Devotions that Resonate Truth

  I heard a great sermon a few weeks ago. There was an illustration that encouraged me and gave me hope—but challenged me that often my feelings don't tell me the truth. The preacher reminded us we have three types of real enemies: our own sinful heart, the world, but also the evil, demonic horde. I loved the truth he highlighted: we live our whole lives between D-Day and VE-Day. Namely, Jesus has won the war, but the fighting isn't complete. The other analogy he referenced was that we live each day like a basketball team up 100 points—we're going to win! We don't need to continue in fear that our adversaries are going to beat us. Super encouraging. So good. However, despite the scoreboard telling us we can't lose, we still get angry or have despairing feelings, don't we? We get elbowed in the face and get upset. That we've already won the game won't protect us from injuries we get before the final buzzer. So, if you're like me, you might ask yourself this question—“Is this what winning feels like? I consider my life, my circumstances, my emotions, and it feels like losing. I know we're more than conquerors, but is this really going to plan, Lord?” If you look at the Bible, the Psalms in particular, you'll see the wonderful truth that we can bring our questions and feelings to God—all of them. God's not like us. He doesn't get defensive when we show up, doubting him. He especially wants us to turn to him when we're doubting, especially when we can't see him working in our hardships. But God is so far above us and sees our lives and pain in such a different light that often the answer we get from him challenges us. Here's the challenging picture that came to mind after I asked him, “Is this what winning feels like?” I remembered Jesus praying in the garden before they showed up to arrest him, “saying, ‘Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me.'” (Luke 22.42a). Jesus, beaten beyond recognition, hanging, arms outstretched on the cross. What if in those moments Jesus had asked his Father the same question? “Is this what winning feels like? Surely not, surely this can't be going according to the original plan set before we created the universe.” Jesus was in the deepest place that felt like crushing defeat, but he was winning! That pain was winning the eternal battle for souls...winning over death and sin...winning for eternity. The pain-gripped, stress-filled, agonized reply to us from our Lord is, “Yes. This is what winning feels like sometimes.” So, follower of Jesus, here is your challenge and your hope. As you die to yourself and live for others, with God's help—it will be really dark some days. BUT, as 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 says, “[W]e do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.”

There's a well-known proverb that talks about the words we use. You heard it on the playground as a kid. Maybe you came crying into the house and your parents tried to encourage you with this proverb. It goes like this - sticks and stones may break your bones, but words will never hurt you. Author Wayne Mack says that this is “one of the biggest lies ever foisted on the human race. . .it certainly wasn't coined by someone who accepts God's perspective on speech or by anyone on the receiving end of careless, unwholesome talk.” So today I'd like to take you with me through a thought experiment. Let's walk through a normal day in our normal lives–but let's take out our normal eyes and put in special eyes. These eyes aren't like Superman's eyes that can see through solid objects or emit laser beams. These eyes are very disturbing to look through, like the kid who could see dead people in The Sixth Sense. These eyes can physically see the emotional impact words have on people. Proverbs 12:18 says, “There is one whose rash words are like sword thrusts, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.” So, you're out running an errand and you pull up to a stoplight. You look over at the car stopped next to you and you see a husband and wife talking. You can't hear them. The windows are rolled up. A splatter of blood hits the side window, and the wife crumples against the glass in pain. You're horrified. But just before you look away, the husband coughs blood and leans on the steering wheel, to prop himself up while he tries to recover from a return attack. The light turns green, and you speed away, trying to rid your mind of the gory images. Four friends walk silently side by side as you pull up to Target. They all have multiple open gashes on their arms. A smiling employee welcomes you into the store but has no arms. You see blood trails down all the aisles. Scarred and wounded people smile or stare blankly. No wonder people act the way they do, they're in so much pain from words. You dodge a body that is laying on the floor and swing your cart around a corner. You're flying into the canned food aisle at Formula 1 speeds, but stop dead in your tracks. There, right in front of your special fresh eyes, is the most marvelous thing you've ever seen. A mother is resting her hand on her teenage son's shoulder. He's crying and has a blood-soaked hand over a deep wound in his neck. As she looks into her son's eyes, you see her words flow and glow mid-air, like swirling waves of golden dust. As the shimmering waves circle and pour into the boy's ears, he lifts his hand and you gawk in amazement. The layers of open flesh are reconnecting and closing, one at a time, until it has healed completely, with an almost imperceptible scar as the only evidence of the damage done. Racing home after checking out, you wonder what you will see when you get there. What scars and open wounds will your loved ones be suffering from? How bad will it be? How much of the damage will have been yours? Glancing in the rearview mirror, you see the marks on your own face. Your hair seems to be matted down with blood on the left side. You wince in pain as you touch it–and your mind flashes back to the conversation you had after church with a close friend. Then you remember the miraculous healing you saw. You remember Proverbs 18:21, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits.” But now you believe it like you never have before. Real wounds, real healing. Actual death or life. You pull into your driveway and put the car in Park, like you have a thousand times. But you pause, lower your face, and pray. “Lord, I'm terrified to go inside and see what the world has done–what I've done–to my family. I confess my words are often rash–I am not slow to speak or as slow to anger as I should be. Please forgive me. And by your grace and Spirit in me, please bring healing and life. I want us to spend our evening eating the fruits of life-giving words, not hurting and with swords drawn and ready. Amen.”

  God wrote the Bible, through men, over thousands of years. It covers hundreds of topics, but has one overarching goal—to show us who God is, how much we need him, and how to find him and then follow him.  God is the perfect author, and he knows us perfectly. He wants to save and care for our souls, but he knows we need help to understand our spiritual state. So he gives us physical examples that are easy to understand. Then, still holding onto that physical reality that we know, he tells us how it is also our spiritual reality. One of my favorite metaphors that the Bible uses, because is so easy for me to understand, is thirst. Because it is so good, God uses it throughout the Bible and it was much more powerful for people in biblical times. They lived in dry lands and thirst wasn't so much an issue of discomfort as of life and death.  Here's a modern-day equivalent for us. You've been hiking in the desert landscape of Moab in Utah. You're several days in and the supply of water you brought with you has run out. You must have taken a wrong turn because you can't find the campground. It's been an especially hot summer, so all the rivers are dry creek beds—their dusty bottoms only torturing you with the fact that at one time they were flowing with water. As a result, you aren't just thirsty, you're dehydrated. Your tongue has swollen and feels like sandpaper in a mouth that can't offer it any moisture. Your eyes and cheeks are sinking into your face. The desperation and dry, sandy wind are making you cry—but your body has no tears. Your skin is extremely dry and your lips are cracked and bleeding. Your head aches, muscle cramps are setting in, and in confusion you drop to the ground right in the sun, not even thinking of shade. But this doesn't mean you're dumb, or can't understand your condition. You know you are dying of thirst; you need water! As a fellow hiker happens upon you and runs over to you, the truth of their offer resonates immediately. They say, “You don't have long to live—neither did I, but I found a fountain of pure spring water that flows into a shimmering river! I tasted its sweet coolness. I've seen it plunging from the rock, down into deep blue pools, and its spray has covered and refreshed me. Come with me, I will show you how to find it, be saved and delighted, just as I was—it's closer than you think!” On the way you see someone bent over a small greenish mud puddle. Another hiker is holding a bottle of vodka. If they say, “don't follow that guy, we have all you need right here,” you won't stop. Those may look like answers, but they won't save you. You know this because extreme hikers don't brink dirty water or vodka to keep them hydrated. Plus, why settle—get all that your body is dying to experience and more. Ok—there's the powerful reality. It's obvious and we can relate to it—so hold on to that and let me ask you something. Is your soul thirsty today? Is it parched and dry? Do you feel like dropping to your knees and giving up and you don't even care if the sun is beating down on you? Does Psalm 63:1 sound like your inner dialog sometimes? O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you;     my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you,     as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. You may reply, “That's sort of how I feel. My soul is thirsting for sure, but I'm not thirsting for God.” Many people would agree with you. I can relate to that. In the Old Testament, God's people felt that way, too. In Jeremiah 2:13, God says: for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me,     the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves,     broken cisterns that can hold no water. So, either we don't believe that God is the only one who can quench the thirst of our dehydrated souls, or we don't want to follow him on his terms. We're willing to put a lot of effort into digging empty wells instead of going to the fountain of living waters. It's so tragic, because none of the mud puddles or alternative drinks we're choosing are saving us—we know that, we feel so soul-thirsty. His terms are generous—Jesus tells the Samaritan woman, who's lived with six different men and still has a parched soul, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” (John 4:10) and “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:13b, 14) As we scrounge around today, in desperation, wondering why none of our dreams are working out the way we wanted; trying to come up with some new, creative way to stop the dry croaking screams from our soul. We need to remember that Jesus extends the same offer to us. He's personally inviting you right now. I'm like that other hiker, inviting you (and me!) to give up on our barren efforts. Let's go drink and completely satisfy ourselves! The thirst metaphor shows up at the end of the story, in the last chapter of Revelation, with a personal invitation from the Spirit of God, and his bride—all the saved hikers who were thirsty. Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb (Revelation 22:1) The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price. (Revelation 22:17)

You know the scene well. You've seen it in countless movies, whether comedies or dramas. Someone is being a jerk. They're real proud of themselves, too. Maybe they are bullying the main character or breaking all the rules and laughing about it. But then, as the audience, we see the authority figure join the scene, silently in the background. Often, several characters see the covert entrance, too. Maybe it's the teacher or the principal, the prison warden, or the boss. Or maybe it's one of my all-time favorites, Mr. Miyagi. It's Halloween night in the 1984 classic movie Karate Kid. The rich, mean karate jerks, dressed in skeleton outfits, have surrounded Daniel. They have him up against a fence and are proceeding to beat the tar out of him. Their vengeful leader, Johnny, refuses to stop, even when his own thug says Daniel's had enough! Instead, he yells out the mantra the evil Cobra Kai dojo has taught him: “an enemy deserves no mercy!” If you watch carefully behind the kid holding Daniel, you can see Mr. Miyagi sneaking up behind them. He climbs the fence, waiting for the right moment to jump down into the middle of the five bullies. He crushes them one by one, effortlessly leaving them rolling around, moaning on the ground in pain. We love these scenes in movies and books because we love justice. We hate it when the “bad guys” are getting away with it. The recent invasion of Ukraine by Russia makes me feel like a helpless bystander. But this sense of trapped injustice is especially true when it's our life and our injustice and it looks like the people abusing the systems and other people are laughing as they get away with it! They get to us and we get angry, stressed, and consider sinning, ourselves, so that we can set things straight. Praise God for Psalm 37, where David has us take a few deep breaths and count to ten. Then he tells us to shift our focus and our “camera angle”. There, silently watching behind the person doing evil, “up on the fence” is the LORD God Almighty! Here are a few verses from Psalm 37, but I encourage you to read the whole psalm on your own.   1 Fret not yourself because of evildoers;     be not envious of wrongdoers! 2 For they will soon fade like the grass     and wither like the green herb. 3 Trust in the LORD, and do good;     dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. 4 Delight yourself in the Lord,     and he will give you the desires of your heart. 5 Commit your way to the LORD;     trust in him, and he will act. 6 He will bring forth your righteousness as the light,     and your justice as the noonday. 7 Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him;     fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way,     over the man who carries out evil devices! 8 Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath!     Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil. 9 For the evildoers shall be cut off,     but those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land.   27 Turn away from evil and do good;     so shall you dwell forever. 28 For the Lord loves justice;     he will not forsake his saints. They are preserved forever,     but the children of the wicked shall be cut off. 29 The righteous shall inherit the land     and dwell upon it forever.   Isn't that great? Yes, we see injustice in this world. People are doing horrible things and seem to be getting away with it—and prospering! But only for a short time. So, don't despair and don't add any more sins to the fight. Instead, remember this picture of the LORD standing behind the evildoer, guaranteeing to deliver perfect justice. Lastly, let's remember that you and I are not innocent bystanders. We're often the thugs—selfish, insensitive, and at times brutal to others around us. So, give thanks to God that when he stands watching behind you, the heavy justice you deserve falls on Jesus, upholding his righteousness—and sparing you.

