This morning’s word is With Him.
The anchor verses are Mark 3:14 and Acts 4:13.
On Wednesday, June 10, in Zonnebeke, Belgium, a memorial service was held at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s Tyne Cot Cemetery. Six new white marble headstones were dedicated that day to British soldiers of the First World War whose remains had recently been identified through archival research and DNA analysis. One of the six was Private Thomas Whitaker, who died in the trenches more than a century ago.
What allowed the world to know that the body belonged to Private Whitaker was a postcard. He had been carrying it. A postcard from Bradford, in northern England, where some of his relations still live. He had brought a piece of home into the trench with him and died with it on him. A hundred years passed before that small piece of paper allowed the descendants of those relations to stand at his grave.
This is the rhythm at Grace and Peace Studio. Each morning, readings are gathered and walked together until their single thread emerges. Today’s come from four streams: Day Three of “One Day at a Time,” Day Five of “Does God Heal Today?,” Day Four of Discipology, and the second chapter of Ignatius’s letter to the Trallians.
The thread is one phrase. With HIM.
Day Four of Discipology, the 28-day disciple-making plan by Peyton Jones and Kris Langham, opens with the simplest description of how Jesus formed disciples. HE spent time with them. Mark 3 says HE appointed the Twelve “that they might be with him.” Year One of HIS ministry was largely that. Walking. Eating. Traveling. Conversations. HE did only two miracles in that first year because miracles drew crowds, and crowds made it hard to build relationships. The Twelve became disciples by being with HIM.
Acts 4 reports the outcome years later. When the religious leaders saw the boldness of Peter and John, the text says they “took note that these men had been with Jesus.” The presence had become visible on them. The with-HIM had transformed them at a depth that lasted past the cross, past the resurrection, past Pentecost.
Ignatius of Antioch, the second-century bishop and martyr who wrote seven letters to early churches on his way to Rome and execution, opens chapter two of his letter to the Trallians by naming the same reality from inside the early church. Christ, he writes, is “our hope, in whom, if we live, we shall be found.” Being in HIM and being found in HIM are the same act. The point of the church is presence with HIM together.
Pastor Daniel Vander Klok of ResLife Church, who writes on the healing ministry of Jesus and the believer’s part in carrying it forward, sharpens the point in Day Five of “Does God Heal Today?” GOD is sovereign, Vander Klok writes, but that does not mean everything that happens is GOD’s will. Sovereignty does not erase the believer’s responsibility. We have a part. The part is to partner with GOD and resist the enemy. James 4:7 and 1 Peter 5:9 name the move: submit to GOD, resist the devil, stand firm in faith. John 10:10 names the difference between the two wills. The thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy. Jesus came that we may have life and have it abundantly. Being with HIM is the active stance.
Cade Thompson, a contemporary Christian songwriter who writes on walking with GOD one day at a time, closes his three-day plan with the simplest version of this teaching. Matthew 6:31-33. Do not worry. Your heavenly Father knows what you need. Seek first HIS kingdom. Thompson quotes a line from his own song. “All we’ve got is here right now, so I’ll walk this out with You.” The walking is the with-HIM. The today is where HE is. We do not have to carry tomorrow. We walk closely with HIM. Not five steps ahead. Not five steps behind. Closely.
Private Whitaker carried a postcard from Bradford into the trench. A folded piece of paper from home. He could not have known that the postcard would outlast him by more than a century or that it would be the very thing that brought him home to family who had never known him. He carried it because it was a piece of presence.
The believer carries something similar. We carry the Word delivered once for all. We carry the Spirit Jesus sent after HE ascended. We carry the church into which we have been baptized. We are carried by HIM, and we carry HIM, at the same time.
What is asked of you today is not a strategy. It is a posture. Walk this out with HIM. Today is enough. Today is where HE is.
I am not here to prove myself. I am here to make HIM visible.