Walking Out Loud

How to Love Like Jesus

By Galen Harrill / March 17, 2022 March 23, 2022

While reading through Philippians the other day I came across a phrase Paul used when speaking about how he felt toward the brothers and sisters there. He said he longed for them with the affection of Jesus Christ (Philippians 1:8). Affection is kind of a weird word and it made me wonder – Paul must be talking about the love of Christ, right? Why not just say that? I figured if I explored a little bit, this might have something to say about how to love like Jesus. So, I did a little digging.

I wasn’t quite ready for the intensity. The concept was a box I hadn’t really touched since high school some thirty-plus years ago. At the time, my wrestling with the terms had more to do with navigating my personal relationships and being an adolescent….

You see, I wrote lots of letters to lots of friends from Christian summer camp. That’s right, actual paper, envelopes, and stamps. Anyway, I judged “sincerely” as a completely uncool way to end a letter. So, with guys I could write, “Love you man,” and that was all understood – they were your bros or whatever we call them these days. “Love you girl,” besides being condescending, could lead to all sorts of misunderstanding so…. “Love in Christ.” That put a little distance there while still reaching out. That was safe….

Except it’s not. And if we haven’t thought about this since high school, perhaps it’s high time we did since this is what Jesus expects of us in our relationships with our brothers and sisters. Because it gets real deep, real quick. Cross. Think cross. “Demonstrating His own love for us in this – while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). Do we get it? I’m not sure – because this “affection” word is still out there and it’s still a little pastel for me.

The true color – are we ready for it? “I long for all of you in the guts of Christ.” Yeah. That’s it. That’s how Paul put it, that’s what the Philippians heard. Visceral. The word “love” is not used. We find that elsewhere. But this surely communicates something about the depth of feeling Paul had. It isn’t safe. It doesn’t stand at a distance from Christ and observe His children standing around the cross from the outside. Rather, it crawls inside and becomes one with Him as we are transformed into His likeness, longing for relationship. A gutsy love. Imagine what our churches will look like when we get it….

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A Plague of Frogs and God’s Power in His People

By Galen Harrill / March 14, 2022 March 17, 2022

What six-year-old boy doesn’t like frogs? I kept an eagle eye out for any frog-like hopping from my grandpa’s lap as he drove the old Sears lawn tractor over the yard in Michigan. We’d stop at every movement, and I’d jump down and scoop up leopard frogs, rescuing them from the mower blades and placing them safely in a box to keep as pets for the day. Win-win! I’d dream of frogs – boxes full of the slippery jumpy creatures, all mine! So, like every little boy I knew in Sunday school, I had a hard time making sense of the words “plague” and “frog” placed so close together in Exodus 7. “What would you do if you could catch as many frogs as you wanted?” we’d ask each other. “I’d keep them in a box!” we’d all answer. Naturally. Six-year-old boys.

But a plague it was – and a significant one as it was the last sign Moses performed the magicians of Egypt could reproduce by their “secret arts.” And it got me thinking – what am I supposed to think about this? Consider this – God tells Moses to go to Egypt and perform some signs to prove God is with him. He goes, and everything he shows the Egyptians they can copy. Snakes from walking sticks? Got it. Water to blood? Ew, gross, but okay, done. Frogs? This is getting weirder, but hey, the six-year-olds like it… and then the gnats. The magicians are done. Can’t do it. They tell Pharoah, “This is the finger of God!”

And this is what I came up with – the world can imitate God’s ways for a while. But then it can’t. Let’s take it out of the plagues. That was just the catalyst for this train of thought. Let’s put it into something much more palatable to those of us who are not six-year-old boys – say, love. Jesus sends us out like a Moses into a captive world and tells us to love one another. It’s the sign that Jesus is our Lord and that we are His disciples (John 13:35). Jesus says everyone will see it. Everyone will know it. It’s got God’s prints all over it!

