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Tag: Jesus (Page 20 of 53)

A Different Perspective

December 20, 2021 / / 0 Comments

This year for the season leading up to Christmas, a time churches call Advent, we’ve been focusing on the events of the first Christmas from the perspective of those who would have been there. I know that this takes some conjecture and a little creativity but we stayed as close to the text of the Bible as possible. The portions that are made of some level of conjecture are less than relevant to the topic at hand.

Each of these messages was simply intended to make us slow down as we run rampant this time of year. We focused on Zechariah. He was Mary’s uncle. He really doesn’t play much of a role in the events on Christmas morning but his story is impactful as we set the stage for what’s about to happen. His lesson was one of pure grace. He was invited into an epic journey and even though he didn’t believe it right away, he experienced what amazing grace felt like in real time.

Then we moved to Mary. She’s well known for so many reasons. As we looked at her part of the journey, we saw just how God has a tendency to interrupt our humdrum lives. We have a statement around church, Men plan but God laughs. Well in this case, she planned a wedding with Joseph then starting a family, but God had other plans. He wanted her to have a child and obediently go where he told her to go.

The third character of the nativity story was Joseph. He’s an unsung hero. No lines to speak. No role beyond the first few chapters of the account of Jesus’ birth. He didn’t want to shame Mary even though he thought she was guilty of something awful. His is a story of being so close to God that he was able to let God lead him off the script of his planned life and into an amazing future as the earthly dad of the son of God.

Week four was the shepherds. They’re on the scene shortly after the birth of Jesus but really don’t have a lot to offer. Their part of the story is more what God did through them and for them than what they did for Jesus. The real important part of their story is who they were or in this case who they weren’t. Not important. Not popular. Not socially acceptable even really. Yet God chose them as the first audience to the birth of His only Son.

Below are the messages cut from these services. I pray you are able to see Christmas through a new set of lenses as you peak into the manger from the perspective of one of these characters.

Turning Coal Into Diamonds

November 16, 2021 / / 0 Comments

There is an old rumor, thanks to Superman, that you could apply the right amount of pressure to a lump of coal and it would turn that dusty lump into a sparkling diamond with perfect cut lines and immense value. The problem is that scientifically speaking that’s not exactly how that would work. Turning coal into diamonds isn’t really as plausible as our famed superhero would want us to believe. That said, I think there’s a greater analogy at play here than real coal and diamonds.

Imagine for a moment doing something so awful, so atrocious, so hurtful to someone that you couldn’t even imagine seeing that person face to face. Imagine how you would feel. Consider how worthless you’d feel especially knowing how much that person cared for you and loved you. This is a story that actually is found in the Bible. Oddly enough it’s a story that many of us can relate, whether we want to or not.

The story goes like this. A man named Peter is a good friend with Jesus. He follows him around and mimics his words and actions. Imitation is the greatest form of flattery you know. Well one day Peter decides to punch Jesus in the face by telling everyone he sees that he doesn’t even know Jesus. He denies him. Flat out denies him! After all that Jesus had done for Peter, he just leaves him there with no one to help him.

But fast forward in the story and you see Jesus reach back out to Peter a week or so later. Not only does Jesus not remind Peter of his past denial, but he even gives him a job. Not a crappy job either! It was a good job. A well respected position to be sure. But what’s more is what that job entailed.

You see it was Peter’s mouth that got him in trouble by denying Jesus. And the job that Jesus has for Peter is to use his, yep you guessed it, his mouth to actually defend and speak well of Jesus. This is pretty cool stuff if you think about it.

Jesus in a way was taking the coal of Peter’s denial and lies and turning them into the most amazingly perfect diamond you would ever see. So while the myth of coal to diamonds might be debunked by science, the reality is God can turn the coal of our bad choices into something far greater than diamonds if we just trust him.

River of Life

November 8, 2021 / / 0 Comments

The past several weeks at the church I serve, we’ve been focusing on an idea called forgiveness. It’s a pretty cool idea if I’m being honest. Forgiveness has two definitions and we’ve really spent some considerable time looking at both sides.

The first side of forgiveness deals with canceling a debt. When you have a debt forgiven it means that you no longer are responsible for the debt. The second side of forgiveness has to do with the emotional aspect of things. It means healing the hurts and getting rid of the anger and resentment that comes when we are offended by someone.

It’s funny how life sometimes just gives you a theme song for what you’re going through in a given season of life. Well this one is it. As I was driving on a recent trip to chat with another past a few hours away, a song popped on the radio that caused me to pay a little more attention. The song is called River of Life.

