February 7th in the Year of Our Lord 2021

Romans 12:21. “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”

In his great letter to the church in Rome, Paul gave the Romans and us many exhortations. In this exhortation, there is a negative and a positive. Do not be overcome by evil. The great black scientist, George Washington Carver, once said, “I will never let another man ruin my life by making me hate him.” George Washington Carver was a believer and follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. However, this exhortation goes further than the negative, but overcome evil with good, which is a positive. The Christian is to not only commanded to not be overcome by evil but to overcome evil with good. 

I have worked at the bedside, as a Registered Nurse, for over twenty-three years now. Patients, family and medical staff will say the most hurtful things you can imagine, but the Christian nurse is to always overcome evil with good. No matter how much I have done, no matter how hard I have worked, no matter how much I have cared over the years; people are just not satisfied, and are angry when in the hospital.

Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said, ‘AN EYE FOR AN EYE, AND A TOOTH FOR A TOOTH.’ But I say to you, do not resist an evil person; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also...But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” (Mt 5:38-39 & 44-45) 

Does this mean that by doing good to those who treat you badly that the other person will repent and treat you with honor? I have found that most of the time they will not. In fact, it appears that most of the time people will not even notice the good that you are doing for them. Most of the time people will not even notice that you did not return their anger with anger, or their hurtful words with hurtful words. Most of the time people will not notice that you returned their anger and hurtful words with kindness. No matter, the Christian nurse is called to image God in the world. 

February 6th in the Year of Our Lord 2021

“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)

Why do we struggle? We struggle because of sin. In the great Christian allegory, “The Pilgrims Progress” by John Bunyan, Christian was carrying a large burden on his back; the burden that Christian carried was sin. Sin is a burden that no man can carry because it will way him down in death.

Life in this world is a struggle because of the burden of sin. We were in the paradise of God but we were kicked out into the world because we ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God promised the woman difficulty in childbirth and the man difficulty in livelihood, followed by death. Life in this world is struggle upon struggle.

What are we struggling for? What is the purpose of our struggling? What are we trying to obtain with all of this struggling? Some are seeking rest in the wrong places and this always brings a person back to weariness. 

Jesus Christ promised rest for our souls but you must put on the Lord Jesus Christ. Does this mean that if you put on the Lord Jesus Christ that things in this world will become easy? I am not going to delude you into thinking that it will. In fact, things in this world may become more difficult than they are right now if you follow the Lord Jesus Christ. The apostle paul wrote, 1 Corinthians 15:19. “If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied.” We do, however, have the promise of rest from laboring to meet God’s standard because through faith in Jesus Christ we are promised eternal life in the paradise of God.

February 5th in the year of Our Lord 2021

John 3:8.

“The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

Yesterday, I flew a kite. The air was warmer, low 60’sº F, and the wind was blowing. A few weeks ago, I ordered a kite off the internet, a kite from my childhood, manufactured, and sold in the year, 1975. The kite was manufactured by a company named Gayla and was called a Sky-Spy because of the large eyes that looked down on the flier. The kite was much smaller than I remembered, but then again, I was seven years old in the spring of 1975, therefore, a much smaller person.
  After flying the kite, I sent a picture to my mother who responded: “I remember you and your kites.” I loved flying a kite as a child and for some reason this particular brand of kite. Not only did I enjoy flying a kite but my favorite dream involved me floating on the air above the earth. On the earth below, there was trouble but on the winds above the earth there was freedom.

Yesterday was a good day for flying a kite because the day before began with death and ended with death in the CVICU. We began the day with a Code 44. A Code 44 is the terminology used in the speakers overhead to alert the staff of a cardiovascular-pulmonary arrest. We had a Code 44 at the start of our shift and at the end of the shift; a reminder that on the earth, there is much suffering, death and sorrow. However, above the earth, there is freedom from these things. 