You see, the power behind the staff to the snake, the water to blood, the frogs – it was all God. The magicians see his fingers – later they will see His mighty hand and outstretched arm! It was unmistakable, finally even to Pharoah! But when God’s love is poured out into our hearts by the power of the Spirit (Romans 5:5); or when His incomprehensible peace guards our hearts and minds (Philippians 4:7); or when we are filled with indescribable joy (I Peter 1:8) – it is something the world can only dimly sketch. It can never duplicate, and it finally has to admit this is God’s doing – and it has the power to free us all!

The Joy of the Lord is my Strength

By Galen Harrill / March 11, 2022 March 11, 2022

I love that opening chapter in “The Hobbit” where Bilbo Baggins says, “Good morning” to Gandalf. Gandalf asks some probing questions – “What do you mean? Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not; or that you feel good this morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?”

Now I admit – I love a play on words. Most of the time I understand them as such. But sometimes….

I have always wrestled with what, exactly, Nehemiah means when he declares, “The joy of the Lord is your strength” (Nehemiah 8:10). Does he mean the joy you feel in God is your strength? Or that God has placed joy within you and that is your strength? Or maybe it’s actually the Lord’s own joy that is supposed to be your strength… hmmm….

This is where you get down to context. God’s people had spent seventy years in exile because of their sins, something that broke God’s heart – but He had to do it if He was ever going to have a relationship with them again. The people returned – scared, small, and unsure of themselves. Nehemiah returns and marshals them to action, and they rebuild the city wall around Jerusalem. Then they all get together and listen to the words of the law. All the commands, all the blessings, all the curses. It’s too raw for them! They know what exile feels like, they were there! They know the stories their mothers and fathers and aunts and uncles all told about the war. The famine. The dying. The humiliation. They know it was their own fault, and as they are listening to Ezra read the law, they break down in tears, chained to the past.

Oh… but God. You see, God is not having any of that today! He’s been waiting these seventy years too – anguished at their suffering and their humiliation. Seventy lonely years. But now they are back! And His joy is unbridled! Nehemiah calls them to this joy!

“People! You’ve got to understand! God has wanted this from the beginning of this terrible exile thing! He has longed for you and waited for this day! There is no reason to be sad or fearful, this is not the day to cry over your past sins! That’s the past, this is now – this is the welcome home party He’s been planning for 70 years! No crying here. Let His joy strengthen you to remove your insecurities and doubt!”

And yet… how about us? Do we get Luke 15:7 and 10 and that whole “more rejoicing in Heaven” talk Jesus gave? God is crazy about us! We come broken and beat up from all our own self-abuse. Let’s get this straight – we’ve run ourselves through the mill. And yet. When we turn to God. When we finally turn to him. Ashamed and scared like the prodigal in Luke 15:19-20. God runs to us – unable to keep His joy in check, looking us over with our ripped clothes, black eyes, mud-streaked faces, and bloody knuckles and falling over Himself with happiness at the prize He has in us! That’s what Nehemiah is talking about – there is nothing in this world as fortifying as knowing you’ve made someone happy – and if that happens to be God – with all the joy of eternity focused on you – how great is that strength?

The Aroma of Christ

By Galen Harrill / March 9, 2022 March 9, 2022

For years after leaving Abilene, Texas, I could still hear the wind blowing in my ears. It always blew and must have carved out pathological canyons in the corners of my mind where such experiences are stored. Sometimes, it blew from the south. When it did, it brought the unmistakable smell of the Gooch meat packing plant with it, which lurks in another part of my mind. I haven’t stepped foot in Texas since 1993 – but as I write this, I smell Gooch. Fortunately, my olfactory library houses more than stinky meat packing plants and I can also call to mind Grandma’s house, the New Jersey Pine Barrens, and the educational wing of the church I grew up in.

We know the sense of smell binds powerfully to our memories, carrying us immediately to different times and places. God counted on this when He commissioned Moses to make an anointing oil for the tabernacle and His high priests. No one else was to make this for any other use. So, when you went to the tabernacle, you were smelling something unique. You didn’t get this anywhere else. It was only and always at the temple – unless….

