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(Romans 8:31)
My best friend recently reminded me that I used to be a "red letter" Christian, one who exclusively accepts the words of Jesus as valid for my life and spiritual health. I particularly had a problem with that little dynamo Paul, finding his writings strident, didactic and suffocating. He reminded me of many of the moralists and pulpit-thumpers around at the time, people who never had any fun (at least in front of anybody else), and wanted to make darn sure nobody else did either.
Strange how our attitudes change. Years later, I find myself going over and over Paul's letters and instead of finding them oppressive, they have become exhilarating and full of hope. This was a remarkable, courageous and driven man, beset by the same human weaknesses and failings common to all of us, yet possessing an unshakable resolve to overcome them. His letter to the Romans remains my favorite of the epistles, with chapter eight being (at least in my mind) one of the most hopeful and encouraging pieces of prose ever penned.
At the end of this chapter, Paul poses a series of (seemingly) rhetorical questions to the Roman church, and to us. Today we are looking at the first one: If God be for us, who can be against us?
If you look at this question in the context of Paul's life, it seems a little bit disingenuous, or at least terribly naive. Paul got beaten up, stoned and generally harassed in almost every place he ever went. He had thousands of people against him from day one of his ministry. Jesus in fact told him (and us) to expect this ill treatment. Just looking at my own life, I've had plenty of people who would certainly qualify as being against me. You can probably come up with a handful yourself. One particularly nasty guy became your sworn enemy for eternity the very instant you accepted Christ as your Savior. He is definitely against us. Does this mean then that God is not for us? No, it just means we're missing something.
I'm not attempting to point out any error in this text, but there is something implied here that may not be immediately evident. Obviously Paul could not be saying that we will never have anyone against us. His own experience proves this. What he is saying is this: If God be for us, who can be successful against us?
To that question, the answer is a resounding NO ONE!
I find that more than a little encouraging, maybe even more than a complete absence of enemies, because facing and overcoming adversity strengthens us. Although it's never pleasant, we need it (Judges 3:1-2). But if we trust in God, we can be assured that we will ultimately win.
Jesus is the most obvious proof of this truth. We know that God was certainly for Him, yet He had an awful lot of people against Him. Satan probably never marshaled so many of his forces against any one person. The cheers must have echoed through all Hell when they finally saw Him nailed to the Cross. Hats were in the air when they saw Him put into the tomb and the stone rolled across the door. They had Him right where they wanted Him. The party came to an abrupt halt, however, when Jesus walked in and took the keys to Hell and the Grave right out of Satan's hand. It was over. Victory was complete. Christ's and ours. And if Satan can no longer be successful against us, just who in Hell should we be worried about?
When they take on you, they take on God, too.
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(Hosea 4:6)
Believe it or not, we are responsible for what we know. Our government, from the time we're five or six years old until we're young adults, provides us with free education, but whether we benefit from this opportunity rests largely on us. We can study, work hard and show up for class or we can goof off, fail our exams and skip school when the surf's up. No one is going to put a gun to your head and make you learn anything.
Most of us realize this fairly soon and make some effort to escape highschool with grades that will enable us to move on to a good higher education in college. This is rarely because we're ravenous for knowledge. By this time we've pretty much figured out that money is useful and big piles of it are even better. The most failsafe way to be guaranteed of accumulating the green stuff is to get some kind of degree. This is merely a piece of paper that proclaims you to be someone that knows how to do something someone should pay you to do. If it's an impressive degree from an impressive school, it tells them they will need to cough up some major bucks. If it's a profession like lawyer, doctor or Rose Bowl MVP running back you can give them the dry heaves.
But that's alright. Knowledge is worth something and should be rewarded. A person that can open up your head and repair your brain wasn't born with that knowledge. They worked and studied for years. While other kids were seeing how many beers they could chug without throwing up they were doing things that would make you even queasier. Now they can fix your head and still shoot in the low 70s. A lawyer makes a lot of money but if it keeps the client out of jail how much is too much? They're paid for what they know. And if they fail at that there's always politics. And that rookie running back that nobody in Nikes can catch, how much is his specialized knowledge of defenses, blitzes and play action worth if it makes the whole darn city happy for the first time in years?
But what about those people who never study, never gain any knowledge of anything useful, never learn anything that allows them to be productive? What happens to them? Well, a good portion of them end up unhappy, unfulfilled, broke and defeated. Our prisons are full of them, so full in fact that we can't build them fast enough to house them all. These are lives destroyed for lack of knowledge.
