There’s a tension that most of us have dealt with, and it shows up in the form of some questions. Questions like: How do I know where I stand with God? If there is a God, how are we doing? Can God hear my prayers, and does He care?
To help answer those questions, I want to show you a conversation that God had with a man in the Old Testament named Abraham. But here’s a modern day story to kind of create the context. One afternoon, a man was working at home and suddenly hears the sound of lots of breaking glass. He runs to the kitchen and finds his 17-year-old daughter standing, barefoot, in this sea of glass.
She looked up and said, “Dad, I’m so sorry!!” She had reached for a glass when the shelf broke, sending numerous glasses to the counter top and floor. The dad looked at the mess and said, “I can’t believe that you did that. You can just stand there and figure out how to get out of this mess yourself!”
Some of you think that’s what God is like. You think that He stares at you in the mess of your own making and says, “You made the mess, you clean it up because you have to clean up what you mess up. You sinned, you fix it.” Yet, for those of you think God is like that, you don’t believe for a single moment that this guy left his daughter standing in her little sea of glass - and he didn’t. The truth is, he did what any good father would do. He rescued his daughter.
In a similar way, mankind - because of sin and selfishness - made a huge mess of the world. And if God really cared and was truly compassionate, He had to decide: “Do I wade into this mess and try to find a starting point for cleaning up the mess that someone else has created, or, do I just hang a big, ‘Out of Order’ sign over the earth?”
The great news is this: God decided to wade in by choosing a single man named Abraham. God chooses Abraham and tells him three things: “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you." (Genesis 12:4, NIV) All three of those things happened.
God told Abraham that all the people groups on earth were somehow going to be influenced, or be better off because of him. Then God said, “Look up at the heavens and count the stars--if indeed you can count them. So shall your offspring be." (Genesis 15:5, NIV)
Then there is a statement that is SO powerful: “Abraham believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.” (Genesis 15:6, NIV)
In this simple statement, we find the nature of the relationship between God and man. In this statement, God defines the terms. Abraham believed, and that’s what was required. This statement makes faith incredibly simple. There’s nothing more that’s necessary. God told Abraham that he would be a great nation, even though he had no children yet, and Abraham believed. Or to put it another way, Abraham put his faith in God.
It’s that simple. Abraham didn’t have to jump through hoops or do a bunch of spiritual calisthenics. He put his faith in God. Period. In a single moment and a single expression of faith, God said to Abraham, “I am giving you the gift of a right standing with me. Abraham, I accept you because you believed and trusted in me.” In other words, Trusting in God results in a right standing with God.
It’s almost impossible to comprehend that God would make this standard so simple, but He did. When we find ourselves in our own mess, our own sea of glass, God steps in and says, “The way you enter into a relationship with me is by believing me and trusting me.” No, it’s not always easy, but when we do we find that God, His love and His promises are real.
Friday, March 13, 2015
Wednesday, February 25, 2015
"Mistaker" vs "Sinner"
In my last article I wrote about a starting point for faith as an adult, and I concluded the article with a question: “Who is Jesus?” When it comes to faith in God, that’s the question that has to be answered.
Another question we have to deal with is, “Am I a sinner?” We don’t like that question, so in our culture we’ve removed the word, “sinner” and replaced it with a word that’s easier for us to bear. We’ve replaced the word “sin” with the word, “Mistake”.
“Mistake”, however, is a terrible word. Here’s an example of why: Brian Williams, news anchor for NBC, claimed to have been in helicopter that was shot down by a RPG. This is a story that he’s told, in various forms, for 12 years. Then, last week, he recanted the story saying that he, “made a mistake” in remembering. But wait a minute, that’s not a mistake. I may not know exactly what it is, but it’s way bigger than a mistake. A mistake is when you forget to carry the 2 on a math test. A mistake is when you’re trying to drive and look at a map at the wrong time and you make a left instead of a right. Those are mistakes. But a 12 year mistake?
The idea of a mistake is insufficient knowledge. But we’ve all used the word “mistake” to talk about things where we knew exactly what we were doing. In fact, sometimes we make mistakes on purpose.
What do you do with a mistake? You correct it. But the problem isn’t “mistakes”. The problem is us. We resist the idea that it just might be a sin problem. So to help all of us out, let me give you the “101 definition” of a sinner. This isn’t theological, this is just a simple definition. Sinner: Someone who knows better, but does it anyway.
When Jesus talked about sin, He always talked about it in connection to relationship because sin breaks relationship. Adam and Eve, in the Garden of Eden, had this close relationship with God, but sin broke that relationship. If you’ve ever broken a relationship it’s because you did something that you shouldn’t have done, or someone else did something they shouldn’t have done or both of you did things you shouldn’t do. And it broke the relationship. So, because of that, Jesus’ entire purpose of talking about sin was not condemnation, but restoration.
