Proverbs 30:8

What people want to hear from a religion and what they need to hear are two very different things. We want to hear that we are fundamentally good, fundamentally in control and fundamentally on the right track. We also want to hear that the problems we experience in our lives are the result of outside forces and can be overcome by following a short number of simple steps. In essence, we want to hear that it's all good, and that if we start feeling life becoming less good, we 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 this "what we want" refrain is that it can't actually help us. When our lives start 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 lets us down. What happens when we follow the ten steps and still find ourselves financially insecure? Or when we follow the eight steps and they only serve to further alienate our families?

As it turns out, we need something different than what we want. We 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 take 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. Complain about how God's treating you? Here are some poisonous snakes! So the people come back to Moses and they say:

“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.

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 a pole is the avenue for the Israelites' 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 your sin unto Himself and gave you His righteousness, so that you might live, and live forever.

-- Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

 

Matthew 13:45-46

On an episode of the TV show The Big Bang Theory, Sheldon discovers that Penny has gotten him a Christmas present. Angered, he reminds Penny that the "foundation of gift giving is reciprocity" and that she hasn't given him a gift, she's given him "an obligation." He says that he now has to go out and purchase for her " gift commensurate value and representing the same perceived level of friendship" as that represented by the gift she's given him.

His solution is to purchase three gift baskets (of various sizes) of bath products. His plan is to see what her gift to him is, excuse himself from the room, give her the appropriate gift basket, and return the other two baskets to the store. What happens, though, is that Penny has gotten Sheldon a napkin that Leonard Nimoy has used and autographed. Sheldon notes that he now not only has Nimoy's signature, he has his DNA.

After excusing himself, Sheldon returns with all three gift baskets, barely able to carry the weight. "I know, I know," he wails. "It's not enough!"

And that's the problem, isn't it? We don't know how to react when we get really good gifts. When the gift is that good, no response is good enough. Certainly a plain "thank you" won't cut it. There is no bath product cornucopia that can balance the scales when Leonard Nimoy's DNA is on the other side, and there doesn't seem to be an adequate response when Jesus' death for our sins holds that place, either.

Many of us Christians spend our lives trying to reciprocate for Jesus' gift to adequately say thank you. But if we turn a big enough gift into an obligation, we are crushed by it.

Let's acknowledge from the beginning, then, that this is a gift that tips the scales forever. Let's treat the gift like a child would, with excitement and joy, and go play, remembering that even our most heartfelt gratitude is not commensurate with His life-giving gift - liberating us from the impossible burden of repayment.

Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

 

Psalm 40:1-2

Psalm 40 was made popular by King David long before it was made popular by U2. "I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry". This is the first step in a beautiful, poetic, and short description of the story of God's action in human life. This is the trademark of human life - waiting and crying. That might sound dark to some, but to those who have lived through it, who are familiar with grief, struggle, and tribulation, the psalmist has connected to our very core with his first line.

"I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry." The psalmist suggests a God who hears our cries and then springs into action. It's much more than a sympathetic ear: He stoops to us.

As is so often the case, however, God goes above and beyond. He doesn't merely stopp to hear our cries; He rescues us from our despair.

"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" (vv. 2-3). Here, the psalmist is describing the profound result of the human interaction with God. As always, just as it is God who stoops to those of us who cry, God is again the actor here. He drew me up...He set my feet...He made my steps...He put a new song in my mouth. Our action is to wait and to cry. God's action is to stoop down and rescue. We go from existing in the pit of destruction and the mud of the swamp, to having our feet set on a rock, our footsteps firm, and with a new song on our lips.

Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

 

Galatians 1:3

In his Commentary on Galatians, Martin Luther makes a beautiful observation in response to Paul's letter-opening prayer, "Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ" (v.3). Luther says that Paul chose those words carefully, and that those "two words (grace and peace) contain all that belong to Christianity." He says that "grace forgives sin, and peace makes the conscience quiet."

