Now one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, so he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume, and as she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them. When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner. (Luke 7:37-39)

This is one of the most poignant scenes in the ministry of Jesus and it clearly contrasts the heart of religion and the heart of love. In the days of Jesus, when notable individuals visited a town and were invited to a prominent persons home, the villagers were typically welcomed to come and sit around the perimeter of the courtyard and listen to their conversations. Undoubtedly, most seats were reserved for close friends and family of the host but others could, perhaps, hang around the perimeter if they remained quiet and “invisible.”

On this particular evening, one of the “others” broke all protocol and eased her way through the onlookers to the very feet of the notable visitor. I’m sure that both social tension and eyebrows rose as she did so. First of all, this was a woman and women were not welcome to assert themselves in Jewish culture in the first century. More importantly, this presumptuous woman was notoriously known for her sin and certainly did not inhabit the social circles of Simon the Pharisee. It must have been an incredibly awkward moment for the host who had scored a social coup by having this young, controversial, miracle-working Rabbi accept his invitation to dinner. But now, this loose, very unwelcome woman was in the spotlight rather than Simon. More than that, she was making a scene with her sobbing and her theatrics – pouring perfume on the feet of Simon’s guest and wiping is feet with her hair. I’m surprised that Simon didn’t have his servants escort her off the premises but, perhaps, he saw this as a kind of test for Jesus. How would he deal with this breach of etiquette? If he truly were a prophet would he not know that this woman was a blatant sinner and rebuke her before all the righteous gathered in the courtyard?

And what of Jesus? If I had been him I would have found the moment even more awkward with this woman weeping, pouring expensive perfume on is feet, and wiping his feet with her hair with everyone looking on and wondering how these two might be connected – wondering if there were some revelation of scandal in this moment. I’m sure that for her sake and for the sake of everyone there I would have invited her to meet at a better time in a more appropriate setting. But not Jesus. While she is pouring, weeping, and wiping he simply tells a story that justifies the sinful woman and condemns the righteous Pharisee while calmly accepting her worship and repentance. It is likely that only two people in the whole courtyard were not embarrassed – Jesus, the healer of broken hearts, and this broken woman who had come to the Rabbi with a true sense of desperation about her life.

The religious condemned her and rejected her while the creator of the universe and the sinless second Adam embraced her. The religious focused on who she had been while Jesus focused on who she could be. The religious defined her by her sin and wanted nothing to do with her while Jesus saw her sin as the symptoms of a shattered soul and chose to do something about it. If the religious had ruled the moment, this woman would have disappeared into the night carrying an unbearable load of guilt and rejection convinced all the more that God hated her. Jesus showed a different heart and I believe it transformed her life.

The last look at this woman we get through Luke’s gospel ends with Jesus saying, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace” (Lk.7:50). John, however, may open the door for us a little wider when he speaks of Mary in his gospel. In John’s gospel, Mary has a high profile and is the sister of Martha and Lazarus. These three seem to have been very close friends of the Rabbi. You’ll remember that in the 11^th chapter of John, Jesus stood outside the sealed tomb of Lazarus and commanded him to come forth, performing the most notable miracle in his three-year ministry. In the beginning of that particular account we are told, “This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair” (Jn.11:2).

Some scholars do not believe that the woman of Luke 11 is the Mary who played such a prominent role in the life and ministry of Jesus, but I see no contradictions. She, who had been forgiven much, loved much. I believe love took a broken, sinful woman and restored her hope, her dignity, and her family. I believe love took a nameless woman without purpose for her life and gave her an eternal purpose and a name remembered for more than two millennia now. No wonder she was so attached to this distributor of God’s love and sat at his feet while her sister rattled the pots and pans. No wonder she believed that Jesus could give life to her brother since he had already given life to her.

That is the triumph of love over religion and relationship over ritual. Religion simply categorized this woman as a battered and worn relic of humanity ready for the trash heap. Jesus, however, saw her potential. He reclaimed her and repurposed her. He made her beautiful and useful while most of us would have simply walked by her like junk on the side of a road. I absolutely believe in love over religion but, if I’m honest, I drift away from love and into religion and judgment more often than I care to acknowledge – not just toward others but also toward myself. How often do I judge and reject my own heart, thoughts and actions as I compare them to some cold standard of acceptability rather than through the eyes of my Heavenly Father who never rejects but continues to repurpose me in my life. When I judge and reject myself, I reject others. When I receive God’s immeasurable love for me I tend to love others so much more. I’m betting Mary was a lover of broken people and my prayer is that I will also love as Jesus loves.

