As a boy, I loved reading stories about pirates. How those adventures spurred my imagination! Now I live in an area where one of the most infamous of those pirates—Blackbeard (real name: Edward Teach)—had his headquarters. Shipwrecked in the waters off the coast here is Blackbeard’s ship, the Queen Anne’s Revenge.
We can easily romanticize the wrecks and the high-sea adventures of history. The apostle Paul, however, wrote about a very different kind of shipwreck that provides us with a caution and an exhortation. In his first letter to Timothy, Paul warned his son in the faith to “[hold] on to faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and so have suffered shipwreck with regard to the faith” (1 Timothy 1:19). What is this “shipwreck”? Two men, Hymenaeus and Alexander, had in some devastating way departed from the true faith, and the apostle turned them over to Satan “to be taught not to blaspheme” (v. 20). Paul desired them to repent, but the consequences of their actions were dire.
Our faith isn’t static, nor can it exist in a vacuum. We must actively nurture and cultivate our relationship with God to grow strong and healthy in faith and good conscience. May we join with other believers, yield to God’s Spirit, and allow Him to work in us. We can avoid shipwreck.
Coniston Water in England’s beautiful Lake District is a favorite vacation spot for families in the UK. The waters are perfect for boating, swimming, and other water sports. That beautiful setting, however, was also the site of great tragedy. In 1967, Donald Campbell was piloting his hydroplane Bluebird K7, seeking to break the world water speed record. He reached a top speed of 328 mph (528 km/h) but didn’t live to celebrate the achievement as Bluebird crashed, killing Campbell.
Tragic moments can happen in beautiful places. In Genesis 2, the Creator “took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and take care of it” (v. 15). The garden was a masterpiece, yet when placed in this paradise, the man and woman disobeyed God, bringing sin and death into His creation (3:6-7). Today, we continue to see the destructive effects of their tragic choice.
But Jesus came to offer life to us—people who were dead in our sins. The apostle Paul, referring to that, wrote, “Just as through the disobedience of the one man [Adam] the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man [Jesus Christ] the many will be made righteous” (Romans 5:19). Because of Jesus, the most beautiful home of all awaits us.
Out of beauty came tragedy. And by God’s grace, out of tragedy came eternal beauty.
As Franco Zeffirelli prepared to film his critically acclaimed version of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, he made a daring decision. He chose two unknowns to play the lead characters and insisted they be close to the age of the characters as Shakespeare had penned them. Zeffirelli ultimately selected seventeen-year-old Leonard Whiting as Romeo and sixteen-year-old Olivia Hussey as Juliet.
Some might think that Jesus took a similar risk with the selection of His disciples, who would be charged with an infinitely more important role. The task of taking His message of forgiveness to the world would be entrusted to simple men who were, at the very least, undereducated. In fact, when some of these early believers in Jesus were arrested and questioned, the religious leaders were stunned. Acts 4:13 says, “When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished.”
Any assumed risk was more than overwhelmed by the real story behind these simple fishermen: “They took note that these men had been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13). The seemingly unqualified disciples had not only been with Christ, but they also had His promise to be with them always (Matthew 28:20). We share that promise as well (Hebrews 13:5) and can be assured that, in His presence and with His grace, no task set before us will be too great for Him.
The statement on the wall of my bank declared that its corporate principles could be summed up in a single word: courtesy. And how refreshing it was to find courtesy in the teller who helped me with my transaction there!
In a harsh and unkind world, to be driven by courtesy is a big idea. We find this concept in the apostle Paul’s letter to his friend Titus. He instructed Titus to remind his congregation “to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people” (Titus 3:1–2
How we treat others reveals whether we see them as image bearers of God or not. C. S. Lewis wrote of this in The Weight of Glory. “There are no ordinary people,” he said. “You have never talked to a mere mortal.” Lewis anticipated eternity, where we will either enjoy God’s presence or be banished from Him forever. So he reminded us, “It is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.”
May we allow the Spirit to enable us to treat those around as what they truly are—image bearers of God.
Recently, my brother Scott acquired our dad’s military service records from World War II. As I studied the pages, there was nothing startling or shocking—nothing about who Dad was. There were mere facts. Data. It was interesting to read but ultimately dissatisfying because I didn’t come away feeling like I learned anything new about Dad.
