Tag Archives: Restoration

Chapter-a-Day

Second Marriage

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“We assume the responsibility for carrying out the commands…”
Nehemiah 10:32a (NIV)

Among some of the historical family ephemera in my personal archives is a marriage certificate for my great-grandparents. The certificate is for their second wedding. They were married, then got divorced, and then got remarried. Ironically, I think I have the second marriage certificate for our daughter, as well. It’s funny how history repeats itself.

Some relationships are like that. They work, and then they don’t, and then the parties work through their differences and return to covenant. They recommit.

In today’s chapter, Nehemiah and the returned Hebrew exiles in Jerusalem return to their covenant with God. It’s a covenant that God refers to as a marriage on numerous occasions. In essence, the document that they sign and seal is a new marriage certificate. In yesterday’s chapter they confessed that they had broken faith and walked away from the marriage. Now, they are getting remarried.

In this marriage certificate, Nehemiah lists a number of things to which they are committing to make the relationship work. They agree to live according to the principles God laid out in the Law of Moses, to keep the sabbath, to be generous, and to be faithful to the system of worship God prescribed.

Nehemiah 10 invites me to ask not just “What do I believe?” but “What am I willing to commit to — publicly, practically, persistently?” The ink on Nehemiah’s covenant scroll reminds me that faith needs form the way that saying “I do” at the wedding needs daily relational acts that put flesh on the commitment. Promises whispered in private take root when I bind them to community, to habit, to rhythm.

I’m reminded in the quiet this morning that my relationship with God is a marriage, and each new day is like my own “signing day.” It’s a daily covenant renewal of the soul:

  • To rest when the world demands endless work.
  • To give generously when culture teaches us to hoarding.
  • To honor sacred time and sacred space.
  • To live and love distinctively, not for separation’s sake, but so that light may be visible in the dark.

Nehemiah and the Hebrews’ story is really a love story between God and a people saying again: “We’re still yours.” And that’s a sentiment I whisper in my actions each day to both God and Wendy.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Promotional graphic for Tom Vander Well's Wayfarer blog and podcast, featuring icons of various podcast platforms with a photo of Tom Vander Well.
These chapter-a-day blog posts are also available via podcast on all major podcast platforms including Apple, Google, and Spotify! Simply go to your podcast platform and search for “Wayfarer Tom Vander Well.” If it’s not on your platform, please let me know!
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Chapter-a-Day

The Tension

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“ In all that has happened to us, you have remained righteous; you have acted faithfully, while we acted wickedly.”
Nehemiah 9:33 (NIV)

Throughout my career I’ve had the opportunity to audit the Quality Assessment, or QA (e.g. “your call may be recorded for quality and training purposes”) programs of different companies. In these programs, there is typically a list of criteria that companies listen for in the phone calls so as to maintain a quality standard and hold team members accountable to that standard.

In auditing these programs over the decades I discovered that there is a spectrum for how criteria gets applied, or not applied. It can largely be based on the temperament of the individual who created the standard, or the individuals who apply the standard every day.

On one end of the spectrum is the QA Punisher wielding his red pen like a guillotine. The Punisher is quick to find every infraction real or perceived. Coaching sessions become employee beat-downs in which team members infractions are viewed under a microscope of criticism.

On the other end of the spectrum is the Rainbow Rater who doesn’t even have a red pen because pink is so much more affirming. When a team member fails to meet a certain service quality criteria, she is quick to give them credit for intending to do it, as she is sure that they were. Coaching sessions have not a hint of discussion about improvement or things that could have been done better. That’s too discouraging. Nothing but encouragement and affirmation in the Rainbow Raters world.

In my spiritual life, I find that religion mirrors my career in QA. Fundamentalists are the QA Punishers of religion. They police behavior like a perpetual witch hunt, condemn sin mercilessly, and shame individuals into corporate obedience. On the other end of the spectrum are the liberal universalists for whom sin is an unpleasant notion altogether. Everyone is okay doing whatever they want and credit is always given for good intentions.

Truth is always found at the point of tension between the two extremes. Whether in QA or in Life, the covenant relationship between God and humanity is constantly finding the tension. Today’s chapter is a great example.

