ReveFlection

 

Hey, Cobblestone,

     So here we are, arriving at the second “bookend” of the Bible. I’ve written to you about the bookends before. In the first three chapters of Genesis, Scripture gives an account of creation, the rise of the deceiver, and the fall of mankind. At the other end, the last three chapters of the Revelation spell out the destruction of the deceiver, the restoration of mankind, and the fulfillment of creation. Neatly bracketed between “In the beginning” and the last “Amen” is what we know as time. In our Bible reading plan over the past two years, as a church together we’ve encountered what was, what is, and what surely is to come. What now?

     In the wilderness, the Israelites didn’t have churches or classrooms. What they did have was God’s words delivered faithfully by his prophet Moses. And as Moses was reaching the end of his journey, knowing his kinsmen would go on without him, he was compelled to say, “And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise” (Deuteronomy 6:6-7).

     Fifteen centuries later, also in the wilderness, Jesus chose to go without food for forty days. What he chose to not go without was what it took to win the battle with temptation: “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God’” (Matthew 4:4).

     Our century is a scriptural wilderness. For all the agility of the Information Age, Scripture won’t be easier to run into, but harder to sort from the clutter. My dad, who was born in the first year of the Great Depression, called his physical experience “starving to death in the land of plenty.” And so it goes. No one will be heaping Bible truth on us accidentally; we’ll have to harvest it on purpose – just like all of our forbears, including Jesus, and all believers who will come after us.

     Over the past 116 weeks I’ve written 106 letters to you, dear Church, that have tracked our Bible reading plan. I got a head start in September of 2020, and took ten liberties at various times in the twenty-seven months from then until now. For about half a second one day last week, I felt a twinge of panic: From what shall I write?! There’s no Bible reading plan!

     Sure there is: This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success (Joshua 1:8).  

     If you haven’t followed the reading plan diligently, relax. The Book is still available to you. And to me. And I promise to not let it depart from my mouth. The evidence will show up in what comes off my keyboard and into your inbox – or wherever else we may encounter one another. The wilderness need not overwhelm us. We can indeed overcome and have good success.

     Jesus said, “The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life” (John 6:63). There is no other source. Never has been. The Lord has spoken into what was, what is, and what is yet to be. We’ve arrived again at the description of what will be without knowing when that future will manifest as the present. And that’s OK. We know his words are true. We know his words are spirit. We know his words are life.

     And frankly, I enjoy seeing our adversary – that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world (Revelation 12:9) – as an already-defeated enemy. All glory to our Lord and King, Jesus Christ the conqueror, amen!

  

Grace and Peace (and the joy of anticipation),

 

John    

Alternatives, Part 2: The End, and a New Beginning

 

Hey, Cobblestone,

     Last week we considered some alternatives to the real history described in Scripture. I turned familiar passages inside out to demonstrate what reality might have been if certain events had gone differently. I asked the Lord’s permission, and gave a crystal clear disclaimer up front – every change I made was pure fiction – all for the purpose of highlighting the glory of what actually happened. Today we move past the alternate beginning and middle of last week to imagine an alternate ending.

     What if the Lord God hadn’t blocked the way to the tree of life in the garden of Eden? Mankind would have been locked eternally into a state of separation from our Maker. What if Jesus had arrived in Bethlehem, had grown strong and become filled with wisdom, only to find mankind in such a state – in need of a Savior but unable to benefit from salvation? An alternate beginning and middle would produce an alternate ending, wouldn’t they? What might the other ending be?

     Then I heard a loud voice from the temple telling the seven angels, “Go and pour out on the earth the seven bowls of the wrath of God.”

So the first angel went and poured out his bowl on the earth, and harmful and painful sores came upon the people who bore the mark of the beast and worshiped its image.

The second angel poured out his bowl into the sea, and it became like the blood of a corpse, and every living thing died that was in the sea.

The third angel poured out his bowl into the rivers and the springs of water, and they became blood. And I heard the angel in charge of the waters say,

“Just are you, O Holy One, who is and who was,
    for you brought these judgments.
For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets,
    and you have given them blood to drink.
It is what they deserve!”

And I heard the altar saying,

“Yes, Lord God the Almighty,
    true and just are your judgments!”

