Do you believe?

“I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this?" (John 11:25-26)

Do you believe this? That is a very telling question, for all else in our life hinges on the answer. Anyone who believes - is that you? Do you believe that Jesus is the resurrection and the life? Do you believe he made a way for you to be reconciled to God? Do you accept this free gift? These are the questions we must answer - if not today, then when?

First, we believe in his finished work on the Cross - then we live in him. What does that mean? We don't become puppets in his hand, but we do relinquish the right to live in control of our lives. We willingly lay down our control and allow him to take the reins. The free gift opens the way for us to live free of things we don't even know have us bound. So many claim they have no need of a Savior because they have lived 'good lives'. Is it possible to be 'good enough' to be reconciled to God apart from the work Christ has done on our behalf?

The answer is an absolute 'no' - nothing we can 'do' will ever reconcile us to God. We would have to be 'doing' and 'doing' all the time - yet never really achieving the end goal. The moment we stop 'doing' and begin 'trusting' is the moment of transition. We ask Christ to enter into our lives and do you know what he does? He gives us immeasurable peace, eternal hope, and freedom from having to always be 'doing' in order to be 'right'.

I am the resurrection - life is possible only through the one who has conquered death. I am the life - life is empty when we attempt to fill the space within our spirit that belongs to him alone. Anyone - that means all who will believe - will live - even after dying. Eternal life is guaranteed to all of us - either alongside Christ in the heavenly realms, or alongside Satan and his renegade band of demons in hell. I think I will choose the heavenly realms. How about you? Just askin...

It isn't gift wrapped, but it is a good gift!

"Christmas is the spirit of giving without a thought of getting. It is happiness because we see joy in people. It is forgetting self and finding time for others. It is discarding the meaningless and stressing the true values." (Thomas S. Monson) What stress are you under right now just because of 'holiday prep'? So many times, we spend far more time 'prepping' for the meals, gift-giving, and decorating that we forget to spend a little more time with each other just enjoying the time. The true value of Christmas is not in the 'prepping', but in the 'spending' - spending time with those we love.

When the people cry to the Lord for help against those who oppress them, he will send them a savior who will rescue them. (Isaiah 19:20)

Some may even feel as though Christmas is not a very big deal. It is a time for good food, some entertainment, and a load of gift-wrapping being undone in an instant. They miss the meaning of the moment. The gift given all those many years ago isn't appreciated as the 'greatest gift' of all. Jesus hasn't even been invited to their table for the holiday feast. Sadly, many will go through the motions of Christmas and not experience the real purpose of Christmas - the gift of a Savior for all mankind.

This kind of 'celebration' is memorable, for sure, but it is just a bit 'emptier' than God desires. All stand in need of a Savior - even those who don't realize their need quite yet. Let this be the season of gift-giving in your homes - share the gift of Jesus with someone who might not even know to 'cry out' for a Savior yet. Share more than the wrapped packages - share yourself. Let them see Jesus in you in acts of service and kindness. Share yourself with others this season and in so doing, you are likely to be sharing just a bit more of Jesus than you realize. Just sayin!

You still gonna stink

Wash yourselves and be clean! Get your sins out of my sight. Give up your evil ways. Learn to do good.
Seek justice. Help the oppressed. Defend the cause of orphans. Fight for the rights of widows.  “Come now, let’s settle this,” says the Lord. “Though your sins are like scarlet, I will make them as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, I will make them as white as wool. (Isaiah 1:16-18)

When something is settled, there is no further discussion. It is fixed - established - no change is forthcoming. The condition of relationship is to come - to lay down one's own agenda and to submit oneself to obedience to the Lord's will. We can try to wash ourselves up and be clean all on our own, but we still gonna stink! Until we are willing to give up and learn at his feet, we are still gonna stink. We can do all manner of good works, but we still gonna stink. Until we come, lay down our sins, and sit at the foot of the cross, we are gonna stink!

Obedience is what comes next - we get that backwards, though. We work on all the 'steps' of obedience before we get ourselves into right relationship with Jesus. We think we can somehow work our way to God, forgetting or not even realizing that he has worked his way to us through the life, death, burial, and resurrection of Christ! We NEED relationship - not good works. Good works alone is religion, pure and simple. Volunteer all you want - you still gonna stink. Give all that you have to the poor and needy - you still gonna stink. Come to the cross, submit your heart to Christ, and that 'stink' is gone!

