Notes of Faith March 6, 2021

Our Only Hope

In his New Testament letter, James says, “You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions” (James 4:2–3). That means that things really do not happen that would have happened if we had prayed. In other words, God has ordained that we pray, that we ask, and he has ordained that things happen because we ask, precisely because we ask — not coincidence, but because “you don’t have, because you don’t ask.”

“Prayer is part of the plan for how God accomplishes his purposes in the world.”

Prayer is one of the great wonders of the world. That God would plan for his own sovereign hand to be moved by the prayers of his creatures is amazing. There are mysteries in it, but these mysteries have never stopped the simplest saint or the most highly educated Christian scholar from weaving the thread of prayer into the whole fabric of their lives. As Paul said, “Pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17). There have always been simple folk and highly educated folk who have done this without-ceasing kind of weaving and praying in their lives.

Maybe you can tell that I am taking one of the common objections to God’s providence and turning it upside down into a wonderful blessing of providence. Maybe you noticed that. The objection says, “Well, there’s no point in praying since, according to the doctrine of providence, God has all things planned anyway.”

But just a little thought would show you that God has planned millions of human acts every day that cause other acts to happen, without which those other acts would not happen. A carpenter’s nail sinks into the board flush because God planned for a hammer to hit it soundly. A student makes an A on a test because God planned for the student to study. A jet flies from New York to Los Angeles because God planned for fuel to be available, and wings to stay put, and engines to thrust, and a pilot to know what he’s doing. In none of these cases do we say that the cause was pointless — a hammer, the studying, the fuel, the wing, the engine, the pilot.

Neither is prayer pointless. It’s one of the God-ordained causes of things that God plans to do. Prayer is part of the plan for how God accomplishes his purposes in the world. In fact, the all-embracing, all-pervasive, unstoppable providence of God is the only hope for making our most heartfelt prayers effective. Let me say that again: It’s our only hope. The providence of God is our only hope for making our most heartfelt prayers effective. If God doesn’t have the power and the right and the authority to change things like people’s hearts, what’s the point in praying about the things that matter most to us? It’s precisely his providence that gives us hope that he has the right to do this.

What Only God Can Do

What’s your greatest longing? What’s your most heartfelt desire or prayer? My guess is that, for almost all of us, it involves somebody’s change. Probably, it is the salvation of someone you love — at least, that’s the case for many of us — or it may be the liberation of your own soul from some sinful bondage.

When you pray that God would save your loved one or liberate you from bondage to sin, what are you asking God to do? You are asking him to do what he promised to do in the new covenant, which Jesus, according to Luke 22:20, bought, secured, guaranteed with his own blood — which is, by the way, why we pray all of our prayers in Jesus’s name.

We pray Ezekiel 11:19: “God, take out of their flesh the heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh.”

We pray Deuteronomy 30:6: “Lord, circumcise their hearts, circumcise my heart, so that they will love you, so that I will love you.”

We pray Ezekiel 36:27: “Father, put your Spirit within them, and cause them to walk in your statutes.”

We pray 2 Timothy 2:25–26: “Lord, grant them repentance and the knowledge of the truth, so that they may escape from the snare of the devil.”

We pray Acts 16:14: “Father, open their hearts, so that they may believe the gospel.”

The only people who can pray like that consistently are people who believe that saving faith, sanctifying faith, transforming faith, liberating faith is a gift, a work of providence.

Praying Beyond Belief

Many people do not believe this. Millions of Americans have been taught not to believe this because they believe that human beings have the power of ultimate self-determination at the point of conversion. God doesn’t have it; they have it. In other words, God can woo sinners like a man woos a fiancée. God can woo sinners, but he cannot create their faith, they say. Man must have the final, decisive say, they say. At the point when faith comes into existence, man, not God, is decisive. I don’t believe that. I don’t believe that’s what the Bible teaches. I believe in the providence of God at that very point and its decisive, sovereign power.

My point here is that people who believe that false teaching cannot consistently pray that God would convert unbelieving sinners. Why? Because if they pray for divine influence in a sinner’s life, they are either praying for an effective influence, a successful influence that takes away the sinner’s ultimate self-determination — not their accountability, just their ultimate self-determination — or they are praying for a less-than-effective (how should we say it?), a non-successful influence, some kind of nudging: “But don’t take over, God; don’t be decisive; don’t be sovereign. Just do some wooing, but don’t be effective.” Which, of course, is not praying for their conversion.

So, they must either give up these prayers, these people who pray that way — they must give up praying that God would convert people — or give up ultimate human self-determination, or go on acting inconsistently, which millions do, praise God. Many people pray way better than they believe.

Powerful in Prayer

Prayer is a spectacular gift. No one believed more firmly than Paul that humans do not have the final say in their conversion. We don’t, God does. It is all of grace, sovereign grace. He said in Romans 9:16, “It depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.”

“The all-embracing providence of God does not make prayer a problem; it makes prayer powerful.”

Nevertheless, probably no one prayed with more tears and more urgency than Paul for the conversion of sinners. “I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart,” he said, “for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh” (Romans 9:2–3). “My heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved” (Romans 10:1). He prayed this way because he knew that the new birth is not a mere decision of humans but a miracle from God. “With man this is impossible,” Jesus said, “but with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26).

So, my conclusion is this: The all-embracing providence of God does not make prayer a problem; it makes prayer powerful. It makes prayer the wonderful gift that it is. Oh, let us be a praying people.

John Piper

This article challenged me to pray more . . . for seemingly insignificant things, because they are not.  We all need to understand the desire of God for communication with us and for it to be at all times and about all things.  Let us endeavor today to tru;u pray without ceasing.

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith March 5, 2021

By Him all things were created, in Heaven and on earth, visible and invisible. — Colossians 1:16 

I don’t tend to see things from the virus’s point of view. 

With virtually every creature I know about, I have moments when I consider them as living beings in their own right.

This is even true of the ones I viscerally dislike: wasps, spiders, stinging nettles, mosquitoes, even cats. I recognize that they have some kind of purpose in their actions, albeit one which frequently conflicts with mine, and that they do the nauseating things they do only because it helps them achieve something important to them. A mosquito bites people in order to get food. A wasp stings because it feels threatened. A cat minces around with a superior look on its face because somebody has to cut human beings down to size, and it might as well be them. If I try, I can see the world, even if only temporarily, from their perspective.  

But when it comes to viruses, I find this almost impossible.

There are probably good reasons for that. They are invisibly small. They cannot replicate unless they are inside the cells of another creature. I am still not entirely sure I know what they are. But so far as I am concerned, they are a subset of me, or an experience I have, rather than a creature with any agency of their own. When I sneeze, I never ponder the fact that I am helping the virus reproduce itself in other organisms by projecting it several feet away (or, more commonly, that I am foiling its reproductive plans by cupping my hands around my mouth). I never consider that the reason I vomit is because a virus is trying to reach other creatures and/or their water supply, nor that rabies is the result of a particularly fiendish virus that not only infects dogs but then induces them to bite other creatures and so spread itself further. A virus, as I perceive it, is something which happens to me — a bug, a disease, a day off work, even a nationwide lockdown — as opposed to another created entity.  

