Christian Life with Michael

A Long Week

2026-07-13T10:00:00.000-05:00

If you want to start at the beginning, here's Part 1.

This week was tough. Tough in a couple of ways. Not as tough as it is for some people, but still tough.

Tuesday, as you'll already know if you've read my previous post, I went in for my first round of chemotherapy. Chemotherapy is well known for triggering a wide array of possible side effects, in a puzzlingly random fashion. A good oncologist will tell you that these are the possible side effects, we have no way to determine which ones will actually happen in your specific body with your specific cancer, but here's what to do if they do. From my previous post you know that I had zero side effects when I was in the chair for seven hours getting my infusion (praise God - that's an amazing blessing right there!) but when I got home I started to experience an uncomfortable side effect known as first bite syndrome, or FBS. To briefly recap what that is, picture in your mind the worst muscle cramp you've ever had. Now imagine that every time you take the first bite of pretty much anything, you get that cramp simultaneously in both hinges of your jaw, and it lasts maybe 10-15 seconds before it subsides and you can eat normally. It can be excruciating, and it's pretty frustrating to have to deal with it after all of my talk about faith for healing! Typically FBS subsides over time as the meds work their way out of your system, but basically I've dealt with it all week since then. I continue to speak out that the pain doesn't belong to me, Jesus took it and it has to leave my body! But it hung around anyway.

Then there was Tuesday night, when, probably due to the steroids they gave me, at about 2am I was suddenly wide awake for about three hours. Taking in all of that medication at once tends to wear a patient out a bit anyway, and being low on sleep certainly didn't help over the next few days. Keep in mind, Monday I had an 8:15am appointment with the nurse practitioner, then Tuesday my arrival time at the treatment center for infusion was 7am. So I was behind the eight ball a little bit on sleep even before my 3-hour unwanted wake-up; I tried to take it as easy as I could and go to bed as early as possible, but I struggled with fatigue all week.

Then there was the low-level queasiness that's been my companion most of the week. I have some anti-nausea medicine, but it seemed like overkill when I wasn't throwing up or anything - I did eventually try it out one day, and it seemed to do more damage than help, so I laid off for the rest of the week.

It also didn't help that I had some kind of medical appointment every day - four at the cancer treatment center and one at a hospital for a heart echo (everything looked good). By Friday I was absolutely sick and tired of driving up to the cancer center!

I'm saying all of this not to complain, and not to elicit sympathy, and certainly not to paint a picture that somehow I have flawless faith that took away every moment of discomfort. I think it's honest to share that some things, despite a ton of prayer of faith from dozens of people I do and don't know, still haven't gone how I would have mapped them out if I was writing the script. I did not feel full of faith every day when my tummy was complaining that it was hungry and upset, and my jaws were complaining that they didn't want to chew anyway, and my body was complaining that it just wanted to go back to bed please. But in those moments when I didn't feel like being super faith man, I held on to my belief that God wants me well and that's where I'm headed. And, on the positive side, ever since we started having people pray for me and then especially this week after one chemo treatment, my initial symptom of having difficulty swallowing seems to be getting a LOT better. I don't have medical documentation that there has been a significant change, but it seems like it to me!

The other day I told a friend of mine: "Sometimes you 'believe' in healing, and other times you darn well better REALLY believe in healing!" All faith is is making the decision that you are going to follow what the Word of God says, no matter what. Either it's true or it's not. Faith is when you quit riding the fence and jump off on the God side.

Today I was still able (with permission from the oncologist) to volunteer with my wife as a Sunday school teacher for preschoolers at church. We love those kids with all of our hearts, and I don't want to miss out on having the chance to spend time with them and share Jesus with them. It was an amazing victory to have the energy to do that! God is absolutely doing some incredible things in my body!

It's A Long Story.... Part 5

2026-07-09T10:00:00.000-05:00

If you want to start at the beginning, here's Part 1.

This will be the last blog post titled "It's A Long Story"... it seems like "It's A Long Story... Part 37" might get a little uninspiring! I'll keep periodically blogging when anything interesting happens, but with this post we're caught up to the current situation.

Tuesday I went into the cancer treatment center for my first round of chemotherapy (the oncologist tells us he plans to do at least four treatments, then re-evaluate, and then likely he will recommend four more). This was to be a 7 hour treatment, which is a LOT longer than my wife's treatments three years ago (hers were about 4 hours each). They had prepared us ahead of time by providing us with a HUGE list of every possible side effect known to man. We've been praying and believing God for healing already, and I felt like I wanted to kick it up a lot and apply some more faith to the situation. In the waiting room I posted on Facebook "First chemo infusion today! We are being bold and asking God for ZERO side effects!" I knew our believing friends would add their faith to ours! My wife and I also prayed together and asked God for NO side effects.

I got hooked up to the chemo, and guess how many side effects I experienced? None at all! All day we were paying attention to make sure our nurse knew if anything started to go sideways, but the worst thing that happened all day was being bored sitting around with no drama at all!

Since I got home I've experienced one side effect that we were told about. The nurse called it "first bite syndrome" and that's literally what it is... when I took the first bite of a meal or snack, I started to get a pain at the hinges of my jaw like an electric shock. Since we knew that it's not anything unusual or even serious, I just put up with if the first couple of times I ate, but then I realized, you know what? I don't have to put up with this! Jesus took this pain for me! So now whenever it happens I'm speaking out: "I am NOT putting up with this! This is not my pain! Jesus paid the price for this!"

One of the first words that came to me when we first got the cancer diagnosis was that Jesus took my sickness to Hell when He died on the cross, and He DID NOT bring it back. When I experience sickness or pain, that is a direct frontal attack on the truth of God's Word. It's easy when you know something isn't medically serious to just ignore it and move on with your day, but I don't intend to get complacent. The story is that FBS will subside anyway over the days after treatment, but I'm not waiting. I'm going to fight it with the Word of God! It needs to go away immediately!

Here's my Cancer Destruction In Progress shirt, if you want to buy one!

More to come...

It's a Long Story... Part 4

2026-07-08T15:54:54.120-05:00

If you want to start at the beginning, here's Part 1.

The next two weeks felt like a constant stream of appointments and tests. We met with the oncologist to find out what he wanted to do next. We went to "chemo class" where the basically tell you all of the unpleasant side effects that can happen as a result of chemotherapy and what to do if they did happen (useful information, but also unsettling information!) I got a PET scan, which as it turns out confirmed that all of the areas that the CT scan indicated as possible areas of concern were, in fact, areas of concern. We talked to a nurse at the hospital about a biopsy of my adrenals that the oncologist had ordered. And, least anticipated of all by me, Port Install.

A port is a small device that is implanted just underneath your skin, with a short length of hose that connects directly to a vein. The port is then used for blood draws, and also to add the medicine into your bloodstream, without having to stick you in the arm every time. It saves you from damaging your veins from getting pokes many times a week. Getting one put in these days is an outpatient surgery - you're in for a few hours, then you go home with instructions not to lift anything heavy for two days. It was easy peasy, and less than a week later at the cancer center they were able to use it for a blood draw... and I got to see how much easier it is to use a port for that then the arm stick. I keep telling myself that I am now a cool cyborg - I haven't convinced myself quite yet, but I'm getting there!

I also got an MRI scan. The three different scans I've gotten serve different purposes and use different technology. For a CT scan there is the metal donut I talked about here. A CT scan is basically a 3-D x-ray. For PET scans and MRIs you are inside of a metal tube for a period of time (I figured out really quick that I should just keep my eyes closed and then I didn't risk claustrophobia!), but a PET scan is sort of a reverse x-ray, where they put some radioactive stuff inside of you and the scan detects it (think of the CT as shining a light on something, and the PET scan as the thing itself glowing). An MRI uses magnets (and loud noises?) to create a picture of your insides. I'm not going to try to explain what the three do differently - you can Google that and get a better idea than I could explain, because I don't understand it myself - but suffice it to say, for a while it felt like we were constantly either on the way to somewhere, coming back from somewhere, talking to a nurse about a test, or actually getting the test!

During this time, something came to me that hadn't occurred to me before, and I believe it was the Holy Spirit. I started to think, and now I believe for sure, that God is giving me the opportunity to be present at the cancer treatment center for a while specifically to bring His joy and hope to people who need it. There are people there who feel very sick and very exhausted. Maybe their cancer is further advanced than mine. Maybe their body doesn't do well with chemo - for some people every infusion puts them on their back for days. Bot God has given me hope in my heart, and I believer he wants me to share it! I've had people tell me that they are amazed, encouraged, and inspored by my attitude and faith. I wanted to bring that with me to the cancer treatment center!

Over the past decade or so, I've developed a little bit of a reputation for wearing silly T-shirts. I think of it as a minor superpower of mine. I decided that I might not be able to speak to everyone at the cancer center, but I sure could use my T-shirt powers to bring people joy! So I bought a flaming red shirt that says LEAN MEAN CANCER FIGHTING MACHINE in huge letters that are pretty impossible not to want to read, and wore it the next time I went to the cancer center.

Before we even got inside, a man shouted out "I LOVE THAT!" A little while later, I passed a lady in the hallway, and she said "I need that shirt!" My wife and I watched a bunch more people read it and smile, and a few more commented on it. My plan is to continue to pick up new shirts over time - it turns out there is a whole genre of funny "cancer sucks" T-shirt designs to choose from. Those are just to get the conversation going, though. I have bigger plans, and you may think I'm crazy, but because of this I'm kind of looking forward to my first chemo day.

I went with my wife to every chemo infusion she had to go through those 4-5 years ago, and as usual at a medical appointment, you wind up sitting around in a room full of people. That waiting room is full of people who are about to get unpleasant chemicals pumped into their body, and they all know it. My plan is to walk around the waiting room while I'm waiting (in my funny T-shirt!), find out who is getting a treatment that day, and to tell them "You're strong! You can handle this!" and whatever else the Spirit might have me say. My goal is to inject joy and hope into the situation rather than to try to notch my "converts" belt. My goal is to give to people, not to attack them.. I'll let you know tomorrow how it went!

