Sunday, September 30, 2012

209. He Wasn't Good-Looking



Do you ever look in the mirror and just wish that the face looking back at you would change? Do you know that feeling when you see someone who is just extremely beautiful or outrageously fit and all at once you hate them and are jealous of them and want to be them and want them to not be? Maybe you know how it feels to think to yourself, “If only I could change this one thing about the way I look, I would be happy.” Maybe it’s your hair or your weight or your skin or your abs or maybe the list just goes on and on. You see, most of us really do think that good-looking people are better than the not-so-good-looking folks. We think that being beautiful or elegant or striking or sexy makes a person more valuable. Let’s get real: The social definition of what is beautiful only matters if you let it matter. Let’s take this thing one step further: Jesus wasn’t good-looking. Movies and paintings always portray Jesus as strong, well-built and attractive, but then again, they also always make Him a white dude (sometimes He even has blue eyes... what?!) The fact is, the New Testament actually never describes Jesus’ appearance. The only time the Bible describes the way Jesus looked is in an Old Testament prophecy which says “He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him; nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him.” Wow. Jesus wouldn’t have made People Magazine’s ’50 Most Beautiful People.’ Beauty doesn’t equal value. Beauty doesn’t make you great. The Savior of the world wasn’t beautiful, but He saved me and changed me, and I love Him.  

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

208. He Knows It's Hard



Sometimes your life sucks. Let’s just go ahead and face that head-on. Are there people who are worse off then you? Probably. Are there people with more desperate and difficult circumstances than yours? I’m sure we could find someone out there, but that doesn’t mean your problems aren’t real and deep. It doesn’t mean that your life isn’t hard. The crazy stuff you have to face is frankly more than you can bear at times, and just because someone somewhere is worse off than you are, it’s still okay for you to feel that way about your life. Sometimes people look at you and say, “It’s not that bad. Come on, pull yourself together!” But that doesn’t help. What do they even know about it? They haven’t been through this! They aren’t feeling what you feel. They don’t know what it’s like! That’s why I love Jesus. Hebrews 1 says He’s the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of God’s being, sustaining everything by His powerful word, but chapter 2 says that Jesus became like us in every way so that He could be merciful. God stepped into the human experience. He was one of us. He felt rejection, pain and loss first hand as a real human. When John the Baptist (who was Jesus’ cousin) was executed by Herod, Jesus found out and tried to go away by Himself to mourn, but He didn’t get to do it. Crowds found Him and He ministered to them. It was hard, but in His pain, Jesus just had to keep going. Wow. God knows what it’s like to be us because He felt it first hand. Jesus knows your life is hard because He lived a hard life.

Saturday, September 22, 2012

207. He Wants To Take Your Guilt Away



Guilt is a trap. I mean, on one level, it feels really holy and good to hate yourself for your sin and wallow in your guilt, right? We think we’re somehow getting what we deserve, which will make us feel better about the wrong we did, right? Well, no. It won’t. It only makes everything worse. Feeling guilty doesn’t pay for your wrong, it doesn’t make you feel better and it messes up your understanding of Jesus. When people have really whacky views about Jesus, they’re usually trying desperately to cover up some guilt in their own heart. For instance, there’s this really weird place in Matthew 14 where Herod (the local governor) thought that Jesus was John the Baptist who had come back from the dead to haunt him. When you read it, you’re like, “What?! Where in the world did you get that?” Turns out that the prophet John the Baptist had called Herod out on the fact that he had stolen his brother’s wife. Herod had John arrested and wound up executing him. Herod felt so guilty that when Jesus showed up, he thought, “Oh no! It’s happened! John is back! I knew it!” Weird. Feeling guilty doesn’t solve anything, and it messes up the way you see Jesus. Here’s the deal: Jesus doesn’t want you to feel guilty or punish yourself for your wrong. He was punished for you so that you could feel forgiven, (because you are) free, (because you are) and loved (because you are). Jesus bore your guilt and He wants to take it away. When you let Jesus take your guilt for you and accept His grace every day, then you start to see Him as He really is.

