Crosswalk.com--The Devotional

[Judy Harder]

November 12, 2010

The End of the Fugitive's Flight
Katherine Britton, News & Culture Editor- Crosswalk.com

"God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross." Colossians 2:13-14, ESV

Precious few of us have personal experience with chains and slavery, and I thank God for his grace in letting me enter a free world. But we're not so far removed from those times. America did away with her "peculiar institution" less than 150 years ago. A very short span of history divides us from American slaves, and many verified narratives of life in slavery are right at our fingertips. Living post-Civil Rights Act, what those pages contain - especially if the writer was a woman - will make most readers gag. It's a hard part of American history to swallow.   

Harriet A. Jacobs, who left free Americans a staggering narrative, recorded her journey out of slavery with remarkable restraint considering what she endured. For one thing, she spent seven years confined to a shed attic while hiding from her master, who had made frequent advances on her despite being a married man. Small wonder she risked everything to flee.

When Jacobs eventually made to New York, the threat of slavery followed her. She refused to regard herself as chattel, but life after the Fugitive Slave Law forced that reality on her. She scoured newspapers for that day's social news of hotel arrivals, praying no white Southerner or obsequious Black who knew her would appear. On multiple occasions, she had to flee the city to avoid detection.

After one close call, a wealthy white friend flouted Jacobs wishes and purchased her freedom. After spending so many years looking over her shoulder, her legal status was no longer in question. She wrote,

"I had objected to having my freedom bought, yet I must confess that when it was done I felt as if a heavy load had been lifted from my weary shoulders. When I road home in the cars I was no longer afraid to unveil my face and look at people as they passed. I should have been glad to have met Daniel Dodge [her mistress's husband] himself, to have had him seen me and known me, that he might have mourned over the untoward circumstances which compelled him to sell me for three hundred dollars."

She knew how desperately important the law's demands were on her life. Her courage and human dignity could not negate the law of the land, no matter how terrible. Her legal status impacted every area of her life.

Spiritually, that's us.

Knowing that Christ fulfilled the legal obligations, we are free. That means free from condemnation, God's displeasure, and the power of sin. We don't have to keep looking over our shoulder, hoping sin and judgment won't overtake us.

Intersecting Faith & Life: Galations 4:7 offers this promise: "You are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God." Look how dramatically our fate changes! So why do act like we're still a slave to sin? Or that God is scowling at us? The papers are signed, and no one can take us back to life before our redemption. Are you living this freedom today?

[Judy Harder]

 
November 15, 2010 


Enduring Hurled Stones
by Fred Alberti - Director of Social Media, Salem Web Network

Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses. 1 Timothy 6:12

Stephen was just an ordinary believer that God chose to use in an extraordinary way. He was chosen by the church leaders to assist in meeting the needs of the widowed church members. God chose to use him to work miracles and preach.

I like his speech recorded in Acts chapter 7. I can just imagine seeing the religious leaders drumming their fingers as he recounted Jewish history... they knew all of this already of course. But their drumming fingers soon came to be clenched fists as Stephen began to drive home their hard-headedness. It didn't take long before those clenched fingers were clutching stones waiting to be hurled in Stephen's direction.

You know, Stephen could have stopped at anytime. This wasn't his job; he was just supposed to make sure everyone got their food. Who would have blamed him? His life was in danger. But he didn't stop; he chose to allow himself to be swept away by the Spirit.

How about it?

Are you willing to be used by God?

Intersecting Faith & Life: Will you take a stand for Jesus regardless of the cost? Maybe you've been pounded by one to many stones. Take heart... Jesus is standing to the right of the Father. Be brave. Be strong. He will sustain you.

Further Reading

Acts 7
Psalm 46
The God of All Encouragement, by Adrian Rogers

[Judy Harder]

November 16, 2010

Thanksgiving: For Richer or Poorer
by Shawn McEvoy

"Christians who are poor should be glad, for God has honored them." James 1:9

The rich eat ham,
The poor eat tuna.
Doesn't take as long to cook,
So we eat soona.
--Jay Henze

The words of that heretofore unknown poem were uttered by my lifelong best friend sometime around our senior year of high school. He conjured it out of thin air while I was spending the night at his house. It was the result of one of those "I'm so tired I'm laughing at anything" sessions you'd often experience with close friends around midnight.

