Category Archives: Sin

November 3; In Rememberance

Leave a reply

Mark 14:22-31; Matthew 26:26-35; Luke 22:15-20, 31-38; John 13:31-15:17

We observed the Lord’s Supper in church this morning. I don’t know how often your fellowship serves Communion, but I hope that you never take it for granted. Jesus gave us this gift the night before He died. He gave us the gift of rememberance.

When I took the tiny cracker and pressed it into the palm of my hand, I remembered that Jesus was a real man, with a real body, who experienced real pain. Excruciating pain from beatings, floggings, torture and humiliation. Thorns crammed into His head, nails driven into His hands and feet, then hung on a cross to slowly suffocate like some common criminal. I remembered His body.

When I took that little plastic cup filled with grape juice between my fingers, I remembered that Jesus bled real blood from real wounds. I remembered that that blood was spilt to pay what I can never pay – my death sentence which my sins deserve. I remembered His precious blood.

So today, I humbly remember what Jesus did for me the night He took my sins to the cross. I receive His forgiveness and grace. I don’t deserve what He did. But I know He deserves a me who loves and lives for Him.

I worship my Savior, in remembrance.

 

October 31; Pure Motives

Leave a reply

Mark 13:24-37; Matthew 24:29-25:30; Luke 21:25-38, 19:11-27

They didn’t do anything really wrong, right? I mean they were where they were supposed to be for so long, lamps in hand. Was it their fault the bridegroom was so long in coming?

The servant given one talent of money didn’t really do anything wrong. It wasn’t like the master actually told him he was supposed to use it to make more money. Didn’t the servant have a right to do with the money what he wanted to? After all, he’d protected it. Give him some credit.  It’s not like he lost it or spent it foolishly.

Maybe the bridesmaids’ and the servant’s motives were pure. Maybe they thought they were doing it right. But the Bible is pretty clear that there was something amiss. Neither the bridesmaids nor the servant had much of a respect for the man in charge. Maybe they thought, “good enough is good enough.” And if they did think that, they were wrong.

I hope you read these verses today. The rest of these stories don’t contain a happy ending. God is the final judge. There is no getting around it.

But what I don’t want to miss is the end of the story for the bridesmaids who had been prepared, and the other servants who put to good use that which the Master had given them. Talk about a happy ending! Friend, the choices we make in this life, the honor we show God, our obedience to His Word will make all the difference.

Is Jesus your Master? I hope that is the case. Then let’s all be faithful to use what He has given us, for His glory. Let’s watch for His return, ready, eager, excited to see Him. But let’s do it His way, according to what He tells us in His Word. Because pure motives are meaningless if they are not followed by obedience.

October 28; Perfectly Centered

1 Reply

Mark 11:27-12:17; Matthew 21:23-22:22; Luke 20:1-26

Jesus is the Cornerstone, the One on whom the Church is built. There is so much in just that one statement!

My sister was at a Bible study recently where the pastor, filling in for the regular teacher, shared that he and his teenage son had recently built a retaining wall together. Dad showed son step by step what needed to be done.

They put the first stone down and the dad showed the boy how to read the level. When the bubble in the level was perfectly centered, they were ready to move on to the next stone. After wiggling and tapping the second stone until the level was perfectly centered when resting on both the first and second stones, they were ready for stone #3. The bubble needed to be perfectly centered when on it and the already level second stone before they could lay a fourth stone, and so on and so on and so on.

Eventually the dad put the boy in charge of the level, and the wall went up. With each stone, the dad would ask, “Is it level?” When the boy could assure Dad it was, they went on to the next stone. They worked together for quite some time. But around the third layer, the dad realized something was wrong. He measured and found the wall was already several inches off.

How could that happen? The boy assured his dad the bubble was always in the center for every stone. “Show me,” Dad said.

Have you ever used a level? That bubble changes position when the difference on the surface in imperceptible. Is it in the center if it touches the left line, but doesn’t go over it? Is it in the center if it favors the right line a fraction of an inch? The boy found out that mostly centered is not centered.

