you. are. clean.

The grace of God should really weird us out. We should find God’s kindness appalling. Some words often used are scandalous and audacious, shocking and not making much sense. God’s grace should leave us dumbfounded and confused! If it doesn’t....I don’t think you get it. Maybe you have forgotten how powerful his grace is; maybe you have forgotten you need it and live on it.

Think of the most terrible immoral act you can and realize God has forgiven people who have done such things. Many of us have gone through some stomach wrenching things in life, things which we would rather forget. I once asked my grandpa, who is a World War 2 vet, what the War was like–I wanted some cool stories!!–but he thought a moment, looked at me and said, ‘Some things should be forgotten.’ But even these things which ought to be forgotten God can forgive! Yes, the child molester, the rapist, the murderer, the spouse abuser, the dictator, the adulterer, the pimp and prostitute, the child trafficker, the legalist, the terrorist, the politician, the liar...and yes, YOU! God, through Jesus’ work, can clean even you! He can say, ‘Your sins are forgiven.’ And it be true! Getting blown away by God’s grace is a natural reaction to it because the math equation is unfair! But God did it, his love secured the Cross where Jesus died and defeated death and God’s love secured Jesus’ resurrection so we can get lost in the wilderness of love for all eternity starting now.

There is a song by the duo Shane & Shane, it is called ‘Embracing Accusation.’ It is a slow song that has a sinner being reminded via the Devil of his failures and sin. ‘He’s right’ the singer says, and he is! The Devil accuses us of our past sins and our potential to continue screwing up; ‘he is singing the song of the redeemed’ the songs goes on. The whole song is building until the crescendo which gives me goose bumps typing this out:

‘The Devil’s singing over me an age old song/
that I am cursed and gone astray/
Singing the first verse so conveniently over me/
He’s forgotten the refrain.
Jesus Saves!!’

That’s how the song ends: Jesus Saves!! Don’t you worry how it is all gonna be fixed, how you’ll put your life back together, how everyone else will react. God, through Jesus, has saved you. In the Father of all things, in the ruler of all, in his eyes you are not guilty anymore, no more shame, only grace!

Monday is for Morons: 02-20-2012

The Gospel is for you!

Do you believe it?

It is a fact, so.... deal.


Let's pretend for a moment you have a best friend, he or she is THAT person. You are two peas in a pod, you know each other more and better than anyone else. You don't have to finish one another's sentences because who wants that, really? You WOULD do anything for this person. You've experienced much of life together, gone through the fun and the easy and the tough and terrible.

What if the hardest situation and circumstance came two days ago. Your amigo in arms needed you the most, more than ever before.... and you completely abandoned them; you left your best friend in the whole world out to dry. They needed your presence and you were not where on the map; they needed your words and you were silent; they needed you and you were purposely running away?

Let's pretend your best friend is God.

The Apostle Peter didn't have to pretend, he owned this scenario; he lived it. He is the reality of this idea, its fulfillment. Peter--the rock!--told Jesus, 'Everyone else may leave you when the crap hits the fan but not me, not this guy.' It was not long after that Jesus was taken capture, tortured and killed and Peter was found in the dark, cold night writhing in bitter weeping and feeling like he betrayed the world in leaving Jesus' side. Can you imagine the thoughts that might have run through Peter's head? He confessed earlier that Jesus was it, that Jesus was the son of God, the long awaited Messiah who'd save the world! He heard the voice of God affirming these facts too. And he did not have the moxie to say he even knew Jesus, let alone die with him.

You may have a sense of this in your own life as well. You feel that your sin is another spit in the face of God. You think, 'If I REALLY loved God I would not keep failing and sinning!'

Sometimes I'm surprised that it was Judas and not Peter who ended up killing himself. To think of the guilt and depression which engulfed Peter....too much it seems.

Some days later Peter and the boys came to shore from sailing. As Peter stood on the cool sand, the smell of his lineage flowing through his nostrils he heard his future... his present; Jesus made sure that Peter knew that the God whom he betrayed loved him.

