TADB 132: Guard the Gospel (2)

In the previous blog, we looked at the need to guard the treasure (gospel) we have been given. We began to look at Paul’s example of guarding the gospel as he guarded it against additions.  We continue with Paul’s example as he guards it against subtractions and distortions.

  • Guarding against subtractions

Meanwhile, a Jew named Apollos, an eloquent speaker who knew the Scriptures well, had arrived in Ephesus from Alexandria in Egypt. He had been taught the way of the Lord, and he taught others about Jesus with an enthusiastic spirit and with accuracy. However, he knew only about John’s baptism (Acts 18:24-25 NLT).

Being eloquent does not make you right! Apollos had embraced and proclaimed a gospel with holes in it. He knew some things correctly and proclaimed them boldly, but he did not know all he needed to know to proclaim the authentic gospel. He was sincere but also sincerely mistaken. Luke then tells us that Priscilla and Aquila came to the rescue. 

And he began to speak out boldly in the synagogue. But when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately (Acts 18:26). 

Apollos, being teachable, took their instruction and changed his gospel presentation. From Luke’s record of his ministry in Achaia, we learn that “he greatly helped those who had believed through grace, for he powerfully refuted the Jews in public, demonstrating by the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ” (Acts 18:27-28).

When we reduce the gospel to a few points to accommodate an audience that is used to soundbites, we risk redacting it. Since the gospel of Jesus Christ is his narrative, how much of his story can we leave out and still have the gospel? Obviously, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John had different answers to that question. I think Mark, with the shortest gospel, would be shocked to hear that we can now share the gospel with one verse.

  • Guarding against distortions 

Paul’s Epistles were letters to young believers explaining and applying the gospel. Paul’s purpose was not to share the gospel in his letters but to draw out gospel implications and applications to life in Christ’s kingdom. In his first letter to the church at Corinth, he deals with several problem issues along with practical implications of the gospel message, such as correctly handling gifts of the Spirit and conducting worship in these new assemblies called churches. In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul deals with misperceptions surrounding the resurrection. We can be grateful for their confusion since it gives Paul a chance to enlighten us all about our resurrected bodies. However, the critical issue at stake is not just the future state of believers but the denial of the resurrection of Christ. Paul argues that denying the resurrection for believers distorts the gospel since it discounts Christ’s resurrection. If there is no believer resurrection, he argues, there is no Christ resurrection, resulting in a distorted, counterfeit gospel.

Now if Christ is preached, that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain. (1 Corinthians 15:12-14)

The early Church fought against many heresies that taught incorrect beliefs about the nature of God, specifically of Christ. To protect the gospel against these heresies, the Church convened what historians call the Seven Ecumenical Councils to hammer out the essential gospel message, including Christ’s claims of deity and humanity. Some heresies claimed that Christ was divine but not really human, and others claimed he was human but not actually divine. A quick search of what the early church faced turns up gospel distortions (heresies) called Ebionism, Docetism, Gnosticism, Monarchianism, Arianism, Apollinarianism, and Nestorianism. Whew! 

The first Council of Nicaea, convened by the emperor Constantine I in 325, created the Nicene Creed, the gold standard and the basis for what we now call the Apostles’ Creed. This Creed establishes the doctrine of the Trinity and gives a gospel outline that we can fill in with additional relevant content. We will look more at this Creed when we explore the gospel’s content in a later blog.

A more familiar “Monuments Man” is Martin Luther. Tormented by his guilt over sin, Luther struggled to find peace with God, even as a Catholic monk. After studying the Book of Romans, he discovered that the gospel offered salvation based on grace rather than performance. Initially, Luther did not intend to break from the Catholic Church or start a reformation, but he did want to clean up the gospel message. The Church didn’t initially start out to distort the gospel, but like barnacles on an ocean-going ship, the gospel attracts distortions that we must continually clean up.

Today, when we try to abridge or abbreviate the gospel, we can wind up redacting it, leaving out essential parts. This is easy to do, especially when communicating with a biblically illiterate audience. By leaving out vital chapters of the narrative, we present a distorted gospel, not an abbreviated one. For example, when we say, “All you need to know is that Christ died for your sins and rose again,” we are redacting, not abbreviating the gospel.

We all need to be Monuments Men guarding the treasure in our generation, protecting the gospel from casual additions, subtractions, or distortions. We must not let our culture and traditions determine the gospel we understand and proclaim. It is not an American or an evangelical gospel. It is the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and his kingdom regardless of the audience.

Later blogs will examine current additions, subtractions, and distortions (which I will refer to as gospel pathogens) that compromise the gospel and diminish its power.

TADB 131: Guard the Gospel (1)

As World War II raged, Hitler’s commanding generals began to steal art en masse. Hitler formed an outfit explicitly tasked with the systematic looting of art and cultural artifacts across Europe. The Parisian Museum, Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume, was designated as the central storage unit for all the treasures that the Nazis plundered. But the Nazis also hid their loot in salt mines across Germany and Austria.

Their stolen booty included works by master artists Rembrandt, Picasso, Matisse, Johannes Vermeer, Van Gogh, and countless others. The collection even included famous works like Michelangelo’s Madonna and Child sculpture. They were all pillaged from city museums, public galleries, and private collections.

General Eisenhower looking at recovered art treasure in a salt mine.

To protect cultural artifacts from the ravages of the war, the American government formed a special task force called the Monuments, Fine Arts & Archives Section (MFAA) of the Allied Expeditionary Forces.

Nicknamed the “Monuments Men,” the unit was responsible for protecting cultural relics like churches and museums, assessing damaged art inside demolished cities, and initiating restoration projects.

The Monuments Men were not trained soldiers. They were art curators, collectors, academics, and historians committed to protecting and recovering Europe’s artwork — several lost their lives in the process.1

The Apostle Paul was a Monuments Man! He protected and proclaimed the gospel treasure. Paul was concerned that, over time, the gospel would become distorted and compromised (defaced). In Paul’s letters, we find a constant theme of clarifying and defending the gospel. Knowing it would be a constant battle, he challenged Timothy to take up the same responsibility to guard this gospel treasure in his generation.

Guard, through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, the treasure which has been entrusted to you. (2 Timothy 1:14; also 1 Timothy 6:20).

As Paul guards the treasure, he reveals three ways we deface the gospel: additions, subtractions, and distortions. Let’s examine each one.

  1. Guarding against additions

Paul and Barnabus had just returned to Antioch from their first missionary journey, during which they had spread the gospel to Jews and Greeks. The gospel had taken root and believers were growing in their faith. But now, back in their sending church, they encounter a challenge to the gospel they had been proclaiming.   The issue was not so much the content as it was in the required response – which affected the content.

Believing Jews from Jerusalem had come to Antioch to add circumcision to their faith in the gospel. They claimed that without circumcision, a person could not be saved. Requiring circumcision added works to faith and merit to Christ’s righteousness.

