Thoughts on Scripture

Diagnosis

~ Heather Davis ~ 2 Comments

“That’s not a diagnosis; it’s why I’m here.”

Frustration hardened my voice, drawing a sigh from my doctor. She replied, “We’ve literally tested you for everything, and it IS a diagnosis. There may not be a blood test yet but there are diagnostic criteria, and you do have the hallmark symptom of post exertional malaise. Trust me, this is it. Do your research.”

So much for the hope of something treatable.

A diagnosis of ME/CFS is kind of like being told you have a virus, only the symptoms won’t improve in a couple of weeks. No treatment, no definitive disease course, no cure. Yet this obstacle felt minor compared to the despair I felt in my former life as an atheist.

In those days, I could see the world was a mess. Everywhere I looked, I saw a profound brokenness; a sickness for which I could find neither explanation nor cure. Even mirrors reflected the malady so I avoided them when possible. On my own, single and careless if not quite carefree, I could stomach the ugliness. I even participated; a hopeless if-you-can’t-beat-’em-join-’em mentality.

But on the day I stared down at twin pink lines on a pregnancy test, the weight of the world’s horrors squeezed the air from my lungs.

Could I bring a child into this dismal world where evil lurked in broad daylight; where wars and kidnappings and murders were so commonplace that the news needed something splashier to capture the attention of a calloused public? Was it even moral to consider ushering an innocent life into such depravity?

These were the questions that drove me to my search for truth, and in doing so, I discovered there is not only a definitive diagnosis for the world’s disease, there is also a cure.

Imagine my relief.

The world’s diagnosis is simple: sin.

It’s hard to believe so much atrocity and sorrow can be encompassed by three letters of the English language, and yet it’s true. We live in an age that discounts sin as old-fashioned while failing to grasp the far-reaching devastation it brings.

Instead of measuring right and wrong against a set standard, we prefer to measure our choices against other rights and wrongs. “Sure, I’ve told a lie or two, but at least I’m not a murderer.”

We compare ourselves to Hitler or Charles Manson and feel confident that we aren’t that bad. But we are. The infection is so great, we don’t even see how it’s warped our very understanding.

Instead of being measurable against itself, sin is far more like cancer. One tiny cancer cell multiplies rapidly until the entire organism’s resources are taxed. Cancer, untreated, leads to death. Sin is no different but it is more complicated. Cancer affects only the organism it lives within; sin affects everything and everyone.

Like ripples a water droplet causes in a body of water, sin’s malignancy spreads out and disrupts other people and other elements of this world. To trace the influence of the myriad sins even of a single human being would be tantamount to documenting the impact and reverberation of every single ripple caused by each drop of rain in a hurricane.

However, the world and its inhabitants are not affected by a single person’s sin but by the collective sins of all people of all times. Only an all-powerful, all-knowing Being could sort it all out. And indeed, that’s exactly what happened.

God, the Creator who spoke the world and all its complexity into existence, understands the hopeless mangling of His creation caused by sin. He who created humanity that we might share His love also allowed us – as love must – to choose for ourselves whether or not we will share in it. And when each and every one of us rejected His love for the fleeting pleasure of deciding for ourselves what is and is not good and right, He saw the mess we made of things – and He had compassion.

As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear Him. For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust.

Psalm 103:13-14

To me, this still comes as a shock.

The human response to a creation that defies and destroys would be anger, frustration, annihilation. But God had compassion for us rebels.

His compassion led to the cure for sin – a cure that I’ll be the first to admit sounds unbelievable. He sent His Son to live as human beings were meant to live – in obedience to His created structure – and then to die as a willing sacrifice to pay the price for sin.

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 6:23

Though the Son of God and Son of Man may have clothed Himself in death, He didn’t wear it forever. By the mystery of melded God and flesh and the unwarranted compassion of the Creator who became a part of His own creation, He died. Then He left death behind, discarded along with his grave cloth. He not only accepted the penalty for sin, He overcame it.

