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Who’s the Real Hero?

She had sad eyes and a weary expression. She appeared to be in ill health. As we conversed I learned that she had worked all her life as a waitress. Her husband had died as a young man. They had been married only seven years. She had been left to rear her daughter as a single mother. Her life had not been easy.

Her expression brightened as she talked about her only child. She proudly told me how her daughter has made a success of her life, helping hundreds of families through her profession as a pediatric dentist. I congratulated my new friend on being a good mom and giving her daughter a good foundation for life. I asked, “How did you manage to do it?”

She answered, “I couldn’t have done it without the Lord. He was with me. He helped me.”

This humble Christian woman is living proof that John Lennon was a false prophet. He was a cultural hero during my high school years. In the 1960s he famously and foolishly predicted that the Beatles would, in ten years, be more popular than Jesus Christ. Lennon is long gone and so are the Beatles.

But here, in the year 2024, is a woman testifying to the living presence of a living Savior who has been with her all her long life and remains with her today. How are we to explain this?

Dallas Willard provided an answer in his book The Divine Conspiracy. “I think we finally have to say that Jesus’ enduring relevance is based on his historically proven ability to speak to, to heal and empower, the individual human condition. He matters because of what he brought and what he still brings to ordinary human beings, living their ordinary lives and coping daily with their surroundings. He promises wholeness for their lives. In sharing our weakness he gives us strength and imparts through his companionship a life that has the quality of eternity.”

The woman with the sad eyes and weary expression has had a hard life. But she is praising Jesus and looking forward to eternity with him. She has had an indirect influence on every life touched by her daughter. To me she is a real hero. I think she will be at the front of the line when the rewards are handed out in heaven.

Pastor Randy Faulkner

 

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Why Pray Before Meals?

I was eating in a local restaurant. I observed a young couple as they occupied a booth across the room. When their food arrived, they held hands, bowed their heads, closed their eyes, and prayed before they ate.

Why did they do this?  A cynic might say that it was just an expression of Bible-belt cultural religiosity. Someone else might accuse them of putting on a show of piety, like the legalistic Pharisees of Jesus’s day who made long public prayers for the sake of appearance.

I’d like to think they prayed because they were sincerely grateful to God. I hope it was because they believed it was important to express thanks to our Creator for his good gifts. Whatever their motivations, I offer three reasons to grace our eating and drinking with thanksgiving.

The example of Jesus

On more than one occasion our Lord blessed food before he ate with others. When he miraculously fed the five thousand, and later the four thousand, he looked up toward heaven and prayed a prayer of thanksgiving (Matthew 14:19, 15:36). When he ate the Passover meal in the upper room, he “took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples” (Matthew 26:26).

Jesus shared a meal with two of his followers after his resurrection. They did not recognize who he was until “he took bread, gave thanks, broke it, and began to give it to them” (Luke 24:30). If the Son of God thought it was necessary to give thanks before eating, should we do less?

A habit of gratitude

The New Testament exalts thankfulness, “always giving thanks to God the Father for everything in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 5:20). When the apostle Paul said that as a liberated Christian, he was free to eat all kinds of foods, he was careful to add, “with thankfulness” (1 Corinthians 10:30, 1 Timothy 4:3). So we find him aboard a ship giving thanks to God for food in the presence of unbelieving prisoners, soldiers, and seamen, “in front of them all” (Acts 27:35).

In his instructions about foods and Christian liberty, Paul said, “He who eats meat, eats to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God” (Romans 14:6). In the same letter to the Romans he warned against ingratitude as a symptom of ungodliness (Romans 1:21). The Christian way of life is to cultivate a lifelong habit of gratitude, for all of life’s blessings, including nourishing food (1 Corinthians 10:31).

Consecrated by prayer

Another reason to pray for God’s blessing on our meals is because God created food  and “everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected, if it is received with thanksgiving, because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer” (1 Timothy 4:5). “Consecrated” means set apart or dedicated for a good purpose.

