Personal Application
PERSONAL APPLICATION
1. Take time to consider one or all of the phrases listed on page 237 (e.g.
"unworthy loves"). Ask your heavenly Father to ñll you with the fullness of His Spirit and to help you surrender to His correction and grace.
2. Thank God that He frees us from the foolishness of sin and the weakness of ourselves. How might you also be an example of His kindness and mercy this week?
IMAGINATION AND THE
WILL Although they knew God, they neither gloriñed him as God ñor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.
Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animáis and reptiles.
ROMANS 1:21-23
hen our son, Nathan, was only nine years oíd, he decided he was going to write a book. He did this because he saw me at the Computer every day and thought writing would be fun. He did quite a job actually, featuring a murder, a kidnapping, and all the other horrible stuff that grabs a person's attention. There was some such tragedy or atrocity on every page. He would devotedly sit down and start writing away. It was fascinating to watch his intensity in crafting a story.
But one day I noticed that he was sitting at the dining table, pen in hand, the story in front of him, and tears running down his face. I wondered what on earth had happened. I never for a moment imagined what his answer would be when I went to his side. I put my arm around him and said, "What's the matter, son?"
He kept wiping the tears and said, "I just know the dog is going to die."
"What dog?" I asked.
He named the dog that he had introduced in that story. I did everything I could to keep a straight face as he unfolded the story line, which involved this marvelous little dog that now took ill. He just knew that death would be the logical end to the impressive pet.
Isn't that something? The power of the imagination even to draw in the storyteller and become sovereign over the one creating the fantasy in the first place! Reality had its long reach even in the world of one's own creation. Nathan could stay with the fantastic only so long. He had to get to the fantastically true.
I have often looked back upon my own life, and even as I have listened to others,
I have come to realize how powerful the imagination is and how it can be used for good or evil. I believe it was the French thinker Pascal who said: "Put the world's greatest philosopher on a plank that is wider than need be; if there is a precipice below, although his reason may convince him that he is safe, his imagination will prevail."
In other words, the imagination can even distort reality. This is why God gives us the imagination to dream but the intuition, conscience, and reason to govern such aspirations with caution. Even the laws of aerodynamics can show us how to soar, but we cannot viólate those laws. Imagination is a good thing, but it cannot viólate the boundaries that govern reality.
This is just one of the reasons I believe the Lord Jesús tells us to keep our eye single, meaning having the moral visión to discern good from evil
(Matthew 6:22). What we see and what we enjoy in our seeing has a direct bearing upon the imagination. By the way, those in the movie industry who deal in the world of fantasy would do well to remember this. Just because the movie can create a fantasy does not mean it should do so. I remember a music director telling me how he chose to craft his music when the scene was debased. He would put in the sounds of horror, just to introduce caution to any who would chase such wild fantasies.
Let me ask you this question: Are you disciplined to bring the reason and will to bear upon the imagination?
As I write this, I have just left the rather relatively unspoiled terrain of Nepal. In a strange way, in spite of the mix of plenty and want, it's a very pretty country.
On a clear day, you can see the majestic protrusions from the Himalayas, and of course, the crown jewel of peaks, Mount Everest. The smiling Sherpas may point to their methods and the skyline may point upwards, but if you were to climb even the mountain that is not for all humanity to scale, you would see bodies along the way of those who did not heed the warning signs to turn around
and head back. The price paid for such violations has been heavy.
The apostle Paul, in his letter to the church at Rome, chronicles how the human mind works when it turns away from God and His warning signs to us. He says that although people knew God, they did not respond to that which they knew and as a result their imagination became corrupt. Knowledge of truth and the response to it are the surest strengths against the power of the imagination. May yours be that strength today to keep the imagination in check.
REFLECTION QUESTIONS
í. Can you think of ways imagination has been used for both good and evil, whether in a ñctional work or an actual event?
2. How do reason and will bear upon the imagination?
PERSONAL APPLICATION
1. Jesús tells us to keep our eye single. How might His gracious admonition guard your steps today?
2. Our imaginations can distort reality and disregard the boundaries God set for our protection. Or perhaps you've stifled the good gift of imagination. Ask God to heal and renew your imagination so that you can receive "every good and perfect gift. .. from the Father" (James 1:17).
COPING WITH LIFE'S
TURBULENCE
We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience.
