Notes of Faith June 25, 2022

Step One: Consult Your Closest Friend – Jesus

If my life proves anything, it’s that we often approach the Lord with our minds already made up. In those instances, we’re actually not engaging Jesus at all; we’re asking Him to sign off on our wishes. I’m not saying we do this consciously, but it’s very easy to fall into this trap. Especially if we have not learned to vigorously question ourselves.

To consult Jesus in prayer as the first step in our decisions helps to “unmake” our minds. It allows time for the Great Revealer, the Holy Spirit, to peel away the layers and expose not only our true desires but all the ways we’ve covered them over. It softens our hearts and inclines our ears toward Jesus. Reminds us that we are not God. And opens our eyes to our real intentions.

Why Jesus?

You may wonder why I’ve specified Jesus here. While theologians generally agree that we can seek out any member of the Trinity for help — God the Father, Christ the Son, or the Holy Spirit — I focus this chapter on Jesus for a few reasons.

First of all, I want everyone who reads this to know how good and loving He is. Second, having been “God with us” up close and personal, He can relate to us and us to Him. He walked among us on this earth; wore a physical body with its temptations and hungers, needs, and wants; and faced exactly the kinds of struggles that we do — yet without any failing. This makes Him a wonderful role model and example. Finally, I focus on Jesus because what really elevated my faith to the next level as a new Christian was making a new friend. And not just any friend, but the One who would become my Friend and Business Partner, Jesus.

His unlimited love and acceptance toward me altered my life in every way.

After I tried for so long to fill the hole inside of me with money, success, and people pleasing, God gave me the faith (through much pain) to start looking to Jesus, and nothing has been the same. As I grew still, opening myself day after day to His love and direction, I began to see Jesus as never before. The more I talked with Him in prayer, the more my heart and mind changed. And as they did, I was able to turn from my old ways of thinking and be in a position for His will — and especially His own heart toward me — to be clearly revealed.

Jesus' delight is felt most freely when we approach Him with open arms

Experiencing Christ's Love

Therapy got the ball rolling, helping me to understand that my entire identity had been wrapped up in a desperate quest to succeed and please others. During these intensive sessions, the insecurities and sinful pride behind all my striving were laid bare. Meanwhile, God’s Word was transforming my mind, helping me discover the Terry Looper whom God had created rather than the straw man my upbringing and my own rush of desires had constructed.

Freshly aware that I’d never felt truly, unconditionally loved by anyone, I longed even more for the Lord to let me experience His love for me. The little boy in me deeply desired it, and the man I was needed it, because I didn’t want to exist on head knowledge anymore.

I craved an expression of love that would penetrate my heart and settle deeply into my soul, and so I humbly asked God for just that.

My prayer was answered many months after my burnout, while Doris and I were vacationing at a hotel on the beach in San Diego. Nothing dramatic preceded the moment. I was simply lying in bed one morning, praying and enjoying the quiet as the ocean waves played their rhythm outside our window. In that peaceful setting, I felt myself being embraced by an overwhelming warmth and tenderness that, even years later, I have trouble putting into words. There was so much affection and acceptance in it, I couldn’t stop crying.

I knew that Jesus was with me and that He noticed me. Really noticed me. It was what the little boy in me had always wanted from my parents; now I was receiving it from the One who sacrificed His life for me.

Doris saw a real difference in me after that. She says this is when I finally understood I didn’t need to be perfect to be accepted by God. This experience of unexpected love was so personal and so profound that it opened the door for me to understand Jesus not only as my Lord and Savior but as a real Friend with whom I could discuss any concern or challenge.

Relating to Him as I would any close friend — where there is trust, devotion, honesty, and frequent communication — had a great impact beyond my prayer life. For one, it later made getting neutral in my decisions a whole lot easier. Relating to Him so personally also helped me start applying God’s Word more personally, as written to me directly, not just to humanity at large.

Letting Jesus love me altered my love for others too.

Now that absolutely everything was new in my eyes, I was eager for everything to be made new in my world. His great love made me even more zealous to restore the damage I’d done to my relationships. Yet it was obvious that I had a lot of work to do to regain people’s trust, particularly within my own family.

For example, it took about three years of me being present in my youngest daughter’s life before she stopped being wary of my motives. My therapist would tell me, “Just hang out with your girls.” I didn’t know how at first, but Doris encouraged me: “Go sit on the floor in Jeannie’s room while she’s in there. She’ll talk to you.”

Eventually she did start talking, and as we connected, those occasional conversations turned into frequent ones. By the time Jeannie graduated from high school, she and I had eaten breakfast together nearly every day since her eighth-grade year. It didn’t make up for all the dinners I’d missed when she was younger, but I’m grateful she was willing to forge this tradition with me. Picking up my eldest, Tanya, after her gymnastics practices and going by the donut shop afterward also allowed us to establish a new relationship. These are some of my best memories ever.

Christ rebuilt my relationship with my wife as well. Doris and I were so into our “new” marriage (a marriage that was then nearing twenty years) that we would go away for a weekend every other month or so to take inventory and talk. We never knew what the time would be like — whether it would be quiet and prayerful, physically intimate, or tinged with disagreement — but when we left, we would often remark to each other how worthwhile it was.

I’ve heard of others becoming more whole in their soul just by experiencing Jesus’ love too. Sadly, based on the number of Christians I’ve spoken to about this, it’s apparently not unusual to go many years (or an entire lifetime!) without a deep sense of our Lord’s love. Rather than excitedly crawling up on Jesus’ lap as we can imagine the children in the Gospels doing, we remain guarded, distant. We’re wary of being hurt. Scared that we may not be lovable. As a result, a lot of people do what I did: they get busy “being Christian” — doing and performing to gain Christ’s approval — if they don’t give up on Him altogether.

Prayer brings us close and starts to reestablish trust. It is conversation; it is attention and affection passing between Heaven and earth. It is what enables us to let Jesus’ wholehearted love in.

His delight is felt most freely when we approach Him with open arms.

To engage with Jesus as a real person rather than a vague concept took away so much pressure for me. It wasn’t about me being good enough anymore. I no longer flippantly viewed Him as my spiritual Santa Claus either. Yes, He cared to do kind things for me; yes, He was generous to me; but now it was about slowing down to enjoy the sweetness of friendship and connect deeply with Him. I was realizing that Jesus really wants to be my Friend — He is invested in helping me figure out this thing called life, and He never, ever turns me away.

When I understood this in my soul, I understood it is no more self-serving to befriend Him than it is to share your life with anyone you love. Jesus wants intimacy and relationship! He is excited and pleased when we invite Him into our lives.