The good purpose of God’s gift of food is to satisfy our hunger and to promote our health. Objectively, the food is consecrated by the word of God which declares his creation as “good” (Genesis 1). Subjectively, the food is consecrated by prayer as we acknowledge where these gifts come from and we say “thank you!” The foods which sustain us are transformed into life-giving energy as they are consecrated for our use by our gracious Creator.

Here are three good reasons to give thanks to God for our food before we eat it. Jesus did it. The Bible tells us to do it. Prayer dedicates the food for our benefit. It is the right thing to do.

Recently, I enjoyed a round of golf with friends. Three of us went to the clubhouse for lunch. When we got our food, one of my companions said matter-of-factly, “Let me bless this.” Then he prayed simply, expressing thanks to God for the food, and for a beautiful day on the golf course.

Why did he do that? I believe it was because he knows where the blessing of food comes from, and he wanted to express appreciation on behalf of all of us. “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31).

Pastor Randy Faulkner

 

 

 

 

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On a Pilgrimage

When I hiked on the Appalachian Trail, I met fellow hikers who thought of themselves as pilgrims on a spiritual journey. For some it was a form of escape from a difficult past, or a therapeutic retreat, or a way to reconnect with nature. For many, the experience was almost mystical.

I myself found it easy to express myself in praise to God when I was on the Trail. The immensity and beauty of His creation prompted worship, involving mind, body, and spirit. The wilderness was a giant cathedral.

Pilgrimage is common to many world religions. Millions of Hindus make pilgrimages to wash in the waters of the Ganges River. Muslims endeavor to make the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca at least once. Lourdes, France, attracts over five million visitors a year who make the pilgrimage to pray for healing. The Basilica of Guadalupe in Mexico City is a destination for millions of Catholic pilgrims.

The ancient Hebrew people were given three annual festivals to commemorate God’s deliverance and preservation. Entire families made pilgrimages to Jerusalem for the celebrations of Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles.

Embedded in the psalms we find a series of songs written especially for these pilgrims. They are the “Songs of Ascents,” Psalms 120-134. They imply pilgrimage, progress, climbing higher toward a destination. If you study these psalms together you sense a gradation, an ascending scale of truth, with important themes building on each other.

It has been said that there is in these psalms a movement away from the world and all that is alien to God’s will (Psalm 120), to the mountains of Judah (Psalm 121), and to Jerusalem itself, and to the Temple (Psalm 122); then from the Temple to God himself (Psalm 123), then to fellowship with the people of God (Psalms 124ff.).

Sometimes on a long hike on the Appalachian Trail it felt less like a pilgrimage than a slog, a march, just putting one foot in front of the other. Sometimes our lives are like that too. Not always exhilarating; sometimes just exhausting. Maybe some of the Jewish pilgrims who made their way to Jerusalem for the three festivals got tired along the way, too.

Maybe some of them wondered if it was worthwhile to keep going. Maybe that’s why they were taught to sing those psalms as they made the journey. Maybe singing the Psalms of Ascents helped them remember why the pilgrimage was important.

The New Testament pictures the Christian life as a pilgrimage. Believers are told to follow in the steps of Christ and walk to please God. That is because we are headed somewhere. There is a destination at the end of the journey and He is there to welcome us.

Keep going, pilgrim!

Pastor Randy Faulkner

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None but the Honest and Wise

When our second president, John Adams, first occupied the White House, he offered a prayer that has become famous. “I pray heaven to bestow the best of blessings on this house, and all that shall hereafter inhabit it. May none but honest and wise men rule under this roof.”

President Franklin D. Roosevelt thought so highly of the prayer that he had it carved into the wooden mantelpiece in the State Dining Room, according to historian David McCullough. When President Harry S. Truman supervised the renovation of the White House, he insisted that the inscription remain. When John F. Kennedy was president, he had the prayer carved into the mantelpiece in marble.

None but the honest. What does that mean? The dictionary definition advises us to think of persons who are free from fraud or deception, truthful, sincere, and innocent. Adams’s prayer is that his successors as president of this great country of ours would be worthy of our trust, truth-tellers, people of good character. We should expect nothing less.

