What does God see in your future?

We humans love titles, and we REALLY love them in America. When you first meet another person, often one of the first questions asked is "what do you do?"  This means that the other person wants to know what you do for work, and we do this without thinking.  In a way we are trying to classify a person when we first meet them, and this impacts how we think about the person from that point on.  What is your title?

 If God were going to give you a title, what would it be?  I have wondered about this for a while now. In my prideful moments I drift to things that in my mind where great things I did "for God."  This isn't the right mindset and I know it, but I would imagine you also struggle with thinking like this.  In my better moments when I really have some conception of where I stand with the Lord, I can think of no good or noble title that he would give me.  After all, I have absolutely nothing apart from his grace, including my own standing before him.  And yet there are times when God seemingly gives us a title that does not fit.

Gideon was one of those guys who got a title like that.  In Judges chapter 6 we see a man who is in hiding because his country has been overrun by invaders.  We don't think much of that these days but what was happening was that Midianites, a nomadic people, had moved in literally overnight into Israel.  God allowed it because Israel had turned its back to God, and this was allowed as discipline.  The Midianites moved in on a sea of camels and would park in the middle of the fields where the crops were growing.  The people and the animals would eat literally everything in sight, leaving nothing but starvation for the Israelites.  And the people were too numerous to do anything about it.

For context, think about it this way.  Imagine one evening you went to bed.  Your neighborhood or village was quiet and nothing was going on.  The next morning you wake up and there are literally thousands of people and animals literally everywhere you look.  And they were all armed and hostile.  That's what this was like.  The Midianites rode on camels which were capable of traveling 100 miles each day, so they could swoop in quickly and take over literally overnight.

11 Then the angel of the Lord came and sat beneath the great tree at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash of the clan of Abiezer. Gideon son of Joash was threshing wheat at the bottom of a winepress to hide the grain from the Midianites. 12 The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, “Mighty hero, the Lord is with you!”

We find Gideon in the story hiding out in a winepress, which was a hole in the ground.  It was deep enough to where you couldn't see him if you were a short distance away.  He had a very small crop of wheat in the winepress and he was threshing it, meaning he was crushing it to separate the grain from the stalk of grass.  His crop was incredibly small too.  Normally threshing occurred on a hillside where the wheat was spread over a great distance and crushed.  This would provide enough for a family and maybe some to sell.  Gideon wasn't even close to that amount.

And Gideon was given a title that didn't make any sense in that moment.  He clearly wasn't mighty and he was definitely nobody's hero.  Why did the Lord call him by this name?

First, it is important for you to know that this "angel of the Lord" wasn't just a run of the mill angel.  This was Jesus.  Yep, that Jesus.  We often think of him as coming into existence when he was born to the virgin Mary, but we forget that since he is God, he existed from the beginning.  John 1 says this about him:

John 1: 1-5  

In the beginning the Word already existed.
    The Word was with God,
    and the Word was God.
2 He existed in the beginning with God.
3 God created everything through him,
    and nothing was created except through him.
4 The Word gave life to everything that was created,[a]
    and his life brought light to everyone.
5 The light shines in the darkness,
    and the darkness can never extinguish it.[b]

So Jesus has been around forever, and he does appear on occasion in the Old Testament as "the angel of the Lord."  And here, he appears to poor Gideon and calls him by this title that doesn't fit.  Why?

We have to remember that since the Lord was around on the 6 days of creation, that has implications for you and me too.  He was there at your birth.  He saw your mother struggle in birth, watched you while you were a toddler, saw you in your teenage years, has watched you make the mistakes you made, the failures, the victories, everything.  He has seen the times when you committed to him and the times you have turned your back on him.  He has seen it all, and he still loves you.

Is it possible that this same Jesus, who has been around forever and seen every second of your existence on Earth, also sees you for what you will be?  Of course it is.  Gideon was certainly no mighty hero in this moment, but in the not so distant future the Israelites certainly would view him this way.  And the Lord knew it.

What then would be the title the Lord would give you?  I ask that because I know many of you probably are in a low point where you are just unsure what the Lord thinks of you.  You ask why you are still here on Earth and what use he could possibly have for you, considering the things you have done in your days here.  How could he use you?  How can he use you now that you are a senior adult?  How can he use you with the past that you have?  

To understand that you have to remember one thing:  the Lord is not like you and I.  He never gives up on us.  He's not happy about the bad decisions we have made or the times we have walked away from him, but he never gives up on us.  Not ever.  It doesn't matter what stage of life you are in or what is in your past.  He still can do anything he wants with you.  Be very encouraged by that.

The Lord appeared here to Gideon as a sign that things were about to change.  And change they did.  All Gideon had to do was to obey the Lord in that moment.  That involved taking a step to get out of the winepress and do what the Lord commanded him to do.  It's the same with you.

You may not be in a place where the Lord has appeared to you and commanded you to do something completely different.  As someone who has experienced that firsthand, I can tell you with great certainty that you will know it when it happens.  That encounter with Jesus changes everything about your life and your plans, and you won't want to miss it for the world.  He can do that in you as well.  

So while you may fear to go out your front door and talk to a neighbor, the Lord's title for you may be "mighty evangelist."  And while you may fear speaking to groups of people the Lord's title for you may be "strong teacher."  And while you may never have lived anywhere outside of what makes you comfortable, the Lord's title for you may be "strong missionary."  It could be anything.  

The point is, it is the Lord who can make any of these things happen in your life.  It doesn't happen with your strength and knowhow.  It never will.  And that's why so many so-called Christians never experience the life the Lord has for them, because they refuse to accept that a power apart from their own will make it happen.  Surely it is more training!  Surely it is more personal development!  Nope.  It's more obedience.

My prayer for each of you is that the Lord will come have an encounter with you similar to what he did with Gideon.  I hope you hear from him that he's commanding you to do something really different and out of your comfort zone.  And I pray that instead of arguing with him, that you just put one foot in front of the other and you go.  That's all of the effort that is required, but it is also the hardest effort you will ever make.

May the Lord show himself to you in a new way this week and give you a title that doesn't fit you right now.  And may the result of that be deeper relationship with him as you walk through it!

The Good Father

In this age of fathers who walk away from their families, the idea of a good father is easily lost.  Many people have no experience with a good father.  Instead, they experienced emotional wreckage when their dad left.  It negatively impacted them, their mother, and their siblings.  For school-aged kids, it affects everything from their behavior at school to their grades and self-esteem.  The man who walked away from them held the title of father but didn't actually perform the role itself. 

When this idea is talked about in relation to God, you may have a hard time understanding.  At its worst, in your mind, God has the same attributes as the father who abandoned you.  He is only concerned for himself, doesn't care about anything you are going through, is unavailable when you need him the most, and provides nothing to actually help you in your daily life.  Survival each day is just you making it happen with this supposed father somewhere else.  He might check in occasionally on text or phone, but he's not there to actually love you and walk through life with you.

Our viewpoint on God is much, much too low.

Jesus had this to say about our good Father from Matthew 7:9-12.

9 “You parents—if your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead? 10 Or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake? Of course not! 11 So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him.

