ASKING HARD QUESTIONS

As pastor of Sardinia Baptist Church, I got a cold call today from a town two hours away - a missionary-to-be looking for financial support to get him and his family to the mission field.

I admired his gumption, but as we talked, I had more and more questions.

Let's call him Joe.

Joe needs to raise roughly $11,000 per month to put his family on the field. That's pretty steep!

And the mission field? 

Hawaii! 

Joe might have an easier time if God was calling him to the French Riviera! At least that would be overseas. 

Joe wants to plant churches there among the local Japanese community.

I asked, "Have you ever planted a church?" 

No.

Are you working to plant a church among the immigrant community where you live right now?

No, but I am very active in my home church.

Are there already churches among the Japanese living on Oahu? 

Yes.

Shouldn't they be the ones planting new churches? Why is an outsider better suited than a local Christian? Could the local believers be trained in church planting by you going on a short-term trip?

There were no good answers for these questions.

I was talking to Melissa over coffee after she got home from school. She had another question I hadn't even thought of:

Why doesn't Joe just take a job in Hawaii and plant a church on the side?

I am all for missions, of course, but my time in Haiti gave me a healthy skepticism when it comes to missionaries and their sending organizations - their competency, motivations, and methods. 

Sometimes missionaries end up on fields where they have no business. And lots of money is flushed down the drain. And damage done to God's Kingdom. 

All because nobody asked the hard questions. 

RIGHT WAY AROUND

We should always be suspicious whenever the church regularly uses language found nowhere in Scripture.

You can look up all the uses of the word "heaven" in the New Testament and not find it to ever be used as part of a phrase like "going to heaven". 

Not once.

You will find one verse which speaks of "ascending to heaven", though. 

It's John 3:13 - "No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man."

And maybe you don't want to go there anyway - at least not yet:

2 Peter 3:10-13 - "But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells."

The bad news is ... you aren't going to heaven when you die.

The good news is that heaven is coming to you. (Once everything gets wrapped up.)

Making sure you get this the right way around has more profound ramifications for your theology than you might first suspect.

"Many Christian traditions have seen the ultimate goal of life as being for us humans, somehow, to go and be with God, in heaven. But the great story the Bible tells, from Genesis to Revelation, is about God's purpose and promise to come and live with us." N.T. Wright, God's Homecoming, p.10

NOBODY ASKED ME

A pastor friend and I are engaged in a texting discussion over the nature of salvation. 

In our last exchange he asked:

If someone came to you and asked, "What must I do to be saved from hell, receive eternal life, and be declared righteous before God?" what would you tell them?

I have tried to give this some serious consideration.

But the more I thought about it, the more ridiculous the entire premise became.

I have never been asked this question in the past four decades in which I have taken my faith seriously, and I doubt I will ever hear it the rest of my life.

In fact, I doubt this question has EVER been legitimately asked - unprompted - in the past 2,000 years.

Just look at it:

"What must I do to be saved from hell, receive eternal life, and be declared righteous before God?"

Only people who are ALREADY Christians talk this way. 

No unbeliever asks this question.

Which prompts a question from me - and surely, I am not the first to ask it: 

Why are we promoting a gospel that answers a question nobody is asking? 

SALVATION BEGINS NOW

If a person’s motivation for “believing in” Jesus is avoiding the punishment of hell or gaining the reward of heaven, it’s no wonder that, either way, he or she might need reassurance repeatedly after the big "decision". How many times will they need to be told, "Don't worry, your place in paradise is secure"? 

A certain level of uncertainty is entirely understandable for those who conceive of salvation as belonging entirely to the future. After all, you have the rest of your life to sit and wonder and worry. 

But, biblically speaking, salvation starts now. And that's good news because condemnation had started long, long ago - the moment Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

We have all been born outside the Garden of Eden, outside of the direct presence of God. We are sad creatures: made for a particular purpose - to be the image of our Creator - but unable to achieve that purpose because we're bent inward. 

In this state, we are easily manipulated and deceived by the spiritual powers of this world, held in slavery to sin, and subject to death. 

The good news is that our Creator sent his only Son in human flesh to redeem humanity and the entire creation. To rescue us. To put us back on course. 

Ever since Jesus first started preaching the coming (re)establishment of God's Kingdom on earth, people have been challenged to leave behind their sad, but familiar, routine in the dominion of darkness in order to follow the new King into the light. 

And even though each new wannabe citizen of the Kingdom comes with a criminal record, the King has made it possible to wipe every slate clean. If you want in, there's no baggage holding you back. Inside the Kingdom is Life, the way it was meant to be.

