God’s Kingdom Come

In ahe heightened success of enlightenment thinking, individualism has ruled the day. This has expressed itself in renewed expressions of individualistic ethics, politics, and religion. Hedonism rules the day of ethics. Libertarian politics is the increasing majority opinion of young voters. Self-centered deism has become the political drug of western culture. This has become true of not only liberal Christianity but also its more conservative branches. In a biblical scope, generations are important. In fact, family is crucial since God establishes his redemptive relationship via families. The God of the Scriptures is the most precious family traditions:

“I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you” – Genesis 17:7-8

We can thus draw mildly from human experience. Family heirlooms are a treasure. In my family, the gift of music is important. Nothing works into our veins like a good melody or rhythm. My children have learned this naturally. They dance in circles at the oddest hours. From the oldest to the youngest, music and movement boils in their blood. It is a family tradition. In a much greater and spiritually-grounded sense, the covenant kingdom of Jesus Christ is a long-standing family tradition.

In fact, all of God’s covenants are family traditions. For instance, the kingdom of David, via Judah, can be traced all the way to the concluding life of Jacob in Egypt (Gen. 49:8-11). It finds itself reiterated by even the pagan prophet Balak (Num. 24:17-19). In this instance, long before God’s promise to David (2 Sam. 7), God had prepared an everlasting kingdom as part of the covenant fulfillment to Abraham and Jacob.

Back to my personal example, this would not be unlike one of my grandchildren becoming a significant country musician because God has promised it to my grandfather. In my example, the promise of God himself is missing, but the genes and heritage have been in the works since my grandfather. In the covenants, God attaches his promises to offspring—even the new covenant,

“And as for me, this is my covenant with them,” says the Lord: “My Spirit that is upon you, and my words that I have put in your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, or out of the mouth of your offspring, or out of the mouth of your children's offspring,” says the Lord, “from this time forth and forevermore.” – Isaiah 59:21

So when Jesus Christ appears on the scene, he is the fulfillment of two millenniums and promises (Matt. 1; Rom. 1:3). He fulfills the promises to Abraham and David in a tied knot that is the New Covenant. Our God is fundamentally a cross-generational covenantal God. He chooses to work within families via his covenants. He binds himself to promises. He alone ensures those promises are fulfilled. He is not the abstract deistic god. He forever remains active in history. He manifests his kingdom in miraculous ways.

As C.S. Lewis alluded to, our God is no tame lion, but he is always good and faithful. His kingdom is a covenantal kingdom promised and decreed by the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Yet, it is also fulfilled in the birth and crucifixion of Christ. It is a tumultuous, not tame, history, yet the end is good. This is the covenant history, redemptive-historical, perspective of the Reformed tradition that the Lord’s Prayer alludes to in each of its petitions.

It should not surprise us that this covenant kingdom and promise were deeply ingrained in the conscience of Israel. It was these promises that were sung by Israel in their worship (Ps. 2:7-12). The whole identity of their culture and people were focused on these promises. When their covenant redemption was fulfilled in Christ’s baptism (Matt 3:17) and transfiguration (Matt 17:5), history was shaken. But their history does not stop that.

That this very covenant kingdom is passed on throughout the church is also a miracle – this is the primary emphasis of the book of Acts. Not only does the kingdom pass to the Gentiles, but it still remains passed to their children. The promised kingdom, as the prophet Isaiah foretold, is passed to our children’s children. They all become the covenant community under King Jesus. This is both refreshing and challenging. Our children do not become Christ’s possession at a time of confession; they belong to the Covenant Savior from the beginning.

In Proverbs, Solomon says, “A good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children” (Prov. 13:22). Would it not be foolish and shortsighted to exclude their spiritual, covenantal inheritance? Our Heavenly Father’s inheritance is very good. And the covenantal history of the Scriptures challenges us at every step to leave a great spiritual inheritance for our children.

This petition “Thy kingdom come” of the Lord’s Prayer reminds us that our God has established his covenant kingdom from the foundation of the earth. Not merely over geography, but also over all of time and space. It stretches across nations. It also stretches across time within households. Our God will not be denied despite our unfaithfulness (Rom. 3:4; 9:6). God’s promises and election founded in Jesus Christ will be true. The gospel is not found in a nefarious god—who demands good works—but a covenantal Father who bestows out of his abundant blessings. This kingdom has come, and we pray it come in greater glory. A gospel that points to Christ’s kingdom glorifies God by acknowledging his promises to generation after generation. We pray for this kingdom to bring glory to God the Father. The fulfilled will of God is crucial to this kingdom.

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Joshua Torrey is a New Mexico boy in an Austin, TX world. He is husband to Alaina and father to Kenzie & Judah and spends his free time studying for the edification of his household. These studies include the intricacies of hockey, football, curling, beer, and theology. You can follow him @benNuwn and read his theological musings and running commentary of the Scriptures at The Torrey Gazette.

4 Ways to Love Your Wife

1. UNDERSTAND YOUR WIFE

When Peter encourages husbands, he begins with a call to simply understand them, writing, “Husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way” (1 Pt. 3:7). The word for understanding is often translated as knowledge in the New Testament, so we’re left with this call to simply know our wives; to know her needs, to know her heart, and to continue to pursue her.

Far too often, there seems to be a tendency for husbands to get on the other side of “I do” and put the relationship on cruise control. The dates stop. The long conversations and sweet text messages stop. The flowers stop, and wives are left wanting. I’ve seen this play out to the point of wives seeking emotional support from another man, hoping that an emotional affair, an ongoing relationship through social media, might fill the emotional void. But men who love their wives will keep pursuing her and strive to understand her heart.

2. HONOR YOUR WIFE

Peter continues his Spirit-inspired wisdom with these words: “Husbands, show honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life” (1 Pt. 3:7). We are to honor our wives, recognizing that a believing wife is an heir of the grace of life. Here, Peter is picking up on what he wrote earlier when he said that followers of Christ are born again, “To an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you” (1 Pt. 1:4).

When we remember our wives are heirs of an imperishable inheritance, daughters of the King, that should affect how we treat them. All of the sudden, we are acutely aware of the inappropriateness of disrespecting, dishonoring, or ignoring this incredible woman of God who has the Lord of Lords preparing a place for her while we’re sharing life with her. The fact that our believing wives find their identity in Christ and have the Spirit of the Lord within them should move us to honor them in our words, actions, and attitudes, even when they’re not around.

3. PROTECT YOUR WIFE

As Peter is reminding husbands of the inheritance that awaits our wives, he, in the same breath, reminds us that our wives are the “weaker vessel.” Now at first glance, this almost seems like an insult. We usually associate weakness with inability or inferiority. However, this is a beautiful description of wives that should move husbands into action. The Bible is very clear that God made all people, men and women, and that he created them equal, in his image. And, the Bible is very clear that God beautifully blessed husbands and wives with unique roles and ministries within marriage and within the home. We read about these different roles in passages like 1 Peter 3, Ephesians 5, and Colossians 3.

When Peter refers to our wives as the “weaker vessel,” I don’t think Peter is saying that wives are weaker mentally, spiritually, or emotionally, or inferior in any way, but biologically men are typically stronger and that it should be common sense for husbands to, therefore, protect our wives in a way that recognizes their needs.

Now, full disclosure, I am writing as a man who is unable to beat his wife in one-on-one basketball and who finished a half-marathon a week ago only because my wife basically carried me on her back.

Even still, Peter is calling for men to take care of their wives and to avoid taking advantage of their role as the spiritual leader of the home. As Paul writes, “Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them” (Col. 3:19).

When I think about how this is practically fleshed out within Gospel Family, I remember a story I read years ago:

In July 2012, there was a theater shooting in Aurora, Colorado, during a showing of the Batman movie The Dark Knight. The Huffington Post reported the story of three couples that were in the theater that night: 26-year-old Jon Blunk who was watching the movie with his girlfriend Jansen Young; 27-year-old Matt McQuinn who was with his girlfriend Samantha Yowler; and 24-year-old Alex Teves, who was watching the movie with his girlfriend Amanda Lindgren.

As the gunman entered the movie theater and began firing his weapon, all three couples dove to the floor and hid underneath the chairs. And in each case, one shielded the other. One used their body to cover their date and protect them.

Even if you have never heard this story and even if I never told you who shielded whom, I believe you immediately picture the men protecting the women. Intuitively, we picture Jon shielding Jansen, Matt covering Samantha, and Alex protecting Amanda. And, if I told you it was the other way around if I told you that the women pushed the men underneath the seats and used their bodies to defend the men, something within you would think that wasn’t the way it should be.

The story of all three couples found the men instinctively saving their girlfriends, using their bodies to keep them from the bullets. All three men were shot and killed, and all three women survived.

This story is tragic and heroic and resonates somewhere deep within us, for we all intuitively know that in that situation, none of us expect the girlfriends to shield their boyfriends. We all, deep down, no matter where you land on feminism or gender roles, we all imagine those men protecting those women before we ever even hear the end of the story. I think it’s this deep place within us that Peter is speaking to here when he calls husbands to protect their wives as the weaker vessel.

4. PRAY WITH YOUR WIFE

Peter tells husbands to understand, honor, and protect their wives, “So that your prayers may not be hindered” (1 Pt. 3:7). Somehow, there is a connection between the health of our marriages and the health of our prayers.

While we know that our prayers affect how we live, we see the opposite is true as well. Peter writes about prayer three times in 1 Peter, and every time, he highlights the biblical truth that how we live affects our prayers (see 1 Pt. 3:12; 4:7). Wayne Grudem reflects on this passage writing,

So concerned is God that Christian husbands live in an understanding and loving way with their wives, that he interrupts his relationship with them when they are not doing so.

Specifically, Peter is talking, not just about the husband’s private, personal prayer time, but about corporate prayer between a husband and a wife.

Donald Whitney champions this view as he discusses this passage. He says,

Have you realized that the prayers here are those prayed together by husbands and wives? The text speaks of mutual prayer. Peter assumes that Christian couples pray together. He expected Christian husbands to conduct family worship.

Likewise, Charles Spurgeon writes,

This text would be most appropriately used to stimulate Christians to diligence in family prayer. . . . I esteem it so highly that no language of mine can adequately express my sense of its value.

Men have been called to lead their families. But we’re not to be just any sort of leaders. We are to live as shepherd-leaders who spiritually lead their wives by cultivating family worship, family prayer, and family devotions within the home.

What an opportunity, whether you’ve ever led out in family prayer or not, to begin today praying with your wife, seeking to understand her heart, enjoying her Spirit-led prayers as a fellow heir of the grace of life, and protecting her as you lead her to the one who can replace her depression with joy, her anxiety with peace, her needs with abundance, her complaining about contentment, her exhaustion with rest, and her insecurities with boldness!

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Jonathan Williams is the founder of Gospel Family Ministries. He is also the author of Gospel Family. Jonathan enjoys this ministry alongside his wife, Jessica, and their three children, Gracie, Silas, and Elijah. With a heart for families and the church, Jonathan also serves as the pastor of Wilcrest Baptist Church in Houston, Texas.

Download a free chapter on “Shepherds in the Home” from my book Gospel Family.

7 Reasons Why Faithful Church Attendance Matters

Going to church every week, week after week matters. If we know Jesus, we should desire to be with his bride. For all those who believe, have a church home, but don't attend consistently, I’m writing for you. If you're one of those spotty non-attenders, I’m writing to you in love but also in truth. Come home! Regular church attendance is not just good for the ministry; it's good for your soul, and for mine.¹ So why is regular church attendance so important? Here're seven reasons:

1. Faithful attenders prioritize God and his Word first in their lives.

A call for regular church attendance begins in what are likely the first written words of the Bible, the Ten Commandments. Exodus 20:3 says, “You shall have no other gods before me.”² How we spend our time is the truest measure of God’s place in our lives. If we are quick to fill the time set aside for worshipping God with visiting family, going to the beach, attending concerts, or just relaxing, we are unintentionally saying those things matter more than God (Matt. 12:48-50, Lk. 14:26).

Just like we set aside time to listen to our loved ones, we need to set aside time to listen to God. Throughout church history God has used one constant to communicate to his people, the public reading and preaching of the Bible. In 2 Timothy 3:16-17, Paul tells us,

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

If we want to prioritize God and what he wants to say to us, we need to prioritize church in addition to our own quiet times with him.

2. Faithful attenders demonstrate their love for Jesus and His bride.

“I love Jesus but not the church” is like saying to a new groom, “I love you but not your bride.” The Bible describes the local church as the bride of Christ (2 Cor. 11:2 Eph. 5:24-27, Rev. 19:7-9, 21:1-2). It is impossible to maintain a thriving relationship with Christ while at the same time avoiding fellowship with a gospel-believing local church. When we commit to loving the church, we commit to loving Christ.

Parents should be especially driven to attend church regularly. The children of parents who do not attend church consistently are more likely to walk away from Christianity when they are old enough to decide for themselves. Why? Their parents demonstrated week after week that Christ is an add-on, an addition, and if life is too busy, it is okay to ignore him. Parents, please model for your children that Jesus is not only the Savior of your soul but the King of your life.

3. Faithful attenders receive the gospel anew every single week.

There is nothing more important than the gospel, than hearing anew that Jesus is a righteous substitute for sinful, broken, people—for you and me (Rom. 3:21-26, 2 Cor. 5:21). In Romans 10:17, Paul says, “Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.” Even though we need to hear and believe the gospel every day, it is easy to go a whole week without giving this life-changing message a passing thought. One of the church’s roles is to boldly and lovingly tell us how bad we are and how great Jesus loves us week after week. When we love the church, we love the gospel.

One of the temptations in encouraging each other to go to church weekly is to do so from guilt, to say God won’t be pleased with you unless you go to church every week. That’s legalism, and it is death. So what does the gospel say? It says that in Jesus we already have a perfect record, and now we’re called to live it out week by week. God created us for good works (Eph. 2:10), one of which is worshipping with his body. Apart from Christ, I am nothing. In him, I am everything.

4. Faithful attenders help evangelize the lost and build-up new believers.

In the early church, the Holy Spirit used regular and passionate participation in the church in Jerusalem, a local church, to bring new people to faith in Jesus.

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. – Acts 2:42-47 (emphasis added)

It is a miracle when the unchurched and non-Christians begin attending church. There are already a lot of new words, lingo, and patterns to learn. By not attending faithfully, we confuse the newly churched about what it means to follow Jesus. Not only is this a challenging time for a non-Christian attender, but there is also a spiritual battle taking place (Eph. 6:12). When we attend together, we fight the battle together.

5. Faithful attenders cultivate a heart-attitude of gratefulness.

Church attendance is good for the soul. If you’re someone who struggles with sadness or depression, find a church that has God-given joy and commit. It is easier to catch the joy when you are around others who truly have it.

Speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. – Ephesians 5:19-20

One of the benefits of coming to church regularly is the opportunity to give (1 Cor. 16:2). Giving to God has the side-effect of producing a heart-attitude of gratefulness.

Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. – 2 Corinthians 9:7

Worshipping regularly with fellow believers and giving to the local church can up-lift the soul and refresh us for our everyday life.

6. Faithful attenders encourage fellow disciples in their long walk.

The benefits of attending faithfully are enormous. In 1 Thessalonians 5:11, Paul says, “Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.” Regular church participation gives us the opportunity to use our spiritual gifts to build up the local church and bring God fame (Rom. 12:6-8, 1 Cor. 12:4-11, 12:28). The book of Hebrews says over and over how important it is for Christians to encourage each other and not fall away.

See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end. – Hebrews 3:12-14

And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching. – Hebrews 10:24-25

The potential consequences of neglecting church are serious—cultivating a hard heart, not sharing in Christ, turning away, and subjecting Christ to public disgrace (Heb 6:4-6).

