Why are you cast down, O my soul?

Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? It’s going to be okay. One day soon, we will have our lives returned to us and perhaps we will have learned a sobering lesson never to take for granted the people and things we hadn’t realized we cherish. Loved ones, friends, acquaintances, even those nameless but familiar faces along life’s way. Grand adventures and mundane exercises in living. The enemy will retreat and the world will reopen and surely for at least a moment we will revel in the moments that can be reclaimed. Some are lost to the passage of time, but most will excitedly flood back. And then the real challenge begins: maintaining the wisdom we have gained from the loss we have endured.

The Unforgiving Minute

I awoke early in the morning of the last day of my 40s, unable to sleep because I could not recall a phrase of Rudyard Kipling's poem, "If." Now I cannot sleep because I'm arguing the meaning of another phrase -- what is it that makes the "unforgiving minute" unforgiving?

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Will to Spirit

Before doing something foolish, many people today excuse it by announcing YOLO, an acronym for You Only Live Once. YODO, however, is equally true. The Bible reminds the foolish we are appointed to die once as well, and after this we must face God in judgment. That judgment depends on how you lived your once, and what you did with Jesus.

The German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche believed that man is driven by the will to power, an urge to achieve, be proudly ambitious, and attain chief positions in life. Sigmund Freud, on the other hand, emphasized the will to pleasure, or the pleasure principle, a craving for fleshly enjoyment.

Both lifestyles deny the will of Christ, for both are rooted in self and temporary bliss at the expense of eternal life. A third will, the will to spirit, recalls that the whole duty of man is to fear God and keep his commandments. There will be no greater, or more pleasurable, position than eternal life when you have lived this one out.

What will you do with Jesus -- ask him to line your pockets or look the other way, or will you kneel at his cross and put your one life in his hands?

Cross Bearing

Jesus taught, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me" (Luke 9:23). Cross bearing is a matter of willful sacrifice. It is not a reference to the hardships of life that are imposed upon us by illness, or the sin of others, or happenstance. To bear a cross is to choose willingly to sacrifice or suffer persecution in demonstration of faithful discipleship.

Just a Little Patience

"It is easier to find men who will volunteer to die, than to find those who are willing to endure pain with patience." --Julius Caesar

We tend to want God to answer our prayers, not only affirmatively, but also immediately. Patience, however, is a necessary ingredient that we must learn by observing how much greater God can bless us if we can only wait. We must trust God's timing in responding, which is usually far more methodical than we deem prudent. We must also learn to be patient with the people around us, understanding it to be a virtue that we surely also need from others when we are creating the bottleneck or difficulty. The impetuosity we say we want from God is regularly punished among men when we act or speak hastily. We must likewise learn to be patient with ourselves, when growth is not quick enough, or progress is measured by two steps forward and one step back.

"You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand" (James 5:8).

Narcissism

Narcissism is a state of extreme self-absorption, but really it's just another cloak for pride. The word traces back to a Greek myth of a young man who so fell in love with his appearance that he stared at his reflection in a pool of water, ignoring the affectionate glances of the lovely nymph, Echo. The myth inspired both Oscar Wilde and Herman Melville, whose Ishmael called it the key to it all. Narcissism is a pursuit of self-gratification through vanity, and the proliferation of selfies and the use of electronic devices as ready and expensive, if imperfect, mirrors, makes one wonder how many meaningful echoes we might be ignoring.

Janus

What do Peter, January and the school custodian have in common? All have a share in the latin word ianus (janus). Janus was the Roman god of beginnings and transitions, including doors and passages, and the one for whom January -- the gateway to the new year -- was named. Janitor, which has come to emphasize cleaning and maintenance, once meant a doorkeeper, so in early writings, the apostle Peter is called the "Janitor of Heaven," signifying his traditional role as keeper of the pearl gates.

You Must Stand

'Do not be afraid, Paul; you must stand before Caesar. And behold, God has granted you all those who sail with you.' --Acts 27:24

What God has in store for us might be a trial that will produce even greater glory, but we must persevere in this present hardship to get there. It is not up to us to declare when we have had enough, or to bow to adversity and take an easier way out. Job had to scratch and wonder, Jesus had to carry the cross before it carried him, and Paul had to survive the storm to reach the courtroom. We must likewise endure.

