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Justice or Mercy?

February 21, 2021 by

BalanceSeveral years ago the father of one of my daughter’s friends was murdered during his late night shift at 7-11. A few weeks later I was called for jury duty. Imagine my shock when I was seated as a prospective juror for the trial of the two young men accused of his murder. When I explained the situation to the judge, she asked, “You don’t feel you can be impartial in this case?” I wanted to scream, “Hell, no!” but I was more restrained in my response. As I walked past the defense table I felt a revulsion close to nausea sweep over me.

Certainly God feels that same revulsion toward us when He considers our sin, right? The truth of the Gospel gives a quite different picture.  Exodus 34:6-7 (ESV) tells us God is “merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness … but who will by no means clear the guilty…” Sense the tension there? God is merciful and loving but also just. How can both be satisfied? It happens in the person of Jesus Christ.

As a chemistry major I worked with a precision balance. I placed a tiny 0.1 gram weight on one side and then carefully added and subtracted some exotic chemical on the other side to get a precise amount. Ask many people, “ Do you believe you will go to heaven when you die?” and they will likely reply, “I’ve lived a pretty good life. I think the good outweighs the bad.” Most non-Christian religions teach a similar theology on how to be pleasing to God. But how much does a lie weigh? An angry word? A lustful thought? I have to balance those against working at the food bank or a bit extra in the church offering. Which way does the scale tip? It’s pretty scary to think my eternal destiny – heaven or hell – depend on that balance. How do I appease an angry god, how do I cover my sin, how do I escape eternal punishment? The power of the Gospel is the scale was demolished by the cross. Jesus brought His blood to the mercy seat so I don’t have to bring mine.

Daniel as a young man was exiled from Israel to Babylon. Through God’s blessing, he became a respected member of the royal court. One night King Belshazzar threw a big party. When they were all drunk, a disembodied hand began writing on the wall. No one could read the writing until Daniel was brought in. He interpreted, “You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting.” (Daniel 5:27 NIV) Which of our lives could be weighed on the balance of God’s justice and not be found wanting.

During the COVID pandemic of 2020, we learned a lot through the media about how viruses work. We heard about antigens and macrophages and lymphocytes. And this is only one of thousands of processes that are going on continually within my body day and night without my initiation or intervention. Yet some would defiantly declare, “There is no God!” and the balance tips toward eternal destruction. We are undercharged at the grocery store, “Today is my lucky day.” And the balance tips. “It was just a little white lie.” And the balance tips. “Only a one night stand.” And the balance tips. “I am a little buzzed but I’m ok to drive.” And the balance tips.

Atonement can come in two ways: punishment or substitution. The star quarterback is injured, coach will substitute the second string guy. I am out of basil for this recipe; I am going to substitute thyme. The third grade teacher is sick today, there will be a substitute. The justice of God demands punishment for sin. The Law of the Old Testament gave the Israelites a system to address sin as an individual and as a nation. It reminded everyone of the gravity of disobedience and the mercy of God. The Israelites of Old Testament times recognized they couldn’t meet the just requirements of a holy God, so animal sacrifices became their substitute. A spotless, unblemished lamb took their place to satisfy God’s justice. Over and over and over those sacrifices were made because the guilt kept coming. Only a perfect gift for sacrifice could satisfy the holiness of God. Yet any gift we can bring will by nature be imperfect. That is why God had to provide the sacrifice of His Son.

Moses instructed the Israelites in the ceremony of the scapegoat (Leviticus 16). We still use the term today when we want to shift blame for something that goes wrong. The Jewish priest would lay his hands on the head of a goat transferring the sins of the nation. The goat was then led into the wilderness to die. Thus God’s demand of justice was satisfied and the people could receive mercy.

When our dog pees on the floor she can’t offer the cat as a substitute. She must face the punishment. There is only one perfect, spotless life that is a sufficient substitute for the sin of mankind. Jesus is our substitute.

What is the most powerful verse in the Bible? Many would say John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (NKJV). Others would suggest John 10:10: “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” (ESV) Or perhaps Ephesians 2:8; “God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God.” (NLT) I asked the question on Face Book and got these in response: John 13:34, Mark 12:30-31, Colossians 1:27, Matthew 6:14-15, Hebrews 13:8, John 14:6, 1John 4:10 and Proverbs 3:5.

I propose the most powerful verse in the Bible is 2Corinthians 5:21: “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (NKJV). The Divine Exchange: the one man in history who never sinned took on sin itself and became so abhorrent that the Father turned His face away. More than the physical pain of crucifixion was that of breaking the bond between Father and Son that had existed from eternity past. “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me.” (Mark 15:34 NKJV) My sin caused a chasm between me and God that I could not cross. His justice demanded payment and Jesus paid the price on the cross so I can stand before the throne righteous and justified.

Every year the Jewish high priest brought the blood of bulls and goats to a man-made altar to atone for the sins of the nation. Jesus brought His own blood into the heavenly Sanctuary as an eternal atonement for our sin. Our job is to trust in that sacrifice. If we do, we can come boldly before the throne of grace. (Hebrews 4:16)

What thought comes when you hear grace? A prayer before meals? Grace is so much more. It is God’s hand extended to draw us “up from the pit of destruction.” (Psalm 40:2 ESV) Grace is changing us into the people of God. The truth of the Gospel is carrying out that transformation. What is that truth? Jesus died as my substitute as our atonement so I will not stand in judgement for my sin. Through faith in Jesus I can come before God the Father without fear or shame. Sin always brings shame. Only God can cover my shame.

How do I enter into that gift of grace? One traditional way is the “Romans Road”, a series of Scriptures from the book of Romans that outlines the “road” to salvation:

  1. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23 NKJV). I acknowledge my sin and make the decision to change.
  2. “For the wages of sin is death.” (Romans 6:23a NLT). Sin has consequences. I deserve punishment, not reward. No Jesus, no hope.
  3. “But the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23b NLT). Through Jesus I have the opportunity to live differently, to envision a different destiny. Know Jesus, know hope.
  4. “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9 NKJV). The power that raised Jesus from the grave can work in me to create a new destiny. It has the power to transform me into His likeness.

It is a grave injustice to the Gospel to think that power comes just through saying a prayer; it comes by following Jesus. Belief is a good starting point, but as James pointed out, “Even the demons believe this, and they tremble in terror.” (James 2:19b) That’s not very good company. No, it is vital that we follow the prayer with a commitment to growth. And so I will add another verse from Romans:

  1. “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.” (Romans 12:2a NLT) Through Bible study, prayer and fellowship with other believers we will grow in knowledge, understanding and obedience.

God urges us to be transformed from the inside out. This is not a means to earn salvation or an attempt to tip the balance in our favor, but the natural response we should have to being saved. More than external transformation, God is looking for a transformation that starts on the inside and naturally manifests on the outside. There are no shortcuts. There is no magical formula for renewing our minds. We must fill our minds with God’s Word. As Jesus prayed to the Father, “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.” (John 17:17 ESV)

I understand those two young men were sentenced to life without parole. Fortunately I do not have to stand before a jury of my peers to have my life judged. When it comes time for me to stand before God’s judgement seat, the devil may be there to bring accusations but Jesus will be my defense attorney. Isaiah 53:5a (NIV [with my additions]) tells us, “But he was pierced for our transgressions [our outward actions], he was crushed for our iniquities [our inner thoughts].” He went to the cross to satisfy God’s requirements of justice and it was there He declared, “It is finished.”

Filed Under: Character, Freedom, In Christ, Mercy

Slumber Party

August 2, 2018 by

Slumber PartyThe other day we were working on a new recipe for dinner. It was zucchini and penne pasta with ricotta cheese. As we went down the list of ingredients we found we didn’t have some and we considered how we might substitute. It took me back to an evening many years earlier. It was 1966. My girlfriend (and future wife) was hosting a slumber party for her friend who was going away to college. And I decided it would be a good idea to raid it. (Give me a break; I was 19.) I recruited two friends who also knew most of the girls at the party and we made our plans.

We started at the home of one of my fellow raiders to bake a cake for the celebration. I wanted a two layer cake but only had mix for a single layer. No problem, just add flour to make up the difference. We’ll throw in some sugar for good measure. Not much sugar available, so we can substitute salt.

Time for the mixer. This was the first time I had used a hand held mixer but how hard could it be. Whirr! The mix is looking pretty good. Whirr! I guess I’ll pull the mixer out and check it. Whirr! I guess I should have turned the mixer off before lifting it out!

Into the pans. Into the oven. Hum? Not raising like I’m used to seeing with my mother’s cakes. Are they supposed to be thin on one side and thick on the other? Oh well, nothing a little frosting can’t cure… or maybe a lot of frosting. The cake was out of the pans and hard as a brick. This is not going well. We let them cool and started frosting. We wanted candles but the only thing we had was a 12” taper. The cake was so hard that we had to hold the candle up with string. And a taste of one corner told us if we were expected to eat it we were in trouble. We cut a corner off and implanted a cupcake so at least we could cut that portion if needed.

Finally we were ready, a bit behind schedule but on our way. We were each dressed in black from black shoes, black slacks and shirt, and black watch cap. A regular cat burglar outfit. I had warned my girlfriend’s dad what we had planned so he would stay up and make sure everyone was modestly attired. He was also to leave the back door unlocked so we could come in without being observed. Unfortunately, someone took out the trash, locking the door behind them. Compounding the problem, her dad fell asleep on the sofa and no amount of tapping on the window would rouse him.

We retreated to a street corner down the block to discuss an alternate strategy when we saw two police cars coming slowly up the street with lights flashing and spotlights scanning. Apparently someone in the neighborhood didn’t like three cat burglars lurking on their street corner. I said, “That’s it. We go in now!” We ran across the street, up the side of the house and into the back yard. “Surprise!!” Fortunately the girls let us in and we didn’t have to explain to the police what we were doing.

