Is There Hope for the United States?

I love my country. For those in the back, I LOVE MY COUNTRY!

Until the Lord returns, I want the United States of America always to be the land of the free and the home of the brave, and one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Because I am a Christian with a worldview formed by the inspired and infallible Word of God, my heart aches at the coming administration of Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. On Wednesday, January 20, 2021, Mr. Biden will become the 46th president of these United States, a date, I fear, which will live in infamy.

Mr. Biden, who braggartly declared, “I am the Democrat Party,” possesses the authority to enact the most leftist, Marxist, sexually abhorrent, anti-God ideology our country has ever known. The political party he leads confirmed without shame or subtlety its intent to move forward a godless and sin-promoting agenda. Have you read the party’s platform? Have you listened to the rhetoric of those who soon will be in power?

About people like me who have an opposing view to intersectionality, identity politics, critical race theory, LGBTQ+ dogma, and white privilege, the soon to be in charge write, “Their hate overrides their common sense. It will take reprogramming of their brains to reverse the effects of their cult.” There remains no political check to counter the system barreling at us. By us, I mean any like me who have a worldview formed by the inspired and infallible Word of God.

Christians find themselves in constant tension with the culture because this is not where we identify, and frankly, this is where we are not wanted. Shining light into darkness and exposing wickedness and lies by the declaration of the Word of God is unwelcome. Living and speaking as preserving salt to a decaying infrastructure has no value to the culture. As we continue to preach the exclusivity of Jesus Christ and as we identify humanity’s open rebellion against God, we will be marked for “reprogramming” which is to say, elimination.

Your human resources department is not clamoring for more Christians. Our local public schools are not wishing that more Christians would become classroom teachers, school administrators, or high school basketball coaches. Our state and national governments are not seeking the input of Christians to set public policy. Christians need not apply. But that is not the worst of it. The worst of it is what is coming, the persecution of the church of our Lord Jesus Christ by those who hate Jesus.

Persecution is coming; it’s only a matter of when and to what extent.

I am a Christian pastor who leads a small group of Christians, 50-60 families in total. I preach weekly what Jesus said, “no one comes to the Father except through me.” I preach without apology Genesis 1-3 beginning with God’s creation of all that is and his authority over his creation including his expression of two and only two genders and the roles assigned by him to each. And I preach man’s rebellion against God recorded in chapter 3, a rebellion that remains as pervasive today among all human beings as it was in the beginning. I am leading all under my care to believe the same, to teach this to their children, and to run to the grace of God for aid.

How will we live in the coming days? We are not the first to experience such hostilities. From Daniel and his friends in Babylon or the apostles in the Roman Empire, we learn how believers live in a culture opposed to their allegiance to heaven.

Daniel 3:18 “Let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods.”

Acts 5:29 But Peter and the other apostles answered and said: “We ought to obey God rather than men.”

I am committed to live in strict adherence to the instructions and commands of our Lord and His apostles despite any opposition that might occur. Without the protection of the first amendment, the apostles’ position toward the ruling powers was faithfulness to Christ without regard to personal loss or shame. This must be ours too. I am no prophet, but I suspect the members of our church and all faithful Christians in America will face increasing opposition in their workplaces, their children’s schools, from the government, and in their families for faithfulness to Jesus.

But remember the words of our Lord as the time draws near, “I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

As the opposition to our Lord and his followers increases, we will need our Bibles and the community of believers that is the local church. We cannot anticipate every event of every day, so we study Job, Esther, Daniel, the gospels, Philippians, 1 Peter and the rest of the apostles’ letters. Only the Scriptures can prepare us for the lives we will live as exiles.

Peter warned his readers about those who will mock and abuse the faithful Christians who will not join the culture in the flood of wicked living. To deflect their attacks, he advises the Christians to find help from each other (4:8-10). If I am to make a prediction about the future, it is the necessity of the local church to Christians. Small, uninfluential, and faithful congregations will be the means God uses to care for his own. Therefore, our lives must be connected tightly to the church and why we must revolve our families around the community that is the local church.

Peter concludes this way, “Therefore let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to Him in doing good, as to a faithful Creator” (4:19). By God’s grace, this I will do, and this is how I will lead the church I serve, so help me God.

But maybe God will intervene in these United States of America. Maybe God will extend his omnipotent hand and restrain the evil that appears on the horizon as he did in the days of Esther and Mordecai.

