Tag Archives: Jesus

Not to Worry

2 Replies

Terry Bolter escaped from the Gestapo by jumping across 6 feet of space to the roof of the adjacent building and then dropping down through a skylight.  He was a British WWII pilot, downed behind Nazi lines, who eventually made it back.  His journey ( It’s a hair raising tale; I’ll include the link below) was made possible by following guides from the Belgian resistance.  Throughout this perilous escape, Terry was constantly faced with a choice: worry or trust.  Worry would have paralyzed him.  Putting aside worry and trusting his guide gave him the ability to make it through each day’s dangerous obstacles.  Jesus taught the same principle in the Sermon on the Mount: Don’t worry; Trust.  He said:

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.  But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.  (Matthew 6:25-34)

Worry, stressing over having enough food, clothing or money, can prevent us from entering into life – real life.  Instead of worrying, Jesus said, trust Him and follow His guidance.  Bobby McFerrin had it wrong when he sang “Don’t Worry; Be Happy,” which is a potentially dangerous exercise in wishful thinking.  Jesus said, “Don’t worry; trust God and follow Me, your guide.”  There is a big difference.

So, what did Jesus, our guide, tell us to do?  “Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness.”  He didn’t say, “Clean up your act and do righteous things.”  He said, “Seek God’s righteousness, given to those who respond to Him as their King.”  It’s not the self-righteous who enter the kingdom of God, but rather, Jesus taught, it is the “poor in spirit,” who “hunger and thirst for righteousness” (Matthew 5:3&6).  In other words, it is those who know they cannot make it on their own, those who are ready to trust Him to guide them (“blessed are the meek” – Matthew 5:5).  Terry Bolter couldn’t rescue himself.  He was trapped in a building with the Gestapo hammering on the door.  His only hope for safety was to put aside worry and trust his guide.  That’s the situation we are in.  Jesus says, “Don’t worry; follow me, seeking God’s Kingdom and righteousness.”

Here’s the link to the rest of Terry’s story:  click here

 

 

Diving into Life

2 Replies

A friend of mine had made millions in the oil business.  He told me that the best thing that ever happened to him was when he literally lost it all.  He discovered, he said, that when he made money the goal of his life, what he lived for, money held him in a very tight and demanding grip.  There was never quite enough. You and I think a few million would be plenty, but my friend said he found real wealth when he was penniless.  Here’s how Jesus said it:

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. … “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.  (Matthew 6:19-21 & 24 )

This sounds preposterous; everyone knows that the goal of life is to be rich.  That is, except those who have chased that goal and, too late, find themselves unable to let go.  It’s not that money is bad.  The problem is our tendency to want more and more money as a goal in itself.  When money becomes our quest, it is an addictive substance.  And, in our quest for more, we trample the attitudes Jesus calls, “storing up treasures in heaven.”   He was talking about living by the counter-intuitive principles He taught in the Sermon on the Mount.  These are based on the truth that sets a person free, that produces a life lived in harmony with God’s design.

So why does this seem so upside-down?  Jesus said it’s an eyesight problem, a consequence of how we see life:

“The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!  (Matthew 6:22-23)

When my friend lost his fortune, Jesus opened his eyes and showed him what living was really all about.

You can check this out for yourself.  Ask Jesus to open your eyes and show you how to be generous.  That’s a dangerous prayer. Jesus will certainly respond, and put you in some challenging situations.  Real generosity is a struggle because it feels self-destructive.  It feels a lot like the first time you decided to try a diving board.  You grab onto the safety rail and think, “If I do this I’m going to hurt myself or drown!”  But it is impossible to hold that rail and dive.  You have to choose.  But when you let go and bounce off the end of the board, you discover a new and exhilarating freedom.

Jesus is waiting for us in the pool of abundant life.   He says, “Stop holding on to money for dear life.  Let go and take a flying leap into real life.  Come on in, the water is fine!”

Not so Fast

Leave a reply

Did you know you can get a reward from God?  Jesus told us how.  Three times, Jesus said “…your Father Who sees in secret will reward you.”. The first time, He was talking about giving to the poor.  The second time, He was teaching how to pray.  Once more, while teaching about fasting, Jesus explains how to be rewarded by “your Father”. 

“And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.  (Matthew 6:16-18 – ESV)

Once again, the point is the same: Do not try to impress people with your devotion to God; keep it private, between you and God.  Generosity, prayer and fasting are all expressions of a deep rrelationship with “your Father”.  When you use them to show others how religious you are, how good you are, they have the opposite effect.  They show people your pride and hypocrisy and they diminish your relationship with God.

Fasting does not earn us any points with God, it simply clears away the clutter and distraction so we can commune with Him more fully.  There are times, when you sit down to talk with someone, that it is natural to do it over a casual lunch.  There are other circumstances when lunch would simply get in the way: you just need to be together and talk.  It’s times like that with your Father that Jesus says are just for the two of you.  Don’t ruin them by using them as an occasion to show off to people. What is the reward? That too is just between you and your Father, but you can be sure that it is primarily the relationship itself.

