Category: grace

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Runners and Soldiers

Scripture portrays life as a follower of Jesus as running a race. In 1 Corinthians 9:24, Galatians 2:2, Galatians 5:7, and Hebrews 12:1, we are told to run a good race with discipline and perseverance. Alan Knox has a post on his blog titled, “It’s a long, hard road, but we’re running together,” in which he writes about a group he is a part of that runs trails together. In this post, Alan tells how each member of the group watches out for each other member as they navigate the hazards of running trails. There are roots and rocks that can trip an unsuspecting runner, and the results can be painful or catastrophic. Since trail running can be so dangerous when done alone, running in a group is a necessity. Alan writes of a runner in their group who had knee problems and at one point needed to walk. The entire group walked with her rather than leave her behind.

We are also given the picture in the Bible of being a soldier. Philippians 2:25, 2 Timothy 2:3 & 4, and Philemon 1:2 speak of being a soldier and Romans 13:12 and Ephesians 6:10-13 exhort us to put on our armor. A characteristic of a good army is that they do not leave any of their number behind. Men will risk their own lives to rescue a fallen comrade and bring him back to their lines. When soldiers go to war, they have to know that the person fighting alongside them will give up their lives for them if need be. On the flip side of this, the Church has been called the only army that shoots its own wounded. This should never be.

In our fellowships, we need to remember that God brings people into our lives for a reason. They are there for us to serve them and be a blessing to them, or for us to be served and blessed by them. We are in this race, this war together. We are all at different stages in our spiritual journey. All of us are wounded, some more than others. Some can run a long time at a sprint, while others tire easily and have to walk a lot. Sometimes those who can run faster and longer must adjust their pace to stay with the walkers. Sometimes we may be called on to sacrifice ourselves in order to rescue a fallen brother or sister. Jesus said that the greatest love we could have is the love that causes us to lay down our lives.

We must walk this walk, run this race, fight this war together. If we don’t we give our enemy a foothold to steal, kill, and destroy, and we fail to show the world what God’s love is truly like. God help us to live in love for each other.

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Awesome! Yet…

Today, one of the classes where I work watched a video on the universe. The video began by speaking of the size of the Milky Way Galaxy, and the fact that if we could fly to the sun on a commercial airliner, it would take seventeen years. That is awesome. Yet, the closest star to earth after the sun (Proxima Centauri) is 25 trillion miles from earth! A spacecraft with the speed of the Voyager would take 81,000 years to get there. Awesome!

Yet, that is just a small part of the universe. The universe is defined as all the matter and energy that exists, along with all the space in-between. The size of the observable universe is 93 billion light years. And that’s just what we can observe! Scientists say there is more of the universe beyond that, although no one knows how far it goes. Awesome!
Yet, there is a God who created all this! A God who is beyond space and time, who is “bigger” than the universe! A God who is the sovereign ruler over everything we can observe and everything we can’t. A God who is outside and yet in this universe. Awesome!
Yet, even more awesome and mind blowing is the thought that this God who created this magnificent universe and stands above it, is the same God who calls me his child, and allows me to call him Father. This God loves me with an unfathomable love that reaches beyond this world. God became one of us, so that we can become like him. He has given me the privilege of following him, and living in his love and grace. He has called me to share that love with others and let them know that they can also follow him. One day this God will set everything in the universe to rights, and will finally restore his creation. That is awesome!
Yet. No, there is no yet. There is nothing more awesome than that.
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Being Thankful

This Thursday is Thanksgiving Day, so in honor of the season I would like to list a few of the many things I am thankful for.

I am thankful, first of all, that I have a Father in heaven who calls me his child and who loves me with an inexhaustible love. I am thankful for what Jesus Christ has done for me, and for the great privilege of being called to follow him. I am thankful for the wisdom and guidance that the Spirit gives me in my day-to-day. I am thankful for the legacy of godly parents who taught me through their example how to follow Jesus. I am thankful for a sister who loves Jesus and loves me, and for her family.
I am thankful for an absolutely wonderful woman who I am blessed to call my wife. Her love and support means more to me than I can say. I am thankful for her family, and the way they have accepted me as one of their own. I am thankful for two fantastic children who are a joy and a blessing to me, and who have become fine young adults. I am thankful for friends who love me, who have taught me much, and who are not afraid to call BS when the situation warrants it.
I am thankful for a job that is more than just a job, but is also an opportunity to show God’s love to others. I am thankful that I get to coach, and use athletics to influence young people. I am thankful for good health. I am thankful for the Father’s provision down through the years, even though I didn’t always have a lot of faith at the time. I am thankful for the things God has been teaching me these past few years, even the lessons that were hard to learn.
I could go on and on. There is so much to be grateful for. Abba has showered me with his blessings. So, this Thanksgiving I will soak in the riches of God’s glorious grace and love.
I’ll be taking a few days of the rest of the week. Have a happy Thanksgiving!
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God is Good

