And when I came to you, brothers and sisters, I did not come as someone superior in speaking ability or wisdom, as I proclaimed to you the testimony of God. 2 For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. – 1 Corinthians 2:1-2 NASB
Sometimes, we overcomplicate it.
There is no thing that you or I can do — no method of saving ourselves — but through Jesus.
He has told you, mortal one, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God? Michah 6:8 NASB
The Council of Nicaea wrestled with what Jesus was. Was he man? Was he God? Was he a little of both, or more of one than the other? The final result was an understanding of the hypostatic union, that Jesus was both fully God, and fully human. That he holds both of these, fully, and wholly is important. Neither is diminished by the other. To suggest as such is not only heresy, but misdiagnosis of the radical nature of the gift of the Incarnation.
It is an analogy of sorts to how we can think about what God’s character is like. God is both just and merciful. Both of these exist simultaneously within him, and to have one without the other is to not have love.1
Perhaps, the idea of justice has lost some significance and meaning in 2025, as the word has been used to mean far more than intended. To be just, is, in effect, to be ordered and to bring about order. In Hebrew mishpat and in Greek dikaiosyne, both reference discerning and creating social order and are closely associated with the word righteousness. As in a just or righteous man lives an ordered life, and contributes to the order around him. Think of Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan as an example of what Jesus describes as love for a neighbor.2 An injustice had occurred in that a man had been beaten and left for dead at the side of the road. It didn’t matter his ethnicity or background, the just or righteous man helped bring order back to being. He personally footed the bill of the injustice, and righted what was wrong.
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In the midst of the political, cultural, and religious tumult of our culture, sometimes I lose my way. I can’t easily find Jesus in the crowd. When I look to others to see what they’re seeing, or what they are doing, I lose track of his calling on me.
I think of Zacchaeus the tax collector, a man who live in two worlds and who belonged to neither. (Luke 19:1-9) A Jew, who worked for Rome. Betrayer of his people. If he looked to his fellow Jews, he was chastised, and hated. If he looked to Romans he was thought of as lesser than and a means to an end. An agent for a brutal and violent empire.
The agony he must have endured.
So he climbed high to see beyond them. In the chaos of the crowds, with everyone arguing who this rabbi was, whether he was the Messiah or a heretic, Zacchaeus climbed above them. Perhaps he climbed to hide, where, in the anonymity of the foliage, he might test for himself who this Jesus was. Just to see the one of whom there was great commotion.
The beauty of the passage is that as he passed, Jesus looked directly at him. There were no Jews and no Romans, only Jesus and Zacchaeus.
Seek and you will find.
“Zacchaeus, hurry and come down because today it is necessary for me to stay at your house.” (Luke 19:5)
Jesus saw him, and knew him. Nothing else mattered, and to that Zacchaeus responded with utter abandon.
Salvation came to his house that day.
So we do not focus on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. 2 Cor. 4:8 (CSB)
Love. Connection. Friendship. Devotion. Fidelity. Sacrifice. Charity. Forgiveness.
The heart of Christian witness is to invite people to look at what they cannot see. But our sight is pre-determined by what we believe, and what we expect to see.1
To see the unseen, we must first see and believe Jesus.
“Come and see that the Lord is good.” (Psalm 34:8)
Korah’s rebellion seems like justice. It’s everything that we would say that God longs for. Equality, inclusion, and the right for others to participate in the leadership of Israel.
Moses was hogging the authority, and, seemingly, the glory.
All are equal before God. All were called out of Egypt, Korah cries out, and not just Moses. It was time that leadership started to be shared amongst more people.
They united against Moses and Aaron and said, “You have gone too far! The whole community of Israel has been set apart by the Lord, and he is with all of us. What right do you have to act as though you are greater than the rest of the Lord’s people?” Numbers 16:3 (NLT)
Fight for equality!
Except it wasn’t of God. God chose Moses, the humble, and not Korah and the others. Equailty wasn’t his end, salvation was. Saving them not only from Egypt, but from themselves, into himself.
