Threads from Henry's Web

Author: henry

  • If You’re Nice, Diversity Will Take Care of Itself

    If You’re Nice, Diversity Will Take Care of Itself

    Bad Ideas I Learned from Good Leaders #2

    I’ve heard this one from so many people that I would hardly know who to blame for it if I wanted to blame someone. I’ve been told that if you will just be nice and positive, you can ignore the differences in your congregation and everything will take care of itself.

    This is incorrect. If you ignore the diversity that is present in your congregation, you will likely encounter a number of problems.

    1. You will find that people will have differing definitions of the boundaries and thus create conflict in the church unnecessarily.
    2. Different people offer different gifts, and if you fail to discover these gifts, there will be missed opportunities.
    3. Problems in the surrounding society may cause division in the church unnecessarily.

    If you don’t believe me on any of this, read 1 Corinthians. Here we have a church with division, and Paul tells them that God has brought them together from differing backgrounds, with different talents, and made them into one body with different gifts. Read especially 1 Corinthians 12. As a follow-up, read Romans 14, or even better Romans 12-14. (I’m not a good proof-text person. Read a few chapters!)

    Note here that I’m not talking about some sort of quota system or diversity inclusion. I believe in inclusiveness, but in this case, I’m assuming what I’ve seen in most churches, and that’s a variety of people already present. The problem is that they are carrying out a one-day-a-week religious program because the church has failed to incorporate them into a single body, the Body of Christ, to have an impact on their world.

    To accomplish this, it is necessary to actively acknowledge the differences among the members of the congregation. These differences should be recognized not for the purpose of a select group of individuals asserting superiority over others, but rather to appreciate the diverse gifts that have been gathered, value those gifts, and collaborate effectively by utilizing all available resources.

    Diversity in any organization is valuable. It allows us to accomplish things that none of us could achieve on our own. The problem is that many of us are so focused on our own strengths and weaknesses that we fail to recognize how others operate and what they can achieve.

    This could be as simple as finding the nerdy young person who doesn’t seem to fit in socially, but who, unknown to you, has a talent with electrical systems and would be able to run your sound system better than anyone else. That young person, being socially uncomfortable, is vanishingly unlikely to volunteer. They probably assume they’ll be pushed aside or ignored for no better reason than that they have been pushed aside and ignored over and over.

    This “different” person doesn’t need you to change their personality. They need you to let them be who they are and do what they are gifted to do. To do this, you need to have a clear understanding of what is a moral difference that is a standard for the church and what is a difference of personality. Too often, we treat Christian discipleship as a personality change.

    Don’t figure that you have to make the Jock do lots of hours of detailed Bible study. God may well have called them to a straightforward understanding of their faith and to be a good, kind, fun loving, and active person. And don’t expect the Nerd to be ready to engage in all those physical and social activities that you think are so essential to life.

    Oh, and don’t expect everyone who gets involved to be ready to serve on a committee. They might be quite willing to take direction but not to spend seemingly endless time discussing.

    In addition, there is value in being clear about the core beliefs of your church (or any other organization for that matter). This is not so you can go hunting for heresy. I recommend a short list of essentials, the common beliefs that unite this specific group. The purpose of clarity is to avoid unnecessary misunderstandings.

    Let me recommend a couple of books to help learn about and deal with diversity, whether in the church or in the community. I commend both of these books for making diversity a value rather than a burden to be borne or a duty to be carried out diligently.

    The first I already mentioned in the first post in this series, Perfectly Square by Dolly Berthelot. This book is short, illustrated, easy-to-read, and fun. It’s not particularly directed at churches. That’s a good thing. Your church is not perfectly square either. Church people are people. There are thought questions and discussion topics listed in the book. It’s good for group reading and discussion.

    It is also not a prescription for programs, but rather it is aimed at changing attitudes and opening up new ways of thinking about the differences we find all over.

    The aim is to recognize these differences and profit from them as a community rather than making them a cause of discord and division.

    The second is a book explicitly for church groups. I Know We’re All Welcome at the Table, but Do I Have to Sit Next to You? Now there’s a long title! But this book provides ideas and courses of action that a community group can use to begin to deal with those people we don’t want to deal with. The focus is on people and groups we may already have identified, probably stereotyped in our minds, and determined that we dislike or worse. How can you get back together.