For me, flying a kite is a form of escapism from the troubles on the earth; however, I know what I did not know as a child, a man cannot really escape the troubles here below by any effort of his own. Jesus said to the thief who trusted in him and hung beside him on the cross, “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.” (Lk 23:43) There is freedom from sin, suffering, death and sorrow in the Lord Jesus Christ.

February 4th in the Year of Our Lord 2021

To whom it may concern,

My reading this morning was Job 9-10. Job understood that he could not speak to God. He believed that he needed an arbitrator to settle whatever it was that God had against him. Job believed that he was guiltless but for some unknown reason God was holding him guilty. However, Job never denied that God is sovereign, he is the one who decides who is righteous and who is guilty. 

I am not Job, I cannot say that I am without guilt; in fact, I am guilty by either thought or deed of breaking every one of the ten commandments, therefore, the law of Christ. However, Job believed that he was guiltless but also understood that if God declares him guilty, then he is guilty for God is the judge. I think that this is one aspect of biblical theology that is lost in American Evangelicalism. The aspect that I speak of is the sovereignty of God. 

The local church that my wife and I attend (Sylvania Church in Tyler, Texas) is a sovereign grace baptist church. A number of the members believe and all of the elders believe in the sovereignty of God in the salvation of man. However, even though this congregations official doctrine is sovereign grace, does the congregation really believe that God has the authority to do whatever he wants to do, however he wants to do it? Would you hold to sovereign doctrine if things went bad in your life like they did for Job?

The Lord God is the creator of all things and he holds all things together by the word of his power. Who can say anything to God? Who can go before God and say, “You should let me into your garden because I did, x, y, and z.” Or, “You shouldn’t allow bad things to happen to me?” Jesus Christ is Lord, He alone has all authority in heaven and on earth. The Father God has given the Son authority to execute judgment, and the Son has given the terms for entrance into the paradise of God. The terms are repentance towards God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

In Christ alone,

Michael Peek

The Nurse Theologian

February 3rd in the Year of Our Lord 2021

To whom it may concern,

Lately I have been wondering what I am here for. I know that I am here for the purpose of the Lord but I have become confused as to what I should be about. I spent the past thirty years raising children to see them go away from the way of God in Jesus Christ. I honestly feel like I have failed as a father. Proverbs 22:6 says:

Train up a child in the way he should go,

Even when he is old he will not depart from it.

On July 13th of this year, our son, our beautiful son, my adopted boy, whom I raised as my own, with my wife from the age of one years old will be thirty-two years old. On July 20th of this year, our daughter, our beautiful daughter, whom came forth from the union of our marriage will be twenty-eight years old. Everything has already been said, their lives are between them and the Lord and there is not much I can do but pray to the Lord our God for their salvation. However, the subjective remains, I believe that I have failed as a father. I have heard that this Proverb is a general principle and not a promise. Even if it is a general principle, and not a hardened promise, my parental record is 0-2. 

Should I be lamenting this way on a public blog? Well, this blog is my daily journal; therefore, I endeavor to be honest and forthright with the things that I write. This life on the earth is a struggle. I believe that we were created by God for the paradise of God but something terrible happened in the garden, the man and woman ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; therefore, God kicked them out of the garden into the world and we are their children. We are in brokenness because of their sin, our sin and the sins of other people. A person can be diluted for awhile, that their lives are pleasant, but the reality is that the whole world is in brokenness. I also believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ. God has made a way for us to return to the paradise of God. The way is the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus entered our brokenness in human flesh. He is fully God and fully man except in sin. He died on a Roman cross for our sins and he defeated death and rose from the grave. We can have forgiveness of sins and receive the Holy Spirit of God as a seal of our salvation, if we repent and believe. However, that does not mean that we will be taken out of brokenness and into the paradise of God the moment that we repent and believe. We are justified - that means we are declared righteous but we are not yet righteous. We are being sanctified - that means to be set apart, we are being made righteous. We will be glorified- that means to be made righteous. However, this will not happen until we depart from this present world. In the mean time, there is work to do and I am wondering what it is that the Lord would have me doing for the remainder of my life on the earth.

