Robert Grisham Posts

It’s time for my last post. It’s been almost two and a half months, and in that time I’ve written 75 reflections totaling just under 35,000 words. I thought I’d share some overall reflections on what this practice has meant to me.

First, I’m glad I got through it. It was a lot of reading, and a lot of writing. Writing on this blog gave me the accountability I needed to finish, which I’m grateful for. Writing is something that I enjoy once I really get into it. When I first began this blog in 2020 I wrote a lot. There were certain things that I wanted to share. Then I stopped after the summer of 2023. This practice has reawakened some things inside of me, and I want to use this as a jump start to continue writing.

Second, even though I’ve been around the Bible for my entire life, reading the entire New Testament in a short period of time helped me to better understand the context and the overall story. I was reminded of my love for this story. As I read the story of Jesus I found myself coming back to certain themes that were emphasized in his life and teaching. Years ago I fell in love with the story of the early church. Coming back to that was a lot of fun.

Third, I was reminded over and over again that at the end of the day, our primary responsibility as children of God is to love. Love is at the center of every message and from every writer.

Finally, I was reminded why I still believe. This story of Jesus changed my life once upon a time. And that story continues to be the dominant story in my life, the one that most shapes and guides me. I’m grateful for that.

I’ll end my reflection with one last passage from John.

Stay with what you heard from the beginning, the original message. Let it sink into your life. If what you heard from the beginning lives deeply in you, you will live deeply in both Son and Father. This is exactly what Christ promised: eternal life, real life!
1 John 2:24-25, The Message

Yesterday I shared how the book of Revelation went from being the main book I wanted to study while a senior in high school to becoming something I totally neglected because I no longer lined up with the theology I had when I first came to it.

Since yesterday I’ve read the entire book of Revelation. I’ve also listened to this interview with Scot McKnight. I first came across Scot McKnight close to twenty years ago when his book (and blog of the same name) Jesus Creed came out. Since that time I’ve turned to him often. In 2023 his book Revelation for the Rest of Us came out. I have not read it, but I’ve read some reviews since yesterday’s post, and I’ve also listed to the interview referenced above.

In an excerpt from the book on McKnight’s site, he quotes from Phillip Gorski’s book American Covenant and says that when we take a speculative, dispensational approach to this book, we are reading the Bible…

1. Predictively, as an encoded message about future events that can be decoded by modern-day prophets
2. Literally, such that the mythical creatures of the text are understood as material realities
3. Premillennially, with the Second Coming of Christ understood to precede the earthly ‘millennium’ of God’s thousand-year reign on earth; and
4. Vindictively, with the punishment of the godless occurring in the most gruesome and violent forms imaginable

I SO resonate with all of this. This is how I once read the book of Revelation, and it’s now the reasons I’ve dismissed it. So after reading this I was anxious to know more of his conclusions so that I could then read the book through a different lens. Revelation for the Rest of Us is less of a commentary and more of a hermeneutic (a way of reading) of Revelation.

So here are some closing reflections…

John is writing to seven churches throughout Asia Minor. These churches are experiencing an extreme amount of persecution. He wants to both encourage and challenge them. But he also wants to tell them a story. It’s a story about how we interact with powers. Whether it was the Jews in exile in Babylon or those churches facing persecution in Rome or even us today, we are all under the authority of powers, and it’s our job to go along with things until it attempts to silence the Lamb. Then we must speak up.

This book teaches us to be dissident disciples who resist Babylon in the public sector and who resist Babylon creep into the local church.

This book also teaches us that the Lamb is the victor, but the way of victory is the cross. What this does is to flip everything upside down.

Finally, because the Lamb is the victor, justice too wins. All of the powers that work against justice will be defeated.

McKnight says that we need to be people of wisdom so that we can recognize Babylon and discern it’s presence. We need to be witnesses of Jesus who know him and tell our story. And we need to be worshipers of the Lamb. The book of Revelation continues to come back to worship. Worship is how we see Babylon for what it truly is. This is how we prevent blindness.

Finally, as much as I have ignored the book of Revelation, I have often been returned to its last two beautiful and hopeful chapters. In this last part of the story we see heaven coming down to earth. We see God wiping away every tear. We see the redemption and restoration of everything that had been lost and broken. And we see the good, loving and just King reigning over everything.

That’s a great ending to our story!

We now arrive at Revelation. One of my biggest apprehensions about taking on this project was what I was going to do once I got to this final book of the Bible. There are five days of readings in the Bible I was using. I’m down to three days because I’ve inserted a couple of other reflections. And I plan for my last reflection to an overall reflection on this practice. But still, two days of Revelation…

Let me first share my background on this book. During my senior year of high school my friend Dax and I asked my pastor, Bro. Phil, if he would do a Bible study with us one day each week after school. He agreed, and then asked what book we’d like to study. Without hesitation we said “Revelation.” Bro. Phil loved teaching the Bible, and we felt that with his help, we’d uncover all of the mysteries found in this book. And I remember loving every second of it. Those afternoons were a highlight of my senior year, and God used them to ingrain in me a love for Scripture.