Now I’ll be honest, I had never heard the song nor have I heard of the artist to my knowledge. And the title of the song didn’t really speak to me at first. The tune was catchy but the words came out of nowhere and really spoke to the series we are in the middle of currently.

The idea is pretty simple. The River of Life isn’t one with banks and shores and water and sand. It’s the river of forgiveness that flows into our lives by Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. I hope you take a few minutes to listen to the song and realize that you too are washed in the river of life.

To Be Forgiven Is To Forgive

November 3, 2021 / / 0 Comments

We’re doing a really cool thing at the church I serve called The Forgiving Challenge. It’s cool because it’s super simple. It’s cool because it’s outlined well and yet remains flexible to be applied to our context. It’s cool because it’s resulting in some fun stories and new relationships across the members of the church.

The idea is simple. Forgiven people forgive people. The more you realize your own need for forgiveness, the more likely you’ll be to offer that to someone else. If you’re holding a grudge or some bitterness in your heart towards someone, then you’re starving yourself of realizing the full benefit of forgiveness.

This week we spent time with the word forgive. We talked about its definition according to culture and how that is only half the picture. We discussed what forgiveness costs us and what it cost Jesus on our behalf.

Think of it this way, for you to forgive someone of a hurt they did to you, you’ll need to let a part of you die. The part of you that’s all twisted with anger and hurt needs to be let go. In our time in church we looked at the things that remind us of our sin aren’t there to make us relive our sin but to relieve us of its weight.

Take time considering those people in your life against whom you might be holding a grudge or with whom you might be holding bitterness in your heart. Sacrifice a piece of yourself by going out of your way to forgive, not necessarily because they are worth forgiving but because you didn’t earn your forgiveness. So if you’ve been forgiven and didn’t earn it, you should probably give that same forgiveness to those around you (even if they didn’t earn it in your eyes).

Identity & Action

October 27, 2021 / / 0 Comments

There are two things that are at odds in most of our lives. Who we are and what we do. Sometimes we let what we do define who we are. But then what happens when we fail? The goal of this post is to help you see past what you do to the reality of who you are.

When we look at our lives it’s easy to get a tad discouraged. There is always someone who is better than us. There is always someone who is faster than us or more efficient than we are at a given task. It doesn’t take much effort to find the shortcomings in our lives, and if our identity is determined by our action then we are in trouble!

However, if we step back from our actions for a moment and realize that our identity is found outside of our accomplishments and failures we will have a better grasp on what is most important. So in short…

Who you are is not determined by what you do but what you do determines who you are. Share on X

When we get our identity and our actions out of order, we quickly lose focus of that which is most important. In the church world, we like to use the word covenant to describe who we are in relation to God. He made a covenant with us that doesn’t rely on what we do but on who he is and what he does for us. It’s all about our identity. It means that who we are is determined apart from what we do. It’s this reality that gives us the title Child of God. It’s this reality that invites us into a deeper relationship with him. God’s covenant with us draws us into a place where his love and care transform who we are regardless of our past.

So if the identity part is determined by God then the action piece of our lives should be determined by our understanding of identity. We call that kingdom. It means that God has invited us into a relationship with him and given us a place in his kingdom. When we have a place in a ruling kingdom, it means we have authority and power and responsibility. This is no different in our relationship with God. He not only calls us children, but also freely gives us all of the resources that are at his disposal. So if he loves us before we do anything then why do we have to do anything?

You see we live out our identity through actions because his love for us doesn’t want us to stay in an ok state. He wants more for us than to survive. He wants us to thrive! This is why he calls us victorious. He gave us the victory over the less than stellar moments in our lives. When our identity is grounded in God’s love for us, then our actions will look like that new identity.

I know, we all mess up. We all fail. We all do things we will one day regret. Those moments are not defining moments. Let the grace of Christ define you. And let this new identity determine how you live.

Couch Cushion Confessions

October 26, 2021 / / 0 Comments

Have you ever done the terrifying task of moving furniture in your home? Ok so it’s not all that terrifying but it could be! Let me explain.

In our home, we most of the time eat in the kitchen but sometimes we’ll overflow into the living room. When we have more guests into our home than can fit around the table, we’ll generally spill over into the living room and use the couch. Or at night when we’re sitting down to watch tv sometimes we’ll grab a bowl of popcorn or other snack. And this very fact is what makes moving furniture a potentially dangerous, or at minimum humbling and embarrassing task.

The food that somehow miraculously misses our mouth hole tends to make its way into the crevasses in the couch. It lodges between the cushions and sometimes even bounces (or I’m convinced crawls) under the couch into the back most corner where it’s virtually unreachable.

