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Love is a word very hard to define. Although it’s a common word, it’s really complex. We use it – or misuse it –  a lot, but to put an accurate, complete definition to it would take a lot of thought, study and prayer. I’m not going to attempt to define it. Instead, I’ll list, and elaborate on, four truths about love.

Truth #1: Love is a lot more about choices than about feelings.

My senior year of college I was invited to a girls dorm lobby to watch a video on love. To this day, I’m so glad I went, because that video changed my whole understanding of what love is. In the video, Josh McDowell explained that love is not a mere feeling; it’s actually something we choose. I’d never thought much about love, so I just defaulted to what the world at large – through song lyrics , love-story tv and movies, and pop culture in general – understood and expressed about love. Love, as the world, including me, understood it, was something that just happened to you. It kind of descended upon you like a fog, and then it lifted, and you had no real say in when or if it fell or lifted. If you were lucky enough to be in it, you felt great, and its lift left you empty, longing for another foggy day. But Josh McDowell said we decide when, whom, and how we love, because love isn’t a feeling anyway. It’s a choice. Feelings may or may not be there when we choose to love someone, and real love has more to do with how we treat someone than how we feel about them. I remember leaving that dorm that night feeling enlightened, like a fog of new understanding had engulfed me. Of all the things I learned in my college experience, this was at the top of the most helpful list.

Truth #2: Love originates with God.

The reason we can love at all is because God loves us. Love is something that, like life, is part of who God is. It exists in Him, and can exist in us because of Him. 1 John 4:8 says Anyone who does not love does not know God because God is love. (NLT) This verse implies that if we know God (have a relationship with Him in Christ), we’ll love. Whom will we love? We’ll love both God and people. We’ll love because God modeled love for us. As it says in 1 John 4:19 We love because He first loved us. (NIV) We’ll also love because God produces love in us. Because of our faith in Jesus, God’s Spirit dwells within us, and the Holy Spirit produces fruit in us. Galations 5:22 says The fruit of the Spirit is love… (NKJV)

Truth #3: You can’t love God and not love people.

1 John 4:20-21 says If someone says “I love God” but hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also. (NKJV). ‘Nuff said

Truth #4: You can love people (well, sort of) and not love God.

Jesus is recorded in Luke 6 calling His disciples to love our enemies. In verse 32 He says But if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. (NKJV) Even though it isn’t the love that comes from God, there is a love possessed by people who haven’t accepted Christ. It isn’t the love I acknowledged in the first three truths above. It’s a reciprocal love only. Remember, God’s love loves first (not just in response), and that’s the love His followers are called to, have received,and should have. I’ve noticed often that people who don’t know God recognize loving people, but don’t see the value of loving our Creator, Savior and Provider. Jesus was asked what the most important law was. He gave two.  He said most important is to love God; He said to love others is second. As important as it is to love people, it’s even more important to love God. Do we keep that order? Let’s.

So that’s not everything there is to love. But these four statements are true. Whatayasay we try to live with them in mind?

During one of the Democratic Presidential debates in 2015, the moderator asked, “Do black lives matter or all lives matter?” I wondered how I would answer that question. I would’ve wanted to answer in a way that acknowledges the unnecessary, unfair loss of black lives at the hands of law enforcement officers while still recognizing the value of every life, regardless of race or any other categorization.

Since then, I’ve wondered how Jesus might answer the question. We aren’t without clues of how Jesus would respond. The Gospels are chocked with examples of religious leaders using a question in attempt to trap Jesus into saying something that could be used against Him. But He was the master of avoiding traps and even turning the table on His cunning inquirers, trapping them with His answers.

The question still stands today. Five years later now, and because of recent unnecessary, unfair loss of black lives (George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Atationna Jefferson, Botham Jean, Stephon Clark) –  it resonates louder than ever. 

So how might Jesus answer the question? First, look at how He responded in a couple situations.

Luke 12:13-15 Then one from the crowd said to Him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”  But He said to him, “Man, who made Me a judge or an arbitrator over you?”  And He said to them, “Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.” NKJV

  Jesus first established that He wasn’t in the role of arbitrator; even though He would one day be the judge of every person’s soul, He didn’t come for the purpose of deciding their civil matters. “But,” one could argue, “the BLM vs. ALM question isn’t around a civil matter, but a criminal one.” And that’s, of course, true. But, in my view, Jesus would still explain that He didn’t leave His Heavenly throne and take on the form of man to settle our criminal justice matters; He came to settle, once and for all, our eternal case – the one wherein we each and all committed crimes against God and mankind and stand in need of forgiveness and being reconciled with God. So Jesus’ answer would include a clarification of His role. 

