On walking the Way

Last time, we talked about the context and structure of the seven letters to the churches in Asia Minor found in Revelation. I would like to continue that study as we work to answer the question, “How are we to live while we wait for Jesus?” Get full access to On walking the Way at tompossin.substack.com/subscribe

In this series I want to focus primarily on the 7 mini-epistles found in chapters two and three. When properly understood, these short letters to seven suffering churches offer us real help and encouragement in the chaos of today’s world.. Get full access to On walking the Way at tompossin.substack.com/subscribe

If you have been watching the news lately, or even if you haven’t, you have no doubt heard. The news is not good. War is never good news, and the more people and nations that get involved, the worse it gets. If you are interested in the topic of the last things and the coming age I have written a reader’s guide to the book of Revelation to help you understand and enjoy this encouraging book. Revelation is a book written in difficult times to encourage a suffering Church. It is still an encouragement to the suffering Church.You can pick up a copy from here. The Time Between. Get full access to On walking the Way at tompossin.substack.com/subscribe

There is a theme that can be traced in the Gospel of John that is very sobering. Today I want to supply a little food for thought as we approach Good Friday and Easter. We will be tracking the theme of seeking human approval instead of God’s approval. I will read selected passages from John that describe the relationship between Jesus, the crowd, and the leaders of the people. These relationships are complex, but understanding them will help us understand our present moment in history as well.Have a Good Friday and a Great Easter! Get full access to On walking the Way at tompossin.substack.com/subscribe

John 19:1--16Then Pilate took Jesus and flogged him. 2 And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head and arrayed him in a purple robe. 3 They came up to him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and struck him with their hands. 4 Pilate went out again and said to them, “See, I am bringing him out to you that you may know that I find no guilt in him.” 5 So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Behold the man!” 6 When the chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out, “Crucify him, crucify him!” Get full access to On walking the Way at tompossin.substack.com/subscribe

We’ve been talking about reading the Bible, and today I would like to continue that conversation. Many of us were taught that the Bible just needs to be read simply and interpreted literally. But the problem is, many things in the Bible were not written to be understood literally. And many things are anything but simple. Get full access to On walking the Way at tompossin.substack.com/subscribe

Some time ago I posted an article titled Breath In, Breath Out. In this post I discussed how walking the way is a two-part process, much like breathing. Breathing is not inhaling or exhaling; a breath is to inhale and exhale. We need to breathe in God’s Spirit and grace and breathe out God’s love for the world. Get full access to On walking the Way at tompossin.substack.com/subscribe

Jesus is our king, and his kingdom is our team. We are here as his representatives. I don’t think partisanship has any place in the kingdom of God. Our loyalty is to our king and our king alone. Anything else is idolatry.As we try to live worthy lives in this fallen world, finding the right voice for this cultural moment is difficult. However, Peter gives us a bit of encouraging advice in his second letter. Let me read a bit from the third chapter. Get full access to On walking the Way at tompossin.substack.com/subscribe

It has been said many times and in many ways that we don’t really learn by hearing; we learn by doing.In my classes I have reduced this idea to a motto:“I will know the truth, as I do the truth.” Get full access to On walking the Way at tompossin.substack.com/subscribe

When young people ask me why such and such a policy exists on our campus, I tell them, “Every rule has a name.” By that, I mean rules are made because someone did something that caused someone else to make a rule. Over time you get countless rules that way, but somehow people keep doing bad things. Jesus explained this phenomenon as he was explaining why he was disagreeing with Moses regarding divorce in Matt 19:And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?” He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” They said to him, “Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?” He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.Paul echoes this with just a few words in Galatians 3:9. Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions,Laws are a response to evil; they do not prevent it. Laws do not change hearts; they only describe evil and its consequences. Laws are essential in governance. They educate and warn people of the consequences of bad behavior. When justly applied, they can bring order to society. But they don’t change the human heart. The source of evil is internal, so the solution to evil must begin at the source, the human heart. This reality is one of the sources of modern desperation. The world wants an answer that doesn’t require a change of heart. They want an external answer that can be forced on others regardless of what they think or desire. Such solutions will always lead to tyranny. The only lasting answer, the only answer that leads to true freedom and justice, is the answer God has provided in Christ Jesus. Paul describes it this way in his letter to the Romans.There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. Romans 8:1-6 [ESV]Laws deal with evil behavior, but only after the fact. God has dealt with human evil at its point of origin. The human heart. This change of heart is offered as a gift from God to all those who are willing. As Christians, we sometimes want to force Christian behavior on the world, whether they want it or not. For their own good, mind you. But when we do this, we find ourselves in unholy agreement with the tyrants. Our instructions are clear. We are to preach the gospel and demonstrate what obedience to the gospel looks like to a lost and dying world. We are called to repentance and faith in Jesus and to love one another—and love our enemies too. This is a costly calling, but it is a strategy that deals with the real sources of evil. It gives hope and freedom to the human heart and reminds the spiritual forces of evil driving this world that their days are numbered. By doing this, we demonstrate the current reality of the kingdom of God and prepare for the return of the King. This weekIf you live in the U.S., I don’t have to tell you that we live in a state of constant uproar regarding the law and how it should or shouldn’t be applied. As Christians, we need to be careful who we join hands with, and we need to think carefully about what we are agreeing with. Slogans are chanted by all sides as if they were scripture. They’re not. The actual scriptures will not excuse those that would mask hate with self-righteous slogans. Let’s remember the encouragement of Paul to Timothy this week:First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.Remember, Paul was writing this during the reign of Nero. Let’s not be distracted by the noise of this present age, and let’s stay focused on the things that really matter. That is—accurately reflecting Jesus to this lost and fallen world.Have a great week! Get full access to On walking the Way at tompossin.substack.com/subscribe

The new year always brings with it a sort of implicit hope, a hope that this year might be better than the last. A hope for relief—a hope for change. I think this is a good thing, even though it may in reality be nothing more than a conditioned cultural response. After all, without a calendar, one day is no different from the next. Despite this, I think we all agree that every day is a new day, and more importantly, each day is an opportunity to change. It is good to consider what we could do today that may make tomorrow just a bit better than today for ourselves and others. This hope for a better tomorrow represents the soul of most Christian worship services. Which are often built around the ideas of self-reflection, confession of sin, and repentance (which is a change of direction). But is Christianity simply a self-improvement exercise? Does self-improvement ultimately achieve what our eternal souls need? Can we really overcome our selfish desires through the efforts of self? Or are we in reality exchanging one form of self-centered living for another? Is there any way out of the “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” dilemma? I think this passage is my favorite meditation when I am reflecting on my inability to heal myself. For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, ...   (2 Corinthians 5:14-18 ESV)From this passage it seems clear that change is not a function of our efforts; it is a function of our death and resurrection in Christ. Salvation is not the result of our efforts but of His. What’s more, our fallen natures and evil desires are not repaired; they are replaced. They are replaced by a wholly new creation. What we were no longer defines us, for we are not what we were; we are now something entirely new in Christ. What does this mean in day-to-day life?For a long time I took a primarily theological approach to this concept of death and new creation. It became more or less an abstraction and something with more eternal significance than day-to-day usefulness. However, I have learned over the years that for those sins that seem particularly stubborn, this idea is the difference between success and failure. In practice, faith in Jesus involves faith in several things. When we say we are trusting in the “finished work of Jesus,” that work was his substitutionary death and his victorious resurrection. However, this passage tells us that his death was not his alone, but when he died, we all died with him. By his death we were therefore set free from the power of sin, because the person I used to be, the person who was a slave to desire and sin, died and is now a new creation in Christ. Faith in Jesus is believing all of that and more.As we begin to truly accept that the death of Jesus was also our death, we are set free from the power of our old life and given the ability to live a new life. A life that was impossible for us while we were still enslaved to our various desires and sins. Changing our thinkingThis concept is a lot to take in, and our feelings want to say it ain’t so. But God says it’s true, so this passage also gives us a bit of instruction about how to get our head wrapped around all of this. Paul tells us, “From now on we know no one according to the flesh…”. This includes ourselves; we must no longer know ourselves according to the flesh. Who we were and the way we have always thought about ourselves are all irrelevant because we have died. That person I knew as me has died. Now I have to get to know that new person who was created in Christ as a son of God. I need to follow that new person as he grows up into that which God intended from the beginning. Consider the following:But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.    (Romans 8:10-14 ESV)So we can change and live a different life. But we can’t do this by our own efforts through our own corrupted desires and strength. God in Jesus has already restarted us. We now need to walk in this new life of the Spirit and put no trust in who or what we were. We must consider that old life dead to fully embrace the new life we have in Christ through the Spirit. Giving this grace to othersThis week let’s forget about trying to fix ourselves up and simply let that old life go while embracing our new identity in Christ. As we allow the grace of God the freedom to work in our lives, we need to remember that this same struggle is going on in our believing brothers and sisters. Paul said, “From now on we know no one according to the flesh.” By this he means our brothers and sisters in faith. Let’s refuse to know them according to who they were, and instead let’s call out who they are in Christ this week. Let’s refuse to identify them by the labels that used to define them but see them as new creations in Christ. We can all start over, and we can do it today if we have the courage to walk away from a life that is already dead. Step into a new creation that is destined for far greater things in Christ today.Have a great week! Get full access to On walking the Way at tompossin.substack.com/subscribe

Christmas is a time of joy, wonder, and hope in a world filled with hate, cynicism, loneliness, and pain. This season is a mirror on the world and on our own attitudes. As Christians, we need to respond to reality while maintaining our innocence and wonder. This may seem impossible, but this tension has been a part of Christianity from the beginning.Christianity is filled with things that seem to be at odds with each other. Blessed are the meek. Humble yourself, and you will be exalted. If someone slaps you on the cheek, turn to him the other. And the list goes on. Today I want to examine one of those paradoxes with you. Being wise while maintaining the innocence of a child. Let’s begin with these two passages.First, Jesus tells his disciples this: “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves." Matt 10:16 [ESV]Then Paul picks up this theme years later as he is talking to the church in Corinth.Brothers, do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature. 1 Cor 14:20 [ESV]The Church today seems to always want to run to extremes. On the one hand, you have those who feel that we should all be thoughtless children. Always be nice to everyone and think happy thoughts, and Jesus will be happy with you. On the other hand, there are those who wish to be wise and influential and, in the process, leave innocence and virtue behind. The Christian view of politics is similar; some don’t want to touch it at all, while others fall into it headfirst, forgetting that we already have a king. In the first passage, Jesus is preparing his disciples for the trials that await them as he sends them out into the world to preach the gospel and heal the sick. In the second passage, Paul is trying to help the church at Corinth navigate the gifts of the spirit and prophecy without allowing the whole service to degenerate into chaos. These are very different contexts, but in both cases the advice was the same.We like extremes because extremes are simple. It is all or nothing. No pesky edge cases that don’t resolve cleanly into a nice black and white answer. Am I talking about moral relativism? Absolutely not! But wisdom is not needed in simple cases. Wisdom is needed when the answer is not as clear. And when that happens, we are to be wise and innocent at the same time. And that requires help. As Jesus sent out his disciples in the first passage, he comforted them with this promise:When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour. For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. Matt 10:19-20 [ESV]There was no question that trouble would find them, but they could take heart in the knowledge that God’s Spirit would be with them. To guide them and give them the wisdom they require in those bewildering and terrifying moments. In the second passage, Paul was correcting pride, conflict, and confusion in the church. The gifts were in operation, but love and encouragement were being forgotten. In their zeal to use their gifts, they were forgetting love. They were forgetting the reason those gifts exist in the first place: to unify and grow the body of Christ in love. This dilemma has not improved with time. The need to balance knowledge and love, wisdom and innocence, remains. We must engage this world to teach it the gospel. But engagement must never come at the cost of our innocence or the love that first brought us to repentance and taught us to trust God unreservedly. We still need help to keep these seemingly opposite requirements in balance. And we still have that help in the Holy Spirit. But as with all things related to the grace of God, this help must be sought and received by faith. And faith to be living and genuine needs to act. I will close with a few words from James. These passages are not in order, but I think I am being faithful to their original meaning. 1:5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. 6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. 4:6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” 7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you. 1:27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world. James 1:5;1:27;4:6-10 [ESV]As we celebrate the Christmas season this year, let’s not be foolish, but at the same time, let’s not lose the wonder of it all in our grown-up cynicism either. And above all, let’s not miss the obvious, and let’s love one another in ways that bring glory to God for all of his kindness to us.Have a great week and a great Christmas season! Get full access to On walking the Way at tompossin.substack.com/subscribe

This is the sermon I will be giving on Sunday, Nov. 30. I was given the passages below as the lectionary passages for the week. It was a challenging assignment, but I think I found a way to talk about Thanksgiving, Advent, and these passages—eventually.Daniel 3 John 18:36-38Advent, Thanksgiving, and HopeGood morning! Today is the first Sunday of Advent! The first Sunday of the New Liturgical Year. And the first Sunday after Thanksgiving. Advent is a time of preparation, anticipation, and hope. Unlike Lent, which is a time of soul-searching and penitence in remembrance of the sacrifice of Jesus, Advent is a time of preparation and celebration that looks both forward and back. And in the process—changes our hearts today.Today’s readings from the lectionary don’t track very well with either Thanksgiving or Advent; they describe a world at war with God and all those who follow him. They describe some of the painful and challenging realities of being a faithful follower of God in a fallen world. Nevertheless, we will circle back to these stories later.To prepare our hearts for the Advent of Christ, we first have to go back and remember why we need Jesus in the first place. What happened to separate us from God? Why did God need to come to us? Why is the world in such a mess? And how does Jesus fix it?This war between the powers that influence the world and God goes way back. Back to the first pages of the Bible, where we find a snake in the garden of God trying to subvert and destroy God’s plan for the future. Throughout the Scriptures, we see over and over again the persecution of those that follow God and His truth. The passages today are just two examples. Time will not allow us to review all these stories, but everyone from Abel to Joseph to David and the prophets suffered in this ongoing battle between the powers of evil and the followers of God.And the battle continues to rage. Today, Christians are being murdered by the thousands around the world simply for being Christian. In the past 5 years in Nigeria alone, it is estimated that 3,000 to 5,000 Christians a year have been murdered for their faith. And if we add to that the constant lies and manipulation of the media and the corruption we see in every earthly government, our hearts can easily be overwhelmed to the point where thanksgiving and hope seem almost impossible.Advent, on the other hand, is a celebration of hope for the future and a thanksgiving for God’s greatest gift to us in the past. During Advent we declare God’s faithfulness in the past and proclaim our hope for the future. It is our way of standing in faith against the trials of our time. Whatever they may be. It’s a chance to focus on the fact that God himself has come to us; he has become one of us, and maybe most importantly, it helps us remember that he is not finished yet. So let’s take a few moments to think about the hope of Advent.Advent - The PastIronically, the Advent hope goes back to our first failure and a veiled promise God made to Eve. After Adam and Eve failed by pursuing their selfish desires over their love for God. God curses the serpent but adds this promise to Adam and Eve as he does.Gen 3:15, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”In this short statement we have both an explanation of the hostility we see everywhere in the world and the source of the hope we celebrate here today. The war began with the serpent, but God has promised to end that war one day through one of Eve’s children. But as great as this promise is, our sin still separated us from God that day, and we were expelled from the garden. We lost direct access to God, and we lost access to the tree of life. We once lived in the Garden of God, the Garden of Eden. It was a place where we could walk and talk daily with God. But choosing our own way over God’s way caused us to lose access to all of this. We lost direct access to God. We could never undo what we had done. This promise was that first ray of hope, a lifeline when all other hope was gone. However, this first promise was not the last. As time went on, God gave us more insight into the nature of his plans to save this fallen world.In Isaiah, God sends word again regarding this child, but this time he adds a bit more detail.Isaiah 9:6-7, “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end…”This short passage gives us a tremendous amount of help in understanding the plan of God.First, we see that this child is born to rule. The government was going to be upon his shoulders. And the names that are given to this child teach us even more. These names inform us that this child will be no ordinary human ruler. Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and the Prince of Peace all describe this child as far more than just another human leader. Only God himself is worthy of names like this. This human child was to be called “Mighty God” and “Everlasting Father.” This is an overwhelming thought. And, as our Wonderful Counselor, he would teach us, and he would be our everlasting Prince of Peace. What’s more, his government, his rule, his peace, will increase forever, and his kingdom will never end.The cynic might say, “If Jesus is the prince of peace, why is the world still at war?” This is obviously a complex question, but there is an answer. And that answer is, the government of Jesus is increasing—and will do so—forever. His kingdom has come, but His kingdom is, at the same time, still coming. It is ongoing. Our hope is not just in the past with a baby in the manger but in a risen king who has conquered the power of evil and is coming again to destroy evil once and for all. But in this time between, we will see trouble as the kingdom of God continues to rise and grow among the evil kingdoms of this world.Our earlier readings today describe challenges the people of God have faced in the past. Whether we are discussing the faithfulness of the three friends of Daniel in the face of a terrible death or the steadfastness of Jesus as he stood unjustly condemned before Pilate. We see the enmity between the people of God and those who follow the serpent everywhere we look in the Scriptures. Jesus is that child who was described so long ago. But the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus, as wonderful as they are, were not the whole story, but rather, the beginning of a longer and more glorious story.We still have a future hope, and Advent is a time the Church has set aside every year to remember it. Jesus is our hope now and for the future, and this hope gives us the strength to endure, regardless of what challenges or threats come our way. Daniel’s friends found the strength to stand up to Nebuchadnezzar through their hope in God. And in the book of Hebrews, we read that Jesus took strength from the joy that was set before him. Hope is a powerful thing. And Advent is about strengthening our hope.The coming of Jesus can be seen in three phases. And we recognize and celebrate all three during Advent. We recognize the past promises of God that were fulfilled by the first coming of Jesus. We celebrate our current ability to receive the gift of Jesus, allowing him to change us from the inside out. And we set our hope on the day when Jesus returns and fully restores our relationship to God, resurrects our bodies, and creates, or recreates, heaven and earth again. We will once again walk with God and eat from the tree of life.Let’s look briefly at all three of the ways we prepare ourselves during this Advent season.Remembering the past prepares us by reminding us why the world is the way it is. The short answer? Sin. Our rebellion against the authority of God cost us our relationship with God. We lost direct access to God, and we lost access to the Tree of Life. The result is that we are all alone and dying in this world, separated from God and without hope. We have been trying to fix our problems ever since we first sewed fig leaves together to cover up our shame, but we were unable to fix our problems—because we are the problem. If we were to be saved, God would have to save us.But he chose to save us in a somewhat unexpected way. God himself came to us as a human child. He wanted to be with us again, so he became one of us. God did for us what only He could do. He came and paid the price for what we have done. He became a human to pay the price for humanity’s sin.Only God could pay such a price, and only a human could rightfully take our place. Jesus is that man, and the life of the eternal Son of God was the price. Through Jesus, God set us free from our slavery to sin and conquered the powers that have ruled this world since that fateful day in the garden.And now, His kingdom is growing. Sin’s power over us has been broken, and we work to announce that freedom to the entire world. There is a new king now, and we are his ambassadors. His reign of peace has begun, but we have yet to see the full realization of his kingdom.This takes us to the future.The advent of Christ is not just about a baby in a manger two thousand years ago. Jesus will be back. He is returning to destroy the works of evil once and for all in the final judgment. At his return he will create (or recreate) a new heavens and earth free from the corruption of sin and evil. He will wipe away every tear and heal every disease. Peace will reign forever and ever, and we will live forever in the presence of God. This is now our hope; the promise of the child has been fulfilled, but the healing of this world and our own mortal bodies is yet to come. It is our faith in the faithfulness of God that motivates us now. He has shown us His faithfulness in Jesus. He has demonstrated His power through his miracles and, most of all, through the resurrection of Jesus.We now live in the time between, the time between the promised arrival of Jesus as a child and the fully realized eternal kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God has begun, but there is more to come. The king will return, and when he does, he will restore everything. His first coming made us new in our spirits; when he returns, all of creation will be made new.For thousands of years people hoped for the coming of this child. Now we celebrate the faithfulness of God in sending us His Son Jesus. Hope is always a future thing. The past is history. Our hope now is in the return of the King. Our hope is in that glorious day when all this pain and suffering will finally end, and all of creation will be made new. This present world is hard, but the pain of this age is not forever. Injustice rules in this age, but when Jesus returns, there will be true justice. Evil and its sources will be destroyed, and all those who have suffered under the present evil will be comforted.How we respond to this hope.During Advent, our celebrations are for the victories of the past, and our hope is for the coming final victory over evil. But today—right now—is the only time we have where we can actually do things. We can’t do things in the past, and we can’t do things in the future. We can only effect change today. Advent is a time to take stock of our relationship with Jesus and our hope for the future.Maybe we have heard about Jesus, we know the Christmas story, but we have never allowed it to really control our lives and change our destinies. The gift of God has been given, but have we ever, from our heart, responded to that gift?If you have never responded to the gift of God in faith, don’t wait, today is your only opportunity. Yesterday is gone, and tomorrow never comes. Today is the only day we can do anything. Take the time today to allow Jesus in. Allow the Prince of Peace to give you peace today. Allow the Wonderful Counselor to comfort and guide you today. Loosen your grip on your life and allow Jesus to lead you today. Leave your old life behind, and begin a path that leads to eternal life with God.Maybe you have already done this, but life in this fallen world has become extremely difficult. It’s possible that for you, hope is hard to find and even harder to believe in your current struggles. If that is you, remember Jesus today. Jesus gave up his position in glory to become one of us. He was mistreated and suffered great loss and ultimately suffered the most cruel and humiliating injustices on our behalf. He felt it, he cried out and asked his Father if there was any other way, but in the end, his love for all of us was greater than his desire to avoid suffering. Jesus is our strength, our life, and our example. Today, if you need encouragement, remember Jesus and lean into his body, which is the Church, and allow Jesus to comfort you through his body.And finally, for those of you who are feeling ok today, take this time to hear and to celebrate once again how God loved us enough to send his only son to us, to become one of us. So that we can be restored to the arms of God. If that is you today, look around, for you are the body of Christ. You are the physical manifestation of Christ on earth now, at least until he returns. So look around and see where your voice can be the voice of Jesus. Look around and see where your hands can be the hands of Jesus. And let’s celebrate the coming of Jesus right this year. By being the people we were created to be, by being the people Jesus suffered to save.For the next four weeks, we will remember and celebrate the hope that came with Jesus and still awaits us when he returns. Advent is not just about remembering that the baby Jesus was born in a manger. It is about remembering the victorious Jesus, who will one day return and fully bring about eternal life, peace, and justice. In Jesus, God is with us now, and will be with us forever.Today, we can be the first coming of Jesus for someone. Jesus came, he died, he rose again, and made us, through his Spirit, into his hands and feet. Now, everywhere we go, we are the physical presence of Jesus to a lost and dying world.Today is the advent of Jesus Christ on earth. Jesus has come; now we bring Jesus to the world. Today the body of Christ is at work around the world bringing peace from the Prince of Peace until he returns.Have a Great Week! Get full access to On walking the Way at tompossin.substack.com/subscribe

