Bad Rep

Who are your friends? Who do you hang out with? Do you only want to be seen with the cool crowd? Are you defined by the people you run with? Popularity contests aren't only limited to high school. They're big in church, too.

In Mark 2:15-17 (NIV), we learn a little bit about the crowd that Jesus hung out with. It says, "While Jesus was having dinner at Levi's house, many tax collectors and 'sinners' were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the 'sinners' and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: 'Why does he eat with tax collectors and 'sinners'?' On hearing this, Jesus said to them, 'It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.'"

Jesus wasn't into hanging out with the cool crowd, or being seen with the right people. He wasn't on earth to win a popularity contest. He dined with corrupt tax collectors, prostitutes, thieves, adulterers, and others who the Pharisees looked down upon. Jesus didn't look down at them. Instead, He looked directly at them, and saw a group of hurting people who needed a Savior. They needed Him, and He was right there with them and for them.

Do you avoid certain people or certain types of people because you find them unsavory, or different from you, or not your type? Do you think you are better than them or more spiritual than them? Do they cramp your style? Do they threaten your image or your popularity? Get off of your high horse. Reach out to them. Dine with them. Hang out with them. Follow the lead of Jesus, and show them the love of Jesus. Let God convict them to change their life - but you lead them to His feet.

Kid's Play

Matthew 19:13-15 (The Message): "One day children were brought to Jesus in the hope that He would lay hands on them and pray over them. The disciples shooed them off. But Jesus intervened: 'Let the children alone, don't prevent them from coming to me. God's kingdom is made up of people like these.' After laying hands on them, He left."

Do you still have a child-like faith in your life, or have you grown up to become a hardened, calloused, cynical, glass-half-empty, always-rolling-your-eyes, jaded kind of adult?

Look at how Jesus described the inhabitants of God's kingdom: as being like children. In most cases when we hear of an someone acting like a child, it's not a compliment. But here it is.

Do you still have a child-like faith? Does God's natural handiwork still amaze you? Do you still stand in awe at a rainbow or a sunset or a waterfall? Or have your eyes and your heart and your soul grown calloused? Have you lost this sense of child-like awe?

Examine yourself. Examine your eyes. Examine your heart. Examine your soul. Examine your faith. A mature faith may be measured in years - but a mature faith doesn't have to be hardened by years.

Salt

In Matthew 5:13 (TNIV), Jesus told his disciples and a crowd on a mountainside, "You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot."

In Biblical days, salt had a variety of uses. It was used to prepare, season, and flavor food, just as it is today. But salt also was used as a fertilizer, and it also was used as currency. That's right. Salt was used as a type of money. It was considered a very valuable commodity.

I believe that Jesus is referring to all three of these uses when He talks about salt in this verse. Like salt as a seasoner, we must add flavor and improve the quality of everything and everyone around us. Like salt as a fertilizer, we must help others grow, particularly in the Word and in their faith walk. And like salt as currency, we must have value in this society, and be of worth and use during the time that we are given on this planet.

Salt had different uses when Jesus walked the earth, and all of its uses were important and valuable and served to improve things. That is what we should be doing today. That is why we must be like salt.

What Goes Around, Comes Around

Jesus is very strict about judging others. In Matthew 7:1-5 (TNIV), He advises us, "Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in someone else's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from the other person's eye."

Every time that you point the finger of judgment at someone else, three other fingers of judgment point right back at you. Are you so blinded by the enormous plank in your own eye that you can't see them? Jesus say do not judge others, because it's coming right back at you. What goes around, comes around.

No More Tears

Life on this planet can be hard. Really hard. Tiresome. Wearying. Depressing. An uphill battle. Filled with sadness and tears and regret.

But we must always remember that, for the Christ follower, something better is coming along. When our time on this earth is finished, and we graduate into eternity, we will enter a place where none of the angst or turmoil of our lives here on earth will exist. Revelation 21:4 (TNIV) tells us, "(God) will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."

That is a place that I can't wait to enter! Too often this life is filled with nothing but tears and death and mourning and crying and pain. There will be none of that in heaven. There will be none of that in God's presence. It is the hope and promise that every Christ follower can cling to, even on the darkest of days during this lifetime.

