Christ was here, and here, and here…

Day-after-download from some great witness and Bible study last night… here goes!

Luke 24:13-35 tells us about being on the road to Emmaus, “Now that same day two of the em were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; but they were kept from recognizing him.

He asked them, “What are you discussing together as you walk along?”

They stood still, their faces downcast. One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, “Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?”

“What things?” he asked.

“About Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied. “He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people.  The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place.  In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning but didn’t find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive.  Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they did not see Jesus.”

He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?”  And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.

As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus continued on as if he were going farther. But they urged him strongly, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them.

When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”

They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together and saying, “It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon.” Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread.

The point made by Pastor Rob last night is this. Emmaus is about seven miles from Jerusalem, so these two disciples forlorn in their sadness for what they thought was the ebbing tide of the messiah’s earthly impact, encounter a man on the road who walks with them. A good walking pace means plausibly these two disciples spent 2.5 hours with Jesus, though they didn’t know it during the walk. And during this 2.5 hours, immediately following his zealous accord of the prophecies, he details the plan of God from Moses and all the Prophets concerning himself.

From creation to the garden where there will be a heel to strike the serpent, “there I am!” In the animal skins to clothe Adam and Eve, “there I am!” The ram that is offered in Isaac’s stead, “there I am!” The lamb blood in the passover, “there I am!”… 2.5 hours of spoken revelation for the benefit of two disciples for the further benefit of spreading the good news at the prompt of burning hearts. All that has concerned himself concerns first the Father’s love for us.

My take… we might for a moment be envious of these two disciples. Face time with the Lord! Talk about FOMO. But we have his Word, and we have the Holy Spirit. His mercies that are new every day remind us of the certainty of the promise of “there I am!” Christ was here! He was there, and there, and there, and there. It became clear to them He was there Jesus broke the bread. But before that point they’d been filled with the truth of the Father’s plan, punctuated by the intimacy of Christ Jesus.

I imagine at some point on the road to Emmaus, nearing the village itself, Jesus reiterated to these two disciples of the charge of the great commission. They hadn’t made out his identity, but how neat would it have been that among the things he described from Scripture concerning himself he resolved with the command and promise we know from Matthew 28:19-20, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

To this day, that great commission makes our hearts burn, just like it did for these two disciples who rushed the seven miles back to Jerusalem to share their testimony of how Christ was here.

A lamp and a light.

An old hymn has been repeatedly playing in my mind the last few days. You might be familiar with it… “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path....” I have vivid memories hearing this hymn throughout my childhood. The organ blaring, the sun peeking through the stained-glass windows, and the voices of hundreds of students singing the words we know by heart. It’s a comforting memory, one that brings me peace. The chorus comes directly from Psalm 119:105 “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” Fun fact: Psalm 119 is the longest psalm, longest chapter in the Bible, and almost every verse mentions God’s Word.

Most often, we can’t see the big picture of life. We don’t always have answers of where we’ll be in a week, a month, a year, or 10 years. With that in mind, how often do we try to take control of our lives so that we can give an answer of what we think, expect, or desire life to be like in a week, a month, a year, or 10 years? My own desires aren’t the lamp that guide my feet or the light that guides my path. The more we rely on ourselves to be the light, the dimmer it appears.

I like to think that’s why Psalm 119 mentions God’s Word so many times. He desires for us to draw nearer to Him through His Word, where He reveals Himself to us as our gracious, merciful, loving Father. He directs us in our doubts and difficulties. He comforts us in times of fear or distress. He leads us to paths of righteousness for his name’s sake (Ps. 23:3). His Word assures us that the Holy Spirit will guide us, protect us, and lead us as we rely on and trust in Him daily.

Jesus IS our lamp and our light.

Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path
Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path 

When I feel afraid
Think I've lost my way
Still you're there right beside me
And nothing will I fear
As long as you are near
Please be near me to the end 

Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path
Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path

I will not forget
Your love for me and yet
My heart forever is wandering
Jesus be my guide
And hold me to your side
I will love you to the end

Nothing will I fear as long as you are near
Please be near me to the end

Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path
Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path
And a light unto my path
You're the light unto my path

Luck doesn’t save from the sidelines.

In fact, luck doesn’t save at all. Luck isn’t even in the game. It’s an illusion. In Romans 8:29-30, the apostle Paul writes, “For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.”

The direct audience of this letter was being appealed to by Paul to see beyond the established law that had been overcome by Jesus Christ and now the opportunity to live in the Spirit thanks to the work of Jesus Christ.

