Day Seventy: Mark 14-16

In Mark 14 we see a response that Jesus describes as “such a good thing.”  This response, from a woman whose name is not given to us here, becomes for us a powerful picture of just how much Jesus is worth, and the kind of response that he deserves.  

While Jesus is in Bethany, a woman comes to him and pours an alabaster flask of ointment on his head.  You see, it was customary in this culture to anoint the head of a noble guest with oil as a symbol of hospitality and respect.  

But something much deeper is going on here.  This alabaster flask was much more costly than normal oil.  People would us alabaster bottles to store the most costly ointments, in containers with long necks, which would then be broken and poured out all at once. These kinds of ointments were used to anoint the body at the burial of a loved one.  Commentators guess that she was saving this ointment for her own burial, or the burial of a close family member.  Verse 5 says that this ointment was worth a year’s wages.

And it is this ointment, this most precious of her possessions, that she breaks open and pours out on Jesus. She lavishes her cherished treasure on Jesus.  She gives no thought to decorum or proper etiquette or if there might be a better time to do this: her only desire is to give of herself with no reserve or holding back of any kind. 

Notice the response of the disciples.  They immediately are annoyed, and they say, “What a waste.  This could have been sold for a large sum and given to the poor.”  But Jesus immediately turns it back on them, letting them know that her response was right. 

Jesus says, wherever the gospel is proclaimed, the story of what she has done will be told as well.  

Why is this event so significant to Jesus, so significant that he says that it will always be remembered?  Two reasons: 

First, as Jesus said, it symbolizes his preparation for his burial.  Jesus is ready to die for the sins of the world.  

Second, this act of self-giving on the part of the woman represents the proper response to Jesus: unabashed, joyful surrender. 

You can tell a lot about what a person values by their actions and their attitude.  Look at the difference in the attitude of the disciples to the ointment and the woman.  By their actions, the disciples were saying, “Jesus, you’re not worth that much.  This expensive ointment was wasted on you.”  Through her actions, the woman was saying, “all I want to do is give my most precious possession to you.  This is all I have to give, and you are worth it.”  

What do your actions say about what Jesus is worth to you?  What do your priorities say about what Jesus is worth to you?  If a person looked at your life, how you spent your time, hard you work to keep relationship with him vibrant and thriving, how much you sacrifice for Christ, how would they conclude that Jesus is very valuable to you?  Or would they conclude that Jesus is just marginal to your life?

What is Jesus worth to you?

Day Sixty-Nine: Mark 11-13

Imagine what it must have been like for the twelve disciples to be in Jerusalem with Jesus in Mark 13.  You are admiring the magnificence of Herod’s temple, and you say to Jesus, “Man, some temple, huh? You don’t see that every day.” And like Jesus does, he says something crazy, “Fellas, you need to know that there's not a stone in that building that is not going to end up in a pile of rubble.  This whole place is going down.”  You’d be like: “What?! The temple is going to be destroyed?  When? Why? By whom?”

This was the disciples’ reaction as well.  And so as they went up to the Mount of Olives, the disciples ask for some specifics: “Tell us, when will all this happen?” (13.4)

Jesus goes on to describe how injustice, persecution, war, and natural disasters will continue.  He compares these things to labor pains, like the earth is groaning to give birth to new life. 

But it seems to me that there is an intentional vagueness in what Jesus is saying.  People living in most periods of history could look at the world around them and conclude that they were living in the last days: false messiahs, wars, injustice, famine, earthquakes, the persecution of Christians, the worldwide spread of the gospel. And I think that’s the idea – that the Christians in all time periods would expect to find injustice and opposition in the world as they spread the gospel of the kingdom, and continue to faithfully minister despite the dire circumstances around them.

Yet there seems to be a shift in verses 14-23. It speaks of a period of tribulation, the likes of which has never been seen.  Some Christians believe that this passage was fulfilled with the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70.  Others believe it is referring to a day still to come.  

In any case, Jesus leaves no doubt as to how the story ends.  He will return.  And what he says should silence at least part of the debates: “since you don’t know when that time will come, be on your guard! Stay alert!” (13.33)

In fact, in Acts 1, after the resurrection, the disciples ask Jesus, “Will you at this restore the kingdom of Israel?”  And Jesus responds and says, “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.”  And then he sends them on mission.   His point: “leave the end of history to the Father; your response to me should be no different if I return next week or if I return in 500 years.”  

In other words, our response should be consistent and faithful: we should always live in light of our Christ’s return. 

You see, the Bible’s announcements about the end of history are not given to us so that we can set dates, make charts or hypothesize about who the antichrist is.  They are given to us so that we become the kind of people that God wants us to be. This ultimately means a response of faithfulness, not laziness.

So today, live as if Jesus could return.  He just might. 

Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus.

