Category: Thoughts and Meditations

“Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” – John 15:13

Today begins Memorial Day weekend and it looks to be a gorgeous one in Northern Virginia. In recent years, Memorial Day has largely become synonymous with the “start of summer”, a three-day festival of pools, picnics, and parties to kick off the frivolity and fun of the summer months.

Things are different in 2020. This year is easily the strangest Memorial Day weekend in recent decades: pools are closed, parties are largely cancelled, and even picnics are small and anxious things. While we may lament their absence, this strange season provides an opportunity to refocus on the true meaning of Memorial Day.

In the United States, Memorial Day is when we’re called to remember and honor all those who’ve given their lives in defense of this nation (more than 1 million men and women since the Revolutionary War). For Christians we understand that freedom comes at a terrible cost: our freedom from slavery to sin and death was bought with the shed blood of our crucified Savior Jesus Christ. Likewise for those who enjoy the freedoms and blessings of life in the United States – these freedoms also came at a terrible cost. Throughout American history, men and women have laid down their lives for their friends, family members, neighbors, nation, and countless future generations.

May this unusually quiet Memorial Day weekend be an opportunity to reflect and give thanks to God for those who have given, “the last full measure of devotion.”

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” – John 13:34-35

Note what this is: a commandment from Jesus. Not a suggestion. Not encouragement. Not advice. Not instruction. Not an idea. A commandment. Same as the Ten Commandments.

What must we do? Love each other JUST as Jesus has loved us. At the moment He said this, Jesus had just finished washing His disciples’ feet. Soon Jesus would die for them and us. Those are the parameters revealing how we are to love each other. We’re to freely and willingly and extravagantly love our brothers and sisters in Christ not just in the abstract, but by action. We’re not just to love with kind words and positive thoughts but with humiliating and painful acts of service and sacrifice.

In general, Christians in North America are pretty poor at this. We like each other and help each other, but too often our pride, preferences, opinions, and need for power take priority in the day to day. It can’t be this way. It’s rebellion against King Jesus. We can certainly disagree about things, but any time we fight and feud over matters of taste and preference, or let personal slights, past mistakes, and petty insults divide us from other Christians, we’re disobeying Christ.

We must willingly and readily set down preferences, pride, and position to love each other all day, every day. This isn’t optional for Christians, it’s a commandment from our Lord. This is supposed to be the thing that catches the world’s attention and lets them know we’re different because we follow Jesus. We must be famous for our love, unity, and mutual sacrifice and submission to one another. May it be so!

“And Samuel said to the people, ‘Do not be afraid; you have done all this evil. Yet do not turn aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart.’” – 1 Samuel 12:20

Failure is going to happen from time-to-time in our battle for holiness. Once we put our faith in Jesus Christ, He calls and empowers us to change and become increasingly like Him. That’s a lifelong journey with many ups and downs. It doesn’t generally look like instant victory over every sin that plagues or tempts us. Indeed, along that journey to holiness we’ll likely discover new sins that tempt us. There will be times in which we experience great spiritual success. Then there will be times we once again sin and fall short of the glory of God.

The battle for sanctification – consistently living up to the holiness which God already credits to us in Christ – lasts a lifetime. We should experience upward progress throughout our lives, but there will be plenty of setbacks along the way. After those setbacks the enemy will try to discourage us, to convince us that we’re unworthy, that we’ll never get past our besetting sin, that we’re failures, that God can’t possibly still love us after yet another betrayal of His love.

Those are lies! While we must never be satisfied with our spiritual weaknesses and failures, we must be satisfied in God’s grace and mercy. This satisfaction enables us to keep battling, confident in God’s redeeming love. We must ask forgiveness for our sins and rest in God’s abundant forgiveness. The apostle John expresses our situation perfectly in 1 John 2:1, “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” These words come shortly after John wrote, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” There is ALWAYS forgiveness available when we ask, even we ask through tears of frustration and failure for the millionth time.

So when you sin, don’t give up – either on pursuing God or on pursuing holiness. Confess your failure to God and receive His forgiveness afresh. Let that failure deepen your love and whole-hearted worship of the Lord.

“You visit the earth and water it;
you greatly enrich it;
the river of God is full of water;
you provide their grain,
for so you have prepared it.”
– Psalm 65:9

Writing in a dry land that was completely dependent on rainfall to survive, David praises God as the source of the life-giving, fruit-bearing, nourishing, renewing, blessing water enjoyed by all, believers and unbeliever alike. Indeed, God is the source of all blessings, the creator of all life, and the giver of hope and for that we give thanks. God enriches the earth He created, providing the precious water needed to bring forth abundant life.

Let us give thanks for each and every blessing we enjoy – large and small – each day, for God is the source of all these blessings and good gifts (James 1:17). We celebrate God’s common blessing on all life – those who love Him and those who don’t yet know Him. He is merciful and gracious in ways we cannot begin to truly understand!

God’s gift of water also points to God’s greatest gift. We praise and celebrate God’s gift of Living Water to those who believe in Jesus the Christ: eternal life, forgiveness of sins, union with Christ, and the presence of His Holy Spirit in our daily life. Thank you Lord for your abundant kindness, grace, mercy, and love!

“Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen and called its name Ebenezer; for he said, ‘Till now the Lord has helped us.’” – 1 Samuel 7:12

Ebenezer means “Stone of Help”. Why would Samuel set up and name a stone right after God’s miraculous intervention to not only protect Israel from surprise attack, but turn that attack into a crushing defeat for the Philistines? Because we have short memories!

We can quickly move from a mountaintop high rejoicing God’s visible work in our lives to a valley low in which we feel like we’re all alone day after day. We spend most of our lives in the valley and our thoughts can quickly move from “God is great” to “woe is me.” Thus we see leaders throughout the Old Testament setting up monuments to remind the people of God’s faithfulness, power, presence, and promises.

What do we have to help us in the valley? What helps us remember God’s steadfast faithfulness and love during difficult times like the present? The cross should certainly be an Ebenezer for all who follow Jesus. There is no greater symbol of God’s faithfulness, love, mercy, kindness, righteousness, justice, and grace than the cross on which Jesus died for our sins.

But do you also have a personal Ebenezer? What memories, pictures, stories, or monuments help you remember God’s faithfulness in difficult times? It’s good to rehearse and remember God’s faithfulness in our lives, because dark seasons eventually come that can lead to doubt. It’s then that we need an Ebenezer. What in your past could serve as your personal reminder of God’s tender care for you?