It was also the result of Jay's enduring awareness of the socio-economic differences between himself and many of his friends, like me, from the affluent north side of town. So whenever I think of ham, tuna, or Jay, I often think of richness and poorness as well.

Recently, thanks to a fantastic tour around the Missionary Learning Center, I was thinking about missions and outreach. It struck me as interesting that whenever a mission of mercy or evangelism is commissioned, it tends to be to an area where there is a high concentration of poverty, whether it's to India, Mexico, or inner-city Philadelphia. Well, yes, as it should be.

After all, Christ commanded us, if we loved Him, to tend to His lambs (John 21:15-17). James 2:15-16 admonishes us not to ignore those in need of food or clothing. Paul and the Apostles started churches among those who were poor (Acts 9:36; 10:4). Poverty was crippling in the time of Christ and so it continues to be now. The very fact that Jay had a roof over his head and the fish he despised came in a can rather than him having to catch it made him one of the wealthiest persons on the planet. So the holidays are certainly a time to think about - nay, physically assist - those less fortunate than ourselves (2 Corinthians 9:9).

Then again, are we missing something?

Consider James 1:9 - "Christians who are poor should be glad, for God has honored them." There are lots of ways to be poor, and Jesus told us they brought about blessing in the long run (Matthew 5:3-12). Those poor in spirit will inherit the kingdom of heaven. Those mourning loved ones will be comforted. Those who make peace rather than seeking their own profit will be called sons of God, Who chose the poor of this world to be rich in faith (James 2:5). 2 Corinthians 6:10 states: "Our hearts ache, but we always have joy. We are poor, but we give spiritual riches to others. We own nothing, and yet we have everything."

And what about the rich?

That's the hard part, literally. Jesus said it's very difficult for the wealthy to enter the kingdom of heaven. Those who love their life too much find it hard to lose it. James reminds us it's the rich who "oppress us and drag us into court, blaspheming the fair name by which we've been called (James 2:6-7)." The word "miserable" has at its root the word "miser." The love of money isn't just the source of evil, but also of depression and dissatisfaction.

So... doesn't that mean that the rich have just as many spiritual needs, if not more, than the poor? Who will go to them? Who will train them in the joy of giving their money away and not living by comparison to others? What mission trips are planned?

I contend that untold legions of us are making such a trip this very month, back home to our families and friends, where a big ham might fill the center of the table, people will put on their fineries, and a lot of the talk will focus on the daily drudgeries of keeping our precious lives in working order to cover up the hole that's getting bigger in the soul.

We might spend a few minutes at the table saying how we're thankful we're not like others, or that we have our health, or that our family is with us - before we stuff ourselves, stare blankly at the Dallas Cowboys or Detroit Lions to avoid looking at each other, or fall asleep. Of course, you probably know someone for whom Thanksgiving is an unwelcome chore, a painful experience of dodging rejection, annoyance, questions of future or romance, and Uncle Jimbo.

Or, if you're truly rich, as I am for marrying into a godly family, there will be genuine thanks, true giving, heartfelt prayers, and corporate worship.

Whatever the case in your gathering, let me encourage you to take the love of Christ with you and accept the difficult challenge of bringing it to the wealthy this Thanksgiving. Jesus said a camel fitting through a needle's-eye was difficult, not impossible (thank goodness for most of us).

Intersecting Faith & Life: While you're together, try to figure out a way your clan can come together to do something for the impoverished among us. Without that outpouring, the warm comfort of wealth can grow stale and dry. Meanwhile, the next time you think on the cloud of poverty and those who suffer at its chill, remember that, at least in the biblical view, it carries a silver lining of comfort, inheritance, peace, and, I suppose, eating soona. And if those elements are present at your table, then you have a cornucopia indeed.

Further Reading

1 Timothy 6:6-11
Matthew 5
Make Your Life Rich without Money

[Judy Harder]

November 17, 2010

Christ Did Not Ascend into the Realm of Mere Religious Ideas
by Alex Crain, Editor, Christianity.com

"Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus." Romans 6:11 NASB

We live in a world in which critics of Christianity consider the Gospel accounts of Jesus' life, death, resurrection and ascension completely absurd. They count us, His followers, to be fools. They must. They have no other choice. And we do not live by their opinions.

