Forgiveness Is Healing

Colossians 3:13

“Forgive each other as the Lord has forgiven you.”

C.S. Lewis once said, “Forgiving does not mean excusing…if that were so, there would be nothing to forgive.” I think the reason why we have a hard time with forgiveness is because we tend to want to take the path of least resistance, especially in relationships. That may not make any sense at first. In fact, most people would say, “Isn’t forgiving someone the path of least resistance?”

No way. It’s the hardest thing to do, because it’s the only selfless option. Forgiveness is you giving up the right to hurt someone for hurting you. Besides being obedient, you get no satisfaction from forgiving someone...because it’s not about you. You are forfeiting the right for it to be about you.

Even if you’re goal isn’t to hurt the other person, when you refuse to forgive them, it’s still detrimental. I once heard someone call it the “battery acid in the soul.” It leads to anger, resentment, isolation, and even health problems. The funny thing is, more often than not, the other person usually doesn’t have a clue that they’ve hurt you. In the end, people who hang on to bitterness cause more pain to themselves than the person who hurt them.

We are broken people complaining about the fact that other people are broken. Isn’t that really what it boils down to? How silly is that? We need to change our perspective. Just like love, forgiveness is a choice, not a feeling. I’m not saying there is not pain and very real hurt involved. When someone hurts us, we may not be able to control how we feel, but we can choose how we act and what we do with our pain. When you choose forgiveness, you are choosing to fix what is broken, you are choosing healing, and ultimately you are choosing freedom.

Lord, thank You for showing us how to forgive. Help us to choose forgiveness, even when we don’t feel like it. We trust in You to bring healing in our feelings, our memories, and our view of those who have hurt us. Make us more like You every day.

Strength Injection

Isaiah 40:29

“He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might He increases strength.”

Today our culture is enamored with the powerful, the famous, and the accomplished. We call them celebrities. There are people out there who are willing to pay any price just to see some of them play their sport. Others wait in long lines to watch their movies or get their autograph. Most of us don’t know them personally or have even met them, but there is something that draws us to them. There is something that makes us want to connect with those who are well-known, talented, or beautiful.

While everyone else is clamoring for the powerful, God is pursuing the faint and the powerless. He gives strength to the exhausted. He seeks out the broken-hearted and the overlooked and gives them the greatest honor imaginable — His attention and His love.

It’s never been God’s method of operation to find those who are powerful and skilled and recruit them on to His team. All throughout the Bible God chooses those who have no merit, who are weak, and who would have ended up being a no body, and He empowers them to do something extraordinary.

It is God's grace, not our value, that draws Him to hurting, helpless people. He is constantly positioning us in such a way to where we receive the greatest amount of joy and He receives the greatest amount of glory. More often than not that means injecting His strength into those who are the weakest so that His power and His goodness can be displayed the loudest.

This is SO freeing because it means that we can let all of our failures and weaknesses (and good works and strength) fall around our feet and reach out to a God, who is the most powerful, famous, and beautiful of them all.

Lord, I realize that You are the only one who can mend the broken-hearted and give strength to the powerless. So, that is how I come before You now. I ask that You do in me what I cannot. Give me an infusion of Your strength, and position me in such a way to make Your name famous.

More Than Just Remembering

Luke 22:16-20

"'For I tell you I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.' And He took a cup, and when He had given thanks He said, 'Take this, and divide it among yourselves. For I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.' And He took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it and gave it to them, saying, 'This is My body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of Me.' And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, 'This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood.'"

This is a beautiful scene of Jesus having supper with His closest friends on the night before His death. It’s the first “Lord’s Supper,” which we still celebrate to this day. But it’s more than just a ceremonial event. It’s about remembering what Christ did for us.

In this passage, Jesus is saying, “What I want you to remember; the banner I want you to wave; the central focus of what you are to be about is My death.”

It’s an unpopular subject today, but the cross of Christ stands central to everything we believe as Christians and all we hope for. It’s a symbol of the price that was paid so that we can have freedom. But freedom and salvation isn’t just something we have, it’s who we are. We are free. We are saved.

Acts 17:28 says, “In Him we live and move and have our being.” So when Jesus says, “Take; eat. This is My body which was broken for you. Drink. This is My blood which is shed for you.” What He’s saying is, “Find your sustenance in Me.” He is a part of us.

It’s more than just remembering.

