Love at Close Quarters

Posted on July 30, 2020 by Bob Bjerkaas


Sooner or later someone will come up with a name for the relational impact that the Coronavirus has had on families across America. Perhaps they already have and I am not yet in that loop. Whatever this impact will be called, it has done quite a bit of damage to a number of folks.


Fox News recently ran an article with the sad title: Divorce Rates Surge in Coronavirus Quarantine. [1]  Couples who were doing okay are finding that with the problems associated with lost income and jobs, anxiety over health – one’s own and one’s family’s, and the unremitting presence of someone with whom you are not accustomed to spending quite so much time are now struggling.  As the Fox article says, these and other factors are “pushing some couples over the brink.”


The pressures that people are facing these days are very real. The pressures that YOU are facing are very real. In the best of circumstances, relationships are not easy on this side of heaven. One of the saddest results of sin is strife and conflict in our most basic relationships – Adam and Eve themselves would struggle (Genesis 3:16). Cain and Abel would fail to get along (Genesis 4). In the New Testament Euodia and Syntyche would quarrel (Philippians 4:2). This human legacy of strife, jealousy and quarreling continues into our own generation – into our own hearts and homes. And compounding this, these are not the best of circumstances!


It is something of a truism to note that you are capable of harboring the lowest and meanest thoughts about those to whom you are closest. As a pastor, I have seen Christian men and women speak both to and about their spouses in ways and in tones that I am quite sure they would NEVER use in speaking about anyone else! It is no different in the world outside of the Church.  Familiarity, in an observable sense, does indeed often breed contempt.


There is currently a collection of maps making their rounds on social media in which various facts about the United States of America are visually represented. Map #12 intrigued me. It bears the title: Every State’s Least Favorite State.[2]  According to Matt Surelee’s Instagram research (don’t bet your life on it), our unhappy idiom proves true; familiarity does breed contempt. The poll asked North Dakotans whom they hate most. They answered, “South Dakota.” South Dakota answered, “North Dakota.” Michigan hates Ohio and Ohio hates Michigan. Texas hates Oklahoma; Oklahoma (plus California, New Mexico, and Alaska) hates Texas. Kentucky and Tennessee hate each other. Virginia and West Virginia hate each other… You get the idea! Our worst feelings are often reserved for and directed at our closest neighbors. Only three states break the mold: Florida hates Florida, Hawaii hates no one, and New Jersey hates everyone.


So what can we do in light of this empirically verified law?[3] How can we avoid holding our close and constant neighbors in contempt?


Start with the first letter of the alphabet of love: LOVE IS PATIENT. (1 Corinthians 13:4).
Dear husband and wife, now is not the time to try to settle a long standing disagreement or resolve your biggest frustrations with one another. During all of the unusual and atypical stresses you are under, be sure to make it your business to “do everything without complaining and arguing.” (Philippians 2:14). If ever there was a time to “with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bear with one another,” this is that time! (Ephesians 4:2). Parents and children, hang in there! Be patient. Employers and employees – fight the good fight, don’t simply be good at fighting!


And if you need any help in trying to survive this season of loving folks at close quarters, please don’t hesitate to call one of your elders. Serving your spiritual needs is our primary function and our highest calling!


Your Pastor,

Bob Bjerkaas

[1]https://www.foxbusiness.com/lifestyle/coronavirus-divorce-rate-couples-quarantine

[2]https://www.boredpanda.com/amazing-usa-maps-facts/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=BPFacebook&fbclid=IwAR21ucEKgTQ8HG2hLqE5b36O_UuPPllG8AZ8aT1dM_MjVjqESRJu1ztazQA[

3] Google “Familiarity Breeds Contempt” and you will find any number of refereed articles in which psychologists and therapists comment on this rule.

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My Grandmother’s Squint

Posted on May 29, 2020 by Bob Bjerkaas

My Grandfather is in hospice. He is in his very last days.  Every time my phone buzzes or chimes I am expecting to hear the news that he is with the Lord.  Needless to say, he has been on my mind.

I learned an awful lot from Grandpa.  How to fish.  How to count cards.  He was a great role model: he loved God, was faithful to his wives (he remarried ten years after having been widowed), and he served his country (Navy, WWII).  He had a great sense of humor and loved a good practical joke.  And he was wise.  On one occasion, he even gave me a spanking! One thing he taught me made a tremendous impact on me as a young man.

