Afraid That You Don’t Add Up?

From noon to three, the whole earth was dark. Around midafternoon Jesus groaned out of the depths, crying loudly, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”

Some bystanders who heard him said, “He’s calling for Elijah.” One of them ran and got a sponge soaked in sour wine and lifted it on a stick so he could drink. The others joked, “Don’t be in such a hurry. Let’s see if Elijah comes and saves him.”

But Jesus, again crying out loudly, breathed his last.

At that moment, the Temple curtain was ripped in two, top to bottom. There was an earthquake, and rocks were split in pieces. What’s more, tombs were opened up, and many bodies of believers asleep in their graves were raised. (After Jesus’ resurrection, they left the tombs, entered the holy city, and appeared to many.)

The captain of the guard and those with him, when they saw the earthquake and everything else that was happening, were scared to death. They said, “This has to be the Son of God!” Matthew 27:45-54

We all make mistakes. We’re only human! But we’re also forgiven. When we mess up, we don’t have to live in guilt. Jesus is right there. He lives in us, and He walks through the mess with us.

I know we forget that. We keep expecting ourselves to be perfect, and we keep trying to perfect ourselves for God. I can almost see God shaking His head. He’s saying, “These guys! They actually think they’re going to get rid of sin so that I’ll be close to them! Don’t they know? By the time they get rid of one sin, they’ve already sinned again, in some other way! Curing their own sin is going to be literally impossible for them!”

There’s no way that God would expect us to perfect ourselves. It doesn’t make sense that He would, because it can’t be done! But there’s another reason why He doesn’t expect it. It renders the power of the cross obsolete.

Think about that Temple curtain. The only way that anyone could enter the Holy of Holies was if they had no sin. What if the priest had a bad thought before he walked into that tent? Talk about fear! That’s fear.

We don’t live under fear anymore. We don’t. Jesus took away our reason for fear when He died and the Temple curtain was ripped in two. The very thing that required perfection was split in half, and Jesus said, “That’s over. You walk freely now.”

Now there is no shame. Jesus took it, man! He took your shame! Think about it. If I’m Jesus, and I’m getting mocked, I’m not putting up with it. I’m getting off that cross so that I can scare the hell out of everybody.

But Jesus put up with it. He did it for you! He knew He could get off that cross, but He said no. He hung there instead, and He took all the shame. They spit on Him. They mocked Him. They beat Him. They laughed at Him. And the whole time He said, “I’m taking all this on me. Because 2,000 years from now, I’m going to live in you. I’m going to be right there with you when you start to wonder what you’re doing in life, and if you add up. I’m dying on this cross to let you know that you do. You add up. You’ve done nothing on your own to prove it. Nothing. I’ve done it all. I’m the point system for you now, and it’s all good. You are free!”

That’s the Good News. And that’s truth. That’s truth!

See you Monday.

Love In Friendship

Trust allows you to freely accept and love others. When you trust people, you don’t judge or condemn them. You don’t react negatively to the way they act. You’ll see them do things that you don’t necessarily admire, sure, but they’re only human, just like you. So you love them with the same trust and mercy that God gives you.

I have to tell you, I did not live this way for a long time. I wanted to! And I had the knowledge to do it. But I just didn’t put it all together. Now it has all come together for me. In my relationships, I feel so free, and people feel free around me. This is true both in my family and in my friendships. My wife and I have Christian friends that live with this trust mentality, and we have a great time together.

Do you have Christian friends who are always correcting you or judging you? Do they disapprove of what you say or do? I’ve been around people like that before. They keep me from being fully honest when I’m with them, because I don’t want to expose myself. I see how judgmental they are, so I don’t trust them with my whole self. I think we’ve all met someone like that. It’s exhausting, right?

But my wife and I have friends who live in trust, and they can come over to our house every day if they want to. We’re never exhausted. I think people who live in trust also live in freedom, and so it’s relaxing and energizing to be around them. We talk and we share our frustrations. We help each other. We say things like, “Yeah, I’ve been through that.” Or, “Here’s an idea. How about approaching it this way?” We never chide or chastise each other. We don’t say, “You need to do this better.” We say, “Let’s help each other. Let’s get a game plan together.”

That’s what friendship is all about. That’s what relationship is all about. And I think that’s what God is all about. God says, “Look, I know you’re going to mess up. I’m here to walk through it with you. When you mess up, I’ll say, ‘Jeremy. Okay. Let’s strategize. You know you have my Spirit in you, so you have the ability to not sin. You have the ability to live in righteousness and holiness. So all we have to do is figure this out together. How can we do this? How can I walk with you through this? And how can I encourage you through this?’”

That’s the God that I feel close to! I’m so happy! I get to say that He is my Savior and my Lord and my God and my King. I’m not talking about a God who is a dictator. My Savior does not put me to shame. My Lord and King loves me and encourages me and helps me! And so that’s what I do for my friends.

Trust In Your Children

As much as we might value our good intentions, they can get in the way of trust, and there is so much freedom in trust! Let me give you an example.

I have the best of intentions for my sons. I intend for them to grow up to be leaders. So I try to teach them to be leaders. Since I’m teaching them, I want them to listen to me. I want them to obey me all the time, and never talk back. I don’t want them to challenge me. I want them to answer me with honesty and respect.

But they are little boys, living in the fragile world of childhood. They don’t see my intentions and expectations in the same way that I do. They may want to express themselves in their own way, and become the people they were born to be. By putting my expectations on them, I don’t always allow them to be themselves. I can get in the way of them becoming who they are.