Jesus also, in the above passage, addressed the deeper issue in the one asking the question. “Beware of covetousness.” The condition of the guy’s heart was more important than what he stood to gain or lose in his inheritance. If you think Jesus wasn’t confrontational, do a quick-read of the book of John (or any of the four Gospels). You’ll see that He almost constantly challenged people. There’s no doubt in my mind that He would challenge something in us as part of His response to our question. Able to know the thoughts of our heart, not just the words of our lips, Jesus would point us to that for which we are responsible, and about which we can do something. He might say something like this: 

I’m not taking on the role of earthly sage or municipal judge. I’m more concerned that you hate people. You want to know what matters? Your heart matters. Out of it springs death or life. Do you stand against BLM? I’d prefer you hear them, love them, and protect them. Do you stand with BLM? Don’t allow  your peaceful response to escalate into violence and harm. Are you My follower? Do you trust Me? Then love your enemies and pray for them. You have My example.

So Jesus wouldn’t condescend from His divine position to that of judge of earthly matters, and He would address the hearts on each side of the issue. But wouldn’t He show which side is the right one in such an important issue as BLM vs. ALM? Well, check out what He said when faced with one of the monumental cultural questions of His day:

Matt 22:15-22 (NLT)

 Then the Pharisees met together to plot how to trap Jesus into saying something for which he could be arrested. They sent some of their disciples, along with the supporters of Herod, to meet with him. “Teacher,” they said, “we know how honest you are. You teach the way of God truthfully. You are impartial and don’t play favorites. Now tell us what you think about this: Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” But Jesus knew their evil motives. “You hypocrites!” he said. “Why are you trying to trap me? Here, show me the coin used for the tax.” When they handed him a Roman coin, he asked, “Whose picture and title are stamped on it?”  “Caesar’s,” they replied. “Well, then,” he said, “give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and give to God what belongs to God.” His reply amazed them, and they went away.

The real question behind the stated one was, “Should we abide by God’s law or by Roman law?” Answering the question within the either-or parameters with which they posed it would have gotten Jesus in trouble, which was the very purpose for which the question was crafted. The question was an either-or one, but the answer couldn ‘t be. Either-or questions are designed to divide. Our world is full of them, and I, personally, am praying for God to give me His answers, so I can avoid the ones into which the world tries to corral me.

Jesus wouldn’t be corralled, either, into the BLM side or the ALM side. Rather, He would reveal another side, one more important than the two our question presents. He would introduce a life different from, and even more valuable than, black lives or all lives. Jesus would say something like:

“Black lives matter and all lives matter, but more than anything, eternal lives matter. Stop fighting with your fellow man and turn to Me. Believe in Me. Trust that My death gives you life that will never end. When you know you have eternal life, and your hope is to spend forever with Me in Heaven, even the most weighty issues of earth fade into relative insignificance. The time will come – and soon – when you won’t even care how you were treated in this life, although it is important how you treat others.” 

Jesus’ teachings prioritized eternity over this age. See what He said about some of the most important things here compared to eternal life:

Matt 5:29-30 If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell.  And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell.

Do black lives matter or all lives matter? Both. But mostly, eternal lives matter.

     Two hundred years from now, if someone does today’s equivalent of an online search for COVID 19, what will they find? Before I try to answer that question, a couple disclaimers: First, I’m not a clinician. I’ve been a healthcare administrator, but I’ve always had to defer to nurses, therapists and physicians for the clinical perspective when I needed to make decisions; this is no problem, though, since I don’t think COVID19’s biggest impact will prove to be clinical. In other words, I don’t think it will yield any groundbreaking developments in epidemiology.   Second, I have zero expertise in politics. I mean, I have a perspective and opinions, but pretty much my only involvement in politics has been in the voting booth, and maybe a few barbershop debates, most of which my opponents went away winners, at least in their own eyes. This is not a problem either, since I believe COVID’s deepest historic impact will not be political, although it will impact the political world more than the clinical one.

     Here’s my stab at the year 2220 equivalent of the Wikipedia entry for COVID 19:

COVID 19 (also known as The Corona Virus) a global pandemic that began in November, 2019, and was eradicated in the summer of 2023, and eradicated in the United States, the first country with a population of more than 300,000 to eradicate the disease,  in the fall of 2021. Believed by many historians to have originated in China, the virus spread quickly across Asia, Europe, Africa and the Americas, resulting in nearly 900,000 deaths worldwide, mostly elderly people with underlying poor health conditions before its eradication. Many attempts by scientists to develop a vaccine were ultimately unsuccessful, mainly because a high percentage of people refused to take the vaccine, some leery of the vaccine’s safety risks, and others suspicious that the vaccine included a chip that could be used to monitor their location and behavior.  However, the disease was ultimately eradicated through herd immunity, the first widespread disease ever overcome by herd immunity.

               The COVID 19 Pandemic proved to be an opportunity for nations to unify in new ways, as the World Health Organization compiled data from various countries and brought scientists and political leaders together from around the world to address the crisis. Some world history scholars believe the COVID 19 crisis did more toward the formation of our current One World government than any other event ever. Many Christians of that time expected the pandemic would set the stage for the Biblical Tribulation period, when the Antichrist would come into power and persecute Christians and anyone unwilling to accept his mark on their forehead or hand.  In 2022, well known pastor and politician, Mike Huckabee, was quoted by The Washington Post as saying, “People two hundred years ago thought the Great Tribulation was about to happen, and four hundred years ago, and six hundred years ago, but Jesus will return to earth when the Heavenly Father says. Our job is to be ready all the time for His return.”

