Linnea's Lines

Called to Bear Fruit

Since I was small, 
just tasting your Word, 
I’ve longed to be like Joseph,  
whose blessing prophesied 
rampant fruitfulness. 

Let me be a fruitful vine! 
Let my roots drink deep waters 
so my shoots stretch vibrantly 
up and over the walls, 
fruit falling freely. 

I desperately need
your streams of living water
drenched with plant food
to fill me and nourish me
so that I feed others.

This is my calling:
to grow and to blossom, 
see my flowering turn to fruit,
rich clusters full of juice, 
nourishing hungry souls.

Two days ago there was rain where we live, then temperatures suddenly shaking off their late-winter vibes into the warmth of spring. It only took 48 hours for bare branches to spurt out baby green leaves and for lawns to suddenly come alive. Potent warmth and water were what they were yearning for!

We come alive like that when our thirsty hearts receive just what we need for growth:

³⁷ On the last day of the feast, the greatest day, Jesus stood up and shouted out, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me, and ³⁸ let the one who believes in me drink. Just as the scripture says, ‘From within him will flow rivers of living water.'” ³⁹ (Now he said this about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were going to receive, for the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.) (Jn. 7:37-39 NET)

Those of us who believe, who have been joined to Jesus (remember, he is the vine and we are the branches, cf. John 15), we now have that living water in our inner being. We often call the place where we have invited Jesus to dwell our “heart.” He lives in us through his Spirit, just as he promised:

“These things I have spoken to you while abiding with you. ²⁶ But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you. (Jn. 14:25 NAU)

The Spirit is our counselor who teaches us what Jesus said, and how Jesus wants us to live out his words. It is not enough to just know what he commanded us to do; we must actually put it into practice. When it shows up in how we act, speak and serve, then we become fruitful! We are offering sustenance to others through the empowerment of the Spirit in us by obeying the words that promote that kind of growth.

As Jesus said when explaining the rich meaning of this imagery, that we are like branches attached to the trunk of the vine (which is Jesus), his agape love is the key element, flowing into us and out of us. This is love that shows itself by acting for the welfare of others, kindness that reaches beyond barriers for their good. Remaining in him, and with him remaining in us, we are in complete union in a house whose essence is love. Over and over he underlined that to be able to live with him, making him our home, we must keep his words, his commands:

⁷ If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. ⁸ This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. ⁹ “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. ¹⁰ If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. ¹¹ I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. ¹² My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. ¹³ Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. (Jn. 15:1 NIV)

Jesus gave us a rich collection of his words through his disciples, who wrote them down for us. It takes deep meditation to have them rooted in our hearts. We need to process and understand them. Living them out includes struggling to apply all that he said in his “Beatitudes,” and all his parables. This is a high calling that stretches us beyond what is considered “normal” in our culture. Then comes that last command:

¹⁸ Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹ Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matt. 28:18-20 NIV)

It is a huge task that takes us out of spaces where we feel comfortable. He makes it possible, wherever we are, by being with us ALWAYS—his Spirit living in us:

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8 NIV)

So here we are, you and I who are contemplating the richness of all these words, longing to be more fruitful than we can ever be on our own. In union with Jesus through his Spirit, we are graced with a relationship we must cultivate by listening to the Spirit as he nourishes us with living water, by digesting the words and commands our God has left us in Scripture, then by “producing fruit” as we respond to the Spirit’s guidance daily. We are offered the best spiritual companionship ever, one overflowing with that amazing love we do not deserve but that is poured out on us and in us. Drawing our sustenance there, we can learn to do what he has commanded us to do.

What is he putting on your heart these days? Are you hearing his prompts?

My personal experience this year is this: he keeps directing me to certain Scripture passages to memorize, and while doing that I begin to contemplate what those words actually mean and how they are relevant to my life. I should not be surprised that time and time again new situations, ongoing conversations and unexpected challenges come up that direct me back to those verses. He set them before me as a feast, and my cup overflows (Ps. 23:5).

This teaching on immersion in God’s word is just what we need. Even the psalmist knew this and wrote the lengthy Psalm 119 exploring how God’s words teach us, and how they should be applied. These examples come from a heart wanting to live the way Jesus said we must live, in order to be fruitful:

³³ Teach me, LORD, the way of your decrees, that I may follow it to the end. ³⁴ Give me understanding, so that I may keep your law and obey it with all my heart. ³⁵ Direct me in the path of your commands, for there I find delight. (Ps. 119:33-35 NIV)

I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. (Ps. 119:11 NIV)

Yes, that last one has coached me since my parents had me memorize it when I was just a child. When God’s words are planted deeply in our hearts, the Spirit brings them to mind when we face a temptation to stray off the path of God’s commands. Our part is to participate in this mutual effort. We drink in the words, keep them embedded in our inner being, and respond gladly to their teaching—especially when the Spirit underlines them for us.

This is the growth process that the trees and bushes, weary of winter, are demonstrating as they drink in the rain water and the warmth from the heavens. May we bloom enthusiastically too!

Be One

You prayed your heart that last night, 
surrounded by eleven men 
who listened, astonished, and took note. 
And after you left (having suffered and risen) 
John remembered to write it down. 
For me. For us. For more to come.
We need to know what yearning
you expressed for health and harmony:
that we be one.
And it’s the hardest race we’ve ever run.

In fact, most of us have opted out
to run on our own paths, alone.
Some teammates seem so distant.
Others’ tongues keep lashing out
with hurtful words, insinuation,
wounding those who pass too close,
or whip on by, or stumble in the dark.

We’ve lost the goal! We must not run
to claim a prize for personal renown,
we run to honor you.
If we could run together, and
cheer each other on, hold up the weak,
we might break through the night
to see the light of your smile
at the way we run, together, as one.

Holy Week has been a wonderful moment of remembrance , contemplating Jesus’ sacrifice of himself to open the door to the Kingdom of God for humans, and how death could not hold him. He arose! It never gets older, only deeper. The fantastic news for those of us who enter through the door he opened is that Jesus never leaves us! His Spirit lives in us, guiding us and empowering us!

Oh how we need that constant Presence and counsel if we really respect our King and the personal command he underlined for us just before he was arrested:

“Just as the Father has loved me, I have also loved you; remain in my love. 10 If you obey my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. 11 I have told you these things so that my joy may be in you, and your joy may be complete. 12 My commandment is this– to love one another just as I have loved you. 13 No one has greater love than this– that one lays down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. (Jn. 15:1 NET)

It seems unrealistic to expect that we would lay down our lives for others who are also in the Kingdom. What we see (even right now in the United States) is great division, name-calling, slander. Much of it is caused by potical allegiances. Some of it is caused by a lack of respect for Jesus’ last command to his disciples. We are his disciples too, those who have believe in him!

