The wording of the Gospel of Luke arrests me, Mary’s words: “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.”

Every Christmas season I get intrigued by all the fuss over the song written by Mark Lowry for a church Christmas play. “Did Mary know?” “Did Mary not know?” “Mary must have known.” “Mary could not have known.” And every possible combination thereof. Holly Scheer, a Lutheran who writes for The Federalist, has contended that the song is pure doctrinal error, labeling it “the most biblically illiterate Christmas tune.” She went on to explain that “the biblical account of Christ’s conception and birth shouldn’t need to ask if Mary knew because the Bible plainly tells us she did.”

I’m not so sure about that. Isn’t it possible to know and to not know at the same time? By that I mean simply that our walk of faith includes the things of which we are certain, but it also includes the parts of our experience that still contain some unknown … some mystery … some holy waiting on God to sort it out for us – if and when He ever decides that a sorting out is what we most need. This morning I learned that my friend Fernando died of ALS. Maybe you have more faith than I do, but I can’t get through today without putting at least a part of Fernando’s story in my “I don’t understand” file. I put it there in my imaginary file because, quite frankly, I don’t understand. I just don’t. Fernando leaves behind children, including a teenage son who still desperately needs a dad. I don’t understand the disease or the suffering. I don’t understand the timing. I don’t understand the sadness. I just don’t understand.

I think the song from 1991 is asking a rhetorical question, and a question worth asking. In that sense, it’s more a question for us than for Mary. Mary’s song of praise, also in Luke and often referred to as The Magnificat, makes it clear that Mary did understand quite a few critical things about this miraculous birth. I’m not denying that. But she has not yet seen any of Christ’s miracles (those that will validate His earthly ministry) … or heard Him preach like no one has ever preached before or since … or peered into His empty tomb!

For Mary, there had to be moments of wondering, and even of doubt. I would go as far as saying that some of this, for Mary, must have been downright terrifying at times. Think back to when she first received the news from Gabriel. Now an unmarried virgin has to explain this to Joseph? Now she has to deal with the very real punishment of death if nobody believes her? Now she has to live under a cloud of scandal and shame? It’s obvious that Mary knows that God is with her. And that’s wonderful. But that doesn’t mean that there weren’t moments of thinking, “A stable, really? This is not playing out exactly like I expected. God, why are You not yet intervening? Why is this still not making any sense to me?”

Mary is surrendered to the Lord’s will, and that in and of itself is nothing short of absolutely amazing. I mean to take nothing away from her. She is willing to lay down her own dreams in order to live out the higher plan of the Lord Most High. She is a great example of faith for us.

But it is faith. And what I mean to communicate today is that our walk of faith includes some deep and dark valleys. Times of uncertainty. Times of fear. Times of less-than-stellar confidence, even in the One who is worthy of all our praise. Friends, it is O.K. for us to be human, for that is what we are. It does us no good to pretend to be otherwise. There’s a little Thomas in each one of us. Some days we’re doubting. Other days we’re knocking it out of the park. From “I will never believe” to “My Lord and my God!”

Sometimes loving Jesus hurts. It just hurts. Sometimes loving others in His name hurts too. Sometimes walking by faith leaves us with a profound limp. It’s just that simple. I think C.S. Lewis may have said it best: “To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.”

After Jesus had been born, and after all the glory of the angels in the night skies over Bethlehem, the Bible records that Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. That can only be a good thing, in my humble and unsolicited opinion, because Mary will have to see her “baby boy” nailed to a cruel cross. There is no convincing me that Mary perfectly understood all of this from the moment that she learned that she was carrying the Son of God in her womb. It will be a journey. It will be a walk of faith. She will learn some things along the way, and – just like us – she will have to relearn a few things. Mary’s life will include seasons of unspeakable joy, and seasons of unspeakable heartache. She will cry both kinds of tears. To me, this is what it means to walk by faith with the living God.

Walking with you,

Pastor Charles

I’m thinking about Pearl Harbor this morning, as are many of you – not to mention the contemporary backdrop of strife both global and local – and it’s easy to get caught up in a feeling of sadness over the condition of the world. Where is the hopeful “peace on earth” promised by the angels, or was that just a holiday jingle?

Our Lord Jesus was born into a part of the world that had experienced a rapid succession of military overthrows by conquering assailants, and into a time when warfare had been rife for millennia. In the year of Christ’s birth, Judea and King Herod were under Roman rule. Herod, always fearful of a rival ruler, attempted to deceive the magi from the East into serving as his personal GPS so that he could get his grimy hands on this newborn king. That effort failed, as you know, and later Herod outrageously decreed death for all boys under age two. That’s why Joseph and Mary fled with Jesus to Egypt. All of this took place during the reign of the Roman emperor Augustus, quite ironically during a period that was known for its “Roman peace.” Just like now, as you probably guessed, such “peace” was quite limited in scope and definition. Yes, the Roman Empire protected and governed individual provinces, such as Judea, but that also translated into Roman laws and Roman taxes and Roman control. Step outside the lines, no more peace for you. The four Gospels and history bear this out.

