Love in February

 February is a rather dreary month, which most likely contributes to the attention given to Valentine’s day.  As a celebration of romantic love, Valentine’s Day in February leaves something to be desired.  February is generally chilly and damp—not ideal for romantic walks and picnics!  Why do we celebrate Valentine’s Day in February?  And is it only about romantic love?  A very brief look at ancient history will help us understand a bit how we got here.   

 

St. Valentine was a priest or bishop who lived in Italy in the third century.  He is known for his efforts to evangelize folks in the Roman Empire and his ministry to believers who were being persecuted by the Roman government.  While visiting Rome, he was arrested for his evangelizing, tortured, and executed.  According to our sources, Valentine died on February 14.

 

If we return to Valentine’s Day, 2025, we have a couple of things to consider.  While the focus of modern Valentine’s Day (and even in history) has been on romantic love, St. Valentine himself is remembered for the agape God-love that he manifested to believers and nonbelievers alike.  Both romantic love and agape love have value, but it is easy to argue that agape love is the more significant and eternal.  The good news is that we can pursue and exercise our “love muscles” in both directions, taking time to love a special someone in a special way even as we pursue loving others as Christ loves them.

 

The calendar position of Valentine’s Day need not be disappointing or frustrating.  It can be an invitation to recognize that all forms of love are from God and go beyond circumstances.  Love is not confined to warm, sunny days.  We can love in all circumstances, all weather.  May we know the joy of the Lord as we do so.

 

20...25!

 January, 2025.  Happy New Year!  While the celebration comes and goes, the new year stays with us.  And so as we look into 2025, we can hardly avoid encountering the ever-popular new year’s resolution thing.  There is value in evaluating where we are and planning so that we can use the year in constructive ministry and growth.  But as I like to say at this time of year, the performance-oriented, self-improvement perspective of many a new year’s resolution is not particularly Biblical or worthwhile.

 In Psalm 139, David, a man after God’s own heart and King of Israel, invites the LORD to search him and know him, to reveal sin that needs attention.  That is an excellent place to start.  Unlike David, we have the indwelling Holy Spirit to search and know us, to convict us of sin and reveal areas in our lives that need growth.  But then what?  It is easy to take the popular route and to invest our focus and energy on fixing ourselves, to measure our progress by our performance, and to compare ourselves to others to measure our success.  Or, we can sit back, put our feet up, and expect the Lord to change us while we expend no effort.  Neither option reflects an effective, Biblical approach to change.

 

The path of change requires a collaborative effort between the Holy Spirit and us.  Please consider with me two portion of Paul’s epistles:

 

For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.  Ephesians 2:8-9

 

So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.  

Philippians 2:12-13

 

Paul’s words encourage us to appreciate the powerfully good news of the Gospel.  We have been saved by grace through faith.  We cannot earn our righteousness, our rightness with God, or our salvation.  We are blessed beyond measure.  But beyond our salvation, we are called to pursue a life that reflects our new life in Christ, and that requires confession, repentance, and obedience on our part as we depend upon Christ’s indwelling Holy Spirit.

 

The continuing good news is that as we seek God’s best for us, He takes even our feeblest effort and does His loaves and fishes thing: Just as Christ took the meager amount of bread and fish from His disciples to feed large crowds, He takes our small steps of faith and magnifies and multiplies them.  As we turn away from our self-focused desires and the counterfeit joys offered by the world, He works to conform our character to that of Christ.  We are able to love well and know deep and abiding joy.

 

We don’t have to change…. We get to change and be changed….

 

 

Christmas Is Coming!

 The beginning of December is unavoidably associated with the coming of the Christmas holiday.  It can be a time of stress, but it is also without doubt a time of anticipation.  And as I think about the upcoming celebration of the Incarnation, I am also thinking about God’s anticipation of this glorious event.

 

When the Triune God first created the world and the man and the woman, there was uninhibited relationship between human and Creator, and harmony among all parts of creation.  This was torn asunder with the fall.  Adam and Eve’s choosing independence from God replaced the intimacy they had enjoyed with their Creator with fear and shame.  The havoc their choice made echoed across all creation.  God wept, and all heaven grieved.

 

Genesis 3 tells us that in the midst of this tragedy, as God pronounces the consequences of their choice, He also makes reference to His plan of redemption: a seed of the woman will crush Satan’s head.  The promise of the Messiah becomes clearer as Hebrew history evolves, and the book of Isaiah is often known as the Fifth Gospel for a good reason: Isaiah proclaims with incredible clarity the coming Messiah.

