Increase Our Faith (Luke 17:5) Podcast

Stephen Jones
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Trying to grow my faith to the size of a grain of mustard seed. somestephenjones.substack.com

Episodes

  1. Feb 19

    Good News in the Obituaries

    Have you read the news lately? Find any good news? If you missed it, you’re not alone. Good news doesn’t make the front page. You cannot hear good news over the airwaves either, because they are saturated with bad news… But the good news is being reported, and although it is buried in reams and reams of bad news, the bad news has not overcome the good news. So, where can you find the good news? What sections of the paper do you have to scour through for good news? Well, there is no good news in the Finance pages. It’s all bad news there. Economic uncertainty, inflation, bad returns on investment, evaporating savings… I know you want to find good news here, you want to know that you will be able to buy a house, that you’ll be able to afford the lifestyle your parents enjoyed, you want to know you’ll be able to pay for the experiences you were looking forward to… cottages and boating, travel and nights out. Even retirement. I’m sorry, the bad news is that can no longer afford these things. To be honest, we never could, but now apparently we have to settle the previous generation’s bill. Oh, no… Don’t bother looking in the Business pages either. There’s no good news there. The global economy is unstable, and there is only bad news in the forecasts. I know it felt like the world was coming together to deliver prosperity for all, but that did not come to pass. So every nation is retrenching, borders are going back up, economies are shrinking. And you might have seen this coming, but that spells bad news for the World section too. Alliances are dissolving, pacts are being erased, treaties are being forgotten, bridges are being left hanging… And so global relationships are being dismantled. That is bad news for world stability, peace is now tenuous. We should brace ourselves for more bad news on this front I’m afraid. I would stay away from the Classified pages too. The jobs postings were written by AI and the successful candidate will also be AI. The news is not only bad… It was also poorly written by Notebook LM. I know you want to turn to the Entertainment section… If not for good news, then maybe for some distraction from the bad news… But, I’d skip it. I’ll spare you the intrigue: Yes, your favourite celebrity is on the list… you know, the Pervy McPervisson list. It’s bad news, I’m afraid. The Weather is not great, and it’s not getting any better. Your Horoscope? Oh yeah, funny how they still publish that… But I should warn you, it is written by AI now, the last real medium was let go. Can you trust anything anymore? Here’s the thing: There’s no good news in any of those pages. Bad news abounds. But the worse the bad news, the better the good news, so don’t give up looking for it. There is one more section I think you should check out. We all tend to ignore it. Well, it’s not honestly ignoring… What do you call it when you pretend to ignore something, but you’re actually just averting your eyes while your mind is flooded by thoughts of the thing you are pretending to ignore? A sort of willful but ineffective blindness. But since it is ineffectual, maybe it’s time to stop pretending to ignore it, and to look death straight in the face. The Obituaries are still in the paper for your reading pleasure, and the bad news is that one day they will be reporting the news of your own death. On that day, will it be bad news or good news? Don’t get me wrong, death in itself is always bad news. Death is horrifying. Death is an unnatural wrenching apart of body from soul, it is a devastating loss for the living, and a traumatic loss for loved ones in particular. Death is our sworn enemy, and death is evil. So how could we possibly find any good news in the Obituaries? Well, one obituary has turned every other obituary upside down. I know that we are all hooked on up-to-the-minute breaking news, but this one is from the archives. Two thousand years ago, the apostle Paul wrote this obituary: One has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised (2 Cor. 5:14-15). The death of Jesus Christ, the son of God was a turning point in the history of death. First, when Christ was crucified, it was the only time anyone ever died that did not deserve it. I know that sounds jarring, surely he was not the first innocent victim who suffered a fatality. But he was the first man to die who did not reject the one who gave him life to begin with. We have all rejected the God who gave us the breath of life in order to pursue our own selfish ambitions. But Christ was obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross (Phi. 2:8). Jesus maintained a perfect relationship with God the Father, and he died in order to bring us into that perfect relationship with God. So even though we willfully broke off our relationship with God, Christ restored it for us. And the second reason Christ’s death changed every other death, is that after he died, Christ was then raised. And having been raised from the dead, Christ will never die again, death no longer has dominion over him (Rom 6:9). What is more, we too can now reject death’s dominion over us, and so that changes the tone of every obituary… the worst possible news it can convey is that although death has claimed a life, death has no dominion over that life, Christ does. So it is time now to look death square in the face and decide whether we want to submit to the dominion of death or to the dominion of Christ. We are all going to have to push through our impulse to avert our eyes away from death, but we can only look away for so long anyway. Eventually, we all come face to face with death. So now is as good a time as any to decide whether death will show up on our doorstep as our master, or whether death will appear bound up, in submission to the one who willingly died for us. That’s the good news we have been longing to hear. That’s the only good news we will ever need. Every other piece of bad news, whether economic, political, relational, professional, medical or any other kind of bad news we are currently being assaulted by, will eventually be put to death. Not so for you and I. We will outlive all the bad news we have ever received. Life is amazing and beautiful, when it comes to an end, it is always a tragedy. And life is also hard, filled with hurt, sorrow, heartbreak and pain. By turning to Christ, by acknowledging our rejection of the God who granted our life, and by accepting the death that Christ subjected himself to on our behalf, then we throw off the yoke of death and we embrace our new life in Christ. Our life in Christ is no longer lived in the fear of death, but in hope. We now live in light of the promise that Christ has secured in his resurrection, the promise that our own obituary will be little more than an announcement of our impending resurrection unto life as it was always meant to be lived, without sin. Christ’s obituary proclaims that God himself will live with his people as our God, and that he will wipe away every tear from our eyes, and death shall be no more. Christ’s obituary spells the obituary of death. And as death is buried, we will look forward to life with no more mourning, no more crying, no more pain, as all the things that make life hard will have passed away (Rev. 21:4). So, if you are looking for good news, try the Obituaries. Among the tears of the living, you will also find hope for the dying. Whenever you are looking for Good News, read Christ’s obituary. Christ’s obituary proclaims the death of bad news. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit somestephenjones.substack.com

