salvation

Darkness, Light, and Subjective Morality

~ Heather Davis ~ 2 Comments

As our 8:45 p.m. flight took off, I watched the ground fall away through the airplane window. The ambient brightness of the city at ground level faded quickly. Night encroached. In my bird’s-eye view, large pools of light pushed back the darkness as we gained altitude, soaring over stadiums, shopping malls, office complexes, and street lights. The further from the city we journeyed, the more feeble the pools of light became and the more prominent the surrounding darkness grew. An apt visual metaphor for subjective morality.

We were heading home from a brief visit with family members who do not have (so far as I can tell) a thriving relationship with the living God. During the visit, I was told about the kids’ “religious classes,” and one of said kids informed me on Sunday, “We don’t have to go to church.” God’s name was invoked in the standard secular way along with a string of other words my husband and I have allowed the Holy Spirit to excise from our vocabularies.

But more telling was the fruit. The desperate striving to be a “good person” on a sliding scale of virtue. Anger when one has been hurt by the actions of another, but justifying similar actions in oneself.

I hate him because of what he did to me; when I did it, it was for a good reason. It was different.

Justice struggling to find footing on an unstable, convulsing foundation of right vs. wrong. A steady undercurrent of fear and uncertainty and thinly-veiled shame. Palpable darkness seeping in at the edges.

It’s a world I used to embrace, and the reminder left me both sorrowful and grateful.

I am deeply grieved for loved ones still imprisoned by the deceitfulness of sin. Yet I am grateful for the One who healed my spiritual blindness and shined the light of Yeshua (Jesus), opening my eyes to the singular Way of escape from my self-constructed cage of sin, guilt, and evil.

I glanced back out the window. Only pinpricks of light appeared below now, far-flung and lonely in the inky blackness of the night.

All our human effort to eradicate the darkness of sin – whether the poison within own rebellious hearts or the evil stalking us from without – are like those dwindling lights.

At ground-level in a large crowded city, all seems well. Our self-made righteousness blends in, and while we may be doing worse than some, at least we’re faring better than others. One can think of the darkness as somewhere out there, far away. OK, maybe I’ve been around the block more than once, but at least I’m not a murderer.

In the throng, it’s easy to fit in. Easy to hide.

But when we’re alone, the darkness looms and our good works flicker like a lit match in a drafty room. There’s no real warmth, little light to see by, and nowhere to run when the light is snuffed.

We can try to push back the darkness on our own, but we’ll never get far. A centimeter, a meter, maybe a little more, but our little circle of good works quivers as hungry shadows press in from all sides, waiting. Unrelenting. Inexorable.

No matter how good we try to be, we can never do enough good to erase the evil we’ve done. Instead, our good deeds only serve to highlight the murkiness of our motives and the taint upon our souls. The dim light we produce is shot through with shades of inadequacy.

On our own, we’re caught in a losing battle of push-and-shove against our very nature. We cannot rescue ourselves from this losing battle; we can only prolong the inevitable moment when the darkness forever swallows our faint gleam.

But there is hope. There is a true and effulgent Light of the World powerful enough to banish darkness; a Light that heals and cleanses and restores and renews. And He has a name.

Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. . . (Ephesians 5:7-11).

Friend, if you’re caught in the flickering and uncertain light of subjective morality, this is an invitation to you. There is a real Light, a true and powerful Light unconquerable by the darkness. His Name is Yeshua, commonly called Jesus in English. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and the light of truth He brings is strong enough to scour the deepest and oldest stains from your very soul if you will turn your back on your sin and run into the light of His love and grace.

His morality is true Light, and while He knows we can never measure up to God’s standard of perfect holiness, He offers Himself as a bridge. Through His torn body, we can cross over from darkness to light, from death to life.

There, in the powerful Light of Truth from whence the Glory of God shines, the stains of our rebellion are scoured away. He’s given us the Word of Truth, and by its light we see Light. All our horrible secrets are laid bare, but in that pure light, they are exposed to be excised by the Healer of our souls.

But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you” (Ephesians 5:13-14).

In Yeshua, we are restored to what we ought to be and have no more need of fallible, artificial lights of our own making. In Him and through Him, the full radiance of righteousness shines.

He is the only way; humanity’s only hope. But we must make a choice. We must choose Him; His way of sacrifice, letting go what we once were to become what He created us to be.

Step into the Light, let Christ shine on you, and find joy and peace, healing and wholeness, and rest for your soul.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son,
that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.  
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, 
but in order that the world might be saved through him.  
Whoever believes in him is not condemned, 
but whoever does not believe is condemned already, 
because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 
And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, 
and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. 
For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.
 But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God" (John 3:16–21).

Jesus Didn’t Come for the Righteous

~ Heather Davis ~ Leave a comment

. . .He said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”
(Matthew 9:11-13)

The above statements by Yeshua (Jesus) were made shortly after He called a man named Matthew to follow Him. Because Matthew was both Jewish and a tax collector employed by Rome, he would have been vilified as a contemptable sell-out by his fellow Israelites.1 Without a doubt, Matthew was as shocked at the Master’s call as the other disciples, who were probably wondering, Why is the Lord asking a traitor to join us?