Excerpted from Sacred Pace by Terry Looper, copyright Terry Looper.

This short excerpt from a book does not display the understanding of GOD as three in One, the complete glory of God and all that He is toward us, for us, and to us.  I pray for all of you to experience the truth of God in Scripture, the depth and wonder of God that is Father, and Son, and Holy Spirit!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith June 24, 2022

Notes of Faith June 24, 2022

Before my father died, he said the worst thing about growing old was that other men stopped seeing you as dangerous. I’ve always remembered that, how being dangerous was sacred, a badge of honor. You live your life by a code, an ethos. Every man does. It’s your shoreline. It’s what guides you home. And trust me, you’re always trying to get home. — Lieutenant Rorke Denver, Act of Valor

Nine months after SEAL Team Six took out the world’s most wanted man, Osama bin Laden, they completed another dramatic and secret mission: rescuing Jessica Buchanan, an American aid worker, from the hands of Somali pirates. In response to her plight, two dozen SEALs parachuted into southern Somalia, killed all nine heavily armed kidnappers, and liberated Buchanan, as well as a second aid worker — all without any American casualties.

The heroic acts in the final moments of this remarkable rescue reveal something of the culture and character of the Navy SEALs. Here are Jessica’s own words: “At one point… this group of men who’ve risked their lives for me already asked me to lie down on the ground. Because they’re concerned there might be [more armed terrorists] out there. They make a circle around me and then they lie down on top of me, to protect me. And we lie like that until the helicopters come in.”1

To the world, it was extraordinary. To the Navy SEALs, it was another day’s work. It’s what they do. Because it is who they have become.

I was connecting with a United States Marine Corps officer as he reflected on his combat training. He said they’ve learned through trial and error that the only way to properly train and be fully equipped for war is with live ammunition. It’s the way of the marines, and it is the way of the Kingdom of God.

If you have traveled this far along the ancient path to becoming a king, you don’t have to be told it’s going to be a fight. That’s why so much of the masculine journey is warrior training.

God must restore the warrior if we are to become the kind of man and the kind of king who can be entrusted with the leadership of His Kingdom.

While becoming a warrior will take on expressions and applications unique to each man, the essence of the process transcends culture, profession, and context. We are being formed and forged in God’s image, as men.

Let’s take our place at the feet of great warriors who have marked out a path to becoming a warrior. Yet as we stand at this bend in the path, we remind ourselves that war is never the point.

The goal must always be love.

A wise elder once said that we fight what is in front of us so we might protect what is behind us. Our enemies (the evil one, the fallen world, and the flesh in the heart of every person) are aggressively waging war against our heart, the hearts of those we love, and the hearts of those entrusted to our care. Our passivity will only increase the casualties. We must turn with increasing measure to our Father to be trained as a warrior, to become the kind of man who not only has the heart to give his life heroically but also has the skills and strength to do it effectively.

The goal must always be love

What Story Are You Living In?

As one of my mentors put it, the interpretation you use to understand your reality and your role in it will be the single greatest force in shaping what becomes of your next decade. In the words of Dan Baker in What Happy People Know, “The stories we tell ourselves about our own lives eventually become our lives… The choice is ours.”2 Our life will be significant in proportion to the stories we choose to interpret our reality.

What stories are you using to interpret your reality?

In the novel Peace Like a River, Jeremiah Land, the father figure in the story, put it this way: “We and the world, my children, will always be at war. Retreat is impossible. Arm yourselves.”3

Yet in this powerful story, the weapons Jeremiah uses are not physical fire-arms but the even more fundamental weapons of courage, wisdom, strength, endurance, self-control, prayer, faith, love, and sacrifice. He wages war heroically against death, cruelty, and violence, but in the power of One far greater than himself.

While many Bible translations render the Hebrew name for God, Jehovah Sabaoth, as “the Lord God Almighty,” it is more accurately translated “the Lord of Angel Armies.” We can conclude that the Creator filled the spiritual realm with the kingdom equivalent of Navy SEALs for a reason.

The writer of Hebrews defined the nature of faith as “confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1). That which is unseen must not be irrelevant to our lives. In fact, as Dallas Willard taught in The Divine Conspiracy, “the most important things in our human lives are nearly always things that are invisible.”4

The world, the flesh, and the evil one tempt us to settle for the smaller story: a narrow quest to arrange for the happy little life. Yet something deeper in us knows that a life arranged only for a sense of comfort, security, and personal happiness is far too small to hold the expanse for which the masculine soul was designed to thrive. We must remember Peter’s urging:

Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings. — 1 Peter 5:8-9

If we are to interpret our lives and understand the times, we must recognize the unseen war being waged for our soul as a man and let this be a central theme of our apprenticeship in warrior training for our unique place in the Kingdom of God.

In Waking the Dead, John Eldredge made the point,

Until we come to terms with war as the context of our days we will not understand life. We will misinterpret 90 percent of what is happening around us and to us. It will be very hard to believe that God’s intentions toward us are life abundant; it will be even harder to not feel that somehow we are just blowing it. Worse, we will begin to accept some really awful things about God.5

God’s story is a love story, no doubt. A story of thrilling goodness, intimacy, and beauty. Yet we live quite east of Eden. It is a love story set in the midst of war.6 And though we are elaborately provided for by Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension, we must still battle to recover the treasure for which we were made: interactive relationship with God and others from a healed and whole heart.

We are asking Jesus to help us see into the unseen, and He assures us that if we ask, we will receive. As we ask, the Holy Spirit will pull back the curtain, and we’ll never be the same. As we increasingly choose to believe, we will begin to see reality as Jesus sees it. To live the life Jesus lived, we must hold to the same beliefs that He held to regarding the nature of reality. Seeing as Jesus sees will change everything, for the good.

Training for the Fight

Where can we go to learn to resist and dismantle evil and fight for love as did Jesus, the warrior? Let’s again look at the U.S. Navy SEALs for specific counsel and leadership. The Navy SEALs live out in the natural realm what men are called up into in the spiritual realm. Right here. Right now. Right where we find ourselves to be. Just as every great story borrows its power from the greatest story of all, the trial-tested strategies for the SEALs’ survival and success borrow power from the truths of apprenticeship in the Kingdom of God.

In Navy SEAL culture, this keen awareness of the story is called situational awareness. Cade Courtley, former Navy SEAL platoon commander and author of SEAL Survival Guide, defined situational awareness this way:

The ability to identify, process, and comprehend the critical elements of information about what is happening to the team with regard to the mission. More simply, it’s being aware of what’s going on around you. It’s the ability to see the real world and react to any situation without hesitation and make split-second decisions that could have global ramifications.7

Though our battle is first and foremost an unseen one, all training is done with live ammunition. We need look no further than to our own story to see that the damage of evil is real and there is much at stake, including the life of our soul and the souls of those we love.

