"To Him be glory forever": 2020

Tuesday, December 29, 2020

A New Year. A New Habit?

A few days ago I loaded the Pastormobile with empty boxes from Christmas and some other larger things that I had set aside to throw away and I headed to the dump. The previous time I had been out the “low tire” light had come on and on my way home from the dump I stopped at the gas station to see if the air hose was out. It was, and so I parked close to it and proceeded to check the tires.

On the driver side one tire was low and one was fine. I added air to the low tire and then walked around to the other side of the car. As I walked around the front of the car I slipped and nearly fell. It was very icy and irregular and my heavy boots had zero traction. Both tires on the passenger side were fine and so, with caution, I walked to the front of the car to wrap the air hose back up.

Caution, but not quite enough, as I slipped and fell on the ice. I banged my knee and my arm but they seemed to be fine when I brushed them off. I hopped in the car and came home. Later in the afternoon I became aware that the ring finger on my left hand was sore. I must have banged that too and just not noticed it at the time. Later in the evening my finger was both sore and a bit stiff. I tried sliding my wedding ring off and, with a lot of effort, was able to get it past the knuckle. I decided to leave my ring off until the swelling went down in my finger.

Sometime in the morning of the next day I made a discovery of sorts. I wasn’t surprised that my ring was missing from its usual place. My finger was still sore and I had taken it off for that very reason. What surprised me was how often during a day I have contact with that ring, either by touching it with a finger from that hand or reaching for it with my other hand. Over and over and over that day I found myself reaching for that ring in an almost unconscious manner, and then being consciously aware that it wasn’t there.

That discovery got me to thinking about sin and temptation. We are tempted to sin in the things we think, the things we say, and the things we do. Not only are we tempted to sin, but we do sin. We sin in thought, word and deed. Some of it may be very publicly known but a lot if it is known only to ourselves, and to God, whom all sin is against.

But what do we do when we are tempted? Do we turn to the Lord to flee that temptation? Sometimes, but, at least in my case, not enough. We play with it for a while. Should I, or shouldn’t I? Or we may pretend that it isn’t really temptation. Or maybe we just jump in, because today has just been a really long day and I need a break.

What if…what if I learned to handle temptation, at least most of it, in a manner similar to the presence of my wedding ring? I’ve found out that I touch and handle my ring for more than I ever imagined. What if I learned to flee temptation in a similar way? What if at the first awareness of temptation I would turn to the Lord, as naturally as I seem to touch my ring? What if when tempted my thoughts were to lift up a prayer? Or to recall a piece of Scripture? Or to think briefly on one of God’s attributes, like his love, or mercy, or power, or kindness, or glory?

I’m not one who usually goes for New Year’s resolutions. But I think the timing of my fall and its moment of self-awareness give me something new to work on as 2020 ends and 2021 gets underway. I’m going to seek God’s help in developing some constructive, God-honoring habits to deal with temptation when it comes my way. May he be at work in my life for his glory. Amen.

Wednesday, December 23, 2020

Choices and Priorities

Earlier this week a friend of mine here in Dulce sent me a link to a video, asking me to watch it and let him know what I thought about it. It was a bit more than 20 minutes long and was basically a woman reading a statement having to do with COVID-19, genocide and…and I’m not really sure. She seemed to be making a case about some sort of coordinated effort among various peoples but as I think about it now I’m not quite sure that her argument rose to the level of exposing a conspiracy. Maybe it does. Maybe it doesn’t. The section below in italics was the response I made to my friend. After you read that I have some final thoughts for this blog post.

“I watched a bit more than half of the video. I saw the first 10 minutes and then skipped to a bit before she drew her conclusions. There were a few points that I might agree with but I think her overall case, as I understood it, about a major world-wide conspiracy, was a bit overblown. I think when she repeatedly used the word genocide towards the end she was not really strengthening her case, as she herself pointed out several times earlier that the death rate from COVID is not particularly high. Genocide, as I understand it, is intentionally causing the deaths of a large amount of people, usually from a specific people group. I have first cousins whose other grandparents were victims of the genocide Turkey inflicted on Armenia. I think a strong case could be made that US policy towards Native Americans for many years could be classified as genocide. Sand Creek, Wounded Knee, and forced sterilization come to mind.

As a Christian pastor, particularly within the Reformed tradition of Protestant Christianity, I don’t have any illusions that our country, or the world, is generally headed towards some form of paradise through the actions of individual peoples and/or governments. The Bible paints a picture of things becoming worse, very much worse, before the time when Jesus returns in power and glory for the completion of God’s plan. What will that “worse” or “very much worse” more precisely look like? I don’t know, and I don’t think that anyone else really does either. Again, as a pastor, I think looking at the world and then trying to see if various signs from Revelation are coming true, is the wrong way to expend energy. In the Gospel of Matthew Jesus told his followers that all power on heaven and earth was in his hands and that they were to go and make disciples, or followers, of him. He holds the power, come what may, and he gives his followers a task to perform right now.

I believe that God is real, that God is holy, and that God has revealed himself fully through his son Jesus. I believe that sin, at its root, is rebellion against God, and that all human sin, even my own, makes me an enemy of God, unless something is done about it. And God himself provides the solution to that problem, which is the forgiveness of my sin through having faith in his Son Jesus and what Jesus did to remove that sin. It’s a free offer that God extends to anyone who would repent of their sin and turn in faith to Jesus. But it is a limited-time offer. A person has to respond to it in this lifetime. So I don’t get very worked-up about possible world-wide conspiracies, or things going to pot here in the US. I do care about our country and the kind of society my children and grandchildren will live in. But I care a bit more about their eternal state before God, and not just them but the people God has placed us among here in Dulce.

Kind of a long answer and perhaps not what you expected, but it is what came to mind as I watched the video and thought a bit about it. Thanks for prompting my thoughts. I hope that you are well and staying warm during the cold snap we are going through.”

Every day we are faced with choices and priorities. It is hard to go online and not be literally bombarded with information. As 2020 draws to a close there are all kinds of things that various news/information websites are throwing our way, demanding our attention, and in some case demanding that we act now, before it is too late. What is a person to do?

Speaking for myself, as I mentioned to my friend, I’m going to choose to trust God and what He has clearly made known through the words of the Bible, and set my priorities from that perspective. He has made it clear, per Matthew 28, that he holds all authority and that his followers are called teach others to follow.

