trust

Aug

2026

The voice of a prophet

Zechariah’s words for today

by David Sellnow

If a prophet were to arise in our country today, what would you hope he would say?

Maybe you hope for a prophet to speak out against the immorality and lies and corruption that prevail all around us. The powerful call what is evil good, and what is truly good they say is evil. You’d like a prophet who would set the record straight, who speaks up for godly values—for loving our neighbors, for walking in righteousness, for mercy and justice.

Maybe you hope for a prophet who would speak to the sluggishness and indifference that exists even inside God’s church. The people of God seem to have given up in defeat, or given in to worldly concerns, or given out in exhaustion. They just want to sit in their own comfortable homes, live out their lives, stop working so hard for God’s priorities in a world that doesn’t seem ever to align with God’s priorities anyway. You’d like a prophet who would speak to godly people who are tired, who are weak, who are worn, a prophet to the weary and frustrated.

Maybe you hope for a prophet who would speak out against the nations (including our own) that pursue wars and aggression and claim they are doing so with God’s approval—as if God wants war and will bless them for inflicting violence. You wish someone would challenge the bullies and grifters who increase their riches and advantages at the expense of everyday people and then dare to claim that their greater wealth and power is a sign of God’s blessing. You hope for someone to expose the false preachers and misguided philosophies that battle against genuine Christian hope and faith.

You want a prophet who will speak for you because you don’t know what to say, a prophet who reminds you that you have a Savior, that Christ will bring you more life and truth and fullness than this world can offer … and that waiting for him is worthwhile, no matter how long you have to wait. You hope for a prophet who would remind you that you are not forgotten, that the LORD remembers his promises, and he has promised you salvation.

About 2500 years ago, a prophet arose in the nation of Judah and reminded God’s people that God does remember his people and his promises. The prophet Zechariah’s own name was a reminder; his name meant “the LORD remembers.” Zechariah ministered after God’s people had gone through centuries of history, had been carried off into exile and back again, and had returned to a pattern of life in their home country that was nothing special, quite mundane, not at all glorious. It was not the high-powered kingdom of David and Solomon anymore. It was a leftover kingdom, a remnant, an afterthought. They needed to be renewed in hope that God indeed still was remembering his promises. And Zechariah provided that reminder.

Often in our lives under God today, we need the same sort of reminder. We need reminders and promises for our own souls. We are so easily entrapped and enslaved in our own sinfulness. We keep on doing evil, even if we don’t want to or try to avoid it. We keep failing to do good, even as we try to be good (cf. Romans 7:15-20). Our pride gets in the way, because we’re confident that we can do the things God wants us to do… but we really can’t. We do not do the good we want, but the evil we do not want is what we keep on doing (Romans 7:19). We need God’s deliverance and forgiveness through Jesus Christ (Romans 7:25).

We need reminders, too, about our country and world. We get tired, frustrated, discouraged. The world seems to be in chaos. Our country seems to go from one crisis to the next. Our leaders’ supposed solutions seem more often to make things worse. We find ourselves wondering if we’re going to be ok. We wonder if the ultimate kingdom of our LORD will ever come in answer to our hopes. The word of a prophet like Zechariah—indeed the Word of our LORD through all his prophets and apostles and from Jesus himself—is what we need to reawaken our hopes, reinspire our confidence, and spur us on in faith.

Prophetic voices like that of Zechariah remind us that the LORD remembers. No matter how much our hopes are challenged and burdened—by what happens in our history, in our nation, in our world—we can know that God does not renege on any of his promises. The Messiah is real, not imagined. The promises are true. The day of the Lord will come. And when that day comes, the LORD will remember us as his own.

The fact is, we are in the last days, the end times, the final chapter in human history. How do I know that? Because Jesus has appeared on this earth once already. The events of his birth, life, death, and resurrection were the inauguration of “these last days” (as the Bible terms them). Everything that has been happening since the Son of God became a man is a part of the final chapter of the human story.

The history of time essentially consists of two chapters. There was the old testament, the beginning chapter, the ancient time in which people who hoped in God looked forward to the coming of the Anointed One, the Messiah that God had promised. Humanity had no answer to its own sin and problems, to death and isolation from God. Only God himself could solve the human condition. Jesus the Messiah, the Christ, the incarnate God, came and fulfilled the ancient word, living and dying in the place of frail humanity, rising out of death and ascending again to heaven as the hope of our future.

Now we live in the new testament era, the concluding chapter, the days in which we wait for Christ to come again. We know he is the Savior, the King, the Lord of all things. Before he ascended into the clouds, he promised us, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Matthew 28:18). Jesus is Lord over all things that happen—even when it appears to us that he couldn’t be further away and this world couldn’t be more of a mess.

Before he ascended into the clouds, Christ also commissioned us: “You will be my witnesses … to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). We have a calling, a purpose, to extend the promise of Christ’s name to others while we can, while this earth still endures in its broken state.

Zechariah spoke of the last days in the way that prophets of old saw the time Christ would come to the world. They saw the arrival of Christ and the end of time like mountain peaks in the distance, appearing as if they were very close together. Zechariah’s prophecy wove images of Christ’s first coming—such as his Palm Sunday entrance into Jerusalem—together with images of Christ’s second coming—his judgment of all nations. Zechariah encouraged the people to rejoice because their true King and Savior was coming to them. When he first arrived, the Messiah would come in humble fashion, yet at the same time triumphant and victorious. The coming of Christ’s kingdom cuts off the horses and chariots and weapons of war. His kingdom extends over all the earth and he calls for peace. He promises to those who have placed their hope in him will be set free from bondage and restored to strength in double measure (Zechariah 9:9-12).

Zachariah’s book of prophecy also includes messages of Judgment Day. At Christ’s second coming, those who have opposed the Lord will be caught in his judgment like persons caught in a lightning storm. They will be destroyed like Goliath was brought down with a stone from David’s slingshot (Zechariah 9:14-14). At the same time, there is peace and hope for God’s people. When Judgment Day comes, Jesus is bringing redemption to those who have struggled and suffered. “On that day the LORD their God will save them, for they are the flock of his people” (Zechariah 9:16).

God gives great beauty and glory forever to his people, who are his in Jesus. They—we—will sparkle like jewels for eternity. No matter how oppressed we may feel in our days of earthly existence, no matter how many enemies we encounter who oppose God and the faith we have in him, God is our rescuer. The kingdom of this world will become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.

And so meanwhile, in these last days, what do we do? We proclaim the message that Christ himself proclaimed. He proclaimed peace to the nations. He breaks the battle bow and takes away chariots and warhorses. He is the King who came to his people in lowly fashion, riding on a donkey—indeed, on a colt the foal of a donkey. The sword our King has given us with which to fight battles in his name is not a weapon of war, but rather the “sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Ephesians 6:17). “The word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12 NIV).

In these last days, we yearn for and lean on the word of the Lord, which empowers and strengthens us, lifting us up out of hopelessness. In this world of uncertainty and sin and confusion, we rely on our humble, gentle-of-heart Savior to be with us. “Come to me, all you who are weary and carrying heavy burdens,” he said, “and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). That’s the word of our Lord on which we rely. And we go forth with his goodness and promises, trusting that he indeed is the Lord and is in control, confident that he, the LORD, remembers his promises and will safeguard his people … all the way to the very last day, all the way into eternity.

Scripture quotations, except where otherwise indicated, are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

May

2025

Mother’s Day / Good Shepherd Sunday

A parent who does not forget us; a shepherd who walks beside us always

Thoughts on Mother’s Day / Good Shepherd Sunday

Mother’s day is not a joyful holiday for everyone. For some it is uneasy, or complicated, or painful. Some have had difficult relationships with their mothers—or mothers with their children. Some have lost their mothers or have lost a child. Some have wanted to become mothers and have been unable to do so. Some have never known their mothers and have been raised in foster care or group homes. Even for those in traditional family structures, mothering isn’t easy.

Writing on Medium, Lauren H. Sweeney says, “Mother’s Day is hard for me because I am a mother and I have a mother. And we’re both inadequate. It wasn’t supposed to be this way, it wasn’t the plan. I was going to be everything she wasn’t. … The thing that makes mothering so hard (and consequently, a day about celebrating mothering so hard) is knowing that I don’t do it right, just as I wasn’t done right by. I mean, my mother tried. And I try.” But life is hard and things don’t go painlessly.

Scripture says (Isaiah 49:15): “Can a woman forget her nursing child, or show no compassion for the child of her womb?” In the next breath, that same scripture acknowledges that human parents may forget and neglect their children. I work in a human services agency, where child protection services and child support enforcement are ongoing concerns. We celebrate Mother’s Day for all the good that comes from mothers. We celebrate Father’s Day for all the good that comes from fathers. Yet we also acknowledge that there are no perfect parents in this world, nor any perfect children, and family life is frequently problematic.