In a typical Bible understatement, Luke says in Acts 15 that Paul and Barnabus

  • had no small dissension or disputation (KJV).
  • disagreed with them, arguing vehemently (NLT).
  • were up on their feet at once in fierce protest (MSG).
  • were livid (me).

To clarify and protect the gospel, a delegation of leaders from the Antioch church, including Paul and Barnabus, went to Jerusalem to consult with the apostles and elders. They had to clarify the essential gospel message in order to export it beyond Judaism and out to the nations (Acts 1:8). If the gospel was to cross cultural boundaries with a power, it needed to be free of religious traditions and cultural baggage.

When the Jerusalem leadership convened, Paul reported how the gospel they preached had the power to convert Gentiles and his version of the gospel did not include circumcision. Peter’s conclusion: “But we believe that we(the Jews) are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, in the same way as they (the Gentiles) also are” (Acts 15:11 ). Verdict:  Circumcision is not essential to the gospel, leave it out.

Armed with a letter from the Jerusalem leaders, the delegation returns to Antioch with clarity on the gospel, with no additions. But Paul did not let down his guard. He knew it would come up again and was looking for it. Sure enough, it did with the church in Galatia.

Jewish believers again attempted to add works of the Jewish law to the gospel. When a group from James in Jerusalem came to visit the church in Galatia, they, along with Peter, created a two-tier faith. The higher level was for those who added works of the law to their justification and the lower level was for those who just had faith. Paul was incensed. 

I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ (Gal 1:6-7).

Peter’s error clarified the gospel and gave us key verses like Galatians 2:20.

I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.

We, too, must guard against adding our ideas to what it means to embrace the gospel. Over time, we tend to add a little here and there until our cultural baggage compromises the historic gospel. 

A current example could be adding the phrase “Invite Jesus into your heart” as the response to the gospel. It is certainly not at the same level as adding circumcision, but an addition nonetheless. Nowhere in Scripture are we told to say that. It most likely came from an inaccurate understanding of Revelations 3:20, and it became ensconced by the classic painting by Holman Hunt (1853) of Jesus standing alongside a Gothic wooden door. This Light of the World painting was a common picture in hospitals, homes, and churches (we had one in my home growing up). Countless sermons used this picture to show how to respond to the gospel. As we will explore later, the gospel’s invitation is that we join him in his grand story, not that he joins our little story.

The following blog will look at guarding against subtractions and distortions.

1 For a fuller story, read this article in the Smithsonian Magazine (https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/true-story-monuments-men-180949569/)

TADB 130: The Gospel Begins with God (2)

In the previous blog, we looked at how the perception of God profoundly influences individual lives and societies. Our understanding often stems from unconscious influences rather than intentional thought. The gospel’s expansion, as recorded in Acts, illustrates how the early apostles adapted their message to varied audiences with differing views of God, emphasizing the necessity of accurately conveying God’s nature.

During the first centuries of kingdom expansion, it became evident that the nature of God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit (the Trinity) needed to be clarified. The results of this clarification come down to us in the form of creeds. While most of the early creeds focused on Jesus’s nature as both God and man, the early creeds began with a clear statement on the nature of God, implying that if we get it wrong about God the Father, we get the gospel wrong.

“I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible”(Nicene Creed).

The relevant question for us today is: What does our audience believe about God? Recently, our audience for the gospel has been mainly a mix of believers and “God-fearers” with a small percentage of “others.”  That is no longer true.

Pew Research Center studies have shown that the number of Americans who believe in God with absolute certainty has declined in recent years. Conversely, the number of those who have doubts about God’s existence—or do not believe in God at all—has grown. 

The American Worldview Inventory is an annual nationwide survey conducted by the Cultural Research Center. A current survey reveals that only 6% of U.S. adults have a biblical worldview – a way of thinking and behaving predominantly driven by accepting biblical truths, precepts, and commands (including a concept of God).  Worldview Inventory of 2020 showed that:

•     Americans are now more confident about the existence of Satan than they are of God!

•     Only half of the nation accepts the orthodox biblical view of God as one who created and controls the universe; is omnipotent, omniscient, without fault, and just in His decisions.

Project Director George Barna stressed the significance of these new findings. “It’s no wonder that more than nine out of ten Americans lack a biblical worldview given that peoples’ fundamental understanding of the nature and existence of God is flawed.”

These trends raise questions: When people say they don’t believe in God, what are they rejecting? Are they rejecting belief in any higher power or spiritual force in the universe? Or are they rejecting only a traditional Christian idea of God – perhaps recalling images of a bearded man in the sky? Conversely, when respondents say they believe in God, what do they believe in – God as described in the Bible or some other spiritual force or supreme being?

Our picture of God is the starting point for understanding the gospel. If we add the gospel of Jesus to a distorted picture of God, we will get a warped faith.  For example, if our God is a cosmic genie, then the gospel becomes a means of narcissism, not kingdom transfer and a new creation.

Sixty years ago, I learned to share the gospel using “The Bridge” illustration. I would begin by drawing two cliffs on paper, each one representing God and Man. Then, I would ask the person to describe their picture of God, and as they did, I would note it alongside God on the diagram. I would consistently get a description that God was the creator, holy, sovereign, and sometimes judge.  The answers usually fit the standard Catholic/Protestant view of God. What was most often left out, however, was love. This omission gave the opening to suggest that God also loved them personally and that Jesus was the story of God’s love.

Today, we have a different audience. The cultural picture of God is more often that he is loving but not the Creator who is holy, sovereign, and just. “God loves me; that is what he is supposed to do, right?”  The Worldview Inventory found that 71% of Americans “have no doubt God loves them unconditionally” (think Santa Claus).

With an increasingly biblically illiterate culture, we need to ask, “What picture of God is necessary before a person can understand the gospel?” We don’t need to present a course in Old Testament theology, but we do need a starting foundation.  How would you describe the God who is the source and author of the gospel?

Several attributes come to mind when I think through the Old Testament narrative. Each one impacts the gospel of Jesus and his kingdom.

  • There is one God (Deut. 6:4; Isa 46:9).
  • God is self-caused and has no beginning (Gen. 1:1).
  • God is the creator of the cosmos, both seen and unseen, nature and humanity (Gen. 1:1; Isa. 41:12; 45:18).
  • God is relational (Gen. 3:8+).
  • God is sovereign over all he has created, owner, Lord (Isa. 40:21-26).
  • God is holy, totally other than what he has created, morally pure, no evil in him (Isa. 6:1+; 46:5).
  • God is just and fair, the judge of righteousness (Isa. 61:8).
  • God is loving, kind, and compassionate (Psalm 136; Isa. 63:7-8).