COLOSSIANS 1:9-11
here is a story told about onetime heavyweight boxing Champion Muhammad Ali. Ali was flying to one of his engagements and during the flight, the aircraft ran into foul weather. Modérate turbulence began to toss the plañe about. Of course, all nervous fliers well know that when a pilot signáis "modérate turbulence," he or she is implying, If you have any religious beliefs, it is time to start expressing them.
The passengers were instructed to fasten their seat belts immediately, and all complied but Ali. So the flight attendant approached him and requested that he observe the captain's order, only to hear Ali audaciously respond, "Superman don't need no seat belt." The flight attendant, however, did not miss a beat but quickly fired in reply, "Superman don't need no airplane either!"
Recently, another humorous story made the rounds about two of the most prominent football (soccer) players of our time: Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel
Messi. Somebody joked that Ronaldo made the comment that God had sent him into the world to show the world how to play football. A repórter told that story to Messi and asked, "What do you think of that?" Messi paused and said,
"Honestly, I don't remember sending him."
Anyone who knows Messi would doubt that he would say anything like that. But it made for a great story. Humor aside, that's the way that often those in highly
competitive sports see themselves. The best this, the greatest that, or the finest ever.
I draw attention to those stories because I would like to consider the larger context in which many of us find ourselves. Some of us will be granted access to the best education, others offered an array of possibilities for achievement. Many of us work diligently to position ourselves for extraordinary success in a rapidly changing world. In any of these possible triumphs, a sense of invincibility can be engendered—regardless of what measure of turbulence may lie ahead.
Yet unfortunately, academic or material advancement does not necessarily confer wisdom. As someone rightly quipped, "It may be a smartphone, but it is not a wise phone." How foolish it would be for us to take what generations preceding us have valued in coping with life's turbulence and cast it all aside because we are modern. Now of course even modern is not good enough; we are postmodern. We sound more and more like a product —super ultra, ultra plus, and so on. In the process of so called advances, we unwittingly forget what is needed to preserve any gain.
Those valúes are cast in stone.
As G. K. Chesterton aptly advised his generation, before pulling any fence down, we should always pause long enough to ñnd out why it was put there in the first place.- Removing ancient markers or boundaries is a risky endeavor. It is a valuable day in life when we realize that laws are in place not just for another's benefit but for ours as well.
As I see our world, I see a terrifying reality. Governments seem to falter along two extremes. There are demagogues who think they alone matter. There are so called democracies where people think freedom alone matters. Both commit the blunder of forgetting there is a law above our laws. There are valúes by which we must be governed.
In other words, we need wisdom as we process and distill all knowledge. But where does one ñnd it? The irony of the cali to wisdom in the Bible is that the one who spoke most about it kept it all in the realm of writing great one-liners but did not apply that wisdom in living. This is a painful reminder that knowing does not guarantee doing. Doing engages the will and a preset commitment.
In one of his proverbs, King Solomon wrote,
Blessed are those who ñnd wisdom, those who gain understanding, for she is more profitable than silver and yields better returns than gold.
She is more precious than rubíes; nothing you desire can compare with her. (Proverbs 3:13-15)
By this same king we are told, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom" (Proverbs 9:10; Psalm 111:10).
In other words, reverence for God is where wisdom starts, with a recognition that there is a Giver of knowledge and wisdom. We begin with reverence for our
Creator and transíate that into reverence for His creation and His cali upon our lives.
On days when we are tempted by thoughts of invincibility, might we remember that falsely posing as a superman will only ensure a crash landing. There's "kryptonite" at every turn in places where we are overwhelmed by turbulent forces and weakening attacks upon inner strength. We can reach our potential strength only when we know who is all-powerful and hnmbly bow before Him. I pray we will hnmbly seek wisdom and follow it to its Source so that He will lift us to glorious heights, for His honor and our purpose.
REFLECTION QUESTIONS
1. What does it mean to say there is a law above our laws—and what is this law?
2. How do both social media and our sports-obsessed world encourage us to project ourselves as invincible? What are the risks in doing so?
PERSONAL APPLICATION
1. Knowing does not guarantee doing. Doing engages the will and a preset commitment. Ask God to direct your steps to do what He has set before you this week.
