Month: April 2019

“Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” Ephesians 4:32

            Why is it so hard to forgive? What is it about forgiveness that makes it seem almost impossible? We can think we forgave and before we know it, our brains are once again dwelling on what happened to us. Let me be clear. Right now I’m not talking about those huge sins that have been committed against us, the ones that have damaged our heart and our soul. You see, as I write this I’m struggling to forgive. Before you get all teary-eyed for me, let me say that nothing huge has happened to me. No one accosted me, or robbed from me, or betrayed me. What I’m struggling to forgive right now is one of those really minor slights. If I had blinked I would have missed it. But unfortunately, my eyes were wide open and this slight, that was probably completely unintentional, keeps running through my mind and before I know it, I’ve worked up a pretty good head of steam on my anger. So I choose to forgive and try to take my thoughts captive and think about something else. Before I know it, my brain is once again ruminating on this “terrible” thing that was done to me.

            Look over the last couple of sentences and see how many times I mentioned myself. That’s what makes it so hard to forgive. Pride. Putting ourselves first. Making “me” more important than “them.” If I was thinking about the ones who supposedly slighted me, I would know that it was unintentional. I would remember how much these same people love me and would realize they would never knowingly hurt me. In fact, if were truly thinking of them, I wouldn’t even care if they did hurt me intentionally. I would be more concerned about them and their wants and needs. Pride does more than keep us from thinking of others first. Even worse, pride is thinking more about ourselves than we do about God. If I had thought about God from the beginning of this incident, I would have immediately lifted the entire situation to Him in prayer. I would have left it in His hands. And He would have been very happy to show me what a petty situation it really is.

            This is a pretty interesting section of scripture. God, through Paul, is telling us about things we shouldn’t be doing. Things to stay away from. Things like unwholesome talk, or disobedience, or fighting, or anger. Then comes this verse, which acts almost like a hinge. After this, He tells us to imitate Christ. It’s almost as if we are to turn away from all these unholy actions and turn to acting like Christ. And how do we make that turn? Forgiveness. How much are we forgive? Well, how much did God forgive us? He forgave everything. He forgave the big stuff and the little. He forgave the intentional sins and the unintentional. He forgave wholly and completely. And that’s how we’re to forgive. When we do that, our kindness and compassion towards others won’t be forced. It will come from a heart that is filled with the kindness and compassion God has shown us. Let’s turn our thoughts to God, put Him first and everything else will fall into place.

“Peace be with you.” “Therefore, go . . .”  John 20:21, Matthew 28:19

            What did you do for Easter? I hope you were able to worship with other believers on that holiest of days, the day that celebrates the fact that our Lord conquered sin and death. What did you do besides that? Was there an Easter egg hunt? A meal with loved ones? It’s a wonderful day for celebrating, isn’t it? But what was Easter like for those followers of Jesus who had just watched Him die on the cross? Remember that they didn’t just watch the death of their beloved leader. They also watched the death of their dreams, maybe even of their beliefs. Now, just days later, they’re asked to believe something that had never happened before in the history of, well, of ever. Jesus was alive again. How could this be? I’m sure they were trying to wrap their brains around this incredible fact. And if He’s alive again, what does that mean for those dreams and beliefs that had died with Him? Are they resurrected, too? Jesus was resurrected in bodily form. In other words, He wasn’t a ghost. Does that mean the dreams and beliefs should be resurrected in the same form as before? Or does the fact that Jesus conquered death mean the dreams and beliefs need to change?

            As I thought about all those questions they must have had, I decided to look at the words of Jesus that He spoke after the resurrection. As I read all four gospel accounts, I noticed a couple of themes running through His words. One was repeated often: Peace be with you. It makes sense that He would need to say that. The disciples were probably shocked and scared at seeing Him alive. Besides, they were living in fear of the Romans and the Jewish leaders. I’m sure they felt very little peace. What about us? We have something they didn’t yet have at that point – the Holy Spirit living within us. But do we always feel His peace? Or do we also fear those in the world, or what may happen in the future? In addition, I think of the women who had just completed a celebration, much like we just did. They had either traveled or had guests for Passover, prepared and served meals, and attended services at the Temple. So in addition to all these other feelings, they were just plain tired! Sound familiar? We need Jesus’ peace, too, don’t we?

           But He didn’t just instill peace on them. He also told them to go. He said it in different ways, but the meaning was to go. Tell others. Care for others. Feed His sheep. Go into all the world. Granted, He did tell them to wait in Jerusalem until they had received the Holy Spirit. But they were being prepared for a life of serving others and telling others about Him. What about us? Where is God telling us to go? How is He wanting us to serve others? In what ways does He want us to share His peace with others? As we leave the Easter season behind, let’s not leave behind the words of the risen Savior. Rather, we can choose to be open to God’s leading and be willing to go.

“’Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”’  John 12:13  

“But they shouted, ‘Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!’”  John 19:15

            It sure doesn’t seem like these two verses go together, does it? And they don’t. In fact, they’re complete opposites. The first verse happened on what we now celebrate as Palm Sunday. Jesus was entering Jerusalem, something He had done many times before in His life. But this entrance was different. This time He was entering as a king on a – wait, on a what? A donkey? What kind of king is that? Apparently, the people who were there that day didn’t care that He wasn’t riding or horse, or that He didn’t have servants and slaves to announce His arrival. They praised Him anyway. The word “hosanna” is a word of praise, but it originally meant “save us.” So included with the praise is a request to be saved from their enemies and oppressors. Can you hear a hint of desperation in their shouts?

