There is only one God-made-flesh, and we have the joy of celebrating him this Christmas. Because he put on flesh, we can be transformed by him. Because the light shines in the darkness, our dark hearts can be illuminated. He is “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). He and no other. And we get to be his witnesses! We point to the true light to those who are in the dark.

It has been heartbreaking to watch a parade of public Christian leaders pervert power or relinquish their faith. How can we maintain faith in Christ when respected leaders break our trust?
No religious leader was more influential when Jesus began his ministry than John the Baptizer. Crowds flocked from towns near and far to find him in the wilderness near the Jordan. He was dressed wildly, with a garment made of camel’s hair tied with a leather belt (Johnny Depp had nothing on him), and he ate a bizarre diet of locusts and wild honey (Gwyneth Paltrow, take note). Jesus declared that “among those born of women, there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist” (Matt. 11:11). Some whispered that this must be the Messiah. But he was not.
The apostle John explains, “There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light” (John 1:6-8). Jesus explains that John the Baptist is fulfilling Malachi’s prophecy, “Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you” (Matt. 11:10).
John the baptizer’s special vocation as “witness” is broadened at the conclusion of Jesus’s ministry, first to the apostles and then to us.
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God has purposefully interwoven silence and salvation in his tapestry of redemption. Is it a surprise that the Enemy would use the flood of modern technology to all but eliminate silence in our lives? Wouldn’t that be an effective way to drown out God’s voice? Endless social media scrolling, music, Netflix, podcasts, and cable keep us from knowing our Savior and ourselves. How do we regain the margin of silence in our lives?

My wife, Angel, is very comfortable with quiet. I admire her ability to sit peacefully and listen to God. She intentionally shut down social media over a year and a half ago. Me? Not so much. I work out with audiobooks or podcasts as my audio backdrop. I write with music on.
There are benefits to this audio soundscape in which I live. It means that I input quite a lot of information. I benefit from the teaching of many wise voices and am grateful for the gift of music, which inspires, soothes, and convicts me through the Holy Spirit.
The problem with a life of input is that it can choke out self-reflection and even the voice of God.
In Psalm 62, David is desperate for God’s rescue. He declares, “For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation” (Ps. 62:1). And then, perhaps as his heart becomes restless, he commands himself, “For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him” (Ps. 62:5).
Similarly, in Lamentations 3, Jeremiah offers this thread of a promise amid tragedy, “The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord” (Lam. 3:25-28).
For both David and Jeremiah, silence creates space for God’s salvific work to take hold. Silence and salvation are interwoven in God’s tapestry of redemption.
How am I missing out on God’s salvation in my wall of noise?
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The good news about living in a world where every word is public and permanent is that we have the opportunity to have conversations with those whom we would never be able to have otherwise. And there is the ability to live out the authenticity of our faith to a watching world.

Not long ago, Southern Baptist Convention President Paige Patterson was ousted from his post at Southwestern Seminary.[i] The firing began not with a dramatic revelation, but with a public statement Patterson made some 18 years ago. In that statement, Patterson said that he had never counseled couples to separate or divorce.[ii] The trickle turned into a stream and then a torrent as other statements and counsel surfaced (including discouraging a female student from reporting a sexual assault on his campus). The external pressure from the mounting claims made Patterson’s firing all but inevitable.
I believe the outcome was just. Paige Patterson’s record is marked with ongoing abuses of power. And yet, there was a time not so long ago when he wouldn’t have lost his job. It is only in today’s world that the voices of those injured by Patterson or upset with the trustees at Southwestern Seminary would have been heard so quickly and had such an impact.[iii]There are benefits to the age of the fishbowl.
But there are dangers of fishbowl living as well. We live in a day and age where every statement is public and permanent.
Every word is public.
Every word is permanent.
I grew up in a mega-church. From time to time our pastor would reflect on the difficulty of his family living “in a fishbowl” where everything they did was monitored. As someone who felt a call to ministry, I took note. Such would be my life one day. Little did I realize that one day we would all live in that fishbowl.
There are obvious dangers of this reality in the world we live. But there are also wonderful opportunities.
Who could disagree with James’s admonition about the tongue? “How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness.”[iv]
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The biblical Hall of Fame looks like a mistake. But it’s no mistake. God’s chosen Hall of Faith-ers reminds us that, unlike worldly fame, heavenly fame is all about the Creator, not the creature. And he receives great glory through even our faltering and finicky faith.

