If you want to know how competitive you are, just play a round of white elephant at the next Christmas party.
You know the game. Everyone brings a wrapped gift. Numbers are drawn, and the first player selects a gift and opens it. The next player can either steal that gift or open a new one. This continues down the line of players. In a polite game, most people choose to open a new gift. But if there's a competitive spirit, gifts are stolen and re-stolen!
In theory, I love this game. And I always have visions of being a ruthless player. Nothing is going to stand in my way of getting the gift I want! But as the game starts, I grow more timid. I don't want to ruffle any feathers. So when my turn comes around, I inevitably choose a wrapped gift, no matter how much I secretly want to steal that giant Hershey bar...
In the end, I want to keep the peace.
But is this the kind of peace Isaiah had in mind with his final title of the coming Messiah?
For a child is born to us,
a son is given to us.
The government will rest on his shoulders.
And he will be called:
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
His government and its peace
will never end.
He will rule with fairness and justice from the throne of his ancestor David
for all eternity.
The passionate commitment of the Lord of Heaven's Armies
will make this happen! (9:6-7)
Christmas is nearly here, and we've reached the fourth title of Isaiah's prophesy: Prince of Peace. But what kind of peace is Jesus ushering in?
If I'm being honest, I don't think it's the same kind of peace I am seeking at a white elephant gift exchange. I merely want to avoid conflict. I don't want anyone to view me as selfish. In the end, I just want everyone to get along. And that is fine, I guess. But it's a far cry from the kind of peace Jesus brings us.
The Hebrew word for peace is one of my favorite words in the Bible—"shalom." It expresses a deep kind of peace. The peace that gives you wholeness in every area of life.
If you've been a long-time reader of my work, you may remember my favorite definition of sin. Sin is anything we do that breaks the peace we have with God, others, or ourselves. Broken shalom leads to broken relationships and feelings of restlessness.
I can only imagine the true shalom Adam and Eve felt in the Garden of Eden. They were at total peace with God and each other.
This is the kind of peace I long for, especially right now.
I want to be vulnerable for a moment. I haven't commented too much on the October 7th Hamas attack on Israel. Partly because (I'm embarrassed to admit) there was a lot I did not know about the history of the situation. I knew there was conflict between Israel and Palestine, but I was ignorant about many of the details. So I've spent the past two months reading, listening, and learning about it, all while feeling heavyhearted about the current situation.
I'm still no expert on the situation. But I know what Hamas terrorists did to innocent Israelis was evil and horrific. There is no way to justify what happened on October 7th. The accounts of what Hamas did are stomach-churning, but I made myself read them. More often than not, I found myself shaking with rage. I was relieved when some of the hostages were released, but I mourn for those still captured. I mourn for the terror they are still experiencing.
I also mourn for the innocent Palestinians who have had their lives upended as a result of the war. I mourn for the loss of life. I mourn for the constant fear they live in. I mourn for moms and dads who have lost their children. And I mourn for children who have experienced the kind of violence I've only watched on TV from the comfort of my couch. When the Israeli hostages were released, my relief extended to the Palestinian people. For a brief moment, they got a break from the violence.
Like most of us, I want peace in the Middle East.
But even as I type those words, I know how cliche they sound. I know how empty they ring.
Am I really that naive?
Peace sounds like a nice idea, but this is the real world. And in the real world, violence calls for violence, right?
A couple of weeks ago, the pastor at my church talked about how God is both imminent and transcendent.
God is near to us. He walks with us in our trials and suffering. The same God who appeared to Moses in a burning bush is with us at this very moment.
But this God who is near also transcends our understanding. His ways are higher than our ways. When Moses asked God who he was, God said, "I Am." This name was God's way of saying that he defines himself. He's in a category of his own.
When I think of Jesus as the Prince of Peace, it is this transcendent quality that gives me hope. I can't imagine a world free of violence. But he can. I don't have the creativity to know how to love my enemies. But he does. He is full of ideas!
Throughout this series, I've been contrasting the titles Isaiah gives to Jesus with the titles I would prefer. So far, we have...
Problem-Solver instead of Wonderful Counselor.
Personal Genie instead of Mighty God.
Vacationing Uncle instead of Everlasting Father.