As long as we inhabit this fallen planet, we know that political (did somebody say, “Georgia runoff”?), religious, philosophical, and other sharp differences will create colossal divides between and among human beings. Until the end of this age, Jesus has promised as much, even in some of our closest interpersonal relationships (Matthew 10:34). On an even broader scale, the signs of Christ’s second advent include – by our Savior’s own testimony – “wars and rumors of wars … nation against nation … kingdom against kingdom” (Matthew 24:6-7). He’s certainly not describing Christmas card material in every chapter of our lives or of human history, as you and I might have naively imagined.

But, come what may, we can have peace with God. That’s the wonder of the season. That’s the foundation of all true and lasting peace. That’s the prerequisite peace for all other peace. In Christ, that peace is ours now. When it comes to the peace that permeates everything, you and I still wait, for we live simultaneously in “the now and the not yet.” So let me say it loud and clear: peace, in all its fullness, is well on its way. I have that on good authority. The Prince of Peace has come, and “He shall reign forever and ever.”

On December 25, 1864, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) composed the seven stanzas that became “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day.” Civil War-torn America was months away from Lee’s surrender to Grant, and the lyrics capture our nation’s utter despair. Soon after the war’s first shots were fired, Henry’s dear wife had been fatally burned at Cambridge, Massachusetts, as she tried to melt a bar of sealing wax to preserve some of her young daughter’s curls after a haircut. Attempting to save his wife by smothering the flames with a throw rug, Longfellow so badly injured his face that he was partially disfigured for the remainder of his life. Less than a year later, his son Charles was severely crippled by war wounds. So Longfellow’s words reflect his personal grief, as well as America’s shared grief. But Charles lived, and a poem – and eventually a famous Christmas carol – was born. I’ll include the original words below.

May you and yours be blessed by this old song that does in fact end on a note of peace and Christian triumph! God is here, friends. He has not left us. That is the joy of Christmas: we are never alone. It’s the difference that only Christ could make, and that He has made (Matthew 1:23): “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).

I heard the bells on Christmas Day, their old familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet, the words repeat, of peace on earth, goodwill to men!

And thought how, as the day had come, the belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along, the unbroken song, of peace on earth, goodwill to men!

Till, ringing, singing on its way, the world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime, a chant sublime, of peace on earth, goodwill to men!

Then from each black accursed mouth, the cannon thundered in the South,
And with the sound, the carols drowned, of peace on earth, goodwill to men!

It was as if an earthquake rent, the hearth-stones of a continent,
And made forlorn the households born, of peace on earth, goodwill to men!

And in despair I bowed my head; “There is no peace on earth,” I said;
“For hate is strong, and mocks the song, of peace on earth, goodwill to men!”

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep: “God is not dead; nor doth he sleep!
The Wrong shall fail, the Right prevail, with peace on earth, goodwill to men!”

By God’s grace, I think that we can hear the bells.

Listening with you,

Pastor Charles

I love the time of year when some of the passages of Scripture which are most familiar to us become rich with meaning again. Today I’m thinking of Matthew 1:22-23, where the apostle simply records: All this took place to fulfill what the Lord has spoken by the prophet: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us). An angel of the Lord revealed to Joseph the needed specifics regarding Christ’s birth, by means of a miraculous dream. And the “all this” includes the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy (7:14) some seven centuries earlier. Jesus Himself will be that promised sign.

When the “unsinkable” RMS Titanic – the largest and most luxurious ocean liner of its time – crashed into an iceberg on its maiden voyage in 1912, it enjoyed the first on-board swimming pools and even a gym, a squash court, and some of the most elegant furnishings and scrumptious food in the world. But the famous ocean liner ended up dragging more than 1500 of its 2200 passengers to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. Two government investigations conducted immediately after the disaster agreed that it was the iceberg, and not any weakness in the ship itself, that had caused the Titanic to sink. Both inquiries wrongfully concluded that the vessel had gone to the ocean floor intact, even though a few survivors had reported seeing the ship come apart. Neither investigation substantiated those reports, however, because that was believed to be an absolute impossibility. So the full blame for the incident fell on the ship’s deceased captain, who was widely condemned for racing at 22 knots through a known ice field in the dark waters off the coast of Newfoundland. And the case of the Titanic was considered closed.