A fun story but are their spiritual lessons to be learned? I think so.

  1. Raiding a slumber party might not have been such a good idea, but maybe the idea of a slumber party has its faults. Proverbs 6:10-11 (NLT) warns, “A little extra sleep, a little more slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest— then poverty will pounce on you like a bandit; scarcity will attack you like an armed robber.” The devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. (1Peter 5:8 ESV) Our defense depends on our being sober-minded and alert. Jesus is coming again. Am I ready? Luke 12:40 (NIV) says, “You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.”
  2. What kind of friend encourages you to raid a girls’ slumber party? Yea, they were 19 too. We need others in our lives. More importantly we need the right others in our lives. Lazarus came staggering out wrapped in grave clothes. His friends’ reaction could have been, “Where do you think you’re going? I’ve known you since you were a corpse. You’ll never change. Now get back in there.” Do you have friends like that? Proverbs 27:17 (NLT) teaches, “As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend.” We need those who will encourage, challenge and work to reveal the new man. We need the Barnabas, the mentor who guides, instructs and corrects. We need the Aquila, the companion, the coworker. We need the Timothy, the next generation who we can pour our lives into. And most importantly, do I see myself as God’s friend or am I so wrapped up in guilt and shame that I can’t see beyond it? In John 15:15 Jesus says, “I call you friends.” Let that soak in.
  3. Have the Right Recipe. If I don’t put in the right ingredients I can’t expect the right end product. Do I try to substitute popularity or pleasure in place of passion for God? Drugs for dedication? Alcohol for accountability? Respect of others for righteousness before God? Culture for the Cross?
  4. Follow directions. As a man, I hate to stop and ask for directions. I’d rather drive around an extra half hour than admit to a stranger that I’m lost. I use a technique on the computer called “poking around”. My wife asks for help on a problem with a computer program and after a bit I show her what to do. “How did you figure that out?’ “I poked around!” “Grrrr.” We have the directions for a successful life, but are we willing to read and obey? I want to lean on my own understanding, my own ability but I’m sure somewhere in the instructions it said to shut off the mixer before lifting it out. Proverbs 3:5-6 promises, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.” Let’s be willing to ask for and follow the directions.
  5. Frosting may do the job of covering mistakes on a cake, but what will cover the blackness in my life? God gives us the key to His frosting: Love. 1Peter 4:8b says love covers a multitude of sins. It’s better than frosting. 1Corinthians 13:4-7 (NIV) describes love: “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” It’s the best kind of frosting.
  6. It can take many forms: anger, unforgiveness, pride, even indifference. It can result from betrayal, grief, disappointment. Whatever the form, it prevents God’s truth from penetrating and changing us on the inside. In Jesus’s Parable of the Sower (Matthew 13) the hardness of the wayside is one type of soil. It prevents the seed from taking root. So hardness of heart prevents the Word from penetrating and taking root in our soul.
  7. We embedded a cupcake in one corner. Did that make the whole cake edible? If I go to church on Sunday does that mean the rest of my week will be blessed? Psalm 34:8 (NIV) says, “Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.” He is a feast every day of the week. 1Peter 2:2 (ESV) encourages us to “like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation.”
  8. My girlfriend’s dad slept through the whole thing. Not helpful. Elijah confronted the prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel (1Kings 18). He accused their god of being asleep, but when he called on the Lord, the answer was immediate. No sleeping there. Psalm 121:3-4 (NIV) promises, “He will not let your foot slip, he who watches over you will not slumber; indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.” We are in good hands.
  9. Dressed in black, we wanted to blend into the darkness. Today I want to shine a light. Darkness brings bondage; light brings freedom. John 3:20 NLT “All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed.” Those police officers used a spotlight to penetrate the dark corners of that block. May my light shine in such a way to illuminate the dark corners of this fallen world. In that I want to have the right motives. How often am I saying, “To God be the glory” but internally I’m crying out, “Notice me, affirm me.”? Something to think about.
  10. Finally, God isn’t surprised. We are bound in this dimension called time. He is boundless. Jesus wasn’t surprised by Judas’s betrayal or Peter’s denial. John 10:18 (GWT) “No one takes my life from me. I give my life of my own free will.” God has never looked at what we have done and said, “Whoa, I didn’t see that coming!” On the other hand, we are in for a surprise. 1Corinthians 2:9 (NKJV) “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” Isaiah 43:19a (NKJV) declares, “Behold, I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth.” Surprise!

He is my Rock and I want to build my life on that Rock. Psalm 18:2 (NIV) says, “The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.” He knows me. He knows my weaknesses, my failings, my fears, my darkest shameful secrets. In spite of that He calls me His beloved. He welcomes me to come boldly before Him. He embraces me as His son.

My objective is to point you to the Bible. It is the recipe for a successful life. In this book are the ingredients for spiritual fruit (love, joy, peace… Galatians 5;22), for our thought life (true, noble, right, pure… Philippians 4:8), for prayer (Lord’s Prayer Matthew 6:9-13), for living godly (faith, goodness, knowledge, self-control… 2Peter 1:5-8), for spiritual protection (armor of God Ephesians 6:10-17). Joshua 1:8 (NKJV) says, “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.” For a generous serving of success, we go to God’s Word.

Slumber Party: I think that is an oxymoron, you know, like jumbo shrimp or hot chili?     Slumber zzzz  Party Yea  Slumber zzzz  Party Whoopi.  Now is not the time to slumber or to party. We have work to do. It’s time to get out the recipe and follow the directions. His Word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path (Psalm 119:105).

Filed Under: Character, In Christ Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Shame Off You

December 23, 2017 by

Shame

Has anyone said to you, “Shame on you!” or “You ought to be ashamed!”? Shame makes us feel small, flawed, not good enough. Shame adversely affects our relationship with God, ourselves, and others. It hinders our ability to experience God’s unconditional love.

The good news is there is power in God’s Word to break through the lies I have believed. Breaking free from the bondage of shame is not an instant event or even a quick-fix, three-step process. It is an ongoing adventure of discovering the depths of God’s love and the scope of God’s power to transform me. God has new life, new freedom available on the other side of this journey.

Do I still have shame and condemnation on my conscience? As long as the past is my focus, I won’t dare to draw near to God. But Jesus paid for my guilt and bore my shame. In fact He overpaid – enough for everyone alive, has lived or will live. He carried it all to the cross. And He left it there!

Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection were more than enough for all of us. When He emerged from that tomb, He was no longer clothed in the sin and shame of this world. Sin and its shame were left in the tomb: conquered, paid for, redeemed by the Blood of the Lamb. It is finished. The blood of Jesus has healed us. The blood of Jesus has set us free.

The Israelites had an eleven-day journey from Egypt to the Promised Land. It didn’t have to take forty years, but they chose grumbling, complaining, resisting the work God wanted to do in them. We all have some version of the wilderness to go through. It’s a season that exposes how defenseless we are. It’s how God prepares us to be able to overcome the giants in our lives. It’s a place we cycle through over and over again in our lives—but in different areas—always getting freer and freer from shame each time. We just have to be willing to follow where He leads.

God’s goal for us is freedom, true spiritual freedom. It is a life no longer bound by the weights of shame’s guilt and regret, no longer haunted by shame’s fears and worries, no longer captive to shame’s old habits and addictions. God’s goal for us is not to change our circumstances; it is to change us!

More than once the children of Israel lost focus of how bad life had been when they had been in bondage and they wanted to turn back to Egypt (Exodus 16:3. Exodus 17:3, Numbers 11:5, Numbers 14:2, Numbers 20:5, Numbers 21:5). How quickly I can forget when the wilderness feels too dark and too hard for too long. There are times when I forget how hard the life of shame was and I yearn for the familiar and am tempted to go back to old ways.

We decide it’s time to open a bottle when an unforeseen disappointment surprises us, rather than call the sponsor who is committed to helping us stay on course. Or we grow tired of the discipline of believing who God’s Word says we are over the lies of mean-spirited people who have always said, “You’re just a loser and you’ll always be a loser.”

No matter how bad our past, it’s always easier to revert to old behaviors than to forge new ones. The reality is there is no drive-through breakthrough. We all must go through the wilderness to get to freedom so we are strong enough to defeat the giants who fuel our shame.

Jesus died to secure our freedom from sin and death. Adam and Eve lived unashamed in daily fellowship with our loving Creator and each other. In heaven we will fully enjoy that ultimate freedom. But we don’t have to wait to walk in freedom: Jesus offers us freedom from sin’s slavery now.

I cannot change my past, but I can make decisions now that will change my future. Not just for me, but for the generations who would come after me. I am not powerless, helpless, useless. I have the power to choose freedom.

When I choose to focus more on what Jesus has done for me than on what others have done or said to me, I have the faith to stand up and start moving forward. Without Him, I will inevitably become weary and run out of steam. It is God’s power that is made perfect in my weakness, not my own (2Corinthians 12:9).

The key to moving from a damaged, shame-filled life to a whole, shame-free life is allowing the healing power of the love of God to permeate every corner of my wounded soul and bring healing, wholeness, and strength. It’s not about my doing more for God; it’s about giving God more access so He can do more in me.

The devil will do everything in his power to keep me from getting on the right train of thought. Casting Crowns has a great song, “The Voice of Truth”. Part of the lyrics go:

But the giant’s calling out my name and he laughs at me Reminding me of all the times I’ve tried before and failed. The giant keeps on telling me Time and time again, “Boy, you’ll never win! “You’ll never win.”

