SINCE CHRISTINE’S DEATH...

I am nearing the end of the first stage of matters I needed to deal with following Christine’s sudden death on December 10. All of you, our wonderful family at Westwood, have been so kind during these last two weeks to give me time away from my responsibilities at Westwood, to let me know you are praying for Nancy, Dave, and I as well as our extended family, and to see that matters at Westwood that I usually give attention to each week are covered. Thank you for your outpouring of love.

I hope to keep you up, using the Westwood Message, with how and what I am doing while I am away from Westwood. Certainly I am praying for services and events at Westwood and for everyone at Westwood.

During this first stage of things after Christine’s funeral, I have been spending time with family. Nancy and Dave were so kind to stay with me in Cottage Grove during the week after the funeral as we handled many of the details that need to be taken care of after a death. Then I went to their home in Cincinnati over last weekend. We had a lovely dinner on Saturday with some of their friends who Christine and I had become friends with over the last few years, and then attended church with Nancy and Dave on Sunday at their church.

This week we have spent in Buchanan, MI, Christine’s home town, with her mother and family. We attended Christmas Eve service at the church where my brother-in-law and sister-in-law worship. My niece and her husband had parts in the service. Ten of us spent Christmas Day together.

As she always did at Christmas for forty years, Christine blessed me again this year at Christmas. She had already bought presents for my birthday, our anniversary, and Christmas which Nancy found and wrapped for me. While they were opened with tears in my eyes, they provided another lasting memory of her.

We have one task left this week: we will have a brief service tomorrow, December 27, at the cemetery in her home town where her remains will be placed.

Then I will return home on Saturday and will be at home all next week. On Sunday, I plan to visit the Footville Church of Christ, a church which has blessed us many times in the last few years, and to be in attendance at Westwood on January 5.

During the Christmas Eve service we attended, we sang “O Come All Ye Faithful” and “O Holy Night.” As we sang, I recalled our adventure this year in The Story. I thought as I sang that you cannot come face to face with death and not have a deeper appreciation for the story of Jesus. I have certainly sensed that in the last two weeks. I hope my experience can help you do so as well. Jesus came and died to remove all grief and pain and the day is coming when he will do so. While I am grieving, I am not doing so as the rest of the world does who have no hope (1 Thessalonians 4:13-14).

I may be away from Westwood most of the time in the next month, but feel free to call or email me. I will look forward to seeing you in worship on January 5.

A SPECIAL WESTWOOD MESSAGE

Delivered by My Daughter Nancy Moore at Westwood Christian Church’s Worship Service on December 15, 2013 Following the Death of My Dear Wife Christine

My dear brothers and sisters,

Thank you for all the support you have given to Nancy, Dave, and I, as well as to our extended family over the last few days. We appreciate it beyond words.

As hard as these last few days have been for me and the coming days will be, I know they are hard for you to and that they will be hard days for our church. With that on my heart, I asked the elders and their wives to join us at the house on Tuesday evening after we had returned from Green Bay earlier in the day. We spent a wonderful two hours together talking about what happened, remembering Christine, discussing how we can help the church, and praying together.

I told them that I needed some time away, and they graciously accepted that. I need time to grieve, handle personal matters, and spend time with some of my extended family who are in other parts of the country. I anticipate that time lasting no longer than the end of January, and will keep you informed about what is happening in my life during that time. The elders have already began to plan for covering my responsibilities during that time. I will be in town some of that time and probably at Westwood on some Sundays. Please feel free when I am in town – or by phone when I am out of town -- to call me, visit me, or do whatever else you feel you need to do.

In the days immediately ahead, I will be in Madison this week and Nancy and Dave will be here through the week. On Thursday, there will be a service of remembrance for Christine in Jefferson at a facility she worked with in her business for over fifteen years. If you would like information about that service, we will be glad to provide it and would be happy to have you there. Over next weekend, I will go to Cincinnati to be with Nancy and Dave and then to Christine’s home town, Buchanan, Michigan, to be with her family over Christmas as we had planned. While there, we will place her remains to rest at the cemetery in Buchanan, probably on December 27. I should return to Madison just before January 1.

You have already received information about some gatherings we have planned for this week to help you – and I – to deal with our grief. I hope you will attend one of those meetings where I can share with you some of the events that have taken place, answer your questions, and also share with you how the Lord is working in the midst of this. I know this will be a hard time for the church and that there is no blueprint for how a church should handle something like this, but we hope these meetings will help. I am confident that the Lord will make us stronger through this.

Now one last thing. Please, please, do not take my grieving as a loss of faith or a questioning of my faith or of God. If anything, I find my faith deepening during this time. That does not mean that it is easy; it is not, but the Lord’s arms are strong enough to sustain me and to sustain you. I am angry, but I have never once thought about being angry with God or of asking him why. I am angry at Satan. Satan is the one who caused all this. From the day that Satan tempted Eve in the Garden of Eden, he is the one who has caused and perpetuated evil and death upon us, and we dare not give in to him, because God did not give in to him. God came to earth as Jesus and died for us and by that act and by Jesus’ resurrection has defeated sin and death. That is now the victory that my beloved Christine has experienced, and it is my great hope and your great hope. As Christine often sang, it is indeed well with my soul.

So as we requested and as she would have wanted, we will celebrate Christmas today through our children's program. Let us rejoice! The Lord has come!

One Remembrance of Christine

For seven years, Christine worked on a Masters degree in Theology at Notre Dame University. The leader of that program, Michael Driscoll, sent us a message to be read at her funeral on December 14. His message described her participation in the program:

Since Monday afternoon the phone lines and electronic media have been burning up with requests for prayer for Christine. Her friends from Notre Dame who live around the world seemed immediately connected by FaceBook. In spite of the great geographical distances, the community gathered—at least virtually— to pray for her and her family and then to mourn her departure.

Let me say a word about how I came to know Christine. We began a new program in 2005 for pastoral musicians. We called it SummerSong. When we announced the first SummerSong in 2005 we did not know who would come. Within weeks, however, the applications began to roll in. Christine Henes was among the first group to apply. She came to us with a background in music therapy and had been associated with St. Coletta in Jefferson, WI. Although she was not Catholic, she felt perfectly at home in Roman Catholic circles. She along with several others discovered very quickly that they could manage the academic study of liturgy and that they were benefiting from the two-week program each summer.

