Brandon C. Jones's Blog, page 20

Wake Up

Forrest Gump’s mom liked to say, “stupid is as stupid does.” And if we think about it, we could also say, “the church is as the church does.” Can we go even further and say, “God is as God does”? Maybe. But, whether we realize it or not, our behavior as a church reveals what we think about God. It certainly affects how other people see him, for better or for worse.
Scripture calls the church Christ’s body and refers to believers as Christ’s brothers and sisters. Likewise, these same believers are brothers and sisters to each other, bound together through one faith, one Spirit, and one baptism. Jesus’ call to follow him was a call to stuff any and every relationship beneath him and his people. At least that’s what the church was supposed to do.
But the church is as the church actually does. Unfortunately, many people find being a disciple difficult and look elsewhere for their identity, turning to nuclear families, longtime friends, careers, national citizenships, sports teams, and even corporate brands (well done advertisers) for community and self-worth. All of these things offer a lesser vision of a church that is now no longer a counter-cultural society, bound to a different Lord than Caesar and driven by a different ambition than self-preservation. Instead the church is seen as just another cultural institution with its own, albeit limited, space. What really fuels this approach to the church is a different idea of God—a God who no longer disrupts our errant thoughts and loves, but rather validates them by letting us be captains of our souls. Before we know it, we as a church treat Christ’s body and our brothers and sisters bound to us as a hindrance to what we think really matters. Eventually, we become too busy for each other. And too busy for this idea of God too.
We might be able to say the proper things and share our faith with others verbally, but to any outsider the church is not what we say, it’s what we do. What are we doing?
But the true God also sees us. And he still loves us! After all, we’re family. But I know he’d love it if we woke up and at least tried to be more like the family he’s called us to be:            “Wake up, sleeper,            rise from the dead,            and Christ will shine on you” (Eph 5:14).

Waters of Promise Back Is Back on Amazon.com

One topic I’ve not addressed on this blog is baptism. For those interested, check out the free preview of my book on believer baptism on amazon.com. Of course, you can also buy it through other websites, including the publisher itself here.
Why did you write this book?            Growing up in a Baptist church I heard much about why we did not baptize infants. My pastor often presented baptism as a “first step of obedience” to Christ. Another common refrain was that God ordained baptism, so his command itself should be enough for us to do it. When I began studying theology I couldn’t help but notice that baptism was an integral part of the Apostles’ gospel message in Acts. The Apostles expected people to respond to the gospel by confirming faith in Christ through baptism. In other words, God indeed commanded baptism, but the Apostles considered it, and not some altar call or sinner’s prayer, to be the faithful response to the gospel instead of a separate “first step of obedience” that would come some time later. Confirmation of someone’s faith in Acts begins in the waters of baptism.            I also focused on vivid passages about baptism, such as Romans 6:3-5, Galatians 3:26-29, 1 Peter 3:19-22 that go beyond the fact that God commanded baptism and reflect on why God commanded it. What are things about it that make it a fitting symbol that confirms God’s claim on us and our claim on him? Is the water significant? Is the fact that one receives baptism from the church instead of being able to do it herself significant?            These questions led me to some works by Baptist authors, mostly from Great Britain, that defend a robust view of the meaning of baptism by drawing from the biblical passages above. These Baptist authors were willing to embrace a sacramental understanding of baptism, not in a sense that baptism is necessary for salvation, but in a sense that God chose baptism, in part, so he could graciously minister through its physical aspects in a special way.            The British Baptist works clearly showed a biblical basis for their view, but they never clearly explained what baptism means, especially in relation to faith and salvation. As I tried to build on this biblical work, I found that covenant theology, something many people link exclusively with Reformed theology, was a mainstream part of Baptist theology in the past that allowed Baptists to make much of the meaning of baptism by seeing it as a confirming rite that marks initiation into God’s people, the church. Thus, Waters of Promise is an attempt to give a clear view of the meaning of baptism that demonstrates its place within a greater framework of salvation and the church.
Why does it matter to reflect on the meaning of baptism?            As a theologian and pastor, one question I receive a lot is When should we baptize children who clearly believe the gospel of Jesus Christ? Two hundred years ago it was the norm to baptize youth who grew up in a Baptist church in their teenage years. For example, John Gill, who eventually wrote a commentary on every book of the Bible, had started college and knew several languages before his baptism at the age of seventeen. Since then, Baptists have baptized their children at younger and younger ages to where we are now seeing parents who send their kids to the baptismal waters before they send them off to kindergarten. Is this wrong? What age is right? Depending on whom you ask, you’ll get several different answers. The reason for all the confusion is that Baptists in general do not have a clear understanding of what baptism means. The assumed position among many pastors and parents is that baptism means a child can now clearly explain the Romans-road version of the gospel. But is that all baptism means? Are there any duties of discipleship attached to baptism?            Other practical issues that come up are how baptism relates to church membership and when or if it is a good idea to “rebaptize” someone. Baptist churches are jumbled regarding their practices. I was once part of a church that would baptize someone through a means other than immersion if the candidate was unable physically to undergo baptism by immersion, but that same church refused to recognize as valid the believer baptism by another church that practiced baptism by pouring during winter months when they could not immerse in living water. That person had to get “rebaptized” to join the church. Likewise, people who were baptized as young children sometimes request to be baptized again as teens or adults, because they did not feel their first baptism was valid. In response, some churches will honor their requests while other churches will not. Confused yet? Me too. Once again, our practice of baptism is tied to what we think baptism means.
Who is the target audience of the book?            I wrote this book primarily for Baptists who are ministers or leaders in their churches. However, people who are simply interested in what Baptists believe about baptism may too find the topic interesting, especially people who study covenant theology.