This is for you. This is the Gospel. Your sins are many, God's grace laughs at them because the punishment for those sins has already been paid for in Jesus' death on the Cross.

How Do You Categorize Yourself?

I am presently employed by a law firm here in Downtown Macon, Georgia. My first couple of weeks working I was terrified of breaking the imagined barrier that stood at the threshold of most of the Senior and Junior partners’ office doors. In their presence I felt less. I felt less than them by a lot. It wasn’t that I knew their salary, but I knew mine. Especially since I’ve watched far too many episodes of Boston Legal, in my mind there is a certain glamor and immediate status uppage when you’re a lawyer. And I am not.

We all do this in some ways. I still get slightly stressed out if someone comes through the doors wearing chic clothes. My thoughts: ‘Man, that’s so cool. I wish I could afford to dress like theat. I bet they are makin some serious cheese! Why can’t I do that?’ and the thoughts drain out in like manor.

For awhile in college I wanted to be Dr. Greg House from the TV show House. He dressed in a relaxed way, typically with a band T-shirt and a sweet blazer. Or the new James Bond... aside from a dumb sweater he wore in one of the films, he has class. Pierce as Bond was a shmuck in comparison.

Maybe it is just physical, God-given looks. I don’t want to see some pretty gal come out of the same office that I’m about to go into to have MY interview. I know how this works, especially if the interviewer is a guy. I want some loser to come out of those doors so I can feel better about my chances to nab the job I’m hoping to fill.

A lot of us care about cars. We have the ‘If I had a billion dollars to spend I’d have a ____’ idea already in mind. We care about our houses and what they convey about us. I walked into a house a few months ago that can be categorized as nothing less than a mini-castle. Everything was awesome. Nothing was broken or warn (unless it was designed to look that way). Again the thought inched into my mind, ‘What am I doing with my life. This is incredible.’

The issue is we perceive status by our eyes and ideals.

John, in one of his wordy letters, says that all that is in the world is the desire of the eyes and pride in life. Don’t get hung up and hear what he is not saying. He is not saying this earth we live in is a burning piece of fire with nothing good or redeemable. RATHER, he is saying that the world, the way that is not God’s way, is dictated by our eyes and tainted desires. John gets it. He is old at this time. He knows how things work. After infancy we do not suddenly STOP seeing then reacting with an internal ‘Oooooooo, I want that!’ We just hide it better now. And it is not always bad either!

I’m a Gentile. How Ya Doin?

Last night I taught a few willing listeners about some of the things the Apostle Paul is talking about in his letter to the Saints in Ephesus, specifically the second chapter, verses 11 through the end.

There is a lot going on in this passage and I’m not starting it all up. One point, however, stuck out to me, it glared and glistened as it dribbled out of my mouth last night: I’m doubly undeserving of God’s grace.

The Jews, as Paul talks about in Romans 3, were some privileged dudes. They had all the oracles and promises of God; they had the Temple; they had–for good and bad–the whole history; they had Abraham and Isaac and Jacob; they had their promised land and their circumcision (yikes!). The Gentiles (this includes myself and probably most of you), by contrast, had nature... boom! Yea. That is about it. Paul talks in Romans 1 that the Greeks had nature to reveal to them the God of the Universe and even that truth we all suppressed....umm....I think with their divine inspiration the Israelites had a leg-up in this case.

So thinking about the fact that no human being had the right to be called God’s children (first part of Ephesians 2), we can throw some more impossible into this cake and say that Gentiles (non-Jews) were not even a consideration for this dance.... we weren’t even a name that had been crossed-out, we were not even written down in the first place!.... or so it seems.

In Romans 9 and onward Paul discusses how Gentiles were the most unlikliest of unliklies to receive the blessing and mercy and grace of God’s salvation. No one deserves God’s mercy. But if anyone did it was the Jews. And here I am, as Gentile as a pork sandwich on Passover Day, receiving daily the full benefits of Jesus’ sacrifice on the Cross and the glory of his resurrection. This is amazing! Now go ponder how great you are in light of that (pour me some sarcasm, please!)