A Civil War Christmas for a Present-Day Christian

Recently, I discovered the diary of a Civil War soldier from Wisconsin named James Evans. He was imprisoned from 1864 to 1865 in a Confederate prison camp not far from where I currently live. As a lover of history, I was excited about the find, but I became ecstatic when I realized that the prison camp in question was the same one in which my 3x-great-grandfather Vasa Jones had been imprisoned during the same time. (For more about Vasa’s story, see my earlier post on Family History and Faith.) So of course, I had to read it.

As I did, I was overcome with the harsh realities of war, the humanness of the conflict, and the very present, personal nature of what we now refer to as “history.” For instance, James’s entry on Christmas Day 1864 reads, “My Christmas dinner, piece of bread two inches square piece of meat one inch square and a pint of turnip soup. Better days are coming. Warm as summer.” There’s something about talk of food and weather that humanizes history and makes the past seem not so very far away. Indeed, James’s diary highlighted not just how much things have changed but also how much things are the same in our twenty-first century world compared to his of the 1860s.

This idea was brought home even more when I looked inside the New Testament that accompanied the diary. Hidden within its pages was the newspaper clipping pictured below containing a poem entitled “God Knows Why.” A quick Google search of the first line revealed that the author is Nettie Vernon and that the poem was also (first?) published in an 1861 edition of Arthur’sHome Magazine.

James H. Evans Papers, Special Collections and University Archives,

J. Murrey Atkins Library, UNC Charlotte

As I read the stanzas, tears sprang into my eyes. Here was something written by a woman over 150 years ago, kept by a prisoner of war in his Bible, and preserved through the decades in an archives where I happen to work, where I happened to find it, and where its words pierced straight through to my heart as if it they had been written yesterday. The lines convey a deep, yearning yet resting, consciously trusting faith—faith that God is sovereign and that in the midst of pain and suffering and unanswered questions, He is still good and is in control, working out His perfect purposes in kindness toward us.

The final stanzas, which show the faith of a citizen in her Civil War context, reminded me of another Civil War poem that we now sing as a Christmas song—one that happens to be one of my favorites, whether sung to the original 1870s melody or the “new” 1950s one. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow penned the words to “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day” while the Civil War raged, and again the lines not only humanize the Civil War experience but also carry as much meaningfulness for us today. As you read the stanzas below, let yourself feel the poet’s deep yearning that, taking stock of the painful chaos of his world, presses through the bitter questioning and reeling confusion until it comes to rest in the trustworthiness of God and the promise that His purposes will prevail.

                                I heard the bells on Christmas Day

                                Their old familiar carols play,

                                And wild and sweet the words repeat

                                Of peace on earth, good-will to men.

                                I thought as how this day had come,

                                The belfries of all Christendom

                                Had rung so long the unbroken song

                                Of peace on earth, good will to men.

                                Till ringing, singing on its way,

 The world revolved from night to day,

 A voice, a chime, a chant sublime

 Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

 Then from each black, accursed mouth

 The cannon thundered in the South,

 And with the sound the carols drowned

 Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

 It was as if an earthquake rent

 The hearth-stones of a continent,

 And made forlorn the households born

 Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

                                And in despair I bowed my head;

                                “There is no peace on earth,” I said,

                                “For hate is strong and mocks the song

                                Of peace on earth, good-will to men.”

                                Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:

                                “God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;

                                The Wrong shall fail, the Right prevail,

                                With peace on earth, good-will to men."

As we enter this Christmas week, many of us with pain and questions wrestling inside, let us be encouraged by the faith of our brothers and sisters in Christ in centuries past. Let’s take a cue from men and women who experienced a Civil War Christmas like Nettie Vernon and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, who, in the face of a country literally torn apart, of communities and even families turning on one another, of unspeakable brutality, and of crushing grief, fell on the all-wise and all-good Rock of Ages to hold them steadfast through it all.

Why? Because the good news of Christmas is still just as good as it was in the 1860s and on the very first Christmas over 2,000 years ago. God willingly broke into our broken world; He waded through all of the Wrong and took our punishment upon Himself so that our souls and our world could be restored to being Right. “He himself is our peace” (Eph. 2:14), and just as He came the first time as promised, so He is coming again as promised to bring everlasting peace on earth and good-will to those who are in Him.

Merry Christmas, everyone! God has come, and He is with us!

PC: A. Barra

P.S. If you want to know more about the story behind “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day,” check out this post from The Gospel Coalition.