Jesus knew that as long as you just think you’re making mistakes, you will never seek the thing you need most to bring restoration. He says, “You’re heavenly Father wants you to be restored to Him, and the only way to be restored is to seek forgiveness. And the only way you’ll seek forgiveness is if you realize you didn’t simply make a mistake. It’s bigger than that. And it’s not the first time. The fact is, you’re a sinner.”
But Jesus doesn’t end with sin condemned. It goes from sin to condemned to, “I need to ask forgiveness.” And when we ask for forgiveness, we can be restored to God. But if we never ask for forgiveness we can never be restored to God because mistakers think they can self-correct, and they never get there.
Here’s my point: Recognition of sin is what paves the way to restoration of relationship. In our minds we think, “Once I say I’m a sinner, ‘boom’, the bottom falls out.” But Jesus says, “That’s not it at all. You need to just look at me and say, ‘I have sinned’ and ask for forgiveness. And as soon as you do I’m going to give you what a mistaker never asks for. I’m going to give you forgiveness and I’m going to restore you to me.”
So here’s another question to wrestle with: Ask youself, “Am I a ‘mistaker’, or am I a ‘sinner’?” And when you honestly answer that question, what will you do about it?
Another question we have to deal with is, “Am I a sinner?” We don’t like that question, so in our culture we’ve removed the word, “sinner” and replaced it with a word that’s easier for us to bear. We’ve replaced the word “sin” with the word, “Mistake”.
“Mistake”, however, is a terrible word. Here’s an example of why: Brian Williams, news anchor for NBC, claimed to have been in helicopter that was shot down by a RPG. This is a story that he’s told, in various forms, for 12 years. Then, last week, he recanted the story saying that he, “made a mistake” in remembering. But wait a minute, that’s not a mistake. I may not know exactly what it is, but it’s way bigger than a mistake. A mistake is when you forget to carry the 2 on a math test. A mistake is when you’re trying to drive and look at a map at the wrong time and you make a left instead of a right. Those are mistakes. But a 12 year mistake?
The idea of a mistake is insufficient knowledge. But we’ve all used the word “mistake” to talk about things where we knew exactly what we were doing. In fact, sometimes we make mistakes on purpose.
What do you do with a mistake? You correct it. But the problem isn’t “mistakes”. The problem is us. We resist the idea that it just might be a sin problem. So to help all of us out, let me give you the “101 definition” of a sinner. This isn’t theological, this is just a simple definition. Sinner: Someone who knows better, but does it anyway.
When Jesus talked about sin, He always talked about it in connection to relationship because sin breaks relationship. Adam and Eve, in the Garden of Eden, had this close relationship with God, but sin broke that relationship. If you’ve ever broken a relationship it’s because you did something that you shouldn’t have done, or someone else did something they shouldn’t have done or both of you did things you shouldn’t do. And it broke the relationship. So, because of that, Jesus’ entire purpose of talking about sin was not condemnation, but restoration.
Jesus knew that as long as you just think you’re making mistakes, you will never seek the thing you need most to bring restoration. He says, “You’re heavenly Father wants you to be restored to Him, and the only way to be restored is to seek forgiveness. And the only way you’ll seek forgiveness is if you realize you didn’t simply make a mistake. It’s bigger than that. And it’s not the first time. The fact is, you’re a sinner.”
But Jesus doesn’t end with sin condemned. It goes from sin to condemned to, “I need to ask forgiveness.” And when we ask for forgiveness, we can be restored to God. But if we never ask for forgiveness we can never be restored to God because mistakers think they can self-correct, and they never get there.
Here’s my point: Recognition of sin is what paves the way to restoration of relationship. In our minds we think, “Once I say I’m a sinner, ‘boom’, the bottom falls out.” But Jesus says, “That’s not it at all. You need to just look at me and say, ‘I have sinned’ and ask for forgiveness. And as soon as you do I’m going to give you what a mistaker never asks for. I’m going to give you forgiveness and I’m going to restore you to me.”
So here’s another question to wrestle with: Ask youself, “Am I a ‘mistaker’, or am I a ‘sinner’?” And when you honestly answer that question, what will you do about it?
Monday, February 16, 2015
THE Question
Everything has a starting point, including faith. For most of us, our faith journey started somewhere in childhood and included things like, “God is good”. Along the way you heard that God punishes evil and rewards good, so you’d better be a good little boy or girl because God rewards good people, and He doesn’t really reward the bad people. And someone told you that God answers prayer. But for many people, as they grew older, their childhood faith didn’t do so well under the rigors of adult life.
Yeah, God is good but there’s a lot of bad things in the world. And there seem to be a lot of good things that go unrewarded and bad things that get rewarded. And God answers prayer, but He didn’t answer your prayer - at least not the way you wanted Him to. Sometimes our childhood faith and what started off so fresh and so real and so passionate as kids just doesn’t seem relevant in the world in which you live.