Here's my Lean Mean Cancer Fighting Machine shirt, if you want to buy one! (It doesn't have to be red!)

Continued in Part 5...

Should I Take Medicine?

2026-07-07T10:00:00.000-05:00

In yesterday's post I promised I would explain this statement: "We don't believe in ignoring a health problem just because you prayed about it." There are people out there that believe that accepting medical assistance when you have prayed for healing indicates a lack of faith in God. We don't feel that way, and I'll tell you exactly why.

Not every healing happens via an instantaneous miracle. In Mark 16:18 Jesus said that whoever believes in Him "...will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover." Recovery from sickness is not always instant. (See yesterday's post for more on this.)

But I also don't think that every "they will recover" has to happen without medical help. I think every healing comes from God, whether you take medicine or not, because of the simple fact that doctors cannot heal people. Medicine does not heal you, and any honest doctor will tell you the same.

Let's step back for a second and think about something very simple: a paper cut. When you get a paper cut, you probably don't even wash it and put a bandage on it unless it's a pretty serious paper cut that is bleeding (does that even happen?) You don't take any medicine, and yet it heals anyway. That's because God made our bodies so that they can repair themselves given the right circumstances. That healing is very much part of the natural world, but it absolutely comes from God because He placed that mechanism in your body.

Let's say you get a deeper cut. It's bleeding, but it doesn't require going to the hospital. You wash it, put some ointment on it, and put a bandage on top of that. In a few days it is healed up completely, and probably you can't even tell that a cut ever happened. Did the ointment heal the cut? No, it did not. It mostly kept it from getting infected, but it didn't instantly knit the cells back together. Your body contains platelets, white blood cells, and other mechanisms that work together to close up the skin. The medicine didn't heal you; your body healed itself, and that healing comes from God.

When the nurse practitioner was explaining to me the various medicines that are going into my chemotherapy cocktail, she told us that one of them simply reveals the cancer cells to other cells. The way I understand it, some cancer cells can disguise themselves in such a way that the white blood cells that would normally attack and destroy those mutated cells don't see them as abnormal. This particular chemo medicine flags those cells as abnormal so the white blood cells that are already there will attack and destroy them. Once again, the healing mechanism is already present in my body; the medicine will just assist the healing process that God already created in defending my body against the invasion.

Every medicine is there for one or both of two reasons: to assist your body in healing itself, or to make you more comfortable so your body can heal itself (painkillers, anesthesia, etc.) Even the very best medicines that science has discovered cannot actually heal you. Healing always comes from God. And that's why I don't have any problem believing God for recovery while simultaneously taking advantage of the medicines that God placed in the world and allowed super smart people to discover that can also help us. They won't heal me: God will heal me.

Please, if you become very sick, pray and believe God for your healing. I hope these blog posts help you with that. But if the Holy Spirit does not specifically speak to your heart that you should not take any medicine, please prayerfully consider what modern medicine has to offer. You're not going to Hell for taking an aspirin, or getting a flu shot, or taking chemo, and you don't somehow invalidate your faith and forfeit your healing by doing those things. In fact, when this blog post goes live a few days after I wrote it, I expect to already be sitting in a chair taking my first chemo infusion, and I'll be thanking God the whole time for the skilled and caring medical staff that is treating me.

Tomorrow I'll get back to the Long Story!

It's a Long Story... Part 3.

2026-07-06T10:00:00.000-05:00

If you want to start at the beginning, here's Part 1.

The next day was Sunday. My wife and I volunteer every other week teaching a preschooler class, and I wanted to let our children's pastor and her assistant know what was going on. We got prayed for by the whole team of children's volunteers, and as a bonus, the assistant gave me what turned out to be really great advice. "Christ the Healer by F. F. Bosworth is on YouTube for free, the whole thing," she told us. "Google it up and listen to it!" I did Google it up, but here it is so you don't have to:

I grew up in churches that believe that God still heals people today, and much of what is in this 100+ year old book was familiar territory... in fact, there was a copy of it in my house when I was a teenager! But if I ever read it, I didn't read it with my mind open to what it was actually saying, rather than what I expected it to say. There were no Scriptures in the book that I hadn't heard, but there were some concepts that I don't remember ever being part of messages about healing when I was a kid (or an adult). For example:

The Bible never says that every ailment will be healed instantly by a miracle. It says that you should lay hands on the sick, and they will recover. Have you ever been in "recovery" after a hospital procedure? I have... it doesn't happen instantaneously. Usually it takes days to fully recover. There are miracles that are instant, definitely, but there is also a slow steady recovery. Bosworth tells this funny story about promising a child you will buy her some new clothes: "Suppose again, that after you promise her the new dress, she runs to the mirror to see if she looks any more 'dressed up.' She then says: 'I cannot see any difference; I do not look a bit better'; and then gives up the idea of having a new dress." Just because you might not see the answer in an immediate miracle doesn't mean it doesn't belong to you!
Healing for your body is exactly as much a promise from God as salvation of your soul. Romans 8:11 says "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." In Psalm 103:2-3 it says "Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases..." Forgiveness of iniquity is placed on the same footing here with healing of diseases. It's one of the benefits of putting your faith in God! (I've blogged about this before... check it out here.)
Symptoms and diagnoses exist. They are not imaginary, and it's not faith to pretend they are not there. When a doctor, who is a scientist, tells you what he observes in your body, there is no reason to think he is being dishonest with you. However, those real things that exist are the actual liars! The symptoms that exist in your body are liars, because they are trying to convince you that God's healing isn't available to you. I think this is a key idea that a lot of "faith people" have missed. If you have a cold, and you say "I do not have a cold," then you become a liar. But if you have a cold and you say "Lord, I thank you because Your healing of this cold belongs to me, and I am ready to see it happen in my body!" then that is faith! Don't let your symptoms lie to you!

The next week we visited with the oncologist again, and found out what my chemotherapy treatment schedule will probably be like. We don't believe in ignoring a health problem just because you prayed about it... I'll talk more about that in the next post. We also asked him whether it was okay for me to continue to teach the class and also volunteer on church worship team, and he said as long as I am physically up to it (chemo can make you very tired) and as long as I am careful to keep clean around the kids (for my safety and theirs), it's okay to continue to do those things. I've been told by several nurses at the treatment center that it's important to continue to do the things that give you joy if you can, and nothing gives me more joy than sharing Jesus with others!

Continued in Part 4...

It's a Long Story... Part 2

2026-07-03T10:00:00.000-05:00

If you haven't read Part 1, you might head there first...

I had never had a CT scan before. Basically they put you on a hard bed ("bed" is a pretty generous word for it) and the bed moves through a giant donut a number of times. The picture on the right is what the CT machine looks like, although this is not the one I was on. The hope of doing the CT scans was to verify that the tumor was limited to my esophagus and had not spread to the rest of my body. We waited patiently for the results to appear in the hospital poral, and when we got them, I shared them with my son, who is well on his way to a biology degree so he knows a little bit and can look up even more, and then we showed it to my sister-in-law, who worked as an RN for many years.

Unfortunately, the results showed more stuff we didn't want to see. In addition to the tumor in my esophagus, the reports pointed out areas of concern in part of my lungs, liver, and adrenal glands. But there was also a lot of "this appeared normal, that was unremarkable" stuff that you want to see (if it's unremarkable, that means it's healthy). A CT scan is not very deterministic when it comes to cancer - it just points out what to look at more closely - and my sister-in-law said that it was possible that some of those things were not cancer, but some other problem (leftovers from having COVID, for example). But we would have to wait and see what our oncologist said in our appointment the next Monday. She predicted that he would order a PET scan (she was right, he did) because that gives a pretty clear indicator of what is cancerous and what is not.

Meanwhile, she had some Bible Scripture for me. "Whenever I think about this, I keep thinking about the Bible passage about making the crooked places straight. Where is that?" We got our phones out and started researching it - she was probably remembering Luke 3:5 where this is applied to John the Baptist, but we found the source of that quote first, Isaiah 40:4. But we also found another similar passage in Isaiah: Isaiah 45:2-3.

I will go before you
   and level the exalted places,
I will break in pieces the doors of bronze
   and cut through the bars of iron,
I will give you the treasures of darkness
   and the hoards in secret places,
that you may know that it is I, the LORD,
   the God of Israel, who call you by your name.

That passage really seemed to speak to me directly - of course in context God was talking to the future king Cyrus, but I believe that God can use Scripture to speak to us in a lot of different contexts. "Level the exalted places" (some translations say "level the mountains") seemed to me to be God saying, I'll make things work out for you through this. Getting immediately referred to the very busy oncologist we would have wanted to have seemed like the first indication that this was happening. "Breaking in pieces doors of brass and bars of iron" seemed to me to be a metaphor for destruction of the blockage in my throat. And the part about God working in me (and Cyrus) to show us something great about Himself seemed amazing to me!

I didn't really know what the part about "treasures" and "hoards" (or "riches") meant, and actually I'm still looking forward to what treasures might come out of this situation, but I do know that my faith and confidence in God has grown by leaps and bounds through this so far, and that has been riches of incomparable value for me. I'll tell you more about what good stuff I expect to come out of this in upcoming posts!

Continued in Part 3...

It's a Long Story... Part 1

2026-07-02T10:00:00.000-05:00

It was May 15, and I had an appointment to see my doctor. Nothing serious, really... it was a checkup to make sure the blood pressure medicine he had prescribed for me was working well, and because I had been checking it daily, I knew it was. There was also something I had forgotten to mention to him at my last visit, several months before, but I did remember it this time. I told him had been having a little bit of trouble swallowing when I ate too fast. I could eat just fine - I just needed to slow down and chew and not suck down my meal like a starving wolf who just caught a rabbit. He recommended that I go to a GI specialist and get scoped, so he gave me a referral and everything got set up.

