Mission Faithwalk

                 If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. (Romans 10:9-10 NIV) This is a case where I am not satisfied with the NIV translation. Anyone can declare anything. We lie through our teeth in our declarations. Supposedly, declarations are given in a solemn and emphatic manner. The NASB uses “confess” instead. And again, a person can make a false confession, but it in terms of the words, I prefer “confess.” What is truly significant is the combination of the declaration/confession and the belief. This is because “belief” that does not produce declarations, proclamations, or confessions and other actions or behaviors is not belief. The other thing that needs to be noted, however, is the tense of the verb in th...

                 Whoever heeds life-giving correction will be at home among the wise . (Proverbs 15:31)                  The first reason those who heed life-giving correction will be at home among the wise is that they will be alive to give it.                 The second reason they will be at home among the wise is that, by listening to life-giving correction, they will grow in wisdom.                 The third reason they will be at home among the wise is because the wise will recognize that allowing this person to be among them won’t be a waste of time and breath. Instead of suddenly not being home or having pressing business elsewhere, the wise will invite them to stay for tea.    ...

                 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 3:22-23) The Eight Core Worldview Issues: Origin, Identity, Meaning/Purpose, Morality, Destiny, Ultimate Reality, Nature of the World, Knowledge                 The German word for “worldview” is weltanschauung, and it is described as “a comprehensive conception or apprehension of the world, especially from a specific standpoint” (Merriam Webster)  It seems to me as if someone wanted to claim a concept higher than religion or philosophy. This might partly be because they saw religion as limited to “spiritual” ideas (or as only a corporate entity) and philosophy to “material” (or as only an individual entity) but I don’t see a functional difference among the three. They all explore the nature of the universe (including ...

                  Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. (Luke 9:23-24 )             Someone has pointed out the very real point here that when Jesus referred to taking up our crosses daily and following Him, He wasn’t referring to the drudgery of dragging around a heavy object. He was talking about carrying the means by which others were going to punish and execute you in the most painful way they could think of doing it. It was also the focus of the mockery and scorn of others who would delight to shame you for your “crime.”                 In part, I think this includes our carrying in our...

                      " He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.” (I Peter 2:24)                 He is to cast lots for the two goats—one lot for the Lord and the other for the scapegoat.   Aaron shall bring the goat whose lot falls to the Lord and sacrifice it for a sin offering. But the goat chosen by lot as the scapegoat shall be presented alive before the Lord to be used for making atonement by sending it into the wilderness as a scapegoat. (Leviticus 16:8-10)                 This is another of those ideas that doesn’t make sense. How could Jesus bear our sins on the cross? How could His dying be the means by which we m...

                  You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:6-8) Timing is everything. Actors, comedians, magicians, cooks, athletes, writers, and gardeners all agree. If you do something too quickly, too early, too slowly, or too late, something is likely to not work out well. Cross the finish line in a race after someone else has and you’ve lost the race. Put anything in the oven for too long, and it’s extra-crispy. People aren’t likely to ask you for your recipe. Part of the problem is that those who don’t have the big picture, or who aren’t aware of the intricate details, are likely to be unhappy with the schedule. What’s the hold...

                  The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. (Hebrews 1:3)                 J059-4351 (“Jay”) stretches about seven light-years across…the quasar shines more than 500 trillion times brighter than the star in our solar system…  Nature Astronomy . Keep in mind that the sun is comparatively lackluster. Sort of like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the Israelites, and the Christians for the first 300 years of their existence. Perhaps like you and me. Jay is beyond what we can imagine in terms of distance, size, and brightness. When the writer of Hebrews describes the Son as the radiance of God’s glory, this is what I think of. If anything, this ...

                 The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” (Genesis 2:15-17)                 Yesterday, once again, I came across one of those bits of logic that argued that if God were this, that, or the other that we claim He is, he should have been able to create a universe in which there was no sin or evil. If the atheist posting the meme doesn’t believe in God, it’s all God’s fault because He would have made the poster believe.                 Theoretically, he’s right. God could make him and everyone else believe. Life ...

                 In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit. (Judges 21:25) Two reactions: “Oh, they were free!” and “Oh, those rotten, terrible, stupid Jews!” And the answer to both those is “Sorry. No.” Israel didn’t have a king. It did have a series of judges. What it also had was a series of invading armies, rulers, and oppressors. The cycle was simple. Israel got blessed by God. Israel forgot God and did whatever they wanted. God let them face the consequences of their freedom from Him, which involved their being oppressed by other nations. Israel humbly called for His help; He blessed them by freeing them from their oppressors. Return to top. Being “free” led to their being rotten, terrible and stupid. But you have a habit. You let it slide. Your life falls apart. You re-establish your habit. You have a secure relationship. You take it for granted. It falls apart. You have to re-establish that rela...

