June 23, 2018

What Really Matters?

“What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?”

– Mark 8:36

It’s the little things that get us. We don’t plan to commit murder. We don’t plan to rob a bank. We don’t plan to ever deny Jesus.

But, well, we don’t have a problem with hate when someone has done us wrong. And we understand anger and revenge when someone “deserves” our wrath.

We work hard for what we have and we keep it for ourselves. We “need” so many things – a new car, a long vacation, several nights eating out. We might not be able to tithe – money’s tight you know – but we can take care of ourselves.

We would never deny Jesus, not officially anyway. But we don’t have time to help the poor and the elderly. We can’t offer ourselves up as sacrifices. There’s barely enough hours in the day to get done the things we must get done – job, kid’s activities, socializing, household chores.

We try to show up for church on Sunday. Sometimes we’re just too tired or we need a mini-vacation to the beach or mountains. God understands, we tell ourselves. We try to volunteer. Okay. Maybe only when it something that directly benefits us or our children. Let someone else care for those who are alone or have long-term needs.

We pray most days. It might just be a quick moment before bed or a muttering before we head off to work. There’s just no time for serious Bible study or true alone time with God. He understands the demands of our lives. God loves us anyway. He knows we’ll get around to it one day.

What if one day never comes? What if today is your last day on earth? What if your child gets cancer and everything you thought was important suddenly isn’t? What if life knocks you to the ground and you find yourself in quicksand?

The Bible tells us to build our lives on the rock of faith. We are to nourish our roots so that they grow strong and deep in the fertile soil of faith. We aren’t to wait until desperation hits. We’re to do it now, before we hit the wall.

How many of us do that? How many of us attend church occasionally and call ourselves good? How many of us do the minimum and think we’re covered for whatever might come? And how many of us truly know that we are one moment away from a life-changing event?

We somehow think we are insulated from the truly bad. We work hard. We’re believers. We are. Well, maybe we don’t always live like it. We like to have fun and, well, we’re just so busy.

Just remember this: Possessions won’t hold you up when the world tears you apart. Good intentions won’t carry you when you’re in need and the world has better things to do. And faith that isn’t nourished when life is good won’t sustain you when everything you thought you knew is gone.

You may end up with the whole world but what about your soul? When the day is done and you are heading home, will you finally realize that Jesus really was all that mattered after all?

March 3, 2018

Is Jesus Your Lord Or Your Advisor?

And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. And he said this plainly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”

– Mark 8:31-33

Pride. It’ll get the best of us when we aren’t even thinking about it. Can you imagine the nerve of Peter reprimanding Jesus? Oh, my! We would never do that.

Except we do it all the time.

Jesus is our Lord and Savior but how often do we place Him in the role of consultant or advisor? How many times have we “claimed” His blessing for something we wanted, all the while ignoring His teaching?

Those were some of the questions our pastor asked recently. “We can not expect to knock Jesus off His throne and still expect Him to bless us,” the Rev. Ryan Martin said. Except we do.

Martin denounced what he called the “prosperity theology” that is growing in popularity. We want something, we claim it by “faith” and demand that Jesus give it to us. That’s not biblical but it sure does draw in the crowds.

As Martin said this, I immediately thought of a man who does this regularly. He is quick to quote the Bible and offers up beautiful prayers. People look up to him as a true man of God. At least the people who don’t know him well look up to him. His life doesn’t reflect the gospel his words proclaim but it sounds good and some think highly of him because of it.

When was the last time you truly placed Jesus on His throne and worshipped Him alone? When was the last time you acknowledged Jesus as your Lord and Savior and followed Him to those scary places faith sometimes takes us?

Pride demands that we get our own way. Pride tells us it’s okay to hit our spouse, to threaten schools, to get our own way. Pride is a coward masquerading as someone who is in control and worthy of being held in high esteem.

When was the last time you let something you wanted go so you could give your tithe to the church, Martin asked. When was the last time you set aside your dreams, your plans, to follow Jesus where He asked you to go?

“You prove your faith by how you serve, what you give up, what you deny, and by what you give,” Martin said.

Faith appears awesome when it allows us to live the life pride tells us we deserve. True faith places Jesus above us all and us in the place of follower. Is Jesus your Lord or your advisor? Your actions answer for you.

Sunday, September 16, 2012

Get Off The Sidelines

Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.”

-- Mark 8:34-35

What does Jesus look like to you? I’m not talking about physical looks, though that can be an interesting discussion. I’m referring to what you see Him saying and doing in the world we live in now.

Do you see Him feeding the hungry? Comforting the sick? Protecting the children? Defending the poor? Welcoming the sinners? Or do you only see Jesus on His throne, welcoming us all home to a glorious reunion?

The thing is you can’t have one picture of Jesus without the other. His death on the cross paid the price for our sins but it doesn’t excuse us from action when it comes to helping those Jesus holds near to His heart.

How do we do that? Sometimes we’re so busy looking at the big picture -- the mission trips abroad, the homeless shelter in the city, the food drive at church -- that we miss the smaller things that touch the lives of those around us.

People see Jesus when we show them what His love means. We can preach the words day after day but nothing speaks louder than a friendly hello, a kind word, a meal, a visit, a ride to the doctor’s office. That’s where faith turns into action and people see that Jesus is real, alive and active in our lives and theirs.

Pastor Rob spoke the other Sunday about victorious living, which is so critical to living that abundant life we all want. We want to believe that abundance means having more things, more trips, more money in the bank. But abundance comes when we have a purpose for living. That’s when we’re happiest, he said.

It’s when we come to understand that anything we share, we’ll regain. Refusing to reach out, to give, is refusing the power of Jesus in our own lives. We have to deny ourselves, our desires, our possessions, to gain true happiness. Because faith in things won’t last but faith in the actions Jesus inspires will.

When you surrender your life to God, He turns it into something beautiful, Pastor Rob said. And yet we hold back. We wait for someone else to step up, someone else to go first, someone else to make time. And all the while He is calling us to His side.

This morning I’ll be going to different Sunday school classes asking for volunteers to carry meals to a couple that faces unbelievable challenges because of her devastating illness. And I’ll ask for volunteers to pray for one teenager in our church each day. Simple things really. But I have to wonder how many people will make the effort, the commitment, to take action where they are simply because they can.

Jesus didn’t call us to sit on the sidelines. So what are we waiting for? The game is going strong but we need more team members to really light the way.