One day, when the King descends to earth with all of Heaven, it will be absolutely perfect - no sadness, no sin, no more death. Until then, the citizens carry on the process of redeeming all of earth, in the King's name and through the power of his Spirit. It is exciting, challenging, and dangerous work. The world pushes back.

In Luke 19, Jesus tells Zaccheus, “Today (Now!) salvation has come to this house ... for the Son of Man came to seek and to save the (Previously!) lost.”

This proclamation was prompted when Zaccheus called Jesus "Lord" and then declared his intention to give half his wealth to the poor and to make restitution to anyone he had wronged. 

Nobody in that house - nor Zaccheus nor Jesus Himself - had any reason to doubt Zaccheus's salvation. 

He had already begun living it. 

THE STARTING PLACE

At this point in my life, if someone were to ask me "How can I be saved?", the first thing I would ask is “What do you mean by ‘saved’? Saved from what?”

If the hypothetical person answered, “Saved from hell” or “I want to know how to get to heaven”, then I would know there's a lot of weeding to do before there’s any planting. 

By and large, non-believers have picked up a lot of the same misconceptions held by Christians regarding what faith is all about.

But if that person expressed a desire to be saved from “self” or “sin” or “fear” or “meaninglessness” or "death", or if he or she expressed an interest in knowing their Creator or how to fulfil their purpose for being?

Those are much more important questions.

And a very different starting place.

REFRAMING THE STANDARD AMERICAN GOSPEL

I grew up hearing the standard American Evangelical gospel message, the one focused on individual salvation: we are justified through faith by Jesus’s death, burial and resurrection so that upon death, we can be admitted into heaven. And all that is only by God’s grace, to be sure. 

That was “the gospel”.

Along the way I was taught “The Romans Road”, I was shown diagrams of the cross bridging a gap between earth and heaven that I could never jump across, and I heard youth pastors and preachers “evangelize” by asking, “If you died tonight, do you know where you would go?”

I was told that before people could understand the “good news”, they would need to be made aware of the “bad news”: you are a sinner and you fall short of God’s perfect standard and there’s no way for you to earn your way into heaven. And all sinners go to hell when they die.

But, again, we would circle back around then to the good news: Jesus died for you. And if you believe, his perfect righteousness covers you so that when God looks at you, he doesn’t see your sin – he sees his Son's righteousness.

On the one hand, it made sense to me. And there were certainly Scripture verses to back up this approach to the good news. 

And it certainly had repetition on its side.

But I had questions. And they grew over time, especially as I read more of the Bible for myself. 

The turning point question for me was this one: If the gospel is roughly “Jesus died for you so that you can go to heaven”, then why does Matthew describe the beginning of Jesus’ ministry by saying he “went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM and healing every disease and every affliction among the people”? (The first appearance of the word “gospel” in the New Testament, Matt 4:23.) 

What is “the gospel of the Kingdom”? If that’s just a code word for heaven, then why does Jesus consistently speak about the Kingdom as if it entails godly behavior in the here and now? Why the constant emphasis on the Kingdom of God and its righteousness? Why do so many of his parables begin with “The Kingdom of God is like…”? 

Furthermore, Jesus spends three years preaching and hardly mentions his own upcoming death. And when he does, it is heavily coded. If his own death, burial and resurrection is THE main message his followers are supposed to receive and believe, why didn’t he preach THAT clearly and repeatedly? 

Even in John 3, where everyone goes to find Jesus’ clearest teaching about the gospel, there is one veiled reference to Jesus's death - to him being “lifted up” like Moses lifted the serpent in the desert. 

But most of the focus in John 3 is on Jesus being the “Christ” and the “Son of Man” and the working of the Spirit and how Jesus is the only one who has “descended from heaven”. And as far as “belief” goes, Jesus speaks of believing “in the NAME of the ONLY SON OF GOD”. 

And Jesus says that if we are going to see the Kingdom, we have to undergo a radical change - a new birth. 

He explains that the world is already condemned to perish, but he brings with him the possibility of “eternal life” for anyone who believes “in him”. Furthermore, Jesus describes himself as “the light” coming into a world where most people prefer hiding in the darkness. BUT “whoever DOES what is true, comes into the light so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.” (John 3:21)

And so the typical modern gospel finds a few loose proof texts there in John 3, but only at the expense of leaving out a whole lot of other material. 

Once it really sank into me that THE big question surrounding Jesus was whether or not he was the promised Messiah, the Christ, I realized that I had never really attempted to read the New Testament through 1st century eyes.

