II Cor 3 – You Yourselves Are Our Letter

Recommendations? Timothy and I don’t need no steenkin’ recommendations, Paul tells the Corinthians. The proof of their competent ministry is the new life in Christ found in the believers at Corinthians.  “Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God,” he adds. And he tells the Corinthians they are a letter of recommendation from Christ, “written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.”

Shifting quickly from the objective to the subjective, this is how I feel about our children. In particular, I see Diane and her maternal “ministry” in all three of our children. Our oldest, Tim, got his brains from Diane. He is one of the smartest people I know. The boy who was taught to read and write at a very early age is an articulate speaker and writer. I will never forget how Tim, as a sophomore in college, destroyed the competition in a game of Pictionary or some such English language skill/creativity game. His competition that day was Craig Bensen (Doctor of Divinity), me (30 years in journalism), and two of the smartest people I know, Bob Brunelle and Steve Smith. Didn’t matter. We were outclassed.  

Yesterday I asked Joe what part of Mom he believes has been imprinted on him. He mentioned her commitment to education and diligence in homework, and I agree. One of my defining memories of Joe is coming downstairs on Christmas morning about six years ago and finding him awake, sitting on the couch – reading his math book! His stocking was untouched. Has any other child in the history of the world ever done that? I doubt it. That's one reason Joe was an honors student at the toughest high school in Vermont.

Diane was no wilting flower who could be told what to do. Well, neither is Imani! When she was about six she marched into our bedroom with a long “spear” (walking stick) in her hand and announced, “I am Imani Angel Page, Amazon Warrior, and I will be who I will be!!” And so she has always been, and God willing will be, an oak of righteousness firmly planted. Some of that is the personality she was born with, and the rest is learned – and I think I know who one of her main teachers was.

No doubt I, or anyone, could find fault as well. She was a hurting person at times, and at times hurting people hurt others. But there is great comfort in looking at three loving, growing, godly young people and saying to Diane’s memory, “well down thou good and faithful servant.”

Switching back to the somewhat objective – Paul’s appraisal of the Corinthians is a challenge to all believers to conduct all relationships as a potential “letter of recommendation” from and to the Lord. May my life’s legacy be people brought closer to the Kingdom by my daily decision to practice encouragement, blessing, truth-telling, service, and – in one word – love.

II Cor 2 - recovering from radical surgery

To a church that has at Paul's command in I Corinthians put an unrepentent sinner under discipline, the apostle writes the following to address the complications that might result from such radical sinnerectomy:

"If anyone has caused grief, he has not so much grieved me as he has grieved all of you to some extent—not to put it too severely. ⁶ The punishment inflicted on him by the majority is sufficient. ⁷

("Don't be worried about how I feel, I'm fine. I'm more worried about you.")

Now instead, you ought to forgive and comfort him, so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. ⁸ I urge you, therefore, to reaffirm your love for him. ⁹

("Just like discipline at home - make sure you hug them after they get a spanking. The point of discipline is restoration, not condemnation.")

Another reason I wrote you was to see if you would stand the test and be obedient in everything. ¹⁰

("Disciples of Jesus need to learn that holiness requires painful, difficult choices. Sometimes the greatest enemy of the best is the merely good. When persecution comes, your families will be threatened - yet choose God.")

Anyone you forgive, I also forgive. And what I have forgiven—if there was anything to forgive—I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake, ¹¹ in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.

("ALL is forgiven. If you forgive someone, so do I. We are united in our forgiveness. Now let us close ranks and not let the devil do further damage.")

I think there is a role for surgical church discipline, largely honored in the breach in our litigious, independent age. In I Corinthians, he shows us how to wield the scalpel; in II Corinthians, how to treat post-operatively with a minimum of pain, inflammation, infection, and bodily deformity.

II Corinthians 1 - Comfort and suffering, Moravian-style

II Corinthians is actually III Corinthians. That is, it is either the third or fourth actual letter Paul wrote to this gifted, volcanic, hair-pulling congregation. I suppose these two letters are in the Bible so that no pastor can ever dismiss one of Paul's challenging teachings to church leaders by saying, "yeah, but Paul, you never had to shepherd MY flock." Written as winter approached in 55 AD, it had a "I hope I didn't come down on you guys too hard in my last letter" message. Maybe that is why he mentions the word "comfort" nine times in the opening paragraph. "Suffering" or a synonym appears seven times. So....comfort in the midst of suffering, I am sensing a theme here.....but what exactly does he say about it?

