Tag Archives: Theme

Chapter-a-Day

The Adopted One

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Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.”
Numbers 13:30 (NIV)

Just a month or two ago Wendy and I watched the Paramount Plus series Mobland starring Pierce Brosnan and Helen Mirren. It is a classic epic story of a mob family, this time set in the UK. It is gritty and raw like most mob family epics. One of the main characters in the film is played by Tom Hardy, who is not a biological son, but a fiercely loyal “fixer” who in many ways is more stable and trusted by the father than any of his biological children.

The theme of the adopted son is familiar. In The Godfather it was an Irish orphan named Tom Hagen who becomes the Godfather’s consigliere and fixer. In Yellowstone, it’s an orphan named Rip who becomes the right-hand man that John Dutton can depend on to fix things. Coincidentally, The Godfather, Yellowstone, and Mobland are all produced by Paramount. They know a successful storytelling formula when they see it.

The theme of the adopted one is much older, however. It’s ancient, and it has a deep spiritual context throughout the Great Story. In fact, in today’s chapter it is hiding in plain sight.

Ancient people groups were tribal by nature, and the Hebrews tribes were no different. It carried on through the centuries. The greatest struggle of the Jesus Movement after Jesus’ resurrection and ascension was the inclusion of non-Jewish believers, or Gentiles, into the flock of believers. It was so conflictive that it sparked terrible persecution. Jesus stood against His own people’s prejudice and persecution of those who didn’t belong to the tribe, and told His disciples, “I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.”

In today’s chapter, the Hebrews are already at the boundary of the land of Canaan, the land God promised to His people. They send 12 spies into the land to check things out. The tribe of Judah sends a man name Caleb. Caleb was a son of “Jephunneh the Kenizzite.” The Kennizite tribe were Edomites who were descendants of Esau, the impetuous and deceived brother of Jacob. Caleb was not a descendant of Jacob. Caleb didn’t belong to the tribe of Judah by blood. Caleb was adopted into the tribe.

When the spies return to report that the Promised Land was a land of plenty but that the people groups living there were large and intimidating, most of the spies said that they shouldn’t go in and take the land. Only Joshua, Moses’ chosen right-hand man, and Caleb the adopted one, who have the faith to suggest they move into the land immediately and trust God’s promise.

That’s the theme of the adopted one like Tom Hagen, Rip, and Tom Hardy’s character, Harry. Technically, they don’t belong to the family. They are hopeless orphans and outcasts who have been graciously adopted into the family. They see things from a different perspective than the rest of the family. They become gratefully loyal to the father. Caleb fits right in there, especially given that he is adopted by the tribe of Judah from which both King David and Jesus will spring.

But the theme of the adopted one flows spiritually to every believer. Paul, who was born into the Hebrew tribe of Benjamin and was at one time fiercely prejudiced against all non-Hebrews and the “blood traitors” of the Jesus Movement who welcomed Gentiles as equals. Paul, having met Jesus on the road to Damascus, learned what Jesus was doing. He saw the sheep of the other pen that Jesus had talked about. He became the most outspoken evangelist to those outside the tribe. And he was always writing about adoption.

For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.”The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.
Romans 8:14-15 (NIV)

Paul’s extensive education also gave him the understanding that the adoption was not just non-Jewish Gentiles. The reality is that even the Jewish people were descendants of Abraham, with whom God graciously chose to make a covenant. Jew or Gentile, all believers are sinful outcasts and orphans in this fallen world, graciously adopted as children of the Heavenly Father through the grace and mercy of Jesus’ sacrifice.

As I meditate on the theme of the adopted one, it strikes me that this ancient theme resonates so deeply in us that Hollywood continues to tap it in their story-telling. I have observed along my spiritual journey that those believers who fully understand and acknowledge their own depravity, sinfulness, and shame become the most loyal and trusting of God. Those who approach faith with the smug self-righteousness and sense of privilege of the biological children tend to miss the point entirely. In fact, it was those smug, self-righteous, privileged children who murdered God’s own Son.

