When we agree to be mentored or to meet with someone we consider a mentor we are asking to be shaped, molded, and guided.  We are assuming there is knowledge to be gained, a skill to be acquired or honed, or a worldview that needs fine tuning or adjustment.  It is not just hanging out.  The prudent mentee will utilize the time spent with a mentor for maximum benefit.

The following are my rules for meeting with a mentor.  They are a compilation of my own observations the list that Perry Noble published in a blog in March of 2008.

1. Always be respectful of your mentor’s time and adjust to his/her schedule – ALWAYS!
   We should never ask our mentor to adjust to our time frame.  We are seeking their council and advice and we should move heaven and earth to meet with them.
2. We should always be prompt for meetings…better yet, BE EARLY
   Nothing says “I like you, but I really have no respect for you” than being late.  This is doubly true when we have specifically asked to meet with someone whom we wish to build into our lives.  Unless your mentor is a guru on a mountaintop, he probably doesn’t have much extra time – don’t waste it.  You should plan to arrive early and bring a book (or just give in and get a Kindle and carry MOST of your library with you) and redeem your own time.The reverse is true for those who mentor.  Respect the time of your appointments and bring a book too.  I have spent many an afternoon in coffee shops waiting for that “must have appointment” that someone has made with me and then never showed.  I am prepared to redeem the time as well.
3. We must learn to ask GOOD questions of our mentors.
   In the summer of 2002, I read Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom.  It is the true story of a man that flys from Chicago to Boston every week (on Tuesdays!) to visit a beloved college prof who is suffering and dying from ALS.   Mitch’s old friend, professor, and mentor teaches him about living and dying.After reading this very contemplative book, I called my favorite professor from college who had been in retirement for a few years. While he taught, Dr. Rem Carter was known and loved by students.  Thousands of students reminisced of how they were “Carter Survivors” because his classes in Western Civilization and history were so challenging.
   I needed to be mentored so I looked up Dr. Carter and gave him a call and asked if we could meet.  He invited me to his home and showed me something wonderful.  He did not have his doctoral degree from the University of Edinburgh hanging on his wall.  Instead his prized  piece was a sketch of the chapel at Stanford Universitywhere he gave his life in service to the King.  I was inspired and knew I needed more of what this godly man had to offer. After a few meetings, Dr. Carter asked me, “what do you want to get from our time together?”  I didn’t know the answer.  He suggested that I do some intense reading in the area of the Apostolic Fathers so that we would have something to discuss.  He strongly encouraged me to ask questions to drive our talks.  I will never forget that.Make a list of at least three good questions.
4. Develop the discipline of learning and listening.
   We should not go into meetings with mentors to get them to agree with us or convince them that we are right.  We are there to be active learners.  We should not just talk about ourselves unless we are asked. Demonstrate respect for your mentor by bringing something to take notes with.  We simply can’t remember everything that is said in a conversation.  Develop the habit of taking good notes.
5. Develop the disciplines of graciousness and thankfulness.
   It is a very good idea to send a note of thanks.  Do not write a tome.  A simple thank you card with about four lines is good.  Email and Facebook are fine but thoughtful and thankful people spend the money and time on hand written notes and stamps. If you ask to meet with your mentor for coffee you should buy it.  Don’t expect your mentor to do so unless they have a standing rule that they will.  One of the people I meet with 2 or 3 times a year WILL NOT let me purchase a meal or coffee.  I tried and got in trouble.  That is a very nice gesture but it should never be expected.  I always have some money with me in the off chance he will let me pick up the bill.  It hasn’t happened yet.

If you have read this far you might want to go a bit further.  Ever wonder where the title “mentor” came from?  You might be interested to find out.

Learn on!

The decision for the move of New Life Baptist Church came just two days before Christmas.  We left for California, for school, on the 31st.  Since we got back we have been in full on crisis mode.  I am looking forward to being a pastor again and not so much a property manager and moving consultant.  I am so thankful for a dedicated team of Ministry Leaders who have been very proactive in thinking about what needs to be done!  There is much to do, yet, but we will get there.

