Death Row Pardon

Saw this movie quote on the Facebook wall of my friend from high school who is now a cop…

I am the police, and I'm here to arrest you. You've broken the law. I did not write the law. I may disagree with the law but I will enforce it. No matter how you plead, cajole, beg or attempt to stir my sympathy. Nothing you do will stop me from placing you in a steel cage with gray bars. If you run away I will chase you. If you fight me I will fight back. If you shoot at me I will shoot back. By law I am unable to walk away. I am a consequence. I am the unpaid bill. I am fate with a badge and a gun. Behind my badge is a heart like yours. I bleed, I think, I love, and yes I can be killed. And although I am but one man, I have thousands of brothers and sisters who are the same as me. They will lay down their lives for me and I them. We stand watch together. The thin-blue-line, protecting the prey from the predators, the good from the bad. We are the police. ~From movie ‘End of Watch’~

I think this is pretty clear. If you break the law and are caught, justice will be served often via a police officer and your imminent arrest. So aim to be a law-abiding citizen to avoid that.

I used to apply this same train of thought to my relationship with God. As long as I am a good person, and obey God’s rules, I will be in right standing with Him and will avoid punishment. That’s the belief I held to. Now let me blow your mind a little bit. The belief that I could achieve right standing with God by my obedience to His rules was never God’s intent for giving His laws. In fact, He already knew that I would fail miserably at keeping them.

Before I illuminate that, let me zoom in on a few of God’s laws. Here’s one:

You must not misuse the name of the Lord your God. The Lord will not let you go unpunished if you misuse His name (Exodus 20:7).

Have you ever treated the name of the Lord flippantly as a verbal punctuation mark? Have you ever used God’s name as a swear word? If yes, then you’ve broken God’s law.

Here’s another one:

You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart (Matthew 5:27,28).

Oh boy. Now God isn’t even allowing us to merely entertain thoughts about breaking His law. Have you ever looked at someone who you are not married to with the desire to have sex? If yes, then you are guilty. You’ve broken God’s law.

Want one more just for fun? You have heard that our ancestors were told, ‘You must not murder. If you commit murder, you are subject to judgment.’ But I say, if you are even angry with someone, you are subject to judgment! If you call someone an idiot, you are in danger of being brought before the court. And if you curse someone, you are in danger of the fires of hell (Matthew 5:21-22).

Because God is concerned with our hearts, He even considers certain types of anger as murder.

By now you may be thinking what I am thinking. Wow. God is pretty strict. Even the secret thoughts and attitudes of our heart cannot escape the judgment of God. Yikes. There is a huge gap between God’s standard of holiness and perfection (outlined in His rules) and the reality of how we live. Gulp. And therein lies God’s intent for giving us the law in the first place. It’s the gulping, yikes factor…

The law applies to those to whom it was given, for its purpose is to keep people from having excuses, and to show that the entire world is guilty before God. For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are (Romans 3:19-20).

God gave us His laws in order to point out our sin. John Cross, author of ‘Stranger on the Road to Emmaus’ explains it like this:

In many ways, the Ten Commandments are to us as a mirror is to a dirty face. If you are alone, you can’t tell whether or not your face is clean. Someone could point at you and say, “Your face is dirty,” but you could deny it outright and say, “My face isn’t dirty – I don’t see anything!” and you might truly believe that. But if given a mirror, you could see that your face was indeed grimy and you would no longer be able to deny the fact. Your mouth would be silenced. You would realize you were guilty of having a dirty face.

It’s the same way with sin. We did not really know what sin was until God gave us the Law. Just as the mirror exposed the dirt, so the ten rules made us aware of sin.  

The ten commands were not given as a list of rules to keep in order to make us right with God. That wasn’t the Law’s purpose. It would be like trying to rub the dirt off your face with a mirror! Mirrors are designed for reflecting, not cleaning. In fact, there’s a good chance that, in the process of trying to clean yourself with the mirror, you would smudge the glass, thus hampering its ability to give a clear reflection. People who try to be accepted by God by keeping the Ten Commandments usually modify or minimize the commands so that they will not look so bad.

This ‘mirror’ concept is completely foreign to most of us who all our lives have been taught that if we follow the rules we will make the rule givers happy and we will avoid trouble and punishment. This time it’s different. God’s rules have been given to show us that we actually can’t measure up to His perfect standard. You could say in effect, that because of our human nature, these rules are impossible to keep.

Perhaps you are thinking, well that’s not fair! God gave us a bunch of rules to follow, already knowing that we wouldn’t be able to keep them, in order to point out to us that we aren’t as good as we thought we were. That’s bad news. But there’s good news a comin’.