Interestingly, Korah had to harden his heart, to go against the will of God. He had to close it off, to justify his response. It didn’t matter how right it sounded, he had to actively choose the rebellion.
How often do we do this, when we don’t like something or when it irks our own personal sense of what is right. And yet, we have to conjure up our own fury to make ourselves mad about it. God’s paternal warning is there, Stop! Child, take a step back. Let down your guard, and don’t allow your hearts to harden as in the rebellion. (Hebrews 3:8)
Your anger, oh man, does not produce God’s justice. (James 1:20)
Let me be the one to lead you. Be at peace.
Soften your heart, and listen to the prompting of God, and the one who loves you will lead you home.
An image came forward during prayer of a broken cistern. While it needed to be regularly replenished with living water, it couldn’t hold what it received as it leaked right out.
It was, in part, an image for the church.
But we can’t repair this cistern. Neither can we fill it. The Lord can. And the Lord must.
I rescued Beni from behind the church when she was just a few weeks old. She was flea ridden, emaciated, and hiding behind a garbage can close to death.
I bathed her, gave her veterinary care, nurtured and soothed her. Eventually, it seems she adopted me as her mother. Wherever I go, she goes with me, just to be in the same room. My favorite is coffee in the morning, when she sits at the chair across from me, looking at me. Often, she will nest into me in order to soothe herself. I can feel her breath and her heartbeat settle as she rests, comforted.
Sometimes, I feel it’s an image of God. God who rescued, restored, and cares for us. And God, who when we’re in distress, comforts us.
For thus says the Lord God: I myself will search for my sheep, and will seek them out. As shepherds seek out their flocks when they are among their scattered sheep, so I will seek out my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places to which they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land; and I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the watercourses, and in all the inhabited parts of the land. I will feed them with good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel shall be their pasture; there they shall lie down in good grazing land, and they shall feed on rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will make them lie down, says the Lord God. I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them with justice. Ezekiel 34:11-16 NRSV
I’m a tinkerer.
I find great joy in the wasteful pleasure of doing small, unnecessary things.
Tinkering focuses my mind and prevents it from going off in a hundred directions. It allows me to be still, and reduces stress.
I think of the old men who, in the past, would whittle, or spend countless time tamping their tobacco to get it just right. Or how, we just stare at the campfire, and poke it with a stick. Tinkering hobbies like watch modification are incredibly popular on Youtube, so apparently I’m not alone.
Mother Teresa is quoted as saying, “Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.” I like to think this is kind of a parallel to our spiritual lives. It’s not about big spiritual projects, or heroic self-improvement with manifold and verbose marathons of prayer and devotion. Maybe it’s about the small, quiet moments we tinker away, simply knowing and experiencing the presence of God by our side.
Go ahead and do it.
Before you text.
Before you write.
Before you scroll,
you’ll see Jesus.
Use this one:
“”Give the people of Israel these instructions, which apply both to native Israelites and to the foreigners living in Israel. “If any of them offer their children as a sacrifice to Molech, they must be put to death. The people of the community must stone them to death. I myself will turn against them and cut them off from the community, because they have defiled my sanctuary and brought shame on my holy name by offering their children to Molech. And if the people of the community ignore those who offer their children to Molech and refuse to execute them, I myself will turn against them and their families and will cut them off from the community. This will happen to all who commit spiritual prostitution by worshiping Molech.”
Leviticus 20:2-5 NLT
The worship of Molech was, of course, reprehensible as it involved the ritual sacrifice of children, and it often took place in a valley just outside of Jerusalem called the Valley of Hinnom. In Greek the name of this valley is Gehenna, regularly translated as hell1 in English bibles, and is used by Jesus to paint a metaphorical picture of a state or condition that is in such rebellion against God that he intends to destroy for it with fire for its sheer vileness.2
This is not a state of being with which God saddles up with compassion, but with hot rage.
What’s interesting to me is that with great evil such as this taking place within Israel, God isn’t satisfied with his people merely not participating either. They must also excise it as a cancer. Libertarian attitudes towards evil are by default association.