The few brief moments of quiet have been a haven of respite for prayer and thinking.  God has been teaching my spirit about 5 key lessons he wants me to remember as we move ahead.  Maybe these are things you need to be reminded of too.

1. There is one God and “busyness” is not his name or his preferred form of worship.
2. Living by grace requires more faith than living by lists.
3. Being a pastor is a lot of fun but it is deadly serious.
4. God is totally sovereign and there is not one decision, person, or thing that escapes his command.
5. Practicing love is way harder than talking about love.

This is going to be a year of adventure for me and NLBC.  My hope is that you will join in.

That was me…there are basically four ways* we can understand this (or almost any!) issue.

1. Cocoon.  The cocoon camp will do whatever it takes to avoid an association with Santa or his trappings.  Anything that has a hint of Santa Claus, elves, reindeer, or workshops are avoided like a particularly virulent strain of the black plague.

2. Combat.  Those who come out of the cocoon usually have their fists up and they are ready to roundhouse Santa right back to where he belongs…the Pit!  This group will show that if you rearrange the letters of Santa’s name you get ‘Satan’.  If they could they would organize a lynch mob, complete with torches and pitchforks, and storm the gates of the North Pole hideaway workshop and burn it to the ground.  A question: since the Arctic Circle is not all that big, I wonder if Superman and Santa ever bump into each other.

3.  Champion.  The champion group will advocate complete assimilation.  Santa will be the MC at the church Christmas concert.  The baby Jesus will be cradled in the arms of grandfatherly old St Nick.  Parents will completely forget about what truth is when they tell their kids who Santa is and what he has done.

I would suggest a better fourth option…

4.  Consider.  As a pastor, my responsibility it to try to help people think biblically.  What does the Bible say about the “nice list”?  It actually shreds it. Look at this passage:

These are some of the strongest words about the human condition in the Bible and I love teaching this passage to 8th graders.  I ask them to explain, in their words, what this sounds like to them.  After a few moments of thinking about the words they come up with an apt description: Zombies!  Love it.  They know what a walking dead person is.  Paul describes spiritual zombies in the first three verses.  He is telling us that humans, because they are human, are in deep trouble before God.

Then there is the opening two words of verse 4:  But God…The story of the condition of humanity does not end with a hopeless period and a closed book at the end of verse three.  There is more.  The “more” is God himself.

Here is more:

⁴ But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, ⁵ even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), ⁶ and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, ⁷ so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. Ephesians 2:4-7

So what?  The big so what here is that it is God who makes people alive because of His great love and not the fact that anyone can clean up their own naughty list!

Lastly:

⁸ For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; ⁹ not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. Ephesians 2:8-9

These verses explain what a true gift is.  We can’t do anything to earn a gift.  If we had the ability to change from ‘Zombie’ to ‘nice’ list that would mean that we have done something to get God’s attention, be on his good side, and with pride declare to the world what we have done.  There is nothing a human can do to make God like them and want to reward them with a gift.  Gifts are free and are freely given!  They are given this way so that no one can brag about their own clean up.  God gives the greatest gift to the worst of zombies!  How about that for a “nice list” obliteration?  God gives the gift of  life (this life and the next) to Zombies.

Here is the issue to truly CONSIDER:  does the Bible show us that God gives gifts in the same way our popular culture does?  The answer is, no.  Ephesians is just one place that tells us this.  Think about what we are to believe.  In the 2008 movie, Seven Pounds, Will Smith plays Tim Thomas who is man on a mission of redemption.  Tim makes the ultimate sacrifice for others so they can live.  He gives the gift of life.  The film moved me and I thought it was a stirring story.  I must, however, process the story through a biblical worldview.  Here is what I found.  Tim Thomas was willing to sacrifice for those he deemed WORTHY.  His gift giving, although extremely profound, was based on merit or a reason why he should give. He used a ‘nice’ list there were requirements to be on the list.