The old ways of living solely under a law no one (save Christ) was righteous enough to fulfill left room for things like luck, chance, or surprise.

As soon as the reader in Rome of this letter could feel convicted by the pairing of “conformed to the image of his Son” with “he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters”, this reader could be thinking… the Lord has taken luck off the table! God predestined the plan for Christ, so that believers would be called, justified, then glorified. The plan is good, and two thousand years later, we are a part of it.

I see the word “might” as the tripwire tied to our repentance. I don’t personally believe we decide to follow per se, but I do think we decide to repent.

Repentance to God puts us into the only game that matters, the only game with eternal stakes, the only game where our poor stats are acceptable as part of the winning strategy. Then by grace through faith we believe through Scripture in Christ alone for God’s glory alone.

Verse 17, “Now if we are children, then we are heirs — heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.” There is no luck in the promise. The “if” is our repentance, the “then” is the promise.

When the mountains sing, are you listening?

Isaiah Chapter 55 is subtitled The Compassion of the Lord. In it there is representation of the call to follow the Lord (verse 12), as an extension of God’s speaking creation for His purpose and success (verse 11), and the confirmation that even the natural world we dwell within will palpably respond in acclamation (verse 13).

This wonderful call is built upon an invitation (verse 1), correction (verse 2), instruction (verse 3), and evidence (verse 4).

As a new seminary student, I may certainly be going out on a loose limb here, but we as contemporary Christians have the benefit of seeing the Great Commission implied in verse 5, that from God’s chosen people the messiah would come as Jesus Christ to seek and save the lost… the nation “you did not know shall run to you.” Christ’s work on the cross as propitiation for our sins, in my cursory read, may be seen in verse 5 when he imparts his righteousness upon us in exchange for our sin, “because of the Lord your God, and of the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you.”

Don’t hold me to it, I’m only embarking now upon training to interpret accurately, but I know who really holds me to it, the Lord our God.

Our second episode of the Nailed It Theology Podcast became available today, so there is now proof it’s a series and not a one-off! In it we talk about how in our conversations of the podcast, “all ways are His ways.” That takes reference to Isaiah 55:8-9, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

Our goal is to engage in the instruction to take every thought captive to Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5). Make His thoughts your thoughts, make His ways your ways. Do that through repentance, returning to His grace upon grace through faith in Christ Jesus. If a little audio recording from a pair of believers disseminated through modern technology ends up in the same stream of glory & praise that elicits mountains to sing, trees to clap, thorns to outrun by cypress, and myrtle to outdo brier, that’s the way I want to go.

Enter through the narrow gate.

Matthew 8:13-14 has Jesus teaching “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”

Preaching Christ crucified isn’t popular. What it really means is a faith greater than the rich young ruler with the inhibition of a child. We don’t want to give up what we have, and we like to think of ourselves as wise in our own eyes. The call to Christ involves the denial of self, identity outside of you, and transformation through new birth in Him.

If the narrow gate was as simple to enter through by mastery of abiding by the law in our own strength, surely more than a few of the billions of souls who’ve walked the earth would have found it. Of course Jesus is talking about himself as the narrow gate, and following him is the narrow road. John 14:6 tells us Jesus’ clarity, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

This followship is discipleship. Discipleship will put you at odds with all around you, even in the midst of a place where you assume there ought to be the greatest consensus — be it family, friendships, or church. Do not compromise in following Christ, which is to endorse the thought — do not abandon the truth of the Word. Every believer in Christ as sanctified through knowing and sharing his Word (all of it) at some point becomes some measure of a theologian. Don’t be afraid, don’t be shy, but most importantly don’t put yourself in front of the Word. Let it, let him, lead. Even when it leads you into contradiction. Count it a blessing if as a consolation prize you receive clarity over agreement.

In 1884, C. F. W. Walther wrote in Law & Gospel, “If a theologian is asked to yield and make concessions so that peace may at last be established in the Church, yet if he refuses to budge on even a single point of doctrine — to human reason this looks like excessive stubbornness, even like downright evil intent. This is why such theologians are rarely loved or praised during their lifetime. On the contrary, they are scolded as disturbers of the peace or even as destroyers of the kingdom of God. They are regarded as men worthy of contempt. But at the end of the day it becomes clear that the very determined, unfailing tenacity of these theologians as they cling to the pure teaching of the divine Word by no means tears down the Church. On the contrary, it is this very attitude that — even amid the greatest dissension — builds up the Church and ultimately brings about genuine peace. Therefore, woe to the Church if it has no men of this stripe — men would who would stand watch on the ramparts of Zion, the alarm whenever a foe threatens to rush the walls, men who would rally to the banner of Jesus Christ, ready for a holy war!”

