Religion is an interesting animal. It can bring life and it can bring death. It can instill hate or it can inspire peace. It can unite or it can divide. Truthfully, it has been known to do all of these things through out human history. This is why religion makes me nervous. In fact, religion terrifies me because religion is too private and too subjective It acts out of the context of its own created foundations, and assigns the reason for the action, be they good, bad, or ugly, to God. So, religion is very human, very self-promoting, and very dangerous. It manipulates God to be what the religionist needs for God to be.

This is one of the reason I follow Jesus. I do not believe He is present to start religions. He is present, rather, to draw us to the living God. He expresses God’s desire for His creation to “seek him and perhaps reach out for him, and find him” (Acts 17:27).

Jesus shows us that it is God who created us and loves and that it is “in him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28). God has spoken into human history in the person of Jesus, and when He raised Jesus from the dead He manifested the fact that people can turn around and live differently than they once lived. Renewal is possible in this world.

The life of God can come into dead and barren places and breathe the breath of true life into them. Evil does not have to win. In Christ we see that God has spoken “with justice” (Acts 17:31), and has new things to do in us and in history.

It is when people let God be God in their lives we see the dramatic new reality God has in store. We don’t worship a principle or a theology or a doctrine. Rather, by grace we are drawn to a person, Jesus. In Him we see who God really is. We see God not as the unknown so much as the one who in Jesus makes Himself known, so known that renewal is always at hand.

What is it we Christians are saying to the world, something that nobody else is saying, that one thing that makes us Christian, that one thing that forms us into who we are?

In the ancient city of Thessalonica the apostle Paul helps us find our answer. Along with his ministry partner, Silas, he went to the synagogue, and to the people there “he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead” (Acts 17:2-3).

In his explaining and proving the Paul said an incredible thing. He told the people, “This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Christ” (Acts. 17:3). Of his remarkable claim Luke says, “Some of the Jews were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a large number of God-fearing Greeks and not a few prominent women” (Acts 17:4)

What makes us who we are as Christians? Jesus who is the Christ. What continually shapes and forms our lives? Jesus, who is the Christ. What drives the Church to be faithful in all things to God? Jesus, who is the Christ.

So the question isn't really what. The question is Who. Who makes us Christian, who shapes and forms our lives, who drives the Church to be faithful? Jesus. It is in Him we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28).

On the road to Damascus Saul of Tarsus didn't meet a doctrine or a position or a discourse. He met a person. He met Jesus and Jesus changed his life forever. So, in his evangelistic outreach Paul didn't particularly tell people what to believe. Instead, he gave them a whom; He gave them Jesus and called them to believe in Him.

And what did Paul want the people to know about Jesus? He wanted them to know that He suffered, died, and was raised from the dead. He wanted his world to know that in his resurrection Jesus was confirmed to be the Christ.

We live in an information drenched, rapidly changing, violent, and unpredictable world. We live there as Christians, proclaiming that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead and is here today as both Lord and Christ to bring the very life of God into the human experience.

The message of Jesus is more up-to-date than is the last update of your computer’s news information and is laser sharp in penetrating the “thoughts and attitudes of the heart” (Heb. 4:12). Remarkably, even though Jesus knows the true thoughts and attitudes of the human heart, He is not present so as to trip us up concerning the thoughts and attitudes of our hearts (He doesn’t play gotcha games), but He is present to save us from ourselves so that we may experience the glory of being fully alive in the life that is God. We call it grace. In fact, we call it, “Amazing Grace.”

Living in Amazing Grace the church finds itself in this remarkable time in human history as the voice of hope. Jesus is present to enter into the storyline of every person, and to be in that story as both Lord and Christ. This is why the Bible brings to us teachings such as, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want” (Psalm 23:1) and, “Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matt. 28:20).