Three weeks later I woke up from the scope procedure and my wife was in the room. This was unusual, because usually they just tell the person you came with to come pick you up at the door and they wheel you out to your car in a wheelchair so you don't fall down from the sedation. We figured there must be something important they wanted to tell us.

And we knew we had guessed right when the doctor himself walked in. He very professionally and gently told us that he had found an obstruction that looked to him like cancer, and he had taken a biopsy to send to the lab. We would hear back soon. And we certainly did hear back - it definitely was cancerous. The procedure was on a Thursday, and the next Tuesday I was in a CT scan machine, finding out how good I was at lying still while the bed moved underneath me!

Two and a half years before, my wife had had surgery after a long process of chemotherapy and radiation, and her cancer has been gone ever since then. We were looking forward to a day in the near future that we wouldn't have to see the inside of the cancer treatment center again... now it was looking like that day might be further in the future than we thought. The GI doctor had referred us to the same oncologist who had treated my wife; we were pretty excited, because he's a terrific doctor and we were really happy with the care he and his team had given her! The first time he walked into the room and she was sitting in the visitor chair and I was sitting on the exam bed, he did a double take. I told him "We aren't glad to NEED you, but we are sure glad to GET you!" He talked us through what he knew so far, prayed with us (doctors who pray are awesome!), and set me up for what felt like a million scans and tests and appointments (it was probably more like 5-6 in about a two week period). It was a pain the neck just to remember where to show up and when, but we made it!

Meanwhile, we started to tell a few people what was going on. The Sunday after we found out about it but before I even had my CT scans, we got to church and my wife chose a seat away from where we usually sit. When we sat down we noticed that we were sitting in front of an older couple that we've become friends with over the past year or so. As the service went on, I started to feel like I wanted to ask them to pray for us after the service, so when it ended, I said, "Hey, can I talk to you for a minute?" I knew they would pray for us, but what I didn't know is that God had brought us together that day for a reason. I was to have my test on Tuesday, but it turns out that the husband also had a medical test scheduled on Tuesday (not for cancer)... so we prayed for each other that Sunday! Their outcome was very positive - mine not as immediately positive as theirs, but to me it was clearly God saying, I'm going to make things happen for you through this!

Continued in Part 2...

Epiphany 2026

2026-01-08T12:58:00.003-06:00

HOW did I miss Epiphany 2025? It was a great year!

This time I'm not going to go into great detail about what gifts I got for my family or what I said to them. I think I've created that model already - you can click the "Epiphany" label at the bottom of this post to see some examples. I'm just going to give a brief summary, because the things that the Holy Spirit has given me for family members have become increasingly targeted and personal over the years - I guess I've been learning better and better how to hear His voice in this situation. I need to start applying that skill all year round!

This year my youngest turned 18. She's about to graduate from high school, and she's really been blossoming this year. In 2025 her word was "create" and she's been creating amazing stuff all year... visual art and music have been all around her in 2025. But there have been a few goals in those areas that, although she worked really hard, she either barely reached, or barely didn't reach. Her word for 2026 is "launch". As in, Peter said "Lord, we've fished all night and didn't catch anything, but if you say so we'll launch out and try again." And you know what happened! I gave her a shirt that says "Jesus said, go fishing!"

My oldest is about to graduate from college. His word this year is "up". I feel like he's started to grow out of some of his kid and young man ways and emerge as someone who is on the way upward, as in, upward toward the prize of the high call of God. I gave him a metal sign that is a picture of a river with part of that verse on it.

My wife, after her battle with cancer, has just now started to show signs that she's ready to do pretty much anything that God calls her to do again. I think she's been a little bit afraid of getting sick again. her word is "confidence" - as in, your confidence is in the Lord! (I got her a gold bracelet with an encouraging word on it.)

I found out a week or two ago that my youngest is keeping all of her cards (this is the third year that I've printed out cards with a word and a Scripture on them for the year). My wife still has all three of hers on the refrigerator. (I haven't asked my son if he's keeping his.) All three of them have said that the words and Scriptures have been valuable to them throughout the year. If you're not doing something like this for your family, Epiphany is a great opportunity! The first week of the new year is a perfect time to get off on the right foot!

Cooper Stuff and Your Sins

2025-07-08T10:00:00.090-05:00

"He who tolerates sin in himself, or excuses it in others, is not the friend of holiness, and therefore not the friend of Christ."

I watched the below video today, and wept through about half of it. But it may not be the half you would think.

I heard about the Michael Tait allegations pretty soon after the first exposé article came out. I was shocked, and disappointed, and worried. Shocked that Michael Tait, who had always seemed like a nice, friendly, safe guy and solid representative of Christ (literally, in one case), could do those things and somehow think it was OK to continue to do them for so long. Disappointed, because I've always liked the guy and enjoyed his work in Christian music. Worried that young (and even older) fans might turn away from Christ when they learned that this musician they looked up to had allegedly committed a long series not only immoral, but blatantly criminal acts. On that day I cried for the alleged victims of his abuses. And on that day I cried for the fans. That's who the first half of this podcast is about. I still have the same emotions for those people, but I've cried those tears already.

The second half of this podcast is about me. It's also about you, and John Cooper, and your pastor, and Michael Tait, and your youth leader, and the lady who sits in the row in front of you in church. And you. And me.

"He who tolerates sin in himself, or excuses it in others, is not the friend of holiness, and therefore not the friend of Christ."

You know what? From time to time I commit sins. But sometimes I cut myself some slack in my mind. "It didn't hurt anyone. Nobody knows about it but me and God, and God forgives me."

But that quote about sin haunts me. It's not from the Bible, but it's from a smart person who knew things (you can find the quote in the podcast video at about 33:55). And even though it's not a Bible quote, it tracks with what the Bible says.

It's a long-ish podcast episode, but it's well worth the time. See you on the other side:

"He who tolerates sin in himself, or excuses it in others, is not the friend of holiness, and therefore not the friend of Christ."

I don't commit sins that would get me arrested. I don't abuse people as the Tait allegations describe. I don't do illegal drugs. But at some point, if the allegations are true, Michael Tait crossed over from being a man of God who shared the Gospel through music, to being a man who does terrible, inexcusable things and keeps them hidden. He was a Christian leader, now disgraced. I'm by no means famous, but I do serve on the worship team at my church. I also volunteer teaching preschoolers in Sunday School. At some level I'm a Christian leader, and I can't imagine myself crossing that line. But I bet Tait wouldn't have imagined himself crossing it either.

There's an old joke that many a preacher has told. A baby monkey found himself falling out of his bed every single night. "Mommy, why do I keep falling out of bed?" the baby monkey cried. His mother answered, "Baby, it's because you stay too close to where you got in!" I do not happen to believe that a person can easily lose their salvation, but in less than a week Tait lost the career he spent decades building, the respect of fans all over the world, and if allegations prove true, he could even lose his physical freedom. On top of that, he took the Newsboys down with him (radio stations across the country pulled their music and they lost their recording contract), and possibly DC Talk too, even though his DC Talk days seem to predate the alleged abuses. He absolutely fell out of his monkey bed. He seems to have repented, and I believe God is able and willing to forgive even these horrible acts, but Tait will never again have what he once had. And I don't want to run the risk of being the next "that guy".

So I'm going to try to sleep a little further from the edge of my monkey mattress. I'm going to edge closer to the center of God's will for me. Sometimes it's tough to live the way I know God wants me to. But I want my own sin to become intolerable to me. Hot, like a stovetop that I avoid touching because I know it hurts. I want to creep toward personal holiness, because I know that I may never make it to the center of the bed, but the closer I get, the less chance this monkey will have of spending the night on the floor!

2025-06-30T10:00:00.001-05:00

I have this card sitting on my desk right now. I was looking at it the other day, and something struck me about this verse. Did you notice that it does not say "Trust in the Lord, because you can't possibly have any understanding of what is going on"? No, it says that you will have understanding of your situation, but that shouldn't be your ultimate authority.

God did not make us a race of ignorant fools, unable to understand the world and situations around us. God gave us the gift of thought - we can take in information, process it, and draw logical conclusions. God didn't give us those abilities and expect us to ignore them! But He does expect us to trust Him, because sometimes our understanding doesn't get us all the way there. Sometimes there are factors we don't and can't know ahead of time. Sometimes our perception might be flawed - ask any scientist who studies memory whether the human mind is infallible at recalling important details! We can know a lot, but we can't know everything.

So the next time you are making a decision, try this: gather all the information you can, become informed about the subject or situation, make your best judgement (or narrow it down to several options that seem sensible), and then take it to God. Tell Him that you've done your best to understand the situation, but you want to lean on His understanding. I'm talking to myself here... I have to choose an electrician to look at something in my house today! Let's lean on God's understanding today, you and I. Let's make a great choice!

A Dog's Life

2025-03-13T10:05:00.009-05:00

I saved a dog's life this morning!

It was rush hour, and I was driving down a busy street, two lanes going both directions plus a turn lane in the middle. I was approaching what may well be the busiest intersection in our small town at that time of day (the intersection is within a mile of four schools that between them cover all grades from preschool through high school, and it was getting close to time for school to start), and there he was... a medium-sized brown dog, the kind that chases chickens around on a farm or Frisbees around in a dog park. I was in the left lane, and when I spotted him he was walking across right to left - which meant he had two lanes of traffic to cross, and if he didn't get across pretty quickly the light in front of me was going to change and he was going to have dozens of cars bearing down on him. I spotted him in plenty of time to miss him, but there was already one car coming the other way... in the lane the dog was about to walk across! What could I do to help him?