The other day, a friend posted on her Facebook page, “God is good, all the time. when it appears that He is not, HE IS GREAT!” This is certainly true. There is never a time when God is not good, and there really is never a time when he is not great. Due to the fact that I like to take good sayings and play with them, I would state it a bit differently.

Many of us know that God is good. “Of course he’s good, he’s God!” There is nothing in God that is not good. God is holy, and totally perfect. God is good. I can see where that statement can lead people to see God as a being so far above us and so good that we just can’t measure up or please him. It is true that God is pure good, and that, in ourselves, we can not measure up to God’s goodness. What we sometimes forget in our day-to-day is the fact that Jesus does measure up, and if we are in him, God sees and loves us as he does Jesus. So, I would add something to what my friend posted, the words “to us.”
I would write the statement as, “God is good to us all the time. When it appears that he is not, HE IS GREAT TO US!” It is a small difference, with what I believe are huge implications. Think about it. This God who created the universe, who is sovereign, who is so far above sin that we can’t even imagine it, this God loves us with a pure, holy, everlasting love. This pure, holy God loves us just as he loves his Son. God is not an angry judge who is looking at us to see where we are screwing up so he can punish us. God is not a Father who withholds things from us to make us toe the line or to get back at us because we have somehow displeased him. Because of what Christ has done, and because we are one with Christ, God is never more pleased with us or less pleased with us than he is with Christ. The Father loves the Son. We are in the Son. The Father loves us.
We are told in Scripture that we have been given a spirit that leads us to call God, “Abba.” In today’s terms, we could use the name, “Daddy.” There is a saying, “Anyone can be a father. It takes someone special to be a dad.” That’s the idea behind calling the Creator of all things, “Abba.” Think of your concept of the perfect dad. Now multiply that by infinity and you begin to get an idea of Abba.
The God who is good, even great, all the time is the Father who loves us, and is good, even great, to us all the time. Never forget that God loves you. Not only that, God likes you. He is pleased with you. He is good, TO YOU!
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Sin

Sin is a popular topic in many Christian circles. Some constantly preach against it. Most agree that it is a problem, and it is. I see a problem with the way a lot of Christians see sin and our relationship to sin. Some believe that we are “just sinners saved by grace.” Many others believe that there are two natures living in us, and that the one we “feed” the most is the one that is stronger. I believe Scripture shows us a different way of looking at sin.

Sin is the force that ruled us before we came to Christ. We were indeed, sinners before we came to faith. Now though, we are a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17). We have become the righteousness of God (2 Cor. 5:21). We have the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2:16), we have a new spirit (Rom. 8:16), and the Spirit of God is in us (1 Cor. 3:16). We are God’s workmanship (Eph. 2:10), we belong to God (1 Pet. 2:9), and we are dead to sin (Rom. 6:11).

Yes, but we still sin! True, but that doesn’t change who we are. Sin is still a force that remains in us, but it is no longer part of our nature. Before we came to Christ, sin told us what to do, and those ways of thinking and seeing the world were ingrained in us. When we become a child of God, sin still dwells in us (Rom. 7:17). It is still there, whispering in our ear and seeking to influence us to act in a way that is incompatible with who we truly are. When we sin, it is not because we are still sinful, but it is because we still sometimes do things according to the old way of thinking.

If I am angry with someone and continue to dwell on that anger and not give it up to God, it is not because I am an angry person, but is because I am acting out of an old script in which I was an angry individual who did not forgive and held on to my anger. I need to realize that kind of anger is not compatible with who I am as a child of God. I need to allow the Spirit to transform my thinking in this area.

