Tag Archives: Grace

The Verses after John 3:16

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This morning as I was reading through some passages, I read John 3.  Of course, we all know and love John 3:16, which is one of those passages that we have all memorized, that we all know so well.  It’s just a passage that just kind of floats around us, that is just part of the Christian experience.

I’ve always loved that passage too.

But, I’ll be honest with, I’ve always liked the verses that follow as much, if not more than John 3:16

17 God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him. 18 “There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son.19 And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil.20 All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed.21 But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants.*”

It is not just that God sent His son into the world to save the world, He did not send His son into the world to condemn the world.

He loves the world.  He loves you.  Right now, no matter what you’ve done, what you’re doing.

He’s not out to get you. As that great song “Come as You are Starts” – “He’s not mad at you.”

Really, today, no matter what has happened in your life, God is not mad at you. God is not out to get you.  God is not looking to smite you.

He loves you. He wants you to know Him, to love Him, and to find that life that comes only from Him.

Now, the judgement is this – that we choose our darkness over His light. But, He is not out to get you today.

No matter what happens today –  God is not mad at you.  God is in heaven, waiting for you mess you.

God wants to know you, love you, care for you, lead you.

Today.

He’s not out to get you.  He’s out to love you.

Today.

Remember these verses that follow John 3:16.  God loves you today and each day.

May we choose to follow, and may we choose to live in His light.

August 8, 2010 Podcast is Up

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Today’s sermon podcast is is up on Asbury Church’s website. This sermon is the first in my series “Being Salt” which walks us through the Sermon on the Mount.  It entitled Being Salt. The text is Matthew 5: 13-16. Click the to our website to stream it there, or you can listen to it through my blog. You can also click here to subscribe through iTunes.

Not as Strong as We Think We Are

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My favorite Christian singer of all time was Rich Mullins. There are a lot of Christian artists that I really enjoy, but he was my favorite. At a time when I was struggling with the faith and what it means to really be a Christian, the words of his songs really spoke to me and really drew me into a truer faith.

Today’s reading from Psalm 78 reminds me so much of one of his songs “Not as Strong as We Think We Are.” The mistake we can make as humans is that we can think we are so much stronger than we are. We can think we can do so much, we get so prideful and think more of ourselves than we ought. And then we mess up, we fall down, and we are reminded just how weak we are.

The Psalmist writes this:

37 Their heart was not steadfast toward him, *
and they were not faithful to his covenant.
38 But he was so merciful that he forgave their sins
and did not destroy them; *
many times he held back his anger
and did not permit his wrath to be roused.
39 For he remembered that they were but flesh, *
a breath that goes forth and does not return.

Man, I am so thankful for those words this morning.  The people’s hearts were not steadfast towards God. They turned away. They didn’t turn to Him. They didn’t seek Him. They chose their way over His way, their cravings and sin over what God wanted them to do.

And God was right to be angry with them. But, the text says, because of His mercy, He held back.

And remembered they are just flesh.

God knows we are not as strong as we think we are.  He knows we are weak and frail.  He knows we will get ourselves in trouble like lost sheep.

He knows that.

And loves us anyway.

In spite of all of our weakness.  All our frailty. All our faults. God knows. And He loves us.  In spite of ourselves.

He knows that we need Him for even our next breath. He knows we can’t do it without Him. He knows we bring nothing to the table for Him.

And He loves us.  Anyway.

Sometimes, all the time, really, we forget we are weak and frail. We are not as strong as we think we are.   We are not.

We really are not a big deal.  We really aren’t.

We are just a breath that will be gone someday.

And God still loves us!  In spite of what we’ve done, in spite of our frailty, we are loved. God knows we are weak. And He loves us.

Today, thankfully, we are not as strong as we think we. May we turn to Him. And in Him, we will find the strength we need. We can’t do it ourselves. Through Him, we can do all things.

Through Him.

Good Reminders

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What is it in life that worries you?

What scares you?

What robs your sleep?

We’ve all got something.  Something that makes us uneasy, something that makes us fearful, something that keeps our hearts afraid.

What is that for you.

