to fulfill the year of Jubilee and Jesus’ teaching about lending freely should be understood in the light of this Old Testament law that periodically released people from debts and slavery and returned land to its original families. This was social justice as required by God and was part of Jesus’ gospel. (See Leviticus 25.)

The framers of SSJG deny that participation in efforts to change society is an “evidence of saving faith”. If faith in Jesus does not sensitize you to injustice and the sufferings of those who are being exploited, then you have a false Jesus!  Jesus said “Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy.” (Matthew 5:7)  He also told a parable about someone who obtained mercy but who withheld it from his neighbor.  Such, He said, would suffer God’s judgment. (Matthew 18:21-35)  Thus, the gospel to those who oppress their neighbor, whether through unjust treatment or laws that lead inevitably to such treatment, is “repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Jesus frequently addressed such warnings to the rich and powerful while he comforted the poor and oppressed.  Not that being poor or oppressed means you are saved but that the salvation you are offered by Jesus includes “good news to the poor” as Jesus’ teachings leaven society and His Church serves as a “light to the world.”

If you read Isaiah 42:1-4 and compare it with Matthew 12:9-21, you will see that Jesus’ mission was to “establish justice in the earth” (Is. 42:4), to “proclaim justice” and lead “justice to victory.” (Mt. 12:18, 20)His “Great Commission” to His Church (Matthew 28:18-20) was to “disciple all the nations”, not just a few individuals out of every nation but whole nations.This was to fulfill what the prophets foretold that, “all the peoples, nations and men of every language might serve Him.” (Daniel 7:13-14; see also Psalm 22:27-30)The preaching of the gospel in its original meaning and power has, in fact, led to great movements of social change, such as the abolition of legal slavery and the establishment of civil rights in our nation and others.Thus personal salvation can never be separated from social change and its social implications are an integral part of the blessed gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

There is a good reason why slavery still exists:  it generates around one hundred and fifty billion dollars every year for slave traffickers.  Two-thirds of that amount is generated by sex trafficking.  In 2016, 3.8 million adults were victims of forced sexual exploitation.  An additional one million were children.  The great majority of those coerced to work in the sex trade are women and girls.  This goes on here in California.  In January of this year, state law enforcement agents conducted a crack-down on sex traffickers, arresting thirty of them, along with hundreds who participated in their crimes.  They were able to free forty-five adults and eleven children who were the victims of these perpetrators.  Just a month ago, a postal worker rescued a sixteen year old girl from her captors here in Sacramento.

Slavery comes in many forms.  Desperate people are recruited to work in a foreign country.  They do not have enough to pay their plane fare but the recruiters say, “No problem, we’ll cover it!”  It sounds like a great deal.  But once they reach their new place of employment, their passports are taken from them and they are informed that they will have to work until their travel expenses are paid off.  But they never are.  They are completely at the mercy of their “employer” who either holds them through fear or actually imprisons them and makes them work long hours every day, without pay.

Bhavani is a little girl who lives in India.  Her parents worked as slaves on a sugar cane plantation.  They had taken a loan from the plantation owner and now they had to work it off.  But the owner set their wages so low it was taking forever to pay it off.  Bhavani’s parents one day asked their “master” for permission to go home to celebrate one of their annual festivals.  Angered by this request, he increased the size of their debt and then took Bhavani, their beloved daughter to work in his home.  Finally, they decided to escape and seek help.  Thankfully, they found a local International Justice Ministry worker who helped them get their daughter back and release them from their bondage.

IJM is a great organization that works around the world to intervene when people are being held against their will, contrary to the laws of their country.  They sometimes have to shame the local authorities into doing their duty or go higher up the chain of command until they find someone who will act.  They also seek to raise awareness in the community about this sometimes hidden but often “open secret” of slavery.  Many other organizations also work to end slavery, including some locally.  On Freedom Sunday we will highlight the work of these good people and show how we can lend a hand.

As we become more aware of the problem we need to ask God what He wants us to do.  Of one thing we can be certain:  God wants slavery to end.  Our Quaker forbearers became convinced of this and did all they could to help slaves escape their bondage.  They read their Bibles where God said, You shall not hand over to his master a slave who has escaped from his master to you. He shall live with you in your midst, in the place which he shall choose in one of your towns where it pleases him; you shall not mistreat him.  (Deuteronomy 23:15-16)  Among the Israelites, those who became slaves were to serve no longer than six years. (Exodus 21:2)  While God allowed slavery under the Old Covenant, He laid down a principle that would, in time, undermine the very existence of slavery:  You shall love your neighbor as yourself. (Leviticus 19:18)

Jesus underscored this ancient principle of conduct, saying it was second in importance only to the command to love God with all your being. (Matthew 22:34-40)  Does anyone want to be slave?  Do you?  Then if you love your neighbor as yourself you cannot enslave your neighbor.  Yes, it is true that the Apostles of Jesus told slaves to serve Christ by serving their masters but they also told masters to “do the same things to them, and give up threatening, knowing that both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no partiality with Him.” (Ephesians 6:9)  This was effectively to end the whole master/slave relation and replace it with a fellowship of equals.  That is why, when the slave Onesimus escaped his Christian master and fled to Rome and there met Paul who converted him to Christ, Paul sent him back, saying to the master, Philemon, “For perhaps he was for this reason separated from you for a while, that you would have him back forever, no longer as a slave, but more than a slave, a beloved brother…” (Philemon 15-16)  Gradually, as the Christian faith spread to more and more people and had a stronger hold on society, the practice of slavery was greatly diminished.

