The Book of Job: Chapters 8-10

Dear Friends, Family and Fellow Students,

We had a meaningful discussion again today in our class on Job, dealing with Job's dialogue with his second friend and comforter, Bildad.

Bildad's thesis and his comfort to Job was that all God's ways are just. His foundation was the historical teaching of double retribution (good people are rewarded and bad people are punished) and that God never perverts justice. As one commentator put it, he champions that "old-time religion". The truth is, God does not pervert justice, so Bildad was right on this point. However, he applied this iron-clad truth at the wrong time and in the wrong way to his friend, Job, who was suffering under no apparent cause of his own sin. Although neither Job nor Bildad know this for sure, the reader does because we are privy to the prologue of the book and God's conversation with the Satan.

Unfortunately, Bildad becomes a sorry counselor and accuses Job of being a "windbag" and ends up wearing that label quite well himself. Worse yet, he tries to get Job to repent and deny his own integrity so that he will get blessings from God. This is exactly what the Satan wants, and what he indicated Job would do when suffering struck him hard, thereby proving that people only serve God for the good things that God gives them and not for who God is.

While Job goes through more lamenting, and he begins to question God's justice, he does so as a believer in God and one who continues to seek him with integrity. He even ponders the possibility of going to court with the Almighty, but quickly realizes that such legal dreams would end in disaster. . .who can call God to account, and who can defend themselves when the Creator of the Universe is your accuser? Ultimately, Job becomes despondent again and wishes he had never been born.

I like what Hartley has to say in his exposition of chapters 9 and 10 when Job is begging for a legal audience with God: "Job does not question God's right to punish him, but he thinks that God must try him officially before acting with such hostility against one who has been faithful. Ignorant of God's purpose, Job imagines that God is acting capriciously. If Job had knowledge of the proceedings of heaven recorded in the prologue, the trial would be easier for him to bear. In fact he would most likely have willingly accepted the test in order to vindicate God's trust in him. But for his testing to be as severe as possible Job must be unaware of God's confidence, for trust in God is tested to the ultimate when circumstantial evidence calls into question the integrity of one's devotion to God. God's silence intensifies a person's testing far more than physical and emotional pain."

Many of us have faced trials where our limited understanding leaves us groping for answers. The death of a child, a terminal illness, the loss of hope in a close relationship, the unfaithfulness of a spouse, protracted unemployment - all these can cause us to ask God some tough questions. We may be tempted to lose hope, even lose our faith in God.

In these moments, we must hold on to the truth that God is both good and sovereign; he does not pervert justice nor is he dis-engaged from our lives. We need to recognize, as Job did in 23:10, "But he knows the way that I take; when he has tried me, I shall come out as gold."

I think the apostle Peter may have had his Jewish wisdom literature open to Job 23:10 when he penned: "In this (our birth into God's family through Christ's resurrection) you rejoice though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith - more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire - may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ." I Peter 6,7

Job looked outward for an "arbiter/mediator" between himself and the Almighty in chapter 9. He also recognized his need for a "deliverer" to free him from his oppression in chapter 10. We know that Job's hopes were not in vain, even if they were ulitimately fulfilled after his life time. We have lived to see the fulfillment of these yearnings in the person of Jesus Christ, who as a type of Job, suffered innocently with a purpose to be that mediator and deliverer to all who would come to him.

In Christ alone,

Newt

Book of Job Chapters 4-7: The Dialogue Begins!

Dear Friends, Family and Fellow Students,

Here is the class outline from last week. I am still trying to get the audio files uploaded - they are a little too large right now. Next week we will be studying the Bildad/Job dialogue.

September 12, 2010

The Book of Job

Chapters 4-7: The Dialogue Begins! (Eliphaz and Job)

Class Outline:
• Discuss Joni Eareckson Tada’s Article: “Hope – The Best of Things”
-Parallels to Job’s plight?
-Joni’s focus in re-gaining hope
• Chapters 4-7: Eliphaz and Job
• -Read aloud
• -Divide into teams/take sides
• -Key messages from dialogue
• Wrap up: Is there hope for Job? If so, where or in whom?

Key Themes:

Eliphaz:

• Starts by comforting Job, wanting a richer relationship for him with God.
• All creation is sinful, even if he cannot see specific sin in Job. Therefore, he should repent.
• Emphasizes the doctrine of retribution because he is fearful that Job’s attitude will bring on more calamities.
• Without realizing it, he is beseeching Job to fall into Satan’s trap, and prove that he serves God’s for the benefits that piety brings.
• His error is not strictly in his doctrine, but in his specific counsel – He tempts Job to seek God for personal gain, not for God himself.

Job:

• Defends his curse-lament from chapter 3 and charges his counselors to be failing to live up to their responsibilities toward him.
• He suggests that Eliphaz’ counsel has been too general and indirect for it is founded on the premise that suffering and sin are inextricably bound together, the premise that Job cannot accept in his own case.
• Job decides to argue with God and thereby takes his first steps on the path that will lead him to seek a resolution to his misery in an encounter with God himself.
• His mood becomes less caustic than in Chapter 3 as he begins to ponder the possibility of relief.
• In the retributive justice framework that he uses, Job accuses God of being too harsh with him.

Job 3: The Cry of an Anguished Man

Dear Friends, Family and Fellow Students,

Here is the outline and themes for tomorrow's class:

September 5, 2010

Job 3: Job's Curse and Lament

Class Outline:

1. Questions from Prologue or Propositions (10)
2. Review 2:1-13 (10)
3. Chapter 3 Verse-by-Verse (30)
4. Close with Devotion (5)

Themes from Chapter 3

1. Unexplained evil or innocent suffering cause us to ask "Why", due to our sense of justice and our limited knowledge, and our need for relief. Job shocks us and his friends in Chapter 3 with his harsh words and curse upon his own birth and lament of his own life.
2. Profound suffering and loss can drive us into deep despair, even to the point of wishing we did not exist.
3. When we suffer greatly, we enter the common plight of others who share in suffering.
4. Although Job does not curse God, he comes close in wishing he were dead by calling down incantations against his day of birth and moment of conception.
5. Job's curse-lament sets the stage for the following dialogue with his friends as they try to comfort and correct Job in his despondent state.