But? But? What about stopping a world-wide conspiracy before its too late?

That question comes from point-of-view that prioritizes the present time and discounts trusting fully in God. In the first part Psalm 32:6 we get a glimpse of the bigger picture.

“Therefore let everyone who is godly offer prayer to you at a time when you may be found.”

There is a time when God may be found, and known, by those who do not presently know, trust, or worship him. But that time has a limit. As I mentioned to my friend, I don’t know when that time will come to an end, nor do I feel that I should spend any time figuring it out. Rather, my priority should be to make the good news of peace with God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ freely known. As 2020 closes, that is my choice and my priority.

Tuesday, December 15, 2020

The Most Radical Words

Last weekend I read a short book of letters that one man wrote to his nephew about Jesus. The man was a priest and his nephew was finishing high school and so the man wrote a series of letters to give some spiritual guidance to his nephew, particularly about Jesus.

I thought the book was so-so. I’m not Roman Catholic and the things that he said that specifically connected to that tradition did not really speak to me. But he did write one thing that very definitely caught my attention. He told his nephew that “The most radical words in the gospel are “Love your enemy.””

If we think of someone as an enemy then we have some very strong and persistent feelings towards them. And none of those feelings are positive. Enemies? The things that come to mind are words like contempt, antipathy and hatred. Their downfall, or even destruction, would be a source of gladness as we hear of it.

Love them? Love my enemies? I think not. However, if we did love them, that would indeed be a radical thing, and Jesus calls on his followers to do just that thing. In Matthew 5:44 he says:

“But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”

I’ll agree that to love one’s enemies is a very radical thing to do, and in our day of strongly held opinions, freely and widely shared on social media, it seems very easy to find people whom we might consider as enemies. But I believe Jesus says something much more profound, much more radical, and much more powerful, when in Luke 7:48 he speaks to a woman and says:

“Your sins are forgiven.”

Rather than giving godly guidance on how to treat people we disagree with these words get to the heart of the human condition, and its only possible resolution.

All humans, from the ones you admire the most on the one hand, to the ones whom you want nothing to do with on the other hand, and including the person staring back at you in the mirror, are sinners against a holy God. Sinners who have no hope save this one thing: To turn from their sin and have faith in Jesus as their savior.

If you turn to Luke and read the whole story he doesn’t tell us much about the woman, except that the people who are with Jesus at the time don’t have a very high opinion of her. And she herself never says a word, but shows the love that she has for Jesus through her actions. Jesus, knowing that her sins are many, declares her forgiveness.

Luke doesn’t tell us much about the woman. Did she understand that her sins, all of them, were ultimately offenses against God? Did she have any clue that her sins were direct offenses against the very man to whom she is showing such devotion?

Loving my enemies the way that Jesus would have me do it is a good thing, but to attempt to do that before having my own sin dealt with would be to put the cart before the horse. I need my sin forgiven and Jesus very freely does that, for me and for all who come in faith to Him. Turn to him and hear him speak, to you, the radical words of true freedom, “Your sins are forgiven.”

Thursday, December 3, 2020

The Free Offer

Lurking somewhere in my pulpit notes for this Sunday’s sermon are these words: “Make the free offer.” If anyone would ever do a survey of my sermon notes, at least over the last few years, they would find that phrase somewhere nearly every time. It is my intention to include them in my notes every week until the day comes that I retire. And if I have the opportunity to preach after retirement, you’ll likely find those words in my notes.

The free offer. By that phrase I mean the free offer of the heart of the message of the Lord Jesus, which is that by faith in Him a person will receive God’s forgiveness of their sins.

We could have all kinds of thoughts as to what the act of preaching is, but it should never be less than making clear that all people are sinners in need of forgiveness, and that God will very freely forgive all who repent of their sin and turn to Him with faith in His Son, Jesus.

In Romans 10:9 Paul says it this way:

“If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”

In Mark 1:15 Jesus says it like this:

“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

There are no limits as far as whom that message is for. It is for all people to hear and respond to. It doesn’t matter what kind of life you have led, or whether you think you are deserving. You may look at your life and think that maybe Jesus will only save this or that kind of person, and you aren’t in that category. Or you may think that Jesus will forgive some sins, but not the ones that you’ve committed. Your sins are somehow outside the allowable boundaries.

Those ways of thinking and resisting the free offer are incorrect. There is no sinner, and no sin, that Jesus will not forgive for the person who turns to him in faith.

In a recent article on a different topic by R. Scott Clark I read these words, which I heartily agree with:

“Our goal always is to speak the law and the gospel to all who will hear it so as to win them to Christ.”

The free offer is a message that is always relevant, every time a Bible is opened and God’s word is proclaimed. Sunday mornings. Prayer meetings. Weddings. Funerals. What have you. There will almost always be a mixed group, those who have heard the offer and accepted it, and those who are on the outside, but whom we long for to join us.

I’m a pastor and so making the free offer of the good news of Jesus is a basic part of what I do. But making the good news of Jesus known to non-believers is something that all Christians can do. We all have received God’s gracious forgiveness, and we all know people who have not heard the good news, or who have heard it and rejected it. Either way, the free offer is something that they can hear and receive, today. So feel free to share the good news of Jesus, that more and more people would repent of their sin and trust in Him.

Wednesday, November 25, 2020

Thanksgiving

As Thanksgiving comes this year the only tree I know of with any leaves on it is our family’s Thankfulness tree. At the end of October Robin cut the trunk and branches out of construction paper and taped them to the wall in our dining room. As part of our family devotions on the first day of November each member of the family took a paper leaf and wrote something on it that we were thankful for, taping the leaf to the tree. Then, as we ended our devotions in prayer, each person included whatever it was that they were thankful for in their part of the prayer. As I write this post there are 120 leaves on the tree, and six days left in November for us to add to it. The leaves on the trees outside have fallen and blown away, while the tree in our dining room continues to add new ones.

Here’s what happens. Each day after dinner I get out a Bible and a book we are using to teach our children the Heidelberg Catechism. I lead that portion of our devotions and then Robin leads the part around thankfulness. Each day she has a different suggestion for the leaf. Something we are thankful for about the person sitting on our right. Or something that we know how to do. Or something about living here on the reservation. While we have the same topic we have a wide variety of things each day, which we share with each other before we pray together. Robin and I agree that it has been a very good activity for our family.

