The Joy of Salvation; February 3, 2024

Posted on February 4, 2024 by jgarrott

1 Peter 1:8-9 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

I’ve not studied Greek myself, but since my wife has, I’m well aware that classes in Biblical Greek almost always start with 1 Peter, because of the excellent Greek used by Silus/Silvanus (depending on the translation), who was Peter’s secretary in writing this letter. (1 Peter 5:12) Even though the actual words are his, I don’t think there’s any doubt that the intent, the actual content, is that of Peter. Peter was one of Jesus’ closest disciples, and I get the impression that he was deeply moved by the faith of those who had not had the privilege of walking with Jesus. That said, he knew that God plays no favorites, and His salvation is indeed available to all who will repent and believe. As he spoke this passage he may have been remembering the scene at the house of Cornelius, when he was privileged to be the first to preach the Gospel to Gentiles. (Acts 10) One thing that strikes me in this is that it says “you are receiving the goal of your faith.” (emphasis added) Our salvation isn’t just limited to heaven, it starts the moment we believe and commit ourselves to Jesus as Lord. The fact that there is always more than however much we might experience here on earth is worth remembering, but we don’t have to wait for our salvation. That seems contradictory for those who are suffering for their faith, because we tend to think of salvation in physical terms, however much we might dress it up in “spiritual” language. That’s actually a problem in evangelism, because people often want to be saved out of their immediate circumstances, but once they are clear of the immediate crisis, they aren’t much interested in living in obedience to Jesus as Lord. A major reason God allows crises in our lives is to show us that we need salvation, but we need to recognize that our need goes far beyond, and is far deeper than, whatever crisis we might be in. That’s a point for every believer to remember! That said, the joy of a personal relationship with our unseen Lord is indeed “inexpressible and glorious,” and should motivate us to want to share it with as many people as will accept it.

I have always liked Peter because he was so thoroughly human. If God could use someone like Peter, then He can use even me! I seek to express the joy of the salvation I am receiving, because I know that will draw people to Christ better than anything else. I have had a non-Christian bring his friends to meet me because he wanted them to “meet someone who really enjoys living.” Sadly, in Japan people tend to think I am like I am because I’m an American, and so don’t think they could ever be like me. That has tended to limit the effectiveness of my evangelism, but I’m never to give up. God can use even me, and nothing is impossible for Him. I am to rejoice in God’s salvation and always be ready to share with anyone who asks about it. Given my proclivities, I also need to be careful not to overwhelm them with too much information at once! However, the Holy Spirit will and does guide my words, and I’m to leave things in His hands.

Father, thank You for the joy of Your salvation. It is indeed beyond words! May I share that joy, that salvation, with more and more people, more and more effectively, growing the Body of Christ as You desire, for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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Being Used by God; February 2, 2024

Posted on February 3, 2024 by jgarrott

James 5:17 Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years.

The remarkable thing about this verse is the reminder that Elijah was “just like us.” Elijah was one of the greatest of the prophets, right up there with Moses, to the point that he was there on the Mount of Transfiguration with Jesus, (Luke 9:28-36) but at the same time he was just like us. That reality is driven home by the fact that at one point he was suicidally depressed. (1 Kings 19:3-4) We see people in the Bible, in history, even around us today, who seem very great, and we think we could never be like them. When that happens, we are forgetting that their power, their ability, comes from God, and He is just as available to us as to them. The more we focus on ourselves, the less we will accomplish that is of any value. The more we focus on God, the more available we will be for Him to do whatever He likes through us. The danger comes when, after God does do good things through us, we start taking credit for those things ourselves. People will praise us, and we believe them! In a way it is analogous to a musical instrument. By itself, it is silent. If a novice tries it, the result might be no more than noise. If a virtuoso uses it, the results are sublime. The instrument needs to be well made and well tuned, but even a cheap instrument can make beautiful music in the hands of a master. Elijah was mightily used by the Lord, but as James said, he was just as human as we are. The more we focus on our Lord and not ourselves, the more His character will shine through us for His glory.

