Today after one of the breakout sessions, a sweet spirit seemed to have been sent among several of us through the morning. It seemed to come from both outside of us and from within us. Walls began to come down. We spoke not of our educational or professional pedigrees. Rather we began with questions like, “So, what’s next for you, Craig?” or “So, what’s God calling you to, Gary?” or “How do you guys define ‘calling'”?The questions came regularly, and so did the ruminations. It was iron sharpening iron. That’s what Solomon called it: “Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another” (Pr 27:17).

We had lunch together. We ate our chili dogs and salads and drank our coffee and water. We spoke of our ministries. Some were in hospital chaplaincy. Others were military chaplains. Others were prison chaplains. Some others of us were pastors/elders and/or professors or teachers. The group was chock-full with years of experience in ministry and its myriad locations. We were all sponges–both absorbing what we were hearing and also being squeezed so that we poured into one another. My intellectual, emotional, and spiritual cups were being filled by these brothers.

Later as I drove back to billeting, I came across a creek, pulled my vehicle over, got out, and went and took in the sight and sounds of the creek I’ve crossed multiple times this week. Why? To give thanks, in short. To thank God for his common grace. To quote one of the great catechisms, “God’s providence is His completely holy, wise, and powerful preserving and governing every creature and every action.” In other words, no accidents. This is not a random cosmos. We are creatures (hence, there is a Creator) who are gifted with intellectual capacities in order to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. And one of the ways God’s providence plays out in history is via simple yet profound things like deep and kind conversations among fellow pilgrims on the way.

I stood on the bank of the creek and snapped another picture and spoke my heart silently over the sounds of the waters. Just to say, Thank you for today, Lord.

Thank you that I have new contacts in my phone, men I can call and who can call me, fellow ministers/chaplains/pastors who can hug me and say, “I get it. I truly do. Let’s walk together.”

I’m back now, and headed to PT in the gym. Got to sweat of the child dog from lunch. But I take us back to wise words penned by another who likewise understood the need for encouragement: “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ” (Gal 6:2). To my fellow brothers, thank you for making this theology visible.

Day two of training is now completed for me in this iteration here in KY. Good training today. Beautiful weather here on a beautiful seminary campus. 

I had the privilege of being in a briefing with a buddy of mine with whom I did CPE (Clinical Pastoral Education) and we got to spend some time together in the afternoon and walk and talk. He’s a retired Army 1SG and chaplain, and now serves with our endorsing agency as a conduit for chaplains. 

When Michael was teaching today, he said something that really resonated with me: “Calendar the stewardship of your life.” I found that a very wise statement. Why? I think it’s because if you don’t schedule your life wisely, you will waste your life on things of lesser significance. (Piper’s phrase and book about not wasting one’s life come to mind.)

Michael ribbed me because he knew I was a calendar guy. I carry a literal spiral notebook-calendar. I love it. Why? Well, it keeps me structured: 0630 for this; 0900 for that; 1100 for this; 1300 for that, etc. I note my readings, my appointments, my Scriptures for that day, etc. It works for me.

But here’s where Michael got me to see something. He asked, “You’re being the chaplain to everyone else, but where do you go? Why does everyone else get a resource but you don’t think you need one? How is that not vanity?”

Mic drop; that’s what that was for me. Then he said this: “Calendar the stewardship of your life.” Again, I was floored inside. Yep, I’m the calendar guy. I write it all down. I’d be a terrible criminal, because I have written down nearly everything that matters to me–what I’m reading, what I’m dealing with, what engagements I have, etc. in order to manage it all. But it exacts a toll. We can find ourselves exhausted on behalf of others, and depleted on the inside.

We can work oursevles to a frazzle. And for what? For whom? We’re replaced, and life goes on. That may sound harsh, but it’s nonetheless true. Michael, you taught me today, brother. I need to learn to calendar the stewardship of my life. Thank you.

