Bible Trivia?

Many years ago, I was in the midst of some earnest prayer. I don’t remember what the cause of my serious prayer time was, but I remember getting a revelation as a result. I am not known for my great memory of past events, so it is significant that I can remember this. I was driving an empty school bus at the time, and my attention was drawn to the gravel on the shoulder. It was impressed upon me that the sovereign God who made all things knew the position of every stone in that gravel. The Word says He knows the number of hairs on our heads, so I shouldn’t have been surprised. What I took away from that moment and I remember to this day is that nothing is without significance. Nothing. Not hair. Not gravel. Nothing.

I’m reading through the books of Moses in my daily devotions just now. I have asked myself repeatedly why God had so many very specific rules and regulations for His people. Many Christians consider Leviticus and Numbers boring if not insignificant. But if nothing is without significance, the minutiae of Levitical law has meaning. At the very least we can see that it was God’s way of demonstrating His holiness – His separateness – and requiring the same thing from His people. The detailed instructions for slaughtering sacrificial animals, the precise architectural design of the tabernacle, their clothing, the ritual cleansings all add up to a ton of trivia. Or does it?

The Scripture declares numerous times that the Word of God is true. Every word is God-breathed to use Paul’s explanation. Jesus said that God’s Word is truth. So, if there is truth in every word, nothing is without significance. The thing is that some of the truth seems incidental. Consider Balaam, a prophet of God (so Scripture says) who lived during Moses’ time and was called on to prophesy against Israel. It’s an interesting story in itself with angelic appearances and talking donkeys, but I find something else interesting. God had a prophet on the border of Canaan. In Moses’ day. Curious.

That was not the only time a spokesman for God shows up. Abraham met a mysterious character after he defeated the alliance that had attacked his nephew, Lot. He was returning home in the land that was to become Israel when the king of the city of Salem (later called Jerusalem) met him. This king, also identified as a priest of the one true God, was called Melchizedek. His name means king of righteousness. His city name, Salem, means peace, so he was also the king of peace. King of righteousness and king of peace. We learn from the writer of Hebrews that Jesus’ priestly ministry was after the order of Melchizedek. Curious.

Then there is Moses’ father-in-law. He was called the priest of Midian. Remember that at this time, there was no temple. The tabernacle with its altar had not been built. Yet God had priests ministering to various people who were not among His chosen. We do know that sacrifices to God were being offered as early as Cain and Abel. Cain’s murderous anger was because his sacrifice was not accepted while Abel’s was. This presupposes some instruction from God as to what would be acceptable. It also opens the door to the need for priests to explain and perhaps perform the sacrifices. They were out there, but we know little or nothing about them. And curiouser.

Here is another piece of trivia that hides a larger purpose of God. In Numbers 25 when the Israelites started mixing with the Midianites and worshipping their god, Phineas, the son of the high priest, speared an Israelite named Zimri and his Midianite wife, Cozbi, to stop the plague God had inflicted killing 24,000 of His people. You might wonder why those two were named specifically. We learn a couple verses after the incident that Cozbi was the daughter of the Midianite king. More than likely, Zimri was making an alliance through marriage – a common practice – and tripling his violation of God’s command: don’t marry their women, make no alliances, and do not worship their gods.

There are other examples of trivia that is not at all trivial. My point is that in God’s Word, nothing is without significance. Like most believers, I struggle to read through Old Testament passages that are not exciting stories like crossing the Red Sea or David sling-shotting Goliath. But Paul’s statement to Timothy proves true if we read with purpose and the Holy Spirit’s guidance: “All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness.” (Italics mine.) So, get into the Scripture; make a plan to read every day with Holy Spirit illumination. You never know where a piece of “trivia” will open a new insight into God’s Word.

What’s Your Ministry?

The speaker at my church this week encouraged us to read the Bible and do what it says. That is not a revolutionary message by any means. We were also told that if we consider ourselves to be Christians, it is not enough to simply go to church. Nothing new there either. What strikes me is that this man who has been doing revival ministry for twenty years believes this is a message the church needs to hear. I assume the man seeks God’s wisdom on what to preach, so this is God’s message to our church: read the Bible and do what it says.

