Sometimes people who talk about Jesus don’t give you the full picture of what He’s like. They portray Jesus in a way that only deals with His sweetness and kindness. (And He was sweet and kind - but there’s more to see when you really look closely) If your image of Jesus is someone who is constantly sugary-sweet, who only ever encourages you and is always smiles and pop songs and bunny rabbits, you may need to take another look. You see, Jesus was surprising. He was unpredictable. Jesus was sometimes infuriatingly confusing. For instance, one time two sisters sent for Jesus because their brother was really sick. Now, Jesus loved this brother of theirs, and He was able to heal, so obviously Jesus would show up and heal the brother, right? Wrong. They waited day after day, but not only did Jesus fail to show up, but He didn’t even write them back to explain Himself, and eventually, their brother died. Can you imagine that? It must have seemed extremely harsh to those sisters. Sometimes Jesus won’t answer your prayer in the way you thought He would. Sometimes He may even seem downright harsh. Why is He like this? To tell you the truth, I don’t really know. Maybe He just wants us to trust in Him even when He seems harsh. Maybe He wants us to believe that there are things going on we can’t understand. Maybe He wants us to love Him, even when we feel confused and slighted by Him. In the end, He showed up and raised Lazarus from the dead. He’s going to make everything right in the end. Our job is simply to trust Him, even when that’s hard to believe.
Saturday, March 17, 2012
Monday, March 12, 2012
152. He Makes You Fight For It
Do you have people in your life who oppose your spiritual growth? Are there folks who want to drag you down with them into their own personal fears, worries, bitterness, jealousies, petty competition and pride? You know what I mean, right? Some people in your life are miserable and it’s almost as if they want to make just as miserable as they are. They don’t want you to be all hyped up on the joy of the Lord, so they hate on your walk. And look, sometimes this is very subtle. Sometimes they don’t even mean to do this - they don’t even necessarily know they’re doing it, but they’re holding you back because of their own distance from the Lord. Here’s the deal: When you have people like that in your life, you have to fight for the health of your walk with Jesus. You have to fight for your joy in the Lord. You may even have to shout down the haters. One time a blind man named Bartimaeus was begging by the side of the road when Jesus came by. He shouted for Jesus to help him, but the crowd told him to be quiet. They didn’t want him to bother Jesus. They didn’t want Bartimaeus making a fool of himself and making a big scene. Jesus knew Bartimaeus was there, but He didn’t respond right away. I think he wanted to make Bartimaeus fight for it. The crowd tried to shut him up, but Bartimaeus didn’t care. He shouted all the louder for Jesus to help him! He shouted down the haters. Jesus knows you’re going to have to stand up for yourself and your walk and He’s going to make you fight for it.
Sunday, March 11, 2012
151. He Loves You When You're Depressed
I think a lot of Christians feel like they’re not allowed to be depressed. They think, “Well, the life of a Christian is a life of joy, peace and victory, right? We are more than conquerors through Him who loved us, right?” - And yes, those verses are in the Bible. Yes, Jesus offers us the chance at a life like that, but that doesn’t mean every Christian is going to experience those things every minute of every day. Sometimes, you just feel like crap. There are days when you just feel low. You don’t know why, and you don’t know what to do, but you just feel down. For those of you who are prone to depression and just spend a lot of time down in the dumps, you need to know something: God isn’t mad at you because you’re down. Jesus isn’t wringing His hands, frustrated that you’re having another off day. He’s not gritting His teeth, wishing you would just pull it together and get happy already. No, Jesus understands. Jesus loves you. What’s more, He knows how hard you’re trying. All you have to do is look at the life of Jesus to see that this is true. Jesus reached out to people who were depressed. He had compassion on them, He listened to their problems and He met their needs. Look at Bartimaeus, Nicodemus, Zacchaeus, and the crowd of 5,000 who were like sheep without a shepherd. Psalm 34:18 says, “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” When you’re down, people can sometimes make you feel like you’re far away from Jesus, but the truth is, He’s right there. He loves you and He understands.