We can vacuum the floors and even the couch but unless we remove the cushions and use the special tools on the vacuum, we’ll leave a lot of dirt and dust and food lodged under the cushions.

This is kind of like life in this world. As followers of Jesus, we have this thing called confession. And at its core, confession is like peeling back the couch cushions and revealing what’s underneath that we refused to deal with. Confession is coming to the harsh reality that something is a miss in our life and we need to have some help dealing with it.

Look I get it. No one likes to deal with the junk under the cushions. And if we’re being honest, most of the time no one can see what’s lurking in the hidden crevasses of our lives. But not dealing with these matters, doesn’t make them go away. It’s like Jesus’ words to the church leaders of his day that they were clean on the outside and dead on the inside. He called them whitewashed tombs. Nothing living exists in a tomb. It needs to be brought into the light to find life.

God loves you for who you are but loves you too much to leave you where you are. Share on X

Confession is coming to Jesus in the mess of our lives and letting him have his way with us. Here’s the deal you don’t need to have it all together to come to Jesus but when you do come to Jesus you better expect to end up being changed.

A Tarnished Record

October 18, 2021 / / 0 Comments

Imagine for a second a beautiful bride slowly progressing down the aisle to meet her groom. Her hair is perfectly done up with curls that swirl down her head like waves rolling on the ocean coast. Her makeup is done to perfection. The bouquet is gently held in her hands. But the dress, it’s something to behold. It’s a crisp and clean white. Long to the ground. It’s cut straight to fit her well but modestly designed at the same time. The train of the dress glides across the floor as she makes her way to her groom.

Then out of no where in a sudden movement, a 4 year old boy darts from his chair to give the bride a hug. He reaches out and grabs her dress before anyone can catch him. This would be a cute and loving moment if he hadn’t been eating a cheese coated snack that left his hands more orange than a pumpkin. Those hands grabbed the front of the bride’s dress transforming the perfectly fitted, white wedding gown into a canvas for this little guys finger painting.

Could you imagine! Now that scenario never happened, at least not that I’m aware. But imagine the horror on the bride’s face or the embarrassment the child’s mother would feel. Consider how terrifyingly awful that moment would be for all involved.

And as awful as that moment is, we live in a very similar situation nearly every day. As Christians, we are called to live a life worthy of the calling of Christ. We’re called to a high standard. We are commanded to be perfect, just like Jesus was perfect. Just like that pretty white dress was perfect. But just like that imaginary story, we’ve trashed the perfection God gave us. He doesn’t lower the bar or excuse our behavior. He doesn’t say everything is ok. He doesn’t say Well, they’re just sinners so I shouldn’t expect anything more than this. No, God demands perfect.

This week we look at the bible word – sin. It’s a word that describes anything that misses the benchmark of perfect. It’s the word that shows what happens when we put our dirty, grimy, selfish finger prints all over the perfect image in which God created us.

Look, I get it, no one likes to be shown they are wrong. No one likes to admit they are wrong, to themselves much less to other people. As we consider the stains we’ve made on life, it’s important to admit our fallenness. It’s critical to lay our cards out on the table of life and be honest when our actions don’t match our confession.

And when we do, be ready for a truly amazing change to occur. Be ready for your life to completely change trajectory, because when we admit our sins we gain admission to God’s freedom. We’ll look more at the action of admitting or confessing our flaws next week but for now revel in the glory of forgiveness gained by Jesus on your behalf.

I Am An Awful Person & So Are You

October 13, 2021 / / 0 Comments

Let’s be honest. We suck at life. I mean really. We go out of our way to prove ourselves right. We shut people out who disagree with us. We shut people down who do or say things that don’t line up with our views. When someone challenges us, we remove them from our circle of friends. We just flat suck at being human sometimes.

And to make matters worse – it’s not ok! No matter what someone tells you when you apologize, it is NOT ok! It never has been and never will be. If someone tells you they are sorry for doing something wrong or acting like a turd, don’t tell them it’s ok. They hurt you and hurting you isn’t ok.

A really big word in the life of the church is forgiveness. Forgiveness isn’t an excuse to do bad again. Forgiveness is not the license to give yourself a pass on bad behavior just because you’re not perfect. Forgiveness is the removal of our wrongs. Forgiveness is the wiping clean of the slate of our lives.

This month we started a 40 Day Journey called the Forgiving Challenge. Throughout these 40 days we’ll discover what forgiveness is, why it’s important, what we need forgiveness for, and what we’re supposed to do now that we’ve been forgiven. But it all starts with an honest assessment…

I am an awful person.