We often consider ourselves to be the first link in the domino chain. But other times we consider ourselves to be the last in the chain. But the truth is more complicated than that because we are all part of a very long chain we did not create.So you’re probably wondering what brought this random analogy to mind today. It all started for me when I came home from a meeting where I sat next to the pastor who commissioned me into ministry 35 years ago. And as I thought about him and his impact on me, I thought about his father, who prayed with me 10 years before that, as I returned to faith in Jesus. His father has long passed now; he is 90, and I am 66 and a great-grandfather. The First MistakeEverything we are and everything we do is built on a chain of choices that reach back before time. We are all standing on the shoulders and prayers of those who have gone before us. We are not the first in the chain. To illustrate, I am reminded of a testimony I heard from a missionary team returning from a closed country. They were young and excited, and for good reason, they had seen some remarkable answers to prayer on their trip. But this is what made me smile as they reported. They completely failed to recognize the uncountable number of prayers and all the nameless people who have sacrificed for the people they reached, long before they ever had the idea to go, long before they ever prayed their first prayer. They felt they were the first in the chain, the first to go, and the first to pray, so obviously it was their prayer alone that God was answering. This is the kind of mistake that excitement brings; it’s understandable, even heartwarming, and not very serious, unless they never learn to appreciate their place in the body. And I don’t just mean the body as it currently exists on earth, but the whole body that has been sacrificing and praying from the origin of the Church. This realization that we are just one small domino in a very long chain is both humbling and comforting at the same time. We are not alone; we are covered by the combined prayers of the church from the beginning, and we are covered by the prayers of Jesus before the Church, as we know it, was founded. The Second MistakeSo we are not the first in the chain, but we are not the last either. I think every generation of Christians from the first until now has thought they were the last generation before the return of Christ. In my lifetime I have seen many false claims that Jesus is coming back. The funny thing about this misconception is that it is almost but not quite the right frame of mind. We should all be living as if Jesus might return at any moment; the mistake is trying to pin that down to a day or a year. The most serious danger with living as if there is no tomorrow is this: if Jesus does not actually return today, you risk breaking the chain for the next generation. We need to hope Jesus returns today and live like he won’t return for a thousand years. There is an apocryphal story about Luther that became a trope for preachers in the middle of the 20th century, but it’s a good story regardless of whether it’s an exact quote of Luther. The story is about someone who supposedly asked Martin Luther what he would do if he knew Jesus was coming today. And according to the story, he said, “I’d plant a tree.” The idea with this story is that our hope for the return of Jesus should always motivate us. But it should not motivate us to give up our calling and sit around waiting for Jesus; it should motivate us to work all the more until he arrives because time is precious. (At least for us mortals ;) The fact that we don’t know how much time we have should motivate us not to waste it. A Better PerspectiveIn Hebrews 12 we have this reminder of how to think about those who have gone before us, the present age, and the hope of the age to come.Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:1-2 [ESV]With this in mind, we need to live not as the first domino or the last, but as one domino in a long chain that began with God and goes on to eternity. That does not make us less important in the chain because every domino’s job is to set the next domino in motion. Our hope of the coming age should motivate us not to sit back and wait, but rather to use whatever time we have to continue on the path that Jesus has laid out before us. Because we have no idea how much time we have. This weekThis week, let’s look up and realize that the powers of this world do not have the last say, nor do they have the power of eternity behind them or before them. Let’s look up and remember that Jesus is the king of kings and lord of lords now, and we are his hands and feet until the next age dawns, and then—on to eternity!Let’s encourage each other in this hope today.Have a great week! Get full access to On walking the Way at tompossin.substack.com/subscribe

There is an internet meme that goes something like, Your boos mean nothing; I’ve seen what makes you cheer.At the end of Paul’s description of the downfall of humanity in Romans 1, his final summary describes the tragic mess the world has become in this way:And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them. Romans 1:28-32 [ESV]The final mark of the world’s wickedness is not only that they practice these wicked things, but also that they give approval to those who practice them. You see, the things we approve—the things we cheer for—say a lot about us. The things we cheer for tell us where our heart is. We cheer for the things we value, celebrate, and desire. I have taught the book of Romans many times over the years, and this last line of chapter 1 has always bothered me. This passage forces me to look at the things that make me laugh and that entertain me. Everyone puts on a good show, myself included, but what we cheer for is a window into our hearts and our deepest, darkest desires. When we laugh or cheer spontaneously, our reason is bypassed, revealing the things that we often hide in our more guarded moments. In the unguarded moments of everyday life, I find myself laughing at things that, when I really think about them, are not funny at all. When I examine them more closely, I realize that they are the products of the very things that are destroying this world. Pride, greed, resentment, lust of all kinds, and even vengeance play around under the things we laugh at and sometimes seriously support. When I support such things, I am no longer laughing or agreeing from a safe distance; I am becoming a part of the problems I claim to hate. What I approve of is what I am and what I am becoming.This can quickly become depressing. What are we to do with these desires that are constantly pulling us into the dumpster fire that is this present world? Recognizing our failures is always the first step. This is why the Church has historically held confession as a primary aspect of worship. But simply confessing our failures does not bring about change. If all we do is admit how bad we are every day or every week, we gain very little. We need something we do not have by nature. We need the grace of God. David understood this a thousand years before Jesus was born. Let’s join with him in his song of prayer from psalm 51.Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice. Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. Psalm 51:6-12 [ESV]This week, let’s examine what we really love and support. Let’s look at what makes us laugh and what makes us cry. And let’s go to God for the grace that only He can give. Grace to change our hearts. Grace to love what He loves and hate what He hates. And let’s encourage each other in ways we never have to be ashamed of. God is so good to us, and His grace is new every morning.Have a great week—together! Get full access to On walking the Way at tompossin.substack.com/subscribe

Today I want to take some time to think about the significance of meeting on Sunday and why, from the very beginning of Christian worship, Sunday has always been the day Christians gather to worship and remember. And why most Christians refer to Sunday as the Christian “Sabbath.” But today I would rather not examine the history of Sunday worship. Instead, I want to reflect on patterns we find deeply woven into the stories of the Bible. Today, I’m going to use just a bit of speculative interpretation. I’m not trying to create some kind of new doctrine. I’m trying to encourage a bit of sanctified imagination and give us all a little fresh food for thought about why we do what we do on Sunday. After the six days of creation, God rested, or as some have said, sat down to rule.Ever since, the seventh day has been a commemoration and a time to reflect on what God has done in creation. And it has given us a pattern to follow in the process. Six days of work followed by one day of rest to reflect and restore our spirits.But although God’s creative work was done, the work for man was just beginning; we were told to be fruitful and multiply to fill the earth; we were to subdue the earth (implying it needed subduing). This could mean that God’s good creation was good in the sense that the earth was exactly as God wanted it in preparation for us. His project was done, and we were never to forget it. But our work of filling, subduing, and caring for His creation was just beginning. And the Sabbath gave us one day a week to rest and ponder the greatness of God and the commission he gave us. A day to join with God and each other in unhurried fellowship.Seven plus oneLikewise, Sunday is resurrection day, the first day of the new creation, the eighth day, as it were. Like David was the eighth of Jesse’s sons, foreshadowing Jesus. John, in his gospel, related seven signs that prove Jesus is the eternal Son of God. Then—he added one more, an eighth sign: the resurrection of Jesus. God’s work of creation was done in seven, and His son’s work was done in eight, beginning a new week. Jesus’ work of redemption and the restoration of our spiritual lives was done. Then, like his Father when His work was done, Jesus sat down at the right hand of God to rule. His work was finished, but once again, ours was just beginning. We were commissioned to fill the earth with the knowledge of God. To preach the gospel and teach all nations to obey the things that Jesus taught us. And every Sunday is our time to stop and together remember what Jesus has done. A time to reflect on the commission and the anointing of the Holy Spirit he gave us when he left. On the eighth day, Jesus began a new week.What’s next?This begs the question, “What’s next, and what will the next age look like?” The Bible tells us that Jesus will physically return, the dead will be brought to life and judged, and all of creation will be re-created. But now, I can’t help but wonder, “What will the challenge of the next age be?” We were, it seems, created for challenge; created for doing things. We don’t yet know the nature of the world ahead and the challenges that it will bring, but I’m pretty sure we were created to do more than eternally lie around practicing our harps. There will be endless fellowship, worship, rest, and satisfaction, to be sure. But God has plans for more; everything about his creation tells us that God thinks big and is endlessly ambitious. He did not retire after creation, He did not retire after our recreation in Jesus, and He will not retire after the recreation of earth in the coming age either. And neither will we. We will finally be free from futility and empty struggle, we will have rest, and we will be free to do things that truly matter—for eternity. What things? Who knows? That is where sanctified imagination comes in.We have a taste of that satisfaction now as we follow and obey Jesus. As we join in his work, our work takes on eternal significance even now. As believers, we are the seeds that grow into the glory of the next age. So let’s review the patterns of work and rest in the Scriptures and find encouragement for our work today.In Genesis 1 we find our first commission.Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Genesis 1:26-28[ESV]And when God had finished His work, He rested. He sat down to rule over all He had made.Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation. Genesis 2:1-3[ESV]But this was just the beginning. There was a recreation coming, as we see in this passage from Colossians.He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. Col 1:15-20[ESV]And because Jesus has reconciled us to God, we have a new commission; a new purpose. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Matt 28:18-20[ESV]But there’s more, and this passage from Revelation is what I want to leave you with today.And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Rev 20:3-5[ESV]Creation is going somewhere; by our clocks it may seem to be moving very slowly, but we also have the advantage of time past to show us that God is moving all of creation to a future that will be worth the wait. Each step of creation is punctuated by patterns of work and rest. Sunday—today—is a day set aside to enjoy what God has done in creation, in our recreation in Christ, and in the ultimate recreation of this earth and the final restoration of our relationship with God. Take the time today to enjoy this day, this new week, this new life, this new age, brought to us through Jesus, while remembering rest is not retirement. God is still working in us through Jesus and His Holy Spirit to bring about a new creation by filling the earth with His good news. We work and we rest as we wait for the new heavens and earth where we all rest and work with eternal joy in the presence of God.Have a great Sunday! Get full access to On walking the Way at tompossin.substack.com/subscribe

We have not arrived—and that is a good thing. It is easy to take so many things for granted. As Christians, we’re taught that we are saved by grace through faith, and since we have faith, all is well. And we are well in Christ; we are forgiven; it’s all true! But today I want to think about what comes next, now that we have faith. Now that we believe, what has changed, and what do we seek? Paul describes his perspective on seeking God in the following passage from Philippians 3.Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained. Phil 3:12 [ESV]Paul understands that he belongs to Christ, but he is not there yet. And he goes on to say that all who are mature should think this way. His words imply that only the immature would be so naive as to think they have somehow arrived. It’s a blessing to know how much we all still lack. It motivates us to press on, or as Paul puts it, “forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead.” The prize is the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Our lack makes us hungry for something more, something better. We can never “attain” God any more than we can catch the entire ocean in a thimble. But the analogy of a thimble isn’t quite right for this topic. It’s true we can never completely comprehend all that God is and has for us, but unlike the thimble, our capacity can grow. This is what Paul was seeking; he knew he wasn’t there yet, but he also knew his capacity was growing along with his knowledge of God. He knew there was so much more. So what should we do now that we believe? Jesus tells us in the Sermon on the Mount. “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him! Matt 7:7-11 [ESV]We need to guard against being too easily satisfied with worldly things. Worldly things give us pleasure one day and pain the next. And all of them end too soon. God is not stingy. He is not holding out on us. He is a good father who, in love, is more than willing to give us good things. But we need to use the faith we have in Him. We must seek Him with all of our hearts to find Him and all that He has for us in Jesus. This WeekA seeking heart is like hunger. When we fill our bellies with candy, there is no real hunger for good food. This week let’s honestly ask ourselves what we are filling up on. Are we satisfying ourselves with things that, by their very nature, can’t last? Do we love Jesus? Do we want to know him as a person? Or have we filled that longing with something else, something less?We can help each other here. The body of Christ is not dependent on pastors or church leaders. The body of Christ is dependent on each member being connected and contributing all they have to the health of the body. Let’s encourage growth in the body this week. And as we work and grow, we will get hungry, hungry for more of Jesus.We will seek, and we will find, as we press on to the upward call of God in Jesus.Have a great week! Get full access to On walking the Way at tompossin.substack.com/subscribe

