Wilderness Wanderings

Our text comes from 1 Timothy 6:6: But godliness with contentment is great gain. Gahazi's is a sad story. As Elisha's servant, he watched as Elisha refused payment for the healing of Naaman. Gahazi thought this was rubbish. He slipped out the back door to follow Naaman. Interrupting the commander's journey home, he lied about his purposes and came away with a sizable payment, which he hid. But of course, Elisha was wise to him. As punishment, Gahazi was inflicted with Naaman's leprosy. Gahazi lived with and served God's primary prophet in Israel. He knew the miracles that both Elijah and Elisha had performed. Surely, he knew that to provide adequately for his prophets was no big deal for the God of Israel. Provision he had aplenty. Access to God he had at his fingertips. Yet he wanted more. He was not content. Paul warns us about this, “Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs” (1 Timothy 6:9-10). Instead, pursue this, “Godliness with contentment is great gain.” There's a quiet strength in these words — a kind of wisdom that cuts against the grain. We are surrounded by messages that tell us gain comes from getting — more possessions, more comfort, more status. But Paul says, true gain does not come from adding more. This is not a contentment that shrugs its shoulders and settles for less. It's a deep sufficiency — a settled peace that flows from knowing that Christ is enough. We don't find contentment by ignoring the world's goodness, but by knowing where our ultimate treasure lies. This contentment isn't natural. We must learn it as Paul did, “I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.” That learning often comes through loss, through the stripping away of the things we thought we needed. And in those moments, we discover that we can lose everything and still have Christ — and therefore still have everything that matters. Godliness with contentment — that's not a small thing. It's freedom. Freedom from envy. Freedom from anxiety. Freedom from the restless drive to prove ourselves. It is the life of one who has found their joy in God Himself. So, what does this look like for us? It changes the reasons for paid employment. It changes the way we purchase things. As you go about your activities this week, keep an eye on your heart. Pay attention to the moments when discontentment rises. In Christ, we already possess the greatest treasure — and when we have Him, we can learn contentment, knowing that nothing more can make us truly rich. As you journey on, go with the blessing of God: Wherever God takes you today, may He fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit and that you may live carefully—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity.

Our text is Exodus 34:21: Six days you shall labor, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even during the plowing season and harvest you must rest. In the shadows of Mount Sinai, Israel made a choice defining her values as a nation. She chose to trust the God who created heaven and earth and to trust the reliability of the creation. The people also chose to shun the anxiety that comes from a lack of confidence in the goodness of the creator and the goodness of creation. They chose to follow the God who rests. But that choice was difficult to maintain. The covenant is confirmed in Exodus 24, but by Exodus 32, Moses has been on the mountain for 40 days. They are not convinced he will return, and God seems extremely distant. As such, they return to anxiety. What do they do in their anxiety? They make their own god, of course, just like we do. Their god was made of gold. Our gods are less tangible: money, production, consumerism, entertainment, knowledge, psychology, sports, even religious rituals. They assumed that they could somehow purchase security. Don't we do the same. Trusting our own resources to solve our problems. When Moses returns, he smashes the stones with the commandments into dust. The covenant lies dissolved at the foot of the mountain. God is rightfully angry, but Moses intervenes, and God does something astonishing: he forgives. He says, “I am making a covenant with you. Before all your people I will do wonders never before done in any nation in all the world. The people you live among will see how awesome is the work that I, the Lord, will do for you” (Exodus 34:10). Then he gives them new commandments, similar but different than the ten. These include this, “Six days you shall labor, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even during the plowing season and harvest you must rest” (34:21). Growing up in the agricultural sector, I remember the pressure to work in spring and fall when crops needed to be sown and harvested. There is always work to do. The pressure to produce rarely subsides. It's not easy to let go of our anxiety that production depends on us. This command to rest concerns the human work of exercising “dominion” over the earth to cause it to produce. Sabbath interrupts the productive, food-producing creation system in which we must participate. It's an invitation to trust the land—creation and its creator—enough to rest, even in the busy agricultural seasons of sowing and reaping. Our lives should conform to the rhythms of creation, work and rest in appropriate amounts. When we are in sync with that, we train our bodies away from the anxiety production causes in us. Resting teaches our bodies to trust in God; our minds and our souls will catch up if we live the rhythm. As you journey on, go with this blessing: Go to Jesus and he will give you rest and an easy yoke (Matthew 11:30). May the presence of God go with you and give you rest (Exodus 33:14).

This archive edition is upon request from a listener. What follows is the original audio track from August 29, 2024. Our text comes from Philippians 3:         "He will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like His glorious body" (Philippians 3:21). The gospel story sounds too good to be true. It is the story of sheep rescued from a dark and fearful wilderness by the strong arms of a fierce shepherd. It's the story of children released from prison, of demons unmasked. It is the story of fearful disciples in a storm-tossed boat; the storm stilled by the command of their Master. It is the story of sick people healed, of blind people seeing. It is the story of dead people coming to life. It is the story of the God-man. It is the story of God who is captured, sentenced, and crucified by His own people. His friends weep and his enemies laugh. And all because of a snake. The gospel is a story about a snake who experienced the thrill of evil victory. "I have won," he hissed. "God lays in the grave." But as the sun rose over the horizon chasing the darkness from the garden, the guards ran with it, and the unexpected happened. The story turned. There was one more chapter to be written. The Shepherd came out of the tomb; God was alive. Heaven and earth shouted for joy; the angels danced, and the Father smiled as His Son went off to find His friends. And the snake; he lay in the dust; his head crushed; his tail quivering as life left him. It is a story that we are part of. That Sunday morning, many years ago is our story. The resurrection is part of our Christian faith, its cornerstone. As we read the resurrection story our hearts are stabbed with joy. We dance with the angels as good triumphs over evil. We are glad, our faith is not in vain, Christ arose. But… This life and this present world are subject to sin. We seldom think of sin as vanity, but it is. Life is vanity when it has no meaning. If we do not know the meaning of life, why live? why do anything at all? Most people don't like that question because it is too deep; it gets too close to the answer that life is not worth living; that there is no purpose to it. This is the haunting refrain of the book of Ecclesiastes. Vanity means emptiness, fluff, a fistful of wind, a pocketful of nothing. It means to pay the mortgage for all your working days and then to die. It means working hard and running fast and getting nowhere. Vanity is a political speech that means exactly nothing. Vanity is the hope that tomorrow will be different, that there is gold at the end of the rainbow; vanity is wisdom and folly, hard work and laziness, laughter, seriousness, and everything, because everything leads nowhere. In this life, we struggle against this sin. We fight against sin in our own lives. We struggle against sin in the world. We push against greed, and we bite our tongues to keep from lying. We stand up for the oppressed and give money to the poor. We seek to elect politicians who strive for justice. When our eyes fill with longing for another's toys, we turn away. But so often it feels like it's all in vain. The world does not get any better. And we, well, we don't seem too either. We cry out with Paul, “What a wretched person I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death, to vanity?” But because of the resurrection we can also answer with him, “Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:24-25). The resurrection gives us something to hope for in the future. While we struggle against sin today, we know that tomorrow sin will be gone. While our bodies are weak today, we know someday they will be strong. The gospel is our story. We too will be changed. Christ will transform our lowly bodies. They will no longer be subject to disease or age or sin or vanity. Christ will transform our characters to be like his. We will have no more inclination for lying. Our eyes won't covet our neighbour's stuff. As surely as Christ opened the eyes of the blind and stilled the storms, he will transform us. There is hope for us. Thanks be to God. As you journey on, go with the blessing of God:   May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you, wherever he may send you. May he guide you through the wilderness, protect you through the storm. May your day end with rejoicing at the wonders he has shown you.  May you rest in his provision as he brings night, and then new dawn.

Our text comes from Deuteronomy 25:15-16: You must have accurate and honest weights and measures, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you. For the Lord your God detests anyone who does these things, anyone who deals dishonestly. A few years ago, I spent some time in Brazil. A Christian businessman told me that when he took a client out for lunch, the restaurant normally offered to make the receipt out for double what he paid, so that his tax exemption would be doubled. He always declined. However, he admitted that the temptation was always present to go along with the system. To have integrity, to be honest, took effort. Throughout history, dishonesty in the buying and selling of goods has been common practice. To promote fairness, we have developed standard weights--an international prototype kilogram made of nine-tenths platinum and one-tenth iridium is locked under 3 glass jars in Paris. This need for honesty in business dealings extends beyond ancient scales. It applies to any area where numbers can be manipulated, such as taxes, online transactions, timesheets, donations, and even our personal relationships. For this purpose, accounting and financial rules have been enacted into law. Auditing firms analyze financial records to detect misuse of funds. But laws are subject to interpretation and manipulation. As Christians, we seek to do everything to the glory of the Lord (1 Corinthians 10:31). This means, like my Brazilian acquaintance, we put effort into honesty in all our dealing, including financial ones. We do this because God himself is profoundly honest with us. He is just and true and we seek to be like him. Sometimes, God includes a comment that a law offers long life in the land. This does not mean that every individual will live to a ripe old age. Rather, it suggests that the keeping of this law means a society can flourish for many generations. By insisting on fair practices, the community is protected from exploitation. A society where people can trust each other can thrive economically and socially. When a society runs on dishonesty, it is always the weak and poor who suffer the most. Dishonesty deteriorates a society into strong people exploiting the weak. And God will stand up for them, dismantling unjust nations. We should reflect on how to apply this principle in our live. Do we have accurate "weights" in our daily life, such as being truthful about our timecards, finances, or online sales? How can we advocate for fairness in a world where the powerful can easily take advantage of the weak? Honesty in our business dealings demonstrates our faith that the LORD will sustain us both monetarily and physically. As you journey on, go with the blessing of God: Wherever God takes you today, may He fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit and that you may live carefully—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity.

A Sunday Sermon edition of Wilderness Wanderings!  The text is John 15:9-17. Dive In discussion questions are below for further reflection! To see this sermon in the context of the worship service it comes from, find it here on YouTube.  Or, head to our website to connect with the worshiping community of Immanuel CRC: immanuelministries.ca Dive In!  How would you explain friendship to someone? Who has been a friend to you? What made you feel that friendship? What is the first aspect of “friends of God”? What is the kingdom of God? How do we experience it today? What is the second aspect of “friends of God”? What are its results? What has it cost you to love and obey? How have you experienced the joy of obedience? What is the third aspect of “friends of God”? How has this been misunderstood? How will this change how you pray?

Our text is Exodus 20:8-11: Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. Sabbath keeping is an art form in which we resist certain values, refusing to allow them to define our identity and way of life. Within the 10 commandments, it gets a place of prominence, linking our relationship to God with our relationship to fellow humans. It gets the most words. Consider these things with me. In Egypt, Pharaoh was god, his word was an iron law. But he was an anxious god, worrying about his dreams. Knowing that famine was coming, he gathered resources. When the hungry people came to him for food, instead of sharing his wealth, he sold his resources so that all of Egypt, including its people, belonged to him. God indeed – he controlled everything! In such a world, everyone worked for Pharaoh. And every person, including neighbours and family, was competitor for the scarce resources that Pharaoh passed out. Competition raged. Everyone was anxious. At mount Sinai, the Israelites switch allegiance. They commit themselves to the God of Abraham (cf. Ex. 19:8), who freed them from Pharaoh's clutches. But what kind of God is he? He is a God who rested (Genesis 2:2-3). After creating, God did not show up to do more, nor did he check on creation in anxiety to ensure it was working. He had complete confidence in the fruit-bearing, blessing-generating processes of creation. Despite sin, this still holds. Jesus pointed to the birds and flowers. They are still provided for, so stop being so anxious (Matthew 6:25ff). Unlike Pharaoh, God is not a workaholic. He does not keep jacking up production schedules. Instead, God rests, confident, serene, at peace. God's rest bestows on us a restfulness that contradicts the “drivenness” of the system of Pharaoh and of our own day. God invites us to a new life of neighborly freedom in which Sabbath is the cornerstone. Such faithful practice of work stoppage is an act of resistance. Our bodies declare that we will not participate in the anxious system that pervades our social environment. We will not be defined by busyness and by pursuit of more, in either our economics or our personal relations. Our life does not consist in production. Sabbath invites us into a life that does not consist in frantic production and consumption reducing everyone else to threat and competitor. Sabbath permits a waning of anxiety, redeploying energy to the neighborhood, to exchange anxious productivity with committed neighborliness. This practice creates an environment of security and respect and dignity that defines how we live and how we view others. As you journey on, go with this blessing: Go to Jesus and he will give you rest and an easy yoke (Matthew 11:30). May the presence of God go with you and give you rest (Exodus 33:14).