Day Sixty-Eight: Mark 7-10

Over and over throughout the book of Mark, the disciples fail to understand, fail to believe, fail to act.  Over and over Jesus diagnoses their lack of faith: “O you of little faith… don’t you remember?  Don’t you understand?”  This plays out right until the very end, to the night when Jesus is arrested.  All of the disciples fall asleep instead of praying.  When the soldiers come, they all forsake Jesus and run for their lives.  In the moment of Jesus’ greatest need, the disciples blow it.  Big time.  

One of the Mark’s main themes is the failure of the disciples.  If we were to draw principles about discipleship from the book of Matthew, one of them might be: a huge part of being a disciple is learning from failure. 

Or, put it another way, the question is not whether you will fail, but how you will respond when you do?  Will you walk away from Christ, or will you keep following him?  

Notice that each time the disciples fail, there is a note of rebuke and correction. At several points, I think Jesus is honestly frustrated with his disciples. But at the same time his correction is tempered with gentleness and mercy: he is not about to give up on them.  Jesus never says, “You idiots.  I am going to find some new disciples. Some people who are a little bit smarter.  Some people who have a lot more faith.”  

He never does that.  He corrects them, but he does not cut them off.  He gives them freedom to fail without worrying about replaced.  

Now if Mark spends so much time pointing out the failure of the disciples, then we can deduce from this that failure is an indispensable part of discipleship.  Learning to fail well, in the beginning, is just as important as succeeding. 

What do I mean by that?  I mean that each time we fail we come to recognize the patience, mercy and love of Christ who does not cut us off or go in search of new disciples who can “do it better.”  Each time we fail, we realize how helpless we are to do this on our own and how deeply dependent we are on Christ.

So may you fail forward today.  Fall, but fall on Jesus, and learn to trust him.

Day Sixty-Seven: Mark 4-6

As we read the gospel of Mark we definitely get the sense that many people were drawn to Jesus’ power, to his miracles.  In other words, they were more interested in what Jesus could do for them than they were with Jesus himself.   

If you know anything about the world history then you know that the people in the gospels were not the only ones who came to Jesus more interested in things other than in Jesus.  Throughout church history, people have identified themselves with Christ as a way of getting power, and in so doing perverted and abused Christ’s own example of how to use power.  

Today, we might not be as likely to come to Jesus looking for a miracle, but we still come to Jesus looking for the benefits that he gives us.  There’s a sociologist at UNC named Christian Smith.  He’s one of the leading sociologists of religion in the United States.  He did a massive study on the religious life of teenagers and the phrase he came up with to describe it was “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism.”  

Moralistic means is that most teenagers see religion as being all about being good, being moral.  

Therapeutic means that they see religion as something that makes you feel good about yourself.  

Deism means that they have a belief in God, but this God really doesn’t show up that much in their life.  

Today, just as in ancient times, there are a lot of people interested in Jesus.  They are interested in Jesus because Jesus is a good example to follow.  They are interested in Jesus because Jesus makes them feel good about themselves.  They are interested in Jesus because Jesus will help them get into the college they want to get into.  

But when we think this way, we have forgotten who Jesus is.  The kind of person who commands the wind and the waves, from whom demons flee over cliffs, is not the kind of person that you ask into your life to be your personal assistant. 

This is the kind of person before whom you bow, and say, “Command me, Lord.  I exist for you.”

Day Sixty-Six: Mark 1-3

The most common idea about repentance is that it means being sorry for your sin.  That’s definitely a part of it, but when you look at John’s message, it just doesn’t go far enough.  It says in Mark 1 that John is the voice in the wilderness, the one who cries, “prepare the way for Yahweh, make his paths straight!” 

John here is depicted as the forerunner, the herald who brings news of the king, who tells the people to prepare themselves, to prepare the way.   

The original listeners would have known that when a king comes into the land, the people were responsible for making a straight path for him. When a king came, you actually had to build a road for him.  You had to take down any obstacles in the path; you had to build bridges across the chasms, because the king wanted a straight path, a clear path. 

You say, “God doesn’t’ fit into my life.  I have no space for him.”  Then build a road.  Re-arrange your life so that what is most important is in its place.  

This is a fundamentally different thing than a simple, “say you’re sorry…” John isn’t looking for people who are merely ready to say that they are sorry (because sometimes saying sorry is just a way to get someone off your back); he is looking for people who are ready to try a completely different way of living.  

To repent does not just mean to be sorry.  It has the notion of a 180-degree turn.  To repent means to turn, to change, as The Message puts John’s message: “Change your life.  God’s kingdom is here.”

Lord, may my repentance today make a straight path for you in my life. Amen.

Day Sixty-Five: Revelation 20-22

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. And the sea was also gone.  And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.