    11 min

  2. Jan 31

    Enter into the Joy of Christ

    Imagine you wake up one morning and you open your front door as you do every morning to pick up your newspaper or to take your dog out, only to find a treasure on your doorstep. Please use your imagination freely here, how ever you would like to picture this treasure is fine… a suitcase full of cash, a chest filled with coins or a stack of gold bars, you pick. But the treasure sits there unattended. There is no one there… just a treasure with a note that says: “For you.” This is not a mistake, it is yours. What would you do with this treasure? If you are like the average lottery winner, you might live the next few years of your life in the lap of luxury. And then, after those first few years, you would probably end up in a worse position than you started in, financially speaking… The problem most jackpot winners face is that they adopt a much more expensive lifestyle, but without ongoing cash flow, they can only sustain their new luxurious habits for a short period of time, and then end up back where they started. Or worse. The Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards estimates that one out of three super jackpot winners end up filing bankruptcy. Now, take a few more steps with me down this imaginary path… Many years have gone by since your unexpected doorstep discovery, and now someone runs up to you out of the blue and asks: “So? What did you do with the treasure? Did it change your life? Did it make you happy? Did you use it well?” And so the mystery of the treasure is finally revealed to you: This stranger explains that he sold everything he had ever owned, his house and all of his belongings, he gave up everything he possessed for that treasure and left it on your doorstep, for you. This stranger gave everything he ever owned to you. How would you feel about your ability to account for how you spent that money? You would undoubtedly start to reflect back on how you spent this treasure… Did you share in your unearned bounty? Did you pay any of it forward? Do you have anything to show for it today? Are you a better person for it? What would you feel upon this revelation about the source of the treasure? Gratitude? Or would you be struck with self-loathing and condemnation at the recollection of your reckless spending? Would you regret gambling a large part of the money away? Would you be embarrassed about purchasing luxury items that have since tarnished and lost their value? Or would you even start to resent the stranger for this unimaginably extravagant gift that you never asked for, but which now weighs on you as an unrepayable debt? Would the knowledge that what you had gained came from someone else’s sacrifice change the way you viewed it? Would you have valued it any differently? Would you have used your resources differently? Uh oh… Are you onto me now? Do you see where I’m going with this flight of imagination? You have an opportunity right now, today, to live the kind of life that will ensure that when you meet Jesus Christ face-to-face, you can give an account for each and every day that makes him smile, and say to you: “Well done, good and faithful servant.” You have that opportunity to live a life that is pleasing to Jesus. Forget WWJD? What Would Make Jesus Smile? This is not a new revelation, but sadly, rather than feel overwhelmed with gratitude and joy at the notion of pleasing the one who sacrificed everything for us, we too often feel weighed down by a sense of burden and of condemnation that such a life is too far out of our reach. We may even resent the Giver because we cannot shake the notion that his gift comes with strings attached. That is why I was so encouraged this week when I was reminded of this simple truth while reading Jesus’ Parable of the Talents in Matthew 25. I was struck by the fact that the Master does not just congratulate the faithful servant, he says, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.” (Matthew 25:23) In pleasing Jesus, you get to enter into Jesus’ joy! We have the opportunity to bring joy to our saviour and then to rejoice with Him! I apologize for the excess of exclamation points, but that is an incredible picture! A true celebration of life, a life well lived, a life that was lived in the light of its preciousness, a life that was not taken for granted but recognized the costly sacrifice that made it possible. I want that! I desire to live my life with an ever-present gratitude for the tremendous cost that was borne by Christ. Christ delivered a treasure at my doorstep even as a stranger to me: He gave me freedom from the fear of death, he granted me a life to be enjoyed in the light when I was plunged in darkness. At a time when I believed that everything I wanted in this life was going to have to be earned by the sweat of my brow, swindled by the deviousness of my mind, or taken from someone else by the ruthlessness of my conscience, that is when Christ revealed Himself to me and showed me that it is all already mine, and I am free to do with it as I see fit. Free to me, because the cost was paid by Him. I acknowledge that after receiving this treasure, I then spent the next little while trying to understand where the strings were attached and when the catch would finally be revealed. Some people tried to convince me that although there were strings, there was also a loophole: You just had to point at the strings and call them Legalism. But I have come to understand and accept the truth of the matter: There are no strings and there are no loopholes. The truth was much simpler and the truth is what set me free. Christian freedom is not just about forgiveness of sins, it is not even just about growing in sanctification by the Spirit. Christian freedom is looking forward to the day when you go through every one of your receipts with the man who dropped a treasure at your doorstep and together you can rejoice over all the ways you spent that treasure. The ways it brought you joy, the ways you shared it and gave it and used it to tell others of the lavish generosity of the Giver… The hope it brought, the burdens it relieved, the fears it calmed, the pains it soothed, the tears it dried. The love it spread. Sure, life is not easy. It can be down right hard. And some days feel like studying for a hard math test: You are not sure what is going to be on the test, or which concepts you should be working on more. You are confused about which formulae apply to which equations. You hope a certain kind of problem never comes up. But, having recently experienced this I can tell you that it is a special kind of joy when you get to rejoice with your child, whom you saw labour over his math lessons, as he brings home a hard earned A… or even B-... or, well… It was a pass anyway! Rejoice! Jesus has relieved us of the burden of the fear of failing. That is no longer a possible outcome, so we can carry on and fight the good fight, we can finish the race, we can keep the faith, knowing that there is laid up for us the crown of righteousness. But we all know that on some days, that fight feels exhausting, and that race feels wearisome, and on other days, our strength is renewed. That is because some days, I am driven by the slight nausea I experience at the thought of seeing disappointment in Jesus’ eyes. And while that might spur me on for a little while, it invariably leads me to exhaustion. Even though I know Christ sympathizes with my weaknesses and he readily forgives me, yet still, there are days when my efforts are fueled by guilt, fear, and condemnation. These make for bad fuel. But on my best days, I run on the good fuel of Christ’s joy. On the days when my strength is renewed, when I feel like I am soaring on wings like eagles, and I can run and not become weary, I can walk and not faint, on those days, I have set my mind on entering into Christ’s joy. To share in the joy of Jesus with Jesus as he rejoices in what I chose to do with this day, which cost him so much and yet which he gifted to me so freely… that is my most cherished desire, and that is the only truth that encourages me to run the race with endurance. Thanks for reading Increase Our Faith (Luke 17:5)! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit somestephenjones.substack.com

