Mission Faithwalk

           And if we are careful to obey all this law before the Lord our God, as he has commanded us, that will be our righteousness .” (Deuteronomy 6:25)           But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,   and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus . (Romans 3:21-24)                      So, how carefully are you obeying all of the law before the Lord our God? How is your righteousness on that basis? How about the righteousness of our nation? We all like to think our lives aren’t so bad, or even, are pretty good, but every point of the law? Here’s an easy one – how often do you exceed the speed limit, by even 1 mile per hour? How about those turn signals? Oh, right – thos

Abram believed the Lord , and he credited it to him as righteousness. (Genesis 15:16)             This week’s prayer focus is righteousness. The verse I’ve chosen isn’t one of the ones provided, but it seems to me to be a place to begin because it’s an irritating verse. Because Abram believed the Lord, God credited it to him as righteousness. This was in spite of his lying to a number of people about his relationship with his wife, in spite of his effectively pimping his wife to two different guys, in spite of his using his wife’s slave as a surrogate mother. He believed God, so he was righteous even though he did these things? But, on the other hand, an atheist who is faithful to his wife and treats others with respect, who never does anything “wrong” except for not believing in God is not righteous? How is that supposed to work?           If I happened to miraculously always treat you as you want to be treated, you might be tempted to call me righteous. If I treated the next

Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? (Matthew 6:27) The path of life leads upward for the prudent to keep them from going down to the realm of the dead . (Proverbs 15:24)   Today, I have to begin with what I believe this verse is not saying. It’s not saying, “Be stoic, just grin and bear it,” or “Be fatalistic, there’s nothing you can do about it.” Even more, it’s not saying, “Chuck your brain in the garbage. Don’t worry. Be happy.” Scripture teaches repeatedly that we should be prudent, which means acting and showing care and thought for the future. None of the responses listed involve being prudent.  As I think about the idea of prudence, it seems to me that it is a good goal for the summer. The area where I live just went “green.” I suspect some people think that means no more masks, dining out regularly, parties, rallies, and protests all permitted. What it means is that businesses may open – carefully, but that all the same general precautio

“‘Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord . (Leviticus 19:18) Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?”            Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times. ( Matthew 18:21-22, and sometimes, “seventy-seven” is translated “seventy times seven.”)             This is one of those “Yeah, but” verses. Many, perhaps most people who read it will say (or think), “Yeah, but… you don’t understand my situation.” Saying “Don’t seek revenge” and “don’t bear a grudge” but “love your neighbor yourself” is easy. We’ll gladly say it to someone else, but when it comes to our not seeking revenge or our not bearing a grudge, or our loving, that’s a different story. Our situation is different. The person who hurt us or ours deserves punishment. We’re the victims here!          Others may poi

          God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupt ed their ways. (Genesis 6:12) Make room for us in your hearts. We have wronged no one, we have corrupt ed no one, we have exploited no one. (2 Corinthians 7:2) When Jesus came down from the mountainside, large crowds followed him. A man with leprosy came and knelt before him and said, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.”              Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” Immediately he was cleansed of his leprosy. (Matthew 8:1-3)            Since the subject of the week has been repentance, my mind has drifted from that word to the word corrupt a number of times. It’s a term that’s often bandied about. It was borrowed from Old French corropt , from Latin corruptus , past participle of corrumpō, corrumpere (“to destroy, ruin, injure, spoil, corrupt, bribe”), from com - (“together”) + rumpere (“to break in pieces.”)

          But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen you and protect you from the evil one. ( II Thessalonians 3:3) Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil. And he still maintains his integrity, though you incited me against him to ruin him without any reason.”      “Skin for skin!” Satan replied. “A man will give all he has for his own life.   But now stretch out your hand and strike his flesh and bones, and he will surely curse you to your face.” The Lord said to Satan, “Very well, then, he is in your hands; but you must spare his life.” (Job 2:3-6)           Oh, I need this today. I need this every day. As I think about what it means to be protected from the evil one, I think of a term that is being bandied about a lot recently: privilege. Others have pointed out “not privileged but blessed.” I’m going to suggest “not privileged (by man) but

Th e Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare. (II Peter 3:9-10) There’s and old story about a guy trapped on a roof in a flood. Someone comes along in a rowboat, and the guy refuses to leave the roof, proclaiming, “God will rescue me!” As the water continues to rise, someone from the Cajun Navy offers him a ride, and the man says again, “God will rescue me!” Later, as the water is splashing onto the roof, someone in a helicopter offers help, and the man swallows, but insists, “God will rescue me.” The house collapses, the man perishes, and as he stands before God, he asks, “Why didn’t you rescue me? And God says, “I sent a rowboat, a member of the Cajun Navy, and a hel

“Even now,” declares the LORD, “ return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning”  Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity. (Joel 2:12-13)   As usual, definitions matter. For some, repentance is all about tears, sackcloth, and ashes. Some would say it fits well with rending your heart. Too often, it seems more about rending your garments. If a person expresses deep sorrow about a sin, we tend to assume that they’re sorry and they’ll never do it again. Sometimes, they are sorry they got caught. Sometimes, they are embarrassed. Sometimes, it’s all part of a show. And yes, sometimes they are genuinely sorry. Only God knows. And He knows that I’ve done my share of “I’ll never do it again, Lord” and I do it again, and again.  The keys to repentance seem to be in the heart, which means when Joel wrote about it, that it w

