Happy Friday,
Far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul, Galatians 6:14
In his polemic against works cited above – i.e., his letter to the Galatians – the Apostle Paul explains that our hope must never rest in something we engineer – e.g., a job, our 401k, etc. It must rest in Christ. Jesus says as much in the Sermon on the Mount. Those who are blessed are “poor in spirit” – i.e., they own their spiritual bankruptcy and glory only in Christ. Pay attention to your thoughts, comments and actions today. Where does your confidence rest? What – or who – do you glory in? What are you most proud of?
Kudos to Ben: Thanks to Ben Dockery, who did a great job with last week’s Update. You will read him again.
Israel: I used to tell those who’ve not been to Israel that: it’s smaller, safer, more political and more spiritually helpful than they might imagine. After this last trip, I’m adding: 1) It’s becoming commercial. (The number of vendors selling “My parents went to the Holy Land but all I got was this t-shirt” has spiked in the last few years.); 2) It’s more vibrant than you can imagine. (Israel was recently ranked the 9th best place to live in the world.); and 3) It’s more physically challenging to navigate than you might expect. (Not only is there so much to see that “you do not walk where Jesus walked, you run,” but some of those who built the ancient sites – e.g., the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the city of Old Jerusalem or the theater in Caesarea – did not bother to comply with 21stcentury ADA requirements.) If Israel is on your bucket list, go sooner rather than later.
Speaking of Israel: Our trip was much more of a spiritual-pilgrimage than a political-fact-finding trip, but because things are so political, I brought in three Israelis to talk with us about the political situation: Dr. Yohana Katanacho – a Palestinian Israeli who teaches at the Nazarene Bible College; Dr. Salim Munayer, a Palestinian Israeli who has been engaged in Christian reconciliation for thirty years, and Gil Hoffman, an observant Jew who is the political editor for The Jerusalem Post. My interviews with these three will be released as podcasts in upcoming weeks. (Note: I earlier posted my interview with an American Messianic Jew that included a few political questions.) Be assured, there is something in these interviews to offend just about everyone.
Loved the Question: A married twenty-something recently asked me for a “list of books I should read to prepare for my thirties.” May his tribe increase! We all should take five minutes to identify the challenges we will face in ten years so we can start to prepare. BTW, because the young man is a father of young children, the first book I recommended was The Tech Wise Family by Andy Crouch.
Why Pray?: I am occasionally asked, “If God already knows everything, why should I pray?” There are at least three reasons: 1) Prayer is one of the best ways to cultivate intimacy with God; 2) In prayer, God calms and transforms our heart; and 3) Jesus instructs us to pray.
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Hypocrisy: I remain frustrated that: 1) Some on the left do not preach what they practice – i.e., they live traditional lives while promising others that progressive lives work; 2) Some (many?) on the right do not practice what they preach; and 3) Both are hypocritical about the hypocrisy of the other side. I find it all very exhausting and wish more people would be humble, thoughtful and less hypocritical, like me.
Marvel: Because rightly ordering of our awe helps us avoid idolatry, I’m passing along these pictures. Use them to expand your view of the God who spoke everything everywhere into existence.
Word of the Week: Had I posted last week, I would have chosen replacement theory, After Bucha or polyamorous weddings, but they all missed their window. This week’s WOTW is certitude cruelty. Perhaps it’s not obvious, but if we are certain we are following The One who told us to love our enemies, our certitude should expand our love not our cruelty.
Without Comment: 1) The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives reports that the number of guns produced in the United States nearly tripled between 2000 to 2020; 2) After seven years of decline, the U.S. birth rate rose (by 1%) in 2021; 3) In the U.K. – where “church attendance is down and caring for aging buildings is costly” – 2,000 churches have closed in the last ten years; 4) Couples that are living together now comprise 7 percent of the total adult U.S. population.
Quotes Worth Requoting: “It has been often said — very truly — that religious faith is the thing that makes the ordinary man feel extraordinary. It is an equally important truth that religious faith is the thing that makes the extraordinary man feel ordinary.” Charles Dickens
The Psalms and ?: During a board meeting for ScholarLeaders two weeks ago, we Zoomed with the President of a seminary in Ukraine. Though I was overwhelmed trying to imagine the challenges he is facing – the school’s campus has been leveled by missiles; some of his faculty have been called to the front lines; the school is feeding and caring for thousands; he is using the seminary van to deliver the bodies of deceased Ukrainian soldiers; he must keep raising money to meet payroll for fifty employees; etc. – I was most impacted by three things: 1) The term “After Bucha,” which has emerged as a turning point in the way they are processing the war; 2) The comfort he takes in believing that “Jesus has a habit of showing up in places like this;” and 3) The comfort he reports finding in: “reading the Psalms, serving with friends and silence.”
Keep Serving: The events of the last week might have understandably discouraged you, but do not withdraw or give up. As Paul notes in Galatians 6, “We must not grow weary of doing good.”
Listen to the GREATEST sermon ever: Last week I read the Sermon on the Mount at the Mount of Beatitudes. This weekend we start a series on it. Let me suggest you click here to read or listen to the greatest speech ever given by the greatest man who ever lived.
Closing Prayer: Almighty God, give us grace that we may cast away the works of darkness, and put upon us the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he will come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the quick and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen. (The Book of Common Prayer)