Christ warned the Church in Laodicea they were lukewarm. In Revelation 3:16, the Apostle John says, “So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.” If you are a lukewarm attender, chances are you are a lukewarm believer. God desires that His followers repent from a lukewarm relationship with him and truly seek him. The Holy Spirit wants to set us on fire for God and His glory. Strong attendance helps us heat up our ministry temperature.

7. Faithful attenders bring joy to their leader’s hearts.

Elders, pastors, deacons, and other church leaders face many unsung battles. One of them is shepherding the flock; guiding people spiritually. One way the sheep can make it just a little easier on their shepherds is to come into the sheep pen regularly. Hebrews 13:17 says,

Have confidence in your leaders and submit to their authority, because they keep watch over you as those who must give an account. Do this so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no benefit to you.

You give your leaders great joy when you tell them church matters, and you are willing to submit to their authority (1 Pt. 5:1-11). Scripture tells us that Christ is the “Chief Shepherd” (1 Pet. 5:4). When we submit to the under-shepherds God has put in place, we submit to the Chief Shepherd, Jesus. When the sheep show up, the shepherds rejoice, and I believe the Chief Shepherd does too.

Faithful church attendance matters!

If you're someone who doesn't attend regularly, I hope you'll be challenged to commit truly. It's time to step up! If you go faithfully but have a family member or church friend who comes and goes with the wind, feel free to share, but do so with love and kindness.

If you're a church leader, consider writing regular church attendance into your covenant or requirements for membership, then encourage your members to keep covenant.

Ultimately, this is not done for the sake of an institution or organization, but for the sake of our souls. We want to know and love Jesus, and he gave us his bride, the church, out of his deep love for us. Let's go to church!

1. Check out Matt Schmucker ’s “Those Toxic Non-Attenders” and Garrett Kell’s “7 Reasons Why Faithfully Showing Up Matters”—these two articles inspired this article which was originally written for my church.

2. All Scripture references are from the NIV

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Jonathan Romig (M.Div., Gordon-Conwell, 2013) is the Pastor of Cornerstone Congregational Church, a new church plant in Westford MA. He is also the author of the e-book, How To Give A Christian Wedding Toast.

Is Your Community Proximately Safe or Ultimately Safe?

While in college, I sat down with my dear Grandmother H. during one of my stays with my grandfather and her; we convened in their living room, which had a distinct Japanese esthetic from the items they collected over their years as missionaries there. Normally, we would have sat in her kitchen, playing Monopoly or Skip-bo, or I would have stood against the kitchen counter, watching her bake and cook while I pealed some of her small but satisfying cookies away from the Tupperware where I knew I would almost always find them. For class, I had been assigned to interview a woman whom I considered a mentor. There in the living room that day sat one. She is the kind of tried and true, faithful, sacrificial, and hospitable person you just hope you have a bit of (or more than a bit of) in you as a granddaughter. During our soudan—Japanese for conference—that day, she shared a quote with me that held with her through the years. It was from Corrie ten Boom, “The center of his will is our only safety.” My grandma thought those words were good; I thought of their life, taking an ocean liner over to a new country as a young family, raising children without other family anywhere nearby, seeking others’ benefit and teaching her children to do the same, and in terms of possessions, voluntarily not having much. So, yes, this phrase resonated with her, that the center of God’s will is the safest place to be.

She tucked those words of safety into my soul, something good that would not be pealed away. The initial sweetness that I received from her—like games or times together in her kitchen to teach me about how to make her pie crust from scratch—was accompanied by a different kind of sweetness too. The safety I gained at that pivotal time in my life and still gain through my grandparents is through their wise clarity about truth and through their uplifting affirmations about my own faith. Faith—what a wonderful thing to affirm in another person. I’ll always cherish their joy in my faith. They know that my only real safety is with God, and so, used the proximate safety of our times together to lead me, in various ways, to my true safety with him.

When reading the letters to the seven churches in Revelation, how fitting to think of them in terms of safety too—at least in part, considering the remainder of Revelation after these letters contains prophecies about a tribulation time in which believers will be anything but, in an earthly sense, safe. During that time, the church will want to stay as close to Christ’s will as possible, as close to his heart as possible. So must we too.

These letters gauge how I’ve understood the epistles and Gospels—like a check-in toward the conclusion of the Bible to help me know if I have done the work of interpretation correctly. If we understand what Christ has taught and since nothing is new under the sun, these letters address and report what our collective concerns are to be as well.

Christ’s remarks in these letters also give us an example of how to think of the presence or absence of truth in each other. Typically, he has affirmations and admonitions for each church. The act of teaching each other, directly or indirectly, to remember the truth in our thinking, loving, and doing—we are wise to view this not as being judgmental, but as being discerning and caring; we ought to promote each other’s true safety. Yet, if admonishing one another in the truth ever keeps us from freely and openly affirming one another as well—as Christ does both—well, I know that signals trouble in my own heart to repent of.

Now, through drawing our attention to the themes of Christ’s remarks in the seven letters, we are taught to how to have a safe community, bringing each other to the center of his will in our interactions.

Safe Community is Affirming

Christ is attentive to giving affirmations in these letters; where he sees deeds of righteousness and holiness, he is quick to speak it (Rev 2:2, 13, 19, 3:4, 3:8). Where he sees a cause for compassion, he is quick to speak words of care, and remind of his kind of riches (Rev 2:9, 3:18). Safe community follows his example and looks for every opportunity, every expression of genuine faith in Christ—even a glimmer—that seeks the Word and ways of God. This is an active pursuit, to search out in each other what is honoring to God—affirming each other’s faith, love, purity, service, and deeds. As we do, we encourage each other that to live according to his ways is to overcome and be rewarded (Rev 2:11, 17, 26, 3:5, 12, 21).

Safe Community is Discerning

Safe community is also discerning about sin. Christ is concerned that we not tolerate evil deeds done by those in our communities (Rev 2:2, 6, 20). He also desires that we test those we follow to see if they are teaching us the truth; he is glad for the purity that comes when we can identify those who are not teaching his truth (Rev 2:2). He desires that we give each other opportunity, even generous opportunity, for repentance (Rev 2:5, 16, 21-22, 3:3, 19). And through this all, he desires that we be clear about the standard of sin versus goodness (Rev 3:17-18), and that we never lead each other or permit influencers to lead each other into sin or unfaithfulness (Rev 2:14). He desires that our deeds of righteousness and holiness continue to grow (Rev 2:19). He desires that we remember our motivation, our zeal for Christ, in everything we do (Rev 2:4; 3:15, 19).

Safe Community is Stretching

Throughout these letters to the seven churches, there is a theme of perseverance and endurance (Rev 2:10, 17, 25, 3:10). Safe community stretches toward our goal of Christ because we know that Christ’s sanctifying work in us is never done on this earth. There is always more to learn of him and more ways we can turn to his goodness. Scripture often acknowledges that we will suffer and be handed evil. So, safe community assumes the priority of encouraging each other to not grow weary in keeping his Word (Rev 3:8, 10), to be faithful—even to death if God should ever ask martyrdom of any one of us—to suffer without fear (Rev 2:10), and to suffer without denying him or his Name (Rev 2:13, 3:8). Safe community stretches us toward these ends, prodding complacency and encouraging active obedience to Christ in every somber or every mundane situation we are presently called to endure.

Safe Community is Scriptural

We find how to do each of these points in God’s Word—to know what is sin and what is good, to understand affirmations and rewards of faith, and to endure with zeal for him. Even when pursuing these, we are still left needing more than each other. We are called to each other, to the same faith, and to use our gifts in each other’s service. But we cannot perfectly understand each other even when we share in common the most important part of our lives. Even when we share in the priorities of Christ, we are not able to change each other’s hearts or give each other complete understanding. Further, each one of us answers to Christ. Note that he sees some in the church at Thyatira who are practicing evil and some who are not. He addresses both groups with a different message (Rev 3:24). So, in safe Christian community, we direct each other toward God’s revealed will in His Word because He understands our hearts and He is our final authority. So, safe Christian community directs each other to our God who understands us in his Word as our authority.

The resonant security I have found with my family and with my grandparents comes through having these same purposes—the same Lord. We desire to go back to his Word again and again. This is what they have done for me; and by being further ahead, they have afforded me much. In reflection, feeling understood by my grandparents is not what makes being with them one of my favorite places, though I am much understood; it hasn’t been the cookies or Monopoly games, though they have been much appreciated and are cherished. At the base, what makes being with my grandparents one of my favorite places to be has been our commonality and their unique role in my life to encourage me toward Christ, such that I am helped to find my safety in his will. This kind of safety in Christian community, whether in a soudan or in a coffee shop, transcends generations, cultures, and more.

It seems that we can be afraid of entering into this kind of community because of fear—that we will be quick to judge each other. We should make every effort to avoid judgment by increasing our affirmation of others’ faith and knowing we cannot see the church through a single lens, especially if Christ does not. But if God’s will is our safety, being judged by each other while pursuing his will shouldn’t be our worst fear. After all, if being judged results in helping us discover a way to be more faithful to Christ—then praise God that we have drawn nearer to our goal. Being judged is far from the worst that a fellow Christian can do to me, but I am grieved if we cannot share in Christ’s priorities together for fear of it.

Instead, we ought to be most concerned about Christian communities that we not set proximate safeties (i.e., not being judged) as ultimate safeties when, instead, proximate safeties can aid and accompany our growth toward the ultimate safety of God’s will. Setting proximate safeties up as ultimate safeties in Christian community means that our inevitable failures in judging each other or making each other uncomfortable, for example, will severely deter us from seeking the revealed will of God that Christ has given us in his letters to the seven churches. Christians, the only real safety is the kind that will matter in the end. Grow with me and bear with some proximate “danger” of undo judgment for the purpose of moving toward thriving in ultimate safety.

Christian, your faith is my joy. I have great gratitude to God for the faithfulness, love, and service in you. Persevere in discernment and clarity about sin; do not grow weary of doing what is good. Endure and you will overcome; suffer hardship well, for our King will come on the clouds very soon. And never forget his Word. See your greatest safety in the center of his will so that you can remain steadfast and be readied for his coming.

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Lianna Davis (@liannadavis) is wed to Tyler and mom to two girls, one who lives in heaven and one who lives on earth. She serves with Hope Mommies, a non-profit organization sharing the hope of Christ with bereaved mothers, and is co-founder at Of Larks, a blog for theologically-minded women writers and readers.

Getting Off the Cul-de-sac

I recently found myself in a conversation with a woman who is a staff member at a Christian summer camp. From what she told me, they do a lot of great things at this summer camp. But our conversation turned tense when she invited (pleaded might be a better word) me to enroll my toddler in their swim lesson program. It wouldn’t have been so bad if it weren’t for her adamance that it was exactly what my family needed. I told her that we have a membership at the Y for just that reason. But, she insisted, he would reap much more benefits from her employer’s version—the distinctly Christian version—of swim lessons. And here in lies the rub.

The Christian Cul-de-sac

“I have a dream,” started one of the most famous speeches in Western history. The speaker, who needs not be named, then went on to describe a vision of, as his savior called it, “earth as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:10).

And by that, I mean, a world where our differences in culture and custom were acknowledged and celebrated while all men and women were simultaneously equal and free. Here we are fifty-three years later (to the day, as of this writing) and this dream has yet to be realized.

If I were to contrast Martin Luther King’s dream with the unspoken dream of my new friend from the summer camp they’d be as different as day and night.

There is an idealized town in parts of the Christian West where one turns off the main road to a little street with a cul-de-sac at the end. This is not a thru-street, so traffic is minimal, and there are speed bumps to keep the children safe from SUVs and minivans turning into driveways.

The fifty neighbors living on the street all look alike, make the same amount of money, have two point five kids, and can be identified by the little fish on their bumper. It’s a neighborhood watch community too.

Everyone knows everyone, so if they don’t recognize you, the only logical conclusion is to assume you’re up to no good. You will be reported and deported to another neighborhood because “your kind is not welcome here.”

This cul-de-sac is where mission goes to die.

In this neighborhood, we take whiteout to the “[as you] go” of Matthew 28:19. We don’t go anywhere, we’ve got everything we need in the cul-de-sac. We go to Chick-Fil-A (and secretly wish they were open on Sundays for our benefit) for our meals where the instrumental hymns serve as a discreet reminder of our faith.

We go to a barber shop (also inconveniently closed on Sundays) who’s owner goes to the Wednesday morning men’s prayer breakfast. Our children are members of a soccer team comprised entirely of people who attend our church.

The moms “fellowship” together during the games and use the guise of “prayer” to gossip about a woman who may have lost her salvation by deciding to enlist her kid in a public school.

And, of course, our toddler’s swim classes are distinctly Christian (because the doggy paddle was likely invented by one of the Apostles and how dare we allow the “pagans” to take credit for it).

Forgive my sarcasm. I write and cringe knowing I’m guilty of variations of these ideas as well.

The sentiment isn’t entirely wrong. There is a time and place when we will spend all our time solely with those who worship Jesus. That time is still future. And that place is a new heaven and new earth. Until we arrive at that time and place, we have a mission to give our lives to.

The Off Ramp

The ramp off of the cul-de-sac can be disorienting. After all, when you continue to loop around the same circle of houses over and over again it becomes second-nature, it becomes safe. You drive it in auto-pilot, you don’t even think when you drive a little over the shoulder to avoid a familiar pothole.

But the disorientation can also be life-giving. Do you recall being a little kid and your parents expanding your boundaries? Everything was so new and exciting. Before I was allowed to cross the street and go to the park, I had memorized every square inch of my yard.

But I had done so almost as a captive, unable to leave the confines of the fence. It was like coming awake for the first time to walk over to the park by myself. To feel the wind in my hair as I swang on the monkey bars. I also saw older kids there. And they would smoke cigarettes and curse.

Those last two lines can cause a lot of us to check out. As a father, I don’t want my kid to be influenced by older kids who smoke and curse. But when I think back on my own childhood, I didn’t learn curse words from older kids at the playground; I’d heard my parents slip and use them. And when I first smoked cigarettes, I stole them from grandpa—not an older kid.

This is the inherent problem with the Christian cul-de-sac. It denies and is often blind to its sins while putting the sins (or often just differences) of those outside of it under the microscope of judgment. But if we can get on the off ramp and leave our zone of comfort long enough, we will find that those outside of the cul-de-sac are not all that different from us.

We are all afflicted by sin and suffering and, no matter how white we paint our picket fences, they won’t keep out the sins that dwell within. We need to escape the cul-de-sac not just to bring the gospel to others but also to further press it into our own hearts. We desperately need to interact with others so we can remove cataracts from our own eyes and realize that we are more like others than we initially thought (after all, we all bear the image of God).

We need to be awakened to our own need for the gospel by entering into relationships that may at times be awkward because they expose our own biases and bigotries. These relationships require dependence on God—the one thing those white picket fences do not welcome because they are a testament to the lie that “we’re doing just fine”—because they are uncharted waters.

Yes, the off-ramp can be disorienting, but it is essential that we go in order to be obedient to Jesus’ commissioning. But it’s also beautiful. Who knew that on just the other side of the highway there was a pool three times the size of the one we have in the cul-de-sac? Not only is it bigger but it has diving boards and a water slide. And a whole lot of people that don’t know my Savior or me.

Why would I want to miss out on this experience? Out of fear that my toddler might be exposed to a curse word? Or maybe—worse yet—out of fear that a non-Christian might get close enough to me to see my own imperfections and need for a Savior? God forbid that this keep me confined to the cul-de-sac and forsaking our mission.

Over time, I’m convinced, if we spend enough time outside of the cul-de-sac, even the bigger pools, diving boards, and slides will lose their glitter as they are outshined by the beauty of souls longing for a Savior. If we make disciples where Jesus was previously unknown, we also mature in our own discipleship, for it requires courage and strength foreign to human nature. The courage and strength to reach out to those who might not know our Savior, but the honesty to admit there was a time when we didn’t know him either.

