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Tag: Jesus (Page 9 of 53)

Why Them?

December 6, 2023 / / 0 Comments

Have you ever seen one of those surprise moments? You know one of those unexpected proposals. The kind where the bride has no idea it’s coming. The kind where the secret is kept so well and it is so meticulously planned out that shock and awe are plastered on everyone’s faces. 

It’s kind of like that around Christmas time as well. We shop for gifts for our loved ones. Parents, children, nieces and nephews, siblings all of them get a little something. Each one gets that tiny gift of appreciation and love. This probably sounds a bit harsh but rarely do those people deserve a gift. They might expect something but the point of a gift is that it’s unearned. 

An unexpecting person receives a gift they didn’t expect. They didn’t plan on receiving. The gift is more than they thought possible for a person like them. Often an unexpecting recipient is speechless and left in awe. 

The second week of Advent is about those unexpecting kinds of people. For this part of our journey we jump all the way back to Genesis. You know the story. The flood covers the earth and one man and his family are welcomed into a boat that they were told to build for this very moment. But what did that family do? What caused them to be the ones who earned that amazing gift? 

Ok so if you read around Genesis 6, you’ll likely read that Noah was a righteous man. Let’s remove Noah from the picture for a second. What about the rest of the family? They weren’t the righteous ones. They didn’t deserve to be on that ark. As a matter of fact, if it wasn’t for the amazing compassion of God to give them a way out, they would all have drowned. And even worse Noah would have had to watch as it happened. 

Noah didn’t expect God to save him. The family didn’t expect God to save them. He just did it because that’s how God works. He does the unexpected things in unexpected ways. But it wasn’t just Noah and his family that are unexpecting people. We are included in that same group. We are unexpecitng people. We never met Jesus. We didn’t ask God to save us. Yet here we are just a few weeks until Christmas, ready to celebrate Jesus’ birth. It’s amazing to receive a gift! But even more amazing when you’re one of those unexpecting people

A Walk In The Park

December 5, 2023 / / 0 Comments

December is not generally the time of year to take a walk in a park. The wind is cold and seems to cut right through you. The frost covers the ground. You can see your breath even as you talk because the air is so crisp. Unless you layer up, a walk in the park might not be the greatest option, but that doesn’t change today’s stop on our unexpected places tour. 

In Genesis 3:8 we read and they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. Could you imagine that? I mean taking a stroll through the park or garden or around the track at school and hear the footsteps of God sauntering up behind you? 

As you might know, this account is shortly after the creation story. Adam and Eve just did the one thing God told them not to do. They ate that fruit and with their disobedience came consequences. The consequence is that feeling of guilt. I’m sure you’ve had it too. If not, I can assure you that it’s not a good feeling! 

Let’s get back to that walk in the park. Picture it though. You’re walking in a park and you hear the sounds of leaves rustling behind you. Your blood pressure naturally elevates. Then you realize it’s God walking with you in the park. That’s kind of the experience Adam and Eve had in today’s reading. God showed up in a quiet spot on a walk in the garden. 

Maybe you won’t go for that walk today. Maybe you won’t hear Jesus walking up behind you. But maybe you’ll find that he meets you in an unexpected place as you prepare your heart for Christmas. 

Shrubbery

December 4, 2023 / / 0 Comments

I really like to garden. I plant flowers around my house and tons of plants in my garden. I water them and fertilize them. I even cut them back in the winter, at least the ones that are supposed to last year after year. But never in all my years have I ever had a plant talk to me. Yet that’s exactly what we’re going to talk about today. 

The unexpected places that God shows up in life never cease to amaze me, but this one has to be one of the coolest. There’s a story in Exodus 3 where Moses is taking care of some sheep for his father-in-law. He’s literally minding his own business when it happens. He sees a fire just off in the distance. And like any curious man would do, he went to see what was burning. Men typically think one of two things when there’s a fire by the way. Cool what’s burning and why didn’t they invite me to light the match! And Is it a barbecue? 