So what about Prince of Peace? On the surface, I love that Jesus came as the Prince of Peace. But when I think back to the white elephant gift exchange, I realize it's not really what I want. No, what I want is Jesus the Conflict Eraser.
I want Jesus to snap his fingers and erase all the conflicts in this world. My personal conflicts. The global conflicts. I want him to make it all go away.
But that is not the true shalom the Prince of Peace offers. The peace he brings is an active one. It's the difference between peacekeeping and peacemaking.
Peacekeeping means keeping quiet during a conflict while secretly stewing in anger.
Peacemaking means getting involved and actively working towards peace, even when it costs us something.
This is why Jesus calls us to turn the other cheek and go the extra mile. At first glance, these seem like weak, passive actions. But they are not. They are creative ways to show love to our enemies while at the same time affirming our own dignity.
And when it came to our greatest enemy—sin and death—the Prince of Peace defeated it in the most unimaginable way possible. As Isaiah also prophesied:
But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. (Isaiah 53:5).
Jesus was willingly crushed by sin. But in doing so, he crushed sin and brought us peace.
So, as we move into Christmas Eve this weekend, I want you to do something you might find odd. But please hear me out.
I want you to despair.
Yes, I want you to despair about all the ways broken shalom has disrupted this world. Feel the weight of it.
I want you to feel the way Henry Wadsworth Longfellow felt when he wrote the poem "Christmas Bells." He heard church bells on Christmas morning, but it left him feeling hollow:
And in despair I bowed my head
"There is no peace on Earth," I said
For hate is strong and mocks the song
Of peace on Earth, good will to men
Bow your head in despair this Christmas.
But only for a moment.
And then listen for the bells again.
Then rang the bells more loud and deep
God is not dead, nor doth He sleep
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail
With peace on Earth, good will to men
Listen for the bells, and remember that the Prince of Peace was born.
Let's remember and then follow the example of our Prince the best we can, however imperfectly it may be.
Let's think of the last argument we had and go make it right.
Let's bake our crotchety neighbor Christmas cookies.
Let's pray for Israelis, and Palestinians, and all people affected by war across the globe.
Let's forgive that person. You know who I'm talking about. I do, too.
Let's work to be active peacemakers even when it costs us something.
Because that is what the Prince of Peace did for all of us messy, broken people.
Questions of Ponder:
What does Jesus the Prince of Peace mean to you? How have you seen his peace in your life?
How does Jesus the Prince of Peace differ from Jesus the Conflict Eraser?
As Christmas approaches, how can you actively seek to be a peacemaker in your relationships, community, and world?
—
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Jesus Our Everlasting Father
A couple of weeks ago, Diana, Emmett, and I went to a Christmas tree lighting at a park. It was a big event featuring food trucks, live music, and big crowds. As we crossed a grassy area to see a giant Frosty The Snowman blowup balloon, a man jogged past me, shouting, "Elijah! Elijah!"
A few minutes later, the music stopped. The emcee on the outdoor stage made an announcement: a boy named Elijah was missing.
My heart went into my throat. I couldn't imagine the fear of losing a child at an event that is so crowded.
The emcee told Elijah to come up to the stage where his dad was waiting. The man I had seen earlier was now standing on the stage. He remained calm yet had a concerned look on his face. He silently scanned the crowd, searching for his boy.
In what seemed like an eternity later (but was only a few moments), Elijah ran to the stage and was united with his dad. The crowd cheered with relief.
As I think back on that story, I'm reminded of one of the names Isaiah gave to the coming Messiah:
For a child is born to us,
a son is given to us.
The government will rest on his shoulders.
And he will be called:
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
His government and its peace
will never end.
He will rule with fairness and justice from the throne of his ancestor David
for all eternity.
The passionate commitment of the Lord of Heaven's Armies
will make this happen! (9:6-7)
Everlasting Father might be my favorite name on Isaiah's list. There is something so comforting about it. But it can also be a little confusing to think of Jesus as our Father. After all, he's the Son!
Christians believe in one God. But we also believe this God exists in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. They are distinct, yet are one. (And if that is hard for you to wrap your mind around, it's okay! There is a mystery to it, a paradox.)
But if Jesus is distinctly the Son, why does Isaiah's prophesy call him Everlasting Father?
