All That Is New

Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. - Philippians 3:13b-14

Our past can be a hindrance or a help in moving toward God's purposes for each of us. For some, the past has meant pain and heartache, and grace is required so that we do not let that which shaped us dictate our responses and the outcomes of those responses in our future. If we allow our past to make us a victim, then we have not entered into the grace that God has for us. To be sure it is a decision we make. God's grace saves us and changes us or it does not. If we live on memories of past successes and fail to raise our vision for new things, we again are victims of our past. Our past becomes our highlight reel.

That is not God's vision for your life

See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland - Isaiah 43:19.

Our past should only be viewed for what we can learn from it. We should understand it so we can trace the finger of God, even when we were in rebellion, in our lives. We must move forward and avoid viewing the negative or the positive for more than what we can learn; for how our Heavenly Father can take that information and build our future from and with it. Are you going to allow your past dictate your future.? God is always about doing new things in our lives. New things means He is doing something unique today and will again do something unique to you and I in our tomorrow's. He gives fresh insight of His purposes in our lives. At the very least these new adventures provide us with new clues to His calling and His election of us into the offices to which only He can call us.
Do not live in the past. Do not hold onto bitterness that may hinder God from doing new and exciting things in your life.

Our eternal Father turns our wastelands into streams of water to give life, not death. He means for each event and memory to lead to the glory of His name. Your quest, your adventure is to figure out how.

How are we viewing our past? How much time are we giving to it? Are we glorying in it? Has it hindered us to become more of Jesus Christ? Have you relied on past successes to dictate what you will do in the future or stymy you from moving forward toward new goals? Put your memories in their proper place. Allow God to do a new things in your life. Seek His guidance to assist you to see the new things He wants to do in and through you today.

"When your memories are bigger than your dreams, you're headed for the grave" [Author unknown]...I remain...

InHISgrip,
~J~

Vertical With God Means Just Outcomes

When they hurled their insults at Him, He did not retaliate; when He suffered, He made no threats. Instead, He entrusted Himself to Him who judges justly - 1 Peter 2:23

When was the last time "wrongfully accused" was part of your life scenario? I know you've been wrongfully accused. I am also fairly certain you have been on the accuser's side of the equation.

I loathe being told I've done something I had no part in. It immediately brings every negative emotion right to the end of my nerves. Some people worry what others will think. "What will people think if they believe these things are true?" we reason. Not me. I don't get that deep. I just HATE having something said that just isn't so as it relates to me.

There was a point in my life that I was both a franchisee and an executive in a franchise company. I viewed it as the perfect opportunity to understand and speak into both areas. Many of the franchisees simply saw me as a turncoat. Rumors abounded of me as a sellout. It didn't hurt my feelings. It ticked me off and caused me to become sarcastic, cynical and aggressive. This didn't help at all.

Well, imagine what Jesus thought as they hurled insults and threats upon Him. The God of the universe had visited planet earth only to be slandered and accused of blasphemy. My role was nothing comparatively. Jesus came and did nothing but good. His words did nothing but reveal man and bring salvation and his actions revealed God the Father. Yet, He had to endure rumor, speculation, lies, insults and threats against His person.

Jesus might have done any number of things in response. He could have used His power to put the people in their place. He could have responded "horizontally." He could have fixed the problem right then. However, He chose to respond in a different way. He chose to "entrust Himself to Him who judges justly." It requires great faith to entrust ourselves to God our heavenly father in the midst of personal assault. The beauty of it is that if we can do this we will discover a level of grace, peace, personal power and wisdom that will be birthed from this experience that we never thought possible. Trusting our God with things we cannot control directly creates a freedom in God we can only embrace when we accept Him at His word.

Suffering for doing that which is honorable, right, and just without seeking to protect our reputation and rights is a faith act. Faith produces redemption. This activates God's grace in our lives and enables us to experience God's presence like never before.

Ask God to give you the grace to stay vertical with Him. Avoid the temptation of responding horizontally each time some event comes into your life that you want to "fix." Entrust yourself to the one who judges justly. It may be a divine appointment for your growth to another level in grace. It will change your life...some more - in the name of Jesus! Remain with me...

InHISgrip,
~J~

Easters First Skeptic

As much as I personally love Easter, I know first-hand what it's like to a skeptic who is torn by its claims. I have one or two of these "infidels" in my life. One is my poorly aging brother. A part of him wishes to believe but another part simply can't imagine believing what He hasn't witnessed firsthand.

When we hearken back to the time of Christ we realize that Jesus' death had paralyzed and polarized even those closest to Him. The last week of his life starts with an amazing victory and shockingly ends in His gruesome demise before the end of the day on Friday. My guess it was all that the disciples, however many there were left, could do to gather in one place at the end of it all.

