Not Just a Phonebooth

 

The mild-mannered reporter for The Daily Planet, Clark Kent, steps into a phone booth, removes his glasses and business suit to reveal a big blue onesie and a scarlet cape, and steps out into the world as – Superman!  If you know the scene and know what a phone booth is, then you must ask how that pair of glasses caused no one – not a single person – to see the true identity of Superman.

It must have been so for Jesus’ disciples as they looked at him.  A normal-looking, sturdy guy who had worked for years as a builder, who was now a traveling teacher.  When he spoke, he seemed truly wise, and no one doubted his faith relationship with the God they all worshiped.  But who was he really?

Just one time, high on a hill west of the Sea of Galilee, three of his disciples got a glimpse of the real Jesus.  Not a complete view – just a quick snapshot.

Jesus took Peter and the two brothers, James and John, and led them up a high mountain to be alone.  As the men watched, Jesus’ appearance was transformed so that his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as light.  Matthew 17:1-2

Wow!  They weren’t expecting that.  It was a bit like peeking into the phonebooth and seeing Clark turn into Superman.

They didn’t get the full picture of who Jesus really is – the One who created all things and for whom all things have been made; the second Person of the triune God, co-equal with the Father and the Holy Spirit; the One who will return in glory and will reign and rule for eternity.  They didn’t see all that, but they saw enough that it transformed them forever.

When Jesus stepped out of heaven to come to live as a man among His creation, He gave up something.  He never ceased being God, but He left behind all the glory and honor He is worthy to receive.  Paul said it best when he wrote:

You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.  Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to.  Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being.  When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross.   Philippians 2:5-8

He came to walk among us so we could see what He (God) was like.  We could see His character.  We could hear His truth.  We could trust His promise to redeem us because we saw on the cross what He gave to pay the price for our sin.  His true power and glory were hidden from the world for a time, but it won’t always be so….

Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.  Philippians 2:9-11

Someday, everyone will see Jesus for who He really is.  Not the Clark Kent version, hiding the reality of His being.  Not the earthly human version nailed to a cross between two thieves.   Not even the loving, caring Jesus who raised Lazarus, who healed the blind and infirmed, who held children on his lap, and who ate with sinners.

We will all behold the Lion of Judah, the Bright and Morning Star, the Alpha and Omega, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.  Jesus in all His glory and power and majesty.  That day of His full revealing is coming soon.

But what about you?  If you believe in Christ and identify with what you’ve just read, how is your transformation coming?  Because no one can just look at you and know who you really are either. Some of us have gone through profound changes in our lives that don’t show on the outside.  Life changing struggles, wounds that don’t show on the outside.  Changes in our very nature because of the work of the Holy Spirit after we’ve accepted the gift of eternal life, paid for by the precious blood of Jesus Himself.  

When folks look at you, do they see Jesus?  We’re promised that if we are “in Christ”, we are new creations, transformed by Him.  We are sealed and indwelt by the very Spirit of God.  We are empowered and gifted for ministry in the name of Jesus.  Who do you see when you look in the mirror?  

If you feel more like a spiritually “mild-mannered reporter” version of who you were made to be, maybe it’s time to step into the proverbial phone booth and change.  Maybe you won’t be “faster than a speeding bullet or able to leap tall buildings” when you come out, but the world will see what a follower of Jesus who is completely committed to Him can look like.  Be the powerful, amazing, superhero version of you that you were born again to be.

Jacob

Little White Lies….

 

OK, admit it.  You’ve done it yourself.  Your 5-year-old asked, “Mom, is there really a Santa Claus?”  The little soccer player that lives in your home wonders aloud, “Dad, do you think I’m the best player on my team?”  Your wife asks your opinion about a new outfit: “Honey, does this make me look…”.  No, I’m not even going to go there.

A "little white lie" could be defined as “a small, harmless untruth or half-truth, usually told to avoid hurting someone's feelings or to be polite.”  We understand when we tell these “little lies” that our intent was innocent; our purpose was to avoid an awkward situation; or we believe the “little lie” wouldn’t have any real consequences.  We all get it.