So you want to wait on the Lord?

The Internet is full of information on how to be a better you, and many websites have lists on how to learn some things that are helpful and other things that are timesuckingly useless not as helpful. One website has nothing but these kinds of lists.
Isaiah may have lived long before the proliferation of “so you want to” lists online, but he does offer good advice in chapter 26 if you’re ever interested on how to wait on the Lord:Be humble The path of the righteous is level; you, the Upright One, make the way of the righteous smooth. . . . Lord, you establish peace for us; all that we have accomplished you have done for us (vv. 7 and 12) – You know your path is smooth only because of the Lord’s doing, not your own greatness, right?Be holyYes, Lord, walking in the way of your laws, we wait for you (v. 8a) – God doesn’t promise to smooth out in front of us any path of our choosing. If you want to know God’s will for your life, just start walking within his laws and judgments. Considering that God made us, walking in his path is not only good, but also for our best. We follow cleaning directions for our expensive clothes and submit take our vehicles in for routine maintenance based on their manufacturer’s suggestions, but somehow we think we can wing it on how to flourish as human beings all by ourselves. Even worse, we keep trying to convince ourselves that our way is a better and more fun way to enjoy life, no matter how bad we feel the next morning.
Be passionateYour name and renown are the desire of our hearts (v. 8b) – A lot of times we associate sin with strong desires, whether its temptation to over-indulge, lust uncontrollably, become jealous, angry, lonesome—you name it. C. S. Lewis agreed that sin is linked to our desires, but in the opposite way, “if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”

Unless you are at the DMV or gridlocked in heavy traffic, waiting is usually not a passionate exercise. But waiting on the Lord is, or at least it ought to be. Waiting on the Lord means changing what we desire. We are no longer to fool about with going into debt buying stuff we do not need while our neighbors across the sea starve. We are no longer to shut ourselves off from our neighbors in an age that Francis Schaeffer once called that of “personal peace and affluence.” Instead, we are to yearn for God’s name and renown to be vindicated at the coming of his kingdom and actually do something about making his name great today. Be hungryMy soul yearns for you in the night; in the morning my spirit longs for you (v. 9a) – Our desire for God to set things aright should be stronger than our cravings for coffee in the morning (or afternoon if you live in Dakota) and sleep at night. The Hebrew authors of the Psalms spoke of meditating on the Law by day and by night. They likened God’s Word to sweet honey, nourishing mother’s milk, and energizing meat. Scrolls were few and precious, so they gathered around to hear from them often. I wonder what the Psalmists would think of our approach to Scriptures were they to see our dusty Bibles get left behind on shelves, carseats, and pews. Be trustingLet them [the wicked] see your zeal for your people and be put to shame  (11b) – God zealously protects his name and his people. The connection between him and us is so tight that he talks about sharing his eternal life with us in Christ. His life is our life. Our life is his life. When Jesus says he is “the gate for the sheep,” he is not talking about some inanimate threshold we safely pass through in order to go to the next room in our house. Instead, he’s talking about a vulnerable flock that is allowed to sleep easy outdoors because the shepherd has laid himself down in harm’s way. When a wolf comes to hunt the flock, a mere hired hand will abandon the flock and flee, but not our Shepherd. He has put himself at the point of attack because he cares for us. Why, Christian, do you live as if God has left you with just a hired hand? You can trust that God will do what he says he will do; his zeal for his people will put everyone else to shame.
When we grow tired of waiting on him we will end up losing our humility, holiness, passion, and hunger. Before long we’ll live our lives just like everyone else, as if God does not exist and will never return to setup his kingdom. But he’s still coming, and when he comes we do not want to be like the people in Christ’s parables who were unprepared for their master’s return. John says these people will shrink back and cower at his coming. But as long as today is today, we have a chance to wait for him the right way. What are you waiting for?