As we explored in week one of this series, these four titles aren't meant to be "proper" names. They are descriptors of what this coming Savior will be like. And they would have meant something to Isaiah's original audience.
Last week, we saw how the name Mighty God brought hope to an oppressed people. In the same way, Everlasting Father brought comfort to those who were vulnerable.
In that ancient culture, being fatherless meant you lacked basic protection. It doesn't seem right, but that's how it was. In fact, God knew it wasn't right. That's why he created laws in the Old Testament to protect those who were fatherless. If a man died and left behind a family, a close relative would marry the widow and bring her and the children under his care. (We see a beautiful example of this in the book of Ruth.)
The same God who created this compassionate law was now coming into the world. Jesus reflects the Father's compassion for the lonely, the vulnerable, and the forgotten.
The word father brings up different emotions in different people. Some have wonderful feelings about their fathers, and it's easy to relate to Jesus in this way. But for others, not so much. At best, the relationship with their dad was complicated. And at worst, their dad was not around or even abusive. My heart breaks for anyone who has experienced that. It makes sense why father is the last word someone might want to use to describe Jesus.
This month, I've been reading a devotional called Heaven and Nature Sing: 25 Advent Reflections to Bring Joy to the World by Hannah Anderson. The author brings up a lot of eye-opening things I hadn't considered about the Christmas story.
In one reflection, she ponders what fatherhood teaches us about faithfulness:
[W]hen a woman conceives and gives birth, there is little question about who the mother is. But biology being what it is, a father must declare himself. A man must publicly take responsibility for a child and, in so doing, commit to love and provide for this new life. ... We call [God] Father because that is the closest language we have to describe what he has done by publicly taking responsibility for us, loving us, protecting us, and granting us a share in the divine inheritance. Unlike those who leave when they realize what it will cost them, our Father gives and gives and gives.
These words describe what Jesus, as Everlasting Father, did for us. If the word father carries negative connotations for you, I pray Jesus will redeem it. He is the one who never abandons us. He doesn't throw stones but shields us from them.
Jesus was not inconvenienced by us. He was not ashamed to associate with messy, broken people. He patiently showed us how to live. He taught us what it means to live in God's Kingdom as beloved children. He loved us unselfishly. And in the end, he endured tremendous suffering on the cross so that our sin would no longer have power over us.
Jesus' protection and care never ends. His love is everlasting. Not even death can sever us from it. This is the message Isaiah conveys when he calls the coming Messiah Everlasting Father.
Throughout this series, I've been doing something kind of fun. I have been contrasting these names from Isaiah with the names my messy, human nature prefers. (i.e., Practical Problem Solver instead of Wonderful Counselor; Personal Genie instead of Mighty God.)
Earlier, I said I find comfort in Jesus as our Everlasting Father. However, there are days when I would prefer Jesus our Vacationing Uncle. You know, the cool uncle who cruises into town for a week or two. We do some fun stuff together, and he buys me new toys. Then he leaves, and I'm free to do whatever I want with the stuff he gave me. It's a pretty comfortable relationship that doesn't ask too much of me.
If you think about it, this is the relationship the younger son wanted with his dad in Jesus' famous parable. He wanted his dad's money without the relationship. He wanted to be free from his father. And so his dad gives him his inheritance and lets him go. Love is always a choice.
But then the son falls on hard times. He blows all his money and is forced to take a job that defiles him. Finally, when he can't take the stench of pigs anymore, he decides to head back home with his head hung low.
The son didn't treat his dad as a true father. So now, the son doesn't expect the father to treat him as a true son. The best he could hope for is to be looked at as a hired worker.
But the son didn't realize his father never stopped waiting for him to come home. Just as Elijah's dad stood tall on that stage so Elijah knew where to go, this father kept watch on the road for his son.
So he returned home to his father. And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him. (Luke 15:20, NLT)
So, as we continue the Advent season, let's reflect on Jesus our Everlasting Father. He is not put off by our mess. He entered into it. He is not quick to disown us but is patient and kind. And he sacrificed everything to put us under his care.
And yes, an Everlasting Father will require more of us than a Vacationing Uncle. Any deep relationship does. It requires us to learn from him and discover what it means to be part of this Kingdom family. And over time, we begin to change. We become less concerned with the Father's stuff and more about becoming like him.
