Tag: Jesus

Upsetting the World

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After being imprisoned in Philippi for sharing the Good News of Jesus, Paul and Silas proceeded to Thessalonica and were accused of something most peculiar. A mob gathered to come against Paul and Silas and said of them, “These men who have upset the world have come here also” (Acts 17:6, NASB).

What a wonderful accusation! The apostles were guilty of upsetting the world. Oh, that we would be known for the same, as this world certainly needs shaken. The world system is inside-out and headed in the wrong direction. It is on a fleeting, selfish, and deceptive course toward destruction. We need men and women who will follow God in swimming upstream, against the flow of sin and confusion.

Ads of all kinds attempt to convince people that more things and expensive things are necessary to be respectable. This notion flows from the false assumption that the respect or envy of other people won through materialistic efforts holds the potential to bring real joy. The glitz of fancier modes of entertainment pushes people to believe contentment is found when we have more time and ability to laugh mindlessly and to avoid reality as we deny the core questions of the heart. Recently, a television commercial portrayed a grown woman as amazingly excited to discover seven people were searching for her online. Does it really change our lives to know a handful of other mortals is looking for us? Can self-centered living bring peace?

When Jesus saves people, He turns them inside-out; He makes them new (II Corinthians 5:17). On this earth, Jesus begins to prepare His people for the new world He is someday making. Jesus begins to shape individuals who are no longer content to waste hours, days, and years accumulating things that distract us from the pursuit of God. Jesus molds men and women who radically race toward what is broken in order to bring healing. Jesus transforms people into those who embrace the greatest paradox – that in giving our lives away to God, we gain everything (John 12:25).

As a Christian, I ought to feel the friction of my travels in a direction opposite the flow of the current, unrighteous world system. When I undergo new birth in Jesus, every fiber of my being ought now to sense that sin is to be battled vehemently.

Our Jesus is coming back to make a home of righteousness (II Peter 3:13). In other words, He will invade again the space-time continuum to make a world that is as it ought to be. Obviously, right now this world is far from being as it ought to be. The earth is broken (as seen in natural disasters and the second law of thermodynamics), bodies are broken (by disease, disability, and aging), relationships are broken (by selfishness, impatience, and unrealistic expectations), and hearts are broken (in ways innumerable). But, the Maker of the universe will miraculously remake the universe. Only the God who made everything from nothing can make wholeness out of brokenness. The fixing of this world will come by no human endeavor. It will take the invasion into history of our God . . . and He will do it!

Meanwhile, Jesus remakes people one at a time as He redeems us from sin. And then He calls us to “upset the world” – to live radically different from this vanishing, sinful flow. Jesus has the power to overcome brokenness in your life. Sin pulls us away from wholeness in our hearts. Sin also set into motion the tendency toward disorder and disintegration we see in the natural world; scientists refer to this deterioration as the second law of thermodynamics. When we shake a puzzle box and then drop the pieces to the floor from a few feet above, the pieces land randomly – scattered all about. The more we shake the box and the higher from which we drop the pieces, the more randomness and separation we observe.

Picture your heart as those puzzle pieces. Left to sinfulness without Jesus, our hearts – our lives – fall shattered, making no sense. However, if Jesus shakes your heart, the unexpected happens – the pieces fall out and are fully connected! He overcomes the natural, and forms the whole picture, causing things to make sense! He fixes us – against every plan of the enemy and every apparent triumph of wrong.

We need to reflect our Savior in shaking the world in which we live. We need to pursue the wholeness Jesus intends. We need to go against the flow.

Upset your world with a heart of service instead of a heart of power, private integrity in place of facade, kindness in the midst of attack, value of prayer and Bible study above entertainment, truth-telling though it cost much, giving of resources in the midst of selfishness, gentleness though surrounded by harshness, forgiveness when revenge is easier, sacrifice of time for those in need, and love of God above love of all else.

May Christians be accused as Paul and Silas were – of upsetting this world.

Need a Better Word than the Word of Guilt?

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Many people are familiar with the biblical fact that Cain killed his brother, Abel. The physical act of murder being a sin most people do not commit, the story is sometimes incorrectly dismissed too quickly. This account has everything to do with me – and you.