The gavel comes down with a crash. The judgment is rendered, final. Nothing and no one can overturn it now. After staring ahead for years, with vacant eyes, at inevitable, solitary confinement, I can't believe that the echoing report of the gavel is ringing the news… of… my release, not my imprisonment. My pardon, not my punishment. Reality soaks slowly into my parched soul. I get to my feet, trembling a little, and feel life surging through me like never before! Turning to my right, I prepare to leave, and I see them cuffing him and marching him toward the barred security door. The judgment is rendered, final. Nothing and no one can save him now. Someone had to pay for my crimes. He volunteered. If I was willing to confess to it all, he would pay for it all. I believed him and now his promise is a reality. Here I am, walking out into the sunlight and into the waiting arms of my new travel companion and guide. The Father's daring plan, his Son's perfect execution, and now I'm being held by the unshakeable arms of my Helper and seeing his smiling face looking right into my smiling face. It's done.  Nothing and no one can tear me away. But life will try. A luxurious lounge chair, white sand beaches, and a perfect purpose await at my new home, but they are a long way off. My new reality with my Father and my glorious future won't keep the trials away. Trials have crashed into me a thousand times, shocking, like full-body slaps from icy waves. I remember the deep, dark disappointment that followed in the wake of every one. Even now I sense more waves approaching, but I can't tell from what direction.   But I do not fear them now. Everything has changed. Each crashing wave will strengthen me, not weaken me. Why? Because, as I lose my breath with each heavy slap of cold water, I don't try to stand my ground. I hold fast to Him. As my eyes feel the burning from the salt water, I don't blink back the tears. I bury my face into His shoulder. He's never lost a battle to a trial, not even to that greatest looming tsunami, death. With every storm weathered, my confidence in Him grows and my muscle memory improves—I put all my strength into clinging to Him, nothing else, and I find myself standing! So, I am content, even happy, to march onward, knowing that each step brings me one step closer to home. Every trial proves His power and that I am not alone. I know how dearly the Father loves me, because he has given the Helper, to keep my heart topped up with His love. This story is just Romans 5:1-5 turned into a personal picture – one that helps me understand the connection between trials, disappointment, and faith. Disappointment and faith are connected, because disappointment is what you feel when the thing you trusted and hoped in (had faith in) fails you. When do things tend to fail? When they are tested. So, often, when we experience trials, the things we've been enjoying and hoping in fail us, and we feel disappointment—even devastating hopelessness. But what would happen if every trial proved the thing we hope in and trust in? What if it never failed, when tested? Two things would happen. First, our confidence in the object of our faith would grow, and second, our fear of it being tested would shrink. We would no longer dread the testing but would welcome it. In Romans 5, Paul explains that this idea is our new reality! We should not fear trials, because our faith is in the finished work of Jesus Christ, and every trial will only grow our confidence in his love for us. If we learn to keep our hope in him, we will never come away disappointed.  Romans 5:1-5 NLT Therefore, since we have been made right in God's sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God's glory. We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.  

  I love well-made things, especially when they are doing what they were designed to do. Don't you? Picture a balanced, razor-sharp chef's knife cutting slices of tomato; a lifted off-road vehicle crawling through a boulder field; a fine musical instrument, like a guitar, resonating with all the right harmonics, effortlessly filling the world with beautiful music. It would be rewarding to spend hours watching videos of well-designed things, doing what they were made to do—I've done that! The bible says the most amazing thing ever devised is—you, the human being. In the creation account in Genesis, God makes man in his image to rule over the rest of the world. When he finished making us, he said that we were very good. Unfortunately, humanity – this stunning pinnacle of design perfection – broke. Sin, failure, and death entered our race. We started acting like dull knives, SUVs with broken axles and flat tires, warped and cracked guitars that were missing strings, and the strings we had were out of tune. Those things hurt my heart! Seeing brokenness in action is like a watching someone working super hard with a vacuum that's just making a lot of noise and spreading around the dirt and rocks. It hurts me. The best news in the world's history is that God paid the price to repair every human who comes to him. After we're saved, we can return to doing what God fashioned us to do. While we won't be perfect again until he comes back, we can perform the amazing things that only humans can do, because God made us in his image and likeness.  So what were you, a real Christian, designed and recreated to do? Paul lists a bunch of these actions in Romans 12. It is beautiful to watch and experience people doing these activities and having these attitudes. Doing these doesn't save us or fix us, but they sure show that God has healed us. Romans 12:9-18 Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. So, brother or sister in Christ, let's look at this list and look at our lives. You were beautifully designed and created to do these things and your savior loves to watch you doing this by his Spirit. And if you run into a difficult situation with another person, where you feel a battle breaking out inside of you, remember this simple phrase - “Outdo one another in showing honor.” Let's have some healthy competition, God ordained competition! Try to honor your wife by outdoing her in household chores at night. Honor your daughter by outdoing her in not raising your voice when she raises hers. Outdo your coworker, showing honor by listening to what's important to him and complimenting him. Outdo your friend on a retreat by honoring them with the master bedroom and sleeping on the sofa. Outdo your church family member with kindness and patience when they criticize you. Let's start some healthy competition to see who can outdo the other in showing honor. Let's look at the believers in our lives and say, “I don't know how I'm going to be able to outdo you in showing me honor, but with the Holy Spirit's help, it's on.” God loves watching well-made people, doing what he created us to do. 

  I hope so, because one of my all-time favorite true stories in the bible is the story of Jesus walking on the surface of the Sea of Galilee, and Peter getting out of his boat to also walk on water. I'll read you the story in a minute, but here are a few reasons I love it. First, I'm a chemistry and physics nut. I majored in Chemical Engineering, and I'm fascinated by the study of chemical properties. People laugh when I share my love of the refrigeration cycle. And here we have two grown men, walking on stormy swells of liquid sea water. The chemistry behind hydrogen bonding, surface tension, density, and buoyancy is cool – but it cannot explain what these two men got to experience in real life. Secondly, I wish I could walk on water, don't you! Wouldn't that be amazing? Even watching little bugs zip around on the surface of the water is exciting. My personality especially loves new and memorable experiences, but I can't even put walking on water on my bucket list. While these aspects draw me into the story, they aren't the parts that drill to the deep parts of my heart. That happens when I see my terror, courage, obedience, and doubt in Peter and the calmness, power, and love in Jesus. Let me read it to you. Matthew 14:23-33 And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, but the boat by this time was a long way from the land, beaten by the waves, for the wind was against them. And in the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea. But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, and said, “It is a ghost!” and they cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.” And Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me.” Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.” None of us will get to walk on physical water in this life, unless it's frozen over. We won't have the experience of our lives depending on Jesus holding us up on the surface of the water with each physical step, like Peter did. But the spiritual analogy is so rich. We can play it safe in the boat, doing nothing spiritually, trying to ignore the storms of sin and guilt we know are real. But we'll go down with the ship when it capsizes, holding on to everyone and everything in this world that we trusted in. Or, like Peter we can pursue spiritual things in faith, even believing that maybe the Jesus of the bible plays some role in saving us. But courage in getting out of the boat is only folly if we are trusting in anything else to hold us up. They are like trying to walk on water trusting in hydrogen bonding. Any doubt that Jesus alone is holding us up with every step - and down we plunge into the cold, dark, unforgiving waters of spiritual death.  But, and this made all the difference in the story and makes all the difference for you and me spiritually, it is good to be terrified and to see that we're going down fast. Cry out, “Lord, save me! You alone have the power to keep me from eternal suffering, and I trust in you completely.” The story doesn't even say Peter grabbed Jesus' hand for some support. All he had time to do before he drowned was cry out. But it says “Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, ‘O you of little faith, why did you doubt?'” Have you trusted in Jesus to save you, but you still feel like your life is sinking? I often feel that way. It makes sense because he calls us out of the boat to a life we can't do in our own strength. We must have let go of the savior's hand to trust in something else, doubting his sufficiency to protect us. We need to cry out to the Lord to save us and cling to him as he takes hold of us.

Roots aren't pretty, are they? Nor are they even visible when they are doing what they are supposed to do. Dirty, unseen, gnarled things. And yet it is the investment in the root that allows any life at all, but especially healthy growth and beautiful leaves and fruit. You  may think I've spent too much time watching Gardener's World and this isn't the type of Resonate Truth you're interested in, but hang in there with me. When you buy a fruit tree to plant in the ground, you don't pay special attention and care to the leaves it has, making sure that nothing happens to them – no, you pay special attention to the roots. But then we easily forget they are even there working. In our lives, we can slip into the habit of focusing on the leaves and fruit our lives have. When we don't see them, or they are damaged, rotting, or ugly, we throw our hands up in desperation – my relationship with my wife, or kids, or friends is failing! I'm having trouble at work! My finances are spiraling out of control! I'm doing everything I can but it's not getting any better! But where are you putting your time and attention? Is it all focused on the leaves and fruit? It's a longer play, but God says – do you want healthy leaves and fruit, regardless of your circumstances? Then it's the hidden, unnoticed, vitality of your roots that need your attention and time and energy. I will worry about the rest for you. God says this in the first three verses of the very first Psalm in the Bible.  Psalm 1:1-3 Blessed is the man     who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners,     nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law[b] of the LORD,     and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree     planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season,     and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. So, when we find ourselves lamenting truly lamentable withering or lack of good fruit in our lives. When we feel the dry, parched hand of despair grabbing us around the throat, let's pause and turn our gaze from the things we want to fix, to the solution. Let's read a few verses of God's perfect word, let's think about the truth there and ask others about it, let's work at delighting in the Lord's words to us. It will take time that few are willing to invest, but as our roots grow stronger and healthy, they will provide the vital nutrients to our hearts that will produce the leaves and fruit we love to see. 

Welcome back for the second half of my short story, The Prince's Bride, where we find out what happens to Sophia after she finds that a disease has begun spreading over her hands and arms.

I'm excited to share something a bit different today - the first part of the short story I wrote for my daughter, Sophia. I wanted to write a fun and exciting fictional story that resonates the truth of the gospel and all that is ours in Jesus, so that she could come back to these pictures of the truth that are hers, no matter what hardships come her way. I hope it does the same for you, too. Enjoy and come back next time for the second half!