    My suggestion here is that to really lead we need to learn how to work together, and use all of the diverse gifts and resources we have in our congregations in order to impact our communities.

  • Psalm 77:13 – Answering a Question about Translation

    Psalm 77:13 – Answering a Question about Translation

    I am frequently asked questions about the translation of a specific word, often because there is a difference in English translations. Frequently, the specific wording of a text means a great deal to the person who asked, as it may be part of the exposition of some other doctrine or chain of thought. Sometimes it is even a proof text to support such a doctrine.

    In this context, consider the translation of Psalm 77:13:

    Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary: who is so great a God as our God? (KJV)

    In the NRSVue, however, we read:

    Your way, O God, is holy. What god is so great as our God? (NRSVue)

    Presenting just two translations in this case may give a wrong impression. So running a list of all English translations available on Bible Gateway, I find that KJ21 (21st Century King James Version), ASV (American Standard Version), AMPC (Amplified Bible, Classic Edition), BRG (Blue, Red, and Gold-based on the KJV), DARBY, GNV (Geneva Bible), and KJV read “sanctuary” while most others read “holy” or something very similar.

    Let me outline the process I use (loosely) to answer this sort of question. What I am not going to do is simply give you my preferred translation.

    Differences in translation can result from:

    1. Differences in the text that is translated.
    2. Differences in approach to translation. Some common terms for this include functional equivalence, featured in versions such as the New Living Translation and Formal Equivalence, use in translations such as the New American Standard Bible and New King James Version.
    3. Choice of a different English gloss from within the source word’s semantic range.
    4. Accommodation, such as the effort to make Old Testament passages match New Testament quotations. This one is fairly rare.
    5. Different understandings of the context.

    I avoid the use of the term “translation error” unless there is simply no basis for that translation. I prefer to call an odd translation that is even remotely possible a difference of opinion and characterize it according to what evidence I see that would justify that translation.

    Let’s run through this one in order.

    People often imagine textual differences where there are none. This generally results from not understanding the process of translation in which many English renderings can legitimately be derived from the same text. Usually the problem is not finding a translation, but rather figuring out which possible rendering is best in a particular context. In this case, the fact that the versions that read “sanctuary” tend to center around the King James tradition might suggest such a thing, especially if one forgets that this is Old Testament, and thus the Textus Receptus vs other texts does not apply. In fact, there are no significant textual issues here.

    Also, all of the translations that read “sanctuary” lean toward the formal equivalence end of the spectrum, but those that read “holy” (or related terms) span the spectrum. This is not a difference in overall approach. There is also no New Testament quotation to which one might hope to accommodate the verse.

    This leaves us with a choice of a different English gloss, which might well be based on a different understanding of the context.

    In fact, the Hebrew word used in this passage can properly be translated either “holy” or “sanctuary,” and there are numerous instances of both in the Hebrew Bible. In fact, it may be used to refer to other holy objects or even sacrifices. If Hebrews 9 is a parallel to the LXX in this regard, it could also be regarded as a reference to just the first compartment of the tabernacle, though I think the overall context would be against that reading.

    As I read the Psalm we have a prayer that, after a first introductory verse, begins with a lament. God is not answering as was hoped, but in disappointment, the psalmist recounts prior acts of God and speaks of God’s greatness. This unfolds in two parts, the first affirming miracles, and the second point to God as savior, with the water imagery evoking both creation and the exodus from Egypt. We conclude with the victory, not in an individual way, but affirming that God has led and guided God’s people. We know that the psalmist’s prayer was answered because he affirms that in the first introductory verse.

    The most interesting contextual element in all that is that we have God’s way or path through the sea, which evokes the imagery of creation. So we have God’s way both in the Qodesh (holy/sanctuary) and in the sea within the same Psalm.

    The bottom line is that either translation is possible here and that the context doesn’t explicitly make one more likely than the other. I suspect most translators find it hard to connect God’s way and the sanctuary, whether tabernacle or temple.