The Beauty of Biblical Word Studies: A Conversation with Leslie Hollowell

I first met Leslie Hollowell when she was Leslie Gary, a single sister in Christ who had just moved to my city to be the Girls Ministry Director at my church. Little did I know then what a blessing I was in store for! Over the next several years through high school, I had the privilege of serving under Leslie’s leadership on Girls Council and learning from her in Sunday School, through one-on-one conversations, and in numerous other settings. Through all of this, Leslie modeled how to trust and serve the Lord in singleness, how to lead girls into deeper knowledge of God, and how to study His Word. Now she is a wife, mother, and counselor who continues to encourage and spur on women to grow in their relationship with Jesus. One of the things she specifically taught us girls was how to do word studies when studying the Bible, and it’s on this topic that I asked her to share.

Olivia: How do word studies enhance our understanding of Scripture?

Leslie: I love a good word study. For me, they tend to help me connect the dots throughout Scripture, and they help me to understand how to biblically apply God’s Word to my life. A word study helps me to dig a little deeper into God’s Word as I strive to understand what certain words or verses actually mean, as well as, helping me to be a doer of God’s Word and not a hearer only. (James 1:22) I could spend hours looking up words and their meanings in scripture as I seek to find out what God’s Word has to say about a particular word. This is a fun and easy method that I have used for years to help me strive to study and get a deeper understanding of Scripture.

I truly believe that every word in God’s Word is important. His Word is alive and active and powerful and taking the time to follow a thread of a particular word can truly help us understand and build knowledge of the Amazing God that we serve.

Most words in almost any language have a variety of meanings. Take for example the word change. We could say, “I need change for a dollar” or “He had to go and change his clothes.” The word “change” actually changes meaning according to the context of the sentence.  It is the same in Scripture. It is important to strive to look at all possible meanings of a word that you are studying and the context in which that word is being used. It can really be a fun and enlightening adventure as you seek to chase the thread of that word all throughout Scripture.

Olivia: What tools does someone need for doing a word study?

Leslie: As you begin your word study, it’s good to know that if you are studying a word from the Old Testament you’ll want to find the Hebrew meaning of that word. If you’re studying a word from the New Testament, you’ll want to find the Greek meaning of that word. Both of these can be easily accessed using an online Bible concordance. I like to use both biblegateway.com and blueletterbible.com, but there are lots of other good ones that you can use also as you begin your search.

Olivia: Can you share an example of a word study that you have done so people have an idea of how to get started?

Leslie: Many people have asked me how I begin a word study. For me, I often choose words or phrases as I’m reading Scripture that tend to be repetitive. Psalms is a fun one to study and look for words or phrases that often repeat themselves. For example if you look in Psalm 61, you will see the phrase Your Name in both verses 5 and 8. I actually went to my online concordance and searched for the phrase Your Name and realized that in Psalms alone that phrase is used 45 times. (Side note: I use the NIV Bible, so that number could change according to the version of the Bible you use.) I began to look up those verses and the meaning of the phrase “Your Name” – in my study, I found that Shem is the Hebrew meaning of name and its actual meaning is, “glory, honor, fame.”

So as I go back and read each verse from the Psalms I can begin to replace name when I see it with “God’s glory and honor and fame” and have a more personal description of the Amazing God that we serve. For example:

Psalm 61:8 says, “Then I will ever sing in praise of your name (glory, honor, fame) and fulfill my vows day after day.”

Psalm 63:4 says, “I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name (glory, honor, fame) I will lift up my hands.”

Psalm 66:2 says, “Sing the glory of his name; (glory, honor, fame) make his praise glorious.”

Psalm 68:4 says, “Sing to God, sing in praise of his name, (glory, honor, fame) extol him who rides on the

clouds; rejoice before him—His name (glory, honor, fame) is the Lord.”

I could go on and on with verses, but this might be a good time for you to pull out your Bible and notebook and concordance and begin the fun adventure of a word study. There are so many verses that speak about the name of our Great God. I’m going to list a few more for you at the end in order to help you get started.

As you begin your search, you can use these verses to help you as you pray and praise and seek Him daily! There is no end to building a knowledge of the Great God we serve.  I hope this helps and that it causes you to want to dig a little deeper into the depths and power of God’s Word and to continue to follow the thread of each word throughout Scripture.

Name

·         Psalm 34:3

·         Psalm 66:2

·         Philippians 2:9-11

·         Psalm 23:1-3

I’m so glad to have had the chance to introduce you to Leslie in this way, and I echo her hope that you will discover an increasing desire to learn about God through His Word. Happy studying!

