And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” – Luke 23:34
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Amazingly, Jesus first words from the cross were words of grace.

The Greek grammar of this verse seems to indicate that Jesus did not make the statement once, but repeatedly. The opening phrase literally translates, “and Jesus was saying.” So goes the grace of God that we find in Jesus Christ. His forgiveness is not a one-time amnesty. It is not payment on a charge account that enables us to begin racking up debt again. His forgiveness covers all our sin: past, present, and future.

As we begin this special time of spiritual reflection, we MUST begin with His grace. Without it, we would have no hope. His grace addresses two extremes between which we all teeter. On the one hand, we sometimes forget how much we need His grace. We tend to accentuate our positives to the point that we fail to own up to our negatives.

Paul reflected: “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, I my flesh.” (Romans 7:18). He would further admit, “But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ…” (Galatians 6:14). 

Then on the other hand, sometimes we have the crazy idea that we are unworthy of His grace. If our worth were involved, it would not be grace. Grace means that God shows us favor simply because He chooses to, not because we deserve it. There is no sin quota that we surpass and no longer qualify for His grace. There is no single sin so great that God will not forgive it. His grace covers any, every, and all sin.

Reflect

Oh, to grace how great a debtor daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy grace, Lord, like a fetter bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wonder, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love.
Here’s my heart, Lord, take a seal it; seal it for Thy courts above.
Robert Robinson, “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing,” verse 3.

Today, as you begin this journey of spiritual preparation for Easter, take a few moments and write a “Thank You” note to Jesus for being the agent of God’s grace through His death for you in the cross. Acknowledge both your need for His grace and your humble acceptance of it.
 

This is day one in a series of Lent Reflection available via email. These will not appear here on the blog, but you may subscribe to receive them in your email inbox by clicking the link below.

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Video games and the digital world have normalized the word “hack” our daily vocabulary. Basically, a hack is a shortcut.  In a video game, a hack allows you to skip levels of difficulty or easily handle otherwise tricky challenges.  In life skills, a hack is an easier or quicker way to perform some daily task.  Hacks serve to make life simpler. They promise to bring us to a desired end sooner that usual and with less effort and stress.

Spiritual growth, however, knows no shortcuts.  No spiritual hack will allow you to skip difficult steps to maturity.  At the end of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 7:24-27), Jesus contrasts the lives of wise and foolish people.

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The wise man anchors his life securely by digging a deep foundation in rock.  The foolish man takes a shortcut.  He builds his life through much easier effort of merely playing in the sand.  When torrential floods beset both lives, their foundations determined their outcome.  The life anchor in rock stood strong.  But the flood washed away the life of sand castles.

Busting up rock and digging a deep foundation are hard work.  Building sand castles are easy.  We do that on vacation.  Sand castles are a spiritual hack doomed to failure.

Building a No Shortcut Life

Spiritual growth requires effort and hard work.  No quick fixes or shortcuts produce spiritual maturity.  The one who desires to grow in faith will exercise discipline and expend spiritual energy.

One of the most important foundations into which we should anchor our lives is regular, systematic Bible intake.  There is no shortcut there is no hack around immersing ourselves in God’s Word.  We cannot obey God if we do not know what He has said.  We cannot know what God has said if we do not read His Word.

Let me suggest three disciplines that will anchor your life in the Bible.  These disciplines are not easy, or we wouldn’t call them disciplines. But we will not see spiritual growth without them.

1. Bible Intake.

Regular systematic reading. Reading larger portions of Scripture gives you a big-picture view of God’s story.  You can use one of the “read the Bible through in a year” plans or choose to read a few chapters a day at your own pace.  Click here for a some great Bible reading plans.

You might also consider reading a chapter of Proverbs each day of the month.  I have also found great delight in a plan that includes reading five Psalms each day.  Click here to read an article about a free app for your phone that will help you with this plan.

You might also consider reading a book of the Bible a chapter at a time or study a Biblical theme.  The possibilities are abundant, but you have to make the intentional effort to do it.