Rather, we pray and live in such a way so that God might use us to open their eyes to the reality of Christ's resurrection. He is Lord of all and is seeing history through to its appointed end. Nothing can change this.

One way that God opened my eyes to the truth of Christ years ago was by putting me in the company of a Christian who had moved past his fear-of-man issues and was living out the verse above. I remember that he even explained his faith to me, a skeptic, in terms of Romans 6 as if it were true in present history—in real space and time. It was unsettling.

He had mentioned reading Francis Schaeffer, whose book True Spirituality I am currently working through on "Crosswalk the Devotional." This week, in chapter three, Schaeffer dwells upon the Romans 6 message about the necessity of the Christian to believe that he has really been joined in union with Christ. Schaeffer points out from Romans 6 that this is the essential message of the Christian life.

From what I can tell, skeptics and critics who suspect that Christians are just trying to make them conform to a moral or political agenda really don't know what to do with the undiluted message of Christianity—that of being spiritually united with Christ. Quoting Schaeffer:

This is the basic consideration of the Christian life.
First, Christ died in history. Second, Christ rose in history.
Third, we died with Christ in history, when we accepted Him as Savior.
Fourth, we will be raised in history, when He comes again.
Fifth, we are to live by faith now as though we were now dead, as though we have already died.
Sixth, we are to live now by faith as though we have now already been raised from the dead.

What this means to the true believer is that the world's power to conform us to its way of thinking and living is broken. All things look different now.

Paraphrasing Schaeffer:

How can we conform to that which is so marred, so broken, so caught up in revolution against God? The praise of the world is worthless when one has stood in the presence of God. The wealth of the world is worthless when one has seen the treasure of heaven. What is earthly power after one has seen the reality of heaven and the power of God?

And this is not a matter of projecting our imaginations. We recognize that the Lord Jesus Christ indeed lives in the presence of the Father (Rom. 6:10), and this is where we are called to live, alive to God in communion with Him, in communication with Him—saying "thank you" in all the ebb and flow of life.

When I am dead both to good and bad [circumstances that happen to me], I have my face turned towards God. And this is the place in which, by faith at the present moment of history, I am to be.

When I am there, what am I? I am then the creature in the presence of my Creator. It is though I am already in the grave, and already before the face of God. When through faith I am dead to all, and am face to face with God, then I am ready by faith to come back into this present world as though I have already been raised from the dead. It is as though I anticipate that day when I will come back.

Our primary call, then, is to be alive to God moment by moment. Our "doing good" should not become a thing in itself and thus spoil the most basic call of being alive to the presence of God.

Christ was not raised mythically. He did not ascend into the realm of mere religious ideas. He was raised historically in space and time. He lives presently and sustains all things by the word of His power. The dominion of sin is broken. Because He lives, we can live free from conformity to the world and be alive in the presence of our Creator.

Intersecting Faith & Life: 

Are you joined in union with Christ? Is yours a Christless Christianity that is more focused on your own goals, fears and feelings than what is historically and presently true of Christ?

Further Study on the Validity of the Christian Worldview:
Dr. Greg Bahnsen's peerless lectures: "Basic Training for Defending the Faith" (YouTube)

[Judy Harder]

November 18, 2010 

Two for One

John UpChurch, Editor, Jesus.org

concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, (Romans 1:3-4, ESV) 


When people looked at Jesus - the carpenter from Nazareth, Mary's boy - they saw a human being. With His posse of disciples, He rolled into town on two legs, walking like anyone else would. He didn't float, fly, beam in, or suddenly appear. He ambulated.

That's what we were supposed to see.

God's Son came, according to human reckoning, as a descendant of an ancient earthly king that nobody in the world cared about beyond Judea. David died too long ago to matter, especially since Rome had its foot on Jerusalem's throat. Most Jews cared, of course, but they prayed for a type of Messiah that God never intended. Romans yawned, all while keeping a careful eye out for sedition.