Job 1:1-2:13 The Prologue

Dear Friends, Family and Fellow Students,

Here are four themes from the prologue of Job and also four questions to reflect on:

Key Themes from the Prologue of Job:
1. Job is a man of character and righteousness – a priest to his family (vs. 1-5)
2. God is an absolute sovereign, ruling over the sons of God (angels), the Satan and evil, mankind and his suffering. (vs. 6-10)
• Does man serve (or invent) God just to receive blessings from him?
• Or, does he serve God because he is really there and worthy of our worship?
• God delights in his servants . . .although . . .
• God allows suffering, struggle and testing in their lives as part of his redemptive plan.
• The Satan is a created, subordinate being.
• Satan moves in the lives of God’s servants through a variety of means: disaster, sinfulness of others, disease etc. (vs. 13-19)
3. Our right response to suffering should be both grief and worship. We should count/mourn the loss and look to the LORD for comfort and answers, because he is both good in his intentions towards us and in control of our every circumstance.
• God determines the exact extent of our suffering, sometimes allowing deeper suffering after we have passed through initial fires. (vs. 2:1-6)
4. Friends love at all times and brothers are made for adversity (see Prov. 17:17, 18:24) – their intentions can be right in the beginning, but their impact can be mixed. (vs. 11-13)

Discussion Questions:
1. How would you describe God's sovereignty from this passage?
2. How do God's sovereign actions functionally impact your life? What alternatives to God's sovereignty do we often turn to, both "Christian" and "non-Christian"?
3. How do you see Satan active in and around you today?
4. How is Job's response to calamity a model for us in suffering well?

Nine Lessons from the Book of Job

Dear Friends, Family and Fellow Students,

Here are the nine propositions I shared in the opening class last Sunday.

Summarizing main lessons from book of Job, utilizing D.A. Carson's book "How Long, O Lord?"
1. Not all Suffering is due to sin. Irrational evil and incoherent suffering do not fit into glib answers. The author rejects and mocks the notion of retributive, mathematically precise justice. Those who have not suffered may lean on the notion of retributive, symmetrical justice to provide themselves a sense of security. Therefore, beware of friends (and ourselves) who have a tight theology with no loose ends, where suffering is understood exclusively in terms of punishment or chastening with no category for innocent suffering - such a suggestion besmirches the integrity of God. Where there is little compassion, honest grief and empathy, even a defense of God can seem unbearably hard to swallow.
2. Suffering is part of the human condition. There is such a thing as innocent suffering, as demonstrated by the author's emphasis on Job's goodness. Given Job's situation, none of us should consider ourselves exempt from the possibility of disastrous loss.
3. Evil answers to the sovereign God. When dealing with human suffering, we must leave room for mystery which God allows to persist. Suffering falls within the sweep of God's sovereignty; therefore, all forms of dualism are rejected. Satan answers to God, and evil is not un-tethered. God's intent in the wager with Satan is to show that human beings can love God, fear God, and pursue righteousness without receiving a prompt reward. Satan's thesis, that all religious interest is grounded in self-interest, or worse, mercenary commitment, is thus shown to be false.
4. God wants honest followers who will trust him. God does not blame us if in our suffering we frankly vent our despair and confess our loss of hope, our sense of futility and our lamentations about life itself. We can wrestle with God; be indignant with him; challenge him to come before us and provide answers, but we must do so as believers. Though we are innocent, we should never charge God with injustice. Whatever else may be said about the problem of evil and suffering, the justice of God must be a given. The proper response to suffering-that-we cannot-fathom is faith and perseverance and avoiding bitterness. In light of Job 36:15-16, be patient because it is better to be a chastened saint than a carefree sinner.
5. We must learn to suffer well - it is acceptable to challenge God, but we must do so as believers. Job's response is self-justifying, full of hard questions, asserting his innocence - ultimately resting on the simplistic notion of retributive, mathematical justice, which eventually leads him to accuse God of injustice. However, Job's arguments must not be confused with atheism or theological double-talk. Job's speeches are the anguish of a man who knows God, who wants to know him better and who never once doubts the existence of God, who remains convinced, at bottom, of the justice of God - but who cannot make sense of these entrenched beliefs in light of his own experience. As far as he is concerned, confession of sin that he has not committed, just to satisfy his friends and perhaps win some sort of reprieve, would itself be sinful. His integrity is too important. In the end, Job's greatest sin may not be something he said or did before suffering started, but the rebellion he displayed in his suffering. The major difference between Job and his friends is not their underlying views of retribution, but their views of Job's guilt or innocence.
6. God’s ways are often mysterious to humans. God is greater than any mortal (33:12), meaning that God may well have some purposes and perspectives in mind of which we (and Job) know nothing. God speaks in revelation (33:15-18), dreams and visions, but also in the language of pain (33:19) as a chastening use of suffering that may be independent of some particular sin. Its purpose may be preventative - it can stop a person from slithering down a slope to destruction. God does not always answer our questions about evil and suffering, but he makes it unambiguously clear what answers are not acceptable in his universe. Misinterpretations of God's answer to Job have this in common: they assume that everything that takes place in God's universe ought to be explained to us. they assume that God owes us an explanation. They assume that God Almighty should be more interested in giving us explanations than in being worshipped and trusted.
7. Sin, suffering and Satan are all foes of God, but part of his redemptive plan for human kind. God wins the wager in the end. Job may utter words that darken God's counsel, but he does not lose his integrity or abandon his God. Is it therefore surprising that there should be full reconciliation between God and Job? The challenge to Satan is not a capricious game, nor is the outcome obscure. It is mysterious, deep and solemn. The wager is congruent with the biblical themes of God's concern for the salvation of the men and women as part of a larger cosmic struggle between God and Satan which the outcome is certain but the struggle is horrible. The book of Job has no interest in praising mystery without constraint. All biblical writers - this one included - insist that to fear the Lord ultimately leads to an abundant life. The book does not disown all forms of retribution; rather it disowns simplistic, mathematically precise and instant applications of the doctrine of retribution. It categorically rejects any formula that affirms that the righteous always prosper and the wicked are always destroyed.
8. Grace is God’s response to wayward, suffering servants. The blessings that Job experiences at the end are not rewards that he has earned by his faithfulness under suffering; rather they are the Lord's free gift. The epilogue is the OT equivalent to the NT's anticipation of the new heaven and new earth. No matter how happy the ending, nothing can remove the suffering itself.
9. The LORD is to be loved and worshiped for who he is, not for his blessings. Although they are trying to defend God, the three friends end up offering Job a temptation through the reductionist theology - to confess sins that weren't there in order to try to retrieve his prosperity. If Job had succumbed, it would have meant that Job cared more for prosperity than for his integrity or for the Lord himself - and the Lord would have lost his wager with Satan! Job would have been led away from God, being reduced to being yet another person interested in seeking God for merely personal gain.