What did the crowds understand the controversy surrounding Jesus to be? What were the stakes?

Every time Jesus comments on any individual’s pistis/faith during his earthly ministry, it always has to do with whether or not the person believes Jesus is who he says he is: the Christ – God’s anointed King. 

And now it makes much more sense to me that the gospel is less about getting into heaven than it is about God’s anointed King having arrived to re-establish God’s reign on earth and to populate that Kingdom with people whom he has rescued from the dominion of darkness and brought into the Kingdom of Light. 

This Kingdom is bringing about the renewal of God’s creation, setting everything right that has gone wrong, defeating sin, death, and Satan. 

This Kingdom starts now and finds its fulfillment when the Christ returns, bringing a fully renewed heaven down to a fully renewed earth. Likewise, eternal life starts now (the abundant life of John 10:10) and finds its fulfillment inside the gates of that New Jerusalem after our own bodily resurrection. 

“Salvation” isn’t about stepping into heaven when we die. It is about being enabled – through the cleansing of Christ’s blood, and the power of the Holy Spirit – to become what we were created to be in the first place: the image of God. 

Again, this starts in the present, where God calls us his children and offers lots of ongoing grace as we seek first his Kingdom and his righteousness – and eventually, One Day, we will “be like Jesus because we will see him as he is”. 

In the end, I simply cannot conceive of what it would mean to truly “believe” that Jesus is the King of kings without bowing my knee to him. 

And not out of some forced sense of obligation, but because bending my knee to my Creator is the very thing I was created to do and to be. 

And it is the only thing that will ultimately make my joy complete, here and now AND in the future. 

WRONG QUESTION

Take a look at this paragraph from Free Grace advocate, Bob Wilkin, as he critiques other Christians who (according to him) don't have the same level of "assurance of salvation" as he has:

Most people witness like this: “I don’t know where I’m going when I die. If you have 5 minutes I can help you not know where you are going when you die.” With a message like that, is it any wonder that most people find it hard to witness? That isn’t good news, is it?*

Does any aspect of Wilkin's words strike you as off? (Besides the snarkiness.)

Did you notice that his quibble with the way most Christians approach "witnessing" is that they lack assurance themselves and so they pass along the same lack of confidence to their "converts"? 

BUT ...

It simply never occurs to him to question the validity or appropriateness of the central question: "Do you know where you are going when you die?"

In fact, he reinforces it.

If you know your Bible, you should be shocked that, within the modern church, "You can go to heaven when you die" is considered an adequate summary of the "good news". 

But it most certainly is considered to be just that.

This cannot be overstated: The idea that the gospel entails the rescue of individuals from earth to enjoy a future disembodied bliss in heaven far away misses out on so much of the meat of the Christian faith - and its true goal - that it doesn't just fall short as a summary of the true gospel, it absolutely distorts it.

Obscures it.

Hinders it. 

Stops it in its tracks.

Something big needs to change.

* What Is Free Grace Theology? - Grace Evangelical Society

TRUE FORGIVENESS

Psalm 103

12 as far as the east is from the west,
so far does he remove our transgressions from us.
13 As a father shows compassion to his children,
so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.
14 For he knows our frame;
he remembers that we are dust.

This is one of the most comforting texts in all of Scripture.

First, the promise that the forgiveness God offers us is utterly complete. There's no lingering resentment on His part.

Second, His forgiveness has a real effect on us. Our sins are not just papered over, but actually removed.

Third, there is the reminder of the Fatherly love of God. Imagine the God of the Universe showing you compassion - in light of your wrongdoing - as a Father interacting with a beloved child!

Fourth, His approach to us in our sins is tempered by His understanding of our frailty, the limitations imposed on us by our own lack of understanding, our selfishness, and our flesh bound existence. 

This doesn't mean we are let off the hook, but that in dealing with us, He remembers and takes into account what we're made of.

The entire psalm makes a great source for a Lenten meditation.  

GEORGE AND JESUS

I'm still working my way through the belief system of "Free Grace" theology. 

It conceives of faith as purely mental assent to propositional truths about Jesus: He is the Christ, the Son of God, whose death and resurrection made justification of sinful humans possible. 

Just belief. No repentance or actions needed. 

Don't believe me?

According to the Grace Evangelical Society - which is "the horse's mouth" when it comes to Free Grace theology:

"Faith in Christ is intellectual assent. Stripped of its pejorative connotation, “intellectual assent” is a good definition of what faith is.

"For example, do you believe that George Washington was the first President of the United States? If you do, then you know what faith is from a Biblical perspective.