In yesterday’s chapter, the Hebrews heard the Law of Moses read by Ezra the priest. For the first time, many in that Jewish community heard the Great Story in its entirety to that point in history. It had affected the community deeply, and in today’s chapter the entire community offers up a prayer to God. In fact, it’s one of the longest prayers recorded in all scripture.

There’s a number of fascinating things about this prayer.

First, it was led and recited by eight Levites. That’s seven-plus-one and there’s metaphorical significance in that. Seven is the number of creation, it’s a number of completion. With the walls rebuilt, the gates hung, and the covenant remembered this is a “new creation” moment for the Hebrew people.

The prayer is a recap of their entire history. They’ve just heard the Story read. Now they recite the entire Story back to God as a response. They praise Him for His lovingkindness and faithfulness. They confess their sins and the sins of their ancestors. They hit the covenant “reset” button and renew their covenant commitment.

Jewish rabbis view this prayer as a classic example of what they call teshuvah – a return to covenant faithfulness. The prayer finds the tension and balance between chesed, God’s loving kindness with confession of avon, or iniquity.

Paul told the believers in Rome that it’s God’s kindness that leads to repentance. Nehemiah and the Hebrew community are Exhibit A in this regard. They find in their reading and remembrance of the Great Story God’s promise, provision, blessing, and faithfulness. This doesn’t lead them to a free-for-all understanding that they can do whatever they want and are excused from whatever they’ve done. Rather, they recognize in God’s kindness that they have not been faithful or obedient. Time and again they have made commitment only to break that commitment. Their recognition of God’s kindness and faithfulness through the generations leads them to repentance for their own lack of faithfulness.

So, they come back to the tension. They hit the reset button. They repent and renew themselves to their covenant commitment.

Just like I have done so many times before.

This earthly journey is a marathon. I have wandered in my spiritual journey towards both sides of the spectrum. I am guilty of being a religious Punisher at times. Other times I have been quick to excuse my destructive thoughts and behaviors as if they aren’t detrimental to me, my loved ones, or anyone else. The further I get in the journey, I find myself simply trying to hold the point of tension for myself and with others.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

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These chapter-a-day blog posts are also available via podcast on all major podcast platforms including Apple, Google, and Spotify! Simply go to your podcast platform and search for “Wayfarer Tom Vander Well.” If it’s not on your platform, please let me know!
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Chapter-a-Day

Refuge and Restoration

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Then Nehemiah the governor, Ezra the priest and teacher of the Law, and the Levites who were instructing the people said to them all, “This day is holy to the Lord your God. Do not mourn or weep.” For all the people had been weeping as they listened to the words of the Law.
Nehemiah 8:9 (NIV)

I don’t like to be confined into a row of chairs during worship. I like to stretch out and move. Wendy is the same way. During worship among our local gathering of Jesus’ followers, we will stand in the back. Sometimes, this means that individuals entering or walking by will stop to talk. So it was one morning when I turned to find a man weeping.

“I’m drunk,” he said, though he didn’t need to say it. He reeked of it.

I smiled and nodded.

“But you’re here,” I answered. “I’m glad you are.”

He didn’t need rejection. He was drowning in rejection. He needed a refuge. How much faith did it take to walk into a worship service drunk?

My new friend had it rough. The road of life had led him to some dark and difficult places. He’d make a lot of foolish choices. He’d been raised in faith, but he walked away and chose to forget. Then, he found himself needing refuge from his fears, his failings, and his addictions. He stumbled into a worship service.

I think today’s chapter needs to be viewed in a much larger context. The Hebrew people had spent over a century living in exile. Even after 70 years, when the first exiles returned, they had largely forgotten the faith of their fathers. Reading was uncommon, and copies of the Books of Moses were rare. They were just walking life’s journey without faith or guidance. By the time Nehemiah arrived and rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem, it had been more like 140 years since the exile began.

Now the walls are built. The gates are hung. For the first time in five generations the Hebrew people are together. They finally have refuge inside the city of their ancestors. The priest pulls out the Books of Moses and begins to read the Great Story from the beginning. Most of them are hearing the Story for the first time. They hear of God’s creation, His promises to Abraham, His provision for Jacob and the tribes, His deliverance of their ancestors from slavery in Egypt, His calling and covenant to be His people and what that meant.