This was neither and I don’t think Moses even had time to think those thoughts. He was completely overwhelmed by the presence of a bush that was on fire. And if a burning bush in the middle of nowhere wasn’t enough, it started to talk to him!

Check this out from Exodus 3:6. And he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

Here God shows up to talk to Moses in the form of a bush! Yeah for those of you who are Monty Python fans, that’s shrubbery! That gives a whole new spin on “burning bush” to be certain. You may never see a bush on fire that isn’t being burned. You may never hear God speak to you from the middle of a bush that’s literally burning. But we can see God all over the place in nature around us. 

Take time today to look for God in the frosty ground or the colorful sunset. See if you can find him in a spiderweb or the sound of the wind rushing through the trees. Look for God in unexpected places and you’ll see Him just about everywhere. 

In Your Dreams

December 3, 2023 / / 0 Comments

Are you a dreamer? You know the kind of dream you see and experience when you’re deep in sleep. I can’t remember the last time I had a dream. As kids our dreams are active and filled with color and excitement. Sometimes those dreams turn dark and fill with scary images – we call those nightmares. But they’re still dreams. 

I know what you’re thinking this is an advent devotion and I’m reading it with my kids. What is he doing talking about nightmares!?! You got me. Advent isn’t about nightmares at all actually, but it is about the unexpected. 

Remember how this week is all about God showing up in unexpected places? Well today’s place is in dreams. There’s a story in the Bible about a man named Jacob. He had a dream one day of a huge ladder that reached all the way to heaven. Who sat atop this ladder? Yep! You guessed it – God. 

Jacob didn’t lay down to take a nap because he thought he’d see God. He slept because he was tired. You know just like we sleep when we’re tired. But the cool part here is that God showed up in Jacob’s dream! 

The point here is all about God showing up in the most unexpected of places. Some of those places are not places we’d ever expect Jesus to show up. I mean a small town in the middle of nowhere Israel? A whisper in the side of a cliff? A dream a guy has laying on a rock? 

Take time today to look for God in those unexpected places. 

Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place to sleep. 12 And he dreamed, and behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it! 13 And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring. Genesis 28:11-13 

Quiet Places

December 2, 2023 / / 0 Comments

Noise is everywhere.

This time of year seems to just amplify that reality. All you have to do is go to the mall and listen as the Christmas music that’s piped through the less than adequate sound system. Go to McDonald’s and hear the hustle and bustle of yelling children. Even in churches through the Advent season you’ll hear more and more children playing with their toys, crumbling papers, coloring, and calling for mom to pick them up.

In a world filled with noise, we’re hard pressed to find a place to find God. The noise seems to distract us from where He might be found. And this brings us to the second stop in our unexpected places tour. Silence.

There’s a story in the Bible in a book called 1 Kings where a man named Elijah tries to find God. There are a series of noises that come his way. They are loud and boisterous sounds. Powerful displays of might. But God wasn’t in any of them. While Elijah is tucked into a little cave on the side of a mountain, a gentle breeze-like whisper comes through. And oddly enough this is right where God is found.

And after the fire the sound of a low whisper.  And when Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. And behold, there came a voice to him and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” 1 Kings 19:12-13

The gentle breeze. The whisper of God. We tend to look for God in the power moments and the big lights. The huge tree of Christmas or the fully decked out house. But God doesn’t roll like that. Instead He comes in unassuming ways. A gentle whisper on a dark night. But why a whisper.

A whisper draws us in. The loud moments put us on our heels. They make us cower in fear. They push us farther into the caves of life. But the whisper allows us to lean in. We have to come forward to hear the words and experience the presence of the one speaking.

The long expected gift of Christmas comes not in the loud and gaudy but in the soft, quiet, gentle whisper that we have to lean into in order to hear fully. Lower your voice. Quiet your mind. Listen for the unexpected whisper of God this Advent.

Just Too Much To Carry

November 16, 2023 / / 0 Comments

I almost dropped everything.

There are two kinds of people in the world. There are the ones who carry two bags of groceries in from the car, and then there’s me. I tend to load up the arms and carry as much in as I possibly can. Less trips and all. Plus it’s kind of a challenge sometimes.