Colorado and back

Here are a few pictures of my recent trip with my son, Zach, and my two good friends, Dan Egenolf and Todd Lucy.

We had a memorable time climbing Mt. Sneffels, fly fishing, mountain biking and four wheeling in SW Colorado.

It was our attempt to bring to reality the chorus from Tim McGraw's country and western hit "Live Like You Were Dying":

I went sky divin'
I went Rocky Mt. climbin'
I rode 2.7 seconds on a bull named Fu-Man-Chu
And I loved deeper and I spoke sweeter
And I gave forgiveness, I'd been denyin'
I hope some day that you will have the chance
To live like you were dyin'.

expectations (5)

Dear Friends and Family,

Now summer seems to have flown by at the speed of light from the sun, heating up everything in sight as the triple digit heat index has lingered a little too long.

Last time I wrote, I indicated my father had been diagnosed with thyroid cancer, but in fact, he has stage 4 lung cancer. It was quite a challenging time getting the right diagnosis and finally getting the right treatment - reminiscent of my odyssey last year.

After 2+ months of mis-diagnosis, the doctors finally determined that he had adeno-carcinoma of the lung and that it had spread to other organs and in his bones. Not good news.

He was started on a targeted biologic treatment while we awaited genetic tests to see if he was a prime candidate for this type of treatment. We have been thankful to learn that he has the best geno-type for the use of this drug, Tarceva.

After 4 weeks of treatment, the tumor in his lung had shrunk by two-thirds! Soli Deo Gloria!

Just today, about six weeks after treatment initiation, my dad went on a bike ride and spent two hours on his tractor mowing his pasture!! He likes to ride his bike and ride his tractor, so this was a good day physically, mentally, spiritually as dad's "rolling stock" got a work-out.

As you might imagine, it has been a challenging time for our family. As my oldest son said, "this seems like round two, dad" when he heard about his O'pa's cancer. But God has been faithful to us in providing my dad with healing and increasing strength.

I would like to thank many of you for your faithful prayers for my father. None of us sensed that the Lord was ready to take him home. While "to die might be gain", we are happy that he is here with us to "live for Christ" a while longer.

I am going to shift some of my attention in blogging from the power of expectations to a study on the Old Testament book of Job, which I plan to teach at our church this fall. My hope is to load up the lesson I prepare each week to share with others what we are learning about the character of God, the problem of evil and the purpose and nature of suffering in our lives.

Please join me in reading and studying this literary and theological gem of book. I am confident you will be glad you did.

In Christ alone,
Newt

Power of Expectations (4) Family Transitions

Dear Friends and Family,

Spring has flown by like a migrating bird. School is out and we have a graduating senior, Zach, pictured on my blog. Like most parents, we are very proud of him and have high expectations for his future. He will be attending my alma mater, DePauw University, to study media and journalism.

We have all experienced the impact of leaving home and the various expectations associated with that big transition. I can remember leaving for college quite a few years ago and the excitement mixed with apprehension that accompanied the move. I am sure Zach is ready to move on, but at the same time wondering what lies around the corner. Godspeed to all those graduates. May they improve on the foundation their forebears have laid.

My parents are also in the midst of transition as they leave their home of thirty-one years in southern Indiana to move to Indianapolis. We are glad to have them moving closer to us and have positive expectations of what their proximity will bring. Leaving "home" is challenging for them because of so many memories stored up in a particular place. My dad is glad to be "downsizing" bringing fewer outdoor duties. While my mom's indoor duties will likely not diminish, there will be a few more good restaurants to sample here in Indy.

I have been reading and thinking quite a bit about expectations in the medical realm - the placebo effect, the power of the mind and attitude in healing. I hope to blog on this area soon. In that vein, please offer up a prayer for my father as he has recently been diagnosed with thyroid cancer and will require surgery. Having seen God's hand in very tangible ways in my life over the past year, we are confident in his plans for my dad - for healing, for restored health, for a vibrant and meaningful life.

I'll close with a quote from the great 19th century preacher, Charles Haddon Spurgeon from "Morning and Evening" (May 31 selection):

"What a great comfort to know that we have a great Physician who is both able and willing to heal us! Let us think of Him awhile tonight. His cures are very speedy - there is life in a look at Him; His cures are radical - He strikes at the centre of the disease; and hence, His cures are sure and certain. He never fails, and the disease never returns. There is no relapse where Christ heals; no fear that His patients should be merely patched up for a season, He makes new men of them; a new heart also does He give them, and a right spirit does He put within them."

In Christ alone,

Newt

The Power of Expectations (3) Of Others

Dear Friends and Family,

This week marked my one year anniversary of going into the hospital. What a year! I and my family remain deeply grateful for the prayers and faithful friendship of so many people. God's goodness has been on tangible display through the actions of his family here on earth.

I have continued to reflect quite a lot on the power of expectations in our lives. As I share some thoughts on expectations of others, I recognize it will only scratch the surface, but I hope it will begin to frame the topic at a basic level.

My thesis is that our expectations of others are often mis-guided because they are self-oriented, not other-centered.

I believe we should rightly have expectations of others: spouses, children, parents, siblings, friends, co-workers, subordinates, bosses, teammates, coaches, etc. As we all know, expectations play a pivotal role in the development of children; they impact the way a team or a business performs; they set the cadence for how relationships work. . .for good and for bad.

