Daily Readings at Southeast

  How does faith work when you do ministry?  Growing up in a working-class neighborhood next to an airport surrounded with first generation immigrants, many fleeing poverty and persecution from around the globe, I had a very unusual upbringing. Unlike nearly all my friends in the neighborhood I had two things. One, I had a dad who was still married to my mom and involved in my life, starting with coaching my baseball teams. Since I was the only kid on my first team with a dad, he ended up being our coach even though he’d never played the game. Two, my dad worked very hard to provide for us five kids and my mom – to the point that he broke his back hanging drywall to feed us. I knew my dad loved his family because he showed it. He stayed married to mom, got up before the sun every day to go work himself to death, and came home to spend his hard-earned money on his family – not his hobbies or addictions. My dad never wrote a book about love, but he served, doing whatever it took...

  How does faith work when you are suffering?  As a pastor, you get the honor of having a front row seat to the most sacred days in people’s lives. On one of these days, I went to the hospital to visit an elderly saint who had lived a very painful life. She was engaged, but her fiancée ran off with her friend leaving her to never marry. Not long after being abandoned, she developed some debilitating health problems that had her in a wheelchair or hospital bed at unexpected times throughout her life. She served as the secretary at a Bible-based church until the denomination went apostate, took the building, and dismantled the church she had given her life to serving. Later in life, she and some widows built a close-knit group of friends she fondly referred to as the “Golden Girls”. Eventually, she buried every one of those friends and was left very much alone. To me, she was a spiritual giant. She loved the Lord Jesus and never much complained about the hand life dealt her. Her...

  How does faith work with your wealth?  Several years ago, the world was outraged over the case against Bernie Madoff, a former stockbroker and investment advisor responsible for the largest, longest, and most widespread Ponzi scheme in history. Madoff’s fraud totaled in the billions. At his sentencing hearing, the judge in the case condemned Madoff ’s crimes as “extraordinarily evil” and imposed a sentence over 10 times longer than the defense lawyers had requested – 150 years. In addition to the victims who testified against Madoff, his self-indulgent, luxurious lifestyle also testified against him: tens of millions of dollars spent in acquiring personal properties; $45 million in bonds; $17 million in cash; $8.8 million for yachts; $2.6 million in jewelry, and a whole lot more.  It was an outrageous hoard gained through unthinkable fraud, and Madoff heaped the riches upon himself. Beginning in chapter 5, James wastes no time making his point clear. “Listen, you rich, ...

  How does faith work for life planning? A book I once read that is written for business leaders includes a very insightful illustration. As I remember it, two men are standing on a dock looking at a large cruise ship intended to carry people and cargo to their intended destinations. One man looks at the other and asks, “In relation to that boat, who is the most important person?”. The other man replies, “the captain”. The man who asked the question corrected him saying, “the boat builder”. The truth is the world’s best captain is of no use if he’s at the helm of a poorly built boat. If it doesn’t float, the captain could be most anyone as it won’t make a difference. Most people spend their time and energy working in their life – frantic, tired, and trying to keep their proverbial boat afloat. Planning is working on your life and not just in it – figuring out how to build a bigger boat. The wisdom literature, especially Proverbs and Jesus’ parables, have a lot to say about stewards...

  How does faith work in relational conflicts?  As the parent of five children, we had to teach our kids most everything. They did not come out of the womb knowing how to speak, feed themselves, or walk. We had to teach them these things. The one thing we did not have to teach any of our children was how to be selfish or have conflict with others. We human beings don’t have to learn selfishness; it’s already a part of who we are, hard-wired into our sinful nature. Children quickly learn the word “mine” and know how to pull a toy from another’s hands without an example to go on. Though these self-focused behaviors are easy to spot in a toddler, if we’re honest, not much changes in adulthood. James 3:16 says, “Where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice.” James says that our selfishness shows up in “quarrels” and “fights” driven by our emotional “passions” driven by our “friendship with the world”, driven by our “pride” as we “speak ...

  How does faith work when you are frustrated?  When we are kids, eventually we see a cartoon where someone is granted one wish, often from a genie in a bottle. How we might answer that question reveals a great deal about who we are and what we value. If you could have one wish granted to you, what would it be? Answer what immediately comes to mind. A pile of cash up to what Paul calls the third heaven, a supermodel spouse who never sins and memorizes books of the Bible, kids who stayed out of trouble and make parenting easy, in-laws who act like outlaws moving to another planet, perfect health, or something else? Amazingly, King Solomon was given the opportunity to ask God for one thing (1 Kings 3). Solomon’s request for wisdom was so pleasing to God that He not only gave wisdom but added to it wealth and honor to rule in power. Throughout the Old Testament literature, the value of wisdom is described as more profitable than silver or gold and more precious than jewels. Nothi...

  How does faith work when you want to speak your mind?  “Loose lips sink ships.” During World War II, this slogan appeared on propaganda posters created and distributed by a major American distiller. The slogan advised servicemen and other American citizens to avoid careless talk about secure military information. Speaking openly about knowledge of a ship’s course might allow the enemy to intercept and destroy American naval ships. Consider for a moment that, in the day that James warned us to consider our communication, there was no electricity, printing press, or internet. How much more ominous are his words in our day of cell phones, emails, texts, social media, platforms, comments sections, phone calls, videos, and the innumerable other ways we can curse others with our communication? As someone who has spent their adult life largely in the public eye communicating, there is a list of regrets that quickly comes to mind of things I have said and typed. The timeless Word of...

  How does faith work when you are feeling lazy?  As a newly married couple, my wife Grace and I bought some inexpensive furniture that required that we carefully follow directions to assemble it. Quickly, it became obvious that I am no good at following directions. I kept getting the steps out of order, and Grace stepped in to carefully read the directions so that we did everything in the order that it was designed. In Christian theology, there is something called, “the order of salvation”. The basic idea is that salvation gets done in an order determined by God and that the order matters. Apparently, building a Christian is a bit like building a dresser, and getting things done in the right order is a big deal. This section of James is full of controversy. We are told elsewhere in Scripture, especially the passages written by the Apostle Paul, that God’s grace alone saves us (Eph. 2:8–9). Yet James seems to be saying that good works play a role in our salvation (v. 24). God’...

  How does faith work with people you don’t like?  As a young pastor, my wife Grace and I started out teaching a Bible study for college-aged kids. Near the university were numerous homeless kids who intermingled with the university students in the local coffee shops and concert venues. As a general rule, the college kids looked like typical clean-cut middle and upper-middle-class suburbanites. The homeless kids wore a lot of black, slept in their clothes, bathed infrequently, and smoked a lot of cigarettes. To reach both groups, I would preach a very late-night service with no childcare in a punk rock concert venue. Every once and a while, a clean-cut Christian family would show up for church. I remember one family that was entirely out of their element, so I approached them to welcome them. They asked if they had the right address and if we were a church. I explained that we were trying to be missionaries to kids who did not know Jesus and we were far more concerned about th...