My Grandma, Margaret “Muggs” Egstad (yes, my daughter Maggie is named after her!), was as godly and sweet a woman as I have ever known.  And she was always “put together” as they say in the upper Midwest.  Hats and gloves to church every Sunday.  Matching handbags.  Sensible yet fashionable shoes that coordinate with the dress.  I don’t think I ever made it into church with her around without her taking one of her white gloves off, licking her fingers and trying to tame my hair!  Those were different times.  She always looked her best and, as much as she could help it, so did we.  But Grandma had a squint.  Her right eye was never all the way opened.

Now when I was a boy, I was very self-conscious about my own appearance.  I have large ears.  And they stand perpendicular to the sides of my head.  I have always had freckles.  Did I mention red hair?  And as a boy I used to wonder about my Grandma.  Did she ever pray that her eye would stop squinting?  When she was a little girl, did she ask God to change her appearance?  Did she think about her squint every time someone took her picture?

Well, one day, probably when I was in the neighborhood of eleven or twelve years old, I asked Grandpa about my Grandma’s eye.  I will never forget his response.

Grandpa smiled his widest and told me that Grandma’s eye is the reason he married her.  When he first met her, he thought she was winking at him.  With the confidence provided by his misunderstanding, he began a courtship that resulted in as lovely a romance as you could wish for.  And it began with a squint.

Romans 8:28 teaches us that “God works all things for the good of those who love him.”  This includes things like big ears, red hair, and squints.  And it includes those things that you find so troublesome. A hymn that I have sung since childhood has a verse I have learned to love.  The hymn is “How Firm a Foundation.”  The third verse ends with the lines: “For I will be with you, your troubles to bless; to sanctify to you your deepest distress.”

God sanctifies such things.  He can make what the world calls unsightly the grounds for the greatest romance of the century.  He can do more than we can ask or imagine.  Friend, what troubles you?  I hope it encourages you to know that that thing you so wish were different may soon become the grounds of blessings you have not yet considered.

Grandpa will be in heaven soon.  And it gladdens my heart to see him greeting his Savior.  Then in my mind’s eye, I see him turn to the ever-beautiful Muggs with his winsome smile and give her a wink.

Your Pastor,

Bob Bjerkaas

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Becoming!

Posted on May 7, 2020 by Bob Bjerkaas

In some ways, these last two months have enabled an awful lot of us to pause and reset some directions and priorities in our lives.  I have heard from some friends and neighbors that these unusual times have afforded them opportunities to reflect, to reorient, to reconnect…  Getting back to some of the basics in their family relationships and having the time to take an inventory of who they are, where they are going, what they are doing…  In some cases, the idea involves thinking about who and what they want to be on the other side of this “sheltering in place.” 

As I think about this season, I am reminded of the butterfly’s life cycle.  It starts out as a caterpillar.  Then it cocoons for a season.  Then it emerges with new wings and a remarkably different lifestyle.  Perhaps some of us will find that this season of quarantines and stay-at-home orders will be a chrysalis from which we emerge differently.

This coming Sunday my message will be taken from Proverbs 11 in which the subject of hoarding is addressed.  Hoarding is one effect of this Coronavirus pandemic that has been in the news quite a bit – and it presents a very real temptation to all of us during these times of real and perceived shortages.  But more on that on Sunday!

At the very end of Proverbs 11, there is a verse that brings to mind the lifestyle and ministry philosophy of the Apostle Paul.  Proverbs 11:30 tells us that, “The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and whoever captures souls is wise.”  Many translations translate the Hebrew word for ‘take’ with the word ‘win.’  For instance, the NIV reads: “He who wins souls is wise.”

There is a wisdom that is soul-winning.  There is a wisdom that “captures” souls for the kingdom of God.  And one cannot read a verse like this without hoping or wishing that it was true of them.  Oh, to be a soul-winner!  It was the driving desire of men like Calvin who resolved to preach the gospel every Lord’s Day.  Of Whitfield and Wesley alike whenever they entered a new town, came across a broad field, or entered a stranger’s home.  Of Spurgeon, who would make a beeline for Jesus every time he entered a pulpit.  But is there anything that can help us think concretely about what that soul-winner’s wisdom might look like?