As a result of her involvement in SummerSong, this eventually led her to pursue and achieve the masters degree in liturgy at Notre Dame. A year and half ago she received her diploma. I remember how happy she was and how proud her family and friends were, myself included. We had a wonderful celebration afterwards on the banks of the St. Joseph River. I could tell that Christine was happy to finish but not too eager to give up her two-week sessions at Notre Dame each summer, where she made many wonderful friends.

Within the SummerSong program, she and her dear friend Mark Purcell played a wonderful role as ministers of hospitality. Each summer they would arrive early so that they could meet the incoming and returning SummerSingers and help them move into the dorms and get settled. Christine with her deep maternal instincts played the role of counselor to many of the younger participants.

This past Wednesday the Eucharist was offered in her memory in Malloy Hall Chapel, a place where she had celebrated her faith with the other SummerSong participants from 2005-2011 each day of SummerSong. She would bring her mother down from Buchanan from time to time to be a part of the liturgical celebration.

It is with deep sadness that we let her go but with great joy that she is now in the arms of her loving God. I am sure that the testimonials on FaceBook will continue as the community of SummerSong comes to terms with such a great loss. Our prayers go out to her family and friends. Although we are scattered throughout the country and the world, we stand in the solidarity of prayer with you today.

Michael Driscoll

Learning to Trust God From the People God Used at the Birth of Jesus

There are many fascinating characters in the Bible, some of whom trusted God and some of whom did not. They can teach us many things about trusting God. Certainly this is also true of the characters in Luke’s narratives about the birth of Christ. Their songs, which we are examining this Christmas season, speak of the greater purpose of Jesus’ birth. But what can we learn from the people who participated in and witnessed the birth of Jesus?

Consider the couple whose story prompts the song of Zechariah that we shall consider this week.

Zechariah was a priest who would become the father of John the Baptist. Luke tells us that he and his wife Elizabeth “were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord.” When an angel appeared to him while serving as a priest in the temple and told him that he and Elizabeth would have a son in their old age, he could not help but ask “how?” From that time, he could not speak for nine months.

While Zechariah’s question is a natural one, it still indicated he had limits on how far he was willing to go in trusting God. It took the birth of his son for him to completely believe the promise of God. So when his son was born and Elizabeth surprised their family and friends by announcing that their son would be named John, he confirmed her announcement. Suddenly his voice was given back to him, and he broke out in praise to God.

In the meantime, Elizabeth lived for nine months with a husband who could not talk. They had to communicate silently during the entire course of her pregnancy. What was she thinking during that time? Was she marveling at what God had done when she became pregnant after years of being barren or did she question whether it really was the Lord at work?

All we know is that sometime during the course of her pregnancy, she came to believe that the Lord was using she and Zechariah as the parents of the one who would announce the coming of the Messiah. Her trust in God was demonstrated when she declared that her child would be called John.

If we were in their place, would it have taken nine months for us to believe and trust God? Or would we never have trusted God and not allowed him to use us? We need to decide because some day, any one of us may be in a position where we need to trust God without question. When we face such circumstances, we need to trust God completely as they and others did.

SEVEN KEYS WHICH UNLOCK THE BOOK OF REVELATION

On Sunday, I led the adult class at Westwood Christian Church through an overview of “Seven Keys Which Unlock the Book of Revelation.” These keys were developed several years by Stafford North when he was on the faculty of Oklahoma Christian University in Oklahoma City. Here is a brief summary of the seven keys:

1. Revelation is Written in Symbols. Revelation falls in a type of writing called apocalyptic literature that was well in ancient days. Apocalyptic writings generally (1) use symbols or figures to express their meaning, (2) predict historical events, (3) use numbers figuratively, and (4) are based on visions. This “code” approach was used in Revelation for the same reason Jesus used parables during his ministry—so the meaning could be known by his followers while being withheld from others.

2. Revelation is Written Primarily About Events Which Will "Shortly Come to Pass." Phrases such as “things which must shortly come to pass” and “the time is at hand” are used throughout the book. This key suggests that “the major events of the book would happen soon, and we must apply the book to the needs, problems, and hopes of the first-century Christians to whom it was addressed.”

3. Revelation Was Given to Comfort Persecuted Christians.The book mentions the souls of those beheaded for Christ and tells us that the second beast would kill those who refuse to worship the image of the first beast. When you follow this theme through the book, you see that “those who first received the Book of Revelation were beset by persecution and that it was going to get even worse. Much of the book is to reassure Christians in a time of trial—they should overcome, they should hope, they should expect the eventual overthrow of their persecutors, they should look to heaven.”

4. Revelation Identifies the Dragon and Two Beasts. The Dragon is clearly identified as Satan. The First Beast represents the Roman Empire, and the Second Beast is associated with the First Beast and enforces worship of the First Beast. This worship was the practice of emperor worship that prevailed in the Roman Empire of the day.

5. Revelation Identifies the Harlot and Babylon. The Harlot is a powerful city and represents Rome. Babylon was a great city which had fallen and also represents Rome. Because of the evil of Babylon, the term is another way of referring to Rome as a city of evil.

6. Revelation Identifies the Period of 1260 Days. The period of 1260 days and 42 months and 3 1/2 years are all codes for a limited period of intense persecution that was soon to come upon the Christians. The vision is intended to encourage Christians to stand firm in the face of that persecution.

7. Revelation Tells of a Spiritual, Not a Physical Kingdom. Much of the misunderstanding about the Book of Revelation comes from a misconception about Christ's kingdom, which attempts to understand the Kingdom of God as a physical kingdom.

THE JOY OF CHRISTMAS IS SEEN IN ITS SONGS

Many of us have our favorite Christmas music. Some of our favorites may be songs that we have sung for years — some sacred and some secular. We listen to them and sing them year after year. Other favorites may be new songs that have been written and recorded in recent years. All of them, though, become part of our celebration year after year.

