Jesus

Tell me the story again

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Today I spent some time with a client that I see several times a year.  Each time I meet with her we catch up on what’s been going on in life.  She told me a story today of something that happened in her family a few weeks ago:

Her daughter, son-in-law and their 2 year old son were at a barbeque on Memorial day weekend.  One of the guests at the barbeque brought her 90 pound Doberman with her.  The man and his son had just gotten out of the pool and the little boy was eating a piece of candy, when the dog spotted him.  The dog bared his teeth and growled as he charged towards the helpless child.  The daddy, seeing the impending danger, called out to his wife and pushed the boy towards her and then stood between his family and the approaching dog.  It took several men to pull the dog off of him, but not before it had severely mauled his face and head.  By the time the ambulance got him to the hospital he had almost bled to death.

He will require multiple surgeries over the next few years to repair the damage that was done that day.  The doctors expect that they will be able to correct the damage so completely that eventually there won’t be any visible scars.  But for several more years his face will bear the marks of love for his son.  I can almost imagine this little boy climbing up into his daddy’s lap, touching the scars on his face, and saying “Daddy, tell me again about how you saved me from the dog”.  The story will never get old to that boy…because it was his rescue from death.

I can’t stop thinking about this…..it so reminds me of the gospel.   When death and hell were running towards me and I was powerless to escape, Jesus stood between me and death.  He took the full force of it for me and rescued me.  I could not have overcome it, but He could not be overcome by it.  Now He bears the scars of His love for me.  I want to remember this over and over. ….coming to the secret place of prayer with this request…….“Tell me again Jesus, about how you rescued me from death”.

Wrapped in grace

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Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Hebrews 4:16

It is upon a throne of grace that we will find our Savior. Never winking at our sin, always at work to deliver us from every remaining vestige of it’s outworking in our lives, yet He sympathizes with our weaknesses because He understands what it is to be one of us. He knows how temptation buffets us from every direction. And to this throne He has invited us to confidently come, for it is from here that He dispenses mercy and grace for His children who so desperately need His help.

He offers “grace to help.” An interesting word here – “help”. It means “a rope or chain for frapping a vessel.” Frapping a vessel is what happened in Acts 27:17 when they “used cables to undergird the ship”. The cables were wrapped around the ship and were intended to keep it from being broken apart during the violence of the storm. This is what grace is in our lives.

Grace is defined as the divine influence upon the heart, and its reflection in the life. It is God’s divine influence surrounding us, wrapping tightly around us just as those cables are wrapped around the ship, that holds us together in the midst of even the most life-shaking storms.

Through the blood of Christ, access has been granted to this throne of grace any day, any time, for any need. Come boldly. Come often. And be amazed at all that is made freely available to us through such a great High Priest.

Stories from the streets – May 16-17, 2014

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Live after Five – May 16, 2014

After handing out tracts for a while, I sat down for a few minutes to pray and rest. A man passing by made a comment about the loud music and I saw this as an excellent opportunity to tell him that I wasn’t there for the music, but to tell people about Jesus. At first his face twisted in anger and he began to walk off. But I called out after him and asked him to tell me why that made him so angry. And surprisingly, he did. He had been in church for 30 years. When his marriage ended, he felt judged and rejected by the church. So 10 years ago he walked away….from church, from salvation, from Jesus. There was a hardness to his face as he said “I know what the book says and I’m not gonna do it and I’m not gonna be a hypocrite about it.” Throughout our conversation he was polite but there seemed to be a boiling anger just beneath the surface. I asked him if he understood what his decision to walk away from Jesus meant in terms of eternal consequences. He said he knew he was going to hell but he wasn’t worried about that right now. But I know there will be a day when it will matter to him more than anything. He wouldn’t give me his name but God knows who he is. Please pray that he would come to repentance and faith in Christ and that his heart would be healed from the wounds of the past.

