Wednesday, February 29, 2012

148. He's Out-Gracing Your Sin

Romans 5:20


I do a lot of work in a local county jail and in a local high school. You wouldn’t think those two places are very much alike, and you’d be right; but they do have one huge thing in common: Both places are filled with tons of people who will never take a step closer to God because they think it’s already over before they begin. They think it’s too late. They think they’ve crossed too many lines and sinned too badly way too often. They think Jesus is only for people who have their act together. Now, you of course know this is ridiculous. You know Jesus desperately wants to know them no matter who they’ve been or what they’ve done. The funny thing is that even though you and I both know this is true about all those people out there, we don’t always know it about ourselves. Sometimes I talk to Christians who know the Gospel but are far away from the Lord, and when you get down to why that is, it’s because they did something really bad and they’re afraid they went too far. In Romans 5, Paul says that “where sin increased, grace increased all the more.” In other words, Jesus’ grace super-increases. His grace mega-increases past all your sin! In Greek, it literally says that grace “hyper-overflowed.” It’s the same word used for the 12 basketfuls of left-overs after Jesus fed the five thousand, but with “hyper” in front of that! Whatever sin you do, grace goes way farther, has leftovers and then hyper-extends the leftovers! It’s like the old song, “Anything you can do, I can do better.” Any sin you can sin, Jesus forgives farther!

Sunday, February 26, 2012

147. He's Wooing You

2 Corinthians 3:17


There is a danger inherent in a life with Jesus that’s hard to see and even harder to avoid. I would venture to guess that everyone who knows and walks with Christ has had to deal with this, and if you’ve spent any time at all in ministry, I know for sure that you’ve dealt with it, and it goes something like this: “Am I doing enough? Is God disappointed in my effort? Am I having a big enough impact on the kingdom? Are the people that I’m ministering to changing enough? Am I any good at this? Does God think I suck?” If any of those questions look familiar, you’ve fallen into a subtle trap, and you’re not the first. You see, it’s so easy to think like this: Salvation is free and it’s by grace, but once you’ve got that settled, God is measuring everything. It’s like, you get in by mercy, but then the rest of your life is judged on performance. That way of thinking feels so practical. We think, “If I do these things, I can expect God to feel this way about me and I can expect people to respond in this way.” Paul says that this doesn’t work and is a ministry of death. The alternative - which feels crazy and scary and wild - can be described by one word: Freedom. That means that you’re free to simply just love Jesus, and let Him change people (including you) in His own way in His own time. Jesus wants this relationship to be about love. As Paul says, “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” That means that Jesus doesn’t want to force us. He wants to woo us into loving Him.

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

146. He Wants You To Relax

Matthew 6:25


Do you ever worry about stuff because it seems like the right thing to do? I mean, I know that at first that sounds kinda weird, but when you really stop and think about it, that’s probably how most people function most of the time. We feel like worry is a good thing. We feel like worry is the responsible thing to do. My friend Tom says, “Worry is my contribution to the problems of the world.” Here’s the thing though: What does worrying solve? If you saw a person who was completely carefree all the time, what would you think about them? Would you say that person was irresponsible? Would you say that person was immature? Would you say that a person who is just carefree needs to grow up and face ‘the real world’ like the rest of us? Here’s the only problem: Jesus wants you to relax. Jesus doesn’t want you to worry or be afraid ever again. I think that when we get to heaven and we see the Lord face to face, one of the first things we’re gonna feel is something along the lines of, “Man, I should’ve had more fun down there. I should have laughed more.” Jesus said, “Don’t worry about your life.” Wow. Just don’t worry. It’s like Jesus is saying, “I know you think worry and fear are signs that you are a realist who sees the world as it actually is, but the truth is, I’ve got this. Every single molecule in this universe answers to me like a soldier answering to his commanding officer. I will provide for you and meet your needs. Now, bank on it. Love it. Relax. Kick your feet back and trust Me.”

