Unity in Christ; March 15, 2025

Posted on March 16, 2025 by jgarrott

Ephesians 2:13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

Racial and ethnic divisions have been around at least since the Tower of Babel, but God reversed that through His Son, as it says here, and through His Spirit, as described in Acts 2. Some kinds of division are necessary, as it says in Hebrews when speaking of the Word of God as the Sword of the Spirit. (Hebrews 4:12) However, God is generally much more interested in unity, as has come out several times recently. The devil is a divider, but God is a unifier! The devil wants us to focus on differences, but if our focus is on Christ, all those differences fade into insignificance. After all, Revelation makes it clear that heaven is populated with people “from every nation, tribe, people and language.” (Revelation 7:9) God gives us differences to enrich us, since no individual can have everything, but if our focus is on Christ, those differences don’t divide us at all. As this verse says, the blood of Christ washes away all the things that might separate us and brings us together in Him.

I have lost count of how many people of other nations I have felt deeply bonded to in Christ, even several with whom I had no common language. I remember one man from Taiwan who, when I saw him here I immediately knew he was my brother in Christ, even though he couldn’t speak English or Japanese and I couldn’t speak Mandarin, or any other language he might have known. I remember also two Russian brothers whom I ran into in Hong Kong who got very excited because I could say “thank you” in Russian, but I couldn’t say anything else! My wife, who has been to heaven and come back, says that there are no communication barriers there, and I have no trouble believing her. While I am here, I desire to be a unifier, sharing the grace of God with all, regardless of whatever differences might seem to get in the way. As the song says, “Though we are many, we are one body; we are one body in Christ.”

Father, thank You for this further reminder. You’ve been saying a lot about this recently! Help me be Your agent to draw people into the unity in Christ that You desire, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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Purpose; March 14, 2025

Posted on March 15, 2025 by jgarrott

Ephesians 2:10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

We had this as our Verse for the Year not long ago, but I still can’t resist writing on it. So many people seem to feel purposeless in life, but this takes care of that completely. Once we accept that we are created beings and not mere chance, all sorts of things fall into place. Creativity is one of the ways in which we are created in the image of God. (Genesis 1:27) We create things for all sorts of reasons, and occasionally by accident, but I don’t think God has accidents! I do think He has a sense of whimsy and humor. After all, why else would He create birds like the toucan or animals like the panda? For that matter, I’ve long maintained that I myself am proof positive that He has a sense of humor, or He never would have created someone like me! The point is, He really does have a purpose in everything He does, so we, His creatures, do well to seek out that purpose and strive to fulfill it. We aren’t to be paranoid or obsessive about it, but there is a deep comfort to knowing you aren’t an accident (whatever your parents might have thought). The problem is, the devil does all he can to corrupt God’s plans for each of us. The whole question of sovereignty and free will is a very deep one I won’t go into here, but for example, I don’t think God created Adolf Hitler to commit genocide, or all the other horrendous things he did. We can’t answer that question, but we can seek God for His purposes in our life, and rejoice to see them fulfilled. Those purposes include such simple things as being kind, encouraging, lending a hand, and so forth. They probably also include much bigger things, but we often don’t recognize what we have done that was big until much later. The whole point is that we aren’t pointless. We have purpose, and that purpose is good.

This is an issue I have seen in many people around me, but I don’t think I’ve ever really been troubled by it myself. I was raised by parents who loved me, loved each other, and above all loved God, and I benefited greatly from that. That didn’t keep me from trying to commit suicide while I was in college, so I certainly don’t have any high horse from which to look down on others, but I have always felt that I had something to do. Retiring from school teaching a year ago has definitely changed my schedule, but it hasn’t made me a whole lot less busy! It is always a special blessing to me to realize I have been God’s instrument in some way, and thankfully, those times aren’t rare. As I mentioned, I am convinced God was displaying His sense of humor when He created me, but He does use me for serious things as well. I’m grateful for however He uses me! As a pastor, I seek to help others recognize God’s purposes for them, so that they too may delight in their Creator, who delights in them.

Father, thank You for this reminder. Thank You for bringing me through the “human dock” physical yesterday. The gastroscope was no fun at all, but I was surprised and grateful that my esophageal stenosis seems to have largely disappeared. I didn’t know that happened! Thank You that my other results showed very few issues either. May I be a good steward of this body so that I will indeed be able to fulfill all our Your purposes for me, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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The Body of Christ; March 13, 2025

Posted on March 14, 2025 by jgarrott

Ephesians 1:22-23 And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.