If you have been reading my blog for a while, you know that I have repeatedly lamented the fact that statistics show that most Christians are not reading their Bibles regularly. It comes as no surprise then that neither are Christians living much differently than their non-believing neighbors. Not reading and not doing; that’s the state of the church in America today. It’s no wonder that the country is going to hell in a hand cart as the saying goes.

What are Christians supposed to be doing based on their reading of the Bible? Simply put, they are to be doing ministry. Paul often refers to himself as a slave or bond servant of Christ. To be a servant or slave means there is a master to be served. Our Master has given us pretty clear instructions about what it means to serve Him. Our ministry to Him is to minister to others: love thy neighbor. What it means to love a neighbor was famously detailed in Jesus’ parable of the good Samaritan. In essence what He said was to do for your neighbor what he or she needs done, especially if they can’t do it for themselves.

I think most Christians think of ministry as a vocation that only a few people get into. The term “minister” usually refers to a pastor or preacher who works for a church. That view is too narrow for the term as it is used in the Bible. Paul explained to the Ephesians that those who are called to a vocational ministry are there to equip believers for “the work of the ministry.” In other words, it is the people in the pews who are the ministers, not the one behind the pulpit.

If I look at my life, I think of the years I spent teaching in Christian schools as ministry. I burned out and took what I thought of as a sabbatical, leaving “ministry” behind. The years I spent driving a truck for a living had me feeling like Moses tending sheep on the back side of the desert for forty years before he was called to his “ministry” of delivering God’s people from Egyptian slavery. I haven’t had a burning bush type call back to what some call “full-time ministry.” That phrase emphasizes the misunderstanding of what ministry means. Like all my fellow Christians, I am called to full-time ministry. I am to live my life in service to my Lord every minute of every day. Full time.

What is my ministry now? This blog is one part of my ministry. Thousands of people from around the world have read these scratchings of mine. I won’t know until I step into eternity how many people have been encouraged or enlightened by my writing. But that is not my only ministry. I regularly help people in the RV park where we live with projects and repairs. I have done something for every widow or single woman living here. I sometimes receive a modest wage for my efforts, but often the labor and materials are a gift in the name of Jesus. I also minister when I go to my part-time job at Home Depot and do my work “as working for the Lord.” When possible, I sneak in a word or two that comes from my faith perspective, although I am prohibited from outright evangelism by company policy. I think they are afraid I might “offend” someone if I presented the gospel openly, so I just live the gospel quietly in the aisles – full time.

I have not been describing my “ministry” as a boast—far from it. I am simply using my life as an example of how one does what the Bible says: serve Christ with your whole life. You don’t have to get a paycheck from a church to be a minister; you just have to live the Word. You may be the only Jesus some will ever see; you will likely be the only Bible some will ever read. Live intentionally for God as one of my former pastors used to say. Make it your business to be a witness to the goodness of God; that is the essence of what Paul meant when he said, “Do all things for the glory of God.” That’s your ministry.

Related posts: Make Time for Timeless Truth; Merely Christian; Christianity: Religion or Philosophy

 

Examining Christian Charity

Phillip Yancey recently wrote about a church near the Mexican border that is making an effort to serve the hundreds of people who cross into the United States without permission. The article is written in such a way as to elicit sympathy and compassion for the plight of the immigrants. It also applauds the work of the church. I get that. As Yancey encourages these emotions, he makes a statement that is either naïve or ignorant. He says, “We did not find, out there on our side of the wall, terrorists or drug dealers carting in loads of fentanyl with the intent to kill off America’s young. We didn’t find communists or thieves or rapists. We met ordinary human beings from distant lands who had sacrificed everything for an impossible journey, driven by an instinct for survival and the promise of a better life in the Promised Land—America.”

First, America is not “the Promised Land.” It is disingenuous to imply that God’s promise of land for Abraham is being fulfilled in America. Yancey is a capable theologian, so I know he doesn’t believe that. America is a place where two hundred years of Judeo-Christian principles of morality and industry have forged a better place than almost anywhere else in the world. For most of those years, immigrants came to America legally through the front door. We are a nation built by immigrants who were seeking a better life. They made one. The scene has changed, however. Today’s immigrants want the benefits American success has made available without doing the hard work to earn them; worse, they refuse to enter the country right way.