Thankfully, in giving us a record of the life and work of Jesus, the four gospels are much more than just data. They are descriptions that reveal who Jesus was in His time on this earth as well as what He did and said. In Mark’s gospel, that record was for the purpose of proving Mark’s thesis statement: “The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God” (1:1). Immediately, Mark tells us how John the Baptist testified about this Messiah. John said, “After me comes the one more powerful than I, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie” (v. 7). Mark’s account makes it clear that Jesus is the Son of God. As John the disciple added in his own account of Jesus’ life, “These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:31).
The evidence of Jesus’ life is abundant. These questions remain: what does He mean to you? How has He changed your life?
Several legends surround the naming of the beautiful five-petaled flower the Forget-Me-Not. Among those stories is one from a German legend. According to the story, as God named all the plants He’d created, one little flower worried that it would be overlooked. So the flower called out “Forget-me-not, O Lord.’ And that’s the name God gave to it.
Though this is only a story, the Forget-Me-Not has become a symbol of love and remembrance. Yet all of us have experienced what it feels like to be forgotten. To be remembered—especially to be remembered by our God—is our heart’s true desire. We find just such a story in the account of the crucifixion of Jesus. Luke tells us, “Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with [Jesus] to be executed” (23:32). As they were being crucified, one criminal next to Christ suddenly understood. He said, “Jesus, remember me when you come in your kingdom” (v. 42). Christ’s response was unforgettable: “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise” (v. 43).
What an amazing moment! In his darkest hour, that criminal learned what it meant to be remembered by the Son of God.
We too are remembered in our hour of need. The God who loved us enough to die for us will never forget us.
In 1943, a camp in rural Maryland called Shangri-La was purchased as a retreat for US President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Rustic, quiet, and remote, it provided “an opportunity for solitude and tranquility,” according to the White House website, “as well as an ideal place to work and host foreign leaders.” When Dwight Eisenhower became president, he renamed this retreat Camp David in honor of his grandson, and the name stuck. Aside from increased security measures, there has been very little modernizing of the camp. It remains the perfect place for the president and his family to escape and rest.
Believers in Jesus also have a retreat where we can find rest in the midst of our turbulent world. King David wrote in Psalm 32:7, “You [God] are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance.” David recognized that God was his true place of safety.
Jesus welcomes us to find rest and restoration in Him. He said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matthew 11:28-29).
He can be our place of rest any time, every time, and all the time.
The interior designer on the home improvement show raved about the handmade ceramic tiles selected for the home’s new shower area. Different from commercially manufactured tiles, which are all identical, these handcrafted pieces were “imperfectly perfect.” The imperfections gave each tile unique beauty, adding to the charm and style of an otherwise practical space.
I know little of style or charm, let alone how tiles might contribute positively or negatively to it. Yet while those tiles were imperfectly perfect, Jesus, in the incarnation (His coming to earth as a human being), was perfectly perfect. The writer of Hebrews affirmed, “We do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin” (Hebrews 4:15). At no time during His earthly journey did Jesus speak a sinful word or commit a sinful act. He is perfectly perfect.
The encouragement for us, as Hebrews says, is to “hold firmly to the faith we profess” in Jesus (v. 14) because He understands and empathizes with the struggles we endure. He has been there and done that—but perfectly. Our perfectly perfect Savior can help us in all things.
On November 22, 1963, US president John F. Kennedy, philosopher and writer Aldous Huxley, and Christian apologist C. S. Lewis all died. Three well-known men with radically different worldviews. Huxley, agnostic, still dabbled in Eastern mysticism. Kennedy held to a humanistic philosophy. And Lewis was a former atheist who became an outspoken believer in Jesus. Death is no respecter of persons as all three of these well-known men faced their appointment with death on the same day.
The Bible says that death entered the human experience when Adam and Eve disobeyed in the garden on Eden (Genesis 3)—a sad reality that has marked human history. Death is the great equalizer or, as one person put it, the appointment that no one can avoid. This is the point of Hebrews 9:27, where we read, “People are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment.”
Where do we find hope about our own appointment with death and what follows? In Jesus. Romans 6:23 captures this truth perfectly, “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” How did this gift of God become available? Jesus, the Son of God, died to destroy death and rose from the grave to offer us life forever (2 Timothy 1:10).
