'Jesus came to undo what Adam so disastrously did...'

Grace. John Newton called it amazing. He was right. But sometimes I forget why. What makes it amazing? It is almost like good health: I don’t, with awareness, appreciate it all the time, but when I finally get over that cold or the flu finally breaks THEN I see how great my good health is.

Saved from what? This is a book title but also a great question. Sin is deteriorating our world like time rots an apple. I realized yesterday that I forgot how bad, gross, grotesque, wrong, deadly, dark, painful, hurtful and harmful, haunting and horrifying, sick and unsavory sin is. One sin. Just one sin and the entire universe was thrown off kilter and everything suddenly had an expiration date. When I was younger I often thought of how many shin-kicks Adam would receive in Heaven: ‘I made it to Heaven, no thanks to your efforts, Adam’ Whack! Think of this. Each individual sins–goes against God’s way he ordered things or commanded them to be–many times in one day; each ‘little’ sin has the power to kill the universe; no wonder we are a mess!

All of society and humanity is not one big happy Brady bunch family chillin on earth like some continuous beach vacation. We are killing each other. Sin affects everyone and everything around you. You think you are keeping it to yourself; you think you are containing it so it only affects you? That’s like what I use to do when I was three: if I close my eyes no one can see me. Sorry, but you trying to be sovereign over your own sin isn’t working. It isn’t working for me either. We all see it. Adam and Eve tried hiding behind some trees after they sinned; they tried containing and running away from their disobedience, avoiding it like it didn’t happen. But sin literally killed everything.

Funerals are so hard because death, though normal, is unnatural. Sin did that. It made something beautiful into something gross. It pained what once was jubilant and happy; it distorted good; it high-jacks righteousness. We think, like many characters in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, that we can control sin like they thought they could control the ring. But it always ends up controlling us. We become ITS slave and sin OUR master.

What’s so amazing about grace? It saved us from all of this. We are no longer under that realm; there is something more real than that: Jesus Christ. From all of this he saved us to walk with him eternally in what the Garden of Eden was supposed to become. Only in Jesus can the consequence of sin be unplugged and powerless.


‘[Jesus] came to undo what Adam so disastrously did, and lead us back through the jungle to the garden. He crossed the ravine, the unbridgeable gulf between sinful man and holy God.’ [[Sinclair Ferguson]]

something far more interior: faith expressed in love

There is much in the book of Galatians but the paramount issue is what the Gospel of Jesus Christ is and isn’t. Paul is furious in the letter and a big part of his wide-eyed name calling is that some scum bags were trying to be extra spiritual and say you weren’t a Christian if you didn’t follow their lead. Pious Christians can easily read this now and be appalled at those who demanded circumcision as part of salvation... yet we do the same thing all the time. There is always the, ‘If I had Jesus plus ____’ then I’d know I’m REALLY saved; or the, ‘She does [or doesn’t do] _______ so she MUST not be saved.’ We like outward indicators. All of us do, no exception.

But Paul says in Galatians 5 that the Gospel has something to do with a far more interior issue: faith working through love: the issue of the heart. (I hear you mumbling your counter arguments of citing James and Micah 6.8 and so on, hold your britches and listen). The Message puts a section of Galatians 6 very clearly: ‘[Those who would try and add to the Gospel] want an easy way to look good before others, lacking the courage to live by a faith that shares Christ's suffering and death. All their talk about the law is gas. They themselves don't keep the law! And they are highly selective in the laws they do observe. They only want you to be circumcised so they can boast of their success in recruiting you to their side. That is contemptible’

No need to cut things off. Jesus is enough. There is not some secret spiritual key that if you do God has to love you more (remember that whole Jesus dying for you and raising from the dead thing?). No more hoops to jump through. Jesus did it for you. You want to memorize Romans? Okay. You can’t use it to leverage against God though (and this should free you that if you sputter and forget about it for a week or year you can start up again, no condemnation [chapter 8]).

I think it is easier for us to control our outward actions and appearance and so we make those things the standard for salvation or justification or sanctification or our standing with God (or someone else’s); outward actions are easy to compare and I like comparing myself–wrongly–to other people so I can make sure I’m okay with God. A lot of the Pharisees and these bozos in the Galatia region and our own hearts are living in fear when we attempt to lower God’s standard of perfection into a few simple rules. We are terrified that Jesus isn’t enough. But he is.

What seems most wild and elusive, like trying to ride and untamed stallion, is our own heart. Yet this is where the magic happens, this is where God brings the change. We are told that God exchanges the old heart and gives a new one that actually wants to follow his way.