Next weekend millions of people across America will celebrate the freedom that was purchased for us by millions more who have died to secure it. We will honor and remember them by singing songs, pledging allegiance, and vowing that we too will fight to the death to defend that freedom.

I am very proud to be an American. It is my country, but it is not my kingdom. “God shed His grace on it. And crowned it’s good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea,” but this weekend let’s also remember that we belong to a greater kingdom.

God, The Artist

Ephesians 2:8-10

“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (ESV)

The word “workmanship” here is the same word used when describing art. You see, the artist sees what nobody else can. He can take a blank canvas and start applying stroke after stroke of paint onto it, and before anything even begins to take shape, he is already in love with that canvas, because he can already see the final product.

But the artist doesn’t just get joy out of the final product. He gets joy out of the process. While we may just see some red and some blue on a blank background, the artist is passionately consumed in applying the framework for his masterpiece.

You are not a disappointment to God. Okay, so you blew it this week. That's going to be part of the process. There may be a dark broad stroke across your life that might represent the most embarrassing and horrific thing that's ever occurred, and it might just be the one thing that finally heals you. It’s the process, and God is in control.

Be encouraged that God is not just pleased with the final product, He is pleased with the process. It is not a future version of you that God is pleased with. It is you, now--struggling, stumbling, confused, trying to figure it all out.

Lord, work out your masterpiece in my life. I come to You blank, empty, and open-handed. Help me to keep my eyes on You during the most difficult seasons of my life, knowing that You are in control. Make me an example of Your goodness and grace.

Designed for a Purpose

Ephesians 2:10

“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (ESV)

Any tool that is used for something other than what it was created for will not be effective, and it will most likely get damaged. One time I needed a hammer to pound in a nail, but I was too lazy to go out in the garage to get one. So, I ended up using whatever I had handy, like a flashlight. (you know you’ve done it too!)

You can guess what happened. It wasn’t very effective. I was able to get the nail in for the most part, but in the end, it was all bent and misshaped. The wall and the flashlight didn’t look much different.

Too many Christians today are not functioning or flowing in the thing they were created for, and consequently, they are not effective. And sometimes they get hurt and damaged...often taking others down with them.

You do have a purpose. In fact, the word “workmanship” in this verse translated literally means you are handcrafted by God. It’s also the same word we derive our English word “poem” from.

In other words, just like any great piece of art or poetry, your life is not without order and symmetry; rhyme or reason. God has some specific things mapped out for your life. You are not an accident. You have a purpose.

“God, I pray that today You would show me the purpose that You designed into my life. Help me to develop the gifts that You have given me in order to fulfill that purpose.”

Freedom from Sin Management

John 8:32

"Then you will know the Truth, and the Truth will set you free." (ESV)

Freedom is the ability to respond to God fully out of who He made you and redeemed you to be. Freedom does not mean that you will stop getting angry, or lying, or overeating, etc. The pharisees stopped doing all of that, and yet they were still in more bondage than most people during New Testament times. When we believe that freedom is when we stop doing all of the bad stuff that seems to own us right now, then all of our energy, strength, and vitality will be spent trying to "manage our sin." Jesus didn't come and die so that you would behave better. He didn't suffer on the cross and raise to life again in order to put us on a sin management program.

Freedom is an act of God, not an act of man. It wasn't until the woman with the issue of blood finally stopped trying to heal herself and allowed Jesus to act on her behalf that she was truly healed. She had managed it for years, but she was not "set free" from the affliction until she "knew the Truth." When we make God and seeing His glory displayed on the earth ultimate in our lives, sin and it's power begins to diminish.

Freedom is not when I stop doing something, it's when I become someone. That's what Paul meant when he said, "Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me." Paul's energy and strength was not spent on trying to be perfect but living out who God had made and redeemed him to be. And in doing so, he found out that he did not have to be a slave to sin any longer but he could truly be set free.

Shaped By God (Part 2)

“And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” (Romans 12:2)

Psalm 139 says that we have been wonderfully made and skillfully wrought by God. It goes on to say that He fashioned our days before we were even born. In other words, we have been shaped by God to be a unique creation; a vessel that He has crafted for a specific purpose.

