Do you have a favorite Bible character? One who inspires you, challenges you, or one whose story you absolutely love? Perhaps it is Moses and his vast leadership skills. How about Esther, the compelling queen who, being both gorgeous and smart, used her quick thinking to help God save an entire nation? Maybe Joseph is your pick as you contemplate how someone so mistreated could continually take the high road; the road that led him not only to political power but also to family forgiveness. All of these are marvelous choices, but have you considered Enoch?
Since the time I was a young teen, Enoch has fascinated me. Not a lot is written about him in the pages of Scripture, but what is there certainly piques my interest. He “Enoch walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away.” Hmmm. My young mind pondered that strange description.
As I grew as a believer, I learned a bit more about this biblical mystery man. In Hebrews 11:5-6 we catch more of his story. “By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death: “He could not be found, because God had taken him away.” For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.”
Enoch was whisked away, spared the pain of death, and transported immediately to God’s side all because of one simple thing. He pleased God. Simple, but not easy. It is a simple thing to please God. You do what He says in His word. Straightforward enough, right? However, all my years as a follower of Christ have taught me that simple is not always easy. Choices present themselves. The world screams at us. Our flesh gets in the way. We want revenge or our own glory. We lack faith and instead try to control our own destinies. We mess up the “pleasin’ God” part with our very own hands.
Enoch “walked with God.” I don’t know about you, but I long for that to be said of me. But I don’t always walk with God. I take a stand for God; believe the right things and make it known. I may walk after God. And sadly, sometimes I run ahead of God; make my own plans and then say, “Oh yeah, by the way God, do You mind blessing these plans? I even made them in Your name. I may have forgotten to consult You in the midst of them, but they are for You all right!” What a shame and a sham!
No two ways about it, walking with God means that we daily give up our right to navigate our own lives. We place our faith in Him, admitting He knows what is best for us and realizing He might not always reveal the hows and whys until the very last second. Sometimes, never. Remember, God is seldom early, but never late. Only day-by-day faith-walking pleases God.
Sister/brother, do you long to please God this way? One who makes Him smile as He sees you daily place complete trust in Him and His infinite wisdom? Maybe then we might be just like this Bible hero, Enoch; the one who walked so closely by our Creator’s side that one day, during one of those long walks, God looked at him and said, “You know, we’ve been walking together for so long now that we are actually closer to my house than yours. Why don’t you just come on home with me right now?” WHAT GLORY!!!
 
Dear Lord,
I am ready to learn to walk with You in faith;
not ahead of You or behind You, but right by Your side.
Show me how, step by step.
In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Whoever eats meat does so to the Lord, for they give thanks to God; and whoever abstains does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God. 7 For none of us lives for ourselves alone, and none of us dies for ourselves alone. 8 If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. 9 For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living. Romans 14:6b-9
In the latter part of the letter to the Romans, Paul focuses on the “So what” of Christian faith. If God has transformed the world, if everything is cosmically different because of what Christ has done, if old divisions are healed and nothing can separate us from the love of Christ – what does that mean in our daily life?
It’s out of that context that the wonderful affirmation of our ultimate hope in Christ arises. And it arises, not in the context of a lofty doctrinal discussion, but in what we might call a matter of church order. What should we eat?
This isn’t simply a request for people to bring different things to the potluck. Eating in the first-century Roman Empire was a tricky business for Christians because the meat offered for sale in the market had usually first been sacrificed to the Roman gods as part of pagan worship. It was simply how meat got to the market. What was a Christian who believed the Roman gods were idols to do?
Paul goes on at more length about this in 1 Corinthians 8, but in both places, his argument is the same: if you want to eat the meat, eat it, because “an idol is nothing at all in the world” (1 Corinthians 8:4). But if it bothers your conscience, don’t. And those with stronger consciences should defer to the weak in this case.
Paul says, however, in this passage in Romans, all such distinctions ultimately fall away before the face of Christ. Don’t waste your time fighting over meat or the observance of certain days (Romans 14:5); remember there is a bigger mission we have signed on for. Whether we eat or abstain – in fact, whether you live to a contented old age or whether you die a martyr for the faith – we belong to Jesus Christ. And Jesus Christ is not just any old powerless Roman god. He is the God who suffered for us: “For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life” (Romans 14:9).
Jesus ultimately entered the human story. He ultimately answered the violence of the way things happen in this world by submitting to it. He ultimately became, not Moses or Pharaoh or anyone else with power, but the Passover lamb whose blood was upon the doorpost. His blood saves us. He said so Himself. As we try to find our way in these confusing times – as we discern what our culture, our workplaces, and even our churches have made idols out of - we need to remember continually that Christ walks beside us everywhere. The early church laid heavy stress on the fact that during the time between His crucifixion and His resurrection, Christ actually descended to the abode of the dead to rescue all those who had died longing for His coming.
Where have you seen Christ walking beside you in your struggles and suffering? Where do you need to walk besides others who are suffering to show God’s love to them?
 
Lord Jesus, whether we live or die, we belong to You. Help us affirm that truth and live it out in our daily lives, friendships, churches, and workplaces.
Amen!

