Sunday

This song doesn't obviously mention Easter, but then, as it mentions the joys and benefits of a relationship with God though Christ, it's actually all about Easter Sunday...

Saturday

Saturday must've been the worst day. Trying to quietly observe the Sabbath, whilst making sense of yesterday's events would've been a struggle, to sat the least. We know that at least two of the disciples were making escape plans, maybe others were planning to leave at sunset, hoping their old lives would except them back.

But today, Easter Saturday, we know only hope because of the cross, when the disciples knew only despair. Hear these words from John Piper, from 'Faith in Future Grace.'

God strips every pain of it's destructive power. You must believe this, or you will not thrive, or maybe even survive as a Christian, in the pressures and temptations of modern life.

There is so much pain, so many setbacks and discouragements, so many controversies and pressures. I do not know where i would turn if i did not believe that almighty God is taking every setback and every discouragement and every controversy and every pressure and every pain and stripping it of it's destructive power, and making it work for the enlargement of my joy in God.

The world is ours, life is ours. Death is ours. God reigns so supremely on behalf of His people that everything that faces us in a lifetime of obedience and ministry will be subdued by the mighty hand of God and made the servant of our holiness and our everlasting joy in God.

If God is for us, and if God is God, then it is true that nothing can succeed against us. He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all will infallibly and freely with Him give us all things - all things - the world, life, death, and God Himself.

Romans 8:32 is a precious friend. The promise of God's future grace is overwhelming. But all important is the foundation. Here is a place to stand against all obstacles. God did not spare His own Son! How much more, then, will He spare nor effort to give me all that Christ died to purchase - all things, all good?

It is as sure as the certainty He loved His Son.

Future Grace, John Piper, P114

Friday

A couple of Good Friday reflections to read/watch

The Servant is the arm of the Lord, unveiled in all his sheer, naked, divine power. Spreading plagues is nothing. Any terrorist with a supply of anthrax can do that. You can knock down buildings with a wrecking ball or a hijacked airplane. It takes infinite power, though, to share Zion’s sin and sickness, absorb the blows of Zion’s rejection and hatred, bear evil all the way to death, and burst out the other side of the grave. How can you defeat a God who transfigures rejection into reconciliation, who choreographs a pageant of injustice into the salvation of the world?

The Imprecatory Psalms

The following is inspired by Gordon Wenham's book, 'The Psalter Reclaimed.' Go buy it.

What do we do with the imprecatory psalms? How can we amen a prayer that asks God to dash the heads of babies against a rock? Or that our accusers would be cloaked in shame so that it would soak into their bones? This sentiment disturbs our quiet times doesn't it? But how are we supposed to engage with these Psalms? If we're serious about the Bible, we can't just strike off the things that make us uncomfortable, or there would be very little left.

So what do we do with the imprecatory Psalms?

We could take a popular approach, and say that they are simply the remnant of a pre Christian view of God. The leftovers from a time where law ruled instead of grace, and should be ignored as such. But the problem with calling them left overs, is that it means that someone left them over. We can't believe that the Psalms included every single song written by the Hebrews, obviously, so for some reason, these unpleasant prayers or songs or praises were left in the Bible. Why?

How can we read these Psalms like Christians? What do they teach us? First, it's worth remembering that the imprecatory Psalms are simply strong laments. Jesus prayed through the Psalms of lament as He went from the upper room to the cross, but we live in a lament free society. The first world prosperity Gospel holds that anyone who damages my self esteem is guilty of sin. We don't lament very often, we don't wail. Our popular songs are upbeat, Christian radio stations want to create 'an atmosphere of positivity.' Laments are odd to our ears. And where laments are odd, imprecations will be odder still.

But these odd prayers are Christian scripture, just like the rest of the Old Testament, since we're there, so what do we do with them?

Firstly, these Psalms help us identify how serious sin is. Our sin. As Judges ends with the sin inside the camp, so taking these psalms on our lips should make us think about the sin in our camp. How have we oppressed, and let down, and marginalised? How does our life look under the white hot glare of Christ's gracious perfections? Are we praying these Psalms as the aggrieved or the aggressor? They help us see how God feels about personal sin, and about institutional sin.

These Psalms wake us up to God. Just like pain plants a flag in our lives to show us that all is not well, so the imprecatories plant a flag in scripture that all is not well within our hearts, our institutions, and our creation. In a world anaesthetised by religion and numbed by entertainment, these Psalms shake us awake.

