AnotherJohn.Com

  Acts 15:6-11 In my denomination, being ordained involves a process. Truthfully, it can be long and grueling. There are meetings, evaluations, papers, interviews, projects, and plenty of waiting. My process went pretty smoothly, but there are many stories. One criticism I've heard about the process, one I agree with, isn't really about the requirements. It's about an attitude. Apparently, parts of the process used to be even more difficult. And sometimes people who endured the old system want to ensure the next person has an equally difficult experience. You've probably encountered that attitude. Nobody gave me a break, so why should I give you one? Acts 15 describes a different form of this problem. Some Jewish Christians believed that Gentile believers should take on the requirements and customs that had defined their own religious lives. They essentially said, "If you're going to follow Jesus, you need to carry what we've carried." Peter didn't...

  Psalm 133 A bearded friend welcomed me to the beard club. There are organizations, special events, and an entire culture around having beards. That was also my introduction to beard oil, and I learned it can be a little messy. It's funny to me that Psalm 133 uses oil on a beard as an image of unity for God's people. As much as we all want unity, we aren't always sure how to make it. But we will affirm that it is "very good and pleasant" when we have it. According to the psalm, unity is like oil. Now, not just any oil you might find me using. It is the precious oil poured over Aaron’s head at his anointing. It runs down his beard, down his clothing, all the way to the collar of his robes. Beautiful and messy, if you ask me. Aaron’s priestly garments carried two onyx stones on the shoulders, engraved with the names of the twelve tribes of Israel, “as a reminder.” In other words, Aaron didn’t come before God alone. He carried everybody with him. And that’s where Go...

  Revelation 15:1-4 Look for "Unmistakable Worship" on Another John Dot Com My music app suggested a brand-new song for me. I didn’t recognize the artist, and I didn't know what kind of music he usually made. The song was good, but I couldn’t tell whether it was worship directed toward God or a love song directed toward a sweetheart. It could have gone either way. Revelation 15 doesn't have that confusion. John sees the faithful standing beside “a sea of glass mixed with fire.” They have endured the beast’s violence without surrendering their allegiance. When they begin to sing, there is no mistaking who the song is about: “Great and amazing are your deeds, Lord God the Almighty!” Technically, these singers aren’t angels. They are the saints who have “conquered” the beast, not by overpowering it, but by refusing to become like it. Revelation worship redefines winning. In the empire, victory belongs to whoever has the strongest army. In the Lamb’s kingdom, victory belo...

  Matthew 8:23-27 Unfortunately, you don't know how much you trust Jesus until you really have to. That’s because it’s easy to sing about trusting Jesus when the boat isn’t sinking. In Matthew 8, the disciples follow Jesus into a boat, and along the way, the weather gets bad. Matthew calls it a “great storm" as waves are crashing over the boat. The disciples are panicking. And not-so-little Lord Jesus laid down his sweet head. Now, some of these disciples were fishermen. They knew how bad storms could get. So, the surprise may not have been the storm itself. What frightened them was that Jesus didn’t seem nearly as concerned about it as they were. “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!” I wonder how many of our prayers are some version of that. Jesus, don’t you see what’s happening? Don’t you care? Why aren’t you doing something? And Jesus responds with his own question: “Why are you afraid, you of little faith?” Of course, Jesus doesn’t suggest there is no storm. Because of wh...

  Genesis 19: 15-23 Three little words may tell us more about Lot than a whole biography could, and maybe even something about ourselves. “But he lingered.” God had told Lot to leave Sodom. The warning was simple: Get your family. Get out. And don't look back. But Lot lingered. A common interpretation of that is that Lot got a lot more comfortable. So, maybe he lingered because he thought about the house he'd worked for. He thought about the possessions he'd accumulated. There were familiar streets and familiar faces. Come to think of it, Sodom was a mess, but it was his mess. The Bible doesn't tell us why Lot lingered. Maybe that's an invitation for us to fill in the blank with our own answer. But not about Lot. What makes you linger? You see, we tend to think that only bad things have hold of us. But can't good things also be something we're not so willing to let go of? Comfortable things can keep you from being faithful to God's calling, too. That...

  Genesis 37:29-36 Jealousy made Joseph's brothers want to kill him. But they decided, because "he is our brother," to just sell him off. That's interesting because, after they sell him, they dip his special robe in blood and take it home to their father. Then they tell him, “We found this; see now whether it is your son’s robe or not.” Your son. Not our brother. I wonder exactly when that choice of words came to mind. Joseph had stopped being their brother and become Jacob’s son. And maybe that’s how we learn to hurt people. The easiest way to mistreat someone, ignore them, dismiss them, or decide their suffering isn’t our concern, is to put some distance between us and them. We change the nouns. They’re no longer our neighbors. They’re those people. Not our children. Those kids. Not our community. That side of town. Not our brother or sister. Someone else’s problem. We've heard this already in Genesis. After Cain kills Abel, God asks, “Where is your brother Ab...