In Christ alone,

Michael Peek

The Nurse Theologian

February 2nd in the Year of Our Lord 2021

Israel served the LORD all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders who survived Joshua, and had known all the deeds of the LORD which He had done for Israel. (Joshua 24:31)

 

To whom it may concern,

My reading this morning came from Joshua 21-24. The Levites were dispersed into forty-eight cities in Israel. The half-tribe of Manasseh, the Reubenites, and the Gadites returned to there possession beyond the Jordan. Joshua gave his farewell address to the sons of Israel, and he died at the age of one hundred and ten years old. All of the problems that Israel would have going forward from the days of Joshua, and the elders who survived Joshua, and had known all the deeds of the Lord which he had done for Israel, came to the children who did not know the Lord; and therefore, served other gods.

One of my favorite hobbies is reading church history. My ecclesiastical convictions are baptist. I believe that the head of the church is the Lord Jesus Christ. I believe that every believer in Jesus Christ has been sealed with the Holy Spirit; therefore, every believer has soul competency; therefore, every congregation should pick their own leaders, and not have them appointed to them by a body outside of the local congregation. I believe that the Scriptures teach believers baptism. I can find no example of babies who do not yet possess the ability to repent and believe being baptized in Scripture. For these reasons, my convictions are baptist. 

 

Given that my convictions are baptist and one of my favorite hobbies is reading church history, I have been reading baptist history. I recently read a book by Marvin Jones on the foundational contributions of Thomas Helwys in Baptist Ecclesiology. Ecclesiology is the study of the nature and structure of the Christian Church. Thomas Helwys was the first permanent pastor of the Baptist Church. His writings are foundational in baptist ecclesiology, and also the foundational on the idea of separation of church and state. Having read this book about Thomas Helwys, I have ordered a book that contains the actual writings of Thomas Helwys. I am very much looking forward to reading his convictions and thoughts. I think that the problems that we have today have already been solved in the past.  The problems that we have today are like the problems that Israel fell into after Joshua and elders departed.

In Christ alone,

Michael Peek

The Nurse Theologian

February 1st in the Year of Our Lord 2021

To whom it may concern,

I have taken to writing a daily letter; that my heart and mind, may speak to your heart and mind. I do not know you, we have never meet but I know about you. You were created in the image of God but you have sinned and fall short of his glory. No matter where you may live on the earth, we have this in common; we have both sinned and deserve nothing less than the full eternal wrath of God for our sins. God has said in his word, “The soul who sins will die.” (Ezekiel 18:4) This is a concerning proclamation of the Lord, given that we have both sinned and fall short of his glory. 

Sin is lawlessness, (1 John 3:4) lawlessness is everyone deciding for themselves good and evil, rather than observing the commandments of the one who created us. God has said, “You shall not lie,” but have you lied? God has said, “You shall not steal,” but have you stolen? God has said, “You shall not commit sexual immorality;” he has defined sexual immorality in his word as fornication, adultery, lust, and homosexuality, but have you been sexually immoral? God has said, “You shall not murder;” he has defined murder as both the physical act as well as the desire of the heart, but have you murdered (hated) anyone in your heart? God has said, “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, but have you taken the name of the Lord Jesus Christ in vain?

If you have answered yes, to any of these questions, you are like me, you have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and deserve nothing less than the eternal wrath of God for your sins. The scripture tells us that although the wages of sin is death, the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23) There is a way to be made righteous before God and that way is the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through me.” (John 14:6) Jesus came from God in human flesh, fully God and fully man yet without sin. He died on a cross, in our place for our sins. He was forsaken of the Father on our behalf. He was buried, and was raised from the dead on the third day. (1 Corinthians 15:3-4) So, have repentance towards God and faith in Jesus Christ alone; following him as your Lord and trusting him as your Savior.

In Christ alone,

Michael Peek

The Nurse Theologian