But when Jesus appeared - first as a baby and then in the wilderness with John the Baptist - human eyes couldn't see what the Father could. Human eyes couldn't see that the Son had always been the Son, had created everything from the rings of Jupiter to the bubble of air under our fingernails, had voluntarily put aside the glory of heaven to make a much anticipated appearance and bring about the climax of history.

Human eyes can only see flesh, dirt, and blood. So, God gave us that. He put on the flesh, traveled along the dirty roads, and ultimately let the blood fall. We get to see all of that from our side of the sky - all the tangible evidence of love run wild. God knew we needed a Man from Nazareth to breathe in our oxygen. So, we got it.

When Jesus died, He got chucked into the grave like any other human being. According to the flesh, as Paul put it, everything happened like it always does. Humans die; the world keeps spinning on its axis; and the people in Rome would never have known. What's one more dead Jewish guy to them?

But human reckoning doesn't stop God. He knows how to make a point. Jesus said on many occasions, "I'm the Son of God." The resurrection says, "You bet." Jesus said, "I am the truth and the life." The resurrection says, "This guy knows what He's talking about. Better listen." Jesus said, "Nobody comes to the Father except through me." The resurrection says, "Don't get that one wrong, or you'll sizzle like an egg on a Texas sidewalk." 
Intersecting Faith & Life: 

The dual nature of Christ is not an unimportant side issue of salvation. When Paul introduced himself to the Romans, he first of all laid out why Jesus mattered to Jews and Gentiles alike. God became human - specifically a descendant of David - but He was always God. The resurrection makes that part difficult to ignore.

Paul summarizes all of this by calling Him "Jesus Christ our Lord." You've got Jesus, meaning "Savior"; Christ, meaning "God's chosen"; and Lord - or kurios (koo'-ree-os) - meaning "the Big Guy."

In other words, Paul's telling us it matters - it matters more than anything else.

Further Reading

Acts 1

1 Thessalonians 1

[Judy Harder]

 
November 19, 2010

I'm Ready for My Close-Up
by Laura MacCorkle, Crosswalk.com Senior Editor

"Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.  See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." Psalm 139:23-24, NIV 

"I'm ready for my close-up."

How often have you heard people repeat this phrase from the 1950 American film noir, Sunset Boulevard?  It's usually said in jest, but it refers to the storyline's aging silent-movie star, Norma Desmond, who says it as she is trying to make a comeback to the big screen. 

No doubt she spent some time in front of a magnifying mirror so that she would look just right and perhaps cover up a wrinkle or two before the cameras came in too close.  And if you're a woman, then you can certainly identify. 

We of the female species want to look good, and we sometimes need a magnifying mirror to help us out a little.  Either you've got to see up close to pluck your eyebrows or perhaps you need some sort of triple magnification to make sure you don't poke the mascara wand in your eye.  And if you're a man, well, I don't know why you would need one.  So that's between you and your mirror. 

For us ladies, however, a magnifying mirror can be a blessing and a curse.  It's blessing in that it helps you to see what you can't see normally with the naked eye.  But the mirror is also somewhat of a curse in that you may not like what you see or you might see something you don't want to see—as in wrinkles, blemishes, or random hairs.  When that happens, well you just hope to goodness that no one else has seen what it's taken a magnifying mirror to point out to you!

As believers, we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28) under a most divine magnifying mirror—whether we realize that or not.  David refers to God's continual examination of our lives in Psalm 139:

O LORD, you have searched me and you know me ... Where can I go from your Spirit?  Where can I flee from your presence? ... For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb ...All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be ... Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.  See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

Who of us in our sinful states welcomes this kind of scrutiny?  Who of us wants someone to get that close to us, to see every single thought and motive and the ugly pride and selfishness that we try to keep covered up in our lives?

Now, reread all of Psalm 139 and think about this type of close examination once more.  How do you see it now?

This is really a love letter, my friend.  David understood and got how much God truly loves us—no matter what.  He is the one who created our "inmost being" and saw our "unformed body" when it was woven together.  He is omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent.  He knows us better than we know ourselves!

David welcomed his close-up with his heavenly Father, and he responded to God's unchanging, unconditional, unmerited love.  So why do I fear letting God examine me?  Why do you?

If we truly want to be obedient to our Master and our King, then we will always be ready for our close-ups and will want him to see into every area of our lives as we seek to live for him. 