Jessica Buchanan, “The Rescue of Jessica Buchanan.” 60 Minutes. CBS, May 12, 2013.

Dan Baker, What Happy People Know (New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 2004), 38.

Leif Enger, Peace Like a River (New York: Grove Press, 2001), 4.

Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy (New York: HarperCollins, 1998), 72.

John Eldredge, Waking the Dead (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2006), 17.

John and Stasi Eldredge, Love and War (Colorado Springs: WaterBrook, 2009), 39.

Cade Courtley, SEAL Survival Guide (New York: Gallery Books, 2012), xvii.

Excertped from Becoming a King by Morgan Snyder, copyright Morgan Snyder.

Let me grow lovely growing old

          So many fine things do

Laces and ivory and gold and silk

          Need not be new

There is healing in old trees

          Old streets a glamor hold

Why may not I as well as these

          Grow lovely growing old

I learned this in 5th or 6th grade and have never forgotten it!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith June 23, 2022

For 13 years, I served in the Kentucky General Assembly, and repeatedly I would hear other legislators say, "I am a proud Democrat" or "I am a proud Republican." That statement always sat wrong with me because I was taught from an early age that we should not be prideful about ourselves or our abilities. Confident, yes, but prideful? No!

There's a humility that a Christian should always exhibit, regardless of their capabilities or their giftedness, because all of these gifts come from God. Christians, in our humility, serve Christ and are willing servants. So, such exhibitions of pride sit wrong with me. And so, I've taught myself, my children, and my family not to be prideful.

And yet, right now, America has dedicated an entire month to pride — a sin which is absolutely abhorrent to God — and sexual immorality which has been declared to be an abomination in the Word of God (Gen. 2:24; Lev. 18:22; 20:13; Mat. 5:28; Rom. 1:24-27; 1 Cor. 5:1-5; 6:9-10; 1 Tim. 1:9-10; Heb. 13:4).

Contrast this attitude of pride with the humility of Jesus Christ. When Jesus first came, He came lowly as a servant. Jesus said: "Come to Me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls"
(Mat. 11:28-29 NASB).

Jesus is gentle and humble. Paul's letter to the Church of Philippi records it this way: "Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, as He already existed in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but emptied Himself by taking the form of a bond-servant and being born in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death: death on a cross. For this reason also God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name" (Phil. 2:5-9).

Our great God and Savior — who sits at the right hand of the Father and who has existed for all of eternity — emptied Himself and humbled Himself. In so doing, Jesus demonstrated the right attitude that we as Christians should take, and as mature adult human beings, quite frankly.

And yet, the world wants to elevate pride. And, what's it so proud of right now? It is proud of its LGBTQ+ agenda.

If you go to Wikipedia and look up the definition of pride, it notes that pride is the original and most serious of the seven deadly sins. It is the most demonic out of all other sins and stands as the source of all other capital sins. Pride also equates to hubris, which is an excessive arrogance or audacity, especially before a holy God.

Proverbs 16:18 in the King James version says that "Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall."

Consider what Jesus said in Matthew 11 to the cities where He was ministering, in Chorazin and Bethsaida and Capernaum. The upper Galilee region was the very headquarters of Christ's ministry. He said that it would be worse for them than for the wickedly evil cities of Sodom and Gomorrah on the Day of Judgment because those three cities had witnessed Christ's blessing. They had experienced Christ's own ministry first-hand, and yet they rejected Jesus. Sodom and Gomorrah were judged with fire. God's wrath was poured out on them. But, Jesus declared He will be easier on the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah than these three cities that had witnessed and understood the truth of what Jesus Himself revealed, but had rejected.

How much worse will the United States be judged for our embracing pride and an abomination instead of staying true to the Word of God?

In 1964, a songwriter named Hamilton Camp wrote a great song titled "The Pride of Man." It was later sung by Gordon Lightfoot. In it, he sang, "Oh God, the pride of Man, broken in the dust again."

This age-old cycle of man — turning his back on God, shaking his fist in arrogant pride — is exactly what led to the downfall of Satan and why it is a satanic effort to perpetuate pride in the hearts of men.

The LGBTQ+ community in appropriating the rainbow — God's sign that He would never again flood the earth to punish mankind for their sins — has to be especially offensive to our Holy God. Why? Because in Genesis, God set up the rainbow as a sign of His "...covenant which I am making between me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for all successive generations" (Gen. 9:12-13). God added, "I set My [God's] bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of covenant between Me and the Earth."

This very symbol — the rainbow — has been appropriated by the prideful to stand for what God calls an abomination. Such an action has to be an affront, an absolute insult added to injury, to our Holy God.

Jesus came to die to pay the debt for all of our sins, so it is not my intention to pick out anyone as more worthy or needy of the grace of God. All of us have fallen short and need to repent and humble ourselves before God and accept His free gift of salvation (Rom. 3:23; 5:8; 10:9-10).

Still, we must remember — pride will lead to destruction. James 4:6 and 1 Peter 5:5 says that Christ gives a greater grace, so while He is opposed to the proud, He will grant grace to the humble.

We know that in the fullness of time, God will pour out His wrath on all of those who have rejected His Son and stood on their own human pride. The great prophet Isaiah records: "For the Lord of armies will have a day of reckoning against everyone who is arrogant and haughty, and against everyone who is lifted up, that he may be brought low" (Isa. 2:12).

Folks, judgment is coming! The wrath of God hangs over the heads of all who have rejected Jesus Christ. Don't stand on your pride rejecting the salvation of God, rather, humble yourselves. Come to know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.

Jesus is coming soon, that we can be assured. He is bringing glorious, eternal joy to all of those who have put their trust in Him. But, if you have rejected Jesus, if you are full of pride, then the wrath of God still abides on you (Jn. 3:36). I pray that you will humble yourselves before our great God and Savior who is soon returning to judge the world of its pride and sin.

The rainbow is a beautiful picture in the Scriptures of the promise and glory of God.  Most are familiar with the rainbow after the flood and the promise of God never to destroy the world by flood.  But the glory of God is also given describing the very throne of God.  God is light and light produces the glory of the rainbow that we see.  Let us remember who gave us the rainbow and give thanks for its beauty and humble ourselves before a righteous and holy God, not taking “Pride” in any form and stealing symbols that belong only to Him!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith June 22, 2022

In the Presence of My Enemies

Today's inspiration comes from:

The Lord is My Courage

by K.J. Ramsey

Part of what keeps us from sitting at the table of courage and communion is a refusal to identify the reality of enmity. I love that David uses the word enemies in his prayers. I love that he does not pretend away the pain of being condemned and chased. Instead, he dares to name something our contemporary Christian niceness generally leaves vague or even venerated. The experience of enmity is embedded in our bodies, wringing our hands into fists and hearts into hiding when others threaten our safety.

