We’re drowning in it. Unforgiveness.

The folks at Harvard are right. I’ll quote Dr. Tyler VanderWeele: “Forgiving a person who has wronged you is never easy, but dwelling on those events and reliving them over and over can fill your mind with negative thoughts and suppressed anger. Yet, when you learn to forgive, you are no longer trapped by the past actions of others and can finally feel free.”

This really matters. I mean, really matters! In Christ, you and I are called to forgive. Our new nature in Jesus enables it. We’re to be pursuers of peace on earth. And, where there is no peace, you and I are called to bring agape love.

I’d like to tell you a story from Spain. There was a father and his son who, over the course of their lives, had become extremely bitter toward each other. After years of verbal battles, the son finally left home angry, never to return. The father began to search for his son, but he was unable to find him anywhere. After months of frantic searching, the father came to the end of his resources, and sat down in a coffee shop in utter desperation. Suddenly the man had an idea. The father put an ad in a Madrid newspaper. It said simply this: “Dear Paco: Please meet me in front of the men’s clothing shop at 2:00 p.m. on Friday. You are forgiven. I love you. Your father.” That Friday, at 2:00 in the afternoon, 800 Pacos showed up. All of those men were searching for forgiveness, and love, from their dads.

We’re wired for love. We all mess up, and we all mess up terribly. We all need forgiveness, from God and from others. Ephesians 4:32 is packed with punch in this regard. As new creations in Christ, our disposition toward others is to be kind, tenderhearted, and forgiving. Why? Because we’ve been forgiven! When you forgive, and when I forgive, we are expressing the very heart of God!

Forgiveness is not excusing. Forgiveness is not forgetting (though we may end up forgetting). Forgiveness is not overlooking. Forgiveness may or may not result in reconciliation. And forgiveness is always undeserved. We must also understand that forgiveness is much, much more than a feeling. In fact it’s not really even about conjuring up a feeling of some kind. Forgiveness, if we are to understand it Biblically, is all about sincerely committing ourselves to a promise: a promise never to hold this offense against the offender. Never again. In that profound sense, we set the offender free.

But, when we forgive, it also sets us free! You see, friends, forgiveness does not erase the past – after all, you and I don’t even have the power to do that – but forgiveness chooses to look upon the past with grace. Lewis B. Smedes used to say it like this: “To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you.”

I’ll get brutally honest now. I want to tell you what most often imprisons me in unforgiveness. It’s my desire to control. In my sin, I can live under the illusion – and it is just that – that I can hold my offender hostage by keeping the offense alive. Nonsense! Any feeling I ever have of superiority – and that’s what it is! – will shipwreck my capacity to forgive. Any attempt to justify my unforgiveness will do the same kind of damage to my soul. If I’m ever going to forgive, I have to die to the illusion of control. Perhaps you can relate. But here’s the cool part: when I forgive, my vision is clear again!

“And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.”

“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

Jesus couldn’t have been more clear. By His words, and by His life.

We are without excuse.

Pastor Charles

The U.S. House of Representatives has passed the so-called Equality Act, which elevates sexual orientation and gender identity to the level of race as determined by federal civil rights law. As this legislation heads to the Senate, followers of Christ should be concerned. Surely the Lord would have us remain watchful and prayerful, and to do our best to understand the confusing times in which we live, that we might wisely exercise the liberties of our citizenship for God’s glory.

There are multiple ways in which I could attempt to describe why I believe that the Equality Act is ill-advised and potentially dangerous, but I will tell you my primary cause for alarm: the law would treat individuals and groups that believe that people are created male and female, and that male and female are created for each other, as the legal equivalent of racists.

In speaking out against the Equality Act, I have expressed on social media my concerns about faith-based adoption and foster care agencies, medical professionals, and female athletes. I’ve also articulated my concerns about religious freedoms in general, which are threatened by the Equality Act, so I won’t spend more time exploring my thoughts on those thorny issues. None of my concerns along those lines has waned, but my hope is to approach this from a different angle today.