But in 1985, when oceanographer Robert Ballard – after years of diligent searching – finally located the ship’s remains 2.5 miles down on the ocean floor, he discovered that the Titanic had in fact broken in two on the surface before it sank. And this one discovery caused people to wonder, for the first time, if perhaps the Titanic was never as strong a vessel as had been commonly believed. Now we know even more of the truth. When the Titanic struck the iceberg, six of its sixteen watertight compartments were damaged. The ship started taking on seawater in the bow through openings about twenty feet below the water line. And as the liner nosed down, water flooded compartments one after another – as the ship’s stern began rising out of the ocean. But as the stern rose higher and higher, the stress on the vessel was more than it could handle, and the Titanic – just forward of the third funnel – broke completely apart. Days before its first voyage, a White Star Line employee had boasted, “God himself could not sink the ship.” But, in less than four hours, it was all over. The “Ship of Dreams” had become nothing short of a nightmare. Such was the fate of the ocean liner that had everything, except lifeboats.

Back to Matthew 1. It’s the genealogy of Jesus. At first glance, you might think: “Isn’t that nice! One generation after another preparing the way for the Messiah.” But it would be a crying shame to gloss over the truth like that. Take David, for example. We remember him as “a man after God’s own heart” (1 Samuel 13:14), and he was, but David was also guilty of horrific sin. He committed adultery with Bathsheba, and then conspired to cover his sin with the treacherous murder of her husband. David’s polygamy and his ungodly parenting produced tragic results in his family life. When David’s son Amnon raped his half-sister Tamar, David did nothing about it (2 Samuel13:1-22). That neglect set in motion the events that darkened the final years of his reign: Tamar’s brother Absalom murdered Amnon, usurped David’s throne, and committed public immorality with David’s concubines. Other than that it was a Hallmark movie.

The first period of Christ’s genealogy from Abraham to David was that of the patriarchs, and of Moses, Joshua, and the judges. It included wandering, enslavement, deliverance, covenant-making, lawgiving, conquest, and victory. And in living color there, in spite of God’s faithfulness, we see people doing their own thing and sinning in every possible way. The second period from David to the deportation to Babylon represents the monarchy. David, Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, and Josiah were the only decent kings – the rest led Israel away from God and into all manner of trouble. That was a period of almost uninterrupted decline, degeneracy, apostasy, and tragedy. There was defeat, conquest, exile, and then the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple. The third period from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ was that of captivity, exile, frustration, and of marking time. It was a period of obscurity and anonymity, Israel’s Dark Ages. I didn’t even mention the sin before Abraham, and the Great Flood, but I’m sure you get my point. We have a checkered past – privately, personally, and corporately. Every one of us has, and we together have, a closet full of skeletons!

Friends, one thing we must not do is think of ourselves as stronger than we really are. Truth is, apart from the Lord Jesus Christ, you and I are on a collision course with unspeakable disaster. This is not merely validated by the Scriptures, but it’s validated by every period of human history. We may have the luxuries and amenities of a grand ocean liner, but we’re not unsinkable. And God’s verdict is: the ship is sinking. We haven’t simply been wounded by sin, but we’ve suffered a death blow because of it. But Matthew offers us the best news in the world: a lifeboat has come for us, and His name is Immanuel!

The eyewitness reports recorded in the Scriptures are not erroneous, incidental, or accidental: Christ is alive! He is here! And He will reign forever as King of kings and Lord of lords! For you and I to be men and women “after God’s own heart” is nothing short of a miracle of grace. And it’s only possible in the lifeboat. But the good news of this wonderful season is that the lifeboat has come for us.

He is Immanuel, God with us.

Pastor Charles

Hello from America’s Hometown! Eileen, Josh, and I are here in Plymouth, Massachusetts, overlooking the historic harbor and Plymouth Rock. We’re visiting our extended family for the holiday, and we send you our warmest Thanksgiving greetings.

We ought to savor the moment, and the privilege of giving thanks. I’ll share with you here just a few sweet sounds from Thomas Newman’s hymn (less than 30 seconds in fact) from a 2019 movie adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s famous novel, and I urge you to pause and to ponder: https://youtu.be/D97KTfosj7E

We have much for which to be thankful. Not only the blessings of family and friends come to mind today, but also the specific freedoms which we enjoy because of the vision launched in large measure right where we stand. Those brave and faithful Pilgrims pursued a passionate dream to establish a home where God could be worshiped according to the dictates of one’s conscience, and you and I continue to inherit the blessings of such cherished liberties. May the Lord protect and preserve such a costly inheritance.

And, far beyond that, you and I are rich indeed (Ephesians 2:7). In Christ we have received so much more than we can possibly imagine. Jesus, by His own blood, has purchased our redemption and secured for us an inheritance far exceeding even our greatest earthly blessings here and now. Our debt is paid! Our spirits have been made alive forever! Our future is glorious and already titled in our name! The whole package was validated by an empty tomb, and that’s about as certain as certain can be.

As we give thanks this season, we pray for the spirit of humble gratitude which marked those steadfast Pilgrims to also mark each one of us. Stirred by an unshakable faith in Christ, those determined men and women had to prepare seven times more graves than houses … but they made time for a day of THANKS. So should we. The priceless privilege is ours.

After all, the simple fact that we’re traveling the road to heaven makes us pilgrims, one and all.