Love must be sincere… Share with the Lord's people who are in need. Practice hospitality (Romans 12:9a, 13) Hospitality, as a practise of the Christian life, means more than opening our homes to people. It is rooted in God's own character and behaviour. Jesus helps us understand. First, Jesus came to earth. When we think of hospitality, we often think about inviting people into our spaces. When we do that, we remain in a comfortable place, and largely in control of the situation. We can expect people to play by our rules when they enter our space. But Jesus came to earth. He turns the concept of hospitality on its head. He comes into our space. And he sends us out, he says ‘Go'. Go into other people's spaces. Part of Christian hospitality then, is to let go of the control that comes from being in our own spaces and learning how to live and move in some else's. Are there places we don't want to go? Are there places that make us uncomfortable and therefore we stay away? I think the honest answer is yes. As a pastor, I have been invited into many spaces that were unfamiliar, in which I really did not know how to behave. I'm sure that I made a mess of some. But in such spaces, I have learned to ask a simple question, why did you invite me here, or what would you like me to do while I'm here. Such questions empower people; it lets them set the agenda. It also reminds me that there is much I don't know and that people might not need anything from me but my presence. Second, because Jesus lived as a human, he can sympathize with us. The book of Hebrews makes a big deal about this. How long did Jesus live here? About 33 years. How can we sympathize with people if we don't invest time in walking with them? An essential component of Christian hospitality is the ability to sympathize with other people. This can not be rushed. So, hospitality invites us in for the long haul. It calls us to pay attention to people, to set aside our own agendas, especially our answers to people's problems and to listen. We tend to view people as projects that we get to fix. Once, fixed, we move on to the next. People are not projects. Each human bears the image of God. Does this understanding of hospitality unnerve us? Does it seem more difficult than just inviting someone over? Of course, it does. But remember this, after Jesus returned to the Father, he sent his Spirit. God's Holy Spirit now makes his home in us. He empowers us to be hospitable. He helps us love like God loves. As you journey on, go with the blessing of God: May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you, wherever he may send you. May he guide you through the wilderness, protect you through the storm. May your day end with rejoicing at the wonders he has shown you. May you rest in his provision as he brings night, and then new dawn.

Our text comes from Matthew 5:37: All you need to say is simply ‘Yes' or ‘No'; anything beyond this comes from the evil one. Words have value! In a world with too many words, we forget their value. Christians have always recognized that words have power. We believe in a God who spoke the cosmos into being. We believe that ‘the Word became flesh.' We submit ourselves (not always willingly) to the proclamation of the gospel through preaching because we believe God speaks to us in this way. But we have too many words and too many ways that words come to us. The multiplication of words has led to the multiplication of lies and fake news. Many words we do not trust. Ecclesiastes describes this well, “The more the words, the less the meaning, and how does that profit anyone?” (6:11). We live in a world that often runs on half-truths, exaggerations, and spin. It is easy to join the fray. But the Bible teaches that “Sin is not ended by multiplying words, but the prudent hold their tongues” (Proverbs 19:10). And Jesus teaches us to keep our words simple and short and truthful. In His day, people often made elaborate oaths to prove they were telling the truth—swearing by heaven, by earth, by Jerusalem, even by their own heads. But oaths like that often masked a lack of honesty. If we need to pile up promises and guarantees, maybe our word cannot be trusted. Jesus cuts through all of that. He says, in essence: Truthful people don't need oaths to prop up their words. Their speech itself carries the weight of truth. Let your “yes” be yes. Let your “no” be no. In other words, be so consistent, so trustworthy, so transparent, that people know we mean what we say without needing further proof. Before we make a promise, we ought to plan how we will keep it. This way we be able to determine if we can fulfill what we commit to. Our God is a promise keeping God. He is well known for it. A disciple of Christ is called to mirror the character of God, and God is the One who never lies, whose promises never fail. If He says “yes,” it is a “yes” forever. If He says “no,” it is unshakably “no.” Our speech, then, becomes a reflection of His faithfulness. If your co-workers were asked about your character would truthfulness be mentioned? Would they say that you keep your word, you can be counted on? There is great freedom in not having to calculate, exaggerate, or cover your tracks—when you can speak with the kind of integrity that needs no backup. So let your “yes” really mean yes. Let your “no” really mean no. As you journey on, go with the blessing of God: Wherever God takes you today, may He fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit and that you may live carefully—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity.

A Sunday Sermon edition of Wilderness Wanderings!  The text is Exodus 19:1-7. Dive In discussion questions are below for further reflection! To see this sermon in the context of the worship service it comes from, find it here on YouTube.  Or, head to our website to connect with the worshiping community of Immanuel CRC: immanuelministries.ca Dive-In Questions What underlies God's covenant with us? Why did God make covenant with Israel and now the church? How does this impact on our lives? Why is the “if” in verse 5 important? Describe “treasured possession, kingdom of priests and holy nation.” Why does God use this language? What motivates you towards holy living

Our text is Exodus 9:1: Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh and say to him, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, says: “Let my people go, so that they may worship me.” In 1901, Dr. Girdner coined the term “Newyorkitis” to describe an illness whose symptoms included edginess, quick movements, and impulsiveness. It was a condition of the mind, body, and soul affecting many New Yorkers. That was a world without the internet, high-speed cars, or computers. Our world has only sped up. I wonder what he would say about us. Speed has become a god. Our culture generates in us an endless pursuit of greater security and greater happiness; a pursuit always unsatisfied because we have never gotten or done enough. This god is accompanied by the god of the market that summons us to endless desires and needs that are never met but always require more effort. The advertising god in service to the market god always offers one more product for purchase, one more car, one more deodorant, one more prescription drug, one more cell phone, one more beer. We are harassed by many Pharaohs who kept reminding us of the inadequacy of our lives. Constantly, we see signs that we do not measure up yet, haven't quite arrived, haven't yet reached our potential, haven't been recognized by quite the right people. Weariness, being heavy-laden, carrying an ill-fitting weighty yoke are all ways of speaking of those serving these gods of endless productivity. We have become worshippers of a system of gods that leaves us permanently restless. Into that system God says, “Let my people go, so that they may worship me.” The God of the Bible is a Sabbath-keeping God, ensuring that restfulness and not restlessness is at the center of life. Sabbath becomes a decisive, concrete, visible way of opting for and aligning with the God of rest. We must choose the gods of restlessness or the God of restfulness. Jesus declares to his disciples, “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money” (Matthew 6:24). The way of money is the way of endless desire, endless productivity, and endless restlessness without any Sabbath. Jesus taught his disciples that they could not have it both ways. God called Israel to depart from the Egyptian system to dance and sing in freedom (cf. Exodus 15). He calls us to do the same. Sabbath is not an idea but a practical art. We are conditioned to run at brick-making speed. God offers freedom. To cease, even for a time, the anxious striving for more bricks is to find ourselves with a “light burden” and an “easy yoke.” It is now, as then, enough to permit dancing and singing into an alternative life. Which will we choose? As you journey on, go with this blessing: Go to Jesus and he will give you rest and an easy yoke (Matthew 11:30). May the presence of God go with you and give you rest (Exodus 33:14).

Love must be sincere… Share with the Lord's people who are in need. Practice hospitality (Romans 12:9a, 13) This terse command, practice hospitality, is sandwiched into a meditation on love, an attitude of the mind that leads us to bless others in practical ways. The beauty of our love and our hospitality will only be revealed when they are deeply rooted in the love and hospitality of our God and empowered by his Spirit. Other places in scripture also address hospitality. Hebrews 13:2 says, “Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it”. This is preceded by the instruction to keep loving each other as sisters and brothers. Luke describes the church this way, “All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need” (Acts 2:44-45). Hospitality within the church family naturally leads to hospitality to those not part of the family. As Luke finishes, “and the Lord added to their number daily” (47). In the context of a famine, we also discover hospitality. God sends his prophet Elijah to a widow. He finds this woman preparing a last meal for herself and her son. After that they will die of starvation. Elijah has the nerve to ask her to prepare some bread for him first. Talk about hospitality to a stranger! He follows up his request with this promise, “this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘The jar of flour will not be used up, and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the Lord sends rain on the land'” (1 Kings 17:14). The widow did as Elijah asked. She fed him and family until the Lord provided rain. For me, she is the prime example of human hospitality in the Bible. Hospitality has often become an act of impressing others, of showing off. We show case our homes, our decorating abilities, our capacity to put on a meal, our ability to entertain. Unless we can imitate Martha Stewart or some celebrity chef, we feel inadequate. Such hospitality is about us, portraying a sense of having it all together. The Christian discipline of hospitality is not about us. We cannot give out of our abundance. It will never be enough. Rather, we need to give out of God's provision. He has provided us with resources, not to hold onto tightly, but to hold loosely, so that they easily slide out of our fingers towards those God invites us to love. We need to develop the faith of this widow, who acted hospitably towards Elijah, trusting in God's provision for herself and her family. God promises that he will provide for us. Jesus says, “But seek first [God's] kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things (clothes, food, shelter) will be given to you as well” (Matthew 6:33). Trust in this promise enables us to practice hospitality. As you journey on, go with the blessing of God: May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you, wherever he may send you. May he guide you through the wilderness, protect you through the storm. May your day end with rejoicing at the wonders he has shown you. May you rest in his provision as he brings night, and then new dawn.

A Sunday Sermon edition of Wilderness Wanderings!  The text is Genesis 11:27-12:3 & Genesis 18:16-19. Dive In discussion questions are below for further reflection! To see this sermon in the context of the worship service it comes from, find it here on YouTube.  Or, head to our website to connect with the worshiping community of Immanuel CRC: immanuelministries.ca Dine In! How do curse and blessing relate to each other? To whom does the blessing lead? What role does the doctrine of election play in the blessing? How has our congregation been living into that role? How can we improve? What can you do this week to live the doctrine of election in your daily life? What was Abraham's task in moving the blessing forward? Who taught you the way of the Lord? Who are you teaching it to? Is our teaching rooted in “law” or does it proceed from the “promise”?

While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you” (Luke 24:36). Most of us live with a fear of failure. The need to succeed is strong. We don't want to be embarrassed. Think about the stress that report card season causes for teachers, students and parents. Or take field day. When I was in grade school, the day was all about first, second and third place ribbons. One year, they started handing out participation ribbons so that no student would go home ribbon-less. They were not put on display. We were not fooled; they smelled of failure. In the Christian life, we have the same problem. We need to succeed. How many of us haven't quit devotions because we can't pray as well as the next person? Or we miss a couple of days of Bible reading and before we know it feelings of failure set in. We don't start again until some motivational speaker gets us back on track. We tried witnessing once; it was a disaster. Never again. But what if we could see a different picture? What if we see Jesus entering the locked room his disciples were hiding in? He didn't wait for them to get their act together. He met them in their failure and doubt and sent them out as his witnesses. What if he had let Peter sink that day Peter walked on water and then got filled with fear? Jesus doesn't do that. He reached out his hand and caught him (Matthew 14:31). Our God recognizes our weaknesses and proneness to failure. Thus, he is described as “compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love” (Psalm 103:8). Even Abraham, that Old Testament great, failed in his walk with God. But he was not abandoned. He learned from his failures; they helped him grow in faith. Many of our unbelieving co-workers expect perfection from us. We lean into this heresy when we refuse to forgive ourselves. One of the ways that we can portray the character of our God is not getting bogged down in our shortcomings. This does not mean that we should take sin lightly, but to know in our very bones that it does not have the last work. When we let him down, Jesus reaches out and catches us. Surely, if the world can see a people who believe more firmly in the grace of God than the taunting of the evil one, they will want to know our God. When we fail, hear the words of Jesus, “Peace be with you.” The Spirit will pick you up and send you out again. As you journey on, go with the blessing of God: Wherever God takes you today, may He fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit and that you may live carefully—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity.

Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience (Hebrews 4:11). Genesis 2 opens with the seventh day, where God rests, but not because he was tired. Instead, we get a picture of God finishing creation with a Sabbath that never ends. Sabbath is creation flourishing. This is illustrated in Israel's year of Jubilee in which slaves were freed, debts were forgiven, and the land was restored to those God had gifted it to; a nation created to flourish in the lavish abundance of their God. God's desire for his creation to experience and enjoy this Sabbath is expressed by Jesus through his miracles. He provides an abundance of wine, of bread and fish; he heals, gives freedom from demons and gives life to the dead. Many of these he performed on the Sabbath, giving rest to those bound by evil. Sin interfered with God's Sabbath in the beginning, continued to interfere throughout Israel's history and still stains our own lives today. Sin destroys shalom; it brings death where life was intended. Hebrews tells us that God is still at work; at work undoing the evil that is leeching health from us. He is moving history towards the ultimate Sabbath when all evil will be eradicated. We are redeemed to move into this Sabbath. Our text says, “Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest.” The Heidelberg Catechism offers this explanation, “that every day of my life I rest from my evil ways, let the Lord work in me through his Spirit, and so begin already in this life the eternal Sabbath” (A 103). Sin is an unpopular teaching today. The Christian church has often used it to shame and manipulate people. The Catechism is helpful, “I rest from my evil ways.” The emphasis is on the individual Christian pursuing righteous ways of living; to pray with the psalmist, “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting” (Psalm 139:23-24). It is true that working sin out of our lives is difficult and failures are many. Yet, the Bible gives us hope, “For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age” (Titus 2:11-12). This was God's promise through Ezekiel, “And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules” (36:27). To embrace God's sabbath, we must make every effort to set aside our evil ways. As you pray with the Psalmist, ask God to reveal one thing you can move away from, moving from sinfulness to righteousness. Trust that God will help you. Go with this blessing: Go to Jesus and he will give you rest (Matthew 11:30). May the presence of God go with you and give you rest (Exodus 33:14).

Love must be sincere… Share with the Lord's people who are in need. Practice hospitality (Romans 12:9a, 13) Hospitality. Many of us don't like that word. Yet here it is…an aspect of sincere love. Thus, a part of Christian discipleship. In Christian Reformed churches, the elders are charged with the promotion of fellowship and hospitality in the congregation, recognizing that it is essential to the life of the Christian church. The word has fallen on hard times, partly because it is misunderstood. But also, because we do not spend enough time reflecting and preaching about God. We frequently focus on ourselves. What does God have to do with hospitality? The Bible opens with God's hospitality. He plants a garden for the humans: “trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food” (Genesis 2:9). When everything goes wrong in the garden, what happens? God shows up ‘walking in the garden in the cool of the day' calling out to the humans, ‘where are you?' Its long been understood that it was normal for God to come and spend time with his people. But now they were hiding. There are two things we should pay attention to here: God creates space and time. Both are essential components of hospitality. Israel's promised land is described as “a land flowing with milk and honey”. God took Israel, a nation severely oppressed by Egypt, to a land of plenty, to give them rest, Sabbath. God intended it to be a space for them to flourish and prosper where he could live among his people: space and time Isn't Jesus arrival in this world another example of God's hospitality? We use a big word, incarnation, to talk about this. It has its usefulness, but it hides the remarkable implications of Jesus' arrival. John, one of Jesus disciples, wrote that Jesus ‘made his dwelling among us' (John 1:14). In other words, he made his home on this earth with us. Jesus spent time eating and drinking with people and inviting others to join him. To Zacchaeus he said, “Come down from that tree, I must go to your house today” (Luke 19:5). Space and time. Why did Jesus come to make his home among us? Was it not to create a new community on this earth? A community in which all peoples, no matter what their language or colour or place of origin, can find a home? (Eph. 2:19; Rev. 5:9). As God was bringing Israel towards the promised land, he told them, “So, you also must love outsiders. Remember that you yourselves were outsiders in Egypt” (Deuteronomy 10:19). If that was true for Israel of old, it is equally true of the church today. Paul wrote, “Follow God's example, therefore, as dearly loved children” (Ephesians 5:1). As you journey on, go with the blessing of God: May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you, wherever he may send you. May he guide you through the wilderness, protect you through the storm. May your day end with rejoicing at the wonders he has shown you. May you rest in his provision as he brings night, and then new dawn.

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you (John 15:16). What does success look like? A church picnic without rain? A business that makes money? A family that can enjoy Thanksgiving dinner together? A winning sports team? Top grades in school? A vacation that leaves us relaxed and refreshed? Now, none of these things are bad in and of themselves. And we should thank God when we experience these things. Yet, Jesus invites us to consider a different way of measuring success. “I chose you to bear fruit”. It's fine to pray for good weather and restorative vacations and safe travels. But here, Jesus challenges us to deepen our prayers, to consider how his kingdom might come through our lives, including the daily, ordinary, mundane, routine activities we engage in. There are many necessary things that we do each day: volunteering, employment, business transactions, driving children and/or parents, studying, cleaning up. While we do each of these things, Jesus calls us to bear fruit. How do we do that? Obedience. “Obey me,” he says (John 15:10). This obedience is about love. Out of his love, God has initiated relationship with us in Christ Jesus. He wants us to remain in that loving relationship. But we cannot without obedience. Here too, Jesus summarizes the law with one simple statement, “Love each other as I have loved you” (15:12). So, the people that we encounter during our day—children, parents, co-workers, clients, customers, supervisors—these are all people that Jesus call us to love. We love them not just by being nice to them. Also, by providing the best service and products that we can offer. Further, we love them by offering our goods and services at a reasonable price. It is not wrong to make a profit, but for Christians, profit is never the bottom line. Love is. This fruit bearing involves a wonderful triad: obedience, love and joy. When we set out to live obedient lives by passing on the love we ourselves have received from God, the result is joy for us. God's joy invades our lives. This is a joy that lasts. As we head out into a new week with the many things that will be required of us, how will we measure success? Will it be by a completing our to do list? Will it be by ensuring our bank accounts remains in the black? Or will we measure success by fulfilling the calling Christ has given us – loving obedience to our father? Can we believe that joy will come our way when we do this? Will we begin a new week but praying to bear fruit for our heavenly Father? As you journey on, go with the blessing of God: Wherever God takes you today, may He fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit and that you may live carefully—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity.

Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience (Hebrews 4:11). Genesis 2 opens with the seventh day, where God rests, but not because he was tired. Instead, we get a picture of God finishing creation with a Sabbath that never ends. Sabbath represents a flourishing creation. This is illustrated in Israel's year of Jubilee in which slaves were freed, debts were forgiven, and the land was restored to those God had gifted it to; a nation created to flourish in the lavish abundance of their God. But sin interfered in the beginning, continued to interfere throughout Israel's history and still stains our own lives today. Sin destroys shalom; it brings death where life was intended. Hebrews tells us that God is still at work; at work undoing the evil that is leeching health from us. Jesus pursued this dimension of the Sabbath in his miracles. In Mark 1:21, he frees a man from an evil spirit and gives renewed vigour to the limbs of a paralytic in 2:27. Many of his miracles were performed on the Sabbath, such as the one for a woman “who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all. When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, ‘Woman, you are set free from your infirmity.' Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God” (Luke 10:11-13). These were signs that the kingdom of God was here; the Shalom of God was being brought back to the earth; the curse of sin was being undone. Jesus resurrection from the dead marked his victory over evil. The curse was undone; his kingdom was unstoppable. That is why Christians gather for worship on Sundays. We remind each other that Christ is risen. And we celebrate the coming end of evil. The Heidelberg Catechism gives a slight nod to this matter when it says that part of our Sabbath keeping is “to bring Christian offerings for the poor” (A 103). That is why offerings are taken up during worship services. The apostle Paul got this started (Acts 24:17; 1 Corinthians 16:1-2). Churches are rightly involved in alleviating hunger and rebuilding where infrastructure has been destroyed. Historically, Christians began hospitals. This was all understood as following in the footsteps of Jesus working against evil. Sometimes, I hear Christians tell me that Sundays are family days. That is well and good, but it is not enough. Sundays remind us that Jesus died to end the curse and evil. We are called to be his hands and feet. As you prepare for this weekend, how will you rest, and how will you help others to entire into God's rest? Go with this blessing: Go to Jesus and he will give you rest (Matthew 11:30). May the presence of God go with you and give you rest (Exodus 33:14).

Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good (Romans 12:9). Love must be sincere is the theme fleshed out in the rest of this chapter and beyond. The biblical significance of love has eroded so it needs our careful attention. Let's remember that godly love is not an emotion. It is an attitude, a mind-set, an aspect of the renewed mind. We are commanded to love; it is therefore a choice we make, a matter of the will. Without the enabling grace of God, none of us can love in the way the Bible calls us to. Such love is never the product of our human wills. But our wills are involved. The Holy Spirit fosters it within us. It is our job to cooperate with the Spirit in developing a consistent mind-set of love toward others. We must work actively to put love into effect in our relationships. The Christian who nurtures an attitude of love will act in the ways that Paul describes here. Such love acts in accordance with God's good and perfect will (12:2). Discernment is an aspect of this love: hate what is evil; cling to what is good (9b). Ironic, isn't it, that the exhortation to love is followed immediately by a command to hate. But we should not be surprised, for love is not blind sentiment. Rather, love passionately seeks the best for the one loved. Thus, it must hate everything evil that is incompatible with the loved one's highest welfare. Paul's word for ‘hate' suggests a very strong aversion, an abhorrence, a loathing, a vomiting out. Whereas his word for cling, suggests supper glue, a bonding like two pieces of steel welded together. Love must be sincere is the positive version of the command, “do not kill.” The Heidelberg Catechism offers us this explanation of that, “I am not to belittle, insult, hate, or kill my neighbor--not by my thoughts, my words, my look or gesture, and certainly not by actual deeds--and I am not to be party to this in others…By forbidding murder God teaches us that he hates the root of murder: envy, hatred, anger, vindictiveness” (Q 105 & 106). When love encounters what is evil, it refuses to participate, nor does it merely look the other way. Love dares to confront someone doing evil, not to judge or browbeat, but to inspire righteousness. On the other hand, love “clings to what is good.” To repel evil and cling to good, love must know the difference. How can we train ourselves in the ways of love? Anyone who has tried knows its not easy. Like all Christian virtues, prayer and scripture are the beginning. How else will we know God's version of love? We can also get our minds engaged in other ways. How about watching an episode of a favourite Netflix show or a chapter of a favourite novel? Then discern the ways in which the characters practice love or the lack there of. We may find some brilliant nuances of love right among our favourite characters. As you journey on, go with the blessing of God: May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you, wherever he may send you. May he guide you through the wilderness, protect you through the storm. May your day end with rejoicing at the wonders he has shown you. May you rest in his provision as he brings night, and then new dawn.

A Sunday Sermon edition of Wilderness Wanderings!  The text is 2 Corinthians 1:1-11. Dive In discussion questions are below for further reflection! To see this sermon in the context of the worship service it comes from, find it here on YouTube.  Or, head to our website to connect with the worshiping community of Immanuel CRC: immanuelministries.ca What is your favourite ‘comforter'? How is God's comfort more? How does God usually bring his comfort? What does it mean to praise God during suffering?

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well (Matthew 6:33). This verse is well known. It is frequently used in motivational speeches encouraging Christians to pursue the things of God at church and on mission or service trips. But I wonder how often it is used to launch Christians into the daily stuff of life. How many of us wrestle with its applications in the hustle and bustle of the day? In Matthew 6, Jesus offers commentary on a few of the common spiritual disciplines of his time: giving to the needy, prayer, and fasting. Then he encourages his disciples to lay up treasures in heaven rather than on earth, and rounds it off with this, “do not worry.” What should we not worry about? “Your life”, he says. Clothing, food, shelter, etc. Really? Here is the thing, says Jesus, your heavenly father is more than capable and willing to care for you. Look at the birds of the air and the flowers of the field. Do they rush around worrying? Nope. Your father cares for them. And if he cares for them, he will surely care for you. So, stop worrying already. When we give up worry, we create space to pursue the things of God and his kingdom. When our main concern is no longer about making a buck, when we trust that God will provide for us, we can pay attention to other things and other people. At our church, we support a ministry called Discipling Marketplace Leaders. After this teaching was brought to Burundi, one of the pastors summarized the change he saw among Christians, “They realize that when they said “yes” to Jesus, they weren't enlisting HIM to their cause, but He was enlisting them to HIS cause” (DML Newsletter, September 1, 2025). Jesus mentions that non-believers run around worrying about their lives, but children of the heavenly Father do not need to. He cares for his own. As you go about daily tasks and work, pause to pray the Lord's Prayer. Ask the Holy Spirit to keep those phrases in your consciousness. In what situations are you most likely to begin worrying? Prepare for those situations. Be ready to do something different. How might God be calling you to seek his kingdom today? And how do we learn to worry less? Not by trying really hard not to worry. But, by paying attention to God. Go with this blessing: Wherever God takes you today, may He fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit and that you may live carefully—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity.

Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy (Exodus 20:8).      Sabbath is an important theme in the Scriptures. We neglect it to our peril. I will not advocate that we go back to Old Testament Sabbath keeping, nor to the fierce definitions of what qualified as work and rest that we once engaged in. However, Sabbath rest is essential for Christian spirituality. Let us recall how Israel was instructed in Sabbath keeping. There was the rhythm of a weekly rest day. It was so essential that while in the wilderness, God provided two portions of food on the sixth day, so that the people did not even need to gather food on the Sabbath. Further, there was the yearly rhythm of the Sabbath year. Every seventh year the whole nation took a break from securing food and profit. God would provide enough in the sixth year for two years. Finally, there was the year of Jubilee, every fiftieth year. God promised to provide three year's worth of supplies in the 48th year so that his people could enjoy his rest for 2 full years. Further, in the year of Jubilee debts were cancelled, all land was returned to the original families, and all slaves were set free. Negative market forces, bad financial decisions, natural disasters could all cause ruin on a family. But in the year of Jubilee, all was set right. They could begin over. God provides. When praying, ‘give us our daily bread', we are praying a Sabbath prayer. It's requesting that we do not depend on ourselves but put our trust in the God who provides. He provides for us physically. But there is more. In Psalm 62, we have this testimony, “Truly my soul finds rest in God; my salvation comes from him. Truly he is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress; I will never be shaken”. There are things that happen in life that shake us to our very cores. Our souls, themselves, are shaken. All the securities we have put in place for ourselves topple. Where then shall we go? Sabbath practicing Christians know where to go. They have practiced trusting in God. They understand Psalm 46, “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore, we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging” (1-3). When such Christians hear Jesus' invitation, “Come to me and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28), they know how to go to him because it's a practice they are familiar with. There is no time like the present to begin. If you are not a Sabbath person, you might not want to start with a full day. Mark a few hours in your calendar in which you have nothing to accomplish. Rather, simply enjoy God and the good gifts he has given you. And begin praying, “Give us our daily bread.” Learn to practice Sabbath, so that when the winds blow and the floods rise, you know how to rest in God. He provides. Go with this blessing: Go to Jesus and he will give you rest (Matthew 11:30). May the presence of God go with you and give you rest (Exodus 33:14).

     Love must be sincere (Romans 12:9a).      This little phrase, “Love must be sincere”, is the heart of Romans 12. Everything that has come before--the stuff about personal transformation: “…in view of God's mercy…offer your bodies as a living sacrifice to God…be transformed by the renewing of your mind…discerning God's good, pleasing and perfect will…” and the stuff about the relationships within the church, “Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment…in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others…”--all of this leads into “Love must be sincere.”      The phrase has no verb. Its as if the apostle is saying, “Love that is sincere will…” and then he spends the rest of the chapter telling us what sincere love looks like.      In our culture, the word love has become rather vague. It's lost its crispness. We love sweaters and the weather, and we love each other. It's a feeling that comes and goes like a wave in the bay. So, what is love and what makes it sincere?      The word used here is agape. So far in Romans all references have been to the ‘love of God'—as demonstrated on the cross (5:8), as poured into our hearts (5:5) and as doggedly refusing to let us go (8:35, 39). This is a pursuing, wooing, winning back kind of love. The lover willing to sacrifice himself for the beloved. This is our reference point, our example. But it is also our source. This love has been poured into us. Now it flows out. Love is the essence of Christian discipleship. Romans 12-15 are a sustained encouragement to let love govern and shape all our relationships. At the end of the chapter, Paul will write about love for our enemies (17-21), but first he portrays it as pervading the Christian community (9-16).      ‘Sincere' means ‘without hypocrisy'. Acts and words of love must not be pretend. We should not tell someone we love them, when we really don't. Neither should we act in love, when we despise or even hate someone. For early Christians, the primary example of non-sincere love was Judas, betraying Jesus with a kiss. This was hypocritical love in its vilest form.      In this matter of sincere love Christian discipleship is counter cultural. Feelings are paramount. “If I don't feel like it, I don't have to do it.” But for Christians love is the law (13:8-10). If we don't feel loving, we need to change our attitude; our hearts need to change. We need to love like God loves us. How does that happen? The cure for a non-loving heart is not to try harder. It is to look to God, to see his love for me. For Christians, confession of sin is not about feeling bad, it's the road to experiencing God's mercy again. Love begins with a view to God's mercy. Only with our eyes fixed on Jesus, can our love become sincere. So, let us fix our eyes on him. As you journey on, go with the blessing of God: May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you, wherever he may send you. May he guide you through the wilderness, protect you through the storm. May your day end with rejoicing at the wonders he has shown you. May you rest in his provision as he brings night, and then new dawn.

But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors, as it is today (Deuteronomy 8:18). Last Monday, we reflected on God's creation of humanity as working beings. We work under God's care and direction. Let's reflect on this some more. It is so easy to ignore God while at work or at least to think that he has little interest in such mundane matters. But the Bible will have none of that. Wealth production is the work of God himself. Most of us have some sort of job description, even if they are not written down. When I began helping my dad on the farm, I soon learned what was expected of me. It didn't take long before I understood what was needed to be a successful pork producer and I began to lean into that. God wants us to understand and lean into the job description he has given to us. We do not own things. We are stewards of what he has made and owns. He has equipped us with time, talents and treasures. These things are not ours to do with as we desire. They are his and to be used for his glory. Even though Joseph oversaw all Egypt, he needed to submit himself to Pharoah. Likewise, we have been given great responsibility but must submit ourselves to God. This teaching can put us on a bit of an ego trip. Some Christians have misinterpreted this to mean they can ignore the things their supervisors tell them. Such an attitude does not jive with the Scriptures. Joseph submitted himself to Pharaoh. Paul writes, “Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities” (Romans 13:1). Titus is instructed to, “Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good, to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and always to be gentle toward everyone” (3:1-2). When we submit are labours to the Lord, it means that we seek to be the best employees and employers that we can be. We strive for excellence in our product, but also in our relationships. In submission, we recognize that success is not rooted in our abilities but in God's blessing. Will you submit to God in the big things and the small things? Will you lean on Him, His power, His love, and His grace, in whatever you do? Will you trust him with the outcome of your work? Go with this blessing: Wherever God takes you today, may He fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit and that you may live carefully—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity.

A Sunday Sermon edition of Wilderness Wanderings!  The text is Genesis 12:1-5 & Matthew 5:14-16. Dive In discussion questions are below for further reflection! To see this sermon in the context of the worship service it comes from, find it here on YouTube.  Or, head to our website to connect with the worshiping community of Immanuel CRC: immanuelministries.ca Dive In Questions What image of the church is given in today's text and message? What three parts of ‘our story' are explored in the opening chapters of the Bible? What is the problem in this world? What is the remedy? In what is our hope? What advice was given to keep us from being overwhelmed? How will you live into that this week?

Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy (Exodus 20:8).      Last week, I ended with the question, “What kind of rest do we mean?” When the Bible invites us into rest, what does it mean? What did God intend when he commanded Israel to observe the Sabbath? Let's begin this series on rest by exploring that question. A fruitful place to begin is by noting the word that often describes Sabbath, the word ‘holy'. This word does not always come with helpful connotations today. We think of those who have been declared saints or those who live by high moral standards, often with a “holier than you attitude.” That is not the place to begin. In the Bible, holy means "set apart," "separated," or "dedicated for a special purpose". Thus, the Sabbath was a day set apart for God. On it, Israel was to remember that God is both creator (Exodus 20) and redeemer (Deuteronomy 5). This was not intended to be a burden to Israel. Jesus said, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27). In Sabbath keeping, we are invited to rest from all our activities we engage in to succeed in this world. We are given time to remember and know that we belong to God, and he cares for us. Through the psalmist, God says, “Be still and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10). It takes time and some effort to still our souls long enough to hear the voice of the Spirit reminding us that we are holy, we belong to God. It is difficult to believe that we do not need to work every day to survive in this world. The rest we are talking about here, is the rest in which we learn to lean on God, trusting that he will provide our daily bread. In this rest, God re-orients our lives so that we live for him, not for ourselves. How has the drive to succeed taken control of your life? How is it impacting what your children and grandchildren are learning from you? What else might be interfering with this rest? Sometimes, it's our need to be entertained. Sometimes, it's our need to be busy all the time. Sometimes, its that we are living for ourselves. These are things that drive us ever onward without giving us rest or joy. God invites us into a different way of living. Go with this blessing: Go to Jesus and he will give you rest (Matthew 11:30). May the presence of God go with you and give you rest (Exodus 33:14).

For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us (Romans 12:4-6a).      What does it mean to be part of a church? Does showing up on Sundays for worship services count? Maybe. There are many ways to answer that question. Our text offers two.      Before we discuss those, let's remember that when the New Testament uses the word church it did not have in mind the formal structures we know today. Church referred to the people who followed Jesus Christ. They had little structure and no history; they were simply the people in the Roman Empire who believed that this Jesus was Lord and Christ. In a place like Romans 12, the apostle Paul begins to lay out what belonging to this group means. What does he say?      First, the flow of Romans 12 implies that I cannot fully “renew my mind” without the active help of other believers. I cannot understand what the Bible teaches apart from dialog with others who are reading that same Bible. I cannot live the life of a disciple of Christ apart from the nurturing context of a community of believers who encourage me, pray for me, and set an example for me. I cannot discern the blind spots in my obedience to Christ without other believers to point them out to me.      In verse 3, Paul rebuked an attitude of arrogance. We think of ourselves “more highly than we ought” and so conclude that we do not need the help of others. To go back to our question, “What does it mean to be part of a church?” Our passage tells us that we need the input of other Christians. To be part of a church means to receive help in Christian thinking and living from others. I need the church, the body of Christ.      Second, we must participate in the church to help others grow. Whatever gift we have been given, we are under obligation to our Lord to use it to serve his people. Other Christians need what each of us has to offer. As the human body is at a disadvantage without a foot, or an eye, or a kidney, so the church is harmed when the full array of gifts is not being exercised within it. Notice how strongly Paul puts this, “according to the grace given to each of us.” If we disassociate from the church, we are hindering the flow of God's grace. We are God's sponges of mercy, first to the church and then beyond.      This is also why we need to think of ourselves with sober judgement. We should not consider our personal resources as personal possessions. They are gifts of God to be used for his glory. All of us who follow Jesus receive gifts to be used for the upbuilding of Christ's church. We each have gifts of grace to offer each other.      So, putting these two together: I need the church and the church needs me! As you journey on, go with the blessing of God: May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you, wherever he may send you. May he guide you through the wilderness, protect you through the storm. May your day end with rejoicing at the wonders he has shown you. May you rest in his provision as he brings night, and then new dawn.

A Sunday Sermon edition of Wilderness Wanderings!  The text is Psalm 147. Dive In discussion questions are below for further reflection! To see this sermon in the context of the worship service it comes from, find it here on YouTube.  Or, head to our website to connect with the worshiping community of Immanuel CRC: immanuelministries.ca Who is our God? What do you do when the reality of life in this world does not match with what we expect of God? What two things do we do in lament? What assurances does this psalm offer us?

The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it (Genesis 2:15). We begin our weekly reflections on work here. This text invites us to think about work as more than what we do to earn a living. In Genesis 2, God plants a garden and puts humanity in it to work it and take care for it. This means that each of us is tied closely to the created order. Even if we are not farmers, even if our fingers rarely touch the soil, we are creatures of the earth, and the flourishing of the earth is our responsibility. We can understand this as both calling and gift. How is it our calling? We often identify ourselves by what we do: construction workers, bus drivers, web designers, educators, financiers, business owners, policy writers, hairdressers, retirees, computer programmers, lawyers. We may view ourselves as parents or grandparents, as children or as spouses. These are things that describe who we are and what we do. But more significant--underneath all these realities—we are humans created in the image of God, called to serve him in this world; called to work in his world; called to take care of it. Our first responsibility is to God -- how we live, how we treat his creation, how we treat other humans – it all matters to God. Jesus told us to store up treasures in heaven. Such treasures are created in each moment of our lives. God has given us all the resources we need to serve and honour him. This is our primary calling in life. It gives us our identity. We should also understand this identity as a gift. God wants us to flourish and to find joy in this life. He causes the rain to fall and the sun to shine on all people (Mathew 5:45). The Spirit gives gifts to the followers of Jesus (Romans 12 & 1 Corinthians 12). And we work with this promise: that our labour in the Lord is never in vain (1 Corinthians 15:58). In Matthew 5, Jesus tells his disciples that they should love and pray for their enemies. Surely, we ought to do that for those we work and live among as well. God wants his creation to overflow with life. And he wants to use us to make that happen. As a follower of Jesus Christ, can you embrace your work as a place of possibility and potential in these purposes of God? Will you live today believing that God is already at work in these places and will you give yourself unreservedly to his purposes in you and through you, wherever you are? Go with this blessing: Wherever God takes you today, may He fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit and that you may live carefully—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity.