There in the refuge of their home city, the people not only listen, but they hear God calling them home spiritually. He calls them to return to becoming the people, His children, that they were meant to be.

They begin to weep. This is all taking place by the Water Gate. The God who divides the deep and creates the universe. The God who divides the waters of the Red Sea to save them from their enemies. The God who divides the waters of the Jordan to usher them into His Promised Land. The God who washes, waters, bathes, cleanses, and renews.

Nehemiah reminds them that God is calling them out of the weeping of repentance and into the joy of restored relationship. For the first time in hundreds of years, since the time of Joshua, the people celebrate God’s prescribed festival of the tabernacles.

Both physically and spiritually, they have come back home.

Over the past year or so I’ve read a number of stories from people who have wandered home to faith. The stories follow a common theme. As young people they walked away from the faith in which they were raised. They were too intelligent to believe all that nonsense. They got educated, had careers, and wandered life’s road. But something happened along the way in the craziness of a world that has become increasingly unhinged. Drunk on fear and futility, they found themselves stumbling back home where they found a refuge, and where Life began to be restored within.

Just like Nehemiah and the Hebrews in today’s chapter. The restoration of the walls and gates led to a very different restoration. There is something spiritually universal in this story and in the experience of returning to the refuge of God’s grace and forgiveness, and finding there restoration of Life and Spirit.

In the quiet this morning, the words of an old hymn whisper in my soul:

Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling, 
calling for you and for me; 
see, on the portals he’s waiting and watching, 
watching for you and for me.
Come home, come home; 
you who are weary come home; 
earnestly, tenderly, Jesus is calling, 
calling, O sinner, come home!

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

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These chapter-a-day blog posts are also available via podcast on all major podcast platforms including Apple, Google, and Spotify! Simply go to your podcast platform and search for “Wayfarer Tom Vander Well.” If it’s not on your platform, please let me know!
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Chapter-a-Day

When the Rooster Crows

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Immediately the rooster crowed the second time. Then Peter remembered the word Jesus had spoken to him: “Before the rooster crows twice you will disown me three times.” And he broke down and wept.
Mark 14:72 (NIV)

I confess, my life journey is dotted with mistakes, poor choices, and moral failures. I’ve made some doozies. Buy me a pint sometime, and I’ll tell you some stories. I assume you have a few stories of your own. I’ve never met a human being who didn’t have them. I have met a million human beings who pretend they don’t.

Today’s chapter tells two of the most epic fails in history. One is Judas, one of The Twelve disciples who betrays Jesus for cash considerations and sends the Son of God to His execution. The other is Peter, Jesus’ own appointed leader of The Twelve, who staunchly voiced his life-or-death commitment to stand faithfully by Jesus’ side no matter what happened. Then, when the prophesied events kick into high gear, Peter reneges on his promise just as Jesus’ predicted.

As I read this story again in the quiet this morning, I pondered the fact that Jesus’ knew The Twelve would abandon Him. It was prophesied by the ancient Hebrew prophet Zechariah, and Jesus quotes it. Jesus even knew the number of times Peter would deny Him and the time that it would happen. Luke adds a dramatic detail that Mark leaves out; The fact that the moment after the third denial when the rooster crows, Jesus was being led away and He looked right at Peter.

Hello Shame, my old friend.

Of course, I know the rest of the story. John shares that after the resurrection, along the very shores of Galilee where Jesus first called Peter to follow Him, Jesus would ask Peter three times to voice his love for Him. Three affirmations of love for three denials. Restoration, redemption, and the launch of a new chapter of Peter’s story.

Even our mistakes and failures are part of the Story. Jesus knew it before Peter even committed his denials.