    I would have to consider “sanctuary” a potentially valid translation nonetheless if we consider the cosmic quality of the sanctuary introduced in Hebrews. That would not be definitive, but looking at the idea of a new and living way which leads right to the presence of God, and which sees the sanctuary as a shadow of heavenly reality, divine movement in that heavenly reality is not impossible. If this were the idea here, I would see an intended contrast between verse 13 (14 in Hebrew) and verse 19 (20 in Hebrew) telling us that God has his path/way everywhere, in the chaos represented by the sea and the perfection represented through the sanctuary imagery.

    Having said all of that, the evidence behind my comment is far too thin to be regarded as more than suggestive. I do see a sanctuary pattern in the book of Revelation as well, however, which probably tends me to see it as a live option.

    (Featured image generated by Jetpack AI.)

  • Psalm 119:45 – Walk in Liberty

    Psalm 119:45 – Walk in Liberty

    So I will walk in liberty
    for I seek your precepts.

    I must credit Mitchell Dahood in his 3 volume commentary on Psalms in the Anchor Bible (vol 1, vol 2, vol 3) for the word “liberty.” I was struggling for a translation that I felt lived up to the context. I think that one does. Mitchell Dahood was an interesting character. One of my professors in graduate school said of him that he was right no more than 20% of the time, but when he was right, he was so right that it made up for all the rest!

    This verse seems to express a contradiction, or perhaps more of a creative tension between rules and liberty. We generally think that the more rules there are, the less liberty, and vice-versa. But the Psalmist here is talking about walking, i.e., living his life in liberty precisely because he seeks God’s precepts.

    Our problem as humans is that we (or at least most of us) want to be in control. Some people are very controlling, and we often call them control freaks. But there are very, very few people who actually want to be controlled by someone else.

    The experiment in the United States with prohibition illustrates a problem with such control. When you make a law banning some sort of behavior, it’s critical that most people believe that rule is a good one, one that should be enforced. In the case of prohibition, too few people thought it was a good rule and too many wanted to control what they were imbibing themselves. This sort of attitude makes a law difficult to enforce. (Note that I don’t consider this a full exploration of the sociology of prohibition. It is just one aspect.)

    Consider as an easier case the 55 mile per hour national speed limit. Enforcing it was massively difficult, especially in the wide open spaces of the mid-west and northwest. Many people thought in the abstract that it was a good idea, but when they got out on the road, they drove a great deal faster.

    I remember one occasion when I was on leave from the Air Force and was driving on I-80 through Wyoming. There are some really long sections where you can see for miles, and driving 55 mph was unlikely. My speed crawled up to 70 mph. Soon I saw those flashing blue lights in the distance and I was pulled over. I was concerned, because 70 in 55 is quite a bit over the limit.

    The trooper was a nice guy. He took care of identifying me, and then said, “Young man, would it be possible for you to see your way clear to drive just a little bit slower across my state?” I said, “Yes sir, I imagine I could.” He grinned, wrote me a warning, and off I went.

    Neither of us were really seeing my rule-breaking as all that bad. Yes, he wanted me to slow down, but if he was a real stickler for the rules, things could have gone much worse. He could also have said something like, “The limit is 55 mph you idiot, and you didn’t get to 70 mph by mistake!” But he didn’t.

    But there is a best way of doing things. There’s a “safest” way of driving, a healthiest way of living, the most productive way of working, and the most effective way of relating to one another.

    I think that’s what the Psalmist is thinking about. If I can get on the same wavelength as the creator of all of this, it’s likely I’ll find that place where I find the best balance between all the various factors of my existence, a place where I really have liberty, but don’t suffer from falling into stupid.

    I once participated in an online discussion in which a Canadian cop commented that if he could eliminate stupid and drunk, he’d be out of a job.

    How about aiming for eliminating our own versions of stupid and drunk from our lives by finding God’s best alignment?

    Some resource books on the Psalms:

    (Featured image generated by Jetpack AI.)

  • Psalm 119:44 – Keep it Forever

    Psalm 119:44 – Keep it Forever

    And I will keep your instruction (Torah) continually
    forever and ever.

    For another sense of Hebrew parallelism, note the short 2nd line here, “forever and ever.” This is parallel with “continually” and suggests a combined “all the time for all time.”

    If we hadn’t just read a number of verses in which the Psalmist expresses dependence on and trust in God, this would sound somewhat boastful. As it is, I read it as an expression of determination. Now determination is not, in itself sufficient, but there is nothing wrong with it when combined with the other expressions of the Psalm.