Only one thing. I hit my brakes and leaned on my horn. I didn't just give it a little "beep beep" - I made one long blast that lasted until Mr. Dog was completely out of the street. I could tell it startled him, which was exactly my intention. I wanted him out of the street, and I wanted him to think twice before ever crossing that street again. It also alerted the other driver that something was going on, and he avoided the dog by a wide margin too.

I imagine Mr. Dog was pretty scared by my horn... probably more scared than by my car. He may have thought someone or something was trying to hurt him. But that wasn't the case... in fact, my car and the other cars on the road were far more dangerouns to him than my horn was. My horn was scary, but the purpose of the horn was to save him from something that could potentially hurt or kill him. I wasn't being mean to Mr. Dog; I was showing him compassion and love by making a big scary noise so he would get out of danger.

Sometimes people read the Bible and find places where God said to His people things like "Follow the rules I'm giving you, or else this bad thing will happen to you," and we read that and perceive it as a threat. But if you read more and more of the Bible, you'll discover that God is the God of Love, not attack and retribution. When God says "do X or else Y will happen to you," He's not saying that He will punish you for your sins - He is saying that if you cling to your sins, something bad is going to happen to you because sin is destined for destruction. If you hang out in the street during rush hour, you're going to get flattened by a minivan. God is leaning on His horn, trying to get you to run from sin so you run from the consequences of that sin. If God blows a horn for you today, pay attention! It may save you from getting hurt like my horn saved that dog this morning.

"One Day" Lyric Video

2024-07-26T14:35:00.003-05:00

I am a songwriter. I always have been, ever since I can remember. In 2008, I had an idea for a song about the life of Jesus. I wanted it to be in several parts to highlight the different parts of His life on Earth - actually, the first part would start in eternity before the world even began and overlap into His birth. The second part would be about his ministry time in the flesh. The third verse would be about what He did on the Cross. I wrote out the lyric and tried to record it.

Unfortunately, the tools I had at my disposal then weren't really up to creating the musical experience I had inside of my head. I kept the recording, but few people ever heard it because it wasn't really what I wanted it to be.

Fast forward to about three years ago. I had learned a lot about modern recording techniques by that time, and I was ready to tackle this song again. I started working on it, but I soon realized that because I wanted each verse to have a distinctly different feel, working on this song was like working on three songs at once! I worked on it for a few months, became discouraged and walked away for a bit, picked it back up again, became discouraged again... and finally, about a month ago - early July of 2014 - I finally finished it! This after an eleventh-hour complete re-arrangement of the music of the second half of the last verse! But I was super happy with the result!

Then came time to think about some kind of video release. I don't really have means to make a live-action music video, but the bar to making what's called a "lyric video" is much lower. If you haven't seen one before, a lyric video is exactly what it sounds like... it's a music video, but what you're seeing on the screen is the lyrics. Of course, it's dressed up a bit so it's not like watching the teleprompter at Karaoke night. Some lyrics videos are really cool!

And I had an idea to make mine even cooler. In this song, nearly every line is inspired by a specific quote from Scripture. My idea was to put the lyrics in the top half of the screen, and the Bible verse texts that inspired them in the bottom half of the screen. My only concern was that some of the Bible verses would go by so fast you might miss them... then I realized that people have a "pause" button and know how to use it!

Today we released the brand new lyric video of "One Day" ("The Word Go" is my artist name.) Take a look and tell me what you think!

All Dogs Go

2024-06-08T15:15:00.001-05:00

It was clear to us that our little dog Skipper was not right. He hadn't been eating or drinking much. He would come into a room and look around like he couldn't remember why he was there. He was very old by dog standards - we had had him for 13 years, but we were the fourth owners, inheriting him from my wife's dad when he passed away years ago. We figured he was at least 17 years old, maybe 18, which for a dog is ancient (vets consider dogs "senior" when they are seven years old). We had been chalking it up to age and senility, but a week ago Friday, he was having trouble walking more than 5-6 feet without lying down. Morkies don't really cry when they are in pain, but it was clear to us then that it was high time to take him to the vet.

The story wasn't good. They did a blood panel on him, and it showed that his kidneys were just short of shutting down entirely, and he was probably suffering from cancer as well. He didn't have long to live, even if we took extreme and expensive measures. He was suffering and would continue to suffer. We made the decision that many, many loving pet families have to make... to let him go and put an end to his pain.

We actually made an appointment and took him home for a couple of hours - my son was at work but he got the afternoon off so he could be with us. It was like having a little bit of doggie hospice time; it gave us a chance to love him for a little bit longer and say our goodbyes. We took him back at the scheduled time, me and my wife and our two kids and my wife's brother, who was the one who originally got Skipper for my wife's dad years before. They gave us the option to just say goodbye and go, but none of us were going to leave him there to cross the rainbow bridge alone. Even so, watching our best friend breathe his last breath was one of the most excruciating experiences of my life. We're so thankful that he's no longer suffering, but we miss him terribly, and there will always be an empty morkie-shaped place in all of our hearts.

Decades ago, I heard a mom describing taking her kids to the movie theater to watch an animated movie I still to this day haven't seen, All Dogs Go to Heaven. I was never clear on what exactly in the movie upset her, or why she would even take her kids to see a movie by that title if she was going to be theologically offended, but apparently she stood up at the end and proclaimed to the theater that dogs don't go to Heaven but people do. Not sure whether her kids were impressed by this or mortally embarrassed. But was she right? Do dogs NOT go to Heaven? To humans live on in eternity while their pets live for a decade and then no longer exist? Are the atheists right about death being the final end... but only for Fido?

There are certain things the Bible doesn't say much about. This is for the simple reason that the Bible is a book, and a book is about something, and the Bible is primarily a book about God reaching out in love to the human race. It's not about chemistry, so there's not much in there about that. It's not really about geography or astrophysics. It's not really a music textbook, although there's a lot about music because that's a good way for humans to approach God. And it's not really particularly about animals, especially pets - although because of the time period when it was written, there's a lot about farming. There's even more about shepherding because God repeatedly uses that metaphor to describe how He approaches his people. So it doesn't really tell us whether animals have spirits that live on after death. But there are some interesting passages about animals.

In 2 Samuel 12:1-6 there is a story which turns out to be a metaphor to convince King David that he was guilty of wrongdoing, but there is an interesting implication. "And the LORD sent Nathan to David. He came to him and said to him, 'There were two men in a certain city, the one rich and the other poor. The rich man had very many flocks and herds, but the poor man had nothing but one little ewe lamb, which he had bought. And he brought it up, and it grew up with him and with his children. It used to eat of his morsel and drink from his cup and lie in his arms, and it was like a daughter to him. Now there came a traveler to the rich man, and he was unwilling to take one of his own flock or herd to prepare for the guest who had come to him, but he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him.' Then David’s anger was greatly kindled against the man, and he said to Nathan, 'As the LORD lives, the man who has done this deserves to die, and he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity.' "

As it turns out, the lamb in the story represented a woman, Bathsheba, and the evil rich man was David himself, who had murdered her husband to steal her for himself. But what I think is interesting is that this story paints a picture of a sheep being treated as a member of a the family, a pet - not just as livestock to give wool and one day become a meal. David didn't seem to think this was unusual - in fact, he was enraged that someone would take someone else's pet sheep and destroy it. Echoing this, the Psalms and then Jesus Himself characterize God's people as His sheep, with God being the shepherd who loves each sheep so much that if one goes astray, He will go find it and bring it back. That goes way past the level of "Oh well, I still have 99 sheep, let that one feed the wolves tonight." It seems obvious that even in those days, a pet sheep wasn't a totally alien concept.

But do animals have a spirit? Well, anyone who has spent a lot of time around animals knows that they can be intelligent indeed. In fact, there is a story in Numbers 22:22-35 where God actually temporarily gives a donkey who is being abused (for doing the right thing, saving his master's life, though the master didn't know it) the ability to speak! The story is a bit surreal, because the donkey's master Balaam doesn't even seem surprised when the donkey talks to him. "Then the LORD opened the mouth of the donkey, and she said to Balaam, 'What have I done to you, that you have struck me these three times?' And Balaam said to the donkey, 'Because you have made a fool of me. I wish I had a sword in my hand, for then I would kill you.' And the donkey said to Balaam, 'Am I not your donkey, on which you have ridden all your life long to this day? Is it my habit to treat you this way?' And he said, 'No.' " (verses 28-30) This doesn't tell us that animals have a spirit, but it does imply that they are intelligent enough to both make wise and selfless decisions, and to know when they are being treated badly.

There is a passage in Ecclesiastes that does say outright that animals have a spirit. Ecclesiastes 3:19-21 says: "For what happens to the children of man and what happens to the beasts is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and man has no advantage over the beasts, for all is vanity. All go to one place. All are from the dust, and to dust all return. Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward and the spirit of the beast goes down into the earth?" (boldface mine) In the book of Ecclesiastes Solomon is basically expressing his doubts about just about everything, so I'm not sure if this is him sharing something he knew, or using poetic symmetry to make a point.

But, will Fluffy be there in Heaven when I get there? Heaven won't be the same without my beloved Spot or Puddles or Felix! Well, let me preface this by saying that I believe that life in eternity will be such that our short time on this planet will feel like the opening scroll of Star Wars - the part before the real movie begins. Not to minimize what we do on Earth - we have a charge from God to do good, help the poor and widows and orphans, and spread the Gospel across the world. But from that side, I think this side will feel like preface. I'm not sure we really know whether we will miss pets if it turns out they aren't there.

