First Presbyterian Church Wellsboro

Make every second count

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James 4:13-17

We all have the same allotment: 1,440 minutes each day. The question is not whether to plan but whether our planning acknowledges the One who gives time. James 4:13–17 rebukes the arrogance of making confident plans as if tomorrow were fully ours.

James contrasts sensible planning with presumptuous certainty. He does not ban planning or making wise financial decisions. Rather, he condemns the posture that treats future days as guaranteed and plans without acknowledging God’s sovereignty. The early Christian ethic echoes Jesus in Gethsemane, who freely submitted his own will to his Father’s.

True wisdom recognizes this. None of us can control what tomorrow will bring. We do not even know how long we’ll live. The need to adapt to changing circumstances is a given. However, James calls us not merely to adapt but submit our plans to God’s sovereign purposes.

The gospel makes time a trust that is not ultimately ours. Christ’s willing submission to his Father’s will, choosing the cross for our redemption, reframes our plans. Most of us would have avoided the place of our arrest that would lead to death like the flue. But Jesus knew it was for our benefit. However much his flesh may have wanted to avoid the bodily pain, he submitted to that act that forgives our sins, makes us new, and glorifies the Father. Jesus died to call a people to be transformed, so that they would ache, plead for, and long for God’s will be done in their lives and the world. To have a people who would say, “I’d rather have a penny to my name while doing God’s will than to have millions of dollars without God in my life.” Do you – do I – have that aching pleading for God’s will to be done in our lives?

When we believe in the gospel, we stop hoarding minutes for self-glorification and begin returning them to the Lord with gratitude. Time becomes the arena of discipleship. Prayer, worship, family presence, and acts of mercy become the currency of a life focused on God’s glory.

Look at your calendar. Are you missing events that should be there in place of others? Do you have the big rocks – the things you know God wants you doing – in the middle of the stream, so the other things flow around them?

Pray, Lord, may the minutes of my life tic with the pulses of your will. May the seconds I squander be reclaimed by your mercy. May the hours I plan beat in rhythm with your sovereignty. May the days I chase pulse with your eternal purpose. May my calendar be filled up with your will.

When we plan humbly, live sacrificially, and seek with all our hearts God’s perfect will, our calendars become maps of gospel glory rather than monuments that will one day inevitably crumble. Make every second count.

Where can peace be found? (Luke 2:1-7)

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Luke 2:1-7

Peace comes in many forms. We long for the day when peace between nations will end all wars. Our hearts ache for reconciliation with those we have become estranged. Nature earnestly awaits the day when her relationship with humanity becomes symbiotic rather than parasitic. Our hearts and minds seek a state of tranquility. Our bodies ache for freedom from deterioration and decay. Can such a peace that fulfills all these types of peace be found?

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It’s Time to Get the Bible Right

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It’s time to get the Bible right. Many who open the Good Book do so with expectations that can only be dashed by the actual content they find there.

The Bible is not primarily a moral tale of great heroes of the faith. While you will find some heroic actions done with great faith, even the greatest characters in the Bible, excepting One, have fatal flaws.

When we approach the Bible with the intent to “dare to be a Daniel” or to ask, “What would Jesus do?”, we miss its central message. Indeed, Jesus came to model what perfect humanity looks like, but he knew what was inside the human heart: “But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man” (John 2:24–25 ESV). Jesus knew that no one in this world could live the kind of life he lived. He came not mainly as a moral example but as a Savior.

Several years ago, someone shared an article with me written by a pastor from another mainline denomination. He accused the Old Testament of promoting polygamy, as if to say, “Look at all the examples of polygamy in the Bible!” While the author listed examples, he failed to provide citations. So, the person who shared the article with me and I opened our Bibles to find those examples and test his claims. Here’s what we found:

Polygamy does not end well in the Bible. The stories often portray the world not as it ought to be but as it really is. Even the greatest so-called heroes of the Bible committed heinous sins (2 Samuel 11). Polygamy, in the Bible, leads to jealousy, abuse, and a host of generational family dysfunctions. Israelite kings were instructed against it (Deuteronomy 17:14–17), though many succumbed to this popular practice of neighboring kingdoms. Well before David committed adultery with Bathsheba, he had already set his heart on this trajectory by going against God’s good instruction (2 Samuel 5:13).

The rockstar Bono said in an interview, “The Scriptures remain a plumb line to gauge how crooked the wall of my ego has become.” The Bible presents us with broken people whom God’s grace needs to touch and transform. After a long, duplicitous, and polygamous life, old Jacob finally humbles himself before the Lord (Genesis 32:30). The Bible offers a mirror in which we can see our fallen humanity, receive the salvation offered by the Savior, and be renewed (2 Corinthians 5:17).

