Ever been in the situation where you know what the Bible says—you know what God’s will is revealed in Scripture, but you can’t bring yourself to do it because it conflicts with your sense of compassion?  Sometimes those are hard things to balance—what you believe to be God’s will, and the compassion you feel—but not only the compassion you feel but the compassion you earnestly believe to be at the center of God’s character.

I struggle with that—knowing what the Bible says but also knowing God’s heart and wanting to exercise compassion toward people even if I know what they’ve done or are continuing to do isn’t right, isn’t God’s will for their lives or for the world.  I know this struggle all too well!

It’s good to know we’re not alone.  Joseph knew the Law of God.  He found out that his fiancée was pregnant and he knew he wasn’t the father.  Deuteronomy 22:21 told him that she should be stoned.  That’s what people did back then.  But Joseph also had compassion.  So he refused to shame her, he refused to hurt her.  He was going to break the engagement but do so quietly.

Now, we all know the angel came to Joseph and convinced him to actually marry Mary and adopt her boy child, Jesus.

Ever wonder what impact that made on Joseph’s family—the fact that he laid aside the requirements of the Law for the sake of compassion?  We get a glimpse of it when, in John 8, a woman is caught in adultery.  They take her to Jesus, throw her to the dirt and ask him what the Law requires for them to do.  It was, of course, a test!  He knew Deuteronomy 22.  But I can only imagine Jesus remembered the time that his dad laid aside the Law to show compassion for a woman caught in a scandal—his mom.  So Jesus got in the dirt with this scandalous woman and began writing in the dirt.  What did he write?  We’re not told—which probably means it must not have been important.  And, then he said, “If any of you are without sin, stone her.” They all left.

Joseph had embraced with compassion a scandal.  And so did Jesus.  Like Father, like Son!

God has revealed His will to us.  But He has also revealed a heart of compassion and, more than that, called us to be people of compassion, love, mercy, and grace.

May we do what we can to live according to God’s will, but may we always do so with great compassion!

Pastor John Bjorge

It was January 2004. I was in southern Haiti supporting the work of our congregation’s missionary doctor. While there, I was asked to preach. The church building was nothing more than a simple shed—a dirt floor, one dim light bulb dangling from the ceiling, tree branches serving as trusses that held up a rusty zinc roof, plastic chairs, and a table with a white table cloth as an altar. It was evening and it was very dark. There were no street lights and very few homes had electricity. It was sauna in that one-room church with no ventilation.

But people came by the dozens; they packed that building—not just for me—they do so each week. The expectation was that I would preach for a couple of hours. I gave out after an hour and a half.

There was no sound system, no piano or organ, no cushioned chairs or tidy wooden pews, no projection, no air-conditioning, no programming, no entertainment… Nothing but the people of God and the Word of God. And strangely, that was enough. God’s Word is enough for millions of believers who gather in house churches of one kind or another. His Word is enough for millions of believers who huddle in African jungles, South American rain forests, and Middle Eastern cities.

But is His Word enough for us?

That’s a question that haunts me when I stand before a crowd of people who drive to church in their expensive cars, will go home to their very comfortable homes, and are used to the nicer things in life. What if the decorations were gone, the nice flooring was ripped out, the pews were replaced with plastic chairs, the lighting was turned off, the air conditioning or the heating was disconnected, the instruments were silenced, and there was no program staff, nor anything here to entertain us. Would His Word still be enough for His people to come together?

What is it about God’s Word that creates a hunger to hear more? And not just to hear the Word but to long for it, study it, memorize it, dwell in it, and follow it? What causes followers of Christ around the world to literally risk their lives in order to know God’s Word?

Maybe because they’re spared all the things that distract them in the church, they’re better able to focus on the heart of the gospel itself and the gospel is what makes their hearts hungry.

Fundamentally, the gospel is the revelation of who God is, who we are, and how we can be reconciled to Him. And because God has reconciled us unto Himself, we’re given the gift of a new heart with new desires, new longings. Because of what God has done in reconciling us unto Himself, for the first time, we see our need for God, and we love Him. We seek after Him, and we find Him, and we discover that He’s indeed the great reward of our salvation.

