Bring It!

Matthew 11:28- "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”

            Do you ever feel overwhelmed? I think we all have days and moments where we feel the pressures of this life weigh down upon us. We are not all overwhelmed by the same things, but we all certainly feel weighed down by something, at least some of the time. Some people are overwhelmed by their careers. Some people feel inundated by their family life. Others feel helpless as they consider their futures. The list of worries that we have is astronomical. At times it can feel like it is too much. At times we all feel like giving up.

            So what can we do when we feel overwhelmed? What can we do when the burdens of life assail us? We can undertake to lighten our load by trying harder or thinking different or any number of other self-help endeavors. The problem with these approaches is that they all rely on me. I better think differently or I better do differently, etc. If I was able to do it all myself I wouldn’t be overwhelmed in the first place! Thankfully for me and for you we have a God who says, “Bring it.”

            The bible tells us that we have a Savior who can sympathize with us. Our God is not some far off deity who “checks in” on us every once in a while. We have a God who says, “Bring it.” He looks at all our weakness, all our burdens, and all our pain and He says “bring it to me.” He doesn’t say that we need to try harder or that we need to think differently. He tells us to bring it all to Him. He tells us that He is powerful enough to deal with anything we have.

            Sometimes we wrongly believe that it is all up to us. We believe that we must muster up the power to deal with everything that goes on in our lives. This only leads to more helplessness and greater fatigue inside of us. We don’t need to get stronger; we need Jesus! We need to become more and more dependent on Him. We don’t need to be independent at all. He is the only One who is able to help us. He is our Savior and He tells us to bring it all to Him. He is able to deal with our insecurities. He is able to bear the weight of our shame. He is able to forgive our sins! We have a Savior and He tells us to bring it all to Him!

            I want to encourage us all to reflect back on the glorious gospel when we begin to feel overwhelmed. It should fill our hearts with a deep-seated peace to realize that the God who saved us from the curse of death is the same God who tells us to bring all our burdens to Him. He sent His Son to do what we could never do. He loved us before we ever even knew Him. He is our Father and He is able. Let’s cling to Him in our weakness. Let’s make much of Him when we feel strained and stressed by this life. The Savior who bore the sin of the world is certainly able to bear the burdens of our lives. We don’t need a self-help seminar; we need Jesus Christ. The great news for us is that He tells us to bring it all to Him!              

The God Who Brings Dead Men to Life

Eph. 2: 4- 5But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved).

            It is overwhelming to even consider the love that God has for us! We have heard it so much that we can often lose sight of the immensity of that truth. We can easily begin to think that we are quite loveable. It is easy to assume that God should love people, because we are good and noble. Our minds can paint us to be good-hearted people who make mistakes; however, that is simply not true. The idea that we deserve to be loved at all is complete madness. We deserve death and not life. We deserve punishment and not grace. We deserve wrath and not love.

            Our hearts were wicked. We were not simply people who sinned, but rather sinners to the core. Our very nature was sick and depraved. In the Garden we rebelled against God and we continued in that rebellion. We were “enemies of God.” The kingdom of men was death and sin was our master. We, quite literally, were dead men walking.  We were a cursed and broken people. There was absolutely no way that any of us could ever fix our universal problem because we were all broken. We were a spinning planet of dead men who sought our own glory, our own wickedness, and our own death. We were corpses of what men were meant to be. We were altogether hopeless in ourselves.

            “But God…” Those two words changed everything! God saw a planet of dead men. God smelled the stench of rotting corpses. God knew the wickedness and rebellion of our race. The Holy Creator of the universe saw it all. One would think that He would turn away in disgust at our vileness. One would assume that the beautiful God who created us would leave us to our despair.  One would presume that God would want nothing to do with us. “But God, being rich in mercy” did not flee from us, but rather sent His Son to us! His Son came to dead men and to our cursed planet.  He came to us! He came to live for us. He came to face our death head on. He lived the life we could never live. Then He suffered death at our hands. In predictable fashion we killed our Savior. However, God was not surprised. God was not baffled at our wretchedness. God was not bewildered that we murdered His Son. Rather, God used the most horrendous sin ever committed to bring redemption! God used the murder of His Son to bring salvation to the murderers! It is breathtaking! God sent His Son to bring dead men back to life and that is exactly what He did! He exchanged His perfection for our sin. He took the wrath that should have been ours. He died the death that we should have died. He made a way for dead men to come to life. Then He came back from the dead! He resurrected!