·         When David delights in the table God has prepared for him in the presence of his enemies, David is affirming that Love is so completely on his side that God is willing to absorb the hostility being hurled at him.1

I love that David does not hide his pain behind platitudes, because platitudes can never penetrate our pain. Only God can take the weight of enmity.

·         In a world full of harm and hatred, only God’s presence can give us peace that reaches every part of our souls.

The symbol in which we most witness where God positions our enemies is the Eucharist, the ultimate place where enemies are made friends. But far too often, Christians prefer to dilute the wine of Christ’s sacrifice into the grape juice of niceness. Wherever wrong has been done or experienced, someone is following close behind with the paintbrush of platitudes. “There are two sides to every story,” they say. “There are no perfect churches,” they chide. “All things work together for good,” they paint and paint and paint. Sometimes it seems that Christians like to put lipstick on lies instead of fighting to remove their stain from our souls and communities. It is easier to dismiss pain than deal with changing the circumstances that produce it.2 We forget that noticing and naming enmity is a prerequisite to knowing whom and what to love and protect.

Neutrality is the nicest kind of evil. Not taking a side is taking a side. Neutrality shows victims that their health is worth less to you than avoiding awkwardness or not having to make relational changes. Neutrality tears open the wound of trust over and over again.

If we cannot name our pain, it just remains a chain. If we will not name the reality of evil, we will remain defenseless to defeat it. David’s prayers are like dialysis for Christians who have been drinking the sugary-sweet preaching of platitudes for so long that we’ve become diabetic to the dissonance at the heart of the cross.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies,” David prays.3

“Because of all my enemies, I am the utter contempt of my neighbors,” he laments. “I am forgotten as though I were dead... For I hear many whispering... They conspire against me and plot

to take my life.”4

Alexander Schmemann writes that “evil is not to be ‘explained’ but faced and fought. This is the way God dealt with evil. He did not explain it. He sent his Only-Begotten Son to be crucified by all the powers of evil so as to destroy them by His love, faith and obedience. This then is the way we must also follow.”5

***

When Jesus reveals Himself as the realization of David’s Psalm 23 story, He does not just flaunt His love in the presence of enemies; He invites them to the table too. In Luke 15, when Jesus tells the story of the good shepherd and the good woman who, upon finding what was lost, prepare a table with a feast and invite their friends, the Pharisees present would have heard their names called. The “friends” or haberim were an elite group of Pharisees who were even more intense in their separation from common folks — not visiting them, not traveling with them, not studying the law with them, and definitely never eating with them.7 Jesus calls His friends and neighbors to come celebrate with Him, to move toward the lost ones they have spent their whole lives judging.

Cognitive neuroscientist Thomas Fuchs writes that as we reenact the Lord’s Supper together, the church’s collective body memory of receiving Christ’s presence renews our participation in Christ’s life.8 When we suffer or are abused, evil scrawls forsaken, forgotten, and unloved all over our neural pathways, coiling our bodies with contempt and contention.

·         The sound of Christ’s words in our ears, the texture of the bread in our hands, the taste of red wine on our lips, the scent of candles, and the sight of kind eyes meeting ours can bring our whole bodies and minds back into a story where we are beloved.

The communal practice of communion gathers our grief with grace at the foot of the cross, enfolding us together into the life of the world to come.

The table of communion is the place where curse meets blessing. As we long for and seek the justice and reconciliation of the world to come, we can take our place at the table, even in the literal or figurative presence of our enemies, daring to believe that in Christ all that has been cursed can come back to life.

1.     Kenneth E. Bailey, The Good Shepherd: A Thousand-Year Journey from Psalm 23 to the New Testament (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2014), 57.

2.     And, yes, I am talking about systemic racism and poverty in addition to abuse.

3.     Ps. 23:5a, emphasis added.

4.     Ps. 31:11–13.

5.     Alexander Schmemann, Of Water and the Spirit: A Liturgical Study of Baptism (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1974), 23.

6.     Bailey, Good Shepherd, 111. 204

7.     Thomas Fuchs, “Collective Body Memories,” in Embodiment, Enaction, and Culture: Investigating the Constitution of the Shared World, ed. Christoph Durt, Thomas Fuchs, and Christian Tewes (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2017), 333–49.

Excerpted from The Lord Is My Courage by K. J. Ramsey, copyright Katie Jo Ramsey.

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith June 21, 2022

Stumbling upon the Deep Words of God

For thirty-six hours, I stared at the mist gathering in the valley and discussed the world and heaven with two close friends. It was midsummer. The Black Mountains of western North Carolina rise to the clouds. A spur of the Appalachian Range, they contain six of the Eastern United States’ highest peaks. Mount Mitchell gathers its summit at 6,684 feet — the highest of all. The Blacks range for fifteen miles and get their name from the dark fir and spruce trees that coat their heights. The boreal evergreens look black in winter as they contrast with the deciduous hardwoods upon the slopes.

Our cabin sat at 3,100 feet and jutted out, like a manmade promontory, into the steep river valley south of the spur. The first night, thunderstorms raged through the mountain basin, and we watched the ominous clouds gather overhead. They unleashed. The sounds of the storm took over. Lightning and rain and claps of thunder pelted and shook the cabin. Then, as quickly as it had gathered, the storm dispersed, vanishing over the ridge.

A cluster of stars peeked from behind the indigo veil and dripped their light into the valley that had just been ravished by the beauty of the summer storm. With the heat of the day gone, we lit the fire and laughed beneath the stars, writing haikus about the storm and trees and the smell of pine and whatever caught our fancy.

The next morning, we departed, filled up by camaraderie and joy. I let the joy guide me to a more scenic route home. Instead of barreling back to Charlotte on the highway, I wound my way to the Blue Ridge Parkway and drove toward the summit of Mount Mitchell. With the windows down and Gipsy Kings blaring in my speakers, I let my hand hang in the mountain air as the temperature cooled.

A thousand feet, then a thousand more; 85 degrees, then 75, then 65. The mountain air poured into my truck, sweet with mint and bergamot and pine and fir.

Wild bee balm lined the parkway with a crimson thread; their joyous red heads stood tall and confident, showing off their stunning glory. Beside them, the spindly rudbeckia beamed, their yellow petals a parade of color.

I drove with a permanent grin, as if I’d happened upon a secret meeting of angels who’d left a trail of heaven in their wake.