One more disclaimer: I’m not a prophet, and this is not intended to be taken as prophetic. It’s just a fictitious rendering of how history could possibly, but probably won’t, paint the pandemic in a couple hundred years. To be honest, I think in two hundred years, Jesus Christ will be reigning on the earth, the Great Tribulation and the Battle of Armageddon will be in the past, and believers in Christ will look forward to the new heaven and the new earth. I could definitely be wrong, but what I know I’m right about is that Jesus is my Savior and I will, therefore, be with Him, along with all other believers, for eternity, regardless of COVID 19’s role in world events.

  The generation of Jews to which Jesus came continued in the expectation of their forefathers. The Messiah would sit on the throne of David and rule over all nations. Surely, that meant He would overthrow Rome and end the centuries-long oppression Israel had endured under several different empires. The throngs who hailed Jesus as He rode a donkey colt into Jerusalem for the Passover celebration must’ve thought He would very soon lead them into a glorious victory over Caesar.  But He and His Father had something much better in mind. Rather than sitting on the throne in Jerusalem constructed by human hands, The Son would soon sit down at the right hand of the Father in Heaven, having fully made the sacrificial payment for the sins of all who did, and would, believe in Him. The Roman Empire wasn’t the enemy from whom He would deliver His people. Nor were it the Greeks, the Medo-Persians, or the Assyrians. It was death, Hell, and the grave, the age-old bullies of humankind, whose power would be overthrown. As Jesus rose like a beam of light out of the dark grave designed to hold Him, He defeated our final enemy, and freed us from the bondage we deserve. 

Three days after His corpse was taken down and laid in the tomb, Jesus showed Himself alive again to His closest followers, and word spread that He was alive. He appeared later to more followers before ascending into Heaven, at which time angels announced that He would one day descend back to earth. Now we know, by the pens of His apostles, that when He returns, He will come in great majesty as our glorious King, starkly different from His humble first coming to a virgin and laid in a manger. It is then that the world will see His power and His glory. What a better reign that will be than the one the first century Jews and their ancestors envisioned! How much more splendid to be enthroned over Heaven, the earth, and the under-earth! How much more victorious to subdue every region, every, nation, every tribe, every tongue! How much less magnificent to sit on Jerusalem’s throne, having conquered mere Rome! Yet such is the difference between God’s plans and man’s, between the hopes of people and the vision of the Almighty, between the expectations of the greatest faith and the reality that God brings about.

I suffered a major stroke seven months ago. A couple of months into my recovery, having struggled with how to organize my faith in my situation, I decided to ask God for, and believe Him for, complete recovery, and leave the timing and the process up to Him. My role has been to trust Him each day and walk with Him through the process. Now all these months later, it seems from my perspective as though I’ve been progressing at a snail’s pace (although my wife, my kids,  and other supporters somehow see more rapid improvement). The other day, I was meditating on this verse:

Never doubt God’s mighty power to work in you. He will achieve infinitely more than 

your greatest request, your most unbelievable dream, and exceed your wildest 

imagination! He will outdo them all, for His miraculous power constantly energizes you. 

(Ephesians 3:20, The Passion Translation)

At one point that day, I got on my knees and said, “Lord, I don’t know exactly what my situation is going to look like when you complete this, but I know it’s going to be far better than if I were deciding it.” As I was  writing this today, I took a break and went over to my wife for one of her life-giving hugs, and told her that I’m so glad God is in charge of my outcomes.  Maybe it’ll be as much better as Heaven is better than earth. If it is, I shouldn’t be surprised. How about your situation? Do you think God can and will exceed your expectation for it? Tell you what. If you’ll pray for me to trust God to that end, I’ll do the same for you. Praying now…

I really didn’t want to be there. It was required, but it shouldn’t have been, not for me. Every one of us parents had a kid in driver education, so we had to learn how to help them learn. I didn’t see a single face that seemed any happier to be there than I was. This would be a waste of time. Some of the parents looked at each other and laughed or rolled their eyes when the instructor said something obvious. Seriously, why were we here? Then, about thirty minutes into the class, the instructor said something simple, yet profound: “You will drive toward whatever you’re looking at.” His context was why drivers shouldn’t look at oncoming headlights, but I knew it had all kinds of life applications. I had to confess my ignorance and arrogance right there. I’d always thought the only reason for avoiding looking at headlights was that they would temporarily blind you. But this newly learned principle would apply to daytime driving, as well as at night. 

Focus is a powerful thing. It causes potential distractions in the peripheral to fade into powerlessness. It ultimately eliminates all its competition.  If we’re easily distracted, it’s often because we lack focus. If we seem to accomplish things, but not the most important ones, we probably have the wrong focus.

The Apostle Paul demonstrated how to eliminate distractions and accomplish what’s most important.