Imagine. You’re walking back to your house from… I don’t know, your vineyard, fields, the market – you’re just walking. Your mind is thinking about something you’ve got to do or something someone said or maybe you’re just taking a mental vacation just soaking up the scenery. All of the sudden, you’re at the temple. You know how you got there, your rode on a whiff of “that smell.” You are in the very presence of the God who called your nation into community and are struck with the need to thank and praise Him this second! But where in the world did that smell come from??? You go home and your spouse says, “Did you hear the news? The high priest was here today.” “Ah!” you think. “That’s it! I must have passed him by without knowing!”

Question – how do you smell? Don’t get too self-conscious… you see, as the church, the whole church, we are God’s royal priesthood (I Peter 2:9). Now get this straight – this carries weight with it, responsibility – because God’s people are supposed to smell like Christ. We are His aroma to the saved and the lost (II Corinthians 2:15) as He leads us in this world. How are we doing? As we walk around in our daily rounds, do people smell something different? Does our attitude stink, or is it the same as that of Christ Jesus (Philippians 2:5)?

I get it, I really get it. Way too well I get it – staying sweet smelling in this world is difficult. I remember how on our way back from church on Sundays dad would stop at this convenience store to pick up the Sunday paper. This was before places were smoke-free and there was an open deli with salamis, pickle-loaf, and sliced onions for made-to-order hoagies. Dad was only there for about the one minute it took to pick up the paper and pay for it, but when he returned to the car, he was what we termed “O-dif-er-ous!” That’s our world and we live in it. But we’re not condemned to smell like it. And we won’t when we spend more time with Jesus, clothed in Him!

….by the way – you cannot imagine the temptation I faced to make some very tenuous connection to rejoicing in the Lord always as a safeguard for us in Philippians 3:1 and the fact that Safeguard is a brand of deodorant soap! But I’ll leave that to you….

The Good Samaritan

By Galen Harrill / March 4, 2022 March 4, 2022

Oh boy. Self-justification. That’ll get you into trouble every time. So, we’re at one of the most famous stories in all the Bible, the one about the Good Samaritan. Now let’s be clear – that’s just a heading in our Bibles. It’s nowhere in the actual text. Jesus doesn’t call this Samaritan good. To be clearer, if He had, those around Him would have protested loudly. “There’s no such thing as a good Samaritan!” This was a matter of deeply entrenched prejudice dating back centuries. Jewish society in itself had “us-es ” and “thems” as Luke makes plain – but throw a Samaritan in the mix and all Jewish society becomes an “us”. Not that all this uproar would worry Jesus at all as He is about to demonstrate.

You see, an expert in the law comes to Jesus and asks Him what he has to do to inherit eternal life. This will not be the last time someone asks Jesus this question and it’s a question we should all ask. But Jesus, instead of answering, makes him answer his own question. To his credit, the Lawyer holds nothing back – “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and Love your neighbor as yourself.” Matthew 22:40 says everything in the Law and the Prophets hang on these. That’s a lot of weight. Brave man. Maybe.

“You have answered correctly. Do this and you will live,” Jesus replies. And this is where it gets hard because knowing something or even suspecting something is right is only part of the battle. The other part is putting it into practice. And part of us might not want to put whatever that “it” is into practice at the level we suspect it demands. That’s this man’s problem. He had the answer. But he was still squirming because deep down he knows something isn’t right. So here comes the attempt at justification. “Uh, Jesus, follow-up question. Um, exactly who’s my neighbor?”

Ouch. Jesus, throughout Luke, is erasing boundaries left and right. He’s eating with sinners. He’s touching the sick. He’s raising up the humble. I don’t know how much this lawyer knew about all of that, but if he thought he was going to get a pass on this question, he was wrong.

Jesus tells the story we all know so well. A good Jewish man falls into the hands of highway robbers. They take his clothes, beat him up, and leave him for dead on the side of the road. A priest and a Levite – good, upstanding, respectable members of Jewish society – see him and pass by. But then a Samaritan comes along….

You can already feel the tension. Two have already passed by. But surely Jesus isn’t about to make this Samaritan the hero of the story, is He? Well, yes. Actually yes. He is. This Samaritan outsider bandages the hapless man up, provides transportation to the nearest inn, and pays the innkeeper to watch out for the guy. Then he tells the innkeeper he will pay him more if necessary when he returns.

