Looking for an earlier Watchword?
- The Other Side? - The Other Side? In the last Watchword, entitled “You are a Disciple”, I wrote about Jesus going where others feared to tread, going to the “other side”. Whether are you are aware of it, we operate on a mentality, and in a culture, that speaks of Us versus Them. We on one side, they on the other. All we need to do is look at the color chart, Reds versus Blues. Whites versus blacks, or maybe you would prefer Protestants versus Catholics or, and so it goes. We’re no longer shirts versus skins but it’s just as divisive and competitive. We do take sides, don’t we? We tend to divide the human race based on ethnicity, culture, language and religion. Continue reading
- You Are a Disciple - You Are a Disciple: So much of the time when we read the Bible we seek to understand what is happening, what the meaning of the parable, or understanding the flow of biblical history. I wonder if we ever stop and try on sandals of the fisherman, the way of the disciple, the transformation of common a man into a disciple of Jesus. One of my dear friends, who happened to have been one of my former pastors, stressed the need to understand the topography of the area, the geography, and the culture as we read the holy Word. That’s not easy to fully grasp, but it does add depth to the impact that divine power has on common humans. All but one of the original 12 disciples came from Galilee, and the majority of them were common fisherman making a living from the lake. They had little background in theology, many could not read, and all had been raised in a culture where Judaism played a significant, influencing role. In that culture, and In that geography, the Sea of Galilee served as a barrier between Galilee/Judiasm and God, on the west, and the Decapolis (the area we now know of as the Golan Heights), on the east where Satan dwelled, Continue reading
- The Next Hard Thing - The Next Hard Thing: Joseph Hellerman, in writings entitled Reconstructing Honor in Roman Philippi, calls our attention to a difficult decision that Paul made at a critical time in his life, as he was trying to establish a Christian church in the little outpost of Phllippi. In this community, there were members of the elite and nobodies of society. There were women, children, slaves, a real mix where Paul was trying to make them into a family: brothers and sisters of the faith. So, Paul is arrested. We do not know what the charge was, but for Rome that didn’t matter. He was badly beaten and eventually released. It was at this point that he protested to the authorities that he was a Roman citizen. The officials are shocked and apologetic, and Frightened, for they have violated Roman law. Here’s the question, why didn’t Paul use his getting out of jail free card when he was first arrested? Continue reading
- Talitha cumi! - Talitha cumi! In one of Ernest Hemingway’s short stories, I found this quote: “In the morning there was a big wind blowing and the waves were running high up on the beach and he was awake a long time before he remembered that his heart was broken.” I was researching the words “awake” or “awakening”, trying to find an appropriate title for a story I have been working on, and the Hemingway quote popped up. Then I came across the Hebrew greeting, Talitha cumi, and among it’s various meanings was “Child, wake up!” In a recent sermon, based partly on the Mark 5 passage, the pastor was making the point that death and sleep are related in the sense that each day we awake to the day that God has made, a type of resurrection. Continue reading
- Unfair! - Unfair!: I was 11-years old when my family moved from Ohio to Indiana, and I entered the seventh grade, in the middle of the fall semester. I was the youngest and smallest in my new class, had no friends and carried the burden of being a "preacher's kid". I believe that every child goes through times of embarrassment, even demeaning kinds of experiences. Maybe it's in the form of being bullied, or perhaps it is an unkind comment made by someone you thought was your friend. Those things happen in the course of our adult days as well, and being told by our Lord to Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, at that moment of pain or betrayal doesn't seem to help. Continue reading
- Cheap Grace - Cheap Grace: In Tim Keller’s book, The Prodigal God, he reminds us of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, being so appalled at how many in the German church gave in to Hitler in the early 1930s, that he took it upon himself to write his great work, The Cost of Discipleship. In that book, Bonhoeffer warns about the dangers of what he referred to as “cheap grace”, the idea that stresses only that God’s grace is free so that it doesn’t really matter how we live. I believe his point is that if we subscribe to cheap grace then we ignore how seriously God takes our sinful lives, and the infinite cost He paid for it. Continue reading