I have pointed out the 'stench' of sin and the sin nature more than a few times today. Why? Too many times we get so caught up in the 'signs' of right-living that we forget there has to be a heart-change that comes with them. The heart needs to be made right with God FIRST, then the 'signs' of right-living we might refer to as 'good works' or 'good deeds' actually flow from a different place in us. They begin to flow from the place of trust, not the place of hope. Good works to GET us somewhere or something in life is a place of hope. Good works that God actually blesses flow from a heart that has trusted in the finished work of Christ to deal with our sins once and for all. 

The washing up we need most is accomplished at the cross. The 'cleaning of the slate' or the 'removal of all sin' is done at the cross. We 'give up' as we come - we leave behind as we go. The cross is no place for weaklings - it requires a significant amount of strength to give up and leave behind all that we have hoped in up till that point. To move into a place of trusting in the finished work of Christ to remove our stink requires strength - the strength to admit we are weak, unable to cleanse ourselves from the stink, and standing in need of a change of heart and mind. Just sayin!

Problem solved

I don't know about you, but my hardest subject in school was math. I did well, but I had to work very, very hard at learning math. It just didn't come easy to me. Natural sciences, reading, writing,  language work, and all the rest just seemed to come easier. Math took effort and lots of study. It is the one class I actually didn't look forward to - all the others were a delight. When I finally 'got' the method of solving the problem, whether it was a formula I needed to follow, or some principle I needed to consistently apply, it made sense and I held onto that method. Put in another variable and that same method didn't always work! Sometimes you had to adjust the method to get to solution. I am so glad God gives us a little help in the 'problem-solving' department when it comes to sin (another subject I mastered well without much trying!). There is no 'method', nor any particular 'series of steps' we need to take, just trust him to be the solution!

I write this, dear children, to guide you out of sin. But if anyone does sin, we have a Priest-Friend in the presence of the Father: Jesus Christ, righteous Jesus. When he served as a sacrifice for our sins, he solved the sin problem for good—not only ours, but the whole world’s. (1 John 2:1 MSG)

Sin isn't a 'field of study' most of us need to spend a great deal of time 'mastering', is it? We seem to just gravitate to it and get pretty doggone 'good at it' without much effort! On the other hand, getting free from the hold sin has in our lives is way harder than it appears. Those math problems in algebra and calculus didn't look all that 'confounding', but the truth of the matter was that they were beyond my grasp without the intervention of one who already knew how to solve the problems! Sin is exactly like that - beyond our grasp to solve without the intervention of the one who already knows there is only one solution!

The sin-problem is solved for good, but we have to apply the solution. Just as with those math problems, it we don't use what has been provided to reach the end result, we might just find we have been spinning our wheels. We invested a whole lot of effort without reaching the result we really needed to reach! I had pages of 'work' to show I had solved the problem, but oftentimes the 'work' was just that - work. It didn't solve the problem and wouldn't work the next time I tried it! When it comes to my personal character, marred as it is by wrong choices and selfish desires, I am powerless to find the right solution to the problem. What leads me down the path to sin one time is not always going to be what leads me down it a second time. 

The solution to sin's problem in my life, and yours, needs to be consistent because the variables with sin keep changing. There are a whole lot of variables, but thank goodness, there is only ONE solution! The solution is Christ - our advocate - our sacrifice - our problem-solver. The moment we realize there are no amount of 'right steps' we can take to solve sin's problem on our own, the solution becomes quite clear - we need someone to solve the problem for us! There is no admittance of weakness here - just the revelation that sin doesn't just solve itself! If we are to be free of its grasp, we need someone who understands its root. Just sayin!

What's the point?

I often study the life of David - from boy in the field tending sheep to the ruler of a nation. David had an intimate relationship with God - something quite evident in how frankly he spoke with God and how "free" he was in the presence of God. There is much to be said about having a deep, beyond the mundane, relationship with God. Look at what David reminds us time and time again - God is the one who welcomes, we are the ones who come into that place invited. We aren't interlopers in God's presence - we are welcomed and embraced.

