{"id":26457,"date":"2026-01-27T09:05:24","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T14:05:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=26457"},"modified":"2026-01-27T10:41:24","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T15:41:24","slug":"26457","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=26457","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A Book to Remember<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Francesca Battistelli - &quot;He Knows My Name&quot; (Lyrics)\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/fF0pr_e3UEo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Tuesday, January 27, 2026&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\">\n<p>With Scripture, we\u2019ve \u2026 been invited to a centuries-long conversation with God and God\u2019s people that has been unfolding since creation, one story at a time.<br>\u2014Rachel Held Evans,&nbsp;<em>Inspired<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Public theologian Rachel Held Evans (1981\u20132019) recounts the historical circumstances that led to the creation of the Old Testament:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our Bible was forged from a crisis of faith. Though many of its stories, proverbs, and poems were undoubtedly passed down through oral tradition, scholars believe the writing and compilation of most of Hebrew Scripture, also known as the Old Testament, began during the reign of King David and gained momentum during the Babylonian invasion of Judah and in the wake of the Babylonian exile, when Israel was occupied by that mighty pagan empire\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While the circumstances of the exiled Israelites may seem far removed from us today, the questions raised by that national crisis of faith remain as pressing as ever: <strong>Why do bad things happen to good people? Will evil and death continue to prevail? What does it mean to be chosen by God? Is God faithful? Is God present? Is God good?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Rather than answering these questions in propositions, the Spirit spoke the language of stories, quickening the memories of prophets and the pens of scribes to call a lost and searching people to gather together and&nbsp;<em>remember<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em><strong>The Bible can be understood as a call to remember our shared humanity:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This collective remembering produced the Bible as we know it and explains why it looks the way it does\u2014foreign yet familiar, sacred yet indelibly smudged with human fingerprints. The Bible\u2019s original readers may not share our culture, but they share our humanity, and the God they worshipped invited them to bring that humanity to their theology, prayers, songs, and stories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And so we have on our hands a Bible that includes psalms of praise, but also psalms of complaint and anger, a <strong>Bible that poses big questions about the nature of evil and the cause of suffering without always answering them.<\/strong> We have a Bible that says in one place that \u201cwith much wisdom comes much sorrow\u201d (Ecclesiastes 1:18) and in another \u201cwisdom is supreme\u2014so get wisdom\u201d (Proverbs 4:7 HCSB). We have a Bible concerned with what to do when your neighbor\u2019s donkey falls into a pit\u2026. We have a Bible that depicts God as aloof and in control in one moment, and vulnerable and humanlike in the next, a Bible that has frustrated even the best systematic theologians for centuries because it\u2019s a Bible that so rarely behaves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In short, we have on our hands a Bible as complicated and dynamic as our relationship with God, one that reads less like divine monologue and more like an intimate conversation. Our <strong>most sacred stories emerged from a rift in relationship, an intense crisis of faith. Those of us who spend as much time doubting as we do believing can take enormous comfort in that. The Bible is for us too.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>==================<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td><a href=\"https:\/\/substack.com\/@bradleyjersak124315\">BRADLEY JERSAK<\/a>JAN 26<\/td><td><a href=\"https:\/\/substack.com\/@bradleyjersak124315\"><\/a><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td>&nbsp;<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><\/td><\/tr><tr><td>&nbsp;<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td><\/td><td><\/td><td><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAny \u2018identity in Christ\u2019 that does not have regard for the fragility of human life&nbsp;<br>is anti-Christ and a subversion of the Gospel.\u201d&nbsp;<br>\u2014David Goa<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u2018P.O.S. Theology\u2019<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>I was part of the generation of young Evangelicals who at last discovered the poverty of any Christian anthropology (our doctrine of humanity) that saw humanity as flawed or even \u2018totally depraved\u2019 all the way down to our foundations. This tradition endeavored to give an account for the \u2018human condition\u2019 and our need for a Saviour. And rightly so. But in that model, we had reverse-engineered our neediness to such extremes that we literalized and totalized verses like Romans 7:18:&nbsp;<em>\u201cFor I know that&nbsp;<strong>nothing good dwells in me<\/strong>, that is, in my flesh.\u201d&nbsp;<\/em>We could then make an easy case for \u201csalvation by grace alone.\u201d In recent years, this dehumanizing interpretation became&nbsp;<em>UN<\/em>affectionally known as \u2018P.O.S. theology.