- Not a Saint? - Not a Saint? In a recent conversation with a friend, I thanked her for a kindness that she extended to me, telling her that “she was a saint”. Her reply was “I’m no saint”, to which I responded by telling her she certainly was, because that is the way God made us. We are saints not because we do good things, and lose out on saint-hood because of mistakes we make. We are saints because we are children of God. Check your Bible, for the heroes, the saints of Christianity. One of the most prominent stories in the Bible is about that saint, King David. He was great ruler but he was also a fornicator and, you can say, he was an adulterer as well. But King David wasn’t the only one. Plenty of other luminaries of the Bible did terrible things at various points in their lives. Saul was a disbeliever, Moses was a doubter. Jacob was a liar. Continue reading
- Mercy - Mercy: I think we often confuse mercy with Grace. While both are part of God’s character, there is, in truth, a big difference. At its core, mercy is not getting the punishment we deserve, while Grace is a gift we don’t deserve. Does that make sense? From another perspective, the dictionary defines grace as “courteous goodwill”, meaning it’s not asked for nor deserved, but is freely given. On the other hand, mercy is the “compassion and kindness shown” to someone who is subject to punishment and harm. It is an act meant to relieve someone of their suffering. Continue reading
- Fruit of the Spirit - Fruit of the Spirit: What is your definition of joy? Did you include the word happiness or any of its derivatives? They seem to be related, that’s true. But the difference is much greater than we might have thought. When we look at the Galatian scripture passage we see that joy it’s listed among the fruits of the spirit. We are also aware that happiness does not appear. When we speak of the fruits of the spirit we’re talking about the role that the Holy Spirit plays within us. We could conclude from that, that joy is an internal condition, related to peace and contentment. Joy does not reside in our circumstances. Continue reading
- Storms - Storms: The geography of the Sea of Galilee makes it subject to sudden and violent storms as the wind comes over the eastern mountains and drops suddenly onto the Sea. According to the weather service in that area, storms are likely when an east wind blows cool air over the warm air that covers the Sea, the cold air drops as the warm air rises and the sudden change can produce surprisingly furious storms in a short time, as it did in Jesus day. See Matthew 8. So, when the boat, loaded with disciples and Jesus himself, was overtaken by a sudden storm, the disciples had the know-how and the experience to cope with most storms, but not this time. In desperation, they called on Jesus. Continue reading
- Alone with God - Alone with God: There is a message here for us, one that too many ignore or, to my mind, misinterpret. It is a message that is repeated time and time again through the scriptures, Jesus getting this idea across to His hard-headed flock of sheep. Rest! In Luke 5:14 we see Jesus instructing the healed leper not to tell anyone, yet word got out and the crowds came. In Luke 6:12 we read that Jesus went alone to a hill (mountain) to pray. He was not teaching, healing, etc., He was simply talking with His Father. In Luke 9:18 we read One day Jesus left the crowds to pray alone. This was just before He told His disciples of His coming death. At the time of His transfiguration He took Peter, James and John with Him to be alone and pray. Repeatedly we see Jesus being alone, or with a few disciples, to spend time with the Father; before His teaching on prayer, before His arrest, while being crucified, and just before He died. Continue reading
- Memory Verse – 4/4 - Memory Verse – 4/4: Our men’s Bible study, Men in Mission, has been going strong for at least 40 years. One of those early saints in our study was Glen Hawkins, the father of our pastor at that time. I can still hear his very unique voice, reminding us, teaching us, to "trust in the Lord with all our hearts". There were times when he would elaborate, explaining what it means to truly trust in the Lord and seek to do His will in everyday things. He was a wonderful participant in our discussions and when he passed to the Lord we were better for having him with us for a time. I believe there are Saints like Glen in every Bible study group. Sometimes those Saints nag us a bit, sometimes they serve as instructors, sometimes they serve as the conscience of the group, moving us to serve. Continue reading
- Memory Verse – 3/4 - Memory Verse – 4/5: At the beginning of his ministry, Jesus had a personal relationship with the disciples, they were drawn to him because of his personality and because of what he was teaching. It was all very reassuring to them as they began to see His actions and feel the presence of a very special man. We don't know exactly when they began to realize that Jesus was a man of God, and maybe more than that. In this chapter, Jesus begins by saying "When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am. 4 And you know the way to where I am going,” and that leads into the "meat" of his ministry on earth. The facts that he seems to be implying that he is leaving them, must have created great anxiety among them. And, so, verse 16 becomes Jesus' reassurance. Continue reading