Okay, getting back to Santa, lists, and Zombies (someone please write that movie script!  I will be first in line).  So what?  I am not saying that Christians should go out and kidnap every Santa from every mall and make them recant.  I am not saying we should not have fun at Christmas.  In fact I might wear my Grinch t-shirt this Sunday (MIGHT).  I am not saying kids should not sit on Santa’s lap or have some creative fun writing a letter.  My message is to think about gifts and lists from a biblical point of view.  Are we comfortable living with two realities?  These realities say on one hand gifts require pre-approval and on the other that they are generated by the heart of the giver (God in Jesus Christ!).  Both can’t be true.  Are we setting ourselves up for disappointment and confusion?  Something to think about.

It would be a good thing this Christmas season to stop and thank God for the gift of life through Jesus Christ!  The entirety of humanity was on the naughty list (Romans 3:23), but God (Eph 2:4) because he loves us without condition (John 3:16), gave to spiritual zombies the free gift of life in Jesus Christ (Eph 3:5; 8-9)!  Merry Christmas!

* Category concepts adapted from The Culturally Savvy Christian: A Manifesto for Deepening Faith and Enriching Popular Culture in an Age of Christianity-Lite by Dick Staub

As a culture, we are becoming more and more digitized. Information is processed in only “bite” (yes, that is a bad pun) sized pieces. This translates to the average Christ follower by learning theology and orthopraxy from tweets, FB posts, and blogs. Some of these are great and can be used as a supplement. It is far better, however, to do the hard work of developing a biblical grid through which to press all other information. If you don’t, you risk becoming an orthodoxy snycretist who uses bits and pieces to construct a system of belief that makes sense to us (Rom 1).

Since we have Wikipedia we don’t need to read books or listen to talks anymore. On top of not having good guard rails to process information we are losing the ability to synthesize information on our own. Our minds, more and more, require spoon feeding; with all the pertinent information completely broken down and pre-digested.

Again, while the above sources do of course have their place, there are two things they can’t or don’t do. First, they aren’t peer reviewed or scrutinized by credible editors or publishers. The very definition of a “wiki” is,
“A Web site developed collaboratively by a community of users, allowing any user to add and edit content.” It is group think. You can add to wikipedia posts. Books, on the other hand, have to go through a process of fact checking before they are printed. The more academic the book, the more carefully the information is published. You must still be careful, though Secondly, they aren’t the Bible. Too many Christ followers can quote their favorite blogger or online pastor (who incidentally does not care about them) regarding what the scripture says long before they could actually quote the indefatigable Word.

What’s next? Develop the spiritual discipline of the mind. If you can think, you can do this! Discipline of the mind is not reserved for the academic elite. Do some research (NOT wiki research ) on “individual soul liberty” and see what you come up with. Ask God to help you with this development. Look for ways to stretch and strengthen your God-given ability to think and reason. Read a book that is “over your head”. Think about the progression a child makes. They start with milk or formula, move to mush, then crackers and Cheerios, and eventually, as they mature, they can have meat! I am so glad my diet does not still consist only of mush and crackers. Be a mental carnivore! Chew on something substantial. Lastly, learn to ask good questions. Whenever you read or hear or take in any information you should be developing critical thinking skills. Critical thinking skills really ask the “how” and “why” questions. When you hear preaching or read a book be asking questions in your mind. “Why did she write that”? “How did he get that application from that text”? “How does what what I am reading/hearing fit in the grid of Scripture”? “Does it fit”? “Should it be rejected or accepted”? These are just a few. The ability will help you as you read to biblically process. Even books like commentaries need to be processed through the Bible – remember they are not the Bible!

The words of II Corinthians 10:4-5 is a good place to end. “The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ”.

A dear friend recently asked me what apologetics is all about and why did I choose to study it.  A great question!  Let me lay out some of the background and reasoning behind this decision.