No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us. (Philippians 3:13-14) – NLT

Paul had spent the two previous paragraphs writing about his past. He had some pretty impressive items on his resume, but he saw them as worthless compared to what Christ had accomplished for him. He didn’t want to glory in anything he might’ve been before. He wanted glory to be all God’s, whose it rightfully is anyway. Impressive items weren’t the only ones he acknowledged in his past; he also considered himself chief among sinners, presumably because he had persecuted Christians before becoming one himself. But, regardless of what was in his past, he was placing all its contents in a single category: forgotten. He made the decision to wipe away the past – the impressive and the shameful – and to fine-tune his focus. He would focus on the prize that awaited him, the crown of righteousness. 

I’ve been sensing the Holy Spirit pointing me toward that focus lately. My past has been a distraction for me, and there are things in the present that have hijacked my attention at times. But I will combine the wisdom of the Apostle Paul with the aforementioned obscure but astute drivers ed instructor and stop peering through the rear view, focusing my attention ahead to the prize that awaits me: the day when I stand before God and receive the crown that Jesus won for me.

Won’t you join me in fine-tuning your focus?

In the movie Pursuit of Happyness, Chris Gardener, played by Will Smith, narrates his own life story. At various points along the storyline, he says, “This part of my life is called Running/Internship/Happyness.”

If I’m narrating my story and naming various parts of it, I have a part I call Lying Down. It isn’t a season to itself, rather, it’s several short periods, each lasting several months, weeks, days, or even minutes, interspersed along the timeline of my journey . These are times when I was forced to be still and quiet so the Lord could speak to me or change my perspective. 

The most memorable was when a case of vertigo came upon me suddenly. I lay on the couch and couldn’t turn my head, or even my eyes, to the right or to the left. So I lay flat on my back looking straight ahead at the board directly in front of me in our wood paneled wall. If I looked at an adjacent board on either side of it, I would become sickly nauseous. As I lay there looking at that board, the Lord reminded me of the previous night. I had decided to fast for twenty-four hours, but hadn’t yet committed to when I would begin my fast. I was at one of my sons’ basketball games. During the game, we made plans to go out to eat with some other parents after the game. Before we left the gym, I went to the men’s room. As I stood in front of the mirror, I had made my decision to go ahead and begin the fast. I looked myself dead in the eye and said out loud, “I’m not going to eat dinner tonight.” But when we got to the restaurant and everybody was ordering, I changed my mind, ordered, and ate. God also reminded me of how lax I had also been in other areas of my life. I had allowed my eyes to wander beyond the bounds of purity and had procrastinated in initiating ministry projects I knew He was leading me to implement. I was not taking God seriously enough.

Another Lying Down moment was when my wife and I were on an anniversary trip in St. Thomas, VI. We went to dinner and I ordered a tasty mixed drink. Then, I ordered a second one. After dinner I went upstairs to the restroom. As I stood at the sink washing my hands, I became lightheaded and broke out in a cold sweat. Fortunately, there was a nice leather couch just outside the restrooms area. As I lay there on that couch sweating out toxins, the Lord began to speak to me: “In 1995, you told Me you were never going to drink again.  I didn’t make the requirement; you made it for yourself. Soon, you decided you would drink only on your anniversary, and only champaign on those occasions. A few years later, on an anniversary trip, you decided you would have a Dos Equis, because the commercials were so cool. But you found that it was just beer. Tonight, you drank liquor.” As I lay there, this scripture came to mind:  If a man makes a vow to the Lord, or swears an oath to bind himself by some agreement, he shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth.(Numbers 30:2)

In 2002, my primary ministry having for years been music (singer, songwriter, choir director and worship leader), I began doing more and more preaching. Still, most people who knew me referred to me as a singer, rather than a preacher. One day I said to God, “Lord I want to be known as a preacher, not a singer.” In a matter of weeks, nodules formed on my vocal cords, and I could neither sing nor speak. The Lord healed me a few months later, and these words came to my mind: “Don’t despise the gifts of the Lord.” I also realized the basis of my prayer had been way off. My focus was on what people thought of me as, when it should’ve been on whether I was doing and being what God wanted. 

I don’t believe God punishes His children – those who believe in His Son. Whatever punishment we deserve, Jesus endured for us on the cross. But I do believe God corrects us. He wants us to experience the very best possible life, and we cannot do that by getting off the track that He designs and wants for us, and to which He calls us. He loves us enough to correct us, so we can become what He gloriously desires for us to be. I tried to do the same for my children, but I wasn’t nearly as wise or as loving as He is. I’m glad I have a Father perfect in both love and wisdom, and I’m thankful for His hand of correction in my life!

I thank the Lord for the part of life I call Lying Down!

Hebrews 12:5-11 says:

“My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; For whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives.” 

If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

Gideon’s story is a great read for someone whose resume doesn’t show great accomplishment or prowess of some kind. That’s why I, personally, love Gideon’s story. My resume isn’t impressive, but my God is. While I’m inadequate in and of myself, I believe God can and will use me somehow to do things of great significance. I bet some of you believe the same about yourself. I want to share six pieces of advice I see inferred in the record of how God used a seemingly below average person for epic accomplishment. The account of Gideon spans chapters 6, 7, and 8 of the book of Judges. For the sake of space, I won’t include that entire passage. It would be worthwhile to read those chapters now. I’ll include here just the verses pertinent to each piece of advice.

