Tag: Lent 2014

Lent Day #40 | Holy Saturday

I have been wracking my brain all day, trying to decide what to say. I have decide not to say anything. As we prepare to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus the Christ, I ask you to consider what the disciples felt as they had to live through the Saturday after the crucifixion of Jesus. What would you have felt?

This is a day of mourning. Of apprehension. We should never take for granted the resurrection. The disciples did not know for sure if it would take place. We have the benefit of history and scholarship to buttress our faith. Let us not be cavalier about Jesus death.

God bless you on this Holy Saturday.

Lent Day #39 | Good Friday

I have often wondered if the first disciples of Jesus felt it was appropriate to call the Friday Jesus died “good.” It is difficult to fathom how anything that took place that Friday afternoon could have been considered good. Trumped charges led to a bogus trial and led which to the execution of an innocent man. The circumstances of that day are anything but good.

This evening, during our services, we had a time of confession and repentance. It was a time where we could reflect and submit to God those sins holding us back from fully surrendering to God. It was a powerful moment. At the end of the service, I could see the slips of paper that had been laid upon the cross of Jesus. As I stood there looking at them, the following thought passed through my mind.

If these represent one confessed sin (among the many possibilities) of one fellowship of believers, how must have the cross looked to God when the sins of the world, for all time, were laid upon Jesus?

I was stunned by the reality of how our sinfulness had affected the purest life to have ever walked upon the earth. The unstained, undefiled, unadulterated beauty and perfection of Jesus was ravaged by our sin. He hung on a cross, suffering because if I had to do it I would go to hell. It was the innocence of Jesus that revealed the diabolical nature of our sin. We will never fully understand what the cross of Calvary means. We can experience its benefits. We can know we have been changed, redeemed, and set upon a new path. We just do not have the capacity to process all God did for us in Christ.

good-friday-2014

Today is Good Friday, not because it was good for Jesus, but because it was good for us!

Remember the sorrow this day represents, but look forward, for Sunday is yet to come. The following video is such a wonderful reminder of this simple reality.

(If you can’t see the video click HERE)

Lent Day #38 | Maundy Thursday

Today is Maundy Thursday. It is the Thursday before Easter. The word “maundy” is an old word with two meanings (both of which are not in use anymore). The first meaning is “commandment,” and the second, not as closely related to the reason it is used during Holy Week, is “to beg.” Both of these are interesting when we consider them in the context of Easter and Jesus crucifixion and resurrection.

Jesus washed the disciples feet

The Last Supper occurred on Thursday night. It was during the evening meal that Jesus gave to the disciples one of his final instructions. Jesus said, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another” (John 13:34, ESV). This commandment was given as Jesus was modeling for the disciples the kinds of acts of service they were to perform for one another. Jesus had undressed and wrapped himself with a towel. He then proceeded to wash the disciples’ feet. This simple act has profound implications for us today. What is our attitude when asked to serve? Are we more interested in being served? How difficult is it for us to humble ourselves and do what we do not think we should have to do?

The reality and power of Jesus’ service to us is compounded by the fact that he offered his service before we asked for his help. While we will beg for God’s forgiveness, God has already extended his grace and forgiveness. We come on our knees and God meets us with the ring, shoes, robe and feast of son-ship (Luke 15:11-32). There is no greater demonstration of God’s love toward us than Jesus washing of the disciples’ feet. The one in whom all things “have there being” stooped to wash the dirty feet of twelve dubious disciples.

Lent Day #37 | Redemption

As we draw closer to Easter morning we will take some time to explore what it means that God has redeemed us

We have interacted with the idea of redemption at various times during this series of reflections (here, here, here, and here). Today, as we draw closer to Easter morning we will take some time to explore what it means that God has redeemed us.

Redemption is a financial term. Many of us have used coupons before. We go to a store with the coupon and when we redeem it we get what it offers at the time of check-out. The reality of this transaction is included in our salvation. When Jesus came to earth, his mission was to redeem that which was lost. In what way was it lost? It was lost to sin and sinfulness. No man or woman who has ever lived can rise up to God. Our blood has been tainted by the sin of Adam and Eve. When they disobeyed God and decided to do their own thing, they damned their ancestors to a life of struggle, strife, and strain.

I want to correct a common misconception here. There are some who believe (and teach) that Jesus redeemed us from the devil. The idea being the enemy of God was holding us captive. This does not make any sense because he too is captive. The devil must still submit to the will of God, even though God is waiting to pronounce his final judgment! So, if we were not redeemed from the devil, who are we in debt too? We are in debt to ourselves. The reason we are stuck in our predicament is because we keep making withdrawals from the account and have been overdrawn for millennia. The debt of sin is the belief we can live independent of God. This however is not the case. If it were not for God we would have nothing. Paul, said it this way,

24 “The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, 25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. 26 And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, 27 that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, 28 for, ‘In him we live and move and have our being’.” (Acts 17:24-28a, ESV)

If it is true that “in Him we live,” then we need someone to redeem our debt and make a deposit into our account of unrighteousness. The only one who could do that was Jesus. When we came into this world, he lived the life we could not live; he died the death we deserved; was raised to life from the grave so we could stand before God forgiven–not perfect. We will never be perfect, but we are being perfected.

