Tag: Paul Nordman

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The Engine Roared

Occasionally, I stop by NAPA to purchase some fuel injector cleaner. (It is far less expensive to prevent buildup than to clean clogged fuel injectors.) And it strikes me that on these shelves are enough parts to build an engine that roars. But there they sit, each tucked away inside of its own cardboard box, and huddled up with other parts exactly like it, all of them doing nothing. I realize the purpose of an auto parts store is not to build a new engine, per se, but to equip mechanics for repair. Still, it’s a little ironic, isn’t it?

A team of 46 men just completed a Kairos Prison Ministry Weekend, and it was a picture of the body of Christ at work—each one assuming his assigned role in and among the others, and all converging to share the love and forgiveness found in Christ Jesus. Leaders led, servants served, and musicians ushered us into praise and worship. Table family leaders facilitated discussions — “listen, listen; love, love” is the Kairos slogan — opening the hearts and mouths of the 42 residents in attendance. Then there were the men and women who supported the Weekend from outside the walls: the bakers who baked over 4,000-dozen cookies and the pray-ers who, in half-hour shifts, covered almost the entire 3½ days in intercession. It was a picture of the body of Christ: “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.”1 For “God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.”2 What happens when everyone functions in his/her capacity? Consider these inmate testimonies . . .

“I was hateful and spiteful. I didn’t nor couldn’t abide Christians. I have torn Bibles apart and spit on Christians. Now I have found an unconditional love I never expected.”

“This is awesome, so beautiful. I’m still locked up physically, but inside I’m free.”

“I came to this weekend very angry and hateful. I had asked God before to change me. I had asked him for a family. Now I’m looking at the whole bunch of people who are my family.”

“God has a plan for every one of us. I didn’t understand this until I got here (prison). I was stuck to addictions, but God sent the police, a judge, and then prison. This weekend is step 1. Tomorrow is step 2. I will strive to be a better person because of God.”

“I’ve changed! I’ve changed! I’ve changed!”

“Around here, we’re known by our number or our last name, but you [volunteers] called us by name. Thank you for giving us our names back.”

There were many amazing testimonies, and surely more unspoken. The body of Christ came together, each as called, and the engine roared.

Father, “Here I am! Send me.”3 Yes, show me my role in Your body today, and send me. In Christ I pray. Amen.

1 1 Corinthians 12:12 ESV
2 1 Corinthians 12:18 ESV
3 Isaiah 6:8 ESV

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He Who Advocates for Me

Imagine my brother Eric’s disappointment upon receiving an “F” on a high school English test. The fact that much of the rest of the class also failed the test assuaged neither his disappointment nor his dread of telling our mother. As it turns out, however, he didn’t have to, thanks to one classmate, Jane Bloggs1. Jane was argumentative by nature, and so she went to work, pleading her case to the teacher. She argued one point so convincingly that Mr. Sanford said to the entire class, “If you said [thus and so] to this question, mark your answer as being correct.” The young lady proceeded to debate her next contention, successfully gaining another concession from the teacher. At this point, Eric’s grade improved to a “D.” His resolute classmate was not finished, though—she continued to assert her case so effectively that, by the end of the class, Eric’s “F” had become a “B+”!

God does not want us to “fail,” i.e., by sinning, but John assures us of this: “if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.”2 On our own, we could not even approach God to plead our case, but being faultless and guiltless, Jesus has right standing before God, and it is He who advocates for us. Moreover, this “one mediator between God and men . . . gave himself as a ransom for all.”3 He has taken our sin upon Himself and given us, in exchange, His righteousness.4 And He pleads on our behalf before His Father, “who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”5

Then who can fail us? Or “Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.”6 He who advocates for us now is the very one who reconciled us to God, once for all. Yes, He intercedes for us now, and He always will: He is “able to save forever those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.7 We are saved from condemnation, and we always will be. For in Christ, there is no “F”; there is no failure.

Jesus died to pay for our sin, He rose to overcome our sin, and He lives to intercede on our behalf. Our God is the initiating God, so let us trust His character and rejoice in His love. And in this truth, serve freely.

Father, thank You for desiring our salvation and sending Jesus to procure it. We live forever in Him because He forever lives to intercede for us. This is love; this is You. And we are Yours. In Christ we pray. Amen.

1 Name has been changed for this post
2 1 John 2:1 NIV
3 1 Timothy 2:5-6 ESV
4 2 Corinthians 5:21
5 1 Thessalonians 2:4 ESV 
6 Romans 8:34 ESV
7 Hebrews 7:25 NASB

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Staring into the Eclipse

A week or so ago, I joined the bandwagon astronomers, the millions who peered through special eye ware to witness the eagerly anticipated total eclipse of the sun. Our house teeters on the southern brink of the 115-mile-wide “path of totality,” so I drove just a few miles North to witness “the difference between night and day.” My favorite — and completely unexpected — part: the silver ring. “Oh, my gosh! Oh, my gosh! Oh, my gosh!” And it dawned on me that this was one of life’s events that binds people together in a singular awe, for in those few moments of celestial splendor, there was no left or right, no us versus them—just an expanse of onlookers witnessing in union something — Someone — far greater than us all. It reminded me of a Biblical foretelling of another united moment when “at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and . . . every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”1

My thoughts continued. . . Given the vastness, power, and beauty of creation, how much greater must its Creator God be, He who spoke it into being and who lives forever in sovereignty over all of it? Seriously! How much greater? “The Lord has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all.”2

Then if “all things were made through [Jesus],”3 and it took His divine life to redeem my guilty one, then how astronomical must my sin be? For “you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.”4

The universe continually expands in all directions, so they say, which is as encouraging as amazing, for though our sin is vast, we live in this blessed reality: “as far as the east is from the west, so far does [God] remove our transgressions from us.”5

And why? Because greater still is God’s love for us, “For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him.”6

God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honor and might forever. Amen.7

1 Philippians 2:10-12 NASB
2 Psalm 103:19 ESV
3 John 1:3 ESV
4 Colossians 2:13-14 ESV
5 Psalm 103:11-12 ESV
6 Psalm 103:11 ESV
7 1 Timothy 6:15-16 NIV