Saturday, August 31, 2013

293. He Did What He Said To Do



Have you ever had some person in authority over you who told you what to do but wasn’t willing to do that thing themselves? Maybe it was the coach who was terribly out of shape, but blowing the whistle for you to keep running and pushing yourself in the weight room. Maybe it was the art teacher who mysteriously never drew anything. Or maybe for some of you it was a parent or even a pastor that expected and demanded a level of behavior and perfection that you later found out they weren’t keeping themselves. It can be a devastating thing to find out that they people you respect and follow aren’t who you thought they were. It can be frustrating to have to live up to a standard your authorities can’t or won’t uphold. That’s one thing I love about Jesus. He lived the kind of life we never could. His heart was pure and His moral perfection was complete. The hardest things He ever asked us to grow into are things He not only lived out, but they are things He lived out with us. Jesus said we are supposed to love our enemies and do good to those who hate us. Now, that is about the most demanding and difficult thing you could ever ask of a person, but Jesus didn’t just blow the whistle and expect us to do it. No, first, He loved us when we were against Him. In Romans 5, Paul says we were reconciled to Him when we were His enemies. He did good to us when we hated Him and now His love is changing us and making us able to grow and love the unloveable as well. 

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

292 He's Letting You Start Over



Welcome to a brand new you. It just happened, right now. You’re new. You’re clean. Whatever came before is gone. Whatever was lingering from your past has been cut off. It doesn’t matter what yesterday was. It doesn’t matter how far out you were. I don’t care if you think you were the very worst person in the whole human experiment, you are starting over right now, this instant. I’ve talked to so many people who love Jesus and even believe the Gospel, and yet they are still dragging around the old bones of ancient sins. They think that part of the reason their life isn’t satisfying or full or deep today is because they squandered a good life with old wrongs. Some folks look at every problem and disappointment as a miniature consequence for their many great sins. They think that they deserve to have a terrible life because of who they’ve been. I don’t know if you ever feel that way, but if so, do something for me. Take a few minutes and day dream about what life could be like if you were perfectly righteous. What kind of blessings would you expect if your record was spotless? Go ahead and just think about that. What would you deserve? What would you anticipate? The truth is, Jesus says you are that righteous and that clean. When He was on the cross, He shouted out a word. The word was a legal word used by bankers and accountants when a debt was paid. We have translated it, “It is finished” and it means that your debts are paid in full and you get to start over, right now. What would it be like to start over? Find out.

Friday, August 23, 2013

291. He Draws You In Where Others Push You Out



If your Christian experience leaves you feeling terrible about yourself, you should know you’re not getting the whole story. If you walk away from church with your head hanging low, they forgot to tell you about the real Jesus. If you hang out with someone who says they know the Lord and you walk away feeling judged or condemned, rest assured that person knows less about Jesus than they’re letting on. Jesus said that God didn’t send His Son to judge the world, but to save it. If you hear something about Jesus that makes you feel like a worm who should live in perpetual shame and fear instead of gratitude, gladness and hope, you heard some false information. When it feels like God is a judge who is impossible to please, you want to run away and hide, right? The old deal God had with His people was like that. Moses came down from a mountain glowing with God’s glory and giving out rules they couldn’t keep. The people were in awe of the glory and afraid of Moses. They failed to meet the standards and wanted to keep Moses away. With Jesus, everything changed. In Mark chapter 9, Jesus went up on a mountain where He was transformed in front of his friends. They saw a glimpse of His radiant, eternal glory, but when He came down the mountain, the people were drawn to Him instead. They were filled with awe, but they longed to be close to Him. Rules we can’t keep and standards we can’t meet make us hide in shame, but grace freely given draws us in. The real Jesus is the one you want to run and cling to.

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

290. He's Not Mad At You



Have you ever had the worrisome feeling in the pit of your stomach that God is mad at you? I bet you have. I bet you know exactly how it feels to think that God’s upset with you and you’ve failed once again to get His approval. It’s a dull, throbbing kind of sensation - the fear that you’re in trouble with God. I can remember being in school and being sent to the principal’s office or being told that a teacher was going to call my dad. It feels like that, only about a million times worse, because it’s not the principal and it’s not even your dad - we’re talking about God - the One who knows everything. You can’t fool Him and you can’t hide from Him. When you stand before God, you stand before Him utterly exposed. You are what you are and He knows it. What will He say about you? What sentence will He pronounce over the mess that is these hearts of ours? Well, in Luke 4, Jesus read a section of the Old Testament prophecy of Isaiah. He said, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for He has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free, and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.” After Jesus read this, He said, “I am fulfilling this Scripture today.” The thing that’s so cool is that the word “favor” that Jesus used is a word that means ‘acceptance’ and ‘welcome.’ We’re not in trouble with God. Jesus has accepted us completely and is welcoming us with arms wide open.

Sunday, August 18, 2013

289. He Changed The Rules



Do you ever look at your own life and think that even though you’re still kind of a wreck, it’s okay because you still have time to change? For those of us who are all too familiar, the thought process goes something like this: “Well, I’m not there yet, but there’s still time for me to clean up my act and get all holy before this is over and I have to face God.” Have you ever thought that way before? My guess is you have. I bet that even though you’ve believed in Jesus, there are sill places in your heart where you feel disappointed in yourself that you haven’t really cleaned up yet. It can be an overwhelming feeling, waking up every day to face the fact that you failed to measure up. You didn’t meet God’s standard and you didn’t even meet your own standards. At a certain point you look in the mirror and realize that it’s basically always going to be like this. I mean, sure, you’re not the person you used to be. God is slowly changing you, but the more open you become to His Spirit, the more you realize just how polluted you are and how deep the problem is rooted. No, it’s too late to fix this thing and that’s why Jesus came. Jesus not only met the standards, He changed the rules. He took your place in such a complete way that God is now satisfied that you have met the standards. Yes, you read that correctly. Because of Jesus, you didn’t clean it up, but God says you did. The new official story is that you are already holy, righteous, accepted and eternally putting a smile on God’s face. 