Try to Discern What is Pleasing to the Lord

It is Pharisaism that we must beware, that quintessentially self-serving habit of codifying tradition, personal preference, or opinion to the division and destruction of the body of Christ (see Matthew 15:1-9). Binding where God has not bound and loosing where he has not loosed are alike in their misguided pursuit of a unity founded either on sectarian orthodoxy or humanistic license. Neither is scriptural or sustainable, for neither is rooted in the inerrant will of Christ.

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Not the Last Temptation of Christ

It is hard to imagine that anyone has ever been subjected to greater adversity as preparation for spiritual testing than when Jesus preceded his temptations with forty days of fasting in the wilderness. In spite of that, but also in some ways because of it, Jesus was able to endure the devil’s best assaults on his thoughts and needs.

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The Baptism of Jesus Christ

Baptism continues to be a controversial subject in the world today, but for very different reasons than in the extended first century ministries of John and Jesus.

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Legends of the Infancy of Jesus Christ

In a quest to heap tradition upon the Bible story, centuries of believers have compressed, condensed and reshaped the account of Christ’s life and teaching to fit the vicissitudes of evolving perspective and fickle morality. Even the classic nativity scene, complete with manger-visiting magi, is contrary to the biblical sequence of events, which finds the unnumbered wise men visiting about two years later, and finding Jesus in a real house.

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Joseph Divorces Mary

The decision by Joseph to divorce his fiancee, Mary, is evidence of great compassion and empathy, even if it is invites questions about the authority of the Law of Moses regarding accused adulteresses.

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Matthew’s Genealogy of Jesus Christ

Genealogies were very important to the Jews, especially in determining tribal associations, duties, and privileges. While much of this distinction had waned since the days of the exile, the Jewish identity of the Messiah was of great significance. While referencing a continuation of the Old Testament bloodline, Matthew accounts for Jesus’s legal claim to the throne of David, rather than the Lucan method of establishing his Adamic biological lineage.

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The Nonprofit Life

At various times in our lives, we are moved to personal reflection, wondering if all our effort and personal investment of time, energy, and sacrifice have been worth it. Whether it is a graduation, reaching middle age, listening to a dire diagnosis, or some other major event, we begin to ponder if it has ultimately amounted to anything. What have we made of our lives? What have we done with our talents and opportunities? What would we have done differently if we had known then what we think we know now? What does the future hold?

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From Where I Stand: Bookmarked Verses

Although it is far from scientific, YouVersion’s Top 10 does serve to tell us a little bit about what Bible readers are thinking. More than anything, there is a quest for courage in a culture of doubt, depression, and doom. Reminders of God’s patience and strength are helpful, but only when combined with personal commitment and action.

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Stiff Upper Lip

Much value is placed on enduring the pangs and hardships of life with a similarly phlegmatic response, acting as if things do not bother us, simulating apathy as a heroic act of deference. Of course, the problem is that all of that stoicism often amounts to nothing more than a very big lie. There are disappointments, anxieties, and sorrows in our lives that produce overwhelming emotion, which we feel obligated to deny as a function of self-control or perspective.

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Handle With Care

Snake-handling and poison-drinking – intended only as reactive curatives anyway – also disappeared. When done purposely, both suggest a failure to follow the example of Christ, who when tempted by the devil to cast himself down from the pinnacle of the temple, replied, “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test” (Luke 4:12). The devil had tried to twist a psalmic promise that angels would protect the messiah from stubbing his toe on a stone, but Jesus rightly understood what modern snake-handlers do not.

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Wisdom Calls now available in print

Wisdom Calls, long available as a Kindle-exlusive, is now available in paperback for $6.99.

"Wisdom calls aloud outside; She raises her voice in the open squares" (Proverbs 1:20 NKJV). In WISDOM CALLS, Jeff Smith mines the Old Testament Proverbs for Twenty-first century applications, finding nuggets of truth amid the axioms of Solomon and other inspired sages. The biblical proverbs personify Wisdom as a sage woman, offering guidance and the benefit of experience to those who would strive to prosper spiritually in this life. Drawing upon a selection of 120 proverbs and passages, WISDOM CALLS is useful as a daily devotional book or for a little light reading when only weighty subject matter will do.

Lighten the Yoke

The implication for our attempts at evangelizing a lost world remain the same. We proclaim the grace of Christ and commend justification by works of faith (John 6:29, James 2:18, First Thessalonians 1:3). We speak where the Bible speaks of the plan of salvation and the conditionality of fellowship, but we lay upon the gospel’s hearers no greater burden, no unscriptural demands, personal standards, or traditional tests.

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