What a great time it is to live. What a great time it is to be Christian. What a great time it is to live within the embrace of “Amazing Grace.” What a great time it is to share the story of Jesus. What a great time it is fulfill our vows to God (Psalm 116: 14, 18) knowing that God is with us day-by-day, each step of the way, and that God is with us as the One whose presence is so real and so meaningful that we must conclude, “I shall not be in want.”

Regardless of what your future may or may not be, enter into it under the anointing of the One who is your God. Come to it in the power of God’s faithfulness.

On the day of Pentecost and in response to Peter’s appeal for people to “save yourselves from this corrupt generation,” 3000 people joined up and entered into a new way of life, the Jesus way of life. At the end of the day they realized that a new creation had emerged and that the world, from then on, would never be absent the church Jesus is building.

And what a church is was. There was awe. There were wonders and miraculous signs. There was sacrifice. There was generosity. There was fellowship. There was worship. There was witnessing. They prayed together and gathered together to hear important teaching from their leaders. There was a sense of unity that so bonded the people that they “ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God” (Acts. 2:42-47). God was on the move in the early church, and in many remarkable ways the world has not been the same since the activities recorded in Acts chapter two.

In short, the early church was a people under the influence of the Holy Spirit. They were accused of being under the influence of alcohol but Peter corrected that error in His dynamic sermon, and he let the listeners know that what was happening wasn’t of alcohol. This was a God thing.

I wonder if what is happening in our culture through the church a God thing. I often wonder, “what ever happened to the wonder?” Have we become too familiar with God things so that we’ve lost the wonder? Is “awe” too unscientific for the day in which we live? In our church, and in my life, what can be explained only because of the presence of God?

My prayer is simple: “O God, please connect us to the Vine so that the very life blood of the resurrected Jesus pulsates through our being. Pour out Your Holy Spirit, take over, and have Your way.”

Easter is that day when we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Actually we do this every Sunday but on this one day, we stop on purpose and with deep intention to remember and to celebrate the event itself; the one event that forms and shapes all it means for Christians to be Christian. That Jesus was raised from the dead brings a new way of being in the world, a resurrection way of being in the world.

So it is that on another significant day in history a, when God kept His word and poured out His Spirit on His people, the apostle Peter preached a message that was rooted and grounded in the fact that God had raised Jesus to life again (Acts. 2: 32). Pentecost was the day Jesus baptized His Church with the Holy Spirit and with fire (Matt. 3:11) and what did Peter preach about? The resurrection of Jesus.

In the power of the Holy Spirit Peter confirmed the fact that "it was impossible for death to keep its hold on" Jesus (Acts. 2:24). He confirmed that the ancient king, David, "was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants of his throne" (Acts. 2:30). Peter confirmed that what king David did was to look to what was ahead and that there he saw, "the resurrection of the Christ" (Acts. 2:31). And, to it all Peter bears his own witness and says, "God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact" (Acts 2:32).

Today we are called to a Spirit-baptized witness to the living Christ. Jesus isn't on the cross today and He isn't in a tomb. He lives, and like those of our past we, too, are Faith-witnesses that death itself is defeated and that only Jesus Christ is Lord.

It reads so casually we might miss it, yet it brings to us the incredible mystery of our Faith The apostle Peter said of Jesus in Acts 10:39, “They killed him by hanging him on a tree, but God raised him for the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen.”

Excuse me? They what? And God what on the third day? They killed him but God raised him. Okay. If you say so. It reads like, “Please pass the butter They killed Jesus you know (can I have the salt, too) but God raised him from the dead.”

Of course it wasn’t quite that nonchalant but I am struck how such a radical and almost unbelievable event could be spoken of without a band playing in the background and without lights blinking and without some kind of incredible Hollywoodish-like fanfare. I mean, isn’t this huge? This isn’t huge. This is mammoth.

