Clay in the Hands

Monday night we decided to cook fajitas.  We got everything ready and then began the process.  A few months ago, my brother gave me a huge outdoor cooking wok made from a plow disk – it works great!  So I got it set up on the burner on the patio and started the fire.  I guess I didn’t realize how hot the wok had become when I put the oil in to start sautéing the vegetables.

Hot oil started popping and splattering everywhere.  Here is the key to the story – I was wearing shorts and flip flops.  You may already know this but the skin on the tops of your feet is very sensitive – who knew!  In a matter of seconds the skin began to blister.  And two days later I am still in pain and wearing shoes just makes it worse.

As I have thought about how pain affects us, my thoughts have turned to Jesus and the pain he endured for us.  He willingly endured beating and torture and ultimately a cruel death to offer grace to all people.  My little blisters are nothing compared to what he endured.  We all endure pain in life but nothing will ever compare.

Maybe you have experienced emotional pain.  Maybe the ones closest to you have betrayed you.  That hurts.  It leaves scars that may never heal completely.  But consider Jesus, being arrested and hauled off to a mock trial and the anguish he felt as each and everyone of the people he had poured his life into turned away.  Think about the loneliness he felt on that cross as even God turned his face.

We may have experienced physical and emotional pain.  But Jesus experienced all we have experienced and more and yet he was not shaken.  He finished the mission.  He stayed on that cross and carried out the Father’s plan.

So when you feel life is too much, remember – Jesus lived it – for you.

Be blessed today!

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God’s grace is truly amazing!  We all need it.  In fact, we would be utterly lost without it.  Scripture reminds us that there has only been one person to live on this earth without any sin.  I have to confess – his name is not Brian!  Jesus experienced all things just as we do, and yet without sin – without dis-obeying the Father – without messing up (Hebrews 4:15).

We have a tendency to look for the bad in others but when it comes to ourselves, we often only see the good.  But, if we take a closer look – an honest look – we will see those things we have hidden on the dark side of our hearts.  There are those things that we think no one knows.

But we know.

We try to forget.  We work to hide.  But that sin is there – creating a division at our core between ourselves and God.

This season, moving toward the cross, our focus turns toward the sacrifice Christ made for us.  He made that sacrifice so that there would be no division – absolutely no separation -between my heart and the Father.  He made that same sacrifice for you as well.  Grace is nothing we earn, or it wouldn’t really be grace.  Grace extends to the dark side of the heart to cover over the sins lurking there.

All we must do is accept that grace.  Open your heart to God’s grace today.  Confess those things to Jesus that you want to think he doesn’t already know.

Lay those things down and live into his liberating grace.

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I had the opportunity to speak in the chapel service for our school this morning.  My instruction was to cover one sentence of the model prayer Jesus gave us in Matthew 6 – verse 13; “lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.”

As we look at the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples to pray, we see just before this plea to protect us from temptation, a request to forgive us for our shortcomings.  There are things in our lives we can’t change – decisions we have made that we can’t change – words we have said we can’t un-say.  For those things, Jesus teaches us to ask for forgiveness.  We learn from our mistakes and humbly ask for forgiveness.

But moving forward, now we can do something about that.  We can make good decisions moving forward.  We can watch we say and do for the rest of this day.  So Jesus reminds us to ask for forgiveness for the past and then ask for direction and protection moving forward.

Here are three things we can learn from this petition in verse 13:

1.  God will guide us and give direction if we seek it.  James 1:13-15 tells us that God does not tempt us.  We are tempted by our own evil desires and lusts.  But Jesus reminds us to pray for God to lead us and guide us away from temptations.  So our prayer should be for his guidance.
2. We can’t do this on our own.  If left to our own, we will fall prey to our own desires.  Without God’s guidance, we will allow our focus to drift away from God and toward instant gratification and our own lusts.  James 1:15 says, “after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.”  We need God to guide and protect us.
3. God is fully capable of delivering us from evil.  Evil is anything that takes our focus away from God. When we allow God to guide our steps, we will be led away from temptation and protected from evil.