Having said that, our expectations are often passive, not deliberate or intentional. They often have a subtle, if not overt, self-orientation to them because we expect others to meet our needs, make our lives easier, do it our way. . .in short, meet OUR expectations. To be sure, when we are in positions of authority or responsibility, we have the right and even the obligation to set clear expectations for those in our charge. However, parents should not set expectations for their children for their own good, but for the sake of the children. We should set expectations of our students or players for their good, not for the teacher's or coach's. Business expectations should be for the good of the business and it's customers, not solely to make the boss look good. You get the basic point.

I think the corner stone in setting expectations for others is the golden rule: "So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this sums up the law and the prophets." Matthew 7:12

I don't believe that Jesus was stating that we should assume everyone else has our needs or our preferences, our dreams or our aspirations. No, he is asking us to do the hard work of finding out what their needs, preferences, dreams and goals are and then having expectations of them which are consistent with who they are and who they wish to become. How many counselors' offices are filled weekly with adults whose neuroses are the result of never living up to their parents' mis-guided and overwhelming expectations of their becoming a professional tennis player or a Harvard law school graduate or (fill in the blank)? How many of our inner-city poor continue to be trapped in poverty because no one believes they can do any better, and therefore persistently set low expectations for them or have no expectations of a different or a better life?

I think the apostle Paul re-stated Jesus' golden rule in his letter to the church he planted at Philippi: "Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others." Philippians 2:3,4

How often are our expectations of others driven by rivalry? The "comparison game" has a large and unhealthy influence on our expecatations of others and ourselves. How often are our expectations born out of conceit? We believe our way is the best way, so we project that on to others.

How would humility influence our expectations of others? By counting others more significant than ourselves, we will be characterized by believing the best about others, giving them the benefit of the doubt in difficult circumstances and always looking out for their good.

Another person's highest good could entail having tough and high expectations for them, like Jesus did of the rich, young man who thought he done everything required of him, but was possessed by his power, position and wealth. Jesus told him the one thing he lacked was to sell everything and give it to the poor. Wow! That's raising the bar . . . but with an eternal perspective, because Jesus knew these worldly things stood in the way of this rich "master of the universe" becoming the person God intended him to be. (see Matthew 19:16-30)

Maybe we need to ask more of others around us for their eternal sake and for the sake of Christ's kingdom here on earth.

Or maybe our expectations of others should change so that we move from demanding justice to showing mercy, or from letting something slide, to holding someone accountable. Jesus did this in John's account of the woman caught in adultery in John 8. Jesus called her self-righteous accusers to account by saying "Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her." This question, and some kind of drawing Jesus made in the ground, made the woman's would-be executioners disperse. To her, he said"Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you? She answered "no one, Lord." And Jesus then said "neither do I condemn you; go and from now on sin no more." In a different context, my pastor recently referred to this type of action as "afflicting the comfortable" and "comforting the afflicted". . .in both cases for their good.

A quick diagnostic test we might all do at the end of the day would be to check our areas of disapointment with others and determine the root cause of that disappointment. Is it because of missed expectations? Were those expectations self-focused or other-focused? Were they for our good or the other person's good? God may use this exercise to expose the cold, hard fact that many of our expectations of others are focused on our comfort, our convenience, our needs, our wants, not the other person's highest good, not to mention the furthering of Christ's kingdom here on earth.

I don't know about you, but at times when I take a deep look at my own motives and expectations of others, I am counting on a strong measure of the same mercy Jesus showed the woman caught in sin as told in John 8.

In Christ alone,

Newt

The Power of Expectations (2) "Of Self"

Dear Friends and Family,

I apologize for being delinquent in my postings. . . it has been a busy time getting back into the swing of things in this new year. I want to stay with the subject of "the power of expectations", focusing first on the expectations we have of our selves.

I am not going to turn to secular or academic sources initially, but wish to frame the discussion with two parables Jesus Christ told to his followers over 2000 years ago.

The first comes from the gospel of Luke, chapter 14:7-11. It is a parable of a wedding feast and sets an important boundary for us as we think about our own expectations. Here it is:

". . . When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in a place of honor, lest someone more distinguished than you be invited by him, and he who invited you both will come and say to you, 'Give your place to this person,' and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when your host comes he may say to you, 'Friend, move up higher.' Then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at the table with you. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."

Jesus provides the main lesson at the end, so we don't need to strain to find it: "For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted." Said in a few other ways: don't honor yourself; don't self-promote; think and act in a way that is rightly connected to your position; have realistic, fact-based expectations.

The second parable is found in both Luke and Matthew's gospels in slightly different forms. I will quote from Matthew's version since it is more familiar. It is found in chapter 25:14-30 and is referred to often as the Parable of the Talents. Here is a selection:

"For it (the kingdom of heaven) will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. . . Master, you delivered to me five talents; here I have made five talents more. His master said to him, 'Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master'. . . He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ' Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.' But his master answered him, 'You wicked and slothful servant!. . . You ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away."

Again, Jesus provides the principle at the end of the parable: "to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away". What can we derive from this parable in regard to expectations about self?

Here are a few interpretations that I believe are true to the text: be faithful with what has been given to you; recognize the "talents" you have been given and put them to good use; don't over-reach - deliver in a way commensurate with your resources; don't under-estimate what is expected of you or what you are capable of; don't "hide your talent".

As I think about establishing expectations for myself, I find these stories from Jesus provide some helpful boundaries. On one hand, we should not seek a place of honor or fame and should not be characterized by self-promotion. In other words, we should think rightly (humbly) about ourselves and our position.

On the other hand, we should be willing and ready to recognize what has been given to us when we are called on by the master to put our resources to use. We should rightly appraise our talents and resources, and be willing to act and deliver in a way commensurate with those skills and gifts.

In contrast to what much of modern culture teaches and holds up as the norm when dealing with expectations of self, Jesus seems to be teaching that we should be people who don't seek to be exalted, or to be promoting oneself to an ever-higher position. At the same time, we should be people who rightly appraise the talents and the resources we have been given and to put them to good use for our master.

So, a few questions for reflection: Are you and I characterized by taking a lower position and not seeking the place of honor? Are you and I known for being "faithful over a little"?

If the answer to both is "yes", then Jesus suggests we will be recognized, rewarded by being "set over much", and then "enter into the joy of our master." Just for contrast, I suggest you read the entire parables, because the alternatives are not so attractive. Then again, Jesus was never accused of mincing words. . .