I’ve got a list of things that worry me.  I’m a worrier, it’s just how I’m wired.  I worry about church, I worry about family, I worry about friends. It’s just what I do.

So, I need to the words of Psalm 71 quite often

3 Be my strong rock, a castle to keep me safe; *
you are my crag and my stronghold.
4 Deliver me, my God, from the hand of the wicked, *
from of the clutches of the evildoer and the oppressor.
5 For you are my hope, O LORD God, *
my confidence since I was young.

As big as my worries are, God is bigger.  As big as my problems are, God is bigger. As big as my stresses are, God is bigger.

And God is at work in all our lives. Do we really believe God led us to this point to leave us here?  Do we really think that God will abandon us after all these years?

God is with us. He is now, He has always been. He will be with us today and will be with us tomorrow.

What do we have to worry about?  What do we have to fear? Why do we have to be afraid?

We don’t.  God is with us.

I need to be reminded of that every once in a while.  Like today.

I don’t know if you needed this word this morning, but I did.

Thanks be to God, who is bigger than whatever it is we face.

Now, go out and live today with the confidence of being a child of God!

BaseCamp – Day Three

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Yesterday was the third day of BaseCamp here in Petal and it was a learning experience.  The entire week has been, but yesterday was a chance for my kids, and for me, to learn about what grace looks like.

When you are working on yards, sometimes, most times, things are perfect.  Sometimes the work doesn’t go right, or the machines don’t work right or the people aren’t just pleased with the work.

We had a family we were working with this week and things just weren’t going right.  Folks were working hard and trying their best, but it just seemed like nothing was going as it should.  And plus everyone was hot and tired after a long few days of work.

As my crew was driving to our next site, some of the kids were talking about things weren’t going right and I saw a moment. I don’t preach to my kids a lot, I’m a preacher, that’s what they’d expect 🙂

What I do is try to use the stuff that we are doing each day to relate our work to the grace of God. Well, we were talking how we needed to love this family, even though they weren’t always easy to deal with.

And I told them, that’s what God does for us. We aren’t always easy to deal with. We don’t do what God wants. We do wrong. And, you know God must get frustrated with us sometimes. You know He just must be tempted to be fed up with us sometimes.  It’s got to happen.

And, how does God respond?  He responds with love.  No matter how frustrated He may be, no matter what we may have done, He responds to us with love.  He loves us, not matter what.

And because we’ve been loved that way, we are called to love one another in that same way. Even when it’s hard. Even when we don’t want to. Even when we are tired. God loves us no matter what; we are called to love each other.

That’s what BaseCamp is teaching these youth, and reminding us adults!

Hard to Do

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I had a professor at Mississippi College, Dr. Harold Bryson, that used to tell his students some thing that has always stuck with me – “Jesus isn’t hard to understand, He’s just hard to follow.”

That came back to me this morning as I read these words from Paul in Romans 13:

8 Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9 The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet”; and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.

Religion can be fun to debate about.  We can passionate conversation (i.e. arguments) about baptism.  Or about communion.  Or about a lot of things within our faith. But, these issues, these conversations, they don’t measure up to the whole of what the faith is about, about what the faith must be producing in our lives.

Love.

We have been loved by an awesome, amazing, holy, righteous, almighty God.  A God is all, before all, and beyond all. A God that is simply amazing, that our minds cannot fathom.

He has given us His son. He has taught us His way. And He wants us to live as He has called us to live.

What is the life?  Perfection?  Nope.  Winning theological arguments?  Nope.  Being better than other folks?  Nope.

Love.  Loving your neighbor as yourself fulfils the law.  That’s it. That’s the list.

That sounds awesome. The only problem is that it is hard. It’s hard to love your neighbor sometimes.  It’s hard to forgive your neighbor sometimes.  It’s easy to talk about, easy to right about, easy to think about.  It’s hard to do sometimes.

We can only do it though God’s grace.  It’s what we are called to do.  It’s what we must do this week. Love.  As we’ve been loved. And we are going to run into someone who we just don’t feel like we can/should love.

What is our response?  Love. That’s the command of Jesus.  Love. But remember that power to love doesn’t come from ourselves, but through Him.

Even when it’s hard to do, through the grace of God, may we love each other as He has loved us.