Busy-ness

Are you too busy with ministry-related projects to find time for God? It sounds crazy, but it's true. Sometimes we focus so much on good, worhty, ministry or church projects that we neglect our relationship with God. This is not what ministry or church is supposed to be all about.

In Luke 10:38-42, we find an example of this very problem. Jesus is at the home of two sisters, Martha and Mary. Martha would appear to be a Type A personality, and Mary a Type B. When Jesus arrives at their home, Martha flies off into the kitchen to prepare a big feast for Jesus and his disciples. Martha was cooking, roasting, baking, and grilling, but she was not chilling. Mary, meanwhile, was sitting at the feet of Jesus, listening to every word that He spoke. This ticked Martha off. She marched out to where Jesus was teaching and Mary was listening and said, "Jesus! Don't you care that Mary has left me to do everything in the kitchen? Tell her to get off of her feet and help me out!"

Jesus just looked at her and said, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed - or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her."

Those simple, humble, and direct words of Jesus must have hit Martha right between the eyes. All of the work that she was doing was keeping her from hearing the words of Jesus, and keeping her from building her relationship with Him. It wasn't that Martha's work wasn't important or worthwhile, it's just that she was making it a higher priority in her life than her relationship with Jesus, and that's where she got off track.

It's the same with us. It's very easy for us to get caught up with worthwhile projects, in church or in a certain ministry, but sometimes what happens is that a GOOD project keeps us from having a GREAT relationship with God. We must guard against this. We must guard against having so much "busy-ness" in our lives that we neglect our relationship with God. There is no ministry or project on this earth which should ever be a higher priority for us than our relationship with God. Martha had to learn that lesson. So must we.

Pure And Faultless Religion

Many people claim to be religious, but their actions don't follow their words. Their works don't follow their alleged faith. James 1:27 (TNIV) tells us, "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."

Recently there was a massive earthquake in Peru. It registered 8.0 on the Richter scale. 500 people died, 2,000 were injured, and 85,000 were left homeless. We visited one of the hardest hit areas just a few days after the killer quake. The highway leading to the area was fractured with cracks and crevices. All along the roads, people were begging for food and holding up signs saying, "Help me!" or "We need help urgently!" Homes lay in ruins. Disease was rampant. Traffic lights and utility poles lay snapped in half and useless on the side of the road. There was a sense of desperation everywhere.

But in the midst of the devastation and destruction, we were there to bring help and hope. The generosity of the people in our church allowed us to donate one ton of food to the earthquake survivors, and also to feed 1,000 people in a single day. There were a lot of orphans and widows among the thousands of people we met that day, and we were able to show them the love of Jesus in a very tangible way.

It's ironic, isn't it? There's a good chance that we will never again meet the people we served after the earthquake. But we still served all of them and loved on all of them and did our best to be Jesus to all of them. That is what pure and faultless religion is all about. Many people can talk the talk. But only a few people actually walk the walk.

It Ain't Over 'Til It's Over

How do you feel right now about your life's accomplishments, especially in the spiritual arena? Have you harvested much fruit in your life? Do you feel frustrated? Does it seem to be a season of waiting, of discouragement, of setback, and of little fruit?

Philippians 1:6 (The Message) may be the shot in the arm that you need right now. It says, "There has never been the slightest doubt in my mind that the God who started this great work in you would keep at it and bring it to a flourishing finish on the very day Christ Jesus appears."

Wow! Feel better now? Don't be discouraged if you feel that it seems to be a dry season in your spiritual fruit harvest. Just keep at it. Don't give up. Don't quit. Persevere. Keep going forward. God started a big thing in you, and it ain't over 'til it's over! As long as you keep at it, and don't throw in the towel, God will use you.

Every day you face a choice: to keep going forward, or to quit. Keep going forward. God still has plans to use you, and to bring your life and your work to a "flourishing finish."

Don't give up on God. He hasn't given up on you.

You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet!

1 Corinthians 2:9 (Message) is a verse that should get you pumped: "No one's ever seen or heard anything like this, never so much as imagined anything quite like it - what God has arranged for those who love Him."