First, God makes clear that from the start Cain did not have faith in His holy Creator. Hebrews 11:4 (NIV) declares that it was “by faith Abel offered a better sacrifice than Cain did.” For purposes of space and time, I choose not to diverge here in a detailed discussion of why Abel’s animal sacrifice was of faith, while Cain’s offering from his crops was not. However, the status of the hearts of both men is what was critical to their giving. This is always the case. Physical actions and spoken words brought from a wrongly motivated heart are ugly in the sight of God, and often in the sight of men. Clearly, of the myriad of things that might have motivated Cain, faith in God was not it. What a curious and critical insight. Many motivations of the heart stand wrong before God, and only one stands right – faith (Hebrews 11:6).

After having acted wrongly from his heart in regards to his offering, Cain was warned by God that the practice of sin leads to further practice of sin. In fact, God clearly informs, “But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it (Genesis 4:7). Instead of heeding God’s warning, Cain chose to focus on his discontent and the perceived reason for his discontent – Abel. Mind you, the true source of Cain’s unrest was his wrong standing with God. Had he run to God in repentance rather than to man in frustration, things would, no doubt, have turned out differently.

Standing in a field, with jealousy and the restlessness of rebellion against God in his spirit, Cain allowed sin to move from a crouched position to an all-out attack stance. Sin was no longer at the door; its damning fingers now crawl all over Cain’s back. He murders his brother.

And so do we; for, Jesus proclaims, “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not murder, . . . But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment'” (Matthew 5:21-22). The anger and discontent and jealousy in our hearts that leads to anger toward others is in the sight of God subject to spiritual judgment just as murder is.

Wow. It seems a hopeless situation. So sad is it that God said to Cain, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground” (Genesis 4:10). And so it is with me. The blood of Abel cried out loudly about Cain, “You are guilty! You are condemned!” The results of my sin cry out loudly the same thing, “You are guilty! You are condemned!” Can you hear it? It drives us insane if we understand its implications. Hopelessness is all that stands before us if this is the final and strongest cry.

Enter Jesus! Blessed, wonderful, loving Jesus! Hear the Word of God, “But you have come to . . . Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel” (Hebrews 12:22a, 24, emphasis mine).

Did you hear that? The blood of Jesus speaks a better word than the blood of Abel! Abel’s blood cried out the horror of guilt and condemnation, but Jesus’ blood proclaims forgiveness! So powerful is Jesus’ blood to cleanse the human heart that the original languages tell us His blood simply “declares” its power, while Abel’s blood “cried out.” My friend, when your lack of faith, your sin, and your humanly-wrought disaster cries loudly your condemnation, let the blood Jesus shed on the Cross decisively and authoritatively declare, “You are forgiven.”

Do you need a better word than the word of sin and guilt? Jesus is the Word you need.

Cure for the Common Christmas Verse

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Oh, the careless treatment we often give the common “Christmas verse,” Matthew 1:21. Regularly presented to us in the month of December, the powerful words are frequently taken for granted, “She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”

Since these are the words of the angel of the Lord to Joseph concerning the Son of God and His amazing placement by the Holy Spirit in the womb of Mary, we rightly consider these words momentous. Here stands the announcement that our infinite God has chosen to put on human flesh! And why? The angel proclaims plainly the motivation right at the inauguration of this unbelievable, sacrificial season of God’s plan. The reason is so that we can be saved from our sins.

Notice God did not say, “He will save His people from their low self-esteem” or “from their lack of purpose” or “from their depressive hopelessness” or “from their illness” or “from their loneliness” or “from their economic hardship.” No, God sounds forth the real answer for the human dilemma – salvation from sin.

All other difficulties are secondary to the root cause, which is sinfulness. Please cease looking primarily for Jesus to build your self-esteem or give you purpose or make you hopeful or heal your body or grant relationships or make you wealthy.

Please, please, please . . . run to Jesus for the very reason He entered the bloody womb of a woman and grew to shed His own blood and sacrifice His life – to deliver you from sin.

At its putrid core, sin is selfishness. When I trust Jesus to deliver me from my self-centered plans and desires, I realize I now want what He wants. All other circumstances aside, I can now truly live, because my sin had been killing me.