Homosexuality is not monolithic. There are various roads and causes that lead to people defining themselves as “gay” and giving in to the impulses and lifestyle. In my last blog, I talked about Mark who had mistaken friendship for homosexuality. In this blog we will look at another path.

Randy (not his actual name) came into my office several years ago. He was in his thirties, a professional in his community, and had driven a considerable distance to see me at the recommendation of a woman who lived in his town with whom I had worked several months earlier. John was raised in a conservative Christian denomination which he still attended. He was married with small children and worked in a profession that made him a very public figure. John came in and after a bit of chitchat about where he grew up and what he did for a living, he collapsed into his chair and announced that my office was his last stop.

Obviously, that phrase got my attention because it could have meant any number of things. Randy then began to tell me his story. He was raised in a good Christian home but when he was seven or eight years old a family friend had molested him. That experience filled him with confusion and shame and created a secret in his life that became a place where the enemy could work freely and without hindrance as he does in all the secret places of our lives. Randy had begun to have some homosexual experiences in high school but pushed back against the impulses. He continued to feel the contradictions in his life but married in college and had children. His wife was totally unaware of his secret struggle.

Randy told me that there were seasons in his life when he was able to manage his homosexual impulses but there were seasons when his impulses managed him. He was in one of those seasons and was obviously filled with shame as he told me about the secret liaisons he had been having with men he met online. He felt alienated from his wife, who was a great wife and mother, but for whom he felt no attraction. He believed that God hated him and that there was no way back but hoped that I could say something that would change his mind. Randy told me that if I could not give him hope about his situation he was going to leave his wife, his children, his job, his town, and his faith and fully embrace “the lifestyle” because he could no longer battle the impulses.

Randy’s first great obstacle to healing and freedom was his belief that God hated him, was repulsed by him, and would no longer have anything to do with him. After all, he had prayed “a million times” for God to take away the feelings he had for other men but those feelings had persisted. His conclusion was that God no longer heard his prayers because he was so disgusted by Randy and his secret life.

I asked Randy if he had ever heard God speak to him. He said that he believed God had spoken to him clearly once or twice in his life as he grew up and made career decisions. I asked if he were willing to let God speak to him now about his situation. He was reluctant but desperate so he agreed. We closed our eyes and I simply asked Jesus to speak to Randy and tell him how he felt about him. Within seconds, Randy began to weep and sob almost uncontrollably.

After a minute or two, I asked him what Jesus had said to him. Randy replied, “ He didn’t say anything…but I literally felt his arms around me and I know he still loves me. He’s not done with me.” That was the first necessary breakthrough for Randy because that supernatural moment with Jesus restored his hope that life might be manageable again.

The enemy loves to prompt us to sin, fill us with shame about our sin, and then whisper that God has turned his back on us because of our perversion. It usually takes more than quoting John 3:16 to overcome these lies of the enemy. It usually takes a personal experience with God to give us hope again and demonstrate that God is still there for us. Randy received that experience that afternoon in my office and it made everything else possible.

More about Randy and his victory over  a spirit in my next blog.

What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. (Rom.8:31-35)

As Paul begins to wrap up this section of his letter to the church in Rome, we should be full of confidence because of our relationship with the Father. He has already declared that because you are in Christ you are no longer subject to any condemnation. Christ became sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God (2 Cor.5:21). His righteousness is assigned to us and, therefore, never waivers. Our spiritual condition may bounce around like a cork on a windswept lake but our position remains constant because God’s righteousness has been assigned to us rather than our own.

We have been adopted into the family of God and have great standing as his children. In addition, we have the Spirit of God living in us who is willing and ready to direct our steps at all times. His Spirit intercedes for us even when we don’t know how or even know that we need to cry out to God. Our Father has promised to intervene in even bad situations to draw good out of those situations on our behalf and he has set (predestined) ahead of time, all kinds of opportunities for us to grow in Christ and to bear fruit in his kingdom. He has already called us, justified us, and glorified us.   What more could we need?

After enumerating all the things that the Father has provided for our salvation, Paul summarizes in one sentence one of the great corollaries of scripture. In so many words he declares that if the Father has already, willingly and lavishly, given us his most precious gifts (his Son and his Spirit), why would he not give us everything else we need for this life? If Jesus has already willingly died for us and is interceding for us now, why would we doubt the love and provision of the Father? Paul has already underlined this proposition earlier in his letter. “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). And yet we so often do doubt his care and provision.

