When he arrived in Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him, since they did not believe he was a disciple.
Acts 9:26
It's hard to blame the Jerusalem Christians for being a bit leery of Saul of Tarsus.
The last time they had seen him, he had promoted himself from coat-checker at Stephen's stoning to judge-jury-executioner on his way to Damascus, warrant in hand, ready to round up and jail every Christian he found.
So when he shows back up in Jerusalem trying to be all "Hey! Shalom shalom, my brother!" they were, naturally, sceptical.
He hadn't changed his name to Paul yet. He hadn't travelled throughout Asia Minor and the coastal regions of the northern Mediterranean planting churches yet. He had yet to set pen to papyrus to write a quarter of the New Testament.
I'm so glad those Jerusalem believers got beyond their distrust of Paul's past. I'm even more glad that Paul didn't let their scepticism destroy his bold faith.
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Truth is...Mutual funds and stock portfolios will tell you that "Past performance is no guarantee of future results," but that also applies to everyone you meet...and you, too.
You see it every time political power changes hands: a new leader is suddenly surrounded by eager voices, each insisting they’re the truest supporter, each angling for a favor, a position, or a slice of the budget.
It makes total sense ... if your hopes for personal advancement, success, and security are pinned to a politician.
But if you long for real truth and justice, it would be good to heed the words of Charles Colson:
Where is the hope? I meet millions who tell me that they feel demoralized by the decay around us. Where is the hope? The hope that each of us has is not in who governs us or what laws are passed or what great things we do as a nation. Our hope is in the power of God working through the hearts of people. And that’s where our hope is in this country. That’s where our hope is in life.
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Truth is...Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. - Psalm 20:7 (NIV)
Phil Keaggy had a decent following and an expanding reputation as an amazing guitarist as part of a late-60s / early 70s rock power trio, Glass Harp.
Then he met Jesus. And nothing has been the same since.
As a musician, Keaggy began expressing the joy of his newfound faith through the songs he wrote and performed. That didn't fit so well in the context of Glass Harp, so Phil went solo and ended up being part of the Mount Rushmore of Jesus Music/Contemporary Christian Music.
Mount Rushmore of Jesus Music: Larry Norman, Andrea Crouch, Honeytree, Phil Keaggy
Keaggy's first solo album was, as the album cover states, "written, arranged, produced, and performed by Phil Keaggy." Every note, every word, every percussive tap and melodic pluck was Phil Keaggy expressing his love, joy, and hope in the Lord.
Today, and for the next eight weeks, Truth Is... will meditate on the songs of that album, What a Day.
First up, "That Is What the Lord Will Do for You":
Truth is...Having been "born again" for more than a few years, I must admit that this sense of resurrection and joy and being filled with the life of Christ is something that is not "one and done." Every day, Lord Jesus, keep me aware of how dead I was without you and how you conquered death...not just for yourself, but for me, too.
I was embarking on a short-term mission trip to do some work at a children's home in Central Mexico. Itinerary: flying from Minneapolis/Saint Paul to Dallas to San Luis Potosi.
Speeding down the runway of MSP, it seemed like we were having trouble reaching escape velocity. We were bumping around the cabin, the plane was rattling and shaking, and I couldn't help but imagine hearing Fred Flintstone yelling "Pedal faster, Barney!"
And then, in an instant, in the twinkling of an eye you might say, the wheels left the tarmac and all was smooth and quiet as the plane entered its natural habitat of the air.
Right then and there, I wondered, "Is that how it's going to be when you come back, Jesus? Will all the turmoil and trouble of this life-as-we-know-it just . . . just be done as we enter into the realm of existence we were created for?"
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Truth is...He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever. (Revelation 21:4 NLT)
Frank E. Graeff's lyrics to the 1901 hymn, Does Jesus Care?, are pretty straightforward. In fact, there's no need to prosify the chorus at all. But consider how relatable his questions are.
Does Jesus care when my heart hurts so much that I can't even think about happiness and music? I feel so weighed down, and my worries stress me out to no end.
Does Jesus care when I can't tell which way to go, and I'm full of fear and a dread I can't even identify? I feel like I'm walking alone into a dark place. Does he care enough to walk with me?
Does Jesus care when I give in to temptation, or when, even though I cry all night, there's no relief from my grief?
