forgiveness

Don’t Give Up

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This is a word for the faint-hearted and down-trodden. Don’t give up.

You may be close to giving up or throwing in the towel or calling it quits, but don’t.

You may think the storm will never abate and the sky will always be filled with dark and ominous clouds and the sun will never come out again, but it will.

Your marriage may be hanging on by the slimmest of threads. You may dread getting up each morning and going to your job. You may sometimes wonder how your life came to seem so hopeless.

But don’t give up.

You may not think anyone sees or cares, but God does. And He’s already at work.

Somedays, it feels like you’re swimming upstream and wearing yourself out while getting nowhere, but God is leading you to a place that you don’t yet know but once you get there, it will all have been worth it.

Just trust God and take the next step. That’s all.

Take it from someone who’s been there. It will get better.

 

Dumb Mistakes

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I remember vividly when I was a kid waiting for my sister. She took ballet and I would wait outside the building until her practice was over. One time, I had the genius idea and thought, “When she comes out, I’m racing her to the car.”

Lo and behold, she came out and I took off running. I didn’t stop until I sat down in the car. Then I looked up. I thought, “Hey, you’re not my sister. Hey, wait a minute, this isn’t our car.” It was probably one of the most awkward situations I’ve ever been in.

Maybe your mistake wan’t as funny. Maybe it was devastating or tragic. Maybe it ruined a friendship or even a marriage. Maybe you feel like you’re still paying for that mistake made so many years ago.

You’re not alone. Moses messed up royally. He got angry with God’s people and spoke as if he and not God were responsible for giving the Israelites water and helping them out of jams time and time again.

Then there’s David, who committed adultery with Bathsheeba, lied to and tried to deceive her husband, then finally had him killed. I think that qualifies as an epic fail.

The good news is that your story doesn’t have to end with failure. God offers forgiveness and a fresh start if you own up to what you did and are willing to change and go in a different direction.

I love what David wrote in Psalm 51 after he confessed to his own sin and repented of it:

“Generous in love—God, give grace! Huge in mercy—wipe out my bad record.

Scrub away my guilt,

soak out my sins in your laundry.

I know how bad I’ve been;

my sins are staring me down.

You’re the One I’ve violated, and you’ve seen

it all, seen the full extent of my evil.

You have all the facts before you;

whatever you decide about me is fair.

I’ve been out of step with you for a long time,

in the wrong since before I was born.

What you’re after is truth from the inside out.

Enter me, then; conceive a new, true life.

Soak me in your laundry and I’ll come out clean,

scrub me and I’ll have a snow-white life.

Tune me in to foot-tapping songs,

set these once-broken bones to dancing.

Don’t look too close for blemishes,

give me a clean bill of health.

God, make a fresh start in me,

shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life.

Don’t throw me out with the trash,

or fail to breathe holiness in me.

Bring me back from gray exile,

put a fresh wind in my sails!

Give me a job teaching rebels your ways

so the lost can find their way home.

Commute my death sentence, God, my salvation God,

and I’ll sing anthems to your life-giving ways.

Unbutton my lips, dear God;

I’ll let loose with your praise.”

All I can add to that is

Amen.

Naked

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At Kairos, Mike Glenn spoke about how Adam and Eve were naked in the Garden of Eden and unashamed. That got me thinking. How great would it be if we were all naked?

I don’t mean naked in the sense of those movies they show late at night on those pay cable channels with the cheesy background music. Not that I would know anything at all about those kinds of movies.

I mean naked where there are no masks and no facades, no faking or pretending. Where you and I can truly be ourselves, with baggage and scars and hang-ups and be accepted as we are.

A good marriage is one where each person can truly be naked and unashamed; that is, each is genuine and authentic and real and honest and vulnerable and forgiving. That’s what I long for some day.

I think the Church is also a good place for people to be truly themselves. Where you can confess to one another and not be ostracized for it. Where you are allowed to be weak and doubting and insecure and temptation-prone and still belong. Where you’re family.

The nearer you draw to God, the more you are able to be your true self, the one God made you to be and the one He is transforming you into. You worry less and less about the opinions of others and are more comfortable standing outside the popular opinions and trends.

