1 Corinthians 15:1-19
No Easter? In his book, Knowing the Truth About the Resurrection, Christian philosopher and theologian, William Lane Craig, recounts a conversation he once had with a former student of his. “There ain’t gonna be no Easter this year,” the student remarked to Craig. “What’s that?” Craig asked, just to make sure he heard his student correctly. The student repeated the same line, “There ain’t gonna be no Easter this year.” “And why is that?” Craig asked. “Because they found the body,” the student replied. Craig commented on this exchange by saying, “Despite his irreverent humor, my friend displayed a measure of insight often not shared by modern theologians.” Craig’s student understood that the Christian claim is not that Jesus was “resurrected” figuratively or metaphorically in the hearts of his followers, but that he was raised bodily from the dead. And if his actual body had been found, there would have been no resurrection from the dead. Nothing to celebrate. No Easter. This is the Apostle Paul’s testimony in our Scripture from 1 Corinthians 15. Various and Spurious Denials Throughout my ministry, I have observed a variety of ways the resurrection of Jesus has been denied, sadly sometimes, even from those who profess faith in Christ. One of the earliest denials of Jesus’ resurrection goes back to the New Testament itself. It is what’s called, the “Conspiracy Theory.” In Matthew’s Gospel we find the Jews explaining away the resurrection. There we discover the chief priests bribing the guards who were stationed at Jesus’ tomb. In Matthew 28:11-15, we read, When the chief priests had met with the elders and devised a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money, 13 telling them, “You are to say, ‘His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep.’ 14 If this report gets to the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.” 15 So the soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed. And this story has been widely circulated among the Jews to this very day. Other ways it has been denied has been to say that everything that happened can be explained naturally, not supernaturally. Some say Jesus didn’t really die, but that he took medicine to make him appear to be dead. Then, when he was placed in the tomb, he woke up and went on his way. Others say the disciples went to the wrong tomb. If you kept up with the Jesus Seminar in the early 90s, you may remember that their conclusion was, “After the crucifixion, Jesus’ corpse was probably laid in a shallow grave, barely covered with dirt, and subsequently eaten by wild dogs.” Finally, there’s even one philosopher who suggested that Jesus had a long-lost twin brother who came to town and fooled all the disciples. As you can tell from just these examples, there are great lengths people will go to in order to avoid dealing with the risen Lord. The examples just mentioned represent complete rejections of the bodily resurrection of Jesus by unbelievers, or perhaps those on the fringe of Christianity. The Problem in the Church The problem inside the church, however, is another way in which the resurrection of Jesus is denied. It’s a subtle form we have to pay close attention to or else it may sneak by us. It can best be illustrated by the sentiment of one theologian who wrote in a newspaper column, “If the bones of Jesus Christ were found tomorrow, it would make no great difference to me. I would go on going to church as would a majority of Christians.” For this particular theologian, the important thing is not what happened to the body of Jesus, but what happened to the spirits of the apostles. A similar view was raised a number of years ago in a Methodist newspaper. The author couldn’t understand what the big deal was concerning whether or not Jesus was actually, bodily, raised from the dead. “The important thing is that we come together like the early church and love one another,” he claimed. I had a classmate in seminary once tell me the same thing. Of course, that response ignores the issue of “why” the early disciples came together and loved one another in the first place. Perhaps we should take them at their word when they tell us they actually saw the body of the risen Lord. In our Scripture from 1 Corinthians 15, the Apostle Paul makes clear that whether or not Jesus really came back from the grave, is a very big deal. If Christ is Dead Paul is very logical in his response to doubts about the actual (bodily) resurrection of Jesus. Paul begins in verses 13-14, If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14 And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. Paul was smart enough to know that if Christ was still in the tomb, then he was still dead. And if Christ is dead, then the Christian message a useless lie, a religion that declares a lot of things that just aren’t true. If Christ is dead, then the Christian faith is futile. He continues in verses 17-19, And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. 