The call to Love

   All these years later, I recall looking out of the subway window in Virginia and thinking to myself: “That’s impossible.  Nobody is perfect.”  Yet then I pondered the question: If perfection is impossible, why would Jesus command it?

   This was after reading the statement by Jesus: “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48).  That statement is the pinnacle there in the middle of what we call the Sermon on the Mount.

   Since that time, I have grown in my conviction that for people who follow Jesus, we are being “sanctified,” being made more like Jesus.  I have written in my journal many times: “The perfection process is a painful process, yet the perfection process leads to goodness.”  And when we are with God in full in heaven, we will be perfect.

   Perfection in American culture in this day and age is often thought of in terms of academics or athletics.  But all people have different passions and different gifts and different abilities and different limitations.  Academics or athletics is not what Jesus was talking about in Matthew 5:48.  I think Christians should be having more fun within the realms of academics and athletics, because it is not the foundation of our dignity.  Our dignity should come from the condition of our heart.

   Yes the perfection Jesus is referring to involves the heart.  Jesus stated: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’  This is the first and greatest commandment.  And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’” (Matthew 22:37-39).

   Just as I thought on that subway many years ago, this sounds impossible.  Pondering this call, I realize one thing: The only way I can truly love is if I am completely dependent on God.  God is love (I John 4:16).  Truly loving God and truly loving all people is possible only by relying on Jesus, the One who has perfectly loved all of us all along.

   Indeed Jesus got to the core of the Mosaic Law as He quoted the statement in Deuteronomy 6:4-5.  A key purpose for all those laws and regulations in the Torah was so people would stop doing wrong, since doing wrong results in hurt for someone in some way.  Thus doing bad stuff is not loving people.  A parallel key purpose for the Mosaic Law was to lead people to recognize we need help from God in order to be saved from the sins we have done, and we need help from God to enable us to obey Him.  The teaching of Jesus, the Savior, in the Sermon on the Mount permanently solidified our absolute need to rely on Jesus in order to truly love all people.

Hunter Irvine

The work of God

   I enjoy writing, which I fully discovered within weeks after beginning a creative writing class with a special professor, Ed Falco, years ago when a student at Virginia Tech.  In his classes, my gift blossomed and my career goal even shifted due to his soft influence.

   One day in class, Professor Ed Falco announced that author Toni Morrison would be speaking on campus in the coming week and he strongly encouraged us all to attend.  Having read one of her books for another English class, I was interested.  So on the specific afternoon, I went to the elegant room in the alumni building and joined a group of about sixty students for her talk.  Sitting in a chair with a relaxed demeanor, Toni had a strong presence.  She naturally spoke with confidence.  Then there was a question and answer time.

   During an exchange with one student, she made a statement which I latched on to.  Toni Morrison stated: “Writing is hard work!”

   I remain grateful that Toni Morrison cautioned us, since from the start I understood, and accepted, the challenge.  I wanted to write.  And write I have, in a manner I never imagined at that time.  As a follower of Jesus, writing about Jesus has been a part of my ministry.  For a decade, I have poured my heart into Scripture Love Blog.  My motivation has always been to tell about Jesus.  I want you to know I have spent countless hours writing and re-writing.  It has been hard work.  The sacrifice has been immense.  Yet if you, whoever you may be, were the only person to read some of my writings, it has been worth it.

   Today, I want to express to those of you who have been reading my blog over the years: Thank you!!!

   We all have work to do daily.  Whatever your occupation, the work world seems more stressful in my opinion due to electronic overload.  And for those of us who pursue our dreams, there is always challenging work to carry out.

   Yet whatever your circumstances, or mine, may we all remember the teaching of Jesus regarding the foundation of our calling: “Jesus answered, ‘The work of God is this: to believe in the One he has sent’” (John 6:29 NIV).

   Back at that time when I was a student at Virginia Tech, I was not a follower of Jesus.  My four years at college were a special time in my life, since I had some friends and I had an important job as a Resident Advisor.  I even attended the first bowl game Virginia Tech ever won.  However, deep in my heart, I was spiritually dying.  I did not have true love in my heart.  I am eternally grateful to God who continued to gently reach out to me in His Love.  And in the year after graduation, in April of 1990, I gave my heart to Jesus.  I live in gratitude I have been saved.

   If you want to be in a relationship with Jesus as your Savior, Lord, and Best Friend, please know today that He loves you.  Jesus Christ died on a cross for the forgiveness of sins of anyone.  He was the substitute for the consequence of wrong doings, which is spiritual death.  Then he was resurrected.  If you believe in Jesus, you will have eternal life with Him in heaven.

