COVID Weary

I am COVID weary! I guess we all are. The region in which I live has not yet been touched heavily by the virus. In some ways hiding out and laying low and limiting what I do is more of an inconvenience that begs for an answer. Nevertheless, I am COVID weary. I am weary of the fears and the news and statistics and the disruptions and the politics and the economics and the complaints and arguments. I am weary of hearing about sickness and death and dying. I am weary of the warnings of danger and seeing people in face masks and being told it is not safe to do simple ordinary things. This is not an argument of whether those things are reasonable acts of mitigation or not. I will assume that many of the precautions we are asked to abide by have merit. But I am just weary this mess.


In the midst of this weariness I have by calling and vocation been tasked with helping people, specifically church leaders, develop an adequate faith response to this crisis. I have been in Christian ministry for 41 years and this is the most difficult period of time to minister to people I have ever experienced. In some ways I think the church is thriving in spite of the stresses we face. But it is a difficult time to walk in faith and help others explore the grace and mercies of God. So like most everyone else I am COVID weary.


A couple of days ago I was reflecting on my weariness and the Lord whispered in my ear the ancient warning of the Apostle Paul “and let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not” (Galatians 6:9 KJV). The weariness of the times can cause us to be weary even as we make good faith responses to the situations of the day. Paul’s warning “Be not weary in well doing” is vital for our day.


When we get weary in well doing we tend to ignore the word of God. Oh we may still read it and understand what it says and may even try in general to follow the guidelines presented. But we do not internalize the word and allow it to saturate our souls and permeate our minds. We don’t find any joy in the lessons of the word of God. The actions of faith we take become perfunctory. They are just laborious tasks carried out with boredom rather than acts of love performed with joy.


I am asking the Lord to help me not be weary in well doing. I do not want the weariness of COVID-19 to steal the beauty and happiness and satisfaction of serving the Lord Jesus. Paul’s warning comes with the promise that if we can avoid becoming weary in well doing there will be a day of reaping. These are difficult days but they may be some of the best days of the church. They may be days that lead to revival. If we can learn to serve God faithfully, patiently, and constructively during these days I believe we could see a great awakening in the church. We are all COVID weary. But “let us not be weary in well doing”.

Resurrected Wounded

Mary Magdalene, Mary the Mother of James, and Salome went to the tomb on the morning following the Sabbath for the purpose of anointing the body of Jesus for burial. But when they got there the tomb was open and it was empty. There they encountered an angel who said to them “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you” (Mark 16:6-7).


We learn here of a bodily resurrection. A man who had been publicly butchered on a cross, pronounced dead, and hastily buried inside a nearby tomb sealed by a huge rock had come back to life. Not just enough life to make a few restless movements where he was laying but enough life to get up, shed the burial garments, move the heavy stone and walk out. That had never been heard of because it had never happened before. A dead man had come back to life. This once dead man was on his feet walking and the angel knew his plans and whereabouts. Knowing his plans the angel gave the women an errand “Go tell his disciples and Peter that he will meet them in Galilee”. This was a bodily resurrection. Jesus had not been whisked off to heaven. That would happen later but for now he was on earth in same body he had had for 33 years. He was walking around in the same body that had been killed. That body bore the marks of crucifixion. Jesus had been resurrected but he was resurrected wounded.


We know this to be true because after the resurrection Jesus presented himself alive to all of his disciples except Thomas. Not being present Thomas refused to believe saying “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe”. (John 20:25). Shortly afterwards Jesus appeared to them again and gave Thomas the opportunity to place his finger in the mark of the nails in his hands and place his hand in the gaping wound in his side.  Seeing and being with the wounded resurrected Jesus was necessary to prove his dominion over death and to build faith not only in the lives of the disciples but all the generations since that time.  


That morning the women found an empty tomb and received that wonderful message from the angel “He is risen; he is not here.” With excitement they left to spread the news and Jesus met them on the way. They saw the wounded resurrected Jesus and Jesus reiterated the assignment the angel had given them “go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me” (Matthew 28:9-10).


Let’s understand the magnitude of that. It is 78 miles from Jerusalem to the town of Capernaum on the Sea of Galilee. That is a 3 day walking journey if you go through Samaria. If you take the longer but safer route it is a 5 day journey. Jesus is going to make that journey on wounded feet. The Roman government with encouragement from the Jewish community had put him to death in the most debilitating way ever devised by man. He was buried and then with the miraculous powers of heaven was resurrected in human bodily form. In that human wounded body he was going to make a 3 day journey along mountainous goat trails and dangerous roads.