The Apostle Paul uses remarkably similar language in 1 Corinthians 9.  Beginning in verse 19, he writes:

For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them… I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some.  I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.

Soul-winning involves change!  A particularly humble, servant-like change.  One obvious take away from this text is that if we are not or have not been a soul-winner, perhaps we need to change?

Which brings us back to the caterpillar.  I would like to pastorally invite you to spend this cocooning time reflecting on how you might emerge with a renewed commitment to and passion for the souls of men and women who desperately need Jesus – let the thought of them entering eternity without Him keep you up at night!  Let that concern become more real and tangible to you than your concern to be sure your garage door is closed at night or your car’s gas tank is above empty. 

To that end, please spend some time pondering what you will become in order to win whom.  Dear Christian, dream big!  Have high hopes!  God has attached very real promises to the proclamation of the gospel!  We have the example of Paul to consider – the only man other than Christ himself the Bible calls us to imitate! (See Philippians 3:17).  He ‘became” many things in order to win many different types of souls.  Print this note up.  And fill in the following blanks!

  1. I will become ____________________ in order to win ______________________.
  2. I will become ____________________ in order to win ______________________.
  3. I will become ____________________ in order to win ______________________.

Let’s emerge from our homes in a month or two with our wings flapping – with the wisdom of soul-winners!

Your Pastor,

Bob Bjerkaas

N.B. The image is taken from Vincent Van Gogh’s work, “Butterflies and Poppies” available in the public domain thanks to the Google Art Project.

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QUARANTINED!

Posted on April 16, 2020 by Bob Bjerkaas

“Every cloud has a silver lining.” As trite as this often seems to us, there is for the Christian a very large kernel of truth in this cliché.  Theoretically, most Christians have believed that God’s sovereignty overrules everything.  Even horrible events, like Joseph’s brothers selling him into slavery, serve a greater purpose under God’s superintending rule (see Genesis 50:20).  But when we are practically and personally involved in the dark clouds of what our Puritan forbears would have called a “frowning” providence, it is sometimes harder to detect let alone appreciate God’s beautiful and good design.  During our confusion and suffering, we rarely prioritize the discipline of praising God for what he is doing.

Right now, we are all in a state of quarantine – federal and state guidelines urge us to “shelter in place” and practice “social distancing.”  For the foreseeable future, these terms will now be a part of our culture’s vocabulary.  The Bible has little to offer in the way of specific rules or guidelines for our experiences of such times.  There is material in the Old Testament giving instructions for those with contagious diseases to be put “outside the camp;” to be “quarantined.”  (See Lev. 13)  But there is not much material on how those who are put outside the camp might respond in a gracious and God-honoring manner.

In 2 Kings 7:3-16 we read the story of four lepers who were “outside the camp.”  These were contagion laden souls whose poor fortune required that they be outside the city of Samaria on the eve of the Syrian’s siege.  As a result, these men were caught in the proverbial no-man’s land.  Behind them are the closed gates of Israel’s capital; before them lay the camps of the Syrian host – determined to eradicate the northern tribes of Israel.  The four lepers have nowhere to go and nothing to do.

The point is finally reached at which the lepers say to one another, ‘Look, if we remain here we will die of starvation.  If they let us into the city we will die of starvation there.  But if we go over to the Syrians, they might let us live.”  So, first thing in the morning they head over to the Syrian camps and discover that the enemy had fled – and left everything behind!  Equipment, horses, and, most importantly, food.

In the city of Samaria, the people were experiencing acute famine.  In 2 Kings 6:26-29 we read that people have already begun eating human flesh to survive.  But because these four lepers were isolated, their suffering companions were able to learn about their deliverance sooner than they might have.  These four quarantined individuals became a means of blessing to the entire population of the city!

In some respects, they used their isolation well – they acted prudently and considered the needs of the city when they discovered the empty camp full of provisions.  God was at work.  Despite the great human suffering and the traumatic experiences people had to deal with, redemptive history was advancing.  And God used a horrible famine, a terrible enemy, and four cast-away lepers to bring us one chapter closer to the coming of Messiah.