  In Junior High and High School we begin asking ourselves the lifelong question, “What is my net worth, as a human?” We continue to ask ourselves this question and the only difference between a middle-aged person and a high schooler is that we picked something many years ago to hang our worth on. Now we're either trying to convince ourselves that we've done well enough and we have value or we see that area fading and crumbling and we begin to feel worthless. Well, if we try to measure our worth, what are our options, where do we go? The first, of course, is money and stuff. Even Proverbs 14:10 tells us that “The poor is disliked even by his neighbor but the rich has many friends.” So we look at what we've piled up and look at each other's clothes and purchases and other things that money gives and, if we're honest, we measure some people of higher worth or lower worth than others, including ourselves. But the question is – is that number what you're worth? If you lose your money or possessions is your worth gone? Are all the poor of the world worthless? Well, of course not. The other area we look at, which is insanely popular, is our physical bodies, and we measure our worth that way. Things like beauty and attractiveness but also strength or fitness, sports or artistic ability – something physical that we have is where we try to hang our worth. But is that really what you're worth? I mean think after all that everyone, in the end, gets old, gets weak, gets sick, gets less attractive. So do we all lose our worth as we pass our physical prime?  Something else we often hear, even from Olympians, who are both attractive and successful on the world's highest stage, is that none of that was worth as much as the family that I have. So maybe your worth is tied up in the relationships that you have. But as an example, let's say some cool guy wants you as his girlfriend and that gives you a sense of worth. But what happens when he breaks up with you? Are you suddenly worth less as a human? You know, we often think we are, which is why, when our human relationships of any kind crumble, it hits us so hard – because we thought that's where our worth was and our meaning in life. So, with these three examples and any others we look at of things in this world that we would use to measure our worth, we see that they are all false. It's not the truth. You could take anything else you could come up with and look at people with a lot or a little and see – that cannot measure human value. I want to give you two real measures of your net worth, according to God's word.  The first one is this – God created you with immeasurable value, because you were made in his image. We're told that in Genesis 1, right at the very beginning of the bible. After God makes all the other animals and things that were just earthly, he then made something different. Something eternal, something creative – and that creativity can take many different forms, a relational being with feelings, and it was moral – able to choose to do what is right or to do what is wrong. And when God created that and placed that incredible, valuable being on this earth, you can see why nothing around here we can pile up or look to, to measure your worth! So when I look around, maybe in a busy place, and I see all levels of wealth or lack thereof, all levels of physical beauty or lack thereof, and even the close relationships that you can observe, here is something that's helped me. I picture a glowing ball as the eternal soul, just as a picture in my mind. This is residing – but is hidden – in every decaying body, all the decaying clothing, all the decaying wealth, all the broken relationships. The soul is the only thing that will last and is made in the image of God, that's incredible value all around. And the rest, the trappings on the outside, is just dust on the scale of worth. So that's the first one. The second place to look and measure your value is this – God purchased you at an immeasurable cost, which was the life of Jesus. So here's what I want you to think about. God makes each of us with infinite value, in his image. We then rebel against him, just as the first humans did, and we say, “No, I value the things on this earth more than you. I want to find my life, my worth, here.” When we do this, we explode our relationship with God. It's broken, and there's an enormous crack in our souls. Now, God could have left us there, he could have said, “Fine. Go for it.” But God looks at all our glowing eternal souls, that are chained to anchors of sin, dragging us to the bottom of hell, by our own choice. He graciously unhooks the chain of each person who will believe in him and in his love, and he hooks those chains to his perfect son, Jesus, instead of us. And Jesus is dragged down instead. This is how God put it in 1 Peter 1:18-20 (NLT), For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And it was not paid with mere gold or silver, which lose their value. It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. God chose him as your ransom long before the world began, but now in these last days he has been revealed for your sake. So, when you catch yourself measuring your net worth, I encourage you to go ahead and measure. But remember – it can't be measured by anything in this world! Instead, see the eternal image of God stamped on you, hiding inside. Who cares what happens to the rest! And remember that Jesus – freely to you – but at immeasurable cost to himself, paid to ransom and heal that soul.  Now you're ready to answer my question – what is your net worth?

  Psalm 73:23-26 Nevertheless, I am continually with you;    you hold my right hand. You guide me with your counsel,    and afterward you will receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but you?    And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail,    but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. This psalm's aim is to encourage and strengthen God's followers when life is crumbling around them, even though they are being obedient to God. Meanwhile, wicked people all around seem to do great, even though they have rejected God and are doing whatever they want. It reminds us that regardless of a person's circumstances today, the faithful and the unbeliever are on two separate paths.  It doesn't matter how good the view is on the path, if the path is going away from God and its end is eternal suffering. In the same way, if your path goes through dark, scary sections, but is the path to eternal life with God, and if he is always near you as you walk, you can have strength to keep taking one step at a time. This is true for believers in Christ. The psalm pictures this as God continually holding my right hand, speaking his good guidance into my ear as I walk. My favorite part is the last verse because it isn't trying to sugar-coat life, this isn't just a feel-good, “everything is going to be alright” song. The author admits that our flesh and our heart may fail. Heart here, in Hebrew, means your inner person, including your mind and will and soul. So, there may be times when everything on our inside fails and everything on our outside, our physical bodies, fails. What could possibly keep us going when that happens, and not just trudging forward bitterly, but walking with humble thankfulness? Well, we still believe that God is there walking with us toward an eternity with him. He is our strength when we don't have any and our portion forever. My portion forever – why does that change my perspective on my life? Here's a silly picture that helps me and I hope will help you, too. Let's say you sit down to dinner at a banquet. The servers are bringing out the meals and you see the person on your right get a large plate with the world's finest nigiri sushi, some expertly seared and cooked rib eye, and all the fixings. The person next to them has a huge bowl of various ice creams melting over a thick brownie and drizzled with caramel and hot fudge. As your plate is lowered in front of you, your mouth watering, you see a small pile of mushy, overcooked peas and sliced liver. What do you feel? I would feel loss, anger, and unfairness well up within me. But then you notice something concealed under the unappetizing veggies. You move them aside with your fork and uncover the Hope Diamond, currently valued at around $300 million dollars.  With guarded hope, you ask the server if he's sure this is your plate. “Yes, we are handed a plate carefully prepared for each person,” he replies. “That is your portion.” In growing shock and wonder you look from side to side. There's no denying that the steak, sushi, and dessert still look mouth-watering, and you'll only eat the peas and liver if you have to. But the anger about what you've been served has melted away and is replaced with joy and thankfulness, along with a sense of being unworthy of being given such a generous portion, which will change your life forever. This is why the psalmist can unabashedly speak of unfairness and tragic loss in this life without losing hope. He knows that God himself is the strength of his heart and his portion forever. If Jesus is both your Lord and Savior, the same is true for you. So as you stare down at what you've been served for life today, don't forget to look under the veggies and find hope there.

  Mark 8:1-2, 6-9 In those days, when again a great crowd had gathered, and they had nothing to eat, [Jesus] called his disciples to him and said to them, “I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat.” And he directed the crowd to sit down on the ground. And he took the seven loaves, and having given thanks, he broke them and gave them to his disciples to set before the people; and they set them before the crowd. And they had a few small fish. And having blessed them, he said that these also should be set before them. And they ate and were satisfied. And they took up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full. And there were about four thousand people. Luke 22:19 And [Jesus] took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” We've all been at a BBQ or a party, super hungry and surrounded by other starving people. Our eyes settle on the one thing that we really want to eat. It's sitting there in the open, with no protection from these greedy people. We ask ourselves, “Is there enough for me?” Will there be any tender, juicy, smoky brisket left on the plate by the time it comes around to me? Or will it be gone? Is there enough for me? God knows that hunger is universal. It's something we can all relate to. Many in the world, sadly, know hunger on a level of suffering far beyond anything you or I even fear. But we all know hunger every day, so God included many events and lessons using food in the bible. One of the most famous is about Jesus taking one person's lunch to feed a huge multitude. If you've read or heard the story before, the numbers in these verses from Mark 8 may have surprised you. Didn't Jesus feed five thousand, not four thousand people? And weren't there twelve baskets left over, not seven? Well, there are actually two different stories. Jesus fed five thousand men, plus women and children, in a Jewish region, and had twelve baskets left over—a clear link to the twelve tribes of Israel and the twelve apostles. But the second story takes place in a Gentile region, a non-Jewish region, and there are seven baskets of surplus—the bible's number of completeness. So, this is the message from God to a starving world. You are hungry and yet you hesitate as you come to me, wondering, “Is there enough for me?” Well, when thousands of my people came to me, I had plenty to go around, with an extra basket for each tribe! Yes, but I'm not Jewish, I don't even know where I come from. No problem, a crowd of nobodies from nowhere also followed me and when they were hungry, there was enough for every one of them to be satisfied with more left over than when I started. How can I take these stories and be sure it applies to you today? And not in the physical sense—like me, you're probably trying to eat less food! I can confidently tell you that regardless of your spiritual history and spiritual need, when you come to Jesus and ask, “I'm starving, is there enough of you for me?” the answer is “Yes.” Because on the night before he went to the cross to save you from your individual sins, the Bread of Life for the world said, “This is my body, which is given for you,” along with the command that every person who comes to him, in every generation and in every corner of the world, remember that every day of your life there is enough at his table to satisfy all your spiritual hunger and need, no matter how extreme, with infinite grace and goodness and love left over.

  Revelation 21:3-5a  And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”  And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”    John Lennon wrote a beautiful song in 1971, called Imagine. This year that song turns fifty years old and is still massively popular, because it captures two things that are true for every human in the world, no matter what your religious beliefs are. First, we know that the world is broken. People are killing and dying, there is greed and hunger, and there is no peace. It hurts us to see so much pain and crying in the world, and our own hearts and tears add to the mountain of loss.  The second thing that this song offers is hope. A dream of a brotherhood of man sharing everything, living in peace, and living as one. Our hearts yearn for this dream, and it's fun to sit back and imagine what that would be like.   Unfortunately, these are the easy parts. Hundreds of songs and stories and movies capture our hearts with real pain and wonderful dreams. We know these are true and we want everything to be made perfect and beautiful. The hard part in the real world is getting from tears and death to happiness and peace. If we are to have any real hope of getting to the dream when the song ends, we need a real solution.   The best Lennon could conjure up in Imagine was a world with no countries, no religion, no heaven, and no hell. To find hope in this, we would need to heal global divisions to where people all agreed on how to live and didn't need to be governed. Beyond this, the people would not just have to agree to share one religion, but no religion, that is no system of religious attitudes, beliefs, and practices... which sounds like a system of religious attitudes, beliefs, and practices. Finally, to find hope we need to imagine there is no heaven and no hell, just this world. But, if there is a heaven and a hell, we can't imagine them away or destroy them.  Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not telling you to stop imagining a better world. In fact, let's set the bar even higher and imagine an even better world. You may say that I'm a dreamer, but this hope based on words that John was told to write, because God promised they would come true and he wanted to give us hope in words that are trustworthy and true.  Here is his real and amazing promise - “I am making all things new.”  The first part is in verse 4. “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” Do you see the incredible, intimate nature of this promise? He, a real person, Jesus, will wipe away every tear. He is not a far off, impersonal force or essence. Think of what it feels like when someone who loves you, sees you crying and comes near to you, touching your cheek and wiping away your tears. This is to be known and loved. And for Jesus, it's not just a tender gesture. The tears he wipes away will be your last, because he is accomplishing the impossible for us, permanently fixing the cause of all death, pain, and crying. The cause of these is sin, which is the bible's word for attitudes and actions that fall short of God's perfection. Jesus bore the punishment that each of us deserves for our part of the problem, he completed this on the cross in real time two thousand years ago.   In real time in the future, he will complete the second part. All these broken things we experience will pass away and become former things that don't exist anymore. Because everything, including you and me, will be made new and will never break or fail or sin again. Imagine that and believe it! 

