Mission Faithwalk

               Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth . (I John 3:18) But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. (James 2:18) There are memes that tell us that it doesn’t matter what you think or believe. All that matters is what you do. There are also memes that tell us that other people don’t need our minds when they’re going through a struggle. They just need for us to be there. The second reminds me of a scene from Harvey in which a psychiatrist tells Mr. Dowd that his dream is for someone to listen to him and pat him on the head, saying, “There, there” at appropriate intervals. I can’t think of a more demeaning way to treat someone. Today’s passages don’t allow Christians to divide themselves that way. We aren’t to love with words or speech, but with actions and truth. That includes the uncomfortable truth - gently but firmly expressed. Yes, wi

                 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. (I John 4:9) A number of posts in the past have mentioned or discussed the Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman. I’ve also shared my belief that love is seeking what is in the best interests of the beloved. In today’s passage, God is shown as a giver of gifts. He gave His Son to us, for us, and in our place, and He gave His Son permission to give Himself for all those purposes. He could have told Jesus He wasn’t permitted but He gave Him permission to do what love required of Jesus, knowing the cost, and He allowed Jesus to take the responsibility He chose to and to suffer the pain that such a responsibility required. In giving His Son, God served our needs. In coming, Jesus served our needs. The 33 years that Jesus spend in Palestine are far removed from ours, but because of the records of His time here, the high quality of that time spent conti

                   D o not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father[ a ] is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. (I John 2:15-16) I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.  (John 17:14-16) Yesterday’s topic was settling in and living in exile in Babylon. Today’s examines the other side of the coin. God instructed the Israelites to settle in the land and live their lives, but they were to remain Israelites, because if they became Babylonian, they would have no reason to look forward to returning to Israel in 70 years. In the same way, we are called to live out our lives (roughly 70-80 years) in

                           This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce.   Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.” Yes, this is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: “Do not let the prophets and diviners among you deceive you. Do not listen to the dreams you encourage them to have. They are prophesying lies to you in my name. I have not sent them,” declares the Lord. (Jeremiah 29:4-9)             The unthinkable had happened. God had promised the send them into exile if they didn’t listen, and they didn’t listen. Now they had been

                      Goliath stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, “Why do you come out and line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and are you not the servants of Saul? Choose a man and have him come down to me.  If he is able to fight and kill me, we will become your subjects; but if I overcome him and kill him, you will become our subjects and serve us.”  Then the Philistine said, “This day I defy the armies of Israel! Give me a man and let us fight each other.”  On hearing the Philistine’s words, Saul and all the Israelites were dismayed and terrified . (I Samuel 17:8-11) We all know this story, but it came to mind with regard to the verse I was going to consider this morning and it muscled the other verse out. One of the thoughts that immediately comes to mind is a poem:   My Five Smooth Stones   My five smooth stones, they missed their mark today. The giant laughed and went his scornful way. and I, left dazed and bloody on the field, can only say that I re

  Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.  (I John 4:20) I struggle with the logic of this verse. It has nothing to do with my particular siblings. I won't even say that I'm correct - just that I struggle. It is just with the idea that loving someone who is seen is easier than loving someone who is unseen. The physical people with whom I have lived seem to me to be harder to escape. Their idiosyncrasies and irritating habits are harder to ignore because they’re right there – in your face, demanding immediate response, even if that response is self-control so that you don’t respond badly. Siblings are like face-to-face visits or telephone calls  - one feels obligated to answer what has been said immediately. Because God is unseen, He tends to be easier to ignore. He’s like an e-mail, text message, or letter. You can get back to him when

                 The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,” and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. (Romans 13:9-10) Generally, the Constitution is a charter of negative liberties, says what the states can’t do to you. Says what the federal government can’t do to you. But it doesn’t say what the state or federal government must do on your behalf. (President Barack Obama) One of the things President Obama had against the Constitution was that it addressed what the federal government couldn’t do to a person, not what it must do to a person. (See the quote above.) He seemed to think this a failing on the part of the rules by which the government is required to behave. All of law, including the Mosaic Law hangs on negative liberties and negative requirements. C

