Christ the Carpenter

 "Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not His sisters here with us?' And they took offense at Him." Mark 6:3

Have you thought lately about Jesus the carpenter?  Have you pondered what this means for you today?  Have you considered what it means that Jesus was a tekton, the Greek word translated carpenter?  Does Jesus the craftsman and builder ever cross your mind?

Some may think and wonder if Jesus used His divine powers to miraculously make whatever His task was to be.  I see no reason to believe that Jesus, though God, used anything other than sweat and skill gained from His earthly father to do His job.  Though he crafted the universe by the Word of His mouth, He built and mended structures by the sweat of His brow.

"Christ Jesus, who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men." Philippians 2:5b-7

Not only that, but most Bible scholars believe Joseph must have died between when Jesus was 12 and 30.  This is because Jesus' earthly father has no mention after He was 12.  If that is the case, and I believe it likely to be so, then the oldest son must have worked hard to provide for His family.  Jesus probably worked to provide food and shelter via his craft for Mary, James, Joses, Judas, Simon and multiple sisters.  

Before Jesus' hands had holes in them they had callouses.

Jesus knows what it is to work hard.  Christ knows what it is to work under a supervisor.  The Savior knows what it is to have a blue collar job.  The Son knows what it's like to provide for a family.  Henry Gariepy said, "As the Carpenter, Christ forever sanctified human toil." (100 Portraits of Christ p. 78)

I want you to ponder what it is for Jesus to have been a carpenter.  I want you to brainstorm some questions that will help you as you work this week.  Below are some examples:

How did Jesus work?

What did Jesus charge for His work?

How did Jesus rest from His job?

How did Jesus deal with difficult coworkers or customers?

What was the quality of Jesus' work?

And as you ask these questions I invite you to let them come back to you.  Ask, "How do I work?"  "Should I seek a raise?"  "How do I rest?" "How do I deal with coworkers?" "What is the quality of my work?"

Jesus knows what it is to work. He has forever sanctified work.  When you pray about work, He totally gets it.

Ponder Christ the Carpenter today.

The Olympics: Wetting the Palate for Heaven

 The Olympic games are going on right now and there's been much ink spilled about it.  Stars have been praised, controversies raised and attention has been poured upon sports both popular and obscure.

I could spend my time writing about my opinions on chromosomes in boxing or the opening ceremony.  I could spend my time as a sports fan penning paragraphs about the amazing men's 100 meter dash final or the incomparable greatness of Katie Ladecky and Simon Biles or why I love FIBA's basketball rules more than the NBA's, but I won't.

The Olympic Games make me long for Heaven.

I first started to have my longing for Heaven stoked by the Olympics in 2012.  Paul McCartney performed in the opening ceremony for the London games.  During his performance he sang "Hey Jude" and it was so beautiful watching the nations assembled in their own garb singing along passionately, "Na na na nanana nanana, hey Jude."

As much as I love Paul's music and have since sung that song in a choir of thousands at one of his concerts, the longing wasn't for some temporary peace.  The longing wasn't for Paul's friend John's version of an imagined, peaceful utopia.  I was longing for Heaven.

"Clap you hands, all peoples!
Shout to God with loud songs of joy!
For the LORD, the Most High, is to be feared,
a great king over all the earth...
God reigns over the nations;
God sits on His holy throne.
The princes of the peoples gather 
as the people of the God of Abraham.
For the shields of the earth belong to God;
He is highly exalted!" Psalm 47-1-2 & 8-9

This year as I watch the games I find myself wondering about sport in Heaven.  I wonder what it might look to play and compete and try to win and still love each other and have joy for each other in victory or defeat.  And I see glimpses of this.  While watching gymnastics I have loved watching the excitement the women have had for each other regardless of flag.  I have loved seeing them fiercely try their best and not being threatened by the other athletes doing the same.  The sportsmanship I have seen gives me a glimpse of Heaven.

Can you imagine what glorified, perfect sportsmanship will look like?  Can you imagine perfect enjoyment of one's God-given nationality and perfect enjoyment of everyone else's God-given, perfected culture will look like?  Slivers of this in the games helps me do this and helps me cry: Maranantha!