Thus, the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so, on the seventh day he rested from all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done (Genesis 2:1-3). Today, we begin a new Wilderness Wanderings Series. It is called Avodah. This is a Hebrew word which is translated into English with the words: work, worship and service. There is a long history in the Christian church to separate life into the sacred and the secular. Sunday worship, personal and family devotions and evangelism are part of the sacred. The work we do to earn a living and the schooling we take to prepare for such work are part of the secular. With such a dichotomy, we live two separate kinds of lives. One for God and one to survive in this world. But there is an older tradition, that goes all the way back to the beginning that does not separate life in this way. In various strands of Christianity, including the Reformed, we try to live by this older understanding. This is the perspective that all of life is sacred. But maybe that is not a good term. It might be better to say that “all of life is lived for God.” Paul put is like this, “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31). As Christians, our primary goal with our labour is not to earn a paycheck, even though that is an important element; our primary goal is to serve God with our work. This is Avodah. Our work is part of our worship of God. As Abraham Kuyper famously said, “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, Mine!” In this Avodah series, we will explore two basic things: work and rest. Each Monday, we will consider work as our calling from God. And on Fridays, we will consider rest. There will also be a Wednesday edition, which will be taken from the archives. If you have resources or ideas or even illustrations for this series let me know, and I will try to include them. Since this is Friday, let's take a moment to think about rest. There is much in our text to consider, but I will only highlight one thing: God included a day of rest into the structure of creation. When God rescued Israel from Egypt and formed her into a nation, he gave her back this day of rest. Egypt had literally tried to work the Israelites to death. There is much of such Egypt all around us. It is easy to become enslaved to our labours. The stuff we do, whether its income earning or nor, can easily become our god. Do you include rest on your calendar? If not, maybe it is time to include “rest” times. If you are required to work on Sunday, what other day will you use to rest? Think also about this: what kind of rest are we talking about here? Go with this blessing: Go to Jesus and he will give you rest (Matthew 11:30). May the presence of God go with you and give you rest (Exodus 33:14).

A Sunday Sermon edition of Wilderness Wanderings!  The text is Luke 10:25-37. Dive In discussion questions are below for further reflection! To see this sermon in the context of the worship service it comes from, find it here on YouTube.  Or, head to our website to connect with the worshiping community of Immanuel CRC: immanuelministries.ca Dive in! For further reflection: What does ‘work' mean? What images does it create in your mind? What does Genesis 2:15 say about work? How does it change the way we view it? In what ways have you seen the effect of the fall on work? How have you contributed to this fallenness? How does Jesus' work affect our work? How will you live differently this week? How will Genesis 2:15 change the way you view your life?

A Sunday Sermon edition of Wilderness Wanderings!  The text is Luke 10:25-37. Dive In discussion questions are below for further reflection! To see this sermon in the context of the worship service it comes from, find it here on YouTube.  Or, head to our website to connect with the worshiping community of Immanuel CRC: immanuelministries.ca   How is your life an ongoing act of worship to Jesus? How would you describe his glory? What five words would you choose? Who would be considered the ‘outsiders' in your community? How can you reach out to them as an individual? As a community? Identify two ways that you can more intentionally worship Jesus with your everyday life. Identify one person (or group) that needs to experience the love of Jesus. Follow the pattern of Jesus and reach beyond yourself to the outcasts in your community.

“Greet all God's people in Christ Jesus. The brothers and sisters who are with me send greetings. All God's people here send you greetings, especially those who belong to Caesar's household. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen” (Philippians 4:21-23). Well, friends, a summer of slow and steady attention has brought us to the end of Paul's letter to the church in Philippi. Today's devotional will be the last installment of Wilderness Wanderings for the summer, as we have reached a natural conclusion with these last verses of Philippians. There will not be a podcast tomorrow, nor throughout the month of August. However, Pastor Michael is making plans for a new version of Wilderness Wanderings in the fall. More information on that to come, so stay tuned.  For now, let's take a look at these last verses of Philippians 4. As we discussed with the opening of the letter, to close with greetings such as these that we read in today's verses would have been a convention of letter-writing in the ancient world. But as with all of Paul's letters, he uses the conventions of the genre to make particular theological points. Verse 21 is translated in the NIV “Greet all God's people in Christ Jesus.” However, scholars point out that this could also be translated “Greet every saint [or] holy person in Christ Jesus.” Not only does this indicate his personal affection for members of this community, it also has the rhetorical effect of building on his council to the church at other points in the letter about living in unity with one another.  To a church experiencing conflict, as we discussed earlier in chapter 4, Paul's encouragement to “greet every saint in Christ Jesus” was a challenge. And the command to do so “in Christ Jesus” is a reminder again of the fact that their unity is not in their agreement, but in their shared identity in Christ. Paul then offers greetings on behalf of “all God's people here.” Paul has spoken frequently in the letter of the challenges of persecution and false teaching faced by the church in Philippi, along with their internal division. Offering greetings from others who are in his company, perhaps those nearer him also providing support in the midst of his imprisonment, was a reminder to the Philippian church that they were not alone in their difficulties. They were part of a broader movement of Christ-followers also experiencing joys and sorrows, honour and shame, God's provision and persecution by those around them. This small church was part of something much bigger than themselves, and Paul thought it important in all his letters to remind the churches of this reality. On this note, as Paul offers his farewell to the Philippian church, perhaps this is an appropriate moment for me to offer my own word of farewell to you, my friends at Immanuel CRC. This is my last Wilderness Wanderings podcast as your pastoral intern, and my last day with you will be this Sunday, August 3. In my first Wilderness Wanderings devotional back at the beginning of my time with you, I quoted New Testament scholar NT Wright, who described the letter to the Philippian church as “overflowing with effervescent joy” and “sparkling with the delight of family affection.” As I reflect now at the end of my last week with you, I find in myself a similar sentiment, a deep joy and affection for my time with you this summer. While I would not claim to have nearly the same travel or missional resume as Paul, as I read his letters, and have paid particular attention to his letter to the Philippian church this summer, I see the longing in his words for the communities that he travels to and from throughout his career, and it resonates with my own spirit and the travelling to and fro nature of my own ministry over the last number of years. That Immanuel has been the most recent stop on this journey is something for which I am deeply grateful to God. I will miss you all.  And yet, I will carry you with me. It's one of the greatest gifts of the way in which God has formed his church, that we belong to each other. And so as I continue to travel and discern what God has next for me, I will take your greetings to your siblings in Christ in the places that I go with me. And I will hope to return to you with similar greetings from them should God give me the opportunity to do so in the future. Know that you will be held in my heart and before the throne of God in prayer. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to see how God is at work among you this summer. May “the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.” And as you journey on, go with the blessing of God: May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you: wherever he may send you. May he guide you through the wilderness: protect you through the storm. May he bring you home rejoicing; at the wonders he has shown you. May he bring you home rejoicing once again into our doors.  

And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19). Yesterday, Kyra reflected on the gifts the Philippians had given to Paul. Today's text is a promise that the young church in Philippi will be cared for; cared for by God. These two things belong together; they follow each other. The way Paul writes, it sounds like God will care for them because they have cared for Paul. But is that right? Yes and no. Because we believe so firmly in ‘saved by grace alone' we have a difficult time with certain texts in the New Testament. Jesus tells us to lay up treasures in heaven and Paul adds that we will receive a crown of glory. Are these rewards for good behaviour? Sort of. There are rewards for the life of Christian faith that go above and beyond just our salvation in Christ. Should we want these rewards? Of course, but why should we want them? It's a thing we should wrestle with. It's our desires that we need to wrestle with. Paul's reflections are helpful. Paul's desire was not for gifts, even though he is blessed by them and receives them gratefully. His desire is not stuff. His desire is the place from which these gifts come. These are gifts of love from the Philippians as a response of faith to God. These gifts mean that God's Word is bearing good fruit through the Philippians. And that is enough. There's abundance in the Kingdom of God even when he goes without, because he is strengthened not by the stuff of this world but by Christ. The economy of the kingdom is a gift economy. Its not one of balance sheets. The things that the Philippians give are “a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice” given in response to all that God has given. The Philippians were living Romans 12. They are “living sacrifices,” giving all in the service of God—all that you have and all that you are. When we do that, we store up treasures for ourselves in heaven, a crown of reward. We do it, of course, not to get that reward per say, but as a response of faith—to be pleasing to God, recognizing as Paul had said already, that our contentment—our rest—is in Christ. We can say with Paul that “our God will meet all our needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.” Whether he does so in this world or the next, it does not change the calculus: God has given much. We are amply supplied in Christ and therefore we give as a response of faith.  It's a joyful storing up not in this life and according to the rules of this world, but rather according to the Kingdom principles of the world to come. As the Heidelberg Catechism says, true faith is a “also a deep-rooted assurance, created in me by the Holy Spirit through the gospel, that, out of sheer grace earned for us by Christ, I have had my sins forgiven, have been made forever right with God, and have been granted salvation” (A 21). But it opens with this, “Because I belong to him, Christ, by his Holy Spirit, assures me of eternal life and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for him” (A 1). We don't live generous lives to get rewards. We do so to give him glory, to please him, believing that he is more than able to provide for us. As you journey on, go with the blessing of God: May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you: wherever he may send you. May he guide you through the wilderness: protect you through the storm. May he bring you home rejoicing; at the wonders he has shown you. May he bring you home rejoicing once again into our doors.

“Moreover, as you Philippians know, in the early days of your acquaintance with the gospel, when I set out from Macedonia, not one church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving, except you only; for even when I was in Thessalonica, you sent me aid more than once when I was in need. Not that I desire your gifts; what I desire is that more be credited to your account. I have received full payment and have more than enough. I am amply supplied, now that I have received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent. They are a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God” (Philippians 4:15-18). Paul, in our verses today, continues his reflection on the Philippian church's generosity toward him. He reflects on their gifts in the “early days” of their acquaintance with the gospel. They had, it seems, experienced the generosity of God's grace and responded, as many new Christ-followers do, with passion and eagerness to serve.  But Paul assures the Philippian church that the situation is not one where he “desired” their gifts. While he was grateful for their support, Paul was not financially desperate, believing that God's mission was dependent on the Philippian church. He did not see them as simply business partners. Rather, he desired their generosity so that they themselves would experience the grace of giving, that “more [would] be credited to [their] account.”  There are two things we have to be careful of here. First, as Paul's comment indicates, we cannot treat our generosity as something upon which God's mission is dependent. Christians and Christian ministries have, at times, exploited well-intentioned people because of a lack of care given to language around calls to generosity. We give, not because God is impotent without our doing so, not because people will not be saved if we don't, but because we are given the gift of participating in what God is doing in the world. We also have to be careful not to think of generosity as transactional. That was a common way of thinking in the Greco-Roman world, and is, if we are honest, often the way we think about giving too. But neither we nor the Philippian church are called to give and then wait around expecting to receive blessing because of a sense of our own righteousness. Rather, we are to understand that our generosity is, as Paul describes in today's verses, “a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God.”  Recall Paul's words earlier, in chapter 2:17: “But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you.” Here, Paul also uses the language of sacrifice to refer to the potential for his own impending death. And for Paul, as we've seen throughout the letter, his own death was an opportunity for him to imitate Christ, who poured himself out knowing that those his sacrifice was for could never afford to pay him back.  And this is the ultimate gift of generosity–that in being generous, we participate with Christ. The same gift of grace that allows us to freely receive–without guilt or shame, as Pastor Michael described yesterday–allows us to give. We, like Paul, can be assured that we are “amply supplied” by what already belongs to us in Christ Jesus. So as you journey on, go with the blessing of God: May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you: wherever he may send you. May he guide you through the wilderness: protect you through the storm. May he bring you home rejoicing; at the wonders he has shown you. May he bring you home rejoicing once again into our doors.  