                   This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. (I John 3:16)                 No, I’m not suggesting that you should catch a grenade, throw your hand on a blade, jump in front of a train, or do “anything” for your brothers and sisters (with thanks to Bruno Mars). I’m suggesting something far worse. One of my pastors has said that he would do battle with a dragon for his beloved wife, but taking out the trash for her was a challenge. Yes, we are to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters, but what if the death involved was of your ego, your control of your time, money, talents, or skills? What if it required giving up your social position, your job, your reputation? What if the “life” you are called to lay down was convenience, or freedom? O...

                 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:   that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (I Corinthians 5:17-21) Jesus died. He rose again. OK, so now we can go to Heaven. Woo hoo! It’s sort of like a naturalization ceremony. I attended several. The new citizens take an oath of allegiance. Everyone applauds, then politicians step in and st...

                    When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” “Where, O death, is your victory?     Where, O death, is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (I Corinthians 15:54-57) This is A.C., after the cross. We may look around and question. People I knew have died this year. People I know have lost loved ones. Nearly 3,500 Christians were slaughtered for their faith in 2025. The rate is about 13 per day. About 17.77 million people died from contagious diseases in 2025. How can anyone say that death has lost its sting? As it so often does, the problem involves definitions. We tend to think of dying as part o...

                                 Then they went home and prepared spices and perfumes. But they rested on the  Sabbath  in obedience to the commandment. (Luke 23:56)                 Can you imagine? Everything you’ve believed, crushed. All that’s left is to give Him a proper burial. What was done earlier wasn’t enough. They got everything together but had to wait. Not only that, those who had touched His body would be unclean for seven days. Any further involvement with the Passover was out of the question. All they could do is wait, think, mourn, and pray.                 And what of Jesus? We don’t know everything that went on during those three days. Maybe He was busy. But maybe He also had to wait,...

                  Now Jesus was going up to Jerusalem. On the way, he took the Twelve aside and said to them, “We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. On the third day he will be raised to life!” (Matthew 20:17-19)                 I’ve told this story many times because I think it’s an important idea. At different times, I’ve seen my father, my brother, and/or my sister with her younger son and not recognized them. In fact, I looked at my nephew, thought, “cute kid, looks familiar,” and kept on walking. I’ve seen other people in places I didn’t expect them, or wearing casual (not work) clothing, and didn't recognize them. Cognitive biases (the...

                 Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the Lord makes [ c ]  his life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand. After he has suffered, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities. (Isaiah 53:10-11) Sometimes, people ask why bad things happen to good people. Today’s verse explores that. It was the Lord’s will to crush the righteous servant, because through the suffering of the one, many would be blessed and justified. He would bear their iniquities. People who suffer can do one of three things. They can rise to help others who are suffering (which would make them useless if no one else suffered). They can be defeated by their suffering an...

                  Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us,   fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:1-2) To scorn shame means to say, “I will refuse to allow standards that are inappropriate, that are incorrect, that are unworthy, to be the measuring stick by which other people assess my worth as a human being .” (John Ortberg) ( https://becomenew.subspla.sh/krz8cfy ) Normally, when we look at this passage, it’s about everyone watching them, and therefore, they’d better throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. They need to run with persevera...

                       He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem. Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. (Isaiah 53:3-4)                 I didn’t go to religion to make me happy. I always knew a bottle of Port would do that. If you want a religion to make you feel really comfortable, I certainly don’t recommend Christianity.―  C. S. Lewis                 This year, I haven’t seen as many of the “other gods died and resurrected” and “Easter is a pagan holiday” as I have in the past. That’s a good thing. I think the people who ...

            God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (II Corinthians 5:21) Have you ever had a dilemma? There were two (or more) equal desirable outcomes, or two (or more) equally undesirable outcomes. You, yourself, and you have an argument. "You" wants one thing, "Yourself" wants the other, and "You" can’t decide. To be fully accurate, God doesn’t have dilemmas. He is wise; He knows how things will and must work out. But in a sense, God had a dilemma. He created the universe and put us in it. He loves us and is ready to forgive us, but at the same time, His sense of justice won’t permit it. We also have a dilemma. We’ve rebelled. We’re guilty. But we don’t want to face the punishment for our crimes. We want God to change the rules, and He does, but not the way we expect, because our solution either requires Him to violate His love or His justice. His solution might violate our egos, but ...