When I first became a parent, my view of the world completely changed.  Previously, it was just myself and Amanda.  She had a job, I was teaching, and we just did whatever we wanted in life.  We didn't make a lot of money but we had a house and generally got to make our own schedule outside of our workday. Even as a teacher I remember some of the mindsets I had that were not student-friendly.  I was pretty black and white because really I had no greater perspective than myself.  That all changed with the arrival of Samuel.

I knew things had changed with a wake up call quite early in the morning when he decided to come in to the world.  I woke up at about 2 am and Amanda was frantically getting herself ready in our bathroom.  I was confused and asked her what she was doing, and she told me that her water had broken and that we needed to head out now.  That is perhaps the quickest wake up I have ever experienced!  Our day was interrupted, and it would be the first of many, many life interruptions as a parent.  In an instant, and then over the next 17 years with my boys, my perspective has changed dramatically.

Samuel was a good baby but had colic, meaning he would scream at the top of his lungs for hours on end because he was uncomfortable.  I remember coming home from work exhausted many days to walk in the door to him screaming, with Amanda handing him off to me and leaving the room.  I generally spent the next two hours holding him and trying to help him calm down.  Whatever plans I had at the moment or for the evening were officially wiped out, and so was I!  And when we finally got him to bed in the early evening, he would wake up ever hour and a half to two hours because he was hungry or needed a diaper change.  I didn't like coffee before that moment, but I learned to love it in a short period of time.

You see, I learned quickly that Samuel had his own schedule and his own needs.  He was completely helpless without me and Amanda.  I could have been upset with him for being so selfish in that first year (sometimes I was), but it wouldn't have ultimately mattered.  He was a baby at the time and babies have specific needs that can't really be planned for or put off or ignored.  That's just the way babies are. And as a father I recognized this and did everything I could possibly do to attend to those needs.

Zachary later came along, and while he didn't decide to come into the world during the night, he did come into the world and got sick the first two weeks of his life.  We feared we would lose him and it shook me up for many months after we got through it.  

When we adopted three wonderful boys, we experienced an entirely new level of parenting, bringing kids who were not originally in our family and taking them on as an Edwards.  This came with more interruptions, more needs, additional heartache and heavier challenges.  We had even more late nights, more discipline, more coaching conversations, more hugs and pats on the back, and more hours of lost sleep.  Those things also are all a part of parenting and being a dad.  And through it all I learned to love them and work for the best good for them, and they blessed me in it all.

Over time as I reflected on my experiences as a father, and continued to go through more of them, I gained a little better understanding of who God is and what Jesus's words really meant when it came to myself and him.

You see, God is the Good Father.  He is available at all moments because he is everywhere.  He is aware of everything about us including what we have experienced, what we feel, and what we think.  We have never been anywhere in this world where he is absent.  He has walked through the painful moments with us because he was present.  And because of that, and because he made us, he knows what we need.

God knows that you need food and a place to live and clothing.  If you have those things, it is because he allowed them in your life.  That is why we should thank him everyday for those things.  In your mind you may believe you provided them.  After all, wasn't it your paycheck that purchased those things?  But remember, that job that provides you a paycheck is also from God.  And your skills and abilities that allow you to work are from God.  Were you able to go to college or a school to learn how to do these things?  That also is from God.  

Did you get out of bed breathing and with energy?  God allowed that too, both the sleep you got and the fact that you woke up ready. Whether you recognize it or not, you have many blessings in your life that were provided by him.  You see, every single day we have things we can be thankful for that are gifts directly from his hands!  

This Good Father goes so much further though.  Have you ever been angry with God?  Really angry with him?  Have you ever said or thought things about him that were angry and spiteful and cruel?  I have.  I said them because I was hurting and didn't understand the times I was in and his purpose behind them.  So I lashed out.  

Perhaps you have thought little of what Jesus did for you.  You have gone through each day as though you made it and you are in control and have security in Jesus, but then don't acknowledge him at all.  The day just kind of happened and you later threw up some insincere prayer of thanks that you've prayed a million times at dinner or bedtime, and you felt you had done your deed for the day.  But you didn't connect with God at all that day.  I have also done this.

I want you to notice that these things we do toward God are hurtful.  I'm certain he is sad that we treat him that way.  I'm certain he is sad because we continue in our sin and don't really "get" our relationship with him.  I'm certain he is dismayed when we scorn the gift that Jesus is in our lives and treat what he did as something that is small or insignificant.  And yet, this Good Father doesn't leave or abandon us.  Not once.  Not ever.

Surely you have been like me, running back to this Good Father when things are bad or difficult or when you just had nowhere else to run.  And you found that he was right there where you left him.  And he wasn't cold or distant.  He wrapped his arms around you and comforted you and walked through that situation with you.  He shed tears when you did and felt what you felt, because he loves you.

You see, when my own kids have done things like that to me, I felt a prodding from the Lord.  It was a gentle reminder that I can sometimes be that way to him, and yet he is committed to me.  He has reassured that he won't leave me no matter what.  Those situations are like him holding a mirror up to me so I can finally see the ugliness of how I have treated him.

You see, when Jesus referred to God the Father, he knew him as his Father.  Jesus himself experienced fellowship with God the Father like no one else ever has.  He knew firsthand that his Father never left or abandoned him.  He knew the goodness of the Father firsthand.

And it was Jesus who taught us how to be true children of this Good Father, because children do what their Father does.  

Matthew 5:43 “You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’[q] and hate your enemy. 44 But I say, love your enemies![r] Pray for those who persecute you! 45 In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike. 46 If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. 47 If you are kind only to your friends,[s] how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that. 48 But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.

This may look like a set of instructions from Jesus to us, and it is.  But look deeper.  He's describing attributes of this Good Father that his children must mimic.  They include:

• loving enemies of ours.  He did that when he loved you before you loved him.
• praying for those who persecute you.  Jesus did this for his persecutors, and the Holy Spirit does that for you all the time.
• love those who do not love us.  He does that with all the people of the world, even if they don't know him yet.

God does all of those things for you, even when you mess up and even when you turn away from him.  Because he is a Good Father, his love for you never had a beginning and it never will have an end.  For the dad's out there who have held your crying newborn for the first time, you know what I mean.

I cannot take away the hurt and disarray that your earthly father might have caused you.  What's done is done.  What I can do, though, is point you to someone who isn't anything like that.  He's waiting for you with open arms, today, right now, to take you back and take you in and let you feel his love.  

He's different.  

He's good.  

He's better than any father you have ever seen.  And he is your Father, if you will have him.  

From the beginning, God always provided the sacrifice!

It began at the beginning of all things, when the first man and the first woman had made a bad decision and found themselves separated from God.  The two of them had done something that they had expressly been forbidden from doing and were already experiencing the consequences of it.  They experienced shame at their nakedness and separation from the one who had created them and nurtured them and built a relationship with them, and they hid themselves.  And the end result was that they were given a gift.

Abraham experienced the very same thing many years later.  He had a son that had been promised to him for many, many years.  A son he had waited for and longed for.  A son he had tried to bring to the world on his own and in his own timing.  And when that very son was of age, Abraham was commanded to take him up on a mountain to sacrifice him to God.  It wasn't until Abraham and his son reached the top of the mountain, the altar and the wood were set up, his son was tied up, and Abraham was ready to bring the knife down that a gift was provided.