Saturday, February 18, 2012

145. He Cares About The Little Things

Luke 12:6


This past week, I was given a couple of gift cards to restaurants. Now, I know that this may sound silly, but those two gift cards filled me with a sense of how much God loves me - and if you can dig it, they made me want to just throw my hands up and praise Him. Again, I know that sounds a bit over-the-top, but here’s why: Thursday is our day off and we don’t do anything usually, except go on a date when we find a babysitter. In the past 4 weeks, we haven’t had our day off because of some necessary (and even sweet) family emergencies. We have loved serving our family, but it’s been tough to miss those days off 4 weeks in a row. This week, when I got those gift cards, I took them to be a gift from the Lord. It was like Jesus was saying to my heart, “Hang in there, dude. I know you haven’t had a break in a while, but it’s coming. In fact, here’s a couple of free meals on me for when you finally do get a date with that girl of yours.” You see, it may seem like a small thing, but here’s something I love about Jesus: Nothing in your life is small-time to Him. He cares about it all. Twice in Scripture, Jesus talks about how much God cares about sparrows. In Matthew 10, two sparrows are sold for a penny. In Luke 12, it’s five sparrows for two pennies. To the world, sparrows are going down in value, but to Jesus, they still matter. The little details of your life matter to Jesus, no matter how small they seem.

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

144. He Can't Stand Acting

Matthew 23:27


What if everyone you knew thought something about you that wasn’t true? Now imagine that the untrue thing they think about you is basically all they think about when they think about you... Now, imagine you really love someone, but they don’t want to love you back because they think something about you that isn’t true. That sounds sucky, right? I don’t know, but I bet that’s what it feels like to be God a lot of the time. One time I saw a bumper sticker that said, “Jesus is coming - look busy!” Dang, that sticker made me so sad because people have Jesus figured out all wrong. They think that in order to impress Jesus, you have to be doing good all the time; and even if you’re not, you should just pretend that you are! Just look busy and maybe Jesus won’t smite you. Wow. Most people think Jesus only accepts people who have it all together and follow all the rules, but when you actually sit down and read the New Testament, you find Jesus hanging out with prostitutes, prisoners, beggars, sluts, hated foreigners and enemies of the state! In fact, the only people Jesus ever really had a problem with were the religious leaders of the day... the people who looked like they had it all together, looked like they were following the rules, looked busy. Jesus went off on them once calling them “hypocrites” - which is just the Greek word for an actor. These guys were merely pretending. It turns out that most people are wrong about Jesus. You don’t have to have it all together. He can handle sinners. Sin isn’t the problem. The only thing the blood of Jesus won’t cover is pretending.

Sunday, February 12, 2012

143. He Wants Dependents

Luke 18:17


Did you ever wonder why Jesus said that you have to receive the kingdom of heaven like a child or you’ll never enter it? Maybe you don’t wonder about that at all... Maybe you’ve heard pastors or Sunday School teachers or Bible-ish folks talk about that before. Maybe you’ve heard them say that in order to enter the kingdom of heaven, you have to have a child-like faith or something like that. I’ve heard all that stuff... that children are more trusting - that they easily believe what they’re told and that they are so pure and innocent and receiving the kingdom of heaven is about that stuff. Thing is, since I heard so many people tell me that stuff, I thought Jesus was only interested in people who are pure and innocent and just blindly trusting. And then something happened that changed the way I saw the whole thing: I actually had some kids of my own. You see, when I had kids, I realized that kids aren’t pure or innocent or even all that trusting! Kids are just like the rest of us! Then I went and looked that Scripture up for myself and realized Jesus isn’t talking about kids, but babies. Turns out these people brought babies to Him. Jesus was saying you had to be like a little-bitty baby to get into heaven. Folks, the number one thing you realize about a baby when you hold it in your arms is how completely helpless it is. A baby is first and foremost dependent. In order to enter the kingdom of heaven, you have to get to the place where you know that you are completely and utterly dependent on Jesus for everything all the time.