- Memory Verse – 2/4 - Memory Verse – 2/4: Romans 8:28 is one of the best-known verses in Romans and probably one of the best-known verses in the whole Bible. I think that is because we are joined together in one common fact of life – we all suffer. We suffered with pain, with loss, with hardships that seemed almost unbearable, and there are times when we want to know what God’s relationship to our suffering is. Did He cause it? Does He care what we’re going through? Can He do anything about it? Verse 28 doesn’t tell us that God causes people to suffer, and it doesn't say that God considers suffering in and of itself to be good. Continue reading
- Memory Verse – 1/4 - Memory Verse – 1/5: What have you committed to memory during your lifetime? When we were children it probably was the alphabet, then it was counting, then maybe it was multiplication tables, then we probably got into more complicated matters: Spelling, especially complicated words. Maybe science formulas, and on and on it went, one new thing, committed to our memory, after another. How about Bible verses? Were they part of your memory discipline? Continue reading
- Hell? - Hell? Hell? Strange topic for a meditation. In my research for A Life for Barabbas I found some interesting and, for me, unknown bits of fact, related to the idea of hell. Despite the deep meditations on evil and the afterlife in Jewish tradition, the concept of hell is not clearly developed. For example, Chaim Pearl and Reuben S. Brookes, in A Guide to Jewish Knowledge argue: "In regard to life after death, ‘Judaism adopted a stand of its own. … Having provided the belief in the deathlessness of the soul, the authoritative teaching of Judaism warns us against useless speculation about the details of the afterlife. The Jewish faith teaches us to concentrate all our efforts and energy in conducting ourselves as children of God in this world, here and now." Continue reading
- Ego and Sufficiency - Ego and Sufficiency: I think it’s hard to admit that there are times when we are often mired in evil thoughts, impulsive thoughts at the moment, thoughts that if we had a moment to think about we would not have had them. Often thoughts lead to action. While self-sufficiency can be a positive trait, too often we judge others behavior, by our excellent life skills, as if our self-sufficiency is the stuff that others should aspire to. Continue reading
- Alzheimer’s and the Invisible God - Alzheimer’s and the Invisible God: I started this meditation after I was given a story about a loved one who was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s. The loved one was 62, and she had passed away just three years later. It is a sad, and often repeated, story, but one of love and the strength of a care-giver. I don’t think anyone can research this topic without wondering if any of these symptoms are showing up in their own everyday life. Alzheimer’s is such a cruel disease, taking away common thought processes, behavior, and memory. I have trouble remembering names, is that a sign? Continue reading
- Do Not Be Afraid - Do Not Be Afraid: I was doing a little bit of research for a Watchword on the subject of Hell and came across some interesting statistics on a slightly different topic, Fear. Here’s a little trivia fact: In the Bible there are 365 references to fear and its variances, such as being afraid, worry, fretting, etc. Just the phrase “fear not” appears slightly over 100 times in the Old Testament, and slightly over 40 times in the New Testament. Despite the number of cautions God presents to us against being afraid, we fragile humans still invest a lot of time, and health and worrying, not just about tomorrow, but often about things that have long passed. We fear our way into an early grave. We fear our way into gray hair and wrinkles. Continue reading
- Christ at Work - Christ at Work: I’m reading John Ortberg’s book, Who Is This Man? The Unpredictable Impact of the Inescapable Jesus, and learning so much of history and truth about the impact of Christianity on the development of our civilization. The author has done a truly deep dive into research and history, uncovering many connectors to Jesus and Christianity. World-wide the impact has been amazing. Languages have been invented so that people would be able to read about Jesus. Monks in monasteries throughout the world, were dedicated to the laborious task of copying every scrap of Holy Writ that came to them. Eye glasses were invented for monks who needed them to pore over texts. The first use of them printing press and movable type was to print copies of the Bible in translations for the people. The vast majority of pioneers of science viewed their work as “learning to think God’s thoughts.” The historical impact of Jesus’ thinking is so pervasive that it is often taken for granted. Christ at work. Continue reading