My sister is part of the Pima County Sports Hall of Fame. That’s pretty cool, isn’t it? Sarah is a phenomenal athlete who was a stand-out high school athlete in swimming and softball. She went on to play softball for Stanford University, where she batted .350 with 28 home runs over her career and was a three-time All-American, eventually playing on the US Women’s National Team.
Other Tucson greats like Steve Kerr, Lute Olsen, Sean Elliott, Fat Lever, Mike Candrea, Ian Kinsler, JJ Hardy, Dick Tomey, and Jerry Kindall grace the hall of fame. If you’re from Tucson and don’t know some of those names, you should look at their impressive careers.
I haven’t yet received an invitation [drumming fingers]. Maybe they don’t hand those out for pick-up ball. Go figure.
Hardcore fans of sports and music argue about whether or not individuals deserve to be in the Hall of Fame or not. Baseball fans will throw down over whether or not Pete Rose and Barry Bonds ought to be in the Hall of Fame. Some Rock and Roll fans are outraged that Stevie Nicks and Percy Sledge are in the Hall of Fame while Tina Turner and Lionel Ritchie are not. Football fans clash over whether Ray Lewis and OJ Simpson ought to be in the Hall of Fame and whether it’s fair Reggie Wayne and Roger Craig aren’t.
You might know that the Bible has a Hall of Fame as well. Tucked away at the end of Hebrews, it contains a list far more controversial than any list in Canton, Cleveland, or Cooperstown.
Here is the list of heroes of faith that the Bible offers:
Abel, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Rahab, Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, and Samuel.
What an interesting list. There are three types in the hall of faith. First are the clear-cut inductees. A surprisingly few members of this Hall of Faith are no-brainers when you stop to consider it. Outside of his childhood pride, Joseph seems like a natural choice. Samuel also lives a reasonably blameless life. Others, such as Abel and Barak, feel like odd choices because their acts of faith seem fairly insubstantial, and we don’t know much about them outside those small acts.
Second are those with a checkered history. Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Jacob, Moses, Rahab, and David have quite a rap sheet. While that group has collectively lots of moments of faith, we also find two murders, an attempted murder, abandonment, grave sexual violations, and thievery among the serious sins this group collectively committed.
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There is a shocking truth that escapes the notice of most Christians: when we go to heaven, we won’t stop working. We were made for work and in heaven we will get to experience work in the fulfilling and meaningful way God intended. Heaven isn’t (just!) a picnic, either. We don’t know exactly what this work will look like.

The Garden of Eden was no picnic. When God created Adam and Eve, he placed them in the Garden, not to vacation but to work. Before sin ever entered the picture, God formed Adan and Eve in his image and called them to exercise dominion in the Garden of Eve.
We are called to create order from disorder, to cultivate, and till, and build. Adam and Eve were placed in the Garden of Eden not just to sip Mai Tais and binge on Netflix (not that there is anything wrong with that!); they were put there for the sake of dominion. God wanted caretakers who would craft, build, and create order.
We were made for work. We were made for dominion.
There are some interesting studies that reveal the impact of not working. It has been well documented that there are significant negative mental and emotional outcomes for those who are unemployed.[i] Anxiety rises and self-confidence drops which leads to an increase in substance abuse and violence against self and others.[ii] Consider, for instance, the unhealthy of the lives of those whose profession is to be famous, like the Kardashians.
We were made to work.
There is a 75-year longitudinal Harvard study that followed people to discover what factors made adults successful and healthy.[iii] When they looked back at the lives of these several hundred adults, they determined that one of the most significant determining factors for those who were successful was whether their parents had them do chores as kids.
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None of us, if we are honest, does not experience the critique of the Bible. We are chastened for our greed, our lust, our pride, our envy. If we are sensitive, we ought to feel the prick of our consciences as we consider what the Bible has to say about gossip and injustice, about the way we treat others, about legalism and license. The reason, then, that sexuality has become a litmus test for what “camp” you are in has little to do with political leanings, but rather this question of authority.

