Sunday, February 27, 2011

44. He Never Did The Same Thing Twice

Mark 7:33


Satan is a really boring person. He’s kinda like one of those guys who only has a few good jokes and every time you’re around him, he just keeps spinning those same old tired yarns, hoping to find someone who hasn’t heard them yet. What I mean is this: Satan only has a couple of plays. He messes with everyone under the sun and has for thousands and thousands of years, but he just does the same two or three things to every single one. It’s no big surprise to the Lord. He knows Satan is crafty, yet not very creative. He’s tricky, but only has a couple of tricks. He makes people feel entitled to stuff, and then when they don’t get it their way, it’s not very hard to nudge them into bitterness and anger. He gets people to compare themselves with others which makes them feel inadequate, and then he tips them into depression and isolation. When these don’t work, he just plays at selfish desires. It’s the same, old, recycled garbage and if you see the pattern, you can find your way out. Jesus, on the other hand treats every single heart with individual attention and every moment with imaginative innovation. Go ahead and read through the Gospels; He never does the same thing twice! I love Jesus because He is always bursting with clever and original energy. One minute He says, “Be healed.” The next, He spits on the ground and makes mud and heals with the mud. Turn the page and He’s giving a guy a wet willy and saying, “Open up!” His limitless heart sees everyone as an individual and you never know what He’s going to do next.

Monday, February 21, 2011

43. He Never Met A Lost Cause

Luke 19:10


When I was a sophomore in high school, I played tight end on my junior varsity football team. They only threw me one pass the whole year and I dropped it. I was talking to a friend about it in chemistry class one day and wondering if they were ever going to throw me the ball again, when our Chemistry teacher casually walked by my desk and said, “I wouldn’t throw it to you again, you dropped an easy pass.” Wow. Just like that, he had written me off; given up on me. The world is full of people that seem like lost causes, but I love Jesus because He never gives up on anybody. One time a man had been ejected from society, chained up and left in a cemetery for dead, but Jesus found him and changed his life. Once, a woman came to Jesus who was known around town as a prostitute, but Jesus accepted her. The disciples once looked at an overwhelming and unmanageable crowd of people and said, “Lord, send them home.” But Jesus miraculously fed them all. When they mourned the death of Jairus’ daughter, Jesus woke her up. When they said not to disturb Lazarus’ grave because he would stink, Jesus called the man out of death! There’s no situation too hard, and no sin that’s gone too far for Jesus, because He came to seek and to save the lost. When the rest of the world gives up on somebody, He’s just getting started.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

42. He Didn't Come For Folks Who Need Him

Mark 2:17


I have a friend who has been in Alcoholics Anonymous for over 25 years. Not only has he been sober for a quarter century, but he’s been helping other people get sober and stay sober all along the way. No matter where you go with this guy, he always knows somebody that he has helped. Seriously, he gets random hugs and handshakes everywhere he goes from people who will gladly tell you that he saved their life. What’s more, my friend is full of great one-liners about addiction and having a changed lifestyle; and just about all of these catchy expressions translate beautifully into a life with Christ. My favorite thing he says is this: “AA is not for people who need it. It’s for people who want it.” I love this line because you and I both know that anyone who’s addicted to alcohol needs AA, but it doesn’t work on everyone because not everyone knows they need it. Therefore, it’s only for the folks who want it. Jesus is the same way. He didn’t come for people who need Him, but for people who want Him. I know that sounds weird; especially because everyone needs Jesus! None of us are good enough on our own to face God or change our lives, but not everyone knows it. Some folks know they are broken and powerless to change and yet, longing for change, they turn to the only One who can help them. I love Jesus because He said, “It’s not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.”

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

41. He Was And Will Be A Servant

Luke 12:37


On the night Jesus was betrayed, He took a towel, wrapped it around His waist like a household slave and washed His friends’ feet one by one. The thing is, Jesus was and is the King of Universe, so why was He bending down to the ground and rubbing the dirt from their feet with His own royal hands? Well, when I was growing up in church, I always heard that the first time Jesus came, He came as a servant and the next time He comes, it will be as King. The first time He humbled Himself and gave Himself away, while the next time He comes, He will be glorious and gathering to Himself all that’s rightfully His. And to a certain extent, this is true. I mean, the first time Jesus came, most people missed the fact that the Creator of the Universe and the promised Messiah was walking around in their midst; and it’s also true that next time He comes, no one will miss it or misunderstand Him, but that’s not the whole story. You see, in Luke 12, Jesus says that one of the first things that will happen in heaven is that He is going to once again dress Himself to serve. When He is King over all with unquestioned authority and power, He will get up from the table, humble Himself and serve you and me. I love Jesus because it’s not just that He was a servant back in the day and now He’s only going to rule. He always wants to be King and He always wants to serve the subjects He loves so much.

