METANARRATIVE

This could stand some revising and fine tuning, no doubt, but here's my present understanding of the Bible's metanarrative:

When God created humans, He created us to be in His presence and to function as His image. Genesis 1 is foundational for all considerations about the relationship between humans and God. The “Image of God” is not a characteristic – like a family resemblance – it is a ROLE. We were created to be His representatives here on earth: to be fruitful and rule as He would.

But humanity wanted to have the final say on determining what is good and evil, breaking our relationship with our loving Creator, the source of Life Itself, leaving us now to suffer the consequences: hardship and death and loss of God’s direct presence in our midst.

Unlike Calvinists, I don’t believe that humans are God-hating worms deserving to burn in hell eternally. I see in Scripture that God and humanity have the same enemies: Sin, Death, and Satan. I see human beings created to be Image-bearers, constantly falling into sin but deep-down knowing we were made for something more. 

So God initiates his redemption plan through a man, Abraham - who becomes a family - who becomes a people. God slowly draws nearer to humanity again, even as they resist or stray. He makes a covenant with His people, signaling that they will never have to worry about HIM being the side to break covenant. He gives them the Law in order that they may know His character and how He desires for them to live their lives – as His Image-bearers. The Law is good and necessary, but it ultimately produces more death. Sin takes advantage of the Law to exert even greater influence over humans. Half the time, God’s people ignored the Law in order to satisfy their rebellious hearts and the other half they (sort of) obeyed the Law, hoping to gain God’s approval. 

All the while, Death is hanging over every human’s head. 

God promises that one day He will send a new King to reestablish proper order. Sin and lawlessness cannot continue indefinitely. The Messiah will inaugurate the Kingdom of Light. All other competitors are collectively the kingdom of darkness. Within God’s Kingdom, the will of God will ultimately be done on earth as it is in Heaven. Willing humans will be restored to their original purpose: acting as God’s representatives on earth, doing good. This is what we were created for and it is the only way for us to be truly happy. 

(Still, we stubbornly and selfishly persist in rejecting the Fountain of Living Water and constantly dig our own wells, broken wells that can hold no water (Jeremiah 2:13).)

At the proper time, the Messiah shows up, preaching the “good news” of God’s Kingdom being established at long last on earth. The Messiah Himself, fully God and fully human, lives a sinless life, perfectly fulfilling the role of Image-bearer, doing the work of His Father. (In fact, He says doing His Father’s will is His food! It’s His joy. It’s what sustains Him. It’s His reason for being on earth. He never mentions doing it out of gratitude and He certainly isn’t attempting to gain the Father’s approval.) 

This King makes an astounding offer: You don’t have to die – you can have eternal life within this new Kingdom.

But there’s a problem. Every potential citizen of the Kingdom whom Jesus meets has one of two hang ups. Either they don’t believe He is the King and so they look down their noses at Him and reject His offer. Or they want to enter, but they have a criminal record as law breakers. 

The Messiah says, “Pick up your cross and follow Me – right into Death itself. Kill the old self with its sinful ways and I will raise you as a new creature with a clean slate AND My Spirit living in you.” 

And then He shows His followers where the cross leads. He lays down His life, allowing sinful human beings to spill His holy blood. And that blood, which is the Life of God Himself, becomes a brand-new covenant. It cleanses away the residue of sin and opens the way into God’s presence, making His followers into clean temples where God’s Spirit can live and guide and teach.

Once inside the Kingdom, do we have to worry about getting kicked out if we sin? No more than I need to worry that my wife will divorce me if I get lazy and refuse to mow the lawn any particular night. Marriage is a legal arrangement, yes, but it’s more than that: it is a relationship. The same is true with a Master and His disciple. With a King and His servant. If a citizen breaks the law of the Kingdom, he will suffer punishment – from a wrist slap to imprisonment – but he doesn’t get deported. 

Now in my framework as I’ve described it here, I don’t know how (or why!) to draw a line between believing in the King (“belief” as "mental assent") and pledging allegiance to the King ("belief" as “obedience”). After all, why would I want inside the Kingdom if I have no intention of living under that good King’s sovereignty? What could it possibly mean to say I “believe” He is a King if I don't simultaneously bow my knee to Him? 