So, in the quiet this morning I find myself grateful to have been among the adopted ones. I am grateful for God’s grace. I didn’t earn a thing. I didn’t deserve a thing. I was graciously adopted into the family. Not only that, but I was made a co-heir with Jesus. As Paul continues in Romans 8:

The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
Romans 8:16-18 (NIV)

The more deeply I absorb this, the more grateful I become, and the more it motivates me to be faith-fully obedient to anything and everything Father God asks of me.

I am the adopted one.

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!
An illustration representing the biblical passage of Caleb encouraging the Israelites to take possession of the Promised Land.
Chapter-a-Day

The Sex Thing

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The Sex Thing (CaD Lev 18) – Wayfarer

“You must not do as they do in Egypt, where you used to live, and you must not do as they do in the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you. Do not follow their practices.”
Leviticus 18:3 (NIV)

Sex is always such a hot topic. It is one of our most basic human appetites, and it is naturally one of the strongest and most pleasurable as it drives the perpetuation of life. Like all human appetites, we sinful human beings love to indulge it to excess.

We indulge our appetite for food into gluttony.
We indulge our appetite for rest into sloth.
We indulge our appetite for pride into vanity.
We indulge our appetite for daily provision into greed.

All of these appetites are natural and God-given. We need them for life. One of the insidious effects of Alzheimer’s Disease that I watched slowly destroy my mother’s body is the loss of appetite for food. She forgot that she was hungry. For the last several years of her life her diet consisted of some blueberry yogurt and chocolate nutritional drink. My dad had to practically force her to eat that, or she wouldn’t have eaten a thing. At one point she weighed under 90 pounds.

Our appetites are good and meant for our physical health and life. This includes our appetite for sex. God even dedicates an entire piece of the Great Story, Song of Solomon (a.k.a Song of Songs), to an ancient poem about the sexual appetites of young lovers. When I attended a fundamentalist Baptist Bible college I remember observing the professors contort themselves to explain all of the human sexuality out of the text, turning it into nothing more than a spiritual allegory. One of the problems I’ve observed with the institutional church is that it picks the things on which it focuses, and the subject of sex (other than prohibiting a few aspects of it) is avoided more than any other.

Of course, what makes our appetite for sex different than the other God-given appetites is that all the other appetites and our indulgence in them affect the people around us. Sex involves direct participation with another person. This adds potent and intense dynamics of human relationship, power, intimacy, and abuse.

Today’s chapter is all about sexual prohibitions that God gave to the ancient Hebrew people. Along my life journey, I’ve observed that only one verse of this chapter (the prohibition of homosexual sex) gets quoted or discussed today. That’s a shame, because the context in which that verse was given is, I think, important.

A couple of observations:

First, the list of sexual prohibitions in today’s chapter is preceded with a preamble. God makes it clear that all of the behaviors he’s about to prohibit are things that the Egyptians and Canaanite people groups indulge in. Sex was indulged in without boundary or restraint, and the bulk of the list of prohibitions have to do with incestuous relationships. The Egyptian royals were infamous for their practice of incest to “keep the bloodline pure.” King Tut was a classic example of the consequences, his body genetically disfigured and his life shortened.

Second, these were all patriarchal, male dominated cultures. Guess who drove the indulgence of sexual appetites out of their sheer power, authority, and domination in family and culture? [cue: looking in the mirror]

Third, the sexual appetite was designed by our Creator God for the perpetuation of life through reproduction. It is a physical appetite and it is pleasurable and intimate, but the ultimate physical result is new life. New life (a.k.a being “born again,” resurrection, redemption) is an overarching core theme of the entire Great Story that can’t be ignored. In the last hundred or so years of human history we’ve developed countless ways to indulge in the pleasure of our sexual appetites and mostly eliminate the possibility of new life. The ancients did not have this luxury. Today’s chapter also addresses the way the ancients dealt with the unwanted consequences of their sexual indulgences. They sacrificed their babies to gods like Molek. An appetite that was intended to perpetuate new life becomes a catalyst for systemic infanticide.