This is radical stuff!  People almost always picture God as a distant and demanding figure.  Jesus says He is your Father and desires a relationship with you that is intimate and genuine. 

How to Pray Like Jesus

Leave a reply

When you screw up while leaving a recorded phone message, you usually can’t erase it,  I know a guy who ended a message with “…in Jesus’ Name, Amen.”.   He was so used to saying that at the end of a prayer that he just did it without thinking.

Sometimes our prayers get said without thinking, too.  You can probably recite the Lord’s Prayer without thinking about it.  For many, saying the “Our Father” is a ritual, like the Pledge of Allegiance, done by rote so we can all sit down and get on to the next thing.  The irony of that is that Jesus taught that prayer as a way to help us avoid meaningless, empty prayer.  He warned us, “Don’t think you get brownie points from God by special words and a religious tone of voice.”

But, that raises the question: When you dare to speak with the Creator of the universe, what should you say?  How should you pray?

Jesus answered those questions with a profound but simple outline for prayer.  He said, not, pray this, but “pray like this:”

“Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
( Matthew 6:9-13 – ESV)

Begin your prayer, He said, by acknowledging the majesty and awesome holiness of the One you are addressing.  At the same time, remember His love for us, His children.  “Our Father, Who exists in Heaven, may Who You are, fill me and everyone else with a sense of reverence, wonder and humility.” Use words that have that effect on your heart.

Secondly, as you pray, intentionally align your heart with God’s purpose and plan.  Pray for the eventual establishment of His Kingdom on earth, the day in which everyone naturally and gracefully lives in harmony with the will of God, their King.  Tell God how you yearn for Heaven’s conditions to be lived out here on earth.

After these important attitude adjustments in prayer, Jesus taught us to pray for our needs.  We don’t say, “God, gimme this…”  but rather, we are to pray with gratitude, knowing God already knows our needs.  We pray for our daily needs – bread for the day.  There is a childlike trust and surrender reflected in such a prayer. 

Our prayers for forgiveness from God are soaked in the awareness that such forgiveness can only be received by those with forgiving hearts.  Read that again and ponder the truth of it. 

Jesus taught us to pray for protection from Satan and from the many ways we are tempted by him.  Because our battle with sin is spiritual in nature, we need more than willpower; we need spiritual armament.

And that’s it.  That’s the outline for prayer.  All that other business about “For Thine is the… ” is the kind of religious ritualistic verbiage Jesus was teaching us to avoid.

Next time you pause to talk with God, try Jesus’ outline, putting each idea into the words that flow from your own heart. 

In Jesus’ Name, Amen.  🙂

Keep it Real

1 Reply

Did you ever hear someone else praying and think, “That guy is a phony?”  Jesus did.  And he warned us against phony praying.  He said:

5 “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 6 But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
7 “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.  ( Mat 6:5-8. –   ESV)

The essence of prayer hypocrisy is paying more attention to people than you do to God. God knows your heart, knows what you need, and loves you. He invites us to pray as a natural part of our relationship. Nothing we can say will impress Him or manipulate Him. He wants us to keep it real.   

The temptation to impress others causes some to love to pray out loud. The flip side of that same temptation causes some to hate praying publicly, fearing that others will not be impressed. Jesus says we can avoid all that by praying privately – honestly talking things over with Our Father.

That doesn’t mean it’s wrong to pray with others out loud, but when we do, the same principles apply:  Remember Who you are speaking to, pray what is truly in your heart, and keep it real between you and God.

You know what happens when a dad comes home from serving overseas and pays a surprise visit to his daughter in school?  When she see him and runs to him, the last thing on her mind is how she looks and sounds to everybody else.  Pray like that…

Just Between You and The Father

Leave a reply

This needs no explanation, or comment:

1 “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.
2 “Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. ( Mat 6:1-4 –  ESV)

Nobody’s Perfect, But…

Leave a reply

Kim Jong-un cannot qualify for Heaven. But then, neither could Mother Teresa – not on her own steam. Nobody can live up to Heaven’s standard for entry. The bar is set way too high. Jesus made that clear:

Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. (Matthew 5:48)

If golf was how you got into Heaven, Tiger wouldn’t. You must be perfect. How perfect? As perfect as the Heavenly Father. Sounds harsh, but when you think it over, if any imperfection was allowed in Heaven, pretty soon it wouldn’t be Heaven. In time, it would become Detroit. That is why Jesus told the people that their righteousness would have to be much better than the Pharisees, whose sole focus in life was to obey all the commands of Scripture. You have to be perfect.