Some of us grew up with songs like Irving Berlin’s “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas.” The first public performance of the song was by Bing Crosby, on his NBC radio show The Kraft Music Hall on Christmas Day, 1941. He and many others would go on to record the song. The song may not mean much to people who live in milder climates, but to those of us who have lived for many years in the North, it is rich with meaning. Another favorite is “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas,” written by Meredith Wilson in 1951. The song was a hit by Perry Como. Many of us hear his smooth tones singing it in our heads whenever we hear the music.

Then there are, of course, the wonderful Christmas carols that, along with the Gospel record, have chronicled for us the birth of Jesus and the meaning behind his birth. Songs like “Silent Night, Holy Night,” “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” “O Come All Ye Faithful,” “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing,” and others begin to play in our minds and find their way to our lips at this time of year.

In more recent years, some of us have been captured by new Christmas songs as well. The little chorus “Emmanuel” comes to mind, as does a Chris Tomlin song that we have sung at Westwood the last two years: “Emmanuel (Hallowed Manger Ground.”

Of all the songs of Christmas, though, there are some “hymns” expressed in poetry in Luke’s Gospel that are part of Luke’s Christmas narratives. They take us deep into the Christian message of Christmas and help us understand what God was doing when he came to earth and was born in a manger in Bethlehem. This Christmas, I will lead our congregation in taking a close look at four songs of Christmas in Luke — one by Mary, one by Zechariah, one by the angels to the shepherds, and one by Simeon. These songs can once again help us see how Christ’s birth blesses our lives. Go to Luke 1 and 2, read them, and be blessed.

Give Thanks to God This Thanksgiving

In November, two distinct and seemingly different ideas and activities will come into focus at the congregation I serve. These two things are not mutually exclusive however.

On the one hand, we will participate with the rest of the nation in one of the great spiritual traditions of our nation: Thanksgiving. We will begin with our Harvest Dinner on November 10 and then most of us will gather with family and friends on Thanksgiving Day. When we gather on these two occasions, we need to remember that the purpose of Thanksgiving is just that: giving thanks — to God. Contrary to much of the revisionist history that is now taught in America, the original pilgrims invited the native Americans who lived near them to eat with them as a thanksgiving to God, not to thank the “Indians.” The very concept of giving thanks is to thank God for his work in the world and for salvation.

On the other hand, then, we will conclude our thirty-one week journey through The Story of the Bible in November. The Story began with God creating the world and bringing life into the world through the first man and the first woman. We will end The Story by looking at God’s new creation, the new heavens and the new earth, and God’s promise of the final victory for all who believe. Looking forward to that promise is a huge reason for giving thanks to God!

• So ending our look at The Story at Thanksgiving is significant, because we should now have even more reason to thank God. Consider some of the reasons for which we should thank God that we have seen in The Story through the year:
• Following creation, God began to build for himself a people who, through faith, would have fellowship with him. Thank God for those who walked by faith in ancient days before God had fully revealed himself. They pointed the way to faith for us.
• Then, after God’s chosen people were enslaved in Egypt, a foreign land, he acted through a series of divine plagues and through the Passover sacrifices to deliver them from slavery. Thank God that they pointed the way to our deliverance from sin through our own Passover lamb.
• After Israel had escaped from Egypt into the Sinai Wilderness, God gave them the Law, as summarized in the Ten Commandments. Living by that Law does not save us, but thank God that it shows us how to live a Godly life.
• Through his leading of the nation of Israel after they settled in the Promised Land, God demonstrated the principles of his Kingdom and spoke through the prophets to tell us about the deliverer who was to come. Thank God that he kept his promise to send us a deliverer.
• Then God kept his promise and came to earth as God’s Son in the person of Jesus Thank God that Jesus taught us about God’s Kingdom, offered himself as a sacrifice for our sins, and rose from the dead so that we can receive eternal life.

We have a lot to thank God for!! In the last four chapters of The Story we will find there is more to thank God for. We will learn about God’s search and rescue operation in and through the church and we will find how the apostle Paul and others took the Gospel to the entire world, so that we could hear The Story. Finally, The Story will reveal to us our final destiny with the promise of Christ’s return, the establishment of his eternal Kingdom, and the final victory. Give thanks to God this Thanksgiving!!

What Is the Cross That Jesus Calls You to Carry?

The September issue of Christianity Today has an article about a small number of Christian missionaries who call themselves “New Friars.” Like friars from the past, these missionaries live and minister among the poor, people who live on the “crowded margins of society.” Most of these missionaries are from the United States, New Zealand, and Australia.

The article points out that “for the first time in history, one of every two people lives in a city. Some 860 million of these city-dwellers reside in slums—uncertain, cramped, and frequently cruel. Most are there by necessity.” The New Friar missionaries also live in the slums. They are there by choice.

The writer of the article, Kent Annan, spent Easter weekend this year in Bangkok, Thailand, meeting and observing the ministry of some of these missionaries. Among them were:

Michelle Kao: She was a premed student at John Hopkins when she visited Bangkok as part of a missions program. Instead of going to medical school, she moved to Bangkok six years ago. Now she works with Thai church leaders to help people who had been evicted to find land and build new homes. Annan observed that when Kao walks the neighborhood of 3,000 that she lives in she knows the stories of the people she meets.

Anji and Ash Barker: This Australian couple moved into a tiny house in Bangkok eleven years ago where they’ve raised their three children. They have listened to suffering in their neighborhood—”to the cries of a child being abused at night, to the screams of a child being raped by her father, to the aching silence after another child died. They also listened to strengths and dreams and, through friendship and work, found the resources to help those strengths flourish. “

Tim and Amy Hupe: They have lived in Bangkok for five years and have two girls, ages 4 and 6. “They are gathering missionaries and local Thai and Cambodian leaders to serve Cambodians living in Thailand. This includes teenagers who sell flowers in the red-light district (and are pressured to sell much more).”

This brief introduction to these amazing missionaries only scratches the surface of their ministries. They have chosen the life of servanthood, which is central to all followers of Christ.

Jesus himself taught us “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28, also Mark 10:45). Jesus himself ministered to those who live on the margins of society. The New Friar missionaries are certainly following the example of Jesus—and he calls us to serve in his name.

The New Friar missionaries are setting one other example for us that Jesus called for: “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Matthew 16:24-25). These missionaries, like so many others and like so many Christian today and through the centuries, have laid down their Lower Story lives to live out the Upper Story of the Gospel.

