Psalm 88

“…abandoned among the dead”

(NOTE: I am beginning my series of reflections on the Psalms again after a month’s absence. This reflection is longer than many, but I need to share this with you.)

           Deep depression and paralyzing anxiety have been part of my makeup since I can remember. For many years I had no words with which to describe my condition. I have vivid memories of lying awake for hours, paralyzed by anxiety, unable to reach the light on the nightstand next to my bed. I can remember hours in my study unable to reach for the phone. I can remember seasons when I could barely function. Oh, I went through the motions. I showed up for work. I preached and led worship. I made visits with my church family. I led in evangelistic meetings. I collaborated with other pastors in community events. I spent time with my wife and kids. All the while at times my mind and heart were racing with anxiety and/or deep and often uncontrollable despair.

           I remember hearing more than once how believers, particularly pastors, should be so spiritually attuned to God that peace would totally prevail. So, instead of sharing my experiences I hid them, and when I couldn’t hide my actions I blamed stress for my failures.

           In the past thirty years I discovered several powerful resources. First, I spoke to my physician. He and I agreed on a course of medical treatment that has been helpful. Second, I make sure to stay in touch with a group of trusted believers with whom I can be totally transparent. Third, and perhaps most helpful I rediscovered the Psalms of the Old Testament.

           The prayers and songs composed by believers centuries before the birth of Christ voiced almost every emotion I have ever experienced.

           The 88th psalm begins not with a note of discouragement, but an pronouncement of faith - “Lord, God of my salvation, I cry out before You day and night.” (Psalm 88:1, HCSB). God IS the Lord of MY salvation. Without that anchor for my soul the darkness may well have claimed my life. As I immersed myself in the psalms, the prayer book of Judaism, I began to find fellow-sufferers who often voiced my deepest hurts and hungers to God. Using the their words I learned that I am not alone.

           Some would read Psalm 88 as a prayer of failure. Blaming God (vs 6, 14-15, 16-18) and expressing abandonment may strike some as words of a failed servant. I read them and pray them not as one who has failed, but as one who knows that God alone can rescue me from the pit of despair, the overwhelming paralysis of anxiety.

Dec 19

Luke 19

You did not recognize the time when God visited you

           On Jesus’ last journey to Jerusalem He passed through Jericho with others headed to Jerusalem for Passover. Those who had been following Jesus were eagerly anticipating some sort of showdown between Jesus and the Romans. The kingdom which Jesus had been incessantly talking about was near. It was time.

           In Jericho people lined the route to see Jesus. Zacchaeus had to climb a tree in order to see “who Jesus was” (vs 3). Little did he know Jesus ‘saw’ him! The exchange between these two illustrate the nature of the kingdom, but few had the eyes to really see what it was about.

           Entering Jerusalem with the crowds gathering for Passover the eagerness for God to act intensified. Crowds began to acknowledge this Jesus (vs 38), full of anticipation for all that was about to occur.

           As Jesus drew near, however, He saw something entirely different. What He saw was a city overflowing with people eager to experience the kingdom of God, but people who were  completely missing the point. “If you knew…” (vs 42). Jesus grieved because it was clear they didn’t know.

           Entering the Temple all Jesus could see were hindrances and obstacles to the in-breaking kingdom of God. Clearing the Temple was temporary -  the real cleansing would occur in a few days. The kingdom was coming, just not in the way most people were eagerly anticipating.

           Christmas is less than a week away. What are you seeing as you look at the traffic, as you hustle and bustle through the stores? May God give us open eyes to see the truth: “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10).

Dec 18

Luke 18

They understood none of these things.

           Pray with persistence. Pray in humility. Trust like children, be willing to give all for possessing the kingdom of God. Those who had been with Jesus the longest, the fishermen hed had called by name, the tax-collector whose life Jesus had disrupted, others He had identified as ‘apostles,’ none of them understood. Having heard Jesus teach, seeing His perform miracles for nearly three years, and they still did not understand.

           It all sounds so clear in our ears doesn’t it? Or does it? We still pray with little or no persistence. We still brag about our diligence and our accomplishments for God. We still act superior to those who act like children. We hold on to our ‘things’ and miss much of what God is really doing in our world.

           If we want to understand, then we need to trust completely like a child, let go of anything that is keeping us anchored to this world, and learn to live fully exposed before God. Then maybe we can begin to understand.

Dec 15

Luke 15

“This man welcomes sinners…”

           A serious accusation is leveled against Jesus by the religious conservatives of His era. An obedient Jew, as defined by the OT and the centuries of interpretation, sought to be totally distinct from any hint of sin. Welcoming ‘sinners,’ and even more damaging to Jesus’ reputation – “He eats with them” (vs 2). To have a meal is to be in close, even intimate, fellowship.

           Jesus could have ignored this challenge. Instead He tells three stories (parables) to illustrate the deep and unending compassion of God for all creation. C. H. Spurgeon wrote of these parables

[God] has a deep sympathy with each stray heart…He grieves over each lost sheep, for he knows the misery that lies in the fact of being lost. … His compassion…[is]…the compassion of an infinite heart brimming over with an ocean of love.

A lost sheep, a lost coin, a lost son, and an unforgiving son all are ways Jesus illustrates God’s never-ending compassion for His own.

           We are never as far from God’s heart as we often think. Like the father in the parable of the two sons, God is eager to receive the repentant heart.  

C. H. Spurgeon, The Spurgeon Study Bible: Christian Standard Bible (Nashville, TN.: Holman Bible Publishers, 2017), 1400.