Does Jesus care when the person on earth I love the most dies, and my heart aches till it breaks? Does it mean anything to him at all? Does he even see how much I'm hurting?
If you're in the middle of a pickle or located in another fine mess and in need of some confident hope, you could do a lot worse than turning to the Psalms. Often, King David exudes confidence in Yahweh's loving care for him.
Case in point, Psalm 27:1-3 (CSB)...
1 The Lord is my light and my salvation—
whom should I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life—
whom should I dread?
2 When evildoers came against me to devour my flesh,
my foes and my enemies stumbled and fell.
3 Though an army deploys against me,
my heart will not be afraid;
though a war breaks out against me,
I will still be confident.
Why is David so fearless?
The answer is right there in the middle two lines. David could review his personal history and recall times when God came through for him. Yahweh had helped him...indeed, saved him...in the past. There is no reason to suspect Yahweh will fail him in the future.
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Truth is...Past protection leads to current confidence.
Time is a gift that only Yahweh can give. It bears witness to his patience.
Hope is the life force of a heart that is currently broken, but optimistic about the future.
Application of God's promises to the circumstances of my life wipes out all fear.
Nazareth was a backwater village that folks didn't ascribe much potential to, but it nurtured the world's savior. I may not hold a lot of promise in the eyes of some...and neither may you...but God can use even us to accomplish his will.
Knowledge of the love of God is an experiential thing, not an intellectual exercise. And it's something I can grow in!
Songs speak to the human soul in ways the spoken word cannot. I praise Yahweh FOR and WITH music.
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Truth is...The Lord is my strength and shield. I trust him with all my heart. He helps me, and my heart is filled with joy. I burst out in songs of thanksgiving. (Psalm 28:7)
Whether you're basically happy or generally discontented may very well be a matter of choice.
Allow me, please, a pair of paragraphs from The Return of the Prodigal Son by Henri J. M. Nouwen:
I don't have to wait until all is well, but I can celebrate every little hint of the Kingdom that is at hand. This is a real discipline. It requires choosing for the light even when there is much darkness to frighten me, choosing for life even when the forces of death are so visible, and choosing for the truth even when I am surrounded with lies. I am tempted to be so impressed by the obvious sadness of the human condition that I no longer claim the joy manifesting itself in many small but very real ways. The reward of choosing joy is joy itself. Living among people with mental disabilities has convinced me of that. There is so much rejection, pain, and woundedness among us, but once you choose to claim the joy hidden in the midst of all suffering, life becomes celebration. Joy never denies the sadness, but transforms it to a fertile soil for more joy.
For me it is amazing to experience daily the radical difference between cynicism and joy. Cynics seek darkness wherever they go. They point always to approaching dangers, impure motives, and hidden schemes. They call trust naive, care romantic, and forgiveness sentimental. They sneer at enthusiasm, ridicule spiritual fervor, and despise charismatic behavior. They consider themselves realists who see reality for what it truly is and who are not deceived by "escapist emotions." But in belittling God's joy, their darkness only calls forth more darkness.
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Truth is...I hope you consider this a call to "choose you this day" what lens to view the world through. As for me and my house, I'm on Jesus' side when he said "I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow!" - John 15:11 (NLT)
If you're aware of Michael J. Fox at all, you probably remember him as the star of the successful sitcom Family Ties and the three Back to the Future films. You may also identify him as the amazingly optimistic actor who has been fighting Parkinson's for three decades.
You may not have heard that in 2018, he had surgery to partially remove a benign tumor that was coiled around his spinal cord and that four months later he fell at home, resulting in a shattered left arm that had to be stabilized with a metal plate and 19 screws.
At this point, let me quote from an article by Andrew Corsello published in AARP The Magazine:
"As he dropped into what he says was a prolonged 'dark patch,' Fox began questioning everything - even his own optimism. Is it still possible for me to be optimistic and realistic at the same time? he asked himself. In other words, had the price of keeping up a good face, of striving to remain the playful, glass-half-full guy audiences had always loved, of being 'Michael J. Fox,' become too steep?"
Perhaps not surprisingly, he did indeed find a way to become optimistic again, and shared his secret in answer to the question, How did you pull out of that dark place your surgery and fall had plunged you into?