In the quiet this morning, I can’t help but glance back at my own epic fails. They are a part of my story. They’ve taught me lessons about the depths of my own depravity, my utter need for God’s endless grace, and the blessings of repentance and redemption. Mistakes, poor choices, and moral failures. The truth is that the most important season of my life spiritually was when the rooster crowed for me, and I stopped pretending I didn’t have them.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

These chapter-a-day blog posts are also available via podcast on all major podcast platforms including Apple, Google, and Spotify! Simply go to your podcast platform and search for “Wayfarer Tom Vander Well.” If it’s not on your platform, please let me know!
Chapter-a-Day

Farms and Feuds

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Farms and Feuds (CaD Ezk 48) – Wayfarer

“This is the land you are to allot as an inheritance to the tribes of Israel, and these will be their portions,” declares the Sovereign Lord.
Ezekiel 48:29 (NIV)

In recent posts I’ve mentioned that throughout human history land has meant life. Owning land means you have a place to put up permanent shelter, grow crops, and raise livestock. Land has tangible value. Land meant prosperity.

Living my entire life in Iowa, I perhaps understand this better than some. Iowa farmland is among the richest, most productive in the entire world which means that it is of great financial worth. Because of this, living in Iowa gives you a front row seat to what land can do to the human heart.

Land becomes the golden calf for many individuals and families. Many years ago I pastored a small rural church. In the back pew in one corner sat one man every Sunday. Every Sunday, in the opposite corner as far away as possible, sat his neighbor. They had a boundary dispute between their land decades before and so they never spoke and avoided one another like the plague. I did funerals for patriarchs of family farms in which one child and their family refused to be in the same room with another child and their family all because of dispute over how the land was distributed. I have watched bitterness and resentment over the inheritance of land shrivel men’s souls. And yes, it’s even driven individuals to take out their anger the way Cain did with Abel.

The ancient nation of Israel knew this same paradigm. Remember that the nation was originally 12 tribes from the same family. Moses originally allotted the land among the tribes.

Some tribes had more land. Others had far less. As history wore on, disputes arose. Civil War broke out. The nation fractured in two.

As Ezekiel pens his final chapters, there is no longer a nation of Israel. It was conquered. Its capital city and temple were destroyed. Zeke’s vision is of a restored Israel and a new allotment of a restored nation. No more division between north and south. He envisions one united nation in which each tribe gets an allotment of land that looks like a twelve-layered cake from top to bottom, north to south. Each tribe gets it’s own layer that’s roughly the same size as every other tribe. It is a vision of twelve family tribes living in peace and harmony. No disputes of bigger or smaller, there is equal inheritance. There is shalom.

https://c2.staticflickr.com/2/1241/5117216094_cf9b4c7e22_b.jpg

And that brings me back to the fact that the entire Great Story from Genesis to Revelation is about God restoring shalom between Himself and humanity. It’s the way it was before a snake slithered into the Garden. It’s the way the Great Story ends with God and humanity living in perfect shalom in a new heaven, a new earth, and a new holy city. It is what God wants me to experience each day amidst the trials of living in a fallen world with other fallen individuals. It’s what God wants me to strive for and share with others.

In the quiet this morning, my spirit is reminding me of two men I know who grew up on family farms. Each of them got the shaft when it came time for the family farm to be passed to the next generation. Both men know the journey of grief, anger, and resentment that comes with that particular reality. Each of these men have shared with me their story, and they are both incredibly blessed, filled with joy in their lives and families. Both of them, disciples of Jesus, shared with me how they consciously and deliberately surrendered their will and desire to God. They let go of resentment, put their trust in God, and sought their inheritance from Him. Each of these men have ultimately prospered. Each has found and is experiencing shalom.

What Ezekiel is describing on a macro level as he finishes his prophetic book is what God wants me to experience on the micro level, right here, today.

Shalom, my friend. Have a good weekend.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

Shalom

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Shalom! (CaD Ezk 47) – Wayfarer

Then he led me back to the bank of the river.  When I arrived there, I saw a great number of trees on each side of the river. He said to me, “This water flows toward the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah, where it enters the Dead Sea. When it empties into the sea, the salty water there becomes fresh.
Ezekiel 47:6b-8 (NIV)

When most people hear the Hebrew word “Shalom” it is understood as a greeting like “Hello” or “Bonjour.” And that’s because “Shalom” is used as both a greeting and a departing salutation, more like “Aloha.” But what many people don’t know is that Shalom which is literally translated into English as “peace” has a meaning that cannot be simply contained by one comparable English word.

