Freedom from Our Past

I am surprised by Jesus’ choice of disciples. They formed a rather motley crew, and Peter, called by Jesus from his career as a fisherman, was not always a team player. He was a dedicated but often arrogant disciple. He had a hot temper, was presumptuous, was both fearful and bold, passive and aggressive – and he betrayed the One to whom he vowed absolute devotion. Jesus knew Peter’s defects, but he picked him anyway. And he forgave him for his multiple offenses…
[Peter] could be comically impulsive – twice jumping out of a boat fully clothed! He sometimes challenged Jesus, and he had a habit of speaking out of turn. But he also demonstrated fervent commitment and faith…
[His] personal failure did not put an end to Peter’s relationship with and usefulness to Jesus. In fact, Mark says that the angels guarding Jesus’ tomb after the resurrection told Mary Magdalene to inform Peter first about the miracle of life after death. (I love to imagine that scene, when Peter got the report!) The very One he had sinned against so horrifically extended a merciful invitation to restoration, freeing Peter to leave his guilt and broken sense of self behind. From there, Peter went forward to become a “fisher of men” and a “rock” in the foundation of the church. What a glorious surprise for this far-from-perfect man! …
For those who love Christ, personal sin and failure need not spell “The End” of our story… Perhaps no freedom is more meaningful than that of being liberated from shame and guilt and set back on a path toward serving Christ.
–Between a Rock and a Grace Place: Divine Surprises in the Tight Spots of Life by Carol Kent

Juicy Gossip

Why does a lie spread around the world before the truth can get its pants on?

Gossip is the art of telling tales about another person. It is a practice some people gladly participate in daily. It is a sad commentary on our character that we very quickly believe an evil report about someone—but we only believe in the good upon reflection and thought. Somehow it is easier for us to believe the shady stories rather than search for the truth and for the good.
Before believing evil reports, let us request witnesses and confirmation of a tale. Let us give at least as much time to doubting evil as we give to doubting good. The Bible says in the mouth of two or three witnesses one can be found guilty, not by the hearsay of one person (Deuteronomy 17:6). We are instructed by God not to be talebearers that spread around stories about others (Leviticus 19:16). Look for the truth, look for the good and avoid gossip.

The Right Kind of Trouble

Earlier in the week [Jordan] had written down the phrase familiarity breeds contempt. He believed it true about [the story of the Good Samaritan]. His fear was that he would open his Bible, read the text, and the people would close their minds and smile and nod and later shake his hand and say, “Great message today.”
“A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead”…
As he chewed on the text in his mind throughout the week, the two-word sandwich half-dead proved tough as gristle … He couldn’t say that anyone had ever responded with those two words when he asked how they were doing. Plenty would answer with fine or alright, but those were words you might easily hear from an inanimate object…
As he continued grinding half-dead through [his mind], he eventually spit out the word exhaustion: “Ah, now there’s a word to consider.” He remembered an evening several months ago … a popular poet [spoke about] a conversation he’d had with a [monk]. He’d asked the Brother to tell him the antidote for exhaustion; the Brother’s answer had stunned the poet, as it did Jordan:
“The antidote is not rest; it’s wholeheartedness. Half-anything will eventually kill you.” …
[H]e still had two days to hone his thoughts [before his sermon]. Friday was his usual day off and he planned to hike a little in the morning and run errands in the afternoon. Saturday was Grace’s twice-a-month Soup Kitchen; he would need to be on hand to guide Jim and Linda Fairchild through their first experience. So far, those Saturdays were always brimming with trouble, but it was the right kind of trouble…
-From the novel Start With Me: A Modern Parable, by Michael Seaton with John Blase

Receiving Daily Bread

Christian churches love to preach about the need for boldness – and they are not wrong for doing so – but boldness is not listed as evidence of God’s presence. Jesus does not tell his disciples to go out and be bold for him … Having delivered them from earn-your-way performance religion, he does not then require them to live by such rules. He advises them, instead, to join him in the celebration of the bread and the wine, to wait for power from his Father, and to live as wise as serpents and as innocent as doves. Jesus wants men strong, wise, and gentle, apparently…
In the peaceable kingdom, performance is set aside for a willingness to receive, and because receiving goes against our native philosophy of life, many men miss the benefits God has reserved for them. “I’m not going to take nuthin’ from nobody” isn’t going to work at the point of your need, and it certainly isn’t something you hear coming from Jesus to describe life in his kingdom. That little illusive door through which one must pass, which requires receiving a gift instead of giving or earning one, is a stumbling block of enormous proportion to a self-made man or a self-centered church…
[In] our life together, we must exchange performance words such as win, earn, success, and loss for life-giving words such as receive, accept, love, and celebrate. The words by which our spiritual fathers invite us to participate in the life of Jesus at the table of his presence describe the prevailing way of life in his kingdom: “I also give to you that which I have received from the Lord.” A man is set free to live when he realizes he cannot, and is not required to, give something he has not received, that the source from which he can receive is unlimited. Jesus embeds in his teaching this concept of a continual flow of life from God to man when he taught his disciples to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.” We celebrate the kingdom as the gift of his daily presence.
-Wes Yoder, Bond of Brothers: Connecting with Other Men Beyond Work, Weather & Sports