This also means I rarely grasp the drama of the way my body responds to it. When I run a fever, I see it as a symptom of the infection rather than as my body’s declaration of war against marauding and unwanted colonists as I unconsciously heat myself up so as to kill them before they kill me. I fail to appreciate the marvel of antibodies, whereby defeating a particular virus once (and this is true of many of the big boys, including smallpox, rubella, measles, and mumps) ensures that I never need fear it again. Meanwhile I tell my children that Calpol will make them better, while having this vague awareness that it will do nothing of the sort but merely make them feel slightly more comfortable while their immune system does the real work of hunting down the offending microbes and showing them who’s boss. It’s not something I often reflect upon, but every time I get sick, it is war. I want to feel better, which means killing the virus. The virus wants to reproduce, which (if unchecked) could mean killing me. It’s a fight to the death, man against microbe, virus versus vir, and may the best one win.  

If you haven’t thought about this much, as I hadn’t until recently, you may well find it biologically interesting. But it is also theologically troubling. It means that viruses like smallpox, hepatitis, yellow fever, HIV, and COVID-19, which have killed many millions of people over the centuries, are not merely diseases, infections, or people becoming sick and dying. They are creatures, made and sustained by Almighty God, who knows that they will kill millions of people (let alone animals) and creates them anyway. There are somewhere around 1 × 1031 of them on earth today — if you laid them end to end, they would stretch for one hundred million light-years — and many of them make people’s lives miserable.1 

One of them, at the time of writing, has brought much of the world to a standstill. Some of them cover children in painful sores and ultimately kill them. Some of them pass from pregnant women to their unborn babies. Yet there they all are, and every last one of them is upheld by the word of God’s power.  

Few things in creation express the problem of evil more sharply than the virus.  

Many of our theological defense mechanisms are powerless against it. “Suffering exists because humans have free will,” but it is far from obvious why viruses are required for human freedom, and it seems pretty certain that viruses existed before humans anyway. “Suffering exists because there are physical laws, which are necessary for life,” but physical laws could presumably exist without smallpox. “Suffering exists to enhance our souls and prepare us for eternity,” but viral infections disproportionately afflict the young, poor, and vulnerable, while the ones who (according to Scripture) often need the most soul work, like the rich and powerful, often escape largely unharmed. “God never meant for there to be suffering,” but He continues to sustain trillions of viruses every day, and none of them can replicate unless they are inside the cell of another creature. “Suffering is a consequence of our sin,” but that’s a pretty tough sell when a baby can contract HIV in utero. There aren’t many theological objections which resist our usual apologetic medicine as much as this one.  

Having said that, the flip side of this is also true. If we can respond appropriately to the problem of viruses, then our response will also serve as an appropriate reply to the problem of evil and suffering more generally. If we know what to do with viruses, we will be immune to all kinds of attack.  

So the question is, how could an all-powerful, all-loving God create viruses, which can survive only by afflicting other creatures? (This is true of all predators, of course, but our experience of viruses sharpens the point.) And the answer — although you’re not going to like it — can be expressed in three short, frustrating, yet enormously important words: we don’t know.  

That’s the sort of punch line that can get a book thrown across the room. That’s probably what I would have done, had I heard it, when I first became a Christian. But after pastoring for fifteen years, reading a lot of church history, preaching sermons and writing books about the problem of evil, and raising a daughter with childhood disintegrative disorder, I genuinely think it’s the best, most honest, and most biblical answer to the problem of suffering. It’s an answer you find in Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Anglican, Reformed, and Pentecostal writers.2 More important, it’s also an answer you find in biblical books like Job and Ecclesiastes.  

Why do people suffer? We just don’t know. Why is there evil? No idea.  

And we’re better off admitting that than trying to guess, let alone (like Job’s comforters) foisting our guess on our grieving, bereaved, boil-infested friends.  

This is not to deny that Scripture gives plenty of resources to help us. It identifies the two fundamental aspects of evil — sin and death — and shows us both their beginning and their end. It insists repeatedly and stubbornly that the world will not always be like this. It debunks easy answers — especially religious ones! — and narrows the field until we have no option but to hope in Christ. It centers on a gospel in which God conquers both sin and death in the crucifixion and resurrection of His Son. It tells us numerous stories of people who suffered far more than we have yet clung to God nonetheless. It ends with a vision of a world in which all evil has gone. But for all that, it never gives us a direct answer to our most pressing and disturbing question, and it occasionally scolds those who ask for one.  

Nor is it to deny that we can find morally satisfying reasons for some suffering. Human choices, physical laws, the enhancement of our souls, the consequences of sin: these can all explain some of the pain we experience, some of the time. But none of them can account for all of it, all of the time. No matter how long I think about it, and no matter how many times my children ask me, I simply cannot think of a good reason why God would create the coronavirus, and in all likelihood I never will. And that’s okay.  

But that doesn’t mean there is no such reason. If God is all-knowing and I am not, there are all sorts of things I would expect God to know and to do that I cannot understand. It is simply to say that I am ignorant of what that reason is.

Living with that ignorance can be unsettling and sometimes deeply troubling, especially when suffering strikes us personally. But questions, paradoxes, and mysteries are part of the fabric of Christianity. There is a limit to how far creatures can understand the Creator. Ignorance is built in.  

And faith involves acknowledging that ignorance, trusting God in our confusion, and finding hope in the fact that one day  

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. — Revelation 21:4 

1. “Microbiology by Numbers,” Nature Reviews Microbiology 9 (2011): 628.  

2. Books which deal with this particularly well or thoroughly include David Bentley Hart, The Doors of the Sea; C. S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain; Fleming Rutledge, The Crucifixion; Alvin Plantinga, God, Freedom and Evil; Tim Keller, Walking with God through Pain and Suffering; and perhaps most powerfully, Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov.  

Excerpted from God of All Things by Andrew Wilson, copyright Andrew Wilson. 

There are many things we encounter that if we are honest with ourselves, we do not understand.  But by faith, we know God does.  Let us live, asking for greater faith as we encounter the unknown and continue to trust God, shining the light of His glory placed within us on this dark world.  We will be leaving this habitation for the glorious and joy filled eternal home awaiting us when Jesus returns.  Look up, for your redemption draweth nigh.

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith March 4, 2021

Some days I pick up a camera and it’s a hammer.

The lens is my ink, for cameras have sensor eyes, and pixels record. I slide it into a pocket, a thin point-and-shoot, and find another way to chronicle, to force the lids open; another way to receive the moment with thanks reverential.

When he comes in from the barn, the Farmer finds me with my hammer in hand, leaning over a plate of cheese grated and sitting in sunlight. It is true. I do feel foolish. I mean, it’s curls of mozzarella and cheddar piled high in a pond of golden day. And I’m changing the settings for macro, pulling in for a close-up frame. He’s fed 650 sows with one strong arm this morning, flicked on a welder and melded steel. It is quite possible that the God-glory of a ring of shredded cheese may be lost on him.

It isn’t.

“I like finding you just like this.” He wraps one arm around my bowed middle, draws me close and up into him strong.

