A brief word of blessing from my heart to all of my many pastor friends, the unsung heroes of our faith… Pastors who selflessly, sacrificially, and tirelessly serve their flocks without ever expecting or asking for anything in return. God bless you all!!!

I could not be more proud of my darling daughter, Ashley. She just posted this on Facebook. And she generously gave me permission to hijack it for this blog. The kind of thing that would make any dad shed a tear or two. It is well-worth a read! 

Nora slept in our bed last night. 

While I was laying there, taking my sweet time to fall asleep, as I often do, I kept thinking about how much I loved the sweet, little bundle next to me. 

Then my mind jumped from that warm, happy place to the worst place imaginable where I kept thinking over and over, “What if something ever happened to her?” 

I then devised a plan, a series of plans, that I would, of course, never actually be able to follow through on. Plans like never letting her leave the house, interviewing every person that may come into contact with her to make sure they are worthy of her, or the most practical of all: simply not allow her to grow up. 

As I slowly had to let those ideas fade away, I began to realize what a shame it would be if any of them were possible. I would never get to see my little girl become a woman, I would never be able to see her develop her own likes and dislikes, I would never have the privilege of hearing her opinions, I would never get to witness her fall in love. 

I then began to wonder, and then ultimately decided I believe, that God must feel the same way when it comes to us. 

How He must long to create a protective bubble around us, and how His heart must break when we do things that hurt ourselves and others. 

And all the while He is waiting, just like I will always wait for Nora, with a heart full of compassion, forgiveness, and love. 

Knowing that I have a Father God who cares for me even more deeply than I do my precious child is so comforting… not to mention humbling! 

And then I took this thought process and applied it to a bigger picture. I have had people ask me in the past, and upon occasion wrestle with the question myself, of why an all-powerful, loving God would allow pain and hurt in this world. I know that I may never have a complete answer to that, and there are many who have a greater grasp on this subject than I, but I did get a clear look at a small part of the picture. 

In the same way that I will have to let Nora grow up and have free-will, in the same way I will have to let her become the person she decides to be, and in the same way I will have to allow her to one day make her own decisions that may be potentially devastating to herself and/or others, God has given us free-will. He let’s us grow into the people that we decide to be, and allows us the opportunity to make decisions that could be potentially devastating to ourselves and/or others. And He does that out of love… just the way I will with Nora… Always waiting with a heart full of compassion, forgiveness, and love, ready to step in at a moment’s notice to help her pick up the pieces, and with the hope that she may learn, grow, and be better for it. 

I know that some people don’t and will not agree with me, and that’s okay… These are just the thinks that I think in the middle of the night.

Wanna take a guess? Then stop reading. Because the very next sentence contains a vital clue.

Leave it to Jesus to offer a blessing that includes the word “meek,” the word which the noted Bible scholar William Barclay called “the most untranslatable word in the New Testament.”

Dr. Barclay was right. As you are about to hear in this PODCAST, I know of no other statement made by Jesus that has been so universally mistranslated, misinterpreted, or misapplied.

Except that Jesus did not come up with this…

Believe it or not, Matthew 5:5 is a quote taken verbatim from the Old Testament, specifically the book of Psalms, even more specifically Psalm 37, and even more particularly Psalm 37:11.

Consequently, it is only in the understanding of that singularly significant psalm that we can correctly understand and apply Matthew 5:5, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth” to our lives.

Let me assure you that the words of this beatitude were and are revolutionary. We are talking about a world view here, one that is not natural. No one by nature has a single strand of meekness woven into his or her DNA.

And yet, as we will soon see, meekness is essential for you and me to develop if we long to live dynamic, vibrant, victorious Christ-centered lives.

And since this is the only blessing out of the eight beatitudes that Jesus quoted from the OT, in order for us to fully understand, appreciate, and apply this third beatitude to our lives, we must first understand Psalm 37 from which it comes. A truly remarkable psalm! A genuinely heartwarming psalm. A psalm that will confer upon you the totality of the blessing that Jesus pronounced on the masses who gathered on that hillside that day to hear Him.

Please note that depending upon your web browser, it may take up to 60 seconds for this podcast to begin to play.

HAPPY LISTENING!!!

