John 2:11 (ESV)

This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.

In the Gospel of John, the call to believe in Jesus is not a simple one-time decision or event that immediately converts an unbelieving heart into a believing one, but rather it’s a lifetime process of increasing belief that Jesus is indeed who he claims to be, the Messiah, the Son of God, one with the Father.

In John 2, after Jesus turns water into wine at a wedding, John writes in verse 11, “This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana of Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.” According to John, from the very beginning of Jesus’ ministry, his disciples believed in him. However, what exactly about Jesus did they believe in? John doesn’t say, he simply says that they believed in him.

In John 11:14, Jesus tells his disciples that Lazarus has died and he says in verse 15, “and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe.” Wait a second, didn’t the disciples already believe in Jesus? Of course they believed in Jesus because that’s what it says in John 2:11, but apparently what they believed about Jesus in John 2 needed to grow in depth and conviction.

In John 13, Jesus is having his last Passover meal with his disciples the night before he is crucified and he begins to tell them that one of them will betray him. Then in verse 19 he says, “I am telling you this now, before it takes place, that when it does take place you may believe that I am he.” Again, Jesus alludes to the fact that their belief in him was still lacking but this time he specifies what they needed to truly believe. Jesus tells them that they needed to believe that “I am he”. Yes they believed in Jesus but they still needed to fully believe that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God, one with the Father.

If you continue to read Jesus’ final discourse with his disciples in John 14-16, you’ll find that Jesus continues to challenge and exhort his disciples to whole-heartedly believe in and obey all the things he has taught them and in all the miraculous signs that confirm the truth of his teaching and the reality that he and Father are one. When you realize how often Jesus calls his disciples to truly believe that he is the Messiah, the Son of God, the Word who was with God in the beginning and through whom all things were made, you begin to realize what a monumental work of God it takes to move a person to truly believe in Jesus. To come to fully believe in Jesus is definitely not a quick and easy one-time decision. Rather it’s a lifelong process,  especially through seasons of suffering and pain, of daily choosing to believe that Jesus is who he claims to be and lovingly obeying his ways.

Seeing that belief in Jesus is not a static one-time decision that happens in your life, let’s continue to ask the Lord to grow and increase our belief in him as God Almighty, the Maker of all things. Let us look carefully at our lives and see if how we live, how we treat people, how we spend our money and what we invest of time and energy into reflects our stated belief in who we say Jesus is.

Just as Jesus did not settle for a shallow belief in him from his disciples, so he will not settle for an incomplete belief in us. Rest assured that he will continue to challenge the authenticity of your belief in him in order to draw you into a deeper and fuller conviction of trust in who he truly is.

Praise be to the one who is the Author and Perfecter of our faith.

“…and our hope for you is firmly grounded, knowing that as you are sharers of our sufferings, so also you are sharers of our comfort.” 2 Corinthians 1:7 

Pain and suffering is a common human experience. Devoted Christians experience pain and suffering. Non-believers experience pain and suffering. The elderly experience pain and suffering. Those who are youthful experience pain and suffering. There are no exceptions because we live in a fallen and broken world.

One of the things that is important for Christians to understand and embrace is that not only are we not immune to pain and suffering, but that God will not always deliver us from our pain and suffering no matter how much we cry out to Him. There are times when we must embrace the pain and suffering and grasp the comfort of God in the midst of it. 

Lewis Smedes, one of my seminary professors, wrote enlightening thoughts about the role of healing within suffer as opposed to healing from suffering. These were his thoughts.             

“Ministries of healing are not the main Christian answer to suffering. At their very best, they eliminate a particular suffering of a particular person. They do not remove all suffering from life, and there are still many others suffering the same suffering that was just healed. The healings are signs ‘that God is alive, that Christ is Lord, and that suffering is not the last word about human existence’".

Smedes continued, “Healing from within suffering is as wonderful as healing from suffering. God gives inner strength that compensates for loss, and gives the sufferer resourcefulness to live faithfully and effectively.” 

Joni Tada Eareckson Tada is one of the people I admire most from my generation. She became a quadriplegic at the tender age of seventeen. She has known beyond her fair share of pain and suffering.  