Colossians 3:12-17
Paul gives us a simple imperative in Colossians 3:13: “Bear with each other,” or simply, “Put up with each other.” “Putting up with” has to do with responding to things people do and say that are not necessarily wrong, but just displeasing to us. According to Colossians, we need to put up with things in others that we do not prefer or appreciate. This is one essential element of “putting on” the clothing of Christ as people chosen, holy, and dearly loved by God.
But when someone treats us in a wrong way, we need more than just putting up with. Paul continues, “Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.” The word “grievance” in this case assumes that the “one grieved” has good reason to be offended. Someone has sinfully treated another. Therefore, forgiveness is required, not forbearance.
The verb translated as “forgive” (v. 13) is a Greek word closely related to the word for grace, “charis.” Why should we forgive each other? Because the Lord has forgiven us according to Colossians. God has extended grace to us through Jesus Christ, forgiving us when we were not worthy. Similarly, we are to show grace to each other.
The connection between the forgiveness we receive from the Lord and the forgiveness we give to others reminds me of a parable of Jesus. In Matthew 18:23-35, Jesus tells the story of a slave who owed a massive amount of money to his master. When the slave begged for mercy, the master forgave the huge debt. But then, when someone owed this slave a modest sum, the slave was unforgiving and threw the debtor in jail. The master, shocked by his slave’s lack of grace, handed him over to be punished. Jesus concludes, “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.” (Matt. 18:35).
Now, forgiveness does not erase the need for justice, restitution, and reconciliation. If a fellow Christian has robbed you, that person may very well serve time in jail and should endeavor to repay you. The mending of your relationship will take serious work. But our act of forgiveness is not dependent on that person’s effort to make things right. Rather, we forgive because we have been forgiven. The forgiveness we receive from the Lord is our motivation for and our model for forgiving.
Forgiveness is in short supply these days. (So is repentance, but that’s a different story.) People who have been wronged often hang onto the offense and the pain, believing that these will protect them from future hurt. When, in fact, unforgiveness wounds the one who holds it, hardening hearts and even turning one away from God’s grace. As Jesus says, “For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.” (Matthew 6:14-15) When we harden our hearts, we can’t receive the grace God wants to give us.
I am not saying that forgiveness is easy at all. When someone has sinned against you in a way that is painful and damaging, forgiving is indeed difficult. But God helps us to forgive. God’s Spirit will stir within us, giving us a supernatural desire to give grace to the one who hurt us. Moreover, God will help us to know who we truly are: “chosen people, holy and dearly loved” (Colossians 3:12). The more we recognize how much God cares for us, the more we have an intimate relationship with God, the more God’s love for us is poured into our hearts, the more we will be able to forgive even those whose offense can feel unforgivable.
Corrie ten Boom, a Dutch Christian woman, along with her family, was imprisoned by the Nazis because they had been hiding Jews from detention. Corrie witnessed the death of her beloved family members and had an understandable hatred for the guards who treated them so terribly. Yet, after the war, when facing one of those guards, Corrie remembered how Christ had forgiven her and asked for help to forgive the guard. As she extended her hand to this man in obedience to God, she felt overwhelming love. Writing about this experience, she said, “And so I discovered that it is not on our forgiveness any more than on our goodness that the world’s healing hinges, but on [Christ’s]. When He tells us to love our enemies, He gives, along with the command, the love itself” (The Hiding Place, p. 247).
If you are struggling to forgive someone who has hurt you deeply, I understand that what I wrote here might seem simplistic and insensitive. I know how hard it is sometimes to forgive. As a pastor, I’ve prayed with many who have wrestled with forgiving the people who have greatly wronged them. I know that forgiveness is often a process that takes much time, healing, courage, and grace. Having said this, Paul tells us that we are called to forgive, even when it’s hard. Doing so unifies and strengthens the community of Christ, and it also allows us to live with greater freedom and joy as God’s chosen, holy, and beloved people.

John Calvin opens The Institutes of the Christian Religion (Book I, Chapter 1) with a profound statement:
"Nearly all the wisdom we possess, that is to say, true and sound wisdom, consists of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves."
This foundational truth reminds us that the beginning of the Christian life is truly knowing God.
Yet, knowing God is far more than gaining biblical knowledge or learning theological doctrines. In Book I, Chapter 2, Calvin explains that the purpose of knowing God is to lead us into piety. He describes piety as a heartfelt love for God joined with reverence and awe toward Him. The more we know God's holiness, righteousness, faithfulness, mercy, and grace, the more we are moved to worship Him, trust Him, obey Him, and give Him all the glory.
Today, we live in an age overflowing with information. People pursue knowledge, skills, and achievements, yet often neglect the most important pursuit of all—knowing God. We may know many Bible stories, attend church faithfully, and even serve in ministry, but still fail to cultivate a personal and intimate relationship with Him. If our faith remains only in our minds and never reaches our hearts, it can easily become mere religion without the transforming power of true devotion.
Moreover, the more we know God, the more we come to know ourselves. As we behold His holiness, we recognize our own sinfulness and limitations. As we experience His grace, we become more humble and grateful. As we come to know Him as our loving and faithful Father, we learn to trust Him even in difficult times, walking by faith rather than by sight.
May we make knowing God the highest pursuit of our lives. Through daily Scripture reading, prayer, and meditation on His Word, may we grow in a deeper relationship with Him. Let us seek not merely greater knowledge, but greater piety—not merely to know about God, but to love Him, revere Him, obey Him, and glorify Him in every area of our lives. As we do so, our lives will reflect His character and become a blessing to those around us.
"Let us know; let us press on to know the Lord." (Hosea 6:3, ESV) 
 
May this be the lifelong pursuit of every believer.