In his book “What’s Gone Wrong with the Harvest,” Dr. James Engel popularized the idea that people are on a journey towards comprehending and responding to the gospel. He divided that journey into eight steps, from -8 to 0. At the -8 stage, people are discovering that there is a God and what he is like. Once a foundation of God is established, the gospel can be introduced and gradually understood until it is accepted.  Engel’s point is that people make a series of decisions along their journey to authentic faith, and it begins with their picture of God.

If God is the beginning of the gospel, one of the most important questions we can ask someone is, “What is your picture of God?” 

The gravest question before the Church is always God Himself.

(AW Tozer)

TADB 129: The Gospel begins with God (1)

What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.  The history of mankind will probably show that no people has ever risen above its religion, and man’s spiritual history will positively demonstrate that no religion has ever been greater than its idea of God.  …..   For this reason the gravest question before the Church is always God Himself, and the most portentous fact about any man or woman is not what he or she at a given time may say or do, but what he or she in their deep heart conceives God to be like.  We tend, by a secret law of the soul, to move toward our mental image of God.  (AW Tozer, “The Knowledge of the Holy”)

Each of us has a default picture (more likely a caricature) of God lodged in the cognitive unconscious that affects how we live. That picture was not developed by some rational, intentional process. Instead, it was unconsciously developed as the result of anecdotal evidence, experiences, and the influence of those we admire—parents as well as music stars. Regardless of the source, our view of God will be distorted if not corrected by biblical revelation.  The answer to the question, “What is God like?” plays a critical role in the expansion of the gospel of the risen king.

After the resurrection, Jesus told his disciples to wait until they received the Holy Spirit before launching his kingdom expansion. Then, they were to be his witnesses “both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth” (Acts 1:8). It was to be a systematic expansion from the center of Jerusalem out to the nations in an ever-expanding radius.

The gospel expansion was not just geographically outward but also outward toward people with a different worldview: a different view of God. In Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria, the people shared the same picture of God as the Yahweh of Hebrew Scripture. That would not be true in the “remotest part of the earth.”

Luke records the implementation of the Acts 1:8 strategy in the Book of Acts. It begins with Peter’s message at Pentecost in Jerusalem, where Jews were gathered from various far-reaching locations. Next, the Apostle Philip expands the Acts 1:8 strategy when he goes to towns in Samaria. Samaritans were part Jewish and believed in the Yahweh of Scripture but had some different cultural and cultic practices.

After Paul was converted (Acts 9), he went to Damascus, about 135 miles north of Jerusalem. His purpose was not to arrest Jewish followers of the Way but to proclaim in the synagogues that Jesus was the Son of God. Although the location was outside Israel’s borders, his audience was still Jewish. 

But Saul kept increasing in strength and confounding the Jews who lived at Damascus by proving that this Jesus is the Christ (Acts 9:22). 

The next expansion of the gospel comes when Peter connects with a centurion named Cornelius, a Roman Gentile living in the coastal town of Caesarea.  This is our first record of the gospel expansion into a non-Jewish culture.  Although Cornelius was a Gentile, we are told that he is “a devout man and one who feared God with all his household, and gave many alms to the Jewish people and prayed to God continually” (Acts 10:2).  He was called a God-fearer or a Jewish proselyte who worshipped Yahweh of Scripture but did not conform to all the Jewish practices.  God-fearers were commonly found in the synagogues throughout the diaspora.

Directed by an angel, Cornelius sent for Peter, but he didn’t know why. Upon Peter’s arrival, Cornelius explained, “I sent for you immediately, and you have been kind enough to come. Now then, we are all here present before God to hear all that you have been commanded by the Lord” (Acts 10:33).

Opening his mouth, Peter said: “I most certainly understand now that God is not one to show partiality, but in every nation, the man who fears Him and does what is right is welcome to Him. “The word which He sent to the sons of Israel, preaching peace through Jesus Christ (He is Lord of all) (Acts 10:34-36).

Peter immediately spoke about the gospel of Jesus Christ the Lord since Cornelius, a Jewish proselyte, shared the Jewish view of Yahweh. However, the further away from Jerusalem the disciples went, the less true that would be.

For example, when Paul went to Athens (Acts 17), he first started in the synagogue with the Jews and God-fearing Gentiles, but he did not remain there. He also went into the marketplace, where he talked to the Stoics, Epicureans, and anyone else interested:  Gentiles with various views of what God was like. 

The Stoics believed in God as the rational order found in nature, and living in harmony with this divine reason would lead to virtue and happiness.  In their understanding, God is not a personal deity but simply the organizing principle of the cosmos.  It is a form of pantheism.  The Epicureans believed the greatest good is to seek modest pleasures to gain a state of tranquility, freedom from fear, and absence from bodily pain. To Epicureans, the gods did exist, but they lived so far away from the affairs of Man that they didn’t interfere with humanity.

Paul’s message aroused the curiosity of people who like to discuss new ideas, so they invited Paul to the Areopagus to hear more. Now, talking to Gentiles without a Jewish concept of God, Paul focuses on their alter to the “Unknown God.”  He said, “What you worship, I proclaim.”  The unknown God is knowable. So, what is this “Unknown God” like?  In this case study, we find that Paul doesn’t begin with the story of Jesus but the story of Yahweh.

(Acts 17:23-31)

Therefore what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you. Therefore what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you.

Having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead (The proof of this Man’s credentials is that God raised him from the dead. God is even sovereign over death.)

The God who made the world and all things in it (Creator of the cosmos, distinct from the cosmos, creator of the visible and invisible).

since He is Lord of heaven and earth (God is sovereign over all He has created, Master, Owner)

does not dwell in temples made with hands (God is an invisible reality, too complex to be confined to a physical space such as a temple, pagan, or Jewish.)

nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything (He does not need humans for anything, not a quid pro quo relationship; God is self-sustaining)

since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things (He is the source of life to nature and humans; it is a gift from the God who is generous)

and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth (He is sovereign over the affairs of men. He started with one person and intentionally developed families, tribes, and nations. He is both transcendent and immanent.)

having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation (He is sovereign over the affairs of men)

that they would seek God if perhaps they might grope (feel) for Him and find Him (God’s purpose for humanity is to discover God by experience. He wants to be known and has made knowing him possible.)

though He is not far from each one of us  (God is immanent but invisible)

for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His children.’  (We live because of his providential love)

“Being then the children of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of man (We cannot reduce God to something He has made; he is totally other, holy)

 “Therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent (God graciously overlooks our ignorance to offer us a way to turn around and know him. It is an offer, an invitation for everyone, everywhere.)

because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness (God is the judge of the affairs of men. He is also righteous, holy, and just, The ultimate source of morality.)

through a Man whom He has appointed (God has provided a unique Person in time, space, and history who will be this Judge; He is already present.)