Being perfectly centered is an exact spot, not an area. The father and son had to remove all the stones, until they got back to the cornerstone, in order to build their wall.

Are you with me? How many infinitesimal deviations has the Church made away from the Cornerstone over the last 2,000 years? What will it take to get back to the Cornerstone? Is there damage we need to correct?

I can think of so many examples. But one has come to the forefront. And that is what I believe to be more than an infinitesimal shift from our Cornerstone. The Church seems to have decided to make the Gospel a bit more palatable, a bit easier to swallow. You never hear a “hellfire and brimstone” sermon any more. Why? Because that kind of preaching puts people off.

There are churches that refuse to use the word “sin” because it offends. We want people to see Jesus as love, to make worship of Him emotional and entertaining. But is that what you see when you go back to the Cornerstone?

Listen to what Jesus said about the Cornerstone: He who falls on the stone will be broken, but the one on whom it falls will be crushed. (Matthew 21:44, Luke 20:18)

A person, face to face with the awfulness of his sin, should be broken! Repentance isn’t comfortable or pleasant. It’s like throwing yourself onto a boulder. It hurts. It breaks our old self into pieces.

But Jesus warns, waiting until that Stone falls results in a final crushing from which there is no recovery.

Jesus is the Cornerstone of the Church, but He is also the Cornerstone of my life. When I put the level of His Holy Word on my life – is it perfectly centered? Or am I off just a tiny little bit?

I want to be perfectly centered. I want to use God’s Word as my level, and line myself up with the Cornerstone according to Scripture. I’m not looking for a comfortable relationship with Jesus. I want to be broken when I deviate from His Holiness. I want conviction to tap me into position. Because if I allow that level just a bit of leeway, it’s not going to correct itself down the road.

Because almost centered is not perfectly centered.

 

 

October 27; What the Cross Does Not Do

Leave a reply

Matthew 21:1-22; Mark 11:1-25; Luke 19:1-10, 28-28; John 12:12-19

It was time for Jesus to complete His mission. It was time for the cross. So Jesus, on a donkey, rode into Jerusalem with more fanfare, showered with more attention than He had permitted during the previous three years.

“Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!”

But you and I both know just a few days later, the same people who celebrated Jesus’ entrance into the city would demand His crucifixion. What could possibly happen to cause such a drastic change?

John and Luke provide us with insight. “…the whole crowd began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen.” (Luke 19:37). John tells us a similar account in that the people who witnessed the bodily resurrection of Lazarus spread the word, and people flocked to Jesus because they heard He had given a “miraculous sign.” (12:18)

The people who joined the parade to accompany Jesus into Jerusalem seem to have been focused on the material. They may have thought they were leading their ticket to easy street into town. Maybe they followed Him out of simple curiosity. But their faith quickly died because they weren’t following Jesus in truth.

During Jesus’ public ministry He performed many miracles, more miracles than could be recorded in the Gospels. But He never healed a sick person so that person would be well. He never gave sight to a blind person so that blind person could see. He never raised a dead child or adult so that person would live a few more years.

All His miracles had one purpose only: to establish the fact that Jesus is God, so that when they nailed Him to the cross, everyone would know just who was hanging there.

Did Jesus die on the cross so His followers would be healed of all physical ailments? No! Did Jesus die on the cross so our bodies would live forever on this earth? No! Did Jesus die so our bills would be paid and we’d have roofs over our heads and food on the table? No!

Jesus died to pay the price for your sin and mine. Jesus died in order to redeem sinners. Yes, Isaiah said “by His stripes we are healed.” But people who claim that guarantees physical healing for the saints are twisting Scripture to mean something it doesn’t.

Dear one, if you are following Jesus because of what He can do for your bank account or your doctor’s appointment, you run the risk of making the same mistake the people in Jerusalem made that last week of Jesus’ life on earth.