As far as I am concerned, when Joni Eareckson Tada speaks about pain and suffering, I listen intently. This is one of the things she has said. “He has chosen not to heal me, but to hold me. The more intense the pain, the closer His embrace.” This is healing within suffering when there is no healing from suffering.

Are you experiencing a season of pain and suffering? Have you called out to God and there is no healing to be had? Perhaps, it’s time to experience the embrace of the God of all comfort and ask to encounter healing from within suffering. 

Something to think about…

“So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” Matthew 6:34 

On January 20, 2019, the New Orleans Saints lost the conference championship to the Los Angeles Rams on a very controversial non-call of an obvious penalty. The ardent fans of the Saints were first mortified then outraged over the mistake by the referees. 

The aftermath of the game saw social media abound with criticism of the officiating and the lack of action by the NFL. Resident news outlets focused on the injustice of the outcome and local politicians called for a replay of the game from the point of the obvious infraction. 

On Super Sunday, most of New Orleans refused to watch the Super Bowl game. The local eateries and sports bars banned the Super Bowl game and decided to show the 2010 Super Bowl where their beloved Saints were victorious over the Colts for their lone Super Bowl victory.

As all this was in full swing, I thought about what I teach the teams I coach. I instruct them to focus on the things they can control and not the things they cannot control. Too often, I see teams allow poor officiating to bother them to the point where they concentrate more on the officials than the game itself.

I try to teach our kids to control the things they can control, like playing good defense, running the offense correctly and always playing hard and forget the things they cannot control like officiating. Let the coaches deal with the officiating in a sane and orderly fashion.

Some of the irate people of New Orleans allowed their “Super Bowl Madness” to dictate their behavior well after the fact. They allowed the things they cannot control to influence the way they live their lives.

I have observed this phenomenon (of allowing the things we cannot control run our lives) happen frequently in people’s lives. We worry incessantly about the weather ruining a planned outing when we have no control over the weather. We are anxious about what people will think about what we are wearing to a wedding when we cannot control people’s thinking. After diligently submitting all the required prerequisites for college entrance, we obsess on whether or not our high school graduate will get into the University of their dreams.

In Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, He taught that we should not be anxious over the things that we cannot control. Granted, we should do everything in our power to achieve certain things, but ultimately, there are so many factors over which we have no control.

So, work hard, plan well, do all that you can do, but let go of the things you cannot control. The one thing Christians have going for them is that we know Someone who is in control. That’s Jesus’ point in Matthew 6:25-34. God is in control so we don’t have to be anxious and let the things we cannot control rule our lives.

Jesus concluded by saying, “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” Matthew 6:33. We should seek God first because He is in control of the things over which we have no control.

Something to think about…

Note: I am resuming writing a blog after taking a sabbatical from blog writing. I hope to continue until I retire in April of this year.

“There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven”. Ecclesiastes 3:1 

Ever since getting a smart phone, I have been constantly amazed at all the things it can do and all the apps that are available for use. Over a year ago, I downloaded an app called “Countdown”. I was able to input an event and a date and the app would begin a countdown to the appointed time.

I entered the event, “Retirement”, and the date as April 30, 2019. Every time I access the app, it gives me a countdown to the appointed time of my retirement. As I am writing this article, the app is telling me that I have 10 weeks, 5 days, 14 hours, 7 minutes and 29 seconds to my appointed time of retirement. 

Why do I consider my retirement as an “appointed time”? The writer of Ecclesiastes has said it very clearly and concisely. “There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven.” Ecclesiastes 3:1. Intrinsic in this verse and the verses that follow is the idea that there is a time for things to begin and a time for things to end. 

As my time at Evergreen SGV is drawing to a close, I have had multiple opportunities to reflect upon the decades gone by. We had a Staff Retreat where everyone was able to share words of affirmation to me and me to them. We have had a Board Retreat were affirmations were shared between me and my fellow leaders.

In the midst of those two retreats, a myriad of memories were shared of the things for which we are grateful. We communicated stories of human drama and relational joys. We regaled one another with the things we witnessed as God did His thing with His people at Evergreen over the years. 

In retrospect, one thing was very evident as we relished the present moments pondering the precious past. God has been very good to us. He has been with us every step of the journey. He has seen us through thick and thin. He has undergirded us in times of trial. He has comforted us in time of heavy-heartedness. He has uplifted us in times of great victories and joyful triumphs.

