Brenda and I are away celebrating our 35th wedding anniversary. This verse has been important to me in the last 35 years of our marriage.
Then Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah’s tent; and he took Rebekah and she became his wife, and he loved her (Genesis 24:67).
As always, thanks for reading, and I welcome your feedback and any suggestions you might have for an upcoming Lunchtime Musing.
It’s just too much for any person to realistically perform. No, not the new job description at your work or the calling to be a mom of three little ones, but The Law, Moses’s law as it is spelled out in the book of Leviticus. In social media language “I can’t even” is the appropriate response.
Over and over and over the book of Leviticus told the ancient Jews what made them “unclean” in God’s presence. In 92 occurrences the word unclean restricts diet, physical touch, the furniture where a person could sit or lie down to sleep, and even the plaster on an interior wall of your home. Should the mold in the house not pass the priest’s inspection, the priest would order the house destroyed to the foundation (Leviticus 14:43-45). If you think reading the book of Leviticus is hard as you go through your Bible reading plan, imagine having to live under the code. “I. Just. Can’t”
Instead of the declaring how good they were by keeping every nuance of the law, every honest Jew would have to declare an inability to do what the law said. Daily failure in some area of the law only added to the weight of guilt a person bore. There simply was no escape from the law. Like Paul wrote, the law is a prison guard keeping the inmate perpetually confined (Galatians 3:23).
Helping us, Paul masterfully explains what we were unable to do (keep the law), Christ did fully (Romans 8). God then applies to our lives Christ’s full obedience to the law as if we fulfilled all the law ourselves. This is grace, God gives us something we do not deserve and cannot acquire. Our Lord’s righteousness becomes ours, having obtained it by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8-9). “I can’t even” becomes “Jesus did.”
So we rest, not in our own good deeds but in Jesus’s. And we read the laborious, repetitive, lengthy, and minute matters recorded in Leviticus and breathe a sigh of relief, “I don’t have to because Jesus did.” And we live this life free from our old master whom we could never fully please and in joyful submission to our new master whose yoke is easy and whose burden is light (Matthew 11:30).
Be encouraged, Christian, Jesus did for you what you could not do for yourself leaving you free to live a joyful life to God’s glory.
As always, thanks for reading, and I welcome your feedback and any suggestions you might have for an upcoming Lunchtime Musing.
Let’s talk vaccines. No, not generically, but that vaccine. You know the one. The one that is blasted across your social media page. The one being blamed for deaths of young men. The one originally touted as a shield against a virus but now the one allegedly responsible for the premature demise of otherwise healthy people. Yeah, that one, let’s talk about it.
To the Lord’s glory and praise, our church and my immediate family has been immune from the drama of masks and vaccines. With the smallest of exceptions, our church has been free of conflict about how to respond to Covid-19. This is a testimony to the spiritual maturity of our church and to the grace of God protecting us from biting each other (Galatians 5:15).
For reasons unique to each person, some in our church and some in my immediate family received the vaccine. My nephew is a recent graduate from the US Navy bootcamp at Great Lakes Naval Base on the shores of Lake Michigan. His four-year enlistment came with many requirements, including the vaccine requirement. He is not unique in that regard. Many careers required the shot. My nephew is 19, and if the conspiracies are to be believed, he is at risk.
For the record, I have done zero research on the potential side effects from the vaccine and have read no material showing cause and effect. I have no opinion if the vaccine contributes to problems of otherwise healthy people. Maybe you have researched and maybe you have an opinion. Good for you. On this matter, you are more informed than I am.
Hearing the stories, reading the material, and watching videos of athletes collapsing to the turf has heightened the hysteria surrounding the vaccine. I would not be surprised to hear that some Christians who received the vaccine are now second guessing their decision and are more than a little fearful of the outcome of their choice.
I am a pastor-theologian. You are a Christian and a theologian. That means we look at all matters from the viewpoint of God’s revelation to us. When it comes to death by vaccination, we do best to think biblically. Only biblical thinking will calm our fears, and only biblical thinking will protect us from hysterical imaginations.
I have no idea if your cause of death will be the result of a vaccine shot you received, a fall you took from a ladder, or the simple fact you are 101 years old. Here is what I do know, and what you should know too – there is no such thing as an untimely death. Like so many other matters, on this the Bible is clear.
My times are in your hand (Psalm 31:15).
Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be (Psalm 139:16).
Since his days are determined, and the number of his months is with you, and you have appointed his limits that he cannot pass (Job 14:5).
The years, days, hours, and minutes of every human being have been determined by the Lord. No one leaves this life before or after the Lord’s declaration. He alone gives life, and he alone takes into eternal life.
My sons and daughters and their spouses are young adults, some with small children. I’ll let you in on the most fearful thought I have – that one of them precedes me in death. The thought doesn’t consume me, but on snowy winter days when my boys are driving to work or when my daughter loads up my granddaughter to head to the school where she teaches, I am as prayerful as ever, asking God to deliver them all safely to their destinations and back home again. While I am confident they all will someday be with the Lord, I am not hopeful that any of them will be with the Lord today. Honestly, the thought unsettles me. But as I said, I am a pastor-theologian, and we are Christian theologians. God tells us how to think about the timing of the death of any of us.
So, if you or someone close to you received the vaccine, I am glad for you. I hope it delivered to you what you desired. And if you find yourself fearful because of all the emotion about the vaccine, I have two suggestions for you. One, get off social media, and more importantly, think biblically about the will of God in the timing of everyone’s death.
As always, thanks for reading, and I welcome your feedback and any suggestions you might have for an upcoming Lunchtime Musings.
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.
