Hope for Life Blog

It’s awkward isn’t it? “Happy Thanksgiving” no longer applies. “Survive Black Friday” doesn’t seem appropriate because you did. And since it’s the last day of November it’s a bit early to say “Merry Christmas”. So we’re stuck with “Season’s Greetings” or “Happy Holidays”.

Historically the busiest day for buying Christmas presents is the Saturday before Christmas and the second is Christmas Eve. This year both of those fall on Saturday, December 24.

So my suggestion is that we greet each other with “Survive Christmas Frenzy time”.

It seems easy to lose Jesus amid the hurry and scurry of finding that perfect present and the varied activities of celebrating the season. It’s easy to reduce Him to a catch phrase, “the reason for the season!!”

Yet, He IS the reason for the season. His birth was heralded as welcome to the Savior of the world. And through Him we have the promise of life forever with God Almighty.

For there’s born to you this day in the city of David a savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign to you: You will find a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men. Luke 2:11-14

So maybe we should say to each other, “Thank God for Jesus.”

So what do you think?

In the United States, we’re celebrating Thanksgiving this week. For most, it’s a pleasant time shared with family and friends. There are sporting events and parades. Lots of stores use this time to kick off the holiday shopping season. And there’s usually plenty to eat!

And once in a while, we even remember to be thankful.

There’s lots of reasons to give thanks. It doesn’t always seem that way, but if we put our mind to it, we can usually think of more reasons for being thankful than for complaining.

In the Bible, there’s a beautiful piece of Hebrew poetry that expresses one man’s thankfulness to God. The author talks about blessings like health, rescue from enemies and material goods. He also talks about spiritual blessings, like God’s justice in this world.

In my favorite section of this poem, the author talks about the greatest blessing of all:

The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. (Psalm 103:8-12)

I love that imagery. “As far as the east is from the west.” All of my mistakes, all of my failings, all of my sin… God has taken it all away. So far away that it can never be connected with me again. “As far as the east is from the west.”

I don’t know what you’re thankful for this year. I’m thankful that God is slow to anger and quick to forgive. I’m thankful that He treats me with mercy, not harsh justice. I’m thankful that He forgives all of my sins, giving me a fresh start every day.

Be thankful for that as well. God’s forgiveness is available to you, just as it is to me, just as it was to that Hebrew poet so many years ago. Receive His forgiveness and be thankful. I’d love to tell you how.

All the houses in my neighborhood are getting new roofs.  A recent hailstorm did significant damage and there have been scores of roofing companies working the area to get business.  I spent many years in the roofing business so I enjoy watching the way roofers do their business.  And I see a great many parallels to how Christians go about God’s business. 

The best way to get a roofing job is by a good referral.  I always counted on the quality of my work to get additional roofs.  It works the same way for Christians.  The way you live your life is your referral.  Jesus has made all the difference in my life and it is easy to see that.  As a Christ follower, I am the evidence of God’s workmanship. 

The real test of a new roof is how it holds up during the first storm.  The real test of a Christian is his testimony during the storms of life.  I never promised that my roofs would not have any problems, but I did promise that I would fix any problems.  That is exactly how Jesus has worked in my life.  Christians are not exempt from life’s problems, but we are confident in the One who fixes our problems.

I even think some people approach their Christian life the way some people roof houses.  Some just shingle over what is already there.  This way is easy and cheaper than tearing off the old roof and replacing it with new shingles.  But sometimes the old shingles cause problems for the new roof.  That is the way some would live their Christian life.  They want the easiest, cheapest way to follow Jesus.  Trying to live a new life without getting rid of the old life is not going to work well.  It cannot.

I have even known roofers to tear off the edges of the old roof and then put new shingles down.  At first glance it seems right, but it is an illusion.  They want it to appear as if the old roof has been removed but in reality it has not been.  Some try that approach with Jesus.  They want to look different while still clinging to their old life.  It does not work.

The best way to have a new roof is to first remove the old one.  Then replace it with new shingles.  That is what Jesus wants to do for you.  He wants to tear away the old life with its problems and pain and then replace it with a new life of hope, peace, joy, and purpose.  Every time I see an old roof being torn off, I am reminded that my old life of bad choices and failures has been done away with.  And the new roof reminds me that I am created new in Jesus. 

Blessings,

steve

How many people actually listen to the safety demonstration on an airplane? Nobody thinks that their plane is actually going to be involved in a crash. Besides, if you fly very often, you’ve heard the same spiel dozens of times. It almost seems like a waste of time.

Everybody knows how to fasten and unfasten their seatbelt, right? That seems like a pointless part of the demonstration. Maybe not; a study by the British Civil Aviation Authority revealed that an average of 6% of passengers get delayed by seatbelt problems during an evacuation.

Every safety demonstration discusses what to do if the plane has to make a water landing, but in the 2009 U.S. Airways landing on the Hudson River, only about half took a seat cushion for floatation and only 10 of 150 passengers thought to grab a life jacket. They’d heard the briefing, but hadn’t really listened.