Sunday, February 13, 2011

40. He Made The Invisible God Visible

Colossians 1:15


One of the biggest problems people have always had with God is His invisibility. People want to know, “If He is, then where is He?” They say, “If I could see Him, I would believe in Him.” The problem, of course, is that God is so completely different than us, that we can’t possibly understand why it’s not that simple. In the book of Job, in chapters 9 and 10, Job himself captures the heartbeat of this longing and question raised by both skeptics and believers alike when he says things like, “When He passes me, I cannot see Him; when He goes by, I cannot perceive Him... He is not a mere mortal like me that I might answer Him, that we might confront each other in court. If only there were someone to mediate between us, someone to bring us together” Then Job turns directly to God and asks, “Do you have eyes of flesh? Do you see as a mortal sees?” The thing is, God is so absolutely ‘other’ than us, that just having Him show up in a visible form isn’t quite the answer... Or then again, maybe it is. I love Jesus because He was the “image of the invisible God.” Jesus was God in the flesh. If you want to know what God is like, watch Jesus. On His last night before He went to court and death, Jesus looked Philip in the eyes and told him, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.”

Monday, February 7, 2011

39. He Pleased God When He Was Nobody

Matthew 3:17


Have you ever felt like you live an invisible life that doesn’t amount to much or matter to all that many people? Maybe you’re a bank teller or a math teacher or a financial advisor or a stay-at-home mom and you feel like you do the same old thing everyday and no one sees or cares. The cameras are turned on the quarterbacks and senators, the movers and the shakers while you just quietly live your little ‘ole life in the shadows, right? Well, I know it feels that way, but the truth is, your life (whoever you are) matters immensely to the One who made you and is watching every move you make. One time in Jesus’ life, the heavens burst open and the voice of Almighty God spoke for everyone to hear, saying, “This is my Son and He makes me so happy!” I know what you’re thinking... “Yeah, but Jesus did tons of miracles and taught so many amazing things.” Yes, that’s true, but when God the Father spoke on that day of how pumped He was about Jesus, it was before Jesus had done even one miraculous thing. All Jesus had done up that point was quietly live a simple and sweet, unknown life in a tiny little hick town in the middle of nowhere for three decades. I love Jesus because He pleased God when He was nobody from nowhere, and now He gives me the power to please God in my plain little life too.

Sunday, February 6, 2011

38. He Was Poor

Luke 9:58


Most of the world is poor. Most of the people on this planet don’t have cars, cable TV, cokes or climate controlled houses. Most of the people in the world don’t have health care or retirement funds. Many people in this world don’t even have basic needs, such as a healthy amount of food or even clean water. The vast majority of human experience throughout the history of this planet has been toil and struggle. Chances are, that if you’re reading this on your computer, even the poorest person you personally know is among the world’s wealthiest 10 percent. You are most likely in the top 2 percent. Most of us don’t have any idea what it’s like for the majority of the world’s poor, but Jesus knows. You see, when the Author of all, who was the Maker of the morning and the Weaver of the world first laid His head down to sleep under the stars He formed and named, He laid that tiny head down on straw in a donkey’s feed box in an old, dirty stable. There were no silk pillows on cedar beds resting on polished marble floors and surrounded by servants for the Prince of Peace. Jesus was poor. God in the flesh, who made and owns the world and could have demanded all luxury and service made Himself a homeless peasant. I love Jesus because when He could have had anything, He allowed Himself nothing. He knows what poverty is like because He lived it.

Friday, February 4, 2011

37. He Will Never Reject Me

John 6:37


I’ll never forget the day my best friend got rejected by the new girl from Texas. It was Valentine’s Day, and since we were Middle Schoolers, we had done the required market research: that is, I talked to one of her friends the night before who said that if he asked her out tomorrow, she would definitely say, “Yes.” So, after lunch the next day, my friend walked up to the new girl from Texas and asked her out, but she said, “No.” We were all completely dumbfounded. Turns out that later on the night before, a Sophomore in High School called and asked her out. Now, how was my friend supposed to compete with that?! This other guy had a car! Situations like this are the reason some people are not only afraid to peruse a date, but afraid to try and pursue a relationship with God. They think, “Why would He want me? I wouldn’t accept me.” That’s why I love Jesus. He wanted me when no one else would have. He loves us more than we love ourselves. In John chapter 6 He said that He would never reject anyone who comes to Him. The word translated ‘reject’ is the same word used for casting out demons. I know what that kind of rejection feels like, and though I may have rejected myself, He never will. He wants us for His own.

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

36. He Sees Stuff In Me That No One Else Does

Luke 19:9


Have you ever felt written off or type-cast? Have you ever felt like the things of your past constantly haunt you in such a way that you can never get out from underneath the shadow of who you used to be? Zacchaeus was a person everyone loved to hate, and as far as they saw it, they had good reason to. He was a chief tax collector, which meant that he was in the employee of the Roman government and his job was to extract a certain amount of money from the Jewish population. Once he had collected the Roman quota, he was allowed to keep whatever else he could squeeze out of the people; and Zacchaeus was rich, which meant that he squeezed his own people pretty hard. In other words, the popular opinion of Zacchaeus was that he was a crook, a scoundrel and worse, a national traitor in the back pocket of the Roman oppressors. Everyone despised Zacchaeus with a zealous fury. Well, everyone except Jesus. When Jesus visited Jericho, he wanted to have dinner with Zacchaeus. He wanted to hang out at Zacchaeus’ house. A couple hours with Jesus and Zacchaeus changed forever. Folks began to mutter about it, but Jesus stood up and commended the man they all hated. I love Jesus because He sees something in me besides my past, my sins or my reputation. He sees a reason to love me.