Worth Repeating - August 14, 2017

Matthew 12: 30 “He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters.”(NIV)

When the crowd got too large, [Jesus] would inevitably sharpen the blade of his teaching.*

Sometimes Jesus spoke in parables to weed out the merely curious from the seekers. At other times, he cleared the room by issuing challenging statements such as this one. There was no allowance for wafflers. Indifference was not an option.

It was true then and it is true now: You can’t be just “not with” Jesus. If you aren’t with him, you are against him, actively or passively. If you are not working for the kingdom, you are working against the kingdom, even while doing nothing overtly to affect it adversely. Not to choose is to fall back to the default position: against Jesus; for Satan. There is no such thing as a neutral party.

If you think that being a good person is enough, you are wrong. Jesus calls us to be more than good enough; he calls us to be like him. On our own, we can never be that good, but when we choose him, his grace becomes the sign that we are on the winning side.

He saves us not because we are good enough, but because Christ was.*

Worth Repeating - August 13, 2017

Job 13: 19 “Can anyone bring charges against me? If so, I will be silent and die.” (NIV)

He has never apportioned our punishment to our sins, nor has he regulated the exercise of his mercy by our merits.*

In the cop shows, lawyers are frequently portrayed as encouraging their clients to “take a plea” even though they insist that they are innocent. I used to think there was no way I would plead to a lesser charge when I knew I wasn’t guilty of any crime, but if real life is anything like TV, one can’t always count on a fair trial to exonerate him. If the evidence against me were overwhelming, would I take my chances in court?

Job was falsely accused, but he was confident of his innocence. And he was willing to take his chances in court. He was willing to die rather than admit to any wrongdoing. When we stand before God in his role as judge, how will we plead? We know we’re not innocent. Paul reminds us in Romans 3: 23 that we all have sinned and fall short of God’s glory. But in the next verse we find the good news: we are “justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”

As the redeemed of the Lord, we can face our judgment with Job’s confidence. “Can anyone bring charges against me?” 

The Cross ends the law's power of punishment.*

Worth Repeating - August 12, 2017

Deuteronomy 34: 1-4 Then Moses climbed Mount Nebo from the plains of Moab to the top of Pisgah, across from Jericho. There the Lord showed him the whole land . . . Then the Lord said to him, “This is the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob . . . I have let you see it with your eyes, but you will not cross over into it.” (NIV)

Don’t waste . . . [today] by whining over yesterday’s disappointments or pining for a perfect tomorrow.*

Poor Moses! One little temper tantrum and he is barred forever from crossing into the Promised Land. Surely the taste was bitter, after 40 years of trying to get there, as he looked but could not touch.

We face disappointments in life – big ones and little ones. We can imagine how we would feel if we were in Moses’ sandals, and we even wonder how God could have been so harsh in his punishment for the little incident in Numbers chapter 20.  But in Matthew 17, Mark 9, and Luke 9, we find the happy ending arranged for Moses by a loving God. On a high mountain, Moses met and chatted with the Messiah – and finally stepped into the boundaries of the land that was forbidden to him in his lifetime.

Instead of bemoaning your life’s disappointments, remember that God’s plans for you are bigger and better than your dreams for yourself. Follow him and trust that you will see the Promised Land some day!

Our pain and suffering is often so intense it is impossible to see beyond our understanding to a greater plan and purpose.*

Worth Repeating - August 11, 2017

Leviticus 22: 20 “Do not bring anything with a defect, because it will not be accepted on your behalf.” (NIV)

God’s great promises deserve our best effort!*

Some of the “benefactors” of our church’s food pantry clearly have never heard of the concept of giving God your best. From expired food to products that were unidentifiable because their packaging was in a foreign language, to bags that included roaches along with the food, many items have gone straight to the trash can. Frequently, the shelves included borscht (what is it, anyway?), sauerkraut and pickled beets; and always, after the holiday season, there’s a nice supply of canned pumpkin pie filling and cranberry sauce – not necessarily bad things but not one’s first choice for feeding a hungry family.

