Tag Archives: Jesus

Is God Love? Is God Holy? Yes

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I was listening to a podcast the other day by Tim Keller, one of my favorite preachers to listen to. He was talking about the ways that the devil will get at us. He said the devil will use one of two lies against us.

One is accusation. He will accuse us of our sins, and get us to think that we are a failure. In this mode of attack, the devil hides God’s love from us. He wants us to focus only on God’s holiness and forget that He loves us. He hides God’s love from us.

The other is temptation. In this, the devil will tempt us into sin, and he will hide God’s holiness from us. He will make us think that forgiveness is nothing, not a big deal. He will make us forget the great price that our forgiveness cost – the death on the cross of God’s own son.

Love. And Holiness. Both are part of who God is. And both need to be remembered. And treated with balance and respect.

The devil will try to hide one or the other from us, based upon our weakness and our faults. From some of us he will try to hide God’s love. From other’s God’s holiness.

It’s not either/or. It’s both/and. God is not love or holy. He’s love and holy.

Look at the John 8:7-11 today:

And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”

He forgives. He offers grace and mercy. And then He says, go and sin no more.

And today, all of us are somewhere in this. Maybe today, the devil is making you feel like you are worthless and you can’t be forgiven. You can be. You are. You forgiven and you are loved.

Don’t forget.

Maybe today, you are thinking that your sins aren’t a big deal. Forgiveness is nothing. Nothing to it.

Never forget the price that Jesus paid to redeem you. Yes you are forgiven. But never forget the cost.

The devil will to hide one from you today. Which is it for you?

Don’t forget, you can click here to download Asbury’s mobile app and read these devotionals, as well as listen to my sermons on your smart phones.

When Trouble Comes

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When trouble comes, what is your life built upon?

Not if trouble comes. But when. We all wish that life was always perfect and easy and calm and fun.

And for many times in life, it is. There are always joyful times. Many, many moments in life are amazingly awesome. Times of great fun, times of laughter and joy.

These fun memories that shape our soul and stir us up. Those are the good times.

But, scripture makes us a promise. There will be times of trial.

The 23rd Psalm tells us “when I walk the valley of the shadow of death. . . ”

And today, in Luke 6: 47-49, listen to what Jesus tells us:

Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like: he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.”

When the flood arose. When waters come.

When trouble comes. What will we do.

Well, we quoted part of the 23rd Psalm, but we all know the rest. When we walk through the valley, we will fear no evil. For thou art with us. Even in the valley of the shadow, we don’t have to fear evil.

For God is with us.

And when the flood waters come. When the rain and the wind and the storms comes, if our lives are built on the rock of Christ Jesus, we will be ok. For He is the firm foundation. He is the rock. He is the life. He is the cornerstone.

We don’t have to fear the flood or the storm. We don’t have to fear the future. We don’t have to fear the unknown.

For, if our life is build on the rock of Christ Jesus, when trouble comes, we will be ok.

Trust in Him today. And He will take care of us. May we trust in Him in all of our lives, and with all of our lives.

Don’t forget, you can click here to download Asbury’s mobile app and read these devotionals, as well as listen to my sermons on your smart phones.

The Hardest Person to Forgive

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Forgiveness is a hard thing. It really is. I once read that forgiveness is not a sign of weakness, but of strength. Only the strong can forgive.

It can be very hard for us to forgive others. They may have wronged us badly. We struggle mightily with sometimes. And, we all understand.

We must, through, learn to forgive. I tell folks the quote that I’ve heard. Unforgiveness is me drinking a poison, and expecting it to kill you.

Our lack of forgiveness only harms us.

And I think we all know that. Even if it’s hard.

Others are often not the hardest to forgive. Sometimes, the hardest person to forgive is ourselves.

We can forgive others. It’s really, really, really tough to move past our failures sometimes. Sometimes we think we have done too much.

Gone too far.

Failed too loudly.

Surely there is grace for you. But, not for me.