 (The proof of this Man’s credentials is that God raised him from the dead. God is even sovereign over death.)

Paul was not presenting the gospel message but describing the God of Jewish Scripture. Paul didn’t refer to the gospel theme until he established the foundation of God’s (Yahweh’s) nature.  Only when he presented God as Judge did he introduce Jesus as the “Man” God will use to bring about judgment, a “Man” God raised from the dead.

The response of the crowd varied: some scoffed; some were curious. The curious listened to Paul explain the gospel of Jesus and his kingdom.  We assume some became believers (Acts 17:32-34).  The point is that Paul started at a different place when his audience lacked a view of God necessary for the gospel.

(To be continued.  The next blog will relate this theme to our current culture.)

TADB 128: The Gospel of the Risen King

Over the past several years, I have used this blog to share my insights and observations on discipleship. Discipleship and making disciples have been the focus of my life and ministry for the past 60 years. The blogs and the trilogy, “Rethinking Discipleship,” emerged from them as a result of a long journey of exploring, learning, teaching, and mentoring. All of the above was based on the conviction that “making disciples” lies at the heart of the Great Commission. Christians need spiritual teachers, parents, and mentors who not only teach them biblical truth but equip them to live the Christian life. I still have that conviction.   

My passion for discipleship and ministry is deeply rooted in the ministry of The Navigators, founded by Dawson Trotman during WWII.  As an avid evangelist, Dawson Trotman had an aha moment one day when he picked up a hitchhiker who began his conversation with a string of profanities.  Dawson eagerly began to share the gospel with the young man when he suddenly realized he had shared the gospel with this same young man a few weeks earlier along this same road.  The young man who had committed his life to Christ earlier now showed no signs of spiritual growth.  Trotman concluded that leading people to faith was insufficient; they needed “follow-up.”

So, when Billy Graham expanded his evangelist crusades in the US in the 1950s, he asked Dawson Trotman and the Navigators to help develop the “follow-up” material for new converts. Graham knew that the thousands of new converts from his crusades needed help and Trotman specialized in helping new Christians grow.  I am a product of that rich heritage.  

Over the last 75 years, the focus on follow-up, or discipleship as we now call it, has birthed numerous organizations and created a plethora of materials to help build on the foundation of the gospel. There is no question of the importance of building people up in the faith.  Paul said, “According to the grace of God which was given to me, like a wise master builder, I laid a foundation, and another is building on it” (1 Corinthians 3:10).

However, recently, a troubling question has been on my mind. With the lack of spiritual fruit still so prevalent in the church today despite all our discipleship efforts, is there more going on than a need for better follow-up, better materials, and better mentors?  Using the title of a book by Dr James Engel in 1975, I want to ask, “What’s Gone Wrong with the Harvest?”

Where is the spiritual maturity and fruitfulness that should be evident from the gospel?   Why is spiritual maturity still the exception rather than the norm among people who identify themselves as Christians? Could it be that fruitlessness is the result not only of insufficient discipleship but of an incomplete understanding of and inadequate response to the historical gospel?

For the past several years, I have been reading, studying, and reflecting on what has become a critical assessment of my understanding of the gospel and how I present it. One of my early conclusions is that the historical “Gospel” is more of a narrative to be told and less of a doctrine to be asserted. I have concluded that the historic gospel is the narrative of the Lord Jesus Christ, which I call the Gospel of the Risen King.

Since that initial conclusion, I have continued exploring this gospel theme, asking myself if my culture has distorted my understanding of the gospel and if I need to take a fresh look at this critical foundation of the Great Commission. The more I researched this gospel theme, the more I discovered I was not alone. Others have been there before me and have voiced similar concerns. My list of mentors in this quest continues to grow.  One of them is AW Tozer.  More than half a century ago, he wrote,

Something is wrong somewhere.  Could it be that the cause behind this undeniable failure of the gospel to effect moral change is a further-back failure of the messenger to grasp the real meaning of the message? Could it be that, in his eagerness to gain one more convert, he makes the Way of Life too easy?  It would seem so.  In other times it was not an uncommon thing to witness the wholesale closing of saloons and brothels as a direct result of the preaching of the gospel of Christ in revival campaigns.  Surely there must have been a difference of emphasis between the message they preached in those days and the ineffective message we preach today.     ( AW Tozer, “The Set of the Sail”)   

 In the following blogs, I will share some of my research, studies, observations, hypotheses, and tentative conclusions. I am on a journey, shaking up and sifting some long-held assumptions. I am reminded of the Bereans in Acts 17:11.

 The people of Berea were more open-minded than those in Thessalonica, and they listened eagerly to Paul’s message. They searched the Scriptures day after day to see if Paul and Silas were teaching the truth. (NLT)

As I share my journey of asking questions and making observations, I invite you to join me by using my writing as a catalyst for your quest and discovery. Someone once told me, “We fail to get good answers because we don’t ask the right questions.”  So, in the journey ahead, I will ask questions that may challenge some long-held concepts. In the process, I want to more clearly understand the foundation of my faith

so that I can build on it and proclaim it with all the power it provides. With that as a preamble, I will use “The Gospel of the Risen King” as my working theme.

Here are a few of my observations that will be the framework for asking questions, making observations, and suggesting applications. One is the self-evident observation that the gospel has always been under attack. Since he could not prevent the gospel, Satan’s strategy is to distort it.   Paul not only had to present the gospel message but also defend it. Realizing that the gospel must be protected in each generation, he charged Timothy to “guard the treasure” entrusted to him.  He would say the same to us.      

Since the term is not used in the same way each time it is used in Scripture, we must first ask, “What is the gospel?”   To define the gospel message that has the power to “save,” we need to recognize the object of the preposition “of” as in the gospel of ____. Once defined, we can then ask whether or not we have added to it, subtracted from it, or distorted it.

The Gospel of the risen King has the power to bear spiritual fruit, create new life, and transform hearts of stone into hearts of flesh. If that is not happening, is something inherently amiss in our understanding and presentation of this gospel? 

Then, I want to explore the possibility that our gospel lacks power because it is under attack from cultural pathogens.  I have identified six current ones that I believe threaten the health of this gospel and rob it of its power. Once identified, each pathogen has a fairly obvious antidote. The hard part will be using it.

In the past, we have framed our gospel presentations on assumptions about our audience that are no longer valid. Therefore, we must look closer at our audience and adapt how we present the gospel to create understanding. With some audiences, the adaptation is minor; for others, it will take a major overhaul. The gospel of Jesus and his kingdom has the power to create new life and transfer people from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light.  Reconciled and realigned with Christ as King, we then reflect Christ’s image from a transformed heart through the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit.  As followers of the risen King, our mission is to be the vanguard, guarding the treasure of the gospel, telling His story, expanding God’s kingdom one life at a time, and living out the GOSPEL OF THE RISEN KING. 