            A mere five days later, the crowd was calling for His death. It’s hard to imagine how they could have changed their minds so drastically in such a short amount of time. How had they moved from praising on Sunday to condemning on Friday? Had He done something terrible in those days? Had He committed some horrific crime that turned everyone against Him? No, he spent His days teaching on the temple steps about the Kingdom of God. I wonder if it was more about what He didn’t do. He didn’t raise an army to defeat Rome. He didn’t call down fire from heaven on Caesar. He didn’t declare the oppressors as the sinners who should free God’s people. In other words, He didn’t save them. Or so they thought. Little did they know that He would save them from something far greater than the might of Rome. And He would save in a way they couldn’t fathom: by defeating sin and death. But their minds were too little to comprehend all of that.

            Before we get all self-righteous and go cross-eyed from trying to look down our noses at them, stop and think of how often we do the exact same thing. How often do we ask God to save us from something and we have a very clear idea of exactly how He should? If He doesn’t, we turn on Him. Or at least turn from Him. If He won’t do what I ask, then why should I praise Him? We act as if He’s our personal genie in a lamp for us to command and we forget that He’s the God of the universe Whose heart’s desire is to save us. But He will save us from the mightiest enemy of all. And He’ll do it in ways we can’t comprehend. Do we believe that? Do I believe that? This Holy Week, am I willing to praise Him simply for Who He is, not what He’s done? Am I willing to continue to praise, even when the crowd is shouting for His death? Will I follow Him to the cross, then the tomb? I hope so, because that’s the only way we’ll experience the joy and salvation of Easter Sunday.

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 6:23

           This may be a familiar verse to you. I know it’s one of my favorites. I think it’s one of the best “but God” verses in the Bible. What do I mean by “but God” verses? How often do we read in the Bible of times when the people of God were sinning and deserved punishment, but God . . .? Or maybe they find themselves in a situation that seems hopeless, but God . . . Perhaps they were plunging straight ahead, thinking they were serving God when in reality they were going in the opposite direction from Him, but God . . . He always finds a way to break into the situation and bring us back to Him.

           The first part of the verse is pretty self-explanatory. We sin, therefore, we deserve to die. It may be self-explanatory, but it sure seems harsh, doesn’t it? I mean, all sin should have a death sentence? I can see a death sentence for something like murder, but gossip? Or judging others? What if my judgement is only on the inside? Is that still a sin? Maybe, but not a bad one, right? But that’s looking at it from a human perspective. We are incredibly talented at downplaying the depth and the seriousness of our sin and rationalizing our own motives. It wasn’t really my fault. Someone else was gossiping and I didn’t want to be rude. So it’s really the other person’s fault. Or, I can’t help it if I have an opinion about another person and that opinion happens to be a negative one. Right? Wrong. These are the very sins that separated us for eternity from God.

           But God.  God knew we can’t keep from sinning. He knew what helpless, hopeless creatures we are. So He gave us a gift. Some versions say a “free gift.” That seems a little redundant to me. All gifts are free. That’s what makes them gifts. But the original Greek uses a different word than at any other time in the Bible. This is a gift that is a “gracious gift.” It’s not a wedding gift that’s given because you got an invitation so you kind of have to take a gift. This gift was unasked for, unexpected, and definitely undeserved. And it’s a gift we could never repay. Never. Not if we spend the rest of eternity trying. Here’s the irony: we can spend eternity trying to repay this un-repayable gift only because this gift has given us that eternity with God.

If God has broken into our world to solve this dilemma for us, how much more is He able to help us with the wildernesses in which we may find ourselves? And He may even do it in ways we could never imagine or foresee. What is your situation today? Are you sad? Depressed? Lonely? Hopeless? Convicted? Shamed? Angry? Hurt? Wherever you are and whatever you’re experiencing, I have just two words for you: But God . . .

“’For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the Lord.”  Isaiah 55:8

           God has some amazing ways to pull us up short, doesn’t He? I was recently in a situation that had me feeling discouraged, worn, and full of that kind of self-pity that can so easily lead to self-condemnation. Even as I type these words, I’m shocked that I allowed myself to dwell in such a yucky place. But so often, we move into that place without even realizing that we’ve changed address. And then something happened. It took all of 10 seconds for it to happen, but it pulled me up short and priorities and viewpoints shifted. It was almost a physical feeling of things clicking into place in my mind and in my heart. Those things that had me down were so, well, meaningless. They were nothing more than a vapor when compared to the truly important things that God wants us to spend our time, energy and thoughts on.

            That’s what made me think of this verse. If I had been thinking with God’s mind all along, I wouldn’t have fallen into the pit of self-pity and discouragement. When left to our own devices, we end up digging ourselves into a deeper and deeper hole. The next verse goes on to say that His thoughts are much higher than ours. That’s what we need sometimes, isn’t it? Thoughts that pull us up out of the pit, rather than dragging us further down.

           It’s not just God’s thoughts that are higher. His ways are, too. That word could also be translated as route or journey. Has your life journey been all you would have chosen? Or have there been difficulties that you would have gladly steered around if you had been given the chance? I have to admit that my life has been a lazy day in the park compared with some people I know. Even so, there have been situations I would certainly have chosen to avoid. But God put them in my path, in my way, for a reason. I may be able to see the reason when I look back on them, but I’m guessing even then I only see a fraction of the reason. We won’t know the full story until we reach heaven. And that’s where faith comes in. Do I trust God’s thoughts, the ones that are so high I can’t begin to understand them? Do I trust that even in my lack of understanding, His way for me is always the best way? Am I willing to submit my life to the loving, caring God of the universe, the only One who can see me through those painfully difficult times?