   Again, thank you for reading my blog.

love, Hunter

Scripture is true

   Jesus said Scripture is true.  Mark 12:24 records an epic discussion between Jesus and the Sadducees, and His response started with this statement: “Jesus replied, ‘Are you not in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God?’”

   I recently read an encyclopedia piece which said Sadducees tended to only consider the Torah, which are the first five books of the Bible.  Thus they would not have known about, or accepted, the prophecy of resurrection from Daniel 12:2, or the fact that Elisha raised a dead boy to life, as recorded in 2 Kings 4:8-37.  Thus the belief of the Sadducees about the doctrine of resurrection was wrong, and Jesus told them the truth.

   Matthew 5:17 records Jesus saying: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.”  Jesus indeed fulfilled the sacred writings by living a perfect life which included obeying the Mosaic Law, and by carrying out the calling of the Messiah.

   Referring to the Law and the Prophets, Jesus is referring to Scripture.  The Hebrews classified Scriptures into three groups: The Torah (the Law), the Nebiim (the Prophets), and the Ketubim (the Writings).  The content is the same as the content of the western “Old Testament” Scripture!  Do note the Hebrew Scripture compiles the sacred texts into 24 “books,” whereas the western compilation of those sacred texts is in 39 “books.”  For example, in Hebrew Scripture, the twelve “minor” prophets are all grouped together in one book.

   It often gives me a rush of electricity when I read the passage of Luke 4:16-21.  The passage concludes with Jesus saying: “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”  Jesus was saying that Isaiah had written about Him, and that He was living it!  Wow.

   After the resurrection of Jesus, He explained His resurrection to two disciples in the light of Scripture.  Luke 24:27 records: “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.”  Shortly thereafter, Jesus appeared to the apostles, “the Eleven” (Luke 24:33), and likewise explained His resurrection in the light of Scripture: “[Jesus] said to them, ‘This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms’” (Luke 24:44).

   Jesus said the Hebrew Scripture is true.  And Jesus showed Scripture is true by dying on a cross for the forgiveness of sins, and by being resurrected from the dead, as is witnessed by the apostolic writings, which is Scripture we now refer to as the New Testament.

   This truth needs to be realized in a day and age when a number of people are distorting, ignoring, or flat out rejecting the sacred writings, which were termed Scriptures in the ancient world.  The result: many people are getting hurt as they veer from God’s ways.  If you are a Christian, I plead with you to consider what Jesus said about Scripture, and consider the witness of Jesus who fulfilled Scripture.  And if you have never considered the Bible to be sacred, I invite you to investigate that claim for yourself.  And John gives us a purpose statement in John 20:31 – “But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”

Hunter Irvine

Jesus is the light of the world

   My Christmas offering this year is a Christmas and Easter message.  On many cards I have received over the years with a picture of the baby Jesus, light is radiating from the baby lying on hay in that trough.  But there is nothing in the Bible about light shining from the baby.  Yet there could have been some supernatural light radiating from Jesus, who was Immanuel, which means God with us.  For example, Luke states: “An angel of the Lord appeared to [the shepherds], and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified” (Luke 2:9).  Yet following the humble birth, that barn may have been quite dark.

   Once as a student at Virginia Tech, I went spelunking (exploring a cave) with friends one Saturday in early spring.  We wore helmets with headlamps, which we rented for five dollars each at an outdoors store in downtown Blacksburg.  It was quite the adventure traveling deep into the long cave near the New River.  Full of stalactites, stalagmites, and crevices, one cave passage was so low we had to crawl on our stomach on the hard, wet, and muddy ground.

   Finally reaching the back cavern, we were excited about our accomplishment.  Then I asked my friends to turn off their headlamps.  It was dark!  Then I asked everyone to put his hand in front of his face.  You could not see your hand in front of your face!  Once our headlamps were turned back on, I picked up a journal someone had placed in that back room of the cave.  I wrote an entry, saying something about seeking a “light in the darkness.”  I think deep down, I was hoping for such in my heart in those college years.

   When the body of Jesus was lying dead in the tomb, it would have been pitch dark.  Once Jesus was resurrected, I consider that maybe the tomb was filled with His light, just as light shone from Jesus during the “transfiguration” recorded in Matthew 17:1-8 and Mark 9:2-8.  (And see Revelation 21:23.)  If not, think of the joy Jesus must have experienced as light hit His eyes from the glowing angel who rolled away the stone, and from rays of sunlight there in the first daylight hour of that glorious dawn.