Whatever their response, we know at some point after Matthew left his tax booth to follow the Messiah, Yeshua was found dining with other tax collectors and socially unacceptable sinners. The Pharisees did not care for His choice of companions and voiced their disdain. It was at this point my Lord offered His subtle rebuke in the form of a reference to Hosea 6:6: “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

In the rabbinical style of His time, the Lord intended to point them not only to the specific verse, but the entire passage (probably Hosea 6:4-10). It is worthy of note here to point out the English translation is not exact, but bear in mind Matthew’s Gospel account was written in Greek; Hosea penned in Hebrew; and the conversation probably happened in either Hebrew or Aramaic – just in case you were wondering why it doesn’t appear to be a direct quote.

What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah? Your love is like a morning cloud, like the dew that goes early away. . . For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. But like Adam they transgressed the covenant; there they dealt faithlessly with me.
(Hosea 6:4, 6-7)

Do you see it? Yeshua is not only making clear His mission – to call sin-sick sinners to spiritual health – but He is reminding these wayward leaders of their own faithlessness. The quoted statement forces the hearer to decide which category he falls into. Am I righteous? Or a sinner?

Anyone as conversant with the Text as the Pharisees were, would know that Psalm 14:2-3 declares there is “none who does good, not even one,” and many of the proverbs discuss God’s abhorrence of human pride (see Proverbs 8:13, 16:5, et al).

Not to mention that to declare oneself righteous is as bold an act of hubris as can be imagined.

Matthew doesn’t record the Pharisees’ response to this challenge, but I doubt it was positive. In several other places, Matthew points out how this sect accused the Lord of casting out demons through demonic means, sought to destroy Him, and eventually conspired to have Him killed.2 Thus, it’s no leap of logic to assume they weren’t thrilled at His rebuke. After all, they were prominent religious leaders! How dare this young upstart presume to reproach them?

Hm. Indeed.

The thing is, it’s easy for us to fall into the habit of thinking, Oh, those awful Pharisees, roll our eyes, and quite miss the point.

Yeshua’s question is for us, too. Am I righteous? Or a sinner?

Do we, in living-color-lived-out truth, comprehend the gravity of our sin and our desperate need for the Messiah’s imputed righteousness? Or do our lives reflect smug complacency in our own decency?

When we read these accounts in our Bibles, it’s an easy thing to read as a bystander, observing without participating in the unfolding narrative. Yet the entire purpose of God’s Word is to teach us about Him and draw us to Him by showing us the path carved through the very flesh of His only Son.

If there were any other way to breach the chasm between our sinful selves and the holiness of the Most High God, Yeshua’s prayers in Gethsemane would have concluded without His betrayal by one of His close companions and the road to Golgotha.

We can never be righteous enough to counterbalance our sin. There are no Divine scales of justice where each bad deed weighs down one side while every good deed is placed on the opposite. There is only the living death of sin and the eternal life offered through the Messiah.

To be blunt, we all fall into one of two categories:

  1. Those who do not belong to Yeshua, who are walking dead just waiting for the animation of our bodies to cease, or
  2. Those who do belong to Him and have already begun the eternal journey that will continue once these temporary bodies wear out and are traded in for our eternal ones.

So when you read His words to the Pharisees, it’s worth a heart check. Have you been trusting in your good works, or have your good works been the grateful overflow of a life rescued from death through surrender to the Lord Jesus Christ, Yeshua Messiah? Are you a recalcitrant miscreant relying on self-sufficiency? Or have you repented – made a 180o turn – leaving desire for sin at your back and making steps closer to the glorious Savior?

In fact, are you one of the sinners He came to call?

I know I am, and I’m blessed to call Him both Master and Lord. I pray you will come to Him, too, and we can glorify Him both now and for time out of mind.

  1. See “Why Exactly Were Tax Collectors So Hated?” and “Monetary System, Taxation, and Publicans in the Time of Christ,” et al. ↩︎
  2. See Matthew 9:32-32; 12:14; 12:22-24; 22:15; et all ↩︎

A Theology Built on Suffering

~ Heather Davis ~ Leave a comment

My walk with the Living God is not your typical Southern I-was-raised-in-church story. Although I did attend church with my family as a child, I didn’t “get it.” Nothing in my childhood Sunday school classes penetrated to the core of my will and reason, and so I was unprepared for the inevitable hardships of life in a sin-wrecked world. I had no theology for suffering.

As a teen and young adult, I adopted a worldview based on atheistic humanism. The problem was, this worldview necessitated I remain busy and preoccupied at all times. Otherwise, the reality of pain, despair, and emptiness would press me in a suffocating embrace. From my godless perspective, suffering was meaningless, and since life held a great deal of suffering, life seemed meaningless to me as well.

Then I met my Creator through His Word, and everything changed. But the verses that first resonated with me were not the standard reassurances of God’s love – the fear nots and the comforting promises of faithful love. To the contrary, the very first Scripture I remember striking a deep chord and reverberating through my brain was from the prophet Isaiah. It was a Scripture about pain.

Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tried you in the furnace of affliction. For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it, for how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another.
(Isaiah 48:10-11)

For the first time in my life, I learned the anguish and angst I’d experienced in life had a purpose. There was meaning in misery; a reason for the suffering.

The craziest idea I’d ever had took hold of me. My pain wasn’t even ultimately about me at all. It was all allowed to occur for God’s glory. And He wasn’t going to share His glory with anyone – not even with me.

In those two verses, read in the context of the entire chapter but impressed into my heart by the Holy Spirit as a personal message, I realized all my life to that point had been a refining process.

The torturous heat I’d felt, sometimes due to my own poor choices and other times inflicted upon me by circumstance, wasn’t merely rotten luck. Instead, the intense heat of anguish melted down every atom of my being in order that the ugliness inside me could be separated and removed.