I think even as Christians we believe this, yet we live our lives as if God did not know what He was doing. Sometimes I imagine myself as plate that God has made for a specific purpose, maybe to be used to serve others with, or maybe to carry the "Bread of Life" to those who are starving and on the verge of death. But then imagine that God has created me to be a plate, but I spend all of my life trying to re-form myself into a bowl or a vase. The obvious question is how can someone try to reshape a plate into a vase without breaking it into a hundred pieces? You can't, but sadly that's is exactly what happens when we take things into our own hands.

Lord, my desire is to be molded into Your image. Help me to submit to Your will daily, and give me the strength to live well within in the framework that You have fashioned for my life. Thank You for Your perfect will!

Shaped By God

"The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying: “Arise and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause you to hear My words.” Then I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was, making something at the wheel. And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter; so he made it again into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make. Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying: “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter?” says the Lord. “Look, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel!" (Jeremiah 18:1-6)

About 2,600 years ago, during Jeremiah's time, every village had a potter's house. It was a staple in ever community. So when God came to Jeremiah one day and told him to go down to the potter's house, it would have been like God coming to us and saying, "Go down to the corner gas station."

Jeremiah would have already been to the potter's house many times before. He was already very familiar with what happened there. So, what God was saying was, "Go down to the potter's house, Jeremiah; I want to show you some ordinary things."

When Jeremiah got there, God showed him a very ordinary thing, a pot being made, but what God revealed to him was something extraordinary. He was showing him His power to change lives.

Like a painter with a blank canvas, God sees something beautiful in us even before a single brushstroke is applied. Even more, God sees our beauty, though we are marred and broken in His hands. He is intimately at work in us both to will and to do for His good pleasure (Phil. 2:13).

God wants to do something extraordinary in our ordinary, broken lives. He still pleads with us today saying, "Come to me, marred and broken, and let me mold you into the beautiful vessel that I have in mind for you to be."

"God help me to be moldable today. Like clay in Your hands, my desire is to be formed into a vessel, both beautiful and useable to You."

Affection Addiction

I've been doing a lot of searching lately. Over the last two days I must have listened to at least a dozen sermons. I've been searching, but I really don't know exactly what I'm looking for. The best way to put it, I guess, is I've just been searching for...more. I want to go to a deeper, more self-shattering level with God. And lately I've encountered Truth in a surprisingly fresh way. I've been thinking a lot about things I've never given much thought to in the past; things like true beauty and what it means to live out God's dream for His bride.

This all started when I recently prayed that God would give me an injection of wisdom. I'm talking the kind of wisdom that's deep and fierce. The kind that when it hits you, it knocks you off your spiritual feet. I've prayed for this several times over the last 15 years or so, and each time it's like God gets me outright addicted to His word. I'm like a crackhead trying to get a fix. Every injection both satisfies me, yet leaves me wanting more.

God has stirred my affection for Him, and I am addicted to it. When I am addicted to knowing and loving Christ well, my life is richer, my relationships are deeper, and I have a vitality that is altogether uncommon. I want to hold on to it and never let go. Now, I am jealous for the things that stir my affections for God. My hope is that I can flood my life with Christ-exalting, worship-creating things and avoid anything that would rob me of the joy and vitality that I have when God is at the center of my affections.

Heavy Grace

I don’t think people really get the grace of God. Mostly because we all accept it as one of those subjects that we can’t fully grasp this side of heaven, so we don’t put a whole lot of thought into it. It’s one of those subjects, though, that I knew if I really understood, it would shake my entire faith and perception of God.

I believe the impact of ignoring God’s grace is seen most clearly in the testimony of people who have either walked away from God or are convinced that God cannot change them. My testimony fits more into the “I can just not get it right, so why would God ever want to use me” category.

The reason why I’ve thought this way is the same reason why people end up walking away from God; they have lost their understanding of the “heaviness” of the grace of God. I use the word “heaviness,” because when you think about it, it makes you feel like you’ve pulled a mental muscle or something. It’s almost as if you think about it long enough, you have to stop, take a break, and regain your mental bearings before proceeding. It reminds me of Psalm 139 where David says, “You have hedged me behind and before, and laid Your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain it.”

To understand grace, we need to step outside of ourselves and see things from God’s perspective. A clear understanding of God’s grace demands an understanding of the price He paid on our behalf. We need to understand first and foremost that God is the offended party when it comes to this whole sin-forgiveness-reconciliation thing, not us. Keep in mind that we are the ones who have broken our end of the deal over and over, and God has every right to employ the full fury of His wrath against us....but He doesn’t.