 

Third Street Outreach – May 16, 2014

Last night on Third Street I talked to a man named Lee. He introduced himself as a Christian wanna-be. He said that he wanted to be a Christian but just could not do what Jesus required. I asked what things he was talking about and he responded that he couldn’t sell everything he had and give it away to follow Jesus. Somehow in his mind, he was convinced that the only way to be a Christian was to own nothing. I shared verse after verse from the Bible with him , but he refused to accept what was plainly stated in the word of God. When I finished talking to Lee I leaned up against a building and took a few minutes to pray for him. Looking up at the patches of beautiful night sky that I could see between the downtown buildings, my heart filled with great joy as I thanked The Lord for grace. Wonderful grace! What peace it brings to know that it is all of grace. Please pray that Lee would realize that his own works will never be enough and that only the work of Jesus on the cross is sufficient to save.

 

Bus Station – May 17, 2014

Today at the bus station I met Justin. He has traveled all over the country working as a contractor, but when he got to Baton Rouge last week he found out that he couldn’t work without a TWIC card. Now he finds himself without a place to stay and was forced to pawn the few belongings he brought with him in order to pay for a bed in the local homeless shelter. He has been brought for a moment to a place in life he never thought he would be and it has humbled him. Earlier in his life he had made a profession of faith in Christ but admitted that he had strayed away from that. As we talked he seemed to understand that there was nothing random in the seeming randomness of somebody coming up to him to talk about Jesus at this particular point in his life. Please pray that Justin would respond to God’s call to come to a place of full commitment of his life to Christ.

As I was driving home from the bus station, I passed an Islamic mosque and a Buddhist temple. And it was yet another reminder, on this beautiful sunshiny day, of how much darkness, confusion and deception there is in our city. They will live and die in that darkness unless we bring them the light of the gospel. It is their only hope.

Life unchained

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I don’t want to live this life
Within the box of social norms
Conforming to this world’s definition of success
I’m not interested in moderation or balance
But my heart leaps at the thought of charging ahead
Full speed into the purposes of God
Extreme life, unchained and unrestrained
By thoughts of reputation
Concerned only for God’s expectation
No way I’ll burn out
But I yearn to be filled up
with the fire of His presence
My heart has been captured
Set ablaze
As I set my gaze upon this Lord of glory
Nothing else matters
Pressing in until I press through
Stirred up to take hold
Pursuing the One who has pursued me
Reaching upward…to touch heaven

Rend your heart

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Oh, that You would rend the heavens!
That You would come down!
That the mountains might shake at Your presence— Isaiah 64:1

“Now, therefore,” says the LORD,
“Turn to Me with all your heart,
With fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.”

So rend your heart, and not your garments;
Return to the LORD your God,
For He is gracious and merciful,
Slow to anger, and of great kindness;
And He relents from doing harm. Joel 2:12-13

Several years ago I heard a woman tell of a dream she had. In the dream there was a large group of believers who were worshipping God. And they were calling out to Him “Oh Lord, rend the heavens and come down!” And the reply came back from heaven “Rend your heart and not your garments.” And the people would cry “Rend the heavens and come down” and heaven would answer “Rend your heart and not your garments.”

The rending (or tearing) of garments was an expression of grief common in that day. It was an outward expression of the intense emotion of the heart. But just like many things, it frequently became nothing more than a ritual, void of any real anguish of heart.

We are very good at rending our garments. On any given Sunday morning, in the intensity of a moment of worship when we feel very moved by the music, we cry out to Him. We tell Him how much we need His Presence, how desperate we are for Him. And then five minutes later we are discussing what our restaurant options are for lunch. The garment has been rent….but the heart remains intact.

I absolutely love the joy that I have as a follower of Jesus. But at some point we are going to all have to admit that even in the midst of all of our smiles and laughter, we do not experience His presence like we know is possible. Maybe one day soon we will no longer be satisfied with just rending our garments, but we will let our hearts be truly rent before Him, no longer willing to pretend that the superficiality of our walk with God is abundantly satisfying. And maybe then He will rend the heavens and come down.