Did you know that there are nine different Greek words used in the New Testament to refer to grief, sorrow, sadness, mourning? Nine!

As you are about to discover in this PODCAST, there needs to be a variety of words because sadness is such a large part of our daily lives.

If you think about it, the whole of human history is a solemn story largely written with the ink our tears. 

Sorrow, sadness, grief, and mourning are often the threads of which the human tapestry is woven.

Yes, it’s OK to mourn, to feel sorrow, to know sadness, to experience grief. On multiple levels, with multiple levels of intensity. The biblical writers understood this, legitimized this (if I may use that word), so that we need not feel guilty, ashamed, or somehow unspiritual or spiritually inferior when we do.

Sorrow and sadness are legitimate human emotions. 

In fact, there are times in each of our lives when it would be inappropriate not to feel sorrowful or sad, or to mourn. Indeed, there is a wealth of insight, a richness to the human experience that can only be realized in the shadows of life. As our Arab friends so often say, “All sunshine makes a desert.”

So it probably will not surprise you to learn that the word translated mourn in Matthew 5:4 — “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” — is the strongest of those nine Greek terms.

Consequently, if you have ever mourned, or are mourning now, you will receive enormous comfort from God Himself as you listen to this podcast. Simply click HERE to listen in. (Or click on the Podcast Player in the upper right hand column, titled, “Listen to my latest podcast here.”)

Please note that depending upon your web browser, it may take up to 60 seconds for this podcast to begin to play.

HAPPY LISTENING!

“Why did God take my parents from me?”

This question from a Junior High/Middle School student, asked at a Christian camp just a few short weeks ago.

One of the many things I LOVE about junior highers is the raw emotion that lies just beneath the surface of so much of what they do and say. There is no pretense with these young teens. They haven’t yet perfected the game-playing the characterizes so many of us older people. What you see is more often than not what you get. They are real. And so many of them are really hurting.

I cannot even begin to imagine the wounds behind the 8 words that this one student would ask of God is he or she knew that He would give them an absolutely honest answer.

And while I am a pitifully poor substitute for God, I do have a sense of how I believe God would have answered that question, and will share that answer now as if I am talking directly to the student.

Death is an intruder in the human race. When God first created the world and pronounced it “good,” no one died. No one needed to die. Death was a foreign concept. An unwelcome guest. Not even an entry in the dictionary of human conversation.

When God one day (sooner rather than later, I think) recreates this world, the first thing God will banish from the “New Heaven and the New Earth” is death. Through the pen of the Apostle John, God declared for all the world (and you and me) to hear,

“God will wipe away every tear from (our) eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain. These things of the past are gone forever.” (Revelation 21:4).

I do definitely believe that God would tell you that when your parents died, it was as if a part of His heart died right along with them. Just as Jesus wept at the tomb of Lazarus, so Jesus wept when your parents tragically left this earth. In fact, the tears that you are now shedding in remembrance of your parents God is storing up in a bottle, and counting every one (Psalm 56:8). No tear is ever shed without God knowing about it, and grieving right along with us. Right along with you.

There is a theme that runs through the Bible. It’s not particularly obvious. We have to dig a little deeper to discover it. But once we do, it’s amazing how often we will see this theme repeated throughout the unfolding biblical story.

The theme is this: Whenever someone loses one or both parents prematurely (through death, or divorce, or some equally painful family tragedy), and is therefore forced to grow up in the absence of one or both parents, it is proof-positive that God has a very special plan and purpose for that individual. A special plan and purpose for you!

I really want you to hear that. So let me repeat this all-important sentence: 

Whenever someone loses one or both parents prematurely (through death, or divorce, or some equally painful family tragedy), and is therefore forced to grow up in the absence of one or both parents, it is proof-positive that God has a very special plan and purpose for that individual. A special plan and purpose for you!

Think of the people whom God mightily used in Scripture. Almost without exception, he or she was someone who lost one or both parents at a relatively young age.

Abraham left his homeland and most of his family when he made the move from Ur to Israel. While en route to the Promised Land, his beloved dad died. Abraham settled in Beersheba and started his new life without the benefit of a mom or dad to guide the way. Just think about how much God used Abraham, whom He later referred to as, “the friend of God” (James 2:23). Yes, God certainly had a powerful plan for Abraham, didn’t He? There never would have been a Jesus if there wasn’t first an Abraham.