Let’s turn our eyes away from the temporal and look to the eternal. Let’s not make the cross about our comfort. Jesus promised that we will have trouble in this life. Paul lamented his thorn in the flesh. Most of the twelve disciples met with gruesome deaths.

What the cross does not do is guarantee a healthy, wealthy life in this world. But it does guarantee a glorious eternity with Jesus Himself. The cross does not buy my comfort or my happiness or my cancer-free life. The cross bought my pardon, my redemption, my salvation. And yours!

What the cross does do is nothing short of amazing!

 

October 24; Sheep and Children

Leave a reply

John 9:35-10:21; Mark 10:2-22; Matthew 19:3-15; Luke 16:18, 18:15-23

Jesus talks about sheep and children in the passages we read today. Both sheep and children are totally dependent on someone else to meet their needs, to care for and lead them. Neither can thrive without help.

Sheep and children can both be described as innocent, trusting, perhaps naive. But Jesus uses sheep and children to describe you and me. Not warriors. Not intellectuals. Not fierce lions or cunning cobras. We are sheep. We are children.

Or we should be.

Yesterday God impressed on me the fact that He is the Truth, and He alone can free any of us from the stranglehold sin has over us. Today, he reminds me that I need to come to Him with complete trust, the same kind of trust a sheep has for its shepherd. I need to come to Him in total dependence, like a child’s unapologetic dependence on his parent.

God is telling me today through His Word that I have nothing to offer Him. A sheep doesn’t tell the shepherd how to shepherd. A child doesn’t know what’s bests for him, is unable to make wise decisions, so he depends on a parent to do that for him.

Jesus is the Good Shepherd, the Good Father. And He can be totally and completely trusted.

I said God is showing me that I have nothing to offer Him. I’m going to amend that a bit and say I realize I have nothing to offer God but myself, and He is assuring me that’s all He asks. I want to be a sheep in His pasture, a child in His care.

So I give myself to Him as freely and as unconditionally as a sheep who follows the voice of my Shepherd, like a child who knows her Daddy loves and cares for me.

And like the sheep enclosed in the pen protected by the Shepherd, and the child drawn close to the Father in a loving embrace, I want to live my life totally dependent on the One who loves me and gave Himself for me.

Sheep and children? Yep. That’s me.

 

October 23; The Truth Will Set You Free

2 Replies

John 7:53-9:34

If you know someone who is unsure whether or not Jesus is really God, point them to these passages in John. Because not only does Jesus repeat the Truth, He demonstrates that Truth in amazing fashion.

Jesus told the Jews that His testimony is true because He stands with the Father who sent Him. He told them He is not from this world, but from above. They asked Him, “Who are you?” and his reply was, “Just what I’ve been claiming to be all along.”

He even told them He not only knew their father Abraham, He existed even before Abraham was born. Then He used the words, “I AM,” which really got the Jews’ attention. That was the name God gave Himself in the Old Testament.

I hope you’ll read these verses in John today. There is so much here!

Jesus told the Jews if they hold to His teaching, they “will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” God’s Truth is not subjective or fluid. God’s Truth is Jesus; the Way, the Truth, and the Life. It is Jesus only who is able to set anyone free from the chains of sin. And, friend don’t kid yourself. If you are living with sin, you are a slave to that sin. That’s the truth.

But holding to Jesus’ teaching, believing He is who He says He is, and accepting the forgiveness of your sin, is so freeing! Have you experienced it? It is life-changing.

Sometimes I think we talk ourselves out of sharing our salvation experience because either we think it wasn’t dramatic enough, or we just wouldn’t know what to say. I love what the man born blind said to the Jewish leaders after Jesus gave him his sight. They were pressuring the man for details, looking for something they could pin on Jesus to get rid of him.

“How did he heal you?” they asked.

“He put mud on my eyes. I washed. And now I see.”

“Impossible,” they insist. “Don’t give credit to Jesus. He’s no better than any of us. He’s a sinner like everyone else.”