"For one thing, I am genuinely a happy guy. I don't have a morbid thought in my head - I don't fear death. At all. But as I came through that darkness, I also had an insight about my father-in-law, who had passed away and always espoused gratitude and acceptance and confidence. And I started to notice things I was grateful for and the way other people would respond to difficulty with gratitude. I concluded that gratitude makes optimism sustainable. And if you don't think you have anything to be grateful for, keep looking. Because you don't just receive optimism. You can't wait for things to be great and then be grateful for that. You've got to behave in a way that promotes that."
Truth is...If you're worried and you can't sleep, just count your blessings instead of sheep, and you'll fall asleep counting your blessings. (Irving Berlin)
I've learned a few things about love by listening to songs on the radio. Love will find a way. Love will keep us together. Love is all you need. Love isn't always on time. Love is an open door. You've got to hide your love away. Can't buy me love. Only love can break your heart. Love is a battlefield.
When a man loves a woman, he can't keep his mind on nothin' else. He'd change the world for the good thing he's found. According to Johnny Cash, love is a burning thing, and it makes a fiery ring. A ring of fire into which one can fall. More than anything else, we hear about falling in love. Like it’s something that uncontrollably happens to you. Yes, there is a certain level of the unexplainable that happens when you find yourself being attracted to one person instead of all the other people you’ve met, but the love that Paul wrote about in First Corinthians isn’t a lacy, fuzzy-focused thing like an emotion. The love that couples say “I do” to isn’t as flimsy as a feeling. Brides and grooms promise to love each other as long as they both shall live, but that's not a feeling or an emotion. You can’t promise to feel a certain way for the rest of your life.
“I will always like Frosted Flakes more than any other cereal! The Beatles will always be my favorite band!”
You can’t do that, but you can promise to behave a certain way. You can commit to being patient. You can promise to be kind. You can devote yourself to humbly putting the other person’s needs first and to always protect, always trust, always hope and persevere.
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Truth is...Love hurts, but I don't care what they say, I won't stay in a world without love.
And now, class, we come to the final song on Randy Stonehill's Welcome to Paradise album, "Good News". It may draw the album to a conclusion, but its true purpose is to draw our attention to the future and fill us with hope.
Good news, Christ is returning
Good news, now the world is learning
Good news, Christ is returning
And Jesus gonna bring us on home
Good news well I feel alright
Good news He'll come like a thief in the night
Good news he's gonna take us in flight
Jesus gonna bring us on home
Oh yeah, ain't that realgood news
Oh yeah, ain't that real good news
Go on hang up your blues
Good news we're gonna live forever
Good news floating light as a feather
Good news we can all be together
When Jesus comes to bring us on home
Oh yeah, ain't that real, real good news
Ain't that real
Oh yeah, ain't that real good news
Go on hang up your blues
Good news, Christ is returning
Good news, now the world is learning
Good news, Christ is returning
And Jesus gonna bring us on home
Come down make you feel alright
Like a thief in the middle of the night
Come down make you feel alright
Like a thief in the middle of the Middle of the night
Truth is...whether Jesus comes to take us on home or comes bringing the New Jerusalem with Him, the strong hope and firm assurance that He will make all things right is reason enough to sing, shout, and let it all out. GOOD NEWS!
God will never forget the needy; the hope of the afflicted will never perish. (Psalm 9:18) May integrity and uprightness protect me, because my hope, Lord, is in you. (Psalm 25:21) May your unfailing love be with us, Lord, even as we put our hope in you. (Psalm 33:22) Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God. (Psalm 42:5) As for me, I will always have hope; I will praise you more and more. (Psalm 71:14) Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. (Isaiah 40:31)
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Truth is...But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me. (Micah 7:7)
Go big or go home, right? Well, Larry Norman did both when he ended the album In Another Land (and his present-past-future album trilogy) with the grand-sounding-though-less-than-two-minutes-long "Hymn to the Last Generation". The title and the first half of the lyric definitely put this in the same end-times/apocalyptic vein as some other songs on the album: Might as well face it, the world as we know it is coming to an end.
And then we get the evangelistic plea and the promise of a better life to come: There's no need to fear; Jesus Christ is here.
Truth is...Whether Jesus comes back tomorrow or a million years from now, our only hope for making our lives in this world (and the next) what they were meant to be is to walk hand-in-hand with Jesus.