At the heart of our story is the remarkable truth, "they killed him but God raised him." And why did God raise him? Peter said it was so that everyone who would believe in Jesus would receive "forgiveness of sins through his name" (Acts. 10:43). Whatever we do for Jesus must make known the offer of His forgiveness. It is why He was raised from the dead. It is what the Father wants. It is what people of every race, creed and color need.

The apostle Peter tells us that wherever Jesus went, "he went…doing good and healing" (Acts 10:38). As His followers this is what we do, too. We don't just preach the Gospel of Jesus; we do good in the name of the Gospel of Jesus. We teach, we empower, we feed, we clothe, we lift human beings up to their full potential, a potential defined by that one day in history when the Father "raised him from the dead."

Go. You are forgiven. Now, do good in Jesus' name. Live the forgiven life and bring grace into your world.

It is the paradox of Messiah’s earth bound reality. Jesus enters Jerusalem with royal praise and approval, seated humbly on the back of a donkey. And make no mistake about it; the donkey was a strategic part of the story. It was a symbol of peace, not war.

He came in peace but by the end of the week they would make war against Him and He would be brutally assaulted and crucified. At the end of this horrific week they would place a placard on the cross proclaiming Jesus to be the King He really is. And what kind of king is He? He is a King who rules by self-giving and who wins by losing.

Palm Sunday reminds us that things are not always the way they seem. Death can masquerade as life. Evil can impersonate good. Hate can rest just beneath the surface of praise, and the accolades of Hosanna can quickly turn to “Crucify Him.”

But then we ought not to be surprised at the Holy Week’s turn of events. Jesus said it was a must that He go to “Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and… be killed” (Matt. 16:21). Now we find ourselves at the beginning of the week Jesus said would happen.

Of course, Jesus also said something else. He said that after the suffering and dying He would, “on the third day be raised to life” (Matt. 16:21). That changes things a bit, doesn’t it? Indeed, suffering is not the last word and neither is death. After every word that can be spoken in this world one marvelous, wonderful and awesome word remains ~~ Resurrection.

Have you ever been in the "depths?" One time David prayed, "Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in the miry depths, where there is no foothold" (Ps. 69:1-2). David wasn't really in literal waters, but it was like he was drowning in the overwhelming issues crashing down around him. Depth captures the emotion of terror, fear, pain, grief, questions, and conflict that can hold the human heart captive.

In Psalm 130, a song the people sang on their way to worship, there is a prayer the people prayed, "Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord" (vs. 1). So, they knew about depths, too. Let me ask again, have you ever been in the depths? Are you in the depths now?

You're probably thinking, "What silly questions! When am I ever not in the depths of something crashing in around me?" Good point. Life is hard and complicated, with pressures bearing down on us some from within and self-inflicted, and others from without and beyond our control.

The ancient worshipers had it right in that they brought their very lives into the reality of God and they put their hope in the Lord whose love was unfailing (vs. 7). Unashamedly they prayed, "I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope" (vs. 5). They took God seriously and made God the focus of their existence. You can feel their passion in their words, "My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning" (vs. 6).

And, Israel had it right. The real problem at the root of all problems is the resulting effect of sin. They knew they didn't just need help; they needed God in their story. After all, they said, "with him is full redemption. He himself will redeem Israel from all their sins" (vs. 8).

It's a good idea to let God into our stories.

Have you ever been in the "depths?" One time David prayed, "Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in the miry depths, where there is no foothold" (Ps. 69:1-2). David wasn't really in literal waters, but it was like he was drowning in the overwhelming issues crashing down around him. Depth captures the emotion of terror, fear, pain, grief, questions, and conflict that can hold the human heart captive.

In Psalm 130, a song the people sang on their way to worship, there is a prayer the people prayed, "Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord" (vs. 1). So, they knew about depths, too. Let me ask again, have you ever been in the depths? Are you in the depths now?

You're probably thinking, "What silly questions! When am I ever not in the depths of something crashing in around me?" Good point. Life is hard and complicated, with pressures bearing down on us some from within and self-inflicted, and others from without and beyond our control.