“I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, ²¹ that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. ²² The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one . . . (Jn. 17:20 ESV)

We usually whip right past what traditionally was called “Maundy Thursday,” the day before Good Friday. This year I learned what “Maundy” means: It comes from the same root as “mandate,” and refers to that last command that Jesus gave his disciples, that they must love one another to “remain “in his love. Some translations use the word “abide” instead of “remain,” the idea being to live in his love, to have it as their permanent residence. Isn’t that exactly where we would like to live? His love, shown in the way he gave himself up for us, is constant and alive. It is filled with purpose: the welfare and growth of his people!

So why do we so easily skip over what Jesus underlined as absolutely essential? Often it may be because we find it impossible to love people who are difficult, even hurtful, in our community of Christians. How can we love them? How can we maintain a kind of unity that show that we “one” in Jesus Christ?

Digging into the real meaning of this kind of love can help us understand what Jesus is asking of us. The Greek word used in this context is not philos, but agape. Philos describes the natural emotional affection we have for family and close friends. Agape covers much broader territory and is made clear to us by the love that God has for the world (even those who reject him). The Son of God demonstrated it for us at the cross, giving his life for us. I find this explanation clear:

“The kind of love that we need in order to love people we don’t like is agape love. Now, agape love is not a feeling. We can love with agape love whether the feelings are present or absent, whether they are good or bad, whether this love is reciprocated or not. It is not a feeling.

“Agape love is an action. That’s how it’s always described in scripture. The Bible tells us that we know that God loves us because he sent his Son into the world to redeem us. We know that Jesus loves us because he gave his life for us. The Bible says, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man give his life for a friend.” And God says that he will know that we love him if we keep his commandments.”[1]

This means that even if we find a person difficult, and would not say that we like them, we must show love in action, caring for their welfare. We must pray earnestly for them, and ask that our own reactions would be honoring to our Lord. It may take some “pruning” (John !5:2); we need to be aware of our own failure to show love and let the Lord remove that “dead branch” from us, so that we can be fruitful.

Paul gave lots of information about how to live out agape in his letters to the churches. This is one succinct example:

⁸ But now, put off all such things as anger, rage, malice, slander, abusive language from your mouth. ⁹ Do not lie to one another since you have put off the old man with its practices ¹⁰ and have been clothed with the new man that is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of the one who created it. ¹¹ Here there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all and in all. ¹² Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with a heart of mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, ¹³ bearing with one another and forgiving one another, if someone happens to have a complaint against anyone else. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also forgive others. ¹⁴ And to all these virtues add love, which is the perfect bond. ¹⁵ Let the peace of Christ be in control in your heart (for you were in fact called as one body to this peace), and be thankful. ¹⁶ Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and exhorting one another with all wisdom, singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, all with grace in your hearts to God. ¹⁷ And whatever you do in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. (Col. 3:8-17 NET)

Verse 11 gives a warning against any divisions based on ethnicity or social status. We are all chosen by God to be his people and must do everything for him (v. 17), so our actions and words must be exactly what he wants us to do. He is right here with us. He knows what’s going on. If we have been digesting his word, letting it actually live in us, it is his words that we must graciously use to encourage one another. Yes:

Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. ¹⁵ Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. (Eph. 4:14-15 NIV)

Once again, love in our way of speaking is key! It results in a healthy, mature body: the community of Christ’s people.

Verses 12 and 13 list the key character qualities we must be working hard at developing with the Spirit’s help: mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, ¹³ bearing with one another and forgiving one another, if someone happens to have a complaint against anyone else. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also forgive others. We are to wear these qualities as our clothing—that is what others see us as. They are rooted in our hearts and flow out in our visible actions.

And of course there is a requirement to forgive others. Love is that antidote! We truly need the Spirit!

Do not take revenge or bear a grudge against members of your community, but love your neighbor as yourself; I am Yahweh. (Lev. 19:18 CSB)

We truly need the Spirit’s empowerment!

[1] Mary (Whelchel) Lowman, The Christian Working Woman, https://christianworkingwoman.org/broadcast/how-to-love-the-people-you-dont-liker/

For the Joy Set Before Him

He knew where he was going 
when he rode into the City of Peace 
that received him with such welcome: 
shouts of joy based on false expectations,
praise that would dissolve to bitterness
when his peace was not what they’d hoped for.

He knew that they would turn on him,
following their leaders, men jealous
of his power and rising fame.
He was sent for this intense rejection.
He’d known the end from the beginning. 
So he continued to push forward

toward condemnation, torture, death,
toward an excruciating pain
far worse than physical agony:
He was going to have the evil wrongs
done by the humans that he loved
thrown on him. Enormous weight!

But he kept on going toward the cross.
He was aware of all the chaos
but his eyes were firmly fixed
on higher things, the ultimate goal:
Joy! At last death would be conquered,
true rescue would be paid for, offered!

The raw insults and contempt
were the dark valley he must cross
to end up hung on a cruel cross.
He would obey commands laid out
in his own Word long ago, prophecies: 
what must be done to bring eternal joy.

A new covenant was necessary,
it must be signed in blood!
But no! Not animal blood this time!
His own blood would seal forever
the Promise, the Way to belong to God
and freely enter his Kingdom of love!

Eyes on the throne where Yahweh rules,
knowing it would be his forever,
knowing he would then bring life
to millions who would turn to him,
his eyes saw love and joy completed,
God’s great plan fulfilled at last!

Yes, Jesus knew what was awaiting him in Jerusalem. But he went there anyway. He had already told his disciples all that was going to happen to him there (Matt 17:22-23, Luke 9:22; 18:31-33). At their final meal together he explained that what was going to happen to him would involve his blood being shed, and it would not be for nothing. No! He was going to arrange for a new world order, the kingdom of God, with citizens who would belong exclusively to him and would live according to his purposes in this world. It would initiate a legal document, an eternal alliance between God and humanity:

In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you. (Lk. 22:20 NIV)

A new covenant? Why was it necessary? Because his former covenants with people had all been broken (Jer 11.10; Hos 6:7; 8:1). A covenant is a formal legal document with promises and laws that must be kept; it also includes consequences for not respecting them, so when the covenant people turned completely aside the covenant was broken.

Genesis 15-17 gives a detailed account of the way Yahweh made a covenant with Abram that had lasting effect, and it was done by splitting animal bodies in two, setting them opposite each other. Abram had to protect them from vultures, but as darkness fell he also fell asleep. And then “a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch appeared and passed between the animals.” (Gen 15:17), after which God made the details of the covenant clear to Abram (whose name was changed to Abraham).