But why was he going to Galilee? First of all it was a safe distance from Jerusalem. The reality of the empty tomb and the rumor of resurrection would have the government searching for him. Secondly, Galilee was home. It was a place where Jesus and his disciples could feel safe. Jesus had spent three years ministering in the region of Galilee. It was from there he had called them and instructed his disciples. Now he is calling his them to re-gather with him. It will be a time of fellowship. It will be a time of forgiveness. Peter had betrayed Jesus terribly. But we should note that the angel specifically said that Peter should be given the word that Jesus wanted to see him in Galilee. “Go tell my disciples, and Peter, to meet me in Galilee”. Peter was a failed soul but Jesus forgave him and had a great plan for how he would be involved in the kingdom. For Peter and for all of the disciples Jesus needed to gather them in order to instruct them and make his commission clear in their lives.


Jesus went back to Galilee in his wounded human body to demonstrate to his disciples that they could go into their worlds in their human bodies with all their faults and frailties to tell his story and fulfill the commission that was given to them. It is the same for us. We are called to serve Jesus. We are not called to serve him with what we do not have but we are called to serve with what we do have. What we have are our human bodies and our human minds. We are not Jesus and we have not been wounded in the fashion that he was. But we have been wounded. We have first of all been wounded by our sin but Jesus has forgiven us. We were dead in our sin but in Jesus we have been resurrected to new life. Because he lives we shall live also.  We have been hurt in this world but we have the comfort and abiding presence of the Holy Spirit. We live wounded but in Jesus we can go forward with the imperfections of our wounds to fulfill the commission of Jesus and promote the character of Jesus.


After a period of time Jesus went back to heaven where he reigns forever glorified. As believers we can look forward to a time when we will be with him with a new body in heaven. But at the present time we are the resurrected wounded. So let us strive to fill our wounded hearts and minds with the compassion and love of Christ. Let us journey forward with wounded feet. With wounded hands let us serve others, bearing one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.

Tatooed on the Palms of God's Hands

On September 12 of this year we lost a giant among Illinois Baptist. Bill Weedman was a faithful servant of our Lord, first as a pastor and then for 25 years on the IBSA staff. He was a humble man, beautifully educated with a PHD from Southern Seminary, yet people rarely addressed him as Doctor. He was quiet and unassuming in so many ways, never drawing attention or recognition to himself. On the other hand all eyes were upon him because you knew he was someone who would be true to His word and what he knew to be truth. If you needed a job done correctly you called upon Bill. He was a wealth of information. If you asked him a question you better be ready for the long answer. He would start exhaling information and about the time you thought he was through he would inhale a breath of air and start exhaling more facts and figures and stories. And he could preach! His sermons were scholarly and at the same time pastoral, his delivery clear and without a note. Bill pretty much worked until failing health got the upper hand. For the last 6-8 years his public presence faded until it was non-existent. When you are not seen your importance dwindles and slowly you are forgotten. If people’s memories of you dwindle you just slowly fade away.

 

His memorial service was not held at a church but a funeral chapel. From 1:00PM until 3:00PM is not prime time. I think it is correct to say that while Bill knew a lot of people he had close relationships with only a few.  When time and memories of a person have elapsed and what is left of the physical body is just a sack of cremains maybe it is hard to justify showing up at a memorial service. I am not sure how many people came to the chapel and signed the guest book and left but when the memorial service began 29 people were in attendance. Only 29 people, just two dozen and 5. I was not among the crowd. My wife was there and I am taking some solace that I at least paid my respects by proxy.

 

I find it a little sad. It is disheartening that after a life of ministering to people and assisting others in ministering to people that only a small crowd comes to acknowledge your importance. If we view this only from the eyes of this world it is a discouraging thing.

 

In Isaiah 49 we discover a word of hope for Israel. They were a land, a nation, a people, who surely were depressed. Their city was in ruins and governments who were not sympathetic to their history, values, and faith ruled over them with a contrary hand. But the prophet says they ought to take courage for God has seen their affliction and is responding in compassion for them. God is writing a new song that will break forth as such decibels that the mountains around them dance in singing.

But they have not experienced that yet.

 

Isaiah 49:14 “But Zion said. ‘The Lord has forsaken me; My Lord has forgotten me.’”

             

Here is God’s response.

 

Isa. 49:15-16 “Can a woman forget her nursing child, That she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me.”