In my intention to train them for leadership, I try to put my sons in a box. It’s as if I give them a message that says, listen, if you stay in this box, you will be fine. Don’t leave the box.

That makes me feel good as a dad, because I feel like I have control. My family is doing what they should be doing. My kids look good to other people because they’re not acting out. These are the best of intentions, but it’s a recipe for frustration. As soon as one of them leaves that box, maybe because he wants to express who he is, I can get angry or frustrated. And of course I try to put him back in the box! But that causes my sons to live in bondage and not in the freedom to be who they are. That’s not leading, that’s dictatorship!

My good intention is for my sons to be leaders. But I don’t trust them to become leaders in who they are. And why shouldn’t I? They are wonderful people and can become good leaders. I don’t have to first make them be just like me. They have their own personalities and my job is train them to be leaders based on who they are, not who I am.

Not everyone is like you. That’s so obvious that we can fail to really understand it. We have to be able to trust other people for who they are, just as I have to be able to trust that my sons will be leaders in who they are. When I allow my boys to express themselves in their own way, I can actually give them freedom. I can love them and encourage them to be who they are, and who they’re going to become.

We have to be able to trust other people for who they are. But it doesn’t stop there! We also have to trust people with who we are. We need to be available, and transparent, and open. We have to be honest with each other and say, “This is who I am.”

Good Theology

But when the time arrived that was set by God the Father, God sent his Son, born among us of a woman, born under the conditions of the law so that he might redeem those of us who have been kidnapped by the law. Thus we have been set free to experience our rightful heritage. You can tell for sure that you are now fully adopted as his own children because God sent the Spirit of his Son into our lives crying out, “Papa! Father!” Doesn’t that privilege of intimate conversation with God make it plain that you are not a slave, but a child? And if you are a child, you’re also an heir, with complete access to the inheritance. Galatians 4:5-7

The Bible says the old has passed away. When you became a part of His kingdom, you received a new identity. God says, “You are now my child!”

What is a child of God? A child of God is holy and righteous!

During the Passover, God caused diseases and plagues that afflicted everyone, except for those who lived where the blood of the lamb was over the door. Unless you were protected by the blood, you were punished. Today, our fear comes from the fact that we still believe in a God who punishes. But He doesn’t punish us. The crucifixion changed everything, because the blood of Christ was meant for everybody.

Jesus says, “Your identity has changed. This is the reason I was crucified. If nothing is changed, if nothing is renewed, if you don’t receive a new identity, if you are still under the law, then my crucifixion was pointless. If nothing changed, then what was the point? If nothing changed, then there was no power in my blood.” But there is power in His blood. Those who came and believed are now protected by it. There is no more punishment.

The Bible says the power of the cross is meaningless to those that don’t believe, because they don’t understand the freedom that it gives them. Fear is gone!

“Well,” you ask, “what if I sin?” What if you do? You are still holy and righteous. That identity does not change. Once you are in His Kingdom, you don’t get kicked out. You don’t! That’s a lie, and it’s bad theology. It really is.

Your identity is that you are loved by the Almighty God. Your identity is that you’re in His Kingdom. There is no leaving that place, man. He loves you. He brought you in. The fear that God doesn’t want you doesn’t come from Him. That fear is man-made.

As someone told me the other day, if your theology doesn’t meet your reality, it’s bad theology. Is it your theology that you’ll get punished if you sin? Do you really think that God only loves you and wants you if you’re perfect? How does that meet your reality? Perfection is not a reality for you, nor is it a reality for me. This is bad theology!

My theology is that I have a loving and unbelievable God who sent His son to die for me and rise three days later, conquering death and saying, “Now whoever accepts me as Christ will come into the Kingdom of Heaven and live as a holy and righteous person — regardless of your mistakes!”

You might mess up. You will mess up! And God still brings you back to the feast. God says, “I’ll bring you back to the table every single day. Tomorrow you’re going to mess up, and I’m still going to invite you to my dinner. I’m going to invite you back to the feast and you’re going to come. And you’re going to dine with me. You have the blood of my Son on your life, and I see Him in you. You are always welcome at my table.”

“Well,” you might say, “but I had a lustful thought today. Or I was greedy. Or I was envious.” “I know you did,” God says. “We’ll work through it. You are always welcome here. You will always be welcome to the feast. You are always wanted at the table of the King.”

You are the child of the Most High God. You believed and were adopted into the Kingdom of Heaven. Live in your new identity. Believe in Him, for you are holy and righteous. See you Thursday.

Don’t Think of Pink Elephants!

I’ve created a word picture for you.

Every day, I pull out of my driveway to go to work. Every day, the GPS says, “Make a right.” So I make a right. I’ve discovered that the GPS knows the way.

I trust the Spirit of God to help me navigate too. The Spirit of God helps me navigate my life. In every little detail, I try to just listen to Him. He’s like my GPS voice, a voice that says, “Make a right.”

But what if instead of just saying, “Make a right” every time, the GPS voice said, “Make a right, just don’t make a left.”

Christ is Freedom

The anti-slavery organization Men for Freedom invited me to be their guest blogger for July! Here’s a preview:

So do I think Jesus would be the frontrunner in the fight against human trafficking and the rescuing of slaves? I am one hundred percent certain of it. It’s easy to be certain, because I know He’s come to set us free. The Bible says, “The truth shall set you free.” (John 8) Freedom is in Christ Jesus. If freedom is in Christ, then freedom is what makes Him. He is freedom.

Read the rest here.  I’ll see you Monday.