I think the mentality of most Americans is that if you just try hard enough, you can do anything and you can be anything. Not so. As a pastor once said, no matter what expensive Air Jordans he wears, he will still be a fat slow white guy on the basketball court. As much as I want and will it, I will never dunk on a regulation-sized goal. At least not in this reality. You and I can’t do and be anything, but we can be exactly who God made us and do what He made us and called us for.

We’ve mixed up a sort of “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” type mentality with the gospel. The result is that if I try harder, read my Bible more, pray more, witness more, and do more, I can please God. If I jump through these holy hoops and say the right words, God will like me more.

That begs the question. How good is good enough? Will my best ever be enough? The answer is a fatal blow to our pride. We can’t be good enough, because the best of what we have to offer is what the apostle Paul referred to as “filthy rags.” In other words, disgusting. We will never be good enough.

The good news is that Jesus is good enough for both Himself and for you. His whole life was one of perfect obedience and pleasing God. He did what we couldn’t. He came to us when we couldn’t get to Him. He took the punishment for every wrong we’d ever done, every good intention gone bad, every attempt to please God that failed miserably.

Now God looks at us and sees all the goodness of Jesus. There is no need in trying over and over to do what Jesus already did. All we do is surrender and receive and say thanks. That’s a pretty good description of growing in grace– surrender, receive and say thanks.

The good news is that we don’t have to find a way up the mountain to God, but that God has come down the mountain to meet us where we are in the valley and live with us and laugh and cry with us. We couldn’t be like Him, so He became like us. Only He did it perfectly. The best news is that we get credit for His perfection and God has declared it as ours.

The gospel says that thanks to what Jesus did when He died on the cross and rose again, we are now good enough. You are pleasing to God. So surrender your own efforts to be good enough, receive what Jesus did, and live a life that shouts “THANK YOU!” in everything you do and say.

That’s all.

This is just me using my sanctified imagination and wondering what it would have been like to hear one of the discples on the road to Emmaus tell his own story.

“What’s my story? You really want to know? You may not believe it, because it will seem ridiculous and far-fetched. Even I sometimes have a hard time believing it myself, even though I was there. But here it is.

Me and my friend were walking back to a little backwater town called Emmaus. It’s one of those places you go to when you want to get lost and don’t want people to know where you are. We both were disillusioned, having seen yet another Messiah turn out to be yet another hoax. At least this one was honest. Too bad all he got for his troubles was a cross.

All I knew was that I wanted to forget that the last three years had ever happened. I didn’t want to see any of the other disciples, especially not the twelve. I was going back to my old life with a vengeance and didn’t care anymore what happened to me or anyone else.

Suddenly, this man shows up out of nowhere beside us and starts asking all these questions, like “Who are you?” and “Where are you going?” We told him all about our belief in the lastest failed messiah. He honestly acted like he hadn’t heard anything about this Jesus, like he’d been hiding out under a rock or living in a cave for three years. So we set him straight and told him everything.

Then for some odd reason that I still can’t fully explain, I invited him to stay with us a little longer. We were going to have a meal, since we hadn’t eaten all day and we had been walking since sunrise. He agreed and not only that, said he had some leftover bread and wine we could eat.

Something about the way he broke the bread triggered something in my mind. The way His eyes shone. The sound of His voice. It was like fireworks went off in my head and I truly saw him for the first time. It was Jesus, alive. Not bloody and beaten, but alive. More alive than I’ve ever seen anyone before.

He took us through the entire Torah and the Prophets, opening our eyes to what was written in them about Him. I finally understood what the true purpose of the Messiah was. I think my friend did too, by the tears gleaming in his eyes.

But suddenly, Jesus was gone. I never saw him get up and leave, but he wasn’t there, like he vanished. I felt my heart breaking, but in an oddly good way, and tears filling my eyes. Every part of me felt completely alive and I felt like I was going to burn up if I didn’t tell someone what just happened.

So here we are on our way back to Jerusalem with a story to tell. After all, that’s what a disciple is, isn’t it? Someone who’s seen Jesus and has his or her own story to tell about how Jesus changed everything?

What’s your story? Have you told anyone? I know stories like that are always worth telling (and hearing) again and again. I know I will never get tired of telling mine.

He is risen! Yes, He is risen indeed!”