In grateful response, may we all aim to magnify the Lord today and let our lives reflect his glory.

Intersecting Faith & Life:

What are you afraid of letting God see in your life?  Do you know that he already knows about whatever it is you're trying to keep from him?  Be like David and praise the Lord for knowing you better than anyone else ("such knowledge is too wonderful for me") and ask him to "lead you in the way everlasting."

Further Reading:

Deuteronomy 31:6, NIV
Jeremiah 17:10, NIV

[Judy Harder]

November 22, 2010 
The Lesson of Lasagna
by Katherine Britton, Crosswalk.com News & Culture Editor

"Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer, saying, 'Thus far has the LORD helped us.'" - 1 Samuel 7:12

Life in the Peters household produced a frenetic Christmas just about every year, but that year eclipsed them all. I was eleven years old when two game-changers happened in quick succession. First, in early November, my youngest sister was born. My twin brothers hadn't yet turned two, so daily life included diaper changes for three kids in addition to the newborn routine. Just a month later, my dad was ferrying me home from a Christmas cookie exchange when a truck broadsided us. Multiple injuries kept Dad laid up for a couple weeks, right in the midst of Christmas parities and preparation.

The body of Christ carried many burdens for my overwhelmed family during the crazy season that followed. Friends cleaned the house, washed laundry, babysat so my exhausted mother could nap, put lights on our Christmas tree, took us kids Christmas shopping, and more. Even as a kid, I noticed how many people set aside their holiday bustle to lend a hand.   

What I remember best, though, is the lasagna.

Church members consistently supplied us with hot meals when we would otherwise have eaten cold cereal, given the circumstances. I remember lots and lots of casseroles during the Christmas season, and - I must embarrassingly admit - my childish tastes invited me to turn up my nose at many of them. Especially the lasagna, which I barely tolerated in the best of times. During those two months, we choked down veggie lasagna that I thought tasted like printer paper, picked at lasagna surfeited with cottage cheese (I still despise cottage cheese), rejoiced over meat-lovers lasagna, and tried to get away with eating just the garlic bread someone brought as a side dish. Lord bless the folks that brought us that signature casserole, but after New Years I never wanted to see lasagna again. Ever.

Of course, the years have chugged along, I swapped out my last name, and I reticently reversed course on lasagna. The casserole has that sweetly sentimental quality of Grandma's cookies now, always reminding me of those crazy two months that began with a birth and closed with a year's end. It's my "edible Ebenezer," if you will. I know that might sound flippant, but I can't help but remember how God provided for my family during a rough patch when I smell that smell. To me, lasagna will always be synonymous with a church's love. 

Intersecting Faith & Life: As we enter the week of Thanksgiving, when food and memories intertwine so closely, look around for the Ebenezer stones in your own life. What past events can you point to and say, "Yes, the Lord helped us there." Tell your family and friends the stories of God's grace and provision, so they too will "forget none of his benefits" (Psalm 103:2). We serve a faithful God - let's remember to look back on those markers.

Further Reading:

Crosswalk the Devotional - June 18, 2008
Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing

[Judy Harder]

November 23, 2010

When God Whispered

by Fred Alberti - Director of Social Media, Salem Web Network

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
2 Timothy 3:16-17

My four year old son had to learn 2 Timothy 3:16 for AWANA. One of the leaders was concerned and stated that there was just no way the children could grasp the idea of Scripture being "God-breathed." So we decided to ask my son to explain what "God-breathed" meant.

You know I think we are sometimes too quick to underestimate a child's ability to understand the truths of the Bible. We are so quick to dismiss their abilities yet this is what Jesus had to say in Matthew 11:25, "At that time Jesus said, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children."

Jesus knew what children could understand.

I recently was walking through a nature trail. The leaves rustled underfoot and the sun shone out over the lake next to the trail inviting me to stop and reflect on God's glory. I found a bench and while I sat there I heard the breeze whispering through the tops of the trees. Just a slight hushed sound and my thoughts. That's when I pondered on my son's words.

What did my son say?

He said, "Well, God-breathed means that..." and here he lowered his voice, "God whispered it."

Wow... God whispered His Word.

Peter said, "...you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit" (2 Peter 1:20-21).