A couple of years later I got into the Left Behind series, by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins. This series of novels gave a fictionalized account of what happened after the rapture.

In the years after this my beliefs changed greatly, and as a result, I didn’t have a lot of use for Revelation. During my years as a pastor I never preached from it, other than using a verse or two from chapter 2 or chapter 21.

All this to say, it’s really easy to dismiss this last book of the Bible. But one of the good things about this practice, and about the accountability of writing each day, is that I will encounter Revelation once again.

Today I wanted to share my history with this book. Now I’m am going to read it. And then tomorrow I’ll share more reflection.

Today’s reading is from the three short letters from the apostle John.

According to church history John was the only member of the 12 disciples to reach old age. He’s also the only one who died of natural causes. The rest were killed for their faith.

At some point John went to help lead the church in Ephesus. It was there that he most likely wrote these three short letters. Similar to Peter’s letters, they were not written to a single church or individual. He writes to remind all believers of the essentials of their faith. It’s about loving God and loving others. It’s about showing that you love God by obeying him. He says…

Don’t love the world’s ways. Don’t love the world’s goods. Love of the world squeezes out love for the Father. Practically everything that goes on in the world – wanting your own way, wanting everything for yourself, wanting to appear important – has nothing to do with the Father. It just isolates you from him. The world and all its wanting, wanting, wanting is on the way out – but whoever does what God wants is set for eternity.
1 John 2:15-17 (The Message)

John does a great job summarizing the message when he says…

My beloved friends, let us continue to love each other since love comes from God. Everything who loves is born of God and experiences a relationship with God. The person who refuses to love doesn’t know the first thing about God, because God IS love – so you can’t know him if you don’t love. This is how God showed his love for us: God sent his only Son into the world so we might live through him. This is the kind of love we are talking about – not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they don’t to our relationship with God.
1 John 4:7-10, (The Message)

Finally, John states his purpose for writing…

My purpose in writing is simply this: that you who believe in God’s Son will know beyond the shadow of a doubt that you have eternal life, the reality and not the illusion. And how bold and free we then become in his presence, freely asking according to his will, sure that he’s listening. And if we’re confident that he’s listening, we know that what we’ve asked for is as good as ours.
1 John 5:13-15, (The Message)

As someone who had followed Jesus for many years, at the end of the day what he wanted most for his fellow followers of Jesus was that they would have confidence that they were loved by God, and that God was actively working in their lives.

Today’s reading comes from Hebrews 10-13.

The writer of Hebrews has made great efforts to remind his Jewish readers of their story, and how Jesus’ life, death and resurrection fulfilled this story. He now wants to give them encouragement and instruction on how to live this lives rooted in this new reality. He says…

So, friends, we can now – without hesitation – walk right up to God, into “the Holy Place.” Jesus has cleared the way by the blood of his sacrifice , acting as our priest before God. The “curtain” into God’s presence is his body. So let’s do it – full of belief, confident that we’re presentable inside and out. Let’s keep a firm grip on the promises that keep us going. He always keeps his word. Let’s see how inventive we can be in encouraging love and helping out, not avoiding worshiping together as some do but spurring each other on, especially as we see the big Day approaching.
Hebrews 10:19-25, The Message

He then reminds me that the life they have been called, the life of following God, is a life that is lived by faith. He reminds them that all of the heroes of their story were ordinary men and women who followed by God even when they didn’t know how it would turn out. That’s what faith is. It is “confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1, NIV).

In light of these reminders, he gives one final challenge, and it’s such a strong one…

Do you see what this means – all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we’d better get on with it. Strip down, start running – and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sin. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we’re in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed – that exhilarating finish in and with God – he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And now he’s there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!
Hebrews 12:1-3, The Message

Today’s reading is from Hebrews 6-10.

In this portion of the letter the author talks a great deal about the Jewish priesthood. When the priesthood was set up, priests would be selected from a certain tribe, and it was then passed from father to son. And it served a purpose for many centuries. One of the primary tasks they had was to go before God once a year and atone for the sins of the nation. An animal was sacrificed, and its shed blood signified the offer of forgiveness. But the priests would have to do it again the next year. And the next.