The same applies to our understanding of the Word of God. We aren't born understanding it. It has to be studied. You can't rely on someone else to study it for you and be successful in you application of it any more than you can let someone else go to med school for you and be a successful neurosurgeon. And yet this is what we do. We go to church, Bible under our arm, let the pastor read to us, go home and put it on the table until next Sunday. Who knows if he's accurately interpreting the Word? Who cares? He's a nice guy.
You should care. It's your salvation. God holds you responsible for what you know.
A good career is important. Education is vital. But what percentage of the time we've spent studying to accomplish these goals have we put into understanding the Word of God? Do we have enough knowledge to wield this Sword or just enough to be a danger to ourselves and anybody within swinging distance?
There are real rewards for knowledge, and this goes for knowledge of the Word, too. There are also real penalties for lack of it. But the good news is it's never too late to start studying. Even in prison.
What you don't know can kill you.
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(Matthew 28:17)
Happy Easter regular readers and supporters of this ministry and also to those of you who just surfed in and have absolutely no idea what you're doing here. Today, Resurrection Sunday, is the most important day of the year for those who are called by the name of Christ. It's the reason we can be who we're supposed to be. It's the power behind our faith and the cause for our hope. It's the very best of the Good News.
Of course if you doubt the bodily resurrection of Jesus, these blessings, this empowerment and this hope will be greatly diminished. Notice that in today's verse that even some of the disciples, though they were standing face to face with the risen Christ and worshiping Him, were still doubting. This was only a temporary attitude, however, as they moved forward with the what theologians have termed the Great Commission and spread the gospel throughout the world. Today we need to remove any doubt from our minds that this event was a real, historical occurrence so we can get on with it, too.
Let me tell you one of my least favorite phrases in modern Christianese: Blind Faith. Nothing I personally believe has anything to do with blindness, with the exception of Paul's 3-day bout with it. I base my convictions on what I consider to be solid evidence: the Word of God, personal experience, and eyewitness testimony. In the case of the Resurrection, we have enough ammo to blast any remaining doubts out of the sky.
Let's start with the eyewitnesses. The disciples had more to go on than just Mary's exciting story of an angel appearing at the tomb and the announcement, "He is risen." She saw Jesus and spoke with Him. So did the disciples. In 1 Corinthians Jesus appears to 500 people. He makes Himself known to Paul even less subtly on the road to Damascus. The Lord didn't want these men and women acting on blind faith; He wanted them to know without a doubt that He was alive.
Still, we weren't there. So how do we know this really happened? Well, for one thing we have the Word of God that tells us it did (which should be enough really). But regardless of our complete confidence in this big, black book, systematic and objective research is almost daily revealing the Bible to be a profoundly accurate historical record. But we have more. We can clearly see that something real, powerful, and life-changing happened in the lives of these people who claimed to have seen Jesus risen from the dead. Peter, for example, was changed from a lying, cringing coward into a man who would risk his life, and eventually give it, for this risen Messiah, as would the rest of Jesus' disciples. Paul went from persecuting the Way to promoting it, also at the cost of his life. And remember, these people faced not lethal injection, but horrible, gruesome, prolonged and painful deaths. None of them recanted their story of meeting the resurrected Christ. They died for it, something people never do to perpetuate a hoax.
However, the best proof of this most amazing day in the history of the world is you. If you are born again, you just know. You know you aren't the same person. Yes, you still make mistakes. No, you're not perfect, but there is a change. It's real, affecting everything you do, even your thoughts. You see it in the lives of other people who have undergone this same transformation. They're different, sometimes changed so dramatically that they're almost unrecognizable. There's something real at work here. That is the power of the Resurrection.
Paul sums up the importance of the reality of the Resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15: And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty (1 Cor. 15:14). And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! (1 Cor. 15:17). Which would make us of all men the most pitiable (1 Cor. 15:19).
But Christ is indeed risen. Our faith is not futile, but powerful, grounded in reality. And the most convincing proof of this will never be the tomb He left empty but the hearts that He filled.
Empty tomb, full heart.
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(Joshua 6:25a)
We don't know much about Rahab, but here's what we do know: she was a prostitute. There is some speculation that she might have been a priestess in the Canaanite religion, which would have made her an officially sanctioned and recognized prostitute, but still a prostitute by our standards.
We also know that she, like all the people of Jericho in particular and that whole region in general, had heard of the amazing things God had done for the Hebrews. She had heard how God brought them out of Egypt by drying up the Red Sea. She had heard of the defeat of the Amorite kings Og and Sihon and the destruction of over sixty fortified cities. They all had. Bad news travels fast. But for some reason Rahab alone of all the people in Jericho turned to God.
