You Are Not the Spotless Lamb of God!

One of the major maladies of people is a preoccupation with guilt. Shame, embarrassment, depression, and anxiety are just a few emotions that come from being burdened down by guilt. This leads to endless attempts to hide, blame shift, or atone for one's own sins.

Remember, it was the serpent that whispered to Adam and Eve that they should be like God. That is the way the whole mess started - swallowing the lie that perfectionism is the way forward.

You are not the spotless Lamb of God! Embrace your guilt and shame and die to your need to atone for yourself. Jesus, the true spotless Lamb of God, has made you at-one with Him, the Father and Spirit. At-one-ment is what the Lamb of God has succeeded at and, believe it or not, you are accepted!

Speak boldly to your guilt and shame that there is One who has taken away the sin of the world (of which yours were included) and be free. Go one step further and, in the community of believers, confess your shortcomings and learn to stand in cofidence that Christ is for you, in you, and with you - a sinner.

Proper guilt, or conviction, is like an arrow. It is straight and to the point - piercing the heart and pointing to a new way of living free in the embrace of God. It corrects and inspires you to live out of a life of love and helps you to not take yourself too seriously.

False guilt, or condemnation, is like a shotgun blast. It peppers you from all directions and dogs you out. It turns you in on yourself and makes you feel lower than dirt. "You're hopeless! And you call yourself a Christian?" You find yourself dazed, confused and paralyzed or frantic in your attempts to make yourself acceptable.

God has not called you to be a spotless lamb! He has searched you out, lost and wandering lamb, and put you over his shoulder and brought you home. It is the Shepherd's job to clean and tend to His sheep, not the sheep's .

God Has Spoken... Rest!

I was teaching a Sunday morning lesson on the power of Jesus on our behalf, explaining what it meant that Jesus has accomplished all the work of salvation and has rested from the work. Our response to his success is to rest!

As I was expounding on this, I made note of the following verse from Hebrews:

"For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart."

Hebrews 4:12

The point I was making is that when you hear the declaration of Christ's success on our behalf, it exposes just what we are clinging to. Does the call to rest and trust scare you? If so, you are probably going to throw up a few "just in case" prayers or works to get in tight with God "just in case" what Jesus did and who He is isn't enough.

The word of God's passion for sinners exposes our perceptions of Him and creates a crisis for us. What (or who) are we going to believe about God? Are we going to accept a relationship with God on God's terms or on ours? What are God's terms? Rest and let Him love you!

What are your terms? Maybe a whole lot of praying, or a chicken sacrifice, or a holding your spiritual tongue just right. Maybe you feel more secure holding onto your sinner's prayer, repentance and your commitment to follow Jesus and be a "Good Christian".

The fact that God has spoken in Jesus and He is faithful (Heb. 10:23), is a summons to trust and rest from our works of righteousness. Abandon whatever you are doing to get God to accept you and trust that He already has. Walk away from your endless attempts to gain forgiveness and accept that before you even sinned, you were already forgiven.

That may be scary for you, but let the scalpel of God's declaration of love for you do its surgery and release you from fear. A life of trust is a free life. A life of fear is bondage.

Side Note: Sometimes the word of God is threatening like a sword. When I taught this, a religious type that had been on me for not teaching enough holiness challenged me.

"Don't you think this verse is talking about the bible, the inspired cannon of scriptures?" The withering look of shame on his face directed at me let me know he felt the sting of the sword. He clutched tightly to his BIG black bible and was ready to pounce.

"No, I don't think it's talking about the inspired cannon. Mainly because you can't read that verse in its context and arrive at that interpretation AND the cannon wasn't established until 300 plus years later." I answered the question and he didn't like it. He still accuses me of not believing in the bible but the fact is I just don't believe in the bible as he interprets it, which is nothing more than a rule book and text book on how to get in tight with God.

God has spoken in Jesus.... Rest!

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Mark Simpson, LMFT
LifeChange Counseling Centers
www.lifechangedaily.com

Get Moving!

I dropped my wife's car off at the shop this morning for new tires and a brake job. I thought I would wait around and let them do the job quickly. Fat chance! Instead, after waiting about 45 minutes I was told that the car wouldn't be ready until late this afternoon. What did I do? I walked home.

The nice man offered me a ride home, but I only live about a mile and a half away and I hated to miss out on a nice little walk. Walking home, I realized how thankful I was for the ability to walk and not get winded.

Almost three years ago, I could barely run a quarter mile and I decided it was time to get moving. Before my thirty-eighth birthday and after eight months of training, I ran my first marathon. Now at 41, I have completed three marathons and am about to start training for my fourth. (http://www.marathonmakeover.com/)

We are so quick to take the path of least resistance and as a culture it is killing us. I read today that within four years there will be a pill to make you lose 12% of your body weight. Wow! That is great for those at risk for heart disease or diabetes, but why wait for 4 years?! Start today and get moving!