Death is swallowed up in victory.
O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?

1 Corinthians 15:55

Now because of Yeshua Messiah, Jesus the Christ, all we who are hopelessly infected with sin can choose to die to sin by putting our desire to be in charge to death. Then, free from the stranglehold of sin, we can also discard death as a useless garment and walk into true and everlasting life.

The journey starts now, and we must each choose our path. Choose wisely. There are only two options: either the path of sin leading only to death, or the Way of Messiah Yeshua by which we put sin to death and are gifted with life and peace- glorious, true and abundant.

There is only one cure for the cancer of the soul, and His name is Yeshua (Jesus). But like all cures, it is up to each person to accept it and apply it.

Cult of Death; Gift of Life

~ Heather Davis ~ 2 Comments

For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace…
So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

Romans 8:6, 12–13 (ESV)

When facing an enemy that has stated it loves death more than others love life, what is the best step forward?

This is not only the question facing Israel in the current war against Hamas and the looming threat of other militant Islamic groups surrounding them, it’s truly the question we all face daily.

The greatest enemy isn’t Islam. It isn’t a group of people with radical ideology, its neither the Left nor the Right or any other human being at all. Our greatest enemy is far more ancient. He craves death and relishes it like fine wine. Lies are his native tongue, and he delights in threading chaos through both warp and weft of human relations. He inhales decay as a sweet savor and exhales ruin. He gloats as the world squabbles and burns.

You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

John 8:44, ESV

I can’t help but feel great grief for Israel, but I feel an equal sorrow for the people dominated by radical Islam. In their own holy book, it is written that lying is permissible in cases of war, and in some hadith it is stated that there is a continual war against infidels who are enemies of Allah. It’s permissible to lie to convert the world to Islam, and death is the alternative to conversion. The zealous followers who drink this philosophy for breakfast believe they serve God, but if Allah is a god then he is the god of this world.

Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’

Matthew 4:8–10 (ESV)

If a man dies only to bring death and chaos to others, it is a sad thing for all. This is the mission given to many poor souls who fight so fervently for their own destruction. I shudder to think of what happens when the rewards they believed they would gain turn out to be just another lie.

Yet the call of the Lord Jesus is a call to put to death the “deeds of the body” – all that is unholy and evil within ourselves – hatred, envy, deceit, strife, lust, self-worship. When Bonhoeffer said, “When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die,” he doesn’t mean we die to bring death to others. It is death to self.

We put to death what is deadly to others and to our own spirits so that we may not only gain life, we can give it as well. Sin is death and always brings a death. Yet for the sake of putting sin to death, many who live for Christ are accused of the very evils they are at war against. This is why:

Yet for your sake we are killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.

Psalm 44:22, Romans 8:6

It’s been a curious irony to feast on Romans 8 against the backdrop of wars and rumors of war. On one hand, my heart grieves for the world as it burns with fury and with physical fire. On the other, I welcome the suffering because I know they :are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18) – those of us who are in Christ, that is.

My heart sings with gratitude for the Light of the world who healed my blind eyes, opened my unhearing ears, and unshackled my mind from the lies of the evil one’s domain. It also keens for all souls who do not know the goodness of God or who, doubting His goodness, refuse to obey His good and gentle Way.

But mostly, I rejoice because I am my Beloved’s and He is mine. No matter what happens to my body, I am free; free from the law of sin and death, free from the fear of suffering, and free to live fully for the One who once died and rose again.

Oh how I long for the adherents of the death cults to turn and accept the free gift of life! They could stop conquering mere humanity and become more than conquerors, given over to love, and never separated from the goodness of God again in this world or the one to come. How I long for all people to come to this hope!

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8:37-38

Slave No More

~ Heather Davis ~ 2 Comments


For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.