19 If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. In other words, if Christ is not risen from the dead, then there’s nothing behind the faith we proclaim. It’s powerless. There’s no Spirit of Christ who dwells in you. All that talk about the forgiveness of your sins is worthless. There’s no use talking about salvation. God has not honored Christ’s words, life, or death. If Jesus remains dead, then the death of Jesus was just one of thousands of deaths on Roman crosses. Tragic perhaps, but nothing more. And if Christ is dead, Paul says, then those of us who believe in him now “are of all people most to be pitied.” We’re no better off than the person who is dying of an incurable disease who puts all their eggs in the power of positive thinking. But Christ is Risen But the good news, Paul declares, is that “Christ has indeed been raised from the dead (verse 20).” That’s the greatest fact in all of history! That’s the fact that changes everything and everyone who believes and trusts it and gives their very lives to it. All we have to do is look at Paul himself. As Saul of Tarsus, he was a living nightmare to the early Christians. But then he personally encountered the risen Christ. Paul went from one of the greatest enemies of the Christian faith to one of its greatest missionaries. He was dramatically transformed from an intolerant, bitter, and proud persecutor of the church to a humble servant of the Lord Jesus. Not only did his relationship with Christ change, but so did his relationship with followers of Christ. He came to love them, helped them grow in their faith, and spent his life making more of them. Was this radical change in Paul’s life the result of nothing more than a psychological warm feeling or was it something more? Paul tells us over and over again that this change was the result of meeting the risen and living Christ! He was so convinced of this that he gave his life as a martyr for his faith in Jesus. What was true of Paul’s life was true for all the disciples. They went from frightened lambs to bold lions of the faith, traveling the Roman Empire, bearing witness to the risen Christ. The bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ is the only things that makes sense of this change in their lives. Our heavenly Father vindicated our Lord Jesus by raising him from the dead. The resurrection revealed that death was not the winner, for Christ defeated even death itself. It was this belief in the resurrection that enabled the disciples to proclaim their crucified Lord as God’s Messiah. If they didn’t really meet the risen Christ – if they really didn’t believe he was raised from the dead, is it likely they each would have kept up their delusion or charade, all the way to their own persecutions, and ultimately, their deaths? One historian commented that if the disciples didn’t truly believe Jesus was raised from the dead, then the Christian faith would be nothing more than a dead folk religion of the first century. He Can Transform Us, Too But he lives! And just as the disciples believed, and just as our hymn proclaims, “We serve a risen Savior, he’s in the world today.” The resurrection of Jesus Christ means that those of us who live two thousand years after the fact can still be in a relationship with him today. It means he’s not dead, but alive! The same risen Christ who transformed Paul and the other disciples can transform us today. The resurrection of Jesus Christ means we can have hope in the midst of trials, suffering, sorrow, despair, and pain. A figurative, metaphorical resurrection can do none of that. Alister McGrath tells the story that in Soviet Russia, right after the Communist Revolution in 1917, a government official was tasked with crushing the spirits of the remaining Christians and, ultimately, ridding their country of Christianity altogether. So, he gathered the people of a particular town so he could discredit and disprove Christianity using all the clever arguments he could muster. He ranted for hours as he sought to show the people just how ridiculous their faith in Christ was. After he finished, feeling quite satisfied he had done his job well, he offered the platform to anyone who dared to respond to him. A young priest took him up on his offer and came forward. The official told the priest he had two minutes. “I won’t need that long,” the priest replied. And in a very meek and humble way, the priest approached the podium. After looking at the people for just a few seconds, the priest threw his hands high into the air and shouted, “Christ is risen!” To which the people responded as one, “Christ is risen indeed!” And so he is. Thanks be to God. Walking Points
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To grow strong, we have to go deep. So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. (Colossians 2:6-7) The Root of the Righteous There is an old saying that suggests if something is to grow tall it must first grow deep. These underground foundations matter, whether we are talking about wise and foolish builders (Matthew 7:24-27) or branches attached to a deeply rooted vine (John 15:1-11). Tozer’s words, written over 60 years ago, still ring true. Many in the church today seem impatient with the hard, ordinary, and often behind-the-scenes work required to grow our roots deep in the fertile soil of communion with and knowledge of God.
