Tag Archives: the Gospel

What Do You Mean You Don’t Know Me?

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Matthew 5-7

If there were no other Scripture than the Sermon on the Mount, and if people everywhere did what Jesus said, our world would not be in the shape it’s in. I mean, who can argue with controlling your anger, being a faithful spouse, treating people with kindness and respect, giving to the needy, living by the Golden Rule? This is good stuff!

I read recently that even Gandhi memorized Jesus’ entire sermon.

But taking out God’s rules for living and separating those from the person of Jesus Christ is the difference between building a life on sand and building a life on the Rock. You won’t survive the storm on sand.

Living a good life – even living a really good life – will mean nothing in eternity if Jesus doesn’t know you.

It would be like a person going into a bank to close out a savings account, only to find there is nothing there because he’s put all his money in his mattress in a house that has burned to the ground. The man might argue, “But I saved almost a million dollars,” only to hear the owner of the bank say, “But not with this bank. I don’t even know you.”

The things Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount ought to be lived out in the lives of all believers. An honest person will look at Jesus’ words and admit it’s impossible to live like that 24/7. And that would be true if the foundation of your life is self, religion, academia, or whatever.

But if your foundation is Jesus and his work on the cross on your behalf, living the truth of the Sermon on the Mount becomes more and more possible every day. When you and I are wearing Jesus’ righteousness, living the way Jesus lived becomes second nature. Maybe not immediately. But walk with Jesus for a while. He rubs off on you!

My prayer is that you are laying up treasures in heaven. Because one day you will want to cash in your account. When you stand before God, I pray He will welcome you with open arms and call you by name. It would be awful if he turns you away, and you hear yourself argue, “What do you mean you don’t know me? I’ve done a lot of good things.”

But you’ll know the answer to that question, and the life you built on sand will crumble.

A Hard-fast, Immovable, Beautiful Line

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John 3

There is a popular notion that Jesus didn’t condemn people while He was on this Earth. John 3:17 says as much:

For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. (John 3:17)

Even Andy Stanley says Jesus drew circles, not lines. But if we read all of what Jesus said to Nicodemus (and I hope you do), we’ll see Jesus was actually drawing a very important line. (not circles, Andy).

He wasn’t here to condemn the world because the world had already condemned itself. People sin. People are guilty. People are condemned by their sin. Jesus plainly says those who believe in Him are the ones not condemned.

Using the analogy of law, a guilty verdict rightly condemns a prisoner to death. Jesus’ death pays that sentence, leaving the believer not condemned any longer. The believer is forgiven, debt paid, not guilty, free.

On the other hand, those who don’t believe are rightly condemned by their own actions, and will pay the death sentence themselves.

That’s the line Jesus drew. Condemned/Not condemned; death/life; darkness/light.

That line Jesus drew is belief in Him. It’s not a circle. It’s a hard-fast, immovable, beautiful line.

Arm Yourselves.

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Nehemiah 1-4

They weren’t at war with their neighbors. But there certainly was the threat of war. They had been lied to, disrespected, bullied, discouraged, and when that didn’t stop them, their lives and the lives of their children were threatened. So what did they do?

They armed themselves – and kept working.

The Jews were repairing the wall around Jerusalem. And when I say the Jews I mean builders and masons, perfumers and goldsmiths, government workers and artsy folk, sons and even daughters. Hundreds of Jews working together.

It’s a picture of the Church. And like they, we are living with the threat of war. We’ve been lied to, disrespected, bullied and discouraged in our attempt to build God’s kingdom. We and our children are being threatened.

We aren’t at war with our neighbors. But there certainly is the threat of war. What should we do?

We could take a page from the lives of these Jews we read about in Nehemiah. Let’s take up our sword; let’s be diligent about guarding our efforts from intruders. But let’s keep building, keep sharing the Gospel, keep introducing Jesus to people who need Him.

Let’s not use inferior material and think the end justifies the means. The Gospel is the Gospel. Jesus is the only way. Truth is true. Sin is sin. The Jews didn’t slap cardboard up there because it was easier. They built a structure that would stand against storms and enemies. We should do the same.

“It’s too hard,” you might say. “People are offended by the message we bring.” “I can’t stand up against my family, or a mob, the government or the false teaching.”