Romans 6:20–21 (ESV)

A bit ago, a young man I admire made a social media post featuring a photo of a modern novel and verbiage indicating he couldn’t put it down. Always up for a good read, I mentally earmarked the book and snagged a copy before a little getaway.

The first paragraph of the book and its first sentence share dual primacy – a pleasant beginning for one who hungers for meaty sentences and an author who can carry a complex thought from initial capital through commas & semicolons, direct & indirect objects, lists, harmonizing subjects & verbs, delectable modifiers, and well-fleshed clauses all the way through to a satisfying conclusion ending in appropriate punctuation.

The book and I were off to a good start.

Then too much reality crept into the story, bringing with it the inevitable carnal brutality of a world under the curse. Admittedly, the dialog did fit the themes of 1990s-era video gamers and programmers, but as the plot progressed from two kids finding community around an old game console in a hospital to the female lead finding herself in an affair with an older (and married) man, I found myself quite able to put the book down.

Each time I laid it down, I grew more reluctant to pick it up again until I finally gave up about a third of the way in and dropped it into the library’s after-hours collection.

In fairness, the novel is well written. There are some excellent word pictures, a stark exploration of human relationships, and a unique backdrop built on the progression of video games. But I didn’t make it into the novel’s turn of the century.

So why did I find this novel – well written by my own admission – so put-downable? I believe it hit far too close to home for me. It wasn’t that I couldn’t relate to the characters; it was that the female character, despite having both the wealth and direction I lacked in my youth, struck a chord or two of familiarity. She was profoundly lost.

In fact, all the lead characters were lost. The college professor was not only lost but predatory, reminding me eerily of a time in young adulthood when I made an easy mark for a much older man – who just so happened to be into PC gaming. In the late 1990s, I even had a part to play in co-running a BBS (bulletin board system) running a multi-player Doom game over dial-up on additional phone lines run to my rental house. Close to home indeed.

The real-life version of the older man was also controlling, though much older and less appealing than the fictional character. Instead, he is part of the reason I never finished college and all of the reason the smells of whiskey and weed or the sound of a modem handshake make my stomach seize.

In fact, the book reminded me of far too many things of which I am now ashamed; things I long to impart to this younger generation filled with their guileless wonder at the complexity of life and relationships and the novelty of playing with fire, even if only vicariously. To each new generation, the world is new and interesting and relatively harmless – until it is not.

How can I relate this? There is no poetry wrought in the chains of sin, no charm in the Christless human condition, no velvet allure to the darkness. Without God, there is only need and hopelessness and a striving after the wind.

All streams run to the sea,
but the sea is not full;
to the place where the streams flow,
there they flow again.
All things are full of weariness;
a man cannot utter it;
the eye is not satisfied with seeing,
nor the ear filled with hearing.
What has been is what will be,
and what has been done is what will be done,
and there is nothing new under the sun.

Ecclesiastes 1:7–9 (ESV)

Perhaps redemption came in the novel. Perhaps the characters found hope outside of human love and mere friendship or success. Perhaps. But while the old memories it dredged up are helpful to remind me what I was saved from, I found more sorrow in the pages of the novel than beauty or interest.

I’m incredibly thankful to be free of that clutching, devouring darkness. What an indescribable gift to belong to the Light of the World who gives goodness, joy, and hope in place of ashes and chains! I can only pray for others to find the Way and follow it and be faithful to share how the Great Redeemer found me wearing slave’s shackles and set me free.

Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!

Romans 7:24–25 (ESV)

He Who Feeds the Birds Feeds Me

~ Heather Davis ~ 12 Comments

Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?

Matthew 6:25

I’ve had a lot on my mind lately. Unsaved friends and family members. Uncertainty whether one of my part-time jobs is making the best use of time (see Ephesians 5:15-16). Frustration this former gym-rat can’t even do three reps of 10-pound weights for a week without causing a crash. Concern for friends and loved ones who are sick or in pain.

A crazed world addicted to entertainment, sex, fury, and power as its residents seem to operate in a bizarre digital fugue.

