Two Wonderful Alternatives

This past week I have spent an unusual amount of time with a family struggling through the ups and downs of a loving wife and mother who suffered a massive heart attack. The stress and weight of all the decisions they have had to consider and make have been massive.

Watching one of my friends suffer in such a way has been very hard to say the least. We have all fervently prayed for her healing and for a complete recovery and have watched as her body fights for life.

Reflecting on all that they have gone through, I am reminded of two scriptures from the apostle Paul:

"If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied." - 1 Corinthians 15:19

"Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him." - 1 Thessalonians 4:13-14

As a Christian, there are two wonderful alternatives for my friend. Either she will recover and enjoy life with her family and friends and continue to live faithfully as God's child here on earth or she will be transformed and transported to God's side and the marvelous joy and peace of Heaven.

For those of us here on earth, we want the first choice. We don't want to see her go. We will grieve her loss and long for her continued presence, but we do not grieve as those who have no hope! We know that the second alternative will be even far better for her and, in the midst of our grief, we will hold onto that hope.

That is what makes it possible for us to move through these difficult times . . . knowing those we love have two wonderful alternatives.

A Gracious Observation

I just finished reading a book this morning called True Faced by Bill Thrall, Bruce McNicol and John Lynch. It was a powerful book about how we can and should form our true identity in Christ. There is much I could say about the book, but I want to simply share one short line with you that stood out to me this morning:

"Grace is the face love wears, when it meets imperfection" (92).

What a powerful truth and wonderful picture of how God the Father sees all of us through Jesus!

What a wonderful image of the way the Spirit can help us to see ourselves!

What a great concept for how we can come to view each other with God's help!

How does this speak to you?

Dialoging with the Mormons

A few minutes ago we were visited by 2 very pleasant young men who happened to be Mormon missionaries. They very nicely introduced themselves and asked if they could speak with me and I eagerly agreed. We sat on the front porch for a visit.

Even before we sat down I shared with them that I was a pastor and would be happy to talk, but that there were some fundamental disagreements between us. They still wanted to talk so I agreed.

We talked about all kinds of things: the Trinity, salvation through Jesus Christ, the authority of the Bible, their trust in the book of Mormon, the Holy Spirit and His work in the lives of people today and throughout history.

I was reminded again at how easy it is for someone who doesn't understand Mormonism to think that they are on the same page with the rest of Christianity. They use many of the same kinds of words that I would use. They have a wonderful, kind attitude. They appear to represent truth.

However, as we dialogued, they simply couldn't answer some of the fundamental questions I posed to them about who Jesus was as God's Son, what He did for us on the cross and what He continues to do as He is alive in us by the Holy Spirit. They couldn't explain how the Holy Spirit reveals who God is to all people and how He lives, guides and leads them into all truth. And there was so much more where they fell short of what the Bible says about God, about us and about how we are to relate to Him.

It reminds me of something Paul wrote to the church in Ephesus when he warned them "no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming" (Ephesians 4:14).

Later he wrote Timothy:

"Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers." - 1 Timothy 4:16

Referring to the character qualities of church leaders, Paul told Titus:

"He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it." - Titus 1:8

As Christians we need to know who God is, what He says about Himself and what He says about us from Scripture. There simply is no substitute for that.

Don't Play it Safe . . .

"The ship is safest when it is in port. But that's not what ships were made for." - Paulo Coelho

I like things that are safe. I like things that I can count on. Being a pretty conservative person, I don't really like a lot of radical change or abrupt movement one way or the other. But the longer I follow Jesus the more I realize that being "safe" is not His way.

Look at Jesus' life in the Gospels. It was anything but "safe." He encountered all kinds of people and situations that were not "safe." Whether they were sick with an incurable disease, struggling under demonic influence, so socially outcast that they were just labeled with the reputation of "sinners," or trying to kill Him, Jesus was engaged with people and it wasn't "safe."

