Click here to to listen or download (Recorded live at First Baptist Paducah on April 27, 2014):

2014.04.27.GodOfGraceAndGodOfGlory.Exodus23to24.CharlesMoore

From Jacob to Jesus

Sometimes life lands us in strange situations. Sometimes we recognize our own contribution to the disorder; sometimes we don’t. So it’s always good to review in our hearts the absolute sovereignty of Almighty God, even over the messes in our lives.

If  some time has passed since you read the story of Jacob and Esau, you might want to go back and review it. “Then Jacob went on his journey and came to the land of the people of the east (Genesis 29:1) …”

Enter Rachel stage right. Then Laban, Rachel’s father. Then Leah, Rachel’s older sister. Jacob’s family will be quite colorful, to say the least. He’ll try to marry Rachel, only to get Leah first. In Chapter 30, Jacob will also father children by both of the servants mentioned in the text. Does the Bible condone multiple spousal arrangements? The short answer is “no.” But the Bible is incredibly candid. Rather than hiding the faults and flaws of its key figures, the Bible frequently shows us humanity in its deepest sin. The Old Testament includes polygamy involving even some of the patriarchs of Israel.

When God created the world, it is quite clear that He intended for marriage – which is His institution – to involve one man and one woman (Genesis 1 and 2). There was to be monogamy, and this the Lord declared “very good.” The taking of more than one wife was reported as early as Genesis 4:19, but it’s never described in a positive light. The problems surrounding such relationships seem to jump off the page. Genesis 30 is Exhibit A. In a nutshell, God’s communicating an event is not the same as God’s condoning an event.

In the New Testament – in First Timothy 3:2, 12 and Titus 1:6 – we’re told that a pastor-teacher must be “the husband of one wife.” The Bible likens the relationship of husband and wife to that of Christ and His church! In Ephesians 5:25-33, Paul explains this relationship and refers to Genesis 2:24 – the marriage between one man and one woman. But the Bible tells us the truth: Jacob married more than one wife. He’ll be renamed “Israel,” and he’ll have twelve sons and a daughter. So despite the sins of the characters, as well as those of the readers, we have an infallible guidebook in the Scriptures.

Back to Jacob. He’s not the firstborn son, and this is a big deal. (As firstborn, Leah had to be married before Rachel, but that seems peripheral to the story compared to Jacob’s lack of firstborn status.) The first belonged to the Lord. Not just the fruit of the fields, or the animals, but even the firstborn son (Exodus 13:2; 22:29) God reserved for Himself.

Jon Levenson of Harvard writes: “The iron law of primogeniture was universally practiced by all ancient cultures. It meant that the oldest got all the marbles; he got almost all the inheritance. If the inheritance was divided up equally, the family would lose their status in the community. Thus the firstborn got everything, and he had to be the benefactor for everyone else. The firstborn was the ultimate hope of the family.”

Here’s the biggest shocker in the saga: God chooses Jacob, not Esau (the actual firstborn). I suppose that I could say a number of things about this, but this first comes to mind: Our God is an equal opportunity scrambler! The one who thinks they ought to be on top doesn’t always end up on top. I’d also like to point out that God doesn’t treat women, or children, or slaves, or Gentiles, or outcasts (or whomever else) in the ways that we often expect.

So back to our story. Rachel is very beautiful. Leah is not. Leah is firstborn, but she’s not loved. And she knows that. Jacob is the cousin of both young women. He’s a man on the run because he’s stolen and cheated and made more than his share of enemies – including his own brother. Any blessing in Jacob’s life is simply because God has His hand of blessing upon him. Jacob falls in love with Rachel, not Leah. (Uncle Laban appears to be bit of a scoundrel like Jacob, but that’s another story for another day.)

Right after our first parents Adam and Eve sinned, God promised (Genesis 3:15) that a Savior would come into the world. But not just anybody could be that Messiah. God sheds more light as the Scriptures unfold. The Savior will come from the seed of the woman, and He will crush the serpent’s head. (He will ultimately conquer Satan.) He will come from the line of Shem (Genesis 9:26). He will come from the line of Abraham (Genesis 12:1-3, 7). This eliminates all other family lines as possibilities. He will come from the line of Isaac, and not Ishmael (Genesis 17:18-21; 21:12; Hebrews 11:17-19). He will come from the line of Jacob, and not his twin brother and firstborn Esau.

Jacob fathered twelve sons, but in the end eleven tribes will be eliminated as possibilities for the Messianic line. Only one tribe will remain, the tribe of Judah (Genesis 49:10; Hebrews 7:14-17).

Who in the world is Judah? He is the fourth son of Jacob. But not through Rachel. God’s firstborn will come into the world to save us, through Leah (Genesis 29:35). Leah was not Jacob’s first choice, but she was God’s first choice for this marvelous purpose. Proverbs 19:21.

Are you in a mess today? I’d say that you can trust Christ to redeem even your strangest circumstances. What say you?