“You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life,” Churchill wrote. Modern-day heroes are few. They’re here, of course. But most models of heroism are relegated to imagined characters for television and film. Fewer and fewer have a grandpa or uncle who was a hero. For many nowadays, they have to look up to imaginary Marvel characters like Spider-Man, Iron Man, or Captain America. Let that sink in: millions of Westerners worship made-up cartoon characters. They quote the films; they buy the swag; they spend billions supporting that industry. I’m for free markets; so spend your money as you like. No issue here regarding what you do with your money. But what it reveals is a hunger deep within the human spirit.

We long for heroes. We long for models, for paradigms of bravery, selflessness, and moral courage. The theologian Augustine famousely wrote, “Thou hast formed us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless till they find their rest in Thee” in his Confessions. And Solomon wrote that God “put eternity into man’s heart” (Eccl 3:11, ESV). Pascal famously wrote that man has a “God-shaped hole/vacuum” within him only God is sufficient to fill.

This Sunday I’ll be leading the saints of Christ Covenant Church (3cs-canton.org) in one of the most packed pericopes of Scripture. It’s 2 Peter 2. What’s it about? False teachers. Just a few years after Jesus’s resurrection, already churches were corrupted by nefarious leaders. Already. How much more do we need to be careful, therefore? There are those who mislead people for selfish gain. Sadly, we do not have to look far to find pastors who ask for raises again and again, who ask for more vacations, who ask for time away, for sabbaticals, for allowances, and inculcate an enviornment where there’s accountability for everyone else but not for them, et al. They see themselves as special, as exempt. “Rules for thee, but not for me.”

Peter begins chapter two this way: “But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction” (2 Pt 2:1, ESV). The Bible addresses false teachers head-on because God knows the damage they inflict upon congregations. Peter says that “in their greed they will exploit you” (2 Pt 2:3, ESV).

If you have an enemy because you take stands for truth, you are blessed. “Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Mt 5:12, ESV). We could do for more heroes, I agree. But we need to be wise about who merits that moniker. More than likely, he won’t be the one demanding comfort and protection. He’ll be the one taking care of the sheep. We are to look forward with wise hope, knowing that it’s a good thing to have the right enemies. That’s a sign we’re doing things God’s way.

Text:

3 You keep him in perfect peace
    whose mind is stayed on you,
    because he trusts in you.
⁴ Trust in the Lord forever,
    for the Lord God is an everlasting rock. (Isaiah 26:3-4, ESV)

Context, Context, Context:

Isaiah was God’s prophet during the ascent of Assyria and the decline of Judah in the 700s B.C. His message was plain: the holiness and glory of God and his righteous hatred of idolatry/religiosity devoid of the truth.

Always when truth is proclaimed, when righteousness is called for, a winnowing occurs. What’s down in the well of people comes up in the bucket. Pressure reveals what we are like as people. Some will reveal resentment and seek to destroy; others will cling to the Lord and seek to encourage the saints.

That’s where these lines from Isaiah are so germane and helpful. Isaiah writes that “the Lord will keep him in perfect peace” whose mind is fixed upon the Lord. Why? Because the man or woman of God trusts the Lord, the everlasting rock.

Yesterday at church, we sang “From Everlasting [Psalm 90]” by Sovereign Grace. And typical of the music of Sovereign Grace, it is rooted in Scripture. Psalm 90:2 reads as follows:

Before the mountains were brought forth,
    or ever you had formed the earth and the world,
    from everlasting to everlasting you are God.

Unlike sinners, God is steadfast, constant, and unchanging. And the man or woman of God who longs for biblical shalom will trust God rather than man. That’s what Christ taught, too, of course: “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, ESV).

Encouragement: There are many metaphors used in Scripture to describe the Lord–water, light, bread, Good Shepherd, on and on. But the one Isaiah uses here is that the Lord is an “everlasting rock.” He’s the Rock of Ages–steadfast, constant, and trustworthy. For God’s people, we are given the peace/shalom of God, and our lives will bear that out.