Here is the clincher. He did not come to save us despite our sins, but from our sins. The Greek root is clear; Jesus came to separate us from our sin nature. He destroys that wicked union. The moment I run to Him, He obliterates the damning attachment of sin to my soul. His ultimate aim in the new world He prepares is to place an infinite distance of space and time between us and all sin’s destructive and debilitating effects.

Are we currently living to be free from sin? Are we as hard-nosed about the mission as Jesus is? I think we suffer so much discontent not because of dismal situations, but because separation from sin – the goal of God – is not our goal.

The most humane thing in the entire world is for a person created by God to have his or her union with sinfulness obliterated. Fear not other maladies, save this: a clinging to sin.

Live for that for which our Savior lives: detachment from sin and attachment to God. All other solutions naturally follow – whether today, tomorrow, or in the place Jesus is preparing.

What determination Jesus had to exit glory and enter this broken world to save us from our sins!

What determination will we have to refuse to gossip, to sacrifice that hour of time, to give that hard-earned money, to smile at that one who hurt us, to choose not to retaliate, to enter a sweet hour of prayer, to turn off the iPod and open up the Bible, to purposefully make Jesus the topic of dinner conversation, to put ourselves on the backburner tomorrow afternoon, to confess wrongdoing and ask forgiveness of a friend, or to distance ourselves from sin in any number of ways?

“Jesus came to save us from our sins,” said the angel of the Lord.

Truly, Where Is Your Trust?

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Just some weeks into the Israelites’ adventure in the wilderness following their miraculous exodus from Egypt, God’s people began grumbling against Moses and Aaron because they were hungry. Recall that these people had watched God send massive plagues (including the plague of death) to ensure their freedom from Pharaoh, they had seen the application of blood over their doorposts stop the death angel cold in his tracks, and they had watched with mouths agape as God divided the sea in half for their safe pilgrimage. And still, the Israelites make the wrong assumption that God has brought them all this way to kill them (Exodus 16:3).

As they continue complaining about their hunger, I can only imagine God’s thoughts. If I were God (and – wow – are we thankful I am not), I would have looked at the lot of them and said, “You ungrateful brats! Don’t you see what I have done? Do you really believe I have rescued you to kill you?” Thankfully, this is not what God says. I, myself, am particularly grateful for this fact; for I am one of the ungrateful, unbelieving brats.

God answers their complaining doubt by saying, “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you” (Exodus 16:4). God is truly “something else,” isn’t He? It truly is all about Him. Even after I have trusted Him for salvation, I still fail. But God is faithful!

The detail we should highlight here is God’s prescription for the manna. He told the Israelites to collect enough for each day one day at a time. (Exodus 16:4) Throughout the week, they were to collect only enough for the day at hand and not stockpile it for the next day. Moses reiterated, “Let no man leave any of it until morning” (Exodus 16:19).

As we can imagine (because we know ourselves well), some of the people left manna from one day until the following morning. The results were very repulsive. The manna left over for the next day “bred worms and became foul” (Exodus 16:20). Smelly manna teeming with maggots is not what the Israelites had in mind! Yet, this was the result for those who tried to carry one day’s portion into the next day.

The question becomes, “Why?” Why did God do this? The answer is clear and confirmed in many other portions of the Bible. God wants us to trust Him and not ourselves and all our efforts.

People who hoarded the bread for the next day either did not believe God would rain down manna in the morning as He promised, or they did not believe God would give them strength the next day to go collect it. Either way, they did not trust the Living Lord. My friends, He wants us to know that He will be there tomorrow morning with all the provision of food, strength, and sanity that we need. We are not to work by our own efforts to devise a way to survive; relationship with and trust in God are our only ways to survive.

Jesus confirms this emphasis in the Gospel of John, Chapter 6. When large crowds cross a body of water to be with Him, He does not employ “seeker-friendly” techniques. He chastises the crowd by informing them that they have followed Him for the wrong reasons; they have only come because their hungry stomachs had been filled when He had performed the miracle with the fish and bread. Jesus proceeds to tell the crowd, “I am the living bread that came down out of heaven” (John 6:51a).

The crowd was into following Jesus because of His miracles that satisfied their fleshly desires. The people even brought up the miracle of manna in the wilderness of which we have been speaking (John 6:31). But Jesus was sure to emphasize that though the recipients of this manna had eaten it, they still died an earthly death. The physical manna was not the key. The key is trust in the God who gives the manna.