Shalom is a word that embodies a larger sense of wholeness, well-being, good health, rest and tranquility. It is both a greeting but also a blessing to the person to whom you say it. Shalom is derived from the root word “Shalam” which is used repeatedly in Exodus 21 and 22 regarding instructions for “making things right” between people when there has been material loss or injury. God was instructing his people to “make it right” (Shalam) which becomes the foundation for the wholeness, well-being, peace, rest, and tranquility of Shalom.

This is important in understanding what is being described in this vision Ezekiel is having of the restoration of his defeated and destroyed nation in these final chapters. On a macro level, everything Zeke is describing is the “making things right” on multiple levels. His vision is of ultimate Shalom.

In today’s chapter, there are three amazing concepts being communicated.

First, Zeke sees a river that flows out of the temple he’s just described. The temple is the source of a river of life that flows out of the temple into the Dead Sea and turns the Dead Sea into a living, flourishing source of life and provision for all. This foreshadows two things. First, it foreshadows Jesus, who says Himself that He is Living Water springing up to transform any who are dead in their sins to eternal life (or, you might say, ultimate Shalom!). It also foreshadows the vision John is given of the New Jerusalem in Revelation 21-22. In fact, I encourage you to read and compare the first part of today’s chapter with those last two chapters of the Great Story.

Second, in Zeke’s vision he’s given the general boundaries for the restored Promised Land that God had always promised to His people where they would find Shalom. Throughout the history of humanity, land means life. From the land we find security, shelter, provision, and prosperity.

Finally, and this is huge, God tells Zeke that “foreigners living among you” are to be considered “native-born Israelites.” In other words, there is no longer any distinction between Jews and the Gentile outsiders. God’s shalom is for everyone. Everyone becomes a child of Abraham. Everyone is given an inheritance of God. Everyone is an heir of the Divine. Everyone is given an allotment of God’s ultimate shalom.

In the quiet this morning, I am overwhelmed with God’s goodness and the desire He has expressed from the beginning for humanity to experience shalom. I’m reminded what Jesus told His followers just moments before His arrest and just hours before His execution. He told them that they can expect trouble and suffering in this world, but He also told them “Peace (Shalom) I leave with you; my peace (shalom) I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”

Yesterday morning, Wendy shared a song with me that I had never heard before (I’m really awful at keeping up with current culture!) by Jelly Roll called “I’m Not Okay“. I haven’t been able to get it out of my head. It gets to the heart of what Jesus was saying to His followers, to us, to me. Even when things are not okay, everything is going to be alright.

Shalom, my friend.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

Explicit Sin, Explicit Message

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At every street corner you built your lofty shrines and degraded your beauty, spreading your legs with increasing promiscuity to anyone who passed by.
Ezekiel 16:25 (NIV)

Jerusalem is a fascinating city. It is a city filled with tensions. And it is amazing to experience. It’s crazy to think that a tiny little Canaanite town thousands of years old became, and remains to this day, the most political and religious hot spot of the entire world.

Today’s long chapter is a prophetic message God gave to Ezekiel specifically about the city of Jerusalem. To make sense of Ezekiel’s message, it helps to know a little about Jerusalem’s history.

Jerusalem began as a Canaanite village. It was David who made it his Capital city. At the time he did so, it was a Jebusite city. Only after David’s reign was it considered Israelite. Its multi-cultural history made it a city of political and religious tension from the beginning.

Ezekiel’s message is a long metaphorical story about a non-Jewish baby girl thrown into a field and left to die. God wills the girl to live, cares for her as she grows, and when she flowers into a woman He marries her. She, however, is unfaithful to God, her husband. She becomes an adulterer and a temple prostitute for pagan worship. She sacrifices her children in pagan rituals. Eventually, she then runs after her clients and freely gives herself to them seeking their protection.

If you read the chapter, and I encourage you to do so, it gets rather graphic in its descriptives of her “spreading her legs” for her neighbors and even describes one of them, Egypt, as having an – ahem – very large penis. I confess my curiosity this morning and, just for fun, I pulled up that verse in Bible Gateway and compared every English translation to see how translators handled the reference. Fascinating, some ignored it completely. Some disguised it in vague euphemisms such as “great of flesh” and “lustful.” Others went with a little more specific “well-endowed,” “large member,” or “large genitals.”