Outside the arenas, pools, courts and fields of Paris, and even within, we see conflict and suffering: War, rumors of war, economic uncertainty, moral confusion, hurricanes, hatred, abuse, depression and all kinds of the effects of evil.  The slivers of hope and the broad planks of discouragement give a longing for hope and for a hope that does not disappoint.

The rays of the sun come from the sun.  The glimpses of Heaven come from Heaven.  

"After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, 'Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!" Revelation 7:9-10

"Then I saw a new Heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.  And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of Heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man.  He will dwell with them, and they will be His people, and God Himself will be with them as their God.  He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, no pain anymore, for the former things have passed away." Revelation 21:1-4

May the glimpses of Heaven wet your palate and may the pain of the world stoke your desire for Heaven today.

Wearing Goat Skins in Prayer

 I haven't written on here in quite a while.  I have spent my time outside of work preparing for a sermon I was privileged to be able to give at my church.  The fact that pastors regularly do this with one week's prep is impressive to me, especially bi-vocational pastors.  That said, if you're interested and have 45 minutes you can listen to it here. 

In the midst of my thinking and praying about 2 Samuel 9 I checked our family Marco Polo and my aunt had asked a question on there.  She asked, basically, if and how our sin affects our prayers.  Now, that's a complex answer.

1 Peter 3:7 tells husbands that the way we treat our wives affects our prayers.  James 5:16 says that the prayers of a righteous man availeth much.  So, there is something about our personal behavior, obedience and righteousness that does impact our prayer lives.

I also called to mind that Jesus prays for us according to Romans 8:34.  Who could have more effective prayers than Jesus!  What an encouraging reminder when I wonder how my lack of righteousness is affecting my prayers to remember that my most righteous friend and King is praying for me.

And then I recalled a story that I had never connected to prayer before.

Do you remember the story of Jacob and his mother tricking Isaac?  Isaac, the father of Jacob and Esau, was old and had bad vision.  He called his oldest son Esau to him and asked his first born to hunt him food and cook it for him and then come feed it to him and then he would bless Esau.  Rebecca, the mother, heard this conversation and wanted the younger son blessed.  So, Jacob and his mom cooked food to bring to Isaac.  Rebecca then put Esau's clothes on Jacob and goatskins on his arms so he would seem as hairy as his brother.

Poor, old Isaac was tricked by this because Jacob felt like Esau and his clothes smelled liked Esau.  Jacob, dressed in his older brother's garb, got the blessing due his brother.

Now, this story is ripe with how not to be a good family.  It is filled with examples of back stabbing and elder abuse.  Yet, it was this story that encouraged my prayer life recently.

When we come into the throne room of God and ask for blessing we do it with our brother's clothes on.  My hope is not that I am a righteous man and my prayers will therefore be effective.  My hope is that I come dressed in Christ's righteousness and God looks at me and sees Christ and blesses me accordingly.  But the Father isn't an old, blind, fool of a father.  The Father is in on this; it is He that ordained this.

I think the promises of God should encourage us to prayer andI think the warnings of Scripture should move us to live more holy lives; but I know that it is never God's will for me to pray less.  So, I will strive and fall and strive and fall in my pursuit of holiness and I will put on the goat skins of Jesus and come boldly before the Father in prayer (Hebrews 4:26).

Use this story to encourage your prayer life today. 

Do You Love the Bride?

 If someone did a YouTube video ripping my wife, I would be furious.  If someone spent hours of their day trash talking my bride, I would be livid.  I would be angry without measure, even if what they said was true. I wouldn't care if the blemish they spoke of existed, I would hate it to my core.

The Church is the bride of Christ.  Do you love the bride?

I recently finished the 385 year old book "The Love of Christ" (previously "Bowels Opened") based on Song of Solomon 4:16-6:3 by the great Puritan pastor Richard Sibbes.  I also finished a study on Revelation at our church.  This time in these books caused me to ask, "Do I love the bride?"

YouTube is full of Christian controversies and certain content creators trying to pit "celebrity pastors" against one another.   It seems most people on X or Facebook or YouTube that discusse the Bible or Christianity see themselves as the fiery prophet that must call out the Church or the American Church to repentance.

Does the Church need repentence?  Yes, daily.  Does the American Church miss the mark?  Yes.  But do you love the Church?