As Christmas season comes around again, people begin to think of decorated trees, tables and arches, mistletoe, manger scenes, and GIFTS! Eggnog, candy canes, cookies, luscious dinners, caroling, family visits, snow, ice skating, ski trips, tobogganing, and sledding. As an IMB SBC missionary for more than three decades out here — I pen these words on Oct. 5, 2020 in Chile, where spring has sprung — what do I think about? Well, for starters, heat, BBQ, watermelon, and firecrackers. Yes, we do put up a tree, and give gifts, but at the other end of the globe, and below the equator, it is summer. No turkeys are even available in most places where missionaries serve. What I think about more than anything is the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering, the offering that Southern Baptist churches, partners, missionaries and their kids support at this time of the year, and which pays for our support and which keeps us, more than 3,600 missionaries and their children, on the field. At this time, of the year four key words come to my mind:

-GRATITUDE: How thankful we are for the billions of dollars that SBC churches and individuals have poured out over so many decades in an offering of gratitude and praise to the Baby in a manger. It is an offering of gratitude to the One who was incarnated, who grew up, set up His tent among us, led a sinless human life, and then gave His life for a lost world. He then rose again on the third day and ascended into heaven, where He intercedes at the right hand of the Father for all who believe in Him. We share Him with the lost world, and we do it because of faithful giving to the LMCO.

-LOSTNESS: I think of Kara and Bruno, Kara’s two-year-old boy. We met them on a prayer walk yesterday near our home in Chile. Kara was sitting on a bench. We approached her and found that she lives here and is married to a Chilean. She speaks English, and her father was a diplomat. She talked about how she often feels lonely, not knowing when she will see her family again. We gave her a tract, called “Steps to Peace with God,” and left. We now pray regularly for her and pray she will call us, or that we can meet again.

-OPPORTUNITY: Our Lottie Moon offerings — yours and mine — pay for missionary rent, missionary health care, medications, food, and fuel. They even pay for the tract I gave to Mrs. Kara yesterday. The offerings also pay for us to share Theological, Biblical and Pastoral training with pastors and leaders in the interior of a country. Many potential pastors have never been to the capital and cannot easily go there to study in the seminary. Many people, like Pastor Raul, studied that way. Pastor Raul is a seminary teacher and pastors three churches in Uruguay’s outback. He also serves as the Secretary of the Uruguay Baptist Convention All this happened because of gifts to the Cooperative Program and our faithful giving to LMCO.

-SACRIFICE: When God gave his son Jesus for a lost world, He gave his best. He gave his only, and He gave just what we needed. He so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son (John. 3:16). When I give my LMCO offering, I want it to be my best. I want it to be sacrificial, and I want it to be something that costs until it almost hurts. I make it my most expensive Christmas gift. I do not want to give to the risen Lord something as an afterthought. I want it to be well thought out, planned and sacrificial. Is that not the Spirit of Christmas? God gave us the best, His only and just what we needed. So why do I — an IMB SBC missionary of more than three decades — give to LMCO? Because I believe the offering is well utilized and administered, and I believe that I am privileged to do so.

Tim Kunkel Santiago Chile

OCT, 15 th 2020

Heb. 6:10

Psalm 80

           Within a generation after the death of King David God’s people were divided. Ten tribes settled in the north of the Promised Land and two tribes remained in and around Jerusalem. The people of the north suffered a succession of families who wrestled leadership from one another. Samaria was built in order to be a capitol city. Their first ‘king’ of the created an entire religious system, borrowed from their own past revolving around golden calves.

           The southern ‘nation’ was ruled by descendants of David. Some were godly men, others not quite so much. Yet when Samaria fell to the Assyrians the tribes in the south felt the fall in a deeply personal way. Those ten tribes were family. To see family humiliated and exiled from their land and to see foreigners who knew nothing of the sacredness of the land take their place was heartbreaking.

           This lament, authored by the musicians of the Temple, reflects how deeply felt the fall of Samaria was experienced. Prayer for deliverance appears to be lost in the smoke of God’s wrath. Tears of sorrow, the agony of defeat while enemies rejoiced is out of character for the people whom God had rescued from Egypt.

           In our tumultuous times it can seem as though God’s favor has been transformed into wrath. Where we once experienced triumph and joy we now seem to see tragedy and despair. When we reflect on where we’ve come from and where we are headed, we feel shame instead of confidence.

           As the prayer of lament concludes the musicians pray for God to raise up one whom He can use to restore God’s people. Restoration, revival can only happen when God’s people affirm as one, Jesus (the One who is at the right hand of God) is Lord.

Psalm 79

Where were you on Sept 11,2001? Most people over the age of 30 vividly remember planes flying into the World Trade Towers in New York City and the Pentagon. We remember audio from Flight 93 as the plane was turned towards Washington DC, targeting either the Capitol Building or the White House. Shock, horror, fear, anger, burst forth all at once.

           Asaph, a singer in the Temple court of Israel watched as an enemy devastated Jerusalem and desecrated the Temple of the God of Israel. He sings of his fear, anger, frustration, and shock.

           Asaph wonders aloud, “How long will this go on, O Lord? Will you stay angry forever? How long will your rage burn like fire?” (Psalm 79:5, NET).  Though Asaph could point to a specific example – the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonian army; though we can point to events like 9/11/01 – all of us experience seasons that cause us to ask the same question – How long, O Lord?

           Two notable features of this song. First, notice the pronouns Asaph uses –

“O God, foreigners have invaded your chosen land; they have polluted your holy temple and turned Jerusalem into a heap of ruins. They have given the corpses of your servants to the birds of the sky; the flesh of your loyal followers to the beasts of the earth.” (Psalm 79:1–2, NET).        

Second, the psalmist sings, “Help us, O God, our deliverer! For the sake of your glorious reputation, rescue us! Forgive our sins for the sake of your reputation!” (Psalm 79:9, NET) His concern is not with the nation’s reputation nor the standing of the servants.

When we ask, How long O Lord, are we asking for God to protect His reputation or ours?