Click here to listen or download: 2014.04.20.HeIsRisen.Luke24.CharlesMoore

Thirst No More

“I thirst.”

John is the only Gospel writer to record these two simple words (19:28). But can we possibly wrap our finite minds around such profoundly eternal significance? “I thirst.”

It is Good Friday. Our dear Lord Jesus is hanging on the cross where He will die for you and for me.

Of course He is thirsty! With a brutally mangled and bleeding body, having been forced to carry that cruel cross under the heat of the near-midday sun, Jesus had to pull His weight up the rugged heights of Golgotha. And reaching the appointed place of His execution, His hands and feet were pierced by brutal nails that would further terrorize Him by the ripping of what little of His skin was still intact. For three hours suspended with the pitiless rays of the sun beating down upon His thorn-crowned head. Hours that must have felt like days.

 “I thirst.” Trials of the soul dry even the body (Psalm 32:3-4).

There is almost nothing as terrible as this kind of thirst. People lost at sea will drink saltwater, knowing that it will kill them, just to temporarily experience the feel of moisture in their parched throats. In these and other kinds of desperate disaster situations, people will drink human urine. I’ve just returned from a part of the world where water means life, so I’m exceptionally aware of the power (and weakness) of thirst.  Here is a photo from our African village.

And here is the God of the universe that thirsty. Every detail of this has been foretold (Psalm 69:21): “For my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink.” John tells us that Jesus knew that He was fulfilling the promises of old. God’s promises. Can you imagine a love that would go this far? So far that Christ would concern Himself with the detailed fulfillment of Scripture at a time like this. And sour wine is exactly what Jesus receives. Something that doesn’t even satisfy thirst, but actually intensifies it.

The Lord God Almighty – “very God of very God” in the ancient creed – seen clearly now as very man of very man. Still divine, but stripped of glory, so that He could be perfect humanity for us. You and I better remember what our Christ willingly endured on our behalf the next time that we’re tempted to think that we shouldn’t have to suffer.

Christ bore our griefs, and carried our sorrows, and thirsted for us. Our glorious Savior, King, and Lord allowed Himself to thirst so that He could be the drink for that thirsty woman at the well. She didn’t even know that her soul was on fire, and that she was thirsting to death, but Jesus took care of her anyway. Amazing, grace.

Chris Tomlin expresses it like this:

“This dry and desert land
I tell myself, ‘Keep walking on’
Hear something up ahead
Water falling like a song
An everlasting stream
Your river carries me home.”

Jesus is our living water now. Christ is the Way for you and me never to know spiritual thirst again (Revelation 7:16). Drink of Him. Thirst no more.

We’re almost home.

Recorded live in the Great Room on Wednesday, March 09.  To listen or download, click here:  2014.04.09.MidweekDressedForSuccess.Session8.CharlesMoore

We’re home! Well, not exactly. Not quite heaven yet. But Kentucky is close. The Uganda Mission was a great success, and we’re as home as one can be this side of eternity.

Eileen and I have a dear friend in Oldham County named Loretta Trulock. Cross-stitched and hanging in Loretta’s breakfast nook are these words: “You never really leave a place you love. Part of it you take with you, leaving a part of you behind.” That sums up our situation rather succinctly. Our team flew home with an affection for Uganda that we’ll carry with us as long as we live. The Ugandans are beautiful people, and we could not possibly have been more warmly received among them. (I thought you might like to see a photo of one of our completed “kitchens.” The Mama of the family was so happy with her new place to cook that she danced and danced after we drove the last nail into the tin roof.)

Though English is Uganda’s official language, stemming from colonial times, we quickly learned that many Ugandans don’t speak a word of it. Especially in Southern Uganda, in and around the capital city of Kampala, some 16 million people speak Luganda – which is in fact the most widely spoken Ugandan language. The language is marked by subject-verb-object word order, and by notable distinctions between long and short vowel sounds. So a subtle shift of pitch on a single syllable completely changes a word. Needless to say, we did not return to you fluent in Luganda.

But despite the potential language barrier, Jason and I had a few opportunities to teach pastors and youth ministers. And our entire team was privileged to be invited to lead several evangelistic outreaches among the local schoolchildren. But mostly we just “loved on” the people. (See, Paducah is rubbing off on me. “Love on!”)

And we “loved on” each other too. You don’t share cold-water showers, small sleeping spaces, early mornings, strange foods, cramped vehicles, sweaty clothes, and stinky shoes without being tested in the category of “Love one another.” In John 13:31-35, Jesus declared such behavior the evidence of bona fide Christian discipleship. My feet may smell unpleasant from the heat and the dried African mud, but are you willing to wash them (as soon as we can find some water)? Jesus had just done that for the disciples, literally, when he told them what to do: “Love one another.” Christ called it a new commandment.