The Good News Came When the Curse Came (Genesis 3:14-15)

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Genesis 3:14-15

In the beginning God created the heavens and earth and all was very good (Genesis 1:1, 31). There is an inherent goodness about all things God makes. A beautiful scenic overlook, the graceful flight of a bald eagle, the wonders of the human brain, a charitable act, these are all glimpses of the goodness of God’s creation.

Yet, despite these glimpses of the goodness of God’s creation, it appears that what was made good has been marred. Continue reading →

The Ark and the Way (Genesis 6:1-22), Part 3 of Jesus in Genesis

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ark jesus christ

Genesis 6:1-22

Ancient stone towers litter an ancient village located at the southernmost tip of Greece. The stone towers served as family homes, at a time when the village was self-governed. The towers not only protected the village from outside invaders, but protected the villagers from each other. The families of that village had turned family feuds into a blood sport. When one family offended another, they would hurl rocks and boiling oil from the height their tower on to the other family. The families built higher and higher towers to gain the advantage; the cycle went on until the village nearly destroyed itself. Continue reading →

Scripture Alone (2 Timothy 3:14-17), The Solas of the Reformation, Part 1

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2 Timothy 3:14-17

How can we say anything meaningful about God? If God is transcendent, defying our cognitive abilities to fully comprehend him, how can we say anything of certainty about God? Continue reading →

God’s promises produce a community of hope (Romans 5:2)

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Romans 5:2

The journey was long, arduous, around many bends, through streams, and up many mountains. Yet, their spirits remained high. A benefactor ensured they had all they needed to complete the journey, and his promise that they would make it too their long awaited and most desired destination was surer than money in the bank.

The Christian can use the word “hope” in a special way. Christians do not hope as the rest of the world hopes. The world often uses the word “hope” for something one would like to see happen but can never be sure it will. The Christian hope is different. It is a sure, certain, unalterable, and everlasting hope. The Bible tells the Christian in Romans 5:2, “we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”

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The way to victory is through the cross

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John 12:12-19  

The first Palm Sunday looked like people throwing a birthday party for a birthday boy they did not know. People had high expectations on the day Jesus rode into Jerusalem, but the full meaning of the event would not make sense till later. (Read John 12:12-19)  

The crowd that met Jesus on the way expected a national hero. They came out to meet Jesus thinking he was the one who would lead an insurrection against Rome and return the nation’s sovereignty back to the Jews.  

Other people there on that first Palm Sunday responded in a different way. They did not lift palms or chant victory. They boiled with rage. The Jewish leaders feared an insurrection would threaten their socio-economically beneficial relationship with Rome.  

One day Jesus will come as a warrior king to palm branches and shouts of victory to claim his Kingdom once and for all (Revelation 7:9-10). However, if Jesus was marching to victory on Palm Sunday, victory started with a death march to the cross.  

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We all need a second birth (John 3:5)

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John 3:5

Jesus said to Nicodemus, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God (John 3:5).”

If you were to inquire of all the evil, sin, misery, and madness of this world, and keep asking the “why?” question, you would find out that the answer has something to do with the human condition. All of us are born into this world with a heart malady, and from this heart malady flows the problems we face in this world.

I once heard an environmentalist say that humans so endanger our planet that earth would prosper better without humanity. I disagree with that assertion, but I think people who say such things are catching on to something. To put the tragedy in biblical terms, the one creature God created to care for and cultivate this planet contributes the most to its destruction. Even the Book of Romans says that “the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God (Romans 8:19).” Creation itself waits for the day when humanity will actually care for and cultivate creation how God intended.

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Jesus’ came to drive out our idolatry to give us something infinitely better (John 2:13-25)

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John 2:13-25

It was the year 1510 when the monk Martin Luther first visited the holy city of Rome. Luther had greatly anticipated seeing Rome. When he first glimpsed it from afar, he fell to his knees and lifted his hands in praise, saying, “Hail to thee, O Holy Rome.” Luther’s excitement, however, quickly dwindled with every step he took into that alleged holy city. Luther later wrote, “No one can imagine the trickery, the horrible sinfulness and debauchery that are rampant in Rome.”

As furious as Luther became over the immorality of Rome, his fury paled in comparison to that of another man who entered another alleged holy city. When Jesus entered the Temple in Jerusalem, he too became indignant (John 2:13-25).

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