Fourth, while today’s chapter does briefly mention a prohibition of homosexual sex, it also clearly mentions a prohibition of adultery. A fundamentalist standing in protest of homosexuality who has committed or is committing adultery is a hypocrite. As Jesus said, “Let he who is without sin…”

Fifth, as I went through the list of prohibitions today, I wrote in the margin the names of individuals within the Great Story who committed the prohibitions. David committed adultery. Solomon with his hundreds of wives and concubines took adultery to even greater indulgent excesses. David’s son Amnon and daughter Tamar had an incestuous romance going before Amnon raped her (see my second point above). Jacob married rival sisters as prohibited in verse 20. A powerful and natural sexual appetite will naturally lead to sexual indulgence like an appetite for food will lead to gluttony at the church potluck. Spiritually, they are equal in their negative effects, but we tend to focus on one and ignore the other.

Finally, in the quiet this morning, God reminds the Hebrews at the beginning and ending of the chapter that He wants them to be different than all the sexually indulgent people around them. He wants them to exemplify and enjoy pleasurable, loving, intimate, and yes productive fulfillment of sexual appetites, avoiding the negative consequences of indulgence for themselves and those around them.

Enjoy fulfilling the appetite without indulging in excess. That’s a worthwhile endeavor for me as it relates to both my sexual appetite and all the others.

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

The Fig Tree Mystery

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In the morning, as they went along, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots. Peter remembered and said to Jesus, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered!”
Mark 11:21-22 (NIV)

This past summer, Wendy and I began avidly working at keeping a small little herb garden alive, along with some other house plants that include a Christmas cactus. I have joked on many occasions about having a brown thumb. Here I live on arguably the most productive farmland in the world, and all my life I’ve struggled to keep a simple houseplant growing and blooming.

Today’s chapter contains one of the strange, head-scratching episodes in the entire Jesus Story. It is the final week of Jesus’ earthly life. Jesus and His entourage are in Jerusalem along with thousands from all over the world to celebrate the Passover, a festival celebrating God’s deliverance of the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt back in the story of Exodus. Jesus and His followers are on their way to the Temple in the morning and Jesus checks out a fig tree to see if it has any figs on it, but it doesn’t, so He says, “May no one ever eat from you again.” He then goes to the Temple and famously drives out the money-changers, who were part of a extortion racket the Temple leaders had running. It was a money-making scheme that preyed on the poor and pilgrims visiting for the festival. On their way back to the Temple the next morning, Peter notices that the fig tree Jesus had cursed had withered.

Why on earth would Jesus curse and kill a fig tree? It seems so random and out of character for Jesus.

As we’ve made this chapter-a-day trek through Mark, I’ve talked a lot about God’s base language of metaphor. With today’s chapter, we have another opportunity to see how metaphor helps unlock some of the mysteries of the Great Story.

Fruit is a theme throughout the Great Story. In Eden, God provides the fruit of the entire Garden for Adam and Eve, but forbids them from eating just one kind. We all know what happens. As the end of the Great Story, as John describes his vision of the eternal city God is preparing, there is a river flowing from God’s throne and on each side of the river stands the Tree of Life which bears a new crop of fruit every month. So the Story begins and ends with fruit. In between, there are countless references to fruitfulness. Jesus Himself spoke about being able to determine what’s going on in a person’s soul by looking at the fruit of their lives.

And, this is the key to understanding the mysterious episode of the fig tree. The tree, wasn’t bearing fruit, so Jesus cursed it. He then goes to the center of Hebrew worship, God’s people who God had faithfully delivered from slavery, and exile. But the leaders who were supposed to be fruitfully serving God and the people had turned into money-grubbing elites padding their pockets and clinging to power by turning God’s Temple and its system of worship into a racket. The leaders of God’s own people were, once again, not being fruitful in the ways God had always said He desired of them.

Notice how the story of the fig tree is wrapped around this episode of Jesus driving the money-changers out of the Temple. They are connected. The Temple system and the unfruitful old ways will wither and die, as they crucify God’s Son. As Jesus is crucified and resurrected, a new covenant will be put in place. Old things pass away, and new things come. And God’s desire remains the same: that I become one with Jesus, that I remain in Jesus, and that I bear the fruit that God desires in my life.