Pastor Charles

As we continue to take a close look at the Creation account in Genesis, knowing that we can’t cover all the details in this format, I think that I’ll select a verse or two of interest each week for the remainder of this blog series. The verse that strikes me today is 1:16 … And God made the two great lights – the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night – and the stars.

Wow! Almost parenthetically, God “made … the stars.” All 200 billion trillion of them! Let me say that another way: all 200 sextillion of them! In case you’re wondering, that’s 200,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. From our perspective – and I’m so glad that the Bible communicates with us from our perspective – the sun and the moon will figure most prominently in our daily rhythms, but we don’t want to miss the wonder of the much bigger picture here! It’s an overused word, friends, but our God is simply AWESOME. The Creators of the heavens and the earth spoke into existence all 200,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 of those incredible stars.

We’re up to Creation Day 4 now, but we already see clearly a remarkable pattern of design and order. Not to mention beauty. As you know from science, “randomness” doesn’t evolve into order, but rather it devolves into chaos. But chaos is not what we see in early Genesis, thankfully.

In fact, here’s what I see when I look through either a microscope or a telescope. I see design, order, and beauty. The harder I look, the more I see: design, order, and beauty. I’m no expert on these matters, but I’m simply sharing with you what I observe: design, order, and beauty.

I’m going to go out on a limb here and submit to you what I believe. I believe that “nature” itself points to a higher and deeper reality. I see that in at least six different ways …

LAW. The mere existence of natural laws reminds us that universe itself obeys certain rules. This is no inconsequential observation. You won’t have to worry about gravity doing its thing today, and neither will I. These laws are quite precise, and some are in fact mathematical. I submit to you that these natural laws are in place, and that we observe them as logical, because they have a God who is logical as their origin. In fact, I can’t think of any other possible explanation.

LOVELINESS. I think that it’s safe for me to claim that scientists of nearly every worldview agree that the universe is exquisitely fine-tuned, and that it’s exquisitely fine-tuned for human life – and for life in general. Scientists don’t all agree on the why, admittedly, but they see the “fine tuning” of what are generally referred to as the physical constants. When I think of making a case for the evidence of God, I think of this as my Exhibit A. It’s not “proof” of God in the test tube sense, but it’s certainly some very compelling evidence in my humble opinion. This world is simply gorgeous in its intricate design! (I’ll refer you to the newest images from the Webb Telescope.)

LIFE. I know that we haven’t yet reached Creation Day 6 in this series, but I have to mention that the origins of life and consciousness sway me even further to believe the claims of the Bible – and specifically the claims of Jesus Christ. Like C.S. Lewis, I believe that the human conscience uniquely provides genuine insight into reality. Did the Nazis treat the Jews in a cruel manner? Of course they did. This is more than a historical observation, isn’t it? That inner knowledge of right and wrong, though we may try to hide from it all too often, becomes somewhat of a universal moral argument for the existence of a holy God. Call me crazy, but I think that we sometimes feel guilty because we are guilty.

LOVE. The staunchest atheists you know have relationships that matter deeply to them. They love others (at least somebody, somewhere), and they desire deeply to be loved by others. From where does the real existence of love come? Again, I submit, this can’t be explained by a strictly materialistic view of the universe. Love makes no sense without a gracious Creator God who is Himself Love.

LOGIC. I’ve already hinted at this, but I’d like to take it one step further. Could it be that what we refer to as “the laws of logic” are really just descriptions of the ways in which God thinks? Let’s take the rules of inference, for example. I can’t imagine these as human conventions! (You couldn’t even make an argument for that without employing the laws themselves. LOL.). On a lighter note, this time I’ll quote C.S. Lewis verbatim: “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”

LIGHT. I have to tell you how I see it, because I can do no other: I believe that there has never been a human being who has not been addressed by God deep in their inner being. There is at least some knowledge of our Creator wondrously present in every human soul (Romans 1:19). Somehow, perhaps strangely, love arouses knowing. Please let that sink in. Love arouses knowing. I’ll bet you haven’t forgotten when your first child was born. Or the first time you saw the ocean. Or your first kiss (yes, that kind of kiss). Such defining moments in our lives often open our hearts to consider higher and greater realities. Such moments seem to us, and rightfully so, to be more than the sum of all possibilities. Philosophical arguments have their place, but sometimes we just know.

Again, I’m no expert. But I can’t tell you how excited I am to be able to share these things with you. I welcome your input, correction, and ongoing dialogue. Iron sharpens iron.

Yours by grace,

Pastor Charles

Today we’ll focus on the days of Creation. We see these six days unfold in Genesis 1, each one marked by the language: “there was evening and there was morning.” I don’t have to tell you that these “days” spark quite a bit of controversy, primarily centered on whether or not the Bible demands that we view these days as six literal (24-hour) periods of time. I’ll start with a simple observation: an interpretation including literal days allows for the easiest, and the most natural, reading of the chapter. The “evening and morning” language I would also put into the category of “evidence for literal days,” as I would the ordinal numbers in Hebrew (“the first day,” “the second day,” etc.). I would also add that the Sabbath pattern which follows in Scripture (see, for example, the Fourth Commandment in Exodus 20:8-11) is based upon a concept of literal days.