Yes, we’ll enjoy the fringe benefits at that pool—but they are only that, fringe benefits—but they will take a backseat to the better benefit of accompanying God in the only story that really matters: proclaiming his glory and making disciples who will worship him in spirit and truth. I could share more on this, but I’ve got a toddler who’s late for swim lessons.

—

Sean Nolan (B.S. and M.A., Summit University) is the Family Life Pastor at Christ Fellowship Church in Fallston, Maryland. Prior to that, he served at a church plant in Troy, New York for seven years and taught Hermeneutics to ninth and tenth graders. He is married to Hannah and is father to Knox and Hazel. He blogs at Family Life Pastor.

Reclaiming Faith Formation

When I first came to faith in Jesus, I floundered. I was 18, I had just started college, I came out of a family that largely didn't discuss issues of faith, and the only exposure to a community of faith was a confirmation class in a Lutheran church my family attended once a year. More or less I was told: “Now that you believe, here is a list of things that ‘good Christians’ does.” Based on where I was, I didn't like the church very much, and I was largely disinterested in the idea of God. I wasn't a very disciplined person; I barely graduated high school. Then in coming to faith, I was thrust into a very disciplined practice, one that not only was interested in the idea of God but everything hinges on his existence and presence in the world. Can you see why I might have floundered?

As I stumbled through those early years of faith, I finally managed to discover some level of discipline and even the ability to discern the voice of the Spirit of God. I eventually would go on to California Baptist University (CBU) upon acknowledging a call to vocational ministry to study theology. There I learned how to study the Bible well; I had world-class professors who not only helped me to understand right thinking about the Kingdom (good orthodoxy) but also helped me understand how to be engaged in right action in the Kingdom (good orthopraxy).

While attending CBU, I ran into many other students who shared my experience. Some of them came to faith at an early age, some later. Many of us had a shared experience, we came to faith and were given a list of things that “good Christians” do with little instruction beyond that.

There had to be another way to learn the teachings and practices of Jesus though right?

In the early years of faith, I rejected anything that smelled of my previous experience. In those years of confirmation (before coming to faith), a bad taste was left in my mouth. The experience was stale and largely narrow. It was one of the things that pushed me away from God, rather than drawing me closer. However, during my studies at CBU, I became intrigued by church history, particularly in the areas of how the church approached faith formation. Oddly enough an experience that served to push me far from God began to draw me closer.

As I peeled back the layers of church history, I discovered that the ancient Church had a process of faith formation that was very rich and comprehensive. It dealt not only with how a person would have good orthodoxy but also good orthopraxy.

The process is called catechesis.

The catechetical process has been used in a variety of ways. Some traditions use it solely to teach the ways of Christ to new converts leading to baptism. Others use it as a process to bring people from unbelief into belief. In either way of using catechesis, there is a structure that the church used to help a new or potential convert know what it means to be a part of the church. In the ancient church, it was not sufficient enough to leave a person to figure out what it means to be a Christian on their own.

Catechesis in the ancient church consisted of four stages and three rites. Robert Webber put together a helpful table in his book Ancient Future Evangelism.

Regarding this process Webber writes: “The journey of disciple making and Christian formation is clearly ordered around the cycle of believing, behaving, and belonging and is accomplished in the context of the worshiping community.” Notice that in the process Webber outlines we see that discipleship begins before conversion and is carried out through the life of a person.

I am convinced that the catechesis used by the ancient church was largely based on what they knew about how Jesus called and instructed his disciples. While it may not be clear as to when the disciples were baptized, we clearly see Jesus calling the disciples to come and see (Lk. 5:1-11), as they believe he teaches them the ways of the kingdom (Matt. 5-7), he prepares him for the work ahead (Lk. 14:25-34), and he sends them into mission (Matt. 28:18-20; Mk. 16:15; Lk. 24:46-47; Jn. 20:21; Acts 1:8).

Jesus regularly invited the disciples to believe, behave, and belong. In the midst of these things, Jesus would then refine the disciples in a variety of ways that sought to see them fully mature in their faith and action.

Why not use a structure like this in faith formation today?

The church today should return to such a process. Catechism is not only helpful in the work of seeing a disciple mature (as is it’s primary use in most church traditions today) but also to introduce people to the Kingdom. In the catechetical process, you are offering people a place to belong on their road to belief. It is an opportunity for the pre-convert to not only learn how to think about God but also how to live in the community of faith.

To often I am concerned that many churches see a person come to belief, yet leave them there with some version of the sentiment “Peace be with you, go and do likewise.” Imagine if we brought a person from pre-conversion to maturity in Christ and along the way allowed them to practice believing, behaving, and belonging. It would not have to follow such a structure of the ancient church; it simply might encompass the four primary parts of the process: evangelize, disciple, spiritually mature, and membership (assimilation).

The process is a marathon, not a sprint.

We must be careful though not to let the process become a program. The very nature of a process is to recognize that one is transformed in the heart, mind, and will. This doesn't happen in a cookie cutter fashion. What is most beneficial is to have a frame with which to work in but allow the content to be fluid as the person is being transformed by the gospel. As you work through the gospel with a person, you must be fluid enough to address issues as they arise rather than expect them to fit into programmatic frameworks.

By embracing such a structure toward faith formation, we can focus both on the church being a mile wide and deep. Seeing the multitudes come to faith in Jesus, while also see them grown in their maturity. In some ways, it is like pushing a bolder down a hill. You first have to spend time getting it into position; it can be a long and slow process. However, once it catches momentum very little can stop it. Let the church reclaim a process of faith formation that not only sees people come to faith but see them mature to active participants in the kingdom through the church.

—

Paul Hoffman (BAT California Baptist University, M.A. Southwestern Seminary) is the planting pastor of KALEO Communities in Portland, OR. www.kaleopdx.com @paulchoffman 

The Compassion of Community

An incoming freshman texted me at 11pm, which is approximately thirty minutes past my bedtime, and said she needed help. I immediately met her. She just got hit with the news that her mom was diagnosed with cancer for the second time. Her eyes filled with emotional tears, her breathing labored as she tried to speak through the sobs, and her shoulders slumped and shook with despair. I hardly knew this girl, but her grief drew out my compassion. Just as I felt my own eyes well up, my best friend and roommate walked into the room laughing. She had received a funny text and looked up to share the joke when she saw our current state. Immediately, she rushed to us and offered warmth and sympathy. She didn’t even ask this girl’s name but jumped in the mess to provide comfort.

When the young girl left and my roommate asked more about her, we both recognized the beauty in the pain. We didn’t have to know one another to share her mourning. It was a domino effect that happened both quickly and very naturally. If discipleship should look anything like the ministry of Jesus, then what we had just experienced was a very real representation. It reminded me that witness, compassion, and community are essential to a lifestyle of discipleship.

John 11:34-36

When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. And he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus wept. So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”

This excerpt is from the story of the relationship between Jesus, Lazarus, Mary and Martha. The series of compassion is unavoidable. However, earlier in this chapter Jesus is first told the news about Lazarus, and he responds confidently and unafraid of the consequences. Jesus is God, and his authority is duly noted in his initial words.

“This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”

He doesn’t seem overly concerned for the emotional health of his friends, but simply declares that this tragedy will lead to his ultimate glory. Some may even say that he seemed to lack sensitivity towards the situation. However, just a few lines down, we see Jesus weeping over the friendship lost. How could a few lines cultivate such a change in response?

Clearly, he walked into an atmosphere that was emotionally intense. The text says that the anguish he witnessed in Mary and Martha moved his spirit and he was greatly troubled. His compassion was so deep that it caused uncontrollable sadness, and he wept. He cried so much that the people who had been ridiculing him a few verses before, turned and said “See how he loved him!” He didn’t hide his pain, and he didn’t declare his omniscience. He shared in mourning, he sowed tears, and he discipled those around him by doing so. He also validated their grief even though he knew Lazarus would be resurrected. The significance of identifying and sharing in pain was more than a teaching moment.

Discipleship in Community

This sliver of Jesus ministry helps illustrate something we don’t often give much opportunity—discipleship in community. Intentional discipleship is often secluded from community and has instead been left for meaningful talks in coffee shops or church on Sunday morning. This limitation is a disservice to all of us but also our community. Jesus went to Lazarus, Mary, and Martha. He entered into their lives and loved deeply as he ministered to them. Lazarus and Jesus were known as close friends, but Mary and Martha were there too. Jesus didn’t choose to isolate his relationship with Lazarus but brought his ministry into the community. Even deeper, the surrounding community received the benefit of their discipleship when they grieved the loss of Lazarus. Jesus knew that the community would reap great wisdom, even if it wasn’t exclusively sown into them.

Ironically, I can think of another story where community overlapped discipleship in my life. It was before an evening event, and the girl I disciple was expressing heartbreak over a boy. Her words, her insecurity, and her confusion were all so familiar. I wrestled similarly when I was in high school and couldn’t find freedom from the incessant self-doubt.

In the moment, I didn’t have any wisdom to offer, so I just sat and listened. My boyfriend called me and asked if I was ready to go and, on a time crunch, I said yes but asked for him to come in to get me. When he arrived he apologized for intruding and turned to leave, but I asked for him to come and sit. I encouraged her to share her heart with him, and I watched the conversation unfold. As she divulged self-doubt, insecurity, and rejection, I watched him fight for her in protection. I heard him express compassion and regard for her heart ache. It was the first time she ever had her value and self worth validated by a man. He didn’t gain by entering into her story, but she’ll forever remember the Truth he spoke. His vantage point was what she needed. He did what I couldn’t do because I invited him in. The grace of God is so often found in community. The body of Christ works together, fulfilling different roles and strengths at different times in the one true story.

Evidences of Community

John 11 shares numerous evidences of love shared in community. For example, Jesus left his plans to comfort his friends, Mary and Martha led Jesus in compassion, Jesus wept over Lazarus, the community around them witnessed, and Lazarus was resurrected. The story is an unexpected account of a raw ministry. They mourned together because they loved together.

Real life ministry is not taking every moment to teach, it’s not using every silence to impart wisdom, and it’s certainly not isolating from the pain. The ministry that Jesus gives is his presence—that’s the strongest witness of discipleship in community. The ability to step back and just be with people.

My challenge for you is to do this yourself. Invite people into the unknown and risky places of your heart, and don’t be afraid to step into someone else's. Don’t fear the complex boundaries of community just let your presence witness.

—

Chelsea Vaughn (@chelsea725) has served a ministry she helped start in the DFW Metroplex since she graduated from college. She received her undergraduate degree at Dallas Baptist University in Communication Theory. She does freelance writing, editing, and speaking for various organizations and non-profits. She hopes to spend her life using her gift for communication to reach culture and communities with the love of Jesus.

Tamar and God’s Grace

I’ve sat around dinner tables when friends have sarcastically competed for the “most broken family.” To prove it, they half-mockingly, half-lightheartedly told childhood stories. Many stories were enough to make you sick to your stomach and bring tears to your eyes even though they were told with a laugh. The reality of pain and scars from family is a self-evident reality. Family can be the Trojan horse, expected to be a gift but bringing wounds instead. There aren’t quick salves for the pain and brokenness that comes from families.

But as I read through the Bible, I’m thankful that God communicates about painful families. His Scriptures don’t communicate about perfect TV sitcom families (which we’ve learned over the years are just contrived anyway).

And if anyone could compete in that story-telling dinner, Tamar could. Genesis 38, Tamar’s story, is a mess. No one wants to preach or teach it. What do we do with this story? Where do you find the grace? Where’s the hope? Oh, but it’s there because God is there.

The Scene of This Family

Judah has just seen his brother sold into slavery. It was his idea, actually, and he has watched his father mourn the loss. The deception must be eating him. Immediately after, Judah leaves his brothers, finds a friend, and decides to live like someone who does not know the Lord God. His corruption is a stark contrast to how the brother he cast off will respond to temptation in Egypt in Genesis 39.

The storyline of Genesis so far has given us hope that God would one day bring a child who would reverse the curse from sin (Gen. 3:15). This child would bless all the families of the earth (Gen. 12:3). The line would bring kings (Gen. 35:11). The promise has been traced from Eve to Abraham and now to Jacob and one of his sons. The emphasis on Judah in this chapter gives us a hint—he’s the son. He’s the one who will bring the descendant who gives hope to the world (which is later confirmed in Gen. 49:10). So we lean forward and pay attention to Judah.

Tamar’s Desperation

So even in Judah’s evil choices thus far, we watch for his children. He marries, but the Lord puts his first son to death because of his wickedness. Judah rightly tells his second son to marry the widow, Tamar. But for his great selfishness (not wanting another heir), the Lord punishes the second son. He also died.

According to the rules of family responsibility, Judah should give his third son to Tamar and provide for her, or he should release her to marry someone else. Judah does neither. He tells her to return home, so he abrogates responsibility to care for her. He won’t release her to marry another. She’s stuck, still bound to Judah’s family but without a husband. She waits. She waits to be provided for and to marry the last son.

But times passes, and she is not given to her promised husband, Judah’s sole living child. During this period in history, a husband cared for you by protecting you. Because of Judah’s decision, Tamar is not only denied the hope of children but also protection, for who knows how long her father will live. She is in a desperate situation. She can have no husband other than Judah’s son, or by Canaanite law, she could be given in marriage to Judah himself.

This family has already seen the consequences of wickedness in deaths, and now a man’s choice to ignore his responsibilities has left a widow desperate. To add to the misery, there is no child, no descendant of this family yet, and though they may not know it, the entire world is relying on this child to come. These are the broken family stories that could be told at Tamar’s dinner table.

Tamar’s Deception

Tamar is stuck, desperate. She turns to deception and dresses in a veil to meet Judah. He offers to pay her for sex and impregnates her. Perhaps this result is exactly what she planned. After all, by the laws of the land, if she cannot have the third son, he is next in line as her husband. But we don’t know what her plan was. Much of the stories of Bible are descriptive. They aren’t endorsed by God, but they tell you the mess as it happened. The moral of the story here is not to deceive family to have a baby, but it is to show that God still saves.

We get a taste of his salvation when we realize that there is a child coming! We can almost feel the audience gasp when they recognize a baby’s imminent arrival so that the line will continue. But the danger doesn’t end there. Now Judah who put Tamar in this hopeless position in the first place threatens her life in the most brutal way—death by fire while alive (v. 24). We hold our breath again.

But she is saved. The truth comes out and at the climax of the story, Tamar is not burned. Rather she is finally given a safe place, a formal place in Judah’s family, and twins are born. A breach has been made, pushing and shoving and pain and wounds, but look! There is not just one child, but two!

God Welcomes the Rejected

Tamar lost her husband, was rejected by the second son, Onan, then rejected by Judah himself. She had no hope, and the family who was designed to care for her brought only pain. But God saw her and was working to welcome her.

We may not see God’s hand explicitly mentioned in the text after the death of Onan, but he is there. Just like in the life of Ruth, even in the pain of death and desperation, God can work to bring salvation. God does exactly this with Tamar. He brought her to a permanent place in Judah’s family with provision and protection (Gen. 38:26) then, he gave her the crucial children.

Because many years later, Ruth would marry the great, great, great, great grandson of that first twin. And Ruth’s child would be the great-grandfather of David. The line would continue. The line would lead us all the way to Matthew 1:3 where we see Tamar’s name with both her children, ancestors of the Hope of the world—Jesus Christ. God brought a child into Tamar’s life to bring her a family. He also brought that child to bring her salvation—Her Savior would come ultimately from the baby she held. The rejected woman was welcomed not just into Judah’s family but into the family of God.

What do we do with Tamar’s story? The Israelites would have read this text from Moses and seen a broken family, the disobedience of Judah, and the deception of Tamar, and they would have learned that God works to bring salvation even in the midst of brokenness, disobedience, and deception.