               The crucible for  silver and the furnace for gold, but the Lord tests the heart. (Proverbs 17:3) There’s an oft-repeated story about a silver-smith testing his silver by the quality of his reflection in the silver. We’re told that God tests our hearts by the quality of His reflection in our hearts, and we’re told that often we have to endure a lot of “heat” in order to separate the dross from the precious metal. But… when the heat is on, we tend to tell people they must be doing something wrong. If there weren’t sin/dross in their lives, God wouldn’t have to punish us. The problem is that the heat isn’t punishment. It’s anti-biotic. It’s solution. It’s repair. And it may well be an indication that we’re doing something right – that we’ve reached a point that God thinks is suitable for dross removal. What is harder is when the “heat” applied is silence, or a decided lack of applied pressure and heat? When we are facing a “dark night of the soul,” or even a short si

                 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. (I John 4:11-12) The other day, I wrote a little about the idea of God making it so that we could not sin. Today’s passage from Biblegateway.com brings that to mind with an implied question. Can God’s love be incomplete? My Κοινη (Greek) isn’t good enough to extent into the various tenses, but the word translated “complete” in this verse comes from the same word Jesus spoke on the cross, that we translate “finished.” It looks as if the second part of the word may indicate an ongoing completeness. If God’s love is made complete in us, in what sense might it not be complete apart from us? Does incompleteness not mean imperfection? How can God be perfect, but His love be imperfect? Part of the answer is the fact that love can and does involve a process. Our love for our children doesn’t invo

             When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?” (John 5:6) This verse is from the passage about the man at the Pool of Siloam, who had been paralyzed for more than three decades. The reason he was at the pool was the rumor that when an angel stirred the waters of the pool, if you immersed yourself,  you would be healed. He’d been waiting, but every time the water stirred, others got there ahead of him. He’d been waiting. How could Jesus ask him if he wanted to be healed? How uncompassionate! How inconsiderate! Any idiot would know that the man wanted to be healed. Except… If he really wanted to be healed, wouldn’t he have positioned himself so close to the pool that when the angel stirred the waters, he could just tumble in? Wouldn’t he have arranged to have someone else help him – someone who also wanted to be healed, so they could go together? And while he might like the idea of

  For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory . (Romans 8:14-17)   I have heard it suggested that if God were a good God, and an all-powerful God, that He could and should make it so that no evil could be done. One of the ideas behind this claim is the belief that man is good – or would be good if external forces didn’t make it necessary to be evil. In my experience, people do evil for reasons that have nothing to do with external pressures. Two people could face the same temptation – the same external pressures – and one do evil while the oth

                 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God. (Romans 8:26-27) Today is being another in a series of high energy, restless days. I spent the morning getting things done, but now it’s afternoon and I am struggling with this blog post. There are too many distractions. I’ve mentioned the “Yuck Factor” before, and today is a Yuck Factor day. Here I am in the middle and (Yuck!) I don’t know which way to turn, what to write about, what do do next, etc. It’s the sort of day when some of my friends would say, “Breathe, Karen.” But breathing doesn’t help. I am breathing. I’m (figuratively speaking) hyperventilating. What today’s passage says, in part, is that God knows we’ll have days like this. He’s still God. He’s st

                 “You are a king, then!” said Pilate. Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.” “What is truth?” retorted Pilate. With this he went out again to the Jews gathered there and said, “I find no basis for a charge against him. But it is your custom for me to release to you one prisoner at the time of the Passover. Do you want me to release ‘the king of the Jews’?” (John 18:37-39)   But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact th

             Jesus answered, “Those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet; their whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you.” For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not every one was clean. When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am.    Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet.  (Matthew 13:10-14)   This is one of those pieces of Scripture that sound strange to us, like someone removing a sandal and handing it to someone to officially transfer the right of ownership (of something other than the sandal) to someone else (Ruth 4:7-8.) It made perfect sense in the culture. People who bathed in preparation for a feast still had to walk to the site. To be ceremonially clean, they had to wa

