Adequate Thanks

When we sin, we ask God for forgiveness, and He grants it. Without this process, we would be hopeless. Thanks to His unfailing grace, we can depend on his acceptance of our repentance, assuming of course that our request for forgiveness was indeed sincere.

But when we say, "Thank you, Lord," afterward, do we realize what we mean?

Let's look at it this way. Imagine there is this American being held captive in some foreign land. (We all can probably think of one who really is being held captive somewhere, sadly). But just assume there is only one man, and he is being held in a box surrounded by a few thousand soldiers from the foreign country. Now, the President of the United States orders all the active duty soldiers in the U.S. Army to storm the site of the prisoner, army against army to free that one man. Many American soldiers die in this raid, and many others are left injured in some way. But the army is successful in rescuing the one man.

He remains silent on the flight back to the states, and when he gets off the plane at the U.S. airport, he turns around to the soldiers with him, and yells, "Thanks!" He then picks up his bag and walks away.

What do you think the soldiers coming off the plane will think of his response? How will the media interpret this response? He said 'thank you,' but did he really mean it? And even if he did, was he completely unaware of the sacrifice that thousands of American soldiers paid to free him?

This is a crazy scenario, I know. But think about it. What did Jesus go through to save each of us? The life that He laid down was given as if He was giving it for each one of us, and it just works out that it was sufficient for all of us. So I can say that Jesus, the God of the universe, the greatest King who ever lived, the only thing in existence that really truly matters or has worth, came down from his glorious abode to a world He created that rejected Him so He could suffer and die on two sticks in order to remove the chains of my sin, and then rise victoriously so that I could be able to leave this world that is itself better than I deserve and live in the aforementioned glorious abode that only God and His holy angels are really worthy to spend any time in. And all I can say is, "Thanks"?

Every time we sin, we become unworthy of this gift again. But every time we sincerely repent, we are gladly reminded that His mercy has covered us and His grace will never leave. The scope of this give is beyond understanding. And God understands perfectly well that we can never repay what He has given for us, even a small chunk of it.

But Lord, let me learn what it means to adequately thank You for saving me. Let me live with a thankful heart for all the blessings I've been given, but most importantly for the life You freely laid down because You loved me. Let the grandness of Your gift never be overlooked in my heart. Without it, I would be nothing.

What Matters Most

Happy Easter everyone! I hope you have been able to enjoy the celebration of Christ's resurrection with your eyes fixed on the true meaning and its significance.

I woke up this morning at 8:55am. Considering I had to be at church at 8:45am, this was a problem. I had set my alarm last night, I just forgot to turn it on. So I was 50 minutes late to kids church. Pastor Phil was running kids church in the format of an archeological expedition to find the mystery of where Jesus is. It was very well done and the kids did a good job of participating. Unfortunately, I got there with only time to man my station for the last of the four groups of kids. Considering this week I was actually prepared, I was quite disappointed with myself.

How can I forget to turn my alarm on? And how can I forget to close our garage door like I did when I got home and it sat open for five hours? It all comes down to the things I take seriously. I suffer from chronic tunnel vision, and its something no pair of glasses can fix.

How can I remedy this situation? Well, it starts by caring about the details of what matters. This is a conscious decision that needs to be made, and a mindset that requires discipline. It doesn't mean I shouldn't care about the things that matter to me; it means I need to make these more important things matter to me too, and to make them matter more.

This is a lot like Easter (and most other holidays). We get so caught up in the holiday feeling and the family and church events that it's easy to forget the reason behind it. Easter isn't about sitting in a pew at church and singing a few songs. It's about celebrating the fact that Jesus rose from the grave. It was the most important thing to ever happen to the universe since its inception, and the most important thing to happen to my life. Yet, it's something that just becomes something we think about during the songs and sermon at church. It should be something that we fix our eyes on regularly, so much so that it becomes the thing that defines what we are.

So let's work together to put what matters most first. Whether it's consciously recognizing the importance of the fact that Christ is risen, or remembering to turn your alarm on before going to bed, let's be defined as people who put the most important things in life first. Everything else will simply fall into place.

Saturday

Approximately 1,984 years ago, the people sat around wondering why the world they had known was crashing in all around them.

We observe Good Friday, the day that Jesus was crucified to pay the punishment we should have paid. We also observe Easter Sunday, the day that Jesus rose from the grave. Both days are obviously crucial to the history of the universe. But do we ever stop to think about Saturday?