But the voice of truth tells me a different story, And the voice of truth says “Do not be afraid!” And the voice of truth says “This is for My glory.” Out of all the voices calling out to me I will choose to listen and believe the voice of truth.

Romans 12:2 says, “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” I have to be committed to retrain my thinking. I have to work at believing God’s voice spoken through His Word, more than all the other voices that have spoken into my lives (including my own).

We were touring in Italy and were taking the train from Rome to Florence. The Rome train station was massive with dozens of departing trains and tracks. We couldn’t just climb on the first train we came to. We had to choose carefully. I have decided to begin each day by first checking the destination board and picking the right train of thought. I ask myself, “Where do I want to end up today?” And then set my course going in the right direction. This is the process of renewing my mind. Through it, I become someone who thinks and, consequently, lives differently than the world.

Several members of our church agreed that we would take time every morning before breakfast to read the Bible. With very few exceptions over the last 10 years, I have started every morning filling my mind with the Word of God. When I am armed with the truth of His Word, I am able to contend with the attacks of fear, doubt, negativity, and lies that the enemy throws at me every day.

Knowing who I am in Christ and what I have in Christ is vital to staying on track every day. Jesus said, “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:32 NIV) We love to declare, “The truth will set you free!” But it is only the truth that I know that will set me free. And the only way to know God’s Word is to read it, meditate on it, study and apply it to my everyday life.

The walls surrounding the city of Jericho were impenetrable. Jericho had heard the Israelites were coming, so the place was on lockdown. The Israelites could see that the situation they faced was impossible. Seven days of marching around the walls only emphasized it. Then Joshua told them to shout. “Yea, right. Like that’s going to make a difference! Where’d we find this guy anyway? I’m heading back to Egypt.”

God wanted the Israelites to see not with their eyes but with their faith. He wanted them to see that even though the circumstances were impossible, He would give them the promised victory, because “all things are possible to him who believes.” (Mark 9:23 NKJV).

Learning to trust takes time. But here’s the great news: God knows how to grow trust. He knows how to plant it, how to nourish it, how to repair it when it’s been broken, and how to restore it when it’s been lost. God is in the trust-growing business!

Do you know what He uses to grow our trust? He uses the very tool that the enemy uses to try to stop us. He uses our fear. Fear exposes the limits of our present trust level, but not our potential capacity. Trust building is a process, a journey.

Trust calls for putting more faith in what I know about God than in what I don’t know about the future. It is then I will walk in obedience, trusting that God is good and there is no darkness in Him at all (1 John 1:5). He can only do good and only good will come of the things He asks me to do.

Ephesians 5:8 (NKJV) tells us, “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light.”  When I bring what is hidden in the dark—my shame and guilt—into the light of God’s merciful presence, they lose their power over me. He gently shines His healing light on all my wounds. Psalm 118:6 (ESV) says, “The LORD is on my side; I will not fear.” He will never shame or humiliate me. He is good, merciful, and kind. He didn’t cause my pain, but He’s ready to help me through that pain.

God is at work transforming me into the kind of Jesus follower who spreads grace and builds others up in the Lord. The next time someone hurts me—and they will—or I hurt someone—and I will—rather than hide from the pain and the shame, I can expose it to God’s light and experience healing and grace. This is living in hope rather than returning to the old cycle I dwelt in so long.

I want to see what God sees! I choose to focus on the freedom that is coming once I drop my old baggage, to focus on where God is leading me. The next time all that shame comes piling back on, let’s take a moment to catch sight of the freedom to come when we slay that giant.

I have made the decision to trust and obey rather than running back to the wilderness to grumble and complain. I choose to be confident that God will be faithful to lead me to complete freedom. Freedom comes when I see myself as God sees me! When I see the victory ahead, when I see the freedom that is coming, I am not only willing to endure, but I am eager to press forward into that freedom.

Let’s declare together:

  • Jesus has set me free.
  • I am free from condemnation.
  • I am free from guilt.
  • I am free from shame.
  • Shame off me!
Filed Under: Freedom, In Christ

Let the Fire Fall

August 24, 2015 by

FirefallWhen I was five, my folks took me camping in Yosemite National Park. At that time, each evening visitors would gather at Camp Curry in Yosemite Valley and the ranger would call out, “Let the fire fall.” 3,000 feet above the valley on Glacier Point, a huge bonfire had been built and on that signal, bulldozers would begin pushing it over the cliff forming a spectacular fire fall in the darkness. Today if you visit Yosemite and ask the ranger, “When does the fire fall?” he will respond, “I’m sorry, the fire doesn’t fall here anymore.” How often is that a picture of our lives? There was a time when I said, “Lord, come into my life.”, a time when I was full of hope at what God could do in my life, but perhaps today the flame has dwindled and faded and is almost out.

When our children were small we camped frequently and I was always responsible for the campfire. I love the sound of a crackling campfire first thing in the morning, the warmth in my face and hands to chase away the morning chill. Each night we would have a big campfire with roasted marshmallows and s’mores, but in the morning the fire was only embers. I would dig down through the ashes to those embers, add some paper and wood, blow on it and soon the fire would be crackly and warm again. In 2Timothy 1:6 (NIV) Paul says, “I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God.” Don’t let the flame go out; keep it bright.

I can’t say I ever completely walked away from God, but there were long periods where the fire was down to embers buried under a lot of ash. My 20’s were a particularly cold period with a worldly focus, spiritual stagnation and putting God in a Sunday box. I was the proverbial submarine Christian: I surfaced on Sunday but the rest of the week I spent under the surface. Praise God the last 30 years have been a time of reigniting the fire and moving from glory to glory. Today ministry in our county jail motivates me to keep the fire hot. Charles Spurgeon, a British preacher in the 1800’s, said, “If there is no fire in the sermon, throw the sermon in the fire.”

Matthew 25 tells the story of five foolish young ladies at a wedding feast who did not bring enough oil for their lamps as they waited for the bridegroom to arrive. When he finally arrived they found that their flames were dying. That is a picture of our lives when we let the oil of the Holy Spirit run low and we can no longer burn brightly in a dark world. Stir up the flame. Let the fire fall.

One of my favorite Bible stories is recorded in 1Kings 18. The prophet Elijah confronts the prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel. Two sacrifices were prepared, one for the Lord and one for Baal. Elijah challenged the prophets of Baal to pray to their god to send fire to consume the sacrifice, but they could not. Elijah prayed and God answered with fire. The result was revival within Israel.

The people of Israel made a choice; I must make a choice. I choose my thoughts. 2Corinthians 10:5 (NKJV) tells us to “take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” What is my self-talk: “I’m a failure. Nobody cares about me. Nothing will improve.” And the flame dies down. “I am the righteousness of God in Christ. I am more than a conqueror. Nothing can separate me from the love of God.” And the flame burns bright. As our late pastor put it: “I cannot consistently act in a way inconsistent with the way I see myself.” I can put up a front for a while but inevitably I will fall back in line with how I think. We need the fire of God. Let the fire fall.

Have you seen the electric fireplaces with fake logs and lights to imitate flames? That is a picture of our spiritual life when we just put on a show. As I described, I was just fake logs for many years. In 2Timothy 3:5 (NLT), Paul warns, “(There will be those in the church who) will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly. Stay away from people like that!” Only the fire will burn out addictions. Only the fire will heal families. Only the fire will make the snake run. The devil runs from the fire. He knows he will experience the flames soon enough. We are not called to put up with the devil’s oppression, to just hang on till Jesus comes, to live in depression and hopelessness. Instead let the fire fall.

Proverbs 26:20 (NLT) observes, “Fire goes out without wood.” Pretty profound, huh? If my life is in ashes, I need to ask what fuel have I given my spirit? Have I neglected Bible reading, prayer, worship or forgiveness?

I don’t need a fire that only lasts during a Sunday service. I need a fire that comes from the depth of my soul. I can’t afford to depend on someone else to pump me up. It’s got to come from deep within. I need fire in the way I worship, fire in the way I love my wife, fire in the way I do my job, fire in the way I wash the dishes. Fire! The devil comes to steal, kill and destroy: to steal the fire, to kill the flame, to destroy the passion.

Ho hum just doesn’t cut it. Ho hum doesn’t produce victory. Revelations 3:16 (NIV) says, “So, because you are lukewarm–neither hot nor cold–I am about to spit you out of my mouth.” In Luke 24, Jesus appears to two disciples on the road to Emmaus. He opens the Scriptures about Himself to them and suddenly vanishes. In verse 32 they respond, “Did not our hearts burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?” Ever had heartburn? We need our hearts to burn. We need the fire.

Several years ago forest rangers in Redwood National Park became concerned because a new generation of redwoods was not growing. Study showed that the cause was fire control. Redwood seeds have a hard shell that must be burned away in order for the seed to germinate. Years of tight controls on forest fires in the park had prevented the seeds from experiencing the fire they needed for life. We need the fire to burn off the hardness of our hearts.

What have I given up on? Where have I invested more than I got back? When have I been better to people than they have been to me? When have I served others but haven’t received the help I need or sacrificed for a spouse or girlfriend and they have not been faithful? I worked 22 years for the company, faithfully doing my job, making sacrifices, working extra hours when needed, rarely taking a sick day and then one day my boss called me in and told me I was being let go. Short changed. We raised our son, nurtured him, protected him, taught him. We dreamed together with him of a future full of promise until all the dreams were ended in an instant by a drunk driver. Short changed. Life is not fair and I have to deal with the hurt of being short changed. If this hadn’t happened… If that hadn’t happened… I have been short changed and the fire runs low.