In Christ alone,

Newt

The Power of Expectations

Dear Friends and Family,

Happy New Year and New Decade! Many of you may be glad to turn the page on 2009. I know last year will be one that I will not soon forget. The impact of last year on me and my family will certainly endure for many years to come.

For some time I have been wanting to begin a series of posts on the "power of expectations". A number of experiences I have had over the past several years have caused me to think about the impact expectations have had on my own life and in the lives of others. Expectations impact so many areas of our daily lives:

-professional success or failure
-parenting/childhood development
-medicine and health
-performance in sports
-marriage and relationships
-faith and prayer
-stock market performance/economic indicators
-etc.

Consider how expectations impact our views of ourselves, others, our circumstances, our past and our future. Our level of contentment is directly related to our expectations. On that note I am reminded of a simple equation that a mentor of mine in business once showed me:

S = P - E

or, Satisfaction = Performance - Expectations

You could easily substitute "Reality" for "Performance". In other words, our expectations, when compared against our reality- our circumstances - our performance, determines to a great extent whether we are satisfied or dissatisfied, content or discontent.

So, should we have high expectations and risk being disappointed? Or, should we set low expectations and attempt to ensure a sense of satisfaction? Maybe we should have different perspectives depending upon whether we are talking about your task list for home improvement on a Saturday verses your business forecast for the year, or your child's academic performance, or your expectations of healing from a terminal disease, or whether your favorite professional sports team will win this weekend.

What about our expectations of people who are different than us? There has been much talk recently in the U.S. about profiling certain individuals at airport security because of the Christmas Day bomb attempt on the flight from Amsterdam to Detroit. Should a person's race or ethnicity or religion impact our expectations? If so, how far should we take such expectations?

How about the poverty cycle? What impact do expectations have on those who feel trapped by their economic circumstances? What impact do certain types of governmental programs have on poor peoples' expectations of breaking that cycle?

Many of us have heard of the Pygmalion Effect that was popularized by the classic movie "My Fair Lady" or more recently "Trading Places", where the power of high or low expectations significantly impacts a person's performance and progress. How far should we go in applying this powerful principle in human behavior?

How about marriage? (This is a touchy one.) How do our expectations of our spouse impact our attitudes on a daily basis? What is the impact over time of fulfilled or unfulfilled expectations on this most intimate of relationships? How can changing our expectations assist in breaking a bad cycle?

How about the expectation of economic and technological progress that has been with us since the Age of Enlightenment in the 1700's? How has this promise of progress been fulfilled, or not? How has its lack of fulfillment led to attitudes of despair and indifference?

My working hypothesis is, expectations:

-have an over-sized impact on our daily lives.
-can be dangerous when they are too far from reality.
-are largely within our control.

I look forward to exploring some of these questions . . .

In Christ alone,

Newt


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Christmas Post from Susan

"In Christ alone, who took on flesh, fullness of God in helpless babe. This gift of love and righteousness…"

Merry Christmas!

We are so grateful to be celebrating Christmas this year with health and wholeness, and after the events of 2009, we have a deeper understanding of and appreciation for the gifts of health and life.

Our children are doing well and this year is one of firsts for all of them. Luke started high school and driving this year. Drew spent a semester abroad at the University of Edinburgh studying chemical engineering, playing basketball for the university, and traveling in Europe on long weekends. Newt and I visited him for a week together in Paris and Scotland. Zach is a senior this year and applying and receiving acceptances to attend college. He wants to study broadcast journalism/communications. Jensen started middle school this year as a fifth grader and began competing in equestrian and jumping events this summer. She will be baptized this Sunday.

Eight months after Newt was first misdiagnosed with pancreatic cancer and four months after his last chemo treatment and more prayers for us than we know, Newt’s lymphoma is gone and his chest and pancreas are clear. This month his doctor has officially pronounced him in remission and Lord willing, the lymphoma will not return. As you can imagine, we are overflowing with thankfulness for God’s mercy and deliverance.

In the months since Newt has had cancer, we have heard and experienced other stories of God’s hand of mercy, deliverance, and rescue. The Bible is replete with them as well and none so compelling as the Christ-mas story of God coming to earth wrapped in flesh. God sent us His Son so that in His mercy each of us could be rescued from death as we trust Him to be our Savior. This is the ultimate story of hope and healing and salvation and the reality that is a certainty for all eternity. It is for this deliverance, this rescue, that we praise God most. Our joy in Newt’s physical healing is great, but our joy in God’s gift of salvation is immeasurable!

We pray that you too find joy in the good gifts that God has given this Christmas and in those He has for you in 2010. May your hope, like ours, be in Christ alone.

With much love to you all~

Newt, Susan, Drew, Zach, Luke and Jensen Crenshaw

Latest Health Upate

Dear Friends and Family,

About two weeks ago I had a PET scan which was scheduled three months after my last treatment in late August. The results were completely clear, continuing to reveal that the cancer remains gone.

My oncologist indicated during a visit the following week that I was officially "in remission".

This was the news we have all been praying for, and I want to thank you for your continued prayers on my behalf. I certainly have felt God's hand upon me during the past weeks and months and am confident that he has healed me. The process of recovery happens one step at a time, and this latest step of a clean PET scan three months post treatment is an important one.

It has taken me a few days to process this last bit of news. I have an overwhelming sense of gratitude and peace that comes from knowing I am in good Hands. As I approach the Christmas holidays, I am reflecting in a new way on the meaning of the incarnation, that God became man in the form of a baby. I am also reflecting on how God wants to use this experience of cancer in my life. Please pray for eyes to see, ears to hear and the courage to follow. I am confident that God does not waste these experiences on his children.

I hope and pray your holidays are blessed, and that you are moved to be a blessing in others' lives, as you have been to me through your prayers and kind thoughts.

In Christ alone,

Newt

. . . all this talk of PEACE

Dear Friends and Family,

Recently in the media, we have been served up an interesting discussion about peace: President Obama's acceptance of the Nobel Peace Prize, the continued wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the military's plan for victory and withdrawal, speculation about the next steps in the war on terrorism, strife and tribal warfare in Africa, and of course early talk of Christmas peace, or mostly the lack thereof due to busy schedules, joblessness, and poor consumer spending.

