Matthew 11:29-30

In a 2010 interview with Stephen Colbert, reggae legend Jimmy Cliff was asked if he was currently a member of a religion. He answered, "No, I've graduated from them."  Colbert asked, incredulously, "You've graduated from religion?" and Cliff said, "Yes." Colbert then said that God is sitting up in heaven when we graduate from this life with a scorecard, and asked Cliff which scorecard (Christian, Muslim, Jew, Etc.) he wanted to be graded on. Cliff said he would like to be graded on the scorecard of "truth and facts." Colbert's inspired response?

Jimmy Cliff has decided to "graduate" from religion and wants to be assessed on truth and facts. Well, what are the facts? What is the truth? When the requirements are things like all of God's holy commandments, beginning just with the great Ten Commandments, the real truth would reveal that we're not doing so well. We can't graduate if we can't pass the class.

To be judged on the scorecard of truth and facts is a hard yoke and a heavy burden. Truth and facts lead to a heavy burden because it involves a righteousness required. Jesus, though, said that His yoke is easy and His burden is light. He was talking about a righteousness given, not earned. He was talking about faith and grace. Truth and facts mean we're judges on our own merits, or lack thereof. Faith and grace mean that we're judges on Jesus' merits, and judges righteous.

May we always rely on a righteousness that is given and never fear a righteousness that is required. And may we never, ever "graduate" from a yoke that is easy and a burden that is light.

Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,


 

Ecclesiastes 2:9-11

On April 12, 2012, Philip Humber pitched a perfect game. That is, he retired twenty-seven batters in a row, three up and three down, every inning for nine innings. No walk, no hits. Only eighteen other men in the history of Major League Baseball have accomplished the feat. In November of that same year, his team cut him, making him available to any team in the league. What happened?

In an interview with Sports Illustrated, Humber tried to explain it. The article is subtitled: For one magical April afternoon, Philip Humber was flawless. But that random smile from the pitching gods came with a heavy burden: the pressure to live up to a standard no one can meet."

The ladder of perfection has no top rung. There is no platform upon which we can finally rest. Whether our goal is to be a good father, a good Christian, or a good pitcher, each exemplary act carried with it the expectation of another. And another. "Being like Christ" is not like throwing a perfect game. It is like throwing perfect games every day of your life, while never being proud of the fact that you're throwing perfect games.

The quest for glory, the chasing of perfection, killed Humber's season. He never regained the form that mowed down all those hitters, and his team eventually gave up on him. In order to move on, Humber had to give up, admitting that "he's done chasing perfection. He's done trying to be the pitcher with the magical fastball and the unhittable slider. He knows he's a 30-year-old pitcher with a fading heater and a curveball that doesn't bite like it once did, and he accepts that."

Humber came to grips with his limitations, the truth about himself. He knows that, in order to be a good pitcher, he has to let perfection go. Let's remind ourselves daily, hourly, and by the minute that we can let perfection go, because it is a mantle that Christ has taken up for us.

-- Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

 

Proverbs 30:8 - Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread.

What people want to hear from a religion and what they need to hear are two very different things. I want to hear that I am fundamentally good, fundamentally in control, and fundamentally on the right track. I also want to hear that the problems I experience in my life are the result of outside forces and can be overcome following a short number of simple steps. In essence, I want to hear that it's all good, and that if I start feeling life becoming less good, I can easily right the ship.

I don't think it's any coincidence that many large churches in America proclaim this kind of message. Tell people what they want to hear, then the people and the money roll in.

The problem with the "what I want" refrain is that it can't actually help me. When my life starts sliding off the rails, it's all well and good to go to the handy self-help manual, but it becomes decidedly less "well and good" if the manual let's me down. What happens when I follow ten steps and still find myself financially insecure? Or when I follow the eight steps and they only serve to further alienate my family?

As it turns out, I need something different than what I want. I need the truth.

What people need to hear from religion is an accurate diagnosis of their condition. Wanted Religion can't offer a profound solution because it refuses to diagnose a profound disease. Needed Religion recognizes our plight and can offer a weighty cure: a Savior who substitutes Himself for us.

