March 27, 2014

#quitstuffthursday: March 27, 2014

I quit!

This is my goodbye letter to Through in 2. And it is the final post that I’ll be making. The site will stay up, and all of the old posts will still be accessible. But nothing new will be posted or re-posted. And I am super excited about that!

Before you get the wrong idea, let me explain. This has been one of the most incredible, rich, and rewarding journeys of my life. I loved doing Through in 2, and was massively blessed every time I heard from someone who read one of the posts. And I still have a pretty deep emotional attachment to it because of all the hours and prayers that went into it.

But I watched a video last night, or, more accurately, re-watched. Last summer I was blown away by a lawyer, author, diplomat, crazy man, Jesus lover, etc. named Bob Goff when he spoke at the Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit. And my small group watched the video of his Summit talk last night.

Bob talked about living out the calling you’ve received from God, giving your life to him instead of wasting it away on things that don’t matter. He talked about being awesome for Jesus. And how doing that means we have to be open to whatever God may call us to, and then we have to be willing to say “yes” and go for it no matter how crazy or daunting it may seem.

But he said in order to be able to say “yes” to all that God is calling us to, we have to have margin in our lives to do it. And most of us live on the very edge of burnout where we can’t fit a single extra thing into our schedules. So the only way forward is to quit stuff. Bob quits something every Thursday.

I probably won’t make it a lifetime policy like Bob Goff, but for the next 2 months I am going to quit something every Thursday. Today I am quitting Through in 2. Not because I don’t love it, but because I have this sense and peace in my heart that it is time to use up that part of my mind and my energy that has, for a long time, gone towards this project – even when I’m just posting old stuff but still thinking every night about how I need to find something and post it – for something else.

I don’t know what exactly that “something else” will be yet. But I want so badly to be awesome for God that I have to create space for it. And so Through in 2’s space is being cleared out. And for now it’s going to be filled with prayer until God tells me to give my mind and energy to something else. I am excited for that! I love Through in 2 dearly, and I love everyone who has read it. But I’m excited to quit because I’m excited for what God has next.

Mike

#quitstuffthursday

Posted by on March 27, 2014 in Uncategorized.

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March 26, 2014

Wednesday: March 26, 2014

READ:  Matthew 1

BACKGROUND:  The first chapter of Matthew introduces us to two overarching themes that will be present throughout his gospel: 1. Jesus as the promised Messiah and fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy, & 2. The radical inclusion of all people – not just Jews – in the Kingdom Jesus was building.  So, how does it introduce these themes?

Verse 1 makes a very specific and unmistakable claim that Jesus is the promised savior of the Old Testament as Matthew assigns him four very significant names:

  • Jesus – from the Greek/Latin spelling of the Hebrew name Jeshua which means “The Lord is salvation.”
  • The Messiah – or the Christ in some translations, from the Hebrew Meshiah & the Greek Christos (which is the word Matthew uses here) which both mean “anointed one.”
  • The son of Abraham – The Messiah/Christ absolutely had to come from the line of Abraham as promised in the Old Testament.
  • The son of David – Same as Abraham. Also, the Davidic ancestral line establishes his kingship.

Verse 23 further establishes Matthew’s theme of prophetic fulfillment in the person of Jesus by directly quoting Isaiah 7:14 to state that the events surrounding the birth of Jesus took place for the specific purpose of fulfilling this prophecy.

The theme of inclusion of all the people of the earth in Jesus’ mission shows up powerfully too. As the “son of Abraham” Jesus is one through whom “all the families of the earth shall be blessed” according to Genesis 12:3. Also, in a totally radical move because women were second-class citizens in society in the first century AD & because Jews considered Gentiles (anybody who wasn’t Jewish) to be second-class citizens or worse, Matthew includes Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, & Bathsheba in Jesus’ genealogy. That’s four women! And two gentiles! One prostitute, one who pretended to be one, and one adulteress! Matthew is already building towards the Great Commission – to take the gospel into all the world – by showing that this Jesus guy is for everybody whether they are Jews or Gentiles, men or women, righteous or broken, kings or prostitutes.

THINK:  I’m a pretty big soccer fan. It’s possible that I’m an overly obsessive sports fan in general, but I really love watching soccer. And my favorite team is Manchester United of the English Premier League, partially because their star player is chubby and balding and I really relate to that & partially because they are the most dominant team in the league. They have a record 19 championships. I’m also a fan of the Yankees (as soon as the Cubs are out of it which is usually mid-April). I apologize to all of you who are offended by that…please bear with me! They, too, are the most dominant team in the league with a record 27 championships (the Cardinals are in 2nd place with only 11). In some ways it’s awesome to cheer for teams that win all the time, but here’s the catch: in some ways it’s really not. One of the most common criticisms leveled at United fans and Yankee fans alike is that they’ve lost the joy of being fans – they’ve become so accustomed to winning that it is simply an expectation rather than an excitement. Watching their teams win has become so commonplace that they’ve lost the wonder and the beauty of it all.

I wonder sometimes if all of us are in that boat when it comes to Christmas – this season where we annually celebrate the birth of Jesus. I mean, we’ve all heard the Christmas story a thousand times and we’ve seen glowing Nativity scenes in people’s yards all our lives. The language and the imagery are terribly familiar. But I wonder if, in that familiarity, we’ve lost some of the wonder about what actually happened that night. Has it all become so commonplace that we don’t even stop to think and to marvel at the miracle?