One of the best parts of this activity is not the “being thankful for” but “being thankful to,” which happens as we pray. The Thankfulness tree has opened up our minds to be aware that even in the midst of the pandemic there are many things to be thankful for. But none of these things come at random, as if they were self-existent and we merely happened to stumble into them.

Each thing that I am thankful for, that we are thankful for, comes to us from God, in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. The opening of John’s Gospel includes these words:

“All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.”

If all things were made through Jesus then all things come through Jesus, and all thanks go to Jesus.

Thanksgiving 2020 will be very different from past years. Fewer large family gatherings and more small celebrations. Whatever the size of the gathering there will still be people who make it part of their celebration to share together what they may be thankful for.

The thought I want to leave you with for this Thanksgiving is to go beyond what you are thankful for and give thanks to the Lord Jesus, the one from whose hand all things come.

Tuesday, November 17, 2020

Living On A Spiral

A few weeks ago I wrote a blog post about one of the terms within Christianity that can be taken different ways. The term was “evangelical”, which some people understand negatively while others, myself included, consider it in a positive way. Today I want to dig, just a little, into a different term. One that also has its negative and positive understandings. That term is “born again.”

The basic idea underlying being born again comes from the Gospel of John, chapter 3, verses 1-8. Jesus is having a conversation with Nicodemus. In verse 3 John writes:

“Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.””

Jesus then teaches Nicodemus what he is getting at, which is that true children of God receive spiritual life through the power and work of the Holy Spirit. Jesus emphasizes the absolute necessity of this spiritual birth in verse 7, saying:

“You must be born again.”

According to Jesus, being born again is not optional for entrance to the kingdom of God.

Negatively, there are people who come from Christian traditions where, for any number of reasons, the language of “born again” is not used, and the idea itself is not considered to be a central part of Christian belief.

Another way that born again can seem negative is when someone undergoes this new birth and then acts accordingly, especially as they show great enthusiasm in sharing the good news of Jesus with nearly everyone who crosses their path.

And the last negative that comes to mind is the person who is born again while in the midst of some sort of mess in their life, such as the jailhouse conversion. We hear that they have religion and we are immediately skeptical.

But, despite the perceived negatives…the truth of Jesus’ words remains. Being born again is essential to entering the kingdom of God. What does it look like to be born again? Paul helps us out in 2 Corinthians 5:17, where he writes:

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”

I take this to mean that we are the same people, and yet also not the same people. There has been a fundamental change in the way we perceive and relate to both God and the world. In writing on the nature of being born again Stephen Charnock asked what was for me a thought-provoking question: “Can any man live the life of God that does not care for the presence of God, either speaking to him, or thinking of him?”[1]

Being born again is a one-time thing. The old passes and the new comes. But living as someone who is born again is a life-long task. Later on the same page Charnock writes: “The new nature, being made up of an inclination to God, the proper language of that is “It is good for me to draw near to God.””

Being born again is a bit like living on a spiral, moving from the outside and drawing closer and closer to the center. Caring for the presence of God. Speaking to him. Thinking of him. Drawing nearer and nearer.

May this experience of being and living as one who is born again be true for you and for me.

Photo credit: https://almondemotion.com/2019/06/17/spiral/

[1] The Works of Stephen Charnock, vol. 3, p.147.

Wednesday, November 11, 2020

Faithfulness In Prayer

Ever since we were dating Robin and I have had the habit of ending our day by reading from the Bible and praying together. Right now we are in the New Testament and last night we started reading 1 Thessalonians. In the second verse of the first chapter Paul writes:

“We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers”

Paul goes on to say why it is that he prays for the Thessalonian Christians but those words, “all of you, constantly” stuck in my head. They reminded me of the people we pray for together, by name, nearly every day. They include:

Our children
Our grandchildren
Our parents
People from our community living in care facilities.
People from our community who struggle with addiction.

A number of people we either know, or are aware of, who are dealing with hard situations that we know will last for a very, very long time.

Other people and situations come and go from our prayer together, but these are people we feel led to lift to the Lord over and over and over.

Sometimes the ways in which we pray for them are specific, such as for things in the lives of our children still living at home. Other times we are just naming them before God, trusting that he knows the best way to be involved in that person’s life. And Robin and I do trust that in all things God knows what is best, and that if he acts it will be to advance his purposes. Our prayers may align with his purposes, but they may not. God always knows best and acts according to his perfect knowledge.

There are times when we know that prayer has been answered, and we thank God for what he has done. But other times, many times, we are waiting for the answers. While we wait we continue to pray.

It is our part to be faithful in prayer. It is God’s part to bring the answers.

Tuesday, November 3, 2020

The Day of Salvation

Now is the day of salvation.

If you are reading those words and thinking along the lines of “Yeah, today my candidate is going to win and all will work out just fine” that is not quite the direction I'm headed in this post. But keep reading, for I have a much better destination in mind.

It has been a turbulent election cycle. So many contentious words. So many accusations. So much turmoil. Today the ballots are being cast and soon we all hope to know the outcome. My last blog post had to do with the fallacy of lifting politics to the place of religion. For people of that mindset to have their candidate win today it will certainly feel like the day of salvation. And if theirs is the candidate on the losing side, then I imagine it will feel like the beginning of a disaster. Such are the near polar opposites as the election has approached.

Tomorrow. What of tomorrow? Or what if November 4^th never comes? Or what if it comes for everyone else except for you and me? Where you will stand in terms of eternity?

I’m a pastor within the Reformed branch of Protestant Christianity and so there are a number of things I believe to be true as I read the Bible. Among those beliefs are that time will not just run on forever. Human history, as we know it, will come to an end and the definitive marker of its end will be the return of the Lord Jesus Christ in power and glory. He will gather all of those people who are his, both those living at the time of his return and all of those who had faith in him while they lived but died before that glorious day. He will gather all of his own and they will be with him forever. Human history, as we know it, will come to an end but God operates on a timeline that has no beginning or ending, and all those who have faith in Jesus will spend eternity in his very presence. I don’t have to know any of the particular details to know that at the very least it will be amazing!