In just three nights from the events of today’s chapter, Jesus will be with His closest followers in a garden on the night before his crucifixion. He will say to them:

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.”
John 15:5-8 (NIV)

Along my life journey, I’ve observed that people often misunderstand what being a disciple of Jesus is all about. It’s not about rules, regulations, judgement and condemnation – though some people twist it into that. Jesus is about experiencing life in a way that produces the fruit of God’s Spirit in my daily thoughts, words, relationships, and actions. It’s evidenced by an increasing yield of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control in my life.

By the way, our Christmas cactus has tiny blooms sprouting, and I just culled some fresh Basil and Rosemary this past week. Maybe I’m finally getting this growing and bearing fruit thing on a whole new level!

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

The Mark and The Choice

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The Mark and The Choice (CaD Ezk 9) – Wayfarer

Then the Lord called to the man clothed in linen who had the writing kit at his side and said to him, “Go throughout the city of Jerusalem and put a mark on the foreheads of those who grieve and lament over all the detestable things that are done in it.”
Ezekiel 9:3-4 (NIV)

When I was a young man serving as a pastor, I once got in hot water with certain members of my congregation when I used the abbreviation “Xmas” in reference to “Christmas.” It’s always amazing to me what gets people’s undies in a bunch and just how upset they can get. I apologized for offending the offended, but I also used the opportunity to offer an explanation.

In the early days of the Jesus Movement, especially during times of persecution, disciples of Jesus used symbols and metaphors for referring to Jesus rather than writing the name out. The icthus, or fish symbol, can still be seen on car bumpers everywhere. But the Greek letter Chi which looks like an X, was also commonly used. Why? Crucifixions were often carried out on an X-shaped cross. It was a sign of the cross, and it logically became a metaphor for referring to Christ. Therefore, the abbreviated “Xmas” does not technically “take the Christ out of Christmas” as my critics with bunched undies believed. Christ is still there for all to see for those who aren’t blind to metaphor.

In today’s chapter, Ezekiel’s vision continues from the previous chapter. God took Zeke to the Temple in Jerusalem and gave him a tour of the temple and all of the pagan idols and altars that had been set up inside the Temple for people to worship instead of Yahweh. Now, Zeke sees six men with weapons in hand along with a seventh man who had a scribe’s kit. He tells the scribe to start at the Temple and go throughout the city of Jerusalem and place a “mark” on the foreheads of all those who had been faithful in their worship of God and had lamented the detestable things that were happening in the wake of all the pagan worship.

Much like in the final plague of Egypt when the Angel of Death “passed over” the homes that had the blood of the lamb coating their doorposts, those who had the mark were spared as the six executioners spread out across the city to judge and put to death any who didn’t have the “sign.”

The “sign” was a Taw, the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet. In ancient Paleo-Hebrew script, that letter was an “X.” The same sign that some 400 years later will become a metaphor for Christ and the disciples who place their faith in Him.

In the quiet this morning, I’m simply marveling at the way certain metaphorical threads and themes weave their way throughout the Great Story and tie it together. Ezekiel’s vision echoes the same theme as the Passover in Exodus. It foreshadows the Judgment Day that Jesus promised will one day arrive for everyone. All three instances end with either life or death based on the acceptance or rejection of God as evidenced by faith or no faith.

As I meditated on these things this morning, I couldn’t help but hear God’s words to the Hebrew people at the very beginning of their formal relationship in Deuteronomy:

“This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him.“
Deuteronomy 30:19-20 (NIV)

Thousands of years later, the choice is the same.

I choose life.

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

Chapter-a-Day

Unexpected

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Unexpected (CaD Ezk 1) – Wayfarer

In my thirtieth year, in the fourth month on the fifth day, while I was among the exiles by the Kebar River, the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God.
Ezekiel 1:1 (NIV)

Life wasn’t going as planned for Ezekiel. Born into a priestly family, his road in life was as straight and flat as an Interstate 80 in western Nebraska. He would spend his life studying in preparation for his 30th birthday when he would enter the priesthood and begin his priestly duties in the Temple in Jerusalem.

So much for that.

At the age of 26, the Babylonians laid siege to Jerusalem and young Ezekiel was among those forced to make the long 900-mile march to Babylon where he lives in exile with thousands of his people. His momentous 30th birthday arrives, but everything he’s planned for his entire life is gone. There will be no priestly duties in the Temple, which is almost a thousand miles away. Ezekiel finds himself sitting aimlessly by the Kebar River in Babylon. What’s a priest to do living in a foreign land with no Temple in which to perform his duties?

