Short & Sweet: Anyone

Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.

Luke 9:23

Anyone.

Anyone is welcome. Anyone can come. Any tribe, any tongue, any religion. No one is excluded. All have sinned, but all are welcome. Anyone can come to the foot of the Cross, take up his cross and follow Jesus.

I used to think only special people were really welcome in the kingdom of God. You know who I’m talking about. The pretty people … the smart people … the popular people. The people who’ve been Christians since they were able to talk. Perfect lives marked by wise choices, good decisions and smart moves. They were the ones God really used. A-list people with first-string capabilities. Everything I was not.

I barely made the cut. I flew in under the radar—allowed in heaven, but better seen and not heard. I had already messed up God’s perfect will for life, doomed to live on Plan B (or in my case plan Z) until God called me home.

But God says,

“If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.

Forget Plan A. God says anyone is welcome.

Anyone. Broken people marked by sin and shame—welcome. Shattered people scarred by hurt and hardship—welcome. Plain people with common lives—welcome. Anyone may come.

But. we must deny ourselves … of what?

The right to live safe.

The right to stay small.

The right to live unforgiven.

The right to excuse ourselves from abundant life by focusing on our wounds instead of our Healing.

But when we deny ourselves, we indulge the Spirit.

With self out of the way, there is room for the Spirit. Blessing, power and energy flow unchecked from the hand of God to the heart of man. Any man, any woman, anyone who will follow Him.

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” 2 Cor. 5:17

Action Points:

Do you believe anyone is welcome in God’s kingdom? Do you believe you are welcome? How can you better live the truth anyone is welcome?
Is there any people group you avoid witnessing to, or praying for because you believe they don’t deserve God’s grace or love? What can you do to change this attitude?
Is there anyone, anytwo, anythree or four in your life right now who need to hear they are welcome? How can you share the love of Jesus with them today?

Life is sweet. Anyone may come. Anyone.

Short & Sweet: Ur or Or

1 Now the LORD had said to Abram: “Get out of your country [Ur], from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you. 2 I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing.” Genesis 12:1

And God called Abram.

He was living the good life in the land of Ur — never dreaming of doing a re-lo. Ur wasn’t any little old city. It was the center of commercial trade and political power, home to the temple of the moon god, and the largest city of the province of Shinar. But, Ur wasn’t big enough for what God had planned for Abram. Life in Ur was good, but sometimes what’s good gets in the way of what’s better — the land of Canaan, the future home to the Temple of the One True God.

God called Abram and he had a choice to make: stay in Ur, or follow God to the land of Canaan.

Ur or Canaan.

Ur or Or.

God does that some times.

He breaks into our everyday lives and calls us to come deeper, dream bigger and walk closer with Him. Like Abram, we’d stay in our land of Ur if God didn’t offer us an Or. I didn’t even realize I was living in Ur until God called into my darkness. Leaving Ur can be difficult and at times you may be tempted to stay. Friends will tell you you’re crazy to leave. Your family may pitch a fit about pitching a tent in a new land. It’s easier to stay in Ur. It’s familiar. Comfortable. Safe. Nothing new under the sun.

The land of Ur is characterized by:

Living for self
Following the crowd
A false dependence on something besides God
Barrenness (think of Sarai).

The land of Or is a very different place, marked by:

Living for God
Following Jesus
Dependence on God
Fruitfulness

We have the same choice: Same old, same old or follow God. Safe or faith. Ur or Or.

Ur or Or?

What will we do?

Action Points:

You’re holding back on something right now. God wants you to live large, but you’re tempted to stay small. Name one thing you need to do right now to leave Ur and head to Or.
Read today’s verse again. Ask God to show you what you need to leave behind to follow Him.
Maybe you’re already living close to God. What do you need to improve upon to live even closer … prayer, Bible study, church attendance, or silence and solitude?
What are you depending on to give you peace, love, joy, security and purpose? If it’s anything other than God you need to shift your focus to Him.

Life is sweet.

Short & Sweet: We Get Up

Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, Jehovah will be a light unto me. Micah 7:8

Feels like football weather!

is a common saying where I come from. I am a big football fan. I love everything about football season—from the excitement, the competition, the sweatshirts, the cool fall weather, to the big pot of chili bubbling on the back of the stove. Each Saturday, I celebrate when my favorite team marches onward to victory. I must admit there is a dark side to my celebrating — I rejoice when the rival team from across state loses (and loses big…in the Big House).