Psalm 88

“…abandoned among the dead”

(NOTE: I am beginning my series of reflections on the Psalms again after a month’s absence. This reflection is longer than many, but I need to share this with you.)

           Deep depression and paralyzing anxiety have been part of my makeup since I can remember. For many years I had no words with which to describe my condition. I have vivid memories of lying awake for hours, paralyzed by anxiety, unable to reach the light on the nightstand next to my bed. I can remember hours in my study unable to reach for the phone. I can remember seasons when I could barely function. Oh, I went through the motions. I showed up for work. I preached and led worship. I made visits with my church family. I led in evangelistic meetings. I collaborated with other pastors in community events. I spent time with my wife and kids. All the while at times my mind and heart were racing with anxiety and/or deep and often uncontrollable despair.

           I remember hearing more than once how believers, particularly pastors, should be so spiritually attuned to God that peace would totally prevail. So, instead of sharing my experiences I hid them, and when I couldn’t hide my actions I blamed stress for my failures.

           In the past thirty years I discovered several powerful resources. First, I spoke to my physician. He and I agreed on a course of medical treatment that has been helpful. Second, I make sure to stay in touch with a group of trusted believers with whom I can be totally transparent. Third, and perhaps most helpful I rediscovered the Psalms of the Old Testament.

           The prayers and songs composed by believers centuries before the birth of Christ voiced almost every emotion I have ever experienced.

           The 88th psalm begins not with a note of discouragement, but an pronouncement of faith - “Lord, God of my salvation, I cry out before You day and night.” (Psalm 88:1, HCSB). God IS the Lord of MY salvation. Without that anchor for my soul the darkness may well have claimed my life. As I immersed myself in the psalms, the prayer book of Judaism, I began to find fellow-sufferers who often voiced my deepest hurts and hungers to God. Using the their words I learned that I am not alone.

           Some would read Psalm 88 as a prayer of failure. Blaming God (vs 6, 14-15, 16-18) and expressing abandonment may strike some as words of a failed servant. I read them and pray them not as one who has failed, but as one who knows that God alone can rescue me from the pit of despair, the overwhelming paralysis of anxiety.

Dec 19

Luke 19

You did not recognize the time when God visited you

           On Jesus’ last journey to Jerusalem He passed through Jericho with others headed to Jerusalem for Passover. Those who had been following Jesus were eagerly anticipating some sort of showdown between Jesus and the Romans. The kingdom which Jesus had been incessantly talking about was near. It was time.

           In Jericho people lined the route to see Jesus. Zacchaeus had to climb a tree in order to see “who Jesus was” (vs 3). Little did he know Jesus ‘saw’ him! The exchange between these two illustrate the nature of the kingdom, but few had the eyes to really see what it was about.

           Entering Jerusalem with the crowds gathering for Passover the eagerness for God to act intensified. Crowds began to acknowledge this Jesus (vs 38), full of anticipation for all that was about to occur.

           As Jesus drew near, however, He saw something entirely different. What He saw was a city overflowing with people eager to experience the kingdom of God, but people who were  completely missing the point. “If you knew…” (vs 42). Jesus grieved because it was clear they didn’t know.

           Entering the Temple all Jesus could see were hindrances and obstacles to the in-breaking kingdom of God. Clearing the Temple was temporary -  the real cleansing would occur in a few days. The kingdom was coming, just not in the way most people were eagerly anticipating.

           Christmas is less than a week away. What are you seeing as you look at the traffic, as you hustle and bustle through the stores? May God give us open eyes to see the truth: “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10).

Dec 18

Luke 18

They understood none of these things.

           Pray with persistence. Pray in humility. Trust like children, be willing to give all for possessing the kingdom of God. Those who had been with Jesus the longest, the fishermen hed had called by name, the tax-collector whose life Jesus had disrupted, others He had identified as ‘apostles,’ none of them understood. Having heard Jesus teach, seeing His perform miracles for nearly three years, and they still did not understand.

           It all sounds so clear in our ears doesn’t it? Or does it? We still pray with little or no persistence. We still brag about our diligence and our accomplishments for God. We still act superior to those who act like children. We hold on to our ‘things’ and miss much of what God is really doing in our world.

           If we want to understand, then we need to trust completely like a child, let go of anything that is keeping us anchored to this world, and learn to live fully exposed before God. Then maybe we can begin to understand.

Dec 15

Luke 15

“This man welcomes sinners…”

           A serious accusation is leveled against Jesus by the religious conservatives of His era. An obedient Jew, as defined by the OT and the centuries of interpretation, sought to be totally distinct from any hint of sin. Welcoming ‘sinners,’ and even more damaging to Jesus’ reputation – “He eats with them” (vs 2). To have a meal is to be in close, even intimate, fellowship.

           Jesus could have ignored this challenge. Instead He tells three stories (parables) to illustrate the deep and unending compassion of God for all creation. C. H. Spurgeon wrote of these parables

[God] has a deep sympathy with each stray heart…He grieves over each lost sheep, for he knows the misery that lies in the fact of being lost. … His compassion…[is]…the compassion of an infinite heart brimming over with an ocean of love.

A lost sheep, a lost coin, a lost son, and an unforgiving son all are ways Jesus illustrates God’s never-ending compassion for His own.

           We are never as far from God’s heart as we often think. Like the father in the parable of the two sons, God is eager to receive the repentant heart.  

C. H. Spurgeon, The Spurgeon Study Bible: Christian Standard Bible (Nashville, TN.: Holman Bible Publishers, 2017), 1400.