God is doing something in our Coronavirus conundrum too.  Just this morning I read that the shuttering of the Chinese economy has greatly damaged Mexican cartels!  How many other things might God be accomplishing?  What silver linings are there to your current inconvenience or illness?  Are there any ways that you can discover some great thing that will bless those around you?  I would dare to say that if you approached God as boldly as those lepers approached the Syrians, and if you search the scripture as earnestly as they searched the abandoned camp  – you will find much to share with your friends and family!

I love that account of the siege of Samaria!  When those four lepers woke up that morning they were sure that they would be dead by noon.  Instead, they were used to save countless lives!  And it all began with a quarantine.

Your Pastor,

Bob Bjerkaas

The artwork is a print that was included in the People’s Commentary on the Gospel According to Luke (Philadelphia: American Sunday School Union, 1889). Unfortunately, the artist is not noted.

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Practice Hospitality

Posted on February 28, 2020 by Bob Bjerkaas

These two words comprised one of the shortest sentences in the Bible I read as a young man.  The New International Version translation of Romans 12:9-13 read as follows:

” Love must be sincere.  Hate what is evil, cling to what is good.  Be devoted to one another in brotherly love.  Honor one another above yourselves.  Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.  Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.  Share with God’s people who are in need.  Practice hospitality.”

In some respects, the inclusion of the period that separates need from practice makes it difficult to truly come to grips with what this scripture calls us to do.  The English Standard Version does better with “Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.”

What is clear from Paul’s original is that “hospitality” and the “needs of the saints” are connected.  When we separate hospitality from the needs of God’s people, we end up with an idea of hospitality that tends to imply dinner parties for our friends or hosting a small group.  To be sure, these are hospitable things!  But they are not what this text exhorts us to practice.

In the ancient world, from the days of Abraham and Lot straight through to the days of Paul, hospitality implied sharing food and lodging with those who had neither.  Hospitality is what Abraham offered his visitors in Genesis 18:1-8 and what Lot provided for the angels in Genesis 19:1-4.  And speaking of angels, Hebrews 13:2 tells us “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.”  In this last case, hospitality is further defined by the word “entertained.”  In its ancient context, to be entertained did not simply mean “to be amused for a while.”  It meant to be hosted as a guest!

Hospitality is a rigorous, thoroughgoing placement of oneself at the disposal of others according to their needs.  It is not for the faint of heart.  But it is for every Christian to practice – to ‘press on,’ or, ‘to go running after.’[1]

Too often, instead of connecting hospitality to the needs of others, we connect it to our own availability, convenience, or comfort level.  Questions like, “Is my house clean?” or “Am I good at entertaining people?” are fair questions to ask.  BUT!  If someone is hungry, troubled, or lonely, you may be sure that your house is in fact clean enough, you are company enough, and you are not too busy!

‘Running after’ hospitality means not simply sharing with the needs of God’s people; it involves helping them in and with their needs.  Practicing hospitality is in a very real sense no more or less than carrying one another’s burdens (Galatians 6:2).

Let’s go running after opportunities to offer our fridges, couches, homes, and time to those who need them. 

Your Pastor,

Bob Bjerkaas

[1] The Greek word for practice is translated ‘press on’ in Philippians 3:12 and 14, and ‘go running after’ in Luke 17:23.

N.B. The artwork is Abraham and the Three Angles, by Josse Leiferinxe, c. 1495. This oil on wood panting captures the scene of Genesis 18:1-8. It is hosted online by the Denver Museum of Art.

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Love Bears All Things

Posted on February 6, 2020 by Bob Bjerkaas
Houses in Biblical Times

This month many of us will be giving special attention to the subject of love.  Valentine’s Day falls right in the middle of February, and that red-letter day brings all sorts of thoughts and questions.   Those of us who are single may be wondering if we will have a special someone by the fourteenth.  Or maybe we will be glad that we don’t.  Married couples will be wondering where they will have dinner, what card to pick out, or whether gifts are in the budget this year.  Some of us will be especially grieved by loss this month – we too will be thinking about love.

As you think about the love that you express and experience in your relationships with friends, family, and significant others, consider a critical aspect of love that our culture often ignores: “Love bears all things.” (1 Cor.13:7).