You've always given me breathing room, a place to get away from it all, a lifetime pass to your safe-house, an open invitation as your guest. You've always taken me seriously, God, made me welcome among those who know and love you.  (Psalm 61:3-5)

David acknowledges that God gives him something we call 'space' - that thing we like to refer to as breathing room - a place of complete sanctuary. Have you ever had a really good friend that you can just be yourself around? You can kick off your shoes, let down your guard, and be your real self - no pretense, no masks, just you. God desires that kind of relationship with us - extending to us the invitation to come into his presence and "chill" - to find rest for our souls, nourishment for our spirits, and uplifting for our emotions.

We are reminded that it is a lifetime experience - not a one-time experience, but a cultivated enjoyment of the presence of God. We have an open invitation - to come freely into his presence, drink deeply of his graces, and know that we are there as an invited member of his household. We aren't just invited 'guests' - we are members of his family. David's most consistent theme in his writings is that God knew him and he knew God. He even acknowledged that he is aware of this most because God "takes him seriously". Nothing he shares with God escapes God's attention or care. Why? Because he knew God in a personal way and he loved God with all that his heart had the capacity to love.

Jesus came to this earth, taking on the form of human nature, to connect with us. He laid aside his divinity to take on human form - connecting with the struggles we encounter, understanding the limitations of our mortal bodies, and involving himself in the tasks of ordinary everyday life. That is why scripture reminds us that we have a Savior that is not unaware of our struggles, knows what temptations await us at every turn. We are soon approaching the season we celebrate his birth. As my pastor likes to remind us, sinners (like you and me) are the POINT of the birth of our Savior in human form. They are not just PART of it, they are the POINT of it. God takes each of us quite seriously - we are the objects of his affection and the consistent POINT of his attention. Isn't it time that we recognized the tug of Lord on the strings of our heart? Isn't it time that we came into his presence, thoroughly enjoying the sanctuary of his graces? We are the POINT - sinners in need of a Savior. When you are at the place of asking, "What's the point?" - you are! You are the point of his every action! Just sayin!

The entirety of the gospel message

If you have never really read through the Bible before, there is one passage which captures my attention each time I study it because it puts into very simple form the gospel message.  Keeping in mind that the "gospel" really means "good news", then the "gospel message" must also be a message of good news meant to be shared with all people for all time!  There are various passages in the scripture which point to the good news about Christ - his coming, life, death, resurrection, victory over death, hell, and the grave, etc.  There are also select passages in which the entirety of the gospel message is captured in just a few short verses - making the message not only "compact", but easy to glean without a whole lot of study.  The good news:  God wants everyone to be saved and to know the whole truth! 

God wants everyone to be saved and to know the whole truth, which is: There is only one God, and Christ Jesus is the only one who can bring us to God. Jesus was truly human, and he gave himself to rescue all of us. God showed us this at the right time. (I Timothy 2:4-6 CEV)

So, if God wants everyone to be saved, and to know the whole truth, the entirety of the truth, then why is it some still struggle so much with the truth and the reality of the gospel message?  I think it may be that we complicate the message too much!  It really is a pretty simple message - but because we like to "over-think" things, we make it much harder than it has to be!

1. There is only one God.  This is the first of the truths explained for us - something God wants all mankind to know. Whenever we introduce any other god than the only true God himself, we introduce things/people/objects which are just imitations of the real.  At best, they add complexity to our lives and do nothing to help us recognize the reality of the truth.  There are a lot of ways we complicate our lives, but having anything or anyone else as a "god" in our lives (capturing our thoughts, will, and emotions), we are in danger of filling the space God himself designed for none other than himself!
2. There is but one way "to" God and that is through his Son, Jesus Christ.  Any other means of approaching God is pretty futile because it is not the "means" God intended.  If we think our good works, sacrificial giving, or the like will get us into heaven and keep us from hell, think again!  There is but one way into the presence of God the Father and that is by Christ bringing us there!  One God, one means of access to him, and anything or anyone else is just not the truth!
3. There was but one sacrifice which made this access possible - the death of Christ.  The purpose of his coming was our entry into the kingdom of God.  The means of us enjoying the presence of God himself will always and for all eternity be the blood of Jesus, offered as the perfect sacrifice for all of mankind's sin.  No other work is necessary.  No other person or action can substitute for this perfect sacrifice.
4. There is one need of all mankind - to understand their need of "rescue".  If you truly understand the need of rescue, then you also come to recognize there is no other hope unless there is a rescue!  To be rescued, one needs to recognize the futility of their present course or path.  For example, a person set adrift in a life-boat is not completely without some hope, but unless someone comes along to pull them out of the currents they are adrift within, they will likely perish on the high seas due to a lack of the necessary things which help to preserve life. The same is true when we consider our need for rescue in a spiritual sense.  We are adrift spiritually - thinking we are afloat and okay - but in reality, we are adrift and totally out of control of where our future state will end.  We need a rescuer and that is none other than Christ himself.