Self-evaluation can be extremely difficult. When I am very honest with myself, I begin to see how often I am more concerned about what people think of me than what kind of man I truly am. The Bible tells us that life and death flow from the inside out. This is a recurring message, and it was taught long before the Gospel. Consider this passage from Proverbs, for example:Watch over your heart with all diligence, For from it flow the springs of life. Proverbs 4:23 [NASB]In Matthew, Jesus flipped this idea upside down when he described the human condition this way: Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled? But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone.” Matthew 15:17-20 [ESV]Jesus was expanding on the words God spoke through the prophet Jeremiah.The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? “I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.” Jeremiah 17:9-10 [ESV]Reading these passages, and there are many others, it’s natural to think we are doomed, because without help we are. I know what kind of stuff slithers around in my heart of hearts. And fixing it through willpower alone has never really worked out very well. So what’s the answer? It’s definitely not slapping a fresh coat of paint over the mess.The gospel’s answer is surprising. It tells us our hearts can’t be fixed. They need to be replaced.For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 2 Corinthians 5:14-17 [ESV]Jesus died for all of us. Therefore, we have all died. We are no longer who we were; we died with Jesus. Our Christian brothers and sisters are no longer who they were. In Jesus, we have all become something new through faith. We are a new creation through the death and resurrection of Jesus. But we need to allow that new creation to grow and thrive; grace is resistible and easy to neglect. Paul gives the Colossian church this advice: If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Colossians 3:1-4[ESV]We must fix our eyes and our hearts on the things above and the things to come. With yet another round of false prophecies about the end of the age and the return of Jesus in the air. It’s easy to get jaded and numb to the entire topic of the coming of Jesus. The devil would love to fill the world with false predictions and lies until no one wants to hear anything about Jesus returning. Yet Jesus, and the hope of his return, is the only hope this world has. The return of Jesus should be the motivation for every Christian. Without new life and a joyful anticipation of the coming age, the Church is just a social club with no lasting purpose or hope. The future of humanity is truly hopeless apart from the grace of God.But focusing on Jesus and his return is not the whole story, or we all end up on a hilltop wearing robes waiting for the second coming. If we continue in this passage from Colossians, we are given instructions. We are told what to do with the new life and hope we have been given in Jesus. Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all. Colossians 3:5-11 [ESV]The new must destroy the old. Forgiveness does not make our sins ok. Our new life gives us the power to say NO to sin. We are no longer slaves to sin, as Paul points out in Romans 6. This is a process that old-timey preachers and theologians called “mortification.” We must “mortify” our old desires and engage with our new lives in Christ. Sanctification is not a passive process. It is an ongoing and deliberate process that is empowered by the Holy Spirit. It’s the process of putting off our old desires and putting on the new creation that has been freely given to us in Jesus.Christianity is not a process of “fake it to make it,” where we act holy in the hopes that someday it will soak in somehow. Christianity begins with our deepest desires. It does what our best efforts can never do. The gospel is good news. Jesus has done what we could never do. He has given us new hearts. We have been set free from our slavery to sin. Without the grace of God in Jesus, we would be hopelessly trying to lift ourselves off the ground by pulling up on our bootstraps. One last pointBy nature the world works by survival of the fittest. It is divided by race, class, and culture (and also male and female if you track this idea through Paul’s other writings on the subject). The passage we just read ends with a sharp contrast to that kind of social hierarchy. It begins with “Here there is not…” When he says “here,” where exactly is Paul talking about? The place Paul is describing is in Jesus. Our new creation does not function according to the old labels and categories. We are all new creations. What we were before faith in Jesus died with Jesus.Since the Enlightenment, the world has tried to siphon off the benefits of Christianity but without Jesus. I think we are seeing now that this is a failed project. While we are all created in the image of God, sin has warped that image into something ugly, as we observed earlier. Only in Christ is that image of God restored, making the previous labels obsolete. We are new creations in Christ, being transformed into the image of God. In the world it is always an endless quest for power. Jesus conquered this world not by imposing his will by force but by defeating this world’s ultimate weapon, death. He conquered death, and when we join with him, we join with his death and—his resurrection. Jesus changes the inside; this world wants to control the outside.This week, let’s take stock of ourselves. Not to condemn but to recognize where our dead nature is still trying to control us and—by God’s grace and faith in the power of Jesus—put it to death. Let’s allow our new creation to guide us this week, allowing the glory of new life to shine on the world around us.Have a great week!If you are interested in learning what the Bible actually says about the second coming of Jesus, consider picking up my common-sense reader’s guide to the book of Revelation called The Time Between. Get full access to On walking the Way at tompossin.substack.com/subscribe

There was a time when bracelets with WWJD on them were popular. The idea was that before anyone did anything, they should ask, What Would Jesus Do? This is still a fine question, long after the trend is gone. Today, we want to pursue that question a bit by asking, “What Did Jesus Preach?” We need to understand His message to understand Him. And we need to understand Him to understand what He would do. When we read the story of Jesus, the first thing he asks people to do is change, or repent. But we need to step back a bit further to see why this would be his first ask.God is God.The thing about God that does not sit well with people is that He actually is God. We exist by His grace, and we exist in His grace. He alone defines us. We may be free to do as we please, but doing as we please does not please God. Nor is it in our eternal best interest. Our eternal well-being is being with God. God does not ask us to change because it is a desirable option or because he is insecure or needy. He is telling us to change because he loves us and does not want to see us suffer. God desires that everyone repent and return to fellowship with Him. Plus, He is God, so He is the boss of everything. So, there’s that.Let’s start with a passage from 2 Peter. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. 2 Peter 3:9-10 [ESV]The Message of JesusImmediately after Jesus was baptized, he went out preaching, “Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand.” If you search the New Testament for the concept of repentance, you will soon see that repentance was the core of Jesus’ teaching. When he sent his disciples out, he gave them the same message to preach: “Repent.” And in Acts, when the church began to preach and grow, the message preached was once again, “Repent.” Whether they were preaching in Jerusalem on Pentecost or in Greece to idolatrous, philosophizing Gentiles, the message was the same: “Repent.”Much is made of the fact that Jesus accepted everyone, saint and sinner alike. This is true, but, and this is important, no one who came to Jesus left in the same state they arrived. They were all told to repent and were left with two choices. Either they changed (repented) and began to walk the path to life, or they refused and went back home in worse shape than when they came. How were they worse off? Because now they had heard the truth and said, “No,” making their hearts even harder than before. Jesus did not turn away any, but many, maybe even most, turned away from Him. Repent was not a word of condemnation; it was an offer of hope. For all those who wanted eternal life and freedom from their slavery to sin, the offer of repentance was a source of joy. For those who were convinced they were fine on their own, His words were little more than a curiosity. But for those who were well-situated in this life, this offer of hope through change often sounded like a threat to their livelihood. The message of repentance left the choice up to them but made their choices unavoidably clear. It was impossible to walk both ways; you needed to choose. Jesus told the truth in love, but he didn’t back down when the truth was rejected. We must all change to walk the way of Jesus. To err is human, but to err is not ok. Not one of us is ok as is. We must all change. Paul said it this way to a group of Greek intellectuals in Acts.“The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.” Acts 17:30-31 [ESV] When I was younger and my boys were still boys, they would often say they were sorry just to avoid the consequences of their actions. I would sometimes tell them, “If nothing is different, nothing has changed.” That made me feel smart—until I realized how often I say exactly that to God but take no action at all to significantly change anything. I see the condition of the world right now as a call to reflection for Christians and non-Christians alike. We can either look with scorn at “those people,” or we can use the grace that God is offering us in Jesus to effect real change in our own attitudes and actions. Remembering we can’t change others, but we can change ourselves.This WeekThis week I want to get practical. The challenge is this: read from the book of Luke through to the end of the book of Romans. Focus only on this and read it in order. It will take a bit more than 3 hours, or if you prefer to listen, it will take 5-6 hours depending on the speed. Reading this in order will re-anchor your faith in these crazy times and give you a fresh look at who Jesus is. If you have never read it, you will see Jesus as you never have—let it change you. We all waste more than 3-6 hours a week; let’s put those hours to better use this week. Let’s change.Have a great week! Get full access to On walking the Way at tompossin.substack.com/subscribe

When I look out into the world today, it’s hard to understand how so many things that were never even a question in the past are now the only things people talk about. Events like mass shootings didn’t exist, and assassinations were extremely rare. Since guns have not changed and we have more laws than ever, I have to lay the blame on us. We have changed.In the 60s and 70s, the question always seemed to be, “Who am I?” But the answer never materialized because people persistently looked inside themselves for the answer. Nevertheless, these existential questions remained, as did the insistence on finding the answer within. This obviously self-referential approach to discovering an objective answer is, of course, as self-defeating as it is self-referential. But the questions continued.Now, the questions have changed. We are not only asking “who am I,” but “what am I?” Using nothing but our feelings as a reference, we get some strange, even bizarre, answers. Our feelings are highly variable; many things can alter them, which makes them useless as a compass. Today, we have made our feelings god; our feelings determine right and wrong. Our only goal is to be and do what we want—but without negative consequences. Sin never changes. Sin always begins with something we hold as more important than our relationship to the true God. For a while now, I have been amazed and confused by how many people have accepted the notion that you can change the reality of biology by simply saying, “That’s not me, that’s not the way I feel.” This phenomenon was baffling to me. However, as I thought about what was under it, I realized the expressions may be new, but the motivation is ancient. Two thousand years ago, the apostle Paul made observations that could have been made this morning. Consider this:For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. Romans 1:18-25 [ESV]Paul describes this downward slide in five major steps in this passage.Step 1: Suppress the truthThey do this by refusing to recognize God's work in creation, though the evidence for many of His divine attributes is clearly visible to all who will honestly look. Step 2: Refuse to acknowledge GodThe obvious outcome of refusing to see the evidence for God in creation is refusing to acknowledge God entirely. Leaving only humanity to play the role of God.Step 3: Follow gods of our own makingHaving rejected the true God, we decide what we will devote ourselves to. As we continue to play God, our overinflated egos lie to us, making us think we can define ourselves right down to our gender, genders, or the lack thereof. We lie to ourselves, imagining that only we can define what we will and will not be and what we will devote ourselves to.Step 4: Pursue their various lustsHaving created an imaginary world where we alone make the rules, we are now free to engage in any desire or lust that comes to mind. And since we have deluded ourselves entirely at this point into thinking we are our own final authority, and really, the only authority, we resent anyone who says otherwise. Step 5: Worship the creature rather than the CreatorWe abandon God to worship ourselves and the things we have made. God allows us to do this because love can’t be forced or coerced. We have abandoned Him to follow every whim of our overstimulated desires, and as we continue reading what Paul describes next, we find a tragic progression that leads to depravity and ultimately judgment and destruction. Why? Because we are not God. Our desires will destroy us like they have destroyed every nation and empire before us. The lie the serpent told Adam and Eve is that by breaking free of God’s rule, they could become as gods themselves. The human heart has not changed, nor have the lies we believe.The Way ForwardThere is a way out, but we must abandon our current self-centered path, repent, and turn to Jesus. The way of Jesus is the way of God—the true God. I am not who I feel I am; I am who God says I am. I am what God says I am. God is our creator. He does not ask us to repent and turn to Him; He requires it. And He has been doing this for thousands of years. Many nations and empires have fallen before us; we will not be an exception. We need to begin with personal repentance. We must abandon our way to walk the way of Jesus, no matter the cost. But we also need to own the sins of our nation and culture. We can’t smuggly snort in their general direction and say, “At least I’m not like them!” When Daniel prayed over the sins of his nation, he did not talk about “their sins” to God; he confessed “our sins” to God. For the believers in this country, or anyone reading this, the sins of our people are our sins. We need to pray for mercy and grace for ourselves and for our nation. We do not live in a vacuum. We live in a culture, and we are responsible to be all that God made us to be in our culture, regardless of the outcome. This is why I admire Charlie Kirk. While everyone wants to talk about his politics, his politics were not nearly as important as the proclamation of his faith. He knew the risk of standing for Jesus, but continued to stand nonetheless. He was abused, slandered, and ultimately murdered, but he stood offering the hope of Jesus in places many Christians have abandoned. He remained faithful in the face of threats, slander, and hatred. Many grieved his murder, but many cheered. People have not changed. The same crowd that cheered the death of Jesus and mocked while he suffered, cheered the death of Charlie. We need to repent.Daniel never experienced the salvation he foresaw, but he was an important part of God’s plan to bring it about. We need to follow Daniel’s example, pray for our nation, stand in the truth, and walk the way of Jesus in a broken world. The joy of Jesus is found in His presence, and we are in His presence as we follow Him into this fallen world with good news of a better kingdom. The King is coming soon.Have a great week!Times like these make us ask questions about the future. If you have wondered about what the Bible says about these troubled times and what the fully realized kingdom of God looks like, consider this reader’s guide to Revelation. It was written to help people who struggle to understand these trying times find encouragement in this beautiful but often misunderstood book. 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I am the father of four boys. They are all men now, but before they were men, they were teenagers. Anyone who has raised teenagers knows it is hard to raise teenagers without raising your voice. I’m sure people have done it, but I will freely confess I was not one of them. Along the way, I said things I regret to this day, but one day I blurted out something in the heat of the moment that immediately bounced back at me, and it has come back to haunt me many times since. One day, in frustration, I said, “If nothing has changed, nothing has happened!” This caught in my throat the minute I said it. I knew I wasn’t just talking to my son, but God was talking to me.That brings me to the topic I want to discuss today.According to the Gospel of Mark, Jesus began his ministry by preaching the following message: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” Mark 1:15 [ESV]If you have been a Christian for a while or have had any exposure to Christianity, you will be very familiar with the word “repent.” Despite this, many in the Church today forget or neglect the central role repentance and the kingdom play in the gospel. Repentance is the core of Jesus’ message. We all need to change if we wish to be part of the kingdom of God.Repent is a word found in both the Old and New Testaments. The Hebrew word that is generally translated repent has the idea of turning around and going in the other direction, while the Greek word used in the New Testament leans a bit more toward the idea of changing your mind and attitude. When you look at these words in context, it’s clear that both kinds of change are required.Change of MindChange must begin in the mind and heart, or no genuine change of direction can occur. Paul says it this way in Romans 12.“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” Romans 12:1-2[ESV]We must allow our thinking to be transformed, and our minds renewed. This world and our base desires conspire every day to warp our thinking, which will inevitably warp our lives. But if you look more carefully at the entire passage, you see that simply thinking new thoughts is not enough to bring about real change.This passage begins by telling us to give our bodies as living sacrifices, and ends with the phrase, “that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”Change of DirectionThis takes me back to the thought I began with. If nothing has changed, nothing has happened. We are drowning in information, both good and bad. It is easy to confuse hearing something inspiring with genuine change. We have learned nothing until it becomes a part of us. Knowledge is best thought of as embodied truth. Until we live the truth and it becomes a part of us, we don’t know the truth; we have only heard it. We will know the truth, as we do the truth.This WeekThe Biblical Core Course I teach requires students to make a final application of a timeless truth they have discovered in the text they are studying. I often tell them that I would rather see them immediately do one simple thing in obedience to that truth than make some elaborate plan for the future that never happens. The purpose of the final application is to build a habit—a habit of responding physically to the truth. Because, “You will know the truth, as you do the truth.” This week, let’s study, pray, and immediately do each small thing God leads us to do. As we develop this habit of obedience, God will change both our minds and our lives. Have a great week! Get full access to On walking the Way at tompossin.substack.com/subscribe

This podcast was born during the COVID-19 lockdown. I wanted to find a way to serve and encourage people while I was locked in my house and unable to minister in the way I usually do as a missionary teacher. It was an ugly time for missionaries since travel was nearly impossible and our schools were all shut down. I considered many titles and themes for this podcast, but finally settled on Walking the Way. Rather than theology, apologetics, or heaven help us all—politics, I wanted to focus on walking the way of Jesus, encouraging people to make their faith a more tangible and fruitful part of their everyday life. Today, I am going back to the beginning and looking at the other path, the path that has been misleading us ever since the Garden of Eden. It’s the path that doesn’t trust God, the path of selfish desire, impatience, envy, and pride. We were all on it until we repented and put our trust in Jesus. The other way scarcely needs explaining because we are immersed in it daily via the media and our culture. But because it is so common, it’s also easy to suffer from “home blindness,” like the spot on the carpet that has been there for so long that you stopped noticing it years ago. And while we may be able to resist the coarser sins of this world, the attitudes that drive them hit us from so many angles that we need help to keep them from seeping in and slowly turning our heads away from the path of Jesus. This is why the book of Hebrews so frequently warns us to be aware of the danger of wandering away. It tells us to encourage each other every day. Consider this passage:Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. Hebrews 3:11-14[ESV]The urgency in this passage is focused on the slow hardening of our hearts brought about by the “deceitfulness of sin.” The other road is constantly calling, constantly making us offers both large and small, tempting us to turn and look away from the path of Jesus. The best defence against this onslaught of tempting ideas is the help of our brothers and sisters in the faith. We must encourage each other in the faith daily. Time for an analogyThere are two kinds of housekeepers. One allows the house to fall into a terrible state and then struggles to make it livable, then kicks back and allows it to fall back into that awful state again, and the cycle repeats. The other kind of housekeeper constantly monitors the condition of things and immediately cleans or repairs each thing. When it comes to our spiritual houses, Hebrews is adamant that we must be that second kind of housekeeper. But more than that, as individual members of the house of God, we have to care for each other to keep the house of God clean. We have a responsibility to our brothers and sisters that we too often neglect. Maybe it’s the other road calling and telling us that such care is unwanted meddling. Or maybe our motives are not for their best interest or God’s, but ours, so out of a nagging guilt, we do nothing. But no matter the motivation or the lack thereof, we need to pray through the noise and get to the place where we can, with loving hearts, encourage the faith of others. In the process, our own faith will be restored as the body of Christ gains in health and strength. If you are like me, you have spent too much time pondering and playing along the other road. And way too much time sitting back and waiting for others to change. This WeekLet’s decide together to decisively turn from the other road of mistrusting God’s goodness, which leads to unbelief, self-will, sin, and ultimately destruction. Let’s walk together on the Way of Jesus and encourage each other every day so no one becomes hard-hearted and returns to that “other way.” Have a great week! Get full access to On walking the Way at tompossin.substack.com/subscribe

We have all heard the beatitudes, or at least some of them, at various times in our lives. Some of them, like “Blessed are the meek” or “Blessed are the peacemakers,” have become so well known that they are enshrined in our culture and used as cliches.But let’s reread them today and examine these blessings once again.“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted." “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied." “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy." “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God." “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account." "Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you." Matt 5:3-12 [ESV]Lately, I have been pondering the word blessed in each of these lines. It is clear from the language and grammar that Jesus is not describing a future reward, but a present state of blessedness or happiness. In other words, you are blessed or happy if you are in these states. For some of these statements, like “Blessed are the merciful” or “Blessed are the pure in heart,” it is understandable to say that you are currently in a happy or blessed state. But to say you are happy and blessed when “others revile you and persecute you” seems kind of backward. The beatitudes end with the statement, “Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets that were before you.” This last statement gives us a different perspective on the suffering that sometimes follows obedience. We must learn to focus on the eternal value of things rather than on our immediate comfort if we want to know the blessing in suffering for obedience.Paul once told the Philippians, “…I have learned, in whatever situation I am, to be content.” Too often, we associate happiness, joy, and contentment with our external circumstances. We tell ourselves and others, “If only this one thing changes, then I will finally be happy.” Our entire culture is focused on comfort and pleasure, but Jesus tells us our outward circumstances are not the measure of our happiness or blessedness. We are happy and blessed through it all if we can remember that there is something beyond our current circumstances that will make whatever we are going through worthwhile. Today, I want to focus on contentment more than happiness or blessedness. God has taken me to the woodshed many times about contentment, not because God is angry at me, but because discontentment makes me miserable in so many ways. And when I am miserable inside, I am miserable outside, which means I am miserable to others. Jesus keeps telling me about contentment, but my desire for the things I don’t have, or my frustration with the things I have and don’t want, always wants to scream louder than the truth. The answer is not complicated, but it’s an answer I don’t always want to hear in the moment. The answer is to remember the generosity of God’s grace in Jesus. I should remember what I would be and where my life would be going if I were to experience true justice instead of the outrageous grace and mercy of God I have been offered through Jesus.The truth is, we are blessed even on our worst days. We have life in Jesus, now and for eternity. We have been adopted into God’s family. We are forgiven and made righteous through nothing but God’s love and generosity. Beyond this, Jesus tells us in the beatitudes that we will be rewarded for our patience through any pain our obedience to him may bring us. Some suffering is just the product of life in a fallen world, and some suffering we bring on ourselves by our discontentment. But there is a blessed suffering we take on by saying yes to Jesus. And this suffering brings an eternal reward with it. How can we be content no matter what? By remembering who we are without God, who God is, and the price He has paid to adopt us into His family and remake us in His image. We must learn to see our short lives here through the lens of eternal life with Him. Our suffering is nothing compared to the suffering of Jesus, who willingly took on the pain and just punishment of our sins so that we may know eternal glory with Him.This WeekThe apostle Paul, who was no stranger to suffering, tells us:But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs. 1 Tim 6:6-10 [ESV]This week, let’s encourage each other to keep our eyes on Jesus and his coming kingdom, to give thanks for his love and forgiveness, and to love people the way he did by benefiting others at our expense. And let’s be content, because contentment is peace, and to know peace is to be truly blessed.Have a great week! Get full access to On walking the Way at tompossin.substack.com/subscribe