Think about the blood and gore lying there by Abram, and then his astonishment when God spoke with him and made incredible promises. The symbols for God, extreme heat and light, passed between those bloody carcasses. The covenant was sealed.

Jesus was the sacrifice that brought in the new covenant; his very own holy blood, with no sin, was pouring from his hands and feet on the cross. It was the eternal seal of the everlasting covenant between God and humanity.

If we accept the terms of the covenant, which include faith in Jesus as Messiah and Savior and the only Way to God, then we enter into his Kingdom. It is a Kingdom of total justice and goodness, with commands that its citizens must obey. We need to know what they are and obey them! This is promised: as covenant followers we will enter into the experience of his supreme joy.

If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. ¹¹ I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. (Jn. 15:10-11 NIV)

Jesus obeyed the divine command to lay down his life for us, for all who would believe in him and become his own people. His blood sealed the covenant, with its commands. If we believe in his sacrifice and give ourselves completely to him, we must be obedient—and this brings joy, because we are walking with him daily, experiencing his love, and also realizing that we have entered eternal joy that is waiting for us after this earthly life. If our heart-eyes are looking ahead with confidence, then we have that joyful hope that is not “I hope so” but “I know it’s true!” It is faith. There is true joy that is fully complete up ahead beyond this world’s darkness, and as we run toward that goal our Savior’s love lives in us and instills current joy. Thank you, Jesus!

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Rom. 15:13 NIV)

We must keep our eyes fixed on him, not on the dark world around us. The joy of the Lord strengthens us and gives us solid, confident hope! As the writer to the Hebrews pointed out, many of God’s people have shown us how to live out our faith (see Hebrews 11), and now it’s our turn. How can we make it to our finish line? Eyes fixed on Jesus:

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, ² fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Heb. 12:1,2 NIV)

Craving Joy


When sorrow sits heavy on my soul 
I want to remember to go deep, 
stretch down to my foundations, 
touch the joy that lies there, 
waiting, holding on. 

It’s easy to forget, to wallow in the mud 
that seems pervasive, heavy, dark. 
But my Mentor has been nourishing 
my roots, plunging them yet further
into the source of Life.

It springs up constantly out of his stores.
I want each tendril to wake up,
draw in that precious energy
of Truth that never changes,
send Joy zinging

into each fingertip, into my eyes
so that I see things differently,
colored by his radiant love.
My heart will beat his rhythms
within the sorrow.

This month I’ve been studying Lamentations, preparing it for translation into Nyarafolo (Côte d’Ivoire). It is striking the way the writer elaborates in great detail the suffering his nation has gone through because of their sin, yet turns the central chapter around to focus on hope. It is not “I-hope-so” hope, but assurance that in spite of all the horrors God is faithful, and he will bring back joy.

This has kept me contemplating chaos and ongoing suffering, whether worldwide, national or personal. Grief is real. Sorrow is deep sadness. It is not realistic or healthy to say: “Just get over it! Everything will be all right!” But the Bible does say:

One may experience sorrow during the night, but joy arrives in the morning. (Ps. 30:5 NET)

That gives us something to look forward to and changes how we view the future. During the suffering, though, does joy just vanish? Paul gives his own testimony about this, starting with a long list of all the horrible things that have happened and are happening to him, inserting near the end that although he is sorrowful, he is “always rejoicing”! (2 Cor. 6:10 NIV)

Was he just an extraordinary Christian, or is this joy in the middle of sorrow something we Jesus-followers can truly experience?

Many pastors and scholars have delved into this. What I’ve learned is that our understanding of the implications of the word “joy” has grown shallow. We tend to use the words “happiness” and “joy” interchangeably in English. Both are important to our lives, but what I find helpful is a differentiation made meaningful by the Healing Springs Wellness Center:

“When we experience happiness, our brains activate reward centers and release dopamine—the same neurotransmitter involved in addictive behaviors. This creates a cycle where we constantly seek the next ‘happiness hit’ to maintain those positive feelings.

“Joy activates different brain regions entirely. It stimulates areas associated with: meaning-making and purpose; spiritual and transcendent experiences; long-term wellbeing and contentment; emotional regulation and resilience.”[1]

Joy is therefore “a more stable and sustainable emotion than happiness.”[2]

So happiness is a good thing, it just can’t produce the healthy ongoing stability that comes from joy. The Bible is clear that joy is produced in us by the Spirit’s work (Gal. 5:22)—it is not just man-made. We can hold onto this joy, knowing that God will also use our suffering for his good purposes, so that we become increasingly mature in our inner person:

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds,because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. (Jas. 1:2,3 NIV)

Not only this, but we also rejoice in sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, ⁴ and endurance, character, and character, hope. ⁵ And hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. (Rom. 5:3-5 NET)

When we are going through hard times (physical, emotional, social, whatever!) the darkness feels like it takes over. We cannot just shrug it off and claim that we’re fine, or give that advice to someone else. But we can remember that our loving God is at work in us and that his promise is also eternal life with him.

If we remember that we have a solid assurance of ongoing and everlasting joy, we can cling to that. Since that is not just a passing emotion but truth, put in place by God himself—the Spirit who lives in us—we can draw life-water from it to assuage our thirst even in the middle of a desert. It refreshes us even in the middle of sorrow when we dig deep into that source in our souls. So interacting with the statement in Psalm 30.5 that says “joy comes in the morning,” John Piper puts it this way:

” . . .it is just as true that my night of weeping would give way, in due time, to a tearless joy. That’s what I think the psalmist means when he says that joy follows sorrow. There are waves of sorrow and pain and loss that break, big waves that break, over the unshakable rock of Christian joy, and these waves submerge the laughter in the surging. You can feel it: the surging surf of weeping that wells up unbidden from your heart. But they don’t dislodge the rock, and the waves recede in due time, and the rock glistens again in tearless sunlight.”[3]

That “rock” of Christian joy is based on assurance that we are never alone, that God’s love is filling us and holding us through the storm, and that eternal joy is ahead. That is our solid rock. In my poem, I compared that joy to the springs of living water that nourish us all the time. We keep growing and producing fruit that includes endurance and joy when we stay rooted in the our sustaining assurance that God is sovereign and intimately involved with us. I remind myself to drink it in, even when I feel overwhelmed.

Jesus himself said that if we are walking with him, doing what he says, we will have this joy:

If you obey my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. ¹¹ I have told you these things so that my joy may be in you, and your joy may be complete. (Jn. 15:10-11 NET)

Cling to the joy!

[1] https://healingspringswellness.com/joy-vs-happiness-mental-health/

[2] Ibid., Dr. Antonio Damasio

[3] https://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/does-joy-come-after-suffering-or-in-it

Poured Out

I pour out my heart before you 
and there it lies, 
a puddle in your golden bowl: 
scent of sorrow, undertone of angst. 

