Nick’s Walk

He . . . said to them, ’Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem . . —Luke 18:31 Jerusalem, in the life of our Lord, represents the place where He reached the culmination of His Father’s will. Jesus said, “I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me” ( John 5:30 ). Seeking to do “the will of the Father” was the one dominating concern throughout our Lord’s life. And whatever He encountered along the way, whether joy or sorrow, success or failure, He was never deterred from that purpose. “. . . He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem . . .” ( Luke 9:51  ). Regretfully my focus is not so great. I am easily distracted. I sit in my chair for a moment of rest and the next thing I know the day is wasted. Or I pick up something as a bit of recreation, and the same thing happens. Or a word from another wounds or distracts and my purpose is foiled for the day. Even worse, I suspect that I distract others, taking their focus for God’s purpose for them. Jesus accomplished His mission in three short years. […]

In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world —John 16:33 It is not usual to be cheerful in tribulation. When the world sees a Christian who is cheerful in adversity, they have questions. The answer is: Jesus has overcome the world. What is there in the world that needs to be overcome? Fear, death, and the grave. The world offers a loveless self-centered life. Jesus offers a life of power, love and fulfillment. But it’s not “magic.” God does not give us overcoming life— He gives us life as we overcome.  If we remember that Jesus in the clouds, we know that growth is in the clouds, in adversity. We develop our spiritual muscles as we strain in adversity. We build our faith as we realize that Jesus (not us) has already won the victory. A saint can “be of good cheer” even when seemingly defeated by adversities, because victory is absurdly impossible to everyone, except God.

When Jesus finished commanding His twelve disciples . . . He departed from there to teach and to preach in their cities —Matthew 11:1 He comes where He commands us to leave. The Holy Spirit is the teacher whether by shining light on the Word or by leading us through actions and experience. Our duty to to obey. We are not responsible for others; but only for obeying Our Lord whether it relates to our spiritual life or the life of others. If we can accept this truth then a great weight can be lifted from us. It is ours to obey and His to be responsible for the results.  He teaches where He instructs us not to teach. “Master . . . let us make three tabernacles . . .” ( Luke 9:33  ). This truth is especially applicable to our family, our children and their children. After we have lived a few years and made our share of mistakes and possibly learned a bit about our God, we want to pass this on to others. We want to convey information and spare our loved ones the pain that can come with experienced learning. It’s not the way of […]

Let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing —James 1:4 God is timeless. We will live eternally too; but for now we see only a life of a few decades. Maybe that’s why patience is so hard for us. We know that repeatedly doing the same things and expecting different results is the very definition of insanity; yet God patiently waits for us to learn this lesson.  Ultimately, God will allow nothing to escape; every detail of our lives is under His scrutiny. God will bring us back in countless ways to the same point over and over again. And He never tires of bringing us back to that one point until we learn the lesson, because His purpose is to produce the finished product. It may be a problem arising from our impulsive nature, but again and again, with the most persistent patience, God has brought us back to that one particular point. Or the problem may be our idle and wandering thinking, or our independent nature and self-interest. Through this process, God is trying to impress upon us the one thing that is not entirely right in our lives. And […]

Jesus did not commit Himself to them . . . , for He knew what was in man —John 2:24-25 There is a truth we must come to if we are to truly live the Christian life: that we can only completely trust and rely on Jesus Christ. No other will live up to our expectations or completely deserve our complete trust. To expect such from anyone but Christ is unfair to that person. No one can live up to his complete faithfulness.  Many of the things in life that inflict the greatest injury, grief, or pain, stem from the fact that we suffer from illusions. We are not true to one another as facts, seeing each other as we really are; we are only true to our misconceived ideas of one another. According to our thinking, everything is either delightful and good, or it is evil, malicious, and cowardly. Things are simply not that black and white. Much of the relationship pain is based on this misunderstanding. Young lovers place each other on pedestals which neither can stand up to forever.  Disappointment is assured. When the love one doesn’t measure up to this impossible standard, relationships are broken. […]

Behold, He is coming with clouds . . . —Revelation 1:7 Tuesday was Rosemary’s birthday and it rained. The rain was only really a problem at the time of her birthday celebration dinner when it was coming down pretty good and I had to run through the rain to get to the restaurant. Rosemary says it didn’t bother her; in fact, she said, she loves the rain. Of course, I had dropped her off under the covered walkway and I was the one getting wet. No mind, it was, after all, her birthday. I guess generally I like all the seasons and all forms of weather, in moderation. I love the first cool snap of fall, gumbo weather, but in February I am ready for spring’s warmth. I like a surprising spring shower but a week of rain and hurricanes I can probably do without. We are told that every cloud has a silver lining and I suppose that means that there is some good in even bad situations. For us Christians there is even better news, in every cloud, and, in fact, in every season and weather of our lives, there is Jesus.  He is there when times […]

He made His disciples get into the boat and go before Him to the other side . . . —Mark 6:45 This verse begins the segment of scripture in which Jesus came walking on the water to the disciples who were straining at rowing the boat to the place He had directed them. Notice that He didn’t tell them: “Go out on the water and I’ll walk out to meet you.” Without a reason or a stated purpose, the disciples simply did what they were told. That’s how we need to respond to God. We must do what we are told. We don’t ask “why” or question the destination. We just walk on. Otherwise, we develop “dreams” or “visions” of where we should be. That’s God’s role. Ours is to be obedient. To put one foot in front of the other. We may never see the completed work or arrive at a clear destination, other than our heavenly home. In fact, as in this story, the destination wasn’t the point; the journey was. On our walk we encounter the Risen Christ, miraculous, walking on water and He calls us to deeper faith as He did Peter. What is my […]

If anyone wills to do His will, he shall know concerning the doctrine . . . —John 7:17 To really understand something, one has to do it. One trip to the Christian Book Store should convince anyone that there is plenty of “study” out there. One look at our world advises there isn’t much “learning.” The golden rule to follow to obtain spiritual understanding is not one of intellectual pursuit, but one of obedience. And our orders, the “rules” we are to obey are pretty simple: “Go and make disciplines.” Yet most of us, if we spend any time on our “walk” spend it reading or studying and very little doing. I learn more about my God in one week of VBS (not really doing that much) or one Kairos weekend than I do in months of study or reading and I do plenty of that. Although we deny it, we act as if Christianity is a theology rather than a walk. A walk requires steps but first it requires a destination. Christ gives us the destination and points our way. Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path. Psalm 119:105. For too […]