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Pentecost and Transformation Power – VOTD.05.30.17

Posted in Verse of the Day | May 31st, 2017 | by

When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. Acts 2:1-4

When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” Acts 2:37

This coming Sunday many Christians will celebrate Pentecost. In the Old Testament, Pentecost was a Jewish feast day celebrating the agricultural harvest. But in the New Testament, Pentecost celebrates an entirely different kind of harvest: It was on this day that the Holy Spirit was poured out on 120 followers of Jesus who were gathered in Jerusalem (Acts 1:15). The result was thousands found Jesus as their Lord.

Pentecost is the fulfillment of Jesus’ promise to send the Holy Spirit (Jn 14:15ff)— it happened fifty days after His resurrection. (more…)

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Restoring that Which was Lost: Acceptance – VOTD.05.23.17

Posted in Verse of the Day | May 23rd, 2017 | by

Always be completely humble and gentle, patiently putting up with each other and loving each other. Ephesians 4:2
With compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience, bear with each other and forgive one another Colossians 3:12-13

The New Testament has an amazing number of passages about accepting each other. I could have picked from dozens of verses about acceptance. Paul wrote, “Accept one another just as Christ accepts you” (Rom 15:7). We must accept others even though they have faults and sins—just as God accepts us even though we have faults and sins.

To fail to accept each other is sinful, itself, because God is no respecter of persons and shows no partiality with any of us (Rom 11.2)…If we don’t accept each other, we are setting ourselves up as their judge and that is God’s job, not ours (Rom 14:4).

Acceptance is the first ‘A’ in honoring the people around us. People we live with. People we work with. People we church with. Neighbors, friends, extended relatives…wait-staff, the guy at the gas station, the list goes on. Obviously, we have more opportunity (and authority) to honor some of those around us than others, but the characteristics I’m sharing, fit no matter who we find ourselves in contact with.

These people around us all have legitimate, God-given needs for “the 4 a’s” we talked about last time: Acceptance. Affection. Attention. Affirmation. Jesus intends for His followers to receive them from each other, laying a foundation of a healthy sense of their individual identity in Him and their place in His Kingdom. This is how we honor each other. Nothing will kill honor faster than seeing it as a one-way street. (more…)

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Judgment vs. Restoration – VOTD.05.22.17

Posted in Verse of the Day | May 22nd, 2017 | by

Heaven was opened, and (Jesus) saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” Matthew 3:17

We saw last time that love does not stratify the value of people. Judgment depends on that kind of stratification. The person judging is often seen as or wants to be seen as having a higher status than the person being judged. The need to be seen as or consider oneself as above or below others feeds this stratification and further judgment.

And it is to this that James refers when he writes that Christians must not show favoritism (2:1). The brand of favoritism he speaks of is wealth and most of us have seen that kind of favoritism in our local churches and perhaps in our own lives. But we’ve all seen the same thing in regards to any number of other judgments. (more…)

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Fake News: Judgment vs. Love – VOTD.05.16.17

Posted in Verse of the Day | May 16th, 2017 | by

Mercy triumphs over judgment. James 2:13

One of the issues of our day is Fake News. Now, there’s nothing new about fake news. It’s just exposed in our day that your fake news is interfering with my fake news. So the realization that there’s fake news out there becomes unavoidable.

Fake news annoys people because we want to believe that our positions and decisions are based on facts rather than hype and spin. When we’re forced to admit that any news we hear or see is possibly, even likely, to be fake at some level, it makes us uncomfortable. And that’s exactly why our judgments of each other are so dangerous.

Our judgments of others is based on fake news; incomplete information; spin and assumption based on biases that fit in with our preconceptions. We don’t know all the facts; we make assumptions about why people are behaving the way they are with unreliable and sketchy data. Therefore the one we judge can’t even get a fair trial in our minds or hearts/attitudes.

So it’s no wonder Jesus drew His followers’ attention away from judgment and toward love. You might think Love and Judgment don’t have much to do with each other, but they are close opposites, so they have more to do with each other than we might think. (more…)

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The Judgmental and the Judge – VOTD.05.015.17

Posted in Verse of the Day | May 15th, 2017 | by

Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To their own master, servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand. Romans 14:4

Do you remember the prophet, Jonah? He was unwilling to spread God’s word of impending doom against the people of Ninivah, because he was afraid they might repent, and then God would have mercy on them and not bring the calamity He warned of.