In Matthew 1, these things happened:

  • The Holy Spirit put a baby in the womb of a virgin
  • An angel appeared and told Joseph to marry her even though she was pregnant
  • The angel told Joseph to name the baby “The Lord is salvation,” because he was going to save the people from their sins.
  • Mary, the virgin, gave birth & Joseph named the baby Jesus.

It’s absolutely incredible! Outrageous! Amazing! The Christmas story is beyond comprehension. And one of the things I marvel at is the willingness of all the people involved to yield themselves to the will of God. Mary said, “Okay, God!” So did Joseph and the shepherds and the wise men. And God worked wonders and miracles through them. If anything, this story & this chapter in Matthew demonstrate that God is at work in our world and that he can and will do amazing things to accomplish his plan and restore a lost humanity to himself. Are you willing to let him work through you? Are you willing to follow in the footsteps of Mary & Joseph & the others and say “okay” to God? God wants to use you to make a difference for his Kingdom; he wants to work through you to do amazing things and change the world. He is real. He is present. He is calling. Don’t just go through the motions let your faith become so monotonous and dry that you miss out on the wonder and majesty of his design for your life.

ASK:  What are some incredible things that God has done in my life that I marvel at? What are some specific areas where I need to say “okay” to God?

Posted by on March 26, 2014 in Gospels.

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March 25, 2014

March 25, 2014

READ:  Matthew 1

BACKGROUND:  The first chapter of Matthew introduces us to two overarching themes that will be present throughout his gospel: 1. Jesus as the promised Messiah and fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy, & 2. The radical inclusion of all people – not just Jews – in the Kingdom Jesus was building.  So, how does it introduce these themes?

Verse 1 makes a very specific and unmistakable claim that Jesus is the promised savior of the Old Testament as Matthew assigns him four very significant names:

  • Jesus – from the Greek/Latin spelling of the Hebrew name Jeshua which means “The Lord is salvation.”
  • The Messiah – or the Christ in some translations, from the Hebrew Meshiah & the Greek Christos (which is the word Matthew uses here) which both mean “anointed one.”
  • The son of Abraham – The Messiah/Christ absolutely had to come from the line of Abraham as promised in the Old Testament.
  • The son of David – Same as Abraham. Also, the Davidic ancestral line establishes his kingship.

Verse 23 further establishes Matthew’s theme of prophetic fulfillment in the person of Jesus by directly quoting Isaiah 7:14 to state that the events surrounding the birth of Jesus took place for the specific purpose of fulfilling this prophecy.

The theme of inclusion of all the people of the earth in Jesus’ mission shows up powerfully too. As the “son of Abraham” Jesus is one through whom “all the families of the earth shall be blessed” according to Genesis 12:3. Also, in a totally radical move because women were second-class citizens in society in the first century AD & because Jews considered Gentiles (anybody who wasn’t Jewish) to be second-class citizens or worse, Matthew includes Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, & Bathsheba in Jesus’ genealogy. That’s four women! And two gentiles! One prostitute, one who pretended to be one, and one adulteress! Matthew is already building towards the Great Commission – to take the gospel into all the world – by showing that this Jesus guy is for everybody whether they are Jews or Gentiles, men or women, righteous or broken, kings or prostitutes.

THINK:  I’m a pretty big soccer fan. It’s possible that I’m an overly obsessive sports fan in general, but I really love watching soccer. And my favorite team is Manchester United of the English Premier League, partially because their star player is chubby and balding and I really relate to that & partially because they are the most dominant team in the league. They have a record 19 championships. I’m also a fan of the Yankees (as soon as the Cubs are out of it which is usually mid-April). I apologize to all of you who are offended by that…please bear with me! They, too, are the most dominant team in the league with a record 27 championships (the Cardinals are in 2nd place with only 11). In some ways it’s awesome to cheer for teams that win all the time, but here’s the catch: in some ways it’s really not. One of the most common criticisms leveled at United fans and Yankee fans alike is that they’ve lost the joy of being fans – they’ve become so accustomed to winning that it is simply an expectation rather than an excitement. Watching their teams win has become so commonplace that they’ve lost the wonder and the beauty of it all.

I wonder sometimes if all of us are in that boat when it comes to Christmas – this season where we annually celebrate the birth of Jesus. I mean, we’ve all heard the Christmas story a thousand times and we’ve seen glowing Nativity scenes in people’s yards all our lives. The language and the imagery are terribly familiar. But I wonder if, in that familiarity, we’ve lost some of the wonder about what actually happened that night. Has it all become so commonplace that we don’t even stop to think and to marvel at the miracle?

In Matthew 1, these things happened:

  • The Holy Spirit put a baby in the womb of a virgin
  • An angel appeared and told Joseph to marry her even though she was pregnant
  • The angel told Joseph to name the baby “The Lord is salvation,” because he was going to save the people from their sins.
  • Mary, the virgin, gave birth & Joseph named the baby Jesus.

It’s absolutely incredible! Outrageous! Amazing! The Christmas story is beyond comprehension. And one of the things I marvel at is the willingness of all the people involved to yield themselves to the will of God. Mary said, “Okay, God!” So did Joseph and the shepherds and the wise men. And God worked wonders and miracles through them. If anything, this story & this chapter in Matthew demonstrate that God is at work in our world and that he can and will do amazing things to accomplish his plan and restore a lost humanity to himself. Are you willing to let him work through you? Are you willing to follow in the footsteps of Mary & Joseph & the others and say “okay” to God? God wants to use you to make a difference for his Kingdom; he wants to work through you to do amazing things and change the world. He is real. He is present. He is calling. Don’t just go through the motions let your faith become so monotonous and dry that you miss out on the wonder and majesty of his design for your life.