I can do all this through him who gives me strength. Yet it was good of you to share in my troubles (Philippines 4:13-14). We continue with the theme of contentment. Paul learned contentment in all things through his reliance on Christ. But this was not a simple two-way street between Paul and Jesus. Our Lord used other people to provide for Paul, as he does for us. Paul knew this and was glad for the gifts from the Philippian church. But this is a difficult teaching. Many of us are rather stoic when it comes to receiving support from others. We decline when someone offers to pay for or give us something. We feel a certain kind of guilt or shame. Maybe we think we are deficient because we needed help. Or we feel that our relationship is now out of balance – we owe them. People who need help are often looked down on, despite Jesus' comment that the poor we will always have with us. Our society is organized towards personal self-sufficiency. Most of us rent or own our own property, living detached from other households. We work jobs to support ourselves and our households. We own vehicles to drive ourselves where we want to go. We build up savings and portfolios to ensure that we will remain independent after retirement. These things are constructed so that we do not need to rely on the hospitality of another. All these things are not bad or wrong. But something is amiss when we implicitly believe that all people should be able to do life this way: on their own, without burdening anyone else. Somewhere deep in our heart of hearts, we suspect such people to be weak, lazy, lesser, or at fault for it. “They did it to themselves,” we think: “they deserve what they get.” One should be able to do life on one's own, without the support or intervention of others. To do less than this is to fail at life somehow. Such attitudes are dangerous. We translate Jesus words, “It is more blessed to give than to receive” into, “stand on your own two feet and give to the needy who can't.” Here is the problem: if we can do it all ourselves—what need do we have of a saviour? Many have come to the very logical conclusion that we don't. “We've managed this life just fine on our own, thank you.  We don't need help from anyone else—including God.” Feelings of guilt and shame when we have need or when we receive something work against our receiving the one and only thing we need but can't get on our own: God's grace in Jesus. Our relatively wealthy, peaceful, and independent society actively works against the logic of the faith. Contentment in Christ includes the willingness and the ability to receive with gratitude and thanksgiving—recognizing, once again, that our lives are not our own creation and that we are not the ones who hold on. It is Christ who holds on to us. Christ who provides for us. Receiving gracefully is a necessary spiritual discipline to counteract impulse towards self-sufficiency of our culture. As you journey on, go with the blessing of God: May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you: wherever he may send you. May he guide you through the wilderness: protect you through the storm. May he bring you home rejoicing; at the wonders he has shown you. May he bring you home rejoicing once again into our doors.

A Sunday Sermon edition of Wilderness Wanderings!  The text is Luke 10:25-37. Dive In discussion questions are below for further reflection! To see this sermon in the context of the worship service it comes from, find it here on YouTube.  Or, head to our website to connect with the worshiping community of Immanuel CRC: immanuelministries.ca This week evaluate your use of technology like AI, Internet, social media, etc.  Maybe keep a log of all the ways you use it. How do you start your prayers? Do you get yourself fully involved? Who do you pray to? What image of God do you have in your mind? Where is he? What is he like? As you have grown in your faith, has your understanding of God changed? Has it become more accurate, closer to how he describes himself in the Bible? How does Jesus factor into your prayers? Do your prayers end in hope or despair? Why? How can your praying become more about spiritual transformation then the one-way street of asking God for things you want?

“I rejoiced greatly in the Lord that at last you renewed your concern for me. Indeed, you were concerned, but you had no opportunity to show it. I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength” (Philippians 4:10-13). Throughout much of this letter, Paul has spoken of his joy in the Philippian church. Here, nearing the end of the letter, he returns to one of the reasons for his joy, also reflected in the beginning of his letter: The generous financial support of the Philippian church while he is in chains for the gospel.  Paul's comment about the Philippian's inability to show their concern initially suggests that they may not, at first, have been willing or able to provide support. Their own financial limitations, or the reality of their persecution we have discussed previously, may have inhibited their ability to aid Paul. Or perhaps they did not initially have a messenger like Epaphroditus, discussed in chapter 2, willing to risk caring for someone imprisoned by the empire. This further emphasizes the significance of their communal sacrifice which prompted this joy-filled letter from Paul. It may also explain Paul's comments about learning to be content in all circumstances.  This Greek word used for “content” in these verses is a word that appears only in this single context in the New Testament. However, it was a well-known philosophical concept in the Greco-Roman world, connected with groups like the Stoics and Cynics, which spoke of contentment as an ideal state resulting from supreme self-sufficiency.  Paul's use of this word, however, conveys a contentment that comes, not from self-sufficiency, but from God's sufficiency. Both poverty and plenty are states in which he is comfortable, not because they are a result of his choices or effort, but because his economic circumstances do not reflect his status before God. Paul's “secret” of contentment, a contrast to the Greco-Roman ideal, is further stated in verse 13: “I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”  Now, this verse has often been taken out of context to exaggerate human capacity. But it is important that we retain a distinctly Christian anthropology (or, in other words, view of what it means to be human). This verse does not imply any change in what it means to be human creatures. God does not give people super-human capabilities. What Scripture testifies about humans–that we are finite and fallen, that God is God and we are not, remains true. But Paul's testimony is that accepting the reality of human finitude yields a contentment that grasping for control over one's circumstances could never produce.  This is perhaps why Paul speaks of contentment in the context of his joy at the gift he has received from the Philippians–and why, as many scholars have pointed out about this letter, he never actually directly thanks the Philippians for what they have given him. Perhaps it is because he knows that, in their generous giving out of what little they have, they are in turn being gifted the possibility of learning contentment. A contentment dependent entirely on who God is, and not what they have. So where are you striving for self-sufficiency today? What might you relinquish to find contentment in God's sufficiency?  So as you journey on, go with the blessing of God: May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you: wherever he may send you. May he guide you through the wilderness: protect you through the storm. May he bring you home rejoicing; at the wonders he has shown you. May he bring you home rejoicing once again into our doors.  

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you (Philippians 4:8-9). This letter has two key concerns: persecution that the church is suffering from the outside, and, under that stress, forms of conflict that threaten to tear this church apart from the inside (like the conflict between Euodia and Syntyche). Similar dynamics have been repeated frequently. Recent stats suggest the church in North America is shrinking and some believe that our decline is the result of persecution from a decadent society peeling away our members. Under this stress, we easily fall into forms of conflict that threaten to tear the church apart from the inside. As the writer of Ecclesiastes says: “there is nothing new under the sun.” In the face of such pressures, Paul invited us to seek the Lord's presence with joy discovering the peace of Christ. Now he asks us to contemplate better things. We shouldn't let our minds mull endlessly over the problems, pressures, and sins that threaten us from without and within. Rather, Paul invites us to feed our minds with virtuous things that are excellent and praiseworthy. “You are what you eat,” the saying goes. If we feed our minds a constant stream of junk—ruminations on sin, climate disasters, loathing of the government, gun violence, persecution, mistrust of fellow Christians, despair about the future, and whatever else is wrong—if that's what our minds constantly chew on, we're going to get indigestion. And we may very well descend into becoming more and more these things that occupy our minds the most. Thinking too much about sin may inadvertently tempt us into it; mistrusting others, we may become less trustworthy; loathing the government, we may become loathsome; despairing about the future, clouds of despair may haunt our days and nights. As an antidote, Paul invites us to feed our minds with better things. “Whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”  That is, chew them over, ponder them carefully, let our minds run wild for a while on the best of what virtue has to offer. Such vegetables are far better fare to feed our minds than the empty, sugar-rush calories of bad news. As we ponder these things we may find that we become increasingly what we ingest: thinking of what is true, we align our lives to it. Pondering what is lovely or beautiful, we seek to become more lovely in character. Pondering the right, we become more righteous. This list of virtues that Paul offers are not explicitly Christian virtues. It is a morality list drawn from the work of the pagan philosophers of the day. The subtle point appears to be this: all that is good and true in this world belongs to God and is a gift of God—no matter who came up with it. And so, as you chew over these virtues, your capacity to see God and His Spirit abundantly at work as the Sovereign King over all creation and creatures is expanded. Slowly it may dawn on us the God, whose Spirit is everywhere present and at work, even in a secular world and in the atheist philosopher, is also here with me—and how much more so through Jesus!  May that notion give you peace. As you journey on, go with the blessing of God: May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you: wherever he may send you. May he guide you through the wilderness: protect you through the storm. May he bring you home rejoicing; at the wonders he has shown you. May he bring you home rejoicing once again into our doors.

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6-7). “Do not be anxious about anything,” Paul begins. Well, that's quite a start. I must confess that I don't know that there is ever a moment in my life where I am anxious about absolutely nothing. There are maybe, just maybe, about 5 minutes after I read a verse like this, where I am in a devotional space, and I read this text, I pray a prayer of surrender for whatever it is that has just jumped into my head as an example of how bad I am at being obedient to this command… And maybe for those 5 minutes after I can maintain the kind of non-anxiety Paul is talking about here. But once I've left that quiet devotional space, all of reality comes rushing back in to disrupt my nice pious resolution of mere moments before. Possibly you can relate. I suspect we are not alone. Jesus offers a similar teaching as part of his Sermon on the Mount in Matthew's Gospel. Many of us are likely familiar with the text of Matthew 6 that begins “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life…” It continues to reflect on the birds of the air and the flowers of the field, God's provision for them and for us.  In both passages, the Greek word for worry or anxiety is the same. And I don't think either, in spite of how they are often read, is a judgment against worry or anxiety. As we have reflected previously this summer, Scripture's commands against fear do not express finger-wagging disapproval, but rather God's desire for his people. The command Paul gives in this passage is not “Do not be anxious about anything, you irrational and untrusting fools. Do you not know God at all?” No, Paul says, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Paul is offering a way of transferring our anxiety and fear to our God, who promises to respond with his peace, so we don't have to carry it alone. Paul also calls the church to offer prayers with thanksgiving. This builds on the theme of joy which Pastor Michael reflected on yesterday. There are times when, as he described, thanksgiving is not a natural reflection of our circumstances, which may be tremendously painful. However, with the intimacy with God that comes through prayer, we can become people of joy and thanksgiving because of who God is–and who he has been and promises he will be–regardless of our present reality.  “Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Jesus Christ for you,” Paul reflects similarly in 1 Thess. 5:18. Thanksgiving and joy, not fear and anxiety, are God's will for his people. But we don't have to carry the burden of willing or working our circumstances into alignment. In the midst of trials and suffering, we don't have to add the burden of positive thinking. Expressions of grief at what is wrong in our lives and the world is no less holy a form of prayer than joyful prayers in response to what is good, true, and beautiful. Prayer is not first about what we feel, say, or do; it is about who God is and what he can do. We may simply come before him, presenting our requests, and he will guard our minds and our hearts in Christ Jesus.  So as you journey on, go with the blessing of God: May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you: wherever he may send you. May he guide you through the wilderness: protect you through the storm. May he bring you home rejoicing; at the wonders he has shown you. May he bring you home rejoicing once again into our doors.  

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near (Philippians 4:4-5). Paul begins to wind down his letter to the Christians in Philippi by returning to his opening theme. In the first few chapters, he has told us of the mindset of Jesus (i.e. humbling himself to the cross and submitting himself to the Father alone rather than his own recourse). Paul wrote how he sought to live out of this mindset of Jesus. He also included how the Philippian church and those within it experiencing fights and division (like Euodia and Syntyche) should live out that Jesus-mindset, as Kyra elaborated on yesterday. Having said all this, Paul returns to the theme of joy. This is where he began by mentioning his joyful prayers for the Philippian Christians. He was thankful for their partnership in the Gospel and for God's work in them that God would see to completion. Now he invites the Philippians into the same prayer saturated with joy. Today let's reflect on the joy. An antidote to the mistrust of fellow Christians that breeds division like that between Euodia and Syntyche is a healthy joy in the Lord. In the angel's Christmas announcement to the shepherds, they said, the Gospel is “good news of great joy for all people”. When our joy evaporates or is replaced by fear, doubts, or suspicions, it is an indicator that our own heart needs tending in the presence of God. Only then can we engage fruitfully again with fellow Christians.  We need to receive again the good news of great joy in our hearts. Then, as we encounter others, what spills out of us is a joyful, Gospel word. How do we do that? Let me suggest a few ways. One is simply by practicing. If we don't feel joyful, we should rejoice and giving thanks to God anyway. It's often the case that working a habit like rejoicing, even when we aren't in the mood for it, can serve to usher our emotions gently along until we do begin to feel it. We can use the last few Psalms to get started. Another way to find joy in the Lord is to remember that “the Lord is near.” Even when everything else might feel like its coming undone or when it feels like there are enemies all around—a recognition of the presence of God in that place can change things.  Even valleys of death's shadow can be transformed into an experience of God's care and provision when we remember that he is there, too. Meditation on Psalms 23 or 121 are helpful here. A third way to renew our joy is simply by talking to God.  We call that prayer. But that's for tomorrow. This kind of joy in Christ enables us to make known the mind of Christ to those around us. The Greek word translated as gentleness can also mean forbearance or tolerance. A willingness to let things go or to delay our reaction or desire for retribution. Doing so offers a gracious, merciful forbearance as God has done for us.  Again, we can do this because the Lord, who has displayed his gentle forbearance with us, is near.  It's a cause of joy. A cause for taking on the same mindset. So, rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! As you journey on, go with the blessing of God: May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you: wherever he may send you. May he guide you through the wilderness: protect you through the storm. May he bring you home rejoicing; at the wonders he has shown you. May he bring you home rejoicing once again into our doors.

