Devotion 8.29.23

“The great enemy of truth is very often not the lie--deliberate, contrived and dishonest--but the myth--persistent, persuasive and unrealistic. Too often we hold fast to the cliches of our forebears. We subject all facts to a prefabricated set of interpretations. We enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought."

[Commencement Address at Yale University, June 11 1962]

― John F. Kennedy

I recently had the opportunity to visit the JFK Presidential Library and Museum. I was about one when he was elected and was about four when he died. His presidency was marked by moderate successes and some failures, but in terms of impact as a president, he was middle of the pack. Two things impacted his presidency: the television and his death. He was photogenic and fit for television, and he was well-read and could deliver a speech unlike any other since maybe FDR. His death led to the elevation of his reputation to a point of hero status, some of which history has made clear wasn't quite the case, but he still has a certain effect on people based on his charm and wit mixed with his words and actions. I do enjoy reading about him as a person and politician.

JFK was, himself, myth and legend.

This quote is the opening quote of a video of JFK's life before you enter the presidential library and museum. I heard it in JFK's voice, as the entire 20-minute video is narrated by JFK, using snippets of his comments, speeches and interviews. It resonated with me so much that I came out of the video, opened my cell phone and looked it up immediately.

I'm not certain what JFK was getting at with this moment of a speech, but it did take me to what bears lies? Where do they come from? Fear, avoidance, or dread of the deed being uncovered and leading to worse than the lie? "Do I look fat in this?" is never answered by a man with, "Dear, you're chubby and anything you wear reveals that fact."

JFK touches on something deeper. The myth that bears the lie. I think of my own days in the classroom and hearing people say things like, "You can't expect much from these kids, the homes they come from, the income they lack, their family being dysfunctional." That to me is myth. Millions of kids daily show resilience and the only thing that will help them coming away from that is someone planted in their lives who has expectations of excellence.

The myth: they are poor, (race or ethnicity inserted here), or have a broken family, so we can excuse them from (performance, excellence, greatness). The lie: He's never going to amount to much, so why try to get him to learn, understand, perform?

There are hundreds of thousands of other examples, but that is one I'm most familiar with. The truth is found in scripture where we learn early that we thought we were God (myth) in Genesis 3 and fell from grace immediately. God created us in His image and yet we failed to acknowledge He is God and to trust in Him completely.

Yet God has and had then a plan. In 1 John 1 we read:

6 If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Christ is the truth. We lead our lives praying that we walk in the light, not in the darkness (the myth) and that we do not lie and deceive ourselves or others when we walk in darkness. Trusting in Christ, we pray we walk in His light and that we confess and turn to Him for forgiveness when we fail.

Devotion 8.16.23

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” Theodore Roosevelt, "Man in the Arena" from "Citizenship in a Republic" 1912

Joshua 1

9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”

I.Love.Theodore.Roosevelt. If there is a book or a series to watch on him, I've taken it in or read it.

TR was a man. A man's man in fact. He saw fatherhood as an honorable vocation, and he felt that having children was a sense of duty for love of country. He was well-read and well-written, authoring several volumes of books. He loved nature and took in all of God's creation. He was a man of faith, but it is said that he dozed off unless the minister could deliver a really strong message, a fire-and-brimstone kind of message.

He was, first and foremost, a man not locked into a period of history, but a man who made history. He learned of the importance of a modern navy and built up the navy in the US. He foresaw the country of Japan and sought to stop them from their aggression as it played out against Russia at the time, for which he won a Nobel Prize.

He was for the underdog and took on corruption in politics and in business. His love of nature caused him to establish national parks. 

For all of the "hero worship," I also realize he was a man, born into sin and a holder of sinful pride, yet his comment, "The Man in the Arena," is directed at people who intend on being active participants as citizens of their respective countries. In this case, it was France as it was moving toward a republic. TR was giving them advice as a former president that the credit belongs to the "man in the arena," who participates. That means you and me. It's beyond providing encouraging words to those who get out and give our voice or effort to a cause. It is saying the job will be hard, but it is worth it.

So, I'm taken to Joshua 1:9 as a believer when I read TR's quote. The command is clear: there may be things we fear in life as believers, but don't let that stop you from sharing the good news or exercising your faith. God is "commanding us," be strong and courageous. God tells us to not be discouraged. 

In my estimation, God is telling us the credit belongs to the man in the arena, not those cold, timid souls who neither know victory or defeat. We are commanded by God to go and share the good news. Christ made no distinctions as to the weather, nor the favorable or unfavorable political climate, but rather to go and make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28).

