When You Give

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When You Give

Giving is always one of those sensitive subjects; however, giving has always been a significant element of Lent. Why? There’s something about giving. Giving is a humbling, sacrificial act. Giving is also a way in which we can manifest the love of God in a tangible way. Jesus understood this when he spoke of giving in Matthew 6. Often when we do something “religious,” we want other people to see us so we can be praised for our accomplishments. Jesus, however, reminds his followers of how we should give. Rather than make a scene when we give, Jesus says that we should not “let your hand know what your right hand is doing” (Matthew 6:3). Giving should be done so secretively that our own hand doesn’t even know what the other hand has done. Obviously Jesus was speaking figuratively, but the point still stands. Jesus’s point gets to the heart of why we give. What are our motives? Are we giving to be seen by others or to honor God and serve others? 

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A Tearful Turning Away

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A Tearful Turning Away

Sometimes when we read stories in Scripture, they come to life. This story is one of those stories. Just picture the scene. Jesus is eating with some of the most respected religious leaders of his day. Remember, Jesus has been invited to this person’s house. In the ancient world, they ate reclining rather than sitting. So, here they are amongst distinguished company, and a woman enters the room. Luke says this woman was “a woman of the city, who was a sinner” (Luke 7:37). Chances are she was a prostitute. You typically shouldn’t see prostitutes with religious leaders. But she doesn’t just come into the room and sit quietly. She comes up to Jesus’s feet, begins to weep, and then washes his feet with her tears and the anointment she brought. What seems to not concern Jesus, immediately alarms and angers the religious leaders. How could Jesus allow a woman like this to touch him.

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Broken For Us

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Broken For Us

Written some 700 years prior to Jesus’s life, Isaiah spoke of Israel’s coming salvation. According to Isaiah, the Lord’s servant would suffer great pain for the people of God. In Isaiah 52:13–53:12, the prophet describes what will happen to Jesus: he will be despised, rejected, stricken, afflicted, wounded, crushed, and oppressed to name just a few. What great suffering, especially for someone who was innocent. Yet Jesus’s suffering was not for nothing. He was “crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5). Jesus suffered and died for our sins. He bore the weight of our sin, the sin that separated us from God. Through his suffering, we have been reconciled with God. We have been given peace between God and ourselves.

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Resting in God's Security

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Resting in God's Security

Psalm 121 is entitled, “My Help Comes from the Lord,” which is very significant. Many believe that David wrote this Psalm as he was in the midst of traveling, and staying out of harms way from the battle around him. Although this could refer to physical protection, more importantly, it refers to spiritual protection. This Psalm refers to the security and protection that God gives to those who cry out to him and those who look upon him. When one’s posture is positioned toward God rather than themselves, there is a promise of security and protection. This promise, as the Psalm says, is that “the Lord will keep us.” “He will not let our feet be moved.” There is something special and significant about knowing that our life is secure and stable, regardless of the circumstances and trials that we face. This may not mean that things will always go our way and that trials will not come, but it does mean that we are not defined by those things and God can work through them.

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We're All Lost

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We're All Lost

If you were to survey 100 people, asking them, “do you consider yourself a good person?”, the majority would probably say yes. In our culture, we have a way of separating really bad people with everyone else. And so, if you haven’t committed serious crimes you are overall a good person. In Romans 3:9–20, however, Paul provides us with a very different view of humanity. Quoting from the Psalms, Paul says, “None is righteous, no not one.” He then goes on to describe ho w humanity is not righteous—no one has done good, their tongues are deceptive, they are full of curses and bitterness, they are quick to shed blood, they do not fear God. Quite a rap sheet. The point is this: when compared to God, no one measures up. We are all sinful. There is not an ounce of our selves not contaminated by sin. While we are probably not as sinful as we could be, we are sinful enough to separate us from God.

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Close Enough to Confess

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Close Enough to Confess

Tomorrow is Sunday, the day when the church gathers to worship Jesus, be equipped for ministry, and encourages one another. While we need to make Sundays a priority every week, during Lent Sundays are a day of celebration in the midst of repentance and reflection. In the midst of all of this, however, confession is one of the crucial elements of the Christian life we have lost. I think most Christians recognize the importance of regular confession to God, but we fail to heed what James tells us: “confess your sins to one another.”

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The Preparation of Fasting

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The Preparation of Fasting

In the beginning of the book of Jonah, God calls Jonah to go to Nineveh, and to call the people to repent from their evil ways. Because of Jonah’s fear of the city, he goes the opposite direction, which resulted in God getting Jonah’s attention. There were great consequences for Jonah’s actions, and Jonah eventually got back on track with the calling that God gave him. The preaching that Jonah delivered to the Ninevites resulted in their preparation through fasting. This time of fasting and preparation pleased God greatly, as the king of Nineveh commanded the people in Jonah 3:7–8, “Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water, but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call our mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands.” The Ninevites feared God, and did not want to experience his wrath, so they submitted to Jonah’s warning, and believed in God.

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Life and Light

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Life and Light

Prior to the coming of Jesus, the world was lost and in darkness. The Jews were anticipating the coming of their Messiah but were beginning to think that nothing would ever change. Then out of no where, Jesus entered the scene. In John 1:1–14, the apostle John shares some powerful truth about Jesus. John tells his readers that “in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). Later he goes on to say, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). What an incredible reality. John uses the Greek word, logos (i.e., the Word), to identify Jesus. He says incredible things like the Word was in the beginning before anything existed, and the Word was with God, and even more shocking, the Word was God. All of this is to point to the unbelievable reality that Jesus is God. But it becomes even more incredible in verse 14—the Word “became flesh and dwelt among us.” Jesus, though he was God, humbled himself, became a human, and lived on earth. For many of us, this is not new news; however, it still should shock us. It should still amaze us. God came to us!

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But God

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But God

The love of God is something that is absolutely impossible to wrap our minds around. Yesterday, we reflected on the reality of sin that we face as people in this world. It’s not until we fully recognize our sinful nature that we begin to see God’s love in a greater scale. The Apostle Paul writes to the church of Ephesus who were a group of Christians struggling with unity. Paul is actually in prison during the time of this writing, which makes the book even more powerful and significant, knowing that Paul is in chains, while encouraging Christians to strive for and maintain unity. In the beginning of this chapter, he reminds the church that they were once “dead” in their sins, and they literally had no hope in their current state. The key phrase begins in verse four, as Paul reminds them, “But God…” This is a remarkable miracle, that God came to us, in our current state of sin and depravity, and made a way for us to have life in him. Paul knew that the church needed to hear this truth because it creates the foundation that all Christians need established in their lives in order to be unified.

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What To Do With Your Sin

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What To Do With Your Sin

Psalm 51 is a response of David, after he committed adultery with Bathsheba in 2 Samuel 11. David knew that he intentionally sinned against God. He then had to go through the process of repentance, healing, and reconciliation. Although David attempted to cover his sin one time by killing Bathsheba’s husband, he knew that he could not continue those types of actions and get away with it. After all, David was “a man after God’s own heart,” yet he still sinned against him. Through Nathan’s confrontation, David begins to repent of his sins and past mistakes, which results in a desperate cry to God for forgiveness toward the process of healing.

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