We are at an interesting point in history in which, when people look to the past, they seem more likely to cringe than to celebrate. It has become customary for people to look to their forbears and then disavow them or apologize for them in what has become almost a ritualistic purgation. There are many who are ashamed of their roots, ashamed of their family, embarrassed to admit who and where they have come from.

But isn’t it interesting that this is not the case with God? God has been adopting people into his family for thousands of years and along the way has welcomed many whose pasts are shady at best and scandalous at worst. And despite their sins, despite their scandals, he loves them and refuses to turn away from them. God’s enduring and unashamed love for his people is the subject of Erik Raymond’s new book He Is Not Ashamed.
If we were to assemble a great portrait of God’s family, “we’d find people with unflattering stories. Some are known as the chief of sinners, the sinful woman, the thief on the cross, and the prostitute. We’d also see those who were overlooked and disregarded by society. We’d find weak people unable to give God anything. We’d even see those who wore the uniform of opposition to God. Here in the portrait of grace, we’d find a multitude of misfits. It would be quite the picture.” It would be the kind of picture we might be embarrassed to hang on the walls of our homes. Yet in the very middle of this picture we’d find Jesus, the very best of men, standing side-by-side with some of the very worst. “At first glance, we might think that Jesus doesn’t belong with people like this. What business does majesty have with outcasts? But poring over the Scriptures, we see something else. In this family photo, Jesus may seem out of place, but in reality he’s exactly where he belongs. Even more, he’s right where he wants to be. Instead of being ashamed of them, he calls them family.”
In this book, Raymond examines the kind of people who would be included in this portrait which is to say, the kind of people God delights to identify with. And thankfully, “nobody has a story that can make Jesus blush” for his heart is oriented toward those who need him most, no matter what they may have done or how they may have sinned.
In the first chapter he shows that Jesus is not ashamed of people who have an embarrassing history—people like Tamar who behaved like a prostitute and like Judah who treated her like one. “When Matthew includes Tamar, Judah, and their children’s names in Jesus’s genealogy, he means to make a point: Jesus comes from a line of people with messy, embarrassing, and shameful stories. And not only does he come from messy people, but he also comes for them.” If that was true of them, that is equally true for us.
In the second chapter he looks to people who opposed Jesus to show that they, too, can be objects of God’s love and salvation. This includes people, like the religious leaders, who killed Jesus and people, like the Apostle Paul, who persecuted his church. “Since every person is naturally born with the status of an enemy of God, everyone can relate in some way to these stories of opposition. Though our experiences and sins may be different, nevertheless, our standing apart from Christ is the same.”
In chapter three he turns to those who are overlooked (e.g. children who were beckoned to come to Jesus and women who became his trusted companions) and in chapter four to those who were far from God—people like the fictional Prodigal Son who appeared in a parable or the real-life sinful woman who appeared at a banquet and fell at his feet weeping. “The incarnation of Jesus Christ proves that he loves to retrieve those who are far from God. Nothing should keep you from him. He welcomes the prodigals, the sinners, and the unclean.”
In the next two chapters Raymond focuses on those who have nothing to give and those who are weak before turning to those who still sin, people like you and me who have been saved by his grace but who still commit deeds that are so very rebellious and so very dark. “Run your finger across the pages of the Bible, and you find many examples to prove that God delights to lavish his forgiveness on sinners. Even after they commit to following God, many believers fall on their face, only to be lifted up again by the staggering love of God.” If this was true of Adam, Moses, David, Jonah and so many others, it is equally true of you and me.
The final chapter considers the one kind of person of whom Jesus is ashamed, and it is the ones who are ashamed of him. “He’s ashamed of those who reject him. According to Jesus, the people who are ashamed of him are those who refuse to deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow him. They’ve considered Jesus unworthy of their devotion and obedience. They reject Christ and refuse to follow him by faith. On the day of judgment, Jesus will be ashamed of those who are ashamed of him in this life.”
He Is Not Ashamed is a timely reminder that Jesus does not merely love us, but also accepts us and welcomes us. And this is true even when we have behaved or continue to behave in ways that are nothing less than shameful. God’s love is eternal, unshakeable, and “unashameable.” And for that we all owe him the greatest thanks and the highest praise.