Small steps will compound over time to give you massive results and four years from now you won't need a fat pill. 2007 is almost here and you can make a life change and get healthy! Go for it!
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Mark Simpson, LMFT
LifeChange Counseling Centers
www.lifechangedaily.com

Merry Christmas

"You must understand why it is that the Word of the Father, so great and so high, has been made manifest in bodily form. He has not assumed a body as proper to His own nature, far from it, for as the Word He is without body. He has been manifested in a human body for this reason only, out of the love and goodness of His Father, for the salvation of us men. We will begin, then, with the creation of the world and with God its Maker, for the first fact that you must grasp is this: "the renewal of creation has been wrought by the Self-same Word Who made it in the beginning." There' is thus no inconsistency between creation and salvation for the One Father has employed the same Agent for both works, effecting the salvation of the world through the same Word Who made it in the beginning."

St. Athanasius
On the Incarnation of the Word of God

Good News!

From Robert Farrar Capon's book - Kingdom, Grace, Judgment: Paradox, Outrage, and Vindication in the Parables of Jesus.

"But the Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is precisely Good News. It is the announcement, in the death and resurrection of Jesus, that God has simply called off the game - that he has taken all the disasters religion was trying to remedy and, without any recourse to religion at all, set them to rights by himself. How sad, then, when the church acts as if it is in the religion business rather than in the Gospel-proclaiming business. What a disservice, not only to itself but to a world perpetually sinking in the quagmire of religiosity, when it harps on creed, cult, and conduct as the touchstone of salvation. What a perversion of the truth that sets us free (John 8:32) when it takes the news that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us (Rom. 5:8), and turns it into a proclamation of God as just one more insufferable bookkeeper."

Well said Father Capon!

Lessons Gleaned from Sex

Nature is full of lessons if we have eyes and ears to see and hear. When I think about the sexual relationship of a man and woman, there is much to learn about how relationships need to work.

A woman's reproductive system is an open system - a man's is closed. An open system is the most vulnerable, for the sexual experience occurs within her body and is most susceptible to harm. The closed system of man means his sexual experience occurs outside of himself and there is less chance of experiencing violation.

In order for a woman to safely and successfully receive a man she must experience patience, security and tenderness - anything less hurts or potentially harms. The woman is created to respond and receive after being cared for.

The man rises to the occasion and brings his power to the woman. He is not able to consummate the relationship if he is not potent. Whereas the woman is created to respond, the man is created to lead - but his leadership must first be attuned to serving.

I have had many men and women frustratingly ask why the two are so different. The man is instantly ready and the woman takes time. As I have thought about that I am mindful of Philippians 2:5-11 which states:

"Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death-- even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

If the husband is to love his wife as Christ loves the church, then following the lead of Christ he must set aside his needs to minister to hers. Christ laid aside his greatness and served us. By doing so he was exalted and his greatness was all the more magnified. In the same way, a husband who dies to his instant urges and "marital rights" and serves his wife, providing her a safe, intimate setting, will be lifted up and ultimately exalted in the sexual experience - it will be a shared experience of intimacy not a one-sided grab.

[Side note: Serving a wife is not being enslaved. I've often said that every king must serve his queen but he must never become her slave. Only eunuchs can be slaves to the queen and that is too high a price.]

It will be a frustrating experience and unfulfilling to a woman if she allows a man who hasn't risen to the occasion to enter into her inner world. She will never be satisfied by an impotent man. In the same way, it is a frustrating and unfulfilling experience to try to enter into the world of a woman too insecure to trust and receive.

So what's the point? Am I just getting my kicks writing about sex? Not really - there is a point.

Ladies, protect yourself! Wait for a man to rise to the occasion and demonstrate servant leadership - true power. If you allow a man into your inner world that hasn't demonstrated power and doesn't know how to die to self and serve others, you will live with him being hurt or frustrated.

Men, learn to lead with power! Rise to the occasion and put on the mantle of Christ. Face the "death of self" square in the eyes and don't flinch. Give OF yourself, but don't give UP yourself. Make it your aim to protect and serve and create an environment that fosters intimacy - "into-me-see". Be careful not to enter into a relationship that requires you to be a slave (remember the eunuchs) or where she is incapable of trust - you, too, will be frustrated and harmed.

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Mark Simpson, LMFT
LifeChange Counseling Centers
http://www.lifechangedaily.com/

Hungry?

If you come to the Lord's table with a physical appetite, the little cup and the small bit of bread will sorely disappoint; however, if you come to table with a spiritual hunger you will be more satisfied than what a ten-course meal could provide. Communion is a sacrament - a sacred physical experience with a spiritual experience or demonstration of grace.