TADB 127: Whose Story is it?

Discover the transformative power of living our story as part of God’s grand meta-narrative.

The book of Genesis begins God’s story with Adam and Eve, created to be vice-regents1 of the earth. Instead, they chose to be co-regents2, co-opting God’s story into their story. Our default human condition is that we are writing our story. Life is about us. 

The gospel invitation is not merely about forgiving sin; it’s a profound, transformative call to return home and reintegrate into God’s story. It’s a shift from living our own story, where our significance is limited, to living our story as an integral part of God’s grand meta-narrative. This shift in perspective will redefine our lives.

John’s Gospel presents a unique story from the early days of Christ’s ministry (John 2:1-11). It’s a familiar account of a Cana wedding where Jesus and a few of his disciples were guests. Mary, his mother, played a logistical role and informed Jesus when the wine ran out.   Jesus, in response to her request, sent some servants to fill empty pots with water. The miracle occurred when the pots were full: the water turned into aged wine, bringing joy to the guests, confusion to the head waiter, relief to the bridegroom, and gratification to Mary. 

There are several ways to interpret this story.

  1. Jesus wants to be involved in our everyday lives.  By attending the wedding and using his power to make it successful, Jesus shows that God wants to fill our lives with joy and even override the laws of nature to ensure our happiness. Jesus is the new wine of joy that never runs out.
  2. Jesus answers prayer. Mary’s request (prayer) demonstrated faith that her son would meet her needs. She didn’t argue, plead, or manipulate when he pushed back at the timing; she confidently told the servants to do what he said and walked away. Jesus answered Mary’s prayer, and he will answer ours.

Although the above two lenses certainly have valid implications from the story, they are not the lenses that John uses. He gives his purpose in verse 11. “This beginning of His signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and revealed His glory; and His disciples believed in Him” (John 2:11).

The wedding narrative tells Jesus’s story. The people in it are supporting cast, not the featured role. This story and the miracle in it gives the disciples, Mary, the servants, and us a glimpse into the nature of the One called Jesus. The guests left happy but probably ignorant of Jesus’s miracle power. Only later, as the story got out (likely from the servants who handled the water detail), would they learn of the miracle. As the story got around, people may or may not have believed the claim, but a few close followers of Jesus did. “He revealed his glory, and the disciples believed in him.”

Jesus’s revelation of his glory at the wedding in Cana was part of the larger story that he refers to in his John 17 prayer: “I glorified You on the earth by accomplishing the work which You have given Me to do…I have revealed Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world” (John 17:4-6).

The narrative of The Exodus is another classic example of “Whose story is it?”  Pharoah thought it was about him. The Hebrews thought it was about them. But maybe not. Between the plague of boils and hail, Moses tells Pharoah, “This is what the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, says: Let my people go, so they can worship me. If you don’t, I will send more plagues on you and your officials and your people. Then you will know that there is no one like me in all the earth. By now I could have lifted my hand and struck you and your people with a plague to wipe you off the face of the earth. But I have spared you for a purpose—to show you my power and to spread my fame throughout the earth” (Exodus 9:13-16).

The story is not about Pharoah, Egypt, Moses, the Hebrews, or freedom. It is about YHWH and the glory of his name throughout the earth; everyone and everything else is a supporting cast member. Although not believed, Moses tells Pharoah that his significance lies only in telling God’s story.

Later in the Exodus, with Joshua replacing Moses as leader, the Israelites are finally poised to enter the Promised Land. Crossing the Jordan River, they encounter the fortified city of Jericho. As the leader of Israel’s army, Joshua prepares for battle by inspecting the battle scene; suddenly, he is surprised by a warrior who stands in front of him, sword drawn, ready to fight. 

Joshua challenged the man with the question, “Are you a friend or foe?”  Joshua wanted to know if this warrior was an ally or part of the competition. A binary question:  A or B? The warrior replied, “Neither. I am the commander of the LORD’s army (Option C!).” 

Joshua wanted to know whose side this warrior was on, Israel or Jericho. The answer was that it wasn’t about either Jericho or Israel. It was about God. And with that, Joshua “fell with his face to the ground in reverence. “I am at your command,” Joshua said. “What do you want your servant to do?” The commander of the LORD’s army replied, “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did as he was told “(Joshua 5:14-15). He got back into God’s story, ready to play his part. Joshua and Moses illustrate how we can easily co-opt God’s story and make it about us even when committed to God’s mission.

Another example comes from a famous hymn I often heard growing up: “In the Garden.” The song’s lyrics are based on Jesus’ appearance to Mary Magdalene in the garden after his resurrection (John 21). 

I come to the garden alone, while the dew is still on the roses. And the voice I hear, falling on my ear, the Son of God discloses.

And He walks with me, and He talks with me, and He tells me I am His own. And the joy we share as we tarry there none other has ever known.

The song paints a pastoral scene of intimacy with Jesus, just Jesus and me, where he reassures me that I am loved, cared for, and part of his family.

All the above is true but not part of the resurrection story. In all four Gospel accounts of the post-resurrection scene in the garden, men (angels) and Jesus encounter both Marys, instructing them not to “tarry” but to immediately tell others that Jesus is risen and about to ascend to his Father. The story is not about making the supporting cast comfy but about making Jesus visible.

So, whose story are we telling? Discovering God in the landscapes of our lives is God’s gift to us as supporting cast members. As we lift him up and tell his story, we get the privilege of knowing him.

1  A deputy regent, a person who acts in the place of a ruler, governor, or sovereign (Collins)

2  A coregency is a situation where a monarchical position, usually held by only one person, is held by two or more (Wikipedia).

For Reflection

  1.  Can you think of other people in the biblical narrative who tried to co-opt God’s story?
  •  Describe a time when you struggled to fit into God’s story.

TAD Blog 126: Job’s Sacred Song

As we conclude this series on discovering God in life’s landscapes, I want to reflect on the enigmatic story of Job from the Old Testament. This narrative, often considered the oldest in Scripture, likely unfolded during the time of the Patriarchs, could be called the Song of Job with the initial chapters acting as a prologue, presenting a context that Job himself would not have known.

As readers, we are given a snapshot of the cosmic conflict, a proxy war, between God and Satan that touches the life of a worshipper of YHWH. The prologue to Job’s story provides only sketchy information about the man called Job. We are not told how he became a believer in YHWH, but we are told that his faith in God was known to God and Satan, becoming a case study in the authenticity of YHWH worshippers.  Satan claimed that people worship God only for his benefits; take away God’s blessings, and they will reject him like all other unbelievers.