ASK:  What are some incredible things that God has done in my life that I marvel at? What are some specific areas where I need to say “okay” to God?

Posted by on March 25, 2014 in Gospels.

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March 24, 2014

Tuesday: March 24, 2014

READ:  Psalm 1

BACKGROUND:  Psalm 1, like much of the Bible – most often the poetic and prophetic parts but narrative parts too – is written in a specific pattern called a chiasm  (pronounced: ki-azem). A chiasm is a literary tool that was used a lot in ancient writing to help convey meaning and highlight certain themes and ideas within a poem or a book. In addition to the Bible, famous poems and literary works like The Odyssey, The Iliad, Beowulf, & Paradise Lost – among others – are written in chiastic structure. Put simply, chiasm is a symmetric ordering of ideas and phrases that ties an entire section – or entire literary work – together. One very common chiastic organizational pattern in the Bible is “A, B, C…C, B, A.” It sounds really complex and difficult to understand, but it’s actually pretty simple. Here’s a really easy example (that’s good for students to remember anyway):

A          When your messing with a flirt,
A’         you’re flirting with a mess.

A slightly more complex example:

A          Jimmy is a naughty boy
B                      who colors on the walls,
C                                  and then he sits on a time out.
C’                                 For a time in punishment he sits
B’                     because the walls are not for coloring,
A’         and Jimmy shouldn’t be naughty.

This is way more background than you’ll get during most days of Through in 2. But, the reason it’s included here is that Psalm 1 is a chiasm. A really interesting one. Read through it again as it’s broken down into that structure and see if anything hits you:

A _  Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that
___  sinners take or sit in the company of mockers,
B ______  but whose delight is in the law of the LORD, and who meditates on his law day
________  and night.
C ______________   That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its
________________   fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither – whatever they do
________________   prospers.
C’______________   Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away.
B’______  ???
A’_ Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of
___ the righteous.
For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked leads to destruction.

THINK:           There is no B’ in the chiasm of Psalm 1. There first part of the Psalm is about the righteous person. The second part of the Psalm is about the wicked. But there is something missing in the second part. There is a parallel between the righteous person not walking with the wicked or standing in the way of sinners and, on the other hand, the wicked not standing on the day of judgment or sitting with the righteous. And in the middle there is a parallel between the righteous being firm and well rooted and fruitful like a strong tree and, on the other hand, the wicked being like chaff – the unwanted useless byproduct of wheat – that gets blown away by the wind. So we’re left to wonder why there is no parallel for the righteous man delighting in God’s law and studying it. There is almost ALWAYS a parallel of some sort in Hebrew poetry! The lack of one is glaring by it’s omission. But I think that’s the point. That’s the idea of Psalm 1 and that’s why we’re starting our journey through the Bible here.

The writer of this Psalm is telling us what separates the righteous and the wicked. What sends us on a path towards life and prosperity rather than death and destruction. What  makes us like trees instead of chaff. Close your eyes and picture a tree for just a moment – on a sunny day. Then picture a thunderstorm rolling in – with fierce wind and rain – and picture the tree in the midst of that. What happens to trees in storms? Sometimes they lose leaves. In the worst of storms they may even lose a few branches. But in the end, they remain. They stand firm because their roots are deep. Now close your eyes and picture a piece of paper outside on a sunny day, and then picture a storm rolling in with thunder, lightning, rain, & wind. What happens to a piece of paper in a storm? It gets soaked and ripped and blown wherever the wind wishes to take it. It may not survive even if the storm is small.

When the storms of life come – and they will inevitably come – will you be able to stand firm and survive because your roots or deep or will you be tossed around, beaten, broken, & destroyed? I think we’d all prefer the first option! So how do we get there? The message in Psalm 1 is clear: The Word of God! The Word of God appears in the life of the righteous person but it conspicuously missing from the life of the wicked person. As we begin this Through in 2 journey together, we can do so with great confidence that God will bless this process and that reading & studying God’s Word will give us strength to weather the storms of a broken world as we come to know Him more!

ASK:    How can I make reading & studying the Bible a priority in my life? Where can I carve out a place in my schedule to do it daily?

Posted by on March 24, 2014 in Uncategorized.

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March 23, 2014

Sunday: March 23, 2014

READ: Genesis 1-2

BACKGROUND: With some of the Old Testament readings that are a bit longer – there may be questions you have that don’t get covered in the “Background” section. Please feel free to ask questions in the comment section and I’ll get back to you.

Genesis begins with the very beginning: the creation of the world. And you probably noticed that Genesis 2 isn’t a continuation of the creation story but rather a deeper look. Genesis 1 is written as a poem and Genesis 2 goes back and fills in some more intricate details, particularly as it relates to the creation of mankind.