The spiritual leaders of Jesus’ day once asked him which commandment was the most important, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”Jesus was asked about the greatest commandment, but he answered by quoting two commandments. This is very interesting to me. Jesus felt he could not answer the question with a single command; the most important thing is actually two things. I believe he is saying that the two loves cannot be separated. At least one of his disciples heard it that way and wrote about it decades later.Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. 1 John 4:7-12 [ESV]John connects our love of God with our love for others. Not that we can justify ourselves before God by loving others. But His love for us gives us His love for others. Loving others flows from His love for us. To love Him is to love others because He loves us all. The two loves are inseparable.That takes me to the thought I want to focus on today. Walking the way of Jesus involves a double commitment. * We need to prioritize time with God, loving and being loved, to be infused with His love and know Him and His love for us in that sacred place. * We need to distribute the love we have received from God to others so we may truly know love.Knowledge is: embodied truth.Love is: benefiting others at my expense.Let’s get practicalSo, what does this two-part walk look like? Is it two ways, or one? Jesus was never a big fan of living a double life, so we need to understand how these two commandments to love God and your neighbor are one way. Since all things ultimately originate with God, we must start there. God is our source of life; He is our source of new life. God is love and the source of love. So, to know love, we must first know God.But how do we know love? As I mentioned above, knowledge is embodied truth. We will know the truth as we do the truth. We will know love as we love. And love begins with God. Although we have already concluded that the two paths are one way of life, in practice, we need to go to the source first.Breathing inWalking the Way of Jesus is much like breathing. Breathing is not inhaling or exhaling; it is both. To exhale, you must first inhale, but once you have exhaled, you have no choice but to inhale if you want to keep on living.I would like to use this breathing metaphor to describe the practical rhythms of life we find along the path of God. Let’s begin with breathing in because without a fresh breath of air we won’t get very far.Time with JesusGod is the source of all life. Jesus is God in the flesh who lived, died, and rose again as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. To think we could do anything or be anything without Him is silly. So, let’s be a bit more specific.The first step along the path is to stop. Unplug from our daily pressures and routines, sit with Jesus, and listen quietly without interruption. In practical terms, this means changing your schedule and your priorities. With each decision we make, we vote on what’s important to us. If we believe there is a God, Jesus is His Son, and he really desires to live with us and bless the world through us, our priorities need to change. God is our source. God is our past, our present, and our future. This means we must begin with God every day. If that means waking up an hour earlier, then that’s what it means.What could that look like?First and foremost, find a time and place that is free of distractions. This is often the hardest part for me. From the moment I wake up, I am overwhelmed with distractions from inside and out. This is why aggressively scheduling time for Jesus is so important; if I don’t make that the most important thing every morning, there are a hundred things just waiting to swoop in and take over.Next, I need a deliberate plan for reading and studying the Bible. For the word of God to have its full effect, we must read the Bible broadly, deeply, and prayerfully. * Broadly, this means reading books we don’t normally read in order to round out our understanding of the whole word of God. * Deeply means that we must also do the hard work of studying each of the biblical books in context and carefully, allowing the text to speak in its own voice.* Prayerfully means that we don’t assume we know what God is going to say to us or how He is going to say it. Prayer carries us to a place where we can hear what Jesus is saying.Breathing outOnce we have a breath of fresh air from Jesus, we are ready to breathe out. This is the second commandment Jesus spoke of earlier. Loving your neighbor as yourself. Time with Jesus will give us new eyes to see the people around us. Everything we see and hear around us wants to breed apathy, suspicion, or even contempt for those around us. But when we see ourselves in others, we begin to understand what we look like to Jesus. When we see ourselves and others through the eyes of Jesus, it will lead us to ways of showing the love of Jesus to others. The love of Jesus is far more than just evangelism. More often than not, it is simple kindness—kindness that flows from God’s Spirit and may lead people to Jesus. But if not, it is kindness that shows them that God is love, even when that love is not returned. The love of God has always been the best argument against selfishness and hatred.This WeekBoth Jesus and John made it very clear that loving God and loving our neighbor are two sides of the same coin. They are inseparable. Jesus also said, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” Not only do we have Jesus to empower and guide us, but we also have each other as believers. This week, let’s lean into this second commandment. Loving each other and reaching into the world Jesus died to save. Together, we can demonstrate the love and forgiveness we have been shown to a world that so desperately needs it.Have a great week! Get full access to On walking the Way at tompossin.substack.com/subscribe

I love the psalms; I think I have always loved them. Some of my earliest memories are sitting on the end of a pipe organ bench as my mom practiced or wandering through the choir during rehearsals. My mom was the organist and choir director for our church, so we practically lived in the choir loft. We were up there so much that it sometimes felt weird when we sat down below with the rest of the congregation.As I got older and started studying music myself. I used to try to imagine what the psalms would have sounded like back when they were first played. I never did figure it out, but in the end, I didn’t care because even without the music, the words were so powerful. I say the words were powerful, rather than beautiful, because it was the power of the songs that impressed me. I knew I would never know how they originally sounded, but even stripped of their music and translated into English, the power of those words somehow survived, and that impressed me.Since then, life has taken me to many places, but the psalms have always been with me. I have experienced so many things that only the psalms seem to understand. Pain, disappointment, confusion, and even anger all found expression in the psalms somewhere. Especially pain.Today’s psalm comes from a place of deep, deep pain – pain that led to a healthy desperation. Let’s look at the first stanza together:Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord!O Lord, hear my voice!Let your ears be attentiveto the voice of my pleas for mercy!The first four words of this psalm set the stage and the tone for the rest of the song.Out of the depths.This psalmist was in a deep hole and in desperation cried out to the only one who could help. God. He wanted God to hear him – to answer him. He was not crying out for justice; he was crying out for mercy. Because he knew, all too well, that he could never expect God to answer him out of justice, for he was a guilty man, if God acknowledged him at all, it would be an act of pure mercy. But although the author was desperate, he had not given up. He was desperately hopeful. He knew something about God that drew him to God, even though he knew he was a sinful man.Let’s read the next stanza to learn what he knew that gave him the courage to ask – and the faith to hope for an answer.If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities,O Lord, who could stand?But with you there is forgiveness,that you may be feared.Whoever this psalmist was he was keenly aware of the universal problem of sin. He knew that under every problem lies the deeper problem of our sin and separation from God. But this did not lead him to despair because this songwriter knew something about God that gave him hope. He knew – God is a forgiving God. He is powerful and holy, but he is also loving and forgiving, and He is merciful to those who call upon him.Ironically, it was the mercy of God that led him to fear God. God’s justice and power are awesome and not one of us has any hope – if not for the completely undeserved mercy of God.The author has complete faith in the goodness and mercy of God so he determines to wait for his answer. Let’s read on:I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,and in his word I hope;my soul waits for the Lordmore than watchmen for the morning,more than watchmen for the morning.The psalmist is determined to wait for God and God alone. He will wait anxiously and excitedly, like a watchman waits for the morning. If you have ever worked nights, you know this feeling. When I was younger, I was a prison guard for six and a half years, and for three of those years I worked nights. I watched, often in the dark, all night, and believe me, nothing is sweeter than seeing the sky slowly brighten in the morning. Because I knew that the long night was nearly finished. The writer of this psalm knew that feeling too, but his desire to hear from God was far deeper than the relief I found at the end of a long night shift.The psalmist repeats this line twice, he is leaning into his longing for God, he is desperate for the light of God to dawn on him. He can hardly wait to hear God’s voice. All of his hope rests in God and His word. He knew that no matter how bad things were, they would be far, far worse without the mercy of God.It’s also interesting to notice that the psalmist is placing his hope in God’s word. Have you ever wondered what word of God he is trusting at this time? Much of the Bible as we know it had not been written yet. This songwriter probably lived between 800 and 500 BC. Depending on the exact date of writing, it’s likely that a significant portion of the Old Testament had not yet been written or assembled, and he almost certainly did not have a personal copy of it. So, was he talking about the books of Moses? Was he referring to moments of direct revelation from God or words delivered through prophets and seers? In our age, we have an embarrassment of riches when it comes to the word of God, especially in the Christian West. We have multiple translations of the entire Bible, and easy access to 2000 years of Christian writings from scholars and heroes of our faith to guide and inspire us. But this psalmist likely had only a fraction of the revealed word of God to hope in. But such as he had, he clung to, as both his strength and his source of hope.O Israel, hope in the Lord!For with the Lord there is steadfast love,and with him is plentiful redemption.And he will redeem Israelfrom all his iniquities.The psalmist’s hope in God was far bigger than the crisis that originally drove him to write this song. This last stanza speaks of his faith in God’s love, who will someday redeem us from our iniquities. For a song that begins in crisis, it is a bit odd that it does not end in the resolution of that initial problem, but instead, ends in a statement of faith in God to resolve our ultimate crisis – our sin and separation from God. Sin is the source of every crisis.Today, we live in a world of crisis. Everywhere we look we see suffering and impending doom. Economies collapsing, war, violence on the streets, corrupt politics, broken families, technological threats of all kinds, even threats to our health, wherever we look we seem to be staring disaster in the face. To make matters worse, each of these issues are reported to us by a media that profits from hysteria, pouring gasoline on the fire of every one of these problems.In a world like this, where do we go for help? Where do we find peace? This song shows us the way.God is the only possible source of help because mankind is universally corrupted by sin. Humanity at its very best is limited, and everything we do is tainted by the selfishness of sin. This is not new. The psalmist knew this. He knew that he had no right to even approach a holy and righteous God. He knew that humanity stands guilty before God and has no right to ask for anything.And yet, the psalmist also knew that God’s love for us moves Him to mercy, and so he asked God to forgive him once again. He asked God to hear him and answer him. In the Church today, we have been repeating confessions and hearing of God’s mercy for so long that we sometimes forget what a miracle God’s mercy is. The psalmist, on the other hand, knew God only through sacrifice and the temple. In his world, you could not approach God or His temple without first dealing with sin. And that meant sacrifice, and sacrifice meant the shed blood of a perfect animal.Ancient believers were much more in touch with what it means to say that the wages of sin is death. In their worship, forgiveness of sin involved the literal death of animals. However, they knew that killing an animal would never erase or restore what their sin has destroyed. They believed that their faithful obedience to God’s word would open the gates for God’s mercy. They knew that God’s mercy was their only hope in the long run.So let’s review the path of the psalmist through this song:He was in pain → he took his pain to God → he confessed his sin and the sin of his people → He waited on God → he found hope for the future.What should we take away from the psalm today?Have you ever noticed that the best stories come from the worst days? The best stories are always told after the fact, when all the real danger is past and there is nothing left now but a good story. Take the story of Israel at the Red Sea. We all love to hear about how God opened the waters so that they could walk through, and we love to hear about how God used the same sea that they thought would be their death to save them by drowning their enemies in it. After the fact, thousands of years later, we teach our kids a version of the Song of Moses. A song that was originally composed to celebrate how they felt as they watched God destroy their enemies before their eyes. But today’s psalm is not a song of triumph after the fact. Today’s song is the kind of song you would write before the sea was split. This song is a song of faith; faith in a good God, a merciful and forgiving God, who will redeem and save.Our lives are filled with problems, some of which we can solve, while others are entirely beyond our control. I think this is by design. We like to ask why at times like these, at least, I do. But God, I believe, purposely gives us problems that are beyond us because He wants to go through them with us. He wants us to invite Him into our lives and into our problems. He wants to show us His power, His grace, His kindness, His love, and at times, he wants to show us His pain. We often don’t think about God’s pain because we are too absorbed with our own pain. But the ultimate redemption that the psalmist was praying for came at the expense of God himself. The pain of Jesus is God’s pain. And that pain was caused by our sin and rebellion against Him. It was our refusal to trust Him and to trust in His goodness that set all of creation onto the path it is currently on. We often cry out, “Why!?” to God, but the reason is our sin. Not just our individual sin, but the collective sin of humanity. The psalmist recognized both his individual sin and the collective sin of the world. It was this recognition that caused him to both love and fear God because, unless God redeemed and forgave us, none of us could ever stand.Today, we stand on the other side of the Red Sea, so to speak. God has redeemed us; that is a historical fact and a present reality. But it is also a future hope. This world is still deeply damaged by the sin of humanity. We all suffer because of it. But there is a hope beyond the present sin-damaged world. We have been given new life in Christ now as a down payment of the world to come. All of Creation is going to be made new one day, and all that remains of this sin-damaged world will be gone. There is a day coming when the redemption the psalmist foresaw and the redemption that began at the cross will be made complete in a new creation, a new heavens and earth. A creation untouched by the sin and rebellion that damaged this present world.Can we, along with the psalmist, trust God for his full redemption? Can we wait for God to speak and to comfort us in our present pain? Will we encourage others to trust in the goodness of God while we wait? Psalm 130 walks us through whatever challenges we may face this week and reminds us of the hope we have for the future because of the goodness and mercy of God. Let’s walk this path together this week! Amen. Get full access to On walking the Way at tompossin.substack.com/subscribe

When I was young, there were a few years when I was just the right age to be a fishing partner with my Grandpa. I was old enough to help him and keep him company, but not old enough to be absorbed by jobs and girls—and whatever else a boy might be distracted by. Those years contain some of my best memories of childnood. I spent a lot of time with my Grandpa preparing to fish, fiddling with the boat, fishing, eating snacks, cleaning fish, and telling stories afterword. In the process, I heard a lot of his more or less unfiltered takes on life and the world. There are a couple of his sayings that have stuck with me over the years. I hated both of them when I was a kid, maybe that is why they stuck in my mind for so long. But now that I am a greatgrandfather myself I think I understand what he was trying to say to me. The first one of the sayings I hated was, “I got a celler full of sorry.” He would sometimes say this to me when I apologized for something that I should have known better than to do. I always thought that was a kind of mean thing to say, but now I think I know what he meant. Saying sorry does not undo evil. It is far better to refuse evil in the first place than to try to brush-off intentional bad behavior with a half-baked apology. But this is probably an article for another day.The saying I want to lean into a bit today is this, “You don’t learn nothin’ til it costs you somethin’.” I hated this saying when I was a kid because it just seemed wrong to me. I learned things every day and it didn’t cost me anything. Or, so I thought.The truth is, the Bible teaches this idea in many ways and in many places. Consider this passage from 1st Peter:Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God. 1 Peter 4:1-2[ESV]Now, to be fair, I seriously doubt that my grandpa had this verse in mind when he was saying that, but the principle is the same. His point was that costly lessons were not quickly forgotten. If you read this passage from 1st Peter carefully you will see, that is Peter’s point as well. Once you have suffered you are not likely to commit the same sin again. You will stop being lured by the lie of quick pleasure, easy money, and selfish pursuits. You will remember the pain and realize that the best path is not always the quick and easy path. The pain will remind you that following God is in the long run both the best and the most rewarding path. Pain does not last forever, but the joy of God’s presence does.However, pain does more than reinforce our memories and alter our priorities. It teaches us to love. By experiencing pain we learn what it feels like to hurt, and what the hurting people around us need. In 2nd Corinthians Paul explains the process of growing in love like this:Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 2 Cor 1:3-4[ESV]God is our comfort in distress, and this is a blessing beyond all words to those who are in desperate need of comfort. But God’s comfort does more than just encourage us in our pain, it teaches us how it feels to truly hurt, and maybe more importantly, it teaches us how to comfort others in their pain.We resist pain, we run from the very idea of pain, fortunately there is no escape. Pain teaches us in every area of life. But most importantly, pain teaches us to love, if we will allow God to touch and heal us. The healing we receive from God becomes both our model and our motivation for loving others.This WeekThis week, let’s not bury our pain but learn from it. Let’s allow God to comfort us so that we may be instruments of comfort to those around us who are hurting. We need to allow our pain to soften our hearts toward God and those around us. We need to share the comfort we have received. As we do this, our burdens will inexplicably become more bearable and our hearts will be healed as we give the comfort God has given us to others. Have a great week! Get full access to On walking the Way at tompossin.substack.com/subscribe