A Thorough Thankfulness

As followers of Jesus, we have a lot to be thankful for. We have been given every spiritual blessing in Jesus Christ (Eph. 1:3), including redemption and forgiveness of our sins (Eph. 1:7). It is no surprise, then, that we are told many times in Scripture to be thankful. In fact, our worship and our prayer are both to be characterized by thanksgiving “always and for everything” (Eph. 5:19-20; Philip. 4:6). But there is one passage in particular where we see a concentration of words about thankfulness. It comes in the middle of Colossians 3, right after Paul admonishes us to “put to death” the things that characterize our old life and to “put on” the things that characterize a life reborn in Christ. Paul closes the section saying this:

“And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” Colossians 3:15-17, ESV

Did you catch them all? In these three verses, there are three forms of the word ‘thank’ in quick succession. “Be thankful…with thankfulness…giving thanks.” First, we are to “be thankful.” In other words, gratitude should describe our very being. Think about the ways we describe people. We might say someone is hilarious, smart, creative, kind, etc. You might have had those things said about you. But has anyone ever described you as thankful? When people look at our lives, would thankful be an adjective they would use? May God grow in us a spirit of thanksgiving such that we are known as people who are thankful to our core.

Second, we are to live “with thankfulness.” Here we see a noun form of the word serving as the object of the preposition “with”, thus explaining something that should accompany various actions we undertake. Specifically here, we are to let Scripture dwell richly inside of us, which involves teaching and admonishing others wisely and singing, and all of this is to be done with something (v. 16).  That something is thankfulness. Not greed or self-righteousness or a savior-complex or an inflated ego or resentment or self-sufficiency or callousness but thankfulness. And not just generic thankfulness, but thankfulness directed to God. Our time in the Word, our conversations with others, and our expression in music should all be accompanied by thankfulness to the One who has made all of those things—and even our very lives—possible.

Third, we see that no matter what we do, we should be actively giving thanks (v. 17). Whether we are speaking or doing, we are to do everything for the Lord and be giving thanks to Him while we’re at it. But let’s be real. That is so much easier to say or to write than to live. Sometimes life is filled with things that we did not ask for or did not see coming or do not appreciate, and in the face of those things, it can be really hard to give thanks, much less to be thankful. But as with most things, it comes down to a choice.

As followers of Jesus, we have the Holy Spirit within us, who is beyond powerful enough to give us the ability to give thanks in any and every circumstance. We just have to make the choice to tap into that power instead of wallowing in the bitterness, discontentment, or apathy that we so often nurture. A thankful heart is what God desires for us, so of course He can equip us to exhibit that heart. We just have to step out in obedience and decide to give thanks even when we don’t feel thankful. We have to listen to the truth of God’s Word that we have stored in our head each time our heart tries to convince us that God isn’t there or that, if He is, He isn’t good.

When we make those conscious, and sometimes incredibly difficult, decisions over and over and over again to give thanks from our heads, then it becomes easier and easier to read and pray and sing and speak with thankfulness in our hearts, as God through Paul admonished us to do. And as we live out our faith with thankfulness in our hearts, God grows us into people who are characterized by gratitude, people who don’t just give thanks but who can be thankful.

This Thanksgiving, I challenge and encourage you to join me in seeking to be thoroughly thankful, in choosing to give thanks—in the plenty and the want, on the mountains and in the valleys, in the calm and in the storm, in the sunshine and the fog, through the laughter and the tears, through the elation and the frustration—trusting that God’s nearness and goodness are real and true—because they are. And that’s worth being thankful for. 

On Mission: A Conversation with Matt Benson

In this inaugural post in our conversations series, I am delighted to introduce you to Dr. Matt Benson. Matt currently serves as Sr. Vice-President with Operation Mobilization (OM) and as Director of Strategic Partnerships with Saints Equipped to Evangelize (SEE).

I first met him during my years at Bryan College where he was the Vice President of Spiritual Formation, involving the campus community in numerous avenues of ministry and mission locally and around the globe. Personally, I had the privilege of learning under him in a New Testament survey class as well as being blessed by him and his wife Melody as they opened their home weekly to a group of us students and journeyed with us to L’Abri in Greatham, England. Matt is one of those people whose wisdom is evident within the first few moments of hearing him speak. Although I haven’t seen him since the photo below was taken in 2014, I still recall specific nuggets of insight that he imparted in our conversations during my college years. And now, I am so excited to let you enter into a new conversation we’ve had on the topic of mission. . . . 

Olivia: What is your vision for seeing the Church mobilized on the mission field?  

Matt: I believe the church is God’s instrument on earth to embody the gospel.  John 1:14 tells us that God’s glory is seen in Christ.  In John 17:22-23 Jesus transfers that glory to united believers everywhere (the church) that the world might know that God loves them. So powerful. In some way, anywhere the church exists, she has been mobilized. That is to say, wherever there is church, there is mission.  Of course, the church also has the responsibility to extend Christ’s body around the world insofar as that is Christ’s command and within the scope of His redemptive mission.  I love to see the local church capture a comprehensive vision for how to extend its arms all over the world including in its own neighborhood.  Life produces life.  It is great when a church produces a church produces a church . . .  

Olivia: How do you think vocation relates to mission?