When I am proud and think that I am better than others, when I fail to see others as God’s image bearers, when I am selfish in my interactions with others, it is not because I am sinful. It is because I fail to see these sinful actions as not fitting with who I am in Christ. Again, I need to have my mind renewed. The same is true when I fail to trust the love and goodness of my Father. Any time I sin, it is because I have not taken my thoughts captive and run them through the filter of my identity as a child of God.

May the Spirit renew and transform our minds so we increasingly live as the new creations we are!

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Wisdom of Pooh Bear

The other night, Jan and I went to the $2 theater and saw the new Winnie the Pooh. We thoroughly enjoyed it, because we are longtime Winnie the Pooh fans, and because it was a well done film. As usually happens when watching a movie, the wheels started turning in my brain.

What struck me while sitting in the dark was the way the characters related to each other. In the Hundred Acre Wood, there is a wide variety of personalities, with accompanying idiosyncrasies. Each character brings something different to the table, and each has strengths and weaknesses. In spite of all these differences they all get along. As the story unfolded, there were misunderstandings, miscommunication, and a lot of times when one character would do something that would cause a huge disruption. Through all of the coming and going, no matter what happened, the entire Hundred Acre Wood community was characterized by love, grace, and acceptance. No matter how many times Tigger bounced into a scene and created havoc, there were no harsh words spoken. Even though Owl was a pompous windbag at times, no one was critical. Every time there was potential for conflict, it ended with grace and forgiveness. In the end, each of the characters contributed from their strengths and the goal toward which they had been working was reached.
I know that Winnie the Pooh is a children’s story, and some may say that it presents an idealistic view of how things could be in order to teach. Think about it. Jesus said that we enter the Kingdom by becoming like a little child. In the Kingdom, we each bring our weaknesses and quirks, as well as our gifts. We are told to let our relationships with others be full of grace and love. We are told to forgive without end. We are told to look out for each other’s interests ahead of our own, as Pooh did when he put his hunt for honey on hold to help rescue Christopher Robin. We are told to lay down our lives for each other.
Winnie the Pooh may be a children’s story, but I believe there are a lot of lessons there.
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“Come To Me, and I Will Give You…”

Rest? I know that’s what Jesus said, but how many of us really live like he has given us rest? How many of us have learned “the unforced rhythms of grace,” as The Message puts it. For many of us, the first thing we learned when we became a Christian was that there were certain expectations that we were to live up to in order for God to bless us, or at least in order to stay in the good graces of the group. Some still live that way, and are burdened by a load as heavy as the one the Pharisees put on the Jews of Jesus’ day. Others have broken away from that bondage but taken on another heavy burden, the burden of “proving” how free they are in Christ. Even if we are not burdened by Pharisaical rules or by a need to prove our Christian liberty, we may have a hard time simply resting in God’s grace and mercy.

One of the things that the Father is teaching me is that he loves me, my family, and my friends dearly, and that his heart is good toward them. He takes care of his children. Even though I have seen the hand of God numerous times as he takes care of us, I am having to constantly be reminded by my Father that we are all in his arms, and that it is not my job to do what only he can do. I can only do what God has called me to do as a husband, father, and friend. I cannot change anyone’s heart. I cannot make them do what I think they should do. I can’t heal anyone. I can’t provide jobs. Only the Creator of the universe can do that.

I am learning that the only thing I can do is love them, pray for them, and give them any help that I can. As I do those things, I have to rest in Abba’s love and grace and trust him to do what is good. When I am able to do that, it brings a peace and contentment that is not there when I try to do God’s job or worry about how he is carrying it out. As many times as I’ve seen that played out, you’d think I would have learned that lesson well. I am learning it, but I still have a ways to go.
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Sinners

A well known evangelist from a few years ago, who founded a college named after him, once stated that Jesus wouldn’t even talk to a sinner unless they became “born again.” He made this statement while talking about Jesus telling Nicodemus that he needed to be born again. In context, he was defending his school’s policy of only enrolling Christians. That is fine, because the college was ostensibly founded to train Christian students. I do have a problem with the idea that Jesus required people to be “born again,” or “be saved” before he would even talk to them.