Fundamentally, I believe that the Equality Act attempts to enshrine into American law a deeply flawed understanding of human nature. I would go as far as calling the Equality Act inhumane. I know that I’ve just made a very strong statement, but I will try to explain what I mean.

There is a profound sense in which God, universally, has implanted into the soul of every person a basic understanding of right and wrong. Some refer to this innate sense of morality as natural law, and it is known by us simply by virtue of our being created in God’s image. Natural law cannot save a person, and it is marred by sin, but it nevertheless underlies and informs human reason and conscience. It is my contention that the Equality Act is a direct attack on human nature because it blatantly ignores scientific evidence, history, philosophy, and theology as they illumine our understanding of personhood. In short, the Equality Act, by seeking to obscure any notion of biological gender, seeks to invalidate an absolutely essential dimension of what it means to be a human being.

Then there is the revealed law of God, which we find in the Bible. As Christians, we embrace the good news of the gospel because the “bad news” of God’s law has declared us guilty before a holy Creator. The law has exposed us for who we are, lawbreakers, and so we find refuge in the grace of Jesus Christ, whose sacrificial and substitutionary death on the cross rescues us from the just penalty of our sin. The first chapter of Paul’s epistle to the Romans indicts unbelievers who “by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.” In light of all that the apostle describes there, I can’t imagine a better example of deliberate truth suppression than enacting a law which seeks to erase maleness and femaleness, which God has designed to be complimentary reflections of His own nature. Anti-God is anti-human.

We want all people to be treated with dignity and respect. We want all people who are struggling with gender dysphoria to receive excellent and compassionate care. We want all people to be protected by equal justice under the law. But, though it purports to afford such protection for some, the Equality Act is a frontal assault against all who believe that “in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them” (Genesis 1:27).

Pastor Charles

I don’t have to tell you that digital technology is quickly creating a cultural climate in which those who embrace the latest moral norms can call for the outright “cancellation” of any who oppose the controlling agenda. The reach of these cancellations, and the immediacy of the unfortunate results, is unprecedented. The relentless demands of our cancel culture are rooted in a postmodern worldview, in that all truth claims are deemed subjective and individualized.

What we’re observing before our very eyes, friends, is a societal shift of seismic proportions, by which “tolerance” is becoming frighteningly intolerant. Personally, I find the saddest dimension of all of this to be that people are becoming less and less willing to maintain meaningful relationships with those who see the world differently than they. But wasn’t that diverse ideological mosaic promised to be the beauty and benefit of multiculturalism? What a tragedy we’re experiencing! Who wants to live in an echo chamber of nothing but their own ideas?

But hold on just a second. At the University of Chicago, an online journal called the Chicago Thinker, written by a growing group of students at the university, has emerged. Despite the firm grip of our crippling cancel culture, some new voices are being heard. I find this development surprisingly hopeful because it signals for us that there are a few Gen-Zers out there who are willing to declare that enough is enough.

C.T.’s official mission statement sets the tone and the primary goal of these determined students: “We demand not to be coddled. Embracing the experience of unfettered inquiry and free expression is precisely the point of these years of intense study: to rigorously confront and challenge our most deeply-held beliefs, and to emerge from the experience as more thoughtful, informed human beings.” That, to me, sounds like a real college education. Imagine that!

In the days of His earthly ministry, our Lord Jesus walked and served among many who were marginalized by the mob in power. We could talk about the woman at the well, or we could talk about Zacchaeus the tax collector, or we could talk about many others. What we would discover is that the “mob” was often the self-righteous religious crowd. I mention that in the hopes that you and I will always stay humble in our cultural assessments. The problem is all too often us.