Who do you trust this election season?

Lord, you are my God;    I will exalt you and praise your name,
for in perfect faithfulness
    you have done wonderful things,
    things planned long ago.
You have made the city a heap of rubble,
    the fortified town a ruin,
the foreigners’ stronghold a city no more;
    it will never be rebuilt.
Therefore strong peoples will honor you;
    cities of ruthless nations will revere you.
You have been a refuge for the poor,
    a refuge for the needy in their distress,
    a shelter from the storm
    and a shade from the heat.
For the breath of the ruthless
    is like a storm driving against a wall
    and like the heat of the desert.
You silence the uproar of foreigners;
    as heat is reduced by the shadow of a cloud,
    so the song of the ruthless is stilled.On this mountain the LordAlmighty will prepare
    a feast of rich food for all peoples,
a banquet of aged wine—
    the best of meats and the finest of wines.

On this mountain he will destroy
    the shroud that enfolds all peoples,
the sheet that covers all nations;
    he will swallow up death forever.
The Sovereign Lordwill wipe away the tears
    from all faces;
he will remove his people’s disgrace
    from all the earth.
The Lord has spoken.
In that day they will say,“Surely this is our God;
    we trusted in him, and he saved us.
This is the Lord, we trusted in him;
    let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation.”
The hand of the Lord will rest on this mountain;
    but Moab will be trampled in their land
    as straw is trampled down in the manure.
They will stretch out their hands in it,
    as swimmers stretch out their hands to swim.
God will bring down their pride
    despite the cleverness of their hands.
He will bring down your high fortified walls
    and lay them low;
he will bring them down to the ground,
    to the very dust. (Isa 25 NIV)
Father, as we hear so many promises,    let us never forget yours.
Amen!