Redemption is what Jesus has done to remove the burden of our sin debt. He was submitted the coupon of his blood for the balance of sin in the world. The hymn writer was correct when they said

What can wash away my sin?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus;
What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Refrain

Oh! precious is the flow
That makes me white as snow;
No other fount I know,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

For my pardon, this I see,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus;
For my cleansing this my plea,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Refrain

Nothing can for sin atone,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus;
Naught of good that I have done,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Refrain

This is all my hope and peace,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus;
This is all my righteousness,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
(Source)

Lent Day #36 | Righteousness

I want to share with you one of the many mind-blowing verses in the bible!

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21, ESV)

I am stunned at the reality this points to. Before we go any deeper into the verse, let’s look at what righteousness is. Righteousness has been defined as having a right relationship with God. Now, this sounds great, but it does not describe for us how we can get to the right relationship. What does the journey from “here” to “there” look like?

As I have studied, thought and prayed about this I have composed a simplified definition based on what I have seen on my faith journey. I am sure others have come to a similar conclusion, so I do not claim exclusive rights to this. For me, righteousness is hearing or reading God’s word and saying to myself, “I will do whatever I have to do, to do what I have heard.” The essence of this idea is to take God at his word. What this means is making every effort to trust and comply and fulfill what God has said, living it out every day.

Paul says this about Abraham:

“So also Abraham ‘believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.'” (Galatians 3:6, NIV)

What did Abraham do? He believed God and then lived his life in light of what he believed about what God said. This is the key that releases toward us God’s blessing. When we move and live trusting in God we are saying He is the most important reality in our lives. This is the evidence of our desire for a right relationship with God. If our desire is to dwell with God, we must work toward that objective. We must do everything within our power to demonstrate it, to God and everyone else.

I want to be counted as righteous. Do you? And, if you say that is your desire, what are you doing to show God you are serious?

Lent Day #35 | Sanctification

For the past eight years I served as a youth pastor in two United Methodist Churches. In that time I was introduced to John Wesley, the Methodist Movement and the particularly Wesleyan understanding of sanctification. I am not a Wesleyan theologian by any stretch, so please correct with kindness and grace.

John Wesley

As I studied the origins of Methodism, I discovered that the moniker was actually given as a ridicule, and not so much as a superlative. The members of the first Methodist group, a small band of college students, gathered together for accountability and bible study. What made this small band stand out was how methodical they were in their approach to living the Christian faith. It was this “methodism” that gave rise to the derision of their peers.

This short history lesson is important because it shows how, from the beginning, the people called Methodist chose to “work out [their] salvation in fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12). The reality of the Christian life is found in the transformation that takes place in the heart and mind of the believer. We all are being changed. We all are growing (or at least should be growing) into greater Christ-likeness. This is what sanctification is. It is the process the Holy Spirit takes us through to become as much like Christ as we can be!

It can be tempting to think of sanctification as something we have to do on our own. As if it is something we can accomplish in our own power. Nothing could be further from the truth. We are not supposed to become like Jesus through our own efforts. I do not believe this was Paul’s intent in admonishing believers to “work out their salvation.”

One of my favorite foods is pizza. The reason I bring this up is that pizza dough has to be kneaded for two reasons. First, as it is needed the glutton in the flour is stretched making the pizza dough and delicious. (I am not a baker, but this is what I’ve heard!) The second reason, for kneading the dough is to make sure that all of the seasoning that has been added to flavor the dough is spread throughout the entire dough. If you do not do this you will have pockets that have been filled with flavor and others that are bland and tasteless.

When we are working out our salvation, we are engaging in the process of sanctification. We have to ask ourselves if we are striving to surrender more and more areas of our life to the work of the Spirit, so he can “knead Jesus” into us. Are there areas of your life where Jesus is present and prominent? What about those areas where He is not? What is keeping you from opening up that area of your life to the Spirit’s influence?

Lent Day #34 | Propitiation

This could very well be the one word that has impacted my understanding of Jesus’ life, sacrifice and resurrection. In short, this word incapsulates the central promise of the Gospel. There are three realities that converge in the universe requiring the Gospel. The first is divine holiness. The second is human sin. The third is the resolution of the first two realities. We will look at each of these briefly so we can understand how Propitiation provides the answer.

The Divine Nature

When we talk about divine holiness we are talking about the nature of God’s existence. We are trying to describe how God exists within the divine essence. Basically, we are trying to say something meaningful about how God interacts with the world he created, and then how that creation responds to God’s presence in it.