But I think there will be animals in Heaven. The book of Revelation talks several times about horses in Heaven, including a whole army all riding white horses behind Jesus, who is also on a white horse. In Isaiah chapter 11 there is a passage that talks about animals who are mortal enemies on this earth being OK with each other when Messiah reigns: the wolf and the lamb, the leopard and the goat, calves and lions, cows and bears. Even cobras! Now, the book of Revelation tells us that there is Heaven, but ultimately there will be a new Earth as well, and this passage really refers to the new Earth. So, were these animals previously in Heaven? And, to bring things back around, are they animals who lived on our Earth and died, or are they new animals? Scripture doesn't really tell us.

Near-death experience literature is a huge genre. It shouldn't be taken as gospel truth - it's not the Bible, and it's pretty certain that some of it is completely fictional. But if we assume that some of it describes true experiences of people who have literally died, seen Heaven, and come back, you'll find many instances where people describe animals in Heaven. Is that proof? Of course not. But it's an interesting data point.

The Bible is about God's relationship to creation in general, but humans in particular. It doesn't tell me whether I'll get to one day pet Skipper's fuzzy head again. But it doesn't tell me I won't! So is it my opinion that animals that lived on this Earth will one day live again in eternity? In my opinion, I kind of think they will. I think this creation was damaged badly by the sins of the human race, and God's ultimate goal is by His grace to restore that creation to what it was originally intended to be. Sin brought death, which means that death was never God's plan, which implies that my furry friends and yours shouldn't have had to ever end their lives in the first place. If God is resurrecting all of creation, that includes my fuzzy buddy.

Do dogs (and cats, and birds, and horses and wolves and lambs and whatever) go to Heaven? I don't know for sure. But if they can, Skipper is there now, having a great time, probably hanging out with my father-in-law. Maybe Don is FINALLY getting enough time to teach Skipper how to fetch the ball and actually bring it back!

EDIT: a Theologian says ABSOLUTELY YES!

Seeing But Not Seeing

2024-04-16T10:00:00.168-05:00

This morning I was reading a familiar story from John chapter 9. Jesus gave sight to a man who had been born blind. The reaction of his neighbors is predictable: "This man looks just like our friend the blind man! Wait, is this the blind man? No, it can't be!" The blind man was like, "Yep, I'm him!" Then he told them that Jesus had healed him, which is probably what got him into trouble. Don't ever forget: your witness for Jesus may get you into hot water from time to time. That's no reason not to do it!

Anyway, his "friends" took him to the Pharisees, a group of very influential religious leaders of the day, and the Pharisees questioned him. According to their rules (not God's rules!), Jesus was breaking religious law by essentially practicing medicine on the Sabbath. (Basically, if you've ever heard a Christian berating another Christian for having a job that has them working on a Sunday, that's the same idea.) It was clear to everyone around that someone could not perform this miracle of healing unless God sent him, but this flew in the face of the Pharisees' belief system. Instead of looking at the plain fact that Jesus' actions proved that He was from God and that their belief system was flawed, they chose to try to preserve their belief system by refusing to believe that the event had even taken place. They brought in the man's parents and asked them if this was the blind guy - they were afraid of being excommunicated, so they confirmed the facts of the situation (yes, he's our son, yes, he was blind when he was born) without ever saying whether they believed Jesus was from God. They just threw their poor son under the bus: "He's a grown-up, ask him what happened!"

They brought the man back in and questioned him again about Jesus. The man stuck to his guns - "I don't know if your rules are true, but I know I can see!" Then they asked him to tell them again how Jesus had done it, and the guy finally lost his patience. Basically, he said "I told you my story already. Why are you so interested in Jesus anyway?" Then he tossed some waterproof theology their way, and in return they threw him out of the church (the thing his parents were afraid was going to happen to them).

Now, the Pharisees knew Jesus had come from God. In John 3:1-2 one of them actually came to Jesus and told him as much. These guys weren't looking for knowledge or truth... they were looking for a way to force the truth to fit their flawed belief system.

As I was reading this, I was reminded of the controversy several years ago about "gender" - political and even scientific leadership were (and are) arguing that gender is somehow a mental or emotional state, or equivalent to the sexual activities in which one chooses to engage. When I was growing up, it was obvious to everyone that "gender" referred to the plumbing in one's body, not the state of one's mind. There were and are clearly two distinct configurations. Now, there have always been people who have the same configuration of body parts who were attracted to one another - I don't think anyone denies that fact. Many people of faith believe, based on things they read in the Bible, that sexual activity between persons with the same plumbing is contrary to Scripture, and thus sinful. But even people who thinks it is sinful do not deny that the attraction sometimes exists or that the activity happens.

The new thing in the past five years or so is that people with various sexual orientations (and well-meaning people who want them to feel included in society) are choosing to redefine the word "gender" and the noun "sex" to mean a whole host of things related to emotional states and sexual desires, leaving no word in the English language that means "I have a this and you have a that, so our bodies are different." It seems to me that this amounts to the same thing as "You can see and that would mean that Jesus is from God, but he can't be from God because he broke our rule." It seems like this attack on the English language is there to support preconceived ideas about sexuality and make it impossible to argue that certain behaviors are inherently wrong. Those that argue against it are "thrown out of the temple" by being censored or removed from social media, ridiculed by broadcast and published media, and basically shamed for their beliefs.

Now, you might argue that the people who think gender=body configuration at birth are the equivalent of the old-school Pharisees, wanting to keep things the same while a new progressive person challenges their belief system. I would argue that Jesus and His truth predated the Pharisees, who were seeking to add their own rules to God's reality - and the fact that the word "gender" historically referred to the physical state of one's body predates the idea that "gender" is how you feel at any given moment. The Pharisees were the ones trying to twist reality for their own gain; Jesus was just expressing the truth that had always been.

I don't deny anyone's right to engage in any kind of sexual activity that they want to, barring of course things that would bring harm to another. I don't even deny the right of a man to dress like a woman or a woman to dress like a man if they want to. As Americans, we believe people can do and say what they please, within the bounds of the law. But I do think it's not right to force people to change their very language to fit an ideological agenda in which they do not believe.

The more things change, the more they stay the same. We human beings are so prone to trying to justify our actions in any way possible, particularly if we are told that they are sinful - instead of humbly coming to God and saying, "We know Jesus is from You, so we're asking for Your truth in this situation. We're not trying to manipulate facts to suit an agenda. We are seeking to manipulate our agenda to conform to Your truth."

Leave and Forsake

2024-04-09T10:00:00.009-05:00

This post is something I wrote years ago on the topic of God never "leaving" us or "forsaking" us. When I learned this, it changed the way I think of God's attitude toward me. Enjoy!

There are a number of places in Scripture where God tells someone, seemingly redundantly, that He will not “leave” them or “forsake” them. For example:

Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” So we can confidently say,
    “The Lord is my helper;
        I will not fear;
    what can man do to me?” -Hebrews 13:5-6

That verse quotes from two passages in the Old Testament. The first quote (the one we are concerned with at the moment) is from Deuteronomy 31:6:

“Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the LORD your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you.”

Here is a breakdown from Strong's Concordance of what those words mean:

LEAVE:

Greek: to send back, relax, loosen; to give up, omit, calm; to leave, not to uphold, to let sink [often translated to mean an act of releasing something]

Hebrew: to sink, relax, sink down, let drop, be disheartened; to sink down; to sink, drop; to sink, relax, abate; to relax, withdraw; to let drop, abandon, relax, refrain, forsake; to let go; to refrain, let alone; to be quiet; to show oneself slack [contexts imply relinquishing control]

FORSAKE:

Greek: abandon, desert; leave in straits, leave helpless; totally abandoned, utterly forsaken; to leave behind among, to leave surviving [most contexts imply abandonment]

Hebrew: to leave, loose, forsake; to leave; to depart from, leave behind, leave, let alone; to leave, abandon, forsake, neglect, apostatise; to let loose, set free, let go, free [to walk away from something]

To “leave” something means to accidentally relax your grip, to forget to take it with you when you go. To “forsake” means to intentionally abandon something, to turn your back on it and walk away on purpose. God has promised to do NEITHER to His people!

Do you think there is a time when God does chose to leave or forsake someone? Do you have a testimony of a time when God showed you He was there right when you needed Him? Sound off below by clicking the "comment" link and join the discussion!

Police and Fire

2024-04-02T10:00:00.002-05:00

Every morning (and by "every morning" I mean "every morning that I don't accidentally oversleep"!) I get up early to listen to the Word, pray, read, and basically prepare myself for the day. This is something I've been doing for two years or so, and I highly recommend it. I pray for my family, for our leaders in government, and I pray for myself that I will follow God's leading. One topic that almost always comes to my heart in those times is our local fire and police departments. These are people who have dedicated their lives to protecting others, and from my point of view, since they are protectors of the people of God, they have a mantle of ministry on them, whether they have put their trust in Jesus or not. That's certainly not to say that they shouldn't serve people who aren't Christians... of course they should and do! But I believe that because that mantle of service includes God's people, first responders are entitled to God's protection, and even God's anointing to do their jobs.

I was thinking about how police officers confront dangerous situations all the time – there will always be crazy people doing crazy things. But I believe that the mere existence of a police force discourages a lot of stuff that would happen if there were no consequences. Every time a police officer has to face down someone who is trying to shoot people, there are a dozen more people who would try to shoot someone if they weren't afraid of being captured and punished by the police. Even in days when all they are doing is sitting on the side of the road waiting to catch someone speeding, by their very existence they are protecting you and me.

First responders wake up every morning with the potential of having to do or see something that could haunt them for the rest of their lives. They know this, and yet they get out of bed anyway. There's a nonzero chance that today, a police officer or fireman in my town may not come home because of something that happened to them as part of their duties. Still, they get out of bed, suit up, and head out into whatever awaits them. So my prayer for them every morning is that their lives and their minds will be protected by God. I pray that their training and best practices are at the forefront and followed perfectly, because those things are in place because they have been found to de-escalate situations effectively. I pray that they will have wisdom when it is time to make a decision, and that they will make the right choice quickly. I thank God for the mantle of protection He places on them as the protectors of the people of God.