And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?

Matthew 6:27

To be honest, there’s not much I can do about any of it, so I take the names and the questions to the throne of grace and lay them at the feet of the One who controls the wind and the waves. He knows what to do. I only need to wait and trust Him.

And maybe ask for His help to bolster my fragile trust when it cracks under pressure.

One way I do this is by unplugging; by spending time outside in the world He created and ruminating on His Word, His goodness, and by no means least, His creativity and care for the world He created.

And as I engaged in this exercise last week, I had the pleasure of discovering not one, but two edible plants growing right in my own yard. The research was fun, the tasting more so, and the whole experience reminded me that the God who feeds the birds and clothes the grass of the fields in splendor will take care of His children, too.

Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’

Matthew 6:31

Although we’ve had the kousa dogwood for years, I’ve somehow overlooked its odd-shaped fruit. Perhaps the time yours truly once threw a vehicle into reverse instead of park and only realized ther error after said vehicle continued to move and drag our hapless heroine into the branches of the little tree at the beginning of the dogwood’s maturity may have something to do with it. But who can say?

Either way, this year I did notice, took my pics (not my best work, I admit), and did my research.

After harvesting the fruit, I cut a couple open and found the inside to be very sweet, if a little grainy. Unfortunately, I believe the deer discovered the edible nature of the berries before I did, so my harvest was light this year. Next year, I’ll be watching.

I stumbled upon my next foraging adventure while investigating the fence line recently exposed by our neighbor’s newly-declared war on a ravenous wisteria vine. Small, blackish berries caught my eye and I bent down to find the unripe versions resembled miniature watermelons.

Captivated by these beauties, I took a few shots. Then I took a few more due to my own irritation at my failed Kousa pics combined with furry bestie’s helpful schnoz keeping the fruit from stillness. After banishing the beastie to the indoors, I finally managed some less blurry and less furry shots of the fruit, though the breeze and the tremor of my hands were such that the tiny flower eluded me.

  • What?

The plant turned out to be black nightshade, an edible wild relative of tomatoes and bell peppers. I harvested a few of the ripe berries and was pleasantly surprised by the flavor of a sweet midget tomato. I’m watching for the next batch to ripen and hope to grace my next salad with a handful.

All the exploration served to remind me that my God is truly good. Even if the world completes its journey to hell in a handbasket, just as the Book says it certainly will, my Father will continue to care for His creatures and His children. There is no hell in His presence, and by happy coincidence, that is precisely where I desire to dwell.

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

Matthew 6:33-34

Oh me of little faith…

Reflections of an Introvert

~ Heather Davis ~ 1 Comment

Confession: I am quite happy in the company of no one other than my heavenly Father for days at a time. I can literally spend hours inspecting the structure of a spider’s web, angling my camera to capture just the right shot of a dew-covered beetle, or contemplating the Scriptures while watching birds forage.

Before Christ, I clung to the notion that people were too people-y for me to deal with, particularly since they kept having birthdays and parties and such. The burden of being social sorely taxed the selfishness of Old Me.

Then there was the issue of my mental self-image, which began in the latter part of the 1900s (as my offspring are so fond of reminding me) and persisted for an indecent stretch of years into the new century. If you can imagine a creature a bit like a female version of Pigpen from Peanuts gifted with a less wholesome adaptation of King Midas’s curse where her very presence caused the immediate vicinity to putrefy, you have a sanitized picture of what Young Me saw in the mirror.

The sense of myself as a thing worthy of contempt coupled with something very like a phobia of “normal” people did not lend itself to the development of healthy relationships. But since nature abhors a vacuum, as the common rendering of Aristotle’s postulation goes, Old Me found herself enmeshed in unhealthy relationships, one after another, for no small amount of years.

Thus, Old Me learned to find comfort in solitude. That is, until God stepped into the picture.