The Pharisees tried to build a wall around the law to ensure they never broke it, and created lawyers.Jesus said I am the way, follow me,and created disciples.Imagine you’re a fisherman in 27AD. You’re working with your brother and your father, much like he worked with his father before him. But you’ve been hearing things about a teacher, and this one sounded different than all the rest. One day, this teacher you’ve been hearing about walks up to you as you’re working and asks you to follow him. You’re thinking, “Does he know what he is asking? Who will provide for my family?” But still, something about this invitation pushes all those questions to the side, and you follow; it was the only way to know, the only way to see where it all led. So, despite the fear and the unanswered questions, you walk away from everything you have known. And as you go, the questions continue, but you keep going because, beyond all the questions, deep down, somehow, you know this is the path to life. Let’s look at this story. Why did this invitation to follow inspire him to leave everything, his way of life, the family business, and any sense of security? What compelled him to leave it all and study with this new rabbi? He had all the laws and teachings of Judaism, as well as the religious teachers at the temple and the synagogue. But did any of those rules and restrictions ever give him the urge to leave everything and follow God? They didn’t seem to. No, the rules only defined the edges of what was considered “Godly.” They were more of a fence than a path. There were things to do and things to avoid, but there was no clear path forward and no real hope. Jesus was the path forward.Jesus was and is different. Jesus personally leads us. And this path is going somewhere. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.In John, we read these words of Jesus:My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” John 10:27-30[ESV]Laws describe what should and should not be. The invitation of Jesus does what laws can never do: it gives us direction and an example. Jesus himself is the path and the goal. We follow him to be with him. We follow him to be more like him.The invitation does not answer all of our questions; in many ways, it gives us more questions. But this simple invitation leads us; it is the path to life, to joy, and to purpose. It is the path of God and the path to God.A Change of DirectionWhen Jesus went out to preach in Matthew, his message was, “Repent! For the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” When we follow Jesus, it is a change of direction. The fisherman Jesus called could not continue with what they were doing; they had to change their direction. They had to repent. Repentance is to change direction—the direction of our minds, desires, and actions. We now follow the king into his new kingdom. A kingdom that is not like this world’s current order, it’s one based on God’s order, where Jesus is the king. So many Christians want to ask questions like, “Can I do this or that and still be a Christian?” This question is wrong-headed. It tells me they are looking in the wrong direction. They are, in effect, asking how far away from Jesus they can be and still avoid hell. His sheep are following him, not their own desires. His sheep ask how they can get closer to Jesus, not how far away they can get before they are lost forever. Christianity is DirectionalOnce we understand that Christianity is direction and not a rulebook, many questions disappear, or at least become unimportant. The many questions become one: how do I get closer to Jesus? With our face to Jesus, our back will be to all those things that previously held us in their grip. Confusion gives way to hope. And the nagging fear that I am not doing it right, or that I am not good enough, is left behind as we obey the invitation to follow Jesus. This WeekThis week, let’s do what Paul determined to do with his life so long ago.Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained. Philippians 3:13-16[ESV]Let’s keep our faces toward Jesus this week as we walk through life — to life.Have a great week! Get full access to On walking the Way at tompossin.substack.com/subscribe

Christianity grows like a seed from the inside, bearing fruit on the outside.Other religions and worldviews believe that the solution can be found by changing outward behaviors, thereby gradually changing the inside.This, in a nutshell, is what makes Christianity unique.Both systems produce changed behavior, but the causes of that change are radically different.This week, I would like to explore our fundamental assumptions about Christianity. What is Christianity, and what does God want to accomplish? What assumptions do we bring to our faith, and are those assumptions accurate? First, we have to take an honest look at what’s inside our own hearts. We are not good, we are not okay, and we are not even broken—because this implies we just need some repair work. We are not fine, bent, or broken; we are wicked and spiritually dead. Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth. Gen 8:20-21[ESV]The story of Noah is the story of human wickedness. Wickedness that had run wild for so long that God decided to wipe the slate clean, cover the earth with water once again, and start over with a new couple. But God said this was the last time he would do this to the earth because the problem was not with the earth, it was with mankind.Paul described this problem very clearly in Ephesians 2:And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. Eph 2:1-3[ESV]Paul wrote this to Christians, and when he said “we,” he included himself in this group. Paul knew better than most what kind of evil lurks in all of our hearts. But Paul was not trying to repair himself; he knew he couldn’t. Instead, he trusted the work of God in Christ and, by faith, trusted God to recreate him so that he might bear the fruit of good works.The Pharisees, on the other hand, felt that by doing the right things, their works of external goodness might somehow change their evil hearts. Jesus disagreed.“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean. “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. Matt 23:25-28 [ESV]Nobody wants to be a Pharisee; in modern language, the term Pharisee has lost its original meaning and has come to mean a self-righteous person. But what were they doing wrong? They were working hard to control their impulses, at least their uglier outward impulses. Doesn’t prolonged discipline build character? Can’t we change who we are through self-discipline and self-control? Not really, no.We are only putting lipstick on the proverbial pig. All of our attempted repairs are applied from the outside; they do nothing to repair the cause of our problems. In fact, those things we see on the outside are not our real problem; they are the fruit of our real problem. We are spiritually dead, that is a problem only God can fix, and He has fixed it—in Jesus. We must repent of our pride and the determination to fix our own problems and cover our own sins, and allow God to do something truly new in us. To recreate us from the inside out. Our earlier passage in Ephesians goes on to state:But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ —by grace you have been saved and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. Eph 2:4-7 We have not been repaired, we have been resurrected as new creatures, created in God’s image for a purpose. That purpose is good works. Paul concludes with:For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. Eph 2:10[ESV]This week, let’s remember that we are not trying to work goodness in—we are trying to work goodness out. God has already given us new life in Christ. Our job is to let it out. We work because we are new creations, not to become new creations. Fish swim, birds fly, and children of God do good works. It’s who and what we are in Christ. Let’s allow what God has done in us to bear fruit this week and let those good works out everywhere we go.Have a great week! Get full access to On walking the Way at tompossin.substack.com/subscribe

The noise and demands of this world grind our souls and saturate our minds until life begins to feel like an endless stream of pointless events. We crave peace and quiet, but when we try to quiet ourselves, the noise inside is as loud as the noise outside. So we find a way to ease our minds and keep going. We find ways to numb that voice inside that we know we should listen to, but are afraid of, though we rarely ask why. But every once in a while, something happens that shatters the noise we have grown so used to and forces us into a silence we can’t ignore.Recently, I had just such a time. My brother had died of a vicious cancer, and my wife was off visiting her cousin. And at the end of the day, as I sat in an empty house, I was forced into a silence I could feel. The loss of my brother and the emptiness of my house conspired together to force me into a place where there were no distractions to hide behind. I was alone, keenly aware of my mortality, and helpless to change anything that mattered. As I am describing this moment to you, I just noticed that my AI-powered editing software is sitting in the corner of my screen with a frowny face, trying to describe the “tone” of my writing. But AI will never understand what I am trying to describe today because it can’t. As I sat in that silence, alone and empty, I realized something. I am not alone. Ever. As the silence lingered that day, those empty and depressing voices began to die down as well, and I heard another voice. This voice wasn’t really saying much; it was just there. It was the same voice I heard—but didn’t hear—in the woods 46 years ago on another night of naked silence. It is the voice that is there whenever life overwhelms my false sense of understanding and control. And it begs a question.Why do I only seek this voice when I am pushed, helpless, exhausted, frightened, or lost?Too often, I—and I suspect we all—live sub-Christian lives unnecessarily. God is here, He has always been here, and He always will be. So why don’t I choose silence over noise more often? Is it self-will? Is it lingering guilt? Is it fear? Whatever it is, my noisy life is drowning out the one sound that can give my life meaning. The voice of God.This week, instead of running from silence, let’s run to silence. Let’s go voluntarily instead of kicking and screaming all the way. God is waiting for us to stop, to listen, to take a true sabbath, and find rest in Him.Psalm 46 God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth give way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling. Selah (Pause and let that soke in) There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High. God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved; God will help her when morning dawns. The nations rage, the kingdoms totter; he utters his voice, the earth melts. The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah Come, behold the works of the Lord, how he has brought desolations on the earth. He makes wars cease to the end of the earth; he breaks the bow and shatters the spear; he burns the chariots with fire. “Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. SelahSilence is not scary when you are alone with God. Make time for some silence this week. Make some time to listen. And…Have a great week! Get full access to On walking the Way at tompossin.substack.com/subscribe

Last week, we discussed a life focused on the kingdom of God and how a life so focused is a life free of anxiety. This week, I would like to dive back into that theme and talk about the busyness of our modern lives. Why do we feel like we are running every day instead of living every day? Why is it so hard to leave a gap in our schedule—anywhere? What are we striving for? Why do we think it is so important? Are we really driving our lives, or are we being driven? And if we are being driven, what is driving us?If you’re like me, you often feel guilty when you sit down. It’s usually not a specific feeling, but you feel like you should really be doing something else, something more. There are endless things I could be doing, so I feel like I really should be doing something. Then, we read things like this in Proverbs:Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise. Without having any chief, officer, or ruler, she prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest. How long will you lie there, O sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want like an armed man. Prov 6:6-11[ESV]Verses like this can give that compulsion to do something, to work harder, to get busier, another shot in the arm. (To be clear, if you are a sluggard, you need to think carefully about this passage because it is wise, though not the topic of this article.) But for those who have already filled every waking moment with work and activities, for those too busy for church, the scriptures, or even friends, the Bible has more to say than get busy.Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep. Psalm 127:1-2 [ESV]Last week, we learned to seek God’s kingdom first because God will care for you as he does the birds and the grass. This will involve work; his disciples didn’t just lie around all day. But it does not lead to the kind of compulsive busyness that keeps us running non-stop 24/7. God’s work involves rest; in fact, he mandated rest in the 10 commandments. We were to remember the Sabbath and to keep it holy. That is not just a command to go to church on Sunday or to take a day off (whatever that means in today’s world). Rest in God is an act of faith, worship, and obedience. When we fill our lives with non-stop activity of any kind, we crowd God out, leaving no margin for God, for reflection, or for enjoying the company of others. To seek God’s kingdom as our highest priority is not to work harder but to work for something other than ourselves. God is not something we try to find some time for; God is primary, and our desires, family, work, and play come second. But as we see in Psalm 127, when God builds the house (and he will use our hands to do it), we get the house, without the anxiety, and we also get to sleep. Anxiety is often the product of idolatry. Idolatry is anything we put in God’s place. Money, position, and even our children’s happiness and education can become idols. Worse, when we chase after the idols our culture has erected, we model that for our children, teaching them that the idolatrous desires and goals of this world are, in fact, the true gods. Idols do not love us; they give us no rest because whatever we do will never be enough, it will never satisfy us. We will run and run and never arrive. This is a tragedy because it is completely unnecessary. God’s peace is with Him, and He is ever present—if we slow down enough to see Him and listen to His words. Jesus taught us about this in Matthew when he said:Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Matt 11:28-30[ESV]The burden of Jesus is not like the burden of our self-appointed gods. Putting Jesus first and carrying his load is not doing nothing. But there is rest in it; Jesus is not a slave driver. Sin is slavery, and idolatry is sin. To make Jesus Lord and his kingdom our primary concern is to find freedom from the slavery of our culture’s gods. How do we break free?Like all habits, breaking the habit of compulsive busyness begins today, this moment in fact. Tomorrow will not change unless you change today. Take some time, right now, to clear your mind of the list of things you feel urgently require your attention, and focus on God and the things He wants for you at this moment. Ask God what He wants you to accomplish today, because “His yoke is easy, and His burden is light,” and “You will find rest for your soul.” Have a great week! Get full access to On walking the Way at tompossin.substack.com/subscribe

On Sunday, when church is over and I am finally home, sitting in my chair, I find myself wondering, “What just happened? Where did the last week go? What, if anything, did I accomplish?” Over the years, I have bemoaned this experience with a variety of different folks. From what I can tell, it turns out to be a very common experience, almost universal.Most people, myself included, generally shrug it off with a comment like, “That’s life.” But is it really? Is that as good as it gets? Is that what we were created for? To struggle, fret, and run around in circles until we die? If that is the case, what is the difference between the way of the world and the way of Jesus?In the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6, Jesus tells us this:Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Matt 6:31-33[ESV]When Jesus began his ministry, his message was simple. “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near!” Repent—as in, turn around, because the kingdom of heaven is near! When humanity rebelled in the garden, we lost access to God and to the Tree of Life. However, God’s plan from the beginning was to restore our relationship to Him and set us free from death. This plan was gradually revealed over time and finally came to fruition in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. But suffering did not disappear with the appearance of Jesus. The Kingdom of God is being progressively revealed, and we will not see it in its final form until the king returns, evil is destroyed, and we are resurrected to eternal life in a recreated world. So what about now? What about this life? We must remember that the world in its current state is not the ultimate goal; it’s only the beginning. When we failed in the Garden of Eden, our failure was, at its heart, a failure to trust God. Our present life has been restored in Jesus, and we no longer have to fear death. But it is a life of faith. Our ancestors became impatient and greedy. They failed to trust the goodness of God and took matters into their own hands, plunging the world into death and darkness. Jesus has set us free from the darkness of our own hearts and teaches us to walk in faith, trusting in the goodness of God.This is where today’s passage comes into play. Jesus wants to reset our focus and desires on God, His kingdom, and the things eternal. He is telling us that God’s kingdom and His righteousness should be our primary focus, the thing we seek above all else. And ironically, if we do that, the other things we need will be provided by God in the same way he cares for the birds and the flowers. Jesus is taking us back to a Garden of Eden lifestyle. This may sound ridiculous, and I can hear the voices saying, “Look around! This is not Eden!” Obviously not, and Jesus of all people knew that better than anyone. But our relationship with the God of Eden has been restored thanks to the suffering of Jesus on our behalf. So, we can live an Eden lifestyle now, even in this fallen world. What does that even look like?I have spent the bulk of my adult life trying to understand that question. I have been reading the Sermon on the Mount since I was a kid. I have seen hippies use this phrase as an excuse to do nothing, and I have seen motivational speakers act like the passage does not even exist. I think it’s safe to say that both of these approaches miss the point. But what is the point then?The point, as near as I can tell, is one of redeeming our desires. We desire a great many things, and we need some things too. (though not as many as we think) Jesus is telling us that our desires for things are the problem; our desire must be for God alone, first and foremost. And when we do that, the things we truly need will be provided for us, not without effort, but without worry and grinding anxiety. In a word, Jesus is freeing us from idolatry. That’s right, idolatry. A topic that is not talked about in the church anywhere near as much as it is talked about in the Bible.When we trust our wisdom and efforts, we become idolaters worshipping at the altar of our wandering desires. On the other hand, when we seek the kingdom and His righteousness, we, by necessity, have to give up on building our little kingdoms and pursuing our often destructive desires. When we are free from idolatrous desires, we are free from all the worry that goes with them. Jesus is recasting the old stories of idolatry, blessings, and curses from the scriptures into a context his audience could better understand. Idolatry is not just a pagan thing; it is a human thing. Idolatry is putting anything other than God in first place. Blessing follows our faithfulness to God and God alone. Curses follow the worship of anything else, including our own efforts. Worship is placing something above all else; idolatry is worshiping anything other than God. Let’s find peace this week by destroying all of our idols and pursuing God and God alone. Let’s seek His kingdom and not our own. Let’s pursue his righteousness rather than things this world holds so dear. And let’s bring someone along with us on this journey.And have a great week! Get full access to On walking the Way at tompossin.substack.com/subscribe

There is a story of an old man and a traveler. According to ChatGPT, this is an ancient story, and some version of it can be found in many cultures around the world. I don’t remember when I first heard this story, but it has stuck with me ever since. I'd like to begin today with my version of this classic parable.A young man was traveling in search of a new home. Late in the afternoon, after a long day’s travel, he came upon a kindly old man reading a book on a bench in the shade near a large city. As he walked past the old man, he paused, scratched his head, turned around, and said, “Excuse me.” And waving his hand in the direction of the town ahead, said, “What sort of people live in this town?” The old man looked up, smiled, and after examining the man for several moments, asked him, “What sort of people live in the town you came from?” The question surprised the traveler, but as he thought about it for a moment, he said, “Well, to be honest, they were pretty awful; that city was filled with selfish, greedy types that would as soon steal from you as help you.” Hearing that reply, sadness clouded the old man’s face as he looked down, deep in thought. After a moment, he sighed, looked up into the traveler’s eyes, and said, “I think you’ll find the people in the town ahead to be about the same, unfortunately.” Sometime later, another traveler approached the man; their eyes met, and a smile lit up the young traveler’s face. “Good afternoon! Such a beautiful day, don’t you think? Do you live around here?” The old man nodded, smiled back, and said, “Yes, and what brings you out here today?” The traveler replied, “I am looking for work in the town ahead, and I am wondering what I can expect from the people in this town? What sort of people live here?” The old man smiled again and asked, “What kind of people lived in the town you just came from?” The traveler quickly replied, “They were wonderful, kind, and generous people. I lived there for many years. I’d still be there today if not for losing my job. I miss them already.” The old man looked up with a broad smile and said, “I think you’ll find the people in this town to be every bit as wonderful as the people you left.” With that, the traveler took heart, thanked him, and continued on his journey. At this point, a young boy approached the old man, curious and a bit confused. He timidly asked the old man, “Excuse me, I don’t mean to be rude, but I have been listening to you this afternoon, and I’m confused. You told the first man that the city was full of terrible, selfish people, and you told the second man that the city was full of wonderful and kind people. Are you talking about the same city?”The old man smiled and patted the boy on the head, saying, “Yes, son, I was talking about the same city.” The boy looked at him as if he were crazy. The old man chuckled at the boy’s response and explained, “Same city — it’s the men that were different.” You may wonder what this ancient story has to do with walking the way of Jesus. The moral of the story is that our perception of people and experiences often reflects our internal attitudes more than external reality. The point I want to make today is that our attitude also warps our perception of God, and in turn, affects our response to everything we encounter.In Matthew, Jesus tells a parable of three servants. Each of them was given a certain amount to manage. The first two profitably managed their resources, but the third one refused, and the reason he gave is telling. Let’s read this third servant’s response.He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours.’ But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. Matt 25:24-28 [ESV]This may seem confusing until you compare it to what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount.“Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Matt 7:1-2 [ESV]The third servant did not see the master as good but rather as a stingy, demanding, and unjust master. The master responded according to the wicked servant’s attitude toward him. If you look at how he treated the two who respected and obeyed him, He was very generous and kind. However, the master responded to the third servant in exactly the same way the servant described him. The wicked servant was being measured with the same ruler he used on the master.In the book of Hebrews, we are told that those who come to God must believe that he is a good God.And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. Heb 11:6 [ESV]When faith in God's goodness breaks down, everything falls apart. If we examine humanity’s first recorded failure in the Garden of Eden closely, we see that once the serpent succeeded in getting us to question God's goodness, his work was as good as done. The serpent implied that there were good things that God just didn’t want them to have (he never said why, but left that to the imagination of Adam and Eve). Once he had them questioning the goodness of God, it was easy to lead them to outright disobedience. Our assumptions about the character of God determine our response to God. Everything God does for us is filtered through our belief in his goodness-or the lack thereof. If we believe God is good, we will naturally trust Him and His intentions toward us. But if, deep down, we don’t believe He loves us and has our best interests in mind, we will find it almost impossible to trust Him.Like the traveler in the story, what we see in people and in God says more about us than it does about others or God. Maybe, especially God. If we believe that the God behind everything is evil, we will see evil in everything. God is good. He has proven it in a thousand small ways to those who are looking for it. But he has proven it in a few enormous ways that should be recognized, even if you are not inclined to look. When we rebelled and became evil and violent, and yes, I said we, not they. God could have ended the entire human project right then and there. But instead, he became one of us and subjected himself to the full fury of human evil in order to save us from ourselves. God is good. Love is benefiting others at my expense. God didn’t just command us to do this; He demonstrated that love for us in Jesus.So this week, let’s remind ourselves and each other every day that although evil is everywhere, God is good. So I will leave you with this famous song:The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. The Lord is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made. All your works shall give thanks to you, O Lord, and all your saints shall bless you! They shall speak of the glory of your kingdom and tell of your power, to make known to the children of man your mighty deeds, and the glorious splendor of your kingdom. Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures throughout all generations. Psalm 145:8-13 [ESV]Let’s share this thought with everyone we meet this week, directly or indirectly.And have a great week! Get full access to On walking the Way at tompossin.substack.com/subscribe