As I have written many times before, I have struggled with pride all my life. The Lord has been more than gracious toward me, giving me many “natural abilities” and allowing me to exercise them, and I have fallen into the trap of taking credit for them more times than I could count. Jesus’ words are a strong caution to me: “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.” (Luke 12:48) Everything I have, whether it be abilities or insights or material resources, is by the grace of God, and is to be used at His direction and pleasure. I am as human as Elijah, and he was as human as I am. God can use me just as He did Elijah, but that will happen only if my focus is on Him and not on myself.

Father, thank You for this reminder. Thank You for the many ways You have used me, and for Your plans for my future. Help me not push myself forward, but always be available to You for however You want to use me, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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Practical Faith; February 1, 2024

Posted on February 2, 2024 by jgarrott

James 2:14 What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him?

It was probably this specific verse that caused Martin Luther to dislike this book so strongly, as I mentioned yesterday. The problem was, he didn’t really read the rest of the chapter. Just reading this verse made his brain shut down! To be fair, in those days the Catholic Church was selling “indulgences” as a way to finance St. Peter’s basilica in Rome, essentially teaching that you could buy your way to heaven. That’s so wrong I would hardly know where to begin, contradicting it. However, the flip side is that there are sadly many people who claim to be Christians but whose lives are completely indistinguishable from the non-Christians around them. That’s what James is teaching against here, and it’s a very necessary teaching for modern “Evangelical” Christianity. There is a distinct tendency to say that if you repeat a formula you’re saved. Words are important, but James’ point is that if our “faith” stops at words, it’s not really faith. My seminary-professor grandfather called that kind of thinking “Into bliss and out of blister.” In other words, “Say the magic words and you won’t go to hell.” It is very true that “If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9) However, we forget what it meant in those days to confess Jesus, rather than Cae­sar, as Lord: persecution, and even martyrdom. That wasn’t a casual statement! James is addressing somewhat less dire consequences, but they are no less real. Someone has said, “If you were arrested for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?” That’s another way of expressing exactly what James is saying here.

I have always liked the Book of James, perhaps because it stepped on my toes so hard! (Maybe I’m a masochist.) I have always felt that James 1:22 was written expressly to me: “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” Growing up in a strongly, and genuinely, Christian household, I’ve always known the right words to say. I’ve carried that on in my own household. When my older daughter was questioned by the pastor after she requested baptism as a 2nd grader, he later commented to me that he had never before encountered a child who had such a clear grasp of the fundamentals of salvation. However, I’ve learned from my own life that I can say the right things and do the wrong things, even simultaneously. I have learned the hard way that there is no room for pride in the kingdom of God. Now as a pastor, I seek to guide people into practical faith, so that they may indeed not deceive themselves but walk in the riches of what God has prepared for them in Christ. I could go on for a long time about all that means! At the same time, I’ve got to me a living demonstration of the truths I speak. If my life is inconsistent with my confession, I do more harm than good. However, if I am filled with and yielded to the Holy Spirit, then the light of Christ will shine from me and draw people to salvation.

Father, thank You for this reminder. Thank You for all that You have done in me, and continue to do in me, over the years. May my life be a proclamation of saving faith, so that those who see me may know that it is possible and desire it for themselves, for their salvation and Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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God’s Grace; January 31, 2024

Posted on February 1, 2024 by jgarrott

James 2:10 For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.

This is a justly famous verse, actually not quite as famous as it deserves. Even so, I don’t think we notice that the sin in question is favoritism, of all things! The next verse mentions adultery and murder, which we would be quick to recognize as bad, but this is talking about failure to love your neighbor as yourself. There is no one alive who hasn’t failed in this at some point! This points up two very important facts: the law is impotent to save us, and grace is absolutely essential to everyone. It’s not that the law is meaningless. Paul goes on at length in several of his letters about that. However, he also stresses grace, most famously to the Ephesians. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith–and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God–not by works, so that no one can boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9) I find it ironic that Martin Luther called this letter “a book of straw,” because he thought it promoted works over faith, and he had rediscovered the principle of salvation by faith alone (sola fides). It’s almost like Luther wanted to be proud of his faith! James is simply pointing out that we are all desperately in need of God’s grace, so we should rejoice to be instruments of that grace to one another. That’s what verses 12 and 13 are saying here. Amazing Grace is perhaps the most dearly loved hymn in the whole world, and with good cause. However, never having been the captain of a slave ship ourselves, we tend to miss how extremely applicable it is to us personally. That’s what this verse is talking about. We are all equally headed for hell apart from the grace of God, available to us by faith.

