Regrets...I've Had A Few

Today’s Devotional Thought:

2 Corinthians 7:10, "Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.”

Regrets…I’ve had a few. I think that is how the song goes. I know that is how life goes. What's your biggest regret in life? If it's anything like these random New Yorkers in the video, it has one very important word in it. Students from Strayer University set up a chalkboard on the sidewalk near Lieutenant Petrosino Square in New York City for one day. At the top of the board was written, "Write your biggest regret." They provided a supply of colored chalk and set up a video camera to record people writing on the board.

It wasn't long before the board was full. That’s true for our lives. Our lives are like that chalkboard. Our chalkboards begin blank, clean. As we grow and get older slowly but surely they begin to fill. That time you lied to your parents to go to that party. That time you cheated on the test. The time you said those words you couldn’t take back. That time you turned your back upon your friend. The list goes on and on. Our regrets are like a weight that pulls us down, clouds our conscience, breaks our hearts. What can be done?

Max Lucado, in his book, Grace, tells the following story: A Chinese man named Li Fuyan had tried every treatment imaginable to ease his throbbing headaches. Nothing helped. An X-ray finally revealed the culprit. A rusty four-inch knife blade had been lodged in his skull for four years. In an attack by a robber, Fuyan had suffered lacerations on the right side of his jaw. He didn't know the blade had broken off inside his head. No wonder he suffered from such stabbing pain.

Lucado comments: “We can't live with foreign objects buried in our bodies. Or our souls. What would an X-ray of your interior reveal? Regrets over an [earlier] relationship? Remorse over a poor choice? Shame about the marriage that didn't work, the habit you couldn't quit, the temptation you didn't resist, or the courage you couldn't find? Guilt lies hidden beneath the surface, festering, irritating. Sometimes so deeply embedded you don't know the cause.” [Max Lucado, Grace (Thomas Nelson, 2012), p. 94]

We may not know the cause but God knows the cure. It is because of what Jesus did for us on the cross and what he did when he walked out of the the tomb. Jesus says in John 8:34-36, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” Jesus will set you free from the guilt of your sins, free from your regrets. Paul tells us the key is the type of repentance (a change of mind that leads to a change of direction) that leads us to the cross and brings us through the empty tomb.

In the video, as the board filled up with so many different stories, they noticed that almost all of these regrets had one thing in common. Nearly all of them involved the word "not." They were about chances not taken. They were about words not spoken. They were about dreams never pursued.

But then they gave these same people an eraser and wrote "Clean Slate" at the top of the chalkboard. As she erased her regret one young woman had tears in her eyes as she said, "I feel hopeful. It means that there are possibilities.” When you come to the cross and find the tomb empty it means there are possibilities. The possibility of freedom from regret and guilt.

Today God can take your “not” and erase it with His “not.” Whatever your “not” is, God’s “not” is bigger: “The angel said... He is NOT here; he has risen just as he said” (Matthew 28:6, emphasis mine).

Prayer: Our Holy Father, you grant us victory through the empty tomb. Victory over death. Victory over sin. Victory over our regrets. We confess before You we are sinners and we trust in your solution to our failures, Jesus Christ. Help us today to accept his grace and find real freedom. He is our hope. In Jesus we pray, amen.

Expect the unexpected...

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Devotional Thought:

Philippians 4:19, "And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus."

I recently read this testimony from Alison Ritch, of Birmingham, Alabama. She writes:

"My husband and I were about to start grad school, hoping to squeak through school together living on love and Taco Bell. Charlie had a decent laptop, but my only computer was a three-inch thick 1996 laptop. So for my birthday that July, I decided to ask our families for money for a new laptop. They were quite generous, and I received $720—enough to buy a nice, new computer.

"Before I made my purchase, we took a road trip to visit several college friends. Our old Nissan pick-up—our only car—had broken down shortly before our trip, so we left the truck at the shop and drove a borrowed car. During our trip our mechanic called with the estimate for fixing the truck. It was more than we had expected, and we didn't know where we would get the money. I was so fixated on getting my new laptop, it didn't even occur to me to use the money I'd received for my birthday to fix the truck.

"I told a friend when we were out for coffee about my plans to buy a laptop. She had recently gotten a new computer and offered me her old laptop. I still didn't take the hint. I thanked her but dismissed her offer. Her laptop, while several years newer than mine and certainly adequate for the paper-writing I'd be doing, was not the shiny, new computer I'd set my sights on.

"Back at the house where we were staying that night, Charlie and I were trying to figure out how we could scrape some money together to fix the truck. Somehow I finally allowed the thought I'd subconsciously been fighting off to enter my head: I could take my friend's old computer and use my birthday money to fix our truck. I knew the Holy Spirit was telling me to surrender my plans, and I knew that insisting on my own way would be saying no to him. So, I yielded to the Spirit's prompting. As soon as I did, it was like the scales on the eyes of my heart fell off as I suddenly remembered the number I had jotted down from the mechanic: $720. God knew I needed a computer. He also knew we needed a repaired truck. He provided a free computer, and he gave us the exact amount of money—to the dollar—that we needed to fix our truck.

