You may have heard the old saying “Familiarity breeds contempt” (which is not today’s three-word phrase for daily Christian Living). But it conveys the idea that we tend to take things for granted, having little value for what we believe we can have at any time.  Oh, but if we were to lose it!  We’d be in such a world of hurt!  One of the most familiar phrases in Scripture is John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.”  We see it so often on placards at sporting events, on tee-shirts, and hear it from evangelists and pastors that it becomes the religious version of Charlie Brown’s teacher (“Wahn, wahn, wahn, wahn, wahn”) whenever we hear the three words for day-to-day Christian living “God loves you.”

Now I move from the collective (we) to the personal (me), but what about you?  I take God’s love for granted.  In fact, I sometimes doubt it.  Life chews me up and spits me into bed at night to toss and turn only to repeat the process the next day. I sometimes wonder:

Is this God’s definition of love? 

Nope. 

John 3:16 defines how God loves you.  Stop and re-read it.  Let it sink in.

God loves you and He loves me, not just for today, but for eternity.  It’s just so familiar that I don’t value it the way I would if He were suddenly… capable… of withdrawing His love, and decided to because I’m such an ingrate. I’m so glad that everything is possible for God but denying who He is.

Whether times are good or bad; whether life is easy or hard; whether we’re experiencing success or failure, health or sickness; whether we remember or forget, God’s whole character is love (1 John 4:16) and He can do no other.  Let’s do our best to cherish those three words for day-to-day Christian living: God loves you!

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This “three word” series is archived beginning July 22, 2017. 

Do you ever feel like everything is falling to pieces all around you?  The flood waters are rising and it’s all you can do to bring your life to higher ground?  For those of us in Chicagoland, it has certainly felt that way.  We’ve been experiencing floods of not-quite-biblical proportions and have found ourselves clinging to the promises and character of God.  Our prayers perhaps limited in number to three words, but they’re three words of great power, three words of incredible promise, and three words of life-sustaining hope.  Today we begin a series of those three-word reminders to help us face life as Christians in a very fallen world.

• Do you need help?  Encouragement?  A reminder that you’ve not been forgotten?
• Do you need a friend?
• Do you need to know you’re not alone?
• Do you need to know your God is real, present, and powerful?

God has answers for your questions straight out of Scripture, and He reminds us today: He is able.

“And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.” (2 Corinthians 9:8). 

Just look how expansive and all-inclusive that is!  All grace.  Abound.  All things.  All times.  All you need to abound.  Every good work!

When we feel unequal to the task, our task is no match for God.  Three little words as an excellent reminder:  He is able!

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This “three word” series is archived beginning July 22, 2017.  For further study on how God is able, read Mark 9:21 Jesus asked the boy’s father, “How long has he been like this?” “From childhood,” he answered. 22 “It has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him. But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.” 23 “‘If you can’?” said Jesus. “Everything is possible for him who believes.” 24 Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!” 

Believe today that He is able.

The Christian life is filled with things that don’t seem consistent with God’s love and sovereignty.  How is a Christian to act when evil seems to win?  It looks so unjust.  We can feel like the prophet Jeremiah who complained to God:

You are always righteous, O LORD, when I bring a case before you. Yet I would speak with you about your justice: Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all the faithless live at ease? (Jeremiah 12:1)

Why isn’t it total cause-and-effect and completely predictable in this world? Do good, receive good.  Do evil, reap the bad fruit that you have sown.  Why instead does it seem the harder you try to follow God, the more bad stuff happens?  It can certainly feel that way sometimes.

God has some Do’s and Don’ts for the Christian facing that question.

Do not fret because of evil men or be envious of those who do wrong; for like the grass they will soon wither, like green plants they will soon die away. Trust in the LORD and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. (Psalm 37:1-3)

God’s answer is remarkably simple: 

Don’t look at them.  Look to God. 

Don’t fret.  Don’t envy. 

Don’t adopt the short-term solution and join them, because time is fleeting.  Instead, take the long view when evil seems to win and realize it’s possible for evil to be winning the battle but losing the war. 

Evil has its day and its purpose is to show us God’s justice when it happens. 

For when it’s Game Over, those who have trusted in the LORD and continued to do good, they will dwell continually in God’s kingdom and enjoy His goodness forever.

The disciples asked, “Who then can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” (Matthew 19:25-26)  What is impossible for man is possible for God.  What is immovable and carved in stone for humanity is no challenge for the power of the Almighty.  It’s the Mystery of the Immovable Object as we conclude our look at 1 Corinthians 15  and What it Means to be Resurrected.

1 Corinthians 15:48 As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the man from heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. 49 And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven. 50 I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.

It’s impossible for us.  We are the immovable object.  Created in God’s Image, born into man’s image after Adam, we remain Adam’s offspring, and sinful ones at that…apart from the work of Christ. 

Our flesh and blood likeness to Adam isn’t enough to get us into heaven no matter how well we live as humans.  Only the actions of God can move us, change us, redeem us so that we’re fit for heaven.

1 Corinthians 15:51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed– 52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.

Some will not “sleep” (that is, die) for some will be alive when Jesus returns.  It could be our generation, it could be tomorrow, or it could still be years in the future.  No one knows apart from God the Father.  But we’re told to be ready.  Not by having accumulated a Do-It-Yourself-Salvation portfolio of good works and good behavior, but by having acknowledged that apart from Christ we are immovable and dead as a doornail.  Christians will be changed.  God moves the immovable object of His love and saving grace.

1 Corinthians 15:53 For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. 54 When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” 55 “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” 56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 58 Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

So Paul reminds us to be immovable, unshakeable, undeterred in our devotion to Christ.  Labor as if it all depends on us, believe as if it depends completely on Him, for it does.  We are the immovable object that only God can move from death to life as we experience what victory over death looks like and what it truly means to be resurrected.

Happy Independence Day!

To some of us, the Fourth of July is descriptive only of the date, after all we wouldn’t say “Happy February 14th,” December 25th, or even April 1st.  The meaning for us is Independence, grounded in American history (and patterned after the freedom in biblical history from Genesis to Revelation and its connection to life).

Therefore, the Fourth of July is less about the fireworks we love than what they celebrate: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.  Freedom and everything that Liberty makes beautiful. 

Not all nations are free, but those nations that aren’t still know what freedom means.  To oppressive governments, America and its freedoms pose a threat to their way of life and control.  To those being oppressed, freedom is a distant hope they desire to taste and see someday.

It means something wonderful to those who passed through Ellis Island or today take the Naturalization Oath of Allegiance to the United States of America:

“I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty, of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform noncombatant service in the Armed Forces of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law; and that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God.”

People take this oath and obligation freely because the freedoms of the United States of America represent to them a fresh wind of opportunity and a blessing, particularly in contrast to the violence and persecution many have fled.

It is no surprise that in nations of tyranny the first things to go are often monuments to a prior history.  There is a reason why ISIS (and other regimes) destroy places of historical importance, especially religious significance. 

Erase a history, forget its meaning, and oppression will have no competition.  There is vulnerability in being a nation with no memory.

On this Independence Day, it is good to remember that to our founders, the Fourth of July wasn’t a date on a calendar for a picnic or a barbecue or a convenient document signing.  It was a day to remember as history because our founding fathers knew what it was to be in bondage and what it feels like to be free.

Happy Independence Day!