God is telling us that He is with us, which Christ also notes in Matthew 28, "...and lo, I am with you always...." What do we have to fear.

Devotion 8.14.23

Psalm 67

1 May God be gracious to us and bless us

    and make his face shine on us

2 so that your ways may be known on earth,

    your salvation among all nations.

3 May the peoples praise you, God;

    may all the peoples praise you.

God's people, Israel when this psalm was written, is lifting a song of thanksgiving, and lifting up a prayer of thanksgiving for God to continue to bless His people.

God's people today are a multitude of followers of Christ, which includes all nations, races, and ethnicities. So, the question is, what is the church? We go to "church." We attend "church." We invite others to "church." Sadly, church has been reduced to a facility. Some are beautiful structures, and some hold special memories in our lives. They may not be cathedrals, but they are special to us.

Yet, we are calling for God to shine his face on His people and to make our ways known on all the earth. That does not happen passively during the week as we go to and from our work, in our neighborhoods, only being "church" while at church. Israel understood, at times, its unique role as God's chosen people. Paul reflects on that in Romans 10 as he speaks about faith and its root in God's Word and hearing God's Word.

"How are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, 'How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news?'" (Romans 10:14 - 15)

Paul cites Isaiah in that passage (Is 52) We cannot believe in Christ if we do not hear and we cannot hear unless someone is sent. How beautiful, then, are those who walk among us sharing the good news.

Sharing does not isolate itself to a facility. The church is Christ's, and Christ established His church to go, not to build. While our churches are good to teach and grow its members to go and share, the going and sharing are essential to save those in our communities who do not know the good news.

We pray that God's face shine on us as we boldly proclaim God's good news. We pray we find opportunities to share that good news in our communities. We pray our church sharpens us in ways to be able to boldly proclaim that good news to our neighbors. 

Devotion 8.4.23

Psalm 136

136 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,

    for his steadfast love endures forever.

2 Give thanks to the God of gods,

    for his steadfast love endures forever.

3 Give thanks to the Lord of lords,

    for his steadfast love endures forever;

Redundancy is the best teaching and learning method. That is a fact of pedagogy (the methods of teaching). The psalmist in 136 wants us to remember the enduring trait of God: steadfast love. He spends 26 verses stating a quality of our God and then praising Him by saying "for his steadfast love endures forever."

Luther placed the Psalms high on his study list, devoting a portion of each day (seven times each day) to be in prayer with the book. His method took him through the entire book of Psalms frequently, so he is somewhat of an expert on the Psalms. Luther applied a simple study method to each psalm:

1. Look for God's voice, his instruction;
2. Look for its application in life; and, 
3. Find Christ.

Christ is God's living "steadfast love," that love that follows us each day, forgives us, renews us and strengthens us through nothing we have done. We find Christ in this psalm later in the chapter:

23 It is he who remembered us in our low estate,

    for his steadfast love endures forever;

24 and rescued us from our foes,

    for his steadfast love endures forever;

God finds us, sinners, in low estate, much like He finds Adam in the garden after the Fall, hiding. "I was afraid because I was naked, and I hid myself" (Genesis 3:10) he said, and that confession was a glimpse of life in a fallen world. Today we find ourselves in a world of hurt, ashamed, afraid, hiding, not seeking or finding comfort in the truth.

That Truth, though, gives us all of those and more through defeating our foes of sin, Satan, and death.

With that, we give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, His steadfast love endures forever.

Devotion 7.31.23

Habakkuk 2

"2 Then the Lord replied:

“Write down the revelation

    and make it plain on tablets

    so that a herald may run with it.

3 For the revelation awaits an appointed time;

    it speaks of the end

    and will not prove false.

Though it linger, wait for it;

    it will certainly come

    and will not delay."

Matt Peeples is a Lutheran Church Missouri Synod pastor located in St. Louis, MO. He is over what is called the Oikos Project and helps develop online materials for evangelist training and other ministries. He has a phrase he has used that is very true: "Mission happens at the speed of relationship."

That phrase is so well liked that the Lutheran Hour's speaker, Rev. Dr. Michael Ziegler, used it as the central theme for yesterday's message based on Habakkuk 2:3.

We are not a patient society. We want answers to come at the speed of our digital world we have created. We want solutions to our problems yesterday. Ziegler points out the length of time it took to rid some countries of the disease known as cholera, which can still have a grip on some areas of this world. The disease devastated Bangladesh, Ziegler notes, until people slowly developed trust in the medical professionals over a period of years. Those medical professionals intentionally fanned out person by person, day by day, to establish a relationship with them until they would believe in the cure.

