October 1, 2017

“Therefore Jesus said again, “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep.” John 10:7-15

Like the sheep in Psalm 23 you should be one satisfied sheep! I have spent the better part of this week reminding you of how good your Shepherd is! So, if there is still anxiety or discontent stirring in your soul it could be that you are not following Him as well as you should!

May I share a true story to further illustrate the blessings and benefits of following this Shepherd Who is a personal shepherd and a powerful shepherd and a promising shepherd?

Here it is:

In 1972, a shepherd had brought his sheep into a walled-off, enclosed area for the night, and he had just gone to sleep when he heard a commotion. He quickly rushed over to where the sound was coming from and to his horror he discovered that a wolf was in the process of dragging off one of his sheep through a hole in the wall. He was mauling this sheep and blood was flying.

The shepherd quickly began hitting the wolf, and the wolf turned on him and began attacking him. He bit him over and over while the shepherd was striking him with his staff, and finally with one final blow of his staff, he killed the wolf as he himself collapsed into a bloody heap.

He managed to crawl over to the half-dead sheep, and began to bandage its wounds.

He gave it some water, and then took it in his own bloody arms, and shepherd and sheep went to sleep together. The next morning the shepherd was found dead, his body literally draped over the sheep to comfort it and keep it warm. The following day the headline in the Jerusalem paper said, “Sheep Alive, Covered in Shepherd’s Blood.”

That is the testimony of every sheep and lamb who is under the care of the Good Shepherd. Why would you not follow Him closely? Why would you not completely trust a Shepherd like that?

Any other shepherd is a hireling who comes to steal, abuse, or kill the sheep. There is no comparison between the Good Shepherd and any other. There is really no comparison between sheep under the care of the Good Shepherd and those who are not. You can tell the difference by looking! There is a noticeable difference!

As the storm clouds gather and the threats increase and the world becomes significantly more dangerous, you cannot afford to be led or cared for by anyone other than the Good Shepherd because no matter how perilous the times that lay ahead - IF THE LORD IS YOUR SHEPHERD, YOUR FUTURE IS YOUR FRIEND!

Hallelujah!

September 30, 2017

^"Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.”  Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”  Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Couldn’t you men keep watch with me for one hour?” he asked Peter. “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.” When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. So he left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing."  Matthew 26:36-44

God the Father loves us to LIFE with His tender love.

God loves us to DEATH

God’s love has a tough side to it.

Committed love means:

1)    It Has A Purpose

“There are two great days in a person’s life -- the day we are born and the day we discover why”.  SOURCE: William Barclay

YOUR PURPOSE IS TO LET GOD LOVE YOU SO YOU CAN LOVE HIM AND BEGIN TO FEEL LOVED SO YOU CAN LOVE OTHERS.

2)    It Has A Price

In The Cost of Discipleship Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote:  “The cross is laid on every Christian. As we embark upon discipleship we surrender ourselves to Christ in union with his death–we give over our lives to death. The cross is not the terrible end to an otherwise god-fearing and happy life, but it meets us at the beginning of our communion with Christ. When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.”

To know the love of the Father in its fullest you will need to die. You must die to sin and self which keep you from receiving all the love God has to give you. If it required a cross for Jesus what makes you think the price will be lower for you?

3)    It Has A Promise

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.  Consider Him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” Heb. 12:1-3

Our Lord Jesus was willing to endure the unspeakable shame and agony of the cross because He knew the promise that awaited Him - and all those who would believe in Him.

In these two great portions of Scripture - The Prodigal Parable and the Prayer in the Garden - we have seen three different responses to  God's love:

REBELLION – The Prodigal

The story is told (by Ernest Hemingway) of a father and his teenage son who had a relationship that had become strained to the point of breaking. Finally the son ran away from home. His father, however, began a journey in search of his rebellious son. Finally, in Madrid, in a last desperate effort to find him, the father put an ad in the newspaper. The ad read: “DEAR PACO, MEET ME IN FRONT OF THE NEWSPAPER OFFICE AT NOON. ALL IS FORGIVEN. I LOVE YOU. YOUR FATHER.”

The next day at noon in front of the newspaper office, 800 “Pacos” showed up.

This younger son who became the Prodigal did not receive the love of his father. Instead, he took advantage of that love and indulged himself at the expense of the father's love.

Is that how you treat the love of your Father? Do you selfishly grab the rewards but refuse the responsibilities and the relationship?

You will never know the love of God if that is how you respond to His goodness and grace.

RELIGION – The Older Son

“Religion is hanging around the cross, Christianity is hanging on the cross.” — Stephen Hill

Buddhism has a story similar to the story Jesus told about the Prodigal Son. In the story Jesus told, the father sees his wayward son, and runs to greet him. The prodigal says he no longer deserves to be considered a son, but the loving father throws a party for him and freely restores him to his full honor as a son.