In a nutshell - this is the good news.  If you haven't stop to consider the reality of the gospel message, this passage will explain it to you pretty simply.  One God, one means to get to know him, and all of our own efforts will never help us to really get on the right course.  Simply put, truth liberates!  Just sayin!

Got any "dust"?

Do you know what a crisis is?  It is the stage in a sequence of events at which the trend of all future events, especially for better or for worse, is determined. Some of us call this a place of "transition" - movement within this point of crisis determines if the "transition" will be good or not as pleasant as we'd hoped for.  By definition, it is a place of danger and instability.  Anytime you have a transition point, there is an opportunity for instability.  For example, when you transition from carpet to tile flooring in your path of walking, you have to be sure your foot does not slip on the tile.  It is a smoother surface, can be a little "slicker" than the carpet, and the combination of your shoe and the "slickness" of the tile can make for a mixture of additional "hazards" which may not be fully recognized.  Misstep and you could find yourself landing quite hard on that tile!  A crisis demands our attentiveness - in those brief moments between where we are and where we are headed lays a huge potential for us to "transition" either with grace or outright stumbling.

“This is the crisis we’re in: God-light streamed into the world, but men and women everywhere ran for the darkness. They went for the darkness because they were not really interested in pleasing God. Everyone who makes a practice of doing evil, addicted to denial and illusion, hates God-light and won’t come near it, fearing a painful exposure. But anyone working and living in truth and reality welcomes God-light so the work can be seen for the God-work it is.”  (John 3:19-21 MSG)

The crisis?  We seem to like the darkness!  It is natural for us to run to a place of comfort at the point of transition.  The little baby learning to take his first steps holds on with all his strength to the couch, armchair, and coffee table - whatever he has in his path which will support his weight and give him balance.  The point between chair to table seems insurmountable - just a little out of arm's reach.  We see it as such a small distance - one tiny step. The baby sees it as insurmountable.  He will reach out again and again - only to turn back to the couch or armchair to give him a sense of "stability" and "balance" again.  He struggles to take the tiny step - because he is unsure, doesn't know how to let go of what has been his past "stable" place, etc. Sound a little like us whenever God asks us to take even the tiniest of steps into the light? 

As Jesus said it - we seem to be uncomfortable in the light - the transition between being in charge of our own lives and that of releasing control to God is almost too much to fathom.  So, we run for the darkness because the light feels "too threatening" to us.  The second crisis?  We are creatures who make a practice of denial and illusion.  We deny our need for a Savior - because we don't see ourselves as sinners.  Denial and illusion go hand-in-hand.  The more we believe an illusion, the more we will deny the truth.  An illusion is anything which misleads by giving a false sense of reality.  I daresay we probably have a few illusions we have held onto as "truth" over the course of time!  The way illusions work is to keep the other person in the "dark" about the truth.  So, to deal with the illusions and eventually turn us away from their untruth, we need light!  

As long as I keep the blinds on my windows closed in the house, I don't see the dust on the bookshelves!  Once the brightness of the sun begins to stream through even the cracks of the blinds, the evidence of my need to do a little "house-cleaning" is certainly evident.  Living in the desert provides more than one opportunity a week to clean the house, for a lack of humidity allows a lot of dust to be stirred up!  In most homes around here, we deal with the dust by sealing our homes well against the dust.  Light betrays our shortcomings though - revealing that not every crack was sealed!  Some dust still made its way in.  Why?  We cannot shut out the world's effect on our lives!  We may try, but we simply will find something of its influence "creeping" inside despite every attempt to keep it out!  Light exposes this!

