Jesus Remains the Same

How are we as Christians supposed to live and handle ourselves in this world today?  It can be very difficult.  With the elections of 2012 over, President Obama has won his second term in office, but also gay marriage has become legal in more states, and so has gambling, and even the legalization of marinara.  Abortion continues to be an issue of great division, and extreme right members of the Republican party who call themselves the Tea Party, declare they stand for who God, but seem hostile, intolerant and racist.

I have heard Christians say many things, one is that we have to accept that changes going on in our society, that things change as society changes.  My response to that is that God does not change and neither does the Word of the God.  We may by living under grace, but the law still stands. 

Sin is sin.  Sin does three things.  First, it separates us from God, secondly, it impacts other people in a destructive ways, and third it leads to death.  Nothing that is good comes from sin.  Also, sin is sin, whether it is lying or murder it is all the same in God's eyes.  We tend to judge things differently, and that is understandable, but God is Holy, that any sin at all is totally filyhy to him.  We can never measure up to God.  If we accept Jesus we do not have to.  He has paid our sin debt for us.  We were born into sin because of the sin of Adam, the first man, but we have eternal life because of Jesus Christ.

The question remains.  How do we, as Christians conduct ourselves in our ever increasingly sinful culture and society?  There are a number of ways to answer this question, but in Hebrews chapter 13 Paul provides information and insight on this very thing.

In this last chapter of this letter that Paul writes to the Hebrews he provides instructions and exhortations about daily life and living.  He starts off the chapter with the words "keep on loving" I think he did that because it is hard to love each other sometimes based on our behavior.  He also reminds those who read his letter that no matter what happens God will never leave us or forsake us.  He also states that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.  No matter what we do, or what society dictates, our loving Savior is consistent.  We can be secure in who He is daily.

Hebrews 13:1-10

New International Version (NIV)

Concluding Exhortations

13 Keep on loving one another as brothers and sisters. ² Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it. ³ Continue to remember those in prison as if you were together with them in prison, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.

⁴ Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral. ⁵ Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said,

“Never will I leave you;
never will I forsake you.”

⁶ So we say with confidence,

“The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.
What can mere mortals do to me?”

⁷ Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. ⁸ Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

⁹ Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings. It is good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace, not by eating ceremonial foods, which is of no benefit to those who do so. ¹⁰ We have an altar from which those who minister at the tabernacle have no right to eat.

God, Be My Valentine

Valentine's Day is all about love, but too many times it has nothing to do with love at all.  Today in Maryland early morning commuters had to deal with icy road conditions which resulted in multiple accidents and road closures.  The day of love started off as a day of head aches, fender benders, and late arrivals. 

What does it mean to truly love someone else?  We have all kinds of images on television, in movies, in romantic novels, and advertisements.  It's all so exciting, and lovely, and sweet, and wonderful. Love is all of those things, and much more. 

What so many people often forget is that love is also very difficult at times.  To forgive someone is to love them, and forgiving someone is not easy.  Love is also doing what needs to be done even when we do not feel like it, or put the concerns or needs of someone else before our own.  Love is much more than butterflies in our stomachs, and romantic dinners and roses, it's about dealing with the grind of daily life with grace and mercy for others. 

In his first letter to the church in Corinth Paul wrote about what true love really is.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7, 13

New International Version (NIV)

⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
¹³ And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

The thing that we must remember today, and each day of the year, is that no matter who we are, where we are, or what we have done, God loves us.  His love is so great there is no place on the Earth it cannot reach.  There is nothing so terrible that anyone could do that if we turn to God, that he will receive us and restore us.  He loves us beyond measure and he loved us first. 

Paul had a grasp of how much God loves us and below we see his prayer for the believers in his letter to the Ephesians.

Ephesians 3:14-19

New International Version (NIV)

A Prayer for the Ephesians

¹⁴ For this reason I kneel before the Father, ¹⁵ from whom every family^[a] in heaven and on earth derives its name. ¹⁶ I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, ¹⁷ so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, ¹⁸ may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, ¹⁹ and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

I love the prayer above, put it is incomplete without verses 20 and 21.  In these two verses Paul sums it up nicely.  He lets all those who read this letter know that not only does God love us without measure, but he will do for us more than we could ever imagine.  This means that God knows our hearts and desires, and wants to bless us.  Too many times because we do not receive the love God has for us we miss so many of his blessings.

 

Ephesians 3:20-21

New International Version (NIV)

²⁰ Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, ²¹ to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

One last verse about God's love.  I learned this verse a very long time ago.  It means just as much to me today, as it did when I learned it.

John 3:16

New International Version (NIV)

¹⁶ For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Happy Valentine's Day!

 

Fight, Dream, Hope, Love, Les Miserables

One Christmas morning after we gathered in the living room by our Christmas tree my brother announced that we were going to see the movie Les Miserables.  I was not aware of this and was not overly thrilled to go to the movies on Christmas day and the first day of the movie being released.  It meant lots of crowds and I wasn't sure if mom was up to an outing of that type yet.