Modern American Christianity seems to think the Kingdom of God (thought of almost exclusively as “The Kingdom of Heaven”, a future reality) is something akin to Disney Land – with endless entertainment and your own mansion. But that’s not at all what I see in Scripture – the Kingdom is much better than that. And less self-centered. 

I see the Kingdom as a present reality where we are to be occupied in doing our King’s will right here and right now, doing what we can to be a part of God’s present work: rescuing as many as possible from the dominion of darkness and setting things right wherever sin and Satan have sown chaos. The Kingdom is also a future place where there is no longer a threat of death or any suffering or pain or sadness. Instead, it is a place of absolute joy produced by being in God’s presence and finally finding the fulfillment of the very purpose of our existence. 

It is a return to Eden - which is exactly how the book of Revelation envisions it. 

And all of this is why it's so utterly insufficient - to the point of being misleading - to say that the "good news" is that you are a sinner in need of forgiveness and Jesus came and died so that one day you can go to heaven.

GRACE UPON GRACE

"Grace" is a central concept in most Christian traditions.

The Calvinists speak of "irresistible grace". By this they mean that God exercises His unmerited good will in the lives of His elect in order to bring them into an experience of salvation.

The Wesleyans speak of "prevenient grace". And by this they mean that God works in the lives of humans to wake them up to their need for God and His forgiveness, in preparation for salvation.

In church circles, the most common definition of the word "grace" is "unmerited favor".

And God's grace, in one way or another, is always closely associated with the salvation of human beings. 

All well and good.

I've noticed something, though, about the way Christians speak of grace: it always seems to be something that God exercises momentarily in the believer's life - when He welcomes him or her into the family in spite of obvious sinfulness. 

Less common is to hear a preacher highlight God's ongoing grace towards us. 

Yet, any deep relationship is maintained through the exercising of daily grace. We regularly exercise grace towards our own spouses, children, and friends. 

(While offering less grace to our enemies, co-workers, or strangers on the street.) 

When the Bible speaks of us being "justified by grace", why do we assume it came once, in the early stages of our relationship with God. 

John speaks of us all receiving "grace upon grace" (John 1:16).

Wouldn't a recognition of God's exercise of ongoing grace be enough to put an end to the whole assurance debate? God isn't any more likely to kick us out of the Kingdom for our sinful indiscretions than my wife is to divorce me for failing to load the dishwasher when she asked me to.

God sits on a "throne of grace" (Heb 4:16) and we are now living "not under law but under grace" (Rom 6:14).

Being on the receiving end of God's grace is an ongoing, daily reality for us, not a one-time initiation experience. 

I'M GIVING UP VIDEO SHORTS THIS LENT

For a Lenten fast, I usually do something food related: giving up meat or soda or chocolate. 

But since I started 2026 with some water fasting and sugar fasting already, giving up something food related just feels like overkill this Lent. 

It just wouldn't be very useful. And a fast should be useful 

So I started for looking for places where my life is out of whack - where I could benefit from some extra discipline.

The answer became obvious: phone usage.

When it comes to wasting time, my Achilles' heel is Tik-Tok style videos that pop up on every social media platform.

I begin my day with them, and I turn to them whenever I need a mental break. 

Some are funny, a very few are insightful, and many are infuriating. But collectively, they are all a colossal waste of time.

But so addictive. 

So that is what I am giving up. 

I have been starting my mornings now with Bible reading and prayer - and already I am feeling better emotionally and spiritually. 

HERE COMES LENT

Valentine's Day is over and the pastel-colored Peeps are hitting the shelves of Walmart and Target.

These are the most obvious signs that Easter is coming.  

It's strange that even among Christians, the church calendar is a far less conspicuous time marker than the jellybeans and chocolate rabbits. 

Today is "Fat Tuesday" and Lent begins tomorrow with Ash Wednesday. The unfortunate reality is that Lent doesn't get even as much press among Christians as Advent does. 

My church is hosting an Ash Wednesday service tomorrow - perhaps the first in its 190 years of history. 

I will be curious to see what the turn out will be - we don't do a lot of midweek services at Sardinia and I have noticed that evangelicals (in general) think of Lent, fasting, and Ash Wednesday as belonging to the Catholics.

And therefore, being automatically suspect!

I wonder how many Protestants even know that the word "catholic" means "universal". We simply aren't mindful of the New Testament's portrayal of a singular, united CHURCH having Jesus as its Head. 