  John 15:13-15 NLT There is no greater love than to lay down one's life for one's friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn't confide in his slaves. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me. There are many pictures in the bible that describe our relationship to God and with God. Each of these analogies help us approach God and know how to communicate with him. Here are a few examples–and notice how for each of these, a different picture of God will pop into your mind. God is your creator. God is your king.  God is your judge.  God is your savior, through Jesus Christ.  God is your father. As a father of three, this is one of my favorite pictures. My idea of real fatherhood is far from perfect, as is my ability to be the dad I want to be. Isn't it interesting that our own experiences and knowledge of kings, judges, and fathers help us know how to relate to God, but they also limit and then twist our relationship with God, based on the earthly limited pictures we have? The picture that has impacted me most in the last year is one that you may have some hang-ups with, as I have. God is my friend. God is your friend. Part of my trouble with this picture is that he is so high, holy, and different from me, and the concept of friendship sounds so equal, so even. This even caused Aristotle to believe it was impossible for humans to be friends with a god, because friends have things in common and can say, “You, too?” And on our own, we are enemies of God. But as Tim Keller points out, God did two great acts of friendship toward us: he became human, drawing near to us in humility, and second, he gave his life for us, so that in our suffering we can look at Jesus and say, “You, too?” How would your life look if you actually believed that God wanted to be friends with you? That is what I've been asking myself. What if Jesus was here, in the flesh, always available to hang out, to work on projects, ministry, and life together, if he wanted to just spend time with you in the backyard? He doesn't want to be your buddy, but Jesus offers to be your friend. Trusting this picture, however limited it is in my mind, changes me for the better. Time in the Word becomes an opportunity to hear from a dear friend, not a checklist item. Time in prayer becomes an opportunity to share my deepest thoughts, fears, and thanks with a good friend, not a recitation of wants to a vending machine. Growing in holiness becomes a secondary habit from hanging out with him and being like him, not an impossible struggle to change myself by force of will. Hatred of sin (in myself, not just others) and love of good things happens more as my likes become more like my close friend's, not a guilty secret of my failing. Suffering is more tolerable, and I can even find joy there, because Jesus is still my friend, and shares the experience with me. There are more examples of how our lives would change if we valued and took being friends with God seriously. But here's the bizarre question. What are we waiting for? Are we hoping for a better friend than God? More faithful, helpful, powerful, available, loving, joyful, encouraging, smart, humble, or wise? Friendship is a positive, fun, enriching experience–and our time with God should be the same–he is for us and is patiently waiting for us to be real friends.

  Romans 6:16-17, 20-22 Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. What wonderful verses, but also convicting and kind of scary verses. We're going to be slaves to one or the other – to sin or to the Lord and righteousness. The concept makes sense – you're a slave to the one you obey. It doesn't matter much what label or name you ascribe as your master, the one you claim is most important and in charge of your life. It's who you obey. That choice of who we serve is going to yield a certain type of fruit, we're told. And my question to you is this – it's so easy for our desire to meet our own needs and wants to be the thing that drives us.  For you, it could be any number of things. For me it is often selfishness or laziness or a desire to be loved and appreciated, or to have the material things that I want. And when we choose to serve those, which we've all done this week, then we have a question that Paul asks us, and that I ask you today, which is, how is that going? You've been serving this master, which is yourself; how's that working out?  Is it good? Is it a good master? Are you serving a master who's giving you a sense of rich blessing and happiness? Or has it actually been a hard master, one we follow because the orders seem right and we obey, but the fruit that we get is death, is pain, to ourselves and pain to the people around us. Now this is certainly true if you don't believe in Christ, are not a follower of Jesus – these verses say you are free with regard to righteousness and you are stuck serving yourself and there's no escaping it. And how is that working out? It's hard, isn't it? It's not all that it promises, it never is. Maybe for a few seconds it seems to be the right choice, but your only hope is to be saved by the good news that you don't have to remain a slave to yourself and your wants and to sin, but instead you can switch masters. Because you've been purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ, paying for every bad thing you've ever done and you're free then, from sin, to serve the Lord and righteousness.  For those of you who have made this decision and have been living as a believer, look back over your life. What kind of fruit do you see when you serve the Lord and serve righteousness and give up the throne that you like to sit on. Those are hard things to do, it's hard to get off the throne and get to work. But are you sorry? Has it led to things that you regret and wish you could get back? Of course, the answer as you look back, is “No. I have no regrets each time that I put myself aside and serve the Lord. Instead, I regret when I foolishly put myself back on the throne, though I serve a wonderful master, with hard requests but that lead to eternal life. It's when I once again serve the wrong master – who I've been freed from – that's when I find that my obedience to sin leads to sorrow and death.  I don't know where you're at today on the spectrum.  Maybe it's been the best week ever - then rejoice with me that you've been set free and that you are living the life that only comes from dying to self. Maybe it's been the opposite, maybe as you look back your week has been filled with thoughts of self and serving self. I don't want you to despair, this concept should give you hope, this truth should set you free. If you are a believer in Jesus, then you have been set free indeed by him and you can put that away, you can get off the throne of your heart right now and get to work serving your master for the rest of this week.  We are promised, not just by Paul, certainly not just by me, but by the word of God itself, that this leads to life, to eternal life. So, maybe that's a hard sell, but I'll just remind you again – what does the evidence show you when you choose to serve yourself? Is it coming through on its promises? And if not, then why not give the Lord a try this week? See, as costly as it may be, as difficult in the moment as that may be, what sort of life comes from it. Maybe, just maybe, you can trust him and be led to real life and not the empty shell that you've been living.

  Romans 5:6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.                          While we were weak and helpless, trapped in sin, Jesus Christ died for us. This reminded me immediately of a story I heard several years ago about a child falling down a pipe in South America. I couldn't find that article because so many recent stories came back when I searched. Evidently this happens all the time around the world. Here's one. They rescued a girl from a horrifying ordeal after she stumbled and fell down a well. The youngster had been playing on a building site in China and was found trapped between the wall of the well and a cement pipe. She was crying and trying to protect her face from dirt and soil that kept falling into the tiny hole as rescuers stood above her wondering what to do. Worse still, as workers worked to free her, she slipped further down. They saved her by removing two top sections of the pipe, and a man attached to a rope clambered down to pull her out. Look, being born with a sin nature is like falling down a spiritual hole. Our access to God, our peace and relationship with him are immediately out of our reach. And the more we try to move toward the light, the deeper we fall. Like the little girl, we are powerless to get out of this void. Every move we make drops us deeper. And Satan's lie, and the lie of our hearts is that it isn't true. The lie is that God is standing over the opening of the hole telling us, “Just try a bit harder and you can pull yourself out. I'm right here waiting for you with a wonderful eternity—there's a party up here.” Or as some religions tell us, he's lowered a rope ten feet down to help us. “Just climb halfway up and my grace will help you the rest of the way.” Imagine if this girl's rescuers had told her that, we'd be so angry—and rightly so! These verses tell us that while we were still ungodly, while we were sinners trapped deep down the hole and falling deeper—weak and helpless—Jesus Christ died on the cross for us. He reached all the way down to us, cradled us in his arms and pulled us up to eternal life with God.

  Mark 10:42-45 And Jesus called them to him and said to them, “You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Mark 10:45 is a very simple verse but look for the two backward statements Jesus makes. “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” If you read that and it feels right, then you either have an inflated view of yourself, or a deflated view of Jesus. Jesus says the king came to serve the poor and something of extremely high value was paid to ransom something of much lower value. Picture this, the President of the United States walks into the oval office and the janitor is sitting on the couch and he calls out, “Hey, I'm hungry, could you run out and get me a sub sandwich, and a pickle? Oh, and I like my pickles quartered.” That picture makes me laugh. Why? Because it's ridiculous! This man is running the most powerful nation on earth, you don't ask him to get you a pickle and cut it into quarters! Picturing him in the kitchen cutting a pickle is a joke.  What about walking into a local pawn shop and asking how much some earrings in a jewelry case would cost? “I'll take the British crown jewels, trade you straight up,” comes the reply. “Ha ha ha, very funny.” You don't redeem middle class earrings with the crown jewels. Kidnappers don't break into houses, take American Girl dolls, and leave ransom notes. Our verse says that God came to serve the people he originally created to worship him, he didn't come to be served by them. More than that, they refused to worship him but rebelled, pretending to be like gods themselves. So, he came to ransom them from sin and death and eternal judgment, to buy them back from their evil ways. And the price for the trade was…his only perfect son, Jesus. And this notion is ridiculous…or it's the greatest wonder of all time. If it's true and if it's for you, then it changes every day you live. If the President actually took time out if his day to go buy you and sandwich, and a pickle, and to cut it into quarters for you, then regardless of who you are or what you've done, that would make you special. Post that video on your social media profile and you'll see! If the Queen traded her jewels to buy your jewelry back for you, they would also be filled with value, and you couldn't even wear them anymore! It would be incredible. You'd have to get a new insurance policy. More incredible is that God came to serve you - not to make you a sandwich - but to make you his son or daughter, to buy you back for himself, because he wanted to love you and have you worship him for all eternity. It's wonderfully backward but wonderfully true. In real space and time, Jesus gave his life a ransom for many real people, for me and for you. 

  Mark 10:45 For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. The picture of God offering Jesus as a ransom for many is one of the most powerful, illustrated truths in the Bible. So, I want us to lower our buckets down into the well twice, to drink in its rich encouragement. Today, I want you to remember that you and I, and all humanity after Adam and Eve, were born into captivity – to sin and spiritual death. All of us. But then one day a messenger hands us a message, a letter as it were (hold it up and open) that said (in my case) – “Dear Nate, today is an amazing day for you. You thought you were trapped here chained to the floor, with nobody rich enough, and who also cared enough, to pay your ransom price of sin and get you out of here. But someone has paid the ransom. I have received the briefcase and it's all here. In fact, there was way too much included, so here's a Righteousness MasterCard with an unlimited balance for you, too. Take it, you're free to go.” Astonished, we look around, making sure we're the intended recipient. “But I haven't done anything to earn this. I can't accept it.” “Well,” we're told, “this is your only chance, you either take it or leave it…but if you leave it…then you'll be left in here…until the Day of Judgement.” “This seems too good to be true, though. Is it a hoax? Is it a joke?” “It does seem pretty incredible,” comes the reply. “But I checked it carefully…it's signed in Jesus own blood. I ran the account, and it's in your name, everything checks out. And I represent God. He never jokes about an eternal human soul.” I was really given that wonderful message…and one day I took it and walked out of the cell of darkness and into the kingdom of light and life. And nothing and no one can ever put me back in there.  And one of those notes and MasterCards has been handed to every human being – you, too. Many have accepted the gift. Even now in your mind you can look down at your letter and remember that day – and all the days of life you've enjoyed since that day you were ransomed. And you remember that it was Christ's body broken for you and his blood given for you, that redeemed your life and set you free. That is what we are to celebrate every time we take communion at church. On the other hand, maybe you've been handed your letter, but you've read it and put it back into its envelope and you've set it on a shelf in your cell. Or, it's even possible, that as I'm sharing this truth with you today, it is the first time you have heard these things explained. I am handing you God's letter telling you that you have been ransomed from your sin and Jesus' blood was not only sufficient to pay for your mistakes, but a Righteousness MasterCard is yours, too. God will cover any (and there will be many) future mistakes you make.  I want you to look down at the letter and see your name written there. See your name stamped on the debit card. Then look up at the barred door of your captivity to sin and guilt that stands open. Nothing stands in your way, you can be redeemed today. Don't put it back on the shelf. 