You swirl the mixture deftly
and I see the colors whirl
to form a spiral carousel:
black of blindness, counterpoint of pearl

with an interplay of scarlet
(all the dreams I’ve had
now seasoned and remade
into a fragrant ointment by your hand).

My very self is liquid.
All I know is that,
ladled from the pitcher that you hold,
I’m poured out, sacrificed alive.

And I would rather be an offering
proffered by your hand
for whatever purpose you design
than live my life intact, but hard as nails.

Maybe you’ve come to a place where hurts or fears are wrenching, but you pray desperately to God and hand it all over to him. Maybe it’s that you just had an unexpected answer to prayer, and you want to let him know what it means to you. Emptying yourself before the Throne is what I am contemplating today: pouring out whatever we have in grief or in gratitude. It’s biblical:

Trust in him at all times, you people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge. (Ps. 62:8 NIV)

David was reminding his people to bring their fears to God, the only one who has true, ultimate power and steadfast love. His people must come in trust and be willing to just let it all out—“pour out your hearts.” When we do that, we find release and refuge.

“Pouring out” also is the figure of letting go of control. It honors God as our refuge and strength, the one in charge.

I can list some milestone moments when I knew that one choice was clear: would I just shove ahead and do what I wanted to do, or would I throw myself completely into Jesus’ hands, trusting his love and his purpose?

When I was twenty years old I was questioning my call to missions. I was starting college and I had a boyfriend. We had never discussed whether or not we would consider missions. But I suspected he had other plans. And there was war in many places! What if God wanted me to go to one of them, or to a place where Christians were severely persecuted? Maybe the promptings I had heard in my childhood and my teen years were just emotional moments.

Then at Urbana ’70, the InverVarsity Christian Fellowship Missions Conference, Paul Little’s message showed me what I was doing wrong: instead of just saying “yes” to whatever God’s will was, I was not trusting him. I was scared of what he would require, and that meant that I did not really believe in his goodness and love. Convicted of my self-sufficiency and rejection of him, I gave myself over to him. It was all I had to give, I realized. I felt “poured out,” like a sacrifice.

At that time I had no idea how God would show me his plan. Looking back, I chuckle at my lack of faith. He was already preparing me, in so many ways, for a life spent mostly in Africa with that man I was so attracted to, with a purpose only the Lord himself could have been putting in place. It did contain many challenges. I wrote the poem above thirty years later during a difficult season! What I was learning was to constantly give my Lord whatever I had to give and let him use it as a fragrant sacrificial offering.

I hadn’t known until doing Bible translation (especially the book of Numbers), that fragrant aromas were an integral part of many sacrifices to Yahweh God. When it comes to considering our personal selves as a fragrant offering, we are to look to the example of the Son of God himself:

Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children ² and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. (Eph. 5:1 NIV)

When we give ourselves up to God out of love for him, accepting his love for us and then living a life of love, it becomes and increasingly fragrant aroma to those he brings us in contact with. They may not like the scent; they may even distance themselves from it. But others will want to know what that unique fragrance is and may even search for it until they find it. It’s as if we are on exhibit:

But thanks be to God, who always puts us on display in Christ and through us spreads the aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place. ¹⁵ For to God we are the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. ¹⁶ To some we are an aroma of death leading to death, but to others, an aroma of life leading to life. And who is competent for this? (2 Cor. 2:14 CSB)

Another example of a fragrant sacrifice is the one that certain women gave Jesus just days before his crucifixion: they poured extremely costly oil, fragrantly spiced, on Jesus. They were giving him what they had to give. He understood both their depth of commitment to him, no matter what people thought, and that this “pouring out” had symbolism way beyond their understanding.

Let’s look at the when Mary poured her perfume on his feet, six days before the Passover feast (John 11-12). She knew Jesus well, and had been one of his most avid listeners even before she witnessed him raising her brother from the dead. We don’t know if she had heard him share that he was going to die in Jerusalem, where he would soon be going. But Mary and her sister Martha were convinced that he was Messiah (Martha told him so, just before he raised Lazarus), and had seen their brother resurrected. What could be done to show their complete devotion to him?

When Jesus and his discisples came back to Bethany on their way to Jerusalem, they gave a dinner for him. Martha was serving the meal, which was her gifting, her way of showing love and respect. Lazarus sat at the table with him. Where was Mary? She finally showed up, bringing with her a container of a precious gift she would use to show her devotion to him:

Then Mary took three quarters of a pound of expensive aromatic oil from pure nard and anointed the feet of Jesus. She then wiped his feet dry with her hair. (Now the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfumed oil.) (Jn. 12:3 NET)

It was what she had to give him. It said that he was worth anything no matter the cost. And pouring the oil on his feet was the job of a servant, not anyone of status. Mary showed her humility by also wiping his feet with her very own hair. It was an extravagant act of worship of Messiah (the Greek word means “anointed one”, one chosen for a specific service). While Judas Iscariot saw it as a waste of funds, Jesus pointed out that Mary’s timing was one of the signs pointing to what was coming: his death and burial. Not much time was left to be with him; this was a sacred moment in his presence before he would be killed.

Mary did what God had put in her heart, an act of love that would serve as a model to those who witnessed it, and also to us in a very distant future. We are stunned when we understand what was happening as Mary poured out out her love in the best way she could think of doing it.

What do I have to offer the one who gave himself for me? My very self! My time, my life! It is my surrender to the King of Kings to be his humble servant, expressing my gratitude for my astonishing current status as his own daughter as well! All I am doing is pouring out to him all I have, for him to use as he desires. All I am doing is following his own example!

Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children ² and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. (Eph. 5:1 NIV)

Savoring the Moment

Time tumbles forward, 
water over the cliff, 
and my life raft  
is all too quickly 
swept downstream. 

January hurtles past,
April, May, August . . .
I cling to the edges
and try not to swallow 
days whole, untasted.

What is life worth
if not lived with purpose?
What if I stay
tuned to winter freeze
when the sun is out?

I say no to that,
missing it all
with eyes on my rights
instead of God’s goals;
what he wants matters!

I will taste each moment, 
savoring Creator’s spice,
following his
instruction manual,
sharing the feast.

I attended three funerals this past month. That is truly a wakeup call, a reminder that we never know how much time we have left on earth. Our reaction can vary from trying to check off all those points on our bucket list: famous places to see, friends to visit, leisure activities to enjoy. Those are not bad in themselves, because enjoying our world and various seasons of life is healthy.

But what if we also let God be iinvolved in planning how we use our time? Since he is walking with us, holding us by the hand, continually eager to increase our fruitfulness, what is he saying about his purpose in each moment he gives us? He truly does want every moment of our lives to be dedicated to him, in joy or pain, in solitude or fellowship or out in the world somewhere.