As Matt points out, evangelism used to be a knock on a door inviting a stranger to visit your church, and maybe even worse, the popular method in the 1960s and 1970s would be to go door to door and ask, "If you were to die today, would you go to heaven or to hell?" But we learn from scripture that evangelism and mission outreach happens "at the speed of relationship."

God's revelation, Jesus Christ, came a really long time after the fall of man in the garden, and wasn't just around the corner when Habakkuk spoke on behalf of God as a prophet. God was building and refining His people from whom a savior would come, and He does that today with us. He brings us to faith and refines us for His purpose (Ephesians 2:8-10). As Matt notes, people aren't likely to respond to a stranger who comes to them unannounced, but rather someone who cares to get to know you, speak to you, learn about you and develop a relationship with you based on love (your neighbor as yourself) and care.

As we get to know our neighbors, pray we share with them that Good News as we develop those relationships. Ask God to give us words to use to share and to speak to them boldly and with confidence as we get to know them and walk with them. Mission outreach is not just the role of the pastor. It is each of ours to nurture and develop in our daily walk. Pray we fulfill the Great Commission Christ set before us. 

Devotion 7.26.23

Hebrews 12

"“My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline,

    and do not lose heart when he rebukes you,

6 because the Lord disciplines the one he loves,

    and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.”

I have been listening to a digital copy of Jordan Peterson's "12 Rules for Life" (Canada, Random House, 2018). It is fascinating. I first heard Peterson interviewed a year ago, but I had heard favorable comments about him.

Peterson is fascinating in that he's very well-educated and well-read, a clinical psychologist by trade, but he's grounded. He isn't the random professor in front of the class who is absent-minded and wanders off topic, then wanders from the room because his mind switched to a phone call he forgot to make before he came to class. Peterson is clear, concise, and he makes his point which may offend the listener yet is hard to argue with. 

His chapters in his book are the rules themselves, and chapter five is, "Don't let your children do anything that makes you dislike them." It's a trip down how to raise your child well, and also it is a painful reminder of those things I failed to do as a parent.

In the chapter, he notes what a parent does that makes a child adapt behaviors that can, in the long run, be detrimental to their mastery of life skills. Allowing your child to behave in a manner that is unfit for the occasion is one such area he discusses, The fit being thrown for the world to see and hear, while the parent remains passive, counts to three, then four, five and six while the child remains loud and out of sorts as people begin to take notice. The parent who sets few or no boundaries for the child leaving broad latitude for the situation is another area he discusses. Rules and boundaries are meant to be set, not negotiated with by a two- or three-year-old (or older).

Not disciplining your child, actively, leave him or her unable to master life skills to deal with the chaos we call life, as Peterson notes, God's discipline His children, us to help us master skills necessary to navigate the chaos of this world, a chaos created at the Fall of Adam. God created order in the six working days of creation in Genesis 1 as Robert Kolb notes in his book on faith, The Christian Faith (St. Louis, Concordia Publishing, 1993). Chaos was reintroduced thanks to disobedience by Adam. God has been disciplining us ever since.

As a parent, we do these things because we love our children. Our sinful nature makes us resistant, but God, who is faithful and just, does the same with us because He loves us as well.

Pray for wisdom and guidance as a parent, mentor, guide or one who is turned to for advice. Ask God for strength, because kids will test those boundaries (especially in those teen years). Ask God for clarity, because, as Peterson notes, in the end, we want to "like" our children.

Devotion 7.12.23

Psalm 62

1 Truly my soul finds rest in God;

    my salvation comes from him.

2 Truly he is my rock and my salvation;

    he is my fortress, I will never be shaken.

Summer is the time for vacation traditionally. That was the message the Sunday I led our service with our pastor and his family out on the great American vacation. We plan vacations, and more often than not we find ourselves much like Clark Griswold, with the greatest laid plans gone awry. 

Why is that? Over expectations can be one reason. We hope for perfection and when it, like life, is less than perfect, we find ourselves disappointed. Poor planning and not really knowing what lies ahead or how to get there, or too much planning and little room for moments that arise and surprise us. Poor budget planning for the unexpected. Today with air travel, that itself can lead to problems. Family dynamics also play a part. Being together that long will certainly find a way of getting into the cracks and crevices of relationships.

Where do we go to rest and escape? In this life, any earthly refuge we seek will have ups and downs, highs and lows, and the potential to disappoint.

David, today's psalmist, tells us where he finds refuge. Christ, too, invites us to turn to him to seek rest in Matthew 11. Christ is our refuge, our rock, our salvation. In Him, we find rest.