Because I love my country, I pray…

O Lord,

Our once honorable nation faces an uncertain and frightening future. We have sown to the wind and deserve to reap the whirlwind. But we ask for mercy remembering that you love mercy. For the glory of your name, would you spare our nation from its ruin? Would you heal our self-inflicted injuries? Would you extend your grace to an undeserving nation? Would you grant for your faithful people to live in peace?

Whatever is your will for our land, we know what your will is for us. Should we suffer because we identify with Christ, we will, by your grace, commit ourselves to do good as you have created us to do. We will not bow to their gods, and we will not abandon our loyalty to your son, our savior, Jesus. We affirm again to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

As always, I welcome your feedback and any suggestions you might have for an upcoming Lunchtime Musing.

To read past Lunchtime Musings, follow me at medium.com/@mikeverway

Mike VerWay
Pastor for Preaching & Vision

Value Science, Trust God

Over the course of the last 10 months, the mantra from presidential candidates to states’ governors to some guy commenting on Facebook has been “Trust the Science.” My governor, Tim Walz (DFL – MN), regularly makes use of the phrase to validate his executive orders covering everything from athletics to zoos.

In its corollary use, these three little words are the automatic response to any who push back against lockdowns, school closures, physical distancing, and mandatory masks, “You know what your problem is? You just down trust the science.”

What science exactly are humans supposed to trust? The discipline of science is in a continual state of change. Researchers hypothesize, test, challenge, and often reverse previous conclusions with the result that science has been wrong at a head scratching rate.

For example, in the field of astronomy, the settled science for millennia asserted our sun circled the earth. The conclusion was filled with problems when other celestial objects did not want to “trust the science” and revolve around the earth too. The science changed only after the genius intellects of Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, and Newton investigated over centuries the movements and fixed points in the heavens.

George Washington’s stepdaughter suffered horrifically from seizures. So serious was Patsy’s condition her mother did not leave her unattended at any moment of the day. Standard medical science in the 18th century prescribed blood letting as a necessary treatment.

At the time of Washington, bloodletting had been used by medical personnel for thousands of years. Clearly, the practice was established science. Basically, medicine concluded all illnesses stemmed from an overabundance of blood. Bloodletting, it was held, cured illness and disease by the withdrawal of blood from a patient by means of a physician’s scalpel or by leeches attached to the skin. Remove the blood, remove the illness.

Patsy died at 16 years of age, but you know, “Trust the science.”

Further, science cannot account for everything. Science cannot tell us why one person sees a sunset and smiles while another sees the same sunset and cries. Science cannot tell us why Chicago's Roman Catholic archbishop, Cardinal Blaise Cupich, received a COVID-19 vaccination ahead of others in his denomination, including priests and nuns. Science cannot answer our questions in the fields of aesthetics, ethics, or assumed scientific theory.

An internet search reveals the ongoing shortcomings of science in biology, forensics, astronomy, medicine, and physics, but the problem is not with science. The problem is with humans’ approach toward science. Science is a gift. Science does not give gifts. Science is a servant. Science is not a master. Instead of trusting science, we should value science. Humans direct trust only to God.

The contributions of science cannot be exaggerated. Our 21st centuries lives, while busier and maybe more complex, have been made much better and in many ways easier that any of our ancestors. Household chores, travel, communication, education, medicine, and more are all vastly superior for the human experience today than they were centuries and, in many cases, decades ago. Consider the Left Ventricle Assist Device (LVAD).

A few days from now will mark five years since my mom went to be with the Lord. She died of the number one killer of women, heart disease, but she would have died much sooner without an LVAD.

In layman’s terms an LVAD does a lot of the work a diseased heart cannot do. An LVAD is not a mechanical heart, but it functions in many ways like a mechanical heart. The surgery to implant the device is long and difficult on the patient. Following implantation, the device requires high dosages of blood thinners to operate well and uses an exterior source to power it. During the day, my mom wore a harness that carried multiple battery packs in similar weight to heavy vests athletes use to train. At night she charged her batteries and plugged her device into a wall outlet, and then went to sleep valuing the science but not trusting the science. Her trust and mine was directed elsewhere.

LVADs work best as a bridge for those awaiting heart transplant. The overall survival of patients receiving continuous flow LVADs is 89% at 12 months and 87% at 24 months. My mom was not interested in a transplant, but her two LVADs (you read that correct, two!) lengthened her life by years. My family values science.

