Megan Langan

Assessment

Re:Verse passage – Nehemiah 2:11-20 (day four)

This scene reminds me of the news coverage of the California wildfires earlier this year. After the fires tore through a neighborhood, news footage would show residents of that community returning to their homes and surveying the damage. From our living room, we witnessed people realize for the first time just how much they’d lost, how vulnerable they were, and how much work there was in front of them. It is a raw and vulnerable thing to assess the damage of something you love, or a place that was taken away from you.

Nehemiah could have assessed that damage, which was probably far worse than he expected, and walked away determining it to be a total loss. But God had given him a yearning to rebuild the wall, a blessing for his journey, and the resources he needed to complete the task. While we might determine something to be a total loss, God makes a different assessment. What in your life have you determined to be a total loss that God is leading you to reassess?

Repentance

Re:Verse passage – Nehemiah 1:4–11 (day four)

Repentance is a humbling exercise. It’s challenging enough to reflect on our daily shortcomings and sin at a personal level, but knowing how to engage in repentance at the corporate level is especially difficult. We look around at the sin and destruction in the world and feel our spirits groaning to repent, but how do we repent for something we may or may not have had an active part in? How do we repent for something that seems bigger than us, or something that happened before our time?

Nehemiah repented for his own sins, the sins of his family, and the sins of the Israelites. He repented for his direct sin, but also sins with which he was indirectly related. Nehemiah knew that whether or not he played a leading role in a particular sin issue among the Israelites, that issue of sin impacted his own spiritual life and that of generations to come. He could have stood by and pointed out what awful shape the world was in, shaking his head at his neighbors. He could have turned to self-righteousness and held a holier-than-thou attitude. Instead, he repented. He repented for the sins of his people that were much bigger than him or his family. This takes humility and a genuine longing to see the movement of God in the world and the restoration that only He can bring.

Complaining about the state of the world is easy. Repentance is harder. Only one of those options leads to renewal. When you look around and see the results of sin and destruction in the world around you, what will you choose?

Proactive

Re:Verse passage – Nehemiah 1:1–3, 11 (day four)

Though there was celebration at the end of the exile, there was just as much, if not more, grieving. Families had been scattered and homes destroyed, and the city of Jerusalem itself sat in ruin. I’m sure many saw the rubble and considered it a lost cause – Jerusalem could never be restored, the kingdom of Israel could never return to what it once was.

Nehemiah grieved with and for his people, but he allowed that grief to turn into proactive hope. He could have allowed this grief to swallow him up, talking only of what could have been and “what-if,” lamenting over the state of things for decades. Instead, he allowed his grief to bring him to the Lord, who instilled a confident hope of better days to come. Not only would they rebuild the city, but they would rebuild their faith, and experience a collective spiritual milestone that would build the faith of generations to come.

When we observe the rubble around us, may it lead us to a prayerful, proactive hope.

Far Off

Re:Verse passage – Acts 2:1-13, 36-47 (day four)

”For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself.”

At Pentecost, we celebrate that the promise of God – the good news of salvation – was made available to all. When Jesus sent the Holy Spirit, he ignited the flame that allowed the gospel to go beyond their small corner of the world in Israel and into every heart across the world and across space and time. God made himself available to all the world through the power of the Spirit and through the testimony of the apostles. Peter makes it clear that this good news is for everybody, their children, and then some.

This truth should impact how we move through the world. Who do you imagine to be “far off?” Those in another part of the world where the gospel has not been preached? Pray for them and pray the Spirit would move among them. Consider whether God is calling you to them. Or what about people in our life who seem “far off” spiritually? Pentecost reminds us that there is hope for them. The Spirit speaks in such a way that their hearts cannot ignore, and no matter how far off they seem, the gospel is for them. Consider how you might minister to those near you who are far off this week.

Let Pentecost reignite your confidence that the good news is for all.

Present Reality

Re:Verse passage – Luke 24:45-53 (day four)

It’s easy to read the ascension of Jesus and consider it the “end” of his story. After all, he doesn’t have any more lines on the page, does he? But the ascension is not an end. Rather, the ascension is where the Biblical narrative and our present reality meet. Jesus ascended to the Father not to live in heavenly obscurity, but to take his place at the right hand of the God, where his ministry on our behalf continues. Paul reminds us in Romans 8:34 that Jesus remains at the right hand of the Father, interceding for us. That is still true at this very moment. We have our risen savior interceding on our behalf, and the very Spirit of God dwelling within us, speaking what he hears from the Father. Even in hardship, darkness, and suffering, we lack no good thing. In the work and ministry of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit, we have everything we need.

A Little While

Re:Verse passage – John 16:5-16 (day four)

Jesus said to them, “A little while, and you will no longer see me; and again a little while, and you will see me.” He seems to hold a loose definition of “a little while,” doesn’t he? We might agree that it was only a little while between when Jesus said this and when he ascended to heaven. But seeing him again? It feels like more than a little time has passed.