Despite our efforts to achieve peace through a host of other methods - sound financial planning, righteous behavior, whatever - Luther contends that Paul's claim is that true peace can only through grace. He says elsewhere that our "quest for glory can never be satisfied. It must be extinguished." In other words, there is no plane to which you could ascend at which you couldn't imagine being more peaceful. The grass is always greener, and all that.

The fact is that, because of Christ's saving work, we actually have been given peace through grace. Luther goes on to say that although the words are simple, "during temptation, to be convinced in our hearts that we have forgiveness of sins and peace with God by grace alone is the hardest thing." And this is true to human Christian experience, right? When faced with a situation, to accept that our standing with God is secure even if we make the wrong choice is next to impossible. This is why our consciences are so often troubled. We just flat out can't really believe that God will be graceful to us, and we therefore cannot have peace. 

This is why it is important for Paul to begin his letter by wishing the Galatians grace and peace through God and Jesus Christ. This is why it's important for all of us to hear it every week, every day, every minute.

Today, let us begin with grace and peace. Peace is the thing that, left to our own devices, we would spend all of today seeking. Instead, let us remember that, in Christ, true peace is already ours, through grace.

Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

 

Luke 13:6-9

What should a farmer do with a fig tree that doesn't bear figs? Well, he should cut it down, right? That ground can be used for some better use, some plant that will actually bear fruit. When Jesus tells the parable of the barren fig tree, though, the tree has an advocate. A vinedresser speaks up for the tree and offers to personally care for it for a year. He tells the owner of the vineyard that if there are still no figs next year, he will cut down the tree.

Don't you get the feeling that the vinedresser knows better? He knows that with some love and attention, that the tree is going to bear fruit. Some people see only the law in this little parable: if you don't bear fruit, you risk being thrown out of the garden. Have you ever felt this way? That God is the owner of the vineyard and He comes around every day to inspect the fruit that you are - or aren't - producing? Are you terrified that, one day, you'll be found lacking and cast out of the garden? These are very common sentiments. It's important to note, though, that this isn't what happens in the story.

In the story, the vinedresser intercedes for the barren fig trees. Our fears that our fruit will be insufficient are well founded. But we can cast our hope on the vinedresser, Jesus Christ. He steps in and takes personal responsibility for us. Whatever fruit we bear is, according to Paul in Galatians 5:22-23, the "fruit of the Spirit," which he contrasts with the barrenness we bring to the table.

Today, remember that presence of fruit in your life is not your doing and that you, therefore, cannot take credit for it. But it's also true that the absence of fruit in your life is not something that can separate you from God's love.

Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

 

Micah 6:7-8

How do we please God? According to the prophet Micah, the answer is actually simple: act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with Him.

Micah cut through all of the God-pleasing practices that were going on at the time and gets right down to the heart of the matter: You want to know how to please God? Don't give Him the usual sacrifices: rams, oil, firstborn children, or even your own body. You really want to please God? Merely act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God.

Years later, it'll be said in a different way: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and love your neighbor as yourself" (Luke 10:27). Different words, same message: pleasing God is about these simple things: act justly, love mercy, walk humbly with God (v.8). Simple, right? Of course, God has spent the years between Adam and Eve and John the Baptist being displeased with His chosen people. They rarely do what He wants. They always complain. They have not acted justly. They have not loved mercy. They have not walked humbly with their God.

Apparently, being told how to please God doesn't make us any more able to do it. And guess what? We proudly continue our ancestors' tradition. Act justly? Love mercy? Walk humbly with our God? This life we're living, if we're honest, is far from the perfection that God requires to be fully pleased.

Many Christians believe that the good news is that Jesus enables them to please God. And He does. But the real good news: Jesus perfectly pleased God for us. God did not tell Jesus, "You are My Son, the Beloved; You will give these others the ability to please Me." No. He said, "You are My Son. With You I am well pleased." For those who are united to Christ and clothed in His perfect robe of righteousness, God is pleased with you.

Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,