Then the healed man said something so profound: “Whether he is a sinner or not, I don’t know. One thing I do know, I was blind but now I see.”

Period.

Friend, there is only one Truth that can set anyone free. His name is Jesus. You might not be able to explain the “how” He saved you. But if you know He did, that’s all you need to know. Tell it.

People couldn’t help but notice the change in the man who had never seen a day in his life. It was obvious something had happened. He could see!

And people will see a change in you, too, when God takes up residence in your life. It will be as obvious as a seeing blind man. And when they ask you how, it’s ok to say, “I don’t know. One thing I do know, I asked Him to forgive me, and He did.”

“Once I was lost, now I am found. Once I was blind, now I see. Once I was dead, now I am alive. Once I was a slave to sin. Now I am free.”

That Truth, dear one; the Truth that is Jesus Christ, and only that Truth will set you free, too.

 

 

 

October 19; Sounds Like A Plan

Leave a reply

Luke 10:21-24, 38-11:13, 27-12:21; Matthew 11:25-30

I read Luke 10:22 and Matthew 11:27 and understand why there are those who believe God is selective about which individuals are chosen for salvation, and which are chosen for hell. But God’s Word is more than a verse.

In the context here, Jesus is talking about wise men and children; the fact that God’s plan is hidden from the learned, and revealed to the simple. God does not reveal Himself through intellect, but through childlike faith.

Matthew Henry, in his Commentary on the Whole Bible in One Volume, (Zondervan Publishing House, 1961; page 1262) asks the question: why was Matthew, a lowly fisherman, chosen to be a disciple when Nicodemus, a Pharisee and leader of the Jews was not? Both men believed in Jesus.

Henry says, “this honor (was) put upon those whom the world pours contempt upon,” to magnify the mercy of God. What might make sense to us humans, doesn’t come close to what what makes sense to God. By choosing the disciples He chose, Jesus is demonstrating His great mercy and grace, revealing Himself as merciful and full of grace.

In the very next verse Jesus open Himself up to “all who are weak and burdened.” “Come,” He says to everyone, “and you will find rest for your souls.” I believe He chose those particular twelve to be His disciples to demonstrate His mercy, and to be the ones through whom He would use to get His Church going; and He chose the people of the world to save.

Jesus began this discussion by praying and thanking God for this plan. (verse 21). And I certainly thank Him, too! If God revealed Himself only to the intelligent, scholarly, big shots of the world, I’d be “chosen” for hell.

Henry reminds us that God “resists the proud, and gives grace to the humble.” (James 4:6) Grace – God’s grace – is freely given to everyone who humbles themselves before Him.

So I will give thanks to God for choosing this plan of salvation. The highest IQ, the most successful businessman, the most important and famous come to God and are saved exactly the same way as a child, a homeless person, the average Joe – me. We might think God should be a bit more selective, but God selected all.

“Whosoever” believes in Jesus will receive eternal life. That’s His will. That’s His plan. That’s how He chose to redeem us all. And He is faithful to forgive anyone who comes to Him in humility, and repents of sin.

Sounds like an awesome plan to me.

October 18; It’s Pretty Clear

1 Reply

Matthew 17:24-27, 18:10-35, 8:18-22, 11:20-24; Mark 9:38-50, 10:1; Luke 9:49-62, 10:1-20

Can a person believe in God and not believe in Jesus? Is it ok for a person to call God Allah, and his son Mohammed? Can a person be accepted by God on their own terms, without the cross?

Jesus said, as recorded in Luke 10:16, “He who listens to you listens to me; he who rejects you rejects me; but he who rejects me rejects the one who sent me.” (emphasis mine)

So, no. If anyone rejects Jesus as God’s only Son who died on the cross, was buried, and rose again for the world’s sin debt, if anyone rejects Jesus as the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and the only way to the Father, they are not just rejecting a man who lived 2,000 years ago. They are rejecting God.

