I’ve been re-reading a short little book by Francis A. Schaeffer called The Mark of the Christian.  It’s a tiny little book with a great big punch.  So, the election is behind us and the mark of a Christian is not an elephant or a donkey or draped in libertarian ideals or environmental justice.  The mark of the Christian is how we approached the election, how we treat (and treated) others, especially other Christians, and how we react to God in the midst of it all.  The mark of the Christian is whether we love one another in the family of God…. as Jesus loves us. 

That standard of love is not superficial based on race or gender or ethnic background.  That standard of love is not how much or how little sin we have committed as if any Christians ought to boast with our comparative righteousness.  That standard of love is this:

Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

So rather than political parties, labels, group affiliations, lapel pins, necklaces with a cross on them, or even a special haircut, Schaeffer says that there is a “better sign–a mark that has not been thought up just as a matter of expediency for use on some special occasion or in some specific era.  It is a universal mark that is to last through all the ages of the church till Jesus comes back.”

What is this mark?

To Schaeffer, it is found in John 13:33-35…which “reveals the mark that Jesus gives to label a Christian not just in one era or in one locality, but at all times and all places until Jesus returns.”

Upon Christ’s authority, Jesus gives the world “the right to judge whether you and I are born-again Christians on the basis of our observable love toward all Christians.”

So take a look at your Facebook wall, your blog posts, your Gospel Coalition article, your Christianity Today posting–you know, that public display of your heart–by which JESUS gives the WORLD the RIGHT to judge whether you’re a true follower of Christ and ask yourself this important question:  How’s your observable love?

What do you have your trust in?

Today, I rejoice in the easy conscience of one who takes a stand for Christ.  No matter what happens, I’ve done my best to take my stand for the Word.  To take my stand for Christ.  To take my stand against the evil one and against everything the evil one stands for.  I take my stand with full assurance that Jesus is with me and will guard me…because I have acknowledged Him.

Matthew 10:28 Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. 30 And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. 31 So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. 32 “Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. 33 But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven. 34 “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to turn “‘a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law– 36 a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’ 37 “Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; 38 and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.

39 Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

Yes, here I take my stand!

For those of you, my dear readers who have been with me for a while, you know that every year, I’ve endeavored to do a devotional series for Lent and also for Advent.  For Advent 2016 Devotionals, God placed on my heart the Timeless desire for healing and encouragement and how the Gospel ministers both.

It’s been a tough year with divisive politics, world events that are enough to give a sane person real pause; there are worries, strife, and many personal tragedies that can cause each of us to look inward, knowing the bitterness and the gall as Jeremiah once lamented.

Lamentations 3:19 I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. 20 I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me.

21 Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: 22 Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. 23 They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. 24 I say to myself, “The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.” 25 The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him;

It is into a world such as this that Jesus came and gave us the Timeless message of the Gospel.  It’s a message of encouragement for all ages.

No matter how the election turns out, we’ll all need a little healing and I trust we will find our places again as brothers and sisters in the family of God.  Those outside of the family likewise will have had a tough year as most years inevitably are on this fallen earth.  Once you have been strengthened and restored, as Advent nears, reach out your hand to someone outside the Church who needs Timeless encouragement.  The Gospel heals.

Join me for Advent 2016 Devotionals called Timeless: the Message of Christmas for All Ages beginning November 27, 2106.  Timeless hope, encouragement, grace, peace, and love will be ours as we look into the Word, see the face of our Lord Jesus, and experience restoration in His presence.  His goodness and His Gospel are truly Timeless.

Advent begins November 27, 2016.  If you’re already signed up on my Home Page sidebar to receive posts, you’ll get the Advent devotionals automatically.  If you haven’t signed up, today is a great day to do so.  Advent and Lenten devotionals remain among my most popular offerings.  You don’t want to miss this great way to prepare your heart for the true meaning of Christmas!

====

Prior year’s Advent devotionals (all of which can be accessed via the archives to the right) are as follows:  

The 2015 season devotionals were titled Incarnation and involved digging deep–and yes, I mean deep– in this important mystery of Christian theology.  They began November 29, 2015.

Carol Me, Christmas! remains one of my most popular offerings and tells the Christmas story through our most beloved Christmas hymns and carols.  You can access all of the numbered devotionals from 2014 via the archives.  They began November 30, 2014.