The imprecatory Psalms help us to empathize with Christians all over the world. With Christians who are being persecuted, with Christians who really have been that poorly treated and really are that justly angry about it. They give us a window into a world where the choice is not 'which multi million dollar sanctuary do I visit this week,' but 'do I keep my family, or do I go to church?'

We need the imprecatory Psalms, and the fact that we feel so uncomfortable with them probably shows us just why we need them. We need to be woken up from our doze about sinful things. We need to see the damage that sin, both personal and institutional does to those sinned against. We need to know how God feels about sin. We need the imprecatory Psalms so that we can pray for our brothers and sisters across the world suffering for their faith. So that we, in some small way, can feel the injustice they face, and the way it makes them feel.

And we need these Psalms to spur us on the share our faith, to preach the Gospel. Why? Because for those outside of Christ, 'come Lord Jesus,' is the most imprecatory Psalm there is.

Here's Your King

Probably the best way to read Judges is quickly. Move through it at pace, and then the awful themes become clearer. The repeated refrain that there was no king in those days, that everyone did what was right in their own eyes, the systematic moving through of the tribes of Israel, none of them left untouched by rebellion and poor leadership. Even the best of them are pretty rotten.

There are many things that these dark days of Israel's history teach us, but the desire of the author, probably Samuel, is to help us understand that without a King, the people perish. A Heavenly King of course, we need Jesus to be the King of our lives and passions and desires, but an earthly King as well.

And not the one that Samuel was serving under at the moment. If the sceptre was never to depart from between Judah's feet, why was there a Benjaminite on the throne! A Benjaminite, from the tribe spoken of in such despicable tones at the end of Judges. Samuel says no, he says that Kings don't come from Benjamin, they come from Judah. And then, as he dips his quill in his ink, and asks again for help, he turns the page, and tells us about Ruth. And he says, this Israel, this is where Kings come from.

I love the story of Ruth. It's a beautiful short story all on it's won. Love and romance, death and tragedy, intrigue and unexpected plot twists, it's got it all. It also has the coolest guy in the Old Testament for a hero. Boaz. Say it slowly and in a deep voice. Bo-az. So how is it about Kingship? Well has the end of the story ever confused you? It has me. Where do Ruth and Boaz go? Our two starcrossed lovers just disappear, and we're left with Naomi, sweetly bouncing her grandson on her knee. And a genealogy. One that takes us from Perez, though Boaz, to David. King David. This where your Kings come from Israel, Judah, not Benjamin. Where do Ruth and Boaz go? It doesn't matter, they've served their purpose in this tract on the benefits of  a Davidic King.

So Israel, that's where your King should come from, but what should he do? He clearly shouldn't be like a King od the other nations, to ask for a King like that was a sin, and Saul wasn't doing a great job in teaching his people the law. Israel, your king should be like YHWH, like Boaz in fact.

What does Boaz do? He greets his bride as she comes in from the wilderness. He provides for her and protects her. He spreads his wings over her, even though he has no cause to. He loves her. They are betrothed, and he goes outside the city (Outside. The. City!) to fight off other suitors. Then they marry, and they can look at each other and say, I am my beloved, and my beloved is mine. Israel, choose a King who will do these things, who will take, and love, and sacrifice and fight for you.

Israel had to choose a King like that, and so do we. We need a King who accepts us from the wilderness, hairy, sweaty and unattractive. A king who will spread His wings over us. Who will nourish and protect us. Who will take us to Himself, who will leave the comforts of the city to win us. Who will be married to us forever.

It's no wonder Spurgeon called Jesus 'our glorious Boaz.'

The Great Promise

I love the great promise of Matthew 24:14. This Gospel will be preached to all nations, and then the end will come. Is there a sweeter 'and then' in all the Bible?

Jesus doesn't say the Gospel should be preached, or might be preached, or could be preached, He says it will be preached to all nations, and then the end will come. And we know Jesus is coming, we know the end is coming, so we know that the Gospel will fill the Earth as the waters fill the sea.

Nations doesn't mean Canada, Mexico and Brazil, but language groups or ethnic groups. The Gospel will be preached in and to every language, and then Jesus will return. So there's no fence sitting in the Christian life. There's no waiting around to see who wins, and then jumping in, we commit to pray, participate and proclaim.

