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- Written by: Don Goulding
All generous giving and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or the slightest hint of change. (James 1:17)
The weather is changing. Trees that were clothed a week ago are running about naked and giggling in the wind. Days are shorter, geese are migrating, snows are coming.
The seasonal upsets are the least disruptive of life’s many transitions. Morals, technology, and governments are in constant flux. Thousand-year-old castles decompose while skyscrapers pop from their shrink-wrap. Many of my own cells replace themselves every three weeks. From the expanding universe to subatomic decay, our existence is so much material fickleness in dire need of eternal solidity.
Scripture provides a refreshing consistency in the Kingdom laws. God says the same things repeatedly from different angles. Lean not on your own ways is the same truth as he is the vine and I am the branch. The death angel, passing over marked doorways, is echoed when I escape eternal death through the blood of Jesus. My world may not be the same place it was a moment ago but when God speaks a truth, it hangs irrevocable throughout time.
The unwavering endurance of God’s word trumps every temporal instability. It is my anchor, my one true hope. So let the world degenerate, let my own faithfulness zigzag, even if the universe melts away—I have an unchanging promise from the Father of time. He is the one eternal bedrock that cannot bend, sway, or even vibrate.
Prayer: My Rock and my Redeemer, to you alone do I cling.
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- Written by: Don Goulding
The unbeliever does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him. And he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. The one who is spiritual discerns all things, yet he himself is understood by no one. (1 Corinthians 2:14-15)
I watch Chinese faces in the underground church as they cry out in passionate worship, and I know why they risk gathering. I join Africans in a praise dance, clapping out complex rhythms and shouting between lyric phrases, and I know exactly what's inside their hearts. I overhear a political fracas or gasp after the latest school shooting, and a secret knowledge of the cause burns in my soul.
As a Christian, I have clearance for intelligence on the state of two opposing unions. I am briefed on what makes heaven sing and what makes hell screech. But I can’t talk about it openly. Discussions of divine glory and eternal burning appear fanatical to those who do not lift the lens of Jesus Messiah to their eye.
An agent of God is called to fix what they can that is broken in this world. Jesus bestows far more authority on us than our enemy would have us know. We can pray down strongholds, speak the words of God, and be operatives of reconciliation. Every Jane and Joe Christian among us needs to rise up as the spiritual warrior we were meant to be.
There are, however, struggles that are destined to continue until Christ returns. Jesus lamented Jerusalem when he longed to gather her children like a hen gathers chicks under her wings. Paul spoke of holy groaning—a deep, commiserating heartache that we are not home in God’s perfection.
I am moving through an epic tragedy with my best comrade, Jesus. We shout victory after some fights, after others we weep—in everything we are together. Throughout eternity, he and I will retell our adventures under a giddy bond because we lived them—both the heavenly and the hellish—together.
Prayer: Thank you, Jesus, you for entrusting me with your knowledge.
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- Written by: Don Goulding
Tell the people of Zion, ‘Look, your king is coming to you, unassuming and seated on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’ (Matthew 21:5)
Let everyone see your gentleness. The Lord is near! (Philippians 4:5)
The live green movement attempts to bring health to our planet. It’s an environmentally gentle approach to life that encourages a minimal ecological footprint. That’s a fancy way of saying we limit our use of natural resources. Advertisers apply the slogans of live green and sustainability to everything from light bulbs to automobiles.
There is a way to live green spiritually. The Bible enjoins us to adopt a gentle spirit, which is to say, a minimal worldly footprint. Our presence on earth should be a weightless benefit to everything we touch.
Do I have a gentle spirit with my family, my critics, my finances—what about with my driving? Am I quick to give and slow to take? I am called to leave a verdant path of encouragement, not a thorny trail of disapproval.
To live green doesn’t mean I become a spineless patsy. There was no gentler person than Jesus Christ, and yet no one has ever had his moxie. Gentleness simply means I sacrifice my temporal existence for the good of others—not for what they may want but for their eternal good.
A wisteria vine sends out a delicate tendril that can later bend steel pipes and break cement foundations. Just so, my life should be tender and fragrant, but driven by life bending conviction. That’s living green.
Prayer: Father, may my footprint be small on earth and large in your kingdom.