Nothing means nothing

I was visiting a church one morning with a friend. We decided to go to Sunday School (we were in college so I think it was only because we both miraculously woke up earlier enough to go). I have no recollection of what the lesson was about. But one ending comment has remained ingrained in my thoughts: ‘Now the end of Romans 8 says a lot of things, but it does not say WE can’t squirm out of God’s hand.’

As I picked my jaw off the ground I was wondering if what I heard was actually said. So I asked my friend and his reaction was similar to mine. This ‘teacher’ was trying to ruin people’s lives!!

Paul, at the end of Romans 8, spouts off a list of things which do not have the power or authority to undo what Jesus said was done. The list is not meant to be exhaustive but to encompass everything and anything, things which we do not even perceive or understand to believe. Particularly to this situation I’d highlight Paul’s words ‘anything else in all of creation.’ This Sunday School teacher got it dead wrong. Nothing, no power, no entity, no other will is able to mark out Jesus’ words and statement of fact and reality ‘It is finished!’ No, lowly and down-on-yourself individual, not even you can slide out of God’s promise.

When God does it we can, in this instance, with relief say, ‘What’s done is done and nothing can change it.’ When we think we can unravel God’s plans and promises we must not know the God in the Bible and we must not know the power of Jesus, both then and now.

We sin a lot. Sin is despicable and deplorable and wicked and counter-good. God has completely forgiven his children though our eldest brother’s payment for us: Jesus really pay it all, it is not just a song.

Monday is for Morons: 12-12-2001

I woke up to the insistent dribbles of rain forcing their way to ground. Not only was it raining, but it is almost cold enough to make snow. What a lousy combo. I don't know about you but on a day like this I'd rather sit around a fire and drink something hot as I engulf myself into a great read... NOT go outside and do something.

Remember John in the New Testament? Not Jesus' brother who probably wrote 5 books of the Bible; the other one, the one who dressed like Tarzan mixed with an Eskimo and baptized people. Well he was put into prison and knew things would probably not end terribly well for him. I imagine him in some feces infested cell, darkened by some Mid-Eastern night, wondering about that guy everyone was calling Jesus: 'I wonder if he really is it; I wonder if he really is the one we have all been waiting for.'

Maybe you are wondering the same thing. Maybe you you're just feeling . . . bleh. On a cold, raining day it is easy to feel blasé. Well John, instead of wondering until his head fell off, sent some of his dudes to go ask Jesus if he was 'it,' the Messiah Israel was waiting for. Jesus answered them by telling the messengers, 'Report back to John what you yourself are seeing. I heal the corrupted and I preach good news to the poor.'

Jesus is the Messiah not only Israel, but the whole world, YOU, have been waiting for. It is okay to have blasé Mondays because Jesus is come. And for those who would come to HIM with their broken-down lives full of disgusting and many sins he will forgive. He has footed the bill already. And he will continue to do so for all time.

Don't let the day moderate your heart, go to Jesus who is full of mercy.

Monday is for Morons: 12-05-2011

The weekend has conceded. The week greets you. Hopefully this realization isn't surprising--cause you're probably late to wherever you need to be--and hopefully this remembrance isn't too depressing.

Sure, it may have been a lousy weekend. Maybe a lousy week. Maybe a lousy month or so . . . . /year. That's okay. You're allowed to feel glum, I promise. But let's remember today what the opening of Psalm 118 says, 'Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever.'

Why give thanks to God? Because if you are a follower of Jesus, his son, you are loved by him. The love that God has for his people, his children is one that doesn't go out, one that never shrinks, his love is always as intense as when you first realized it, as hot as when it first came out of the oven. You have sinned a lot, me too. But we can still follow God, we can still turn back to him . . . only because his love is more durable than that.

