This NEEDED to Be Said

FebBURRary

 Cold but beautiful. 

My daughter sent me this pic of her doing chores this morning on their farm. 

Enjoy the snow! 

Are You Raising Your Sail (Heb. 6:1)?

If you grew up at the beach like I did, you've probably done some sailing in your lifetime. I've sailed everything from a tiny Hobie Cat to a 35 foot yacht. Maybe that's why I'm so fascinated by all the nautical metaphors we find in the New Testament. The earliest Christians often compared the church to a ship with Christ as the steersman and the cross as the mast. Hebrews (my favorite New Testament letter) shares this perspective. Paul often traveled by ship, so that's not very surprising. He can tell the readers Don't drift (2:1), Hold fast to your anchor, Christ (6:19), and Keep on voyaging until you reach Peace Harbor (4:1; 6:9-10). In Hebrews we are invited to imagine our Christian life as a voyage in which we must always stay anchored to hope (Christ) and prevented from drifting into doctrinal error by constant attention to the Captain of our salvation (2:10). 

Now, you've heard me speak about this a million times before, but there's a nautical metaphor in 6:1 that nobody seems to talk about. In fact, I myself didn't notice it until I began working on the base translation of Hebrews for the ISV. I had always understood the main verb in this verse to mean something like "Let us us press on to maturity" (see the NASB), that is, let us make every effort to become mature in Christ. Actually, I discovered that the verse is saying the exact opposite. The verb Paul uses here is pherō, whose basic meaning is to carry, to bear, or to bring. "Honey, can you please bring me my phone?" Not only that (yes, it gets even better!), Paul uses a tense that implies continuous action. He then couples that thought to the notion of something being done to us rather than by us. In other words, he uses the passive voice here rather than the active. 

Shall we put all this together? When we do, the result is a rendering something like "Let us continually be carried along to maturity." See the difference? It's HUGE. The original NIV rendered this as "let us ... go on to maturity." Later they changed it to "let us .... be taken forward to maturity." I love that! Doctrinally, we can put it this way: 

Sanctification involves Christ-empowered effort. 

It is a work of God that requires intentional actions on our part. I like to put it this way: Holiness is required for the believer, but it is also enabled. The effort is not done alone but through the Holy Spirit. Hence I might paraphrase the idea here in Heb. 6:1 as follows (using the nautical metaphor Paul employs here): "Let us raise our sails as it were and allow the wind (Spirit, Greek pneuma) of God to carry us along to maturity in our faith." 

What a fantastic truth! 

Friend, never forget that God requires our active, obedient, and diligent pursuit of holiness. It involves working hard because God is already working in. Let's tap into that power today, shall we? 

The WAY We Interpret an Event Matters

I can say, "Ugh, it's snowing again. Do I have to shovel the sidewalk again?"

Or I can say, "It's snowing again. Perfect day for the kids to build a snowman."

I can say, "We argued again last night. Our marriage is on the rocks."

Or I can say, "We argued again last night. We're finally learning how to be open and honest with each other."

I can say, "I got laid off yesterday. How could they do that to me?"

Or I can say, "I got laid off yesterday. Maybe this is the nudge I needed to try something new."

I can say, "My child just left for college. The house feels so empty."

Or I can say, "My child just left for college. They're beginning their own adventure."

I can say, "My waistline is out of control. I must be out of shape."

Or I can say, "My waistline is out of control. I'm going to do something about it."

I can say, "I lost my spouse. Whatever am I going to do?"

Or I can say, "I lost my spouse. God has given me the gift of singleness and I will use it for his glory."

Facts don't change. What can change is our perspective. I can say, "This weight loss journey I'm on sure is taking a long time. When will I ever succeed?" Or I can say, "This weight loss journey I'm on sure is taking a long time. But most good things in life take time." I love what Arthur Gordon says in his book A Touch of Wonder. 

One day he met the famous American novelist Margaret Mitchell. She was in the process of writing her next book. Everything was going splendidly until she read the manuscript of Stephen Vincent Benet's masterful retelling of the Civil War. Ms. Mitchell was so intimidated by Benet's depth and style that she felt paralyzed. She said Benet "gave me such a terrible case of the humbles that it was months before I could find the necessary faith in myself." Funny thing is, she wrote Gone with the Wind (30 million copies worldwide) and nobody has ever heard of John Brown's Body. 

Moral of the story: Keep life in perspective and have faith even when things are tough.