If you think about it, that Saturday was one of the darkest days in the history of the earth. God had literally come to earth, and was now dead. The problem was, the people were expecting Jesus to take power as a king of some sort, overthrowing the Roman government and freeing the people from their oppression. So when He died, they were really confused and likely quite disappointed. Saturday was probably a day where many of Jesus' followers were questioning what they had believed. How could they just go on with their lives after what they had seen and experienced?

But see, what made this confusion silly was that Jesus had on numerous occasions directly told them what was going to happen to Him. In Luke 18:32-33, speaking about Himself, Jesus said: "'He will be delivered over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, insult him and spit on him; they will flog him and kill him. On the third day he will rise again.'" How hard was this to understand? According to the next verse, "The disciples did not understand any of this. Its meaning was hidden from them, and they did not know what he was talking about." I don't think this means that God directly blinded their hearts to the truth, or that He was trying to trick them. I think they were just so caught up in their own way of thinking that they just didn't take seriously what Jesus was saying. They probably thought it was some sort of metaphor, or maybe Jesus was just taking the Debbie Downer perspective on their pending arrival in Jerusalem. One thing's for sure: they were told many times (this had been the third instance recorded in Luke), and they still didn't get it.

That the women went back to tell the apostles that Jesus had risen and they didn't believe them tells me that Saturday had not been a hopeful day for the group. They obviously weren't expecting Him to rise again on the third day like He said, since if they were expecting that, someone probably would have been sitting in line of sight of the tomb waiting for it to happen. (If the guards hadn't been there, they would all be sitting right by the stone.) But no, they were hiding scared. They were fearing for their lives, wondering what they should do with their futures now that Jesus was gone.

There are still many people living in this ignorance. A Jehovah's Witness came to our door recently and invited us to "a memorial celebrating the death of Jesus." How can you be a witness of Jehovah if He's dead? And there are many people who have been deceived to think that God is still dead, or that He never lived. What a dismal outlook if you're living in a Saturday perspective.

But there's good news: GOD'S NOT DEAD! He's surely alive! And you can know Him. He's there for you and He wants to be in relationship with you. All you need to do is confess your sins and choose to follow Him. He is risen, and the fact that He rose set the precedent so that you can rise too. Death could not hold Him down, and it won't hold us down either.

Thank the Lord that this particular Saturday was just another 24-hour day. The sun went down, the sun came up, and the Son came up too.

Unfortunate Casualties

Don't let Satan take the good things in life and trash them.

There are certain things that we do that are not good. These things lead to pain, sadness, and guilt. This is what we call 'sin,' which means something that displeases God and goes against his authoritative perspective of right and wrong. Sin is something we as Christians are called to avoid. When temptation comes, we need to stand our ground and make the choice to do what's right. It's not easy, but it can be done through the strength of Christ.

But Satan is clever. I won't give him credit for much of anything, but one thing that is sure is that he is clever. He uses his skillful deception to take things that are not sin and weave them into the picture in our heads of what constitutes sin. So in our attempts to avoid sinning, we can shun the very things God has created for good.

An example is cake. Cake is really good. It is very tasty and brings a sense of pleasure from the sweet experience of taking in each flavorful bite. But if you eat too much cake, you can get really fat. Too much cake can also lead to a number of health problems. Eating too much cake because it tastes good (and you can't help but eat it, and then some more) also has a name: gluttony. The gluttonous person is never satisfied with their slice of cake and eats more, more, and more until they find themselves in a seriously uncomfortable situation.

Gluttony is bad. So what is the most obvious solution? Don't eat the cake! If you don't eat the cake, then you don't take in the calories and sugar, and you stay alive. That is a logical conclusion.

But is cake bad? Of course not. There is nothing inherently wrong with cake. It was created with love by a kind chef who wasn't trying to make us fat, but instead was giving us the opportunity to experience the momentary pleasure of taking in the delicious heap of sweetness known as cake. Therefore, the sin is not in the cake, it's in the excessive eating of the cake and the lack of satisfaction with the amount that was eaten.

I will be writing more about some of the things God has taught me about how to best fight sin in future posts. But here I want you to be encouraged to discern what is right and what is wrong. There are things that give us pleasure that aren't inherently bad. It's how we use them that makes them bad. Another well-known example is alcohol. Many Christians teach that drinking alcohol is a sin. The Bible never says that drinking alcohol is a sin (as Jesus Himself drank alcohol and he never sinned); what the Bible does say is a sin is drunkenness. There's nothing wrong with enjoying a glass of wine, or a can of beer while watching the game. But consuming alcohol to the level where you lose your inhibitions and are no longer sober, that is the sin.