Jesus told the crowd He is the Living Bread. He is letting us know that we should trust the one who never sleeps, never gets ill, never gives up, and never dies. God is alive. God will be there in the morning when we awake to give to us everything we need to live the next day. Do not mistrust Him by trying on your own to make things work and trying to ensure your own destiny. Jesus is alive. If we trust Him, He will provide – one moment at a time.

Be sure of this, any plans or efforts employed outside of pure trust in Him will produce repulsive results, similar to the manna teeming with maggots. However, the person who trusts in the Living God – and follows His instructions by faith – will see provision at all times.

“Then the LORD said to Moses, ‘Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day. . .'” – Exodus 16:4 (NASB)

Quite the Opposite of a Cop-Out

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I believe the first rule of genuine Christian leadership is a precept some may label a cop-out. God does not classify it this way; God describes this principle as truth. Here is the rule: Your reward is secure with God and will not be fully realized this side of eternity. Corollary to the rule: You will at times feel exhausted and discouraged, but these are only feelings; the truth remains unassailable.

Isaiah 49:4 proclaims, “But I said, ‘I have toiled in vain, I have spent My strength for nothing and vanity; yet surely the justice due to Me is with the LORD, and My reward with My God.’” Interestingly, the prophet Isaiah has done here something for which he is known well. He is speaking generally to the people of his time, but He is also speaking specifically of the Messiah. As it is true of Jesus, so it is true of His servants. We grow weary from all the fury Hell can bring and we grow disheartened from all the loneliness of leadership and its unique responsibility. And yet again, as it is with Jesus, so it is with us. The Father promises to do right in the end. The sovereign Lord is working His plan, and He will bring the reward swiftly and surely.

Do you ever have days where the phrases “toiled in vain” and “spent My strength for nothing” seem all too familiar? If we are only focusing on what we can see with our eyeballs right now, we will no doubt feel empty at times. However, if we focus on a reward currently invisible but nonetheless tangible, we will grasp the sense of the phrase, “surely the justice due to Me is with the Lord, and My reward with My God.”

I am not sure why it is that at times even Christians give into the perception of “pie in the sky stuff” when it comes to belief in a reward in another world. I think part of the reason is a culture foolishly enamored with a definition of success realized by numbers, profit, and popularity. Standing in stark contrast to the belief of many, a reason that God says He is not ashamed of us is that we “desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one” (Hebrews 11:16). Imagine – God is proud of us for desiring the reality of Heaven! This verse does not proclaim God’s pride in us for what we achieve or desire here and now, but He is proud when we desire our heavenly home and all its reward and glory.

Though all human accolade be withheld, we shall yet stand before God and be delighted by the faces of those who have been greatly or even remotely affected by our service to Jesus Christ. They heard one word we spoke, they watched one godly reaction of ours, they felt our Savior’s love through our hug, they observed a life of passion for eternal things, they benefitted from our offering to the work of God, they heard of Jesus from the friend of a friend of a friend of someone with whom we shared the gospel, or they lived out their life in close proximity to ours as we served the living God.

Though we be misunderstood, unappreciated, maligned, forgotten, or persecuted; our reward is with our God. Peter says of that inheritance, “[it is] reserved in heaven for you” (I Peter 1:4). No small matter is it that the reward is also imperishable, undefiled, and will not fade away.

Discouragement cannot tarnish our reward, economic downturn cannot diminish our reward, human evil cannot debase our reward, and time cannot corrode our reward.

No human may ever fully understand what we have done, are doing, or will do. But, God knows. Our labor for Him is not in vain.

Do you want to be a leader? First and foremost, know where your reward is. The chances of survival in leadership are nil if you are counting on anything other than the living God for your strength and satisfaction.

Burst of Brilliance at the Death of Me

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The radiance of autumn leaves
In all their warm grandeur
Strikes at the core of me.

What a burst of brilliance
Comes rushing to the scene
As the air grows cold.

Reds and oranges and yellows
Demanding to be admired;
We are drawn to their glory.

Burst of brilliance
You come
As death proceeds.

Oh, little leaf of green,
Your color changes
And gushes forth as gold,

Only as you die.