The second thing Yancey says that is misleading is that he didn’t see any “terrorists… drug dealers… communists or thieves or rapists.” Unless he has supernatural powers, he can’t know what was in the minds and hearts of those he saw. I know he was using a literary device to make a point: even terrorists are people. What his comment implies is that we should close our eyes to the flood of those who do wish us harm for the sake of Christian charity. That attitude is precisely what has put us in the horrible situation we are in at the border. The current administration in Washington has not only put on blinders; they have put out the welcome mat.

Forget Christian charity for a moment; common sense says we cannot continue to welcome millions of people into our country when they are going to immediately fall into our generous welfare safety net. Our multi-trillion-dollar debt should be enough evidence that our system is broken. Allowing a few million more people to drain the system can have only one result. I wrote “Man the Lifeboats” several years ago. What I said then is even more poignant now. If we keep rescuing people from the seas of trouble in their homelands, we will sink our own boat. (For an honest look at the current situation on the border, see “An Immigration Crisis Beyond Imagining” in Hillsdale College Imprimis.)

You don’t have to live on the southern border to face this same conundrum. There are people who already live in America who wish to take advantage of American generousity. They seem to prey on Christian charity (the foundation of our welfare system) at every level. COVID revealed a large segment of our population who would gladly stay home from work if the government would support them. There are still those who would rather ask for money from their neighbors than to get a job to earn what they need. I crash head-on to this dilemma when I see a panhandler on the corner or the neighbor kid begging for money. When does Christian charity become enablement?

Paul counselled the Thessalonians that if some people would not work, they should not eat. As far back as Solomon, the Bible encourages work as a necessary part of living. Yes, the Scripture also recommends helping widows and orphans, but the implication there is that they cannot feed themselves. It does not seem that Christian charity will always mean giving physical support. Maybe it can mean denying support so that the intended recipient will be motivated to help himself. It is not loving to keep a person dependent upon others when they are capable of fending for themselves. Nor does it seem incumbent upon Christians to foster behavior that will ultimately collapse our economy. Then we will all be hungry. Who will feed us then?

Related Posts: Pilgrim’s Progression; Conspiracy Theory, Part II

Light Shining in Darkness

Throughout most of human history, people believed that forces larger than themselves held sway over their affairs. That was until the era that has been called the Enlightenment. Before that, so many things were unexplainable that people naturally assumed a higher being or many higher beings controlled the universe. With the advent of modern science in the Middle Ages, people began to assume that all the mysteries of the universe would eventually be explained by science. In other words, supernatural explanations were relegated to the genre of myth. There is no need for gods when humans can provide all the answers.

We have almost come full circle in our understanding. What we see now through our electron microscopes and space telescopes has convinced honest scientists that a higher power must have had a hand in designing the universe. At the micro and at the macro level, the complexity of the things we observe reveals a design that can only have been created by a grand designer. This is not to say that scientists believe in the Creator God of the Bible, but those who remain open minded in their investigations realize that what they observe cannot have come into being by chance.

From beginning – let there be light – to the end – the lamb is the light – the Bible represents God as the bringer of light into the world. Nowhere is this clearer than in the opening passage of John’s Gospel. Speaking of Jesus, the eternal Word and Creator God, John says, “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.” Not only did some people fail to comprehend what the light was, John says that they were condemned because they, “loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.”

Paul expands on this thought in his letter to the Ephesians. “This therefore I say and testify in the Lord, that you no longer walk as the Gentiles walk: in the futility of their mind, being darkened in understanding, alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart.” Their hardness of heart and their love of darkness caused them to be separated from true life which is found only in the light that comes from God. They are stuck in the futility, the emptiness of human reason.

For several generations after Enlightenment thinking began to take hold, there was a debate over which was supreme: faith or reason. Theologians who were swept up in the apparent power of science to answer life’s questions lost confidence in the supremacy of faith and put reason on equal footing. That kind of thinking led to the liberal theology that blossomed in the twentieth century. That mindset is evident today in organizations that call themselves Christian but discount the accuracy and authority of the Scriptures. In other words, they have extinguished the Light and turned to darkness.

Paul tells the Ephesians, “you were formerly darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live like children of light (for the fruit of the light is in all goodness and righteousness and truth).” To live in the light, we must know what is light. Saving faith demands obedience, and obedience requires knowledge. In his devotional, Strength for Today, John MacArthur cautions, “Anyone who puts his faith in Jesus Christ but who does not keep God’s Word constantly at the forefront of his mind will find himself entrapped in sin again and again.” The darkness will overtake anyone who does not keep the light on.