           

             The truth of the gospel shakes me to the core of my being! Who could have ever imagined it? Who would have ever even considered the truth of the gospel? No one could have possibly even asked for the God of the universe to send His Son as a sacrifice for us. It is altogether unimaginable that the God of eternity would send His own Son to make a way for wicked men to become His sons! An entire race should have been plunged into an eternity of separation without God.  Human beings should have been lost and forgotten; however, God “being rich in mercy” changed everything! This gospel has changed it all. We must never forget the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We must cling to it daily. For it will always reminds us of God’s great love and power. It will humble us. It will compel us to share this gospel. People are hopeless without it. Let’s rejoice in our God and His gospel today. Let’s make much of Him to everyone we know. All men will not be saved, but all men should hear the story of God sending His Son to bring dead men back to life. Let’s tell them!

The Gospel on a Random Friday

            Today is just another random Friday. I am at my wife’s parent’s house. I love being here. I love being able to visit with my family. I love my brother-in-law. I love how much He loves Jesus. I always enjoy my time here.

My wife and her mom left earlier to go shopping in Jackson.  I am going to a USM baseball game with my father-in-law and my brother-in-law later on this evening. However, since 10am this morning it has just been me and it has just been a random Friday. Everyone else is working (or shopping) and I have been busy doing ordinary tasks. I have washed the car, studied a little bit of Greek, and worked out. It has been altogether uneventful (in a relaxing way).  At the same time the gospel has made it glorious.  The fact that we can know the God of the universe and be known by Him changes everything!

           

            I certainly don’t want to sound hyperspirtual. It is just that I was thinking earlier how amazing it is to be loved by God. I was not out doing anything inherently spiritual today. I wasn’t doing mission work. I wasn’t in deep reflection. I was simply doing random things on a random Friday. However, in light of the gospel even the mundane moments of life are exceptional. Jesus Christ’s gospel makes the way for ordinary people like me to have communion with the extraordinary God of the universe! I do not have to be in a temple or a sanctuary to be with God. I have complete access to God wherever I am. I have a Savior who is constantly going to the Father on my behalf. The Holy Spirit of God who leads and comforts me also inhabits me! That is so amazing. The gospel brings God so close to us! He is not far off, but He is with us! In Psalm 139 the psalmist beautifully shows us this truth!  I encourage you read it!

            So many times in life we separate the sacred and the secular. We divorce the two in such a way that we think of them as exclusive. However, the gospel changes everything about life. It doesn’t just change Sunday mornings; it changes every minute of everyday. Without the gospel today would be for nothing. Everyday would be worthless. However, the gospel makes everyday worth living. The gospel perpetually places ordinary men into the extraordinary presence of the living God. The gospel marries the sacred and the secular. The ordinary moments of life are now spiritual to the core. We were dead men walking, but now we are live in Christ! We used to easy our conscience by “being spiritual” every once in a while. The gospel has freed us from condemnation! In Christ we are accepted and loved by God. This means that we do not operate under compulsion anymore, but under delight. We can delight in the spiritual activities of life and we can delight in the ordinary experiences of life. There is no distinction for us. Our God is ever present with us and so even mundane task are spiritual.  It is a beautiful thing. It is astounding to think that God is with us even when we wash our cars or study our lessons. Jesus truly is Emanuel- God with us.  Let’s soak up the beauty of a life lived with God. Let’s make much of Jesus even in the randomness of life. Let’s joy in the gospel that has changed everything about our lives. Let’s remember that every moment we live is truly amazing because we know the God of the universe. Not only that, we are known by Him! So whether you are sitting at a cubicle or relaxing at home, just remember because of Jesus, God is with you! That is astounding… even on a random Friday!

