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10/14. John the Baptist My first thought had actually nothing to do with the man but was instead a warm, comfortable feeling that comes to mind when I hear the word “Baptist.’’ I spent a lot of years worshipping in Baptist churches, and much of my evangelical bent comes from formative experiences in Bible interpretation and a broad hymnological history. Of course, Baptist as a denominational marker is gone along with Methodist, Presbyterian, et al, as part of an attempt to appeal to all by unbranding themselves and focusing on the core issue of man’s sin and God’s provision of salvation through Jesus. So, Baptist connotes much that is intertwined with my faith’s origins and development. But, back to the man himself, there is no one outside of Jesus, who had a more exciting pre-birth existence, from is call to preach repentance and to to proclaim Jesus’s coming, to being possessed of the Holy Spirit in his mother’s womb (Luke 1:15), to his leaping in his mother’s womb when a pregnant Mary comes to visit in recognition of Jesus’ presence. Fantastic. Unbelievable, yet true. Imagine, thinking of the times in your life when the Holy Spirit most powerfully worked in you. For most, those times are separated by their pre-conversion years and then afterward by fallow times, a constant spiritual life of peaks and valleys.. Now imagine John the baptist WHO WAS INDWELT BY THE HOLY SPIRIT WHILE IN HIS MOTHER’S WOMB! Then imagine if you can what his entire life might have been like for him, and finally what life might be like for us if we responded to being given the same Holy Spirit and much of the same mission.

9/23. Jonah I wrote a long response to this week’s reading, but Faithlife’s tempermental system ost it when a hair on my little finger touched something on the screen. So here is the abbreviated version. Like Jonah we may not all answer God’s call due to insecurity or fear that we may not be up to the task, or perhaps a distaste for the job itself. Nonetheless, commissioned we are to take the message of repentance and salvation to a pagan world. In a way, it is easier for us. We don’t need to get on a ship and travel into pagan lands hostile to the gospel. As the Bible prophesies, we have become more prideful and carnal, less Godly and less desirous of becoming so. We study and work and play and even attend church with non-believers. Although we don’t have to risk danger sea travel to reach distant lands, we are commissioned as was Jonah preach repentance and salvation to the lost and leave the results to God. (I presume we differ from Jonah in that we would be delighted if our efforts bore fruit through the Holy Spirit.) We none of us got belched out of the belly of the beast (the world) onto the safe shore of salvation for nothing. Though He delights in our personal salvation, the Lord, the Bible makes clear, has more in mind.

3/11 Nehemiah It was interesting that Nehemiah had never been to Jerusalem, yet he wept when he heard of the state of affairs from his fellow Hebrew Hanani: the wall surrounding the city had been decimated by foreign invaders and lay in ruins still. His response suggests that he knew the scriptures and that despite spending his entire life in Babylonsurrounded by idolators, he understood his position as one of God’s chosen people. Once hearing of it, he does not hesitate to seek King Artaxerses’ permission to go ‘home” and rebuild the wall, though it will mean walking away from a life of some privilege as the king’s cupbearer. Our book points out that the wall here may represent what it does in many places in the Bible—God’s protection through salvation. It seems that that must be how Nehemiah regarded it. If it were allowed to remain a rubble heap, every enemy to salvation could come in unimpeded and all would be lost. So, off he goes and despite reistance from local foes, he and his workers rebuild the wall with trowel in one hand and sword in the other. What a fantastic metaphor for what we must do! Surrounded by idolatrous nations, and living in an increasingly un-Christian United States, we must—if our sense of things is like Nehemiah’s—be in the process of rebuilding the safeguards against the forces of evil, ever on the alert for breaches in the wall of faith that protects us. And the key must not be missed: we must carry the sword of the Spirit, God’s Word, with us as we do the work, elsewise all will be lost. I pray that our country returns to that, but I fear that we are closer to Babylon than to revival. Still, are we any worse off thatn Nehemiah?

4/4 Ezra I have no trouble at all identifying with how Ezra felt when he returned to Jerusalem from exile and found the country, including even some of the priesthood, living in such disobedience and sin. I feel we are in a similar position in the United States today. Alvin Toffler wrote a book entitled Future Shock, in which he compared the title idea to culture shock—the disorientation we feel when we travel to a different land and do not recognize how it works since it is so unlike our own. He said that the pace of change has increased so much that we don’t need to go to another land to experience the feeling of foreignness; we need only look about us and see that everything we have known, believed, and valued replaced by something else. What normally occurred incrementally now happens overnight. We go to bed in one world and awaken in another. Like Ezra, I am heartbroken at the sometimes willful, but often careless, ditching of our country’s core values and beliefs. It is true in our politics, in our morals and ethics, in our relationships, and even in our churches. Who could have imagined that the country we grew up in would become in so short a time the country we now inhabit? In a real sense, we are in a foreign land because of our abandonment of God and His word. When we stopped reading it, we became prey to those who misrepresent it or to those who represent cults, or to our own desires and rationalizations that support them. I imagine that pastors everywhere mourn and weep at our loss. Lay people too. WE NEED AN EZRA. AND WE NEED TO JOIN WITH THAT EZRA AND RETURN TO OUR JERUSALEM, THE LAND OF FAITH AND OBEDIENCE THAT GOD COVENANTED TO US, AND WHICH, ESAU-LIKE, WE GAVE UP FOR A BOWL OF STEW. We are so prone to this immediate gratification and damn the cost mentality that we have lost all sense of our past and any concern for future consequences. Climate change? Pshaw. Hell? Phooey. Lots of the hymns that we no longer sing helped us to live with a greater sense of our spiritual inheritance. One that comes to minded contained these lines: “Faith of our fathers, holy faith, we will be true to thee ‘til death.” Another contained this chorus: “Hallelujah, Thine the glory. Hallelujah, amen. Hallelujah, Thine the glory. Revive us again.” I pray for that revival. Blessings to you, brothers.