As Christmas season comes around again, people begin to think of decorated trees, tables and arches, mistletoe, manger scenes, and GIFTS! Eggnog, candy canes, cookies, luscious dinners, caroling, family visits, snow, ice skating, ski trips, tobogganing, and sledding. As an IMB SBC missionary for more than three decades out here — I pen these words on Oct. 5, 2020 in Chile, where spring has sprung — what do I think about? Well, for starters, heat, BBQ, watermelon, and firecrackers. Yes, we do put up a tree, and give gifts, but at the other end of the globe, and below the equator, it is summer. No turkeys are even available in most places where missionaries serve. What I think about more than anything is the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering, the offering that Southern Baptist churches, partners, missionaries and their kids support at this time of the year, and which pays for our support and which keeps us, more than 3,600 missionaries and their children, on the field. At this time, of the year four key words come to my mind:

-GRATITUDE: How thankful we are for the billions of dollars that SBC churches and individuals have poured out over so many decades in an offering of gratitude and praise to the Baby in a manger. It is an offering of gratitude to the One who was incarnated, who grew up, set up His tent among us, led a sinless human life, and then gave His life for a lost world. He then rose again on the third day and ascended into heaven, where He intercedes at the right hand of the Father for all who believe in Him. We share Him with the lost world, and we do it because of faithful giving to the LMCO.

-LOSTNESS: I think of Kara and Bruno, Kara’s two-year-old boy. We met them on a prayer walk yesterday near our home in Chile. Kara was sitting on a bench. We approached her and found that she lives here and is married to a Chilean. She speaks English, and her father was a diplomat. She talked about how she often feels lonely, not knowing when she will see her family again. We gave her a tract, called “Steps to Peace with God,” and left. We now pray regularly for her and pray she will call us, or that we can meet again.

-OPPORTUNITY: Our Lottie Moon offerings — yours and mine — pay for missionary rent, missionary health care, medications, food, and fuel. They even pay for the tract I gave to Mrs. Kara yesterday. The offerings also pay for us to share Theological, Biblical and Pastoral training with pastors and leaders in the interior of a country. Many potential pastors have never been to the capital and cannot easily go there to study in the seminary. Many people, like Pastor Raul, studied that way. Pastor Raul is a seminary teacher and pastors three churches in Uruguay’s outback. He also serves as the Secretary of the Uruguay Baptist Convention All this happened because of gifts to the Cooperative Program and our faithful giving to LMCO.

-SACRIFICE: When God gave his son Jesus for a lost world, He gave his best. He gave his only, and He gave just what we needed. He so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son (John. 3:16). When I give my LMCO offering, I want it to be my best. I want it to be sacrificial, and I want it to be something that costs until it almost hurts. I make it my most expensive Christmas gift. I do not want to give to the risen Lord something as an afterthought. I want it to be well thought out, planned and sacrificial. Is that not the Spirit of Christmas? God gave us the best, His only and just what we needed. So why do I — an IMB SBC missionary of more than three decades — give to LMCO? Because I believe the offering is well utilized and administered, and I believe that I am privileged to do so.

Tim Kunkel Santiago Chile

OCT, 15 th 2020

Heb. 6:10

Psalm 80

           Within a generation after the death of King David God’s people were divided. Ten tribes settled in the north of the Promised Land and two tribes remained in and around Jerusalem. The people of the north suffered a succession of families who wrestled leadership from one another. Samaria was built in order to be a capitol city. Their first ‘king’ of the created an entire religious system, borrowed from their own past revolving around golden calves.

           The southern ‘nation’ was ruled by descendants of David. Some were godly men, others not quite so much. Yet when Samaria fell to the Assyrians the tribes in the south felt the fall in a deeply personal way. Those ten tribes were family. To see family humiliated and exiled from their land and to see foreigners who knew nothing of the sacredness of the land take their place was heartbreaking.

           This lament, authored by the musicians of the Temple, reflects how deeply felt the fall of Samaria was experienced. Prayer for deliverance appears to be lost in the smoke of God’s wrath. Tears of sorrow, the agony of defeat while enemies rejoiced is out of character for the people whom God had rescued from Egypt.

           In our tumultuous times it can seem as though God’s favor has been transformed into wrath. Where we once experienced triumph and joy we now seem to see tragedy and despair. When we reflect on where we’ve come from and where we are headed, we feel shame instead of confidence.

           As the prayer of lament concludes the musicians pray for God to raise up one whom He can use to restore God’s people. Restoration, revival can only happen when God’s people affirm as one, Jesus (the One who is at the right hand of God) is Lord.

Psalm 79

Where were you on Sept 11,2001? Most people over the age of 30 vividly remember planes flying into the World Trade Towers in New York City and the Pentagon. We remember audio from Flight 93 as the plane was turned towards Washington DC, targeting either the Capitol Building or the White House. Shock, horror, fear, anger, burst forth all at once.

           Asaph, a singer in the Temple court of Israel watched as an enemy devastated Jerusalem and desecrated the Temple of the God of Israel. He sings of his fear, anger, frustration, and shock.

           Asaph wonders aloud, “How long will this go on, O Lord? Will you stay angry forever? How long will your rage burn like fire?” (Psalm 79:5, NET).  Though Asaph could point to a specific example – the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonian army; though we can point to events like 9/11/01 – all of us experience seasons that cause us to ask the same question – How long, O Lord?

           Two notable features of this song. First, notice the pronouns Asaph uses –

“O God, foreigners have invaded your chosen land; they have polluted your holy temple and turned Jerusalem into a heap of ruins. They have given the corpses of your servants to the birds of the sky; the flesh of your loyal followers to the beasts of the earth.” (Psalm 79:1–2, NET).        

Second, the psalmist sings, “Help us, O God, our deliverer! For the sake of your glorious reputation, rescue us! Forgive our sins for the sake of your reputation!” (Psalm 79:9, NET) His concern is not with the nation’s reputation nor the standing of the servants.

When we ask, How long O Lord, are we asking for God to protect His reputation or ours?