All that being said, we must be careful not to declare something unequivocally unless we’re certain that God’s Word has made it clear. In the case of six literal days of Creation, there is room for humility. The Hebrew word for “day” does not always refer to a literal day, but can refer to an unspecified period of time (see, for example, the same word “day” in Genesis 2:4). I would also point out, as we read the Creation account carefully and take it seriously, that the sun is not created until Day 4, so defining a “day” based solely on the earth’s rotation (as we think of a literal day) could not apply to Days 1 to 3. And I would remind you, as I remind myself, of the Bible’s call to let God be God! Second Peter 3:8 comes to mind as of possible relevance to this particular discussion. It’s also wise to keep in mind that we’re talking about the miracle of Creation – may Jesus Christ be praised! There will always be dimensions of something as wonderful as Creation that you and I can’t fully comprehend.

In the fourth century, St. Augustine expressed a helpful caution with these words: “In matters that are obscure and far beyond our vision, even in such as we may find treated in Holy Scripture, different interpretations are sometimes possible without prejudice to the faith we have received. In such a case, we should not rush in headlong and so firmly take our stand on one side that, if further progress in the search of truth justly undermines this position, we too fall with it.” You may remember from history that Copernicus and Galileo were soundly condemned by the church for advocating heliocentrism (that the earth revolves around the sun). The church had misinterpreted passages such as Psalm 93:1, Psalm 104:5, and Ecclesiastes 1:5, and – perhaps ironically – it would be science that would help clarify the meaning of Scripture in that circumstance. I remind you of all of that simply to urge all of us to be careful in our study, and careful with our conclusions. And don’t let people convince you that science and the Bible are at odds with each other. People may politicize science and make it at odds with the Bible, or people may misinterpret the Bible and make it at odds with science, but an honest search for truth is never at odds with God’s truth – the truth. We used to sing it regularly: “This is my Father’s world!”

Sometimes even well-intentioned followers of Christ get at odds with each other over specific details which ought not divide us. I’ll remind us of the first miracle of the earthly ministry of Jesus, when at the wedding celebration at Cana our Lord turned the water into wine. What did the master of the feast say to the bridegroom? “You have kept the good wine until now (John 2:10).” Why do I mention this? Because making something new and old is absolutely no problem for our magnificent God! That’s right. He’s the potter. I’m the clay. Note to self: stay humble.

The morning after a national election, this call to humility serves as a pointed reminder that we need Jesus! The Bible always tells the truth, and about human nature the Bible is abundantly clear: as people suppress the knowledge of God, spiritual darkness and psychological inversion mount. By “psychological inversion,” I mean to describe how we become larger and God becomes smaller. In the human heart, the center of gravity shifts from God to self. People become the center, and the Creator gets pushed further and further toward the margins. We do this by denying God’s existence, or by twisting His character, or by distorting His glorious and saving gospel. Arrogance breeds more arrogance, and vile behaviors result. The problem is: vile behaviors become abusive behaviors, and abusive behaviors cause suffering and death. We see this in Israel’s history, and in the history of every other nation on earth.

May our gracious God give us not what we deserve, but may He give us leaders who are driven by Christ’s righteousness. May He protect our government from those who are blinded by their own power and affluence. May He give us leaders who recognize the shallowness of human wisdom. So let it be.

Yours by grace,

Pastor Charles

It’s starting to get really exciting now …

And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day (Genesis 1:3-5).

Light amazes me. It moves just shy of 300,000 kilometers per second. If you drove your car to the sun at the speed limit, it would take you 157 years to arrive. But if you could ride a beam of light to the sun, it would take you only eight minutes and twenty seconds! Whether we’re talking about light produced by friction or nuclear reactions or fire, it all comes from God! That includes the long-wave radio waves and the short-wave x-rays. And I’ve just scratched the surface. Light is built into the very fabric of our universe. As Einstein taught us, mass is but latent energy, and energy is unleashed mass; and the amount of energy contained in mass is represented by the elegant equation E = mc2 … E for energy, m for mass, and c for the speed of light.

So we’ve completed the first day of Creation, but we don’t yet have a sun. I only mention that so that we don’t get too dogmatic about some of the details which we may not fully understand. Where we do have questions in our study of Genesis, whenever possible, we ought to look to the New Testament to shed light (pun fully intended) on the subject. For example, last week I mentioned that I question the validity of using the word “now” at the beginning of Verse 2 to open the door to a pre-Adamite race. My questioning doesn’t come from my expertise in either Hebrew or science, but it comes from Romans 5:12. If we lose the doctrine of sin “coming into the world” through Adam, then we’ve gutted much of the Bible. If nothing was corrupted before sin, I find it hard to wrap my mind around any kind of death before Adam, though I know that some scholars insist that Paul is referring only to human death. So I would encourage you to “let Scripture interpret Scripture” whenever possible. It won’t settle every question in your heart, but it will go a long way.