I really do not enjoying going out to see movies.  I find most of them repetitive, stupid, and boring.  To me it is a waste of time and money to go and see 95% of the movies in theaters today.  I had seen the advertisements for Les Miserables, but had paid little attention to them.  I knew it had been a Broadway show, but that was about it.

The theater was packed, and we were not able to sit together, but we got there on time and got seated before the movie started.  The movie opens and the sky is a dark grey and it raining, and there are thousands of chained mean toiling in this awful weather and within moments the singing begins.  I was hooked from that moment on.  The story, the music, the acting, all excellent.  The singing, very well done.

Les Miserables was written as a novel by a man named Victor Hugo in 1832.  The plot of the novel is over a 20 year time span and records the unstable French society at the time.  Things were bad in France at that time and even worse for those who were poor.  It was a time of epidemic disease, hunger, economic instability, labor conflicts, and political unrest.  In many ways it sounds like our world today. It's interesting that society does not change as much as we wish it would.

The heart of the novel, then later stage musical, and then film, is the character Jean Valjean.   He was jailed for stealing bread to save his sister's son who was starving to death and was sent to prison for his crime and later marked as a dangerous man when paroled.  He was treated with disdain after his slave imprisonment.  He could not find work or lodging and hated the world and everyone it in.  Then one day he stumbles across someone who looks beyond his appearance, and past and helps him.  As soon as he can he steals from the one who had helped him.  He is captured and will be thrown back into prison for breaking is parole and for theft.  Then something happens that Jean Valjean has never experienced before.  Forgiveness.  The man forgives him and gives him more of his valuables.  Jean Valjean is so moved by this man's act of forgiveness, that he decides to forgive as well and seeks redemption and becomes charitable to others.

I was not surprised to learn that the movie Les Miserables set a record of having the most tickets sold on opening day.  It is a great story of the human condition and heart that is played out over and over again in our world.  The location, details, and time frame may be different, but the overall situation is the same, forgiveness, redemption, and charity, they are all a part of what makes the human experience bearable and wonderful.  We all have the capacity for all three.  We must decide to forgive, to redeem, and to be charitable.  We also have to allow ourselves be forgiven, redeemed, and accept charity.  Seldom is there anything that is one-sided.  We have to be able to receive as much as we are able to give.

The movie logo says it all, fight, dream, hope, and love.  We know from Jesus' teaching the greatest of all of these is love.

Movie Trailer Link - click on it to see movie Trailer
http://youtu.be/VEUoMC5gm6A

Bible Verses

1 Corinthians 13

New International Version (NIV)

⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
⁸ Love never fails.

¹³ And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

A Valentine's Day Message

In the last seven days the people who live in the Maryland, Virginia, the District of Columbia, Pennsylvania, and Delaware have lived through two blizzards. Schools, businesses and even the federal government have all been shut down for almost a week. Now, we are in recovery mode. Streets have been plowed, but still very dangerous, roofs have collapsed under the weight and pressure of snow and ice, power lines have been down and people are still without power, and trees are down every where. These harsh weather conditions have not been limited to the east coast. There have been reports of harsh winter weather all over the country with snow falling in places it usually never snows like in Florida, Alabama and Texas.

In the midst of so much difficulty and upset to our usual routines, it is hard to remember that Sunday, February 14th is Valentine's Day. Valentine's Day, like all holidays has a history and customs, and has been highly commercialized, but what is most important is that it is a time that we focus on love. Love is the greatest gift one person one can give to another, and many times it's not all flowers, candy, and pretty soft stuff animals holding hearts. In fact true unconditional love is much more than romance, it is something that requires much more from each of us.

Unconditional love means we put those in our lives we love first. Jesus is the perfect example of this. He was the son of God. He was perfect in every way. God sent Jesus to Earth so save humankind. Jesus did nothing but show love to other people, but in the end the world rejected him. Right before Jesus was to be taken as a prisoner he was alone and praying. He knew the great pain was coming and he did not want to go through it. He was blameless, but he was about to take on the sins of the whole world and it was going to be beyond horrible. In his moment of sheer terror and weakness he asked God his father if this cup could be pass from him, but before the question was totally out of his lips he said, "Let your will be done."

How many times have you had to change your plans to care for someone else? How many times have you been interrupted to handle something that you did not cause? How many times have you had to clean up a mess that someone else has created? How many times have you been blamed for something that you did not do? What was your response? Was it anger? If it was, that is totally understandable, but give that anger to God and allow him to replace it with love. Love is doing the right thing at the right time, for the right reasons. If we rely on God, then we will know what the right thing is. Love does not mean letting people walk all over you or to allow others to take advantage of you.

So this Valentine's Day, cherish the people that you love in your life. Do something special. It doesn't have to be hearts and candy, it could be doing something special together. If you are alone, remember that you are never alone and receive the love God has for you. Once you know how much God loves you, you can do something nice for someone else. When love unconditionally, you do it without expecting anything in return, and that's true love.

Happy Valentine's Day and remember what it says in Matthew 28:20 "I am always with you."

Special Note: this post is dedicated to a good friend and his family, Mr. Ben Craig