But didn’t your mother teach you that “Honesty is the best policy.”  Growing up you heard stories about little George Washington admitting that he did, in fact, chop down the cherry tree – “I cannot tell a lie…” – and you were urged to be just as honest as little George.  IS honesty really the best policy ALL the time, and how do we make that determination?

What does the Bible teach us?  How about a couple of examples from the many available:

The Lord detests lying lips, but he delights in those who tell the truth.  Proverbs 12:22

So stop telling lies. Let us tell our neighbors the truth, for we are all parts of the same body.  Ephesians 4:25

If we’re not supposed to lie and we do it anyway, what happens?  And who gets to decide if it’s OK in the moment?  Or is it NEVER OK?

Abraham from the Old Testament faced such a dilemma.  He and his wife, Sarah, set up their tents in the lands of a new king, Abimelech.  Here’s what happened:

Abraham introduced his wife, Sarah, by saying, “She is my sister.” So, King Abimelech of Gerar sent for Sarah and had her brought to him at his palace.  Genesis 20:2

Look out!  Now Abraham has really stepped in it.  The king wants his wife for himself because Abraham told a little white lie.  Seems like a BIG one, right?  But look at the full truth that came out when Abraham was questioned by Abimelech:

Whatever possessed you to do such a thing?”   Abraham replied, “I thought, ‘This is a godless place. They will want my wife and will kill me to get her.’   And she really is my sister, for we both have the same father, but different mothers.  And I married her.   When God called me to leave my father’s home and to travel from place to place, I told her, ‘Do me a favor. Wherever we go, tell the people that I am your brother.’”  Genesis 20:10-13

For now, can we just skip over the part where Abraham married his half-sister and get back to the “white lie” business?  Different time, different world.  Forget too, the apparent lack of chivalry in Abraham’s reasoning process.  He told a half-truth – a “white lie” – to avoid a bad situation.  

God didn’t condone it, but He still protected Abraham.  He didn't approve of Abraham's deception, but He did remain faithful to His covenant with him.  Abraham's failure did not cancel God's faithfulness. 

God understands our fears.  He acknowledges that, try as we might, we don’t always step up with integrity and truthfulness.  HE is full of integrity, truth, and righteousness, and we are called to be His image-bearers in this world.  We’ll make mistakes and err in judgment more often than we’d like, and way more than God would desire.  But He still loves and protects us.

How did the story with Abraham and Abimelech end?  The king restored Sarah to Abraham having never touched her, gave Abraham generous gifts showing his sorrow for taking her, and publicly acknowledged Abraham's innocence.  In turn, 

“…Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech, his wife, and his female servants, so they could have children.”   Genesis 20:17

The next time you think about telling a little white lie, remember that you are a representative of the God of Creation as the words pass your lips.  The apostle Paul reminds us in Ephesians 4:15 to “speak the truth in love.”  What does that mean?  It means that truth is meant to help people, not to hurt them.  It means you must care as much about the person as you do about the facts you share.  

So, when you speak the truth in love, seeing others with the heart of your Heavenly Father, then it’s OK to say, “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.”

Jacob

When 2+2 Doesn’t Always Equal 4

 In 1999, NASA launched the $125 million Mars Climate Orbiter. It was a masterpiece of engineering, built by some of the smartest minds on the planet. Yet, as it approached the Red Planet, the spacecraft vanished and was destroyed.  The reason? A math error.

One engineering team used the metric system. Another team used imperial feet and pounds. Both teams did their calculations perfectly, but they were operating on two completely different standards. The math just didn’t add up.  Crunch.

Sometimes life is like that.  We do all the calculations, but life isn’t adding up like we expected.  We may not say it out loud, but most of us carry around a certain equation in our brains:

If I do what is right, things should go well.  

If I do wrong, eventually it should catch up with me.

It feels fair. Ordered. Predictable.  And yet experience keeps interrupting the formula.

The hardworking father loses his job.   The godly woman gets the diagnosis she never expected.  A child suffers.  A marriage falls apart.  Why?