Scandalous! I can almost feel our lawyer wishing Jesus would just finish this unpalatable story and have done with it. But Jesus, having been asked for clarification, now puts the man on the spot to see if he’s been listening. “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”

Note: The man takes the long way around to respond. There was a one-word answer. Let’s just say it together. It isn’t hard. “Samaritan.” Let’s try it again. “Sa-ma-ri-tan….”

…He couldn’t say it. Instead, he chose seven words. “The one who had mercy on him.” Driving the point home, Jesus tells him, “Go and do likewise.”

Now maybe we don’t catch it. We’ve grown up with charitable organizations with the word “Samaritan” in the title our whole lives. These are the good guys. But not here in Luke. This interaction was the most unlikely and extreme example Jesus could have given this man. The point is simple. Everyone is your responsibility; everyone is your neighbor. Loving them seeks no justification. Don’t look for it. You want eternal life? Leave justification out of it. Just do it. Luke 10:25-37

To the Brass Tacks of Faith

By Galen Harrill / March 2, 2022 March 2, 2022

No one really knows where this phrase originated, but we do know it means business. When we are at “brass tacks,” we’re at the heart of things where all pretense and fluff is stripped away. And so, this week we’ve seen the western world get down to brass tacks. It has jettisoned decades of foreign and economic policy as so much fluff clogging up the essential mechanisms of security and survival. We Christians have also striven to get to our brass tacks. Is our faith one of them?

Brass tack – our faith must infuse, inform, and animate every part of us, or it will always teeter dangerously towards irrelevance. The invasion of the Ukraine this past week has made this frighteningly clear as we struggle to allow Lord Jesus to reign over every thought, motive, and action. How are we to pray? What does “loving our enemies” look like? If we haven’t seriously wrestled with God’s sovereignty, the current situation is well beyond our spiritual training. So, let’s get down to it.

God has delivered nations from oppression before. He did this for righteous Hezekiah against Sennacherib by dramatically wiping out 185,000 men in the Assyrian camp. Sennacherib went home and was killed by his sons (II Kings 19:35-37). But He also delivered unrighteous Joram from the Arameans (II Kings 7), throwing their army into confusion and sending them to panicked flight. God didn’t just deliver Israel either. In Jeremiah, He promises restoration to several nations from Egypt to Moab, Ammon to Elam.

God has dramatically struck down those rulers opposed to His purposes who, by their actions, set themselves up as gods themselves. We have Sihon and Og (Psalm 136:20) as one of many examples in the Old Testament and Herod in the New (Acts 12:21-23). He incapacitated others – the most notable, Pharoah in Exodus; but we also are mindful of Nebuchadnezzar’s blasphemy and the humbling he received in Daniel 4.

God’s people have prayed for deliverance before. These were generalities in Exodus 2:23, but Hezekiah’s prayer in II Kings 19 is instructive as he petitions God to consider Sennacherib’s insults and asks directly for deliverance. The martyrs under God’s alter plead with Him in Revelation 6:9-10 and are told to wait just a little longer.

So brass tacks – do I bring my faith to bear? How am I to pray in this current situation? I’ll admit, I’d like God to give Putin a stroke, a heart attack, or worse. But it is not ours to give God our helpful advice as to the means of removal and relief. I’m reminded that all rulers are set up by God – David never moved against Saul and even the archangel Michael pulled punches with Satan himself, trusting in the Lord’s rebuke (Jude 9).

But we can pray for removal. We can pray for confusion and apathy in the camp. We can pray for an incapacitation of the leadership. We can pray for a change of heart. We can pray for God to consider Putin’s blasphemy and blatant disregard for God. We can pray for the miraculous. These are my brass tacks fastening my faith squarely in the middle to the living of these days.

God’s Will

By Galen Harrill / February 28, 2022 February 28, 2022

We have a sort of pop mishmash of ideas about God and what He’s doing in the world that is, as my dad says, about as clear as mud. In situations like the present one in Ukraine, these ideas either stand as serious slander against God’s character or force us to properly re-evaluate who God truly is. So, I’d like to take a look at a couple of things in hopes of clearing things up.