Jesus, the King, is dead. Long live the king?

As if that wasn't awful enough the next circumstance was just weird. Mary Magdalene see's Him alive! Now, prior to this the body of Christ disappears and with all the hoopla to ensure it went nowhere that was already weird.

Next it's Peter proclaiming he had seen Jesus upright. This, in a more vernacular term, freaked Thomas out! My guess internally he felt he could cut Peter some slack. The guilt Peter felt after denying the Lord; well, who could blame Peter for hoping it was all "OK".

Ya, Ol' Pete - he just needs some time to regather himself.

But then Cleopas burst into the house they are hidden in on Sunday night. What does he do? Oh, not much just claim he had walked—walked!—with Jesus to Emmaus that afternoon. Holy Schnikey! What got to Thomas was that Cleopas and his bud hadn't recognized Jesus the entire trip and then, at dinner, after which Jesus disappears into thin air they have a Homer Simpson, "DOH!" moment. THAT was Jesus!!!

All of these things excited the group. But Thomas only felt peeved. He missed Jesus too, but he wasn't going to let grief make him believe bizarre things. Jesus was dead and that is the stories end...or, was it?

So in all of this Thomas gets some time apart to think and rethink I imagine and, after whispering a discreet excuse to Nathaniel, he managed to slip out, perhaps to recompose himself.

Now, I am sure the quiet was refreshing. What Thomas did in the midst of a kind of spiritual/emotional chaos is very familiar to me. It is what I would do. I would just separate myself. However, in this instance, with those who you had grown closest to over the course of 2 or 3 years having had these experiences, I am just guessing that this walk wasn't as helpful as he had hoped. The Jesus sightings were beyond wild and yet, especially because the witnesses were credible, presented hope. But was the hope based on faith or fiction based on emotionalism?

You and I could only imagine what this walk brought out...the thoughts...the memories...the mustard seed of Thomas' own faith. As he thought this through I am sure he came to a place where the "facts," in fact, were now ambiguous. He was disillusioned. A part of him wished to believe Jesus was alive. This frustrated the skeptic in him who took pride in being a pragmatic man. There was that whole resurrection of Lazarus thing but Jesus did that. So, who was there to do Jesus?

Can you imagine the dilemma? Can you imagine those of your loved ones and friends today who are now over two thousand years removed?

Show me the body! his skeptic side shouted (as does theirs). At least Lazarus could be seen and touched in Bethany by any doubter. So if Jesus really was alive, why this hide-and-seek game? Wouldn't he just show himself to them all? And so it goes today as well doesn't it?

Thomas would believe if...if...if what?

When Thomas returned to the house four of his friends pounced on him, "We have seen the Lord, Thomas! It's all true! He was just with us! Where were you?"

Now what is going through Thomas' mind? How about shock, unbelief, isolation, regret for having left, and self-pity over feeling left out? Does that sound right?

In his heightened state of emotional and spiritual trauma he does what I would only imagine I would have done...he barked at them... "Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe."

Most of his friends were dismayed. Peter smiled wryly.

The following eight days were long and lonely for Thomas. His friends were gracious. As far as we know, no one debated him. It was, their calm confidence in Jesus' resurrection that aggravated Thomas' growing conviction that he might have overstated his position.

Note: When you are faced with a great cloud of witnesses it tests your skeptics' faith. It should!

I am sure externally Thomas attempted to maintain an air of resolute intellectual skepticism, but inside he was at war. He was losing the war. You cannot have met Jesus and have been satisfied to believe that is all there was; that one encounter. He leaves you hungry for more of Him.

More than anything he wanted Jesus too!

And then it happened.

Thomas was pondering again the possibility that his unbelief had disqualified him and he had missed Jesus. Did God's Son reject him? If so, he knew he deserved it. Then, in this place, together with others and from the group came a gasp! He looked up and his heart leaped into his throat! Jesus was standing across the room looking back at him. "Peace be with you."

Thomas could hardly breathe. Jesus spoke to him, "Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe."

All objections and resistance in Thomas evaporated. And in tears of repentance, relief, and worship Thomas dropped on his knees before Jesus and exclaimed, "My Lord and my God."

Thomas, became the first Trinitarian by virtue of this statement. The others may have believed it but Thomas made it a fact! He made it biblical.

This is long isn't it? What's my point? Simply this: be patient and gracious with the skeptics in your life. We shouldn't assume their outward confidence accurately reflects their inward condition. Keep praying for them and share what seems helpful. Keep confidently and humbly following Jesus. Trust Jesus' timing. He knows best how and when to reveal himself to them.
After all, He caught you and I didn't He?

I remain...
InHISgrip,
~J~