I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.” (21.1-4)

The Bible begins in a Garden and ends in a City.  This storyline represents the movement of human history.  To take God’s “very good” start in creation and then use our creativity to make it even better!  However, our sinfulness and selfishness often stalemate and subvert this process.  Instead of using our creativity, our human potential for good, we use it selfishly and oppressively.  The Garden, instead of becoming like the New Jerusalem, becomes Babylon – a city full of violence, oppression and injustice – a city where people live without reference to God.

But Babylon is destroyed in the end.  And the New Jerusalem descends from heaven to earth, signifying that God’s presence will be with his people forever.

The kingdom that Jesus inaugurated, embodied in his ministry of preaching good news, healing the broken, and raising the dead comes in its fullness in Revelation 22.  

The good news is preached: “God himself will be with his people.”

The broken are healed: “no more sorrow or crying or pain”

The dead are raised: “no more death.”

This is the kingdom we are living for, the kingdom that we work to embody now, carrying on the ministry of Jesus.

Now, if his kingdom is coming, a kingdom where there will be no hunger, no sickness, and where God will be in the midst of everything, then what does it look like for us to proclaim his kingdom here and now?

It means that we preach the good news about Jesus now.  It means that we bring healing to the sick and the broken, food to the hungry, clean water to the thirsty, that we work against the culture of death that permeates our society.  When we do, we are proclaiming his kingdom, till he comes.

Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus.

And until he does, let’s get to work in testifying to his kingdom.

Day Sixty-Four: Revelation 15-19

“Babylon is fallen—that great city is fallen!
      She has become a home for demons.
   She is a hideout for every foul spirit,
      a hideout for every foul vulture
      and every foul and dreadful animal.” (18.2)

In Revelation 17 we are introduced to a prostitute sitting on a beast.  Her name is written on her forehead: “Babylon the Great, Mother of All Prostitutes and Obscenities in the World.”  She is drunk on the blood of the martyrs, and holds a cup in her hand full of obscenities.  Then in chapter 19, Babylon is called a city.

Incidentally, after the September 11 attacks, a visiting pastor preached a sermon at my home church in KS suggesting that the destruction of the Twin Towers fulfilled Revelation 19, because the angel says “is fallen” twice, once for each of the towers.

So what is Babylon, a woman or a city?  Neither.  Both the woman and the city are symbols of the same thing: empire.  The world’s corrupt system that is characterized by greed, violence, oppression and obscenity.  It is what happens when human creativity is turned only in the direction of evil.  

Babylon is not New York City, Washington DC, Las Vegas, Amsterdam, or any other earthly city, though all cities have some of Babylon’s characteristics.  John earlier has identified this city as “Sodom” and “Egypt”, as well as Jerusalem, the city where Jesus was crucified (11.8).  Babylon is anywhere where human selfishness reigns.  It is a place of captivity.  It is a place where the righteous and innocent are oppressed and killed.  It represents the worst of human civilization.

This “city” is destroyed in a moment. This could picture every empire that has dominated the world and then collapsed.  Early readers would have remembered the demise of the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greek Empire.  Later Christians would watch Rome, the greatest superpower the world had ever seen fall apart in the fifth century.  

America is a superpower now, the only one to rival Rome.  But Revelation teaches us not to be impressed by empires.  America is a young empire, and like all the kingdoms of this world, America’s empire will come to an end.  

All kingdoms come to an end, all kingdoms will eventually be shaken, except for the kingdom of God.  

This means that we must not give in to the lure of Babylon.  It is easy to become a part of the world’s corrupt system.  We must come out of Babylon and live for the kingdom that cannot be shaken.

Lord, help me to live for your kingdom today, instead of building my life on sand. Amen.

Day Sixty-Three: Revelation 10-14

“[The Beast] required everyone—small and great, rich and poor, free and slave—to be given a mark on the right hand or on the forehead. And no one could buy or sell anything without that mark, which was either the name of the beast or the number representing his name. Wisdom is needed here. Let the one with understanding solve the meaning of the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. His number is 666.” (13. 16-18)

When you read Revelation, 1) start with what John is talking about in the context of Revelation, 2) then go back to what it means against the backdrop of the OT, 3) then you look at John’s historical context, and 4) last you make the application to today. 

In the OT book of Ezekiel, people are marked for destruction or salvation.  This is probably what John is alluding to.  The mark is an indication of whose you are.  If you belong to Jesus, you need not fear being “tricked” into taking the mark.  

666?  Probably a reference to Nero.  Caesar Nero in Aramaic has the number value of 666.  Nero was one of the worst persecutors of Christians in history, and so he embodies the kind of Satanic opposition that Christians face in the world.

Not being able to buy or sell anything without the mark? Probably a reference to the imperial edicts that forbade commerce for those who were unwilling to say, “Caesar is Lord”.  It represents the persecution and marginalization of Christians as they try to live for Christ. 

But it brings to light one of the most common pitfalls of interpreting Revelation: running immediately to current events and modern technology.  This misses the meaning.