First, not everything that happens is God’s will. I often hear people claim it is when some tragedy strikes. Who do we think God is?? Do we truly believe God is happy about the pain people feel every time something bad happens? Someone loses a child – God’s will. Someone gets cancer – God’s will. Someone declares war on an innocent nation – God’s will. Let’s be clear – none of this has anything remotely to do with God’s will. That’s why Jesus, when teaching us how to pray, tells us to say, “Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.” Why? Because so much of what happens here is not God’s will. The world is at war with God’s will and only aligns with it when His people, living by His Spirit, bring justice, mercy, joy, grace, love, peace, holiness, reconciliation, and all those things into their spheres of influence. It is a prayer that His Lordship will be recognized and realized in the lives of more and more people. And this leads me to another muddy concept….

“Everything happens for a reason.” Do me a favor. Go to biblegateway.com and put that into the search bar. I’ll tell you what you get. Nothing. It’s not in the Bible. Oh, you might get something close, and I’ll deal with in a minute. But to debunk this reason thing… the world, as described in the Bible, has a master and it’s not God. It’s the father of lies. There is no reason in him. None. Nada. Zippo. Zilch. Think about it. Have you ever been dumb struck by some evil reported in the news? Have you ever said, “I just can’t get my mind around this”? Well, there’s a reason for that, and the reason is there is no reason. Evil doesn’t operate on the level of reason. Evil has no logic. Now… the father of lies likes to make sin look like it has some sense, he likes to trick people into doing his twisted will by connecting dots, but it’s total illusion and if we’re holding to God, we’ll find no sense in it.

But here is the wonderfully miraculous thing – God can take all this and transform it into something beautiful. That’s what Paul is saying in Romans 8:28, which may have come up in your search; “And we know that God works all things together for the good of those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose” (Berean Study Bible). God can take the chaos and hatred Satan throws at us through war and sickness and loss and pain and poverty and want and bring meaning to the meaningless.

Example? Currently, there is an absolutely senseless war going on. Not God’s will. Yet God is already weaving meaning by moving hearts towards justice, compassion, and mercy. May we be instruments of His will.

Thanksgiving Overflow

By Galen Harrill / February 26, 2022 March 1, 2022

Big punch. The Bible is full of short passages with it. Such a one is Colossians 2:6-7 that says, “So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to walk in him, rooted and built up in Him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thanksgiving.” Yes, yes, your translation probably doesn’t say “walk,” but that’s the word. I’ll get there in a minute. But what gets me here is the “overflowing with thanksgiving” connected to the “just as.” Now I know how I felt when I became a Christian. I was overflowing, no question! Paul calls us to remember that because he expects us to overflow a year in – five years in – 20 years in – 80 years in… How’re we doing? Whew… I can tell you from personal experience I’ve had long seasons of thanksgiving drought! Yet Paul says overflow – continually. Yeah. That’s another word chock-full of punch. Okay Paul, how? It all fits together here. If we’re going to overflow with thanksgiving, we’re going to have to stay real close to Jesus. How close? Um, “in.” Not “with,” “in.” Walk in Him. Moving around in Him. Treading, hiking, perambulating in Him, covered in the fullness of Christ. He directs the steps. His eyes turn our focus on His ways in the “fulness of the Deity” as it describes Jesus a little later. Not “with” as an outside observer taking in our own perceptions of our surroundings, but “in!” Let’s get this very clear here though – this is an invitation Jesus gives to us every day. He’s not forcing us to do it. We can step out any time. But why in the world would we want to?? A little later Paul says we have been given fulness in Christ. We are made complete – but only in Him! The other language is just as punchy – rooted in him, built up in him, strengthened in the faith as we were taught. Like physical therapy is to physical regeneration, walking in Christ is the spiritual therapy we need to live amazing spiritual lives! We stay firmly rooted in Him, drawing all our sustenance from Him while He builds us up to strengthen our weaknesses in the faith we received. And it’s daily and it’s a spectacular new thing as Jesus continually piles on mercy and grace and shows us new vistas of splendor. “Of course it was great at first – but that was just the beginning. Here – have some more. And more. And more….” And our hearts? Well, they overflow….