  1 Corinthians 1:17 – 25 For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,      and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.” Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.    Why does Paul talk so much about foolishness and wisdom, folly vs power, over and over in these verses? What is his point and why does he feel the need for so much repetition to hammer his point home? I'd like to illustrate this. Two women meet each other one morning as they sit down right next to each other at a scientific talk. They listen to the same lecture, which is on a new cure to a rare disease. At the end, the first woman thinks to herself, “What a boring dry speaker, I wish I had chosen the other session.” The other woman rushes forward to be the first to meet the speaker and to learn more. Both women have the same rare disease, for which a cure has just been discovered. But the difference is that the first woman doesn't know she has it and the second woman knows she is dying and has no other cure. The first woman was unimpressed and heard nonsense. The second woman could care less about the eloquence of the speaker, she heard only POWER and WISDOM that would change her life. The Corinthians were connoisseurs, they knew how to really appreciate and discern the best rhetoric and eloquence. They made much of the style and giftedness of the speaker, and little of the content. The content Paul preached was of Christ's crucifixion, a method of execution considered so crude it was not even mentioned in polite company. There was no way to make this content “cool”, the “wow” factor wasn't there. It's a gruesome, shameful, topic that shouldn't even be brought up. It was deemed nonsense for the elevated mind to find hope, power, and God in a man killed by crucifixion. The same has been true across the following centuries and is true today. The world today, full of very smart people, scoffs at Jesus on the cross. What they miss is that the cross isn't meant to be cool. It is meant to be so low, so painful, so ugly that we weep in amazement at a God who would lower himself to that point, the point we deserved, to heal us. You, along with every human alive, were born with the spiritual disease of sin and guilt and the bad news is that it is terminal. But there is news of a single cure and you and I have heard it. We sit in our chairs now at the end of the talk and the question is, do we think it's foolishness and walk away? Or do we rush the stage to follow our savior and to be healed by the wisdom and power found at the cross?

  1 John 3:1  See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God!                                    The letter of 1 John is very different from other letters in the new testament, like Romans or Galatians. The author, John, doesn't step us through a linear argument or truth. Instead, he circles around, covering and covering the same idea adding a bit more or explaining it differently.  Here's an illustration of what the letter of 1 John is doing, that really helped me understand and appreciate the truths in it.  I want you to picture yourself dating the perfect human being. Then you meet his or her family and they are incredible, too. You get married and are now part of this family – really a part! And you are excited about this, but you aren't really sure how to be, how to act, how to relate to Uncle Frank. What's expected of you? How do you see and treat the rest of the world now? Does this change things?  An old white-haired grandpa hobbles up and he sits you down in a rocking chair and starts to tell you everything you need to know - the benefits of being in the family, the riches you have been given and all that is yet to come! He tells you about your new father and what he is like, what is important to him, and the love that your new family members have for you, and how you should treat each one of them. Lastly, he explains the threats to you from the world, now that you are in this family, and how to respond.  He doesn't go through each of these once, he explains it and then remembers another aspect or detail and jumps back to something he's told you and elaborates on it more – just like you would if I asked you what your family or roommates or friends were like. You're trying to put people and relationships into words. That is what John is doing here in 1 John. And it's not “like you were part of a new family” – and please don't miss this – YOU REALLY ARE part of the best family in the universe now, and for the rest of eternity, and it's just going to get better!  John is saying, “Here's what your new spiritual dad (God the Father) and brother (Jesus) are like and have done to bring you into their family forever.” We could substitute dad and brother and it would be true for us.    God is light, and in him is no darkness at all  He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness  We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.  He is the propitiation for our sins, and for the sins of the whole world  The promise he made to us – eternal life  He is righteous  He is pure  He appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin The Son of God appeared to destroy the works of the devil  He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world  Love is from God  God is love  God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him  In this is love, not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins He has given us His Spirit  God is love  He first loved us   His commandments are not burdensome  The Spirit is the truth  He hears us in whatever we ask  He always answers us  He always protects us  The Son of God has come and given us understanding  He is the true God and eternal life    See what kind of love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God! 

  1 Timothy 2:5-6 For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.  Verse 5 makes very clear that there aren't many Gods, there is one God, a single God to all humans. This is a big truth statement and defines Christianity as a monotheistic religion. It's still very broad, though, because many religions believe in just one God, but each offers very different claims on ways or routes to knowing and being loved by that one God.  Well, the very next phrase in verse 5 narrows down the Biblical view much further and separates it from all other views. It says, “there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” That is very clear cut. There is just one God for everyone, but there is also just one mediator, Christ Jesus, who was a man. If we picture the many suggested paths to God as footpaths branching out in different directions, each taking a different route to the same destination, the Bible is saying that eventually they all become dead ends, except one. If we follow the path that the Bible claims is the one true way, we still come to a deep ravine that we cannot cross alone. God desires that you be saved and that you know him, he desires peace and for his promises to be yours. But there's been a terrible breach in the original agreement, the old covenant between you and God. If you sin, then you lose it all. I lost it all. You have, too. We burned down the only bridge to God. So, a third party is needed, a mediator. In an official setting, a mediator is a person who attempts to help people involved in a conflict come to an agreement. Normally this person's job is to be detached from the conflict and objective, to help both sides to compromise, to admit and make amends for their part in the conflict, and to coach the two parties until enough overlap and agreement can be found to resolve the conflict. To use the path and bridge picture – mediators don't build bridges, they encourage each party to rebuild their part of the bridge and meet in the middle so that they can reconnect. Is Jesus really good at doing that with us and with God? Is that why he's the only mediator? No. Because you can't coach a holy God into accepting what is unholy. He doesn't compromise with sin, that's what makes him perfect and unstained and pure. Jesus doesn't ask God to try to see the situation from our viewpoint, to cut us some slack because he knows what it is like to make mistakes. Instead, Jesus tells his Father, “I know what it's going to take for you and Nate to be restored, he needs to be made perfect like you, and so all his offenses must be paid for in full. Would that bring peace back between you two?” And God says, “Yes. I would fully receive him back forever, if that were done.” Then Jesus looks over at me and says, “Do we have a deal? That sounds fair to me. It's in your original agreement.”  And in despair, I say, “No, I can't repay the debt, I can't uphold my side of that deal. We both know that I will exist in lonely punishment and agony for eternity and that won't even pay the first installment. I have no hope to rebuild the bridge I destroyed. Is there another way?”  There was no way. There was only one who could pay the price to rebuild the bridge…the mediator himself. Hold on a second, isn't a mediator just here to guide? “Christ Jesus gave himself as a ransom for all.” As Hebrews 9:15 says, “Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.” Wow. The mediator cares so much, that he gives himself, he pays the price to build the bridge! He is no uninvolved coach; he is not a detached third party. He truly gets in the middle of the conflict, in order to establish a new agreement, a new covenant between the parties; he becomes the new bridge. And I must mention that God the Father is not detached and angry in this, either. He is angry with sin, yes. But it was his plan from the beginning to offer Jesus in our place. As verse 4 says, he desires that all people be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. The Father gladly joins in the sacrifice needed to be restored to us. Oh, how wonderful it is to live with God on the other side of the ravine! 

  John 1:14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. The first two gospels (Matthew and Mark) were written between 50-60 AD. Then Luke came after, around 60-61 AD. Matthew and Luke give us our traditional story of the baby born in a smelly barn, and Mark moves fast and jumps right in at the baptism of Jesus. Perhaps even in the early years of the church people thought mostly of the lowly human side to the incarnation. After all, it's a side we most naturally relate to. So when John writes his gospel twenty to thirty years later, it's a very different side of the same coin. We don't even find out who he is writing about until verse 17!  John describes a being he calls “the Word” in such awe-inspiring language that it doesn't sound like a human being at all. Let's consider John's words, as if for the first time. The Word existed in the beginning (v1) – so he's really old, that's pretty cool. Some kind of really old being became a human. The Word was with God in the beginning (v1) – so he's powerful and on God's side, with direct access to God too. That's important to know. All things that were made were made through The Word (v2-3) – wait a second. So, he wasn't just there at the beginning – he wasn't created then, but was a creator. He's really powerful and designed and created every single particle upon which he then built everything in the vast universe? That creator-being became a human? This is getting interesting. In him was life and that life was the light of men (v4), the true light, which gives light to everyone (v9) – so he not only has jaw-dropping power, there is some kind of special life in him that is shining forth to everyone – there is no place this light cannot touch or reach. What is this life? Any stipulations on getting it from him? To all who receive him, who believe in him, he gives the right to be called children of God, born of God (v12) – so the Word has power from God, but also the authority to change humans into children of God – that is incredible! Yet not for all people, but only those who believe in him. Makes sense. This must have been an amazing being to see. What was that like? Verse 14 says “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” So when John lived with the Word he saw a unique glory from God – a glory shining full of grace and full of truth, like no other being ever has. Can you imagine seeing that? And yet, he became human, he became flesh, not just a god looking like a human. John the Baptist, a prophet of God, saw this glory. The first time he saw The Word, he cried out “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (v29) I can't take away a single sin from myself, let alone the world. Who is this being!? I wouldn't be surprised at all if the next verse said the Word was a giant man with a gold sash, white hair, bronze legs, eyes like a flame of fire, a two-edged sword coming from his mouth and a face like the sun shining in full strength! He actually does show back up looking exactly like that in Revelation, but Verse 29 actually says, “he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, ‘Behold, the Lamb of God!'” So the Word…is Jesus!? You mean this elaborate introduction is all about the cute, helpless baby born in a smelly barn? That's the Word? The being John is describing and saying you have to believe in to be called a child of God? The unattractive, poor, Jewish rabbi who died as a criminal? Yes. You see, he was born to do the work of a lamb, so his power is veiled in weakness and humility. He will do the work of a Lion one day and will come dressed in terrible beauty. So, embrace the kindness and approachability Jesus offers when you look into his patient, forgiving, human eyes, but do not fail to also see the powerful fire of heavenly holiness and of cosmic creation burning there.

  Colossians 1:15, 19-22 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.   [In] him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him. Often when we meditate on the Good News, we reflect on something that has happened and is true – “we were reconciled to God”. Often, we meditate on a name or attribute of Jesus – “our Passover lamb”. Who is solving this problem? It is Christ (verses 15-19). Who has the problem? Verse 21 says, “you… were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds.”  Today I want to do something different. It is not a “what” or a “who” question, but a “why” question that I want us to think about. In business, when we encounter a very difficult problem, where it is tough to get to the root and solve it, there's a technique called “5 Whys” – where you continue to ask why, until you get to the root. The technique was originally developed by Sakichi Toyoda and was used within the Toyota Motor Corporation during the evolution of its manufacturing methodologies.[1] It works sort of like a 5-year-old asking “why, why, why, why, why.” Let's do that today with the gospel in these verses from Colossians. Why is being alienated from God a problem? Because God is holy and blameless and cannot accept us as we are. Why is that hard to solve? Because we can't “unalienate” ourselves from God. Why? Because we are constantly doing evil deeds (not to mention our thoughts or intentions behind even the good deeds we perform). Why? Because we are slaves to sin. Why? Because Adam sinned and passed along to all mankind the nature and proclivity to sin. So, five layers down, that is the root of our problem. To solve it, someone would need to remove every sin separating us from God – not just up to today or the problem would instantly return and be just as bad as before. It must be removed for all time. That is what Jesus Christ did for us. Look at verse 22 – (what?) he has now reconciled (how?) in his body of flesh by his death, (why?) in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him. Nothing and no one else go  down the steps of our problem to the very root and changes us and fixes us. No other religion even dares offer a solution to us that will transform us and clean us in our entirety, inside and out, head to toe. They all require us to be an agent in fixing our problem. It may sound believable to say, “You can look inside and believe in yourself and be better.” But it is outrageous to say, “You must look inside and believe in yourself to undo every mistake you've made, wrong thought you've entertained, and every hurtful action you've ever done.” Instead, we must look outside and believe in the perfect work of Jesus; he promises to present us holy and blameless and above reproach to God.   [1] Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_whys  

