The depth of God’s love (Matthew 27:46)

Today’s Readings: Matthew 27:46

About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli,[a] lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).

How can I know God listens to my prayers? How can I know God meets me where I am? How can I have the assurance God can reach the depths of my sins when I know the things I’ve committed against Him and others? How can He ever forgive the things I’ve done?

We can look back at this verse in Matthew and understand the depths of God’s love for us. Jesus hung on the cross for about six hours on that day before the Sabbath. Usually it took longer for men to die under the cruel execution methods of crucifixion, but Jesus didn’t die at men’s hands. He gave up His life voluntarily. Remember He was God. He was eternal. Yes, Jesus was fully man, but He is also fully God.

This verse tells us, though, that the God-Man, Jesus, separated Himself from the triune Godhead long enough to become sin for us. He felt the full weight of the world’s sins upon His shoulders and felt the complete and utter aloneness that comes from the sin that separates us from a holy God. Jesus, by taking all the sin of all the world descended to the very deepest, darkest, depths of hell to pay the price for our sins. He knows the penalty, because He paid it. He went there for us.

How deep is His love? He plunged Himself deeper than anyone can go into the pit of hell so we don’t have to. He did that to liberate us. Three days later, He burst forth from the tomb that held Him proving that sin and hell and the grave had no hold on Him. He tasted death and overcame it. He overcame death for all of us. He overcame sin for all of us. He overcame hell for all of us.

God loved us enough to become man and separate Himself not only from His triune relationship, but to take on the sin of the world and enter the depths of hell for us. He cried from the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”, as He assumed the sins of the world for us. He took them with Him to the place of eternal separation from God and endured that place of eternal punishment for three of our earthly days, thousands of years for an eternal timeless God. For the psalmist tells us a thousand years is as a day and a day as a thousand years to God, to whom time has no meaning in eternity.

So when we pray, we have the assurance God knows the depths of our depravity. He went there during those three days after the cross. He descended into the very depths of hell and knows how dark and deep sin can go. But it wasn’t too deep for Him to get Himself or us out of it. He overcame. We have the assurance nothing we do is so bad He can’t help us recover from it. He can bring us through it, if we accept His gift of love and follow Him through the paths He sets before us. Just follow Him.

Join me next time, won’t you?

Richard

The Holy Spirit Comes! (Acts 2:18)

Today’s Readings: Acts 2:1-8, 14-21

Yes, in those days I shall offer My Spirit to all servants,
both male and female, and they will boldly speak My word.

I listened to the news several weeks ago about ISIL moving through some of the towns in Syria. The report said the terror group would go into homes where Christians lived and tell them to renounce their Christianity. They give the adults in the home one chance before they begin to take their children into the street and behead them in front of their parents and their friends in the neighborhood.

ISIL has had little success in getting Christians to renounce their faith in their little sub-communities inside their Moslem dominates cities and villages. Parents watched as these thugs drug their children into the streets knowing the results. It would only take a few simple words to save their lives, but their faith holds them strong and they refuse to bow to the terrorism of those who would ask them to deny their Lord. Consequently, they watch their little ones die bravely in front of them and often give their own lives shortly afterward.

©mady70/dollarphotoclub.com

An interesting phenomenon happens in those towns, however. Like in the early church, the faith of the persecuted caused those around them to wonder at their strength, their perseverance, their constant assurance that God cared for them in such dire circumstances. Those inflicting the most pain on the persecuted often saw the hope in God’s children and longed for the peace they showed in the face of their suffering.

In this country, we sometimes talk about persecution, but we really don’t know persecution. We might get fired from a job because we speak out about Christ, but the last I heard, no one came into our homes and killed our children because of our faith. No one has been jailed lately because they proclaimed Christ in public. No one lost their homes, their bank account, their ability to find a job, their legal identity because they declared they loved Jesus Christ as their Lord. Those things happen every day in other parts of the world.

We don’t know persecution here, so why don’t we shout boldly about what God does for us? Yesterday we read about our responsibilities as Christians. Jesus told us just to witness. Simply tell others what He does in our lives. That’s it. Nothing more. He does the rest. Yet in this country, virtually free from persecution, we often get embarrassed when we say His name in public. We seldom talk about Him outside of the walls of our churches. We fail to act as His witnesses.

