God is purposeful and patient. He does all things for His glory. He is always working in His people and through His people to share His redeeming grace with the world. The Bible chronicles His decisive movements in human history to rescue and renew those who trust Him, often in some of the darkest and most discouraging times. He is still working in our day – difficult times are His specialty.

When we fail, He doesn’t give up on us. When we turn away, He pursues us. If we rebel, He disciplines us for our good, that we may share in His holiness. His love is everlasting, and mercies are new every morning. He works all things together for His glorious purposes; and He’s patient with us as we stumble along.

The record of God’s dealings with His people are contained in the Bible for our instruction, that diligently studying them we might have hope. For the next ten weeks we will be following God’s patient and purposeful dealings with His people in the Old Testament book of Nehemiah. Returning to Jerusalem following 70 (purposeful) years of captivity, Nehemiah was overwhelmed with grief that things were not as they should be in Jerusalem. The walls of the city were in shambles, the gates were destroyed, and the people were demoralized. It was the perfect condition for God to showcase His grace and glory. And He did.

God raised up a man, gave him a vision, answered his prayers, provided all he needed, and united the people to join him to accomplish the great work of rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem. Beyond the construction project, God was renewing His people and deepening their faith. He’s purposeful and patient. Nehemiah is full of leadership lessons, and countless spiritual applications for trusting God in dark times. It is an ancient book with contemporary guidance for anyone who wants to follow God in a challenging world. What do you do when life is not the way it should be? When you are criticized and challenged. When you don’t know where resources will come from. When you haven’t got a prayer. When it looks like things will never get better.

God’s specialty is demonstrating His power and glory when human resources are depleted. He delights to do exceedingly and abundantly more than we could ask or think, building up the faith and hope of His people as He works around us. Nehemiah’s description of God will guide us through the study: You are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love (Nehemiah 9:17).

Trusting God’s purposes and resting in His patience!

Tom

Someone you know needs Jesus. God may well be preparing their hearts for the next time your life intersects with theirs. How can you get them to Jesus? Easter services at Calvary have a built-in draw for moving people toward the good news of the gospel. More people come to church on Easter than nearly any other time of year. We should help them get to church; more, help them get to Jesus.

In one of my favorite stories in the Bible, four men carried their paralyzed friend to Jesus, who happened to be inside a house so crowded with people no one else could enter through the front door. Undaunted, they climbed up on top of the house, tore open a hole in the roof and lowered their buddy down on a stretcher, right in front of the Lord. They knew if they could just get their paralyzed friend to Jesus, He would help, heal, and forgive. And that is exactly what happened.

Hutzpah for sure. Mark 2:5 says, “When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven.’” The faith of the four friends caught Jesus’ attention. Their compassion and determination were rewarded with a front row seat to the healing power and forgiving mercy of Jesus in the life of someone they loved. They couldn’t heal their friend; they just got him to the One who could.

Over the last twenty-five years around forty million people stopped going to church, according to Jim Davis and Michael Graham, in their book, The Great Dechurching. Their extensive research shows a complex of factors impacting all religious traditions, including our own. The data is fascinating and more than a little discouraging. Yet in their research they found that a significant percentage of people who have left would return if someone invited them back to the community of church. The single application of their findings is not to get the dechurched back into the building, but to invite them back into a community of friends who know Jesus and want them to know Him too.

Easter provides us this very opportunity. You won’t have to cut a hole in the ceiling – just bring them in the front door with you on March 31. Then maybe take them for coffee or have them at your table. People are longing for a loving community where healing and forgiveness can be found. We’ve got to get them to Jesus who is their hope of eternal life and forgiveness. This is our mission.

Jesus said to the paralytic, “Rise, pick up your bed and go home.” And immediately he rose, picked up his bed, and went home, so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, “We’ve never seen anything like this!”  Let’s have bold faith to open our lives to people who need Jesus. And may we see the glory of God in transformed lives like we’ve never seen it before.