Marriage is a sacrament, too; and, just like communion, if you approach it with a physical appetite you will be disappointed. Come to marriage with a spiritual hunger and you will taste the most delicious thing this side of heaven.
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Mark Simpson, LMFT
LifeChange Counseling Centers
www.lifechangedaily.com

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Born Again...

For starters, read John 3:1-21

Religious people are always thinking that they have what it takes to impress God and gain His acceptance. They like how they are "can do" types that live up to all the religious requirements to earn salvation or secure their place in heaven.

Nicodemus was one of those types. He was a Pharisee, a religious marine, who came to Jesus at night to get the scoop on just what he needed to do to shore up the requirements of God. What we miss in the John 3 story is that Nicodemus wasn't coming looking for salvation, he was coming looking for instruction. Salvation says, "I can't do it - do it for me!" Instruction says, "Give me a few pointers and I will show you what a good student I am!"

Jesus wasn't the least bit interested in teaching Nicodemus, if he was the "Master Teacher" wouldn't have left old Nick so dazed and confused. Jesus was interested in utterly striking him out with sinkers, sliders and spitballs. Jesus wanted Nick to go down swinging and lose his balance and fall face first in the dirt.

His goal is not to shame us but to release us from our shame. Shame hinders the operation of grace in our lives by causing us to hide from God and strive for acceptability. Either way - hiding or striving - we think that our relationship with God is on our terms. If I strive, I've earned God's favor. If I hide, I've presented a false self that has tricked you or never drawn near.

Jesus succeeded in striking out Nicodemus.

"Hey Nick - the Kingdom isn't in your hands just like your birth wasn't in your hands!" STRIKE ONE - "You had no control over your water birth when your mother's water broke and you arrived on the scene. You have to be born once to be born a second time!"

Hey batter, batter swing - "Nico - the second birth is like unto the first - out of your control and you get no vote in the matter. This is the Spirit's job and you can't control it just like you can't control the wind." Whoosh - STRIKE TWO - "Did you feel the breeze of that fast ball flying past you?"

You suck batter! "To make matters worse, my friend Nicky, you are snake bit and don't even know it! The venom is already coursing through your veins and times running out." STRIKE THREE - "Why do you think you are running around trying so hard? You're trying to suck the venom out of you with all your religious busy-ness and you can't do it."

Back to the dugout - "Let me show you how it's done, Nicodemus. Do you remember the story of when the Israelites were overrun with poisonous snakes and were dropping like flies, bitten left and right? They had been complaining about God's lack of help and His intention to harm them? You do remember the story, good. If you recall, God instructed Moses to make a bronze serpent and place it on a pole and lift it high in the assembly area. He then instructed the snake-bitten-condemned to look at the snake on the pole and live. What a crazy strategy! Waste time looking at that cursed thing and give up on my own efforts to save myself? That was the plan."

"Oh you with an abysmal batting average, that is the way this whole thing -entering the Kingdom - will work. I will become the snake and be lifted up for the whole world to see. Whoever looks at me won't perish but instead will experience the Kingdom life now."

"I didn't come here as the snake to bite you - you are already snake bit - I came to rescue you from the venomous curse by becoming the curse. If you don't want salvation from death's bite, then all you have is yourself and your sucking strategies to remove your venom by self-effort. Go for it but don't think I will have anything to do with that fiery end - you chose to look the other way instead of looking at me - the accomplisher of new birth."

"This is where the gavel hits the judge's bench Nicodemus, I'm the light that has penetrated the darkness and there are some who will shut their eyes and refuse to let me flood their soul with illumination. They will hate the thought that they can't save themselves and will turn their back to what I'm doing."

"That's what evil really is Nick, ascribing what I'm doing to evil and rejecting grace. Those hell bent on doing it themselves, just wanting instructions not salvation, hate truth and grace because it exposes the futility of cutting and sucking their snake bites. They are too prideful to admit that they can't do it so they keep their eyes tightly shut all the while I'm there right in front of them providing salvation."

"But those who will come to the truth that they can't do it will have their eyes wide open to what it is I'm doing and the light of my grace will flood their soul and rescue them from the venomous condemnation of sin. The snake bites will no longer have the sting - no longer have the ability to separate them from God - they will just look at me when bit and there I will be with arms outstretched demonstrating God's heart. He really does so love the world!"

"The funny thing about those that will be saved from the snake bites is they will realize they weren't the ones who did it. Plain and simple, they will realize that God was the one who did it. No fancy prayers, no promises to avoid the snakes, no commitments to follow God more closely. Nope, Nicodemus my friend, they will just open their eyes to what I have done and will live fully now and forever."

"So what do you want - instructions or salvation?"

Here is the Good News - look and live!

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time."

I Peter 1:3-5

To ALL who read this, listen! You have already been born again by Jesus - done, finished, complete! Open your eyes to the truth and let it do its healing work in your snake bitten soul. God is for you not against you. Your days of striving, cutting and sucking are over. Rest, for He has done it!