Boiled down, I think it is this:

Jesus suffered to bring me comfort. As his disciple, he lets me suffer to bring others comfort. This comfort takes many forms:

1. "What you are going through sucks brother, I know because I've been there;"
2. "Here's how I got through it;"
3. Doing anything up to and including dying in order to love another into the Kingdom.

I spent the last night and day worshipping at the Ithiel Falls Camp Meeting in Johnson. Every summer this historic tabernacle and campground on the shores of the Lamoille River in Johnson is the site of 12 days of multi-generational camping and worship. Most of the folks are Nazarenes. One of the things I like about Nazarenes is their sincere, intentional desire to press into Holy Spirit holiness for their lives. Last night a young pastor named Nathan shared a wonderful challenge-by-example: he told the story of the two Moravian missionaries and would-be slaves. It's a remarkable story, and backed up and amplified by accounts in the official history of the Moravian Church.

In 1730, two young men named Dober and Nitschmann were part of Count Zinzendorf's Moravian/pietist movement, and they felt a powerful call to bring the gospel to St. Thomas, then a slave plantation under English control. An escaped slave told them that none but slaves were allowed there. Undeterred, they resolved that even if they were to be sold into a lifetime of slavery, they would go to St. Thomas and preach the gospel to the captives! It made quite a ruckus in church circles, and when the embarked from Copenhagen, it was with the blessing of the Danish royal family. Story/legend has it that as the ship left the wharf, friends and family were crying for them to return. One of the two men raised his hands and cried:

"May the Lamb of God who was slain receive the reward for His suffering!"

These two brothers were willing to suffer and die as Christ did, to bring the comfort that He brought.

Now
That
Is
Discipleship!

I had heard that story before, and had always wondered: whatever happened to those two guys? Well, now I know - when Dober and Nitschmann arrived on the Danish ship at St. Thomas, they discovered, lo and  behold, the escaped slave had been wrong! They did NOT need to sell themselves into slavery after all! With much rejoicing they set about their great work. Fifty years later, 15,000 souls had been brought into the Kingdom. Their willingness encouraged anti-slavery Christian activism everywhere. All because two young men were willing, like Abraham, to suffer and sacrifice in response to the call of God.

The only problem with this great story, for me, is that the application is not immediately clear, to me. I do not feel compelled to surrender U.S. citizenship and move to North Korea. But I look at what these guys did: they embraced a biblical worldview; they were open to God's burden, no matter how heavy; they sought confirmation from other brothers and sisters; they obeyed, trusting God for the results. Holy Spirit, lay your burden on me, I know you will help me carry it.

Once last thought on 18th century Moravian missionaries to the Americas. During an Atlantic passage, a mighty storm arose. a young English cleric was terrified he would die in the storm, and asked the Moravians why they were so calm. They told him of their assurance that because Jesus died for their sins they would go to heaven through grace, not works. The young man believed. His name was John Wesley. Hmmm, I wonder whatever happened to him?

I Corinthians 16: but FIRST the end of chapter 15

I've got that joy, joy, joy, down in my heart, after reading the end of Chapter 15, subtitled "The Resurrection Body" in the NIV. I wrote back in Romans about an "In Memoriam" Roll the wonderful Lamoille Valley Church of the Nazarene sent to our family, remembering all those who had left this body for the next, including Diane. It reads in part:

"If to die is to join in hosannas to a risen, reigning Lord,
and to feast with Him at His table on the bread and wine of His board;
If to die is to enter a city and be hailed as a child of its King
O grave, where soundeth thy triumph?
O death, where hideth thy sting?"

Onn her spirit's last day in her corruptible body, I read to Diane the first chapter of the latest Pendergast novel, "Fever Dreams". Pendergast and his wife Helen are on safari. Sometime before I read the part where a lion shows up and kills Helen, Diane fell asleep. (She woke up a half hour later.) Sometimes life does imitate art.

So in the airport on the flight home - the same one where I met Adrian Gonzalez' high school buddy - I found the sequel to Fever Dreams. And guess what, guess what......I discover in the first chapter that Helen is ALIVE! It is too wonderful, too miraculous, to believe, but believe Pendergast does. And so do I believe that as Jesus lives, so does his daughter Diane, imperishable, in glory, in power.