Ever since microchip technology has been available, Christians have speculated that the Mark of the Beast is not far away.  The logic goes like this.  Humans are being biochipped.  That sounds like the mark of the beast in the book of Revelation.  If the mark of the beast is here, then so must the rest of the end times.  If the end times are here, we better get our act together!

But is this really the motivation that we are supposed to have to get our act together?  Aren’t we meant to live every day in light of eternity?  Aren’t we supposed to live under the sobering reality that at any moment you could stop breathing?  If you need some kind of doom to motivate you to change, then go to the Internet and read about people your age who die every day.  

You will die.  This means that now, while you have breath, you must live for Christ.

Day Sixty-Two: Revelation 5-9

And they sang a new song with these words:

   “You are worthy to take the scroll
      and break its seals and open it.
   For you were slaughtered, and your blood has ransomed people for God
      from every tribe and language and people and nation.
   And you have caused them to become
      a Kingdom of priests for our God.
      And they will reign on the earth.”

Then I looked again, and I heard the voices of thousands and millions of angels around the throne and of the living beings and the elders.  And they sang in a mighty chorus:

   “Worthy is the Lamb who was slaughtered—
      to receive power and riches
   and wisdom and strength
      and honor and glory and blessing.”

And then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea. They sang:

   “Blessing and honor and glory and power
      belong to the one sitting on the throne
      and to the Lamb forever and ever.”

And the four living beings said, “Amen!” And the twenty-four elders fell down and worshiped the Lamb. (5.9-14)

If we can get a picture of what really lasts in the end, then maybe we can decide what we should be investing our lives in.  When you see what remains when everything else is stripped away, it causes you to re-evaluate what is really important.

In the future, what will really last?  What is really important?  The book of Revelation in general and this text, specifically gives us the answer: there is much more to life than the here and now.  In fact, the here and now is insignificant to the vastness of eternity.  And in eternity what will remain, what will go on forever is worship.  

That should put things into perspective.  Popularity – it will not go on forever.  Success – it will not go on forever.  Money – it will not go on forever.  Worship of God will go on forever and ever.  But it is bigger than that.  Not just worship. God means to have worship from every people group in the world.    

Do you want to know the reason why we do missions?  It is because there are places in the world where worship does not yet exist.  There are places all over the world where God’s name has not been made famous.  There are people in the world that do not yet know the glory of God’s forgiveness.  

And so the implication of this truth doesn’t take a lot of stretching to see: the invitation is for people to stand up and be His hands and feet in His victory… people to share in the joy of his victory, going and sharing the message as more and more people from all over the world come to the worship our great and glorious king.

Will you join him in his mission today?  Will you give your life to his mission in the future?

Day Sixty-One: Revelation 1-4

One of the central messages of the book of Revelation is the calling of the church to testify to who God is and what he has done, no matter what.

The word that keeps coming up again and again is this word “witness”.  

This is how John introduces himself: “his servant John, who faithfully reported everything he saw.  This is his report of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ.” (1.1-2)

This is how John introduces Christ: “Jesus Christ... the faithful witness.” (1.5)

This is how Jesus refers to a man who was martyred in Pergamum: “Antipas, my faithful witness, martyred among you.” (2.13)  

Incidentally, the word “martyr” means “witness”.

Later in the book, the church will be symbolized by two witnesses who speak the truth in the midst of opposition (ch. 11). 

A witness is a person who simply reports what they have seen. This is what you are called to do.  To witness.  You are not called to make up anything.  You simply must testify to what you have seen, heard and experienced.  Do this regardless of what kind of opposition comes.

To be silent is to be a false witness.  If you know Christ, bear witness to him through your actions and words.

Lord, help me to be a faithful witness today, regardless of the cost.  Amen.

Day Sixty: 2 Peter, Jude

In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone. The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

The promises of God call for a response.  God has provided everything for us in Jesus, and the only natural response is that we would press hard after him.

Peter gives us a great list of different skills and disciplines that we need to train ourselves in:

moral excellence

knowledge

self-control

patient endurance

godliness

brotherly affection

love for everyone

I think a lot of times we shrink faithfulness down to only one or two of these areas, but true maturity means to excel at all of them.  

The crazy thing is that God often allows us into difficult situations so that he can train our character.  That temptation that seems particularly alluring?  A chance to grow in self-control.  The extra long wait in traffic?  An opportunity to train yourself in patient endurance.  That person who requires some extra care?  An opportunity for God to teach you how to love.

Remember this.  God has given you what you need.  Trials are training. Christlike character is the goal.

Lord, help me to respond to the wonderful promises you have given to me. Amen.