Matt: I think vocational stewardship is one of the very real missing dimensions of living mission in the world.  We live deeply fragmented lives that tend to locate missions in the purely religious sphere.  Missions gets dumbed down to activity.  In reality, all of my life and your life is about God’s mission in the world.  The question is how might I steward my whole self towards God’s whole work in the whole world.  That certainly relates to leveraging my vocational talents and passions towards the full expression of the gospel in the world. 

God is the most passionate evangelist in the world.  Scripture indicates that He even speaks of Himself through creation, day and night.  It is no stretch then to understand that God is revealing Himself and His good kingdom through all sectors of society.  He is seeking to reveal Himself through business so we need vocational faithfulness to reveal God’s Kingdom in the business sector.  People need to experience the texture of God’s kingdom through business.  He is seeking to reveal Himself through education so we need vocational faithfulness to reveal God’s Kingdom in the education sector so that teaching and learning is imbued with true kingdom potential.  One need not exit one’s vocation to somehow express God in mission.  In fact, doing so may mute one of His most powerful voices, your vocational life. 

Olivia: How can we instill a value and passion for the spread of the Gospel in our churches and the younger generation?

Matt: I think the younger generation gets it.  They already live in a pluralistic and globalized world.  Their friendships extend all around the globe and span demographics.  They are not threatened by differing perspectives and they tend to know how to move along multiple communication threads at the same time.  The challenge is to equip them to not simply see Christianity as one among many worldviews but actual life.  Jesus says that He is the Way, the Truth and the Life.  Truth is fundamentally a person, not merely a set of propositions. 

In many ways, the church in America is sensing a loss of being at the prophetic center of the culture.  We are living in a time of escalating volume rather than elevating dialog.  I think the real role of the church both in the U.S and abroad is to be a powerful and strategic presence, boldly living the Old Testament idea of hesed (deep and faithful love, long lasting generosity, truth orienting hospitality, etc.).  Our churches need to free their members to live well and powerfully in their communities, not as a program of the church but simply as a faithful and honest expression of Christ where they are.  You want to impassion a church about the gospel?  Go and become actual friends with your neighbor.  Lean into their lives.

Olivia: What excites you about the mission work you encounter and are involved in through your current positions with OM and SEE?  

Matt: Wow!  What God is doing around the world is phenomenal!  In OM we have Zambians moving into Muslim contexts in Africa, we have Latin Americans seeking to live the gospel among Middle Easterners, Chinese believers spreading across the globe!  God is on the move.  I love seeing Him inspire brothers and sisters from various ethnic backgrounds into culturally similar situations around the world!  My work with SEE is so completely different.  It is about years and years of faithful proclamation of the gospel in a little corner of Italy watching the Lord chip away at stony hearts.  Both are exciting in their own ways. 

I hope that through this conversation you have been encouraged and challenged in your thinking about mission and what our calling is as followers of Christ. If you are interested in learning more about Operation Mobilization or Saints Equipped to Evangelize, see

https://www.omusa.org/ and http://www.saintsequipped.org/.

The Robbery of Refusing to Receive

We are entering that time of year when we seem to think more about giving than usual. November brings an emphasis on giving thanks, and December brings the giving of gifts. A common verse related to giving that is often quoted, even by those who do not believe in Jesus, is part of Acts 20:35, where Paul quotes Jesus, saying, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”  This verse is used to encourage the cultivating of a giving spirit, but the way we interpret these words often has the added effect of discouraging a receiving spirit. It’s as if we attach an addendum to the phrase, reading it as if it said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive, so be sure you’re giving and not receiving.” But is that really what the verse is saying?

First of all, we shouldn’t add anything to Scripture, so the fact that there is no addendum should be the first major clue that Jesus was not telling us to avoid receiving. But aside from that clue, we should look elsewhere in the Bible, because the best place to go for insight on how to interpret a passage of Scripture is another passage of Scripture.

One such passage where we can look to shed light on the giving/receiving idea is 2 Corinthians 8. Paul is telling the Corinthians about the generosity of the Macedonians and encouraging them to give in kind. In explaining the extent of the Macedonians’ generosity, Paul writes in verses 3 and 4, “For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord, begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints” (ESV).

These verses, like the ones in Acts are reinforcing the idea that giving is good. But notice how Paul describes the Macedonian view of giving. They wanted “the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints.” There were fellow brothers and sisters in Christ in need, and the Macedonians wanted to be part of the blessing of meeting those needs. They gave; others received; and all were blessed by it. But what if those in need had refused to receive what the Macedonians gave? Not only would they still have been in need, but the Macedonians would have been robbed of the blessing of giving.