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

206. He Sees You, Even When No One Else Does



Do you ever feel completely overlooked? Do you ever feel as though your friends get massive amounts of love and attention for things that never even get you noticed? I know that none of us would really want to admit this kind of thing out loud because we would feel silly, dramatic or even immature, but have you ever thought that nobody really cares if you’re around? I mean, we all have those friends that everyone wants to know and everyone wants to talk like and dress like, right? We all know those people, but we’re not really those people, are we? But hold on just a second. What if there’s someone who totally sees you? What if there’s someone who thinks you are infinitely fascinating? What if there’s someone who thinks you have measureless worth? What if there’s someone who thinks you are a priceless treasure and even when no one else notices, this someone always sees you? What if this someone who sees you is The Someone? What if The Someone who sees you is the One who made you and loves you more than anyone? Guess what -- He is. Jesus always sees the people that no one else notices, and He loves them! Jesus saw a woman at a well everyone else avoided. Jesus saw a man up a tree everyone else hated. Jesus saw a woman in a crowd who had been bent over double for 18 years! Jesus sees past cool. He looks right through pretty. Jesus peers all the way down into the mind and heart. Jesus sees you. He sees the real you and here’s the really awesome thing: He loves you. He sees and loves you. Really.

Saturday, September 15, 2012

205. He Suffered Under Temptation



One of the reasons people give in to temptation is that they have bought in to a lot of mis-information about what temptation is and what it means. See, most people think that being tempted is the same thing as sinning, so when they feel really tempted to do something wrong, they think, “Well, I want to do that wrong thing, so since I’ve already failed the Lord, I might as well do it.” Here’s the thing though: Being tempted is not the same thing as doing the sin. The fact that you want to do something wrong is not the same thing as actually doing it. In fact, if you didn’t want to do that wrong thing, it wouldn’t be tempting and you wouldn’t ever do it and why are we still talking about it?! The Bible says Jesus was tempted. In fact, the book of Hebrews says Jesus was tempted in every way just as we are, yet was without sin. So, if Jesus was tempted and never sinned, then being tempted (and feeling tempted) isn’t wrong. Two chapters before that verse in Hebrews, it says that Jesus suffered when He was tempted! Wow. Do you realize what that means? It means that not only was Jesus tempted, but it was hard for Him! Most of us probably think of Jesus being this different kind of holy that wouldn’t even want anything bad, but the Bible doesn’t say that. It says temptation was tempting for Jesus. It was hard. He never gave in, but He suffered under it. Here’s what that means: Jesus understands how you feel. He knows just how hard it is to stand up under what you’re facing and He’s able to help you.

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

204. He Draws Us In



The reason religious people love rules and regulations so much is that deep down, we’re afraid of getting this thing wrong. We really want to know God, and we want to make sure we don’t mess that up, so how can we best guarantee that we do things right? Rules. Rules and regulations are like boundaries or landmarks that tell us where we are. We can measure them, identify them, keep them and break them. They make us feel safe and comfortable. Rules make me feel like I know whether or not I’m doing this well. The only thing is, God is mysterious and infinite and personal! Rules don’t actually get me all that close to Him. In fact, when I mess them up (which is all the time) I just feel driven further away! Hebrews 7 says that the old rules were set aside because they were “weak and useless and didn’t make anything perfect.” Rules may make us feel safe, but they don’t actually bring us to God! It goes on to say that Jesus is a better hope because He draws us to God. You see, we’re so afraid of getting this wrong, but hey - we’ve already gotten it all wrong! That’s the beauty of the Gospel! We were wrong, and God still wants us anyway! It turns out that the infinite, mysterious and personal God doesn’t want a bunch of little straight-laced rule followers - He wants friends. He wants love. Love isn’t always comfortable and it almost always breaks all the rules. When you love someone, you don’t always know where you are or if you’re doing things right, but you don’t care because you’re in love. Knowing God is about love, not safety.