            

Roots... Part 2

Roots Part 2

Option 3. The Gospel

            The third option is the gospel.  In order to constantly live in the gospel we have got to constantly understand our need for the gospel. We are not simply people who sin. We are sinners to our core. Our minds, our hearts, and our very souls are broken beyond repair without the gospel. Much of modern Christianity is built on hiding. In order to try to seem more holy we learn to hide our sins from others. The sad reality is that this only leads to us hiding our sin from ourselves! Believe me, if you can’t think of one sin you committed all day something is wrong. It is not that you haven’t sin, but rather you don’t truly understand what sin is. Sin is subtle at times, but it is always right around the corner and always inside us. The gospel allows us to look deeply and intently at our sinfulness. The gospel tells us “there is no condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus.” This frees us to truly examine our hearts. Religion would tell us to hide our sin. The gospel tells us to bring it to Jesus. The gospel tells us that He is our only hope. The gospel draws our hearts to His throne where we can pour out our hearts honestly and boldly. We know through the gospel that He not only knows every sin we will ever commit, but that He paid for each and every one! We can be honest with ourselves and with God about our sin. As long as we hide we only incubate our sin. We don’t need to hide our sin; we need to go to the God who saves us from them. The gospel takes sin seriously.

A gospel saturated person understand their brokenness, but thy also understand that their acceptance from God is not based on what they do.  We must realize that God’s acceptance of us is not found in what we do but what Jesus did.  In other words your acceptance in God’s eyes is in no way based on anything you can do, but based solely on what Christ did. This means that God accepts you because of Jesus not because you have earned it in anyway. Therefore, you do not earn God’s approval, but rather you already have it in Christ. This necessarily means that we start from a position of acceptance. Religion tells you to “bear fruit so God will accept you.” The gospel tells us “we are accepted and now we can bear fruit.” This is important because as long we feel like God’s acceptance is based on us we will never be able to enjoy God more than we enjoy our own sin!!!!

With the foundation laid now let’s look in more detail at how the gospel works against sin. We sin for two major reasons. First, we sin because we are sinners (it is our nature). Second, we sin because we desire it. The gospel tackles both. On the one hand the gospel is transformative in nature. The gospel does not stop at the surface, but rather reaches all the way to the roots. Jesus did not just die for your temper. He died for all sin, even the inward manifestations. The gospel has the power to transform the whole person and not just the fruit of sin. This means that the gospel initiates true change, not just surface level modifications. The gospel can help you with your temper and it can help with the root cause of why you lose your temper. The gospel transforms the whole person. No person could ever “work on” every sin in his or her life. That is impossible. That is why religion fails. The gospel transforms from the roots and moves up. This means that the gospel is not only concerned with picking off the bad fruit, but rather it is concerned with transforming the entire tree. In this way the gospel works against our sinful nature.

On the other hand, the gospel also works against our love of sin. We sin because we desire it. However, the gospel frees us up to experience God and as a result we begin to desire Him. Sin pales in comparison to the beauty and love that we find in God Himself. Legalism never, ever, ever allows us to enjoy God, because we are never good enough too. However, the gospel tells us that Jesus saved sinful people like us and that He has opened the way to God for us! This leads our hearts to truly joy in God. This means that we are not operating under compulsion, but under desire! This changes everything. This means that we can delight in God! In the gospel our hearts are motivated by desire not by “discipline.” We pursue God and as a result we also pursue holiness! The gospel shows us that God Himself is the treasure. Through the gospel we can now have a vibrant relationship with God. It is a relationship that is based on Christ and not based on our own works. This allows us to be honest with God. It allows us to desire God. It allows us to find rest in God. It allows us to passionately pursue God. The gospel invokes true, long-lasting worship! Desire trumps compulsion every time. The gospel alone lets us enjoy God!

            The gospel alone works on the fruits of sin and the roots of sin. However, you may wonder what you can do on a human level to combat sin. The following is not exhaustive but you may find it helpful.

1. Constantly reflect on the gospel. Constantly think about the greatness of God as seen in the gospel. Always remember that we are accepted because of Jesus not because of us. Bask in the gospel continually. Pray about it, talk about it, write about it, think about it….