Crazy how the Creator of all things visible and invisible can take a person who is perfectly uncomfortable brooding on her own beastliness and turn her inside out. Good thing, too, because it got crowded in my head, what with the piling up of decomposing dreams and the choking dust cloud of self-focus.

So it is that I find myself now – decades after this rather harrowing but necessary rearrangement of my entire being – learning how to people with the best of them. This, I assure you, is quite despite my best efforts to convince the All-Knowing One how little I know about peopling.

Alas, His power is made perfect in my weakness, as He reminded me first through childbearing, then homeschooling, then as a teacher, and on and on to whatever is next. I don’t need to be a good peopler; I just need Him.

This brings me to one of my latest lessons.

Throughout the Book, there are countless commands given that necessitate the presence and fellowship of people. Jesus tells us, “Love one another as I have loved you,” (John 13:24) – a thing I cannot do if I only contemplate the Word in the company of beetles and dew.

In Matthew 6:14-15, Colossians 3:12-14, and Ephesians 4:32, to name a tiny percentage, I am reminded that the forgiveness I’ve received from God in Christ is for extending to others, not for hoarding. What’s more, I cannot forgive if I have not been hurt by others, and I cannot be hurt by others if I avoid them.

Thus, my Lord recently gave me the words to articulate a lesson He’s taught me in practice over the last decade or so: if His Word commands us to gather with others (and I believe it does, both subtly and overtly), I am responsible for obeying this command and cannot wait on others to do so.

And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

Hebrews 10:24-25

Much to Old Me’s woe, this is true even if I am the proverbial new kid on the block. What I mean is, if I am commanded to people in order to practice the one-anothers and grow in grace and obedience, I can’t afford to sit back and wait until someone takes notice of me and invites me in. I need to pursue the companionship of others myself.

For a natural introvert, that can be a daunting ask. Yet it is also a profound act of trust in God to step out in obedience, denying my natural inclination to remain alone, and follow Him.

As my pastor often says, “If you can’t say amen, say ouch.“

However, for my fellow introverts out there in the world, take heart! Obeying God never brings insecurity or gloom but only exposes our internal ick to the fresh air of His Spirit and the cleansing Light of His Presence. The first steps may be scary, but take them anyway.

By choosing to seek out community for the sake of trust in the One who laid down His life for me, I’ve been blessed beyond words – through people. I’ve learned to people better from people who are good at peopling, and I’ve learned the joys of exercising love and forgiveness in the process.

So get out there. Invite folks over for dinner or coffee, and keep doing it until something sticks. I can’t promise it will be easy, but I can promise if you do it for the Lord, it will be worth it.

Should Christians Cuss?

~ Heather Davis ~ 4 Comments

As I walked and talked with the Lord one morning, He clarified something for me. I’ve heard several people who identify as Christians use swear words. Years ago, I had a long evening conversation with a pastor on my back porch. During our chat, he defended Christians cussing as a “subculture” issue where the words were nothing more than adjectives. In his eyes and in the eyes of many others, the answer to the question, “Is it OK for Christians to cuss?” is an emphatic yes.

But I would argue that we are asking the wrong question entirely.

In Matthew 12:34, after calling the corrupted religious leaders a “brood of vipers,” Jesus went on to say, ‘For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.”

So really, the question is: if you feel the need to cuss, what is abounding in your heart that cursing is what comes out?

You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil.

Matthew 12:34-35

After delineating the works of the flesh, Paul informed the church in Galatia that “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. . .” (Galatians 5:22-23).

It’s worthy of note that cursing is none of those things. At best, it’s contemptuous; an expression of disgust or contempt for the object or person on the receiving end. At its worst, cussing is an expression of anger. In fact, I can’t think of a swear word that doesn’t come from a place of anger.

So, if your heart is full of anger and contempt, it’s only natural for these to fuel what comes out of your mouth. But if your heart is full of Jesus, different things will come out; the fruit of His Spirit.