Pain from families is real and scarring, but the R-rated story of Tamar shows that it does not keep God from working and bringing salvation. Jesus’ genealogical tree portrays the kind of people he came to love, heal, and welcome into his family. You may be able to tell some shocking stories at my dinner table. These kinds of stories break my heart. Even still, God is here to work for salvation for you, and, because of the Son from Tamar’s broken home, he welcomes you and me into his family.

—

Taylor Turkington has worked for a church in the Portland area for the last six years, teaching, discipling, and training. She loves being involved in the equipping and encouraging of people for the work God has given them. Before her church life, Taylor worked as a missionary in Eastern Europe and graduated from Western Seminary with an M.A. in Biblical and Theological Studies. Currently, Taylor is a student at Western in the D.Min. program. She loves teaching the Bible and speaks at seminars, retreats, and conferences. Taylor is a co-founder and co-director of the Verity Fellowship.

Adapted from “Where's the Hope for Tamar?" Used with permission.

The Emmaus Model of Ministry

What can we learn from that “walk to Emmaus” about ministering to the people God has placed in our path? In Luke 24, Jesus gives us a ministry model worth imitating. Four ministries served two hopeless travelers on one road in a single day, yet they show us the history-shaping life and ministry of Jesus on a small scale. He walked with us, talked with us, taught us, and brought us to himself through the taking, breaking, and giving of his body for us. These are the ministries of incarnation, inquiry, interpretation, and ignition.

The Ministry of INCARNATION | Draw Near

The ministry of incarnation happens when we become love in the flesh with up close compassion and personal pursuit of the heart. When he found the downtrodden disciples on the road to Emmaus "Jesus himself drew near and went with them" (Lk. 24:15). He showed up in the flesh, entered their world, and physically walked alongside these two disciples.

I love Eugene Peterson's description of Christ’s incarnation in this paraphrase of John 1:14, "The Word became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood." He moved into their life, into that particular page of their story at that messy moment. In the ministry of incarnation, we draw near to the people in our path by taking the time to enter into their world and story right now, right where they are. But like Jesus, we go there with a prayerful purpose.

The Ministry of INQUIRY | Draw Out

What did Jesus do after he showed up? He drew out their hearts’ hopes, fears, and desires by paying attention to and poking around in their story with curious questions. This is the ministry of inquiry.

First, he paid attention to their story. He made an effort to listen to them. He walked with them for a while before he said anything. He was aware of and interested in their conversation and their concerns. He was listening for their hopes, fears, and desires as “they were talking with each other about all these things that had happened” (verse 14).

Next, he began to poke around in their story a little bit. He started asking questions. He not only listened but also wanted to learn more (as if he needed to!). Jesus’ compassion made him curious, and so he asked, "What is this conversation that you are having?" “And they stood still, looking sad,” Luke noted. We must stop there with Jesus and see the sadness in their eyes and hear the hurt in their voices.

We, too, can offer the people in our path the ministry of inquiry, drawing out their hearts by using curious questions to explore their smaller story as we prepare to tell them the Larger Story of Jesus.

The Ministry of INTERPRETATION | Draw Connections and Draw Them Up

After Jesus drew near these disciples and began to draw them out, he then began to draw connections between their small story and His Large Story, and thus he drew them up into that Larger Story. This is the ministry of interpretation.

They had grown up hearing all the stories of the coming Messiah all of their lives, but still, they were like those to whom Jesus said, "You search the Scriptures looking for eternal life, but you missed Me. You're supposed to come to Me!" (Jn. 5:39-40). These guys had the Scriptures, but they didn't have Jesus. They knew the Bible, but they hadn't connected all the dots so that Jesus appeared on every page, making sense of the whole Story.

So, he took the time to draw the connections for them by beginning with Moses in Genesis, then walking them through the Scriptures, interpreting them, translating them, explaining them, so that they could see him and see that the Scriptures were all about him (Lk. 24:27).

We must take the time to take our friends to the Story of Jesus, drawing connections between one Bible passage and the others, showing them how Jesus is the center of it all, and drawing them up into the Larger Story God is telling, so that they might interpret their stories in light of his. It’s only when we talk with them on their journeys and “open to them the Scriptures” that the Spirit draws them to Jesus and sets their hearts ablaze with faith, hope, and love in him (Lk. 24:32).

The Ministry of IGNITION | Draw Them to Jesus

Jesus’ fourth ministry to these disciples was the ministry of ignition. By drawing those connections, Jesus drew them up into the Larger Story. He was ultimately drawing them to Himself. That's where he wanted this journey to take them. Pay attention to what happens to these disciples. When Jesus enables them to rightly place their faith and hope in him as he is offered in the pages of Scripture, the Spirit of God ignites them and sets their hearts ablaze with love for him and others.

It may have happened like this:

When he opened the Scriptures to them on the road, he lit the fuse, and their hearts began to burn. 10, 9, 8, 7, . . .

Then at the right time, when he was ready, 6, 5, 4, . . .

Dinner with the disciples in Emmaus, 3, 2, 1, . . .

“When He was at table with them, He took the bread, and blessed and broke it, and gave it to them” . . . IGNITION! He opened the eyes of their hearts so that they recognized Him as the Jesus who had served them bread in those same actions just days before.

He drew them to himself and BLAST OFF! He's gone, and so are they. Immediately they run back to Jerusalem. It's already nightfall, and they’re back on the road, but now a whole day’s journey must have felt like a 100-yard dash. They go straight back to that Christ-and-people-loving community and that Christ-and-people-loving mission to which Jesus had called them on Thursday night. In the ministry of ignition, Jesus drew these disciples to himself and set them ablaze with passion for God and compassion for people by enlightening their eyes and inflaming their hearts to see and to serve him for who he really is. He was not the redeemer they wanted, but now they know he is the Redeemer they needed.

It is worth noting that the ministry of ignition is the one ministry that we can’t quite do the way Jesus did. “No one can come to me,” Jesus said, “unless the Father who sent me draws him” (John 6:44). Only God can draw people to Jesus so that they see his glory and catch fire (2 Cor. 4:4-6). None of us have the power to ignite faith, hope, and love in the life of any person; only the Spirit can do that (John 6:63; Romans 8:2). Our participation in Jesus’ ministry of ignition is to pray that God would light the fire, that he would draw them to Jesus (Ephesians 1:16-18).

We pray that he would open the eyes of the hearts of the people in our paths to pay attention to his Word, just as he did for Lydia in Acts 16:14. Jesus invites us into the ministry of ignition by asking us to pray for the Spirit to come in blazing power to set hearts on fire with faith, hope, and love in Jesus as He is offered in the gospel story we’re telling the people in our paths (Luke 24:49-53; Acts 1:14 – 2:47).

The Emmaus Model of Ministry: incarnation, inquiry, interpretation and ignition. He did them for us, and he gave them for us to do. The book of the Acts of the Apostles, which is actually Luke: Volume Two, documents the continuation of these ministries in the lives of the disciples. Luke began Acts saying, “Remember in my first book I told you all that Jesus began to do and teach. Now I'm going to tell you what he continues to do and teach by the power of his Spirit through His people." May God grant us grace to continue the Emmaus ministry of Jesus with Jesus in the power of his Spirit.

—

Jimmy Davis is an ordained teaching elder in the Presbyterian Church in America currently serving the good folks at Metrocrest Presbyterian Church in Carrollton, TX. He occasionally shares some thoughts and resources at The Cruciform Life Blog, Twitter @cruciformlife, and Facebook. He is the author of Cruciform: Living the Cross-Shaped Life.

The Beauty of the Lord

A couple of years ago, I was preparing for a mission trip to the Cherokee Reservation in North Carolina, and it came time to head up for the trip orientation. With it being my first time, I did not want to go alone, so I convinced a good friend of mine to head up to the reservation with me.s Well, we decided it would be fun to take a little detour and go through Clemson, catch some lunch with a couple of our students, then we could shoot to Cherokee using the Blue Ridge Parkway.

The time to go came, we jump in the car, the conversation is going on, and we make it to Clemson. We go to lunch, jump back in the car, and head to the mountains. It wasn't long until we hit the Parkway, and almost immediately conversation stops, and we begin to look upon the beauty of the mountains.

You know what I'm talking about. The trees, the streams running down, every once and a while an animal, and it even seems like the winding roads have a beauty about them up in the mountains.

It was truly gazing upon the beauty of the Blue Ridge Parkway. We can all think of something in our mind that we thought was beautiful, so we just sat there and gazed. However, have we ever been like David, in Psalm 27, where we just sit and gaze upon the beauty of the Lord? Let's look at what David says,

One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple. – Psalm 27:4

David says he has one thing that he asks one thing, the only thing he wants to do is to sit and gaze upon the beauty of the Lord in the house of the Lord. So, we have to ask the question. How is the Lord beautiful? How does his house, the one that David desires to dwell in, show us the beauty of the Lord?

1. We See the Beauty of the Lord as He Dwells With His People

First, he sees the beauty of the Lord in his dwelling. See the Lord dwelt in the temple, in his house. This temple, during the time of David, was not very elaborate. In fact, it was just a tent.

We see this tent elsewhere in the Bible, specifically; one occurrence is the Exodus narrative. We all probably know the story pretty well, but if you do not let me give you the run-down.

You can split Exodus into three major sections: chapters 1-18, 19-24, and 25-40. Three four-letter words can summarize these sections: bush, hill, and tent. In vs. 1-18, the Lord is the God of the bush, where he promises to deliver his people. In vs. 19-24, the Lord is the God of the hill, where he speaks from the smoking mountain and tells his people how to live. Finally, in vs. 25-40, the Lord is the God of the tent where he dwells with his people.

God says in Exodus 25, "And they shall make for me a sanctuary and I shall dwell in their midst." The climax of the entire Exodus narrative is that the Lord dwells with his people. He cannot get close enough to them; he has to be among them! It is easy to stop and say that the crossing of the Red Sea is the climax, or maybe even the rock spewing water, but the real climax, the most important thing to the Lord, is God being in the midst of his people.

In Exodus 25, the Lord comes down and makes himself known to his people. God desires to be close to them. He must be among them. This is flushed out even more for us in the New Testament. In John 1, the apostle says, "In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God . . . and the word became flesh and dwelt among us."

To draw more emphasis, he goes on, "And the word became flesh and pitched his tent among us." This becomes even more personal for the believer as Jesus speaks in John 23, "And if anyone loves me, we will come to him, and we will make our home with him." We see the beauty of the Lord in his dwelling with his people.

And our God, he is just not the God of the flaming bush or the smoking mountain. He is the God of the tent who wants nothing more than to dwell in the midst of his people. He can't get close enough. He must be with them.

And this means something to us because we know he is near. Because he dwells with his people, we can know for certain that no matter the situation, he is with us. Even when it seems like he is absent, he is there, and he is not silent. As believers, our God makes his home with us, and that is beautiful.

2. We See the Beauty of the Lord as He Reveals Himself to His People

We have to place ourselves in the shoes of David for a minute, and we have to look around the temple of God, the house of God. We have to remember what is present in that tent.

In the house of God, we find two tablets, and on those two tablets, we see God's commanding word, his covenant will for his people. God has revealed his will to his people. He has shown us, and told us; his covenant law tells us how to live. See there is something beautiful about God, YHVH, revealing his will to his people.

When we look at the Exodus narrative, we see the ten commandments, where God establishes them for his people. He says, "I have delivered you, I have made you my people, and now this is how I want you to live." We know it! There is no confusion. God reveals himself and his call to obedience.

That does not happen in other religions, but we have a God who beautifully reveals himself and his will to us. Even if sometimes we do not like it. There is something to be said about knowing exactly where you stand. There is something beautiful about knowing the truth and knowing exactly what we are supposed to do and be.

This is the beauty of God's revelation. He is our God, a God who speaks to us. And he does so clearly. Many times we fail, and many times we do not like it, but it is all for our good. It is all to mold us and make us more like Christ, and it is beautiful.

3. We See the Beauty of the Lord as He Nourishes His People

Looking into the temple, we see a table and on the table, we see the show-bread. This bread is not there for God to eat, but it is there to show us something about God. It is there to remind his people that the Lord sustains his people.

In Exodus 17, we see God providing and sustaining his people as he drops manna from Heaven. David dwells on this, and he remembers the beauty of the Lord is unlike anything that he has ever seen before. God in his nourishment, his sustaining his people, is unlike anything that any unbeliever around him, and around us, has ever witnessed.

Moreover, I think this is what is on David's mind as he writes, "And you prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies." (Ps. 23:5)

This is not God grabbing a Big Mac in the drive-thru at McDonald's. This is God preparing a table, a feast, before us. Therefore, we can sit and eat. We can enjoy the meal, and we can do this even in the presence of our enemies. We learn something from this, if the Lord can sustain us there, is there anywhere that he can't nourish and sustain you?

Believer, you do not have to hold up or carry the Lord; he holds you up and carries you. The Lord is beautiful in his nourishment.

4. We See the Beauty of the Lord as He Provides Atonement for His People

In the temple, there was a bronze altar as soon as you walk in, and this was the altar that the priest would spread the blood of the sacrifices—which was the Old Testament sacrifice system, but this was not a system set up for God's people to bribe their way to forgiveness. No, the sacrifices we see in the Old Testament are an act of faith, using the gifts of God's provision.

Looking at Leviticus helps. God says, about sacrifices, "I have given it to you, to place on the altar to make an atonement for souls." Here God is proclaiming that this is a gift for you, a gift of grace, to have fellowship with the Lord.

What is beautiful about this? Well, it shows us that God is the one that deals with our guilt. God is the one that deals with my sins. My life is paid for with the life of a substitute.

This brings Jesus quickly to our minds. He is our substitute. We are forgiven, proclaimed not guilty in the sight of God because our life has been paid with another. God is the only Judge who took his judgment upon himself.

When something is so familiar to our mind, we quickly pass it over, but we must be like David. We must dwell on the atoning work of Christ because God has dealt with our sins. We have an advocate, a substitute, taking our place so that we can have fellowship with our beautiful Lord.

This is a part of the beauty of the Lord, in his atonement. He takes us filthy sinners and makes us clean.

I love the old hymn, “There is a Fountain Filled with Blood,” as it beautifully sings about the forgiveness of sins,

There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel’s veins; And sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains. Lose all their guilty stains, lose all their guilty stains; And sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains.

The dying thief rejoiced to see that fountain in his day; And there have I, though vile as he, washed all my sins away. Washed all my sins away, washed all my sins away; And there have I, though vile as he, washed all my sins away.

The mountains and the winding roads of the Blue Ridge Parkway are breathtaking. It is impossible to make that drive and not gaze upon the beauty of creation. But the Lord is more beautiful than we could ever imagine, and we should be like David, longing to gaze upon him for all eternity.

May God open our eyes even more to his beauty, as he dwells with us, reveals himself to us, nourishes and sustains us, and deals with our sin and guilt.

—

Matthew D. Adams is the Director of Youth and Family Ministries at First Presbyterian Church, PCA in Dillon, SC. He is currently a Master’s of Divinity student at Erskine Theological Seminary in Columbia, SC. He lives in a small town by the name of Hamer, SC and is married to Beth. Follow him on twitter @Matt_Adams90.

Article used with permission. Originally appeared at Servants of Grace, "The Beauty of the Lord"

Short-Term Trips, Long-Term Discipleship

I’ve earned a few mission trip merit badges. I weeded a sidewalk in Pittsburgh’s Northside, built a house in Ensenada, cleaned up hurricane debris in New Orleans, and took a picture with an orphan in Piedras Negras, Mexico (all before I finished high school). I might not be wearing a sash, but I am sporting a pair of dirty corduroy Toms—the universal, millennial symbol for “Ask me about my latest mission trip.” Like many other twenty-somethings in the church, I am a fully initiated member of the mission trip generation—including earning some merit badges, but also ripping them off after reading When Helping Hurts as a college student (which is not the intention of the book). I left the party of short-term mission trips and felt the hangover of embarrassment, disillusionment, and lament after joining the growing herd of mission trip naysayers.

