26 April 2017
The Best Your Parents Ever Wanted for YOU
Hebrews 7:25
Therefore he is able, once and forever, to save those who come to God through him. He lives forever to intercede with God on their behalf.       
  
One thing I’ve picked up from nighttime tv shows and movies is to get a lawyer when you are in trouble with the law and to never represent yourself in a court of law. Romans 6:23 declares that the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. That means the life for the sinner ends in death. Since all people sin, all people will be judged and receive the death penalty at then end of life. This is a tough life sentence! Not only do we all need a good lawyer, but we also all need a full pardon. Thankfully, Jesus provides both for all who ask him.

For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins.  (Romans 3:23-24)

Jesus is my Lawyer. He is also my Physician (1 Peter 2:24), Teacher (2 Timothy 3:16), Counselor (John 14:26), and Friend (John 15:15). Did your parents want you to grow up and be a lawyer, marry a doctor, fall back on teaching, and to be a good friend? Jesus fits the bill for the best our parents could have ever wanted for us to be or be around. He lives forever to intercede with God on our behalf!
​
Lord Jesus,
Thank you for being my Advocate. Thank you for not only defending me but pardoning me. Thank you for making me right with God. Thank you for giving me eternal life. Thank you also for healing me, for teaching me, for advising me, and for never leaving me alone. I love you so much and I am so thankful that you know me and that I know you, and I praise and thank you in your name, amen.

​22 April 2017
Look Up!
Romans 1:20
For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.

One must assign an architect to everything we see – including nature! When we walk down the street and see a building, we know there was a builder. Is there a dress in the window? There was a seamstress. Is there a toy shop? Then there was a toy maker and probably even a factory behind it that did not start off as something else and then turn into a factory over time. It boggles my mind how seemingly rational and intelligent people with college degrees who pride themselves on studying and learning, building and creating, inventing and innovating choose to deny the obvious. They know how much work goes into their special field, yet when it comes to the Creation of the world, they label it a random accident, or a miraculous incident of intelligent design with no Intelligent Designer at the helm for whom we should credit. Nothing these scholars have seen or created firsthand started out as something else and then turned into their special project, and they can be confident that whatever they constructed will still be that same thing many years from now just like the contents of a hidden tomb in Egypt. But their perspective on the universe hinges on an improbability with no witnesses’ recordings to offer proof. Ironically, when they talk to Christians about God, all they want is proof. They are just  purposefully, irrationally and intentionally denying the One True Living God simply because they want to.

Here’s the proof:  Everyone has seen the sky! There is no one God has not revealed himself to through nature. And then there are other things that can’t be explained like love, kindness, and appreciation. How did those get here? The existence of God explains it all. And everything he did has been accurately recorded.

In Philippians 3, Paul is talking about spiritual maturity. But what he says in verse 15 totally applies to this discussion:  Let all who are spiritually mature agree on these things. If you disagree on some point, I believe God will make it plain to you. If there is someone who disagrees with the truth of how the world came to be, God actually will make it plain to them what the truth really is – as plain as the sky above their heads!
​
Dear God,
I have many friends and loved ones who deny you simply because they want to. I have sat through many college classes astonished at the arrogance of intellectuals who demand proof without offering any. And, ironically, Believers are the ones who get labeled as irrational. The world really has gotten more and more sophisticated in their global denial of you, and that is so unthinkable to me because nature is visible to all of us all of the time! I pray for their hard hearts to literally look up to the sky and give you credit for what you have created, to meet you, to trust in you, to become spiritually mature by first acknowledging the fact that we don’t know everything. BUT you do, and you share everything with us same as you share the world you created. You are good. You are amazing. And I love you and praise you and thank you and pray in Jesus’ name, amen.

12 April 2017
Give it up!
Luke 9:23-24
Then he said to the crowd, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross daily, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it.”

People think there’s a catch to following Jesus in that we exchange our own way for his, but that’s not a catch; he’s doing us a favor! “If you try and hang on to your life, you will lose it” means we aren’t able to save ourselves or even help ourselves out in anyway no matter how organized, thoughtful or logical we are. The things we do to make our lives better or longer actually do neither. So giving up our own way in exchange for his way is actually the better way.

I have seen the Holy Spirit communicate to others or produce results when I get out of the way. I lose what I was actually aiming for when I insert my opinions and plans.

Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? Jesus poses this question to help us think (Matthew 6:27). And the answer, of course, is no. All our planning, routines, preferences, fads and goals do not add a single moment to our lives. The exchange isn’t a catch, there’s no bait and switch. Jesus is doing us a huge favor.

Dear Lord Jesus,
Thank you for the exchange you offer. I do not mind giving up my own way of doing things in order to belong to you. And thank you for helping me through the power of your Holy Spirit to give up my perceived entitlements and for reminding me when I don’t. Your way really is better, and I love you and thank you and pray in your name, amen.

​10 April 2017
A Really Glorious Standard
Romans 5:6-8
When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.

The biggest obstacle in sharing our Faith is the unbelievers’ lack of understanding their need to be saved from their sins. They view judgment through their human understanding and sincerely believe that if they are a good person doing good things, then God will be good to them in return. The trouble with this theory is that it is based on human standards and not God’s. Do you know what?! Even if judgment were based on human standards and not God’s, they STILL wouldn’t be “good” enough.

Think about it... Pick any arbitrary set of human standards - can I meet them all? Did I meet the highest standard for education? No. Do I meet the latest fitness agenda? No. Do I eat all the “right” foods (whatever they are) all the time? No. Is my swear jar empty? No. Have I ever driven over the speed limit? Um, yes. And a host of other things would keep me out of Heaven based on human standards.

I would also be out of luck if judgment were based on my own standards. Do you know I haven’t even met those %100 in a day not ever! I make great to-do lists, but I inevitably skip a chore, forget some item at the grocery store, or come home from Target with some stuff I don’t need. And under my bookshelves needs some regular dusting, but I typically just run a rag under there super fast if I know company is coming over. Lord, help me! I don’t even meet my own standards! My closets are unorganized, my carpets need cleaning, I have weeds that need pulling, and jeans that don’t fit.

But at least I try hard? God knows we’re not perfect... And that’s the whole point. God’s standard is based on his Son, who IS perfect. And since he knows we’re not perfect, he doesn’t expect us to be perfect rule keepers. He invented a whole new way for people to be saved that has nothing to do with our behavior but everything to do with what we believe.

But now God has shown us a way to be made right with him without keeping the requirements of the law, as was promised in the writings of Moses and the prophets long ago. We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are. (Romans 3:21-22)

Why wouldn’t unbelievers prefer this over their own “be good” theory about judgment? It’s a much better deal. And what’s wrong with God’s standard anyway? It’s referred to as “glorious” in Romans 3:23.  My standards aren’t glorious at all. They’re for efficiency only, very boring and some dreadful. I would not call them “glorious” in anyway. Neither would I label the “moral” things people do as “glorious” either. God’s standard is based on the condition of our hearts not what we can accomplish with our bodies. And there is nothing mundane or boring about his standards. They are actually something to appreciate and strive to implement! Joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, self-control, and unconditional love?! (See Galatians 5:22-23) Sign me up! It would be glorious if all humans interacted only this way all the time rather than pursue our own precious to-do lists that we are not even good enough to complete!
​
Dear God,
Thank you for YOUR Standard that is indeed glorious. I love you so much, and I just can’t thank you enough! Thank you that I am NOT saved by what I can do but simply by having a rich, informative, comforting, refreshing and glorious relationship with you through your Son, Jesus, in whose name I pray, amen.