None but the wise. Wisdom is sound judgment, deep understanding, and discernment. John Adams knew that “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding” (Proverbs 9:10).

President Adams was the first to occupy the presidential mansion, He moved in on January 1, 1800. McCullough wrote, “The house itself was still quite unfinished. Fires had to be kept burning in all the fireplaces to help dry the wet plaster. Only a few rooms were ready. . . . Though the president’s furniture had arrived, shipped from Philadelphia, it looked lost in these enormous rooms. The only picture hanging was Gilbert Stuart’s full-length portrait of George Washington.”

It was in these circumstances that President Adams prayed, dedicating the White House and all future presidents, to God. He prayed for the blessing of heaven and that none but the honest and wise would occupy the White House.

This election year is an urgent call for us to pray, as we vote, that the next occupant of the White House will be honest and wise.

Pastor Randy Faulkner

 

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Born Again Through Baptism?

Many church people believe that baptism is necessary for salvation. They speak of baptismal regeneration. Baptism is the obedience without which faith is invalid. Some biblical texts seem to support this view. On closer examination, however, the claim is not supported by scripture.

The concept of baptismal regeneration contradicts the principle of salvation by grace alone. Rather, Christian baptism in water is an act of public testimony that one has been united with Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection. It is a witness to one’s faith in Christ. Every instance of baptism recorded in the New Testament, except for the baptism of our Lord, is of people who had first believed the gospel and were testifying to that belief. They were saved by faith in Christ, not by their baptism.

For example, the apostle Paul reminded the Corinthian believers of how he had brought them to Christ: “I have become your (spiritual) father through the gospel” (1 Corinthians 4:15). If their new birth meant baptism, this must mean that he had baptized them.

But at the outset of the letter, he declared that he had not baptized them. “I am thankful that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius” (1 Corinthians 1:14). Surely Paul would not have written this if baptism were essential for salvation.

The Lord Jesus never emphasized baptism in his teachings about the kingdom of heaven. Indeed, the thief on the cross was not, and could not have been, baptized. Yet Jesus assured the penitent man, “Today you will be with me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43).

This is not to imply that baptism is unimportant. It is a vital first step of obedient discipleship. Dr. Jere Phillips has written, “Christian baptism is the immersion of the believer in water in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is an act of obedience symbolizing the believer’s faith in a crucified, buried, and risen Savior, the believer’s death to sin, the burial of the old life, and the resurrection to walk in newness of life in Christ Jesus.”

Pastor Randy Faulkner

 

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Labor Day Musings

I was asked for advice about work and career. What came to mind were principles I have tried to apply in my own work. I share them today, in no particular order, as Labor Day approaches.

Learn what is expected of you. You have a right to know how your work will be evaluated. Learn the written and unwritten expectations found in your formal job description and informal codes of company culture.

Help others succeed in their work. Be a good neighbor to your co-workers.

Try to enjoy your work.

Finish what you start.

Don’t procrastinate. Most of the time it is best to do the hard parts first.

Communicate. Ask questions. Initiate better ways of doing things.

Don’t love money. Use money. It is a useful servant but a terrible master. “Whoever loves money will never have enough” (Ecclesiastes 5:10).

Take a day off. The sabbath principle was built into the universe for our emotional and physical health.

Recognize that the opportunity to gain wealth is a gift from God. Thank him regularly. “Remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth” (Deuteronomy 8:18).

Do your work for the glory of God.

Pastor Randy Faulkner

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Called to Politics?

William Wilberforce was  a British politician whom God used to help end the Commonwealth’s involvement in the slave trade. After his conversion to faith in Jesus Christ, well-meaning people urged him to leave Parliament and become a pastor.

Historians tell us that it was a pastor, John Newton, who persuaded Wilberforce that God wanted him to stay in politics as his ministry. Newton wrote to him, “It is hoped and believed that the Lord has raised you up for the good of the nation.”

