Christ

The Howling Wilderness of our Lives

~ godisnotlikeyou ~ Leave a comment

In the middle of a grueling week of work, a friend of mine stopped by and asked, “How’s it going?”

“Things could be better,” I said. I hurt all over from hours of standing on my feet. My head throbbed from lack of sleep. And I was fighting a cold.

“Listen,” he said looking at me. “This is as good as it gets. Things don’t get any better.”  

Most people would have thought my friend was way off-base. Negative. Cynical even.

For me, what he said was just what I needed to be reminded of.

Living in the wilderness is just that – journeying through a dry and thirsty land where there is no water, no oasis, and no rest.

Think Abraham.

Think the Israelites in their 40 years of desert wandering.

Even Jesus, when he was here in the flesh, lived his life in the wilderness.

He died in the wilderness, just like Abraham did, just like the first generation of Israelites did, just like you and me.

The wilderness is a pilgrimage, where we are not at rest. In fact, it’s a place of hardship and testing.

Wilderness and rest structures the life of the Church.

The First Coming of Jesus accomplished redemption by his death and resurrection.

His Second Coming brings in the Sabbath rest for all God’s people.

In between those two events, is the wilderness journey, in which we all pass through.

No one is exempt.

Not even Jesus.

He experienced the journey for us. He lived it perfectly for us. And that record is put to our account.

So then how are we to live our lives in the wilderness?

First, by not expecting it to be a life of comfort and rest. Just the opposite.

Second, it’s our time to do good works out of gratitude to God for saving us and giving us a future Sabbath rest that is as certain as God himself.

This is the time we tell others the good news of the gospel, where we love one another as the body of Christ, where preaching and teaching and training in righteousness is a daily and weekly habit.

Our happiness is not here.

It’s in a future rest in heaven with our God.

 

 

 

Everybody Deals With God

~ godisnotlikeyou ~ Leave a comment

We are not thinking accurately if we believe that it’s only when a person comes to faith that he then has a relationship with God.

The truth is everybody has a relationship with God.

The unbeliever is experiencing God’s wrath.

The believer is experiencing God’s forgiveness.

Both kinds of people are dealing with God.

It’s not just the Church that God pays attention to.

It’s his world, and therefore he’s involved with everybody.

No one escapes his notice.

If you believe in Jesus as your Savior, then God has delivered you from the domain of darkness and translated you into the kingdom of his beloved Son. (Colossians 1:13)

Now turn around and tell others what God has done for you!

How else will they hear?

 

 

 

How To Thrive After Being Crushed by the Church – Part 2

~ godisnotlikeyou ~ 4 Comments

Do you feel the church has used you up and thrown you away?

That it was a bait and switch experience? You got in, and then they threw the rule book at you?

You were promised a life of happiness, victory over temptations, and a new power and control.

Instead you were more miserable, your vices got worse, you failed more often, and you felt stuck and helpless.

And if you dared to speak of these things, instead of receiving support you were told it was your fault. You weren’t doing enough of the things (rules) sincere Christians were supposed to do.

Like more bible study, deeper prayer, being more committed to church and community group.

So you put your whole heart and soul into being more disciplined in the disciplines.

Only to crash and burn even more.

You eventually concluded that this Christian thing didn’t deliver. And you felt betrayed and angry.

You know what? You’re right to be angry!

You have a right to expect to hear the gospel preached every Sunday.

You have a right to be reminded that your sins are forgiven, that you are accepted in Christ, that you are a new creation in Jesus, that it’s not about your performance, but Christ’s that has merited heaven and God’s affection for you.

So go ahead and be angry at the church because it prefers to dole out rules for living instead of the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ.

Pray and ask God to change your pastor or find another church.

What you need to see though, is that your anger is directed at the church, not at Jesus. He’s your life and freedom and joy. He has kept his promises.

You are justified. All your sins are forgiven.

You are sanctified. You are wrapped in the righteousness of Christ.

You are loved. God chose you in love from before the foundation of the world.

You do belong to God. He loves you as much as he loves Jesus.