About five years ago I read book called Tree of Tales.  It was an anthology written by some faculty members at St Andrews University in St Andrews, Scotland.  The event this little book set out to commemorate was the lecture J.R.R. Tolkien gave there in the 1940′s called On Fairy Story.  Tolkien, of Lord of the Rings fame, taught that fairy stories are not just untrue myths with fantastic and unreal creatures but instead, as a genre, explores the ultimate triumph of good over evil.  At the end of the lecture he explained how the Gospel is a fairy story.  Some will read that and immediately disagree.  On the face of it, I concur.  However, for Tolkien, just because something is a fairy story does not make it untrue.  He sees the Gospel as fitting into this realm because it is God’s grand story of defeating death, sin, and evil.  Tolkien called this a eucatastrophe.  That is something good and something terrible, the crucifixion, coming together to produce something dramatically wonderful.  His presentation of the Gospel was creative and awesome.

One of the chapters in the book described Tolkien’s relationship with C.S. Lewis.  They were both university professors in Oxford, England.  Lewis was an atheist.  He rejected a Christian worldview.  Together these two men would stroll a wooded pathway in Oxford called Addison’s Walk.  It was during these walks that Tolkien and Lewis would discuss philosophy, theology, epic, and myth.  Tolkien lovingly and patiently explained to Lewis the one “fairy story” that would not only change his life but eternally alter his destiny.  Lewis eventually bowed his knee to Christ and commented that it was his friend’s patience and teaching that helped him understand his need for a Savior.  Lewis went on to become one of the most loved Christian writers and thinkers of the 20th century.

After reading I asked a question, “could I do that”?  I began wondering if I had the ability to patiently and lovingly explain the one event in history upon which all of history is hinged.  Did I possess the skills to not just win an argument but to engage another human being with the Gospel so that they could grasp the grandness of depth of God’s love, mercy and grace.  The short answer was no.

As God was at work in my heart, He led me to enroll in the Worldviews track at Baptist Bible Graduate School.  We learned together the process and development of Western thought and how it has had great impact and effect on the way people think, why they think the way they do, and how to begin to engage with Biblical truth.  The design of the program taught me how to self-teach as well as opening up new vistas for further study.  I wanted more.

Upon discovering the program at Biola I knew this was the course of study for me!  We are not learning how to shout down someone who disagrees with our biblical perspective.  We are learning how to understand the thought language of our culture to speak truth into it.  Let me explain.

I Peter 3:15 says, “But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord.  Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.  But do this this with gentleness and respect”.  The original recipients of Peter’s letter would have known that by “reason” he was using the word apologia.  This word could mean a defensive argument in a court of law.  In the context of I Peter it means giving a reasonable answer to the mild skeptic or the angry.  The hope is a word of hope.  Its logos or a rational reason for believing what one believes.  Christians are called to have a ready, reasonable, gentle answers to explain who Christ is and what he has done.  In short, there are very good reasons to place one’s faith in Jesus.

This course of study is about the reasons.  We explore ethics (what is right), Christian worldview as compared to other worldviews, politics, media, epistemology (what is true),  metaphysics (what is real) , and other relevant issues.  We are learning to understand how people think and how to ask good questions that will lead them to the Truth.  Basically, apologetics is “smoothing the road” to belief in Christ.  We are learning how to teach that believing in Christ really makes sense!

My goal is is to transfer this learning to my teaching and leadership at New Life Baptist Church.  As we endeavor to teach the whole council of God, with the time he has given us, we want to show over and over that believing in the finished work of Jesus Christ does not require a massive leap of faith from unbelief to belief.  Instead we want to demonstrate that God calls us to a step of faith.  There are so many good reasons (there is that word again) that would require pages and pages to explain.  Lord willing, we will continue to do that through the scope of the teaching at New Life.