That is also our calling—not just the calling of missionaries. What is the cross that Jesus calls you to carry? What does he call you to deny in order to follow him? To live in God’s Upper Story, we must answer that question.

What Is A Promise Worth?

There is a TV commercial currently running which has a man leaning against his pickup truck as the commercial begins. When he begins to speak, he says,

“What is a promise? A promise is nothing; it’s not worth a dime; it doesn’t mean a thing. A promise is flimsy and frail and full of uncertainty. You can change a promise, go back on a promise; forget you even made a promise. A promise is nothing – until it’s kept. Then, a promise is everything. “

Then the man is replaced on the screen with the following words: “Promises kept, plain and simple. Security-Health Plan.”

The man’s statement is, of course, absolutely wrong. The statement reflects the current thinking of our culture where a person’s word and integrity mean nothing.

It is true that people often change a promise or go back on a promise or forget they made a promise. To many people promises do mean nothing.

Promises, however, are worth a lot. They do mean something. Just ask anyone to whom a promise has been made that has not been kept. A broken promise can destroy a relationship. That is how significant they are.

Promises are especially significant to God. We have certainly come to understand that as we have gone through The Story this year. This coming Sunday, September 1, we will complete the Old Testament portion of The Story. As we have explored the Old Testament, we have seen promise after promise that God made to his people that he kept. Indeed the entire Bible story and the mission of God is all about promises made and promises kept. Without the certainty of God’s promises being fulfilled, the Bible story and the work of Christ would be meaningless. How can you trust a God who makes promises that he does not keep?

Consider some of the promises God made in the Old Testament:

• To Abraham: “I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing” (Genesis 12:2).
• To Abraham: “Look toward heaven, and number the stars. If you are able to number them…. So shall your offspring be” (Genesis 15:5).
• To Jacob: “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and your offspring” (Genesis 28:13).
• To David: “Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever” (2 Samuel 7:16).
• To Ahaz: “Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14).

Space prohibits me from going further. All the promises of God have been kept. To paraphrase the commercial: “Promises kept, plain and simple. God’s security plan.”

As we continue through The Story for the next three months, we will see the fulfillment of God’s most important promise: his promise to send a Messiah, one who saves people from their sins. And standing in the balance is God’s final promise: he will bring an end to death and give eternity with him to all who believe in his Son. That is a promise you can trust.

Jesus–Sifted By Temptation

Jesus made his way to the Jordan River on that day before he began his ministry knowing that his ministry would begin soon. He went to the place that his cousin, John the Baptist, was baptizing in order to be baptized himself. When Jesus came up out of the water, Matthew tells us that “the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him, and behold a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.’” That set the stage for the beginning of Jesus’ ministry.

Before he began his ministry, though, Jesus went to spend time in the lonely desolation of the desert. There he fasted for forty days and forty nights, bringing himself to the limits of human endurance. There at his weakest human point, Jesus was tempted by Satan. These temptations proved to be the final proving ground before he began his ministry.

Matthew and Luke’s gospels record three temptations that Jesus faced there in the Judean wilderness:

He was tempted to satisfy his hunger through supernatural means. Just turn these stones into bread. How satisfying that would have been as his strength slowly ebbed from his body. His easy it would have been for the one who had created everything by his word.

He was taken to Jerusalem, to the pinnacle of the temple and tempted to throw himself down, allowing God to rescue him. It was an act so close to what God had sent him to do, so close to the signs and wonders he would perform in the years ahead.

He was taken to the top of a high mountain. From there he could see all the kingdoms of the world in his mind’s eye and was offered rule over all those kingdoms if he would just worship his tempter. What an easy path it would have been to solve all the world’s problems with no pain or suffering.

Jesus, with a word from God, turned back all three temptations. He would not satisfy himself or create a following through a grand spectacle or compromise with the enemy.

These temptations prepared Jesus for his ministry and for the temptations to come throughout his ministry and finally in those last hours before he went to the cross. There is no one who has been tempted like he was. God sifted him through temptation just as he does us. By examining his temptations, we receive hope for facing our temptations because he “in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15).

Handling Our Doubts

John the Baptist was in prison. He had understood himself to be “Elijah,” the forerunner of the Messiah. He had understood Jesus to be one who would come to deliver Israel and had seen the Spirit of God descend on Jesus as God’s affirmation of the Messiah’s ministry.

But now, he had some doubts, some questions. Perhaps he missed the sky. Perhaps he missed the open air of the wilderness and the flow of the Jordan River where he had done all his preaching. After all, you don’t get out much when you are in prison. Perhaps he had been worn down by the injustice and the rough treatment of the guards who hated him and by the whispering of people who had known his legend but had never spoken to him or dared approach him along the Jordan.

In his gray cell there was no escape. He must have had a sense that his chapter was about to close. His disciple and friends often went and encouraged him, but he was in depth of despair. He was so sure Jesus was the chosen one, certain that he had found the Messiah, but now doubt began to plague him.

When you thing about it, it is easy to see why John the Baptist would start doubting. He had spent so much time preaching to crowds at the Jordan River, but now there were no crowds, no purpose, no waster in which to baptize someone. Perhaps there were a few guards he told to repent, but they may even have understood. So he began to wonder if his ministry had any real meaning.

So he sent some of his disciples to find Jesus and ask him if here really was the Messiah. They may have been shocked that he would even ask, that he would now doubt everything he preached, but they went — and John waited.

Then they returned and related to John what Jesus had told them: “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.”

John’s doubt were answered. He had been sifted. Sometimes we too are sifted by our doubts. We really cannot avoid questions and doubts. The real question is: What do we do with our doubts? What do you do with your doubts? Will you let God sift you, so that, like John, you come out stronger?

Returning To The Story

On August 18 we will resume our 2013 adventure in The Story. My sermons and our classes and Bible studies will pick up on that Sunday with chapter 19 in the book, and will continue to the conclusion of The Story at the end of November.

Where has The Story taken us so far? Let me review:

The Story begins, as you might expect, “in the beginning” when God created the world and then the first couple, Adam and Eve. Then sin came as Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the tree God had forbidden them to eat from, and the declining condition of the world due to sin led to God’s destroying the world with a flood and starting over with Noah and his family.