It's at this time that Joshua sends a couple spies to case the town. They must not have been real pros because their presence is immediately known and reported to the king. True to form, God directs the spies to Rahab, the only person in the whole city who would be willing help them. She does, but she makes them promise to spare her and her family when the destruction she has foreseen comes.
Well, you know what happened to Jericho. You probably even know the song. As Jericho lays in a smoldering heap, Joshua gives orders to bring Rahab, her father, mother, brothers and all her relatives, as well as their possessions to safety. Which brings us to our verse for the day: And Joshua spared Rahab the harlot, her father's household, and all that she had.
As I read this verse, the word household caught my attention. I turned to Acts 16:37 and read: Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household. Just like Rahab 1,400 years earlier, another undesirable, a Roman prison warden, is promised salvation, not just for himself, but for his whole, even extended, family. This becomes even more interesting when you realize that the name Joshua is the Hebrew version of the Greek Jesus. Rahab experienced a foretaste of what Jesus Christ would eventually bring us: a faith so powerful it can pull whole families right out of certain destruction. Remember that when you are worrying about yours.
There's one other thing we know about Rahab, besides her former profession. She becomes the great, great grandmother of King David (Matthew 1:5). That makes it a particularly good thing that she wasn't buried under the rubble of Jericho, because we all know who came to us through the lineage of David: Jesus.
This should give us all hope for days. First of all, we should realize by now that God is, and always has been, in control. Things aren't just happening. Second, He wants to save your whole family. Third, if He can graft a heathen cult prostitute onto the family tree of Jesus Christ, just who can't He use?
Bring the whole family.
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(I Thessalonians 5:18)
I don't really know why I was prompted to write this particular message about thankfulness today. I haven't had anything particularly earthshaking happen lately and am still waiting for certain prayers to be answered that would definitely put me in a more thankful mood. And maybe that's the reason afterall. Thankfulness isn't a mood. It does not depend on situations. It should be a permanent attitude, regardless of conditions around us.
This may be no problem for you, but I must say that I'm not always very good at this. Yet as we can see in today's verse from Paul's first letter to the Thessalonians this admonishment to give thanks in everything is not a mere suggestion. It is a command. In fact, Paul rarely said, "Hey, here's something you might try sometime. It might work, it might not. I dunno." Nope, he excelled at being bossy, and coming from an upper management position in his previous employment (terrorizing the Church), he was quite comfortable at laying down policy and expecting it to be followed (exactly). This is probably one of the reasons Jesus picked him to kick-start our Faith. Good thing, too. And in fairness to Paul, let's remember that he was even tougher on himself.
Back to today's verse. Realize that we are to give thanks in everything, not for everything. This is an important distinction to make, otherwise you'll be doing foolish and unbiblical things like thanking God for all your problems. What you want to do is thank Him in spite of your problems. This goes a lot further than saying, "Well, my car just imploded, but at least I still have feet. Thanks, Lord." No, this is an active faith moment. It brings a positive response from God while amazingly empowering us at the same time. It keeps us from being under the circumstances. Let me show you what I mean.
Let's say you're sick. You don't thank God for the sickness, but in your sickness you thank Him for being your Healer. You thank Him for the healing Jesus provided for all believers and go ahead and thank Him for healing you. You lose your job, thank Him for being your Provider. Thank Him for His promise to bless the work of your hands and for His singular delight in the prosperity of His servants. Your marriage is on the rocks, thank Him for your spouse (I didn't say this was easy) and for coming up with the idea of marriage in the first place. Thank Him for being able to change anything. You're worried and anxious, thank Him for the Comforter. You're scared, thank Him for being your Fortress, your Protector. You're lonely, thank Him for being your Friend. While you're at it, thank Him for showing you how to make friends and also how to be one. You're experiencing mental problems, thank Him for promising you a sound mind. You're confused about what to do, thank Him for promising to be your Guide. You're sad, thank Him for His joy. You're angry, thank Him for being your Peace. If others are angry at you, thank Him for His promise to make even your enemies be at peace with you. And if you're brokenhearted, thank Him for His promise to mend even those fragile and seemingly irreparable little organs like no one else can.
You get the idea. We are to take whatever lousy situation we find ourselves in and make it an opportunity for God to, well, be God. He's really good at this and seems to enjoy His work. Of course you'll have to thank Him again, but by this time you'll have had plenty of practice.