I still love the fact that Jesus saw me at my worst and set His love on me in that moment when I couldn’t possibly be more messed up. I love how He’s seen all the hidden sins and vile thoughts and ugly attitudes and His love for me has not diminished one bit (and it never will).

My prayer for you is that you can come before God completely naked and not hiding behind religious pretense and holy words and find shelter in His love.

My Confession Booth (Stolen from Blue Like Jazz)

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image

I love the fact that they kept the confession booth from the book entitled Blue Like Jazz for the movie of the same name. I also love the fact that it is a very non-religious Christian movie.

The idea behind the confession booth is not receiving confession, but in giving one. Sorta like this.

We confess that we’ve done a poor job of representing God and Who He is. We’ve made Him in our image and had Him hate all the same people we do, people whose sins we magnify and villify because those aren’t the sins we struggle with.

We confess that we’ve made our faith a means to a political platform and getting our man elected. We’ve made our faith a means to more effectively climbing the corporate ladder and making even more money.

We confess that while we look down our noses at unbelievers, we don’t look much different. Our vocabulary and our lifestyles are too much like theirs for them to take our message seriously.

We confess that we’ve replaced the holier-than-thous with hipper-and-trendier-than thous, and made faith an exclusive club that you have to dress the right way and know the right words and the right people to be able to join.

We confess that we’re so proud of knowing God and have forgotten that the only reason we know Him is because He first loved us and revealed Himself to us. We confess that without His revelation, we’d be completely in the dark, the blind leading the blind, banging our heads against the same stone walls.

We confess that for too long too many of us have been ashamed of this Jesus who saved us and wasn’t above being made a spectacle in front of the crowds so that we could have life better than we thought was possible.

We confess that we have tried to give bumper-sticker answers to complex questions and given people Bible band-aids for deep soul wounds.

We confess that we’re not perfect people. We’re not better than anyone else or more holy or more likeable. We confess that we are the worst of sinners who have found out what it means to be forgiven and free. We want you to know what that looks and feels like, too.

I confess that I need to re-read Blue Like Jazz sometime in the near future because the movie reminded me how much I didn’t remember from the book.

I confess that it is way past my bedtime and I will turn into a flesh-craving zombie if I don’t get to bed in five minutes, so GOOD NIGHT AND GOD BLESS!

Choices

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Recently, I was scrolling through the menu guide on DirecTV’s channels. I came across a program that was called (I kid you not) “Brazil Butt Lift– The Sequel.” Riveting and intellectually stimulating, I’m sure.

What was most disturbing to me was the fact that there are two of those programs floating around out there. Was one not enough? Did you not get enough butt lifts the first time around?

We have too many choices. And contrary to what you might think, having more choices isn’t always a good thing. It can lead to paralysis of decision-making.

At Kairos Roots tonight, I learned that if you want to know if you should pursue something that isn’t either prohibited or mandated by Scripture, you ask yourself two simple questions:

1). Ask, “Is it sinful or unwise?”

2) If it’s neither of these, go for it.

You won’t always get a sign from the heavens, especially about what color shirt to wear or where to eat for lunch. Sometimes, you use the passions and desires and mind that God gave you and choose.

When I was looking for the right college, I knew when I stepped foot on the campus of Union University that that’s where I was supposed to go. The same thing happened when I drove up on the campus of Fellowship Bible Church and knew that’s where I was going to attend church services.

I have never had that feeling about Taco Bell (or even Chuy’s). Even in the Bible, sometimes people chose based on “what seemed good to me.” You can’t always wait for the fleece to turn wet or for divine handwriting in the sky on every decision.

I do know that everyday I get to choose to serve the Lord or not. I get to choose to acknowledge Him before others or to deny Him. I choose by my actions to show how much or how little He means to me.

I know that there are days when like Peter, I deny Him by the choices I make and my attitude. I also know that the next day, I get to choose all over again. I can never undo what I did yesterday or the damage it cost, but I can make better choices today.

May you and I choose to love and follow Jesus every day.

