Rev. Brent L. White

Two days ago I was at the Wailing Wall, that portion of the western wall of the Temple in Jerusalem where millions of pilgrims go each year. Some friends asked me to pray for them there. By all means, my prayers for them in Atlanta would be equally effective, but I obliged. I took this photo to prove it. (I obscured the prayer and their names.)

Above and over the Wailing Wall is the Temple Mount on which the Temple once stood. The Romans destroyed the Temple in A.D. 70. Today, there’s a Muslim shrine called the Dome of the Rock in that location.

Besides praying for my friends, as I was touching the wall and praying, I had this thought: This wall exists because of my sins. This massive building was built in the first place because of my sins (and the sins of everyone else, of course). And as I peer up to the top of the wall and imagine the Temple, the Holy Place, and the Holy of Holies—the small room of the Temple where the Holy Spirit dwelt, into which only one person, the high priest, was allowed to enter, and then only once a year—I think, I could never scale this wall to reach God on the other side.

This wall represents the barrier that my own sin placed between me and God. “If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?” (Psalm 130:3)

Indeed, ultra-orthodox Jews won’t even walk on the Temple Mount above (unlike Gentiles like me who will do so later today), for fear of treading on the place where the Holy of Holies once stood. For them, this wall is literally as close as they can get to God.

And so it would be for me—not only a sinner but a Gentile sinner, a double outsider.

But God’s Son Jesus did everything necessary for me, not only to enter the Holy of Holies, but to have the Holy Spirit living within me! When Christ died, the thick curtain separating the Holy of Holies from the rest of the Temple was torn from top to bottom. Through faith in Christ, nothing needs to separate us from God! This means my sins are forgiven; I am sanctified; I am made perfectly righteous, not with my own righteousness but with the righteousness of Christ! “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Thank you, Jesus!

My view looking up the wall. Apart from Christ I could never reach God.

“He said to them, ‘Who do you say that I am?’” Matthew 16:15. Here I am at Caesarea Philippi, the place of Peter’s great confession—also the place where Jesus told him, “Get behind me, Satan.” Jesus is patient with us that way.

He certainly has been with me! Today he has given me exactly 49 years of life—of which every moment, every heartbeat, every breath has been nothing but sheer, undeserved gift. Yet I feel like I’m just starting to figure this life out—for example, that being happy, genuinely happy, means learning to want what Jesus wants for me. And trusting that what he wants for me is nothing but good!

I want you who are reading this blog post to be happy in the same way. I want you to know Jesus like I do. He wants to forgive you, to give you eternal life, to show you his favor, to give you new power to live now.

And if you actually know me, you might be thinking—as I would be—“Who are you to tell me this?” I agree. That’s the point! Jesus has done all of this for me. Me! Crazy, right?

Love y’all.

I will add more videos as I have time to make them—between an ambitious itinerary, the effects of jet lag, and unreliable broadband access.

But here are the highlights Day 1. I formatted these videos for Instagram, which requires that videos last no longer than one minute. You can follow me on Instagram at @brentlwhite .

Enjoy!

I’m in the Holy Land this week—for the first time since my life-changing experience back in 2011, which has continued to bear fruit in my life and ministry. One completely new (to me) site that I visited is the excavation of the ancient city of Magdala, the hometown of Mary Magdalene (Luke 8:2; Matthew 28:1; John 20:11-18). Rome destroyed the town after the Jewish revolt in A.D. 67, and its ruins reflect first-century Jewish life in Galilee moments before that world came to its cataclysmic end.

The most important discovery in Magdala is what’s known as the “Magdala Stone,” which likely served as a desk for reading scrolls of the Bible in the synagogue. The stone was sculpted to symbolize the Second Temple, which was destroyed in A.D. 70. Since this sculpture pre-dates the temple’s destruction, it is, for historians, a reliable source of information about the temple and its activities.

The Magdala Stone

There’s a recently built church next to the Magdala ruins, which commemorates Mary Magdalene. Since I’m trying not merely to be a tourist on this trip but also a pilgrim, I took the few moments between the talking of the tour guide and the inevitable gift shop at the exit to reflect on Mary’s life, as revealed in the scripture above, and to pray in the sanctuary.

Mary’s story of deliverance reminded me of Simon the Pharisee and the “sinful woman” in Luke 7:36-50. I’m not suggesting for a moment that Mary was that sinful woman—she wasn’t. But Jesus words contrasting that woman and Simon are pertinent:

“Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not ceased to kiss my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.” And he said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”

The extent to which we love Jesus is directly related to the extent to which we perceive that Jesus has healed us, rescued us, forgiven us—saved us. Mary herself, whom Jesus had delivered from seven demons, loved Jesus as much or more than most, as reflected in her steadfast refusal to leave him—either during the shame of his cross on Good Friday or after his death. She had the privilege not only of being the first eyewitness to the resurrection, but also the first to proclaim the good news of the resurrection, because she wanted more than anything to be with Jesus.

Indeed, being with Jesus is the first responsibility of a disciple. We see this part of our job description in Mark 3:14-15: “And he appointed twelve (whom he also named apostles) so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach and have authority to cast out demons.”

Before we do anything as disciples, we are to be with Jesus—which, today, we do through reading God’s Word and prayer.

But even putting it like that—contrasting “being” with “doing”—is misguided: because it implies that the time we spend with Jesus—which in my tradition is called having a “quiet time”—isn’t doing anything.

Yet we know that being with Jesus is the most important thing we can do.

Isn’t this the lesson of (a different) Mary and her sister Martha in Luke 10:38-42. “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”

What was Mary’s “good portion”? To sit at Jesus’ feet alongside the other disciples and learn from him—rather than helping her sister in the kitchen—being “productive” or “working” or “doing.”