Pray for your local police and firemen. They don't have to do what they do. They could work in an office, or open an auto repair shop, or start a business, or teach school, or any other job, but they have chosen to protect you. That's a God thing. They're in your corner and my corner, and you and I should be in their corner too.

A Life of Jesus

2024-03-26T10:00:00.001-05:00

Several months ago I ran across an article about a new movie project by Martin Scorcese. Initially I had heard the (false) rumor that he was going to do a gender-flipped movie about Jesus (with women playing the parts of Jesus and His disciples), so I looked it up to find out if that was true. After all, the last time M.S. made a film about Jesus, it was "controversial" to say the least! But it turns out the rumor was partly true - Scorcese apparently is ready to start shooting a movie based on the book A Life of Jesus which was written in the early 1970's by a Japanese author named Shūsaku Endō (no, I don't know how to pronounce it!) I immediately looked it up in my local library's catalog, and discovered that they do not own a copy, but I could get one via interlibrary loan. I made the request, and after a shorter-than-you-might-expect wait, I had the book in my hands!

The book was originally written in Japanese, for a Japanese audience. Shūsaku Endō was a rare Japanese Catholic, and he was writing the book for his countrymen. The situation, as I have read about it, is that the Japanese are more of a matriarchal society than the historically patriarchal West, and the Japanese (again according to what I read, I do not have personal experience) don't particularly take well to the miraculous. Reportedly, Endō deliberately focused on the more motherly aspects of Jesus' ministry, and I did find that to be the case. But even we Westerners who are used to the "Father and Son" paradigm can get some nice takeaways from this book.

A Life of Jesus is not a narrative retelling of the Gospels like Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt by Anne Rice (I wrote about that book here). This book is more like sitting around with a novelist (which Endō was) who has done a lot of research about Jesus, listening to him tell you about his research. And the author clearly did his homework. He had traveled to and was familiar with the Holy Land, and he had read tons of scholarship and writings by Theologians about the life of Christ. And I agree with the starting point for his journey: there are "facts" and there is "truth", and the writers of the Bible were basically more interested in the "truth" than in detailed "facts". That's why if you read the four Gospels and pay close attention, you'll find that events sometimes are related in a different order, and different details are given about the same event. For many years I've been of the opinion that it is too much coincidence to believe that every time in the Bible that there is a crowd or an army or a city, the number of people is always a round number (as in, Jesus fed exactly 5,000 people, not 5,025 or 4,904). In today's culture, we are obsessed with finding out exact facts. The writers of the Gospels (and, indeed, the entire Bible) were much more interested in showing us who God is than, say, what Moses ate for breakfast, or what color the apostle Peter's eyes were. I think that is partly cultural, too... I don't know that middle-Eastern people living in the desert 2,000 years ago were that interested in precision. They had a story to tell, and as long as they hit the main points, that was okay.

So from that starting point and with the mind of a novelist, Endō begins to read the lines, and then read between them. And he has some pretty interesting things to say, too. For example – there was a group in the setting where the Gospels take place called the Essenes. We know about them through history, but they are not mentioned directly in the Bible. These are the group that allegedly compiled what we now call the Dead Sea Scrolls. Endō draws some interesting and startling conclusions about them. First, he theorizes that they were a political threat to Rome, and that is why the Gospels skirt around their existence – to lessen the chances that the Gospels would be seen as subversive literature and destroyed (this seems plausible to me). Second, he theorizes that John the Baptist was either their leader or someone in high leadership (okay, I can follow Endō to this conclusion). But then, oddly, he jumps to the conclusion that Jesus was a disciple of John the Baptist, and basically took over John's role when John was executed.

And that's the way a lot of this book went for me. I kept feeling like Endō was making some interesting points, but then going one or two steps too far. I think Jesus had a lot of respect for John, but I don't think Jesus was a disciple of John and I don't think that Jesus was just the best runner-up that people could find to follow once John was gone. I think Jesus superseded John in every way possible, because Jesus is God and John the Baptist is not.

Another characteristic of this book is that it rarely mentions the miracles of Jesus, choosing to focus on His teachings and on what the author imagines his personality must have been like (remember, this was written by a novelist!) There is of course precedent to this – Thomas Jefferson actually constructed his own copy of the Gospel accounts by physically (with a razor blade) cutting out anything miraculous or spiritual, leaving only Jesus' teachings (at least Endō does not leave out the Resurrection, as Jefferson did!) Endō tells us that the Gospels were based on older documents containing lists of things Jesus said (probably more or less true), and that the miraculous parts were mostly added in later by the Early Church to spice things up (have I mentioned that sometimes he goes a step too far for me?) Except for the Resurrection, he essentially tries to explain away Jesus' miracles and healings. One idea that I found interesting, even though I don't believe it is the truth, is that the signs of demon possession in the Gospels could be explained away as rantings of someone hallucinating with a case of malaria. He doesn't say, but implies, that casting out demons was really just sitting with people until their fever broke. He says outright that the story of Lazarus' resurrection is symbolic and not factual.

He also basically says that any fulfillment of prophecy that you see in the Gospels (such as Zechariah 9:9 which is fulfilled in Matthew 21) were added later by the Early Church. They knew the prophecies, he argues, and made up stuff to match them. I think there are two things that are more likely than that. One of the things is that the prophecies were of something that was going to happen in the future, and it happened, because that's what a prophecy is. The other possibility in my mind is that Jesus knew the prophecies, and when the time was right, He did what God had lined out for Him to do and deliberately fulfilled the prophecies out of obedience to His Father. I believe the truth has a little of each of those things in it. What I don't think is that the Early Church deliberately manipulated the accounts of Jesus' life in order to make them more exciting. I tend to think Jesus' life was already plenty enough exciting!

But Endō doesn't seem to think so. He paints a pretty plaintive picture for us of a moody, saddened Jesus who walked around thinking about how nobody really understood Him. He goes so far as to say that when Jesus sent out His disciples to minister, it was because Jesus Himself was going into hiding because the crowds were mean to him. I tend to think Jesus was much more concerned with the actual needs of the people than with what people thought of Him.

The author also asserts that Jesus never actually said He was the Messiah. I think the Bible text directly contradicts that idea, and I don't think that the Early Church added that in. He also rejects the idea (from the Gospel accounts) that there was an actual period of darkness and Jesus' death, at which time the earth shook and the temple curtain was torn from top to bottom. I'm not sure why you would believe that Jesus rose from the dead but also reject outright that lesser miracles might have happened when He descended into death, but the author does.

I wish I felt like I had the liberty to assume that entire hunks of the Bible were added later, like fan fiction, but the problem is that I'm convinced that the Bible says what it says for a reason. I don't think there are things in there that are factually untrue. The details are sometimes different, as they will be when two people tell the same story and don't collaborate beforehand, but I tend to think that except for minor details (like that five thousand and first person Jesus probably fed) the things recounted in the Gospels actually happened that way. Ironically, Endō once or twice adds in details from the extra-Biblical Catholic tradition, such as the "falls" of Jesus on the way to the Cross. There's your fan fiction.

He paints a strange picture of Jesus' perception of God. Despite the Gospel reports of Jesus repeatedly using the term "Father" in prayer, Endō tells us this: "He believed that God by his nature was not in the image of a stern father, but was more like a mother who shares the suffering of her children and weeps with them..." Now, understanding that Endō was writing for a specific audience, and that he did not say that God is not a father but that God is not a stern father, I still think this misses the mark a little bit. I think that Jesus experienced and empathized with human suffering, but that was because Jesus actually became a human being. God the Father loves us, and maybe even weeps with use when we are in pain, but He does not suffer, and I don't think Jesus thought He did. The Gospel writers did not presume to put unspoken thoughts in Jesus' head, but 2k years later, Shūsaku Endō somehow thought he could. I'll say it again, though - Endō was a novelist, so his natural mindset tended to work in character development and coherent plot in places where they are absent from the Gospel narratives.

I do think his characterization of Judas Iscariot is interesting. Endō essentially saw all of the disciples as looking for a political victory over Rome, and that's probably not far from the truth on one level; I think they sensed something spiritual happening too, but from their perspective, Messiah was to be their savior from Rome. Judas, on the other hand, is characterized as maybe the smartest in the bunch, seeing potential for political victory but also realizing way ahead of the others that Jesus wasn't going to be a military leader, and that the story of his objection to the woman pouring perfume on Jesus' feet amounts to him implicitly admitting this. The Gospel accounts paint Judas with a broad, vengeful brush, but I almost agree with Endō that they are harsh on Judas a bit unjustly. After all, all of the disciples cut and ran away when the chips were down. I imagine that if nobody had given Jesus up, Jesus would have found a way to surrender himself anyway. Judas did nothing to Jesus that God hadn't planned for ahead of time.

I wouldn't read this book as a devotional handbook. In my opinion, its flaws are too extensive for that. If you are not secure in your understanding of the Scriptures, this book could really introduce some unnecessary confusion and uncertainty. Endō asserts that nothing but a true resurrection of Jesus from the dead could have turned the weak-willed disciples of Jesus into the strong leaders who spread His message all over the world and, tradition tells us, most of whom eventually faced martyr's deaths themselves. But if you are willing to accept the most unlikely miracle of them all, a man coming back to life after being killed, why would you discard other lesser miracles such as healing the sick or casting out demons? And why, with the ultimate miracle in their toolbelt, would any early writer presume to fabricate other lesser miracles? I think this book holds some interesting stuff for someone who isn't easily swayed in their convictions, but in the long run, there are probably better books if you're looking for truths from the Word. For example, start with the Word itself - get comfortable with what it says! Then if you read something like this book, you won't be toppled over by "steps too far" like the ones I see in this book!

Happy Easter!