“Crazy like this?” I blush silliness, and he brushes close with the four-day stubble. He laughs.

“Perfect like this.” He nods toward the cheese plate. “You being happy in all these little things that God gives. It makes me very happy.”

Happy in all these little things that God gives. Ridiculously happy over slips of cheese. That I am, and it’s wild, and, oh, I am the one who laughs. Me! Changed! Surprised by joy!

Joy is the realest reality, the fullest life, and joy is always given, never grasped. God gives gifts and I give thanks and I unwrap the gift given: joy.

It is true, I never stop wanting to learn the hard eucharisteo for the deathbeds and dark skies and the prodigal sons. But I accept this is the way to begin, and all hard things come in due time and with practice. Yet now wisps of cheese tell me gentle that this is the first secret step into eucharisteo’s miracle. Gratitude for the seemingly insignificant — a seed — this plants the giant miracle. The miracle of eucharisteo, like the Last Supper, is in the eating of crumbs, the swallowing down one mouthful. Do not disdain the small.

The whole of the life — even the hard — is made up of the minute parts, and if I miss the infinitesimals, I miss the whole. These are new language lessons, and I live them out.

There is a way to live the big of giving thanks in all things. It is this: to give thanks in this one small thing. The moments will add up.

I, too, had read it often, the oft-quoted verse: “And give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 5:20). And I, too, would nod and say straight-faced, “I’m thankful for everything.”

But in this counting gifts, to one thousand, more, I discover that slapping a sloppy brush of thanksgiving over everything in my life leaves me deeply thankful for very few things in my life.

A lifetime of sermons on “thanks in all things” and the shelves sagging with books on these things and I testify: life-changing gratitude does not fasten to a life unless nailed through with one very specific nail at a time.

Little nails and a steady hammer can rebuild a life — eucharisteo precedes the miracle.

I snap a picture of cheese.

Excerpted from One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp, copyright Zondervan.

What are some specific, small, simple, everyday things that you are grateful for today? Have you experienced receiving joy when you’ve given thanks in this small things with a full heart?

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith March 3, 2021

Leaving on a jet plane early in the morning, thinking of meeting Jesus in the clouds.  Praying for all of you while we are away.  All our love,

Dale & Robin

Notes of Faith March 3, 2021 

“THE POWER OF HIS APPEARING” 

I John 3:2-3 

Have you ever given any thought to the awesome power of our Lord’s appearing?  That power is seen in I John 3:2-3.  In verse 2 John calls attention to our glorious position: 

Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we shall be.  We know that when He appears, we shall be like Him because we shall see Him just as He is.  And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. 

Two points loom large and clear in this passage: one future and one present. 

1.   The power to change us.   

      “When we see Him, we shall be like Him.”  Note what John says - when we see Him.  There is something marvelous about seeing our Savior.  There will be transforming power at the sight of Him.  This is unexplainable.  The molecular structure of our bodies will be completely altered when we see Christ.  All imperfections of our present state will vanish in an instant of time.  Paul says in I Corinthians 15: 

                    Mortality will put on immortality;  

                    Sown a perishable body - raised an imperishable body.   

                    Sown in dishonor - raised glory.   

                    Sown in weakness - raised in power.   

                    Sown a natural body - raised a spiritual body. 

      What this means is that at the first sight of the Savior, a glorious, miraculous transformation will take place.  By and large our bodies will be just like His, only each of us will retain our individual identity.  

Yes, the power to change us.  But wait!  What should that Blessed Hope do for us in the present?  This brings us to the second aspect of the Power of His Appearing.  

2.   The power to challenge us. 

      “Everyone who has this Hope purifies himself just as He is pure.”  There is something magnetic about the coming of the Lord.  A drawing power.  A desire and determination to take the initiative in seeing change take place in our lives now, to take note of the impurities in our thought life and attitude - then to submit to His authority and let Him replace those imperfections with His perfection.  There is something wonderfully comforting and challenging - not in just knowing what He can do but in submitting to His ability and willingness to make us over.  Just remember, He always knows what is best for us and He will never hesitate to take what we present to Him and overhaul it (Romans 12:1, 2.) 

So beloved, this Easter let us contemplate the power of His appearing to change us and let that glorious reality challenge us in our present circumstances. 

Love to you all, Pastor Charles Covington 

Many of you may feel you have not experienced the power of God, but let 

me assure you that your salvation was one of. if not the greatest miracle and 

display of God’s power that has ever happened.  Justification, sanctification, 

and finally, glorification when Jesus comes to take His bride home.  The 

power of God takes place every day.  Look up, for your redemption draweth 

nigh! 

Pastor Dale 

Notes of Faith March 2, 2021

Adventure, with all its requisite danger and wildness, is a deeply spiritual longing written into the soul of man. The masculine heart needs a place where nothing is prefabricated, modular, nonfat, zip lock, franchised, on-line, microwavable. Where there are no deadlines, cell phones, or committee meetings. Where there is room for the soul.

Where, finally, the geography around us corresponds to the geography of our heart.

Look at the heroes of the biblical text: Moses does not encounter the living God at the mall. He finds him (or is found by him) somewhere out in the deserts of Sinai, a long way from the comforts of Egypt. The same is true of Jacob, who has his wrestling match with God not on the living room sofa but in a wadi somewhere east of the Jabbok, in Mesopotamia. Where did the great prophet Elijah go to recover his strength? To the wild. As did John the Baptist, and his cousin, Jesus, who is led by the Spirit into the wilderness.

Whatever else those explorers were after, they were also searching for themselves. Deep in a man’s heart are some fundamental questions that simply cannot be answered at the kitchen table.

Who am I? What am I made of? What am I destined for?

It is fear that keeps a man at home where things are neat and orderly and under his control. But the answers to his deepest questions are not to be found on television or in the refrigerator. Out there on the burning desert sands, lost in a trackless waste, Moses received his life’s mission and purpose. He is called out, called up into something much bigger than he ever imagined, much more serious than CEO or “prince of Egypt.” Under foreign stars, in the dead of night, Jacob received a new name, his real name. No longer is he a shrewd business negotiator, but now he is one who wrestles with God. The wilderness trial of Christ is, at its core, a test of His identity. “If you are who you think you are…” If a man is ever to find out who he is and what he’s here for, he has got to take that journey for himself.

He has got to get his heart back.

Westward Expansion Against the Soul

The way a man’s life unfolds nowadays tends to drive his heart into remote regions of the soul. Endless hours at a computer screen; selling shoes at the mall; meetings, memos, phone calls. The business world — where the majority of American men live and die — requires a man to be efficient and punctual. Corporate policies and procedures are designed with one aim: to harness a man to the plow and make him produce. But the soul refuses to be harnessed; it knows nothing of Day Timers and deadlines and P&L statements. The soul longs for passion, for freedom, for life.

As D. H. Lawrence said, “I am not a mechanism.” A man needs to feel the rhythms of the earth; he needs to have in hand something real — the tiller of a boat, a set of reins, the roughness of rope, or simply a shovel. Can a man live all his days to keep his fingernails clean and trim? Is that what a boy dreams of?