This is something I’ve had to have pounded into me by God, because on my own, I’m all too prone to conceit, thinking I’m more deserving of salvation than the next guy. How utterly foolish! I have been relatively “high status” most of my life, for various reasons, and have had to learn how meaningless that all is. In the process of learning that, however, I have been able to relate on equal footing with people of every social stratum, which is a very good thing. I’ve never been particularly intimidated by anyone’s status because I grew up around people who were high status, and I knew they were just as human as I was. That became a problem only when it morphed into conceit, feeling I was higher than they were. I’ve got to remember that I am just as much in need of God’s grace as anyone else, and they are just as much worthy of God’s grace and love as I am.

Father, thank You for this reminder. I’m going from “school teacher” to “conference speaker,” which the world considers an elevation in status, but I’m still your foolish, occasionally disobedient child. Help me rejoice in Your grace and extend it to others, never taking it lightly, so that as many as will may receive it with repentance, gratitude, and faith, for their salvation and Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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Perseverance; January 30, 2024

Posted on January 31, 2024 by jgarrott

James 1:2-4 Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

The matter of perseverance, patient endurance, comes up many times in the Bible, notably in Paul’s letter to the Romans: “Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.” (Romans 5:3-5) I have seen countless people stumble over trials, but I have also seen people allow their trials to strengthen their faith, just as James and Paul wrote. As countless people have said, it doesn’t matter so much what happens to us as it does how we respond to what happens. One of my favorite verses in the whole Bible was spoken by Jesus in the Upper Room just before His trial and crucifixion: “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33) God isn’t being mean to us. Just yesterday I ran across an article on the Internet that talked about how “taking it easy” essentially destroys people; we need challenges and work to give us purpose and drive. That’s one reason why so many men die not long after they retire: they’ve lost their sense of purpose. Being so wrapped up in your job that you feel no sense of purpose without it is hardly wise, but we are so created that we need challenges to keep going. The Japanese call it ikigai, a reason to live. And frankly, that means trials that call for perseverance. Society (with the encouragement of the devil) has taught us to grumble and complain about difficulties, but as James says here, we should rejoice at difficulties because they grow us, and a growing life is a fulfilled life.

This certainly applies to me, as much as it does to everyone else. It is particularly pointed at the moment because I am retiring from 42 years of secular teaching, and I will confess to a bit of anxiety about it. I’m not used to seeing so much blank space in my schedule! At this point, a major task in my life is caring for my wife. She isn’t exactly an invalid, and certainly isn’t bedridden, but she no longer drives, and taking her places uses a lot of time. The Lord is also opening up various avenues of service. Next month I will be on standby as an interpreter for a national leadership conference, and then later I will be the speaker for a smaller, more local conference. And getting even more granular, today I need to pull out all the piles of papers, etc. from my study and sort things, because important things have a way of getting buried. That’s a challenge I genuinely don’t enjoy! However, I need to rejoice that God has given it to me, recognizing how minor it is compared to what so many go through, and allow God to accomplish His purposes through me.

Father, thank You for this reminder. You always know what I need to hear! Help me indeed rest, relax, and rejoice in You, even as I am applying myself fully to whatever task You have set before me, so that Your purposes may be accomplished on Your schedule for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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Examples; January 29, 2024