Pointing out our sin wasn’t the only purpose of the law.

The law was put in charge to lead us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith (Galatians 3:24).

Meeting God’s standard of righteousness is unattainable by our own human effort because we are rule breakers. Instead of making us feel like good, achieved, obedient people, the law does the opposite – it showcases our yuck and points out our depravity. But God is loving. And kind. And merciful. And compassionate. He does not arrest us and place us in a steel cage with gray bars like a policeman the minute we are caught breaking His law. No, in seeing us in our depravity what does God do? He looks at us through His filter of grace and He decides to bless us with His favor. WHAT?!?!? Yeah, I never saw it coming either. Let me explain. His favor does NOT come by Him covering His eyes from our sin, pretending not to see it, letting it slide while winking at us and telling us not to do it again. That would not be just. For justice to be served in the courts of God, sin must result in punishment. To God, sin is so destructive and offensive and appalling that the punishment He assigns for sin is the death penalty (Romans 6:23). Yet, in His mercy, He has made a way of escape. A death row pardon...

For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God, with undeserved kindness, declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when He freed us from the penalty for our sins. For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed His life, shedding His blood (Romans 3:23-25).

Jesus already kept the law perfectly in our place. Since He had no sin to die for Himself, Jesus was able to die for the sin of others (2 Corinthians 5:21). He died in our place. When we believe in Him, we receive His payment for our sin on our behalf. And we also receive His unblemished record...righteousness. It’s as if we never sinned. It’s as if we never, ever broke God’s law. Through Jesus’ sacrifice, we can come into right standing with God, apart from our own ability to ‘be good’.

People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed His life, shedding His blood.

It’s so simple that people stumble over it. It’s hard to believe that we don’t have to earn God’s pardon by our own efforts, by keeping His rules. But if we were able to do this then….

I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing! (Galatians 2:21)

 

I will NOT set aside my death row pardon.

God sent His Son to die a hideous, bloody death on a tree to adopt me – a disobedient, ungodly, rebel who didn’t even care to give Him the time of day, let alone regard His majesty and power. God looked down at me, a sinner - who broke all the rules and laws He ever gave - and said, “I love her. I am going to hunt her down with My love.” I was heading down the path of destruction but God, in His mercy, stuck a big, bloody cross in my way and whispered two simple words: Repent and Believe. And that is the message of faith that I proclaim. God is reconciling rebels to Himself through the blood of His Son, not counting men’s sins against them. That message - which unfolds on the pages of my Bible, has since unfolded in my heart and completely changed my life. Jesus proved His love for me while I was sinning in His face. That’s good news. That’s the kind of God I want to give my heart to and trust. And now that I have, I’ll never be the same.

One day we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. And I’m telling you, Jesus’ sacrifice is the way that you can have your sins NOT counted against you.  They have already been counted against Him in your place.  But this payment made by Jesus is only effective if one believes.

Death Has Lost Its Sting

It was the summer leading up to my junior year of college.  It had been a normal day – went to the rec center in the morning, laid out in the sun with friends, and was just getting ready to go check my work schedule for the upcoming week at the restaurant where I waitressed.   It was late in the evening when I received a phone call that rocked me to the core.  It was a friend from high school.  Her voice was usually giddy, happy, and full of energy.  But not this time.  Her tone was serious and she got straight to the point.  “Have you heard yet….about Jon?”

I hadn’t heard.  But from her abnormally calm and quiet voice I knew what had happened.  The plague of deaths that had picked off our group of friends seemingly one-by-one during our high school years had hit again.  But this time it was different.  Jon, better known to us as “Jonny T” was my closest friend for a season of my life in high school, as he was to many others.  Our friendship had grown apart since I went to college, mainly because of the sheer logistics of distance.  But Jon was one of my most favorite friends.  Everybody loved being around him with his witty sarcasm and loyal heart. 

That summer evening my friend had called to tell me that Jon had died.  He’d had a diabetic attack during his sleep….and never woke up.  And so began my journey with the reality of death.  I’d experienced death before with other classmates and older family members.  But this time, it was a little too close for comfort.

Most people would never admit their deep down fear of death.  The fear of not knowing when we will die or how.  The fear of the unknown of what you will experience in those moments of death, and what about after?  The vulnerability and loss of control that surrounds death is easier to push away or cover up then to have to deal with the thoughts and search out answers.  Because we’re scared of what the answers might be.  It is my experience that some plan out their grave stone, plot of land where they’ll be buried, and their funeral more than they make plans for the most important part - where they will spend eternity once they’ve left their body behind.