I don't however want to dismiss the reasoning many people have about why alcohol is considered bad. There are many people who can't handle one drink without wanting more and more. Alcohol has the potential to cause harm and it is easy to abuse. This is the reason I have chosen not to have any alcohol yet: I don't know how my body will respond. Will I have a drink some time in my life? Likely, yes. All the members of my family occasionally have a drink, but they all know how to do so without abusing it. But if you believe (or know) that drinking alcohol will lead you to sin, then don't drink it.

But at the same time, alcohol was made by God (both at the beginning of time and at Cana when Jesus turned water into it). It has a purpose, like cake. Don't judge a person just because he drinks; likewise, don't judge a person because he does not. Just know where you stand when it comes to these things that Satan tries to make 'sinful' when they really don't have to be. With many of these things, there is a time and a place, and they can become sin if you know that it's not the time nor the place (for example, drinking alcohol before leaving for a long road trip: obviously a sin).

Still, as Christians, we are called to rise above the base things of this world. We must avoid sin at all costs, but we also need to let God refine our minds so that what used to lead us into sin doesn't anymore. This can only be done by continually connecting with God and heeding His guidance. We are not bound by sin anymore; we are free. This means we can be free from the burden of the gluttony by which we may have been formerly ensnared. But, this also means we are free to have our cake and eat it too.

Jury Duty

Often we get stuck in our own little bubble. We go about life doing all the things that we think matter, the things we need to do, the things that give us pleasure. But do we think about how the things we do affects the others around us?

I got called to jury duty. Yes, it was my first jury summons, and I ended up sitting as one of the six jurors. It was a fascinating experience. The judge was both stern and understanding (and really cool). The district attorney tried the case like she was on a TV drama. And I had the privilege of working with five other first-time jurors of various ages and backgrounds who were all very nice and concerned about making the right decision.

But while I understood the scope of what I was doing, it was right when I was about to check the 'guilty' box on the verdict sheet that it really hit me what an impact I was making. My simple 'X' was going to have lasting consequences on the life of this person. Because of the decision I made along with my colleagues, this man would have to serve punishment for a crime.

Now, as in any serious matter, my natural reaction is to pretend the concern doesn't exist. It isn't a happy thought, and it's comfortable to live in blissful ignorance. But the reality is, I made a decision that affects a man's life in an unfortunate way. Although (according to our deliberation) he deserved it, the fact remains that his future won't be the same because of my actions.

Jury duty provides a very clear and undeniable example of how my actions impact others. But actually every single decision we make affects other people's lives. If I walk down the street and smile at a passing stranger, I have altered the course of that person's life. It may seem inconsequential, but what if that person was having a rough day? What if I was the first person to even acknowledge her existence that day? Even if she thought I was a creeper and turned just slightly, this has made an impact. As an example, imagine we were walking through an open field where there were no buildings or obstructions of any kind. Say my awkward smile caused the person to turn three degrees (out of 360; remember geometry class?). It may not seem like a lot, but if that person walked for another one mile in a straight line, she would end up 277 feet away from where she would have been had I not smiled at her. That's more than one standard city block.

So this is why we need to consider how our actions affect others. We have little control over most of our actions' consequences, but there are plenty of opportunities to really consider the impact our decisions make. Should I go hang out with that friend tonight? Should I do what my mom asks me to do immediately or put it off? Should I be rude to my boss today, even if he's been rude to me? Fill in the blank. Just don't wait for jury duty to consider how your actions affect others. It may literally mean life or death.

God Alone

God has done, and continues to do, such amazing things in my life. But I have to ask myself today: Is my focus on the gift or the Giver?

Sometimes it is just too easy to focus too much on what God is doing. Oh, focus on this is valid, since what He's doing is kind of the most important part of my life I can experience. And He wants to teach so much through these experiences.

But I should never forget that the reason He does these things and teaches so much through them is because He wants to draw me to Himself. He wants me to know Him more and to place all my trust and cares on Him.

The sad part is when I get so focused on the things He does I lose sight of Him. I pray all about seeing the miracles and the victories, I fail to bow down before the victor and miracle-worker and give Him the praise He deserves. I forget that even if He didn't do these things or reveal Himself to me in this way, He is still worthy of the praise. He is God, and that never changes.