The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and it was allowed to scorch people with fire. They were scorched by the fierce heat, and they cursed the name of God who had power over these plagues. They did not repent and give him glory.

The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and its kingdom was plunged into darkness. People gnawed their tongues in anguish and cursed the God of heaven for their pain and sores. They did not repent of their deeds.

The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up, to prepare the way for the kings from the east. And I saw, coming out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs. For they are demonic spirits, performing signs, who go abroad to the kings of the whole world, to assemble them for battle on the great day of God the Almighty. (“Behold, I am coming like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays awake, keeping his garments on, that he may not go about naked and be seen exposed!”) And they assembled them at the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon.

The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple, from the throne, saying, “It is done!” And there were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, and a great earthquake such as there had never been since man was on the earth, so great was that earthquake. The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell, and God remembered Babylon the great, to make her drain the cup of the wine of the fury of his wrath. And every island fled away, and no mountains were to be found. And great hailstones, about one hundred pounds each, fell from heaven on people; and they cursed God for the plague of the hail, because the plague was so severe (Revelation 16).

     Did you notice? I didn’t change a thing. What you just read was, straight up, the sixteenth chapter of the Revelation of Jesus Christ. The only thing “alternative” about what is described therein is, without a Savior and a way to benefit from his atoning sacrifice, Revelation 16 is the necessary outcome for all mankind. God’s wrath will have to be poured out completely. Without a plan of salvation, which must include something for mankind to be saved from, there could be no other ending. In the fullness of time, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit would have stepped back from the windowsill of heaven, said, “Gee, that didn’t work out well for them,” and continued enjoying one another’s company – without redeemed humanity.

     Enough of the alternates; here are the actuals:

    Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near (Revelation 1:3).

And I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” “Blessed indeed,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them!” (14:13).

“Behold, I am coming like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays awake, keeping his garments on, that he may not go about naked and be seen exposed!” (16:15).

And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God” (19:9).

Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years (20:6).

“And behold, I am coming soon. Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book” (22:7).

Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates (22:14).

     While the sting of the very first sin was still being felt, the Lord God promised a Savior. Then he blocked the way to the tree of life, ensuring that Jesus would be the only Way back. Finally, God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2Corinthians 5:21). We would never, given all eternity, have thought of this on our own. Many are the plans in the mind of a man, Proverbs 19:21 says, but it is the Lord’s purpose that will stand. Never would mankind have chosen such an unlikely path to blessing.

     How many will be redeemed? At this point in history, we can only be sure the full number has not yet been reached, and even when it is, according to Revelation 7:9, no one will be able to number the great multitude. Among the redeemed so far, our job is to invite the not-yet-redeemed into redemption, and trust God with the numbers.

     Over the course of my lifetime so far, I’ve come to see that the hardest people to reach with the gospel of Jesus are the ones who are convinced they are least in need of salvation. The illusion of self-sufficiency – a self-saving, self-redeeming mirage – makes a stubborn resistance to receiving the atoning work of Christ. Alternates abound, all in futility.

     Maybe the Spirit of the Lord is compelling you these days to erase the alternates in the lives of the unsaved souls you know and love. He’s certainly compelling me. Jesus is the Way to blessing – plague and destruction await all travelers of all other paths. For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord” (1Corinthians 1:26-31).

     The Lord’s purpose stands… then, now, and forever more.

 

 Grace and Peace (on purpose),

 

John   

Alternatives, Part One: Beginning and Middle

 

Hey, Cobblestone,

     When my kids were in grade school, I noticed some of their story books to come with alternate endings. Goldilocks made the beds and paid for the porridge; the big bad wolf stayed in-character as Grandma, and enjoyed Little Red Riding Hood waiting on him hand and foot – well, until Grandma got home from Las Vegas, at which point, um, stuff got real. In fiction, it’s an intriguing idea, and no harm done. Even lately, Kay and I saw a movie at the theater that left a big chunk out of the story, so I wrote the missing chunk. And for a few weeks now, I’ve been intrigued all over again by the idea of alternate endings. Let’s try one, shall we?

