salvation

Sinless Grace

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I was watching a Youtube video of a woman who converted from Islam to Christianity. One reason was that she read through the Bible, particularly the parts about Jesus. One thing that struck her forcibly was the passage of Jesus with the woman caught in the act of adultery.

It’s a familiar story. Some religious leaders had caught a woman in the act of adultery, which begs its own set of questions. Who was the man she was with? Was he one of the ones accusing her? Why was he not also brought before Jesus if they were in the very act?

So many questions, but the point wasn’t justice. It was to entrap Jesus. They didn’t care about the woman or the man or even what the Law of Moses said at this point. They wanted to trick Jesus into sinning. They knew the punishment for adultery was stoning. Would Jesus uphold the law and get in trouble with Rome? Or would Jesus give her a pass and condemn Himself before the Law of Moses. They saw it as a lose-lose scenario for Jesus.

But what did Jesus say? Let the one who is without sin cast the first stone. He didn’t argue that adultery wasn’t sinful. He was saying that it was no more sinful than pride or arrogance or hypocrisy.

It occurred to me that the only one qualified to stone the woman was Jesus. He was the only sinless one present. He had every right, according to the Law, to accuse her and condemn her. But the only one with the right to condemn her instead chose to forgive her instead.

That’s my Jesus. He has every right to condemn me every time I sin. He has every right to throw the book at me, legally speaking, and leave me to the punishment for my own sin. But He chose the nails instead. He chose the cross instead. He chose to die so that I might live.

He didn’t save the woman from death to allow her to keep committing adultery. He said that he didn’t condemn her, but He also said to her to go and sin no more. It wasn’t a matter of tolerating her behavior but redeeming her for a better purpose. Her life now served to glorify God instead of gratifying her own desires.

You and I have been redeemed for a purpose. We no longer live for ourselves but we live for the glory and praise of God. The best part is that what brings God the most glory is what brings us the most joy and is for our greatest good. God’s desire is for each of us to be like Jesus and in the process become our truest selves as God designed when He created us as image bearers.

Thank You, God, that though You had every right to cast stones at me, You chose to cast Your grace and mercy my way and to lay down Your own life for mine. You set me free from a life of slavery to my own desires to a life both abundant and eternal. I get to spend forever with You and know Your perfect peace and joy. Amen.

Loving People & Glorifying God

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“Love is doing what will enthrall the beloved with the greatest and longest joy. What will enthrall the beloved this way is the glory of God. Love means doing all we can, at whatever cost to ourselves, to help people be enthralled with the glory of God. When they are, they are satisfied and God is glorified. Therefore loving people and glorifying God are one” (John Piper).

We love God in part by how we love people. If we say we love God whom we have not seen, as the verse goes, but do not love the people in our lives that we can see, we show that we don’t really love God. Basically, we lie.

The best way to love others is to bring out the best in them. That’s what God does. He brings out the best in us. So when we lead people to places where they most glorify God, that’s where they find their deepest satisfaction. I love how John Piper says that the chief end of man is to glorify God BY enjoying Him forever.

God’s glory is our greatest good. People that don’t know God can hardly give Him glory or glorify Him through their lives. It seems that when people fall in love with Jesus, they become their best selves and God is honored and both we and them are most satisfied.

I think it was also John Piper who said that the chief aim of the church is worship. Evangelism exists because in so many places worship doesn’t. People can’t worship what they don’t know and who they have never met. When the Church fulfills the Great Commission, worship is birthed in places where it wasn’t before and God gets greater glory as our love is tangibly expressed in sharing the gospel.

Lord, help us to love You well by loving others well and always pointing them to Jesus as their greatest good for the glory of God. May as may people as possible come to find their greatest satisfaction in glorifying God and enjoying Him forever. Amen.

Staying Salty

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“For everyone will be tested with fire. Salt is good for seasoning. But if it loses its flavor, how do you make it salty again? You must have the qualities of salt among yourselves and live in peace with each other” (Mark 9:49-50, NLT).

I learned something new today. I had always wondered how salt could cease to be salt by losing its flavor? Maybe it goes bad? Gets stale? I had never really understood what that meant, especially in the context of believers as salt and light to our culture.

But my teacher explained that salt loses its flavor when it gets mixed with other things like sand. Basically, salt is no longer effective as salt when it is compromised and corrupted.

I think in the same way, the Church loses its status as salt when in trying to reach the culture, it becomes too much like the culture and loses its own identity. When the Church waters down the gospel or eliminates parts of Scripture that it deems offensive, then the salt becomes less salty.

Finally, the Church gets to the point where the message is no longer distinguishable from any self-help guru or quasi-New Age teacher. There is no actual gospel or Bible left in its teaching but human wisdom dressed up in spiritual clothing and marketed as Christianity.