Perhaps the most powerful illustration of cancel culture in the Bible is the woman caught in adultery (John 8). I don’t know what Jesus wrote in the dirt before the woman’s accusers, but it was enough to convict the hearts of those who wanted her stoned to death: “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” We are not to cancel; we are to forgive. We are not to cancel; we are to show kindness and compassion. We are not to cancel; we are to give life to the canceled. Jesus called the canceled His friends.

I don’t like the cancel culture, because I care about truth. And I care about truth, because God cares about truth. My hypothesis is that the very best environment which we can create for the discovery of truth is an environment where every voice is heard. Honest and healthy dialogue and debate serve everybody well. I think that’s also the environment which is most respectful of all of God’s image-bearers.

Like Pontius Pilate, there will always be truth deniers, especially when it comes to the gospel. And it’s easier for truth deniers to cancel their perceived enemies than to be confronted with the reality of their own sin. This battle for the truth rages at a major international university, and it rages in our own backyards.

But canceling always backfires in the end. The tomb is empty.

Pastor Charles

For to the snow he says, “Fall on the earth” … (Job 37:6).

When God speaks the word, it snows. It’s just that simple. In this verse, the Bible is reminding us that the Lord sends to us the calm weather as well as the storm. The snow, like everything else, is God’s. Every snowflake leaves the heavens at His appointed moment. Every snowflake falls to the earth for His eternal glory. Every snowflake melts away, and returns to water the ground, at His divine command.

Perhaps the most obvious difference between the believer and the unbeliever is this: the believer looks at the forces of nature and praises God for His power displayed in and through them, while the unbeliever looks at the same phenomena and interprets them as random and meaningless. So, my point today is to urge you not to miss the absolute magnificence of this winter wonderland! It is happening all around us for the praise of God.

Expanding on Psalm 19, Jonathan Edwards expressed his own sense of wonder – while calling us to join him in it – like this: “The declaration of God’s perfections is mentioned in Scripture as the ultimate end of Creation. That is, the open display of God’s excellent works and ways is the happy result of bringing the world into being … ‘the heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge’ … this leads us to one conclusion: when God manifests his perfections and displays his attributes in the world, he does so for his own glory. This can only mean that the glory of God is the ultimate end of Creation.”

Frankly, friends, I’m sorry that our school-age children seem to be losing the snow day. Modern technology means that we can connect virtually regardless of the weather conditions, but please don’t put away the snow day on the shelf of history without at least a good fight over it. After all, there’s nothing wrong with pausing and enjoying – in fact, it’s entirely right to do so! I know that, for the adults among us, snow can mean scraping windshields and rescheduling important appointments. But don’t forget what it can mean for kids: the sledding and the snow forts and the snowmen and the snow cream! So get out there and dive in, if you can. As I said in my sermon Sunday: “We weren’t meant to Zoom forever.”

Please don’t be a deist. A deist believes that God made all things but then stepped back so that some things – like snowstorms – can just run their natural course without His intervention. Nonsense! God’s fingerprints are on every flake.

Johannes Kepler, whom we now recognize as the father of modern astronomy, was troubled by a fellow scientist who publicly denied the existence of God. This unbelieving scientist was like all other “unbelievers” – he simply believed in the wrong things. He contended that the universe came into being by itself, through simple mechanical means. Kepler, in an effort to convince his friend of the existence of a sovereign Creator, constructed an elaborate model of our solar system. The model was complete with planets and moons, and all of it circled the sun. As Kepler’s friend admired the impressive model, he exclaimed, “How beautiful! Who made it?” Kepler replied, “No one made it. It made itself.” His friend looked skeptically at Kepler and said, “Nonsense. Tell me who made it.” At which point Kepler made this simple but stunning observation: “Friend, you say that this little toy could not make itself. Yet it is but a weak imitation of this great universe, which I understood you to believe made itself.”

There you have it. It makes no sense not to notice God, when everywhere we look we see evidence of God.

But that’s not all. A snowfall is a glorious reminder of Jesus! The sacrifice of Christ permanently washes us “whiter than snow” (Psalm 51:7). Because of a blood-red cross, you and I are covered by a snow-white grace! So, as you look out across the snow-covered landscapes in your corner of the world, remind yourself of the good news of the gospel.