And might I interject, with it being October and all, that in this mix somewhere is where I believe Halloween comes in.  No, I don’t know the history of the holiday – how it all started and why.  But it is my opinion that Halloween is an attempt by our American society/culture to make light of death.  To give a little humor, a little light-heartedness, to a subject that if we were honest with ourselves really, really scares us – to death. 

When I received that phone call that summer I was not yet a Christian. I went to Jon’s funeral devastated and I mourned deeply with his family who had just a few years earlier experienced the suicide of Jon’s older brother.  I left Jon’s funeral angry at the pastor who shared truth, but truth that my hardened heart wasn’t ready to hear yet.  Truth that I passed off as unfair judgment.  Most of all I came away with a devastatingly uneasy feeling that life is short and uncertain.  Yes, I believed there was a God.  Yes, I told myself that Jon was in a happier place.  But saying that didn’t give me any peace.  On the outside I acted like it did.  When I looked into the eyes of Jon’s grieving parents I felt like it was the proper thing to say.   But I was really saying it because it made me feel better, and I wanted them to feel better too.  The truth was, I really didn’t know. 

Today I want to tell you that you can really know.  You can know what will happen to you after you die.  The fear and unknown that surrounds death can be replaced with hope, confidence, and yes – even excitement and a longing for it.  Yes, I really said that.  Let’s start here…

Because God’s children are human beings—made of flesh and blood—the Son (Jesus) also became flesh and blood. For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the devil, who had the power of death. Only in this way could he set free all who have lived their lives as slaves to the fear of dying. Hebrews 2:14-15 (NLT)

and

Then, when our dying bodies have been transformed into bodies that will never die, this Scripture will be fulfilled: “Death is swallowed up in victory.  O death, where is your victory?  O death, where is your sting?”  For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power. But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ.  1 Corinthians 15:54-57 (NLT)

Now, perhaps if this is the first time you’ve ever read those verses then you might not fully be able to wrap your mind around what it is saying.  But I bet you caught these phrases that I also bolded in the verses: SET FREE (from) THE FEAR OF DYING and VICTORY OVER DEATH.

Death can lose its sting, IF you are trusting in the Only One who has power over it.  We humans can do a lot of things.  But one thing we can’t do is resurrect ourselves.  Jesus promises us a resurrection.  This is His work, and it will come. 

Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this, Martha?” John 11:25-26 (NLT)

You could take out Martha’s name and insert yours.  This is a question you need to ask yourself, if you are ready to look into death.  In this verse Jesus is giving us His word that this life is not the end.  Elsewhere in the Bible He reminds us not to get too attached to this world – to the things of it, the people of it, the good or the bad of it.  Rather, we should rejoice that this world is not our home.  We’re aliens here.  Passing through.  A vapor of a life that when ‘gone’ will step into eternity. 

That’s part 1 of what I’ve learned about death.  Jesus says, yes - INDEED there is another life after this one.  Now, part 2….

The Bible also warns that this stepping into eternity is not an event we want to face without Jesus speaking on our behalf.  Because…

…each person is destined to die once and after that comes judgment… Hebrews 9:27 (NLT)

Clearly, the Bible says once we die, we are going to be judged.  But who is doing the judging? 

For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat.  It is written: “As surely as I live,” says the Lord, “every knee will bow before me; every tongue will acknowledge God.”  So then, each of us will give an account of ourselves to God.  Romans 14:10-12 (NIV)

Well, that pretty much answers it.  We are going to be judged by God.  And when you are standing in front of an Almighty, Righteous, and Holy God, I can guarantee that you are not going to be applauding yourself.  In fact, every time someone in the Bible was brought into the presence of God, they were shaking in their sandals, and what flooded their minds was not the good they had done in their life, but the wrong and the bad.  That’s what happens when you are in the presence of Holiness….you realize that you are so….not….holy.  When I look back on it now, I know this is what I had feared all along regarding death.  Not necessarily the actual dying.  But the looming of God’s judgment that would come shortly after.

Now, here’s the good news.  Jesus is going to be there at our judgment. 

For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. 1 Timothy 2:5 (NIV)

And this is the point in which He will speak on our behalf.  But it’s not all streets of gold and pearly gates yet.  Because, this is where Jesus will say that He either knew you, or He didn’t (read Matthew 7:21-23).  And that’s the deciding factor of where you will spend eternity.