   Now Jesus left the tomb before the five or more women arrived, since both Mark 16:4 and Luke 24:2 tell about the arrival of the women.  (I put brackets around Matthew 28:2-4 in my Bible, since those three verses shift location to the tomb while the women were still on their way, and then Matthew 28:5 shifts back to focusing on the story of the women’s experience however many minutes later.)  Once the women did see Jesus, He apparently looked like His usual self.  Yet His formerly dead body had been transformed, really being re-formed back to who He is, God the Son!  As John Stott proposed in his book Basic Christianity: “[The body] would have passed through the grave clothes, as it was later to pass through closed doors…” (53).

   The glorious offer by Jesus to us today: You can have the light of life in your heart if you receive Him.  The apostle John stated: “This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5).  Spiritual darkness is a result of being separated from God, which always results in getting engrossed in sin.  The end of spiritual darkness is spiritual death.  Yet being united with God happens if a person believes in Jesus, the spiritual light, because she or he receives forgiveness from Jesus, who was the sacrificial atonement for sins.  He was the substitute for the consequence of sins!

   If you do not know Jesus as your Savior and Lord, you can right now.  Jesus died on a cross for the forgiveness of sins of anyone.  His atonement was unlimited.  Now the decision is yours.  If you follow Jesus, you will still suffer in this world full of spiritual darkness.  Yet you will have eternal life with Jesus!

   In John 8:12, Jesus states: “I am the light of the world.  Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

I hope you have a great Christmas!

Hunter Irvine

More than a prophet

Matthew 11:9-10   Then what did you go out to see?  A prophet?  Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet.  This is the one about whom it is written: “I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you” (NIV).

   God chose John the Baptist to be the prophet who would prepare people for the ministry of the Messiah.  God had the plan for him even before he was born, as was stated by Gabriel the angel, recorded in Luke 1:17.

   Yet why did God choose a man who would become an eccentric Levite to be the one to prepare people for the ministry of Jesus?  John the Baptist was in the lineage of Aaron, yet at age 30, plus or minus a few months, he was not serving in the temple like an Israelite priest should.

   God’s plan for the Messiah was a plan which few, if anyone, expected.  The plan had been foretold by the prophets Isaiah and Zechariah.  God’s plan was for Jesus to be the atoning sacrifice for sins on a cross.  For such an unexpected ministry, God needed a unique and faithful servant.

   John was definitely unique.  Ministering out in the wilderness was totally unique, yet appropriate since the atoning sacrifice the Messiah was going to make would not be in the temple, rather it would be made outside the city walls of Jerusalem.

   And John was faithful to his calling.  Having the courage to tell people to repent was definitely rare, though fitting for a prophet.  John did.  And though John the Baptist had some doubts in prison, he remained faithful to God.  John had spoken against the sexual sin of Herod, who was committing adultery with his brother’s wife, along with other sins as Luke records in Luke 3:19-20.  John apparently stuck with his conviction, since the woman, Herodias, ended up getting Herod to murder John.

   John the Baptist’s unique ministry is a reminder to me of how each individual should approach ministry: Be yourself!  What matters is that you are showing and telling people the Gospel!  We all have different personalities.  We all have different gifts.  Mode does not matter, though it is wise to always have nice manners.  Sincerity is what matters.  In being a witness for Jesus, be yourself, and speak from your heart.

Hunter Irvine

Jesus is for real

Matthew 11: 2-6

   As a person who has recently struggled with much discouragement as a result of past hurts in churches, and unemployment, I am thankful Scripture records the discouragement of John the Baptist.  This was a lesson I needed to hear this week.

   We learn the Jesus freak hero who was the one who proclaimed Jesus as the “Lamb of God” (see John 1:29), started having doubts that Jesus is the Messiah.  His faith struggle seems natural to me considering John the Baptist went from the freedom of being in the great outdoors to being confined in a hot, dark, dingy, and stinky prison.  And he was probably hungry.  Even though Jesus was physically in the world, John’s circumstances were awful.  Experiencing despair, John questioned whether Jesus is the Messiah.

   I admire John the Baptist’s willingness to admit he may have made a mistake.  John had stated: “I have seen and I testify that this is the Son of God” (John 1:34).  But then at a tragic time, in his heart he was unsure.  Yet he was smart to deal with his despair by following-up with Jesus to confirm the truth.

   And Jesus answered.