"There is no commitment, no decision of the will, no turning from sins, and no works that are part of faith in Christ. If you are convinced or persuaded that what He promised is true, then you believe in Him. Faith is passive. It is simply taking Jesus at His word."

That's the Free Grace position on faith.

And if you "believe" in Jesus in this most basic way, your spot in heaven is secure.

Just ... wow.

I'm not sure how you square "intellectual assent" with the Bible's depiction of faith coming in different sizes:

• Faith can be LITTLE - Matt 8:26 “You of little faith,” Jesus replied, “why are you so afraid?” Then He got up and rebuked the winds and the sea, and it was perfectly calm.
• In fact, you can be WEAK in faith - Rom 14:1 As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions.
• But it can be INCREASED - Luke 17:5 The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”
• You can make PROGRESS in faith - Phil 1:25 Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith
• Because faith can GROW - 2 Thess 1:3 We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly
• And in time become GREAT - Matt 15:28 Then Jesus answered her, “O woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed instantly. 
• A person can even be FULL of faith - Acts 6:5 And what they said pleased the whole gathering, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit

Meanwhile, my belief that George Washington was our first president has remained rather static throughout my lifetime.

PROCLAIMING THE GOSPEL

A week ago, Matt McCormick, a friend from our family's years in Haiti, started writing on Substack.

I found myself resonating deeply with his second post: What Jesus Talked about Most.

Matt continues to work innovatively for development in Haiti through an organization called Xcelerant.  

In the article, he expresses frustration over the question most often asked by American Christians when they are considering whether or not to financially support his work: 

"Is Xcelerant a Gospel-centered organization, or just a humanitarian one?"

They ask because American Christians are more likely to give money to a ministry which is actively "spreading the gospel" than one "merely" helping the people Jesus came to set free!

Our definition of "gospel" is so skewed. 

Remember, Jesus came "proclaiming the gospel of the Kingdom"! (Matt 4:23) The Kingdom of God is where everything that is wrong with this world gets set right - in Jesus' name. And that is THE good news.

When we do God's will - feeding the hungry, healing the sick, setting free the captive - we ARE proclaiming the gospel. 

Matt took an interesting approach in his article. 

He has an engineering mind, so he looked at every one of the 2,024 New Testament verses recording the sayings of Jesus and looked for trends. In the end, Matt found that each verse fit into one of four broad categories:

• 56% — How to live in the Kingdom

• 15% — What the Kingdom is

• 15% — Who the King is

• 14% — Receiving or resisting the King

THIS is what Jesus spent his days talking about.

I pray that the American church will wake up and embrace the fullness of the gospel. Until then, we will be missing the vast majority of our opportunities to proclaim it. 

FAITH IS VISIBLE

A quick thought on faith:

If faith is mere intellectual assent to a propositional truth (like "Jesus died for my sins"), then how does one SEE faith?

Both Jesus and Paul saw faith:

Mark 2:5 And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”

Acts 14:9 He listened to Paul speaking. And Paul, looking intently at him and seeing that he had faith to be made well, 10 said in a loud voice, “Stand upright on your feet.” And he sprang up and began walking.

BELIEVE IN ... (FILL IN THE BLANK)

It's interesting to step back and take an overview of the word "faith/believe" in the New Testament.

If I am reading my sources correctly, the Greek word "pistis", the noun form translated most often as "faith" occurs 243 times in the New Testament. 

Coincidently, the verb form, "pisteuo", translated typically as "believe" also occurs 243 times. 

Both exist quite often without any object. But when they do have objects, there is quite a range.

Here's a sampling of the noun form, pistis/faith: 

The Bible speaks of faith...

• in God (Mark 11:22)
• toward God (Heb 6:1)
• in our Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 20:21)
• in him who justifies the ungodly (Romans 4:5)
• in the Son of God (Gal 2:20)
• in Christ Jesus (Col 1:4)
• in the truth (2 Thess 2:13)

The verb form, pisteuo/believe, has even more variety in its objects:

The Bible speaks of people believing...