For the most part, when we doubt, I don’t think we judge God as uncaring. Instead, I think we hear the accuser telling us that we have not measured up in our walk with the Lord and that our sins and weaknesses have disqualified us from his care. When we allow ourselves to think that way, we have slipped back under a yoke of law that requires us to enter God’s grace on the basis of our own righteousness rather than on the basis of his love and righteousness. Then the enemy tells us that salvation came to us by grace because when we sinned we didn’t know any better. But now that we are saved, we do know better so our sins disqualify us now. The truth is that we began our relationship with God on the basis of his grace and we continue it on the same basis.

I have found that the great battle for most of us is in the arena of refusing to allow the accuser of the brethren to allow us with condemnation where we put the emphasis on ourselves and our own spiritual performance rather than on the love and provision of God. As soon as our emphasis shifts to our own worthiness, we immediately feel disqualified to receive blessings, to operate in anointing, to command the enemy, or to witness to others. We start feeling like hypocrites and start shrinking back to the corners or trying to operate in our own strength. God does not expect perfection from his children any more than you expect if from your children. He does want love and a desire to grow and be pleasing to him but he knows that, in this life, we will always need an intercessor in heaven and his Spirit directing and redirecting us on earth. So, Paul reminds us that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ and since God has already given us his most precious gifts in the midst of our sinfulness and imperfection, he will not hold back on the other things we need as long as our hearts are still turned toward him, imperfect as we may be.

Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen. (1 Peter 4:10-11)

Many of us are hungry for spiritual gifts. That’s the way it should be because Paul encourages us to “eagerly desire spiritual gifts” (see 1 Cor.14:1) in his first letter to the church at Corinth. It has been my experience that we do not necessarily receive the spiritual gifts we desire and ask for immediately. There may be several reasons for that but Peter’s admonition above is worth considering when we are pursuing or even wanting a stronger anointing for a spiritual gift.

First of all we must use the gift God has given us or begin to pursue and learn about the gift we desire. Many gifts come in seed form and we will not experience them in powerful ways in the beginning. Often we will have to exercise the gift with little impact or effectiveness in the beginning. We will need to risk a little embarrassment at first, continue to ask for a greater anointing, ask those who have a developed gift to teach us or pray for an impartation and then we will have to continue to learn through our own experience. If we wait for a full-blown gift before we use it, we may be waiting a very long time. If we have a gift that is developing, it will not increase unless we are using it. So the first principal is to use the gift even though it may not well developed.

Secondly, our goal should be to serve others rather than ourselves through the exercise of the gift. If we desire the gift for status, power, the rush of the supernatural, affirmation, or any other self-focused motive we have missed the mark. Motives are important in the kingdom of God and our primary desire must be to exercise the gift for the benefit of others – typically out of compassion. We may need to pray for the heart of Jesus towards others before God will pour out his gifts in abundance.

We also need to exercise the gift with the sense that we are simply being conduits of God’s grace to a fallen world. We are not the source. He is the source. A water line is of no use unless water is flowing through it. We are simply a line that that remains hollow and useless unless the Spirit is flowing through us to deliver God’s grace to those who need it. It’s interesting that Peter calls on us to “faithfully” administer that grace as well. That carries the idea of being diligent in doing so as well as being obedient to the promptings of the Spirit when he directs our attention to someone or some situation. Faithfulness also implies integrity in our stewardship of God’s grace so that we do not exercise it carelessly or for personal gain.

Finally, Peter reminds us that these gifts are also signs and the signs should always point to God rather than to ourselves, our church, or our ministry. We are simply representing the Father and as representatives we should speak and act as Jesus himself would if he were standing in our place. A focus on God and on others rather than ourselves seems to be one critical element for receiving a gift or for God giving an increase to a gift we already possess. In a moment when we forget ourselves, our wants, our needs and even our dignity we are most like Jesus. As we pray and administer God’s grace in it’s various forms, we may want to remember that principle so that our heart is always positioned to receive so that we can quickly give away what God has entrusted to us.

To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.        That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Cor.12:7-10)

For those who believe that God sometimes visits sickness on an individual to purify or strengthen him or her through suffering, this passage from Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians is often pointed to as proof for that position. After all, we have all known individuals who suffered through injuries, illnesses or disabilities who grew closer to God and who gave great testimonies of how God had strengthened them in their suffering so that they might endure their trial of sickness and give glory to God. Paul, then, is seen as one of those individuals who struggled with some kind of physical or mental condition but found God unwilling to take it from him so that he might develop absolute dependence on the Lord. That theology  promotes the view that God is not nearly as interested in our physical well-being as in our spiritual condition. Because of that, he visits sickness on some or chooses not to heal others for their spiritual benefit. And for those who hold that view, Paul is their poster child.