Over and over again, I have seen this hypothetical scenario play out in reality—Christians are in need, but they refuse to receive help, sometimes even refusing to reveal their need in the first place. Perhaps this refusal comes as an effect of the Church’s focus on giving with the implied notion that receiving is bad. Perhaps it stems from deep-seated pride (heaven forbid we admit a weakness or acknowledge some deficiency on our part). Perhaps it is rooted in a misguided sense of self-sufficiency that is only encouraged by our individualistic, “American-dream,” pull-yourself-up-by-your-own-bootstraps cultural mentality (heaven forbid we meet something that we cannot fix or solve or provide for on our own). Perhaps it emerges from a well-intentioned desire not to be a burden to others.

Whatever the reason, it is all-too-often the case that we in the Church are hesitant to or even adamantly against making our needs known to our family in Christ, whether they be physical or spiritual. If pride and self-sufficiency are our reasons, then repentance is in order. And if the reason is the thought that receiving help is equivalent to being a burden, we should broaden our view.  What we fail to realize when we refuse to receive, whatever our reason, is that not only is our stubbornness and pride keeping us from having our needs met, but it is also robbing our brothers and sisters of the opportunity to be obedient to Christ by giving and of the blessing that comes with this generous obedience.

I am reminded of an inner-city ministry that I once was a part of, which was largely run by volunteers from the church every Saturday. The operation had many moving parts and required a good deal of organization. One day, someone approached the leader with an observation that there was a way to streamline the process, reducing the number of volunteers needed to successfully fulfill the ministry’s objective. The leader’s response has always stuck with me. To paraphrase, he said that, yes, this observer was probably right but that the purpose of this ministry was not merely to serve the inner-city community but also to provide church members with an opportunity to serve, to be in the inner-city and see the needs firsthand. Simplifying the process would make it more efficient, yes, but it would reduce the number of people who would experience giving to those in need.

Similarly, how often does our refusal to ask for or receive help keep others from fulfilling the ministry of giving? And, really, if we stop to think about it, how can those of us who are in Christ legitimately be proud enough to refuse aid, physical or spiritual, from obedient human hands? Have we not received the most humbling gift of all—unearned and undeserved salvation from God Himself? So whenever we are tempted to keep our needs to ourselves, let us put our pride to death, remember the cross of Jesus Christ, and reach out to our family of faith, the community that God has given us. In doing so, we will not only open the door for ourselves to receive, but we will also be giving the opportunity to give, thus blessing those who bless us.

On Gender, Truth, and Trust

It’s hard to think of a more polarizing issue in recent days than the appointment and confirmation of Justice Kavanaugh—and in our increasingly divided culture, that’s saying something. The events surrounding his confirmation and the accusations made against him have brought out some of the strongest feelings in people across the political spectrum. I have my own opinions on the specific matter of the accusations and subsequent decisions made in this instance, but the following post is not about that. Rather, I want to speak to some of the broader, deeper, more general issues that this whole debacle has brought to light, or at least that it should bring to light.

We’ve seen the calls, ranging from genuine pleading to shrill demanding, that victims of abuse be heard. As someone who has many dearly loved ones who have been abused in one way or another and to varying degrees, I agree that the abused most certainly should be heard. We must take care not to heap trauma upon trauma. In the past weeks, though, we have seen this call for the abused to be heard expanded to include the assertion that women should be heard—and believed—period. As a woman, I agree that women should be respected and heard. I also agree that they should be believed—if they are telling the truth.

The concerning problem with the trajectory we have seen of late is that the message seems to assert that women should be believed simply because they are women, and it equates women with victims (or, alternatively “survivors”) and vice versa. This assertion and equating of terms is problematic. First, it’s a problem for a very a practical reason: it’s simply not logically sustainable. Here’s why:

Victims are not always women, and perpetrators of abuse are not always men. Or, put another way, women are capable of abusing and manipulating others because we have the same inherited corruptness that men do. So whether we equate victimhood and womanhood or whether we rate womanhood over victimhood in the scheme of who should always be believed, we leave no room for two categories—male victims of female abuse and female victims of female abuse.

Some might think it’s absurd that I even bring up male victims of female abuse, since they certainly seem to be the minority. (I haven’t done any studies on statistics in this area.) But they do exist (see Genesis 39 for an ancient example), and they are no less worth caring for than female victims. In our cultural "war on patriarchy," must we therefore ignore, disbelieve, and disrespect men who have been ill-treated by women? Should we have no care for the trauma they have experienced?

But perhaps you’re not ready to go there yet. Perhaps you still have a bad taste in your mouth where men are concerned and believe that to recognize male victims of abuse is to take the focus off of women, spitting in the face of womankind and adding insult to injury. Even so, there is still a problem with saying women should always be believed. If women are to be believed without question, who do we believe in a she-said/she-said scenario?  (Check out 1 Kings 3:16-28 for a doosy of a case.)  If two women tell contradicting stories, they can’t both be right; to believe one woman is to disbelieve the other.  So the principle of always believing women is one that cannot be followed in the most basic, practical sense.