And yes, there are times we may run away. But the Father will always be there, waiting with open arms of compassion.
The late, great Rich Mullins put it best in his song Growing Young:
Well we are children no more, we have sinned and grown old
And our Father still waits and He watches down the road
To see the crying boys come running back to His arms
And be growing young
Questions of Ponder:
What does Jesus our Everlasting Father mean to you? How have you seen his compassion in your life?
How does Jesus our Everlasting Father differ from Jesus the Vacationing Uncle?
What emotions do you feel when you hear the word father? Knowing a little about what a father meant in the ancient world, how does Jesus fit into this name? What other insights can you glean from the father in Jesus' parable of the Prodigal Son?
—
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Jesus Our Mighty God
In 2009, a 47-year-old woman named Susan Boyle auditioned for Britain's Got Talent. As she took the stage, Simon Cowell gave the side-eye, thinking this would be another "so-bad-it's-good" audition. The audience snickered as well.
Then Susan sang.
The audience went wild, and Simon was left speechless. No one expected such a mighty voice to come out of this ordinary, unassuming woman.
We are in week 2 of our Advent series, looking at the names Isaiah gave to the Messiah he prophesied about:
For a child is born to us,
a son is given to us.
The government will rest on his shoulders.
And he will be called:
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
His government and its peace
will never end.
He will rule with fairness and justice from the throne of his ancestor David
for all eternity.
The passionate commitment of the Lord of Heaven's Armies
will make this happen! (9:6-7)
Today, we are considering what it means for Jesus to be our Mighty God.
The Christmas story is full of unexpected events. Just as Simon couldn't believe Susan Boyle had an amazing voice, it's hard to fathom a Mighty God wrapped in the flesh of a baby. As the song "Do You Hear What I Hear?" puts it:
A Child, a Child shivers in the cold
Let us bring him silver and gold.
How could this fragile little child be a Mighty God?
Still, the promise of a Mighty God would have been welcomed by Isaiah's original audience. As we saw last week, Israel was being brutalized (and would eventually be conquered) by the Assyrian nation.
And 800 years later, when this child was finally born, their situation hadn't improved much. They were back in their homeland but were now under Roman rule.
For people facing oppression, the promise of a Mighty God is a sweet one.
When we call Jesus Mighty God, we affirm he is fully divine, even in his frail human state. And this Mighty God cares about the weak and vulnerable. He cares when people use their might to oppress others. And he does not turn a blind eye or shrug his shoulders at evil.
This is good news!
And yet, too often, a Mighty God is not what I want. Not really.
Last week, I said Jesus the Practical Problem-Solver sounds more appealing than Jesus the Wonderful Counselor. And now I confess that even though a Mighty God sounds nice, I'd much prefer a Personal Genie.
Remember the movie Aladdin? Near the end, Jafar, the villain, takes possession of the magic lamp. He uses his wishes to destroy anything that gets in the way of what he wants. The Genie's mighty power became Jafar's mighty power. And the best part for Jafar? It didn't matter what the Genie thought. Like a bulldog on a leash, Genie had all the power, but he could only do what his master allowed him to do.
I think we sometimes treat Jesus this way.
Now look, I would never openly say Jesus is my Personal Genie. I would never even think of it that way consciously!
But if I'm not careful, I can begin to think Jesus and I are always on the same page about everything. Instead of praying to become more like Jesus, I make him more like me. He shakes his head at the same people I shake my head at. He gets annoyed at the same people I get annoyed at. And since Jesus is a Mighty God, I can unleash his power against anyone I want.
As the disciples saw Jesus' power, they also started to think this way.
One day, Jesus passed through a Samaritan village to get to Jerusalem. But the people who lived there didn't welcome him because Samaritans and Jews did not get along. So James and John come up with this idea:
When James and John saw this, they said to Jesus, "Lord, should we call down fire from heaven to burn them up?" (Luke 9:54, NLT)
"Um... No," replies Jesus.
It might sound outrageous, but this was a perfectly reasonable request to James and John. Jesus had mighty power. And the Samaritans were enemies. So why wouldn't we just use that power to zap them off the face of the earth? Besides, they started it!