In 2Samuel 9, Mephibosheth, grandson of King Saul, son of David’s best friend Jonathan, is living in Lotibar. Wikipedia translates Lotibar as “the place of no pastures.” There is nothing green, nothing growing. It is a place of silent frustration, because I have given up and tried to make the best of a bad situation. The Lord has not forgotten. He has you on His mind. Don’t stay in Lotibar. I don’t care if you have to crawl out. You have been down long enough. You have cried long enough. It is time for the fire to fall again.

A windstorm will blow down trees with weak roots. There will be storms in life that will shake us. Whether we stand depends on our roots. Ephesians 3:16-19 (NKJV) says, “That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” Am I going through things I would rather not go through? Am I stuck in a place I would rather not be? Our suffering doesn’t glorify God but our attitude in suffering does. A tree with deep roots looks the same to our eyes whether rain storm or drought. It is not defined by circumstances.

Trying times are not the times to stop trying. Read that again: Trying times are not the times to stop trying. In Isaiah 48:10 (NIV), God says, “See, I have refined you, though not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.” Silver is put into the furnace and melted so the impurities will float to the top and be scraped off. The only way I will know how deeply rooted I am in God is to go through the trials. I want to pass the test so I don’t have to take it over. I can hear the Word, I can jump up and down and shout amen but if I don’t take it in deep, meditate and let it roll around on the inside, squeeze it for all its worth, I won’t have the roots needed to stand.

If my faith level is low it means my Word level is low. If I ate breakfast this morning and fasted until breakfast next week I would drag myself through the day with hallow cheeks and dark circles under my eyes. I do the same for another week and I will be needing a wheel chair because I will be too weak to stand. Another week the same and you won’t see me at all because I’ll be dead. I whine because my faith is weak but I don’t pick up my Bible but once a week? Duh!!

There is lust and there is passion. I might go to a classic car show: “Look at that old caddy! Wow, the ’53 Buick is somethin’ else! Look over here!” That is lust. But say I have a passion for Mustangs I will walk into that show and beeline for the Mustang. I get a new car; I’m out there every weekend washing it. A bird flies over it: “Don’t you dare.” A dog walks by: “Don’t even think about it.” Then pretty soon there are candy wrappers on the floor, the weekly washings become less frequent to the point kids are writing “Wash me” across the trunk. The fire has gone out.

It was Dec. 31, 1964. I was at a New Year’s Eve party not expecting a life changing night when this girl walked in. Ooh eeh! Now if I had just stayed across the room and just looked I would have stayed at the level of lust. But instead I met her, focused on her that night, got her phone number and over the years developed passion. I may have started with lust but it is passion that sustains. We celebrated 46 years of marriage this month.

What puts fire in your belly? What is your passion? Women/men, drugs, money, popularity? Where your passion is, there will be your focus and your direction.  How do I become passionate for God? How do I get on fire for Him? Unless my passion is all consuming, it will not sustain me through difficult times.

Passion for God takes more than a feeling. “I don’t feel like going to church. I don’t feel like reading my Bible.” That is called lazy and Joyce Meyer says, “Lazy Christians are not victorious Christians.” What will it take to move beyond feelings?

  • Get to know God: When I first met that young lady in 1964, I wanted to get to know her: what movies she liked, where she went to school, did she have a boyfriend. Our Father is the God of salvation, healing, wisdom, strength, abundant life. Get to know Him.
  • Communicate: We spent hours talking and talking about family history and future dreams. I speak to God in prayer. I listen to His word in the Bible. If I have passion for God I will spend time with Him. The tragedy of the premarital sex culture is the loss of communication. When the focus is how fast we can get into bed the time for true intimacy (into-me-see) is lost.
  • Walk in unity: A common vision is needed to move forward. If my future wife had wanted 6 kids and I didn’t want any, our future together was in trouble. If a campfire pops an ember out onto the ground, it soon cools, but return it to the fire and it retains its strength. Acts 1:14 (NLT) describes how 120 believers were “united in prayer” for 10 days prior to Pentecost. The birth of the church came from that unity. What does unity look like?
    • Forgiveness. Nothing divides friends faster than unforgiveness.
    • Servant spirit. As long as I look for what’s in it for me, I will bring division but if I live the life of servanthood, placing others before myself, unity will grow.
  • Eliminate the competition: I wear a simple gold band on my left hand. As far as jewelry is concerned, it’s value is pretty low but it represents a marriage covenant. In my relationship with God, there can be no off ramps. If the flame starts to get low I don’t start looking for another campfire to go to; I look for the fuel to build this one back up. I return to the roots of repentance, forgiveness, service and worship.

I don’t want anyone to look at my life and say, “He was on fire once, but the fire doesn’t fall here anymore.” Maintaining the passion, keeping the fire takes a daily decision. I want the fire of the Holy Spirit to be the hallmark of my life. Let the fire fall.

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Someday I Will Hear This Heart Again

April 27, 2015 by

Heart_Book Cover_PressReadyOn March 4th, 2000 our 22 year old son Paul and his fiancé Amy were struck by a drunk driver going the wrong way on the interstate. Amy was declared dead at the scene. Paul was airlifted to the hospital where he was declared brain-dead 3 days later, and we signed his body over for organ donation. (That was an easy decision because he had made his wished clear at 14 when is older sister was signing up for her driver’s license.)

Fast forward now to November of that year. I answered the phone one evening and I thought I recognized the voice on the other end as a friend who had moved to New Mexico a couple of years earlier. He asked if he and his wife could come over. I said, “Sure, it will be great to see you.” A half hour later the doorbell rang. When I opened it I faced a couple with their 5 children and I had never seen them before in my life. While my wife took the kids downstairs, I brought the couple into the living room and asked, “Who are you? Why are you here?” The wife’s name was Linda and she was Paul’s heart recipient. Recognize that the organ donor organization discourages contact, but a friend of Paul had left the funeral and was driving through the city where Linda lives. He stopped to visit another friend there and mentioned Paul. The friend knew of Linda and put the dates of Paul’s death and her transplant together.

Just before leaving the hospital we had each taken a few minutes to say goodbye to Paul. When I was with him, I put my head to his chest, listened to his heart and declared, “Someday I will hear this heart again.” That night eight months later, I heard Paul’s heart again.

Ezekiel 36:26 (NLT): “And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart.” The first heart transplant by men occurred in 1967; God has been doing them for 2000 years. The recipient of that first heart lived 18 days; God’s transplant brings eternal life. Of course, I’m not talking about the cardiac muscle that pumps blood through our body. God’s transplant affects the essence of who we are, the spirit and the soul.

You may say, “But Gill, I am born again.” The reality is that we each have stony places in our heart. I may come to God and say, “I surrender all… expect the pride. I give you my heart… but I’m not ready to look at the unforgiveness just yet.” Today we might be soft hearted or hard hearted, open and loving or distant and untrusting of God with a heart grown cold. The good news is He loves you just the way you are. But He won’t leave you there.

The cells in my fingers and in my toes receive oxygen and nourishment from the blood pumped from my heart. The old spiritual heart was corrupt. Mark 7:21 warns, “For from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, etc.” What happens to a body that has been in the grave several days? In John 11, Lazarus, a friend of Jesus, has died and been in the grave 4 days. When Jesus asks that the tomb be opened, Martha objected, “There will be a stench.” Decayed, putrid: that is our condition with the old, dead heart. 2Corinthians 5:17 declares that I am a new creation, the old things have passed away. With a new heart I receive life and peace throughout my spirit, soul and body.

Let’s look at some Bible stories where God caused a change of heart:

  • Gideon (Judges 6) was so fearful of the Midianites that he hid his wheat in a winepress. In his heart he was already defeated. He wasn’t just in the pit of a winepress; his heart was in the pit of despair. When an angel showed up and called him a “mighty man of valor” he needed a new heart to believe it.
  • Elijah (1Kings 18) experienced a great victory against the prophets of Baal but when Jezebel threatened to kill him, he lost heart and fled. In his heart he had given up. Despite the victories fear dominated. God ministered to him in the wilderness to restore his heart.
  • Nehemiah (Nehemiah 1) heard about the destroyed city of Jerusalem. The dreams and hopes of the Jewish people lay in ruins, but God gave Nehemiah a heart to work and rebuild.
  • Jesus designated Peter as His right hand man yet when the pressure was on, he caved and denied even knowing Him. (Luke 22) He was consumed by guilt and self-recrimination that overshadowed everything he had experienced in his years with Jesus. His heart had sunk into a pit of failure. And Jesus reached out with forgiveness and restoration.
  • The Apostle Paul had a religious heart that lacked intimacy with God until he had an encounter on the road to Damascus. (Acts 9)

But not everyone will accept a new heart:

  • Cain had a jealous heart that pushed him into a choice to kill his brother Abel. (Genesis 4)
  • Korah and Dathan had rebellious hearts that chose not to accept Moses’s leadership and it resulted in the earth opening and destroying them. (Numbers 16)
  • Saul was selected by God to be the king of Israel but his proud heart lead to his defeat. (1Samuel 31)
  • Judas realized his sin in betraying Jesus but his unrepentant heart resulted in suicide. (Luke 22)

Matthew 22:37 tells us to love the Lord your God with all your heart. That doesn’t leave room for the old man, the old thinking. God does not tolerate competition. Matthew 6:24 (NIV) warns, “No one can serve two masters.” The old heart has to go.

I spoke with your doctor and the prognosis is grim. Your only hope is a new heart. What is required for a heart transplant?

Diagnosis

  • A heart transplant is reserved for the most critical cases.
  • I must recognize the devastation of my life brought by sin. Our original state is that our heart is sick, diseased and filled with sin.
  • I do not need an adjustment but rather a transformation. In Romans 12:2, Paul calls for us to be transformed, metamorphosis. It is the word used to describe the change a caterpillar undergoes to become a butterfly, no small thing.
  • Once the diagnosis was clear, Linda had to be ready at any time. Once the heart is removed from the donor it begins to die so there is no time to lose. She even had once where she was made ready for surgery and then the medical team decided it was not a good match. Am I ready for God to move on my heart?
  • If my physical heart were that diseased, if I was that close to the reality of death would I hesitate to put my name on the transplant list? Why do we draw back from spiritual rebirth? Romans 13:11 (NLT): “This is all the more urgent, for you know how late it is; time is running out. Wake up, for our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.”