The writer of Hebrews wants to show his Jewish readers that Jesus fulfilled the role of high priest. He says…

So now we have a high priest who perfectly fits our needs: completely holy, uncompromised by sin, with authority extending as high as God’s presence in itself. Unlike other high priests, he doesn’t have to offer sacrifices for his own sins every day before he can get around to us and our sins. He’s done it, once and for all: offered up Himself as the sacrifice.
Hebrews 7:26-27, The Message

The Jewish priesthood served as a temporary plan. God had something more for them, something that would be a once-for-all solution to the problem of sin. He goes on to say…

Every priest goes to work at the altar each day, offers the same old sacrifices year in, year out, and never makes a dent in the sin problem. As a priest, Christ made a single sacrifice for sins, and that was it! Then he sat down right beside God and waited for his enemies to cave in. It was a perfect sacrifice by a perfect person to perfect some very imperfect people. By that single offering, he did everything that needed to be done for everyone who takes part in the purifying process.
Hebrews 10:11-14, The Message

Today’s reading is from Hebrews 1-5.

There’s a lot that we don’t know about Hebrews. We don’t know who wrote it and we don’t know when it was written. What we do know is that it’s written to Jewish Christians. And it seems that the writer’s chief objective is to show how Jesus connects, and fulfills, the story of God that has been passed down for centuries.

He starts with Jesus, and throughout the letter he will connect Jesus with all of the aspects of their story. He reminds them that God’s original intent was that humanity would work alongside him to redeem and restore all that was lost and broken. He says that God “put them (men and women) in charge of his entire handcrafted world.” And just to make sure he’s clear…”when God put them in charge of everything, nothing was excluded (Hebrews 2:8).

What a calling! We’ve looked previously at what happened when we rejected our calling and turned instead to idols. Now we were the ones who needed rescuing because we were lost and broken. And that’s when he weaves Jesus into the story. He came to rescue. He came to help.

By embracing death, taking it into himself, he destroyed the Devil’s hold on death and freed all who cower through life, scared to death of death. That’s why he had to enter into every detail of human life. Then, when he came before God as high priest to get rid of people’s sins, he would have already experienced it all himself – all the pain, all the testing – and would be able to help where help was needed.
Hebrews 2:14-18 (The Message)

Even after all that Jesus did for us, it is easy for us to miss what God is doing. It’s easy for us to listen to other voices instead of God’s. It’s easy for us to believe the lie that following another path will lead to happiness and fulfillment. So he says…

So watch your step, friends. Make sure there’s no evil unbelief lying around that will trip you up and throw you off course, diverting you from the living God. For as long as God’s still calling it Today, keep each other on your toes so sin doesn’t slow down your reflexes. If we can only keep our grip on the sure thing we started out with, we’re in this with Christ for the long haul.
Hebrews 3:12-14 (The Message)

The reader is reminded of Israel’s 40 years wandering in the wilderness. It shouldn’t have taken them 40 years to get from Egypt to the Promised Land. It shouldn’t have taken 40 years to change their identity from slave to new nation. So why did it? It was simply because they thought they knew better than God. They listened to other voices. They chose different paths. And God allowed it. It was less about punishment and more about freedom and autonomy. That’s how good parenting works.

The Israelites never entered their rest because they fought God the entire way. But God is faithful and full of mercy. The offer of rest continues today, as “today” continues to be renewed. “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts” (Hebrews 4:7).

Because of this, we should boldly move towards Jesus…

Now that we know what we have – Jesus, this great High Priest with ready access to God – let’s not let it slip through our fingers. We don’t have a priest who is out of touch with our reality. He’s been through weakness and testing, experienced it all – all but the sin. So let’s walk right up to him and get what he is so ready to give. Take the mercy, accept the help.
Hebrews 4:14-16 (The Message).

The Catholic Church marks June 29 as the deaths of both Peter and Paul. The reason I know this is that our family visited Vatican City on June 30, 2018, and we learned that this was one of the busiest days of the year because everything was closed the day before to commemorate their lives and deaths.

On July 19, in the year AD 64, a fire broke out in Rome, and it raged for nine days. 71% of the city was destroyed in that time. Emperor Nero was initially blamed. He needed a scapegoat, so he chose the Christians in Rome. Over the next few years, Christians would be persecuted. They would be killed in horrible ways, often for the entertainment of Nero. Some were sewn in the skins of animals and left for wild dogs. Others were coated in wax and lit up in his gardens as human torches. This persecution would last until AD 68, when Nero was banished from Rome and committed suicide.

It was during this time that both Peter and Paul were killed, though probably not on the same day. Because Paul was a Roman citizen, his mode of execution was beheading, a humane way to go compared to how many died under Nero’s reign. Peter was not a Jew, so he was sentenced to death via crucifixion. Church tradition says that because he didn’t feel worthy to die in the same manner as his Lord, he chose to be crucified upside down.