I Can’t Wait ‘Til the Future Gets Here

About a hundred years ago the French novelist, Marcel Proust, described a time when he ate a little cake that he dipped in his tea, and unexpectedly the taste on his lips brought himself—mind, body, and soul—back to his childhood. Many Sundays when he was a boy his Aunt would dip a little cake in her tea and hand it to young Marcel. His memory of those moments was somewhere in his mind all along, but he never thought of them until the taste triggered something nearly indescribable. Thankfully, Proust was a masterful writer, so his description of the event works well (you can read his account here,  starting with page 58).
Earlier this week I experienced something similar while doing the dishes and listening, as I often do, to music from my past. For the first time in years I played the soundtrack to a tragic musical entitled Dancer in the Dark. As the Overture began playing all the recurring themes of the movie, I turned off the faucet and just grabbed the counter—standing still. I was unexpectedly rushed back to the year 2001. I thought immediately of close friends from that era and remembered the times we shared as if my mind had held them back like a dam, waiting for this moment when they could breakthrough all at once. And I was helplessly lost in their current for the next half-hour.
In today’s huge economy of equipment for home videos, digital photos, and cheap collectibles, I doubt old Marcel and I are alone when it comes to relying on physical things to awaken our slumbering memories. But manufactured awakenings can be risky, because a fixation on past good times can easily morph into bitter nostalgia, a word that literally means “homesickness.” As we age we collect more and more memories, both good and bad. In later years when the dying process robs the joy and energy of daily life, the past can easily become something it never was—perfect. When tragic events drastically alter the course we once set out for ourselves, it is almost impossible to overcome the innate, upsetting feeling that our past (not our present or our future) is our real “home.” And we’ll never go back there again. It’s too late.
Instead of fixating on the past, God wants us to use this life to prepare us for our real home, which is locked up with him in our life to come. God created us as body-soul unities, so he knows how a taste, sight, sound, or touch can prompt our mind to recall so much from our past. God relies precisely on this earthy part of us by weaving the past, present, and future into our experience of the Lord’s Supper. The sights, tastes, and touches of the bread and wine prompt us to remember the past—when Jesus gave himself, body and blood, for us. But the Supper doesn’t leave us in the past. God keeps us in the present as we look around to our brothers and sisters who are here with us, knowing that Jesus himself is with us too, despite all our shortcomings as individuals and together as his church. Most interestingly, the Supper also takes us to the future. As we taste the bread on our tongues and feel the wine flow down our throats and into our stomachs we anticipate a great feast in God’s kingdom—where Jesus’ presence will be there with us in full.
We use physical things all the time to anticipate upcoming events in our lives. Brides try on their wedding dresses several times before the big day. I used to stare at tickets to future sporting events, anticipating the tailgate, rush of watching athletes in person, and time spent in special spaces during those games. But in the Supper God gives us a chance to anticipate something we’ve never experienced in full before—his kingdom. With each anticipation he can reveal more and more about our futures to us, our true “home,” as long as we’re looking for it.
Sadly, we often do not take advantage of God’s offer, because we have a tendency to limit the Supper to a handful of times a year. And when we do observe it our minds and hearts can often lie elsewhere. But perhaps just once the mushiness in your mouth and taste on your lips will sweep you away unexpectedly. Only this time you won’t be taken to your own past, like Marcel or me. Rather, you’ll be taken to your future. And you’ll be home.

My Book, Waters of Promise, Is Now Available on Amazon.com

One topic I’ve not addressed on this blog is baptism. For those interested, check out the free preview of my book on believer baptism on amazon.com.
Why did you write this book?            Growing up in a Baptist church I heard much about why we did not baptize infants. My pastor often presented baptism as a “first step of obedience” to Christ. Another common refrain was that God ordained baptism, so his command itself should be enough for us to do it. When I began studying theology I couldn’t help but notice that baptism was an integral part of the Apostles’ gospel message in Acts. The Apostles expected people to respond to the gospel by confirming faith in Christ through baptism. In other words, God indeed commanded baptism, but the Apostles considered it, and not some altar call or sinner’s prayer, to be the faithful response to the gospel instead of a separate “first step of obedience” that would come some time later. Confirmation of someone’s faith in Acts begins in the waters of baptism.            I also focused on vivid passages about baptism, such as Romans 6:3-5, Galatians 3:26-29, 1 Peter 3:19-22 that go beyond the fact that God commanded baptism and reflect on why God commanded it. What are things about it that make it a fitting symbol that confirms God’s claim on us and our claim on him? Is the water significant? Is the fact that one receives baptism from the church instead of being able to do it herself significant?             These questions led me to some works by Baptist authors, mostly from Great Britain, that defend a robust view of the meaning of baptism by drawing from the biblical passages above. These Baptist authors were willing to embrace a sacramental understanding of baptism, not in a sense that baptism is necessary for salvation, but in a sense that God chose baptism, in part, so he could graciously minister through its physical aspects in a special way.            The British Baptist works clearly showed a biblical basis for their view, but they never clearly explained what baptism means, especially in relation to faith and salvation. As I tried to build on this biblical work, I found that covenant theology, something many people link exclusively with Reformed theology, was a mainstream part of Baptist theology in the past that allowed Baptists to make much of the meaning of baptism by seeing it as a confirming rite that marks initiation into God’s people, the church. Thus, Waters of Promise is an attempt to give a clear view of the meaning of baptism that demonstrates its place within a greater framework of salvation and the church.
Why does it matter to reflect on the meaning of baptism?            As a theologian and pastor, one question I receive a lot is When should we baptize children who clearly believe the gospel of Jesus Christ? Two hundred years ago it was the norm to baptize youth who grew up in a Baptist church in their teenage years. For example, John Gill, who eventually wrote a commentary on every book of the Bible, had started college and knew several languages before his baptism at the age of seventeen. Since then, Baptists have baptized their children at younger and younger ages to where we are now seeing parents who send their kids to the baptismal waters before they send them off to kindergarten. Is this wrong? What age is right? Depending on whom you ask, you’ll get several different answers. The reason for all the confusion is that Baptists in general do not have a clear understanding of what baptism means. The assumed position among many pastors and parents is that baptism means a child can now clearly explain the Romans-road version of the gospel. But is that all baptism means? Are there any duties of discipleship attached to baptism?            Other practical issues that come up are how baptism relates to church membership and when or if it is a good idea to “rebaptize” someone. Baptist churches are jumbled regarding their practices. I was once part of a church that would baptize someone through a means other than immersion if the candidate was unable physically to undergo baptism by immersion, but that same church refused to recognize as valid the believer baptism by another church that practiced baptism by pouring during winter months when they could not immerse in living water. That person had to get “rebaptized” to join the church. Likewise, people who were baptized as young children sometimes request to be baptized again as teens or adults, because they did not feel their first baptism was valid. In response, some churches will honor their requests while other churches will not. Confused yet? Me too. Once again, our practice of baptism is tied to what we think baptism means.
Who is the target audience of the book?            I wrote this book primarily for Baptists who are ministers or leaders in their churches. However, people who are simply interested in what Baptists believe about baptism may too find the topic interesting, especially people who study covenant theology.