When I look at the world around me, I long for Jesus to return. The reality of sin and death can feel like too much to bear. I want Jesus to return in “a little while,” which is about the same amount of time I mean when I say “these cookies only need a little while longer in the oven.” But I operate in a finite, earthly sense of time, the Lord does not. When Jesus says “a little while,” he’s not talking about our earthly sense of time, but rather heavenly time, the fullness of time. He promises to return exactly on time, but this sense of time is too wonderful for us to understand on this side of heaven.

We hold to this promise, though, in verse 22, “Therefore you too have grief now; but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you.”

We only have to wait a little while.

Discipleship

Re:Verse passage – John 21:1-19 (day four)

Scripture holds a lot of beautiful symmetry. At the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, he called fishermen to follow him (Matt. 4:19). He took the small world that they knew and expanded it to reveal the vastness of the Kingdom of God. Now, after the resurrection, he’s calling those same fishermen into increasingly expanding possibilities.

Now that Jesus has appeared to all those closest to him, he takes the time to remind them that there is more to come. All that they had experienced with him – his ministry, death, and resurrection – were just the beginning. They are now being sent out as fishers of men to build his church. He sums up their calling with the phrase “tend my sheep.” The entirety of the apostolic calling is boiled down here to discipleship.

We share this same calling. Who has tended to you in the way Jesus describes here? Who are you tending to?

Friend

Re:Verse passage – Luke 24:36:-43; John 20:26-29 (day four)

Jesus desires a relationship with us. Those of us who have been in the church for many years know this well and might even take that truth for granted. We sing songs that tell us “what a friend we have in Jesus,” and that he “walks with me and talks with me.” But stop for a moment to consider how significant it is that the God of the universe desires intimate friendship with us.

Jesus lovingly developed friendships with the disciples during his ministry, and these friendships were on the top of his mind after his resurrection. He tended to them with gentleness and patience as they processed the reality of the resurrection. He lingered with them, making sure they understood that it was truly him, the same friend they had walked with for three years. And when Thomas was absent for the first appearance to the gathered disciples, Jesus returns, just for Thomas, not wanting to leave any of his friends in the dark. Jesus could have moved on, trusting the disciples would convince Thomas to believe. But Jesus is both our Friend and our Good Shepherd. He came back, just for Thomas, to bring him into resurrection joy.

We share this same friendship with Jesus. He lovingly tends to us in our doubt, shame, fear, and unbelief. He leaves the ninety-nine to minister to the one. He comes for us just as he came for Thomas, with the purest love we could ever know. What a friend we have in Jesus.

Hope

Re:Verse passage – Luke 24:13-35 (day four)

As the two disciples walked home from Jerusalem, they were mulling over the events of the weekend. I know when I experience something overwhelming, my first impulse is to talk about it with someone and do some external processing. The word used for “discussion” here implies a passionate conversation, even a debate. They were genuinely trying to piece together what had happened and what it all meant, but they weren’t getting very far. While they once had hope that Jesus would deliver Israel, that hope was nailed to the cross with Jesus on Good Friday.

When Jesus meets them on the road, its a unique encounter. While the disciples don’t recognize him, they’re still completely engrossed in what he has to say. While we might expect Jesus to speak in parables like he did before his death, he instead speaks plainly to them, and unpacks the entire Biblical narrative which all finds its satisfaction in him. After all this, it isn’t until they share a meal with him that they realize this man in front of them is Jesus. That intimate experience of walking and eating with him opened their spiritual eyes, the eyes of their heart, and they believed.

When the disciples examined their situation with their earthly eyes, they thought all hope was lost. When Jesus opened their spiritual eyes, they realized hope was standing right in front of them, fully alive. They thought they had witnessed the death of hope, but really they witnessed the fulfillment of it. What situation in your life have you assessed to be void of hope? What might you see if you asked Jesus to open your spiritual eyes?

Logic

Re:Verse passage – John 20:1-18 (day four)

Occam’s Razor is a problem-solving principle that suggests the simplest explanation is usually the most accurate. Mary was using this logic when she discovered the empty tomb. Jesus had died, his body was no longer in the tomb, therefore someone had moved the body. This is a logical conclusion to draw based on the information in front of her.

But in her grief, Mary had temporarily forgotten the words of Jesus that explained these mysteries in front of her. In the Kingdom of God, basic logic works differently. In Kingdom logic, our first assumption should be that in every situation, God is at work for his glory and our good. When we’re approached with bad news, hard days, and big questions, we no longer start with determining the simplest explanation, but rather by prayerfully discerning the ways the Spirit is moving.

When Jesus calls her by name, “Mary!,” she moves from earthly logic to Kingdom possibilities. He is just as close to you and I through the power of the Spirit, and he calls our name. Which logic will you choose?