And on to chapter 16, like the denouement of Romans an anti-climactic "housekeeping" epilogue that still yields a nugget or two. First: Paul refers to people setting aside money for donations on "the first day of the week." I suspect he means they meet for fellowship on the first day, and for convenience's sake that's when the collections should be made, in fairly pain-free installments. So - worshipping on Sunday that includes regular giving already had at least a template, although not a universal command.

Also, I just got off the phone with Tim in New Jersey. His 26th birthday is next week. He is at a crossroads in various spiritual and geographic ways, and needs the support of the body. I read vs. 10-11 to him as he considers moving to another location:

"If Timothy comes, see to it that he has nothing to fear while he is with you, for he is carrying on the work of the Lord, just as I am. No one, then, should refuse to accept him. Send him on his way in peace so that he may return to me."

He does love getting letters, as did the Corinthians, enough to begin the process of elevating it to Scripture! Tim's standards are not THAT high, though. I hope people will let me know if they need his address. Am looking forward to seeing Imani at Ithiel Falls tonight.

I Corinthians 15 - Gonzo and A-Rod, and how bad company corrupts good character

Vs. 32-33 gives this down-to-earth application of the impact of the resurrection:

If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.”

I am sitting in JFK Airport in New York, waiting for my delayed flight to Burlington. I'm coming home from my annual DC training week. Coming home from this trip last summer, I was waiting in the airport and ran into Bishop Salvatore Matano. We had great fellowship. Just minutes ago, I was sitting in the airport sports bar drinking my non-alcoholic beer watching the Red Sox game, and the guy next to me has a Red Sox hat on. Long story short - he is a close childhood friend of Adrian Gonzalez. (I saw the pictures on his I-Phone to prove it.) He talked about how happy Gonzo is playing and living in Boston, and how his wife is expecting their first child after many years of trying. If all goes well on both fronts, the Red Sox will be celebrating a World Series victory a day before the child is born!

Not wanting to miss the opportunity to witness and learn, I mentioned to Gonzo's friend that I had heard he is a Christian. Yes, the friend told me. When AGonz was on long road trips in the minor leagues, the young Roman Catholic married to his high school sweetheart faced a choice: he could go out and party with half of the team, or have a good dinner, Bible Study, and early bedtime with the other half of the time. Wisely, he chose not to take the "eat, drink and tomorrow we die" approach and went with the Bible study. One thing led to another, and now he is a committed believer, leading mountain retreats in the offseason for other ballplayers and their families and being very active in a San Diego church called The Rock. By God's grace he did not led "bad company corrupt good character." As AGonz's friend was telling me this, ESPN was reporting on the news of Yankee superstar Alex Rodriquez participating in illegal poker games, a serious violation of baseball policy for which he could be fined and suspended. Talk about bad company corrupting!

For baseball nuts like me, it's very interesting to hear about the lives of the guys with the .300 batting averages. But really - the soul of the fellow on the stool next to me is just as worth saving as Gonzo's. I asked the guy to tell Gonzo that there's a brother in Vermont that is praying for him and his family, and not just because the Sox need him. The guy said, "yeah, there is life after baseball." And I thought, yeah, ETERNAL life after baseball - ain't it the truth!

I Cor 13: "each of you has......."

"When you come together, each of you has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. Everything must be done so that the church may be built up."

The first thing I see here is that Christians are meant to come together. God does not ask me to, in the words of James Taylor, "walk that lonesome road, all by yourself." Instead like the Beatles we are enjoined to "Come together, right now, over me." Hmmm.....is that "shukkah" sound Lennon makes his version of speaking in tongues?

I am not a lonely God unto myself, as humanism and New Age religion would make me. I am part of a living organism. Thank God!

The first church in which I experienced the sort of spontaneous, potluck worship Paul seems to describe above was at Cambridge United Church. Craig Bensen, the pastor, made sure everything was done decently and in order and brought a word of instruction, but he allowed each of us to bring whatever we thought best to the table. It was freedom, as well as a responsibility that everything be done "so that the church may be built up." Most weeks, it was wonderful. The Holy Spirit accepted our invitation to be an active participant.

I am NOT saying that more planned worship doesn't "fit" the description above. I am saying it was an exhilarating experiment. And that at all points we must keep the Spirit in the loop lest our words and music be just that, words and music.

Am not ducking the role of tongues and women on purpose. Am down in Virginia on a work trip, and there's no time to say what might be well said. Or not.

I Corinthians 13 - Jesus Never Fails!