2. Be honest about your sin. The gospel frees us to boldly approach God’s throne. Go before God with your sin. Psalm 139:23-24- “Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts. And see if there be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way.” God knows every sin you will ever commit and through the gospel every sin is forgiven. This does not mean we make light of sin, but it does mean that we can be honest with God. He called us, He loved us, He saved us, and we must trust that He alone can transform us.

3. Walk in the Spirit. In other words cling to Him. The gospel has given us access to God through Christ. As we learn to enjoy God we also learn to walk with Him. The Holy Spirit will never lead us astray. He is our comforter and our guide. Constantly walk with Him. In this way you will avoid many snares. The Holy Spirit will often use the Bible to reveal to us our own shortcomings. The great news is that He will also empower us. Rely on the Holy Spirit to guide you. Walk with Him and in time His fruit will grow out of you (Gal. 5: 16-26).

4. Hate sin, but do not despair. A gospel-saturated person will instinctively be repulsed by his or her sin. We know what it took for God to save us and the idea of sin is altogether sickening. In light of this many Christians despair in sin. They stay ineffective for the kingdom of God because they are constantly under guilt and condemnation. This is wrong! The gospel allows us to hate sin, but it also delivers us from its bondage! The gospel takes off the shackles. The gospel frees us. It does not free us to sin. It frees us to cling to Christ in the midst of our sin.  It allows us to run to our Heavenly Father even when we sin. It allows us to fall into His grace constantly and completely. He knows we are sinful and He did what it took to rescue us from the penalty of sin-death. Rejoice for we are sin riddled in this life, but not in the life to come! We have a Savior! We never outgrow that need! Do not despair! Cling to Jesus Christ and His gospel!

            The gospel attacks the fruit and the roots of sin. The gospel transforms us! Let’s rejoice in the God of our salvation. Let’s rejoice for we were dead, but now we live! We have a Savior and He loves us! 

Roots…(Part 1)

            Plants are fascinating to me. Likewise, people who can keep plants alive are fascinating to me! I have a black thumb. I literally had a cactus die on me! I am Roundup in the flesh! It amazes me how people keep plants alive for years at a time. I have never had a plant that lasted more than a few weeks. However, while plants don’t seem to like me at all, weeds love me! I can remember as a child trying to help my mom kill the weeds in her flowerbed. Try as we may the weeds always returned. It is just unfortunate that no one is ever impressed with a flowerbed full of weeds. Undoubtedly I could keep them alive!

            Sin and weeds are very similar. It seems that no matter what we do we can’t get rid of either one; especially sin. You would think that eventually we would just “get over” sin. However, the sad truth is that we are broken. As long as we are in the flesh we will continue to sin. Obviously as Christians we want to sin less than we do!  So what can be done about sin? Let’s look briefly at a few options we have.

Option 1. Bring it on.

            The first option is simply to keep sinning and don’t even attempt to improve. The idea is that God loves us and that He is merciful and so it really doesn’t matter if we sin. This type of thinking makes much of us and our desires and very little of Jesus. It is obviously faulty. Just look at Romans 6:1-2;  “ What shall we say then? Are we to continue that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? That is crystal clear. Truly no more needs to be said.

Option 2. Back up Jesus I got this.

            The second option is the default religious position. In a nutshell this option takes a “pull myself up by my bootstraps approach.” It is all about my willpower and my performance. In this thinking one can will himself to stop sinning. For example, if you struggle with a temper problem all you have to do is learn to control it. This option is really about behavior modification. You are supposed to learn to modify your behavior and force it into submission. There are a few problems with this approach. Firstly, if you have been a Christian for more than ten minutes you know that sin is not nearly that cut and dry. If we could beat ourselves into submission than why don’t we? We don’t because we can’t! If I could will myself to be more loving I would. What’s more this approach yields little true fruit. It is entirely possible to work on your temper and master it for a few weeks or even a few months, but inevitably behavior modification wears off and you are back where you started. Also, even if you cured yourself of a bad temper you cannot cure yourself of the root. Much like weeds in the garden, a casual plucking up will never truly take care of the problem. The truth is that a bad temper is only the fruit of a deeper issue. All sin is the fruit of a deeper issue. Let me give you a personal example. I have always hated to lose arguments. I use to get so frustrated with myself because whenever I would start to lose an argument I would get indignant and my blood would start to boil. I tried for a long time to break myself of that sin. However, what I found is that I didn’t just have a problem with losing arguments, but rather I had an issue with feeling accepted. I figured out that I was insecure.  By winning an argument I would succeed in convincing a person that my position was right. In this way I vindicated myself and it made me feel better about myself. You see option 2 can fix the manifestations of sin (well sort of), but it can never cure the root of the problem. We must come to the point where we accept the fact that we cannot will ourselves to stop sinning. The issue is way beyond our own capacities. We must realize that we sin, because we are sinful! Our flesh is wicked and no amount of behavior modification can transform us. We don’t need a Band-Aid; we need a cure.