But it’s not just with groceries. I do this pretty much every time I get out of the car to go into the office or when I get home. I load up with my backpack, gym bag, Yeti, water jug, and often a coat or something additional on the cold days. This doesn’t even account for finding a way to carry my lunch. And yeah you guessed it…I carry all of it at once.

Carrying these things isn’t really a huge issue. The problem arises when I try to open the door. If we had those cool automatically opening doors, this would be a breeze! But alas, I have to dig into my pocket to get my keys. Then turn the lock and open the door. All of this while my hands are loaded and everything is perfectly balance. My wife often jokes that I need a drink carrier to hold all of the beverages I carry around since there’s normally a protein shake and some pre workout somewhere in the mix as well.

When I get to the door I have two options. I can do the weird balancing act or I could put a few things down. Generally I do the funky balancing act, look like a fool and almost drop everything on the way in the door.

I think the church has done the same thing with people and how we teach salvation. For those that don’t know, salvation is that teaching in the Bible that our wrongs are covered and we’re set up for an eternal future with God in heaven. You see we load up all the extra stuff for people to carry before they truly understand salvation.

The Bible teaches that there’s only one way to heaven. His name is Jesus. Salvation comes through no one and nothing other than Jesus. That’s a very clear message we read on just about every page of the Bible. Yet I’m seeing so many churches talking about so many other things as if they are prerequisites for understanding Jesus.

It’s like we’re piling all the extra bags onto people’s backs making it hard to carry any of it. The Bible teaches that we shouldn’t make it hard for people to believe, but that’s exactly what we’re doing. We load up worship styles, version of the Bible, doctrines and teachings of our particular denomination, how we dress, how we talk, where we go and don’t go, should we make the sign of the cross or not. Man there’s a ton of baggage that we’ve attached to the whole Jesus is the only way to heaven truth.

I’m not saying that any of those conversations are bad. As a matter of fact many of those things are good in their own right. But we can’t treat them as if they are Jesus. We need to stop loading people up with all of this extra baggage before they even know Jesus.

I’m part of a church tradition that values its heritage and its position on many topics, what we call doctrines. And I’m seeing more and more pastors in my church body making people know all of these supporting truths with minimal focus on Jesus. Sure they teach that Jesus died and rose but there’s so much more to Jesus than that one piece of his life.

If you’re a follower of Jesus, perhaps it’s time to realize who Jesus really is. He was a person with some amazing characteristics. He was a man who really walked on the earth, who dealt with some pretty nasty stuff. There’s a lot we can learn from Jesus without heaping up all the extra baggage that we have come up with over time to differentiate us from the rest of the world.

When we load people up with all of these extra doctrines and focus on our churchy jargon it’s often at the expense of Jesus. It’s at the expense of people really learning to live like Jesus. Jesus teaches that his teaching is easy and his burden is light. He doesn’t load us up with all these theological terms and churchy ideas. The Bible gives us Jesus. That’s the one thing we need for heaven. If more followers of Jesus would worry as much about following Jesus as they do about their doctrines and confessional stance on everything, we just might realize that the world doesn’t have a problem with Jesus. They have a problem with how hard we make it to follow him.

Consider thinking through what bags you make people carry on their way into church. Rethink the loads you’re putting on the men and women who really want to know Jesus. If we’re not careful, they’re going to drop everything…including Jesus.

Rapture

November 15, 2023 / / 0 Comments

I lost three of my grandparents in about a year and a half. That narrow window of time for a loss is a lot to handle. And if you’ve lost anyone special to you, no matter if it’s three people nearly all at once or something significantly different, it kind of makes you wonder. Where are they? What are they up to? And will we ever see them again?

Those questions, and likely others like them, were swirling around a young church in the latter portion of the Bible. The book of 1 Thessalonians was written to a young church that didn’t have a lot of history. They knew the basics of who Jesus was and what he did. They knew the promise that he was coming back again.

But they didn’t know what that meant for their family members who died before Jesus came back. That seems to be the main issue here in the 4th chapter of this little letter. What will happen to my family who have already died?