We commit to pray. Jesus told us to. When He looked at the fields white for harvest, He didn't tell us to go, he told us to pray. How we pray for the end is how we gauge our passion for Jesus return. We don't prepare for His return with rapture wallcharts and collecting tinned food. Neither do we prepare for His return by doing nothing about it. We pray, maranatha, come Lord Jesus.

As we pray, we participate. We take part in the life of our local church, we commit our time and our treasure and our talents to what our church is doing. We share our faith with our friends, we let them know that we have found a feast in the wilderness, we ask them to come with us, because we will do them good, we tell them of our beloved and invite them to enjoy Him with us. We pray and we participate.

And we proclaim. The Gospel isn't true because it works, but it does work because it is true. It changes people, and so, because know the Gospel overcomes, we share the truth of it with people. We're not worried about being slurred because we believe in one God and one way to Him, we go and we lay down our lives to share the Gospel, like the millions before us have.

Is the great promise of Matthew 24:14 making a difference in your life? Are you praying? Are you participating? Are you proclaiming?

And Love Your Neighbour (Mark 12:28-44 Pt 2)

That’s why loving Jesus shows that we’re saved, but why does loving others show that we’re saved? Jesus gives us two reasons. A positive example in verses 41-44, but first, a negative example in verses 38-40. Let’s read those verses together READ. What do the scribes like? They like honor, they like greetings, they like attention. They like to come first. They can’t put God first, because they are putting themselves first. They want the greetings and the seats of honor. These men want everyone to know who they are, they want to come first. Them. Not God. They can’t love God because they love themselves too much.

Maybe sometimes we’re like that. We want attention, we want the praise, we want the focus to be on us and our achievements. The scary thing is that these scribes would have totally agreed with what Jesus said to the scribe in our first passage, but it didn’t make any difference to their lives, and they were far from the Kingdom of God. They did not love God. They made long prayers that everyone loved, but because they were for show they meant nothing, they fell to the ground like a lead balloon. So will your prayers if they are for show and not for God. They devoured widow’s houses. That doesn’t sound great does it? They exploited widows instead of helping them, making money off their poverty, rather than helping them as they were supposed to do.

This should scare us a little bit. These guys looked great to everyone. They followed all the rules, did their devotions, never missed a youth activity, were always in Sunday School, but Jesus condemns them, because in their hearts they were first, not God. James tells us that faith without works is dead. This is what he means. All the good works in the world mean nothing if God is not first in your heart.

If you come first in your life, God can not come first in your life. real faith, Kingdom faith, saving faith puts God first, and puts others first. It doesn’t think of itself very often, it thinks of God and others a lot.

Saving faith looks like the widow we meet in verses 41-44. READ. The two coins she put in the offering plate were worthless. Together they were 1/64th of a days wages for a builder. They would have made no difference to the running of the Temple, but they would have made a huge difference to her life is he’d kept them. Jesus tells us that she put in all she had to live on. What was she going to do the next time she got hungry? She had thrown away her life for the sake of God, and others.

This is what Jesus wants us to see as a real example of someone who is saved.

She had real devotion, not pretend prayer. She didn’t wait for her house to be devoured, she put God first, and gave everything to Him. can we say the same? We may not think we have much, but do we give to God what we do have? Are our plans different because of Jesus? They should be. This women would have known that her pennies were basically worthless, but she knew that in the Kingdom of God nothing is worthless. Whatever gift, or talent, whatever you can offer, can not be worthless, if you give it to God.

So to go back to our question at the beginning. How can i know i’m saved? You can know you’re saved if your life has a single devotion in it to put God first.

Putting God first means putting others first, and it means putting yourself last. It means that, as we saw last week, we give to God what is His. That means everything.

 

It means that we know faith in Jesus is better than sacrifices and burnt offerings, because Jesus sacrifice is better. It means we have a faith in Jesus that puts others first, rather than ourselves. It means that we have a faith in Jesus that gives Him everything we have, no matter what it’s worth.

It means that the Christian life is always about someone else before it’s about you. The Christian life is about God, and then it’s about others. So what is your life about? What is the focus of your life? That’s how you can know whether or not you are really living in the Kingdom, whether or not you’re really saved.

Love God (Mark 12:28-44 Pt 1)

Life is full of important questions isn’t it? Is it safe to cross the street? Will my teacher mind if i don’t do my notecards, does she like me back? One day those questions will become ‘should i cheat on my tax return,’ and ‘should i ask her to marry me.’ Some important questions change, and some stay the same. How do i know that i’m really saved is one of those that will always stay the same.