Even my stupidity, my “looking for love in all the wrong places” and the horrors I’d found in dark corners I never should have probed, was included in the liquefaction. The Great Refiner applied heat to every part of me, discarding what was useless to Him and reshaping the rest into a vessel He could use – for His glory.

My pain was for His glory, and yielded to Him, it became a thing of beauty; a connection point by which I could share my eternal hope in a merciful and magnificent Creator God with others who are wounded and broken by suffering. Life and life’s pain were no longer meaningless.

From these two verses, the Holy Spirit continued to reveal a theology of suffering to me through the Word of God. I was unsurprised to read Paul’s assertion that we should rejoice in our suffering or James’s admonition to “count it all joy… when you meet trials of various kinds” (see Romans 5:2-5 and James 1:2-4).

Nor was I surprised to learn that my salvation was purchased by the suffering of the Son of God, or that my obedience to Him required further suffering. I was simply ecstatic to learn all the pain had a purpose after all.

Family Legacy: Ephraim and Manasseh

~ Heather Davis ~ 2 Comments

Today I shall take a break from homeschool topics and explore an idea my Tuesday night group teased out at our meeting last week. We are going through Lois Tverberg’s fine book, Reading the Bible with Rabbi Jesus and had come to the seventh chapter about reading the Bible as a collective “we.” As we talked through the ramifications of historic concepts of family legacy, some fascinating ideas about Ephraim and Manasseh began to come clear.

I was particularly struck by the implied sacrifice & redemption story of Joseph’s two children who were born in Egypt. Perhaps I’m reading too much into the text, but I still wanted to share our thoughts and my further contemplations here and invite discussion. Does anyone else see a hidden gem in this very casual Scriptural mention of Israel’s adoption of his grandsons?

ISRAEL’S FAMILY IN EGYPT

And now your two sons, who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt, are mine; Ephraim and Manasseh shall be mine, as Reuben and Simeon are (Genesis 48:5).

In Genesis 48:5, an ageing Israel claims his grandsons as his own children, conferring his son Joseph’s inheritance on them and even putting any subsequent children Joseph may have under the inheritance of Ephraim and Manasseh.

At face value, this scene has always struck me as a tiny bit odd. However, I believe this is because I’ve been reading the Genesis narrative under the influence of my own cultural understanding of family – that is to say, a very broken and disoriented American perception of family lines.

But when my friends and I dug into the passage with an eye to the redemptive arc of God’s covenant with Abraham to give his descendants the land of Canaan and to bless all the nations through Abraham’s line, we noticed a few more details.

Even though Joseph’s removal from the family was forced when his brothers sold him as a slave (see Genesis 37:12-36), the facts are he came to manhood apart from his family line. As a man, he was the second in command over a pagan nation and even had the daughter of a pagan priest as his wife.

And to Joseph in the land of Egypt were born Manasseh and Ephraim, whom Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera the priest of On, bore to him (Genesis 46:20).

Keeping in mind that Egypt is a type for the world and for bondage to sin (a topic you’ll have to delve into on your own to keep this post smallish), I began to see foreshadowing of both Moses and even tiny hints of the overarching redemption story ultimately fulfilled in Yeshua (Jesus) the Messiah. Bear with me.

HINTS OF THINGS TO COME

Joseph’s two sons, like Moses, were born into positions of wealth and privilege. They would have access to education and likely even power and social prestige, given the position of their father. By adopting them, Israel was not only granting a double portion of the inheritance to Joseph, the firstborn of his beloved wife Rachel. He was also, in essence, requiring the boys to no longer identify with the wealthy and privileged, but pagan, nation they were born into. Instead, they would be associated with his lineage – the lineage of a humble shepherd, a lifestyle abhorrent to the sophisticated and modern Egyptians.

When Pharaoh calls you and says, “What is your occupation?” you shall say, “Your servants have been keepers of livestock from our youth even until now, both we and our fathers,” in order that you may dwell in the land of Goshen, for every shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians. (Genesis 46:33-34).

Did Ephraim and Manasseh then go to Goshen to live with their clan and be trained in the ways of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? The Bible doesn’t expressly state this. Ephraim and Manasseh are mentioned only once more in Genesis when we are told Joseph saw Ephraim’s sons to the third generation.

Here is where I posit their association with the rest of the Hebrew exiles in Egypt is implied: the next mention of Ephraim and Manasseh is at the census in Numbers 1, and they are mentioned later in Numbers when the promised land was being divvied up.

In between the end of Genesis and Numbers, the book of Exodus mentions that “the people of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly.” Further reading reveals a new pharaoh came to power who did not know about Joseph (see Exodus 1). What follows is both oppression and enslavement, which must have included the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh if they were subsequently brought out of Egypt by Moses and given portions in the promised land.

LESSONS FOR TODAY

Since I understand the Bible to to contain historical accounts and demonstrates God’s activity through history to point to greater truths in His immense plan of redemption, I see a hint at the call on all of God’s people to hold lightly such items as worldly status, prestige, wealth, and all other transient circumstances and instead to give our all to the eternal promise of God’s covenant.

This call to align ourselves with God, accepting the terms of His covenant now offered freely to both Jews and Gentiles through Yeshua Messiah/Christ Jesus, is a call to die to ourselves daily and follow the Lord. It is a call to emulate both Jesus’s sacrificial lifestyle and His trust that the Father’s eternal promises are worth such light and momentary affliction as it may be to set aside honor, power, wealth, and other worldly gains for a few decades in order to secure pleasures forevermore at God’s right hand.