We value science as God’s gift to us. Science teaches us the benefits of nutrition in our diets. Science aids us in understanding the development of children’s minds and bodies. Science informs us about viruses like COVID-19.

For the coronavirus we know the virus is highly contagious. We know the potential for death increases with age and comorbidities. We know the range of symptoms is large and impacts individuals differently both in kind and severity. The science determines possible responses – vaccines, quarantine, masks – but the suggested or mandated responses cannot guarantee you won’t acquire the disease. We value science, but we do not trust science.

As Christians we trust the giver of gifts, our God, and we value the gifts he gives us, science for example.

Psalm 31:19 is one verse of scores if not hundreds that call God’s people to trust the Lord or record the actions of those who trust the Lord or that show the power of God applied to those who trust the Lord.

Oh, how great is Your goodness, which You have laid up for those who fear You, which You have prepared for those who trust in You in the presence of the sons of men!

• Science delivers valuable information to parents regarding stages of child development, but trust God’s revelation in His word about how to parent your children. Value the science for your parenting, but trust God for your children.

• Science delivers valuable information about staying heart healthy, but trust God’s revelation in his word about the only reason your heart is beating while you read this post. Value science for your overall health, but trust God for your life.

• Science delivers valuable information about the impact, prevention, and possible cures for infectious diseases, but trust God’s revelation about how to live in a world full of infectious diseases. On disease and all other matters, God instructs us to live wisely and not foolishly. He also tells us not to live in fear though we live in a world dominated by death. Value science for disease prevention, but trust God for how to live life in a diseased world.

Christians trust God for all things in eternity and for all things temporal. Christians thank God for gifts that come from science that make our temporary life better, healthier, or safer. But we acknowledge the better, healthier, and safer as blessings from God not blessings from science. We do not bow down to science. We do not place science in the position of omniscience or omnipotence. Our adoration and trust is reserved for heaven. We trust only the Lord.

Psalm 73:26 My flesh and my heart fail; But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

Value science, trust God is all fine and good until the science and God’s revelation conflict. Society is not interested in God’s revelation when it conflicts with science. "The Church is tolerated only to the extent that she does not take any stance on the moral assertions that supposedly derive from science, understood as the only valid form of knowledge," Augusto Del Noce.

For example, the church has no authority and may not call humanity to submission to God in conversations about gender identity, sexual orientation, multiple races in the human family, the origin of the species and the cosmos, or the necessity of the state to educate children. On these subjects and more, science is the authority. Science must be obeyed. Science is God. If you must be religious, value God, but trust science. We will shame you until you do, and we will deprive you if you do not.

So, Christians, in our world moving along at warp speed, we will find it increasingly necessary to trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding of the science. Science is not God and must never be worshipped as if it is God.

Job 38

Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said:

“Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge?
Now prepare yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer Me.”

“Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements? Surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? To what were its foundations fastened? Or who laid its cornerstone?”

As always, I welcome your feedback and any suggestions you might have for an upcoming Lunchtime Musing.

To read past Lunchtime Musings, follow me at medium.com/@mikeverway

Mike VerWay
Pastor for Preaching & Vision

Do It Again in a COVID-19 World

We’ve put away the big tree in our auditorium. The Christmas banners and lobby décor are gone until next year. The children have returned to singing their normal Sunday School songs and won’t work on the next Christmas program for many months. The Call to Worship for the foreseeable future will not be from Matthew 1 or Luke 2. In many ways our church life for the next 11 months will resemble the Christian life. In our church life and in our discipleship, we do the same things over and again. The trap we must avoid is thinking this is boredom. There is a huge difference between the practice of disciplines and a life of dullness.

Humanity’s default position asserts doing the same things over and again is boring, that we need something new, something fresh. Without these new ideas and activities, we are doomed to a vanilla life in a 31 flavors world. The pursuit for the freshest, most exhilarating, and highest thrill is never ending, as any honest man over thirty can attest.

Yet, Christian discipleship is unchanged since the first century. Christians follow 2,000-year-old directives given to them by the founder of their religion. Those who adhere closest to His instructions are those who know the greatest joy in this life and who will know His joy in the life to come.

Down through the years, local congregations and denominations have identified these teachings with a variety of words. The words vary from group to group, language to language, and century to century, but the principles of Jesus remain the same. For our church, the words are connect, care, converse, and chase. Now that the exhilaration of the Christmas holiday and New Year is behind us, we return to the routine of Christian discipleship, a routine we call the 4 C’s.