While we are gone for two weeks we will miss you, but we will enjoy being in SoCal in January!  Please pray as I try to drink from the proverbial fire hose of teaching that will be offered.  I know I have already used this part of my education in very real ways at New Life and there is more to come!  Spoiler Alert:  We will be doing a MAJOR teaching series in the fall on Christology (the doctrine of Jesus Christ).  Our goal will be to teach those who know Christ already that we have solid reasons for this belief.  The second goal will be very evangelistic.  We want our people to invite their friends and family who have long struggled with faith questions.  We want to show those who do not know Christ that there really are excellent reasons to put their hope in Him alone!  Please be praying as we prepare to unleash this truth on our city.  I am so pumped!

Why do you believe what you believe?  It is worth thinking about.

1.  A true cross bearer must possess the ability to slay all the monsters of this life.  We cannot at once both feed the ogre of self and serve the God of selflessness.

2. Being a true cross bearer makes you very conspicuous is different ways:
- The world will notice you stand out because you carry something that is completely counter to what everyone else is doing
- You get noticed if you develop a regular pattern of dropping your cross when life is tough and picking it up again when things are agreeable to you.
- Anyone who gives their life for any one purpose brings attention to that object of desire.

Pray up, pick it up, cowboy up!

Please don’t forget the church picnic this weekend!  We are going to head out to the Draper’s home right after the worship gathering Sunday AM.  We have directions for you here (the live in Waverly, PA).  Bring your appetite, your willingness to engage with others, and your mad lawn luge skills!

Continue to pray about the Saturday night worship gathering.  Pray specifically for:
- Which event you will commit to, Saturday or Sunday or both!
- How you can help serve others (nursery, Kid’s Life, refreshments, greeter, usher)
- That God would be glorified with what happens here!
- That NLBC would be a bright light in a dark city.
- For the Mike Strasburger and the members of the worship team as they will be moving into this new phase.
- The pastoral team as we continue to think ahead and leverage our resources for the best possible.

Dare to Engage!

How many times have you witnessed a scenario like this…

You are enjoying (or maybe enduring) the preliminary stuff at a worship experience.  The musicians are talented and at least seem dedicated, the people are friendly, you are comfortable and ready to be taught.  Then it happens.

Perhaps this is the first person you have actually heard talk at the gathering you are attending.  He gets up in front of people for the ubiquitous greeting and announcements.  The greeting is warm and heart-felt but the announcements…shoot me now.  He drones on and on about the upcoming youth ministry trip, the dedication of the new mop heads, the unfortunate misadventure involving the tepid tea and stale scones at the last ladies meeting, meetings upon meetings, the nominees for church officers, the weather, the current price of kangaroo pelts in Australia, the…you get the idea.  No too long after the 20 minute reading of the bulletin begins – you check out.  Come on, I know its happened to many of us.

So what is the point?  Announcements are not just about announcements! In the four to seven minutes we have to say something (remember this might be the FIRST something someone hears and will decide if they want to come back right then!) we want to leverage that resource the best we can.

Here are some ideas of what that time is:

- One more chance for all of us to be reminded about the mission and why our doors are open that Sunday (or Saturday night)!

- An initial verbal challenge for all of us to be ready to engage with the teaching and take that next step in faith.

- The opportunity to share information about all church events (picnics, baptism, work days, prayer meeting, etc)

- A time for a member of the pastoral team to help us all remember where our focus should be for the next 40 minutes.

- Public prayer – which sometimes involves the sharing of special needs that the entire body should be aware of and wins that we can celebrate together.

What this is time is not:

- A laundry list of all the possible ministries and activities in any given week

- A public reading of the bulletin or PowerPoint announcements

How you can help:

- Ministry leaders should utilize both digital and print media to announce ministry initiatives.

- Prepare handouts for the bulletin.  We can make sure you know where the copier is.  That is what it is for!

- Make PowerPoint slides for advertisement.  You can find people to help you with this too.

- Utilize the web.  Use Facebook, email, Twitter and texts.  You can still call people too.