If we want to be “holy,” it means we must be set apart for our Lord, consecrated to serving him. It has “to do with moving beyond the ego with its narcistic concerns and hedonistic interests—a real ‘death to self’.”[1] Living out this holiness thus requires “a selfless openness and response to God’s call in this sacred moment.”[2] Yes, a response! We cannot only learn how we should obey; we must let our mouths, hands and feet live it out!

And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. (Col. 3:17 NIV)

Viewing every moment as dedicated to God is what makes a moment “sacred,” whether we are washing dishes, writing letters, doing homework, fixing a car, or just responding to the Spirit’s prompting to call someone or to help the person in front of us. It means being alert to the whispers of his voice or the nudge that incites an action. When we begin to notice and respond to this guidance it changes everything: we find joy in doing what he says, and we learn what it actually means to leave one’s self behind. We have a loving Father, so he does astonish us with moments of delight and great surprises. To be complete, he wants us to serve the Word, reaching out in love to others.

⁸ This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. ⁹ “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. ¹⁰ If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. ¹¹ I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. ¹² My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. ¹³ Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. (Jn. 15:8-12 NIV)

Walking through life nourished by our Rescuer’s love, sharing that nourishment with those he puts in our community, this is what gives us complete joy. To accomplish it we must let Jesus take over our lives and direct them, moment by moment. How can we develop that sensitivity to his guidance? It takes practice. Contemplation of the Word that he left us is a solid beginning. Conversation with him, not just once or twice in a day but throughout the day, builds a focus on each “sacred moment.” How is life being dedicated to him? There are many ways to develop awareness of whether one is putting such awareness into practice. Here are a few notes that are helping me become alert as I talk and listen to my Guide:

Am I fulfilling the responsibilities you have given me? (This could be doing laundry, or carrying out ministry I’ve been given, or caring for myself and caring for others, all day long.)
What should I do next?
What time do you want me to set aside, focused on you alone?
What time do you want me to set aside to reach out to ___________ ?
What gift do I notice that I want to thank you for?
Please show me your priority for this moment, and help me to fulfill it!

This is part of “sanctification,” the ongoing transformation to holiness that we experience by the work of the Spirit in us and our response to it. Giving him control of our time makes it possible for us to set apart each moment for him. And he will use this practice for his excellent purposes. Glenn and I asked that the song below be sung at our wedding[3] as an expression of our yearning to be devoted to our Lord. Those last lines say it all: “Take myself, and I will be
Ever, only, all for Thee,.” It has been a long journey from that beginning in our early twenties to these years in our seventies, but we can look back and see how he has been the One carefully answering our prayers for this spiritual formation. I would love to hear your stories that testify to this too!

Take my life, and let it be
Consecrated, Lord, to Thee;
Take my moments and my days,
Let them flow in ceaseless praise,
Let them flow in ceaseless praise.
2
Take my hands, and let them move
At the impulse of Thy love;
Take my feet and let them be
Swift and beautiful for Thee,
Swift and beautiful for Thee.
3
Take my voice, and let me sing
Always, only, for my King;
Take my lips, and let them be
Filled with messages from Thee,
Filled with messages from Thee.
4
Take my silver and my gold;
Not a mite would I withhold;
Take my intellect, and use
Every power as Thou shalt choose,
Every power as Thou shalt choose.
5
Take my will, and make it Thine;
It shall be no longer mine.
Take my heart; it is Thine own;
It shall be Thy royal throne,
It shall be Thy royal throne.
6
Take my love; my Lord, I pour
At Thy feet its treasure-store.
Take myself, and I will be
Ever, only, all for Thee,
Ever, only, all for Thee.

[1] Haase, Albert, O.F.M. This Sacred Moment\: Becoming Holy Right Where You Are. (IVP Books, InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, IL, 2010), p. 12

[2] Ibid., p. 15

[3] “Take My Life and Let it Be”,Frances Ridley Havergal.

Pruned by the Wind

Leafless branches litter the wet earth 
in the aftermath of the storm. 
It came suddenly out of the north 
with a powerful wind 
that whipped through the trees 
and cleaned them out. 
Cobwebs are gone.
The dead weight of lifeless wood
was lifted away and the tree is free,
stretching up toward sky and sun.

Spirit-wind, breath of God,
sometimes gently whispering hope
and polishing my skin,
you also can come ripping through 
like a forceful hurricane.
I can tell what you’ve produced:
quiet moments that bring to life
blooms with rustling beauty,
or telltale signs of pruning
that those gales leave behind.
Of course I felt the wrenching
as dead limbs were torn off,
lashed by invisible force, blown away.

What is left is living, ready to thrive,
to bud and ripen good fruit.
I’ve been feeling that stash of love!
Thank you for freeing me,
lifting the grip of sins
and weight of false expectations.
I bask in the light of your smile
and the tender touch of your Breeze,
ready to keep on growing,
knowing that all you do is for my good:
to make me more like you,
bearing fruit to feed the world.

Nature truly speaks. Affter that wind whipped through our courtyard back in Ferkessédougou, any branch that was weak had been broken off and was waiting to be picked up and thrown away. The mango trees and lime trees, in particular, had been pruned. In the months to come, we would begin to see the beginnings of delicious fruit we longed for.

This imagery is what Jesus used when talking about the branches, we who are his disciples and are attached to him (John 15). Those branches that stay firmly attached will be fruitful because he prunes them so that they are healthy, not weighed down with unproductive twigs. Any weak, withered shoots are cut off and thrown away. He makes it clear that this is a kind of cleaning up! The branch is freed of excess weight that does no good, or twigs that have been infected. Then it can produce lots of excellent fruit.

Applying the image to us means that we need to have him clean us up so that we are not dragged down by all that is not productive or is diseased. The way that he does this is through his commands that show us how to live in a healthy way: his word. I used to wonder why he told his disciples that they were already “clean,” in the middle of his discourse about cutting off branches:

I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. ² He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. ³ You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. (Jn. 15:-1-3 NIV)

Then one day I read the footnote in my NIV 2011 Bible: “The Greek for he prunes also means he cleans.” So Jesus was taking the imagery of the vinekeepers’ work and making its interpretation clear when he applied it to the spiritual work he was doing in his disciples. He had spoken God’s words to them, and as they learned to practice what those words said was right in God’s eyes, they were being cleaned. Sin was being taken out of their lives and they were being made healthy spiritually. The NET note for the verse underlines this: “The phrase you are clean already occurs elsewhere in the Gospel of John only at the washing of the disciples’ feet in 13:10, where Jesus had used it of the disciples being cleansed from sin.”