Joseph’s beloved mom died when he was a younger boy. He was then betrayed by his brothers. As a consequence of that betrayal, as a teen Joseph was removed from his home, taken captive to a foreign land, and forced first to live as a slave, and later as an incarcerated criminal for a crime he never committed. Joseph did nothing to deserve any of this. Just when it seemed like Joseph needed his dad the most, he couldn’t reach him. But he could reach God. And God eventually used Joseph to save his people from the starvation of a famine that threatened to wipe them out. Yes, God certainly had a powerful plan for Joseph, didn’t He? There never would have been a Jesus if there wasn’t first a Joseph.

Moses was forced by circumstances beyond his control to be raised by a woman who was not his mom. He, like Joseph, grew up apart from both his parents. Yet, Moses is the central figure of the Old Testament, the deliverer of God’s people from 400 years of slavery in Egypt, and is considered even today the single most important individual in the minds and hearts of the Jewish people. And for good measure, “There has never been another prophet in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face” (Deuteronomy 34:10). Yes, God certainly had a powerful plan for Moses, didn’t He? There never would have been a Jesus if there wasn’t first a Moses.

Ruth married a young man whose dad had died when he was still living in his home. After their marriage, he died, leaving Ruth a widow. She might have been without a husband, but she was never without God. Ruth adopted the Jewish people as her own people, and their God as her God. And believe it or not, Ruth became the great grandmother of King David, the direct descendant of Jesus. Yes, God certainly had a powerful plan for Ruth, didn’t He? There never would have been a Jesus if there wasn’t first a Ruth.

Esther saved the Jewish people from certain annihilation. Of Esther’s childhood we read, “When her father and mother died, Mordecai adopted her into his family and raised her as his own daughter” (Esther 2:7). To this day, she is a hero of the Jewish people, and rightly so. Every year on Purim, her story is read, and every little Jewish girl dresses up in costume as Queen Esther. Yes, God certainly had a powerful plan for Esther, didn’t He? There never would have been a Jesus if there wasn’t first an Esther.

Are you beginning to see the pattern here? It’s everywhere in the Bible! You are not alone!

Of course, I could go on and on with example after example. But my space and your time is limited. So I’ll give you just one more.

Jesus lost his dad, Joseph, when he was growing up. Joseph is not mentioned again after Jesus was twelve. As Jesus hung on that old rugged cross, He stopped dying long enough to provide for the care of His widowed mom, Mary. He asked His beloved apostle, John, to take her into his home because Joseph had long since died. Yes, God certainly had a powerful plan for Jesus, didn’t He?

And as if all of that wasn’t enough, get this! God has granted to you a very special, precious, and unique relationship with Him that only comes to those who have lost one or both of their natural parents. And just to punctuate this point, God even calls Himself, “A father to the fatherless” (Psalm 68:5).

Oh, and BTW (by the way), FWIW (for what it’s worth), one final thought: You are reading the words of a guy who, as a teenager, lost his dad too (to divorce, abandoning my mom, two younger sisters, and me), and not too long after that, to death. So trust me, I “get it.”

It is mentioned 611 times in the Bible. In the book of Psalms — which consists of the prayers, the heartfelt pleas of God’s people as they (we) reach out to Him — it is mentioned 147 times.

It is the universal cry of the human heart. As proof of that statement, consider this: Down through the millennia of human history, our most precious literature is replete with references to this elusive quality.

Yet, in our culture, in our day, I hardly ever hear it mentioned anymore. It has indeed become a casualty of a culture in collapse.

In its place, we are witnessing a coarsening of our conversation. Hate-speech fills our airwaves. Violence fills our streets. And an increasing sense of isolation floods our souls.

In this PODCAST, as we continue with our rich and rewarding study of Jesus in High Definition, we will rediscover together this missing facet of a dynamic faith.

Simply click on the podcast player (where it says, “Listen to my latest podcast here”) in the upper right hand column of this blog page, sit back, and enjoy.

You will be encouraged!

Please note that depending upon your web browser, it may take up to 60 seconds for the podcast to begin to play.

HAPPY LISTENING!