"We wrote that story down in a notebook we kept at the time, but not just to remind us of God's supernatural provision. As much as I rejoiced in God's provision, I was sobered by how blind I was to it for so long when it was right in front of my face. God wanted to bless me. He provided just what I needed in ways I couldn't have anticipated, but my greed almost kept me from receiving that blessing. What a warning to fix my gaze not on what my sinful heart lusts after but on my Father, who withholds no good thing from his children."

God will meet your needs but you will find it is not always in the way you imagined. In Jeremiah 29:11 God tells an exiled Israel, "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." God has a plan for you. His plans are glorious and beautiful. Yet, because, as He tells us in Isaiah 55:8-9, His ways are higher than our ways and His thoughts higher than our thoughts His plans rarely match our plans. In fact we can miss his plans because we are too focused on our own plans to look and see what is under our noses.

What plans does God have for you today? To see them we must expect the unexpected and keep our eyes on Him. My prayer for you is that "God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus."

Prayer: Father, we thank You that You rarely listen to our plans and instead have plans for us that are better. We thank You that You meet our needs through our Lord, Jesus. Help us to expect the unexpected and keep our eyes on You today. In Jesus name, amen.

The Scandalous Cross...

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Today's Devotional Thought:

The scandalous cross. [scan-dal-ous: causing general public outrage by a perceived offense against morality or law.]

Galatians 3:10-13, "For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, as it is written: "Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law." Clearly no one who relies on the law is justified before God, because "the righteous will live by faith." The law is not based on faith; on the contrary, it says, "The person who does these things will live by them." Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole."

As we turn our eyes towards Easter we must see the empty tomb through the cross of Jesus. To fully understand the victory of the empty tomb we must fully understand the scandal of the cross. (The scandal of God declaring me “not guilty” because Jesus took my punishment on the cross.) The cross is God taking the curse that was upon each of us—for we all have sinned and fallen short of His glory (Romans 3:23)—and putting that curse fully upon Jesus. None of us were able to live up to God's standard of holiness (right doing and right thinking). Paul says in Romans 3:19-20, "Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God's sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin." So, it is through the cross that God becomes both "just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus" (Romans 3:26). It is the scandal of grace that, "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Corinthians 5:21). Scandalous. Glorious.

What does that look like? Paul Zahn, in Who Will Deliver Us, puts it this way: "I'm a little like the duck hunter who was hunting with his friend in a wide-open barren of land in southeastern Georgia. Far away on the horizon he noticed a cloud of smoke. Soon, he could hear the sound of crackling. A wind came up and he realized the terrible truth: a brush-fire was advancing his way. It was moving so fast that he and his friend could not outrun it. The hunter began to rifle through his pockets. Then he emptied all the contents of his knapsack. He soon found what he was looking for-a book of matches. To his friend's amazement, he pulled out a match and struck it. He lit a small fire around the two of them. Soon they were standing in a circle of blackened earth, waiting for the brush fire to come. They did not have to wait long. They covered their mouths with their handkerchiefs and braced themselves. The fire came near-and swept over them. But they were completely unhurt. They weren't even touched. Fire would not burn the place where fire had already burned.

"The law is like the brush-fire. I cannot escape it. But if I stand in the burned-over place, where law has already burned its way through, then I will not get hurt. Not a hair of my head will be singed. The death of Christ is the burned-over place. There I huddle, hardly believing yet relieved. Christ's death has disarmed the law. "Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord." [Paul Zahl, Who Will Deliver Us? (Wipf & Stock, 2008), pp. 42-43]

Praise God for the scandal of the cross!

Prayer: Holy Father: we often forget just how holy, how apart from evil and wrongdoing, You are. We often forget how sinful, how morally bankrupt, how much wrong doing we have done. But when we get a good look at that scandalous cross we see clearly. Your grace amazes us, washes over us, sets us free. You paid the penalty for Your own standards so that the unlovely, the unrighteousness, the failures and fallen could come to You clinging to Your Sons cross and be able cry out with a quivering voice of amazement, "Abba, Daddy." We thank you for that scandalous cross. We thank you for amazing grace! In Jesus name, amen. 

Are you too busy?

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Luke 6:12, "One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God."

After some years in ministry I believe one of the greatest enemies of the modern American Christian is busyness. People are just too busy to stop, to be still, and know that God is. We hear passages like Psalm 46:10, "...Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth," and we think, how nice would that be? To have the time just to stop and know that God is God; to be able to be still for more that a second. Granted, this is just a passing thought as we move from one thing to the next. And if that Psalmist had a cell phone certainly he would know that we can't put it down or we might miss something! But we know we ought to. We know we should slow down and spend time with God. Yet, we are too busy. We can't seem to slow down.