 

And so the Hebrew nation begins a centuries-long wait for the Messiah.  I don’t think we often consider that God is waiting as well.  From the first, “Adam, where are you?” to His grief over His faithless people expressed by the prophets, we see in the Old Testament a God who hates the fall and its result.  He, too, is waiting for the fulness of time to bring forth the Savior of the world.

 

We also see a God who remains intimately engaged in His creation as He moves history forward toward the Messiah.  In fact, He is so committed that He makes “cameo” appearances.  Scholars call these Theophanies: visible appearances of God to humankind.  And many scholars speculate that those appearances are Christophanies: visible appearances of a preincarnate Christ to humankind.  The thread is strong enough that many commentators identify the phrase angel of the LORD in the Old Testament (not in the New!) as a euphemism—at least at times— for the preincarnate Christ.

 

And so the LORD and two angels appear to Abraham before the judgement of Sodom and Gomorrah.  He also appears to Hagar when she takes Ishmael and runs away from Abraham’s household.  He appears to Abraham again as Abraham prepares to sacrifice his son Isaac.  He wrestles with Jacob as Jacob returns to Canaan after running away from Esau.  And He appears to Moses in the burning bush.  

 

There are multiples instances in the Old Testament where it is at least possible and even quite likely if not certain that a pre-incarnate Christ inserted Himself in human events.  I can only interpret this as evidence that Jesus was as eager to come as we were for Him to come.  Our anticipation of Christmas can be a reminder that our Lord and Savior was as or more eager to take the step of the incarnation as His people were to have Him come.  And now, centuries later, we can at least speculate that as we look beyond our celebration of Christmas to the second coming of Christ, we can consider that He is as eager to bring the church—His bride—to His wedding feast as we are to come.

 

Come, Lord Jesus…!

 

Thought For The Day

"Let God have your life; He can do more with it than you can."

                                                              Dwight L. Moody

 

An October Holiday

 October is the month when we celebrate Halloween—or not.  When I was a young Christian wife and mother, our church culture discouraged involvement in Halloween because it was associated with evil.  My wise and thoughtful husband took the position that our children would be different enough because of our family faith without withdrawing them from Halloween activities.  And I was happy to have the opportunity to love our neighbors by engaging with their children.  Our daughter still complains about our stuffing her pumpkin costume with newspaper to give her a pumpkin shape before going out for trick-or-treating.

 

While some historians posit that Halloween has secular/pagan roots, many scholars believe that the celebration of All Hallows’ Day originates in Christianity and goes back in time to at least the 4^th Century AD.  This is the time the church set aside to honor believers who had died.  This is why the day is also known as All Saints’ Day.  And like other feast days, it was preceded by an evening vigil: All Hallows’ Eve.

 

My intent in writing is not to make a particular argument about the pros or cons of Halloween.  I would prefer to use the celebration of All Hallows’ Day as a reminder that we would do well to remember the saints who have gone before us and thank God for their example and legacy.  Our spiritual ancestors—from the apostles to St. Augustine to Martin Luther to Mother Teresa—are now part of the cloud of witnesses spoken of by the author of Hebrews.  And of course the saints who have gone before us include not only (or even primarily) believers who are well known in history but also the lesser known and unrecognized.  Many of us have believers in our family lines that have contributed to our own faith.  This is a time for gratitude

 

All Hallows’ Eve and All Hallows’ Day also remind us that we are saints.  As we live and walk in faith, we become the hands, feet, and voice of Christ, encouraging other believers and inviting nonbelievers to consider the Lord and Savior of the world.  And then unless Christ returns first, we will die and become members of the cloud of witnesses celebrated on All Hallows’ Day.  

 

Everything In Its Time: Ecclesiastes 3:11

 Human beings, by our very sin nature, have difficulty with transitions.  The fear and shame that accompany our fallen nature urges us to seek security.  Familiarity and predictability are often a priority.  And yet research shows that there is real value in moving out of our comfort zone: Doing so empowers us as we are forced to exercise creativity and flexibility.  It is often required if we are to experience real joy.

 And here we are, looking at September, the month that most loudly signals change and transition.  While there is excitement associated with a new school year, that excitement is often mixed with stress and/or anxiety.  I believe our ability to make transitions in a confident and healthy manner can be improved if we consider some of the components involved.