Of course, Ezekiel was pulling no punches and the people of his day would have known exactly what he was talking about. He was accurately describing actual Egyptian fertility idols, common in that day, depicting an Egyptian man with a protruding giant erect penis.

And this is the point. The prophets like Ezekiel get very graphic in their messages because the extreme nature of the sins that they were addressing, including ritualized sexual immorality and ritual child sacrifice.

I have to remember that Ezekiel is living in Babylon and the Babylonians had their own version of sex and fertility cults and rituals. The Ishtar Festival, in particular was known for its sexual and moral debauchery. This may very well have fueled the metaphorical rawness of his message.

The adulterous wife was an apt description of Jerusalem. While it had become the chosen city of God’s people, the city itself remained the hometown of both Jews and pagan Canaanites. The pagan residents may have politically gone along with prevailing wind of Jewish authority, but it would always struggle to be faithful to the God of David.

God’s judgment on Jerusalem is pronounced as the just consequences of her adultery, prostitution, infanticide, and social injustices. What is fascinating, however, is that this judgment is not final. God promises to remain faithful, to restore, and to redeem His bride. Not only that, but God declares that He will personally make atonement for her sins:

So I will establish my covenant with you, and you will know that I am the Lord. Then, when I make atonement for you for all you have done…

Fast forward about 500 years and this is exactly what Jesus did when He died on the cross outside the very city of Jerusalem, over which He lovingly laments:

“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate.”

With Jesus, the metaphor switches from Jerusalem being the bride to Jerusalem being the prodigal child. Jesus moves the bride metaphor and applies it to His followers. Which, for me, means that as the bride I find in Ezekiel’s explicit message to Jerusalem both a warning and a comforting truth. If I stray from Jesus, I can expect to experience the consequences of my thoughts, words, and actions. However, while it’s easy to focus on Jerusalem’s sins, the most amazing and important piece of the message is God’s sacrificial love and faithfulness in spite of those sins. This reminds me that no matter how much I stray or how deeply I may fall into sin, His sacrificial love and infinite grace will always extend further and deeper.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

Division

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Division (CaD Acts 15) – Wayfarer

Barnabas wanted to take John, also called Mark, with them, but Paul did not think it wise to take him, because he had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not continued with them in the work. They had such a sharp disagreement that they parted company. Barnabas took Mark and sailed for Cyprus, but Paul chose Silas and left, commended by the believers to the grace of the Lord.
Acts 15:37-40 (NIV)

I have a dear friend I have not spoken with in almost 20 years. This friend told me that I had done something, or said something, that wounded him deeply. He said that he knew that I had no clue what I’d done to wound him, but he also refused to tell me what it was despite attempts to make amends and to make it right. I eventually concluded that I couldn’t continue in a relationship under the constant cloud of guilt/shame of knowing that I had caused an injury but was given no opportunity or recourse to make it right. I love my friend and grieve the loss of our relationship. Nevertheless, I decided that I would wait for my friend to be willing to tell me what I had done.

I’m still waiting.

Along my life journey, I’ve observed and experienced conflict and division between believers, both interpersonal and corporate. The conflicts have ranged from silly, to personal, to matters of faith and/or belief. In some cases, the conflicts were amicably resolved. In other cases, they resulted in amicable division. In yet other cases, they resulted in division and anger that eventually became amicable respect. In some cases, I have observed conflict and division that appear never to have been resolved.

Today’s chapter describes two forms of division. The first one has been brewing for some time within the events Luke describes in Acts. The Jesus Movement began as a Jewish sect. Jesus never hid the fact that He intended His Message and His mission to be for all people “to the ends of the earth.” Nevertheless, there were good Jews who wanted to keep the Jesus Movement to remain a strictly Jewish sect. To be Jewish, men had to be circumcised. So some began teaching that non-Jewish believers had to be circumcised to be part of the Jesus Movement. They were essentially saying, “Become a Jew first, then you can be a believer in Jesus.”