Maybe that’s the problem. Like Jonah, we’re afraid God is going to be too lenient on those we scorn, so we have to judge them for ourselves. We can’t trust Jesus to judge them harshly enough. That may not be the motive in every case, but I’m pretty sure it is many times. We judge others because we don’t trust God to do it right.

And that makes some kind of sense, since in today’s verse Paul tells us that those of us who Jesus judges are going to stand. Not, by-the-way, because we are innocent. We’re not. Not one of us is. But because God is able to make us stand.

If we’re judging others, that’s bad news. But if we’re on the receiving end of judgment—in which case, today’ verse is really good news. Other’s are going to judge us. But rather than defend ourselves and judge back, we trust God to act and judge in our behalf.

The amazing thing that today’s verse tells us is that if we were to judge as Jesus judges, those we judge would stand. They would be acquitted…on the basis of Jesus shed blood atoning for them. That sort of changes the picture, doesn’t it? (more…)

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Judgement and the Heart of Jesus – VOTD.05.09.17

Posted in Verse of the Day | May 9th, 2017 | by

And all these things are from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and who has given us the ministry of reconciliation. 2 Corinthians 5:18

If there is one thing that makes us totally united as Christians it’s that we all fall short of God’s glory (Rom 2:23). We’re all sinners who need a Savior. Even at our best, our good deeds are so tainted God compares them to rags (Is 64:6). Whether you or I are seen by others as pillars of the faith or barely Christian, our total dependence on Jesus is the great equalizer.

I know Paul told a church in one case to remove a sinner from their midst, but that was someone who was bragging about their sin—in fact the whole church was bragging about it. To use that to justify judgment of others or a judgmental attitude is to misuse the Bible. It’s plain falseness.

The truth is that we are equal in Jesus. Every time we think less of someone else, we forget that we are also sinners. That truth is easier to superficially acknowledge than it is to fully consistently live out in our hearts and attitudes. Only the humble can walk this one out in our daily lives.

Only the meek and contrite heart can fathom just how far Jesus went to rescue each of us. Humility like that has only one source: Jesus. As we draw near to Him, as we lift Him up, as our heart’s fixation is on Him, we’re too overwhelmed with who He is and what He has done for us to be caught up in judging another. There is a reason why people in the Bible who got a glimpse of God’s glory fell on their faces confessing their own sinfulness (e.g. Is 6:1-6).

So what we do with our own judgmental heart is to fix our eyes on Jesus instead of the people around us (Heb 12:2). Being caught up in Him gives us a truthful picture of ourselves and others.

But how do we handle those who judge those around us? Or maybe they judge us? That can be both bothersome and challenging. We’ll look at that next time.

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No Excuses – VOTD.05.08.17

Posted in Verse of the Day | May 8th, 2017 | by

You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else… Or do you show contempt for the riches of (God’s) kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you to repentance? Romans 2:1,4

Accept one-another, just as Jesus accepts you. Romans 15:7

God is a reconciler…a God who accepts us because Jesus became sin for us so that in Him we become the righteousness of God. “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us; so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor 5:21). As “the righteousness of God” Jesus became the instrument of our reconciliation to God (v. 18). As the “righteousness of God” in Jesus we become God’s instruments of other peoples’ reconciliation (v. 19).

The outcome? “we no longer regard anyone from a worldly point of view” (v. 16) because “if anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation: The old has gone, the new has come!” (v. 17). So we can accept one-another, just as Jesus accepts us (Rom 15:7).

So in light of all of this, which is probably been read and understood by most Christians, why do we have problems with judging in the Body of Christ? Probably, a lot of it has to do with our not believing that God has truly reconciled us to Himself, or that Jesus death on the cross is all we need to make us new creations.

Being judgmental is a sure sign of unbelief. Unbelief in what? Firstly, unbelief in the power of God. (That God has the power to save us, to reconcile us, to make us new creations. Unbelief that He can take care of our own sin as well as anyone else’s. 2 Cor 9:8)).