Satan does the same thing to us. Like a thug hidden in the shadows, he sets his evil traps and rejoices as we fall; however, his victory is short lived. Because in Christ Jesus, we get up.

Rejoice not my enemy.

In Hebrew rejoice means to leap, to be glad, to celebrate the destruction of another. Destruction—Satan’s calling card. Satan hopes our fall will destroy us, but he has forgotten God made provision for the fall in the Garden of Eden. The Garden of Gethsemane. The Cross of Calvary. We get up.

When I fall.

When I fall. When you fall. God knows we will fall. He has a plan. The word fall means to fall, to fall away, to lie, to throw down. But fall also means …

to fall in the hands of

To fall in the hands of…God. We sin and fall, and He catches us. We fall into the hands of God. Where can we run from his love? If we climb to the heavens, He is there. If we make our bed in Sheol, still He finds us there. Our wandering turns out to be His leading. One more life-changing definition for the word fall; it also means to fall on one’s knees.

Ponder this for a moment.

What do we usually do when we are on our knees?

Pray.

Let’s put this all together. Satan tempts us. Because of our own desires, we are drawn away and enticed. We sin and we fall. But we fall into the hands of God and we land on our knees. We pray. We confess. We get up.

I once heard a preacher say the definition of success is getting up one more time than you fall. I think God would agree. Getting up is the key.

What knocks you down?

Is it an attitude, a habit, your sin, the sin of others?

When you have blown it, AGAIN, by yelling at the kids when they didn’t deserve it—get up.
When you overhear a co-worker’s nasty comment concerning your project—get up.
When your husband complains about a meal that took hours to prepare—get up.
When no one notices your continual sacrifices at home, at work, at school. Your Father sees you—get up.
When you’ve given gut-level deep and your efforts fall short—get up.
When you’ve promised you wouldn’t curse/drink/smoke/gamble/sleep around ever again; confess. repent, and get up.

Action points:

What do you need to give up so you can get up?
Now that you got up, name something you will do in place of what you gave up.
Pray. Find scriptures that attack your problem and encourage growth. Pray these scriptures into your situation. Meditate on them and repeat them as often as necessary. Remember change takes time.

Life is sweet. Get up!

Short & Sweet: Credit, Please

Short and Sweet Nourishment for the Soul

“Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, 21 being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. 22 This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.” 23 The words “it was credited to him” were written not for him alone, 24 but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead …” Romans 4:20-24

Righteousness. I had none.

Not one leaf, not even a filthy rag of righteousness. My sin was ever before me. Where does a woman like me go to get righteousness … ?

To Calvary.

To the Cross.

To the feet of Jesus.

The cross of Christ, flowing with the blood of Christ. One drop is all it took. One drop of His precious righteous blood and my filthy rags were washed as white as snow. Credit, please.

It was credited to him as righteousness.

In the Greek, the word credited is rich with meaning. (Ask God to prepare your heart to receive the meaning behind this Greek word). Logozimai means to account to impute, when a thing is reckoned as or to be something, availing as equivalent to something, to pass to one’s account.”

In layman’s terms, God makes a huge deposit of His righteousness into our empty account. It’s like getting an inheritance check in the mail. Not because we earned it, but because it’s credited to us. Free righteousness. No strings attached. Good credit, bad credit, no credit at all.

Words of righteousness.

Logozimai descends from the Greek word logos, which means words uttered by a living voice, (by a Living God), “the sayings of God.” Logos descends from the root word lego, which means to say, to speak, to call by name. Reread the definitions and let them fall on you for a minute.

On my knees. Tears flowing because of the righteousness flowing from the Word of God. The Word. Jesus is the Word. I see it. I put the pieces together. Righteousness flowing from the Word of God.

God’s righteousness cannot be separated from His Word.

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Righteousness by words.

Righteousness by the Word.

Righteousness by The Word of Life.

Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Him.

Like links in a chain, we are anchored to God by the righteousness that comes through The Word … Jesus. Righteousness credited to our name because of His name.

Credit, please.

Action Points

Receive God’s gift of righteousness.
How should a righteous person live, act and walk?
Now that you no longer have to strive for righteousness, what can you do instead?
What can you do differently now that you know you are accepted and redeemed by God?
Pray for God to help you realize the depths of your righteousness because of Christ.