Part of the problem with Christianity is that when we grew up we were taught the Bible. That, in and of itself, isn’t a problem, but in some ways the way we were taught the Bible is a problem. As a child, we were taught that it was the Word of God, it was inspired and infallible. So we went off to college and we were told that, even though it was sacred, it wasn’t scientific and it wasn’t factual. And even though there were stories in here that were inspirational, they weren’t necessarily true. The thing is, “The Bible Says” is not an adequate starting point or returning point for many adults. But here’s the good news: “The Bible says” was never intended to be the starting point for the Christian faith.
“The Bible says”, wasn’t the starting point when Christianity started. the New Testament wasn’t put together for about 350 years after the events of Jesus’ life. The phrase, “New Testament” doesn’t even show up until about 250 AD. So for the first 250 to 350 years of Christianity, countless people became Jesus followers, but not because, “The Bible says”.
These people trusted in Christ and found a relationship with God. But the fact remains, the starting point for the Christian faith is not, “The Bible says”. The starting point for the Christian faith is not, “just believe”. The starting point for the Christian faith, whether they told you this as a child or not, is a question. And the question isn’t, “Were Adam and Eve really naked?” The starting point isn’t, “Did they really put all those animals in the ark? Was there really an ark, anyway? Was there really enough water in the atmosphere to flood the whole earth? Was creation 7 real days or were they longer days?” The question, the foundation, the thing you have to wrestle with if you’re looking for a starting point or looking at re-starting your faith, is this:
Who is Jesus?
Not, “Is the Bible true?” Not the other 20 things we could debate because they’re fun to debate. The question is, “Who is Jesus”? “Who is Jesus” is the question that will always be THE question. Because, once you answer that question, you will discover that many of those other questions begin to answer themselves.
Jesus said this, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. The only way to the Father is through me.” (John 14:6, NCV)
Let me invite you to wrestle with what Jesus said in light of the question, “Who is Jesus?”. And if you have more questions, I, and my colleagues in churches across the community, would be glad to help you find the answers.
Yeah, God is good but there’s a lot of bad things in the world. And there seem to be a lot of good things that go unrewarded and bad things that get rewarded. And God answers prayer, but He didn’t answer your prayer - at least not the way you wanted Him to. Sometimes our childhood faith and what started off so fresh and so real and so passionate as kids just doesn’t seem relevant in the world in which you live.
Part of the problem with Christianity is that when we grew up we were taught the Bible. That, in and of itself, isn’t a problem, but in some ways the way we were taught the Bible is a problem. As a child, we were taught that it was the Word of God, it was inspired and infallible. So we went off to college and we were told that, even though it was sacred, it wasn’t scientific and it wasn’t factual. And even though there were stories in here that were inspirational, they weren’t necessarily true. The thing is, “The Bible Says” is not an adequate starting point or returning point for many adults. But here’s the good news: “The Bible says” was never intended to be the starting point for the Christian faith.
“The Bible says”, wasn’t the starting point when Christianity started. the New Testament wasn’t put together for about 350 years after the events of Jesus’ life. The phrase, “New Testament” doesn’t even show up until about 250 AD. So for the first 250 to 350 years of Christianity, countless people became Jesus followers, but not because, “The Bible says”.
These people trusted in Christ and found a relationship with God. But the fact remains, the starting point for the Christian faith is not, “The Bible says”. The starting point for the Christian faith is not, “just believe”. The starting point for the Christian faith, whether they told you this as a child or not, is a question. And the question isn’t, “Were Adam and Eve really naked?” The starting point isn’t, “Did they really put all those animals in the ark? Was there really an ark, anyway? Was there really enough water in the atmosphere to flood the whole earth? Was creation 7 real days or were they longer days?” The question, the foundation, the thing you have to wrestle with if you’re looking for a starting point or looking at re-starting your faith, is this:
Who is Jesus?
Not, “Is the Bible true?” Not the other 20 things we could debate because they’re fun to debate. The question is, “Who is Jesus”? “Who is Jesus” is the question that will always be THE question. Because, once you answer that question, you will discover that many of those other questions begin to answer themselves.
Jesus said this, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. The only way to the Father is through me.” (John 14:6, NCV)
Let me invite you to wrestle with what Jesus said in light of the question, “Who is Jesus?”. And if you have more questions, I, and my colleagues in churches across the community, would be glad to help you find the answers.
Tuesday, February 10, 2015
Iowa Gubernatorial Inauguration
On January 16, 2015, Governor Terry Branstad and Lieutenant Governor Kim Reynolds took their oaths of office. I had the privilege of offering the benediction at the inauguration, and also had the privilege of presenting a charge to Lieutenant Governor Reynolds on Thursday evening, January 15 at the Service of Dedication.