It’s 11:33 pm on the night before Easter and I am looking back on some of the conversations I’ve had and thinking about what I should have said but didn’t and what I said when I should have kept my mouth shut. It seems like I can never please myself in that regard. I sense in these times that something in me just isn’t right. That I’m broken and crooked.

The answer to my brokenness and crookedness, or what the apostle Paul would call my flesh, my sin nature that dwells in me, is three little words: He is risen.

If Jesus died for my sins and stayed dead, I am still guilty. I am still condemned. I will still have to pay for all my sins some day. Even if Jesus was the best moral example and a great teacher, it doesn’t help me in the least if the stone in front of His tomb stayed put and never moved. I am still lost and without hope.

But He is risen! That means that everything He said is true. That means that He is everything He said He was (and still is!). That means that nothing will ever be the same again.

It means that you and I have hope. It means that goodbyes are not forever and failure is not final and death does not have the last word. It means that one day all that is wrong with you and me and the world will be put right and all the lies will come untrue.

He is risen! Those three words are why we celebrate Easter. Those three words trump whatever the enemy is whispering in my head right now. Because of those three words, the devil is a defeated foe and He has no more authority or right to speak into my (or your) life anymore. He may remind me of my past or my shortcomings, but all I have to do in response is remind him of his future.

He is risen! We have hope. Anything is possible. Love wins in the end. You are not hopeless and you are definitely not too far gone or past redeeming. If Jesus could defeat death on its own terms, what makes you think He can’t defeat anything you’re facing right now? He can and He will.

Celebrate that as His child, that very same power that brought Jesus out of the tomb on Easter Sunday is in you. The love that was more powerful than hate and the grave and hell was His love for you. Yes, He is risen. He is risen indeed!

I heard Tony Campolo preach this sermon at Union University. It was the last chapel service before we went on our spring break mission trips. I still think that was the best sermon I have ever heard and I distinctly remember walking away from that ready to go conquer the world for Christ.

It’s really a simple message. It’s Friday and Jesus has been crucified and hope seems lost, but Sunday is coming and that means resurrection of hopes and dreams and, best of all, of Jesus. I love that! So I think I will preach my own little sermon based on this idea borrowed from Dr. Campolo.

It’s Friday. Your sin seems so heavy and you can’t cast it off, no matter how you try. No matter how many good deeds or religious activities you do, the guilt remains. But Sunday’s comin’!

It’s Friday. You’re standing at the grave of a father or mother, brother or sister, or even a son or daughter, wondering how this could have happened. It seems so senseless and pointless and you feel like you’ve buried part of your heart with the loved one whose body lies in the grave. But Sunday’s comin’!

It’s Friday. You’re whole life is marked by your past, whether it be abuse or neglect or abandonment. You can’t move forward and you can’t forgive the person who wronged you. You know that unless something changes, you will most likely continue the same cycle. But Sunday’s comin’!

Friday means death and loss and unendurable pain. Friday means you’ve come to the end of yourself and given up hope of anything ever changing. It’s going to take all that’s within you just to make it through the night. You know your mind won’t stop racing enough for you to sleep so you lay awake and stare at the clock as the second hand slowly ticks away.

Sunday’s comin’. That means life and restoration and the end of pain. That means everything will soon be put right. That means you will be made new and you get a second chance and a clean start. The same power that raised Jesus from the dead on Sunday can be in you if you belong to Jesus. The same promise is for you and those you love that death no longer has the final word.

Sunday means that nothing could stop Jesus from finding you and rescuing you. Not torture. Not death. Not hell. Not the grave. Nothing. It means that nothing will undo what He has done. It means that nothing will ever separate you from Jesus ever again. Not even you.

Yes, it’s Friday, but the best news in the world is that SUNDAY’S COMIN’!

I learned a lot in kindergarten. Apparently, I liked it so much I went twice. That, and I was sick a lot with strep throat, which lead to tonsil removal and loads of ice cream (which is never a bad thing). There are a few things I wish I had known then that I know now:

1) It’s really OK to mess up. Failing does not mean the end of the world, whether it’s in school or the workplace or relationships or anything else. Failing doesn’t make you a failure. In fact, some of the best lessons you’ll ever learn and the most beautiful moments of intimacy with God come through failure, not success.