As the countdown continues, I become more aware of the paternal presence of the Father, the saving grace of the Son and the prodigious power of the Holy Spirit. We have been so very blessed over the years. 

With the seconds ticking toward an inevitable conclusion, my heart is filled with thanksgiving for the people of Evergreen and the Good and Great Shepherd who has led us every step of the way.

Do you have a countdown happening in your life? Please remember that God is in control and He has an appointed time for every event under heaven.

Something to think about…

by Pastor Dan Christian

As a new year begins, what are you depending on for stability and security? If there are major changes looming on the horizon for you this year, what will keep you steady in the midst of the upheaval of change? If you—or someone you love—are experiencing illness or disease, or even impending death, how will you walk through that dark valley? Or maybe there is nothing out of the ordinary that you can see right now, but there is a low-level undercurrent of anxiety over the unknown circumstances that may come your way this year—how will you deal with those unknowns?

Hebrews 6:19a says “This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast…” Hope is a sure and steadfast anchor for the soul of the Christian.
But this verse is not speaking of hope as merely a vague, generic concept; rather, the hope that is sure and steadfast is a specific, tangible reality. That hope is the certainty of the promises of God. The hope set before us as believers is the promise God has made, backed by His unchanging character that cannot lie (Hebrews 6:18). Jesus Christ is the embodiment of that hope, because Christ is the fulfillment of those promises of God that are guaranteed by His unchanging character.

Hope is what anchors our soul to face whatever this new year will bring. Hope provides stability in the upheaval of transition. Hope provides light in the dark valley of disease and death. Hope provides security and peace in all the unknowns.

But soul-anchoring, security-providing hope for the Christian is not merely wishful warm-fuzzies that maybe we’ll receive if we’re lucky. No, the sure and steadfast anchor of the Christian’s soul is the guaranteed reality of the promises of God that have already been fulfilled in Christ, and which will be finally and fully fulfilled when Christ returns to bring His Bride in to the wedding feast. So when we say that hope is the sure and steadfast anchor of our soul, what we are really saying is that Christ is the sure and steadfast anchor of our soul, because He is the embodiment of that hope. Christ is the “hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain” (Hebrews 6:19b) as our great high priest and mediator.  

On a recent Sunday morning, we sang a wonderful song called Christ the Sure and Steady Anchor (by Matt Papa and Matt Boswell). The line that is repeated at the end of each stanza is: “I will hold fast to the anchor / It shall never be removed.” The reason we can hold fast to this immovable anchor is because the anchor is not just a generic concept but a tangible Person: Christ.  

Christ the sure and steady anchor

In the fury of the storm

When the winds of doubt blow through me

And my sails have all been torn.

In the suffering, in the sorrow

When my sinking hopes are few

I will hold fast to the anchor

It shall never be removed.

Christ the sure and steady anchor

While the tempest rages on

When temptation claims the battle

And it seems the night has won.

Deeper still then goes the anchor

Though I justly stand accused

I will hold fast to the anchor

It shall never be removed. 

Just as the psalmist of Scripture preaches to his soul to hope in God (Psalm 42:5, 11), so also in this song there is a subtle shift in the third verse as the singer speaks to his or her own soul: “In your hopelessness and despair, O my soul, somehow lift your eyes to Christ as the source of your hope.”  

Christ the sure and steady anchor

Through the floods of unbelief

Hopeless, somehow, O my soul now

Lift your eyes to Calvary.

This my ballast of assurance

See His love forever proved

I will hold fast to the anchor

It shall never be removed.

Christ the sure and steady anchor

As we face the wave of death

When these trials give way to glory

And we draw our final breath.

We will cross that great horizon

Clouds behind and life secured

And the calm will be the better

For the storms that we endured.*

Dear brothers and sisters, we do not know all that this new year will bring. God willing, there will be moments of joy and peace this year, but doubtless there will also be seasons of suffering and sorrow. So hold fast to the sure and steady anchor of Christ, and know that for the Christian, these trials will one day “give way to glory” when Christ brings us out of the storm and into His presence for all eternity.

*genius.com/Matt-papa-christ-the-sure-and-steady-anchor-lyrics