Colors hidden formerly
Erupt boldly on the scene
As the leaves prepare to drop.

Burst of brilliance at death;
As it is with leaves,
So it is with me.

Burst of brilliance comes
When I recede,
And Jesus advances.

Burst of brilliance comes
When I die to self,
And Jesus lives in me.

And for all the burst of brilliance known on earth,
None will e’re compare
To the radiance we’ll see

When death takes us finally.

Color there – indescribable.
Creation there – perfected.
People there – as they ought to be.

God, remind me that both now and then –
the burst of brilliance comes
at the death of me.

Wait.For.It. (Cognitive Wait Time in a Rapid-Fire World)

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Wise Solomon related in the book of Ecclesiastes that there is “a time to keep silence and a time to speak” (Ecclesiastes 3:7b, ESV). Of course, God – the Creator of all life – inspired Solomon to pen these words. God knows that our minds require both input and output, and the timing of each is essential.

In the educational community, we now know that “wait time” is a critical part of learning in a classroom environment. Instead of reacting to the first hand that is raised and disrupting the thoughts of many, a teacher is wise to allow at least a few seconds of reflection before anyone responds aloud to a question. Marilee Sprenger (2005, 43) says, “Offering students the opportunity to have just a few seconds to respond can give them enough reflective time to access prior knowledge, evaluate what has been said, and formulate an appropriate response.” In order for our brains to make meaningful connections and process new information, we need time. Students who do not receive enough time to mentally process are clearly at a disadvantage. In fact, all students will probably benefit from knowing they will not face unrealistic pressure to respond to a question. For, when we are nervous, we are less likely to think clearly.

Speaking of nervous, our Lord Jesus took time to instruct His disciples on the topic of unnecessary anxiety. When He did, He encouraged His followers to ponder. He said, “Consider the ravens; they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest?” (Luke 12:24-26, ESV)

Notice above that Jesus told the disciples to consider the ravens. The Greek behind this word implies they were to observe, understand, consider attentively, or fix their mind upon the concept. He takes a familiar concept – the feeding of birds – and asks the people to pause and consider what this might have to do with God’s provision for people. In other words, one thing Jesus was doing was prodding the disciples to connect prior knowledge to a new presentation. As Sprenger (2005, 40) notes, “Keep in mind that active working memory allows us to hold onto incoming information while our brains search long-term memory for patterns or connections that it recognizes.” Jesus beautifully drives home a commandment not to worry with a tangible example of common birds (thereby incorporating the stimulating realm of emotion) and asks His listeners to take time to consider the connection.

We are further fascinated by the fact that Jesus – after encouraging a time to ponder – then asks three questions. He probably did not mean for these questions to be answered directly, as we have no record of a response. Nonetheless, he encourages the disciples to once again think. We cannot know for sure, but we can imagine that Jesus most likely paused after each question to give His frail, human learners time to digest. I know that my own mouth falls agape after reading each sacred question on the printed page as I realize the impact on my own life!

In a rather famous chapter, the Psalmist says, “I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways” (Psalm 119:15). The word meditate here denotes musing and pondering. We are to take the precepts of God and silently think on them in a meaningful way. Also wrapped up in the Hebrew word here is the idea of talking, singing, and speaking of the concept. Interestingly, God encourages time for meditation and rehearsal.

Finally, we see Jesus stimulate personal pause and consideration with His disciples when He outright asks them, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” (Matthew 16:13b) His friends have no problem reciting the thoughts of the crowds as they reply, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets” (Matthew 16:14). Answering this question was easy, as it is a simple observation. However, Jesus – not allowing the disciples to be satisfied with the recitation of others’ beliefs – asks a second, personal question, “But who do you say that I am?” (Matthew 16:15)

Notice the disciples are quick to answer the first question, and we are assured more than one of them did because of the plural pronoun used in verse 14. Then Jesus, the Master Teacher, caused His learners to do some deeper pondering by driving the question to a personal level. We see Jesus here as a patient Teacher, willing to do what is necessary to get to the heart of the matter.

Classroom teachers ought to be encouraged to be patient as well, carefully employing wait time in order that students may consider, ponder, and muse. Just three or more seconds can make all the difference. Effective pausing is a wise use of time!