And yes, I joke about this, but I also understand where the disciples were coming from. They were tired of being kicked around, and the Messiah had finally arrived. They saw his power and wanted him to use it to take back control. If I were them, I'd probably be expecting the same thing.
(And I'm sure that at some point during Christmas dinner, somebody will say something to give me the urge to call down fire from heaven...)
So what do we do when we feel tempted to turn Mighty God into Personal Genie?
We remember the way Jesus used his power and might. This man, who was fully God, went to battle with Death itself and defeated it.
But he did so in the most unexpected way possible. Instead of hanging on to his power, "rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness" (Philippians 2:7). He came as a humble child and walked among us messy, broken people. He showed us what Love looks like. He taught us that sacrifice is not weakness but strength.
And in the end, he gave his life for both his people and his enemies. For the powerful and the powerless. For those invited to the party and those not invited.
And he did it in a way that left the world as stunned as Simon was at Susan Boyle.
That is a Mighty God!
So, as we continue the Advent season, let's reflect on Jesus our Mighty God. We live in a broken world where heinous things happen. We need a God who is mighty enough to defeat evil.
But we also need to remember the way he chose to defeat it. It's probably not the way we would go about it if we had access to a Genie who gave us three wishes.
Even after Jesus defeated Death through suffering, his followers still had power on the brain:
So when the apostles were with Jesus, they kept asking him, "Lord, has the time come for you to free Israel and restore our kingdom?" He replied, "The Father alone has the authority to set those dates and times, and they are not for you to know. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." (Acts 1:6-8, NLT)
Jesus' answer was yes, they would receive power. But it was a kind of power they weren't expecting. It was the power of the Holy Spirit who gives us the strength to love as he did.
It's the power to go tell it on the mountain that this Mighty God is born.
Questions of Ponder:
What does Jesus our Mighty God mean to you? How have you seen his power in your life?
How does Jesus our Mighty God differ from Jesus the Personal Genie?
It's been said that if God has all the same opinions as you, you've probably created him in your own image! When are you most likely to "call down fire from heaven" (metaphorically, of course!)? In those moments, how can you ask the Holy Spirit to guide you to become more like Jesus?
—
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Jesus The Wonderful Counselor
I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Is your Christmas tree up yet?
(If not, don't worry... Neither is ours!)
As we enter the season of Advent—the time of year when we anticipate the coming of Jesus—I'd like to do a little series. Specifically, I want us to look at the names of Jesus found in the Old Testament book of Isaiah.
Isaiah was a prophet who lived about 800 years before Jesus. It was a bleak time for Israel. The Assyrian army was closing in on them, and Isaiah wasn't offering much hope to his people! If you read Isaiah 8, you get a sense of the total despair the people felt. It's so hopeless that when Isaiah has a son, God tells him, "Before this child is old enough to say 'Papa' or 'Mama,' the king of Assyria will carry away both the abundance of Damascus and the riches of Samaria" (8:4).
That's not the kind of thing you'd be eager to put on a birth announcement! My guess is Mr. & Mrs. Isaiah didn't get too many gifts at their baby shower...
But then, in the middle of all that gloom, Isaiah speaks this refreshing word of hope:
For a child is born to us,
a son is given to us.
The government will rest on his shoulders.
And he will be called:
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
His government and its peace
will never end.
He will rule with fairness and justice from the throne of his ancestor David
for all eternity.
The passionate commitment of the Lord of Heaven's Armies
will make this happen! (9:6-7)
A child would be born who would usher in a reign of peace. A helpless baby would be Israel's—and the world's—only hope.
Advent is about remembering the past and also anticipating the future. We reflect on Jesus' first arrival when he broke into this world in a smelly, lowly stable of all places. But we also await the day Jesus will return to usher in his beautiful kingdom. Like Isaiah's original audience, we desperately need a word of hope. We need to remember the child who came to save us from the terrible things we do to each other.
Isaiah gives this child four names. They are not really "proper names" but more like descriptions of his character. Over the next four weeks, we will briefly explore each name. This week, we'll start with Wonderful Counselor.
What does the word "wonderful" mean to you?
In Isaiah's context, the word means incomprehensible or extraordinary. It describes something so full of wonder that it boggles the mind!