Psalm 88

“…abandoned among the dead”

(NOTE: I am beginning my series of reflections on the Psalms again after a month’s absence. This reflection is longer than many, but I need to share this with you.)

           Deep depression and paralyzing anxiety have been part of my makeup since I can remember. For many years I had no words with which to describe my condition. I have vivid memories of lying awake for hours, paralyzed by anxiety, unable to reach the light on the nightstand next to my bed. I can remember hours in my study unable to reach for the phone. I can remember seasons when I could barely function. Oh, I went through the motions. I showed up for work. I preached and led worship. I made visits with my church family. I led in evangelistic meetings. I collaborated with other pastors in community events. I spent time with my wife and kids. All the while at times my mind and heart were racing with anxiety and/or deep and often uncontrollable despair.

           I remember hearing more than once how believers, particularly pastors, should be so spiritually attuned to God that peace would totally prevail. So, instead of sharing my experiences I hid them, and when I couldn’t hide my actions I blamed stress for my failures.

           In the past thirty years I discovered several powerful resources. First, I spoke to my physician. He and I agreed on a course of medical treatment that has been helpful. Second, I make sure to stay in touch with a group of trusted believers with whom I can be totally transparent. Third, and perhaps most helpful I rediscovered the Psalms of the Old Testament.

           The prayers and songs composed by believers centuries before the birth of Christ voiced almost every emotion I have ever experienced.

           The 88th psalm begins not with a note of discouragement, but an pronouncement of faith - “Lord, God of my salvation, I cry out before You day and night.” (Psalm 88:1, HCSB). God IS the Lord of MY salvation. Without that anchor for my soul the darkness may well have claimed my life. As I immersed myself in the psalms, the prayer book of Judaism, I began to find fellow-sufferers who often voiced my deepest hurts and hungers to God. Using the their words I learned that I am not alone.

           Some would read Psalm 88 as a prayer of failure. Blaming God (vs 6, 14-15, 16-18) and expressing abandonment may strike some as words of a failed servant. I read them and pray them not as one who has failed, but as one who knows that God alone can rescue me from the pit of despair, the overwhelming paralysis of anxiety.

Dec 19

Luke 19

You did not recognize the time when God visited you

           On Jesus’ last journey to Jerusalem He passed through Jericho with others headed to Jerusalem for Passover. Those who had been following Jesus were eagerly anticipating some sort of showdown between Jesus and the Romans. The kingdom which Jesus had been incessantly talking about was near. It was time.

           In Jericho people lined the route to see Jesus. Zacchaeus had to climb a tree in order to see “who Jesus was” (vs 3). Little did he know Jesus ‘saw’ him! The exchange between these two illustrate the nature of the kingdom, but few had the eyes to really see what it was about.

           Entering Jerusalem with the crowds gathering for Passover the eagerness for God to act intensified. Crowds began to acknowledge this Jesus (vs 38), full of anticipation for all that was about to occur.

           As Jesus drew near, however, He saw something entirely different. What He saw was a city overflowing with people eager to experience the kingdom of God, but people who were  completely missing the point. “If you knew…” (vs 42). Jesus grieved because it was clear they didn’t know.

           Entering the Temple all Jesus could see were hindrances and obstacles to the in-breaking kingdom of God. Clearing the Temple was temporary -  the real cleansing would occur in a few days. The kingdom was coming, just not in the way most people were eagerly anticipating.

           Christmas is less than a week away. What are you seeing as you look at the traffic, as you hustle and bustle through the stores? May God give us open eyes to see the truth: “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10).

Dec 18

Luke 18

They understood none of these things.

           Pray with persistence. Pray in humility. Trust like children, be willing to give all for possessing the kingdom of God. Those who had been with Jesus the longest, the fishermen hed had called by name, the tax-collector whose life Jesus had disrupted, others He had identified as ‘apostles,’ none of them understood. Having heard Jesus teach, seeing His perform miracles for nearly three years, and they still did not understand.

           It all sounds so clear in our ears doesn’t it? Or does it? We still pray with little or no persistence. We still brag about our diligence and our accomplishments for God. We still act superior to those who act like children. We hold on to our ‘things’ and miss much of what God is really doing in our world.

           If we want to understand, then we need to trust completely like a child, let go of anything that is keeping us anchored to this world, and learn to live fully exposed before God. Then maybe we can begin to understand.

Dec 15

Luke 15

“This man welcomes sinners…”

           A serious accusation is leveled against Jesus by the religious conservatives of His era. An obedient Jew, as defined by the OT and the centuries of interpretation, sought to be totally distinct from any hint of sin. Welcoming ‘sinners,’ and even more damaging to Jesus’ reputation – “He eats with them” (vs 2). To have a meal is to be in close, even intimate, fellowship.

           Jesus could have ignored this challenge. Instead He tells three stories (parables) to illustrate the deep and unending compassion of God for all creation. C. H. Spurgeon wrote of these parables

[God] has a deep sympathy with each stray heart…He grieves over each lost sheep, for he knows the misery that lies in the fact of being lost. … His compassion…[is]…the compassion of an infinite heart brimming over with an ocean of love.

A lost sheep, a lost coin, a lost son, and an unforgiving son all are ways Jesus illustrates God’s never-ending compassion for His own.

           We are never as far from God’s heart as we often think. Like the father in the parable of the two sons, God is eager to receive the repentant heart.  

C. H. Spurgeon, The Spurgeon Study Bible: Christian Standard Bible (Nashville, TN.: Holman Bible Publishers, 2017), 1400.