Following are just some of the ways wait time can have an impact, as outlined by Sprenger (2005, 43): “Responses change in length from a single word to whole statements, self-confidence increases, students ‘piggyback’ on each other’s ideas, responses by ‘slow’ students increase, students ask more questions, students propose more investigations, and student achievement improves.”

Is it not wonderful to see how all truth is God’s truth? Time to pause and ponder is God’s idea.

Reference:

Sprenger, Marilee. 2005. How to Teach so Students Remember. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

From MESSY to GLORY

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We are familiar with the beauty of the adult monarch butterfly. The orange and black pattern of the delicate wings reminds us of life’s small miracles. We know the butterfly was once a caterpillar. The crawling insect became a thing of grace that sails in the air around us.

Do you realize the caterpillar started as a tiny egg about the size of the period at the end of a sentence? And do you further realize that the bright little caterpillar shed its final layer of skin to become a chrysalis? The green chrysalis is not a cocoon, but rather the actual body of the monarch caterpillar.

Truly amazing is what happens to the chrysalis while hanging on a silk pad. The caterpillar body’s own digestive juices eat away the caterpillar tissue. The whole thing breaks down into a rich culture medium, or – put simply – mush! Then a miraculous process takes place in that mysterious liquid as imaginal cells begin to form the parts of the new, butterfly body! Cells in that mush direct what used to be a caterpillar to now grow wings!

Soon the fluid media begins to transform into a butterfly. What a process! The caterpillar turns to liquid in the chrysalis, and the liquid turns to butterfly.

Now, if we were to interrupt the process and try to peek inside the chrysalis too soon, we would see what appears to be a gooey mess. In fact, a first grade class at my school saw this when a caterpillar bit a hole in a chrysalis. The liquid came out of the chrysalis, and the soon-to-be butterfly was destroyed. Sure, the process is somewhat messy when the chrysalis is young, but the splendor is just around the corner.

When it comes time for the monarch butterfly to emerge with its newly transformed body, the chrysalis undergoes a stunning change – it becomes clear. The green turns translucent when the gorgeous butterfly is about to appear.

God is demonstrating glorious truths in the metamorphosis of the monarch butterfly. First, the work of the Lord in a person’s life can at times appear messy. The goo of the chrysalis may not seem attractive, but God works miracles in that goo! The cells he has placed in the liquid are working their way into a butterfly. In the same way, our lives –and the lives of fellow Christians – may not always seem as they ought. But, God is working miracles in the mess!

Second, there exists a certain mystery to who we truly are in Christ. For now, we struggle with sin in a broken world, and the truth of our being may not be clear at all times. Just like the green of the chrysalis in the beginning stages, God is yet working His plan in this age of grace. However, when Jesus comes back, we will appear with Him in glory! The real me will then be seen. The heart that has been cleansed by the blood of Jesus will be truly set free to be as He is in that New Heavens and New Earth. Just as the glory of Jesus is not completely revealed until the splendor of His Second Coming, so the glory of His followers is not yet visible. It will be, though. Without a doubt, when Jesus appears in all His glory, we will appear as we ought!

Do not give up, do not be discouraged, and do not give in. Let the goo of the chrysalis remind you of the beauty of the butterfly. We will be free!

“For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you will also appear with Him in glory.” – Colossians 3:3-4

Are You Desperate?

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A blind man who had to beg in order to live calls out to Jesus from the roadside. Only, he does not just call – he cries out loudly. The Greek word behind the description is the same word used for the call of a raven. This man is obviously unafraid of the reaction of others. He is most desperate; He wants his life to be changed, and he recognizes as the Messiah this Jesus from the simple town of Nazareth.

Bartimaeus heard that the man walking down his road was Jesus, and Bartimaeus’ entire paradigm shifted. No more would he look to the crowds around him for sustenance as he begged pitifully from them. Bartimaeus – upon hearing the name of Jesus – realizes that the hope he had formerly pinned on the pity of others needed all to be targeted on the one Man, Jesus Christ.

Though the crowd sharply rebuked blind Bartimaeus for his interruption, his loud annoyance, his audacity; Bartimaeus cried out all the louder to Jesus. The blind man was smart enough to know that the crowd was not his concern any longer – though he had to this point depended on them for physical sustenance. Bartimaeus wisely decided that he needed Jesus, no matter the cost or embarrassing measures to reach Him.