We rarely use the word in that way. We typically use it as a synonym for good, great, or nice. Case in point: I started this email by saying I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. You may have had a good Thanksgiving, maybe even a great one. But chances are, the turkey you gobbled down didn't leave you in such a state of wonder that it felt like your head would explode. (If it did, I want to come over to your house for Thanksgiving dinner next year!)
The wisdom that Jesus offers us is so wonderful it can be hard to wrap our minds around. We see this in the Bible when people would be amazed at the things he taught. He challenged his disciples to see the world in new ways and still challenges us to do the same today.
But while Jesus the Wonderful Counselor sounds, well, wonderful, it's not really what I want, if I'm honest. On most days, I want Jesus the Practical Problem-Solver.
I've gone to counselors on and off over the past 12 years of my life. It's good to have a trained professional by your side as you work through your issues. But a counselor's job isn't to give you simple answers to all your problems. It's to help you see what's lying underneath the surface.
Imagine if I went to a counselor and said, "My marriage is crumbling and my wife doesn't even like me anymore. Give me a list of things I can do right now to fix it!" The counselor could just rattle off a list of things like...
Buy her flowers.
Take her on more dates.
Listen more.
Do the dishes.
And sure, maybe doing those things might help a little. But checking things off a list won't lead to lasting change. It's like trying to slap a Band-Aid on a huge leak of a ship. We're still sinking!
Instead, a good counselor will slow down. She'll put my frantic question aside for a moment and invite me to dig deeper. What caused this marriage to start falling apart in the first place? It will be a slow, painful process. But if I engage with it, it has the potential to lead to lasting change.
This is what Jesus does for us on a much grander scale.
So many times in my life, I've wanted simple answers from Jesus. Just tell me what to do next! And sometimes, he does have a specific direction he wants me to go in. But most of the time, as I pray and read the Gospels, I sense he is more concerned with who I'm becoming along the way.
When people asked Jesus questions, he rarely gave straightforward answers. He would usually tell a story in response or throw a question back at them.
When a lawyer asked Jesus to give him clear boundaries about who his neighbor was, Jesus redefined the term.
When a group of Pharisees asked Jesus how they should deal with someone else's sin, Jesus forced them to look at their own.
They wanted simple answers. But Jesus challenged them to see things from a different perspective.
This is mind-boggling counsel!
In John 6, Jesus feeds 5,000 people, and the crowd goes wild for him. They had a problem, and he solved it. He was Jesus the Practical Problem-Solver!
But then he started saying some strange things. He called himself the true bread of life and said anyone who ate this bread would live forever. This was less practical, and people started turning around and leaving. So Jesus looks at his twelve closest followers and asks if they want to leave too. And I love Peter's response:
"Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life. We believe, and we know you are the Holy One of God." (John 6:68-69, NLT)
Jesus' words boggled Peter's mind. We know that Peter misunderstood Jesus so many times. But at the end of the day, Peter wanted Jesus more than he wanted all the answers. He knew that the best place to be was by Jesus' side.
See, as much as we like the idea of Jesus the Practical Problem-Solver, there isn't much intimacy there. He can dole out wisdom from heaven and never get his hands dirty. But instead, Jesus chose to enter our mess and slog through it with us. (As Isaiah also prophesied, later echoed in Mathew, "The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel (which means 'God is with us') [7:14].)
As we begin the Advent season, let's reflect on Jesus our Wonderful Counselor. We face so many questions in life, both personally and in the scope of the world's problems. And the world is quick to offer us easy solutions. Everyone has it all figured out.
But if you (like me!) don't have it all figured out—if you're swimming in uncertainty—it's okay. Let's slow down and spend time with Jesus. We are free to bring our questions to him. And he may invite us to put the questions aside for a moment so he can reveal something more wonderful than we imagined.
Questions of Ponder:
What does Jesus the Wonderful Counselor mean to you? Has any of Jesus' teachings left you with a boggled mind?
How does Jesus the Wonderful Counselor differ from Jesus the Practical Problem-Solver?
Are you facing any big decisions right now? Have you considered that Jesus may be less concerned about what you decide and more concerned about who you are becoming along the way? (Example: Which job you accept may be less important than how you conduct yourself when you start working there.)