Then, unexpectedly, God shows up.

Today’s inaugural chapter of Ezekiel records the young priest’s first God-given vision, and boy is it a doozy. As I read it in the quiet this morning, I was reminded of a friend in college who described to me what it was like to drop acid. Ezekiel sees some pretty funky-looking creatures. But when you start thinking about the metaphorical meaning and looking at it in the context of the Great Story, it begins to make a lot of sense.

Ezekiel is not alone in receiving visions of God’s throne room. Isaiah had one. The entirety of John’s Revelation is one long vision in God’s throne room. There are many similarities. The number four represents completeness, so four angelic beings (aka Cherubim) with four sides/faces represent the ability to attend to things from all sides. The animals represented are about God’s glory and strength. The intersecting wheels allow for movement in all four directions and the eyes around the rims allow for seeing everything, from every direction. Together, they represent complete attendance to and service of God. Then there’s the Light, the incomparable power and brightness of the light. The “vault” between the cherubim and the throne is the same Hebrew word used in Genesis to describe God separating the waters above from the waters below. In other words, the throne is elevated above and beyond the creatures. It is holy.

Ezekiel may be a thousand miles from the Temple, but he is given a front-row seat in God’s Throne Room. Like Ezekiel, I have discovered along my own life journey that my plans are not always God’s plan.

Ezekiel’s life and prophecies are built upon the foundational theme of exile. It has been argued that exile is the predominant theme of the Great Story. Humanity is exiled from the Garden at the beginning of Genesis and restored into fellowship with God at the end of Revelation. Jesus left heaven to live, teach, suffer, and die in exile on Earth. Joseph was exiled to Egypt, then the Hebrews were exiled to Egypt, and even Jesus was exiled to Egypt. The Jesus movement spread throughout the Roman world in part because persecution drove the early believers into exile. Exile is everywhere in the Great Story.

And, I find that to be a great theme for my own earthly journey. There are seasons of my life that felt like exile because I, like the Prodigal Son, made choices that put me there. In other cases, there were seasons of life when I found myself in places I never expected to be because of circumstances that were largely out of my control. Just like Ezekiel.

The message of Ezekiel is, however, a hopeful one. Ezekiel may be in exile, but God is right there with him. He may not be a priest in the Temple, but God’s got a job for Zeke as His prophet in exile. I also noted as I meditated on this in the quiet this morning that Zeke is not alone. Right up the Babylonian road is a guy named Daniel along with his friends Shadrach, Meshac, and Abednego. They’re living in the same exile, and God has some big plans for using them, too. Despite his feelings of displacement, confusion, and isolation, Zeke is not alone, and he’s right where God has purposed for him to be to accomplish His will.

When I find myself in unexpected places, God shows up in unexpected ways.

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

Chapter-a-Day

My Choice

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My Choice (CaD Hos 14) – Wayfarer

Who is wise? Let them realize these things.
    Who is discerning? Let them understand.
The ways of the Lord are right;
    the righteous walk in them,
    but the rebellious stumble in them.
Hosea 14:9 (NIV)

I had a friend who spent time in Russia almost immediately after the fall of the Soviet Union. His visit was part of a educational mission and his team met with groups of educators from the ex-Soviet system. As he explained to me his experiences, he shared a simple recurring story that spoke volumes to him.

My friend had a set of different colored markers. He would hold out his hand with four or five different colors of markers and ask a participant to pick one. He said that his Russian hosts would always freeze-up and stare at him blankly. They refused to make a choice. His interpreter explained to him that under the Soviet system, there are no choices. They had always been given a marker and told which one to use.

Today’s chapter is the ancient prophet Hosea’s swan song message to his people. Despite thirteen chapters of dire warnings and prophetically foreshadowing an impending Assyrian invasion and exile, Hosea has not given up hope. Throughout the course of his messages, Hosea has repeatedly predicted that, even if his people end up suffering in exile, there will be a season of restoration and blessing on the other side. His final message channels this hope, envisioning a restored relationship with God and the blessing that will follow. He then ends his prophetic works with a choice.