Now, twelve years since my first mission trip, I am preparing to send a group from the church where I pastor in Pittsburgh to our partners in the Dominican Republic. As a sender instead of a goer, I have been able to reflect on the ups and downs of my own mission trip lifecycle—including seasons of blind optimism and unbridled pessimism. In the tension, one question kept coming back to mind: Why would I send people into the nations whom I would never send to my neighbors?

As I thought about this question, it sparked a more positive question: How can we train people for short-term mission trips among the nations whom we could also trust with long-term missional engagement among our neighbors? The short answer: discipleship.

In addition to forming long-term partnerships, it is mission critical to frame short-term trips within long-term discipleship. Listen to how Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert describe this:

In the midst of compiling resources, exploring the complexity of poverty alleviation, and casting a different vision for what a short-term trip can be, do not lose sight of the bigger picture: this is actually a process of discipleship.

What might it look like to reframe short-term mission trips as the final project of a six-month discipleship intensive—with two more months of follow-up after the trip? With the help of some excellent resources and the inspiration of some effective churches, we’ve landed on the following four goals for the training process at our church: gospel clarity, spiritual integrity, cultural agility, and team unity.

Gospel Clarity

What makes the good news so good? The first time someone asked me that question it changed my life. In The Unbelievable Gospel, Jonathan Dodson asks it this way, “What does the death and resurrection of a first-century Messiah have to do with twenty-first-century people?”

If we do not know how to answer that question, maybe we should invest our money in the Peace Corps instead of a plane ticket.

As part of the discipleship process, goers need to develop such familiarity with the gospel that they can nuance or contextualize it for any person or situation without changing its core—a skill Jeff Vanderstelt calls gospel fluency. Like Paul, we need firsthand knowledge of the gospel “in which [we] stand, and in which [we] are being saved” (cf. 1 Cor. 15:1-4).

This process might involve exploring some rich gospel texts together, speaking the gospel into each other’s lives, practicing evangelism with our teammates, and sharing our own gospel stories (or “testimonies”) of how the good news interrupted life as normal. If we are uncomfortable sharing the gospel with people who speak the same language, we will not suddenly be comfortable sharing the gospel in a foreign language or through a translator.

Spiritual Integrity

Spiritual integrity is a life where the gap between what you say you believe and how you actually live is progressively getting smaller. It’s not something you decide to have on the first morning of your mission trip—sweaty, exhausted, and mosquito-bitten on the top bunk in a new time zone. It’s the fruit of intentional spiritual training long before the trip itself (see Dallas Willard’s The Spirit of the Disciplines). Paul describes it to Timothy like this:

Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is some of value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and the life to come. – 1 Timothy 4:7-8

Jesus himself prepared for his own extended season of intense ministry with solitude, Scripture, and fasting (cf. Mt. 4:1-11) and ended particularly trying days with a morning of solitude and prayer (Mk. 1:35). As a team, this might involve preparing for the trip with a weekend retreat, memorizing a few Scriptures, confessing sins, or fasting for 48-hours together.

Cultural Agility

A professor once told me, “Often we think people are rejecting the gospel when they are actually just rejecting our clothes.” Without gospel clarity and cultural awareness, we can accidentally package our cultural values (changeable things) with the gospel itself (an unchangeable thing)—just like the missionaries in Galatia (cf. Gal. 2). In doing so, we end up dragging our home culture through everything we do in our host culture. Paul had a different method, though:

For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them . . . I have become all things to all people, that by all means, I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel that I may share in its blessings.

Like Paul, anyone going on a short-term trip (even if it’s just to another domestic city) needs to develop cultural agility. Culture is sticky, and navigating the twin extremes of colonialism and pluralism is hard. As part of the discipleship process, this might involve unpacking some of the hidden cultural values we carry and discussing some strategies for entering into another culture as a servant (see Duane Elmer’s Cross-Cultural Servanthood).

Team Unity

Short-term mission trips are extended group projects that involve people from different backgrounds, personalities, and cultures. Most people hate group projects (myself included) and do not realize they are signing up for one when they apply to be on a team. Many of them have never had more than surface-level conversations with each other before joining a trip.

Without intentionality, the result is conflict and frustration.

Walking “with all humility and gentleness and patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Eph. 4:2-3) doesn’t happen overnight. It takes eating meals together, fundraising together, sharing stories with each other, practicing spiritual gifts, and even confessing sins to one another. In short, team unity takes practice.

A Final Thought

In a stroke of irony, I am writing this article in an upscale coffee shop only a few blocks from the location of my first “inner-city” mission trip as an eighth-grader. If you told me that I needed to be trained in these things back then, I probably would have decided to stay home instead. I just wanted to “help” (as well as get away from my parents, share headphones with the girl I liked and see the mysterious city of Pittsburgh).

If you choose to reframe short-term missions trips as one piece of long-term discipleship, you might hit some resistance. Taking a week out of your life to go serve is already asking a lot from people, but adding six months of training on the front end can feel like too much. In the end, though, it’s worth it. These things matter whether you’re a thousand miles away or on your front porch.

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Austin Gohn serves as the young adult minister at Bellevue Christian Church in Pittsburgh, PA and is currently pursuing his M.Div. at Trinity School for Ministry. He’s been married to Julie for four years. You can follow him on Twitter @austingohn.

The 4 S’s of Parenting

As a youth minister, it was easy to identify where the parents of the teenagers were going wrong. If they did what my twenty-two-year-old experience thought, they would have it together and successfully engage with their kids. That was then. Now, fifteen years later, and two kids in, I realize that my judgmental posture was more me playing the armchair quarterback than the sage, brilliant youth minister with wisdom dripping from his lips. Now that I have children of my own I now understand that parenting is hard work. At times, no simple solutions exist to the dynamic and complex problems of raising up souls that share our DNA, but are also different than us. At times, I find myself fluctuating between strong convictions and a fake it until you make it mentality.

As a follower of Jesus who believes the Bible to be true, I believe the command of Deuteronomy 6:4-7,

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.

In verse 7, God commands Christian parents to disciple their own children. This charge shouldn’t be taken lightly.

Four areas for parents should focus on to do this successfully. If they would, it could enhance their relationship with their children and the trajectory of their development.

Here are the four S's that can help your family grow and thrive:

1. Spend Focused Time

Life is busy. It is easy to be in the frenzied hustle with our kids while missing out on connecting with our kids relationally. While there are many examples of homes where the kids rule the roost, I'm not advocating for that. In fact, I think that kind of home leads to destruction.

Parents must focus on having time where they aren't just interacting with their children on a transactional level, but on a relational level. Connecting transactionally is driven by performance, accountability, and getting things done. Connecting relationally involves understanding motives, thoughts, feelings, dreams, and fears. Parents often don't realize that while we are trying to maintain authority, we are not leveraging opportunities to gain influence. Influence is the key to having a strong relationship with your children long-term.

2. Shepherd Your Children

You are the most responsible person for your children on this planet (see Proverbs 22:6). God places a covenantal responsibility on parents to love, protect, provide, and lead their children towards Jesus. Start by taking them to a church that talks about Jesus, but that is not enough. Your faith must be authentic at home. Your faith must be growing, and you must invite them along with you.

There have been times where I have had to change the way I think about how I love and lead my family. The good news is, in Christ, it's never too late for new beginnings!

3. Say You're Sorry

Parents, we are humans who are sinners in need of grace from Jesus. I once heard a pastor friend say, "Mom & Dad's, your kids need you to own your fallibility." Modeling repentance, saying you're sorry, and being the one who leads for reconciliation will not only illustrate the gospel of Jesus to your children, but it will also help you build trust.

Recently, I told my three-year-old daughter that I would have time to play with her in the morning, but life happens. I had to hurry up and get ready to go deal with an issue, and I stopped, got onto my knees and told her, "I'm so sorry for not being able to play with you. I told you that I would, but I am not able to now. Will you please forgive me?" She was sweet and said, "Of course!" and we hugged.

4. Seek Counsel

If we can get to the point where we no longer need to pretend like we have it together, then we can ask for help before things get to a code red crisis. No one I know has this parenting thing all figured out. But, I do know that one of the benefits of connecting with a community of faith is that there are others who understand what you are going through.

It's nice when you can be around those who are in the same stage of life or have been in your stage of life, and you can ask them for wisdom. Asking for help is not a sign of weakness; in fact, it is a sign of strength and faith. We can learn a lot from one another. Seeking counsel from those who are seeking to honor God in the way they love and lead their children will provide an opportunity for learning and encouragement.

Parenting is one of the most challenging tasks I've undertaken. Few immediate gratifications exist when parenting, and often we wonder if we are doing more harm than good. Fortunately, Jesus is very gracious to make up for areas where we lack and is able and willing to bring about great transformation—even in the most broken of families.

—

Casey Cease is husband to his high school sweetheart, Steph, and they have two beautiful daughters. He serves as the Lead Pastor of Christ Community Church in the North Houston, TX area and the Founder and CEO of Lucid Books, a Partnership Book Publishing Company. His first book about his tragic car crash and his journey to faith in Jesus, Tragedy to Truth (Lucid Books), was released in 2014. He blogs at www.caseycease.com

God Is Holding Out On Me

Right now I’m tempted to believe that God is holding out on me. There. I said it.

I planned to postpone writing this until I could speak about my unbelief in the past tense. Like most of you I’m more comfortable sharing my struggles when I can see them in the rearview mirror (with a lesson in my back pocket of course!). It feels godlier to say, “Six months ago I was tempted to look at porn or binge shop or cheat on that exam. But now I’m trusting in Christ’s work.”

I can’t help but think that this subtly undermines the gospel. Christ isn’t only sufficient for us when we’re past our temptations. He’s more than sufficient in the midst of them. Thus, Christians are free to share present tense struggles that elevate a high view of Christ even as we walk through real doubt and unbelief.

Present Tense Kind of Doubts

Lately, it seems like nothing falls into place. Nothing comes easily to me. I wrestle. I strive. I fight. And . . . nothing. There’s a little voice within that enjoys pointing out that if God were really in control of the whole universe, then it would be easy for him to change my circumstances. It would take him no effort whatsoever to make a tweak here and there and poof! my life would be fixed. That voice takes my good theology—a high view of God’s meticulous rule—and comes to poor conclusions that God is withholding something good from me.

You understand this feeling, don’t you? Even as you read about my doubts, you’re internalizing your own. Perhaps it looks like one of the following equations:

• God is the Creator of life + You are barren = He is withholding good from you
• God is the Author of marriage + You are single = He is withholding good from you
• God is Owner of universe + You are broke = He is withholding good from you

Scenarios such as these tempt us to disbelieve and distort God’s character. We feel that God’s holding out on us—that he's stingy. We conclude that we’ll just have to make things happen for ourselves. Like Jesus’ temptations in the wilderness (Matt. 4:1-11), we’re presented with an opportunity to believe the lies and to try and secure our desires apart from God’s provision and perfect timing.

For the most part, we know that these thoughts aren’t rational. God is sovereign, and God is good. There’s nothing in our experience that can change that. Then again, doubt and unbelief are rarely rational. But they sure are powerful! The more we focus on the lies and feed the doubts the more powerful that unbelief becomes. And the more powerful the unbelief becomes, the more convinced we get that we need to go out and make something happen for ourselves.

Choosing to Form Habits of Belief

It’s at this very moment, the present moment when unbelief rears its ugly head, that you and I have a choice to make. We can preach God’s truth to ourselves and allow it to strengthen our belief or listen to the lies and allow it to strengthen our unbelief. Either way, something will grow stronger. There’s no neutral ground. It’s not like we can just wait it out and see what happens. The path of passivity (“maybe tomorrow I will feel like God is good and gracious”) will only deepen unbelief. If we wait until tomorrow to believe God is good, upon waking up, we’ll discover that the unbelief has spread throughout our soul like terminal cancer.

But, if you are in Christ, the temptation to unbelief is not the final word. We can choose a different path! We have One who walked before us and was tempted as we are yet remained sinless (Heb. 4:15), so that he might offer himself as a sinless substitute in the place of unrighteous sinners (2 Cor. 5:21). Through our union with Jesus we can “receive mercy and find grace to help in our time of need” (Heb. 4:16). Moreover, Christ serves as an example of what it looks like to perfectly trust the Father in the face of temptation by speaking out truth and resisting the Devil in the power of the Spirit (Matt. 4:4,7,10).

As we’re progressively conformed to Jesus’ image, we can choose the path he chose. We’ve been set free from sin so we can pursue righteousness. We are not enslaved to unbelief anymore. You don’t have to keep doing what you’ve always done.

You can form new habits of belief that builds your confidence in God on a daily basis:

You can verbally refute lies (whether personal, demonic, or worldly) the minute they pop into your head.

You can cry out to the Spirit to help you when you feel weak and overwhelmed with unbelief.

You can read, meditate on, and memorize Scripture to renew your mind.

You can confess your doubts to a friend and ask them to pray for you.

You can meet with God’s people on a Sunday or mid-week gathering to hear the truth and worship God.

The point is we have a choice. Jesus’ work on our behalf breaks the fatalistic patterns of sin in our lives and gives us supernatural power to battle unbelief. We don’t have to be resigned to our unbelief. We can be different. We can be like Jesus!

An Exercise In Trust

Today, in my present struggle, I’m going to choose to follow Jesus by refuting the enemy’s lies and speaking God’s truth out loud. Sure, nothing’s coming easily to me. Life feels hard. But I refuse to believe God’s being stingy. I know he’s not stingy because of the gospel:

He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things. – Romans 8:32

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. – Ephesians 1:3

Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. – James 1:16-17

When I meditate on these truths, my doubts are obliterated. Our God is a good God who gives us good gifts. There’s no way he could be stingy towards me—he’s given me his very own Son! Any feelings regarding my current circumstances simply cannot hold up in the face of the cross. I’m choosing to exercise trust in God because he is 100 percent trustworthy.

What about you? As you stand at the intersection of belief or doubt, what choice are you going to make to feed your faith in God? What Scriptures are you going to use to refute the lies of the enemy? Who are you doing life with that can help you fight the fight of faith? How will you exercise trust in God during moments of unbelief?

—

Whitney Woollard is passionate about equipping others to read and study God’s Word well resulting maturing affection for Christ and his glorious gospel message. She holds a Bachelors of Science in Biblical Studies from Moody Bible Institute and a Masters of Arts in Biblical and Theological Studies from Western Seminary. Whitney and her husband Neal currently live in Portland, OR where they call Hinson Baptist Church home. Visit her writing homepage whitneywoollard.com.

Powerful Things Are Beautiful: an Interview with Eleazar and Rebekah Ruiz, Authors of Golly’s Folly

Editor: We are excited to share an interview with Eleazar and Rebekah Ruiz, writers of Golly's Folly. Described as:

“Everything is meaningless”, King Solomon writes in the Book of Ecclesiastes. Inspired by this message, Golly’s Folly is a thrilling, adventurous story, dispelling the notion that things can satisfy.

The vibrant illustrations will carry your child along on Golly’s rollercoaster attempt to fulfill his desires with stuff. Share this much needed story about what truly matters, perfect for reading aloud.

GCD: Tell us a little bit about yourselves.

ER: I grew up in the Dominican Republic and moved to the states in 2008. Bekah and I met at Bible College in 2010 and got married a year later.

For most of my life, I thought I was called to youth ministry. An uncle of mine is a pastor of a Spanish-speaking church in San Jose, so pastoral ministry was a part of my family, I swore it would be a part of my life. I grew up in the church. My worldview shaped my plans for the future. When I found out youth ministry wasn’t for me, it was a huge blow, I didn’t know what I was going to do.

