Mission Faithwalk

  “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.” The Lord answered, “I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites, leaving none alive.” (Judges 6:16)   I’ve probably written about this passage before, but today’s one of those days. How can I do anything, be anything, have any significance? My clan doesn’t really exist and I am the least in my family. Once again, I’ve spent the best part of the day trying to figure out what to write about, which means I’ve gotten nothing done worth talking about. Whimper, whine. Yeah, don’t remind me about all that has gone before. I’m too busy having a pity party. Don’t quote my statements that the past 2.5 years have been the best years of my life. Don’t remind me that Eastern Black Swallowtail #7 is preparing to pupate or that I’m making pemmican, or that I’m working on book #4. Don’t confuse me with the facts. I’m not a happy camper,

I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do  good while they live. (Ecclesiastes 3:12) How happy your people must be! How happy your officials, who continually  stand before you and hear your wisdom! (I Kings 10:8)   This is what I have observed to be good: that it is appropriate for a person to eat, to drink and to find satisfaction in their toilsome labor under the sun during the few days of life God has given them—for this is their lot.  Moreover, when God gives someone wealth and possessions, and the ability to enjoy them, to accept their lot and be happy in their toil—this is a gift of God. (Ecclesiastes 5:19)   In the past few days, someone said something about my having fun. Immediately, my internal dictionary interrupted. Fun? I’m trying to figure out what crops to plant and how many beds I need in order to plant them. I’m building the beds. I’m trying to find ways to preserve or use what I’ve harvested. I’m trying to prepare one novel for p

                I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. (Phil 3:14)   The Lord makes firm the steps of the one who delights in him;   though he may stumble, he will not fall, for the Lord upholds him with his hand.   I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread. They are always generous and lend freely; their children will be a blessing. (Psalm 37:23-26)   The first verse is Biblegateway.com’s verse of the day. The second set of verses is a couple of verses further along in Psalm 37, which we’ve been exploring over the past several days. Together, they bring us back to a thought explored before – that the prize for which God has called us heavenward in Christ Jesus is God, Himself because the Lord makes firm the steps of the one who delights in Him. And if the goal and the prize are God, Himself, then there is no reason not to be generous and lend freely bec

            Better the little that the righteous have than the wealth of many wicked; for the power of the wicked will be broken, but the Lord upholds the righteous. The blameless spend their days under the Lord’s care, and their inheritance will endure forever. In times of disaster they will not wither; in days of famine they will enjoy plenty. (Psalm 37:16-19)   The Lord is my Shepherd. I lack nothing.  (Psalm 23:1)   I have to admit, I struggle with my vision of these verses. Enjoy plenty ? Lack nothing ? Having rarely not enjoyed plenty (even if I thought I was poor), I haven’t really tested this, and quite frankly, I’m afraid to face it. At the same time, I’m learning more about God’s provision and His plenty. I’ve volunteered at and benefitted from food pantries. I have friends who have repaired things and taught me how to repair things. Thanks to a wealth of information available online and through libraries, I am learning about plants, both wild and domestic, how to raise

                 Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; do not fret when people succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes. Refrain from anger and turn from wrath; do not fret—it leads only to evil. For those who are evil will be destroyed, but those who hope in the Lord will inherit the land. A little while, and the wicked will be no more; though you look for them, they will not be found. But the meek will inherit the land and enjoy peace and prosperity. The wicked plot against the righteous and gnash their teeth at them; but the Lord laughs at the wicked, for he knows their day is coming. The wicked draw the sword and bend the bow to bring down the poor and needy, to slay those whose ways are upright. But their swords will pierce their own hearts, and their bows will be broken. (Psalm 37:7-15)   Today’s passage seems long, but it seems to go together, and it raises a difficult dilemma. We are not to fret when people do evil. We’re not to get angry

                      Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him and he will do this:   He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn, your vindication like the noonday sun . (Psalm 37:5-6)   Yesterday, I got distracted and lazy. I addressed the first phrase of the passage I chose. Today, let’s finish the task. One of the requirements of our committing ourselves to take the way that leads to Him is that we have to trust that the way leads to Him. It’s easy to head east with a GPS or when the sun is rising in the morning. It’s harder to head east in the dark with no GPS. It’s harder still if you don’t recognize any landmarks and the night sky is obscured by clouds, but that’s the way life is sometimes. It may be the way life is often. The last road sign or the last you could see, you were on a road that said it headed east, but there have been twists and turns. Did you miss an exit? Did you somehow get turned around when you stopped for gas? (It’s happened to me!) Who expected

  Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him and he will do this:   He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn, your vindication like the noonday sun . (Psalm 37:5-6)   Men’s lack of commitment in a relationship is one of the sources of situation comedy, but I had to admit, my own fear of commitment rivals any I’ve seen on TV. It’s not just about interpersonal relationships between me and another human, it’s about a relationship with God, a relationship with an organization. I suspect I’m not alone. Commitment involves vulnerability, endurance, determination, patience, love, humility, faithfulness, loyalty – a whole bunch of things we’d really rather not develop. But if David is still singing about the alternative of fussing, he’s giving us another good picture, because while I (at least) may not be good at being committed to another person or organization, I know what it means to be committed to tracing a family tree, or writing a book, or posting a blog on a daily ba

  Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. (Psalm 37:3-4)             Yesterday, David’s lesson to us was to not fret – not even when evil people do evil things and seem to be blessed (or at least enriched) thereby. Don’t fret, even when you’re doing things you don’t want to do and you can’t stop. Fretting glorifies the evil, and takes the time and energy you might have used to combat that evil. Oddly, we don’t have as much difficulty recognizing fretting or worrying as we do trusting and having faith. David’s alternative to fretting is trusting. Normally, my response to mentions of words like trust and faith is a groan followed by a long lecture on how I don’t know what trust is or how to do it. Not this time. This time, David provides us with a parallel. One can either fret or one can trust. One can either worry or believe/have faith. It’s the same process. When one wor

  Do not fret because of those who are evil or be envious of those who do wrong;   for like the grass they will soon wither, like green plants they will soon die away. (Psalm 37:1-2)   for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose . (Philippians 2:3)   It’s easy to get keyed up over things that are going on in the world. It seems like evil is everywhere. It seems like no matter how hard we try; we get nowhere but bad people reap rewards.   It’s also easy to fret when we look into our lives and see that all of our evil tendencies and bad habits seem to prosper, while good deeds, good intentions, and good habits seem to wither and die. We hear that we are to die to ourselves, and the fretting is kicked up a notch because we … just … can’t. Now, let me start with what I’m not saying. I’m not saying give up. I’m not saying don't care. I’m not saying that sanctification isn’t a good goal or that we should settle for living as miserable fail

                 The Lord will keep you from all harm— he will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore. (Psalm 121:7-8)   Y ou discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. (Psalm 139:3) Yesterday, I responded to a shared meme of a conversation from a needy, demanding person who expects others to respond to idle texts as if they are commands to perform. I read a story online about a woman who suspected her husband was having an affair. She checked his pockets, his e-mails, his texts, and even followed him as he met woman after woman after woman. Then one day, he invited her to go see one of them! When she got to the meeting place, it turned out to be a beauty parlor. The woman in question welcomed her, sat her down and started working on her hair. When she was done there, she was led to other locations where other of her husband’s women had other surprises for her. Eventually, she reached a dest

  for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:27-28)   We hear a lot about division and identity politics. Once in a while, I see a meme that talks about the brotherhood of man or the idea that there is only one race: the human race. The problem with these is that they tend to lack a sense of identity, which involves a distinction. You are a this, not a that. At one point, the brotherhood of man or the human race differentiated one from the animals and plants, but now there are claims that a “A rat is a pig is a dog is a boy,” (Ingrid Newkirk, PETA) and movements to grant human legal status to a variety of animals, including orangutans and dolphins. Scientists are now claiming that trees communicate with one another in a language we can learn. Without delving further into the issue of animal rights, one messa