In our day of activism and activity we are often, as Tozer put it, preoccupied with appearances. But when a seed is planted in rocky and shallow soil, the root can’t go deep, which causes what growth there may be to soon wither away. (Matthew 13:5-6, 20-21). The impressive appearance of today’s rootless activity can quickly fade into impotent irrelevance tomorrow. We were created for good works (Ephesians 2:8-10). God’s Word not only makes us wise for salvation but also equips us for every good work (2 Timothy 3:15-17). Therefore, let’s sink our roots deeply into Christ and his Word so our good works will bear much, good, and lasting fruit. Walking Points
A Maundy Thursday Reflection
John 12:20-23 - 20 Now there were some Greeks among those who went up to worship at the festival. 21 They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, with a request. “Sir,” they said, “we would like to see Jesus.” 22 Philip went to tell Andrew; Andrew and Philip in turn told Jesus. 23 Jesus replied, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. His Time Had Not Yet Come Throughout the whole of John’s Gospel, which represents the whole of the public ministry of Jesus, our Lord says over and over again, things like, “my time has not yet come.” Or John himself, as he narrates his Gospel, reports that crowds were not able to capture Jesus because his time “had not yet come.” Therefore, in our Scripture, we learn that Greeks (probably God-fearers, but Gentiles nonetheless) came looking for Jesus. They wanted to see him. The fact that these non-Jews came to see the Lord gives us a glimpse of the scope of why Jesus came. His death would not be for the atonement of Jews only, but for Gentiles as well. Clearly this is what John wanted us to understand. His Hour Had Come Several years ago, I watched the movie, “The Gospel of John,” which captured this scene beautifully. When Jesus was told that Greeks desired to see him, the actor poignantly portrayed Jesus responding in a somber and reflective manner. Of course, his acting decision was speculative, but some speculations are closer than others. I believe his expressions would have been very close to how Jesus must have responded when he realized, “his hour had come.” Jesus’ words of response in John 12 seem fitting in light of his experience later at Gethsemane, found in Matthew 26:26-44. 36 Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” 37 He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. 38 Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.” 39 Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” 40 Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Couldn’t you men keep watch with me for one hour?” he asked Peter. 41 “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” 42 He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.” 43 When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. 44 So he left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing. Big Deal I sometimes think we suffer the consequences of an “over-familiarity” of a text in Scripture. We’re so used to hearing or reading it that it can lose its powerful punch. We often fast forward through the details to get to the “good parts,” which usually means the parts we like or make us feel comfortable. This scene from Gethsemane is an example of what I’m talking about. Perhaps we think to ourselves, “since Jesus knew he was going to be raised from the dead on the third day, his journey to the Cross was not that big a deal for him. After all, he’s God incarnate, and he knows how the story ends. Yet you can’t read this text from Matthew’s Gospel and come away with that perspective. Reread and take in the significance of these verses again, He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. 38 Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.” (emphasis mine) Man of Sorrow He wanted his friends with him, praying for him. He was sorrowful. Overwhelmed. Troubled. He was sweating drops of blood. This was no walk in the park. And then, moving through the story, Matthew tells us that our Lord fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me.” “May this cup be taken from me.” Let’s not move too quickly past that part of the verse. Let’s absorb it for a moment. In 28 years of ministry, I have cried only a small handful of times while preaching a sermon. Two or three incidents were during funerals, as you can imagine. But the time that wasn’t related to a funeral was when I preached from this verse. Why? It’s hard to know for sure, but I think it was how this moment in the life of our Lord really hit me, perhaps for the first time. Would the