2. Can you recall when you have been "wise in your own eyes" (Proverbs 3:7) and the results that ensued? Pray through the entire prayer in Colossians 1:9-14
and "ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives" (v. 9).
IS IT WORTH IT?
Jesús declared, "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me."
JOHN 6:35-38
espite all denials of truth as a category, people still hunger for it. The real question that haunts us is not whether truth exists, but whether it is worth it, and then the toughest question of all: Where can I ñnd it?
On August 6, 1961, a twenty-six-year-old Soviet cosmonaut named Gherman Titov became the second Soviet to orbit the earth and return safely. Sometime later he recounted his experience while speaking at the Century 21 Exposition in Seattle. Titov declared that on his excursión into space, he looked for God but didn't ñnd Him. The Soviet's entire political and economic theory being based on an atheistic framework made his affirmation a justification for their foundational belief.
Someone humorously quipped, "Had he stepped out of his spacecraft, he certainly would have." Titov, of course, had moved beyond the discipline of technological gain to draw theological blood. A man who never in a million years would have believed that his spaceship was an accidental collection of atoms somehow believed that the universe itself was such an accident. One great step for Science became an immensely greater leap in philosophy.
Years later on Christmas Day, 1968, three American astronauts were the first human beings to go around the "dark" side of the moon. Captured by the awe of the universe, the astronauts echoed the only words that seemed fitting. Those words were from the first line of the Bible: "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth .. (kjv).
Two similar experiences of awe and splendor yielded two diametrically opposed conclusions. These two incidents carried off into space the most debated question on earth: Does God exist?
The answer to that question has a greater bearing on your life than anything else does. Personal and national destinies are inextricably bound to this issue. Our entire human ñame of moral reference is determined by whether or not God exists. Our purpose in life is determined by that, whether we are here by design or by no agency whatsoever and just by chance. Who we are and why we exist logically flows from the question of God's existence.
In the 1950s, Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc. published a multiple-volume set titled The Great Books of the Western World. It is a treasure-house of great
Western thinkers from Sócrates to Aquinas to Pascal. A storehouse of information. One of the main editors was a man by the ñame of Mortimer
Adler. In an interview years ago, Professor Adler was asked why, of all the themes covered in The Great Books, was the longest essay on God?
Adler replied without any hesitation that it was because more consequences for our lives follow from that one issue than any other issue.
It is the most logical answer to have been given. One's belief in valúes of any kind follows from one's belief or disbelief in God.
It was Mahatma Gandhi who said, "God is truth."- If he meant by that statement that truth as an idea is God, then I would take issue with it. But if he meant that everything that the notion of truth represents is in the very person of God, then I would grant that premise. In other words, truth matters because God matters.
God matters comprehensively, and therefore truth matters.
The question, therefore, is not whether the pursuit of truth is worth it or not, for it is the only thing that is ultimately worthwhile, so valuable that it has often been blockaded by a bodyguard of lies.
But we might ask, "What's wrong with a lie?"
I might safely add one word: "Everything."
For one, we would think it is morally wrong, would we not? We would not
excuse it by saying, "Oh well, people have different views." Does it matter that morality has to be rightly understood, unless this is a moral universe? And how can this be a moral universe unless it is created by God? Personhood has no intrinsic worth apart from the person of God being the First Cause. The intelligibility in this universe and the immense capacity of the moral law point us to a transcendent order set in place by God.
What is more, we don't have to go into outer space to ñnd Him. He comes to us in our inner space, the inner space of our lives. Jesús said, "The one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out" (John 6:37 nkjv).
The truth we seek is revealed in the person of Jesús Christ, and His answers conform to reality rightly understood. In knowing Him, you ñnd truth and life.
When that inner space is conquered, outer space confirms what God has revealed in His Word and in nature. That is why the pursuit of truth is worth it—because it seeks to know the mind of God.
REFLECTION QUESTIONS
í. What question has a greater bearing on your life than anything else? Why?
2. What points to a transcendent order set in place by God? Explain.
PERSONAL APPLICATION
1. One's belief in valúes of any kind follows from one's belief or disbelief in God. Take an inventory of your valúes (e.g., charity, honesty) and consider how they flow from or perhaps contradict your perspective of God.
2. What does the "inner space" of your life look like? Is it in turmoil, constant motion, at peace? Ask Jesús to feed you with His bread of life and fill your soul with His abundance and peace.