2) It’s really OK to be you. Warts, cooties, and all. You don’t ever have to feel second-rate or inferior to anybody. You are unique, handcrafted in God’s image by God Himself and loved by that same God more than you will ever be able to understand or get to the bottom of.

3) Your life is your own, not anybody else’s. You don’t have to measure up to anyone else’s standard of success or let anyone tell you what and where you should be right now. Married or single, on your own or still living at home, in your dream career or still searching for your place, you only have to please one person. Jesus. And here’s a news flash. If  you’ve accepted His gift of salvation, He’s pleased with you just as you are right now.

4) The best place to be in the entire world is in your Abba’s arms, knowing that your world is safely in His hands. Knowing that no matter what comes or goes, who stays or leaves, and what you gain or lose, you can believe that God will be your Eternal Refuge and Fortress.

5) Sometimes you just have to let the top down on your car or roll the windows down and turn the radio up and let the breeze blow through. Sometimes you just have to be in the moment and receive whatever God is saying to you, whether that be the people He brings you, the places He takes you, the small details you notice on the way, or snatches of songs or verses that randomly come to mind.

There are lots more things I wish I had learned earlier (and lots more blogs I could write about them). But I know that where I am is where God is and that is the absolutely best place to be in the entire universe. That’s where I want to be.

Amen and amen.

I read an Easter toast last year or possibly the year before last that I thought was perfect. “We raise our glasses and drink to a Love that never gave up.” So simple, yet so completely profound. It is in essence a toast to the gospel in its purest form: relentless love.

That’s what we’re celebrating, after all. It’s about a Love that our sin could not quench, that our failures could not drive away, that the grave could not hold down. It’s a love that not even death and hell could overcome. No person or group or religion or cult or movement since has been able to stop it.

The best part of it all is that Love came in the person of Jesus with you and me on His mind. All He went through was to find a way to woo and win your heart back to His. When He saw our need and our helplessness, He determined that nothing would stand in the way of His coming to our rescue. When He saw our sin and failure, He took it upon Himself to make us right. Literally.

He took all our sin and paid for it, and then some. Why are we still trying to pay for something that’s already been paid for? We don’t have to, but we do. It’s called religion. The good news is that Love found a way to do what religion could never and will never be able to do. What our best efforts will never be able to do. Make us right with God and make us clean and pure again.

We are justified, which I heard defined as “just as if we’d never sinned.” I like that. All that because of Love. All that because of Love for you and me.

So raise your glass and drink to that relentless love of Jesus that still pursues your heart and won’t ever give up on you, but will make you, the beloved, into something exactly like the One who loves you– Jesus.

Amen and amen

I talk to myself a lot. Out loud sometimes. Yes, I’m one of those people. And for fun, I talk to myself in a gentrified Bristish accent along the lines of a Colin Firth or Hugh Grant. I may be crazy, but at least I sound cool. And I’m getting loads of practice for my inevitable movie stardom.

Along the way, I’ve started asking myself some questions. Such as these:

Am I really willing to give up everything to follow Jesus? If He asked me to sell everything and go live in a poor African country or in the projects in some major city, would I be obedient?

Do I love Jesus so much that my love for my family and friends seems like hate in comparison?

Am I really trying to know Jesus and follow Him or am I just all about doing as many churchy activities as possible and gaining as much Bible knowledge as my brain can hold?

If I am such a big fan of grace, especially when I need it from others, am I willing to give it to others, especially when they deserve it least (and need it most?)

Do I really expect the people I work with and live with and hang out with to read my mind about what I belive, or will I put a voice to those beliefs and not just live my faith but proclaim it?

When will I stop putting off reading my Bible while I talk about it and actually read it?

I know I’m not the only one asking these questions. And I know I’m not the only one who talks to myself. You do it, too (just maybe not in a Bristish accent). I hope you start asking these and other questions. I also hope that you and I will not beat ourselves up and get discouraged over the answers we seem to find. Jesus isn’t nearly done with us and when the time comes, He will breath courage into us and give us the words to speak.

I know I fall short on a daily basis, but I also know that those failures don’t in any way lessen the love of God for me. I am still His Beloved. So are you. That won’t change, byt thanks to the grace of God and through the power that raised Jesus from the dead, you and I will. For the better!

Amen and amen.