Posted on January 30, 2024 by jgarrott

Hebrews 13:7-8 Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

My impression is that Hebrews was written after at least the majority of Paul’s letters, and it was actually the last of the books in the New Testament to be accepted into the canon, because of uncertainty of authorship, but for that very reason it could be said to be written to a more mature group of believers, rather than to those who were just a few years away from paganism. The implication in this passage, for example, is that the leaders spoken of have already died. That makes it all the more relatable for us today, who are so many years removed from those who saw Jesus physically. Considering the history of the early Church, the leaders spoken of here could have died any number of ways, from disease to active persecution, but the point is that they died in faith, clinging to Christ spiritually and communicating His Word faithfully. That is certainly worth learning from, as the Japanese expresses it. Verse 8 here has been quoted countless times ever since it was written, and for good reason. The reason faith leaders are worth imitating is that the One in whom they believed hasn’t changed. As Paul testified at the point he was facing his own execution, “I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day.” (2 Timothy 1:12) That’s the kind of faith we need to imitate!

Of course, my own parents are in that category, but a very recent addition to their number is Leo and Phyllis Kaylor. They made it to 90 on this earth, definitely longer than my parents, and they made full use of the time. Their example shines brightly and will for many years to come, through their physical and spiritual children. When I think of people like them, the statement that Jesus is the same yesterday and today and forever takes very concrete form. My prayer is that my own memory will have the same sort of impact. After all, it doesn’t depend on me, but on the One in Whom I believe. Since Jesus is omnipotent, He can use even me to draw people to Himself and manifest His glory. That is my desire.

Father, thank You for this reminder, and for the example of so many of Your saints down through the years. I could be here all morning trying to list those who have impacted me personally. May I be an accurate reflection of my unchanging Lord, so that more and more people may realize that salvation is both necessary and available for them, and turn to You in repentance and faith, for their salvation and Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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Discipline; January 28, 2024

Posted on January 29, 2024 by jgarrott

Hebrews 12:11 No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.

This whole section is very familiar and deeply loved, so I asked the Lord what He wanted to say through it tome today, and this is what He indicated to me. The thing is, discipline is essential for every individual and every society, if anything worthwhile is to be accomplished. We see the results of a failure to discipline all around us. Things have gotten so bad that in Canada, parents were literally jailed for spanking their children! We prize (or say we do) self-discipline, but that doesn’t come automatically. We bemoan addictive behaviors of all sorts, but how do we avoid those? There are indeed genetic predispositions to some kinds of addictions, but as Bill Whittle pointed out, if you ask someone who has never tried drugs why they haven’t, the most likely answer will be, “My mom would have killed me.” The expression, “the soft bigotry of low expectations,” is heard in relation to racial groups, but it applies to parenting as well. Generally speaking, we will get the kind of behavior we allow. That’s the reason for the success of what are called “military academies,” schools where “problem children” are treated as though they were in the military, with strict regulations and discipline. It would be difficult to calculate the number of people who have been rescued by such schools. I know a few personally myself. This is closely related to what is called “broken windows policing,” where aberrant behavior is dealt with at a low level before it escalates into something more serious. The rewards of such discipline are countless. The writer here calls it “a harvest of righteousness and peace.” The Japanese indicates that’s inner peace, not just a lack of external conflict. The numbers of people who lack those today are indeed beyond counting! We need to recognize, allow, and value discipline if individuals and society are to be rescued from the path to destruction.

My parents weren’t excessive, but they did discipline me. They set limits which weren’t constrictive, but they were to be followed. I can’t say I didn’t go over the boundaries at times, but not far, and I wasn’t comfortable with it. I am deeply grateful. I didn’t do a perfect job with my own children, certainly, but they are both productive members of society, and I am grateful for that as well. As a pastor I am a father figure to many, and church discipline has always been an awkward area for me. I have seen churches, and believers, destroyed by excesses in both directions, and I know I don’t have sufficient wisdom in myself to get it right. Paul had to deal with that sort of thing a lot, and much of it had to be done long-distance, by letter. However, that had the advantage of leaving a record that we can read, and I need to be fully familiar with his example. Right now, self-discipline is my biggest issue, particularly with retiring from secular teaching and so having fewer external demands on my time. I am to seek the Lord at every turn, following His schedule and recognizing that my time, my life, belong to Him, for His glory. That is righteousness and peace, as this verse says.

Father, thank You for this reminder. Use of time is very much on my mind these days. Help me indeed use every moment as You desire, knowing that is the path of greatest blessing for me and those around me. Thank You. Praise God!