 

It is unfathomable that a mother would forget her nursing child. It is almost unheard of that a mother would forget the child she has borne. It could happen but God would never forget His people. This is a strong affirmation of God’s love and care for His people. God opens His hand and challenges them to look and see what is “engraved” on the palm of His hand. He has done this not with some kind of weak ink that can fade or be erased. But it is permanently carved into His metaphorical flesh. The object engraved on the palm of God’s hand is a drawing of the walls of Jerusalem. But which walls? Is it the broken down walls or the glorious walls of the future city? I say that it does not matter. The walls of Jerusalem is a reference to the people of God that had been and those that were yet to be engraved on the hands of God. It is a picture that tells us that God remembers us whether our walls are erect or whether they are crumbled on the ground.

 

How does this apply to you and me today? We are not Israel. We are not Jerusalem. We are not a nation enclosed with geographical boundaries. No! We are better than that! We have seen the Messiah. We have heard his teachings. We have seen Him crucified on a cross. We have acknowledged His resurrection. We have heard His gracious offer of forgiveness and salvation and by faith we have accepted that offer. We are a part of the church of the living Lord Jesus. We are the new Israel, we are the new Jerusalem. As such we are the recipients of all God’s promises and blessings and we are the ones responsible for propagating His mandates.

 

Thus this word of hope that Isaiah preached applies as much if not more to us than it did to those it was originally spoken to.

 

God has not forgotten us and He never will. He remembers us now here on this earth and He will remember us for all eternity. This promise is ours corporately as the church and as individuals.

 

Isaiah 49:16 is a beautiful picture of how God remembers and cares for His people.

 

The Amplified Bible, Classic Edition (AMPC) translates that verse like this “Behold, I have indelibly imprinted (tattooed a picture of) you on the palm of each of My hands; [O Zion] your walls are continually before me”.

 

What’s that?  Did it just say that God has a tattoo? Isn’t that something? God has a tattoo!

 

I dislike tattoos. I don’t understand why somebody would want one. The reason is that I have written so many dumb things in my life that I have learned that before I publish something to make sure it is something I don’t want to erase.

Recently a young woman told me she wanted to get a tattoo on her arm. My response was "please don't do that. Someone as beautiful as you does not want to mess up her beauty with a tattoo”.

 

But God has a tattoo. I suppose that if you are going to have a tattoo you ought to make sure it is of something significant. God’s judgment is great enough that He would not tattoo something onto His hand that was not significant.

 

His tattoo is a picture of His people. It is an image of His church corporately and it is a picture of you and me individually!  I ask the question: God why would you do that? God’s answer is “I love you so much, and I think you are so beautiful that I have tattooed a picture of you on the palms of both of my hands”.

 

Let me make three quick applications in regards to what this means for us.

It Speaks of  God’s Protection. 


He has engraved our image not on the back of His hand but on the Palms of His hands. In the palms of His hands he hides us and protects us. If the tattoo was on the back of His hand we would be subject to all the elements of the world. We would be exposed to gawking of all our enemies and all the enemies of God. In one sense we experience that anyway because we cannot be followers of God and live reclusively and still be effective. Yet we can rest assured that though the world around us may gawk at our faith and our values and even our existence we find security engraved on and enclosed in the palms of God. 


We are not forgotten. Jesus said “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand”. John 10:28 


 It Speaks of God’s Preservation 


Why do we protect something? We protect it so we can preserve it and thus be able to enjoy it. 


I have a picture of my wife Jeanette and me taken just after we were married. I used to carry it in my wallet but now I keep that picture in a drawer in my desk. Every now and then I get that picture out and look at it and I get a visual reminder of what she looked like then. I get the picture out and look at it so I can enjoy it.  


God tattoos an image of us on the palms of His hands so that we will be preserved for His eternal enjoyment. Now is part of eternity! We are going to be in heaven with the Lord forever but God enjoys even now and He carries around an image of us on the palms of His hands. He can open His hands and look at us anytime He wants to.  


It Speaks of God’s Presentation


There is going to be a day when we all stand before God. It is a day of judgment, a day of accountability. Frankly, I have a little fear of that day. But my fears are calmed because I know that standing beside me on that day will be my savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who was and is the physical hands of God on this earth. 


I don’t know what that day will look like but with a little sanctified imagination I hear my name being called and I see Jesus opening his hands and presenting me, presenting you, presenting His church to the heavenly Father. Can you get that picture? There in the midst of the nail scarred hand is a tattoo of me and you and all the redeemed of all the ages. We are not forgotten but we are presented to God eternally secure.

Slipping Away Into the Crowd Unnoticed

Today I saw an ambulance with lights flashing on the way to the hospital. As the vehicles passed me I noticed that the scripture reference John 5:13 was written above the back door. This evening I looked up the reference. It says “But the man who was cured did not know who it was, because Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there”. One Sabbath day in Jerusalem Jesus met a sick man who was lying near the pool of Bethsaida hoping someone would put him in the waters so that when the waters were stirred he might experience their magical healing effects.  