Experts say that even a half-second delay in an emergency can mean the difference between life and death, yet few of us pay attention to the very information that can save our lives. We don’t value the information until we really need it.

I can’t help but feel that we treat God the same way. We’re vaguely aware that He’s there, we know that we really ought to learn more about Him, but we don’t take the trouble to do so.

Until we find ourselves in an emergency.

Then we wish we knew Him better. We wish we knew more about how to pray. We wish we were more confident about knowing what He expects of us and how we should behave towards Him.

My suggestion is not to wait until that crisis hits. Take the time to learn about God. Connect with people who know Him and can guide you. Learn the basics about Bible study, then make reading the Bible a part of your daily routine. Start talking to God on a regular basis… there’s no better way to learn about prayer than by doing it.

Connecting with God is easier than inflating a life vest or opening an emergency exit on a plane. And the rescue He offers lasts forever.

One of my favorite phrases is this:  God is the great fixer.  I believe that God is the fixer, healer, restorer of broken hearts, shattered relationships, and meaningless lives.  There are wonderful stories you can read in the Bible of David, a man after God’s own heart, who battled anger, lust, and pride.  Or of Peter, the man who preached the first sermon after Jesus died and was raised.  This is the same Peter who two months earlier cried bitterly after he denied knowing Jesus.  Have a Christian tell you the story of Legion, the Samaritan woman at the well, Bartimaeus, or the woman caught in adultery.

Today, I know alcoholics made sober, sexually immoral made pure, greedy people made generous, and angry people made sweet.  I have seen broken marriages restored, wasted lives given meaning, and people with no hope find purpose.  I have seen lonely people find belonging.  I have seen the hungry fed, the sick healed, and orphans and widows become part of a family.

God is a great fixer.

But not always.

Read the story of Cain who murdered his brother and was driven from his family.  Or the story of Saul whose arrogance and jealousy caused him to lose his family, his kingdom, and eventually to commit suicide.  Learn about the rich young man who left Jesus sad because he valued his money more than God.  Ananias and  Sapphira were struck dead by God because they lied to Him.

And I know marriages that ended in divorce.  I know bitter, angry, hateful people who have no hope.  I know alcoholics who have destroyed relationships.  I know people who have died all alone.  These people knew about God and Jesus.  They were not fixed.

So some people God fixes… some He doesn’t.  What makes the difference?

It is a choice.  Our choice.  Every one of those people that God fixed were those that turned to God, cried out to God, begged God to enter their life and do whatever it took to be fixed.  And He did.

Every one of those people that were not fixed rejected God, ignored God, turned away from God, or left God.  Or they refused to do what God asked of them.  So he didn’t fix them.

He can fix you.  I know because He fixed me.  It’s your choice.

Blessings,

steve

The sex was good, the rival eliminated, the baby bump was beginning to show and the whispers and gossip were flying. Then with a point of an aged finger and words that must have caused his head and heart to quake, “you are that man” everyone knew.

From the smug smile that flashed, “I’ve got this under control”, to the horrible realization that he was an adulterer, murderer, deceiver, liar, and betrayer, his world was reduced to the cesspool of reality that he was drowning in.

At that moment only the answers to two questions mattered. What does God say you should do? Are you going to do it?

What appears to be a script for a movie or TV show is a story from ancient times, sadly acted out over and over in the centuries since.

David, second king of Israel, had it all and lost it when lust controlled him. It is then that he answers those two most fundamental of questions. His answer can be read in the 51st Psalm.

Have mercy upon me, Oh God, according to Your loving kindness; according to the multitude of Your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.

David betrayed God, asked for forgiveness and is granted it, yet David still suffered the consequences of that sin (two of his sons die). In spite of all this both the prophet Samuel and Luke describe David as a man after God’s own heart.

If there was forgiveness for David, then there is nothing you can do that God can’t forgive!

Those two questions remain for you to answer. What does God say you should do? and Are you going to do it?

Which of those two is the hardest to answer?

It’s said that the opening of a book is extremely important. The writer needs to engage his readers from the outset, filling them with a desire to read more.

When the apostle Matthew sat down to write the story of Jesus, I’m not sure that he was thinking about that. The first 14 verses of his book are a genealogy. This man was the father of that man, who was the father of some other guy. It’s not the most exciting reading for most of us.

As we read through this list of fathers and sons, there are four names that ought to catch our attention. Four women made this list: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth and Bath-Sheba. Over forty men are listed and only four women.

So these women must be especially righteous, especially virtuous women, right? They are included in the genealogy of Jesus, showing the people God used to bring His Son into the world. We would expect these women to be the examples of what women should be.

But that’s not the case. One of them dressed up as a prostitute and seduced her own father-in-law. One of them WAS a prostitute. Another committed adultery, got pregnant, and married the father of that child after her own husband was murdered. The other was fairly righteous, but she was also a foreigner. The Jews weren’t supposed to marry foreigners, so she shouldn’t even be on this list.

But these names are here. These women are remembered, while other women have been long forgotten. Matthew had his reasons, and I won’t pretend to know exactly what they were.