This dispute is handled capably by the leaders of the Jesus Movement. Everyone got together. Both sides were discussed. The leaders made a judgment that non-Jewish Gentiles did not have to become Jewish and males did not have to be circumcised to be believers.

The second division is personal and unexpected. Paul and Barnabas decide they should travel to visit all the local gatherings they’d started on Cyprus and Asia Minor back in chapters 13 and 14. Barnabas, ever the encourager, wants to include John Mark, who began that first journey with them but left them early in the journey. Paul, offended by John Mark bailing on them the last time, refuses to include him. Tempers flare. Voices are raised. The disagreement is sharp. Paul and Barnabas part ways. Barnabas takes John Mark and sets out on his own. Paul recruits Silas and sets out on his own.

We don’t know why John Mark bailed on that first journey. We do know from the letters of Paul and Peter that eventually John Mark became a close associate of Peter and was later reconciled to Paul. Paul wanted John Mark with him in his final days. Paul also would later write with respect and admiration for all Barnabas was doing within the Movement. One commentary I read this morning said that Paul and Barnabas’ conflict resulted in four people on the mission instead of two. God sometimes uses even human conflict and division for divine purposes.

In the quiet this morning, I realized that I have come to embrace the reality that there will be division among human beings and groups of human beings. It’s part of the nature of this fallen world east of Eden. But I have also embraced Paul’s metaphor of the “Body of Christ.” The body not only has many appendages, but it also has many entire systems that function pretty independently within the whole. Some cells and organs function independently of one another, but both are essential for the health and well-being of the body. So it is with individuals and groups. We sometimes learn that we can function independently of one another while both contribute to Jesus’ Movement and its mission.

I said a prayer for my estranged friend this morning. Over the years I have received reports of where God has led him and rejoice that he appears to be well and doing the things he’s been led to do. I love him. Perhaps we will one day see one another again. Perhaps he will finally be able to tell me what I did to wound him so deeply and I will be able to seek forgiveness and make amends. Perhaps whatever that was will have passed away with time. Sometimes that happens, too. In the meantime, I rejoice that we are both well and contributing to the health and well-being of the whole.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

Contrasting Statements

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Contrasting Statements (CaD Jhn 16) – Wayfarer

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
John 16:33 (NIV)

Contrasting statements. On the desk in my office is a list of fourteen contrasting statements. These contrasting statements are key differences in understanding between members of a certain team of people. They are the source of conflict within the system and because of them, every member of the team is experiencing a lack of peace on multiple levels.

Systemic conflict lies at the heart of the Great Story. In the beginning, God creates the universe and everything in it. He caps off creation with a man and a woman, places them in the Garden, and calls it “very good.” There is shalom, the experience of wholeness, goodness, completeness, and peace. Then the evil one enters the garden and introduces both doubt and temptation to the man and woman. Interestingly, the evil one’s basic tactic in the disruption of shalom was the introduction of contrasting statements: “Did God really say…? You won’t certainly die!“

From that original sin, humanity has been yearning for shalom and God has been actively acting to restore it. That’s the Great Story in a nutshell.

In today’s chapter, we are approaching the climactic event of the entire Story. The key players are all involved. At the beginning of his account, John introduced us to Jesus as the God of Creation who came to Earth in human form. The evil one, having successfully filled the head of Judas Iscariot with contrasting statements, has put the wheels into motion to have Jesus arrested and killed. Both Jesus’ followers, His enemies, and the crowds are the humans across the spectrum of belief to whom Jesus seeks to provide restoration, redemption, and the new life of shalom.

Jesus’ followers have no idea of what’s about to happen. They are expecting the restoration of shalom the only way the world, and the Prince of this World, knows how to deliver it: gain power, exert force, suppress resistance, maintain control. God, however, had long ago tried to explain to humanity that His ways are not our ways. He will provide shalom, not by power but by suffering, not by force but by surrender, not through the suppression of resistance but through love, forgiveness, and freedom from sin and death.