2. Meditation.

Meditation has gotten a bad name in Christian circles.  We have surrendered the word to Eastern mystical practices, but the concept has Biblical roots.  God encouraged Joshua to meditate on His word day and night.  If Joshua would do that, God promised he would prosper and see good success. (Joshua 1:8)

When we meditate on the Bible, we simply slow down long enough to think about what we read.  We consider how we might put the Bible passage to use in our daily lives.  One of the tools I like to use for meditation I call the SPECK method.  I used the letters of the word “speck” to ask 5 questions about the Bible passage I read.  Is there…

• a SIN I need to confess/avoid?
• a PROMISE I can claim?
• an ENCOURAGEMENT for a situation I am facing?
• a COMMAND I need to obey today?
• some KNOWLEDGE about God, His purposes, or His ways that I need to know?

3. Memorization

David observed that a person who memorizes God’s Word has a better chance of overcoming sin. (Psalm 119:11)  When the devil tempted Him in the wilderness, Jesus countered by quoting Scripture.  (Matthew 4:1-11)  Jesus didn’t take the time to unroll His scroll of Deuteronomy and consult his concordance.  He stood ready to fend off the temptation because He memorized the Bible.

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You may think that you cannot memorize Bible verses, but you can.  Anyone can.  Take your time.  If you can memorize one a day, then do that.  If that task is too great, memorize at whatever pace you can.  I have a handy resource that uses the alphabet to help you memorize 25 verses.  You can click here to download the resource for free.  Take as much time as you need but make the effort.

You Don’t Need a Shortcut

As believers, we need to remember that spiritual growth is a continuation of our salvation.  We call it sanctification, and it is the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  We do not need shortcuts when the Holy Spirit is our enabler.  When we make the effort, He provides the enablement.

Now.  Let’s get to work!

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Take some time to hit the comment button above and tell us 2 things you are doing or will begin doing to get more of God’s Word in your life.

For further reading:

Fresh Bible Study Ideas

How to Begin Investigating the Bible for Yourself

I’ve always been comfortable in crowds, and never shy in front of people.  I guess God created me that way knowing what He planned to do with me.  As I learned about personality types, I discovered I was referred to as an extrovert.

Extroverts gain energy from being with others.  Alone time bores them and they are constantly in search of a “party.”  Introverts occupy the opposite end of the spectrum.  They gain their strength in solitude and reflection. The introvert often feels drained after entertaining or dealing with others.

I noticed a trend as I have grown old(er).  I found myself seeking more time apart from the crowd.  But I was not becoming a full blown introvert.  Most of the time, I still gained energy from engaging others, but I also increasingly enjoyed times of solitude.  My trend toward introversion troubled me at first.  I wondered if that trend indicated an emotional or spiritual need I needed to address. 

Not long ago, I learned a new word that described where I stood on the “vert” continuum:  ambivert.  Just as someone who is ambidextrous uses both hands, so also an ambivert find benefit in both engagement and solitude.

Was Jesus an Ambivert?

As I reflected on the life of Jesus, I began to see in Him a very healthy pattern of ambiversion.  Much of the time, Jesus ministered to crowds.  There was a hungry multitude on a hillside, a packed house in Capernaum, and a pushy crowd at the beach. Crowds followed Jesus most places He went.  And if they didn’t follow Him there, they soon gathered around Him when they discovered where He was.

Don’t just GO to church…BE the church.

You’ve heard me say that a lot over the last couple of years.  That statement comes from a deep-seeded conviction in my heart about the local church.  As I read the book of Acts and the letters of Paul, Peter, and John, I am amazed at their success.

What The Church Didn’t Have

Think about it.  They didn’t have air-conditioned worship centers with padded chairs or pews.  They didn’t have screen and projectors or hymnals.  They didn’t have pianos, organs, guitars, or drums. 

They didn’t have lights. They didn’t have electronic Bibles or even hard copy Bibles.  They didn’t have KJV or ESV.  No NIV either.  There was no PA system, no PowerPoint.  And NO SUNDAY BULLETIN.  How in the world did they survive…much less thrive.

The first century church did not enjoy governmental favor or constitutional religious freedom.  They didn’t have the right to vote for a candidate of their choice.  They didn’t have to worry about losing their tax exemption status.  They had no exemption.

There was no Sunday school, no Wednesday night prayer meeting, and no committee.  Imagine that.  No committees.  How did they ever get anything done?

Yet for all the DIDN’T have, they were largely responsible for the spread of Christianity throughout their known world.  Yet, we have all of the above and not only are we NOT spreading the faith, we are losing ground to our culture.  The world in which we live is less Judeo-Christian than it has been since our nation’s founding.