I had been doing graphic design on the side for other people and some churches. As I began to seek other options outside of youth ministry, I recognized God had gifted me as a designer and not a pastor. Since then I’ve been using those gifts for God’s glory. I work for Faithlife (the makers of Logos Bible Software) as a full-time senior designer. And previously worked as the Art Director at Mars Hill Church.

Currently, I wear multiple hats: graphic designer, illustrator, publisher, and writer. I’m passionate about incorporating God’s Word into all that I do.

BR: I am a little mixture: spent 12 years in Texas and 12 years in Portland with a small stint in California. And now we both reside in Seattle and love the Northwest. I studied Elementary Education and was a substitute teacher before enrolling in Bible College. I quickly became employed at the Bible College as a Librarian and taught a class to college kids (that was a change in audience)!

Pre-order Golly’s Folly today 

GCD: What’s your current church and ministry within it?

BR: Sound City Bible Church in Seattle is our home and we’re quite involved. I work in the children’s ministry.

ER: and I serve as one of the graphic designers.

GCD: Where did the concept for Golly’s Folly come from?

ER: It’s almost entirely autobiographical of myself. I am Golly.

It’s essentially my own struggle to answer the questions of identity: Who am I? What am I here for? In pursuing these questions I realized I was seeking these answers in the wrong places.

I thought, as a man, that if I reached a certain income level then I’d be fulfilled. Or if I landed a certain career I’d be satisfied. But as soon as I’d accomplish the goal it wouldn’t satisfy me. It was empty to me. I became frustrated, and thought, “I can’t be the only person struggling like this. There has to be another way to fill this void.”

One day I was on a plane and I decided to start writing a story about these experiences. From there I showed it to Bekah and then my brother, Rommel. Golly’s Folly is my heart poured out in color and presented to kids. It represents my own dissatisfaction with the vanity of life. But it is also true of all humanity who seeks fulfillment apart from God, it is the struggle of Ecclesiastes.

BR: The first draft seemed more like a chapter book. But things evolved from there and three years later, here we are.

GCD: Why did you decide to publish Golly’s Folly independently and start Patrol Books instead of seeking an established publisher?

ER: In the three-year process of working on Golly’s Folly we pursued a few options. We considered crowdfunding. I’ve worked for some publishers and know people in the industry and was encouraged by others to pursue self-publication. For my first book, I wanted to avoid the rollercoaster of having to talk to dozens of publishers.

Patrol books was birthed out of the desire to meet the following three goals in book publishing:

• To publish books that represented great theological truth with clarity.
• To publish books with great artistic work and design.
• To pay visual artists fairly and elevate them to equal recognition as authors.

Patrol books simply tries to combine biblical theology, beautiful visuals, and paying artists fairly. We’re a publisher created by artists and for artists to try and help those with a passion for this field and value them for their endeavors.

GCD: How did you come up with the name Patrol Books?

ER: Good question. I love the work of Massimo Vignelli who once said, “the life of a designer, is a life of fight against the ugliness.” He was an impressive and accomplished designer and died just about two years ago. He found meaning and purpose in making things beautiful—even though his worldview was not influenced by the Bible—he wanted to make things beautiful. His mission was to make things that people see every day the most beautiful things people would engage with.

I resonated a lot with that as someone in the Church, wanting to bring that sort of intentionality in work that would represent our God. I want to fight the ugly. I want to strive for things to be beautiful. It’s my passion.

Our tagline for Patrol Books is: powerful things are beautiful. The gospel is powerful, and presentations of it must reflect its beauty. Any presentation of God’s truth that is ugly is a misrepresentation of who God is. There’s nothing ugly in the Gospel so why should it be represented in a way that does not produce awe and wonder? We want to take that power and beauty of the gospel and produce awe in the hearts and minds of people. We desire to be vigilant about patrolling our products to make sure they are gorgeous and biblically faithful. We are unwilling to compromise beauty because the gospel is worthy of that beauty.

We seek to find ways to communicate life-changing stories of God’s redemptive work with beautiful imagery. We want our readers to be blown away by both the aesthetic and the content.

GCD: Who has influenced you most as an author?

ER: My middle name is “Hobbit”

GCD: (I pause, and laugh, unsure if this is a joke) Wait, seriously?

ER: [Laughing] Not seriously. But I can’t understate the influence Tolkien and Lewis have had on me. They were brilliant at telling biblical stories in a relevant and meaningful way while remaining original and creative.

Max Lucado has a gift for capturing an innocence that I love. His book You are Special is a great book for kids. And lately, C.S. Fritz’s Cottonmouth series is fantastic.

BR: Dr. Seuss’s rhyme schemes are a huge influence on me as well.

GCD: Rebekah, tell us how your teaching background has affected the creation of Golly’s Folly.

BR: It was fun to be the voice of the target audience. Because I know elementary aged kids, I wanted to keep those from public schools, private schools, and churches in mind. We carefully thought out how to reach this age group and audience. What are their likes, dislikes, development stages, life struggles, what would make them laugh, what would capture their attention?

GCD: So you've stated the influence Lewis and Tolkien have had on you, am I understanding correctly that, similar to them, you're trying to teach gospel themes without direct use of 'God' or 'Jesus' name?

ER: When I read Narnia, for example, I see how Lewis used objects like “candy” and characters like the “lion” and the “beaver” in order to appeal to a young audience that, unfortunately, wouldn’t be engaged any other way. Taking it even further, Jesus did the same when teaching the crowds about the complicated themes of the kingdom of God. Jesus used metaphors in order to reach his audience. I believe, we have the freedom to do the same.

GCD: What sorts of challenges did you face in working together as a collaborative unit?

ER: One of the challenges was trimming out a tremendous amount of content in order to make it understandable for the attention span of a four-year-old. We cut out about ninety percent of the original content in order to condense it down to just one point that kids can take home. Bekah was fighting for less, I was fighting for more. (laughing)

BR: One of the benefits of working with family is that we were able to play off of each other’s strengths. However, there was also a lot of pushback until we felt like we really brought our best to the table.

ER: Bekah was a huge blessing in that she helped give voice to the age group of children we wanted to represent. She put up guardrails to help make sure none of the art was too dark or mature for young children. At times Rommel and I would present some themes—which are truths few children’s book try to tackle—in a darker way than would be appropriate for the age group we wanted to reach.

BR: I would ask, “What would a seven-year-old think if he or she saw this illustration?” “Do you think it could be too dark for them?” “Do you think they can grasp the weight of this theme?” From there we worked to condense the book to one point kids could take home.

GCD: So what is that one point you want kids to take away from Golly’s Folly?

BR: The majority of the story is spent on Golly’s rollercoaster of seeking. At the end, he repents of his folly and returns to his father because he recognizes ultimate fulfillment is found in him. The point is to teach kids to seek God above all else.

ER: Golly is made to be a character worth laughing at. But it is also tragic that all humans will chase after things that ultimately don’t satisfy. So we attempted to tell it in a funny way, but the truth is actually quite sad. When we are separated from God we do crazy and stupid stuff. As Ecclesiastes puts it, “madness resides in the hearts of the children of men.”

Note: [At this point Rebekah insists on reading me one of their favorite lines from the book, which we think is also worth sharing.]

When it came to the crown, he’d gladly wait

The stuff, the facts, the fun, might feel great,

But the love of the father made him happy inside

And he had lessons to learn at the father’s side.

The stuff, the facts, the fun, might feel great, But the love of the father made him happy inside

GCD: What role do you think Golly’s Folly will play in making disciples of the next generation?

ER: I think we’ve found a way to communicate a part of the Bible that few have tried to teach to children. Adults are often aware of life’s vanity, but we can’t overlook the need that kids have to hear that their hearts will seek meaning in things other than God.

I’m not naive enough to think our book will spare them going through it, but we hope it will give them a foundation from which they can more easily recognize it when it happens. Their subconscious might retain the truths taught in the book for a later day when it happens to them. We look forward to teaching our own kids someday, should God give them to us.

BR: We wanted to write a book that dealt with some heavier themes that aren’t commonly shared in children’s books. We think it is a good age for kids to learn these themes and we think they can handle the subject matter.

ER: I think we were able to tell the stories that children will resonate with. Golly is tempted by pleasure, wisdom, and possessions, the same things that are dealt with in Ecclesiastes. At one point we wrestled with the question, “how could you communicate pleasure to a child without being rated R?”

GCD: The kids want to know, who would win in a fight: Pikachu or Dora the Explorer?

ER: [Without missing a beat] Pikachu.

BR: [Turning to Eleazar] I’m not sure, Eleazar, Dora has some sass…

GCD: If you were able to share a meal with one writer/theologian, living or dead, who would it be?

ER: Tolkien

BR: The Apostle Paul

GCD: What’s next for you two and Patrol Books?

ER: You’re the first to hear it, but our intention for Golly’s Folly has always been to make it a series of books. We’ve already got the outline for the second book completed. As for Patrol, we’re mostly focused on making it a sustainable business so that we can bring more great books with beautiful aesthetic to people. My dream is to bring the best illustrators with the best theologians to write books together. I want to bring the best of these two worlds to fill your bookshelves.

Note: Golly’s Folly is now available for pre-sale and will be released on October 18th worldwide. It is the debut release by Patrol Books.

— Eleazar Ruiz was born and raised in the Dominican Republic where he discovered his love for creative arts and vibrant colors.In addition to creative arts, Eleazar has deep interest in theology so in 2010 he attended Bible College to pursue a Bachelors in Theological Studies.

He has seven years of experience working simultaneously in the worlds of freelance, in-house teams & design firms. In his professional career he has done anything from leading design teams to being the only in-house designer. That includes art directing for a group of 14 churches with an online audience of millions, a publishing company, and a record label.

Rebekah Ruiz studied Elementary Education at George Fox University in Newberg, Oregon. She spent half of her life in Dallas, Texas and half in Portland, Oregon and has spent her career in various academic settings such as elementary schools, colleges and a library.

She loves the sun, all things silly and teaching a bright-eyed learner! Bekah’s ideal Saturday would involve a lot of coffee and friends.

Eleazar and his wife Rebekah met at Bible College in 2010. He and Rebekah currently reside in greater Seattle, Washington.

Tragedy, Violence, and Human Dignity

Over the last several weeks news headlines have carried pronouncements of unspeakable tragedy and carnage. Well-known singer Christina Grimmie was senselessly murdered in Orlando. Then, just a day later, the world awoke to news of the worst mass shooting in American history. France witnessed another terror attack, the brutal and intimate murder of a police officer and his girlfriend in front of their son. A member of Britain’s parliament was murdered. Each story elicited a similar sadness, outrage, and empathy.

Animals cause tragedy, nature is unpredictable, and humans commit unthinkable acts of cruelty because we’re not home yet

Interspersed among these headlines were two incidents with related plots. In Cincinnati, a 4-year old boy was nearly killed when he climbed into a zoo’s gorilla enclosure. Then in Orlando, a 2-year old boy was attacked and killed by an alligator in Orlando. Responses across the media and in the general public were more diverse than following the human-precipitated tragedies, which surprised some.

When deplorable acts of violence occur through human agency, blame is ultimately laid at the feet of the perpetrator. Certainly social structures and institutional realities come into consideration, but an individual person is finally deemed responsible.

It is much more difficult, however, to determine a path of agency and justice in the wake of animal perpetrated violence. Some cast aspersions on the mother of the 4-year old boy who fell in the gorilla enclosure: Why wasn’t she paying attention? How could she let her child wander? A petition was even begun, asking police to investigate the mother for neglect. A few blamed the zoo for improper procedures. Many were outraged over the subsequent killing of Harambe, the gorilla who resided in the enclosure. Similarly, in Orlando some were asking why parents would allow their 2-year old to play near a lagoon in Florida when “No Swimming” signs were clearly posted.

These incidents provide a window into our society and, despite the unthinkable and horrific nature of their tragedy, provide opportunities for reflection.

For much of society, worship of God has been replaced by worship of the created order. Paul pointed out this sociocultural shift in Romans 1:23, “…and [they] exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal men and birds and animals and creeping things.”

Stephen Webb argues environmentalism is a type of broadly acceptable and palatable civil religion; he says it is good politics and tolerable religion to worship nature. We saw this briefly last year when a Minnesota dentist was barraged with death threats over the killing of a “beloved” lion in Africa (this incident in particular showed the inadequacy of prevailing American cultural narratives). While the veneration of Harambe and hypothetical purported willingness to choose his life over the 4-year old boy is clear evidence of that, I do not think such a simple analysis sufficiently bears forth the intricate thoughts and emotions at play.

James K. A. Smith says a hallmark of our secular age is the possibility of belief. For 1,000 years Christianity served as the dominant worldview for much of the Western world, rendering unbelief almost entirely unheard of. Today the inverse is true: Where belief in a transcendent God is considered untenable for vast stretches of society, the possibility of belief—and subsequent poorly suppressed yearning for it—appears to lurk in the most unanticipated spaces. Frankly, we should not be surprised when so-called “ecosexuals” facilitate ceremonies in which humans are encouraged to marry the ocean, and then consummate said marriage.

Christians recognize it is precisely the distortion of orthodox Christianity that permits—and even supports—a misguided and disproportionate love of nature. Cognizant of how idolatry warps worship of the one true God and of the increasing secular pressure exerted on America, it is no wonder the imago dei has taken a backseat to animal activism and environmental worship. When nature is an object of worship, humans are subservient to its capricious and merciless whims. The created order is due sovereign respect, and we humans have no recourse save to spew vitriol at those poor parents who dared allow their children to interfere with its matchless wisdom and authority.

Stephen Webb, however, also argued since the decline and distortion of Christianity gave birth to the pathology of environmental worship, it is a pathology for which only Christianity holds the cure. How, then, does the church embody that cure?

First, we must never hesitate to remind a weary world of the dignity of life and the beauty of humanity. The world is fallen and humans bear the indelible marks of total depravity, but that doesn’t change the reality that all humans bear the imago dei and are worthy of charitable and generous love. Our world is losing sight of the preciousness of humanity—its loveliness and redeemability. In a society where the lines between human and animal are blurring, we must resolutely proclaim the beauty and uniqueness of humanity—rejoicing in our embodied reality.

In light of the Orlando nightclub shooting Scott Sauls challenged the church to embody the gospel’s humanitarian pulse and ethic. We value human life because it is created in the image of God; we value human life because God sent Jesus Christ to redeem it. This is the church must not tire of championing. Certainly, we mourn the loss of Harambe, but far greater would have been the death of that 4-year old boy. And most tragically do we look on the death of a 2-year old in Orlando. The more we talk about the value of human life, the more opportunities we have to remind people that Jesus valued humanity so much He was willing to sacrifice Himself on its behalf.

Second, we must remind the world there is a larger frame from which to view these tragedies. In Genesis 1 and 2 God made mankind steward over the animals and creation, but in Genesis 3 that stewardship was rendered much more difficult. The fall introduced enmity and strife into the world, and as a result we cannot expect congenial interactions with wild animals, even animals residing in a zoo or a theme park.

What we can expect, however, is the glorious hope of a new heaven and a new earth. In that soon-coming reality, we will never again know the pain of a dead 2-year old or 49-murdered souls. We will not fear animals because we are promised the wolf and lamb shall graze together, the lion shall eat straw like an ox, and dust shall be the serpent’s food; truly in that day animals will neither hurt nor destroy (Isaiah 65:25).

Animals cause tragedy, nature is unpredictable, and humans commit unthinkable acts of cruelty because we’re not home yet. There is a day to come, however, when Jesus will illuminate heaven by His very presence and wipe away every tear. Let us speak generously of the inherent value of all human life, the unimaginable glory of a new heaven and new earth, and of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross to ensure that men could dwell in that new creation of fellowship with God, with one another, and with the animals for all eternity.