The problem is that the Church too often has had the goal of being successful rather than faithful. We focus on numbers rather than growth. That leads to compromised convictions and doctrines, or basically what the Bible would call speaking what people want to hear instead of what they need to hear. That also leads to easy believe-ism where there is no repentance required and no sin to be repented from.

I heard a pastor say once that the world doesn’t hate Christians because we’re different but because we’re not different enough. If we look and act and speak just like those we’re trying to reach with the gospel, what good is our gospel message? If we have the same message that the world is sending out about love being about what you feel and tolerating anything and everything, then we cease to become the Church and forfeit our very right to exist in the first place.

The true gospel starts off with the bad news that all of us have sinned and that the wages or the results of that sin are eternal separation from God in a literal place called Hell. The good news is that God took on human flesh in the form of a Savior, Jesus Christ. He lived a perfect, sinless life that we could never live and died on the cross in our place. He died and rose again three days later and offers salvation to anyone who places their faith in Him as Savior and Lord, truly repenting of their sins and committing the rest of their lives to Him.

Lord, revive Your Church. Forgive us for not preaching and teaching the whole gospel for the whole person. Raise up faithful men and women who will not be ashamed to proclaim the name of Jesus and the true gospel. Help us not be a place where people can be comfortable in their sin but convicted and changed by the power of the Spirit to become sons and daughters of the living God. Amen.

Lessons from 1 Peter

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“Friends, when life gets really difficult, don’t jump to the conclusion that God isn’t on the job. Instead, be glad that you are in the very thick of what Christ experienced. This is a spiritual refining process, with glory just around the corner” (1 Peter 4:12-13, The Message).

At my church, we’ve been going through the book of 1 Peter, written to believers who were living in exile away from their home and undergoing all sorts of suffering and persecution. That seems to fit the current situation for many Christians all around the world, especially in places like Asia, Africa, and Middle East. Those believers’ lives are in very real danger.

But even in this country, it’s becoming more and more difficult and dangerous to identify as a believer in Christ. If you believe the Bible and hold to your convictions, you’re more and more likely to be called any number of names from bigot to fascist to transphobic and homophobic. More and more, the possibility is real you could lose your job and your reputation. But the heavenly reward is so much better than anything you might lose down here.

We often forget that we’re strangers and pilgrims in this world. Heaven is our true home. Our allegiance is to a King and a kingdom above any flag or country or political party. I think we’d be a lot more effective as a Church if we remembered that little fact more often. We won’t effect any kind of eternal change through politics and power but through the cross and through servanthood.

There’s a fair amount of suffering and hardships that come with being a faithful follower of Christ, but it always serves a purpose. God is refining and remaking us to look like Jesus. Every trial and tribulation serves a purpose of removing anything that isn’t of God until what’s left is like pure silver and pure gold.

The end result is that God gets glory and we’re the better for it. And many people are drawn to the hope that we hold in the midst of it all and they find Jesus in the process. That’s what I call a win-win.

Prone to Wander: A Prayer for Prodigals and Deconstructers

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“O to grace how great a debtor
daily I’m constrained to be!
Let that grace now, like a fetter,
bind my wandering heart to thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
prone to leave the God I love;
here’s my heart; O take and seal it;
seal it for thy courts above” (Robert Robinson).

I read where Robert Robinson, author of the famous hymn “Come, Thou Found of Every Blessing”, actually walked away from his faith for a while but eventually returned. I don’t know any details. I know that God’s power to restore and redeem His own children is amazing and never failing.

My prayer is for those who have altogether left the true faith or have watered it down to make it humanly palatable. I pray you come back. I pray that you will know that the God who made you is the same God who loves you. He is the same God as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as revealed in the Old Testament. He is the same God as the God who became incarnate in Jesus in the New Testament. He is the same yesterday, today and forever.

Truly, we are the ones who are prone to wander. We’re the ones who will drift into error and heresy if we forget our first love or quit striving for Christlikeness and settle into complacency and compromise. It’s easier to let go of our convictions for the sake of so-called peace and fitting in. It’s so much easier when we’re liked and when all people speak well of us. But Jesus said woe to those when everybody praises you and says nice things about you.

The truth of the matter is that Jesus said much that made people quit following Him. He said some hard truths that people didn’t like because what they heard made them uncomfortable and challenged them to change. He preached love toward those who were the least but He also emphasized repentance because the Kingdom of God was at hand. He told the woman that He didn’t condemn her but also to go and sin no more.

Lord, I’m praying that those who have fallen away will come back to true faith. I’m praying for some who were never Yours but who thought they were and even did amazing things in Your name though You said that You never knew them. May they truly embrace Your gospel of grace and find forgiveness and salvation in You. May they know not my truth or their truth but Your truth because You are the Truth, the Life, and the Way.