We will discuss option 3 tomorrow.  Option 3 deserves a whole lot of time and so I am going to commit tomorrow’s post to it. SPOILER: Option 3 is the gospel J

The Gospel: Replacing Anxiety with Access

Matthew 6: 25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?

           

Some people are natural born worriers. I just happen to be one of them. I have always been an anxious person. I sometimes worry that I might worry about something! The truth is that worry can be extremely crippling. In an instant a person’s world can be overrun with anxiety and nervousness. It is a particularly difficult disposition to overcome; because once a person begins to worry they “melt.” The Hebrew word for “worry” literally mean “to melt.” It is much like a candle that has been lit. In no time at all it begins to contort and drip away. That is the feeling of worry. You feel like you are literally wasting away.  Anyone who has ever worried knows that once it starts it is almost impossible to stop yourself. Once our thoughts take flight they are so hard to catch. I know from a lot of personal experience that there is no “three step” program to cure anxiety. Anxiety reaches so deep that a simple modification of behavior will never suffice to cure the problem. You can’t kill a tree by simply picking off the fruit. You have to get to the root. Anxiety is no different.  We don’t need a Band-Aid; we need a cure.

            Anxiety is a terribly frightening way to live, because it necessarily takes God out of the equation. When we worry we construct an alternate reality and whether we mean to or not, we alone rule that universe. For example, if I don’t hear from my wife for a while I may let myself get anxious. I may worry that she had been in an accident. I may let myself slip into great anxiety about this made up situation. When I am in that state there is no way for me to be helped. The reason is because if my wife had in fact been in an accident the Lord would have comforted me with the “peace that passes understanding.” However, since the situation is based on worry and not reality there is no peace. There are only my own faulty feelings. At its core worry is nothing less than idolatry. It puts me in control and takes God out of the equation. When I worry I become overwhelmed and I “melt” because I was never intended to be God. I was not created to rule the universe. Instead, I was created to be with God. My own sin pulls me away from Him, but in Christ I have complete access to the One who controls everything… including my worst fears! Therefore, worry is a much deeper problem than it may seem on the surface. We don’t need a “three step program”; we need God Himself! The glorious news for anxious people everywhere is that Jesus Christ has made a way for us to have access to God. We don’t need to construct alternative universes and scenarios where we are in control. We need only to let go and trust that the same God, who sent His only Son to save us, is the same God that controls the universe!

            Worry seems to give us power, but in the end just leaves us empty and exhausted. The gospel not only frees us from the shackles of anxiety, but it also cures the root problem, idolatry. The gospel makes much of our great God. It pushes us deeper in both our admiration and our understanding of who God is. The gospel gives us direct access to God. We no longer have to sit around and worry about what may happen. No, now we can go straight to the God of the universe. Because of Jesus Christ we can go straight to the Creator Himself! We don’t have to fret anymore. We can let go and trust that the God of the gospel is our God. Does this mean that bad things will not happen to us? No it does not mean that at all. What it does mean is that we have a God who loves us and cares for us. This means that in spite of hardships, in spite of our worst nightmares we are not alone and we are not forgotten! We have the assurance that if some of our deepest worries do come true that we have a God who loves us to death. We have a God who will give us peace and comfort. We have a God who will never leave us or forsake us! This makes our hearts overflow with peace and deep-seated joy even in the face of tragedy. Let’s cling to Jesus and He will loosen the grip of our anxiety. He has proven His love for us on the cross. Though our minds whisper doubts to us; the cross shouts God’s love and provision for us. It was Jesus who made the way for us to be saved. He is altogether trustworthy! Let’s soak in the glory of His gospel! This gospel exchanges our anxieties for direct access to God Himself! That is great news for all of us! 