Society at large can’t make up its mind about men. Having spent the last thirty years redefining masculinity into something more sensitive, safe, manageable and, well, feminine, it now berates men for not being men. Boys will be boys, they sigh. As though if a man were to truly grow up he would forsake wilderness and wanderlust and settle down, be at home forever in Aunt Polly’s parlor. “Where are all the real men?” is regular fare for talk shows and new books. You asked them to be women, I want to say. The result is a gender confusion never experienced at such a wide level in the history of the world.

How can a man know he is one when his highest aim is minding his manners?

And then, alas, there is the church. Christianity, as it currently exists, has done damage to masculinity. When all is said and done, I think most men in the church believe that God put them on the earth to be a good boy. The problem with men, we are told, is that they don’t know how to keep their promises, be spiritual leaders, talk to their wives, or raise their children. But, if they will try real hard they can reach the lofty summit of becoming… a nice guy. That’s what we hold up as models of Christian maturity: Really Nice Guys. We don’t smoke, drink, or swear; that’s what makes us men.

Now let me ask my male readers: in all your boyhood dreams growing up, did you ever dream of becoming a Nice Guy? (Ladies, was the prince of your dreams dashing… or merely nice?)

Really now — do I overstate my case? Walk into most churches in America, have a look around, and ask yourself this question: What is a Christian man? Don’t listen to what is said, look at what you find there. There is no doubt about it. You’d have to admit a Christian man is… bored. At a recent church retreat I was talking with a guy in his fifties, listening really, about his own journey as a man. “I’ve pretty much tried for the last twenty years to be a good man as the church defines it.” Intrigued, I asked him to say what he thought that was. He paused for a long moment. “Dutiful,” he said. “And separated from his heart.” A perfect description, I thought. Sadly right on the mark.

As Robert Bly laments in Iron John, “Some women want a passive man if they want a man at all; the church wants a tamed man — they are called priests; the university wants a domesticated man—they are called tenure-track people; the corporation wants a… sanitized, hairless, shallow man.” It all comes together as a sort of westward expansion against the masculine soul. And thus the heart of a man is driven into the high country, into remote places, like a wounded animal looking for cover. Women know this, and lament that they have no access to their man’s heart. Men know it, too, but are often unable to explain why their heart is missing.

They know their heart is on the run, but they often do not know where to pick up the trail. The church wags its head and wonders why it can’t get more men to sign up for its programs. The answer is simply this: we have not invited a man to know and live from his deep heart.

An Invitation

But God made the masculine heart, set it within every man, and thereby offers him an invitation:

Come, and live out what I meant you to be.

Permit me to bypass the entire nature vs. nurture “is gender really built-in?” debate with one simple observation: men and women are made in the image of God as men or as women.

So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created Him; male and female He created them. — Genesis 1:27

Male and female. Now, we know God doesn’t have a body, so the uniqueness can’t be physical. Gender simply must be at the level of the soul, in the deep and everlasting places within us. God doesn’t make generic people; He makes something very distinct — a man or a woman. In other words, there is a masculine heart and a feminine heart, which in their own ways reflect or portray to the world God’s heart.

God meant something when He meant man, and if we are to ever find ourselves we must find that. What has He set in the masculine heart? Instead of asking what you think you ought to do to become a better man (or woman, for my female readers), I want to ask, What makes you come alive? What stirs your heart? The journey we face now is into a land foreign to most of us. We must head into country that has no clear trail. This charter for exploration takes us into our own hearts, into our deepest desires.

There are three desires I find written so deeply into my heart I know now I can no longer disregard them without losing my soul. They are core to who and what I am and yearn to be. I gaze into boyhood, I search the pages of Scripture, of literature, I listen carefully to many, many men, and I am convinced these desires are universal, a clue into masculinity itself. They may be misplaced, forgotten, or misdirected, but in the heart of every man is a desperate desire for a battle to fight, an adventure to live, and a beauty to rescue.

Excerpted from Wild at Heart: Discovering the Secret of a Man’s Soul by John Eldredge, copyright Thomas Nelson.

Eldredge writes interesting thoughts.  They are his and I am not totally sure I come close to understanding his mind, but he does speak to a current issue.  Male and female created He them.  God made mankind male and female…we do not have other options.  We think we do because of sin, and therein lies the argument.  Those opposed to thinking that they are sinners can think and do anything that is outside the truth of God.  Men NEED to be male and women NEED to be female. No other truth exists.

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith March 1, 2021

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us. — Ephesians 1:7–8 NIV 

I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. — Ephesians 1:18–21 NIV 

Frank’s daughter Vicki was in the throes of a painful divorce from her husband, Michael Kennedy in 1997. We invited Vicki and the kids to join us at our home in Colorado over the holidays, and while they were staying with us, Michael was with the whole Kennedy clan that regularly descended on Aspen for the holidays. Michael called Vicki to ask that the children be allowed to join him for the New Year’s festivities. She reluctantly agreed because, while at that point there was virtually no hope for their devastated marriage, she truly desired to save her children’s relationship with their father. 

Late in the afternoon on New Year’s Eve we received a phone call telling us that Michael had been skiing backward down a steep slope tossing a football back and forth to other skiers. He had hit a tree and was now hanging on to life in the emergency room at the Aspen hospital. 

Vicki, understandably, was in shock. Frank drove and I sat in the back seat with her. As we were trying to navigate the icy mountain highway, I talked softly to her and prayed intermittently. We were about halfway to Aspen when we got the news that Michael had been declared brain dead. Vicki heaved heartbroken tears. She had loved Michael since she was fifteen years old, and although he had betrayed her and left her emotionally destroyed, she had never wished him harm. She would always love him. 

Vicki and Frank entered the hospital. I stayed in the car with a phone in case the children called. Eventually I had to use the bathroom, so I quietly walked in to find one—that coincidentally ended up being directly across from the room where Frank and Vicki were with Michael’s body. As I came out of the ladies’ room I found myself standing directly across from Ethel Kennedy, still in her ski suit but disheveled, with her jacket hanging from her waist. The look on her face was one of utter and total shock. I wish I could erase it from my memory, but I can’t. I quietly walked over to her and embraced her and whispered how sorry I was. She had always been very candid that Michael was her favorite child of the eleven she had borne. And now, he was gone.

When I got the call from Vicki’s children, I whispered into Vicki’s ear that someone had sent a car for her, and she left immediately. That left Frank and me alone with Ethel and Michael’s body on a table. For more than an hour Ethel did not move from his side. She did not say a word, she did not cry a tear, but she did refuse to leave her son’s lifeless body, shaking her head adamantly when anyone came in to try to convince her to depart. 

I prayed silently, Dear God, please comfort this poor woman. Dear God... and then I leaned over to her and gently whispered, “It’s okay, Ethel. You can leave him.

Michael’s not there, he’s not there. He’s with God.” She didn’t move or respond, as if she hadn’t heard a word I’d said. That’s when I added, “To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.” 

Suddenly, she turned her head toward me. “What did you say?” 

Again I said, “To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.” 

She was stunned. “Where did you hear that?” 

“It’s from the Bible, Ethel, in Second Corinthians five” (see 2 Corinthians 5:8, author paraphrase). 

