Mission Faithwalk

                 Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is kept safe.  (Proverbs 29:25)                 What are you afraid of? Chances are good, you’ll answer with something like spiders, snakes, death, or public speaking. You might suggest something like lions, tigers, bears, or Great Whites. The key involved is that these all provoke great aversion. I used to stop gardening once the spiders showed up on the plants. I’ll admit that I’m not likely to want to swim in the ocean, especially off the coast of South Africa and if there were a tiger on the loose in my area, I’m not likely to sit outside, even knowing that tigers are rarely man-eaters. That’s one kind of fear.                 And someone could have that sort of fear of other people, while ot...

                                   “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. (Matthew 5:11-12)                 Let’s start with the obvious. This does not say that we should take pleasure in being abused by others. It is not a call to be masochists. Insults, persecutions, and lies aren’t meant to produce rejoicing. Instead, it’s the stuff behind the insults, persecutions, and lies that should make us rejoice. It’s what’s behind or beneath the insults, persecutions, and lies that should lead to rejoicing. Jesus was insulted, persecuted, and lied about. The prophets were insulted, ...

                 And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, (Philippians 1:9-10) Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it. (Proverbs 22:6) A friend told me her story with the verse from Proverbs above. She had thought it meant that we should train a child in the direction we wanted them to live. She realized that it was more about teaching a child in accordance with the child’s personality, abilities, etc. I suspect both are true. We should teach children both what is right and good, and according to their proclivities. If you have a child with mechanical skill, teach him/her mechanics. Don’t demand that a child who loves to cook ignore the stove and learn to repair an engine. But at the same time, teach a child that...

              My times are in your hands; deliver me from the hands of my enemies, from those who pursue me . (Psalm 31:15)                 The etymology of the word enemy comes from “not” and “love.” An enemy, then, is someone who doesn’t love you. But what does it mean to love you? There seem to be two keys. Someone who loves you wants what is in your best interest and wants to be around and pay attention to you. That means that the person who wants to kill you is your enemy, but so is the person who claims to love you, but who encourages you or manipulates you to do things that aren’t really good for you. Those “friends” who encourage sexual activity outside of marriage, drinking “a few beers,” trying drugs, watching some porn, eating unhealthfully, or other sins, are your enemies. They may claim to be friends.  They aren’t. They may claim to love you. They don’t. And...

               The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. (I Corinthians 2:14)                 I’ve talked about this idea before. It’s not some magical thing that only works in the spiritual realm. If you are shown an optical illusion, like the crone and the young woman, you may only be able to see it one way. Try as they might, those who see it the other way may not be able to teach you to see it the way they do. It’s just the way the mind works. A technical term for it may be “cognitive bias.” Of course, one of the problems with cognitive bias is that those who have it attribute it to others, who eagerly point out the speck in the eyes of others, while ignoring the “log” in their own eyes. What we “know” to be ...

                   Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone?  Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken. (Ecclesiastes 4:11-12)                 This passage was one mentioned during my Sunday School class, in which the topic was loneliness. I’m not sharing this to get pity or to make others feel like they have to do something for me. I’m sharing it to explore and to invite others to explore as well. But these verses hit a little close to home. I don’t tend to think of myself as lonely. I’m used to being on my own.                 At the same time, I’ve written before about recognizing the benefits of community. Some of them are included in the passage above. As we discusse...