I have heard it said that evil is not a thing; it is the lack of a thing. Like dark is a lack of light, and cold is a lack of heat, evil is a lack of goodness — a lack of God.Joy, on the other hand, is a thing, and its source is a person.You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. Psalm 16:11 [ESV] Happiness is a feeling we get when circumstances agree with us. Joy is something else.Joy carries us when happiness is a distant memory. There are many who say, “Who will show us some good? Lift up the light of your face upon us, O Lord!” You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound. In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety. Psalm 4:6-8[ESV]We live in a world obsessed with pleasure, happiness, and fulfillment. But these things are both difficult to define and impossible to maintain. Joy is something else, joy is not the product of our labor or good fortune. True joy is found only in God. As the world looks to prosperity and pleasure for rest, those who know God rest in God to find joy. Psalm 16 describes this well and ends with the following line.You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. Psalm 16:11 [ESV]The pursuits of this world do not satisfy, and the hearts of those who chase after them are never content. But those who know God have a different attitude. Psalm 16 describes that perspective like this.The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot. The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance. I bless the Lord who gives me counsel; in the night also my heart instructs me. I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices; my flesh also dwells secure. Psalm 16:5-9[ESV]Joy, Faith, and Contentment are hard to separate both in theology and in life. Contentment in God can only be achieved when you have faith in God’s goodness, faith in God’s eternal care. This faith in God’s goodness and care will produce a joy that is deeper than any worldly trouble. It is a faith that knows that no trouble can separate us from God. This faith draws us to God in times of trouble, and in God we find true joy. This WeekThis world and all of its corruption and troubles can make us feel hopeless and helpless. But in Jesus, we are neither hopeless nor helpless. Our help is in God, who gives us strength to endure and a peace beyond understanding. We can be content in His blessing and know a joy that nothing can steal from us.This week, let’s help each other remember which things last forever and which are at best temporary. Let’s rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep, knowing that neither happiness nor sorrow lasts forever, but joy does. Let’s encourage each other to rest in God’s goodness and find the lasting joy that only He can give.Have a great week! Get full access to On walking the Way at tompossin.substack.com/subscribe

For many centuries, we have all been educated and entertained via media, primarily through books and print, until the 20th century. Ask any avid reader, and they will be quick to tell you about the magic of the printed word and how books guide you into worlds you have never known. But, there is one very important thing to remember about those worlds, and it is troubling: they disappear when you close the book. I have had a fascination with the Bible for my entire life. Even when I was not sure I believed in God, the Bible struck me as different than any other book I read. In my spiritual experimentation phase, I read many other religious and spiritual writings. Still, I kept coming back to the Bible because it always seemed to be different than the rest. Even at the height of my hedonistic musician phase, there was always a Bible in my apartment, and when I got bored or curious, I picked it up and fell into its pages again. But it was at this time that I noticed something. I was reading about the past and people that I had never met. Are these simply stories, or is there a real God that does real things today? This question haunted me until one night at 2 a.m. alone in the woods, God answered that question in one moment. I can’t properly describe that experience because it was like nothing I had ever experienced, before or since. I can only describe it as an overwhelming sense of God’s presence. Time meant nothing in that place, so I had no sense of how long this experience even lasted. But it changed me and the direction of my life. I wish I could say that after that I did a bunch of smart things and life has been a bowl of cherries ever since. Unfortunately, after this encounter, I was still me, I was still a mess, and there was a long road ahead. But after this experience, I knew something amazing was at the end of the road.Before this, I had a storybook god. A god that interested me and that I loved to read about, but it was also a god I could close the book on and walk away from anytime I wanted to. But a storybook god is not God at all. God is inescapable; He does not go away when you stop thinking about Him or stop believing in Him. A storybook god is easy to think about and easy to ignore. When god lives in a book, all his power and miracles live there too. The biblical world begins to feel like Tolkien’s Middle-earth: a fun place to think about, but one that does not actually exist. My meeting in the woods that night took me on a 45-year journey into real life. It was then that I realized that God is not simply a character in a book and that this earth is more than a rock flying through space. So for 45 years now, I have been trying to understand God, to know what He is asking of me. I have studied His word, listened to lectures, and read books, trying to understand. I have studied those who have gone before me, trying to learn the true path and how to walk it.But like Christian in the story of The Pilgrim’s Progress, danger is never far away. The Return of the Storybook godAs I burrowed into studying and teaching, one day, I realized that the storybook god had returned—but this time, in a different form. I no longer wondered if God was real, but following God had gradually become indistinguishable from knowing about God, theology, ancient culture and practice, and a hundred other things that were useful in their place, but crucially, were not God. God had once again become something that I could close the book on. I hadn’t stopped believing or trusting, but the goal of my study became preparing to teach or finish some project, rather than to spend time with God and learn his ways. Why do we do such things? There are probably many reasons, but when I search my own heart, I can’t shake the feeling that we simply like control of our own lives. A powerful God that we read about in a story is fun to read about, and very safe because we can close the book on Him any time we want. But a powerful God in the present is frightening; a present, powerful God might do or say anything, and then, we would have to do something about it. A present, powerful God will demand things of us that a storybook god never could.The Fear of the LordWe are often uncomfortable with the term “the fear of the Lord.” But as I think about the storybook god phenomenon, I believe we are ultimately talking about the fear of the Lord—or, more accurately, a lack of fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord makes us all uncomfortable, as it should. So our fallen nature looks for ways to contain God, and if we can’t do that, to avoid him. When we consciously or unconsciously turn God into a storybook god, we create a god we can manage. An interesting god who does awesome things in the stories, but who is ultimately a safe god that we can interact with as we choose.This WeekSo, what am I saying? I am absolutely not saying, stop reading your Bible. In fact, reading the Bible can be the answer to the storybook god problem, because in the Bible we see God described as he actually is. The answer is not less Bible, the answer is more God. More God at breakfast, more God at work, more God when no one is around, more God when I’m bored, more God when I’m busy. The Bible should draw us into the presence of God by helping us to understand who He really is. The storybook god turns up when we want to deceive ourselves, when we want a god that great, but not someone who is going to interfere with our day. The storybook god turns up when we talk about God without listening to Him. The storybook god is not a Bible problem, it is a heart problem.This week as we read and study God’s word, let’s remember that God is not an historical figure. God is, and was, and will always be — God almighty, ruler of all things, including us; and that is a good thing. His power is real, and so is His love. We can’t separate the two.This week, let’s live in the presence of the actual almighty God we find described in the pages of the Bible; and have a great week! Get full access to On walking the Way at tompossin.substack.com/subscribe

Easter is a time to reflect on the significance of the resurrection. The resurrection of Jesus is not a philosophical or theological point to be argued, nor is it a simply a symbol. But rather, it stands as the single fact on which all Christian belief depends. And when I say fact I do not mean a firmly held opinion, I am referring to a historical fact, a thing which actually happened. If the resurrection did not actually happen, everything else you think or believe as a Christian is meaningless. Easter therefore is the core celebration of the Christian faith, much more so than even Christmas. Celebrating a famous persons birth does not hold a candle to the celebration of the Son of God’s resurrection from the dead. And if Jesus did not rise from the dead, he becomes nothing more than a famous man. Today I want to focus on the meaning of the resurrection to the believer. If you wish to explore some of the reasons to believe in the historical fact of the resurrection I have included a few YouTube videos below that I think make the historical case for the resurrection of Jesus pretty well. So if you are interested in this aspect of resurrection enjoy those videos! Why this mattersLet’s move on to the question of, “why is the resurrection so important?”. To get a sense of how important Paul thinks the resurrection is, we have this passage from his letter to the church at Corinth. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.   (1 Corinthians 15:16-19 ESV)...If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”   (1 Corinthians 15:32 ESV)So we see that the resurrection of Christ is not a minor side issue, it is instead the foundation for all of Christian faith. Beyond that, the resurrection of Christ certifies that the things that Jesus said about himself are true. It can be fairly said that we don’t believe in Jesus because of the truth of the bible, we believe in the truth of the bible because Jesus has risen from the dead. In rising from the dead he verified what the bible, particularly the old testament, has said. And without the resurrection I seriously doubt the new testament would have ever been written or preserved. Jesus would have been just another wannabe Messiah or wannabe cult leader. So for this podcast we are going to accept the resurrection of Jesus as a fact, and focus on why that is so important to our lives today and everyday as we walk the path to life.Resurrection and New Life in ChristThe death of Jesus was a sacrifice, it was in fact the ultimate sacrifice for sin. Justice after all is about balance, if $10 is stolen the thief is accountable for a $10 loss. We are however all guilty of a capital crime, rejecting the very source of all life - God. Thankfully, God in his love and mercy found a way. But how could God who is just overlook justice? By paying the debt himself. And that is what He did in Jesus. So since the death of Jesus paid our debt for sin what did the resurrection do?The death of Jesus gave us a clean slate, but the resurrection of Jesus gives us a new life to live. A life united with Jesus, a life in Jesus, a life that does not end in destruction but goes on to eternity. Paul describes this new life in several places. Here are a couple of examples.For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.    (2 Corinthians 5:14-17 ESV)And again in RomansDo you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.   (Romans 6:3-4 ESV)When we join ourselves to Christ in baptism we do much more than get wet. This is more than a ceremonial washing, or a symbol of cleansing. This is our total identification with Christ in his death and since we are now united with him in his death for sin we are also, and this is the really amazing part, united with him in his resurrection from the dead, never to die again.But this is not a blessing that will kick in only after we physically die, Paul is saying we have already died with Jesus. This is a blessing that is given to us now that will never end. It is a new spiritual life now, with a new transformed and eternal body in the future. This new life does not belong to us, it belongs to God. We squandered our old life with rebellion and sin, our old life was beyond repair, so it had to be replaced with something new. And in Jesus, his death and resurrection, we have also been resurrected and given something truly new. Our life is now embedded in Jesus. He will never die again and neither will we. He lives for God alone - and in Him so do we. Passion week should always be a time of reflection on the precious nature of life, and the love of God for us, even in the face of the outrage of our sin against him. It cost Jesus his life to redeem us to the father. Now we must sacrifice our old sinful life to partake in the new life provided by God through Jesus and his resurrection.What keeps us from this blessing today?The one thing that prevents us from embracing and enjoying this new life is our desire to try and cling to our old dead life. We need to see the love of God clearly to see why we should give up what we have now for something better in Christ. At the cross and the empty grave we see this love more clearly than at any other time. Our old life may be “ours to rule” so to speak, but it makes us the captain of a sinking ship. There is another captain whose ship cannot sink and he is reaching out his hand to us today. No we can’t be captain of that ship, but since we already sunk ours, is that a bad thing? he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. This week let’s stop pretending that we know what we are doing, and allow the resurrected life of Jesus to flow through us to others. Let’s honor Jesus this Easter by allowing him to be our Lord, our King, our Commander, our Boss, because in reality He is our life and our only hope. This week let’s embrace our eternal life in Christ, love others as we have been loved - and leave our fallen and fading life behind.We are in this together, let’s have a truly great week in Jesus!Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.   (1 Peter 1:3-9 ESV)For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.   (Romans 6:10-11 ESV)For further study: Get full access to On walking the Way at tompossin.substack.com/subscribe

Many of us have believed in Jesus for many years. Some of us were raised in the faith. But if we are honest with ourselves, it is easy to understand how we can spend years as Christians without really thinking about who we are with. Philip found himself in just such a place in this story. He was an early follower of Jesus and had stayed with him from the beginning, but at this crucial moment, it became apparent that he still didn’t fully understand who he was following all that time. Our story today comes from John 14.Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves. [John 14:8-11 ESV]Philip wanted more confirmation that Jesus was God, that he was the one they had all been hoping for. Jesus replied, “Have I been with you so long, and still do not know me, Philip?” Jesus was implying that the evidence was plentiful; the issue was not lack of evidence but lack of faith. People frequently complain that if there really is a God, why doesn’t he just give us proof? I would say there is plenty of evidence for God, but God has intentionally left room for doubt to see if we love Him, trust Him, or simply fear Him. In Eden, we failed to trust God, listening to our own desires and the suggestions of a snake instead. To restore what was lost in Eden, we need to choose to trust God, trust His provision, and trust His goodness. If those things were all unavoidably obvious, no trust would be required. Getting back to Philip in our story, it seems he could not see the forest for the trees. I’m not sure what he expected from the Messiah, but it seems he wanted more, just to be sure. He wanted to see the Father, to see God, and Jesus was saying in effect, “Look at me, look at what I have been doing. Who do you think is doing that? More importantly, who do you think I am?”Do we believe? I think we can all relate to Philip sometimes wishing that God would show us a sign or give us a definite (and loud) answer to our questions. We want to test God, but the hard truth is that we are the ones who fail. God wants to see if we will trust Him, if we believe He is trustworthy and good. The evidence is all around us, but it is not the kind of evidence that forces us to believe; it is the kind that invites us to believe.The Book of Revelation ends with this invitation:The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price. Rev 22:17 [ESV]The water of life is freely available to all who desire it. As Christians, we know and have experienced Him, just like Philip. So this week, let’s encourage each other to walk in confidence, trusting in God’s goodness. Let’s put our faith in what we do know rather than flounder around in the many things we don’t know. Let’s accept that the evidence we have is enough and step into each day in faith—faith that Jesus is who He says and is enough for whatever comes our way. God is in and with us, so let’s have a great week! Get full access to On walking the Way at tompossin.substack.com/subscribe

We were made to worship. It is in us, and it is always looking for an outlet of expression. When we worship our creator with a pure heart, everything in us springs to life like a bird suddenly released from a cage. In true worship, we find the joy of being what we were created to be, images and reflections of God to the rest of His creation. However, much like the physical world, where misdirected growth becomes cancer, misdirected worship also metastasizes into something ugly and ultimately deadly. Complaining is misdirected worship.Complaining breeds bitterness and is a cancer to the soul.It gradually overtakes us, it grows slowly without our notice until it defines us and finally becomes us. But we don’t have to yield to unthankfulness, we don’t have to drown in unhappiness. Complaining is singing praise to resentment, spreading misery like true worship spreads thankfulness and joy. Trouble and pain are often listed as the cause of our complaints, which are really nothing more than a description of our unhappiness. But trouble and pain are simply the realities of living in a fallen world, not the cause of resentment, unthankfulness, and unhappiness. We often justify our complaints by dressing them up as a need to share in order to heal. Sharing pain with a trusted friend can be healing, but complaining to a friend is spreading your disease, not healing. Remember, we are made to worship, and worship is a team sport. We naturally join in with the song of the people around us. You might be thinking at this point, “So, we should just stuff our feelings and ignore our pain, then?” Not at all. The Psalms are a book of worship songs, and they are full of pain and even some shockingly direct complaints to God. So why is that okay, but complaining to my friend is not? Your friend can’t heal or resolve your complaint unless your complaint is against your friend. Evil complaints spew resentment to others, a resentment that is ultimately aimed at God. It is not wrong to ask why, but it is wrong to say to God, “How dare you do that to me!” Sharing that with a friend is asking your friend to join in your resentment against God. In Psalm 71, David complains that his enemies are slandering and hurting him in many ways. However, look at the tone of his complaint and compare it with ours.O God, be not far from me; O my God, make haste to help me! May my accusers be put to shame and consumed; with scorn and disgrace may they be covered who seek my hurt. But I will hope continually and will praise you yet more and more. My mouth will tell of your righteous acts, of your deeds of salvation all the day, for their number is past my knowledge. With the mighty deeds of the Lord God I will come; I will remind them of your righteousness, yours alone. Psalm 71:12-16[ESV]Rather than bitterness and resentment toward God for his troubles, David reaches out to God in faith. David trusts God's righteousness completely, and he shares that faith with others.Worship is the expression of loving submission to God. It is found in a correct relationship with God and seeks that relationship to the fullest. That relationship will express itself in healthy ways, even when we are experiencing pain and disappointment. This WeekWhat do we do with our pain and complaints? This week, let’s examine our hearts for any sign of resentment and entitlement. These are signs that we feel God, this world, and the people in it all owe us a level of respect and fulfillment—signs that we have put ourselves in God's place. To conquer a complaining attitude, we must look to its true source, which is not pretty. Once we have repented, we will be ready to replace our old habits with new ones. The apostle Paul has some suggestions in Philippians 4.Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Philippians 4:4-8[ESV]Have a great week! Get full access to On walking the Way at tompossin.substack.com/subscribe