    Here we again encounter the Hebrew word Torah, expressing God’s instruction. Again, I’m reminded of the variety which is contained in Torah, when that is interpreted as the first five books of the Bible, a variety which is only increased if we see God’s instruction extending past those books. In just those books we encounter poetry, genealogy, stories of divine action, stories of human action, human faults and failings, divine interventions, moral laws, ritual laws, teaching about government, prophecy (in the predictive sense as well), visions, dreams, conversations with God, and case law. And I have doubtless missed something.

    I think as Christians we should think of how we should apply this. What is it that we are to do continually? I’d suggest that a great deal can be learned from Torah understood as the first five books of the Bible. But for us, the actions and words of Jesus are also instruction. Just as Torah goes way beyond a list of regulations, as important as those are, so Jesus goes for us well beyond a set of teachings.

    I think a critical question for Christians today is this: Can we live according to the teachings of Jesus? Continually? Forever?

    Perhaps we need to make a determination, as did the Psalmist. And don’t forget to put your trust in God for the fulfillment of that determination!

    (Featured image generated by Jetpack AI.)

  • Psalm 119:43 – Power to Speak Truth

    Psalm 119:43 – Power to Speak Truth

    Never take the word of truth from my mouth
    for I place my hope in your judgments.

    Tomorrow morning I’ll be leading a discussion of John Wesley in my Sunday School class. The notes in the book we’re using point especially to Wesley’s view of prevenient grace and to Christian perfection. It’s interesting to take these two points together as the key to Wesley’s teaching.

    The first deals with God’s action before we ever turn toward him. In a sense, you can think of prevenient grace as God’s call to us. It is important to remember that it is an act of God that takes place before we take any action, including taking any thought.

    The second deals with God’s action after we have received prevenient grace. It is the work of God in us to lead us toward and prepare us for his glory.

    There is a key point here that is often missed, and that is that both of these, not just prevenient grace but sanctification, are entirely works of God. I find myself in disagreement with Wesley when he suggests that one might become wholly sanctified in this lifetime. But it is wrong to suggest that Wesley believed a human being might attain sanctification. Were a person to become wholly sanctified, that would be a work of God.

    One of the interesting things about humans is our ability to hear part of a message. Sometimes there is a genuine misunderstanding. But there is also the possibility, even the likelihood, that we will hear the things that fit in with our existing perception.

    I remember once hearing a sermon which, in my view, strongly took a certain point of view. I heard this at the early service, and was teaching a Sunday School class immediately afterward. The members of the class were discussing the sermon and concluding something that the preacher had explicitly stated was wrong. In fact, most of the sermon was intended to say that was wrong.

    I went through a 10 minute explanation of what I had heard, following which one of the class members said, “Yes, precisely, he said …” and repeated the misunderstanding.

    This led me to wonder whether I had heard the sermon correctly. I had a chance to chat with the pastor during the week and I asked him. He affirmed what I had heard in the first place. Then he said, “You know, sometimes I wonder why I bother.”

    Now this is not about my great hearing. Rather, I was quite inclined to hear the message the pastor was presenting, while most members of the class preferred something else. Then they heard something else.

    For a modern view of Wesleyan holiness doctrine, read Allan Bevere’s short volume.

    We do that with scripture. This first, for example, is a balance of asking for God’s grace and favor while also pointing to ones own action. “I’m hoping real hard for this, like I ought to. Make it work!” It’s a very human prayer.

    But the easy thing to do with a great deal of Hebrew scripture is to hear what we expect to hear. We’ve been told this is all about rule keeping and our personal diligence in doing what God wants. As Christians, we look back at benighted writers of Hebrew scripture as not knowing about grace. But the writers of Hebrew scripture were well aware of God’s action and of the need for God’s action.

    We can come to Psalm 119 as a drumbeat of legal requirements and a super-pious, self-righteous expression of the wonder of all these rules. But that’s a bias of our superficial thinking.

    We generally like rules. We like to congratulate ourselves for obeying them. We like to feel powerful and express our personal sovereignty by disobeying them. We like to be in control of what we do about them. So we tend to read that into religious texts.