All this talk of peace seems to be hardwired into the human condition because of the constant presence of war and strife. I just finished an informative biography of Sir Winston Churchill by Roy Jenkins where he chronicled Churchill's decisive role in WWII as the wartime Prime Minister of Great Britain. One his most telling observations was the birth of the next war (i.e. the cold war) which came even before the Allied Powers were declaring victory and bringing peace in their current struggle with Nazi Germany and the Axis Powers. Churchill rightly saw this next bipolar struggle coming which would dominate the latter half of the 20th century.

Peace was a big theme at the first Christmas, and also before Jesus' death. Luke indicates it was part of the angel's chorus to the lowly shepherds - "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased" (Luke 2:14) . Some thirty-three years later, peace was the topic of discussion between Jesus and his inner-circle of followers - "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid." (John 14:27)

This desire for peace clearly has more than one aspect to it. On a grand human scale it is the elusive pursuit of the absence of war. On an interpersonal level it is the absence of strife and conflict in our relationships. On a spiritual level, the angels indicated it had something to do with God being pleased with us. Jesus also seemed to indicate that peace was other-worldly and a gift from Him, bringing calm, not fear, to our souls.

To me, these various aspects of peace seem to be deeply connected. Just as the scientific and philosophic rule called Occam's Razor, when applied to medicine, calls for the simplest diagnosis and assumes that various symptoms of disease may somehow be connected, so too we should assume our lack of peace, our dis-ease if you will, has a common root cause.

While it may be tempting to focus our treatment on political solutions between nations - and we should - or psychological strategies for interpersonal harmony - and we should - those solutions and strategies would likely only be temporary "pain killers" or "band-aids" treating the symptoms, not the cause.

No, our dis-ease and lack of peace requires more basic and targeted medicine, because the root cause is imbedded in our human genetic make-up. We have faulty hearts. They are faulty not in the physical sense of muscle contractions, electrical impulses or valve operation, but in the sense of our deepest life-directing impulses, motivations and affections.

We need more than a list of rules, more than a contrived state of detachment from our physical existence, more than an evolutionary prescription for overcoming our self-focused survival -of-the-fittest instincts, more than psycho-analysis to reconcile our id and superego, more than a new Porsche at 1.9% interest rate or a new iPod Nano or the latest in designer clothes. We need more than weekly counseling sessions or self-help recommendations from Oprah or Dr. Phil. We need more than a Nobel Peace Prize, a new majority in congress, or a peace accord with the Taliban and a solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, or even Osama Bin Laden brought to justice.

(I must admit all those things would be nice - especially the Porsche and Bin Laden - but they would still fall woefully short.)

We need new hearts. We need a heart surgeon of the other-worldly kind. Maybe He's the One the angels were singing about all those years ago. Maybe that's what Jesus meant when he said:

"Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house there are many rooms. . . And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of Truth. . . He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you." John 14:1,2,16,17,26.

Maybe that's what all the Christmas celebration is supposed to be about.

The prophet Isaiah had it right several hundred years before the angels sang it out:

"For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of PEACE. Of the increase of his government and of PEACE there will be no end. . ." Isaiah 9:6,7

May that "increase" start in our hearts this season and re-make and re-direct our impulses, motivations and affections, bringing us peace with God and our fellow man.

In Christ (the other-worldly heart surgeon) alone,

Newt

The Mathematics of Thankfulness

Dear Friends and Family,

I trust that many of you in the US (and abroad) were able to celebrate Thanksgiving this past week with family and friends. Close friends of ours who are non-US citizens, but have lived in the states, told us recently that Thanksgiving was their "favorite adopted holiday" because of its focus on an attitude of thankfulness and on family. It is without a doubt my favorite holiday of the year for those reasons as well as for the crisp autumn days that accompany it here in central Indiana.

Reflecting on my own battle with cancer this past year, and also through discussions with others, I wanted to share a brief reflection on how we can be thankful even in the midst of difficult times. I will attempt to express these principles of thankfulness in mathematical terms, since mathematics often describes the relationship of one variable to another. I believe that an attitude of thankfulness has much more to do with our relationships - to God, to others, to our possessions - than it does with our particular circumstances. Here goes. . .

1. f (God) = man

An attitude of thankfulness begins with an understanding that man is created by God, or that we are a function of God, as in the basic expression, f(x) = mx + b. Our existence is derived from Him, and humankind is created by Him as an overflow of his love, not based on something lacking in His Being. "Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature." Genesis 2:7

The Psalmist provides another intimate and detailed glimpse into our relationship with the Creator God:

"For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth." Psalm 139:13-15.

In difficult times, remembering that we have been lovingly created by a personal God who knows us well will become the foundation of our thankful attitudes. To state the obvious, "thankfulness" requires a person or object to whom thanks is due, and that should first and foremost be the Lord God.

2. self "<" others

The second key to thankfulness in difficult times is to take our eyes off of ourselves and place them onto others. As in the simple inequality expressed above, one way to do this is to place ourselves below others. This attitude runs counter to the dog-eat-dog, survival of the fittest dogma espoused in the market economy or through the evolutionary struggle taught in our classrooms.

In one of the most beautiful expressions of humility and servanthood in all of scripture, the Apostle Paul describes how we should imitate Jesus Christ's example in Philippians 2:3-11:

"Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

3. Wants = Current x State

Someone once said that the key to contentment is to want what you have. How much of our time is wasted chasing after things that will not satisfy our deepest needs? If we are honest with ourselves, especially here in America, we have deep predisposition for the gods of "more" and "next". We are bombarded with daily messages that tell us happiness is somehow bound up in getting more or moving on to what is next. Simply not true.

Many people in this country and around the world are going through difficult economic circumstances as a result of the recent financial crisis and persistent joblessness. Others are suffering from chronic, incurable or even terminal diseases that are shaking them to their core. While we cannot deny the difficulty of these circumstances, we do not have to allow them to rule our lives and steal away a heart of thankfulness.

Again, the Apostle Paul provides insight as one who suffered greatly during his life:

". . . for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound, in any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need . I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Philippians 4:11-13

I must admit, it is far easier to have an ungrateful heart issuing from a view that we are on our own and that this existence is all there is, so get as much as you can for yourself and pay no attention to what happens to others in the process.