The particular word for ‘bearing’ that the Apostle Paul uses in that verse is the word stegei.  This is the word that in its noun form means “roof.”  In its verb form, it can mean protect, support, bear, or cover.  Keep in mind that roofs in those days tended to be flat and were built to carry the weight of the home’s occupants.[1]  During Biblical times, the roof of one’s house was required by law to have a fence built around it so that folks wouldn’t fall off (Deut. 22:8).   The roof was a carefully constructed, load-bearing, platform that offered protection from the elements – providing a cool place during the hot summer months and a warm dry place during the cold rainy season.

So, what does it mean that love is always a roof?  Or that it acts like a roof?

The Apostle Paul uses this same word earlier in this same letter.  In chapter nine, Paul writes about how he as an apostle has certain rights – he has a right to eat and drink, to have a wife, and to receive pay.  But then he says that despite his rights to such things: “Nevertheless, we have not made use of this right, but we endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ.”  (1 Corinthians 9:12).  In this case, the verb form of our word “roof” means ‘to endure.’  It carries the meaning of ‘to bear with.’  Or, ‘to carry the cost of.’  In some translations we read that he “puts up with” all things!   His desire is to protect the communication of the gospel – and in order to protect this, he will bear with anything.

And this is what love does.  There is no limit to what love will absorb in order to protect a person who is loved or a relationship that is valued.  Even that offense that you find unbearable – love bears even that.

But what if someone sins against you terribly?  How do we bear with or put up with those things?  Two other scriptures help us to understand how love bears such things.  In the first place, all people sin against others – you yourself sin against others on a regular basis in your thoughts, attitudes, words, and actions.  But, as 1 Peter 4:8 teaches us, “Love covers a multitude of sins.”  Remember that the Bible knows no uglier word than ‘sin.’  Love simply counts grave offenses as so many nothings – things more than made up for by the grace given us by Christ (see Matthew 18:21-35).  Secondly, in cases where some sin is outstanding and requires some response other than immediate and genuine forgiveness, Jesus gives explicit commands about how such matters must be handled by his disciples: “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone.”  (Matthew 18:15).  Protect the reputation of the other person, and your relationship with them, by refraining from gossip and go to them privately, humbly, and with a sincere desire to save and keep the relationship!

Too often I have heard a husband or a wife complain about their spouse and how hurtful they have been and, upon asking, discovered that they had not spoken to their spouse directly and privately about this.  Gossip between friends is in every case the opposite of what biblical love entails.  It entails not only keeping a record of wrong and bearing a grudge – it actually involves communicating that bitterness to more than the individual person against whom you harbor disappointment.  This is not bearing all things.  It is not covering all things.  It is not protecting anything at all. 

Dear Christian, would you be a loving person?  Then bear all things.  If someone has hurt or offended you and you cannot let it go, then protect, bear the burden of that relationship, and take every precaution to keep your experience (which might, after all, be a mere misunderstanding) private between the two of you.  Only after such personal, private attempts should one involve another person (see Matthew 18:16).  But as a very first order of business, when you are disappointed with someone, be very careful to consider what they have done to you against the backdrop of what you have done before the face of God.  How freely and completely God has in Christ forgiven you and loved you – he has truly borne all things.  Won’t you do the same for others?

Your Pastor,

Bob Bjerkaas

[1] “How the People of the Bible Lived,” Harper’s Encyclopedia of Bible Life, eds. Miller, Miller, Bennett, and Scott (New York: Harper and Row Publishers, 1978), s.v. “Houses, roof.”

N.B. The image is provided by Bible History Online and is free to use with acknowledgement and this link.

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The Baby with Two Names

Posted on October 25, 2019 by Bob Bjerkaas

How do you think about the people with whom God has surrounded you?

“And as her soul was departing (for she was dying), she called his name Ben-oni; but his father called him Benjamin.”

Genesis 35:18
“Rachel’s Death,” Giambettino Cignaroli, 1769/70

This is the bittersweet description of the birth of a baby.  Rachel was the beloved wife of the patriarch Jacob.  As she died giving birth to a baby boy, she named him Benoni: “Son of my Sorrow.”[1]  But!  Jacob named him Benjamin: “Son of the Right Hand.”