                     For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all people. This has now been witnessed to at the proper time . (II Timothy 2:5-6)                 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,   and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve.   After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles,   and last of all he appeared to me also, as to...

                 My salvation and my honor depend on God; he is my mighty rock, my refuge . (Psalm 62:7) Chances are, we’ve learned that our salvation depends on God. At least, our eternal salvation. I suspect none of us is as convinced that our daily salvation (in whatever form that might take) depends on Him, or that we even need daily salvation. That’s something we might do well to pray about and a challenge we would do well to explore, but the rest of the verse is the focus today, because I suspect it leads to our eternal and our daily salvation. Imagine not having to protect ourselves all the time. Maybe that’s easy for you, but it’s not for most of us. Some of us spend our lives fighting against multitudinous threats. They’re not always big or physical, but they endanger something in us that seems important to us. Yesterday, a deaf customer came into the garden center, and my signing has never been good but is way out of practi...

                   For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him, (Philippians 1:29)                 This sounds really bad, almost sick in our day. Granted to suffer? That makes it sound like suffering is a good or noble thing. Then again, I’ve read recent calls that the rich should be required to give up more of their money, and the whites should accept humiliation for the sake of other races. We should all suffer a little for the sake of saving our environment. Teams or groups are often called upon to give up something (often money, but sometimes time or the safety of their bodies) for their team’s statistics or some good cause. There are people around the world and through history that we honor who have suffered for the name of Christ. And then, of course, there are the her...

                 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. (I John 1:9) To begin, confession isn’t just saying that we did something. It’s a “con” word, meaning that it’s doing something with someone else. In this case, it involves agreeing with someone about the nature of something we believe or have done. It’s the difference between “I took” and “I stole, it was wrong, and I regret having done it.” The next term is “sin.” As I’ve noted recently, this word causes a lot of trouble. But, to explain it simply, it was a term taken from archery and meaning the distance from the bullseye that the arrow hit. In other words, it’s not some great big bad thing. It’s any imperfection. In some cases, we might actually be wrong about something being a sin, but the point is to talk it over with God and let Him inform you. Note: If Scripture says it’s a sin, it’s a sin. ...

                 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord . (Romans 6:23) This is one of those “important” verses we’re taught as children like John 3:16. I don’t remember whether I was taught that wages are something you earn or not, but that’s the obvious conclusion. In one sense, we like that. It puts us in at least partial control. We can do something that deserves death. What we don’t like about it is that we don’t get to decide what constitutes sin that is sufficient to warrant death.  There are sins we might agree are sufficient, but telling a little white lie? Stealing a loaf of bread to feed your starving family? Gossip? One one-night stand in 25 years of marriage? Calling someone a nasty name? Using bad language? Killing a dog? Maybe some people would happily state that most or all of these earn death. I agree that most do, but I’m not happy about it. We tend to think ...

                 After the Lord had said these things to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken the truth about me, as my servant Job has. (Job 42:7) If you read the books of Job and the Psalms, one of the things you can’t avoid is the sense that Job and the Psalmist expressed their feelings and ideas about God. Particularly, if you read Job, you’ll find four visitors who clearly tell Job things that we might think are good and true. Job shouldn’t be so arrogant. He should confess his sins, and then God will make everything all right again. And at the end of the book, God reprimands them for speaking what is not true about Him and says that Job was speaking the truth. Time for a close-up of the shocked faces of all concerned. And this is where we usually get stuck in the mud. What truth was Job telling? What truth were his friends not telling? Some...

                  Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. (Ephesians 6:10)                 Strong: Middle English  strong , from Old English  strang , of living things, body parts, "physically powerful;" of persons, "firm, bold, brave; constant, resolute; having authority, able to enforce one's will;" of medicines, poisons, "powerful in effect;" of winds, etc., "violent, forceful, severe," of wine, "having high alcohol content." The general sense is "possessing or imparting force or energy; intense or intensified in degree."( Strong - Etymology, Origin & Meaning )                 And, we’re back to this verse, or maybe this passage. It ...

                 “But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.” (Jeremiah 17:7-8)                 Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither— whatever they do prospers. (Psalm 1:1-3)               ...

                  Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us . (II Peter 2:11-12)                 “Even though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God…”? Huh? When Peter wrote this, the Roman Emperor was considered (at least by himself) to be a god. To refuse to acknowledge him as such was considered evil. People were permitted to worship other gods, too, but the emperor had to be among them. Many cities had their own patron gods, such as Diana of the Ephesians. Again, you could worship other gods, too, but if the city’s patron god was not among the...