ARE YOU LONELY?
The Lord conñdes in those who fear him; he makes his covenant known to them.
My eyes are ever on the Lord, for only he will release my feet from the snare.
Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted. Relieve the troubles of my heart and free me from my anguish.
PSALM 25:14-17
lvis Presley once sang "Are You Lonesome Tonight?" Although he was not exactly a philosopher, and his question was more in the romantic tones of an evening together, I think he spoke of a deep hunger in the human heart.
Writer Thomas Wolfe, having himself lived an emotionally turbulent life, articulated one of the deepest aches within the human heart. Consider his words;
I believe they are profound:
The whole conviction of my life now rests upon the belief that loneliness, far from being a rare and curious phenomenon, peculiar to myself and to a few other solitary people, is the central and inevitable feature of human existence. . . . All this hideous doubt, despair and dark confusión of the soul a lonely man must know, for he is united to no image save that which he creates himself. He is bolstered by no other knowledge save that which he can gather for himself with the visión of his own eyes and brain. He is sustained and cheered and aided by no party. He is given comfort by no creed. He has no faith in him except his own, and often that faith deserts him, leaving him shaken and filled with impotence. Then it seems to him that his life has come to nothing. That he is ruined, lost, and broken, past redemption, and that morning, that bright and shining morning with its promise of new beginnings, will never come upon the earth again as it did once.
Has this author exposed a throbbing nerve of a reality that holds us all in its grip? Is he telling it like it is?
Tempting though it might be for the optimist to dismiss these words as cynically
conceived in some dark moment of despair, there are many who would echo the same feeling of desolation. In fact, I would venture to say that this cry of loneliness is felt by all, though better suppressed by some. As one actress recently quipped, "We are all in this together alone."
Herein lies the malady. It is a torn self in search of being put back together.
That's why I believe the answer is to be found in the only pursuit that pulís our lives together into a focused expression. Worship in spirit and in truth is what captures this coalescing within. Worship alone brings all expressions into one purpose. And as we fear (revere) the Lord, He offers us intimacy: "The friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him, and he makes known to them his covenant" (Psalm 25:14 esv). What an amazing truth!
The problem of loneliness is indeed universal. The hymn-writer who penned the beloved Christmas carol "O Little Town of Bethlehem" captured this idea well in the words, "The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight."
At the risk of sounding trite, may I ask you: Are you lonely this day? Do you sense time and again that you are mangled within? Are your hopes and fears pinned on the future hope of some companion or accomplishment to bring you solace? Or have you brought them to the One who alone can bring you lasting hope and a future?
May I suggest that you bring your lonely heart to God and allow Him to do His work in your life by putting you back together, in your affections and your pursuits? It's not good enough to bring God your heart for a night. It has to be done daily for life itself.
REFLECTION QUESTIONS
1. What is the one pursuit that pulís our lives together, and how does it begin to answer the problem of loneliness?
2. What is "the friendship of the Lord"? Spend time in Psalm 25 or John 15 to pursue this truth in Scripture.
PERSONAL APPLICATION
1. When do you most feel lonely—and how do you attempt to meet this need?
When do you most feel loved?
2. Ask God to encourage you with the knowledge of His friendship. How might this amazing truth direct your path today and open a door of ministry to someone else?
FINDING THE PERFECT
GIFT Don't be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.
JAMES 1:16-18
sn't it ironic that the more we have access to, the further we are from ñnding the answer to our struggle for an overarching purpose for life? We are like the little boy surrounded by Christmas gifts. Minutes after the gifts have been torn into, the poor child sits staring at the wall, saddened at having exhausted so much in so little time.
Likewise, having tasted of every new experience that has come along, we too wonder like children on Christmas morning where all the promised fulfillment has gone. Most of the excitement seems to be in the anticipation and expectation rather than in the procurement or the unwrapping.
Our world has seen many advances that offer the promise of a new day. First, we live in the age of communication. Never before have we had such means to transmit content or create desire. Yet even with such capacities, the walls between races, cultures, and generations still stand. Years ago people were saying that televisión and communication were going to make this world a more peaceful planet and the United Nations was going to be the answer for our utopia. We now have media of every kind, once only a pipe dream, and yet the world always seems to be on edge.