\u2019 It claimed that we are rotten to the core, that we are dung, and that Christ must cover our shame so that his Father only sees Jesus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Gratefully, we began to see that this is not the whole story\u2014or even the truth. We remembered from Genesis that we were created in the image of God and declared a delight.&nbsp;<em>Still<\/em>, we asked,&nbsp;<em>hadn\u2019t human goodness ended with \u2018the fall\u2019?<\/em>&nbsp;But we kept reading. Scriptures like Psalm 8 revealed how God continued to hold humanity in high regard. And the author of Hebrews heard that song as a foreshadowing of the Incarnation, when Christ would dignify the human race.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We are not simply the \u2018snow-covered dung\u2019 as certain Protestants insisted, but \u2018pearls of great price\u2019 unearthed from the dirt by the One who \u2018sold it all\u2019 to retrieve and restore us. We began to understood that far from worthless objects of God\u2019s disgust (still preached today), we are beloved children of a loving heavenly Father, no matter how lost or dysfunctional we\u2019ve become. In our self-will, <strong>we became estranged but never disowned<\/strong>\u2014and by God\u2019s grace we find ourselves <strong>meandering our way back home\u2014<em>always&nbsp;<\/em>accompanied by a clandestine guide, anonymously when necessary.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u2018Identity\u2019<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>With the recovery of this ancient and more beautiful way of seeing ourselves and our neighbors, we began to speak about our&nbsp;<em>\u2018identity in Christ.\u2019<\/em>&nbsp;The very best version of this is the confident, God-given assurance that we are all God\u2019s beloved children and that will never change. Authors like Paul Young and C. Baxter Kruger often call this&nbsp;<em><strong>the truth of our being<\/strong><\/em><strong>.<\/strong>&nbsp;Others use the phrase&nbsp;<em><strong>\u2018my true self in Christ\u2019&nbsp;<\/strong><\/em>or&nbsp;<em><strong>\u2018Christ in me.\u2019&nbsp;<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Early in this awakening, we gravitated to \u201cI am\u201d Scriptures that describe our humanity according to our&nbsp;<em>telos&nbsp;<\/em>(who we are becoming as a transfigured people). For example, we recited long lists that included identity claims such as&nbsp;<em>\u201cI am the righteousness of God in Christ.\u201d&nbsp;<\/em>We&nbsp;<em>identified<\/em>&nbsp;as those&nbsp;<em>\u201cset apart\u201d<\/em>&nbsp;(saints, holy ones). And we resisted belittling and demoralizing identities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Naturally, we also witnessed this much-needed course correction oversteer in the extreme. Some would say:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>I am not a sinner (because that\u2019s not my identity),<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>I don\u2019t need to ask forgiveness (because I\u2019m already forgiven),<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>there\u2019s no such thing as sin and<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>there\u2019s no need for a Savior.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Okay. I won\u2019t argue. Life will be their teacher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But others didn\u2019t careen so wildly. To those readers, I want to offer a few tweaks to avoid the dualism of being one person \u201cseated with Christ in the heavenlies\u201d and a disconnect alter-ego that continues to relapse into self-centeredness, selfishness, and self-sabotaging ways of being. My \u2018identity in Christ\u2019 must be more than an ethereal abstraction while real-life relational dumpster fires rage on. My friend Paul invites me to think of holiness, not as more perfectionism, but as wholeness\u2014an alignment of the truth of our being and the way of our being. I\u2019m down with that. Ministries such as \u201cIdentity Exchange\u201d also help people discover their unique identity\u2014the particular grace gift they are to the world.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Tweaks<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Now for a few supplements:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>The truth of our being is&nbsp;<em>not<\/em>&nbsp;actually true if it doesn\u2019t transform us from the inside, even incrementally. The truth of our being is&nbsp;<em>not<\/em>&nbsp;separate from real life. The truth of our being (Christ in us) sets us free. If the truth of our being is not liberating us in some way from the demands of the ego, our attachments and cravings, our judgments and religiosity, then I need to slow down with my claims and examine what\u2019s up.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>If the truth of our being is that we\u2019re beloved children of God (we are!), that assurance make for a stable relationship. But it\u2019s better than that. That truth is ever unfolding and expanding and deepening. It\u2019s stable but never static.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The word \u2018identity\u2019 in popular, cultural, and political use has become incredibly reductive.&nbsp;<em>Identity labels<\/em>&nbsp;can shrink wondrously complex persons into some&nbsp;<em>thing.&nbsp;<\/em>When folks say, \u201cI identify as\u2026,\u201d I get it. They are becoming more and more self-aware. But I also want them to beware of reducing who they are to a labeled box the constrains their growth and can\u2019t account for the wildness of human existence. Oppressive forces will always try to weaponize those identity labels to lock us down to scripts and stereotypes, eventually even legislating our freedom.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Conversely, I wonder if there\u2019s a way to become&nbsp;<em>all<\/em>&nbsp;that we are without erasing our beautiful particularity. \u201cBeloved child of God\u201d is true but also too generic. Who we are includes our story, our ancestry, our geography, our people, our culture, our character, our gifts. \u201cWho am I?