After much thought and prayer, Wilberforce concluded that Newton was right. God was calling him to champion the liberation of oppressed enslaved people, by working in the vocation of politics. “My walk,” he wrote in his journal in 1788, “is a public one. My business is in the world, I must mix with the assemblies of men, or quit the post to which Providence seems to have assigned me.”

If Wilberforce had not remained in politics, he most likely would not have influenced the massive social changes that led to the end of the wicked practice of slavery in the British Commonwealth.

Does God call people to serve in politics? There are members of Congress, senators and representatives, who would say that they have been definitely led by the Lord to serve in government. There are politicians and staff members who gather weekly in small groups, to pray for divine guidance.

We ought to be skeptical of the claims of some politicians who try to use religion and “God-talk” to gain the endorsement of the faith community. But we should also appreciate the fact that there are those who humbly seek the Lord’s wisdom for the important work they do in the service of our nation.

Whatever a Christian’s vocation, it should be considered a ministry for God. Jesus is Lord of every aspect of life. “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord . . .” (Colossians 3:23).

Pastor Randy Faulkner

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I Miss Singing Hymns

I really, really miss singing hymns in church. The church I attend now has discarded hymnals and the hymns they contain in favor of contemporary Christian music. Exclusively. All the time. Every Sunday.

Please don’t interpret this as an old guy’s fulmination against new music. I believe God accepts and approves of many different expressions of praise, including CCM. I really do believe we should be learning and singing new songs. So, I hope you will not dismiss this as merely an exercise in nostalgia or musical snobbery.

No, this is not an old granddad’s desire to return to the 1950s, Not at all. I think God likes guitars and drums as well as pianos and organs.

What I am trying to say is that I miss the theological richness and timeless beauty of such hymns as “Great is Thy Faithfulness,” “O God Our Help in Ages Past,” and “And Can it Be?” I deeply regret the fact that my grandchildren and their generation are not learning hymns like these and the truths they express so well. Something important is being lost.

What is being lost? For one thing, a theological education is being lost. We are supposed to be taught and edified through the singing of psalms and hymns and spiritual songs (Colossians 3:16). I appreciate singing biblical truths when I hear them in contemporary praise songs. Yet I am grieved and offended when I am exhorted to “sing a little louder” 18 times in one song, and I’m put off by a sentimental love song that could just as easily be sung to one’s girlfriend without changing the lyrics at all.

Another thing that is being lost is a valuable legacy of faith and faithfulness. Much contemporary music is temporary and falls into disuse after a few months. When this happens it is because the words do not have staying power and the poetry is trite. (It is a sin to be trite.) There is a reason that until recent years churches were enthusiastically singing hymns that were written in the 18th and 19th centuries. They have stood the test of time.

I regret the failure to sing the great hymns for the same reasons that I regret the failure to teach America’s founding principles to our schoolchildren. I regret the failure to sing hymns for the same reasons that I regret that the number of Americans who read their Bibles daily is declining. Something important is being lost.

Compare the superficial lyrics of some current praise choruses with these written in 1867 by Walter C. Smith.

“Immortal, invisible, God only wise, in light inaccessible hid from our eyes / Most blessed, most glorious, the Ancient of days / Almighty, victorious, Thy great name we praise.

“Unresting, unhasting, and silent as light, nor wanting, nor wasting, Thou rulest in might. / Thy justice like mountains high soaring above, Thy clouds which are fountains of goodness and love.

“To all life Thou givest, to all great and small; in all life Thou livest, the true life of all; / we blossom and flourish as leaves on the tree, and wither and perish, but naught changeth Thee!

“Great Father of glory, pure Father of light, Thine angels adore Thee all veiling their sight; / all praise we would render, O help us to see ’tis only the splendor of light hideth Thee.”

Those who read their Bibles will recognize that these words were inspired by 1 Timothy 1:17 — “Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.” This hymn was written to help Christians exalt the indescribable majesty and transcendence of God the Father. It does not say everything that could be said. But it says enough to give us a vocabulary of praise to Him, something we need today as much as ever.

So, let’s continue to compose and sing new songs to God that are as biblically faithful and theologically sound as this one. But why can’t we sing this one too?