Second, we live in the age of technology. But it has delivered a bilí of goods for which the cost exacted is the loss of peace of mind. Each new invention was supposed to save us time. Yet less time is spent in building relationships while
more is invested in the trappings of our "conveniences." At the end of the day it is more likely that family members are sitting with their own cell phones than they are willing to sit and enjoy a conversation around a meal together. It's a sad loss.
Third, medicine has vastly improved our lives, and yet we have lost the definition of life itself. How we have changed! "For the wise men of oíd," said
C. S. Lewis, "the cardinal problem has been how to conform the soul to reality, and the solution had been knowledge, self-discipline, and virtue. For magic and applied Science alike, the problem is how to subdue reality to the wishes of men."- Some change, isn't it? If living is at the mercy of the moment, then dying is as much an option as living.
Fourth, human sexuality has never been more studied and pandered to in public, yet we have never been more confused about what is right and good. Young minds are exposed to sights and sounds that foster cravings that no human experience can match or plácate. Sadly, what is worse, the built-in mystery and gift of sexual enjoyment has moved from the marital relationship to any opportune moment for gratification. We are more indulgent than ever and more unfulñlled than ever.
These advances have not been able to soothe the cry for meaning heard from millions of hearts, have they? Why am I heve ? What is Ufe all about? Am I just to find a way to tranquilize my boredom ? On one day we walk to and fro. On another day we walk fro and to.
If the answer does not lie in gadgets and toys and entertainment, where can we go? What bntton can we press to win meaning and fulñllment?
The Bible says, "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows."
Just look at the Giver and then the promise. The Giver is God Himself, who gives as a loving Father. Remember the parent who gave you your first bike or your first watch? I remember both occasions. With the watch, I walked around as if my arm were in a sling: I looked constantly at it. I was in my mid-teens when that watch was given. Watches were not easy to get in India. The imported brands were what was preferred. My mom had asked a neighbor who was a pilot within the land to ask his brother, who flew internationally, to please bring me a
watch. On the day it arrived I remember thanking my parents profusely for caring enough to get me that watch. My parents made it possible.
The God of the Scriptures is the Giver of life itself. What a gift to be enjoyed.
What a treasure to guard! It's more than the gift of life. It is the gift of His presence in salvation. More specifically, His presence is our consolation. His mercy gives us our salvation. His glory extends immeasurably beyond all of our faltering answers and fleeting Solutions, and yet, His love is extended to each of us personally.
Fet us not be like the little boy surrounded by gifts but not knowing joy. Go to the Giver, who alone gives us perpetual wonder and fulñllment. His generous heart filis our needy hearts.
REFLECTION QUESTIONS
1. How have communication and technology changed the way we relate to each other? Have they brought more intimacy and connection or less? How?
2. Why is the enjoyment of a gift often so fleeting? Can you think of a gift that's brought you lasting joy or still touches your heart? Why is that?
PERSONAL APPLICATION
1. How might you guard the treasure of God's gift—His very presence and consolation—this week?
2. Consider how your view of God's generosity or lack thereof informs the way you go to Him in prayer and relate to others. Ask God to conform your view of Him to who He really is.
SAFELY INTO THE
UNKNOWN I have kept my feet from every evil path so that I might obey your word. I have not departed from your laws, for you yourself have taught me. How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! I gain understanding from your precepts; therefore I hate every wrong path. Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.
PSALM 119:101-105
ne of the most beautiful moments in the book The Pilgrim's Progress is when Pilgrim arrives at the hill called Calvary. He has been carrying his burden of sin in his journey. (I have shared a portion of this story previously, but I think it bears repeating.) An amazing thing happens as Pilgrim reaches the cross of Calvary. The first is the falling off of the weight of sin. Then he is greeted by the three Shining Ones: the ángel of dawn, the ángel of daybreak, and the ángel of dusk.
The first ángel says, "Son, thy sins be forgiven thee" and puts a mark on his forehead. The second one replaces Pilgrim's tattered clothes with a new robe and sandals. The third ángel hands him a scroll—the map toward the Celestial Gate.
It's an amazing threefold action. The oíd life is traded for the new inheritance, and henee the mark on the forehead. The second gift is the new covering as a child of God. The third is the guide on how to walk the rest of the journey till
Pilgrim reaches his final stopping point at the end of life.