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
(2 Corinthians 4:16-18)

In the simple statement by Israel that Ephraim and Manasseh were his, my friends and I saw a glimpse at the narrative arc of the entire Scripture. We saw hints of the One to come who would lay aside all power and glory in order to live in a humbler station as a mere human being.

We saw a picture of alignment with God’s covenant that doesn’t make sense from the perspective of a strictly earthly life. Such alignment only makes sense if your trust in the covenant-making God outranks personal ambition. For the Christian, it makes sense if our lives do not end after the 70-odd years of these bodies but continue on for eternity. In the adoption of Ephraim and Manasseh, we detected hints of what it means to count the cost of discipleship; a topic Jesus Himself would speak of generations later.

And for Ephraim and Manasseh, it made sense because it wasn’t about their individual inheritance but about the inheritance promised by God to their family line; a promise that predated their little lives by two generations and would be fulfilled long after their bodies had returned to dust. Imbedded in this concept is a realization of the smallness of our individual lives and the grandeur of being adopted into the family of God.

For those of us who have surrendered to the Lordship of Jesus, our choice is no different. We live with the understanding that eternal life begins right now; that it does not begin at the grave but simply extends beyond it.

When this becomes clear, our priorities change. We begin to live for the future, making use of the temporary situations but not clinging to them because we know earthly power, prestige, wealth, and privilege are all fickle. We choose to build on the unchanging foundation of God’s glorious promise; a promise that will not fail no matter how much sacrifice, tribulation, or oppression we may have to endure in between.

We trust because we belong to something larger than ourselves, and we know He is worth every ounce of our trust and more.

The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance… But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells (2 Peter 3:9, 13).

Spammity Spam

~ Heather Davis ~ 3 Comments

Fun fact: the term spam as it is used to describe junk email (among other internet delights) has its origins in a 1970s British television show. Monty Python’s Flying Circus was an oddball sketch comedy series featuring sometimes bizarre animations, entirely random and quirky subject matter, and often men badly dressed as women.

Indeed, the sketch titled “SPAM” features a man and woman lowered from the ceiling into a cafe where Vikings dine in the background and the proprietor reads the menu filled mostly with items containing various amounts of the tinned meat – including the final item, “Lobster thermidor aux crevettes with a mornay sauce garnished with truffle paté, brandy, and a fried egg on top and spam.”

And often, the repetition of the infamous canned mystery meat sets off a Viking chant in praise of Spam.

Why do I bring this up?

The more I see blatant lies go unchecked, unchallenged, and uncorrected in both media and society – and perhaps especially so as an election looms – I can’t help but feel as if the entirety of our news & entertainment industry is busily shouting, “Spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spammity SPAM! Wonderful SPAM!” while we, the weary public, are just trying to hear what’s on the menu.

Even when we do manage to hear a word through the cacophony of deceit, we’re disheartened to learn all our options contain varying degrees of hyper-processed pork. We can have a little SPAM or a lot of SPAM; we may even choose a culinarily excellent dish with a bit of SPAM, but we cannot entirely escape SPAM.

And you know what? I don’t like spam.

I’m just glad my hope is not in the outcome of this election nor the sanity of my fellow Americans. Either way, I can no longer check an increasing certainty that the last days of the world are rapidly speeding by. 

The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders,
and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, 
because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. 
Therefore God sends them a strong delusion so that they may believe what is false,
 in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. 
(2 Thessalonians 2:9-12)

But friends, you do not have to toe the party line nor give into the delusion. There is a better Way. His name is Yeshua, known more commonly as Jesus. 

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, 
training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, 
and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age,
waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, 
who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness 
and to purify for himself a people for his own possession 
who are zealous for good works. 
(Titus 2:11-14)

It’s not too late to join those of us on the narrow way that leads to life! All are welcome, though not all choose it. I would love to talk to you more if you have questions; feel free to reach out.

Staying the Course

~ Heather Davis ~ 6 Comments

During my youngest daughter’s high school cross country career, I quickly learned it was no sissy sport. On the best days – cool and lovely ones – the team seemed exuberant, almost giddy after practice and I enjoyed their high spirits, gaining insight on the term runner’s high by watching them interact. But on brutal race days in the late-summer Tennessee heat, my cross country kiddos told me the only thing that helped them stay the course was knowing there was an end and a healthy fear of Coach.

And several of those races were grueling. Runners often finished their race lighter in body weight than they began it – not only from lost water weight due to heavy perspiration, but also because many of them lost the contents of their stomachs along the way. Watching them, I can only imagine what it feels like to run a marathon.

I think this is why Paul likens following Yeshua (Jesus) to running a race. There are moments where everything is working together in glorious rhythm; legs pumping with vigor, breath coming steady, and strength coursing through every atom. The cool air is a caress and the course a feast for the eyes.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us… (Hebrews 12:1)

But then there are those other days; days you’ve given your all, yet there’s more running to be done. Much more. Behind you on the course lie the remnants of all you hoped would bring nourishment and strength, now only waste. You’re bone weary and your very soul aches. The course is tedious and stretches on without end, cruel, unforgiving. You keep going because you know there is an end, and a healthy fear of the One who set you on this path pushes you on.

I know it’s like that for me at times. This race – the Christian race – is no 5K but an ultra marathon. It starts the moment you surrender to the Lordship of the Christ and continues until He calls you home. There are moments of unspeakable, exquisite beauty and moments of equally exquisite pain. At times, you run in harmonious fellowship, and at times you run alone – alone, that is, save for the One who sustains you by His grace.