To say the least, according to Jesus himself, Mary was hardly “doing nothing”; she was doing the most important work of all.

Through the Holy Spirit, through the scripture that the Spirit “breathed out” (2 Timothy 3:16-17), and through our access to our Father in the heavenly throne room (Hebrews 4:16), we may choose the same good portion.

Will we?

Here are three more Instagram-sized highlights from my sermon, “Submit to One Another.”

Feel free to follow me on Instagram at @brentlwhite.

With some minor editing, here are my notes from my ESV Journaling Bible, Interleaved Edition.

2:17: “you shall surely die”: i.e., you will begin a process that inevitably leads to physical death, but your spiritual death begins immediately. This is ultimately the only kind of death that matters—to live outside of God’s will, to live against the grain of one’s existence, to be separated from one’s Creator. (“And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both body and soul in hell.” Matthew 10:28)

This scripture is ingenious—because it practically forces us to be “tempted” in the same way Adam and Eve were tempted: Because I want to ask why: “Why, God, did you put this tree (of the knowledge of good and evil) in the center of the Garden? Was this wise? Was this necessary? Was your command arbitrary?”

But even in asking, I am attempting to place myself above God, to assert some superior knowledge, to claim some moral high ground above God himself. “Did God actually say…?” (Gen. 3:1)

Why do I presume to second-guess God’s Word? Why do I presume to know what’s best for me apart from God? This presumptuousness is at the heart of so much of my own sin and—not to mention—unhappiness!

I’ve recently begun using Instagram, which permits the uploading of one-minute-long video clips. So I hope to expand my reach by creating “highlight” clips from my sermons. This is one of them! Enjoy! The full sermon is available in the previous post.

Feel free to follow me on Instagram at @brentlwhite.

More writing from my ESV Journaling Bible, Interleaved Edition

Last Sunday, I had the privilege of preaching on Ephesians 5:21-33. Whenever I preach, there is always material that I have to cut—no matter how much I love it! Below is one lengthy “rabbit trail” I went down. It didn’t ultimately fit in this sermon, but it’s worth sharing here.

In Ephesians 5:21, Paul tells us to do something very difficult: “Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ” (NRSV). In Greek this verse is part of a subordinate clause in a sentence that begins in verse 18. The ESV, always more literal than the NRSV, puts it as follows:

And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.

When we see it in the context of the full sentence, the command of v. 21, “Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ,” is made possible in part by the doctrine of God’s sovereignty that is implicit within v. 20: “giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Give thanks always… and for everything? 

Is Paul kidding? How do we do that?

I mean, I’m thankful when things are going my way; when things are working out for me; when I’m getting what I want. By contrast, I’m not usually thankful, for example, when I’m in pain, or when I’m sick, or when I’m suffering in any way. I’m not usually thankful when I’m experiencing a setback, or when I’m dealing with disappointment, or when I’m going through hard times.

In fact, when I’m going through hard times, I can usually only be thankful in spite of the hard times. So my prayers sound something like this: “I give you thanks, God, because as bad as these circumstances are right now, at least I still have these other good things going for me. Or at least it could be so much worse. Or at least I have it better than that other guy over there.” 

But is this the kind of thankfulness Paul is talking about?

By no means!

If we are God’s children through faith in his Son Jesus, we never merely have it “better than” someone else or “better than” some possible worst-case-scenario we might imagine. No… In Christ there is no “better than”! In Christ, we have it exactly as good or exactly as bad as it needs to be in order for God to give us something better… to give us more of our heart’s deepest desire; more of our life’s greatest treasure; more of the best thing we can ever receive… 

Which is what? More of his Son Jesus Christ!

Don’t you want more of Jesus in your life? Don’t you want more of his Holy Spirit in your life? Don’t you want more of his power in your life—more of his presence, more of his victory, more of his blessing, more of his favor? Aren’t you tired of feeling defeated all the time? Tired of feeling discouraged? Tired of feeling disappointed?

Jesus wants more for you than that! Jesus promises more for you than that!  And Jesus always keeps his promises!

You say, “Where are you getting this, Pastor Brent?” Many places throughout the Bible. But let me show you just one place, from the words of Jesus himself. See Luke 11:11-13. Jesus is assuring his disciples that his Father is faithful to give his children only good things when they pray—and if he doesn’t give us what we ask for, it’s only because it wouldn’t be good for us. Jesus says,

What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!

Look at that last sentence: We expect Jesus to say, “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him!” But he doesn’t say “give good gifts”; he says “give the Holy Spirit.” Why? Because the Holy Spirit is the greatest gift of all—and the Holy Spirit is elsewhere in scripture called the Spirit of Christ; Jesus says that the Holy Spirit makes Christ present to us. 

So we can be confident—no matter what we’re experiencing—that when we earnestly pray, our heavenly Father will always give us whatever we need in that moment to have the best thing of all… which more of Jesus.

So when you’re hurting, tell yourself something like this: “This bad thing I’m going through—it’s really bad, and it hurts—but it’s exactly what I need right now to have more of the best thing of all—more of Jesus!”

If you want more of Jesus, this ought to be really good news, because this is precisely what you’ll get!

And this is the principle underlying Ephesians 5:18-21. This is the basis on which we can give thanks to God “always and for everything.” Indeed, this is the basis on which we can fulfill verse 21 and “submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.” Because we know that, even if it hurts us in the short run, in the long run it will ultimately be good for us; it will lead to greater happiness and joy; it will lead to experiencing more of Jesus in our lives!

And when that happens, how can we not do what verse 19 says and “sing and make melody to the Lord with your heart”? That’s what it means to be happy!