As the song goes, his love 'will not let me go.' Do you believe that? You may fail, but God's love is there for the taking. Always. You cannot sin so big that God will forsake you, no! We hate sin so much BECAUSE he loves us so much. Our sin does not have the final say, God's mercy does.

monday is for morons: 11-14-2011

Have you ever been trapped? Stuck somewhere, in something and you did not know if you were ever going to be able to escape? Maybe if you have ever gotten an MRI and you slide in that small space you freak out for a moment. I had a reoccurring dream where I was swimming in a long pool and there was a sea creature always coming to get me and I could never get away! (thankfully I always woke up before I died)

Sinning can make you feel like this. 'I did this sin again: I will never win!' Or maybe you just came to the realization that you sin a lot and you cannot handle it: 'how could God love me?' Or maybe you look around at the world and see how distraught and dysfunctional it is and lose all hope and want it all to be over. Either way, we can feel trapped by sin. We can feel like its avalanche has fallen on us and we are counting down our breathes underneath a city of snow.

The ironic thing is that if you are a follower of Jesus, you are trapped by God's love! You cannot escape IT. You are coffined in by it. You are drowned by it. Psalm 23 concludes with: goodness and mercy me are CHASING me. You're the Pac-man and God's grace is the little ghosts that will never stop--and they get you all the time. God's love is that avalanche, not sin.

You see, because of what Jesus has done in dying for you you are not guilty of your sin anymore! 'But you don't know me! I have dark sins that are huge that God cannot ever forgive if he had eternity to do so!' Maybe I don't know you and maybe you have some serious issues but God can and will forgive you if you'd just go to him. God not only created you but the entire world and universe, every galaxy. HE WILL FORGIVE YOU IF YOU GO TO HIM. Jesus became like us so that we could be with God again. He became human so we could be holy. He died so we could have eternal life. He loved so we could love. He suffered so we could be comforted in our suffering. He rose from death so we too could rise from death. He was counted and called 'CURSED!' so that he could BE US in death and ruin the effects of sin for us!

There is no sin too big, too hideous, too appalling, too odd and repeated that God cannot or will not forgive. How can this be? It is only because of Jesus' work for us. You're not going to be perfect . . . ever in this life. I sin a lot! Much more than I care to. Everyone sins a lot everyday. So let's go to our God and get some forgiveness today, for now our running is from God's mercy, not his wrath.

he gives us so much

2 Peter 1.3 says, 'God's divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.'

I don't know if you have ever seen a fighter jet in flight. It is amazing. They move much faster and with more precision than anything else in the air. They make airline jets look like a flying snail. These fighter jets can do amazing things. They can only do amazing things though if they have a pilot guiding them who knows what these machines are capable of and ALSO how to properly use the great machine. If the pilot is useless the whole vessel is useless.

We have the fighter jet spiritually. God has given us everything we need. This comes through Jesus. As someone has said, we don't need to learn how to jump higher we need to fly and only the Gospel of Jesus dying on sinner's behalf, sinners like myself, can make us fly. We have the jet.

Why is it then that we seem to flounder around? We seem to keep doing the same sins over and over. We seem to not trust God. We become anxious. We think we are made for happiness only. We could go on. If 1 Peter 1.3 is true, why are these other things true?

It is NOT that the cockpit of the fighter jet is complex and confusing and we just need to learn more and more before we can fly. No. I think it is that we don't believe the jet. We don't believe the Gospel. It seems too good to be true. If the Bible means what it says . . . no, we have learned better: if something is too good to be true than it probably is [too good and not true].

I understand. But here is the deal: it is either real and seemingly too good or it is nothing. There is no between. You're either barrel rolling in an F-16 or trying to jump a few more inches.

No matter what your upbringing tells you, the Gospel is real. The Bible means what it says in ALL its fullness. No matter what your life has looked like in the past and no matter how you may fall in the future, if you go to Jesus, needing Jesus and trusting Jesus you are Jesus' brother, you are a child of the God who created the galaxies and the gardenias in the yard. It is all true.

So what do you say we step in the jet again and stop jumping?

Monday is for Morons

What makes you a Christian--if you claim to be one? Is it all the good or admirable things you have done . . . or thought about doing? Mmmmm, no. Maybe it is your sincerity in whatever you do end up doing. That's kind of dumb--sorry. Ugh, maybe you are a Christian because you were baptized, or you say your prayers; OH! You are a Christian because your parents are, and they still go to church sometimes. You DO have that tattoo that could be interpreted as spiritual, and Christianity is spiritual.