But there is a catch. That future is only for those with faith in Jesus. There is another eternal destination for those without faith. The Bible gives us some clues about that as well. Suffice to say that I believe it will be very, very bad. It will be bad, even horrible, in ways that will be worse than anything we can imagine.

Two possible paths in eternity. Which will yours be?

In Daniel 5 we read the story of a man who seemed to have it all. Power, money, friends…everything he could possibly want. But at a big party it gets revealed to him that time is short and from God’s point-of-view his life has been found wanting. Confronted with the truth and an opportunity to repent, he does nothing. Daniel 5:30 says:

“That very night Belshazzar the Chaldean king was killed.”

That very night. As important as our election might be, there is an infinitely more important choice before each and every person. That is the choice of what to do about the person of Jesus. Believe in him as Savior and live with him as Lord? Or not? These are the only two options God gives us. There is no wide area in the middle where we might hang out before making the final decision. Paul urges us to see the time to decide in this way:

“Working together with him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For he says,

“In a favorable time I listened to you,
and in a day of salvation I have helped you.”

Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”

Later today, maybe tonight, or perhaps tomorrow we will have an idea of who will sit in the White House as President for the next four years. At the extremes of their supporters will be either great rejoicing or great anguish. No matter which of the candidates it is the Bible's truth is that the Lord Jesus sits on his throne, right now, and he will never be moved. What will you make of him?

May today be the day of your salvation.

Photo credit: BBC.com

Friday, October 30, 2020

Politics-as-religion

In just a few days the 2020 election will be history. Robin and I haven’t had TV service, i.e. cable or satellite, for 10 years now. We cancelled our cable when Kat joined our family and we just didn’t seem to have time to watch TV. Outside of the occasional baseball or football game we haven’t really missed it. Right now, in this present election cycle, we are glad not to be bringing all the emotion, conjecture and vitriol of the various campaigns into our home and family life.

Not that we are living in a box and unexposed to the news of the world. You are reading this blog post online and a number of the major sites that I visit seem to be saturated with either campaign ads, campaign commentary, or the election-related personal opinions and posts that are shared by my friends. The plus side of following the run-up to the election online is that I get to decide for myself which stories and links I’ll read and listen to, rather than being bombarded, and I mean that quite nearly literally, every time a TV show takes a commercial break.

One thing I did notice recently, which I believe I have seen in past election cycles, is the tendency for politics to be treated as a religion. This seems to happen two ways. One is by the passion, and virtual devotion, of some people to a particular candidate or proposed political position. For example, “This person will have all the answers to the problems of our day, and only he/she will set us on the right trajectory for the future.”

The other way politics appears as religion is with the language some people associate with it. The clearest example I saw recently was someone encouraging people to vote, because it was their “sacred duty.” Sacred duty to vote? Hmmm…

Something that is sacred is something that is set apart for God and his purposes. The sacred should inspire worship of God. That is my definition off the top of my head. I checked an online dictionary’s definition and found that my definition was pretty close and that non-religious usages of sacred are secondary meanings of the term. I’ll grant that voting is important and is an aspect of civic responsibility but I won’t go so far as to use language that elevates it to the equivalence of worship of God. That may not have been the intent of the comment by the person that I saw encouraging people to vote, but it is an example of bringing religious language into the sphere of politics.

Going back to my first example, of the passion and devotion shown by many people towards the candidate and positions in the pending election, I want to say that, from my perspective as a Christian and a pastor, politics makes a poor god and politics cannot save.

The best candidates, for every position in any election, may have many fine attributes. And these same candidates will also have many flaws. The God of the Bible, revealed to us most clearly in the person of Jesus, is holy. He is perfect in every respect. There are no flaws, no weaknesses, no areas that need even the slightest bit of improvement. His holiness is the very thing for which anything that is sacred should point us to. Anyone, or anything, that we might want to give the devotion to that he deserves will most certainly let us down. The Bible tells of many gods, but only One True God. Each and every one of those lesser gods is revealed for what they truly are, which is no god at all. Such is politics when looked on, when worshipped, as god.

And as a corollary, all that we might look to politics as providing the ultimate solutions for, things to save us from, or to lead us to, will also prove to be false. Politics can lead to good, and it has done so in the past, but politics can also lead in ways that even the most ardent advocates can eventually see are wrong. There never has been, and never will be, a political system that results in a universally acclaimed sense of human flourishing. There is a coming day when all will be made right, but it will be at the timing of God, by his power, and for his purposes. You can read Revelation 19-22 to get a sense of how that plays out.

I’ll close with the words of Psalm 20:7, words that point us beyond politics to the One who will never fail us:

“Some trust in chariots and some in horses,
but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.”

Wednesday, October 21, 2020

Dead Ends

This coming Sunday I am preaching the beginning of Paul’s letter to the Galatians, where in verse 4 he writes of Jesus that he:

“…gave himself for our sins to delivers us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God…”

I’ve had two people on my mind lately, people whom to the best of my knowledge have no desire to be delivered of their sins through faith in Jesus. At least that is what I think is the case. I suppose that I could ask them but one of them doesn’t return my calls or texts and the other one has a more open hostility to the idea of being a Christian, so what might be considered a more direct method of sharing the good news of Jesus with them in an effort for them to receive and embrace it does not seem possible at present.

I’m not giving up. I continue to pray for them. And while I don’t want any bad things to come into their lives I do know that when we are in hard places and all other options appear to be eliminated that people can look at the person and work of Jesus in a new light. And so I have a desire that for these people that whatever it may be that they are hoping in, or grounding their lives in as a source of meaning, are seen to be what they truly are. Dead ends. They may be good things, such as family or work, but they are not the most important thing, which is to be made whole with God through faith in Jesus.

May it be the will of God to reveal the roads and paths that they travel on for meaning in their lives to be dead ends. The roads and paths that may look like they are going somewhere but come to an end without connecting to anything else.

For my two friends may it be the will of God to bring them to the path that ends with faith in Jesus. May it be the will of God that one day, instead of praying for the salvation of my friends, that we can join together in praising God for what he has done in uniting us in faith as his sons.