Being God shouldn't be a thankless job.
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(John 20:22)
If you were raised in a mainline denominational church, such as Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, Lutheran, etc., the number of sermons you heard on the Holy Spirit could probably be counted on one hand. I was raised in the Methodist church and right now I can't remember any. This is not to say we did not acknowledge Him as part of the Trinity. We did, and stated so in our recitation of The Apostle's Creed every Sunday. It's just that we didn't really talk about Him very much.
One aspect of His ministry we never even heard of was His baptism. It wasn't until many years later that I heard about this practice and then it seemed to be sort of a bizarre ceremony practiced only by the rather weird fringe groups that were sprouting up at the time. I certainly didn't need any more weirdness in my life, thank you very much, and was quite content having Jesus as my personal Savior and the assurance that I would not be spending an eternity in the Twilight Zone, being forced to listen to Muzak versions of Beatles tunes for ever and ever.
My views on this subject gradually changed, however, when I began to meet people who had undergone this baptism and had not only survived, but were the better for it. They seemed to possess something I was lacking and amazingly were no weirder than me. Okay, granted I was pretty weird back then, but the point I'm trying to make is that they weren't maniacs. I saw God work through them in astounding ways and do things I assumed had ceased to happen since the book of Acts had been written. Throwing caution to the wind, I underwent this baptism of the Holy Spirit myself and I must say, so far, so good. I haven't joined any cults, suffer from no delusions and still have friends and family that think I'm sane. What I gained is hard to describe, but I would say my faith was definitely strengthened beyond what I ever would have expected.
Now I realize that many churches don't accept the baptism of the Holy Spirit or at least they see it as redundant. In other words, they say that if you are born again, you already have the Holy Spirit. They are of course right but what I want to show you is the distinction between having the Holy Spirit living in you as a result of the new birth and being baptized with Him.
As we see in today's verse from the end of John's gospel, the risen Jesus breathes on His disciples and tells them to receive the Holy Spirit. Nobody can doubt that these men were born again. Nobody can question whether from this time on they had the Holy Spirit resident in them. Certainly they did. And this is where too many Christians put the brakes on. Yet if you flip a few more pages you will stumble into the first chapter of Acts. In verse 4 you will see the risen Lord instructing these same disciples for the last time, telling them to wait in Jerusalem for the Promise of the Father. He goes on to say in verse 5, "for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now."
My question is, why would Jesus tell these guys to go wait for something He had just given them a few days before? Obviously He wouldn't. We're talking about two distinct functions of the Holy Spirit. Of course we know what happened when this baptism came on the day of Pentecost: the same thing that happens today when people are baptized in the Holy Spirit. Nothing has changed, passed away or become unnecessary. It's as real for you and me as it was for Peter and John. If they needed it, we need it more.
There's not room in this short message to really go into this topic. There are many more scriptural references I could give you to prove my point, if that's what I felt I should do. It isn't. All I want is for you to think about these things and ask yourself if there could possibly be more to this Christian existence than you're presently experiencing.
Here's how I see the distinction between the indwelling of the Holy Spirit that comes at the new birth and the baptism of the Holy Spirit: It's like a man crawling through a desert, dying of thirst, getting his fill of cool, pure water. If that weren't wonderful enough, he comes upon a beautiful waterfall and stands under it as it cascades around him, totally enveloping him. One saves, the other refreshes, invigorates and empowers. One fills, the other immerses. You can have both.
Get wet.
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(John 6:28)
People have a tendency to confuse good works, the things we do to demonstrate God's love to others, with the works of God, the things we do to prove our faith and please God Himself. This is not surprising because in many instances they overlap, but the differences are more than semantic. In fact, they go to the very heart of what being a Christian is all about.
Jesus makes it clear that we are to do good on this earth and that in so doing we glorify our Father (Matthew 5:16). He talks about feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, clothing the naked and visiting the sick or imprisoned. He says that if we engage in these charitable acts it's as if we were doing them for and to Him. Conversely, if we ignore those around us in need, we are ignoring Him (Matthew 25:35-46). These are all areas that Christians should be involved in. We should lead the way in our communities, and the world for that matter, in alleviating suffering of any kind. Actually, I think we're pretty well represented as far as charity goes, although we could certainly do more.