Meanwhile someone dishonest prospers. Someone careless flourishes. Someone who seems to ignore God altogether appears to move through life untouched.  WHY?!  That's the question that challenges our math.

The old songwriter Asaph knew that tension well. In Psalm 73, he admitted that he envied the wicked because they seemed to have everything while the faithful seemed to carry all the burdens.  

And then there is Job.

The Book of Job unsettles us because it refuses easy answers.  Job is described as blameless and upright, yet he loses everything – his possessions, his children, his health, even his standing among friends.  His companions arrive convinced they already know why.  “You must have done something wrong” they say.  That assumption feels ancient, but it has never really left us.

We still ask it when tragedy strikes, “What happened?”  “Who’s at fault?”  “What did they do?”

Job’s friends believed suffering could be measured and explained – that pain was the direct result of personal wrongdoing.  But the reader is allowed to see what Job cannot: his suffering was not punishment.  It was not simple.  It was not the neat outcome of moral cause and effect.  And that matters.

Because it reminds us that suffering is not always evidence of God’s displeasure, just as prosperity is not always evidence of His favor.

We live in a broken world.  A world touched by sin.  Scarred by evil.  Groaning under the weight of the fall.  Bad things happen – not always because someone has done bad things, but because we live here – not in Eden.  That realization can feel troubling at first. But it can also be strangely freeing.  Because if suffering is not always punishment, then it is not always proof that God has abandoned us.

In the Bible, Job never receives an explanation for his suffering.  God never walks him through the details.  Instead, God gives Job something greater – His presence.

And in the end Job’s peace comes not from finally understanding everything – but from seeing God more clearly than before.  Perhaps that's why the book still speaks so powerfully.  Not because it solves the mystery of suffering.  But because it meets us in the midst of our suffering.

Yes, sometimes the wicked prosper.  Sometimes the faithful suffer.  Sometimes life refuses to follow our formulas.  And God is still God.

Still present.

Still sovereign.

Still worthy of trust.

Even when the equation doesn’t balance.

Jacob

Death and Discipleship

Every student of the Bible should understand that those who die “in Christ” live eternally (John 11:25–26, Philippians 1:21–23), but there are also passages that speak of our physical death, suffering, and mortality as part of our participation in Christ’s sufferings and our deeper identification with Him.

“I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.”  Philippians 3:10–11

In this passage, Paul frames discipleship as both sharing in Christ’s resurrection and in His sufferings—even to the point of death. Physical death is not disconnected from Christ, but is one of the ways believers identify with Him.  To Paul, death is not a defeat but a doorway into deeper fellowship with the Savior and the hope of resurrection.

“For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his.”  Romans 6:5

Here Paul reminds us that our physical death mirrors Christ’s death. Just as He died in the flesh and was raised, so too do we. Death does not separate us from Christ – it seals our union with Him.

“We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body.”  2 Corinthians 4:10–11

Paul links the continual experience of mortality, weakness, and even physical dying with carrying the death of Jesus in our bodies. Every weakness, every moment of decline, every breath that moves us closer to physical death is also a testimony that we belong to Christ. And as our outward selves waste away, His resurrection life is revealed in us.

The Bible affirms that death is not an end but a participation in Christ’s own journey. Our mortality and physical death are not outside the scope of discipleship—they are, in fact, part of how we are conformed to Christ.  Put another way: Our life in Christ begins now, but our death in Christ is also part of our union with Him. We follow Him through suffering, through death, and ultimately into resurrection and eternal glory.

The Christian life is not just about living for Christ, but also about dying with Him. Paul saw suffering, weakness, and even death itself as a way of identifying with Jesus. Death is not the end of faith—it is the completion of faith.

For the Christian, death is no longer something to fear. It is not the breaking of fellowship with Christ—it is the deepening of it. In dying, we are not leaving Jesus behind; we are walking the same path He walked, knowing that resurrection life awaits us on the other side.  Death is the final stride in our march to become like Jesus; our last act as His disciple this side of eternity.

Jacob