I am stopped in my tracks every time I hear Nichole Nordeman, or our First Baptist Paducah choir, sing …

And everything in time and under heaven
Finally falls asleep
Wrapped in blankets white, all creation
Shivers underneath
And still I notice you
When branches crack
And in my breath on frosted glass
Even now in death, You open doors for life to enter
You are winter …

So let’s all embrace it. Soon it will be spring. And we don’t want to miss now.

After all, y’all … what’s not to love?

Pastor Charles

You were probably as blessed as I by Toyota’s Super Bowl commercial featuring the impressive but humble athlete, Jessica Tatiana Long. Alexandra DeSanctis of the National Review called it “the most touching ad during the Super Bowl.” In terms of overall popularity among all of the other high-priced advertisements this year (the average was $5.5 million per 30-second spot, down just slightly from 2020), this particular ad earned the number-five spot when the evening was said and done. The ad’s punchline was this: “We believe there is hope and strength in all of us.”

In case you missed the ad, or in case you’re unfamiliar with the backstory, Jessica Long is a 28-year-old American swimmer who has won 13 Paralympic gold medals, making her the second-most decorated Paralympian in history. She and her brother were born in Bratsk, Russia, but were adopted by an eager American family from Baltimore. Jessica was one-year-old at the time of her adoption and then had to undergo the amputation of both of her legs, below the knee, shortly thereafter. The tragic amputation was necessitated by a complex medical condition, and more than a dozen additional surgeries have followed.

The 60-second game night commercial took us back in time to the events leading up to Jessica’s adoption, and it highlighted a conversation between Jessica’s adoptive mother and the adoption worker …

Caseworker: “Mrs. Long, we’ve found a baby girl for your adoption, but there are some things you need to know. She’s in Siberia, and she was born with a rare condition. Her legs will need to be amputated … her legs will need to be amputated … I know this is difficult to hear … her life, it won’t be easy.”

Mom: “It might not be easy, but it will be amazing. I can’t wait to meet her.”

(Charles chokes back tears.) We call that grace.

Jessica began her swimming career in the backyard of her grandparents’ home on Sunday afternoons. She ended up, for a season, in the same training group as Michael Phelps. That was under Bob Bowman, the head men’s coach for the 2016 Team USA in Rio. That same year, Jessica was quoted: “Winning gold medals is incredible and obviously it’s what I want to do, but there’s something so special about having a little girl who has just lost her leg from cancer come up and tell me I’m her hero.” And I’ll share with you another quote from Tokyo in 2020 because it capture’s Jessica’s indomitable spirit: “Every day, I walk with two heavy prosthetics. I may be a Paralympic athlete, but that doesn’t take away the fact that walking is hard. The water has always given me so much freedom. Since I was a little girl, the water has been this place in my life where I just didn’t feel the weight.”

There is probably nothing in the entire Bible that pictures the grace of God toward us more beautifully than does the doctrine of our spiritual adoption. IN JESUS CHRIST, you and I are given a new name, a permanent identity, a forever family, an inexhaustible supply of provision and protection, and an irreversible inheritance! And all of these things we simply freely receive from God. In this life, just like for a child who has been physically adopted, we may struggle with whether or not we are really that loved … can we really believe such good news? … but the truth is: yes, we really are that loved! You and I need to look no further than the cross. Lord, help us remember!

I would encourage you to read and to reread until you’re filled with joy, Ephesians 1:3-6. You and I are the handpicked, and unreservedly loved, children of the living God! We are the Beloved. And that unequivocal status of endearment can never be changed.

Here’s to the wonder of adoption! Here’s to the dignity of every life! Here’s to Jessica Long!

Pastor Charles

Some of this is quite graphic. For that, I apologize, but I want you to know what is happening in China. (This is not for your young children.)