   My own personal story here in the period of over one and a half years of this worldwide pandemic: I have been unemployed and church homeless.  The synopsis: Worshiping God on many Sunday mornings in such an intimate One on one manner in my room has been awesome.  And after 30 years of “going to church,” such a long period of rest has been a blessing.  On the flip side, I have missed carrying out my ministry call on Sundays.  There have been times of terrible discouragement for me, including when visiting some churches.

   Yet God continues to heal me from past church hurts, and God keeps preparing me for my next ministry adventure!

   I offer two practical practices which are keys to anyone persevering in walking by faith in Christ:

   First, read Scripture daily.  Even if it is only one sentence.

   Our lives in this world are full of challenging and hurtful experiences.  Yet in Scripture, we learn the truth that Jesus was in the flesh here in the world, fully God and fully human.  We can listen to His teachings.  We can see His actions.  We can be encouraged by the truth that Jesus is for real, and that He loves us.

   For example, Jesus carried out miraculous healings for people who had diseases, as stated in Matthew 9:35, and as is shown by the witnesses of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.  But with so many people sick with COVID for over one year and a half, Jesus has not been here physically to heal.  Yet I know in my heart that Jesus cares, and that He is offering spiritual healing to anyone right now at this time of worldwide trouble.

   And first and foremost, we learn that Jesus’ ministry in Israel for about three years was leading to His ultimate sacrifice on a cross to make salvation and eternal life available to all people.  Jesus died as the substitute for the consequence of sins, which is physical and spiritual death.  Because of the love of Jesus, physical death in this world is not the end for anyone who gives her or his heart to Him.

   Also, we need to stay rooted in Scripture to keep gaining guidance and encouragement from God to live the life Jesus is calling us to live.  Loving God and loving people is what we were meant to do.  For example, since Jesus cared when people were sick, we should also!  Years before the pandemic, it was my conviction some church leaders did a poor job of promoting good health in churches.  I have known ministers who served on a Sunday, including serving Communion, when sick.  Often this was due to a failure to recognize church work as team work.  We should repent of our past mistakes.  We Christians should lead the way when it comes to repentance.

   Relying on Scripture for an entire lifetime in this world, we can continue to read with our own eyes or hear with our own ears, the teachings and the actions of Jesus our Savior and Lord.

   Second, pray daily.  Again, being physically separated from Jesus who has ascended to heaven, we can still talk with Him in spirit through the Spirit of Christ.  You can talk to God anytime you want.  How incredible!

   May we be encouraged by this Scripture which reveals even the great John the Baptist doubted the identity of Jesus when suffering in a prison cell.  Yet Jesus gave him reason to persevere in faith!

Hunter Irvine

Locusts and wild honey

   Embedded in a passage I examined last January, there is the well-known statement about John the Baptist: “…His food was locusts and wild honey” (Matthew 3:4).  This has negatively impacted his reputation for many years.  Yet this man, who was in the lineage of Aaron, the first Levite priest and the brother of Moses, is a neglected biblical hero.  His asceticism, which means making extreme sacrifices in day to day living to be closer with God, has long seemed to make some people uncomfortable.  I have been a Christian for over 31 years, and in all of the church services I have ever attended, John the Baptist has rarely even been mentioned.  The greatest attention focused on John the Baptist during my Christian journey came from one of the most popular rock songs of my generation, “Jesus Freak,” by the music trio dcTalk back in the mid-1990’s.  Spotlighting this biblical martyr added to the radical attraction to the long neglected messages which were offered on that pioneer album.

   Talking with a friend last Sunday evening, he started talking about eating bugs.  My friend has a Ph.D. from Cornell University, he is a computer expert, and he has an interest in the sciences.  Recently he was watching a science program which was discussing the advantages of people eating bugs for a more sustainable planet and for better health.  Following up with some research of my own, I learned much.  First, insects add nutrition to the diet for many people on our planet in certain regions of the world.  Second, I learned locusts are basically grasshoppers who swarm.  Locusts eat leaves and certain vegetation, thus a swarm of them can destroy certain crops.  I add that cicadas are not from the same insect “order,” and they eat tree sap and do not swarm.  For John the Baptist’s diet, the more appropriate translation may be “grasshoppers” if he was eating them year after year.  The bottom line is John the Baptist may have been ahead of his time.  You may be interested in reading this short article from 2013 in the Smithsonian Magazine: “People in Israel Really Are Eating Swarming Locusts.”

   Once I briefly considered eating a grasshopper, saturated in honey, in front of a youth group, thinking my feat might help attract some newcomers to youth group.  But that moment is gone.  Yet what we are going to find out early on in Matthew 11 is the fact that John the Baptist, Jesus freak hero, was also human.

Hunter Irvine