In the Buddhist story, the father finds his wayward son and arranges for him to be given a menial job. Through many years of working as a slave, the son eventually earns his way back into his father’s good graces.

Those two stories illustrate the biggest difference between Christianity other world religions. It’s really simple. You study all the religions of the world and they come down to one word: DO. What can you DO to have religious success in life? What must you DO to earn favor with God? All the religions of the world come back to the word DO.

Here’s the difference. Christianity is all about DONE. It’s about what Jesus Christ has already DONE for us. It’s about God giving Himself to us in the person of Jesus. It’s about Him dying for our sins so that we can enter into salvation. It’s not about what we must DO to earn salvation. It’s about responding to what has already been DONE for us. That is a huge difference.

The older son was not rebellious like his foolish little brother, but neither did he enjoy the relatIonship with his father that he could have and should have. He tried to earn the Father's love and felt entitled to all the status, the security, the safety and the supply he enjoyed by virtue of his birth.

He illustrates those who hover near God and faithfully perform their religious rituals but never really know relationship with the Father or receive His love.

Does this describe your spiritual condition?

RIGHTEOUSNESS – Jesus

The third response to the Father's love is how Jesus responded. Even after He experienced the tough side of God's love, after He had heard the Father refuse Him three times when He had prayed to be spared from the cross. Still He chose to do the right thing and obey the will of the Father despite the incredible suffering it would cost Him.

Jesus valued relationship with the Father greater than His own life. He decided He would love God more than life itself. As a result, He received the love of God in ways that few others ever have known.

Is that how you love God? Are you more committed to being right and remaining in relationship with God than playing it safe and avoiding the pain?

Three ways to respond to the AMAZING love of God:

Rebellion?

Religion?

Righteousness?

Which will you choose?

Saved By His Light

"The Lord is my light and my salvation — whom shall I fear?" Psalm 27:1a

Thank God for His light!

Thank God for being the Light!

As John wrote, "This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin." I John 1:5-7

Thank God for enabling us to walk in His light!

Living in the Light gives security and safety. Praise God for that.

But notice the Psalmist doesn't stop there. The Lord is not just our Light but He is our Salvation!

In this context, He saves us with His light!

As much as we fear the outer darkness and the dangers it conceals, but there is an inner darkness that is equally frightening. That darkness is sinfulness. That sinfulness separates from God. Once separated from God, there is no light and the darkness returns. When the darkness returns so does the fear.

So, the Lord really IS our Light and Salvation. By His power and presence He can protect us from the outer darkness that causes you to fear. And by His shed blood and His Spirit He can deliver us from the inner darkness that causes fear about eternity.

Are you trapped in fear?

Are you fearful over the darkness in your heart?

Are fearful about your eternal future?

Have you received His salvation?

Are you walking in His light?

September 28, 2017

“When the LORD restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dreamed.” Psalm 126:1

Sometimes we fall captive to what my friend, John Maxwell calls, “destination disease”. That may have been the case here in the 126th Psalm. Sure, they had suffered 70 years of being held captive by the Babylonians but I think the greater captivity was in their spirit where they longed for the days when they could worship God in a certain way at a certain place.

It seems they had forgotten that though they were restricted to a foreign land, their God wasn’t. He was longing to meet them right where they were. It seems they failed to remember that Abraham had worshipped God in his travels and Moses had worshipped God in the desert. They failed to miss His presence because their experience with Him was mired in the past.

Because of this “destination disease” they almost missed the wonderful new thing that God was doing! As they longed for God to restore them back to the sacred soil of Jerusalem to rebuild their Temple, God sent a captor to take their captor captive! Cyrus the Great and his Persian army overwhelmed the Babylonians and God put it on his heart to “restore the fortunes of Zion”!

Are you suffering from “destination disease”? Are you held captive to notions that worship has to happen in a certain way at a certain place? Are you holding God captive to your traditions and your comfort zone? Are you missing a new thing God is doing because you are locked into the old? Are you waiting for Him to show up or are you seeking to find Him where He is?

God has called us to freedom! God has sent Jesus to take our captor captive! Even when the circumstances of life take us places we don’t want to be , we should live in spiritual freedom! We should meet Him where we are! We should not look for God in old places and retreat to comfort zones, we should expect God to do knew and wonderful things for us!

Tradition can be a wonderful thing but it can also inflict us with “destination disease”. Be thankful as you remember what God has done in past places and in past ways, but also realize that He is doing something new! Remember the past and respect the past but don’t retreat there! 

Live in His freedom! 

Live in His freshness! Right now! 

Right where you are!

Love Is The Heart

"No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future,nor any powers,  neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."  Romans 8:37-39

Love is the heart of the Great Commandment and it is also the heart of the Great Commission! 