Peter and the other apostles replied: “We must obey God rather than human beings!   (Acts 5:29) Since today is Valentine’s Day, it seems appropriate for us to consider the day. According to what I have found, the story begins with the Roman Emperor, Claudius, who decided that only single men could serve in the army because that way, they would not divide their loyalties between the crown and their wives. Not surprisingly, the single men started getting married in droves, which led to Claudius forbidding marriage. It may also be noted that Claudius wasn’t fond of Christians and forbade proselytizing by them. Again, not surprisingly, Valentine continued to perform marriage ceremonies in secret, and continued to tell others about Jesus Christ. This may not be the true story of Valentine, but it’s ten-thousand times more likely to be his story than the idea that Valentine’s Day is all about romance and paying the price (cards, chocolates, dinner out) for a tumble in the sheets. After all,

                 At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, “Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath… If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent.   For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath…Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” (Matthew 12:1-2, 7-8, 12b)   I recently struggled with the idea of the Sabbath, It bothers me that I can’t “kick back and relax” but it also bothers me that the only way to do it right involves maintaining a focus on God that precludes a focus on myself and what I want to do. It’s not that I don’t want to spend time focusing on God, it’s that I lack the capacity to self-generate the focus. It’s a common affliction. If I tell you, “Think of nothing but God for the next 10 minutes,” you’ll probably find yourse

                 Yet those who wait for the Lord  Will gain new strength;  They will mount up with wings like eagles,  They will run and not get tired,  They will walk and not become weary. (Isaiah 40:31)   Lots of people like this verse. There’s something appealing about the idea of mounting up like eagles, soaring on the winds. The idea of running and not getting tired or walking and not becoming weary – it’s almost like having superpowers. Those of us with imaginations give a wistful sigh. “Wouldn’t it be so nice?” The problem is, soaring like eagles, running and not getting tired, and walking and not being weary all require that we wait on the Lord. It means resting until He tells us to move. And while we tend to think that when our strength is renewed by God, we’ll never be tired again. We’ll be able to soar! We’ll be able to run! We’ll be able to walk! But Scripture doesn’t say anything about our soaring, running, or walking from now until the end of time. And God could

                      If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor  and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing . (I Corinthians 13:1-3)   Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. (I Corinthians 13:6-7)   I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you. But in the church I would rather speak five intelligible words to instruct others than ten thousand words in a tongue. (I Corinthians 14:18-19)   Now and again, someone posts a meme on social media to the effect that people don’t need you to solve their problems. They don’t need you to speak to them. They just need you to

                 We ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love all of you have for one another is increasing. (II Thessalonians 1:3)             It’s likely that every passage in the Bible is a battle passage at some point, for some person. Today’s fits into the Vision Verses category because it is a weapon to use against impatience and perfectionism. It’s easy to fall victim to these enemies when we see ourselves not living up to what we think we should be. Didn’t Jesus reprimand His disciples and the Jews for their failure of faith? Surely, ours can’t be even as miserable as theirs. After all, they saw miracles performed so often that the beloved disciple proclaimed that all the books and all the ink in the world could not have chronicled them all. If we had seen what the disciples had seen, we would not doubt nearly as much as we do – and possibly nearly not as much as they did.           We

  You have heard that it was said, “Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.” But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. (Matthew 5:43-45)             Another Battle Bible passage. This one goes with Ephesians 6:10-18. How do we wage war? Human wisdom tells us that those who aren’t on our side are the enemy, and the only way to win the war is by hating and destroying our enemies. Should we have let the Nazis terrorize Europe? We did let the Communists terrorize the Soviet Union, and they killed at least twice as many of their people as the Nazis did. The same with China. And didn’t some guy point out that the only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good people to stand by and let it?           But Jesus isn’t suggesting that we should say that wrong is right, or evil is good. He’s telling us t

  Let those who love the Lord hate evil, for he guards the lives of his faithful ones and delivers them from the hand of the wicked.   (Psalm 97:9-10)     Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.   It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.   It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails . (I Corinthians 13:4-8)   Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. (John 14:23) Let those who love the Lord… I often say that the first step in any discussion is to define your terms. When one of those terms is love , I generally define the term as seeking what is in the best interest of the beloved. Others turn to the second passage, which I consider a description rather than a definition.  The