I Believe in Divorce!

As a Marriage & Family Therapist, I hear people say all the time "I don't believe in divorce!" and they are usually people whose marriage is falling apart and are facing divorce. It's almost as if they think that if they declare their disbelief in divorce they can avoid the whole subject.

I believe in divorce! I see it all around me and know too painfully that it is an all too common event in far too many people's lives. When I say "I believe in divorce" I am NOT saying that I think it is a great thing - I'm just saying that this is a reality folks and declaring our disbelief in it is not enough.

What most people probably mean is "I don't believe in divorce as an option for solving my marital problems." That is better but it is still not enough. Focusing on the negative doesn't help much.

I would love to hear people saying "I believe in loving, honoring and cherishing my spouse" not "you vowed till death do us part!" The focus of our vow is on what we will do in our marriage, not how long we have to stick together. NEWSFLASH - If you love, honor and cherish your spouse you will most likely never experience a divorce.

Couples need to recognize that divorce is a possibility and take steps to protect their relationship, not in a frantic, insecure way, but in sober, mature way. Couples do not need to play fast and lose with their relationship - it can be hurt!

Consider your marriage as being like a beautiful cut-glass piece of Waterford crystal - shaped like an egg and very expensive. Friends come over and want to play a game of football. There is no football so they head for the egg shaped heirloom and hit the back yard for a game of touch football and you oblige. STOP!!

Of course you wouldn't let that happen. You would protect the crystal from the inevitable harm of playing around with it. The crystal isn't fragile, but it is breakable so you would honor and cherish it. Your marriage isn't fragile, but it is breakable so honor and cherish it.

Only Twenty Pages

What does it take to master a given topic? Believe it or not, if you will read only twenty pages a day on any given topic, in five years you will be in the top 5% of those who know something on that topic.

Read twenty pages a day for five years on the subject of landscaping and you will know more than 95% of the population. OK, maybe you're not interested in landscaping but what about marriage. Would it be a worthy pursuit in your marriage to spend thirty minutes a day reading twenty pages learning how to be a better mate? I think so.

Think of how it might change your relationship with your children if you chose the topic of parenting. What would your health be like if you read up on diet and exercise science (and put it into practice)?

You might be thinking there are not enough minutes in the day to read twenty pages on all the pertinent subjects - you're right! Instead of being an over achiever go for the top 50% and read 5 pages a day on the important subjects. It really won't hurt you if you spend thirty minutes to an hour reading each day. It is a discipline and well worth it.

Benjamin Franklin once stated that if he had 10 hours to chop down a tree, he would spend the first 8 hours sharpening his axe. (I read that!) Think of how much easier you would do in life if you took the time to sharpen your mental and spiritual axe. READ!!

Merry Anti-CHRISTmas?

I heard a preacher recently teaching about the "real" Christian life and boy was it interesting. He went to great lengths to talk about the deeper, more mature life "in the Word" and how, when we were ready for it, he would let us in on the meat. This preacher talked as if he had arrived and he wasn't quite sure if we had. There was what I interpreted a spirit of superiority.

What confused me was how he kept talking about "the human side" of him. I kept thinking - "What part of you is not human?" Is he part alien, canine, monkey or elf? Then it dawned on me - this guy was functioning within a Greek dualism/gnostic paradigm. This belief holds that there is a human side (flesh/bad) and a spiritual side (eternal/good) to people and that the ultimate goal is to escape the flesh and ascend to the spiritual world through "being in the know" - gnosis -Greek for knowledge.

The early church dealt with this belief and the ensuing heresy of gnosticism [from Wikipedia: Gnostics regarded nature and the material world as flawed, corrupt, if not downright evil. They claimed that the natural world was created by a lesser deity, the Demiurge, not the true God who dwells in another realm outside space and time. The human soul, originating as a divine spark in the higher world, finds itself fallen captive to matter, exiled in the realm of the senses. Spiritual development means extricating oneself from enmeshment with matter and returning to the Source, the Light of God. Gnosis is the recognition of the presence of the Higher Self, the spark of Divinity trapped in matter, but only an elite few can realize this awareness and liberate themselves from blind enslavement to this world.]

The thing that chapped my hide was that this preacher was turning the Christian life into escaping the mundane life (in which we live) and climbing some mountain of mysticism and "Word play". Unbeknownst to some there, he was robbing the people of their lives by discounting their work, play, parenting, school, love-making, singing, golfing, cooking and friendships. The "real Christian life" sounded more like Harry Potter speaking words, manipulating the universe through the power of his spoken Word and living on a higher plain above us spiritual peons.

What's the problem? Jesus came to the mundane not to extricate us from this world but to fill it and us with His kingdom and glory. "Peace on earth, good will to men" and "They Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven".