The Kingdom of God

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The Kingdom of God is like a grain of mustard, so very small in the hand, yet when planted, it becomes a tree that fills the heavens and where all the birds come to find rest amidst its branches.

The Kingdom of God is like a small pinch of leaven in a vast amount of dough that eventually penetrates every part as it causes the dough to rise.

The Kingdom of God is men and women leaving positions of importance and luxury to go live among the outcast as missionaries and bring hope to the once hopeless.

The Kingdom of God is those who leave father and mother and family and go to a strange land with only the promise of God to guide them.

The Kingdom of God is those who overcome because their testimony, the blood of the Lamb, and the fact that they were willing to give up everything, including their own lives, to gain a thousand times more in the Life to come.

The Kingdom of God is Jesus inviting all the Peters of the world, those ashamed of their betrayal and moral failures and wreckage their lives have become, and says to them, “I am entrusting My work in your hands  and giving you a new story to tell, the most  fantastic and the truest story you will ever hear.”

The Kingdom of God is the lame and the beggars and the outcasts and the nobodies of the world being chosen to the best party ever thrown, one that will never end and will only keep getting better.

The Kingdom of God is two or more, gathered in the name of Jesus, whether in a multi-million dollar church campus or in a tin hut with a dirt floor.

The Kingdom of God is here and it is advancing. No power in hell or on earth will ever be able to stop it, because nothing is more powerful than love. And Love has come and His name is Jesus.

The Kingdom of God is God ruling in the hearts of His people, taking broken lives and making them whole, taking stained souls and making them clean, taking shame and turning it to praise, taking mourning and turning it to dancing, taking ashes and turning them into beauty.

The Kingdom of God on its way and at the same time, the Kingdom of God is already here.

The Kingdom of God is NOW.

A Borrowed Easter Prayer

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“It is truly right and good, always and everywhere, with our whole heart and mind and voice, to praise you, the invisible, almighty, and eternal God, and your only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ our Lord; for he is the true Paschal Lamb, who at the feast of the Passover paid for us the debt of Adam’s sin, and by his blood delivered your faithful people.

This is the night, when you brought our fathers, the children of Israel, out of bondage in Egypt, and led them through the Red Sea on dry land.

This is the night when all who believe in Christ are delivered from the gloom of sin, and are restored to grace and holiness of life.

This is the night, when Christ broke the bonds of death and hell, and rose victorious from the grave.

How wonderful and beyond our knowing, O God, is your mercy and loving-kindness to us, that to redeem a slave, you gave a Son.

How holy is this night, when wickedness is put to flight, and sin is washed away. It restores innocence to the fallen, and joy to those who mourn. It casts out pride and hatred, and brings peace and concord.

How blessed is this night, when earth and heaven are joined and men and women are reconciled to God.

Holy Father, accept our evening sacrifice, the offering of this candle in your honor. May it shine continually to drive away all darkness. May Christ, the Morning Star who knows no setting, find it ever burning—he who gives his light to all creation, and who lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen.”

This is from The Great Vigil of Easter in The Common Book of Prayer, one of my favorite devotional/prayer books. It expresses my thoughts about Easter perfectly and I hope it becomes the prayer of your heart this Easter Sunday and every day after.

An Easter Toast Revisited

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“We raise our glasses and drink to love that never gave up.”

Easter isn’t about defeat. Probably you’ve heard that the Cross is where the devil had his way and won and the Resurrection is where Jesus came from behind and won the victory once and for all.

Ok, maybe not in those words, but something to that effect. Let me set the record straight.

The cross was a victory. Why do you think the devil tried so hard to tempt Jesus into deviating from His mission, first in the desert in the beginning and then in the garden at the end?

But instead we get to share in the spoils of the victory Jesus won. We get a share in His inheritance. When God looks at us, He sees Jesus perfection because that perfection is now ours.

I’m not perfect and I sure don’t claim to know all the answers or have every fine point of theology figured out. But I do know that once I was without hope and now I have hope, thanks to the cross.

Once I was lost and now I’m found, thanks to the cross.

Once I was a stranger and an outcast and an outsider, but now I’m family and a child of God, thanks to the cross.