The guide for life presupposes whom you belong to. That is the first prerequisite, to know that you are not your own; you are a child of God as you come to the cross. That is where you die to self and live for Him. That is the trae intersection where the crossroads of life meet.
I remember a man from Pakistán telling me how he attended an Easter church
Service once and was terribly bored by the speaker—until the speaker reached the end and made these two statements:
In dying you live.
In surrendering, you win.
Those statements reversed everything in the way he thought. Dying to self and personal glory is the starting point to really living. Augustine said it best: "You have made us for yourself and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in thee."
The next step suggested by the gift of new clothes to Pilgrim is the change that life brings. It's not enough to lay claim to be God's child. We must live that life and wear His coat well.
Finally, the map for life is given. That is the key to growth and maturity: how to handle disappointment. How to handle failure. How to interpret success. How to live for that which is eternal.
The question is how and where do we ñnd that map? God has given us four resources. First is His Word given to us in the Holy Scriptures. Your life should begin each day with that Word. The psalmist says, "Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path" (Psalm 119:105).
The second is His indwelling presence, which God promises to us. As you talk to Him, He speaks to you and guides with His still, small voice.
The third is to have a life of accountability. Those who love you must have the courage to correct you when they see you are on the wrong path.
Fourth, God will bring circumstances into your life to help you grow. These are not always delightful. Sometimes they are painful.
In 1939 King George VI spoke to the world at a very troubled time. He quoted this poem in his Christmas Day message:
I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year:
"Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown."
And he replied:
"Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God.
That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way."
Through His Word, you put your hand into His hand, and He will guide you safely into the unknown.
REFLECTION QUESTIONS
í. Think about the two brief statements that changed the direction of the Pakistani man's life. Where do you find the ideas of dying to self and living for God in Scripture?
2. What four resources has God given to guide us?
PERSONAL APPLICATION
1. "The guide for life presupposes whom you belong to." Are you being directed by God as His child, or are other influences pulling you onto a divergent path?
How do you know when God is guiding you?
2. Have you learned to handle disappointment? How about failure and success?
How might you grow in one of these areas this week?
PEACE LIKE A RIVER
You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you. Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord, the Lord himself, is the Rock eternal.
ISAIAH 26:3-4
here is a story told of an American soldier hiding in a bunker during the Korean
War. When his commander ordered him to rescue some of his fallen mates on the front lines, the soldier nodded his head, took a covert glance at his watch, stalled till his commanding officer was out of sight, and simply made no move. Several minutes went by, and a colleague reminded him of his rescue assignment. Again, he looked at his watch and delayed. Finally, he leaped out of the bunker and fearlessly began carrying his compatriots to safety.
At the end of the day, a friend asked him to explain his curious actions. The soldier said, "I was afraid because I knew I was not ready to die. I was waiting until my fear would be overeóme by the assurance of something greater. At a certain time every hour my mother promised that she would pray for me.
Remembering this as I looked out from the bunker, I knew that no matter what awaited me, I could face it."
Over the years, I have since talked to scores of people in many lands. Everyone tells you his or her own story, and invariably it would involve a friend or a family who played a role in bringing the person to that point. No one gets to where they are without the prayers and the efforts of someone else. It was
Andrew for Peter, Ananias for Paul, the mother and grandmother for Timothy— and the list goes on. The goal of all these efforts was to help someone make peace with God and stay in God's peace. It is not a momentary thing. It is a daily walk.
There is no doubt in my mind that when I first found my relationship with Jesús, the peace was overwhelming. But I am equally certain how that stability is
threatened, and each day one needs to make sure that peace is not shattered by a careless choice or decisión.
Indeed, the Bible says it so well with a succinct promise in the book of Isaiah:
"You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you" (Isaiah 26:3). In fact, when I first heard this story of the Korean
War soldier, my mind wandered back to when I was in Vietnam speaking at a Service attended by several American airmen. They were in full uniform, many alert for missions that would claim their lives. I will never forget how the closing hymn resounded throughout the room as their voices sang from the depths of the emotions that welled up from within them:
When peace, like a river, attendeth my way, When sorrows like sea billows roll, Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,
It is well, it is well with my soul!