Knowing Jesus, and being known by Him implies a relationship.  This will be a judgment of faith – of our acceptance of Jesus as Savior.  This life, RIGHT NOW, is our opportunity to do just that.  We won’t get another chance once we are standing face to face with Him in our death.  We won’t be able to change our minds (repent) then.  This is it.  Now, in this life, is our chance…

The message is very close at hand; it is on your lips and in your heart.  And that message is the very message about faith that we preach: If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.  For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved.  As the Scriptures tell us, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be disgraced.” Romans 10:8-11 (NLT)

Might I add that the evidence of this faith is obedience.  So this isn’t just some prayer that you pray to sound religious - to check off your ‘God list’ and then go live how you want.  This is a decision of the heart that will overflow in the way you think and the way you live.  You can say you are a Christian until you are blue in the face.  But Jesus will know whether this faith took root in your heart or not.  In addition, once this does take root in your heart, God sends the Holy Spirit to live inside of your physical body.  This is another ‘evidence’ of faith.  Trust me, I know what it is like to live without the Holy Spirit.  You will know once the Holy Spirit is living inside of you.

The Bible says that we are able to know whether or not we have a relationship with Jesus before we die.  Therefore, as you sit and read this right now you will know.  You will either have peace as you think about death and the judgment that will come after, or you won’t.  Peace comes when you have trusted not in what you have (or haven’t done) in your life, but in what Jesus has done on your behalf.  He lived the perfect, blameless, sinless life that we ourselves could not and can not.  Then He died, taking your sins and my sins upon Himself.  By His death we get to trade in our sins for His righteousness.  We get Jesus' clean record in exchange for our dirty one.  This is what will allow us to stand blameless before the Father God.  Which brings us to confidence.  Confidence comes when you know that when God judges you, He won’t see your sin.  He’ll only see Jesus’ blood covering you in full payment and imparting to you the clean record, the holiness that you need to even step one foot in heaven.  Because nothing sinful can enter.  Excitement comes because YOU ARE GOING TO HEAVEN!  Longing for heaven comes, I believe in many ways.  When you experience pain and sadness in this life.  When you cry out for things in this world to be made right, fair and void of suffering.  When you hope that there is something more than just this life, something better – much better….and you find out that there is.  You can’t wait to get there.  That’s longing.  When the fear of death is replaced with all these things - peace, confidence, excitement, and longing - that’s when you know you’ve been pulled from the grave.  Freed from slavery over the fear of death.   It can be yours, through Jesus.  He died to take all your sins upon Himself so that you could have eternal LIFE.  In this, the offer stands for Him to speak for you to God the Father when your day of judgment comes.  Jesus has got you covered, if you accept His offer now, in this life.

Therefore he is able, once and forever, to save those who come to God through him. He lives forever to intercede with God on their behalf. Hebrews 7:25 (NLT)

Jesus + Nothing = Everything

A little over a year ago I was leaving church from my women’s bible study group at about 11am on a Thursday morning. I didn’t have my kids with me because Jake had happened to stay home with them that morning as we were going to be leaving for a tournament trip that afternoon. As I walked out the church doors I noticed a guy who looked to be in his late 20’s sitting propped up against a column outside. He had his cell phone in his hands and was looking straight ahead. As I went to walk past him I got this feeling that he needed something. But, since I have heard a few too many horror stories about this sort of scenario I walked on, heading straight towards my car. I almost turned around, but then didn’t and told myself that I was being sensible since I was all by myself and there was no one else in sight (all the other mamas from my bible study group were still gathering up their kids from their classrooms inside). As I got about 10 feet in front of the guy he called out to me, “Hey, you don’t happen to be heading into town, do ya?”

I turned around, “Um, yes,” I replied a little shaky.

“Well, could I get a ride from you? You see I was working on the pipelines in the construction area back there (pointing back behind our church) and all the other guys left for lunch. I was just finishing up some things and my cell phone died. I really need to get back into town because my girlfriend has to get to work and I told her I would be back to watch her son before then, and she doesn’t have a phone and…” His story went on for a few more sentences.

Classic story I thought to myself. In the next 10 seconds I began picking through his words in my mind to see if the details measured up. I believed that he probably was working on the construction behind our church because a bunch of workers have been out there for the past year working on stuff. He had on dirty work boots and construction looking clothes. However, I was little confused about why all the other workers would have left him there, and I was also confused as to why he didn’t just walk into our church into the office and call someone for a ride. Hmmmm….while I worked through these details the guy got up from the ground and stood there waiting for an answer. So, I said a quick prayer to God that went a little something like this Dear God, I am thinking about giving this guy a ride. If I should not do this, please stop me right now. Otherwise, please protect my life as I help him out. Please don’t let me wind up dead in a forest somewhere. Amen. A laughable prayer, but I was dead very serious.