God then chose a people that God began to reveal himself through. God called Abraham and promised him that he would raise up a great nation through him. The promise was reinforced to his son Isaac and Isaac’s son Jacob and then carried further through Joseph and his ordeal and leadership in Egypt.

Through Joseph, God began building a nation in Egypt only to result in their becoming slaves there. So God sent Moses to deliver his people. Through the night of Passover, he rescued Israel from Egypt and as they wandered in the Sinai wilderness he gave them the Law to live by and a system of sacrifice to keep them holy before God.

Israel would make wrong choice after wrong choice in the wilderness, until Moses presented them with an opportunity to trust God as they never had before and to enter the Promised Land. Joshua would lead them into the land of Canaan and, under his leadership, they would conquer the land. Then for 300 years, the people of Israel would turn away from God time and time again, only to have God raise up a “judge” who would deliver them and bring them back to God. During that time, God would demonstrate in the story of Ruth his desire for people of every nation to come to him.

Israel, however, still did not trust God and they asked for a king. The first king, Saul, stood tall at first, but them turned away from God, so God raised up David as the greatest of the kings and promised that a son of his would reign on David’s throne forever. Subsequent kings, instead of holding to that promise, turned away from God and the kingdom was divided into two kingdoms.

God raised up prophets during the period of the kings who repeatedly called the people of Israel to return to God, promising they would be judged if they did not return. Even in the midst of their difficulties, they refused to listen to the prophets. First the Northern Kingdom of Israel and then the Southern Kingdom of Judah were taken captive by foreign powers. The people were led away into captivity and even the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed. You might have thought The Story with all its promises had ended.

Even in their captivity, God did not abandon his people or his promises, though. Daniel, the last person we met in The Story, demonstrated how they could trust God and walk with him even in a foreign land.

So now, we will watch God continue to fulfill his promises and carry out his purpose. Israel will return from captivity and events will move toward the coming of Christ and the greatest part of The Story. Don’t miss the next chapters.

Handling the Catastrophes in Life

Many years ago, when Christine and I were considering moving to Moore, Oklahoma, to minister to a church there, we stayed in the home of a couple in the church and quickly became friends with them. They had a son about our daughter’s age, but told us the tragic story of the death of their daughter.

This man was a contractor who built homes for a living. He was building the home we would buy and live in and had built the home they lived in where we were staying. A couple of years earlier, after they had moved into their home, he was grading their yard with a tractor. He backed the tractor around the house, did not see their young daughter, backed over her, and she died.

The troubles for this couple did not stop there, though. After a couple of years, as people were no longer buying homes, he had to close his construction business. He became an officer in our local police department and then began to drive truck. A year or so after beginning to drive truck, he was unloading some pipe in Kansas when the pipe rolled off the truck, pinned him to the ground, and he suffocated in the mud. I was a chaplain in the police department in which he had worked, so I received a call about the accident and went to his home along with a police officer to inform his wife of his death.

That all seems almost too much for one person to handle. This week we meet a person in scripture — Job — who lost so much more than that. Job faced a huge loss of family and property as he faced catastrophe after catastrophe. At one point Job’s wife told him to curse God and die. His friends came to counsel him, and they sat with Job in silence for seven days and nights, and then tried to convince him that he had done something that had caused all the catastrophe, that God was mad at him.

In the midst of his suffering, though, he hears God speak to him. God questions him until he realizes how great God is, even while God is sifting him by catastrophe. Job points us to finding God in the midst of our suffering, in the midst of our catastrophes. This week we will examine his story as we continue to consider how God sifts us.

Summer Sermon Series–Sifted

On of the most familiar verses in the Bible is Romans 8:28 — “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose.” While that verse is true, the reality is that we often have to face trials, challenges, and disappointments in order to experience the good that God can bring to anything that we face in life.

So on Sunday, June 20, as we take a summer break from The Story, I will begin a seven-week sermon series titled: “Sifted: Pursuing Growth Through Trials, Challenges, and Disappoints.” The focus of the series is to help us face the hard things in life by examining our walk with God through the lives of seven Bible characters who faced their own challenges:

• Simon Peter denied Jesus three times during the night leading to Jesus’ crucifixion, only to be restored by Jesus after the resurrection on the way to becoming the leader of the early church.
• Job lost everything in the prime of life, was blamed for his loss by three friends, before learning the greatness and power of God that is available for every circumstance in life.
• Jacob deceived his family multiple times, and then had some remarkable encounters with God that changed his life.
• Moses was taught — and humbled — by working as a shepherd in the sands of the Sinai, only to become the great leader God used to rescue his people from slavery in Egypt.
• Jonah tried to run from God and spent three days in the belly of a large fish, before God transformed him and used him to bring many in the city of Ninevah to repentance.
• John the Baptist questioned whether Jesus was the one God had sent to deliver his people, but Jesus recognized him as one of the greatest in the Kingdom of God.
• Jesus suffered great temptations in the wilderness at the beginning of his ministry and the rejection of God as his crucifixion, only to defeat death forever by rising from the dead.

I trust that, over the course of the summer, these seven individuals will speak to your life and the trials, challenges, and disappoints that you face.

Summer Preaching at Westwood

In June, July, and the first half of August, we will take a break from The Story in our Sunday worship, children’s classes, and adult Bible classes and studies. We will return to The Story on August 18.

We will begin the summer with three guest preachers at Westwood on the first three Sundays of June while Christine and I travel overseas. We leave on May 31 and fly to Rome, from where we will embark on a cruise to visit the sights of the Apostle Paul’s missionary journeys, including Rome, Ephesus, Corinth, Athens, and several others. We will return home on June 15.

Marion and Marilyn Greaser will be on the cruise with us. Carl Ferguson, the preacher at Waupaca Christian Church, and his wife, Deb, will also be traveling with us. We are all looking forward to having a remarkable adventure.