Read this:

"My dear friends, don't believe everything you hear. Carefully weigh and examine what people tell you. Not everyone who talks about God comes from God. There are a lot of lying preachers loose in the world. Here's how you test for the genuine Spirit of God. Everyone who confesses openly his faith in Jesus Christ - the Son of God, who came as an actual flesh-and-blood person - comes from God and belongs to God. And everyone who refuses to confess faith in Jesus has nothing in common with God. This is the spirit of antichrist that you heard was coming. Well, here it is, sooner than we thought!"

I John 4:1-3 The Message

Jesus came in the flesh and the spirit of antichrist keeps trying to get away from His fleshiness. They want a Jesus that let's us opt out of loving one another in community and focus on the more important job of singing, praying, word studies, prophecies and mystical experiences.

Remember this Christmas season - Jesus came to us here! Jesus moved into our neighborhood and lived with us. Religion has us trying to escape the neighborhood and has us movin' on up, Weazie. But Christianity has the Eternal, Divine Relationship (Father, Son, Spirit) earthed in Jesus in order that we can have overflowing, eternal life now.

God didn't run from our humanity - He ran to it (incarnation). He hasn't divorced Himself from our flesh - He converted it (cross and resurrection) and filled it (Pentecost).

May you experience Immanuel - God with Us - this season. Merry Christmas!

Love Requires Getting Real

The Apostle John wrote to his church that he pastored three recorded letters in an attempt to heal that Christian community. It seems that little church was experiencing a break down and love was not flowing freely anymore. What was the cure?

John tells the people to get real and to quit acting as if they had it all together. It seems that the only way to experience healthy love in community is not by being perfect but acknowledging frequently how imperfect you are. This was not encouraged as a means to shrug off unloving actions and attitudes - "Hey, nobody is perfect" - but to ensure that we would grow toward being a healthier community.

God tells us all that we are sinners - we fall flat on our faces everyday - and He does this not to humiliate us or shame us but to set us free. Here is how he does this - bear with me:

God loves sinners...
God reconciled sinners to himself in Jesus...
God forgave sinners in Christ and no longer holds their sins against them...
God loves us not because we are good but because He is good...
God only loves sinners, which were the ones He came for....
Therefore, if you aren't a sinner God doesn't love you!

Wait a Minute! God loves everyone!

Yes!

And everyone is a sinner; BUT, if you don't quit pretending you have it all together and get real you can't experience God's love. You are presenting to God a "non-you" to be loved and therefore the real you will never experience God's love.

Take a deep breath, face your fears of rejection for being imperfect, and confess your sins to God - get real! You will experience a faithful, just and forgiving God and His loving embrace and acceptance of the "real you" will cleanse you of all un-realness.

Then, with the acceptance of the real you, you are free to graciously love others just like you. Community can begin to take place when real people show up.

More Crazy Days!

These are crazy days for me and I am trying to catch up. I will resume blogging next Monday.

"Be" not "Get" - Part V

Have you ever seen one of those car bumper stickers that states, "Get right or get left!"? The sticker is a feeble attempt at saving souls by scaring the hell out of people by threatening hell, or better, getting left behind in the rapture. The message that these "ambassadors for Christ" are spreading is a fear-based one.

My question is just how do we "get right"? I'm guessing we are supposed to acknowledge we are sinners, swear off our sins and commit ourselves anew to following God so we won't get left. Right?

My difficulty is that it seems like a whole lot of "getting" to get done to in order for God to book us on His out-of-this-world-rocket-flight. Sounds like works!

Paul, in wrapping up his discussion of God's work of salvation in Jesus, brings us to the church's role in salvation - an ambassador for God to the world. Read this:

"We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God."

II Corinthians 5:20

Do you see what I see? Our message to the world is not "Get right!" but "Be reconciled to God!" and being is a whole lot different than doing or getting. In the previous verses, Paul states that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself - done...finished. The "getting" is completed in Christ. Reconciliation has been accomplished and now God is calling the world, with our participation, to BE that which He has already re-created us to be in Christ.

"I have reconciled you - now be (live, rest, play, dance, love, work, etc.) in the reality of your embrace. The war is over, I've won you over in Christ - don't resist my attempts to love you!"

Bruce Wauchope from Australia puts it this way (paraphrased):

God says: Let me love you!
We sin by saying: NO! You can't love me.
We repent by saying: OK, love me!
We live by resting in the embrace of God!

Our response doesn't make God love us - it opens our heart up to the reality of what is already going on - His never-ending love. Be who you are:

"God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. "

II Corinthians 5:21

Be who you are - the righteousness of God in Christ - you are His beloved in whom He is well pleased!

What's Your Ministry and Message? - Part IV

What do people say about God? Have you ever been told that God can't have anything to do with you because your sin has separated you from Him and He can't tolerate sin?