     Sometimes, the best way to see the beauty of what’s real and true is to consider what kind of alternate reality might have formed on the weight of a few What-If’s going a different way. We’re going to step out of fiction for our experiment and into reality, into Scripture. I’m going to rewrite some familiar passages (those rewrites will be fiction… nobody’s pretending to be a prophet here) to emphasize the glory of what actually happened. Not only that, but we’re going to rewind to the front and craft an alternate beginning and alternate middle; next week’s letter will be the alternate ending. Stay tuned. Meanwhile, see the passages below, labeled “Actual” and “Alternate.”

     Opening a real and faithful Bible, you’ll see the Fall of Mankind narrated in the third chapter of Genesis. You know the story: the serpent deceived the woman, who ate fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and gave some to her husband who was with her, and was witness to all that was happening. In an instant, they understood sin and shame, and hid themselves from the Lord God when he came to meet them in the garden. Let’s pick it up from there…

Actual:

    But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate”… Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life. (Genesis 3:9-12, 22-24… really).

 Alternate:

    But the Lord God called to the man and said, “Come out of the bushes, Adam. I saw what you did.” And the man said, “You saw that?” “Sure I did,” the Lord God said, “and it’s OK, little fella. Everybody messes up now and then. Here’s whatcha need to do: grit your teeth and try harder to do better. That thing a little while ago, that was Strike One. With any luck, you’ll see the error of your ways and we won’t have to have this talk again… So the Lord God floated off into some remote corner of the garden and left the man and his wife standing in the midst, feeling silly in their fig-leaf loincloths, staring at two trees: one was a delight to the eyes, and the other would make them live forever. They looked at each other and uttered the same words in the same moment: “What now?” (Genesis 3:9-12, 22-24… not really at all).

     It stands to reason that an alternate beginning will produce an alternate middle…

Actual:

    And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord… And the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom. And the favor of God was upon him… And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.” And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 2:6-11, 40; 4:17-21, really).

 Alternate:

    And while they were there, shivering in the stable because somebody forgot to make reservations at the inn, she gave birth to her firstborn son… And the child grew and was filled with wisdom and became a really sharp observer of human nature… And the scroll of the prophet Lamech was given to him, but he rolled it back up and said, “Y’all are a hot mess.” Whereupon, Jesus caught the next rope ladder back to heaven, and rolled it up behind him (Luke something-or-other… not even close).

     The second most wonderful thing the Lord God has done for the human race, so far, was to expel the first two humans from the garden of Eden and block the way to the tree of life. Would you like to take a guess at the first most wonderful thing? Feel free. They’re related. Meanwhile, the next time we’re thinking the punishment in the garden way overshot the crime, let’s think also about a reality in which Adam and Eve – and all of us their descendants – have been left eternally reaching for our own bootstraps, eternally deluded in thinking we could tolerate being without the love and help of the one who made us. It’s been a long and winding road, east of Eden – that much is true. True, also, that every turn, no matter how disorienting it may seem to us, has been crafted to take us back to the tree of life.

     Next week we’ll take a stab at an alternate ending, laying the alternatives alongside the actuals. Lord, help us to find…  

 

 Grace and Peace (in the actuals),

 

John    

 

 

Faith Does, Part 4: It's Personal

 

Hey, Cobblestone,

     Mercy works. Mercy gets stuff done. While judgment is holding forefinger-to-chin, pondering the ethical ins and outs from a safe distance, mercy gets smack in the middle of whatever the heck is going on. Mercy is powerful. So powerful that the apostle James says, Mercy triumphs over judgment (2:13). If you ever see mercy and judgment in a tug of war, put your money on mercy.

     In our church, there’s a whole category of ministry called Mercy Works. It’s a handy term. It’s also a complete sentence – subject and verb only – and sentences don’t get any simpler than that. And that’s how we try to keep the work: simple.

     About two years ago I taught a series of classes to some Cobblestone folks who were interested in becoming Mercy Work-ers, whether through the church or wherever their travels would take them. At one point I asked the class why Christians in particular should be doing works of mercy, rather than leaving those works to better-staffed and better-funded government agencies. One dear friend piped up right away, “It’s impersonal – through the government, it can’t be personal.” Exactly – that, plus, Christians have the indwelling Holy Spirit, a necessary condition for doing mercy right. As personal as God gets by dwelling in his people, they also are called to get eye-to-eye and heart-to-heart with whoever they serve.