    But the Psalmist is very human individual looking with awe, hope, and wonder at a Creator God. He knows it’s God’s action, God’s life in him. I commend Psalm 104 as an indication of human dependence of God as understood in Hebrew scripture.

    Similarly, modern followers of John Wesley often take the doctrine of sanctification and treat it as a potential accomplishment of each person, and the attainment of it (supposedly) as a badge of honor and greatness. Getting into heaven is up to God, but being a good, church-going pillar of the community is an individual accomplishment.

    That’s false. The dependence on God starts not at birth, but at the first movement of the first subatomic particle that makes up part of your body. With the Psalmist, we put our hope in God and ask that God takes us to these places.

    Remember that whatever it is, it’s God’s.

    (Featured image generated by Jetpack AI.)

  • Psalm 119:42 – Whose Word Counts Most?

    Psalm 119:42 – Whose Word Counts Most?

    Now I can return my taunter a word,
    For I trust in your word.

    The lesson here is both simple and profound. Some of my background thoughts on it are in my post on Psalm 119:38.

    In Hebrew poetry, making a thought parallel by using synonyms is common, as for example in Psalm 119:30, “I have chosen faithfulness as my path. / I’m in place with your judgments. God’s faithfulness and judgments are placed in parallel in the verse. These words are not full synonyms, but they have overlapping semantic ranges, and combine to point us to some of God’s acts, and two aspects of them. Words may also be antonyms, providing a contrast or a more complete picture (what it is, what is opposed to it, or what it is and what it is not).

    This verse stands out because the same Hebrew word for “word” is used in both halves. To paraphrase: “I have a word in response to taunts, because my word comes from your word.”

    Let me point out a New Testament parallel to this thought. In the temptations of Jesus (Matthew 4:1-11, Mark 1:12-13, Luke 4:1-13) we find Jesus needing a word to respond to a taunter, in this case the taunter. Where does the response come from? From God’s word.

    Don’t limit this to quoting scripture. Filling your mind with scripture is good. But filling your mind with truth in all ways at all times is even better. Let your normal life parallel scripture. One thing I noted when studying other ancient near eastern literature as compared to the Bible was the fact that the Bible is perfectly willing to be critical of those in power. There’s no whitewash of God’s friends. They’re presented as they are.

    I was struck by this while listening to 2 Kings 15 in Audible the line in verse 5, “David did what was right in the sight of the LORD, and did not turn aside from anything that he commanded him all the days of his life, except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.” This is stated in the middle of a passage comparing the disobedience of King Abijam. That’s being honest about those in power, even when it would be more convenient to omit some things.

    How can you honestly reflect God’s word to others?

    (Featured image from Adobe Stock by Munali. Licensed. Not public domain.)

  • Psalm 119:41 – Grace, Rescue, and Response

    Psalm 119:41 – Grace, Rescue, and Response

    Let your grace (chesed) come to me;
    Rescue me according to your word.

    I’m sure you can see where the “grace” and “rescue” come from in my title, but what is this matter of “response”?

    We’ve already talked about grace and rescue, and will do so again before I’m finished with these verse-by-verse meditations. But what struck me today about this verse is its place in the Psalm and the nature of this Psalm as a whole.

    I’ve now written 40 of these meditations, 41 when this one is completed. That represents five sections out of an eventual 22. Each section contains eight verses, and all of those verses begin with the same letter of the Hebrew alphabet.

    English readers often get the feeling that Hebrew poetry is unstructured or undeveloped. This is because it is difficult to translate poetry from one language to another. It’s even more difficult when the idea of poetry in the two languages differ.

    Unlike English, rhyme is not common in Hebrew poetry, though both alliteration and rhyme occur occasionally. The key to Hebrew poetry is a parallelism of ideas and rhythm. The rhythm is next to impossible to translated, though some fairly credible efforts have been made by people with the right skills. Those skills are sadly not mine.

    Psalm 119, however, adds a structure in with these 176 couplets, divided as they are into sections and arranged according to the alphabet. Why do you do a thing like this?

    The answer, at its root is simple, I think. The psalmist is overwhelmed by the God of Israel who has provided a self-revelation, pointed to glory through laws, signs, and presence, and who leads toward glory.