    12 min

  3. 08/19/2025

    What is a human anyway?

    I grew up in an atheistic family and had no spiritual guidance whatsoever, yet, like many brooding teens, I still spent a fair bit of time contemplating existential questions. At the time, I was in a death metal band called Society Sucks… I was the epitome of teen angst, and proudly so. So while I earnestly pondered the question of “what is a human?” I was also happy to adopt an extreme position. I sought to be controversial, edgy. In my mind it was clear that humanity was a negative force on the world, and after some thought, I concluded that humans must be a virus. A virus with a god-complex. I know… so edgy. But looking back now as a Christian, I wonder if it was really that extreme a position to take. The view that humanity is some sort of virulent plague on the earth is not all that rare. This is a pretty mainstream notion around the world. My younger self would be quite deflated to hear my own position echoed by so many squares. In one shape or another, this message that humanity is harmful to Earth is not fringe. Having fewer babies in order to save the planet - for example - is a widely and strongly held principle. The American Psychological Association (APA) reported last year that 39% of young people globally feel hesitant to have children due to climate concerns. It is mainstream for young couples to plan on having fewer or no children in order to reduce the harm humans inflict on the environment. This permeates secular thinking in all sorts of different areas, with disastrous consequences. This materialistic view of human life is what influences the world’s view of unwanted pregnancies, of the terminally ill and of the elderly. In these areas, all the secular arguments in favour of life have been eroded down to nothing, to the point where Canadian society fully embraces the culture of death. A 2022 Angus Reid poll found that 1 Canadian woman in 6 has had an abortion, while at least 1 pregnancy in 5 is aborted. The exact number of abortions is unclear but assuredly under-represented since the introduction of Mifegymiso, the abortion pill, which is not included in any of the statistics and the Ontario government hands out for free. Meanwhile, the Canadian government’s Medical Assistance in Dying program is picking up steam and is now putting more than 15,000 of its citizens to death every year. This represents more than 1 in every 20 deaths in Canada. It is clear that in abortion and assisted suicide, this society has recast our worst enemy as our best friend, they have rebranded man’s worst enemy - death - as a fundamental human right. How could they be so fooled by such an obvious lie? Death is no one’s friend, it is not a right, it is a sentence. But this stems from the fact that they have the wrong answer to the question of “What are we?” If we can be lulled into believing that we are what we contribute, then we make ourselves an easy mark for this most devastating con. Our culture has been conned into defining who we are in the light of what we contribute. This answer stands in stark contrast to the Christian conviction of the value and dignity of all human beings and the sanctity of all human life, regardless of age, of health, of wealth or power or status or athletic ability or address or citizenship. Nor do Christians reserve human value for the religious, the pious, the faithful or the Christian. In Psalm 8, David marvels at God’s glory and is struck by the thought that such a majestic God would be mindful of such lowly creatures as humans. While he praises God for his love for his creation, he does not claim that God’s love is reserved for God’s own people, but for all people. David does not ask what are we - your faithful followers, but what is man… all mankind. Men, women, boys, girls regardless of their background, their religion, their political views, their criminal records, their sexual orientation, their gender expression or their pronouns, regardless of their sin, and of whether they believe in god at all or whether they express out and out hatred towards God. The Christian love is a radical love. That is the truly extreme position. Where does the Christian find inspiration for this radical notion that all humans have intrinsic value and worth? What inspired William Wilberforce or Harriet Beecher Stowe to fight for the abolition of slavery? What led Corie Ten Boom to risk her own life to hide Jewish people from the Nazis? What inspired great missionaries like Hudson Taylor to lay down his children’s lives to spread the gospel to China? What inspires Christians around the world and across Canada to give to the poor, to love their neighbours, to serve in pregnancy care centres and homeless shelters and prison ministries, to open up their homes, to give sacrificially and to give up their time for men and women, boys and girls they do not know? I’ve seen this radical love in my local church. My church loves men and women, boys and girls in the community. Why? What are these men and women that we should regard them? It comes back to the question that Psalm 8 asks… what are we that God would regard us? That God would be mindful of us and care for us? This fundamentally Christian belief is anchored in the very early pages of the Bible! Genesis 1:26 “Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” We carry in the very fabric of our being the imprint of the one who made us, we bear his signature in our cellular make up, embedded way down into the deoxyribo-nucleic acid is the incontrovertible imprint of the God of the universe… Each and every one of us is an original masterpiece, there are no forgeries. Every single young man and woman in their prime as well as every person in their nineties, riddled with cancer and no memory of who they are... Every babbling baby who knows nothing yet, and every baby still in the womb that doesn’t yet know the taste of air… It doesn’t matter whether you are in a jail cell, in a dead-end job, in debt, in bondage, in slavery, in porn videos all over the internet, in prostitution, in crisis, in destitution… No matter your circumstances, how beat-down and how relegated this world has made you feel, you are a priceless marvel because of who made you. Wait! If that’s the case, then why are Christians always banging on about us being sinners? Do not misunderstand: that does not devalue any one of us. Nor is that a contradiction. We are indeed sinners. But Psalm 8 reminds us not of our worth based on what we do, not of what we make of ourselves, but of what we are made to be! That should lead us to reject our sin and to turn toward the one who made us the way we are. We are not viruses, we are not a negative force on God’s creation. God has made us his crowning achievement in all of creation, and Psalm 8 urges us to live our life in light of that exalted status. May we see ourselves and those around us in light of God’s love for us. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit somestephenjones.substack.com