There are high peaks and deep, dark valleys. There is pleasure and pain and loss. And yet, you run because you know the One who ran this course before is worth more than the sum total of your breath and being and experience and everything. Far more.

At first, you probably run for yourself, but as the kilometers fall away, you learn to run for Him. He is the goal; He is the very great reward.

He is the One who endured an anguish so intense, it cannot be expressed in mere human terms. His life sets you on fire; His suffering would have ended you many times over, the weight too staggering for a frail human vessel to contain. Yet He did contain it, drinking the brimful cup of righteous wrath to the bitterest dregs.

You run because you know He ran the course before you and knows every punishing hill and ankle trap.

You run, not for glory nor any feeble trophy, but for the King of kings and Lord of lords who endured the curse of humanity so those who love Him might find endurance to continue even when their strength is spent.

… let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God (Hebrews 12:1b-2).

You run for Yeshua and for the crown of life He promises those who love Him and who are faithful even to death.

I know it’s hard; it’s hard for me, too. It was harder for Him who had so much more to leave behind even to be born as a human. When I feel like giving in, I reflect on how much more He suffered to die as an outcast, scorned by the creation of His own hands.

So, keep running, friend. Don’t let the length of the course nor what you’ve left behind discourage you. Let it go, and be lighter for it. Press on for the upward goal, staying the course because you know there will be an end and the One you run for is worth far more than you have to give.

That’s what keeps me going. May it keep you as well.

Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:12-14).

I write this, not because I’m running well but because I need the reminder for a torturous stretch of my race. Stay the course.

State of Disunion?

~ Heather Davis ~ Leave a comment

A Bit of a Rant and a Message of Hope

I don’t often dabble in political posts, but I do have concerns to voice; concerns not so much political as practical. I made a valiant attempt to listen to the most recent State of the Union address. I truly did, but the ongoing heckling, boos & cheers finally drove me to just read the transcript. What I read only reinforced a growing certainty that the leaders of my nation have completely lost touch with the actual people of America; a state of disunion between what it means to be an American citizen and what it means to wield power in the USA.

Above all, I see a future for all Americans. I see a country for all Americans. And I will always be President for all Americans because I believe in America. I believe in you, the American people. You’re the reason we’ve never been more optimistic about our future than I am now.

President Biden – State of the Union Address, March 7, 2024

Of course, this is not news to anyone who can read between the dog-wagging and cat videos – that is to say, to anyone who can still read.

The greatest actual threat to “united we stand” is – well, it’s us; we the people. Or more specifically, our penchant for letting spin-doctors do the thinking for us while we entertain ourselves right into a brave new Huxleyan world.

And our leaders – well, they’re not exactly leading. They’re playing Two Truths and a Lie, wondering if the public will realize they’ve already shrugged and asked, “What is truth?” From what I’ve seen, they do not appear to accept the inconvenient constraints of reality.

After all, their economy is (evidently) soaring. Meanwhile our grocery bills are not their problem.

It is my totally irrelevant and probably ignorant opinion that the leaders of our nation haven’t the foggiest idea what their constituency really cares about. They are out of touch with the American people; the ones who exist outside the ranks of the wealthy and powerful.

They’ve enjoyed immense wealth, power, and privilege for so long, they no longer understand mere proles who work jobs, put kids through college, pay monthly bills, and wonder if they’ll be able to afford to retire.

Or pay their medical bills.

Or buy groceries.

I’m not sure what got under my skin the most this year. Was it the lack of decorum in the official echo chamber? The unusually coherent speech by our current President? The conflation between campaign rhetoric and reporting on our nation’s condition? The almost-but-not-quite funny way playground politics have played their way right into the highest ranking official positions of this country?

Of course, childishness is not a new characteristic of our ignoble leaders. Unfortunately. Ewwww, adulting – amiright?

I honestly feel we crossed the line from democratic republic to oligarchy long before I was even aware of politics. I’ve never seen a presidential candidate who represents the analog people in my circles, and I can count the local candidates who have tried on one hand.

However, I can honestly say the Great American Side Show (i.e. -election year) makes me incredibly grateful my hope does not rest on the outcome of this election. Nor any other election, nor my feelings, nor anything else in all this beautiful, broken world. In fact, my sense of security has nothing to do with the future but is rooted in an event that’s already happened.

No matter who rules the nation I live in, how much or little civil freedom I’m afforded; even if every possession is stripped away through the collapse of our duct-taped economy, I have hope. Security. Certainty. Shalom.

Yeshua Messiah – Jesus Christ – the One who was at the beginning with God and is God; through whom all things were created and hold together – HE is my hope, my security, my certainty, and my peace. Even if my nation falls from oligarchy to dictatorship, ending all political or socio-economic freedoms, I will remain truly free; for freedom from enslavement to sin is the greatest and most lasting freedom there is.

But like many exotic flavors, freedom from sin is a thing you must taste for yourself. Explanations fall short, but the joy and peace are like no other.

Fady Al-Hagal, aka The Tenne-Syrian

Besides, I expect to suffer in this world, for my Lord did and He promised I would, too. Yet I also know my King has overcome the world and will one day reclaim His throne and reign forever. No more cheap shots and playground politics, but a perfect and just theocracy backed by true power and Truth and followed by all things made new, restored to glorious perfection.

So why does He wait? If He’s so powerful and just, why not come now, put an end to this charade, and banish evil once and for all time?

