Rejected by man

Isaiah 53:3-4 (NIV)

3 He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem. 4 Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted.

There were those who knew the good works of Christ, yet He was rejected and made to suffer. Then He took up our sin on the cross and bore our suffering. Some believed God was punishing Him, but it was God’s plan all along to offer the perfect sacrifice for man’s sin through Jesus Christ Our Lord.

In 1927, the famous English poet and essayist T.S. Eliot became a Christian and was baptized and confirmed. Prior to his conversion, Eliot belonged to London's Bloomsbury Group, a small, informal association of artists and intellectuals who lived and worked in the Bloomsbury area of central London. But when news of Eliot's conversion hit the news, the Bloomsbury Group responded with shock and even disgust. The writer Virginia Woolf, the de facto leader of the group, penned the following letter to one of her peers:

I have had a most shameful and distressing interview with dear Tom Eliot, who may be called dead to us all from this day forward. He has become a [believer] in God and immortality, and he goes to church. I was shocked. A corpse would seem more credible than he is. I mean, there's something obscene in a living person sitting by the fire and believing in God.  [Joseph Loconte, A Hobbit, A Wardrobe, and a Great War (Thomas Nelson, 2015), pp. 124-125]

How God wants us to live!

Psalm 62:7 (NIV)

7 My salvation and my honor depend on God; he is my mighty rock, my refuge.

God is out rock, the place where we can go when we face despair. Our salvation comes from God and it upon God whom we trust.

The 1960 film Pollyanna starring Hayley Mills, based on the novel by Eleanor H. Porter, written in 1913 was released. The lead character's full name was Pollyanna Whittier. After the death of her parents she went to live with her wealthy but rather unpleasant Aunt Polly in Vermont. The approach Pollyanna took to life was highly optimistic, to say the least. She called it "The Glad Game". Regardless of the circumstances in which you find yourself, you must always find something to be glad about. Pollyanna first thought of the game when instead of a doll for Christmas she ended up with only a pair of crutches. She made up the game on the spot, determined to look on the bright side of things. In this case, she was glad she had crutches because she didn't need to use them! And that's something to be glad about!

Playing "the glad game" is about the only thing that enabled Pollyanna to survive in the house of her Aunt. When she is confined in the attic, she is "glad" that there is at least a beautiful view from a high window. When she is punished for being late and her dinner is only bread and milk, she is again "glad" because she at least has something to eat.

Pollyanna's philosophy of life is genuinely put to the test when she is hit by a car and loses the use of both legs. Lying in bed, she comes to grips with the severity of her situation. But instead of falling into depression or bitterness, she decides she can at least be glad that she has her legs, even if they don't do her much good. Pollyanna eventually is sent to a hospital where she learns to walk again and thus once more finds a good reason to be glad.

God tells us to be thankful for everything that comes our way, not just the good, but also the bad. Pollyanna showed it was possible as she found gladness even in the moment of despair. This how God wants us to live.

Strength from The Lord

Ephesians 6:10-11 (NIV)

10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.

The Apostle reminds us to believe in the mighty power of the Lord so we will be strong and find mighty power and courage to do things that stand against the devil’s schemes.

Hacksaw Ridge, a November 2016 movie produced by Mel Gibson, features the true story of Pfc. Desmond T. Doss, who won the Congressional Medal of Honor despite refusing to bear arms during WWII on religious grounds. Doss, a Christian who wouldn't touch a weapon or work on the Sabbath, enlisted in the Army as a combat medic because he believed in the cause, but had vowed not to kill. The Army wanted nothing to do with him. His fellow soldiers considered him a pest, questioned his sincerity, and threw shoes at him while he prayed. Doss' commanding officer, Capt. Jack Glover, tried to get him transferred. In a documentary based on Doss' life, Glover says Doss told him, "Don't ever doubt my courage because I will be right by your side saving life while you take life."

At Okinawa in the spring of 1945, Doss' company faced a grueling task: Climb a steep, jagged cliff—sometimes called Hacksaw Ridge—to a plateau where thousands of heavily armed Japanese soldiers were waiting for them. The terrain was treacherous. Under a barrage of gunfire and explosions, Doss crawled on the ground from wounded soldier to wounded soldier. He dragged severely injured men to the edge of the ridge, tied a rope around their bodies and lowered them down to other medics below. In the documentary, Doss says: "I was praying the whole time. I just kept praying, 'Lord, please help me get one more.'" Veteran Carl Bentley, who was also at Hacksaw Ridge, once said, "It's as if God had his hand on [Doss'] shoulder. It's the only explanation I can give."

