I Get By With a Little Help from My Friends

Today seemed to be one of those days. I'm sure that you have had days like this. You know the kind, where things just do not go right, and it feels like no matter what you do things just do not go right. And while it can be easy (almost too easy) to focus on the negative, I am going to refuse to do that today. Because while it was a little on the rough side, there were some good things as well.

We had a staff lunch today. We played a game and I do not think I have laughed that hard in a long time. I mean, there was a point when I could not even breathe, because we were just laughing too hard. Somebody else went out of their way to be supportive and encouraging. It was very much appreciated.

The Scriptures do not tell us that life will always be easy or fun. In fact we can often find that standing up for what is right will bring about suffering. And yet, no matter what is going on in our lives, God does not have us go it alone. He is always with us and will never leave us or forsake us. He gives to us one another, fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, to come beside one another and help each other to carry our burdens. God's word tells us that God is always with us. God's people show it to us. Both are reminders that he uses to say, "I am with you always. Even to the end of the age."

With all that is going on in our world right now, it can be easy to focus on the negative. I once heard that it takes five positive statements to counteract one negative one. In other words, it is all too easy to focus on the negative. But no matter what is going on, we have a God who loves us. Who has brought us to himself and forgiven us our sins for the sake of Jesus. We have a God who gives us a family of fellow believers, who enable us to walk this journey of life.

If you are feeling burdened and weighed down, if you are having a day like I had today, I would invite you to look for God in your day. He is there. I promise. And may his presence give you peace and hope.

 

Sincerely,

Pastor CJ

The Exchange

This past weekend CrossRoads had their very first retreat. I must say that it was awesome. And it was not because the presentation was awesome. In fact I forgot to bring my projector. It was not because we had a lot of experiencing doing this kind of thing; remember this was the first one. It was awesome because of the people who went, and the way that the Spirit moved among them. This group was one of the best groups that I ever had the privilege being a part of. And I am very grateful for the opportunity to get to know them better.

At this retreat we looked at Romans 6 – 8. If you have the time, read through these three chapters. They are amazing. They talk about how we have a new life in Christ. Sin does not have the same power over us, because we have been freed by Jesus. He lives in us and through us, and we get to have that close relationship with him. Think about what that means for a moment. Your life has value and worth, because Jesus saw it as valuable enough to die for you. The price for your sins has been paid by Jesus on the cross. We talk about this a lot, but take a moment to think about this. Have you ever felt that you deserved to be punished for your sins? Have you ever felt that you had to carry around your guilt and burdens in order to make up for the things that you have done in your past? Have you ever felt that if you did any differently you would somehow be getting off easy? And yet that is not necessary, because Jesus paid the price for our sins. Even that one you are thinking about now. This is by no means a license to sin. It does not mean that we can go around and do whatever we want to do, because Jesus paid the price. It does mean that we do not have to live with the guilt and burden for past sins, because Jesus paid the price. So at that moment that we repented for those sins, at the moment that we asked God to forgive them, it was at that moment that they were removed from us as far as the east is from the west.

Isn't that an amazing and wonderful thing? We get to experience life and experience it to the full, because Jesus gave his life for us. We get to be healed from our past sins. We get to live life with God as his own dear children. We get to be part of his mission in this world and to proclaim this love and grace and mercy and forgiveness so that other people are also able to experience the joy, peach and hope that comes from the exchange.

These are deep truths that cannot be adequately mined in a blog. But I pray that you are able to take a moment to think about this awesome exchange, and what it means for you. And may that be an incredible source of strength, comfort and freedom for you, now and always.

 

Sincerely,

Pastor CJ

God, What are you doing?

Have you ever felt bold enough to ask that question? God, why in the world are you allowing this to happen? God, what are you doing? God, why did you do that thing you did in the Bible? It does not make much sense to us and can leave us rather uncomfortable. Last night my confirmation class struggled with this question as we were reading about the Exodus. They wondered about how God treated the Egyptians and that if he loved them, why did they suffer so? These are good questions for them to be asking, and I am happy to see them asking these, because it means that they are trying to put together the different things that they know about God.

My hunch is that there are times when we all ask this question, and whether we are asking it because we are reading something in the Bible that doesn't make sense, or whether we are trying to understand the things that are going on in the world around us, there are times when that question comes up. So what is the answer? I wish I knew. But the fact of the matter is that I am not God. But I can tell you what I think.

God is bigger than we are. His ways are not our ways; his thoughts are not our thoughts. So his reasoning for the things that did happen or are happening may be so far beyond our ability to understand that it is not even funny. However, here is something that we can understand. God always does the right thing. He is unable to do anything else. We know that he desires people to be in relationship with him. We know that he wants to remove from us, sin and evil and everything that we would set up as being more important than he is. Here is the point, God is worthy of our trust. He is not going to act in a way that is contrary to his character or how he has revealed himself to us in the Scripture. So even when it may be hard to understand, we can take great comfort in knowing that God indeed knows what he is doing, and that in the end, he will work all things together for the good of those who love him in Christ Jesus.

May you know that hope this week and always.

 

Sincerely,

Pastor CJ