Most of this whole passage, from verse 15 on, is one sentence, which makes translation challenging! The Japanese breaks it up more than the English does, but that requires repeating “Christ” to keep it all straight, rather than using pronouns, since Japanese is weak on pronouns to begin with. Likewise, some of the things Paul says in this break our convenient little boxes, and nowhere more than right here. We are familiar with the terminology of Christ as the Head of the Church, and it is indeed a very important concept, but I think we overlook something else here that is really quite astonishing. Paul says that the Church is “the fullness of Christ!” Part of our astonishment comes from our misunderstanding of “church.” Our usage of the term is generally at variance with the Greek ekklesia, even though that is most often translated as church. We confuse it with buildings and organizations, when gathering or assembly or even congregation would be more accurate. That said, the idea that the Church isn’t just the Body of Christ, it is His fullness, is truly mind blowing. That shows us we need to know more of God’s heart concerning His Church, since our current mental framework obviously isn’t sufficient. Our current human organizations and structures cloud the picture more than they illuminate it. Paul’s mention of the Church as the Bride of Christ in Ephesians 5 is illuminated in Revelation, and it’s for sure denominational tags have nothing to do with it!

A: This is an area in which I have been growing over the years. I just got a copy of the new edition of The Untold Story of the New Testament Church, by Frank Viola, and just the first few pages have really whet my appetite! My attitude toward denominations has been impacted by my interaction with them. My parents were Southern Baptist missionaries, and I attended a seminary and pastored a US church in that denomination, but their exclusion of my wife and me from consideration as missionary candidates because of our experience of the Holy Spirit really opened my eyes to the intellectual and spiritual corruption that can creep in so easily. Some denominations seem to have abandoned the Bible entirely! I am not to exclude anyone on the basis of labels, but I must remember that the Body of Christ is a far cry from the organizations that we see. Frankly, I still don’t know what “the fullness of Christ” really means, and I desire to find out. I do know that in every area God’s plans are far greater and more glorious than we can imagine!

Father, thank You for continuing to grow my understanding. Thank You that I was able to get the book, and for the timing of it arriving yesterday when this was the reading for today. At 500+ pages it is a little intimidating, but the taste I have gotten gives me great anticipation. Help me grow in every area as You desire, so that I may be useful to You in building Your Church for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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Boasting; March 12, 2025

Posted on March 13, 2025 by jgarrott

Galatians 6:14 May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

We’re still on the same theme as yesterday, with a little more explanation and enlargement. Now Paul is talking about how he relates to society around him, and he is certainly worthy of emulation. Different societies treat boasting differently, with some, like Japan, frowning on it completely, while America seems to take it for granted, or even find it admirable. Donald Trump is certainly a case in point there! Politicians in general see a need to list their accomplishments, but a lot of people find that very off-putting. What Paul is saying is that the only thing worth bragging about is that Jesus loved you enough to die for you – but that is actually true for every human being. Our accomplishments don’t affect our value, which is a very hard thing for us to grasp. That said, there is a wide variability in how useful we are to our Creator, which is a slightly different kind of value. We can’t make God love us more, but we can certainly make Him enjoy us more! It is when we realize that, when we are in Christ by faith His death was our death to the world and the world’s death to us, we can cling to Christ alone and really live with His resurrection life. That is a truth that we can hear with our ears and even understand in our heads, but it has to be worked out in our hearts to really be operative. Our time on this earth is a practicum for us to be able to grasp this. I don’t think anyone ever gets it perfectly, but the further we progress the more peace and joy we have.

For the past several months, at least, I have been increasingly impressed by the grace of God toward me. I haven’t earned any of the good stuff I see all around me, and I still get hung up on little irritations. I still have plenty of room to grow! However, I’m a long way from where I once was, and I’m deeply grateful. I see indications all around me that God is doing marvelous things that we can only imagine at this point, and I’m looking forward to their being revealed. I have no idea how I might be included in those things, but I want to be fully available and yielded to Him, whatever He wants to do with me. At the moment medical issues are a little bit of a distraction, but that’s only from my side, and they are no problem for Him. I need to remember that I’m already dead, so big deal!