It's like the town of Greve in Italy that I read about. When McDonald's began to open in Italian cities, the Slow Food movement started promoting traditional Italian meals that lasted for hours. Slow Food was designed to oppose fast food and its values of homogeneity, impersonality, and haste. Based on the success of the Slow Food movement, some cities in Italy, including the city of Greve, started the Slow City movement. A slow city is committed to preserving its architectural heritage, typical dishes, and inherited customs. Greve's mayor, Paulo Saturnini, founded the International Network of Slow Cities.

But as The New York Times reported there's been a backlash to the slow city movement in Greve—the city has become so busy that many people don't have time to slow down. "'Everyone's running,' complained Mr. Saturnini's assistant, taking time to show a visitor around, since the mayor's calendar was full. In other words, becoming a slow city has led to an influx of tourists who now crowd the cafes, and the city has no time to slow down!" Hence the title of The New York Times article—"Sometimes Slowing Down Can Really Get Hectic."

"[The city has] developed," one of the town's business leaders added. "But it has lost that aspect of genuineness." [John Tagliabue, "Sometimes Slowing Down Can Really Get Hectic," The New York Times (6-7-02)]

Such is the frenetic pace of life in our age: even an intentionally "Slow City" can't figure out how to slow down in order to enjoy Sabbath and rest.

Jesus knew busyness. He was hunted by the crowds. His popularity had a strangle hold around his neck. Every time he turned around there was another need, another place to go, more people who wanted to see him. He once said, "Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head" (Luke 9:58). Jesus knew busyness. 

But he sets us an example of carving out time with God; an example of solitude and prayer. If you study his life you will find it was when Jesus was at his busiest that he snuck off early in the morning to be with God. One such time was at the beginning of his ministry as recorded in Mark 1:35, "Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed." These interesting tidbits are not in the text as just a curiosity. They are there because if God's own Son had to sneak off to ensure he had quiet time with his Father, how much more should we? After all, we can never be too busy for the things that really matter.

Prayer: Father, you know life can get hectic. It certainly was for your Son. We ask you to forgive us when we let busyness to get between us. Remind us to stop, to be still, to know that You are God. We thank you for the rest we find in Jesus and for his example that nothing should get between our time together. You are our rest. Thank you. In Jesus name (and by His example) we pray, amen.

The Power of a Word...

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Today’s devotional thought:

Proverbs 12:18, "The words of the reckless pierce like swords, but the tongue of the wise brings healing."

During the 2015-2016 NFL season, the Minnesota Vikings place kicker Blair Walsh had made an NFL-high 34 field goals. Before the Vikings' playoff game against the Seattle Seahawks, he had converted 33 of 34 kicks inside 30 yards in his career. So when the Vikings were down 10-9 with 22 seconds left and Walsh lined up for a 27-yard field goal attempt, it looked the Vikings would win. But Walsh's kick sailed wide and the Vikings season came to a crashing halt.

In the midst of the social media storm directed against Walsh, a group of first graders in Minnesota set out to encourage the broken-hearted kicker. First grader Allie Edwards said, "Blair was really sad, and we wanted to make him feel better." One of her classmates, wrote, "Dear Blair Walsh, I think you shood keep trying. Don't give up! We still love you! Git better by practicing." Tyler Doffin filled a whole page for Walsh: "Dear Blair: I fell bad for you. Don't give up. You're still #1. Practis more so that you can get better at cicing. You're so good at cicing. So don't give up! Keep trying! We still love you."

The kids' act of kindness got his attention. He was so touched to hear from children who didn't know him that he pushed his flight home back a day to visit the classroom. After the visit he said, "It was very touching to me. … A lot of [the cards] were very pretty and creative. … I will cherish them forever." [sources: Susan Elizabeth Littlefield, "First Graders Aim to Cheer Up Vikings Kicker Walsh," CBS Minnesota (1-12-16); Kevin Seifert, "Blair Walsh is human, so let's treat him that way," ESPN (1-11-16)]

The greatest power you posses is in the words you choose. It's with your words you can build up or tear down. With your words you can encourage or destroy. James says that in this way the words you choose can be like a small spark that starts a great fire (James 3:5). On the other hand, Paul tells us in Ephesians 4:29, "Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen."

But what your words are really saying is what kind of person you are. For it is your words, more than anything else, which tells of what is in your heart. As Jesus said, "...What you say flows from what is in your heart." (Luke 6:45). Our words show just what kind of hearts we have. When it comes to your words, choose wisely, encourage, build up.

What will your words say today? 

Prayer: Holy Father, we commend to You our words. We ask that You will be Lord of our lives and thus Lord of our words. Fill our hearts with Your love so that these tongues of ours, which praise Your name, may also be instruments to encourage others. In Jesus name, amen.