As Christmas season comes around again, people begin to think of decorated trees, tables and arches, mistletoe, manger scenes, and GIFTS! Eggnog, candy canes, cookies, luscious dinners, caroling, family visits, snow, ice skating, ski trips, tobogganing, and sledding. As an IMB SBC missionary for more than three decades out here — I pen these words on Oct. 5, 2020 in Chile, where spring has sprung — what do I think about? Well, for starters, heat, BBQ, watermelon, and firecrackers. Yes, we do put up a tree, and give gifts, but at the other end of the globe, and below the equator, it is summer. No turkeys are even available in most places where missionaries serve. What I think about more than anything is the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering, the offering that Southern Baptist churches, partners, missionaries and their kids support at this time of the year, and which pays for our support and which keeps us, more than 3,600 missionaries and their children, on the field. At this time, of the year four key words come to my mind:

-GRATITUDE: How thankful we are for the billions of dollars that SBC churches and individuals have poured out over so many decades in an offering of gratitude and praise to the Baby in a manger. It is an offering of gratitude to the One who was incarnated, who grew up, set up His tent among us, led a sinless human life, and then gave His life for a lost world. He then rose again on the third day and ascended into heaven, where He intercedes at the right hand of the Father for all who believe in Him. We share Him with the lost world, and we do it because of faithful giving to the LMCO.

-LOSTNESS: I think of Kara and Bruno, Kara’s two-year-old boy. We met them on a prayer walk yesterday near our home in Chile. Kara was sitting on a bench. We approached her and found that she lives here and is married to a Chilean. She speaks English, and her father was a diplomat. She talked about how she often feels lonely, not knowing when she will see her family again. We gave her a tract, called “Steps to Peace with God,” and left. We now pray regularly for her and pray she will call us, or that we can meet again.

-OPPORTUNITY: Our Lottie Moon offerings — yours and mine — pay for missionary rent, missionary health care, medications, food, and fuel. They even pay for the tract I gave to Mrs. Kara yesterday. The offerings also pay for us to share Theological, Biblical and Pastoral training with pastors and leaders in the interior of a country. Many potential pastors have never been to the capital and cannot easily go there to study in the seminary. Many people, like Pastor Raul, studied that way. Pastor Raul is a seminary teacher and pastors three churches in Uruguay’s outback. He also serves as the Secretary of the Uruguay Baptist Convention All this happened because of gifts to the Cooperative Program and our faithful giving to LMCO.

-SACRIFICE: When God gave his son Jesus for a lost world, He gave his best. He gave his only, and He gave just what we needed. He so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son (John. 3:16). When I give my LMCO offering, I want it to be my best. I want it to be sacrificial, and I want it to be something that costs until it almost hurts. I make it my most expensive Christmas gift. I do not want to give to the risen Lord something as an afterthought. I want it to be well thought out, planned and sacrificial. Is that not the Spirit of Christmas? God gave us the best, His only and just what we needed. So why do I — an IMB SBC missionary of more than three decades — give to LMCO? Because I believe the offering is well utilized and administered, and I believe that I am privileged to do so.

Tim Kunkel Santiago Chile

OCT, 15 th 2020

Heb. 6:10

Psalm 80

           Within a generation after the death of King David God’s people were divided. Ten tribes settled in the north of the Promised Land and two tribes remained in and around Jerusalem. The people of the north suffered a succession of families who wrestled leadership from one another. Samaria was built in order to be a capitol city. Their first ‘king’ of the created an entire religious system, borrowed from their own past revolving around golden calves.

           The southern ‘nation’ was ruled by descendants of David. Some were godly men, others not quite so much. Yet when Samaria fell to the Assyrians the tribes in the south felt the fall in a deeply personal way. Those ten tribes were family. To see family humiliated and exiled from their land and to see foreigners who knew nothing of the sacredness of the land take their place was heartbreaking.

           This lament, authored by the musicians of the Temple, reflects how deeply felt the fall of Samaria was experienced. Prayer for deliverance appears to be lost in the smoke of God’s wrath. Tears of sorrow, the agony of defeat while enemies rejoiced is out of character for the people whom God had rescued from Egypt.

           In our tumultuous times it can seem as though God’s favor has been transformed into wrath. Where we once experienced triumph and joy we now seem to see tragedy and despair. When we reflect on where we’ve come from and where we are headed, we feel shame instead of confidence.

           As the prayer of lament concludes the musicians pray for God to raise up one whom He can use to restore God’s people. Restoration, revival can only happen when God’s people affirm as one, Jesus (the One who is at the right hand of God) is Lord.

Psalm 79

Where were you on Sept 11,2001? Most people over the age of 30 vividly remember planes flying into the World Trade Towers in New York City and the Pentagon. We remember audio from Flight 93 as the plane was turned towards Washington DC, targeting either the Capitol Building or the White House. Shock, horror, fear, anger, burst forth all at once.

           Asaph, a singer in the Temple court of Israel watched as an enemy devastated Jerusalem and desecrated the Temple of the God of Israel. He sings of his fear, anger, frustration, and shock.

           Asaph wonders aloud, “How long will this go on, O Lord? Will you stay angry forever? How long will your rage burn like fire?” (Psalm 79:5, NET).  Though Asaph could point to a specific example – the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonian army; though we can point to events like 9/11/01 – all of us experience seasons that cause us to ask the same question – How long, O Lord?

           Two notable features of this song. First, notice the pronouns Asaph uses –

“O God, foreigners have invaded your chosen land; they have polluted your holy temple and turned Jerusalem into a heap of ruins. They have given the corpses of your servants to the birds of the sky; the flesh of your loyal followers to the beasts of the earth.” (Psalm 79:1–2, NET).        

Second, the psalmist sings, “Help us, O God, our deliverer! For the sake of your glorious reputation, rescue us! Forgive our sins for the sake of your reputation!” (Psalm 79:9, NET) His concern is not with the nation’s reputation nor the standing of the servants.

When we ask, How long O Lord, are we asking for God to protect His reputation or ours?