• John the Baptist (Matt 21:32)
• in the gospel (Mark 1:15)
• that what Jesus says will come to pass (Mark 11:23)
• that you have received what you asked for in prayer (Mark 11:24)
• the reports about the risen Christ (Mark 16:14)
• Jesus's words (Luke 1:20)
• all that the prophets have spoken (Luke 24:25)
• in His name (John 1:12)
• the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken (John 2:22)
• in the Son (John 3:36)
• that "I am He" (John 8:24)
• in the Son of Man (John 9:35)
• the works Jesus performed (John 10:38)
• that "you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world (John 11:27)
• that God sent Jesus (John 11:42)
• in the Light (John 12:36)
• that Jesus came from God (John 16:27)
• that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God (John 20:31)
• Philip as he preached the good news about the Kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ (Acts 8:12)
• in the Lord (Acts 9:42)
• in God (Acts 16:34)
• in Him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord (Rom 4:24)
• that God raised Jesus from the dead (Rom 10:9)
• that Jesus died and rose again (1 Thess 4:14)
• that Jesus is the Christ (1 John 5:1)
• in the name of the Son of God (1 John 5:13)

But most often, the Bible simply speaks of "believing in Jesus". 

It's funny that when you hear people try to define exactly what a person must "believe" in order to be saved, the answer is usually something like "You must believe that Jesus died for your sins and that He is the only way for you to be forgiven and to get to heaven".

But belief is never formulated exactly that way even once in any of these verses. 

Wouldn't you think that if faith were simply a mental assent to some propositional truth, the magic formula would be repeated throughout the New Testament, so that nobody would miss it?

When you look at the lists above, it seems to me that the emphasis is not at all on propositional truths, per se.

The emphasis is not on the object. The emphasis is on the verb itself.

Believing is a heart attitude. 

Believe = Trust. 

FILTHY RAGS?

Just about every time you listen to Christian YouTubers build a biblical case - either for their own particular theological paradigm or against someone else's - you can bet that proof texting will play a major role.

Broad doctrines are often built (or rejected) on the flimsiest of premises: one or two verses ripped out of context and read as woodenly as possible.

There are certain proof texts that just drive me mad these days - ones that are cited time and again but are NEVER examined in context.

For instance, I am sure that you have heard preachers point out that "our righteous acts are like filthy rags in God's sight". 

Isaiah 64:6 says so!

And then the preacher expands upon the verse, saying "God is so holy and you and I are so incredibly sinful that even when we try to do something good, God is simply disgusted by it."

I've heard this applied to non-believers and believers alike. 

Apparently, God is impossible to please. Try to do good and you only succeed in ticking Him off. 

But take an extra 30 seconds to look back even a single verse for context and then ask "Who is the 'our' in this verse?" and here's what you read:

5You come to the help of those who gladly do right,
who remember your ways.
But when we continued to sin against them,
you were angry.
How then can we be saved?
6All of us have become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags;
we all shrivel up like a leaf,
and like the wind our sins sweep us away.

So, who is the "we/our" in this context? 

God's people, but currently in rebellion against Him!

Picture a cheating husband, caught in the act, who tries to smooth things over by buying his wife a bouquet of roses. The wife has every reason to throw those flowers back in his face.

This does not indicate that the wife, in happier times, did not find a gift of roses to be absolutely delightful and romantic. 

"All of us have BECOME like one who is unclean" indicates clearly (to anyone who knows how to read) that this is not describing a perpetual state of God's displeasure with all humans, in all places, across all of history. 

Imagine the harm the misreading of this verse has caused over the years! Christian teachers should be ashamed.

SOME REQUESTS FOR MY FUNERAL

I overthink absolutely everything. 

And so I am sure my family will not be surprised after my death to find some very specific thoughts on how my funeral should be conducted. 

(Yes, I have thought through the fact that I will not be around to enforce my own desires and so I am already thinking about which of my children I should take aside and make swear an oath to uphold my wishes.)

So here is a list of my funeral requests in no particular order. And I reserve the right to add to these right up until the moment I expire: 

Find me the cheapest casket possible.

And I don't want people spending a bunch of money on flowers. What a waste. (And a hassle to deal with after the funeral.) I will certainly designate some specific charity people can give to in my memory - probably Mission Resource or Cap Haitien Christian School. They need the money more than the florist does.

Make sure there is a really great potluck at church afterward. (And say, "Steve would have really loved these deviled eggs!")

Have some guts and get up and say something nice about me. And, for that matter, feel free to criticize me if you want - what do I care? Get it off your chest.

No canned music, please. A piano will suffice. A guitarist would be better and a praise band better still. 

A time of dancing - like they do in Ghana - would be super cool, but I know this particular request will not likely fly. (I guess you can be allowed to nix at least one of these requests.) 

Let's do a few songs - a mix between some old hymns and more modern praise music. (You can be certain I will leave a list of suggestions for both.)

DO NOT sing "I'll Fly Away". It's got terrible theology of death and heaven. 