So, I said I would give him a ride and off we went. We headed into Ames and I realized that this guy had a lot to say! He started asking me a few questions about our church. Then, this led him to say, “Yeah, I really need to get back to church. My life’s kinda messed up.” From that point on, for whatever reason, this guy went on to tell me his entire life story in the matter of about 10 minutes. I listened as he spoke about his past mistakes, and how his life was currently in shambles because of his poor decisions. As he spoke, I could see guilt spread across his face as he shared certain details with me and continued to say, “I hope you don’t think I am a bad person. I know I need to get my life in order. I need to get back to church.”

I started feeling awful for this guy and the burdens of guilt that he was carrying around. Eventually it was my turn to talk. He had mentioned multiple times this idea of ‘getting back to church’, so that’s where I started. And the first thing I said was “It’s not your church attendance that God wants. He wants your heart…”

In talking with my new friend, I had realized quickly what his impression of ‘the church’ from the outside looking in was. It seemed as though he thought that if he could add in a little ‘religious’ stuff to his life then his ‘bad’ could be outweighed by the good of doing ‘religious’ things – like going to church. I *totally* could relate to his way of thinking, because I used to believe this exact thing.

However, in the Bible, God makes it clear that this is NOT the way we can get right with Him. In Matthew 15: 7- 9 Jesus rebukes the Pharisees for this.

"You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you: ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain, their teachings are but rules taught by men.’"

Basically Jesus called them actors. They appeared to honor God because they looked ‘religious’ on the outside with all their traditions and rituals and church-going and worship. But they were so concerned with their outward appearance of looking religious that they neglected the one thing that God really wanted – their hearts.

This is where we need to understand the difference between ‘religion’ and the gospel. ‘Religion’ is about behavior modification. It’s about observing certain behavior policies, and refraining from others. It’s about cleaning up your act, and obeying rules, and following standards and displaying good behavior. The truth of the Bible - the gospel – makes it clear that God does NOT operate on this sort of points system that ‘religious’ acts promote. He doesn’t chalk up a point for us when we do something good, and then erase it when we do something bad. In other words, we don’t have a certain amount of points that we must score with Him in order to be on his ‘good side’. Interestingly, Jesus spoke about this exact thing over and over in the Bible during His ministry on earth. There is a perfect section of scripture that displays this in Luke 18:9-14~

To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men – robbers, evildoers, adulterers – or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’

But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’

I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

The Pharisee had it all wrong. Getting right with God (termed justification in the Bible) isn’t about banking on the things we can do and our own ideas of how to get right standing with Him - like adding in some religious things or right living. That sort of heart attitude is prideful, and only trusts in SELF – an idea Jesus abolishes. In Isaiah 64:6 the Bible says all our righteous acts are like FILTHY RAGS.

The tax collector had it all right. His prayer showed the overflow of his heart. He stood there, praying to God, so ashamed of his sin that he couldn’t even look up to heaven. He was overwhelmed by his recognition that he was a sinner. He confessed that he desperately needed God’s help. He cried out for mercy. The Bible terms this heart attitude repentance.

And mercy is what Jesus came to give.

A repentant heart is ready to receive the awful-beautiful act of the cross. As the nails were pounded into the cross, so was our sin. As His blood poured out, so did His mercy. As His breath ended, He took the punishment we deserved for our sin. MERCY. FORGIVENESS. ATONEMENT. JUSTIFICATION. RIGHTEOUSNESS. GRACE. FREEDOM FROM THE SLAVERY OF SIN. ETERNAL LIFE. That is what He gave us. All of our supposed ‘religious acts’ that we try to chalk up in order to be on His good side are a bunch of junk in comparison. The gospel isn’t about us – what we have or haven’t done. It’s about what Jesus has done for us. One man. Son of God. Jesus Christ. Mighty Deliverer. Prince of Peace. Savior. He came to die. So we could be in right standing with God.

Ephesians 2:8-10 ~ God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.

John 14:6 ~ Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Until we realize that we are dependent people, who have NOTHING to give to God other than repentant hearts who are sickened over our sin and pasts, and ready for our Savior to rescue us, then we’ve missed it. We’ve missed the gospel and we’ve missed salvation. We’ve missed the point of Christmas and Easter and the whole entire point of our life. We can add in a bunch of ‘good’ acts to our life, but we’ll still miss it. We will continue to be God’s enemies, until we have hearts that trust in Jesus.