We realize that we’re saved not just to be forgiven of our sins or to be assured of our eternity in heaven, but we’re saved to know God. So we yearn for Him. We want Him so much that we abandon everything else to experience Him.

May the sheer power of knowing who God is, who you are, and what God has done to reconcile you to Him, give you joyful anticipation and a heartfelt longing for Him as you come to know Him even better this Advent season.

Have you noticed how dark and foggy it’s been? Welcome winter in Seattle! On the foggy days, I miss the sunshine. I miss the wide open vistas of the Olympic Mountains and Puget Sound. I miss the warmth. I don’t much like the fog. But, in a very deep and spiritual sense, I’m realizing fog has its place.

There are days in my life in which all I see before me are twisted, complicated paths with branches seemingly going off in every direction. Anxiously, I wonder some days how I’ll ever find my way through the maze that’s before me.

Then I remember the One who’s promised to be with me always, holding me by my right hand. I remember God’s promise to guide me with His counsel. (Psalm 73:23-24) And I begin to relax.

I realize that what God has done is He’s given me the fog as a gift—a peaceful fog that settles over the confusing path in front of me by obscuring my view. I can see only a few steps in front of me, so what I do is I turn my attention more fully to the One who’s holding my right hand. I begin to enjoy His presence and count on Him to be my guide. I realize it’s no longer by my strength or wisdom but, amidst the fog, I’ve become totally dependent.

And what I learn is that the fog is for my protection because it calls me back to the present moment. The future has been shut off to me. All I can see is what’s in front of me at that moment. And it’s in that moment that God is present. Because, although God inhabits all space and time, the past and the future, I can only really communicate with Him in the here and now.

Someday I know the fog may well lift. Spring and summer will return. And someday fog may no longer be necessary for me because I’ll have learned to keep my focus on God even when I can see the path way out ahead of me. But for now—in this season—there’s fog.

God bless the fog—and even more bless our having to count on the One who’s at our side as we venture down paths as yet untrodden knowing that He has our right hand securely in His.

As you prepare your hearts and homes this season for Christmas, remember today these words that hearken the advent of Christ’s coming: “In that time, there will be no more gloom for those who are in distress.… The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.” (Isaiah 9:1-2)

Jesus tells His disciples, “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought the field.” (Matt 13:44)

I love that picture. Imagine walking in a field and stumbling upon a treasure that’s more valuable than anything else you could work for or find in this life. It’s more valuable than all you have now or will ever have in the future.

You look around and notice that no one else realizes the treasure is here, so you cover it up quickly and walk away, pretending you haven’t seen anything. You go into town and begin to sell off all your possessions to have enough money to buy that field. The world thinks you’re crazy. “What are you thinking” your friends and family ask you.

You tell them, “I’m buying that field over there.”

They look at you in disbelief. “That’s a ridiculous investment,” they say. “Why are you giving away everything you have?”

You respond, “I have a hunch,” and you smile to yourself as you walk away. You smile because you know. You know that in the end you’re not really giving away anything at all. Instead, you’re gaining. Yes, you’re abandoning everything you have, but you’re also gaining more than you could have in any other way. So with joy—with joy!—you sell it all, you abandon it all. Why? Because you have found something worth losing everything else for.

This is the picture of Jesus in the gospel. He is something—someone—worth losing everything for. And if we walk away from the Jesus of the gospel, we walk away from eternal riches. Sometimes we talk about the cost of discipleship. Let me just say that the cost of non-discipleship is profoundly greater for us than the cost of discipleship.

Jesus tells those of us who want to get close to Him, who want to walk with Him and follow Him, to boldly and fearlessly give everything in order to do so, and to do so with joy! He truly is worth losing everything for. For when we abandon the trinkets of this world, or better yet, invest them in the work of extending community, compassion and hope to the world…when we respond to the radical invitation of Jesus, we discover the infinite treasure of knowing and experiencing Jesus like never before!

Pastor John