The 2013 series was Emmanuel: When LOVE Showed Up in Person and examined the Prologue to the Gospel of John.  It began December 1, 2013.

The 2012 series focused on Expecting the Unexpected…the unexpected, unlikely, and uniquely divine qualities of God’s perfect plan outlined in Luke’s account of the Christmas story.  It began December 1, 2012.

Love keeps no record of wrongs.  Do you?  Hard as it is to keep short accounts with God and to forgive fully the offenses of our fellow man, it matters.  It matters today.  It matters eternally.

2 Corinthians 5:10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad. 11 Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade men. What we are is plain to God, and I hope it is also plain to your conscience. …

14 For Christ’s love compels us,

because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15 And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. 16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:

19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.

20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Love keeps no record of wrongs.  Praise God!  If you’re a new creation, forgiven in Him, go and do likewise.

No one says it better than God through the writings of the Apostle Paul:

1 Corinthians 13:1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

3 If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8 Love never fails.

Christian, tame your tongue– your light was meant for good, not arson.

I’ve been praying a long time on this one.  Hard words: Tame your tongue… (sigh).  Sometimes, I don’t like my role in the body of Christ too much. But, I understand now. I am a watchman of sorts. A semi-permeable membrane, one little person standing outside of the church with everyman’s Christian mission:  to let Christ’s light shine brightly from the Light of the World into a world of evil…while doing my level best to keep the fuel of an evil culture from mixing with it to burn the whole place down.  Through the prophet Micah, God spoke of a day when people would turn away from the ways of God.

Micah 7:1 What misery is mine! I am like one who gathers summer fruit at the gleaning of the vineyard; there is no cluster of grapes to eat, none of the early figs that I crave. 2 The godly have been swept from the land; not one upright man remains. All men lie in wait to shed blood; each hunts his brother with a net. 3 Both hands are skilled in doing evil; the ruler demands gifts, the judge accepts bribes, the powerful dictate what they desire– they all conspire together. 4 The best of them is like a brier, the most upright worse than a thorn hedge. The day of your watchmen has come, the day God visits you. Now is the time of their confusion. 5 Do not trust a neighbor; put no confidence in a friend. Even with her who lies in your embrace be careful of your words. 6 For a son dishonors his father, a daughter rises up against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law– a man’s enemies are the members of his own household. 7 But as for me, I watch in hope for the LORD, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me.

Do you not see what’s happening?

Christians are losing track of words, losing sight and perspective, and worse, losing their light of witness.  Words, they’re spreading fire and propagating confusion.

James 3:5b Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. 6 The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.

Tame your tongue.  It’s not unloving to point that out. It’s what God also spoke to Ezekiel: Ezekiel 3:17 “Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from me. 18 When I say to a wicked man, ‘You will surely die,’ and you do not warn him or speak out to dissuade him from his evil ways in order to save his life, that wicked man will die for his sin, and I will hold you accountable for his blood. 19 But if you do warn the wicked man and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his evil ways, he will die for his sin; but you will have saved yourself. 20 “Again, when a righteous man turns from his righteousness and does evil, and I put a stumbling block before him, he will die. Since you did not warn him, he will die for his sin. The righteous things he did will not be remembered, and I will hold you accountable for his blood. 21 But if you do warn the righteous man not to sin and he does not sin, he will surely live because he took warning, and you will have saved yourself.”

I am not perfect. I do not speak perfectly, but my heart genuinely wants to turn us all to the One who is perfect…and to remember what He has called us to do: Tell of Him, Jesus Christ, who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

No Christian should choke his fellow man for 100 denarii (Matthew 18:28). 

Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ (Matthew 18:33)

From the lips of Jesus, about refusing to be merciful

“This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.” (Matthew 18:35)

Be one of those who watches in hope for the LORD, who waits for God as Savior, who trusts that God will hear his prayers, and will see his efforts as carefully speaking and spreading only the truth.

The point is simple really.  Good news saves people. May we all learn how to tame the tongue and use our light to tell words of hope…of the One who saves.

When I think of a virtue that is genuinely overlooked in the Christian world, it is appreciation of beauty. It’s why I saved the best for last in our series of Tiny Virtues for Exemplary Christian Living. Appreciation for what is beautiful is a divine quality that touches the soul in ways that words alone cannot. Think of it this way: we often exalt a study of the Word, which is important to be sure. But God didn’t create the Word. What does Scripture say? Jesus is the Word… made flesh. He was not created.