It will probably always be true that Wanted Religion will rake in the money; it's offering a much more desirable front end. Needed Religion, however, will be there when the bankrupt devotees of Wanted Religion need somewhere to turn and have no money left to buy their way in. 

Today, revel in a God who gives us what we need: a Savior.

Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

 

Numbers 21:4-9

The Israelites are in the middle of their years wandering in the desert, looking for the Promised Land, and they're getting impatient. They complain about the lack of good food and water, and they wish they'd never left Egypt in the first place. God, hearing their complaints, sends poisonous serpents among them, and many of the Israelites get bitten and die.

Ah, the joys of the Old Testament. Am I right? Complaining about how God's treating you? Here are some poisonous snakes! So the people come back to Moses and they say:

The people came to Moses and said, “We sinned when we spoke against the Lord and against you. Pray that the Lord will take the snakes away from us.” So Moses prayed for the 

people. The Lord said to Moses, “Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.” So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, they lived. (Numbers 21:7-9)

There are a lot of foreshadowing elements in this story. Jesus references it in John 3 when He says that He, too, must be lifted up. In the same way that the elevation of the snake on the pole is the avenue for the Israleite's salvation, Jesus' hanging on a cross is the way in which eternal salvation comes to the world.

A particularly fascinating thing about this story is that God chooses the serpent to be the image lifted up on the pole - the very thing that is killing the people. Again, He is foreshadowing the final act of His plan of salvation. Jesus, who knew no sin, became sin on the cross so that we might become the righteousness of God. The very thing that is killing us - sin - is laid on Jesus and lifted up on the cross. The bringer of death - the serpents and the cross - becomes the way of life.

Today, know that Jesus took sin unto Himself and gave you His righteousness, so that you might live, and live forever.

Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

 

2 Corinthians 4:18-19 ...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.

Floods. Earthquakes. Fires. Hurricanes. Tornadoes. One can hardly go for a day without seeing images of people whose homes have been destroyed and demolished, often leaving nothing except their foundations. What do survivors search for in the rubble? Reminders of what lasts when the physical is taken away.

It's important to remember that we are only stewards of what we, today, call home. It will not last forever, but what happens inside its walls will. Remembering this urges us to focus less on stuff and more on meaning. I know people who give their children and grandchildren experiences as gifts as Christmas rather than something that will eventually be used up or thrown away. It's important to hold onto what we have, but let's hold it loosely, for it's not our eternal home.

That's what Advent is all about. We prepare our homes for Christ's coming now because we know he will come again. Today's home is temporary; our heavenly home will last forever.

-- 

Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

 

Joshua 24:15  But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

A lot goes into transforming a house into a home. We tend to focus on the here and now, but what about the lasting impact of home? What will be remembered when we or others move on? It won't be the things - it will be how we and others felt in the comings and goings, the welcoming and the goodbyes.

The true essence of home is the emotional attachment it holds. It's not one thing; it's nurtured and cultivated over time. The feeling of connection lives on in memories. It's what pulls us home and what pushes us out the door with the reassurance that we will always be welcome.

Homes without Christ at the center may stir warm memories, but the ones rooted in Christ stand apart because they are where we also learn that what we experience here is part of a much larger picture. It's where Christ's love is reflected in what we say and what we do. It's where we learned that Christ came that first Christmas to prepare a place for us in a forever-lasting home.

--Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

Luke 6:38 ...give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.

Remember learning about root words? The root word for hospitality is hospital. originally derived from the Latin word hospes. At its core, hospitality means caring for the needs of others.

In digging a bit deeper, we must ask ourselves if we hoard hospitality for those with whom we already feel comfortable or if we are willing to break out of our comfort zones and welcome those who are different, or even difficult. After all, everyone has the need to feel respected and cared for.

The greatest gift we have ever received is Christ, born to be our Savior. It was a gift for everyone, not just a chosen few. Hospitality rooted in love is a gift. Not a tangible gift that can be unwrapped, but one that gets internalized and lasts well beyond the moment. It's not accidental - it's intentional, and it's filled with blessings. For it is in giving that we also receive.

Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,