Jesus

Blindsided!

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I had a friend who got blindsided recently at her job. Basically, her boss sat her down and proceeded to tell her EVERYTHING she’s been doing wrong for the entire year.

I’ve had that happen a time or two where someone I know doesn’t give me any warning before reading me the riot act. I know you have, too.

Tonight in my Life Group, we talked about how Jesus has High Priest is able to sympathize with us in everything as He’s been through everything we’ve been through, temptations and all, and passed the test with flying colors. To put it in more churchy language, He didn’t sin.

If anyone could blindside us, it would be Jesus. He’s seen it all. He knows every false motive, every impure intent, every dark thought, every secret sin. He could sit me down and blast me into smithereens with everything He’s got on me.

But He doesn’t. He doesn’t choose to “blast” anyone. Hebrews says that Jesus as High Priest intercedes for His children. He prays for you and me.

Maybe that should change the way I act when someone blindsides me. Or when I feel strongly tempted to blast someone when I see all sorts of red flags popping up in their life.

The unfortunate part of blasting someone is that you might be able to seek and receive forgiveness, but you can never recall those words you spoke. You can never undo the wounds and scars you created. You can never restore the relationship to what it was pre-blast.

So maybe instead of letting someone else have it, try letting God have it. As in taking it to God in prayer, not blasting God.

PS Sometimes you need to vent out loud to God. He already knows what’s in your heart anyway, and He can take it.

PPS As always, I believe. Help my unbelief.

 

Compassion and Broken Hearts

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“Then Jesus made a circuit of all the towns and villages. He taught in their meeting places, reported kingdom news, and healed their diseased bodies, healed their bruised and hurt lives. When he looked out over the crowds, his heart broke. So confused and aimless they were, like sheep with no shepherd. “What a huge harvest!” he said to his disciples. “How few workers! On your knees and pray for harvest hands!” (Matt. 9:35-38).

Jesus looked at the crowd and was moved with compassion. I heard a pastor say that the word carries the idea of being kicked in the gut. In other words, it wasn’t a shallow “I feel sorry for you” sentiment, but a real gut-wrenching pain over the people who were “confused and aimless.”

When was the last time my heart broke over something like that? When ever did my heart break like that?

Then I think that Jesus’ heart broke over me. In those times when I feel like I don’t have a clue, I think maybe it still does. I believe Jesus is moved with compassion over those of us who lose our way and feel like we or what we do don’t matter.

I truly believe that Jesus knows more than anyone what it’s like to have a broken heart. Not just figuratively, but literally. When the spear pierced His side, blood and water rushed out. That meant that Jesus’ heart had exploded. So yes, Jesus knows the pain of a broken heart.

My prayer is for a heart like His. My prayer is for a heart that really and truly breaks over those around me who are confused and aimless and without hope. I want a broken heart that leads me to my knees in prayer for the people in my immediate circle who are lost and hopeless and completely discouraged.

As always, I believe. Help my unbelief.

Your Identity

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Tonight, Mike Glenn spoke from Matthew 22:34-40. Those wacky Pharisees were at it again, trying to trap Jesus through one of their questions.

“Teacher,” they asked. “Which  commandment in the law is the greatest?”

As usual, Jesus saw through their smokescreen and gave a brilliant answer. Love God with everything that’s in you and love your neighbor as yourself.

For years, I never really thought about the “as yourself” part of the command. But for you to truly love others as God would have you to, you have to love yourself. It goes against a lot of what we’ve been taught about how loving yourself is wrong and prideful.

Loving yourself is simply seeing yourself the way God does.

Mike talked about how when God created you, He said, “It is very good.” Imagine a world-class chef tasting his own masterpiece and declaring, ‘Ahhhh, it is verrrry gooood” and you have an idea of what this means.

God looked at you and was pleased. He didn’t shrug His shoulders and say something like “Eh, close enough.” He said you were very good.”

Mike went on to say that when you find your identity not in what your enemies or friends or even you say about you but what God truly says about you, it changes the way you live. It changes the way you love yourself, others, and– ultimately– God.

That’s something that I’m still learning, but I’m to the point where I have days where I see myself as the Beloved of God and let that be what defines me. And those days are becoming more and more frequent.

So let me remind you once again. You are not your spotty resume. You are not your latest failed marriage. You are not the guy who’s still trying to find himself and still not having a clue about who he is. You are not whatever failures or  fiascos you’ve had in the past.

You have worth because you were created in the image of God and then prized highly enough for God to send Jesus to die on your behalf. You are the Beloved.

 

That Mr. Irrelevant Again

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I watched some of the NFL draft today. It’s interesting to see who gets picked where and when and by whom. Plus, you get the joy of seeing the experts’ predictions blown up. You see people who stay up late at night worrying about these kinds of things prognosticating on how these players will either be a great pick or a bust.