                 So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. (Isaiah 41:10)  Yesterday, m y neighbor talked about the old saw of “God won’t give you more than you can handle,” and expressed her doubts about the idea. I responded that it was not true. If God only gave us what we could handle, we’d have no need for God. The whole idea is that we walk through what we can’t handle with Him. That conversation fits nicely with today’s verse. We’re not to not fear because it’s not as tough as it seems, and we’re guaranteed that we can handle it, we’re to not fear because He is with us. Similarly, we’re not to dismay (be filled with consternation of distress) because He’s not just with us, but He’s God – our God. One of the sad things about the pantheons of gods is that they don’t really have control. If Zeus wants something to happen, there’s always the possibility that his w

                 Your love, Lord, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies. Your righteousness is like the highest mountains, your justice like the great deep. You, Lord, preserve both people and animals. (Psalm 36:5-6)   There are basically three ways that one could choose to understand this passage. Either the Lord’s love extends only in the heavens and does not reach the earth, or it extends from the earth only to heavens, or it extends from the earth through the heavens, filling both. Given the rest of the passage, the last understanding is the most likely meaning. So what does God’s love being everywhere that we can possibly go mean? It means we may ignore it rather like we ignore the air that we breath. We only really notice air when it changes by carrying a scent, changing temperature or humidity, moving, or when we experience its lack and return (by holding one’s breath, for example.) And as an aside, that might be a good spiritual discipline to practice. H

                  For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. (Romans 1:16)   Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. (Luke 9:26)   Some think of themselves as serving God and Christianity by posting challenges on Facebook to prove you’re not ashamed of the gospel or of Jesus Christ. I’ve shared my opinion of these self-styled Inquisitors, who think they have not just a right, but a responsibility to wander the wastelands of Facebook, exposing everyone they deem unworthy of the name “Christian” on the basis of those people’s unwillingness to improve the Facebooks stats of the Inquisitor. But – there are verses like the two above. What are we to do with them? The passage in Romans is from the beginning of the letter in which Paul carefully lays out who

                      For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority. (Colossians 2:9-10)   “ When an impure spirit comes out of a person, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that person is worse than the first. That is how it will be with this wicked generation.” (Matthew 12:43-45)   One of the things Dallas Willard talks about is “Christianity” as being “sin management.” Even for those of us who consider Christianity to be a relationship with God there is a sense in which we think our focus seems to fixate on whether or not we’ve sinned. Is that what being brought to fullness means

                Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you. (James 1:21)   Being saved from being mauled by a bear is not the same as being saved from hiring a repair person who has cheated you in the past. Definitions. Once again, it’s all about definitions. There is saved which refers to being granted an eternal and positive relationship with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Then, there’s saved which refers to our learning a lesson and being able to say, “Oh no, uh-uh, I’m not going to do that again.” I’m not saying that saved in the first sense has no present value or influence. It’s just that they aren’t the same thing. In this passage, the type of saving James described is not the first sort. One doesn’t earn one’s salvation, but one can save oneself from dangers encountered during one’s life. There is a story about a person who walked down the street and fell in a hole. The

                      Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord.    On the contrary: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.  (Romans 12:17-21)   Suppose that someone starts using drugs and gets addicted, to the point that every day is spent either in anticipation of the high, the experience of the high, or the unpleasantness of sobering up. Maybe the addiction won’t reach the point where the addict spends the money needed for food, shelter, and utilities, but even if the drugs are never mentioned, they play a role in the relationships within the family. This is a

                 Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited. (Romans 12:16c)   Conceited: Excessively proud; vain.   Who are the lowest of the low to you? I suspect most of us have people we pray God doesn’t draw into our lives. Oh, we’re OK if He sends us to talk to someone from any of these groups, but not that group. It might be a financial issue. No uber-needy rich folks. No uber-needy poor folks. It might be racial, sexual, age-related, or cultural. Maybe it’s people with special needs, or folks who have done something horrible.  Or, we might be just fine, if only we weren’t dealing with p.e.o.p.l.e. This is one of those issues that I cringe over. I’m sure people will accuse me of being proud and conceited. For me, the absolute worst people, the lowest of the low are the virtual or hypothetical people. I do much better at dealing with people if there are really people there to be dealt with. The issue of how I would treat so