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
150. He can Do It Again
Is there anything in your life that you’re afraid to pray about? Do you have something weighing on you, wearing you out, but you just don’t ask God to do anything about it because you think the solution is simply not possible? The other day, I was reading Matthew 15 where Jesus miraculously fed 4,000 people, and there was something that really shocked me. Before Jesus miraculously multiplied the food to feed everyone, He told His guys that He had compassion on these folks and wanted to help them. The disciples answered by freaking out and saying, “Where do you expect us to get enough to food to feed these people?!” When I read that, I was like, “Dudes, are you kidding me? This is Jesus we’re talking about, here! He just fed 5,000 people with a sack lunch in the last chapter! That was like one page ago! Did you already forget what happened one page ago?! He can do the same thing again, no problem! What do you mean, “Where are we going to get food?” - You don’t have to get anything, you have Jesus right there! Dang!” I was so frustrated with those disciples until I realized that I do this same thing all the time. I forget who Jesus is constantly. I forget what Jesus has done for me repeatedly. I get caught up in the panic of a moment and feel like the world is caving in when the truth is that I have Jesus. The One who stilled the storms is in my boat. The One who healed disease has His hands on me. The One who raised the dead is breathing new life into me and promises to be with me forever.
Saturday, March 3, 2012
149. He Will Never, Ever Condemn You
Has anyone ever made you feel afraid of heaven? I know that sounds weird, but some of you know exactly what I’m talking about. Some of you have listened to Christians who made you nervous or even scared of facing Jesus. I’ve heard well-meaning Christians say that believers are going to be surprised when they actually see our Lord face-to-face because so many of us are banking on “cheap grace.” (who knows, maybe those people weren’t well-meaning after all) I’ve heard Christians say that tons of believers are going to be shocked when they realize that seeing Jesus isn’t the picnic they thought it would be. Let me just say that if you have ever heard any nonsense like that, move on. It’s time to find a new church. Here’s the deal: We’re not believers who are banking on cheap grace. We’re banking on free grace. Jesus said that whoever believes in Him has eternal life and won’t be judged or condemned but has already crossed over from death to life! Romans 8:1 says, “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” That means that if you believe in Jesus and you died today and stood before the Lord, He will have absolutely nothing to condemn you of, but will joyfully accept you! In Greek, that verse begins and ends with two words that mean “none” and “not” - it’s like the Apostle Paul is saying that you are so accepted by Jesus that He will never, never, (not ever) judge you or condemn you for all of eternity - but only completely accept you no matter what because you’re in Him. Now, that’s Good News, and I can’t wait.
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
148. He's Out-Gracing Your Sin
I do a lot of work in a local county jail and in a local high school. You wouldn’t think those two places are very much alike, and you’d be right; but they do have one huge thing in common: Both places are filled with tons of people who will never take a step closer to God because they think it’s already over before they begin. They think it’s too late. They think they’ve crossed too many lines and sinned too badly way too often. They think Jesus is only for people who have their act together. Now, you of course know this is ridiculous. You know Jesus desperately wants to know them no matter who they’ve been or what they’ve done. The funny thing is that even though you and I both know this is true about all those people out there, we don’t always know it about ourselves. Sometimes I talk to Christians who know the Gospel but are far away from the Lord, and when you get down to why that is, it’s because they did something really bad and they’re afraid they went too far. In Romans 5, Paul says that “where sin increased, grace increased all the more.” In other words, Jesus’ grace super-increases. His grace mega-increases past all your sin! In Greek, it literally says that grace “hyper-overflowed.” It’s the same word used for the 12 basketfuls of left-overs after Jesus fed the five thousand, but with “hyper” in front of that! Whatever sin you do, grace goes way farther, has leftovers and then hyper-extends the leftovers! It’s like the old song, “Anything you can do, I can do better.” Any sin you can sin, Jesus forgives farther!
Sunday, February 26, 2012
147. He's Wooing You
There is a danger inherent in a life with Jesus that’s hard to see and even harder to avoid. I would venture to guess that everyone who knows and walks with Christ has had to deal with this, and if you’ve spent any time at all in ministry, I know for sure that you’ve dealt with it, and it goes something like this: “Am I doing enough? Is God disappointed in my effort? Am I having a big enough impact on the kingdom? Are the people that I’m ministering to changing enough? Am I any good at this? Does God think I suck?” If any of those questions look familiar, you’ve fallen into a subtle trap, and you’re not the first. You see, it’s so easy to think like this: Salvation is free and it’s by grace, but once you’ve got that settled, God is measuring everything. It’s like, you get in by mercy, but then the rest of your life is judged on performance. That way of thinking feels so practical. We think, “If I do these things, I can expect God to feel this way about me and I can expect people to respond in this way.” Paul says that this doesn’t work and is a ministry of death. The alternative - which feels crazy and scary and wild - can be described by one word: Freedom. That means that you’re free to simply just love Jesus, and let Him change people (including you) in His own way in His own time. Jesus wants this relationship to be about love. As Paul says, “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” That means that Jesus doesn’t want to force us. He wants to woo us into loving Him.