The reason it is important to know something about God’s nature is because if we get this wrong we will make errors in evaluating God’s response to sin.

The hardest part of what the bible says about God regards his holiness. God is not just perfect, God is pure and undefiled. What this means is anything not equalling God’s divine standard is not only worthy of punishment, but also of damnation. The reason we have to go this far is because of the value and worth of God. We have to esteem God because he is worthy of it.

Human Sin

Here we begin to see the problem keeping humanity from a relationship with God. Sin is not just an act, it is also general inclination of the heart. Our hearts are not naturally focused on God, but rather toward ourselves or the things of this world. We would rather do our own thing than what God would ask or command us.

The human sin problem is more than we can comprehend. Not less. Things are worse than we would like to admit, not better. This is what causes many to take lightly the sacrifice of Jesus. If Christ’s sacrifice is what it takes to redeem a lost soul, how can we make so little of God’s love?

What we have to understand is this: sin is a real and ugly problem. No one leaves this world unscathed by sin. We all suffer, and some of us suffer more than most.

The Gospel = Propitiation

We have now arrived at the third reality of why we need the Gospel. God’s divine nature and human sin cannot co-exist. It is like oil and water.

The wonder of the Gospel is that God has made provision to fix the problem. When Jesus came into the world his mission was to take the penalty of our sin and then transfer to us (each of us who put our trust in God) his righteousness. What God required from us, Jesus fulfilled on our behalf.

When we talk about propitiation we are saying that when God punished our sin in Jesus’ body on the cross, God did not hold anything back. God unleashed the full weight of his wrath upon his son, so we could become the righteousness of God in Christ. If God does not fully punish sin, he cannot love or forgive fully. Propitiation is the evidence that God has not withheld anything of himself from us when it comes to our redemption.

Lent Day #33 | Grace

We will take a theological turn for the next couple of days. I hope it is helpful to you. It tends to be to me.

Theology is the discipline where we study God, who he is and what he is doing. There are a variety if different areas of study in theology. We won’t be looking at all of them here. What we will do is look at a few terms that are foundational to our growth as believers of Jesus. Each of these words are simple to learn and require patience to understand. It is through the process of understanding that we deepen our appreciation of God’s love for us.

Today’s word is Grace. One of the best definitions for grace is “unmerited favor.” The idea here is recognizing God’s gift as something we cannot earn. But, more importantly, it is something we do not deserve, even a little bit. There is nothing that we can do to merit God’s grace. As a matter of fact, we could spend an infinite number of lifetimes and we would never do enough.

The question that often times emerges is, “Why not?” The answer is not always satisfying. The reason we cannot earn and do not deserve grace is due to the fact we can never undo any mistake we have made. Our grade point average will never be a 100% ever again. Even if we only committed one sin in our lives, that would be enough for us to need God to send Jesus to earth to die on the cross.

When we talk about God’s grace we are saying something in particular about how God interacts with us. We are saying God does not line us up and grades on a curve. We each are being measured against the perfect standard of Jesus, not each other. When God offers and gives us grace he does so knowing full well who he is giving this precious gift to. This is both a reason to rejoice and be thankful.

God has never gone back on a promise and he does not intend to start today. I am thankful that God does not change, has not changed and will not change. The consistency of his character is the guarantee of his ability to accomplish what he proclaims to us.

Amen and amen!

Lent Day #32 | Retreat

I am serving on a Christian retreat for youth this weekend. I have done this for the past several years and each time I see God do something I didn’t expect. There is something about meeting with fellow believers in places dedicated to serving God. I can’t explain it, but I have this feeling that God has places he likes to visit. Places where his people can experience his presence in ways that can almost be described as tangible.

One of the curiosities of Jesus’ ministry was how he often would retreat from the disciples and the crowds to spend time with his Father. He would disappear and get away from it all so he could focus and hear more clearly. There is a lesson for in Jesus’ example. We too need time of retreat. Time of stepping out of what we are doing so God has our concentrated attention.

Can I say I do this like I should? No! Part of it is I am not as disciplined as I need to be. I find my mind wandering. But, I also think part of my problem is I may not be in a place where God likes to visit. I have thought about this before, but this could be part of the reason I love sitting in the sanctuary of my church. I feel close to God there. There is a marked difference in the space.

One of the gifts we get during Lent is the opportunity to get alone with God. It would be wise for us to take some time in the days we have left of this Lenten season to step out of our typical routines and spend some time with God. Go to a place where you have felt close to God and give Him your undivided attention. Put it on your calendar and keep the appointment.

I am excited about this weekend. Both because of what He will do in and for these young people. But, also for what he will do in and for me. I am glad to be in a place where God’s presence abides.

Exit mobile version
%%footer%%