Psalm 88

“…abandoned among the dead”

(NOTE: I am beginning my series of reflections on the Psalms again after a month’s absence. This reflection is longer than many, but I need to share this with you.)

           Deep depression and paralyzing anxiety have been part of my makeup since I can remember. For many years I had no words with which to describe my condition. I have vivid memories of lying awake for hours, paralyzed by anxiety, unable to reach the light on the nightstand next to my bed. I can remember hours in my study unable to reach for the phone. I can remember seasons when I could barely function. Oh, I went through the motions. I showed up for work. I preached and led worship. I made visits with my church family. I led in evangelistic meetings. I collaborated with other pastors in community events. I spent time with my wife and kids. All the while at times my mind and heart were racing with anxiety and/or deep and often uncontrollable despair.

           I remember hearing more than once how believers, particularly pastors, should be so spiritually attuned to God that peace would totally prevail. So, instead of sharing my experiences I hid them, and when I couldn’t hide my actions I blamed stress for my failures.

           In the past thirty years I discovered several powerful resources. First, I spoke to my physician. He and I agreed on a course of medical treatment that has been helpful. Second, I make sure to stay in touch with a group of trusted believers with whom I can be totally transparent. Third, and perhaps most helpful I rediscovered the Psalms of the Old Testament.

           The prayers and songs composed by believers centuries before the birth of Christ voiced almost every emotion I have ever experienced.

           The 88th psalm begins not with a note of discouragement, but an pronouncement of faith - “Lord, God of my salvation, I cry out before You day and night.” (Psalm 88:1, HCSB). God IS the Lord of MY salvation. Without that anchor for my soul the darkness may well have claimed my life. As I immersed myself in the psalms, the prayer book of Judaism, I began to find fellow-sufferers who often voiced my deepest hurts and hungers to God. Using the their words I learned that I am not alone.

           Some would read Psalm 88 as a prayer of failure. Blaming God (vs 6, 14-15, 16-18) and expressing abandonment may strike some as words of a failed servant. I read them and pray them not as one who has failed, but as one who knows that God alone can rescue me from the pit of despair, the overwhelming paralysis of anxiety.

Dec 19

Luke 19

You did not recognize the time when God visited you

           On Jesus’ last journey to Jerusalem He passed through Jericho with others headed to Jerusalem for Passover. Those who had been following Jesus were eagerly anticipating some sort of showdown between Jesus and the Romans. The kingdom which Jesus had been incessantly talking about was near. It was time.

           In Jericho people lined the route to see Jesus. Zacchaeus had to climb a tree in order to see “who Jesus was” (vs 3). Little did he know Jesus ‘saw’ him! The exchange between these two illustrate the nature of the kingdom, but few had the eyes to really see what it was about.

           Entering Jerusalem with the crowds gathering for Passover the eagerness for God to act intensified. Crowds began to acknowledge this Jesus (vs 38), full of anticipation for all that was about to occur.

           As Jesus drew near, however, He saw something entirely different. What He saw was a city overflowing with people eager to experience the kingdom of God, but people who were  completely missing the point. “If you knew…” (vs 42). Jesus grieved because it was clear they didn’t know.

           Entering the Temple all Jesus could see were hindrances and obstacles to the in-breaking kingdom of God. Clearing the Temple was temporary -  the real cleansing would occur in a few days. The kingdom was coming, just not in the way most people were eagerly anticipating.

           Christmas is less than a week away. What are you seeing as you look at the traffic, as you hustle and bustle through the stores? May God give us open eyes to see the truth: “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10).

Dec 18

Luke 18

They understood none of these things.

           Pray with persistence. Pray in humility. Trust like children, be willing to give all for possessing the kingdom of God. Those who had been with Jesus the longest, the fishermen hed had called by name, the tax-collector whose life Jesus had disrupted, others He had identified as ‘apostles,’ none of them understood. Having heard Jesus teach, seeing His perform miracles for nearly three years, and they still did not understand.

           It all sounds so clear in our ears doesn’t it? Or does it? We still pray with little or no persistence. We still brag about our diligence and our accomplishments for God. We still act superior to those who act like children. We hold on to our ‘things’ and miss much of what God is really doing in our world.

           If we want to understand, then we need to trust completely like a child, let go of anything that is keeping us anchored to this world, and learn to live fully exposed before God. Then maybe we can begin to understand.

Dec 15

Luke 15

“This man welcomes sinners…”

           A serious accusation is leveled against Jesus by the religious conservatives of His era. An obedient Jew, as defined by the OT and the centuries of interpretation, sought to be totally distinct from any hint of sin. Welcoming ‘sinners,’ and even more damaging to Jesus’ reputation – “He eats with them” (vs 2). To have a meal is to be in close, even intimate, fellowship.

           Jesus could have ignored this challenge. Instead He tells three stories (parables) to illustrate the deep and unending compassion of God for all creation. C. H. Spurgeon wrote of these parables

[God] has a deep sympathy with each stray heart…He grieves over each lost sheep, for he knows the misery that lies in the fact of being lost. … His compassion…[is]…the compassion of an infinite heart brimming over with an ocean of love.

A lost sheep, a lost coin, a lost son, and an unforgiving son all are ways Jesus illustrates God’s never-ending compassion for His own.

           We are never as far from God’s heart as we often think. Like the father in the parable of the two sons, God is eager to receive the repentant heart.  

C. H. Spurgeon, The Spurgeon Study Bible: Christian Standard Bible (Nashville, TN.: Holman Bible Publishers, 2017), 1400.