Forgive and Forget

2024-03-19T10:00:00.018-05:00

A friend of mine posts funny memes on Facebook almost every day. I don't know how he finds them all, but he rarely posts one that doesn't actually make me smile. Some time ago he posted one that contained some "rules for life" that are tongue-in-cheek and pretty funny to me. The first one, however, I thought contained a grain of truth. It said, using a word I won't use here because I don't want to offend anyone, that you should always forgive "your enemy", but then you should also remember the guy's name. The reason that I thought it contained some truth is that I don't believe in "forgive and forget" – at least not all of the time.

Don't get me wrong, I 100% believe in the "forgive" part! Jesus made it very clear that we should forgive people who wrong us, over and over if necessary. I'd say there are two reasons for that: first and foremost, the person who wronged us can see God's forgiveness modeled in us. Second, when we hold unforgiveness in our hearts, it is damaging to us, too. I've heard it said, and I think this is a fantastic analogy, that harboring unforgiveness is like drinking poison and hoping that the other guy will die! Unforgiveness is toxic; forgiveness is mandatory.

But I would submit that forgiving and forgetting can be like eating healthy and hoping the other guy loses weight! Your forgiveness does not change that person, outside of giving them an opportunity to make a change themselves when they see God's work in you causing you to forgive. But if they don't change, there is every chance they will wrong and hurt you again.

But isn't that what forgiveness is... letting go of past hurts and being open to the person? Trusting them again like you did before? Well, let me frame it this way. Let's say you know someone who has a hot temper and a loaded pistol. Let's say that person aimed their gun at you and shot you. You were badly wounded, went to the hospital, got patched up, and forgave that person for what he did to you. All good so far? You did the right thing!

Months later you run into that person. He has his firearm. He pulls it out and aims it at you. It is loaded. Do you stand there and get shot again? Is that what forgiveness means? This person did not change. The first shooting was not an accident, and the impending second shooting will not be an accident either. What is the purpose of you going to the hospital again? To show the person how holy you are? Well, maybe. Maybe God says to you in your heart, be still. I'm taking care of you, and you need to stand up and be brave, and I'll get the glory in this situation. But to my way of thinking, if that doesn't happen and you just stand there and get shot again, you're kind of stupid. You're probably more useful to God alive than potentially dead, and this guy may have been spending the past few months at the shooting range, making sure he won't have to waste a third bullet on you!

My friend disagrees, and I'm sure he's not the only one. He believes that if you are wronged and you forgive, you should be totally open to being hurt again the same way. Maybe sometimes that is the case. And since I'm not God and I've been wrong before, I'll just say right here and now that my opinion is my opinion only where this is concerned. But Jesus didn't always let people get away with harming Him. Jesus literally came into the world with the express intention of allowing Himself to be brutally murdered one day, but years before that time, an angry crowd (in his own home town of Nazareth!) was trying to throw him off a cliff. It would have been the perfect time to die at the hands of enemies, if that's your intention. Did Jesus let them kill Him? Nope... the Bible says he just walked on through the crowd and left. (You can read it yourself in Luke 4:28-30.)

Did Jesus forgive them? Of course He did! In fact, he even came back to Nazareth later and tried to minister to the people again - it's recorded in Mark 6:1-6. The people basically didn't believe in Him this time either (he healed a few sick, so clearly someone believed), but at least they didn't try to throw him off a cliff this time.

So, two lessons from this. (1) Jesus defended His own life – not with force, essentially with pacifism, but He didn't let them harm Him. (2) This gave Him an opportunity to minister again to the same people later, and some who wouldn't have had a chance to be healed, got healed. (3) Clearly Jesus wasn't afraid to put Himself in harm's way again, going back to a place where he had already been rejected and almost executed!

In my opinion, sometimes there are situations where you forgive, but then you don't get in the same situation again. Domestic violence is often a good example. A woman who is being abused and stays with her attacker often just fuels his behavior, and the abuse gets worse and worse. That woman can forgive him every single night and continue to get injured, until one day she forgives him for the last time in Heaven. Or, she can get out of the dangerous situation, preserve her own health and life, and maybe even try to get him some help. Maybe losing her is what he needs to wake up to the fact that he is ruining his own life by being out of control. I've seen marriages that survive terrible situations, and certainly God is powerful enough to heal a broken marriage. And maybe, just maybe, the solution for a woman in that situation is to stay. But I'd say the default should be to get out and not get killed.

What about someone who is wronged in business? Let's say you go into business with someone. You work through the hard years of getting it off the ground, and eventually you start turning a profit. Everything is looking good for five or six years... and then your business partner drains the accounts and leaves the country, and you have to close up shop. You're ruined. You have to fire people who depended on you. Maybe you even lose your own house. You know you have to forgive that person; it's excruciatingly hard, but you do it.

A few years down the line, your former business partner, who has returned to the country after spending all of the money he stole from the business, comes to you with an idea for a new business. We built one before, he tells you – we can build one again! You know you can't trust this person. Does your forgiveness compel you to go into business with that person again? I would say not.

God may well tell you to "let him have your cloak as well" if they take advantage of you. Or, He may counsel you not to "be unequally yoked with unbelievers". But neither of those actions means that you have or have not forgiven that person. The forgiveness happens in your heart; once you have forgiven, you are then free to make the Godly choice of what action to take next.

ALL His Benefits

2024-03-15T10:00:00.003-05:00

One last time, for the people who came in late! This is the list of benefits God has for His children, as listed in Psalm 103:

forgiveness for iniquity - read the post about it
healing for diseases - read the post about it
redemption from "the pit" - read the post about it
being crowned with "steadfast love and mercy" - read the post about it
being satisfied with "good" - specifically good health - read the post about it

Can I attempt a paraphrase of the list of benefits, based on what I've blogged about them? Here we go:

God knows we struggle with our sin natures, and He pardons us when our motives are wrong.
God provides healing for us when our bodies aren't working right.
God knows that we were imprisoned and headed for ultimate destruction, and paid the price for our release.
God's love is so deep, devoted, and unchanging that it completely surrounds us.
God supplies us with things that are good for us, bring joy to our lives, and help us be strong as we make our way through life.

Picture in your mind a man or woman who is imprisoned and in chains. They are 100% guilty of what they have been accused of. They have been beaten and wounded during their crime and later as punishment for it, and they look decades older than they are because of what they have experienced. Now imagine that they are brought before a judge, That judge is God. God picks up his gavel, bangs it on the desk, and says, "I hereby pardon this person." Then God comes down to the person, touches them with His hands, and their wounds immediately disappear. He turns to the bailiff, and says, "Release them - I have paid back everything owed." The bailiff takes off their handcuffs, and instead God wraps the former prisoner in a luxurious robe of His love which they need never take off. Next He gives them a refreshing drink of the best water that has ever existed. When the person drinks the water, they visibly become more alert, their breathing is more calm, and they look back at God with eyes filled with peace.

That's you. That's the benefits God has provided. Don't let them pass you by!

Want to read the whole series in order? Click here to start from the beginning!

Benefits (Benefit #5)

2024-03-12T10:00:00.004-05:00

Here's that list of benefits from Psalm 103 again:

forgiveness for iniquity
healing for diseases
redemption from "the pit"
being crowned with "steadfast love and mercy"
being satisfied with "good" - specifically good health

God satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's

There is an inspiring story about eagles, that they fly to the top of a mountain and break off their beaks and lose all their feathers and grow new ones. I'm no ornithologist so I don't know if that's true or not, but I don't think this means that your body is going to regenerate somehow and you'll suddenly look 20 when you're 60. I think the imagery in the Bible of an eagle is an image of strength. Look at what it says in Isaiah 40, for example:

Even youths shall faint and be weary,
and young men shall fall exhausted;
but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
they shall walk and not faint.

- Isaiah 40:30–31 (ESV)

I think that the image of the eagle in the Bible represents strength and stamina. It is true that sometimes we have to go through a painful process to get to where God wants us to be, but in my opinion, that's not what this is about.

So what is the process that this verse is talking about? It says that our youthful strength and stamina is renewed because God satisfies us with "good". Good what? Well, the word just means good and pleasing. What if God wants to satisfy us with things that make us happy? And I'm not talking about expensive cars and yachts and huge televisions and that sort of thing... even people who don't believe in God know that wealth alone doesn't make you happy. I think that in general God wants us to be supplied and comfortable in our lives – I think He wants our lives to be full of joy. I mean, if God wanted us to suffer, he could send us all right to Hell right this minute. The Gospels don't show us a Jesus who came and injured people and caused damage... Jesus came and healed people, supplied for their needs, even sometimes fed them. I think God wants to bring things, people, and circumstances into our lives that we can rejoice in, that put a spring in our step, that make us feel like we could spread our wings and fly up into the sky!

Counter point: Sometimes Believers suffer.

Yes they do.

In fact, the next verse, immediately after the benefits, acknowledges that: "The LORD works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed." (Psalm 103:6) Some people, it says, are oppressed. BUT: God is working in their behalf, bringing justice, bringing that "good" promised in the benefits! The Bible isn't some kind of utopian nonsense. It fully admits that difficulties exist. God's benefits are not a denial of reality – they are hope that it will get better!

On to the final wrap-up, or start from the beginning!

Benefits (Benefit #4)

2024-03-01T10:00:00.002-06:00

Here's that list of benefits from Psalm 103 again:

forgiveness for iniquity
healing for diseases
redemption from "the pit"
being crowned with "steadfast love and mercy"
being satisfied with "good" - specifically good health

God crowns you with steadfast love and mercy

Crowns are round, and that's why translations use the word "crowns" here. But it doesn't seem to me to be about a royal crown. The Hebrew word means "to encircle" – it seems to me that this is more of a protective measure than the coronation we might think of. In Psalm 5:12 it says "For you bless the righteous, O LORD; you cover him with favor as with a shield." That word "cover" is the same word translated "crown" here, in Psalm 103:4.

