Each night, I tell my children a bedtime story. Every single night, at the end of my story, they ask the same question: “DAD! Is this going to be a trilogy?” I always say yes! “It is a trilogy! It will continue, tomorrow night!” The next evening, I start with, “Okay, now, we can only continue the trilogy if you remember last night’s story!” I ask them this because I almost never remember what it was. They haven’t caught on—please don’t tell them. If one of them can remember, then we continue the trilogy; sometimes, a trilogy becomes a quadrilogy, a pentalogy, or even a decalogy. They don’t know those words (Does anyone?—I looked them up), so they usually just ask if we could “please do a 6-part trilogy, Dad!”

At the end of this email, I’d like to invite you to continue this series about what it means toAbide in Christ. But first, let’s reflect on Easter.

On Sunday, one of our pastors, Andrew Wilkinson, gave a message at our church—Restoration Church—and challenged us to “investigate Jesus” instead of simply thinking of faith as “fire insurance” (simply avoiding hell). It was a great message.

For much of my life, my thinking was: If Jesus was real and I believed He rose from the dead, then I’d go to heaven. But if His resurrection wasn’t real, then who cares? We’d all end up in the same place. This is a philosophical argument associated with Blaise Pascal: It is a safer bet to believe in God because if God exists, the believer gains eternal happiness in heaven, while if God does not exist, the believer loses nothing significant.

The problem is, this logic doesn’t establish Christ as God. The apostle Paul was a missionary who wrote to, and visited, many of the early churches. Paul’s letters often included both encouragement and warnings. His words are clear in 1 Corinthians 1:18 when he writes that “the cross is foolishness to those who don’t believe.”

Another problem is that “fire insurance” and Pascal’s wager will ultimately leave us unmotivated—or “satisfied and careless,” as Andrew put it on Sunday. One last quote from Sunday, paraphrased from my notes: “If Jesus were here today, I don’t think His message would stress the ‘fire insurance.’ He wouldn’t be trying to scare you out of hell”, or scare the hell out of you (my addition). “I think He would care about who you are right now.”

This is where our investigation begins. It’s all fine and good to start with Pascal and philosophy and safe bets. But are we made to place safe bets - or are we made to worship? 

A Disclaimer

The title of this article is not “Investigating Nate”, and thank God that I’m not receiving a cautionary letter concerning my moral failings. There are plenty of people who could write that letter. Would I want a letter from my wife, Tia? I would be scared to open that letter. Much less it go public. I wouldn’t want some of my closest childhood friends who I’ve known since 5th grade to write it either.

“Oh, we talkin’ about Nasty Nate? Let me tell you some stories.”

Maybe that’s what leads me to cringe a little inside when someone introduces me as “Nate, a missionary that goes to Africa all the time!”. My conscience weighs in “more like Nate, the fraud who hasn’t been found out and frequently justifies his sin”. When I am at my worst, I fear my correspondence with Paul might go like this, 

“Dear Nate, 

I was a missionary too. I’m excited to compare notes. I was beheaded how do you think you might be martyred? Oh, you aren’t persecuted? Is it hard though? Ok surely you’ve taken some real risks? Oh you traveled during Covid? Wow! And you sat in air conditioned airports and drank -checks notes- gin and tonics to your heart’s content while your wife stayed home with the kids. Okay. Ouch. This letter’s about to head in a very different direction.”

I tell you these things to remind you that while I am excited to share my heart with you and reveal this series, I feel like a hypocrite by all means. I am a sinner hoping to be better. In my current season, that means no more gin and tonics (and plenty of other conditions as well). In the future, it will mean a constant recalibration as I seek to fight the good fight.

A Continuing Investigation

Enough about me, let’s head to the gospel. Let’s read of the empty tomb as we did on Sunday.

John 20:15-16 He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?” Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.” Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).

Mary is looking for Jesus, and she recognizes Him once He calls her by name. In the book of Matthew (28:11-15), we read that the chief priests, on the other hand, conspired to cover up the resurrection. They bribed the guards who witnessed the angels and asked them to spread a false story of Jesus’ disciples stealing the body.

From that moment on, an investigation is underway. I don’t mean an investigation that is confined to 30 AD; I mean an investigation that each person is faced with. The great responsibility of each human, whether or not we convert our short time here—75 years, if we are lucky—into an eternity of living in God’s Kingdom. It’s not merely a fire insurance decision, but rather an investigation that leads to worship. 

Our duty is the same as Mary’s, but in a different context: to search for Jesus.  I tend to take that duty far too lightly. A life of investigation that leads to true worship is rarely one that is safe and unremarkable. 

The Way We Walk

1 John 2:6
“Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which He walked.”

The concept and study of an abiding disposition is what has drawn me to Christ in a way that nothing else has before. It unlocked the transformation in my heart and mind from Pascal’s wager and fire insurance to living a life rooted in Him.

To investigate Jesus and to worship Jesus and to constantly revisit the mystery that is Jesus can be summed up in one word – the title of this series: Abide. I’d like to invite you to this email series where we explore what it means to walk in the same way in which Christ walked. Honestly, I don’t know how many parts the story is, but isn’t the point that we are called to a lifetime of investigating Jesus? Maybe your own investigation will turn out to be a centology (100-part story) or a kilology (1000-part story). Yes, those exist; I looked them up too.

In the next few emails, we will take a look at what it means to have an abiding disposition. To “Abide Well.” To investigate Jesus. To walk in the way in which He walked – and I’ll keep it engaging, if you’ll remember each part along the way. I hope you’ll be as enthusiastic as my boys and reply after each segment “Let’s make this a 10-part TRILOGY!” But please, do it without wetting the bed.