Who is wise? Let them realize these things.
    Who is discerning? Let them understand.
The ways of the Lord are right;
    the righteous walk in them,
    but the rebellious stumble in them.

Choice is a theme throughout the Great Story. Adam and Eve are given a choice to obey God’s command not to eat the forbidden fruit, or not. They chose not.

God said to His people through Moses:
This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live.

Joshua said to the same people:
“But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

The prophet Elijah put it this way:
“How long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him.”

The sage of Proverbs admonishes:
“Choose my instruction instead of silver,
    knowledge rather than choice gold,”

Jesus told His followers:
“Anyone who chooses to do the will of God will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own.”

And James wrote to the followers of Jesus:
“…anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.”

In John’s Revelation Jesus described salvation as the simple choice of opening the door of one’s heart:
“Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.”

In the quiet this morning, I find myself facing another day on this earthly journey in which I have many choices both large and small. The big choice of following Jesus helps determine all of the little choices of how I will react, respond, relate, think, speak, and act.

I endeavor to choose well over, and over, and over again.

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

Chapter-a-Day

Order>Chaos>Reorder

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Order>Chaos>Reorder (CaD Gen 6) – Wayfarer

The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.
Genesis 6:5 (NIV)

Yesterday was a long day, but a very good day. I spent eight hours in the car with a member of my company’s Board of Directors. We drove to Minneapolis for our first in-person Board gathering since January of 2020. It also afforded me and the Board our first face-to-face meeting with a new member of our team. My colleague and I then drove back. It was a festive occasion in which I, as leader of our company, tried to make sure that the joy of being physically together and the opportunity to eat, drink, and share life in one-another’s presence took precedence over the less important, though seemingly more urgent, aspects of business.

“There is a time for every purpose under heaven,” the Sage of Ecclesiastes said. The purpose for this day was to bask for a moment in togetherness and enjoy the ever-living heck out of it.

It was only natural that our free, open, and meandering conversations led to discussions of the current landscape of life on earth. Observations and contemplation flowed around current events, corporate issues, COVID issues, supply chain issues, political issues, and tech issues. I’m personally grateful to have arrived home late last night to report to Wendy that the spirit of love, contemplation, and gratitude brought me home with a full soul despite the weariness of body.

Yesterday’s conversations, however, came to mind as I read this morning’s chapter. The landscape of life, my team members and I discussed, is full of chaos that has us all shaking our heads with both wonder and perplexity.

Yet this is why I love my chapter-a-day journey and my daily contemplation of the Great Story and the flow of eternity. It provides much needed perspective for the acute anxieties of the current moment.

Today’s chapter is the beginning of the four chapters which contain the story of Noah. We’re just five chapters in from the very beginning and just two chapters from the order and goodness of the Garden. How quickly everything has descended into chaos.

This is the first of a recurring cycle of life outside the Garden, “east of Eden,” and the inaugural appearance of a theme that perpetually reoccurs throughout the Great Story, and also my life journey:

Order —-> Chaos —–> Reorder

A marriage typically starts with a well-ordered wedding and honeymoon phase which then leads to the chaos of two very different individuals who are motivated in different ways learning how to reorder their world together. Families start as a relatively stable nuclear family system and can quickly become chaotically disordered by conflict, financial stress, infidelity, a rebellious child, a tragic loss. Sometimes the system is able to find reorder and remain intact. Other times the system splits and finds reorder in the creation of new systems. Businesses launch with an orderly business plan and bright hope for success only to flow into the chaos of competing interests, personality conflicts, and the disruptions of the marketplace that force restructure, reorganization, and renewed vision. Times of relative peace and stability fall into the chaos of societal change, international conflict, and the disruptions of war, drought, famine, disaster, pandemic, or revolution, only to eventually find their way to the next season of relative peace and order.