Now, as long as I am the only one in the home when I recognize the thick dust layer, I am not too concerned.  But...when you are a guest in my home and observe the same "lack of cleanliness", I get a little "shamed" by the truth!  It is how we are as humans - we don't like others to see our shortcomings.  We do everything we can to provide a "cleaned up front" so no one has to be aware of the "dustiness" within!  Jesus' answer to our crisis - more light!  In fact, he asks us to remove the blinds completely so light is free to expose what should not be allowed to remain.  The dust doesn't seem significant at first, but if you breathe it long enough, the health problems associated with it can greatly impact you!  The longer we just try to mask our need for a Savior and deny our sinful nature, the more our nature will beckon us to believe illusions and further deny our need.  Just sayin!

Behold the Savior!

We all pursue a Savior.  The purpose of a Savior is to bring hope, giving us a foretaste of a better future.  The Old Testament is full of promises of a coming Savior – the world looking forward to a coming Messiah.   A savior is one who has the specific mission of rescuing or delivering those who need rescue or deliverance.  He rescues from danger or harm.  There is no more dangerous place to be found in than to be in a place where you don’t realize you don’t recognize the danger you are in.  Many of us recognize the sins of others, but we fail to see those which are our own.  As long as we only see the “others” who need “rescue”, we fail to see how much we desperately need rescue ourselves.

¹⁰ But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. ¹¹ Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah,the Lord. (Luke 2:10-11 NIV)

It is easy to give a Savior access to the "problems" in our lives.  After all, problems give us worry, create lots of chaos, and just are plain difficult.  We don’t mind it when a Savior handles the problems, but when he goes after "us", we resist.  I guess it is because as long as Jesus just “lightly touches” the fringes of our lives, we don’t resist.  But…Jesus is a Savior – as such, he comes to seek us out and to save us from what we may not even know we need rescue from.  You might be rescued from a sinking ship, but if you need to get to shore again, the rescuer only did part of the work which needed to be done.  To be saved, but left adrift in the sea is really not a rescue at all.

Jesus seeks us even before we know the need of a rescuer in our lives.  Once he lays hold of even the “fringes” of our lives, the purpose of his seeking becomes our saving.  His goal is not only to bring us into a safe place, but to also keep us from denying our need for him to deal with our sins.  Remember, the sins of others might just give us a little hardship in life, but the sins of our own doing bring much more hardship than we might realize.  We don’t realize the need of a Savior until we see the need to be saved.  A Savior can be just around the corner, but if we never invite him past the “fringes” of our lives, we still deal with our sins in our own best efforts.  It is only when we invite him into the inner aspects of our lives that we become aware of the “rescue” he designs for each of us.

We all have the ability to experience a moment of “salvation”, but it is the ongoing process of being “saved” which begins to impact us in the depth of our inner man.  God made flesh among us – the purpose of his birth was specifically to complete the work of a Savior.  Notice, I said “complete” the work.  Just allowing Jesus access to the fringes keeps the “meat” of who we are and what we struggle with the most from being touched by his hand.  The most significant part of rescue is in being kept safe from harm again.  To be pulled out of sin only to return there again is a form of rescue, but it is not deliverance.  Deliverance is liberation – to be finally and totally set free from that which binds or holds us in bondage.  When we recognize the need for a Savior, we also recognize the need for him to deliver us!  We are acknowledging we don’t just want to be taken out of the problems in life, but we want to be kept as we walk through them.  Many times, we don’t even recognize what has us bound.  It could be wrong attitudes, unholy thoughts, or even self-focused aspirations.  Many things “bind” us without us even knowing their impact on our lives – it is only when we see we are “free” from them that we recognize how much we were bound.

Many people believe in an “intellectual” salvation.  In other words, they have made a mental agreement of their need for a Savior, but there is no heart connection with the Savior.  When Jesus makes it past our “belief” into our heart, he becomes “God made flesh” in us.  There is no greater experience than to be delivered from what we don’t even recognize has us bound.  Don’t believe for one moment that you are without the need of a rescuer – you just don’t recognize you are bound!  The hand extended to you today is not content to just touch the fringes of your life – it searches the recesses of the hidden places – turning over every cold stone.  In turn, the “uncovered” becomes the “delivered”.  Isn’t it time for a little more of a Savior in your life?  Just sayin!