1099…sounds like a tax form, but it’s the number of blogs, counting this one, that I’ve published since I committed to blogging daily on January 6, 2019. Today completes the third year, 1096 consecutive days (including three days when I published twice!).

So what? Good question. I’ve written about “the streak” before: here’s last year’s offering with links to the end of the first year and an article on streaks.

I guess the work speaks to the dailiness of life and the importance of taking the next step. I don’t have hundreds of ideas filed away, I just write what God (I hope!) brings to mind. Some or most of what I write, you’ve no doubt heard before. As my friend Ray says, “Just because I’ve heard it before doesn’t mean I’m thinking about it now.” The same goes for me. The John 21 meditation I shared two days ago was a nice reminder to me of some important lessons I hadn’t thought about in a while.

Tomorrow (if tomorrow comes) will be blog #1100 and will most likely be from the beginning of our New Testament reading for the year, which starts with Mark’s gospel. It’s not too late to join us for the 5 x 5 x 5 plan. (In Monday’s blog, I appended a version of the 5x5x5 with readings that run Monday – Friday. Tomorrow is also Epiphany, the commemoration of the visit of the Magi. I already wrote about that, back on December 15.

As always, thanks for being with me on the journey. May you continue in the path God has laid out for you.

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2.10, ESV)

And say to Archippus, “See that you fulfill the ministry that you have received in the Lord.” (Colossians 4.17, ESV)

I just finished reading the Bible through last year, and I was struck by the last recorded words of Jesus. We often speak of “the seven last words of Jesus” delivered from the cross, but I don’t recall ever noticing his last words recorded in Revelation. As we enter the New Year, flush with the excitement of the Christmas season – the celebration of his first coming – we would do well to remember that the story isn’t over. Here are the words of Jesus in Revelation after the first three chapters’ introduction and the letters to the churches.

Behold, I come like a thief! God’s blessing is with the one who remains awake and fully clothed in me and will not walk about naked, exposed to disgrace. (Revelation 16.15, TPT)

Behold, I come quickly! Wonderfully blessed is the one who carefully guards the words of the prophecy of this book! (Revelation 22.7, TPT)

Behold, I am coming quickly! I bring my reward with me to repay everyone according to their works. I am the Aleph and the Tav, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the Completion. (Revelation 22.12, 13, TPT)

I, Jesus, sent my angel to you to give you this testimony to share with the congregations. I am the bright Morning Star, both David’s spiritual root and his descendant. (Revelation 22.16, TPT)

The one who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming quickly.” Amen! Come, Lord Jesus! (Revelation 22.20, TPT)

Nearly all have to do with his second coming:

• I come like a thief (16.15)
• I come quickly (22.7)
• I am coming quickly (22.12)
• I am the Aleph and the Tav, the first and the last (22.13)
• I am the bright Morning Star (22.16)
• Yes, I am coming quickly. (22.20)

As we go through 2022, let’s remember that as surely as he came once, he is coming back, and that should impact how we live.

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness… Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace. (2 Peter 2.10 – 14, ESV)

As I wrapped up my reading through the Bible in 2021, John 21 was on the schedule – a marvelous story of Jesus passing on one more set of lessons to the disciples – lessons that might be useful for us as we launch into the New Year. It starts with two distractions:

FISHING

Peter, not sure of what he’s supposed to do since he denied the Lord before the crucifixion, went back to what he knew – fishing.

Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” (John 21.3, ESV)

FRENZY

Then Peter launches into a frenzy of activity: he swims to shore from 100 yards out, then he splashes back to the boat to help bring in the net.

When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he…threw himself into the sea. The other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, but about a hundred yards off. When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire in place, with fish laid out on it, and bread. Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish that you have just caught.” So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, 153 of them. And although there were so many, the net was not torn. (John 21.7 – 11, ESV)

INTERLUDE

Jesus puts a pause on all this frenzy and takes care of men who have been fishing all night: let’s eat!

Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” …Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and so with the fish. (John 21.12, 13, ESV)

FEED MY SHEEP

Three times Jesus asks Peter if Peter loves him. Three times Peter replies that he does. Three times Jesus tells Peter to feed his sheep. (John 21.15 – 17)

FOLLOW ME

Then Jesus predicts the manner of Peter’s death and reminds Peter what he should be doing:

Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.” (This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.) And after saying this he said to him, “Follow me.” (John 21.18, 19, ESV, emphasis mine)

FORGET THE OTHER GUY

Peter, always curious, asks about John, and Jesus’ response is clear:

Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them, the one who also had leaned back against him during the supper and had said, “Lord, who is it that is going to betray you?” When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, “Lord, what about this man?” Jesus said to him, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me!” (John 21.20 – 22, ESV)

There we are, five simple lessons. I shared this a while back at our church in Monument, and artist Lauren Vlcek took exquisite notes in her wide-margin Bible. Here they are, a fitting summary, and the text is there too.

P.S. On another subject, on New Year’s Eve, I published a challenge to read the New Testament this year using the 5x5x5 New Testament reading plan. My friend Jerry Anderson in Castle Rock, Colorado, reformatted the schedule into a 2022-friendly format which starts, wait for it…, today! So, again, join me in reading the New Testament through in 2022!