It's uncomfortable to even contemplate such intended unity in an age when the denominational boundaries are drawn so distinctly and we tend to think of believers from other traditions as being "the opposition" or "competitors", if not outright "enemies", rather than as brothers and sisters in Christ. 

The season of Lent is meant to remind us of our mortality and sinfulness, and, thus, the reason Jesus came to die for us.

If it also reminds us that we are all part of a much, much wider historical movement reaching far beyond the four walls of our own little church building, then that is icing on the cake. 

AWE

"Awe-Inspiring": a term most often laced with generous amounts of hyperbole. 

But yesterday morning, my awe was literally inspired. I hesitate to write about the experience here because I know I could spend hours trying to find the right words and still come up short.

But here's my attempt:

After breakfast, Dave, Emmanuel, and I hiked to the waterfall near the village of Wli. 

In the local language, the falls are called "Agumatse", which means "Allow Me to Flow". And the water DOES flow. 

To access the falls, we were required to have a guide. 

We wouldn't have needed James to find the falls; the 45-minute walk through the forest was clearly marked. But he proved to be valuable in unexpected ways. He was 22 years old, knowledgeable about the local plants and animals, full of personality, and ready to walk me out into the cold pool once we arrived at the falls. 

And standing at the foot of that tremendous waterfall was what inspired my awe. 

As I approached the wall, I was not expecting the wind carried along by the water to hit me with such force. When I stepped into the water, I could barely breath.

Looking at my photos now, I realize the ones from a distance simply do not capture the magnitude of the falls. 

Look at this, for example: 

I mean, it looks to be maybe 50 feet to the top ... at most. 

Maybe this next one makes it look a LITTLE taller:

But it's not until you compare the look of the falls at the bottom of that photo with the next one showing James and me wading toward the spray that you start to get some idea of the scale of this waterfall.

So I leave it up to your imagination - what it's like to wade out into this brisk, cold water, hearing the sound of hundreds of bats overhead as they nest on the face of the cliffs beside the falls and becoming more and more aware of the immense and rushing power at play as the mist alone knocks you off balance as you attempt to approach. 

And nobody is there to appreciate the moment and the power but you and a handful of friends.

And when you all leave a few minutes later ...

Nobody will be there but God. 

NEW MORNING

At the time of this writing, it is 6:00 am Ghana time, the morning of Thursday, February 12th. The sky lightens as the sun rises beyond the mountains to our East. (The other side of these mountains is Togo.)

On our way back from seeing loan recipients in the North, we spent the night at Wli to check out the local waterfalls as a possible point of interest for the youth mission team I will be bringing to Africa in July.

Here at the Water Heights Hotel, the yard guys are raking the grounds, and a hundred distant roosters can be heard announcing the new day.

I am in the open-air dining area and happy because the morning breeze is the perfect midpoint between the snows I left behind in Indiana and our recent African days in the upper 90s.

I just wanted to greet you, wish you a great morning, and tell you that I look forward to sharing photos, videos, and stories with you in the coming weeks.

But for now, suffice it to say: I wish you could be here with me!

DAILY BREAD

This coming Sunday I will be back in Indiana, God willing and the flights are on time. 

I have been preaching a series on the Lord's Prayer recently, looking at each phrase in turn. So this week I am working on a sermon on "Give us this day our daily bread" - an interesting verse to ponder in the midst of extreme poverty. 

Each day here in Ghana, I am passing hundreds of people who know the experience of hunger intimately and literally. Many, no doubt, have endured more than an entire 24-hour period without bread to eat.

And many of these would be professing Christians who know and pray the Lord's prayer. 

How is the prayer answered for them?

(I am assuming that when we pray a prayer given to us from Jesus Christ Himself, we can expect a positive answer from our heavenly Father, right?)

It's not an easy question. 

On the one hand, when Jesus commands us to pray for "daily bread", it is a clear reference to the manna which the Israelites picked up 6 days a week throughout the 40 years of their desert wanderings. 

And this would lead one to interpret the prayer in the most literal sense: "God, give us the food we need today". 

But then we also need to remember that Jesus refers to Himself as "the Bread of Life" (John 6:35), leading us towards a more spiritualized interpretation of "Give us this day our Daily Bread": "God, feed us spiritually today".  

So in the Lord's Prayer, are we asking our Father for physical nourishment, spiritual nourishment, or both?