People go to great lengths in telling others about how they can have a relationship with God. But instead of being newsboys we become bread men. Instead of sharing Good News we market a product of salvation that we can hand out after people follow the steps we lay out.

In this study of 2 Corinthians 5:14-21, we come to verses 18-19.

"All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation."

2 Corinthians 5:18-19

Paul has just stated that the new creation work of salvation ,that we have ALL been included in, is accomplished in Christ and now he calls us to focus on the author of salvation - "all this is from God...". God is the one who does the work of salvation - not you or me. God reconciled us to Himself through Christ. We aren't reconciled to God when we pray a prayer, when we commit our lives, when we join the church or are baptized. We WERE (past tense) reconciled to God through Jesus in His death and resurrection.

Isn't that amazing? Take a moment and soak that in. God has reconciled you to Himself. God has, through Jesus, reestablished a close intimate relationship between God and you. In Jesus, your life has already been restored to Father God. What Adam lost for you in his disobedience has been restored to you in Jesus. God is for you not against you!

This is the ministry and message God has given us, the church, to the world: "God was in Christ restoring you and the whole wide world to the Father and He doesn't hold your sins or anyone else's sins against you!"

You are forgiven! The Lamb of God has already taken away of the sins of the world. God doesn't keep a ledger sheet and He doesn't grade on a curve. Grace, grace and more grace!

The church isn't the place to dole out God or salvation. The church is the place where people, captured by the Good News of God's philanthropy, go far and wide announcing like angels (who were messengers):

"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."

This is the message we have been entrusted with. When was the last time you told a stranger with confidence: "God's favor rests on you. He loves you. He has forgiven you. He is well pleased with you!"?

Don't let those using sales pitches and memorized scripts selling fire insurance shame you into backing down from telling everyone you meet the Good News of God's favor in Jesus. You will here them say; "You're giving them false assurance. If they don't sign on the bottom line and commit they are an object of God's wrath."

The Kingdom of God is like a farmer who wastefully scatters seed willy-nilly everywhere and lets the seed do what it's going to do. Spread the news, plant the seed of hope and truth, water lives with grace and have a harvest celebration when one sinner wakes up to the truth - that when they were dead in their trespasses and sins God made them alive with Christ and raised them up and set them in the Father's lap.

What a message to spread!

How Do You See Me? - Part III

What lenses do you look through when you look at another person? Do you see their skin color? Do you hear their dialect? Do you observe their economic standing? Do you judge whether or not they are a beautiful person?

We all bring a pair of glasses to our relationships. We look and judge and generalize our findings into nice, neat little categories. We do this so we can esteem some and demean others. Now on this third day of teasing out II Corinthians 5:14-21, we come to verses 16 & 17:

"So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! "

Paul has just stated in verse 14 that he was convinced that when Jesus died, ALL died (implicit is our participation in His resurrection, too). And, that we all need to surrender to this reality and live for Jesus and not ourselves. Now we hear Paul say that it has totally transformed the way he sees everyone. He goes so far as to state that to see someone excluded from Jesus is to have a "worldly" perspective and not a Christian (or Christ-centered) perspective.

To paraphrase Paul -"I can't look at anyone and see them apart from Jesus Christ and His all encompassing work of death and resurrection. Everyone I see was included in Christ's death and resurrection and to think otherwise is to deny His lordship - which is just what the world does and I once did, too!"

To see Jesus as He is, as Lord incarnate, is to have your prescription lenses completely overhauled which revolutionizes the way you see the world around you. To know that Jesus Christ is Lord tells you the secret (mystery is the biblical language) that is hidden in everyone you meet. It drives you... compels you... constrains you... to tell the folks you encounter the Good News of who they are in Christ.

The passage further declares that everyone is a new creation in Christ!

What? That's not what it says, Mark. Someone only becomes a new creation IF they are in Christ and you can't get into Christ unless you pray the prayer. Only after that are you included in Christ and then you are recreated and old things pass away and everything becomes new. You have to get into Christ and only the saved are in Christ.

Hold your horses, that is not what the passage states. I realize that most of us evangelicals were raised hearing the verse, "if anyone is in Christ..." on the heals of praying the prayer or extended as a promise of what is to come when and if we say the prayer, BUT just because we have always heard something doesn't make it so.

Verse 17 starts with the word "therefore" which means that everything that is about to be said hinges on the preceding thought. "Based on all that I have just said, the following is true." What did Paul just state? Who did Paul just say was in Christ dying? ALL! All are in Christ already. He states it again in Colossians 1:17:

"He is before all things, and in him all things hold together."

Therefore, carrying forward the Christological argument he started, he declares if the preceding is true then it stands to reason that in Christ's death and resurrection a whole new creation has been birthed in the person of Jesus. The old man was taken down in Christ and the New Man has arrived in His resurrection.