Some thoughts on Genesis 1-2 (by verse):
1:1 – God obviously existed before the beginning of the heavens and the earth. He created them ex nihilo – out of nothing.
8 – Many translations, because it makes sense when we are reading it phrase the end of this verse “on the second day.” More literal translations say “on a second day.” This is because there in no definite article here – the “definite article” is the word “the.” And the Hebrew word “day” here – just as in Genesis 2:4 when it refers to the day that God made everything right after saying it took him 7 days to make everything – doesn’t indicate a 24-hour day. It means “time period.” Like when you say, “I remember back in the day…” 🙂 So, God could have created the earth in 7 consecutive days. Or, he could have created it in 7 different eras or epochs that stretched hundreds, thousands, or even millions of years. The Bible doesn’t say specifically – though interestingly enough even modern non-Christian biologists have come around to admitting that the earth was almost certainly developed in the exact order of the creation poem of Genesis 1.
26 – Being created in the image of God is a HUGE topic that you could write volumes about. In short: it doesn’t mean that we share God’s essence of being, but it means that we share his moral character and that we are created with will.
28 – Creation isn’t finished. It wasn’t finished even when God sat back and called it “very good.” He created a creation with the ability to create. He gave plants and animals and humans all the ability to create more of themselves. Creation was built to be ongoing. And even though sin messed it all up, God is still inviting us in to the ongoing creation – and re-creation – of the world.
2:24 – Something profound happens in marriage where 2 souls become 1 flesh. It is a glimpse of the unity and closeness of relationship God wants with all of us.

THINK: I thought that the portrayal of “God” in the movie Bruce Almighty was fascinating. Morgan Freeman as God was, at first, slightly shocking. But then I realized that the character he was playing, sadly, wasn’t that far off from the way many people in our culture perceive God. Our culture paints God as just some nice old man who dresses all in white and isn’t that involved in our daily lives – and certainly doesn’t require anything of us – who shows up occasionally when we need help. God just gets painted as this genie-in-a-bottle sort of being that stays out of our way and then shows up in tough times when we need him to help us as long as we act like pretty good people. And I think it’s really easy for us to get sucked into that cultural mindset. It’s really easy for us to be influenced by our surroundings and get a really wrong, messed up picture of God in our heads.

This is what happened to the Hebrews. They knew the truth about who God was, but then they were enslaved in Egypt for 400 years. And over time they were influenced by cultural ideas about who God was. And some of those ideas in the culture surrounding them came from stories called The Atrahasis and The Enuma Elish. And these stories basically said that humanity was a giant accident – that the pantheon of gods didn’t really intend to make humans and that they disliked humans or, at the very least, acted in an impulsive, arbitrary, temperamental way towards humans. And so people lived their lives in fear of the gods, just trying to please or placate them so they wouldn’t bring harm. And this mindset began to rub off on the Hebrews. Culture began to blur their understanding of who God really was.

So, God called Moses to write the book of Genesis. And he inspired Moses to write the first 2 chapters to help the Hebrew people understand him properly. He gave us Genesis 1 & 2 so that we would very clearly understand that creation is not an accident and that humanity is not an accident, and so that we would understand that we are created in his image and he loves us and desires relationship with us. God is not violent and arbitrary and we don’t have to live in constant fear of him. God is the Creator and creation is his beautiful gift to us, his people, whom he created from the very start to be in an intimate relationship with him. This is the big idea of the creation story in Genesis! How awesome is that? Seriously, it’s awesome!!!

ASK: How has my culture influenced and impacted my understanding of God? If I am created – designed, built, and wired – by a God who loves me and desires relationship with me then how should I respond to him? How should I respond to the rest of this world he created for me?

Posted by on March 23, 2014 in Law.

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March 22, 2014

Saturday: March 22, 2014

THE END!: It feels surreal and crazy for me as I sit here typing these words, but today is the final step on a 2-year devotional journey through the Bible. If you’ve been following along for the last 2 years I have 2 things to say to you: 1. Congratulations! You’ve read the entire Bible. It’s a good one to have on your “books I’ve read” list. And it’s not an easy commitment to make. So pat yourself on the back. 2. Thank you! When I set out to do this I had no idea how much time and thought it would take or how fun and personally enriching it would be. I just wanted to create something that was easily accessible that equipped people to actually dig into God’s word, understand it a little better, and see how it applied to their lives. It has been an awesome adventure, and I deeply appreciate everyone who has followed along and made it worth doing. So, congrats and thanks so much from the bottom of my heart.

NOW WHAT?: I have no idea. I think, for now, I’m going to take a break from writing or finding new devotions to post. But I own the domain for another year at least. So the plan, I guess, is to start over at the very beginning and then repost all of the old devotions daily, Genesis-Revelation, all the way through once again. If that plan changes, I’ll let you know.

READ: Revelation 22

THINK: In 1943, Nazi soldiers herded the citizens of Khatyn into a barn, piled hay around it, and set it on fire, killing all 149 people inside. After the war, Khatyn, in the former Soviet Union, was chosen as the site for a memorial to the more than 600 villages across Belarus that shared a similar fate.

It’s a somber place to visit. You’re greeted by a 4-story-high statue of a man who had been in the woods during the Khatyn massacre. He is holding the limp, charred body of his son. You see foundations where the homes once stood. From each of them rises a chimney with a plaque inscribed with the names of the people who died.

At one end of Khatyn is a “tree of life.” This black iron tree contains more than 400 “leaves,” and on each one is the name of a destroyed village that was rebuilt after the war. They represent the resilience and hope of the people of Belarus. And it’s fascinating to think about. The leaves represent healing. They represent things being remade, made whole and made new once again.