He’s not the one who has betrayed you!

Go ahead. Smile!

How To Thrive After Being Crushed by the Church – Part 1

~ godisnotlikeyou ~ 3 Comments

Are you someone who has grown up in church where performance defined who you were?

Where most days you were a miserable failure?

And love and acceptance were foreign concepts?

I have good news for you.

You didn’t grow up with the gospel.

You grew up with moralism (law).

The law is harsh. It beats you up. It tells you what you must do in order to please God (and others), but has no power to help you get there.

So you looked at your life and said, “I can’t do this,” and got depressed.

Or you admitted your failure, got furious, and walked away.

Here’s what happened to you.

You came into the church by faith in Jesus. He loved you so much he died for you. And you accepted his gift of salvation with gladness.

Then week after week you listened to preaching about moral behavior and living, and in a flash you plunged into despair because you didn’t measure up.

Your joy in Jesus went up in a puff of smoke. You even went so far to say that this Christian thing doesn’t work.

If you can relate to this, then here’s a question to ask yourself:

Is the cross and blood of Jesus sufficient to save you even while you are still sinful? Even while you continue to fail at living the Christian life?

You know what?

Heaven is filled with Christian failures! There aren’t any other kind of people there!

Jesus’ death on the cross and his shed blood for you is all you need.

Jesus himself will welcome and embrace you!

How’s that possible? It’s because God has given you the gift of the righteousness of Jesus. You had it the moment you came to faith.

It’s the only performance that counts!

Grab a hold of it and never let it go!

How To Rid Yourself of Doom and Gloom

~ godisnotlikeyou ~ 2 Comments

Today I woke up with a long list of grievances I compiled through the night of all the things that were wrong in my life.

Instead of realizing this was a tactic of the devil, I indulged in my black mood.

I vented all over my husband. I criticized the condition of our home. My children weren’t living up to my expectations. Even the cat was wrong today, if we had a cat.

I had no desire to pray on my way to work. Truth is, I was going to continue grumbling and enjoying my well-deserved pity party of one.

But then I reached into my book bag and pulled out an article on the doctrine of our Union with Christ. It was written fifty years ago by noted English bible teacher, Arthur Pink.

God met me there because when I finished it, my gloom was gone and I was rejoicing in the gospel.

Here’s what I learned that changed my heart:

1) Those old saints knew their stuff and preached it. The deep truths, mostly forgotten today because they might offend, are the only prescription for a healthy heart.

2) The doctrine of the Union with Christ is central to our understanding of who were are as Christians. Without it, we see ourselves as individuals tied to a lifeline to Christ, much like an astronaut twirling in space who is attached by a cord to the space capsule.

3) We view Christ as a solo act, independent of the Father and the Holy Spirit, and separated from the people he came to save. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

4) Christ and his people are inseparable – it is an eternal union that began before the foundation of the world and made known and enjoyed in time.

5) It is the foundation for all the other blessings we enjoy in Christ – the new birth (regeneration), the forgiveness of sins (justification), the remodel of our lives (sanctification), and our new bodies (glorification).

6) This union is so real and vital and intimate that God has never viewed us apart from Christ! And God never sees Christ apart from his church. He is the head of the church.

4) We are told in Scripture that Jesus became flesh for us; when he died on the cross, we died with him; when he was buried, we went into the tomb with him; and when he was resurrected, we were raised with him.

We have never been alone!

We are never alone now.

And we will never be alone in heaven. We belong to Jesus and that union is secured for an eternity.

All of these blessings come to us through the gospel and by faith in Christ.

He secured them. He merited them for us. He has given them to us.

Ephesians says we are seated with him in the heavenly places. That’s because Jesus is there, and where he is, that’s where we are, too.

Go out and tell somebody you have a new address!

 

 

 

 

 

 

How To Love Difficult People

~ godisnotlikeyou ~ 5 Comments

At her husband’s funeral, the widow says to her adult daughter, “Your father and I would have had a wonderful marriage if only he had been someone else.”

Let’s be honest. We’ve all had those thoughts.