If the book’s central teaching were about this cosmic battle, we would expect the end to return to the initial discussion, in which God now declares victory, claiming Job is the real deal and his worship authentic. God wins, Satan loses—the end. But it does not. Satan had one plan, but God had another. Job was not just the victim of a proxy battle between God and Satan.  God takes Satan’s attack on Job and turns it into a blessing.  Job’s sacred song is an early example of the promise in Romans 8:28-29: “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”

The book also illustrates that all suffering is not the consequence of sin or divine punishment. It raises timeless issues related to life on the resurrection side of the cross, such as suffering, justice, empathy, evil, God’s goodness, and sovereignty.

However, there is one theme that turns Job’s story into a sacred song. It is succinctly expressed in a closing verse in the last chapter. It is Job’s summary statement after his requested and long-awaited audience with God. Job’s “ah ha” moment was not regarding his pressing question of justice; it was about discovery itself.

I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You (Job 42:5).

There are several questions we could ask considering Job’s conclusion.

  1. What did he see?
  2. How did he see it?
  3. Why did he see it?
  4. What is the difference between hearing and seeing?
  5. What was the difference in Job’s faith in chapters 1-2 and 42?

Job’s journey is not just about suffering and faith but about a deepening relationship with God through discovery.  He identifies a transition from a distant understanding of God to a personal, intimate knowledge.  At the onset of his trials, he boldly declares to his wife, who has already abandoned her faith, that “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I shall return there. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away. Blessed be the name of the LORD” (Job 1:21). 

We could wonder if that was a popular mantra among YHWY worshippers in Job’s community. Maybe it was like the Apostle’s Creed recited in worship services today, a truth that is heard by “the hearing of the ear” but not yet seen with the eye.  Job had heard about God and was a paradigm of a YHWH worshipper; otherwise, he would not have come to the attention of Satan.  But likely, his knowing God was secondhand.  He could say, “God is _____,” but he had yet to say, “God is my ______.”

God used the stormy landscape of suffering to change doctrine into experience.  Job testifies that in the beginning, he had faith in the head, but now it was faith in the heart.  Job’s song was not about the deliverance from suffering but the discovery of God in suffering.  What Job sees with the eyes of his heart is the real YHWH.

Job claims that in the landscape of suffering, he gains a glimpse of the glory of God.  Upon “seeing” YHWH, his response is like Isaiah’s.  “I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. …. Then I said, “Woe to me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of armies” (Isaiah 6:1-5). I think Job’s sacred song would include the words, “You are sovereign without explanation, good without benefits.”

Job’s sacred song teaches us that God wants to be discovered intimately, not as we would at times like him to be, but as he is.  Job wanted a God he could rationalize, explain, and debate with.  He wanted a God like, well, like himself.  Job’s song claims that we are created in God’s image, not God in ours, that there is a sovereign God of the cosmos, and it is not Job (or us). 

I sense in Job’s encounter with God, a sigh of relief.  He could now stop trying to manage the universe and let God do it.  He did not have to explain to his friends why God does what God does.  His simple faith answer to the question of “Why do good people suffer?” is, “I don’t really know.”  But Job did know by firsthand experience, with the eye of his heart, that there is a God who was both transcendent and immanent, beyond explanation but not beyond knowing.

Job’s sacred song has been sung down through the millenniums of history as a witness and catalyst to the discovery of the glory of God. I think Job would say to us, “Listen to my song and then compose your own.  Let your song echo down through the pages of your history to those in your relational network.” 

God wants us to discover his glory, and he needs and uses a variety of landscapes to do it.  As we look with the eye of faith, we can say with Job, “I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you.”

For Reflection

  1.  How would you describe what Job saw (Job 42:5)?
  2.  Describe a time in your life when you felt like Job.

TAD Blog 125: Composing Your Life Song

We have been developing the privilege, process, and practice of discovering God in the landscapes of our daily lives. Discovering God is based on the reality that God wants to be discovered and has revealed himself in various ways so that everyone can know firsthand the God of the universe. It sounds incredible – even too good to be true. 

The Old Testament narrative tells us that humanity’s rebellion thwarted God’s desire to be known early in our historical timeline. As a result, we were exiled from God’s presence and connection to his story. Living out our own story, separated from God, we lack the spiritual capacity to know him relationally.   Paul describes it as being dead.

Yet, the gospel of Jesus Christ brings us the exciting news of a way back, a way to reconnect to God’s story and rediscover our own narrative intricately woven into the grand tapestry of his. This is not just theoretical knowledge but a personal, intimate ‘knowing God’ that Paul describes as his ultimate desire. ‘More than that, I count all things to be loss, given the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord’ (Philippians 3:8).

Scripture tells us about God, but we can only know him by encountering Him in the landscapes of our daily lives. The biblical narrative introduces us to men and women who have discovered God. Their stories are not to be a vicarious experience but rather a catalyst for discovering God in our storyline.

Moses was after knowing God when he said, “Show me your glory.”  Sometimes, God shows up in dramatic, hard-to-miss ways, yet at other times, he hides in plain sight where we need to use our lens of faith to see the evidence left behind. We referred to this discovery technique as a CSI (Christ Scene Investigation).  (See chapter _______)

We mentioned previously that God wants us to know him and others to know him because of our testimony. David illustrated this in Psalm 40:3: “He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God; Many will see and fear and will trust in the LORD.”

The apostle John was even more explicit as he began his first letter. “What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life— and the life was revealed, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was revealed to us— what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ” (1 John 1:1-3).

To share our God discovery, we must first identify those defining moments where God shows up. When we encounter God’s presence in our storyline, we have the basis for composing what I am calling our Life Song.   Our Song comprises various verses, each expressing an encounter with God in a particular landscape. The following are suggested ways to capture your Life Song so you can play (sing/share) it with others. 

Steps for composing your Life Song.

  1. Identify and describe briefly a defining moment in your past. 

    I use a defining moment to describe a kairos moment, a short or long period with a significant experience in your chronos (linear time) storyline. 

    There are two words for time in the Greek language. One is chronos time, the linear duration expressed in hours, days, and weeks:  chronological time. Another is kairos time. Kairos time refers to a moment, season, or opportune time. Kairos time is not concerned with the length of time but with the significance of the time. While chronos is quantitative, kairos has a qualitative meaning (See TAD Blog 91). Our life stories are comprised of defining (kairos) moments of various intensity and duration

    • How did he meet your needs? 
    • Who was involved?
    • What was accomplished?
    • You may need your CSI lens of faith to see the evidence of God’s presence. Often, God shows up dressed in ordinary street clothes. (Remember the disciples on the road to Emmaus.)

    2. How did you see God show up during that time? 

    Since God has promised to be with us wherever we go, the question is not whether God showed up, but how he did, and did we recognize him?

    In Romans 1, Paul describes the devastating moral slide on those who fail to recognize the nature of God when he shows up in creation. Moses warned the Hebrew people that they would take credit for God’s blessing if they did not recognize and remember the touch of God (Deuteronomy 8).