One thing we know for sure: what sin corrupted into disorder (I know that I’m getting ahead of myself in the Creation account), Christ’s Cross has the power to bring back into order! Praise God!

So let’s get back to Day 1. “And God said” is used nine times in the Creation account. God spoke, and from nothing everything was made. This is (I’ll quote John Gill here) “expressive of the will, power, authority, and efficacy of the divine Being; whose word is clothed with power, and who can do, and does whatever he will, and as soon as he pleases; his orders are always obeyed.” God by definition reigns supreme and unchallenged. That’s why we call Him “Lord” or “the Lord Almighty” or “King of kings and Lord of lords.” In Greek mythology, the gods compete with each other. Even Zeus can be undone. But not our God! He rules. He reigns. Period.

“Let there be light!” When we lived out in Southern California we learned all about the “May Gray” and the “June Gloom.” It looks cloudy and foggy until about 11:00 in the morning, but–without fail –the sun breaks through for yet another gorgeous day. “And there was light.” Was this light physical? Yes. Was this light philosophical? Also, yes. I don’t think this was an either/or. I don’t think that Moses is only referring to physical light here. This light is the very knowledge, power, righteousness, and Word of our great God expressed via the medium that is light. By the way, there is ultimately no darkness which can overcome the light (John 1:1-5).

“And God saw that the light was good.” The word employed here for “good” is used 44 times in the Old Testament, and can mean practical goodness, desirability, beauty, quality, moral goodness, or even philosophical goodness. So I think that we can take this sentence to mean that God determined that the light was fulfilling its intended purpose. God delights to shine His truth into the darkness of our ignorance. “Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet …”

So what made the “night” night? I think this: that it was distinct from the day. Maybe God our magnificent Creator used some kind of cloud cover which allowed light to penetrate – or not. I’m speculating now, so don’t take those clouds to the bank, but suffice it to say that this “evening and morning” refrain of distinction (and order) will be used by the Lord on every successive workday. But it will be conspicuously absent on Day 7, which I’ll get too later in this series. If you’ll indulge me, I’ll blog more about the wonders of Creation next week, but I encourage you today to take a quick journey from the Bible’s first book to the Bible’s last, to Revelation 22:5 specifically. In Christ, you and I are headed to a place where “night will be no more.” Can you imagine? Jesus the Light of the world will be so present with us – forever – that He alone will be all the light we’ll ever need.

Let there be …” When God speaks to us, His word is invincible. There is no other. I’m so glad that Christianity is not a system of rituals and rules meant to gain God’s favor. No! The beating heart of the Bible, from cover to cover, is truth. And it all starts with the truth of who God is. Only the Light of Jesus can deliver us from the folly and foolishness and futility of religion. We need Light!

Yours by grace,

Pastor Charles

You’re a patient group of friends, always putting up with my ramblings and rumblings!

Last week I shared some thoughts from Genesis 1:1, and today I’d like to focus on Genesis 1:2 … The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

Whatever was was not yet beautiful, because God our Creator had not yet made it beautiful. In the words of C.S. Lewis: “All that is made seems planless to the darkened mind, because there are more plans than it looked for. In these seas there are islands where the hairs of the turf are so fine and so closely woven together that unless a man looked long at them he would see neither hairs nor weaving at all, but only the same and the flat. So with the Great Dance.” I wish that I could interview the great professor so that he could explain to me all of the nuances of what he intended to communicate there, but I think I get the thrust of it: the Sovereign God of the universe is so unfathomably above and beyond us that we can’t ever fully grasp His ways. But, and these are my words now, we can trust that all His ways are nothing but good.

The things of the Lord are “foolishness” (1 Corinthians 2:14) to the person who doesn’t know Christ by faith. But, even for those of us who follow Christ and who deeply desire to understand the Bible, there are parts of the Creation account that are downright difficult to comprehend. I think it’s O.K. for us to admit that. And the Bible’s second verse is one of those passages that tends to yield a plethora of interpretations. Part of the reason for the confusion stems from the fact that multiple English translations insert a connecting word at the beginning of the verse (specifically, “now” or “as”). For example … Now the earth was formless and empty …

The reason for adding a connecting word (or not) is a matter of relatively complex Hebrew linguistics, but suffice it to say that the opening clause of Genesis 1:2 is circumstantial in nature. It’s not intended to communicate timing (as we might normally think when we hear the word “now”) as much as it is intended to describe the circumstances of Genesis 1:1. Nevertheless, in about the year 1814 (and I think it was launched in Edinburgh, Scotland), there began to circulate various interpretations of Genesis 1:2 which opened the door for a long period of time between the verses. You may have heard of the “gap theory,” and I’m attempting to describe the reason for the perceived gap. If you’re interested in my take on it, I don’t believe that the language of the text itself intends to communicate a time gap. I’m not going to fight over that, but I owe it to you to at least state my personal conviction.