The three preachers during our travels will be:

• June 2 — Lance Hawley, who for a few years led a church here in Madison known as Emmaeus Fellowship and which participated in our first three annual Great Communion services, will preach. Lance is currently a member at Mandrake Road Church of Christ and a Ph.D. student in the Department of Hebrew and Semitic Studies at UW.
• June 9 — Tom Jones, who has preached at Westwood a few times in the past, will preach. Tom held long-term ministries in Green Bay and Brookfield and was a chaplain in the Aurora Health System in Milwaukee.
• June 16 — Bud Holmes, Christine’s brother, will preach. Bud had a long-term ministry at Lake Superior Christian Church in Marquette, MI, where I enjoyed preaching for him several times.

I have asked each of them to preach from a story in the Bible with an emphasis on how that story weaves into the Upper Story of the Bible.

Beginning June 23, I will preach seven sermons around the theme “Sifted: Pursuing Growth Through Trials, Challenges, and Disappointments.” This series is intended to help us understand how God uses the tough things we face in life to build our character and our trust in him. I will develop each sermon around the life of a Bible character whose faith was challenged and strengthened through personal challenges and temptations.

The premise of this series is built on Luke 22:31-32: “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.” Jesus was speaking to Simon Peter. Satan would indeed sift Peter like wheat as Peter would deny Jesus three times before that night was over. God, however, would use Peter’s sifting to make him stronger, so that he would lead the church beginning on Pentecost.

We all go through difficult seasons in life during which God sifts us like wheat. We might wish that those times were optional or that we would not have such times at all, but we do. God, however, can use the difficulties we face — even the most painful ones — to make us stronger. We will learn this summer from seven characters in the Bible how God can use such sifting times to strengthen us.

Read The Story – Experience the Bible

We are just past the halfway point of our look at this year’s series in The Story. From June through mid-August, we will take a summer break from The Story, so it is a good time to review.

So, let me take you back to three goals that I placed before you at the beginning of our journey through The Story and ask you to reflect on your progress with each goal:

1. Know the Story: Do you know the story of the Bible better than when we started? Are the stories of the Bible beginning to fit together with the Upper Story of the Bible — the story of what God is doing in the world?

Here are two measuring sticks for analyzing how well you know God’s story: Are you able to in ten minutes or less give someone an overview of the story of the Bible, and can you place the main characters of the Bible that we have studied to this point in their place in Bible history?

Don’t worry if you don’t know everything in the Bible. I have been studying the Bible my whole life and keep coming across things that I have not seen before. In fact, it happened to me just this week. We can all keep working, though, to know The Story better.

2. Read the Story: Are you using the book, The Story, to read the one chapter each week that covers the story of the Bible that I am preaching on that week and that we are studying in our Bible studies and children’s classes?

Don’t just read the Bible from The Story this year in order to follow along with the messages each week, though. If you do not so now, determine to make daily reading of the Bible a regular practice in your life. I continue a long-time practice of reading through the entire Bible every year. That has been a good discipline for me. I use different reading plans and different Bible versions as I do so and thereby get different perspectives on the Bible stories and the Bible’s teachings.

This is much easier to do now because there are several Bible apps for our computers, phones, and other devices that have different versions and reading plans included. You may choose to read the Bible differently than I do, but it is important that you read it and re-read it.

3. Live the Story: Do you use the Bible to guide your life? The apostle Paul gave instructions in this regard to Timothy: “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15). As we live and look forward to being with the Lord, we need to shape our lives by the instruction of God’s Word.

When we know the nature of the Word of God, we really have no choice but to live to fulfill these three goals. Paul described the Word of God like this: “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,  that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17).

This is a lifelong challenge and these are lifelong goals, but making God’s Story part of our lives makes our stories part of his Story.

What Do Americans Really Think About the Bible?

We are emphasizing the story of the Bible at Westwood this year as we explore The Story together. Many of you know that The Bible miniseries on the History channel has drawn the attention of many people in the country to the Bible as the miniseries is being broadcast this month. The miniseries is setting records for the number of viewers for a non-sports cable TV show.

Now the Barna Group, a Christian research firm, in a survey commissioned by the American Bible Society, has provided insight into questions concerning how Americans view the Bible: What do Americans actually think about the Bible? Do they believe it to be sacred, authoritative or merely nonsense? Do they try to follow its exhortations, or do they regard the Bible as antiquated literature? Does the Bible still matter—besides television ratings—to Americans?

The Barna report on their survey concludes, “It’s easy to see why the Bible remains a cultural force in the United States. Yet, its future role looks very different than its past.“

Here are a few of the findings in the Barna survey:

• 88% of Americans own a Bible. That is a slight decline from 1993 when 92% of Americans owned a Bible.
• On average, American Bible owners have 3.5 Bibles in their home, and 24% of Bible owners have six or more.
• 79% of Mosaics (people aged 18-28) own a Bible, compared with 95% of Elders (who are ages 65-plus).
• It is not surprising that devoted Christians own Bibles, but the study finds that 59% who have no faith or who identify as atheists own a Bible.
• 80% of Americans identify the Bible as sacred literature, without any prompting from interviewers. That proportion has dipped from 2011, when 85% of respondents affirmed this perspective of the Bible.
• The above item may explain why 61% of American adults also say they wish they read the Bible more.

There is much more information in the Barna survey. If you would like to read more, go to www.barna.org, and follow the link to “What Do Americans Really Think About the Bible?”

This leads me to suggest to you that one way to share your faith with others is to encourage them to read the Bible. The story of the Bible has captivated people for many years, and continues to do so. Share with people your interest in the Bible and how reading it has affected your life. Tell people about how we are going through The Story this year, and encourage them to buy a copy (or give them one) and read it.

People sometimes ask me where to begin reading in the Bible. I tell them to begin with one of the Gospels — and I suggest they begin with Luke. Luke wrote to people seeking to find God, and his Gospel can still show people the way to God through Christ. Keep on learning from the Bible, and encourage other people to read the Bible and find their way to God.

THANK GOD FOR THE BIBLE

I have the privilege of serving on the board of Global Outreach for Christ, a small organization that provides support churches and individuals for Marty and Tina Ganong, Bible translators for a language in West Africa. The Ganong’s do their Bible translation through Pioneer Bible Translators (PBT). PBT recently celebrated the publication of their first full Bible translation. This week, Lindsay Davenport of PBT wrote the reflection below of the celebration that was held upon the publication of that Bible. It reminded me of how grateful to God we need to be for the numerous Bibles and translations that are available to us in English.