God’s love is so deep, and He desires us so much that He recognized Man’s inability to do our part to restore our relationship with Him, and He took it upon Himself to become a man and do what’s necessary to restore it for us.

Imagine that a man brutally murders your family. All the evidence is stacked against him, and a grand jury finds him guilty of first degree murder. Now, imagine taking justice in your own hands - not by vengeance - but by fully satisfying the demands of justice by offering the only son you have left to be executed in that man’s place.

I know it doesn’t fit perfectly in every way with what God did for us (or our current legal system), but if you are just looking at it in terms of satisfying the demands of justice, there is absolutely no difference. Especially from the perspective of the innocent son who knows he’s about to die for crimes that he did not commit - crimes against his own family. I think about Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane begging His Father for another way, knowing full well that this is the only way to make things right. That’s heavy grace.

The Extra Mile

Everyone has heard the phrase , "Go the extra mile," but there is an interesting history behind that phrase that most people don't know. 

Because of the Roman rule in Palestine at the time of the gospels, there was a strong Roman military presence in Jerusalem. Since 63 B.C. Rome exercised ultimate authority over all of Palestine, and as a result there were many laws that were suppressive to the Jews. One law stated that if a Roman soldier were to ask a Jewish citizen to carry his gear, the Jew was obligated to carry it without question. But the law stated that that the solider could only hold the Jew to one mile of service and no more.

Throughout His ministry Jesus used situations like this that were common knowledge to the people at that time to help them better understand His teachings. In Matthew 5:41 Jesus says, "And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two." It seems that He is referring to a solider, because He uses the word "compel." Obviously He means anyone who asks.

One thing that no one present at that Sermon on the Mount could have guessed was that this teaching would eventually play a part in His death. Although unlikely, it's interesting to think that Simon of Cyrene could have been there to hear Jesus talk about going the extra mile. (Mark 15:21)

How far are you willing to go with Jesus? And what are you willing to bear? (Luke 9:23; Matt. 10:38) 

Someone to Think for Me

I have come to believe that you are in life exactly where you want to be. Contrary to popular belief, a person who chooses to live a mediocre life for the most part did not come to that decision as a reaction to something terrible that happened to him. It's a mindset that was developed out of a series of failures. When the going got tough, he wasn’t, so he quit.

"Besides, that’s what everyone else is doing. "

Why is everyone else doing it? Because it’s much easier to maintain than it is to excel. Unfortunately, because of this, the picture of the American Dream has faded into earning a “good salary” at a “good job” for 40 years, have a couple of hobbies, and keep your nose clean (whatever that means). This thought process is the same kind of thought process it takes to hang someone….let me explain.

Hardly anyone would have the guts to take a person out by themselves and hang them from a tree, but put a mob together, (someplace you can lose your identity; a community where no one points the finger at anyone else, because there is no one to blame), and you’ll hang people all day simply because:

“That’s just the way it is around here.”

“Everybody’s doing it.”

And by the way:
“You can’t judge me. I’m no different that anyone else here.”

or:
“I’m just here watching. I don’t have anything to do with this, so it’s not my fault.”

By the way, how do you get away with doing something you know is wrong without feeling guilty? Get around enough people who want to do the same thing. Herein lies the answer to the age-old questions, “Why do bad things happen?” & "What went wrong with the world?" It’s not because bad people are doing too many bad things, it’s because good people aren’t doing enough good things, therefore the consensus has become whatever was bad (but everyone secretly wanted to do. They just didn’t have enough guts to do it until everyone else did) has now become acceptable.

How could we have let it get that way? Because it’s easier to do nothing. If you don’t think about it, it’s like it never happened, right? And because so many good people had turned their minds off, the mob became the brain, therefore, the one’s with all of the answers, therefore, the final authority on all truth and morality.

Now we’ve come full circle. It all comes back to the fact that people do not know how to think. So, what do they do? They let other people think for them: the media, their family, their teachers and professors, the government, scientists, etc.

“I’m not the expert on anything. That’s what those guys are for. If they say that’s the way it is, who am I to argue with them?”

Most people don't choose to think this way, they just eventually come to the conclusion that it's easier than "open[ing your]...mouth [to] speak boldly, as [you] ought to speak, " (Eph. 6:20) or taking one more risk, which in their mind is destined to fail...again.