Mrs. Wester was one of the pillars of our church for so many years.  However, she is spending her twilight years in a care facility with an increasingly slipping memory. There is one little poem, however, that she hasn’t forgotten.  She reminds me of it each time I see her, and spurs me to excellence.

“Good, better, best. 
Never let it rest
Until the good becomes better,
and the better becomes best.”

Wisdom for Mrs. Loreon Wester

If I’m not careful, I can fall into a trap of settling for good instead of best.  I know that I am not alone.  In fact more people reside in the “state” of mediocrity than in the state of California.

We are so blessed to live where we do.  Some wonderful life-long friends have been so gracious to provide a lovely home that we love dearly.  For three years prior to our move-in, no one lived in the house.  While no ONE lived IN the house, SQUIRRELS continued to live – unchecked – OUTSIDE the house.

These industrious, and seemingly amnesiac, creatures used our flower beds as their winter food cache.  We now have quite an assortment of tree saplings and other bushes teeming with 3 year old joie de vie. I spent a day of my off-time cleaning out some of the de vie.  It was not joie for me.

You see, the flower beds provided a visual reminder of the dangers of neglect.  I had to consult my landscaping friend Josh to help me identify the most aggravating of the invaders.  This thorny, invasive flora parasite is called smilax.  I’m sure in some foreign language that word translates some sort of profanity.  Smilax enjoyed three unattended years to spread throughout our flower beds.

I spent the better part of New Years’ day clipping and detangling the smilax from the fauna we actually WANT.  I asked Josh what I had to do to get rid of it, hoping that my current efforts would suffice.  He told me that to have any chance of completely eradicating it, I would need to find its source. 

This devil in disguise emanates from an underground tuber that shoots rhizomes in multiple directions.  Then the rhizomes pop up and start growing upward, wrapping themselves around whatever they find.  And, by the way, the thorns HURT.  I wouldn’t be surprised if this is the material from which Roman soldiers made Jesus’ crown of thorns.  It’s THAT EVIL.

2 Lessons to Learn About Neglect

As we roll into 2020 – or stumble head over heels out of control, whichever the case may be – I want to offer a challenge.  Do you find yourself regretting the way you react to others and circumstances?  Do you lack peace with others and with your circumstances? Consider these wise words from none other than the Apostle Paul:

If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. – Romans 12:18

Don’t overlook that clause in the middle of the verse, “so far as it depends on YOU…”.     Do you see who is responsible for your peace?  YOU ARE, not your circumstances, not others around you.  Your parents and your upbringing are not to blame.  You cannot use what others do to you or unexpected circumstances happening to you as an excuse for your attitude.

It’s actually one of the most obvious things we do in the course of a day.  In fact, it is SO obvious, we do it without much planning or forethought.  Yet if we DON’T do it, we can be highly uncomfortable.  What am I talking about?  Undressing. Before we can put on what we want to wear, we have to put off what we are wearing.

Metaphor for Life

This time of year people reflect on the past year and start making goals and plans for the next year.  We commit to self-improvement and promise to undertake new adventures. We resolve to do better in many areas of our lives. 

Sadly, many of our resolutions either never come about or do not last more than a few weeks.  Often the problem is that we try to put on without putting off.  We might find greater success in recognizing some things that we need to quit doing or put away.

Biblical Examples of Put Off

Before Isaiah could say, “Here I am, send me,” he had to let God cauterize the sin on his lips. (Isaiah 6:1-8)

Solomon reminded us that before gather stones, there first was a time for throwing them away.  (Ecclesiastes 3:5)Paul reminded his readers to put away the old self, attitudes, and actions.  (Ephesians 4:22-24, Colossians 3:9-10)

Growth and improvements are not merely a matter of just adding some good ideas and plans to our lives.  A gardener removes weeds and rocks before planting flowers.  So also, we need to remove some harmful  things from our lives to make room for the better and best.

What Do YOU Need to Put Off?

I am operating on a presupposition that you are willing to evaluate 2019 and pre-actively set goals for 2020.  Growth doesn’t just happen; we have to be intentional and pre-active.  Much improvement comes in what we put away before we begin to bring in the new. 

Here are a few suggestions to get you thinking about what you might need to put away in 2020.