—

Chris is husband to Liz and Daddy to Aletheia and Judah. Chris lives in South Carolina where he is a pastor of hospitality, new members, and discipleship. Chris has an MA in religion from Reformed Theological Seminary and is a PhD candidate in organizational leadership at Johnson University. In his spare time Chris enjoys…wait…what is spare time?

Originally appeared at Canon and Culture. Used with permission.

Deliver Us From Evil

The prayer of our Lord contains the profound words, “deliver us from evil.” For these four words contain, in a simple package, implications for prayer and discipleship that could be contemplated at length. The central theme of this statement is that of “deliverance.” Deliverance is a frequent theme in the Old Testament. Depending on the context, deliverance could be a good or a bad thing; either being delivered over to an oppressor or being delivered from an oppressor were very real experiences of the people of Israel during the span of the Old Testament. The Jewish disciples who witnessed Jesus’ model prayer would undoubtedly have had the Roman authorities in mind as an oppressor from which they would like deliverance.

More important than this, though, is the evil Jesus had in mind when he modeled this prayer to his followers. Let’s unpack the timeless evil from which we should petition our Father to deliver us and explore the ways this impacts our discipleship.

The Evil One

Most of the older versions of the Lord’s Prayer worded it “deliver us from the evil one,” to closely follow the Greek text. With this in mind, it is likely that Jesus was referring to the Devil. This petition was not the only time he prayed for his followers to be protected from the evil one (for example, see John 17:15). But who is this mysterious figure?

Several misconceptions float around about who the Devil is and what he is capable of

Speak of the Devil, regardless of the company present, and you’re almost guaranteed to raise eyebrows. Even among Evangelicals, you are likely to induce suspicion and a good deal of miscommunication. Several misconceptions float around about who the Devil is and what he is capable of, and maturing disciples would do well to be aware of them.

On one hand, some all but deny the existence of demons. These aren’t atheists and agnostics who don’t believe in the spiritual realm, but instead, these are Christians who, for varying reasons, function as if the Devil no longer operates in this world. When Jesus pleads with the Father that his followers be delivered from the evil one, we should pause and acknowledge that he wasn’t wasting words. That prowling lion, the Devil, finds an easy meal amongst those Christians who have so minimized his influence that they are no longer aware they need deliverance from it. If we are going to mature as disciples, we must be as wise as the serpent, while not partaking in his evil (Matt 10:16).

On the other hand, some people view the demonic realm as all encompassing. Their error is giving the Devil too much credit. We must be cautious about labeling our own sin as the Devil’s doing. While it is true that Satan is pleased when we sin, that does not absolve us of our own responsibility. The Christian who is stuck in a continual rut of sin who throws up his hands and says, “the Devil made me do it,” has too big a view of Satan and entirely too small a view of God. When we ask our Father to deliver us from this evil one, we must believe God is big enough and powerful enough to succeed in this task. While Jesus’ words sober us into acknowledging the reality of evil forces seeking to do us harm, we must remember that even the Devil cannot operate outside God’s will (Job 1). Satan is a created being and, as such, is not all-present or all-knowing (Eph 3:9), and he is also a liar (John 8:44). Additionally, humanity has made its own contribution to evil and shouldn’t shift their blame to Satan. Which brings me to my next point.

The Evil Ones

The contrast between good and evil is one that the best writers and filmmakers use as a surefire way to sell a work of art. In part, they may be to blame for the erroneous views of the Devil described above. Evil strikes a chord within us all. Most people tend to think of themselves as “good,” and they feel that “evil” is something “out there.” Stripped of the backdrop of Hollywood, the contrast is much less clear-cut. Hitler is an easy face to overlay our idea of evil and make it recognizable. But my gossip about a coworker to my boss? I tell myself, “well that’s just a slight bending of the moral code, not evil.” This sort of proud thinking gets us in trouble. If one facet of being delivered from evil is external, another aspect is internal. Here is how the Westminster Shorter Catechism explains it:

In the sixth petition, which is, “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil,” we pray that God would either keep us from being tempted to sin, or support and deliver us when we are tempted.

The catechism personalizes evil, makes it not something “out there,” but something within us. It acknowledges the truth that all men are fallen and sinful, with a proclivity to commit evil acts. Jesus makes the case well when he uses the word “evil” to describe a father who loves his children:

If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him! – Matthew 7:11

Doing good to those whom we love is no virtue, for even terrorists give their children gifts, and even God’s people commit evil acts. The fundamental bent of humanity is away from God and toward self-serving evil (this idea underlies the claim of the Reformers, that “all of the Christian life is repentance”). Maturing in our discipleship—stumbling toward Christ—is a continual confession that our hearts are evil (Gen 6:5) and a continual pleading with our Father who gives good gifts that he would deliver us from that evil.

Elsewhere, Jesus tells us that God alone is good (Matt 10:18), which, by contrast, levels the playing field among humans: we are all evil. While becoming a disciple of Christ is certainly more than confessing that we are evil and that God alone is good, it certainly is not less. Our refrain should be: deliver us from evil. We have cause for rejoicing in the good news that Jesus came to complete this exact mission.

The Deliverer

John tells us that, “the reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8). What a mission! Where our first parents failed in a garden, the Son of God succeeded in a desert. The one who teaches us to pray, “deliver us from evil,” himself serves as our Deliverer. While on earth, the God-man maintained a vibrant conversation with his Father via prayer and exhibited a reliance on the Holy Spirit, by which he never succumbed to the temptation to sin. For those of us seeking to follow Christ, we must use the same means in order to be delivered from evil. Christ serves as both the author and perfecter of our faith (Heb 12:2) and our example (Rom 15:3). While we suffer externally from the evil of others and internally from our own proclivity to sin, our solution to this problem of evil is found in the eternal God-man who became evil so that we might inherit his righteousness (2 Cor 5:21).

When a disciple of Christ is made, a change occurs. The disciple is delivered “from the domain of darkness and transferred to the kingdom of [Christ]” (Col 1:13). In him we are forgiven of our evil deeds. We are delivered from the penalty of our own evil at the moment we place our faith in Christ, our Deliverer. We then begin the maturing process of sanctification. For this reason, we are given the command to continually petition our Father to “deliver us from evil.” While Christ has already paid for our evil deeds on the cross, our desire should be to avoid situations in which we will be tempted to sin. Our deliverer, Jesus, allowed the Father to lead him into temptation (Matt 4:1) and was then victorious over it. Based on his victory, he instructs his disciples to be diligent to plead God have mercy to lead them away from it. Our ability to cry out to God, “please don’t let me find myself in a situation where I might lust or gossip,” is a great mercy. He gives good gifts; so why not ask for them?

Those of us on the journey of discipleship aren’t called to do it alone. When we ask God to deliver us from evil, an aspect of that deliverance is corporate as well. We are personally delivered from the penalty of evil upon faith, and delivered from situational evil upon petition and dependence on the Holy Spirit. From there, we are called to bring that deliverance to others as we serve as conduits of God’s grace. We multiply disciples when we share the good news that Jesus came not to condemn evil people, but to save them (John 3:17).

Externally, an evil one seeks to destroy us. Our Deliverer, came to set us free from his tyranny. Internally, we wage a war with our flesh and its evil desires. We’ve been given the Holy Spirit by whom we can put these deeds to death. Our eternal, good Father hears our prayers and is faithful. May he get all the glory for this for, “he delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him, we have set our hope that he will deliver us again” (2 Cor 1:10).

Lord, deliver us from evil.

—

Sean Nolan (B.S. and M.A., Summit University) is the Family Life Pastor at Christ Fellowship Church in Fallston, MD. Prior to that he served at a church plant in Troy, NY for seven years and taught Hermeneutics to ninth and tenth graders. He is married to Hannah and is father to Knox and Hazel. He blogs at Hardcore Grace and the recently started Family Life Pastor.

Dominion Commission

As Christians, we understand that every single person on the planet is created in the Image of God. The Genesis account of man’s creation communicates this truth (Gen 1:26-28).

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

Even though most Christians are familiar with this passage, many are confused about what it actually means. In other words, what are the implications of being a man or woman created in the Image of God?

According to Genesis 1, God’s image bearers were called to express their identity by having dominion over the earth. This dominion commission is accomplished in two ways—filling the earth with children (28) and by subduing the earth (26, 28).

We don't just tell stories. We live them. We orchestrate our lives around a big story that we trust in

Think for a moment about this place in history. God created man and woman in his image and they are unhindered by sin and enjoy perfect fellowship with God, each other, and all of creation. God gives them the gracious task of ruling, and they found joy in the opportunity to procreate little image bearers and subdue the earth. They had everything they needed to be obedient to God’s dominion commission. And they were to do it for the glory of their Maker.

Think about this commissioning in light of Psalm 8:4-9:

What is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; You have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, And also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, Whatever passes along the paths of the seas. O LORD our Lord how majestic is your name in all the earth.

Therefore, as Image bearers we are to have dominion and this is good. However, man’s ability to be obedient to this commission to have dominion has been paralyzed because his relationship with God is severed.

Christians are all too familiar with the dreaded Genesis 3 account of the fall of man:

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, You shall not eat of any tree in the garden? And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ But the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’ So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate and she also gave some to her husband who was with her and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

In three short chapters, Adam and Eve go from being naked and not ashamed to being naked and ashamed and unable to enjoy a relationship with God and fulfill the task God has given them to have dominion over the earth.

The story doesn’t end there, though. God does something incredible.

Pay close attention to Genesis 3:15:

“I [God] will put enmity between you [the serpent] and the woman [Eve], and between your [the serpent’s] offspring and her [Eve’s] offspring; he [Jesus] shall bruise your head, and you [serpent and his offspring] shall bruise his heel.”

What is God doing here?

God is preaching the gospel. In one verse, we come to understand that God has graciously saved the newly depraved Eve (puts enmity between her and the serpent); he divides the world up into two communities: those who love God and those who love self (Eve’s offspring vs. the serpent’s offspring). He foretells of a Deliverer we know in this verse as the snake-crusher, which is Christ.

Ephesians 1:7 states, “In him [Christ] we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace.” God through Jesus Christ has and is restoring the image of God to his church. This restoration was his plan before the foundation of the world (Eph 1:4).

After Christ died on the cross and bodily and eternally rose from the grave, securing salvation for his church, he gives this commission to his disciples:

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold I am with you always, to the end of the age.” – Matthew 28:18-20

Do you understand the significance of this truth? Because Christ has secured our salvation, we now have the ability to be obedient to the dominion commission.

The Great Commission is a dominion commission just as Genesis 1:26-28 is a dominion commission. Because of the authority of Jesus and the Holy Spirit indwelling believers we can joyfully make disciples of all nations, baptize them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and teach them obedience.

God through Jesus has restored his image to his church and has reconciled us to himself for his glory. Furthermore, he has reasserted our purpose to have dominion on the earth—for his glory. We do this by faithfully heralding the good news of the gospel in the authority of Jesus Christ.

Christ won’t return until all of his children from every tribe, tongue, and nation proclaim his kingship (Ps 110:1). He has appointed that glorious day, long ago (Mk 13:32; Acts 17:31). Our commission to spread the glory of God to all nations will be successful. Christ died so that it would be. Embrace your identity and find fulfillment and joy in the task that God has graciously called and equipped you for.

—

Joey Tomlinson lives in Yorktown, VA with his wife, Brayden and their son, Henry Jacob. He has served as a pastor at Coastal Community Church for almost 10 years and is pursuing his doctorate in biblical counseling at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is also a certified biblical counselor with IBCD.

4 Differences Between Small Towns and Big Cities

Significant differences exist between small towns and larger cities when it comes to being on mission. Below are four factors that significantly affect mission in small towns. Some of these have a positive effect on mission; others, a negative effect. This list isn’t comprehensive, but it’s a good starting point for analyzing and discussing the unique factors that affect mission in a small town.

Small towns desperately need normal, everyday people like farmers, factory workers, and small business owners who act like missionaries to reach their neighbors for Christ

Factor #1: Religious Non-Christians 

Not many people in small towns are atheists, Muslim, or new agers. Instead, small towns tend to be loaded with religious non-Christians. They may not go to church very often, but they generally believe that God exists and the Bible probably has something to say about him. Small towns tend to attract and retain people who are more traditional in their outlook on life compared to those in larger cities.

Religious non-Christians are generally receptive to talking about God and church, but it’s fair to say that they are also inoculated against the gospel. When a person is inoculated they receive a vaccine that is a weak strain of a virus. The body’s immune system then proceeds to adapt so that when it comes in contact with the real strain of the virus, it can easily fight it off.

Similarly, religious non-Christians grow up in churches that give them a weak strain of the gospel and, consequently, they build up an immunity to the real gospel. That’s why conversations with them about the gospel and faith often end with them nodding their head in agreement with everything you say, even though they don’t truly understand what you’re talking about.

Practical Advice 

Mission can never be done in the absence of prayer, but you’ll especially realize this when you’re on mission to religious non-Christians in a small town. Patience, taking a long-term approach to mission, is important. You won’t typically see many “microwave” conversions among religious non-Christians; instead, you’ll usually see “crockpot” conversions because it typically takes a long time for them to realize they have a weak strain of the gospel.

But take heart, because the Holy Spirit is sovereign over the crockpot! This is why it’s wise to avoid relying too much on short presentations of the gospel. More often than not, mission among religious non-Christians takes extended examinations of the lordship of Christ and the nature of the gospel before those concepts start to click in a meaningful way. This is why you should consider inviting people to your church, your small group, or to go through an extended one-on-one or couple-to-couple evangelistic Bible study.

People are often starving for a place to belong before they believe. This belonging kind of environment should be a safe place for religious non-Christians to enter into community and see—up close and personal—how their weak strain of the gospel contrasts with the power and abundant life of the true gospel.

Religious non-Christians also tend to have a high regard for the Bible. That’s why they’re generally not freaked out by opening the Bible at church, reading it in small group, or talking about it casually. However, even though they have a high regard for the Bible, the vast majority of them don’t know what it says because they’ve rarely been encouraged to read it for themselves. Therefore, don’t be afraid to conversationally use Scripture to discuss the gospel and faith. You’ll be surprised at how effective this is!

Factor #2: Change and Conformity 

For a variety of reasons, people in small towns are not typically open to change in comparison to people who live in larger cities. But this isn’t necessarily bad, because when people actually do change, they aren’t likely to change back to their old ways. This is often the case when someone becomes a Christian in a small town: they aren’t likely to turn their back on Jesus after they’ve switched their allegiance to him.

Similarly, the lack of change in small towns often leads to a high degree of conformity. For better or worse, there is a relatively narrow range of acceptable behaviors, choices, and ideas that people are generally expected to adhere to in a small town. And the smaller a town is, the narrower the range! For people who have odd personalities or embrace non-traditional behaviors, it’s often difficult to be respected in the goldfish bowl of a small town. In fact, Christians like this might even have a reputation that is ultimately at odds with their mission.

Practical Advice 

A veteran pastor in a small town once told me, “You can’t be weird in a small town. You need to be normal. You can’t scare people and expect to advance the gospel. You can maybe get away with being weird in Seattle or Chicago and still be great at evangelism but that doesn’t work in a small town.” If you think this might describe you, I would suggest talking with your pastor or a trusted friend and get their advice so that mission can advance in your spheres of influence.

Factor #3: Reputations Are Hard to Shake 

It’s often said that newspapers in small towns don’t report the news, they confirm the news. That’s because people know who you are and parts of your life are common knowledge around town (which wouldn’t be the case in a larger city). In fact, many people who live in small towns end up being celebrities without trying, and for all the wrong reasons. Even your police record will be common knowledge because all the citations are listed in the newspaper! For better or worse, people tend to know about the details and integrity of your marriage, family, and business. That’s why reputations are hard to shake in small towns and they tend to follow us around like our shadows.