As always, the very last pick, around number 256, of the very last round of the draft is called Mr. Irrelevant. Usually, players who don’t get picked up until that point don’t make the final roster of the NFL team that picked them.

I love the fact that no one is Mr. (or Mrs.) Irrelevant to God. God loves each person as if he or she were the only person in the whole world to love. And yet He loves every single person that way. I can’t fathom that, yet I’m nowhere close to being infinite. I can’t even love the very few (in comparison) people in my life with anything close to complete and unconditional love.

At times, other people may make you feel irrelevant. It may or may not be intentional, but the hurt is the same either way. You may feel that what you do and who you are don’t matter to anyone and that maybe the world would be better off without you in it. The feelings may not be true, but that doesn’t stop them from feeling real.

Try this. Read John 3:16. Where it says “the world,” insert your name. For me, it would go something like this, “For God so loved Greg, that He gave His one and only Son, that if Greg believes in Him, He shall not perish.”

Remember that Jesus thought you were to die for. You matter to Him immensely. That’s something to remember on those nights when you feel alone and unwanted.

 

Three Years, People!

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I realized today that it has been THREE years since I last had a carbonated beverage. That works out to 1,095 days. That’s a long time for anybody but especially for me.

My life has changed quite a bit since that day on April 28, 2012. Back then, I was gainfully employed at Affinion Benefits Group, having worked there for five years. I had absolutely no idea that less than a month later, I’d be having that meeting with HR where they’d inform me that I was being downsized.

I haven’t always made the wisest choices concerning nutrition, but I count that as one of the best I’ve ever made. I don’t really miss carbonation, though every now and then I still get a craving for one of those Mexican cokes with cane sugar. And yes, I still dream about drinking cokes from time to time. Don’t ask me what the dreams mean or why I’m still having them. That question is above my pay grade.

A lot can happen in three years. According to statistics, the majority of you out there reading this will be looking for a job in another 2-3 years, as the average job stint is now slightly longer than 2 years. So get those resumes out and do all that fun stuff like spell-checking and proof-reading and updating.

I know this will probably sound like a Sunday School answer, but I have truly found that the only constant in a world where nothing is constant is Jesus. He’s still the same yesterday, today, and forever. He’s still as faithful to keep His promises today as He was way back in 2012.

I’m trying to do better about drinking more water. Some days I do well and others– well, not so much. I read somewhere that if you cut out all beverages and drink only water with meals, you eliminate 20 percent of your calories. That’s if you want to shed a few pounds.

 

 

Psalm 57

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“God, be gracious to me; be gracious,
for I have made you my refuge.
I shall seek refuge in the shadow of
your wings
until the storms are past” (Psalm 57:1).

I chose to read through the Bible again in 2015, this time using the New English Bible translation. I’m currently in the middle of the Psalms and I ran across one that I had to re-read and then re-read again because it was perfectly timed for the weather we’ve been having.

To be fair, this part of the country has seen mostly rain and not much in the way of actual storms. But storms don’t always mean lots of rain, lightening, and hail. Sometimes storms come in the form of losing a job or losing a loved one. Sometimes storms are seasons of life that are difficult. Those storms don’t always come and go within 24 hours. Some can last for weeks and months and even years.

But the same Jesus that spoke peace to actual winds and waves so long ago is just as capable of speaking peace to your and my storms. Often I’ve noticed that He will allow the storm to rage, but He will calm the child within the storm (and I’m fairly certain that is not original with me).

For me, storms have been the place where I’ve found Jesus to be most faithful. Even when I can’t see the end of the storm clouds and wonder if the sun will ever shine again, I know even then that the promises of Jesus are just as true in the darkest storms as they are on the brightest days.

I’ve read through the Bible more than once and yes, I have read the last page. There are no storms or thunder or trials or pain or suffering there. Only victory. Only peace. Only the joy that comes in the morning after a night of weeping.

 

 

 

Easter Saturday

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I suppose it was a quiet day for the disciples. Not quiet in the sense of anticipation and hope but more in the sense of resignation and despair. They had seen their Messiah crucified and buried in a tomb.

It was over. All their hopes and dreams for the future went with Jesus into that tomb and the future that presented itself was as bleak as the black sky over Golgotha that afternoon.

I don’t know if you’ve ever been in a state of grief where there are no more tears to cry, where there’s a quiet calm after the storm. Where it feels like you’ll never feel happiness or laughter ever again. That’s where they were as they stared at the massive stone that a legion of Romans had rolled in front of the tomb where Jesus lay. Even if they wanted to, all twelve of them couldn’t have budged that stone from its place to steal the body of their leader and Lord.

Yes, they had seen Lazarus alive and joking around after being in the grave four days, but this was different. Lazarus had been ill and died in his own bed. Lazarus hadn’t been brutally beaten and whipped within an inch of his life before being forced up the hill to his own crucifixion.