I’ve been reading up on China’s internment camps, and – quite frankly – I’m having trouble sleeping. China’s northwest Xinjiang region seems to be the brutal regime’s center for its government indoctrination activities. I’m horrified by what I’m discovering. This unspeakable brutality is not limited to how certain Muslim minority populations are treated. Some Kazakhs (a Turkic ethnic group mainly in the Ural Mountains) and some Christian Uyghurs (mostly converts from Islam) are sent to these facilities as well, and I was surprised to learn that some members of the Han Chinese majority likewise are exiled to suffer within this sprawling network of “vocational training centers.”

I understand from reliable sources that other people groups are being targeted under the radar screen. We’re talking well more than a million people at this point, and you know as well as I that any publicized number from the communist government is grossly underestimated. What is happening is slavery and torture. All because any totalitarian government must stamp out every opposing voice, as well as any other voice which can’t be completely trusted for its total loyalty to the power at the top.

What most horrified me was taking into my own soul just how inhumanely the women and girls are regarded and treated. They are regularly, and often daily, left stripped of their clothing and handcuffed in their cells – while they await routinized rituals of gang rape. The assaults are not just physical, but they are intentionally mentally and psychologically torturous. The indoctrination is a total assault on the personhood of its victims, while the damage inflicted on our Creator’s image-bearers defies description. I won’t go into any more detail here, though I could, except to say that electric shock is used regularly to maximize the fear factor throughout the camps. It appears that the goal is, literally, to drive the dissidents out of their minds.

This is a human rights crisis if ever there were one.

How did China’s government land in this state of total moral bankruptcy? I think we need to think through our answer to this question thoroughly. If we don’t understand the disease itself, we’ll focus only on the symptoms. And, if we focus only on the symptoms, we’ll never discover the cure. China’s embrace of totalitarian brutality didn’t start in 1949 under Mao Zedong. More than a century earlier, the ideology of Karl Marx began to steamroll across the global stage. Marx absolutely loathed the idea of a free market. He contended that the market should be totally controlled by the state. Now, that sounds like amoral economic theory, but the reality is that the market – in the real world – includes the marketplace of ideas. That’s where this becomes more than a political concern, but a human concern.

In other words, if your desire is to completely control the market, then you have to completely control the thinking behind the market. You already know how well things worked out for Marx: a hundred million dead, entire economies collapsed, and entire communities destroyed. Similarly, Lenin believed that perfecting the government rested on one main issue: will the communists smash the capitalists first, or will it be the other way around? Because, in order for communism to prevail, you must have a ruling class possessing absolute power. That’s why democracy – and freedom in general – is an inherent threat to a totalitarian regime.

Rod Dreher makes a number of fascinating observations along these lines. One that almost made me wreck my car is this (I was listening to a podcast, so it’s not an exact quote): “When everything is politicized, you’ve reached totalitarianism.” Wow. Too close to home. Dreher believes that one of the reasons why Americans are susceptible to totalitarianism right now is because we have forgotten – or we are ignoring – history. But, and this is vitally important, Dreher also reminds us that “politics is no substitute for personal holiness.” What we need in our world, more than anything else is revival.

And that serves to remind me … as a Christ-follower, an amateur theologian, and a lover of the God’s Word and God’s world, I can’t end my analysis of any current event – in China or Possum Trot – with the events themselves, nor with a look at human history. I have to look even below that surface. If the Bible is to be taken seriously, then the ultimate ailment afflicting the human race is – and always is – sin. “All have sinned …” That would include the communists and the capitalists, and everybody in between, so you and I must keep our eyes on Jesus … lest we be blinded by our own false sense of self-righteousness. Let me say it absolutely clearly: I will advocate for freedom until my last breath, but the freedom I most need is freedom from sin and self.

