Breakthrough

If you've ever been in the ocean, you've more than likely experienced waves knocking you down, being held under the water.

If  you've never had that happen to you, I can only explain it as what it must feel like to be in a large washing machine. You're being tossed and thrown in every direction all at once. You have no idea which was is up until the waves push you down so far that you hit the sand beneath you. That gives you some point of reference, but you still have to fight through the weight of that water pushing you down just to get a breath. It can be scary, multiple memories come to mind where I wasn't sure if I was going to come back up at all.

Isn't life like that sometimes? Things push us down, and hold us underwater. We can't breath, and we get overwhelmed by all of the pressures around us. We're all familiar with the feeling of being held down on the bottom, trying so hard to get a break in life. I think a lot of us are even there right now, today. We need a breakthrough. 

Ephesians 2:14 says, "For He Himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility"

The "He" in this verse is speaking of Jesus Christ. Before you dismiss this as another Sunday school message about how Jesus can solve our problems, hear me out. 

This verse doesn't say Jesus brings peace, or even that Jesus offers peace. It says that Jesus IS peace.

Think of the most peaceful situation that you can imagine. I think of lying in my hammock way up in a tree, I have my headphones in, relaxing in the sun. Those peaceful situations give us a chance to take a deep breath. To let go of the struggles and pressures around us, even if it's only for a moment, and breath. In a way, those situations are small breakthroughs for us. 

Jesus IS our peace. 

In Jesus, we get that deep breath that we need, we get that breakthrough from the struggles of life. Our relationship with Jesus is the most important factor to our breakthroughs, because in Jesus, we're made right with God. That verse from Ephesians says that Jesus broke down the wall of hostility between us and God. That's the gospel! Our sin had put up this wall between us and God, and we couldn't cross it or go around it or get over it. We were stuck. We were being held underwater by our sin. Jesus saw this, and He came and broke through that wall. Jesus didn't show us a path around it, or build a bridge over it. Jesus broke down the wall. Jesus removed all of the separation. We have full access to God through Jesus.

This is huge, and it is a complete game changer. We don't have to be overwhelmed by the struggles around us, or held down by the pressures of life. We have the same power that raised Jesus from the dead living inside of us! We have the promise that we will spend eternity with God. Our God is alive and loves us. The peace that comes with that will overwhelm every circumstance or pressure that could ever rise. 

Our relationship with God is a vertical relationship. The things going on around us today are just horizontal, and Jesus promises to be our peace, not just in the vertical, but in the horizontal as well.

When our vertical life is right, our horizontal life is doable. 

No weapon that is formed against you can prosper, God has promised to reveal His goodness through every circumstance that comes your way. Waves will come. Life happens. We will all be held under at some point or other. This isn't a promise that life won't be tough, but it is a promise that we have a breakthrough in Jesus. When the vertical is right, the horizontal is doable.

Plugged In

I think that every single one of us has wondered, we have all asked the question... What am I here for?

We all want to know what God's purpose for our life is, where we fit in the grand scheme of things. People tell us verses like Jeremiah 29:11 which says, "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope."

We take this verse, and others like it and decide that it is future tense. We go through all of our lives waiting for "the plans I have for you" This might come as a surprise to you, it might not. But either way I pray that you consider this.

God's plan for your life is today.

God knows everything that will ever happen in your life, and He has set works ahead of you for you to walk in them. Ephesians 2:10 declares, "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."

That verse excites us. God has plans for me! God has good works for me to walk in! Wahoo! It's true, and it is exciting, but I think we're all guilty of wanting to be at the exciting parts today. We want to fast forward the boring dialogue and get to the action.

However, we can't do that. We need to start at the beginning. This calling on our lives, on my life, on your life, it's a lot like a building. We have to start on the first floor, then we can build off of that. We can't remove it, we can't ignore it. Every part of our calling must flow through that.

As Christians, the first floor we must tackle, where our calling begins, is in abiding in Christ.

John 15:4-5, "Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing."

Abiding simply means to remain in, to continue in, or to dwell in. We need to take up residence in Jesus, because without Him we have nothing.

It's kind of like a cell phone. You can do a whole lot of things with phones these days, but if you don't charge them, they're useless. A cell phone with a dead battery doesn't accomplish anything. The more that you do with your phone, the more often you will need to charge it, and there is no other way to charge it than by connecting it to a power source.

A Christian who isn't plugged into God is useless. There's no way to get recharged other than getting with God, connecting to the Source. You have to charge the phone before it becomes effective, and we need to be charged in the same way. Without the constant refilling of the Holy Spirit in our lives, we get burnt out, we wear down, and we become inneffective.

We all want to know what God has planned ahead of our lives, but we need to start with being plugged into God, abiding in Him. As we remain consistent in that, God will bring us into what He has for us. When we remain faithful in the general calling He's put on our lives, He'll be faithful to lead us into the specific calling on our lives.

White Washed Tombs

In the second chapter of Joel, God commands Israel, "Yet even now," declares the LORD, "return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments." Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster."