Our heavenly Father assures us that even though earthly parents may fail to be mindful of their children, he will not forget us.“See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands,” he says (Isaiah 49:15-16). We wonder about that, though. We often cry out to God, “The Lord has forsaken me, my Lord has forgotten me” (Isaiah 49:14). We seek God, we thirst for him, wanting to know he is with us. We are like souls in a dry and weary land where there is no water (cf. Psalm 63:1). We feel like a man named Job felt long ago when his life fell apart. Whether we look ahead or behind or to the right or the left, we cannot perceive God’s presence. It seems God is hiding or has abandoned us (cf. Job 23:8-9).

Often, our problem with sensing God’s presence in our lives is we expect to find him only in obvious blessings, in pleasant and happy times, when we see signs of success. More often, God’s most noticeable presence with us is during times of strain and hurt and hardship. The LORD promises us, “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you” (Isaiah 43:2). God does not promise that floods and fires and turmoil will not come our way. Rather, when the troubles of the world plague us, that is when we draw closest to him.

Today is not only Mother’s Day. It is also Good Shepherd Sunday—a day to be reminded of how God cares for us and carries us. As the shepherd psalm (Psalm 23) assures us, even though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we need no fear evil because the LORD is with us and comforts us (Psalm 23:4). In a sermon this weekend, a pastor echoed that word to congregation members, saying. “Our Shepherd walks with us and has always walked with us. No place is foreign to Jesus. All things are present to him, because he has defeated death.” Christ was and is and will be with us always—through life’s every trial, through death, and into eternity.

We will walk through troubles in this life. That doesn’t mean that God our Father has forsaken us. Rather, in times of trouble especially the Lord’s word rings true, telling us, “As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you; you shall be comforted” (Isaiah 66:13). We are assured that the Lord keeps track of all our sorrows, as if collecting all our tears in a bottle. He has recorded each one in his book (Psalm 56:1). We can take comfort in times of suffering, “knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us” (Romans 5:3-5).

It is best not to get too absorbed in our own pain and problems, but to connect with our fellow human beings in faith and hope. In a deeply personal book about the struggles of his own soul, Henri Nouwen wrote: “You will deceive yourself into believing that if the people, circumstances, and events [of your life] had been different, your pain would not exist. This might be partly true, but the deeper truth is that the situation which brought about your pain was simply the form in which you came in touch with the human condition of suffering. … Real healing comes from realizing that your own particular pain is a share in humanity’s pain. … Every time you can shift your attention away from the external situation that caused your pain and focus on the pain of humanity in which you participate, your suffering becomes easier to bear. It becomes a ‘light burden’ and an ‘easy yolk’ (Matthew 11:30). Once you discover that you are called to live in solidarity with the hungry, the homeless, the prisoners, the refugees, the sick, and the dying, your very personal pain begins to be converted into the pain [shared with all human beings], and you find new strength to live in it. Herein lies the hope of all Christians” (The Inner Voice of Love, 1996 – p. 103-104).

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For whatever reason God chose to make humans as we are—limited and suffering and subject to sorrow and death—God had the honesty and the courage to take his own medicine. Whatever game he is playing with his creation, he has kept his own rules and played fair. He can exact nothing from humanity that he has not exacted from himself. He has himself gone through the whole of human experience, from the trivial irritations of family life and the cramping restrictions of hard work and lack of money to the worst horrors of pain and humiliation, defeat, despair, and death. He was born in poverty and died in disgrace and thought it well worthwhile.

-Novelist and Christian writer Dorothy Sayers

The Greatest Drama Ever Staged & The Triumph of Easter (1938)

Scripture quotations, except where otherwise indicated, are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Jan

2025

The secret of life is found in Christ

Readings for Epiphany festival, January 6th

Isaiah 60:1-6, Ephesians 3: 1-12, Matthew 2:1-12

In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, asking, “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising,and have come to pay him homage” (Matthew 2:1-2).

God works in mysterious ways – leading us to his grace

How did Eastern magi know to go to Jerusalem when they saw something unusual in their stargazing (Matthew 2:1,2)? What we call the Star of Bethlehem may have been miraculous in its appearance. It may have been a manifestation of the glory of the LORD—such as when the LORD led the Israelites through the wilderness, going “in front of them in a pillar of cloud by day, to lead them along the way, and in a pillar of fire by night, to give them light” (Exodus 13:21). Perhaps the wise men were led by the same glory of the LORD that shone around the angels who appeared above the fields near Bethlehem heralding Jesus’ birth (Luke 2:9).

However, many of God’s miraculous dealings with us are in and under and through things we tend to see as normal occurrences. We apply water to a person in God’s name, by Christ’s instruction, and that person is connected to Christ and made a child of God. We receive bread and wine by Christ’s instruction, and we are connected to his sufferings and death and filled with God’s grace. God’s most profound miracles often are hidden under things that seem ordinary. What the wise men saw may have been viewed by others as something natural, as no big deal. A modern astronomer who gives credence to the Bible’s story suggested that the bright object in the sky could have been a special alignment between planets and stars—a conjunction occurring when celestial bodies appear to meet in the night sky from our vantage point on earth. Astronomer Michael Molnar pointed to an alignment of Jupiter, Saturn, the moon and the sun in the constellation of Aries that occurred around the time when Jesus was born. “This conjunction happened in the early morning hours, which aligns with the Gospel’s description of the Star of Bethlehem as a rising morning star” (Space.com, 12/22/24).

Magi were scholars and advisors to the rulers in ancient Babylon and Persia. They were astronomers and astrologers who studied the skies diligently. These particular magi likely studied the Hebrew scriptures too. The magi were a class of intellectuals that once had included the brightest minds among the Jewish people taken captive by the Babylonians. In 605 BC, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, Azariah and others were among Israelites of noble rank, “versed in every branch of wisdom, endowed with knowledge and insight,” who were deemed “competent to serve in the king’s palace” (Daniel 1:3,4). Daniel’s name as a member of the magi in Babylon was Belteshazzar. Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah were given the names Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego (Daniel 1:7). It seems that Daniel’s wisdom and writings—and other Jewish prophets’ writings—were things these magi, 600 years later, had in mind along with whatever they saw in the skies. Daniel’s prophecy had included a cryptic timeline about how long it would be between “the time that the word went out [for the Israelites] to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the time of an anointed prince”—-when the “anointed one” or Messiah would come (cf. Daniel 9:24-27 and ReasonForHopeJesus.com).

Because of the testimony Daniel gave centuries before, the wise men who traveled to find Jesus may have been searching the skies for a sign around the very time Jesus was born. We don’t know exactly what they saw. They may have seen an unusual alignment of planets and stars and understood it as an indication of the Messiah’s arrival, in keeping with prophecies about the brightness of the dawn at his coming into the world (Isaiah 60:1-3). And they may have seen a supernatural manifestation of the glory of the LORD in the skies—pointing them to the specific house where Jesus was when they went to look for him in Bethlehem.

We don’t need to belabor ourselves trying to explain exactly what the phenomenon of the Star of Bethlehem was. It’s okay to confess it as a mystery. Our faith is grounded in confessing that the workings of our God are full of mystery and wonder. As the heavens are higher than the earth, God’s ways are higher than our ways and his thoughts higher than our thoughts (Isaiah 55:9). As a hymn writer famously described, “God moves in a mysterious way, his wonders to perform.”

We don’t always like that. We want things to be obvious. We want to see signs that point directly to us and point us in a specific direction. I’ve known people who looked for signs from God to determine if they should accept a new job or stay in their current position. Others interpreted everything they saw as a message from above—such as seeing every little coincidence as a sign that the person they just met was their soulmate, destined to be the love of their life. In doing so, they rushed the relationship, not building deep connections. They ignored or downplayed frictions, convincing themselves they were meant to be together … and then they fell apart. They had seen only what they wanted to see and missed the many red flags that kept popping up all along the way.

I knew a woman who struggled over even the smallest daily decisions. She constantly wanted a sign from God to show her what to do. She asked our church’s lay minister for help knowing what God’s will was. As they talked, she put two pens on the table in front of her and asked, “Like right now, how do I know which pen God wants me to use?” We needed to encourage her to walk each day’s path with confidence that whichever thoughtful decisions she made, God would be with her.

In the daily course of our lives, God leads us in everyday ways more so than by spectacular signs or miraculous moments. He leads us by reminders of what his word has taught us. He leads us by the Christ-like actions of others who help us when we need help. We don’t want to miss those clear messages from God while we’re looking all about for some elusive supernatural signal.

We wish we could know how our story will unfold, seeing clearly what lies ahead. God asks us to trust him, confident that he knows our needs and will be blessing our futures. The apostles and prophets spoke of God’s doings and dealings with us as a mystery. Paul described how the mystery of Christ was made known to him by revelation. “In former generations,” he said, “this mystery was not made known to humankind, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit.” A part of that mystery was that God’s promise was not limited to just some people. All people, Jews and Gentiles alike, were to be “fellow heirs, members of the same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.” Those of us who have come to know “the boundless riches of Christ” have a role in helping others “see what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things,” so that through us, the church, “the wisdom of God in its rich variety might now be made known” and we and others may have boldness and confidence through faith in Christ (Ephesians 3: 1-12).