- Use small group leaders to get the word out about your ministry.

- Be proactive in communicating about your ministry!

- Send me an email with your announcement and we will put it out there on Facebook!

Ok, ok.  Let’s slow down.  Does that mean we will never make ministry specific announcements?  No! From time to time we need to make a public announcement about particular wins and needs.  These will be strategic and special not utilitarian and dull.  We (the pastoral team at New Life) need some lead time when that happens.  Get us the info as soon as you can so we can help figure out a way to best get it out there.

We have roughly 60 minutes a week to say something!  Let’s make it count.

I don’t think I would ever make it in a culture that required me to barter.  It never dawns on me to make an offer for anything other than the asking price when I am at a garage sale or flea market.  I do, however, like you, like to make deals.

Its like playing Monopoly.  I really don’t care about winning.  I am far more interested in getting people to agree to ridiculous deals with me for the exchange of property.  Thrilling!  This concept and skill starts in each of us at a young age.

A few weeks ago, at the camp where I was speaking, we saw it again.  Everyday the campers were required to clean up their cabins during the time between breakfast and morning chapel.  The boys and girls were in fierce competition to be the winning team for the week and a good cabin clean up score could move enough points into the win column for those willing to work hard enough.

Here is the variable.  The deciding factor in a good vs. bad score is the camp nurse.  She wields the power of a Greek goddess for the time she is inspecting these cabins.  She is like a Greek deity in one particular way.  She can be swayed by the cunning of people; in this case Junior high students.

These kids will find out what kind of candy, treat, or hand-craft the nurse likes and leave for her ‘offerings’ at the altar which is their cabin.  This lady can expect to come back to her office with her arms full of candy bars, candles, flowers, and drawings in the hopes that someone will be able to push her in one direction or another. EVERY camper (and counselor for that matter) knows what the standard is but they will work all the harder to work the system.

The hearers/recipients of Malachi live out this illustration in great detail.  The second discussion God has with Israel via Malachi in 1:6-14 goes like this: “You know I am your Father, right? You know I am your Master, right?  Then where is my respect? Why do you show contempt (‘sniff in the air’) for my name?”  Incredibly, the priests respond with, “how?”.

If God told you or I we didn’t give him proper respect or honor wouldn’t we stop everything until we figured out how to fix it?  I would hope that would be my response but I am afraid I would (and DO) what the priests were doing – cheating God.

Spend some time and read those verses and understand what is happening.  The priests (those who know better) are promising God one thing and giving him something else, something cheap.  Instead of bringing God the best of their sheep, as they were instructed and KNEW, they were bring him lame and diseased sheep.  Picture that!  Here comes the priest dragging along this lame little animal with a runny eye and a hacking cough.  “I am here for sacrifice!”, he might proclaim with great fanfare.  Meanwhile his best is back home being prepared for he and his family to eat.

What does God call this? Cheating.  In fact he says, “cursed is the cheat who has an acceptable male in his flock and vows to give it, but then sacrifices a blemished animal to the Lord. For I am a great king says the LORD Almighty, and my name is to be feared among the nations” (1:14).

All this begs the question: do we cheat God?  Perhaps a better question is “HOW do we cheat God”?

Let us not reduce this issue to world of the ridiculous.  I have heard plenty of really bad arguments for dress code or music ‘standards’ based on this passage.  All garbage.  This passage has absolutely nothing to do with your particular comfort level for worship music, your proclivity to wear a tie in “God’s house”, or preferred Bible translation.

A sacrifice is the giving up of something you actually need.  It is certainly not any of the examples listed above nor is it having an abundance of anything and giving away the portion you don’t need, want, or care about.  How often do we promise God more time and make time for everything else except Him?  Have we not done that with other resources too like finances, talent, leadership, or just raw compassion?  Honestly,  I cheat and try to get away with it.