I used to like that song, but enough already! I can hear myself now to my grandkids decades from now, “I remember back in 2023, I sent grandma out to shovel the driveway and lost her in a snowdrift. Thankfully, she dug her way out just in time for dinner.”
In his wisdom, God has given us this snow for purposes that remain the mystery of him. If nothing else, they give us a visual lesson that many people in the world will never see. There are nearly 25 references to snow in our Bibles. All but three are in the Old Testament, and the majority of those occur in three of the books of Hebrew poetry (Job, Psalms, and Proverbs). Believers living somewhere in the tropics may never see snow in their lifetimes except on television, in a magazine, or online. They could only imagine what God means when he uses the imagery of snow. Not us in Minnesota, to us God gives a regular reminder, and we can thank him for that…seriously.
Consider a few of the occurrences:
God thunders marvelously with his voice; he does great things which we cannot comprehend. For he says to the snow, “Fall on the earth”; likewise to the gentle rain and the heavy rain of his strength (Job 37:5-6).
The Bible teaches that the snow is the result of God’s management of his creation. Every time it snows, I am reminded again of God’s sovereignty over what is his.
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow (Psalm 51:7).
In King David’s confession of sin and plea for God’s forgiveness, he asks that the filth of sin that marks his life would be washed away by God’s mercy and grace, leaving his heart clean like the snow. You know what that looks like as the fresh, white powder covers your front yard. That’s what your heart is like following Spirit prompted confession and God granted cleansing. The same thought comes again in Isaiah 1:18
I’m not going to do all the Bible study for you. That would take away the excitement when you make the discovery yourself, the kind of excitement your kids have or you had when you shouted, “It’s snowing!” I do hope that we can choose to see God’s hand in the rest of our winter, however it long it lasts.
And by the way, a little from my prayer time today: “Lord, there are a lot of things to learn from your Word that have to do with spring and the warmth of summer. I am willing to learn those things too.”
As always, thanks for reading, and I welcome your feedback and any suggestions you might have for an upcoming Lunchtime Musings.
How do you like the new design? After twelve years it was time to make the move to the 2020s. I cannot take any credit for the new design. This is the work of Lauren VerWay, my daughter-in-law. She’s great.
Since I turned 50, we’ve added a daughter and two sons to our family. Adding sons and daughters in middle age doesn’t often happen like it did for Zachariah and Elizabeth, but it does happen for nearly everyone when their kids get married. If you have babies, toddlers, school age children, or young single sons or daughters, you probably will gain more sons and daughters via marriage. It’s a great way to grow the family.
God has blessed Brenda and me by the addition of Lauren (married to Michael), James (married to Jennifer), and Nando (married to Emily). All followers of our Lord, each has contributed for the good of our family. None has been a detriment to our family. By God’s grace, the transition from the six of us to the nine of us (plus three grandchildren) has been wonderful. We’ve had speed bumps that we’ve worked through but none of the horror stories some have experienced. Brenda and I love each new member as if they’ve been with us from the beginning.
There is likely no more important decision in your kid’s life and your family’s life than who it is your kid marries. The impact is immediate, long term, and generational. For parents and siblings, the promised union is both exhilarating and fraught with anxiety. I am here to tell you there may be nothing more important in your parenting that positioning your son or daughter to make a wise choice in a spouse.
I cannot say there is a method that guarantees good relationships between new spouses and siblings or with in-laws, but I think there are steps we can take before the wedding day to position everyone for the best possible outcome. Here are a few ideas to implement in your Christian home before your children says, “I do.”
Speak Highly of Marriage.
Wife jokes and husband memes are funny and all, but regular demeaning of marriage in your home may prove detrimental. From their earliest days, let your toddlers hear of the amazing gift that marriage is to God’s people. Thinking of the future, let them know that God shows his grace to our entire family by adding more to us via marriage. You want your daughter to be thrilled that her brother has a girlfriend and may marry her. Your daughter needs to see that God is adding to the family; he’s not taking away from the family.
Be the Example Your Son or Daughter Pursues.
Maybe you’ve heard it said, “He married his mom.” I don’t know if it’s true or not that girls marry someone like their dad and that boys marry someone like their mom. In my case, I think Brenda is much more like my grandmother than she is like my mom. That’s not a slap against my mom, merely an observation. On the other hand, maybe you’ve heard someone say, “I don’t want anyone like my dad.” Either way, the template for choosing a spouse is the one observed daily in the home – good or bad. We do our sons and daughters a great service by modeling for them the kind of spouse they should pursue as we live in sweet matrimony with the spouse God gave us.
Help your son or daughter become what another Christian might desire.
Here’s a sobering thought: you are raising a son to be the husband to some young lady or you are training a daughter to be the wife of some young man. Together, they will form a home, have your grandchildren, and impact your life on a daily basis. Just like your marriage became a blessing or a burden to your parents, so too, your son’s or daughter’s marriage will become a blessing or burden to you. Your labor to develop Christian character in your young children will pay major dividends when they catch the eye of another young Christian, a young man or young lady whose parents have been doing similar character training of their son or daughter in hopes of similar outcomes like the ones you seek. So, today as you lead those in your home to love unconditionally, to work diligently, and to esteem others before themselves, you are doing more than you might think: you are preparing a spouse who will be a blessing to another Christian family in ways you can only imagine.
And by the way, they may also give you grandchildren, and I’m here to tell you grandchildren are the best! And for that, I say, “Thank you, Lauren” and “Thank you, James” and “Thank you, Nando.”
As always, thanks for reading, and I welcome your feedback and any suggestions you might have for an upcoming Lunchtime Musings.