Reflect for a moment on the fact that we live with standards for perfection all the time. If you dial even one wrong number out of ten, your call cannot be connected to the right phone. If you mess up just one letter or number of a password, you cannot get on to a secure WiFi. You must be perfect, or you cannot get in. Same thing with Heaven. Jesus said so.

But Paul Harvey had something to say, too: “You need to know the rest of the story.” The “rest of the story” about the word, perfect, is that, in the original language of Matthew, it also meant “complete.” Jesus came to “complete” us by giving us His Spirit. We were created by God and designed by Him to have the Spirit within us, guiding us. Without that Spirit, there is no way for any human to be perfect. Jesus was saying, in order to enter Heaven, you must have the Spirit of God living in you. How does one get the Spirit? Jesus said, “Trust Me, … and I will give you another Counselor, to be with you forever, The Spirit of Truth.”

Maybe you are thinking, “But I have already trusted Jesus, and already have His Spirit, but still I am imperfect. What now?” Don’t panic, perfection is coming. Not here, not now, but guaranteed. Jesus said:

“For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.” (John 6:40)

Enemy Whisperer

2 Replies

The hounds of Hell live just around the corner from my house in Colorado, two German Shepherds with slathering fangs and burning hot coals for eyes. The chain link fence that stops them from eviscerating me has my deepest respect and gratitude. But I am convinced that the “Dog Whisperer” could nonchalantly walk into their yard and gentle them in short order.

It takes a lot of courage to be a “whisperer.” The “Dog Whisperer” and these guys who get into corrals with wild horses have great courage. But they also have something the average person does not. Somehow, they have the capacity to show they pose no threat, that they understand that the animal’s aggression is based in fear. The one who “whispers” really wants the very best for those animals.

Jesus says, “Be an enemy whisperer:”

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you…” (Matthew 5:43-44)

The love that Jesus refers to here is genuine concern for the wellbeing of your potential adversary, at the risk of your own wellbeing. Jesus would have us get in the corral with our enemy, posing no threat and acting with the understanding his aggression is rooted in fear. Jesus would have us communicate by what we do that we are truly there to bless. Clearly, that takes a lot of courage. But it takes something else, too, something the average person does not have.

That previous quote from Jesus is incomplete. He ended the sentence by saying,

“…that you may be sons of your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5:45a)

To “be a son” of someone is an idiom for being so full of his character and spirit that you thoroughly resemble him. Jesus says, love your enemies, showing that you are full of God’s Spirit and in step with His character. The Spirit of God is something the average person does not have. But Jesus came to “whisper” us, to show us He posed no threat but was out for our genuine good. He said He didn’t come to condemn the world but to save us (John 3:17). Jesus knew that without God’s Spirit we were stuck in fear. But He came, at the risk of His own life, to bless us. For those who will truly trust Him, Jesus connects them to and fills them with God’s Spirit in a living way.

And says, “Whisper your enemies…”

Hope for Life

Leave a reply

Imagine the crew that Ernest Shackleton left behind, hopelessly stuck in Antarctic ice, facing a certain, slow, agonizing death by freezing, as he attempted to go for help. If you are not familiar with how far he needed to hike and then sail to find rescue, look it up. It’s one of the most astounding adventures of all time. But the guys left behind, huddled together, day after frozen day, with death circling like a wolf: how deep their despair must have been.

And how great their joy when one day, a speck on the horizon appeared, to let them know that Shackleton had returned, that he was not dead and that they were about to become the benefactors of a most improbable rescue! If you can grasp a sliver of their amazement, their blinking wonder and joy, then perhaps you can glimpse a portion of the disciples’ joy when they saw and touched Jesus after His resurrection.

Later, Peter wrote these words:

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead…” (1 Peter 1:3)

As each person discovers that “speck on the horizon” and recognizes Jesus coming for them, they catch the full glow of Peter’s words. Not many of us can write music like Handel, but we can all jump up and sing “Hallelujiah!”

No Lie

Leave a reply

Jesus knew He would be tortured to death within the next several hours. He knew the men around Him had left everything behind to follow Him, that soon they would be consumed by a tsunami of terror and grief. He had one last chance to speak with them. It was time for straight talk. Here’s what He began with:

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.” (John 14:1-4a)

In effect, He said:
A. No matter what happens, don’t panic; God is trustworthy and so am I
B. I am going to fix it so that we can live together with God forever.
C. It really is true that God’s “house” has “rooms” (literally, places for people to move in and live forever).
D. There is no way I would lie to you about this at a time like this.
E. I’ve got to leave you, but I will come back for you.

All of that is comforting. It sounds like what a loving father might say to his family just before he leaves to immigrate to a new country where they will be safe, and where he will bring them as soon as he has a job and a place to live. “Don’t worry! I will come back for you!” Comforting.

But then Jesus said:

“You know the way to the place where I am going.” (John 14:4b)

You can imagine how that comment raised anxious questions:

Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. (John 14:5-6 )

Jesus wasn’t lying about any of that, either.