Pfc. Demond T. Doss saved 75 men—including his captain, Jack Glover—over a 12-hour period. The same soldiers who had shamed him now praised him. "He was one of the bravest persons alive," Glover says in the documentary. "And then to have him end up saving my life was the irony of the whole thing."

[Adapted from Elizabeth Blair, "The Real 'Hacksaw Ridge' Soldier Saved 75 Souls Without Ever Carrying A Gun," NPR Morning Edition (11-4-16)]

Christ is The Way

Acts 4:10;12 (NIV)

10 then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed.

12 Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”

The testimony of Peter and John about the death of Jesus Christ, His resurrection, and the salvation He brought to save mankind.

"I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except by me." I [Dale Bruner] had a personal, yet very public experience with this text not long ago. I was giving Bible studies in the morning at a week-long Lutheran pastors' conference, and Dr. Prasanna Kumari, a lovely Asian-Indian woman, was giving the evening platform addresses. Dr. Kumari is the president of the Lutheran Church in India and was (I believe) the executive director of the Theological Commission of the Lutheran World Federation. She is a very impressive woman.

In the mornings, I was teaching John, chapter 1, for all I was worth. The theme, as it is everywhere in John's Gospel, is the exclusivity of Christ. (One thinks, for example, of John 1:18: "No one has ever seen God before, but God the only Son, who is at the very heart of the Father, he has explained God.") In the evenings, Dr. Kumari was teaching that, indeed, Christ is the way for the Christian. But, she added, in India a sincere Hindu could also go to God, and Buddhists could find their way to God too. The ordinary way of salvation is sincere devotion to one's own religious tradition; the extraordinary way of salvation is Jesus Christ. As long as people are sincere, they can get to God or to saving truth as they understand it.

Dr. Kumari and I were going in two different directions!

It is bad form at a conference for one speaker to contradict another. All week long I wrestled with this inclusive/exclusive issue. This is the conclusion I came to and shared with the conference on the last morning:

In the past, when asked what my theological position was, I have described myself as a Christocentrist, but I now realize that that is not an adequate answer. I am a Christoexclusivist! Dr. Kumari is absolutely Christ-centered. She loves the Lord Jesus Christ—no questions about it. But I have come to realize this week that, for me, Christ is not only the center—he is the circumference. He is the only way to the responsible knowledge of, or participation in, saving truth. Christ is exclusive.

[Dale Bruner, Theology, News and Notes of Fuller Seminary (October 1999), pp.3-4]

Our purpose

Romans 8:28 (NIV)

28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

God has called each of us to His purpose to perform His will. No matter the circumstance, not matter the place, not matter where we are in life – God wants to use us for his purpose.

Richard Halverson, former pastor of Fourth Presbyterian Church in Bethesda, Maryland and also the former chaplain of the United States Senate used the following benediction at the end of each service/message for many years in his ministry. It reflects his deep conviction that his church was not only where the congregation met on Sundays, but at each place where they lived and worked through the week.

A Benediction

 Wherever you go, God is sending you.

 Wherever you are, God has put you there.

 God has a purpose in your being right where you are.

 Christ, who indwells you by the power of his Spirit,

 wants to do something in and through you.

 Believe this and go in his grace, his love, his power.

 In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

 Amen

May I be faithful today

Job 23:10-11 (NIV)

10 But he knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold. 11 My feet have closely followed his steps; I have kept to his way without turning aside.

It is a great comfort to those who mean honestly that God understands their meaning, though men do not, cannot, or will not. [Matthew Henry]

Dan McConchie, vice president of government affairs at Americans United for Life, was riding his motorcycle through a suburban intersection when a car came into his lane and pushed him into on-coming traffic. When he woke two weeks later in a Level 1 trauma center, he was a mess. Six broken ribs, deflated left lung, broken clavicle, broken shoulder blade, and five broken vertebrae. Worst of all, amidst all the broken bones, he had a spinal-cord injury that left him a paraplegic. The neurosurgeon told his wife that it would be a "miracle" if he'd ever walk again.

Eight years later Dan is still in a wheelchair.

"What I learned," Dan said, "is that this life isn't for our comfort. Instead, the purpose of this life is that we become conformed to the image of Christ. Unfortunately, that doesn't happen when everything is unicorns and rainbows. It instead happens when life is tough, when we are forced to rely upon God through prayer just to make it through the day. That is when he is most at work in our lives molding us into who he designed us to be."

"My prayers are different today than they were eight years ago. Back then, I looked at God like Santa Claus. I asked him to send nice things my way. Now, I have one prayer that I pray more than any other: 'Lord, may I be able to say at the end of today that I was faithful.'"

[Van Morris, Mt. Washington, Kentucky; source; Dan McConchie,"Prayer and Faith in the Midst of Personal Tragedy," Washington Times (3-22-16)]