You can’t say those words about other people. When you hear me say those words you’re welcome to agree but the Bible is clear that we can’t go poking at someone else’s issues before we deal with our own.

Our first stop in this 40 day journey is to take an honest look in the mirror and seriously recognize our flaws and failures. Where have you gone wrong? What have you done that has offended someone else? What have you neglected to do that you said you would do? How have you let others down? Just pause for a minute to recognize that you’re not perfect. We all know that we’re not perfect but unfortunately we often act like we are.

Below is the message that kicked off this 40 Day journey of recognizing and practicing forgiveness. We’d love for you to walk with us through this challenge to give up on the failures and embrace a life of forgiveness.

God’s View of Welfare

September 22, 2021 / / 0 Comments

The premise of welfare and the working of the welfare system can be some controversial topics at times. The intent here isn’t to belittle anyone in the welfare system. The intent is simply to provide some perspective on what seems to be a more biblical approach to what we call welfare.

I recently was reading the book of Ruth in the Bible. It’s the story of a woman, Naomi, who lost her husband and sons in a short span of time. She was left a widow with her two daughters-in-law as the only ones to care for her. Long story short there was no one to take care of them. One of the daughters-in-law left to go back home, so the story continues with Ruth taking care of Naomi.

Fast forward to chapter 2 and we see Ruth out in a field gathering left over grain off the ground. Enter God’s welfare system. The practice was simple actually, farmers would gather the grain but leave some in the field for the poor and widows and those needing help. They didn’t have a system where people got a handout. The system God designed in this time had work built into it. They had to work to get the food.

No hand outs, just hand ups.

It was a fantastic system, if you really think about it. It kept those needing a little help active. It taught responsibility and work ethic. It made the people an active part of the community. And it wasn’t morally degrading to anyone who was too embarrassed to receive a handout. They did an honest day’s work for an honest day’s wage. It was truly amazing! And better yet…it worked!

The issue faced in some parts of our country is that when we offer hand outs instead of hand ups we let people stay where they are. But when we offer a system designed to help people succeed and receive help at the same time, it’s a win – win for everyone!

When we think about helping those who are going through rough times, we have to understand that there is a time for handouts. But those times are not continual. If Ruth didn’t have to glean the fields for the leftover food, she wouldn’t have ever met her husband. When we sit back and rely on handouts and giveaway items, we run the risk of losing out on some massive opportunities for life!

How can you help give someone a hand up in your day to day life? If we would focus on empowering people to grow and succeed, we could quite possibly shatter any glass ceilings that exist in our culture for people of any and every life circumstance.

Speaking Without Thinking

September 14, 2021 / / 0 Comments

Once upon a time in a galaxy not too far from here, I would speak before I thought. My words would flow at times faster than the water over Niagara Falls. Some of those words were pretty intelligent, if I do say so myself. But others, well let’s just say not so much! And if I’m being honest, there were likely way more not so smart things than there were even half intelligent things!

But it’s not just saying dumb things that will get us in trouble. Sometimes we say hurtful things. We say unkind things. We even say untruthful things. All of these types of words can do vast harm to people we care about and ultimately can destroy a relationship.

You see words have power. Your words, once they come out of your mouth or through the inter webs on your computer or cell phone, can’t be retrieved. Once they are out there, well there’s no getting them back! You can’t apologize your way around them or talk your way past them. You just have to, in many cases, start brand new rebuilding the trust you once had. But it takes time and effort.

You see not only do words have power but the relationship from which they’re spoken carries weight as well. So what you say, how you say it and who you are to the person with whom you’re speaking all factor in to the damage done by your words (or your silence when words are most needed).

Before you hit send on that text message or facebook post. Before you reply to something someone says to you. Before you go off and spew your feelings all over someone else, hit the pause button. Ask yourself a couple of questions:

Is what I’m saying the whole truth?

Where did I get my information?

Is ruining this relationship worth getting my point across?

What do I have to gain by saying this? What could I lose?

The old adage of sticks and stones can hurt my bones but words will never hurt me couldn’t be more wrong. The damage done by our words, or lack of words, is far greater than anything inflicted by a slap on the face or punch in the gut.

The bible says in one place that our words and our tongue are like a fire burning inside us that if not handled properly can do vast damage. Words can lift up and they can tear down. Speak kindly with one another. Be silent when speaking isn’t necessary. Speak when the time is right. But when you speak, make sure what you speak is truthful, complete and said with love and respect. Be bold and courageous in your speaking when necessary. Be calm and gentle when the circumstances dictate.

Below is a message I recently gave on the power of our words. If you have a few minutes, I’d be honored for you to listen and give your thoughts.

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