I have recently returned to part-time work in a big box home improvement store. I am reminded daily of the darkness many people live in. I think if the letter “f” were removed from some people’s vocabulary, they wouldn’t be able to put together a sentence. The frivolity and debauchery that characterizes the pastimes of many people is remarkable. Selfishness is rampant. The other day I commented to my tablemate in the break room that it had taken me two and a half hours to take my break because I was continually stopped by customers. I was given a tutorial from another table on how to avoid interacting with customers on my way to a break: walk fast, pretend to be on the phone, look only at the floor, take the back aisle and wear a scowl. These were the techniques my fellow associate claimed to use so that he could take his break on time. I was encouraged to see my tablemate give him one of those scowls he mentioned, and I asked him (humorously, I hope) to stop corrupting me.

If it was only unbelievers who walked in darkness, one might write it off as the evidence of sin in the world. Sadly, many who have placed their faith in Christ also stumble around in the dark because they don’t put into practice the principles of living in the light found in Scripture. Likely, they don’t read the Bible regularly (or not at all.) Jesus said we are to be the light of the world – not surprising since we are to be conforming ourselves into His image, He who is the Light. It is really dark out there these days; we must follow our Lord’s command and be the light. If you are a believer and don’t know what that means, crack open your Bible and start reading.

 Related Posts: Bringing the Kingdom; Read This or Die

Dreams of a White Christmas

The other day, we went to the lake for a picnic dressed in shorts and short sleeve shirts. On December 20. Five days before Christmas. The day before the winter solstice. It was 74 degrees. I’m still not used to the December winter in Arizona. Having spent most of my seven decades in Michigan, December means snow. Christmas is supposed to be white. Even though every horizontal surface and much of the vertical surface in our home is covered with Santas and elves and reindeer and angels and nativities, it just doesn’t feel like Christmas.

As I thought about this incongruity, it occurred to me that I had fallen prey to the ghost of Christmas present: the consumer driven marketing program of this age. It seems harmless on the surface, but even my favorite seasonal movie, White Christmas is about romance and revenue with a dash of philanthropy tossed in for good measure. Having watched it every Friday after Thanksgiving for fifty-some years, I can safely say that the words Jesus, Bethlehem, Savior, or God are not in the script. I’m ashamed to say that all our favorites score a zero on religious theme presentation: Miracle on 34^th Street, Scrooge, The Santa Clause, Yes Virginia; There is a Santa Clause. The only movie we watch every season that hints at a Scriptural meaning in Christmas is Scrooge, and although It’s a Wonderful Life implies that there is another dimension, I wouldn’t recommend getting your theology from Frank Capra.

Unless you tune in a Christian radio station, the same thing holds true in music of the season. Popular Christmas music has nothing to do with Christmas. “Deck the Halls,” “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Clause,” “Jingle Bells,” “Silver Bells,” “The Christmas Song” aka “Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire,” etcetera ad nauseum. It isn’t hard to imagine that in 336 A.D. when the Roman Catholic Church replaced a pagan holiday with the Christmas celebration, the drift from its true meaning began. Emperor Constantine may have thought he was doing Christianity a favor when he substituted it for emperor worship as the state religion, but it hasn’t worked out that way. For all but the devout few, Christmas is for all intents and purposes a pagan holiday today.

Many years ago, I attempted to counter the secularization of Christmas decorations by making a window display patterned after a drawing from the Bethel Bible Series. It showed a cradle sitting below a cross that was overshadowed by a crown. That is the true message of Christmas: cradle, cross, and crown. Believers have a perfect opportunity at this time of year to explain why Jesus came to earth. The cradle stories are warm and fuzzy, but the cross route to the crown gets messy. As I have written previously, most of our nonbelieving neighbors have no concept of sin, so they cannot fathom that a sacrificial, substitutional death is necessary. It’s actually worse than that; most don’t even believe that a Creator God exists, or if He does, they feel no responsibility toward Him.

The true meaning of Christmas is what makes Christianity unique among world religions. Only Christianity has a Creator God who makes the necessary sacrifice to bring people into a right relationship with Him. In every other religion, it is the people who must sacrifice to appease their god. The worst of these involve human sacrifice, but all require giving something of value to assuage the god’s wrath. Our God poured out His wrath on His one-and-only beloved Son on our behalf. That is unimaginable!