It wasn’t “new” in the sense that God had never before commanded His people to love (e.g., Leviticus 19:18), but I think it was new in the sense that Jesus would be accomplishing it through us! Christ is now our pattern for love (How do we do it?) and our power to love (How do we really do it?). So the secret to love becomes intimacy with our Savior and Lord.

What an amazing thought! That the King of the Universe – the infinite Creator of all that is – would seek to have such closeness with us that He would become the “love fuel” that we need. We love because we’ve been loved (John 15:12).

What prevents me from loving as I ought? Most notably, me.

C.S. Lewis (in Mere Christianity) diagnosed our love-problem like this: “A proud man is always looking down on things and people: and, of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you. That raises a terrible question. How is it that people who are quite obviously eaten up with Pride can say they believe in God and appear to themselves very religious? I am afraid it means they are worshipping an imaginary God … I suppose it was of those people Christ was thinking when He said that some would preach about Him and cast out devils in His name, only to be told at the end of the world that He had never known them.”

Life on the mission field does one thing well. It urges us to swallow our pride. Will you swallow yours with me, friend?

Then maybe we can look up. After all, the Kabaka is coming!

(Recorded live at First Baptist Paducah on April 6, 2014).  To listen or download, click here: 2014.04.06.UntilAllIsAccomplished.Exodus20.22to23.19.CharlesMoore

It was a great day.  Almost everyone has fallen into bed exhausted.  I finally took a cold shower when given the chance to get clean.  After less than three hours of sleep, some from our team led chapel at the school at 8:00 a.m. this morning, and we were all warmly welcomed by the children (with big hugs and ear-to-ear smiles).

After that I was asked to address a group of pastors as S.O.S. closed a two-day pastors’ conference.  I encouraged the men from Joshua 1. All day we visited classrooms and led activities or played with the kids at the academy.  We hosted a field day with great games on the lawn.  Squeals of delight all afternoon!  Lunch was prepared by the school staff on an open fire (there is no kitchen).  Beans, plantains, and something like grits were tasty and served with love.

Late afternoon took us into the villages for door-to-door outreach.  Tomorrow holds athletic outreach for men and agricultural outreach for those from the surrounding area whom we personally invited today.

There is much poverty, much family disintegration, and much sadness after AIDS has ravaged many of the husbands and fathers around here in recent history.

But our great God is at work and S.O.S. shines exceptionally brightly against such a spiritually dark backdrop.

Visit www.paducahmissions.blogspot.com for updates this week!

Exodus 20:1-21 “The Law of Love” (recorded live on March 23, 2014):

2014.03.23.TheLawOfLove.Exodus20.CharlesMoore

Lift High the Cross

“For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the  power of God.”

First Corinthians 1:18

The truths surrounding Christ’s cross are both historical and theological. Said most bluntly: Christ’s death at Calvary happened, and it matters. The “word of the cross” directly concerns the eternal destiny of every human being. Paul predicts that some will write off the good news as foolishness, responding in some form of “who cares what happened in some dingy place outside Jerusalem?”

You and I better care. The same gospel that many write off as folly ought to mean EVERYTHING to us! To borrow Paul’s exact language, we are “being saved” by it. And to steal from Fanny Crosby’s hymn, we have a “blessed assurance” here and now, but we also look forward to the completion of our salvation – which will mean dwelling in God’s presence forever and ever!

Why would anyone write off the message of the cross? Why would the world reject so hopeful a message?

1. It seems too simple to be of value.

Paul goes on to mention Jews and Greeks. Everyone seems to think that he or she is smarter than the old-fashioned gospel.

2. It’s inherently offensive.

Gross, bloody, gory. A brutal Roman execution reserved for the lowest of the low. Generally inappropriate for polite dinner conversation.

3. It seems like a weak message.

To the unbeliever, this strange “word of the cross” makes God look rather small. If this were God’s Son – if this were God the Son – couldn’t the M

aker of heaven and earth have stopped this from happening?

By contrast, you and I are invigorated by the same message! The Christian life can be very difficult at times, but we don’t grow perpetually discouraged because the gospel is still the best news we’ve ever heard! Just remembering those historical and theological realities re-energizes us at the very core of who we are!

We’re a bunch of flawed Abraham’s and cheating Jacob’s and imprisoned Joseph’s and stuttering Moses’s and adulterous David’s and uneducated fishermen and educated albeit murderous Paul’s. All saved by Christ. Made something of value by Christ. And that through His wonderful cross.

What seems to many like the ultimate ridiculousness and vulnerability is …

Our song of hope!

God’s strength magnified through our weakness!

The weak shaming the strong!

The low and the despised – like a “nothing” who would hang on a vile cross for crimes He never committed – somehow becoming a prize of eternal value!

Our sole accolade!

All of God!

All of Christ!

First Baptist Paducah, as we move into the season of Resurrection, will you be strange with me? Will you delight in a gospel so strangely wonderful? Will you incline your ear to hear the sound of a different Drummer, and dance to a tune that cheers the hearts of all who are Christ’s by grace?