Fortunately, He doesn't chastise me for getting off track. Instead, He gently draws me back to Himself. It is a beautiful thing how He shows his grace and mercy so clearly. He wants to draw me back so that I can behold the majesty of who He is, be awed by the fact that He would do such amazing things in my life, and then proceed back into His marvelous plan together.

In Exodus 20:3, God says, "You shall have no other gods before Me." We usually think of this as meaning abstaining from idol-worship, or even more broadly any form of faith that is not the worship of the One True God. But the gist of it is that anything that is not God becomes a "god before Him," even the miracles He does. We need to make sure we are worshiping God alone and nothing else. The other wonderful things should just draw our attention back to being in awe of God and worshiping Him more.

Lord, thank You that you so mercifully look past my misplaced focus, and that You graciously draw me back to Yourself. Let all my attention be focused on how great You are, and let every thought seek to worship and glorify You, the Author of all things bright and beautiful.

The Threefold Righteousness

Ah. What a relief. What a great feeling that now I can take the time to write about some God stuff here while not feeling guilty that I'm not doing my homework. That is, because I have no homework anymore! What that means is that I can actually take the time to write about what God is teaching me. Or what projects I'm working on. Or coffee. Or the Oregon Ducks PillowPet that is sitting on my sofa. Basically, whatever I want! But this time, I have some really deep stuff about what it means to be righteous.

Righeousness is a really easy concept to understand, but it is really hard to adequately apply it to the framework of our lives. There is a seeming contradiction between the need for righteousness and the sufficiency of grace. If grace is sufficient to cover all my mistakes and to get me into heaven, why is the existence of righteousness so emphasized? Why does it matter if I do things the "right" way?

The answer for this that God has shown me comes from what my mother has learned and therefore taught me. She takes a good 45 minutes to an hour every morning to read her Bible and ponder the depths of knowledge that each word in Scripture brings. She likes to share these with me, which means I often get stuck listening to what she has to say for 25-30 minutes longer than I really want to. While it is a tad frustrating because I kind of do want to start my day eventually, the wisdom and knowledge that I have gleaned from those times has really exposed a lot of the mysteries I have pondered. Many of these things I will likely share with you here. It would be a shame for all her learning to end with me.

The question that my mom asked me was simple: "What was Jesus' purpose here on earth?" Logically, I gave her some of the most basic and well-known answers: die for our sins, rise to give us life, lead a godly example, fulfill prophecy, heal the sick, call others to follow Him, etc. All of these answers were correct, of course, but it wasn't the answer she was looking for. She was looking for something that was the underlying reason He did all of these things. The answer? To do the will of the Father. If you think about it, Jesus purpose was only to do whatever the Father willed. He spoke in multiple instances about how He didn't do anything by His own initiative, but because it was what the Father wanted Him to do (Matt. 11:27), and when He was in agony in the garden while He prayed before being arrested, the thing that drove Him to continue was the fact that the Father's will was what came first and foremost (Matt. 26:42; Luke 22:42). (I know it may be a bit confusing, considering that Jesus was God and the Son and the Father were and always will be, in fact, completely the same thing. But, a discussion on the Trinity is not pertinent right now. Just look at it this way: Jesus' will was to do the Father's will, which makes their wills the same, in essence.)

A few weeks later, the thought came to mind about what my real purpose is here on earth. I have been able to see God begin to use me in some radical ways lately. Many of these things are defining who I am. But when I asked myself the question, "What is my purpose here?", before I could respond I was bombarded with the prompting to use the same response: To do the will of the Father. This means that I am here to do whatever God wants me to do, to be used as a tool for whatever purpose He has. This means I don't have to know everything or where every path is leading, all I know is that every day I need to seek to do the will of the Father. This will result ultimately in God being glorified, and blessings to fall upon anyone who God wants to bless because of it (see also Matt. 7:21, 12:50; John 8:28, 14:13).

So then the next logical question is obvious: What is the will of the Father? This is a topic worthy of a blog post of its own, specifically about looking for the Lord's leading, the importance of prayer and Bible reading, and the spiritual gift of discernment that all believers should crave. But the simple answer is to follow the pattern of Jesus by having an attitude of openness to the Father's leading on a minute-by-minute basis. When we seek God's leading, we find out what He wants us to do and what steps He wants us to take toward whatever goals He has laid out in the grand plan He has written for this world.