    Most of us have ways in which we react to things that impress us. When that is favorable, we have ways of expressing that praise. This is not merely a religious thing. The psalmist is looking at a body of stories and laws that make up Israel’s Torah. Others might be looking at mountains, or beautiful animals in the wild (or in one’s home!), or gazing at the wonders of the universe through a telescope, or looking at the amazing things, living and otherwise, that are two small for human vision unassisted.

    What do you do when you see these things? Well, you can go to church and sing hymns or other songs of praise and worship. I imagine most of my readers find that to be a suitable response, as indeed do I. What I’m suggesting is that we look at what others have done or might do.

    1. Like the psalmist, we might write some incredibly complex and interest poetry suitable for reading, singing, or deep study, an offering of one’s best to the Lord in written form.
    2. Or one might take impressive photographs with an eye for a scene that nobody else imagines.
    3. One might go out and serve others, helping maintain the order and structure of society, for example as police officers, court officials, or military personnel.
    4. A scientist might observe and structure the data into valuable theories, useful for predicting other results, publishing them in often very obscure journals, known by only a few.
    5. An engineer might take those theories and turn them into technology, such as medical devices, aircraft, spacecraft, or even better telescopes and microscopes for someone else to use in greater learning.
    6. Someone else may choose to teach, helping to guide God’s children into better ways of living in God’s world.
    7. A fiction writer might fashion a story of the imagination, opening up vistas of thought.
    8. A mathematician might work out a complex formula, pages filled with symbols and figures.
    9. A musician might represent the glory he can just barely see with sound, lifting our hearts and minds higher through this sound.

    The very nature of this response is challenging.

    I’ve been asked many times why it was that I memorized Psalm 119 as a child. The bottom line is that I had to do it. It was a requirement. But the next question is why, having been forced to memorize it, I still like it, even love it. “All that dull repetition! How can you stand it?”

    For me, it’s because, having spent time memorizing, then studying this Psalm, first in English, but later in Hebrew, I have found it to be an amazing work of literature. It reflects someone’s love and appreciation, but also their hope. Someone is looking for higher ground and this is how that someone presents it.

    I’m grateful for the Psalm. I’m enjoying meditating on it. I’m enjoying that various trails it suggests to me that are outside its actual structure.

    How will you express your response to the beauty that there is around us?

    (Featured image is from Adobe Stock by ckybe, licensed, not public domain.)

  • Psalm 119:40 – Grant Me Life

    Psalm 119:40 – Grant Me Life

    I long for your precepts.
    By your righteousness give me life.

    I spent a good deal of time thinking about the phrase “by your righteousness.” It could be understood in a number of different ways. Two of these would be “in your righteousness” and “with your righteousness.” The second of these might lead Christians into a discussion of imputed and imparted righteousness. I’m not going there.

    It seems to me that we find it easy to deny God’s promises by using our theology. As we figure out how God works, we tend to add in many derived ideas about what God can and can’t do, or if we’re being more theologically orthodox, what God will or will not do. It’s very easy to reduce God to a manageable size as we figure out just how God accomplishes things.

    The psalmist has the right idea here. Simply ask the righteous God for life, righteous life, produced by a righteous God.

    I can’t understand the process. I have ideas. I prefer certain explanations to others. But I think this verse makes a pretty good prayer. “I want the life you offer Lord. Please give me that life.”

    I’m making that my simple prayer for 2025.

    (Featured image generated by Jetpack AI, then modified slightly by me.)

  • Psalm 119:39 – Taunts and Shame

    Psalm 119:39 – Taunts and Shame

    Turn away from me my reproach
    which I fear
    for your judgments are good.

    You’ll find lots of translations for the word I’ve translated as “reproach” if you compare a few versions. That’s because it’s a word with a good range of meanings and the verse doesn’t help a great deal with the context. For example, is the reference to one’s own shame, or is it about taunts (thus REB) that others throw one’s way?

    I didn’t stay very tethered to the text in my meditation. I don’t know which the psalmist meant, assuming he didn’t mean multiple things at once. Poetry is such that it can leave you thinking. To good effect!! I chose to think about two meanings, and some connections between them.

    When I talk to people about sharing their faith, I find that the most common reason people don’t want to talk about their faith is that people may taunt them about it. Alternatively, they may be offended. I teach gentleness in sharing one’s faith, with the intent that people are not offended at you and your behavior, but if offended, are offended at the message. Yet this fear is real.