I was reading this in my quiet time the other day, and it just got me thinking. God is calling Israel out on their sin of rebellion and idolatry, and He says, "stop trying to look like you care, and let this hit your hearts." Notice, God doesn't see their outward show as repentance.

Repentance is an inward turn of our hearts towards God, which is followed by our actions. Our hearts will define our actions, not the other way around.

Jesus said something similar in Matthew 23, "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness."

Jesus calls out the spiritual leaders of Israel for the same thing. His rebuke is even harsher! He tells them that they look great, but they are DEAD inside.

That's the real problem with religion if we think about it. It looks awesome, we do all this stuff for God, we make sacrifices, and we tithe, and we serve, but inside we're dead.

Jesus knows that. That's why He came to die on the cross for our sins. Jesus came to defeat religion, and bring it back to relationship. Before the law even existed, Adam walked in the garden with God, Abraham was considered a friend of God. God has always been about relationship.

God has always been about getting deeper than the surface of our actions to the heart behind them.
God is more concerned about your relationship with Him than your tithe check.

Those verses in Joel might look a little bit different today, they might say something like "stop tithing your money and start tithing your hearts!"

Tithing isn't wrong. It wasn't wrong for Israel to show that they were upset with their sin, but the problem rises when it never goes deeper than the show.

We can end up in a worship service singing things like "break my heart for what breaks yours" or "I surrender" But then we leave church and the words become empty. They were nothing more than words we sang during the song.

Those worship songs weren't intended to stay on the projector screens. God's Word wasn't written to give us lots of books that we only use so our bookshelf looks more full.

Those words were inspired by God, so that we would take them and let them change the way that we live, and mold our hearts.

Ephesians 2 tells us that God, being rich in mercy, took us from being dead to being alive.

God brought us to life in Him. That isn't just an outward show of life that looks cool. It's a life that takes root in our hearts, light springs from the darkness and consumes us with the Spirit of God.

There is nothing fake about it, when we have the new life in Christ, we aren't white washed tombs, but resurrected men and women, living and acting in the power of God.

We have the opportunity to be more than mediocre, we can be part of the greatest community, the greatest cause, the greatest Kingdom ever. It all begins with going to Jesus and allowing those words to become real to us, allowing those words to change us from the inside out.

commUNITY

Everyone wants to be part of something. We all want to have our place that we fit in. Whether it's with our friends, or our jobs, or our families, we long for community.

I believe that the desire for community is something that God has put inside of us. He designed us to be in community with Him, and with other believers. In Galatians 6, Paul exhorts the church to bear each others burdens, and to do good to everyone, especially the other believers.

Paul tells the church that we're in this life together. We don't need to try and go at it alone.  The sad thing is that this seems to be something that the church has missed. Instead of bearing each others burdens, instead of seeking to do good to everyone, we judge, we condemn, and we gossip about whatever sin "they" fell into.

God's church should be the greatest community on earth, but far to often we reduce it to what would be expected of children. We miss the point that we're supposed to help each other, and we end up pushing each other down with the false idea that we're better than them.

Forgive me if it sounds like I'm ranting, and I know that I'm just as guilty of this as the next person. But I believe that it is time for a change. It is time that we raise the bar of community in the church.

If you read through the book of Acts, the church was a beautiful example of the community that God calls us to, not without fault, but unified. It was the way that they lived, and the way that they treated the people around them that brought people into the church. The ones looking in from the outside witnessed the community, the grace, and the love in the church, and they craved it. People were being added to the church daily.

Today, there are still people looking in from the outside, but what they often witness is something far from community. The way that God's people interact with each other, and with the world is no longer what brings people in. It has become what keeps people away.

Christians are known today for being hypocritical and judgemental. That breaks my heart, for the people who won't give Jesus a chance because His church has misrepresented Him, and for the church who has apathetically allowed itself to fall to such a place.

There is grace. God is a God of love, and forgiveness. I pray that as you read these words, let Jesus infiltrate your heart and change how you interact with those around you. Let's become the community that shows the world Jesus.

Lord, we aren't worthy. We aren't good. We are empty and in such need of You.
Fill us, equip us, break our hearts for this world.
Let Your name be glorified in Your church, amen.

Outsiders

I think that every one of us at one point or another has felt like we were an outsider. We've all felt like we didn't belong. Whether it was true or not, we've all had those feelings, and nobody likes that. Nobody likes to feel out of place, or unwanted.

If you look at the Bible, that's why Jesus came! Because of the sin in our lives, we were separate from God. We had alienated ourselves, making ourselves outsiders, we couldn't go near God. So Jesus came and He died on the cross to make the payment that was needed for our sin, so that we could have that relationship with Him. So that we could enter into that fellowship with our Creator.

The more that you look at the Gospels, the more you will see that Jesus came for everyone, but specifically the outsiders. There was a religious "in crowd" made up of Pharisees, and teachers, and scribes, but Jesus didn't pay too much attention to them. His harshest words were in their direction.

More often than not, we see Jesus with the people who were social outcasts for whatever reason. He hung out with tax collectors, and prostitutes. Jesus made a point to reach the outsiders.