Hear God say to you what he said to the Jews through Nehemiah:

Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes. (4:14b)

Arm yourselves. And keep working.

Transformed Lives, Communities, and Nations

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Haggai

Are you tired? Does it seem that, while you are busy serving God, you just don’t see fruit? You get involved in various programs offered to the community through your church, but the pews are no more filled than they were before you started the outreach programs. You build a playground and have special events for the neighborhood children. The children come. But you only see their parents as they drive through the pickup line.

Your efforts seem like those God speaks about in Haggai 1:6.

Now, therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts; Consider your ways. You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes.

It might seem the more you do, the less are the returns. Why?

You looked for much, and behold it came to little. And when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? declares the Lord of hosts. Because of my house that lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house. Therefore the heavens above you have withheld the dew, and the earth has withheld its produce. And I have called for a drought on the land and the hills, on the grain, the new wine, the oil, on what the ground brings forth, on man and beast, and on all their labors. (1:9-11)

God is talking to the people about rebuilding the temple in Jerusalem. But, as always, I believe we miss so much of what God wants to say to us when we read His Word as a history lesson. What do these verses mean to us today? Most of us aren’t in the middle of building projects in our churches. But we are in the middle of building the temple which is the Church.

I heard a short clip from Voddie Baucham this morning. I really don’t know that much about the man, but what he said spoke to me when I read Haggai this morning. He shared that he was raised by a single mom in Los Angeles in what he describes as a gang and drug infested environment, in an environment many people would label “oppressed.”

But he said his greatest need was met, not when someone delivered him from human oppression, but when someone shared the Gospel with him and he was “delivered from the oppression of sin.”

I think what God is saying through Haggai is what Voddie Baucham was expressing in this video. If we are merely concerned with poor children, gang and drug infested environments, hungry families, and homelessness, we are only filling bags with holes in them. Baucham said that the Gospel transforms individual lives, who then transform families, communities, and nations.

It’s the Gospel that transforms lives. I’m not saying we should chuck all our outreach programs. But if the Gospel of Jesus isn’t first and foremost in our efforts, we are going to work tirelessly and have nothing to show for it.

And maybe most importantly, if we are doing the outreach programs, children programs, community Bible studies, whatever, and we have not dealt with sin in our own temple, our own hearts, then we are expecting to produce crops during a drought. The truth is, you can’t expect God’s blessings if you aren’t right with Him.

So it comes down to sin. It’s not a hungry belly, but a hungry heart. It’s not homelessness, but hearts without a home. It’s about making sure our hearts are pure, not just our intentions.

If you are tired of serving God and not seeing things happen, maybe you need to get on your knees and ask God to reveal sin that needs confessing. Maybe you need to get in front of your church and encourage the same for each individual. Because like Baucham says, and like the Bible proclaims:

The Gospel transforms lives. And transformed lives transforms families, communities, and nations.

Shattered Power

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Daniel 9-12

Every time I read this portion of Scripture a great sadness comes over me. There are a lot of things about this prophecy and it’s parallel in John’s Revelation I don’t understand. But I do understand that the rise of evil will reach an unprecedented level before Jesus returns.

There will come a time when “the shattering of the power of the holy people” happens, and “life on earth will end.” (12:7)

That makes me sad. The power of the Church will not be be overcome by force from the evil one. That’s not going to happen because greater is He in us than he that is in the world. But He, not the world, has to be IN US.

The only way for evil to win is for Christians to surrender to evil. The power of the Holy Spirit in us will shatter when we compromise, ignore what God says in His Word, when we replace Him with the lies, worship ourselves, our ideals, love, tolerance, inclusion, and redefine sin. It will be we Christians who render the Holy Spirit powerless to save by choosing to be vessels He can’t use.

And then the end will come.

Don’t Bow

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Daniel 3

So, King Nebuchadnezzar had a huge statue built, as high as the lighthouse on Saint Simons Island. You couldn’t miss it! Then, the decree went out – you WILL bow down to this idol, or die.

You probably know the story. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refused to bow. When everyone else hit the ground when the music played, those three young men stood tall. They must have stood out like those brave athletes who refuse to bend a knee during the National Anthem. Kind of hard to miss.