Jacob's sons had a similar experience many years later.  They were jealous of their teenage brother who seemed to get all of dad's attention and they plotted to kill him.  At the last minute they were convinced to try another tactic, so they sold their brother into slavery in Egypt and counted him as dead.  And 13 years later, a gift was given to them.

You have probably received gifts in your life that you felt you did not deserve.  They seemed extravagant or expensive or over the top, but someone gave them to you anyway.  I remember back when we first had Samuel, my grandfather gave me the gift of one of his cars.  But this was no ordinary car.  For years his hobby had been to restore old cars, and he gifted me with a 1950 Ford coupe that he had fixed up many years ago.  It was black and shiny and distinctive and ultimately was a great car.  I always felt weird about having it because it was so over the top for a teacher who was the sole provider for the family.  I took good care of the car for sure, but I always had this nagging feeling that I didn't deserve it.  And yet with that feeling I had completely forgotten what a gift really is.

Gifts are given because the giver wants to give them.  There's really no other reason you receive a gift from someone.  Maybe you have experienced it personally.  Have you ever surprised a close friend or loved one with a gift that you knew they really, really wanted?  It is unlikely you were trying to get anything from that person.  Instead, you were just excited to give the gift and excited to see them receive it.

When you sin, no matter how "great" or "small" it is, you are separated from God.  We tend to think of sins and to rank them as though a lie only separates you from God a little but murder puts you many miles away from him.  It just doesn't work that way.  Sin is sin.  It is something God will not tolerate and will not be around.  It is literally disgusting to him, and the unfortunate reality is that you and I participate in it every single day of our lives.  Knowing this is true, what hope is there for us?  Really?

For many generations, people have tried to do things on their own to get back in good standing with God.  Current methods might be to do something kind for others, or say nice things about God, or pray a prayer with certain words or cadence in the hope that it will please him.  We may give more to a church or a nonprofit organization or find a way to "serve" others.  And yet none of those things put us in better standing with him.  In fact, the prophet Isaiah stated that "our righteous deeds are like filthy rags."  That means when you do kind things and pray certain ways and give money to the poor, all you are doing is piling your heap of dirty, disgusting rags higher and higher and higher.  It could get to the size of a mountain and yet it still is what it is:  a pile of rags.

That gets us back to the gift.  We tend to look at Jesus as an example of God's mercy and grace to us, and of course that is true.  The trouble is that we act like that was the first time God showed grace to mankind, and that simply is not the case!  God's grace began when the first sin happened.

Let's look back at the first example with Adam and Eve.  Here are two people who had just committed the very first sin in human history.  The first.  The consequences of this sin were immediately felt by them and ultimately caused the entire world to be corrupted and the race of man to be forever polluted by sin.  We focus on the fact that God told them they had to leave the Garden of Eden and forever barred them from it, but we still miss the gift that is hidden in plain sight.  What was it?

Genesis 3:20 Then the man—Adam—named his wife Eve, because she would be the mother of all who live.[d] 21 And the Lord God made clothing from animal skins for Adam and his wife.

Adam and Eve had sinned and separated themselves from God in doing this.  They were ashamed because they realized they were naked, and they hid from God.  And so God, before sending them out, gave them clothing to cover that shame, made of animal skin.  For an animal skin to be made into clothing, an animal has to die.  A sacrifice was made to cover their sin and shame, and it was performed by God.

Abraham, though he was considered to be a "friend of God," still had made many mistakes in his life.  He was unfaithful to God and to his wife.  He had not been patient to wait on God to provide.  And so he was told to take his son to the mountain and sacrifice him as an offering to pay for it.  And right at the last moment, a gift was given.

Genesis 22:13 Then Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught by its horns in a thicket. So he took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering in place of his son. 14 Abraham named the place Yahweh-Yireh (which means “the Lord will provide”).

God provided the sacrifice that was needed.  Another being died to cover up Abraham, and his son's, sinful actions.  And God provided it, leading Abraham to name that place a special name because he realized God provided the sacrifice.

And in the final example, we see the exact same thing.  Joseph was sold by his brothers into slavery in Egypt.  They all thought he just disappeared and that they would never see him again.  And yet God knew that a terrible famine was coming.  Joseph in a way lost his life so that many, many people could be saved during that terrible time.  And God did what he does in bringing Joseph back to life.  He makes things new and he fixes things that are broken.  No, Joseph didn't physically die, but his life was essentially over when he went away on that Midian caravan into Egypt.  He had no hope and no future, and yet God resurrected it by making him prime minister of Egypt.  God provided the sacrifice and the resurrection.

God always provides the sacrifice and resurrection.  You can't do either of those things.

When you search for this pattern in God's word, you will find it everywhere.  God always provides the sacrifice that is needed to cover our sin and shame.  We think we are doing it, but all we are doing is participating in something he already had going on.  Jesus was the final and ultimate example, but all through the Old Testament the same thing was already happening.

What does this say about God?  He gives you and me grace that is not deserved and that we didn't earn.  It does not matter what you have done in your past.  God's grace is big enough to cover it if you will just submit your life to him and begin walking down that narrow, dusty, difficult path.  Adam and Eve had no hope because their sin, even in eating a simple fruit, was too big.  Same thing for Abraham.  Same thing for Jacob's family.  Not a shred of hope.  But the gift was given anyway and it covered it all.  

I don't know what you recently have been through.  I'm not sure what sin you have committed that you are ashamed of and has made you realize how separated you are from God.  I'm here today to tell you that it doesn't matter what you did.  God offers you a gift that covers it all.  You didn't earn it and never could.  It's yours for the taking though.  All you have to do is turn away from that sin, determined to walk in a new direction, and believe in Jesus.

I don't mean to communicate that God just winks at your sin and looks the other way.  He definitely does not do that.  Your sin and my sin are always something that he can't look upon and will not tolerate.  There are consequences for our sin that he will allow in our lives as a teacher and a disciplinarian.  What I am saying is that there is a remedy that he has already provided.  

You and I simply need to go to him for it and quit trying to do something about it on our own.  You'll never sacrifice enough or do enough good deeds to cover your sins.  If you could do that, there would have been no need for Jesus.

For you, the sacrifice has already been provided.  So accept the gift from a Good Father who delights to give it to you and is excited to give you a new birth and a new life.  Your old ways can truly be gone.

What will happen when you meet him

There's an old joke that says that you and I only "have" to do two things in this life:  die and pay taxes.  I think that applies no matter what country you live in currently.  Current studies bear out this truth that 100% of humanity eventually dies.  We don't know when or where or how it will happen, but it will happen.  Yes, even to you.  That raises an interesting question:  what happens afterward?

I remember several times in my life where I met someone who was either famous or had some position way higher than myself.  Once I met my favorite musician, Josh Garrels, at his concert.  We had this time where we could chat with him and ask him questions, and I couldn't think of anything to ask or say!  Here's a guy whose music has had a profound impact on my life, and I just didn't know what to say!  How silly.  He's just a man just like me.  When I was a kid our superintendent came to my school for the Manners Banquet which was supposed to teach us etiquette at a fine dining restaurant.  He sat at my table, and to this day I remember being extremely nervous.  I don't think I said a word the whole time, and yet he was a really nice guy!