What about us? In a society that teaches us to be refined, measured, and unduly concerned at the thoughts of others; have we ceased to cry out to Jesus as we ought? Has our Savior walked down the road right beside us, but for fear of looking too dependent on Him, have we let Him walk by? Has Jesus stood near – longing to intervene and meet our deepest needs – but we have been too proud to demonstrate our heart’s desperation for Him?

Cry out! Do not allow a classy culture or a too-refined people stop you from calling out to the only One whose mercy can change everything. Let others see that you need Jesus, that you believe He is your only hope, and that you are not ashamed to admit that you are nothing without Him.

When Bartimaeus shouted the second time – despite the discouragement of others – Jesus actually stopped in His tracks! Our Savior paused and told His disciples to summon the blind beggar. Bartimaeus threw off his coat and literally jumped to his feet when he realized the Messiah – the anointed One of God – heard the cry of a broken heart. And then, Jesus poured out His mercy on Bartimaeus; Jesus restored the sight that had been lost.

What is your need that the mercy of Jesus requires? What sight have you lost? The sight of a clean heart, the sight of a hope after death, the sight of peace during troubled times, the sight of a healed body, the sight of a clear mind?

Call out to Jesus with all your heart, no matter who hears, and no matter what they think. Show by your words and actions that you need the Savior more than you need anything else. He will pause, and He will restore your sight.

“Then they came to Jericho. And as He was leaving Jericho with His disciples and a large crowd, a blind beggar named Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the road. When he heard that it was Jesus the Nazarene, he began to cry out and say, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Many were sternly telling him to be quiet, but he kept crying out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” – Mark 10:46-48 (NASB)

Jesus Can’t Be Your Example Until He’s Your Savior

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Recently I perused some children’s books that had been labeled as “Christian.” While reviewing these works, I was reminded of how subtly the truth can be undermined.

One of the children’s books was a survey of major stories of the Bible. Each two-page summary of a Biblical event was accompanied by colorful drawings and a quick prayer to summarize the heart of the message. Most unfortunately, the author missed the main point of many of the Biblical accounts.

As I read through the pages dealing with the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, I was gravely disappointed to realize that the book did not refer to Jesus’ work as our Savior. It recommended that children look to Jesus as an example about how to forgive others and how to reach out to others, but it did not mention the fact that Jesus died on the Cross for our sins. In fact – to the best of my examination – the book never mentioned the word “sin.”

How tragic. What would be even more catastrophic is if adults reading the book did not realize that sin was not mentioned. This inconspicuous removal of anything related to the sinful nature of humans and our need for redemption is eternally harmful.

The message the powers of darkness would like us to believe is that we can simply follow the example of Christ and other “holy” people. The lie is that Jesus is only the role model that all of us should employ when making decisions. To naturalists, He is mistakenly a fully self-actualized human, to new age believers He is wrongly assumed to be a person genuinely in touch with His divinity and having reached the higher plane; but – in truth – He is God come to earth in flesh to save humans from sin.

Weary people – who are bound by sin, and burdened by the wrong thoughts and behaviors that we cannot escape on our own – need a Savior! We do not require a fine example – or even a perfect example – of how to live; we need a God who can enable us to live. Once the Savior delivers us from our sin nature, then – and only then – can we begin to live rightly.

The apostle Paul said it wonderfully in I Timothy 1:15 (NIV), “Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners – of whom I am the worst.” This, my friends, is why Jesus came. He came to endure the wrath of God for our sins that we might be free from the sin curse.

It may not be fashionable in today’s culture to seemingly downgrade the human condition this way, but it is certainly the truth. And every person who feels the weight of sin knows another example of goodness is not what they need.

Jesus simply cannot be my example until He is my Savior! To be bound by sin is to be spiritually dead. Dead people cannot follow examples. Dead people need life. God – through Jesus – gives dead people life. After He does, then these people can do right.

The crux of the matter is spelled out simply in Ephesians 2:4-5 (NIV), “But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions – it is by grace you have been saved.”

My prayer is that weary sinners find new life in Jesus as the Savior. I also pray that God will cause us to see where truth is lacking, or only half-proclaimed. People’s lives depend on it. God, please help us.

