It’s Time for Another Reformation

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We call it “cancel culture.”  If you don’t like something, organize a protest against it.  Call for a boycott.  (I think I have decided to boycott boycotts.)  It seems the only thing we aren’t boycotting these days is sin.

Today marks the 507th anniversary of one of the most important protests in history.  On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther –  a German priest and professor – composed a list of 95 complaints against the Church.  He nailed his list to the Wittenburg church door the day before the church celebrated All Saints Day, inviting a discussion on these issues.  His timing guaranteed a wide reading.

Had that happened in a Baptist church, the deacons would’ve fired the pastor for ruining the door.  Just kidding folks.  Sort of.

[Tweet “We need a return to letting the Bible speak for God.”]

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Jesus Sat Down, So You Can Too

Jesus sat

Sitting down can be a good thing.

I had to move some furniture around the other day and sitting became my friend. Thankfully, my friend and experienced hard worker, Randy Toney, was there to make it possible. We moved my daughter’s old bedroom furniture to the church for our yard sale. Then we moved the furniture from my mom’s guest room to my daughter’s bedroom.

After loading up the “new” furniture, we decided it was time for a lunch break at Chick-fil-A. I have never sat and eaten so slowly. I needed that sit down. In fact, I found it difficult to get back to work after sitting for lunch.

We finally unloaded and set up the furniture. I didn’t mention that we also moved a large TV to our house. Our TV from our den went to my daughter’s bedroom, and her TV went to our bedroom. So after unloading the furniture, I set up everyone’s TV and took the best shower I have ever had.

After enjoying a delicious meal at our friends, The Griffins’ house, I went on to church for a committee meeting. I finally got back home and was able to sit down…really sit down. This time, I sat because I was finished with all I had to do for the day.

Where Jesus Sat Down

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Spiritual Cancer

Cancer is a most insidious disease.  I’ve read that all of us carry cancer-causing carcinogens in our bodies, and for many those carcinogens lie dormant for years, sometimes forever.  At some point, a trigger activates a particular carcinogen and cancer begins to grow unknown to the person hosting those cancer cells.  By the time a diagnoses detects cancer, it has become dangerous and radical treatment is in order.

Bitterness is to the spirit what cancer is to the body – an insidious but destructive hidden element that grows until it does its carrier harm.  Consider wise counsel from God’s Word:

See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled… – Hebrews 12:15

Notice that bitterness begins as a root.  Something happens to me that I do not like, someone hurts me or attacks me, or I harbor ill feelings toward someone that I refuse to resolve.  The negativity inside of me seems harmless, no one knows about it but me, and the few(?) people to whom I express my displeasure, but if I am harboring unforgiveness, and if I do not release the hurt I am feeling, then trouble looms.  My untreated bitterness will result in the hurt of others.  Just as an oncologist proactively and radically deals with cancer, so also we must radically deal with unforgiveness before it becomes bitterness and if it’s too late, then deal with the bitterness before it explodes.

Notice the verse above cautions, “See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God…”  Since we have received grace from God, we need to extend grace to others.  If you have been hurt, let go, forgive.  Forgive as often as the hurt tries to return, over and over, daily, several times a day.  Ask God to heal your hurt and live in the freedom of forgiveness.  If you ask God to give you enough grace to forgive those who have hurt you, He will give you enough to have plenty left over for yourself to heal your hurt.

Football Coaches, Bad Guys, and Grace

Last week, the University of Louisville hired Bobby Petrino to be it’s football coach…for the second time.

Bobby Petrino was previously the coach at Louisville from 2003-2006, before leaving to coach the 2007 Atlanta Falcons and beginning what would become an incredible story of self-destruction.  Thirteen games into the 2007 season, Petrino abruptly resigned as the Falcons’ coach to become coach at the University of Arkansas.  He left without addressing his players, only leaving them a typed note in their lockers at their practice facility on a Tuesday morning.

He coached for 3 seasons at Arkansas before again being caught up in scandal.  He admitted to an affair with a female staffer after taking her for a ride and subsequently wrecking his motorcycle, and was fired after school officials learned he had engaged in other questionable activities while their coach.

On January 9, 2014, Louisville announced Petrino had been hired again to coach their football team.  So…why the blog about him?

One side of me cynically cries “foul” that one with such a nefarious track record could be given this opportunity.  It just doesn’t seem fair that one of the “bad guys” caught a break.  In reality, however, I’ve come to remember that we are ALL “bad guys.”  Romans 3:10 reminds us that there is none righteous.

God’s grace gives all of us bad guys a shot at redemption.  The Petrino hiring serves as a vivid reminder of the grace upon grace that I have received from God.  God gave me a second shot… and a third shot… and a fourth shot…and  a 5000th shot.  I now must learn to extend grace to other bad guys like me.

If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities,
    O Lord, who could stand?
But with you there is forgiveness,
    that you may be feared. – Psalm 130:3-4

Joseph Did You Know?

We can only speculate precisely what was going through Joseph’s mind when he heard the news that his fiancé Mary was pregnant.

      • How could this happen?
      • What will people say?
      • What should I do?
      • I love her so much, why did she do this?

He came to a very compassionate decision .

And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. Matthew 1:19

He wanted to do both the right and compassionate thing, so he decided to absolve the engagement, but to attempt to do so in a way that would cause her the least amount of embarrassment and shame.  He had every right to divorce her publicly, thereby exonerating himself at the expense of her reputation, but he CHOSE not to exercise that right and to handle the matter quietly and discreetly.

We know the rest of the story.  Gabriel appeared to him and explained God’s plan to him.  I am sure even that message was hard to grasp, but it gave him a glimmer of hope and rewarded his willingness to exercise meekness and compassion.

His compassionate treatment of Mary leads me to a further thought, however.  What would have become of Mary in today’s church culture?  Would anyone have believed her story?  I must admit that I would probably find it incredible and would assume she had fabricated the entire tale.

Let’s admit it though, we are quick to judge others aren’t we?  We assume that we KNOW why they are in their circumstances and why they act in what SEEMS to us an unacceptable manner.  But… we DON’T KNOW.

I think one of the most profound lessons I have learned in my life is that we never know what load another person may be carrying.  We may think we know what is going on in their lives, but we don’t.  We don’t know what they are thinking, feeling, or experiencing.  We just don’t.  And we are arrogant to believe that we can stand judgment on them without knowing the facts…KNOWING not HEARING…the FACTS not the GOSSIP.

So this Christmas, let me challenge you as I challenge myself to try and be more compassionate and merciful toward others.  If we KNOW of sin in their lives, then we should address it WITH THEM.  If we truly do not KNOW then we should cut them some slack.

Imagine what Joseph would’ve missed had he given up on Mary.  WOW!  Only heaven knows what we miss when we give up on others too soon.