Your life would be so much nicer if you had a better spouse, kids, parents, boss, friends, and neighbors.

The old saying is true:

The problem with the world is the people!

All of us live with difficult people.

The trick is how to do that well.

Some difficult people are sincere Christians who love the Lord Jesus and mean to do good.

But they’re lacking in self-awareness, sensitivity toward others, discipline, or some other quality that would make your life easier.

Then there are those whose habits and quirks drive you nuts. Eating with a full mouth. Burping. Not listening. Being too loud.

What does God tell us to do?

To suffer long with them and to be kind.

What you don’t want to do is use the law. To tell them to change. To demand that they change.

Instead, remind yourself of the gospel.

You are a difficult person, too.

And yet God loves you, forgives you, shows his mercy and patience toward you.

That’s reason enough to show the same to others.

And one day, when Jesus returns, all of us will be perfect!

 

 

Who’s Doing The Work?

~ godisnotlikeyou ~ Leave a comment

Who is responsible for your maturity in Christ? Is it all about you and your obedience or is all the Holy Spirit’s doing?

Do you have days when you feel you’ve done nothing but blow it as a Christian? You haven’t loved well, you ran out of patience, you didn’t think about God for an instant.

What does God think of you when you’re in that condition?

“Return to your baptism everyday,” Luther said. Remember you died in Christ, were buried in him, and were resurrected in him. All your sins are forgiven and washed away. God sees them no more.

Paul would say,

“For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him.” – Romans 6: 5-7

You have been set free to live as a believer in Christ.

Before faith, you were a slave to sin. You couldn’t love or serve God. The only things you could do were to:

1) live in darkness

2) provoke God’s wrath

3) heap judgment on yourself

But God, who in his mercy called you from death to life, who gave you the gift of faith to believe in Christ and him crucified, now enables you to freely love and serve him.

You are a freed slave learning to live as a free man or woman in union to Christ.

How does this work out in daily living?

Justifying faith is God acting upon you – you are a passive recipient. He changed your heart, he made you capable of believing the gospel. You didn’t produce that yourself. You had no power.

Sanctifying faith is accomplished by the Holy Spirit who causes you to desire God and enables you to obey God. This new action will result in your good works.

You will produce fruit.

So if you’re worried about how you’re doing, don’t be. Looking inside your heart will demoralize you. It’s not pretty in there.

The solution is to keep looking to Jesus.

He’s the author of your faith, and to God who will give you everything you need to keep loving and serving him.

How To Pray Really Badly

~ godisnotlikeyou ~ Leave a comment

The Lord has heard my supplication; The Lord will receive my prayer. – Psalm 6:9

The experience here recorded is mine. I can set to my seal that God is true. In very wonderful ways He has answered the prayers of His servant many and many a time. Yes, and He is hearing my present supplication, and He is not turning away His ear from me. Blessed be His holy name!

What then? Why, for certain the promise which lies sleeping in the psalmist’s believing confidence is also mine. Let me grasp it by the hand of faith: “The Lord will receive my prayer.” He will accept it, think of it, and grant it in the way and time which His loving wisdom judges to be best. I bring my poor prayer in my hand to the great King, and He gives me audience and graciously receives my petition. My enemies will not listen to me, but my Lord will. They ridicule my tearful prayers, but my Lord does not; He receives my prayer into His ear and His heart.

What a reception this is for a poor sinner! We receive Jesus, and then the Lord receives us and our prayers for His Son’s sake. Blessed be that dear name which franks our prayers so that they freely pass even within the golden gates. Lord, teach me to pray, since Thou hearest my prayers.

– From Faith’s Checkbook by C.H. Spurgeon

When I read this I was reminded of my sin of unbelief. I know God hears my prayers. I understand that much. But where I lose it is when he doesn’t answer them in the way I want him to. And when that happens, I immediately conclude he’s not listening to me, or worse, caring about me.

That’s utterly sinful because it maligns the character and promises of God. 

Truth is I want my prayers answered now and according to my will, not his.