Not one of us will wake up tomorrow.Every time we wake up, it will be today. It is always now, it is never later.We can’t do anything later; we can only do things now.The question is not who you were or who you hope to be, but who are you now?Life can only be lived now, not tomorrow, or yesterday.Yesterday and tomorrow are hiding places.We only live now, we only love now (or not), we only forgive now (or not).We can begin to change now, or choose not to change.The things we choose to do now become our lives tomorrow.Now is an important moment. Let’s look at a few passages on the subject.Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. As it is said, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” Hebrews 3:12-15 [ESV]Now is the Time to ListenWhen we dwell on yesterday or tomorrow or someday we live our lives in what amounts to a delusional state. God always speaks to us now. And if we hear the voice of God now we need to respond now, tomorrow will be too late. But it gets worse, if we refuse to listen we don’t just miss an opportunity, we harden our hearts against the voice of God. A hard heart will not obey, until it becomes so hard it does not hear at all.Today is the only day we can encourage each other to hear God.But hearing is not just perceiving sound waves, it is responding as Paul reminds the church at Corinth.Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. For he says, "I heard you at the acceptable time, and in the day of salvation I helped you." Look, now is the acceptable time; look, now is the day of salvation! II Corinthians 6:2 [New English Translation (NET)]Now is the Time to BelieveWe live every moment of our lives in the now. Saying later is just another way of saying no. Our spiritual journey can not be completed now, but if we don’t take the next step of our spiritual journey now, we are no longer on a spiritual journey. Our journey is a series of steps in faith. Each moment we take a step of faith or we take a step away from the source of life. Christianity is directional. We are either walking toward Jesus or we are walking away from him. We make that choice every moment, we make that choice now.It is tempting to argue, “I’m not a monk, I have responsibilities, I have bills to pay” so do we all. But Jesus does not let us wiggle out of our responsibility to God that easily. Consider these words from the Sermon on the Mount.Why do you worry about clothing? Think about how the flowers of the field grow; they do not work or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his glory was clothed like one of these! And if this is how God clothes the wild grass, which is here today and tomorrow is tossed into the fire to heat the oven, won't he clothe you even more, you people of little faith? So then, don't worry saying, 'What will we eat?' or 'What will we drink?' or 'What will we wear?' For the unconverted pursue these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But above all pursue his kingdom and righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. So then, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Today has enough trouble of its own. Matthew 6:28-34[New English Translation(NET)]Now is the Time to ActThis is a subject that encourages and frightens me at the same time. On the one hand it is an encouragement to act, and act now. And on the other, Jesus tells us not to worry about tomorrow and all its pressing needs, because, Our Father knows our needs and will take care of us. So how do I live now? I try to keep my eyes focused on where God has me now and who God has put in my path. I try to keep my ears open to His voice. I remember the past but I try not to live there. I think of the future, but I try to remember the future is the fruit of what I do now. So, as Paul said, let’s encourage each other while it is called today. Let’s encourage each other to make the most of today. Encouraging each other to seek God’s kingdom, love people, choose to forgive, and be thankful now — today. Because tomorrow never comes.Have a great week! Get full access to On walking the Way at tompossin.substack.com/subscribe

I have misread my circumstances many times in my life. I have read God’s pleasure or displeasure into things that were not directly connected to either one of those things. When things go wrong, I tend to ask, “What am I doing wrong?” Is God angry at me? Is He punishing me, or is He trying to get my attention? While this set of questions might sound childish or simplistic, blaming ourselves for our bad circumstances is often correct. We frequently orchestrate our own problems with our bad choices. For Christians, though, such self-examination can end very well, even if we are totally wrong in our initial assumptions and our circumstances have little or nothing to do with bad choices or God’s displeasure. Why? Because we tend to run to God for answers in these scenarios, and if we ask God in sincerity we gain a better understanding of God’s character and our own. The final result of trouble and failure, if taken to God in sincerity, is growth, growth of character, strength, and knowledge of God. As James told us so long ago:Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. James 1:2-5 [ESV]Or Paul, when he encourages the Romans with this:Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. Romans 5:1-5 [ESV]Success is a different storyWhen we succeed, we rarely ask ourselves the hard questions. Success does not force us into harsh self-examination or humility. Success is generally taken as a reward for good behavior, so we rarely question it. If we do examine ourselves, it is to find that thing we did that brought all this success about. We start to forget about God and look to our own skills and devices for the answer. We become idolaters, and our success affirms our faith in our idols. In the end, all idolatry is self-worship, whether it is a statue of something or someone we revere and put our hope in or the more direct and insidious idolatry of trusting our own strength, wisdom, and devices.The problem is not new. God warned the Israelites about it as they were leaving the wilderness to enter the promised land. He told them that they were going to succeed and that all their success was the fruit of His kindness, but they needed to beware.Reading from Deuteronomy, we see this warning:Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’ You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day. And if you forget the Lord your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish. Deut 8:17-19 [ESV]We often curse our problems and our failures, but as long as they drive us back to God, as long as they remind us of the true source of our blessings, our troubles actually help us. The real danger is success. Success flatters us and encourages us to look to ourselves and to our own efforts. Success intoxicates us and encourages us not to think at all about why we succeeded in the first place. Are we to seek failure?At this point, you might be wondering what I am suggesting we do. We certainly don’t seek failure, nor do we curse success. Making poor choices is certainly a very stupid course of action, as we all (hopefully) have learned by now. So what are we to do with success? The answer is pretty straightforward but easy to forget. We handle success with thankfulness and humility. We handle it the same way we handle problems; we look to God in faith. Recognizing that while our choices have consequences, our circumstances, whether good or bad, are not the sole product of our choices. Our best efforts can fail, and tragedy can strike without warning. Comicly, at times, we can succeed through sheer ignorance as well. God is God, and we are not. God is good even on our worst days.The warning in success is to remember. Remember that everything we have, even if we “earned it through hard work,” is a gift from God. God gave us the health, strength, and opportunity to work. Idolatry is forgetting God and giving His credit to other things, other gods, or to our favorite false god — ourselves.This week, let’s take the time to count all the blessings God has given us and remember — He is God, and everything we have comes from Him. Let’s practice thankfulness together.Have a great week! Get full access to On walking the Way at tompossin.substack.com/subscribe

When we think about calling, we generally think about what we are good at, what “our heart” desires, or perhaps the saying I have truly come to hate, “follow our passion.” But what does calling really refer to when we put it into the context of the gospels? From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Immediately they left their nets and followed him. And going on from there he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and he called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him. Matt 4:17-22 [ESV]In the context of the gospels, calling is not at all about our desires, gifts, and talents; it is about our Lord calling us to follow him—nothing more, but nothing less either. We are often unaware of how deeply our individualistic and self-centered culture affects us. The calling of Jesus has nothing to do with any special talents and effort on our part. Our call is simply a call to follow. It is a call we must accept by faith, faith that we will have what we need for our calling because Jesus called us to do it. We will not succeed because we are talented, visionary, or great leaders. Our job is to say yes when Jesus asks us to do something.In broad strokes, John tells us what Jesus is asking in chapter 15. “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you, so that you will love one another. John 15:12-17 [ESV]As we walk with Jesus, these principles of love and obedience become clear. Jesus speaks to us as we follow if our ears are attentive to his voice. When we follow His call, our hearts are trained to view the world through His eyes. How are our hearts trained? By spending time with Him in prayer, meditating on His words, examining His actions, and imitating them. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Romans 12:2 [ESV]People seem to argue about Christianity more than they do it. Sometimes, I think that Reformed theology has put such a wall between works and salvation that people begin to feel that what they do is irrelevant. A quick read through the Bible will shatter that notion thoroughly, but nevertheless, on a subconscious level, we often seem to feel that as long as we think the right things, what we do is meaningless or at least forgivable. In this state, hearing the voice of Jesus is difficult, if not impossible. This WeekOur beliefs give birth to our actions.Over time, our actions define our beliefs much better than our words. This week, take some time to contemplate the reality of your calling. Jesus has called you to follow Him. Put yourself in His mental space, imagine looking into His eyes as He asks you to follow Him, and check what your heart is saying to Him. If your heart says “No” or “Not now,” don’t panic; just repent and say “Yes” because Jesus is not asking you for something He is not providing. Lean into His call and lean back on His strength. I leave you with an encouragement from the book of Hebrews.Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. Heb 13:20-21 [ESV]Have a Great week! Get full access to On walking the Way at tompossin.substack.com/subscribe

Academia has been a gift to the body of Christ. I am thankful every day for the gift of 2000 years of scholarly study into the scriptures and all the time and energy so many give to record these discoveries and insights for the benefit of all. Without this effort, we would not even have a Bible to study in our native language, much less all the study materials that help us understand it. But over the centuries, I fear academia has become a magnet next to the compass of Christian thought and life. Over time, understanding can be confused with knowing. To know about Jesus is not the same as knowing Jesus. Jesus saw this error in the scholars of His day, and it broke His heart.You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. John 5:39-40 [ESV]This may sound weird coming from a guy who has dedicated the last 35 years to mission work and the last 25 years to teaching the Bible, but the ultimate goal is not knowing the scriptures but knowing Jesus. We don’t study to be the smartest guy in the room, we don’t study for recognition, and we don’t study (or teach) simply to make a living. We study to know Jesus, and as teachers, we study to point others to Jesus.But before you say, “Ya, that’s xackly why I don’t study nothin’,” we need to think a little deeper about this issue. We can’t know Jesus in 2025 without learning about Him. And that knowledge of Jesus comes from the testimony of those who knew Him when He walked the earth. And that testimony is recorded for us in the Bible. Without the Bible, how else would we ever know he existed or what he was like? Without scripture, how would we test our thoughts, feelings, and assumptions? How will we interpret our lives? How will we know if we are living as disciples if we know nothing of what a disciple should be?Over the last two millennia, ignorance and even anti-intellectualism have manifested themselves in many ways. At times, ignorance was foisted on the Church by the elite classes and crushing poverty, and at other times, anti-intellectualism was almost a rallying cry among certain evangelicals. No matter its cause, ignorance has never borne good fruit. However, academia and an overinflated regard for intellectualism are not harmless either. As an old mentor of mine once said, “You can fall into the ditch on either side of the road.” Knowledge for the sake of knowledge is as futile as art for the sake of art, maybe worse. Because Christians rarely start out seeking knowledge for the sake of knowledge, they drift into that state. This is what I meant earlier when I said that academia has become a magnet next to the compass of Christianity.People begin by wanting to know more about Jesus, which is absolutely vital and right. But over time, they begin to focus on the information and forget why they gathered it in the first place. Slowly, gathering information becomes an end in itself—or, if not the end, the means to an end. They begin to see education as the ticket to their self-chosen paths rather than instruction for following the path of Jesus. We want answers to questions, which in itself is not wrong. Still, when our curiosities and desire to know overwhelm our desire to follow the way of Jesus, we begin to bow at foreign altars—idolatrous altars of our own making. On Walking the WayThis view of academics came as a correction to me several years ago and led me to focus on what it means to “walk the Way.” That is why I started this newsletter and podcast. The Bible is precious beyond words to me, so much so that I have dedicated my adult life to helping people understand it as it was originally intended. But that is the rub; God’s original intention in preserving the Bible for us was not to satisfy our curiosity and certainly not to generate arguments. The Scriptures were preserved for us so that we could know him. The scriptures teach us to discern between the Holy Spirit and evil spirits. It helps us to see the difference between our own thoughts and the Spirit of God. It teaches us the difference between a strange experience and the work of God. God gave us the scriptures to lead us to Himself. This WeekSo this week, as we read the Bible, remember that its main purpose is not to educate in the normal sense of that word. It intends to lead us into a closer relationship with God and instruct us “On Walking the Way” of Jesus.Have a Great Week! Get full access to On walking the Way at tompossin.substack.com/subscribe

We live in an angry world. It’s a vengeful and unforgiving world. A world where people are constantly at war, if not with bombs, guns, knives, and clubs, with commerce, and if not with commerce, with slander, defamation, and character assassination. But one thing we are all certain of — is that it is the other guy’s fault. It must be their fault. After all, we are the injured party. So, we have a right to feel this way, to act this way, and even to retaliate.This world leaves many wounded in big and small ways, but every wound, if left untreated, is another link in a chain that enslaves us. To make matters worse, or possibly better, this slavery is self-inflicted. The treatment is simple but costly. The treatment is forgiveness. The wound lights the fire, but unforgiveness forges the chain. The chain that ultimately binds us and not our enemies. Thankfully, Jesus teaches us how to break the chains of our own unforgiveness.The Lord’s Prayer is underrated, particularly in many modern churches where it is seldom used as a prayer. Nevertheless, in it, we are taught to pray for forgiveness in the following way:and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. Matt 6:12[ESV]Many read this simple line without really pondering what we are really asking God to do. Jesus is teaching us to ask God to forgive us in the same way that we forgive those who sin against us. If you think I am reading things into this passage, consider the verses that immediately follow, where Jesus clarifies his teaching on forgiveness.For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. Matt 6:14-15[ESV]When we refuse to forgive, we are doubly, perhaps triply bound. We have the original offense and the damage it caused, the unrelenting bitterness and isolation that our own unforgiveness causes, and the crushing weight of the loss of God’s grace for our own sins against God. Forgiveness unlocks us from everything but the original loss, which typically we can never get back no matter what we do. Forgiveness is costly, but it is far cheaper than the alternative. Forgiveness heals, and unforgiveness multiplies the pain. Clear Conscious — Light HeartI have spent far too much time supposedly “stressed out” and unhappy, blaming all the wrong things instead of recognizing that all the internal noise and turmoil were really symptoms of my guilt, shame, and unforgiveness. This was a terrible situation, but in reality, it was far worse than it sounds because, as a Christian, all of it was unnecessary. Unforgiveness is not a static problem. Like cancer, it metastasizes, mutates, and grows until it destroys us. We will never know a clear conscience until we forgive. Until we forgive, we will never know the forgiveness of God, according to Jesus. So why don’t we all just forgive? To forgive, we have to admit our own sin and wickedness. To have a clear conscience, we need to not only recognize our sin but actively turn from it. Forgiveness and being forgiven are inescapably intertwined. This is the genius of the Lord’s Prayer. “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” Forgiving others is not dependent on their actions. It is a choice that we make to release them from their debt, and in the process, we release ourselves. Forgiveness is not cheap. In the process of forgiveness, the one forgiving agrees to cancel the debt of the one being forgiven. It costs $10 to forgive someone for stealing $10. It cost Jesus his life to pay for the deeds we have done against each other and, more importantly, against God.This WeekThis week (or better still, every day), we need to take a long, honest look at the condition of our hearts. A clear conscience brings a light heart, and a light heart brings joy, kindness, generosity, and a host of other blessings. But a clear conscience is impossible until we have dealt with our own sins and forgiven the sins of others. Forgiveness is expensive but not as expensive as unforgiveness.So — forgive — and Have a Great Week! Get full access to On walking the Way at tompossin.substack.com/subscribe

We are bombarded with information and stories every day. Some are served up with a smile, and others with anger and a side of fear. These stories affect us, even the ones we hate and reject. Many, if not most, of these stories are impossible for us to fully verify, so, in the end, we pick and choose what we want to believe for any number of reasons. The truth begins to sound like a muffled voice lost in the crowd. It is easy to feel like the psalmist when he cried out in frustration, “I said in my alarm, ‘All men are liars!’”. We start to wonder if there is any way of hearing the truth or if the truth exists at all. Muddling the waters and making people wonder about the truth - is, and always has been, the Devil’s game. Ever since the garden when the serpent asked Eve, “Did God really say…?” obfuscation and lies have been our daily bread, or so it seems. But is that assessment of the situation accurate? Not necessarily. The empty tomb of Jesus defeated that old serpent. Jesus is the way; he is THE TRUTH and the life. Though the truth may not be the loudest voice in the room, it is by far the most powerful. But before we can speak it, we need to hear it. The noise inside us is often more distracting than the noise around us. But - if we can quiet our hearts to listen to the truth, we can then be a voice of truth to others. We can be peacemakers in a world at war. As Paul explains to the Corinthians:For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete. 2 Cor 10:3-6 [ESV]It has often been said that “The truth is its own defense.” I think that old saying is true but incomplete, as is the case with all cliches. For the truth to stand, it must first be declared. In this passage, Paul describes his method of warfare against evil. It is not fought in the flesh. It is fought with truth. His warfare carries divine power and destroys strongholds. What are these strongholds? Arguments and “lofty opinions” raised against the knowledge of God. Paul is using the truth to shatter powerful lies aimed at preventing people from finding the knowledge of God. The sheer number of lies and the speed with which they multiply and disperse in today’s world can sometimes make it feel like we are trying to hold back the ocean with a broom. But this is yet another lie. The truth has divine power. The truth, like God, simply is. The truth can not be destroyed; it is reality, and it will ultimately prevail. How are we to fight the battle for truth?Again, Paul has advice for us all. This advice comes to us from his letter to the church in Ephesus.Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ! Eph 4:15-20 [ESV]We need to speak the truth, but we need to speak the truth in love. Love is - benefiting others at my expense; it is not - proving I am right no matter what. The truth both builds and destroys. It destroys the lies that enslave the ones we love and builds the body of Christ. But we face real dangers when confronting the lies of this age. So, I will leave you with a bit of encouragement from the book of Proverbs. Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest you be like him yourself. Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes. Prov 26:4-5 [ESV]As with all Hebrew poetry and especially in the wisdom literature, wisdom is found by balancing ideas. These two verses placed side by side are not a contradiction they are to be held in tension when deciding what to do. I would interpret them as: Be careful when arguing with a fool or you might become one yourself. This week let’s be speakers of truth without forgetting the goal.So, speak the truth in love. Be careful out there.Have a great week! Get full access to On walking the Way at tompossin.substack.com/subscribe

We don’t often think much about the way we understand the world. The short answer is that we know and understand the world through stories, and we share these stories through language. This seems obvious when we think about it. After all, if you ask someone to introduce themselves, they will do it by telling a story about themselves. Stories are the core of culture. Culture is built on a collection of shared stories and experiences that come together to shape our opinions on everything, often without our conscious knowledge. Christian culture is based on Christian stories and experiences, while Buddhist, Hindu, Islamic, Animist, and various secular cultures all base their assumptions on a set of different stories. When people say things like, “Everyone knows that…” or “Obviously…” they are referencing common stories that they feel everyone should know and respect.A culture war is a fight over which stories are legitimate and foundational. This is why people fight over statues and the “real meaning” of the Thanksgiving story in the U.S. On the surface, these arguments sound trivial, and by themselves, they may be. But we all know, almost instinctively, that these stories define us and our culture. This is our history; to change it is to change our culture and identity. Stories are incredibly powerful. Today, I thought it would be good to think about that power.I am currently teaching a Biblical Core Course to a group of young missionary trainees. The Course has many goals, but one of the primary goals is to teach people how to read the Bible in literary and historical contexts. To help them with context, we read the entire Bible in story order, beginning in the Old Testament with all of its often awkward stories and events. As I introduce the Old Testament and its various literature types, my students are always amazed at how much of it is stories and poetry. (Spoiler—stories, poetry, and songs make up the vast majority of material in the Old Testament.) But it gets interesting when I explain to them how biblical narratives in the Old Testament rarely interpret themselves. They simply tell the story, complete with all the most shocking and, at times, embarrassing details, and move on. Leaving the interpretation to the reader/hearer.At this point, jaws often visibly drop, and someone will ask, “How are we to interpret these stories?” And sometimes, “Why doesn’t God just tell us what it all means?” I can sympathize with their questions, but these questions overlook the point. Why does God use stories, poetry, and songs to teach us? Stories have an advantage over other teaching styles. Direct, specific statements typically have a sell-by date. By that, I mean the more specific a statement gets, the more narrowly it applies. The Bible is an ancient collection of writings. These stories carry truths far more timeless than specific statements about situations and events that no longer occur or advice that no longer directly applies to the modern world. Stories can carry multidimensional truth. Direct statements, for the most part, are what they are. A truly inspired story has layers and layers of application and truth, and the Bible is truly inspired. A better question than “Why all these stories?” would be, “Why have these particular stories been preserved?”We learn by example. We catch and absorb more than we study and learn. When a story becomes a part of us, it guides us and teaches us in ways we cannot always identify. But over time, the collective effect of these absorbed stories is undeniable. So, what is the point of this little excursion into the power of stories? Well, we need to “watch what we eat,” so to speak. Our world is filled with stories, some true, some false, some dangerously false. The most dangerous ones do not necessarily come from people we think are rude or on the “wrong side” of the issue. The most dangerous lies are the ones we accept without examination. The ones we feel are right because “everyone says so.” The world is wrong in a great many ways. We should never accept the world’s so-called “common knowledge” uncritically. Remember Jesus’ warning in the Gospel of John. “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. John 15:18-20 [ESV]This passage is not easy, but it is an important reality check. A story is not true simply because it is commonly believed and often repeated. We need to fill our minds with the right stories, with God’s stories, even when they are difficult to understand, because stories shape our thinking, our lives, and our futures. We need to relearn to tell stories to each other because stories anchor our identities and guide our choices. I will close today with this final encouragement from Paul.Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you. Philppians 4:4-9 [ESV]Have a great week! Get full access to On walking the Way at tompossin.substack.com/subscribe