They had seen the finality of the final moments where Jesus commended His Spirit to God in a loud cry. Truly, it was over. There would be no more parables, no more stories, no more miracles, no more crowds.

It’s easy for me, having read the rest of the story, to rush past this day. But for those who were there, there was no rest of the story yet. Just a grey sky and a dark room and a dead Messiah.

Yet early in the morning, just shy of daybreak, everything for these disciples and for the rest of the world was about to change forever.

 

Jesus Knows

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This past Sunday, we celebrated Palm Sunday. On this day, Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey while people laid palm branches on the road before Him and hailed Him with hosannas.

Five days later, these same people were calling out for His death.

Jesus knows what it feels like to be deserted in a time of need.

Jesus is with the woman whose husband walked out on her, saying he didn’t love her any more.

Jesus is with the boy whose friend suddenly acts like a stranger when the cool kids are around because he doesn’t want anybody to think he’s friends with a nerd.

Jesus is with that one whose friend who he counted on suddenly disappears from his life and he can’t for the life of him figure out why.

The beautiful part is that Jesus can do more than feel the pain we feel. He can actually do something about it.

That death Jesus faced on the cross was more than the murder of an innocent man and the hands of a mob.

It was God in the flesh laying down His own life for the ones who deserted Him, the ones who mocked Him, the ones who spit in His face, the ones who drove the nails into His wrists and feet. the very ones who killed Him.

Ultimately, it wasn’t sin that killed Jesus. It wasn’t the pain. In the end, He gave His life up willingly, a choice He had made from day one.

That means that no one need ever be alone again. Jesus’ death and resurrection means that one day every wrong will be made right and all the hurts and wounds of the world will be healed.

I love that Jesus never turns down anyone who earnestly seeks Him in faith. You and I didn’t find Jesus, because it wasn’t He who was lost. We were the ones who were lost, and Jesus is the One who found us.

And Jesus still knows.

 

 

Something New I Learned About Passover

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Even at my ripe old age, I can still learn a thing or two.

As Jesus and His disciples prepared for Passover in the final week of His life, Jesus must have realized the symbolism of the meal was about to be realized. The bread was His body broken and the wine was His blood shed.

During the Passover meal, the bread is broken and the larger piece of it is hidden away in a linen cloth until the very end of the meal. And as you and I know, Jesus fulfilled the symbolism of the breaking of the bread by His death on the cross, from which He was taken, wrapped in a linen cloth, and “hidden” in a tomb for three days.

It’s amazing how knowing the cultural and historical background to the Bible so often immensely enriches the meaning of the Bible itself. I don’t claim to know even half of what the original hearers and readers of the New Testament would have understood when they read the words of writers like Paul and Mark and Luke and John.

I’m thankful that you don’t have to be a scholar with a Ph.D to read the Bible. Thanks to the doctrine of revelation, anyone can read God’s Word and understand the gist of what God is telling His people through His Holy Scriptures.

I’ve read through the Bible more than once. In fact, I’ve read through several different translations over the past few years. I don’t say that to brag, but to say that even now I will see something in the pages of the Bible that I hadn’t seen before. A passage that I had previously not paid much attention to will hit me in a new way that makes me pause.

That’s what it means when they say the Bible is living and active. It still speaks, no matter how many times or in how many different ways you read it and study it and memorize it and learn it. Even if you’re a slow learner like me.

 

House Hunters International: Narnia

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Aslan-and-lucy

I recently watched an episode of House Hunters International on HGTV, where a couple was looking to move to Scotland. I was sold after hearing the real estate agent’s accent, as I am a sucker for a good Scottish accent.

It got me thinking. What if they did an episode of House Hunters International set in Narnia? I do know that Narnia isn’t real in the same sense as Scotland or Germany or any of the other countries that you can actually find on a world atlas.

But just the thought of choosing a home in Narnia would be a cool concept. Maybe Mr. Tumnus could be the real estate agent. And the biggest selling point? A chance to meet Aslan.

In case you’ve ever wondered who Aslan really is, C.S. Lewis once received such a letter from a young fan. He responded thus:

“As to Aslan’s other name, well I want you to guess. Has there never been anyone in this world who (1.) Arrived at the same time as Father Christmas. (2.) Said he was the son of the great Emperor. (3.) gave himself up for someone else’s fault to be jeered at and killed by wicked people. (4.) Came to life again. (5.) Is sometimes spoken of as a Lamb…. Don’t you really know His name in this world. Think it over and let me know your answer!”

I’ve said it before, but I really believe Heaven will be a lot like Narnia. Or maybe I should say that Narnia is the best representation of what Heaven will be like that I’ve seen (or read). And the idea of it being like the first day of summer after the school term has ended perfectly captures that overwhelming feeling of joy.

So I think House Hunters International: Narnia is a winner, followed possibly by House Hunters International: Hobbiton.