I had the honor fairly recently to speak to a group of prisoners and what struck me about them the most was not the crimes they’d committed to get themselves in that situation. What struck me was the fact that they were just like me. They just got caught. I’ve never made Meth in my basement or robbed a mini-mart, but they’re no worse than I am. And that was such an amazing experience to be a part of. That church service was the most amazing one I’ve ever been a part of because I felt like nobody was wearing masks, they couldn’t. So, neither did I. I used to write a newsletter some of you might have gotten called ‘The Weekly Chad.’ The title had nothing to do with my vanity, but rather with my stated intention of being as honest as I could possibly be about my own sin and failure to live up to who God wants me to be, because I often lie to myself. This, not as a means to seem humble, but as a means to give hope—show the redemption of Jesus that follows failure—because God seems to love a screw-up, and not many of us seem to be aware of that. I was reminded of this goal after that night in prison. It troubles me that we don’t seem to believe in the power of redemption. We say, "I can be saved because, well, I’m not that bad of a human being. I only needed salvation in theory, and I’m past all that sin stuff, right?" Well, they’re making amazing advances in medicine for those experiencing delusions. In truth, we are all in need of redemption and we are all powerless sinners (without the Power of Jesus in us). If God cannot redeem Adolf Hitler or the Unabomber, then I certainly have no hope from such a weak Savior. Some of us don’t mind visiting these poor souls, but we certainly don’t want them in our churches, or homes or bringing potato salad to our potlucks! If we do not recognize the power of God to change lives, we breed unbelief and psychologically weaken the image of God in those around us. So, stand up, admit that you’re a relentless sinner, and go. Go and love.
I’ve been looking for myself. In that unsuccessful quest I have mostly found selfishness and disappointment. I’ve also found a lot of worry and fear. As you can probably guess, these aren’t exactly the things I was looking for. While I think that facing who you are is a noble effort, but only if you realize you can’t do anything about it—not without Jesus.
We’re always trying to figure out where we fit in this world. We want to know what our job should be or whatever, and say that this is our calling. I really don’t think what we do for a living is our calling. It’s a place God can use us, and where we can love and befriend others, but not our divine place in the world, not even for pastors. Jesus said that “whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me” (Matt 16:24). That’s our calling, no matter who you are.
C.S. Lewis wrote, “Your real and new self (which is Christ’s and also yours, and yours just because it is His) will not come as long as you are looking for it. It will come when you are looking for Him.” There’s a lot of truth in that.
What we are killing ourselves looking for is usually pointless and will mean nothing in the grand scheme of things if it’s not Jesus. As a friend of mine wrote, “We all live in the quantum particles that only God can command, and for most of our lives we find ourselves awash in seeming random fortune. Only Order understands Itself, and in this still primordial pool, we mostly drown while trying to solve the problem of drowning by feverishly trying to improve the style of our Speedo.” In other words, the only way to keep from drowning in this thing we call life is to reach out for the Lifegiver.
You have life all figured. You've paid off the mortgage on your home early and the children have been sent off to college. You're preparing for a nice retirement that involves a lot of hours with a line in the water. It's all there, your future, laid out in front of you in a neat little row. Then, God comes. He comes and he says, "Leave your home, your family, and all your plans behind and go. I'll show you where when we get there." It happened to Abraham (Gen 12:1) and it could very well happen to you or I-the Divine Intruding on our calm, planned lives.
I (Chuck) was that way for a long time when it came to the small Louisiana community that I lived in for much of my teenage years and young adulthood. I couldn't dream of life away from the bayous and the high school football atmosphere that northeast Louisiana had to offer. I
thought that the days and nights on the lake and the Darbonne' Bayou could never be the past; it was the now and my future.
I wonder if Abram was like that. There he was with his wife Sarai in Haran (modern day Turkey) and a lifetime of memories. They had grown accustomed to everyday life in that place. Abram was seventy-five years old and suddenly God told him to go. How many good nights did he and Sarai have together there? It would soon be a memory: the local family, the friends that came over for dinner, all of it. All of it for the promise of some mystery place that God said, "I will show you." I wonder
if there were thoughts of staying? There are none recorded but I have to
wonder if this wealthy couple of Haran thought of staying so they could live the "good life". The comfort zone was to be cast aside and a life of simply following the Lord awaited.
The journey Abram would have to make would be a hard one. But, sometimes
that's what's asked of us by God. Sometimes we have to leave the comfort
of our well-planned lives to serve Him. Sometimes we've got to drop our nets and go. So, what's it going to be? Is your life more than the sum of your plans? Do you believe God has a greater purpose for you?