The ancient worshipers had it right in that they brought their very lives into the reality of God and they put their hope in the Lord whose love was unfailing (vs. 7). Unashamedly they prayed, "I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope" (vs. 5). They took God seriously and made God the focus of their existence. You can feel their passion in their words, "My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning" (vs. 6).

And, Israel had it right. The real problem at the root of all problems is the resulting effect of sin. They knew they didn't just need help; they needed God in their story. After all, they said, "with him is full redemption. He himself will redeem Israel from all their sins" (vs. 8).

It's a good idea to let God into our stories.

Having grown up as a shepherd boy in the hills around Bethlehem, king David knew all about sheep and he knew all about shepherds. One day when he reflected upon the greatness of his God he spoke of God as his shepherd.

David’s faith expression prompts some questions. How do people in what is being called a postmodern age, what some are calling a post-Christian age, see God? Is God a shepherd? Does God care? Is there a tender side to God? Is God a strict taskmaster, seeking his pound of flesh? Is there a God, and if there is how personal is God?

David thought God was very personal. To Him God was like a shepherd, drawing near his sheep to do whatever it takes to watch over them. He is a God who protects, who leads, who guides, even when the enemy surrounds His people.

The Shepherd won’t let his people live in denial, either. The world is filled with enemies of the Christian soul, and David isn’t hesitant to use the title “enemy.” Factors are at work in the world that can easily lead to paralyzing fear, but those factors are overpowered by the reality of the presence of the Living Shepherd-God.

For David life in God is life at it’s greatest possible meaning. The sheep are blessed because God is present. The enemy may still be there, mind you, but so is God. The cause of fear may still be there, but so is God. The valley of the shadow of death may still be there, but so is God.

So, the people of God journey with God leading them forward under His anointing and following them by His goodness and love (Ps. 23:5-6). This means we have divine grace for today and divine hope for tomorrow.

Can you say, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want” (Ps. 23:1)?

They had a nickname for the place; they called it Massah-Meribah, the place of strife and testing. It was the place where the people of God decided they had been betrayed by God and His spokesman, Moses. It was the place where the people decided they knew more than God. It was the place where God said, “Enough.”

It would take a while for the “enough” to run it’s course, but a seed of rebellion was revealed at Massah-Meribah that would haunt the people until they had all died (except for Joshua and Caleb, but that’s a story for another time). This rebelling generation didn’t make it to the promise land, but died in the desert where they told God over and over that He wasn’t very good at His job, and that they could do it much better (See Exodus 17:1-7 for the riveting details).

In Psalm 95 a passionate appeal is made that people of God not be like those folks of Massah-Meribah but that they be a people who bow down in worship before the Lord their Maker (6). In worship the people proclaimed, “Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation” (2). In worship they said, “Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song” (3).

No rebellion here; no fussing at God because He’s not Johnny-on-the-spot. Rather a proclamation that “The Lord is the great God, the great King above all gods” (3). In the ebb and flow of life the people knew and confessed, “He is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care” (7).

God provided water at Massah-Meribah because that is the kind of God He is. Today He is with us. “Come, let us bow down in worship; let us kneel before the Lord our Maker” (6).

Wondering if anyone might respond to the following statement:

"A social justice that does not call forth repentance in persons is not the social justice revealed in the life and teachings of Jesus Christ."

Any feedback (pro or con) will be appreciated, as I am in an ongoing discussion with several people who wonder about the way the church is choosing to address issues that come under the umbrella of Social Justice. This quote came up the other day, and I really would like some feedback.

Thanks,
Rick

What is hope? How would you define hope? Is it a sense that some how, some way, things will work out for the better? Is it a feeling that no matter how bad things get there will still be a future? Is hope an intellectual activity by which we assess a given situation and conclude, "It's not as bad as it could be"?