Secondly, it’s belief in our own righteousness. (Belief that we’ve got it more together than our brother or sister. Belief that we have more ability than the Holy Spirit to ‘fix’ our brother or sister. (Rom 14:4)

But a lot of us have fallen into that at times. Why’s that? Because our God is too small, and we are too big (as we said above). Because we’re prideful; because we’re just plain annoyed at other peoples’ immaturity (impatience) or inability to see the truth the way we do—and yes, theologians fall into this trap.

And perhaps, most of all, because we rightly see ourselves as instruments of God, but mistakenly see ourselves as instruments of His judgement rather than instruments of His love. Instruments of His reconciling power.

So how to we deal with judging…either in ourselves toward others, or being on the receiving end? We’ll look at that next time.

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It’s Who We Are – VOTD.05.02.15

Posted in Verse of the Day | May 2nd, 2017 | by

The kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.  Rom 14:17

We are the Kingdom of God here on earth. God’s Kingdom is not something we have, it’s something we are. When this is who we are becoming, then we will begin to live and move and have our being in Jesus.

In today’s verse Paul gives us three characteristics of God’s Kingdom:
1) righteousness
2) peace
3) joy

All three of these come from the same source: The Holy Spirit. There is no other source for real righteousness, peace, or joy. They come from our awe of Jesus that occurs within us as we experience Him close up and personal. They come from the renewing of our minds that He performs within us.

All three of these are something we are, not something we have. Jesus is our righteousness. Without Him, our righteousness is simply filth. The same goes for joy and peace. He is our joy and He is our peace.

All three of these are like 3-point identity checks when someone is trying to confirm our identity. They prove who we are. They prove our citizenship in God’s Kingdom.

It wouldn’t be very fair if God told us to get our righteousness, peace and joy in line and if we pass the test, we will be inducted into His Kingdom. Unfair, because we could never do it. These traits only come from Him.

But some people literally teach that we have to do it ourselves. They have people pretending to have peace when they have no peace in hope that peace will become a habit. A tell-tale sign that we don’t have real, Holy Spirit-provided peace is that we can’t share our peace. Somehow, our arrival into any situation does not fill the room with peace (or joy, or righteousness).

You see, we bring God’s Kingdom everywhere we go. We don’t create it once we get there. It is with us because the Holy Spirit is within us. And that changes everything.

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Policies vs. Values – VOTD.05.01.17

Posted in Verse of the Day | May 1st, 2017 | by

“‘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,’” (an expert in the law described the two greatest commandments).
“You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied to him…
But the man wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” Luke 10:27-29)

A few weeks ago, a major airline had a catastrophic public relations nightmare as a passenger was forcibly removed from their aircraft while other passengers caught it all on video. The images went viral as they were shared all over social media and the news. As a frequent flier of that airline, I received a letter last week from their CEO that was undoubtedly crafted by some of the best damage-control experts in the industry. I mean, it was a work of art, among those of us who work in communication.

But one line near the beginning of the letter struck me, particularly. You see, I immediately thought of us Christians when I read it:

The incident “happened because our corporate policies were placed ahead of our shared values. Our procedures got in the way of our employees doing what they know is right.” (more…)

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On Navigating the Presence of God – VOTD.04.24.17

Posted in Verse of the Day | April 24th, 2017 | by

You make known to me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore. Psalm 16:11
Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. James 4:8

Last time we asked the question: Why don’t more Christians experience God’s Presence? The first reason was that we don’t know or believe it’s available. Today we’ll look at the second reason: We don’t know how to get there.

Once we know and believe that the presence of God is something that is available to us, the obvious question is “How do I get there? How do we plug in and experience it for ourselves?

According to today’s verses, God, Himself makes that known to us. “You make known to me the path of life.” So what we’re really asking is how does God reveal Himself—How does He make Himself known? How can we position ourselves to receive the revelation God of Himself?

There are obvious answers like reading the Bible, Prayer, Fasting, etc. And there’s plenty of ‘formulas’. Often believers stumble into something that works for them; they latch onto it because it has greatly impacted their life. And they surround it with a Bible verse or two and begin to teach others.

Don’t misunderstand me…It is wonderful when any believer gets a revelation of the presence of God that changes their life—that opens up for them an entire new dimension of intimacy with Jesus. I totally rejoice for them and their experience. (more…)

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