With you on the journey,

Tom

If you could ask Jesus any question, what would it be? He’s omniscient – there is nothing He doesn’t know. Wouldn’t it be exhilarating, and maybe a bit intimidating, to ask Him anything? Does the Daniel diet really work? What are the top three stocks you’d invest in today? Is climate change something we should worry about? How many more years do I have to live? What would you ask Him?

In the New Testament, a variety of people asked Jesus more than 180 questions, but He only answered around 8. On the other hand, He asked more than 300 questions as He interacted with the multitudes. He was interested in people, what they thought, what they believed, and what they wanted in life. He knew questions could engage a listener more effectively than simply dropping an exquisite lecture. He epitomized being quick to hear and slow to speak. (**A lesson we would do well to learn as we engage those around us today).  He was curious, and His questions demanded honest answers. Here are a couple:
 
Why are you anxious? Why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye and not see the plank in your own? What good is it for someone to gain the whole world and lose their own soul? Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robber?
 
His questions were conversation starters, drawing others in to consider what they truly valued and believed. Some of His questions were compassionate and gentle; others dropped like a bomb of searing conviction. But He always aimed to lead people to reflection, discovery, and decision. Ultimately, His questions were a call to faith in Himself, as the all-knowing, all-sufficient Son of God. When Jesus asks, we should answer.

Over the next two months, concluding on Easter, we are going to study some of the engaging inquiries of Jesus.  His questions draw us in; they confront us; they make us wrestle with ultimate reality. They demand a serious response as they invite us to evaluate our own lives, priorities, and faith. Reading through the gospels over these weeks will help prepare you for Sunday mornings at Calvary.

Now I have two questions for you. Will you be there this Sunday? Will you invite someone to join you? Week one, February 4, is Jesus’ question from the Sermon on the Mount: Why are you anxious? It is the perfect question to begin our series as the world reels with anxiety. But don’t worry, there is a brilliant prescription for peace in the words of Jesus. See you Sunday.
 
With you on the journey,

Tom

Let’s take a little test to start off 2024. Which word best describes you today? Frazzled? Floundering? Or, flourishing?

Recovering from the busy holiday rush, returning to the pressures of everyday life, or worrying about the uncertainties of another year can leave each of us feeling frazzled. Do you think Jesus ever felt that way? Today as I rushed to make a lunch appointment on time, I laughed at the thought of Jesus running anywhere, ever, to arrive on time!  Sure, He stayed busy in constant ministry to others, experiencing fatigue and the need to rest. But you don’t get the sense that He was ever harried. He was always certain about His purpose and the meaning of His life. He never floundered about the reason He was here on earth. He came to do the will of His Father, and He did it – all the way to the end. So even though Jesus’ life had more than its share of ridicule, rejection, and suffering, He lived a life flourishing in the will of God. In 2024 we want to learn how to live more like Jesus – and to love more like Jesus.

Our world is experiencing one of the most divisive and contentious eras in history. Medicine, politics, morality, economics, world wars, and novel ideologies are all domains of increasingly heated debate and division, on display constantly in the news and social media. The goal seems to be to divide people through every means possible. Ridicule. Attack. Cancel. The results are suspicion and distrust; isolation and loneliness; and broken relationships everywhere. How would Jesus live and love in our world today?

He was drawn to the broken and loved them. He called the sick and healed them. He fed the hungry. He raised up the downcast and spoke the rebuke of truth to the proud. This was the work the Father gave Him to do so that all could know God so loved the world. God and His gospel tell a better story. There is a pure and perfect love that flows from the heart of God to broken people and restores the damage of our loveless world. God is love and we cannot flourish without Him.
 
In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 1 John 4:10, 11

The Bible says, “Above all put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.” Think of that. It is a priority. A command. And the energizing force that creates flourishing and perfect harmony. No wonder Jesus said, “by this will all people know you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” Love is an apologetic for the plausibility of the gospel. Love is also an attraction for those who fear love has passed them by. Love is the aligning mission for a church endeavoring to be a Christ-centered community of people fully devoted to loving God and loving others.