Day Fifty-Nine: 1 Peter

“You love him even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him now, you trust him; and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy.” (1.8)

You haven’t even seen Jesus Christ, yet you love him, Peter says. You don’t see him right now, and yet you believe in him, and yet you rejoice.  There is something about faith in Christ that will never make sense to those who do not believe.  How can you love so deeply someone who you have never seen?  How can you believe in him and rejoice even though you don’t see him now?  Where do those impulses of the heart come from?  They come from the new birth, from being born again.

Love for Christ is the natural impulse of a heart that has been reborn.  

Joy in Christ is the natural impulse of a heart that has been reborn.

Being born again means the cultivation of new affections, new desires for God.  Your heart has been given a new sensory ability, and it moves in the direction of God. You are given new longings, spiritual longings, and new senses, spiritual senses.  These things naturally accompany being a re-born human.  You begin to hunger spiritually for God; you begin to thirst for his presence.  You are given new eyes to begin to see the world the way that God sees it.

Suddenly you find that you want to please God.  You find yourself longing for his word.  You find your heart moved by the thought of Him and what he has done for you.  You are affected by the preaching of his word.  You desire God. You desire the things of God.

If you have no spiritual desires, no spiritual senses, if Christianity is just a religion and not a new way of living in and experiencing the world, then you must examine your heart.  Is there any evidence that you have been “born again?”

If you do find evidence, a hunger for him, be encouraged.  Find assurance not in a past experience of doing something, but in the present faith that moves you to love Christ, though you do not see him; the faith that moves you to believe and rejoice even when that belief makes no sense to anyone else.  

This is not your doing.  God is at work in your life. Keep coming back to this rock that is Christ.  He will satisfy your hunger, and quench your thirst.

Day Fifty-Eight: 2-3 John

2 John is a short book.  When they added the verses to it, it only got 13 verses.  And yet, in such a short letter, John manages to make it all about the theme that has captivated his life:

“I am writing to remind you, dear friends, that we should love one another.  This is not a new commandment, but one we have had from the beginning.” (v. 5)

Nothing new, John says, just the same commandment that we have always built our lives around: love one another.

The interesting thing is that he proceeds to connect this command to a heresy (false teaching) that is cropping up throughout the church: the teaching that Jesus did not really come in a real body.  The people who were saying this had a negative view of the body and the earth, they were all about the spiritual realm.  The body is inherently evil, they argued, therefore, how could Jesus have had one?

And John says, this is a false teaching.  Jesus did have a body; John walked with him and talked with him.  And besides this, without bodies we cannot fulfill the central command to love each other.  

Love is not a matter of good feelings or emotions, but of actually using your strength to meet the needs of others. 

Jesus had a body, and in his body he loved us to the full.

Let us use our bodies, our strength, our hands, our feet to love well today.  Amen.

Day Fifty-Seven: 1 John 4-5

It should be valuable to note how the Apostle John ends his letter.  What was the last thing that John wanted the recipients of his letter to know?  The truth.  Three times in 5:20, he repeats this word true: “we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true—even in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.”

Our God is true.  He is reality, substance in a world of shadow.  Now why does John make such a big deal about this word?  Because of 5.21- he knows that his readers are in danger, and we are in danger of replacing the true God, the real God with a counterfeit, with a clever copy, substituting our idea of God for the real thing.  This is called an idol, and John says, keep yourself from this.  In other words, don’t lose the real thing. 

If spiritual life is all about loving God and then loving people, then we are always in danger of falling in love with the idea of God instead of God.  And we are always in danger of falling in love with the idea of loving people rather than actually loving people.  That’s the diagnosis. What is the cure?

People who are experts in counterfeit money do their job well not by knowing a lot about counterfeits but by knowing the real thing really well. So the cure for our tendency to give in to counterfeits is to keep going back to the one who is true. The only way to keep yourself from idols is to engage the real God.  The only way to engage the real God is to enter a relationship with him and get to know him.  This is what you must do today, and every day.

Every day, you must look at the one who is true.  You must continue to pursue him. 

Real life requires the real you, before the real God in real relationship. Ideas and ideals are not enough. Real life requires action, engagement, and commitment.  

Don’t lose the real thing.

What action will you take today to keep you from losing the real thing?

Day Fifty-Six: 1 John 1-3

This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth. But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin. (1.5-7)

It is easy to fool people.  You can pretend to be someone or something you’re not – and most of the time no one will really know.  

Except you, that is.  Deep down you feel like a fake.  And you feel that if anyone really knew you, there is no way that they would want you.  So you pretend.  You wear a mask.  You put on a front.  You hide.  And sometimes you even fool yourself. 

But there is no fooling God.  The book of Hebrews says “no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give an account.”  There is no hiding from God.  God is light and His gaze pierces through your mask into every corner of your soul.  In His light, all of our ugliness, all of our sin, all of our filth is exposed.  And we are ashamed.

And yet… when we come into the light we hear the most stunning news imaginable.  He sees us – He sees every part of us; He knows us – He knows every part of us.  And He wants us – He wants every part of us.  He wants us to walk with Him in the light.

