Saturday, December 29, 2012

234. He's Ready To Move Onto Something New



It’s the end of the year. You made it. Now, it would be extremely easy for you to look back over the past year and be really disappointed in yourself. It would be easy to think things like, “I should have gotten farther along in this area.” or, “By now I could have stopped this one thing altogether.” But those thoughts don’t help. No matter what it could have been or even should have been, this year is ending right here where it is. You can’t go back and change what it was. Most people look at that and then say to themselves, “No, but I sure can feel really bad about it.” You need to hear me on this: There is absolutely nothing whatsoever that is helpful or good about guilt. You feeling terrible about your past does nothing about your past, present or future. It only hurts. If you were to ask Jesus what you’re supposed to do with the guilt and the “should have beens” and “could have dones” of the past year, I think He might say something along the lines of what He told the woman caught in adultery. This lady was busted and couldn’t change it, but He said He didn’t condemn her and then said, “Go and leave your life of sin.” In other words, “You’re not in trouble. Now, let’s do something new.” Jesus paid for all your wrong, but He didn’t pay so you would focus on it and then feel bad about it. He paid so you could have a relationship with Him and you could move on to something else. It’s a new year. Let’s leave the guilt in the last year and do something new.

Saturday, December 22, 2012

233. He Planned All Of History Around You



Do you ever feel pointless? Do ever feel so overlooked or ignored that you might as well be a ghost? Have you ever felt like an inconvenient accident - as if no one meant for you to be here, but now you’re here and taking up space? I know I’ve felt that way before and it sucks. It sucks to think that you don’t really fit and no one wanted you or planned for you. Here’s the thing, though: It’s not actually true. I know that you probably won’t believe what you’re about to read, but go ahead and read it anyway and at least leave room in your head for the possibility that it could be true. Ready? Okay, here we go: All of history was orchestrated and planned around you. Every single major event in the human story went down the way it did with you in mind. When you read the Old Testament, you find that God was always planning on sending Jesus. In fact, tons of the details about that first Christmas were already foretold hundreds and hundreds of years before they came to be, and lots of those details involved the political maneuverings of the most powerful civilizations in history. God moved the pieces around the chessboard to bring Jesus into our world on that first Christmas. All of history was being fine-tuned for the great Hero of Heaven to burst onto the scene. It was always going to be this way. 1 Peter chapter 1 says, “He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake.” In other words, that first Christmas was actually all about you. He came for you.

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

232. He's The One You're Waiting For



Let’s be honest, Jesus doesn’t always come through in the way you thought He would. Sometimes you ask the Lord for something and it doesn’t happen. Sometimes you are staring straight at a promise in the Scriptures, and then it doesn’t seem to come together the way you hoped it would. There are times when you assume Jesus is going to show up and work things out in this big, obvious, awesome way and then He doesn’t. Sometimes He comes through for you, but He comes through in small, quiet ways that would be easy to miss if not for the eyes of faith. On the very first Christmas, when our Lord was born in a stable, there was an old man named Simeon who had been given a promise by the Holy Spirit. He was told that he would not die until he saw the Lord’s Christ. Now, if Simeon was anything like me, he was probably expecting the Messiah to roll into the temple armed with might and power, flanked by innumerable troops. He probably expected to see some kind of mix between Aragorn, Bruce Lee and Thor. In his mind, there would be trumpets, parades, swords and banners. This warrior king would stride into the temple with fire in his eyes and thunder in his voice. But that’s not what happened. While Simeon was waiting, a poor, scared, teenage couple walked in with their helpless newborn. The Holy Spirit told Simeon, “Hey! There He is!” Jesus wasn’t who Simeon expected, but He was exactly who Simeon needed. This poor baby grew up and died for us all. Jesus doesn’t always fulfill God’s promises the way we think He will, but He always fulfills God’s promises. 

Sunday, December 16, 2012

231. He's Not As Hard On You As You Are On Yourself



I think most people really believe that hating yourself because of your sin is the right thing to do. We think God wants us to beat ourselves up when we fall and fail. As a result, I think most of us believe this is not only the right thing to do, but we think it’s holy. We think that being hard on ourselves over all our years of piled-up wrong is us showing God how serious we are about sin. Here’s the thing: God doesn’t agree with any of that. God says our sin isn’t even piled-up anymore - it’s been totally dealt with! The truth is, most of us are way harder on ourselves than Jesus is when it comes to our past. We think it’s holy to grovel and grieve and be miserable about all our failings, but the entire reason Jesus came and died was to deal with sin once and for all. The most holy heart in the universe has declared me forgiven! If I’m still punishing myself for sin, does that mean I think I’m somehow holier than Jesus is? Do we think being sad all the time is taking sin seriously? Jesus took sin seriously. He died for it. He sacrificed Himself for sin to make it a non-issue in our relationship with Him. If you want to know the truth, I think He’s probably tired of hearing us talk about it all the time! In 1 Corinthians 4, Paul says a beautiful thing: “I care very little if I am judged by you or any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself.” Now that’s a holy attitude. Try it out sometime. 

