Author: Paul Nordman

Categories
Uncategorized

The Dot

A young mentee and I have been making our way through Your Money Counts, a practical book by Howard Dayton on managing personal finances through Biblical principles. (I recommend it.) At one point, Dayton offers this eternal perspective: “Our momentary time on earth is but a dot on the timeline of eternity. Yet we have the opportunity to influence eternity by how we handle our money today.”1 I agree with Dayton and would enlarge the context to suggest all of our words and actions reverberate long after we’ve passed on from this life. Have you seen, for instance, people raised in broken or dysfunctional homes, only later to parent a loving, supportive, and thriving family of their own? These “transition generations,” as I call them, enrich the soil of the family tree for decades or perhaps centuries to come. A dot well lived.

We sometimes doubt our impact in this life and question our purpose; we let the bigness of the universe make us feel insignificant, or we underestimate our impact here by understanding it incompletely or evaluating it prematurely. The truth of the matter is, the fruit of our actions multiplies far beyond our notice, imagination, or the limitations of our earthly timeline. Jesus said that when we speak Biblical truth to those most willing to accept it, they “produce a crop—some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times what was sown.”2 We see only a mere sampling of the harvest, for it spreads far and wide and reproduces throughout generations. This is God’s plan for us, as Jesus so clearly declared, “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last.”3 This is our assignment: to sow the word, to speak Biblical truth. The results are eternal.

Are you one who stands at the seashore and questions your significance or looks at the stars and feels small? Have you reached that season of life when you truly understand its brevity, and now regret some past priorities? If so, know this: there is still time to sow seeds in fertile hearts, to speak truth to hungry souls. So, go and sow. There is plenty of big bang left in your little dot.

Father, thank You for giving us the great honor of Kingdom impact. Lead us to the fertile grounds of people’s hearts, that we would declare Your Word in great peace and joy. Rejoice in Your harvest. In Christ we pray. Amen.

1 Howard Dayton, Your Money Counts, (USA: Tyndale), 132.
2 Mark 4:20 NIV
3 John 15:16 NIV, emphasis added

Categories
Uncategorized

You Are Holy; Get Used to It

I have lived long enough to see the meaning of words change, whether through the gradual evolution of culture or the fickle influence of slang. An example of the former, when I was a child, “gay” was commonly used to describe a merry disposition; now it refers exclusively to a sexual lifestyle. In terms of slang, “bad” is good; “ridiculous” means awesome, and so does “sick.” “Crazy” has come to connote intensity, e.g., crazy in love. Word geeks (like me) find all of this so fascinating. Yet there is a downside to etymological entertainment: ideas and meanings are weakened when we dilute the words that define them. Take “holy,” for instance.

If someone were to ask you to describe yourself, would you say, “holy”? Probably not, for its connotation has accumulated some cultural baggage along the way. “Holier than thou” carries the pejorative notion of self-righteousness, which is not holy at all. Some associate “holy” with a pious aloofness and separation from “the great unwashed.” This also is not holy. Reflecting on our thoughts, words, and deeds, we presume to judge ourselves in our own trial as “Not holy.” There is just one little problem with all of this—if, by faith, Christ lives in you, you are holy; God has seen to your holiness. In the letter to the Hebrews we read, “By [the Father’s] will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”1 You are holy. Get used to it.

So, let’s define it. Holiness is being set apart, both unto God and from the world—not the people of the world, but the ways of the world. To wit, Jesus did not withdraw from those socially marginalized as “sinners;” He sought them out in love and engaged them in warmth, enduring the scorn of the religious ruling class in the process. Conversely, Jesus neither condoned people’s sinful ways nor marginalized their sin, rather, He redirected them back to God where they would find forgiveness, peace, and joy. Rescuing the adulterous woman from the death penalty, Jesus urged her, “Go now and leave your life of sin.”2 There is a freshness to holiness: it gratefully celebrates and humbly partakes in the goodness of God, and it leads us from the dark hopelessness of worldly ways with the liberating light of Christ. Isn’t this what we want? Then in such grace may we effectively flourish in what is already true about us: in Christ we are holy. It’s a good word, when you think about it.

“But now you are free from the power of sin and have become slaves of God. Now you do those things that lead to holiness and result in eternal life.”—Romans 6:22 NLT

Father, You have done something we could never do: You have set us apart from darkness and unto You. Thank You! Be glorified in us, Your holy people. In Christ we pray. Amen.

1 Hebrews 10:10 NIV
2 John 8:11 NIV

Categories
Uncategorized

Joining God in His Work

Unequivocally the best Bible study I have ever read regarding the daily Christian walk is Henry Blackaby’s and Claude King’s outstanding work, “Experiencing God.” In it they establish seven major Biblically grounded premises, two of which I am often acutely aware: God is always at work around you; and God invites you to become involved with Him in His work. Now, being invited to join God in His work and actually adjusting our lives to do so (a third premise in this study) are two different things, for saying “yes” to God means adjusting our lives to His meaningful purposes and then trusting Him to accomplish these purposes through us. Yet when we do submit our will to His, good things—amazing things—happen.

This is an awesome part of the Christian life, for Jesus is more than a concept or belief system, He is real, and His presence among us is not limited to a time when He walked the earth. “I am with you always, to the end of the age,”1 He promised before ascending into the heavens from which He came. Yet not only is Jesus with us, through His Spirit He also lives in us. Paul rhetorically prodded early believers, “Do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?”2 The Holy Spirit, or “the Spirit of Christ,”3 breathes new life into all who entrust themselves to His redemptive work on the cross, thereafter to take up residence in us. Paul again, “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?”4

So Jesus is with us, and Jesus lives in us. Should it surprise us, then, that His Spirit works through us? Our faith in Jesus and our love for His people “come from [our] confident hope of what God has reserved for [us] in heaven.”5 Simply put, the freedom and joy of daily experiencing Jesus overflows to others, and the audience of those who want to know about Him is larger and more eager than we realize. Then how do we prepare for God’s purposes? We can do as Paul did for the early Colossian church: ask! Paul prayed for them, specifically that they would be “filled with the knowledge of [God’s] will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding . . . [and] bearing fruit in every good work.”6

No greater honor could we ever receive than to be the place where the Spirit resides through faith in Christ. And on no greater adventure could we ever embark than to live a life of eternal consequence in Him. This is His will for us. This is His gift to us. Praise Him.  

Father, thank You for making us alive in Christ Jesus. Fill us with the knowledge of Your will in all wisdom and understanding, that we would live fruitful lives, fully pleasing to You. In Christ we pray. Amen.

1 Matthew 28:20, emphasis added
2 2 Corinthians 13:5, emphasis added
3 1 Peter 1:11
4 1 Corinthians 3:16 ESV, emphasis added
5 Colossians 1:4-5 ESV
6 Colossians 1:9-10 ESV, emphasis added