But let us also not miss the foundational reason for this peace, stated by the songwriter in the third stanza:
My sin—oh, the bliss of this glorious tho't, My sin—not in part, but the whole— Is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord, O my soul!
I had already by that point spent several months in the región, and I had begun to sense how many had gone into action but never returned. So their uncertainty was with reason. What they needed more than anything else was peace within for a greater reason.
You see, it was Thomas Merton who observed that man is not at peace with his fellow man because he is not at peace with himself, and he is not at peace with himself because he is not at peace with God.- Even as the apostle Paul said,
"Since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesús Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this
grace in which we now stand" (Romans 5:1— 2 ).
So what lies beneath our struggle is a daily routine based on a momentous decisión. That decisión is to deal with what we do to hurt ourselves, not what others do to hurt us. The attacks of others simply will not succeed if we have taken the protection to guard our souls. That was the admonition to Timothy from Paul: "Be on your guard" and "Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you" (2 Timothy 4:15; 1:14). Have you ever been threatened by anyone?
When you post a guard at the door, you sleep peacefully because someone else is awake for you. The best guardián of your own peace is the precaution you take to keep your heart guarded for God and by God.
Dear friend, may you know today that the freedom to have peace without begins with the freedom from evil within, and may you stand on this foundational reason for peace. In other words, it is a condition of the soul.
REFLECTION QUESTIONS
1. According to the hymn writer and Scripture, what is the foundational reason for a Christian's peace?
2. What is the "momentous decisión" we make daily whether we realize it or not? How does this decisión relate to the apostle Paul's admonition to Timothy?
PERSONAL APPLICATION
1. To get where you are today, you needed the prayers and the efforts of someone else. Who has prayed for you over the years or been a support and an ally? Take time today to thank that person and God. Likewise, whom are you praying for faithfully?
2. What are you doing today to help you rest securely in God's peace and to guard the good deposit of His Spirit entrusted to you?
WHERE GOD WAS
HOMELESS "Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in. .. . "Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me."
MATTHEW 25:34-35, 40
orne years ago we were spending Christmas in the home of my wife's parents. It was not a happy time in the household. Much had gone wrong during the preceding weeks, and a weight of sadness hung over the home. Yet, in the midst of all that, my mother-in-law kept her routine habit of asking people who would likely have no place to go to share Christmas dinner with us.
That year she invited a man who was, by everyone's estimate, somewhat of an odd person, quite eccentric in his demeanor. Not much was known about him at the church except that he carne regularly, sat alone, and left without much conversation. He obviously lived alone and was quite a sadlooking, solitary figure. He was our Christmas guest.
Because of other happenings in the house (including one daughter being taken to the hospital for the birth of her first child), everything was in confusión. All of our emotions were on edge. It fell upon me, in tum, to entertain this gentleman. I must confess that I did not appreciate it. Owing to a heavy life of travel yearround, I have jealously guarded my Christmases as time to be with my family.
This was not going to be such a privilege, and I was not happy. As I sat in the living room, entertaining him while others were busy, I thought to myself, This is going to be one of the most miserable Christmases ofmy life.
Somehow we got through the evening. He evidently loved the meal, the fire
crackling in the background, the snow outside, the Christmas carols playing, and a rather weighty theological discussion in which he and I engaged—at his instigation, I might add. He was a very well-read man and, as I found out, loved to grapple with heavy theological themes. I do too, but frankly, not during an evening that has been set aside to enjoy life's quiet moments.
At the end of the night when he bade us all good-bye, he reached out and took the hand of each of us, one by one, and said, "Thank you for the best Christmas of my life. I will never forget it." He walked out into the dark, snowy night, back into his solitary existence.
My heart sank in self-indictment at those tender words. I had to draw on every nerve in my being to keep from breaking down with tears. Just a few short years later, relatively young, and therefore to our surprise, he passed away. I have relived that Christmas many times in my memory. That year
God taught me a lesson. A home can reflect and distribute the love of Christ.
The ñrst time I walked through the noisy streets of Bethlehem and endured its smells, I gained a whole new sense of the difference between our Christmas carols, glamorizing the sweetness of the "little town of Bethlehem," and the harsh reality of God becoming flesh and making a home among us. Jesús' earthly address changes our own. Christ comes at Christmas—and each and every day—to show us what it means to live.