This is the same picture we get in Revelation. Only it’s not just Belarus being remade after the horrors of the Second World War. It’s every tribe and nation on the planet. Ezekiel had prophecied that the leaves of the Tree of Life would have healing power, and now John confirms that they do and that the healing power is for the purpose of the healing nations.

Incredibly, the Bible ends right where it began. In case you thought there wasn’t a thread woven throughout and all of the narratives, poems, and prophecies weren’t intricately interwoven as part of one giant narrative of creation and redemption, Revelation 22 removes doubt by taking us back to Eden. John concludes his vision with the Tree of Life. The tree that Adam and Eve had eaten from and then been cursed. Only John says that at the end of all things the curse will be removed and all things will be set right.

The world we live in is broken and messed up because of sin, because of its destructive legacy handed down from Adam and Eve that day in the Garden. And everywhere we look we see the results of the curse. And, sadly, evil is a reality that isn’t going away anytime soon. Revelation 22 basically tells us that in verse 11 when the angel says, “Let the one who does wrong continue to do wrong; let the vile person continue to be vile; let the one who does right continue to do right; and let the holy person continue to be holy.” That’s not a statement about abandoning people to their sin on an individual level. Not at all. It’s an observation that there will always be sin and brokenness until Christ returns. That both righteousness and evil will exist in contrast to one another.

But Revelation 22 guarantees us that this is not the end. Sin is not the end. Brokenness is not the end. Death is not the end. The thread woven through the Bible from beginning to end will one day come to complete fruition. God will redeem the world, he will heal up all of it’s brokenness, and his people will live eternally with him in the world that he has set right, perfected, and made new in his love. And Jesus is coming again to see that it happens. I cannot help but think about that and echo the words of John. Amen! Come Lord Jesus!

Rest in that hope today. Rest in that hope every single day of your life. Rest in the hope, be filled up with the hope, be emboldened by the hope that no matter what happens to you – whether it’s a small hurt or an atrocity on the level of Khatyn – Jesus is coming and he is going to make all things new and set all things right forever.

PRAY: Thank God for his redemptive action on behalf of humanity. Take a moment to marvel at the way the Bible is woven together, from beginning to end, with this incredible theme of God reaching into the brokenness of human history, even after we rejected him, to bring forgiveness and reconciliation, healing and hope to us. Worship him for that. Thank him for making beautiful things out of the dust and the brokenness of our lives. Thank him for the hope that we live with at every moment that this is not the end and we’ll one day live in perfection with him.

Posted by on March 22, 2014 in Prophecy.

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March 21, 2014

Friday: March 21, 2014

READ:  Acts 15

THINK: Acts 15 is a turning point chapter. It tells us the story of one of the seminal moments of the early church that absolutely shaped the direction and future of Christianity. And the decision that is made is laid out with crystal clarity. But there is a catch, a massive problem with Acts 15 and it is this: over the centuries the church has constantly reverted to the type of thinking and behavior that led to up to this moment. Church history and churches all across our nation and our world today serve up countless examples of groups of Christian believers who totally missed the big idea of Acts 15. And whenever and wherever that happens the gospel message of Jesus Christ is obscured and hindered.

Let’s start at the very beginning. Most of the early converts to Christianity didn’t consider themselves converts at all. They were Jews who simply accepted the truth that Jesus was the Messiah so they weren’t changing faith or religion at all. And they continued to worship at the Temple and follow all of the Old Testament laws because they still saw themselves as Jews. But then guys like Paul and Barnabas went out and shared the message of Jesus throughout the Greek and Roman world and all-of-a-sudden there were all these Gentiles joining the Jesus movement. And they definitely saw it as a conversion. They were leaving paganism to become followers of Jesus.

But the question that everyone faced was: what are they converting to? To Judaism? Cause that didn’t just mean hundreds upon hundreds of rules and laws. It also meant surgery for the men. Painful surgery. But it makes total sense that there were those in the church who felt they needed to convert to Judaism. We tend to look back, with the hindsight of knowing how it played out, and judge the people who thought that as Pharisees who just couldn’t let go. And many of them were Pharisees. But they weren’t illogical, or crazy, or trying to actively prevent people from finding Jesus. They simply had a very clear idea of what they thought following God meant and couldn’t imagine anybody else claiming to follow God without living out that idea.

So the debate – do Gentiles have to convert to Judaism and get circumcised in order to be a part of this community of people who follows Jesus. And the Disciples and Elders in Jerusalem talk about it for a little while and then Peter and James – the brother of Jesus and the most highly respected leader in the Jesus Movement at this time – both speak. And their words are powerful and of the utmost importance to us still today

Peter says, “Yo, we didn’t even keep the law. We’re acting like they gotta be perfect in order to join up with us and the burden of perfection isn’t one any of us have ever lived up to. And it’s not a burden Jesus saddled us with. Ever. He said it was about faith in him. So, I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say that following Jesus is about faith in him. Not participation in ritual or anything else. Solely through faith.”

And then John says – and I love these words because the simplicity is beautiful, “Well, they need to be careful what they eat around Jewish brothers and sisters so as not to be offensive, and they need to guard themselves against sexual immorality. That’s just good stuff to do for the sake of the community. And then, yep, that’s it. That’s the whole requirement. Just believe in Jesus. We should not make it difficult for these guys to get to know Jesus and be a part of his movement!”