Something to think about today.

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Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.

Galatians 5:19-25

Shalom

~ Heather Davis ~ Leave a comment

It sometimes feels odd to me that my heart can break over so many things while never losing hold on an unfaltering sense of peace and contentment. Or perhaps I should say that this shalom – this peace – never loses hold of me.

My son’s frantic drive to secure a sweetheart while the One Whose heart was pierced for him waits on the sidelines. . .

The Covenant School shooting – the senselessness of an adult opening fire on an elementary school. . .

My sister-in-law’s struggles to find justice and fill a void that only her Creator can fill. . .

Bloodthirsty murders and equally bloodthirsty families of the victims. . .

A people poised to spot a slight or insult at every turn. . .

Egregious media overreach and control. . .

Government chicanery and failure. . .

Wars and rumors of wars. . .

Gender confusion. . .

Moral decay. . .

Insanity. . .

But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.

2 Timothy 3:1-5

Yet despite it all – and no small number of physical ailments of my own – I have shalom; an incredible peace that nothing can explain or steal away. It’s the certainty that no matter what happens to my body here, no matter who may wrong or hurt me, no matter what evils may lay in wait for me, ultimate justice WILL be done.

My life is in the hands of the One who breathed it into being, and in Him, I find fullness of joy and eagerly anticipate pleasure forevermore.

Yet I still hurt for those who do not share the certainty. I know that if my son were filling his heart and soul with the Living Water and filling his days glorifying God and enjoying Him, he wouldn’t rush into relationships to soothe an ache no woman can soothe.

I grieve for my sister-in-law who would rest at ease, not seeking to get even but trusting in the One who will one day repay all wrongs – except for those wrongs committed by those who have been washed by the blood of the Lamb.

Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”
To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.”

Romans 12:19-20

So I pray and I wait. I pray to see these and many others I know and love (and some I merely know) to surrender to the Lord Jesus. I ask the Holy Spirit to come to them, to guide them to Himself, to breathe new life into their lungs and give them hope.

And I wait to see what the Lord will do, praying always that He will give me strength to remain faithful and keep my brothers and sisters faithful as well.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:6-7

A Disciple’s Pet Peeves: “Jesus Hung Out with Sinners”

~ Heather Davis ~ 15 Comments

I first learned to love God through His Word and didn’t walk through the doors of a church building until I’d read and wrestled through the Book at least once. Since then, I’ve continued to read and wrestle through the Bible repeatedly – a practice that’s brought to light some rather odd discrepancies between the actual Words of God and Bible-belt churchianity culture where I live. A few of these discrepancies have grown into pet peeves, like the oft-repeated mantra, “Jesus hung out with sinners.”

To that, I can only muster both shreds of dignity, roll my eyes, and state with all possible decorum, “Well, duh!”

The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

Genesis 6:5

I have to wonder if anyone who repeats this slogan has actually read the Bible. The whole of it, I mean; not just the verse of the day, an occasional victorious meme, or Aunt Sue’s Hobby Lobby signs.

The LORD looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.

Psalm 14:2-3

Honestly, you don’t need to turn many pages of Scripture to find human beings sinning. All of them. Starting with the first two ever created and spiraling downward from there. My rogue race began with simple disobedience and quickly progressed to bloodshed, polygamy, incest – and it just keeps getting worse.

Even David, the man after God’s own heart, committed adultery (and possibly rape) followed by conspiracy to commit murder to cover his backside (see 1 Samuel 13:14, 2 Samuel 11). Anyone reading it can see the truth behind Paul’s words: “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). An honest look at the news headlines, social media feeds, or even our own lives confirms this truth is ongoing.

My best guess is that those who repeat this inane refrain are drawing from segments of Scripture such as the following excerpt:

And as he reclined at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Mark 2:15-17

It’s true – Jesus did dine with sinners. In fact, every time He ate in the presence of a human being, He was dining with a sinner.