I often wonder the same thing. I mean I kind of know, as much as a human can know the details of the afterlife. But I know they’re with Jesus and I know that one day we’ll all be with Jesus together. The challenge was that it seems Paul drew such a beautiful picture of the day when Jesus comes back to gather the living to be with him, that they started to get worried about the dead. You know the whole they’re going to miss out on this wonderful day when Jesus gathers his people to be with him.

This chapter drives us to understand this is just not the case. This is where the term rapture actually shows up in the Bible. No you won’t see it in many English translations because while it’s there it isn’t there the way we might think. It’s translated in most English versions as caught up in the clouds. That’s it. Caught up. The word that some translate as rapture and have written books about and formed whole theological traditions about is really a word that means to be caught up.

It’s a hard thing to consider especially with all the Hollywood-izing that’s happened with the term. Planes flying with no pilots. Cars with passengers zapped away. Football games with star players turned to vapor. These are the ways we try to explain it but I think this really misses the thrust of the word Caught up.

Think about the sunrise. You know that array of bright orange, red, purple and pink that somehow paint across the entire eastern sky. Add a little frost on the ground and crisp weather that makes you see your own breath and you’re caught up in something pretty spectacular. Yep you’ve been enraptured by this whole reality. It’s the same idea!

Paul here is telling the people in this little church that they will be caught up with their loved ones and with Jesus on the final day. No hocus-pocus. No slide of hand. No vapored bodies. No planes with no pilots. None of that is found here. Just being totally caught up in the presence of the risen and now returning Jesus.

Could those things happen? I mean I guess they can. God can do that if he wants but that’s not what this passage is about. It’s about you and me and even my grandparents all being fully enveloped or enraptured by the wonderful presence of the glory of Jesus when he finally returns. And that is something that should change the way we see life and death!

Don’t Strive For Success

November 10, 2023 / / 0 Comments

In a culture that is bent on getting ahead and being the best and coming out on top, this is not a very popular idea. But if you hang with me for a bit hopefully you’ll come around and see things a little differently.

Success is defined as the accomplishment of an aim or purpose.

At face value success isn’t really a bad thing. Actually there’s nothing really wrong with success in and of itself. Being successful simply means that we’ve done something the way it was expected of us.

But there’s a problem when success is our aim. When all we care about is success at all costs things go off the rails quickly. And just like a train that goes off its rails, when we go off the rails people get hurt. Innocent and unexpecting people get hurt.

When we strive for success it will quickly overcome us. Success isn’t the problem. We are the problem. When we let success become the driving force behind what we do, it quickly takes over. If you’re in it for yourself then success might take you a decent distance. But it will always have a ceiling. Success can only take you as far as your achievements allow.

I’d like to encourage a little different approach than mere success. Instead of success strive to be a person of value. The difference between striving for success and striving to be a person of value is that a person of success will never surpass their talent, but a person of value builds on the success and value of the rest of the team or organization.

Being a person of value means that you’re not just in it for yourself. Being a person of value means that even when you don’t succeed you still don’t fail because you maintained value for the team or organization.

Striving to be a person of value is something lacking in so many aspects of the world today. Instead of getting ahead at all costs, perhaps we could stop and find how we can add value to the group granting us an even better chance at long term success.

A Pastor’s Prayer

November 8, 2023 / / 0 Comments

Have you ever wondered what was on your pastor’s heart? Like what got him excited in the morning? What keeps him up at night? What breaks his heart or brings a smile to his face?

There are three short verses in a small letter in the Bible that really drive at what’s on a pastor’s heart. Here’s the set of verses – Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you,  and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints. There are a few things here that really stand out.

May God our Father and Jesus our Lord direct our way to you.

The first part of this prayer has two really important pieces almost hidden in plain site. You may have noticed that I re-ordered the wording of this line. Most bibles will read “our God and Father and our Lord Jesus” but I think this misses a really cool thing that’s happening here.