"We love for goodness, beauty, riches; but Christ loves to make us so, and then loves us because we are so, in all estates whatsoever." Sibbes p. 38

Jesus Christ chose the Church Universal in all her imperfections and loves her deeply.  He did not wait until she was perfect to love her.  He loves her as is and as she is becoming and will love her when she reaches perfection.  Do you love the Church this way or do you reserve your love for her only when she's reached glory or whatever degree of glory you deem yourself to have reached?

Christ looks at His bride and loves her as she is now.  It is Satan that whispers the lie that Christ loves not until she has worked herself into beauty.

"Why should we think basely of that which Christ thinks precious?  Why should we think that offensive which He counts as incense?  We must not give false witness of the work of grace in our hearts, but bless God that He will work anything in such polluted hearts as ours." Sibbes p. 20

Christ looks and loves.  Christ sees the individuals and local churches that worship in partial spirit and truth and smells that rising worship as sweet burning incense.  We look and criticize that the process is so far from complete.  He looks and sees the mustard seeds of grace as lovely.  Jesus sees the very gift of faith He put in us and loves us for having it, even when it is weak faith.  Jesus sees us individually and corporately in progress and marvels at it.

How do you think Christ feels when He works loveliness into the Church Universal and into local churches and local churchmen and you, little you, scoff and mock?  Do you think He feels similar to an earthly loving husband whose wife has been defamed?

Be a friend of the bride.  It seems to me that the Bridegroom will say "I knew you not" to those who despise and mock the very bride He died to marry.

"The enemies of the church shall one day know that the church is not friendless." Sibbes p. 60

We must not be an enemy of the church but a friend and a member of the Church.  No one will enter Heaven who is not in the Church Universal.  Remember the Apostles Creed.  There are four entities that orthodox Christians for nearly 2,000 years have professed belief in: The Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit and the holy catholic (catholic means unified and universal not just Roman Catholic) Church.  No one who hates the Bridegroom will enter Heaven and no one that hates the bride will be at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb (Revelation 19:6-9).

So, practically how can we love the Church today?  I hope you meditate on this and discover ways, but I want to suggest a few things.

1) See her beauty.

Every beauty mark, no matter how small, visible in the Church is a gift from Christ, it is a reflection of the Bridegroom.  See her beauty and thank God for it.  Jesus gave Himself up for her that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so He might present the church to Himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish." (Ephesians 6:25-27). See the advancements in this and love it.

2) Love other varieties of orthodox Christian churches.

Can you have solid, biblically informed, good reasons not to be part of a local church or denomination and still cheer for and pray for it?  If your answer is no, I would ask you to think long and hard about whether or not you are in sin.

Next time you see another church building I encourage you to pray for that local church.

3) Gather with a local church.

"For, next to Heaven itself, our meeting together here, it is a kind of paradise.  The greatest pleasure in the world is to meet with those here whom we shall ever live with in Heaven." Sibbes p. 241

How can you love the Church Universal and avoid a local church?  The people in our local churches are annoying, grating, mean, uninteresting, dumb and cruel at times.  That is true.  But they are also our brothers and sisters who are becoming, slowly in some instances and quickly in other instances, conformed into the likeness of the One to whom we have claimed to profess deepest love.  Those in the local church have the Spirit of God in them and can minister to and encourage our soul.  They are the very people with whom we will spend blissful eternity ruling and reigning alongside.  They are the very people that with us are part of the bride of Christ.  You can't claim to love the Church and find every church near you utterly unloveable.

Do you love the bride or will the Bridegroom be against you?

Think today how you can love the bride a sliver of how Jesus loves her today.

My Wife Taught Me About the Heart of Christ

 How much love did Christ have for you when He chose to follow His Father's will and lay down His life for you on the cross?  How much love for you was in Jesus to make Him decide to suffer for you?

I'm venturing to guess that you are grasping to find a numeral large enough to quantify that amount of love.  I'm guessing your answer is something like a lot or a ton.  And that is a wonderful answer.  

After reading "The Heart of Christ" by Thomas Goodwin I am convinced that Jesus loves you more today than on that Friday that He allowed Himself to be crucified for your sins and for your redemption.  I feel confident that Jesus loves me more after He went to the cross than He did before He went to the cross.