How do i know if i’m really saved? We all need an answer to that question. How do in know that i now live in the Kingdom of God, not the kingdom of the world. Has the Kingdom broken out in my heart?

 

That’s more or less the question that the scribes asks at the beginning of our passage tonight. ‘what is the most important commandment of all,’ he asks. What is life like in the Kingdom? Remember we’re still in the temple, this is the same conversation that follows on from last weeks dispute with the religious leaders. Jesus cursed the Temple two weeks ago, and with it denounced religion. Jesus cursed the temple leaders last week, and with it denounced religious people. People who think that they can earn God’s favour, and get God to do what they want Him to by the way they act.

 

The scribe asks a genuine question. He’s not like the Saducees with their marriage in Heaven nonsense question, or like the Pharisees and the Herodians who are trying to catch Him out. He really wants to know. And because he really wants to know, Jesus will give him a straightforward answer. Jesus will never turn away anyone who genuinely seeks Him.

 

So what is the most important commandment? Look at verses 29-31 with me. READ. Jesus tells the scribe that most important things we can do in the Kingdom of God, the best way of knowing that we’ve saved is that we love God, and we love others. Jesus puts these two side by side. He says that if you love others but don’t love God, then your love for others is worthless. He says that if you love God but don’t love others then your love for God is worthless. Jesus says ‘there is no commandment greater than these.’ So how do you know that you’re saved? What is the most important thing that we have to do? Love God, and love other people.

This is worth more than sacrifices and burnt offerings. An amazing thing to say in the Temple, which was built for sacrifices and burnt offerings. Why is love to God and love to people better than sacrifices and offerings? because of what Jesus makes us think about in the next couple of verses. Look at 35-37 with me. The tables are turned here, as now Jesus is the one asking the questions. How can the Messiah be the Son of David, which is one of the few titles that Jesus accepts in Mark’s Gospel, and the Lord of David, as His quotation from Psalm 110 says? This is the great glory of the Gospel. Jesus is descended from David, He’s David’s Son, He is like David, He will rule over the Kingdom of God. But He is also the Lord of David, and will rule over a Kingdom much different from earthly Israel. He rules over the heavenly Kingdom of God that will never end.

 

Jesus offering is better than our offering, and we need to have faith in Him, and Him alone. Jesus will have victory over His enemies, and sit at God’s right hand, so we’d better make sure that we love Him and have faith in Him alone.

How Does The Church Overcome?

Has more ink been spilt in the history of the church than answering the question, 'how to understand Revelation?' Well maybe, but not by much. Today, and for at least a week now, my answer to that question has been 'chiastically.' I think Revelation is a chiasm centered around 11:15-19, and that the revelation John receives either side of that moment tells the same story. Two mentions of the 144,000, a real prophet and a false prophet, and, in chapter 11 and chapter 12, the story of the battle between good and evil between the people of God, signified by the two prophets in 11 and the woman in 12, and the world, or the devil, or the many headed and horned dragon.

These two chapters tell the story of how God protects and nourishes the church. The two witnesses are untouchable until their time of witnessing is over, the woman is taken off into the wilderness, a place of revelation and intimacy, where she is pursued by, but protected from, the devil. He's thrown down the earth, and rages like the mortally wounded animal he is, but is foiled, and is overcome.

These two chapters reveal to us that, for a short while, it will look like the world has total victory over the church. The bodies of the witnesses lie dead in the streets of 'Sodom, and Egypt, and Jerusalem,' while the world celebrates and exchanges gifts. Nothing looks like a more one sided fight than a seven headed dragon against a woman in labour. But the witnesses and resurrected and raptured, the baby ascends and the woman is safe.

And, in 12:11, the brothers have overcome. How? By the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.

I love how precious verse 11 is. How does the church overcome the world? By the blood of the lamb and by their testimony. By their message, and by their life. These verses tell us how satan’s accusations are thrown out of the court of heaven. This is what the devil does, he accuses. He accuses us of sin, he tells God about our sin. And he’s not lying either. We know we’re sinners, we know we’ve made a horrible mess of things. We don’t overcome by cleaning up, we overcome by the blood of the lamb. What does that mean? It means that Jesus has won on our behalf. Jesus has defeated this dreadful beast for us. We can not live perfect lives, so the devil accuses us, but when he accuses us, we can point to Jesus, shedding His blood on the cross, and tell the devil that our sins have been punished, and no longer stand in the way of our relationship with God.