When I think about the vast empire which is China today – and I have stood on the Great Wall and seen it with my own eyes – then I must see it through the tear-filled eyes of my Lord, who died for the Chinese people. Surely His heart breaks over these atrocities. Surely He is moving you and me to care, for such a time as this. The cure for hate is love, and there will be no love where there is no light. Here’s the miracle: despite the government’s insistence that there is no God, and its mounting persecution of believers, the church in China is growing! For this, we give God thanks and praise! Wherever there is the light of Christ, there is hope for people. Perhaps you and I will be praying for China like never before.

With you … for the global gospel,

Pastor Charles

I write these words on International Holocaust Remembrance Day 2021. Today marks the 76th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi German death camp, Auschwitz. Six million Jews were systematically terminated in 35 countries. Adding to the horror of that period, an additional three to four million people, whom the government deemed inferior and undesirable “enemies of the state,” perished at the hands of the Nazis. By remembering, we seek to do our part to make certain that no group of people is ever dehumanized to the point of disposability.

As Christ-followers who take the Scriptures seriously, an overarching and sobering doctrine never escapes us. We recognize that the intrinsic depravity of human nature tilts every chapter of history toward the basic disregard of human life. This sad reality is proven throughout the ages, from Cain and Abel in early Genesis to this year’s violence in our nation’s streets. It can feel overwhelmingly disheartening to consider the incredible cruelty with which people can treat others who are made in God’s image, while at the same time it inspires us to long for our Lord’s return to make all things right.

We ought to take the time to remember every genocide: the Armenians, the Cambodians, the Kurds, and so on. We ought to remember the atrocities of the Serbs, and Mao in China, and the Soviet atheists. We ought to remember Rwanda, and Darfur, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In examples large and small, the reality of humans acting inhumanely hits all too close to home. Solzhenitsyn got it right: “The line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being.”

And, friends, we ought to remember the American genocide of the unborn. Not six million, but sixty million. Consistent with the Bible’s warnings in regard to human depravity, the origins and history of Planned Parenthood are steeped in white supremacy and racial hatred. Pro-abortion advocates are forced to argue that human beings inside the womb are not people, and thus they attempt to reason that the legal termination of pregnancy is not genocide. But I have never read or heard a single cogent explanation as to how a human can be a non-person. Even our legal system acknowledges this inconsistency: when a pregnant woman is murdered, the murderer is usually charged with a double homicide.

My goal today is not to depress you, but to summon you to humble prayer. As a nation, we are a people in desperate need of the hope of Christ’s gospel. If hearts don’t change, behavior never will. And, as the church, we are a people in desperate need of the fruit of Christ’s Spirit. When it comes to the sanctity of human life, we will never change a single mind by browbeating or shaming. In fact, our desire should be to do neither. It is the kindness of God that leads sinners to repentance. You and I, as mere recipients of undeserved grace, must seek the Lord for the humility that we need right now. At this critical moment in history, we must embody the life-giving light of supernatural kindness amidst a culture that is increasingly blinded by spiritual darkness.

To defend the most defenseless among us will require a bold gentleness, a steady tact, and a pervasive winsomeness that aren’t naturally ours. But right now counts forever, so try we must. Perhaps remembering whose image we bear will be our most important act of remembering. So, please remember.

And, as you remember, may love and light be yours in abundance!

Pastor Charles

Today I want to take up the subject of the gray zone. No, I’m not talking about Chicago winters, which can seem to hang on until May – though I remember them well. Nor the world of law. And I’m not talking about the independent news website or anything connected to the U.S. Army. Nor am I intending to conjure up images connected to sports terminology of any kind. Instead, today I’m pondering those long spiritual seasons of waiting and wondering: “God, are You still there?” I call it the gray zone.

In the eleventh chapter of Matthew (check out the first six verses), John the Baptist finds himself in the gray zone. We believe that John was imprisoned in Machaerus, a fortress built by Herod the Great. You may remember that Herod had it in for John because John had called out the king for his sexual immorality. So John’s ministry lasted a short two years. The John who had enjoyed the privilege of introducing our Lord Jesus as “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world,” and who had experienced the special honor of baptizing Jesus as well, comes to the end of what he can understand. Think about that. John is so despondent over his unjust confinement that he sends a desperate question to Christ: “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” A heavenly window had been opened, and John had uniquely observed God the Father’s absolute approval of God the Son, but … by now … John is not so sure.

