gospel

Deep Breaths

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I used to be afraid of the deep end of the pool. I think it started when I was little and wandered into waters that were above my head. I panicked and started freaking out, even though the ladder to get out of the pool was literally right behind me. All I could think about was being stuck in the water and not being able to breathe.

Sometimes, anxiety will sneak up on you like that. You feel the worry starting to take over. You feel yourself slipping closer and closer to the edge, about to go under. I’ve had moments in the past where I was paralyzed with anxiety and unable to do anything or think clearly.

But sometimes it helps to take some deep breaths. Focus on breathing in and breathing out. Say a short prayer as you inhale and exhale. Focus on the Father instead of the fear. You can say something like “Abba Father” as you breathe in and “I belong to You” as you breathe out.

That doesn’t make everything suddenly perfect. The fear is still there, but it no longer has the loudest voice in the room. Suddenly, you remember that God is for you, and if He is for you, who can be against you. You remember that the Lord is a safe place, a refuge and a strong tower in time of trouble. You bring to mind that God will never forsake His chosen ones or allow the righteous to be shaken.

Worry may be the default setting, but it doesn’t have to take root, It doesn’t have to have the last word. Jesus can speak peace over you and fear has to flee. Whatever you’re worried about will inevitably end, but the love of God will not. Take a few more deep breaths and cling to that hope.

The Gospel

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“THE GOSPEL IS BAD news before it is good news. It is the news that man is a sinner, to use the old word, that he is evil in the imagination of his heart, that when he looks in the mirror all in a lather what he sees is at least eight parts chicken, phony, slob. That is the tragedy. But it is also the news that he is loved anyway, cherished, forgiven, bleeding to be sure, but also bled for. That is the comedy. And yet, so what? So what if even in his sin the slob is loved and forgiven when the very mark and substance of his sin and of his slobbery is that he keeps turning down the love and forgiveness because he either doesn’t believe them or doesn’t want them or just doesn’t give a damn? In answer, the news of the Gospel is that extraordinary things happen to him just as in fairy tales extraordinary things happen. Henry Ward Beecher cheats on his wife, his God, himself, but manages to keep on bringing the Gospel to life for people anyway, maybe even for himself. Lear goes berserk on a heath but comes out of it for a few brief hours every inch a king. Zaccheus climbs up a sycamore tree a crook and climbs down a saint. Paul sets out a hatchet man for the Pharisees and comes back a fool for Christ. It is impossible for anybody to leave behind the darkness of the world he carries on his back like a snail, but for God all things are possible. That is the fairy tale. All together they are the truth”(Frederick Buechner).

That’s the beauty of the gospel. The same good news that gets you in the door will be the path you walk up to heaven and the password that gets you in the gate. None of us ever outgrow our need of the gospel. We need to preach it to ourselves every day, multiple times a day, or we’ll start to think that we’re good enough for God or clever enough to believe in the right things or saintly enough to make it to heaven on our own.

But the gospel says this: You can’t, but God can. You tried, you failed, but God gave you His success and took your failure. None of us can ever get to God by any road or by any means, but God in Jesus has come down to us. That’s the gospel.

You Really Like Me?

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“Lord, when I don’t like me,

You still love me, You still like me, You still lavish me with acceptance.

When I am fed up with me, You invite me to Your feast,

When I am done — with me, with life, with everything,

You whisper, ‘Hang on — I am making *all things* — *you* — new.’ (Rev21:5)

And when I want to quit, You cup my face: ‘This great work I started in you? I won’t stop that beautiful work until you are fully, completely, gloriously beautiful’ (Phil1:6, 1Cor2:7)

So this becomes our brave & broken-hearted hallelujah, the one we sing into the dark, even when it’s hard to believe:

I am His Beloved, His Beloved, His Beloved… and even now I will be held.

In the name of the only One who loved us to death & back to the real & forever life… Amen” (Ann Voskamp).

I think we can have a harder time accepting the fact that God likes us than believing He loves us.