I could almost smell the celestial goodness in the air. The summit waited for me with its height and range and glory. Perhaps I’d find the angels and listen in on their meeting.

When I turned up the steep road, I heard distant thunder and found that for which my heart yearned: thunder-filled storm clouds marching toward the peak, while a great blue expanse spread out to the south: the meeting of the heavens.

I took in the view and thought how God greeted me with a billion joys, for that is all that can fit into the Black Mountains: countless trees, branches, leaves, flowers, clouds, deer, bear, bobcat, mist and storm, sky and sunshine, the intoxicating elements of it all working together. Yet my eyes could only drink in so much, leaving me wanting more.

“But Tim,” you say, “why didn’t you invite me on your mountain escapade? For I, too, long to see the joys of God on the mountaintops. This world of ours makes me want to stop everything and return to the remote places, if only to restore my sanity.”

“Ah, yes,” I reply. “I do apologize for the oversight. I only share this story to inspire you to head out on your own mountain escapade. When you ascend to the places of wonder, keep it in mind to let go of the world’s pace. If you’re really daring, sit and stare at a view for an uncomfortable amount of time. Let the sights and sounds bend in on you. I’m sure you, too, will find an angels’ meeting of your own.”

God created the world with an irresistible flair to draw us to Himself

God Invites Us into His Beauty

The bounty of wonder you and I discover in this world is no accident.

God created the world with deep intention, care, and love. He created with an irresistible flair to draw us to Himself.

When the apostle Paul stood before the stoics at the Areopagus, he noted their deep religious beliefs, ignorant and blind as they were, and invited the philosophers to see the billions upon billions of joys.1 For the seeker, the one groping for God, he said, these joys reveal the invisible qualities of His eternal power and divinity. And yet the beauty of natural wonder is not sufficient for spiritual salvation. Beauty unconnected to God leads humans into pagan idolatry. God Himself says He will destroy all beauty not rooted in Him (Isaiah 28:1–4).2

For the disciple of Jesus, the one groping for deeper intimacy with God, the revelation of these joys — of God’s power and divine nature — remind of His unlimited grace and care. But even more than that, they remind one of the lover who leaves flowers on His beloved’s doorstep. The flowers signal His loyalty and tenderness, but they also impart something of His heart concerning His beloved. The flowers say, “You remind me of this bouquet — full of life, bursting with color, alive with fragrance, a bounty snatched from the mountains.” The bouquet is a symbol of Christian love.3

In the half-light of Heaven, blowing through the incandescent clouds descending upon Mount Mitchell, I discovered the meeting of angels. They told me the story of the light that came so long ago, before humans walked the earth, and how it filled the cosmos with wisdom. The angels reminded me of the ancient philosophy that used to rule the earth, the one that predated our modern materialism (that is, the belief that the world is composed only of matter and the supernatural does not exist, as opposed to the love of material possessions).

It was basic and true, not because it was simple, but because it was so deep, full of paradox and the spectacle of wonder. It was a knowledge — a Word — bound up in the Artist’s mind behind the flower that blows in the mountain air, whose bend and bob can give “thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears.”4

As I pondered this ancient philosophy from the angel’s story, I remembered that we journey through this world, stumbling upon the deep words of God at every turn, if only we have ears to hear them. Such a glorious paradox it was, that day at Mt. Mitchell, to hear the deep words of Heaven with my eyes and tastes their fragrance with my nose. They smell like bergamot, and behold, they are good.

1.See Acts 17:16–34. Keep in mind, Paul’s engagement with the philosophers at Athens was provoked by their idolatry. Paul was greatly stirred in his spirit because of their devotion to idols rather than the Creator God.

2.In the Old Testament, one of the seven-word groupings for beauty relates to the beauty and glory of nations. Nations that rise up and in pride claim their glory for themselves, forgetting God as their source, will face destruction. A prime example of this in the Scriptures is Sodom and Gomorrah.

3.I use Christian love here in a deliberate way to distinguish Christian love from pagan or secular love. Kierkegaard makes this same distinction in his Works of Love, chapter 11, “You Shall Love Your Neighbour.” See Søren Kierkegaard, Works of Love (New York: HarperPerennial, 2009).

4.William Wordsworth, “Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood” in Poetical Works [of] Wordsworth; with Introductions and Notes (London: Oxford University Press 1969), 462.

Excerpted from The Beauty Chasers by Timothy D. Willard, copyright Timothy Willard.

You’ve got to stop and smell the roses!  We miss the beauty and glory of God in our business.  Take time to share the joy of God . . . just sit back and smile!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith June 20, 2022

Luke 7:36-39

36 One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to have dinner with him, so Jesus went to his home and sat down to eat. 37 When a certain immoral woman from that city heard he was eating there, she brought a beautiful alabaster jar filled with expensive perfume. 38 Then she knelt behind him at his feet, weeping. Her tears fell on his feet, and she wiped them off with her hair. Then she kept kissing his feet and putting perfume on them.

39 When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, "If this man were a prophet, he would know what kind of woman is touching him. She's a sinner!"

Luke 7:47

"I tell you, her sins—and they are many—have been forgiven, so she has shown me much love. But a person who is forgiven little shows only little love."

NLT

One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to have dinner with him, so Jesus went to his home and sat down to eat. When a certain immoral woman from that city heard He was eating there, she brought a beautiful alabaster jar filled with expensive perfume. Then she knelt behind Him at His feet, weeping. Her tears fell on His feet, and she wiped them off with her hair. Then she kept kissing His feet and putting perfume on them.

When the Pharisee who had invited Him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, He would know what kind of woman is touching Him. She’s a sinner!”

“I tell you, her sins — and they are many — have been forgiven, so she has shown Me much love. But a person who is forgiven little shows only little love.”

Could two people be more different? He is looked up to. She is looked down on. He is a church leader. She is a streetwalker. He makes a living promoting standards. She’s made a living breaking them. He’s hosting the party. She’s crashing it.

Ask the other residents of Capernaum to point out the more pious of the two, and they’ll pick Simon. Why, after all, he’s a student of theology, a man of the cloth. Anyone would pick him. Anyone, that is, except Jesus.

Jesus knew them both and picked the woman.

What’s more, He tells Simon why.

Simon is angry. Just look at her — groveling at Jesus’ feet. Kissing them, no less! Why, if Jesus were who He says He is, He would have nothing to do with this woman.

One of the lessons Simon learned that day was this: Don’t think thoughts you don’t want Jesus to hear. For Jesus heard them, and when He did, He chose to share a few of His own.

“Simon,” He said to the Pharisee, “I have something to say to you.”

“Go ahead, Teacher,” Simon replied.