First, a little background. The Israelites have been under Midianite oppression for seven years. 

Why? Because the Israelites, once again, despite God’s multiple warnings to serve only Him and not the gods of the people groups in the land, turned away from worshiping Jehovah God, who had delivered them out of Egyptian bondage and into the land He had promised their forefathers. 

What did Midianite oppression look like? The Midianites, as well as a few allied people groups, stole the Israelites’ crops as soon as they became ripe for harvest, leaving almost nothing for the Israelites to eat or feed their livestock. It was as if they had the Israelites under siege. Only, they didn’t surround them, as if they would a walled city. Rather, they infiltrated their land. We find Gideon hiding some wheat he’s gotten his hands onto, threshing it in a winepress, when the Lord comes to him.

1. Relinquish your old identity and embrace the identity God offers you.

From Judges 6:

12 And the Angel of the Lord appeared to [Gideon], and said to him, “The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor!”…14 “Go in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites”…15 “O my Lord, how can I save Israel? Indeed my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.” 

The contrast is stark. God calls Gideon “mighty man of valor”, but Gideon rejects the identity that  the God of infinite wisdom offers him and argues that he is, essentially, the smallest of the small, weakest of the weak. By the time the story ends, Gideon understands that he is who God said he is. But God is looking for people who will believe what He says by faith – before He demonstrates that it’s true.

A few weeks ago, I was having a crisis of identity. Still recovering from a stroke, I awoke one morning and said, “Lord, I wish I could just skip this whole day to the point of lying right here ready to go to sleep again.I don’t want to go through the things I have scheduled today with my physical limitations. I’d like to just skip the entire day” Then, I realized that thought seemed a whole lot like depression. Never having faced real depression before, I became deeply disappointed in myself. I decided it would be wise to tell my wife where I had been mentally that morning, so I did. Then, because I was embarrassed by it, I became even more disappointed in myself. How could I be so weak? I thought I was a lot tougher than that! It wasn’t long, just a few minutes, before a friend, Tex, rang my doorbell. He said I had been on his mind and he just had to come see me. I told him I had been struggling that day with being disappointed in myself. He said, “Gabriel, I’m going to call you what God called Gideon. Do you remember what He said?” I did, and I quoted that verse. “That’s right, Tex replied, “ You’re a mighty man of valor. Regardless of what you think about yourself, with God, you are mighty.”

My wife and I have been watching season one of the Alone series. Ten guys are dropped off on a Canadian island near Alaska. Whoever lasts the longest gets $500,000. So far, three guys have left the island, none for physical reasons, like hunger, cold or injury. The first two left for fear of animals, understandable, with bears, wolves and cougars around their tents at night. The third guy left because he was disappointed in himself for losing his fire steel. One of the successfully remaining guys on the island said he has to forgive himself every day for the mistakes he made that day . But he’s doing it and he’s surviving. I wonder how many challenges we won’t survive if we don’t see ourselves forgiven, a huge part of our identity in Christ.

2. When God calls you to something great, it will start with adjustments in your worship life.

Judges 6:25-27 Now it came to pass the same night that the Lord said to him, “Take your father’s young bull, the second bull of seven years old, and tear down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the wooden image that is beside it; 26 and build an altar to the Lord your God on top of this rock in the proper arrangement, and take the second bull and offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the image which you shall cut down.” 27 So Gideon took ten men from among his servants and did as the Lord had said to him. But because he feared his father’s household and the men of the city too much to do it by day, he did it by night. 

God was about to use Gideon to deliver His people from the Midianites. But first things first. Before the deliverance, before the miracle, before Gideon’s military victory, he needed to remove Baal and restore the altar of Jehovah. It just doesn’t make sense to expect God to give us victory when we haven’t established Him as our God.

3. Don’t be surprised by a third party identity; be prepared to reject it and cling to the identity God has given you.

Judges 6:23 Therefore on that day [a townsman] called [Gideon] Jerubbaal, saying, “Let Baal plead against him, because he has torn down his altar.” 

Gideon’s neighbors literally changed his name to Jerubbaal (meaning, essentially, he no longer stands with Baal). Gideon saw himself as small and weak. While that wasn’t the same way God saw him, neither was this identity assigned him by his kinsmen. They saw him simply as someone who no longer stood for Baal. That was part of who he was, but only part. He was also someone who stood victoriously with Jehovah.

When we come to Christ, some people will see us merely as someone who left an old lifestyle. While we do leave some things behind, that isn’t what defines us. We now embrace the identity we have in Christ.

4. Don’t require God to make you great before your battle; instead, depend on His greatness.

Judges 7:2-5 And the Lord said to Gideon, “The people who are with you are too many for Me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel claim glory for itself against Me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me.’ 3 Now therefore, proclaim in the hearing of the people, saying, ‘Whoever is fearful and afraid, let him turn and depart at once from Mount Gilead.'” And twenty-two thousand of the people returned, and ten thousand remained. 4 But the Lord said to Gideon, “The people are still too many; bring them down to the water, and I will test them for you there. Then it will be, that of whom I say to you, ‘This one shall go with you,’ the same shall go with you; and of whomever I say to you, ‘This one shall not go with you,’ the same shall not go.” 5 So he brought the people down to the water.

