248. He Protects You From Shame

John 8:6

Is there a part of you that is afraid of seeing God face-to-face? Even if you have great theology about Jesus’ payment for your sins and confidence and peace about your place in His kingdom, do you ever worry about what that first meeting will be like? I think all of us, deep down have some concerns about what it will be like to face Him. I mean, standing (or trying to stand) before Someone who is flawless in holiness with a spotless record and perfectly pure motives would surely make you feel at best, nervous; and at worst exposed and condemned. At least, that makes sense until you open the Scriptures and watch Jesus in exactly such a scene. Jesus’ enemies wanted to trap Him and create some ammunition for bringing Him down legally, so they brought an open-and-shut case of adultery. Where would He stand? The woman they brought was busted. It was clear that she had sinned and she could not hide. They dragged her out in public in the act of adultery. Who knows if she even had time to bring a sheet from the bed. Her accusers wanted her dead, but Jesus did not yell at her. He did not embarrass her. He knelt down and wrote on the ground with His finger. All the men crowded around to see. What was He writing? Why did He do that? Who knows... except that for a moment, the attention was off this poor woman. For a moment, no one was looking. Maybe she had time to wrap something around her. He protected her in her shame. He did not condemn her. Jesus does not condemn you, either. He covers your dignity. 

247. He Loves You More Than Anyone Else

John 14:3

You know those people in your life that just don’t mean a whole lot to you? Look, we’ve all got them, so let’s just go ahead and be honest about it for a minute. It’s not that you hate them. They don’t really make you angry or even bother you all that much. In fact, they just don’t really move the needle at all. You can never seem to remember their name. They’re probably lovely people and very cool once you get to know them, but you just haven’t had to the occasion to really get to know them, right? Well, I actually think one of the enemy’s subtlest lies is to convince you that Jesus feels that way about you. The enemy wants you to think that Jesus is so busy changing the world with all of the people who are cool and beautiful and gifted and awesome and it’s not that He hates you, it’s just that He doesn’t really have time to learn your name. It’s not that you’re worse than other people, it’s just that you’re not all that special. If you’ve ever felt anything like that, you need to know that of all of Satan’s lies, Jesus might hate that one the worst. Check this out: Do you remember being a kid and having your first sleepover? Do you remember planning everything out and painstakingly getting the house perfectly ready? In John 14, Jesus said He’s doing that for you, right now! He’s preparing a place for you, so excited for you to come over to His house. To Him, there’s never been anyone as amazing or interesting as you and He loves you more than anyone else in the whole world.

246. He Showed Us The Other Side

2 Timothy 1:10

What really happens when you die? Is it scary? Is it disorienting? Will we sense stuff? And if so, which senses? (Surely not smell, right?) All the things people usually say about dying sound like nonsense to me. “Follow the light” and all that. I guess the main problem with thinking about what it will be like to actually die is that no one who does it ever comes back to tell you what it’s like. There is no round trip ticket for that one. Death is unknown. That final moment of crossing over is really kind of the great unknown. And it’s a weird unknown because at some point, everyone does it, even though no one has any idea what it’s like. I think the unknown quality of the whole business is what makes it so scary. We’re afraid and we don’t know why because we don’t know what all there is to fear. That is, we’re afraid until we get to know Jesus. He changes the whole game! He says that for people who believe in Him, dying isn’t really even like dying. He calls it “falling asleep.” He says it’s not an occasion to wail and moan in hopeless desperation about. He says when we do it we’ll be with Him forever. In fact, Jesus says simply knowing Him is “eternal life” - wow. Jesus didn’t just tell us about death and reassure us about it, but He also died and then came back! Paul says that Jesus “destroyed death and brought life and immortality to light.” In other words, He pulled back the curtain on the great unknown and showed us it’s going to be just fine. We have nothing to be afraid of.

245. He Has Perfected You Forever

Hebrews 10:14

What if God saw you the way you see yourself? That would be terrible! If God saw you the way you see you, He’d freak out every time you sinned. He’d lose heart and patience with every tiny backslide and He would probably tear the roof off of the world and destroy the place when you really screwed up. The problem that a lot of folks have in their relationship with God is that they actually think He sees them exactly as they see themselves. We live inside time. We see ourselves in the middle of a process, but God is outside all of that. Past, present and future are all present realities to Him right now. So, when we sin again, we feel all kinds of things that God doesn’t. We feel surprised because we didn’t know it would happen. We feel disappointed because we told ourselves we wouldn’t do that thing again and we feel shame because we sense that we deserve to be punished. When Jesus went to the cross over 2,000 years ago, He already knew every sin you would ever do. He’s not surprised or disappointed or casting shame. He actually went to the cross to endure and absorb all the punishment we would ever deserve so that we could be free from it. Do you want to know how Jesus actually sees you, according to the Bible? Hebrews 10 tells us that by His offering, Jesus has “perfected forever those who are being sanctified.” Whoa. That’s how He sees you. He has perfected you forever. Jesus says you are perfect. I shudder to say that about myself, but I shouldn’t, because I didn’t say it. He did. Jesus says you are perfect. 

244. He's Always In Control

Luke 22:37

What does it mean when everything goes wrong in your life and your worst nightmares materialize right before your eyes? How are you supposed to cling onto your faith in God when it seems as though God has fallen asleep at the wheel? You know Jesus loves you, but what good does that do when the worst happens and it feels as though He is powerless to do anything about it? When you are helplessly watching the ceiling cave in on your life, is Jesus just as helpless as you are? The night before Jesus suffered must have felt like the longest night ever. A strange and solemn Passover meal was darkened by Jesus’ announcement of a betrayer. A midnight walk through the streets of the city and into an olive grove was punctuated by difficult teachings and foreboding prayers from Jesus. The disciples tried to stay awake, but they drifted in and out of sleep. Finally, they woke to the sound of marching. Through the torchlight, they watched as their world began to unravel. Judas had turned. Jesus was arrested. He would be questioned, tortured and then executed in the most horrible and humiliating way. Where was God? What good was their faith now? And yet, Jesus had predicted all of this. He let Himself be arrested. He healed Malchus’ ear. He had talked about giving Satan permission to move. As bad as this situation looked, Jesus was in control. Somehow, in the midst of the nightmare, the Lord was pulling the strings. Your life is going to get dark, confusing and hard. The worst will happen, but Jesus will know all about it. He’s running the show and He knows what He’s doing. Don’t worry. Just trust Him.