A Song for Ukraine

By Galen Harrill / February 25, 2022 February 28, 2022

A Song for Ukraine

In a very real way what I have here is not the purpose of this website – except maybe it is. Faith is not easy and it gets messy. So, I’ve got to admit, the world events of the past few hours challenge my faith deep in my core. I spent ten years in a country that had freed itself from the harsh realities of the Soviet Union. I met and know brothers and sisters in Christ who are Russians. And I met and know brothers and sisters in Christ who are Ukrainians. And for the life of me I can’t understand why this is happening. One thing I am sure of though, there is no reason in Satan’s doings so understanding evil in any reasonable way is impossible. But what is God doing? One thing I am sure of, the more heinous the crime, the more miraculous the salvation. I don’t consider myself a poet – but pouring myself into this and knowing the One who took on the full impact of this crisis on the cross helped me get through this day. Others are suffering far worse than I am, my prayer is with them all….

A Song for Ukraine

When evil men with evil intent move against God’s justice,

When the innocent suffer for seeking the truth, and freedom is torn away,

We cry aloud and add our tears to the Man of Sorrows’ knowing

with Heaven’s revelation clear, God’s will was trampled today.

A tyrant now rages and pours out his scorn, trusting only his power,

And our “Your-will-be-done” is a prayer of admission, the world does not bow to Your throne.

While the raging and warring indiscriminately swallow the righteous and the evil,

Our hearts are broken, with unanswered questions, yet trusting You care for Your own.

So, we struggle and seek to understand a power devoid of reason,

That props up a madman to ravage a nation just seeking to live, love, and be.

But a power of malice is a power unhinged and we will not find an answer,

Until we turn to the One who delivers and gives us the true faith to see.

Against such hate, against such rage, there is just one salvation,

One hope, one peace, one reason, one love, and it’s only the way of the cross.

So, a maniac wars with Satan’s wrath to undo Ukraine, the nation,

“Why hast Thou forsaken me?” God too has endured the loss.

2:22 AM

By Galen Harrill / February 21, 2022 February 28, 2022

…that’s when I realized I was seriously awake. My wife and middle daughter had left thirty minutes ago to take a six-hour trip to Cleveland for an accepted college student’s day. Traffic at that time was probably non-existent, but this is Pennsylvania. Visions of dare-devil venison ran through my head, and I hoped they had hung up their antlers and declared car-dodging season over. But it just takes one Bambi-Knievel wanna-be. “Tell Isabella to watch out for deer,” was the last thing I told my wife, right after I said, “I love you, be careful.” I was supposed to be on this trip. Yeah, I wasn’t going back to sleep. I don’t really suffer from insomnia; I’ve always taken comfort knowing God doesn’t need sleep and He’s got everything under control (Psalm 121:4). But occasionally…. In times of stress or excitement, usually the former, I can hack two hours or more out of a good night’s sleep. The mind either races from one thing to another or fixates on a particular situation and won’t let go. “Don’t look at the clock!” It calls to me. I look. That’s when it’s really over. “Why don’t you pray?” Good advice, but I’ve learned something. At these times it’s better for me to listen and not talk. Let me explain…. When I’m giving in to worry, I need to take an actual physical attitude of prayer – hands lifted or knees on the ground or sitting with head bowed low, barely balanced; that keeps me from losing focus on God and directing my thoughts to Dr. Doubt and Mr. Worry. Lying down and trying to keep from disturbing my wife while formulating prayers to God just doesn’t get it done. But listening, that’s a different story! David speaks of thinking of God (Psalm 63:6) and meditating on His promises (Psalm 119:148) through the watches of the night. I’m not sure of everything he had in mind here, but my application of what it means has really helped me out. When the mind races, I reach out for God’s voice in the scriptures lodged in my head and I suddenly find rest. I’m not expressing myself, I’m letting God express Himself to me. His voice is soothing and hushes my spirit into peace. Like a familiar voice to a baby, His comforts me, calms me down, and suddenly, He’s rocked me to sleep.

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