However you voted in the election, let me challenge you to hold our leaders up in prayer. Below is the charge I presented to Lieutenant Governor Kim Reynolds. Please join me in praying for her and all of our local, state and national leaders.
Lieutenant Governor Reynolds,
When we think of individuals in the Scriptures, we tend to think of men. David, Moses, Abraham, Jesus.....the list goes on. But the Scriptures also include many significant female characters who left their mark in history through their leadership qualities.
Eve shows us that leaders are the target for temptation and that leaders have to face challenges and make difficult choices.
Rebekah shows us that leaders are always willing to give, often giving more than they’re asked for. They put the needs of others before their own.
Miriam shows us that leaders look out for the helpless, that they don’t side with bullies and they defend the defenseless.
Deborah teaches us that leaders inspire their followers. They’re cheerleaders who encourage, motivate, and inspire their followers with supportive words.
Ruth teaches us that leaders demonstrate loyalty and devotion to those they serve and the people who have helped shape them.
And Mary of Nazareth shows us that leaders embrace great opportunities with willingness and enthusiasm and know that the greater the possibility there is for failure, the greater the opportunity there is for success.
Lieutenant Governor, it is not by chance that we stand here again, this evening, as we did 4 years ago. That evening I stated that clearly, God had prepared you for such a time as this. I reiterate that this evening. You have demonstrated exceptional leadership, as these women in the Scripture have done, and as such, the people of Iowa have re-elected you to serve them in the office of Lieutenant Governor, giving you continued opportunity to make Iowa a better place to live, work and raise a family.
As you, once again, accept this great privilege and responsibility, will you continue to be challenged by the Word of God and the people of Iowa to be a servant leader?
Will you continue to work for the betterment of the people of Iowa, consistently and determinedly seeking the best for each individual, and the state as a whole?
Will you continue to pursue advancement in all facets of life for every Iowan and continue to set an example for all Iowans in character, integrity and openness?
Will you welcome wise counsel as you uphold the duties of the office of Lieutenant Governor, and pray daily for wisdom and guidance as you serve the people of Iowa?
If, under God, this is your intent and the purpose in accepting this high calling, please signify the same by affirming: “With God’s help, I will.”
[Lieutenant Governor Reynolds: “I will.”]
And now, I challenge you, as God challenged Israel’s King David: Trust in the LORD, and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him, and he will act.
(Psalm 37:3 & 5, ESV)
However you voted in the election, let me challenge you to hold our leaders up in prayer. Below is the charge I presented to Lieutenant Governor Kim Reynolds. Please join me in praying for her and all of our local, state and national leaders.
Lieutenant Governor Reynolds,
When we think of individuals in the Scriptures, we tend to think of men. David, Moses, Abraham, Jesus.....the list goes on. But the Scriptures also include many significant female characters who left their mark in history through their leadership qualities.
Eve shows us that leaders are the target for temptation and that leaders have to face challenges and make difficult choices.
Rebekah shows us that leaders are always willing to give, often giving more than they’re asked for. They put the needs of others before their own.
Miriam shows us that leaders look out for the helpless, that they don’t side with bullies and they defend the defenseless.
Deborah teaches us that leaders inspire their followers. They’re cheerleaders who encourage, motivate, and inspire their followers with supportive words.
Ruth teaches us that leaders demonstrate loyalty and devotion to those they serve and the people who have helped shape them.
And Mary of Nazareth shows us that leaders embrace great opportunities with willingness and enthusiasm and know that the greater the possibility there is for failure, the greater the opportunity there is for success.
Lieutenant Governor, it is not by chance that we stand here again, this evening, as we did 4 years ago. That evening I stated that clearly, God had prepared you for such a time as this. I reiterate that this evening. You have demonstrated exceptional leadership, as these women in the Scripture have done, and as such, the people of Iowa have re-elected you to serve them in the office of Lieutenant Governor, giving you continued opportunity to make Iowa a better place to live, work and raise a family.
As you, once again, accept this great privilege and responsibility, will you continue to be challenged by the Word of God and the people of Iowa to be a servant leader?
Will you continue to work for the betterment of the people of Iowa, consistently and determinedly seeking the best for each individual, and the state as a whole?
Will you continue to pursue advancement in all facets of life for every Iowan and continue to set an example for all Iowans in character, integrity and openness?
Will you welcome wise counsel as you uphold the duties of the office of Lieutenant Governor, and pray daily for wisdom and guidance as you serve the people of Iowa?
If, under God, this is your intent and the purpose in accepting this high calling, please signify the same by affirming: “With God’s help, I will.”
[Lieutenant Governor Reynolds: “I will.”]
And now, I challenge you, as God challenged Israel’s King David: Trust in the LORD, and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him, and he will act.
(Psalm 37:3 & 5, ESV)
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