Just as God raised Jesus from the dead and defeated death, I know that God will one day raise me up to eternal life, just as surely as I know the sun will rise in the morning.

I like what I read in The Book of Common Prayer today. It says what I want to say better than I could:

“O God of unchangeable power and eternal light: Look favorably on your whole Church, that wonderful and sacred mystery; by the effectual working of your providence, carry out in tranquillity the plan of salvation; let the whole world see and know that things which were cast down are being raised up, and things which had grown old are being made new, and that all things are being brought to their perfection by him through whom all things were made, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever Amen.”

That’s worth raising your glass and toasting.

 

Jesus Is Lord

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I saw two sisters get baptized today. Both had waited a while after their salvation experiences to be baptized. I can relate to that. It took from the time I got saved at age 7 until I was 18 to get baptized.

Both had a similar testimony when asked to share their story. Both said, “Jesus is Lord.”

Those three little words say so much more than most 5-minute testimonies do.

It says that my life is not my own, for I have been bought with a price. I’m not the one in charge of my life anymore. Jesus is.

It says that if Jesus is my Lord, I take Him with me wherever I go and in whatever I do. Hopefully, that will make me think about some of the places I go and what I do, whether in public or private.

It means it’s not up to me anymore to make my life make sense and to get my messes cleaned up and my future all figured out. Jesus promised He would give us a hope and a future and never leave or forsake us and finish what He started in us.

It means that I won’t be ashamed of Him when it comes my time to speak up for Him. It means that I realize that those who ridicule and blaspheme Him need Him every bit as much as I do and are just as hopeless without Him as I once was.

It means that my question to whatever Jesus asks of me from here on out will always be a resounding YES.

It means that no matter how many times before that I’ve tried and failed to live right and follow Jesus and not get caught up in every other agenda, that Jesus’ forgiveness is still available to me and I still get another chance to start over.

It means that it won’t be me trying harder to do better, but knowing that the power that raised Jesus from the dead is in me and that my hope is Jesus in me,  transforming me daily into the person He always meant for me to be.

It means that everything else in my life must bow to His authority. My money, my time, my career, my politics, my relationships, and my life belong to Him and are His to do with whatever He wants.

It means civil disobedience if the government asks me to violate what I believe in and to always stand up for those Jesus stood up for– the outcast, the poor, the broken and the needy.

In some parts of the world, saying “Jesus is Lord” is signing your own death warrant. To choose Christ and not Allah or Caesar or Karl Marx is to be cut off from family and jobs and in many cases, to lose your life. But it means finding that the only way to truly save your life is to lose it.

That’s only some of what it means to say those three little words: Jesus is Lord.

 

 

When Your Brain is all Fuzzy

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I had the flu a few days ago and I am feeling better. I still feel a bit weak and my brain feels a little fuzzy still.

Like tonight, when I stopped to use the gas station restroom. I went to the men’s restroom and found it locked. I went up to the attendant to ask for a key. It never occured to me that the reason the door was locked was that there might be someone in there.

I’m blaming that one on the flu.

Sometimes, you and I have both done and said things that make us slap our foreheads and call ourselves things like idiot or dummy (or other names I won’t print here ). Sometimes, you and I have whole days like that.

The good news is that those moments and those days pass. The good news is that you don’t get zapped into ashes for those fuzzy moments or sent back 3 spaces. You don’t lose $200 or go directly to jail, courtesty of Mr. Moneybags (which for those who have lived in a cave is in a game called Monopoly).

It’s not that I love God so very, very much. It’s that He loves me. It’s not my great big hold on Jesus that will keep me saved, but His very great big everlasting hold on me that will.

Religion is how I can get to God and do enough good things to make me acceptable to Him. Christianity says I can’t, but that He did.

I have a hard time believing sometimes that all I have to do is believe in Jesus and what He did for me, taking my sin and paying for it and satisfying God’s wrath against that sin. How His life and His righteousness are now mine. How I am not an idiot or a dummy or a sinner or an enemy or a stranger anymore.

I’m a child of God, His Beloved.

Every person alive gets the chance to know that grace and forgiveness. It all starts with saying YES to Jesus.

Will you?