Photo credit: By haymarketrebel - Dead End At The Border, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=72020913

Sunday, October 18, 2020

Negotiations

The week that has just ended has been a bit hectic. Before the pandemic I had a routine to get things done each week. The pandemic has altered the routine a bit but I have found that there is a general pattern that works for me so that when Sunday morning comes all the things that needed to be done are in fact done. Factored into all this talk of routine is the understanding that each week I can spend what amounts to a full day doing things that I had not anticipated. That means that when things come up that take good-sized blocks of time, such as funerals, I don’t have to panic.

All of which is to say that there were a number of extra things that had to be negotiated this past week. I participated in a preaching workshop via Zoom that took two full days. There was a wedding yesterday which required some preparation. And for a large portion of one day I had to supervise the boys, as Robin and Kat went to the dentist and ran some errands for our family. Robin suggested that if the boys were distracting me too much I could let them watch extra TV, or have them clean the porch, giving them free time with their iPads as an incentive.

I liked that last idea but had some trouble putting it into practice. The front porch is among the favorite places for the boys to play. It hadn’t been organized for a few days and so the time came when I thought I would set the boys to that task. I figured it would take them 30 minutes, tops, and they could use their iPads for a good long while as I worked on my sermon.

Here is how that idea worked out.

Papa: Clean up the porch and you can use your iPads.

Boys: How many things do we need to pick up?

Papa: Don’t count them. Just put everything away.

Boys: Mom tells us to pick up ten things.

Papa: Just put it all away. You don’t need to keep count.

Boys: But mom says “ten things.” How many should we pick up?

Papa: Well, maybe 100 things. (I’ve heard Robin use that method but I'm not expecting that it will work today. Way too much stuff.) On second thought, pick up ten things and let’s see what it looks like.

In the end I gave up on the porch, and fortunately for me they didn’t have their usual desire for the iPads, finding another way to stay occupied enough for me to keep at my sermon until Robin and Kat got back home.

My sermon this morning was drawn from Galatians 2:16, where Paul writes:

“We know that a person is not justified by works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ.”

One of the things that Paul does in that statement is eliminate the possibility that we can negotiate our place with God. He takes away any attempt on our part to use our own efforts to be made right with God.

To have faith in God through Jesus Christ is an act of unconditional surrender on our part. We cannot negotiate for the most favorable terms, but rather we simply trust in God as we turn from our sin and turn to our Savior.

And that is really a good thing, because His terms are better than anything we could ever imagine. Not only does he remove all past sins, but his finished work covers any sins we may, and unfortunately will, take part in before that day comes when he brings us to our true home with him.

One day I may figure out this negotiation thing with our children, but I am glad that I never have to strike a bargain with my Savior. His offer is free, and it never fails. Amen.

Wednesday, October 7, 2020

Are You An…Evangelical?

Apparently it is a bad thing for a person to be identified as an evangelical Christian. That was one of my conclusions after reading this online article, which made mention of some comments to a newspaper article that had to do with US Vice President Mike Pence. Now the newspaper article came from the Times of London, and the online article I was reading came from a pastor in Australia, so I don’t take either one of them as anything that should have any influence on voters in the US. But what was interesting was the alleged dangers associated with evangelical Christians.

“Christian” is a label that can have a very broad meaning. At its most basic level a Christian would be a person who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ. But right there we can go in a number of directions as to what it means to believe in Jesus. My attaching the word “Lord” to His name would be an issue for some Christians, as would my decision in this post to capitalize pronouns referring to Him.

When we add the word “evangelical” to Christian/s we can similarly go into a variety of directions. It does not have a single, or even generally recognized, primary definition. Some Christians would welcome it while others would cringe at any association between their faith in Jesus and the term evangelical. A number of years ago, fairly early in my journey of faith in Jesus, I had a conversation with my pastor. I was trying to understand some things that had been said at a recent class I had attended at our church. He tossed out, almost as an aside, words to this effect: “Brad, the problem is that you’re an evangelical and there aren’t very many of you here.” Two things in that sentence caught my attention. First, I was an evangelical at a church that didn’t have very many of them, and second, the pastor had said “you” rather than “us.”

I’m of the opinion that to be an evangelical as a Christian is a very good thing. You could easily make a case that being evangelical is essential to being a Christian, that you are not really maturing as a follower of Jesus if you don’t have your evangelical radar turned on.

To be an evangelical means that you are intentional about sharing the good news of Jesus with others. This is something that He told his followers to do, in what we call the Great Commission:

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”

The responsibility given to evangelicals is to engage in evangelism, of which making disciples and teaching are the core tasks.

This summer I read a short and very good book on evangelism, which gave this excellent definition: Evangelism is to teach the gospel with an aim to persuade. Here is how I understand those four key words.

Teach: To give someone instruction in something, to guide them in learning something.

The gospel: The good news of the Lord Jesus as the only Savior of the world. Explaining the gospel means dealing directly with the problem of a holy God and human sin. It is not a simple problem but it does lead to a unique and beautiful solution.

Aim: To have a particular target in mind as you teach the gospel.

Persuade: To teach in such a way that the other person not only knows the gospel, or understands the gospel, but that they believe the gospel.

The real problem for the average person with evangelical Christians is that the gospel message is a message that no ordinary person wants to hear. It’s a message that confronts us as the lords of our own lives. It calls for us to reject the gods we serve. It doesn’t matter if we serve those gods knowingly or not. It doesn’t matter if every other person we know or respect says that the things we are worshipping are harmless. Jesus is a jealous God. He tolerates no rival gods, and that is truly a good thing.

Believing the gospel sets us apart as children of the One True God, calling us to live our lives in ways that, above all else, are pleasing to Him. All of our lives. All of the time. This is something that literally takes a lifetime to learn, often by taking two steps forward and one step back. Over and over.

Living as children of the King is challenging, but also infinitely good. In virtually every respect it is different from the ways of the culture we live in, no matter where in the world you may be living. Small wonder that evangelicals are frowned on, at best, and in other cases reviled or worse.

One of the things I ask for nearly every day is that God would grow me in evangelism. That He would teach me in what to say and give me opportunities to share His good news.

I’m an evangelical. Are you?

Monday, October 5, 2020

What Are You Hungry For?