Don’t accept the enemy’s substitute

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“Do not listen to Hezekiah; for thus says the king of Assyria: ‘Make peace with me by a present and come out to me; and every one of you eat from his own vine and every one from his own fig tree, and every one of you drink the waters of his own cistern; until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards. Isaiah 36:16-17

The king of Assyria had already conquered the fortified cities of Judah. Now this great army is approaching Jerusalem. The enemy, who began by threatening, now tries another tactic. He attempts to convince the people that what he has to offer them is just as good as what they have now. His promise to them is that if they will just agree to his terms of surrender, they can continue in the lifestyle they currently enjoy in their own land until he comes to take them away to a foreign land where they will still enjoy the same things.

War is difficult. War is costly. War is inconvenient. Surrender without really losing anything doesn’t sound so bad….

Except that this land which is like your land, isn’t your land. Nothing in this land belongs to you. And what the enemy has failed to mention is that there will be no freedom for you there.

The enemy is an expert in counterfeit. Our nation is filled with a counterfeit gospel that sounds good. It speaks of Jesus and faith and spiritual things. But there is no altar, there is no repentance, there is no holiness. This false gospel knows nothing of obedience, a consecrated life, or a life of prayer. And those who surrender themselves to such a message might enjoy some benefit of spiritual things, but they possess nothing. Christ is not their life but merely an accessory. They live in the kingdom of this world which has been altered to resemble the kingdom of God….but it isn’t. We have been warned that this would happen.

Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. Colossians 2:8

It is so much easier to redefine sin than to wrestle in prayer until a besetting sin is overcome. It is easier to be moral than holy. It is easier to simply enjoy a Sunday sermon than to get in the altar and die to everything of the self life. It’s easier to be religious than to engage in the warfare of this spiritual life.

Because war is difficult. War is costly. War is inconvenient. And thus many surrender to a false gospel that doesn’t cost them anything. But there will never be any freedom there.

Hold fast, people of God, to the true gospel of Jesus Christ! It is a glorious message of life and power! It is the only hope this world will ever have. For the sake of those who do not yet know, and for the honor of the Lord Jesus, we must not compromise the message. Ever!

Preparation of the outward life

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Yes, and if I am being poured out as a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. Philippians 2:17

And I will very gladly spend and be spent for your souls; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I am loved. 2 Corinthians 12:15

These verses characterize not only the Apostle Paul’s labors for the Lord, but the essence of his life. Poured out and spent. Doing without, suffering want and personal hardship, enduring rejection and loneliness …. he lived with reckless abandon for the glory of Jesus only. I wonder how many times this man’s heart had been absolutely broken by betrayals, by false accusations, by rejections; and yet still his life was one poured out and spent. Paul could have lived a comfortable life, but the Lord had called him to so much more than that. It cost Paul significantly to follow and serve Jesus, but Oh the reward of it!

Paul called himself a bondservant of Christ. The word here translated bondservant is actually the word slave (doulos).  It is a strong word, carrying the following meanings:

  • It refers to one born into slavery.
  • It refers to one who is in a relation to another which only death can break
  • It refers to one whose will is swallowed up in the will of another.
  • It refers to one who serves another even to the disregarding of his own interests.

Disregarding our own interests? Losing our will in the will of another? This mentality doesn’t just happen to us….it must be cultivated.

For none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s. Romans 14:7-8

For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s. 1 Corinthians 6:20

It MUST be cultivated. We simply cannot afford to waste these few years we have been given on this earth catering to our own desires to live comfortable lives. There is a world that Jesus died for, and that He yearns for…precious souls that His blood was shed for. Every day we meet them and pass by them in this life. They are at the grocery store, at our jobs, our schools. And they are waiting to hear the words of this life. But an unprepared life will walk through her days absolutely oblivious to the perishing around her.

One day we will stand before the Lord Jesus. The book of Revelation talks about Him wiping away our tears. I believe those will be tears of regret when we see how much Jesus wanted to do through our lives and how little we were prepared and available for His purposes.