Peter echoes this in his first epistle, chapter 1:3:

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead..."

How cool is that! Jesus didn't just come to do the work. He is The Work. Ephesians 2:15b-16 says:

"His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them [Jews and Gentiles] to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility."

In Jesus Christ, and through His death and resurrection, old has been destroyed and the new has been ushered in!

Do you see His new creation in you? Have you trusted in the message of truth? I know it's hard. Everything else around you says something to the contrary. The cold, hard facts of your existence tell you a different story.

But which word will you believe? The word of this world which is passing away as we speak? Or the Eternal Word, Jesus Christ, who has overcome this world and your death and has made all things new?

Tomorrow: What's Your Ministry and Message?

Those that live... Part II

Yesterday I began my discussion of II Corinthians 5:14-21 by discussing the driving force and conviction of Paul - love and the belief that ALL died in Christ. I finished the discussion by sensing that some of you may have been champing at the bits to have some folks excluded from the work of Christ. I've heard the questions before:

"Are you saying that all are saved and going to heaven?"
"Isn't that universalism?"
"So people don't have to do anything - they are saved but just don't know it?"

Now before I answer the questions that may be whirring around in your head let me digress by first asking you a few questions. What would be so bad with that if it were so? Would it thrill your heart if all in the finale got grace and mercy and not flames?

"But, Mark, the Bible doesn't leave us with that option - some are going to burn!"

OK, OK, that's fine, you can have your hell. But don't be so quick to rush there and start throwing people over the rail into the bottomless pit. God is not quick to anger or to judge and neither should we be. When our focus is on punishment and people getting their just desserts, I fear we run past love and treat it as a minor bit of sentimentality and believe somehow that we need to help God with by dabbing the corner of his eye with our tissue.

"Now, now, God, I know you are a loving God but remember you are also a wrathful and judging God and we can't let people forget that! Hurl a few lightning bolts and remind them whose boss - we don't want any spiritual slackers. Besides, fear will really get our conversion numbers up."

Let me remind you - Zeus throws lightning bolts at people he doesn't like - our Father sends His Son out of love for the world (John 3:16).

All that being said, let's get to verse 15 which states:

"And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again."

I hope this answered those questions above - there is a "should" in the discussion. Paul has just laid out his strong held conviction that Jesus' death included everyone... yes everyone.. and now he turns to our response - "Don't live for yourself but for Jesus who has redeemed you in His death and resurrection."

The statement assumes that it is possible to live for yourself instead of Jesus. As a matter of fact, I would go so far as to state that it is impossible to live for anyone but you if you dismiss Him.

The sad truth is that all of us are under the harassing assault of this world's system and it has not left us neutral or passive. It has driven us to unimaginable depths of brokenness trying to find our cure. The greedy, lustful, slothful, gossiping, cheating and killing schemes we have tried are all born out of a diseased heart, mind and soul desperately trying to save itself from death's inevitable clutch.

All our attempts are destined to fail. None will satisfy and rescue us.

"What? What's that you said?

Jesus has overcome my death?

When He died I died? When He was raised I was raised?

How can that be?

He's Lord? What does that mean?

All things, including me, are held together in Him?

What becomes of Jesus becomes of me?"

There are two possible responses:

"Yeah right! Nice try! You think you can dupe me with that stuff? I see what's ahead of me and I can handle this on my own. I don't need charity - I can do this myself. What you're after is control and I ain't giving that away. I'm the captain of this ship"

Or

"This is amazing grace that I don't deserve! God loves me that much? Where is He? I've got to tell Him thanks. What? He wants me to hang out with Him and learn how to be free indeed? Sign me up; put me down, whatever it takes. I'm His!

Our response to the Good News doesn't make it true, the Good News is already true - Immanuel. Our response just allows us to experience the fullness of the truth. The scriptural language for that is "salvation" and it is liberating! What do you get if you don't live for Him but for you? Your get your self - and whatever capabilities you have to save yourself from death.

So, back to the questions:

Q. Are you saying that all are saved and going to heaven?

A. Yes, all are saved. But no, it doesn't work that way. If heaven was just a geographical issue it would work that way, but heaven is a relational issue. To say you can have heaven without faith is like saying you can have health without taking medicine. Only those who take the Gospel medicine into their heart are healed by it - the beginning of heaven (which is relational). Those that leave the Gospel medicine on the outside of their heart are not changed by it and they are left with themselves - the beginning of hell.

Q. Isn't that universalism?

A. No. Universalism denies that there is a you in the equation. Universalism says that your will doesn't matter, and your wants will be violated. That to me is like spiritual rape.

I hope that when it is all said and done God's love will win over the hearts of everyone like it has mine, but I am doubtful. Scripture keeps showing us that there are those who don't want God's love and grace in Jesus. Sad! They perish in vain.