Over and over he has repeated the prerequisite for being a healthy “branch” that remains attached to the Vine, himself: they must “remain in” Him:

⁴ Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. ⁵ “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. (Jn. 15:1 NIV)

That emphasis refers to staying firmly committed to Jesus, living life for him and because of him. We must make him our source of spiritual life and empowerment in the same way that a branch draws all its sustenance from the trunk of the vine. But it also underlines a warning: to not ever turn away from him and become “unfruitful.” So how do we stay firmly attached, remaining in him? Continuing his teaching, Jesus said:

¹⁰ If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. (Jn. 15:10 NIV)

His words, his commands, show us what it means to be devoted to him. If we obey them, we are living out our commitment, staying attached. And there is one essential command that that we must obey to stay firmly attached to him:

My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. (Jn. 15:1 NIV)

This is a High Calling! Jesus suffered to the extreme, to the ⁿth degree, and gave himself over to death on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins, all because of his love for humanity—his love for you, for me. Are we practicing this kind of love in our community? Are we pouring ourselves out for the good of others, doing it out of love that flows from our intimate loving relationship with Jesus, our God and Savior? We must turn our hearts and actions in this direction in order to “remain” in his love!

True, we are incapable of performing this through our own strength. We wither, because if we just try to do it ourselves we are not drinking in the life-giving “sap” that flows from the vine into us, the branches. But as we increase our intimate personal relationship with our Lord, opening ourselves constantly to his work in reshaping us and giving us spiritual strength, we will become increasingly aware of how he want us to love like he does. This is not just emotional attraction. It is agape love (ἀγάπη) that values the other person. I appreciate this explicit rendering in the Danker Greek NT Lexicon: “think of God and you think of agape” ! The Friberg Analytical Greek Lexicon defines agape this way: “love as based on evaluation and choice, a matter of will and action.”

When my Nyarafolo team and I were trying to figure out a way to express God’s love as the reason that he sent Jesus to us, it was a daunting challenge. The automatic way to express that you love someone in their language is “they please me.” We realized that it could not work in John 3:16. It would be incorrect to say that God was so pleased with the world that he gave his Son to die for us! No! He saw our wickedness, our ongoing brokenness. Abdoulaye Ouattara was a team member that we had sent to a seminary to get training for translation. So I urged him to explore various expressions that would fit the concept of agape . He found this one which is now in the Nyarafolo Scriptures: “for the worth of humanity (their essence) was so very great to God that he gave his Son . . .” We meant so much to him that he gave us his life for us! This is true love indeed.

How should we apply that when it comes to “loving one another” in the community of Jesus followers? How about when that person is difficult to understand, or irritating? What if they are still beginners in their walk and we see them tripping? How would agape love choose to act toward them? In each case, we need to remember the measure of God’s love for us, shown by the very personal self-sacrifice he actually carried out for our sake. Let’s ask our Savior to cleanse us with his word, to remove our broken impulses and unloving words and actions. Pruned, we are made ready to grow. We must listen and follow his counsel in each situation, testing to see if we are listening attentively. We know that his counsel will be to choose to act with kindness and unselfishness for the good of those in our community, following his example!

Now grab this: the amazing result of obediently living out agape love is not fatigue, as one might think. It is joy!

¹⁰ If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. ¹¹ I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. (Jn. 15:1 NIV)

Cross

cross-eyed 
 I had no clear vision 
life was a cross 
I had to carry 
 and I was cross 
at the tangled criss-cross 
web of weariness 
and crass emptiness 
(clouded crock) 
case-hardened 

then 

cross my heart 
it came across brand new 
old and rugged time-tested
Christ’s cross 

his cross purposes
crossed over from heaven
to clean and fill me
tore across 
my star-crossed life
crossed out counterfeit
conclusions

I took up a new cross
supernatural
carrying it
through thick and thin
forward to joy
the crossbar holds me
yoked to him
light as freedom
never alone

Many of us love to wear crosses; they tell people we are Christian. They may be gold, silver, or beaded with many colors. They are in our churches, some of them tall and simple, others elaborately decorated; some have statues representing Jesus hanging on them. The cross is key. Yet we too often keep it reserved as a symbol rather than living out what Jesus taught about it.

Did you notice that I am contemplating three different crosses here? They symbolize the three critical phases of spiritual pilgrimage toward Home.

Before knowing Jesus Christ personally, we are all carrying the heavy load of life with no assurance of help or hope. Like the thieves who also carried their crosses to the place where they would die, the cross means a life span that is ending. Punishment.

However Jesus gave himself for us, carrying his cross and dying on it not because he had ever sinned, but to pay for our sins. So his cross gave us salvation, a new life hidden in God. Once we understand that, and grab that truth personally, we are freed from the old cross of condemnation.

But he told his disciples: “Take up your cross and follow me!” Hmmm!

“If anyone wants to come with Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me. ²⁵ For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of Me will find it. ²⁶ What will it benefit a man if he gains the whole world yet loses his life? Or what will a man give in exchange for his life? (Mat 16:24-26)

This cross is also a personal one, like the first, but totally different in meaning. It denotes total individual devotion to follow Jesus Christ, even if it means to suffer or die because of that commitment. The world’s priorities and Jesus’ Way are totally incompatible. Jesus came to earth, God becoming incarnate, in order to bring us salvation through his death. He did not live to have success, entertainment, pleasure or material goods in order to be content. Instead he put up with antagonism from leaders while reaching out with compassion to the vulnerable, teaching God’s truth instead of popular interpretations of how to be “righteous.” And he did know that this would lead to his death as a young man. Nevertheless he followed God the Father’s plan, and died for us rather than capitulating to pressures of gaining respect or power other ways. His resistance to Satan’s temptations, when he was in the wilderness, made this clear, as did his entry to Jerusalem as Messiah, riding a donkey, when he knew what would happen to him in that city: he would be crucified.

When we take up our own “cross” we are throwing off our attachment to worldly must-haves and turning to Jesus. Where he leads, we follow. What he says to do, we do. If we stumble as we go forward, he provides strength to get up and keep going. His love surrounds us because he is always with us. Losing that other life means finding true life in him. It begins now and will go on forever, even if the earthly path we are on leads to persecution. For some it does lead to cruel death. For others it just means putting up with the inaccurate judgments and criticisms of people who do not understand this devotion to Jesus.

So, contemplating this, another teaching of Jesus comes to mind. Did it contradict this one about the heavy cross we carry in this world, obedient to God alone? He said that he would give us rest, and an easy load! A cross is heavy!