mocking, beatings, betrayal, nails, and all the rest be painful, even devastating? Absolutely! I don’t want to minimize any of that. I’m sure it must have been excruciating in ways that none of us will ever really comprehend, despite all the medical reports describing it. But to have the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom Jesus had had an eternity of inseparable, uninterrupted, joyful, intimate union and fellowship, now “turning his back” on his Son, must have eclipsed any of the physical pain Jesus was experiencing. And Yet For Jesus to bear the filth of our disgusting and overwhelming sin, fallenness, and brokenness must have been truly overwhelming to the One who knew no sin, yet became sin for us. The realization of all he was going to face must have led our Lord to feel and experience all that Matthew reported to us and more. In the quiet of the garden, who wouldn’t have cried out for another way to complete the mission? Was Jesus really going to have to endure the agony of the Cross and all that went with it? There was no other way. And ultimately Jesus knew this was his Father’s will, as his prayerful response indicated. By God’s grace, our Lord was faithful to his Father, to his mission, and to us. Our Lord will be arrested tonight. He will be crucified tomorrow. Let’s not rush to Easter just yet. Walking Points
A Transforming Truth
One of the most powerful biblical truths that has transformed both my life and ministry is the touchstone proposition that Jesus Christ is Lord over both the temporal and the eternal. To paraphrase Dutch theologian and statesman, Abraham Kuyper, there is not a square inch in all the universe that Jesus Christ doesn’t claim as his own. That means Jesus Christ is Lord over our salvation, theological, philosophical and ethical views, our thoughts, words, behaviors, attitudes, values, family life, work, checking account, priorities, political views, what we watch on TV and the Internet, what we read, our friendships, our service and witness, and so on. He is Lord over it all. That means he has the right to exercise authority over all of it and may properly expect our obedience in every sphere of our lives. In fact, Jesus asks us what’s the use of calling him Lord if we’re not going to do what he commands (Luke 6:46). The Pathway to Freedom To be sure, he is a loving, gracious, good, patient, compassionate, and merciful Lord, but he is Lord nonetheless and we may not rebel against him with impunity. Amazingly, once we come to know him and submit to him as our Lord, he invites us to go deeper in our relationship and know him as brother and friend. The paradox is that only as we submit to his Lordship in every sphere of our lives do we become free enough to pursue all he has created, redeemed, and called us to be. A New Worldview This view of Christ’s Lordship ought to inform the way we see the world in which we live. Like a pair of eye-glasses with the proper prescription, we can only see things aright as we look at the world around us through the lens of the Lordship of Jesus Christ. I love the way C.S. Lewis put it. He wrote, I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen, not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else. Our fallen nature prevents us from seeing everything perfectly, but we should know because Jesus is Lord, we are able to see the world much closer to the way he desires us to see it. Whether We Recognize Him or Not The truth is, Jesus is Lord over heaven and earth whether or not we choose to recognize his Lordship. However, we are able to live far more faithfully when we are living in harmony with who he is. Things don’t work well when we’re trying to be our own Lord. Have you noticed? Is He Your Lord? Part of my own calling is to serve others by helping them come to a place where they too will bow before Christ, confess him as their Lord, and live in joyfully harmonious submission with that reality. I deeply desire to help folks understand what it means to submit to Christ’s Lordship in every sphere of their lives, beginning with their salvation. It’s vital to realize the Christian faith is not a self-help program that will be of use to anyone (or even make sense) apart from a person dying to self and becoming a new creature in Christ. Only then can a person live the life God calls them to live. Only then is Christ, the crucified and risen Lord, living in and through them by his Spirit (Romans 14:9). Walking Points
I recently found this answer to a question I was asked when I went through the ordination process. It's not my best writing by any means, but the heart of what I was trying to communicate still rings true for me.