That might seem silly but if you have been sick 38 years like this man had you will cling to any hope you can find. Jesus encountered the man and asked him a simple question, “Do you want to get well?” without answering the question the man gave both an excuse and an explanation that since he had no one to put him in the water that someone else always got in the pool ahead of him and thus received the benefit of the stirring waters. Without arguing the man’s reasoning’s and without discussing the effects of the waters Jesus simply looked at this man who had been sick for 38 years and told him “pick up your mat and walk”. Instantly the man got well, picked up his mat, and started to walk. Without saying or doing anything else Jesus slipped away into the crowd and the man who was healed did not even know who it was that healed him.

I suppose there are several reasons why Jesus slipped away into the crowd unnoticed. Certainly He had other things to do and other people to engage. Maybe He did not want to hang around and listen to the complaints and the questions of the Jews as to why He had healed a man on the Sabbath. For Jesus discussing rules concerning when and how and where one could do good deeds was a fruitless and senseless endeavor. Jesus simply went about doing good and ignored man made illegalities. Perhaps there is another reason Jesus slipped away into the crowd after healing the man. Jesus had come to seek and to save the lost. He had come to serve not to be served. Jesus was not interested in receiving accolades. He wanted the attention not upon himself but on miracle of a sick man made well and the grace of God that had made it possible.

If we wish to be faithful servants of Christ we need to not be positioning ourselves hanging around in order to receive praise and credit. Like Jesus we need to do good and then slip away into the crowd unnoticed.  

The difference Between Passing Through and Passing By

We love to sing the old familiar song “This world is not my home I'm just a passing through, my treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue, the angels beckon me from heaven's open door and I can't feel at home in this world anymore”. The song jingles in our head and flows from our lips and gives warm thoughts in the heart as we think of the beauties of heaven, the loved ones who are already there, and the thoughts that we will one day dwell there also. I understand the sentiment. But if we are not careful we can be so busy focusing on our heavenly destination that we lose sight of the journey that has been set before us. We rush through life oblivious to the sights, sounds and stories and situations around us. We are headed to glory but we forget the gospel encounter that is enabling us to have the hope of glory. In doing so we fail to communicate the doctrines of grace that will help others join us in glory.

Jesus did not make the mistake of just passing through. In Luke 18:35-43 we read the story of Jesus and the blind beggar. The blind man was sitting beside the road cobbling together a living by the only means available to him. He was begging. He could not see but he could hear and feel the commotion of the crowds and he inquired about what was going on. The people told him “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by” (Luke 18:37). I submit to you that there is a measurable difference between passing by and just passing through. Jesus demonstrates what that difference is.

When you are just passing through you take the easiest route. You take the interstate and by pass the towns and crooked roads and the crowds and congestion. You want to get through the territory and make it to your destination as soon as possible and with limited stress. But when you are passing by you take the interesting route. Jericho was a less than desirable town and there was a road that went around it. But Jesus did not avoid Jericho but ventured right into the middle of it. He waded into the thick of the crowd where he could touch them and feel their pulse. He heard their stories. He saw their struggles and recognized their pain. He stopped and engaged in conversation with the people. His followers did not understand his concern and methods. When the blind man cried out for mercy Jesus’ disciples tried to silence him and blockade his access to Jesus. But Jesus stopped amongst the masses and asked that the man be brought to him. The disciples and the crowds saw the blind man as a freak to be shunned but Jesus saw him as a man in great need. The disciples were in passing through mode but Jesus was in passing by mode and so he stopped and engaged in a dialogue with the blind man.

The blind man was desperate and lonely and needy. When asked what he wanted Jesus to do for him he answered quickly and clearly “Lord, I want to see. It has been a long time since these eyes have functioned. Let me recover my sight”.  Jesus said ok. “Receive your sight”! The man’s vision was recovered and he followed Jesus around the rest of the day, glorifying God, telling people what Jesus had done for him. And all the people who saw it began giving praise to God.

We live in a world that is blind in a multiplicity of ways and for a myriad of reasons. They need the touch of Christ. They need the power of His mercy and grace. They need the gospel that loves and the gospel that saves and the gospel that heals. They are not going to encounter that gospel if we just pass through. But if like Jesus we will take the slower difficult road and pass by and stop and engage them with the power of the gospel, lives will be changed. Jesus himself does not walk physically upon this earth today. But we do. While we do let us tell the story of Jesus and administer the help and forgiveness that Jesus has to offer.  