I’ll bet you can relate.

Technically speaking, Jesus answers John’s question by sending back to him Messianic quotes from Isaiah. Jesus confirms that His own ministry is perfectly in line with legitimate Old Testament expectations. But – here’s the part that I don’t want you to miss – not one of the words or actions of Jesus results in any change in John’s immediate circumstances. Think about that. The lame are being set free, miraculously, to leap for joy … but John the Baptist will remain behind bars. Let that sink in.

And then, the clincher: “Blessed is the one who is not offended by me.” Those words of Jesus are the equivalent of: “Blessed is the one who does not fall away on account of me.”

It would be easier – much easier – for us to accept this account if we could establish from the text that John’s own bad behavior had landed him in this predicament. But precisely the opposite is true. The following verses serve only to establish that John is a fine man, by any estimation. By Christ’s own testimony: “Among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist.” But the calling of John is to suffer in seclusion, and not even to understand why all of this is happening to him. My hope today is that you and I will crawl into the story, and recognize that there are times when our calling is precisely the same. The gray zone is, sometimes, our zone.

When we are waiting on some situation in our lives to change, and when it doesn’t seem to be changing, that is the perfect time for doubts to creep into our psyches. Second thoughts. Woulda. Shoulda. Coulda. Been there? John was entirely human, and that’s where he found himself: “I must have made some mistake!” Christ-followers must often walk through seriously dark nights of the soul, and at least some confusion is guaranteed. Some people report that their moments of doubting seem to have eased into days of doubting. But, sometimes, days of doubting can rush headlong into weeks and months of doubting. You get the picture.

But what do we learn from John? It might feel like a train wreck, even when I’m on the right track. This is where the rubber meets the road. This is where our faith is tested, and strengthened for the days ahead. This is where we lean not on our own understanding.

But, instead, this is where we know that our sovereign Lord is directing our path. He is always illuminating the way forward, but sometimes we get just enough light for the next half-step. God hasn’t promised us ease along the entire road, friends, but He has promised us all the wisdom required for the journey – if we will only ask. I’m just reminding you to ask. Right now. Ask.

Many years later, Corrie ten Boom would languish under the evils of the Nazis. She and the other members of her Dutch family had done the right thing: they had helped many Jews escape the Holocaust. But they had been caught, and it was in a concentration camp where Corrie would learn to trust the Lord. It was in the loss of every personal freedom that Corrie would come to understand the freedom of her own soul. No one could take away that freedom. And there, among the horrors of a godless and brutal regime, Corrie would learn to pray. She wrote: “The wonderful thing about praying is that you leave a world of not being able to do something, and enter God’s realm where everything is possible. He specializes in the impossible. Nothing is too great for His almighty power. Nothing is too small for His love.”

We know from the story of John, and from our own lives, that not everything works out according to our wishes. “Getting everything we want” would not be Christianity, but a genie in a bottle. But God’s Word reminds us that everything, ultimately, is working for our good and for God’s glory. I’ll take that over a genie any day.

In the Bible passage before us, I notice one more shocker from the lips of Jesus, as Jesus commends John: “The one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he (John the Baptist).” What in the world? Here’s what I make of that. Every follower of Christ – today – ought to know more than John ever knew. You and I have even greater spiritual opportunity than John. We have the fullness of the Biblical revelation at our fingertips, and we have 2000 years of church history to demonstrate before our very eyes the unstoppable faithfulness of God. We are His people! He has never left us. Nor will He leave us now.