All through the Gospels, we find Jesus not only accepting sinners, but hanging out with them. The religious leaders of the day called him a glutton and a drunk. I seriously doubt they called Jesus those things because he was a tea-totaler who ate very little. His disciples were asked why he ate with sinners. Jesus answer was that he came to save the lost, and to heal the sick. The religious leaders were not lost or sick, at least in their own minds. But they missed it completely.
When the woman caught in adultery was brought before Jesus, he didn’t ask her if she believed on him. He simply told her that he didn’t condemn her and that she needed to stop doing what she was doing. The woman who anointed Jesus’ feet was a known sinner, yet Jesus accepted her adoration without any condition. I would venture to say that the song, “Jesus, What a Friend of Sinners” is sung in the chapel of the above mentioned college. That’s exactly what Jesus is, a friend of sinners.
I for one, am grateful that Jesus doesn’t put prerequisites on our coming to him. he doesn’t tell us to go get our act together before he will deal with us. He calls us to come to him as we are, and then he takes care of the changes that he wants in our lives. We do people a disservice when we tell them that there are certain things they must do in order to come to Christ. He truly is a friend of sinners, and we must not forget that.
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A Peek Inside

While reading Wild at Heart this afternoon, I was struck by a particular passage where John Eldredge quoted Winston Churchill’s statement that all his past life had been a preparation for the trials Britain was going through in World War II. Eldredge then went on to state, “The same is true of you, your whole life has been preparation.”

This is what I wrote in response:

Father, is it true? Has all my life up to this point been preparation? For what? What is it that you want me to do that it has taken fifty five years of preparation? You have told me that I am a Gideon. I want so badly to be the kind of warrior who is willing to go up against insurmountable odds, armed only with your power. Let me be a clay jar, plain and unassuming, but a deadly weapon when filled with you. Gideon led others to freedom. That is what I want to do. I want to be an agent of your grace. I want to help others break away from the chains forged by the lies they believe. I want to be in the battle and watch what you will do.

I want to hear your voice in the midst of all the noise around me. I want to be dangerous, the kind of man who can’t be labeled, who can’t be controlled because he is doing what you tell him to do. I want to live abundantly, to love with abandon, to fight with every fiber of my being for the freedom for which you have set us free. I want to go when you say go, to fight when you say fight. I want to stop and watch you work and to rest when you tell me. I want people to take notice – of you, and the greatness of your grace.

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You Are More

In our gathering Sunday, we were discussing who we were in Christ. We were talking about how we often react to certain situations and people according to old scripts that tell us we are this or we are that. We listen to lies that people have told us, saying that we are worthless, that we are stupid, that we are unloved. Because we believe those scripts, we have a hard time believing that God really loves us, and we are not free to love ourselves or to love others as Jesus has loved us. One of our brothers played a song by the group Tenth Avenue North titled “You Are More.”

Here are the lyrics:

There’s a girl in the corner
With tear stains on her eyes
From the places she’s wandered
And the shame she can’t hide

She says, “How did I get here?
I’m not who I once was.
And I’m crippled by the fear
That I’ve fallen too far to love”

But don’t you know who you are,
What’s been done for you?
Yeah don’t you know who you are?

You are more than the choices that you’ve made,
You are more than the sum of your past mistakes,
You are more than the problems you create,
You’ve been remade.

Well she tries to believe it
That she’s been given new life
But she can’t shake the feeling
That it’s not true tonight

She knows all the answers
And she’s rehearsed all the lines
And so she’ll try to do better
But then she’s too weak to try

But don’t you know who you are?

You are more than the choices that you’ve made,
You are more than the sum of your past mistakes,
You are more than the problems you create,

You’ve been remade.

You are more than the choices that you’ve made,
You are more than the sum of your past mistakes,
You are more than the problems you create,
You’ve been remade.

‘Cause this is not about what you’ve done,
But what’s been done for you.
This is not about where you’ve been,
But where your brokenness brings you to

This is not about what you feel,
But what He felt to forgive you,
And what He felt to make you loved.

You are more than the choices that you’ve made,
You are more than the sum of your past mistakes,
You are more than the problems you create,
You’ve been remade.

You are more than the choices that you’ve made,
You are more than the sum of your past mistakes,
You are more than the problems you create,
You’ve been remade.

You’ve been remade
You’ve been remade.
You’ve been remade.
You’ve been remade.

You are more. More than what you have done, more than what has happened to you. You are more than what the old scripts tell you. You are a beloved child of the Creator, a co-heir with Christ. You are made in God’s image, more than simply a “sinner saved by grace.” You are free! Let me repeat. You. Are. Free! Free to love your Father with reckless abandon, knowing that he loves you the same way.

You are more. So much more.