Those words should get you excited. Really excited! It means that God has big things planned for you - plans that you can't even imagine, plans that you've never seen with your human eyes or heard with your human ears. Big plans. Giant plans. Goliath-size plans. Humungous plans! For you! And me!

And what do we need to do in return? Just love God. Love Him. Love your Creator. And then you'll get in return the God-sized things and God-sized plans that He has specially prepared - just for you!

It's not a bad deal, is it?

Do You Remember

1 Chronicles 16:12 says, "Remember the works He has done...." Job 36:24 tells us, "Remember to extol His work...." And Psalm 77:11-12 proclaims, "I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago. I will consider all your works and meditate on all your mighty deeds."

So often it is easier for us to remember bad things instead of good things. To focus on the negative instead of the positive. To dwell on the problem instead of the solution. But we are told in the above verses to always remember what God has done for us. To remember His works, His deeds, and His miracles in our lives.

It's just like with Moses and the Israelites. A big problem came when they were at the banks of the Red Sea, with the ocean water lapping at their feet, and the hot breath of Pharaoh's horses charging up from behind them. But God delivered them from the problem and got all of them - millions of them - across the Red Sea unscathed. Afterward they sang and danced and celebrated - and remembered - what God had done for them.

We must do the same. We will face times in our lives when we will be at the foot of the Red Sea, seemingly without any answers, seemingly with nowhere to run to and nowhere to hide. And God will deliver us. We need to remember those times, and that deliverance, and that salvation. We always need to remember God's works, God's deeds, and God's mighty miracles that He has - and will - accomplish in our lives.

Walkie-Talkies

Think of prayer like a set of walkie-talkies. To properly and successfully use a set of walkie-talkies, one person must talk while the other person listens. Then the second person talks, and the first person listens.

Prayer is the same way. We must pray to God, knowing that He will listen. But then - and this is the part that most people forget to do - we must wait to hear back from Him with His advice, His counsel, His guidance, and His answer to our prayer.

Too often we only mumble a 1-minute prayer as we rush out the door in the morning, or a 30-second prayer before we eat, and we never listen for what God may be wanting to say back to us. Successful prayer is like a successful conversation. You pray, and God listens. Then God talks, and you listen. It's a two-way street.

James 1:5 (Message) says, "If you don't know what you are doing, pray to the Father. He loves to help. You'll get His help, and won't be condescended to when you ask."

Psalm 32:8 (Message) says, "Let Me give you some good advice; I'm looking you in the eye and giving it to you straight."

Jeremiah 33:3 says, "Call to Me and I will answer you. I'll tell you marvelous and wondrous things that you could never figure out on your own."

God wants to hear you praying to Him, and He wants to respond back. He wants to help you. He wants to give you His advice. He wants to answer you and tell you marvelous and wondrous things - but you have to call to Him first. Make the call. Pick up the walkie-talkie. But when you're finished talking, be sure to listen. He may have a lot to tell you.

Been There, Done That

Jesus understands what you're going through right now. Whatever it is. Hebrews 4:14-16 (Message) tells us so: "Now that we know what we have - Jesus, this great High Priest with ready access to God - let's not let it slip through our fingers. We don't have a priest who is out of touch with our reality. He's been through weakness and testing, experienced it all - all but the sin. So let's walk right up to him and get what he is so ready to give. Take the mercy, accept the help."

Jesus understands what you're going through right now in your life. When he came to earth in human form, he had human feelings and human emotions. He was hungry, thirsty, sad, tired, tempted, frustrated, angry, and many other things. He was God the Son, but in human form. Because he walked the earth in human form, he knew - and knows today - what you are going through as a human being. He's been there. He's done that.

This is good news for all of us, just as is stated in the verses above. Jesus is not out of touch with your reality. He's been through weakness and testing. He feels your hurt. He knows your pain. So take whatever you are feeling, no matter how bad or messy or ugly or negative it is, just take whatever you are going through right now, and give it all to him. Let Jesus bear your burdens and your concerns. He's strong enough for the job. He's got the experience. He's been there and done that. Give him your hurt and your pain, and take his mercy and help in return. You'll never regret it. Ever.