I remember the night before my son Joshua was born.  My wife, Christine, was very pregnant and ready to give birth as soon as possible.  The day before our oldest was born we walked literally miles on the bike path, she ate spicy foods, she pumped.  She did everything that books told her would induce her labor (let the reader understand).

Before we went to bed after 11:00 that night she said, "None of this is going to work."  

I fell asleep quickly.  The next thing I knew I was awakened by three sobering words: "I'm in labor."

My wife was in labor and I knew next to nothing about what to expect.  She labored for a long time.  We went to the hospital too early.  We spent 12 hours at the hospital after spending 5 hours at home.  She was in excruciating pain for a lot of that time as she sat on the edge of giving birth for hours.  

Christine wanted no medication, but at the end she said she would take an epidural.  The doctor said it was too late.  The time to push come. 

Christine pushed and screamed and squeezed my hand.  I cheered for her like a mat girl at the Iowa State Tournament.  She pushed and pushed and pushed but the baby was stuck. 

I looked at the head of my son and then looked at the opening he was supposed to come out of.  I said, that won't fit out.  Then I looked and the doctor had forceps.  Now, I don't know if you've seen those things but they are way bigger than I ever imagined they would be.  I said in my head, that won't fit in and the baby won't fit out; I don't know what you're going to do.

Well, the doctor fit the giant salad forks in and grabbed my son and yanked him out as my wife pushed as hard as she could.  17 hours after she announced her labor had begun, the baby was in my arms.

If you're a parent you know how much hard work that was.  And you know that is only the beginning.  I was exhausted that night.  I slept hard, but every time I woke my wife was awake too, feeding our baby.  For the next nine months my wife was awakened by Joshua every night multiple times because he wanted to eat.  Her body was at times chapped and sore and she was always more tired than she ever knew she could be.

Did Christine love Joshua more when she decided to have a baby?  When she earnestly desired to go through the pain of childbirth just so she could hold her own child?  Or does my wife love Joshua more now?  Now that she has suffered to birth him, that she has experienced lack of sleep and bitten nipples and blowouts on airplanes?

Of course she loves him more now.  In fact, the love of a mother for the child is likely stronger than the love of a father for a child in those early years.  Suffering for someone deepens the love for them.  

"Can a woman forget her nursing child,
that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb?
Even these may forget,
yet I will not forget you." Isaiah 49:15

We see this in the world of foster care.  Very rarely are there single dads, though there are some.  Most often the mother is the one left with the children.  Where a dad may desert, a mom is much more likely to stay.  Suffering increases love.

So it is with Christ.  Jesus, as He is now seated in Heaven, loves us more after suffering for us than He did when choosing to suffer for us.  

Let this encourage you.  If He suffered for you in such an agonizing way He will not soon desert you.  If He experienced the pains necessary to adopt you He will not cease to love you.

"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?  Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword.

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."  Romans 8:35 & 37-39

Meditate on this: Jesus loves you more now today than He did on the morning of Good Friday.  He loves you as a mother loves her nursing infant.  Think on this truth today.

* the illustration in the above is borrowed heavily from "The Heart of Christ" by Thomas Goodwin p. 29

Do We Get It?

 The He Gets Us campaign ran Super Bowl ads once again and once again there was a ton of response.

The negative response, I admit makes my blood boil, probably more than it should.  I probably have just enough Jack Ray in me is why.  Seats in the peanut gallery are always cheap and those there are full of criticism and empty of action.  

There were a few responses that upset me and one that I hope you will have.

1) You could have done _______ with the money.

Many complained that the money could have been used to help the poor.  It could have been used to do that.  No doubt.  Super Bowl ads are expensive.  But people always have noble intentions for other people's money.  I want to ask those people to show me their budgets.  I want to also be able to parse out when they bought a candy bar or took a vacation instead of giving to the poor.  

Super Bowl ads are expensive and they are effective.  Those complaining about someone else's use of money to further the Kingdom come off sounding like Judas in John chapter 12 to me.

2) Woke Jesus.

Seriously.  This is our concern?  Jesus literally washed the feet of the man who would betray him and you're offended by the washing of feet of your supposed enemies?  Jesus was accused of being with drunkards, sinners and prostitutes and you're upset that the feet of people you would say are the modern day sinners would be washed by a Christ follower?  Washing feet is not approval of lifestyle.  