Wide is the road that leads to “peace in our time.” History shows us how terribly destructive it is. It accommodates the wants of many to ordain their fleeting truths for the sake of preferences and/or dictates in a temporal illusion.

But we have one peace to pursue, that is in Christ. He said as much to the churches in Revelation, he says as much in the message of the Gospel, He demonstrated as much in the work on the cross… as He is the way, the truth, and the life, so too is He the small gate along the narrow road that leads to life.

Who rules over you?

Another takeaway from men’s Bible Study this week was the concept of carnal Christianity… where we live wantonly in the gray area of faith and failure, when we profess Christ while tethered to hypocrisy of the flesh.

In the sermon on the mount, Jesus states in Matthew 6:24, “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”

And in 1 Timothy 6:10, the apostle Paul writes, “For the love of money is the root of all evil.”

So is money, and our love for it, what we are to avoid making an idol of and we’re all good? No, it’s representative of independence, and a currency toward control. And if we develop a love for that, for money, suddenly you’ve got freedom from Christ, even if you already thought you had freedom in Christ. Money, as a currency, is just a means toward or substitute for power, influence, control, our effect, our desired outcome, our satisfaction. This freedom from Christ is fleeting, and we know it, otherwise why repent?

In Pslam 39, David gets it. In verse 4 he writes, “Show me, Lord, my life’s end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting my life is. You had made my days a mere handbreath; the span of my years is as nothing before you. Everyone is but a breath, even those who seem secure.”

For those who know Christ and consider the Bible inerrant and true, all the above begets a binary existence. 1 or 0, all or nothing, in or out. His way or your way.

Well be encouraged, Jesus showed us all in. He defeated temptation by the devil, devoted himself to God the father, and accepted the fate that exchanged our sin with his righteousness, accomplishing for us what we could never do on our own.

As Job learned, you can’t argue yourself to God, because you weren’t there when He put word to creation to wisdom. You can’t argue your case to God, no critique against the Father holds water, no appeal outside of repentance preserves our fleeting flesh.

You can however criticize your idols and they retreat in defeat!

Don’t take the bait!

Well, if you clicked through to the post, it wouldn’t be fair to say you took the bait. This isn’t click bait; there’s a purpose in this post and that’s to share some hope in Christ.

All credit to Pastor Rob from last night’s mens’ Bible study who offered up a better version of the following personal analogy of understanding where and how the enemy wants to tempt us: mountain lake fishing in the High Sierras.

First, let’s establish that lake and river fishing has some constants and some variables. The constants are the venues: rivers, lakes, or other sorts of fishing holes. Another constant is the target: fish. Setting aside variables we can do nothing about, like weather, a variable we tend to grapple with is “what are they biting on?”

In areas of plentiful fish and venues, but few outfitters to arm the fishermen, the intelligence of what the fish are biting on falls to the proprietors of the local sporting goods store. Or bait and tackle shop. Or maybe even Bass Pro Shop… after all, in certain cases, what are they going to bite on if you haven’t purchased the boat, right?

Well imagine the enemy is the owner of the shop. He sells all manner of bait, lure, and tackle for any variable of condition on what the fish are biting on. Presumably in any season, he knows whether a worm or egg or fly or lure will work on this lake or that stream or this spot. This is how the enemy is crafty with temptation. Different fish go for different bait in different places at different times, but with certainty hungry fish take the bait if you know what to tempt them with. That is how profits are made in spiritual warfare as we all are apt to be a hungry fish in our respective fishing hole.

(How wonderful too that Jesus called fishermen to follow Him and be fishers of men!)

Here’s the rub, again credit to Pastor Rob… these lakes and fishing holes in question, they’re stocked with fish. Fish don’t leave the breeding farm desperate for food, they’re delivered with full bellies. So when the enemy knows a particular lake has been stocked, it doesn’t matter what bait he’s selling, it doesn’t make a difference what temptation he’s wielding, “full fish don’t take the bait.” That’s because Christ Was Here. Taking thoughts captive to Christ means he remains.