The prophet Isaiah was one of the earliest to detail how God’s righteous requirements would be met. The prophet foretold how God’s righteous Servant would suffer and die for His people. His message begins with this imagery: “Even though your sins are like scarlet, they will be white like snow.” There it is. I am dreaming of a white Christmas – one in which the scarlet stain of sin is made snow white, one in which the Babe from the manger changes the swaddling cloths for the white robes of the King of the universe. I know that will not fully happen until the whole world is made new, but I can dream.

Related Posts: Why Witness?; Understanding Salvation; Redeem the Time; What happens to people who never hear about Jesus?; That’s Not God

Why Did God Do That?

I have probably said dozens of times that when something bad happens we should not ask why; we should ask what, not looking for God’s reasons but for our response. I have written many times on this subject, and some of the articles are linked below. I am finishing the book of Acts in my daily reading, and Paul’s life and ministry is foremost in my mind. As far as we know from the biblical record, Paul had the greatest influence on church history of all the Apostles. It was through his efforts that the gospel was spread throughout the Roman Empire, and his writings comprise the lion’s share of the New Testament.

With such a prominent position, you might expect Paul to have been especially blessed: doing God’s work; getting God’s blessings. The biblical record says otherwise. For starters, he was on the wrong side of the new work God began with the introduction of Messiah. Paul was what we would call a staunch conservative when it came to Jewish law. Being a Pharisee, he was in Jesus’ crosshairs much of the time. Perhaps Paul was not among the hypocritical group Jesus criticized, but he was certainly mistaken about the true nature of Jesus’ message of the kingdom of God. Paul’s zealous persecution of the disciples of Jesus make him the seem like the least likely choice for the work God had planned.

But there it is. On his way to arrest the Christians in Damascus, Paul had a one-on-one encounter with the risen Messiah. Blinded and led by the hand into the city, he had three days to reconsider his position. When Ananias told him the plans God had for him, he was sufficiently humbled to take him at his word. After he began meeting with the church in Damascus, you might think his troubles were over. Not so. The Jews he had turned away from came to the city to do what he had been sent to do: arrest him as a blasphemer. He had to sneak out of the city by night.

At this point, Paul’s circumstances become a little unclear. We know from what he told various people in his letters that he travelled home to Tarsus and later to Jerusalem. During these “missing years,” he spent considerable time in the Arabian desert being taught by Jesus Himself. He also reports spending time in “heaven,” but he is unsure whether he was in or out of his body at the time. He was told things during that unique experience that he was not allowed to share with anyone. Imagine that!

When his missionary journeys began, Paul was already a well-respected member of the early church leadership. His supernatural call and his unique time with Jesus would seem to have placed him in a position of privilege. Again, not so. Throughout his journeys, Paul was imprisoned several times, beaten with rods, stoned to death (they thought), and shipwrecked while on his way to trial before Caesar himself. We are told he spent two years in prison in Caesarea, and we believe he spent as much as two years under house arrest in Rome awaiting trial. Yet he was not discouraged. He told the Philippians, “Now I want you to know, brethren, that my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel, so that my imprisonment in the cause of Christ has become well known throughout the whole praetorian guard and to everyone else, and that most of the brethren, trusting in the Lord because of my imprisonment, have far more courage to speak the word of God without fear.”

This was not the first time God used less than pleasant circumstances to further His plans. Consider that Joseph spent years in prison in Egypt before he was used by God to save His people. Moses spent 40 years in the desert tending his father-in-law’s sheep before God called him. Jeremiah was detained on more than one occasion for speaking God’s word to the Jewish leaders. One might also question why God left his people without a witness for four hundred years between the last prophet and the revelation of John the Baptist, the forerunner of the Messiah.

The most egregious slight of all would seem to be that God’s own Son was rejected and murdered by the people He came to save. Every Christian is familiar with Peter’s explanation of why that happened: “this man [Jesus], delivered up by the determined plan and foreknowledge of God, you executed by nailing to a cross through the hand of lawless men. God raised Him up, having brought to an end the pains of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.” It was God’s “determined plan” to bring salvation to all who believe through the death and resurrection of His Son. Hallelujah!