\u201d can\u2019t be photocopied. We are all unique handwritten sagas of grace, unfolding over a lifetime.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>I suspect the way forward is to shift from<em>&nbsp;\u2018from umbrella identities\u2019<\/em>&nbsp;to the language of&nbsp;<em>\u2018personhood,<\/em>\u2019 along with a commitment to seeing John 10:10&nbsp;<em>\u2018human flourishing\u2019&nbsp;<\/em>at every stage of our unfolding.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>I opened with a quote from David Goa (today at breakfast), where in view of the Incarnation of Jesus Christ, true personhood and the fullness of humanity include the full spectrum of human experience. Jesus did&nbsp;<em>not<\/em>&nbsp;regard his very real grief and raw lament in any way compromising his identity or sabotaging our faith. His faith, his humanity, his deity (!) was expressed in sorrow and with many tears. It all belongs. Nor did Jesus regard recognition of our need, of our mourning, of our fragility as a negative confession to be repressed or expunged.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Trust<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>My friend Elliot ask me what \u201ctrust in God\u201d actually means. I\u2019ve been praying about that. I can start by saying I trust that God knows my tears and bears my sorrows. But if I boil it down, maybe trust for me means&nbsp;<em>living as if what God has shown me is true<\/em>, to an infinite (literally) degree. I also thought about the limits of my capacity to trust. For many, the most severe test is the tragic suffering and death of children. Can I trust God through that? And I don\u2019t need to future-trip made-up scenarios ()counterfactual hypotheticals. The suffering and death of children is real to me and current to my direct experience with grieving friends. Still, I trust God.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But I have also seen and experienced the real limits of my emotional strength. I remember vividly what \u201cIt\u2019s too much!\u201d feels like. Many people who I love dearly know what Paul was describing when he said,&nbsp;<em>\u201cWe were under under a great burden<\/em>&nbsp;<em>far beyond our ability to endure<\/em>,&nbsp;<em>so that<\/em>&nbsp;<em>we despaired of life itself<\/em>.\u201d (2 Cor. 1:8). Then I remembered these verses, which seem so conditional (at least out of context).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\">\n<p><em>\u201c\u2026the one who endures to the end will be saved\u201d<\/em>&nbsp;(Matthew 10:32).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u201cBy your endurance you will gain your lives<\/em>\u201d (Luke 21:19).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201c<em>For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end\u201d&nbsp;<\/em>(Hebrews 3:14)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u201cBe faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life\u201d&nbsp;<\/em>(Revelation 2:10).<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>What if I can\u2019t? I know I\u2019m loved and I also know myself. My endurance is limited. I have unravelled before. And if I really must endure\u2014<em>if it\u2019s up to me<\/em>\u2014in whom is my confidence? But then I thought, <strong>I guess I\u2019ll just have trust God to carry me, even if trust in God fails (again). I will act as if its true that \u201c\u2026&nbsp;<em>when I\u2019m faithless, God remains faithful, because he cannot deny himself<\/em><\/strong>\u201d (2 Timothy 2:15). I will live as if \u201c<em>he will never leave me or forsake me\u201d&nbsp;<\/em>(Hebrews 13:5).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Anna\u2019s Wool Cap<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Maybe God is like my Anna, a master knitter. Yesterday (as I write this), I was out for the day while she was knitting a wool&nbsp;<em>toque<\/em>&nbsp;(that\u2019s Canadian) using a new pattern she\u2019d not tried before. She estimated it would take 3-4 hours to complete but when I returned to her house, there was nothing to show me. There were issues with the length of the needles and the weight of the wool, causing her to unravel the wool cap and start over\u2014three times. I would have been so frustrated. Not Anna. She enjoyed her day, working with the wool, patiently starting afresh after each unravelling, experiencing the joy of the process. She wasn\u2019t at all angry at the wool, or resentful of the re-knitting, and it never crossed her mind to discard the project.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Psalm 139 says that God knit me together in my mother\u2019s womb. It feels right and true that God\u2019s knitting of my&nbsp;<em>personhood<\/em>&nbsp;(or&nbsp;<em>identity<\/em>&nbsp;if you will) continues to this day. Regardless of my unravellings. In God\u2019s hands, it all belongs. I belong\u2026 and I trust that I\u2019m coming along.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Book to Remember Tuesday, January 27, 2026&nbsp; With Scripture, we\u2019ve \u2026 been invited to a centuries-long conversation with God and God\u2019s people that has been unfolding since creation, one story at a time.\u2014Rachel Held Evans,&nbsp;Inspired Public theologian Rachel Held Evans (1981\u20132019) recounts the historical circumstances that led to the creation of the Old Testament: [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26457"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26457"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26457\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26461,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26457\/revisions\/26461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}