I like the idea of an extreme makeover. Probably because I could use one. Plus I like the idea that people can change, whether it be from a new hairstyle and new clothes or better yet, from the inside out. That’s the best kind of makeover there is. The expert at these makeovers is Jesus. Here’s a few before and after snap shots to prove it.

Once you were wandering aimlessly apart from God with no purpose, but now you have a purpose and a calling greater than you or any one person. In fact, it’s the greatest single calling anyone could ever have– to be His ambassadors and lights to a dark world.

Once you were rejects and castaways with no worth to anyone and better off dead, but now you are sons and daughters to the King of the universe, worth all the blood Jesus shed to purchase you and treasured by your Maker who is also your Abba Father.

Once you were enemies of God, against everything He stands for, but now you are on His side and your name is written on His heart. You are on the side that has been promised to win, and has already won.

Once you were empty and unloved, unwanted by anyone and used up and thrown away like property, but now you are full of life and love and all of God. You are His beloved and He chose you because He wanted you.

Once you were a mess, with a broken heart and a broken life and a trainwreck of a past that most would consider beyond any hope of redemption, but now you are being made whole and being put back together by the One who made you in the first place. He knows where all the pieces go and He won’t lose one. You won’t just be as good as new, but better than you’ve ever been before. In fact, you’ll look just like Jesus.

Once you were dead. Not sick, or even comatose, but dead. You were finished. Now you are alive. Fully alive. You’ve been totally remade and the new you is fantastic. God looks at the new you and sees all the holiness and perfection and righteousness of Jesus. He looks at you and sees Jesus.

So the next time you look in the mirror and don’t like the person staring back, remember how God sees you. When you look at your life and don’t see hope or a future, believe God has promised both for you, and His word is as good as done. When you feel like a colossal failure or a mistake, understand that God only makes masterpieces and He calls you not failure or mistake, but “My beloved Son” or “My beloved daughter” and His name for you trumps what anyone else (including you) has ever called you before. Ever.

People like extreme makeovers. So let people see yours. Live in such a way that people see not just your strengths, but your weaknesses, too. Let your life prove that God can and does use anybody, not just the brave and the strong. Be a vessel that Jesus can shine through until His light and His life and His love are all that people can see. Live surrendered and available for God to use. God uses people like that to change the world. That’s the best kind of makeover possible.

Just ask the original disciples of Jesus. Ask the early church. They’ll tell you the same. The Gospel produces the most awesome makeovers ever.

Amen and amen.

I never thought I would ever say that I was a blogger. But I am. I could look at my blogging in two ways: I could be disappointed that I don’t have a vast audience by now or I could be thankful that anybody reads my ramblings that are not always coherent and sometimes a little odd. I opt for the latter.

I try to be me. I try to be honest and open and transparent, because that’s what people like me can relate to. I never have been able to relate to someone who had their world figured out and never struggled with anything and issued edicts from on high for how to live a godly life. God knows I can’t begin to relate to perfection. I can relate to failure and fears.

I don’t want to be one of those believers who use their faith for political means. I don’t want to be one of those whose god is made in their image and hates all the same people they do (thanks to Anne LaMott for that one). I want my God to transcend political parties and issues. I want people to know that God loves them passionately and can take any brokenness and make it beautiful and can turn anyone’s mess into their message (got that one from Cross Point Church!).

Yes, we are all sinners in need of grace. We all deserve hell. We are all equally broken and scarred, though some show it more and some are better at hiding it. None of us has the right to point at anyone else and write them off or despair on them.

Yet all of us who trust in Jesus find that He is more than able to take care of us, to meet our need, and to be all that we could ever hope or want and to do for us what we could never possibly do for ourselves. He is able.

So yes, I say and do stupid stuff. I am afraid and I am doubting. I have regrets of chances not taken and blessings not opened. But I have been so blessed by my God. His love has transformed me so radically that I am often amazed when I look back at my life. His love is my life.

I hope and pray you find that Jesus love can heal you, too. Maybe you will have a song to sing, a story to tell, or a blog to write. If you do, do it for the glory of God and be yourself, with all the good, the bad, the ugly, and the wierd. May God shine through you more brightly than ever so that whoever looks at you sees Jesus. That’s my prayer for me and for you.

Amen and amen.