To put it another way, Jesus didn’t come to earth with the option of going on occasional retreats with His like-minded buddies who were also sinless incarnations of the Living God. Every person He interacted with was a sinner.

Jesus had no alternatives; if He hung out with anyone, He hung out with sinners.

However, those who spend their time parroting this phrase without contemplation are missing the beauty of the passage. When the Lord responded to the accusations of the Pharisees and scribes, He wasn’t telling them that He preferred the company of sinners to the company of upstanding, righteous members of the community. Or in today’s vernacular, He wasn’t saying He’d rather hang out with prostitutes and drunks than with pastors and clergy.

Instead, He was subtly rebuking them.

Jesus didn’t come to call the righteous – because there are none. He came to call sinners, a label we all carry whether we realize it or not. Even those Pharisees. Especially those Pharisees and those of us who – like them – believe we are “good people” because of what we’ve done and because of our ability to justify the ickier deeds.

I stood upon a high place,
And saw, below, many devils
Running, leaping,
and carousing in sin.
One looked up, grinning,
And said, “Comrade! Brother!”

Stephen Crane

That Jesus spent time around sinners is a given, but the reason this phrase has become a pet peeve is the way it’s often used. Too often, people sling these words around to justify their own poor choices in companionship. If we were Jesus, we needn’t worry about being corrupted by the company we keep. But we are not Him.

While it’s vital that we tell everyone the gospel, it’s also important that we remember our own proclivity to stray. As my pastor says, we need to preach the gospel to ourselves daily; keeping alert to our own need of Him and remaining wary lest we take the easy road into sinful practices and disavow the gospel’s power by our deeds. Or by our pride.

When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with the humble is wisdom.

Proverbs 11:2

Missing: Truth

~ Heather Davis ~ 2 Comments

I have a confession. I subscribe to publications from a variety of viewpoints in order to hear from voices on both ends of the spectrum. On social media, I do my best to keep the bars of my personal algorhythmic cage as widely-spaced as possible. And I always assume I’m missing something in every story. We all are. All to often, the missing element is truth.

We live in a world currently run by the one Jesus called “the ruler of this world” and “a liar and the father of lies” (see John 12:31, 14:30, John 8:44). To find the truth, you have to research and think deeply and logically about what you read or watch. You cannot merely consume.

Propaganda

The Friday after the most recent election, my inbox was filled with the typical sales flyers and political emails. Among them were a selection of Red and Blue propaganda pieces loaded with highlights, bold type, red letters, shrieking capitals, and shameless abuse of the exclamation point.

Propaganda to my left and right both made similar claims:

  • The election results are hanging in the balance!!!!!
  • The stakes are the highest they’ve ever been!!!!!
  • YOUR EMERGENCY CONTRIBUTION IS URGENTLY NEEDED TO FIGHT BACK against the enemy of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness!!!!!!
  • EVERYTHING IS BURNING AND WE’RE ALL GOING TO DIE!!! NOW IS A TIME FOR UNADULTURATED PANIC!!!

Or something.

I have to wonder why the stakes are higher now than, say, when Hitler and Stalin made blood-soaked bids for world domination or when our own fledgling nation tore itself apart at a time when some people wanted to own other people. I thought those stakes were pretty high.

But I also have other questions:

  1. How, precisely, will my donation impact the results of an election that took place three days prior?
  2. Assuming my rushed contribution manages to (alarmingly) sway the counting of votes, how can I be sure all the swaying won’t cause fatal fractures in the whole structure?
  3. If both Red and Blue are threatening to destroy my liberty, who am I supposed to believe will preserve it?

You get the picture. But it isn’t just politics. The American media seems to have won a bloodless coup far more effective than all the concentration camps, purges, and gulags combined.

Just Keep Spinning

In his fine book, Amusing Ourselves to Death, Neil Postman opined that Huxley’s pleasure-dominated society in Brave New World comes closer to today’s America than Orwell’s hate-based domination portrayed 1984.