A Role Model Question: Who has been a leadership role model for you (outside of Biblical characters) and what have you learned from him/her? Answer: The leadership role model who has done the most to shape my ministry is Richard Baxter. Richard Baxter was a pastor in the 1600’s who served a local church in Kidderminster, England. He was much admired as a pastor by the Wesleys. “John Wesley’s father Samuel, once a nonconformist wrote: ‘I wish I had [The Reformed Pastor] again: Directions to the clergy for the management of their people which I lost when my house was last burnt… [Baxter] had a strange pathos and fire.’” “John [Wesley] himself told the Methodist Conference: ‘Every travelling preacher must instruct them from house to house… Can we find a better method of doing this than Mr. Baxter’s? If not, let us adopt it without delay. His whole tract entitled The Reformed Pastor, is well worth a capable perusal.’ On another occasion he challenged his preachers: ‘Who visits the people on Mr. Baxter’s method?’” “Charles Wesley and William Grimshaw of Haworth conversing together agreed that preachers should ‘visit from house to house, after Mr. Baxter’s manner.’”[1] A Living Example Baxter was a living example of all that he wrote in his book, The Reformed Pastor. By “reformed,” Baxter meant “revived.” His book was originally written to clergy in his area and appealed to them to rediscover their calling as shepherds of souls – to really care for their flocks as Christ loved the church. The book is moving and was used of God to pour conviction on my soul as a pastor. However, mere words can often fall flat. There must be a life behind those words that matches them. His was such a life. Baxter was known throughout England as a godly man. He sought to live a life that was above reproach and one that could never be attacked as hypocritical. Like Wesley, he lived a very modest life because it was more important for him to give his money to the poor as well as to purchase books and Bibles for them. Loving Pastor He truly loved his flock at Kidderminster. He developed the practice of visiting every family in his church at least once a year at their home (over 2,000 people). There he would pray with them, make sure they knew the life-transforming truths of the faith, and see about any areas of their lives in which they needed help. He did not then leave them, go home, and forget about them. They were continually on his heart. His preaching and teaching concentrated on the essentials of Christian doctrine and holy living. He did not have time for those who focused only on divisive and nonessential matters. His view was that life was too short for such things. His Impact on My Ministry These are some aspects of his life and teaching that have impacted mine. Though my ministry falls short of his, humanly speaking, it is my goal. I have tried to develop a ministry that goes to the people and meets them where they are. My purpose is to create a warm and friendly environment where they can share the hopes, joys, fears and struggles of their souls with me. In my teaching I attempt to concentrate on those things that matter most, those things of eternal significance, such as knowing God and his Word, living holy lives, bearing witness to Christ in the world and displaying mercy and justice. Baxter has helped me expand my view of ministry. How does this relate to leadership? Well, Baxter modeled what he taught. God has been unfolding before me the idea that our lives must be lived with profound consistency. If I say something from the pulpit, in a Bible study or a committee meeting or, in a one-on-one counseling experience, and live in a way that is radically inconsistent with what I’ve said, then I have demonstrated poor leadership indeed. Why? Because my words will soon begin to fall on deaf ears and rightly so. Leadership must be daily lived and modeled before those one is leading, and that is one of the most important things that I learned from Richard Baxter. [1] From J.I. Packer’s Introduction to The Reformed Pastor by Richard Baxter. Page 15. Hebrews 13:7-8 - Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. [8] Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
No Expiration Date Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He is unchangeable. What blessed consolation there is in these words. What challenge there is in these words. If our Lord is the same today as he was yesterday, then that means what he said 2,000 years ago about himself and his work remains true to this very day. He has overcome the world. His yoke is easy. His burden is light. He is living water. He is the bread of life. He is the way, the truth and the life. He is the door. He is the gate. He came to bring life. He came to save sinners. He came to bear witness to the truth. His words of exhortation to believe and receive all these truths about himself (and more) are just as true, binding, and life-transforming for us today as when they were first spoken. And they will continue to be so 2,000 years from now, should our Lord wait that long to return. His promises are trustworthy because he is the same yesterday, today, and forever. A Larger Perspective Needed When I consider the saints who have gone before us and read their words about our Lord, I am moved by the fact that, regardless of the century