In Christian circles we are always talking about the fact we could well be in the last days. Peter quotes Joel and says in the last days God makes us an offer. He gives us His Spirit to empower us to speak His word boldly. So maybe we just aren’t doing what Jesus told His disciples to do. Maybe we’re not asking for His Spirit to embolden us. Maybe all we need to do is start talking and allow Him to do the rest. After all, He also promised His Spirit would give us the words to say even if we were presented before kings.

Maybe this Christmas it’s time to speak up!

Join me next time, won’t you?

Richard

Jesus Ascends to Heaven (Acts 1:8)

Today’s Readings: Acts 1:1-11

Here’s the knowledge you need: you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you. And you will be My witnesses, first here in Jerusalem, then beyond to Judea and Samaria, and finally to the farthest places on earth.

I once thought I needed lots of education to Christ with others. After all, not long after Constantine declared Christianity the religion of the realm, the church became the center of education for the kingdom. Churches held the knowledge of the ages. They produced the books used to teach children and set the standards, many of which we still use today in education.

I found most people aren’t really impressed with a lot of education when it comes to introducing them to Christ. People what genuine experience, not fancy words when it comes to knowing God. Theological terms that come from dusty tomes on the top shelves in the back corners of libraries don’t mean much to the average person. They want concrete evidence that God can help them out of the fix where they find themselves.

I hear from a lot of people they can’t share Christ with others because they don’t know how. They need training. They need someone to teach them the right formula to win others to Christ before they put themselves out there as soul winners. Of course, the last time I read my Bible (this morning) we can’t save anyone. Only God can do that. We don’t win anyone to Him. He wins us to Himself. And I really haven’t seen any magic formula for reaching out and sharing Christ with others. I think that’s why I like the way The Voice translates this verse as Jesus addresses His disciples at His ascension.

“Here’s the knowledge you need…” Jesus doesn’t follow with many words after that. He didn’t quote the Law or the Prophets. He didn’t give them any special process or procedure to follow. He didn’t share any mystical mantra with them. He just told them essentially two truths. First, you’ll receive power. And you’ll receive it to do one thing. You’ll receive that power to act as witnesses of what I do in your life.

That’s it! That’s the magic formula. That’s what He tells His disciples and followers to do. Wait prayerfully for the Holy Spirit to come on you, then witness what that’s like. Tell people what happened to you. Start at home, in Jerusalem. Then share with your neighbors, in Judea and Samaria. Then witness to the rest of the world.

So, I don’t have to be a scholar to prayer and diligently seek for God’s Holy spirit. I don’t have to earn degrees and line my wall with certificates to know God fully and let Him lead my life from within. Neither do I need degrees or fancy words to describe what God does in my life. I can just tell someone what He’s doing right now. That’s what a witness does. He tells in his own words what he sees, hears, feels, and knows is true.

I can do that. So can you. Let’s start!

Join me next time, won’t you?

Richard

Jesus Alive! (John 20:18)

Today’s Readings: John 20:11-18

Mary Magdalene obeyed and went directly to His disciples.
Mary Magdalene (announcing to the disciples): I have seen the Lord, and this is what He said to me . . .

Each time Carole, LeeAnn, my daughter, or Ashley, my daughter-in-law, became pregnant I was beside myself. To become a father and grandfather is a really big deal for me. Whether the first, second, third, fourth,. . . it doesn’t matter. Every time, I turn into a kid opening that very special gift at Christmas. You know, the one you asked for all year long and you waited with bated breath and knew it would appear under the tree on Christmas morning. Then there it was and you couldn’t wait to rip open the paper and get to it.

Multiply that feeling by a thousand or so and that begins to describe how I feel every time I found out about another progeny joining the family tree. I love my kids. They are the best. And I love my in-laws because my kids picked them with God’s help. And I describe my grandkids and God’s gift to me for not killing my kids when they were teenagers!

I had difficulty containing the information, though. I wanted to stand on roof tops and street corners and shout the news, but they wanted to hold on to the information until it made the family circle in the right sequence. Mothers and fathers, in-laws, brothers and sisters, close friends, all those special people had to know first so they didn’t get the news second-hand. Man, it was hard to not blast out the information across the internet in all the public forums I knew.

I imagine that’s how Mary Magdalene felt that first Easter morning. I expect she had a hard time making it all the way to the house where the disciples hid without telling everyone she met, “Jesus is alive! I’ve seen Him! He talked to me this morning!” I can imagine the excitement, the fear, the joy all mixed together as she ran to tell those men gathered together wondering what they needed to do next.