Saturday, September 8, 2012

203. He Was Amazed



Can you imagine actually being there for some of the miracles of Jesus? Seriously, close your eyes for a minute and think about what it would have been like to watch a dead kid get up out of his coffin. Or can you imagine being there, watching Jesus actually multiply bread and fish for thousands of people from a handful of food? Wow. What about those times where Jesus healed every single person in the town? Or what about the time He instantaneously calmed a raging storm? I mean, that had to have been so freaky and stunning. We’ve all been in the middle of those kinds of storms where it feels like the whole world is buckling and tearing apart at the seams and Jesus just spoke into one of those, told it to hush and the world became instantaneously calm and still. Wow. When that happened, Matthew says the disciples were amazed. Of course they were! That’s amazing! Here’s what’s cool: Earlier in that same chapter, Matthew uses that same word to describe Jesus. Something happened that made Jesus feel just as blown away as the disciples did when He calmed the storm. So what was it that Jesus marveled at? A Roman soldier who asked for Jesus’ help because he had a sick servant amazed Jesus. Our Lord said, I’ll come and heal your servant. The soldier said, “No need. I understand authority. You don’t have to come. You’re in charge of my problems, like I’m in charge of my troops. Just say the word and this sickness will obey you.” Finally. Somebody got it. If you realize Jesus is over all your troubles and you simply trust Him to handle them His way, you’ll rock His world.

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

202. He Wants You To Keep A Secret



Can you keep a secret? Jesus wants to know. He has stuff to tell you, and life-changing stuff He wants you to do. Thing is, He wants it all to be a secret. I know this sounds kinda weird, but it’s true and it turns out to be really cool and intimately sweet. You see, Jesus wants a relationship with you. He wants to be close. He wants you to talk to Him. He wants you to bring all your hurt, your confusion and your heartbreak to Him. He wants you to celebrate your victories and joys with Him as well. He wants to be your very best friend because He loves you more than anything in this world. And He has cool stuff for you to do for Him that will fill you up and build His kingdom. Here’s the thing: There are certain things about your relationship with Jesus that have to be a secret, or they don’t really connect you to Him at all. What I mean is, when you talk to Him and spend time with Him alone and read His word just to hear what He has for your heart, He doesn’t really want you to go around talking about that. When you serve Jesus, and give your time or energy for Him, He doesn’t really want you to tell anyone. Some people broadcast the fact that they hung out with Jesus that day, or that they did their ministry and somehow it cheapens the whole thing. Why do we do that? Do we want applause from others because we did something that was supposed to be a secret? If you love Jesus in secret, your life will speak for itself.

Saturday, September 1, 2012

201. He Gives What You Can't Make



Jesus said that your righteousness has to surpass that of the super-religious folks, or you can’t even enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoa. My righteousness has to surpass those guys? The super-religious folks?! We’ve all seen these people, right? They have it all together. They say all the right things. They read the right Bible. They listen to the right music. They vote for the right people. They don’t slip up, like ever. Their houses are always clean. Their hairdos are always in place. They smile all the dang time and they’re never, ever having a hard time like the rest of us. Wow. I don’t have any of that stuff figured out! I can’t match that - so how in the world am I supposed to surpass it?! Well, here’s the deal: All those things that the super-religious people have all figured out don’t actually have anything to do with righteousness. The truth is, those folks are trying really, really hard to make their own righteousness, but it’s just not working. Righteousness is a big, fancy word that simply means this: God and I are on good terms. We’re alright. God and I are cool. The problem is, no one can do that on their own. We can’t make ourselves okay with God. The only way we can be righteous is for God to just give us righteousness as a gift. The good news is that Jesus died for us and rose from the grave to give us that gift. You don’t have to have it all together. You don’t have to earn this gift. You don’t have to make it. All you have to do is open up your heart and take it.