It’s hard to believe we’re starting a New Year and still living with, and writing about, COVID after all this time. And we’re still having endless, no-communication-occurs discussions about whether or not one should take the vaccine. I really hate to see fellow believers at the forefront of this debate, especially when it involves non-vaccinated people putting down their vaccinated brothers and sisters for lack of faith. There’s never a place for that in the Kingdom:

We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. (Romans 15.1, 2, ESV)

Those of us who are strong and able in the faith need to step in and lend a hand to those who falter, and not just do what is most convenient for us. Strength is for service, not status. (Romans 15.1, MSG)

Welcome with open arms fellow believers who don’t see things the way you do. And don’t jump all over them every time they do or say something you don’t agree with—even when it seems that they are strong on opinions but weak in the faith department. Remember, they have their own history to deal with. Treat them gently. (Romans 14.1, MSG)

As to the question itself, I’ve heard more than once something like, “I prefer the Psalm 91 vaccination plan. God will take care of me.” It occurred to me the other day that there’s an old story about “God will take care of me” that may or may not be relevant to this discussion. I present it here without further comment.

There was a massive flood, and a fellow was perched on his roof to escape the rising floodwaters. A man came by in a rowboat, but the fellow on the roof said, “No thanks. God will take care of me.” A few hours later, with the water even higher, another man came by in a rowboat offering rescue. “No thanks. God will take care of me.” Soon the fellow was at the very top of his roof with water lapping at his feet, and a helicopter flew over, dropping a rope. The man on the roof yelled up, “No thanks. God will take care of me.” A few minutes later he was swept away in the flood and drowned.

In heaven, he confronted God saying, “I placed great faith in you to take care of me. What happened?” God replied, “I sent you two rowboats and a helicopter. What more could I have done?”

There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death. (Proverbs 14.12, NKJV)

The earth keeps on going around the sun, and here we are, still in the middle of COVID and other apparent crises. So what?

Solomon said in Ecclesiastes that it’s all meaningless:

⁴ One generation passes away, and another generation comes; But the earth abides forever.
⁵  The sun also rises, and the sun goes down, And hastens to the place where it arose...

⁹  That which has been is what will be, That which is done is what will be done, And there is nothing new under the sun. (Ecclesiastes 1.4, 5, 9, NKJV)

But Solomon wasn’t quite right. (And this has nothing to do with inspired scriptures which accurately records Solomon’s musings.) There are new things:

Behold, I will do a new thing, Now it shall spring forth; Shall you not know it? (Isaiah 43.19, NKJV)

And at this time of year, we celebrate one of them: the coming of Jesus into the world to begin to set things right.

But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!” Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. (Galatians 4.4 – 7, NKJV)

So no matter what happens in 2022, let’s live as God’s children, children of light!

For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true)… (Ephesians 5.8, 9, ESV)

Tomorrow is the New Year! How quickly this seems to come around when you’re 75!

Will you join me in 2022 in reading the New Testament? Last year I read the whole Bible using the Discipleship Journal Bible Reading Plan. It’s still there for you if you want to read it all. But this year, I’ll go a bit slower and have my Daily Time with God in the New Testament, following this plan: 5 x 5 x 5: five days a week, five minutes/day, one chapter in the New Testament. 5 days x 52 weeks = 260 chapters in the New Testament! How easy is that?

⁷  The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple;
⁸  the precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes;
⁹  the fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the LORD are true, and righteous altogether.
¹⁰  More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb.
¹¹  Moreover, by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward. (Psalm 19.7 – 11, ESV)

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3.16, 17, NIV (1984))

As we wind down the year, still in the glow of the Christmas celebration while looking ahead to the New Year, it might be useful to look at In Hoc Anno Domini by Vermont Royster, an editorial written in 1949 for the Wall Street Journal, and published by the Journal every year thereafter. I confess, this is the first year I’ve seen it in the five years or so I’ve been reading the Journal.

The main message is that Jesus’ coming made a difference. That Jesus came to offer light in a dark world.

It’s not very long and worth the read in its entirety. Here are a few excerpts:

When Saul of Tarsus set out on his journey to Damascus the whole of the known world lay in bondage. There was one state, and it was Rome. There was one master for it all, and he was Tiberius Caesar.

Everywhere there was civil order, for the arm of the Roman law was long. Everywhere there was stability, in government and in society, for the centurions saw that it was so. But everywhere there was something else, too. There was oppression…

…

There was the persecution of men who dared think differently, who heard strange voices or read strange manuscripts. There was enslavement of men whose tribes came not from Rome, disdain for those who did not have the familiar visage. And most of all, there was everywhere a contempt for human life. What, to the strong, was one man more or less in a crowded world?

Then, of a sudden, there was a light in the world, and a man from Galilee saying, Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s and unto God the things that are God’s.

…

So the light came into the world and the men who lived in darkness were afraid, and they tried to lower a curtain so that man would still believe salvation lay with the leaders.

