Tag: God

Peeling Stickers and Gaining Freedom

I am a rubric’s cube champion! I can solve a rubric’s cube in my own time and my own method. Let me explain my method.

Many years ago I was given my first Rubric’s cube and began that very day to attempt to place each frustrating colored cube into the right sequence to match them all up. I tried turning the columns this way at that to find success..I would make a turn only to realize I have been going around and around making the same mistakes, actually repeating the same sequential turns which turn into repeated bad habits. When it was all said and done I was a stubborn fool going round and round doing the same things which were not leading me anywhere near success in solving the colored cubed problem. I recall many times tossing it aside in frustration and vowing never to pick it up again only to break that vow countless times.

I had all but given up, then I had a bright idea…it was one of the older rubic’s cube models and because it was older, the colored squares that made up the cube were actually stickers glued into place.

HERE’S WHY IM A CHAMPION:
I had this bright idea, I would solve this cube puzzle by my own methods…and so I proceeded to peel off the first sticker, then another, then another…I peeled off all of the stickers and then re-assembled the pieces until there in front me was a completed rubric’s cube puzzle all uniformly placed in color coordination. I was now a rubric’s cube champion…in my own mind that is.

Okay confession time, truth be told I admit that I cheated…but I did solve the problem, just with my own method and my own out of the box idea.

WHAT AM I TRYING TO SAY?
Life is like one big Rubric’s cube sometimes. No matter where we go, turn we take, we keep making the same mistakes and the same stubborn wrong decisions. It is said that doing the same thing over and over again is complete and utter insanity…so we must all be insane sometimes. Truth be told we live in a fallen world and we are a fallen people. The Bible teaches us this. Yet over and over again we play the game of life and think we’re on a healthy path then make decisions or encounter the consequences of prior decisions and we end up right back at the place in which we started from. Life can become utter insanity when we live like this. We go round and round, vowing to live better, make better decisions, to be good people…then our actions or our attitudes and our habitual lifestyles get the best of us once more…we become frustrated, tired, worn out, and we just want to throw our hands up and just quit.

Jesus came into this world and proved that the Law wasn’t God. Jesus came into this world and illustrated for us that the Law that people had added to and Pharisees regulated couldn’t be kept…God’s children were going round and round, making sacrifice after sacrifice in order to compensate for their habitual life style that had them going round and round in circles. Jesus came to break that cycle of sin. Jesus busted the game of sin, peeled the stickers (so to speak) off of the lives of humanity and reset them through the shedding of His blood on the cross. He set us free from the cycle and from certain death…because we could not solve this puzzle of life which is Holiness in and of ourselves.

Jesus wants to peel the stickers off of your life and reset them for you today…will you allow him to do this for you? God’s object is to free us…will you let Him?

(My apologies to those avid Rubric solvers out there…It’s just an epiphany that struck truth in my life today!)

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Question: “Why Did God come to Earth?”

“It is only because he became like us that we can become like him.”

-Dietrich Bonehoffer

Jesus came to earth.  That impact alone has been felt through time, like a ripple in an ocean that eventually became a tidal wave.   God came to us!  This one statement should touch us in a way that no other statement on earth can compare itself to.  The Creator of this planet, and everything else for that matter, descended to our level…descended to become one of His creations.  Why?  Why would He do this?   What would the motivation be for Almighty God taking on human form?  Was He bored?  Was there nothing else to do?  Obviously there must be a reason.

The Reason:

John 3:16 tells us plainly the reason for God coming to us as a man.  “God so loved the world that He sent His one and only Son so that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life!”  God loved us!  Not just the world that He created, but the men and women that He created in His own image…you and me!  God came to our level so that we might be saved.

Wait.

Saved from what?  Was there some sort of cosmic invasion?  Were there still dinosaurs out there that needed vanquishing and we needed protecting?  No!  So what were we saved from?

The answer is that we were saved from ourselves.  Huh?   What does that mean?   Romans chapter three puts it plainly for us: “This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference,  for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” –Romans 3:22-24 (NIV)

Everyone on this rock that we call Earth has sinned.  Everyone.  Romans 3:23 says “all have sinned.”  Back up a few verses and it also says, “There is no one righteous, not even one…” Romans 3:10 (NIV)  Since Adam and Eve broke God’s heart in the garden of Eden and committed the first sin, everyone who has ever lived carries this ‘sin gene’ within themselves.  There is no one on Earth that is good enough, holy enough or perfect enough to merit meeting the expectations of “righteous”.   So this is why God had to take on human form and save us.  He came to save us from ourselves.  To save us from our own punishment that is certain death without his redemption and sacrifice on our behalf.  God knew we needed a redeemer and so He provided a way for us to be saved.  Why do this for us?  Because He loves us that much!  He loves us more than we could ever comprehend or understand.  He loves us even before we reach out and reciprocate (or try to reciprocate) that love.  Then and only then can we truly understand what Jesus was saying when He said, “The thief cometh not, but that he may steal, and kill, and destroy: I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly.” –John 10:10 (ASV)