No matter who you are, or how insignificant you feel your life is, and how impossible it seems that your life could ever make a real difference for eternity, I encourage you to adopt this prayer as the motto of your life:

Lord, let me make a difference for you that is utterly disproportionate to who I am.

And then watch in amazement as He takes your prepared life and ministers to a world with it.

Today you can purpose to be a vessel set apart and prepared for the Master’s use. Devoted to the Word and prayer…..absolutely surrendered to the Beloved….poured out and spent that Jesus might have His testimony through your life. This, dear brother and sister, is our reasonable service and our great privilege. Whatever the sacrifices we may have to make to have a life prepared to serve the Lord Jesus, on that day we see His face we will only wish we had sacrificed more. It’s gonna be worth it all!!

 

 

The preparation of the upward life

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The upward life is about the presence of God. Yes, He is everywhere all the time. We accept this truth by faith. But sometimes He makes the reality of His presence so tangible to us that the very atmosphere is charged and we feel as though if we stretched out our hand we might touch Him.

King David was a man who loved God’s presence. The account of the ark of God being brought back to Jerusalem is a joyous celebration. 2 Samuel 6:12-15 says: Now it was told King David, saying, “The LORD has blessed the house of Obed-Edom and all that belongs to him, because of the ark of God.” So David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom to the City of David with gladness. And so it was, when those bearing the ark of the LORD had gone six paces, that he sacrificed oxen and fatted sheep. Then David danced before the LORD with all his might; and David was wearing a linen ephod. So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the LORD with shouting and with the sound of the trumpet.

David didn’t take the presence of God for granted. To him it was very precious.

For Moses, the presence of God was necessary. Exodus 33:15 tells us: Then he said to Him, “If Your Presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here. Moses preferred a wilderness with God, rather than a promised land without Him.

But for others the presence of God is substituted. Jeremiah 2:13 says: “For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, And hewn themselves cisterns—broken cisterns that can hold no water.. The Lord’s command to those who have become content with other things, even if they are good and spiritual things, is “remember….and repent”. (Revelation 2:4-5)

The Old Testament Jews were not allowed to draw near to God. One man, once a year was allowed into the Holy of Holies. But this new covenant in Jesus’s blood is a covenant of nearness. Many verses exhort us to come near (James 4:8, Hebrews 7:19, Hebrews 10:22, Ephesians 2:13)

When the arms of Jesus were spread open on the cross, the arms of the Father were opened to us, with the invitation to draw near. The tragedy of our day is that we too often remain content with the broken cisterns of religious activity.

The upward life is about separation to God. The Song of Solomon is a story of love between the beloved and the Shulamite, which symbolizes the love between Jesus and His people. Read what the beloved (Jesus) says about the Shulamite (us).

A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse, a spring shut up, a fountain sealed. Your plants are an orchard of pomegranates with pleasant fruits, fragrant henna with spikenard, spikenard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense, myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices— A fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, and streams from Lebanon. Song of Solomon 4:12-15

This garden, which is her life, is full of beautiful and pleasant fruits and spices. Many precious things are growing there. But she is a garden enclosed….a spring shut up…a fountain sealed. All the beautiful fruit of the life is locked away and hidden. No one benefits from the lovely fragrance or the sweet fruit.

His words stir something in her and she responds (Song of Solomon 4:16) “Jesus, all the beautiful fruit of my life, it is for You Lord. Come and benefit from the precious things You have grown in my life. Come and receive of what is Yours”

And He does! (The BelovedI have come to my garden, my sister, my spouse; I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk. Song of Solomon 5:1a) He comes to the garden and takes possession of it…”I have come to my garden”. She has given it entirely to Him. This garden, her life, is separated to the beloved….His possession now. And this life, now fully given over to the Beloved, He flings wide open for the benefit of the world! (Song of Solomon 5:1b) (To His Friends) Eat, O friends! Drink, yes, drink deeply, O beloved ones!