     So… Cobblestone, it’s time you meet The Crew – in particular, the Saturday morning men’s group crew. As often as we can, we visit orphans and widows in their affliction (James 1:27). Those visits almost always involve tools and materials – whatever it takes to undo some of the affliction. We sweat, we get tired, we strain muscles – and gain satisfaction in our work. There’s no substitute for being right-the-heck there, where mercy happens. And when it comes to simple… well, they don’t come any simpler than us.

     These brothers are my pride and joy at Cobblestone, and some of my very favorite people to hang out and work with. They naturally get one of the core aspects of mercy: Mercy separates the effect from the cause, for an appropriate amount of time. They don’t get paralyzed in philosophizing: “Well, (so-and-so) shoulda done (this or that),” or “Why doesn’t (somebody) do (something)?” They understand that if a particular person is going to be warmed and filled (James 2:16) rather than being left poorly clothed and lacking in daily food (verse 15), they’re going to have to invest some of their own energy. And so we work. With trucks and trailers and hammers and saws we hack away at the wilderness, hoping, in the Lord’s strength, to make a way where there was no way.

     But we’re old. Really old. The median age of The Crew is well north of sixty, which doesn’t sound so old if you spend a lot of time hanging out at Social Security offices. But typically, people half our age do the stuff we do. During a household move back in September, we were taking a refrigerator up a flight of stairs (because UP is the only direction refrigerators go!) when I noticed that the four of us on the appliance had a combined life experience of over 250 years. “Oh, Lord,” I prayed, “that’s way too much!” Now, accumulated skills (tricks, actually) help us accomplish the improbable with great regularity, and I love when people come around and see the old guys killin’ it – but on some jobs, I’m not quite sure who’s killing who.

     So this week’s letter from your pastor/carpenter/landscaper/roofer/furniture mover is an unabashed recruiting effort. We need muscle, flexibility, stamina – in a word: youth. I’d like to not have to take a defibrillator to the jobsites with us. (I don’t, actually… but, um… hmm.) I’m looking to add a few to the crew. Not a lot – I’m no good at leading a lot – but a few.

     The qualified applicant will have the first inkling of an idea what James was talking about when he said mercy wins over judgment. Benefits include: learning some skills from the old far… um, fellows; tips on how to survive and eventually succeed in jobsite humor; time-and-a-half on Saturdays (1.5 x 0 is still 0); and a bottle of Gatorade from the cooler if Rich doesn’t get it first. The greatest benefit, of course, is making it personal, and being precisely at the point where mercy works.

     Since so much of our work is outdoors, we’re going into the slow season. This is the time of year I ask the other elders at Cobblestone to keep an ear to the ground, seeking out needs in our church so I can get work onto a schedule that makes sense. Over the winter we’ll spend more Saturday mornings dropping donut glaze onto our open Bibles, so you have some time to ask the Lord if this is something he wants you to do. This past spring-summer-fall, there were Saturdays when we split the crew across two, or even three, jobsites; when the weather breaks in Spring ’23, I’d love to do that even more.

     In case I haven’t mentioned it, the work is not limited to men. Women have joined us on several projects, and if some dads were to bring a kid or two, I would respectfully ask the men to dial the humor back from PG to a G rating. For anybody – and I mean anybody – who wants more info on what The Crew does, please/pretty-please email me at john@cobblestonechurch.com. You can offer to help; you can request a job to be done for you; you can recommend a job to be done for someone else; you can let me know you’re praying for us! Or, you could simply drop into Room 112 at the church around 8am some Saturday and see if there’s a spare donut lying around.

     As I mentioned in a previous letter, the Bible book of James is perfectly positioned, just after Hebrews. Hebrews tells us what faith is; James tells us what faith does. We don’t have to wait around very long to see if the faith in us is the saving kind – James gives us some solid metrics. It takes a firm and flourishing faith to believe that mercy triumphs over judgment.

     This week’s letter from me wraps up the four-part “Faith Does” series; next week we’ll start ramping up into Christmas with a couple letters I’m planning to have a bunch of fun with – hope you do, too. So now that you know what faith does…

 

Go and Do, in Jesus’ name. Amen!

 

 Grace and Peace (in your doing),

 

John