Maintaining faith in God continues to confront us with mystery, as much of what we experience in life seems at odds with the goodness and peace we want to have. Mary and Joseph’s early days with Jesus had bright moments. Shepherds came to the stable where the child was born, telling of a visit by angels. Later, wise men came to worship and brought expensive gifts. But Jesus’ family had been uprooted from their home in Nazareth by a government order requiring that they be in Bethlehem for census and taxation purposes. Immediately after the visit by the magi, Joseph and Mary needed to use value from their gifts to flee for their lives. The regional ruler, Herod, felt threatened when court officials from far away inquired where to find the child who had been born king of the Jews (Matthew 2:2) When the magi did not report back to him the child’s location, Herod ordered all baby boys in and around Bethlehem be killed, determined to get rid of any supposed new king by butchery (Matthew 2:16). By God’s intervention, Joseph and Mary and Jesus escaped to Egypt, remaining there until Herod’s death (around a year or so later). Things were not easy for them.

Our lives have bright moments, but also many fears and tragedies and turmoils. It is good for us to confess, “God works in mysterious ways,” rather than looking only for immediate and obvious signs of blessings. We get that phrase about God’s mysterious ways from the hymn I mentioned earlier. The hymn writer, William Cowper, had bright moments in his life but also dire struggles of heart and soul. After William was born (in 1731), his mother lost five other children in their infancy. Then, when William was six years old, his mother died while giving birth to his younger brother John—the only sibling that survived. William was traumatized by losing his mother. He was sent to boarding school, where he was severely bullied. He managed to go on to become a successful student and writer. When he was 31 years old, he was offered a prestigious position as Keeper of the Journals in the House of Lords. But his appointment was challenged and he was to undergo a public examination at the Bar of the House. His fragile psyche could not handle that, and he had a breakdown. He made attempts at suicide. He went to be treated for two years at a mental health asylum. He was befriended by faithful people and became connected to evangelical churches. In reflection on his life’s journey—including especially his bouts with suicidal thoughts and depression—William Cowper wrote these lines in a poem he originally entitled, Conflict: Light Shining out of Darkness:

God moves in a mysterious way,
His wonders to perform;
He plants his footsteps in the sea,
And rides upon the storm. …

Ye fearful saints fresh courage take,
The clouds ye so much dread
Are big with mercy, and shall break
In blessings on your head.*

When you are struggling to see hope in your life, bear in mind the experience of Mary and Joseph. They lived in a world where they had to make difficult journeys from Nazareth to Bethlehem and then from Bethlehem to Egypt. But God made his blessings known by visits from shepherds and wise men. Keep in mind the life of Jesus, which culminated in suffering and scorn and pain and death. But God made his victory known in Jesus’ resurrection and ascension as King of kings and Lord of lords. Keep in mind the experience of God’s people throughout the course of history who have battled stresses and strains—such as the life of William Cowper—and yet can confess that God works in mysterious ways and is with us through the storms.

When life is shrouded in mystery and difficulty, we may cry out to God like Job did long ago, “Why? Why? Why?” (Cf. Job chapter 3). We may not see obvious signs that God is still with us, watching over us. But we know that our Redeemer lives, “and that at the last he will stand upon the earth,” and we will “in our own flesh see God on our side” (Job 19:25-27). We will have a home with him.

Our hearts yearn within us for the final revealing of all God’s mysteries, “Now we know only in part; then [we] will know fully, even as [we] have been fully known” (1 Corinthians 13:12). In the meantime, we confess: “Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am” (Philippians 4:13 The Message). Our God “will fully satisfy every need according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19). That is our confidence in Jesus, born at Bethlehem, crucified at Calvary, raised to life and ascended on high. He has promised, “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also” (John 14:3). That is the culmination of the mystery of Christ, in which we have our hope.

Life’s greatest mystery has been revealed to us in the gospel—the good news of God’s grace in Jesus. That news, the revealing of that mystery, is the truth we hold dear in our hearts and the grace we share with others.

* Sources: Cowper & Newton Museum, Poetry Foundation, Wikipedia biography and poem page

Sep

2024

Responding to evil and trouble in this world

Thoughts in remembrance of 9/11

public domain image from picryl.com

This past weekend, CBS news program “60 Minutes” rebroadcast their 2011 special, “9/11: The FDNY,” recalling the efforts and sacrifices made by firefighters responding to the attacks on the Twin Towers in New York City.

9/11 made us ponder also theological questions about horrors and tragedies that occur in this world. I’ll share here devotional thoughts that originally were The Electric Gospel message in September 2001. (At that time, The Electric Gospel was in email form, sent to an electronic mailing list of college students as part of a national campus ministry program.)

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Responding to evil and trouble in this world

Planes hijacked. Skyscrapers plummeted to the ground. The seat of strength of our military might—the Pentagon—ruptured, fractured, broken, burning. What are we to think?

Why would God let such things happen? Why would God let planes crash and buildings collapse? Is America so sinful that God decided to punish us? Were the people aboard the hijacked jets under a sentence of God’s judgment? Were the people in the World Trade Center less godly than others, so God was okay with letting them die? Those thoughts surely are a misinterpretation, for this is the God who said he would have spared Sodom and Gomorrah had there been ten righteous people living there (Genesis 18:32).

Why would God let terrorists succeed? Why has he let evil people have their way? Is he approving of their evil? Is he unable to put a stop to evil? Neither thought is acceptable. We believe the word that the LORD is not a God who takes pleasure in evil (Psalm 5:4) and cannot be tempted by evil (James 1:13). We believe the promise that nothing is impossible with God (Luke 1:37), that the Lord has all authority in heaven and on earth (Matthew 28:18).

So then, what are we to say when evil and trouble occur? How do we respond to tragedies in this world?

Let’s ask someone who can give us an answer. Here is what Jesus himself had to say on the subject:

There were some who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. He asked them, “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did. Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them—do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did” (Luke 13:1–5).

We don’t know all the details about the incidents mentioned in Jesus’ comments. Clearly, they were well-known current events in Jerusalem at that time. One was an example of brutal, terrorist-type activity. Pontius Pilate ordered the massacre of certain Galileans in the temple courts where sacrifices were brought. They may have been suspected as revolutionaries. Roman methods for dealing with such suspects were typically swift and severe. They kept people in line by engendering fear. The other event was not one of malicious intent, but simple structural failure. A tower toppled and eighteen people were crushed underneath it.

One event a horrific crime, the other an accidental catastrophe. Regardless of the circumstances of the deadly incidents, Jesus says our response should be the same. Repent, or we also will perish.

Jesus’ words at first strike our ears as harsh. When people are murdered, our immediate reaction is outrage. When tragedies take lives, our main inclination is to mourn. But Jesus urges us also toward repentance. Why?

It comes down to an understanding of the shortness of this life and the necessity of clinging to God. We live in a world where death happens every day. We speak of many deaths occurring from natural causes, but there is nothing truly natural about death. Death entered the world through sin (Romans 5:12). The violation of God‘s commands is the reason that human beings die. Death has been a curse to us since sin entered into our world, with sin damaging us all along the way. Sin rears its ugly head in every ugly form it can find. Death takes its toll whenever and however it can—through crime, through disaster, through disease, through the decline of old age. We sin and we die. That is the story of human life and human history.

If we think we can make humanity immune to sin and death by self-help programs, we are mistaken. If we think we can make the world more secure by our own human efforts, we are mistaken. We are caught up in a world where there is sin, and we do die.

That is why Jesus said, “Unless you repent, you too will all perish.” Everybody in this world does perish, and one way or another. Whether it comes by the blade of a soldier’s sword or the bricks of a buckling building, whether by the bullets of a drive-by shooter or the winds of a tropical storm, whether by the hatefulness of an international terrorist or just that your heart stops beating while you sleep in your bed at night … the fact is that you and I and everyone else will face death. Whether we die of what are deemed natural causes or die in tragic ways, death is a reality we cannot avoid. We are not the solution to our own problem. We are people in need of a restored link to life with God. That is why Jesus urges us to repentance. He wants us to understand our need, our helplessness … and the hope that we have in him.

The meaning of repentance is not just recognizing our sin and weakness. It also means recognizing where help is to be found and turning to the one in whom there is help. We need trust. We need strength. We don’t get those things on our own. We are brought from death to life by the living God.

Jesus followed his words about crimes and disasters by telling a parable. He spoke of a fruitless fig tree that was wasting the soil in which it stood. By all rights, the orchard owner could hack such a tree down right away. But that is not God’s gardening method. Dig around It, fertilize it, nurture it, give it more time (Luke 13:6-9). That is what God does. In spiritual terms, what does that mean? It means God is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9). We call our time on this earth a time of grace. If God were to wipe out all evil before it ever occurred, he would have to stop each of us human beings in our tracks. Not a single person could continue acting if God were to eradicate all evil by force, by wiping it off the face of the planet. We all have tendencies toward evil and weakness and sin. We are all stained with guilt. God did not choose to deal with evil by destroying sinners. He chose to answer the problem of evil by sending the solution in Christ.

