Tuesday Afternoon

January 14, 2025

He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. [Psalm 103:10]

Aren’t you glad for that?!

It sure goes contrary to our way of thinking. Commit a crime, do the time. You reap what you sow. Actions have their consequences.

But God blows up the paradigm and does us one better. His mercy and grace override the laws of retribution and fairness. His ways toward us are not transactional…they are transformative.

But it’s not like the Lord utters a divine “Aw, shucks!” He takes on our guilt and punishment and pronounces life and pardon over us instead. We don’t have to wonder if that painful experience is a delayed punishment for something we’ve done (it’s not; read the verse above!). And we must not let our sins or failures define our standing with him, like an insecure lover plucking a daisy (“He loves me, he loves me not…”). Our Lord has already defined it and us: forgiven, forever accepted in the Beloved.

For your reading accompaniment…
A favorite song of mine is “A Hard Rain Is Gonna Fall” by Bob Dylan. With the trauma that our friends in Southern California are facing, I thought it would be an appropriate tune to listen to as you read this blog.

Shelter from the Storm

The Los Angeles area! Oh my! We have seen the pictures and read the media posts and heard the news. So much devastation and destruction. So many sad stories. I hear the phrase “apocalyptic-like” being thrown around a lot. How heart wrenching!

Billy Graham once said of California that it was so beautiful that he didn’t want to preach about heaven there. A place so filled with life and vitality and sunshine is being burnt to the ground! How can it be? What can be done?

We can pray. Pray for the people (those we know and those we don’t know). Pray for the firefighters and first responders (for their safety and effectiveness and protection). Pray for the churches of Southern California (for both their protection and resources as they seek to minister and embody the comfort of God to their devastated neighbors).

And let’s pray that the God of all comfort may be very present to the people there. May many turn their hearts to Christ and find his faithfulness and joy renewed in the morning.

The Times They are A’ Changin’
Planning a trip to Europe anytime soon? Be aware of this change: As of 2025, Americans will need to apply for entry approval under the European Travel Information and Authorization System (ETIAS). This can be done online and the approval will be linked to your passport. This counts for all visits up to 90 days. For more info, click here.

Don’t get me wrong, I am rooting for Ohio State to win the national championship Monday night. But let’s face it: Division I football is not what it used to be. With online betting, millionaire student athletes, the transfer portal, major conference realignments, and NIL deals, the NCAA football we used to watch and enjoy has drastically changed. We really are watching the NFL’s minor leagues, aren’t we? Still, go Bucks! We don’t want to see any “Irish eyes smiling” Tuesday morning.

Speaking of football, did you see that the NFL has scheduled the Cleveland Browns to play a game in London in the 2025 season? Oh, great! Let’s offend Canada, Panama, Denmark, AND our friends in England!

When I Paint My Masterpiece
It is almost Academy Awards season. Brett McCracken of The Gospel Coalition offers a principled and thoughtful summary of his top 10 movies of 2024. I have only seen one (A Complete Alone) of the many films that McCracken reviews in his article. The movies he gives commendation to are those that feature “common-grace virtues that Christians can appreciate and celebrate…movies thoughtfully capturing the longings and pain points of contemporary culture, and movies that astutely observe and probe the mysteries of God’s world and man’s place within it.”

Missing from the above list is the new Bonhoeffer movie: Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin. I have heard many mixed reviews. Like so much in our society, the opposing ideological poles are in middle of the foray. Some of the negative reviews call into question the accuracy in the telling of Bonhoeffer’s life story. Bonhoeffer’s family has spoken out against the film, claiming his legacy has been hijacked for contemporary political purposes. 86 of his descendants have written a letter that in part says: “We are horrified to see how the legacy of Dietrich Bonhoeffer is increasingly being distorted and misused by right-wing extremists, xenophobes and religious agitators… We can testify based on what we learned from our families, that he was a peace-loving, freedom-loving humanitarian.”

A couple of local Cleveland “art” experience recommendations, if I may:

“Picasso and Paper” at the Cleveland Museum of Art.

The Princess Bride in Concert with The Cleveland Orchestra.” Is this the best combination of entertainment ever, or what?

Desolation Row
(Words from SoCal pastors)
“Everybody needs help, but you don’t know where to start. In ministry, whenever someone dies and you do a funeral, you feel really under-resourced and under-equipped to walk into that. It’s not the same thing, but it’s akin to that. You’re walking into people’s loss, and it’s just irretrievable.” [Alex Watlington, senior pastor of Pacific Crossroads Church in Santa Monica]

“If I haven’t gotten back to you today, please forgive me…” (His house and his in-laws’ house had “burned to nothing”) “Between checking on members, trying to keep the church from completely burning down and realizing that our city looks like a scene out of an apocalyptic movie … either I could not answer or my phone was dead.” [G. LaKeith Kenebrew, pastor of Hillside Tabernacle, in a recent Facebook post]

“There will be joy again but allow yourself time to go through the process of mourning.… Don’t feel like God is judging your response. I don’t think he is. I think he knows our hearts; he knows what we can handle. He wants us to just bring it to him.” [Samuel Walker, pastor of First Baptist Church of Paradise]

I Believe in You
“Holy One, you are our comfort and strength
in times of sudden disaster, crisis, or chaos.
Surround us now with your grace and peace
through storm or earthquake, fire or flood.

By your Spirit, lift up those who have fallen,
sustain those who work to rescue or rebuild,
and fill us with the hope of your new creation;
through You, our rock and redeemer.”
[Anonymous]

Tuesday Afternoon Quiz: What thread is common to all the above subheadings? (Answer in next week’s blog.)

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