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

288. He's Not Afraid Of Your Secret



Somewhere, down in the deep places of who you are, there is a secret you are desperately hoping no one ever finds out about you. There are things in your life and in your past that make you feel gross, and you hate to think about those things because you’re afraid of what they say about who you really are. Sometimes, when you get to thinking about that secret, you start to feel lonely because the secret is something that you think no one would understand. It feels like you’re the only person in the history of the world who has ever done that thing, so you have to protect the secret at all costs. The secret is the thing that makes you feel isolated, different and gross. It makes you feel like if anyone really knew you, they’d reject you as some kind of freak. What if you wore your secret for all to see? In the first chapter of Mark, a man with leprosy approached Jesus. Leprosy is a disease that kills nerve endings which means you can’t feel pain or anything else. Lepers injure themselves without knowing it and suffer the long term effects of untreated infections. The disease winds up making people disfigured and scary to others. People with leprosy were avoided on purpose. It was a sad, lonely life with a secret everyone knew. This guy went right up to Jesus and said, “I know you could heal me, but I don’t know if you would want to.” Jesus felt compassion on him and not only healed the man, but also touched him. Jesus is not afraid of your past. His love can reach into your loneliness and heal all your secret wounds.

Friday, August 9, 2013

287. He Knows There's A Reason Behind Your Wrong



How many times have you tried to change your life by simply resolving to do better next time? Lots of times, right? My guess is that it hasn’t worked at all, ever. Most folks think the way to change is to start with their sin, feel terrible and guilty about it, get all determined that they’ll never do it again, grit their teeth and then try to live a holier life than they are able to. Without fail, these poor folks do that sin again, but now the shame is doubled, because not only was it wrong in the first place, but now they’ve gone and resolved to never do it again, which makes it feels even more wrong. The mounting guilt doesn’t let them approach God for love and wisdom, so they’re even more likely to do it again. I know you do that because everyone does it. I’ve done it a million times. Jesus knows that plan doesn’t work because He knows there are reasons behind our wrong. When He talked to the woman at the well, He didn’t just call her out and say, “Stop sinning.” He talked about her thirst, showed her she was thirsty for real love and then told her who He was. In the end, she left her water jar at the well because she wasn’t thirsty anymore. You probably aren’t going to just stop sinning. Jesus wants to help you understand why you do what you do and show you how He can meet those needs. He wants to help you come up with a plan to change. He is patient and loving. The first step is simply not being afraid to go straight to Him for wisdom.

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

286. He Cares About Your Pain



What does it mean when you hurt and no one cares? You know what I’m talking about, right? Something happens to you that gets you down or breaks your heart and everyone else in the world is just going about their day without really noticing that you’re in pain. Although you look okay on the outside, you feel like everything is caving in. It’s easy to feel alone in this world. Everyone has problems of their own to deal with and some people in your life really don’t want to hear about your hurt. Either they don’t care or they just don’t have time to deal with it. Some folks are so entrenched in their own battles that even though they love you, they simply don’t have the energy to give to the healing of your pain. The thing is, even when you feel utterly alone, you’re not actually alone. Jesus loves you, knows you completely and cares about the fact that you are struggling. One time, a guy’s mother-in-law was really sick, so they told Jesus about her pain. The Scripture says that when Jesus heard, He went to her. When He hears about the trouble in your life, He’s right beside you. You can’t see Him or hear His voice, but He lives in your heart and never leaves you alone. He cares about and responds to your pain. Psalm 56 says that the Lord keeps our tears in a bottle and that He keeps a record of our pain on a scroll. When you think no one cares, Jesus cares. Even when you think you’re alone, He’s with you. He’s crying your tears with you and writing down your hurts. You are never alone.

Friday, August 2, 2013

285. He's Going To Let You Finish The Devil



You want to know something I can’t stand about the devil? He’s malicious. In other words, he doesn’t just attack you, he gets personal with his attacks. He knows exactly what buttons to push in your life and he pushes them on purpose. Maybe with you it’s a particular moment in your past he keeps bringing up. Maybe it’s your appearance or your issues with your mom. Maybe it’s your fear of failure, but whatever it is, he knows. He has the information and capitalizes on it. The devil doesn’t just mess with you and try to discourage you, he messes with you in as mean a way as possible because he doesn’t just want to take you off the playing field. He wants you to hurt while you’re out. One of the best things the Bible says is that the Son of God came to destroy the works of the devil. I love that. I can’t wait for that moment. I have watched the filthy lies of that bitter, defeated pirate tear apart the people I love for too long. I have had my faith and joy kicked around by the meanness of that cosmic thug so many times and nothing would make me more glad than seeing Jesus make it right. But the amazing thing is that the Bible doesn’t stop there. You see, it turns out that not only did Jesus come to destroy the devil’s works, but He’s going to let us play a part in the destruction. Romans 16 says that the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. That’s talking about you. It’s personal. You get to finish the devil off like a bug in your house.