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One of the great privileges of my life has been worshipping with Christians all around the world. As I travel, I always try to prioritize Sunday mornings with a local church, and that’s true whether it is in North America or North Africa and whether it worships in English or another language. And while I’m always especially interested in worshipping with a church that is Reformed and Baptist like my own, I am also glad to worship in any of the gospel-preaching Protestant traditions. And so I’ve spent Sunday mornings with Baptist and Presbyterian congregations, Brethren and Anglican congregations, Christian Missionary Alliance and Dutch Reformed congregations, and many more besides.
It can be jarring to worship in a church that adheres to an unfamiliar tradition. Customs may be strange and patterns may differ from what I am accustomed to. And it is at the point of such differences that I immediately find myself tempted to pass judgment. After all, my tradition and my church have thought deeply and come to firm convictions about the elements and circumstances of our worship. Everything we include and everything we exclude has been carefully considered. My first instinct, then, is to assume that other churches have not thought well about these matters or perhaps not thought about them at all. My instinct is to assume that a church is faithful to Scripture only to the degree that it is similar to own.
But I have learned that a crucial discipline when visiting other like-minded churches is to observe without judgment. It is to observe quietly and humbly and then, when appropriate, to ask clarifying questions. And more often than not, I have been encouraged and even challenged by these clarifications. This is true whether the church has been around the corner or around the world.
In one church I looked at the bulletin and saw a woman listed there as a pastor. This surprised me because I had been under the impression that this church was complementarian. As I observed further, I saw that several other positions also listed a female pastor. A clarifying question helped it make sense. In this country, they use “minister” or “ministry” where we use “pastor.” Hence, they were every bit as complementarian as my own church but simply use different nomenclature. Their “women’s pastor” is our “women’s ministry leader.” I was glad that I had withheld judgment.
In another church, I immediately noticed that the men and women split up when they entered the sanctuary so that men sat on one side with women on the other. This cuts hard against my own cultural understanding of the equality of men and women. But when I asked, I was told that separating the sexes in formal settings is normal in this culture and that it would be a significant hindrance to evangelism if men and women were to sit side by side. Men and women alike would be uncomfortable sitting pressed together. I was glad I had withheld judgment.
I have attended churches whose services included an element of dance. This was not interpretive dance or dancing in the Spirit, but a style that was obviously celebratory. I learned that in these cultures no celebration is complete without a dance and that it would be more scandalous to omit one than to have one. They also explained their understanding of Scripture to show their conviction that even while God does not demand this kind of dance, he also does not forbid it. Once more, I was glad that I had been slow to judge.
In still another, I attended a prayer meeting in which every person prayed at the same time—hundreds of voices crying out to the Lord at once. In my setting, we apply the biblical admonition that “all things should be done decently and in order” to mean that one person prays at a time and then ends his or her prayer with a hearty “amen.” This then signals that someone else can begin to pray. But a church in which everyone prayed at the same time struck me as chaotic and disorderly. Yet when I asked, I was told that this church arose out of a time of revival and that the kind of fervent prayer that birthed the church has forever remained present in the church. Not only that but the prayer meetings are carefully organized and led—just in a different way from my own setting. As I continued to observe, I felt a growing appreciation for that kind of prayer and was thankful that I had been slow to judge.
I have been in churches in which I was told they have female pastors but then learned that something had been lost in translation so that what they called pastors actually function as what I would term deacons. I have been in churches in which women were not permitted to participate in certain elements of the service that I believe are open to all believers but received a helpful explanation of why such public participation would be inappropriate in that culture. And, as it happens, I have been in churches in which women were permitted to participate in elements of the service that I believe are restricted to pastors but received a helpful explanation of why they believe such participation honors Scripture. I could go on and on.
I might not agree with all of these decisions even after gaining the necessary interpretive facts, but in every case, I have had an opportunity to learn and to grow in my respect for other Christians and the way they’ve wrestled through the issues and come to their decisions. And so, because my tendency is always to judge before carefully observing, I have trained myself instead to observe without judgment. It has become a key discipline as I visit other churches and join them in worship.

May the Lord be with you and bless you today.

If There Wasn’t a Sermon About It, Does Your Pastor Even Care?
Trevin Wax addresses what is an urgent concern to many pastors. “I thought about ‘Justice Sunday’ recently because of the questions many faithful pastors have these days about when to speak, and on what subjects, and how best to engage in cultural disputes or political questions. Social media has increased the pressure to speak and advocate, as we have faster and easier connection to various opinions on a wide range of issues.”
Bible Gateway Removes The Passion Translation
“A Bible version designed to ‘recapture the emotion of God’s Word’ was removed from Bible Gateway last week. The Passion Translation (TPT) is listed as ‘no longer available’ among the site’s 90 English-language Bible offerings.” This article is about the removal of The Passion Translation which I’d guess few of you read. But past that, it has lots of interesting things to say about Bible translation philosophies.
Join Alistair Begg @ RMC22 Speaking on “Finishing Well.”
June 29-30, 2022, Matthews NC. As a pastor who has sent his church members through Radius, we are encouraged to have Alistair Begg as one of our plenary speakers. We look forward to his session on the challenge and the glory of finishing well in the task of missions. (Sponsored Link)
Great God Above Beheld Below
I’ve been enjoying this new song by Sow and Tether.
Jesus and John Wayne
This review has much to commend it, but I was especially interested in what it has to say about the confluence between history and love. “Schweiger argues that the Christian historian has a duty to love the historical subjects she studies, who are now dead. This love is not sentimental, nor does this love absolve the subjects of their sins. Loving the dead means we tell the truth about them, as far as it is possible given our limitations and the complexities of the past. And we love the dead for their own sakes, rather than for some utilitarian purpose we might have for them.”
The Paradox of Parenting and How To Trust God More
“From the moment our babies leave the safety and protection of the womb, we are literally and figuratively pushing them out. They can’t stay in the nest forever, and this brings us joy and sadness. Isn’t this the paradox of parenting? The more we want to hold on to them, the more time reveals we have to keep letting them go, little by little.”
Pastor, Take a Break Before You Quit
Jared Wilson has lots of good things to say here about pastors and sabbaticals.
Flashback: The Character of the Christian: Hospitable
An open home displays Christian love but it also enables it. Hospitality creates opportunities for relationship, for discipleship, and for evangelism. It creates a natural context for modeling marriage, parenting, and a host of Christian virtues.

Let the past sleep, but let it sleep on the bosom of Christ. Leave the irreparable past in His hands, and step out into the irresistible future with Him. —Oswald Chambers