We can say that God loves me because He has to. He’s God. It’s His job. We can think of a million and one reasons why God must love us.

But saying that God likes us? That He actually wants to be around us and spend time with us? That’s a whole different story.

But it’s true. God loves me AND likes me. Even when my parents don’t like me? He does. Even when my spouse doesn’t like me? He does. Even when my kids don’t like me? He does.

God loves and likes you because He made you and redeemed you. He spoke you into life and then gave His life to bring you back to life.

Lord, thank Your for loving me. Thank You for liking me, You didn’t have to like me, but You did . . . and You still do. Everything I am is because of You. Amen.

Be a Tom

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I’m still loving my return visit to Downton Abbey. It hits different when you know how everything and everyone turns out, plus the setting and the extraordinary attention to detail still stands out.

My favorite character is probably Thomas Branson. I didn’t like him much when he first showed up, but he had the best character arc of anyone in the series. He mellowed quite a bit and lost some of the self-righteousness that made him a but annoying in the beginning.

I love how he comes to the place where he’s finally able to speak truthfully but in a loving way. And isn’t that what we all need — to have the truth spoken in love?

I think everyone should have a Tom in their lives. We need someone in our corner who goes to bat for us, so to speak. We need a champion who will fight for us and believe for us when we can’t believe for ourselves.

But we need someone who will tell us the truth. We need someone who will firmly but gracefully help us to see our own blind spots and gently remind us when we’re not our best selves.

It seems like the best movies and series are that way because they all point to something beyond themselves. In this case, the clear reference is that the character shows what Christ is like for us.

I don’t mean to imply that Downton Abbey is by any means a Christian series or that the character Tom is in any way a type of Christ. But it seems that the way he is able to show both grace and truth is something that definitely points to what Jesus does for us.

When confronted with a woman caught in adultery, Jesus showed mercy. He didn’t stone her or allow her to be stoned by others. He told those with rocks in their hands to throw them if they themselves were sinless. Not one did.

He also spoke to the woman to show that while He did not condemn her, He did not condone her. He told her to go and sin no more. She was free from the penalty of her sinful choices, but that was a freedom not to do whatever she wanted but to choose a better way of living — a righteous way of living.

We too should be willing to tell and be told the truth. I’d be lying if I said that I’m the first to say it and the last to receive it well when it comes my turn. I’d rather not be told that I’m in the wrong, but sometimes I need to hear it. We all do. To enable someone in a lie or concealed truth is not love but denial.

Lord, make us people who love truth because You Yourself said that You are the truth. Help us to be truthful always, but in as gracious and loving a way as You have been to us when You showed us the truth. Help us to bring out the best in each other because that’s what You do for us. Amen.

Wrong to Worry?

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“It is not only wrong to worry, it is real infidelity because it means we do not believe God can look after the little practical details of our lives; it is never anything else that worries us” (Oswald Chambers, Studies in the Sermon on the Mount).

First of all, I plead guilty. I am a worry wart much of the time. If I don’t catch myself, I can see myself imagining all sorts of worst case scenarios that almost never come to pass. I can work myself up into a good state of anxiety.

But what does my worry accomplish? Does it actually make my problem go away? Does it improve my situation even a little bit? Or does it keep me from making sensible and rational decisions?

Note: it’s one thing to worry and quite another to have anxiety brought on by chemical imbalances. Everyone has anxious thoughts, but what matters is what you do with them, or where you take them.

I heard the analogy that thoughts are like birds. It’s one thing to let them fly over, but another entirely to let them land in your hair and built a nest. The best way is to take them to God. The Bible calls it taking every thought captive. Don’t let it rule in your head and in your heart. Determine to think about things that are good and lovely like it says in Philippians 4:8.

You don’t want to worry. You also don’t want a Pollyanna type theology where you pretend that your anxiety doesn’t exist and manipulate your emotions into a constant state of faux peace. It’s best to be honest, and take that honesty to God like King David did in the Psalms.

“Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life’ (Philippians 4:6-7, The Message).