    10 min

  4. 07/14/2025

    How Can We Sleep While Our Beds Are Burning?

    How are Climate Activists feeling these days? Do you remember the climate as a political issue? Everyone seems to have stopped talking about the fate of our poor old planet for a year or so, and I think maybe Climate Activists are not OK… Here’s a headline from iPolitics that was published on July 2, 2025: ‘It’s too late’: David Suzuki says the fight against climate change is lost. That is a jarring headline, all the more so if you fondly remember David Suzuki from his days as host of the documentary series The Nature of Things that the CBC ran from 1960 to 1979. Back then he was more of a friendly, smiley, nerdy, science guy. He’s long since turned his smile upside down into a scolding frown, and exchanged his helpful tips to be more environmentally conscious for dark profanity-laced prophecies of impending doom. In fact, I should probably have put a language warning on that link, Suzuki has developed a penchant for punctuating his alarmisms with F-bombs for impact. But I don’t fault him for his increased anxiety. How else could anyone expect him to react to his deeply held belief that the world is about to end? He is not the one responding illogically, it’s the rest of the world that has spent the last decade or more pushing for Earth saving initiatives only to abandon them without having even made a dent in the goals they set out to accomplish, they’re the ones who are altogether too aloof about the whole climate situation. Why are they not joining in with earnest Australian eco-rock band Midnight Oil’s 1987 desperate cri de cœur, how can we sleep while our beds are burning? It’s a fair question, sleep and anxiety don’t mix. Sleep is elusive. I was reflecting on that as I was meditating on Psalm 3, and marveling at King David’s ability to sleep while assailed by his son’s army. David starts in verse 1 by lamenting “O Lord, how many are my foes! Many are rising against me;” and by verse 5 he says “I lay down and slept.” As someone who now considers anyone’s claim of having enjoyed a good night’s sleep an intolerable brag, I found this Psalm remarkable. How?! David’s on the run, in the wilderness, enemies surround him, trying to kill him, he finds some clump of moss to lay his head on and lights out… he gets his beauty sleep? Come on! There is only one way for this to happen, it has to be a literal miracle. I mean that God has to intervene and grant him this rest. David sleeps because although his circumstances would be anxiety-inducing to the most level-headed person in the world, he knows God is in control and so there is no reason to be anxious at all. Sure, his own son has raised an army to overthrow and likely assassinate him, sure he is surrounded and assailed, sure this is all because of his own doing, he has created a mess he cannot possibly see a way out of. But… as David declares in verse 3, “the Lord is my shield.” End of story, good night, sleep tight. As the literary great Victor Hugo wrote to Savinien Lapointe in 1841: “Take heart and be patient, sir. Heart for the great pains of life, and patience for the lesser ones. Then, when you have laboriously accomplished your daily work, go to sleep in all serenity. God is awake.” We too can take comfort in God’s sovereignty when we are assailed by anxiety, and like David say to ourselves: Look, I know, I can’t get myself out of this mess, in fact I know I brought this on myself, so in all likelihood I would just make it worse, I know I don’t see a way, but I’m not the one in control, God is! When you are lying there in the dark with your eyes wide open and sleep is completely beyond your grasp, and the enemy is whispering in your ear that it’s all your fault, that you made the mess and that you cannot fix it, and that no one can help you and that the situation is hopeless… what do you do? Log onto facebook? Start scrolling? Turn the tv on? Take a pill? Start drinking… What did David do? King David, not David Suzuki, David Suzuki railed about Green House Emissions then left on his private seaplane… But King David? He looked that lie in the face and he confronted it with the truth. In fact, he turned that truth into a song and he sang himself to sleep. Well played King David, that to me is way more impressive than fighting a dozen giants! Are you able to sing yourself to sleep with God’s truths? You need to know the truth and to let the truth wash over you. So live in the Bible so that the beauty of its truth seeps into you. You should steep in the Bible like a soggy tea bag and let it saturate you until it oozes out of you. Then when the lie dares rear its ugly head, the truth makes no room for it, even when you are dog tired, especially when you are dog tired and you can’t even think straight, the truth is saturating every fibre of your being. Then you will know what it means that the truth will set you free. But, do not fool yourself, this will not happen naturally all by itself. Whether you like it or not, whether you realize it or not, you are being catechized all day every day by the world. If you do not intentionally spend time reading the Bible, meditating, chewing on Biblical truth, you have no chance of standing up to the lies of the world, they will consume you. A vague notion of Jesus loves me is not nearly sufficient, the world will happily take that and twist it like a pretzel into Jesus loves my sin. I mean look around you at how many fall prey to this easy slight of hand. Read your Bible, delight in God’s word and the truth of God will be right there, over you, like a shield, like a blanket under which you are sound asleep resting in the knowledge that God is awake. Sleep like David. Then awaken knowing that the Lord sustained you, knowing you have no reason to fear many thousands of climate activists who prophecy impending doom. Why? Because you know something they do not: God is in control. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit somestephenjones.substack.com