Q. So people don't have to do anything - they are saved but just don't know it?

A. If you're asking if we must do something to seal the deal, the answer is no - just receive, with a happy heart, the grace of God. It is finished and you were included. And yes, in a way people are already saved; they died and were raised in Jesus 20000 years ago. But ignorance isn't bliss - it's lost-ness. (Go back to the paragraph above on broken schemes.) Salvation is just life, and it begins when those saved by grace respond by faith to the truth and are set free. (Ephesians 2:4-10)

How beautiful are the feet of those who go, like Paul, with the driving force of God's love and the burning message of inclusion and Christ's accomplishment and call all people to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved.

Tomorrow - How do you see me?

A Favorite Passage - Part I

One of my favorite passages in the Bible is II Corinthians 5:14-21. This week I am going to tease out my understanding of this passage and its implications for life.

"For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that
one died for all, therefore all died;" II Cor. 5:14

Paul is the author of this letter to the church in Corinth and the two things that jump out to me is motivation and conviction. Paul reveals that the motivation for his missionary zeal is the love of Christ. He has encountered in Jesus a love that blew his circuits and drove him to the uttermost parts of his world. Why does he preach? Jesus' love drives him!

Paul then gives us a glimpse into his thinking when he tells us that he has concluded something. In the NIV translation, it states that he has become "convinced". When Paul states that he has become convinced of something, I tend to take notice. What is this conclusion that he reveals?

"...having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died;"

Could this be true? Does Paul really believe this? The implications are huge! Who is the one who died for all? Jesus, of course.

I have found that most people do not have a problem accepting that Jesus died for all - unless they are of a theological persuasion that believes that "all" only means "all of a chosen few". We remember the words of John 3:16 that states that "God so loved the world" and most agree that world means world - every last person that has lived and will live, Jesus died for.

What do we do with the next conclusion of Paul's - "therefore all died"? Could he actually be saying that in Jesus death, you, me, your neighbor Earl and Kareem Abdul Jabar all died with Him in His death? How could this be? The implications are too staggering and we start to crawfish.

"No, that can't be so. He must be talking about the church... after all, he is writing to the church."

OK, let's go with that. If he is talking about only the church dying with Christ, then it is only for the church Jesus died. That ought to satisfy the Calvinists - Jesus only loves the elect and only died for the elect and only the elect died with Jesus. I don't buy it!

All means ALL! Jesus died for ALL and ALL died. This tells us something enormous about Jesus and about you, me, your neighbor Earl and Kareem Abdul Jabar. It tells us that Jesus is way bigger than we give Him credit for and there is more going on with us than we ever imagined.

Paul expounds on the amazing greatness of Jesus in the first chapter of Colossians - go read it. You can't read his letter and not conclude that Paul really believes Jesus is huge - Jesus is Lord! At the same time, you can't observe Paul's missionary zeal and conclude that he doesn't see people in a new and different light.

You can see why I like this passage, it has the potential to upend the sock drawer of our neat little conclusions and scatter our exclusionist socks all over the floor. But then again, it seems that when we encounter Jesus he does just that. He overturns our tables and calls for a thorough cleansing of our temple - His temple - and our lives will never be the same. When we meet this Jesus and believe this Jesus, it changes the way we relate to Him, yourself and others.

I know what some of you are thinking. Your "yeah, but's" are starting to explode. You are reeling at the notion of everyone being "in". You want to make sure that some get left out in the cold (or heat).

I'll talk more about this tomorrow, after all, I have a whole week to blog and I have only touched on the first verse.

Too Salty!

Saturday night Robin and I went to see the latest James Bond movie - Casino Royale - and had a great evening... except the popcorn. I took out a second mortgage for a small bag of popcorn and a 20 ounce bottle of water.

As I watched the 15 minutes of previews (actually one of my favorite parts of the movie experience) I dove into my bag of popcorn, "Boy! This is some salty popcorn!" I said to my wife. I kept eating.

I don't know why I do that, but I kept working my way through the bag of super-salty popcorn until... until... I bit into one piece of popcorn that must have been rolled and battered in salt. Ughhhhh!

"Where's the water!? Give me a few Raisinettes to balance me out!" That was a close call.

As I reflected later on my experience, I thought about how the Scriptures tell us to be salt in this world. Salt that flavors and adds to the experience of life and brings out the mystery of Christ hidden in this creation and waiting to be revealed. BUT...

How many times are we too salty and instead of whetting the appetite of unbelievers for the sweet flavor of Christ, we turn them off with a choking glob of self-righteousness? When we go overboard, all we do is compel the world to go on a low or no sodium diet.

Be salty and yet be careful to not stump your toe when flavoring your relationships with your relationship with Christ.