God took the thirty-two thousand troops and whittled them down to three hundred. He wanted the victory to be an undeniable miracle, not just a victory. I hope we can remember that God can give us victories any way He desires; we just need to allow Him to bring it His way and for His purposes. That may sometimes involve actions on our part that seem counterintuitive to victory but are exactly what God is leading.

5. Seek the encouragement you need for your battle in the Lord, Himself.

Judges 7:9-15 It happened on the same night that the Lord said to him, “Arise, go down against the camp, for I have delivered it into your hand. 10 But if you are afraid to go down, go down to the camp with Purah your servant, 11 and you shall hear what they say; and afterward your hands shall be strengthened to go down against the camp.” Then he went down with Purah his servant to the outpost of the armed men who were in the camp. 12 Now the Midianites and Amalekites, all the people of the East, were lying in the valley as numerous as locusts; and their camels were without number, as the sand by the seashore in multitude. 13 And when Gideon had come, there was a man telling a dream to his companion. He said, “I have had a dream: To my surprise, a loaf of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian; it came to a tent and struck it so that it fell and overturned, and the tent collapsed.” 14 Then his companion answered and said, “This is nothing else but the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel! Into his hand God has delivered Midian and the whole camp.” 15 And so it was, when Gideon heard the telling of the dream and its interpretation, that he worshiped. 

The Lord knows when we need encouragement, and He knows how to give it to us. He will encourage us in a different way, and a more effective way, than anyone else can. 

6. Break the cycles of futility in your life by continuing to walk with God and resisting the temptation to return to your old patterns.

Judges 8:27 Then Gideon made it into an ephod and set it up in his city, Ophrah. And all Israel played the harlot with it there. It became a snare to Gideon and to his house. 

Despite Gideon’s incredible experience with God, he returned to idolatry, making a golden idol for himself and his Israelite brothers and sisters to worship. It’s puzzling to read the cycles of unfaithfulness in the Biblical narrative. But if we were to read the narrative of our own lives with God, I believe what would impress us most is God’s patience with us in our inconsistent walk with Him.

Thank you, Lord, for advice from the story of Gideon.  Please help me take it.

 When the Lord established the law through Moses for the nation of Israel, He included this:

By the mouths of two or three witnesses [a] matter shall be established” – Deuteronomy 19:15

This rule requiring two or three witnesses to establish whether a claim was true is similar to the requirement in our, and other judicial, legal systems. It prevents a party from successfully making a claim against another without supporting evidence. That’s a good thing. I only wish we, as individuals – each of us acting as judge in establishing matters in our own heart for ourselves – would be so prudent in drawing our conclusions. We often decide what we’re going to believe after exposure to the first claim somebody makes, especially if we want that claim to be true. But here’s how ridiculous it is to make decisions so prematurely:

Imagine you’ve been falsely accused of hurting someone, so you lawyer up and go to court to defend yourself against the accusation. The judge announces that he will hear your case and invites your accuser to state the charges they’re bringing against you. Your accuser’s attorney stands up and makes his opening statement. After that attorney finishes his statement, the judge thanks him, announces recess for deliberation, bangs the gavel and exits the courtroom posthaste. Baffled, you ask your attorney why the judge didn’t give your counsel a chance to speak. Is the judge really going to decide the case after hearing only one side? Your attorney is as puzzled as you are. The judge soon re-enters the room and returns to the bench. He hammers the gavel and calls the court to order. Then he announces that he finds you, the accused, guilty of the charge and hands down your sentence.

As preposterous as that scenario is, it happens everyday as people run across information. Thus, false news is having a field day. My favorite president, who, himself, had a pretty good understanding of both the law and how gullible people can be, gives us some timely advice:

That’s funny. But what isn’t funny is that many people have concluded that Jesus Christ isn’t worth considering to have risen from the grave. The cultural currents testify against Jesus being who the Bible says He is, so it’s as easy to assume Him to be a fraud as it is to believe a person’s guilty by reading about accusations against them on your news feeds. Here’s what Jesus said to His twelve closest disciples not long before He surrendered to Jewish and Roman officials for crucifixion:

John 15:26-27

“But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me.  27 And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning.