My dear reader, He waits for all those who will chose Him to do so. He waits out of mercy, not wishing that any perish but that all will allow Him to free them from slavery to sin and its destruction and prepare them for life everlasting.

The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.

2 Peter 3:9-10

He waits, knowing those who have trusted in His Son’s sacrifice and surrendered to Him as Lord can endure this light and momentary suffering because of the eternal weight of glory, joy, and pleasures forevermore awaiting us when this world has passed.

Perhaps, sweet one, He waits for you.

Would you trust Him today? Despite the lies you’ve been sold, His Way is not the end of fun, merely the end of your unbearable burden; your hopelessness and despair. But what you’ll gain--! You’ll gain HIM, and He is everything worth having!

I say to the Lord, "You are my Lord; I have no good apart from You..."
I have set the Lord always before me; 
Because He is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken...
You make known to me the path of life;
In Your presence there is fullness of joy; 
At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
Psalm 16:1, 7, 11

But you can choose to cling to what the world calls fun and all the baggage it brings. You can allow your emotions to be steered by the outcome of potentially unhinged elites or the definitively un-sane media.

Or you can choose Christ and gain life and peace and joy and meaning and purpose without end. But the choice is yours to make. I earnestly hope you will choose life.

Excerpt from My First (Really Bad) Book

~ Heather Davis ~ 6 Comments

So, here’s a public admission, if you will. I’m working on a book. It’s been a long time coming, in part due to health challenges and the general busy-ness of life. And I confess – it’s sometimes difficult to give time to projects (like this blog, for example) that don’t offer financial help to my overworked husband and my three college kids. Yet, I believe the Lord has told me to write the book, so write I will. I’m starting to get some traction, but most of my writing time is devoted to the book at present.

But, I don’t want to leave y’all totally alone! The truth is, I’ve written two books before – truly bad ones. I’ve learned much since those first efforts, so maybe this time will be different. It’s in the Lord’s hands – my lot is to obey. Nevertheless, even from a bad book, there are good elements. Below is an excerpt from my first ever book; a scene I still like for the way it illustrates the seriousness of sin.

I’ll set up the scene by saying the character, Liam, is a successful star of sorts who meets the love of his life, a young lady named Stace who is a believer. Though she loves him, she keeps him at a distance because she doesn’t want to yoke herself with a man who isn’t committed to seeking the Kingdom of God first – even though from a worldly perspective, he would be a “dream guy.” Toward the end of the book, a freak accident results in her death. As she’s dying, she prays for Liam to see what she sees, and he has a supernatural experience with the Risen Christ. And now, on with the show:

For a moment, the Man held this posture, His hand poised over Liam’s blood-stained one, then He raised his head and looked Liam directly in the eyes. And Liam’s reality splintered.

In a flash, Liam found himself in a garden. In some inexplicable way, he knew it was not just any garden; it was the Garden – Eden. Amazed, he looked around, inhaling deeply of heady aromas. Everywhere he looked, there was beauty; well-tended and lovingly nurtured. Many of the plants were either in flower or heavy with a wondrous variety of fruits. The temperature was pleasantly warm. Birds twittered and darted among the trees and insects buzzed in and around the flowering plants…

As he moved forward with a steadily increasing sense of awe, he saw a woman who could only be the first woman, Eve. Just as he was about to call out a greeting, Liam noticed that she was not alone. Apparently, she was deeply immersed in a conversation with a creature unlike anything Liam had ever seen, for neither of them glanced his way as he approached.

Taking advantage of their inattention, Liam stopped beside the low hanging branches of a tree and observed the creature closely. Although he could not understand the words, something in the silken tones of the creature’s voice was appealing, even soothing. As it spoke, it paced slowly before the woman, displaying its beautiful, scintillating scales to great advantage. However, to Liam’s eye, something in the sinuous way it moved as it spoke was suggestive of a snake. This must be the serpent.

Apprehensively, Liam took a step closer stopping only when he noticed that the woman and the beast were not alone. Nearby, a man sat leaning back against a tree, half-listening or perhaps pretending not to listen as he idly wound then unwound the tendrils of a vine around his finger.

As understanding struck him, Liam’s heart sank; he knew this story. It was one of the first he learned from the Bible.
Wait – could he stop this from happening? If he stopped this first great tragedy, would it save Stace? Maybe that’s why he’d been brought here!

Running to the woman, he tried to distract her, to warn her, but she seemed not to hear.  He whirled around to grab the man’s shoulders and haul him to his feet if necessary, but Liam’s hands passed through empty space. For the first time, he realized he wasn’t actually in the Garden. Rather, he was seeing a memory, painted in vivid color and for all the world like some sort of three-dimensional movie. Although he experienced the scene as if he were a part of it, he could neither interact nor interfere.

Sickened, he watched the woman listen attentively to the deceiver; watched her eyes growing thoughtful. Though her husband was still close enough to hear, hands now resting limply at his sides, he made no attempt to engage in the dialog.

Liam looked again at the woman. A subtle change was coming over her face. The childlike guilelessness he first saw began to harden, touched by a tinge of disdain. The serpent continued its ceaseless spiel, and her eyes began to drift toward a tree.

Suddenly, a Voice broke into the scene, “The tree she looks upon is the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. The Tree of Life is not far away. Watch, and learn.”

Uselessly, Liam continued to watch as the woman moved toward the forbidden tree, watched her examine the fruit closely, weighing it in her palm as if the weight of consequence could be measured by the heaviness of the fruit. The subtle change he had begun to see in her face moments ago steeled into something so entirely modern that he reeled with the shock of it. He recognized it as the very look that had haunted him from his own mirror on so many occasions. It was a face filled with Pride; ruthless, stubborn, and petulant pride.