He offers us the blood of His Son to make us clean and new and beautiful – and His.  But He asks us to stay in the light – not to return to the shadows of pretending, not to wear a mask that says everything’s o.k.  

Life with Christ means living in the light.  It means recognizing all the ways you have tried to hide from God, acknowledging just how deeply flawed you are and how much you need Him for every step you take.

What masks are you wearing that are keeping you from walking in the light? 

Day Fifty-Five: John 18-21

Ernest Hemingway said that every true story ends in death.  

And He would have been right if Jesus had never been born.  Because all that remains for sinners apart from Jesus’ atoning sacrifice is something that Revelation calls the second death – utter separation from God’s presence and taste of God’s eternal fury.  That should be the end of all of our stories.  

We are born once and we die twice.  

But because Jesus came, He defied death and brought victory over death for all who would put their trust in Him.  And those who come to Him find new life, rebirth in him.  You are reborn as a child of God.  

You are twice born and only die once. 

So Hemingway was wrong about us.  Our stories will not end in death, because Jesus’ true story did not end in death.  His suffering and death were not the end of the story.  Death could not hold him down -- the grave could not contain him.  Jesus burst out of the tomb on the third day and is alive forever.   And because he lives, we will live also.

So will you hear his call to life?  Will you throw yourselves on this risen Christ, this King who has conquered evil and death by entering into them and turning them for our eternal joy?  

Lord, help me to hear your call to life today and to follow you out of the tomb.  Amen.

Day Fifty-Four: John 14-17

John 17 is unique because the whole chapter is a prayer: it is the longest recorded prayer of Jesus.  It is also unique because it is the last chapter in John before Jesus is betrayed, arrested, tortured and crucified.  

To hear someone pray honestly and earnestly is a chance to look into their heart and see what they really care about.  To hear some pray before just hours before they die is a chance to see what they care about more than anything else in the world.  

In this prayer, Jesus starts by praying for the glory of God.  That the Father would glorify the Son, showing the world who he is.  Then he prays for his disciples, the twelve dudes that he surrounded himself with, to whom he has entrusted the ministry – that they would be protected and empowered for the mission. Then he prays,“not just these who have already believed in me, but also those who have not yet believed but who will believe when my disciples share the word.”  

He is praying for all the people to whom the faith will be passed, all the people down through the ages who will believe as the word comes to them.  Which means something extraordinary: Jesus is praying for us.  “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word.” 

The reason we are here today is because these disciples, at the price of their lives, faithfully shared Christ with others who shared the word of Christ with others so that today, almost 2000 years later, the baton would be passed to us.  We are in John 17.  We are a part of the story.

The reason why we are here today is because the disciples believed that Jesus had given them a mission, a reason for being.  They saw themselves as being sent on a mission – to continue the ministry of Christ on earth, to show Jesus to a hurting world.  Now that ministry, the ministry of Christ and the apostles, has been entrusted to us. And so Jesus prayed for us.  And, we could say, Jesus also prayed for the people who will believe because we share the word – people in your schools who will believe when you share the word.  

Notice: Jesus expects two things in this prayer: he expects others to believe; and he expects that his followers throughout history will faithfully show others who he is.  In other words he expects that his followers will be courageous, and be willing to say, whatever it takes, whatever the cost.

Lord, thank you for praying for me.  Now let me faithfully carry out your mission in my generation. Amen.

Day Fifty-Three: John 9-13

“The time for judging this world has come, when Satan, the ruler of this world, will be cast out. And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself.” He said this to indicate how he was going to die. (12.31-33)

This phrase, “lifted up” comes out of the Hebrew Scriptures.  It was a description of God in his glory.  When Isaiah has a vision of God, he says, “I saw the Lord, high and lifted up.”  Man was never to be “lifted up” it was a position reserved for God alone.  In fact, three times Isaiah speaks of God as being “lifted up;” three times in the gospel of John, Jesus says that he will be “lifted up”. 

But Jesus takes this description, “lifted up” and uses it an incredible way.  For Jesus, the phrase “lifted up” has a double meaning.  It refers figuratively to his glorification – when He will be lifted up – when He reveals who God is.  But in a grand twist, it also refers literally to the crucifixion, to the lifting up of Jesus on the cross, as he was suspended above the earth.  

The moment of his greatest revelation will be the moment of apparent defeat.

The great wonder that staggered the Jews in the Old Testament was, How could the Lord of glory, who is high and lifted up, condescend so low to be near to the crushed?  

But far greater than that is the wonder that the Lord of glory comes so low that he is not only near the downtrodden – He becomes the downtrodden.  It is not enough for the Word to become flesh and to befriend the lowest of the low.  It is not enough for him to be near to the broken and the Lover of the outcasts.  No, He becomes the broken.  He becomes the outcast.  And the way that he is lifted up is not at first in glory.  He is lifted up on a cross in incredibly painful suffering and death. 