“Therefore, my brothers and sisters, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, dear friends! I plead with Euodia and I plead with Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord. Yes, and I ask you, my true companion, help these women since they have contended at my side in the cause of the gospel, along with Clement and the rest of my co-workers, whose names are in the book of life” (Philippians 4:1-3). Paul begins this last section of the letter with a final encouragement to the community to stand firm in the Lord. Like many of Paul's other commands, this is rooted in his love for them.  The remainder of today's verses are interesting because they involve mention of a number of people found nowhere else in Scripture, and there isn't a lot of detail given about the inciting incident prompting Paul's response in the letter. Likely, the two women Paul speaks of are leaders in the Philippian church, and Paul is addressing a disagreement between the two of them. The fact that he chooses the public forum of a letter which would be read to the whole community to address this concern suggests that it is not merely a personal matter, but something affecting the whole community. His plea that these two women be “of the same mind” is significant in several ways. It recalls Paul's command to the whole church in chapter 2:2, where he called the whole community to also be of one mind. As we discussed with regard to that verse, Paul's command is not that these two women come to perfect agreement, but rather that they prioritize a single-minded focus on the gospel and dedication to working out God's mission in their context.  Paul also stresses the importance of these women in the community and their work for the cause of the gospel, demonstrating that, even in the midst of conflict, the community is to respect these leaders and recall the cause that they share as the foundation of their relationship and leadership.  Paul then notes other figures, including someone he calls “my true companion,” and a man named Clement, and other co-workers. The true companion may be a figure known to the community like Epaphroditus, Silas, or Timothy, or another church leader, called on to serve as a mediator in Paul's place to deal with the conflict. The other figures may also be involved in the conflict or called to serve as additional mediators. Paul reminds the community that all their names are “in the book of life.” This may function as another reminder of what they all share in common even in the midst of differences. Throughout these verses, then, Paul is encouraging the community and its leaders on toward unity by showing them the various ways in which they are already united–having a common cause in the advance of the gospel and their identity as those who have been given life in Christ. Paul's way of dealing with conflict in the church is instructive for us as well. In our own conflicts with our siblings in Christ, whether historically or currently, there is a temptation to highlight differences, to seek unity only with those with whom we agree. But Paul's example, and his instructions to the Philippian church, ask more of us than that. We cannot afford to limit unity to a foundation lesser than the gospel. We are called to work harder at unity than is often comfortable. This requires humility, sacrifice, maturity–all the things we've highlighted as we've walked through this letter. But when we truly believe that our same mind is in the Lord, our identity is in Christ, and our shared cause worth contending for is the gospel, God will have his way in us.  So as you journey on, go with the blessing of God: May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you: wherever he may send you. May he guide you through the wilderness: protect you through the storm. May he bring you home rejoicing; at the wonders he has shown you. May he bring you home rejoicing once again into our doors.  

A Sunday Sermon edition of Wilderness Wanderings!  The text is Luke 10:25-37. Dive In discussion questions are below for further reflection! To see this sermon in the context of the worship service it comes from, find it here on YouTube.  Or, head to our website to connect with the worshiping community of Immanuel: immanuelministries.ca What is the lesson often given from this story? What is the question that propels Jesus to tell this story? In what ways have you tried to “inherit” eternal life? What is important about the summary of the law given in this story? Who is the beaten traveler? Who is the Samaritan? How can the church be like the inn and the inn keeper?

But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body (Philippians 3:20-21). As we conclude this chapter, we build on Kyra's reflections from yesterday. Paul writes with tears. Was some of the ink blotched because those tears had fallen while he wrote? His heart is grieved for all those who insist on opposing the cross of Christ. Recall also that he does not name them ‘my enemies'. We do well to diligently follow his example. People are not the enemy. No matter how deep our disagreements, our struggle is against powers and principalities, not people. Regarding these ‘enemies of the cross', he says, ‘their god is their stomach'. Stomach stands in for all the desires of the body, the lusts of the flesh. Their chief concern is personal satisfaction. Their appetites dictate their lives; their minds focussed solely on this earth and this life; their vision to please the self in the moment. His warning is not against specific sins, but against the underlying sin of pandering to self. On that score, are any of us innocent? Which of us Christ followers do not, at least on occasion, fall to a temptation of the ‘stomach', pandering to self? Paul is reminding his readers that they themselves must remain vigilant. We do well to heed his warning; his tears fall for us as well. We must test our desires. In themselves, they are not necessarily bad. Desires for food, for friendship, for a healthy marriage or for rest are normally good. However, we can overindulge in food. Sometimes we can use friends to climb the ladder. Sometimes our desire for rest is just laziness. Thus, Paul reminds us that our citizenship is in heaven. Our treasures, our desires, our goals for life are determined not by the desires of our bodies, but by the values of God himself. Philippi was a Roman colony, ruled by Roman law not by its own customs; its citizens were Roman citizens. Likewise, Christians live in this world, among human cultures and value systems, but our citizenship is in heaven. We derive our values from the cross. When the truths of the cross and the return of Christ are grasped, a certain way of life naturally follows. What we believe changes our behaviour. We imitate Christ while longing for full redemption. When he returns, our Saviour will transform us so that our lowly bodies, often difficult to control, will then be subject to Christ giving glory to God. Ours are lowly bodies because they are subject to sin. The body itself, as God's creation, is good. But because of sin, we are frail and weak, easily seduced to engage in selfish activity. While our bodies remain ‘lowly', we have not arrived at our goal. But one day, our lowly bodies will give way to the new spiritual body. Eagerly we await Christ's appearance and full conformity to his resurrection body, forever in union with our God. We live in this world pressing on towards that day. At that final day he will, from his exalted position where all things are subject to him, draw our lowly bodies up into his glorious existence. He identified with our humility so that we might in turn be identified with his resurrected body. Maranatha, come Lord Jesus. As you journey on, go with the blessing of God: May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you: wherever he may send you. May he guide you through the wilderness: protect you through the storm. May he bring you home rejoicing; at the wonders he has shown you. May he bring you home rejoicing once again into our doors.

“For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven” (Philippians 3:18-20a). In today's verses, Paul is building off of those previous. Having encouraged the Philippians to find models to imitate, they must also be warned against those in whose footsteps they ought not to follow.  The challenge is who these people are. You may recall that in our exploration of this letter, there have been several passages where Paul makes accusations and warns the Philippian church against groups of people. So is he referring to one of these already mentioned groups? Those preaching out of rivalry from 1:15-17? Those who oppose and persecute believers from 1:28? Those “judaizers” we discussed in the early verses of chapter 3, who advocated for circumcision among Gentile converts? Or maybe even those Paul briefly alludes to in 2:21, who seek their own self-interest? The truth is that we really don't know. And so we have to be careful about using this text to extrapolate into our context and pronounce our own judgment on those we consider to be “enemies of the cross of Christ.” In a divided culture, verses like this can be used in pretty self-serving and antagonistic ways, but that's not the posture that the rest of this letter has been teaching us to take. So if we seek to avoid this error, what do these verses teach, even warn us, about? The first thing we see is that Paul grieves for enemies of the cross of Christ. He is not making a triumphalistic declaration that those with whom he disagrees are enemies of Christ doomed for destruction. Rather, he grieves for those who are misguided, who do not know Christ, whose “mind is set on earthly things.” Paul's is not a posture of hostility, resentment, or self-righteousness. He has the same kind of compassion for these enemies of the cross that Jesus had weeping over Jerusalem in Luke 19. A heart broken, not hardened, by the disobedience of others.  But what is it exactly that causes Paul to lament for this group of people? What do these verses say constitutes being an enemy of the cross of Christ? It is first necessary to highlight that he calls this group enemies of the cross of Christ, not just enemies of Christ. Some scholars suggest this may mean that those Paul is referring to are not pagan tormentors of the church, or those with lifestyles and belief systems diametrically opposed to followers of Christ. Rather, these may be believers, people who, as Pastor Michael described yesterday, maybe believe some of the right truths about Christ, but are opposed to the way of the cross as a way of life. They may claim salvation, but are unwilling to undergo the path of discipleship we have talked about over the last couple of days, and really throughout the whole letter to the Philippians.  The cross, for Paul, is the emblem of salvation, of knowledge of and participation in Christ. Cross-centred discipleship is the call of the Christian life. To crucify all privileges, status, wealth, perceived self-sufficiency in order to participate in Christ's suffering and death is to affirm one's heavenly citizenship. This is not a preoccupation with heaven to the neglect of life on earth, but a willingness to surrender all that is of perceived earthly value for the sake of Christ and his kingdom. So where might you be resisting the call of the cross-shaped life? For whom might you intercede, even through tears, that they would come to know only Christ, and him crucified (1 Cor. 2:2)?  So as you journey on, go with the blessing of God: May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you: wherever he may send you. May he guide you through the wilderness: protect you through the storm. May he bring you home rejoicing; at the wonders he has shown you. May he bring you home rejoicing once again into our doors.  

So, all of us who are mature in the faith should see things this way. Maybe you think differently about something. But God will make it clear to you. Only let us live up to what we have already reached. Brothers and sisters, join together in following my example. You have us as a model. So, pay close attention to those who live as we do (Philippians 3:15-17). What is Paul getting at in these verses? It's helpful to recognize that Paul is picking up ideas from the beginning of chapter 2. There he says: “In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus.” The Greek word translated as “mindset” lies behind the phrase “such a view of things” and the word “think.”  In other words, Paul is saying: “All of us who are mature should take on the same mindset as that of Christ Jesus, even as you have witnessed me doing while I was with you.” Further, in considering everything a loss for the gain of knowing Christ, becoming like him in his death, Paul was practicing this mindset. In other words: to be mature in Christ is to have the mindset of Christ, as Kyra said yesterday. Paul offers his own life and experience as a witness and pattern of this mindset. It humbly submits to God and gives up everything as loss. Maturing Christians are learning to say yes to Christ in every area of our lives every day – at home, at work, at school, in our leisure, in our finances, in our friendships. The task of the Christian life is to say, “Christ is my all in all, seeking him as a precious jewel.” This had become Paul's life, full submission to Christ. And now he tells the Philippians: imitate me as I imitate Christ. Or imitate someone else whose life imitates mine or that of Christ. If we know Christ, we will mature into living the life of Christ—that life of humble submission. If believing the right truths about Christ is as far as we get, then we have not yet grown up. This is an immature Christian life. Yet, as Kyra also mentioned yesterday, Paul remains “confident… that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:6). Indeed, as he says: wherever your mindset differs from that of Christ Jesus, Paul trusts that God will make it clear to you.  Paul also encourages us not to go backwards. “Let us live up to what we have already attained,” he says. The goal is always to be straining forwards, looking ahead, keeping one's eyes fixed on Christ—or at least on those ahead of you who are following Christ—so that all of us might increasingly run the race of growing up into Christ until we become mature.  Who are you following into this mindset and way of Christ—this way of the cross: of humility, submission, and loss? Who is following you? And what is God clarifying to you? What is the next step of submission for you? How is God calling you to go deeper into the mindset of Christ? Where do you need to mature in your Christian faith? As you seek Christian maturity, go with the blessing of God: May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you: wherever he may send you. May he guide you through the wilderness: protect you through the storm. May he bring you home rejoicing; at the wonders he has shown you. May he bring you home rejoicing once again into our doors.

“Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:12-14). Yesterday, Pastor Michael described the “upward spiral” of the Christian life, the continual dying and rising with Christ by which we are transformed more fully into his likeness. Today's verses continue to unpack what this process looks like. The letter to the Philippians talks a fair bit about having the same mindset as Christ. This, it seems for Paul, is the measure of Christian maturity, and we've seen some examples of his teaching in this regard already in our exploration of the letter. In today's verses, he uses athletic language to describe this effort: “straining toward what is ahead” and “press[ing] on toward the goal to win the prize.” Just as an athlete trains for a grueling race, so too striving after union with Christ requires a single-mindedness and self-denial.  But is striving for perfection in every step the goal Paul is describing? I'm not sure that's quite it. Paul notes that as he strives toward the prize, he must forget what is behind him. Think about Paul's history. In an earlier chapter of his life, he had been a lead persecutor of followers of Christ. He certainly had been the antithesis of what he is describing in this passage. And yet he knows himself to have been taken hold of by Christ. Were he to dwell forever on the mistakes of his past, living a life of perpetual regret, he would not have been able to do the work God had for him to do. And the challenges don't only seem to be in the past; the language of “straining” or “pressing” implies the kind of daily present hardships that Pastor Michael described yesterday. So if Christian maturity Paul describes here is not past or present perfection, what is it? Paul locates the fullness of Christian maturity in the future–a divinely appointed goal to press toward. A goal toward which God has called, and thus for which Christ followers can expect to be supported by the Spirit.  What is perhaps most significant about what Paul says here is that, because Christian maturity is a future prize toward which a believer and believing community strains together with the Spirit's help, Christian maturity is not, at least in this life, a final destination. If a believer is pretty confident that they've already reached the fullest extent of Christian maturity, that's probably not a good sign.  If your past is full of failures or sins, or you consider yourself in a position now where you are still struggling, desiring faithfulness, but falling short–you're not a liability to Christ. Because Paul teaches that Christian maturity is not confidence of full attainment already, but a desire to grow, to admit past failures but not allow them to compromise our present or future witness, and to trust in God's calling and follow it with a single-minded focus and fervour. Like Paul, we do not consider ourselves having taken hold of all that is ours. Rather, we trust that our God is accompanying us on the journey, and there is much goodness that lies ahead. So as you journey on, go with the blessing of God: May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you: wherever he may send you. May he guide you through the wilderness: protect you through the storm. May he bring you home rejoicing; at the wonders he has shown you. May he bring you home rejoicing once again into our doors.  

I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead. (Philippians 3:10-11). There are many little tangents one could take out of these beautiful verses. We'll stick with just one: our union as Christians with the death and resurrection of Jesus. But here Paul throws an odd twist into it. It does not show up in the usual order of death, then resurrection. Instead, Paul begins with resurrection—then talks about suffering and death before returning to resurrection again. The Christian life is to be an upward spiral. Every day we begin in the resurrection life of Jesus. A new day: a gift of life to be thankful for. Not simply because we woke up on the right side of the ground—but because we have life in Jesus!  We wake up into a sure hope that gives purpose and direction to our giving and our grieving, our working and our washing, our studying and our suffering. What we wake up into is a life in Christ, a Christian life—a new life filled with new mercies every morning. If we wake up in the morning and think, “What can I get out of this day? How much can I make? What urges can I satisfy?” If we start there, we do not enter this upward spiral. However, if we start with this, “How can I serve God today? What is he calling me to? Who is he calling me to love today and what form will that love take?” With such questions we enter the upward spiral Paul is reflecting on. As we move through each new day—this Christian life calls us to take up our cross and follow Jesus in his humble, self-giving, submissive way. On this side of eternity, resurrection life is not ours in its fullness.  We still must die to ourselves and to our sins and all these other things that fall away in the all-surpassing glory of knowing Jesus. We must reckon with and die to our rage at the bad driver in front of us. We must loosen our grip on our status, accomplishments, and wealth that we have. Or on our desires to have them. We must confront and suffer our way through a still sin-broken world where nothing is as God intended. But, as we do: suffering with Jesus and letting our ambitions and sins die in his death, the Spirit forms the new, resurrection life of Christ ever more fully within us. Sometimes this happens slowly over years and decades. And sometimes we can see the full course of this rhythm of life-suffering-death-life all in one day or moment. Round and round it goes, down through the years—a continuing spiral of rising and dying and rising again until Christ is formed in us. Sometimes we slip downward. But Christ will find us and continue his work.  This is how we come to know Christ and the power of his resurrection at work in us and come to believe more fully that yes: this Christ who is bringing us to life in the little, daily things, can also be trusted to keep his promise to raise us to life at the end of all things. So, while there is much suffering still to be endured and many things in our lives that we still must die to, it is worth remembering as Paul does that the first and final word of the journey with Jesus is life. As you journey on, go with the blessing of God: May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you: wherever he may send you. May he guide you through the wilderness: protect you through the storm. May he bring you home rejoicing; at the wonders he has shown you. May he bring you home rejoicing once again into our doors.

A Sunday Sermon edition of Wilderness Wanderings!  The text is Luke 14:1-24. Dive In discussion questions are below for further reflection! To see this sermon in the context of the worship service it comes from, find it here on YouTube.  Or, head to our website to connect with the worshiping community of Immanuel CRC: immanuelministries.ca How is your life an ongoing act of worship to Jesus? How would you describe his glory? What five words would you choose? Who would be considered the ‘outsiders' in your community? How can you reach out to them as an individual? As a community? Identify two ways that you can more intentionally worship Jesus with your everyday life. Identify one person (or group) that needs to experience the love of Jesus. Follow the pattern of Jesus and reach beyond yourself to the outcasts in your community.  

“What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith” (Philippians 3:8-9). In the verses for today, along with those from yesterday, Paul reflects on the salvation that comes, as Pastor Michael talked about yesterday, exclusively through Christ. The verses for today continue that reflection and look back to earlier in the letter, to the poem about Christ in chapter 2:5-11.  This poem, and Paul's words in yesterday and today's verses, talk about two people who begin with elevated status. Jesus, being in very nature God. And to a far lesser degree, of course, but still of religious and cultural significance, Paul who, as Pastor Michael described yesterday, had a strong Jewish pedigree. He was righteous, well-educated, and zealous for the law.  But Paul has come to understand, and expresses in today's verses, that his version of superiority was never actually any such thing. How does he know that? He looks at Christ and recalls his poetic description in chapter 2. Christ's adoption of the form of a slave, his obedience to God and willingness to take on the humiliation of the cross, required his willful self-emptying of what was a genuine superiority. Paul, on the other hand, comes to understand that to follow Christ in his own self-emptying requires a change in his self-perception. This kind of reversal is critical for we who are Christ's followers to grasp. Certainly, as Pastor Michael described yesterday, because we have to rightly understand the source of our salvation. And also because, when we have recognized the grace of our salvation, we respond by becoming increasingly like Christ by the work of the Spirit. And to follow the one who took on human likeness, who was obedient to death–even death on a cross–requires, as the Christ poem reveals to us, deep humility. This is not the kind of humility that says, "Although, in reality, I am superior because [fill in the blank], I will follow Christ and humble myself.” If we are honest with ourselves, this is often how we practice humility. But Paul says there is nothing we have that can fill in that blank. It's all garbage. All we have is Christ, and the privilege to follow in his footsteps and mirror his downward motion for our sake.  So the gift of faith leads to humility, and humility leads to Christ's service, not to earn our salvation, but as a response to grace. As we undergo a change in our self-perception, a change in understanding where our value is from, because we no longer consider any of our privilege, power, intelligence, money–you name it–as valuable in themselves, they can be transformed into tools used in service of the faith we profess, in service of Christ. And this is the “righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.”  So as you journey on, go with the blessing of God: May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you: wherever he may send you. May he guide you through the wilderness: protect you through the storm. May he bring you home rejoicing; at the wonders he has shown you. May he bring you home rejoicing once again into our doors.  

If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless. But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ (Philippians 3:4-7). No confidence in the flesh, Paul says, speaking firmly against any sort of “Jesus-and” faith. Like a faith that says salvation comes by Jesus, and circumcision; or Jesus and following the law; or Jesus and good worship; or Jesus and good kid's programs; or Jesus and good ethics. Certainly, these things are important in the life of the church and the life of the Christian—but they have no place in securing our salvation. In the shifting sands of culture and technology, we tend to reach for something more than Jesus—something tangible we can hold on to, to know we're safe and secure. We build up walls of policy and doctrine, or of research and knowledge, or of wealth and possessions, or of whatever. Something tangible that we can control so that we can keep the sky from falling on us. This has been going on since the beginning of the church—like it does here in Philippians. There's nothing new under the sun. But the Christian faith is not a “Jesus-and” faith. It's just Jesus that saves us. Him alone. We put no confidence in the flesh. No confidence in any of the things that we can see, achieve, hold on to, or control. Paul gives an example. As far as Judaism goes: Paul was at the top of the class. Not only was he born into the privilege of a strong, practicing Jewish pedigree—but he also had the smarts and the drive to pursue that Jewish faith to the Nth degree—not content with the achievements of joining the legally righteous Pharisaical sect, but also pursuing an absolutely faultless life and a zealous persecution of all those who stepped outside it—like Christians. But now: all these things he once considered gain he counts as loss. Paul does not see his previous privilege and achievements as garbage—they were gains!  But considering the surpassing greatness and sufficiency of Jesus and him alone—he considers all else loss. Even what he had previously considered as gains. So it is for our wealth and our institutions, our success and our knowledge—they may very well be gains in any other sense. But they don't save us. There's nothing there to put confidence in. In fact, compared to the surpassing sufficiency of Christ, they are a loss. Or perhaps better said, they are to be lost. Our need for them must die, such that we hold on to nothing else but Jesus. This is what Paul's getting at. What gains in the world of the flesh do you rest your spiritual security upon? That is, your salvation? Does it rest on nothing but Jesus? Do you hold onto Jesus and some other things? What do you need to lose? How do we go about losing those things? Two things to start: as Kyra said yesterday, worship the triune God, including within the context of public worship. Second, get to know Jesus. You will discover that he is up to the task of saving you.  As you journey on, go with the blessing of God: May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you: wherever he may send you. May he guide you through the wilderness: protect you through the storm. May he bring you home rejoicing; at the wonders he has shown you. May he bring you home rejoicing once again into our doors.

“Further, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord! It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you. Watch out for those dogs, those evildoers, those mutilators of the flesh. For it is we who are the circumcision, we who serve God by his Spirit, who boast in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh— though I myself have reasons for such confidence" (Philippians 3:1-4a). Having spent some time commending partners in the gospel to the Philippian church, Paul now turns to another subject somewhat abruptly, and his tone changes with it. He has described those who are exemplary models for the community, but he now does the opposite, warning against those he calls “dogs, evildoers, mutilators of the flesh.” This is very strong language coming from a letter which, up to this point, has been full of joy and encouragement even in the midst of suffering.  Paul's warning here might be familiar to you if you've read some of his other writings. In his letter to the Galatian church, Paul warns against a group of people that scholars of Paul's letters call “Judaizers.” These were people who would follow along the path of Paul's missionary journeys, teaching that groups of Gentile converts (like the church in Philippi) had to be circumcised in order to join Jewish Christ-followers as a community of faith. In Galatians, Paul writes a pretty strongly worded letter to those tempted to heed the false teaching of this group of people, rather than recognizing and teaching that the grace of Christ meant that to be included in the family of God no longer required the physical symbol of circumcision. To preach the opposite, Paul said, was to “pervert the gospel of Christ” (Gal. 1:7). It is these teachers and their message that most scholars believe is being addressed in today's verses as well. For the believers in Philippi, and for all believers, the thing which unites them is not a sign in the flesh like circumcision, but a unity achieved by God's presence among them and working through them by the Holy Spirit.  The exhortations that Paul gives the Philippian church just before and after his warning against false teachers begins to give us an indicator of the practices Paul encourages the community to pursue which will shape them to be resilient to false teaching. He encourages them both to “rejoice in the Lord” (v. 1) and “boast in Jesus Christ” (v. 3). In essence, he's encouraging them to worship and to testify to the truth of who God has revealed himself to be in Christ.  These are practices that believers like us today can also trust to help us as we encounter false teachings, whether those that come from within the church or outside of it. We don't necessarily always think of worship as an antidote to false teaching. We may first think of doctrinal debate or apologetics as the right approach. Perhaps we wonder, or have heard others wonder, why regular worship practices, including attendance at weekly services, are important. In this passage, Paul indicates that communal practices of rejoicing and testifying about who Christ is–things the church does weekly in Christian worship–orient believers repeatedly to what is true and what is not. Being saturated in the word, active in praise and worship, and joined with a community of faith in fellowship–these provide us with the knowledge, the posture, and the accountability structures of community to help shape our minds and our hearts for discernment. And most importantly, of course, worship fosters relationship with God, and in so doing, makes it only natural that we would rejoice. So as you journey on, go with the blessing of God: May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you: wherever he may send you. May he guide you through the wilderness: protect you through the storm. May he bring you home rejoicing; at the wonders he has shown you. May he bring you home rejoicing once again into our doors.