"Steadfast love" means loyalty, devotion, and the unchangeable nature of God. In Deuteronomy 31:8 (and also a few verses before in 31:6) Moses said this about the nature of God: "It is the LORD who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed." In the passage in Hebrews 13 that quotes Moses, the author wraps it up this way: "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever." (Hebrews 13:8) God loves you, and He isn't going to change His mind!

And finally, "mercies" means a deep well of loving compassion. In verses 13-14 of this same chapter, the Psalmist expands on this a little bit more: "As a father shows compassion to his children, so the LORD shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust." God isn't looking for a reason to condemn us. He knows that we are fragile creatures, able to be wiped out by nothing more than a change of temperature or an invisible gas that we breathe. When one of my children is in pain or fearful or in some kind of danger, I am immediately there for them, in their corner, because I know them and I know when they have a need. That's the way God is for us.

All of that meaning packed into seven words! God protectively encircles us with His devotion, His loyalty, His never-leave-you, His love, His mercy, His compassion. It's like being in the safest place you've ever been, with the kindest, strongest, and most protective person you've ever met. It's that, but more. Wow!

On to Benefit #5, or start from the beginning!

Benefits (Benefit #3)

2024-02-27T10:00:00.007-06:00

Here's that list of benefits from Psalm 103 again:

forgiveness for iniquity
healing for diseases
redemption from "the pit"
being crowned with "steadfast love and mercy"
being satisfied with "good" - specifically good health

God redeems your life from the pit

Redemption is a word with a very small meaning outside of Theological circles these days. You can "redeem" a coupon for thirty cents off a can of peas. You can "redeem" the box tops off your cereal boxes to satisfy whatever promotion the cereal company is running. When I was a kid you could "redeem" glass soda pop bottles and get a few cents back. Or, if you say or do something stupid, you can do something better and so you "redeem yourself" in the eyes of whoever saw you do the stupid thing.

None of these things are exactly the Bible meaning of the word "redeem". In the Bible, to "redeem" someone (because in this verse God is redeeming us!) means to pay the price to get them out of a captive situation. Paying a ransom, Almost like "posting bail" for a prisoner to secure their release from prison, except that once redeemed you don't have to go back to prison. It's more akin to paying off your mortgage, and then you are free from that payment forever! In Bible terms, "redeemed" is a permanent state!

So what is "the pit"? Well, literally... it's, you know, a pit. A hole in the ground. Maybe extend that to something like a dungeon. But this is a very specific "pit" – this pit is the place where people go when they die. It's parallel language to Psalm 49:15 that talks about redemption from "Sheol" which is a Hebrew word for "the underworld". But this doesn't really signify Heaven or Hell as the Christian faith understands them; this is a much more primitive imagery. Many translations render this word as "destruction" which is probably an accurate portrayal of what the Psalmist meant.

Let's put those things together... there are things in the world that want to kill you and me. Even outside of whatever hostile spiritual forces there may be, there are creatures who, if they saw you, would absolutely try to kill you. Then there are things that could accidentally kill you... a car swerves into your lane, something falls on you out of a window, you catch a terminal disease. These things want to destroy you, and the danger exists because sin has been brought into this world. There is a price to pay for sin; that price is destruction. But God constantly pays the ransom cost that it takes to redeem us from the destruction that results from our sin! Your life doesn't have to lead to a place of oblivion. God redeems you!

On to Benefit #4, or start from the beginning!

Benefits (Benefit #2)

2024-02-23T10:00:00.006-06:00

Here's that list of benefits from Psalm 103 again:

forgiveness for iniquity
healing for diseases
redemption from "the pit"
being crowned with "steadfast love and mercy"
being satisfied with "good" - specifically good health

God heals all your diseases

Benefit #2 is "who heals all your diseases". I grew up in churches that believe that God can supernaturally heal someone by laying on of hands, prayer, maybe anointing with oil - there are a number of Scriptural mechanisms by which humans express their faith that God will heal someone. But I know that there are a lot of churches that believe instead that God does NOT supernaturally heal people anymore. Those things the Apostles did in the Bible? Those things, members of these church bodies might say, left the world when those Apostles died. I am not here to criticize those people; I'm just acknowledging that the things I was taught in church are not the same things everyone is taught.

But the benefit laid out here is pretty straightforward. I looked up the Hebrew words, and there's not really any ambiguity. "heals" means healing - sometimes it is even translated as "physician". This "diseases" is not common in the Old Testament, but every time it occurs it's talking about a disease in someone's body, usually one that kills them (don't look it up if you are squeamish!) And how about that word in the middle: "all". So God is the physician, you have some kind of illness or illnesses in your body, maybe even terminal ones, and the benefit is that the physician God will heal ALL of your sicknesses!

So here's the big question: Michael, as you were growing up in your church and people were laying hands and praying and anointing with oil people with sicknesses, are ALL of them healed? And my answer has to be: some of them walked away from the prayer time and didn't seem changed at all. Others walked away super excited because they could tell that they were healed! I don't actually know why that is - I have some theories and ideas, and I've heard preachers talk about it. But the benefit is that God heals ALL of your diseases. That's what the Bible says, so I have to believe that it is available!

There is a warning in verse 2 of this chapter: "forget not all his benefits". In my previous blog entry I described how at the end of the year in a lot of businesses, you sign up for benefits. The ones you are offered and refuse, you can't turn around three months later and access - if you didn't sign up at the right time, you don't get them. Also, if you forget you have a benefit - say, you go to the pharmacy but don't give them your insurance card - the benefit does not work for you. You get to pay the price for forgetting that benefit. I suspect this is something like that. You have to know that healing is available and trust God to supply it. I'm by no means an expert on this, and there are instances when things happen and you wonder why someone stayed sick when to all appearances they were believing God for His healing. All I do know is that the benefit is there, and if I get sick, I want to do everything I can to access it!

On to Benefit #3, or start from the beginning!

Benefits (Benefit #1)

2024-02-20T10:00:00.004-06:00

I've got a printed out copy of Psalm 103 that I recently posted on the white board next to where I work. The reason is because it talks about "benefits". A month or two ago, if you work for a company like I work for, you probably got to hear the "benefits" talk. This is the talk about how to sign up for insurance, 401(k), whatever stuff your employer makes available to you. In order to take advantage of that stuff, typically you have to take steps to sign up. Psalm 103:2 says "..forget not all his [God's!] benefits." I was like, wait, God has benefits? This I need to look at! Seems like I might want to sign up!

Here's God's list of benefits from that chapter (no 401(k) plan here, sorry!)

forgiveness for iniquity
healing for diseases
redemption from "the pit"
being crowned with "steadfast love and mercy"
being satisfied with "good" - specifically good health

God forgives all your iniquity

So, "forgiveness" seems pretty self-explanatory (we'll get back to it in a minute), but I'm not sure everyone knows what "iniquity" is. You may think, as I did and I'm sure most people do, that "iniquity" is just a longer word that means "sin", but it's not, not exactly. "Sin" is when you mess up and do something wrong - you were presented with a situation and you made the wrong choice. "Iniquity", however, is the thing inside of you that caused you to make that choice. The Bible talks about the "flesh" meaning that before we gave our hearts to Jesus, we were messed up and couldn't get to God, and sometimes we still act like that. Think of the sin as the action itself, and the iniquity is the thing that clicked inside and caused the action to be taken. Notice it doesn't say "iniquities" like there are multiple things–it's one "iniquity" that causes the whole problem.

Let's go back to "forgiveness" now. Let's say my wife didn't know it was my special cookie sitting on the counter, and she wanted a cookie so in all innocence she ate it. I found out and got mad, but then I realized it was a mistake and I said, "I forgive you."

That's NOT what this forgiveness is.

This "forgiveness" is more along the lines of pardon for a crime. In fact, in a lot of verses the same word is translated into some variation of the word "pardon". So let's put that together. God doesn't just say "I forgive you" when we sin. God's first benefit is that He has granted us a full pardon for the actual sinful nature which we were born with and to which we sometimes still succumb. He has pardoned all of it! Keep the dental plan, I'll take that benefit, please!

On to Benefit #2!

Spiritual Worship

2024-02-13T10:00:00.018-06:00

Stepping back a bit from my previous post about Romans 12, I think it's interesting to get some context from the whole chapter.

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Romans 12:1–2 (ESV)

What I see here is that Paul is going to give us some instructions on how to live a life fully committed to God, not only in spiritual things but also in the physical realm (so, not just thinking nice thoughts, but actually taking action). He prepares us for a mental paradigm shift, then he goes on in the next few verses to explain that in the body of Christ (meaning, all who has put our faith in Him, not the head and torso and arms and legs and hands and feet he had when he walked on the Earth) has lots of members with different functions to perform, different jobs to hold, and all of them are important.

Then we get to that passage I mentioned last time starting in verse 9. There are 13 verses from there to the end of the chapter, and I noticed something interesting. Out of the 13 verses, I only see two verses that are about doing something solitary. "Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord." (verse 11) "Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer." (verse 12). The rest of the verses are all about how we treat other people! We love them (9-10), we take care of their needs (13), we bless them, even the mean ones (14), we empathize with them (15), we are friendly even to the ones that are different from us personally (16, 18), and we choose to treat them well even if they treat us badly (17, 19-21). All that stuff in verses 6-8 - prophecy, teaching, exhorting (persuading people), giving lots of money, leadership, all of the things we tend to think are cool important things that we want to do - all of that stuff winds up being secondary to just being able to treat people like Christ treated them.

To come back full circle - this chapter started off telling us how to worship God with our whole selves, even our bodies. We each have gifts and callings, but in the end, it is doing physical acts of service for others that somehow turns around and becomes a spiritual act of worship to God!