 

 

The Value of a Tombstone

Two weeks before my grandmother Ada Cloyd was nine (9) years old she lost her mother to tuberculosis (TB). Grandma did not talk much and if you wanted information you had to pry it out of her. I asked her once what she remembered about her childhood and she said she remembered that when her mother died she and her two older sisters, ages 13 and 11, and her younger brother, age 7 were all sitting on the bed around her father as he told them what had happened. She said that all of them were crying. That may have been my grandmother’s only lasting memory of her parents because two weeks later her father was found dead under a tree where he had been plowing with his mules. He was buried on my grandmother’s 9^th birthday, May 27, 1916. Uncle Vince and Aunt Lucy and their daughter, who lived just down the road on the neighboring farm, moved into their house and provided the care and guidance needed until she and her siblings were grown. I am sure there were lots of stresses and struggles with that arrangement but my grandmother always held Uncle Vince and Aunt Lucy in high regards.

Her parents were buried in the family plot in a country cemetery. I have visited that cemetery a few times and have observed that many of the older graves are simply marked with sandstone rocks without name or words of eulogy or notations of the deceased date of birth and death. Such was the case with my great-grandparents when they were buried there in 1916. Poor people have poor ways. There were more critical things to spend money on than a properly cut and inscribed stone. It was left to family and friends to remember where their loved ones were buried. It was the responsibility of the older generations to pass this information and the accompanying stories along. Though my grandmother had a limited experience with her parents, preserving their legacy and memory was important to her. Those barren sandstone grave markers were not sufficient to honor their lives. When she became an adult, perhaps twenty or more years after her parents death she purchased out of her own funds granite tombstones that have now for decades marked the resting place of Noah and Izabel Gill. I was born 41 years after the deaths of my great-grandparents. But I know their story because someone told me. I can find their graves because someone respected them enough to buy a tombstone. It is right to honor our dead. It is good to preserve our memories. It is healthy to recall who we are even if when we do not know the ancestors in our lineage that made us who we are.  Remembering our loved ones who have gone on demonstrates our love and gratitude and regard for them. Taking the time and effort to do so adds value and dignity to our own human story.

A Tribute to Billy Graham and Thelma Perkins

Two of the greatest saints of God who ever lived died today and entered the glories of heaven.

One of those saints, Billy Graham, was well known. In his 99 years he had touched every corner of the earth. In one sense he was a simple Baptist preacher. In another sense he was a giant of a man. Billy Graham stated "My one purpose in life is to help people find a personal relationship with God, which, I believe, comes through knowing Christ". That being so he fulfilled that purpose well. He preached in 180 countries and in the process preached to an estimated 250 million people. I have known of Billy Graham all of my life. As a kid growing up we used to gather around the television and listen to him preach. Many years later I had the privilege of serving as a counselor in one of his crusades. I stood within 40 feet of him but never had the opportunity to meet him personally. I think there were smiles in heaven today when Billy Graham arrived. And I think there was a smile on his face when he stood before the throne and met the Lord Jesus.

The other great saint that passed from earth today and began her days of heavenly rejoicing was Thelma Perkins. She was not known by very many people outside of the locality of where she lived. But I knew her well. I first met Thelma Perkins when I was seven years old. Our family was new in town and we joined the Gano Avenue Baptist Church where Thelma and her family were members. She became a lifelong friend to all of us. But we found her worthy of so much respect that none of us, not even my mom and dad, would address her, by any other term except “Mrs. Perkins”. Mrs. Perkins spent her 94 years on this earth loving and serving the Lord through her church and loving and encouraging the people that God placed in her path. Mrs. Perkins was a homemaker caring for her husband and raising three children. She was a kind neighbor. She was a gracious host. You would always get a good meal at her house but more importantly you felt love and warmth and kindness in her home. She never said unkind words about others and her presence made you cautious about engaging in unworthy speech as well. She was one of those people that the love and grace and mercy and kindness of Jesus just oozed out of. Her kind of character and demeanor is rare in the world. Mrs. Perkins was an ardent student of the Bible and was a Sunday School teacher for over sixty-five years. She had a great interest in missions and though she never traveled that much she prayed for people all over the world. I know she prayed for me. Her life and example has been an encouragement to me and many others.

Billy Graham got to heaven early this morning. Mrs. Perkins got there about 10:20 AM eastern time.  I am not sure what the protocol of heaven is like. But somehow I think that with these two great saints arriving on the same day that protocol was broken. There must have been applause. Maybe the heavenly choir got a little extra excitement and danced while they sang. Surely somebody shouted. I was not there so I don’t know. But I think that when the Rev. Billy Graham and Mrs. Perkins stood before the throne today the face of the Lord Jesus was beaming when He said “Well done, my good and faithful servant”.