Praying Your Heart

I know Psalms is the longest book of the Bible, so perhaps we don't read it as often as we should. I've found much help in reading at least one Psalm a day, and I can't help but discover a pattern in these writings.

Psalms are prayers of the heart. Sometimes they're pure joy. Other times they express deep lament and sorrow. Sometimes they treat God as if he is at the writer's disposal to be used against enemies. Other times they cry out to God, wondering if he even cares at all before reaffirming faith in his goodness. Psalmists by and large had no trouble revealing their raw emotions while being carried about by the vicissitudes of life.

In contrast, when bad things happen to American Christians we can often be too shy about our feelings. We're not sure if we can go ahead and say out loud what we're all thinking. Loss and pain can easily turn to anger. Suffering and regret can quickly turn into doubt. And let's face it--we often wonder Where's God in all of this? But we're too afraid to admit it.

The Psalmists weren't afraid, though, and God's people have faithfully handed down over the centuries these prayers to God that are filled to the brim with the rhythms of life. And, given their place in holy Scripture, God has aligned himself with these prayers, with our prayers. He's a big God, and he can take it. He knows the weightiness of sin and the ugliness of death. He knows sorrow and loss. Through the Psalms our prayers become his prayers. Our speech becomes his speech.

Sadly, church services and movies have often narrowed what Christians think prayer should and should not be. We train ourselves to close our eyes, bow our heads. We use some formulaic phrases here and there. But when we compare our typical prayers to God with the Psalms, there's often something missing. Passion. Let's put some passion back into our prayers, and perhaps it will permeate into our faith and our life itself. God's people are passionate, and we don't have all the answers when bad things happen. That's one reason we pray.


How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever?    How long will you hide your face from me?How long must I wrestle with my thoughts    and day after day have sorrow in my heart?    How long will my enemy triumph over me?Look on me and answer, Lord my God.    Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death,      and my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,”    and my foes will rejoice when I fall.
But I trust in your unfailing love;    my heart rejoices in your salvation.I will sing the Lord’s praise,    for he has been good to me (Psalm 13 NIV)

What’s Wrong?