The work of Christian discipleship is difficult enough without the additional challenge of COVID-19. But the presence of a pandemic does not pause our Lord’s directive to make disciples and exercise our gifts. This is the time for individual creativity and corporate commitment to the fulfilment of the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20) and the building up of our church (Ephesians 4:11-12). Even during a pandemic, and maybe especially during a pandemic, our Lord’s disciples connect, care, converse, and chase. How you practice your discipleship may look different, but practice it you must.

CONNECT

Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, and Ephesians 4 all teach the unity of a local church. Each member is connected to the others like various body parts are connected to the whole. What is true spiritually must become true relationally. You connect with others in our church by knowing their names, histories, hopes, dreams, struggles, temptations, circumstances, and gifts. This connectedness with each other makes the functioning of a local church possible, promotes growing discipleship among the church members, and enhances the possibilities of Great Commission efforts. Without this connection, we are little more than a civic organization. With whom can you connect this week?

CARE

The myriad of one another statements found in the New Testament calls disciples in a local church to be the front line of physical and spiritual aid for other disciples. There may be some matters of physical aid we cannot provide each other because of our limitations of human and monetary resources, but we can provide a great deal of physical aid to each other. As for spiritual aid, we have been equipped by our Lord Jesus to assist every other disciple in our church with any and every spiritual need she may have. To care for each other is the daily work of every disciple. For whom can you provide care this week?

CONVERSE

From the earliest days of the church to the present, disciples of Jesus Christ talk with each other about God and talk with each other to God in prayer. The chats look like edification, accountability, challenge, and encouragement. These meetings for prayer unite the hearts of disciples to consider matters bigger than themselves. The New Testament knows nothing of disciples who do not engage in regular conversations with other disciples, conversations about Jesus Christ and conversations to Jesus Christ. With whom will you converse this week?

CHASE

Read the New Testament and you will see Jesus’ disciples chasing those without Christ, chasing the fringe disciples not connected to a local church, and chasing the wandering members of a local church. It is the work of Jesus’ disciples. His Great Commission to us is to make disciples of all the nations. This can happen when the church puts on an event, but our chasing of the lost cannot be limited to church events. Acts 1:8 says, “You shall be witnesses.” We carry the message of the cross with us 24/7/365. Read the book of Acts and breathe in the conversions of those in the first century. Consider the work of God to get the gospel to you. Think about the new believers in our church, and then ask God to give you opportunities to chase. Whom will you chase this week?

The high point of the Christmas season is behind us. The reality of routine is upon us, and that routine discipleship is the path to joyful living under the Lordship of Jesus.

As always, I welcome your feedback and any suggestions you might have for an upcoming Lunchtime Musing.

To read past Lunchtime Musings, follow me at medium.com/@mikeverway

Mike VerWay
Pastor for Preaching & Vision

The Best Movies Are Those You Watch Again

Sometimes the familiar is better than the novel and the previous better than the new. In this last Lunchtime Musing for 2020, would you read again or read for the first time, what I think are the most significant posts I wrote in 2020 for our church and for your life? They appear in the order they were written.

1. Our grandson is now a one-year-old. Shortly after his birth, I wrote The Kind of Grandpa I Want (and don’t want) to Be. While this is a very personal muse, I think you will find it helpful to you if you’re a grandparent or not.

2. Almost forgotten in the disarray of 2020 are the tragic deaths of Kobe Bryant, his daughter, and the seven others aboard the helicopter that slammed into a California hillside, January 26, 2020. Days later I penned, We Only Have Minutes to Live. If 2020 has taught us anything, it has taught us the fragility of life and how quickly all of life can change.

3. One month into stay-at-home orders, growing uncertainty about COVID-19, and exploding numbers of infections, I claimed, To Recover Is Christ, To Die from Coronavirus Is Gain. As people who will battle the pull of this life until the day we die, this may be the most important devotional I wrote in 2020. Now that we have nearly a full year of the coronavirus in our rear view, you will benefit from revisiting this post.

4. In July I turned 55. “How’s it going?” you ask. Well, I’m glad I’m not yet 56. I wrote a series of articles about lessons learned over the years. The Error of a Christian Husband is one I am reading again for my own benefit. It is about as transparent as I can be.