What is the Bible to you? A collection of helpful stories? A book of ancient wisdom? Do you think it contains God’s word to us?
If that alone is what the Bible is, it is a book worth reading. But it still places us a position of sifting the Bible for what is useful to us and placing us in the position of determining what is true.
There has never been a generation, never a time or place, where Christians haven’t had to come to grips with whether they will bow the knee to the prevailing norms or whether they will trust and serve God alone. And how do we know what God wants? His Word to us. When push comes to shove, when the Bible calls me to believe something or act a certain way, will I believe? Will I obey?
None of us, if we are honest, does not experience the critique of the Bible. We are chastened for our greed, our lust, our pride, our envy. If we are sensitive, we ought to feel the prick of our consciences as we consider what the Bible has to say about gossip and injustice, about the way we treat others, about legalism and license. The reason, then, that sexuality has become a litmus test for what “camp” you are in has little to do with political leanings, but rather this question of authority.
For a project in seminary I met with elders from two different churches: one a prominent mainline church, and the other an evangelical church, and asked them a set of questions. Most significant among the differences in their answers were their responses on what the Bible was. For the elders at the mainline church, they consistently spoke of the Bible with terms like “inspirational” or “beautiful” or “enriching.” All good words to describe the Bible and all true.
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Here is a sobering thought that ought to humble us: God will receive glory either through our soft hearts or our hard hearts. Again and again in the Exodus narrative, God reminds Israel and Egypt that he is sovereign over the events and even Pharaoh’s heart, and it is all for his glory. Before the climactic events where God leads Israel through the Red Sea and destroys the Pharaoh and his armies, God says, “And I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they shall go in after them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, his chariots, and his horsemen. And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I have gotten glory over Pharaoh, his chariots, and his horsemen” (Ex. 14:17-18).

“That isn’t a toy!” parents warn a child playing with a knife or a hammer.
Pharaoh thought he could play a game with God and win. He lost.
Your heart is not a toy.
The story of God’s battle with Pharaoh in the book of Exodus is the story of the consequences of a hardened heart. It’s the story of someone who thought they could toy with God and with their heart. We cannot.
In the first five plagues, Pharaoh’s hardens his heart three times and his heart “is hardened” (it’s ambiguous who is doing the hardening) twice. Over the course of the final five plagues, Pharaoh actively hardens his heart once, his heart “is hardened” once, and three times God hardens his heart (see chart below). Pharaoh thinks he is in control of the his circumstances and his heart. He isn’t.
The consequences are disastrous. The result of his hardness of heart is the loss of his son’s life, his own life, and the devastation of his nation. The stakes over the hardness of our own hearts are (spiritually speaking) no less.
We might chalk up Pharaoh’s hardness of heart to his pagan worship. Pharaoh worships false gods, after all. But right beliefs do not prevent us from the dangers of a hardened heart. We can care about religious things but be calloused to God. Our religious convictions can even multiply the hardening of our hearts. When those at the synagogue were trying to catch Jesus healing on the Sabbath “so they might accuse him,” Jesus asked, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?”
Those listening couldn’t get past their religious convictions that the answer was no, even with a man with a withered hand right in front of them. They met Jesus’ question with silence. Jesus “looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart” (Mark 3:5).
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When God creates us to reflect his image to the world, the first way that happens is through dominion. Dominion is a strange word for us, so what exactly does God mean? Dominion isn’t a word we use very often. Dominion means benevolent rule, stewardship, or care. It means work. We have been created for dominion—for work. Our creativity, our management, our organization, our labor– all of this reflects God to the world. We’ve all had a taste of this. We’ve all done work that was meaningful, that we took a sense of pride in.

I do my job just to get by.
-Three in ten American workers

My job is just a stepping stone for something better.
-Two in ten American workers[i]

Half of America agrees: work is a curse. This Monday we celebrate Labor Day. For many, the best part of Labor Day is that they don’t have to labor. And isn’t that what the Bible teaches? After Adam and Eve rebel, God levies this curse on Adam:

[C]ursed is the ground because of you;in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;and you shall eat the plants of the field.By the sweat of your faceyou shall eat bread,till you return to the ground…[ii]