Definitions are key. So what is an oracle. An oracle is a prophetic word from God. And oracles come in two main forms. First is the oracle of weal. It is an announces blessing from God. It is literally a benediction, a good word. Second is the oracle of woe. It is a word of judgment from the Lord, usually delivered via a prophet.

Example of an Oracle of Weal: Many people may be somewhat familiar with the oracle of weal from Jeremiah 29:11: “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope” (ESV). That was where God spoke through Jeremiah to tell the people that his shalom would be experienced by future generations of believers, but that the current generation, due to their recalcitrance and incessant sin, would not. Verse 11 is a prophetic announcement by God through the prophet Jeremiah of future blessing/benediction to subsequent believers. It was good news.

Example of an Oracle of Woe: For an example of an oracle of woe/judgment, we can look at Isaiah: “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and shrewd in their own sight!” (Isaiah 5:20-21, ESV).

Here Isaiah is addressing the spiritual blindness of those who continually practice evil. And God is pronouncing judgment upon people and cultures who tolerate, encourage, and condone it. God hates evil; therefore, out of his holiness and love, he calls it out. To not call it out would be to condone it.

Encouragement: Oracles are gifts of God. How so? They demonstrate God’s holiness. They demonstrate God’s love for goodness, transparency, humility, and righteousness. Oracles call us to right living, to hearts in sync with God’s call to us who believe. And oracles remind us of the resulting weals and woes–of the goodness of God.

Today I presided as the chaplain for three–yes, three–military funerals. It is one of the duties and privileges I relish as a minister of the gospel and as a military chaplain. Between the first and second funeral, I had a two-hour break. As we waited for the next family of the deceased to arrive I completed my reading of Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun. Typical of Ishiguro’s style it was sublime and understated. But his theme was commanding–the human need for and power of love.

What’s important to understand, however, is that the protagonist in the novel was an “AF,” (Artifical Friend). The main character was Klara, an AI android machine, that was so evolved and perceptive that she (yes, she’s portrayed with a female pronoun) had learned human emotions, human spirituality, and the capacity for self-sacrifice and love. When the vast majority of people abandoned the girl character of Josie, Klara was the noble and sacrificial one. Ishiguro masterfully explored the cruelty of mankind by portraying how androids are brought in to supplement and/or replace what other people should be, namely, a friend, who loves at all times.

What does this have to do with the apostle Peter? A great deal. This coming Sunday, I am slated to teach 2 Peter 1:1-15 to the saints of Christ Covenant Church (3cs-canton.org). What’s Peter’s topic in those verses? It’s what the Christian life is to look like. He lists several traits that evidence the reality of being a Christian:

• Faith
• Virtue
• Knowledge
• Self-control
• Steadfastness
• Godliness
• Brotherly affection
• Love

Ishiguro is a wise writer. Peter was an apostle of Christ. He was Jesus’ lead apostle. Peter, though a fallen man like the rest of us, triumphed in the end. He persevered in the faith. He penned two New Testament epistles that bear his name in church history. He equipped the saints. He taught. He shepherded. He labored in the truth for the sake of his people. He died a martry, being crucified under Nero in Rome, Italy in the mid-60s A.D.

And how did Peter end this section of his second letter? With these words:

Therefore I intend always to remind you of these qualities, though you know them and are established in the truth that you have. I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to stir you up by way of reminder, since I know that the putting off of my body will be soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me. And I will make every effort so that after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things (2 Pt 1:12-15, ESV).

Encouragement: Great literature is great because it deals truthfully, wisely, and beautifully with the enduring realities of human experience. Ishiguro’s novel was about the need for love, the beauty of self-sacrifice for a higher cause, and for connection. Peter labored and spent himself for the sake of Christ and those Christ ransomed from the talons of Satan and hell. In both cases, what was necessary was sacrifice, denial of self, and love. In short, the gospel.