5. Titles are critical in a world flush with digital information. Sometimes I spend nearly as much time thinking of a title for a post as I do editing a post. The fact is you are more likely to read a Lunchtime Musing if the title grabs you. PG-13 is a story about a woman and man who are more than best friends or soulmates; it is a story about lovers and is my favorite piece of the year. I hope you smile when you read it again or for the first time.

If you read one or all of my weekly posts, thank you for reading. I write with two audiences in mind — my children and our church. My hope is my writing challenges you, educates you, inspires you, and sometimes, just makes you smile as you think about our Lord on a given day.

Your time is valuable. That you give a few minutes to me to read my thoughts is humbling.

2021 will be here soon, and I plan to write weekly. Is there an idea you’d like me to address or question you’d like me to answer? I’ll do my best to add it to the list.

As always, I welcome your feedback and any suggestions you might have for an upcoming Lunchtime Musing.

To read past Lunchtime Musings, follow me at medium.com/@mikeverway

Mike VerWay
Pastor for Preaching & Vision

Five Christmas Prayers

The child asked, “Why are we singing a song that asks Jesus to come when he already came?” This was the question after we sang the Christmas song, O Come, O Come Emmanuel.

Luke 2 records the birth of Jesus and events immediately following. According to the Law, parents of newborn boys took their infant sons to the priest for ceremonial affairs. The priest on duty when Joseph and Mary arrived with the baby Jesus was Simeon who was “waiting for the consolation of Israel” (Luke 2:25). He was waiting for the promised Messiah to comfort the people (Isaiah 40:1), to fulfill the promise made first to Adam in the garden (Genesis 3:15), and to make his blessings known far as the curse is found. Uniquely, Simeon had been promised that he would see the promised Christ before experiencing death (Luke 2:26).

When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son to his people when they were wearied from the realities of a broken world, the impact of the curse, and their own failures in their covenant relationship. They longed for relief. The relief is found in a person, Jesus Christ, Bethlehem’s babe.

The text for O Come, O Come, Emmanuel captures the longing of the people in its opening lines.

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lowly exile here
Until the Son of God appear.

Each new verse in the Christmas hymn begins with a plea to come using a different title for the promised Christ.

• O Come, Thou Rod of Jesse…

• O Come, Thou Dayspring…

• O Come, Thou Key of David…

• O Come, Desire of Nations…

Each expression is the cry from God’s people to make right the myriad of wrongs, to end the misery, to overthrow injustice, to conquer tryants, and so much more. Jesus Christ did this when he came. His sinless life led to his sacrificial cross and his glorious resurrection. The prayers and hopes of the ancient people of God had been answered and met in the promised Christ.

But the results of Christ’s coming are not yet fully realized, and like Simeon of old, we wait, not for the consolation of Israel but for the consolation of the church, the second advent of Jesus Christ. When he returns, all our longings for the end of abuse, betrayal, conspiracies, disease, envy, fear, greed, hatred, injury, jealousies, killings, lawlessness, mourning, oppression, pain, rage, sin, temptation, ugliness, vengeance, wrong, and finally, the grave will be realized in his righteous reign as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Until his return, we wait (Philippians 3:20), and like pre-Christmas people of God we post-Christmas saints pray.

• O come, Emmanuel, you paid our ransom, but our exile is not yet overcome.

• O come, Rod of Jesse, free us from death, illness, rebellion, wicked men, and the wicked one himself as he goes about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.

• O come, Dayspring, and complete the change that you began when you saved my soul.

• O come, Key of David, display in the open your sovereignty for all to see.

• O come, Desire of Nations, unite every image bearer around the beauty that is your person ending all our fighting and replacing our strife with your never-ending peace.

The days of Joseph, Mary, and Simeon the priest were not all that different than our experiences in 2020. While we realized God’s grace and faithfulness over the last year, all of us have felt the impact of the brokenness that was 2020. I suspect we all are looking forward with a great deal of hopefulness to 2021. But 2021 won’t deliver consolation to the church, only Jesus Christ can do that. Therefore, I point you to Jesus, and I invite you to make these Five Christmas Prayers a practice in your Christian life.

O Come!

Click here for an entire sermon I recently preached on these Christmas Prayers.

As always, I welcome your feedback and any suggestions you might have for an upcoming Lunchtime Musing.

To read past Lunchtime Musings, follow me at medium.com/@mikeverway

Mike VerWay
Pastor for Preaching & Vision