For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—

and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God--

not by works, so that no one can boast.

Ephesians 2:8-9

A common question that I am asked is this: “I have been active in the church all of my life but I don’t understand what people mean when they talk about “being saved,” what does it mean to “be saved” and is that different from what I believe and do?” This is an excellent question and one that we should be asking ourselves if we don’t have an answer for it. “Being saved” is a thoroughly Biblical idea that is a turning point in one’s life where we go from unbelief to faith and belief in Jesus Christ. The language of to “be saved” or “being saved” is found in all four of the Gospels as well as in the books of Acts, Romans, and other New Testament letters. The Scriptures teach that we are born with sin and that we need the grace of God to work in our lives and take away our sin so that we can be close to God and receive salvation or in other words “be saved.” Many people including myself can trace our faith in Jesus Christ back to a particular point in our life where we made a conscious decision to exclusively follow Jesus. One of the reasons that I remember that particular moment is because I grew up in a church community that highly valued having a defining moment of faith. If I was not taught that a moment of belief was important I may not have had such a clear experience of salvation and I might not remember the moment to this day.

Other churches and groups of Christians do not push the idea of a moment of salvation and see faith in Christ as more of a process and something that develops over time. This is a philosophy that has been taught and lived out by many members of our congregation over the years. It is a solid framework for faith in Christ and can lead to “being saved” by Jesus Christ just as well as the moment of salvation emphasis can but each believer must be able to say: “I believe that Jesus Christ is my Lord and savior, that he has forgiven me of my sin and has given me the gift of eternal life, and I do not believe in or follow any other God.” If you are able to say those words and mean it in your heart you are one of God’s chosen ones, your name is written in the book of life and the devil cannot snatch you away from the love of Jesus.

It is a wonderful blessing to be able to say: “I can’t remember a time when I did not believe in Jesus.” If that is your faith story then praise God for how faithful he has been to you. It is also a great blessing to be able to say: “I first accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and savior on this date at this place with this person.” Or it is also a great blessing to be able to say: Somewhere in the course of this year I came into a full understanding that Jesus Christ is my Lord and savior.” So whether you have a clear “moment of salvation” to report on or not is not nearly so important as your testimony to faith in Jesus Christ today. If you have faith in Jesus Christ you are saved. Not because of something that you did but because Jesus loves you and extended his grace to you.

True faith lasts to the end and it cannot be shaken. This does not mean that we are not going to have doubts. All Christians have doubts from time to time but Jesus always brings us back around to faith in him. Salvation can never be reduced to a checkbox in life where if you do this or say this you are now ok. The initial moment of salvation must be followed up with acts of worship and service or the initial act was not a moment of salvation at all. If you are wondering about your own salvation contact me and I would be delighted to talk to you more about it.

Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved,

but whoever does not believe will be condemned.

Mark 16:16

The Miracle of Life

I love to play with Julia as parents do, giving her some attention and making her smile and laugh. She loves it when Sarah and I make eye contact with her and spend time holding her, talking to her and in general letting her know that she is loved. Often, when Sarah and I are cooking or cleaning up in the kitchen Julia will be in her swing occupying herself. From time to time she will start to “talk” to us letting us know that she has not been given any attention in a while. Often times just looking over at her and making some eye contact or saying a few words to her satisfies her that she has not been forgotten and that she is a part of what is going on. She is a very relational little child that craves our affection and our love. Her communication with us reminds me of our communication with God.

What she is too young to understand is how helpless she is to take care of her own needs. The other day when I was in one of these many moments where Julia was laying on the bed and I was playing with her I began to think about how helpless and utterly dependent she is upon Sarah and I. And then I started to think about how God refers to us as his children and how helpless we are without God’s help.

To be a child is to be someone who is deeply loved but deeply dependent on a parent figure to nurture us and to grow us into maturity. Everyone who believes in Jesus Christ is privileged to be considered one of his children, someone who is loved, nurtured, disciplined, and more often than not, helpless. God nurtures us and provides for us the things that we need, but just like a parent expects a child to grow and to develop so does Jesus expect us to grow and develop in our spiritual walk with him. We will always be dependent on his grace but there are many things that he expects us to learn along the way. If we are healthy children of God we will never outgrow the need for our Heavenly Father but we will outgrow many of the childish and foolish things that we have treasured over the years. If we are obedient, God will continue to forge us and to purify us leaving behind only purity and truth.