Jesus came first not to make bad people good, but to make dead people alive. ~Tullian Tchividjian~

A King on a Donkey?

As they approached Jerusalem, Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there, with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, say that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away.” This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet: “Say to Daughter Zion, ‘See, your king comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’” The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. They brought the donkey and the colt and placed their cloaks on them for Jesus to sit on. A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Hosanna in the highest heaven!” When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, “Who is this?” The crowds answered, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.” (Matthew 21:1-11)

I love it when some sort of new truth hits me about my Savior. This year, as I’ve taken my kids through Resurrection Eggs for Easter I realized something that I hadn’t before about the meaning of Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey on Palm Sunday. The Resurrection Eggs booklet explains the significance of the donkey in this way:
What many people don’t know is that it was traditional for a king to ride on a donkey in times of peace. And although Jesus is the King of kings, God the Father wanted Him to bring peace to people when He came to earth in what is called “The First Coming”. Jesus’s peace comes as we repent or turn from our sin, and believe in the Son of God. And then as we continue to obey and trust Him as the Lord of our lives, we will experience His peace.

I love that with Jesus, every single action and word has deep meaning that can be looked into if we just take the time to seek Him….even something as surprising as an entrance on a donkey….it has more meaning than what we first see at the surface level. As I thought about Jesus’s first coming being all about bringing peace, my mind drifted quickly to his second coming and what that will look like. I know from scripture, that Jesus’s second coming will be drastically different. The book of Revelations gives the stark contrast…

I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and makes war. His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. Out of his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. “He will rule them with an iron scepter.” He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS. (Revelations 19:11-16)

When Jesus comes back he will appear out of the clouds at the sound of a loud trumpet call (Matthew 24:27-31). This time, as the excerpt from Revelations detailed, he will ride in as a Conquering King, on a white horse, wearing a robe dipped in blood, also wearing many crowns, and having eyes that look like fire. Followed by heavenly armies, this time, he will have a sharp sword. What a contrast to His first entrance as King, gentle and bringing peace, riding in on a donkey. Jesus’s first coming brought forgiveness as He sacrificed His life and made payment for our sins. So what will His second coming bring about?

For He has set a day when He will judge the world with justice by the man He has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising Him from the dead (Acts 17:31).

Judgement.

That’s a hard word to swallow, and I know that not many people like to think or talk about it. For me personally, I've realized that sometimes things in the Bible are hard to choke down at first. But scripture doesn’t lie.

All this is evidence that God’s judgement is right…this will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed (2 Thessalonians 1:5, 7-10).

He won’t be judging how well we performed in this life, whether we were a ‘good’ person or a ‘bad’ person.

He won’t be judging whether we stacked up enough good works to give us an acceptable heavenly resume.

He’ll be judging our relationship with Himself. Did we have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ? Or not?

Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven (Matthew 7:21).

Did we believe that Jesus was the Son of God and the atoning sacrifice for our sins?

For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.” (John 6:40)

If this was our belief, did we live like it? Did we obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus? Did we repent of our sin, turn from it, and surrender our lives to following our Savior?

We know that we have come to know Him if we obey his commands. The man who says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. (1 John 2:3-4)

The time will come when our relationship with Jesus will either be proved genuine, or proved false. And this judgement will decide where we spend eternity.

Until that day comes, the offer awaits. We are in the days after our Savior has come the first time, gentle, and riding on a donkey. Right now He offers eternal peace and salvation to all those who would believe. But another day is coming….a day of judgement that will bring us either eternal blessing or eternal punishment. Every day we get closer and closer to Jesus’s return. The Bible tells us to wait expectantly for that day… ‘and now, dear children, continue in Him, so that when He appears we may be CONFIDENT and UNASHAMED before Him at His coming (1 John 2:28)’. How I long to feel those emotions when I see my Savior coming out of the clouds. And the Bible promises that for those who have a relationship with Jesus, His second coming will be glorious, beautiful, and the culmination of all things hoped for. It will be a day of salvation.

Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him. (Hebrews 9:27-28)

Life is More Than Physical

Life is more than physical. It is spiritual. Even so, our physical bodies can go on living long after we have become spiritually dead. Consider these verses:

Genesis 2:15-17
The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the Lord God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die."