Is it that way when we finally meet God face to face?  Do we get a dry mouth or slow of speech or do we keep from making eye contact?  What is it like?

The Bible tells us that every person will meet God after death, and it will be a face to face meeting.  It doesn't matter whether we believed in him or not on this earth;  we will all have this meeting.  What happens at such a meeting, I wonder?  The Bible gives us some clues as to what that is like.

The prophet Isaiah in chapter 6 of his book had a vision of what it feels like in the very room where God the Father is on the throne.

6 It was in the year King Uzziah died[a] that I saw the Lord. He was sitting on a lofty throne, and the train of his robe filled the Temple. 2 Attending him were mighty seraphim, each having six wings. With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. 3 They were calling out to each other,
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Heaven’s Armies!
    The whole earth is filled with his glory!”
4 Their voices shook the Temple to its foundations, and the entire building was filled with smoke.
5 Then I said, “It’s all over! I am doomed, for I am a sinful man. I have filthy lips, and I live among a people with filthy lips. Yet I have seen the King, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.”

Isaiah saw some things that shook him to the core.  This being he saw was not on an ordinary throne.  The train of his robe wasn't just a few feet long.  The beings attending to the one on the throne were unlike anything Isaiah had ever seen in this life.  It was smoky and it likely was extremely bright.  So Isaiah did what you and I would do, right?  He stared at it all and was amazed.  Not quite.

Isaiah's reaction to seeing God can only be described as awestruck.  This was unlike anything he could even compare to.  There were creatures he had never seen on Earth.  There was very loud noise and singing.  There was one on the throne who was so very different that Isaiah thought he was about to die.  In that moment, Isaiah finally realized how separated he was from God due to his sin, and this man was a prophet who spoke for God during a difficult time in Israel's history!  He wasn't just a random guy from the street.

Still other accounts of men in the Bible who met God include Saul in the new testament, who heard the voice of Jesus and saw a brilliant light and could do nothing but ask what he wanted him to do.  This from a man who didn't follow Jesus and did everything he could do previously to destroy the church, jail its members, and kill some of them.  Elijah when he met God in the wilderness at the mouth of a cave knew when God arrived, and something made him cover his face.  There is something so different about him that we just can't act normal.

It has been said that when Joseph Stalin was laying on his deathbed, moments before death he raised one arm and made it into a fist, perhaps as a last act of defiance.  I don't know if this is true, but I think some of us go through life like that.  Stalin was a godless man who murdered millions of his own countrymen and was ruthless beyond measure.  He had no time for God during his life because he probably felt he didn't "need" God.  

You probably are not a Joseph Stalin type, but do you behave in a similar manner?  Do you go through your life as though you don't need God?  You have plenty of money in the bank, a good place to live, and can buy your way into our out of anything.  Why would you need God?  Perhaps you come to church sometimes but that's the only evidence in this life that you are at all interested in Christ.  And yet someday you, too, will meet God.

I think sometimes we have this assumption that when we die we will just swagger into Heaven into the throne room of God and do a fist bump with him.  "Hey, God, how's it going up here?  Great to see you!  What is there to eat here?  What can I do now?  I don't want to be bored, you know!"  It just won't be like that at all.

When you die, whether you acknowledge the existence of God in your life or not, you will be in his presence, even if just for a few moments.  You will see what Isaiah and Daniel and John the prophet saw, and I suspect you will only have one reaction.  You'll fall on your face.  You'll look away.  If you speak it will be about how bad you have been and about how you got it all wrong.  It is likely your initial reaction will be sheer terror.  What you will see is absolutely nothing like anything you have seen before.  If someone afterward were to ask you to write down what you had seen, I don't think you could adequately describe it.  It's easy to describe things that are familiar, but this won't be familiar at all.

You'll hear loud noises and you'll see light that is brighter than staring into the sun.  There will be a lot going on around you.  How could you possibly stand up at such a sight?  How could you possibly say anything meaningful?  How could you possibly think you deserve to be in that place at all?  And more importantly, how could you possibly at that moment see anything "good" you did in your life as actually being good.  And if you never believed in God, do you think in a moment like that you'll be able to look God in the eyes and say "you don't exist.  This is just my imagination!"  No way.

No one who met God in the Bible was able to do anything like that, and we are talking about some really great, godly men!  We are talking about Moses and Elijah and Paul and John and Abraham and Daniel and Isaiah and Peter and hundreds of unnamed people who saw the Lord ascend to heaven in Acts.  If these people, even though they did so much good in the name of the Lord or for his people, couldn't stand or look at God, how will you somehow be able to do that?

This is deep, earth shattering stuff we are talking about here, but I think it has a daily application for you and I.  Knowing that this day is coming for each of us, shouldn't this make us behave differently?  I don't mean that we are running scared from God or trying to hide from him.  Instead, I think this should affect how I pray to him.  Perhaps I need to spend some time on my face before the Lord today.  Maybe you do as well.  Maybe you don't say the same kind of flippant prayers to him, knowing that he is so far above and separated from me that I just can't, and won't conceive of it.  The whole "God, please give me" prayers seem drained of all importance when you realize this.  They just won't do when you are speaking with one who is so far different and above us.  

What I am describing is reverence for God.  Reverence is a deep respect for another person.  Who in this life do you revere?  I have a few people that are on a pedestal I have made for them.  How high is God's pedestal for you?  Maybe it should be a lot higher than it is because he's just unlike anyone else you've ever met.

Perhaps this kind of knowledge of God will make you speak about him differently.  You'll be reluctant to casually say "oh God" or some other version of taking his name in vain.  You might even tell others about him since, for some odd reason, this infinite being knows your name, loves you, and wants an intimate relationship with you.  Maybe just maybe.

No matter what, you should understand this:  when you meet him face to face, it will be unlike any encounter you have ever had before.  You'll be shaken to the core and probably speechless.  Knowing that day is coming, what will you do about it?  Will you bow in worship now, or will you wait until that day and bow then.  We are not meant to bow our knees for the first time on that day, because it is too late then.  

What will you do?

Going somewhere? He is already there

The first time I took a trip to India, I was a bit nervous.  When you look on a map you notice that India is on the other side of the world from where I live.  It is a LONG way from home.  The culture is as different from American culture as you can imagine.  The people of India speak approximately 1,000 distinct languages, including English.  The local customs are nothing like American customs, the laws are completely different, and there are many things that a visitor would not know about India that can get them in real trouble over there.

There were a couple of thoughts that gave me comfort as I headed there on the airplane from Seattle.  The first was that I was flying on a Boeing 777 aircraft that was made right there in Everett where I lived at the time.  Even on the other side of the world there were many of those aircraft in service and every one of them had been made in my homeland.  The second thought that comforted me was that God was already waiting for me to arrive in India.

God is literally everywhere.  You have never been in any one place where he wasn't present.  Walking down a dark and intimidating alley?  He was there.  In your workplace on that day you won't ever forget?  He was there.  In your car on the way to work?  He was there too.  

As we talked about in THE LAST POST, he was there when you went from one cell to two and continued multiplying in your mother's womb.  He was there when you were born.  He has witnessed every birthday you have ever had.  He has been to every store that you shopped in, every wedding you have attended, and every funeral too.  He was available in every building you have ever worked in, in every date you have been on, and has been there every moment while you were asleep.