Let's make a choice to do a 180 degree turn from that attitude and remember that we have been made by a loving Creator, and redeemed by his Son to a life that can put others first and also find contentment and thankfulness in all of life's circumstances.

In Christ alone,

Newt

"The Weight of Glory"

Dear Friends and Family,

It was recently suggested to me by a friend that I read a sermon by C.S. Lewis called the "Weight of Glory". (Google it by name and you will find a PDF version you can download.)

Some of you have probably read the article before, and many have likely heard quotes from it like this one:

". . . 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."

In his sermon, Lewis explores more deeply this notion of our longings and how they connect to what God truly has in store for us "in Christ". He dispels the misconception that we, as Christians, should not desire reward from the Lord just because it seems, at first glance, to be mercenary or self-serving. In its truest sense, our deepest desire is to be noticed and approved by our Creator - the knower and lover of our souls. I really like Lewis' description of "being noticed by our Lord"; it reminds me of the gospel story we read our children in Sunday school about the little man named Zacchaeus climbing up in the tree to see Jesus. He was noticed by our Lord and called down and asked to dine with the Savior. (Luke 19:2) If we are honest, much our misguided earthly pursuits bely an underlying desire to be noticed and approved by our Lord just like this little man.

I have spoken with many friends recently about a deep motivation we should all have to hear "well done, good and faithful servant" from our Lord himself. (Matthew 25:23) I believe that the most important arc of our lives should lead us to that point, providing us a proper perspective on all the time-bound moments in between. We must remember that we will stand in Christ's presence only because his grace has smiled upon us through his inestimable sacrifice on our behalf, but we must also know that what we do with our lives in this realm really does matter to him.

Lewis also speaks of glory not only as being approved by ("being famous with") the Lord, but he also speaks of the notion that glory connotes light or luminescence. He captures our desires this way: "We do not want merely to see beauty, though, God knows, even that is bounty enough. We want something else which can hardly be put into words,- to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it." It seems clear to me that this desire for union with light and beauty is being fulfilled by our union with Christ through his indwelling Spirit and the hope that we will one day be like him in our glorified bodies.

All this talk of longing, approval, beauty and light causes Lewis to consider a practical application that is worth appropriating in our lives today and each day.

"It may be possible for each to think too much of his own potential glory hereafter; it is hardly possible for him to think too often or too deeply about that of his neighbour. The load, or weight , or burden of my neighbour's glory should be laid daily on my back, a load so heavy that only humility can carry it, and the backs of the proud will be broken. It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only a nightmare."

We should pray then not only to hear "well done, good and faithful servant" for ourselves, but encourage and help others to lives their lives toward that same end, seeing and loving them today with a view from that Great Day before our Lord Jesus.

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God." (Hebrews 12:1,2)

In Christ alone,

Newt

Dear Friends and Family,

Here we are at a street side cafe' in Paris next to the Place des Vosges. Susan and I spent a week in Europe recently, punctuating what has been an eventful six months. It was good for us to have some time away and enjoy a break.

We spent a few days in beautiful Paris, exploring the arts, the history, the architecture and of course the food. As Susan would say, "It was glorious"! It was her first time to Paris and she said that she may have found her "home away from home".

We stayed in the Latin Quarter and enjoyed walking everywhere, to Notre Dame, the Louvre, Musee' D' Orsay, the Eifel, Champs Elysees, the theatre, and shopping on the Rue de' Rivoli. The weather was nice at 15 c and sunny.

We also went to see our son, Drew, who is studying in Scotland at the University of Edinburgh. Scotland was beautiful and full of fascinating history. We walked the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, saw Edinburgh Castle, visited Stirling Castle and the William Wallace Monument and, of course, played golf at St. Andrews, where the sun actually shined down on us for several holes. . . it was glorious!

We even took in a bit of reformation history as we visited the John Knox house and St. Giles church and studied the Scots Confession of 1560, Mary Queen of Scots and other larger-than-life figures of that era.

We hope to go back to Scotland and take the "high road to Loch Lomond" and other sites in the highlands.

Sola Christus,

Newt

Feeling Stronger Every Day

Dear Friends and Family,

It has been three weeks since I last updated my blog and nearly a month and a half since my last chemo therapy treatment. Today would have been the day of my eighth treatment if it had been required. Being cancer-free and putting some distance between me and my last treatment have allowed me to gain five pounds, start exercising seriously again, and even begin to grow my hair.

While I have not returned to 100%, I must be gaining at least one percent each day. I would like to think that I will be back to near normal in less than a month with no lingering side effects. Again, I am very grateful.

Several times over the past weeks, I have remembered the moment when Susan and I heard the initial diagnosis of pancreatic cancer from the head of surgery at IU Med Center. It is a moment frozen in time as I gazed over the edge of my earthly life. While I don't care to return to that place again in reality, I return there in my mind because it causes me to maintain perspective on what really matters in life. It is an aid in my heeding the the most repeated command in the Bible - "Fear not."

On that subject of "fear", I did upload a new picture of myself which turns out to be a bit scarier than I thought it would. Halloween is around the corner, and Woody Harrelson has a new movie about zombies. . . maybe there's room for an "extra".

It's good to be a live, even if I resemble a fuzzy ghost.

In Christ alone,

Newt

"For whoever would save his life will lose it . . ."

Dear Friends and Family,

I was paid the best compliment I have ever received in my life the other day. A learned individual looked at me and said, "There is nothing remarkable here." I never thought I would rejoice in hearing such words, but they were especially wonderful when they came from the expert radiologist reading my confirmatory CT scan. I spent a few  moments with my oncologist this afternoon reading the CT scan images myself, and it continues to appear that the solid tumors in my pancreas and chest area are completely gone. Hallelujah!

So now I am out of the treatment phase and into the recovery phase. Today would have been the day for my seventh treatment, would that have been deemed necessary. However, it is nice to be on the mend and gaining strength day by day. Again, I cannot thank you enough for your faithful prayers. I am as firmly convinced that God has heard and answered these prayers as I am of anything else in my life.

Back to Luke 9:23, 24 - "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it."