Later on…

Genesis 3:6-8
When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden……

I was going through these verses the other night with Sam. After we read through them I said, “Sam, God told Adam and Eve that if they ate from this certain tree in the garden, they would die. Later on we see that they did eat from the tree, but afterwards they were still walking around and talking with one another.” Then I said, “Did Adam and Eve physically die after they ate from the tree?”

Sam’s answer was, “No.”

I said, “But, God told them that if they ate from the tree they would die, and we know that God does not lie. He stands true to His word. So, if Adam and Eve didn’t physically die, how then did they die?”

Sam responded with, “They died from heaven.”

In 10-year old terms, this is a great answer. Adam and Eve’s disobedience to God’s clear command in the garden was the first sin that ever entered our world. In fact, from their example we can understand the definition of sin….not obeying God. God had explained to them that if they ate from the tree they would die….and he was talking about a SPIRITUAL death. As Sam put it, Adam & Eve ‘died from heaven’, or in other words they died from eternal life with God. Our sin separates us from God. And we can feel this separation in our hearts. Adam and Eve’s response after their sin was to hide from God because of their shame and fear.

But God loves us and wants to have a relationship with us. After all, He did create us for Himself and in His image. And He created heaven for His followers to dwell with Him forever in a place where there is no sorrow and no tears, a beautiful place beyond even the best of our imaginations. But in these verses and in many others throughout the Bible we see that our relationship with God is ruined because of our sin. What then are we to do? Jesus gives us the answer.

John 3:3
In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”

The person Jesus is talking to then asks the logical question in the next verse.

John 3:4
“How can a man be born when he is old?" Nicodemus asked. "Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb to be born!"

Like Nicodemus said, we obviously cannot possibly imagine crawling back into our mother’s womb at the age of 28 or 17 or 40 or 82 or 10 (or whatever age) and be born again. No, again we see that Jesus is not talking in physical terms. He is talking spiritually.

There are MANY verses that shed light on to what exactly this act of being ‘born again’ entails. My mind expresses things clearer through list form, so I will share some things in that way:

To be born again-

1) Acknowledge we are sinners, and that our sin cuts us off from God.
Romans 3:23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
1 John 1:8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.

2) Repent - or turn away from - our sin.
Acts 3:19-20 Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, and that he may send the Christ, who has been appointed for you—even Jesus.

3) Confess our sins to God – not to a friend or a priest/pastor or a confidant – confess them to GOD and ask for forgiveness.
1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

4) Believe that when Jesus died on the cross for us, he paid the full price for every sin that we have ever committed, and every future sin that we will ashamedly commit. If we truly believe this with a repentant heart, our sins are wiped out and we receive the gift of eternal life.
Romans 10:9-10 If you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.
1 John 4:10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
John 6:40 For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day."

Until we have a spirit that has been born again, we may just find that we are wandering around aimlessly in this world, with no sense of purpose. No understanding of why on earth we are here. Have you been asking yourself “What is the meaning of life?” or “What is the point of my life?” If you have, then this is a sign to you that your spirit is dead. Your spirit is searching for an answer.

John 6:35
Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.”

We all have a spiritual hunger inside of us that is wanting to be filled. Many will try to satisfy this hunger with things other than Jesus. I know because I was one of them. Some will try to get this fulfillment for their life through their job, or through living in a certain place, or through their husband or wife, or through having children or grandchildren, or through material possessions….having that car you always wanted, or finally saving up enough to buy those jet skis, or the lake house where your family can spend vacations, or building that addition onto the house. Some will turn to drugs or alcohol to try and fill the hunger. The mentality is that getting these things will bring happiness, because we think that is what we are missing. And, indeed, these things may fill the void for a time, but in the end hunger will come again. These sort of fillers can so easily be here today and then gone tomorrow. A loved one could die, relationships can fail and disappoint us, material possessions can break down in an instant. Our spirit needs more. Fulfillment that is constant, unchanging, and that will never disappoint. An answer that will not leave us empty or searching for more. This fulfillment that we seek is found only through a relationship with Jesus Christ, God’s one and only Son. Once you have this, God will transform your life into something new that you have never, ever, ever experienced before.

John 5:23-25
He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him. "I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life. I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live.

John 14:6
I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

John 11:25-26
Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?"

Monday on My Mind

Did you know that two things happen when you put your faith in Jesus Christ for forgiveness of sins?