We should not make it difficult for those on the outside to get to know Jesus and be a part of his movement. How many of our churches can say that we don’t make it difficult? How many of our churches can say that we are more passionate about the needs, desires, and comfort of non-churched people than we are with churched people? How many of our churches are passionate about making it easy for people to come to Jesus…and how many are passionate about correcting behavior and getting people to live right so that they can then join our communities?

The simple answer – and its measurable, empirical, and palpable in our churches – is that so many churches today like so many throughout history have lost the plot. So many of them are built for church people and before non-churched people can really walk in the door and feel at home there are conditions that they need to meet. And I know what you’re thinking right now: “Well, probably lots of churches are like that. But not mine. We’re welcoming.” That’s super duper. It’s also probably a terrible lack of self-awareness. How many non-Christians do you have coming through the doors on a Sunday? And especially how many marginalized and messed up folks? How many of them are plugging in to your community because they feel at home, and honestly how many of them would be welcomed with open arms even if they wanted to plug in?

It’s so easy to look back at the Pharisees and say, “Wow. I can’t believe they still didn’t get it after they knew Jesus.” But for thousands of years many in the church have walked in their footsteps rather than Paul, Peter, and James’s. Part of us is still convinced that if we can change people’s behavior through pressure or legislation then the behavior modification will lead them to Jesus and make them good enough to be a part of our churches. And the gospel is the exact opposite. It says the church is for everyone and all people are welcome to come and connect and we’re never good enough to merit the cross but meeting Jesus is the only thing that ever changes who we are and how we live.

If our churches are passionate about welcoming lost people, about breaking down walls and barriers that keep them from connect with us and with Jesus, and about removing anything and everything that creates hurdles in them finding Jesus than we’ve missed it. If we’re more concerned with our comfort and our preferences than we are with the comfort and preferences of the lost then we’ve missed it. If we’re asking or expecting people to be good enough before they connect with our community then we’ve missed it. What is “it”? It is this: Faith in Jesus alone saves. And the church is the instrument God has chosen to bring that message to those who need saving.

PRAY: Ask God to help you be self-aware today, and to show you your Pharisaic attitudes towards church and lost people and what they need to do before they can come and be fully welcomed by you and your community. Confess the times when you haven’t had a welcoming spirit. Confess the times when you’ve been a stumbling block and wanted to do church for church people instead of for lost people. Confess the times when you’ve expected people to obey laws and rules that you’ve personally struggled to obey. Close by asking God to forgive you and give you his heart for the lost.

Posted by on March 21, 2014 in Gospels.

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March 20, 2014

Thursday: March 20, 2014

READ: Deuteronomy 34

THINK: The Pentateuch ends with the death of Moses. And though the description is short, it is powerful and beautiful. Moses is called “The servant of the LORD,” he is hailed as being strong in mind and body up to the time of his death, he is remembered as one who invested his leadership gifts in the next generation, he is recalled as one whom “The LORD knew face to face,” and he is eulogized as a prophet so great that his deeds have not been matched by anyone since his death. What a legacy!

Even though Moses was imperfect and even though his own sin meant that he’d never get to set foot in the Promised Land, he stood atop the hill gazing at the land knowing that he’d left an indelible mark on God’s people and on the future of the world. And he’d done it not by promoting himself or seeking to create a legacy. He’d done it by being fully and wholly committed to serving God and doing the Father’s will.

I think it’s remarkable how few people finish well. Even for spiritual leaders in the Bible the percentage of those who go out on a strong and faithful note is depressingly small. And yet, here’s Moses. And it seems to me like he had the toughest task of all. He had to lead a bunch of people through the wilderness until an entire generation of them died off. He had to call them and guide them and urge them toward a vision that he knew he’d never be a part of. He had to equip them to reach a dream that he was well aware he’d never get to live out. And they were rebellious and horrible to him along the way. But he finished strong. He crossed the line at a full sprint. How?

Because his heart was so invested in God that nothing else mattered.  He was distinguished as the servant of the LORD because he chose to be. He wanted God more than he wanted the power and wealth that royalty in Egypt offered him. He refused to make his call or his life about himself. In the words of Charles Spurgeon, “His reverence for the Lord’s name was deep, his devotion to the Lord’s cause was complete, an his confidence in the Lord’s Word was constant.” I so badly want that to be the description of my life after it’s done!

And he was invested in the next generation. Moses placed his hands and his authority on Joshua and taught Joshua to lead because the task and the story and the need for leadership were not going to die with him. Investing in young leaders is never easy, and it takes energy and time. But Moses was so closely connected to the heart of God that he could do nothing other than invest. The vision and the mission and the ministry and the voice of God could not die with him. What would it look life for us to embrace this? How would it change your legacy if you decided, today, that you would invest so powerfully in the next generation that you never lead alone or never do ministry of any kind alone but always have budding leaders or ministers around you and alongside you? What if you laid your hands, your prayers, and your wisdom on them the way Moses did for Joshua? I so badly want that to be the description of my life after it’s done!

And he was mentally and spiritually and physically healthy to the end. In the words of F.B. Meyer, “This was true of Moses as a man. He had seen plenty of sorrow and toil; but such was the simple power of his faith, in casting his burden on the Lord, that they had not worn him out in premature decay. There had been no undue strain on his energy. All that he wrought on earth was the outcome of the secret abiding of his soul in God. God was his home, his help, his stay. He was nothing: God was all. Therefore his youth was renewed.” I so badly want that to be the description of my life after it’s done!