Have you traveled to Europe or China or Australia or Mexico?  He was there in those places too, even before you arrived.  He was on the airplane with you as well.

He has been present with you in the best moments of your life, and he has witnessed your lowest moments.  He has seen every tear you have ever shed and he knows what those tears were about.  Even in your lowest moments in life, he was there in that place.

Psalm 139 summarizes this thinking and brings it home for us:

I can never escape from your Spirit!

    I can never get away from your presence!

8 If I go up to heaven, you are there;

    if I go down to the grave,[a] you are there.

9 If I ride the wings of the morning,

    if I dwell by the farthest oceans,

10 even there your hand will guide me,

    and your strength will support me.

11 I could ask the darkness to hide me

    and the light around me to become night—

12     but even in darkness I cannot hide from you.

To you the night shines as bright as day.

    Darkness and light are the same to you.

Even if you try to get away from the Lord, desperate that he would leave you alone and not see you, you will never be successful during this life!  There is nowhere you could go to where he is not.  You could dive to the deepest ocean depths and he would be there.  You could go to Mars or the farthest reaches of the galaxy and he would be there.  God is literally everywhere and accessible in each of those places.

To say that God is everywhere does not immediately mean that we have recognized or enjoyed his presence in those places.  You may have gone about your business one day and not thought of God at all.  You think you are shopping for groceries or working and that God is somewhere else.  And yet he was there the whole time, at work.  Even when you go to church this is possible.  There are likely times that you have been to church multiple times but been so distracted by other things that you didn't see him even in that place.  And yet Jesus promised us that "when two or more are gathered in my name, there I am with you."  So Jesus was present and working, but you and I didn't feel him or recognize him.  

You had the opportunity to enjoy his presence in those places and see his activity but you just did not.  And yet he was still in that place.  It seems that his presence has nothing to do with how you feel at the time or whether you recognize him or not.  He's there anyway.

What daily implications does this have for us?  If God is literally everywhere I happen to go to, this tells me that I can look for his activity around me and join it, as Henry Blackaby boldly stated in "Experiencing God,"  it means that my daily activity could have a lot more significance than I think it does.  It means that I can enjoy God's presence literally anywhere I happen to be.  I can pray, I can ask him to show me where he's working, and I can ask him for the boldness to join him.  I can sit silently and listen for his gentle whispers and his guidance in my life.  No matter how busy I am, or how bad or good my day turns out to be, I can go to the one who is right there with his arms open, just waiting for me to go to him.

This also means that I am never truly alone.  In these days of lockdowns and pandemics, loneliness is a serious thing.  It has caused many to take their own lives or fall into the hole of depression.  Yet the Lord is right there in those moments too.  He has promised if we know him that he will never leave us nor abandon us.  We are never in a place where our prayers simply go nowhere.  We are never in a spot where he cannot be.  We are never in a moment where he has been excluded and can't see what is happening.

In my own hardest and darkest moments, and even in the good ones, I have found that silence before the Lord, sometimes while on my face, is best.  He knows the hurt I have felt and the emotional pain I am experiencing.  At times, silence before him, knowing he knows these things, is incredibly important.  There have been moments like that for me when I just didn't know what to say or ask for, and that was perfectly fine.  It wasn't necessary for me to say anything because God already knew, and my heart needed the healing that only he could provide.  That means that he knows the burdens you carry as well.

If you are in such a spot today, please remember several things.  First, he is not absent or disengaged.  Second, remember that he sees your hurt, knows what it is about, and knows that the healing for it can only come from him.  So go to him, even in what I would call "silent prayer," where you just sit in his presence and think of him and say nothing.  

Your hurt isn't caused by a God who is detached.  Instead it's what happens when you live in a broken world.  Go to him, run to him, and sit with him as long as it takes.  Nothing else you have on today's agenda matters as much as that.  My prayer is that you will, even if it is for the first time, recognize this God who is everywhere and accessible to you in every moment in every place during every day.  There truly is no one like him!

He already knows

God knows everything.  Literally everything.  You and I have never met a person like that.  Sure, we have met what we might call a "know it all" who thinks they know everything.  But there's a huge difference between that person and God:  that person doesn't actually know everything.  Sometimes they pretend or can fake it for a while, but there is a huge list of things that they just don't know.  And they never will.

God is not like that.  He knows everything.  I'm a teacher by training and by heart, but my profession would be of absolutely no use to God.  I know a lot of science and can explain in my own way how things work behind the scenes.  But God invented all of that.  He created atoms with their subatomic particles that spin around in certain directions.  He made it to where those atoms could come together in patterns to form objects.  He created living cells that are as intricate and complex as any major city, including plumbing, electrical, transport and energy production.  He created all of those things, so listening to me talk about it would not teach him anything new.  

God knows what happened yesterday in the news.  He knows the people that were involved in that story, their names, their history, and their motivations.  He knows the newscasters who talk about it on the evening news along with their stories and motivations.  He knows the writers who post the information on the internet and their stories.

God knew who our current president was going to be thousands of years before America was even formed as a nation.  God already knows who the next president will be.  He knew the previous 45 presidents of the United States and their personal histories.  He was there when they were born and he was there (or will be there) when they die.

Mankind is still in the process of naming the stars of the sky.  God already did that (Psalm 147:4).

Mankind is still learning about the laws of the universe.  God already knows them and uses them to manage the earth (Job 38:33).

Mankind is trying in futility to figure out why things are the way they are right now.  God already knows why (Ecclesiastes 3:1-11)

God was there the day you began to be formed inside of your mother's womb (Psalm 139:13-15).  He watched as one cell became two which turned into many.  He gazed as all of the intricacies of your body formed.  He was there when your mother gave birth to you.  He knows how hard that was for your mother because he knew her in the same way that he knows you.

God already knows what will happen every minute of your life.  He can tell you where you will be 20 years from this moment, what you will have eaten that day, and how much sleep you got the night before (Psalm 139:16).  He knows about the best moments of your life and he knows about the worst ones.  Yes, even those really bad moments that you wish you could take back or that you wish would just stop haunting you.  He knows about those too.

God knows you.  He knows what your favorite color and food are.  He knows what you like to do with your time.  He knows what books you have read, where you purchased them, and who you purchased them from (John 1:47-48).  He knows what you were thinking last night at 9:14pm.  He knows what was on your mind on Sunday morning.  He knows not only what you said to every person you spoke to last week, but he knows why you said it.  He saw your body language as you spoke and the way your hands and your head moved as you spoke.  Yep, even those words.  He saw you, and he heard them.

He can tell you what was going on when you had encounters with him in your everyday life and rejected him.  He knows about those times when you turned away and decided to follow your own way.  He knows if you will ever come back to him and when that time is.  He knows about every time when you were bitterly angry with him, how you cried because you didn't understand something he had allowed in your life, and he knows when you just were indifferent to him.  He was there every time you had the opportunity to give praise to him but did not.

It is possible that all of these ideas are overwhelming to you.  In this day and age these ideas may even seem a little bit creepy.  But consider this:  why would God himself take all of this time to know everything about you?  What's the point of all of that?  Is it that he wants to micromanage our lives?  No, we have daily evidence that he doesn't do that.  Remember all of those mistakes and missteps you made?  He allowed them to happen.  No, he is not a micromanager.