Then Jesus told him this story: “A man loaned money to two people — 500 pieces of silver to one and 50 pieces to the other. But neither of them could repay him, so he kindly forgave them both, canceling their debts. Who do you suppose loved him more after that?”

Simon answered, “I suppose the one for whom he canceled the larger debt.”

“That’s right,” Jesus said. Then He turned to the woman and said to Simon, “Look at this woman kneeling here. When I entered your home, you didn’t offer Me water to wash the dust from My feet, but she has washed them with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You didn’t greet Me with a kiss, but from the time I first came in, she has not stopped kissing My feet. You neglected the courtesy of olive oil to anoint My head, but she has anointed My feet with rare perfume.

“I tell you, her sins — and they are many — have been forgiven, so she has shown Me much love. But a person who is forgiven little shows only little love.”

— Luke 7:40–47 NLT

Simon invites Jesus to His house but treats him like an unwanted step uncle. No customary courtesies. Or, in modern terms, no one opened the door for Him, took His coat, or shook His hand.

Simon does nothing to make Jesus feel welcome. The woman, however, does everything that Simon didn’t. We aren’t told her name. Just her reputation — a sinner. A prostitute most likely. She has no invitation to the party and no standing in the community.

But people’s opinions didn’t stop her from coming. It’s not for them she has come. It’s for Him. Her every move is measured and meaningful. Each gesture extravagant. She puts her cheek to his feet, still dusty from the path. She has no water, but she has tears. She has no towel, but she has her hair. She uses both to bathe the feet of Christ. As one translation reads, “she rained tears” on His feet

(v. 44 MSG). She opens a vial of perfume, perhaps her only possession of worth, and massages it into His skin. The aroma is as inescapable as the irony.

When Jesus hands you the goblet of grace, drink up.

You’d think Simon of all people would show such love. Is he not the reverend of the church, the student of Scripture? But he is harsh, distant. You’d think the woman would avoid Jesus. Simon’s “love” is calibrated and stingy.

Her love, on the other hand, is extravagant and risky.

How do we explain the difference between the two? Training? Education? Money? No, for Simon has outdistanced her in all three.

But there is one area in which the woman leaves Him eating dust. Think about it. What one discovery has she made that Simon hasn’t? What one treasure does she cherish that Simon doesn’t? Simple. God’s love. We don’t know when she received it. We aren’t told how she heard about it. Did she overhear Jesus’ words “your Father is merciful”? (Luke 6:36 ESV). Was she nearby when Jesus had compassion on the widow of Nain? Did someone tell her how Jesus touched lepers and turned tax collectors into disciples? We don’t know. But we know this. She came thirsty. Thirsty from guilt. Thirsty from regret. Thirsty from countless nights of making love and finding none. She came thirsty.

And when Jesus hands her the goblet of grace, she drinks.

She doesn’t just taste or nip. She doesn’t dip her finger and lick it or take the cup and sip it. She lifts the liquid to her lips and drinks, gulping and swallowing like the parched pilgrim she is. She drinks until the mercy flows down her chin and onto her neck and chest. She drinks until every inch of her soul is moist and soft. She comes thirsty and she drinks. She drinks deeply.

Simon, on the other hand, doesn’t even know he is thirsty. People like Simon don’t need grace; they analyze it. They don’t request mercy; they debate and prorate it. It wasn’t that Simon couldn’t be forgiven; he just never asks to be.

So while she drinks up, he puffs up. While she has ample love to give, he has no love to offer. Why? The 7:47 Principle. Read again verse 47 of Luke chapter 7:

A person who is forgiven little shows only little love.

Just like the jumbo jet, the 7:47 Principle has wide wings. Just like the aircraft, this truth can lift you to another level. Read it one more time. “A person who is forgiven little shows only little love” (NLT). In other words,

We can’t give what we’ve never received. If we’ve never received love, how can we love others?

But, oh, how we try! As if we can conjure up love by the sheer force of will. As if there is within us a distillery of affection that lacks only a piece of wood or a hotter fire. We poke it and stoke it with resolve. What’s our typical strategy for treating a troubled relationship? Try harder.

“My spouse needs my forgiveness? I don’t know how, but I’m going to give it.”

“I don’t care how much it hurts, I’m going to be nice to that bum.”

“I’m supposed to love my neighbor? Okay. By golly, I will.”

So we try. Teeth clinched. Jaw firm. We’re going to love if it kills us! And it may do just that.

Could it be we are missing a step? Could it be that the first step of love is not toward them but toward Him? Could it be that the secret to loving is receiving? You give love by first receiving it.

We love, because He first loved us. — 1 John 4:19 NASB

Excerpted from They Walked with God by Max Lucado, copyright Max Lucado.

1 John 4:7

7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.

John 15:12

12 "This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.

NAS

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith June 19, 2022

Though it happened many years ago, I remember the moment as if were yesterday. My ten-year old son, Luke, snuggled up to me after dinner as I was reading in my chair, and he said, with big eyes and a sweet face, “Dad…can I ask you a question?”

I knew he was after something. Cookies maybe. Or permission to run down to a friend’s house. “Sure,” I said. “What’s up?”

“Dad…can I have a chain saw?”

The things these boys come up with. It cracks me up. He was dead serious, by the way.

You understand. We all — as men — pretty much want the same thing. We want power. We want to have an impact. We want to leave our mark on the world. A boy with a chain saw is a powerful thing. Just imagine all he could do. In a short time there wouldn’t be a tree left standing in the entire neighborhood. Which, of course, is why I did not give him one. A ten-year old with a chain saw is more powerful than he ought to be. But I understand the desire. It’s essential to the masculine nature.

Boys who play baseball don’t want to strike out. They want to hit that ball hard. They want to knock it over the fence. My boys love to wrestle with me, but they don’t simply want to wrestle — they want to pin me. They want to be on top. This is true of every man. This is what’s behind men and their fascination with fast cars, or power tools, or politics. It’s about power. A man may take it in the wrong direction sometimes, but the bottom line is

a man needs to know he’s having an impact.

Or think of it this way: What’s your worst fear as a man? Isn’t it some version of failure? To royally blow it? To really screw things up? Lose your job. Drive your company into bankruptcy. Wind up pushing a shopping cart down the street. If you’re a doctor, you fear misdiagnosing a patient’s fatal disease. If you’re an attorney, you fear losing the big case. Because all those things in some way prove that you don’t have what it takes.

You, Dad, are the most powerful man in the world

Not so for a woman. A woman’s worst fear is abandonment. Most women survive a career setback that would send men into a tailspin. Failure doesn’t seem to matter as much because a woman fears that she won’t be loved. It shouts to the world, “She wasn’t worth pursuing; she wasn’t worth fighting for.” But

for men, the dog at our heals is failure.