Pastor Randy Faulkner

 

 

 

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Called to Servanthood

It is hard to account for the impact of Paul the apostle on world history. How does one explain the phenomenal influence of this single Jewish rabbi who became a Christian missionary? What motivated the man who wrote one-fourth of the NewTestament and who planted the Christian gospel on the European continent?

One answer might be that he considered himself to be the servant of Jesus. “Slave analogies are the background scenery that fills Paul’s imagination,” wrote Mark Fairchild and Jordan Monson. In a recent article in Christianity Today, they point out how Paul uses the language of slavery to describe his calling and mission.

“Paul is obsessed with the vocabulary of slavery. In his writings, he speaks constantly of it: Of bondage. Of freedom, Of shackles. Of exodus. Of citizenship. The two most common openings to Paul’s letters are, ‘Paul, an apostle of Christ’ and ‘Paul, a slave of Christ.'” They even call attention to an ancient theory that Paul may have  been born to parents who had been slaves and who had gained Roman citizenship through manumission.

Being a servant of Jesus Christ was not what Paul had originally planned to do with his life. He had begun as a promising young scholar studying theology in Jerusalem under Gamaliel, a leading teacher of Jewish law. His career as a zealous Pharisee was interrupted by an appearance of the resurrected Jesus on the road to Damascus. There he received his calling to be the slave of Christ.

He referred to this as “the commission God gave me” in Colossians 1:25. The word “commission” is a translation of a Greek word for household steward. In Roman culture, this word was used of a trusted slave who had been given an assignment as a household manager. It would have been an important  position of great responsibility.

He also called himself a servant of the gospel (Colossians 1:23) and of the church (Colossians 1:25). The Greek word for “servant” in this context was used broadly in the first century for a household slave who was responsible for a variety of domestic duties. The word was later applied to church officers (deacons) who assisted in the ministry of caring for the needs of the members.

This same word is used repeatedly in Paul’s letters as an admonition to all Christians to serve the Lord Jesus by serving one another in love. If we claim to believe in Jesus and to follow him, then we have been called, like Paul, to be servants. Paul’s life, as a servant of Jesus, is a pattern for us.

“Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ,” Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 11:1. “Imitate me,” he said in 1 Corinthians 4:16. “Join with others in following my example,” he wrote in Philippians 3:17. Who on earth says things like this? Only someone whose example is worth following: a servant of the Son of God.

The test of whether we are truly servants is how we react when we are treated as servants.

Pastor Randy Faulkner

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That Old Feeling


Connie and I were married on this date 56 years ago. On this anniversary, I must say that other than the gift of eternal life, she is the best gift God ever gave me. I am thankful for her and thankful to her. I am certain that marrying Connie was an important part of the will of God for my life.

She has, for 56 years, been a trusted confidant, a loving companion,  and a happy co-laborer in the service of Jesus Christ. She is a beautiful wife, mother and grandmother. Words are inadequate to express how I feel on this special day. Maybe the Hallmark card will help.

However, there was a time in the year 1967 that I came close to losing her. We were students in college. It was probably because of my uncertainty and immaturity that we decided to date other people. She was much more secure within herself than I was then.

During that year, every girl I dated was lovely and interesting. But I could not help comparing each one to Connie. I discovered before long that no one could measure up  to her beauty, her thoughtfulness, her strength, and the emotional hold she had on me.

At first, when I saw her with other guys it didn’t bother me. But the longer we were apart I began to realize that I could not imagine life without her. I still loved her. In the good providence of God, she took me back and we declared our love for each other.

A song that expressed that for me then was a ballad sung by Andy Williams: “I saw you last night and got that old feeling. / When you came in sight I got that old feeling. / The moment that you passed by, I felt a thrill. / and when you caught my eye my heart stood still. /  Suddenly I seemed to feel that old yearning. / Then I knew the flame of love was still burning. / There’ll be no new romance for me, It’s foolish to start / when that old, old feeling is still in my heart.”

We were married the next year, August 2, 1968.  We still love each other.

Pastor Randy Faulkner