Where is mercy & grace showing up TODAY?

“Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life.” – 1 Timothy 1:15-16

If you know Paul’s (Saul before conversion) story then you know he should know what it means to be a sinner. Innocent people were unjustly tortured, imprisoned and even murdered as a result of his actions. Not many people can say that. Not many people actually have to live with that reality. But Paul did every day. I have to believe that reality was the reason he gave himself that peculiar title – worst of all sinners. I also believe that reality gave him a truer appreciation for what God’s mercy really is than most of us, including me.

It’s so easy for us to minimize God’s mercy and grace to important ingredients in a religious formula that grants us a desired spiritual outcome – salvation. This happens when we are able to divorce mercy and grace from the real sin that exists in the world and in our life. The Bible says that sin includes any wrongdoing (1 John 5:17), but also not doing the good we ought to do (James 4:17). Who isn’t included in this definition?

Sin is evil. It reflects evil in the world around us. It reflects the evil that exists in you. It reflects the evil that exists in me. That is not something we want to acknowledge and live with, but Paul was able to get in touch with that.

He knew and never forgot the great need he had – every day of his life, before and after his conversion – for huge doses of God’s mercy and grace. He was thankful for it. He devoured it every chance he could get. He wanted his life to be an example to the whole world for what God’s mercy and grace could do. And it was!

How about us? We may not be “the worst of all sinners,” but are we in touch with the reality of sin in us so that we can be in touch with the reality of our need for God’s mercy and grace! I hope so.

Where has God’s mercy and grace been particularly real in your life lately? Where is it on display for others?

Shrinking ME and Enlarging JESUS

One of the most convicting and challenging texts in scripture for me is 1 John 3:16-18:

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.

Of course I remember John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” I memorized that verse when I was a little boy. It is one of those verses that encapsulates the gospel in one short line. God loves me (and all people) so much that He willingly sent Jesus to be the sacrifice for my sins so that I might have life with God instead of the judgment and death I deserved. That is a perfect picture of God’s self-giving love on display toward us all. Jesus laid down His life for us so that we might have life in Him as a result.

Now let’s leave the Gospel of John and return to the letter of 1 John. As Jesus laid down His life for us, we ought to lay down our lives for others. When we start talking about laying down our lives we are going way beyond ME.

When ME is in the primary position my reason for living is to do whatever it takes to offer maximum benefit too . . . you guessed it – ME. I will do whatever it takes to make ME comfortable, to entertain ME, to focus on ME. And let’s be honest, left to ourselves, our alignment naturally drifts inward toward ME.

That is why these words from 1 John are like a cluster bomb exploding in the center of the ME universe. If we take these words seriously the bomb will explode in our hearts, destroying the ME-centered spirit, and fragments filter out into every area of our lives, the places where ME is more directly on display.

As I write these words I am aware of the powerful influence ME still has in my life, but I am also aware of how ME is shrinking as the presence of JESUS is enlarged. That is how it works as we grow spiritually. ME shrinks and JESUS is enlarged. But how? How does this happen? Here is how it is happening in my life:

1. I am reminded every day how much I continue to need the saving grace of Jesus. ME has indulged in sin and led me away from the person God called me to be. So I need God’s grace.

2. I must daily – sometimes multiple times in a day – invite the Spirit to control my life, to destroy the influences of ME and enlarge the power and presence of JESUS.

3. I must intentionally do the things that Jesus would do and say the things that Jesus would say. I can’t do that on my own. ME won’t let that happen. But I can do that more and more as Christian friends help me to see places where ME still lives and encourage me by pointing to the places where JESUS is growing.

4. I reorient my life more and more around the basic teachings of verse 17 and 18, focusing on the needs of others first before I focus on my own. ME fights the hardest here. This is where the battle rages the most. When I fail, I remind myself of my need for grace and move forward again. When I succeed, I give glory to JESUS, not to ME.

How do you react to this? How does ME need to die in you so that JESUS is enlarged?

Having friends and being a good friend

The story about the four friends bringing their paralyzed friend to Jesus told in Mark 2:1-12 teaches many powerful lessons to us. Jesus is teaching in a full house and there is no way for them to get in the traditional way – the door – so they get their friend to Jesus in a very non-traditional way – through the roof. The point is that they knew their friend needed Jesus and had no hope without Him so they were desperate. Jesus was evidently impressed with their love and devotion to their paralyzed friend and their faith and trust in Him to heal. Verses 4-5 say:

Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”

I am struck by the fact that it doesn’t speak about the paralyzed man’s faith, but about the faith of his four friends. See, these four people knew how to be good friends. They knew that involved doing whatever it took to help their other friend in need and what he needed was Jesus. Their faith and their action made this event possible.