 

One of the most significant factors in making a transition is our expectations.  We often set ourselves up for failure as we view the transition as larger and our abilities as smaller.  And while it is wise to be realistic, it is also wise to plant our feet on the solid ground of Scripture.  We are called to trust in the Lord and depend upon Him to make our paths straight; we are called to put on the armor of God that will protect us from evil; and we are called to walk in faith, with the conviction that the Lord is working His good purposes in us and through us as we walk through our days.  And while we long to succeed, it is often our failures that provide the Lord with the the opportunity to work for our good in the way we most need Him to.

 

Another factor that I often struggle with is the need for patience.  We can be so eager to prove ourselves, become comfortable, and establish a new normal that we don’t give ourselves an opportunity to learn, make mistakes, and grow.  Transitions, even those that we are fully invested in and enthused about, take time.  And when a transition is not as appealing to us, an extra measure of patience is in order: It may take time to allow the Lord to give us His perspective and for us to see what He might have for us in our new situations and circumstances.

 

Earlier this summer, I had a wonderful time viewing a young bald eagle family in northern Iowa, courtesy of an eagle cam.  As the two chicks grew into fledglings, I was surprised that the eagle personality that I have in my head—strong, bold, fearless—was not apparent in the two eaglets who sat comfortably in their nest and waited for their parents to deliver fresh food.  Eventually, Eaglet #1 started to venture toward the end of the nest, and then a couple of weeks later, onto a branch that extended from the nest.  Soon after, Eaglet #2 did the same.  But even that step did not accelerate the transition toward flight and independence.  The fledglings remained content to spend their days perched on branches.  Eventually, according to the course of development that the Lord has set for this transition in eagle development, the eaglets began to use their wings for their intended purpose.  I think we can learn something from eagles.

 

Transitions can be major or minor, exciting or anxiety-producing, energizing or exhausting; and sometimes they can be an unexpected combination of these characteristics.  But as we walk through times of transition, securely held in the crook of His staff, we can manage expectations and bear the Spirit fruit of patience, which will enable us to grow more and more into who He has created us to be and to fulfill His purposes for us.

 

 

 

Refined In Love

August in New Jersey.  Heat wave after heat wave.  I have never been a fan of hot weather or inclined toward sun worship.  Without a doubt, August in New Jersey is one of the tools the Lord uses to sanctify me, to expose some of my poor attitudes and lead me toward wholeness in Him.  I can’t help but associate the heat associated with this time of year with the Refiner’s fire….

 

Of course, August in New Jersey is not as hot as other locations, and there are many people who enjoy the hot weather.  But life as fallen people in a fallen world means that in one way or another, the Lord will use the stresses we experience to conform us to His image, to refine us.

 

In Biblical times, gold was refined by melting it.  That means bringing gold to a temperature of almost 2000⁰ Fahrenheit!  I am sorry to say that my trials and challenges do not need to get nearly that “hot” to expose my lack of faith and patience.  But as I deal with those trials and challenges, I can appreciate the Lord’s gentle touch and patient attitude toward me even as He uses my circumstances to prepare me for heaven.

 

The attitude that I bring when I encounter something I would prefer to avoid plays a vital role in my ability to walk in faith and remain in the crook of the Shepherd’s staff.  Sometimes the trials in our lives represent consequences for poor and/or disobedient choices that we’ve made.  And in this case, it is important for me to accept the correction, exercise a commitment toward repentance, and thank the Lord for not letting me remain in sin.  At other times, the challenges we face are less personal and more a reflection of the fall.  While repentance may not be in order in this case, an attitude that manifests faith—the conviction that the Lord is working good even though I am unable to see it—remains vital.

 

Applying a living and vibrant faith to life’s challenges does not mean minimizing or denying them.  Suffering on any level is real, and King David and the Old Testament prophets have recorded for us the distress and even despair that they experienced at times.  And that is what makes the trials we face so challenging: Satan would have us become so distracted by tribulation and so disappointed in God that we cease to seek Him.  But King David and the prophets have also recorded for us their unwavering belief in a good and sovereign God despite appearances to the contrary.  God hates the fall and its consequences!  His response is to apply His commitment to redemption to all the pain and ugliness in our lives.

 

To be sure, walking in faith in the midst of difficult times and circumstances is not easy.  There is Good News, though!  The Body of Christ is designed by God and her saints are called to love, uphold, and encourage one another.  As we invest in the life of the body in the form of a local church, we are able to hold and be held, encourage and be encouraged, empower and be empowered.  And as the body functions by the Lord’s design, everyone is blessed.  May it be so among all believers….