Truth is...plenty of people like to hold on to the designation of being a "seeker". That way, you never have to commit to anything. But the words of Jeremiah 29:13 still ring true: "You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart." (NIV) Or, as the Amplified Bible puts it: "Then, with a deep longing you will seek Me and require Me as a vital necessity, and you will find Me when you search for Me with all your heart."
It's been a while since we've checked in with Radio Free Babylon's Web comic, Coffee with Jesus. This particular episode should be encouraging to us all. We begin with Ann talking about her desire to know Jesus better...to experience Him more closely...and Jesus quotes Paul to express both empathy and encouragement.
It seems like she understands, but then Jesus comes in with a boffo finish.
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Truth is...Jesus loves us even more than the metaphor can express. Whatever separation or isolation we feel in the here and now will be totally and completely reversed at the end of time. (And knowing He loves us like that should help dispel those feelings in the here and now!)
We've been close to a nuclear World War III more often than you would like to think.
For instance: 1. On the evening of October 25, 1962, at the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis, an air force sentry at a military base near Duluth, Minnesota "spotted someone climbing the base fence, shot at the figure, and sounded the sabotage alarm." As alarms at airfields all over the region were sounded, at Volk Field, Wisconsin, the wrong alarm, the one signaling nuclear war (the "P.S., we mean it, this is not a drill" alarm) went off, and pilots scrambled and headed down the runway, being stopped only at the last second by the post commander. The "intruder" was a bear. 2. Also in the midst of the Cuban Missile Crisis, only two days later, October 27, 1962, on the same day that an American U-2 spy plane was shot down over Cuba: At this point, Soviet submarines were being subjected to depth charges to make them rise to the surface (we were unaware they had nuclear weapons aboard). Despite strict orders not to use their nuclear torpedoes absent authorization from Moscow, the three Soviet officers aboard Foxtrot submarine B-59 had decided to use theirs if under attack and unable to reach Moscow but only if all three officers agreed. They were, in fact, unable to reach Moscow, and in the end, one officer, Vasili Alexandrovich Arkipov, finally made the fateful decision not to start WWIII. 3. In 1983, U.S.-NATO military maneuvers in Europe, called "Able Archer 83," were interpreted for a time by the Soviets as the prelude to a -- not so good -- full-scale nuclear attack. 4. On January 25, 1995, technicians at the Olengrosk early warning radar facility detected an unidentified ballistic missile over Norway which appeared to be heading for Russia. Because the missile was manufactured in the United States, its "signature trail" was therefor identified by Russian computers as hostile and apparently fired from a U.S. submarine in the Arctic Sea, even though it was actually only a Norwegian research rocket researching the Northern Lights. President Yeltsin's "nuclear briefcase" was activated and Russian missile submarines ordered to battle stations. Finally, with three minutes to spare, the missile was correctly identified. Happily, for the human race, this incident took place at a time when Yeltsin was President and not earlier (or subsequent) presidents. But this is the mere tip of the iceberg of close calls known to experts. There have been literally hundreds of false alerts of a nuclear attack in this country alone, triggered by such things as a flock of geese, the rising of the moon, the sun's reflection on a cloud, a strong solar storm, and space debris re-entering the atmosphere. And of course, there have been who knows how many similar or worse incidents in other countries. (From World Peace Through Law, by James Taylor Ranney)
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Truth is...if history teaches us anything, we should know by now that mankind is capable of horrific, and horrifically short-sighted, acts of aggression. Our hope for peaceful coexistence can't reside in the strength of our armaments to deter, or the openness of our hearts to live and let live. Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. (Psalm 20:7 NIV)
The 50th anniversary of the release of The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band has been making a few waves in pop culture recently. Detractors will want to say it's just a Baby Boomers thing...a desperate grasp for relevance in a culture increasingly dominated by Millennials and beyond. Maybe so, but I've got video evidence that it's a little more than that. Thanks to editor Tom Compagnoni and the Australian arm of Huffington Post, the following 50 Covers... video suggests it's not just old codgers that appreciate creative composing and performing...and music can bridge a lot of gaps that many would say are insurmountable.
Truth is...there's not necessarily anything to be excited about in the lyrical content of A Day in the Life, but this video is a testimony that the world is not as divided and hateful and "us vs. them" as a browsing of headlines would suggest. People of all ages, nationalities, genders, economic standings, and political opinions are more alike than they are different. And if a fifty-year-old song can help point that out, then crank up the turntable, because I'd love to turrrrrrn youuuuuuuu oooooooon.