Work is a curse. Historian Roger Hill agrees:
 “From a historical perspective, the cultural norm placing a positive moral value on doing a good job because work has intrinsic value for its own sake was a relatively recent development… Work, for much of the ancient history of the human race, has been hard and degrading… the Hebrew belief system viewed work as a ‘curse devised by God explicitly to punish the disobedience and ingratitude of Adam and Eve’… Numerous scriptures from the Old Testament in fact supported work, not from the stance that there was any joy in it, but from the premise that it was necessary to prevent poverty and destitution.”[iii]
There you have it. Work is a curse. And haven’t you felt the curse of work? Haven’t you felt the thorns, thistles, and sweat?
I’ve held a number of jobs: umpire, swim coach, fast food restaurant cook, I’ve worked at a deli, worked at a call center, been a Detention Officer, worked landscaping, worked in fundraising, and, of course, as a pastor. And every one of those jobs had thistles and sweat. They were all hard in their own way. No one has a job without thistles and sweat.
There’s a scientific theory that I think sums up this “thistles and sweat” reality of work well: entropy. Entropy is the phenomenon that things break down from order to disorder. Why did our air conditioner break only two and a half years of installation? Entropy. Why does the sliding glass door stick? Entropy. Have you ever put earbuds in your pocket?
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Charles Spurgeon once noted, “The same sun that melts wax hardens clay. And the same Gospel which melts some persons into repentance hardens other in their sins.” God pursues us in mercy, love, and truth. As God shines the light of the gospel, a soft heart grows softer still. As God comes after the proud, a hard heart grows harder still. How do we soften our hearts? By growing in humility.

You can tell a good piece of fruit or vegetable by its color and by its feel. The avocado might be the trickiest one I know. A novice might think that a bright green, hard avocado is the best, but counter-intuitively, the best avocados are dark, with shades of brown, giving easily to the touch. The heart of a growing Christian also gives easily to the touch.
No one comes to see a counselor or pastor to talk about their problems not wanting success, but the state of our hearts so often resists the very thing we want. A soft heart can turn my mediocre counsel into pearls of wisdom. A hard heart will turn the wisest counsel ever offered into sawdust.
Solomon offers encouragement and a warning, “Blessed is the one who fears the Lord always, but whoever hardens his heart will fall into calamity” (Prov. 28:14). It’s easy to see this in others’ lives, isn’t it? We observe a friend responds to loss by numbing themselves with food and we worry about how they are shutting down. We watch as a family member poorly chooses their friends and we are concerned about the pit they are driving toward.
And yet, when it comes to our own hard hearts, we are often blind. We excuse our unhealthy behavior as an aberration, not a pattern.
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I want to be part of that impact to my flock. I want to make sure those who come to New Life don’t just hear the good news of Christ, but experience Christ through the good news. I want to shepherd by exhibiting our welcoming Savior, and break down any barriers that jeopardize belief in our welcoming Savior. In his first letter, Peter encourages elders to lead not from the stage but from among God’s people.

Every Sunday at the front entrance of New Life Bible Fellowship on you’ll see my Co-Lead Pastor, Greg Lavine. If you have a child, then you’ll enter through the side gate where I will meet you. Regularly, first time attendees will express surprise after the service, either to myself or another New Lifer, that a pastor greeted them at the gate. Churchgoers often say they’ve never been to a church where a pastor serves as a greeter.
Many perceive greeters to be the bottom rung of ministry: the place you put warm bodies, those who don’t have the ability to teach, play an instrument, or run technical equipment. I disagree. Greeters are the first person a guest connects with. Horst Schulze, co-founder of The Ritz Carlton Hotel Company made a massive impact on the service industry with his leadership principles. He recognized that a guest’s experience is most profoundly shaped by front-line employees. Whether a maid or a door keeper, you are a lady or a gentleman: deployed with real authority to serve the guest. I love how biblical Schulze’s vision is. The most important people aren’t those hidden away in corner offices, they are those on the front line. Those rescued by Christ are his servants, delighted to serve in whatever capacity he has for us, even as a door keeper (Ps. 84:10). When discerning who is called to serve as an elder, Paul tells Timothy and Titus that they must serve with hospitality.
You can say your church is friendly, but if your greeters are talking to one another and ignoring guests, your guests won’t experience its friendliness. You can say your church is welcoming to everyone, but if your greeters deliver non-verbal cues that someone doesn’t belong, your guests won’t feel very welcome. You can hope that families are valued, but if families have a confusing experience when they enter your campus, they will feel like second-class citizens.
At the average evangelical church, a guest will arrive, get out of the car, say hello to a greeter or two, find a seat, say hello to those sitting nearby, listen to the worship leader speak, hear the band play, and listen to the host pray and make announcements all before the pastor preaches.
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