Let’s examine what Paul said and this particular theological view one more time. First of all we need to be aware of biblical or cultural idioms or figurative expressions. Many of us have used the expression “a thorn in my flesh” ourselves. But think of how we commonly use it. We tend to speak of irritating people who seem to always pick at us or who try to undermine us as “thorns in our flesh.” We might say, “Man, this guy at work is a thorn in my flesh. I just wish he would get transferred to another department or quit all together!” We use that expression because the thorn, the irritant, or the aggravation is external to us just as a thorn is external. Every spring when I am pruning rose bushes I always get pricked or a scraped by thorns. They are not within my flesh but external to it. They don;t “take me out”, they simply aggravate me with a bit of pain and a few drops of blood.

Secondly, the expression is used in a couple of other places in the Bible. These would be expressions very familiar to Paul, the Torah (Old Testament) scholar. But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land, those you allow to remain will become barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides. They will give you trouble in the land where you will live. (Num. 33:55). Then you may be sure that the Lord your God will no longer drive out these nations before you. Instead, they will become snares and traps for you, whips on your backs and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land, which the Lord your God has given you. (Josh. 23:13)  These, as well as Paul’s expression are equivalent. They both speak of people who constantly harass and trouble them like thorns that tear at your flesh  as you walk through a field.

Paul had such a group that followed him constantly from place to place. As soon as he would preach the gospel of grace, these Jews would come right behind him preaching that salvation came through not only Jesus but the keeping of the Law of Moses. The first chapter of Galatians reveals the level of frustration and anger that Paul felt towards these men. They were constantly his thorn in the flesh – not some besetting illness that God had given him. Notice how he finishes the paragraph thanking God for weaknesses, insults, persecutions, etc. All these fit the use of the idiom culturally and biblically. He does not list diseases as something for which he gives thanks.

Jesus himself often warned us of persecutions to come but not disease. When it came to persecution he called us to endure. When it came to sickness he healed it, gave gifts to the church for healing others, and instructed believers to call the elders of the church for healing as soon as they got sick. We have zero examples of Jesus counseling people to desire sickness so that they could grow spiritually or in order to bring glory to God. We have zero examples of Jesus laying hands on someone to make them sick so that they might prosper spiritually. If that were the case, he would have given gets of illness tho the church rather than gifts of healing. God can work in the midst of a catastrophe or a plague or a debilitating disease to bring good out of it – even spiritual growth, but that is a very different thing from causing the illness. God is “the God who heals.”  To give sickness is contrary to his nature.  Even in an evil world, any father who intentionally administered some horrible virus or disease to a son or daughter to “make them better children” would new locked up, yet we often cause God of doing they same.

There is much more we could say about Paul’s “thorn in the flesh,” but perhaps this gives you some initial help if your faith for healing has been troubled by that section of scripture and the way in which some have understood it. Be blessed today!

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full (Jn.10:10)

For many followers of Jesus this is a familiar passage and yet the two parts are often quoted separately as stand alone passages. We quote one to characterize the devil. Then we quote the other to talk about the great life Jesus wants us to have. But the power is in the contrast between the two and it was the contrast that Jesus wanted to emphasize.

The nature of the enemy is to rob you of every good thing the Lord has purposed for you. His goal is to take away what is rightfully yours, to destroy what he can’t take, and to take your life if he is able. There is no mercy from the kingdom of darkness and there is no good will of any kind. Anything that comes from the enemy that tastes sweet is simply a chocolate covering for the poison pill inside. Anything that comes from the devil that feels like a blessing is simply bait to get you to step further into his trap so that when he springs the trap there is no escape. That’s what he does; that’s who he is. We need to know that because too many of us think we can bargain with him or play on his playground without consequence.

On the other hand we have Jesus. This scripture is in the context of the Good Shepherd who lays his life down for the sheep. In the midst of that dialogue he tells us that he came so that we might have life and have it abundantly or have it to the full. The word in the original language means superabundant, excessive, over-the-top, so much more than you need, etc. Notice that the enemy is in it totally for himself, for personal power, and for personal revenge. Jesus is in it totally for you and so totally that he died so that you might inherit everything that was his – so that you might live in super-abundance.

That’s great news but most of us don’t feel as if we are living a superabundant, excessive, over-the-top life. There are at least two reasons for that. First of all we hunger after things that have no value in heaven. They are temporary and inferior to everything in the heavenly realm. If we measure abundance by cars, homes, vacations, possessions, power, etc. then we are measuring abundance by the things thrown out in the streets in heaven. Jesus came that we might have true riches – love, acceptance, peace, purpose, his Spirit, communion with the Father, power and authority from on high given to us to invest so that others might also have an abundant life in Christ.