These acts of kindness, however, do not make you a Christian. This is obvious because there are many people involved in charitable work who, although they're nice folks, wouldn't know Jesus if He were standing next to them with a big sign reading, HI, I'M JESUS. There are still others who do good works that don't believe in the Father Himself, let alone His Son. And that's the difference. You can do nice things all day but if you deny Jesus His rightful place in your life, His Dad isn't going to be too happy. And if you think you're going to impress the Creator of the Universe and work your way into His Family and Eternal Paradise with your man-sized acts of kindness, you're wrong. It does, however, show a supremely well-developed ego.
This concept of working our way to God by committing "random acts of kindness" was foremost in the minds of those who were questioning Jesus in today's verse. "What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?" All the nice things they could do for others to show God how wonderful they were, as well as keeping all the Commandments and laws (they'd figured out how to dance around them pretty well by this time anyway) must be what God would want. Jesus surprised them, however, with an answer they didn't expect."This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent"(John 6:29). What? We just have to believe in Jesus? That's work?
Simple. Well, not always (at least for me). Sometimes it's easier to work half a day in a homeless shelter than to believe in Jesus to change the lives of the homeless so they don't need a shelter. It puts less strain on our convictions to send a bag of groceries to a hungry family than to really believe God will provide for us when we're broke and the bills are piling up. And it takes a lot less faith to work in an AIDS or cancer hospice than to lay hands on someone with a "terminal" illness and expect a full recovery. Yet this is the work of God: faith. There's nothing else we can do that really pleases our heavenly Father (Hebrews 11:6). This is what gets Jesus' attention, too (Matthew 8:10). This is our work (I Thessalonians 1:3).
The rest of the things we do, the kindness, the helping, the comforting, show Who lives inside of us. It doesn't put Him there. Nor does it stand alone without real, active faith. You can give half your money to charity but if you're still cheating on your wife and beating your kids and stealing from your boss it's obvious that your works aren't changing you where it counts: in your spirit. And they never will. Nor will God be tricked into overlooking all the rotten things we do because once in a while we help someone (when it's convenient). Please. If you give Him credit for nothing else, at least give Him credit for being smarter than you.
Be assured that when Jesus said our work was to believe in Him He wasn't talking about just believing that He exists or that He's the Son of God (Matthew 8:29, James 2:19). He was referring to total reliance on, complete commitment to and positive confession of His lordship. He meant that we must take Him at His word. All of it. And while He gave us His Spirit to help us with this, He did call it work. This is probably because it is. It's a full-time occupation. There are no time clocks, no sick leave and no paid vacations. We're on call 24-7-52. But then, so is He.
HELP WANTED. Laborers for harvest. No experience necessary. Will train. Excellent benefits. Ask for Jesus, ext. 1.
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(John 4:6)
Today's verse, innocuous though it may be, is the beginning of an encounter that would have a far-reaching effect. Shortly after sitting down alone at the well of Jacob (His disciples having gone shopping), Jesus meets a Samaritan woman and tells her about the living water. He follows this with a revelation of her marital status (or lack thereof), convincing her that she is in the presence of a really great prophet. After giving her a quick lesson on true worship, He does something beyond amazing: He tells her that He is the Christ, something He wasn't in the habit of broadcasting.
It's at this point His disciples come back from the grocery store. They are totally flabbergasted to find Jesus talking to a Samaritan (bad enough) woman (worse). This just went against everything a good Jew, especially a rabbi, would even think of doing. Of course they didn't say anything to Jesus about His abominable and unorthodox behavior (smart). Undaunted by the discomfort and stink-eye of the twelve disciples, this excited woman leaves her water pot and runs screaming to the town for everybody to come see, "a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?" Proving again that Jesus really understood good PR, this one woman comes back with the whole town on her heels. Meanwhile, the disciples (as usual) are completely missing the significance of what has just taken place and can think of nothing but food.
At the insistence of the townspeople, Jesus stayed two days with the Samaritans, outcasts in the eyes of traditional Jews, and many of them became believers. Then they said to the woman, "Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we ourselves have heard Him and we know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world" (John 4:42). These half-breed rejects got it right before the chosen did.
Which is all wonderful and would make five or six good messages, but that's not what I'm writing about today.
Let's go back to our "innocuous" verse 6. There is a word in it we rarely associate with our Lord and Savior. Did you spot it? That word is wearied. The Greek is kopiao meaning to feel fatigue. Jesus was exhausted. Wiped out. Wasted. Beat to the socks. Dog tired. In other words, human.
Yes, I know He's the Son of God but He had to be the Son of God in the body of a Man who ate, drank, felt pain and got tired just like me and you. He didn't float along the hot, dusty roads of Palestine. He wasn't carried by angels. He walked. For miles and miles. Add to this the very real threat of the Pharisees breathing down His neck at every town and His certain knowledge of the what they would soon do to Him, the near suffocating crowds that He was rarely able to escape, even temporarily, all while living with twelve guys who would drive anybody else crazy, and you can understand why He might be a bit weary.