Here we have one baby with two names.  Rachel in the travails of childbirth and the immanence of her death sees the boy as coming into the world through her sorrow.  Jacob, seeing the woman he loved breathe her last chooses to see him as coming into the world through his ‘right hand.’  One name focused on the pain and the sadness the birth occasioned.  The name that stuck focused on the honor and strength through which the boy was given.

Both names were equally valid, but only one was authenticated by God’s word.  In every place where this child is referenced (and in every reference to the tribe of Israel which bears his name), he is Benjamin.  The name Ben-oni is never again mentioned in scripture.

Names are significant.  Assigning names to living creatures was among the first tasks given to Adam and Eve – they were to identify the essential qualities or defining characteristics of each animal and name it appropriately (Gen. 2:19).  The very first recorded act of Adam, after his redemptive encounter with God in the garden, is to name his wife Eve (Gen. 3:20).  Isaiah prophecies that Israel will be given an everlasting (Is. 56:5) and a new (Is. 62:2) name when they are restored.  And we are told that in Christ we will be given a new name (Rev. 2:17).  Names are significant.

There is a depth to this one short verse in Genesis that invites some pretty deep reflection. Think for a moment about the names – and the nicknames, by which you refer to people.  Consider the terms that you apply to them; the manner in which you summarize their essential character – as you see it.  Do you see people through the lens of your experiences?  Or do you see people as gifts from God himself?

Parents, every day you choose what you will call your children.  Spouses, you constantly affirm something about each other with every nickname or adjective you use.  Neighbors, friends, and co-workers… you can weigh and measure each other based upon the horizontal values of how they impact you and what you think of their worth; or you can take the vertical route of seeing that they are far more than the grief they may have caused you!

For those of us who follow Christ, we must be doubly sure to take care on this point.  Do the descriptions and the names that we attach to others reflect our pained experience of their presence?  Or do we consider them in terms that anticipate eternity and the repristination of something made new by God’s powerful grace.  When considering others, look for the work of a great and gracious God who is sovereign over your kids’, spouses’, and neighbors’ lives – and be sure to sound like you see God at work around you.

Your Pastor,

Bob Bjerkaas

[1] Although some Bible translations offer the footnote that Benoni could mean “son of my strength,” this interpretation is a stretch.  Ben (son) oni (my sorrow) is the plain meaning.  Furthermore, Jacob’s renaming is not presented as a synonymous statement, rather as an adversative – as the ESV translation suggests.

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When Jesus Says No

Posted on October 4, 2019 by Bob Bjerkaas

I loved those old Southwest Airlines commercials that had the tag line, “Wanna get away?”

The commercials all featured someone who got themselves into an awkward or humiliating situation and for a moment you share with the ad’s protagonist a desire to “get away!”  There is a character in the Bible who desperately wanted to “get away” as well.  We don’t know his name, but from time to time I bet we can all relate to his situation.

We actually know almost nothing about him.  In Mark 5:1-20 and Luke 8:26-39 we are told all that we need to know: He was a complete and total outcast.  He lived among the tombs on the far (eastern) side of the Sea of Galilee in the region of the Gadarene.  He was possessed by unclean spirits.  He had often been chained and shackled by the locals and had just as often broken the chains.  He went about naked.  He regularly cut himself and screamed.  And he was violent towards any who approached him.

And then he meets Jesus.  The demons that had caused such ruin and stigma in his life – that had been destroying him and injuring others, are gone.  For good.  Two thousand swine are filled with a legion of demons and bolt into the sea where they perish.  And the emancipated man wants to get away.

In Mark 5:18-19 we read about what happened on the shores of the Sea of Galilee when Jesus was leaving:

“As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed with demons begged him that he might be with him.  And he did not permit him but said to him, ‘Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.’”

Our anonymous friend with his new lease on life desperately wanted to go with Jesus.  He begged Jesus, and I expect that he was confident of his Savior’s acquiescence.  The Greek word translated ‘begged’ has already occurred twice in this short narrative.  The demons who cruelly possessed him “parekalessu” – begged Jesus to let them enter the pigs.  And Jesus said “Yes.”  The local people, when they see this old friend sitting clothed and in his right mind are terrified of the power of Jesus and they parakaleiv  – beg Jesus to depart from their region.  And Jesus said, “yes.”  So our poor wounded and weary outcast parekalei  – begs Jesus to allow him to leave with him.  And Jesus said, “No.”