Rather than launching destruction against every evildoer, the LORD laid on his own Son the guilt of all the world (Isaiah 53:6). Christ himself became the object and sufferer of every imaginable human evil. He was mocked and spit upon. He was slapped, punched, clubbed. He was whipped with ripping shards of metal tied to leather, tearing his flesh, bloodying his back. He was nailed hand and foot to hunks of wood, and hung up to die as a victim of mob rage and governmental violence. He was made the scourge of all the world. More than that, he was made the target of God’s own justice, carrying on himself the penalty of all sins. “It was the will of the Lord to crush him with pain” (Isaiah 53:10). That is how God answered evil and death. He gave all us life by the death of his one eternal Son.

So, when we see horrors happen in our world, how will we respond? Let us meet those events with humility and repentance. We know that all of us—along with all the rest of the world—need redemption. We also meet those horrors and tragedies with faith. We set our hopes not in this world or anything of this world, but in Christ, He suffered all things and satisfied all justice on our behalf. In him, we are saved.

We do not know what will happen tomorrow. We do not know what will be the outcome of any present or future war. We do not know if the USA will endure for centuries to come or not … or whether Judgment Day itself may be just around the corner. What we do know is that Jesus is our Savior. He has purchased and won us from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil with his holy precious blood, and with his innocent sufferings and death (Luther’s Small Catechism). That is the basis of our hope on the best of days in this world. That is the basis of our hope on the worst of days also.

Aug

2024

Reexamining our trust in the Lord

A meditation concerning Psalm 34

by David Sellnow

Martin Luther said we treasure the Psalms because they lay bare the hearts and souls of the psalm writers—and our hearts along with them: “The human heart is like a ship on a stormy sea driven about by winds blowing from every corner of the earth. … These tempests of the heart” caused the psalm writers to wrestle with their faith. Their words induce us to examine the inner recesses of our own souls too.

Psalm 34 is a powerful example of reexamination of one’s own life and soul, of the need to trust in God rather than ourselves. David wrote Psalm 34 when looking back at a difficult time in his life—a time when he relied on his own ideas and cleverness rather than truly trusting the Lord.

The heading in the Hebrew Scriptures atop Psalm 34 says: A psalm “of David, when he feigned madness before Abimelech, so that he drove him out, and he went away.” Let’s explore that context to better understand the lessons David learned and, later, expressed in this psalm.

You remember that David, while still a pre-teen, had been chosen by the Lord and anointed by the Prophet Samuel to be Israel’s future king (1 Samuel 16). While still a teenager, David began to serve when needed as a court musician for the reigning king, Saul, who was troubled by an evil spirit. Whenever the evil spirit came upon Saul, David would come and play his lyre, “and Saul would be relieved and feel better, and the evil spirit would depart from him” (1 Samuel 16:23). Meanwhile, David continued to serve his own family, shepherding their sheep. During that time, David was sent by his father to see how his older brothers were doing at the battlefront of a standoff between the armies of Israel and the Philistines. David stepped into the foreground on that occasion, trusting implicitly in the Lord’s integrity and strength. He went out with just a slingshot and defeated the Philistines’ gigantic hero, Goliath, in a duel to the death. Following that, jealousy grew in King Saul’s heart against David. One day while David was playing music, Saul hurled a spear at him, trying to kill him, but David twice eluded the hurled weapons (1 Samuel 18:10,11). Saul then banished David from his presence, but sent him off as a main commander in Israel’s army (1 Samuel 18:13). Saul hoped David would die in battle. “Let the Philistines deal with him,” as he later said (1 Samuel 18:17). But David continued to have success. So. Saul brought David back to the palace and offered him the hand of one of his daughters in marriage. He offered his daughter Michal, who loved David, thinking to himself, “Let me give her to him so that she may be a snare for him”, distracting David’s focus so that the hand of the Philistines might prevail against him (1 Samuel 18:21). But the more Saul realized that the Lord was with David and that his daughter Michal loved David, the more Saul’s jealousy and fury grew. “So Saul was David’s enemy from that time forward” (1 Samuel 18:29). Again “Saul sought to pin David to the wall with a spear, but David eluded Saul and the spear landed in the wall (1 Samuel 19:10). David fled for his life, and Saul began actively making more concerted efforts to have David killed (cf. 1 Samuel 19:11 – 20:33).

That was when David, fearful of Saul, fled to Gath, the hometown of Goliath, the Philistine champion whom David had slain some years earlier. The city of Gath was also the seat of power for the Philistine king known as Achish or Abimelech, the very king who was at war with Saul and the kingdom of Israel. David had led armies in battle against the Philistines. He even was carrying the sword of Goliath with him when he went to Gath (1 Samuel 20:8-9). Did David think he could hide out in enemy territory and Saul wouldn’t come looking there? If he was hiding, that didn’t work. David was recognized, seized, and held under arrest (cf. Psalm 56, heading). Or maybe David was thinking, “The enemy of my enemy is my friend,” hoping the Philistines would protect him against Saul if he came over to their side. But David’s attempts to rescue himself went awry quickly. The officers of King Achish asked, “Isn’t David a king back in his own country? Don’t the Israelites dance and sing, ‘Saul has killed a thousand enemies; David has killed ten thousand’?” (1 Kings 21:11 CEV) David then became very much afraid of King Achish and his men. “So he changed his behavior before them; he pretended to be mad when in their presence. He scratched marks on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle run down his beard. Achish said to his servants, ‘You see the man is mad; why then have you brought him to me? Do I lack madmen, that you have brought this fellow to act like a madman in my presence” (1 Samuel 21:13-15)? The Philistines drove David out of their lands, back into Israelite territory. And Saul kept pursuing David, seeking to kill him.

So, that’s a bit of a story, isn’t it? That’s the context when the heading atop Psalm 34 in your Bible says: A psalm of David, when he feigned madness before Abimelech (also known as Achish), so that Achish drove David out, and he went away. At some point later in his life, David wrote two psalms (Psalm 56 and Psalm 34), with headings showing he was thinking about those days when he was on the run and ran to Gath. Looking back on his life, David recognized he had tried to save himself by his own ingenuity, resorting to desperate means, often failing to maintain his integrity as a man of God. In Psalm 56, written after the fact, David prayed to God: “When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. … This I know, that God is for me … the Lord, whose word I praise. … In God I trust; I am not afraid. What can a mere mortal do to me?” (Psalm 56:3,4,9,11). That’s the lesson David learned, the faith he confessed in retrospect. At the time, however, David was caught up in all sorts of fear and uncertainty and did not trust God would get him through it. Mere mortals like Saul and the Philistines scared him plenty. He tried to scheme his way out of trouble—to the point of slobbering on himself and acting as if he had lost all mental faculties. The great future king of Israel, the anointed of the Lord, acting as though his only hope was to pretend he was hopeless and witless, a nobody that was of no use to the Philistines or Israel.

We’ve seen it before in the lives of other great persons of faith—losing track of God’s promises, losing trust in God’s promises, and resorting to their own solutions to their dilemmas in life. Consider Abram and Sarai. They had been promised they would have a child in their old age. But what the Lord promised seemed too slow in happening, seemed not to be happening. So, they decided Abram should sleep with Sarai’s handmaiden, Hagar, and have a son with her. That was not what God intended. Or consider Moses. Born to an Israelite slave, Moses was raised in the Egyptian palace as a grandson of a pharaoh. When he grew up, Moses initially took it upon himself to do something about Egyptian abuse of Israelite slaves. One day, Moses “went out to his people and saw their forced labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his kinsfolk. He looked this way and that, and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid his body in the sand” (Exodus 20:11-12). But what he did became known. Moses had to flee Egypt and was gone for forty years.

Too often in life, all of us as God’s people forget to trust God. We neglect to keep his steadfastness and truth in mind. We resort to our own solutions. We scratch and claw and act without integrity. We fail to believe if we follow the ways of God, if we wait on God, that we will be safe, we will be secure, we will stay alive.

David learned from what he went through. He had been flailing away trying to protect himself. But running in the wrong direction and engaging in lies and deceptions only made his situation worse, not better. Coming out of those experiences, David recognized that the Lord his God had protected him and rescued him, despite himself. The Lord had been with him through every day of trouble, and remained with him by grace even when David had made a bigger mess of things. That’s when David penned the words of Psalm 34, saying:

Magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together. …
Those who seek the Lord lack no good thing. …
Which of you desires life, and covets many days to enjoy good?
Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking deceit.
Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it. …
The Lord is near to the brokenhearted, and will save those whose spirits are crushed.
Many are the troubles of the righteous, but the Lord rescues them from them all. …
The Lord redeems the life of his servants;
none of those who take refuge in him will be condemned.
(Psalm 34:2,3,10,12-14,17-20,22)

God help us to learn the same lesson David did. As the apostle Paul urged us: Let us be careful how we live, not as unwise people but as wise, making the most of the time we have. Yes, often the days in this life are evil and troubles surround us, but we seek to understand what the will of the Lord is. We want to sing and make music to the Lord in our hearts always—no matter the circumstances of life in which we find ourselves. We give thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Cf. Ephesians 5:15-20.) No matter what happens in this life, we maintain our trust in Jesus Christ, the living bread that came down from heaven. Partaking in the life that is in Christ, we know we will live forever. (Cf. John 6:51.) As another worship hymn from the Psalms says:

With the Lord on my side I do not fear.
What can mortals do to me?
It is better to take refuge in the Lord
than to put confidence in mortals.
It is better to take refuge in the Lord
than to put confidence in princes.
O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,
for his steadfast love endures forever.
(Psalm 118:7-9, 29).