          Why , my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put you r hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God. (Psalm 42:11)           The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? (Jeremiah 17:9)           Their heart is deceitful , and now they must bear their guilt. The Lord will demolish their altars and destroy their sacred stones. (Hosea 10:2)           “Why, my soul, are you downcast?” This is a question I’ve faced over the past couple days. There was and is nothing any more wrong in my life than there has been for most of my life. Sure, there is COVID-19 and the societal collapse brought about by governors trying to solve the COVID-19 problem. Sure, there is the social disintegration brought about by hatred and our inept attempts to impose fixes on society. Those could both be reasons to despair, and I considered the fact that I had been emotionally involved in both those issues for a whi

For the past couple days, I've been spending a fair portion of the day struggling to write blog posts, and tying myself in knots because I can't come up with any passage to share. For the time being, I'm going to take a half-a-step back. If I find a passage that inspires me, or if there's an idea to explore, I'll write. If there's not, I won't. I expect I'll be writing at least once per week, but for now, I'm going to stop requiring myself to come up with something and beating myself up because I'm not. If you have ideas of passages you'd like me to look at - that would be welcome.

  being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. (Philippians 1:6)             Normally, I try to finish writing a blog post by lunchtime the day before I share it with you. It’s a bad day if it takes that long. It’s a really bad day if it takes me until dinner. And now, it’s 10:00 pm, and I’m only now reaching a point where I can write, and getting here has included not only anger but tears.              Part of the problem is all that is going on around us, the virus, and the hatred. Part of the problem was that it was a Thursday when I have a volunteer job that I want to do, but that takes the better part of the afternoon. Part of it is that I had plans for when I came north that aren’t happening because of the virus, because I don’t have a clue what I’m doing, and because I’m afraid to go out and fail.            Part of it is that I got it into my head to garden and forage and that there would be this

“Shout and be glad, Daughter Zion. For I am coming, and I will live among you,” declares the Lord .      Zechariah 2:10                 This is the second passage for today’s prayer walking, and the first (and only) things that come to mind are “Hallelujah” and “Even so, Lord Jesus, come!” The phrase “the day of the Lord” came to mind while I was walking and praying for centers of education.            If you go through the Old Testament prophets, you’ll encounter the phrase “the day of the Lord.” Sometimes, the writers give the impression that it’s a great and wonderful thing, like the promise above that the Lord will live among Zion. Other times, it’s referred to as horrible or terrible, and involves the Israelites going off into captivity.            One explanation for this is that there is more than one “day of the Lord.” This one is good, that one is bad. Another explanation is that there is more than one response to the day of the Lord. When the Israelites were wandering i

Be glad, people of Zion, rejoice in the Lord your God, for he has given you the autumn rains because he is faithful. He sends you abundant showers, both autumn and spring rains, as before. The threshing floors will be filled with grain; the vats will overflow with new wine and oil.                 “I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten— the great locust and the young locust, the other locusts and the locust swarm— my great army that I sent among you. You will have plenty to eat, until you are full, and you will praise the name of the Lord your God, who has worked wonders for you; never again will my people be shamed.   Then you will know that I am in Israel, that I am the Lord your God, and that there is no other; never again will my people be shamed. ( Joel 2:23-27)           Yesterday, I promised to write about the locusts after I did some research, but I’m disappointed. I was hoping for some explanation of the four-fold mention, but the locust doesn’t fol

Be glad, people of Zion, rejoice in the Lord your God, for he has given you the autumn rains because he is faithful. He sends you abundant showers, both autumn and spring rains, as before. The threshing floors will be filled with grain; the vats will overflow with new wine and oil.    " I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten— the great locust and the young locust, the other locusts and the locust swarm— my great army that I sent among you. You will have plenty to eat, until you are full, and you will praise the name of the Lord your God, who has worked wonders for you; never again will my people be shamed.   Then you will know that I am in Israel, that I am the Lord your God, and that there is no other; never again will my people be shamed. (Joel 2:23-27)            A friend shared an organized opportunity for prayer for the next 6 weeks that I thought would be a good change of pace for my prayer life. Each day of the week, the prayers lift up a differe

          But suppose the servant says to himself, ‘My master is taking a long time in coming,’ and he then begins to beat the other servants, both men and women, and to eat and drink and get drunk. The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the unbelievers. (Luke 12:45-46)             When you read this passage, what sort of person do you envision?   In the past, I’ve tended to think the servant was a horrible person, the sort who would strike others just for the fun of being abusive, and who neglects to do his job but instead sits at the table and mockingly pretends to be the master.             On the other hand, one of the recommendations given to authors is that they create villains who don’t see themselves as the villain of the story. They see themselves as the hero. In fact, the best villains supposedly want the exact same thing as the hero, but the

  Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.   Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many. Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body.   If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be?   But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.   If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body. (I Corinthians 12: 12-20)  This morning, I glanced at an e

  in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. (I Thessalonians 5:18)           Yesterday, someone on one of my writer’s groups Face Book pages asked what we were thankful for. While I didn’t include her asking the question in the list, I am thankful for the question, because it got my mind working in a good direction. What are we thankful for?            I don’t remember all of what I listed, but it included or should have included the cooler temperatures,  having finished my concrete block garden project (at least for now,)  having gotten the window project done (for now,)  having published one book, possibly completed another, and making progress on a third family and friends the growth of my gardens my dog my truck and COVID-19 because it started one of my “I need to be better prepared” phases and has led to what looks like it’s going to be an educational summer.           I have yet to find a way to be thankful for the murders of