An ancient psalm defines hope as a relationship a people has with God. Hope, it seems, is bound to the significant connection people have with the one who is God. It's not about strength or wishing or even dreaming about how things might be better.

Hope is about the integrity of God never to be less that He promised He would be. Hope is about settling down in God's "unfailing love" (Psalm 33:18), with a sure and certain conviction that come what may, God "is our help and our shield" (Ps. 33:20). Hope is coming within the embrace of God, whose arms are open wide, and relaxing our lives in His life, knowing "we can trust in his holy name" (Ps. 33:21).

So, maybe the question is not, "What is hope." Maybe the question is, "In whom do you trust." From the psalmist's perspective the one in whom we trust is no one less than Sovereign God. From His sovereign perspective God looks into the human situation and sees the ways and means of mankind. He is not unaware. In fact, He is sovereignly aware and compassionately present to draw near to all who fear him and who recognize that He is, in fact, at work in the world.

Hope comes from trust, and trust comes from integrity. We do not hope in those we cannot trust. God's name can be trusted, however, and whatever lies ahead we know that we come to it within the embrace of the One whose sovereign love is unfailing. That is hope.

February 10, 2008

Honest introspection and truthful self-awareness I fear, are far from the thinking of many people. These instruments of insight are far too painful and require far too much discipline for the unserious. Ours is a day of self-exaltation, not self-inspection. We want what we want when we want it and the thought of possibly laying aside the dreams we have dreamed for ourselves is simply unthinkable. We have money to make and homes to build and boats to buy, not to mention credit cards to maintain and sights to see.

All this being said we come to king David of ancient Israel. He had it made. He had wealth and a temple and servants. You name it and David had it. He also had lust in his heart, a lust that caught him totally off guard one day. The next thing you know this man who had it all found himself in bed with another man's wife, got her pregnant, and arranged for her husband to come back from war in hopes he would sleep with his wife and that everyone would then conclude the husband was the father. Then everything would be hunky-dory. The plan didn't work so David sent the husband to the front lines in hopes that he would die in battle. This would free the wife to remarry. Then everything would be hunky-dory. This plan worked and the deceit was underway, with everyone but God.

Sometimes God can be so inconvenient, always calling for truthfulness the way He does. This time God sends a prophet into the David's presence and the prophet reveals the sin in David's heart, daring to speak the truth to him.

Here a remarkable thing happens. David receives the truth, chooses not to run from it, and enters into a time of honest and truthful self-inspection. He pleads for forgiveness and even asks that God would cleanse his life.

Suddenly we see a different David. The truth has found him out, and he owns it, prayerfully asking God, "Create in me a pure heart… Restore to me the joy of your salvation" (Ps. 51:10, 12).

May God help us not to run away from truth but to run to it. We, too, are broken and flawed but, like David, we can choose for God. By His grace, we can choose for God. We are under no obligation to choose against God. Let us hear the truth, and be what truth enables us to be.

Sometimes I feel like I’m in over my head in this thing called, following Jesus. I can’t tell you the number of times I think I’ve finally got some things figured out when life throws a mind-blowing curve at me, and I find myself realizing that I’m just a kindergartener finger painting his way through grad school. It’s not a pretty sight.

These feelings come rushing in on me when I see two longings on the part of the apostle Paul that are in such stark contrast to each other that I am left thinking surely he didn’t mean what it looks like he meant. One of them I get because I’m an American. The other one I don’t get because I’m an American.

The one I get is the one where Paul says he longs to know Christ and to share in the power of his resurrection. I get that. Who wouldn’t? To share in the power that is nothing short of resurrection, that’s huge. That puts one on the winning team. That puts one ahead of the pack, dancing in the end zone having made the defense look silly. I get that.

The one I don’t get is the one where Paul says he longs to know “the fellowship of sharing in the sufferings of Christ, becoming like him in his death” (Phil. 3:10). Now wait a minute. Dancing in the end zone because you just blew the defense away is one thing; longing to be creamed by the defense on your way to the end zone, that’s something else. (Please forgive my football fascination but the Super Bowl is coming up).