Do you need some assurance today that you’re loved?  Do you realize just how important you are to God himself?  He extends His arms of love to us today and still says to us “I have come that you might have life, and have it abundantly!”   Our Father in heaven invites you to experience real life today.  If you need help learning more about this great love He has for you, begin by reading the gospel of John…read the gospels and especially read the very words of Jesus.  Don’t miss out on the abundant life that God has for you!  Don’t miss out on His love.  Begin today…I dare you! Image

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John 3:16 (More than a Church thang, it’s a love thang!)

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John 3:16…

“For God so loved that world that He gave His only son, so that whosoever believes in Him, will not perish, but have everlasting life”

we needed saving, we’re hopelessly lost, our life is literally going to hell in a hand-basket and what does this passage of scripture tell us?  God loved us.  It’s like giving your watch to a bank robber…it doesn’t seem to make sense.  We don’t deserve such grace, and yet grace is just what we get with God.

God gave us His one and only son…so we wouldn’t have to die eternally…so that we could once again have a relationship with our Creator.  This Son of God’s, was perfect, without sin, and He sacrifices his life for ours…so that his blood now covers our ocean of sin.

I’m not sure about you, but when I read this passage of scripture I don’t just think, “yeah I’ve heard that passage many times in church and Sunday school”;  but I now think “Wow…I don’t deserve it…and yet it’s there for me!”

Christmas just came and went.  and during that holiday season – kids will be kids and ask for so many things that it drives parents crazy, yet we know that we love them and we desire to give them what they need not what they want.

In God’s case, however, he gave us what we need and what we will want for all time.  To be loved.  The next time that you feel unloved…think again.  You may not have your friends or family around you at that moment, it may hurt, the circumstances around you may not be great, but YOU ARE LOVED!

I want to challenge you to cry out to God in your times of need and in your times of plenty.  Know that you have been thought of from the beginning of time and God wants a relationship with you!

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No Regrets!

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2 Timothy 1:11-12 (MSG)
“This is the Message I’ve been set apart to proclaim as preacher, emissary, and teacher.
It’s also the cause of all this trouble I’m in. But I have no regrets. I couldn’t be more sure of my ground—the One I’ve trusted in can take care of what he’s trusted me to do right to the end.”

I find it fascinating and invigorating to think of the Apostle Paul living out his convictions even in the midst of certain and eventual death. Paul wasn’t a waffler, he wasn’t some guy who couldn’t make up his mind, in fact faith and conviction led him to proclaim the message of Christ and His kingdom even when it would cost him his life. That’s conviction.

A few years ago the “No Fear” labels appeared and were very popular in our culture. Why? Because it evoked this brazened mentality that no matter what took place in life, the one wearing the “no fear” label would approach life’s problems without fear. That too is conviction that doesn’t waffle or change. I’m reminded of Tom Petty’s song “I won’t back down” where it states this; “I won’t back down, no I won’t back down, you can stand me up at the gates of hell but I won’t back down.”

Living a life without regret isn’t easy, in fact it is the hardest thing to accomplish. The tides of life sometimes cause us to doubt, circumstances beyond our control sometimes challenges us to quit, and living without regret, at times, seems impossible. But I want to encourage you that living a life without regret is possible. Paul did it, and so can you. But here’s how we are even able to think about living this regret free life: Zechariah 4:6 says;
…” ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the LORD Almighty.” Now this verse comes from a different time, and different circumstances sure, but what it says to me and I hope what it says to you is that God and His power can overcome anything in this world!

Our convictions and hope should be rooted in the one who created everything around us! Jesus even said in John 15:5;“I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” Did you catch that? Apart from Him, we’re a lost cause. Living a life without regrets, begins with where our convictions are rooted in. If they are rooted in our own self confidence, something or someone will eventually come along and uprooted them and we will be greatly disappointed. If our convictions are rooted in other people, chances are those other people will eventually let us down or our expectations will not always be met. If our convictions are rooted in anything but the relationship and love that God has for us first and foremost then we will eventually experience regret in this life. Living a life without regret, like Paul lived begins in our convictions.

What are your convictions today? Are you living a life without regret?

If not, perhaps re-evaluate where and in whom you place your trust and convictions. We too, like Paul can bold state: “But I have no regrets. I couldn’t be more sure of my ground—the One I’ve trusted in can take care of what he’s trusted me to do right to the end.”

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