Love leads to life-change! And not just superficial change but a fundamental spiritual transformation. Love has that power because love is committed, and love is courageous, and love is confrontational and it is consistent. 

The Apostle Paul understood compelling love - "But I want to share one more powerful aspect of love - love is compelling! If we are “out of our mind,” as some say, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again." II Corinthians 5:13-15

I'm sure you are familiar with the saying, "You do for love what you wouldn't do for money." That is another way of expressing the compelling power of love.

It is the love of God that compelled Him to speak creation into existence to sustain His prized creation, Adam.

It is the love of God that compelled Him to extend mercy and grace toward Adam and Eve after they abused His love by their self-centered love.

It is the love of God that compelled Him to send His only begotten Son, Jesus, to suffer and die for the sins of the world.

It was the love of Jesus that compelled Him to empty Himself, leave Heaven and come to earth as a baby in a feed trough.

And, it was the love of Jesus that compelled Him to surrender to an agonizing death on the cross to atone for the sins of the world.

When you have received the love of God through Christ by faith, you will be compelled to share His love with those you love. If you are not compelled by His love you should make sure you really have it. 

His love is compelling!

September 26. 2017

“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Luke 9:20

Do you find it curious that Jesus is asking them if they know Who He is after they have walked with Him and worked with Him for almost three years now?

Further, consider when He asked this probing question. They had recently went out on a mission in His name healing people and driving out demons! The day before they had miraculously fed thousands of people with one simple lunch!

Is it possible to do all those amazing feats and still not know Who Jesus is?

Apparently.

Consider what Jesus said on another occasion:

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ Matthew 7:21-23

Chilling isn't it? Jesus makes it plain that you can do amazing things in His name but not necessarily know Him.

Could it be that discipleship is not so much about what you do are as what you are? Could it be that discipleship is about intimately understanding Who Jesus is? It makes sense that there is a difference between knowing Jesus and knowing about Him.

That is a HUGE difference! That is THE difference - relationship vs. religion. Religion is based on the belief that you can "do" and "not do" yourself into believing. But Jesus pokes a whole through that notion! He wants to live in relationship with you and desires to live His life out through you. Your doing for Christ results from being in Christ.

If your focus is on what you do or don't do for Christ, you are not a disciple. Even if you are doing miracles and deliverances. It is about "being" not "doing". True discipleship is knowing Jesus and living in intimate relationship with Him.

The suffix "ship" denotes a state of being. We will be exploring how being in Christ should shape your life.

Are you in Christ today? 

Do you know Him? 

Don't settle for just doing.

September 25, 2017

“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Peter answered, “God’s Messiah.”Luke 9:20

One of my more embarrassing moments in high school was when I let a moment of frustration cause me to forget who I was. My coach reminded me - loudly and in front of everyone.

I was playing baseball for the Warsaw Community High School Tigers. WCHS is a well regarded high school in Indiana for its excellence in academics and in athletics. When you make one of their teams they rightly expect you to represent that level of excellence.

On this day I was having a good game at the plate. I was seeing the ball well and hitting it. But when I came to bat this time I got fooled on a pitch and tried to hold up on my swing. Instead of checking my swing I hit the ball, resulting in a weak little dribbler to the second basement who scooped it up and threw me out at first. Upset at myself I slammed my batting helmet into the ground as I ran across the base. It landed loudly and bounced high and looked bad. I looked bad. I made the team look bad.

My coach just happened to be coaching first base and when I turned around to grab my helmet and retreat to the dugout he was waiting for me and he was not happy. Getting up into my face he earnestly informed me what I already knew - I had embarrassed myself and the team. Warsaw Tigers don't behave that way. He was right. I was humiliated.

Sometimes some clarification is necessary. When we forget who we are we forget how we should be.

Studying this portion of Scripture I noticed that before Jesus issued His call to discipleship He first asked for some clarification, "Who do you say I am?"

Appropriate, eh?

How can you answer the call to discipleship if you are not completely clear on Who He is? Why would you want to commit your life and surrender yourself to Someone you are not clear about?

In this portion of Scripture Jesus not only gives clarification to Who He is but He gives clarification to who you and I should be and in so doing, He clarifys discipleship. Jesus tells us that being a disciple has two components:

SAY IT - disciples declare and confess that Jesus is the Son of the God - the Messiah - the Savior - the Lamb of God - the Lord of all!

SHOW IT - disciples demonstrate the Lordship of Christ by how they live. Disciples daily deny themselves and take up their cross and follow Him every day in every way!

Disciples are clear about Who He is and they are clear on who they need to be. The know Him and they show Him. As a result, all who watch their lives become clear about Who Jesus is!

Are you clear about your calling? 

Are you making Him clear by how you live? 

Are there things you need to clear up?