2/4 Josiah Josiah is one of the few exceptions among the parade of evil kings in Israel's history. As such, it did not surprise me that both his father and grandfather were evil kings and that he would be followed by another evil one. It seems that the default king thing to do when taking the throne is to create spaces for the worship of false gods. Wonder why, as I do? There is no more power in being an evil king; a case could be made that there is far less. I guess a king may think, better that my subjects put their belief in false gods as they represent no threat to me, rather than to have them follow the true God who does. Perhaps it is just that Satan is at the ready to greet each new king with lies that appeal to the basest instincts of pride and greed and lust, especially as these are no ordinary kings but kings of God's chosen people. Whatever the case may be, Josiah's weeping when he hears the words from the Book of the Law that Hilkiah had found demonstrate his Godly heart. We could use such leaders today. I was also taken by the reward for his faithfulness: he is to be taken home before the horrible punishment comes upon unfaithful Israel! It stands as a powerful example of why, sometimes, "bad" things happen to good people. In this case, as in many I suppose, the "bad" thing is actually a blessing in disguise. I am so grateful for the Josiahs and for the biblical model of faithful obedience they provide us.

1/28 Hezekiah So much praiseworthy in this man that it’s hard to know where to begin! He is a great example of how a horrible and Godless parent, such as he had in his father, is not enough to prevent him from a life of obedience. His prioritizing the ridding Jerusalem of idols and reopening the temple above building up the city walls and restocking armaments in preparation for the coming assault—stands as a parallel to David’s seeking God’s will before going to battle. There is wisdom in knowing that without God we stand defenseless regardless of the size of our walls or armaments or bank accounts (or hands). And there is something quite wonderful in Hezekiah’s holy outrage in response to the sacrelige of insulting the living God, his shaking at the horror of the commander’s words. He is a great model to today’s timid church which stands largely silent in the face of God’s being demeaned by the world. Ultimately, Hezekiah’s example of unwavering faith, rewarded by the overnight defeat of 185,000 Assyrian soldiers while the Israelis slept, ought to motivate any believer to go all in. I liked the Proverbs 3:5 promise from Thursday on this topic. How many of our problems can be traced to a less than Hezekiah-like appropriation of its truths? How many to trusting in the Lord with only part of our heart (and in self or other things wth the rest); how many to leaning our own understanding rather than God’s word; how many to giving ourselves credit or simply taking blessings for granted rather than acknowledging Him? It is no wonder our paths meander as they do! May we all be more like this Godly example of faith this year and always, I pray. Blessings, brothers. I wish I could be with you tonight.

11/26 Naaman This is a pretty rich episode replete with useful spiritual insights. Naaman’s obedience brings about his cure from the diseases of both body and mind. His cure coming from his repeated return to the healing water mirrors our cure from Sin and worldliness through our repeated trips to the Living Water through prayer and Bible study. Yet while the spiritual truths regarding the named people in this chapter are obvious and well-amplified upon by Spangler, I am most taken by the truths suggested by the unnamed participants. A captured Israeli servant girl becomes the servant of the wife of the king of Syria%, and it is she who suggests that the great military hero Naaman go to seek out the prophet of God for healing. How likely is that? Her natural desire for his painful death for the pain he brought to her and her people is replaced by an old testament version of Christ’s admonition to love your enemies. Then, when Naaman finds Elisha’s servant’s message to wash seven times in the Jordan to be ridiculous, his unnamed servant encourages him to obey the instructions. Why should the servant care? Would not he be more likely to have wished to getback home himself and be done with this fruitless journey? These two anonymous servants are used by God to transform the pagan Naaman into a man who insists on carrying back Israeli soil to Syria because he will only offer sacrifices to the God he has come to know and to proclaim: “Now I know that there is no God in all the world except in Israel.” Naaman’s message would be powerful in scope due to his renown, but it never would have happened without the work God gave two people whose names we will never know this side of eternity. Are you not encouraged to know that God may use our faithful service to do great things?