  Ephesians 2:1-7  And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.  Last time, in Part 1 of this devotion, we delved into the idea of being dead in our trespasses and how trespassing is not a minor offense when it is an important place and person you are trespassing against (like the White House). We were dead in our trespasses, deserving eternal punishment.    These verses tell us that's what we justly deserve and then say, “But God, being rich in mercy...”  God is rich in mercy.   What is this “stuff” called mercy and how does one become rich in it? As a kid I remember hearing that you can think of “grace” as getting what you don't deserve and “mercy” as not getting what you do deserve. I think that's a helpful way to differentiate the two and I was happy to leave it at that for many years – mercy is me being spared from what I deserve. Then a few years ago I heard a preacher define mercy in a new way. He explained that to show mercy is to cut short suffering, to reduce someone else's pain when you have the power to do so. This enriches my appreciation for mercy. I picture William Wallace at the end of Braveheart, being tortured for what he believed in, as the crowd of onlookers begin crying out, “Mercy!” Enough suffering, cut it short! Mercy!  How does God's mercy apply to me? Why should I care that he is rich in mercy?   We trespassed, remember? Repeatedly, far down the path of sin, going against all that God is and loves. So we need the suffering that is coming our way to be cut short.  To become rich in money or land or fame, one must accumulate and stockpile it. That's what it means to be rich. But mercy doesn't work that way, does it? You can't become rich in mercy by holding it back – someone who shows no mercy becomes bankrupt in mercy. The only way to become rich in mercy…is to give it away and the more generous you are in your giving, the richer you become. So, tying this into the definitions above, a person who is rich in mercy generously cuts short the suffering of others by not giving them what they deserve. God is rich in mercy.  So, how rich is God in mercy? He is the richest being in mercy, without question or challenger. If Forbes had a Mercy 500 ranking, God would be #1 and they couldn't put a number to his mercy. #2 on the list would be hopelessly embarrassed to even be compared. Because God has offered every human soul the immeasurable mercy of full forgiveness and then has piled on top of that “the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”   Finally, and most importantly, remember that there is no net loss of suffering in this deal. Meaning, for God to remain a good and holy judge, there must be punishment and suffering for every trespass of his law. But praise be to God that he did not show mercy to his Son, Jesus, as he bore our sorrows on the cross - by His grace we are saved! 

Ephesians 2:1-7  And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.  There are two pictures in these verses that I am excited to share with you and I just can't fit it into one devotion, so I'm splitting it into two parts and you'll have to come back for Part 2.  Here are the truth statements: First, we were dead in our trespasses. Second, God is rich in mercy. How do these two truths work together in these verses? How does God's mercy apply to me? Why should I care that he is rich in mercy?   The verse says I trespassed.   There was a clear boundary line set by God and a big “No Trespassing” sign posted throughout his perfect instructions and I repeatedly crossed that line. And I didn't just put a toe over the line, I trespassed far down the path of sin, following the course of this world, with Satan himself leading the parade. We tend to think of trespassing as a minor offense, with a minor punishment. But that completely depends on where you're trespassing, doesn't it!? Climbing over the fence onto Mr. Blackwell's ranch, not such a big deal. Trespassing onto an army base, different story! Sneaking into the White House would likely mean being shot on sight and few would be surprised or think the action too strong. Why? You were only trespassing. These verses tell us that trespassing into sin, living in the passions of our flesh, is always punishable by death, eternal spiritual death. Sin is a big deal to God, it goes against all that he is and loves. This is what I deserved.  I deserve eternity apart from God, in Hell even, for my trespassing – so do you. Try to quantify that amount of justly earned suffering. You can't. It is infinite suffering. So, if God was to cut short my suffering and yours to 10,000 years in Hell, how much mercy would he be showing us? An infinite amount of mercy! So much less suffering!   But he showed us even more. God has not reserved one year, one day, even one second for us in Hell. He has completely removed all punishment for our sins! As the hymn “It is Well With My Soul” says, “My sin, oh the bliss of this glorious thought! My sin, not in part but the whole, is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more.”   As author Tim Challies notes, “Can you imagine singing, ‘My sin, not the whole but in part'? … To be partly forgiven is to be wholly damned. Partial forgiveness is complete condemnation. The Christian and the Christian alone knows the pure delight of God's full and final forgiveness.” I'm so thankful to personally know the delight of God's full and final forgiveness.   Now that we've explored the meaning of being dead in our trespasses, we are ready to delve into Part 2 next time - What is this “stuff” called mercy and how does one become rich in it? 

  2 Corinthians 5:17-21  Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.   If you look up the word “reconcile” in a Greek lexicon, to see what the word in Greek meant to the original audience when the Bible was written, you'll see that reconcile means “to change, exchange, as coins for others of equivalent value”, and also “to reconcile (those who are at variance), to return to favor with, to receive one into favor.”  We needed to be reconciled to God. We were at odds with God.   We have sinned against God, so we lost our holiness. There was a variance on the scales of holiness – on the one side, none. On the other side, the full weight of God's holiness. There is only one thing of equal value to the full weight of God's holiness, that will reconcile the account and cause it to balance and that is…the full weight of God's holiness.    It's needed on both sides.  And believer, for our sake God the Father made Jesus to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in him, we might stare down at our side of the balance in shocked and wonderful amazement, and see that we have become the righteousness of God!  Jesus's spiritual coin of equivalent value sits on your side, with God's on the other, and you are returned into favor with, are received into favor with God. And nothing can change that! And no one can ever remove it. Let's bask in that reality.  Even as we bask, let's do the jobs to which we were appointed – as ambassadors it's our job and should be our joy to tell everyone what God has done for us. Let's encourage others to look down at their balances. They too have fallen short of the glory of God and have no hope to manufacture the righteousness of God that needs to be put on their side of the scale.   John 1:12  But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. 

  Romans 5:20-21  Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.  We humans are suckers for the one, most dangerous lie. It has haunted us from the last day in the Garden of Eden, to the minute you are reading this right now. The lie was devised by the Devil, the Father of Lies (John 8:44), so no wonder it is so “good” and we keep falling for it. Like all “great” lies, it is half-true. This also is key to its power over us.  The lie accuses us first, then tells us how to feel, then tells us what to do.  The lie tells us that you have done many, countless bad things. Just look back over your life, do you dare deny it?  Having proven this point, don't you feel ashamed? You should!  Finally, what are you going to do about this mess you are in and this mess you have made? You must work harder to fix yourself and make things right again.  We're predisposed to believe all three parts of the lie. We've done many bad things (sin), we can't deny it. We easily feel ashamed for it, if we dare look at ourselves. We would love to make these things right, but we're also trapped in hopelessness by it – because it's a cycle that is impossible for us to break on our own. Satan is so pleased with this lie and has found it so effective, that he has placed it at the root of all belief systems – they all spring out like different flavors of the same poison. Even those who have been freed from the cycle by the good news of Jesus, often climb back onto the spinning wheel of the lie and spend much of their time and energy on it – living like they are lost again.  That is the lie, it's not the reality. We need the truth! We need reality. Romans 5 gives it to us.  The standard of perfection (the law) came in to show us how far from perfect we are and to force us to admit it. Hard, but it's reality. “But where sin increased, grace abounded all the more”. Here, reality violently peels away from the lie. As your sin increased, grace increased even more. This is everything. This is the difference between sin reigning in death and having eternal life through Jesus.  If you added more dirt, God added that much more detergent and bleach – you're still clean! If you're 100% clean, you can't look down and see dirt anymore! And you can't try to clean yourself, there's nothing left to scrub!   If you went further into debt, God added twice as much money to your account – you're still rich! If you have an infinite bank account, why stew over that poor purchase? Why go out to try and make minimum wage on your own? Your debts have been paid in full, there's nobody left to pay! If you abused and killed another person, Jesus went to death row for you – AND DIED. It's over, it's been made right, there's no point in you going back into prison, sitting down in your cell, and trying to pay for your crime.  You should be skipping and dancing right now, but I'm afraid that the lie still has a grip on you. “Yes, God's grace can cover my sins, but I should still feel shame,” you say. It feels like God will be more approving of us if we debase ourselves and live in the shadow. But look back at the three examples above. God did an earthly example of these things for Israel and God's heart pours out through the prophet in Isaiah 61:7, “Instead of your shame there shall be a double portion; instead of dishonor they shall rejoice in their lot; therefore in their land they shall possess a double portion; they shall have everlasting joy.”  The LAST thing God wants you to do, after rescuing you from the treadmill of slavery to sin and the effort to fix yourself, is for you to climb back on! That doesn't make him happy, it breaks his heart. Instead, soak in the reality and reject the lie! Stand firm in His everlasting joy and cast off the cruel and pointless habit of shame and of pushing God away until you are “good enough” or “better”. In Christ, he's already made you perfect.  Remember Galatians 5:1  For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. 

  1 John 4:14  And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.    This is one of the simplest verses in the Bible. It has no big words and can be understood by a child on its first reading. There are two people mentioned in this simple verse - a father and his son. The father gave his son a task to complete. He sent him somewhere, to do something. He sent him on a mission.  As a son, I remember being sent on many tasks for my father.  I grew up in Mexico and sometimes after dinner, I remember being sent by my father to go out the door of our house on a corner, and cross a small street to a “tienda” - a little store. My mission? To buy “Pinguinos” - a pack of two, small, delicious cream-filled, chocolate cupcakes.  I would buy these and run them back to my dad. I'm proud to say that I was successful in completing my mission every single time I was sent. But that's because it was an easy task, an easy mission. It didn't cost my dad anything more than some pocket change, and it didn't cost me more than a couple minutes I was happy to spend.  Maybe you remember some tasks that your father sent you on, too. But let's look at this verse about the Father and his Son and the task in question. The apostle John tells us that he and others, “have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son … to be the Savior of the world.”  And you thought your chores were bad. What a mission to be sent on! To be “the Savior of the world”!  Here is what this simple sentence tells us: First, the Father was willing to send his only Son into the world, to die, so that we might live through him (that's what verse 9 of this chapter says).   And second, the Son was willing to be sent into the world. From the very beginning, his task - his mission - his Father's directive - was for him to become the Savior of the world by being the propitiation for our sins (as verse 10 says). The sins of humanity - my sins and your sins - bring divine wrath. Jesus completed his Father's mission on the cross, where he bore that wrath for our sins. For the sin you committed last night, the one I committed this morning.  It was the Father's perfect holiness that required such a mission, and the Son's perfect holiness that made him capable to complete it. But the problem the Father was solving by sending the Son on his mission was that He was separated from the people that he loved.  He wanted closer relationship with us, and it was this love that compelled the Father to send the Son, and for the Son to complete his miraculous chore. John just keeps repeating it and repeating it in chapter 4; he has to keep trying to say it different ways! You are loved! I am loved! By God of all people! For love is from God, whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. God is love! And he offers his love to the whole world! To us! No discrimination!    As the New Living Translation says it,   1 John 4:9-10  God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love – not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.  