With the painfully familiar expression came another: doubt. Almost, Liam fancied, he could hear her inner dialog. Perhaps all the serpent had implied just might be true. Perhaps God was being stingy, withholding something that was good for them because He wanted no rival. Perhaps there would be no death. Such thoughts swam in her eyes as plainly as if printed there.

The woman took a bite of the fruit. Then, quickly as if she feared taking this step alone, she handed some of the fruit to the man who was with her, and he ate as well.

In that one, seemingly insignificant and ordinary act, the first man and woman turned their back on the One who had given them everything, even life itself.

A weight of horror settled on Liam, and he could only observe in futility as the shock of comprehension, then shame, distorted their faces. No longer did their expressions radiate an almost uncanny, beauteous innocence; no longer did their eyes dance with joy untainted with sorrow. 

The knowledge they’d craved did not bring the power they hoped. It never did. It never did. Oh, if only they had listened! He felt the ache of it so deep, he could hardly stand.

As the couple turned and fled deeper into the garden, Liam saw the discarded remnants of the fruit lying on the ground and he knew: Death had entered here.

Having rejected the Tree of Life for the one Tree forbidden them, they now knew they had chosen poorly and now their innocence had been ripped away leaving behind a ragged wound. The days of walking with their Creator in simple love and trust had ended. The horror and shame of what they had done drove them to try to hide from the God Who Sees.
Liam ached for them.

But quickly, other scenes flashed past with brutal intensity; the far-reaching consequences of one simple act of distrust until the mind-bending network of billions of sins and their consequences culminated in the ultimate price. Death, it is true, but a death like no other.

The Man – the same Man who had knelt by Stace – now raised in a gruesome display before a mob. This time, he wasn’t He clothed in intense white but caked in blood and dust, bearing on His head the very symbol of the curse of sin – branches of thorns twisted into a sick parody of a king’s circlet and shoved down over His brow, Blood from numerous scratches ran into His eyes.

God’s own Son, battered and torn, crowned with the unfathomable weight of countless sins, covered in shame and wretchedness that belonged to mankind – yet He wore it willingly. For the two rebels in the Garden. For all humanity. Even for the very ones who jeered from the crowd, He suffered humiliation and agony and Death.

For the first time, Liam understood the wonderful, terrible reality of the God who came to rescue those who rejected Him by paying the price of their insurrection with Himself.

And yet, still many did not believe. So many, oh so many, chose to believe themselves wiser, stronger, more progressive or modern or advanced than to believe in something so foolish as a God, never knowing that what they rejected was the glorious exhilaration of true Life. And such a Life—Life lived in harmony with the power, wonder, and endless love of the very Creator of life!

The scene shifted, and Liam saw himself ad a very young man; saw his mockery of his parents and his rejection of the two hard-working, plain people who loved him as best as they could. But he turned his back on them to become something more than a small-town hick. And Death entered that relationship.

He saw himself after his first big break, flattered by the attentions of many young ladies and reveling in his own sexual prowess, never once thinking of anything but his own pleasure. And Death stalked into many relationships.
He saw himself grow in fame and begin to wield some control over what roles he would accept, sometimes withdrawing like a sulky child when his whims were not met. And Death prowled among his business relationships, too.

Again and again, Liam watched countless moments of his own life; moments where he had chosen to feed his pride or flaunt his aptitude, often to another’s detriment and always to achieve a sense of personal victory. And side-by-side with each distinction and achievement as his self-importance swelled, Death walked through wide-open doors into many places in his life.

Finally, he saw himself waking alone in bed the morning before he had first met Stace, and he knew—the Thing that had stalked him when success and wealth failed to fill a deep void within; the Thing that clawed with hateful fingers at his throat and stifled his breathing – was Death.

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 6:23, ESV).

A Chronology of Obedience

~ Heather Davis ~ 9 Comments

Reading through the Bible chronologically in a year or so lends a different perspective than taking deep dives into a specific book or passage. This is the – oh, I’d say maybe sixth time I’ve followed a chronological one-year plan, and each time the Lord has given me a few new pearls to string together. This year, I’ve been noting the chronology of obedience reiterated through the pages of the Text.

One of the big themes I saw repeated throughout Genesis and Exodus is that quite often, obedience to God precedes the miracle, sign, or blessing from God.

Take a look at these by-no-means comprehensive examples:

The Call of Noah | Genesis 6:9-9:22

Make yourself an ark of gopher wood … For behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life under heaven… But I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you…

Genesis 6:14-18

Noah had to build the ark before the flood ever happened – in part because a large seaworthy vessel does little good if one begins construction during a catastrophic weather event. He and his family were not saved from the general destruction until after they obeyed what doubtless seemed to be a rather bizarre set of instructions.

The Call of Abram | Genesis 12

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing…

Genesis 12:1-2

Note that God did not provide Abram with a roadmap complete with a large red X marking the destination, but instead directed him to “the land that I will show you.” Imagine having that conversation with your wife! As a wife myself, I can state for the record that I might slightly doubt my husband’s sanity if he told me we were moving but we wouldn’t know where until we got there.

And the promised sign? God would make a great nation of him and make his name great. Becoming a “great nation” is not an event that tends to happen in one’s own lifetime, as it would take generations for one person’s progeny to number enough to be considered a nation. We can see clearly that Abram’s belief was not about personal gain but was instead God-focused.

