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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

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Out of Many, One

Tomorrow night, forty-five men will begin to prepare for a Kairos Prison Ministry Weekend at Marion Correctional Institution (MCI). We will meet for several hours on eight consecutive Thursday nights to learn from each other, understand our individually assigned roles, tend to logistics, pray and worship together, and to draw near to each other in the Spirit. Along the way, there will grow a shared singularity of purpose among us and a mutual trust, and on the last weekend of October, we will enter the prison—forty-five individuals, united. It is but one manifestation of God’s grace in Christ Jesus, and a microcosm of His church on Earth: “Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people . . .”1 In Christ, believers are the “E Pluribus Unum” of His Kingdom—out of many, we are one.

To the church in Rome, Paul taught, “As in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.”2 So it is that, on the Kairos Weekend, table servants will minister attentively, filling empty coffee cups and replenishing cookie trays, while others toil in the kitchen unnoticed. Some will give talks and share relatable testimonies, after which others will engage in participant discussions. Our timekeeper will quietly keep things moving as close to schedule as the environment allows, while our coordinator liaises with the administration as needed. And the musicians will lead us to the throne of God in worship and praise.

Over the years, I have intently listened to many MCI residents as they witnessed to the personal impact of their Kairos Weekend. Conspicuously absent from their individual testimonies is this: the tendency to credit any single Kairos volunteer for their powerful weekend experience. A given speaker may have said something especially resonating, perhaps, and maybe a one-on-one conversation was particularly helpful. But what the participants see is the body of Christ, led by Christ, deeply bonded and acting as one—grown up “to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.”3 Out of many, we are one. So prayerfully seek to unite with others in ministry, for together in Christ we will do and see great things. It’s awesome!

“Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.”—1 Corinthians 12:27

Father, You do wonderous things through us, Your people, the body of Christ. Inspire us to live and serve as one, each of us doing as we are called and gifted to do. The glory will be Yours. In Christ, we pray. Amen.

1 Peter 2:10
2 Romans 12:4-5
3 Ephesians 4:15-16 NIV