Practical Advice

The reputation of the gospel is strongly tied to the reputation of our marriage, family, and business. This is especially true in a small town. This reality can be a helpful asset to your mission, or an incredible liability. If you are committed to being on mission in your town, it might be helpful to sit down with your pastor or a trusted friend and reverse-

In other words, if you want the reputation of your marriage, family, and business to point to the gospel, then you’ll need to decide on the series of steps you may need to take to make that happen.

However, as you go through this process, don’t accidentally make your reputation into an idol. If you do, you probably won’t take meaningful risks for the gospel, because your deepest desire will be to protect your reputation instead of advancing the mission.

Factor #4: The “Ten and Done” Principle 

A veteran pastor in a small town made a simple but insightful observation to me a few years ago about relationships in small towns. He called it the “ten and done” principle, and it forever changed the way I understood social dynamics and mission in small towns.

The “ten and done” principle is when people in a small towns typically make room for ten slots in their life for friendships, and once their ten slots are filled, then they are done building friendships. They aren’t necessarily done being friendly, but they are done inserting new friends into their slots. Each person’s slots consist of permanent and non-permanent friendships.

The permanent slots are friendships that are poured in cement. These permanent friendships usually consist of a person’s family, a few friends they grew up with, or other people they’ve grown close to along the way. The non-permanent slots may rotate depending on circumstances and stage of life.

For example, when a young mom has little kids she might have some of the young moms from her play group in some of her non-permanent slots. However, when her kids are older and play on a high-school soccer team, she might have different parents in her non-permanent slots from that group.

Keep in mind that this is only a principle, and not a rule, because it’s not equally true for everyone who lives in a small town. Some people might have a meager amount of non-permanent slots while others might have an abundance of them. Some might have considerably more than ten slots but they’re all permanent, while others might have far less than ten slots, due to their personality and social sensibilities.

Moreover, the cultural climate in some parts of the country can breed unspoken expectations for people to have higher or lower amounts of slots. But even though each person and place is different, the “ten and done” principle generally holds true for small towns across America. Many of us who have lived in small towns have certainly seen it in practice!

Practical Advice 

The “ten and done” principle creates a diversity of challenges when it comes to mission in small towns. If relationships are the foundation of mission in small towns, how should we do mission with this principle in mind? Below is a collection of thoughts that address this question.

New people tend to be the “low-hanging fruit” for mission in a small town, because not many of their slots are filled. Longtime residents need the gospel as much as anyone, but new residents are often the easiest people to connect with for the sake of mission.

Make room for non-permanent slots in your life for the sake of mission. If you don’t have non-permanent slots open, take account of your relationships and ask God how he wants to organize and prioritize your friendships. If you do have non-permanent slots open, be devoted to praying about which non-Christians God might place in your slots.

Don’t assume you know which non-Christians have non-permanent slots open. Be prudent in praying for wisdom and don’t jump to conclusions about who’s interested and available to build a reciprocal friendship with you.

For a variety of reasons, people who are single typically have more time and availability than their married counterparts. And they also tend to have a higher number of slots available than those who are married. Singles often have the potential to be some of the best missionaries in town. If you are single, consider leveraging this season of your life for the sake of mission.

The “ten and done” principle often means that being on mission at our workplaces is remarkably strategic. Many people in small towns have their extended families living in the area and they fill up each other’s slots. Consequently, some extended families in small towns could virtually be considered unreached people groups! One of the most strategic ways to reach these families is to be on mission in our workplaces, because people from these families are forced to be around their Christian co-workers for eight hours every day.

Some non-Christians have all their permanent slots filled with family and childhood friends. Therefore, consider strategically praying that God would boldly bring individual people like this to Christ so that they can be on mission to the rest of their family and childhood friends. This is one way that God infiltrates closed networks of family and friends in small towns. There are many people in small towns who have testimonies where God saved them and powerfully used them to reach their closed network of family and friends. Let’s pray that this would happen more often!

If your family takes up all your slots and they are already Christians, consider holding a family-wide discussion about what doing mission in your town should look like. Family is good and a blessing from God, but is your family’s mission focused on community with each other or are you a community that’s focused on mission?

—

Aaron Morrow (M.A. Moody Bible Institute) is one of the pastors of River City Church in Dubuque, Iowa, which was planted in 2016. He and his wife Becky have three daughters named Leah, Maggie, and Gracie.

Excerpted from Aaron Morrow’s Small Town Mission

Resolved to be Human

I’m ashamed and embarrassed to admit that, for most of my Christian years, I have answered an important question incorrectly. A critical question. I’ll get to that question. But first, rambling. Maybe it’s because I am “one untimely born” into a celebrity culture fueled by the following values: smarter, louder, better. Maybe it’s because I have always subconsciously gravitated towards big personalities. Maybe it’s because biographical sketches of the Ernest Hemingways and Jack Londons of the world are littered throughout my Google search history.

This is a true story: I once had somebody ask me if I had short man syndrome. I had thought my pop-culture vernacular was up-to-date and was forced to ask for clarification. And the definition she gave me for short man syndrome? “Short man syndrome is when a short man tries to make up for his height with his personality.” I’m 5-foot 7-inches. Maybe she’s right. Or maybe there’s an incorrectly answered question lurking beneath my theology.

Should humanity be recovered or surpassed?

Questions about our humanity are never questions asked outside of the classroom of the gospel. How we answer the question mentioned above gives a distinct flavor to our personhood. It can determine whether we limp with other people or run ahead, whether we bleed with other people or walk away at the sight of blood. It helps us answer questions of personality, like: do I need to be smarter? Louder? Faster

It’s okay if you require a moment to respond to this question. Do you feel the need to be smarter, louder, or faster?

For most of my time as a Christian, I thought my humanity should be surpassed, not restored. In thinking of my humanity this way, Cornelius Van Till would say: it’s only one drop of poison, but it poisons the whole glass. The following few paragraphs are a few ounces I humbly distil from the glass of my life. I hope they serve to illustrate how this notion can subtly poison a personality.

First, it eliminated from my parlance one of the most important statements central to being human: “I don’t know.” That sentence, though skinny in volume, is fat with anthropological meaning between the syllables. When you possess the freedom to use those three words, you also possess the strange ability to humanize yourself.

Hemingway would be proud of this phrase's compact way of confessing that you, too, are created from the same clay. But when we understand humanity as something to be surpassed, we feel the pressure to become a living, breathing, answer key. Did you know sometimes people ask questions they don’t want answers to? I didn’t. Remember that the phrase “I don’t know” is a fine way for the Christian to communicate that although we don’t have all the answers, we do have a Person.

Second, it subtly and slowly nudged me away from the social skill of empathy. We may never bump into a thesis about empathy in our systematic theology volumes, but empathy is deeply theological. If we understand humanity as an obstacle, then humanity is no longer something we can identify with. In my life, this means that when other people would vomit their failures and sins to me, I would present myself to them as the example, not the empathizer.

Slowly, my “here’s what I do” suggestions began to dominate the arm-wrestling match against my “I understand” sentiments. When we think humanity should be surpassed, people will strangely begin to look less like yourself and more like something else as you look across the table and over the steaming coffee in discipleship discussions. We can know that we have answered the question wrongly the moment people begin to look less like mirrors and more like fill-in-the-blanks. If people don’t know you are more like them than unlike them, may I suggest using the phrase “I understand” more?

Third, if humanity should be surpassed, then other people are merely obstacles. The impact this has on social dynamics is endless: disciples become competitors, brothers and sisters become rivals, and so on. Though I disagree with his premises, I sadly agree with Darwin’s conclusion that the dominant attitude of human beings in a relationship is marked by competitive hostility.

The Bible has much to say about this. When this attitude is present, this achievement is impossible: “If one member is honored, all rejoice together” (1 Cor. 12:26). If you notice you cannot rejoice when honoring others, could it be this poison is present in your spiritual life? The gospel has much to say about this, but most importantly this attitude reverses the reconciliation the gospel achieves.

Pushback

Let me briefly address some pushback. This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be a people of answers or example. I am saying that the phrase “I don’t know” sometimes has surprisingly more assuaging power than we realize. And “I understand” doesn’t always demonstrate a lack of ministry competence. Looking more like Christ doesn’t always demand looking less like others. If our humanity should be restored, then Jesus is in the business of making us like Jesus, not into Jesus.

This distinction matters. So let me say it again: Jesus is in the business of making us like Jesus, not into Jesus. The gospel is the story of Jesus restoring our humanity. J.I. Packer says, “To be truly happy, be truly human. The way to be truly human is to be truly godly.” He who is truly human can truly empathize with other humans. And that is truly godly.

All this talk about humanity and empathy also reminds me of Jonathan Edwards’ eighth resolution: “Resolved . . . that I will let the knowledge of their failings promote nothing but shame in myself, and prove only an occasion of my confessing my own sins and misery to God.”

Edwards’ resolution is a resolution to be human. In the sins of others, he is resolved to see his own sins. In the confessions of others, he is resolved to see his own capacity for sin. When you read that resolution is that not a pastor you would like to spend time with? It shouldn’t surprise us that people desire to find their Christ in Christ and desire to find their people in people. Remember that people want genuine people.

Example and Empathizer

What should shock us most into joy is Jesus. In the person of Jesus and the story of the gospel, we have both our example and our empathizer: “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses” (Heb. 4:15). And from the person of Jesus, we hear him quietly and powerfully communicate both “here’s what I do” and “I understand”: “Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect. . . . For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted” (Heb. 2:17-18).

But there are still times when I react with a frustrated hostility against the limitations of my humanity. I bite, claw, and scratch it by talking louder and reading more, but in rare moments of victory, I find quiet contentment with being human. I want you to have those in your life. What’s more these moments usually happen when my humanity is most restored and perhaps in these moments I am still just as loud and read just as much. But I am also more dazzled by a central truth about our Jesus: we have a person in our Christ and a Christ in that person.

—

Cole Deike is a full-time church planting resident at Redeemer Church in Cedar Falls, Iowa—a church that is part of the SBC. Formerly, Cole was a high school English teacher and wrestling coach. Find him on Facebook or Instagram.

Wrestling with God

When I was nineteen years old, a doctor told me I might have a disease that would allow me only a few more years to live. I had been ill, and, because of my not-so-enviable family genes, a team of doctors was analyzing me in a clinic far from home. I left the clinic that night, knowing the details of the disease and contemplating what it would mean for my life. Back in the apartment where I was staying, I began to send messages to a friend back home in Oregon. I detailed the symptoms I was experiencing, and the ones coming if my diagnosis was accurate.

The very places we already inhabit are places that we have been sent with the good news of Jesus

His response: “The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. May the name of the Lord be praised.”

My response as I read those words: “Jerk-face! Who says that when a friend shares hard stuff?”

Thankfully, I only thought it and didn’t type it back to him. It had taken thirty minutes before I began to question if he was right. If God rules the world, does all I have belong to him anyway? Am I called to praise him even when I wrestle in suffering?

My friend’s message initiated my struggle with God, with pounding questions in cycles of suffering to come.

Indescribable Loss and Incompetent Comforters

Job was blameless in the eyes of God, as well as rich in commerce, greatness, and family. He feared God, caring about what God thought first and foremost. There was still a cosmic debate. Satan questioned Job’s motivations, so God allowed Satan to take Job’s possessions, children, and, eventually, his health. His response was what my friend referenced—he praised God (Job 1:21, 2:10). Nevertheless, Job mourned.

As good friends, the comforters gathered first with kindness in silence. However, when the silence was broken, so was the peace. After Job’s opening expressions of despair and anger came a deluge of accusations, assumptions, and insinuations. Job’s friends knew God better than Job, so, of course, they were right. “Job must have sinned,” they said, “or God would not have allowed this evil to happen to him.”

They were master over-simplifiers. They turned the biblical wisdom literature into formulas. “Bad things happen to bad people and good things to good people,” they reiterated incessantly. Job must be bad. His only hope was to repent so that God could restore him.

Job defended himself for three rounds, responding to his friends before the cycle began again. “I am innocent,” he maintained. His friends were wrong. In his grief, Job described his pain and the character of God, all the while he was pleading for God to do something, to respond. Job knew God had put him where he was (19:6-7), yet he also knew that God would vindicate him. God was righteous and still his hope (27:1-22).

Then a fourth junior team friend speaks; Elihu comes with a more moderate position. He says that neither the friends nor Job is right, and, with an air of authority, he declares that he knows. While his argument isn’t perfectly correct either, he does shift the conversation from centering on Job and humanity’s iniquity to the majesty and faithfulness of God.

In my apartment late that fearful night, I didn’t have accusers or bad theologians as friends. But those did come later—“Your suffering was generated by God’s anger at your sin.” This allegation related to my health, my circumstances, as well as other kinds of suffering. Like Job, I’ve sometimes responded with strong words to those who told me this. Like Job, I’ve wrestled with questions about physical, emotional, and relational pain. Like Job, I’ve needed to hear from God himself.

The Astounding Interview

The LORD God answered Job out of a whirlwind. God gave him the interview he had been begging for. But the conversation consisted of questions for Job to answer, rather than the planned questions for God. God brought perspective through this correction, reminding Job of his place. He allowed Job to reexamine who he was and who God was. Job was not God. Job does not see it all. Job did not create the world; he does not rule it now. So can Job judge God? Can he evaluate if God is doing what he should?

God reminds him of the wild, dangerous, and beautiful world that exists. Through the examples of the Behemoth and the Leviathan, God shows Job this world is not tame. It is complex. Job responds with faith, faith in God’s words and God’s role. He changes his mind and is finally comforted.

In all of this, God does not condemn Job and is not provoked to punishment. He vindicates Job and tells the “friends” that they need Job’s prayers to avoid punishment from God, whom they represented falsely.

Faith in Pain

I find great hope in the fact that the struggle of Job was not condemned. Job fought to understand. He sought to know the character of God combined with what he saw happening to him. God saw and engaged. And he held him up as the righteous one among his friends. God vindicated Job by showing him that his suffering was not due to sin. But Job needed more. Later in history, the Redeemer Job hoped for came to bring the fullness of his hope (Job 19:25). Jesus mediates for us so that we can come to God with our questions and wrestle with hope. Hope because we know his response will be only love and discipline, never God’s anger towards our sin—because our Redeemer took all of that forever.

The book of Job doesn’t answer why God allows suffering. It doesn’t give us impersonal truths to cling to; instead, the focus lands squarely on faith—the faith of Job to trust in the One who he knows is allowing him to suffer. The book of Job models choosing hope in redemption from the God who brings pain into our lives.

Many years later, I am still alive. The next morning the diagnosis the doctors had feared was eliminated as a possibility. But the truth still remained—God gives and takes away. I wanted to praise him no matter what. Suffering, hardship, and pain come to us in this dangerous world. Sometimes it is because of our own sin, directly or indirectly. Other times it is not.

I still wrestle sometimes. We will all likely wrestle like Job at some point in our lives, asking God to answer. The same God-in-the-whirlwind will engage us as struggling sufferers with truth. He will meet us with a reminder of what our Redeemer has done, as the full answer to our suffering. He will comfort us with hope. And he will humble us by telling us that he is still God.

Yes, Lord, you are. And we praise you.

—

Taylor Turkington has worked for a church in the Portland area for the last six years, teaching, discipling, and training. She loves being involved in the equipping and encouraging of people for the work God has given them. Before her church life, Taylor worked as a missionary in Eastern Europe and graduated from Western Seminary with an M.A. in Biblical and Theological Studies. Currently, Taylor is a student at Western in the D.Min. program. She loves teaching the Bible and speaks at seminars, retreats, and conferences. Taylor is a co-founder and co-director of the Verity Fellowship.