  Ephesians 3:18-19  That you, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.  How do you capture the infinite dimensions of the love of Christ with words? In these verses in Ephesians Paul tries to turn three dimensions into four – here's how that verse reads in the Nate's Artistic License Version, “may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to experience the love of Christ that blows your mind.”    The picture here could be of a vast ocean of love being poured into an array of small cups – utterly unable to contain all the knowledge or fullness of God's love, yet full and overflowing. Or of a parched and dying man arriving at a huge waterfall of pure, cold water.  He doesn't stress about his inability to drink the whole waterfall, but he enjoys every deep gulp and knows he can drink and drink and the water will not run out!    Sometimes we get used to having an ocean of love and our minds cease to be blown – so stay with me as we look at one dimension of Christ's love that we don't always look at. Imagine we are sitting in a small group right now of ten to fifteen people and I ask you to share your most embarrassing moment. What are you going to share with us? As each person shares and it comes around to your turn, you'd weigh the light and trivial stories shared so far and in similar fashion you'd reach for your fifth most embarrassing moment.    But your most embarrassing moment isn't even what just came to mind, those are funny little stories. To be embarrassed is to be ashamed. So, your most embarrassing moments are actually the things you are most ashamed took place. This is deeper and darker; we don't share these stories around the campfire and laugh. These are things we would give anything to undo, to erase, to take back. But you can't.    What if I held out big red button to you and told you that if you pushed it, every single moment of shame from your life would disappear from your life and would transfer to mine? Those bad things would never have happened and you would be completely free of them. Some of you would see this as the chance of a lifetime and would tackle each other on the way up to push it. Others would feel that would be a horrible and unfair thing to do to me! Both feelings would be valid.    We see Jesus in the bible, holding out his nail-pierced hands, with a scar in his side, and he says to you – “'you don't even have to push it, I already did.”    It is finished.    The founder and perfecter of our faith, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. He despised the shame, just as you despise your shame – but he did it for the joy of taking it away from you, bearing it for you.    At the cross, Christ loved me. I experience that love, I know that love, and when I die, I will really know, really experience the exchange of all my sin, my shame, my guilt, my brokenness completely removed – that is a love that blows my mind. 

  Galatians 3:10, 13  For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.”   Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.”  The words “law” and “curse” conjure up strong pictures in your mind and mine. Law makes me think of government and police officers, and curse makes me think of witches and magic, since those are the places in my life where the words come up most often. But I know innately that these verses in Galatians can't be talking about either one of these pictures. What spiritual pictures does Paul actually want you and me to see? And deeper than that, as God speaks to our minds today – what hope and power of God are provided in these words, for our strengthening, that God wants us to picture and understand? God wants us to see everything differently in the next 24 hours because we've read these words and thought about them.  Let's start with “curse” because it sounds the most interesting. You and I were born under a curse – that sounds fantastic – in the sense of “from a fantasy,” but it also sounds dark and a little creepy. Is this voodoo? What is the curse and who cursed us, some witch looking over the railing to our crib? A curse is a pronouncement that if we do something (like poke our finger on a spindle), then something terrible will happen (like dying). Well, the verses say everyone who doesn't do everything perfectly that is written in the Book of the Law is cursed. Since the Book of the Law was written by God, the one who has cursed us is...God. And what is our curse? Jesus tells us in Matthew 5:22 that just getting angry or calling someone an “idiot” breaks the law and the judgment, or curse, is “the hell of fire.” Who is able to go a full week without anger or the occasional put down? What a standard and what a consequence! Jesus himself is God's law enforcer and those cursed to hell will be there in torment for eternity. So, the picture God wants to convey is that the law is everything God has told us to do and the curse we live under is not just a little creepy. If we get the real picture in our minds, it's terrifying.  With that fixed in our minds, we're now ready to add the words of Galatians 3:13. God tells us that “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us” – and that his physical act of hanging on the cross is where our curse was lifted and placed on him. The song How Deep the Father's Love says that we see “our sin upon his shoulders”. This is sounding really good, but it's even better than you think because there are two parts to us no longer being under a curse!   The first part of being cursed is that no matter how hard we try – including the people who lock themselves in convents and monasteries and deprive and beat themselves, which I think is harder than you're trying – no matter how hard we try, most of what comes out of us is the list of things listed below in Galatians 5:19-21.  Galatians 5:18-24  But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.  How tragic to want to stop doing all of these horrible things, but be unable to, because you're cursed. That is the first part of our curse.  The second part of the curse is waiting in prison for our punishment for being this way. Whether it's waiting for a parent to come back and punish us, waiting in a courtroom for the judgment against our wrong, or the extreme case of those waiting on death row for their final day of life, waiting for a punishment is awful. The anticipation of pain and the look in our parent's or the judge's face puts a knot in our throat and a pit in our stomach. But according to Galatians 3:13, Christ redeemed us – so the second part of the curse is lifted in its entirety. There is no punishment left for us to wait for, our sins are draped around his neck and the only hard part is watching him receive the lashes, blows, and wrath of God. But we feel joy because we couldn't stand the crushing weight and it would never have been lifted. We are free from this curse forever!  More than that, he also freed us from the first part of the curse. Galatians 5:22-24 shows us that when Jesus died, he not only removed the curse of our punishment, he crucified our flesh and gave us the Spirit of God. We're no longer cursed as slaves to the acts of the flesh: “sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these.” This curse is also lifted, and look at what is able to flow from us now and define our relationships: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control”.  The curse is broken. The curse is lifted...and placed on him. There is no dread of the curse. There is no hopelessness from the curse. There is power in the Spirit, there is freedom and joy and life – so let us rejoice and live this reality that is ours!  

  Psalm 40:1-2  I waited patiently for the Lord;      he inclined to me and heard my cry.  He drew me up from the pit of destruction,      out of the miry bog,  and set my feet upon a rock,      making my steps secure.  I opened my eyes to utter darkness. It was incredibly quiet. I was unable to tell where I was, except for the cold damp walls pressing in on me from all sides. I could also feel the thick, sticky mud gluing me from my waist down. Each breath was full of the acrid smell of death.   Looking up I saw a small disc of blue at least 50 feet above. But this escape route didn't give me any hope, it was not the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel. In a vertical tunnel, it only solidifies that fact that it is impossible to get out. Ignoring the facts, I dug my fingernails into the slime-covered walls and tried to pull myself up. Maybe if I could get clear of this mud, then I'd be able to climb the rest of the way. I lifted a knee and tried to push out in all directions, but it was no use. After trying for half an hour all I had accomplished was to exhaust myself and cover my whole body with the slop.  This is when, being a logical person, I began yelling uncontrollably in panic. “Help! Somebody help me! I'm stuck down here!” Thirty minutes of this left me hoarse but no closer to getting out alive. I was miles from town and nobody even knew where I was. My spirit sank lower in the muck as I remembered how I got here, it was my own fault, there was no scapegoat to blame. I…had dug…this…pit. And I'd enjoyed the digging! At least at first, and when the pleasure of the hole waned, I dug it deeper, trying to restore the satisfaction and pleasure I desperately craved. I'd underestimated how slick the walls would be…it was so easy to slide down, it was effortless. But no amount of effort could get me closer to the top again.  I waited. I looked up to the only place salvation could come from. The blue orb suddenly went black. Then it came back. There must be someone up there. “Help!” I croaked again and I heard a reply. “Don't worry son, I'm going to pull you out of this pit.” Lowering a rope down to me would be useless, I knew I didn't have the strength left to hold on, even if he could lift me.  The sound of muffled talking managed to reach me at the bottom and I could hear two distinct voices. They must be discussing the plan or maybe they were talking about the fact that I was a lost cause. Suddenly the light went out again and I could hear something being lowered down to me from above. I waited and then I felt something – no, someone! Then he spoke to me. “My dad tied this rope around me and lowered me down to you. I'm going to tie it around you now, if you'll let me, and my dad will do all the work to lift you up out of this hole of death. I'll stay here in your place until you are drawn up to safety and then he'll pull me up, too.”  I hung like a rag doll as the father hoisted me up with powerful pulls on the rope, never hesitating or stopping to catch his breath. I knew I was saved when the dark, slippery world I had grown used to suddenly exploded into light and color and immensity. The father set me on the clean, dry ground.  Here are words and ideas that the bible has when it describes the spiritual pit: injury, death, graves, perishing, flung alive, sinking in mire, destruction, falling, dark and deep, swallowed alive with the pit closing its mouth over you, a narrow well, Sheol, no hope, terror, the slain.   Does that help? Are you there?   I'm not just asking rhetorically…not just in your imagination. Are you still there?   We all dig a pit and we all fall into it…the bible tells us that, too. I was there, too. But I'm not in my pit anymore! How did I escape you ask!? Just as Psalm 40:2-3 continues,  He drew me up from the pit of destruction,  out of the miry bog,  and set my feet upon a rock,  making my steps secure.  He put a new song in my mouth,  a song of praise to our God.  Many will see and fear,  and put their trust in the LORD.  When you realize that you are in a spiritual pit and cannot get out, and you fear and put your trust in the LORD, you have a song of praise to God!  Psalm 103:1-5  Bless the Lord, O my soul,      and all that is within me,      bless his holy name!  Bless the Lord, O my soul,      and forget not all his benefits,  who forgives all your iniquity,      who heals all your diseases,  who redeems your life from the pit,      who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,  who satisfies you with good      so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.   

  1 Peter 2:24  He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.  He bore our sins. He bore their weight. We are all familiar with this concept – carrying a bag of concrete, or a heavy tool, or moving a friend's armoire down the stairs, or ladies maybe you can relate better to carrying a sleeping baby in a car seat and a loaded diaper bag for two miles from the parking lot into the store (fatigue has a way of distorting distance). We all know what it feels like to carry a heavy pack (like in Pilgrim's Progress).  In 2017, I visited the 9/11 memorial in NYC and there I remembered a different kind of weight. 110 floors of building, 200,000 tons of steel, 425,000 cubic yards of concrete, and 600,000 square feet of glass. That came down with an incredible crushing force – estimated at an equivalent to exploding 600 tons of TNT. I saw a 15-ton composite at the memorial – which looked like a big rock with metal in it - 5 floors packed together and fused. You may remember that rescue workers expected to find many bodies but none were found, due to the extreme falling weight of the buildings.  This is a powerful image of the spiritual weight of sin, not just a heavy pack to carry around that we drop at the cross. Not even an extraordinary man could hold up a quarter mile of skyscraper and save everyone inside and beneath. None of us could bear the weight of our own sin coming down on us. Only Jesus Christ, God taking on flesh, could – and would – and DID – bear the world's sins and save all who put their trust in him.  But only those who trust in him. We must trust him. Many around us, maybe even you today, are in a spiritual high rise about to come down, it's hard to say when. Flee to the safety only found in Jesus. Our verse says that “he himself bore your sins”. I took part in another memorial in NYC, one held on Sunday at Redeemer Presbyterian Church. As I approached the front and took a piece of crushed, broken bread, the person holding the plate looked me in the eye and said, “the body of Christ, broken for you.” I can't do that physically for you today, but if you have shared in his death and resurrection, remember the crushing weight he bore for you, and worship. 