And that brings me to my most important request: I need someone to use the occasion of my death to preach a proper biblical theology of death, resurrection, and the eternal life to come. 

Make sure people know:

• I will not be carousing with those who have died before me. 
• I will not be saying "Hi" to any of your previously deceased loved ones for you. 
• I will not be watching over my own loved ones from heaven. That can be a creepy thought, anyway, so I am glad it's not reality.
• I will simply not be in heaven yet. (Nobody is.)
• I will not be appearing as a cardinal in anybody's front yard.
• I will not be an angel. I will not have wings.
• I will not be playing a harp. Or fishing. Or drinking beer. Or anything else.
• I will be resting and awaiting my resurrection body. The most prominent biblical metaphor is SLEEP. 

All this is hard to convey at anyone else's funeral, although I try to do so to one degree or another whenever I am called on to officiate. It just feels like you have to step very carefully. 

For some reason, people really cherish their little extra-biblical fantasies and superstitions about death. 

So if I can't fully preach Biblical concepts regarding death at other people's funerals, the least I can hope for is to find someone to do it at mine.

Any takers?

WHAT WAS BELIEF, BEFORE THE CROSS?

I keep thinking about those who want to reduce the gospel to "Just believe that Jesus died for your sins and you will be guaranteed a place in heaven when you die".

It seems to me that they have a major timeline issue. And it includes every single person who "believed" in Jesus before his death, burial and resurrection.

What exactly did those people "believe" before Good Friday rolled around?

Jesus simply wasn't walking around telling people that all that really mattered was that they believe he would die for their sins.

In fact, he spoke so little about the necessity of his own death that his disciples were caught completely off guard when it happened. 

So then, for one example, what message did the Samaritan woman take back to her village that caused many of the people to "believe in him"? (John 4:39)

John tells us her message: it wasn't "this guy is going to die for our sins" but, rather, "he told me all that I ever did". 

THIS was enough to motivate the villagers to go to Jesus and ask him to stick around for a couple of days. (Because it made her wonder if Jesus was the promised Messiah.)

And by the end of two days in the company of Jesus, they said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.” (v.42)

Now, if you grew up in the church, you have been conditioned to read "Savior of the world" as "the guy who can get you into heaven no matter what you've done". 

But that obviously wasn't what the Samaritans meant by that phrase.

To them, "Savior of the world" probably meant something more like "the single most important man to ever walk the face of the earth - the One sent by God to set all of creation right again". 

And if that is who you "believed" was standing in front of you, what would you DO?

I HEAR YOU, NEIL DIAMOND

The temperature was mild this morning for February and so I decided to take a walk. I was listening to some music on my phone as I left the house when I Am I Said by Neil Diamond started to play.

As the song ended, I found myself hitting the replay button - three times. I was trying to figure out a new connection to lyrics which had been familiar to me since my childhood:

L.A's fine, sun shines most of the time
And the feeling is laid back
Palm trees grow and rents are low
But you know I keep thinkin' about
Making my way back

Well I'm New York City born and raised
But nowadays, I'm lost between two shores
L.A.'s fine, but it ain't home
New York's home but it ain't mine no more

I finally realized that in my head I was hearing "L.A." as "Ghana" - with sunshine and palm trees - and New York City as Indiana, where I was "born and raised".

I love visiting Ghana, but the downside is that it reminds me of Haiti, where at least half of my heart remains to this day.

And Ghana is fine, "but it ain't home" and Indiana's home but, in some weird sense, "it ain't mine no more". 

Some days I am very conscious of the fact that I am still a missionary at heart.

And I would struggle to fully define what I mean by "missionary", but at the very least it seems to involve living life "lost between two shores", even after returning "home" nearly six years ago now. 

As I walked in the Indiana sunshine this morning, I asked myself, "Who did this to me?"

And you can guess how I answered...

"I Am", said I.  😉

And, honestly, I wouldn't want it any other way. 

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?

FOUR WAYS OF KNOWING

Are you familiar with the "four ways of knowing" as set forth by John Vervaeke? I haven't done a lot of reading on this, but the concept seems incredibly important to me. Not just for faith matters, but for all sorts of thinking across all of life.

According to Bing's AI summary, the "four ways" are as follows: 

Propositional Knowing: This is the knowing we have in describing things or proclaiming facts, such as "the earth is round" or "I am human." It is the most emphasized form of knowing in modern culture and is often used to facilitate other forms of knowing. 

Procedural Knowing: This is knowing how to do something, such as learning a skill or procedure. It involves developing skills and procedures that yield abilities and skills. 