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

230. He's Going To Flip This World



You know that feeling where you just don’t have enough to make it, no matter how hard you try? Well, that’s all going to change. You know the feeling of unfairness you sometimes feel - like the world is stacked against you and you’re just set up for failure? Don’t worry, that system is going to crumble. Have you ever felt as though there’s no real point in trying because, although there are plenty of people who seem to be winning in this world, you’re just not one of them?  Have you ever looked yourself in the mirror and thought, I’m just one of the losers and that’s all there is to it? Hang in there, because your time is coming. In the first chapter of Luke, when the pregnant Mary goes to visit her cousin Elizabeth, she sings this amazing song about how God has not forgotten about His people and how much His heart breaks and beats for the forgotten. Mary’s song hasn’t been totally fulfilled yet, but it will be. Jesus said, “The last will be first.” That wasn’t just a nice idea or a hippie pipe dream; it was a statement of cold, hard fact, and a prophecy you can bank on which was uttered by the Word made flesh. You may be sick, depressed, cast-out, broken-hearted, dirt-poor and at the bottom of life, but you’re not in Jesus’ world. If you love Him, He’s going to flip everything upside down. The last will indeed be first. The sick will be strong. The poor will be filled. The broken will be whole. Look to the One who came to the manger bed and will rule the universe as the Unrivaled, Eternal King. 

Saturday, December 8, 2012

229. He's What God Is Saying About Himself



What does God want you to know about Himself? What if you took a survey of tons of random folks and the question was, “What is the one thing God wants you to know about Him?” Would the answers be about love? Would they say He wants us to know He’s the one true God or something? Now, what if you took that same survey but only asked preachers and church people? They might say God wants you to know He’s ‘holy’ or ‘righteous’ or something like that, right? Here’s the really cool thing: You don’t have to ask anyone. When you look at the Christmas story, you have the answer. Paul says in Colossians 1 that Jesus is the image of the invisible God. One translation says it like this: “He’s the visible expression of the invisible God.” In other words, Jesus was God showing us God. He was telling us what God wanted to say about Himself. So, what was God saying? Well, Jesus wasn’t born in a palace with lots of money. He wasn’t born famous or in charge of anyone. In fact, when God came here, He chose to start and live 90 percent of His life with poor, nobodies that no one even cared about. He came to peasants, was visited by outcasts, lived with foreigners and was raised with a bunch of uneducated hicks from nowhere. If Jesus was the visible expression of the invisible God, then the thing God most wanted us to know about Himself is that He loves the people no one else loves. The people no one cares about. He gave His life to the poor, the hated and the ignored. God loves the nobody. Merry Christmas. 

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

228. He Paid For It



Why is it that when you screw up and sin in some way, not only do you immediately feel terrible about yourself, but you basically feel that this is the right response? It’s as if we truly believe the most Christian thing we can do in light of our own failures is to pile on the shame as thick as possible! When you sin, you put yourself in the emotional penalty box because you think that’s where you deserve to be, right? Why? Is it because you think if other people see you miserable and filled with regret then they know you’re on the right track? Do you think Granny is going to have hope for you if she sees you truly hating yourself over your wrong? Sadly enough, some of us have had people like that in our lives. Here’s the real question: Do you beat yourself up when you sin because you think God wants to see you miserable in the penalty box? If so, I have some really Good News. If you have believed in Jesus, He has forgiven you all the way. He has paid the penalty for all of your sin. He paid for the guilt you so easily feel when you mess up. He paid for the shame that weighs you down when you fall again. He paid for everything and He doesn’t want you to pay for it anymore. When you mope around ashamed of yourself, you ought to hear the voice of Jesus saying, “It is finished! I paid for that! Stop it, already! Let’s hang out! Let’s sing!” Jesus bought your freedom with precious blood, and He’s ready to get what He paid for. He’s ready for you to be free.

Sunday, December 2, 2012

227. He's Coming Soon



What if Jesus came back today? What if this were your very last day on earth? Wow. Just take a second and let that sink in... What if this was the very last day you had to put up with the misbehavior of people in your life who treat you terribly? What if this were the very last day you cried a tear over a broken heart? What if today was the last time you had to take medicine for that same old hurt? What if, in the blink of an eye, the sky split open, the clouds rolled back and the Author and Perfector of your faith stepped onto the stage and ended history with a blast from the last trumpet? What if today was your last chance to make a stand for Christ? What if today was your last opportunity to show the love of Jesus to someone lost, hurting, down and out? What if today was your last chance to forgive that one person and heal that broken relationship? What if these hours of daylight were the last hours that you ever had to fight temptation? After our Lord comes back to get us, there will be no more tears, no more problems, no more pain or wrong or drama. If this were our last day, this would be our last chance to fight the good fight! If you knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that this day would be your last day, wouldn’t you give it all you had? Wouldn’t you absolutely go for broke? Wouldn’t you pour out love and praise and service? Jesus said, “Behold, I am coming soon!” See, we don’t know if this will be the last day, but it could be.