But I know that there is a lesson here: God can use anybody. Even when they’ve made mistakes. Even when they’ve been taken advantage of. Even when they don’t come from the right family. God can use anybody.

That message is fitting for the story of Jesus. Jesus came and made it possible for everyone to be acceptable to God. He broke down barriers, creating a new nation made up of people from every nation of this world. The story of Jesus is a story of inclusion.

I can be a part. You can be a part. Everyone who is willing to truly put their faith in Jesus can be a part.

We Christians often make the statement that the church is a hospital for sinners.  We mean that to be a warm and inviting description for any of you who do not know Jesus.  It is our attempt to say that we are not perfect, but forgiven.  It is an effort to say that messy lives are welcome in our midst.  It is our confession that we often have messy lives too.  It is a plea for you to know that we are a place of hope for the hopeless, a community for the lonely, a place of healing for the broken, a place of joy for the heartsick, a people of peace in a world at war, and a church of purpose for the life without meaning.

But we are not just a hospital, we are also a wellness center.  If we have given the impression that church is simply a place where everyone is broken, wounded, or hurting …  then we have misled you.  We are a place where people like this can come.  If fact, many of us were like that when we first showed up.  But we do not stay like that.  Church is where healing happens.  It is where broken lives are restored.  It is where joy, peace, purpose, and hope can be found. 

Yes, church is a place where critical care for spiritually wounded people takes place.  And sometimes those of us in church find ourselves in need of emergency spiritual care.  We still have struggles with living out our faith and we still battle with Satan.  But most of us are in the wellness center, not the hospital.  We are learning together how to live as healthy followers of Jesus.  We are learning how to extend care to each other and to those who wish to join our community.

So in one of our churches, you will see people who are bleeding from the wounds inflicted by a hard world of sin and trouble.  They are receiving emergency care.  You will see people with bandages and wounds that are still healing.  They are receiving ongoing care.  But what you will see more than anything else is those of us with scars.  We are healed.  We are healthy.  The scars are our reminder of the God who heals.  It reminds us of how God saves.  And they remind the wounded that they too will be healed.  Just like we have been.    

Blessings,

steve

People love stories. They love to hear them. They love to tell them.

It seems to be natural. Have you ever met a child that didn’t like stories? That didn’t want to be read to at night?

It’s not surprising that so much of the Bible is made up of stories. Well, maybe it is surprising. When we think of what we’ll find in a religious book, we often expect some sort of rule book or owner’s manual, telling people exactly how to live. And some of the Bible could be described that way.

But it’s mostly stories. Stories of grand adventures. Stories of everyday life. Stories of miracles and stories of tragedies. Stories that make you want to stand up and cheer, as well as stories that make you want to boo the villain.

Reading these stories can be a bit like reading any other history book. Until we get to that special part where God invites us to be a part of the story. To add our story to the stories that we find written in the Bible. To jump into the flow of God’s story and ride it all the way to the end.

I love looking at the videos on this website. People tell their story in those videos, their story about how God made them part of His story. Like the stories in the Bible, these stories involve tragedy and victory, great happiness and deep pain. And the stories have happy endings, because God can take every story and make it end well.

You’ve got a story. It’s a unique story that’s being written every day. But your story needs an ending, a happy ending. And I know that the only way your story can end happily is if you make your story part of God’s story.

I did not wake up in a cold sweat.  It was more of a hot sweat.  Kicking the covers off, I went to see what the Air Conditioner thermostat was set on.  It said 72 degrees.  Then I noticed the temperature register.  It was at 82.  Time for panic.  We were living in Texas in the middle of a record string of days with temperatures over 100 degrees.  And now the air conditioner was not working.  We were not the only ones among our friends and neighbors to suffer from the heat.  Civil authorities were issuing constant warnings for the elderly to be aware of the dangers.  Pets, construction workers, and athletes were all recipients of special concern.

Jokes about hell were rampant.  Messages were posted for Satan to come retrieve his residence.  The phrase “hotter than hell” was used often.  People would even joke about needing to go to church if this is what hell was going to be like.  The outbreak of wildfires across the state contributed to the jokes about hell.  And every one of them was missing the point.  It wasn’t just that the heat and fire here cannot really compare at all to what the reality of hell will be. It is that the heat and fire are not the worst part of hell.

The most frightening part of hell is that we will be separated from God forever.  Our rebellion against God – our sin – has separated us from God.  He is perfect and holy.  Sin cannot exist is His presence.  Yet He loves us so much that He could not stand the thought of us being out of His presence.  So He sent His only Son to this earth to do what we could not.  His Son came and lived a holy life here.  He did what He should do and never did what He should not have done.  He was perfect and holy.  And then He died to pay for our sins.  So that by sharing in His death we could be restored to relationship with God. 

God fixed it so that we could live forever in His holy presence.  Unholy people can be made holy by the gift of Jesus.  Believe in Him and live with God forever.  Choose not to believe and be separated from God forever.  That is that scariest part of hell.  God has fixed the problem with hell by offering His Son.  Believe it.  It is the best news you will ever hear.

Blessings,

steve