The second problem with asserting that women are to be believed simply because they are women is the corresponding implication that men are to be disbelieved/distrusted simply because they are men. Just as perpetrators of abuse are not always men, men are not always perpetrators of abuse. Yes, some men are abusers. But many are not. And just as we women would not want the actions of some women to be used to characterize all of us, we should not characterize all men by the actions of some.
 

Newsflash: men are no more inherently evil than women are, and women are not inherently good. All of us have the imprint of corruption on our souls. And any woman who does not recognize her own capacity to manipulate, lie, and abuse needs to take a good, long look in the soul-mirror. Our female forebears have given us a myriad of case studies for these vices: Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, Potiphar’s wife, Delilah, Jezebel, just to name a few. These women’s lives should be cautionary tales to all of us, for we have the same seed of sinfulness buried deep within us, and unless we get a spiritual heart transplant from God himself, we are not free to conquer our depravity, and our default remains corruption. 

Having established that women are capable of lying and/or of misrepresenting the truth, we see another, philosophical problem with this idea of believing women solely because they are women: adhering to it requires that sometimes we believe things that are not true.  For postmodernists, this won’t be a problem, because when truth is relative, there can be no untruth. Thus, what is true for you doesn’t have to be true for me, and if two people tell contradicting stories, no one has a right to say that one is correct and the other is not. Explaining the unsustainability of a postmodern view of truth is a topic for another day, but for the sake of argument, let’s say that we’ve already had that discussion and established that truth is not relative.

If we accept that truth is not relative, then we can posit that only things that are true should be believed. This does not mean that only true things are believed, just that only true things should be believed. In other words, we should care that what we believe is actually true. Citing a person’s gender as the sole basis for believing them, with no concern for discerning the truth, is thus an assault on the very foundation of truth itself.

The challenge is that when it comes to people, sometimes it can be difficult to discern who is telling the truth or who is giving an accurate account.  Some things we will never know the truth about this side of eternity. But thankfully, there is Someone who has told us the truth about Himself and about ourselves, and He is completely trustworthy. He has told us that all of us—female and male—are both made in His image and afflicted with an inherited corruption from our first ancestors. This two-sided reality means that we should both respect every individual (because of his or her inherent dignity as God’s image-bearers) and accept that every individual is imperfect and thus cannot be blindly assumed to be trustworthy.

As imperfect humans, we are not unfailingly trustworthy. We will hurt each other, and we will let each other down. So we must earn each other’s trust, not demand it. And this must be done at an individual level—for men and women alike. Furthermore, as seekers of truth, we need to be discerning, using our minds to evaluate the veracity of someone’s statements. After all, if we believe that all are created equal, then all deserve to have their claims evaluated by the same standard, not prejudged one way or the other based on the claimant’s gender. Men and women are different, yes, but we are both human. Let’s not forget that.

Year Three in the Rearview, Year Four through the Windshield

How it has been three years since An Iris Awaits was born is beyond me, but three-years-old it is! So as we start its fourth year, I’d like to glance back, as we have done at every other milestone, but this time I’m going to dedicate the most time to looking forward, because I have an exciting announcement to share!

In the past year, the blog hasn’t seen quite as many posts as years previous; other life responsibilities have often prevented me from writing every other week as I originally began doing. But with God’s grace, I’ve been able to keep learning, keep growing, and keep writing through it all.

Learning is a life-long process, and it is rarely something done in isolation. God kindly teaches us through His Word, through resources, through experience, and often through other people. Looking over my own life, I count as treasures the people God has caused to cross my path, people He has used to teach me in various settings and in numerous ways. I have often thought that I wish everyone had the opportunity to know these men and women of God and to learn from their wisdom.

This desire, combined with the wish to keep An Iris Awaits fully active during this period of increased responsibilities, has led me to develop a new conversations series, which I hope to unveil within the next month or so. In this series, you will get to meet some of the men and women who have influenced my life and to hear from them about a topic either they have taught me about or are passionate about themselves—or both.

I am so looking forward to introducing you to each of these individuals and to letting you glean from their knowledge and wisdom over the next year. And in between these conversations, you’ll still find the same challenging and encouraging Irises from me waiting there for you. So here’s to year four and another chapter in the journey of growing in the knowledge of God and in love for Him and for each other.

Thank you for journeying with me.

The Myth of Neutrality

There are some Bible verses that are widely known even among those who do not read the Bible. Among these, John 3:16 is probably the most famous: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (ESV). This verse that speaks of the great love of God often leads people to ask the question, “How could a God so loving send people to an eternal punishment of separation from Him?” At face value, it seems like a real doozey of a question. We don’t like thinking of God “sending people to Hell.” But if we keep reading in John 3, we discover a nugget of truth that speaks to the inaccurate assumption on which that question is based.