I like to eat. I like to eat a lot, as in both “I really enjoy eating” and “I enjoy eating my share and then some.” One of the benefits, for me, of being a distance runner is that it gives me some cover as I indulge in the pursuit of food. This is especially true after running a marathon, when I need to replenish all those calories that were burned up on the road.

I like a variety of foods, but certainly not all foods. Brussel sprouts and asparagus? No thanks. Bacon green chili cheeseburger? Yes, with fries, please. Which dessert? You needn’t have asked. I’ll take both. Given the opportunity I’ll make sure that my sweet tooth will be taken care of. Rare is the moment when there isn’t room for another cookie. Just ask Robin!

This past Sunday after our family worshipped Robin took the kids hiking while I went over to church. We still can’t meet for worship but I have been over there at the time we normally hold worship services, to talk and pray with anyone who stops by. On this particular morning a man came by. He is someone I know and whom I’ve spent a few times with in the past, talking about his life and praying with him. He’s not a member of our church and except for a few times when we met in passing I had not spent any amount of time with him for quite a while. He told me about some changes he is trying to make in his life. I prayed with him and then he headed back home.

When my time at church was done I went back home. It was time to get some lunch and I was hungry. While we had family worship Robin had baked some brownies for dessert on Sunday evening and there was the pan, sitting on the counter, waiting for me.

Truthfully, I was tempted. I didn’t eat any of them, but not because I didn’t want to. I passed on the brownies because I knew I needed better nutrition, not just as a matter of practice, but also because I had other work tasks to get to. A sandwich and apple would give me energy for the afternoon. Several brownies would certainly result in my blood sugar rising and then crashing in ways that would make productive work nearly impossible and an impromptu nap very likely.

One of the things my friend said outside of church on Sunday morning was this: “Everyone needs to eat. But what are we hungry for?” So far this blog post has been about physical food but my friend was getting at the idea of addictions and spiritual food. He has struggled with addictions in the past and is trying to turn from them at present. The question he faces daily is between feeding his addictions and feeding his soul. It was a pleasure to visit with him and to pray with him, asking God to fill his soul with the very best kind of food.

My friend’s words linger with me today. I need to eat. We all need to eat. But what are we hungry for? One of the things I asked God this morning in prayer was that I would have a continual desire to feed on and be nourished by His word. That He would use His word, each day, to nourish me spiritually and to give direction to my life.

We all need to eat, but there is nothing that will nourish us like the word of God in the Bible. May you hunger for His word today and every day. Amen.

Tuesday, September 29, 2020

Standing In Awe

This morning I finished reading the Call of the Wild to our boys. Recently our family had seen the movie remake and so, having a copy of the book since I was a child, I decided to read it to them. One of the things that stood out to me this morning was the way the story’s central character, a dog named Buck, was portrayed in the closing pages.

He’s a dog, but a quite remarkable dog. The experiences of the past year have transformed him, inside and out. Stronger than any ordinary sled dog, more fierce and wild than any wolf. His owner, to whom he was devoted, has died and he has cast his lot with a pack of wolves. He stands among them as one of their own, but also as a creature who is very different from them. The wolves accept Buck as their leader and gather around him with what is best described as awe. They are like him, but unlike him. They share the same basic image but they can never be him. They can never equal him.

This afternoon I was reading Psalm 22 and these thoughts on the Call of the Wild came to mind as I read verse 23, which says this in the second part:

“All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him, and stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel!”

The “him” of the psalm is God, the Lord God Almighty. The One True God. The Maker of heaven and earth. We humans are created in His image, and in some ways like Him, but we are also so very unlike Him. Our human nature continually seeks to see Him in ways that aren’t quite true. To make Him more like us than He really is. To look on the Son, who is fully God in every possible way, as merely our friend, rather than to hold Him in awe as our Savior and Lord.

Today I want to encourage you to look to God. See the Father. See the Son. See the Holy Spirit. See how you share in God’s image, but even better, to see how God is completely different from you and I, differences that are all for the best. Differences that leave you and I standing in awe as we glimpse Him and His holiness.

Tuesday, September 22, 2020

The More Things Change…

…the more they stay the same. Such is life during the COVID-19 pandemic.

I started writing this post 6 days ago and had written just that first line before going onto work on a different project. I had an idea for a post, wrote the first line, and then planned to get back to it the next day. Little did I know how the next few hours would unfold.

After dinner that evening Robin and the kids spent some time outside, while I went off to take care of some pastor business. An hour later one of the boys called me on Robin’s phone, telling me that Kat had been hurt and that there was an ambulance at the house. I arrived home to see Kat laying in the yard while the ambulance crew tended to her. She had fallen about 6 feet and landed on her shoulder, neck and head.

The initial assessment looked pretty good but the ambulance crew consulted with their doctor and decided to transport her to the hospital in Farmington to make sure. The fire department sent over help to get Kat on the stretcher and into the ambulance. Robin went with Kat and I got the boys settled in to bed, laying out clothes and blankets should we need to go to the hospital in the night.

A bit after 10 PM I got the call that the CT scans and other tests were all negative and that the girls were ready to come home. I woke the boys, loaded the van, drove to Farmington to pick up Robin and Kat, drove home and helped get the boys back to bed, and then got onto bed myself just before 3 AM. Quite a day!

The picture is from our family’s worship last Sunday. It marked the 27^th Sunday this year that we have gathered around the computer instead of in the church next door. When all of the pandemic restrictions started last March I had no idea that they would still be in place over half the year later. And today, Tuesday afternoon, the first day of autumn, I don’t have any idea for how much longer they will continue.

Last week Kat’s fall was a close call for us, in terms of potentially major life changes. They could have been the kind of changes that I know well from my previous career in health care. She was spared and for that we are thankful. Worshipping around the computer is getting a bit old but I know that Robin and I were both glad for it this past Sunday, instead of any number of other ways things could have gone.

Sometimes things change and sometimes they don’t. The pandemic has been a big change but six months into it many of those changes are simply our new routines. One thing that hasn’t changed is the God who holds all things in his hands, all the time.

Powerful, good, holy, merciful, kind, righteous, just, wise, loving, trustworthy, reliable…you name whatever things about God are your favorites. Whatever they may be he is those things perfectly and constantly. Life has changed and it will change again. God remains the same, and that is a good and precious truth to hang on to.