Okay. That is weak. Let's see . . .


Maybe you are pretty good. You read your bible a lot. You pray not only for yourself but for other people. You even (watch out now) GIVE MONEY TO THE CHURCH!

When I became a Christian and started trusting Jesus I knew next to nothing. I knew what the bible was and could misquote you some funny sounding bible verses--'eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow will be like today or far better!'--I liked that one. I did not know big confusing sounding words like theology, soteriology, ecclesiology, blah blah blah. While these big words are helpful, they did not save me.

Somewhere along the line of life after my salvation I began understanding some more things in the bible. I read some thick books. I started learning those big words. As this happened a terrible and stupid OTHER thing happened as well: I started believing that other people were not REAL Christians until they knew the things I knew. Can you believe it!? I just tried to disqualify my own salvation. What a goof I was. Thankfully God softly back-handed me in the face and allowed me to see how silly I was thinking about things.

You need not be some scholar sporting a sweater vest and a mean beard. You do not even need to know one verse in the bible by memory! You do not need to have all your stuff together. You do not need to clean up your act. You do not need to do anything really.

Jesus says he came to save people who knew well that they needed saving. They knew they were SOL without someone helping them. Don't put your hope of salvation in your actions or thoughts or a scale--I did not do too much bad stuff. Put your hope in Jesus again. He is probably the only one who truly and completely and with empathy knows all you're going through and still loves you fully.

Was Jesus Serious?

I was able to attend a thrilling college football game a few years ago. The home team was down all game long. It was now the fourth quarter and the home team was still down by four points with only 3 minutes left. The home team had the ball. They were driving down the field. The suspense was building. The whole stadium was willing a win. The quarterback dropped back and in an instant released the ball. Into the receivers hands the ball fell and into the end zone went the receiver. Touchdown. For a brief moment there was so much unhindered emotion that sound itself disappeared. Everyone had their mouth open; veins were bulging; I had not an atom of oxygen remaining in my body, but no noise. The sound was so loud that for that moment our ears could not handle it. Everyone in the stadium immediately went hoarse. The whole game we were waiting for this!

Could you imagine in this moment that I turned and looked at my friend next to me, one who I know breathes this same team, who lives and dies by the success of this home team, could you imagine if I saw my friend with both arms extended with thumbs pointing down booing the success of his team? Confusing? Shocking? Angering?

In Jesus’ parable of two brothers found in the Gospel of Luke, the 15th chapter, verses 11-32, the young, foolish, sinful, bad, rebellious brother was considered dead; literally gone and done with were the thoughts regarding this young man. As it ends up he is alive and comes home and as any loving father would do, once he found out his boy was alive and well the father kissed him, accepted him back in to the family, made it clear that he loved his son by throwing an over lavish and expensive party. Jesus says that this is the kind of rejoicing that goes on in heaven when a sinner comes home—when one realizes he is never going to make it, that he needs God and the grace and comfort his love brings. The stadium is erupting with joy. The cheering so loud you cannot hear. Everyone is cheering. Everyone one, except . . .

The religious elite in Jesus’ day were not happy with how gracious Jesus was portraying God to be. ‘Of course we are only saved by God’s mercy alone’ they would say—and believe!—‘but you must also be good.’ They are the fan booing when the whole Kingdom of God is beside themselves in happiness. They are booing because they are not satisfied. They think that if God’s grace is for the prostitute, the drunk, the homeless guy who doesn’t take showers, the one who killed another, the single mom, the . . . ugh . . . ordinary; if God’s grace is for THEM than it is not special, they think.

God’s grace is shocking. God chooses to love those who are the social outcasts, the failures in life. He is not just for the rich, not just the blue collared but the bottom of the barrels. Not only does God love those but he loves those who already had their moment of realization, who already spent their first chance . . . and the 17 that came after. He keeps loving them. God’s love is for all. You cannot win it. You cannot outgrow it. You cannot earn it. You cannot lose it. You cannot expand it. You cannot detract it.