This is the prepared life…..one that is fully given over….an entirely God-possessed life.

Today you can purpose to be upwardly prepared – a man or woman fully surrendered to God.

 

 

Preparation of the inward life

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But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also [utensils] of wood and earthenware, and some for honorable and noble [use] and some for menial and ignoble [use]. So whoever cleanses himself [from what is ignoble and unclean, who separates himself from contact with contaminating and corrupting influences] will [then himself] be a vessel set apart and useful for honorable and noble purposes, consecrated and profitable to the Master, fit and ready for any good work. 2 Timothy 2:20-21 amplified

The passage above tells us that the use of the vessel is in proportion to the preparation of the vessel. So as we desire to be useful and profitable to the Lord Jesus, we must prepare ourselves to be suitable for those things He has prepared for us to do. (Ephesians 2:10)

Part 1 will focus on the preparation of the inward life

The inward life is really all about the condition of the heart. The great danger for us as believers is developing a hardened or calloused heart. Each time we come into the house of God, He desires to speak to us. But if we are not careful, the ministry of the Word of God into our lives can become to us nothing more than a form of entertainment as it was for the people in Ezekiel’s day. “As for you, son of man, the children of your people are talking about you beside the walls and in the doors of the houses; and they speak to one another, everyone saying to his brother, ‘Please come and hear what the word is that comes from the LORD.’ So they come to you as people do, they sit before you as My people, and they hear your words, but they do not do them; for with their mouth they show much love, but their hearts pursue their own gain. Indeed you are to them as a very lovely song of one who has a pleasant voice and can play well on an instrument; for they hear your words, but they do not do them. (Ezekiel 33:30-33)

It is when we come to the Word of God with a humble and teachable spirit (whether in a church service or in our own personal reading and studying) that we will experience the full benefit of its work of preparing our life for useful service to Jesus.

The Word of God reveals ourselves to us. Hebrews 4:12 says: For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

Every motive, attitude, all the hidden things that no one can see, and that we often aren’t aware of, all of these things are revealed by the powerful working of the Word of God in our hearts, but only as we make ourselves open and vulnerable to the Word and do not close our hearts to the Spirit’s correction. It can be very painful to experience revelation of ourselves, but it is necessary.

The Word of God renews our perspective. Romans 12:1-3 tells us: I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.

Not only does it help us to relate rightly to this world, but it helps us to think rightly about ourselves. In 10,000 different ways pride will attempt to find a home in our hearts, but the Word of God will successfully expose this deadly enemy and keep us in a proper attitude of humility. Without humility, ministry can be destructive.

Not only is the inward life prepared by the Word of God, but also by prayer. Nothing of kingdom significance will be done without prayer, either in the world or in our own lives. It was as the early church was set apart in the upper room in prayer that the Holy Spirit was poured out. In prayer our desires to draw near to God are stirred. Through prayer, Jesus promised we could receive what we ask for. Mark 11:24 states: “Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.

The word “desire” in this verse is a strong word. It means to crave, beg or require. It is more than a casual asking and then moving on to the next thing. There is something of a desperation and urgency that just can’t let go of the need being presented until heaven answers. There is far too little of this in our day. We often come to God in prayer, yet our desire to have that which we’ve asked for is not strong enough for us to continue until the answer comes. We aren’t engaged in our own prayer lives and then wonder why our prayers aren’t answered.

The preparation of a life is a call to fervent, intense prayer. No longer is there the option of “now I lay me down to sleep” prayers. It is a life that travails before the throne of God, often with tears and sleepless nights, pacing the floor….not willing to see prayers continue to go unanswered.

There are many accounts in the gospels when whole cities would line up to see Jesus.   Can you imagine how long all those people must have had to stand there and wait for a chance to get close enough to Jesus to get their need met? But in each account it tells us that ALL were healed. Everybody got their need met……except those that got tired of waiting and went home.

Today you can purpose to be inwardly prepared – a man or woman of the Word and prayer.