Got me to thinking about other formidable idols being erected today: transgenderism, homosexual marriage, pronouns, abortion, climate change, COVID, socialism, progressive Christianity, wokeness…

Lots of idols there!

In fact, there are so many it seems people are walking on their knees, bowing here, bowing there. They exist in a constant state of surrender to this idol, and to that. Less and less people are standing tall.

The threat of punishment is real. And getting more real every day. So what’s a person to do?

Look at this portion of Scripture. You’ll find the answer. Those brave young men were able to stand strong because they truly trusted God. They trusted God whether they lived or died. They trusted God whether they were heading for hardship, or whether God would deliver them. They trusted God.

The result was, they were thrown into the fire with the intent it would kill them. But the fire didn’t kill them, did it? In fact, the fire didn’t even touch them even though they were walking right in it. And… the most amazing part of it… Jesus was right there walking in the fire with them. The king and his men actually saw Jesus in the fire with them. They saw Jesus.

So many of us don’t let Jesus do that for us. And sadly, we don’t allow Jesus to be seen by those who want us to surrender to their idols.

We surrender to the idol of transgenderism when we call a woman “him” because she mutilates her body and pretends to be male. We bow to the idol of progressive Christianity when we sing the songs that glorify our own feelings, when we accept the downplaying of sin in favor of “love.” We bow at the feet of government when we allow ourselves to be manipulated into closing the doors of our churches, keeping ourselves quarantined and isolated, wearing masks that do nothing but make us fall into line, and putting untested chemicals in our bodies because someone erects the idol of “science.”

We’ve all done it. We bow, and keep bowing to idols unseen, yet as real as Nebuchadnezzar’s giant idol in ancient Babylon where Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refused to bow. Can we join together, support one another, and change that?

Let’s stand on the Truth God has revealed in His Word, exactly as He has revealed it in His Word. Let’s not fear those who would have us bow to the prince of this world, because…

greater is He who is in you than the one who is in the world! (1 John 4:4)

Game Called On Account of Darkness

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Ezekiel 17-20

Throughout history people have been trying to get God to accept our idea of what religion looks like. We want Him to accept our rules, play our game. He never does.

He lets us go for awhile running the bases in reverse, but eventually He calls the game and plows up the field. When will we learn that either we play His game or we don’t play at all?

I used to play softball in a church league that played on fields without lights. Very often we would get only five or six innings in before it became too dangerous to continue to play, and the umpire would end the game because of the darkness. I bet you know where I”m going with this.

Playing by our own rules is sin. And sin is darkness. God will only let His creation continue in darkness until He makes the call to stop the madness. Judgment comes. And for some, they wind up in eternal darkness.

The thing is, God’s game is fun. It’s fair. It’s well organized and everyone playing by His rules always wins. No one loses!

We might try to tell Abner Doubleday how to play baseball. What a joke! He invented the game. And God invented the game of life.

This life is much more serious than a nine inning romp around the bases; the outcome more important than a World Series ring. Hear God say obey Him, follow His rules, play His game, then live blessed in this life and in eternity. If you play it any other way, be prepared for Him to call the game on account of darkness. Then He will add up the score, hold you accountable…

in this life and in eternity.

Just You

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Ezekiel 13-16

Some of us need to hear the bad news. Are you ready?

You are going to be judged.

I’m not talking about the judgments of trolls in social media, or people you know who think differently than you. I’m not talking about that mean girl at work, or the neighbor who complains because your lawn isn’t manicured to his standards. You, my friend, are going to be judged by Holy God.

You will stand before Him, totally exposed, totally vulnerable, totally guilty, and know His verdict will be totally what you deserve.

It won’t matter if you went to church, gave to charity, had a godly mother who prayed for you. It won’t matter if you hung out with Christians and never cheated on your spouse. God won’t compare you to other people. He will compare you to Himself.

God told Ezekiel to tell His people that His judgment was coming, and that even if Noah, Daniel, and Job were right there among them when judgment came, only Noah, Daniel, and Job would be saved. Every person would be judged according to his own righteousness. Every. Single. One.

