The Joshua Victor Theory

  Christ is Risen! He is Risen indeed, Alleluia! So far in 1 John we’ve discussed how we are “Raised for Fellowship,” how “We Shall Be Like Him”, and what “Resurrection Love” looks like. Today is not so much of a “resurrection theme”, but John calls us to distinguish truth and lies. This week I shared an essay in the Midweek Encouragement by the Nobel prize winner Alexander Solzhenitsyn, titled “Live Not by Lies.” He was exiled in 1974 from his homeland in Russia, for criticizing the communist regime, and paid for it by serving a sentence in the gulags—prison labor camps for political prisoners, dissidents, and common criminals. His crime was to think different and to speak out. He witnessed firsthand the horrific power of lies to subjugate a nation and spoke against it at great personal cost. A Christian who chose not to live by lies, he chose to live by the truth. From the Garden of Eden to today, the deadliness of the devil’s countless lies remains the same. The devil is alway...

Grace, mercy, and shalom to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.  Last week we heard how Jesus re-entered the lives of His disciples in their fear and uncertainty, by bringing His peace or shalom to them by His presence. Today, we walk the Emmaus Road with two disciples, outside the inner group of 11, but clearly recognized and welcomed by the 11 whom they ran to after this encounter.  Jesus finds the Emmaus disciples, Cleopas and an anonymous disciple on a sorrowful journey home. Disillusionment and confusion filled the air as they talked about the events of that weekend. Heaviness filled their hearts. Have you been on a journey like that? Maybe recently? With that choking feeling in your throat or a heaviness in your heart? You know that familiar place down Emmaus Road. And it’s so perfect that God hid Jesus’ identity from them, while He walked along with them. Jesus listened and talked to them unnoticed, before the “big reveal” in t...

In the Name of God, who is Love, of Jesus, who has come in the flesh, and of the Spirit of Truth, Amen. 1 John 4 talks to us about listening . It’s possible for us to be hearing or listening up here (point to ears), with sound waves bouncing off our eardrums, but not be hearing or listening down here (point to heart), because we’ve closed our heart to God’s Word. Being present and accounted for is important—but even more important is that our heart is open to and receiving God’s Word. That we are listening in here (point to heart). And in the reverse, as children of God, we will also confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Not merely sound waves reverberating off our vocal cords, but a confession that proceeds from our heart. This confession of faith from the heart and from the mouth is from the Holy Spirit living in us. From God’s Word...in through the ears…down to the heart…back out through the mouth—the confession of faith is “same-saying” or affirming what God has said is true ab...

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. In a world that is so thoroughly electrified , it’s rare that we get to experience true darkness. The constant glare of streetlights surrounds us, and the hazy glow of light pollution hangs over anyone who lives even close to a city. I’d bet even your bedroom is not completely dark—with little LED lights from your alarm clock or computer, or a power strip glowing in the dark. Total physical darkness is not much of a thought in our well lit modern life. Before electricity, things were very different. But have modern lights really changed what Paul was talking about in Ephesians 5, where he tells us, “For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord?” Of course he’s not talking about physical darkness, as if flipping on the light switch brought us out of darkness. It’s spiritual darkness he’s talking about—and that is the same today as ever. But it should catch our attention that he doesn’t ...

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Today we come to the end of the Christmas season, and tomorrow January 6, officially begins the season of Epiphany, which focuses on Christ revealing Himself. Today’s reading are linked by the theme of wisdom. In the Old Testament we see King Solomon, the 3 rd king of Israel, and son of the great King David, having a vision from God and asking for wisdom. Then in our Gospel reading, we see the 12 year old child Jesus going to the Temple in Jerusalem, and “increasing in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.” Like any other child, Jesus grew in knowledge of the Lord, studied the scriptures, and sat listening to the rabbis, asking them questions. Yet in a marvelous mystery, the Scriptures also reveal Jesus to be the eternal, all-knowing, Wisdom of God. In fact, while Advent is still fresh in our memories, we might recall the first of the “O Antiphons” which prays to Christ: O Wisdom, proceeding f...