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new." (2 Cor. 5:17)

Absolute Truth

I was recently speaking with a co-worker (who is actually sitting right behind me as I’m typing this). He is one of those guys, like most of the guys that I work with, who says he is a “Christian,” yet for some reason disagrees with most of what the bible says about morality. Again, like most people, he will never say that out loud, but it’s simply how it is with him.

The other day we were arguing about whether or not homosexuals were born that way. In the end, I said to him, “Listen, it boils down to this. There are only two possible ways to look at morality:

1.) “There is an absolute Truth that at one point or another we deviated from, and everyone started making up their own sense of what’s right and wrong.”

2.) “There is no truth, therefore, no meaning or purpose whatsoever, and we are all just wandering around aimlessly trying to eek out an existence until we die.”

I told him, “This goes way deeper than you think.” That’s exactly what Francis Bacon was talking about when he wrote, "A little philosophy inclineth man's mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds about to religion" (see post below). People refuse to go deep in there thinking, because they know that as soon as they do, they are going to come face to face with the fact that there is an Absolute Truth, which if you go deep enough, is completely undeniable. At that point people know that they will have to be accountable for the sin in their lives. They avoid going down that road, so they branch off to take more scenic routes. Roads that are prettier, non threatening………and easy to get lost on. They know that their conscience lies deeply recessed in their mind behind all of the junk that they’ve shoved in front of it (so that they wouldn’t have to acknowledge it anymore).

Zeal Without Knowledge

Francis Bacon wrote, "Knowledge is the rich storehouse for the glory of the Creator and the relief of man's estate. A little philosophy inclineth man's mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds about to religion."

It’s funny how the mind works. If you think too much without the right attitude, rationale, or common sense, you will end up with an array of outlandish ideas about yourself, your circumstances, the world, and God. On the other hand, if you approach each issue, whether it means ill or prosperity to you or is contrary to the way you have always believed, with the right attitude, rationale, and with a little common sense, you will find a whole new world open up to you.

The touchstones in my life have been marked by the revelations that I have gotten along the way. As I look back, each turning point in my life has been solely because of a radical change in the way I think and view the world. Each time it happens, I am filled with such passion and boldness that I can hardly contain myself. I have to admit, part of the excitement comes from a bloated pride with my new knowledge. You know the kind of pride that you see in the super-spiritual person? The kind of pride that says, “I know the perfect way to live, and anyone who thinks differently is brainwashed by the world.”

This is the philosophy that Bacon talks about that leads to atheism. Most atheists that I know came through the tabernacle of God only to deny him just before their knee could touch the ground in worship. The problem is that they came to God with the wrong intentions and expectations, and they ended up blaming God for not fulfilling those expectations.

MAN THOUGHTS by Sid Falco (a participant of the G8 Men's Meetings at the Gateway Church NRH Campus)

"There were many ways of breaking a heart. Stories were full of hearts broken by love, but what really broke a heart was taking away its dream—whatever that dream might be." -Pearl S. Buck

"I’m not perfect. I screw up every day. I sin. I cry. I fail. I repent. And then I do it again. I tell you all that to let you know that I’m writing to you out of a heart of humility, not a "here’s the answer" kind of mindset. Because I know I’m not alone and because I love my brothers, from time to time, I share what the Lord gives me. Lately, God’s really been talking to me about living out what He has put in my heart.

Our inner passions, desires and dreams are God-given. They are the fuel which makes us burn. We burn with desire to be, to conquer, to change our part of the world and, even possibly, the whole world for Him. We dream, therefore we are. If there’s nothing burning in us, something has died. Our fire has been quenched.

Exodus 15:3 says, "The Lord is a warrior; Yahweh is His name!" Because we are created in God’s image, we, too, are warriors. A warrior is a fighter; a soldier; an obedient, passionate protector; a dreamer; one who not only defends the weak, but also fights to see God’s plans for his life carried out.

When the enemy gets us to forget our mission and who we are, we become ineffective. We wake up, "do" our day, go to bed and then repeat it all again the next day. All the while, our God-given dreams get lost in the sea of living life. And when our passion dies, when we get busy in life and lose our desire, we stop engaging. We no longer are effective. We can still be good people, but I don’t look at many warriors and say, "Oh, they’re good people." No, I look at warriors in awe and think, "They are dangerous!"

My challenge to you today is, "Let’s be dangerous my brothers!!!"