Tag: A Word for Wednesday

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More than a Watchword

One of Peggy’s and my joys in life is developing friendships with internationals who come to the United States to pursue their education. They have taught us much about their countries and cultures, and to some degree we have helped them navigate our own. In relaxed conversation one evening, a young woman from China recalled arriving in the U.S. for the first time. “We [Chinese students] begin to learn English as children and study it throughout our school years,” she began. “I thought I knew the language well, but when I arrived here and stepped into the airport, I couldn’t understand anything. For my first three months here, it was a wall of noise.” (What a great metaphor!)

We long to hear God; we strain to hear His voice. At times, however, other voices overwhelm us, distracting us from hearing God or dissuading us from trusting Him. For the Bible teaches us we have an enemy; his name is Satan. Jesus says this evil one “does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When the devil lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”1 This is who our enemy is, and lies are the obscenities he shouts from the wall of noise.

Satan deceives us in many ways, such as misapplying Scripture. Tempting Jesus to prove His deity by throwing Himself down from the temple high point, Satan “assured” Him through Psalm 91, saying, “‘He will command his angels concerning you,’” and “‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’”2 Conveniently omitted, however, was the prior verse in the psalm—the premise to the promise: “Because you have made the Lord your dwelling place. . .”3 In faith and obedience, Jesus did take refuge in the Lord, His dwelling place, and, though tempted as we are, He overcame the devil’s scheme and remained without sin.4

How do we read Scripture rightly? Probably the most effective means is through a lifetime practice of this timeless wisdom from the twentieth century German pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer: “There can be . . . little doubt that brief verses cannot and should not take the place of reading the Scripture as a whole. . . Holy Scripture is more than a watchword. It is also more than “light for today.” It is God’s revealed Word for all men, for all times. Holy Scripture does not consist of individual passages; it is a unit and is intended to be used as such.”5 More Word, more clarity. Less noise; more peace.

“Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”6—Peter, to Jesus

Father, Your Word is life itself. Inspire us to consume it and understand it, living by every word that comes forth from Your mouth. In Christ we pray. Amen.

1 John 8:44
2 Matthew 4:6
3 Psalm 91:9
4 Hebrews 4:15
5 Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together, trans. John W. Doberstein, (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1954) 50–51
6 John 6:68

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Apocalyptic Joy

Some of our executives were invited as guests to an evening concert by the Kirov Orchestra. Predictably, they featured selections from Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky, Russian masters whose musical style featured tension between disquieting discordance and soothing harmony, the blaring blasts of the former ultimately giving way to the melodious measures of the latter. At intermission, I quipped to a colleague, “This is the music of a cold climate.” He chuckled and replied, “That’s true. You don’t hear a lot of dissonance in the [Caribbeans], do you?”

By way of “the Revelation,” the apostle John witnessed things yet to come, and by command, he wrote them down. We tend to think of this “apocalypse”1 in dissonant terms of natural catastrophes, spiritual warfare, and divine judgment, and rightly so, for these will come. Yet like the symphonic masterpieces we enjoyed in the theater that evening, this apocalyptic discord ultimately resolves into apocalyptic peace, joy, and worship from a diverse people unified in Christ. John writes:

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”2

On Friday evenings, Peggy and I are privileged to a preview of this vision, for gathered in our family room for an International Friendships (IFI) Bible study is a symphony of sorts, young men and women from Rwanda, Korea, China, Taiwan, Ghana, Nigeria, Bolivia, Cameroon, Uganda, Philippines, and the US. In the past (and likely the future), there have been students from Argentina, India, Chile, Iran, Iraq, Guinea-Bissau, Congo, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, and other countries that do not immediately come to mind. We eat together, sing together, and delve into the Word, many as believers in Christ and others still seeking.

I find it fascinating this global church has emerged through a command obeyed—“Go . . . and make disciples of all nations”3—and a promise kept: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses . . . to the end of the earth.”4 After speaking these things, Jesus left, He ascended. Yet two thousand years later, His Kingdom continues its global march, its alluring melody calming discordant hearts of all generations and cultures. Then taking confidence from promises kept, may we work toward the vision that awaits—a harmonious multitude from all nations, tribes, peoples, and languages.

Father, You reveal an eternity of shared gladness and joy in Christ. May Your vision of unity and peace in Your Kingdom stir us to share Your power, love and truth here on Earth. In Christ, we pray. Amen.

1 “Apocalypse” is the English word for “apokálypsis,” a Greek word meaning “revelation.”
2 Revelation 7:9-10
3 Matthew 28:19
4 Acts 1:8

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Cutting Problems in Half

Coming clean, being open and honest—this was our focus in a recent Bible study (centered on Psalm 51). At some point in our discussion, a friend shared this bit of wisdom, a pithy adage from Alcoholics Anonymous: “Telling someone cuts it in half.” Be it a challenge, irritation, or temptation, just telling someone about it significantly reduces the size of our problem. Articulating our burden clarifies heretofore nebulous feelings, and confession aligns us with the truth of the matter, a vital step on the path to victory. Moreover, “telling someone” removes the added weight of a load carried silently alone. Though none of the rest of us were in AA, we all “got it,” for overwhelming challenges are part of the human experience, and we need help.

Solomon observed, “Two are better than one . . . For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up!”1 The king’s wisdom is worth pondering, yet it is actionable, as well, and Paul calls us to it. “Bear one another’s burdens,” he exhorted, “and so fulfill the law of Christ,”2 which is to say, love practically and give sacrificially—something Jesus lived out to the ultimate. “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends,”3 He told His disciples, and less than 24 hours later, Jesus did exactly that: He laid down His unblemished life to take upon Himself the otherwise irradicable burden of our sin. May we never balk at mere inconvenience again.

My friend described alcoholism as “above all else, a disease of isolation,” yet insobriety is not its only affliction—whether as a root or a symptom, isolation affects us in ways too many to mention in this space. This is not the way we are called to live, rather as Paul wrote, “we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.”4 Adds Solomon, “A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for a time of adversity.”5 So let us live into our oneness in Christ—a place where burdens are shared, loads are lightened, and Christ is glorified.

There is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.—Proverbs 18:24

Father, it is easy to regard other people’s struggles from a distance, and it is easy to distance ourselves from others. Forgive us. Lead us in unity and wisdom, that we would live and love as one in Christ. In His name we pray. Amen.

1 Ecclesiastes 4:9-10
2 Galatians 6:2
3 John 15:13
4 Romans 12:5
5 Proverbs 17:17 NIV