Life is sweet.

Short & Sweet: She Heard

Short and Sweet Nourishment for the Soul

She Heard

“Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered, saying, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from You. But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah” …“The queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and indeed a greater than Solomon is here.”

Matthew 12:38-39, 42

Jesus is speaking to the crowds. While teaching from His Word, He heals a demon-possessed man of his many afflictions. The Pharisees are not happy. Like the rest of the crowd, they’ve been listening to Jesus preach. However, the teachers of the Law want a sign: a miracle on demand. Would they see with their eyes when they would not hear with their ears? What greater sign did they need than an exorcism? Jesus calls them out by mentioning the queen of the South.

The queen of the South? She heard. She heard all the way from Sheba. What the Pharisees would not hear from across the temple courtyard, she heard from across the continent. 1,200 miles. And she came to hear more. Imagine being mentioned in the Bible, not because you won a great battle or conquered a terrible foe, but because you heard.

I Kings 10:2 gives us little more information: She spoke to Solomon about all that was in her heart. That’s the difference between the Pharisees and the Queen of Sheba. She heard with her heart. The Pharisees, deafened by pride, could only hear with their ears. (To learn more about the connection between the heart and the ears, look up the following verses: Deuteronomy 29:4, Proverbs 23:12, Isaiah 6:10, and Ezekiel 3:10.)

God has an antidote for deaf ears. Acts 7:51: “You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you.” Ask God to circumcise your ears to hear His Word.

Open the eyes of my heart, Lord and open the ears of my heart.

In the Greek and Hebrew, to hear means not only to sense with the ears, but to understand, consider, comprehend, and OBEY.

Hearing God’s word requires change.

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Let’s follow the example of the Queen of Sheba, and do what it takes to hear from God.

She heard.

Action Points:

How can you put yourself in a position to hear from God?
What noise is blocking the Word of God in your life?
What action can you take to hear from God today?

Life is sweet.

Short & Sweet: She Sinned

Short and Sweet Nourishment for the Soul

2 … all the people came to Him; and He sat down and taught them. 3 Then the scribes and Pharisees brought to Him a woman caught in adultery. And when they had set her in the midst, 4 they said to Him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act. 5 Now Moses, in the law, commanded us that such should be stoned. But what do You say?” 6 This they said, testing Him, that they might have something of which to accuse Him. But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with His finger, as though He did not hear.

7 So when they continued asking Him, He raised Himself up and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.” … 9 Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst … “Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?” 11 She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said to her, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.”

She sinned.

She was caught in the very act. Given the nature of her sin, she did not sin alone, yet she stood alone before the crowd in the temple. Was her lover in the crowd? The scribes and Pharisees were using her as a sacrificial lamb to trap the Lamb of God. With rocks in hand, the Pharisees interrogate Jesus about the law. Ironic isn’t it … questioning The Word about the Word.

Why did scribes and Pharisees think Jesus would give another answer rather than stone her? Perhaps the fact He ate dinner with tax collectors and prostitutes got around town. At any rate, the Pharisees were willing to sacrifice the woman in order to get to Jesus. After all, she sinned.

Jesus’ answer is brilliant.

“Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.”

Silence.

Memories. Regret.

A single stone hits the ground.

Rocks drop one by one. Fists unclench. A hailstorm of rocks fall to the dust.

Stones … stone tablets of commandments broken … the stone rolls away from the tomb … the Rock of Ages, the Stone which the builders rejected offers grace. The One who was without sin, the only One who could throw a rock, throws her a lifeline. She is left standing, boldly before the throne of grace. She sinned.

Her story starts with a man and ends with a Man; one a sinner, one a Savior. Grace comes and crushes her guilt, sin, and shame. And she is free. She sinned no more.

Action Points:

Take your sin to Jesus. Tell Him what you have done and accept His grace. Tell Him now.
Talk to Jesus. Like the woman caught in adultery, leave your accusers to Jesus. Notice the only person the woman talked to was Jesus. She did not fight, argue, or defend herself to the crowds. What do you need to do to spend more time with Jesus?
Turn and sin no more. Whatever it takes … new friends … new job … new habits … sin no more. Change requires change. What will you change today to change your life?

Life is sweet.