OK, so let’s take a look at our “flocks”.  Got anything in there that God deserves?  I do, and I bet you might as well.

There is nothing more pathetic than a heart broken Junior High student.  We are not talking about the kind of hurt that is the result of injury, tragedy, violence, or misdeeds.  This is the kind of brokenness that is experienced in those times when a student is separated from their ‘true’ love.

When I was a youth pastor we took our junior high students to camp.  Every kid ought to have the chance to go to camp and did our best to take as many as possible.  That particular summer one of our students invited a friend of his to go along.  Everyone was enjoying the week and all the great things that go with that kind of experience.

It happened on Thursday night.  Chapel was over and the campers were steadily getting hopped up on sugar and caffeine from the snack shop.  Darkness was closing in and there was great anticipation for the night game that was about to begin.

Becky and I were spending time with the students and making rounds when we saw something out of the ordinary.  My student’s friend was sitting all by himself, his face buried in his hands, and he was sobbing uncontrollably.  This kid was in full-on body spasm mode wailing.

We sat with him to try to figure out what was going on.  Through his gasps and tears he looked at us and said, “my girlfriend just broke up with me.”  Girlfriend?  That was news to us.  We didn’t know this guy even had a girlfriend.  Well he did up until about 5 minute before we found him.

I couldn’t figure it out.  Did he get a phone call from home?  Did the mail come late?  How in the world did he learn his girlfriend broke up with him at 9:00 PM on a Thursday night at camp?  The answer was simple.  He had just met his ‘girlfriend’ Wednesday! The relationship was not even 24 hours old and it was over, and he was a mess.  I managed to hold it together enough to make the effort to help him feel better.

Junior high students, senior high students, college aged, and adults all face the same dilemma in one form or another somewhere in their lives.  We have all found ourselves asking, “how is it that he/she doesn’t love me anymore, what went wrong?” The moping and malaise can last for weeks.  You know what I’m talking about.

We find stories just like that in Scripture.  We can read about the agony of a lost personal relationship and humanity’s broken relationship to God. The difference is the broken ties with God will have eternal impact.

Israel (the two southern tribes of Benjamin and Judah) find themselves in an awkward position in history as Malachi begins.  Here is the situation.  Cyrus the Great (by some accounts the greatest leader of the ancient world) of Persia has made a good decision.  He is allowing the captives of the former Babylonian empire to go home.  He is letting them go back and rebuild their homes, walls, and places of worship.

Not long after getting home, Israel starts up with all the stuff that got them in trouble in the first place.  They are pretty much ignoring God and falling into the sinful practices of worthless worship, intermarrying with the locals, and simply grieving the heart of God.

Malachi (who’s name means God’s messenger) is brought forward to be the voice of God and to have 6 pointed discussions.  A prophet is a ‘covenant enforcer’ who bears the responsibility of directing people back to God and the covenant.

The first discussion God has with the people is tender at its heart.  Chapter 1 verse 2 is God giving a direct address.  He tells Israel, “I have loved you.”  Perhaps not the first message that would come to mind when we think “covenant enforcer”.  This theme is not, of course, limited to Malachi.  It is found throughout the entirety of Scripture.  God loves people!  Yes, He is a God of justice but He is a God of love.  John 3:16 is pretty clear, “For God so LOVED the world that he sent his only Son”.

The response that escapes the lips of Israel is shocking to me.  They ask, “how have you loved us?”.  What?  Really?  How can anyone ever ask that kind of question?

Yet, we do.

Somehow Israel forgot to remember that God indeed loved, loves, and will love them (the word has a meaning of timelessness).  They were in the malaise of life and just got lazy.  Pretty bad memories.  Today we do the exact same thing.  We find ourselves in a place that is neither fearful nor exciting and we forget that God loves, loved and will love as well.

When we say, “how have You love us? what is the response?  Where have/do we see the love of God?  The answer is simple.  Besides ALL the blessings that God gives to people remember this: Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us”.  Boom! Enough said.