Throughout Jesus’ final discourse to His followers, He continues to bring up the peace that He will provide. In the same manner, this peace is not like the peace the world seeks or promises. The shalom Jesus provides is not peace from trouble, but peace in the midst of trouble. Jesus continues to warn His followers of the trouble, persecution, resistance, and suffering that will be theirs to experience and endure. At the same time, Jesus promises them the peace of God’s Spirit to, as Paul put it to the believers in Philippi, “guard their hearts and minds” as they experience trouble and walk in Jesus’ footsteps of suffering, surrender, and love.

In the quiet this morning, my mind is on contrasting statements that don’t appear to offer a path forward. Then I think about the contrast between the world’s way and God’s way. As a disciple of Jesus, I have been provided the footsteps to follow into humility, surrender, and maybe even suffering. The way of Jesus reveals to me that death is the path to new life. And, I will find peace along this path.

I’m back on Facebook for those who liked to read my chapter-a-day posts there! Facebook refuses to give me access to my old, hacked account, but I have started a new account. Please feel free to search for me on Facebook and friend me. If Facebook won’t let you friend me, please go to my Facebook profile and “Message” me on Facebook Messenger, which should then allow me to friend you. Cheers! -Tom

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Chapter-a-Day

“Perhaps…”

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"Perhaps…" (CaD Phm 1) – Wayfarer

Perhaps the reason he was separated from you for a little while was that you might have him back forever— no longer as a slave, but better than a slave, as a dear brother.
Philemon 1:15-16 (NIV)

Just this morning I received an unexpected text from a friend asking Wendy and me to pray. Life has thrown one of those wicked curveballs and suddenly everything in life is reeling in ways that feel completely out of control. As I confessed in a poster a few days ago to having a pretty miserable week myself, I’m feeling acute empathy for my friend. Prayers have commenced for them.

When life throws a wicked curve, I always find myself asking some of the same questions:

“How did we get here?”

“Why is this happening?”

“God?! What are you doing? Don’t you care?!”

“Where is this going to lead?”

Today’s chapter is a letter that Paul wrote from prison to a wealthy friend and fellow believer. His name was Philemon (hence the title of the epistle), and he was a good friend of Paul’s, a financial supporter of Paul, and Paul had previously lived as a guest in Philemon’s home.

Philemon had a slave named Onesimus. Long story short, Onesimus stole from Philemon and made a run for freedom. While we don’t know the back story of the relationship between Onesimus and Philemon, I can assume that Onesimus’ actions amounted to throwing a wicked curveball at Philemon and his household. It would not surprise me if Philemon had written Onesimus off and harbored ill feelings towards him.

What happens next is amazing. The runaway Onesimus somehow runs right into Paul. How and why, we don’t know, but Paul graciously takes Onesimus under his wing, Onesimus becomes a believer, and Paul comes to consider the runaway his “son.”

This very tender letter is sent to Philemon in the very hands of the runaway, Onesimus. The runaway slave arrives at his former owner’s house, letter in hand. I can only imagine what emotions each of them was feeling at this reunion.

I love Paul’s letter when he communicates that perhaps there was a divine purpose in Onesimus running away. Perhaps that needed to happen so that he could run into Paul and become a believer, and ultimately bring about an unforeseen reunion, restoration, and a redemptive ending to an otherwise wicked curveball situation.

I have written many times in these posts about the Chain Reaction of Praise that Wendy and I have been practicing for years. In the heat of the moment when the curveball comes at us in what appears to be a total strikeout, we step away from the plate, take a deep breath and consciously move into “perhaps” mode. We may not see clearly, in that moment, how God might redeem our circumstances. It might even feel hopeless. But time and time again we have experienced God ultimately redeeming circumstances in ways we could never have imagined, and weaving purpose into our stories that were impossible to see when we were initially reeling in the circumstances.

In the quiet this morning, I find myself recounting all of the wicked curve balls life has thrown at me. I find myself remembering what it felt like in the moment, as well as the redemptive endings that eventually occurred in each one. In doing so, it reminds me that there is a “perhaps” to my miserable week. I just don’t see it yet.

Note to my regular readers, listeners, and subscribers!
I am taking a three week vacation starting next week. While I’m gone, I’m going to be republishing the top fifteen chapter-a-day posts from 2023 as determined by the total number of page views and podcast plays. We’ll start at number 15 next Monday and end up with number 1 on Friday, February 16. See you in a few weeks!

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.