What did the righteousness of Noah, Daniel, and Job look like? It looked like the righteousness of God! You see, those three had put their faith in God. They weren’t perfect in and of themselves. Read their stories for yourself. But because they had submitted to God, God saw His own righteousness in them, and they were saved.

Same with us. If we think we can stand before God and compare our righteousness to His, we are fooling ourselves. If any of us think we will stand before God and have anything to say in our defense, we are fools.

Your salvation and mine depend solely on the righteousness of God. The Apostle Paul put it this way:

For our sake he (God) made him to be sin who knew no sin (Jesus), so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

I don’t know about you, but when I stand before Holy God, I don’t want Him to judge me based on anything I’ve done. Nothing! It would be like me standing before Simone Biles and asking her to compare my gymnastic ability to hers because I did a cartwheel in the backyard once, or putting myself in the same league as Albert Einstein because I got an A on my math quiz in second grade. Ridiculous!

When I stand before God, I want Him to judge me based on what Jesus did when He took my sins upon Himself hanging on the cross. And you know what? That’s exactly what is going to happen, because I have submitted myself to God, accepted Jesus as my Savior. I am saved, not by what I have done, but what Jesus has done on my behalf. (Ephesians 2:8-9)

Noah, Daniel, Job, and I will stand before our Judge with no fear. We each have put our faith in God, and He will declare the guilty, NOT GUILTY! I pray you can add your name to the list.

When God Becomes The Enemy

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Lamenations 1-2

A popular view of God makes Him out to be milk toast, a wet noodle, a doting Grandpa, a weak parent who can’t say “No” to His self-centered children. That is NOT the God of the Bible.

Yes, God is love. But not without His holiness. I’m not sure we really get that.

The truth about God is that He loves people. In fact He loves people so much He went to the cross to provide the only way sinful people can be in the presence of Holy God. We can try to figure out our own way to Him, look for a back door or loophole. But if we want to be accepted by God and enjoy the love He has for us, we gotta play by His rules.

He’s not asking us to approve of His plan. He’s demanding we accept it. And honestly, it’s not that hard. Quite the contrary. It’s an amazing plan!

Warning: if you don’t accept His plan, if you reject the Gospel of Jesus, hear Him say He is NOT your friend. He is your enemy. And I’m not sure you are ready for that reality, no matter what you’re telling yourself at the moment.

When God becomes the enemy, we are in serious trouble.

Why Choice?

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Jeremiah 47-49

God pronounced judgment on one nation after another. He wasn’t being unfair. They deserved His punishment because they had broken His rules.

Some people ask, “Why?” Why would God create humans with the ability to choose if He knew we would choose our own way, and He would end up having to punish us? Why didn’t He create us to automatically love and worship Him?

When I was a little girl I played with dolls. Baby dolls, Barbie dolls, paper dolls. Hours and hours of my childhood were spent dressing, undressing, combing hair, positioning arms and legs, and going on adventures with my little plastic people who only said what I wanted them to say, and only did what I forced them to do. I loved playing with dolls. But they couldn’t love me back.

What if I could make them love me? What if, instead of looking into cold, plastic, fixed eyes I would see adoration programmed into them?

Have you seen the advances in AI? It’s both fascinating and frightening. If you could program love into an AI robot – would it BE love? Or would it be just another command controlled by someone pushing the buttons?

What is love? And is it important?

If you have read your Bible, you have read that God IS love. It’s not only that He feels love. His very existence is love. So when He created humans in His image, He created us with the capacity to love and be loved.

Are you loved by your spouse, your children, your friends? Is that relationship voluntary or forced? Is it a relationship that is any different from the ones you have with your co-workers, or the guy down the street you wave “Hi” to every morning? Isn’t the love you share with those with whom you are intimate more precious and more important to you than the relationships you have with others? I sure hope it is!

I hope it brings you joy, a sense of belongingness, security, hope, peace, and a closeness that you find fulfilling. I hope it is a love that you carry with you every moment of every day. I hope the fact that someone has chosen to love you, makes all the difference.

So why would I condemn God for enjoying the same? Why would I question Him about wanting that two way loving relationship with us… and for us? Especially when I look at what it cost Jesus so that we can share that love relationship with Holy God?

I choose love. I choose God. And He has chosen me. He has chosen anyone who believes. You have that choice. Don’t mess it up.