And he knew the Lord face to face. He knew the heart of God because he sought the heart of God. That was his first priority and his last. He was imperfect and sinful, just like every human who ever lived, but the absolute guiding principle of his life was to line his heart up with God’s. He was determined to know God and to live it out. And that’s why he was an incredible servant. Because he knew God he realized that the first have to be last and the legacy he wanted to leave was not about greatness but about serving others. I so badly want that to be the description of my life after it’s done!

What about you? What do you want your eulogy to look like? What do you want to be the description of your life after it’s done? Allow me to humbly suggest that, though there are so many pursuits that can define our lives and take our time and many of them may even be good, if your eulogy looks anything like Moses’s then you have spent your life pursuing the great things of God that actually matter, that are worth giving your life to.

PRAY: Talk to God today about the direction your life is headed. Ask him to help you be self-aware of what the reality of your eulogy is going to be if you keep pursuing the same things with the same commitment level that you are pursuing now. Ask him to line your heart up with his and give you clarity of vision about who he is calling you to be and the kind of life he’s calling you to live. And ask him for the strength to continue on through all the difficulties of life and ultimately finish well – no matter how far away that finish may be for you.

Posted by on March 20, 2014 in Uncategorized.

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March 19, 2014

Wednesday: March 19, 2014

READ: Luke 4

THINK: Admittedly, I saved a few of my favorite chapters for the very end of this 2-year journey through the Bible. And this is one of them! So are Deuteronomy 33, Psalm 150, & Acts 15 which is coming in a few days. But Luke 4 is amazing, I think, because it gives us an incredible paradigm for being disciples of Jesus Christ and doing his work in this world. If we want to be who God calls us to be and do what God calls us to do then we can learn a lot from the way Jesus did it. Makes sense, right? Let me lay out the paradigm:

STEP 1: Get filled with the Holy Spirit. The very first verse tells us that Jesus is filled with the Holy Spirit and that clues us in to the fact that absolutely everything he is going to do from this point forward – every single step along his journey to the cross – will be taken in concert with the Holy Spirit who is inside of him and guiding his steps. And after Jesus rose again he promised us that everyone who puts their faith in him will be filled with Holy Spirit. That the Spirit literally comes and dwells within us. That’s mind-blowingly awesome! But here’s the thing: we absolutely must remember and acknowledge at every single moment that it is the power of the Holy Spirit in us that equips us to be Christlike and do ministry in the world.

STEP 2: Pray. Pray like crazy. Fast too. That’s the next step for Jesus in Luke 4. He went to the desert and intensely communicated with the Father because he knew that this communication and relationship were absolutely critical for him. This is pretty self-explanatory but I’m gonna say it anyway: If Jesus needed to pray and connect with the Father, we need it infinitely more. I think we struggle to pray because we struggle to be humble enough to admit that we are powerless and hopeless on our own. But if we have any desire to be who God created us to be and be used by him to make a difference in our world then we cannot possibly pray and engage spiritual disciplines that connect us with God’s heart more often.

STEP 3: Get a vision and proclaim it boldly. Jesus knew what his vision was. And he stood up and proclaimed it boldly. And it got him run out of town because he made a very clear and explicit claim to be the Messiah when he read from Isaiah 61 and said that he was the fulfillment. Those words and the powerful effect and meaning they had cannot be underestimated. And they are some of my favorite words in the entire Bible. “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” That is an explicit vision statement. And the content of the gospels bears out that every step Jesus took for the rest of his life was a step in pursuit of this vision. He got a vision and he proclaimed it boldly.

STEP 4: Live in the direction of the vision. That is, make decisions and take action in ways that move you – and move the world – toward the accomplishment of that vision. And don’t waste your life away on things that don’t do that. There are plenty of options and distractions available to us. There were for Jesus too. But he didn’t waste time because he knew what he was put on earth for. Immediately after he proclaimed his vision he started engaging the work of it. By the end of Luke 4 he has already brought good news to the poor and needy, set free many who were spiritually oppressed by demons, and healed multitudes of people. He walked out the door, rolled up his sleeves, and dedicated his life to the work that God laid out for him.

That’s the paradigm. It’s simple. Just an observation of how Jesus went about fulfilling his call and mission in life. And we’d do well to follow his example. Get filled with the Spirit, pray like crazy, get a vision and proclaim it, and then live in the direction of that vision.

My question for all of you today is: what is the vision that God is giving you for your life? Where is he tugging at your heart? If you don’t know – assuming you’ve completed Step 1 – it’s well past time for you to start engaging Step 2 more passionately and fervently until you do know. Luke 4 is a clear and explicit statement that Jesus came to set things and people right. He came to fix all that was broken, to make all things new, and to restore and reconcile a broken world to God. And then he ascended to Heaven and promised not only that his disciples would be filled with the Holy Spirit but also that, because of that indwelling, they would do even greater things than he did. That means it’s your turn. Your turn to humble yourself and allow God to transform you into the person he created you be and leverage you to draw people to himself. Make no mistake: we are here to change the world!