Gen 12:5 (ASV) "And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went..."
A friend of mine is in a band and was at some churchy event recently and said that the MC stood up and said, “Okay, how many churches do we have here tonight?” My friend said that he was thinking, “Uh… one.” He then said that he looks forward to the day when that’s not taken as a sarcastic, clever remark and people really understand that we are one. THE Church of Jesus.
It’s true, you know. There may be thirty buildings in town that people call a church, but it just ain’t so. There’s not one holy brick in that place; not one piece of heavenly insulation in the ceiling. It’s the people, the people of God, his sons and daughters, his bride: we are the church—those who have accepted Jesus free gift of Salvation. And we are one—whether we like it or not.
So, why don’t we just give it up? The permanent smiles and the endless dreams of seventy-foot steeples. The lighted signs with the snappy one-liners and the tote boards full of numbers. Why don’t we just come out of our stained-glass worlds and be followers of Jesus—all of us. Together. Because you’re my brother and you’re my sister if you know Him. We’re family. We’re His Church. “If your heart is as my heart, give me your hand.”
If being good and going to church and all that kind of stuff doesn’t get you into heaven, and only accepting Jesus sacrifice for you does, that changes things.It means that being a Christian doesn’t mean that you’re a member of the choir or a deacon or a member of a certain denomination or anything like that.It means that you follow Jesus.
Well, what does that mean?One of the things that it means is that our lives are now about him—our jobs, our families, our friendships—everything.It also means that we have a story; a story of how Jesus changed our lives.Jesus said to one new follower, “Now go and tell the people what the Lord has done for you.”With salvation comes a responsibility to tell people about this Jesus who changes lives.
Often, we get so bogged down in the religion and marketing of a church that we almost totally ignore why we exist.When we do that, we’re kind of like a new car with no gas, attractive but useless. Even worse, we become, as Jesus said, like freshly painted tombs—nice on the outside, but full of dead things within.If our lives as followers of Jesus aren’t about Jesus then they’re about us, and that just doesn’t work.Telling people “what the Lord has done for you,” your life-changing experience with Jesus, your story, can be the turning point in someone else’s life.Our mission is telling people about Jesus with our lives and with words.Anything and everything else falls short.
We went to Timberfest wanting to get an idea of how we could speak to the community about Jesus.We were surprised to find that it was the church that needs to hear about Jesus as much as anyone else.When asked, “Is there a specific time in your life when you can say you gave your life to Jesus,” many people would respond with, “Well, I go to church.”
Satan uses this lie to convince a lot of people that they’re good to go with God as long as they warm that pew on Sunday.This isn’t a new problem.A young, rich guy came to Jesus and claimed that he had to be heaven-bound because he kept all the commandments.Jesus showed him that God’s standards were a lot higher than he imagined, and that he could never meet them on his own. This is why the Bible calls Jesus the stumbling block.He gets in the way of our arrogance—our belief we can work our way to God—with his simple gift of love.
There’s no other name by which we can be saved.That’s why Jesus is called the Cornerstone—everything relies on him.God became a man and lived among us, dying for our sins, in our place.Trusting in Jesus, and that sacrifice, is the only way you can truly answer the “Do you know Jesus” question.Jesus said, “Whoever trusts in Me will not perish, but have ever-lasting life.”Just believing that God exists doesn’t cut it, going to church doesn’t do it, coming from a Christian family won’t help one bit, and trying to be good doesn’t even come close to solving the problem of our sin. Only by accepting Jesus’ sacrifice for you and me will you find the Way.
It can be dangerous to grow up religious. Don't get me wrong, our faith in Jesus is what makes everything else in our lives worthwhile. But, there can be a dramatic difference in faith in Jesus and religion. Let us explain.
Growing up in the Bible-Belt, most of us have had exposure to religion in one way or another.So, many of us have a concept, or even a belief, in God.We may pray, we may go to church, we may even believe that God loves us and has this great plan for our lives.It’s even possible that we had some tremendous event happen in our lives where we became thankful and aware of God’s presence.But, sadly, that’s not knowing God.It looks good, but it’s not the real thing.
That’s where Jesus comes in.He takes the focus off of what we have or haven’t done and places it on what He did.Trusting in His death on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins is the doorway to knowing God.We’re incapable of pleasing God on our own, and Jesus perfect sacrifice is the only one God will accept.God wants a relationship with his much-loved children, and so He provided a Way; a free gift.That’s the only real thing.