Abundance comes through a state of heavenly blessing resting on us. That blessedness does not come through out achievements but by the grace of God for those whose hope is in Jesus. Remember the beatitudes – blessed are the poor in spirit, the pure in heart, those who mourn, those who are merciful, those who make peace, etc. In the natural realm those qualities are a formula for poverty not abundance. But in the kingdom of heaven they bring favor, peace and a joy that surpasses anything the world can offer. In that state we also are entrusted with spiritual riches, gifts of the Spirit, communion with the Father, his presence and his protection.

The second reason we don’t experience abundance is that we don’t expect it or have faith for it. We continually fall into the trap of believing that God’s blessings are only for those who deserve them – the super-spiritual get the super-abundance. But that is not the nature of God or the kingdom of heaven. Jesus has purchased the abundant life for every believer not just for the over-achievers. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t strive to live for Jesus in extraordinary ways, but the abundant life is what helps us achieve that lofty goal. God is not holding out, he is simply holding on to the riches of heaven until we desire what he has to offer and know that those things, like salvation, come by grace.

If we think money, homes, cars, dream vacations, fame and influence are the abundant life then why do those who have such things line up for rehab centers, live on anti-depressants, and go through marriages like teenagers through pizza? Satan sells snake oil. He promises that all the things above will satisfy your soul once you get them by any means necessary. But that million-dollar feeling that comes from what is temporary by nature is itself temporary and in the morning the pursuit begins all over again.

Jesus offers his abundance for free and his abundance doesn’t leave you thirsty or hungry in the morning. Isn’t what he offers worth pursuing? We begin by giving up our pursuit of worldly things.   Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be given to you. We begin by rethinking what we really want. What every man really wants is love, significance, peace and purpose. We think the things of the world will eventually get us what we truly want and so we pursue while Jesus asks us to simply sit with him and he will give us those things freely. That is the abundant life.

In order for someone to find freedom in Christ, that individual must recognize and acknowledge the sin in his/her life.  Unrepented sin gives the enemy legal access to our lives because in those areas that we have roped off for ourselves and our flesh, we are in agreement with Satan.

To help people find their freedom in Christ we must learn how to help people deal with the sin that is usually so apparent to others but not always apparent to them.  In addition, we must do so in love.  In everything we do, we must follow the lead of the Savior of all men and the one who has shown us the heart of the Father.  As we look at the life and ministry of Jesus, however, we find two or three general responses to sin and at times they seem to be quite contradictory.

Most of us love the response of Jesus to the sins of the woman at the well (Jn.4:1-26) and the woman taken in adultery (Jn.8: 1-11).  In both of those settings Jesus encounters women whose lives have been marked with sin.  The Samaritan woman of John 4 seems to have had a reputation in her village that had gained her the status of outcast. She had lived with a number of husbands and was simply living with her latest lover.  According to John, Jesus was resting at the well about noon when the woman showed up to draw water.  Traditionally the women of the village would have come to the well in the cool of the morning and the evening rather than in the heat of the day.  Perhaps, she came at noon to avoid the other women of the village. The woman described in John 8 was a woman caught in the very act of adultery who doesn’t bother to argue her innocence even when her life is on the line.

In both cases the gentleness and mercy of Jesus is almost overwhelming. In both cases Jesus acknowledges the sin in the lives of each woman but almost in passing.  Instead he emphasizes the grace and forgiving nature of God.  He points them to a better life but in no way shames them or condemns them as they go on their way.  That is the Jesus most of us love and are comfortable with – the Jesus who says little about sin but just points people to the grace of God.

But in his gospel, John describes another moment when Jesus heals a man who had been lame for thirty-eight years.  This man had spent his days begging at the pool of Bethesda.  In a moment of compassion, Jesus saw the man and healed him.  It is such a quick moment that the man doesn’t even discover who has healed him.  But John tells us that later in the day, Jesus found the man in the temple area and privately warned him to “stop sinning or something worse may happen to you” (Jn.5:14).   In this case Jesus gives a private rebuke to a sinful man so that he might find eternal life and not lose the healing he had received for “the kindness of God calls us to repentance” (Rom.2:4).

Finally, we are all aware of the sharp confrontations Jesus had with the Pharisees. With these men he was not gentle nor did he give a private rebuke.  He scolded them in public and called them sons of Satan (Jn.8:44), a brood of vipers (Mt.12), blind guides (Mt.23) and  more.