What is of even more importance to me is the mind-boggling description of the Spirit of God here. Against the backdrop of a formless earth is this powerful presence of the Ruach Elohim. Genesis 6:17 will translate that first word (“Spirit”) as “breath of life,” and Genesis 8:1 will translate it as “wind.” Wow! Wow! Wow! So, back to Genesis 1:2, the waters don’t yet contain any life … but we already know that there is hope for life … and we already know the source of the new life that will soon be described quite beautifully by the Scriptures.

I’m so glad to be able to tell you today that the Holy Spirit has always been! From the vantage point of Creation I’m getting ahead of myself, but I want you to celebrate with me that it is the Spirit of God who applies the work of Christ to us personally (John 16:13). He (not “It”) bears powerful witness for Jesus (1 John 5:7-8). He teaches us gospel truth (John 14:26). He fills us (Ephesians 5:18) with spiritual life! And I’ve just barely scratched the surface.

Earlier this month and 70 miles from here in Hurricane Mills, at the age of 90, country music legend Loretta Lynn passed into glory. Her 60-year career included four Grammys and a multitude of other distinguished awards, but her early life – if you know anything about the “Coal Miner’s Daughter” – was anything but picture perfect. That she would ever be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom would have been unthinkable from the perspective of the young girl for whom poverty and chaos would mark much of her childhood and young adult life. I tell a snippet of her story not to exalt her in any idolatrous fashion, but rather to exalt the God whom Loretta learned to trust. From a 2020 interview, these are Loretta’s own words: “I pray a lot. I think God is always with me. When I need Him, I know He’s there. He’s been with me and pulled me through stuff that I didn’t even know I was going through until it was over. And when it did hit me, and I realized that God had been with me the whole time, that made all the difference to me. He’s gotten me through everything, good and bad, and that fills my heart with peace.”

“It hit me,” said Loretta. Friends, I hope it hits us too. There is holy in the hover.

What seems chaotic about your world today? Don’t be fooled! Christ is very much alive and in charge. You can trust Him. He specializes in making masterpieces out of madness.

Yours by grace,

Pastor Charles

If you’ll bear with me, I think that I’ll start fashioning a blog miniseries focused on why the first chapters of the Bible really matter. So we’ll make this blog posting Part One. I’m motivated to some degree by all of the current debates on gender, but my pastoral concerns are much more widespread. In a nutshell, I fear that the evangelical church in America is losing its foundation.

So let’s start at the very top (Genesis 1:1): In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. We need to think of the Bible’s first five books, Genesis through Deuteronomy (often referred to by scholars as the Pentateuch), as one continuous account. All of it was either written or edited by Moses (see John 7:22, for example). And, ultimately and supremely, God authored it all.

Genesis includes some poetry, prophecy, and even drama, but it is primarily theological and historical narrative. Based on Biblical and extrabiblical evidence, we can date it at about the fifteenth century B.C. This really matters, friends, because there are so many voices today urging us to put Genesis into the category of fairytale. This is especially true when it comes to the first eleven chapters.

The Hebrew word translated as “created” is a rare word, and it’s used primarily in connection with something that God does. Creation itself is a noble concept, and quite difficult to capture with human language. But the main point that I’d like to offer today is simply this: don’t ever let anyone persuade you that Creationism is for the weak-minded and the primitive, while Evolution is for the academic, the enlightened, and the sophisticated. And here’s why I’m making this claim: in order to adopt any worldview other than “In the beginning God created …”, you have to swallow at least three outrageous claims …

1. Nothing caused something.

2. Non-life produced life.

3. Chaos naturally morphed into order.

I would urge you to sit with all three of those for a minute. And I invite you to challenge me if you think that I’m oversimplifying things.

“The heavens and the earth” is Hebrew’s way of communicating the totality of creation. It’s not even limited by our Earth or our solar system. So it’s really important that you and I remember that the Bible’s opening sentence is an intentionally broad summary statement. It’s meant to include everything in the universe!

Just to help you wrap your mind around the enormity of the Bible’s opening line, I’ll quote from George P. Dvorsky, a “transhumanist” secular Buddhist: “It’s hard to wrap our heads around the size of our galaxy, let alone the Universe. At 100,000 light-years across, it would take the New Horizons space probe – the fastest object ever launched by humans – some 1,844,000,000 years to travel from one side of the Milky Way to the other (it’s currently moving away from Pluto at 58,536 km/h or 36,373 mph). But there are structures even larger than single galaxies. Back in 2013, astronomers discovered a concentration of galaxy clusters stretching some 10-billion light years across. There are also cosmic filaments to consider – massive strands of rarefied and highly ionized gas which stretch like spider webs across the observable Universe linking galaxy clusters across billions upon billions of light-years. And then there’s the Universe as a whole, an expanse of expanding space that appears to be about 92 billion light-years in diameter. And that’s just the observable Universe.”