We need to know that our lives mattered. That when the time came, we had what was needed. We came through. There was something powerful about our lives.

So let me say this as clearly as I can: You, Dad, are the most powerful man in the world… at least in their world. Your children are looking for you to answer the deepest questions of their lives. How you handle their hearts will shape them for the rest of their lives. Never forget that no one is as powerful as you are in the lives of your sons and daughters.

Please note I am not saying Mom is unimportant. Not at all. Mother teaches us unconditional love, and she teaches us about mercy. She is a comforter. When boys or girls want to do something adventurous, they don’t ask Mom; they ask Dad. But when they skin their knees or cut their fingers, when they get their feelings hurt, who do they run to? Mom, of course. Even wounded soldiers on the battlefield are known to cry out for their mothers in their last moments. Mother is love and tenderness and mercy. She is a picture of the heart of God.

But identity — especially gender identity — is bestowed by the father. A boy learns if he is a man, if he has what it takes from his dad. A girl learns if she is worth pursuing, if she is lovely, from her dad. That’s just the way God set this whole thing up. This power he has given to you.

Excerpted from You Have What it Takes: What Every Father Needs to Know by John Eldredge, copyright John Eldredge.

Not sure I can agree with everything John says, but as a dad, I still want the kids to come to me for advice…meaning I still want to have the answer to their questions and needs, even though they are well into raising families of their own.  The father can only bestow on his family things like gender identity, and having an effect to shape their lives, if he is a godly man and is leading them first of all to the throne of grace and mercy. God made those children and loves them more than we do!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith June 18, 2022

Love is the most important word in any language — and the most confusing word.

I say that love is the most important word because Jesus once said,

I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are My disciples. — John 13:34–35 NLT

Jesus gave the non-Christian world the right to judge whether we are His disciples by the way we love each other. That makes love extremely important. I say that love is the most confusing word because we use it in many different ways. We say, “I love hot dogs. I love pizza. I love my new car. I love the mountains. I love the beach. I love my dog. I love classical music. I love rock.” Then in a romantic setting we say, “I love you.” What is that supposed to mean?

We are going to define love in a cross-cultural friendship. This kind of love begins with an attitude and then expresses itself in our behavior. By attitude, I mean our fixed way of thinking or our mindset. Love chooses to seek the best for a friend. “I want our friendship to enrich your life” is the attitude of love. The opposite of love is selfishness. “I am in this relationship to meet my needs” is the attitude of selfishness. “If you meet my needs, if you make me happy, then I will continue in our relationship. If not, I will move on.”

• Friendships will not develop between two selfish people. In true friendships, the attitude of love is essential.

Jesus Modeled How to Love

When we examine Jesus’ lifestyle, we see love demonstrated. Peter said about Jesus,

He went around doing good. — Acts 10:38

He healed the sick, gave sight to the blind, spent time with people from all levels of society. Ultimately, He gave His life, not only for those of His generation but for people of all cultures and all generations. His coming to earth was motivated by love.

For this is how God loved the world: He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. — John 3:16 NLT

Jesus Himself said,

For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give His life as a ransom for many. — Matthew 20:28 NLT

It is this kind of love that builds friendships and identifies us as His disciples.

The best description of love in the Bible is found in 1 Corinthians 13:4–7.

Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. — NLT

This is the kind of love that enables us to build cross-cultural friendships.

• Love in a cross-cultural friendship begins with an attitude and then expresses itself in behavior.

God actually commands us to love each other as He loves us. Anything God commands, He will enable us to do. Perhaps you are thinking, “I just can’t initiate or be involved in a cross-cultural friendship because my family has historically been the victim of racial injustice or my family has been involved in some capacity of promoting racial injustice.”

The reality is we cannot love as Jesus loved without His help. The apostle Paul reminds us that indeed we have His help.

For we know how dearly God loves us, because He has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with His love. — Romans 5:5 NLT

So we are to be channels of expressing God’s love to each other — not by self-effort but simply by opening our hearts to the Holy Spirit so He can fill them with His love.

Excerpted with permission from Life-changing Cross-Cultural Friendships by Gary Chapman, copyright Gary Chapman and Clarence Shuler.

Let us love one another, for love is from God!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith June 17, 2022

I meditate on Your precepts and consider Your ways. I delight in Your decrees; I will not neglect Your word. — Psalm 119:15–16

When I was little, my grandmother entertained me by opening a box containing hundreds of little funny-shaped pieces of cardboard. A jigsaw puzzle! Putting them together seemed impossible until my grandmother said, “Anne, make sure the color pictures on the puzzle pieces are facing up.”

Then I’d look at the cover of the box and try to put the pieces together to match the picture.

In some ways, the Bible is like that jigsaw puzzle. It can seem like bits and pieces with no meaning in themselves. That’s why we need the Holy Spirit. When Jesus was walking with His disciples, He

explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning Himself. — Luke 24:27

And in John 16:13, Jesus said the Holy Spirit would “guide you into all truth.”

He turns over the puzzle pieces one by one — until they come together and we see Jesus!

As you read your Bible, ask the Holy Spirit for guidance. The pieces will fit together!

*

Ask Your Questions

I trust in Your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in Your salvation. — Psalm 13:5

Jesus is never offended by your confusion — or your questions. He knows exactly what you’re feeling, and He takes the initiative to help you understand. You simply have to trust Him to know best.

For most of us, that’s never easy! You have to trust His silences, respect His mysteries, and wait for His answers. Trust Jesus each and every time, in every situation:

When you pray for the healing of someone you love, and she dies. When you pray for reconciliation, and you’re handed divorce papers. When you pray for a promotion, and you get laid off.

Trust Him.

We serve a sovereign, living Lord, whose ways are not our ways. Be patient.

Trust Him to know best!

*

The Sword of the Spirit

Jesus said to him, “Away from Me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only.’” — Matthew 4:10

The Word of God is called the “sword of the Spirit” (Ephesians 6:17). It’s your primary offensive weapon against Satan and his minions.

Each time Jesus was attacked by Satan, He countered with, “It is written,” or “It is also written,” or “For it is written” (Matthew 4). If Jesus used the sword — His Word — as a necessary weapon to defeat the enemy, why do we think we can do without it?

Where is your sword? Is it ready on your mind and in your heart? Or is it tucked away, dusty and unused? Jesus Christ wielded His sword to effectively and victoriously counter every thrust of the enemy. If you follow His example, empowered by His Spirit, you, too, can win this battle!

The Bible says,

The one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.