Paul wrote this in a specific way to highlight that God is Father and Son simultaneously and yet there aren’t two of them but one God. He shows how God is Father and Sovereign Lord all at the same time. There are two subject (Father and Lord) but the verbs in Greek are singular. So many but one, one but many all at the same time.

Now the prayer is that we would come together. This is a theme everywhere in the Bible – the coming together of the people of God for the worship of God. The prayer of this pastor’s heart is that they would be enabled to continue to meet together.

May the Lord make you increase and abound in love

All too often we get tunnel visioned on what we don’t like and the things with which we don’t agree. We get vocal about our opposition to the newest bill that was passed or the lifestyle choices of those who live differently than we live. Here the prayer turns to enhancing and nurturing what we’re for instead of what we’re against.

The two words used here – increase and abound – are kind of two sides of the same coin. It’s like he’s praying that love would abound abundantly in us. A bit repetitive I know! But the point is that this concept is vital to who we are as Christians. Yet it’s so easy to leave this one by the wayside when we’re upset or don’t get our way.

Establish your hearts blameless in holiness…at the coming of Jesus.

There is a ton packed in this little section but we’ll focus on just one part of it. This is all about God’s acting for us. Have you noticed that every single verb here has the same subject. The same actor. The same person making it happen. In each of these God is the actor. Jesus is the one who’s bringing these things to be.

He’s the one who will make us holy and blameless. This is such a great part of the prayer. We don’t make ourselves good enough or holy or blameless. No matter how hard we try, it just doesn’t work. But God in His Son Jesus, has already made us blameless. Now the prayer is that we are kept in that blameless and holy way of life until Jesus returns.

The prayer of the pastor’s heart is one of togetherness, love for one another and submission to who Jesus is. We pray other things too but this is the heart and soul of all we pray for the people God entrusted to us. And this is my prayer for you even if I don’t know you personally just yet.

Context and Culture

November 2, 2023 / / 0 Comments

There’s something to be said about knowing your culture and context. Whether you’re in marketing, sales, public speaking, an author, a song writer, or even a pastor we need to know the culture and context into which we’re speaking.

For some these two words might seem the same but I see them as two sides of the same coin. Both are needed and both are important. Culture is who we are. It’s the systems and ideals with which we’ve been raised and that define our character and personhood. Context on the other hand is the lens through which everything we see is filtered. Our culture is more consistent than our context.

My family of origin and my current household structure are not likely to change a whole lot through the years (aside from the age of my children). But my context is all the other stuff like my neighborhood, financial status, job title, and all those things that can and often do change frequently.

If we don’t understand the culture and context of our audience, we’ll never speak in a way that they hear much less understand. I’m going to take this conversation to my context. I’m a pastor so this applies to me in a very specific way. I need to know how to contextualize the message I preach.

Now some out there will get all bent out of shape by hearing me say something about contextualizing the gospel. They likely think I’m talking about changing the gospel to meet the scenarios of the people around me. But they couldn’t be more wrong. As a matter of fact I don’t change the message, or in your case the product you sell. We do however need to change the way we communicate the value of that product or message.

Take my role again as an example. I need to be able to speak in a contextually applicable way. That is not making the gospel fit into the lives of my hearers by any means. The idea of contextualization of the gospel is about helping my hearers find the end of their current, and future, story in the gospel of Jesus. It’s about helping people see how their lives already are impacted by the message of the Bible.

If you’re in sales or marketing it’s the same thing. You’re not forcing your ideals, product or message onto someone else. Your goal is to help them see themselves and their problems being cared for by the message or product you provide. When I was in car sales I did this all the time. Someone would come with a problem. My car has a problem, doesn’t run, is old, needs replaced.

I didn’t have to convince them to buy the car. I just had to show them how the car I had on the lot actually was the answer to the problem they presented to me in the first place.

As pastors we tend to get stuck in a rut of Jesus loves me this I know, blah…blah…blah. Yes that message is really important and it’s very true! But it’s only part of the story. If we don’t contextualize the message in a culturally relevant way, then people aren’t going to be able to hear the message much less be impacted by it.

Take time to understand the culture around you and the context into which your message or product will be presented. You’ll be far more effective when you do.

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