So, let us “revere the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness” (Joshua 24:14). Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods or come up with our own schemes and strategies for getting through life or escaping harm. For when we look back on our lives, it has been the Lord who has stayed with us through thick and thin (cf. Joshua 24:16-18). Even in those moments when we did stupid things, acted like we maybe had lost our minds, or fell into dreadful sins, God still did not abandon us. Think of David later in his life as king, when he forgot what he expressed in this psalm. He let power go to his head and let lust overtake his will. He engaged in adultery and murder and a cover-up. Yet again, God did not abandon him, but sent the prophet Nathan to confront David in his sin and call him back to the Lord’s mercy and back to faith. (Cf. 2 Samuel 11 & 12.)

This life is full of challenges to our faith and decency and all that is good. As the apostle Paul said, “Our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh” (Ephesians 6:1200. We are up against “the evil rulers of the unseen world … and huge numbers of wicked spirits in the spirit world” (Ephesians 6:12 TLB). So, we need to arm ourselves not with the tools or devices of this world, not even with the mighty sword of a Goliath (which ultimately did David no good). We take up the whole armor of God—the sword of the Spirit, the shield of faith, the breastplate of righteousness, the helmet of salvation—so that we may be able to withstand evil. We stand firm when we stand in the righteousness God has given us in Christ and cling always to the words that Jesus has spoken to us—words that are spirit and life (John 6:63). There’s really nowhere else we can run for safety, nowhere else we can go to have hope and peace and goodness in our lives, no one else who can hold onto us for eternity.

May we daily say, as Jesus’ disciples said, “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life” (John 6:68).

Jun

2024

God is with us through the storms

A message for the 5th Sunday after Pentecost, June 23, 2024
Revised Common Lectionary Readings: Job 38:1-11, 2 Corinthians 6:1-13, Mark 4:35-41
For an additional message regarding the life experience of Job, see this previous Electric Gospel post: https://theelectricgospel.com/faith-cries-out/

God is with us through the storms

Where I live, it has been raining and raining and raining. Our rainfall totals from Thursday to yesterday (Saturday) were nearly 5 inches, and towns not far from us had over 8 inches of rain in the same span. This is on top of previous weeks’ rainfall amounts that were already double the average normally received for the whole month of June.

We appreciate rain. But we get nervous when the rains keep coming, fearing flooding that may follow. And storms scare us. Violent winds and other weather phenomena can cause all sorts of damage. We’d like our weather always to be pleasant—sunshine when we want sunshine, gentle rain when we need rain. We’d like our lives to be like that—generally pleasant overall, no major disturbances or disruptions.

We even can get confused and think when life is smooth and easy, it proves God is with us. We think if we are doing the right things, God will reward us and make material blessings flow in our direction. There’s a name for that kind of thinking. It’s called having a theology of glory. The idea is that if we are right with God, then our lives will display wonderful, visible success.

Try applying that sort of theology to a man like Job. This Sunday’s scriptures included a reading from the end of the story of Job. Job was a man who had vast wealth and a large family. In his day—perhaps as early or earlier than the time of Abraham—Job was said to be “the greatest of all the people of the east” (Job 1:3). Not only that, Job was a man of faith, attested by the LORD himself to be “blameless and upright” and God-fearing to a degree greater than any other person on earth (Job 1:1,8). Then God let the devil have his way with Job. Job’s possessions were decimated. His seven sons and three daughters all were killed. His own health was exchanged for lingering, painful illness. All that turmoil is told in just the first two chapters of Job’s book. Then for 35 chapters, we listen to Job and his friends meditate on the misery. His friends first said nothing. For seven days they sat and stared at the ground. Finally, Job spoke out in complaint. He cried out in pain. His friends then offered some advice, much of which added insult to injury. Most of what they said was theology of glory in reverse. Essentially, they said, “Job, to be suffering like you are, you must be guilty of some heinous crime or dreadful offense against God.” But that wasn’t true. There was no one more devoted to God than Job was. As patriarch of his family, he regularly offered sacrifices on behalf of his children. He honored God and shunned evil. Yet the very God whom he so revered allowed him to be engulfed by tragedy. Where was the glory in that? Where was there any hint of reward for good behavior? God took the finest example of a believing person that could be found, and let him become an example of pain and horror and loss.

And Satan was involved too. That dragon was eager to sink his claws into Job. Always looking for souls to devour (1 Peter 5:8), the devil goes after every child of God, the weak and the strong, intent on destroying the faith of any that he can. And God suffers all of his believers to endure such temptations. The LORD does not want us to become secure in ourselves, thinking we’re immune to sin’s dangers or safe from sin’s fallout—the tumult and storms that characterize life in this world. The LORD wants each of us ever more deeply, ever more personally, ever more intimately to grasp onto him in faith, trusting him as our Rescuer.

What God showed in the life of Job, he is equally ready to demonstrate in his dealings with you. He says to you what he said to his people of old: “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you” (Isaiah 43:1-2).

Notice what the LORD is saying. He does not promise that you will avoid all hurt and trouble. He does not say you will escape the floodwaters or that you won’t face danger or fire. Sometimes, in fact—as the Lord did in the case of Job—he will push you into the fire or plunge you deep underwater, letting this world’s troubles have their way with you. But God never abandons you. He always hangs onto you. He says, “Do not fear, for I am with you” (Isaiah 43:5). Being in precarious situations reminds you how much you need God’s strength, so that you wrap your arms of faith around him as tight as a child would cling to their parent during a thunderstorm. It’s like the apostle Paul (another great man of God) said about the life he and his ministry colleagues lived. They were servants of God, deeply devoted to doing God’s work, yet they endured “afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger.” Through it all, they kept demonstrating “purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love, truthful speech, and the power of God” (2 Corinthians 6:4-7). Paul told those who were led to Christ that It is through many hardships, “many persecutions that we must enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22). If the apostle Paul endured such hardships, if a righteous man such as Job endured such hardships, you and I also can expect to endure hardships as we walk in faith in this world.

The experience of Jesus’ disciples illustrates the same truth for us. They had Jesus right there with them in their boat as they crossed Lake Kinneret (commonly called the Sea of Galilee). But that didn’t mean they were immune to the meteorological events of that region. Violent storms can happen there, especially when the winds whip down from the high hills on the eastern shore. Most recently, such a storm in 2022 saw sustained winds of 50 mph with gusts up to 87 mph, causing around $50 million in damage to property and infrastructure in the city of Tiberias and other areas along sea’s shore. (Cf. Israel Today, May 17, 2022). When a great windstorm like that arose for the disciples of Jesus centuries ago, they panicked. They couldn’t believe Jesus was sleeping through it, lounging on a cushion in the back of the boat. They woke him up, yelling, “Teacher, don’t you care that we’re about to drown” (Mark 4:38 CEV)?

As disciples of Jesus, we are a lot like those first disciples. We like to think life with Jesus should be a peaceful, pleasant ride. We don’t want anything to rock the boat or cause problems for us. We have that theology of glory mindset in us. We think if Jesus is with us, then everything in our lives should be good and glorious and successful. We are dismayed when storms arise. We feel God has fallen asleep and doesn’t care about us. We start screaming at God (like Job screamed at God), “Where are you now? Why is this happening? What did I do to deserve this?” [As if our efforts are merit badges with God, and he owes us rewards for good behavior.] Then, through the storm, out of the whirlwind, we can hear what God would say to us (as he said to Job): “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge” (Job 38:2)? We question why God has let things get out of control when, of course, God always has all things under his control. He is the one who “laid the foundation of the earth” (Job 38:4). He is the one who says to the lakes and seas and oceans, “Here is where your proud waves shall be stopped’ (Job 38:11).

When the whirlwind hit the boats out on the Sea of Galilee, Jesus calmly got up, “rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, ‘Peace! Be still!’ Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm” (Mark 4:39). And Jesus said to his terrified disciples, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith” (Mark 4:40)? By this time in their journey with Jesus, the disciples had already seen him turn water into wine, cause their fishing nets to burst with an incredible number of fish, cast a demon out of a man, heal person after person of diseases and ailments. They had even seen him raise a young man, a widow’s only son, back to life after he had died. Still, Jesus had to remind them that he is indeed the Lord of all, “that even the wind and the sea obey him” (Mark 4:41). “O ye of little faith!” Jesus could say to all of us (Matthew 8:26 KJV). We all struggle to maintain trust and hope when storms come, when the circumstances of our lives suddenly are not pleasant and peaceful, or when our journey is one of chronic pain and hurt. We wonder where God is when life is a struggle.

Remember, though, that Jesus told us, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33 NIV). Satan will tempt you. Troubles will taunt you. But “God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it” (1 Corinthians 10:13). Through it all, come what may, look ahead to the final way out that God promises. We share the same hope Job expressed, saying: “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that at the last he will stand upon the earth, and … then in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see on my side” (Job 19:25-27). With God on our side, no matter how scary the storms, we always have hope.