 — 1 John 4:4

You’re promised victory in Jesus Christ. So ... pick up your sword!

Excerpted from Fixing My Eyes on Jesus by Anne Graham Lotz, copyright Anne Graham Lotz.

Indeed, greater is He that is in me, than he that is in the world!  Trust and obey what you know to be true.

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith June 16, 2022

The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector

He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to Heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” — Luke 18:9–14

When Jesus told the parable of the persistent widow, He created a picture that would have surprised the disciples. But the next parable Jesus shared would have had a familiar ring, with two characters who would have been immediately understandable to the disciples: the Pharisee and the tax collector. Both were fixtures in the imagination of those who heard Jesus tell this parable. The Pharisees were ubiquitous in Jerusalem, loud in their piety and ostentatious in their self-righteousness. They lived to be seen. The tax collectors, on the other hand, were a part of the underclass. Indeed, they epitomized complicity with Rome, criminality, and unrighteousness. As you might expect, there is far more to this parable than meets the eye. But it begins with a comment about those to whom Jesus spoke it.

We learn that Jesus told this parable “to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt.” Those two descriptors go together. Self-righteousness is one of the primal sins identified in Scripture. It is rooted in an illusion and an arrogance that simply cannot be hidden. It is true that men and women live lives of variable righteousness in terms of personal morality. The Bible is clear about that.

Christians are called to obedience to God’s Word and to holiness. We are called to avoid sin and unrighteousness. But even as we are called to live holy lives, we recognize that there is absolutely no righteousness in us.

The Bible’s indictment of our unrighteousness is comprehensive. Indeed, the prophet Isaiah declared that our righteousness is as filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6). There is no goodness in us. In the words of the Book of Common Prayer, “There is no health in us.”

Understood in this context, Jesus told this dramatic parable to puncture the illusion of self-righteousness among those who heard Him.

*

God, be merciful to me a sinner!

From the earliest days of my Christian experience, Bible teachers trained me to hear the word Pharisee with judgment. Most Christians have the same response. And yet, there is more to the Pharisees than that quick judgment. The Pharisees were truly seeking to be righteous and to show their righteousness before others. The Pharisees’ central problem is that their righteousness was a self-righteousness, not a righteousness that comes from God. Pharisees were evidently traumatized by the understanding that they could not demonstrate righteousness, even to themselves, merely by obedience to the law. The Pharisees kept adding to the law in order to try to convince themselves that they had actually achieved a form of righteousness that would be acceptable to God.

In Matthew 6, Jesus warned the disciples not to pray as the Pharisees prayed, with their ostentatious piety. Throughout Scripture the Pharisees are shown to commit the fatal error of trusting in their own righteousness.

They were right to seek after righteousness, but they were wrong to think they had found it in themselves.

The tax collector, however, presented a real problem for Jesus’ audience. The temple represented the apex of holiness — after all, God’s presence filled the temple. This would be the last place a first-century Jew would expect to find a tax collector. The tax collectors lived traitorous lives, selling out their nation to the Roman Empire by exacting pagan tolls and taxes on the people. They were opportunistic men who did business with idolaters and enforced Roman oppression. They lined their pockets with the wealth of their own neighbors by predatory action. In the minds of those hearing this parable, the tax collector should have had no place in the temple of God.

In short, in starting the parable by saying that two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector, Jesus surely grabbed the attention of his audience, as he has ours.

Two Men at Prayer

Jesus described the prayers of these two men, and significantly, He told us something of their posture as well. In both the prayers and the postures we see a contrast between self-righteousness and a heart that comes before God knowing that it bears no righteousness at all. The prayer offered by the Pharisee is almost like a set piece — a caricature of what we would expect a self-righteous person to pray. And yet, this prayer is entirely believable coming from the lips of a first-century Pharisee. We are told that the Pharisee stood by himself. His posture was one of self-assurance: he stood apart, seeing the masses as un- worthy of being in his presence. “God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.”

The most important thing to recognize about the Pharisee’s prayer is that it is essentially self-referential. Even before speaking to God about himself, he thanked God that he was not like the others he observed — the great mass of Jewish men worshiping alongside him and especially the tax collector, whom he had noticed. Both the Pharisee and the tax collector were standing apart from the larger group of worshipers, but for two diametrically opposed reasons.

The Pharisee considered himself superior to others, while the tax collector knew himself to be inferior.

The Pharisee in this parable represents exactly what is wrong with false religion and false worship. It is about ourselves, rather than about God. There is no declaration in the Pharisee’s prayer of the holiness and righteousness of God. There is no confession of sin. It is all about the Pharisee, from beginning to end. His purpose in worship is to convince God of his superiority as compared to others.

Meanwhile, the tax collector was praying at the same time as the Pharisee, standing far off by himself. His posture was of one who knew himself to be unworthy of worship, but he was drawn by the compulsion to find God’s mercy. While the Pharisee stood proudly, the tax collector was unwilling even to lift up his eyes to Heaven, opting instead to beat his breast, a near universal sign of self-abnegation and humiliation.

To bring our fist to our chest with bowed head and lowered face is to demonstrate grief and brokenness. That is all this man knew to do.

His prayer was short, and it had nothing to do with others in the temple. He simply cried out, “God, be merciful to me a sinner!” It is an exceedingly short prayer. It reminds me of the thief on the cross who, in a moment of agony as time was running out, simply turned to Jesus and said,

Jesus, remember me when You come into Your Kingdom. — Luke 23:42

Sometimes the shortest prayer is the sincerest prayer. Sometimes we simply have no words adequate to express our grief and remorse, our broken-heartedness and our repentance.

Christians should be encouraged by Paul’s message to the Romans about how the Holy Spirit helps us, even articulating our prayers when we are unable to find the words. Paul wrote,

Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And He who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

— Romans 8:26–27

Jesus’ point is clear. The brief, sincere prayer of the tax collector is the prayer of authentic repentance.

He prayed for God’s mercy.

Christians must keep in mind that the word mercy does not just mean kindness. It means grace extended to those who have no claim upon it. Mercy as extended by a parent, a ruler, or a judge is understood to be undeserved. That’s what makes mercy. And this is infinitely true when we speak of the mercy of God. This tax collector simply asked God to be merciful upon him, a sinner. That one word, “sinner,” encapsulated everything he knew to say about himself and everything he needed to say about himself.

Excerpted from Tell Me the Stories of Jesus by R. Albert Mohler, Jr., copyright Fidelitas Corporation, R. Albert Mohler Jr., LLC.

We may not understand the grace and mercy of God until we see Him face to face but what joy it brings when we also understand our sin and the sacrifice of God to bring us salvation!

Pastor Dale