Beauty, however, is something God created for Himself, for His own pleasure, His own joy, and His own glory. Yes, God is beautiful, but His creative acts are wholly distinct from Himself. God is not creation. He is not in the trees, the flowers, the mountains, or the stars. Unlike pantheists, Christians do not believe that everything is God.

Christians believe there is God… and then there are things He made that He, frankly, didn’t have to make.

Why did God do it?

God created because He loves what is beautiful as a reflection of His glory.

How often do we think of what is beautiful in superficial ways: a pretty face, a nice outfit, a handsome hunk, high-end furniture, or a great looking car? Or maybe the lilt of the whippoorwill, the gargling sound of a wren, or the shriek of an owl? The twizzle steps of the ice skater or the elegance of a waltz? Each beautiful for what is visible or audible. But for God, beauty is deeper. It’s glory deep.

That’s why Scripture tells us that even when the earthly body of Jesus was not physically what we’d call beautiful (Isaiah 53:1-12), God’s Perfect Image bearer, Jesus Christ, had beauty that was deeper.  He’s the Son of God and yes, fully human, the Son of Man.  The Word teaches us that the beauty of any human no matter how old or young, how flawless or marred a physical body, how well dressed or ragged they look…that beauty exists because of God’s Image stamped in them.

Beyond the human, the beauty of any other created object is beautiful because of the beautiful mind in Whom it was conceived. And because of the joy He has in bringing it into being.

Psalm 27:4 One thing I ask of the LORD, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple.

Ponder today: What is beautiful in your life? Thank God for beauty in every place you find it.

Person of the day:  Beautiful you, a reflection of love with the Made by God stamp of beauty, His Image.

There is a perspective that Exemplary Christians know. It’s a view of eternity. Of seeing today in the light of forever. It’s not easy to develop this kind of perspective, but it’s well worth it. It’s a Tiny Virtue in which today melts away and all today’s sufferings become “light and momentary” as Paul calls them when they are viewed against the canvas of eternal glory. It’s the focus on eternity, forever in the virtuous heart, that becomes like the camera lens centering on future glory while our sufferings become the misty backdrop against which the glory shines.

For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. (2 Corinthians 4:17)

What kinds of things can we do to develop this eternal view?

Gratitude like the Samaritan had. Luke 17:12 As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance 13 and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!” 14 When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed. 15 One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. 16 He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him– and he was a Samaritan. 17 Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? 18 Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” 19 Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”

Prayer and an open heart like displayed by a woman named Lydia (Acts 16:13-15)

Patient bearing of difficulty like the entire Church at Smyrna (Revelation 2:8-11)

Perseverance in doing good and holding tightly to the Truth like the whole Church at Philadelphia (Revelation 3:7-13)

Ponder today: What does your camera’s lens focus upon?

Bible character of the day: a healed Samaritan leper

The last of the cluster virtues residing in the will for our series on Tiny Virtues would be those surrounding the idea of control. Oh, there are many facets clustered together, among which are self-control, knowing when to keep matters between you and God alone, how to keep confidences in a biblical way, avoid spreading gossip, and of course, the concept of modesty.

In an era of social media, we have lost sight of every element of self-control, privacy, and modesty. We’re a click-bait culture, acting like a fish swallowing anything that hits the surface. The problem is that there’s a hook and a net and a knife in the hand of one who’d like to serve us up fried.

God wants better for us. So self-control is a virtue that Paul spoke of often:

1 Thessalonians 5:1 Now, brothers, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, 2 for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. 3 While people are saying, “Peace and safety,” destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. 4 But you, brothers, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. 5 You are all sons of the light and sons of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. 6 So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be alert and self-controlled. 7 For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night. 8 But since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet. 9 For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. 10 He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him. 11 Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing. 12 Now we ask you, brothers, to respect those who work hard among you, who are over you in the Lord and who admonish you. 13 Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work. Live in peace with each other. 14 And we urge you, brothers, warn those who are idle, encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone. 15 Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else. 16 Be joyful always; 17 pray continually; 18 give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. 19 Do not put out the Spirit’s fire; 20 do not treat prophecies with contempt. 21 Test everything. Hold on to the good. 22 Avoid every kind of evil.

Ponder today: How well you’re living as a son of light and equipping yourself with self-control.

Bible character of the day: Paul