One of my favorite stories is in Mark 1:40-45. A leprous man approaches Jesus, and falls at His feet crying out, "If You will, You can make me clean." In that day, leprousy would make you a total outcast. You were forbidden to come too close to people, and if you broke that barrier, they would begin to throw rocks at you. It was impossible to be more of a social outcast.

This man runs up to Jesus, and falls in front of Him. Everyone is waiting to see what Jesus will do. Will He spit on him? Will He throw a rock at him? Will He even notice this lowly, disfigured outsider?

Verse 41 says "Moved with pity, He stretched out His hand and touched him and said to him, "I will; be clean."

Jesus doesn't ignore this guy. Jesus doesn't insult this man, or throw a rock at him. Jesus TOUCHES him.  Just think about that for a moment. Imagine the reaction of the crowd. They might have even been holding their rocks, waiting for Jesus to give them permission to throw them at him. But instead, He touches this man.

Jesus did the last thing that they expected, but exactly what this man needed.  Jesus wasn't worried about the crowd's reaction. He saw the need of this man, and He reached out and touched him.

Jesus broke the  awkwardness for this guy. Instead of leaving feeling out of place, he left healed, with a part in what God was doing. Now he belongs.

God wants to do the same thing in your life. That's why when Jesus died on the cross, the veil to the Holy of Holies was ripped in two from top to bottom. There is nothing keeping us from access to God. The sin that blocked us from Him has now been paid for.

In Jesus, you belong. In Jesus, you have purpose. In Jesus, you're no longer an outsider, but a child of the King of Kings.

Are you living on the outside? God loves you so much that you can't even comprehend it. So much that He willingly sent His Son Jesus to die in your place. Jesus died in your place so that you could have unrestricted access to God. Take hold of that! Enter into that fellowship, that community with God.

Maybe you're reading this and you're thinking, "That's nice and all, but I'm not on the outside.... I have an awesome relationship with Jesus."

If that's the case for you, then I offer you the same challenge that convicts me today. Are you reflecting Jesus in the way you treat people? Jesus reached out to the outsiders, He touched the untouchables.

Are you following the example that He set for His church, or are you following the example of the Pharisees, who were ready to throw rocks at someone who needed a touch from Jesus?

For Freedom

Galatians 5:1 says, "For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery." 

The words that stick out to me there are "stand firm" Stand firm. Seems simple enough right? The idea behind that is like an army facing an enemy. The army that stands firm is an army that refuses to back down, they refuse to be defeated, they refuse to even yield an inch to their foes. As Christians, we're called to stand firm. We have an enemy, and Jesus has given us the power to stand firm against him.

2 Corinthians 10:4-5, "For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ."

I love that verse, because it doesn't just say that we stand firm, but that we attack. We take our own prisoners. I think if we are all honest, there are things in our lives that satan has managed to get a grip on. Areas that we haven't stood firm, and now they are enemy territory. We are called to take back that enemy territory in the name of Jesus. Galatians 5:13 tells us that we are called to freedom. Keep in mind, partial freedom isn't really freedom. We're either free or we aren't. The freedom that we have been offered was given to us by Jesus when He laid down His life on the cross for our sakes.

Jesus bought our freedom.
Don't give satan the victory that Jesus died to purchase. 

This freedom that has been given to us is something that we must fight for. We must choose to stand firm against the repeated attacks of our enemy. We need to refuse to give him any ground, because that ground was purchased with Jesus' blood. Jesus owns that territory, and He has given it to us for the taking. Let us rise up in faith, and reclaim what the devil has stolen.  

Traffic.

Have you ever been stuck in traffic? For a long time? I remember driving home from Christmas last year… It was supposed to be a ten hour drive, but it became a thirteen hour drive. For three hours, I didn’t go more than ten miles an hour. We were inching along. It was terrible. I hate traffic. I was just ready to get home. I think that we all hate traffic, because it keeps us from reaching our destination. It makes us take longer to get where we’re going.

Traffic keeps us from our goal.

I think all of us have some Spiritual traffic in our lives. I know I do.

We all have things in our life that keep us from becoming more like Jesus.

If we were to rate our walks with Jesus on a scale from 1 – 10, none of us would have a perfect 10. We won’t have perfect 10s until we’re with Jesus in Heaven, and that’s because there is traffic here that keeps us from Him.

So, what’s your traffic?

What is it in your life that is keeping you from getting to Jesus.

Galatians 5:1 – 

"For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and don't submit again to a yoke of slavery."

When Paul says, “Don’t submit again to a yoke of slavery” he’s saying, don’t let the traffic slow you down.

Jesus knows about the traffic in your life. That's why He came and died on the cross.

His death paid the price that you owed for your sin, so that through faith in Him, you have the power to bypass all of that traffic. 

It doesn't happen naturally, we don't just end up past the sin in our lives.  

Sin isn't something we outgrow.  

We have to choose to fight against it, we have to choose to put on Christ daily.

I love how Paul says it in Romans 13:14, 

"But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires." 

We have to stop feeding our flesh. We have to cut out the things in our lives that create traffic, keeping us from Jesus.

God wants to take you to a deeper place in your walk with Him. Will you remove the sin, and bypass the traffic in your life to get to Him?