We all think that. Listen to what 1 John 2:1-2 says:

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

We have an advocate. Jesus. He is the forgiveness for our sins He paid the price. He paid the ransom. He has done it.

We are forgiven. We are.

Listen. It’s not just we.

You.

(Insert Your Name Here) is forgiven. You are. Jesus Christ has purchased your freedom and forgiveness.

You are loved. You are forgiven. Today.

Today, may we live like the loved, forgiven children that we are!

Don’t forget, you can click here to download Asbury’s mobile app and read these devotionals, as well as listen to my sermons on your smart phones.

Greatness

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The world has an image of what greatness looks like. In the world, greatness is about power. It is about might. It is about being in control and being about the tell others what to do, and how to do it.

Because after all, you’re the boss. You have the strength. You have the power to bend others to your will.

Might makes right, after all.

That’s what the world tell us. That’s what the culture tells us. To be great, means to be in control. To have others do what you want. To be a the top of the food chain.

As Christians, through, what does it mean for us to be great? What does greatness look like for us?

I mean, I don’t know about you, but I want to be great. I want to do the very best that I can do. I don’t want to waste a moment of this day that God has given me, and I want to be the absolute greatest that I can be today!

So, what does that look like? Listen to what Jesus says today in Matthew 20:25-28:

But Jesus called them to him and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

He says to be great in the kingdom, you must serve. You must place others ahead of yourself. You must place them before yourself.

In the world, leaders have power that they exercise over their followers. He said is not so among us. We must serve. We must humble ourselves. We must place them before ourselves.

That’s the example that He showed us. Jesus didn’t come to be served, but to serve. He is the very nature and power of God, He sat at God’s right hand, and yet humbled Himself and came to earth to serve us and set us free.

And because of that, God has glorified Him and made Him Lord of all.

So, for us, we find that if live only for our “stuff” or our greatness, we find that we aren’t really living. We feel empty and without purpose. We may have what we want, power, fame, success, but it feels empty.

When we live for others, we find life. We find greatness. We find our purpose.

Today, don’t live for yourself. Live for God. Live for others. Live to serve and glorify God.

And in doing that, you will find the greatness you were made for.

Don’t forget, you can click here to download Asbury’s mobile app and read these devotionals, as well as listen to my sermons on your smart phones.

You Ask Me How I Know He Lives

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One of the old songs that many of us grew up singing asks this question about Jesus: “You ask me how I know He lives? He lives within my heart.”

Some folks really stress, worry and strain about faith. How can we believe? How can we know? How can we trust in a God that we can’t see? How can we put our faith in that?

Jesus, in John 5:36, deals with this. He talks about witnesses and testimonies. He talks about how folks can trust what He is saying and trust who He is. He tells how we can trust Him and trust His work. Listen to what He says.

“But the testimony that I have is greater than that of John. For the works that the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I am doing, bear witness about me that the Father has sent me.”

He says my works give witness to me. My works give witness to the fact that I am who I say that I am. My works point to the truth of my proclamation.

Jesus’ works prove that He is Lord.

What works, you may be asking. Well, of course we have the works of scripture. We have what we see there, what we read there, what we know there.

But, we also have the works of His body – the church. The church that loves, that serves, that glorifies Christ, that points to Him, that lives for Him, that worships Him. The church that seeks to love and serve others as Jesus would have us to love and serve. The lives of millions of individual Christians that make up His body give witness.

But it isn’t just that. Think of a time in your life when you felt Him move, when you experienced Him, when you knew Him in a powerful, life-changing way. Think of the times when you loved, served, and cared. Didn’t you feel alive? Didn’t you feel more alive at that moment than in any other time in your life?

That’s the witness of His spirit showing you, pointing to you, calling to you that He is who He says He is.

That’s His witness.

You ask me how I know He lives? He lives within my heart.

May we all feel that witness today in our hearts!

Don’t forget, you can click here to download Asbury’s mobile app and read these devotionals, as well as listen to my sermons on your smart phones.

The One Thing We Have to Agree On

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I am convinced of lots of things in my life. Some important. Some, not so much.

One of the things that I am convinced of is that while we all may be part of different churches we are all part of the same “church.” The body of Christ. The body of Christ is made up all believers in Jesus Christ, no matter what local congregation or denomination we may be part of.

The body of Christ is made of all those that call upon His name and wish to see Him glorified and lifted up, no matter what tradition or tribe they may be part of. That tribe may be Baptist, or Methodist, or Pentecostal, or Catholic, or any dozens of other groups that we are part of.

Through Jesus Christ, we are all one.

That’s how He sees us.

And, I’m convinced that’s how the world sees us too. The world doesn’t seen us in all of our different traditions and denominations, it see us all as “Christian.” We are all a mass of “Christians” no matter what group we are part of.

So, when we as Christians nuke each other and throw bombs at each other, what does it say to a dying world? If we can’t get along and work together and be the church, then what hope is there?

Listen to what Paul says today in Romans 16 17-18:

I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them. For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive.

Watch out for divisions today. Watch out for those things that separate us today. This is not to say that we all agree on everything. We don’t. We all have real differences. Real things that separate us.

And you know that’s ok. We don’t have to agree on everything. In fact, there’s only one thing that we do have to agree on.

Jesus.

As one of my heroes said – if your heart has been warmed as my heart has, then brother give me your hard.

We are all on the same team. We have much more in common than that separates us! We serve the same God. Let’s work for the same purpose. God is good. He is worthy of our praise.

May we all as Christians work together for His purpose!

Don’t forget, you can click here to download Asbury’s mobile app and read these devotionals, as well as listen to my sermons on your smart phones

Loving Other Folks is Hard

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There are things that other people do that drive me crazy. It’s one of my running jokes at Asbury that I just don’t have patience for being stuck behind traffic on Hwy 42.

I’m not saying that if I had a laser mounted on the hood of my car that I would blow everyone up. I’m not saying that.

But I would be tempted! 🙂

We all in our lives have something about someone who drives us crazy. Each of us. That something may be something a spouse does. It may be something a coworker does. it may be something that a family member does.

But there’s something that someone does that just drives us up the wall.

Listen to what Paul says here in Romans 15:1-3:

We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. For Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.”

Now your thinking, Andy, what does this have to do with those people who annoy you?

Good question. Paul says those that are strong have an obligation to bear the failings (weaknesses) of others. Please your neighbor. Build them up.

In other words, we don’t just live for ourselves. We live for the gospel and for the kingdom, we live to help others know God and experience His life.

And the more that you stir and stew about the thing that drive you crazy about that other person, the more angry and crazy you are going to be.

Look at what Paul says in verse 3 – Jesus did not please Himself. He didn’t live for Himself. He lived for us and so that we could be drawn closer to Him.

Why should I love folks that drive me crazy? Why should I look past their faults and weakness?

Loving other folks is hard! I’m not sure that I want to do it! Why should I care about them, when frankly they probably don’t deserve it?

Because Jesus did that exact same thing for me. He loved me when I was unloveable. He cared for me when I wasn’t worth caring for.

And He wants me (and you) to do the same thing for “them” no matter who they are and what they “do.”

He lived for others. We find only find our life when we stop living for ourselves, and live for Him.

Today, may we live for something bigger than ourselves.

Don’t forget, you can click here to download Asbury’s mobile app and read these devotionals, as well as listen to my sermons on your smart phones.

It’s Worth It

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Sometimes, being a Christian is very hard. Jesus never promised us a rose garden. He promised in fact, just the opposite. He said that there would be tough times. He said that there would be trails. He said that we would face tests and worries and strife.

He never said that it would be easy.

He never promised us that.

We see today, though, what he does promise us.  Listen to Luke 18:28-30:

And Peter said, “See, we have left our homes and followed you.” And he said to them, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who will not receive many times more in this time, and in the age to come eternal life.”

The disciples say – we’ve left everything to follow you. It’s cost us everything. Sometimes, following Jesus may cost us something. It could cost us friends. It could cost us status. We could be mocked. We could be laughed at. We could become the butt of jokes.

Yeah, it could happen. And, to speak the truth, it probably will happen. After I became a Christian, I lost some friends. It’s tough.

Then, why? Why do it? Why should we endure this?

Because it’s worth it. Listen to what He says. To those that have given up such things, there is a reward in heaven.

God sees what you are going through. He sees your challenges. He sees your hurts. He sees your tears.

He honors it. And trust me. It is worth it. There is a something better coming. There is a home better than this home. There is a land where there are no more tears, hurt, and pain. There is a better place, our true home. Our home where we actually made for.

I though of this quote by CS Lewis today – “If you read history you will find that the Christians who did the most for the present world were precisely those who thought the most of the next. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this.”

The pain of this life does not compare with the joy of the next. There is something better coming.

It’s worth it. Be faithful. In the face of scorn, mockery, and hatred, love. Care. Forgive. It’s hard, yet.

But it’s worth it.

Something better is coming.

Don’t forget, you can click here to download Asbury’s mobile app and read these devotionals, as well as listen to my sermons on your smart phones.

Lord Make Us One?

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We live in a world of differences. We all have our side. Sports, politics, music, hobbies, churches, we all have different likes and dislikes, different things that really are significant, but that separate us.

And we live in an age we are told and encouraged to put our differences aside and work together.

And you know what? That’s hard. It’s hard to be one. It’s hard to be united. It’s hard to be on the same page.

Even with someone you like. It’s hard to always agree and work together.

And so, when the church and when our faith calls us to be one, the question is how?

Lord, make us one. How?

Listen to what Paul says this morning in Ephesians 2:16-19:

and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,

Paul says that we are reconciled into one body, through the cross and through Jesus. Through Him, we are no longer strangers, through Him, we are fellow citizens, through Him, we have the same father.

Through Him. Through Jesus. Through ourselves, we will tear each other apart. We will fuss and fight. We will find our problems, and find the things that we disagree on and that separate us.

When we focus on ourselves, we find division. When we focus on Jesus, we find unity. He is our unity. He is our peace. He is our hope. He is our life.

When we place the focus on ourselves, our stuff, and our opinions, we will find and have more division.

When we take our eyes off ourselves, and put them on Jesus, His life, death, and resurrection, we find unity, hope and peace.

Lord, today, please make us one. Let us each focus on Jesus with all that we are. And in that, we can find that unity.

Don’t forget, you can click here to download Asbury’s mobile app and read these devotionals, as well as listen to my sermons on your smart phones.

Today, You are Forgiven

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I read a Max Lucado quote a million years ago that I think of quite often. He said “The reason God hates sin so much is because of what it does to His children. It destroys them.” The longer I live the more I find that to be true. Sin destroy us. John 10:10 tells us that the thief (the devil) comes to rob, to kill, and to destroy.

That is what sin does in the big picture. It’s also what it does in our own lives. When we sin, when we do something stupid, when we fall, what happens, at least in my life, is this.

I run from God. I’m ashamed. I’m embarrassed. I feel like I’ve failed. And I want to hide from God.

That’s what sin does. It separates us from God.

So, today, listen to what we read in Hebrews 4:14-16:

Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

We have a high priest, Jesus, who has been tested as are, and yet remained sinless. He became the perfect sacrifice for us. He atoned for us. He did for us what we could not do for ourselves.

He allows us to go home. He allows us to stop running. He allows us to have peace.

He lets us know the fullness of God’s mercy, forgiveness, and grace.

Today, you are forgiven. Today, you can come home. Today, you can start over. Today, you can draw near. Today, you are new.

Not because of anything you’ve done, or haven’t done. But totally because of what He has done for us through Jesus.

Today, you are forgiven. May we each draw close to our God today!

Don’t forget, you can click here to download Asbury’s mobile app and read these devotionals, as well as listen to my sermons on your smart phones.