    My first tendency is a bit of taunting of my own. “Just to think,” I say, “that Christianity has developed from the point where adherents faced hungry lions in standing for their faith to the point where we’re afraid that people will tease us!” That’s a bit of rude behavior on my part, because the fear of ridicule is very real. Further, comparing troubles, as in “there’s someone suffering more,” is an endless and futile endeavor.

    People differ in how they endure reproach or ridicule from others. When someone tells me that I need my Christian faith because I’m too weak to stand up to the world on my own, I tend to say, “Just so! I’m glad I have it!” But that is a characteristic of my personality and not a sign of superior spirituality.

    The reality is that standing up to ridicule requires that we have a firm sense of our own identity. Too often, we are finding our identity in our strength of character, our accomplishments, our wealth, our intelligence, our wisdom, our physical prowess, our ancestry, or any of a number of other things. When a taunt, such as “you’re weak, so you need your imaginary friend to help you, just like a child” comes our way, it hurts very deeply, because part of our identity is as someone who has a strong character and doesn’t depend on imaginary friends or carry blankies to make us feel better.

    While my answer comes from a personality that has contempt for people who make this variety of insults–I seriously consider them to be weak personalities who need to put someone down in order to feel adequate–it’s also what I believe is the correct answer.

    The thing that takes away the reproach is an understanding of one’s own identity. My “imaginary friend” and I are getting along quite well thank you. In fact, I find my identity, my reality even, in that “imaginary friend.” I don’t require you to believe in him. I will let you know that I do, but what you do with that, including any taunting you find necessary, is up to you.

    For the joy set before him, Jesus endured the cross and despised the shame, and sat down at God’s right hand (Hebrews 12:2, my paraphrase and emphasis). And as I quoted yesterday, “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27).

    As in our verse today, it is God who can set aside that shame, and it is God who is capable of being gracious, merciful, and just, all at the same time.

    I don’t do New Year’s resolutions, but there’s an action you can take right now as a Christian. Don’t just brush aside or patiently endure the shame. Despise it. Be who your are in Christ.

    There’s an extract from my book Not Ashamed of the Gospel: Confessions of a Liberal Charismatic on this topic you might enjoy reading.

    (Featured image generated by Jetpack AI.)

  • Psalm 119:38 – Raise Up Your Word

    Psalm 119:38 – Raise Up Your Word

    Carry out your word to your servant,
    the one who fears you.

    The Hebrew word I translate “carry out” carries a variety of freight in a variety of uses. One option is simply to build and establish. I might loosely render it as “Make your word real.”

    As I study and meditate on scripture, I find more and more that it’s God’s word coming and going and everywhere in between. I think this verse can become a very important and powerful prayer. I don’t mean powerful in the sense of bolts of lightning and claps of thunder, or mountains moving around. Well, at least not in the short term!

    I mean it is a fundamental prayer. In creation God spoke (Genesis 1:2). The heavens were made by God’s word (Psalm 33:6-9). God’s word goes out and does not return empty (Isaiah 55:10-11). It’s the call for God’s creative word to be in control.

    I’m reminded of Hebrews 4:12-13, which starts with “the Word of the God is alive and active” and ends with noting that all is laid bare to the one to whom we must give account. What’s lost in many English translations is that the “Word” of the first clause is the same Greek word as the “account” of the final clause.

    Now many commentators see this differently, saying the two word uses are unrelated. I disagree. I see here this prayer, to raise of God’s word (or promise), and to do so to the one who fears God.

    What does God’s Word discover when looking inside to see everything that is there? What is our account to God?

    I’d suggest that this is to be the Word of God, taken in. For us as Christians we say that we are in Christ and Christ is in us. “… [T]o whom God desired to make know the riches of the glory of this mystery among the nations, which is Christ in you all, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27).

    It is God’s Word, which is presented in many ways, but comes from and points to the creator of all things. This is what is to be seen when all is laid bare before God’s Word. That burns away the “scary” part of the fear of God and leaves the awe, wonder, and indeed warmth.

    Word of God, speak to me!

    (The featured image for this post [not the one immediately above] was generated by Jetpack AI.)