…

Along the road to Damascus the light shone brightly. But afterward Paul of Tarsus, too, was sore afraid. He feared that other Caesars, other prophets, might one day persuade men that man was nothing save a servant unto them, that men might yield up their birthright from God for pottage and walk no more in freedom.

…

Then might it come to pass that men would not look upward to see even a winter’s star in the East, and once more, there would be no light at all in the darkness.

And so Paul, the apostle of the Son of Man, spoke to his brethren, the Galatians, the words he would have us remember afterward in each of the years of his Lord:

Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. – Vermont Royster, 1949, the last paragraph quoting Galatians 5.1

And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. (John 3.19, 20, KJV)

Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8.31, 32, NKJV)

P.S. I believe the editorial has something to say to us today. I also agree with WSJ subscriber Collin Hobbs who cautioned about politicizing Jesus’ message. Here is his comment:

I appreciate that WSJ continues to publish this piece each year, but Royster’s mashup of Christianity and American political ideals is just as poor theologically today as it was in 1949. Jesus didn’t come to save us from earthly tyrants, nor was Paul writing about freedom from oppressive governments in Galatians. Jesus came to save us from the tyranny of our own personal sins. Galatians is Paul’s plea to Christians to not fall back into the bondage of a works-based salvation.  The great enemy was not Rome or other oppressive governments, it was, and still is today, the darkness and oppression that comes [from] our own sins against God. 

Faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior has, throughout the centuries, led in fits and starts to systems of government that value individual freedoms. But that never was, nor ever can be, the central focus of Christianity. It is a happy by-product of Christianity, not its goal.

Speaking of Jesus coming into the world poor and starting off as a refugee, my friend and Greater Europe Missions (GEM) missionary Ted Cox has written an extraordinary book I strongly recommend: What You Meant for Evil.

The book centers around a young woman from Syria and intentionally (and very creatively) parallels the story of Joseph as told in Genesis 37 – 50. Hence the title from Genesis 50.20:

As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. (Genesis 50.20, ESV)

The book is a novel, but Ted told me that he has witnessed most of the scenes in one form or other. Some of this he explains in the What’s Next? section at the end.

As we celebrate the “baby born in a stable,” let’s remember that Jesus was clear that his followers care for the “least of these,” including the “stranger” – foreigner, refugee.

For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me. (Matthew 25.35 – 36, ESV)

He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing. Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. (Deuteronomy 10.18 – 19, ESV)

Yesterday we considered that Jesus’ life, for all the romanticism that comes with this time of year, was difficult. Consider, after the visit of the Wise Men, Jesus, Mary, and Joseph were refugees:

When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.” So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod. (Matthew 2.13 – 15, NIV)

It’s hard for us to imagine (and even harder for our children) in this age of wealth and instant gratification that life has not always been as most of us experience it and still isn’t in most parts of the world.

I’m reading The Wizard and the Prophet, recommended by Seth Goden. I’m not all that far into it, maybe 20%. It’s a fascinating story of two men who have influenced thought in two different ways. What I want to draw your attention to now is the background of Norman Borlaug, born in northeast Iowa in 1914, just over 100 years ago. This section about his boyhood jumped out at me in our affluent age:

When not in school the Borlaug children did chores, rising before dawn and working until after sunset. Boys hoed weeds, dug potatoes, milked cows, stacked hay, hauled wood and water, fed chicken, cattle, and horses. Girls tended the vegetable garden, worked the washboard, cleaned house, mended clothing, cooked meals. The toil never ended but complaint was rare. The Borlaugs were subsistence farmers, and if they wanted to eat there was no alternative. Norm boy worked dutifully but without enjoyment. He particularly detested harvesting maize. Every ear had to be sliced from the plant, husked on the spot, and flung into a wagon. The sharp leaves cut through gloves and clothes; the boy was scraped and bleeding by the end of the day. According to Noel Vietmeyer, a longtime co-worker who wrote a biography of Borlaug, an Iowa family with a forty-acre maize plot, typical for the time, hand-picked half a million ears every fall. It was, Borlaug told Vietmeyer, a “two-month horror.” – The Wizard and Prophet by Charles C. Mann, page 102.

Jesus’ life was closer to what Borlaug experienced than the lives most of us are privileged to live.

At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. (Matthew 12.1, ESV)

And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” (Luke 9.58, ESV)

In keeping with the theme of Christmas as war, it’s good to remember that Jesus’ life wasn’t easy. A few verses in John’s gospel make this abundantly clear:

Born a KING…in a stable. Died a KING…on a cross:

Then Pilate responded, “Oh, so then you are a king?”

“You are right.” Jesus said, “I was born a King… (John 18.37, TPT)

Jesus carried his own cross out of the city to the place called “The Skull,” which in Aramaic is Golgotha. And there they nailed him to the cross. He was crucified, along with two others, one on each side with Jesus in the middle. Pilate had them post a sign over the cross, which was written in three languages—Aramaic, Latin, and Greek. Many of the people of Jerusalem read the sign, for he was crucified near the city. The sign stated: “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” (John 19.17 – 19, TPT)

Of course, we know the story doesn’t end there, but Jesus did not have an easy life! More on that tomorrow.

In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross! (Philippians 2.5 – 8, NIV)