Many years ago, I suffered ministry burnout and left my career as a Christian school teacher. I intended to take a short sabbatical but instead I spent twelve years driving a truck. Looking back, I can see that God used that time to reshape my thinking and my behavior. Satellite radio in the truck provided hours of Christian teaching and music, and I did some serious soul searching as well. I asked myself if God had put me “on the shelf” like He did with Paul’s prison time and Moses forty years in the desert. My wife will testify that I am a different person – a better person for having spent that time away from paid ministry. I think I am a better witness for Christ than I was before.

Paul encourages believers to examine themselves to be sure they are living appropriately. God can use every season of our lives for His purpose. We need to be sure we are getting the most out of our circumstances and doing the best we can to fulfill God’s will for our lives. If you are not completely happy with your circumstances, maybe you need to ask not why, but what is God doing that is for your benefit and for His perfect will in your life. One of Paul’s most surprising statements comes after having lived through his many trials and tribulations: “I have learned to be content in whatever state I am.” He could undoubtedly see why God had done all that He had done. We need to imitate Paul.

Related posts: The Goodness of God in the Bad Times; Can You Praise God?; Finding God in COVID 19; Today’s Chaldean Chastisement; Working All Things for Good; Two Pressing Questions; Ask the Right Question; Content in Whatever State I Am

Comfort Ye My People

I have just spent the last few days in bed with a cold and fever that made me miserable. Coughing, sneezing, shivering, and aching all over got me down. Here on day seven, I still have a lingering cough, and my stamina isn’t what it should be, but at least I don’t hurt everywhere. If it sounds like I am whining, I am. If you ask my wife, she will confirm that I have been whining for the whole week.

A couple of days ago, I read about the Apostle Paul’s trials and afflictions during his missionary journeys. You probably know the ones I am talking about – the ones he called “light and momentary.” My immediate response to myself was, “MAN UP, wuss!” The fever may have left me feeling like I had been stoned and left for dead, but Paul actually was stoned to death (they thought), among other physical and verbal insults to his person. If he could call his light and momentary, mine were insignificant by comparison.

Paul puts a positive spin on his troubles by telling the Corinthians that “Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in all affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.” Five times he uses “comfort” to explain what God has done so that we can imitate His comfort towards others. It’s my turn. My wife caught the bug I brought home (Isn’t that always the way?). Now I get to take Paul’s advice. (Pardon me. I have to get my wife another dose of Emergen-C.)

I can also think of a couple family issues I have had to suffer that helped me to comfort friends when they had problems with kin. It is good to have someone to come alongside and bolster your strength so that you can find a place of forgiveness that allows healing to begin. Had I not suffered indignity and found that God’s grace could bring me back to loving forgiveness, I think my advice to my friend would ring hollow. “Been there; done that” is the only qualification you need to offer genuine comfort.

This got me thinking about the level of comfort we take for granted in America today. Got a headache? Take a Tylenol. Got a stomachache? Take a Pepto. Got a muscle ache? Take some ibuprofen. Got a heart ache (the emotional kind – not the cardiac kind)? Take an antidepressant. We don’t want to put up with the tiniest discomfort; we want instant relief. We want comfort. That thought led me to the well-known passage in Isaiah, “Comfort ye, my people.” I realized that God's offer through Isaiah was not a Tylenol or a Band-Aid type of comfort. It was more along the lines of “My Servant is going to die, but He will rise from the dead on schedule.” Therefore, take comfort.

In other words, God did not want Isaiah to promise a bed of roses. Actually, He promised a bed of thorns, but His balm in Gilead would salve their wounds at the proper time. This was the conclusion Paul came to when faced with a “thorn in the flesh… from Satan.” He could glory in his discomfort because he knew where his ultimate comfort was coming from. That attitude also put credit where credit is due. He said, “Therefore I delight in weaknesses… for whenever I am weak, then I am strong.”

I am happy to have returned to the state of ridiculous comfort I am blessed with – what most of us in this country are blessed with. But I am reminded that discomfort is not necessarily a bad thing. I have written before that God is more concerned with our character than our comfort. If he allows discomfort, it is likely because He is molding our character into the perfect likeness of Christ. That’s what I want, whether it’s comfortable or not. Can you feel me?

Related Posts: Crown of Thorns;  Friendship With the World; The Country Club Church