Tuesday, April 30, 2013

261. He Loves You, Not Your Performance



It’s hard to shake the feeling that Jesus loves us when we’re good and doesn’t when we’re not. Even when we’ve heard the Good News a million times and believed that message way on down in our hearts, we sometimes still see God as a celestial scorekeeper just waiting to call us out for each and every rules violation. We imagine Jesus with a clipboard and a calculator, meticulously recording our wrongs with a disappointed scowl. I know I’m not the only one like this. Have you ever looked back over the things you did and said only to tally up the good and the bad in your head? All that mental math shows us that we still see Jesus as a fickle friend who’s basically impossible to please. How can we believe the truth of the Gospel and yet still think God only loves us when we’re behaving? The fact is, our desire to earn love is engrained deep down into our psyche. You can see it in little kids’ sports when they do something really good or really bad and the first place they look is to their dad. They’re thinking, “Was it good enough? Did I pass your test?” We mess up in life and we assume that our Lord is let down, bummed to a have loser kid like us, but it’s not true! Romans 5 says God showed us what His love is like because Jesus died for us when we were still sinners! We didn’t have to behave or perform well to earn His love! He freely gave it when we were at our worst. He decided to love us. We didn’t earn His love, which means we can’t un-earn it. 

Friday, April 26, 2013

260. He's Just Getting Started



Do you ever feel stuck in your spiritual life? Does it ever seem like you just don’t really grow anymore? Have you wondered whether the honeymoon phase of your walk with the Lord is over and now you two are like a grumpy old married couple that isn’t really going anywhere, but just waiting it out? Sometimes, when you look at your own life and heart, it’s easy to feel as though nothing is happening. Church is routine. Worship is dry. The Bible is cold and lifeless. Is Jesus finished with you? Has He given up the project like a construction crew that ran out of money? Is He leaving you, like a half-completed building sitting out in the weather, to slowly decay into a ruin? No. He’s not done with you just yet. I know it can feel this way, but Jesus isn’t finished. In fact, He’s just getting started. When you read the last page of the Gospel of John, it really feels like you’ve come to the end of something. Jesus died, was buried, rose from the dead and appeared to His guys. All the sermons have been preached, the miracles have been performed, the prophecies have been fulfilled and that’s the end, right? No. Not even close. One of my very favorite verses in the whole Bible is on the very next page. In the first verse of Acts 1, Luke says that his former account told all that Jesus began to do and teach. It didn’t say He was finished doing and teaching things, only that the Gospel account contained what He began to do and teach. Jesus is still at work. He’s still teaching. He has things in store you simply wouldn’t believe.

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

259. He's Already Where You're Going



Sometimes the biggest question you have to face is, “What’s next?” Maybe you’re at the end of something big or at the beginning of something new and you don’t know how you’re going to handle it. Maybe you’re staring down the barrel of an unknown future with no prospects for where to put your foot moving forward and you just don’t know what to do or where God is in the midst of it. Right now, I have friends graduating from school, friends getting out of the lock up, friends with new babies and friends looking for a new job, just to name a few. The thing they all have in common is that they can’t see into the future, but they’re walking with the One who holds their future. Everyone of those friends knows that whatever they have to face, they need Jesus to be there, working out the details and preparing something for them they couldn’t do for themselves. After Jesus rose from the dead, His disciples were heading out into uncharted waters. They were about to enter into situations the’d never faced and difficulties they’d never imagined. They must have felt so nervous and unsure of themselves. What was going to happen next? Where would Jesus send them? Were they ready? Would He help? Were they alone? The disciples had been fishing all night and when the morning broke, a voice called to them from the shore. It was Jesus. He was already there, though they didn’t know it. He was on the shore, cooking their breakfast. Whatever you have to face next, Jesus is already there. He goes ahead you, preparing the way. He has a plan and no matter what, you are never alone.

Saturday, April 20, 2013

258. His Blood Speaks



What’s the worst thing someone’s ever said about you? Can you still hear it? I bet you have probably forgotten a thousand really nice and encouraging things that have been said about you, but the ten or twelve things people have said that really hurt you the most are still rattling around in between your ears, wreaking havoc on your heart. Maybe you heard someone saying that you’re not good enough. Maybe someone you really respected or cared about said something about your face or your body that you just can’t unhear. Maybe it was a parent or a friend or maybe it’s just a nameless voice in the soup of your own head that just won’t let you love who you are. If you know where I’m coming from, there’s another voice you need to hear. The book of Hebrews tells us that when you come to God, the sprinkled blood of Jesus is there, speaking. The blood speaks. The writer of Hebrews says that Jesus’ blood speaks “a better word.” I know that might seem kinda weird, but the blood of Jesus spilled for you has something to say about who you are. It says you are special. It says you are valuable. The blood says you were worth dying for. The blood says Heaven wouldn’t have been Heaven without you there. It says you are forgiven. It says you are brand new, as righteous as Jesus Himself and His very own kid. The sprinkled blood of Jesus speaks forever - an eternal voice that will one day drown out and silence every other voice in your life, declaring once and for all that you (yes, you!) are more precious to God than anything or anyone who has ever lived. 