People were always asking Jesus if he was the One and as proof they always wanted signs. Jesus was usually pretty ticked at the interrogation. Salvation is here. It comes through what Jesus did. See it. Bask in it. Don’t you dare water it down with your rules either, for if you steal a Christian’s joy by confusing the Gospel with your rules God will crush you.

the years of silence

Hi. I’m impatient. I was told once that the amount of patience contained in my body wouldn’t be able to fill a thimble, but I don’t have time for such comments (see what I did there?). This past weekend I heard about am album by Eric Church, so when I went to the bathroom during the wedding reception I was attending I started the download and it was done before the brand new couple jumped in the back of the limo. I like that if I have questions I can look them up on my iPhone or someone else’s iPad or in general a computer if you’re not trendy enough. I need groceries? I’ll either steal my roommates or go immediately in my car and get them, no problem.

But I have this little problem. It is between me and God. And I may not be the only one. You see he doesn’t run off my time. Actually, according to me, he’s always late and has changed the plans. (If I was more emotional I’d rip my hair out.) But, like I said, I am not the only one who had to wait on God.


Lets look at some folks in the Bible:

We shall first look at Abram.

God: Leave your country.
Abram: Where are we going?
God: I’ll let you know when we are there.

And God was silent for a few years.... nothing....no words...no further confirmation to Abram that he STILL was doing the right thing.


Second we have Joseph.

Joseph spent his teens and early adult life pretty much a slave who’d continually get screwed over by people. He spent considerable time in prison looking as if his God couldn’t give a rats about him. When things looked promising his dreamed were crushed.


Third we have Moses.

Moses was a rich kid who killed someone and then ran away from it all. For something like 40 YEARS he did not hear from God once but lived a normal Middle Eastern life walking sheep around all day... kinda like he’d do later I guess.


Finally we have Naomi.

God strangely showed Naomi how much he loved her by causing a famine and killing her husband and two sons. For YEARS she remained bitter at God–she asked her friends to call her Bitter because she felt God demolished her. Years!! Years, people!! That is everyday I wake up and it is the first thing I think about: ‘God, what are you doing?!’ Or just coming to ignore God.


With all of these examples, though, God showed up. Where he promised he made good on the promises. Where he seemed to be unkind he unfolded time to reveal how he had been affectionately loving the whole way through.


Often we get the wrong idea of examples like these four. We look at them and wrongly conclude, ‘Well, dang it, if they can do it so can I!’ I hope your bootstraps break today. Seriously. We need to look at examples of people like this and be blown away at God. How he remains true to his word. He doesn’t need to constantly remind: he speaks and it is forever true. But he DOES constantly remind us that he is there, if we will see with faith and not feelings or visible manifestations.

Are you abandoned, confused, hurt, in the dark, feeling alone, feel like you just aren’t gonna make it another day, sensing that you can’t add up?

Cheer up, you’re worse than you figured.
But cheer up, God is greater and more good than you can imagine.

He is still with us.

Jesus went through the annuls of eternity and ate up all the records for those who would believe in him. But while he was doing that he was under God’s real silence and real abandonment. On our behalf Jesus willingly went through the worst absence of God’s goodness we could ever imagine. Now we get all the benefits of being God’s child. Jesus was struck brutally like a pinata in every way–spiritually physically, mentally, emotionally and psychologically–and what came bursting out of him was eternal life and present joy for all who’d fall on his grace in need.

you have only to be silent

‘The LORD will fight for you, and you have only to be silent’


upon hearing this statement I expect to hear a stream of caveats, some hoops to jump through, a ton of prerequisites I’ll never do... Instead, the people are and the LORD does.


This verse comes from the book of Exodus, 14th chapter, verse 14. The scene is God just delivered the former enslaved people, the Hebrews, out of the hand of the Egyptian Pharaoh. Then Pharaoh has an ‘Oh crap!’ moment as he realizes he just lost all of his manual labor for his country. So Pharaoh gets all his warriors and they chariot-up and pursue those Hebrews like they just made a ‘yo momma’ joke about Ra or something.

The Hebrews see the cloud of furry with angry faces and swords poking out and deduce that it is coming for them. So naturally they whine and throw some sarcasm at God, ‘Were there not graves in Egypt for us to die in?’ But instead of obliterating his chosen people, God says, ‘Sit down, find your pacifier and watch me work!’

The conclusion is familiar to most. God parts the red sea; the people of Israel make to the other side free of harm; the people of Egypt get eaten by the water.

Wait. So God actually did what he said? Yes. God did what he said.

Sometimes (not all the time or every time) we want to do so much for God because we want to control our lives and destiny so badly. We ask how we can make the best use of the time...... so we do and do and do and do until we run out of energy and die and people praise our legacy for how great we were at being efficient and hard working and dedicated and standing up for Jesus! When sometimes God was saying, ‘Shut up. Sit down. Watch me work.’

‘But GOD!’ we reply ‘Me. I. My. I. Me... you need me in your kingdom!!’

That noise is God laughing.

‘What can we do for salvation?’ The people of Israel cried. Nothing.

‘What can we do for salvation?’ We all cry. Nothing.

It is a great thing that God says to Moses as he did to Adam as he did to Abram as he does for us, ‘I will save you; sit back and enjoy me.’

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!