    3. What character trait of God was the most evident:  faithfulness, sovereignty, goodness, etc.?

    4. How would you finish the statement, God was my ________?

    5. Ascribe a name to God that would identify what he did.

    • A name already used in Scripture.
    • A name not found in Scripture but is yet descriptive. (David calls God his Rock, Shelter, Banner, and Shepherd in the Psalms.)

    6. Compose this verse of your song.

    Write out your narrative using #1-5 above. 

    Psalm 40:1-3 is a highly abbreviated Song from David. “I waited patiently for the LORD, And He reached down to me and heard my cry. He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the mud, And He set my feet on a rock, making my footsteps firm.” 

    7. Share your song with a friend or family member. You can start by saying, “Did I ever tell you about a time in my life when God showed up in a significant way?”  “One generation shall praise Your works to another and shall declare Your mighty acts” (Psalm 145:4). 

    8. Can a visual marker help you remember this encounter with God?

    9. Expand your Life Song by dividing your life into decades. Identify at least one defining moment in each one. Do steps 1-5 above with each one.

    Review

    • God is writing your story into his.
    • Your Life Song is the collection of defining moments (verses) when God showed up in a significant way.
    • Your life song is your spiritual heritage you need to pass on to the next generation.

    It is ultimately about God, not us. Our Life Song brings God glory as it lifts him up. When we share it, we are saying God showed up in my life, and he will in yours if you look for him.

    For Reflection

    1.  Identify one defining moment following steps 1-4.
    2. Share it with someone.

    TADB 124: Don’t Forget to Remember

    Failing to remember is often a trait of old age or children. However, aside from normal forgetfulness, we too often forget what we should remember and remember what we should forget. To enhance our memories and keep us from forgetting, we use various methods: scrapbooks, trophies, certificates, and bracelets, to name a few. They each help us recall an event or accomplishment that conveys part of our life story. 

    Every generation also uses artistic skills and technology to create pictures or take photographs to remember important events.  Today, of course, our pictures are stored in the memory banks of cell phones and computers where (theoretically) we can access them easily.    

    On the other hand, nations use national holidays to trigger memories of the past. Holidays are essential because they anchor us in history and remind us of our identity. Our Judeo-Christian heritage is full of special holidays that remind us of important aspects of our faith, the most obvious ones being Christmas and Easter

    Old Testament patriarchs accomplished the same goal by building altars of remembrance when they had a specific encounter with God.  Abraham built at least four altars.  Sometimes these altars were accompanied by giving God a name to commemorate how he showed up.  The altar Abraham built on Mt. Moriah is a good example.  God provided a ram as a sacrifice in place of Isaac, and Abraham appropriately named that altar “God sees and provides” (Jehovah Jireh).

    In preparation for the Israelites entering the Promised Land, Moses gave them two final instructions.  The first was to remember and obey all God’s commands (Deuteronomy 4:1), and the second was not to forget all God had done for them.  “But watch out!  Be careful never to forget what you yourself have seen.  Do not let these memories escape from your mind as long as you live!” Notice he went on to say… “be sure to pass them on to your children and grandchildren” (Deuteronomy 4:9 NLT). 

    God established several celebrations and festivals (at least seven) to help the Israelites remember how he delivered them from Egypt and brought them to the Promised Land.  The Passover is probably the most familiar.  However, when future generations forgot to celebrate the Passover and all it symbolized, they drifted into idolatry. 

    Another memory marker comes from the story of Israel crossing the Jordan River to enter the Promised Land.  God specifically told Joshua to have the elders take 12 stones from the river bottom and pile them up to create a memorial. 

    Joshua directed them, “Cross to the middle of the Jordan and take your place in front of the Chest of GOD, your God.  Each of you heft a stone to your shoulder, a stone for each of the tribes of the People of Israel, so you’ll have something later to mark the occasion.  When your children ask you, ‘What are these stones to you?’ you’ll say, ‘The flow of the Jordan was stopped in front of the Chest of the Covenant of GOD as it crossed the Jordan—stopped in its tracks.  These stones are a permanent memorial for the People of Israel.'” (Joshua 4:5-7 MSG). 

    The Psalmist echoes this theme in Psalm 78:2-8 (NASB)   

    “I will open my mouth in a parable; I will tell riddles of old, which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.  We will not conceal them from their children, but we will tell the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and His power and His wondrous works that He has done.  For He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, Which He commanded our fathers that they were to teach them to their children so that the generation to come would know, the children yet to be born, that they would arise and tell them to their children, so that they would put their confidence in God And not forget the works of God…”

    Like the Old Testament, the New Testament also has its celebrations for remembering; the most familiar is often called the “Lord’s Table.”  

    “And he (Jesus) took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you.  Do this in remembrance of me.” And likewise, the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.  Drink in remembrance of me” (Luke 22:19-20). 

    In all the above examples, God uses specific symbols to help people remember his calling. The Passover celebration, the Feast of Booths, and the Lord’s Table are full of symbols.

    Those are biblical examples, but what about us today?  What stories can we tell about how God showed up in our past?  What are our “memorial stones” that cause our children to ask, “What are these for?”  God knew that Israel needed memory aids to help them remember; so do we.  We may forget significant encounters with God in our past because we fail to recognize them in the first place, and/ or we fail to create appropriate “piles of stones” that trigger our ability to remember.

    It should be noted, however, that remembering how God showed up in our past defining moments is more than just recalling events.  If we only recall the defining moments/the stories, we, by default, get the credit for whatever happened.  The story soon becomes all about us and little or nothing about God. 

    Nehemiah 9 gives us an excellent example of remembering how God showed up.  After Nehemiah rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem, a revival broke out, and the people gathered to listen to the priests read Scripture.  Part of their celebration was recalling how God showed up in the past.  Read that chapter and notice that God is repeatedly credited for his intervention.  The people not only identified how God showed up, but they also declared an attribute of God or gave him a name, thereby giving him the glory for what he did.

    We can also use symbols as triggers that help us connect with what we need to remember.  Over our journey, my wife, Mary, has created several scrapbooks containing pictures that symbolize God’s divine touch on our lives.  One is a picture of an old barn on the property God provided in our move to Kansas City. The old barn triggered a long list of divine touches on our family journey when our children were growing up.  The old barn is no longer standing, but the symbol is.   We love to pull out that scrapbook when the grandkids are over and show them pictures of the old barn.  In the motif of Joshua’s pile of rocks at the Jordan River, when the grandkids say, “Why is that old barn in your scrapbook, grandma?” she can say, “Well, let me tell you the story of how God put his divine touch on our journey back when your mom and dad were your age.”

    In addition to giving God the glory and passing on to others what God has done, there is another reason why remembering is so essential for us.  In Deuteronomy 8, Moses continues to remind the Israelites not to forget, but this time, he includes a warning against hubris. 