I was there as an observer. Up until this point, my closest tie to the Yalunka people was the many prayers I offered on their behalf and the numerous stories I heard about them from our president, Greg Pruett. Now I was privileged beyond words to witness these stories take on flesh before my very eyes as the Word of God came to life among them.

My eyes scanned the crowd of Yalunka men and women, hoping to absorb every snapshot of this historic moment – the dedication of the complete Bible in their language. It was actually the little things that stood out to me.

First there was the man who accepted the gift of a Bible with unbridled joy on his face. He didn't glance up from the Word for the next 15 minutes or so, opening the book and immediately beginning to read. He then struck up conversations with those around him, pointing to the text and smiling. Although I couldn't hear or understand his words, my heart sung with the realization, "He is Bible-less no more!"

Then there were the children, so curious about the many westerners who showed up for this momentous day. They were eager to hold my hands, have their picture taken and catch my attention with a smile. They are the first generation of Yalunka children to grow up with access to God’s Word in their language. As their parents become acquainted with and transformed by Scripture, so too, will they.

I watched the Yalunka church leaders unload the boxes of Bibles in front of the crowd and set them down reverently on the table. They methodically passed them out to each group of visitors according to the size of the church in their area. Some men received one or two, others were given entire boxes of Bibles to take home with them. At the conclusion of the ceremony, I choked up as these same men lifted the boxes to their shoulders and carried them off from the meeting place. I imagined the rejoicing of the saints waiting at home as the Bibles were delivered and could almost hear the sound of pages turning in church on Sunday as the pastor preached from the Yalunka Bible instead of the French.

I then observed one of our veteran missionaries open the Book, awe etched on the canvas of her face. I almost felt like an intruder on her private expression of praise for this long awaited day. She served for years as a literacy specialist among the Yalunka people, daily laboring to teach them to read so they could take ownership of the Scriptures once they were available. She placed her hand palm down on the pages of this Holy Book, closed her eyes and raised her head heavenward. The reverence in her countenance sang with mine, “They are Bible-less no more!”

Finally, my eyes caught sight of a woman standing in the back of the crowd, pulling her ear and looking intently at the ground below. As she dropped down on all fours to look for her earring, I saw Scripture played out before me - the vision of another woman sweeping her entire house in search of a lost coin (Luke 15:8). In that moment, I heard the whispers of the Father, "I am searching for every lost Yalunka soul - every…single…one."

As songs were sung in praise to God, as introductions of visitors from far away were made, as sermons were delivered and prayers prayed, my love and appreciation grew for the worldwide team who enabled this ministry among these beautiful people. We always describe the ministry of Pioneer Bible Translators as a team ministry, but the reality of this was never clearer to me than at that moment. God accomplished this work – our first completed Bible – through a team of missionaries, support personnel, donors and prayer warriors who each made sacrifices to see God’s Kingdom expand.

Together we look forward to the day when a great multitude from every nation, tribe, people and language will stand before the throne and before the Lamb (Rev. 7:9-10). On that day, none present will be mere observers, but full participants in the coming of His glory.

“The Lord is with you, O mighty person of valor.”

As we journey through The Story this year, I continue to be amazed at the people we read about in the Bible who served the Lord. Many of them did extraordinary things. We have seen some of these people in the past week as we have studied the book of Judges together.

One of the people in Judges who stands out is Gideon. The secret to the amazing things he did in rescuing Israel from the Midianites can be seen in how God called him: “The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, ’The Lord is with you, O mighty man of valor’” — Judges 6:12. Gideon was able to rescue Israel because the Lord was with him.

Charles Marsh, in his book Welcoming Justice, tells of Martin Luther King, Jr. having that kind of encounter with Christ:

“[In January 1956, Martin Luther King Jr.] returned home around midnight after a long day of organizational meetings. His wife and young daughter were already in bed, and King was eager to join them. But a threatening call—the kind of call he was getting as many as 30 to 40 times a day—interrupted his attempt to get some much-needed rest. When he tried to go back to bed, he could not shake the menacing voice that kept repeating the hateful words in his head.

“King got up, made a pot of coffee, and sat down at his kitchen table. With his head buried in his hands, he cried out to God. There in his kitchen in the middle of the night, when he had come to the end of strength, King met the living Christ in an experience that would carry him through the remainder of his life. ‘I heard the voice of Jesus saying still to fight on,’ King later recalled. ‘He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone … He promised never to leave me, no never alone.’

“In the stillness of the Alabama night, the voice of Jesus proved more convincing than the threatening voice of the anonymous caller. The voice of Jesus gave him the courage to press through the tumultuous year of 1956 to the victorious end of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. More than that, it gave him a vision for ministry that would drive him for the rest of his life.”

One of the themes of the New Testament is what both Gideon and Martin Luther King, Jr. experienced — that God will be with us as he was with them and many others through the Bible and through history. Yes, God will be with you.

Later this month, we will come to this theme at the end of Jesus’ ministry. On March 24 and 31 we will take a break from The Story on Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday. On Palm Sunday, we will see in Matthew 21 how God honored Jesus in the Triumphal Entry, and on Easter Sunday, we will go to Matthew 28 and rejoice again in Jesus’ resurrection.

At the end of Matthew 28, Jesus makes the last promise of his ministry on earth when he says, “I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

You may think the people of the Bible did extraordinary things, but he is still with his people and is still doing extraordinary things through those who follow him. He can do extraordinary things in your life, too. He can influence people through you. He says to us as he did to Gideon, “The Lord is with you, O mighty person of valor.”

Is Your God Too Small?

Veteran preacher, Haddon Robinson, told the following a few years ago: “H. G. Wells was no friend of the church, but sometimes he served us well. Years ago in the New Yorker, he told a story about an Episcopalian clergyman. (He could have told it about a preacher from any denomination.) This Episcopalian bishop was the kind of man who always said pious things to people. When troubled folks came to him, he found that a particularly helpful thing to say, if said in a right tone of voice, was, ‘Have you prayed about it?’ If said in just the right way, it seemed to settle things.