Sunday, September 13, 2020

The Timing Will Always Be Right

“I keep praying and praying but nothing seems to be happening.” I’ve heard that comment and similar thoughts several times over the past few weeks. People have sought me out, as a pastor, to talk about what is, or is not, going on in their lives. The problems are serious. Their prayers are sincere. But the answers…where are they? Their seeking of answers seems to be more a matter of when, rather than how.

My answers are somewhat indirect. Yes, God hears your prayers. Yes, God cares about what is going on in your life. No, God isn’t too busy with other things. Yes, God has more than enough power to do whatever is needed in your situation. No, God never abandons his children. No, God never fails to keep any of his promises.

I often find myself bringing up the matter of the point-of-view. There is a tremendous difference between our human point-of-view on any situation and the view that God has of the matter. Our is close-up and limited. God has the wide-angle, seeing all the pieces, the connections with other pieces that we can’t even imagine, and the grand scale of time. And God sees his purposes in the situation, which is often beyond the ability of ours to imagine, and always directed towards his own glory.

And so my bible reading plan brought me to Psalm 69, where verse 13 says:

“But as for me, my prayer is to you, O Lord. At an acceptable time, O God, in the abundance of your steadfast love answer me in your saving faithfulness.”

David, the psalm’s author, is in a world of trouble as he cries out to God for rescue. Follow the link and read the psalm for yourself. It’s a bad time in his life and he desperately calls on God to save him. But what stood out to me, in consideration of my recent conversations, was David’s recognition that God’s answer would come in God’s timing.

In the midst of his peril David trusts God to answer his prayer when God thinks it is best, and not according to the desires of David at any particular moment. David’s perspective here is personally helpful to me. First of all, as a pastor talking and praying with people here in Dulce, it is a biblical reminder that we have to wait on God to determine when he will act. But in a more personal sense it is a reminder that applies to some of my own prayers and the answers I would desire for them. I lift them to the Lord day after day, and sometimes year after year, trusting him to answer when the timing is right, from his point of view. He knows innumerable things about the situation that I may never know, but I do know that the action he takes in each and every situation, will always be right.

Sunday, September 6, 2020

"Therefore despair not..."

I’ve had a number of conversations this past week with people of faith and the struggles in their lives. Some were cases of bad choices acted upon and others were people who are in a time of hardship that never seems to get better. What is going on? When is God going to make things better?

I’m sometimes a little hesitant to connect hardship in life with spiritual warfare. No where in Scripture does God promise His children that all will be easy. The Bible is filled with the stories of people who are real heroes of faith, but when you read their stories you always find struggles, sometimes very hard ones, even to the very end of their lives.

But spiritual warfare does exist, as Paul writes in Ephesians 6:12:

“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”

There can be times in life where as we struggle we may wonder if perhaps God is no longer with us. Why didn’t he act when temptation came my way? Is he no longer concerned about what happens to me? Has he turned away completely?

Someone who found herself thinking those thoughts many times in her life was Elizabeth Bowes, who was the mother-in-law to Scottish reformer John Knox. Bowes wrote to Knox asking if the sin she was tempted towards, and often acted on, had permanently separated her from Christ? Knox’s response was:

“Therefore despair not, for your troubles are the infallible signs of your election in Christ’s blood, being grafted in his body. As for the assaults of your enemy, sometime alluring you to idolatry, sometime to other manifest iniquity, so that you obey him not altogether, there is no danger; but rather, the feeling of his continual assaults is the sign that he [Satan] has not gotten victory over you, but that there is a spark of faith, which you’re heavenly Father shall never suffer to quench or put out, but will keep and increase the same for the sake of his promises.”

I read that passage from Knox a few days ago and as I write this blog post I hear in it echoes of Isaiah, John and Paul. Several threads of scripture woven together to remind us that God’s grasp on his children is not a joint activity, in that he only holds us as long as we are interested in being held, but rather that once he grabs us he never lets go.

Never. Nothing that we do changes the fact that when we have faith in Jesus we belong to him forever. It is pretty easy to remember in good times but something we can lose track of during hardship. Our circumstances don’t change the fact that, as Knox states, we are “grafted in his body.”

If you are a Christian and going through a hard time right now, despair not, for God is holding you and he will never let you go.

Wednesday, September 2, 2020

What If?

Today my email had a collection of articles from a site called Flipboard. Each day I get an email from them of articles that they think I may be interested in. I have no recollection of how I got signed up with Flipboard in the first place, or how they decide what to send me links to. I do know that almost every day I skim the titles and quickly delete the email. Almost every day, but not today.

Today there was a link to something titled Top Seven Worst-Case Scenarios For The Human Species. Following that link led to a collection of videos, all beginning with “What If…?” What if we lost the Amazon rainforest? All mosquitos disappeared? There was no salt in the world? The sun exploded tomorrow? The world lost oxygen for five seconds? A coin-sized black hole appeared on earth? We burn all the oil?

Those are some pretty incredible scenarios. Previous to seeing the Top Seven article in my mail I don’t think that I had ever given any of these topics even one second of serious thought in my entire life. But now that I am aware they exist I’m tempted to say ruh roh! Or zoinks!

I’ll confess that I didn’t watch a single one of the videos. I’m guessing that each one in some way shows how critically important the particular topic is to the overall matter of sustaining human life on planet earth. Even the one about mosquitoes, which given that I've lived most of my life in Wisconsin and Minnesota I tend to doubt. Instead, the pastor in me jumped in a different direction, to a different scenario. What if a single human being died outside of having a saving relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ?

Science doesn’t have much to say about that scenario, but the Bible does, in many places. The first phrase that came to my mind as I followed this question was “weeping and gnashing of teeth.” In a story my Bible titles “The Narrow Door” Jesus looks ahead as he is asked about those who will be saved. In the story Jesus makes it clear that not all are saved, saying in verse 28:

“In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God but you yourselves cast out.”

There is even a Wikipedia article on the weeping and gnashing of teeth, noting it as “a description on the fate of the unrighteous ones at the conclusion of the age.” Even without knowing any of the specific details it's easy to see that being cast among the unrighteous is going to be pretty horrible, at best.

But things don’t have to be that way, for Jesus very freely offers something infinitely better, and, in fact, the only alternative to the weeping and gnashing of teeth, which is eternity, in his very presence. The story my Bible titles “I Am the Bread of Life” includes these words in verses 35-40:

“Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.””