Perspectival Knowing: This is knowing via embodied perception, which involves understanding the world and one's place in it from a specific point of view. It is about awareness and insight into situations. 

Participatory Knowing: This is knowing how to act in the "agent-arena" environment, which involves knowing how to act in a way that is both effective and in harmony with the environment. 

Here's where I see this concept of the 4 types interacts with faith matters: 

It seems to me that the modern Church tends to elevate propositional knowing above all other types. In fact, little talk or effort is put into the other three. 

Learning proper doctrines - and then signing your name to them - is everything. And the Bible is seen as some sort of textbook on God. Preachers weave elaborate propositional truths out of single verses. 

And, yes, if you want to see this elevation of propositional knowing in full bloom, the best place to go is a YouTube apologist for Calvinism.

But I also see this with the "Free Grace" people. Remember, the core belief for them is that if a person simply "believes" in Jesus, he will be forever saved and heaven bound, no matter what path the rest of his life takes. And that belief is purely propositional - no action (participation) needed. 

In fact, some would argue that the only way to negate the effectiveness of simple faith is to complicate it with good deeds of any sort.

So here's what I don't get with these people. If they immerse themselves in the Bible (instead of cherry-picking verses for propositional truths), they should see a God who intends to experience life alongside His creatures from the beginning - and then longs for reconciliation once they go astray.

And His Scriptures are one long narrative about the differences between loving God and loving the world, between choosing righteousness and falling into disobedience, between the results of doing good and doing evil. 

In other words, it's one long lesson in humanity's participatory knowing of the God who created them.

And yet, the lynch pin of salvation for humanity is ultimately revealed to be pure, unadulterated propositional knowing, NO PARTICIPATORY KNOWLEDGE NEEDED.

Or even ALLOWED. 

Jesus did it all, they say.

True.

But Jesus did it all ... so you don't have to?

CELEBRATION OF LIFE IN GHANA

Sometimes in the States we refer to a funeral as a "celebration of life".

If the memorial service I attended yesterday is at all representative, here in Ghana the phrase "celebration of life" is more than a euphemism. 

By all accounts, Dr. Lydia Nyador was an impressive woman and a servant of Christ. 

I met her on my first trip to Ghana 3 years ago. She and her husband Enoch graciously hosted me for a few nights.

Yesterday's memorial started at 3:00 in the afternoon. All the guests came dressed in black. Enoch wore a traditional robe, also in black. 

For me the highlight of the 3 and a half hour service came after the first 9 or 10 eulogies, about 90 minutes in. That's when the praise band broke into the most raucous praise music you've ever heard and all the mourners jumped to their feet.

Soon Enoch pulled out a white handkerchief and started waving it in circles over his head. Then he slowly shuffled forward, into the open space between the first row of seats and the front of the church. 

Next thing you know, others move forward and soon Enoch was the head of a dancing, praising, handkerchief-twirling conga line.

But here's the moment that broke me: When Enoch's own grown children and their spouses moved toward the dance floor themselves, one of the grandsons, David, a boy of maybe 9 or 10, stood at the edge, wiping tears from his eyes, refusing to join the dance.

Then his newly widowed grandfather came alongside the boy, pulled him close to his side and brought him into the dance.

In reality - DEEP Reality - we have much to celebrate, even in the face of death.

13 Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. 14 For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. 15 According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.  (1 Thess 4)

GOD IS A MASTER NETWORKER

Dave, Emmanuel and I spent much of yesterday at the Mission Center, a building whose construction Mission Resource began in 2019 before being halted in 2020 by a court case - a dispute over who really owned the land before we bought it in 2010!

As a result, the Mission Center stands half completed - walls and roof are in place, but no doors, windows, wiring, plumbing or furniture yet. It is more than enough to provide a glimpse of this location's potential to be a meeting ground for Americans and Ghanaians and a hub for our loan work in the surrounding community. 

The location is phenomenal. If it were in the States, our 12 acres of beachside property would be worth many millions of dollars.

(Mission Resource didn't pay anywhere near that!)

Over the last two days, Dave, Emmanuel, and I met with Moses and David, a couple of local pastors serving in the community surrounding our Center, a bustling, but struggling, fishing village known as Old Ningo. 

Our impression was that these pastors are hardworking and Godfearing men whose congregations could benefit greatly from the sort of small loans that Mission Resource specializes in. Undoubtedly, the benefits will be mutual - God's Kingdom is always Win/Win! 

We were pleased to discover that we had many mutual connections with these local pastors - among them, friends Dave has long known and trusted.