Our Bible isn't just some compilation of stories. It is the very Word of God whispered into the hearts and minds of men who were selected to be his special vessels to communicate His good news.

How about you?

Have you, like Elijah, heard the "still small voice" of the Lord bringing you comfort, encouragement, and guidance?

If not, maybe you need to spend some time to just be still and maybe in His time you'll hear His whisper in your heart too.

Intersecting Faith & Life: Go for a walk in a park or through a quiet museum and find a quiet place where you can be still before the Lord.

Further Reading

1 Kings 19:9-18
Hebrews 4:11-13
Inward Stillness

[Judy Harder]

 
November 24, 2010 

Anything and Everything
by Shawn McEvoy, Crosswalk.com Managing Editor

"He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all--how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?" Romans 8:32

My children, aged almost-five and almost-three, know my weakness.

They know it's not ice cream, baseball, or their mom's chili... or even a hug or puppy-dog eyes from them.

See, none of the above make me cry (although the chili almost did once). Yes, my children have seen their father cry. It's not something I wanted, or intended. I'm a man, after all. I go to work, show my strength. I coach, help, show, point, and guide. I communicate, discipline, and lead. I pray. I do not cry.

...Except when I read Shel Silverstein's The Giving Tree, that is.

And like I said, my children know this. And oh, do they twist that knife, the little devils. We must own a couple hundred children's books, but if it's a night where Daddy is doing the bedtime reading rather than Mommy, what do they invariangly pick (while smirking)? Of course! The Giving Tree!

I've been reading this book, first published in 1964, since I myself was a child, and no matter how many times I do, I am unable to de-sensitize. I mean, when I watch the movie Field of Dreams and Ray has a catch with his ghost-dad, that gets me. But if I see the scene over and over within a certain time frame? Nah. No sweat, no tears. But this blasted children's book... well... what's going on here?

First of all, you're probably wondering that very thing if you aren't familiar with the story. A tree and a boy are the best of friends during an idyllic childhood for the young man where he eats apples from the tree, climbs her trunk, swings from her branches, and rests in her shade. Then things change, as things do, and we see the boy approach the tree at all the various stages of his life, caught up - understandably, even - more in wanting and needing than in just being. Every time he has a "need," the tree obliges... and is happy for having done so. She doesn't have much, but gives all she has until eventually, she is nothing but a stump. At the end of all things, however, it turns out a stump is just what the old man needs - a quiet place to sit down and rest and reflect. "And the tree was happy. The end."

And I am undone... again.

Is it because I am reading the story to my children, and I know our stories will be very much like that of the tree and the boy, where they are my delight but eventually I must simply become provider as they go out into the world? Yes and no.

Is it because our family copy of the book - the one I read to the kids - carries an inscription from my wife on our first Christmas as husband and wife that says, "With God's help, may I love you like this"? Yes and no.

Is it because I once read the book aloud at at emotional family Thanksgiving, illustrating how we too infrequently practice the "giving" half of the word? Yes and no.

Is it because as my father lay dying seven years ago that I told him of the story (he wasn't familiar with it), and how he had been that tree for me? That's definitely part of it. My mother, I remember, commented that she didn't recall it being a "Christian" book. I didn't really have an answer to that, only to what I saw in it. Which is...

Complete love to the point of emptying. Unquestioning sacrifice, even for someone who isn't appreciating or understanding what they've been given. A desire only to have communion. An entering into final rest. In other words, a perfect example of the immensity of what Jesus did for me, desired from me, provides for me, and will carry me to.

That is why I always cry.

So every time I finish the story, eyes full of tears, my kids look at me as if to say, "Are you okay?" My little one asks, "Why you cry, Dad?" And every time I explain, I think she understands just the tiniest bit more. These are tears of being overwhelmed by the enormity of the giver and the gift. I only pray these children will open their hearts and receive it, and that they won't miss the other lesson: all our Giver really wants in return is our time, for us to come to Him as we did as children.

Intersecting Faith & Life: But can any of us actually hope to become more like the tree in the story? Parents know what it means to give every last ounce of everything they are to the betterment of their children. We have reason for doing so. Do you know anyone who empties themselves this way for those they don't have a familial reason to love? What steps can you take to emulate their Christ-like, unconditional love?