There came a time in Jesus’ ministry when many of those following him turned back and no longer went along with him (John 6:66). They had been in it for the good things, for miracles that filled baskets upon baskets with bread and fish. They looked for Jesus to make their lives content and comfortable. When Jesus told them that wasn’t what life with him was about, they walked away. Jesus then asked his core group, the twelve whom he was training to be his apostles, “‘Do you also wish to go away?’ Simon Peter answered him, ‘Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God’” (John 6:67-69). Let that be our attitude also. Life isn’t all sunshine and clear skies. Storms will come. Unrest will upend our lives often. But we have a source of refuge. We have a place of safety. We have Jesus, the Holy One of God, who promises to be with us—”always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). We will hang on, we will keep going, we will get to the other side, trusting in him.

Jan

2024

Epiphany message: A starry beacon up there for the rocky road down here

As with gladness men of old
did the guiding star behold;
as with joy they hailed its light,
leading onward, beaming bright;
so, most gracious God, may we
evermore be led to Thee.

Hymn lyric by William Chatterton Dix,
written January 6, 1859

The festival of Epiphany (January 6th) “recalls the visit of three Magi, or wise men, to the infant Jesus, and their sense of wonder at the encounter. It is the 12th day after Christmas and closes the Christmas season” (PBS.org).

As this day of Epiphany was approaching, my mind went back to the thoughts and cadences of an Epiphany sermon preached last year by Pastor Gerhardt Miller. I prepared the following abridged version of that message, which Gerhardt graciously has approved for sharing with you here on The Electric Gospel.

A starry beacon up there for the rocky road down here

by Gerhardt Miller

At Epiphany, we remember and ponder the journey of the Magi, “wise men from the East” who “came to Jerusalem, asking, ‘Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage’” (Matthew 2:1-2).

The wise men—whatever their number, two or three or twenty or thirty—did not find their way to the baby Jesus by accident. The wise men, wherever their hometown, were on a mission, and they completed that mission with diligence and faith. They depended on God’s grace. We too realize that anything we accomplish is accomplished with God’s grace. Make no mistake, these Magi did not stumble by accident through the front door of the private home of the Infant Jesus. That the wise men were brought to the humble threshold of Mary and Joseph and the child Jesus was because God had blessed them with more than education and insight and privilege. God also blessed them with faithful perseverance, matching the challenge of finding this precious child called Jesus. These figures we call the wise men, I suppose they were privileged. These wise men were blessed with an education. They were scholars. They studied astronomy and astrology. They knew the heavens and the stars and the planets. Their learning included more than what was above their heads. It also included what was written and reported at their fingertips. These learned souls were students of ancient literature as well. Their education would have included discourses on the forces of good and the forces of evil.

These wise men had learned Scripture and were committed to finding the Christchild. Wherever they had learned Scripture and astronomy and theology, they had to reapply that learning to a journey over real roads with real hardships and hazards. Think of it, these Magi left what was familiar and safe. They ventured into the unfamiliar and the strange—willingly, even eagerly. They left the comforts of home, endeavoring into the discomforts of the rocky road at best and the unmarked, roadless wilderness at worst. They threw themselves into the perils of becoming foreigners, when they could have just stayed put in the comforts of their own ivory towers.They left all of that behind to seek Jesus.

Let us praise the wise men for their persistence. Persistence requires faith. We do not persist if our doubts are greater than our faith. The wise men had faith in the promise they had heard. The most glorious evidence that God is love is found in the flesh and blood of a small child. The wise men wanted to see, and to bow in worship. When they left home, the wise men did not know the address or longitude or latitude of their destination. When they set out, they did not know how many miles they would travel. When they packed their bags they did not know who or what they would encounter in their quest to find this new king. When they left home, all they knew was that they were following a sign to wherever and whomever it would lead them. Let us praise these wise men for their willingness to go the distance. They went the distance in all of its mess and muck to discover God. They went the distance with all of its heat and cold and wetness and dryness. They went the distance with all of its uncertainty and pitfalls and sorrow. But in taking that journey, these wise men had a starry beacon to lead them, to show them the way.

Sometimes we need a beacon to shine—to know which way to go and have a safe road. We think of these figures having a starry beacon to show them the way when the way was clear. But the leading star above them did not remove them from the dirt and sand and danger around them. The star up there guided them, but they still had to go through the difficult road below. The starry beacon up there fortified them for the challenges ahead of them. When we are inspired, we are fortified. And the wise men were inspired.

How has inspiration given you strength in your journey? The Lord gives us strength and inspiration through Scripture and also through the people and happenings around us. God gives us strength to do the things that are difficult for us to do. When we are inspired, we are fortified. Sometimes our roads are rocky, and we need a star. Sometimes our days are dark and we cannot see a star. But we remember learning about a light and even seeing the light … and the sheer memory of God’s light gets us to put one fearful foot in front of the other fearful foot, to get us through the scary dark into the loving light.

For those wise men, when the road was rocky, they could see the star. When there was no road to follow, they could see the star. When the way was rough and steep and strange and frightening, they could see the star. When they encountered fearful circumstances around them and experienced doubt within themselves, they could see the star. When they were tired and cold and hungry and thirsty, they could see the star. As long as they could see the star, they could keep on going.

Have you ever wanted to just give up? We want to match the determination of these wise men, these learned souls. When the star was not seen by them, it was remembered by them—and in its being remembered, it shone on. The light in their memory could keep them going. Whatever the mess around these wise men, whatever the difficulty challenging them, they could see the star or look for the star or just remember the star. So, they could keep on going.

When we are inspired we are fortified: the starry beacon up there for the rocky road down here.

May our inspiration in our quest to discover truth and beauty—to discover God in God’s countless forms—be the Christchild, Jesus. May our beacon be Jesus’ love, for Jesus’ love and grace and understanding give us strength to carry on. Not only that, but Christ gives us the guidance to know where to go. May the name of Jesus be our beacon in our quest to discover God in our commonplace lives (that are not so commonplace in the end). Despite their high position and all their finery, the Magi had to work to find Jesus. Like the wise men, sometimes we have to work to find Jesus. Like the wise men, we have to work to see a small sliver of light to carry us over rocky roads and through the wilderness. Like the wise men, may we find strength in our purpose, so we can navigate life’s difficult roads. May our eyes be opened to see heavenly beauty when we feel bogged down on the rocky roads here below.

Prayer: Lord, have mercy for each and every one of us, especially for the times we have failed to see how you are with us in our lives. Teach us, so that we may understand and know that you are living and loving and with us, almighty God. Shine your beacon of light on us, to strengthen us for the roads we walk, trusting in Jesus. Amen.

Dec

2023

The Sun of Righteousness is Rising

An Advent Promise—and Warning

Bible text for this devotion: Malachi 4:1-6

The Sun of Righteousness is Rising

by David Sellnow

In 1969, John Fogerty of Creedence Clearwater Revival (CCR) wrote a song called Bad Moon Rising. “I see the bad moon arising, I see trouble on the way”—that was the opening lyric. The song had a very end-times theme. One stanza said:

I hear hurricanes a-blowin’
I know the end is comin’ soon
I fear rivers overflowin’
I hear the voice of rage and ruin.

Fogerty himself said the song is about “the apocalypse that was going to be visited upon us”—but at the same time wrote it with “a happy-sounding tune.” I thought of that song as I was reading the prophecy from Malachi. The prophet spoke of a time that is like a bad moon rising for many people, but like a glorious sunrise for others. “The sun of righteousness shall rise,” Malachi wrote (4:1), bringing healing, light, and warmth for those who revere God’s name. At the same time, it will burn the arrogant and evildoers.

If you had a Bible in your hand and opened it to find the book of Malachi, you’d get a good idea of what new horizon he had in mind. It is the New Testament—the coming of the day of Jesus Christ. The words of Malachi chapter 4 are the last words in the Old Testament. You flip the page and you’re in the New Testament. The first New Testament book, Matthew, begins with “an account of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah” (Matthew 1:1) and then explains how “the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place” (Matthew 1:18). That’s a 400-year flip as you flip that one page. Malachi’s writing was the last prophetic word from God for at least 400 years before Jesus Christ arrived on the scene. The next prophet from God would not come until immediately before Jesus. Then, an angel announced the birth of a child to be named John. Echoing the words of Malachi, the angel said, “He will turn many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. With the spirit and power of Elijah” he would “turn the hearts of parents to their children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord” (Luke 1:13-17). That child would become the preacher known to us as John the Baptist.