Good Credit

Avoid the credit traps and you can avoid being enslaved to debt.

How can we establish ourselves as a credible person when it comes to borrowing money? How can we get to the point that our credit rating is high? Oddly enough, it is not by being in debt. It is not by just managing our financial obligations each month—though that is a good thing. Maurice Switzer wrote, “The best way of establishing your credit is to work yourself into a position of not needing any.”
Credit is obtaining money with a promise to repay. Credit cards, for example, have allowed our debts to skyrocket. Uncontrolled credit is one of the reasons for our huge economic woes today. The Bible reminds us that the borrower is the servant of the lender (Proverbs 22:7). Live within your means and stay out of debt—that makes you a “good risk” in credit establishment terms. You can have that good reputation without being a debtor.

Forward March

I will say … to the south, ‘Do not hold them back.'” (Isaiah 43:6)
From the pen of Charles Spurgeon: Although this message was said to the nations of the south to hold back no longer the dispersed descendants of Israel, the following may be a valuable summons to personally apply to ourselves as well: “Do not hold … back”…
Dear reader, are you still unconverted, but have a desire to trust in the Lord Jesus? Then, “Do not hold … back.” Love invites you, God’s promises guarantee your success, and Christ’s precious blood prepares your way…
Dear friend, are you already saved? … There is a blessed promise made to those who confess Christ, so by no means miss it … If you have been blessed with talents, don’t hold back from using them. Neither hoard your wealth, waste your time, let your abilities rust, nor let your influence be unused … Don’t hold back from close communion with God, from boldly appropriating His covenant blessings, from advancing in His divine life, and from searching into the precious mysteries of the love of Christ … Beloved friend, do not be guilty of holding others back by your coldness, harshness, or doubts. For His sake, go forward with Jesus and encourage others to do the same…
From the pen of Jim Reimann: Paul told Timothy to “endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus” (2 Tim. 2:3). And, of course, a “good soldier” does not “hold back,” but like Paul, “Forgetting what is behind … press[es] on toward the goal” (Phil. 3:13 – 14).
-Charles Spurgeon & Jim Reimann, Morning by Morning: The Devotions of Charles Spurgeon

Something No One Else Did

The public station was replaying an interview with historian/sociologist Rodney Stark…
Reporter: Why did the Christian movement grow so rapidly in the first few centuries after Jesus’ crucifixion? …
Stark: The growth surge of Christianity was rooted in the response of early Christians to a wave of great pandemics … During that time, Christians did something no one else did.
Reporter: And what was that?
Stark: It sounds simple, but they stayed. They helped. And many gave their lives in doing so. In my book, The Rise of Christianity, I refer to a letter written by Dionysius, the bishop of Alexandria. He describes how early Christians responded to a deadly plague that killed an estimated five thousand people a day in the Roman Empire sometime around AD 260:
“Most of our brother Christians showed unbounded love and loyalty, never sparing themselves and thinking only of one another. Heedless of danger, they took charge of the sick, attending to their every need and ministering to them in Christ … they were infected by others with the disease, drawing on themselves the sickness of the neighbors and cheerfully accepting their pains. Many, in nursing and curing others, transferred their death to themselves and died in their stead…”
[Elly] wondered if she could have done as much in AD 260; she wanted to think so… [Her thoughts jumped to an encounter] two weeks ago. She simply picked up a runaway tube of lipstick and returned it to the owner. But the owner’s eyes betrayed a fragility Elly hadn’t seen lately. As she handed the lipstick back, the woman received it with both hands, as if it were a robin’s egg or a long lost coin … [Elly] couldn’t remember exactly what her parting words were, something like “Bless your heart … just go slow.” … Stark’s words still hung in the air. “Heedless of danger … they were infected by others.” She hadn’t thought to heed the danger of pausing to pick up a lipstick…
-From the novel Start With Me: A Modern Parable, by Michael R. Seaton