Isn’t that something?  Jesus says “yes” to demons and unbelievers but “no” to his newest follower!  Why do you think he does that?

Consider this poor man.  He was well known in his region – he was undoubtedly something of a landmark.  In Mathew’s account (which mentions that he had a fellow sufferer), we learn that the local people didn’t pass by that way because of him.  And this man was marked.  He regularly cut himself.  His scars would always identify him to those who knew of the madman from the tombs.  And any new people he met would be quick to learn the story from others.  He had violently attacked others.  He had lived nakedly in public.  He had nothing good to show and had hidden nothing.  His life was an open book, and all who knew him had seen the pages filled with shame and violence.  If it were you, wouldn’t you want to get in that boat and try to find a fresh start somewhere on the other side of that sea?

And here is where we must make some application for ourselves.  There are times in our lives when we want to get away.  From people.  From relationships.  From families.  From towns, teams, offices, even churches.  And sometimes we must hear Jesus saying ‘No.”  Because he sometimes says that to people with far better reasons for wanting to leave than you have!  And when Jesus does say “no,” you must recognize that he has his reasons.  In the case of our Gadarene friend, who – despite his discomfort, his history, and his scars could possibly be better suited to declare the power and mercy of Christ?  In fact we learn from Mark 5:20 that an entire region comprised of ten chief cities was blessed by his presence: “And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and everyone marveled.”

What do you “wanna get away” from?  Is God calling you to stay?  In your marriage?  In your job or career?  In your community?  Your church?  If he has shut doors or spoken quietly to your spirit to decline the open doors around you and remain where you are, what will you do?  Will you look for the Lord’s purpose in calling you to stay?  Will you make it your chief business to figure out who your Savior is calling you to reach with the message of his power and mercy?  

Your Pastor,

Bob Bjerkaas

N.B. The lead picture is simply a stock photo of the Southwest ad campaign. The second image is a 6th century fresco in the Basilica di Santapollinare Nouvo, in Ravenna, Italy. I appreciate this anonymous work of art because it captures the gospel scene after the miracle (note the swine in the water) and shows the freed man clothed and in his right mind kneeling before the Lord.

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Job’s Wife

Posted on October 2, 2019 by Bob Bjerkaas

Some of you who read this blog know that I am preaching through the book of Job on Sunday mornings at the church I pastor.  It is a challenging book to study and preach from – and to apply!  There exists a vast historical distance between a twenty-first century Westerner like me and a Bronze Age man from the East like Job (Job. 1:1).  That is only the first reason that I have been extremely careful to read widely and think slowly as I have prepared the lessons and sermons from Job that I pass on to my congregation.

In reading widely, I have discovered something that I did not expect: Job’s wife is a controversial figure.

In both academic commentary and in more popular, literary retellings of Job’s story, there are two very different women who play the role of Job’s wife.  Some authors and scholars strive to present her sympathetically and make her out as a tragic heroine of sorts.  Others cast her in a far less favorable light.  For instance, writing in the late fourth century, Augustine called her diaboli adjutrix, the ‘devil’s handmaiden.’  Not a flattering appellation.

So, what is the deal with Job’s wife, and, perhaps more importantly, does it even matter how we interpret her role in Job’s story?

The ancient text shares very little about this unnamed woman.  We can easily deduce from the text that she was a significant person – she had ten children and was married to one of the principal men of his time.  And we know that together with her husband, she lost everything – all ten of her children, her material wealth, and the attendant social station those things conferred upon her.  But beyond that, we don’t know anything about her apart from the one brief conversation recorded in Job 2:9-10.

In that short exchange, Job’s wife says, “Do you still hold fast your integrity?  Curse God and die.” To which her husband Job replies with a rebuke: “You speak as one of the foolish women would speak…”  And we are immediately informed that “In all this Job did not sin with his lips.”  Job was correct – his wife was being foolish – denying God and being morally and religiously in the wrong.  Indeed, she has urged Job to do precisely what Satan was hoping he would do – curse God.

