Category Archives: God

How do you that?

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Mark 8:35-37 (NIV)
For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. [36] What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? [37] Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?

I was young–early 20s, and my idea of gaining the whole world was laughably pedestrian–love. I wanted true love.

But God was making it painfully clear that He wanted me to walk away from my dream. He wanted me to be lonely and go far from home. Ugh. I was afraid.

But I was miserable resisting Him. I finally knuckled under–I agreed to try to find a job teaching in China. I agreed, then hoped it was just a test.

Nope. It was the real thing. I went to China and learned that He was all I needed–I wasn’t lonely, I was with Him. He brought me amazing friends. He took care of me. He taught me to stick close.

Sticking close to Jesus is costly. People don’t always think you are a great party guest when you bring Jesus with you. He tends to push uncomfortable issues.

Yet there is a secret: if you are willing to be a loser for him, he…

Gives you true love.

He sent me to China in order to prepare me to get the very precious gifts that I thought he wanted to take.

Go ahead. Try it.
Fall
In love
With Jesus.

Jump in.

One Verse at a Time

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When you get to the hard stuff, slow down. And nothing feels harder than being told to die.

Jesus says he is going to be rejected by all legitimate authority and then he is going to die. Then he says, follow me.

Mark 8:34 (NIV)
Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

I can think of few things I dislike more than denying myself and carrying my cross. But I gotta follow Jesus! I can’t imagine life without him. He is love made real.

Why would love made real tell me to trudge to my own death?

I used to think the picture of this verse was Jesus with his big ol’ real cross and his followers with their smaller crosses. Then I realized that when he tells us to take up our cross it is the back end of the Cross he carried to his death. He carried my cross up that hill. When he tells me to pick it up he is just telling me to participate as a pedestrian observer in a drama he played out for real and keeps.

Imagine my cross without him.

Get thee…

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So Peter is a fisherman, a dude, Jesus’ sidekick and the recent winner of the name-that-king-of-kings contest.

Then this:

Mark 8:31-33 (NIV)
He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. [32] He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. [33] But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. “Get behind me, Satan!” he said. “You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.”

Oh. Bummer.

Things often do not go according to our plans, but few things were going to look more disastrous than the impending crucifixion. Peter said, naw! Can’t be! And Jesus cuts to the truth fast–you gotta see God’s plan.

Nothing takes more faith than believing an obscure Israeli construction worker can save you by dying.

The things of God–mysterious, often dazzling hard to watch. But absolute game changers.

Absolute
Game
Changers.

Get thee…

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So Peter is a fisherman, a dude, Jesus’ sidekick and the recent winner of the name-that-king-of-kings contest.

Then this:

Mark 8:31-33 (NIV)
He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. [32] He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. [33] But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. “Get behind me, Satan!” he said. “You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.”

Oh. Bummer.

Things often do not go according to our plans, but few things were going to look more disastrous than the impending crucifixion. Peter said, naw! Can’t be! And Jesus cuts to the truth fast–you gotta see God’s plan.

Nothing takes more faith than believing an obscure Israeli construction worker can save you by dying.

The things of God–mysterious, often dazzling hard to watch. But absolute game changers.

Absolute
Game
Changers.

If you believe in sin

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I have been stalling on the medial point of the gospel of Mark. It is a deep discourse on what it means to be fallen and need a savior. It is tough stuff.

But…

Some of us don’t believe in sin anymore. Unless we are the victims.

Non-monogamy is now a lifestyle choice. Pornography is an accepted part of our culture. The last definitive points of outrage in the human condition appear to be (not murder, not aggression against the innocent)..consumerism and intolerance.

Yep. I am not even sure about the consumerism. Our houses are our gods. Our couches: our monuments.

How do you begin to hear a man discourse on the desperate human condition if you doggedly refuse to admit your desperation?

At that point the only despair is in the Cross. The only tragedy his death. We become angry at the notion of a saving God.

Do you need a Redeemer?

If you answer no, enjoy. The house of this world is left to you. A billion shards of plastic in a dying sea. And that is all.

But what about you?

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Imagine you have stumbled onto a ceremony–a young man stands before a prophet, a priest. The holy man raises his flask above the young man’s head and pours out rich oil over him.

Anointed. The king.

Religion is unnecessarily complicated. Jesus is not. He is or he isn’t. There are no in-betweens.

So when he asks–

Mark 8:29 (NIV)
“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Peter answered, “You are the Christ. ”

The question is as surgically incisive as the answer. You are the chosen king. Peter says it. But will he trust? Will you? Do you know Jesus well enough to know…he is the King?

Faith.

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Last night I saw a meme for “love never fails” from first Corinthians.

Love wins
Love endures
Love triumphs
Love is stronger than death

Sounds pretty good, right?
Sounds crazy good.
Ok, sounds ridiculous.

Love triumphed in Nazi Germany? In Hiroshima? In Rwanda? Hardly seems to have…

We have to fess up. The Bible is just a bad Hallmark greeting card if love fails.. And there are times when it seems to be coming dead last in the race.

Times indeed. But that is the point. For love to win in the end, win in the world, love has to win in me.. I have to not only believe in love, I have to stake my fate to it. Hard to believe an abstraction can win like that–over the wreck of human history.

What can a single word do? Can it win anything? Can a word truly triumph?

Yes. If the word is Jesus.

On the way

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Who do people say I am?

Huh. I admit every time a young celebrity does something stupid I tell my kids they need to prize obscurity.

Getting treated like a god can make you act like a moron.

Jesus, on the other hand, was God. He never acted like a celebrity. In fact, he distrusted the opinions and valuations of men. He knows we trade our souls for trinkets.

Which makes the question all the more interesting–who do people say I am? He is traveling through a region marked by celebrity conquerors and he asks the question-does public opinion matter? Do people get it right? Can we trust ourselves to see the truth?

On a clear day…

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Mark 8:27 (NIV)
Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked them, “Who do people say I am?”

Imagine you had magic binoculars. When you put them to your face you could see forever. Yesterday. Today. Tomorrow. Opera glasses.

Jesus did not need them. He can see the vast canvas of our history. Mark tells us “Caesarea Philippi” for a reason–the weight of history.

As Jesus walked over this place he could see the men and nations who would lay their claims to this place. He could tell you not just about the Greeks and their panic god, he could tell you about the Romans and the Muslims who would follow after.

We men want nothing more than glory. That is Caesarea Philippi.

He, on the other hand, volunteers for shame and humiliation, torture and obscurity for me.