In the quiet this morning, I find myself encouraged by the simple pleasure of being face-to-face with my beloved colleagues in the same conference room and around the same lunch table. I’m also encouraged by the reminder of this grand macro-level theme of the Great Story. Order, chaos, reorder, is the natural flow of life on earth between the fall of humanity in Genesis chapter three and the new creation of the last two chapters of Revelation. I find that digesting the reality of this theme into my conscience helps me remember, in times of chaos, that the flow of life from order to chaos is a part of life’s reality on this earth, but reorder is a part of that flow as well and it will eventually follow even if it doesn’t look perfectly the way I desire.

On a more micro level, long days on the road for business are always a bit chaotic. I’m grateful to re-enter the reorder of a normal day in the office.

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

Chapter-a-Day

Finding the Thread

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Do we not all have one Father? Did not one God create us? Why do we profane the covenant of our ancestors by being unfaithful to one another?
Malachi 2:10 (NIV)

Over the past couple months, I gave three “whiteboard” messages among my local gathering of Jesus’ followers. We were going through the metaphorical “I am” statements Jesus made as recorded by John in his biography of Jesus. I used the same approach in each of the three messages, which was to unpack the fact that in proclaiming the metaphor for Himself (e.g. “I am the bread of life,” “I am the gate,” “I am the resurrection and the life” – each links to YouTube of the corresponding message), Jesus was connecting to spiritual themes throughout the Great Story from Genesis to Revelation.

One the pieces of repeated feedback I’ve received from people with regard to these messages was that they’d never seen the connections or recognized the metaphorical thread that ran throughout the Story. I get it. I’ve observed it to be very common for individuals to simply look at a verse or a chapter with a myopic magnifying glass. It is not necessarily a bad thing, but when that is the only way one views it, they effectively look at every verse or chapter with blinders on. The context of the larger whole is never seen or understood.

That’s why I continue in my chapter-a-day journey, even through what most people would consider the “boring” texts. I have found the text to be “boring” only if I expect it to read the same way as the biographies of Jesus or one of Paul’s letters. The text of the prophets expects something different from me in the way I read, study, and think. One of those expectations is for me to see the connections; To see the thread of consistent message running through them.

For example, I recognized in today’s chapter a message thread running through the messages of Jeremiah, Malachi, and Jesus. In today’s chapter, Malachi specifically addresses the priests and religious leaders. It’s the same group of people Jeremiah confronted for being “shepherds” who only led the people astray with their heartless corruption. It was the reason God sent His people into exile, hoping they would learn the lesson, repent, and return with a different attitude. They obviously didn’t, because Malachi addresses the same lot and accuses them of being hypocrites and bad examples who effectively were the same covenant breakers that Jeremiah prophesied about 150 years before. It is the same lot for whom Jesus saved his most scathing rebuke and condemnation.

But the thread doesn’t end there, and this is most critical to understand.

After Jesus’ resurrection and ascension, the entire paradigm changed. No longer was the priesthood confined to a small group of people with certain strands of genetic DNA or with institutionally educated and approved “ministry” professionals. Every follower of Jesus, indwelled with the Holy Spirit, becomes what Peter called “a royal priesthood.” Every follower of Jesus is essentially a priest, a conduit through whom others are to find Jesus by the examples we set in our lives, words, relationships, and actions. The institutional church has never truly embraced this. Human institutions, by their very nature, consolidate power among a few in order to control the many.

This means that the same lot that Jeremiah addressed, the same lot that Malachi addressed, and the same lot that Jesus addressed is now….me.

Jesus said, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” In other words, Jesus expected all of his followers to live by our loving example towards others. It’s the same message Malachi addresses to the priests. The way they were treating their own people profaned God’s established covenant relationship (see yesterday’s post).

In the quiet this morning, if I truly understand that I am now part of the “royal priesthood of all believers” then I can’t help but feel the sting of Malachi’s prophetic rebuke. In the realm of the Spirit and the Kingdom of God, I am just as much a priest as the Levites Malachi is addressing. The expectations of being a loving example of Father God is as much on me as it was on them, if not more so.

And so I enter another day of the journey, endeavoring to be a living example of Jesus’ servant-hearted love in my peace, joy, patience, kindness, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control.

Pray for me.