The Gospel and the Graveyard

            Yesterday was a particularly bittersweet day for my family. Yesterday morning we went to church to worship and to celebrate the resurrection of our Savior. We sang songs that recounted His marvelous gospel. We read Scripture’s that exalted Jesus and His mighty work. We heard biblical teaching about the implications of the resurrection. Our hearts were moved to worship our great Savior. However, it was also a difficult day for my family. On November 2, 2009 my wife’s oldest brother, “Bucky”, died suddenly. He was a healthy 27-year-old man with no real health issues. He thought he had contracted the flu and went to the doctor to get some medicine. However, it was not the flu but rather a rare condition around his heart that took his life. It was incredibly sad then and it is incredibly sad now. Yesterday was exceptionally hard because it would have been his 30^th birthday.

            After lunch was over and the Easter baskets were opened we decided to go to the cemetery to see the flowers on Bucky’s grave. When we walked up and saw his headstone we were overwhelmed with the sadness that comes from losing a loved one. I looked at the flowers and the knick-knacks that peppered his tomb. In that moment of grief I noticed a small plague leaning against his headstone that said, “the Lord IS returning.” At that moment, as my heart was filled with pain for my wife and her family, I also experienced deep-seated joy. Please don’t misunderstand my heart was still weighed down with sadness, but deep inside of me I could feel the hope that can only come from the Lord. It was there in that painful moment that the impact of Easter truly set in. I turned Jennie and said,” if it were not for Easter, all of this would be for nothing. If it were not for His resurrection, there would be no resurrection for us.” I saw in here eyes pain mingled with joy. We both stopped and reflected on the resurrection. If Jesus would have never risen from the tomb then we would be altogether hopeless. If it were not for His resurrection, there would be no hope for Bucky and the hundreds of other Christians buried in that cemetery.  Yet, the glorious news of Easter is that Jesus did rise from that tomb and He did make a way for men to inherent eternal life! Not only that but He has promised that He is coming again and when He does this graveyard will be ripped apart as His children meet Him in the air! Since the Christ resurrected from the tomb, all those who are known by Him will likewise resurrect!

            I cannot convey to you the feelings of yesterday. The pain of loss is great and it is lingering. Our human minds daydream about what could have been. We are constantly bewildered by the maliciousness of death. However, even in the depths of our despair we know that hope is not lost. We know that in spite of what we can see, hope is all around. For nothing can separate us from the love of God, not death, not pain, not loneliness. We know that the love we have found in Jesus Christ is stronger than our feelings, and that His love will outlast our graves. We can take heart knowing that the Jesus who conquered death is the Jesus that is our King. Though we are pressed on every side we will not be overcome. For we have a Savior who has shut the gates of hell for His children and paved the way into the arms of God Himself.

We will suffer loss. We will eat bitter tears. We will long for another time where death is defeated and pain is forgotten. We will strive for answers that cannot be known.  We will feel the pain of a cursed world. But we will not be overcome. We will not be overtaken. We will not be left alone. We have Jesus. If all else is lost, our King remains. That ancient King who created the universe with His words. That ancient King who came to earth as the God-Man. That ancient King who crushed the serpent’s retched head. That ancient King who was slain for the sins of man. That ancient King who trampled over death and came bursting out of the tomb. It is because of that King that we have any hope and all. It is because of that King that we have all the hope in the world!

            We will continue to grieve for Bucky while we are here on the earth. We will continue to combat sadness and pain. But we know that because Jesus Christ is alive, Bucky is too! When this age is passed and this world is no more, one thing will remain; Jesus Christ and His gospel. I am certain that when we see Bucky again we will weep, but this time for joy. We will remember that the only reason we meet again is because of Jesus Christ and His resurrection from the dead! Let us make much of Jesus in this age, and in the age to come!