Questions: Have you ever endured a gathering where the spirit that was supposed to be there was absent? Have you ever felt like you were supposed to come away feeling filled but you departed feeling empty, as if you’d just gone through the motions?Probably, many people have shared this experience.

There is a danger associated with this, too, however–namely, that we can go chasing adrenaline experiences that are intellectually insipid and spiritually vapid. Many folks are caught up in that pattern. They doomscroll for entertainment to stave off having to engage with serious thought or reflection. Many people cannot endure silence. To be stuck alone with oneself is torture because they might not like what they see. It might drive them to self-reflection and accountability. So, the response is to turn away, to engage in more distraction, to deflect, to be entertained.

Scripture Speaks to This: When the prophet Isaiah wrote in the 700s-600s B.C. he addressed the culture of his day with these same hard sayings. He spoke the truth. And the people didn’t like it. Prophecy is not for the morally weak. Engage in a prophet’s work and you might get the prophet’s reward–stoning, shunning, beheading, exile, or murder. But if you’re God’s man, all will be made right. But there’s a lot of pain involved.

When Isaiah opened the book that bears his name in the Old Testament, he rebukes Judah (the southern kingdom) straight out of the gate: “Why will you still be struck down?” (Is 1:5). It’s a rhetorical question that is a clear rebuke. And Isaiah rebukes empty ritualism–this going through the motions–that characterized so much of religiosity:

“What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices?
    says the Lord;
I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams
    and the fat of well-fed beasts;
I do not delight in the blood of bulls,
    or of lambs, or of goats.

¹² “When you come to appear before me,
    who has required of you
    this trampling of my courts?
¹³ Bring no more vain offerings;
    incense is an abomination to me.
New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations—
    I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly.
¹⁴ Your new moons and your appointed feasts
    my soul hates;
they have become a burden to me;
    I am weary of bearing them.
¹⁵ When you spread out your hands,
    I will hide my eyes from you;
even though you make many prayers,
    I will not listen;
    your hands are full of blood.
¹⁶ Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean;
    remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes;
cease to do evil,
¹⁷     learn to do good;
seek justice,
    correct oppression;
bring justice to the fatherless,
    plead the widow’s cause. (Is 1:11-17)

Empty Ritualism: Like many others, my wife and I enjoy live music. Over the many years, we have seen some great shows–B.B. King, John Mayer, Selah. I remember seeing Pink Floyd (yes, I’m that old); Bob Dylan, Bob Seger, Billy Joel, the Eagles, Kansas, Willie Nelson, and many, many more. And what set some of those shows apart was that there was a sincere love and communication going on between the musicians and us (the hearers). We knew their words; we knew their tunes; their songs played a big part in shaping us as individuals. Our memories played their tunes in the soundtrack of our lives. And the best of these individuals and/or groups got it. They understood that music is more than just sound; something spiritual is going on.

Segue: How much more important, therefore, should be our relationship with God? Is it not the most important issue? “Who do you say that I am?” is a life-altering question. That’s what Jesus posed to Peter, you’ll remember (Mt 16:15-17, e.g.).

Takeaway: God spoke through Isaiah. God’s message was that he hates “vain offerings” (v. 13) and that’s he is “weary” of all the ritualism (v. 14b). What God calls for is pure worship from hearts and minds purified by the refining fire of gospel truth. That’s not ritualism. That is full worship. In Hebrews 12:28-29, the writer says, “Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverance and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.”

The kingdom of God is received; it’s not something we sinners manufacture or gin up. But if we have been born again by the Spirit of God, our worship will be theocentric and full–not of entertainment and filler, but of depth and a reverence for the holiness of God. Empty ritualism is a sign that Ichabod is writ large upon the door. But where God’s Spirit is at work among his people, we will bless the Lord at all times, with all that is within us (Ps 34:1).