Asking, “How could a loving God send people to Hell?” presupposes one of two things: that humans are born inherently good or that we are born in a state of neutrality, neither inherently good nor inherently bad and that it is what we do in life that determines our merit in the eyes of God. The first idea is quickly nipped in the bud by the incredibly clear statements in Romans 3:10 and 23: “as it written: ‘None is righteous, no, not one;” and “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (ESV). We are not born as good people at our core. Our natural bent is not to do good or be good. As many pastors have said, all one has to do to see evidence of this is to spend some time in the nursery; we are selfish, self-centered creatures.

The other presupposition—our neutrality—is more subtly deceptive; it’s one that I daresay many people don’t even realize they are assuming when they ask the question above. The famous scenario tied to this question is the “man on the island” idea that describes a man who lives and dies never hearing about the sacrifice of Jesus on his behalf. This man had no opportunity to hear the Good News. How could God send him to Hell? This is where it is helpful to look at the rest of John 3, particularly verses 18 and 36.

In verse 18, Jesus explains to Nicodemus that “Whoever believes in him [Jesus, the Son of God, who came into the world to save us], is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God” (ESV). Did you catch that? Those who do not believe in the work Jesus did on their behalf—the work of living a perfect, sinless life, dying a criminal’s death as an innocent, and rising victoriously from the dead to return to His throne in Heaven—are “condemned already.” God does not look at their lives and make a decision to “send” them to hell. They are already destined to hell from the beginning because they have inherited the sin-nature from their ancestors and are thus unworthy to be in communion with God.

The second part of verse 36 says, “Whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him” (emphasis added, ESV). From this, we see that God’s wrath is pointed toward us from the beginning of our lives. We are all destined for eternal separation from God because He is infinitely holy and we are not. He is not cruel in allowing us to receive the punishment we deserve; He is just. And it is evidence of His great love for us that He provides an opportunity for us to escape that eternal punishment and to enjoy eternal fellowship and closeness with Him. He provided this opportunity without compromising His justice by taking our punishment on Himself on the Cross. And all we must do to receive this gift is to forsake our wrongs (repent) and believe in Jesus. “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life” (John 3:36a, ESV). Have you believed in Jesus and received the forgiveness of God, or are you living under His wrath?

Each of us is walking toward the grave, and the idea that we naturally stand neutral before God is a myth.  On the other side of the grave we will be faced with either intimate face-to-face relationship with the loving, good, just God or eternal separation from Him.

Which end is awaiting you?

P.S. If you want to know more about how you can be right with God, feel free to message me.

The Perfect Peace of Present Tense

Lately I’ve been pondering a specific element of God’s nature—His immutability, i.e. the fact that who He is does not change. And as I was thinking about putting my ponderings into a blogpost, this past Sunday we sang a song in church that touches on the same idea. (Funny how God does that a lot.)

The song is called “Great I Am,” and, as I have had to explain to those hearing it who are unfamiliar with the Bible, when we sing it we are not exclaiming how great each of us is. Instead, we are singing one of the names of God—I AM—and not just any name, but the name He used to identify Himself to Moses and the people of Israel.

It’s best to look right at the verses themselves in Exodus 3:13-14 (ESV). We find Moses at the burning bush, where God has just told him to go back to Egypt (from where he has fled because he murdered an Egyptian) and to confront Pharaoh and to lead the people out of slavery:

Then Moses said to God, ‘If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, “The God of your fathers has sent me to you,” and they ask me, “What is His name?” what shall I say to them?” God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”

This name, perhaps more than any other, best communicates God’s immutable nature. Incidentally, it is also a great example of why studying grammar is incredibly helpful in understanding Scripture, but that’s a blogpost for another day. We will touch on grammar a little bit here, though, because this name of God is in the form of a subject (I) and a verb (am), and the type of verb is important.

‘Am’ is the first-person present tense of what’s called a “be verb” (am, is, are, was, were, be, being, been). This just means that it is a verb someone uses to describe his current state of being. Often, we follow ‘am’ with some sort of description (a predicate adjective), such as “I am happy” or “I am tall.” But here, God just turns the subject and verb combo into a name. “I AM WHO I AM,” period. And again, “I AM has sent me.” In other words, God just is.

Unlike us humans who can say, “I was short, but now I am tall” or “I was blind, but now I see,” God does not need the past tense to describe His essence. There is nothing God used to be that He is not now. This point is reiterated in the same conversation with Moses when God says, “This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations (Ex. 3:15b, ESV).” In other words, He is still I AM. Forever extends forward and backward for eternity. God is still the same being He has always been and always will be. He is always I AM.

In the New Testament, we see that the same is said of Jesus, giving us one of the many indications that Jesus is God. The writer of Hebrews writes plainly, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Heb. 13:8, ESV). And when Jesus was arrested leading up to His crucifixion, His declaring “I am he” was powerful enough to make an entire group of people fall to the ground (John 18:4-6). Jesus, being God, is also I AM and always will be.