“The bishop himself didn't pray much; he had life wrapped up in a neat package. But one day life tumbled in on him, and he found himself overwhelmed. It occurred to the bishop that maybe he should take some of his own advice. So, one Saturday afternoon he entered the cathedral, went to the front, and knelt on the crimson rug. Then he folded his hands before the altar (he could not help but think how childlike he was).

“Then he began to pray. He said, ‘O God--’ and suddenly there was a voice. It was crisp, businesslike. The voice said, ‘Well, what is it?’

Next day when the worshipers came to Sunday services, they found the bishop sprawled face down on the crimson carpet. When they turned him over, they discovered he was dead. Lines of horror were etched upon his face. What H. G. Wells was saying in that story is simply this: there are folks who talk a lot about God who would be scared to death if they saw him face to face. “

Robinson’s observation about this priest reminds me of a book J.B. Phillips wrote many years ago titled, “Your God Is Too Small.” We should consider whether our view of God is smaller than the view contained in Scripture.

As we have considered the early chapters of The Story in Genesis and Exodus, we come across some amazing looks at God. The early revelations of God should cause us to consider whether our view of God is big enough — or if we would be scared to death if we saw him face to face. The discussion is a critical one to have because one day we will see God face to face.

Here are some observations the early chapters of the Bible make about God:

• The Bible opens with these words: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” That ought to tell us everything we need to know about how big, how majestic God is. God then created every aspect of creation. If God could do that, he is indeed beyond our comprehension.
• Noah experienced a God so great that he can cause the entire earth to be flooded, yet he saves one family with whom he reestablished the human race.
• Abraham believed in a God so great that he went when God called him to a place that he knew nothing about. Then when called him to sacrifice his son, he believed that God could even raise him from the dead.
• Joseph believed in a God who could turn his horrible circumstances into events that would save God’s people.

Those are only a few glimpses of God from the opening of God’s Story. We will see much more about God. Make sure your God is not too small.

Goals For The Story

This week I have read two opposite views of how we can look at a New Year. Comparing them, reminded me that each of us has to determine how we will let the Lord work in us each year — and, in reality, each day.

I will give you the second one first. It is the Peanuts strip for January 2. Lucy and Charlie Brown, with coats and hats on, are out in the snow. Lucy does all the talking: “I hate this year! Everyone said things would be better, but they’re not! I don’t think this is a new year at all…. I think we’ve been stuck with a USED YEAR!!”

The first one was in an email that arrived in my inbox on New Years Day. The email recounted this piece of history: In many doorways of the Roman Empire there was a depiction of a god with two faces pointing in opposite directions. Janus was the god of transitions. He looked ahead and he looked behind--to the past and the future. He was a kind of doorkeeper, a minder of the gate. And so our calendar's first month, January, is named after him.

On January 1 of the new year we look behind, and we look ahead. We have an opportunity to decide how we will view 2013. Do you feel like you have been stuck with a used year, or do you see the new year as a transition? We can look behind and see where we have been, but mostly we need to look ahead and see where God is leading us. Where will God lead you in 2013?

As you know by now, we will go through The Story — the Bible story — this year. As we consider together as a congregation the rich, multi-faceted story of the Bible and how it all comes together as one dynamic story, we have an opportunity to see the Bible in new way. As we do so, we can experience our walk with God in new and powerful ways.

On December 30, I disclosed in my message that there are three goals I would like each of us to accomplish as we consider The Story together. Let me review them in writing for you:

(1) Know the Story. I hope that by the end of this year, you will have a better understanding of the Bible and how its various pieces connect to one another. I hope that when you hear the main characters of the drama that unfolds in the Bible mentioned that you will be able to place them in their place in Bible history. I hope that you will know the unfolding story of the Bible well enough that you could summarize it for someone in ten minutes.

(2) Read the Story. There is no better way to know the Bible than to read it. One way to do that this year is to read the corresponding chapter in the book, The Story, for each week’s message and study. Each chapter presents that week’s scripture in a story format. Beyond that, I hope you will begin to read the Bible as a regular practice in your life if you do not already do so.

(3) Live the Story. We will use two terms during this year to reflect on God’s Story: Upper Story refers to the great unfolding drama of God’s work in the world that is revealed in the Bible; Lower Story refers to how each of the characters in the Bible and how each of us live our lives in light of God’s story. I hope you will work at letting every part of your life reflect God’s work within you.

Don’t make this a “used year.” Make it a year in which you look forward to how God can use your story to continue telling his Story.

God’s Great Passion is to Be With You

Some movies start at warp speed. Case in point: Star Trek. From the opening scene to the end it barely lets you breathe. If you slip out for popcorn you were sure to miss something important. And yet, people did.

That’s not me. I don’t want to miss anything in the movie. I want to be there when the movie starts. Try getting to a movie at least 20 minutes early sometime. Never done that? Then next time you go to a movie look around and spot the person that is in the prime seat—dead middle, eye level with the center of the screen. That’s what 20 minutes early gets you. Popcorn and drink in hand, nothing will move this person from their secured spot for the duration of the movie.

That’s where you need to be for God’s story. Its opening scene also starts with a relentless pace that doesn’t let up. The first line reads, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1).

Right off the bat we find the main character in the story is not you or me. It’s God. And the rest of The Story will unfold out of the nature and person of this character. Just ten words in and there is enough action to leave you breathless.

It doesn’t take long to find out what God’s great passion is. Birds? Nope. Animals? Not quite. Sun, moon or stars? Bright guess. No, in Genesis 3:8 we find that God is walking in the Garden with Adam and Eve in the “cool of the day.”

Sounds nice if you are in a hot, humid climate, doesn’t it? And yet the “cool of the day” is not the focus. God is, and he is near. He is right with Adam and Eve. And he is right here with us. His simple vision for his creation was to spend time with them every day, to take a walk with them. God’s supreme passion is to be with us.

Some of you have lived your life with the idea that God is some angry cosmic kill-joy who sits in the heavens and watches you, waiting for you to make a mistake so he can zap you. Or, you feel he is distant and doesn’t care or has simply forgotten you.

But from the beginning he has shown us this is not the case. He wants to be with you. He has not forgotten you. In fact, this might be the perfect time for you to go for a walk.