In a way that no one ever could and no words could ever describe, Jesus – through his life of servanthood and sacrifice utterly reveals the loving, self-giving heart of God.  When He picks prostitutes up out of the dust, when he washes his disciples filthy feet, when he prays for them in the garden and when He stretches out His arms on the cross, He is saying, 

“This is who God is.”  

The God who loves so much that He invades the world to ransom a people for Himself.  The God that loves so much that it hurts. God crucified – the God who suffers, the God who serves, the God who saves.

Lord Jesus, thank you for the way that you define yourself for the world.  May I never move beyond fascination with the Cross. Amen.

Day Fifty-Two: John 5-8

Jesus said to the people who believed in him, “You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings. And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

“But we are descendants of Abraham,” they said. “We have never been slaves to anyone. What do you mean, ‘You will be set free’?” 

Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave of sin. A slave is not a permanent member of the family, but a son is part of the family forever. So if the Son sets you free, you are truly free.  (8.31-34)

Jesus tells them he has come to offer them freedom.  They respond, “What do you mean, Jesus? What do you mean to say that we need to be set free?  You see, they failed to see the kind of freedom they really needed. And so when he offered them freedom, they didn’t understand what he was talking about. 

Our generation has the same problem.  We don’t understand the kind of freedom that we truly need.  The prophets of our age tell us that freedom is found by looking within ourselves and “following your heart.”  That is our generation’s recipe for freedom: “Follow your heart.” It is the theme of movie after movie after movie and television show after television show.  The worst crime in today’s culture is to not be “true to yourself.”  Find yourself.  Be yourself.  Then, you will be free.  

Let me tell you something.  You want to be free?  Good.  It’s good to be free.  Being free is a wonderful thing.  But you’re not.  Jesus pronounces the verdict that all of humanity is enslaved to sin.  

Sin is not just missing the mark; it is living in a fundamentally different way than you were made to live.  It is like trying to put milk into a car to make it go.  Cars were made to run on gasoline.  We were made to run on God, and the way we try to run on everything else besides God shows how deep our un-free-ness really lies. 

You see, freedom is not simply “doing whatever you want to do”.  If a girl can do whatever she wants – but what she wants is to keep shooting heroin up her arm – is she truly free?  She is not.  She is an addict and her slavery goes so much deeper than simply “doing what she wants”.  What she wants is destroying her; what she wants is the problem.  

Our problem is that not that we can’t do the things we want to do; our problem is that we don’t want the things we should want.  We don’t want the things that are truly good for us.  We don’t long to see the things that are truly beautiful.  We don’t desire the things that are truly desirable.  We are free to do what we want; but we are not free to want the things that we ought to want – the things that will truly give us life. The problem is we want to keep drinking poison because it tastes so good.

And only Jesus can set us free.  

Lord, set me free, and I will be truly free. Amen.

Day Fifty-One: John 1-4

 “I am a voice shouting in the wilderness, ‘Clear the way for the Lord’s coming!’” - John the Baptizer (1.23)

John the Baptizer, messenger of the Messiah, began his ministry in the desert, probably because it was such a vivid picture of the dryness of Israel’s spiritual life.  The wilderness represented their faithlessness, their forgetfulness, and their inconsistency.  They were, as it were, dying of thirst.  

Many of us are right there today. Just kind of wandering around through life.  Any desire for God or the things of God is very weak.  The Bible just seems boring.  Prayer seems boring.  Life seems boring. Wandering.

There are two attitudes you can have in the wilderness.  You can resign yourself to the wilderness.  You can get used to the wilderness and convince yourself that the wilderness is all that there is.  “This is all there is.  Nothing I can do can change anything.  Things will never change, so I better get used to it.” And so you begin to set up a kingdom for yourself in the wilderness. 

You can resign yourself, or, you can search for the way out of the wilderness.  “There must be more than this.”  You can listen for the voice of someone crying in the wilderness.  You can believe that the desert is not all that there is – that somewhere there is an kingdom, ancient and strong.  You build your kingdom on the sand or you can go in search of this kingdom. 

What have you done with your wilderness?  Have you begun to build a kingdom without God?  Have you just taken it for granted that God seems silent to you?  Or does your heart ache for the Messiah?  Have you prepared your ears to listen to the voice that comes screaming in the wilderness?

Lord, help me not to be satisfied with the wilderness.  I want to want more.  Amen.

Day Fifty: Hebrews 9-13

In Book Two of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, (a scene left out of the movie) Frodo and Sam find themselves climbing the steps of the dreaded Cirith Ungol.  It is a place where, as Frodo says, “step or stone, breath or bone. Earth, air and water all seem accursed.” They rest, and Sam asks Frodo, “I wonder what sort of a tale we've fallen into?” "I wonder," said Frodo, "But I don't know. And that's the way of a real tale. Take any one that you're fond of. You may know, or guess, what kind of a tale it is, happy-ending or sad-ending, but the people in it don't know. And you don't want them to.”