In the new day as prophesied by Malachi, and introduced by John the Baptist, “the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings” for all who revere the name of the Lord (Malachi 4:2). “Revere” is an attempt to translate the ancient Hebrew word יָרֵא (yah-ra), for which we have no one-word equivalent in English. It is to fear the name of the Lord, to stand in awe of him, to be amazed at him, respect him, trust him, rely on him, worship him. Those who revere God, who know his saving name and his saving deeds, anticipate his arrival with hope. When the Lord enters our world, his coming is an answer to prayers, a day of salvation. He brings righteousness as a gift, forgiving our sins and supplying us with goodness. The day of the Lord is like bright and warm sunshine, bringing a fresh new morning. Think of the warmth and joy we feel when we celebrate Christmas: Jesus came to be our righteousness, to bring us peace with God. This dawning of the new, bright sunshiny day in Christ is the kind of thing that makes you go out and leap like young calves released from the stall, as Malachi described it (4:2). You jump for joy. You bask in the sunlight. Your spirit rejoices in God your Savior (cf. Luke 1:47). Sin and death and all that opposes the way of grace and faith in Christ “will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day when I act, says the Lord of hosts” (Malachi 4:3). God promises that all the evil which troubles us is overcome by the coming of the Christ. Both when Jesus came to this world the first time, and when he comes again, the triumph of life that is in him is made evident.

Having said that, it also must be said that the day of the Lord does not make everyone happy. Many do not revere God‘s name and do not welcome him. Their hopes are in themselves, not in the Lord. Some think they are perfectly healthy without God and feel no need for spiritual healing. Some have usurped religious authority for themselves and imposed rules that “lock people out of the kingdom of heaven” because they get wrapped up in legalisms and neglect “justice and mercy and faith” (Matthew 23:13,23). Those attitudes the Lord calls arrogance. There also are persons who do immoral deeds in darkness. They don’t want any sunlight exposing their shame. The things they do are things God calls evil. According to Malachi, for the arrogant and the evildoers, the shining of God‘s light is like scorching desert heat that burns. God’s announcement of a rising sun of righteousness is like a bad moon rising for them. The same righteousness of God that provides a refuge for those who trust in him is a burning scourge on those who trust their own righteousness or try to hide their own guilt. God’s blazing glory turns to dust everything that is not cleansed by forgiveness through faith. “All the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble,” Malachi warned (4:1).

So we see that the day of the Lord is a great joy for those who put their trust in the Lord by faith. It is a dreadful day for those who do not, whose hearts fight against God. We might well bear in mind that either of those descriptions may describe each of us at times. We are not always faithful. We have the same human tendencies as all human beings, wanting the opposite of what the Lord wants for us, thinking we know better than him. Malachi spoke to our consciences. “Remember the teaching of my servant Moses,” he said (Malachi 4:4). No one who keeps in mind God‘s laws to Moses can pretend they are righteous on their own or hide the fact that they sin. What does the law of Moses say? “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might” (Deuteronomy 6:5) “Walk in all his ways” (Deuteronomy 10:12). “Have no other gods” (Exodus 20:3)—nothing that comes ahead of the Lord in your life. Be holy. Do not steal. Do not lie. Do not deceive one another. Do not pervert justice. Judge your neighbor fairly. Do not go about spreading slander. Do not hate your brother in your heart. Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge. Love your neighbor as yourself (Leviticus, chapter 19). Just listening to those laws is painful, because we know we fall far short of godly ideals. We are not righteous. We are sinful. Malachi’s warning keeps us from getting too puffed up about ourselves.

So did the warnings of the prophet who came after Malachi, a voice like that of Elijah of old. John the Baptist was like a second Elijah, speaking for God. He declared: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near” (Matthew 3:2). John the Baptist scolded those who were proud of themselves and their heritage, but were arrogant and lacked the humility of faith. “Do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor,’” John told them. “For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham” (Luke 3:8). Being descendants of a religious forefather was not a ticket into heaven for them. Without faith in the Messiah themselves, they were destined to be cut down and thrown into the fire (Luke 3:9). That was John’s message to the arrogant and evildoers.

Strong prophetic warnings always aimed at shaking people out of their self-righteousness and sinfulness and turning their hearts back to the Lord. While the ministry of God’s prophets shouted out warnings, they also soothed with promises. Malachi told of healing sunshine, rays of hope for people who trusted in God. And John “proclaimed the good news to the people” (Luke 3:18). He pointed to Jesus and said, “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). John’s ministry turned the hearts of parents to their children and the hearts of children to their parents, keeping individuals and families focused on faith and hope and love (cf. Malachi 4:6). The curse of the law would be removed by the Messiah, Jesus (cf. Galatians 3:13-14). The sunshine of God’s love, the gift of his goodness, have come to us in the person of Jesus Christ.

We are living in the Day of the Lord, my friends. His presence never departs from us. It is AD 2023. We refer to our years as AD: Anno Domini—in the year of the Lord. The ancients who set up our calendar declared every year from the time of Christ’s arrival to be “The year of our Lord.” The Lord has come. The Lord will come again. Blessed be the name of the Lord, and blessed are all those who continue to put their trust in him. Let us continue to put our trust in him, and so be ready for the day he comes again.

Christmas gift idea: Sermons on Selected Psalms, available at Amazon.com:

Sermons on Selected Psalms: Sellnow, David: 9798402872462: Amazon.com: Books

Oct

2023

The Lord keeps me safe

This post is an abridged version of a story from the book, The Lord Cares for Me, available through Amazon publishing. The stories in the book illustrate truths from Psalm 23. I’ve set the Kindle version of the book to be available for free this week (M-F, Oct 16-20). You can download a Kindle app to your computer if you don’t have a Kindle e-reader. There are also Kindle apps you can load on your phone. Paperback editions may be purchased if preferred. If you do get a copy of the book, reviews posted on the Amazon website will be appreciated.

I have a couple other books available on Amazon also:

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Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid. You are with me. Your shepherd’s rod and staff comfort me (Psalm 23:4 NIrV).

The story of Tom and Tina

by David Sellnow

Tina and Tom and their children—Haley (age 5), Rose (3), and Zack (not quite a year old)—had made a trip to Seattle, many miles from their home in southern Colorado. They’d attended a wedding of some friends and planned sightseeing on the way. On their road trip to the northwest, they camped in Sawtooth National Forest in Idaho. On the way home, they traveled south down the Pacific coastline, camping overnight at a beautiful state park in Oregon. Tom had mapped everything out in advance. There was an east-west highway across central Oregon that they could take to reconnect to the interstate and head home.

The first part of the journey eastward was challenging. The road wound up into the mountains at a steep angle. There were twists and turns, and thick trees lined both sides of the road. Whenever they drove with the kids in the vehicle, Tina tended to be nervous. She was a worrier. The narrow lanes of this road and the inability to see past each tight turn only added to her tension.

Then things got worse–a long section of road construction. The lanes got even narrower, the traffic more congested. Inside herself, Tina’s emotions were boiling. The fun they’d enjoyed on the Oregon coast wasn’t worth the stress added by taking this way home. She wanted to yell at Tom for planning a bad route … but held her tongue in front of the kids. Tom was feeling the stress too, partly because he could tell how much the tension was eating at his wife.

They were relieved when they descended the eastern ridge of the mountains and came out to a city in the flatness of the valley below. They stopped for gas, got the kids some drinks and snacks, then continued on their way. Tina took her turn behind the wheel. She was less stressed when she was driving. She felt like she had at least some control that way.

Free public domain CC0 photo, Rawpixel.com

Tina’s feeling of control faded before long. East of the mountains, Oregon seemed like a barren wasteland. There were no cattle or farms. There were no towns, no signs of anyone living on the land. For a half hour of driving, they hadn’t even seen another car on the road, in either direction.

“What happens if we run out of gas out here?” Tina blurted out when she couldn’t hold back her worries anymore.

“We have plenty of gas,” Tom assured her. “We filled up the tank less than an hour ago.”

“But there’s nothing out here!” Tina said, almost screaming. The fact that the children were in the back seat wasn’t enough to restrain her anymore.

“Check your cell phone,” she said to Tom. “Can you get a signal?”

Tom looked at his phone. There was no signal.

“See, we could die out here!” Tina moaned, her fears overwhelming her.

Hayley spoke up from the back seat. “Mommy, God knows where we are even if the cell phone doesn’t work.”

Tina tried to show calm on the outside, but inside her mind, her worries would not be quiet. She drove for another half hour, still encountering no other cars on the road. Tina began to notice the temperature gauge on the dashboard was rising above its normal range. “Tom, the engine is getting hotter. What happens if the engine overheats?” There was a tone of panic in Tina’s voice.

“Let’s pull over,” Tom suggested. “Let the engine cool a little.”

It was hot outside. Zack wouldn’t stop crying. Tina tried to hold him and soothe him, but soon she was crying uncontrollably too. Hayley and Rose were scared–mostly because Mom was so scared. Tom tried to calm everyone down. “Let’s all say a prayer,” he said, and asked God to guard them with his angels.

Tom drove when they resumed traveling, taking it slow. Before long, in the rearview mirror, he saw a car approaching. Tom slowed further and turned on his flashers. As the car came closer, Tom realized it was a state trooper. Normally Tom didn’t like seeing the lights of a patrol car in his rearview mirror. Most times it meant he was in trouble for speeding or breaking some traffic law. Today, Tom breathed a sigh of relief, comforted by the presence of the state trooper. They weren’t alone on the road.

“How can I help you folks?” the officer said when he walked up alongside the van.

“You’ve helped us already, just by being here!” Tina said.

Tom explained the situation. The trooper said he’d follow behind them to make sure they made it to the next town, which was about 20 miles ahead. The family’s trip home was delayed by half a day while a mechanic in town fixed their engine problem. But they made it home safe, and that was what mattered.