“I never heard that,” she said simply. 

Frank signaled to me that I should leave so he could be there with her when she finally said goodbye to her cherished son for the last time. 

I gently squeezed her arm and left the room, marveling yet again at God and how He works through His Word. All I had done was quote from the Scriptures — God’s Word. The Bible says that His Word never returns void (see Isaiah 55:11). It is alive and active, and it penetrates deep down into our souls, way beyond the joints and marrow of our bodies (see Hebrews 4:12). Ethel had gone to Mass every day of her life, including that morning before she went to ski with her family. But she had never heard those words before — the only words that could comfort her heart long enough to give her the strength to move away from her beloved son. 

Vicki never married again, but all three of her children did, and she now has five beautiful grandchildren she cherishes.

We see how God is faithful and how God redeems what was broken. It’s never too late to let go and trust God to make all things new. The same power that raised Jesus from the dead is available to redeem and comfort us. All we need is to trust in God’s love for us. 

Thank You Jesus for Your love demonstrated on the Cross and through Your resurrection. Thank You for Your “God-breathed” Word and the power of the Holy Spirit to bring healing and life to our days, no matter how difficult our circumstances may be. You, truly, are our hope! Amen. 

Excerpted from It’s Never Too Late by Kathie Lee Gifford, copyright Kathie Lee Gifford. 

God speaks through the words of Scripture if we would just read and listen to His voice.  The more we read the more we hear God speak.  “Draw near to Me and I will draw near to you . . .”  Let us know the heart of God by listening to His word, growing in His grace, wisdom, mercy and love day by day.

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith February 28, 2021

Folly is bound up in the heart of a child. — Proverbs 22:15

“Yes, I love you, and no, you can’t have your own way.”

When my dad was two years old, the youngest of four children, his father abandoned the family. My dad’s single mom did they best she could, but they were extremely poor.

To help support the family, my father started working when he was six years old. He had two jobs. Every day he and his older brother, Harry, would get up at 3:00 a.m. and work on a bread truck. Then they delivered newspapers before school.

When Dad became a man, he had a decision to make. Would he follow in his father’s footsteps or break the cycle?

You can imagine how happy I am that my dad wanted to be a cycle breaker. The legacy of some men is how far they go, but my dad’s legacy can only be understood by looking at how far he came.

The impact of a father is undeniable. I am who I am today largely because my dad decided not to be the man his father was. I will always be so grateful. Thank you, Dad.

The Un-Discipled Dad

But my father had a problem. He never felt the scratch of his father’s whiskers. He never heard the soothing sound of his father’s voice reading him a bedtime story. He never had his father tousle his hair or wrestle him to the ground. He never tossed a ball with his dad in the backyard. He never smelled his father’s work clothes. He never heard a truck door slam at the end of the day, signaling that his father was about to reenter the family orbit. He never heard his father say, “Son, I love you,” or “Son, I’m proud of you.”

In other words, what it meant to be a father was completely un-exampled to him. As a result, he had to guess at how to be a father to my three younger brothers and me.

Fathering wasn’t a problem for my dad during the preteen years. But he was completely caught off guard by how rebellious, angry, and foolish I became as a teenager. I fell in with the party crowd, drank too much, started skipping school, and got into fistfights — a lot of fights.

Why did I become like that? Proverbs 22:15 says,

Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline will drive it far away.

Every child starts out foolish. In my case, my dad had no fathering model for discipline, instruction, and correction to fall back on. It wasn’t his fault. As the saying goes, “You can’t give what you didn’t get.” You see, he simply wasn’t equipped to father the folly bound up in the heart of his child.

He had no training, no instruction, no discipleship. He was never invited to attend a parenting class or read a book like this. He didn’t have a men’s group or a couples’ group where he could get advice about how to handle my running away from home, having three encounters with law enforcement for drinking too much, and always getting into fights.

As a result, I ended up with a huge chip on my shoulder.

And I dared anyone to try to knock it off. By the middle of my senior year, I was so far off the rails that I quit high school. My dad wasn’t going to let me hang around the house, so he drove me to the US Army enlistment office.

That turned out to be a great move, because in addition to protecting America’s freedom, the US Army has an impeccably successful system to knock chips off the shoulders of foolish young men.

In my case, the system was spearheaded by a ferocious drill sergeant who started each day by turning on every light in the barracks at 5:00 a.m. Then he’d lean down and put his grill six inches from my face and revel in screaming at the top of his lungs, “Get out of that bunk, you lazy piece of @$%#! Put on those combat boots, soldier! We’re going for a five-mile run before breakfast.”

The Army was good for me. I knew my dad loved me. However, it was the Army, through its discipline, that knocked the folly out of me.

Had the Army not dispensed the discipline that my father was not trained to give me, that chip on my shoulder could easily have ruined my life. Proverbs 19:3 tells us,

A person’s own folly leads to their ruin, yet their heart rages against the Lord.

Of course, there are a lot of angry men out there who still have those chips on their shoulders. Their hearts are full of rage. If you are one of those men, I would encourage you to not judge your father more harshly than he deserves. Most dads really want the best for their children, even those not equipped to give it. Sure, they made mistakes. You’ll make them too with your children. Forgive your father. And be sure to ask him to forgive you too, if possible. Many of us have been a lot more severe with our dads than they deserve.

With that said, every Christian father wants his children to grow up to love God and to love others. The purpose of this chapter is to give you the basic training on how to father your children in a way that will really make a difference for them.

What Our Kids Really Need

The challenging mission of a Christian father is to provide enough structure to drive out folly, while never letting your children have any reason to doubt that you unconditionally love and accept them.

When our own children were barely out of diapers, my wife and I attended a parenting seminar where counselor and author Larry Crabb was the speaker. He offered a simple, practical formula for correcting folly: “Yes, I love you, and no, you can’t have your own way.”

Virtually every parenting error you can think of will be the result of getting one or both statements out of kilter:

The Authoritarian Father: “No, I don’t love you, and no, you can’t have your own way.”

• The Permissive Father: “Yes, I love you, and yes, you can have your own way.”

• The Disconnected Father: “No, I don’t love you, and yes, you can have your own way.”

• The Encouraging Father: “Yes, I love you, and no, you can’t have your own way.”

“Yes, I love you, and no, you can’t have your own way” is the big idea that can guide you to the right balance of structure and discipline you will need to drive out folly, while at the same time making sure your children never doubt your love.

Excerpted from The Christian Man by Patrick Morley, copyright Patrick Morley.

Our heavenly Father is the perfect Father.  He IS love and knows what is best for us.  All too often that is discipline, to direct our path toward righteousness rather than folly.  The world is full of undisciplined people who want their own way.  They are never happy, always seeking more, never satisfied.  Let the love of God be your example to love your children and grandchildren . . . and learn to say NO when it needs to be said. 

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith February 27, 2021

I am praying that the present pandemic will not be wasted in your life, but that the global and personal miseries of the coronavirus will mingle with this CROSS missions conference, and with ten thousand divine influences that have made you who you are — that this pandemic and this conference and these influences would mingle, in the mysterious working of God’s providence, to make hundreds of you into lifelong missionaries.