    8 min

  5. 12/12/2024

    When your faith is in tatters

    Do not give up hope in your weariness. Your faith is worth holding onto, even when it is in tatters, shredded and abused by the circumstances of life under the curse of sin. This fallen world of ours has a way of draining us and leaving us gasping for breath. Suffering, injustice and persecution will leave us weary, and so will our own sin, after it leads us astray with its false promises. But God will make a way back to Him for you. Naomi in the Old Testament book of Ruth teaches us that even when our faith is on life-support, we can revive our hope by shifting our focus from this weary world to the one who will redeem us. The book of Ruth opens up with a young Jewish family, a married couple and their two sons: Elimelech, his wife Naomi, and their two boys Mahlon and Chilion. They are living through troubled times in Judah, in the town of Bethlehem. This is God’s promised land, but it feels less than idyllic… There’s no King, and the rulers are unrighteous and they’re spiraling further away from God. And there’s no food, famine has settled on the land. And so, the patriarch Elimelech, in an act of rebellion against God, makes the ill-advised decision to flee Judah. Rather than seek and submit to God’s will within the land of God’s choosing, Elimelech decides to run. He leads his family out of Judah to Moab. He leads them into exile, and then Elimelech promptly dies. Naomi is left alone to raise her two sons in this foreign land. And when they are both grown up and married, and you start to think that her job is done and that she should now be able to be taken care of by her sons’ families, both her sons die childless. Her sons leave behind only two widows, Orpah and Ruth. Naomi is still in exile, where there is no support network for the trio of widows, and she finally accepts that she has come to the end of the road in Moab, she has reached a dead-end. The only way forward is the way back to Bethlehem. Thanks for reading Increase Our Faith (Luke 17:5)! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. While Orpah starts over in Moab, her homeland, Ruth sticks with Naomi and joins her in Judah, in Bethlehem, in the promised land of God’s people. And as Naomi and Ruth leave Moab and enter back into the promised land, they step through the looking glass into a mirror image world. Naomi, whose name means sweet or pleasant, now calls herself Mara, which means bitter. And she declares that she went away full, and the Lord has brought her back empty. Naomi left amidst a famine and she returns at the beginning of the harvest. Naomi shows up in Judah empty handed, having been stripped of her ambitions for a better life outside of God’s will. Naomi has lived through an extended season of trials, and her circumstances still appear bleak. There were not too many options available to a widow back in those days in the middle east. And the rulers of Judah are crooked and the people are not righteous, they are not generally inclined to take care of the vulnerable, they are not faithful to God. But the laws of Judah were handed down by God. God’s law is just, and the law does provide hope for the hopeless. So this is the part of the story where we see the dams of God’s Grace are about to burst. Even under unrighteous rule, God’s promised land is a better place for God’s people. Even with a weak faith like Naomi’s, being surrounded by God’s people under God’s law in God’s promised land is a far better place to be. This truth holds up for you today, so plug yourself into a faithful local church and seek to surround yourself with God’s people, spend time in the Bible, get to know and be shaped by God’s love for you, cry out in prayer to God and submit to His will for your life, that is where you will find His blessing. The laws in Judah were handed by God through Moses to provide for the destitute. The widow Ruth is allowed to glean at harvest time, the law allows for her to pick enough grain to avoid starvation. So Ruth goes out to glean, and by God’s providence she ends up gleaning in the field belonging to an extended family relative of Naomi’s late husband named Boaz, who shows her favour. This is not a stroke of luck! There is no such thing as luck. Only the sweet providence of the one who is sovereign over all things. After Ruth puts in a full day’s work she has an impressive harvest to show for her efforts. When Ruth returns home, Naomi is surprised by Ruth’s haul, and she asks her where it came from. But very quickly, we see that Naomi had figured out that Ruth has found favour with someone, so she quickly exclaims “Blessed be the man who took notice of you.” It is a telling detail of this exchange that Naomi redirects her thought patterns from focusing on where to focusing on who. This shift is hugely consequential for Naomi, and it is just as important for you. Elimelech lost sight of who he was living for, and decided to focus on where he was living. He strayed from living for God and pursued a better place to live. He anchored his hope in where he lived, in his circumstances rather than anchoring his hope in the Lord, the one who is sovereign over his circumstances and who is the only trustworthy source of hope. I invite you to redirect your thought patterns in the same way as Naomi, right now. Let this be your turning point if need be, stop worrying about where you live and focus on who you are living for. Shift your source of hope from your circumstances - no matter how comfortable or dire they are - and focus your mind and heart on the one who is sovereign over your circumstances. Focus on the one who can redeem your circumstances. For Naomi, by God’s provision, the source of her hope is her kinsman-redeemer Boaz. Although Ruth had not known who he was, Naomi had known this man all along. That was conceivably part of the reason behind the return to Judah… When Naomi was in exile, she had no relatives. But in Judah, while she is still a widow with no children, there are extended relatives like this man, who is worthy, and part of the clan of her late husband. So when Ruth mentions this name Boaz, Naomi immediately knows that this is good news! Ruth has not merely stumbled upon someone who can make a big difference in their lives, Naomi realizes there is even more at play here. So she cries out in praise to God, whose Hesed (steadfast love) has not forsaken her or her family. Naomi praises God who has ordained this turn of events, because he has not forgotten her, he has not abandoned her. God is faithful. God’s grace does not depend on the strength of Naomi’s faith, her faith was on life support, it barely had a pulse. Yet, it was God who was working in her life all along, He was her provider, He was guiding her path. God was responding to her small act of faithfulness in returning to the promised land. And it was small. It was not because of Naomi’s steadfast faith that she chose to reject the schemes of men like Elimelech and to depend solely on God’s grace. No, she ran out of options, she hit a dead-end, there was no place left for her to run. It is only because of God’s steadfast love that Naomi came to depend on God’s grace. By the merest wisp of tattered and shredded faith that she had left, Naomi returned to Judah spiritually empty. But as she stepped through the looking glass out of Moab into Judah, out of God’s enemy territory and into God’s promised land, she became spiritually filled. No longer bitter. Because she then saw that God was near. In fact He was all along. If you are clinging to your bitterness, it’s time for you also to put it behind you, because it will not do anything for you but blind you to God’s grace. If you see God’s hand at work in your life as Naomi did, then take up her example and shed your bitterness and turn to God like she did. Naomi thanks God for her kinsman-redeemer, and so should we praise God for our own kinsman-redeemer. Ours is the perfect kinsman-redeemer who became our kin at Christmas, so that he could become our redeemer. So, when your faith is waning and you feel weary, shift your focus from your circumstances and rejoice! Rejoice as you focus on the birth of your kinsman-redeemer, the one that God has sent for us. Christ is better even than Boaz. Christ is your kinsman, your redeemer, your Lord, your God. He is worthy of your faith. As you sing along to O Holy Night this Christmas, I hope you are encouraged by the verse “A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices”. We are indeed weary, and there is indeed hope for the weary, even for those whose faith is frayed in their weariness. Turn from focusing on the circumstances of this world, and focus on the incarnation of God who came to exercise His sovereignty over your circumstances. Your redemption does not lie in your own strength, your redemption has already been accomplished by Christ. And do not even trust in the steadfastness of your own faith, it will waver and falter, but trust in God's faithfulness, his steadfast love, his Hesed for you. And see the heart of God for you in the story of Christmas, because you are the object of that love. Thanks for reading Increase Our Faith (Luke 17:5)! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit somestephenjones.substack.com