This Resurrection Life

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“This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It’s adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike ‘What’s next, Papa?’ God’s Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who he is, and we know who we are: Father and children. And we know we are going to get what’s coming to us—an unbelievable inheritance! We go through exactly what Christ goes through. If we go through the hard times with him, then we’re certainly going to go through the good times with him!” (Romans 8:15-17, The Message)

I think too many of us are guilty of thinking that eternal life starts after we die. We think that the resurrection life when the good stuff starts and that doesn’t start until we’ve been dispatched to our heavenly rest. But if I read my Bible right, it starts the moment we say YES to Jesus.

Too many of us go through our lives without ever tapping into that resurrection power. Too many of us are like that old lady back in the day who only turned on her electric lights so she could see to light her candles. We’ve settled for trying to do God-sized work with human-sized strength, and that never works.

Did you know that the same power that raised Christ from the dead now lives in you and me? It belongs to anyone who belongs to Jesus. Yet most of us live defeated because we either don’t know the victory has already been won or we’re too distracted to care. Our lives are small because our view of God is too small.

Lord, help us to remember how big You are. You’re bigger than all our problems put together. You’re bigger than anything we’ll ever face. You’re bigger than the whole world. Remind us that Your resurrection power is ours for the asking. Help us to live victoriously because the battle is already won. Be glorified in each and every one of us today. Amen.

Counting the Cost

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“Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock. Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son: ‘Ye were bought at a price’, and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon his Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us. Costly grace is the Incarnation of God” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship).

I finished listening to an incredible biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer by Eric Mataxas. It’s no small read (or listen), but it’s worth it if you want to learn about someone who who stood up against an ungodly dictator even though very few stood with him. He was not a Jew, but he defended Jews and their right to live because he believed they are God’s chosen people and the first ones the gospel went out to.

Bonhoeffer believed that true justice comes from a true understanding of the gospel of Christ. It’s not a matter of either taking care of people’s spiritual needs versus taking care of their physical needs. It’s both. In fact, it’s no good if you only meet their need for food and shelter and leave their greatest need for a Savior unmet.

When Bonhoeffer knew that his time was up, he told a fellow prisoner, “This is the end — for me, the beginning of life.”

He knew that his real life was just beginning. I think he’d agree with C. S. Lewis’ assessment that all this earthly life is just the preface to the real life that begins in heaven. So Bonhoeffer was not hesitant to lay down his life for the cause he believed in. He not only said the words, he lived them out — when Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die.”

May the Lord raise up future Bonhueffers who will stand against the majority and fight for what is right. May God stir up prophets who will reawaken the Church in America to true godliness and zeal for the gospel of Jesus Christ. May we never become complacent or try to achieve peace through compromising our convictions, but may we always stand for the costly grace that cost God everything.

The Cut-Out Bin

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Back in the day, they had a thing called a cut-out bin. Whenever an album didn’t sell very well, they’d put a notch in it and mark it down significantly in price. Usually, a band would have a super big record and then the next one for whatever reason just didn’t do as well. The point is that you could find some great stuff in the cut-out bin if you didn’t mind a little notch at the top left corner of the album.

Lately, one of my favorite pastimes is to flip through the cheap bins of records. At one place, they have a whole stash of $5 records underneath the regularly priced ones. I’ve been known to flip through every single one in search of the elusive and unique find. More often than not, I see a lot of easy listening music from the 50s and 60s, but once in a proverbial blue moon, I’ll find an old CCM album or a test pressing or something out of the ordinary.

1 Corinthians 1:27-31 says, “Take a good look, friends, at who you were when you got called into this life. I don’t see many of ‘the brightest and the best’ among you, not many influential, not many from high-society families. Isn’t it obvious that God deliberately chose men and women that the culture overlooks and exploits and abuses, chose these ‘nobodies’ to expose the hollow pretensions of the ‘somebodies’? That makes it quite clear that none of you can get by with blowing your own horn before God. Everything that we have—right thinking and right living, a clean slate and a fresh start—comes from God by way of Jesus Christ. That’s why we have the saying, ‘If you’re going to blow a horn, blow a trumpet for God'” (1 Corinthians 1:27-31, The Message).