It’s pretty clear.

October 16; A Little Yeast

Leave a reply

Mark 8:11-9:1; Matthew 16:1-28; Luke 9:18-27; John 6:60-71

The first time I ever tasted pizza was at my Aunt Doris’ house in the early ’60’s. I remember standing next to her in the kitchen and watching as she opened an Appian Way Pizza box, and pulled out three bags and a tiny tin can. She opened the larger of the bags and poured its contents into a bowl. Looked like regular flour to me.

Then she opened one of the smaller bags. The contents looked like a bit more flour. A little coarser, perhaps. And it had a strange smell. She told me it was yeast. (never heard of it). She poured it on top of the flour in the bowl, and mixed it together. Then she took some water and slowly moistened the flour mixture until she could use her fingers to push and squeeze it into a ball. I remember the sticky dough all over her hands.

Next she covered the bowl with a kitchen towel, and put it on top of the pre-heating oven. Then we waited.

While we waited Aunt Doris took a log of pepperoni and cut it into thin slices. She grated some cheese, and opened the tin can of red sauce. She took out a weird round pan and coated it with a thin layer of Crisco.

Then I witnessed a miracle.

Aunt Doris took the towel off the bowl on the stove and showed me what was inside. The dough had grown into a giant blob! It had taken on a life of its own. It was magic.

Needless to say, we finished compiling the pizza on that flat greased pan, and popped it in the oven. I can only say, it was love at first bite. I still could eat pizza every day.

I thought about this today as I read God’s warning concerning yeast. We all know He wasn’t talking about pizza dough, but used the magic power of yeast to warn us about false teaching.

I have shared my heavy heart as I witness how false teaching is infiltrating the Church at what seems like break-neck speed. That’s really nothing new. Jesus was talking to people 2,000 years ago about this happening right then, too. Why does Jesus give this warning?

Because false teaching, like yeast, takes on a life of its own. It might resemble the Truth. But if allowed to mix with the Truth, it grows, it changes what was into something very different.

Please be aware. Please don’t allow Satan’s Christian-sounding lies to enter your heart or your mind. Know the Truth that is God’s Word. Don’t base an enlightenment on a verse or two, but read the Bible and keep reading it ALL.

Be on guard, Jesus tells us. Be on guard.

 

October 15; From A Distance

Leave a reply

Mark 7:1-8:10; Matthew 25:1-39

I was reminded about the centurion’s dying daughter whom Jesus healed from a distance. In the passages we read today, Jesus is again healing a little girl, this time demon-possessed, from a distance. Both the centurion and this woman were Gentiles – a whole race of people at a distance from God. Yet both put their faith in Jesus, and their prayers for their loved ones were answered – from a distance.

I’m encouraged, and I hope you are, too. I have loved ones who are living at a distance from God. I would imagine you do, too. God is reminding me today that no distance is too great for Him to save. We should never start to believe anyone is too far gone.

Let’s continue to put our faith in Jesus, and pray that our loved ones will accept His amazing grace. That is a prayer Jesus died to answer.

I would ask you to pray for my pastor, his dear wife, and their 30 year old son. They are at his bedside in a Miami, Florida hospital right now as this young man faces a life-threatening condition. He has been living a great distance from God the past few years. But I thank God that His Word has assured me today that no distance is too great for our great God.

We are praying from the distance of several hundred miles, that God will touch this young man’s body and get him through upcoming surgeries. May God give wisdom to all involved, and may He be revealed in every detail.

And we are praying that God will break through Satan’s hold on this young man, and heal his soul, for Jesus’ sake. He may be at a distance, but he is only a prayer away from the God who loves him and gave Himself for him. When you think of it that way, he’s really not all that far away.

Thank you for your prayers. And as I pray this morning, I will be praying for your loved ones, too, who seem to be at too great a distance to come to Jesus at the moment. I’m putting my faith in God, and trusting Him to handle the distance.