    13 min

  6. 12/06/2024

    What can the Prince of Peace offer a mostly peaceful nation?

    It’s easy to pick on the secular world’s misunderstanding of the message of Christmas. Anyone with a Keep Christ in Christmas lawn sign or a He’s the reason for the season bumper sticker can point out that Christmas in the culture has been hijacked by corporate marketers and Hallmark movie script-writers. But I think that what is truly worth deploring is that the culture has now completely lost sight of the Christmas promise of Peace. Christians would be wise to cling to this particular hope and recall that when Isaiah prophesied the birth of Christ 700 years ahead of time, he proclaimed that one of the titles He would be awarded was Prince of Peace. How could that possibly still be relevant to us in the West today? You ask. Well, let’s think about the socio-cultural climate in Israel 2,700 years ago… The prophet Isaiah was addressing the people of Judah, the southern half of the divided kingdom of Israel, at a time when, after a long stretch of political stability and peace in the region, international relations were starting to feel frayed. Major superpowers were flexing their expansionist muscles and the little nation of Israel was smack in the middle of three of them. All three were posturing for supremacy: The past-its-prime superpower of Egypt, the mighty Assyrian Empire, and the ruthless Empire of Babylon. Israel was starting to feel a little claustrophobic in the region. Another important dynamic was that the people of Judah had drifted away from God in their affluence. They had largely abandoned their faith, and had started to believe that it was their own worldly wisdom that had secured their safety and prosperity. They believed in brokering deals with other nations and forming alliances. They thought that all they needed to do was to form the right pacts, strike the right deals to keep themselves safe. Finally, rejection of God and the embrace of sin had taken hold of their hearts during this time of ease, and as a result they had drifted further and further into moral decay. Sound familiar? You really could think of Isaiah’s social context as quite similar to our own day and age. And Isaiah was prophesying that Israel’s time of ease, prosperity and peace was coming to an end. Isaiah was foretelling that they would be taken into exile, they would be stripped of their land, and of their freedom. Since they had lost sight of God who had granted them these gifts in the first place, they would experience an unwinding of the Exodus. Isaiah paints a picture of hopelessness that would take hold of God’s people as they looked around and saw their leaders mismanage the nation, their prospects dimming, their prosperity evaporating, their sovereignty and their freedom threatened. And eventually they would know only despair, the gloom of anguish, the thick darkness (Isaiah 8:22) was going to envelop them… God was going to let his people be taken out of the land he provided them, and let them be taken back into exile. And they would know that they had squandered all of God’s blessings. No wonder we put Isaiah out of our minds at Christmas time! I get it, once we get into the Christmas spirit, we want to keep it light and cheery, and the context of the book of Isaiah is anything but light and cheery. But just like a jeweler places a diamond on a black cloth to make it sparkle all the more, the dark background of this amazing book makes the jewel of Christmas sparkle brighter than all the shopping mall Christmas trees in the world. Christmas is not about trying to put your problems aside so that you can ignore them for a season before plunging right back into them. It is not about trying your hardest to make everything merry and bright. The message of Christmas is a message of light shining into darkness. It is a message of hope that is found in the most desperate of circumstances. And that is truly worth celebrating because it means that there is hope for all of us who find ourselves in darkness. And despite what we might try to project, the holiday season cannot cast out the darkness. Only the light of Christ can illuminate the dark. Whether it is the shadow of strained and painful relationships, the gloom of financial stress, when we find ourselves abandoned by the false promises of consumerism, or even the darkness of our own making, sin is at the root of all darkness in this fallen world. So even if you have ended up lost in the darkness after a relentless season of fleeing the light, pursuing your own sinful impulses, you can find refuge in the light of Christ. When Isaiah announces the arrival of the Prince of Peace, he tells us that an important aspect of the light shining into darkness is the light of peace shining into the darkness of war. This is why the government should be on his shoulders and not ours. Peace in our country, in our land, in our relationships, in our families, in our churches, in our hearts… But most importantly: Peace between us and God. Isaiah promises that every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire (Isaiah 9:5), which is not exactly the Hallmark picture of the family gathered around the fireplace for a cozy family Christmas, is it? This is an image of the war-weary family, ravaged by violence and suffering, gathered around a bonfire of the defeated oppressing army’s blood-soaked uniforms in celebration of peace. An end to the bombs, the pain, the anxiety and the oppression. What a promise to a war-torn nation! There is rest in your future, there is peace. Your suffering is not the end of your story, Christ is walking through your affliction with you and leading you to Peace. And we can be tempted to think that this promise is uniquely relevant to war-torn nations like Ukraine or Gaza. We can look around and see that our circumstances here are good, that we live in a peaceful nation, that we live in politically stable times and think that this really does not have anything to offer us. But you have to remember that the prophet Isaiah is not speaking to a war-torn nation, rather he is addressing a prosperous nation that has been lulled into a false sense of security and has drifted away from God. Think about what it is that we rely on for the stability, safety and prosperity of our nation. Are they truly reliable? Where does our anxiety stem from? Our anxiety is rooted in the fact that deep down inside we know that we cannot trust our current circumstances to endure. When we hear rumblings of wars and political instability in neighbouring nations, we know that this house is built on sand. Isaiah is here to remind you not to let your comfort, wealth, ease and stability blind you to the true Hope of Christmas. When we proclaim Peace on earth, Goodwill to man, we are not talking about a peace that is held together by international treaties, continental alliances, ballistic defense systems, or even 2% of GDP spent on the Department of Defense, but we are talking about peace that is granted to us by God. Peace that was purchased at an excruciating cost and paid for by this child whose birth we celebrate at Christmas. This child who went on to lead a perfect sinless life, and who willingly marched towards Golgotha, knowing what awaited him. The Prince of Peace delivers peace, not just between us and our neighbors, but peace between us and God! Make no mistake: In our sinful state, we are at war against God. And the Prince of Peace came into the world to offer reconciliation between us and our creator. God the Son was born on Christmas Day as a baby to take on the full experience of human life in this fallen world. He lived an entire life free from sin, and yet took on the punishment that we deserve from God on our behalf for all the sin of the world. Even if you are not yet a Christian, you know that sin, you see it everywhere you look: Anger and hate and pain and suffering and depravity, that is the dark backdrop to all of our Christmases. That’s what Jesus willingly died to save us from. He willingly went to that cross, knowing the humiliation, the torture and the suffering he would be subjected to, so that you would not have to. That was the cost of peace between us and God. And through his resurrection, Christ ensures we are eternally at peace with God, and that allows us to be at peace with each other. Christ rules a kingdom of peace. What a source of hope! Isaiah tells us that the zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this, we will find these hosts of angels at the nativity: There we find the angel of the Lord, making the actual birth announcement of this child, saying: “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”” That is a hope worth clinging to! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit somestephenjones.substack.com

    12 min

  7. 12/02/2024

    I’m Christian… Can I binge this? Can I drink that? Can I work there?