Don’t believe for one second that it can’t be done – that the world can’t change. William Wilberforce was a rising star as a politician in England and a member of Parliament. And then he found Jesus in 1784. He got filled with the Holy Spirit, he prayed, he got a vision for his life, and he set about living it out. On October 28, 1787 he wrote in his diary at the age of 28, “God Almighty has set before me two great objects, the suppression of the Slave Trade and the Reformation of [Morals].” Battle after battle in Parliament he was defeated because the African slave trade was too much woven into the financial interests of the nation. But he never gave up and never sat down. He was not an adrenaline Christian, but a coronary Christian. On February 24, 1807 at 4:00 am, twenty years after he wrote in his journal, the decisive vote was cast and the Slave Trade became illegal. Still the work was not done after 20 years of perseverance. What about slave-holding itself? On July 26, 1833, 16 years later, and three days before he died, the vote was cast and slavery became illegal in England and her colonies.

What if there were more William Wilberforces? What if you are supposed to be a William Wilberforce? I think you are. I think Wilberforce didn’t consider himself a hero or a great man of faith who belonged in the pantheon of spiritual giants. He was just trying to be like Jesus and do what God tugged at his heart to do. He got filled with the Spirit, prayed, caught a vision, and gave his life to its pursuit. And what I want us to understand today is this: that is normative for the Christian life! Becoming a famous politician isn’t normative. Or writing legislation. Or ending the slave trade. Or being a missionary. Or a pastor. But God is calling you – every single one of you – right where you are at to get a vision of how he wants you to impact your world by helping make things and people right and how he wants you to live in pursuit of that vision. Accomplishing it won’t be easy. Changing the world never is. It always happens one inch at a time. But that’s what it looks like to be a disciple.

So, how is God tugging at your heart to help make things and people right?

PRAY: Pray for the humility to pray more. Pray for God to give you a vision for how to make things and people right. Pray for the humility to pursue that vision if (more like when) it isn’t as sexy, glamorous, simple, or exciting as ending the slave trade…like when it’s “Go hang out with unlovable people” or “Go serve the homeless” or “Give a bunch of your money away to the developing world and live simply.” Pray for the courage and the resolve to live in the direction of God’s calling on your life without getting distracted and wasting your time on meaningless things.

Posted by on March 19, 2014 in Gospels.

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March 18, 2014

Tuesday: March 18, 2014

READ: Deuteronomy 33

THINK: This chapter is phenomenally beautiful when it’s read with a birds-eye view of the Old Testament and the journey of the twelve tribes of Israel. For me, on a personal level, it’s almost overwhelming to read. It gives so much peace and so much hope to a life that deserves neither because of my own failures and shortcomings. Let me explain:

Deuteronomy 33 is a parallel blessing to the one that Jacob gave to each of his twelve sons upon his deathbed in Genesis 49. But there’s a catch. Jacob’s “blessing” that gets handed out to his sons isn’t exactly a blessing. Instead, it’s more of prophecy of what will occur in the future for each of his sons and their offspring. And the vision Jacob has of their futures is disconcerting at best.

Amidst a number of other things including some blessings and some positive things, Jacob says that Reuben will no longer excel, that Levi would be scattered and never have a land they can call their home, Judah will be marked by war, Isaachar will submit to forced labor, Dan will be violent, Gad will be raided, and Joseph will be attacked.

And then we fast forward half a millennium, after 400 years of oppression and slavery in Egypt and 40 years of wandering in the desert, and the next great patriarch of Israel is on his death bed. The people are on the precipice of the Promised Land, of finally claiming the inheritance that God has promised and carved out for them. And Moses, who has given his life to these people and led them through the struggles and trials of the desert, knows that he won’t get to enter the land with them because of his own sin. So he calls the people to him and speaks.

And in Deuteronomy 33 Moses turns the curses into blessings. He doesn’t reverse them. He doesn’t take away the consequences of the actions that led to Jacob’s initial prophecy. But he does – or more accurately God does – redeem their stories and redeem their futures. He turns the consequences and the prophecy into an incredibly hope-filled vision of the futures.

Reuben may not excel at everything, but there will be strength in their numbers, Levi may be scattered without a land of their own but that’s because they will be the priests who minister to God’s people all throughout the Promised Land, Judah may be warlike but will be defended by God, Isaachar may be enslaved for a period of time but will be marked by prosperity, Dan and Gad may be attacked but they will be strong like lions, and Joseph will be blessed greatly by God.

There is something powerful in this prophetic blessing that Moses hands out to the tribes. It is God reaching down and redeeming the brokenness of their past. A God who promises that he turns our curses into blessings. A God who promises that he sets all things right and makes all things new. The world that we live in is broken and our sin has consequences, but God does not abandon us to that brokenness of the hopelessness of these consequences.

If you are anything like me there is plenty of failure in your past. Enough sin and enough brokenness that you deserve all the curses and the negative consequences that are headed your way. Maybe you’ve even felt hopeless at some point along your journey. Maybe you feel hopeless right now. Like you’re too far gone or too messed up to ever get things back on track. Like your story is too broken to be fixed.

But that’s simply not what God says. And that’s not reflective of the way that God has invaded human history, intersected our lives, and set things right for thousands of years. He is the God who redeems. Who steps into our journeys, just exactly where we are, and turns them in a redemptive direction. We are never ever without hope. Ever. That’s the phenomenally overwhelming message of this chapter. God turns our curses into blessings.

PRAY: Let God overwhelm you today. Think about your failure and your brokenness and just allow yourself to be amazed and overcome by what it means that he loves you enough to step into all of that and fix it, forgive you, reconcile you to himself, and make things new again. Just be in awe of him, and tell him that you are. And if you have a few minutes, listen/sing along to this song.

Posted by on March 18, 2014 in Uncategorized.

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