For the most part, I agree. However, Orwell’s dystopia did absolutely nail humanity’s brief attention span.

To see what I mean, all you have to do is refuse to scarf down the news like fast food fries. Instead, take time to test and discern the flavors. Look for articles with emotionally-charged language or “facts” that seem to contrast with other articles.

A simple example is the media handling of unborn babies. From one perspective, you’ll find pieces in support of a woman’s “right” to terminate a pregnancy. Yet you can also find stories where a mother and her unborn child were both murdered. In the first style of story, there is no body count; just a natural consequence eliminated. In the other, the body count is two. One is a right, the other is murder.

A careful reader of today’s news might note that the answer to the question, “When does life begin?” appears to be, “Whenever it best suits the agenda of the person you are asking.”

Our newsfeeds are full of similar contradictions covering a wide range of topics. All of them prey on a population whose collective memory seems to extend no further than seconds into the past and whose attention span is easily caught by the next shiny scandal. We move from mayhem and murder to enjoying quirky cat videos with a seamlessness rivaled only by the criminally insane.

I would argue that, apart from Christ, criminally insane is precisely what we are.

Lost and Found

But like it or not, there is such thing as truth – even if it seems to be missing in the public square. An incredible Book I’m addicted to reading mentioned as much:

Justice is turned back, and righteousness stands far away; for truth has stumbled in the public squares, and uprightness cannot enter. Truth is lacking, and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. The LORD saw it, and it displeased him that there was no justice.

Isaiah 59:14-15

These words were written in the 700s BC. Truth, it seems, has been MIA for a very long time.

Strange though it may seem, all this madness actually encourages me. Such ruminations help me remember that human depravity and sickness of mind are as old as the Fall. It reminds me that there truly is nothing new under the sun.

What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun.

Ecclesiastes 1:9

What’s more, I know that while it may appear that Truth is nowhere to be found, it’s actually never been far off. Truth is as close as the wind on your cheek, as real as your heartbeat, as wide as the sky – for all of creation, including your body, contain evidence of the Truth that brought them into being.

Even better, we’ve been given a tangible document, the Word of Truth, as a gift to avoid making careless assumptions. Our feelings often override the evidence of our senses, and the God who made us knows this and gave us His Word as a reminder. Cultural norms will come and go, nations will rise and fall, lies will be tossed around like dodgeballs, but the Word of God will stand forever.

And because of this truth, we can have confidence that one day, the Truth will out.

Can a Corpse Be Pleasing?

~ Heather Davis ~ Leave a comment

I have a crazy question for you: has a corpse every done anything you find pleasing?

Humor me for a minute. I’ve been thinking about how the Scriptures teach that we are dead in sin. Romans 6:23 tells us the wages of sin is death – literally, we earn death by sinning – but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Other Scriptures talk about it too – Ephesians 2 starts off by telling us we were dead in our trespasses and sins and Romans 8 contrasts walking by the Spirit of God and walking in the death of sin, and so on.

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins. . .

Ephesians 2:1

For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. . . But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

Romans 8:6, 10

We are spiritual corpses without Christ; the literal walking dead. So that’s been on my mind; then on Sunday, our pastor was preaching from John 3 and talked about Nicodemus, the Pharisee and ruler. This man probably knew the Tanakh (Scriptures of the time) about as well as he knew his name.

As Jay said, Nicodemus grew up understanding that if he memorized all these Scriptures, did all the right things, and followed all the rules, God would be pleased with him.

It hit me funny: how can God be pleased with a corpse? Who’s ever pleased with a corpse?

If a corpse could do anything at all, it could only do rotten things. Dead things. It just reminds me of how Jesus said in John 15 that apart from Him, we can do nothing.

Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

John 15:4-5

Think about that today. God loved you so much when you were a corpse that He sent His only Son to bring you to life.

That’s how loved you are. Go in that love today.