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take my yoke on you and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For my yoke is easy to bear, and my load is not hard to carry.” (Matt. 11:28 NET)

Once again Jesus was using imagery that was easily understood by his audience. Many were farmers or knew farming, and the yoke was the harness put on oxen to lead them in the right directions while plowing a field. He made it clear: he would lead his devoted follower with gentleness, not overreach that would make it painful to do what he insisted they must do.

The “yoke” of religious leaders at that time was a mountain of detailed additions to the Law that God had given through Moses. Their restrictions made “right” living extremely complicated. “The Pharisees spoke of 613 commandments, and their hălākôt (“rulings”) involved a complicated casuistry. . . When Jesus invites people with the words . . . ‘take my yoke upon you,’ he invites them to follow his own teaching as the definitive interpretation of the law.”[1]

Jesus’ was invoking discipleship, commitment to the Teacher and his words, a complete devotion to him and his Way. Instead of rites or detailed restrictions that added on to God’s commands, his teaching was Truth. It was about self-denial, yes, because selfishness concentrates on earning temporary earthly pleasure or affirmation. That does not matter in the long run, the eternal one. But he underlined that walking in the yoke with him, he would bear the load with us and give us rest instead of added-on heaviness. A yoke holds together two oxen who are pulling a plow. He says he will never leave us but always be right beside us, and because of his strength working with us, the load is “easy” to carry forward.

As Randy Alcorn says, choosing to take up our cross and follow Jesus is the “best investment” ever:

“We’re to count the cost of discipleship, and also the cost of non-discipleship. The alternative to following Christ wholeheartedly and abiding in Him and obeying Him even when it’s uncomfortable is to not follow and obey Him. There is no third alternative. When we choose our own path, we forfeit joy, fulfillment, and eternal gain.”[2]

Amazing irony here: carrying this kind of heavy cross (you cannot take it lightly!) brings us peace and intimate fellowship with Jesus, the one who walks with us every minute and understands our suffering because he walked this earth too. We are not free to just roam wherever we want to, with no understanding of the prize that is waiting for us if we don’t get lost but stay on the Way. His yoke directs us in the right paths, to plow whatever field he places us in—to be productive for him. This cross is not merely a decoration. It is life commitment, worth every breath we have!

I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So the life I now live in the body, I live because of the faithfulness of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Gal. 2:20 NET)

When I wear my cross necklace, it should remind me what it declares: I am completely attached to Christ, the one who died to save me and who guides me constantly through life’s chaos to Home with him. It does not mean than I attend church or am a “good person.” It means that I know the truth it stands for: forgiveness, rescue and life, now and forever!

[1] Donald A. Hagner, Matthew 1–13, vol. 33A, Word Biblical Commentary (Dallas: Word, Incorporated, 1993), 323–325.

[2] Randy Alcorn, Eternal Perspective Ministries, June 19, 2024 https://www.epm.org/resources/2024/Jun/19/cost-discipleship-comparison/

Call for Urgent Care

Your body, Lord, needs urgent care! 
Right hand fights against its own left hand. 
Ears hear different music, east and west. 
Eyes are bloodshot, crossed and blurred, 
seeing only what each wants to see. 
Lungs breathe in polluted air 
whose fumes push out the Spirit. 
Legs crossed, the veins bulge, blocked;
feet stay firmly rooted, passion lost.
The mouth spouts careless, cutting words
instead of truth in love, and the weak heart
is full of palpitations, missing beats.

Come Lord! Do surgery now!
Scrape out accumulated dirt,
untwist the tangled nerve connections!
Transplant organs that no longer function!
Purify the centers in the brain
that create speech and govern all the limbs!
Transfuse the blood of your good Son
into the circulation network, make it hum
instead with love and motivation –
so that limbs uncross and run,
so that arms coordinate and reach to hug!
Come do your surgery! Yes Lord, come!

I was talking with a friend and she mentioned that it often startles her that I use surgical vocabulary in some of my blogs—and we talked about the influence my dad (Dr. Dwight M. Slater) the surgeon had on me. He would come home for lunch and tell us kids about the interesting surgery he had done that morning, sometimes grabbing a piece of paper to draw out the process he had had to go through to remove a tumor or repair a body part. I was used to that talk, even “blood and guts” stories while we were eating! Back then I thought that I would probably be a doctor some day too, so when I became a teen I began to assist Dad in surgery. Remember—we were in northern Côte d’Ivoire, and this was the ‘60s when he had to train all his assistants, whether they had ever attended school or not.

I was fascinated by the manoevers the surgical team made together, but most of all by Dad’s essential tool: the scalpel. He had shared many times, when giving his testimony in U.S. churches, that it was the tool in his hand to be used by God (like Moses’ staff, Exodus 4:2).

Then yesterday while spending a few more minutes sorting through files of sermon notes that Dad left behind, I found a series he had given at “Glory Week,” a week set aside at Ivory Coast Academy (MK boarding school) for spiritual emphasis. I can’t wait to share his insights; some of them truly apply to this week’s contemplation of the need for “urgent care” when the Christian community, the Body of Christ, is infected with serious dissensions. This is not the first time in history when we feel it. All we need to do is study the source of all the divisions that have produced separations, sometimes the closing of a church. It’s true that we must stand firm for truth, but we must also be willing to admit our own failing to comply with our Lord’s commands and our sheltering of such sin in our hearts. Here are some gleanings from Dad’s words:

“If there is one tool or instrument that characterizes all of surgery, it is the knife. What if a person is wheeled into the OR, has anesthesia, the instruments are put out on the table, needles and sutures laid out, the OR light turned on. Later he is wheeled out of surgery and talks to his relatives and friends. But one thing was missing—no knife was used! No incision was made, no diseased tissue was removed. Here is why that person didn’t have surgery: the knife didn’t touch him. It was all just a big show. Nothing really happened. The disease is still there.

“Too often a Christian goes through all the show of confession and repentance without ever letting the Holy Spirit of God actually cut sin out of their life. They may admit that there is surgery needed, go to the altar and kneel, but the knife is not there. A knife must be used!”

Dad then went into Jesus’ teaching about the use of a knife to remove sin in Matthew 5:29,30. You know what shocking words he used: if your eye or hand offends you, cut it off! What Jesus was underlining is that sin must be removed for the rest of the body to be saved from the consequences of its rot.

It is true! If you have a cancerous tumor and you admit it is there, but refuse all surgery or chemical treatment, there is no hope for recovery.