When God required his people to offer their best, it was a sacrifice in more than one way. I can imagine the temptation to bring their defective animals to the temple instead. What difference could it make if the deformed or the diseased animals were culled from the herd to be burned on the altar? It wasn’t as if God was going to eat the meat – it was all merely symbolic, wasn’t it? 

Well, yes, the sacrifices and the rituals were symbolic, but they were instituted to remind God’s people of his place in their lives.* And apparently, we need to be reminded that God deserves our best. Whether it’s in how we use our time or talents, or how generously we give to the poor, we demonstrate our level of appreciation to the one who has given us everything we have.

God gives liberally; man divides it badly.*

Worth Repeating - August 10, 2017

Ecclesiastes 9: 11 I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all. (NIV)

Life is hard, and you are not entitled to anything.*

Solomon’s attitude about the unfairness of life reflects our own at times. It doesn’t seem right when the slow and the weak win but actually, sometimes the swift do come in first in the race and the strong do win battles. Should we be discouraged because life’s moments of fairness aren’t consistent?

Recently, a young couple that I know lost their baby boy after only 26 days of life. Someone said that they are struggling to understand why this happened. Sadly, there probably isn’t a “why.” As Solomon says, “Time and chance happen to them all.” Life happens – and death happens. The best we can hope for on earth is to reveal the glory and the blessing to be found in such unfairness.

Solomon lived in a time when knowledge of the details about heaven and hell were somewhat vague. We live in more enlightened and hopeful times because Jesus has revealed that a bright future lies ahead for his faithful followers. As it turns out, our hope is as unfair as Solomon’s hopelessness. If it were fair, it wouldn’t be grace.

Life happens. And none of it takes God by surprise.*

Worth Repeating - August 9, 2017

Romans 15: 1, 2 We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. Each of us should please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. (NIV)

Whenever two people are together, one is influencing the other.*

Which one are you? Are you the strong one or are you the weak one? I like another writer’s assessment: “I have never heard anyone say he or she was the weak person! We always hear the text and identify with the strong (or the right) person!”*

The truth is, as Christians, each of is both the strong one and the weak one. That’s why we need each other. I may be able to prop you up on one side, but look over and you will see someone else supporting my weak side. But here’s the thing: we can’t always know another’s weaknesses. Maybe we aren’t even aware of our own. Paul offers us the solution to this dilemma. “Each of us,” he says, “should please his neighbor for his good, to build him up.”

In your community of faith, someone is looking to you for clues as to how you manage your Christian walk. You, in turn, are looking at others to be your example. If we seek to “emulate Christ who did not please himself,”* we will be bearing with the failings of the weak whether we know it or not.

Relationships give us a safe place to watch how someone further down the road navigates through life.*

Worth Repeating - August 8, 2017

James 2: 19 You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that – and shudder. (NIV)

Belief in the one God does not mean salvation.*

Recently, someone told me that she believes in God but she doesn’t believe in Jesus. She is one of those “we’re all going to the same place just taking different paths” people. Wouldn’t it be nice if believing in God was all we had to do to be saved? Well, maybe not so nice for heaven because that means the devil and his minions will be there. And not so nice for Jesus because that would mean that he suffered and died for nothing.

James’ little display of sarcasm is directed at his readers who believed that faith alone meets the requirements for salvation. In this passage and the verses surrounding it, he makes two points: we aren’t saved by faith and we aren’t saved by works. If faith was enough, we would be sharing heaven with those shuddering demons. If good deeds could save us, any altruistic, hardworking heathen has a chance at eternal life.

But the equation still doesn’t add up. Faith plus good works doesn’t equal salvation. We are saved by the grace of God. We can’t work our way to heaven; no amount of faith merits eternal life. It is only through the sacrifice of God’s Son that we are saved from hell. Obedience to God’s plan is how we acquire grace, not how we earn it.

Salvation was free to us, but expensive to God.*