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

Chapter-a-Day

The Cup

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The Cup (CaD Jer 25) – Wayfarer

This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, said to me: “Take from my hand this cup filled with the wine of my wrath and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it.”
Jeremiah 25:15 (NIV)

One of the things I love about reading through the ancient prophets is discovering the metaphorical threads and themes that tie the Great Story together from beginning-to-end. This past Sunday I gave a message in which I unpacked Jesus’ statement, “I am the Gate.” The reality is that the entire Great Story is a series of “outs” and “ins.” From the beginning of Genesis when Adam and Eve get kicked “out” of the Garden of Eden to the end of Revelation when those whose names are written in the Book of Life enter “in” to the City of God.

In today’s chapter, God through Jeremiah declares judgement and destruction on Jerusalem and the surrounding nations. This, of course, is not shocking. Judgement and the Babylonian exile were the dominant themes throughout Jeremiah’s long, prophetic ministry. What was different in today’s chapter was the metaphor God gave Jeremiah when He told Jerry to take “this cup filled with the wine of my wrath.”

Fast forward just over 500 years to the eve of Jesus’ execution. Jesus prays fervently that Father God would “let this cup pass from me.” What cup? The same one Jeremiah speaks of in today’s chapter. The “wine of God’s wrath” is the cup Jesus’ drank when he suffered and died on the cross even though He was innocent. Not only that, but earlier in that same evening Jesus took a cup of wine and told His followers, “Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”

This was the great turning point in the Great Story, when God’s own Son drank the Cup of Wrath on behalf of humanity, that the Cup of Forgiveness might be consumed by any willing to drink it.

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

Chapter-a-Day

Lost and Found

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[King Josiah] stood by the pillar and renewed the covenant in the presence of the Lord—to follow the Lord and keep his commands, statutes and decrees with all his heart and all his soul, thus confirming the words of the covenant written in this book. Then all the people pledged themselves to the covenant.
2 Kings 23:3 (NIV)

One of the common themes of all great stories is when the hero loses his or her way. We see it in Luke Skywalker in Star Wars Episode VIII as he has chosen self-exile. Ron Weasley similarly chooses out in the Deathly Hallows. Edmund loses his way and follows the White Witch in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. In The Hobbit, it is Bilbo who loses his way in the Misty Mountains where he happens to find a plain-looking golden ring in the darkness. Despite his insistence that he would never fall away, Peter denies that he knows Jesus three times.

Along my spiritual journey, I have come to embrace that losing one’s way is a common theme for a lot of us. As I look back on my own life journey, I can humbly point back to a period of time I call “the dark years,” in which I lost my way and made many regrettable choices.

In the Great Story told between Genesis and Revelation the theme of losing one’s way is recurring. From the Hebrew tribes “wandering in the wilderness” for 40 years to the exile of Israel and Judah in Assyria and Babylon to Jesus’ parable of the Prodigal Son, the tale of losing one’s way is a familiar one.

In today’s chapter, King Josiah reads the recently discovered Books of Moses to his people. We have no idea how long it had been since the story of Moses delivering the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt and God establishing a covenant with them had been read. It says in today’s chapter that the annual Passover Feast prescribed by God had not been celebrated “neither in the days of the judges who led Israel nor in the days of the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah.” That’s somewhere in the neighborhood of 800 years.

Today’s chapter is essentially about coming home, the Prodigal’s return, and the hero finding his or her way back to the path. Luke shows up to deliver the rebel forces in stunning form. Ron returns just in time to save Harry. Edmund is redeemed and restored by Aslan. Bilbo finds his way back to Thorin and Company with the ring that will help him facilitate the overthrow of Smaug. Jesus restores Peter on the shore of Galilee with three affirmations of his calling. Josiah leads the nation in renewing their covenant with the God who delivered and established them.

In the quiet this morning, I’m reminded that losing one’s way is a very common story. Jesus told stories about lost coins and lost sheep as well as a lost child. The stories are ultimately not about being lost, but about being found. The Shepherd risks the entire flock to search for the lost sheep until it’s found. The Prodigal’s father waits patiently and expectantly on the porch to catch sight of his child’s return. The found book helps Josiah and God’s people to find their way back to God.

I once was lost, but now I’m found.

For the spiritual pilgrim, there’s both encouragement and hope in the revelation that God expectantly desires that I find my way back to Him.

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