Father, thank You for this reminder. It’s a bit hard to categorize, but I think I hear what You’re saying. Help me indeed live out what You say to me, not deceiving myself, (James 1:22) so that those who see and hear me may be drawn consistently to You, for their salvation and Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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Alive in Christ; March 11, 2025

Posted on March 12, 2025 by jgarrott

Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

This is a justly famous verse, but I think we don’t really grasp it fully. For one thing, we don’t have an emotional connection to what it means to be crucified! (Interestingly, the Japanese translation puts the “crucified” part in the previous verse. Why, I’m not sure.) The point is, we’re dead. Dead people are perfectly uninterested in the physical world. In Romans 6 Paul expounds on this, to stand firm against temptations of the flesh. The thing is, our flesh is currently manifestly not dead, so we have to be reminded of the truth in this verse with sometimes depressing frequency. Two days ago I wrote on the subject of physical death, and the better we understand both the truth in this verse and the glory of what awaits us, the more attractive death becomes! That’s not at all to say we are to be suicidal. Our lives here are a sacred gift from God, to be used in getting to know Him and doing His will, and discarding that is sacrilege. That brings us to the question of how we are then to live in the here-and-now. Paul answers that here very simply: by faith. How that is to be expressed is fleshed out in all the rest of his letters! The thing is, it all starts from this point of faith, that God created us for a purpose, that purpose is good, and He sent His Son to die for us so that we could enter that purpose. If we keep that awareness in focus, then we can indeed spend our time here dead to the flesh and alive to Christ.

I must be quick to confess that I don’t do this perfectly myself. I never said it was easy! In some ways the closer to physical death I become the easier it is to follow through with this, but there are still countless temptations to “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.” (1 John 2:16) I am still quick to place myself ahead of others, or even of my Lord, in various ways, and that isn’t what God desires of me. I need to awaken each day with, “Thank You, Lord, that I’m dead to the flesh and alive in You.” That has to be a conscious choice until it’s completely automatic, and I don’t think it becomes completely automatic until after the heart stops beating! However, in this I need to walk in the assurance that God is working it out in and through me, and not think that I have to do it in my own strength. God is totally faithful, and that’s enough for me.

Father, thank You for this reminder. Thank You for all that You have done in and through me over the years, and for all You will continue to do until I’m before Your throne. I pray that I would so live that I would hardly notice the transition! Thank You. Hallelujah!

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Paradoxes; March 10, 2025

Posted on March 11, 2025 by jgarrott

2 Corinthians 12:9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.

The Christian life is filled with paradoxes, because though we are in the world, we are not of it, and there is a fundamental disconnect there. From the Sermon on the Mount on, Jesus regularly said things that conflicted with human logic, and here He is doing it again to Paul. Thankfully, for us and for Paul, he received it, not hanging on to human reasoning but accepting that God is above all of that. The thing is, God is so far above our experience and our ability that there is no comparison. That’s why faith is essential. God doesn’t tell us to discard logic and intellect, but He does tell us to submit those things to Him in the understanding that He is far above them all. After all, He is the Creator, who spoke the universe into being! That’s why, in the final analysis, letting go of our claims to strength and ability in order for His strength and ability to be manifested is the most logical thing in the world! As has been pointed out, in the Kingdom of God the way up is down, and those who lead or rule must serve. It is only when we grasp how much more powerful God is than we are that we can let go of all our pride and allow Him to operate through us.

I keep coming back to how mired in pride I once was, but at the same time I keep realizing that I have vestiges of that pride still left. I have never been what I considered a “muscle man,” but I have generally been able to do everything that I was called on to do. At 76, I am finding that I can’t necessarily do everything I call on myself to do! Just recently my younger daughter was pointing out that the first step in “12-step programs” is to realize that you are powerless. I’ve never been involved in such a program, but that’s very much in keeping with this verse. Up until now my pride issues have been largely intellectual, but now the Lord is dealing with physical presumption that I didn’t realize I had. This particular verse is in connection with what we would call a medical issue. Those are never fun, but they are certainly reminders that we don’t control our own destiny. I am to be a good steward of the body I have been given, taking in only what I need and is good for me and declining both excess and unhealthy things, but in the final analysis, God is in control. At the moment I am still under treatment for a kidney stone (ureteral calculus), and this week I will have a full physical exam, which the Japanese call a “human dock,” as in putting a ship into drydock. I have already outlived my father by over a dozen years, so I want to be as available as possible to my Lord for as long as He has work for me to do here. If His power is flowing through me, then anything is possible!