Upon further reflection, I realized, too, that God is answering my prayers all around me, as well as in the lives of the people I pray for, but I don’t have eyes to see that because I insist on having the answers my way.

Just today a friend told me he had sold his last painting, the one that nobody wanted.

“You prayed for that, remember?” he said.

I hadn’t remembered.

That was another indictment. I  had prayed without expectation. My expectations of God were little, if they existed at all.

I was seeing things about my prayer life that were not pretty.

But instead of flogging myself and telling myself to do better next time, which I know I will fail at, I reminded myself of the gospel.

Jesus prayed perfect prayers, full of hope and faith and belief in God.

And God has put his perfect praying record to my account.

That’s my only hope. His prayers, not mine.

I can rest in that and keep praying!

 

 

 

 

 

How Three Little Words Can Change Your Life

~ godisnotlikeyou ~ Leave a comment

All world religions, no matter which one, have three words in common:

Get to work.

That is very bad news.

It means the responsibility is entirely on you to appease the god, to win his approval, to satisfy his demands.

And the worst news of all is:

You never know if you’re doing enough.

You have no confidence, no peace, no rest in your own work because you know it’s not perfect.

And the deity doesn’t help you either.

In fact, he’s silent.

In contrast, the gospel is utterly unique.

Christ’s three words are:

It is finished.

What is finished?

Everything you need in order to be reconciled to God the Father.

That is Good News!

1) Christ paid for all your sins so you could be forgiven. All your sins – the ones yesterday, the ones today, and the ones you’ll do tomorrow.

2) Christ appeased God’s wrath by becoming the sacrifice to atone for your sins.

3) Christ closed the enormous gap between you and God so now you have a Heavenly Father.

4) Christ, with his own life, paid for all your disobedience, transgressions, deliberate and unintentional sins, unbelief, and willful denial of God.

5) Christ satisfied God’s law by dying a death you should have died.

6) Christ paid the debt you owed God. You are now free from it.

Christ is the only true solution for your sin problem.

He did it all.

The job is done.

Why would you ever want to settle for anything else?

 

What’s The Best Story To Tell About Jesus?

~ godisnotlikeyou ~ Leave a comment

This is the day of personal stories. You read them on blogs, watch them on television, exchange them among friends, and even write a few yourself.

The church has followed suit. Modern sermons are peppered with stories about people’s experiences, usually the pastor’s.

Sometimes you learn more about the pastor’s life than you do about Christ’s.

In the marketing world, that’s called the hook.

It’s meant to get your attention and engage you.

We’re naturally attracted to stories. They entertain us, inspire us, teach us, make us cry, or get angry, or applaud.

When someone asks you, “Tell me your story?” you launch into describing the events that led up to your conversion. That’s your personal testimony.

But as riveting your personal story may be, it won’t lead others to faith.

What? That’s crazy, you say.

Let me explain.

First, there’s no power in your personal testimony.

Second, it’s your story, not Jesus’.

If somebody were to ask the Apostle Paul about his testimony, you wouldn’t hear about him, how he made tents, how he studied under the best teachers of the day. He wouldn’t give you all the gory details of how he persecuted Christians to put them to death.

What you’d hear Paul tell you is about Jesus Christ. He was obsessed with Jesus.

The only power to lead someone to faith is in the story of Jesus Christ and him crucified.

That’s why if you check the sermons in the book of Acts, they tell the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus.

Paul, Peter and John, and the other apostles could have told wonderful stories about their life with Jesus, but they didn’t. The few times they did they highlighted their failures and fears.

The gospel, which is the testimony about Jesus, is the power of God.

It is the message that announces the lengths God has gone to save us from sin and death. It tells sinners that Jesus came to abolish who they are in Adam (dead in trespasses and sins), to cut off their life in Adam because it cannot be rescued or repaired, and to raise them from the dead and give them life in Christ.

How did Jesus do this? By nailing your long list of sins to the cross. Since the paycheck for sin is death, Jesus paid the legal debt for you and secured your release.

That’s the story to tell.

Go out and tell someone!