Satan is thrown to earth, where his time to create chaos, sin and misery are short. So he is raging with all the passion of a mortally wounded enemy. he comes to us raging, and when satan tells you that you’re a sinner, thank him, and remind him that Christ died for sinners!

If we love our lives not even unto death, we will awake and find ourselves in heaven. How do we love our lives not even unto death? By remembering verse 12. Everything that looks good in this world us under the power of the devil. It’s time is short and it’s end is death. So cling to the Gospel, and don’t buy the lies of satan, the defeated accuser.

All that glitters in the world is not gold. And for a while the glittering world will look pretty good. We'll be tempted to say with Elijah that we're the only ones left, but like Moses lead Israel out of Egypt in an apparently hopeless situation, so Jesus will lead us to overcome.

But only if we cling to the Gospel, only as we overcome by the blood of the lamb, and love not our own lives even unto death.

The Ramshackle Religion

The following is an excerpt from Unapologetic, by Francis Spufford, which i've just finished. Unapologetic attempts to explain Christianity from the inside, essentially, from inside the author's head. I'd cautiously recommend it, as i'll (hopefully) explain when i review it some time this week.

So no, i don't think that most British Christians are in mourning for times past. And though i write this book to try to extricate for people, from the misleading ruins of half-memory, what Christianity feels like from the inside, i don't expect my religion ever to be any less ramshackle, in my time, where i live. And that's all right. For sure, i would be be if people weren't quite so rude. It would be nice if they didn't brandish crude cartoons of nineteenth century thought and expect you to reel back, dazzled. It would be nice not to be patronised by nitwits. It would be nice if people were to understand that science is a special exercise in perceiving the world without metaphor, and that, powerful as it is, it doesn't function as a guide to those very large parts of experience that can't be perceived except through metaphor. It would be nice if people saw that the world can not be disenchanted, and that the choice before us is really choice of enchantments.

 

It would be nice. But it isn't necessary. Because the churches are open, doing their ancient and necessary business, and they will be open tomorrow, and the day after that, and that, onwards into far time, in some form or another. And it doesn't really matter what form, much though we may love the form they have now. They will still be offering a hush in which we can bear to find out what we're like. Christ will still be looking at us from the middle of the angry crowd. God will still be there, shining.

 

Unapologetic. Francis Spufford, Pp 221-222

Render to Caesar

It's tax season. The one time of year when those of us who live in North Carolina understand why anyone would choose not to. George Whitfield described the Great North State as 'an howling wilderness,' and away from the I40 and I85 conuerbations much of it remains that way. But at tax season we gather our receipts and plug in our numbers and hope for the best.

We pay taxes because Jesus told us to. It's really that simple. Jesus told the Pharisees and the Herodians who tried to catch Him out, render to Caesar what is Caesars. And...

Render to God what is God's. How do we know what is Caesars? It has His image on it. How do we know what belongs to God? It's an open goal isn't it? As image bearers of God, you and me, kind reader, belong to God.

So How do we render to God what is His? Do we nickel and dime our time like we do for the tax man? Do we calculate, plan and budget for our time as we do with our money. Do we say, this much and no more, do we give to Jesus, essentially, what we afford? Again, you know the answer, of course not.

We render to God ourselves. Not our Bible reading, not our self sacrificial giving of time and money, not our faithfulness and participation in a church. Ourselves. Paul reminds us that we are living sacrifices. He reminds us again that we can give up our bodies to be burnt, but it's meaningless unless we have love. You can be burnt to death at a stake, and it mean nothing, if your motive is loveless. Wow!

I guess Jesus is always asking more of us, and less of us, than we think. Jesus isn't saying that we have to sit down and work out what to give Him, He asks us just to give Him everything. Render to God everything that you have. Your dreams? Count them as loss, and give them to God. Your plans? Count them as loss, and give them to God. Your marriage, count it as loss, and render it to God. Your friends? Count them as loss, and render them to God.

And discover that in rendering to God those things they become truly alive. In giving God your marriage, your marriage comes alive in ways you can not imagine. If you give your time to God, your time is redeemed in a way that makes the darkest night feel like the first warmth of a summer's breeze on your face. He who wants to find his life but lose it, must give it up, must render it, to Jesus. But this is a Jesus who came to serve, who came to bring the Kingdom of new life, better life, deeper life.