Father, thank You for this reminder. Thank You for all You’re allowing me to experience, and for the good Japanese medical system and insurance system that are benefiting me at this point. Help me truly rest, relax, and rejoice in You as You have told me to do, so that Your power may indeed flow through me for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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Death; March 9, 2025

Posted on March 10, 2025 by jgarrott

2 Corinthians 5:8-9 We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it.

This could be said to be the ultimate definition of the believer’s perspective. Sadly, it’s not very common. We all get caught up in this world, and so consider every physical death a tragedy, when often enough it’s a great victory! Much has been made recently of the discovery of a famous actor and his wife, both dead in their home, but when the autopsy results were just revealed, it turns out that he was 95, had severe Alzheimer’s, and died of a heart attack, and she, though younger, had died of an acute respiratory virus, almost certainly before he did. If they were believers, it was doubtless a relief to both of them! We aren’t to seek physical death, but neither are we to fear it. Rather, we are to seek to please our Lord, as Paul says here, spending our time in our bodies doing what He wants us to do and trusting Him for when we get to go to the next level. The death of an unbeliever is indeed a tragedy, because they have lost the opportunity for salvation, but for the believer, it is a tragedy only for those they leave behind, who will mourn their loss. That said, we are all human, and even Paul had high stress as he approached his martyrdom. That said, we can do no better than what he testified to Timothy in his last letter: “I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day.” (2 Timothy 1:12) Regrets as we approach death are related to things we wish we had done or hadn’t done, so our focus needs to be on pleasing our Lord. After all, He knows better than we do what we really should and shouldn’t be doing!

As a pastor, I have lost count of how many people I have been around when they left their bodies. I’ve preached some funerals that were difficult, since the deceased had either not made an open commitment to Christ or had actively not been committed to Christ. I can remember those! I have also preached funerals that were celebrations of lives well lived, and those were actively enjoyable. I certainly know which kind I want my funeral to be! At 76, I would think that another 20 years would be an outside limit for me, and I find I have a growing anticipation, not of death exactly, but of what awaits me afterward. I certainly identify with what Paul says here about the “tent” I currently inhabit! Where it gets complicated is in thinking about my wife. She has quite a list of medical issues and it’s clear she would be far more comfortable out of her “tent,” but at the same time, I very selfishly want her to stick around for me! That said, she and I both love the Lord as fully as we know how, and we know that He loves us, so we are not to be anxious about anything but just rest, relax, and rejoice in Him, as He has told me personally to do.

Father, thank You for this reminder. Help me indeed please You and walk with Christ by Your Spirit for as long as You keep me here, so that all of Your plans for me may be fulfilled on Your schedule for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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God’s Supply; March 8, 2025

Posted on March 9, 2025 by jgarrott

2 Corinthians 4:17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.

I have no idea how many times I’ve quoted this verse! Along with John 16:33 it has given me an immense tolerance for “the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,” as Shakespeare put it. Few things are as destructive of peace and joy as a pity party, and for the Christian, few things are as stupid and unnecessary. There are things in life that are genuinely hard to take, involving great pain either physically or emotionally, but as Jesus and Paul knew, even those things will fade into total insignificance when we are before our Lord in glory. The devil does all he can to keep us from that perspective, but he’s a liar from start to finish. This is the “hope of glory” that is referred to in several places in the Bible, and as Peter pointed out it can be very attractive to those who don’t have it. (1 Peter 3:15) In fact, it is one of the very best tools for evangelism. Even Christians can get caught up in the deterministic, materialistic world view that the world and the devil promote, and we lose out on a great deal when we let that happen. We need to remember that no matter how dark things seem to be around us in the moment, there’s glory ahead! And being able to invite others to share in that glory is one of the greatest privileges given to us.

I don’t think I’m particularly gifted as an evangelist, but the Lord has certainly turned me into an optimist! At the same time, I’m as human as anyone else. I recently realized that I’m getting short tempered because of diminishing abilities as I age. That has produced outbursts that have benefited no one. I need to apply the truth of this verse even to aging! That is easier said than done, but again as Paul said, “I can do all this through him who gives me strength.” (Philippians 4:13) As I was reminding another missionary just yesterday, God never asks us to do anything without enabling us to do it, supplying everything necessary. That applies to physical and material resources, and it also applies to emotional and spiritual resources. God is indeed our Supply, our Yahweh Yireh, whatever the need might be. I need to rest, relax, and rejoice in that assurance, just as He has told me to do, even in areas, such as aging, in which I hadn’t realized my need before.