Father, we humbly ask for your forgiveness for our shortcomings up to this point and pray that you will guide our thoughts, words and actions this day.     Amen

Be blessed today!

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This past Sunday we talked in church about how important it is to place our trust in God.  But that trust has to be grounded in the fact that God is trustworthy.  I don’t know about you, but for me, I want to have the assurance that my faith and trust are placed in a God that is big enough to handle what life brings my way.

There are situations and struggles that come our way in life that are bigger than we can handle.  Knowing that our God is able to give us the strength to go over, around or straight through our struggles gives us the peace to truly make it through the day.

Isaiah prophesied that the coming messiah – Jesus – would be called the Wonderful Counselor.  He is that counselor because he understands all that we encounter having experienced it as well and he cares about what happens to us.  He would be called the Mighty God – big enough, strong enough and fully capable to handle any and all struggles we encounter.  Isaiah said he would be called Everlasting Father.  He is the Everlasting Father because he is consistent and timeless – his love is forever and the life he offers us is for real and full of meaning and purpose.

And he would be called the Prince of Peace because he would come – and in fact has come – to redeem the situation of our lives.  He has come to bridge the gap between us and God – a gap we created by choosing to go our own way.  By bringing us back into a solid relationship with God, Jesus offers us peace.

That is the story of Christmas.  God asked his son to give up the glory of heaven to become human and physically experience life on earth then to endure the weight of all sin and suffering so that we could be restored to the life God intended for us.  Christmas is the day we celebrate Jesus’ saying “Yes” to God’s request.

We are here today because he said “Yes.”

Be blessed today!

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If you read the headlines, watch the news or simply leave your home, you know we live in a world filled with anxiety and stress. This stress and worry can take it’s toll on us – physically, emotionally and relationally. If we let it, anxiety can rule our lives. We wrestle with fear of rejection, fear of failure, fear of fear. But Jesus came to give us another option.

But understand that peace is not the absence of stress. Jesus’ coming – and our acceptance of him as savior does not remove stress from our lives. In fact, Jesus said, in John 16:33, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world, you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”  Jesus does not offer to take away the struggle but he does gives us hope to be content and at peace even in the midst of the storm that is life. Jesus offers us a life of tranquility and peace even in the midst of all that swirls around us.

You may be sitting there thinking to yourself, “That makes no sense. If I am overwhelmed by anxiety – worrying about all the things that come at me each and every day – then how can Jesus make a difference? If he is not going to remove the causes of the stress then how can there be peace?”

Jesus came to restore a proper relationship with God. He became human to bridge the gap between God and mankind. His life and death brought the possibility of reconciliation to a broken relationship and a broken world. The level of peace in your life is directly correlated to your proximity to God. (You might want to Tweet that #PrinceofPeace) As long as there is distance between you and the Father, there will be no peace. Peace comes in trusting God with your life – in knowing God is in control and regardless of how hopeless things seem to appear, God only wants the best for you and your life. Julian of Norwich said, “Peace reigns where our Lord reigns.”

This kind of peace makes no human sense. The kind of peace that only Jesus – the Prince of Peace can bring. Paul refers to it as the peace that passes all understanding. He says in Philippians 4, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace that transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” This is the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophesy when he said that the coming Messiah would be called the Prince of Peace.

The Prince of Peace has come and in so doing, he has made a way for us to be reconciled to the Father. He never promised to remove our stress and the things in life that bring anxiety. In fact, he let us know that the life of a believer would not be easy. But he has given us an opportunity to have a relationship with God and through that relationship we realize that this life is temporary. His peace is real for believers because we know that our future is secure. So even in the midst of stress, I can stand in peace knowing that Jesus, the Prince of Peace, is my savior. He has endured more than I ever will. He understands whatever it is I am going through and he cares for me. There is peace in knowing that no matter how this battle goes, the war has already been won!

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