In Luke 11:25, Jesus tells the parable of the clean house. Once our house is cleaned out, if we don’t replace the void with Christ, we are liable for further torment by what takes the place of the old mess. The full bellies of stocked fish are full of Christ, whether by His word, the Holy Spirit, or fellowship — or a godly combination of those in Christ. They are not hungry for what the enemy might arm the world with to tempt the fish via hook and lure!

New Mercies Every Morning

This is not the best photo I’ve captured of a rainbow, but it is the most recent. And like a typical rainbow encounter, you don’t embark on a task and put a rainbow sighting in the plan, they just happen, and if you’re so equipped and inclined like me, you take a picture of it.

The rain just passed through in LA over night, again. For So Cal it’s the kind of storm that reminds you there is such a thing as a hard rain, and that there should be such things as more reservoirs so that all these pineapple expresses (when they occur) don’t go to waste. In a place like LA, a rain scrubs the whole area with a fresh new shine for the day or two following, and there are always rainbows.

In the midst of the agony of Lamentations we get chapter 3, verses 22-23: “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning, great is your faithfulness.” For all the storms that blow and drench and pummel and torment, look for the rainbow that follows. The rainbow doesn’t emerge because we design or compel it. It doesn’t appear in a predictable spot where we could otherwise entrap it. It’s a gift and a glimpse.

And no, rainbows don’t point to a pot of gold at their mysterious end. They do point to Christ to say, Christ Was Here. Ever since the flood in Genesis and the covenant God made to never again utilize such a total reboot, we have these signs that reflect the promise of the plan the Father had for Christ to redeem us. As they are the sign of the covenant between God and the earth, let the awe of a rainbow that He puts on display be a reminder that grace comes from the Lord, evidenced amongst other things by a rainbow, and accomplished by his Son.

The Start of Something Renewed

I read the Bible each year. Correction, I complete a successive lap in the Holy Bible each year. I listen to the whole Bible, and then read it in more specific instances. At the end of 2023, in the chronological plan my wife and I were doing together, invariably I encountered Revelation 2 along the way.

Verses 1-7, which comprise the letter from Jesus to the angel of the church in Ephesus struck home… hard. The commendation Jesus gave that church resonated with affirmations that I proudly sought. I wanted to hear those in my life in that moment, and I wanted the church I was a part of to give praise for its part in various forms of steadfastness and faith. I wanted to see His order reflect my expectation of order, but alas that was a bridge too far.

In a season where I individually was digging in my heels to promote discipline in a church context, I became inclined to think that an earnest witness and pursuing a high moral standard would win the day in a season of strife. I became just another believer guilty of forsaking the love I had at first.

Think about that verse, verse 4. “Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first.” What love did I have at first?

Was it the bond with Jesus I wanted to credit myself with developing over my decades as a follower? No, that would become a work or badge of honor. And thus we are saved by faith through grace so that no one can boast (Ephesians 2:9).

No, I realized that the love I had forsaken was the love that I had in my corner all along. Not a love I had for Christ, but the love Christ had for me. My expectations of an outcome among brothers and sisters can’t substitute for whatever the Lord will do with His church in His will for His Kingdom.

Verse 5 continues, “Consider how far you have fallen!” Was I at rock bottom from a personal crisis borne of sin pattern? With gratitude, no! But I was endeavoring to wrestle with God over whose vision for His church (locally) ought to bear out. I had fallen from standing with Christ. I had dared for a time to argue my case like Job, to no avail. What He wanted was followship from me not conformity from others to a goal I promoted. He deals with each of us individually, and He wanted renewal. To get there I had to repent and do the things you did at first (verse 5).

Around this time I started reading Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Cost of Discipleship. One key point he makes is the call to follow Christ means we solve for the equation of “only believers obey and only the obedient believe.” Obeying Christ didn’t mean stubborn advocacy so that I may be justified as being correct. Obeying Christ meant a willingess to follow him, even if it were somehwere new in fellowship, so that his justification of me might be seen as a fruit of believing in Him through obedience.
Clearly there’s a biographical sketch that is obscured on purpose in this post, but that’s the point isn’t it. Trials we go through that become those “we count as joy” (James 1:2-4) aren’t about how we reconcile with others (though praiseworthy as that happens) they are how we reconcile with the Father. He foreknew us to place that love of grace personified in Christ in our corner.

This site is a now a place where that love I had at first, in fact where we all had at first, is a testimony for the sake that Christ had known and loved us all along the way. Don’t you forget it! -Mike