In the book of Acts we can see that the church carried on Jesus' work after he returned to Heaven and found that they would be placed in all kinds of situations that were anything but "safe" just like Jesus was.

What I get from all this is that I was made to be a part of something big that God is doing in the world. It is big and wonderful and, even if no one ever notices the part I get to play, I am blessed and honored beyond measure to be a part. And one more thing: any role I play serving God as I should will be a lot of things, but it won't be "safe."

It will be risky, challenging, hard, frustrating, dangerous, requiring great sacrifice, etc. It won't be "safe." But, if God is in it (and He promises that He will be), when we serve Him it will be worth it!

Where are you just playing it "safe?" Where does God want you to be?

Being fit for real . . .

I laughed at a coupon book we got in the mail last week. On the same page of this book were two half page adds right next to one another. One add was for a local fitness center with coupons and information about their personal trainer. Right above that was an advertisement for CiCi's Pizza Buffet. How ironic! To add insult to injury, two pages later they did it again. This time there was an ad for a weight loss center next to an ad for a Chinese buffet!

We want to be physically fit and free to gorge ourselves at the same time.

Sadly, this can be a metaphor for our lives with God. We want to be spiritually fit on the one hand and free to indulge in whatever catches our eye on the other.

When this doesn't work we never seem to understand why. For some reason, many of us have bought into the lie that we can solve any problem, including a spiritual one, by just having more. So we embark on a whole lot of consumption - food, clothes, toys, pleasure, etc. - hoping to fill the holes in our lives. Spiritually speaking, some of us fill our lives up with lots of religious observances and acts of piety, but never seem to fill the spiritual void that we know exists.

Alan Hirsch said, "We plainly cannot consume our way into discipleship." (The Forgotten Ways, pg. 45)

Whether we are aware of it or not, the only answer for us is found in surrender. We must become people who surrender our lives to Jesus in faith, trusting that He can care for our eternal soul and that His ways are the best ways for our present life as well. In that surrender, in that giving up of our agenda, we begin to realize that the answer we are looking for has been there all along. It is in the simple, day-to-day, following after Jesus. It is in inviting His Holy Spirit to control our lives and lead us to do what Jesus did and say what Jesus said in every aspect of our lives. That is the path to being spiritual fit for real.

The last conversion . . .

Martin Luther once said:

“There are three conversions necessary: the conversion of the heart, the conversion of the mind, and the conversion of the purse. But for many of us, this is often the last thing to change.”

Why do you think it is so hard to us to surrender our finances to God?

Why does money have such a power over us?

What breaks the hold of money so that we can live in line with God's will and way?

Do you ever really think about grace?

I wan to share with you a note from a longtime friend and mentor or mine, Jerry Webb. He is a pastor in the Detroit, MI area. He writes:

Do you ever really think about grace?

Grace is experienced all of the time. Someone is forgiven for an unkind word spoken in anger. The supervisor chooses to overlook a costly error. A child forgives a parent who fails to keep a promise. You get the idea.

Grace is initially a God concept. It is His unwavering desire to forgive our sin. He revealed grace through Jesus Christ. We find the fullest expression of grace when we accept the forgiveness God offers by the sacrificial death and resurrection of Jesus.

Let these scriptures sink deeply into your thinking:

"The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love." (Psalm 145:8)

"Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you." Isaiah 30:18

"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this is not from yourselves, it is a gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast." Ephesians 2:8-9

"For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 6:23, NLT

"The law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ." John 1:17, NCV

"[Don't] treat the grace of God as meaningless. For if keeping the law could make us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die." Galatians 2:21, NLT

We all need grace.

Several months ago Linda and I were able to watch a sneak preview of the new movie The Grace Card. We found it to be a good presentation of the real meaning of grace. We encourage you to go see it when it opens in local theatres February 25^th.

Why not invite a friend to see The Grace Card with you? It will be an easy way to open a conversation with them about their need for grace. You can find out more at
http://www.thegracecardmovie.com.