Jesus was, essentially, calling His disciples to the witness stand in the trial we each would hold in our heart to decide what we’ll do with Jesus. Jesus also said the Holy Spirit would testify. The New Testament is the testimony of the disciples, each book having been written by either an apostle or a person writing for an apostle. So when we read the Bible (the New Testament shedding light on the Old Testament), we are getting the testimony of the apostles. That’s the first witness. And the second is the Holy Spirit. As we seek the truth of God in His Word, the Holy Spirit bears witness of it in our hearts. The Spirit of God speaks to our most inner self, and He speaks in a way that we unmistakably understand the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden for us in God’s Word. I love the way the Spirit of God opens my eyes to see and understand something God is saying specifically to me for that moment.  The Holy Spirit lets me know without a doubt who Jesus is. He corroborates the testimony of the apostles. As each of us holds court in the chamber of our heart, we have two corroborating witnesses to help us know the truth. But remember, God gave Moses the requirement of two or three witnesses. The third witness may or may not be needed from case to case. I believe the third witness, as people seek to know the truth about Jesus, is a person (or people) who came to know Him after He walked on the earth. So the original apostles, the Holy Spirit, and contemporary disciples – that’s the three witnesses as people judge who Jesus is and how to respond to Him.

My prayer is that Jesus is being established in the hearts of more and more people by these two or three witnesses.

Many words in the Bible are misunderstood. Gospel is one of those words. A Google search of the word, brings up music in that style, Kirk Franklin heading the list of artists – Can I get a witness up in here? Most people would say it’s a religious term. And it is. But it wasn’t in its original use. Probably, most people familiar with the Bible and Christianity know that it means good news. But probably, most of them don’t know the specific kind of good news for which it was used during and before New Testament times. This English word gospel comes from a Greek word that transliterates to our word evangelism. It represented the good news, which wasn’t always good, or even true, that came along with the establishment of a new government, kingdom or regime over a people. 

The Roman Empire established their dominance over Israel in 63 B.C. So by the time Jesus began His earthly ministry around 26 A.D., Rome had been in power over Israel for more than sixty years. That generation of Jews had been living under the “good news” of Rome for all that time when Jesus introduced them to a different good news – His good news. Jesus’ gospel contrasted greatly from Rome’s or any other kingdom’s. If Rome sent a herald to Jerusalem after General Pompey’s successful siege of the city in 63 B.C., he probably announced something to this effect: 

Ceasar is in power here and you are now subjects of the Roman Empire. This is good news for you if you are wealthy, for you can purchase positions of power. This is also good news to you if you are ambitious, for you can collect taxes for Ceasar and become rich. If you are part of the Herod dynasty, this is good news for you, for you will reign over Judea under the authority of Ceasar.

We can see how different Jesus’ gospel was when He announced it to Jewish people in this way:

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven. (Matthew 5:3 NKJV)

Strong’s defines the poor in this verse as beggar. So Jesus was speaking of beggars for spiritual things. The thing about beggars is that they’re aware of their need and they’re willing to ask for help. Here’s a verbal characature of what a spiritual beggar could look like in our culture: You’re driving in your car and you roll up to a red light at an intersection. You see a man who looks like he’s probably homeless holding a homemade cardboard sign. You assume the sign says something like: 

Homeless Veteran. 

Need Money for Food

God bless. 

But you look at the sign and the words are: 

Terrible sinner

Need forgiveness

Want to be reconciled with God

That’s the person who thrives in the Kingdom of Heaven, not the rich (those who think they’re self sufficient and don’t need God), or the ambitious (those who pursue earthly wealth and have no desire for the eternal blessings that God gives), or the powerful (those who see themselves as better than others)

Jesus’ gospel is good news for those of us who know we need God’s forgiveness, believe that Jesus rose from the grave after paying our sin debt on a Roman cross, and surrender our lives to become members of His eternal family and kingdom.

 There’s a Christian song from the nineties that goes “I believe the good Lord helps those who cry for help.” Very true. That’s the gospel.

Who’s the best father in the Bible? As I thought through the Biblical narrative this past Father’s Day weekend, I couldn’t think of a sterling example, other than the Heavenly Father, Himself. There isn’t all that much recorded, good or bad, about the fatherly practices of the Biblical paternal personalities. What is there, it seems, is mostly negative. Indeed, that’s one of the self-validating qualities of the Bible. If the human authors of the Bible weren’t writing the truth, wouldn’t they have cast themselves in a more impressive light? Jacob played favorites among his thirteen children, as did his father, Isaac, among his two. Lot offered up his two daughters to the evil men of Sodom to have their wicked way with them, protector not his strongest fatherly role. Saul once said to his son, Jonathan, “you stupid son of a whore”, not the best way to encourage your child. David had a son, Adonijah, whom he never disciplined, not even to ask, “Why are you doing that?” In the era of the divided kingdom, neither nation, Israel nor Judah, recorded a Godly king who actively prepared his son to succeed him as a Godly king. In the New Testament, Joseph, the earthly stepfather of Jesus, showed some strong qualities, like protecting his family when King Herod ordered all babies around Jesus’ age killed. But to find the winner of the Best Father Award, I had to look at someone who wasn’t a real person, at all. He’s a fictional character in one of Jesus’ best known parables. He does symbolize the Heavenly Father in the story, so he’s obviously a positive figure.

May I have the envelope?…Drum roll please….

And the winner is…

…the father of the prodigal son. His example is recorded in Luke 15:

Luke 15:11-31

To illustrate the point further, Jesus told them this story: “A man had two sons. 12 The younger son told his father, ‘I want my share of your estate now before you die.’ So his father agreed to divide his wealth between his sons. 