Doctor

  • Transplants are performed only by highly trained and specialized teams.
  • In the 70’s I owned a VW Bug and with it I had The Idiot’s Guide to VW Repair. Today you can get an idiot’s guide to investing, politics, world history, even quantum physics, but there is no idiot’s guide to heart transplants. I can’t perform the surgery on myself. “Nurse, hand me the scalpel.”
  • I can try to change behavior on the outside, but that doesn’t go deep enough and as a result it doesn’t last. That is why in Psalm 51:10 David cries out, “Create in me a clean heart.”
  • God already knows what is inside me. He is looking to do major surgery.

Donor

  • The donor must be carefully matched to the recipient for a transplant to be successful.
  • Jesus the only one with a true heart of flesh. A transplant requires a donor’s death. Our son Paul didn’t die voluntarily but Jesus did.
  • Heart transplants are extremely expensive, over $1 million. (How is your medical insurance?) I am a total charity case. There is nothing I can do to pay for a spiritual heart. I must depend on God’s free gift.

Diligence

  • If your heart fails because of the high fat diet or your lungs are destroyed by smoking or your liver succumbs to chronic alcoholism and you are able to get a transplant but don’t change your lifestyle, the new organ will likely fail as well. Whatever lifestyle choices that led to destroying the first heart will destroy the new one as well. I recently flew to Orlando. I walked down the jet way, into the terminal and who did I find there? Me! Wherever I go there I am. A change of heart without a change in actions will lead back to destruction.
  • Exercise will strengthen the new heart. Spiritual exercise is prayer, worship and meditation. I must develop a hunger for God. That is not a hunger for church, but for the presence of God in my life and for His Word. I attended church for over 30 years but I did it out of duty and social acceptance rather than a true relationship. 2Timothy 3:5 (NIV) says, “Having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.” Since I received a new heart, do those around me notice a change in my lifestyle? Would anything change in my life if I truly let Jesus be in control?
  • I had better take my medicine. The transplanted organ faces enemies: infection and rejection. The body will attack the new organ. Our old beliefs will attack the new beliefs. The medicine I need is Gos-pills.
  • Checkups with the medical team will detect problems. Ecclesiastes 4:9 promises, “Two are better than one.” We need others to give us perspective, accountability and correction.

With a new heart I can have peace in spite of circumstances, joy amidst tragedy. With a new heart, His love directs my choices, His priorities control my actions. Philippians 2:5 “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ.”

March, 2000 was a time of great loss for our family but we take comfort in the knowledge that out of our loss came life. Before the transplant, Linda was confined to a hospital bed, barely able to get up and walk across the room. Her days were numbered without that heart transplant. If I hadn’t received a spiritual heart transplant, I would be dead spiritually, without hope.

I got to hear Paul’s heart beating inside Linda. God wants to hear the heartbeat of His Son in each and every one of us. What is that area that God wants to revive? Maybe there is a relationship that has been severed by betrayal. God can revive that relationship or entirely new one is on the way. There was a dream of reaching new heights but the dream has fallen to the ground and God wants to breathe new life into it. Perhaps it is the hunger inside to be right with Him but you have never felt a real connection. God can restore a joy of life and a sense of purpose. Listen, listen. Thump thump. Thump thump. That’s the new heart. Are you ready to accept it?

In conclusion, let’s reflect on Psalm 51:1-2 (ESV)

 “Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from your presence,
and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and uphold me with a willing spirit.”

Filed Under: Discipline, In Christ Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

The Glass Wall

March 28, 2015 by

broken-glassI recently rented the movie Divergent. It takes place in Chicago sometime in the future. The world has been devastated by war. To keep from falling into chaos society has been structured along strict class lines: farmers, factory workers, intellectuals, government officials, warriors. Each youth upon coming of age must declare for a specific class and then go through training. The heroine in the story declares for warriors. Part of her training is to enter a drug induced series of hallucinations where she must face her worst fears. She finds herself in a glass chamber which is filling up with water. (See the clip at https://youtu.be/X70hGbGc2ZM) She pushes against the glass. She kicks and beats on it without success. Finally the chamber is full. She is drowning without hope and suddenly she realizes, “This isn’t real.” Repeating “This isn’t real”, she taps on the glass with her finger. It cracks. As she continues tapping it breaks and collapses, releasing her.

In your Christian walk, have you ever been going along pretty good and suddenly: Wham! You hit a glass wall. Something from your past is stopping you from going forward. Grief can be like that. 15 years ago our son and his fiancé were killed by a drunk driver going the wrong way on the Interstate at 2:00 in the morning. Recently we were driving home from Seattle, a 3 hour drive from 11:00 PM to 2:00 AM. My wife was asleep and I was left alone with my thoughts. I found myself studying every pair of lights that came at me to be sure they were on the right side of the highway. I was reliving all of the feelings and memories of that tragedy. Forgiveness is a choice I make to put something behind me, but sometimes a word, a picture, even a sound can trigger a memory and the hurt comes back. Then it is time to choose not to go back there. For me another area is pornography. That material was common in my home growing up and set a hook in a young boy’s mind. It is not nearly as strong now but still a book passage, a TV ad, a movie image will try to pull me back. For many smoking can be that wall. The physical need may be broken but the mental bondage is still there pulling them back over and over.

2Corinthians 10:4 (NIV) promises, “The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.” The prison of the mind is self-created. In god we have the weapons we need to break out of that prison. “This isn’t real.”

I could get my dream job but with the wrong thinking it will be a disaster. I could marry my dream girl (and I did) but with the wrong thinking it will be misery. Matthew 12:33 warns us to make the tree good and the fruit will be good. Look at the root rather than the fruit. If my heart is broken, weak, confused, the fruit of my life will be bad. “Why does bad stuff keep happening to me?” Maybe it is the fruit of what is inside. Change the root and change the fruit. Change the thinking and change the outcome. If I change everything changes. I like the promise from Leviticus 26:13 (NLT), “I broke the yoke of slavery from your neck so you can walk with your heads held high.”

Romans 12:2 commands me to be transformed by the renewal of my mind. The battle is in my mind. The more I change my mind for the better, the more my life will also change for the better. The devil wants my thoughts. Why? Thoughts product actions, actions develop habits, habits determine character, character establishes destiny. Romans 8:6 (NLT) tells us, “So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace.”

Stuff happens. Events occur in our life and we create a story to explain them. Being the oldest child is an event; feeling responsible for others in the family is the story. Abused is an event; seeing myself as unworthy or unwanted is the story created to explain it. The death of loved one may be seen as abandonment. The good news is I made up the story; I can change the story. The bad news is I tend to look for more evidence that I was right in my story.

D. L. Moody, a famous evangelist of the late 1800’s said, “I have never met a man who gave me more trouble than myself.” I will talk to a lot of people today but the most important person I will talk to today is me. What am I saying?

Repetition changes subconscious thinking. The key to change is to stick with it until the instinctive reaction changes. I drop a dish: “Oh, sh**.” I make a wrong turn: “What an idiot!” That is instinctive reaction. I will only change that instinctive reaction through repetition of truth.

There will always be resistance between me and breakthrough. It is easier to go back to where I am comfortable. The Israelite nation was delivered from slavery in Egypt by great miracles, yet they repeatedly complained about how good they had it in the “good ol’ days”. Well, let me tell you about the “good ol’ days.” They weren’t that great. I know because I was there and I would much rather be here.

Philippians 3:13 (NIV) tells us we should be, “Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead.” In other words, don’t be looking at behinds. The past never sees the future. If I keep speaking my past I have not forgotten it.

Old habits will not see me through a crisis. As forces increase on the outside, I need to increase the force on the inside. Crisis is the opportunity to grow, to excel, to shine. Think about it: If David had not faced Goliath he would have remained a shepherd.

In Luke 7:36-38, when the prostitute broke the jar of perfume, that represented her earnings from her profession. Breaking the jar represented her break from her past, turned it into worship. I will not leave the presence of Jesus the same. In the presence of Jesus is the power to break the bottle of my past. Religious people will see my worth based on my past performance. Jesus sees my worth based on future potential.

If I didn’t drop nothin’ when I met Jesus, I didn’t get nothin’. Still got your stash of weed? Still got the numbers of your suppliers? Still got a condom in your wallet? What do you need to drop? John 8:36 promises, “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” It’s time to experience that freedom through new thinking.

There is power for transformation in the Word. I was taught to have a Scripture verse for each finger. When someone flips me off I will know what verse goes with that. Individually a finger is weak but all together they have a special strength.

