Stranger in a Strange Land, a song

Johnny used to talk like an encyclopedia salesman
Peddling his wares in an age of Wikipedia
He used to walk like a Polaroid camera
Running out of film in an age of social media

Stranger in a strange land
Stranger than fiction, stranger than truth
I’m in the quicksand
I can’t get no traction, I don’t need no proof
I’m in a strange land

Marty took his stand like a deer in the headlights
Staring down the traffic while the cars whizzed by
He didn’t understand he’d brought a book to a gun fight
Flipping through the pages when the lead started to fly

Stranger in a strange land
Stranger than fiction, stranger than truth
I’m in the quicksand
I can’t get no traction, I don’t need no proof
I’m in a strange land

Billy brought the house down with his swan song about freedom
He drew a line in the sand of the beach while the tide was on the rise
He may have lost some battles but he wouldn’t let them beat him
He stood there on the mountain top for a glimpse of paradise

Stranger in a strange land
Stranger than fiction, stranger than truth
I’m in the quicksand
I can’t get no traction, I don’t need no proof
I’m in a strange land

Misfits and oddballs
And square pegs in round holes
Like sore thumbs sticking out there on a limb
Lovers, fanatics
And hopeful romantics
Ah the world wasn’t worthy
It wasn't worthy of them

Stranger in a strange land
Stranger than fiction, stranger than truth
I’m in the quicksand
I can’t get no traction, I don’t need no proof
I’m in a strange land

1 Peter 2:13-25, The Christian Citizen

Just in Time, a devotional thought

The other day I was reading Acts 24-25, and it occurred to me that God’s timeline for our lives unfolds in his own way and at his own pace, and it does not always make a lot of sense from a human perspective. Here we have Paul being held in custody by the Roman Governor in Caesarea, because the Jewish Leaders had him arrested in the Temple in Jerusalem. The Roman officials aren’t really sure what to do with him (he’s on trial for a matter of Jewish law, not Roman), so they defer his case until he can be properly tried.

 And then in Acts 24:27, in a rather off hand way, it says, “But after two years had passed, Governor Felix was succeeded by Governor Festus.” Wishing to earn political points with leadership in Jerusalem, Felix decided not to release Paul from prison before he left. Paul went to Jerusalem at the leading of the Holy Spirit, with a sure word from Jesus that he will, eventually, preach the Gospel in Rome itself, and yet for all appearances, his mission has been stalled out for two years in Caesarea. 

Two years is a long time in the life span of a ministry. A lot can change, a lot can come unravelled, a lot of opportunities can be missed. And I imagine it was pretty easy to wonder, at some point during that two-year waiting game, if God was really up to anything? Had God forgotten Paul in prison? Would he really get to Rome in the end?

Of course, as the story progresses it will become clear that God was doing all sorts of things behind the scenes in those two years, to make sure Paul got to Rome (Historical note: Governor Festus, who replaces Felix at the end of two years, is one of the more honest and trustworthy governors Judea had. Unlike Felix, who kept hoping for a bribe from Paul, Festus hears his appeal to Caesar and promptly sends him to Rome). If you are in the middle of something that feels stuck—and maybe you’ve been waiting years for God to unstick it—take heart from Paul’s example today. It may not be that God is working out a change of Roman Governorship for you, but even so, you can trust that he is never not at work, behind the scenes, to bring about his very good purpose for you.

1 Peter 1:13-2:3 Hunger Pains of Holiness

Valley of Dry Bones, a song

I’m going down to the Valley of Dry Bones
To light a candle in the shadow of death
To hear his voice come calling from the cyclone
And dust off those dry bones
And fill them with his breath

I don’t know what you want from me
But you’ve got me on my knees
I let go of my dignity
Just to hear you say...

I’m going down to the Valley of Dry Bones
To light a candle in the shadow of death
To hear his voice come calling from the cyclone
And dust off those dry bones
And fill them with his breath

And the days slipped away from me
Like a sailor lost at sea
But the waves washing over me
Won’t sweep my heart away...

And I heard a voice calling to the Son of Man
Can these dry bones live again?
Like empty dreams waking in the dead of night
Can lifeless eyes regain their sight?