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Waiting on the Lord; January 27, 2024

Posted on January 28, 2024 by jgarrott

Hebrews 11:39-40 These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.

I have been aware of these two verses for a long time, but it just now occurred to me to think about the “something better” that God had planned for us. The listing of people and suffering in this chapter is indeed remarkable, but it struck me just now that none of the Old Testament saints knew about Jesus, except perhaps by prophetic revelation. How much easier it is for us, who live in the New Covenant, to endure suffering, because we know our Savior, who suffered and died and rose again, giving us an eternal hope! Yesterday I referenced a very important statement by Paul: “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.” (2 Corinthians 4:17) I’m reminded of the story, not recorded in the Bible but reasonably authenticated, of when Peter’s wife was being crucified just before he was, and he was forced to watch. He cried out to her, “Remember Jesus!” When we rightly remember Jesus, we can endure anything. Martyrs down through the centuries have indeed endured unspeakable horrors, but their reward is absolutely sure. We tend to get upset about relatively minor suffering, or even inconvenience, when more people were martyred for their faith in the 20th Century than in the previous 19, and the pace has picked up even further in the 21st Century. God indeed has marvelous stuff planned and prepared for us, and we have far more reason to be assured of it than the Old Testament saints did. As Jesus said, we need to take heart, because He has overcome the world! (John 16:33)

Yesterday when I got up a little chorus was running through my head. It is based on Isaiah 40:31, and the final lines are, “Teach me, Lord. Teach me, Lord, to wait.” I have come to the conclusion that patience is an essential part of the makeup of a disciple of Jesus Christ. As far back at the 1st Century they believed Christ would return in glory any day, and that obviously didn’t happen. Today, circumstances certainly seem to indicate that indeed, it could be any day, but if we slough off on the things we have been given to do, thinking it will all be over momentarily, we will miss out on a lot, on various levels. Jesus said, “It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns.” (Matthew 24:46) In other words, we are responsible for our assignments, and aren’t to be distracted by “what if” scenarios. I am currently in a transition period, retiring from school teaching and uncertain of what the Lord has planned for the next part of my life here. I am to rest assured that His plans are indeed excellent, and at the same time not be anxious about when they will be revealed. I am to recognize the task at hand and do it with my whole heart as a sacrifice to my Lord, not weighing whether those tasks are “big” or “small.” When things seem slow, I am to “recharge my batteries.” When they seem frantic, I am to allow the Holy Spirit to carry me along. In everything, I am to trust God and His plans, and give Him the praise, glory, and gratitude that only He deserves.

Father, thank You for this reminder. Thank You for the important things I got done yesterday, even though I felt like I wasted time. Help me indeed recognize Your will each moment and submit myself to do it, for the advancement of Your kingdom and for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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Aliens and Strangers; January 26, 2024

Posted on January 27, 2024 by jgarrott

Hebrews 11:13 All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth.

We have a very limited grasp of faith. Even if we aren’t sucked into the “Prosperity Gospel” as such, we still tend to expect faith to usher in some kind of rose-tinted existence. The Biblical record says very clearly that is a deception, fostered by the devil, who tells us the minute things get hard that God doesn’t love us and He’s mean and unfair. We’ve got to remember what Jesus said just before He went to Gethsemane: “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33) We will have trouble, but in the middle of that trouble we have peace available in Christ. The problem comes when we fail to appropriate the peace that is available to us, and that’s where faith comes in. When we accept that God is under no obligation to be good to us but He is anyway, then gratitude will go a long way in countering all the “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,” as Shakespeare put it. Knowing that God loves us so much He sent His Son to die for us gives us “the peace of God, which transcends all understanding” that Paul spoke of. (Philippians 4:7) Recently I was watching a video testimony of Andrew Klaven, I think it was, and he mentioned a comic strip of Hagar the Horrible his father had kept, in which Hagar was on his boat in rough seas and was ranting against God, saying “Why?” In the comic, the reply comes back, “Why not?” I don’t recommend we get our theology from Hagar the Horrible, but we need to remember that we live in a fallen world, and fix our hearts and our affections on our Lord and His kingdom.