in which their words were written, there is a vital and familiar thread that runs throughout. It’s not simply because those who wrote were merely using the same vocabulary to describe Christ. It’s much more intimate than that. Instead, they were describing someone they knew – someone who does not change with the tides of time and place. Span the centuries and you will find the Lord Jesus being written about, adored, and worshipped with striking continuity and intimacy. We would do well to imitate those faithful saints who traveled the way of Christ before us. Our vision of our Lord, when confined to our time and place alone, can become myopic and limited. It’s easy for us to grow accustomed to his face. Instead, we need to step outside our surroundings and see a bigger, more beautiful Jesus. We need to cross the generations to discover what others have said about our Lord and learn how their thoughts and lives were transformed and renewed because of him. I love to read the works of the saints who lived, served, and died over the last 500 years (though, admittedly, that too can be limiting). I want to learn from those giants of the faith, whose lives, ministries, and teachings have stood the test of time. They have much to teach me today in my narrow little place in history. I encourage you to do the same. Aside from time in God’s Word, there are few better ways to occupy your life of study and mediation than to read Christian biography. The lives of those who traveled with our Lord in the past can serve you as you travel with him in the future. Walking Points
Prayer Eternal God, you are the one, true God of the past, present and future. Your Son is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. I give you praise and thanks that the promises you made in the past are just as true today and will be tomorrow as well. I bless you that what was true about you in the days of the Apostle Paul were just as true when you spoke to Abraham. And praise God, they are just as true today. You and you alone, are worthy of trust because you are the one, true God, and you do not change. Please fill me with your eternal Spirit and keep me close to you today, tomorrow, and forever. In Christ I pray. Amen. I have described Richard Baxter as a 17th century Renaissance man. More accurately, he was an English puritan pastor and writer. But that description doesn’t do him justice. According to Baxter scholars, J.I. Packer and Timothy Beougher,
“Baxter has been called the greatest of all English preachers, the virtual creator of popular Christian literature, and the most successful preacher and winner of souls and nurturer of won souls that England has ever had.” They go on to point out that, “As Puritanism’s leading writer on practical, devotional, moral, and apologetic themes, Baxter produced over 140 books marking out various aspects of the path of truth and holiness.” I call Baxter a Renaissance man because of the wide interests about which he wrote. “Baxter penned treatises on grace and salvation, apologetics, …antinomianism, the sacraments, millenarianism, ethics, nonconformity, devotion, conversion, politics, and history, not to mention systematic theology.” In fact, Ian Murray points out that… “Baxter was a many-faceted man. He was both an evangelist and scholar; a speaker and an author, a poet and a possessor of a keen analytical mind.” How important was he in his day? John Wilkins, Bishop of Chester concluded, “If [Baxter] had lived in the primitive time he would have been one of the fathers of the church.” A biographer of Baxter says about him, “he came nearer the apostolical writings than any man in the age.” How important is he for today? Packer and Beougher tell us: “As two students of Baxter who cannot be sufficiently thankful for the impact [Baxter] has made in our lives, we would say to every believer, get to know Baxter, and stay with Baxter. He will always do you good” Why would I choose Richard Baxter as my “patron saint?” Because he captured as well as anyone the worldview–focus (or the, “every sphere kingdom-mindedness”) of Christian discipleship that has captured my heart and mind. He understood that all of life (every sphere) must be faithfully integrated because Christ is the Lord of all of life. Packer puts it this way, “The sheer brilliance of Baxter’s achievement in crystallizing a proper form for the life of faith on a canvass as broad as life at a very high level of intelligent, Bible-based, theologically-integrated wisdom, and with unfailing compressed clarity, is dazzling to the mind. Baxter had a high view of “the unity of human life before the Lord.” Packer says that there is no world-denial with Baxter. Instead, what Baxter calls for is, “the sanctification of all life through bringing all its manifold activities into the unity of a single overmastering purpose – loving God, and laying hold of eternal life in its fullness. That can be put the other way round, by saying that what Baxter calls for is a branching out of the converted Christian’s heart’s desire, to know and love and please God, into biblically informed and situationally appropriate action in every department of life.” Richard Baxter has shaped my faith and ministry and many ways. I give thanks to God for his faithful life and witness. |
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