Mystery Unfolding

Few things cause me more joyful amazement than watching the mystery of God’s providence in turning people into missionaries. I’ve watched it happen before my very eyes for forty years. Nobody can explain this. We can write books about knowing the will of God until we are blue in the face, and in the end, why some of you will devote the rest of your life to making Christ known among unreached people in a different culture and language is an unfathomable mystery. It cannot be explained — not by mere man.

Virtually none of you knows where you will be, or what you will be doing, in ten years. And the fact that some of you, beyond your wildest dreams, will be in places you do not know, in partnerships you cannot see, speaking a language you thought unlearnable, loving people you never heard of, making known the best news in the world, is a beautiful mystery of God’s providence. How God does that, we do not know.

“As you walk through hard seasons, one of the gifts God may have for you is to see things in his word that you never had seen before.”

But we do know a few of the ten thousand influences God uses to make ordinary people into missionaries. One of those is suffering; hence the pandemic. One of those is the preaching of God’s word; hence the CROSS conference. One is prayer, because Jesus said, “Pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest” (Matthew 9:38).

So let’s pray, and then let’s connect the suffering of the pandemic with the preaching of God’s word, and watch in the years to come as the mystery unfolds in your life.

Mission Through Suffering

I know from personal experience and from Scripture that God creates proclaimers of his word through suffering. God changed the entire course of my life in the fall of 1966 (when I was twenty years old) by putting me flat on my back in the hospital for three weeks. He took out of my life all desire for the premed track I was on, and filled me with a passion that has never ceased to understand and herald the word of God.

There were thousands of other influences. But those three weeks in the hospital were decisive. One river flowing into the future was dammed up. And another river — another future — was opened up — and I thank God for the small price it took to open my eyes to what I was called to do. The unfolding of a mystery.

In the book of Acts we read this:

As they were stoning Stephen, he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep. . . . And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria. . . . Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word. (Acts 7:59–60; 8:1, 4)

Jesus had told them in Acts 1:8 to go from Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria and to the ends of the earth. And they were still in Jerusalem. Therefore, he dislodges them from Jerusalem and catapults them into his mission through suffering — Stephen’s death and a spreading persecution.

So, whether it is persecution in the first century, or mononucleosis in 1966, or a pandemic in 2020, one of the means by which God puts his people on mission is suffering.

‘Hallowed Be Your Name’

Another means is the ministry of the word of God into the lives of God’s people. So, we turn now to my text — namely, “Hallowed be your name” from the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6:9–13. Jesus said,

Pray then like this:

Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name.

Your kingdom come,

your will be done,

     on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread,

and forgive us our debts,

     as we also have forgiven our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation,

     but deliver us from evil.

Even the word of God, rightly understood and heralded, is a gift through suffering. The insight that I’m going to share with you from this text, I saw for the first time in 2010, which was a very difficult year for our family. You don’t need to know the details. But you ought to be encouraged so that, when you walk through hard seasons, one of the gifts God may have for you is to see things in his word that you never had seen before. Let me share with you one of those, because it is so relevant for your engagement, as a goer or a sender, in missions.

Our Greatest Petitions

Going into that difficult year, I had already made the discovery that “hallowed be your name” along with “your kingdom come” and “your will be done” were not acclamations, but petitions, requests, pleadings in prayer. For some reason, as I was growing up, I just didn’t hear these first three petitions as petitions. They sounded more or less to me like praising: “Your name is being hallowed! Your kingdom is coming! Your will is being done!” In my mind for years they were acclamations.

But in fact, they are petitions, requests, pleading: “O God, cause your name to be hallowed! Cause your kingdom to come! Cause your will to be done! Make it happen, Lord.” So, I brought that much understanding of the Lord’s Prayer into the year 2010. I also brought the understanding that the Lord’s Prayer has two sets of three petitions each.

First set of petitions:

Hallowed be your name.

Your kingdom come.

Your will be done.

Second set of petitions:

Give us this day our daily bread.

Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

And, as far as I could see, the second set of petitions served the first set.

I need daily bread for life, so I ask for it.

I need forgiveness for my sins because I’m a sinner, so I ask for it.

I need guidance and protection from temptation and Satan, so I ask for it.

And then with (1) bread-sustained life, (2) a forgiveness-liberated conscience, and (3) a heart protected from the evil one, I can throw myself into the glorious work of

hallowing God’s name,

seeking God’s kingdom, and

doing his will the way the angels do it in heaven.

That’s the way I saw the prayer. And I think that’s basically right — as far as it goes.

Our Highest Treasure

But I had overlooked something profoundly important. Until 2010. The first petition — the one I am supposed to focus on in this message, “Hallowed be your name!” — is not just one of three. It’s different from the other two in the first group. In this petition, “Cause your name to be hallowed!” we hear explicitly (it may be implicit in the others, but only here is it explicit) the one specific response of the human heart that God requires of all human beings in this prayer: the hallowing, reverencing, honoring, esteeming, admiring, valuing, treasuring of God’s name above all things. None of the other five requests tells us explicitly to pray for a specific response of the heart.

The coming of God’s kingdom will give rise to a response of the human heart, but it’s not named.

The doing of God’s will includes a response of the human heart, but it’s not named.

Eating our daily bread sustains us in life so we can give a response of the heart, but it’s not named.

Being forgiven our debts frees the heart for a wonderful response, but it’s not named.

Being delivered from the evil one unleashes a powerful response, but it’s not named.

But in the first petition, it is named: hallowing — the act of the human heart called hallowing. What does it mean to hallow? It’s the very same word in Greek for sanctify: “Sanctified be your name.” To make holy. Or, since we don’t actually make God’s name holy, to value as holy, esteem as holy, treasure as holy. And holy, in reference to God, means infinitely valuable because he is one of a kind, in a class by himself. His holiness is his utterly unique, infinitely pure, transcendent God-ness.

“God’s holiness — his holy name — is the supreme and absolute Treasure in the universe.”

If you put God’s infinitely pure, transcendent being on the balance of a scale on one side, and all other being in the universe — all the waters of the oceans, the sand of the deserts, the rocks of the mountains, and all the nations of man, and all the galaxies of the universe, and all the demons of hell, and all the angels of heaven — on the other side of the scale, all other being goes up like air, because God’s holiness — his holy name — is the supreme and absolute Treasure in the universe and over the universe. All other treasures are as nothing by comparison.

So, “Hallowed be your name!” is a prayer, a yearning, a pleading from God’s people to God that he would cause his name to be hallowed, reverenced, revered, esteemed, valued, honored, admired, loved, cherished. Supremely.

Only the first petition of the Lord’s Prayer is a prayer for an explicit act of the human heart in response to the infinite Treasure of God’s holiness: Hallow it. Hallow the holiness of this name. Revere the holiness of this name. Honor, esteem, admire, value, treasure supremely the infinite worth of this name.

That’s what I saw in 2010. And when I added to this fact — namely, that only this petition explicitly calls on God to produce a response of the heart — the fact that this petition is first in the Lord’s Prayer, and that the term “your name” (“Hallowed be your name”) comes closer than “your kingdom” or “your will” to expressing the character and person of God himself (that’s what his name is!), then I saw that this petition is the main point, or the ultimate purpose, of the prayer, and all the others are meant to serve this one.