A lot of us were the human equivalent of the cut-out bin. Hardly anyone saw any value in us or thought anything about us was special. More often than not, we were the ones who were ignored and passed over. But God chose those nobodies rather than sticking exclusively to the Fortune 500 club. He chose those no one else wanted because He wanted us.

That gives me hope. That means that all of us that God chose matter. Maybe not to the in-crowd or the fashion police, but we matter to God. And what God thinks about us trumps what anyone else thinks about us. Period. You matter to God because He made You, and He don’t make no junk. Just remember that the next time you feel unworthy and unloved. God loves you. That’s all that matters.

Confession Is Good for the Soul

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“Do you have anything to hide from God? If you do, then let God search you with His light. If there is sin in your life, don’t just admit it–confess it. Never disregard a conviction that the Holy Spirit brings to you. If it is important enough for the Spirit of God to bring it to your mind, it is the very thing He is detecting in you. You were looking for some big thing to give up, while God is telling you of some tiny thing that must go–the very thing that God intends you to give up if you are to be a disciple of Jesus Christ” (Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest).

I think I heard the saying that demons die in the light. I don’t think whoever said it meant that actual demons die in actual sunlight like vampires. I think that hidden struggles and sins lose their strongholds when we confess them to others and don’t keep everything hidden.

Somehow, we in the Church got a hold of the idea that we have to present ourselves as perfect in public to be acceptable Christians. We say things like, “I don’t want to be a burden to anyone.”

But part of being in a genuine community is that we’re SUPPOSED to be burdens to each other. We’re not meant to carry our burdens alone but to share them. That means not only I carry yours, but you carry mine as well. And how can that happen unless we confess and confide those burdens with each other?

Part of the problem is that we try to put our sin in time-out when the Bible says to put it to death. Don’t let it hang around. Don’t test the limits of sin by seeing how close you can get to the edge of temptation without giving in. I think one passage says for there not to be even an appearance of evil among you.

That can be taken to legalistic extremes and give way to a judgmental spirit, but I think it can also lead to a sense of humility and self-awareness that leads to repentance and growth. So basically, confession IS good for the soul.

Remembering a Liturgy, a Legacy, and a Ragamuffin Band

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I still remember my one and only Rich Mullins concert experience. It must have been around 1995 or so and I think the venue was First Evangelical Church in Memphis. In some ways, that feels like a lifetime ago, but it also seems like yesterday in some ways.

I think Rich Mullins played the concert in bare feet. He was the most unassuming Christian artist I’ve ever known and was the polar opposite of a diva in every possible way. I have a picture in my mind of Rich Mullins just in front of me, getting a drink out of the water fountain during the intermission instead of having premier bottled water backstage. I was too starstruck to say anything but stood there, looking dumbfounded as he drank out of the fountain.

I’ll never forget how beautifully he played the hammered dulcimer and all those amazing songs of his. The very last song he played was the worshipful I See You, and as he walked off stage the audience was still singing “Everywhere I go I see You, everywhere I go I see You.”

I remember about learning how he had tragically died and how it felt like a gut punch. He was only 41. And his death seemed like such a tragic waste from not wearing a seat belt in a car accident. It seemed like he had so many songs left unsung and music left to write.

Yesterday marked 29 years since his passing on September 19, 1997, yet so many churches are still singing his songs, especially “Awesome God” and “Sometimes by Step.” His musical legacy will continue to live on as new generations discover the power of his music.

I’m thankful that out of all the history in the world, I got to live in the time when Rich Mullins was alive. I got to experience his music when it was new and hear it on the radio when it was being played for the first time. For that I am eternally thankful.

Thank you, Rich, for your musical legacy that you left behind. Thank you for your artistic integrity and your honest lyrics that spoke my feelings and fears better than I ever could. You’ll never know how much of a difference for the Kingdom of God you made, especially in me.