Resurrection is about power. Suffering is about weakness. And, most of us don’t want much to do with weakness. We’re Americans, my goodness.” We ain’t taken nothing from nobody (pardon my English). Yet Paul says he longs to participate in a fellowship of sharing the sufferings and death of Jesus.

Is it not refreshing to discover a life that is not rooted in self-help and in the need to always win but is rooted in the life of the One who comes into our very real human lives and works the works of God there? Could it be that in the midst of a relationship born of a suffering and a death that we are enabled to face our demons and find the life for which we so desperately seek?

Could it be that our suffering alongside Jesus enables us to better hear the cries of those around us, and causes us to break free from the heresy of always having to win and, instead, find it is grace we need and not just power.

Some things just aren’t worth fighting over or loosing sleep over. One thing is certain and it is that God’s will is “good, pleasing and perfect” (Rom. 12:2 NIV), Place this Biblical truth alongside the fact life is short and eternity is forever, and we see that what we really ought to do is to embrace what really matters; to embrace what we believe really matters to God.

The apostle Paul told the Corinthian Christians that they were majoring on minors and fussing over things that didn’t need to be fussed over. They were all hot and bothered about who had been baptized by whom. Can you believe that? So-in-So baptized me. Oh yeah, well, Whatcha McCallit baptized me. That’s nothing, I was baptized by Old-What’s-His-Name. And, Paul said, “Stop it. Will you just stop it?

Some things just don’t matter. Some things do, mind you. Things like “to preach the gospel” (I Cor. 1:17). Now, that matters. To proclaim the gospel so that the cross of Christ is exalted and filled with the power of Almighty God, now that matters.

Now a question. How can we, as believers in a local church, live in such away that the cross of Christ is not emptied of its power but is revealed to be the very power of God (I Cor. 1:18)? Whatever the answer is I am quite sure that majoring on minors is not a part of it.

How can we major on what really matters, on things that matter for all time and eternity? What does a majoring-on majors congregation look like?

Paul calls the church to live in a spirit of unity, a spirit of Christlikeness where we are so caught up in the life of Jesus that everything falls under His authority. Now, that’s a major.

Jesus did not come into history out of a vacuum. If He had come this way, we wouldn’t have a clue as to how to understand Him. Instead, however, Jesus comes from within the context of a people. He has a family tree, a heritage that shaped and formed Him in His earthly life, a foundation out of which He shares the glory of God. In the New Testament book of Romans the apostle Paul spoke of “the gospel of God which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning His Son…Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 1:1-4). So it is that we see Jesus in the Old Testament.

Of this, John Wesley wrote in His commentary on Isaiah, “As the name of David is sometimes given to his successors, so here the name of Israel may not unfitly be given to Christ, not only because he descended from his loins; but also because he was the true and the great Israel, who, in a more eminent manner, prevailed with God, as that name signifies, of whom Jacob, who was first called Israel, was but a type.” So, what we see in the Old Testament prophet prepares us for how the true Israel, Jesus Himself, was to be among us in this world of ours.

In Isaiah chapter 49 the prophet speaks of God’s Servant and of how His Servant would be “a light of the nations so that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth” (Is. 49:6). The one true Servant, Jesus, is on a mission to bring the salvation of God to the end of the earth. He is a light shining in the dark places of life. He shines not simply to help us but to save us. Truthfully, we are in over our heads, and we need God. We need Him badly; desperately, if you would. And, He has come to us in Jesus. In Jesus we see the glory of God (Is. 49:3), and life can’t get much better than that.

The world is changing so fast in so many ways that the message of change promised throughout the Old Testament might be overlooked. Familiarity breeds the possibility of over-familiarity, and over-familiarity can breed many things, including neglect.