Ever since I was young, the book of Proverbs has fascinated me. There was just something about it—all those short little sayings that you could read in a couple of seconds but end up thinking about for the rest of the day. Now that I am an old man, I have come to realize that the proverbs are not designed to answer questions; they are designed to cultivate wisdom.I think this was brought home to me years ago when I was looking and laughing at the following two verses:Prov 26:4 Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest you be like him yourself. Prov 26:5 Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes. [ESV]Well… do you or don’t you answer a fool according to his folly?These two verses seem to contradict each other, and they have been located right next to each other in the scriptures for thousands of years. This is no accident. This is not an error; it is the lesson. I would interpret it as something like this: sometimes, you have to engage with fools because it is the only way to help them, but in engaging with fools, we run the risk of becoming one ourselves. There is no black-and-white answer for how to respond to a fool. Wisdom is the only thing that will help us in these situations. Through the guidance of these proverbs, the Spirit of God, coupled with experience, will give us the needed wisdom.Today, I want to look at another Proverb I have often enjoyed. One that runs a lot deeper than it would appear on the surface. This is a proverb about the wisdom of small creatures, but again, it teaches us wisdom, not zoology.Four things on earth are small, but they are exceedingly wise: the ants are a people not strong, yet they provide their food in the summer; the rock badgers are a people not mighty, yet they make their homes in the cliffs; the locusts have no king, yet all of them march in rank; the lizard you can take in your hands, yet it is in kings’ palaces. Prov 30:24—28 [ESV]This collection of small and helpless creatures each has a trait that the wise will learn from.AntsAnts are not strong. Individually, they can be easily killed, but they work together to gather food when it is plentiful in the summer. They don’t gorge and starve. They don’t waste opportunities. They think about the needs of the future and take steps to prepare. I am ashamed to say these little guys are often wiser than me. They are more persistent, too, if you’ve ever watched them go after a food supply.Ants also work together, knowing that together, they can do things they could never do separately. If you have ever watched a chain of ants doing their work, you know something amazing is happening. It may be an annoying thing to watch in your kitchen, but it’s still amazing.Rock BadgersThe rock badgers are also small and easy prey, but they are wise. They fortify their weakness rather than arrogantly assume they can handle whatever comes their way. They live and work from a position of safety, high above the fray. LocustsLocusts work together without anyone forcing them to obey. They move and work together without leadership. They know that together, they are safer than they are as individuals—a volunteer army without a commander.The LizardThe lizard here likely describes the lowly gecko. In warmer climates you will find these little guys patroling the walls in the most unusual places. They eat bugs and don’t bother anyone, so in most of the places I have been, they are considered little household friends. They are unassuming and don’t make any noise, and as the proverb states, they are not that hard to catch. Yet you will find them in the most amazing places. The wisdom of the gecko is that it quietly goes about its work and minds its own business. It is not ambitious or self-aggrandizing, but you will find it quietly doing its job even in kings’ palaces. This WeekSince it’s the new year, it’s always a good time to do something new. Try taking a month and reading a chapter a day in Proverbs. Or if that does not work read a shorter passage but give yourself time to meditate on the wisdom being offered. Instead of blurring your brain and numbing your soul with news and social media first thing in the morning, enjoy a few minutes of peace, taking in some ancient wisdom. (I take mine with coffee ;) Have a great week! Get full access to On walking the Way at tompossin.substack.com/subscribe

Another new year has begun, and with it comes the hope of a fresh start. Over the holidays, I spent a bit of time thinking about tradition. Traditions are important. They give our lives rhythm, but more than that, traditions anchor us to history. They give us a sense of where we have been and serve as reference points from which we calculate our path to the future. The New Year is one such tradition. It is a time to reflect on the past and make resolutions for the future. It is a time of hope and new starts. We start new diets (often out of necessity), ponder our vocations, and consider our options. It is also a good time for Christians to take stock of their faith. I fear we often assume too much when it comes to our faith. We lean on our past experiences, sacramental rituals, or even our interaction with other believers without properly assessing the fruit of the Spirit and the condition of our faith. For example, when was the last time we asked ourselves:—Have we grown in our faith over the past year? —Do we make decisions based on faith? —Do we seek guidance for everyday living or only when we’re in trouble? —Do we follow Jesus every day, or do we generally run the show while asking Jesus to help us?—Does our life reflect the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control? Confession is a spiritual practice that has been dropped in many church traditions. But I think that is a mistake. We need traditions and habits that build and transform our character. Confession, particularly corporate confession, is a tradition that builds regular times into our lives when we must stand together and honestly assess our performance as human beings and as children of God. As we consider the year before us, let’s take the time to reflect honestly on the year we have just lived. Do we love? Do we live in such a way that we seek to benefit others at our expense? Jesus did — and we are following him. I know that comparing our lives to Jesus is a high bar to jump, and I am not saying that I have succeeded in all categories or anything like it. But the new life that Jesus has given us is real and powerful. It is far more powerful than we often give it credit. Believing in Jesus is, at its core, believing he was successful in his mission. It is believing we are not only forgiven but also changed — and changing every day. We are being transformed into the image of God each day we follow Jesus rather than our old desires. This year, we have been given another opportunity to walk in the grace and power of Jesus. We have the Spirit of God at work in us and through us to do the things we could and would never do on our own. Let’s begin this year right, with thankfulness and hope. Hope that is built not on our efforts but on the grace and faithfulness of God. Let’s examine ourselves honestly but without fear, remembering Paul’s encouragement. I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. Philippians 1:3-6;9-11 [ESV]Deb and I want to thank all of you for your faithfulness to us over the years. We stand with you as you walk into this new year.May you all have a very blessed new year! Get full access to On walking the Way at tompossin.substack.com/subscribe

Christmas has a way of filling the air with anticipation. For me, it is a time filled with memories. A time with family and friends and singing. A time of warmth in a cold world. As a child, it was a time of mystery, of wondering what Christmas would bring for me. Although I have to admit to being thoroughly carnal about it as a child, there was still something about it that seemed much bigger than the gifts. I didn’t fully understand it, and I doubt if I fully understand it even now. I think it was the dark church, lit only with the giant Christmas tree and sitting next to my Dad as we sang Christmas songs together. The church was always creepy to me at night, with dark shadows playing off the ornately carved altar with a statue of Jesus standing in the center of the altar backdrop with his pierced hands extended toward me. But being in the pew with my family while my Mom played the organ made it feel warm, safe, and almost magical.Now, my Dad and Mom have both passed, and I am a lot older than they were when I was young. The world seems much less magical; it seems instead to be a darker and, at times, almost sinister place. But it is exactly this kind of world that needs Jesus the most. It is this kind of world that Jesus was born into over 2000 years ago. Sometimes, as I look at all the evil in the world, I wonder what this place must look like to God, and I am overwhelmed at the thought. How can God, in His holiness, even look at this mess? The words of Isaiah take on a deeper meaning.The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone. Isaiah 9:2[ESV]And then — I remember John 3:16 and I am left speechless.“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. John 3:16-17[ESV]The deeper the darkness, the more beautiful is the light.The light has come! It’s Christmas! God, despite all the evil of this world, loved us. He did not love us from afar, but He became one of us in Jesus. He came to save us, He gave His life for ours, that we might spend eternity with Him. The hard work of salvation is done, it was begun on that first Christmas long ago, and finished on that blessed resurrection morning. However, though the hard work is done, the project of salvation is ongoing. We celebrate the beginning while we grow into the image of God, until that day when Jesus returns and restores not just our souls but all of creation, a new heaven and earth. On that day, there will be no more darkness, no more pain, no more evil. The king who was born to rule will finally take His throne. Christmas is a celebration of past blessings, present grace, and future hope all rolled into one.So, let’s not forget the magnitude of what we are celebrating this week as we are overwhelmed with events. Find a quiet moment, or better yet, create a quiet moment at some point this season to remember how unworthy we all are of such a priceless gift. Let’s rehearse it with our children and grandchildren to perpetuate more than an empty tradition. Try reading these passages out loud together.For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6[ESV]And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in strips of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. Now there were shepherds nearby living out in the field, keeping guard over their flock at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were absolutely terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid! Listen carefully, for I proclaim to you good news that brings great joy to all the people: Today your Savior is born in the city of David. He is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign for you: You will find a baby wrapped in strips of cloth and lying in a manger.” Suddenly a vast, heavenly army appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among people with whom he is pleased!” Luke 2:7-14[NET]Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.” And the twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying, “We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, who is and who was, for you have taken your great power and begun to reign. The nations raged, but your wrath came, and the time for the dead to be judged, and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints, and those who fear your name, both small and great, and for destroying the destroyers of the earth.” Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple. Revelation 11:15-19[ESV]Merry Christmas! And have a great week! Get full access to On walking the Way at tompossin.substack.com/subscribe

When people talk about Jesus, they often regard him as a simple person with a simple purpose. And often, sometimes comically, they transform him into the person they want him to be rather than the person he is. However, as we will see today, even the early prophecies of Jesus describe a person who is anything but simple. Goodness, wisdom, power, and authority are not things that fit neatly into a corrupt and wicked world. He is a wise judge and counselor who brings justice to the poor, but he is also a conquering king. He is gentle with the weak yet unblinking in his judgment of the wicked. He was born in humility, but he was born to rule. Isaiah describes him like this:There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide disputes by what his ears hear, but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist, and faithfulness the belt of his loins. The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. In that day the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples— of him shall the nations inquire, and his resting place shall be glorious. Isaiah 11:1-10 [ESV]On Christmas, we are surrounded by songs and images of the baby Jesus. It is a symbol of hope and peace — and it is exactly that. But maybe not in the way we sometimes think. This child is quite literally one of a kind. This tiny baby was born to rule. He was born to judge the wicked. He was born to reconnect us to God. In fact, Jesus is God becoming one of us — to fellowship with us. The brain-busting part about Jesus is that he is all of these things and more. The wicked will not go on forever, committing one atrocity after another. Evil people who lived long, prosperous lives and died of old age did not “get away with it.” There is a king who will judge with righteousness, and there is coming a day when everything that has been done will be brought into account. And this humble child is both the judge and eternal King. Creation itself will be brought back into order.Our hope is not that one day we can rule our own lives and live in peace. Our hope is in a king who became one of us so that we can become one with him in his kingdom. We are now a part of God’s family again. God bought us back from our rebellion and our slavery to desire; He took the cost of our sins upon Himself. We have a future now and forgiveness for our past. Judgment is no longer a dread that looms in the distance. Jesus has come, and with him came the grace we need to be restored, fully restored, forever restored. We have a living hope that evil will not reign forever. Justice is coming. So this week, as the symbols of Christmas surround us, let’s not forget that Christmas is much more than a pleasant memory or a happy thought. It is a memory of this baby Isaiah predicted who came to give his life to save us. But his work is not over. It is just beginning. Advent is a time of hope for the future. We now know the name of this child that Isaiah foresaw. However, as we can see from this prophecy and many others, his work is still in progress. He is coming again to judge and to rule. And we have a lot of work to do to prepare for our coming King.This week, share that hope with someone. Be intentional about it. Live into the coming kingdom we all hope for, and remember, Advent is not a time of looking back. It is a time of looking forward to our coming King. Let’s serve Him well this week.Have a great week! Get full access to On walking the Way at tompossin.substack.com/subscribe

Christmas is a time of hope. Hope is the fuel that gives us the courage to go on. Hope provides us with the strength to fail and keep going. Without it, we wither and die. I wish that were an overstatement, but the older I get, the more convinced I am that — without hope, everything else collapses.Today, we read from Isaiah, who saw hope for the future nearly 2800 years ago and shared it with us all. The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone. You have multiplied the nation; you have increased its joy; they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, as they are glad when they divide the spoil. For the yoke of his burden, and the staff for his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian. For every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire. For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. Isaiah 9:2-7 [ESV]The Advent season is here again. The holidays and their pressure, possibilities, and responsibilities overwhelm us again. It’s ironic, really, that the time we set aside to celebrate hope and peace is so often stolen from us by our own busyness (business) and anxiety. But Advent is a time of hope, and we don’t have to let the pressures of this world steal that from us; we do have a choice in the matter, no matter how we feel sometimes.Coming out of a highly political and divisive season in the U.S., it might be hard to focus on where our hope is found. Every election is the same in one way: no matter who is elected, they will be sinful and flawed. Our hope is not in human strength or excellence. It is in Jesus, who is the Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and — the Prince of Peace.For Isaiah, this was a future hope. For us, it is both a memory and a future hope. A memory of a young girl who was promised a child of hope but also a child of pain. A memory of Jesus who gave his life for a world that didn’t seem to care. But it is also a memory of His resurrection from the grave in glory and his promise to return as the ultimate king of kings. In all of these, we find a foundation for hope. It is a genuine hope, not wishful thinking. His resurrection is well attested, and his prophecies of the coming judgment of Jerusalem came true in shocking detail. His Spirit is in us, testifying to the truth, and the word of God holds steady while empires rise and fall. Hope does not come from new ideas. It comes from the ancient promises of God. Isaiah knew this all those years ago and ended this passage with, “The zeal of the Lord of Hosts will do this.” The “Lord of Hosts” was an ancient title for God, even in Isaiah’s time. Isaiah was not hoping that a better idea or political system would come along. His faith was in the ancient but certain promises of the God who created and maintained all of creation. God himself was coming to us to be our prince of peace. The name of this prince is Jesus. And He is coming again. There is hope.This WeekAs we enter this Advent season, let’s remember why Christians long ago felt it was so important to build this season of remembrance and hope into the church calendar. Let’s re-anchor our hope in the Lord of Hosts, His only Son and coming king, Jesus. This week, let’s share that hope with someone who needs encouragement.Have a great week! Get full access to On walking the Way at tompossin.substack.com/subscribe

Thanksgiving is a holiday that, like most, is faithfully observed but often underappreciated. For Christians, giving thanks is both a privilege and a discipline. It is a privilege because God, in His grace through Jesus, has forgiven us and made a way for us to know Him and fellowship with Him again. God has given us everything from our very existence to our daily bread. And thankfulness is the only proper response.Thanksgiving is a discipline because the persistent choice to be thankful restores our souls and changes our focus and outlook. Thankfulness restores our strength, our health, and our minds. Thankfulness brings us peace, no matter the circumstance. Thankfulness reorients our thinking and helps us understand our proper place in creation.As I was thinking about being thankful this year, I started to read the Psalms because so many of them directly or indirectly focus on giving God thanks. I finally settled on the 23rd psalm because it is very familiar, and yet, I have not heard anyone teach on it for years. So, let’s read this beautiful song again.The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures: he leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul: he leads me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Yes, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for you are with me; your rod and your staff they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies: you anoint my head with oil; my cup runs over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever. Psalm 23 [American King James Version]He cares for us body and soulShepherds lead and care for sheep. This is so basic that I usually read over the opening line without giving it a thought. However, the opening line is not just a statement of fact. It’s David’s personal declaration that he has made the Lord his shepherd. David has chosen to put his life into the hands of the Lord. As I read this psalm, I realized that all the blessings that follow this opening line depend on the fact that we have placed our lives and futures into the hands of the good shepherd — Jesus.We must all place our lives in His hands to know His care and provision. We are sheep; we follow the shepherd, and He cares for us as we do. Every bite of food and every sip of drink is a gift from Him as he leads us on. Our strength, our work, and our rest are all blessings, the blessings of following our shepherd.He cares for our physical needs, but more than that, He cares for our souls. Our shepherd restores us to wholeness, body and soul. The road we walk wears on us, drains our souls, and steals our joy. When our strength is gone, we can’t restore ourselves. But we have a shepherd who has walked this road before us. He will lead us and restore us again.But this song is not a lullaby of pleasant thoughts. The next line tells us that he leads us and protects us even when we walk through the valley of the shadow of death. No place is so dark that our shepherd can not lead us through it, so we need not fear. It’s the comfort of knowing that He is with us that gives us courage in dark times. When we have made the Lord our shepherd, we always know exactly where we are going. We are following Him. We know that nothing can touch us when we are next to Him. His rod and staff are all the protection we need.He not only protects us from our enemies, He prepares a feast for us in front of them. Our shepherd, Jesus, has conquered all our enemies — even death. There is a day coming when we will celebrate this victory with Jesus at the great marriage supper. A day when all of our enemies are subdued, and we are vindicated and comforted in the presence of God. Life may get very hard, but it is not hopeless. We follow the good shepherd, who will bring us home again, and that homecoming will be glorious.“Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life.” In a sense, we are already home when we are with our shepherd. Goodness and mercy will follow us all of our days because we are with Him. And we will live in His house forever. We are not simply waiting for a better future. We know His goodness and mercy now, and His blessings stretch into eternity. We have a lot for which to be thankful.As we give thanks this weekThis week, as we consider again all the blessings of God and our unworthiness to receive even one of them. Let’s say it out loud. Let’s not only be thankful but share thankfulness with everyone we meet. Let’s spread thankfulness through our families, communities, and businesses, and in so doing, let’s help to reorient everyone’s thinking to our shepherd and toward the eternal blessing he leads us to.Have a great week! Get full access to On walking the Way at tompossin.substack.com/subscribe