In other words, the structure of the prayer is not merely that the last three petitions serve the first three (which they do), but that the last five serve the first one.

Our Ultimate Aim

So, on October 9, 2010, while I was pondering these things and how they relate to my life, I wrote in my journal,

My ONE Great Passion! Nothing is more clear and unshakable to me than that the purpose of the universe is for the hallowing of God’s name. His kingdom comes for THAT. His will is done for THAT. Humans have bread-sustained life for THAT. Sins are forgiven for THAT. Temptation is escaped for THAT [the hallowing, treasuring, cherishing, admiring, loving of God’s infinite beauty and worth and greatness — his holiness].

And then on the next day, October 10, I wrote,

Lord, grant that I would, in all my weaknesses and limitations, remain close to the one, clear, grand theme of my life: your magnificence.

“The hallowing of God’s name is the end, the final goal, of all things.”TweetShare on Facebook

I want you to join me in that. May the grand, overarching, all-embracing, all-pervasive theme of your life be the magnificence of God — his holiness, his beauty, his worth, his greatness. Pray that God would do this. That’s what Jesus is telling us to do. Pray that he would do it. First in you, and then through you, in the lives of others, and among the nations — that his name be hallowed.

Of course, all the other petitions are essential for this to happen the way God wants it to happen.

If his kingdom does not come, his name will not be hallowed.

If his will is not done, his name will not be hallowed.

If we don’t have food to keep us alive, our voice will disappear from the hallowing of God’s name on the earth.

If our sins are not forgiven, we perish in hell, where nobody hallows the name of God.

And if we are not protected from the evil one, we will join in hating the name of God, not hallowing it.

They are all essential. But they are all penultimate, not ultimate. They are all means, not the end. There is one ultimate end.

We are delivered from evil for the hallowing of God’s name.

We are forgiven our sins for the hallowing of God’s name.

We are given bread-sustained life for the hallowing of God’s name.

We do the will of God for the hallowing of God’s name.

And we submit to God’s kingly rule for the hallowing of God’s name.

Jesus pushes us up through glorious penultimate aims of God to the ultimate aim of God. All other aims of God serve this aim of God: the hallowing, the treasuring, the loving of God’s name — that is, God himself.

In eternity, we will hallow the name of God not as a means to anything. Hallowing the name of God is not a means to any greater end. The hallowing of God’s name is the end, the final goal, of all things. Missions exists because the hallowing of God’s name doesn’t — yet!

Global Hallowing of God

When Jesus came to his final hour, and knew he was about to die and rise again and unleash a global tidal wave of salvation, do you remember how he brought his troubled soul into alignment with God’s ultimate purpose? Here’s Jesus in John 12:27–28:

“Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.”

To be sure, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Timothy 1:15). But what did this salvation ultimately mean? What does your salvation ultimately mean? “For this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.” Cause your name to be magnified, treasured, hallowed in the hearts of countless disciples of Jesus from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.

Which brings us back to where we started: Jesus pursued the personal and global hallowing of God’s name through suffering and death. He is still doing that. Don’t waste the pandemic. Don’t waste the CROSS Conference. Don’t waste the ten thousand divine influences that make you who you are.

There is one ultimate purpose in the Lord’s Prayer, and in the history of the world, and in the endless stretches of eternity: the hallowing, magnifying, treasuring, loving of God’s name — God’s beauty, and worth, and greatness — and all that he is for us in Jesus.

Make that the aim of your life — all of you. And then we will watch the mystery of God’s providence as he makes hundreds of you into missionaries. Amen.

John Piper

As I am in the Scriptures each day the Lord continues to speak even and especially through those that seem so familiar.  The prayer taught by Jesus to His disciples as an example of prayer has much for us to explore and learn from.  I appreciate the thoughts of John Piper and will continue to listen to my Lord and Savior speak to my heart through His Word and time in prayer with Him.  May His name be hallowed in my heart and mind, lips and behavior all the days of my life.  I pray this for all whom God brings into my sphere of influence for His name’s sake.

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith February 26, 2021

I Am With You Always

I broaden the path beneath you so that your ankles do not turn. This shows how intricately I am involved in your life-journey. I know exactly what is before you, and I can alter the path ahead of you to make your way easier. Sometimes I enable you to see what I have done on your behalf. At other times you are blissfully unaware of the hardship I have spared you. Either way, My work to widen the way before you demonstrates how lovingly I am involved in your life.

From your perspective, My workings are often mysterious. I do not protect you — or anyone — from all adversity.

Neither was I shielded from hardship during my thirty-three years of living in your world. On the contrary, I willingly suffered unimaginable pain, humiliation, and agony on the Cross — for your sake! When My Father turned away from Me, I experienced unspeakable suffering.

But because I was willing to endure that excruciating isolation from Him, you will never have to suffer alone. I have promised: I am with you always!

And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” — Matthew 27:46 NKJV

…And teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. — Matthew 28:20

You broaden the path beneath me, so that my ankles do not turn. — Psalm 18:36

Excerpted from Jesus Calling for Easter by Sarah Young, copyright Sarah Young.

Are you in the middle of something painful? You are not alone! Jesus knows suffering intimately and He will never, ever leave you.

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith February 25, 2021

Caught in the Act  

Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. At dawn He appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around Him, and He sat down to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing Him. (John 8:1–6) 

This shows how much women had been degraded and demeaned by society at the time, even by the religious society. The guy is not here, although it obviously takes two people to be “caught in the act of adultery.” John told us that this all happened during the Feast of Tabernacles (John 7:2), a weeklong celebration of thanksgiving for God’s goodness. The people lived in tents for a week in remembrance of the way God cared for their ancestors in the desert. But only the males were actually required to participate. There is no way to know how many families came with them, but sadly there would have been potential for promiscuity, and it would have been an opportune time for prostitution.  

We don’t know who Janice was (Let’s rebrand this poor woman as Janice.), but as the text tells us, the Pharisees were trying to trap Jesus into refuting the law of Moses, which required that she be stoned to death. It’s possible that she was selling herself. It may even be implied that this wasn’t the first time she’d been in this situation. Perhaps they just caught her, but if this was truly a trap, the only foolproof way for the plan to work would be to use a guy who was in on it.  

Where is the guy who volunteered as “tribute” for that job? And can we throw some rocks at him?  

I feel so bad for Janice. I can’t discount the “act,” but she seems like a victim to me. I have a deep heart for women who have been trampled by society and have to stoop to using their bodies to survive. Maybe I’m reading way too much into this, and these church leaders just knew that someone was “carrying on” and had a secret camera. But it doesn’t seem fair that there aren’t two people standing half-naked in judgment in front of Jesus.  

So, please give Janice the benefit of the doubt for a moment, and let’s watch Jesus be Jesus. 

Stoned  

According to the Old Testament law, Janice should be stoned for the sin of adultery. Let me try to quickly answer the question some of you may be thinking at this point:

What’s the deal with the Old Testament law? Right? I mean the whole Old Testament is full of these laws, and this one seems pretty extreme, especially today.  