Yet, in Isaiah 42:9 the prophet looked forward to a time when God’s people will be impacted by “new things” God promises to do. The “former things” were wonderful, but they are former. God was going to do a new thing.

God had a servant who would bring forth justice to the nations. He would be powerful and authoritative but He would also be humble and gentle. His mission was not to crush but to heal and to bring the spirit of justice into the human situation. He would live in justice but He would conduct Himself in such away that it is said of him, “A bruised reed He will not break and a dimly burning wick He will not extinguish” (Is. 42:3).

As Christians we believe it is Jesus in whom God has ultimately spoken to the human situation. Through Jesus, God’s new thing breaks into history, and He is present to speak to the deepest needs of the human experience. In His life the very life of God comes among us. The God who “created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and its offspring, who gives breath to the people on it” (Is. 42:5) has come up-close-and-personal.

Through His Servant God fulfills a promise. He draws near in intimacy and communion to “hold you by the hand and watch over you’ (Is. 42:6). He is a living “covenant to the people” (Is. 42:6), and a constant reminder that God is not off at a distant but present in His world, and present here to be God.

God is up to something wonderful.

Like many people, I love a good mystery. Plot twists and surprise turns in a good story hold me spellbound. Sometimes the twists and turns of a story are so unexpected for me that I find myself stunned as I try to process it all. I love a good mystery.

In Jesus a mystery has been resolved and a new storyline breaks into history. What was once uniquely Jewish now becomes a worldwide phenomenon. Of God one of the ancient psalms says, "May the whole earth be filled with His glory" (Ps. 72:19). In Jesus it happens and "the unfathomable riches of Christ" (Eph. 3:8) are extended to everyone of every race, creed, color and background. In Jesus we come to see that "the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel" (Eph. 3:6).

Jesus is the Messiah of every human being on the earth. He is God's response to the human situation. In Jesus God draws near and brings grace, mercy, forgiveness and hope into the story of every person. He is bigger than culture, bigger than race, bigger than religion. He is bigger than philosophy, bigger than ideology, bigger than perspective, outlook and point of view.

What Paul calls, "The unfathomable riches of Christ" are available to you, your family, your friends and your neighbors. The apostle John said that in Jesus "was life and the life was the light of men" (John 1:4). There is no one outside the reach of God's grace and there is no one who. if they called on Christ, will be turned away. He is the Messiah for all.

Let's be authentic and aggressive as we continue to tell the story of Jesus and His unfathomable riches. If not us, who? If not now, when?

First Sunday After Christmas, 2007

In the dark night of her soul, homeless Judah receives a word of promise and hope. Her captivity has ended, a new day has dawned and a new name is given to her. She will no longer be referred to as "Forsaken" and "Desolate." Now she will go by the name, "My delight is in her." Her Land will be called, "Married." Once again God will rejoice over her (Isaiah 62:4-5). So great will be the turn-around that God's people will now be referred to as a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of…God (Is. 62:3).

What a transformation. What a God. From disconnection and disenfranchisement to the place of community and home and future, all because of the grace of God. To this Isaiah simply says one thing, "For Zion's sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not keep quiet" (Is. 62:1). It was too powerful, too wonderful, too dramatic, and too awesome to remain quiet. It had to be shared.

We still share it today. What happened in the life of Judah is available for every person. God has spoken and the future can be different than the past. Old can be replaced with new. Deadness can be replaced by life. What once defined our lives no longer has to be that which defines our lives. "Desolate" and "forsaken" no longer must be our names. God is present to be in our lives so meaningfully that we become a crown of beauty and a royal diadem.

The new life was to be so wonderful for Judah that Isaiah said, "God will rejoice over you" (Is. 62:5). What an image, God rejoicing over His people. In a way, though, it makes sense. Being shaped and formed in the image of the God of all grace brings a people to that place where God is free to do what He longs to do in the lives of His creation; Bless them with honest and authentic blessing.

Live in God and have a grace-covered rest of your life.