I’ve been reading through the Bible since I was little child. Growing up in a preachers home, I learned about God from a young age and was fortunate enough to have parents who practiced what they preached. I saw first hand what it meant to live holy and Godly lives from parents who did their best to do so. As a result, I do and think certain things without really thinking and take them for granted. Unfortunately, one of those has become the resurrection.
I’ve lost sight of the power of the resurrection. One of the most defining moments of Jesus’ life and ministry have somehow gotten lost in the mix of “being a Christian”. I believe that at times, I’ve stopped worshipping the Word and begun worshipping the word. I really want to make that distinction clear; I have exalted the word of God above God himself and begun serving the creation rather than Creator.
I was reading through John this morning through the death and resurrection of Jesus and it hit me how powerful those moments had to be between Jesus and his disciples after he rose from the dead. To see the fulfillment of everything that had been prophesied and to see the one you have loved so intimately standing in front of you after dying in such horrific fashion…wow. What went through their minds? The joy. The fear.
He’s alive. He lives. The Savior lives. And because He lives, so do I.
Over the past few months, I’ve had some incredible challenges come across my path. Actually, both Lisa and I have had a tremendous amount of them. I’m constantly amazed at the weight of them.
I want to write this testify that I serve a God far bigger than any of them and it doesn’t phase me. There’s no need to be upset or worry. He promises that if I cast my cares on him, he will shoulder the load. He also promised Joshua, just as he promises you and me, that if we believe in him, we can have great courage.
“For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.” II Timothy 1:7
“Stop being afraid of those who kill the body but can’t kill the soul. Instead, be afraid of the one who can destroy both body and soul in hell.” Matthew 10:28
I shared the gospel with a young guy over lunch yesterday and after I finished reading through several passages in Romans, I stopped and asked him what he was thinking. He said, “Wow! That’s amazing!”
I said, “I know. Do you want that?”
He said, “Yeah, I just don’t think I’m ready.”
What? Seriously? He had just heard the greatest love story of all time and didn’t think he was ready to accept that kind of love.
We live in a country where there is no since of urgency about anything except for our own selfish gain. What about you? Do you get it? Do you get that while you were still a sinner, Christ died for you?
Go, sell all you have. Deny yourself. Take up your cross and follow Him.
The Spirit has lead me through some very uncomfortable conversations recently. I don’t particularly enjoy saying blunt things and especially the way the Spirit convicts me to do so, but I’m understanding more and more why Paul said “it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me”. God does some amazing things and convicts people in some very uncomfortable ways when I shut up and let him talk.
Try as hard as I may, I just can’t seem to say or do the right things. I’m amazed at how simply accepting and obeying the Spirit he’s given me as a gift, can change things drastically. Conversations, questions, problems…all of it. They’re all changed in a moment if I’m still and listening.
We, as the body of Christ, have done a pretty good job of squelching the gift within us. My great friend and brother-in-Christ, Steve, awakened me to his presence and showed me a side of God I had never experienced several years ago. To say I’m thankful would be a drastic understatement.
“Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?”
It seems everyone wears the name “christian” nowadays. I have a hard time even using the term at all, because it’s become so muddy now. There’s the guy talking about having sex with multiple women at once…yeah, he wears the name. And the woman who professes to be a christian, yet constantly degrades her husband and is leaving him because he’s not the same man she married. She’s out clubbing and enjoying herself with all kinds of other men and yet still calls herself a “christian”?
I think you’re supposed to capitalize the name, but that’s because it’s supposed to have some pride to it. It’s a title. It’s an honor. Right?
Honor? Where’s the honor? I mean seriously, what does it mean to be “a chosen people”? Peter said in I Peter 2:9:
“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”
Sadly, this problem runs crazily through the “body of Christ”. I could name numerous problems in the people around me, but I don’t have to look much farther than myself. I sympathize so much with Paul in Romans 7 when it comes to this discussion. The things I know I shouldn’t be doing or thinking, I just keep doing and thinking them. But, the things I want to do so bad, I don’t do them. I lust. I’m prideful. I’m foolish. I feel his Spirit moving me to boldly proclaim his saving love and I stop. I am such a wretched man.
I’m missing it. Haven’t we all? We, as the people of God, have really lost sight of what it means to be called out. We’re saved by grace. But, what has changed?
“God, please purify me. Purify all of us. I’m sick of all this back and forth. Out of the same mouth come blessings and cursing. You are such a loving God and I am such a wretch. I just want to do what I say I’m going to do. I am so thankful that your grace is sufficient. I’ve been made in your image, but totally lost sight of what that means in how I live. I’m still in that darkness Peter was talking about, Father. I want to be in the light. Help me to stop comparing myself to the sinners around me and to compare myself to Jesus, the author and perfecter of my faith. He wasn’t just righteous, he was the very essence of righteousness. Let his righteousness dwell within me. It is no longer I who live, Father. Christ, live in me. Let your name mean something in me.”
I don’t know how you feel about this, but confessing my sin has to be one of the most liberating experiences of my life. Laying my sin, sorrow, and wretched position as a man before my God brings me greater pleasure than you could ever imagine. I’m not perfect and God knows that truth. He loved me enough to die for me and to think I’d hold it all in after that, is simply pitiful.
If you’re hiding from your past, give it up. Lay it at the feet of Jesus and allow your story to heal the wounded and hurting around you. You’re a sinner and so am I. There’s nothing God doesn’t already know and nothing to be ashamed of in front of men. The writer of Ecclesiates, Solomon, says there is “nothing new under the sun”.
”for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
Today, God has opened the doors for a new part of Lisa and I’s ministry as a couple. We’re being asked to share our story. If you’re interested, you can find it here:
