“And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them.” –Luke 11:46

            Sometimes I find myself getting into ruts. The most common of those is what I eat. To be fair I am kind of a picky eater so that already limits what I eat. For example, in college we had an all you can eat buffet every day and I found myself going to the same sandwich line for lunch and supper most days of the week unless they had chicken strips or an omelet bar. You just couldn’t pass those up. I just got into the habit or rut. To this day, my go to meal if I don’t know what to eat is always a sandwich. For some reason they just never get old. What are some of the ruts or habits that you have gotten into lately? Is it eating the same food for multiple meals in a row?  Is it binge watching Netflix after supper until you go to bed (if so you should watch White Collar, such a good show)? Or maybe the rut or habit is something you or I don’t really recognize.

            I know as someone who is in ministry full time I get in ruts. I do too many bible studies in a row that include movies, or play too many of the same games too often, but I think it is something that we get used to. Another habit that we can find ourselves falling into is teaching or telling people how terrible and sinful they are. Now this may not be intentional but it can be harmful. If we find ourselves continually giving people the law and telling them where they fall short we are just burdening and bogging them down which is not the ministry we are called to. In fact the message of the gospel is quite the opposite. In Matthew 11 Jesus specifically says “my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Christ’s message isn’t that of how horribly sinful we are, it is of how much Christ has loved us to remove our sins from us. The message of forgiveness should be burden lifting, not burden bearing. We, as God’s tools, are used to be a hand up to those who are down and out. So let’s be in the business of digging people out of the holes they find themselves in and not adding to the weight they are under.

QOTD: Are you in the business of weighing people down, or helping people up?

“No man is indispensable. God’s work goes uninterrupted. The instruments are changed but the Master-had is the same, and lays one tool aside and takes another out of the tool-chest as he will.” –Alexander MacLaren

“…but let your “yes” be yes and your “no” be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation.” –James 5:12

            Think of a time when you have been told yes. That might have been to buy a new toy, car, house, or maybe a trip that you were told you could attend. Now think of a time when you were told no. Maybe that was when you wanted to stay at a friend’s house for the night or when you applied for a promotion at work and didn’t get it. How did those situations make you feel? The yes probably made you happy for a little while, and the no probably made you upset for a time as well.

            Now think of a time when you were told yes and then the answer really was no, like when you get offered a job right out of college and then they call back and say that those jobs are no longer available or when you make plans with a friend and then they back out at the last minute because something more important came up. When those things happen you feel like you have been cheated or aren’t very valued as a friend. Maybe you have experienced the opposite when a no really meant yes. When you’ve asked for something and you have been repeatedly told no but they buy it for you anyway or when you beg long enough for something that you end up getting it.

            When yeses are yes and noes are no, life may seem unfair but you learn to understand that people mean what they say. They don’t go changing their mind or giving in to whatever the situation has been. They are honest and keep their word, and as frustrating as that can be, when you look back on the situation you generally notice that the person was trying to do what they thought was best for you and you can’t be stay angry because they were truthful with you. But when people’s yeses and noes get mixed up or are opposite you don’t really know what to think. There is a certain ambiguity to the situation that you are in and you never know what the answer will be until you get there. Honesty and clarity come into question and you begin to wonder if people are really looking out for you or if they are trying to just keep you from things.

            Thankfully with God His yeses are yes and His noes are noes. We don’t have to wonder if He really means it when He says if you believe you will be forgiven, or when He says He rose from the grave, we can know and understand that those things happened. Sometimes however we get another message and that is to wait. It’s not a no and it’s not a yes… yet. It will be one or the other, when He decides the time is right. So be reminded this morning that God is faithful to answering your requests in His time and His way, because He has a history of honesty.

QOTD: What do your yes’ and no’s mean when you say them? Do people believe you?

“Never allow a person to tell you no who doesn't have the power to say yes.” -Eleanor Roosevelt

“I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.”

–Acts 20:24

            So for those of you who know me, you probably have a pretty good idea that I am not a big runner. I don’t find it enjoyable as some do to go out and run until I am tired because that would stop at the end of the driveway. The only time you will see me running is when it is involved in another sport like softball or Frisbee, and even then you will see me puffing and needing a break. A few years ago when my brother was in cross country he and some of his team mates did this race in Des Moines Iowa called Living History Farms. It is about a 7 mile run with some creek crossings and hot stew and food at the finish line.

I had gone to watch him run this race a couple of times and got it in my head that I was going to do it. I wanted to challenge myself to see if I could even accomplish something like that. So the next year both my wife and I signed up and decided that we were going to do it. Well I told you how much I enjoy running so you can imagine how much I trained. That’s right, unless I was playing some sort of intramural at college I don’t think I trained one bit. Anyway, the race starts and it was alright (except for almost getting run over by a deer). Then after the first mile or so I realized what we had gotten into, but we signed up and were going to finish it. I mean there was hot stew waiting for us. There were some times that I wasn’t sure we were going to finish the run and it was one of the most physically taxing things I have ever done but I am glad to say that I did finish. Now I just try to keep the crazy ideas to shorter 5k obstacle races like the Warrior Dash.

I am sure thankful that we have a God who doesn’t get a crazy idea in His head and just goes with it to see what happens. He knows the path that we are going to take through life, our ups and downs, our joys and sorrows, and He knows when our race will come to an end. What He starts, He completes including sending His son Jesus to take our place on the cross. At any point He could have told Jesus to forget it and come home because they aren’t worth it, but He didn’t. He sent Him to the cross so that we could finish our course of faith can end in heaven with Him.

QOTD: What does it mean to you that God finishes what He starts?

“Here is the test to find whether your mission on earth is finished: if you’re alive, it isn’t.”

–Richard Bac

“Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” –John 4:13-14

            What is water? If you think about it enough I am sure that you will be able to come up with an answer for that question. It’s two hydrogen molecules stuck with one oxygen molecule. Cool! But what does that mean? It means that there is a lot to it that I really don’t understand. All I know is that it gets pumped to my sinks, showers, dishwasher, washing machine, and freezer. It is something we can find in lakes and rivers, streams and creeks, oceans and rain. It can be one of the most peaceful things to see, like when a morning on the lake looks like you are boating on glass. Or when you are in certain areas of the world and you swim in it but you can see all the way through to the bottom. Water can also be one of the scariest things you will ever see. If you are out in a boat or on the ocean during a storm with giant swells and water is crashing into your boat. But water is also necessary to life. If you aren’t drinking enough water then you start getting dehydrated and your body starts making mistakes and not working properly.

            For many, water is just something that we need to survive but according to scripture it is also something we need for our spiritual well-being. It is in the process of baptism that we really see this change take place. We see people get reminded that because of what Jesus has done on the cross, we are then washed clean and don’t have to worry about our eternal lives. God uses water to remind us that He is the one who cleans us up and gets rid of our sins so that we can be with Him. When we drink from His water we will never become thirsty or tired. Now that’s my kind of water!

QOTD: How important is water to our everyday lives? How important is water to our spiritual lives?

“Water is the driving force of all nature” –Leonardo da Vinci

“Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” –John 3:1-2

            I find this story of Nicodemus very interesting. Nicodemus was a guy who was well educated in the Old Testament, was called a teacher of Israel, and was pretty well off when it came to money and power at that time. This is a man who knew the prophesies of the Old Testament and was waiting along with everyone else for them to be fulfilled. So when Jesus showed up on the scene he was very interested to see if this man really was the fulfillment of what he had been reading and teaching about for many years. The thing that gets me is that he is afraid to talk to Jesus during the day time. Now I know that Jesus and His disciples weren’t always the most well-liked by the other leaders of the church because they were proclaiming a message of grace when everyone had grown up with the message of the law. But why would a leader of the church go at night to see Jesus?

            Here’s my thought and I think that others would agree with me. I think Nicodemus was afraid to express his faith in Jesus, and maybe wasn’t confident in what he actually believed yet. I think he was afraid of going and asking Jesus questions during the day because he didn’t want his fellow church leaders to see his questions and get suspicious about whether or not he was going behind their backs or against their teachings. And I am sure that this situation isn’t only applicable for Nicodemus but for many people today here in the US and around the world. They have questions about their faith but are too afraid to ask them because they don’t want family members in their lives getting angry at their questions or they aren’t sure enough in their faith to let others see that they think what Jesus has to offer can really make a difference in their lives. Whatever the case may be, let’s do our best to encourage and support those who are “night time” Christians so that they can become the “light time” message of Christ for others.

QOTD: Does your faith look like that of Nicodemus? What or who are you hiding it from? How can you help support someone today who does have a beginning faith like Nicodemus in this account?

“It is a common experience that a problem difficult at night is resolved in the morning after the committee of sleep has worked on it.” –John Steinbeck 

“He must increase, but I must decrease.” –John 3:30

            When you think about the world today what is everyone’s main goal? That would depend on which age group you are looking at right? If you are looking at the younger generation, they tend to want as many followers on Instagram or Twitter. When you look at the middle generation it is all about climbing the corporate ladder. How can they take that next step in their job or company to get a pay raise or gain a title. Then when you get to retirement and old age it is all about leaving a legacy that you can be remembered by. What do all of these things have in common? They are all about “me”. They are all focused on increasing our visibility or influence on the people around us. They are all about seeing where we can benefit the most and become the most popular. But was that the mission of Jesus? Was He all about going from town to town tooting His own horn and showing people the crazy awesome things He could do?

            No! Jesus was about the mission of showing His Father’s love to all of those around Him. He wasn’t worried about others seeing how great He was or how many followers He had. In fact, He would go to places that others wouldn’t, and visit people who others thought were disgusting or horrible. He would eat meals with those who were the least liked and the most ignored. He wasn’t worried about what His influence was because He knew that He had come with a purpose: To show the world God’s redemption story. He was decreasing to show His Father’s increase.

QOTD: How can you decrease today to show your Heavenly Father’s redemption story to the world?

“You cannot communicate complicated information to large groups of people. As you increase the number of people, you have to decrease the complexity of the information.” –Andy Stanley

“In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there. And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables… “Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.”” –John 2:14-16

            As I reread John chapter 2, since that is my focus for the week, I am noticing something that I have never really paid attention to before in my readings. Jesus’ human nature. I know that I have been taught and have talked about the two natures of Christ, His Godly nature and human nature, but it has never been quite as apparent before as it has recently.

            Human nature in general, is on display all throughout the bible. We read stories about people who are disappointed because they are asked to go sell all of their things and give the money to the poor. We see people who lie because they want to keep some profit of the sale for themselves and then pay the ultimate consequence. We see disciples spend years with Jesus listening to Him teach and still walk away from those lessons and miss the point completely. I can’t help but relate with Peter so often because he tries his best to understand and follow Christ but always falls short somewhere. But yesterday Jesus’ human relationship with His mother really stuck out to me. How unmistakably human His response was to her request to come up with more wine. And today, it is Jesus’ outburst of passionate anger toward the people who were in the temple making it more of a farmers market rather than a place of sacrifice and worship.

            I don’t know about you, but sometimes it takes someone getting upset with me for me to realize that I was messing up. And I think that was the case for the people in the temple that day, as well as it being a lesson to the disciples. I want to be clear that Jesus’ anger or outburst was not sinful. Anger in itself is not a sin. It is a very powerful emotion that can sometimes cause us to do sinful things. I believe that it was a display that has a double meaning for us. The first is this: Jesus’ display of anger was a reminder of how God is a jealous God and wants nothing more than our faith to be completely found in Him. It is a reminder of how our God wants an exclusive relationship with each and every one of us so that He can show us the depths of His great love for us. The second meaning is this: It shows Jesus as 100 percent human. He sees that the temple of His Father’s house is being treated in a disrespectful manner and that He is not alright with that. It shows that He is passionate about people having a right relationship with Him, and sometimes we need a very powerful reminder of that.

QOTD: How does Jesus’ display of passionate anger actually show His desire to repair our broken world?

“Sometimes, you have to get angry to get things done.” –Ang Lee

“And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”” –John 2:4-5

            For the next few months our congregation will be reading through the book of John. So I intend to do the same. If you are interested in reading along with us it will be 1 chapter a week up until Holy Week. This week’s chapter is John 2. It is truly amazing what you can find in one chapter of the bible. You can find insights into the culture, ceremonies, and practices of that time. And you can also see the development of relationships between God and His people, His people and their neighbors, and between Jesus and everyone He interacts with. Today in my reading I was drawn to the relationship between Jesus and His mother during a wedding in Cana.

            Now I don’t know how your relationship with your parents are but I can definitely see Jesus’ reaction to Mary’s momness coming through. They were at a wedding in the land of Cana and the host family has run out of wine. This is a big deal to the people of that time because that was one of their main drinks especially at celebratory events. Mary takes matters into her own hands and goes to find Jesus. Jesus is there with His disciples when Mary comes over and says to Him “They have no wine.” He then responds with the question “What does this have to do with me?” That seems like a response that any child would respond with. It appears to me like Jesus is politely saying “So What?” That is when Mary ignores His response, because she knows that Jesus is the Son of God and can do anything, and tells the servants to follow His directions. He then follows the instructions of His mother and gives the servants directions, which in turn leads to one of, if not the first of, Jesus’ miracles.

            This act by Mary proves to me that she knows and understands that Jesus is her son, but is also the Son of God. She has faith that He can accomplish the task set ahead of Him whether put there by her or by His heavenly Father. And it ultimately shows one of the ways that Jesus proves Himself as God. I hope that your journey through John will show you some of the many ways Jesus is God.

Question of the day: Why do you think Mary ignored what Jesus said and told the servants to do whatever Jesus told them to?

“At the end of the day, the most overwhelming key to a child’s success is the positive involvement of parents.” –Jane D. Hull

“For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.” –Titus 2:11-14

                                                 

I love the Christmas season. I am actually a little sad that it is over because it brings me so much joy. But one of the things that I am not good at over that same season is self-control, especially when it comes to food. I, along with many other people, tend to walk by every snack tray and snag some little goody. I just can’t help myself. So many different people make so many little treats that I look forward to that I stop on every pass by. I mean who can pass up fudge, cookies, brownies, Reese’s cups, and buckeyes just to name a few. I wish I could remember before the season starts how I feel after the season and I see the pounds that I have put on. It’s a bummer. In fact, sitting here thinking about all of those treats makes me want to go eat more of them but also go for a 100 mile run. It’s this common dilemma of knowing and doing.

The same thing applies to our lives. Sometimes the world can be so appetizing or appealing that we find ourselves going back for more and more. No matter what it is we find ourselves knowing that we shouldn’t and still diving back in because we enjoy it so much. That is one of the reasons that God sent Christ to the cross. He sent His son to the world to bring salvation for all people and the reminder for us to be self-controlled people. To take a minute to think about what we are doing before we do it instead of regretting it afterwards. God graced us with His presence to redeem us from our struggles and temptations so that we could share His saving message with the world!

Question of the day: Why is living a self-controlled life so difficult?

“When you give yourself, you receive more than you give.” –Antoine De Saint-Exupery

“Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother. I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself, but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean.”

 –Romans 14:13-14

            I was talking to a friend yesterday and he reminded me of something that I hope to never do, although it is inevitable at some point in my ministry. He reminded me to never be that guy who tells other people, believers and non-believers, how to live their lives or to point out how they are living their lives in sin. If I have ever done that I apologize, that is never my intent. It does however make me think on how I am presenting the message of Christ to others. Am I presenting Christ in a way that shows His true nature, the gospel, or am I presenting His message in a way that makes others see only the law?

It is so easy for Christians, myself included, to start “shoulding” on themselves and others. We learn and see what God wants for our lives and because we believe it, we think that everyone around us needs to know the information that we have just learned or found out. We start telling people that they “should” act in a certain way or that they “should” stop doing this or that. We forget that people are at different stages of their journey than we are. And when those people are trying to understand what Christianity is all about or are new Christians our “shoulding” could be the difference between their growth and engagement, and turning them away from Christ. I pray that I am not a stumbling block to anyone’s faith around me, and hope that when I am a stumbling block, that stumbling block will turn into a stepping stone for me to learn from my mistake.

Question of the day: How are you presenting Christ’s message to others?

“A stepping stone can be a stumbling block if we can’t see it until after we have tripped over it.”

–Cullen Hightower

“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.” –Jeremiah 29:11-13

Go back with me to a place that is in your past. It is either a place you enjoyed or didn’t care for. It might have been recent or it might have been a long time ago. Do you know what place I am talking about yet? High School. Now why go back to high school you ask. Well, it’s because I want to drag up horrible memories and make you ponder every decision you have ever made. Okay, just kidding, but I do want to talk about some of those classes that you had to take that didn’t seem very beneficial to you. What classes did you take that just seemed pointless? Not just the fun pointless like bowling or lifetime wellness, but the classes that had nothing to do with the job that you wanted to pursue.

            For me that was my higher level science and math classes. I didn’t mind taking them because the topics were pretty interesting but I did always find myself asking “What good is this class for me? When will I ever use this again?” And other than a few wins and losses in Trivia Crack® that knowledge hasn’t really come in handy to this point in my life. It’s just that church work doesn’t take an exact science with formula’s and chemical tables, although that would make for one pretty awesome children’s message. It also doesn’t have a lot to do with trigonometry either. There are no mathematical cosigns or tangents that are dealt with on a daily basis. It just doesn’t happen and I’m sure that some of you have the same problem with other classes that you have taken in comparison to your jobs.

            In the same vain, I want to ask you another question. Where do you find your purpose in life? Why are you on this planet and what are you doing with your time here? I think that this is a question that plagues society as a whole today. People are living lives but don’t see a purpose in what they are doing. Others find their purpose in climbing the success ladder, or being put in charge of the big project at work. Most of which is for the purpose of improving or growing self.

            For those of you who are Christians and those of you seeking a purpose in your life I’ve got good news. The purpose and plan for your life have already been laid out for you. You just have to realize what they are. My devotion with my wife last night helped me to see it in a much clearer way. I will paraphrase author Chris Tiegreen when I say this but, the purpose of our lives is share Christ’s story and resurrection with others so that they can come to know the great news and saving power of Christ. That’s it and the best part is that it doesn’t require us to be missionaries or go to the lost jungles of whoknowswhere. You are put in the place you are in right now to be that messenger of Christ to the people you come in contact on a daily and weekly basis. There’s nothing fancy about it. So use where and who you are to spread what and who Christ is!

Question of the day: What/who are you living for? 

“Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.” –John F Kennedy