What is that wall for you? Smoking or alcohol? Meth or cocaine or prescription drugs? Pornography or adultery or fornication? Anger, pride, unforgiveness, jealousy? There is no shortage of areas where we can hit that wall. Let me help you get started. You need your own Scripture verses for the wall you face, but let me give you a starter kit. Stand up. Picture that glass wall in front of you. (Whoa, are you still sitting down? What’s with that? Let’s get with the program.) Here we go:

  • Hold up your right thumb: “I am the righteousness of God in Christ.” (2Cor 5:21)
  • Hold up your pointer: “Forgetting those things that are behind I press toward the goal of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” (Phil 3:14)
  • Hold up your middle finger (carefully): “There is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ.” (Rom 8:1)
  • Hold up your ring finger: “I am a new creation in Christ.” (2Cor 5:17)
  • Hold up your pinkie: “Nothing can separate me from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus.” (Rom 8:39)
  • Put your left hand on the glass wall.
  • “This isn’t real. Greater is He who is in me than he who is in the world. (1John 4:4) By the power of God’s Word.”
  • Now make a fist. POW!!
Filed Under: In Christ Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

The Father Ran

March 18, 2015 by

hugging-571076_1280How do you picture God the Father? Long white hair, golden crown, sitting on a heavenly throne? Calm, in control? Do you picture Him running? The Bible does not describe the Father as being in a hurry at any time except once: The Parable of the Prodigal Son. When the father sees his son at a distance, he can’t wait to embrace him so he runs. That was very undignified for a family patriarch to hitch up his robes and run down the street, yet that is the picture Jesus gives us of the emotion of our heavenly Father in welcoming us back. God meets us more than half way. He is not holding a grudge for all the dumb things I have done. Coming to God does not mean condemnation but rather celebration.

When our children were small we took them camping frequently. Once when our youngest daughter was about 5, she went to the restroom and came out a different door than she had gone in. She became disoriented and couldn’t find her way back to our campsite. After half an hour we became concerned. We started searching and soon had other campers and the park rangers involved in the search. Do you think after 15 minutes, I would turn to my wife and say, “Don’t you think we’ve looked long enough?” Imagine a child getting lost in the mall while Christmas shopping. Even if her parents had to search for hours and hours, would they give up on trying to find her?

I’ve messed up big time. I’ve failed over and over and over. So God is really angry with me, right? Wrong. My failure is not bigger than God’s grace. Romans 8:31 (NIV) says: “If God is for us, who can be against us?” Isn’t that something to get excited about?

Despite my failures, God invites me into relationship. Who am I in Christ? I am forgiven, loved, righteous and chosen. Being right on the inside empowers me to be right on the outside. I am a new creation (2Corinthians 5:17) but with the same thinking I will not see the newness in my spirit express itself in my life.

Winston Churchill said in the darkest days of World War II, “Never, never, never give up.” It’s easy to give up. That takes no anointing or empowerment by the Holy Spirit. John 10:10 tells us Jesus came to give abundant life. What is stealing that abundant life from me? I don’t have to be talented. I don’t have to be smart. I do have to not give up.

What is my level of obedience? “I know I shouldn’t watch that on TV but…” “I know I shouldn’t go there, but…” “I know those friends are bad for me but…” It’s not that I don’t hear from God.  I just want my own way and I will have to live with the consequence of that choice. I go to church, but what do I do the rest of the week? This is not about being weird. It’s about making choices that will bring good fruit in my life. God meets me where I am but He doesn’t leave me where I am. God loves me too much for that.

I have plenty of opportunities to feel sorry for myself, but where will that get me? I was laid off at 54. It is tough to find a good job at that age. God opened new doors for me. It is never too late to begin again. I count these as the best years of my life.

My future has no room for my past. Samuel anointed Saul as king, mentored him yet he was a failure as king. He became haughty and proud. God spoke to Samuel and told him not to mourn the failure but get a new vision for David as king. That choice was a historic success. God is never without a plan. That includes my future as long as I don’t adopt a bad attitude. How long will I live in regret? God is not the Great I Was or the Great I Will Be. He is the Great I Am, the God of now. Everything will change the moment I head in the right direction.

Philippians 3:14 tells us to forget what lies behind. Instead we are to be reaching, straining toward our future. I will not stroll into God’s destiny for me. I will not slide into it. Press! The past is trying to pull me back. It takes a strong effort to reach for that future that God has for me.

“I’m going through hell!” No you’re not. Sure there are hard times but this is not hell. And if you are going through difficult times, don’t pitch a tent and camp there. Get up and move forward.  I may wonder if this season will ever end. The answer is to keep moving forward.

When our son was killed, we faced a choice to focus on his death or move into a new beginning. When Moses died, the nation mourned his loss, but at the end of the mourning period God challenged Joshua to move forward. “I need a miracle, I need a miracle.” Get up and move forward. Too much of society today has a welfare mentality, dependent on the government, dependent on others. “Somebody feed me. Somebody house me. Somebody take care of me.” God says, “Get up and move forward.” That is when God will move.

Am I going to live cowering in the corner, hiding from the devil? “Oh, don’t talk about the devil. I don’t want him to notice me.” If I am a Christian he notices me, be assured.

A lion tamer uses a chair when he enters the cage with the big cats. Why is that? The four legs make it difficult for the lion to focus on one thing, particularly on the man. What is the devil waving in front of me? Sex, drugs, power, acceptance. I need to look at who is really behind those.

Is Satan putting a lot of temptations in front of you? That is a good sign. If I don’t come face to face with the devil, it means I’m going the same direction he is. The closer I get to God the more Satan will fight. Before I came to God I was doing a great job of messing up my own life, Satan didn’t need to help out. Now he is coming at me to trip me up. He wants to make an example of me. “You remember Joe, the guy who was always talking about God? He just got picked up for meth.” Satan has a victory.

The devil doesn’t want me to connect with God’s love because that is where my strength is. “Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong.” (Ephesians 3:17 NLT)

Years of hearing negative voices, and years of replaying negative events have placed deep in my mind a negative view of myself. My mind replays these voices and events without consciously thinking about them. It replays them automatically.

I have to cut the umbilical cord, cut ties with the old life. My father spoke negative words over me: “You just don’t follow through.” “You’re weak.” “You won’t follow instructions.” Will I still be a prisoner to those hurtful words? Just as the doctor cut the cord to my mother at birth, I also need to cut the cord to those hurtful words. Otherwise negative power will continue to flow into my life today.

In Papua New Guinea, monkey meat is a staple of their diet. When the natives hunt, they place a banana in a narrow mouthed jar. The monkey will reach into the jar and grab the banana, but he cannot get his hand back out while holding the banana. The hunter can come right up to the monkey and club him but he will not let go of the banana. Am I holding onto something from my past that is bringing me death?

The more I face struggles in this life, the more my perseverance, character, and hope grows. Like the baby learning to crawl, I must to move forward with the hope that God is using my challenges to prepare me for bigger things to come. Dissatisfaction is the first step for transformation. Difficult times have a purpose: they push me into my destiny, shape my character, move me out of my comfort zone, made me trust God.

1Corinthians 2:9 (NLT): “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.” The blessing is already prepared. God has to prepare me so when I get there I am ready to handle it. I can ask for a good wife but if I am not ready to be a good husband, what happens? A blessing given too soon is not a blessing at all. Give car keys to a 10 year old and what happens? The prodigal son received his inheritance but he didn’t have the character to handle it. We need to stop being angry and instead give thanks in all things. In the challenges I learn what I could not learn any other way. I press through rejection, I press through fear, I press through loneliness. When the devil thinks he has me down, I press. The devil wants me to sit down and shut up, but I will press.

I might not be able to change my circumstances but I can change how I think about them. God is more interested in changing my mind than He is in changing my circumstances. Change my circumstances without changing my mind and I will soon find myself back in the same place with the same problems and the same defeat. With too many lottery winners its “Easy come, easy go.” 70 percent of them lose or spend all their money in five years or less. My thoughts control my life. A thought doesn’t have to be true to direct my life. The mind is the battleground. Romans 8:6 (NLT) tells us, “Letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace.”

In Philippians 1:6 (NLT), Paul encourages us with: “I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.” What God starts He finishes. I may feel discouraged and want to give up. “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” (Galatians 6:9 NIV)

The world has its value system promoted by advertisers that say life is all about me. The transformation we seek is from Self-centered to God-centered, from “Give me my stuff” to serving God and others. 2Corinthians 3:18 (NIV) describes it this way: “We are being transformed into His image with ever increasing glory.” It doesn’t happen overnight. Psalm 37:23 (NKJV) says, “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord.” “Steps” means it is a process.

Change is a process. Shortcuts are the devil trying to get me to take the easy way. What is the Lottery but a tempting shortcut to prosperity that is only an empty promise? Help a chick break through its shell and it will die. Why? The struggle strengthens him. A withdrawal first requires a deposit. Otherwise it is called bank robbery. The struggle is the deposit I make to qualify for the victory.

God hasn’t given up on me. I am not so far away that His arms can’t reach me. If I am willing to step away from the pigpen, to humbly seek Him, He will be running with His arms outstretched. I don’t have to run to God. I only need to turn toward Him and He will run to embrace me.

Filed Under: Character, In Christ Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Time to Roar

February 4, 2015 by

lion-343387_1920Do I believe everything I read in the paper or see on TV? Do I believe what I read in the Bible? So why do I spend more time reading what I don’t believe than what I do believe? “But the one who peers into the perfect law of liberty and fixes his attention there, and does not become a forgetful listener but one who lives it out – he will be blessed in what he does.” (James 1:25 NET) I want to fill my mind with the word of God.

When negative thoughts outweigh positive thoughts it’s called depression. Where do negative thoughts come from? Most of them come from within my mind: “I’m no good. I’m a failure. I’ll never change.” I talk to myself all the time. I am my own biggest critic.  In addition, I have all of the negative from the world. TV: bad news. Radio: bad news. Talk to your buddies: bad news. Where is the scale tipping? “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:32 NIV) Freedom does not come from my own thoughts or from the world. The truth of God’s Word brings freedom.

A thought is an electrical impulse flowing through my brain.  If I think a thought often enough and it forms a rut in my brain. It is called being stuck in a rut. Romans 12:2 NKJV tells us not to get stuck in the world’s rut but “be transformed by the renewal of your mind.” Psalm 40:2 NLT promises, “He lifted me out of the pit of despair, out of the mud and the mire. He set my feet on solid ground and steadied me as I walked along.” The Lord is with me. God is on my side. He is my rock and my salvation. Right thinking tips the scales from depression to blah and ultimately to joy.