Sadly, with the discovery of the New World and because Europeans desired to exploit its resources, they first enslaved the natives and when these became too few through overwork and disease, they turned to sub-Saharan Africa for slaves to do the work.  Thus slavery was revived and became worse than it had ever been before as the slaves were accorded absolutely no rights at all and slavery, for the first time, became racialized.  Searching for support in the Bible, they seized upon a few texts, ripped them from their contexts and convinced themselves that it was God’s will to enslave the Africans and other “inferior races”.  Thankfully, their errors were eventually exposed and formal slavery ended but economics and lax enforcement still create incentives for some to engage in that evil practice.

God wants us to enter the fray again, to pick up where our abolitionist mothers and fathers left off and slay this beast of slavery wherever it rears its ugly head.So join us on “Freedom Sunday” and learn more about how to enter the fight to free slaves here and around the world!

We have been praying for all the people in the path of these raging infernos and especially for those who are on the front lines fighting them, but having a personal connection to some of those people makes it even more urgent to us.   Let us continue to pray and start looking for ways we can help.  One way to help is to donate to organizations that are helping those affected by the fires.  Two immediate recommendations are:

1) The Red Cross.  You may donate online at www.redcross.org/donate/donation or call them at 800-RED-CROSS.

2) The Salvation Army.  Reach them at https://deloro.salvationarmy.org/del_oro/northern-california-wildfires or call 1-800-725-2769.  Of course, there are other avenues for getting help to those who have lost their homes, loved ones and to those who are fighting the fires.  Do some research and let us know what you find out!

But let’s return to the question I heard:  “What is God trying to tell us” through these fires and floods?  Some might wonder if He is chastising us for our sins or trying to lead our nation to repentance.  The answer is that He is always seeking, through both good and bad circumstances to bring us to Himself and to turn us away from the damage that sin inevitably causes to our souls.  Yes, not just our nation but the whole world is fundamentally in revolt against God.  That is what the Scriptures teach and the human record abundantly confirms.  And even for those who have admitted their moral bankruptcy and turned to God for mercy, there begins a process of learning and growing in which God uses those same kinds of circumstances to help them become, more and more, like His beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.

And there is another thing God is telling us through the fires, floods and other, similar disasters:  “Please use the amazing gifts with which I have endowed you to take care of planet Earth, the home I have given you.”  You see, as we have used our gifts to improve living standards for more and more people we have not been doing so altogether wisely.  One of the unwise ways has been in our overuse of fossil fuels.  I realize that a significant portion of my Evangelical Christian brothers and sisters have viewed this idea with strong suspicion.  After all, it comes from those “tree-hugging, liberal leftists” like Al Gore and the Sierra Club!  Truth, I fear, has been rejected through “guilt by association”.

It reminds me of the mistake good king Josiah made when Pharaoh Neco was passing through his land on his way to fight Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon.  Josiah decided to engage the Egyptian army in battle in the plain of Megiddo but God warned Josiah to let the Pharaoh continue without hindering him.  And how did he warn the godly Josiah, king of Judah?  He warned Josiah out of the mouth of that ungodly, pagan Pharaoh!  If you find that hard to believe, please read 2 Chronicles 35:20-22.  The tragedy was that Josiah, presuming upon his superior relationship with God, went forth to battle and was killed.  And that ended the very good reforms he was accomplishing in the land of Israel.  After his death, Israel once more forsook the Lord.  You see, God can speak to us through the lips of people we may consider to be, or who may actually be, unbelievers.   God’s people sometimes make mistakes! God said, through the prophet Isaiah, “Who is blind but My servant, or so deaf as My messenger whom I send? Who is so blind as he that is at peace with Me, or so blind as the servant of the Lord?  You have seen many things, but you do not observe them; your ears are open, but none hears.” (42:19-20) So likewise have God’s people been in our day when it comes to the truth of human originated global warming.

Even the critics are now admitting that global warming is happening.  But they are saying the jury is still out with regard to its origin.  They say it may be just part of a natural cycle of cooling and warming that has been going on for long ages.  The evidence is against this.  The correlation with fossil fuel consumption is clear and what is more, the carbon signature points to human production.  It is not tied to sunspot activity or any other natural cycles.  And the call to combat global warming is not an insidious plot to destroy our economy.  In fact, it is a great opportunity to provide jobs and economic growth as we switch over to alternative sources of energy.  Ok, I realize that I’ve bitten off way more than I can chew in this article but even if you strongly disagree with what I am saying, I invite you to explore the subject further and to dialogue.  There are great resources available that provide the scientific evidence and the Biblical perspective with which we can tackle this problem.

Fires are raging.We have always had fires and no doubt building into forested areas and poor management of the forests has contributed to the problem but there is abundant evidence that our planet is heating up, both in the atmosphere and in the oceans and that this is contributing more “fuel” for both fires and floods.But, thank God, He has given us the tools to overcome the problem!We just have to supply the willingness to use them.Moreover, steps are being made in the right direction, mainly by private enterprise, and we need to cheer them on and ask our governments to lend a hand.The future is not gloomy but bright when we see it in the light of God’s word and act upon it!