A down and dirty way for me to study the scriptures - any scripture - is to ask what it says about God. In the case of this well-known chapter, I do this by substituting "Jesus" for "Love":

⁴ Jesus is patient, Jesus is kind. Jesus does not envy, He does not boast, He is not proud. ⁵ Jesus does not dishonor others, He it is not self-seeking, He is not easily angered, He keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Jesus does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ Jesus always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Jesus never fails.

In fact those words remind me of a favorite hymn:

Jesus never fails
Jesus never fails
heav'n and earthy will pass away
but Jesus never fails.

So I looked up the history of this hymn. What an inspiration, God is so good, and indeed for those who love Jesus faithfully He never fails.

Jesus Never Fails

The following is a tract published by the hymn's author that was sent to (a Christian hymn website) by his daughter. We are so thankful to have the privilege of recording the author's own words on this hymn and being able to speak to his daughter!

So many requests have come in for the story of this song that I am preparing it in this form so that any who may be interested may have it. During the last twenty years this simple song has literally gone round the world on its Mission and stories still come in telling of its blessing and helpfulness. As a school boy Christian I had a burning desire to be a foreign missionary. That was not to be. Later I had an urge to write a song that everyone would sing. My popular song was a dismal failure, yet God, in His Own time and way, granted my wish and “Jesus Never Fails” has reached to the uttermost of mission fields and the multitudes have sung it.

The song was written at Somerset, Kentucky, while I was there with the Dr. O.E. Williams Evangelistic Party. I received some very disturbing news from my family some 600 miles away. Worried and homesick, I sat down at the old square piano in the “Old Kentucky Home” where we were staying and as my “fingers wandered idly”, a simple melody developed beneath them which seemed to sing, “Jesus Never Fails.” Then and there the words and music of the Chorus were born. I accepted this as the answer to my heart’s prayer and I thank Him that it proved true. Reassuring news came from home. He did not fail me. However, the others in the party insisted on using the song that I selfishly thought was just for me. Evangelists all over the land began using it and soon it spread to every quarter of the globe. Scores of testimonies have come from Missionaries, Evangelists and others of the blessing that this simple three word message has been to them. It has been translated into ten European languages and into Chinese.

The missionaries on the torpedoed Zam Zam sang it while floating in the shark infested waters of the South Atlantic. It was carried into the concentration camps of Germany by these same faithful witnesses and we may be sure that God used it there to His Glory. No one will ever know in how many ways this message has appeared on mottoes, plaques, etc. Dr. Philpott tells how a Motto was slipped into the casket of a Jewish news boy. His pals who did it reported, “It went to Heaven with Bonnie.” Mrs. Williams tells me of a man who heard the Chorus as he was on his way to drown himself. He tarried to hear the Gospel Message, was gloriously saved, and is now preaching the wonderful Grace of The Jesus Who never fails.

“Jesus Never Fails” has become a sort of musical slogan of Bible Believing Christians everywhere. Men sang it at the battle front as they girded themselves for the fray. On the Home Front, Saints sing it as they do battle with the forces of sin, in true confidence that the Captain of their Salvation fails not. I surely have every reason to praise God for this Song that He gave me in the hour of my need and which has gone on to bless the entire world with its message of triumph. God has indeed permitted me to be a Missionary, and hosts of His Children are singing the Song He put in my soul.

Dr. Wm. Ashby of London, England, tells me of a Church in that blitz-torn City which had “Jesus Never Fails” painted on the front of the building. For a long time the Church was spared all except minor damage. One night the pastor, who had been staying in the basement, went to spend a few hours with his family, which had been sent to a safer area. That night a bomb fell that wrecked all but the front wall of the building. The motto stood with its silent testimony until the war ended and it was torn down. That Church became known as “The Church where Jesus Never Fails.”

Some have asked why I wrote “May pass away” instead of “Shall pass away”. The thought is to bring the truth of the song into the present tense. Let Heaven and Earth pass away at this moment if it be His Will. He fails not and the future is secure. Let come what may, He is with us NOW! “Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed ….”

Yours in His Precious Name,

A.A. LUTHER
North Collins, New York (near Lake Erie)
September 1, 1947

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Here are all of the words......

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Earthly friends may prove untrue, doubts and fears assail; One still loves and cares for you, one who will not fail. Tho’ the sky be dark and drear, fierce and strong the gale, Just remember He is near, and He will not fail. In life’s dark and bitter hour love will still prevail, Trust His everlasting pow’r—Jesus never fails. Chorus: Jesus never fails, Jesus never fails; Heav’n and earth may pass away, but Jesus never fails.

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