Our life is determined by what is called the Law of Dominant Image. Whatever I focus on attracts and pulls me toward it. When I entered college, I had the image of becoming an engineer, so I took courses in basket weaving. No, engineering! I had the image of being married to this one girl. That image dominated my thinking, my dreams, my actions until I could see that image become a reality. I took her to the movies. I bought her flowers. I wrote letters. (That was before email.) All in pursuit of that dominant image. 49 years later she is still the dominant image in my life.

Race car drivers are trained when approaching a wreck to not focus on the wreck but on where they want their car to go. Why? Where I focus will draw me toward it. I need to change my focus from bad things to good things. I might be trying to resist looking at a pornographic magazine. “I’m not going to pick up that magazine; I’m not going to pick up that magazine. Oooh, isn’t she somethin’.” When I am on a diet I focus on food more than usual and the result is I want to eat.

I am not already as God wants me to be. Who is? Paul puts it this way in Phillipians 3:12 (NLT): “I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me.” I choose not focus on what has happened but rather on what I want to see happen. No matter how long I focus on the past it will not change. To change my thinking I must focus on the future.

“I wish I hadn’t…” That focus keeps me in a rut and stuck in the past. If I am imprisoned by my past, my future is the victim. I must focus my mind on my goal, what I want to achieve. Change doesn’t happen by accident, it is my choice. If I wait around for God to change me, I will just stay the same: the same habits, the same failings, the same consequences. I must cooperate with God in that change.

This is not positive thinking or simple optimism. That can be a denial of reality. Hope acknowledges my situation is bad but still I trust in God. David exemplified this in the 23rd Psalm, verse 4: “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.” (NKJV)

My desire to change must become stronger than my desire to stay where I am. Two things are needed: vision and action. I must see where I want to go and then consciously move toward it. Vision without action is wishful thinking. Action without vision is chaos, going in every direction without purpose or progress.

First let’s look at vision. My life will be pulled not in the direction of my desires or intentions but in the direction of the dominant image I allow in my thoughts. Is the dominant image in my mind one that pulls me back to the past or one that takes me forward into my future? Vision is needed before change. God gave Abraham images of stars of the sky and sand of the seashore show he could visualize his children rather than focusing on his being old and childless.

For many years an island just a half mile from Nassau, Bahamas was called Hog Island, an area limited to wild hogs and a garbage dump for the city. In 1959, investors purchased the island and renamed it Paradise Island. Today it is some of the most expensive real estate in the world with the Atlantis Hotel and other high end resorts. Bottom line: I treat something as I see it. An elephant is 80 times bigger than a lion but what does a lion see when he looks at an elephant – Lunch. Dominant image!

I formed the rut in my thinking by repetition, I will break out of that rut by repetition. If I repeatedly hear negative I will go in that direction. The Israelite army had listened to Goliath for 40 days. David came in and focused on the rewards. If I look at a problem too long it looks insurmountable. I won’t focus on debt but where I want to go. I won’t focus on cigarettes or addiction or pornography or dieting. I can change the image before me.

Our son and his fiancé were driving from North Dakota to Washington State. At 3:00 in the morning on the interstate in Montana he approached a curve and went to past a slow moving truck. He was hit head on by a drunk driver going eastbound in the westbound lanes. No one survived. For many weeks after Paul’s death I battled a stronghold every time I got behind the wheel of a car. I found myself looking way ahead to spot the car coming on the wrong side. If I had to pass a truck, my knuckles went white from the tight grip on the wheel. Driving at night was an ordeal. I had to make the decision to change the thinking, change the vision. I went to Psalm 91: 1-4 (NKJV) to renew my thoughts:

He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High

Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress;

My God, in Him I will trust.”

Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler

And from the perilous pestilence.

He shall cover you with His feathers,

And under His wings you shall take refuge;

His truth shall be your shield and buckler.

If I bring the old thinking into the new opportunity, that stronghold will dominate the conditions, stifle the progress that is possible and ultimately pull me back to the old life. I need to examine the thoughts. Does this help me at my new level or does it pull me back? “I’m a failure.” Get rid of it! “I’m not good enough.” That doesn’t belong to me. “God is on my side.” That’s more like it. “I am victorious.” That’s what I’m takin’ about!

The lion is called the king of the jungle. We go to see him in the zoo. To us it is entertainment. To him it is forced captivity. What does he do? He paces back and forth, back and forth. He senses that he was meant for something greater. Even if he was born in captivity that sense is not squelched. It is time I rise up to the person God has called me to be. Everything in that lion’s life may contradict his kingship but it doesn’t change his true identity. Am I locked in a cage the devil has trapped me in, built bar by bar from the poor choices and sins of my past? Am I going to just make do in the cage? Not me! I am going to rise up with a mighty roar. I will no longer settle for the way my life has been. “Greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.” (1John 4:4 KJV)

I can decide to break out of the cage where the enemy has entrapped me. Blind Bartimaeus threw aside his beggar’s coat (Mark 10:46-52) because he had a new vision. That coat was his license to beg, but he threw it aside because he had a new vision. He did not yet have sight but he had vision. I must throw off that which makes up the bars for the cage of old vision and move toward the freedom of the new vision. Philippians 3:13-14 (NKJV) says, “Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

The devil goes about like a roaring lion to bring fear and intimidation, but there is another lion described in the Bible: the Lion of the tribe of Judah, Jesus who comes to bring life and peace. What is our response to the devil? Submit to God, to the truth and power of His Word. Then we are empowered to resist the enemy, to roar right back even louder. It is time to roar!

Filed Under: In Christ Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Zombies

October 15, 2014 by

tree-66465_1280We have seen it on the hospital dramas: “He’s going into cardiac arrest! Give me the paddles. Clear!” Zap. Beep…beep…beep. “He’s back.” We were all dead in sin: drug dealers, pimps, sex offenders, gossips, unforgiving or prideful. All equally dead. Just another cold corpse in the spiritual morgue that stretches for miles. But God… I call it the divine hinge on which everything turns. Here comes the power. We were flat lined spiritually and He put the paddles to our chest, “Clear!” and gave us a good zap. Beep…beep…beep.  God didn’t just bring us back to life. That would ultimately lead to death again. Jesus raised Lazarus but what eventually happened to him? He died. When God made us alive He went a step further and seated us in heaven in Christ so that sin and death have no more power over us.

Let’s read together Ephesians 2:1-10 NKJV: “And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” We were dead in our sin, helpless and hopeless, but God… But God…

Zombies are a popular subject today in movies and television. If we could look into the spiritual world around us, what would we see? There are a lot of spiritual zombies walking around today; they just don’t know they’re dead. A person doesn’t sin and then die spiritually. He is born dead and so sin is just the natural outcome. Romans 3:20 in the Phillips translation puts it this way, “No man can justify himself before God by a perfect performance of the Law’s demands – indeed it is the straightedge of the Law that shows us how crooked we are.” The do’s and don’ts of the Bible aren’t there to make us better but so we can see our sin clearly. We chose sin, we chose the world, we chose death. But God, despite that, chose us.

Why would God do such a thing? Because of His great love. I may see God as cold or stern or angry. That could be based on what I learned in Sunday School or from equating God with an angry, earthly father. God IS love. It is not that God is showing love, not that God is loving. His very nature is summed up in one word: love. Rick Warren, author of Purpose Driven Life: “God didn’t choose you because of something you’ve done. It’s all because of who He is. You weren’t good enough, smart enough, or spiritual enough for Him to save you. He saved you because He loves you.”

Look at surveys and we will see that most people believe God exists. That doesn’t make them spiritually alive. James 2:19 (NLT) warns, “You say you have faith, for you believe that there is one God. Good for you! Even the demons believe this, and they tremble in terror.” I know a lot of people who do good things but they are still spiritually dead. Many religions, some that even call themselves Christian, place their focus on good deeds rather and the redemption that is ours through the cross. We can dress a zombie up in a nice suit, comb his hair just right but he is still a zombie.

Israel was in a drought and God directed the prophet Elijah to a certain brook. As he stayed there he watched the brook dwindle and finally dry up. (1Kings 17:7) But even then God continued to provide for him miraculously. We can spend our lives worrying about our various predicaments. When we are down here facing the daily battles, mucking our way through the trenches of daily life, it is easy to forget that we are seated in heavenly places. I only have a limited amount of energy. That’s why I get tired and worn out. As a result, I need to not waste any of that limited energy on the past. Every day, I want to choose to focus my energy on what is in front of me and what lies ahead. (Philippians 3:13-14)

Before I was born again, I was a good person. I considered myself a Christian. I just kind of did things my own way, mixing in a little Bible truth with worldly wisdom and my own motivations. I went to church most Sundays, but God was someone I went to when I was in trouble, when I was hurting, when I had a need. I treated Him like a vending machine: put in a few prayers and out pops His favor. When the crisis was over I took the attitude, “Thanks God. I’ll take it from here.” The rest of the time I gave Him very little thought. Then one night I attended an Easter service that included a reenactment of the crucifixion. As I looked on a bloodied and beaten Jesus, I realized I only wanted God on my terms. Now He was calling me to surrender. I took that step and now live a life that has been changed by the redeeming power of the cross. This life goes beyond forgiveness of sin. It brings empowerment by the Holy Spirit. It brings focus to living.

Once I was dead spiritually; now my heart, mind and spirit are set free. Once my life was hopeless; now I have hope and security in God. Once my life was empty and void; now I can enter into the joy of the Lord.