REFLECTION QUESTIONS
1. Consider how Jesus's words in Matthew 25 disrupt us with His cali to surrender.
2. Read Luke 2:1-20. What does the ñrst Christmas story reveal about God's invitation and the signiñcance of hospitality?
PERSONAL APPLICATION
1. Do you recall a similar Christmas or time when you were interrupted? How might you open your heart today to those God has placed in your life?
2. Perhaps you are like the lonely man in this story. Ask your heavenly Father where you might ñnd community and be a blessing to someone else.
GIVING ALL
"A son honors his father, and a slave his master. If I am a father, where is the honor due me? If I am a master, where is the respect due me?" says the Lord
Almighty. .. . "When you offer blind animáis for sacrifice, is that not wrong?
When you sacrifice lame or diseased animáis, is that not wrong? Try offering them to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you?" says the Lord Almighty.
MALACHI 1:6, 8
hen I was about twelve or thirteen years oíd, I was asked by our Sunday school teacher if I would be willing to play Joseph in the Nativity mime. I was on the verge of saying no to this request, for most of the Christmas story was hidden under the weight of ceremony for me, and I really did not know what all that meant. But then I was told what I would need to do. Basically, I would walk
Mary to the altar with her arm in mine, stand there, turn around, have her put her arm in mine, and then walk out. No words, no theological insight, no big acting skill needed. When I met who was going to play Mary, I decided this would be quite a thrill.
I arrived at the church early and was walking around with time to kill. At the altar, I happened upon a silver bowl with wafers in it on a table. Having very little knowledge of what this could be, I took a handful of those wafers and enjoyed them as I admired all the great art and statuary in that fine cathedral.
Suddenly I saw the vicar coming out of the vestry and walking straight toward me. I politely greeted him and continued my enjoyment of the biscuits in hand.
He stopped, stared, and quite out of control, shouted, "What are you doing?"
As surprised by his outburst as he was at my activity, I said, "I am Joseph in the Nativity mime."
That evidently was not what he was asking. "What is that in your hand?" he demanded.
As he stared me down from head to toe, he could see that there were more in my pocket. I received the most incomprehensible tongue-lashing to which I had ever been subjected. The word that he kept repeating was the word "sacrilege." I didn't want to check out its meaning, for I was sure this was the end of the line for me, having done something I did not even know how to pronounce.
Years later, I could not help but be reminded of this incident when I was reading
G. Campbell Morgan's definition of sacrilege. He said that it is normally defined as taking something that belongs to God and using it profanely. You may recall the instance in the book of Daniel when Belshazzar took the vessels in the temple and used them for his night of carousing and blasphemy. That was a sacrilegious use. The same applies to our bodies that are intended to be "vessels" in God's Service, or "temples" as the inner sanctuary of worship. When we put the body to profane use, we are committing a sacrilege.
But sacrilege, said Morgan, does not consist only of such profane use. In its worst form, it consists of taking something and giving it to God when it means absolutely nothing to you.- Giving God the "leftovers" of your life rather than the firstfruits. That was the charge God brought against His people when He said, "You bring the lame and the blind and the sick as an offering, is this not evil?"
In contrast, giving all that is your best to God is worship at its core. This cannot be done without the sacrifice of the acclaim and adulation of the world.
If we were to pause for only a few moments and take stock, we would see how cióse we all come to sacrilege each day. Do we give God the best of our time?
Do we give God the best of our energies? Do we give God the best of our thinking? Do we give God the best of our wealth? Do we give God the best of our dreams and plans? Or does the world get our best and God merely gets the leftovers?
As the year closes and a new one approaches, may we remember the One who carne among us, taught us His mission, and then sent the Spirit to guide us in it.
Might our lives echo the heartfelt words of Charles Wesley:
O Thou who camest from above The fire celestial to impart, Kindle a fíame of sacred love On the mean altar of my heart!
There let it for Thy glory burn With inextinguishable blaze.
And trembling to its source return In humble prayer and fervent praise.
Jesús, confirm my heart's desire To work, and speak, and think for Thee; Still let me guard the holy fire.
And still stir up the gift in me.
Ready for all thy perfect will, My acts of faith and love repeat; Till death Thy endless mercies seal.
And make the sacriñce complete.
Christ's sacriñce was meant for our salvation. Our sacriñce is meant for His Service.