The Pharisees did not like what Jesus was saying about the Father’s mercy because they suddenly realized that they had absolutely nothing to do with it. They saw their hierarchy was a farce. They saw that in God’s eyes a king was just the same as a poor, homeless Jew who was called a bastard his whole life. They were booing God.

Monday is for Morons

I have forgotten the Gospel again. I have forgotten that I do not have to sin anymore. I have forgotten that Jesus was forgotten so that I could be remembered by the Father.

Maybe you found yourself this weekend in places where sin seemed to be all you knew. Friend, Jesus died for you.

Did your football team blow it so you blew up at everyone? Were you the one who had the opportunity to forgive someone else but instead you chose to make them feel as bad as they made you feel? Did you say something that you feel unraveled everything you tried to teach your own, little, impressionable kids? Did you lose hope this week? Were you the one who knew you were going to sin, had time to not sin, yet continued on ignoring the EXIT sign? Maybe you said to yourself, 'I just do not care enough.' Maybe you said, 'I don't think God exists anymore.' . . .

Maybe you cheated on your spouse. Maybe you cheated on your taxes. Maybe you killed someone in your heart; maybe you killed someone and are going to be in prison the rest of your life. You looked at porn again. You got that abortion this week. You told your best friend she could 'go to Hell' then sounded happy and laughed the very next minute on the phone.

Friend, Jesus knows. Jesus knows and that is precisely why he died. Jesus did not die for the 'polite' social sins; Jesus did not die for certain kinds of sin; Jesus died to experience God's wrath on your behalf for each and every individual sin you will ever commit from lying to lynching. You cannot outrun God's grace, it is a tsunami, a treaty of kindness, a promise that will not be annulled or void, it is your shadow.

Mondays typically suck. I typically forget how present and persistent the Gospel is. I typically emphasize sorrow and not Jesus' success. Well Jesus died for our doubts too.

He tells us all our sins our forgiven . . . yup, even that one he has fully placed on his tab and paid for already.

A Happy Hope

We cannot exist if hope is absent. As someone once put it, 'suicide is not motivated by selfishness or irrationality, but a complete and total loss of all hope.' Presidents campaign on hope; we continue working because of some hope that we will continue to be employed; we dream because we hope there can be a different outcome; we live because we have been convinced, by one thing or another, that there is something still worth living for. We all need hope.

The Apostle Paul, in his letter to his friend Titus, gives a swift sketch of the hope Christians have. In the New Testament book of Titus, the Second chapter, verse 13, Paul says that Christians are 'waiting for our blessed hope.' Blessed is a translation from the common Greek Paul wrote in, it is a word that is worth understanding.

We can think of a ton of things when we here blessed, from license plates to a pro athlete in a post-game interview; but here, in this context, with this particular word the Apostle uses, blessed means 'happy.' It is not some secret or mystical happiness, nope, just the real, genuine, smile-on-the-face, I feel good happiness.

Why should the Christian hope be a happy one? Paul goes on to say that the hope is the appearing of Jesus Christ--remember Jesus lived on earth, was murdered, but then killed death itself and rose back to life and is in Heaven until he comes back. When Jesus comes all the promises in the Bible for the followers of Jesus will be fulfilled; when Jesus comes all the wrong and injustice will be corrected and be brought aright. The Christian has a hope that is eternal, a hope that is already fulfilled yet it is not fully realized yet, it is still in queue. A Christian does not have to wait for the full fulfillment of his or her hope to presently be satisfied and gratified. The Christian, in the hope we have in Jesus, is already on the boat and sees the end only a mile or two away and the joy in the realization, the happiness, compels us to keep going now, to love when revenge would be normal now; to give when saving would be acceptable now; to hope when all other hopes falter like a wet piece of tissue paper trying to hold a bowling ball.

We Christians have a happy hope that we want and beg all the world to know and to posses. We hope in Jesus Christ.