Is it possible, just possible, that this God who knows so much about you actually cares for you?  Is it at all possible that he looks at you with a desire that you know him for real?  Is it possible he cares about you...a whole lot?

Think of it this way.  God knows all of your faults and all of your flaws and all of the temptations you fall prey to, and yet he still pays this much attention to you.  You might be thinking "well sure, he's everywhere, so of course he would see everything I do."  Yes, that is true, but to me the fact that he knows this much about you and I shows a God of love.  It's a love that I just can't understand and probably never will.  It's a love that surprises me so often because it is just relentless.  It is a love too big to even imagine.  While I'm sitting there wondering why he would even bother with me, he's there with open arms, wanting me to go further in relationship with him.  It's this way with you, too.

I don't know what you are dealing with in your life but I know you need to hear this message.  Many of you are weary after being in a lockdown from a virus for an entire year.  You might be weary from losing your job and being unable to get another one.  You may be weary from your past and from the tremendous hurt you have carried for many years.  

Whatever those things are, you can know today that God is absolutely, fully aware of it all and is waiting on you right now to just rest in his arms.  He isn't doing that because he needs that from you.  He's doing it because he wants to, because he cares, because he loves.  He loves you.  And he wants you to fall in love with him.

Radical love

“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.”

― C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves

Today we will continue looking at and unpacking the passage from 2 Peter 1, focusing on what it means to show affection and love for everyone.  This passage has gradually built on itself starting with how to become godly through relationship and transitioning into some characteristics of someone who is growing, including moral excellence and knowledge.  

5 In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, 6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, 7 and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone.

I think in our day and age, it is easy to read this and agree that we need to show love for everyone.  The trouble is that we live in an age with so much conflict.  Someone once said that conflict is two people living in the same county.  How true that is!  In society today we have made conflict a full-contact sport, and unfortunately the Church has fallen into that trap as well.  Loving others, all others, is one of the hardest things we are required to do as Christians, but it is what should distinguish us from the rest of the world.  Jesus said this:

34 So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. 35 Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”

Jesus himself gave us a great summary of what it means to show brotherly affection and love from Matthew 22.  Rather than turning our lives into a set of rules to follow, he said we should do just two things:

36 “Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?”

37 Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’[e] 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[f] 40 The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”

We are to love God and love people.  According to Jesus, these two commandments are EQUAL to each other and, if lived out day to day, meet every single standard in the law.  Following Jesus is simple, but it is not easy.

Let's look at this in a day to day perspective.  If I'm following this command, I'm kind to others at all times.  I'm kind even with those who think different politically than me.  I'm kind with people who don't view life through the same lens as I do.  I'm kind to all of my neighbors, even the ones who constantly blare loud music and do things to annoy me.  I'm kind to people from other religions, and I'm kind to those who have no religion at all.  

In fact, it goes so much further than just being kind.  I should actually work to help these folks that I have named above.  After all, showing love is an action rather than a feeling.  That means if anyone from the examples above needs something that would help them, I provide it.  

As I have written this, the past week Houston had some incredibly cold weather in our area that we ourselves, and especially our homes, are not equipped to handle.  Many people lost power and water, and when things finally did come back on they found that their pipes were frozen solid.  And still later when things warmed up, many discovered that their pipes had broken and their houses got flooded as a result.  It was in those moments as Jesus followers that we should be the first to step up and help another person out.  Love is action.  And we don't leave when things start to get messy either, or when we get tired.  Love doesn't do that because love is action.  

We are not the religious leader who walks by the man who has been beaten up and who is suffering at the side of the road.  We are the man who stops and bandages him up and gives him a place to stay until he is better.  At our own expense.

Showing love extends even into the electronic realm.  On social media I'm kind, because I love others.  I don't find it necessary to post or say cutting or demeaning or dehumanizing words.  I realize that just because my friend sees things a different way than I do doesn't make them an "idiot" or "totally evil," two of the extremely popular labels on social media today.

Showing love means I go to the grocery store or a local restaurant with the intention to show compassion to others and actually speak to them rather than staring at my phone.  I treat my neighborhood as the mission field it is, looking for someone to love and interact with.

Amanda shared a great example of this from the past week.  She went to the grocery store after the huge winter storm and many people were still frantic.  The store shelves were picked clean, the customers were tense, and the grocery store employees were stressed as a result.  She noticed a guy who was bagging groceries that day and his attitude was excellent.  He was a hard worker and did a good job and was encouraging others around him.  So she took a second to make eye contact with him and thank him for his great attitude and work ethic, and to thank him for showing up to work.  She said he really lit up with that encouragement.  Why?  Because he probably doesn't get much of that these days.  It might have been the only encouraging word said to him all day long.

As followers of Jesus we should always be looking for ways to engage others in a truly spiritual conversation.  This particular one didn't turn out that way, but we have had times when they actually do.  And it is through a small gesture like this where you go out on a limb and show yourself to be different that people take notice.  

I think often we wait by the church doors and smile and hope that people will come see us smiling and shaking hands and will think we are different.  That's all wrong.  Many folks won't come to that building, so what are we going to do in daily life?  And smiling at people out in public also isn't enough.  That doesn't distinguish you as a follower of Jesus.  I know many who don't follow him who smile a lot too.  

Peter said in 1 Peter 3:15 these words:

15 Instead, you must worship Christ as Lord of your life. And if someone asks about your hope as a believer, always be ready to explain it.

These days I think we look too hard for moments that we find to be inspiring.  We love our TED talks and YouTube clips and motivational speakers.  I've always wondered what the motivational speakers I have heard are like the other 6 days of the week.  It's easy to "inspire" in the moment.  It is harder to inspire with just the way we live our lives all week.  That's what Peter, and Jesus, were talking about as they taught about how a true Jesus follower lives.

Peter's words can really come to life for you in just regular, everyday activity. After all, Jesus didn't come to make us inspiring or to make us into nicer people.  He came to make us into new people.

In the time between my calling to Everett and our actual move to there, I distinctly remember some interactions with people at my school.  I was truly joyful at what the Lord was doing in my life, that he would actually call me to go to another place for the sake of his name, and I woke up excited every single day to see what he would do.  In a conversation one morning someone said something to me that I'll never forget.  She looked at me and admitted that she doesn't believe the way I do and doesn't follow Jesus, but she wanted whatever I had.  That opened the door for me to talk about how she could have that "thing" that I did.

Was that me just being happy and in a good mood?  I don't think so.  I know what was going on at that time and can tell you that I felt the Holy Spirit's presence everyday, so much so that I think he just shined through me brightly.  It has been said about Christians that we are imperfect people with many flaws and cracks, and that the Lord can shine brightly through our cracks.  I think this was one of those moments.  In this specific case, Peter's words above came absolutely alive.  And I didn't do anything to make it happen.  The Lord did. 

How can it be this way for you as well?   First, I think you have to be willing to be vulnerable.  Showing love and compassion means you have to take your wall down and reach into the messiness of someone else's life for a moment.   Most of us don't like doing that because we can wind up getting hurt.  To truly show love, we have to be willing to be vulnerable first.  This may mean that the other person isn't receptive to us or perhaps they will get angry with us for bothering to talk to them.  That's okay.  Just step out.

