Trust

Proverbs 3:5-6 “Trust in the Lord with all your hearts, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths” (NKJV).

Before coming to Christ, we would wake up each day with all our previous failures, after putting them aside for the night. The next morning we would quietly hang each disappointment around our neck like a tree trunk. And, even though the old failures are already heavy enough, we would start each day with the full expectation of adding more weight as we go. We would struggle along with only the trust in the likelihood of imperfection, with no relief in sight.

Do you remember that feeling? How much it hurt! Carrying around all our failures is like carrying around a rattlesnake. We can’t make a move because of the fear of another mistake and more pain. There’s no expected transformation when you’re paralyzed with fear. And yet, we never stopped trying. The world demands that we go on, clumsy and dusty as ever. There is no time to stop and reflect on life. There is so much that we have to do and ample opportunity to fail…

Finally, each of us, at different times, in different ways discovered the grace of God through Jesus Christ. We were reborn in Him, a new creature and yet our quest for perfection continues, desperate to succeed, desperate to act godly, desperate to love enough. And all we can see is the list with no check marks, no evidence that we’ve accomplished anything.

We let all of these failures that we focus on every day make it seem that we are further from God. It seems so backward; but until we choose to reclaim the peace and joy and redemption that only His amazing grace gives, we miss the point of redemption completely.

God is not holding our failures, our sins against us. We have been redeemed from the curse of the law. Despite any failure, we can rest in God’s grace.

Making the commitment to trust God every day is hard, isn’t it? It’s especially hard when we think we have any part in determining His love for us. He knows our imperfections, He knows our hidden sin, He knows our heart and as unbelievable it may seem, He sent His Son for our sake and because He first loved us, we can rest in His grace. I love this quote I read in the latest letter from Key Life Network from Jack Miller, now deceased, a former professor at Westminster Seminary in Philadelphia. He said “The Bible can be summed up in two sentences…1) Cheer up, you’re a lot worse than you think you are. 2) Cheer up, God’s grace is a lot bigger than you think it is.”

Awesome!

Which are you?

Your testament living will determine whether you live spiritually as an achiever or a receiver.

He Came For Me

Matt. 9:9-13 "As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.
While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. 11 When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 13 But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

This Scripture is appropriately called “The Calling of Mathew” but, really, couldn’t we, all of us, slip our names into that title? We’ve fallen short more times than we care to admit. More times than we care to admit even to God or Jesus, and yet, He came for us.

We were part of His agenda, His life and His sacrifice.

Through God’s amazing grace we are counted worthy of Him. We are forgiven, we are justified. It is as if we had always been perfect; Always from eternity past without sin. The reality often times escapes us. We find that we can’t quite wrap our minds around this complete unconditional forgiveness. “There has to be something,” we cry out in frustration. “There’s always a condition, always something to do, always a goal to reach.”

But we find none. We are left with the remarkable words of Jesus “For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

A revelation as bright as the morning star; He has come for the tax collector, the thief, corporate executives, street people, athletes, hookers, addicts, IRS agents, AIDS victims, farmers, used car salesmen and most amazing of all…

He came for me.

Horse Fly

Well, its break time so I can take my nose off the grindstone long enough to share this with you... On my way in today, a heard an amusing story about Lincoln and his brother.

"One day my brother and I were plowing. I was driving the horse and my brother was holding onto the plow. The horse was usually lazy, but all of a sudden he ran across the field so fast that even I, with my long legs, had trouble keeping pace with him. When we got to the end of the furrow, I found that an enormous horse-fly had fastened upon him, causing him to bolt. I knocked the fly off. My brother asked me what I did that for, and I told him I didn't want to see the old horse bitten like that. My brother protested, 'that's the only thing that made him go."

It reminded me just how often we think we need that kind of stimulus from religion. Something to "bite" us and cause us to run in the "right direction". Some new teaching, some 5 step program, some special visitor so that we can realize what we need to do to move to "the next level" in Christ. Just give us something to do, we cry!

Thankfully, God's grace, has "knocked the fly off" so that we can stop and rest in Him. Not because of what we did, but because of what Jesus did.

Forgive Yourself

Grace upends, collapses, ruins, explodes, disassembles every single structure we devise to capture grace in. It cannot be contained within our thinking. It removes every explanation. Grace set the captives free. Grace healed the sick, raised the dead, pardoned the thief, walked on water, fed the hungry, welcomed the children, gave site to the blind, died on a cross, fulfilled the law, rose from the dead, and will return for His bride, the hope of glory!! You are forever loved, forever forgiven. Forgive yourself in His grace!

Open Cell

I’m sure you've heard this phrase more than once; “The prison doors are open, why are you still inside?” It brings to mind the mental picture of a small cell, a metal bench, with you (or I), sitting on that bench while the jail door sits wide open. No guards, cameras, barbed wire, nothing.

We are free to leave the cell… but… we don’t!

At first the reality of this behavior is impossible to grasp. Why would anyone stay confined within the cell when, we know, we’re free to leave at any time?

Jesus has set us free, yet, by our own decision, we choose to remain captive. Sounds completely nuts but…Inside the cell there is something that keeps us there. We find the cell comfortable, sensible, reassuring. We understand that we’ve entered the cell through Adam and therefore we must spend our time paying for our transgressions. We understand this “if, then” mentality. If I do this, then this will happen. The cell is conditional and we are so very used to conditions.

“Eat your vegetables, then you may have dessert.” Study hard, work hard, marry the right person. Don’t rock the boat or be prepared to face the circumstances.

Inside the cell there is the comforting reality that “I must” pay for my wrongs. That’s how it works, I do this, and this happens. It makes “sense” because an equal an opposite reaction occurs while I am confined by my condition. It is how our entire world operates.

It’s fair, it’s sensible, it’s less challenging, it shouts impartiality, but, grace bursts on the scene and blows up all our conditionality. It messes up everything and we cry out, “THIS IS RIGHT!” This doesn’t work around here!

Inside the cell, everything works the same way. There’s no difference, conditionality is what works, everyone on the same page, everyone “paying it forward.”

But, what about Luke 17:11-19?

“Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy[a] met him. They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!” When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed. One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. 16 He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan. Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?” Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”

HEY, WAIT A SECOND – This can’t be right! This doesn't work! Only one was grateful and they all were cleansed?

Not only cleansed, but when Jesus instructed them to “show themselves to the priest’ what He did was return them to society. Once the priests saw they were no longer unclean they were free to return to their families, to earn a living and stop begging, to hug their wife and children whom they hadn’t seen in years!

Jesus healed there sickness and He gave them back their dignity. Not just the repentant one. Not just the one half breed Samaritan who ran to Jesus to thank Him. Not just one but ALL TEN.

All ten received unconditional grace. All ten went home.

That’s not conditional love. That’s not “I will if you will” theology. That’s the way the world works. That never happens in our safe little cell!

God’s grace does not depend on our gratitude! God’s grace does not depend on anything we can do. God’s grace doesn't depend on our work because Jesus did the work on Calvary.

Thank you Jesus for paroling me. For setting me free from the bondage of conditional love.