I’m going down to the Valley of Dry Bones
To light a candle in the shadow of death
To hear his voice come calling from the cyclone
And dust off those dry bones
And fill them with his breath

En-Couragement, a devotional thought

There’s a scene in Acts 23:11 that I find especially poignant. Here’s the background in a nutshell: Paul’s gone to Jerusalem where he’s been arrested by the religious leaders as a blasphemer and a disturber of the peace. He offers a public defense of himself before a gathered mob of his countrymen (visualize pitchforks and torches if you like...) at the end of which his own countrymen start crying out that he’s not fit to walk the earth.

 The Roman centurion who’s arrested him decides to interrogate him by flogging, to get to the bottom of things. They bind him up and are just about to bring down the lash, when he mentions he’s a Roman citizen and it’s illegal to flog a Roman without trial. Having narrowly escaped a scourging, he’s forced to stand trial before the Sanhedrin, where his testimony illicit such a violent response, that the centurion is forced to “drag him away by force” lest the crowd “tear him limb from limb.”

Paul’s been having a very rough weekend in ministry; the kind of weekend that makes my toughest ministry challenges look like a Sunday afternoon in the park. So it’s poignant, like I say, and touching, when you get to verse 11.

After all this danger and disgrace—mobs nearly tearing him apart, public trials, and near-floggings—Paul’s locked for the night in the Centurion’s barracks, waiting to learn what will come of him. And in verse 11 we read: “That night the Lord stood near Paul and said, ‘Take courage! As you have testified about me in Jerusalem, so you must also testify in Rome.’”

I call it poignant because if ever a follower of Jesus needed encouragement from the Lord, surely it was Paul that night. And the way the verse is worded, it sounds like he received a personal visitation from Jesus himself (The Lord stood by him...), breathing courage into his harried spirit. Of course, part of Jesus’ message for Paul is that there was more to come (eventually he will preach the Gospel in Rome itself), trials in which courage will be especially hard to come by. But in this moment at least, with dangers behind him and dangers ahead, Jesus is simply standing by his friend and imparting to him the supernatural courage that only he can.

May we also know Jesus standing by us, today, in those ministry challenges we face where courage is most needed but hardest to come by.

Stranger in a Strange Land, a sermon on 1 Peter 1:1-12

This summer I had the wonderful opportunity to preach a 7-sermon series through the Epistle of 1 Peter, at Wesley Acres Retreat Centre, in Prince Edward County, Ontario.  A beautiful setting with some wonderful people, digging in to God's Word each morning.  It was a great joy, but also explains why posting here at terra incognita has been a bit on the light side.  While I let the dust settle from this summer and collect my thoughts for another season of blogging in the fall, I thought maybe I could post the videos of those sermons here, for posterity's sake.  Here's day 1:

(This Roller Coaster) Once, a song

You only go round this rollercoaster once
Might as well put your hands in the air
And when the ride stops there’ll be
Lots of time for second guesses
And when the ride stops it’ll start, eternity

Hold on to today
Tomorrow's a mystery
It's a blind corner anyhow
And I know it's cliche
But yesterday is history
And all we have for sure is now

You only walk through the valley of the shadow once
Might as well walk with your head held high
And when the day comes there’ll be lots of time
For all your questions
And when the ride stops it’ll start, eternity

Hold on to today
Tomorrow's a mystery
It's a blind corner anyhow
And I know it's cliche
But yesterday is history
And all we have for sure is now

I sound my
Barbaric yawp
Over the rooftops of the world

Hold on to today
Tomorrow's a mystery
It's a blind corner anyhow
And I know it's cliche
But yesterday is history
And all we have for sure is now

All for Jesus, a devotional thought

The other day I was reading in Acts 22, and it struck me how strategic Paul is in using every bit of his story for the sake of introducing people to Jesus. His Roman citizenship (22:25), his training as a Pharisee (23:6), his involvement in Stephen's execution (22:20), everything fair game if it'll advance the Gospel, even these parts of the story that would have, at one time, made him an enemy of the Gospel. It left me thinking that for Christians that there's nothing we've gone through or experienced or lived that God can't use for his great purposes-- he really is the God who wastes nothing. But it also left me wondering: am I as open and generous with my whole life story as Paul is with his?