There’s a lesson in this I’m taking to heart.

The Offering of Isaac | Genesis 22

He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. 

Genesis 22:12-13

Again, God didn’t provide the animal for the sacrifice until Abraham’s arm was poised to strike. Sometimes God’s provision comes in the very nick of time, even when our obedience seems to be more costly than we feel we are able to pay. Yet in reality, God Himself always shoulders the true burden.

This moment in history, like the others, deserves a deep dive of its own – far to much to cover in this overview. But can I at least comment that it wasn’t unusual for pagan gods to require child sacrifice? God’s dramatic display here showed that He would be the one to provide the sacrifice, foreshadowing the ultimate provision of His own Son of the promise for the greatest and most complete sacrifice humanity will ever know.

But back to our main point – Abraham’s obedience came before God’s miraculous provision. We stand at a point in history where the miraculous provision has already happened. So, why do we yet hesitate to obey? Food for thought.

The Whole Life of Joseph | Genesis 37, 39-46

Ok, that’s a lot to take in, so let’s narrow it down to Joseph’s trial with Potiphar’s wife, shall we?

“He is not greater in this house than I am, nor has he kept back anything from me except you, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?” And as she spoke to Joseph day after day, he would not listen to her, to lie beside her or to be with her.

Genesis 39:9-10

Here’s a case where the obedience to God actually brings the poor man into a greater amount of trouble. Because of his obedience to God and his refusal to be seduced by a powerful woman, Joseph spends time in jail.

Let me rephrase that: he spends time in jail for doing the right thing.

Obedience to God often comes at a great personal cost. This is reiterated in many ways through the Book, but this is a powerful example. Yet God did use all these circumstances to ultimately position Joseph in a place where he could save his family from starvation. He also had to forgive them for selling him as a slave – a fact that may shock us in today’s “trauma-sensitive” environment.

So in Ol’ Joe’s life, we see that obedience leads from the frying pan to the fire and then into the coals themselves before God’s miraculous delivery is brought about.

Never forget, at our historical moment, the most miraculous has already been done. Yet we still have miles or months of obedience ahead before we get to see the total fulfillment in our eternal reward!

Dang, I didn’t even get out of Genesis, and there are tons of others: Moses and his call to deliver the people from Pharoah – another painstaking and unpopular process. Joshua and the silent “battle” of Jericho. The list goes on and on.

This time through the Word, I’m relishing the overview and remembering that my obedience may not pay out in earthly comfort, convenience, or reward. But in the long run, my choosing again and again to trust God will be worthwhile.

Friend, so will yours. Chronologically speaking, obedience is the only safe bet.

When Job Is My Portion

~ Heather Davis ~ 6 Comments

This past Saturday, I woke to one of Tennessee’s typical grey winter days. After reading my morning portion of the Word, I caved in to my Aussie’s pleading stares and vocalizations. A quick check of the weather app assured me the looming clouds would not spill over for “at least 60 minutes,” nonetheless, I donned my rain gear and set off with the furry victor happily trotting at my side. Since my portion is in Job at present, it seemed appropriate to me to listen to said book while I walked to enhance my morning’s reading, and I decided to backtrack and listen from Job chapter 1.

The weather app lied.

About a half-mile into my walk, a misty drizzle started. It was fairly warmish and the drizzle was light, so I decided to keep going. Besides, my poor pooch had already missed several walks this winter due to my state’s bipolar weather and my own health issues. As I passed the lake, I noted my friend the limpkin still inexplicably hanging out at the water’s edge despite being a good 450-odd miles from the northern edge of his typical range – not to mention last week’s snowpocalypse.

He stared at me as I passed, possibly wondering why the crazy human trudges through the mist and still stops to snap photos of him. Good question. I moved on, listening to Job’s lament and feeling a bit dissatisfied with my choice. But I kept walking.

About halfway through my short route, the drizzle picked up to a light rain. By this time, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar had begun their potshots and part of my mind drifted to my own times of trial. The rain lent a dismal ambience to perfectly complement the audio.

When the light rain began to drift toward downpour, I debated the merits of fighting the rain for control over my phone’s screen to make a call. Instead, I put my head down and determined to finish the last 3/4 mile or so as quickly as possible. Then I saw movement. Through the raindrops coating my glasses, a familiar vehicle drew near.

My husband had noted the increase in damp and come to my rescue. Hallelujah!

The whole experience reminded me of a dark and dismal time in my life. Like Job, I’d lost a lot (though not all). The people I’d called “friend” abandoned me in my hour of need, and I felt myself alone, groping through a cold and misty waste with nowhere to turn. Then out of nowhere, as I trudged ahead in a grim and hopeless determination, my Rescuer appeared.

I found the Word of God – not just the Book but the Redeemer it speaks of: Yeshua Messiah, Jesus the Christ, Immanuel, God-With-Us. My Lord and my God. In my darkest hour, in abject fury and despair, I shouted my unbelief and unbelievably, He came to my rescue anyway.

He took me under the shelter of His wings and slowly began the work of healing my wounded heart, untwining the deeply-rooted sins that infected my soul, and cleaning up the mess I’d made. My journey since then has still had moments of despondency and pain, but I now have a safe and warm destination to look forward to.

Just as my husband picked me up and drove me home, my Lord and Savior is carrying me through the murk of life. And I know that someday, He will bring me Home. This is what I keep in mind when Job’s lot seems to be my portion. Even without the Book, Job himself clung to this hope and kept going.

My friend, so can you.

For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God.

(Job 19:25-26)