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

142. He Sees You

Luke 7:44


I think the most frustrating emotion is being misunderstood. It’s debilitating because you feel stuck. When you’re misunderstood, it means someone thinks something about you that isn’t true, but how are you supposed to change their mind?! You probably can’t win them over, since they don’t believe you in the first place. See what I mean? To be misunderstood is to be placed in an impossible position in certain relationships in which there seems to be no way out. Everyone has experienced this, so I know you understand where I’m coming from, but I want to encourage you with something: Jesus has never misunderstood you. He perfectly knows the depths of your heart. In fact, He understands you better than you do! One time Jesus was invited to the home of an important man called Simon for a dinner party. All of a sudden, the party was gatecrashed by a prostitute who was crying uncontrollably and went straight up to Jesus. She basically attacked Him with a show of overwhelmed gratitude. She cried on His feet, she wiped them with her hair, she kissed His feet, she broke this jar of perfume and poured it on His feet. It was like an embarrassing display of ugly-cry-worship, and Simon didn’t like it. He judged the woman and he judged Jesus. Maybe he was wondering if Jesus was one of her customers... Jesus said an amazing thing though: He said to Simon, “Do you see this woman?” Thing is, Simon didn’t get her because he didn’t see her. Jesus sees everything. Jesus sees you. When the whole world misunderstands you, Jesus looks all the way down to the bottom of your heart and sees the whole truth of who you are.

Saturday, February 4, 2012

141. He Just Wants You

Matthew 13:46


Do you ever get stressed out when Christians talk about all the stuff they’re doing for the Lord? Do you ever wonder what God wants to do with you, and then freak out about the fact that it hasn’t happened yet? Do you ever feel like all Christians talk about is, “What are you doing for God?” “What’s your ministry?” “What’s your spiritual gift, and how are you using it?” “What impact are you having on the advancement of God’s Kingdom, huh?” Dang! It can all be a little overwhelming and exhausting, right? Sometimes ministry can become like a mark of status among believers, as if some folks are more important to God than others because they pastor a big church or run a missions organization or something. The problem is, if you don’t have a ton of ministry happening right now, it’s easy to feel like a loser. Here’s the truth: You’re not a loser. There’s no one more important to God than you! Seriously, you have infinite value in the eyes of your Creator and He loves you completely, right now, as you are. In Matthew 13, Jesus told a story about a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found the one he wanted, he gave everything for that one pearl. The cool thing is, the story never says what he did with it. It doesn’t say he took the pearl on tour, showing it off and making it famous. It doesn’t say he used that pearl to bring in more pearls. Maybe he didn’t want to do anything with it. Maybe he just wanted it for himself. Jesus is that merchant, and you are that pearl. He gave everything just to have you for his own.

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

140. He Is Shepherding You

John 10:14


Don’t you hate how people always expect you to have everything about your life all figured out? I mean, what if you don’t know what to do or where to go? Is that okay? It’s like we live in a pressure cooker where only decisive people make it out alive. It starts when you’re just a little kid... people ask you, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” And pretty much all of us wanted to be firemen, astronauts or vets, right? The whole time you’re growing up, you have grandparents putting money in a college fund and then in middle school you take an aptitude test to find out what you’re good at and what job you’d be suited for. Then in high school you pick a college and all anyone wants to know is, “What’s your major?” Then you finally pick one, graduate and interview for a job where they ask you for your five year plan... Dang! It’s like we have to always know every little thing about our lives. We have to have it all worked out, right now. We have to make good decisions at every stage or we suck, right? Well, what if you just don’t know what you want to be or where you want to go next? Is it okay if you don’t have all the answers? Here’s the truth: Yes. It’s okay Jesus said that He’s the Good Shepherd. That means He is our Guide. It means He is the One taking care of you. It means you don’t have to have it all figured out. It means you don’t have to be smart or clever. It means that all you really have to do is follow Him.