Restore Your truth to churches and denominations that have lost their way. Redeem them to places where Your Word is taught and Your gospel is preached. Revive Your Church, Lord, so that we can again be the ones who bear Your name well and share Your love faithfully until everyone has heard. Amen.

God’s Hall of Fame

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“Your name may not appear down here in this world’s hall of fame
In fact you may be so unknown that no one knows your name
The Oscars and the praise of men may never come your way
But don’t forget God has rewards that he’ll hand out some day
This crowd on earth will soon forget when you’re not at the top
They’ll cheer like mad until you fall and then the praise will stop
Not God, He never does forget and in his hall of fame
Just by believing on His Son, forever there’s your name
I tell you friend, I wouldn’t trade my name however small
That’s written there beyond the stars in that celestial hall
For all famous names on earth or the glory that they share
I’d rather be an unknown here and have my name up there” (Jim Caviezel)

That’s the goal — to have my name up there and to have other names up there as well because I wasn’t ashamed to speak the name of Jesus. Hopefully, that’s the goal of every believer because any fame down here is fleeting and and remembrance of your name will soon fade and you will be forgotten.

I remember a pastor saying once that at best this earthly life is like an airport terminal. It can be warm and inviting. It can have all sorts of amenities and comforts. It may be the best airport terminal you’ve ever seen, but that doesn’t mean you want to live there forever. It’s just a stopping off place.

Heaven’s our real home. We’re just pilgrims and strangers here. It’s easy to forget when 99 out of 100 voices tell you that this life is all there is. But the one that speaks a different word is the one who goes to prepare a place for you that will be your forever home.

To Love Is to Tell the Truth in Love

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“Anyone who sets himself up as ‘religious’ by talking a good game is self-deceived. This kind of religion is hot air and only hot air. Real religion, the kind that passes muster before God the Father, is this: Reach out to the homeless and loveless in their plight, and guard against corruption from the godless world” (James 1:26-27, The Message).

I’ve been watching videos on Youtube from a guy named Becket Cook. He’s a former homosexual who is now a kind of apologist for orthodox biblical Christianity. One of his tenets is that it is not truly loving to affirm anyone in their sin, whether it be in the LGBTQ camp or pre-marital cohabitation or any other sinful lifestyle. He say that the most loving thing you can do is to tell someone the truth in love.

If I believe that the Bible is true, then I must live by it and I must also be willing to abide by what it teaches when it comes to alternate lifestyles and behaviors. I must come from the place where I view my sin just as seriously as I do anybody else’s. Homosexuality or adultery is no more sinful than my pride or my judgmentalism. It’s all sin to God and we are all called to repent.

To love is to be compassionate as Jesus was. He reached out to those who were marginalized and excluded from society. He never turned away anyone who sought Him out in faith. But He also always told them the truth. He never compromised for the sake of acceptance and peace. In fact, many people quite following Him because He spoke the truths that made them uncomfortable and convicted.

We need both. Compassion and conviction aren’t mutually exclusive. We need to hold to our convictions in the midst of compassion toward those in need but we also need to be compassionate when we’re sharing our convictions about what we believe and why.

The point is not to change an aspect of the person. It’s not to get a liberal to vote conservative or to get a gay person into a straight marriage. It’s about redeeming the whole person with the whole gospel. That means that every part of the person needs to be transformed and renewed. The gospel isn’t about making bad people good or making good people better but about making dead people alive.

We have all sinned and fallen short of God’s glorious standard. We all need to repent and to be forgiven. We all need a Savior who will pay the debt for those sins that we could never hope to pay. We all need a righteousness that we can’t produce on our own but has to come from somewhere else. We need Jesus.

Two(Ish) Year Anniversary

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Today, I got an email from CarMax congratulating me on my one year anniversary. On this day in 2024, I purchased Clifford the Big Red Jeep, my 2018 Jeep Wrangler with a little over 29,000 miles on it. That was a good day.

Sometimes, you need little reminders of God’s blessings to tide you over. Honestly, if I were to really pay attention and take note of each blessings, I’d be too busy thanking God to have any need for anything to tide me over. I’m literally overrun and overwhelmed by blessings, most of which I routinely take for granted.

But Clifford is a visible, tangible reminder of God’s goodness to me. Many times, I’ll be anxious over God’s ability to meet a need or to help me in a certain area and then I’ll see that red Wrangler and recall how faithful God was in that moment and how He will be faithful again.

Also, I am reminded of God’s faithfulness through family and friends who genuinely love me and want God’s best for me. Sometimes there are days when they will believe for me when I can’t believe for myself. Hopefully, I will return the favor when they’re in times of weakness.