13 “A few days later this younger son packed all his belongings and moved to a distant land, and there he wasted all his money in wild living. 14 About the time his money ran out, a great famine swept over the land, and he began to starve. 15 He persuaded a local farmer to hire him, and the man sent him into his fields to feed the pigs. 16 The young man became so hungry that even the pods he was feeding the pigs looked good to him. But no one gave him anything. 

17 “When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, ‘At home even the hired servants have food enough to spare, and here I am dying of hunger! 18 I will go home to my father and say, “Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, 19 and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired servant.”‘ 

20 “So he returned home to his father. And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him. 21 His son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son.’ 

22 “But his father said to the servants, ‘Quick! Bring the finest robe in the house and put it on him. Get a ring for his finger and sandals for his feet. 23 And kill the calf we have been fattening. We must celebrate with a feast, 24 for this son of mine was dead and has now returned to life. He was lost, but now he is found.’ So the party began. 

25 “Meanwhile, the older son was in the fields working. When he returned home, he heard music and dancing in the house, 26 and he asked one of the servants what was going on. 27 ‘Your brother is back,’ he was told, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf. We are celebrating because of his safe return.’ 

28 “The older brother was angry and wouldn’t go in. His father came out and begged him, 29 but he replied, ‘All these years I’ve slaved for you and never once refused to do a single thing you told me to. And in all that time you never gave me even one young goat for a feast with my friends. 30 Yet when this son of yours comes back after squandering your money on prostitutes, you celebrate by killing the fattened calf!’ 

31 “His father said to him, ‘Look, dear son, you have always stayed by me, and everything I have is yours. (Luke 15:11-31, NLT)

Here are the qualities I see in this father:

1. He was generous to his sons. When his younger son made the very bold request to receive his inheritance early, the dad accommodated his request. We could question the wisdom of the dad’s decision, but his gift to his son shows that generosity trumped distrust for his son, and answering his son’s request took priority over conservation of wealth. God hasn’t required perfect wisdom from me before giving me resources. He’s placed gifts into my hands knowing I would mismanage them. Surely, there are times when we say no to our children’s requests, but sometimes, like our Father, we’ll place resources into incapable hands as an opportunity to teach our kids to be wise stewards of their resources. And the way we’ll always make the right decision is to seek and follow God’s counsel. He won’t lead us into stinginess; there’ll be a really good reason when we say no, but the Holy Spirit will always steer us right. It’s also significant that the older son never lost anything through the whole ordeal.
2. He was patient with his sons. How the dad stayed home during a famine in a nearby region where his son was likely to be, I don’t know. As an earthly dad, it shows his trust in God to take care of his son. As a symbol of Father God, it shows his patience to wait for his child to return to him in his hour of need. It’s been a difficult thing for me to release my kids to God’s care, instead of mine, when I knew they were making some foolish decisions. God once spoke to me concerning one of my kids whose life I wanted to involve myself and fix for them. He said, “The reason you feel like you need to fix this is because you don’t trust Me to do it.” From that moment I understood that God had a role that I couldn’t fill and I had the very small yet vital role of praying, trusting, and clearly showing love to my child.
3. He remained mindful of his estranged son. He was obviously keeping a watchful eye out for his son’s much anticipated return. How else would he have seen him when he was still a long way off from home? A good father will never forget or neglect his children. He has a place in his heart that cannot become empty, no matter what. Those most pained parents who’ve lost a child know that’s true.
4. He celebrated his son. There was plenty of need for correction and retraining. But the hour of his son’s return wasn’t the time for it. This was the time to celebrate that he still had his son, that he was alive, and he was home. It’s so easy to allow negative things to compromise celebration. Something I’ve learned is that when it’s time to celebrate, celebrate. There’s a time to deal with corrective matters, but it’s not during celebration. I learned that from Nehemiah, when he made the people stop weeping when they realized they had not been keeping God’s law. Essentially, he told them they would deal with their guilt later, but now was the time for joy and they couldn’t forfeit that because the joy of the Lord was their strength. As parents, we need to not muddy the waters for our kids. There are times when we want to affirm their very life, existence, and place in our family, and that’s not the time to talk about the bad report card or the speeding ticket.
5. He was a peacemaker. Every decent father wants his kids to love each other and live in harmony with one another. Jesus expressed that as a top priority for us as children in the family of Christ, And we all want that for our own kids. The father in Luke 15 fielded his older son’s complaint by affirming that son’s rightful place as his heir while helping him see the value of having his younger brother alive and home.

Congratulations to our winner, the Father of the Prodigal Son! You’ve left us an awesome example of how to parent a prodigal child, how to parent a non-prodigal child, and how to parent both at the same time. Of course, you are a fictitional figure created by the Son of God and patterned after the Heavenly Father, so all the credit really goes to them. Of course, you won’t mind that. Given your known qualities, you’re doubtless a humble man, and you want credit to go where it’s due. Nevertheless, congrats to you. And thanks to God! And another congrats to all us fathers (and moms) who learn and apply your lessons!