God hasn’t changed. Jesus said,  

Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father. — John 14:9, 

and John and Paul said Jesus was God in flesh (John 1:1, 14; Colossians 2:9; 1 Timothy 3:16). But sometimes the God who made up the Old Testament law doesn’t sound like Jesus. I understand your concern, but I don’t have the time in this book to help you figure it all out. Actually, I don’t think anybody does have it all figured out. Nobody has God figured out. If they say they do, don’t buy their book.  

This is what you need to know. Jesus plainly said He came to bring a new covenant (Luke 22:20). That’s the bottom line. The God of the Old Testament may be hard to understand, so watch Him work through the person of Jesus.  

Janice was thrown at Jesus’ feet, guilty as charged. Jesus had been teaching in the temple courts when it happened.

It’s so easy for me to get distracted when I’m teaching. I can’t imagine trying to keep my train of thought if a hysterical, resisting, disheveled woman was dragged into the auditorium.  

The Bible tells us they made her stand. (I really do not like them.) This much we know: she was in trouble, but all they cared about was using her to test Jesus. Although Jesus is not angry per se in this story, it fits into our thesis because of all the other information we have about his interaction with these hypocrites. But, hey, I’m angry for this woman, so let’s do this.  

This story always makes me wonder what was going through Jesus’ mind. We don’t have any record of it. But think about this: Jesus grew up in a town where they thought His mother had committed the same sin, because they didn’t believe the miraculous virgin birth story. In at least one instance, the people accused Him of being an illegitimate child (John 8:41).  

When we celebrate Christmas each year, we usually take time to remember the hardships that Joseph and Mary went through as she gave birth to the Son of God, but I doubt we fully comprehend the one hardship they could never live down. The long trip to Bethlehem came and went, but the looks of people back home never did. Only a select few believed the incarnation story. In the eyes of everyone, Mary had broken the law: she was pregnant with Jesus out of wedlock whether with her fiancé or someone else. I believe Jesus’ childhood experience gave Him a unique filter as He dealt with situations like these. Prostitutes used to be referred to as “women of ill repute.” Jesus’ mother was a woman of “ill repute,” even though she deserved the opposite reputation.  

I’m honestly amazed at Jesus’ composure in this situation. I don’t know if you’re feeling my emotion here, but if I were Jesus, I would have gone spider monkey on these guys! It’s one of the reasons why I know that when Jesus did direct His anger, it was not an emotional reaction. He kept His emotions in check, allowing Him to deal more proactively with His anger, which is something He does in every situation. Something you and I should do more often.  

Adultery breaks up families, which is one of the reasons for God’s harsh penalty in the first place. I know some of you would like to go spider monkey on an adulterous man or woman who broke up your own family. And I can understand that. But I still can’t help but feel for Janice. She was just a pawn in a bigger chess game, a trap to capture Jesus.  

What could Jesus say? If He had set her free, He’d be violating the law of Moses. If He had said to stone her, well, that’s just not who Jesus was. He came to connect people to His Father; He was there to help Janice connect to her Father. The Bible says,  

But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with His finger. — John 8:6 

What did He write?  

* 

My guess is that the reason we don’t know exactly what He wrote is because it doesn’t matter. He may have just been doodling or starting a game of tic-tac-toe for one of the kids in the crowd. Who cares? What I want you to do is picture the situation and understand the brilliant compassion He created in this moment. Jesus was creating a diversion.  

Janice was standing, after being caught in the act of adultery. Most network television programs dress women in something presentable when filming a bedroom liaison. I applaud that, but that’s not usually how it works in reality.

Janice likely wasn’t still wearing a negligee when they busted into the room. And it’s doubtful they allowed her to put on her jeans and hoodie before they dragged her out.

One way or another, she was not presentable, an everyone’s eyes were on her — that is, until Jesus made them look down.  

When they kept on questioning Him, He straightened up and said to them,  

Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” Again He stooped down and wrote on the ground. — John 8:7–8 

Awkward silence. 

During this time of awkward quietness, conviction began to  settle in their hearts:  

But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before Him. — John 8:9 ESV 

Instead of playing their stupid game, Jesus basically said, “I think you need to check the rules and make sure you are even allowed to play this game. And, by the way, you’re not.”  

A few years ago, a survey raised the question, Who deserves to go to Heaven? and listed several names. A well-known former sports star who appears to have gotten away with murder took last place with only 19 percent voting to give him a shot in eternity. Mother Teresa received 79 percent. But this is what cracked me up: 87 percent of the participants believed they themselves deserved to go to Heaven. We’re not great at self-evaluation, are we?  

In case you’re wondering, the answer is, 0 percent deserve Heaven, no matter how many starving kids you saved or murders you got away with:  

All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. — Romans 3:23 

Amazingly, though, Jesus took a lose-lose proposition and turned it into a win-win. He upheld God’s law, while throwing the accusation they had placed on Janice directly back on them. I’m certain the Pharisees brought this situation to Jesus knowing that He would love this woman. His greatest crime in their eyes was His love for the unworthy of society. They thought they had Him in checkmate, but instead He forced them to quit the game.  

Which is, by the way, what we all need to do when we start getting judgmental. We need to take our eyes off “them” and drop our rocks.  

They Started for the Doors  

The older ones left first. Even judgmental hypocrites can get wiser in their old age.  

I love the last part of this verse:  

... until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. — John 8:9 

 This is exactly where I hope we all land in our spiritual journeys: alone with Jesus.  

I know for some it’s an incredibly difficult place to land, precisely because the church’s fallback position always seems to be a place of hypocritical judgment. I hate that.

And I apologize for the many, many times I’ve been a judgmental hypocrite. I’m sorry for all the barriers I have created between you and God. I would love for everyone to end up like Janice:  

no religion, no religious people, no games — just Jesus.  

Being alone with Jesus is a game changer.  

I don’t care where you have been or what you’ve done. If you could just be alone with Jesus, it would change everything.  

Once they were alone, the Bible says,  

Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” — John 8:10 

I love how Jesus refers to Janice. He doesn’t call her a whore or a home-wrecker. What does He call her? Woman. Unfortunately, this translation may sound a bit derogatory to you. But that couldn’t be further from the truth. The Greek word woman used here is better translated as “miss” or “ma’am.” It’s actually very respectful. And it’s the same word Jesus used to refer to His own mother (John 2:4). Don’t you love that? He speaks to her with dignity and respect. He speaks to her with grace and love.  

The story continues:  

“No one, sir,” she said. 

“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.” — John 8:11 

He is saying basically, “You are a woman who is loved by both Me and your Father in Heaven. Leave this life and go live like that woman, the dignified, forgiven, new woman. Go and live that life.”  

I can’t help but wonder how long it had been since she had a man speak to her with such love.  

Excerpted for Devotionals Daily from What Made Jesus Mad? By Tim Harlow, copyright Tim Harlow. 

Alone with Jesus.  He speaks to you with love, with compassion, with tenderness, with acceptance, and with a charge to live the life you were born to live.

Pastor Dale