Now the way I see it, if Jesus could be tired, and the Holy Spirit saw fit to admit it to us that He could, we can be tired, too. Apparently it's nothing to be ashamed of. It happens to the Best of us. We don't have to go until we drop. In fact, we shouldn't because God can't do a whole lot with us if we're dead. Wearing ourselves to a frazzle, even for the sake of the Gospel, is not going to do you or the Gospel any favors. So what do you do? Just what Jesus did. Sit down. Take a load off. Send your disciples shopping. Then you'll be ready to deal with whatever is next. Hey, it's a rest, not a permanent vacation.
There's one more thing. Jesus picked a good place to rest, one where He would not only be able to relax but also be refreshed. He went to the well. We can do this, too, and we don't have to go to Samaria or even leave the house. We have this well right inside us. Jesus put it there for those times when we just need a little pick-me-up or are on the verge of dying from spiritual dehydration. We draw this water out with prayer. Jesus knew the rough terrain we would have to cover. He knew we would get tired but He promised to refresh us. He promised us living water. But we have to drink it. Even He can't do that for us.
How embarrassing to die of thirst with a full canteen.
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(Luke 23:43)
Human beings have a need to complicate things. It validates them. The more complicated, the more they are convinced that they are achieving something of significance, something noble, that sets them sublimely apart from the mundane existence of their inescapably tethered fellow humans. That last sentence proves it.
Nowhere is this trait more in evidence than in that invention we politely call religion. Religions invariably set guidelines, rules and regulations that require the devotee to do something complex to reach the goal that particular religion sets forth as its absoloute prize. These may include a required costume, a strict dietary regimen, observance of specific holidays, endless repetition of words, and an established pattern of worship. On top of these burdens are stacked self-denial, self-sacrifice and even self-mutilation. Vows of poverty, silence, and celibacy are common examples of these, as are self-flagellation, body piercing, firewalking and other bloody rituals created to raise the individual to a higher level of spiritual awareness and give the impression that something is being accomplished while having no fun at all.
This is why some people have a real problem with Christianity. It's just too darn easy. It seems like you should have to do something difficult (or at least painful) to receive this promised eternal life and all the other benefits that Scripture includes in the package. It can't be as simple as just asking Jesus to be your Lord and Savior. There must be more to do. As a result we have seen religion slither back into the very place Jesus chased it out of 2,000 years ago. It thrives in denominational doctrines and prerequisites, the Cross-denying concept of salvation through works and the ascendency of ritual over faith, constricting and eventually devouring whole those it captures.
To say that this is not what Jesus had in mind would be an understatement of the same magnitude as saying that Satan is not a very nice person. Jesus came to relieve burdens (Matthew 11:28-30) imposed by what had become a spirit-crushing, out-of-control 800 pound religious gorilla (Matthew 23, all of it). Jesus' entire ministry and message was one of such amazing simplicity that His contemporary opponents were often left speechless. He received people in whatever state they happened to be in. There were no flaming hoops to jump through. No arduous mountain expedition was neccessary to reach Him. He was right there for any who would just reach out to Him in faith.
No verse in Scripture so profoundly demonstrates this as the one that began today's message. As Jesus is being crucified between the two criminals, one of them joins in with the other mockers surrounding the Cross and rails against Him. This alarms the other criminal who rebukes his unrepentant associate and acknowledges that their own actions have brought this punishment on them, but that this Man hanging between them has done nothing wrong. Turning to Jesus, he makes a simple yet audacious request, "Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom." And Jesus said to him,"Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise" (Luke 23:42-43).
There are two things we can dispense with immediately. One is that Jesus suspended the rules to let this guy into Heaven, and second, that the Lord was just kidding. So what did this criminal do to get such a comforting guarantee from the Son of the Living God? He didn't join a church and he didn't get baptized. He knelt at no altar, was awarded no certificate and never received Communion. He never tithed, fed the poor or went into all the world with the Gospel. He didn't crawl on his knees through broken glass. He didn't even get cleaned up first. As for changing his ways, it was a bit late for that. He did virtually nothing to deserve what Jesus was giving him. No one can. He did, however, do the only thing any of us can do to gain admittance to Paradise. He did this with the very first word he spoke to Jesus: Lord.
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HAVE FAITH IN GOD!
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