As Christmas season comes around again, people begin to think of decorated trees, tables and arches, mistletoe, manger scenes, and GIFTS! Eggnog, candy canes, cookies, luscious dinners, caroling, family visits, snow, ice skating, ski trips, tobogganing, and sledding. As an IMB SBC missionary for more than three decades out here — I pen these words on Oct. 5, 2020 in Chile, where spring has sprung — what do I think about? Well, for starters, heat, BBQ, watermelon, and firecrackers. Yes, we do put up a tree, and give gifts, but at the other end of the globe, and below the equator, it is summer. No turkeys are even available in most places where missionaries serve. What I think about more than anything is the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering, the offering that Southern Baptist churches, partners, missionaries and their kids support at this time of the year, and which pays for our support and which keeps us, more than 3,600 missionaries and their children, on the field. At this time, of the year four key words come to my mind:

-GRATITUDE: How thankful we are for the billions of dollars that SBC churches and individuals have poured out over so many decades in an offering of gratitude and praise to the Baby in a manger. It is an offering of gratitude to the One who was incarnated, who grew up, set up His tent among us, led a sinless human life, and then gave His life for a lost world. He then rose again on the third day and ascended into heaven, where He intercedes at the right hand of the Father for all who believe in Him. We share Him with the lost world, and we do it because of faithful giving to the LMCO.

-LOSTNESS: I think of Kara and Bruno, Kara’s two-year-old boy. We met them on a prayer walk yesterday near our home in Chile. Kara was sitting on a bench. We approached her and found that she lives here and is married to a Chilean. She speaks English, and her father was a diplomat. She talked about how she often feels lonely, not knowing when she will see her family again. We gave her a tract, called “Steps to Peace with God,” and left. We now pray regularly for her and pray she will call us, or that we can meet again.

-OPPORTUNITY: Our Lottie Moon offerings — yours and mine — pay for missionary rent, missionary health care, medications, food, and fuel. They even pay for the tract I gave to Mrs. Kara yesterday. The offerings also pay for us to share Theological, Biblical and Pastoral training with pastors and leaders in the interior of a country. Many potential pastors have never been to the capital and cannot easily go there to study in the seminary. Many people, like Pastor Raul, studied that way. Pastor Raul is a seminary teacher and pastors three churches in Uruguay’s outback. He also serves as the Secretary of the Uruguay Baptist Convention All this happened because of gifts to the Cooperative Program and our faithful giving to LMCO.

-SACRIFICE: When God gave his son Jesus for a lost world, He gave his best. He gave his only, and He gave just what we needed. He so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son (John. 3:16). When I give my LMCO offering, I want it to be my best. I want it to be sacrificial, and I want it to be something that costs until it almost hurts. I make it my most expensive Christmas gift. I do not want to give to the risen Lord something as an afterthought. I want it to be well thought out, planned and sacrificial. Is that not the Spirit of Christmas? God gave us the best, His only and just what we needed. So why do I — an IMB SBC missionary of more than three decades — give to LMCO? Because I believe the offering is well utilized and administered, and I believe that I am privileged to do so.

Tim Kunkel Santiago Chile

OCT, 15 th 2020

Heb. 6:10

Psalm 80

           Within a generation after the death of King David God’s people were divided. Ten tribes settled in the north of the Promised Land and two tribes remained in and around Jerusalem. The people of the north suffered a succession of families who wrestled leadership from one another. Samaria was built in order to be a capitol city. Their first ‘king’ of the created an entire religious system, borrowed from their own past revolving around golden calves.

           The southern ‘nation’ was ruled by descendants of David. Some were godly men, others not quite so much. Yet when Samaria fell to the Assyrians the tribes in the south felt the fall in a deeply personal way. Those ten tribes were family. To see family humiliated and exiled from their land and to see foreigners who knew nothing of the sacredness of the land take their place was heartbreaking.

           This lament, authored by the musicians of the Temple, reflects how deeply felt the fall of Samaria was experienced. Prayer for deliverance appears to be lost in the smoke of God’s wrath. Tears of sorrow, the agony of defeat while enemies rejoiced is out of character for the people whom God had rescued from Egypt.

           In our tumultuous times it can seem as though God’s favor has been transformed into wrath. Where we once experienced triumph and joy we now seem to see tragedy and despair. When we reflect on where we’ve come from and where we are headed, we feel shame instead of confidence.

           As the prayer of lament concludes the musicians pray for God to raise up one whom He can use to restore God’s people. Restoration, revival can only happen when God’s people affirm as one, Jesus (the One who is at the right hand of God) is Lord.

Psalm 79

Where were you on Sept 11,2001? Most people over the age of 30 vividly remember planes flying into the World Trade Towers in New York City and the Pentagon. We remember audio from Flight 93 as the plane was turned towards Washington DC, targeting either the Capitol Building or the White House. Shock, horror, fear, anger, burst forth all at once.

           Asaph, a singer in the Temple court of Israel watched as an enemy devastated Jerusalem and desecrated the Temple of the God of Israel. He sings of his fear, anger, frustration, and shock.

           Asaph wonders aloud, “How long will this go on, O Lord? Will you stay angry forever? How long will your rage burn like fire?” (Psalm 79:5, NET).  Though Asaph could point to a specific example – the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonian army; though we can point to events like 9/11/01 – all of us experience seasons that cause us to ask the same question – How long, O Lord?

           Two notable features of this song. First, notice the pronouns Asaph uses –

“O God, foreigners have invaded your chosen land; they have polluted your holy temple and turned Jerusalem into a heap of ruins. They have given the corpses of your servants to the birds of the sky; the flesh of your loyal followers to the beasts of the earth.” (Psalm 79:1–2, NET).        

Second, the psalmist sings, “Help us, O God, our deliverer! For the sake of your glorious reputation, rescue us! Forgive our sins for the sake of your reputation!” (Psalm 79:9, NET) His concern is not with the nation’s reputation nor the standing of the servants.

When we ask, How long O Lord, are we asking for God to protect His reputation or ours?