What does all this have to do with righteousness, you ask? This is the answer to the question I posed earlier: Why should we do things the "right" way? Because it is the will of the Father that we follow Him and act as He would act. We can't honestly think that we will be able to do amazing works for God's kingdom if our minute-by-minute actions are not in line with God's standard. We were created completely righteous, but then after that we sinned. Then the law was given so that we could see what God's standard of righteousness was, but it was a standard we never could attain to because of our sin. So Jesus came to set us free from that bondage and offer us grace so that we can seek righteousness without the penalty and bondage of sin holding us down. Grace is not a license to sin, but a permit for the pursuit of righteousness (Rom. 6).

I know this is something that sounds so great. But I also know that often we think that there is no way on earth we could ever attain to the righteousness that God desires of us. When we have fallen in a hole of our own sin, it looks like we will never amount to anything righteous. And even when we are at a very good and strong place in our walk with God, it looks like "our best" will never be anywhere close to what God would deem acceptable.

Trust me, I have been there too many times, and I know every Christian has been there as well. But the great news is that our righteousness is not dependent on us! Jesus has made it so that our righteousness is solely dependent on His faithfulness. In Phillippians 3:8-9, Paul declares that he has put off all worldly garbage so that he "may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith." As we seek God, we grow in faith, and faith produces righteousness in us. Therefore, the righteousness we desire is made possible through simply seeking God, and as that faith produces a salvation that is dependent not on us but on Christ and His work, our righteousness is possible solely because of what God has already done and what He is going to do.

To prove to us how confident we should be in the righteousness He has provided, He has surrounded us with that righteousness in such a way that we will never be outside of its hold on us. This concept of the certainty of the promise of righteousness to those who believe is something I call the "threefold righteousness." Simply put, the righteousness of God is established in our past, present, and future.

1. The first righteousness is the righeousness that is imputed on us immediately as we accept Christ into our lives. When we invite Jesus to be our Lord and Savior, we accept His sacrifice on the cross as covering our sins. He then takes His righteousness and imputes (attributes or ascribes) it on us. When the Holy Spirit comes into our lives at conversion, He changes the "lens" that the Father sees us through; instead of seeing us based on our own righteousness or lack thereof, He sees us based on His own righteousness. God has literally changed the way He sees us. He no longer looks at us and sees our sin; He looks at us and sees His own righteousness. And that can never change. (See also Rom. 3:22,26, 4:5-6,24; Gal. 2:21)
2. The second righteousness is the righteousness that we accrue as we follow Jesus. Obviously, we will never be perfect as long as we are on this earth, because of the sin that still resides in our flesh. But because of the mercy and grace that Jesus brought through His blood, we can pursue righteousness here on earth. We pursue righteousness by seeking to know God more, primarily through His Word and through prayer. It's like getting to know a good friend: the more you know who that friend is, the more you become like that friend (assuming you actually want to be like them). This is why the most important thing you can do every day is to read your Bible and pray; through these you learn who God is and you can conform your life to Him. And while we know we will never reach perfection here on earth, we can aim for that perfection and strive for that standard. Because while we will never reach it, due to his mercy and grace, we can never fail. (See also Rom. 6:13,16,19; Eph. 4:24; Php. 1:11; 1 Tim. 6:11; Heb. 5:13)
3. The third righteousness is the righteouseness that we are promised in heaven. When we die (or are raptured) and make it through the pearly gates, we will be perfect! This is something that is so hard to fathom sometimes, but it is the reason for everything God has done for us: to live with Him for all of eternity in holiness and righteousness, having experienced His love and grace. It returns us to the state in which we were created, except that we know what it means to be completely loved by God. Somehow, our bodies will be transformed into pure, sinless bodies, and our minds will be washed clean. Galatians 5:5 says, "For through the Spirit we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope." (See also 2 Tim. 4:8; 2 Pet. 3:13; Rev 19:8.) No matter what happens here on earth or how far along the line of perfection we make it, we are promised pure and perfect righteousness for all of eternity in heaven. Nothing motivates me more to press on and finish the race than knowing that, no matter what happens, I will soon be completely, 100% righteous. (Hallelujah! All praise and glory be to the one and only Savior and Redeemer. Amen.)

So no matter what happens, we are surrounded completely by righteousness. This is by God's design, so that no sin can ever separate us from God's love and salvation, and so that we are always encouraged when we are down about our earthly state. We will make mistakes here, but we have been covered in righteousness, we are constantly growing in righteousness, and we are promised perfection in eternity. It sure makes our failures seem small and weak compared to the might and power of an amazing, holy, faithful God!