Life itself.

Consider Jesus

Hebrews 3:1 could be the theme verses of the whole book. 'Consider Jesus.' The author points his readers towards Jesus throughout this book. In times of trial consider Jesus, in times of joy, consider Jesus. There is a sweetness in meeting with Jesus. A sweetness in His Word and in praying to Him. In all things, we can consider Jesus.

In all things, yes in all things. In Jesus exists such a glorious collision of attributes that if it happened to anyone else they simply couldn't bare it. But Jesus can. Jesus, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is also the Jesus who was hung on the tree. The beloved Son of God was also cursed by God as He hung there. The one who Moses wrote about was struck by those sitting in Moses seat (and, interestingly, poured forth water and blood). Tis mystery all, the immortal dies! The King is rejected by His people, and then rises to reign over those who will have Him.

So whatever you're facing today, consider Jesus. Remember Jesus. During the hardest time of my life, as my wife clung to life in an intensive care bed, Jesus held me. I'd sit on the outside deck of our apartment in the morning before going back to intensive care, and later rehab, read the Bible, and it was like the sun was rising in my heart. I';d hear His voice, know His presence, consider His good, gracious and merciful sovereignty, and face the day. Whatever calamity is next in life (and it'll have to go some to better that one!) i know as i consider Jesus He will help me. And i know, whatever calamity you're facing today, as you consider Jesus, He will give you strength.

Jesus is the high priest of our confession, Jesus was not ashamed to call us brother. Jesus is everything we can never be. Jesus is our punishment and perfection. Jesus went outside the camp, carrying our sin far away. Let's go to Him there. When we're faced with sin, when we're trapped in temptation, we need to consider Jesus, remember Jesus and cast off the sin that so easily entangles us.

Whatever happens today, whatever happened yesterday, consider Jesus, who loves us, helps us, and died for us.

Like Lightening

The first sermon i ever preached was on Luke 10:1-23. Jesus tells the rejoicing 72 that He saw Satan fall like lightening when they were out preaching the Gospel. But He tells them not to rejoice in this. It's hard not to hear Peter saying something he'll later come to regret isn't it?

Let me tell you about this weekend at church. We had our True Love Waits 'lock-in,' from 9pm Friday to 7am Saturday with about 35 teenagers. I'm not the best preacher at 3am, but the Word does and did the work, and i'm looking forward to seeing the fruit. As you can imagine, Saturday was a low-key day, but we still got to spend some time with a family in our church and one of the kids that Rachel teaches. Then Sunday evening we had a presentation by a five man team going to Ecuador on a short term trip next month, and then our True Love Waits commitment service. Afterwards, we stood and spoke for about forty minutes to a couple of guys who are considering going to college to study for ministry.

I share all that to ask this, how does one not rejoice in these things? How do i not wake up in the morning with a warm feeling and an expectant heart because of all that God is doing in my church and in people that i love? How do i avoid ministry idolatry?

Well to answer that, let me tell you a story. For the first year that Rachel and I were 'dating' she lived in North Carolina, and i lived in Reading. Not much dating went on, but a lot of letter writing. When those letters arrived i'll tell you the one thing i didn't do, i didn't kiss the postman! I didn't kiss the letter either, i didn't buy the letter a ring, and i didn't move across the Atlantic to be with the letters. I loved the letters because of my love for Rachel, which was deeper, and further back.

My love for Rachel was deeper than my love for the letters because she, at last, was bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. She was the bit of me that had been missing, she was the other (better) half (three quarters) of me. Of course i didn't love the letters more than Rachel, of course i rejoiced more in our relationship than in the arrival of a letter, my love for her was deeper.

And my love for her went further back. No Rachel, no letters. No love, no love-letters. No postman bringing joy in Hallmark form, no plans and prayers shared on paper. It was because i love Rachel that i loved the letters, it was because they came from her. Our letters were the overflow of our love. We don't write letters anymore, if i want to talk to her, i can just speak.

Our love for Jesus is deeper and further back than our love for ministry. We must rejoice our names are written in Heaven. That truth is far deeper than salivations, or baptisms or discipleship. It doesn't make those things unlovely, it just means they don't go as deep. And our love for Jesus is further back. No Jesus, no ministry, no Jesus no preaching, no studying, no conversations. One day, i'll never preach another message, but i'll still have Jesus.

Remember the source, remember the heart, remember Jesus.