    When you have eaten your fill, be sure to praise the LORD your God for the good land he has given you.  “But that is the time to be careful!  Beware that in your plenty you do not forget the LORD your God … For when you have become full and prosperous and have built fine homes to live in, and when your flocks and herds have become very large …, be careful!  Do not become proud at that time and forget the LORD your God, who rescued you from slavery in the land of Egypt (Deuteronomy 8:10-16).

    Does that not sound familiar? Our culture not only does not give God credit for our country’s successes but also denies that God had anything to do with them. The attitude in America is that we are so wealthy and strong we do not need God. We must not follow this example and become proud and self-satisfied with our accomplishments, which breeds an attitude of self-reliance rather than reliance on God.    

    God is the Almighty and faithful Father who must be central to our life story.  Otherwise, we rob our children and grandchildren of the real power behind our story; the real meaning is lost, and our story is no longer a sacred song.

    For Reflection

    1.  What stands out to you from reading Nehemiah 9?
    2.  Describe a “pile of rocks” that you have created to help you remember.

    TADB 123: Spiritual Rules of Grammer (cont.)

    To stress the effect of a single, lone punctuation mark on the meaning of a sentence, English teachers, throughout the decades, have passed on an anecdote from the telegraph age.

    In the mid-19th century, the telegraph was the internet of the day. It first spanned the continent and then reached Europe with the transatlantic cable. Priced by the word, it was costly, necessitating short, abbreviated messages. One version of this anecdote is as follows.

    The Price of a Comma

    A woman touring Europe cabled her husband the following message: “Have found wonderful bracelet. Price seventy-five thousand dollars. May I buy it?”

    Her husband immediately responded with the message: “No, price too high.” However, the telegraph operator missed one small detail in his transmission — the signal for a comma after the word “No.”

    The wife in Europe received the reply: “No price too high.” Elated by the good news, she bought the bracelet. When she returned to the United States and showed the new bracelet to her shocked husband, he filed a lawsuit against the telegraph company — and won!

    From then on, telegraph rules required operators to spell punctuation rather than use symbols. No price was too high to avoid the same mistake.

    The last blog discussed four “Spiritual Rules of Grammar.”  In this blog, I want to identify one more. This rule is frequently violated and often brings about unintended consequences of a “price too high.”

    Rule #5:  Don’t turn a sentence into a paragraph. (Paul in Acts 21; King Saul in 1 Samuel 13,14; Elisha/servant in 2 Kings 6)

    We have a tendency (learned or innate) to build a big picture from a small piece of information, even a single sentence. From this snapshot, we create an entire paragraph or a whole movie. 

    During my year in Vietnam, I would send home small cassette tape reels that I usually recorded at night. It took a few weeks for the tapes to reach my parents in Iowa and another two weeks to get their reply. Therefore, several months passed before I learned that my parents heard explosions in the background of my taped messages. They assumed that, since I was in a war zone, I was under attack each time I made a recording. Once I learned of their concern, I explained that they heard outgoing artillery, not incoming. Extrapolating a sentence into a paragraph (a sound became an attack) brought them undue worry and concern.

    King Saul made the same grammatical mistake early in his rule as king over Israel. In 1 Samuel 13, we learn that Saul faced a daunting attack by his Philistine neighbor. The Philistines had massed an army of 30,000 chariots and 6,000 cavalry, plus too many to count infantry. Saul had started with 3,000 men, but his numbers dwindled from desertion. Saul was down to about 600 men when the Philistine attack was imminent—hardly a fair fight.

    Saul then does what we would naturally do: he panicked. 1 Samuel 13:8 tells us that Saul waited the appointed seven days for the prophet Samuel to arrive and make an offering to God. Sometime during the seventh day, Saul took the compound sentence: “Samuel had not arrived, and his army was shrinking,” and turned it into a story of defeat and disaster. His imagined scenario led him to make a fateful decision. He stepped outside his role as king into the role of a prophet, making the sacrifice himself. His false narrative led to unexpected consequences: Losing his heritage as king. (“a price too high”)

    A chapter later, we learn that King Saul and his small contingency of soldiers were in a planned retrograde movement:  avoiding enemy contact.  His son, Jonathon, however, along with his armor-bearer, went on a recon mission to see where the Philistines were camped. He discovers a garrison of Philistines (approximately 200 to 300 soldiers) camped on a prominent hilltop. He turns to his armor bearer and suggests they climb the hill and take on the garrison single-handedly.

    Rather than projecting a losing outcome considering their scant resources, Jonathon says to his armor-bearer, “Come, and let’s cross over to the garrison of these uncircumcised men; perhaps the LORD will work for us because the LORD is not limited to saving by many or by few!” (1 Samuel 14:6). In other words, let’s climb the hill and let God write the story. They did, and God did. God wrote a story they couldn’t have imagined. Not only was the Philistine garrison routed, but it also encouraged Saul’s fearful army to join the battle. Even the Hebrews who had defected to the enemy rallied to the cause of Israel.

    When we expand our current human knowledge into a future reality, we easily exclude the “X factor” in discipleship. I define the X factor as the unknown or unpredictable influence on a given situation. To some, the X factor in life is “luck,” “fate,” or even “faith.”  But for the disciple, the X-factor is none of the above but God himself. 

    Living by this rule of grammar requires humility, faith, and wisdom. We need to admit that we don’t have all the information needed to project a future outcome, and even if we did, we should not impose on God an outcome based on our logic.

    Violating this grammatical rule comes from two errors. One is to think that our current knowledge of reality (the sentence) is adequate to project future results (the paragraph). Thus, we build a false narrative based on inadequate information.

    The second is assuming that our current knowledge of reality is all we can and should know, being content with only a partial picture rather than seeking to understand more. The prophet Samuel made this mistake when God sent him to anoint a new king over Israel. He correctly went to the house of Jesse but evaluated his selection based on externals rather than the internal condition of the heart, which God was after. After God rejected all of Jesse’s sons except the youngest, Samuel probably reflected on the choice of King Saul, who looked kingly externally but was devoid of faith internally. How did that turn out?

    We can avoid this grammatical error by learning to ask more questions. Rather than assuming I know all that I need to know or can know, I should assume there is more going on than I currently know – or maybe I can know. We should assume that each situation is more complex than we think. For example, when the checkout clerk is rude to us, rather than assuming they are just a rude person or we have done something to offend them, we could consider that maybe they just got the news that their spouse has terminal cancer. How would that thinking affect our response to their rudeness?

    When tempted to extrapolate the current sentences of our own story into paragraphs of disappointment, defeat, and disaster, we should remember this spiritual rule of grammar. We need to let God finish the paragraph and write the complete story.

    For Reflection

    1.  Reflect on when you projected disaster, and it turned out well.
    • Why do you think we so easily assume we know all we need to know about a given situation?