Looks like the Lord is building a network for expanding the Kingdom in Old Ningo. 

It is exciting to imagine the possibilities. 

Would you pray with me that the court case would soon be resolved conclusively in our favor so that the physical work can move forward?

It needs to catch up to the spiritual work the Lord is already doing behind the scenes!

TRUE JOY AND TRUE SAFETY

I woke this morning to a hot and humid Ghanaian sunrise after nearly 9 hours of catch-up sleep.

The jet lag was brutal yesterday after boarding the plane in New York Wednesday at 4:30 pm and landing in Africa at 2:00 am Indiana time. I napped a bit on that plane on and off, but no real sleep - so I was very thankful to have a comfortable bed last night.

Dave, Emmanuel and I are staying in New Ningo at a beachside hotel called Coconut Pointe. I can't complain! Yesterday when we checked in, though, I had the odd displeasure of meeting a very large, very drunk German man whose room was next to mine. 

This man could not keep his balance without leaning against a wall. He said he was high up in the German police and knew how to kill me instantly if he needed to. This conversation took place while he had a firm grip on my hand, attempting to prove how strong he was.

By the time I managed to get away from him, though, I think he had taken a liking to me. He invited me to join him later in his room to watch porn together.

(To be clear, I declined.)

 Instead, I got a good night's sleep and, upon waking, I took a walk along the beach to admire God's creation. 

Gorgeous, even in the heat and humidity.

I decided to pull up a Psalm on my phone and came across these lines in #4:

There are many who say, “Who will show us some good?

Lift up the light of your face upon us, O Lord!”

You have put more joy in my heart

than they have when their grain and wine abound.

In peace I will both lie down and sleep;

for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.

This morning, I am saying "Amen!" Experiencing true joy in the Lord is far greater than alcohol could ever hope to produce. And I have the assurance of ultimate safety in God's hands - even if there's a homicidal drunk German next door.

I am looking forward to seeing what today holds!

TRIP ON WEDNESDAY

No time to write tonight. I leave tomorrow morning to spend 10 days in Ghana and there are still too many items on my list to complete.

Unfortunately, it is turning out that the timing for this trip is not great. One of my church members is lying in hospice tonight - possibly his last night of earthly life. 

I hate to miss the funeral, but the family understands. Thankfully, two of Sardinia's former pastors still live in Columbus and both are more than willing to step in while I am away.

I would appreciate prayers for safe and productive travels. My flight leaves Indy at 12:30 pm and I have a short layover in New York before a ten-hour flight to Accra, putting me in Ghana on Thursday at about 2:00 am Indiana time. That's not too long of a trip.

I am looking forward to this trip in particular because it will be the first time I will be in Ghana alongside my boss, Dave Ketchum. For four years now I have been eager to see Africa through his eyes and now it is finally happening.

I wonder what God has in store!

RIGHT NOW

Here's a short and powerful illustration of the difference between proclaiming a "truncated gospel" (of "You're a sinner but Jesus died for you so that you can go to heaven when you die if you just trust in Him") and proclaiming the more robust biblical gospel of the Kingdom. 

It's a paraphrase of something YouTuber Kevin Thompson said in one of his videos:

I used to evangelize by asking people, "Do you know where you are going when you die?" Now I want to ask people, "Do you know where you are going IN THIS LIFE right now?" 

I AM BLESSED

Today was a good day. Sunday, February 1st, 2026. 

The drive to church was absolutely magical this morning. An early morning frost had frozen on all the trees and across the stubble in the fields, poking out from under the 14 inches of snow that fell last weekend. 

My good friend from seminary days, Tim Price, and his wife Suzanne and their daughter Macy had come to provide music for the morning, but now all of that was in jeopardy due to a malfunctioning church furnace - on a morning when the outside temps were in the negatives. 

A couple of our trustees tried to get the furnace up and running, but by the time they worked their miracle, there wasn't enough time to warm up the sanctuary by 10:30. Tim and I decided we'd go ahead and do a live stream on Facebook.

And then church members showed up anyway. Everyone kept their coats on. Some brought blankets. It was a fun morning. 

Tim and Macy did a beautiful job leading worship and people were genuinely appreciative of their gifts. 

This evening I drove back out to church, and the landscape was again magical, now bathed in the peculiar slant of light of a winter sunset. 

The church was still cold, but the youth met together for dinner and a lesson on the Lord's Prayer. They are a lovable group of goofballs. 

At the end of our meeting, our youth leader, Pam, asked the kids to surround me and pray for my trip to Ghana this week. 

It was a beautiful moment. 

A beautiful day.