That is certainly not the end of the story for Job’s wife.  But we are not told the details of her story and how God worked in and through her mixed experience of living!  We are told Job’s story.  And in the interaction between Job and his wife, to the extent that it is recorded in scripture, we have an example that bluntly contradicts a tendency I have seen in Christian marriages.

I have heard on many, many occasions that “behind every great man is a great woman.”  Dear friends this is not true.  There exist great men behind whom no great women exist.  There also exist mediocre and mean men behind whom great women do in fact exist.  Men, your ‘greatness’ is in no way dependent upon the qualities of the women in your life.  This is important to note.  As a pastor, I have heard men bemoan their difficulties in spiritual faithfulness and progress by pointing at the faults of ‘the woman God put them with.’  Sound familiar?  See Genesis 3.  Similarly, I have heard women suggest that they could be so much more if it weren’t for ‘him.’  The example of Job refutes all such nonsense.  Job is described by God himself as being preeminent among men in his godliness; “there is none like him on the earth,” the Lord says in Job 1:8.  And there is not a single iota of biblical evidence to suggest that his wife was a positive encouragement to his godliness.

Men, your walk with God is not in any way limited by your wife’s commitment to the Lord.  Women, your walk with God is not limited by your husband’s faithfulness.  As married couples we have been playing the blame game since Eden.  It is time to stop.

While it is true that as spouses we are a great influence upon one another, it is not true that we are determining factors in one another’s spiritual lives or maturity.  Bless one another as spouses.  In your own weak moments and painful experiences do not permit yourself to echo the desires of the devil himself.  And always remember that in whatever marital context you find yourself – whether your spouse is spiritually flourishing or floundering, you are free to experience and respond faithfully to the limitless grace of Job’s almighty, sovereign God.

Your Pastor,

Bob Bjerkaas

N.B. The image is cropped from the masterpiece, “Job Taunted by His Wife,” painted by the 17th century French artist Georges de La Tour.

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A Fried Hard Drive and a Big God

Posted on August 27, 2019 by Bob Bjerkaas

Returning to my office after two weeks of vacation brought one incredibly unpleasant surprise.  My Computer had overheated and the hard drive “fried.”  All of my files that were saved on my work computer are gone.  Thankfully, my doctoral work is saved to both home and work computers – I still have that!  But twelve years of sermon notes and outlines, ten years of pastoral notes like this one – would you believe I have written you 127 of these notes.  A dozen outlines of books I planned to write in retirement – some with completed chapters!  All gone.

No doubt there are lessons to be learned – save to an external hard drive being one of them.  For my part I am going to work exclusively in google docs now so that my work gets saved to the “cloud” – whatever that is… 

Nonetheless, it is sad when you lose something you have worked hard on.  Whether the loss was due to an honest mistake or oversight, an unforeseeable act of providence, or your own active stupidity.  Loss is still sad.

In my pastoral work I often counsel folks who have lost parents, children, careers, marriages, friendships, opportunities, money, houses, pets…  In some sense, loss is very much a part of all of our suffering on this side of heaven.  The encroaching effects of the fall always take away – they add nothing worth having.

And when I counsel folks dealing with loss, I share with them a scripture that I am sharing with myself right now: “God will call the past to account!”

In Ecclesiastes chapter three, we are taught that there is a time for everything – including difficult things like tearing down, dying, and casting away.  Furthermore, we are told that everything is beautiful in its time!  The burden of being human on this side of heaven is described in verse eleven.  We understand conceptually the way things ought to be, we understand in principle that God has made everything including fried hard drives beautiful in its time, but we struggle because we have no idea what God is up to: we “cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.”

You may rely upon it; God is always up to something.

And one day we will know what that something is!  That’s where our title quote comes from.  In verse fifteen we are assured that “God will call the past to account.”  All of these things that we grieve and scratch our heads over will one day be recalled and seen in light of God’s grand design for magnifying his glory and multiplying our blessings.

For me that means I can look at twelve years of lost work, take a deep breath, and keep writing sermons, outlining future books, and typing out notes like this one.

What does it mean for you?  What have you lost that you need to release, trusting that God will himself call that part of your past to account someday?

Your Pastor,

Bob Bjerkaas

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