When we leap to judgment and assign wicked motives to a Brother or Sister who understands Scripture’s application differently from us, and “shout” hurtful words at them without engaging in healthy discussion, we are not acting in line with the kind of spiritual fruit we are to be living out:

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law. (Gal. 5:22 NET)

⁴ Love is patient, love is kind, it is not envious. Love does not brag, it is not puffed up. ⁵ It is not rude, it is not self-serving, it is not easily angered or resentful. ⁶ It is not glad about injustice, but rejoices in the truth. ⁷ It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. (1 Cor. 13:4-6 NET)

We must not just say we know all that, then walk away from the surgery table. Let’s dive into the Word of God and ask our Lord to use it to surgically remove all rotten fruit, all unloving characteristics from our inner being. His Word can do it: it is the sharpest scalpel ever! His Spirit already knows about any sin we are conveniently hiding, and he will apply the holy scalpel to bring us to health and fruitfulness!

For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any double-edged sword, piercing even to the point of dividing soul from spirit, and joints from marrow; it is able to judge the desires and thoughts of the heart. And no creature is hidden from God, but everything is naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must render an account. (Heb. 4:12-13 NET)

*Photo credit: Josh Wohlgemut

Unnamed but Chosen

She lived in a land of darkness 
oppressed by cruel foreigners. 
She carried deep personal shame: 
“barren” was her common name. 
No hope for a descendant! 
No sign she could conceive! 

Her husband had not spurned her,
his name must have consoled her:
“place of rest: Manoah.” 
So she was quick to tell him
that a God-sent messenger
had brought her stunning news!

What? She would birth a son,
a unique one, set apart 
even before he was born
to begin to rescue Israel
from the enemy Philistines!
He would be consecrated
to serve El, their fathers’ God!

She recognized awesomeness,
a supernatural quality, 
in this envoy  sent from God!
 She believed and so she hurried 
to pass on the message 
to Manoah—not all details,
but a child was coming,
a Nazirite, dedicated in her womb!

Manoah accepted her news,
but needed it signed, sealed,
delivered  straight to him.
So he prayed, and Yahweh
heard and sent his envoy
once again—to the woman!
She was unnamed, but chosen
to be herald of the news!

She was out there on their farm
when the “man of God” 
showed up again, to her.
This was true, she knew:
he was answered prayer,
confirmation that God heard.
Manoah rose from his rest,
followed his wife to the farm.
Yes! The envoy had returned!

To raise the coming child,
the messenger explained,
his wife must be a Nazirite
right now, her pregnancy
a preparation of their son.
She too was set apart,and known,
essential to  God Yahweh’s plan! 

The messenger insisted that 
he too must stay unnamed,
his name was unintelligible
to someone like Manoah. 
He also refused to dine;
instead, he said, burn the food
as sacrifice to Yahweh!

So the couple set on fire  
the goat and the grain, on a rock.
As flames rose to the sky
so did the envoy! Shock!
It was all clear: this showed
he was no ordinary man!
They fell face down in awe!
Manoah feared they’d die,
but his wise wife pointed out
the truth: their sacrifice 
had been accepted; the rest
was in Yahweh’s great hand.

She remained unnamed
but no longer shamed! 
She followed through
and gave birth to a son
named after the Sun,
then did what she could 
to teach him to not follow  
 gods worshiped by the others 
around them in those days.

It was now time for Yahweh
to stir up some trouble—the kind
that would remind his people 
he was still in charge.
It was a mysterious plan
they would not understand.

I find it hard to read through the Book of Judges; it is so full of despair and violence. But then there are those break-through moments when the God of infinite patience and love finds a way to shake things up and turn his people back to worship him, Yahweh.

This time the unnamed woman, “Manoah’s wife,” caught my attention (see Judges 13). Unlike Sarah and Hannah who also had unexpected pregnancies, she is kept in the background. No name! Just the wife of a man who is identified! Yet God sent his messenger to her, and knew that she would carry through. She did the right thing: she ran to tell her husband and involved him in the story. But it was harder for him to recognize the supernatural nature of the messenger, and that showed up when he offered to feed him, then asked him his name. Names are important, but this messenger was underlining his supernatural origin: no way would he reveal his name, since it was way beyond Manoah’s understanding. Finally Manoah “got it” when the man rose into the sky in the sacrificial flames.

So why does the woman remain nameless? She was important. She had been given the information that her son would “begin” the rescue of Israel from the Philistines—and that is what Samson, her son did. He never conquered them completely, to deliver his people. He slipped and fell in lustful ways and unwisely betrayed the secret to his divinely-endowed strength. His role was to begin to rattle boththe enemy and the oppressed. Yahweh was reminding them of his role in their background and in hope for their future.

His mother, still with no name, was a believer in the God of their ancestors. She recognized that the angel came from El, the generic name of their God, spontaneously while her husband did not. She knew about the rules for dedication to El’s service as a Nazirite, which was usually a temporary vow with dietary restrictions, and she was willing to commit to them. The angel spoke of Yahweh when he told the couple to sacrifice their food to Yahweh, but the only time one of the couple actually used the revealed name of God, “Yahweh,” was when Manoah’s wife said to him: “If Yahweh wanted to kill us, he would not have accepted the burnt offering and the grain offering from us.” (NET 13:14).[1] She was stepping into a new relationship with Yahweh, trusting his erasure of her sterility and his gift through her of a deliverer for his people.

She named her son “Samson,” a common name in that region which in Hebrew meant something like “sun-like.” I wonder if she hoped he would bring light into their darkness. So how did she feel when he fell in love with a Philistine woman, a daughter from the ungodly oppressers of her people? She must have wondered how God was going to use this strong son of hers, as faulty as he was. When God had sent other leaders, it had been in response to Israel “calling out to God.” In this case, his people were actually silent. How would he act? Then when God began to empower her son (14:6) it was not what she must have expected: he won a fight with a violent lion! And the story goes on.

What we do know is that this woman was a chosen vessel of Yahweh to begin restoring his people to freedom. Manoah is named, so the reader would think he was going to be a hero, but instead “this is an element of the narrator’s art in leading you to expect one thing only to discover another.”[i] What we learn is that God cares for people that society sees as insignificant, and he often chooses to use them for his big purpose.

Any of us who have read this far and feel like we are insignificant, even nameless, actors in God’s story can take inspiration from the role of Manoah’s wife. She stands out as a woman of faith and obedience to her Lord, Yahweh, the God that her people were no longer following with devotion. May we follow her example! We don’t need to be recognized, to have fame. We cannot know what God will do as a result of our daily commitment to him. But we do know that he uses his devoted people—even wives who find themselves in the background—for his purposes! And that is good.

[1] Robert B. Chisholm Jr., A Commentary on Judges and Ruth: Commentary, Kregel Exegetical Library (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Academic, 2013), 401–402.

[i] Butler, (2009:323) cited by Mary J. Evans, Judges and Ruth: An Introduction and Commentary, ed. David G. Firth and Tremper III Longman, vol. 7, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries (London: Inter-Varsity Press, 2017), 146.

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