Frodo’s point is that when you’re listening to a story (or in our day, watching a story unfold in a movie), the fact that the characters don’t know what is going to happen enhances the drama.  It is quite a different thing, however, to actually be living in the story. When the story is happening to you, you want to know what’s around the corner, what kind of a story you are living in, and if it has a happy-ending or a sad-ending.

If you are a Christian who believes that God is the author of history and specifically the one writing the story of your life, then maybe you know a little bit how Sam and Frodo are feeling.  What’s around the corner for me? Where am I going to go to college?  Who am I going to marry?  What’s my story? Will it be a tragedy or a comedy? 

If we’re honest, most of the time we want to write the story ourselves – and that’s what we try to do – we try to run our own lives, be independent, and write meaningful stories for ourselves apart from God.  One of the hardest things to do is to trust God as author of our story.  One of the hardest things to do is to live our lives through faith.  

Hebrews 11 gives us a glimpse of all different kinds of people – mothers and martyrs, patriarchs and prostitutes – who found themselves inside God’s story.  They had different personalities, lived in different places, and were given different instructions by God. Yet all of these people responded the same – in faith.  

These are people who decided that the author of the story could be trusted.  

It’s the same story we are living in.  Will we make the same decision as they did?

Lord, sometimes my story doesn’t make sense.  Help me to believe that you are writing a better story than I could write for myself.  Amen.

Day Forty-Nine: Hebrews 5-9

So Christ has now become the High Priest over all the good things that have come. He has entered that greater, more perfect Tabernacle in heaven, which was not made by human hands and is not part of this created world. With his own blood—not the blood of goats and calves—he entered the Most Holy Place once for all time and secured our redemption forever. (9.11-12)

The writer of Hebrews has been describing the tabernacle and the Day of Atonement, and then says that all of these were shadows that pointed to the reality of Christ.  God paints a picture in the Old Testament, and then fulfills it in the New Testament. 

He says, don’t you realize that all of those sacrifices never brought lasting cleansing? There was never a sure and abiding promise of the presence of God.  That is why they had to be offered again and again, year after year.  It was almost like those sacrifices postponed the judgment another year, put it on the credit card, and ultimately there was the need for someone to come and pay the balance.  

What the writer of Hebrews is saying is that at the fullness of time, Christ comes, as it were, to settle accounts, to pay the balance and make lasting atonement for sin.   Unlike the high priest, there was no need for Christ to offer sacrifices for his own sin.  Instead of offering the blood of bulls and goats, he offers himself.  His own body, and his own blood.  

Notice, rather than demanding our blood, Jesus offers his own.  Some people say, “I don’t like this angry God who requires blood.”  But don’t you see that this portrait of God is different.  Rather than demanding our blood, God offers his own.

Isn’t this amazing?  That God would offer himself for us?

“Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.”

Lord, thank you for what you’ve done so that I could come into your presence. Amen.

Day Forty-Eight: Hebrews 1-4

Long ago God spoke many times and in many ways to our ancestors through the prophets. And now in these final days, he has spoken to us through his Son. God promised everything to the Son as an inheritance, and through the Son he created the universe. (1.1-2)

These verses say that God speaks and has been speaking for a long time. In times past, God spoke to the people through prophets – at many times and in many ways.  That phrase “in many ways” literally means “in various pieces.” This means that the revelation of who God is and what he is like has been piecemeal, incomplete.  Each prophet captured a piece of the picture of God, but there was always more to say.  

But the writer of Hebrews says that all this has changed “in these last days.”  What has changed?  Not the fact that God speaks, but the way that God is speaking.  “he has spoken to us by his son.”   This verse is telling you that there is something different about the way that God has spoken through Christ and the way that he has spoken through the prophets of old.  Verse 3 elaborates:

The Son radiates God’s own glory and expresses the very character of God, and he sustains everything by the mighty power of his command. When he had cleansed us from our sins, he sat down in the place of honor at the right hand of the majestic God in heaven.

It’s like he saying, through the prophets, God had been sending advance sketches of himself, and now, in Christ, he gives us an exact portrait.  God expresses himself completely and fully through Christ.  

This does not simply mean that Jesus speaks the words of God.  It means that everything about Jesus images, depicts, embodies God: everything he says, everything he does, says, “This is who God is.”  

God’s words, spoken through the prophets, are powerful and beautiful and meaningful.  But the coming of Christ communicates something deeper than words.  Jesus is the supreme expression of God breaking the silence and speaking in a way so much more powerful, and vivid and effective than with words.  How do we know what God is like?  We look at Jesus.  Jesus is the exact representation, the perfect picture of God. 

Let’s look at him today.  Amen.