All that we have, all that we are, all that God has done for and in and through us is IN CHRIST. What the devil wants to do is to get me to focus on my condition instead of my position in Christ. I am an heir of God and a joint heir with Christ. (Romans 8:17) Once I focus on my position in Christ, it gives me the power to change my condition and circumstances.

The Israelites spent 400 years as slaves in Egypt. They walked away from the Red Sea but they didn’t walk away from the slave mentality. Just like the Israelites’ enemies and their accusations were drowned in the Red Sea, the shaming, condemning words of my past life of slavery to sin have been silenced in the death and resurrection of Christ.

“And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.” (Ephesians 3:18-19 NLT) All this wide and long and high and deep made my head spin until I read what Mark Driscoll, Mars Hill Church, Seattle wrote, “Paul wanted the love of God, like a plant rooted deeply in nourishment and able to flourish, to be a deep root in people’s souls. He wanted the church to know that God’s love is wide enough to welcome anyone, long enough to stretch from the beginning to the end of time, deep enough to reach down to the worst of sinners, and high enough to transport us to God’s heavenly kingdom.”

God commanded the Israelites to march around Jericho every day for seven days. In the natural that seemed like a really dumb plan. Why did God require that? Could it be so the people saw how hopeless their situation was without God? “But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.” (2Corinthians 4:7 NIV) When we are poor in spirit, we will recognize our need for God and we will have hands open to heaven.

In Matthew 19:16-22 NKJV, a young man approached Jesus and asked, “What good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?” Notice that he was looking for good works to save him. Jesus called him to break from the world’s standard regarding money. “Sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” The young man turned away. He kept his money, he kept his pride…and he kept his emptiness. We have traveled to Europe, Israel, Turkey, Mexico, Columbia, the Caribbean and Central American. Money can buy a passport to anywhere…but heaven.

“Hey, I just want to do what I want to do!” But in truth we are doing what the world dictates. We chase after cars and houses and fame and acceptance. The world says, “Have it your way. Go for the gusto.” And in the end it is empty, spiritually dead, the path of the zombie.

The zombie is defined by the defeat and regret of past mistakes, but God… He can set our feet on the new path. “They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations.” (Isaiah 61:1-4 NIV) Many come from families which have experienced division and devastation for generations. God breaks that curse and brings restoration. Because of Christ I am at peace with God. (Romans 5:1) I am a new creation in Christ (2Corinthinas 5:17). He has called me out of darkness into His marvelous light (1Peter 2:9). I am His workmanship (Ephesians 2:10). I am to be living advertisement for the blessing and power of God.

Faith is not complicated. It is simply believing. I show faith when I pop open a can of Pepsi and drink it down. I believe there is nothing harmful in there. I show faith when I drive over a bridge. I believe I will reach the other side safely. Salvation doesn’t come by baptism or by church attendance or even living a good life. Salvation comes when the light bulb of faith turns on and I say, “I believe. I recognize I am a sinner in need of a Savior. I accept that Jesus shed His blood and died to pay for my sins. I acknowledge He rose again and gave me new life.”

Jacob Marley in Dickens’ Christmas Carol wore a chain he had forged link by link through his deeds and choices. I carried the chains of my past choices and sin but Jesus removed the locks. Will I continue to carry them?

John Newton was involved in the slave trade in the mid-1700’s, until he recognized that apart from faith in Christ he had “no hope and [was] without God in the world” (Ephesians 2:12 NKJV). But God… That was when Newton penned the famous words, “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see.” Today I invite you to reflect on those words and, as you do, shake off the chains of the past and walk into freedom.

Filed Under: Freedom, In Christ Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

In the Middle of the Storm

September 20, 2014 by

lightning-232516_1920I read about a group of men who went out on this lake. Their boat was small but they were experienced fishermen. Nothing to worry about, they thought. Then the sky grew dark, the wind became strong and the waves were too high for their boat. They were going under! “We’re gonna’ drown! Jesus, help us!” Fortunately for them, Jesus was in the boat. He stood, the wind whipping His hair, the spray soaking His clothes, and He spoke, “Peace, be still.” And there was silence. (Mark 4:35-39)

Do you feel like you are in a storm? Do you feel buffeted by the waves of circumstances and the wind of trials? You are in good company. Noah escaped a flood that destroyed the earth and then spent over a year on the Ark with the cows and horses and elephants, feeding them, shoveling the… never mind. King David was running from his son Absalom who wanted to kill him and take the throne of Israel when he wrote Psalm 3, “But you, Lord, are a shield around me, my glory, the One who lifts my head high.” (Psalm 3:3 NIV) Paul’s ministry was a story of stonings, shipwrecks, and persecution. As he approached Jerusalem he faced imprisonment and death, yet his statement was, “None of these things move me.” (Acts 20:24 NKJV)

In March, 2000 our 22 year old son was declared brain dead following a collision with a drunk driver. We gave his body to the organ transplant team. Paul told us at 14 that he wanted to be an organ donor. His older sister was getting her license and struggling with her decision about organ donation when he said, “Give it up, sis. You aren’t going to need them.” Fast forward to November, 2000. The phone rang and the person on the other end I recognized as friends who had moved to New Mexico a couple of years prior. He asked if they could come over and I said, “Sure, we would love to see you.” A half hour later the doorbell rang. It wasn’t our friends from New Mexico but a couple I had never seen before with 5 kids in tow. I invited them in and asked, “Who are you? Why are you here?” The wife was Paul’s heart recipient.

Before leaving the hospital each member of our family took a few minutes privately with Paul to say goodbye. Knowing Paul’s heart was to be donated, I put my ear to his chest and declared, “Someday I’ll hear this heart again.” That night 8 months later, I heard Paul’s heart again.

Faith means finding hope even in the midst of despair. Storms will come. No one is exempt. The question is, “How will I respond?” Victor Frankl was a prisoner in a Nazi death camp. His family and friends were all dead. As he stood naked before his tormentors, he realized, “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances.”

God promised Abraham He would make his descendants a great nation. He even changed his name from Abram to Abraham which means father of many nations. That was an awesome promise but Abraham and Sarah were well past childbearing age. Abraham had no hope so God took him outside under the night sky. He told Abraham to count the stars. “So shall your offspring be.” (Genesis 15:5 NIV) Astronomers tell us there are over 8,000 stars visible in the night sky. God painted a picture in Abraham’s heart to stir up hope. As a result, “even when there was no reason for hope, Abraham kept hoping.” (Romans 4:18 NLT)

Dog – we each see a picture in our mind. It might be anything from a Chihuahua to a Great Dane. Tree – a pine or an oak or perhaps a Christmas tree. Video games, movies, books all develop mental pictures. Satan is after my hope, my image of where my life is going. The battle zone is my thinking, that which is playing on the screen of my imagination. My future begins as the seed of an image. It can be an image of failure that leads to destruction or an image of overcoming that leads to fulfillment of God’s plan.

Jesus didn’t bring hope for the sweet bye and bye. He brought sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf. He demonstrated a physical manifestation of spiritual victory. John the Baptist warned, “The Kingdom of Heaven is near.” (Matthew 3:2 NLT) That changed when Jesus declared, “The kingdom of God is within you.” (Luke 17:21 KJV) The Kingdom of God is Christ in me.

Paul wrote, “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people.” (Ephesians 1:18 NIV) What is your hope? Picture it. Only then can you press into it.

1Corinthians 13:13 (NLT) says, “Three things will last forever–faith, hope, and love.” We are always doing things to build our faith. We are constantly singing and writing about love. Why don’t we talk about hope? Christian hope is not a weak “I hope so.” It is confident, firm expectation. “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” (Hebrews 11:1 NIV)

“We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1Thessalonians 1:3 NIV) Hope produces endurance. Am I lacking endurance for the storms of life? Then I need hope. How do I pray? Is it pleading or thanksgiving? Pleading shows that I have lost hope. Thanksgiving shows confidence in the vision and promise that God has given me. I don’t plead for God’s blessing on my life; I declare it:

“The Lord bless you and keep you;

The Lord make His face shine upon you,

And be gracious to you;

The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,

And give you peace.” (Numbers 6:24-26 NKJV)

Have you ever asked someone how they are doing and gotten the response, “I’m doing OK under the circumstances.” As Christians why would we be “under the circumstances?” According to Deuteronomy 28:13 (NKJV), “The Lord will make you the head and not the tail; you shall be above only, and not be beneath.” How will I live above my circumstances? By knowing who I am in Christ, by knowing God’s power working in me. “I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms.” (Ephesians 1:19-20 NLT)

I’m considered a pretty conservative guy, but I used to have a wild side. I loved to race up twisting mountain roads on my motorcycle, the wind rushing through my hair, the bike leaning low into the curves. One day the rear tire hit a patch of grave and the bike went down. I could see I was headed for the guardrail when everything went dark. The next thing I knew I was clinging to a tree root suspended above a 100 foot drop. Far below I could see the flaming wreckage of my bike. Above me the edge of the road was far out of reach.

“Help! Help! Is anybody up there?”

“I am here.”

“Who is it?”

“I am the Lord. I will help you. Do you trust me?”

“Oh, yes Lord!”

“First you must let go.”

I looked down at the drop below me and then back up. “Is anybody else up there?”

OK, it didn’t really happen, but you get the point. Why do we wait until we are at the end of ourselves before we turn to God? Christian maturity is developing the willingness to hope and trust in God sooner rather than later.

Moses encountered God in a burning bush (Exodus 3). When Moses asked God’s name, He responded, “I AM”, not “I am your deliverer” even though He is; Not “I am your protector” even though He is. Just “I AM”, I am whatever you need. I am your everything. The Lord says to you today:

I am your victory.

I am your provider.

I am your healer.

I am your redeemer.

I am your strength.

I am your hope.

In the middle of the storm, I AM

Filed Under: In Christ
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