Over the years, the "fortunes" tucked inside fortune cookies have dramatically changed. Gone are the days when a person would crack open the crisp treat and read "Tomorrow, you will meet a true friend," or "A big change is about to take place." The modern fortune cookie is more likely to make an attempt at sounding wise with pearls like "Today is yesterday's tomorrow" and "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." Once in a great while, humor will be attempted with something like "Help! I'm being held captive in a fortune cookie factory!"
I was pleasantly surprised recently when I finished eating my hibachi-grilled pea pods and shrimp. I opened my fortune cookie, joyfully chewed and swallowed (does anyone else have the "rule" that the cookie must be eaten before the fortune is read?), and began to read: Don't put off till tomorrow... "Oh brother," I thought. "How unoriginal can they get?" And then I read the whole thing. Don't put off till tomorrow what can be enjoyed today. Not "what can be done today" or "what should be done today" or "what is today's duty", but "what can be ENJOYED today." Truth is...it would serve us well to step away from the ordinary and add a dash of positive expectations. What will you be enjoying today?
While raking the leaves in my backyard a week and a half ago, I was listening to a Pandora station that I've titled "Three Dog Night Radio". It's full of music from the Seventies...but that's okay, because so am I. Jackson Browne's song, Running on Empty, came on. It's always been an enjoyable listen, but with the earbuds in, I could understand the lyric better than ever before.
Looking out at the road rushing under my wheels
Looking back at the years gone by like so many summer fields
In sixty-five I was seventeen and running up one-oh-one
I don't know where I'm running now, I'm just running on
Running on, running on empty
Running on, running blind
Running on, running into the sun
But I'm running behind
Gotta do what you can just to keep your love alive
Trying not to confuse it with what you do to survive
In sixty-nine I was twenty-one and I called the road my own
I don't know when that road turned onto the road I'm on
Running on, running on empty
Running on, running blind
Running on, running into the sun
But I'm running behind
Everyone I know, everywhere I go
People need some reason to believe
I don't know about anyone but me
If it takes all night, that'll be all right
If I can get you to smile before I leave
Looking out at the road rushing under my wheels
I don't know how to tell you all just how crazy this life feels
Look around for the friends that I used to turn to to pull me through
Looking into their eyes I see them running too
Running on, running on empty
Running on, running blind
Running on, running into the sun
But I'm running behind
Honey you really tempt me
You know the way you look so kind
I'd love to stick around but I'm running behind
You know I don't even know what I'm hoping to find
Truth is...In sixty-nine I was turning twelve and called neither the road nor much of anything else my own. Teenage angst was a couple years away and mid-life despair was unimaginable. But I consider these words now and feel empathy and compassion for those who don't know how they ended up on the road they're on...those who "don't even know what [they're] hoping to find" and constantly feel like they're running behind. I understand and ache for those who "look around for the friends that [they] used to turn to to pull [them] through; looking into their eyes [and] see them running, too." If you find yourself at that point of your journey, I invite you to click on the "Hope" label and see what this blog has had to say about all that.
You've heard the frantic and/or depressed declarations, haven't you? "The world has gone crazy." "These are the end times." "I don't feel safe driving to the store anymore." First of all, as heartfelt and desperate as some of these kind of statements may be, 2016 is not the first time they've been said. Every time some faction strikes out against another in the Middle East, 12 new books are published about end-time prophecy (boldly flying in the face of Jesus' words in Matthew 24:6, "You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come."). Every new generation seems to throw away the values of the old one. Each election cycle stirs up fears of how the country will be ruined if The Other Guy (or Gal) gets more votes. I'm old enough to remember how "the whole world [was] watching" as 10,000 protesters and 23,000 Chicago police and National Guardsmen violently interacted at the 1968 Democratic convention.
Second of all, there is a distinct possibility of good coming from all this bad. Yes, I'm serious. If nothing else, isn't it possible for the current unrest to break through the personal barriers to faith that some people have erected and lead them to see that, left to our own devices, we will surely destroy ourselves? Won't some be enabled to open their eyes and see that, indeed, the world needs Jesus?
Truth is...Some will look at current events and see the absence of God. Some will see the retaliation of God. Some will predict the soon return of God's Son. Me? I see our need for God. In any case, could there be a better time to do some reflecting on how a person ought to live and who a person ought to follow?