So Julia’s helplessness reminds me of my own helplessness but our love and care for her reminds me of God’s love and care for me. Our expectation of Julia’s development reminds me of God’s expectations of my development. Julia’s desire for and delight in relationship reminds me of my desire for a relationship with my Heavenly Father. I could go on because the illustration is so rich but I suppose I will save some thoughts for another note to all of you.

The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

Romans 8:16

Hello Everyone. As you can see it has been a while since I have posted here. I have been busy with school and church and so forth. Perhaps in the future I will find the post-Israel focus for the blog and begin writting for it again. Until then it will likely lie dormant for a bit longer.

As an update I will be graduating from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in May and am currently beginning my job search in the Presbyterian Church. I look forward to discerning God's will and to finding the place he has called me to.

The pictures above and below are from a recent afternoon that Sarah and I spent in Rockport which is just a ten minute drive from my house in Gloucester. It was a sunny but cold day so we jumped between restaruants and shops to keep warm...

The Arbel Pass - A narrow point next to the Sea of Galilee on the major route from Egypt and the Mediterranean coast of Israel to the lands in the north including Damascus and Assyria.

Your thwarts in pieces, Your mooring rope cut


Ancient Assyrian Poetry


Translated by Erica Reiner

Why are you adrift, like a boat, in the midst of the river,


Your thwarts in pieces, your mooring rope cut?


Your face covered, you cross the river of the Inner City.


How could I not be adrift, how could my mooring rope not be cut?


The day I bore the fruit, how happy I was,


Happy was I, happy my husband.


The day of my going into labor, my face became darkened,


The day of my giving birth, my eyes became clouded.


With open hands I prayed to Beletili:


You too have borne a child, save my life!


Hearing this Beletili veiled her face.


‘Why do you keep praying to me?’


My husband who loved me uttered a cry,


Why do you take from me the wife in whom I rejoice?


I loved her for years on end.


All those many days I was with my husband,


I lived with him who was my lover.


Death came creeping into my bedroom:


It drove me from my house,


It tore me from my husband,


It set my feet into a land of darkness.

It is very difficult to date this text closer than about 2000-1000 BC. This is roughly the age of the patriarchs, Abraham and the stories of Genesis. It is written in Cuneiform script on a clay tablet that has survived to this day. I have taken the liberty to smooth out several of the textual problems that were left un-translated in the original publication. Unlike much Babylonian literature that was copied over and over in an anthology of sorts there is only one known copy of this work. Therefore this poem is particularly interesting as the honest plea of one who has known one of the most painful of all life experiences.

In the Assyrian/Babylonian culture a ship coming to port was a common metaphor for a child that was about to be born. Hence the thwarts and mooring rope language of the initial lines would have been a clear indication of the subject and tragedy of the poem.

The gripping nature of this elegy gives us a window into the minds of those that came before us. People familiar with death and tragedy, love and joy. There is something in the human soul that transcends time and culture. We are a people seeking for the answers to life’s hard questions wondering in our most painful hour why we have been treated as we are. The woman in this writing prays to Beletili a god of childbirth. It is stunning when the goddess who has borne children herself turns her back on her and allows her to fade into the darkness. I praise the Living God that he has revealed himself to us and that he never turns his back on us. Though in this world we will face trouble, perhaps the same exact fate of this woman, we know that Christ never turns his back on us and that he listens and cares for us in the midst of trouble. He is always faithful and always just. When we eventually fall victim to the struggles of this world we will rest in Him forever. How wrenching it is to know that many people in our world today still do not know the hope and the peace that comes through faith in Jesus Christ. What must we do to reach them so that they do not go to the earth grasping at what is false?

~Though you have not seen him you love him; and even though you do not see him now you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls. I Peter 1:8-9