So why does all of this matter to us? As believers in Jesus, it’s important at the most basic level because understanding the unchanging nature of God helps us know Him better. And knowing Him better helps us love Him better and enriches our relationship with Him. But it’s also important because His immutability gives us complete confidence in Him, His Word, His work, and His promises. 

We don’t have to worry that what we read of Him in Scripture may not be true anymore. We don’t have to be concerned that God might no longer be able to finish the work that He has begun in us of making us more like Christ. We don’t have to be afraid that God might have ceased to be loving or just or gracious or kind or sovereign. He is still all of those things because He is I AM, the God who never changes. In short, we have a present-tense God, and there is perfect peace to be found in that truth.

PC: Keri-Lynn Paulson. Used with permission.

An Exercise in “Perhaps”

God has revealed Himself to us in Scripture, but He has not revealed every detail of His sovereign plan. This is why we must be careful in pronouncing a specific purpose behind His actions. As we’ve discussed in a previous post, sometimes He gives us the “why” in Scripture, but many times in our lives we are left to wonder. And as implied in another post, we are best advised to couch our ideas about God’s intentions in specific events with “perhaps.”

What follows is an exercise in speculation. What I am about to propose, I have absolutely no evidence for. In other words, I could be completely wrong. But that’s why I’m starting with “perhaps.”

Before we begin, though, let’s build up to our moment of speculation with some things we do know.

Throughout Scripture, God uses created things to explain higher truths. He uses the physical to illuminate the spiritual. Whether it be through similes, metaphors, analogies, parables, or anthropomorphisms, God helps our finite brains grasp truths about His infinite self through things that we are familiar with. Bread, water, light, sheep, shepherds, trees, birds, crops, weeds, wages, invitations, the justice system, money--these are just the examples off the top of my head that God uses in the Bible to help us understand realities about ourselves, Himself, and our relationship to Him.

And this practice is often lauded and looked to as an example of how we ourselves can teach—with illustrations that people will understand. Look at what Jesus did, people will say. He stepped into our world, and used the things that were there to “speak our language.”

This idea isn’t necessarily incorrect, but it implies a sort of reactionary element of Jesus’ ministry and even of God’s working in the Old Testament, i.e. Jesus came to earth and looked around for something that would be a good illustration of what He was wanting to communicate, or God found something that the prophets would understand and decided to use it in His revelation to them.

But God is not reactionary. He is all-knowing and is outside of time.

Now that we’ve got all of that laid out, let’s get to our point of speculation…

Perhaps part of God’s intention in creating these things in the first place was to provide a means of revealing to us truths about His character and His realm.

What if God created eagles to show us how he gently cares for His children? (see Deut. 32:11)

What if God created sheep not only to provide wool for clothing and blankets (and in some cases meat) but also so that we would have an understanding of what total dependency (and stupidity) look like and would thus recognize how much we are dependent and stupid and how much we need a good, kind Shepherd? (see Psalm 23; John 10)

What if God created fish not only to provide food but also to give us a frame of reference for what it means to draw others toward the kingdom of God? (see Matt. 4:19)

What if God created light so that we would know there was something better than darkness? (see John 12:46)

And--this one might be harder to swallow--what if God allowed slavery to exist partly so that we would see the horror of bondage and recognize our terrible plight and the beauty of our Redeemer? (see Titus 3:3-7; Hebrews 2:14-15; Romans 8:15)

Or what if he designed infants to need milk before solid food so that we could see that new believers need patient discipling? (see 1 Cor. 3:2; Heb. 5:12-13; 1 Pet. 2:2)

Then, instead of thinking of Jesus as stepping into our world and using what happened to be there, it’s more like Jesus entered into His world and revealed Himself through His creation that He had put there all along.

Al Mohler in his new book, The Prayer that Turns the World Upside Down, points to Moses’s words in Deuteronomy 8:3 to show “that God designed physical needs [e.g. in this case, hunger] to point to our deeper spiritual needs. Our need for daily physical sustenance is a faint echo of our daily need of spiritual sustenance and satisfaction from God” (p. 117). This verse is one of the cases where God does reveal the “why”:

“He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.” (Deut. 8:3, NIV)

If God uses the physical to point to the spiritual, then perhaps He conceived creation itself with this purpose in mind. 

Again, these “what ifs” are pure speculation. I do not know the mind of God apart from what He has revealed in His Word. But I do know that He is sovereign, creative, and love itself. So if He did design and create parts of this world for the “future” purpose of using them to demonstrate His goodness and His love for us, I wouldn’t in the least be surprised.

Source: Mohler, R. Albert, Jr. The Prayer that Turns the World Upside Down: The Lord’s Prayer as a Manifesto for Revolution, Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2018.