Author: Paul Nordman

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Where Good > Great

Good is the little sibling of great, at least in the secular hierarchy of this age. Good is the second-place trophy, the silver medal, the red ribbon. It is my honors society “B+” to your valedictorian “A.” (Congratulations.) Greatness gives the victory speech; goodness gets a charitable mention. Great are the achievers; good are the nice guys. And “nice guys finish last.” Or so it is said.

Yet great is not always the superior of good; in fact, worldly greatness is often achieved amid a dearth of godly goodness. We’ve all quoted this familiar maxim from the nineteenth century British historian and politician Lord Acton: “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Our recitation ends there, but Lord Acton continues, “Great men are almost always bad men.” He speaks of earthly greatness — position, power, wealth, all of which are too often attained not through goodness but through guile.

But God calls us to something greater than great: He calls us to goodness. Joseph of Arimathea was a wealthy man and a member of the ruling council, yet his Biblical esteem arises from his character — “a good and righteous man.”1 Barnabus is likewise honored as “a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith.”2 And listen to how Peter described Jesus to those gathered at Cornelius’ house: “He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.”3 Referring to Jesus as “good” or “doing good” strikes us as an understatement, but it is not, for God himself is by nature good.

So what does “good” mean to God? Cue the prophet Micah: “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”4 This is goodness at its greatest. This is faith in action. It means doing what is right and speaking what is true; it means eschewing all that is evil or false. It means not striving to please our sinful desires, but living to please the Spirit.5 In this sense, goodness is lived day by day, moment by moment, encounter by encounter.

Then what must we do? Paul’s exhortation of old remains relevant still today: “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.”6 This is what winning looks like in the Kingdom of God. Your crown awaits you there.7

Good Father, thank You for Your Spirit who fills us with goodness8, and who leads us to good works.9 Strengthen us to trust and obey today. In Christ we pray. Amen.

1 Luke 23:50 ESV
2 Acts 11:23 ESV
3 Acts 10:28 ESV
4 Micah 6:8 ESV, emphasis added
5 Galatians 6:8
6 Galatians 6:9-10 NIV
7 1 Corinthians 9:25 NIV
8 Galatians 5:22-23
9 Ephesians 2:10 NIV

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Eager Patience

Waiting for God to act. It’s not exactly our strong suit, is it? Yet so much of our time is spent doing exactly that — waiting for relief, waiting for answers, waiting for direction, waiting, waiting, waiting. So how do we wait? Sometimes like David we wait anxiously for God: “How long O Lord . . . How long . . . How long . . . ?”1 Perhaps in better times, we, like Abraham, have “waited patiently”2 for Him. And then there is the patience of Simeon. “He was righteous and devout and was eagerly waiting for the Messiah to come and rescue Israel. The Holy Spirit was upon him and had revealed to him that he would not die until he had seen the Lord’s Messiah.”3 How inspiring, this eager patience of Simeon. And how awesome, the faithfulness of his God.

I find it fascinating that both God and Simeon longed for the same thing, the sending of the Messiah. For what Simeon yearned to receive, God desired to give. In fact, God himself waited for a very specific time of fulfillment, a time of His own eager expectation. For “when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.”4 The promised moment is forever fulfilled: “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.”5 In His timing, God has done what God has promised. Merry Christmas!

Then in the confidence of our promise-keeping God we wait again, for our Messiah will return to us just as assuredly as He came two millennia ago. For “Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.”6 Did you catch it? We are called to wait for the Messiah as Simeon awaited Him— eagerly. To me this means aligning my will with God’s purposes, joining Him in His work as He calls me today, speaking truth in love, extending grace to others from the grace I have received. It means conversing with Him who calls me “friend”7 and humbling myself before Him who is both Lord and King.8

What about you? What might “eagerly waiting” for Jesus mean to you?

But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life. — Jude 20-21 NIV

Father, You are the promise-keeping God. Thank You for giving us Your Spirit to guide us in eager expectation of Your presence, both now and forever. Grace us to submit ourselves to Him. In Christ we pray. Amen.

1 Psalm 13:1-2 ESV
2 Hebrews 6:15 NLT
3 Luke 2:25-26 NLT
4 Galatians 4:4-5 NIV
5 Isaiah 9:2 ESV
6 Hebrews 9:28 ESV
7 John 15:15
8 Revelation 19:16 ESV

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The Gift that Grows

December 18 2024 — The Gift that Grows

To each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. — Ephesians 4:7 NIV

It’s Christmastime again, and you know what that means! The annual “white elephant” gift exchange. Each person has the option of choosing a wrapped present or seizing one already selected and unwrapped by someone else. As more packages are opened, stealing increasingly becomes the go-to option. “I’ll take your gift, thank you very much.” It’s a zero-sum game: one person’s gain is another person’s loss. So anticipation mounts — who will finish with the more coveted gifts, and who will be stuck with . . . let’s just say the “more memorable” ones? The two I remember most? A bullwhip and a porcelain bedpan. (I tried to market the latter as an antique, but there were no takers.)

Not all gift exchanges are “winner take all,” fortunately, and one that immediately comes to mind is grace. Grace is not “I win; you lose”; it is quite the opposite — liberated by God’s grace to me, I gratefully share the same with you. As Jesus said, “Freely you have received; freely give.”1 Then, grace multiplies, it spreads, it bears fruit, it “keeps giving.” For grace itself “teaches us to say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age.”2 What a relief! May we live as we ought.

Ironically, for some of us giving grace is especially difficult during the holidays. For we gather with those who know us the best and who “punch our buttons” the most, sometimes knowingly and perhaps more often not. As a bumper sticker reads: “I’ll be home for Christmas and in therapy by New Year.” So, why not live this season in grace? Why not pause to consider God’s patience with us and His forbearance toward us, and in humility and thankfulness, share the gift of grace with those who struggle against sin as much as we do. Paul exhorts us, “Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others.”3

Grace can be difficult to give, for it calls us to expel our pride and become vulnerable again. But gifts await us in exchange. Maybe even the gift of joy.

Live grace. Give grace.

Father, from [Jesus’] fullness we have all received grace upon grace.4 Fill us with Your Spirit, that we would extend this grace to others, especially those who punch our buttons. In Christ we pray. Amen.

1 Matthew 10:8 NIV
2 Titus 2:12 NIV
3 Colossians 3:13 NLT
4 John 1:16 ESV