    Is there a practical answer to what a Christian is allowed to do? I mean, theology is great, but what about Squid Game? Can I binge Squid Game? What about meeting my unbelieving friends at the pub… is that OK? Can I apply for a job at a corporation that promotes DEI? We face so many little day-to-day decisions, which the Bible does not specifically address, so how do I keep it all straight? These seem like pretty straight forward questions, but what I am ultimately asking is how do I reconcile the notion of Christian freedom with the Fear of the Lord. If we are to live out our faith in the Fear of the Lord and the Lord demands our obedience of His commandments, then where is the freedom? Let’s start with what we know for sure. First, in our justification by faith alone, we are granted freedom from the law. Then in our sanctification, the Holy Spirit helps guide us through the many day-to-day decisions we face, which are not specifically related to any one commandment. But… since my sanctification is a work in progress, I know I’m not always going to be perfectly attuned to the Spirit. So how do I consciously make the call? It takes wisdom. The wisdom we rely on to navigate the freedom granted to us comes from the fear of the Lord, it is after all the beginning of wisdom. And to what end do we make these decisions? Well the chief end of man is to glorify God. Paul says, in 1 Corinthians 10:31 whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. So the litmus test in my decision-making is… God’s glory. Can I truly praise and thank God for the gift of what I seek to do? If not, then I should stay away from it. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness. (Ephesians 5:11) So let’s get back to practical matters. This means that some decisions are plain and simple: Avoid anything that is going to cause you to sin. Obviously, avoid pornography, and avoid anything else that may cause you to lust or even tempt you into lustful thoughts. Avoid anything that causes anger to take root in your heart… for some of you, that may be avoiding watching a sports game (especially if you’re a Toronto Maple Leafs fan!). Avoid anything that causes covetousness to take root, for some that will be those real estate shows on HGTV. Avoid drinking any alcohol if you are susceptible to abusing alcohol or if you know you lack self-control when it comes to alcohol. You will not be any worse off if you avoid these things, you are not missing out on anything important… But note that these are all individual decisions, because only you and the Holy Spirit know your own sinful temptations. Although you are likely more susceptible than you think, so do not be too quick to let yourself off the hook. OK, but what about if you can enjoy a particular activity or program with a clear conscience. It’s not sinful, it does not create a temptation to sin… then there is one more factor to prayerfully consider that may limit your freedom. Could you be leading another into sin by your freedom? Let me explain, in 1 Corinthians, Paul illustrates this principle with temple meat. What in the world is temple meat? Well, in Paul’s time, in Corinth, animals were offered in sacrifice to idols in pagan temples. And anyone could go to these temples and buy the meat of the animals that were offered in sacrifice to idols. The pagan priests there would butcher the animals and resell the meat. And this was the cheapest option to buy meat, cheaper than the local farmer or butcher, mainly because oftentimes the meat was a little dodgy. But given everything surrounding the temple, all the icky, unsavoury and idolatrous activities… was it ok for Christians to buy their meat there? In 1 Corinthians 8, Paul says “As to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that “an idol has no real existence,” and that “there is no God but one.” therefore “Food will not commend us to God. We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do.” Christians are free to buy this meat. It doesn’t really matter if it was offered in sacrifice to a fake god. Paul says go ahead and buy the cheap meat and enjoy it to the glory of our God. We have that freedom! Please note that this individual Christian freedom is not relativism. I hope you see the difference, if not, that’s a topic for another discussion. You can think of it a bit like buying halal meat at the grocery store here today… It doesn’t really matter to God if you as a Christian buy halal chicken if that’s all that’s left at the store to throw on your BBQ… go ahead. Now… you may have a personal conviction against it, and if so, mind your conscience. Do not violate your conscience. If that just doesn’t sit right with you, then don’t do it. If you think something is wrong, even if you are unsure why, steer clear! But do not either condemn a Christian brother or sister who isn’t bothered… it is their freedom. Now here’s a twist, which Martin Luther quite unhelpfully puts