FLOURISH is our January series on Sunday mornings at Calvary. We’ll be looking at the relationships that make life beautiful and the love required to help them grow deep. We want to learn to love like Jesus. Love was His mission. Love is our calling. We cannot flourish without it.

With you on the journey,

Tom

In May of this year the Wall Street Journal published a list of 29 countries currently engaged in armed military conflict around the world. It is difficult to reconcile this reality with the Christmas longing of peace on earth and good will to men. To say nothing of the ancient prophecy of Isaiah declaring that a male child would be born to a virgin and his titles would include, “Prince of Peace.”

Yet we enter the second week of Advent 2023, preparing for Christmas by meditating on the theme of peace. A beloved Christmas carol nostalgically opines:

That carol is an adaptation of a poem written in 1863 by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, composed during the height of the American Civil War. It was one of the darkest hours of American history, a time of hatred, death, and war. One particular verse captures the enigma:

The LAST DAYS are generally referred to in the Bible as the time between the first and second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. But more specifically, the Bible indicates that prior to the Lord’s second coming (the LAST of the LAST DAYS) there will be rampant lawlessness, blatant idolatry, and pervasive deception. This is probably why nearly every generation of Christ-followers have eagerly anticipated the Lord’s return in their own day; each saying, “It’s never been this bad.” So, are we living in the LAST DAYS? Yes. And yet we cannot know the day or hour of the last day (Matthew 24:36).

According to the Apostle Paul, one of the distinct features of the end of human history will be utter confusion about truth and reality. He wrote that just prior to the Lord’s return the world would be marked by a wicked deception on those who are perishing because they refuse to love the truth and instead take great pleasure in all kinds of unrighteousness. They will wistfully call evil good, and good evil. They will deny what is true and promote abominable lies. As a judgment, God Himself will send a strong delusion on them so that they will believe what is false (1 Thessalonians 2).

How do the people of God fortify themselves against the whelming flood of lies and deception of the LAST DAYS? Only one way. While resting in the grace of God to save us through Christ alone and to protect us through the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit, our part is to love and obey His word. Paul told the Thessalonians to stand firm in what they were taught. Stability in a world of deception depends on a foundation grounded in the Word of God.

Jesus’s prayer to His Father in John 17 reflects a similar theme for His disciples who would soon face crushing tribulation and martyrdom: “I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.”  He faced his own trial of temptation with the words: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”  He knew “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.”

Too many professing Christians do not know – or believe – this. And I worry that the church is unprepared to withstand deception on such a scale. As evidence of a prolific demise in biblical literacy, the Barna Research Group reported in recent years that only 60 percent of American adults can name even five of the 10 Commandments; 12 percent believe Joan of Arc was Noah’s wife; and 50 percent believe Sodom and Gomorrah were married.  We’ve become a society that prefers to swipe screens more than read a Bible.  This ignorance won’t end well.

Of course, the point of this is not to simply know the facts of the Bible, but to be shaped by it. To let it be a lamp to our feet and light to our path. To see it as a source of spiritual nourishment for growing up in respect to our salvation. We need the Bible because it leads us to God. Neglecting it, we will drift.

Here are three simple suggestions for restarting your Bible reading plan:

1. Read a chapter of Proverbs daily. 31 days a month; 31 chapters of Proverbs. The wisdom gained in this brilliantly inspired poetry will help you not be fooled in life.
2. Read the Psalms, two a day, to give voice to your joys, sorrows, laments, and praise.
3. Read the four gospels. One a month, three times a year, traveling through the life and words of Jesus, who told us to observe everything he commanded.

The Old Testament prophet Amos said: “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord God, “when I will send a famine on the land—not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord.”    Is there a worse predicament than not being able to hear a word from God? Let this judgment not be true of us. We cannot live without God. We cannot be grounded in what is really real – without His truth. Let us be as the Bereans, who were “were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so (Acts 17:11).

With you on the journey!

Tom