Father, thank You for this reminder, for this growing revelation. Help me be fully open and obedient to You so that all You want to pour into and through me may flow unhindered, for the blessing of many and for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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God’s Plan; March 7, 2025

Posted on March 8, 2025 by jgarrott

1 Corinthians 15:53 For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.

God has perfect timing! Yesterday I was writing about my lack of interest in resurrection, but later in the day I was continuing reading Jesus a Theography and read the section on the Second Coming, and now we have this passage! It makes perfectly good sense that my body as it is now cannot and could not do the things that Jesus’ body obviously could after His resurrection, and if I’m to live with Him, I need to be able to keep up. Elsewhere Paul refers to these bodies as “tents,” (2 Corinthians 5) and tents wear out. What Paul is talking about here is that, in a sense, we don’t have to die to be resurrected. When Christ returns, those believers who are still around at that point will be transformed on the spot, to be in the same status as those who had previously died in faith. There’s an old Southern Gospel song that talks about this, in a sense, singing about “a meeting in the air.” Our current bodies certainly couldn’t do something like that! Many people have dreams about being able to levitate and fly at will. I think that may be something to “whet our appetites” for what comes later! It’s all very nebulous and uncertain to us at this point, and letting our imaginations run wild isn’t likely to produce profitable results, (unless you write fantasy books!) so the point is to trust that God has it all worked out, and we don’t have to be anxious about anything. It’s certainly something to look forward to!

At 76, I am very aware of my physical limitations, and my wife has quite a list of medical issues. We spent yesterday morning getting her a PET scan, and I’m in the middle of treatment for a kidney stone. We are quite aware that our current bodies are definitely perishable, and are actually quite past our “best by” date! That said, this verse should be a major encouragement to us. As I said yesterday, my biggest anticipation about the next life is unhindered fellowship with my Lord, but this verse gives me a little more clarity about how that can happen. I’m still not worried about it, though. God’s plans are perfect, not to mention gracious and loving. Whatever He has in store for me, I’m all for it!

Father, thank You for this further assurance. I see so many people around me who don’t have this assurance, even Christians, and they fear letting go of their current bodies. Help me speak Your truth to them in love so that they may receive the faith that You offer them, for their current peace and joy and eternal salvation. Thank You. Praise God!

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Resurrection; March 6, 2025

Posted on March 7, 2025 by jgarrott

1 Corinthians 15:49 And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man.

It all boils down to the question of to whom you belong. Most people have questions about what will happen when and after they die, which is natural enough. We tend to have a fascination with death-bed utterances, and some of them are quite interesting, including those of famous atheists. In just the past few decades the study of Near-Death Experiences has become quite a thing, but that still doesn’t touch on the subject here, of resurrection. Paul, like Jesus before him, used the illustration of a seed, that must be planted and “die” before it becomes what it was created to be, growing into a plant and bearing fruit. The only real example we have is that of Jesus, because all the other people recorded in the Bible who came back to life after dying eventually died again; their resurrection was temporary. Jesus, however, is eternally alive, as He demonstrated to Paul on the road to Damascus and to John on the island of Patmos. That’s why we need to focus on Him if we want to know what our own resurrection will be like, just as Paul says here.

I have frankly never been that interested in resurrection as such. I know I will spend eternity with my Lord, and whatever form that takes is OK with me! My wife had an NDE 50 years ago last month, and the experience erased all her fears of death. Her description certainly gives something to look forward to! Even that, however, is not the same as resurrection. The whole subject of “zombies” is a false resurrection, and I think the devil cooked up the idea to discredit the idea of resurrection. We can have total confidence that our resurrection will be nothing like that! I personally have complete assurance that I will see and know brothers and sisters in Christ who have gone on ahead, including my own parents, but that completely pales in comparison to the assurance that I will see and know my Lord, even as John was given a vision of Him on Patmos. Knowing that I am in Him now by faith and that I will be in Him in totality for eternity makes the question of what form I will be in rather insignificant to me. I know His plans are perfect, and that’s enough for me.

Father, thank You for the assurance that You have given me. It’s a huge blessing, and seems downright mysterious to many of the people I talk to. Help me speak Your truth in love at all times, so that as many as will may open their heart to receive the faith that You have given me, for their salvation and Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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