The Only Thing We Ever Really Have

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All the money in the world. Fame beyond imagination. A body to be envied. Success of unbelievable proportions. All of this is meaningless the moment we take our last breath. And, perhaps, all of this is meaningless right now. The world is filled with people who are scared on the inside because life on the outside does not provide security whatsoever.

Think about this: we cannot even guarantee we will have a heartbeat in the next five minutes. When we strip away all the pride and self-sufficiency, we realize we are helpless creatures – completely unable to secure our destinies. What do we ever really have?

All we ever really have is the opportunity to connect with our Creator. We are at His mercy; and His mercy provides the opportunity to reach out to Him and react to His desire to hold us tightly.

I cannot control the world. (That is quite an understatement!) I cannot control tomorrow. I cannot control people. I cannot control the continuance or discontinuance of my very earthly life. The Word of God makes clear that God alone owns everything and controls everything. In Psalm 24:1, David penned, “The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.”

We may rebel against God’s ultimate ownership and control, but the truth remains unchanged no matter our disagreement. Many people’s ongoing denial of the sovereignty of God keeps them up at night, causes them internal and external distress, diseases their minds with discomfort and confusion, and saps them of the energy to live.

When a person comes to terms with the simple truth that the only thing he or she has is the opportunity for relationship with God, then a person is on the road to a life worth living.

David also said in Psalm 111:10 that “the fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom.” In other words, to stand in reverent awe of God – to recognize we are at His mercy – is the ultimate starting point for the wisdom necessary to navigate this world.

What is the way to the only real life there is? Admit that you are helpless in the shadow of the living Lord who created you. Ask Him to make things right between you and Him by the sacrifice of Himself – the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the second Person of the Godhead. In this sincere plea, we ask God to cover with the righteousness of Jesus our sin and inability to please Him.

What then? We rest. Isaiah proclaims in Isaiah 30:15, “In repentance and rest is your salvation.” We rest because we now finally and clearly see that the only thing we ever really had was the opportunity to connect with our Creator. Believing we are in control is a delusion, and one can never really rest in a lie. “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:32)

Not a Hoof Left Behind

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“Therefore, our livestock too shall go with us; not a hoof shall be left behind, for we shall take some of them to serve the LORD our God. And until we arrive there, we ourselves do not know with what we shall serve the LORD.” – Exodus 10:26 (NASB)

There exists nothing that is off limits to God. I do not mean just the general stuff of the universe; I mean the very things of our own lives. Everything – absolutely everything – must be yielded to the Lord if we hope to walk in His freedom.

Who knows what God will require of us? The one thing that is certain is that He expects our willingness to give to Him anything. Therefore, at all times we must stand ready to hand over some particular component of our lives.

When exasperated by the plague of darkness over the land of Egypt, Pharaoh angrily told Moses to leave Egypt with all the people, including the Israelite children. However, Pharaoh stipulated that the Israelite flocks and herds be left behind. One can only imagine how tempting it might have been for Moses to take the offer and run, given the horror suffered by the enslaved Hebrew nation to that point. But Moses remembered God’s clear directive to leave the Egyptian land in order to worship the Lord. An exit at this point would be disobedient; a departure under these circumstances would prohibit Moses and the Hebrews from offering whatever sacrifice God would require.

Moses stands wholeheartedly before the God He trusts and proclaims to the powerful Egyptian ruler that he and his people will not leave without every last Israelite animal. Moses explains that God will require some of those animals as sacrifices; and because it is not currently known which ones, all must go with them.

How accurate a portrayal of the stance each Christian must have when it comes to the proper entrance to freedom! We do not yet know what God will require of us, so we will take everything with us to Him in anticipation of our sacrifice!

The final plague – the death of the firstborn – will bring the ultimate deliverance of the Israelite people. Ironically, that plague is brought on by Moses’ refusal to leave Egypt without every last animal. Had Moses given in and left without all of God’s requirements, what would have happened? In God’s scheme of things, the willingness to give it all precipitates the genuine freedom we gain because of the death – and resurrection – of Jesus.

Do not hold back. Know that God requires everything. Do not allow the difficulty of yielding any and all of your life to stop the Lord’s plan of deliverance for you. Let the words of trusting Moses resonate in your mind, “Not a hoof shall be left behind.”