When considering what Jesus meant by the last two phrases, I am reminded of Jim Elliot's famous quote: "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose." Indeed, Elliot, a missionary to a remote tribe in south/central America, gave his own life as he was murdered by the people he was trying to reach with the gospel of Jesus Christ over 50 years ago. (If you are interested in his story and the other missionaries involved, rent the movie "The End of the Spear"; it is quite compelling and appropriate for the entire family.)

I believe that Jesus is warning us with this last phrase that trying to hang on to the things of this world will only result in loss because the things of this world are temporary and don't ultimately meet our deepest needs. Jesus states these truths similarly in Matthew 6:19-21, "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

If you invest yourself completely in gaining the things of this realm for yourself, you will come up short in the end. In other words, he who dies with the most toys, does NOT win. However, if Christ - and trusting in him and following his lead - are what you invest in, then you will not be disappointed. You will not only gain abundant life here on this earth, but you will gain the afterlife with him. Elliot's pithy thought makes sense. It may not be easy to live out, but it is certainly a proposition worth embracing. 

Ultimately, Jesus is asking each of us, "What do you treasure"? Do you value possessions, status, power, comfort and the praise of others more than you do me? Or, are you willing to lay up treasures in heaven, demonstrating that your heart is in the place it should be?  

Losing our lives for a worthy cause here on earth is compelling. Losing our lives for the One who saves us, restores us and provides us eternal security should be irresistible to those who have eyes to see and ears to hear. If you are reading these words, I pray that is the case for you.

May the irresistible, unmerited favor of Jesus rest upon you and draw you to himself, so that you may lay a hold of life that is truly life.

In Christ alone,

Newt

Step Three: Follow Me

Dear Friends and Family,

Well, it feels good to have the six treatments behind me now. While I am a bit tired this week due to the drugs' effects on my red/white blood cells, I am hopeful as I consider being able to build up my strength and not getting "whacked" again in a couple of weeks. Please pray the confirmatory CT scan again shows no cancer next Thursday.

My body seems to be adapting to the chemo drugs as my hair, beard, eyebrows, etc. are starting to grow back. Many have suggested that I keep the metro-bald look, although my wife is not sold on it, and her vote always counts for (all voters + 1) in these types of categories. In celebration of a few blooming hair follicles, I have changed my blog picture to one that was taken about six years ago. A few years back a Washington DC insider accused me of using my "first communion picture" when he saw this one. Imagine if he saw me now in my "ridden hard and put away sweaty" state! Ah well, all flesh is like the grass. . .

Let's continue with the exploration of Jesus' direction from Luke 9:23,24:

"If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it."

God has been impressing on me over the past several months a few ways that I need to follow Jesus. Most clearly, he has shown me that following my Lord means becoming more like him. A friend of mine was sharing with me some teaching he had heard on this subject recently. The instructor indicated that in the ancient middle east, a follower of a master/teacher/rabbi/prophet would want to follow so closely that they would get the teacher's "dust" on them. Imagine that, getting "dusted" by Jesus. The notion is obviously that you walked around with your master and observed what he/she did and how they did it. As with Socrates, it could have taken the form of rigorous question and answer sessions. Nonetheless, you spent much time with your master and patterned your life after him.

It seems that God has always had this "imitation of Christ" in store for us. Many believers have suggested that Romans Chapter 8 is one of the pinnacles in all of the Bible. An oft quoted verse is 28: "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose." We all like the notion that "all things work together for good", but how do we know what "his (God's) purpose" is? The next verse holds the clue: "For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son. . .".

As the apostle Paul clearly states in Romans 8:28,29, God's purpose in our lives is to conform us to his Son's image. It is in this context of being made more like Jesus day-by-day that we can be sure that all things (even suffering, pain, hardship, setbacks, loss) work together for good. We could explore this notion of God's sovereign purposes being accomplished even (and especially) through suffering in a later blog, because I do think we see the ultimate "good from suffering" in the cross of Christ.

When we consider following our Lord so closely that we are conformed to his image, some may object because it might cause a loss of individuality. I believe nothing could be further from the truth. When we become more like Christ, we are actually becoming who God fully intended us to be, with all of our uniqueness. The Bible clearly teaches that the Lord knows us individually (read Psalm 139 or Matthew 10:26-33) and his design for us is fulfill our special role in his eternal kingdom. God wants to make us more like his Son but to still allow for our special blend of talents, experiences, upbringing, temperament and personality to shine through. I find this principle well demonstrated in the Bible itself. Look at the unique characters we find on every page! Further, consider how God's word shines through in a timeless fashion, but does not diminish the individual authors' personalities or writing styles.

I am motivated by the idea that the Lord of the universe has a job with my name on it in his kingdom. It is a small role that only I can fill, but I need to "go to school" on his Son if I am to be properly equipped (from the inside-out) as his faithful servant.

Another area of following Christ that I am learning is to keep my eyes on him and not the road ahead. I often suffer from the "what's next" disease, maybe you do to. Or, some people suffer from the "what's behind" disease as they are constantly burdened, even haunted, by their past. When I lay in my bed during the first two weeks under the presumptive diagnosis of pancreatic cancer, "what's next" took on a whole new meaning. I saw how vain many of my thoughts and plans about the future were. I saw clearly that Christ was telling me to follow him, and live in the present moment, leaving my future to Him. I have come to believe that living outside of God's present moment is one of the devil's schemes to render us ineffective in our special kingdom jobs.

If the evil one, in and through circumstances or through our own sinful tendencies, can keep us burdened down and paralyzed by the past, or preoccupied with the illusion of controlling or shaping the future, then we become much less effective, even worthless, in the present moment where God wants to work in and through us for his good purposes. Please hear me - there is a time for reflecting on and learning from our past, certainly confessing our sins and dealing with problems in the past that keep popping up in the present. There is also a time for planning ahead and considering the paths we might take to fulfill God's purposes in our lives. HOWEVER, we can only truly live in the moment before us. By keeping our eyes on Christ, we leave the choice of the next path up to Him and his sovereign plan in our lives. By keeping our eyes on Christ, we keep our eyes out of the rearview mirror, not filling ourselves with regret and indecision about turns not taken along the way.

So, for me, following Jesus means becoming more like him each day, and living in "the now" where He is leading me, and there is a lot of joy in that journey. . .

In Christ alone,

Newt