Three days earlier they watched Him breathe His last. Three days earlier they watched the soldiers roughly pull His hands and feet from the nails that held Him to the cross. Three days earlier they watched Him crumble to the ground in a heap and watched Nicodemus come with the paper from Pilate allowing him to claim Jesus body. Three days earlier they helped Nicodemus take the bruised, bleeding, broken body of their Master to the tomb and quickly wrapped Him in linen burial cloth. Three days earlier they watched soldiers roll a massive stone in front of the tomb and seal it with Pilate’s official seal.

This was a new day, however. Mary came to anoint the Anointed. She came to finish what she could not complete before the Sabbath. She came expecting to challenge the guards to open the tomb and let her in. She came expecting to see the decaying shell of her dead rabbi. She came expecting to fight the sight and smell of death to give proper respect to the man she followed for those many months.

Instead, Mary saw soldiers stunned and lying on the ground. She saw a tomb burst open from the inside. She saw heavenly messengers lounging in an empty vault. She saw grave linens collapsed on the bier and the napkin covering His face lying apart from the rest of the cloths. She saw things not as they should appear, confused in her mind. She knelt at the tomb stunned that grave robbers could do their work so quickly with guards standing by. She wondered at the messengers and why they could not protect her Lord. She wanted to see the shell of the man she followed.

Instead she heard His voice, turned around, and got the news she could not contain. Like the news I heard from Carole, LeeAnn, and Ashley, Mary heard news she wanted to shout from the housetop. She heard her Master’s voice. She turned and saw Him. . .risen. . .alive! And so she ran to tell those who needed the message most at that moment. The disciples. His closest friends. His followers. He is risen!

Shout the news! Let everyone know! He is alive!

Join me next time, won’t you?

Richard

Death Sentence (John 19:16)

Today’s Readings: John 19:1-16

Pilate handed Him over to his soldiers, knowing that He would be crucified.

In Texas we sometimes get flash floods. Much of the country doesn’t understand what a flash flood can do to you, so when we get a transplant from another state into the heart of Texas, they will sometimes ignore the flash flood warnings and do something really stupid. They go around the barriers and try to cross the road they’ve been using to get home. One big problem though. The road has a few inches of water moving across it.

From other parts of the country, a few inches of water doesn’t sound like much. Those few inches traveling at flash flood speeds can do a lot of damage quickly. Consider that a gallon of water weighs about six pounds. That water moves across the road at hundreds of thousands of gallons per hours in a flash flood. Yes, it does flow around obstacles to some degree, but the force behind that water still transmits a tremendous amount of power.

© Miroslav Beneda/dollarphotoclub.com

Consequently, the newbies to Texas floods who foolishly cross the warning signs find themselves in serious trouble, sometimes swept away by the three inches of water rushing across the road. Suddenly they look around for any escape before their car sinks into the torrential flow of what used to be an empty creek bed. These folks show up on the evening news after rescues by the fire department from the top of their car or clinging to a tree branch. Sometimes it’s worse and we get the report of lost lives because of crossing the barrier.

I use that story to illustrate what can happen when we blindly go with the flow. Pilate knew Jesus committed no crimes deserving death. He pleaded with Jesus to defend Himself so he could set Him free. Pilate went to the crowd several times to get them to  their minds about this innocent man, but finally allowed them to persuade him to turn Jesus over to his soldiers for crucifixion. Like the newbies to our Texas flash floods, Pilate disregarded all the warning signs and went with the flood of voices that said, “Crucify Him!”

Sometimes it takes courage to stand against the crowd and do what’s right, but in the end the rewards are great. Paul tells us the trials and tribulations we face today are nothing compared to the glories we will inherit. We just need to hang on and trust God to see us through the temporary ills of this world. Keep your hand in His and stand.

Flash floods can come on unexpectedly, but usually warning signs are visible if we look for them. The torrent of water moving across the road starts with a little trickle. We then start seeing signs everywhere around here that tell us not to cross water covered roads. It’s a catchy little phrase they use that most folks adhere to – “Don’t drown, go around!” Here most know that means go around the water, not around the barrier! Still there are those few that think they’re smarter than the Texans who have lived here all their lives and try their luck. Don’t get swept away in the flood. Listen to the warnings, both for flash floods and God’s warnings of evil about to erupt around you. He’ll keep you safe from harm.

Join me next time, won’t you?

Richard