this way: “A Christian man is the most free lord of all, subject to none. A Christian man is the most dutiful servant of all, and subject to everyone.” Consider this situation… What if you invited a friend over for dinner who was a newly converted Christian from a muslim background. You fire up the BBQ and then you take the chicken out of a package clearly marked as halal. You would not want to make your guest think that in order to be a Christian you need to eat halal! Paul warns you should not by your freedom lead another into sin, in particular a newer Christian in the faith. Again in 1 Corinthians 8 he says “take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.” This principle is not exclusive to temple meat or even to what you eat… this is true of your Christian freedom in general and applies to your personal choices. If you can enjoy a glass of wine with dinner without any issues with your self-control, fine, go ahead and enjoy wisely. But if you have a guest over who you know is a recovering alcoholic, you would not lead them into that temptation. Same goes for all sins, treat them like addictions. We are all addicted to sin, so let’s not lay out any stumbling blocks, let’s not set any triggers for each other, let’s ensure we are not leaving temptations in anyone’s path. Paul says that if you run the risk of derailing a fellow Christian’s faith if they see you at this idolatrous temple, then avoid it, it’s not worth it. As a Christian you are always witnessing to those around you, be conscious of that. What are you telling them by your behaviour? What are you broadcasting to the world that the most important priority is to you on your social media accounts? And what are you witnessing to your children who are around you all the time? You may be able to sing along to a secular song without taking any notice of the intended message of the lyrics… but your children may be susceptible to being influenced by the message from the artist they admire, and they may think your singing along is an endorsement of the political message embedded in the song. And these days, there is an embedded political message in every song, TV show, movie, cartoon, box of cookies and flavour of ice cream. Talk to them, point out the lie in the cultural messaging, make sure they know what you believe and where to find the source of truth… the Bible. Jesus warns about causing someone to sin this way in Mark 9:42 “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.” So you have freedom, but you should be wise in the fear of the Lord about how to use that freedom to the Glory of God. Ultimately, you need to be honest with yourself. Are you truly enjoying your personal choices to the glory of God or are you justifying it as just harmless fun? If Jesus were here, would you invite him along? Woah… woah… woah… This is all starting to sound a little WWJD. If Christian freedom is freedom at all, then why is someone always trying to restrict it. Is restricted freedom even still Freedom? Well that depends on who does the restricting and why. We restrict our freedom to protect relationships all the time. A husband would not go on vacation with any woman other than his wife, nor would he go to the movies or dress shopping with another woman… not because there is any commandment against any of these things, but because he chooses to limit his freedom to protect his relationship with his wife. We all need to seek wisdom and set our own limits on our own freedom to protect our relationship with Christ. I know we’d all rather have a list of do’s and don’t’s, but the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, not the beginning of list making. You have a choice in everything you eat, drink, watch, listen to, or partake in… avoidance of sin and temptation is not the end goal, that’s just the starting point, the bare minimum for the Christian. And while each one of us needs to determine what the safe distance away from sin is for us, there is no prize for whoever denies himself the most either. But as Paul says… “All things are lawful,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful,” but not all things build up. If God’s ultimate gift to us is his son. And if Christ truly died for you to pay for the devastating cost of your sin, then why would you go anywhere near sin again? And if Christ really rose from the dead, then so will you, if he really is interceding on your behalf at the right hand of God, then you cannot say “Eat, Drink and be Merry for tomorrow we die.” And if God is real and if He rules over this world, then the chief end of man is not the pursuit of happiness and the avoidance of suffering… The chief end of man is to know God and to glorify Him by enjoying Him

    15 min
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Trying to grow my faith to the size of a grain of mustard seed. somestephenjones.substack.com

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