The first thing that happens is that God gives you a NEW LIFE here on earth. Which of us would say we’ve never messed up? Which of us wouldn’t desire a second chance? Which of us is without problems? Which of us doesn’t want better relationships, a peace during times of trouble, directions for this trip we call life? Before the point that we put our faith in Christ, the Bible would say that we are living for ourselves, not for God. We are gratifying our sinful nature. Spiritually dead. Maybe you have felt this way. That you are just walking through the hum drums of life….going through the motions. You feel like you need some change, but don’t know where to start. Maybe you feel like ‘religion’ is just a bunch of hoops to jump through and that it doesn’t look like something you are interested in. Maybe you are even searching….for fulfillment, for a change of pace, for refreshment. Well, I will tell you today that if you keep trying to do this on your own, you are going to turn up empty. God would tell us to give up our ‘rights’, our entitlement, our desires, and let HIM do the work in us. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. (Matthew 16:25) God has put in each one of us a desire to know HIM. With every longing, every craving, every wish, it seems that we try to fill ourselves up with things other than God. But, we must recognize that our fulfillment can only be satisfied in a relationship with God. God will often try many attempts to wake us up and teach us this. Maybe you are feeling God speaking this to your heart at this stage in your life now. It is at this point in which the Bible reassures us that we should NOT look ‘inward’ for help. Instead, we are to look at the cross, where God sent his Son Jesus to die for us, so that we can have access to God.

Once you put your faith in Jesus, God begins to work in you. After this point God tells us that we are a new creation. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! (2 Corinthians 5:17) When we put our faith in Jesus, we are made alive through him. Sin now longer has reign over us. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with that we should no longer be slaves to sin. In the same way count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. (Romans 6: 6,11) Being a slave to sin just means that we are in a continual cycle of sin, trying to find fulfillment, getting it temporarily, but then when the fulfillment is gone we must sin again to be fulfilled...thus sin becomes our 'master'. But God gives us hope. He asks us to give up our life as we know it (the cycle of sin and living for ourselves) and he will give us a new life. It is the work of the Holy Spirit…..a gift from God that we receive after our faith is put in Jesus.

Yes, after we put our faith in Jesus, God starts working in us. We want to go to church and learn, we want to read our Bible, we want to try and obey God’s commands and we find that they aren’t burdensome. We want to pray, we want to sit at the feet of Jesus and listen to what he has to say because in him is LIFE, and BREATH, and every longing is fulfilled. We realize that the direction and guidance for our life is found only in God’s word to us, the Bible. We find an excitement and vigor as we watch God transform our life. It’s a ‘pumped up feeling’ that we have for God at this point. We feel alive, TRULY ALIVE for the first time. And, this not to live for ourselves, but to live for God.

The second thing that happens once we put our faith in Jesus Christ is that we have confidence that we will inherit eternal life. Beyond a shadow of a doubt we know that we are going to heaven when we die. We have no fear in death. There is no wondering what happens. There is no “I hope I make it”. There is surety and peace in the face of our certain physical death. For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. (John 6:40)

If you’ve never experienced either of these two things, then think about if you’ve ever taken the time to learn about your Savior, Jesus Christ. Do you still view him as a little baby that came at Christmas time? Do you still view him as the guy that little children sing a famous song about at church? To you, is Jesus just a symbol of religion? A crucifix that hangs in your kitchen? A cross around your neck on a silver chain? Or do you know him? Would you say you have a relationship with him? Have you believed with your whole heart that Jesus lived a sinless life, died as your undeserved atoning sacrifice, and was resurrected by God, all so that you can have access to God? Have you placed your entire life on that belief?

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing! (Galatians 2:20)

Come As You Are

What’s weighing you down today?

What heavy load are you carrying?

What chains from the past are haunting you?

Are you ready to let God take it? God can do it. He will lift your sadness, heal your iniquities, bring forgiveness where needed, instill hope in the most hopeless of situations. God can move mountains. God created the heavens and the earth and breathed in you the breath of life. God created you and sustains your every breath from this moment………to this one. God sent his Son for you. It was a gift. In Jesus you can have life, and life abundantly. Want to find the meaning of life? Lose it. Lose your life and you will find it. It’s not magic. It’s real. Jesus promises - For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it (Matthew 16:25). It’s true. I feel it inside. This isn’t religion. This is a personal God who since the day you were born has been revealing himself to you. Lay your burdens down at his feet…ask him to carry your load. To bring refreshment in your life. The chains of yesterday - the guilt, the unfulfillment, the failures – they can be released…..because the debt has already been paid. On the cross. When Jesus died. For you. Jesus said "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners" (Mark 2:17). Come as you are. To the cross. That is where it starts. Sin atoned for. For you and for me. This is where you can finally lay your burdens down. This is where you find new life. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come (2 Corinthians 5:17)