So how do we reconcile these encounters if we are to do all things in love? If Jesus came to seek and to save the lost why is he gentle with some and scathing with others?  I believe that the common ground of each encounter was the redemptive motive of Jesus.  His goal for all three types of sinner was redemption and that goal was motivated by love.  Remember, we are called to love even those we don’t like.

To the women, Jesus took on a priestly role of dispensing hope, gentleness, grace and forgiveness. These women were quite aware of their sins and already carried their own burden of shame for the lives they had been leading.  Jesus had no need to convince them of their sinfulness. He needed to convince them that the great and holy God of Israel was willing to forgive and embrace them despite their sinful past.

That was the message they needed to hear. To the lame man Jesus seemed to take a middle ground of demonstrating God’s mercy but then confronting his sin in a personal way so not to humiliate the man. In a sense, this man needed to be reminded that God’s mercy was not released into his life so that he could continue to be the man that he was before he was healed. He needed to be reminded that the grace of God call us to a different life.    In that case, Christ took a position somewhere between priest and prophet and brought grace with a word of warning.

When facing the Pharisees who trusted in their own righteousness and who were blinded to their sins by a spiritual arrogance, Jesus came in the spirit of the prophets with a get-in-your face rebuke and a call to repentance.  Though it was harsh it was still an attempt to redeem these men.

So in helping men and women deal with their sins there are times to be very priestly, times to be very prophetic, and times to stand somewhere in between.  For many, it will be very apparent which approach to take in order to help them find freedom.  For others it will take a clear leading of the Spirit.  One approach will easily fit our temperament while the other will be very foreign to us but discernment and flexibility is key.   Jesus did not love some and hate others.  He simply knew which approach was most redemptive in the moment – not only to the one he was dealing with but to the ones who were watching.

However, we do it, we must help people discern and acknowledge their sin and their brokenness if they are to be healed and set free.  Think about what is most needed and the spirit in which it must be ministered the next time God puts someone in your life that needs the grace and the healing touch of Jesus and may the Lord bless you today.

Our freedom in Christ is dependent on two essential things.  The first is that Christ took responsibility for our sins.  That is grace.  “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21). Jesus took on the responsibility of our debt because it was a debt we could not pay.  The second essential is that we take responsibility for our sins. Many believers fail to experience freedom from sin, brokenness, and their past because they will not take ownership of the failings and faults in their own life.

We are glad for Jesus to own our sins but somehow we are not willing to do the same.  However, if I don’t own something I can’t legally give it away.  If I don’t own my own failings and faults I cannot give them to Jesus so I retain the very things I wish to be rid of. I just want Jesus to take away the things I struggled with and the things I’m ashamed of without me ever having to acknowledge those issues in my life. Lets just keep my secret sin secret.

Philip Yancey says, “People divide into two groups: not the guilty and the “righteous,” as many people think, but rather two types of guilty people. There are guilty people who acknowledge their wrongs, and guilty ones who do not” (Philip Yancey, What’s So Amazing about Grace, p.181).  John tells us a story where those two categories collided with Jesus illuminating the sins of both.  You know the story.  In John 8, Jesus is teaching in the temple courts and a group of religious leaders haul a young woman into the courtyards and essentially throw her at the feet of Jesus.  She has been caught in the act of adultery and the religious zealots quote the Law of Moses that demands she be stoned to death because of her sin. They ask Jesus what he has to say about this woman and her punishment.  Interestingly, the Pharisees are trying to place Jesus in the middle of a religious controversy.  If he denounces the Law as too punitive then he opposes Moses and will be seen as a false teacher.  If he hands out the rocks, he will be despised by the people witnessing this event because he showed no mercy.

The self-righteous feel no need for mercy so they are concerned about the letter of the law. The crowds watching the spectacle feel the weight of their own sin and their hearts cry out for mercy because they themselves need so much. John recalls that at the moment of decision, Jesus simply stooped down and began to write on the ground.  This is the only account in the gospels of Jesus ever writing.  What he wrote we don’t know.  Many think he began to write out the sins of those who stood in the crowd ready to stone the adulteress.  Perhaps, he wrote scriptures related to mercy or confession. Still, we don’t know. What we do know is that Jesus simply pointed out that everyone in the courtyard that morning belonged to the “guilty of sin” group.  The only difference was that the woman acknowledged her sin (albeit under duress) while the ones holding the stones did not. Convicted of that reality, they all left one after another dropping their stones in the dust.