Now Mr. Dvorsky and I would not agree on any number of things, but I wanted you to see even his take on how awesome is this thing we call “the world.” And here’s one place where Mr. Dvorsky would likely disagree with me: I’m claiming that God made it ALL.Even before the foundation of the world, there was Someone. Nothing else makes sense.

His first pastorate was the First Presbyterian Church in Lockport, New York, but his ministry would influence college students from around the world, especially those from Johns Hopkins in Baltimore – where Maltbie Davenport Babcock would go on to serve the Brown Memorial Church. But back in New York, not too far from that first church building, Pastor Babcock loved to hike at a spot called the “escarpment” – a natural ledge from which you could see for miles. He’d say to his friends: “I’m going out to see my Father’s world!” In 1901, as he took in those breathtaking views of farms, orchards, and even Lake Ontario about fifteen miles away, Babcock wrote down what his heart took in …

This is my Father’s world, and to my listening ears
All nature sings, and round me rings the music of the spheres.
This is my Father’s world: I rest me in the thought
Of rocks and trees, of skies and seas;
His hand the wonders wrought.

Yours by grace,

Pastor Charles

It’s great to live again in a city with professional sports franchises, and here we are in the center of Smashville! Tonight at dinner with friends from church we were talking about the fun, excitement, and overall energy which the Nashville Predators bring to the metro area. Our city loves its sports, and our people love their teams, and that’s as it should be.

But today I want to unpack another subject which has been on my mind and heart: how can we love in such a hateful world?

I know that sounds a bit dramatic, friends. Perhaps I’m painting with too broad a brushstroke, and I’m open to your correction, but I am increasingly disturbed by what I perceive to be the all-or-nothing nature of public discourse in America. Expressed another way: “If you and I agree on everything, then we can be friends, but if your opinion at any point collides with mine, then I will have to make sure that you are silenced.” From my point of view, that attitude is about as close to non-love as we can get.

Have we forgotten that we all bear, and so we therefore all share, the image of God? Even those who vehemently oppose us have been endowed with intrinsic dignity and worth. Though the whole world may fail to see this glorious reality, followers of Christ have no excuse.

Have we forgotten the doctrine of general revelation? Other perspectives are critical as we search for the truth, because our selfish humanness prods all of us to misperceive some facts while glossing over other facts which may feel presently inconvenient. Sometimes the perspectives I least appreciate are the ones I most need, as they help me see my own blindspots, prejudices, and idols.

Have we forgotten the notion of common grace? We cultivate widespread civility only when we demonstrate respect and kindness toward all people. As best we can, we want to love like God loves. The Lord is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made (Psalm 145:9). We who claim to know Christ ought to lead by love.

Have we forgotten the values of free speech and diversity of opinion? You and I have something to learn from the whole of humanity. Surely we’re not so proud that we can’t take a step back from the turmoil of today’s social and political climate long enough to thank God that not everybody thinks like us!

So how do we free ourselves from this destructive pattern of thinking and behavior? Here’s where my proposed “smash” comes in …

S. Set yourself free from tribal urges. Cable news and social media soundbites can’t feed our souls, but they can feed the monster of our self-righteous anger. Don’t let that happen. Anchor yourself, again and again, in your most important identity: your identity in Christ.

M. Make grace amazing again. Jesus has told us some strange things. We’re to love our enemies. We’re to pray for those who persecute us. And He has led us by example, for that is exactly how Jesus dealt with those who nailed Him to a cross. Ultimately, it was our sin that drove those nails, so you and I must love as we’ve been so lavishly loved.

A. Aim higher. It’s easy to get caught up in “cancel culture,” but you and I are called to the exact opposite: we’re called to edify and encourage! Your simple acts and words of kindness will speak volumes into this climate of bitterness and rage. We’re on the narrow road, so let’s live each day with profound gratitude and joy that cause others to look up.

S. Stay in the Word, and stick with the Word. That’s where the difference really lies, friends. Garbage in, garbage out. Goodness in, goodness out. Both are true. Which will it be for us? This is a great time to commit Scripture to memory. The Bible is the only Word that can illumine the otherwise murky path before us in a relentlessly unforgiving season such as this.

H. Hold your fire. And I’m not just referring to avoiding inappropriate responses to those with whom we disagree, but I’m referring to actively fanning the flames of our own spiritual passion. You and I desperately need the Holy Spirit! It is only the Spirit of the resurrected Christ who can keep us loving God and loving others at a time when love seems to be yet another supply-chain casualty.

Perhaps we will see our Sovereign Lord use His people to turn this tide of worldly disrespect and disdain into something shockingly heavenly and beautiful. We should pray for nothing less. Revival in the church always means good things for the culture, and we sure could use God’s good things here and now.

By grace alone,

Pastor Charles