I recommend starting your day with him by reading a little of the Bible and praying over what it says.  Spend time alone, really alone with him to where your phone is put away and nobody can interrupt you.  Read, pray, and pause to listen.  Pray for opportunities for him to use you during the day.  Pray that he has control of your calendar (he already does), and that you would be flexible enough to let him interrupt it.  Thank him for all of the blessings you have, because you have many, and they are from his hand. See what he does with your surrendered day. 

Next, step out your front door and see what happens.  You don't have to go to talking about Jesus right off the bat with someone.  In fact, I would not recommend that at all.  Just speak with them about anything.  Try to be a friend to them and see where the conversation goes.  If it goes nowhere, pray for that person silently and thank the Lord that you got to do that today.  Just see where it all goes.  

The point is that you are that way all the time, all 7 days per week, not just when you get "inspired" by the message on Sunday. Your joy in relationship with the Lord should just overflow out of you onto everyone else.

I encourage you this week to let your love for Jesus just overflow onto the others around you.  That is not something you can force, and you shouldn't try to do that!  Instead, it's more about letting go in the small moments and seeing who he will have you encounter that you can show love and compassion to.  Let your joy in relationship with Jesus just wash over anyone around you, and see where it leads.  That's how you and I can stand out.

You don't do it alone

It seems that these days people often start their walk with Jesus by treating it as though they have crossed the finish line of a race.  Since the race is over and they are now "good" and have earned their way into Heaven, they can just keep living how they live.  Surely they will meet God someday face to face, he will pat them on the head and fuss over them a bit, and they will pass into eternity having met the standard.  Perhaps then they can just live in eternity as they live now.  They'll be with friends and family again and, oh yeah, they'll see God sometimes and that will be great too.  Surely Heaven must be like the best all-inclusive resort that we've ever been to, mostly to bring pleasure to us and sometimes to interact with God.  The trouble with this kind of thinking is that it just isn't true and is not supported by scripture.

When I first decided to walk with Jesus in college, I battled some of these mindsets.  To me the way to grow as a Christian was by doing the things I saw other Christians doing and speaking the things I heard them speaking.  They read their Bible a lot so I did as well, and I learned a lot during that time.  I heard some of them talk of Jesus often while they were walking around the Texas Tech campus, so I tried to copy their speech.  I just didn't know any better, and I look back at those times and shake my head because my thinking on what it means to be a Christian was so superficial.  But I was new to it and I didn't know better!

And yet there were moments during that time where Jesus really did a work in me.  I distinctly remember a time with him in Guadalupe River State Park.  It was dawn and I woke up early, and as the brilliant sunrise started I could do nothing but crouch with my face to the ground and worship him.  It still is one of the most real moments I have had with him.  I knew he was there with me in that moment.

Some of you may be like me, wondering how you can become more godly and how you can know Jesus better.  How, really, do Christians grow?  The truth is we already have everything we need to live a godly life.  In my first and second post about 2 Peter chapter 1, we looked at how you and I can possibly live a godly life and grow in it.  

Today we will continue looking at Peter's words from 2 Peter 1.

5 In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, 6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, 7 and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone.

Peter starts with the phrase "make every effort" to respond to God's promises.  We can easily gloss this over and turn it into nothing but pure effort on our part, but that is not at all what Peter was saying.  The first part of the sentence "in view of all of this" points to what he previously had written, which was that we already have everything we need to be able to live a godly life.  That's because we have God's Spirit in us if we follow Jesus.  

Peter wants us to remember that while putting in effort toward some things that he lists in later sentences.  The actual word used for "make every effort" means "applying or bringing alongside."  It seems we have to keep our mind on the Christ we have with us in order to work toward the things Peter talks about.

After Hurricane Ike we had a tree on our property that fell over.  Since I had nothing else to do, I cut it up into firewood with my chainsaw.  The trouble was that the stump was still in the ground.  It had roots that went everywhere and were pretty deep.  Try as I might I couldn't pull it up, even after digging around it and getting several people to pull on it.  It just would not move.  So instead I went to get my truck and a chain.  I wrapped the chain around the stump and around the frame of my truck, put it in gear, and the stump pulled out really easily.  Incidentally, as a man, we love doing things like this!

The point is that I could not pull the stump on my own.  I needed some serious help.  The truck certainly could pull the stump out, but I needed to work with the truck to make it come out of the ground.  This is in a way like the Lord works in our lives.  He can do anything, literally anything.  But if we are really going to let him rebuild us and do a work in us, we have to let him do that work and focus in the direction he wants us to focus.  Otherwise, nothing in us will change.

According to Peter in verse 5, the starting point for a Christian is faith.  That's the moment we believe in Jesus, that he died for us to pay the penalty for our sins, and that he rose from the grave.  That's our first step with the Lord.  We know who Jesus is and want to follow him because we love him.  And this is the moment when we shake hands, as it were, and introduce ourselves.  We have crossed the starting line, and the marathon has begun.

Peter continues the thought by saying we need to add "moral excellence" and "knowledge" to our faith.  And based upon his previous language, we must work hard and focus on doing those things!  Yet we have to remember that our efforts must be made as we look to Jesus for the strength to do it.  In the Bible, the Pharisees worked very hard at moral excellence on their own, yet they didn't know God at all.  They are an example of what happens when a "religious" person (not a Christian) tries really hard to clean up their life.  They may succeed in some areas but their focus produces a dry, stale, unappealing look to anyone around them.  I think many who regularly attend church these days would fall into this category.  They try to do less of some of the bad things they used to do, but are perplexed that they just are always fighting these impulses.  I think they often give Christians a bad name because they exhibit all of the strictness with none of the love.  And that's not how it is supposed to work when you know Jesus.

That leaves the question about what moral excellence and knowledge really are.  I think Jesus did a great job of outlining those things.  In Matthew 5 Jesus lays out the need for humility, meekness, pursuit of justice, mercy, purity, peacemaking, and enduring persecution.  He teaches about controlling anger, lust, divorce, promises to others, seeking revenge, and loving enemies.  In chapter 6 he talks about giving to the poor, prayer, fasting, use of money, and worry.  He just goes on and on.  If you want to know how to work on living a morally excellent life, just look to what Jesus said and actually go obey them today.

If you are like me, you don't always want to do that.  Sure, its easy to agree with yourself that taking revenge is bad when you read Matthew 5 and for some time you may actually be able to pull that off.  But then someone stabs you in the back at work and you become angry.  Or a family member says an unkind word about you behind your back and you hurt from it.  Or you open your phone and begin reading the hateful and spiteful comments many of the people you know are making on social media.  It is even more difficult after watching your favorite TV or reality TV show or YouTuber, where revenge is promoted and even celebrated.  Refusing to take revenge is easy until your emotions get involved.  We can't do that on our own.

Instead in the moment we must remember what Jesus said about taking revenge.  And I think we need to take it to the Lord right then and there.  I'm not saying to drop to your knees in the middle of your cubicle, although you can do that.  You just need to find a quiet place to go to your master and ask for the strength to not take revenge.  If you sincerely go to him in those moments, you will find the strength to not take revenge.  And stay in that place with the Lord as long as it takes.  That's what Christianity is all about.  It is knowing the right things to do which comes from regularly reading your Bible, and then getting the strength from the Lord to actually do those things.