Jesus told a related parable that Luke recorded for us. “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.    The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted” (Lk.18:10-14).

Again, one acknowledged his sin while the other remained silent about his own. We fail to acknowledge or, at least, fully acknowledge our sin because we fear the judgment and rejection of men but also because we fear the rejection of God. Many of us read the call to repent and confess as God’s way of shaming us or getting more dirt on us for the scandal sheets in heaven. But it is just the opposite.  God calls us to take responsibility for our sin so that he can forgive, heal, and exalt us in the kingdom. Whoever humbles himself will be exalted. Whoever humbles himself by acknowledging his sin, his weaknesses, and his failings will experience more fully the grace of God and will more readily extend that grace to others.

Jesus told Simon the Pharisee, “He who has been forgiven much loves much.”  The truth is that we have all been forgiven much.  But not all of us acknowledge or allow ourselves realize how much has been forgiven. We deny, rationalize, and minimize our failings but not the failings of others. In doing so, we greatly limit our love for God and our healing.

There is no question that we are sinners.  The only question is which group of the guilty will I stand with? If you desire freedom and healing you must stand with the ones who take responsibility for their “stuff” so that Jesus can finally take responsibility for “their stuff.”  Blessed are the poor in spirit who acknowledge their sin, their weakness, and a great need for a Savior, for they shall be healed and set free. We can all be blessed today by owning “our stuff” because once we own it, Jesus will be glad to take it off our hands.

It is not unusual to run into people who love Jesus but avoid his church.  Many have experienced a bad moment in a church where they felt judged or rejected fifteen to twenty years ago.  Others had a friend or family member that was “wronged” by church leadership sometime in the distant pass.  Others play the “hypocrites” card and say they have no use for the church because it is full of people who project the image of “Christian” on Sunday but treat other people badly the other six days of the week.  Others reject the organized church because it is led by men rather than the Spirit or because it operates like a corporation rather than a family.  Others find the organized church to be worldly or materialistic or performance driven and so they reject all organized religion as systemically bankrupt.

In response to those criticisms I would say there is some or much truth in each of them.  And yet I believe Jesus calls us to love the church and be involved in the church regardless of her shortcomings. The church is the “bride of Christ” and if you love the groom you will love the bride even if she is awkward, immature, and tells bad jokes.  You will not cut yourself off from the bride because to do so distances you from the groom who is often with his bride. If you love the groom and want the best for him, you will not detach yourself from his blundering bride but will determine to help the bride grow and mature for his sake if not for hers.

The church has always been organized and imperfect. It has never been a perfect haven of love,  righteousness, or spiritual maturity.  Its leaders have never had it all together.  The New Testament is full of admonitions for believers to forgive one another as Christ forgave us.  That means that someone was being “wronged” by someone else in the church often enough that we were called to forgive, to be patient, to pray for one another, and to leave our gift at the altar until we had reconciled a relationship problem that the Holy Spirit had brought to mind. Some of the greatest leaders in the church, Paul and Barnabas, had disagreements and disputes.  The apostle Peter himself had to be called out for discriminating against the Gentiles.

Just about every letter (epistle) in the New Testament was written to churches with big problems and rampant imperfections. Just look at Corinth.  These guys were tolerating open sexual sin in their ranks.  They were taking one another to court. They were abusing spiritual gifts and abusing the Lord’s Supper and in doing so were abusing one another.  They were struggling with pride, arrogance, and selfishness and had twisted off on doctrines about the resurrection.  Their worship services were chaotic and Paul began his letter by telling them they were not very spiritual. And yet he addressed them as the church of God in Corinth, God’s holy people, and told them how thankful he was for the grace that had been given to them in Jesus. Then he engaged in helping them grow rather than rejecting them and separating himself from the bride of Christ.

I believe the glory of the church is not found only in our maturity and holiness but even more in the fact that we love one another relentlessly even in the face of our weaknesses and failures. God certainly does that for us and he expects us to do that for his church.  In that unity the power of the Spirit is displayed and we experience more of his glory.  Church members who bail out on the church because she is not what they expect her to be, abandon her to her weaknesses.  It is almost like parents abandoning their children because they are not as obedient and attractive as they had hoped.

I love Philip Yancey’s description of his church and in it I see the true glory of  God – love and acceptance for the imperfect.  It’s a bit long but worth reading.  I hope you find Jesus in it as I do each time I read it.