Further Reading

Giving is What Living is All About
2 Corinthians 8:3-12

[Judy Harder]

November 25, 2010 

The Christian Faith Is Not a Leap in the Dark
Alex Crain
Editor, Christianity.com

"...we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal."
2 Corinthians 4:18 NASB

We can divide the universe into two categories of reality: the material and the non-material; or that which is seen and that which is not seen. In talking about unseen reality, I'm obviously not talking about things that must be relegated to fantasy or pure imagination. Rather, I'm talking about unseen (yet real) fixed concepts which our world operates by constantly. Take, for example...

Moral absolutes (e.g. Child abuse is wrong.)
The uniformity of nature (e.g. We live on the assumption that planets and stars move in a predictable fashion. On this assumption we plan trips not only to grandma's house, but to the moon and beyond.)
Universal Laws of Thought* (e.g. The principle of contradiction: a maxim stated by Aristotle as: "contradictory propositions are not true simultaneously." [cf. Aristotle's Metaphysics, 1011b13-14]) Avicenna is said to have put it more colorfully, "Anyone who denies the law of non-contradiction should be beaten and burned until he admits that to be beaten is not the same as not to be beaten, and to be burned is not the same as not to be burned.
These are all things that are real, yet are unseen. Laws of thought and moral absolutes may not be able to be weighed, measured or stored in a cupboard, but we count on them and live by them every day just the same.

From what I've observed, both children and adults in Christian circles struggle at times with the things they are called to believe in. God seems like a distant idea. Doctrine seems far removed from day-to-day life. At times, you or someone you love may be tempted with the thought, "I wonder if God, salvation, heaven and hell is all just a made up fairy tale."

At that point you should take a step back and remember that everyone has a faith in their particular view of the world. Worldviews need to be evaluated by whether or not they account for the unseen realities mentioned above. Fortunately, biblical Christianity (not to be confused with tainted, politicized, or hypocritical forms of Christianity that bear no resemblance to the life and message of Jesus Christ) is a worldview that is well able to account for these unseen realities. The biblical God (note well, not just general theism) capably undergirds all unseen moral absolutes, natural constants and universals. Other competing worldviews are weighed in the balance and found wanting.

When we are called on to believe in the indwelling of the Holy Spirit (2 Corinthians 5:5), we should recognize that this is another unseen reality. The truths of Galatians 2:20 belong in the category of the unseen as well...

"I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me." (Gal. 2:20)

Let's not gloss over the fact that we are called to believe in unseen things. But at the same time let's not jump to the wrong conclusion that Christ asks us to take an idiotic leap in the dark. We all believe in well-founded unseen things everyday.

This week in chapter four of Francis Schaeffer's True Spirituality (I'm reading through the works of Schaeffer and posting about it regularly here at Crosswalk the Devotional), he calls our attention to this biblical view of truth by underscoring that there are "two streams, two strands of space-time reality—one in the seen, and one in the unseen..."

"[God] is not asking us merely to act on some psychological motivation, but on what really is... there is a Holy Spirit who has been given to us to make service possible.

"The Christian dead, including my loved ones, are already with Christ now, and Christ really lives in the Christian. Christ lives in me.

"Here is true Christian mysticism—not based on content-less experience, but on historic, space-time reality—on propositional truth. Christian mysticism is communion with Christ. It is Christ bringing forth fruit through me, the Christian, with no loss of personality.

"He is the Christ who has died, whose work is finished, who is raised, who is ascended, who is glorified. It is this Christ. Not simply an idea. It is the Christ who was seen after the resurrection... by Stephen, by Paul, by John."

Let's walk on today, confidently believing in these unseen realities—Christ was not raised mythically; Jesus, the apostles and the Christian martyrs were not liars; and "the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who is given unto us" (Romans 5:5).

Intersecting Faith & Life:  Are you at a loss for words when asked why you believe in unseen things? Learn how to converse with others in terms of their own beliefs in unseen things (like moral absolutes, etc.), and help them discover the worldview that is charged with the majesty and grandeur of God.

For Further Study:
What Is a Worldview? Dr. James Sire
Introduction to Worldviews (series of lectures) Dr. Greg Bahnsen