The best reminder of all for me is the promise that every single morning God’s mercies are new. Just like that hot now sign at Krispy Kreme means there are new donuts, every new sunrise is a billboard for God’s new mercies. Every new day filled with birds chirping and flowers growing is a gift. I’m sure God’s mercies are abundant enough so that one dose could last me a lifetime, but still I get fresh new mercies right out of the oven every single day.

That Lamentations 3:22-23 promise is one that I’ve read countless times, yet the more I let it sink in and soak in the more I am blown away by the magnitude and the generosity of the promise. I pray that everyone who reads these words will be just as blown away by this one of many promises by God to us. And may we all claim this verse every single day.

Suffering and Speaking Out

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“If with heart and soul you’re doing good, do you think you can be stopped? Even if you suffer for it, you’re still better off. Don’t give the opposition a second thought. Through thick and thin, keep your hearts at attention, in adoration before Christ, your Master. Be ready to speak up and tell anyone who asks why you’re living the way you are, and always with the utmost courtesy. Keep a clear conscience before God so that when people throw mud at you, none of it will stick. They’ll end up realizing that they’re the ones who need a bath. It’s better to suffer for doing good, if that’s what God wants, than to be punished for doing bad. That’s what Christ did definitively: suffered because of others’ sins, the Righteous One for the unrighteous ones. He went through it all—was put to death and then made alive—to bring us to God (1 Peter 3:13-18, The Message).

The old adage says that we should preach the gospel at all times, and if necessary use words. According to 1 Peter 3, you will need to use words. It won’t be enough that people see you living differently. They need to know why you’re different. Why it is you don’t live like almost everybody else, and especially why you don’t react like the rest when bad things happen.

Suffering is the school where God prepares us to be ready. How we handle hard times is what gets people’s attention, but the logical next step is for them to want to know more. If all you have are your actions, then the message is unclear. If all you have are your words, you’re hypocritical. You need both.

As I was watching a podcast video earlier today, it struck me that there are no throwaway parts to your story or your life. God uses all of it. God works all of it for good. The mess becomes the message. The test becomes the testimony. God’s redemption of you becomes the billboard of God’s grace to get people’s attention and make them curious about what is unique about how you choose to respond rather than to react.

There’s always a reaction and a response. We react to a diagnosis of cancer or to losing a job or to going through financial hardships. People see how we react and ask how and why we acted that way. That’s where the response comes in. That’s where the Holy Spirit gives us words to tell people about the hope we have that makes us joyful rather than bitter.

Lord, You promised that suffering is not an if but a when. It will happen. As we walk through trials, strengthen us and enable us to endure with grace. May others see You at work in us, so that they’ll be drawn to want to know more not about us but about You. Give us the words to say that will glorify You and point others to You as their ultimate hope and salvation. Amen.

The Third Sunday of Lent

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“Almighty God, 
you know that we have no power in ourselves to help ourselves: 

Keep us both outwardly in our bodies and inwardly in our souls, 

that we may be defended from all adversities which may happen to the body, and from all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul; 

through Jesus Christ our Lord, 
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, 
one God, 
for ever and ever. 

Amen.“

If you’re keeping score, you know there are four more weeks until Easter Sunday. That means 28 more days of Lent. How are you doing with your Lent fasting so far?

I realize not everybody gave up something for Lent. I gave up social media, so I have no idea what’s going on in the outside world. At least I’m missing everybody’s politicized takes on what’s going on in the world, which is probably not a bad thing some days.

But hopefully Lent is a time when we give up something to make room for something better. Hopefully, we replace the time spent watching television or on social media (or eating chocolate) with time to spend with God in worship, adoration, and prayer. Often, we end up substituting in another mindless addiction to take the place of whatever we gave up. Guilty as charged.

But I hope to take whatever time is remaining before Easter Sunday to devote to prayer. At least I hope to spend it reading actual books (including more of the Bible) and going outdoors more. It’s almost like if your life is closed room, it’s good to open up the windows and let in the fresh air.

The older I get, the more I understand that we need God’s help to please God and to do what God wants us to do. Any self-driven efforts will fail and fall far short of what God wants. But if we’re living in the resurrection power of the indwelling Spirit, we can do what pleases God.

Lord, help us to desire You more. Help us to seek You above any amusement or mindless entertainment that helps to pass the time. Help us to know how precious our lives are and to redeem the brief amount of time we’re given in comparison to eternity for Your glory and our greatest good.

Thank You for Your grace that seeks after us even when we’re not all that interested in seeking after You. You are relentless in chasing us down not to punish us or to chastise us but to show us a better way to think and to live. Help us to want for ourselves what You want for us. Amen.