“A few times at my church I preached the sermon, then assisted in the ceremony of communion…those who desired to partake would come to the front, stand quietly in a semicircle, and wait for us to bring the elements. ‘The body of Christ broken for you,’ I would say as I held out a loaf for bread for the person before me to break off. ‘The blood of Christ shed for you,’ the pastor behind me would say, holding out a common cup…I knew the stories of some of the people standing before me. I knew that Mabel, the woman with strawy hair and bent posture who came to the senior citizen center, had been a prostitute.  Fifty years ago she had sold her only child…she knew she would make a terrible mother. She could never forgive herself she said. Now she was standing at the communion rail, spots of rouge like paper discs on her cheeks, her hands outstretched, waiting to receive the gift of grace… ‘The body of Christ broken for you, Mabel.’  Beside Mabel were Gus and Mildred, star players in the only wedding ceremony ever performed among the church’s seniors. They lost $150/month in Social Security benefits by marrying rather than living together, but Gus insisted. He said Mildred was the light of his life and he did not care if he lived in poverty as long as he lived with her at his side.  ‘The blood of Christ shed for you, Gus, and you, Mildred.’ Next came Adolphus, an angry young black man whose worst fears about the human race had been confirmed in Vietnam. Adolphus scared people…Then came Sarah, a turban covering her bare head scarred from where doctors had removed a brain tumor. And Michael, who stuttered so badly he would physically cringe whenever anyone addressed him. And Maria, the wild and overweight Italian woman who had just married for the forth time. ‘Thees one will be deeferent I just know.’ What could we offer such people other than grace, on tap?” (What’s So Amazing About Grace? Philip Yancey, p.277).

Many of us might think these are not the kind of people we would feel good sitting next to in church, but these are the ones Jesus died for and his love for such as these and such as us is his true glory.  In the midst of his discussion on the miraculous gifts of the Spirit in I Corinthians, Paul discussed love for an entire chapter. The implication is that the power of the Holy Spirit flows most freely where love abounds.  Many of the people I know who left the “organized church” did so because they didn’t see the Holy Spirit moving in their church but they themselves refused to love the imperfect and so left with nothing but criticism for the bride of Christ.

The glory of God is not perfect people but perfect love for imperfect people…even imperfect leaders.  Not every congregation fits every person.  God places us in different places.  But the church in all of her craziness and immaturity is still the bride Jesus died for.  Are we to stay crazy and immature?  Of course not.  But God wants us to love his bride until she is perfected rather than rejecting her because of past transgressions and current pettiness.  We honor God by loving his bride. Be blessed today and choose to love the body of Christ because it is in that love  that the Holy Spirit operates most willingly.  Be blessed.

“Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires” (2 Peter 1:4).

In one sense this may be a familiar scripture but in another sense it is a startling text. As a believer, you literally participate in the divine nature – the very nature of the eternal God. How much do we participate?  Probably as much as we want…or as little as we want.

In preparing a study on the gifts of the Spirit it occurred to me that every spiritual gift we exercise is a participation in the divine nature.  If our gifts are spiritual gifts then they are not ordinary nor are they of this world.  Spiritual gifts are supernatural and are little explosions of the divine nature being released through us.

Peter also said, “Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms” (I Peter 4:10-11). As we exercise our gifts then we distribute God’s grace to others in all kinds of forms.  In other words, God releases himself through us so that his grace touches them.  We really are distributors of the divine. Your gift of healing releases God for he is Jehovah Rophe, the God who heals.  Your gift of encouragement releases God for it is his nature to encourage. Your mercy is a literal outpouring of him for he his mercy.

I speak to believers every day who doubt God’s love for them and hunger for some touch to prove that he really cares.  What they miss is that every believer who has hugged them, encouraged them, prayed for them, affirmed them, or laughed with them was God.  He was simply doing those things through his people who were participating in his divine nature.

One reason, among many, that we should want to hang out with God’s people is that God is going to express his love, his concern, his approval, etc. through his people to us.  If you want to hear from God you can do so in the quiet moments of your devotional but you can also hear from him in very concrete ways through his people who are prompted by his Spirit to dispense his grace and to leak a little of him onto you.  God is truly the fresh fragrance of life but we are the aerosol cans that release his fragrance into the environment.  It’s really a great gig if we understand that God is literally loving people through us or loving us through his people.

The more of God we store up, the more of him we have to release.  Jesus was filled with the Father so he literally left a touch of heaven everywhere he went. At times Peter was so filled with God that even his shadow imparted the nature of God to others which was healing.  The key is to realize that you are literally a partaker of the divine nature. That sets you apart from every other part of creation and gives you amazing significance.  No matter the gift or the call you are the dispenser of God’s heart and nature to the world. Wow.  You are a very, very important person.  Live like it!