As Tina tucked the children into bed at home, one by one, Rose said, “Mommy … the policeman who stopped to help us … was he an angel?”

“Well, he was an answer to our prayers, that’s for sure!” Tina took Rose’s hands in hers to say a prayer of thanks to God for watching over them on their journey.

The moral of the story:

Too often, we think of God watching us like a state trooper with a radar gun, ready to arrest us when we break commandments. When life’s road is long and lonely and we realize how vulnerable we are, knowing that God’s authority surrounds us relieves our fears. As the psalm writer confessed, “Your shepherd’s rod and staff comfort me” (Psalm 23:4).

What if the story of Tom and Tina’s family had ended differently? What if their car did break down on the barren road and no one came to help them? What about our own lives when problems pile up and there seems to be no relief? Does that mean God has deserted us? No, the Lord is always shepherding us, even when we are walking through the darkest corners of life … and death. He’s not just our God for solutions to problems while we’re on this earth. His ultimate purpose is to lead us to an eternity with him. One of the teachers Jesus gave to the church said, “I push hard toward what is ahead of me. I move on toward the goal to win the prize … the heavenly prize” in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:13-14). No matter what dangers we face, no matter how dark or scary the journey gets, we can say, “I will not be afraid. Lord, you are with me” (Psalm 23:4).

Jun

2023

Faith follows God, overcoming fear

A lesson from Abram & Sarai

Faith follows God, overcoming fear

by David Sellnow

Bible selection to read: Genesis 12:1-9

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We live in a mobile society. People change jobs and places of residence rather frequently. A statistic based on US census data shows the average American moves 11 or more times in their life. Another statistic shows the average American changes jobs about 12 times.

Moving is expensive and challenging, but nowadays there are ample resources to aid you. You can obtain guidebooks and checklists to pilot you through the process. You can rent trailers and trucks and equipment to move yourself. Or you can go with major van lines that will do the moving for you—even the packing and unpacking if you want to pay the fees for it. When you hit the road, you’ve got navigational tools—printed maps, mapping websites, GPS on your phone. You have major roads and interstates on which to travel. Rest stops, convenience stores, and restaurants ease your journey. When you arrive at your new location, local stores and home delivery services will help set you up in your new environment. Moving has challenges, but moving is quite doable in the modern world.

When a man named Abram had to move, not in 2023, but more like 2023 BC (or thereabouts), things weren’t quite so easy. U-Haul® back then meant strapping your belongings onto your camels—if you were affluent enough to have camels. Road maps weren’t written on paper, let alone on computer or GPS. You had to feel the wind and follow the stars. Roads themselves weren’t four-lane concrete with divided lines. If you were fortunate, maybe you could see signs that someone had traveled that way ahead of you. There were no hotels or motels with pools and hot tubs to relieve travelers’ weary bones. You considered yourself blessed if you found a pond of water.

When Abram moved so many years ago, it was a monumental task compared to what we think of as moving today. And yet, the 400+ miles on foot wasn’t the biggest challenge, nor was the lack of modern travel advantages. Most fearful for Abram was that he had no clear idea of where he would end up. He was heading into an open-ended future, with nothing but a promise from the LORD God to sustain him. The promise did not include specifics and came from a God different from those his family had known. Yet Abram and his wife, Sarai, followed the LORD, overcoming their fears, trusting his promise.

Think of what God asked Abram to do. Abram was 75 years old. He’d lived in community with his relatives all of his life. He and his wife Sarai had moved once before, but the family group had moved together. They went from Ur (near the Persian Gulf) to Haran (in what is today eastern Turkey), with Abram’s father Terah as patriarch of the family. Now the LORD God had said to Abram: “Go from your country, your people, and your father’s household to the land I will show you” (Genesis 12:1 NIV). That was a big ask! We are not even sure how religious a man Abram was at the time God first called him. We know that his father Terah worshiped gods other than the LORD God who revealed himself to Abram (cf. Joshua 24:2). Now the LORD was commanding Abram to leave his father and others behind, strike out on his own, and go to a land as yet unnamed. Then, when Abram did what God asked and went to the new land, the region of Canaan, he found others were already inhabiting it. Imagine if you were told to up and move to a new home, and when you arrived found somebody else in the house who had no intention of leaving. For Abram, following God’s plan required very great faith.

That was all right, because God gave Abram great faith. God’s promise allowed Abram to face the road ahead and overcome fear. God’s promise to Abram is so beautiful it rings out like poetry. “I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12:2-3).

Abram didn’t have hotel reservations when he left Haran. He had no lease papers for an apartment and certainly had not closed a deal on a house in the new destination. As a matter of fact, all through his life Abram would live in tents in Canaan. He had camels and herds, but the only piece of real estate he ever owned was a burial plot he later bought from the Hittites (Genesis 23). Yet in reality, Abram had something much more solid than any stone foundation under a house. He had the rock-solid promise of God. The culmination of that promise was that all peoples on earth would be blessed through Abram and his offspring, particularly through one descendant who would be the world’s Messiah. We now know that Messiah as Jesus Christ. The magnitude of God’s promise enabled Abram to follow God in faith, even if all the specifics weren’t laid out for him. Thus, when Abram arrived in the promised land and found other people already living there, he did not need to worry. The Lord assured him again: “To your offspring I will give this land” (Genesis 12:7). So, rather than fretting and worrying, Abram built altars to the LORD and worshiped him (Genesis 12:7,8).

You and I are the children of Abraham. (The LORD extended Abram’s name to Abraham, meaning “the father of many.”) Scripture calls us children of the promise given to Abraham (Galatians 4:28). All believers in the LORD, the Savior, are united by faith in the God of such great promises (cf. Galatians 3:7). We have seen what Abraham never got a chance to see—every one of the promises made to him was fulfilled. His descendants did inherit the land. His family became a prominent nation. His ancestry provided the human line for Jesus the Savior—the one through whom all peoples on earth have been blessed. Abram’s worship, his following God in faith, was not in vain. Neither is our faith in vain.

When the LORD calls us to follow him, what he asks of us is formidable. We are to love the LORD our God, with all our heart, and all our soul, and all our mind, and all our strength (Mark 12:30). We are to follow him completely, in any direction he may ask us to go. Sometimes that can be overwhelming. For instance, when a moving truck shows up in front of your residence because you need to change your occupation, change location, start over again with a new direction in life. Or the path you walk may be one you must walk haltingly, hobbling along, because a disease or accident has wracked your body or crippled your legs. Or the road God asks you to go may be lonely because it is a spiritually committed direction Instead of the easier worldly choices of those around you. Following in faith, walking after God, may mean you’re passed over for promotions or career improvements because you’re not as cutthroat in business as others, and they get ahead more than you. The journey through this world may find you laying your wife or husband or child or parent in a grave.

The story of our lives is full of upheavals and challenges, bends in the road, temptations and pressures. We are left wondering what comes next. Often we are afraid—very afraid. That’s normal for us. Our dear Lord knows we struggle with fear as we go through life and strive to follow him. Think of how many times Jesus reassured his disciples, saying, “Fear not!” and reminding them of his promises. And that was when they had him physically present with them. How much more we will be prone to fear when we face storms and changing winds in our lives, without seeing Jesus right there in the boat with us!

Actually, he is always in the boat with us—something we can’t see with our physical eyes, but do see with eyes of faith. Our Lord does not ask anything of us for which he does not also empower us. Allow me to remind you of some of Scripture’s promises, which enable us to keep going through life’s many moves and misdirections.

God says, “I am with you and will keep you wherever you go. … I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you” (Genesis 28:15).
“After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, support, strengthen, and establish you” (1 Peter 5:10).
“God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing, he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it” (1 Corinthians 10:13).
“Be strong and courageous; do not be frightened or dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go” (Joshua 1:9).
“Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying: this is the way, walk in it” (Isaiah 30:21 NIV). “I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my victorious right hand” (Isaiah 41:10). “Even to your old age and gray hairs. I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you. I will sustain you and I will rescue you” (Isaiah 46:4).

Those are promises that God gives to you as his people. And those are just some of his promises. Walking through life, following God, would be a pathway filled with fear—except for God’s promises. His promises embolden us. By the promises of God, we walk in faith, overcoming fear, for the LORD is with us. He is protecting and saving us every step we take, anywhere we go. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is still our God; the Lord Almighty is our refuge (cf. Psalm 46). As he did for Abram, the LORD our Savior will lead us also—onward through our lives on this earth, and, ultimately, into the promised land of “many mansions” that he has in store for us beyond (cf. John 14:2 KJV).

Zechariah’s words for today

A parent who does not forget us; a shepherd who walks beside us always

Thoughts on Mother’s Day / Good Shepherd Sunday

God works in mysterious ways – leading us to his grace

Thoughts in remembrance of 9/11

Responding to evil and trouble in this world

A meditation concerning Psalm 34

God is with us through the storms

An Advent Promise—and Warning

The Sun of Righteousness is Rising

The story of Tom and Tina

The moral of the story:

A lesson from Abram & Sarai

Faith follows God, overcoming fear

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