If you have an annoying penchant for always being right, even about the most trivial of matters, then the Internet has helped you immensely. With a smartphone in hand, you can access www.iamright.com and stock up on important-sounding arsenal to help your point whether you’re in a car, at a sporting event, or just ruining someone’s meal away from home. Despite nitpicky ways of proving others wrong, there are times when it is important and necessary to do so. Jesus highlights three areas in which the Spirit will carry on his work in proving others wrong through the church:
“When he [the Spirit] comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: about sin, because people do not believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned” (John 16:8-11 NIV).
Jesus explains each of these with some detail. The heart of sin, according to Jesus, is that it tricks us into thinking we do not need a Savior. Christians tend to focus on condemning all types of specific sins, but the message the world actually needs to hear from us about sin is universal: we all need saving and we cannot save ourselves. Whenever the subject of sin comes up, that’s the context in which the Spirit carries on Jesus’ message best. Sure, we may have to field queries about whether such and such IS a sin, but we do well if we first remind the world that it needs a savior other than itself.
The heart of righteousness has been trickier to nail down. Some people think it describes the vast differences between a holy God and the rest of us. Others think Jesus, by identifying his plans to return to the Father, is pointing to God’s faithfulness to keep his gracious promise to extend his kingdom to sinners all over the world from every tribe, tongue, and nation. When Jesus departs, the Spirit through Christ’s church must take up Jesus’ constant talk about the faithfulness of the Father to keep his promises, the bigness of his kingdom and the patience he has in corralling sinners into joining it. Even better, we should back up our talk with behavior that is generous and gracious to others, from the transient beggar on our doorsteps to the saint who we now see everywhere but at our gatherings as a church.
The most overlooked item on Jesus’ list is judgment. The prince of this world stands condemned, because his system of returning evil for evil is now exposed. His system of oppression and lording over others is proven wrong. His myth of using force and violence to establish and keep power is roundly rejected at the cross. Jesus repeatedly opposes the prince’s “judgment” about the “right” use of money, state authority, and violence with his speeches and actions. As his church we are to do the same, because the prince still stands condemned, not by swords, wealth, or stately decrees, but by a humble savior who was crucified and raised—undoing the power of death itself and our fear of death. All too often we still clamor for a king and trust in modern-day horses and chariots, even after God went through the trouble of taking on our nature to exemplify a different purpose for our lives in this fallen world.
John describes how Jesus sent his Spirit for us to carry on what Jesus started. He showed us the way to treat sin, righteousness, and judgment. Are we willing to follow his way? Or will his message die the death of a thousand qualifications as we tell ourselves about purity, discipline, wisdom, and choosing lesser evils? Our lamb has conquered, so let’s follow him! And this time we will be proving others wrong for good reason.

The God Who Shares

God shares. The Father shares life, love, creativity, and joy with the Son who reciprocates. And the Holy Spirit is the bond shared between Father and Son, which is so rich and lively that he is one of three, and only three, divine persons. The sharing between Father, Son, and Spirit is so harmonious that it is unlike any sharing we know. For the Father, Son, and Spirit are one. There is but one God.
Thankfully, God’s sharing does not end within himself. No, he overflows in creativity, life, and love, by sharing life with his creatures. Some creatures he even made in his image, forming and filling the world for them to enjoy. In response to the efforts of some creatures to reject God’s sharing and want everything for themselves, bringing a curse on all God made, God continues to share, offering new life where death had come. The path to offering new life was difficult for God, considering the heavy weight of sin and death. Yet God responded anyways. In Jesus Christ God shares our flesh and blood, became a servant, suffered, bled, and died—he shared our sorrows, pains, and the curse of death too. But he endured it all because he wanted to share his joy with us, proven by being raised from the dead to a new kind of life.
Just before Jesus encountered the most difficult part of his path, he revealed the purpose behind all his actions—sharing:
“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you” (John 15:9-12).
The Father shares love with the Son. The Son shares love with us. We share their kind of love with each other.
But never overlook the other thing Jesus says above, HIS joy is in us. He shares his joy with us and places his joy in us. Without him, our joy—however great it may be—will always be incomplete. So Jesus gives us his joy to complete what we lack, and his joy becomes our joy.
His joy is always focused on his Father’s kingdom, which will be so diverse, bright, and wide that the promise of this kingdom carried Jesus through much suffering (cf. Heb 12:1-3). He knew the joy of sharing this kingdom with others was worth any hardships. And he shares his joy with us, not so our lives can be carefree and easy, but so that we can be focused on the same goal when our lives are difficult. After all, joy is not another way to describe happiness. It’s better than that. It’s good enough to share.

My Book Is Published

I'm pleased to announce that my book Waters of Promise: Finding Meaning in Believer Baptism is now available at the publisher's Web site here.