As bad as the worst-case scenarios for human life that sparked this whole blog post may be, there is something truly horrible that faces every single person on earth. The never-ending weeping and gnashing of teeth for those who are eternally outside the Kingdom of God.

But there is also the perfect solution, and its available to you, right now. And that is to turn from your sin and turn to Jesus, believing in Him, and His promises, as your Savior and Lord.

Today I stood in a cemetery and preached the funeral of someone whom, at best, I barely knew. I do know that he believed in Jesus and it was a joy to stand there say, as Paul taught, that for the believer to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. May you be among those gathered, forever, in the presence of the Lord Jesus.

Sunday, August 30, 2020

Life and Death

On the first day of this month I turned 63 years old. At some time during the past year I came to the conclusion that as much as I enjoy being a pastor, and as much as I enjoy reading for my work, that it was time to stop acquiring books connected to ministry. When we moved here one of them men who helped unload our truck commented on the large number of boxes labeled “books.” I’ve read a lot in the seven years we’ve been in Dulce, and I’ve also added to my library. But I still have quite a few unread books. I suspect that should I stay here until age 70 that a few of those may still be unread at that time.

I believe that the end of our ministry here is still years down the road, but that now seems to be the time to do a small bit preparation for that day. I do have a list of books I would like to acquire, but it’s intentionally a short list. Every week I get emails of sales from my favorite bookstore, but no matter how interesting a particular title seems, or how highly it may be commended by a pastor I respect, the emails are deleted. I already have enough good books to keep me busy. As far as a permanent collection goes, I intend to keep some books when it is time for us to leave here and find good homes for as many of the remainder as possible.

Something else that seems to be a long way down the road is my own death. My health is fine. Because of something called the Great Virtual Run Across Tennessee I’ve run more miles this summer than I have since the summer of 1996. I come from long-lived stock. Both of my parents are in their 80’s and in good health for their age. My mother has lived longer than either of her parents and most of her siblings, and my father is still chasing the number of years each of his parents reached.

Death has been on my mind, intermittently, because of the kind of year this has been for ministry. I have another funeral scheduled this week, the ninth one in the past three months. A number of them have been connected to COVID-19, which all by itself is evidence of the fleeting nature of life and the quite unexpected ways and times it may come to an end. I fully believe all that scripture says about the days of my life being known to God, and so I trust that the way and time He has determined will be for the best and according to His plan. I also have no doubts about the promises He has made to hold me in His hands forever, promises we happened to share with our children in our devotional time last night.

Death’s timing and means are out of my hands, but I would like to have some influence in the way my passing will be marked by others. I’ve been thinking of this because of the number of funeral’s I’ve done of late. Ordinarily there is a rough outline I use in the church and a different one I use later at the burial. The pandemic has changed things on the reservation and so right now the entire funeral is done at the cemetery. I’ve made a hybrid service that I adapt as best I can for the particular circumstances, at least as far as I am aware of them.

From my point-of-view as a pastor the most important part of planning a funeral is picking the scripture to be preached. It is my belief that a funeral is, more than anything else, an opportunity for God’s people to gather for worship. There is often great sorrow and heavy hearts, and as we gather we praise God and turn to his word for comfort and hope. As far as faith in Jesus goes, people at a funeral are all over the place, from very committed believers to complete unbelievers. My task is to use God’s word to point all of them to the hope of the Lord Jesus.

Use God’s word, but, more specifically, which ones? Sometimes someone in the family will have a suggestion and other times no one has any idea and I offer the family that I will “use my best judgment.”

This was all going through my mind as I was thinking about the coming funeral and skimming through the Psalms. What would I want at my funeral? What I would want is for my Savior and Lord to be lifted up and for people to see some of his beauty and majesty. I would want for the grieving to be comforted and the lost to know in whom they can find their true home.

But from what text? Here are a few that come to mind, in no particular order. Psalm 97. Romans 8. Ephesians 1:3-14. John 10. Colossians 1:15-23. Hebrews 1.

Lest this blog post go one forever I’ll end with these words regarding my faithful Savior and Lord, in life and in death, from Ephesians 3:20-21:

“Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”

Tuesday, August 25, 2020

Savior? Lord? Neither? Both?

Last week a pastor I know asked this question on Facebook: “In one sentence, who is Jesus to you?”

I must have seen the question almost as soon as it was posted, because my reply was the second comment: “My Savior and Lord.”

The first comment was the opposite of mine, “My Lord and Savior.” I did look back once to see what some other answers were. I didn’t see any clues as to why he asked the question in the first place.

I did think a bit more about my answer and the one before mine. Does the order of those two roles for Jesus matter? Can Jesus be one of those things without also being the other?

For Christians, the order matters, if only slightly. Jesus is both Lord and Savior, but he needs to be my Savior first, before I live with him as my Lord. If I am still living lost in my sin, oblivious to my peril and need for his salvation, I will not really care, or even desire, for him to be my Lord. I can get along quite well as the lord of my own life, thank you. At least that is what I thought before Jesus became my Savior, at which point the folly of that line of reasoning became clear to me.

But what about the non-Christian? Is Jesus Lord? Is he Savior? Yes, and no.

Jesus is not the savior of the non-Christian. He does not save anyone who does not call on him to do so. The Buddhist, the Hindu, the Muslim, the atheist, the person claiming a generic Christian identity without personally trusting in Jesus…none of them are saved. He would very gladly and readily save any and all of them, as is made clear a number of places in the Bible, such as what Paul writes in Romans 10:9:

“If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

Is Jesus the Lord of the non-Christian? Yes, he is. Perhaps not in the personal sense, as conveyed through the words “my Lord,” but certainly in the sense that He is, and always has been, Lord of all creation.

John 1:3 says:

“All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.”

And in a post-resurrection appearance to his disciples, in Matthew 28:18 he said:

“All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me.”

The Christian understands that at the end of the day there is no one who is not accountable to the Lord Jesus.

Who is Jesus to you? It is a good question. My hope and prayer is that he is Savior and Lord, or Lord and Savior. The order is not nearly as important as that he is both of those things, to you, in a very personal sense. May Jesus be your Savior, you Lord, now and forever. Amen.