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

257. He's Growing You



Do you ever get frustrated with yourself because you sense that you should be so much farther along than you are right now? Do you ever look at your own spiritual growth and just feel like a loser or feel guilty that you’re not at a certain level? Have you ever gotten the feeling that God is massively disappointed in you because there’s probably so much else you could be doing for the Kingdom than you are right now? If you know where I’m coming from, then you know that this feeling isn’t any kind of specific burden or ministry God is calling you to be a part of - this guilty feeling is just a general, vague sense of failure on your part and a sort of disgusted dissatisfaction from God. In recovery programs, they have a name for what you’re feeling. They call it “shoulding yourself.” It’s where people constantly feel terrible about themselves because they’ve set up impossible goals in their mind that they never actually reach. As a result, they’re always saying, “By now, I should be here.” “I just feel terrible because I know I should be doing that thing.” One time Jesus told a story about a farmer who planted some seeds. He said that the seed grew by itself and in ways that the farmer didn’t know would happen. He said the seed grew whether the farmer was awake or asleep. There was a life there that the farmer wasn’t in control of and couldn’t actually stop. Jesus is growing you. You don’t have to be responsible for the speed or trajectory of your own spiritual life. He is your Shepherd. He is going to get you where you need to be right on time.

Saturday, April 13, 2013

256. He Is The Promised One



When you look at the problems and disappointments in your life, do you ever wonder if the stuff you’ve believed about Jesus might be all wrong? I mean, if Jesus is God and He’s running the show, then why are things so ungodly, difficult and hurtful? Why do some things seem so out of control if someone so loving is supposed to be in control? It seems like having a life with Jesus in it promises certain things to you that may or may not actually come true. What are you supposed to do when they don’t happen? What are you supposed to feel when your life isn’t filled with the peace and gladness you expected? When Jesus came to live in this world as one of us, the prophet John the Baptist declared that He was the One God had promised to send for thousands of years. Jesus was the One they had been waiting on. The problem was that pretty soon, John the Baptist was arrested and thrown in prison. That wasn’t supposed to happen, right? The Promised One was supposed to free the captives, not stand by and watch people be captured! All of a sudden, John was wondering if everything he believed about Jesus was all wrong. John wound up being executed in that prison cell. The promise didn’t look the way he thought it would, but Jesus was the One they were waiting on. He came to give His life on the cross to free us from sin and all that He allows is part of a plan to mend everything that’s broken. His ways don’t always look the way we expect, but He is fulfilling the promise and one day we’ll see it.

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

255. He Wins In The End



Do you ever feel like life paints you into a corner so deep and dark that there is no way you will be able to get out of it? Have you ever looked at the direction of your story and thought that there is basically no hope for you? When you're in the middle of a terrible situation, it's easy to look at yourself and where you are and think that nothing will ever change. It's easy to fall into that trap where you think that life basically works for some people and not for others and that your are in the second category, so the only thing you can hope for is to simply make the best of the crappy life you've been handed. Here’s the thing: if you know Jesus, none of those things are true of you. Even if they seem true and look true and feel true, they aren’t actually true. I’m going to let you in on a little secret - in the end, Jesus wins. When it’s all said and done and the curtain closes on this world as we know it, Jesus is going to reign over everything. He is going to right every wrong and dry every tear from every eye. Does it help you right now in the midst of your problems to know Jesus wins in the end? Absolutely! It’s like a really positive version of what happens when someone spoils a movie by telling you the end before you see it - all of a sudden, the drama of the story doesn’t effect you as much. The scary parts aren’t as scary. Jesus has overcome the world and one day we’ll all see it. That assurance changes absolutely everything.

Friday, April 5, 2013

254. He Won't Rip You Off



Are you ever worried that you missed the fine print in the Bible somewhere and that in the end, you’ll find that you lost your relationship with God? Or do you ever feel like you just can’t relax into the whole Jesus thing because you can’t be sure where you stand with Him or what your status is? I think we’ve all been there and there’s a good reason for it - the whole world works like that. Have you ever bought tickets for a show online and then had a heart attack right before the usher scans your printed out ticket, just hoping that it works? Have you ever gone to a fancy restaurant with a gift card only to find out that it had expired? Do you know how embarrassing it is to leave a cart full of groceries at the checkout because you were banking on some coupons that only work every other Tuesday? The world makes big, bold, attractive promises to lure you into buying something and then doesn’t really deliver what you were hoping for. The world will give you something, but only if you give something back in return. The world offers security, happiness, peace of mind, and hope but never really gives them. Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” Jesus isn’t scamming you. He’s not going to bait and switch you. When He makes a promise, it’s forever. His love and acceptance are free and eternal. All you have to do to enjoy His promises is to open up your heart and let them in.

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

253. He Transforms Pain



Have you ever wondered if the pain in your life has a purpose? Is your suffering random? Does God see it? Does God care? Is He able or willing to do anything about the hurt you’ve been through? To be honest, I don’t think we can ever really know why God allows the kind of pain He does to come into people’s lives. It’s too complicated for me to understand, but I do know this: God Himself did not excuse Himself from suffering. Jesus, who was and is God in the flesh experienced the worst pain imaginable. He submitted to the most horrible torture and death that human beings have ever conceived and then He did something amazing - He transformed suffering into beauty and glory. Isaiah 53 says that His punishment brought us peace and that we are healed by His wounds. In other words, He endured pain that led to our freedom. He suffered so that we could be repaired. His hurt ensures our eternal happiness. When Jesus died, He didn’t stay dead. He rose from the grave and lives forever in glorious, indestructible joy and He promises us that same destiny. That means that no matter what we have to endure here and now in this life, it will only be momentary and temporary before this life ends and we enter into perfect paradise forever with Jesus! When I truly understand that, my suffering is transformed like Jesus’ was. When I remember what’s in store, my pain is no longer the point of the story because I can rejoice in the promise to come. And when I can rejoice in the midst of my hurt, He uses my faith in the lives of others who are watching and suffering.