I am also struck by the fact that the religious leaders can never be happy about something good Jesus does. They always find fault with something or someone. These are the guys who should be the biggest cheerleaders for Jesus and for these four friends, but all they do is complain and find fault. And to add one other thing to the mix, they don’t see fit to bring any of their friends to see Jesus. They already know Jesus has been used by God to heal people (1:45). They thought his teaching was important enough for them to go hear. Surely they have a friend who also needs to be healed! Surely they have a friend who also would benefit from Jesus’ teaching! Where are their friends?

Either they didn’t have any good friends or they didn’t know how to be good friends! I am not sure which is worse.

• I believe a Christian has a duty before God to have friends. This may or may not come as a surprise to you, but I think this passage and many others lift up the value God places on friendship. We have a duty to make friends if for no other reason but to obey God.
• I believe a Christian has a duty before God to make friends with non-Christians. Over and over again the bible tells us to be a witness for Christ and to develop a good reputation for the things of Christ with people outside the faith. There is no better way to do that than in the context of friendship. That is why it is critical for us to make friends with people far from God. They need to see Jesus in us and they can’t do that very well from a distance.
  
• I believe a Christian has a duty before God to learn how to be a good friend. A good friend can always be counted on to love and support you in your time of need. They can be counted on to do the right thing. They are trustworthy and true to you. And a good friend should always point his or her friends to Jesus in natural ways that are both explicit and implicit, conscious and unconscious, through word and deed.

Which do you think would be worse for a Christian – to not have friends or to not know how to be a good friend? What is God teaching you about friendship through this story?

The reason we stay hungry and thirsty!

John 6 is filled with a lot of stuff –miracles, Jesus’ teaching at the height of His popularity and a major PR disaster on Jesus’ part.

First the miracles: 5,000 people are miraculously fed and then (for the 12 disciples’ eyes only) Jesus walks on water.

Now the teaching: There are thousands of people following Jesus around right now. If Jesus was “smart” he would give them just enough to keep them interested (like more miracles), but not enough to actually share with them the true cost of following Him. If Jesus could keep this crowd energized and build on it, there was no end to what He could accomplish. But Jesus wasn’t “smart.” Jesus wasn’t interested in the size of the crowd as much as He was their level of commitment.

So here is what Jesus said:

“I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” (6:35)

“Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.” (6:53)

Being the “bread of life” is easy to receive if all we have to do is sit around and ooh and ah at all the miracles Jesus does for us. Who wouldn’t like to sit and receive good things at no cost? But having to consume Jesus is another matter altogether! Jesus isn’t talking cannibalism here, but in a direct and graphic way He is calling all of us to go all in with Him. To be His followers means we have to receive His good gifts (forgiveness, healing, love, grace, mercy, acceptance, etc.), but it also means we have to obey His commands (the cost part).

The PR disaster: If Jesus was “smart” He would have stuck with the miracles and the gifts. But Jesus wasn’t “smart,” at least not as we think of the term. He put the commitment cost right up front. And verse 66 says “From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.” By our standards this was a PR disaster. Jesus’ crowds evaporated.

The choice: When Jesus really presents Himself He leaves us only two options: to turn from Him or to fully embrace Him. That is what Peter and the 12 did. Speaking for the group, Peter said, “You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God” (6:68-69). To “believe” means to obey. It means to receive and to follow Jesus completely and without reservation. There is no third option.

I think the rub here is that we want to know what’s behind door number three. We want that third option. Because we refuse to fully embrace Jesus we never really receive the new life He promises and we are always “hungry” and “thirsty.” So, we think we have tried Jesus and come up short when in reality we have never received Him because we have never paid the cost. We have tried to create a third option when there isn’t one and we don’t have the power to make one! I think this is the reason so many of us lead empty and stale lives. We don’t really know Jesus. We have never really tasted the “bread of life” because we don’t want to pay the cost of giving our whole lives to Jesus.

What do you see from this passage? What is God showing you about the cost of following Jesus?