Following Jesus is not about you being the Lone Ranger.  In fact, it isn't about you at all.  It is about a fully surrendered life to the one who is able to make you morally excellent as he is.  It is a relationship.  The Bible is not a book about a bunch of amazing people.  It is about a God who worked in the lives of ordinary people to do extraordinary things.  Many of them were only morally excellent, and only in moments, because in those moments they relied upon the Lord.  You can do the same thing.  But first you must recognize that you can't be morally excellent all on your own.

I encourage you this week to study, really study Matthew 5.  Then take your learning to the Lord and be bold enough to ask him to put you to the test on these things this week.  He's quite responsive on those kinds of prayers!  It will be challenging, but the benefit you get is that you will get so much closer to Jesus as he gives you the strength to endure those things.  And you'll later look up and realize that he is shining through you more than ever.  At that moment, you are truly different, and that's what our world needs to see.

Great promises that already apply

In my last post I shared what the Lord has laid upon my heart with regard to 2 Peter 1:3-4, and we will look today at the last part of that passage to complete the thought Peter is making.  It will make more sense if you read the first post though.

3 By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence. 4 And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.

Jesus is unlike anyone you or I have ever met.  He just is.  We can start with the fact that he is divine and all-knowing, which I'll explore with you in a later post.  However, he's so much different from any human relationship we have!  He knows everything about you, the good and the bad, the ups and the downs, the strengths and the weaknesses, the victories and the failures, the good thoughts and the very bad thoughts.  Nothing is hidden from him.  And even though he knows you in this way, he still wants relationship with you.  And nothing you can do in this life will ever make him lose interest or give up on you.  With humans this happens all the time.  With God, it just doesn't happen ever.

Somehow through Jesus's "glory and excellence," we receive the gift of promises he has given.  What does that mean exactly?  Let's look at some wording to understand.

The original text for "has given" is important.  It means that something has been bestowed on us.  We don't use that word often, but it means that there has been a great gift given to someone.  It also means that what was given was given as an honor to someone else.  This is more than me just giving you a pencil.  This would be like a wealthy person giving you a huge house just because they wanted to.  Whatever has been bestowed on you and I is a huge gift.  This same word was used in the book of Mark when Pilate gave Jesus's body to Joseph of Arimathea.

The second important word in verse 4 is "promises."  This is not an ordinary promise.  This is a promise that is made publically, as in it is being shouted over a loudspeaker or public address system.  Such a promise must be a big deal.  For example, I might promise to you that I'll come pick you up at a certain place in 20 minutes.  That isn't worthy of any great pronouncement to the world.  Nobody else but you would care.  This type of promise carries such weight that it is worthy of announcing to the world.

Peter's language communicates that the promises being made from Jesus are very great and precious.  Peter used this same descriptive language when describing Christ's blood (1 Peter 1:19) and a Christian's faith (1 Peter 2:7;  2 Peter 1:1).  The promise being described is important and valuable.

What then are these promises that Peter describes?  Well, two of them were stated in verse 3.  We have the promise of a new birth, the promise of God's protecting power (v 5), and the promise of the Spirit's power in our lives.  What can this mean for me in everyday life?

When we decide to cross the starting line of the marathon of Christianity, an important thing happens.  It is as though we have been born once again.  In practical terms that means that whatever person you were prior to crossing that starting line is dead.  That person is gone.  All of the horrible things that person said and did and thought are all gone.  They are in the past, and the door to the past is shut and locked.  We cannot travel that way again.  And since it is a new birth, you are made into a new person.  That process begins in that moment of first having faith in Jesus and it only grows from that point.  A new birth is exciting because it is a totally new person who has never lived before.  They have different characteristics and values and morals and thoughts and behaviors than the other person because they are entirely new.

Think of it in this silly way.  Most American adults have owned several vehicles.  Back when I went to college I had a 1993 Ford Taurus.  It got me around, it was comfortable, and it got good gas mileage.  I didn't really like the car though.  I wanted a truck, and because of my immaturity at the time I did everything I could do to rid myself of this Taurus and get a truck.  But that never happened.  I stuck with that car until it had 123,000 miles on it and could barely shift gears anymore.  A lot of stuff didn't work on it by that time and I was quite relieved when I went to trade it in for a much newer, nicer car.  I was glad that Taurus died.

The thought never crossed my mind at the time to keep the Taurus and rebuild it.  Could I have done that?  Sure!  I could have refurbished the engine or bought a new one.  I could have replaced the transmission and given it a new paint job.  I could have done all of the things necessary to make it "like new" again.  The reality, though, is that it wouldn't have been new.  It would still have been a 1993 Ford Taurus.  It would still have been in existence since it was built by Ford in 1992.

You see, God knows this about old and new.  That's why he doesn't take the old you and dress you up in better clothes and change a couple of things about you to make you the "new" you.  It wouldn't work.  There would still be old and new parts of you and you would never fully function in the capacity of new, no matter what was done.  That's why you and I, when we decide to cross that starting line of the marathon called Christianity, begin taking steps as an entirely new person.  The old is gone.  The old is in the rear view mirror and the image is getting smaller and smaller with time.  The new is where we are now and is up ahead.  That's the way God works in us.

I'm certain that some of you hold on to your past self, the old, dead you.  There are things in your life that you did or said that have caused deep regret.  There are things you did that you wish now you could take back.  The Apostle Paul would sympathize with you.  He had plenty in his past that he wished he could take back.  But he came to realize that Christ simply wanted him to look ahead to the relationship they had right now versus the relationship they didn't have in his past.  He describes it this way in Philippians 3:

12 I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. 13 No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it,[d] but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.

You see that Paul also refers to the Christian life as a race.

These promises from 2 Peter 1:3-5 tell us something important.  We have access to God everyday.  Since we have access everyday, his very divine nature can work through us everyday if we allow it.  We don't need to do anything different or special because those things have already been bestowed upon us.  They are already there, in the new you!

If you find that living out this kind of Christianity is hard, you are not alone!  It IS hard, and some days are harder than others.  That's why you and I must be in daily relationship with the Lord.  Only through that do we find the necessary surrender so he can work out these great promises in us.  Jesus himself even said that this race is a hard one.

Matthew 7:13-1413 “You can enter God’s Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell[a] is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose that way. 14 But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it.

If Jesus said it would be hard, then it is going to be hard!  Count on it!  Pray about it!  But above all things, just don't give up.  The reward for running this hard marathon is that you know Jesus more personally and you see him working through your life in larger and larger ways.  And as you see that larger work he is doing, you only want more of it!  That is the life of beauty and significance that most of us really want, but oddly it comes from dying first.

So if you are not a follower of Jesus and you have a past, know that this new birth can be you.  You really can leave it all behind, and Jesus will help you to do that.

If you consider yourself a Christian but feel stuck, there is hope.  You already have everything you need to live a godly life.  And what you have is Jesus himself.  Spend time in prayer and in silence with him.  Put in the time to get to know him and to speak to him.  He will meet you in that moment, right where you are.

May God reveal himself more and more to each of you as you pursue a deeper relationship with him!