Author: Paul Nordman

Categories
Uncategorized

Before Christ

Correct me if I’m wrong. I’m guessing that, every once in a while, you stop and reflect on the change God has brought about in you since you entrusted your life to His Son. The transforming work of the Spirit in us is beyond remarkable, and we can neither plan nor explain the inner wonders He performs in silence. We can only marvel at Him.

Yet I think it is equally important to consider the work God did in and around us before we came to believe in Christ Jesus. How many people did He send our way with the message of salvation and life? I think of Dave and Barb, Gary and Sue, Pat, and countless others. How did He spare us from catastrophe, or how did He sustain us through it? Personally, I recall the moment when, through a dream, God turned the sting of my father’s early death into both the assurance of his never-ending life in Christ and a hope for my own.

Reading the Biblical story of Cornelius and his family, I wonder how often they looked back on the amazing things God did in their lives before they came to a saving faith in Christ Jesus. Though “devout and God-fearing,” these Gentiles knew nothing about His sacrificial atonement or the eternal life that is found in Him, but God was working in their lives, anyway. Through a breathtaking series of visions, He called Cornelius and the apostle Peter together for one momentous occasion with two astounding outcomes—the salvation of Cornelius and his family, and the spread of the gospel to the Gentiles.

God always inclines Himself toward us before we ever incline ourselves toward Him. He pursues us, He calls us, and He prepares us. Then when our hearts finally warm and open to Him, He pours His life-giving Spirit into us and saves our souls. And as God used others to reach us in our search for Him, so He blesses us to reach out to others with the life and peace that we ourselves have found in Christ. For in His time, God changes people’s “before Christ” into their “anno Domini”—their own personal “year of the Lord.”

Take a moment today to appreciate all the work God did in your life before you came to know Him through Jesus Christ, His Son.

Lord God, I remember my “before Christ” years and how you worked through so many people and events to draw me to yourself. Use me now to bring to others the hope and assurance I have found in Christ Jesus, the Savior. Amen.

[Read the story of Cornelius and his family in Acts 10.]

Categories
Uncategorized

Low-bar People and a High-bar God

The sign for the 5K cross country ski race caught my attention. I was 27 years old, sufficiently athletic, and hailed from Michigan. What advantage could these Ohio people have over me? When race day arrived, I showed up with my fish-scale bottom skis, wearing blue jeans and a sweater. Most others zipped up wind-resistant body suits and carefully evaluated the snow to determine exactly which wax to apply to what skis. (“Uh-oh.”) A quarter mile into the race, I realized I was in way over my head. I thought my lips—already frozen from sucking in large volumes of 20-something degree air—would drop off like icicles and that my heart would pound right out of my chest. Fortunately, there were no casualties that day, except my pride, which kept me going all the way to the finish line where my wife greeted me: “Are you OK? You don’t look so good.”

It’s a common problem borne out of naiveté or pride—we benchmark ourselves to performance standards too low, which leads us to assessment conclusions too high. We don’t comprehend just how good “good” can be until we encounter “excellent,” “elite,” or “perfection.” This happens in a spiritual sense, as well, when we evaluate humanity against our own human standards and conclude people are undeserving of God’s judgment and in no need of a Savior. But God is perfect, and His elite standards mirror His divine nature. We may benchmark ourselves to ourselves, but God’s high bar for us is purity, which reflects His very nature. And against His greatness, our idea of “goodness” is exposed as something far less than what we had thought it to be. As Jesus himself said, “No one is good—except God alone.”1

We are broken people, unable to meet God’s lofty expectations or even our own low ones. And certainly God will judge us, but not as one delighting in some cosmic game of “Got-‘cha.” To the contrary, Paul writes, “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”2 In Christ, God stared down our imperfections, declared them for what they were, and then paid their price through the life of His Son. For our God is all about turning sinners into winners.

Father, thank you for imputing the righteousness of Christ to an undeserving me. Fill me with your goodness, that I would be of some good to the people I encounter today. Amen.

For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!” (Romans 5:10)

[Read today’s Scripture in Romans 5:6-11.]

1 Luke 18:19
2 Romans 5:8

Categories
Uncategorized

Fans Set on High

“A fanatic is one who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject,” quipped Winston Churchill, England’s beloved, wartime prime minister. Does his description bring anyone to mind, your neighbor, for instance, who knows exactly how many days remain until the OSU-Michigan game? Personally, I can’t help but think (and chuckle) about Forrest Gump’s friend, Bubba, and his all-consuming passion for shrimp! (“Shrimp-kabobs, shrimp creole, shrimp gumbo. . . .”1) Of course, none of us wants to be known as a fanatic, but almost all of us proudly proclaim ourselves to be a “fan” of something, even though “fan” is the shortened version of the word, “fanatic.” Abbreviate the word, and we’re good with it.

The historical book of Acts ends with the apostle Paul under house arrest, living alone under guard, yet still with singularity of purpose. “For two whole years Paul stayed there in his own rented house and welcomed all who came to see him. Boldly and without hindrance he preached the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ.”2 Though confined, Paul constrained neither his message, nor the fervor in which he shared it.

So what do you think? Is Paul “that guy” we warmly greet in church but coolly avoid in public? It would be easy to look at him or someone like him and think, “nut job,” “zealot,” or “fanatic.” But think about it for a moment—the only reason Paul talked nonstop about Jesus for two years is that people kept coming to see him for two years! If they stop seeking, he stops preaching, right? Yet something in him drew people to him, those looking for truth and the inner peace it brings.

The point is this: people are hungry for something in their lives, and that something is the truth and hope of the gospel. It is as Augustine said, “You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until can they find peace in you.”3 So people keep searching. Then wouldn’t it be great if we lived today in such a way that people could see the hope that we have and experience for themselves the peace of Christ? Wouldn’t it be great if we lived today as fans?

But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. (1 Peter 3:15)

[Read today’s Scripture in Acts 28:23-31.]

1 Tisch, Steve, Wendy Finerman, Robert Zemeckis, Eric Roth, Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Gary Sinise, Mykelti Williamson, Sally Field, and Winston Groom. 1995. Forrest Gump. [Hollywood, Calif.]: Paramount.
2 Acts 28:30, 31
3 Augustine, Saint Bishop of Hippo, The Confessions of Saint Augustine, trans. Rex Warner. (New York: The New American Library, 1963), 17.