This is almost painfully close to home for me, because my parents came to Japan as single missionaries before WWII, were married here, and are buried here. They did see fruit to their ministry, but not in quantities that would seem appropriate to the effort. I’ve been in Omura as a missionary since 1981, and again, there has been fruit, but this could hardly be called a large church. The whole issue of not belonging has been huge in my life, not being accepted as Japanese because of biology and hardly feeling American, either. I certainly know what it is to be an “alien and stranger,” anywhere I have been. (My college roommate was a Psychology major and he had me take all sorts of psychological tests for his Abnormal Psychology class, because I was “stranger than anyone else he knew.”) In all of that, I have grown to be remarkably happy, to the point that people expressly say that about me, because I am deeply aware of God’s grace toward me and I know that what awaits me will make every temporal trouble fade into absolute insignificance. (2 Corinthians 4:17) I don’t have to be anxious about anything, because I know I’m a child of the Creator of the universe, and He loves me.

Father, thank You for this reminder. All of the things of life tend to distract me from this glorious reality. Help me indeed rest, relax, and rejoice in You, just as You have told me to do, so that Your purposes may be fulfilled on Your schedule for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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Creation; January 25, 2024

Posted on January 26, 2024 by jgarrott

Hebrews 11:3 By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.

There are many reasons why Hebrews 11 is considered the ultimate “faith chapter” in the Bible. Not only does it start with the only actual definition of faith in the whole Bible, it then dismantles the theory of evolution very expertly with this one verse. This is what materialists balk at. They can’t accept that the material universe was created out of the immaterial, or spiritual. In fact, the very word, immaterial, is often used to mean “unconnected, of no consequence,” particularly in legal settings. However, one issue that astrophysicists, even ones who accept the “creation moment” of the “Big Bang,” continue to puzzle over, is how the seemingly essentially infinite physical universe came from that one incredibly tiny moment. Black holes would have absolutely nothing on it in terms of density! All of that difficulty goes away when we accept that the Creator is outside of the physical universe, and can cause things to come into existence by His expressed will (words). The kicker is that such a scenario can’t be “scientifically proven;” we have to accept it by faith. The vast majority of mankind doesn’t even think about such things, but the more we think about life itself, the more we run into such issues. I recently saw a very amusing and insightful video of five people of varying education and social background being asked to rank each other by IQ, strictly on the basis of such background. One woman was sure she was top, since she had a Masters degree, and she was very dismissive of a man who had entered the military out of high school. As it turned out, he had the highest IQ and she was next to the bottom! Human pride does many strange and foolish things, including trying to deny the existence of our Creator. Genuine faith is inseparable from humility, because we have to accept that there are things we will never be able to prove, or even understand, on our own. However, life is infinitely more peaceful and joyful when we have that foundation.

As I have written before, I was raised in a family that was highly educated as well as firmly grounded in faith. I like that combination! I have certainly had my struggles with pride, and I know there is no limit to the dead ends it can lead us into. I have always enjoyed both science and science fiction, and from childhood have been very happy running scenarios through my imagination. “Time outs” didn’t work as punishment with me! I have encountered many people in my life who didn’t want to acknowledge that there was anything outside of the physical universe, and they have always seemed sad to me. What is life, if there is nothing beyond it? I have had moments of worship in which I was more sure that God was real than that I was. Actually, you could say that the entire universe is no more than a figment of God’s imagination! I know the peace and the purpose that faith has given me, and I want everyone to have that. I recently got word that someone I knew had died. He had lived a rather despicable life, wounding many people along the way, but the report is that in the days before his death he was consumed with wanting the people around him to know Jesus, as he had encountered Him, and he seemed happy and at peace with leaving this world. I was frankly amazed, and confirmed in my conviction that nothing is impossible for God.

Father, thank You for this reminder. Thank You for Your grace toward us all. I pray that I would be an effective instrument of that grace, so that more and more people may encounter You as their Creator and Jesus as their Savior, for their salvation and Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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