  2 Corinthians 12:8-10  Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.  Ah, the manifold ways God uses suffering. What an unusual and odd-shaped tool it is in his deft hands, capable of all kinds of good, and yet, like wide-eyed patients laying on the operating table, we shrink back from the shiny instrument of suffering, moving in every direction to avoid its touch – especially in America today.   On March 3, 2020, I found out that I have Type I diabetes. It was a shock, it immediately changed my life, and it will be a disease I have until I die. While it does not compare with the pain, impact, and risks of many diseases, an extra portion of suffering has been added to my plate (and it replaces that nice afternoon soda I have often enjoyed so much). I accept both the good and the evil that God places in my life (Job 2:10), in fact I believe I've received a triple portion of undeserved good from God that far outweighs this disease. But what purpose does God have for me in my diabetes? One obvious change that loomed before me was that of being more limited. I imagine this is often the case for those who have big plans and get sick. “I wanted to do so much, why is God holding me back, limiting me?”  John MacArthur Jr. summarizes a few of the good, powerful, biblical uses God has for suffering in the introduction to his book on Job.  “God ordains that his children walk in sorrow and pain, sometimes because of sin (cf. Num. 12:10–12), sometimes for chastening (cf. Heb. 12:5–12), sometimes for strengthening (cf. 2 Cor. 12:7–10; 1 Pet. 5:10), and sometimes to give opportunity to reveal his comfort and grace (2 Cor. 1:3–7). But there are times when the compelling issue in the suffering of the saints is unknowable because it is for a heavenly purpose that those on earth can't discern (cf. Ex. 4:11; John 9:1–3).” So, which of these was behind my diabetes? In his mercy, God did not even allow me to consider this question fully. The morning after I received the news, I read this quote in my devotional reading and it has changed me forever.  “You may have been in the fires and have been having a pretty hard and painful time in your spiritual life, but that only means that God has been preparing you for something more. No, God is not a God who believes in bringing everything to an end. He is always after something more. And if He has to clear the way for something more by devastating methods (Cross), well, that is all right, for it is something more that he is after. There is so much more, far, far transcending all our asking or thinking. (Miles J. Stanford, None But the Hungry Heart, p.46)" More, more, more! This hit me like the opening of the gates at Disneyland! God, you didn't give me diabetes to hold me back, to limit me. You don't want to do LESS with me, you're not a God of less…you always want to do MORE with me! More than you could do before. The problem is that I don't think big enough, I think too small – I would never have given myself a disease. But you did, and that means you have an even BIGGER plan for my life than I imagined. You won't allow your plans to be pent up by my small view of pain, inconvenience, or sacrifice.  A few days after I was diagnosed, I drove to meet a friend for coffee and was again considering this new understanding I have for how suffering frees up our life to be more, not less. I found myself confessing out loud, with my whole heart, for the first time, “Thank you Lord, for giving me diabetes.” This amazing paradox touches my deepest emotions.   So, using the specifics of my real life today (and for the rest of my life, just like Paul's thorn in the flesh) I join him in this personalized version of 2 Corinthians 12:9-10.  God, I believe that your power is made perfect in my diabetes. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my diabetes, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with diabetes, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak and limited, then your strength is unleashed through me in new ways that were locked before! And I want more of you!   

Philippians 2:5-9  Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name.  You may have missed it but we just traveled with the second person of the trinity from height of glory, to depth of shame, to height of glory. In verse 6, Christ Jesus is enthroned in heaven being worshiped 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, enjoying his equal status with God, being God himself.    In verse 7 he willingly empties himself of glory descending by the end of verse 8 to death on a cross, a death of unimaginable pain and utter shame – which is only exceeded when you compare it to the shame of His perfect Father, the first person of the Trinity, looking at his only son and treating him as all the terrible sins of the world deserve…with terrible wrath.   But then in verse 9, because of this atoning death, he has been shot heavenward, exalted back to the absolute pinnacle of worship, glory, and honor – above absolutely everyone. And one day, though some are bound for hell and some are bound for heaven, not a single being who has ever existed or will exist will fail to bow and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Let me say that another way. It doesn't matter what you believe today, one day you will both believe and confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord. If you believe today, you will enjoy rest and love for your soul. But if you wait, it will be too late to enjoy this belief.  Those are the facts. Jesus stepping down from glory to suffer is every bit as real as any earthly king who stepped down from his throne. But don't forget to look at the person behind the facts. How did this happen? Was he usurped? Did he go kicking and screaming? No. He didn't count equality with God a thing to be held onto tightly, but emptied himself willingly of his own accord.   It was an unthinkable, mind-blowing leap from perfect, complete joy and glory into complete humiliation, pain, and separation taken willingly; not forced. All of this for the joy of being God, who would stop at nothing to move your sin out of the way so that you could be with him.   Get this, if Jesus had stepped down from his throne to be treated as the archangel Michael, it would have been a bigger drop in status than anything any human could experience. Yet he gave it ALL UP and died for us, with a human, broken body... without putting up a fight.  Is he worthy of our praise!? Amen.

  I want to tell you why I'm excited to share these devotions with you. There's a special time, usually in the morning, when mist rolls into a valley and rests like a thick and heavy blanket over a sleeping landscape. It is beautiful and serene to behold, but it is fragile, so you have to rise a little early and stare out, not speaking, soaking in the view. As the sun comes up, the mist disappears and the world awakens and begins to buzz with work and activity, just as it was created by God to do. You can't stop this advance and you aren't meant to, but you can enjoy the calm before it and look forward to the following morning. Similarly, there's a special time for our soul, usually in the morning. Our body and soul have been quieted by sleep and rest, which we need so badly. It sits like a blanket protecting us for a few minutes before the world awakens and rushes in on us, with work and activity buzzing around us. You can't stop this advance and you aren't meant to, but you can enjoy the time alone with your Lord and look forward to the following morning, with eagerness, though few of us do. Why do we call the time we spend alone with the Lord, reading and praying, doing “devotions”? Have you ever thought about that? This is one of the words that have become part of our Christian vocabulary, it is familiar and conjures up some kind of picture in your mind when I say it – devotions. I believe that word stuck because it is rich with meaning. In 1828, Noah Webster completed his twenty-eight-year work, the American Dictionary of the English Language. “To evaluate the etymology of words, Webster learned twenty-six languages, including Old English (Anglo-Saxon), Greek, Hebrew, and Latin…Noah Webster was a Christian and famously said ‘Education is useless without the Bible.'” (Noah Webster. 2020, February 9, http://webstersdictionary1828.com/NoahWebster) Here are his definitions for the word “devotion” from almost 200 years ago. Don't rush through these. The state of being dedicated, consecrated, or solemnly set apart for a particular purpose. A solemn attention to the Supreme Being in worship; a yielding of the heart and affections to God, with reverence, faith and piety, in religious duties, particularly in prayer and meditation; devoutness. External worship; acts of religion; performance of religious duties. As I passed by and beheld your devotions. Acts 17:23. Prayer to the Supreme Being. A Christian will be regular in his morning and evening devotions. An act of reverence, respect or ceremony. Ardent love or affection; attachment manifested by constant attention; as, the duke was distinguished by his devotion to the king, and to the interest of the nation. Earnestness; ardor; eagerness. He seeks their hate with greater devotion than they can render it him. Disposal; power of disposing of; state of dependence. Arundel castle would keep that rich corner of the country at his majestys devotion Webster, N. (1928). An American Dictionary of the English Language. Devotion is (or at least was) an absolutely incredible word. It captures the disposition of a heart and life in a multi-faceted, powerful way. When we are devoted to a person, it must come from very deep – we view them differently than every other person in some way, they are set apart to us. They capture our attention and we yield our own will to them, but not only that, we yield the very affections of our heart. But while devotion must spring from the heart, it isn't merely a feeling. No, it is the heart intertwined with action. When you look at a person who is devoted to another person, it is obvious. Note that I didn't say “it should be obvious”. If it isn't obvious, then they aren't truly devoted. You can't hide earnestness, ardor, and eagerness. It is evident when someone lives in a state of dependence (compared to independence) and prioritization of another person. Is this what my “devotions” look like with God? To Mr. Webster, you can't properly define the word without speaking of faith, prayer, meditation, and worship to the God of the Bible. Am I truly devoted to God? Do I even want to be devoted? If the answer to this last question is “Not really” then it is very likely that I am not real follower of Jesus, as the Bible defines it. A real Christian is a person who has come to the place where they want to yield completely. This happens only when we come to God and raise empty hands and say, “I want to be loved and accepted by you, but there's nothing I can do to erase my mountain of sins or to change my heart, which is predisposed to worship myself instead of you. I believe that this has created an impassable wall between us. But I also believe that Jesus suffered the agony of separation from you that I deserve and in so doing, traded places with me, cleansing me and placing me in his place – enveloped night and day by the unfiltered love and fellowship of the Triune God, forever. This means that when you paid for me, you purchased me, you own me. So, it is my delight to live for you and no longer for myself. You are my Savior and my Lord.” You don't have to use all those words, of course. It isn't the words that save you and change you. It is what God did through Christ for you that saves you as we read in Ephesians 2:1-9. But until you acknowledge that truth and begin to live a life that shows you really believe it, there is no use or value in trying to be more “devoted” to God, as we read in James 2:14-26. Responding to Jesus' loving act of sacrifice for me, suffering in my place, is the most important and life changing event in my life and in every human being who is willing to admit their low estate in order to be lifted up and permanently given the title and full benefits of son or daughter of God. There is nothing I want more for you, and I pray that God use whatever means are necessary – even taking away all that you love today – that you might live in his love forever. Let's return now to our first question, “Am I truly devoted to God?” and its counterpart “How can I grow in my devotion to God?” The answer is simple – we need to think differently and want God more than everything and everyone else. Romans 12:1-2 speaks to this process and I've personally experienced 35 years of being transformed. So, I am living proof that it's a slow process, not a single thing you can do! But I also look back with sadness and see that the selfishness and stubbornness of my heart has greatly slowed down the process. In so doing I have missed out on the deeper joy and richer peace of knowing God that could have been mine. I have also hurt many people, people that I love, because I was unwilling to be more devoted to God, preferring to remain mostly devoted to myself. And there's the catch! There is only one throne in the throne room of every heart! And our flesh, the fallen part that we carry around even as believers, is quick to put us on the throne and God in the corner. That is why I've written these pages. I want to help you put God back where he belongs every day and to dethrone yourself. I know you are already trying to do this, but if it mostly feels like work; if you mostly feel guilt and shame about your devotion, I want to free you. You may feel like the man or woman whose car is stuck in deep mud – frustrated with slow going or no going, strain and push as you might. I want you to feel like you've been pulled up onto the pavement again and how fast you go is a matter of how much fuel you're willing to put into the engine. Allow me one short story to close. A few weeks ago, as I was preparing to do a devotion with my three kids, I asked them what the word “devotion” means - when we're not talking about a few verses and a thought from the Bible. They had pretty good answers and we looked up a definition on my phone to amplify. Then, as I looked at each of my own children, my heart was moved. I asked them, “What if I was to ask if you are devoted to me as your dad, but you were really busy and only had 10 minutes to spend with me each morning? What if the attitude that you brought to meet with me was 5 minutes of dry duty to sort of listen to something I wanted to tell you for your day, followed by 5 minutes of you asking me for some things that would make your day easier? Then, with a bit of relief, you walked away without a hug?” That picture makes me cry. First, because I love my kids and thinking of our relationship reduced to that level breaks my heart. Second, because I often have felt that way when meeting with my heavenly father – if I have even given him any time at all. But that picture also makes me smile and cry tears of joy! The shame and the guilt wash away! Why? Because I realize that God is my perfect father! Every day for the last 35 years he's been sitting there, 100% available and devoted to me of all people, because I'm his son! That means he's eager, earnest, with ardent love and affection. And he's also all-knowing and all-powerful, so that means that if I sit down and ask him to speak to me through his Word, he will overflow with wisdom and insight, so good and deep that I'll probably have to ask him to help teach me what it means and how to apply it correctly to my own life. And if I tell him about my life, I know he cares – even if I say it wrong, even if half of what I say doesn't make sense, he wants to hear me! He wants to spend time with me. He's not distracted with everything else he has going on. He wants to take care of me – he promised he would and he has never failed me! He has allowed hard things into my life, even deep suffering. I don't deny that, nor do I want to. You know why? Because when I accept those as from his hand instead of out of his control, they teach me my weakness, my great need, and how willing and able my Father is for everything in life. At the end of my time with the Lord, however long that is today, I want to be changed like that. I want to be more like him because I love him and I spend time with him, just like a good friend. I want to have a thrill of excitement as I sit down with him, because of the relationship I have with him. When my heart and mind view devotions as a means to experience God's devotion to me, then I grow in my devotion to him. It is easier to see and reject the flesh's false and hopeless efforts and to hear and follow the Spirit's voice leading me, when my focus is on walking with him. May the words on these pages aid you in your own transformation. May we all treasure and look forward to that special time for our soul. “I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ and become one with him…I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death, so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead! (Selections from Philippians 3:7-11, New Living Translation)