                 Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.   Live in harmony with one another.  (Romans 12:15-16a)   Musically speaking, harmony is “the combination of simultaneously sounded musical notes to produce chords and chord progressions having a pleasing effect.” Another way of putting it is that harmony is not playing the exact same note, but it is playing notes that, when put together with the other notes, makes a beautiful sound. Another source says that “The main function of harmony is to  add value to the chords . In tonal music, there’s a key note. Harmony creates an orderly way that allows you to move from and to this note.” [1] The key note mentioned is the first note in the scale. In a major scale, the notes one can use are based on a scale that goes like this: whole step, whole step, half step, whole step, whole step, whole step, half step. In a minor key, the notes on the scale are different: whole step, half step, whole step, whole step, ha

              Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.   (Romans 12:14-16)   Here’s a tough one. According to John Trent, there are five components to a blessing: appropriate meaningful touch, spoken words, attaching high value, special future, and genuine commitment. So, somehow, we are supposed to bless people who persecute us. In fact, Paul stressed that idea by repeating it and contrasting it with the negative. We’re supposed to bless… and…curse…not. And we’re to do this not just to people we enjoy being around, but also to those who go out of their way to try to destroy us. At the top of the list of challenges is the appropriate meaningful touch. In our society, we may never had met the person who persecutes us. They may be thousands of miles away. Even if the person is in our presence, they may not permit a touch. They might think any touch inappropriate. Touching is tricky. We used to shake hands and I think that might be a good option, if we can learn to do

              We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully. (Romans 12:6-8)   “See, I have chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah,    and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge and with all kinds of skills— to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze,   to cut and set stones, to work in wood, and to engage in all kinds of crafts. Moreover, I have appointed Oholiab son of Ahisamak, of the tribe of Dan, to help him. Also I have given ability to all the skilled workers to make everything I have commanded you. (Exodus 31:2-6)     Love never fails. But where there are propheci

                 For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. (Romans 12:4-5)   There is a type of faulty thinking known as “all or nothing.” Either one is completely A or one is completely B. Those who reject both of those are completely C. If you aren’t A, then you’re A-phobic. Undoubtedly, you can provide some examples in which this faulty thinking is true. You can’t be tall and short, or human and Mastiff, or on Earth and on Pluto. But in matters of thought and relationships, all-or-nothing can cause a great deal of harm. Paul addresses this in today’s passage. We are members of the body of Christ, but the members of a body aren’t all the same. They have their own functions. So we are members of the body of Christ, but we are also individuals. We tend to wander back and forth about this, Some go so far as to say there should be n

                 For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.  (Romans 12:3) But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by everyone, despised by the people. (Psalm 22:6)   I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.” (Isaiah 14:14)   “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.   (John 15:5)             Sober: Not affected by drugs or alcohol; serious, sensible, and solemn                     We live in an age of drunkenness, even among those who never touch alcohol or drugs. Our judgment is spaced out. Either we are like Lucifer, making ourselves like the Most High, or we are worms, and not men. We are kings wearing our new outfit, demanding high praise from everyone – or heaped ab

                 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. (Romans 12:2)   Do not put the Lord your God to the  test  as you did at Massah. (Deuteronomy 6:16)     Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” (Matthew 4:7 – the cross reference for this verse is Deuteronomy 6:16)   “Don’t touch,” says a parent. A child looks toward the adult with mischief in her eyes. She edges closer to a forbidden object. When nothing is said, she reaches out with a finger poised to touch, and looks at the parent again. She touches the forbidden object. She caresses it with one hand, then two. Each time, checking to see if the parent notices. She may draw back, to pretend she’s not interested, but she inches her way to it again. That is putting someone to the test. Then, there’s the same child, told,

  Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. (Romans 12:1)   One of the exercises in the book I’m looking through examines Romans 12. We began yesterday, but today we’ll take a step back and start at the beginning of the chapter. It’s a verse we all know. “Present ourselves a living sacrifice.” Yeah, yeah, we’ve heard it before. Kick all fun out the window and go about life as a martyr. There’s a phrase that seems to be ignored: “in view of God’s mercy.” The Greek term for “mercy” is transliterated oiktirmon . It means “compassionate, experiencing deep pity (lamentation) as God has for people who look to Him for help in their difficult situations.” The first, most easily viewed mercy is that of the Cross. Jesus’ death and resurrection not only provides us with salvation by the mercy of God, but it also provides us with evidence that even if our sacr