With greater opportunity comes greater responsibility, so let’s get out there in this crazy world and make Christ known! At times, the gray zone will be ours to contend with, but you and I have an all-sufficient Light to lead the way …

Pastor Charles

As I write this on Wednesday afternoon, our highest leaders in government are considering the second impeachment of President Donald Trump.

“The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates are destroyed by fire.” I can’t help but remember the words of the report of his brother as it reached the ears of Nehemiah (1:3). In the very next verse, we read that the prophet did the only thing that he could do in the wake of such devastating news: “I sat down and wept … before the God of heaven.”

What you and I have witnessed over the last few days and weeks will likely disturb us for the foreseeable future. It’s time to weep before the God of heaven.

Nehemiah lived in a similar day. Everyone had contributed to the ruin. (And I’m sure that they were about as quick to own that, personally, as we!) There was much sinful behavior from which to repent. Everybody had disobeyed God, on multiple levels and in multiple ways. And the Lord, with a broken heart, had delivered the people into the hands of their enemies. At that point, the cultural erosion became undeniable and dramatic.

Precisely when a political situation degenerates into full-blown anarchy – in the strictest sense – I’m not exactly sure. But I am convinced, by Scripture and history, that Planet Earth has seen more than enough seasons of moral anarchy: “everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” The Bible tells the story over and over again. Trouble erupts. The people seek God. God delivers. The people rejoice. The people forget. Trouble erupts. Rinse and repeat.

So Hanani, Nehemiah’s brother, comes back to Babylon – the place of exile – with a burden for Jerusalem that is nearly unbearable for Nehemiah to bear. What Nehemiah does next is exceptionally instructional for us, if we will permit such instruction from God’s Word.

But, before I remind you of what Nehemiah did, I want to share with you some other options which are before us. They’re not good options, mind you, but they’re options.

1. We can abandon our distinctions. This feels like the easiest way out of a pickle. We can live according to the spirit of the lawlessness of our day. We can deny any accountability to a transcendent standard. We can embrace moral apathy. We can pretend that right and wrong are simply meaningless words and relative designations. We can declare that truth can’t be known or even found. We can become just like the unbelieving world around us. We’ll fit right in, like a hand in a glove.
2. We can abandon our responsibilities. This is a slightly different option, in the sense that we care – we can still get worked up by the newsfeeds on our phone – but we don’t do anything about anything. We just gripe and complain, and moan and groan, and chime in when the finger-pointing gets all hot and heavy. (Like now.) This is what you call throwing up your hands in utter defeat, for all practical purposes. Cheap talk. No action. No salt. No light. (Those are just too much trouble.)
3. We can abandon our convictions. After all, this God-thing doesn’t seem to be working out too well. Let’s just make man the measure of all things. That’s easier anyway. We’ll solve the world’s problems by human achievement, and by the incredible power of human reasoning – and human rationale. We’ll fix America by decreasing joblessness, and restriping our roadways, and inventing the next best smartphone. It’ll all be great. Just wait and see. We’ll bypass “we can’t consider God,” and go all the way to “there ain’t no God to consider.”

I think you can see that those three options aren’t so swell. We’ve tried them before, and they’ll work next time about as well as they worked last time.

Or … wait for it … we can abandon ourselves. That’s what Nehemiah did, and that’s what he led God’s people to do. Between “trouble erupts” and “the people seek God,” there is always a moment of “the people come to the end of themselves.” Friends, we ought not expect such a moment in our country, unless and until such a moment captures the church. Repentance always begins at home. And this time will be no exception.

Nehemiah fasted and prayed. Nehemiah listened for the promptings of the Holy Spirit so that he could keep his head on straight in a crooked generation. Nehemiah sought the Word of the living God and humbled himself before it. Risking his own life, Nehemiah laid down his plans and picked up God’s.

And one of the greatest nationwide revivals in global history was poured out upon a broken people. Who can do this? Only God. Only God. Only God. But you and I can hope, and pray, for this. Here. Now. God.

With a heavy heart, I hope.

Pastor Charles