If you're concerned that an ad displays Woke Jesus then perhaps you're bowing to a golden elephant.  If Jesus isn't woke enough for you perhaps it's a golden donkey.

3) This is not a complete Gospel presentation.

You're right.  He gets us is not a complete Gospel presentation.  It's a 60 second ad.  It's a 60 second ad that had to be approved by CBS.  If you want to do a "Repent and be Baptized" campaign next year, do it.  If you want a personal testimony of the goodness of God next year, do it.  I am sure that Jesus approves more of the incomplete conversation starter than the disobedience to the Great Commission that most of us practice.

The ads could be better.  But the ads are there and millions are talking about them.

Can I propose a better response to these ads?

4) Use the commercial to start a Gospel conversation.

"What was your favorite Super Bowl commercial?"  That question was asked millions upon millions of times over the last few days.  Did you ask it?  Did you answer it?  I'm guessing most people reading this in the United States did.

Try asking, "What did you think of the He Gets Us commercials?"  

Millions of dollars was spent on what amounts to a built-in Gospel conversation starter. If you don't think the message was complete then here's your chance to complete it.  If you think it was a good start then here's your chance to take the baton and run with it.  Instead of complaining about the ad get out of the peanut gallery and into the arena.

Ask someone what they thought about the ad and then have a Gospel conversation about it today.

Always Longing: A Review

 Often I am not as good a friend as my friends are to me.  My college buddy Stephen Morefield has written multiple books.  When he and I were at Wartburg if you were to take a poll of those in our history cohort or in our Bible study and ask who of all of us would become a published author all of us and our professors would say Stephen.  Stephen is brilliant as was evident in class and in our Bible study that met in his dorm room.  He's a great friend and I was privileged to be an usher in his wedding in the Summer of 2009.

I say all that to tell you that I've just now read his book Always Longing: Discovering the Joy of Heaven which was published in November of 2022.  Some friend I am, huh?

With all that background out of the way, I do want to offer a brief review of Stephen's book.  Always Longing: Discovering the Joy of Heaven is 109 pages and 123 pages if you read appendix 1 and 2.  

In the book Morefield attempts to answer seven questions, one per chapter: Does Heaven Matter?  What Happens When I Die? How Will History End?  Where Is Heaven? What Will We Do in Heaven?  How Should We Wait for Heaven?  What Does Hell Have To Do With Heaven?  The book addresses each very well with a non-bogged down thoroughness.  He also ends with a question for his reader and two appendices on how to read Revelation and some reading recommendations.

I will say that while I enjoyed this book I would have enjoyed it more if I had not read Heaven by Randy Alcorn first.  This is by no means a slight to Stephen's book.  Randy Alcorn's 560 page tome sparked so much delight and eager expectation for Heaven when I read it that a different book on the subject just couldn't awaken my longings in that same, fresh way again.  I am confident if you read Alway Longing that you will have a similar experience to it as I did to Alcorn's.  I am indebted to Randy Alcorn's writing and Stephen admits that he is as well in his book.

That said, while Alcorn's now classic exploded my longing for Heaven and I will forever be indebted to his book, I can say that Stephen's has advantages over it in a few important ways.  Always Longing is a more concise, less speculative and extremely pastoral book.  Stephen doesn't venture guesses as often as Randy does (Randy's estimates on Heaven are not anti-Biblical but Stephen's book is only Biblical).  Stephen also, I assume, recognizes that if he wants his congregation and other congregations to be excited by Heaven handing them a book that is less thick than the Bible itself is a good strategy.  Also, as I read Stephen's book I could hear him preaching it to me.  Now, you probably don't know what he sounds like but you will also recognize this as a piece of work directed lovingly at members of the flock.

To conclude, I recommend Stephen's book, especially if you've not already read Alcorn's book.  I also recommend it if you, like me, have read Heaven and would like a shorter book on this wonderful subject to pass along to a friend.  I especially recommend Always Longing for a small group or discipleship class that wants to spend 7-10 sessions on a book.  If you want to increase your longing for the person and the place for which you're made I recommend you check out this book today.