Promises

You make promises. I make promises. Some we've kept and some we haven't. And we've had promises made to us as well. Some were kept, and some were not. We've heard promises such as: “I’ll be there for you”, “I won’t leave you”, “I will return”, “til death due us part”, “your mother and I will always be together”, “I love you”. Some were kept, some were not. Those kept you celebrate and those not kept have caused us to battle bitterness. Maybe its even made it difficult for you to trust promises.

There's a Promiser who keeps His promises.

LISTEN TO THESE PROMISES

-We’re being renewed into the image of our Creator – Col. 3:10

-He will wipe away every tear from our eye

-No more death, no crying, no pain. The first things have passed away.

-A new heaven and new earth where righteousness dwells

-Jesus talks about the renewal of all things.

-His glory will be so bright as to make a moon out of the sun – Rev. 21:23

-Our present suffering doesn’t compare to future glory.

-When He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is – I John 3:2

-When you know and believe the truth about God’s promise, it makes you free.

-We will see the greatest glory and be changed by that glory.

-The gift is not like the trespass

-God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ

-We have a Redeemer

What does this mean to our lives? Do our lives spell out the promise? Do our lives reveal that we are children of God? Because even now, God is making things new in our lives. We don’t just sit here and wait, like on a bench waiting for a bus. Look at your life, your relationships, what God’s doing in your heart. Too often we go about our lives not aware of the huge realities around us. The promise to live out. We just head to class. We just sit bored at work.

Do we live day after day feeling the magnitude of it all, being caught up in belonging to God. Jesus lived in such a way that people knew something was going on with Him. He had the aroma of God. And too often, our lives are missing the flavor, the aroma of eternity. Why so much joy?

Train yourselves in the Lord. Be in the word. Be on your knees. Be in community. Paul teaches in Romans 12 “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” – it’s a picture of your mind being made new.

In the meantime, we must pray for each other. We must give generously. We must care for the suffering. We must go. We must send people out. We must provide refuge. We must walk into the spaces of our lives and realize that the people around us don’t live in this mess with hope, they live in this mess with confusion and frustration and despair, or even apathy. And when we choose to live like this, we proclaim God’s love and glory, His Kingdom come, and we show redemption. We choose to love our enemies, we choose to bless those who curse us. It’s a life about the way of the cross. It’s a Spirit-led life.

When we live in hope, we live differently. God is our treasure, not this earth or anything in it. When we believe the promise, we don’t try and get the most toys, we don’t give all we have for earthly success, people or success aren’t our highest dreams. We live blown away that the Creator of God would see us in our sin and still choose to justify us by His Son, empower us with His Spirit, adopt us as children, and faithfully promise us that we will live eternally with Him.

A big word

Justification. Its an English word. 13 letters. 6 vowels, 7 consonants. Simple enough. But for me, its much more. Its eternal. Its mysterious. I'm a sinner, I'm guilty, yet Someone looks at me and says otherwise. Says I'm clean. Says I've been washed white as snow. Because of Jesus Christ, I am not condemned anymore. I hope and pray the same for you.

Justification - He died in my place.

A Long Way Down

Silas is two and a half. And Silas learned today that its a long way down when you fall out of a grocery cart! Sometimes we seem to get too close to the edge in life. Not the edge of adventure or stepping out in faith; that's a good leap. But I mean too close to the edge of playing with fire, testing the waters of sin and appeal, and the edge of thinking we know what's best. And before we know it, we're diving face first onto the floor next to the clothing section at Target. At least Silas did. And then we wish we hadn't played around the edge so much.

Small picture lesson - don't lean over a grocery cart.

Big picture lesson - stay close to Jesus.

Irrelevant lesson - Target does have nice carts

Touch Louisville

Excited about the last night of our "Touch" study at the Post. Tonight is "Touch Louisville", and that's what we want to do together tonight as a community. So excited that together, we can go out amongst the city and touch lives.

Everyday, every single day, we are all surrounded by our neighbors. And not just the people who happen to live right next to you. That's where it starts, but it continues throughout our days in places like the carpool line, the line at the coffee shop, the student sitting next to us and the teacher teaching us, the guy in the next cubicle over, the boss, our parents we live with, and so on and so on. We are surrounded by neighbors. We are surrounded every day by people who are broken, who are hurting, and who need the love and hope of Jesus Christ.

After Jesus told the story of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10, He says, "What do you think? Which of the three became a neighbor to the man attacked by robber?" "The one who treated him kindly," the religion scholar responded. Jesus said, "Go and do the same."

Are we being neighbors to those around us? Do we hear Jesus say, "Go and do the same."

May we be salt and light to those around us!

May we live out the love and justice of Jesus Christ!

May we love and give because the Name of Jesus is the greatest cause, the greatest truth we could ever live for!

May we sacrifice comfort and energy and money and time because Jesus taught us to sacrifice!

May we serve others because its an act of worship and its Biblical!

And when we are tempted to doubt; tempted to cave in to the pressures; tempted to think we aren't worth anything and couldn't possibly help others out, may we remember I Peter 4:11 - "If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen."

Strength God provides!!! Its Him. Its all about Him. Its from Him and for Him. He is our purpose! God wants us to receive the joy of service, and He wants to receive the glory of service.

May this become a lifestyle. The way we live. The neighbors we are to our neighbors.

Micah 6:8 - "He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God."

You Are With Me

We are all aware of the horrible tragedy that has taken place in Haiti. Story after story and picture after picture break our hearts as we all pray and try to help in whatever way we can. We see and hear so many stories of broken families, missing parents, suffering children, confusion and frustration, and the suffering of so many. Stories of so many people who feel so alone, of an entire country suffering in loneliness. And you just know that out of all that pain and loneliness, there are prayers going up that sound something like, "My God, my God, why have You forsaken us? Why? Why us? Why this?" Because that is the prayer of lonely people.

This world is full of loneliness. Its all around us. All of us have known it. For some, loneliness is their closest friend.

Even King David knew and understood loneliness. When the prophet Samuel came to the household of Jesse to appoint the new king, Jesse lined up all his sons but one. When Samuel chose none of them, he asked if there were any more sons, causing Jesse to admit that there was one more; the runt. David was overlooked by his father. He was left out of a family meeting. He was lonely.

As David served under Saul, he experienced more loneliness. Saul wanted to kill him. Saul despised him. Saul pursued him. And because of that, David lived a life on the run, living in the wilderness and sleeping in caves and eating who knows what. Loneliness.

And David wrote in Psalm 22, "My God, my God, why have Your forsaken me?" It was the cry of his heart. His prayer. And evidently, God met David in his loneliness. In the very next chapter, Psalm 23, David writes, "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me." YOU ARE WITH ME!!! That's the promise of God!

He is with us. He meets us in our loneliness. He knows us and sees us and desires us. And He proved this to us. Even Jesus, the Son of God, knew loneliness. Jesus became lonely for the lonely; us. He was lonely in the desert, He was lonely in the garden, and you know He was lonely as He hung on that cross and cried out, "My God, my God, why have Your forsaken me?"

That's our God. That's His love. And God meets us when we're lonely; meets us where we're lonely. He meets us in the mess.

And so in this horrible mess in Haiti, something is happening. The more I have watched the news stories, the more and more I am hearing about churches and pastors and ministries in Haiti. I've seen them interview pastors in Haiti on national TV. And out of this tremendous tragedy and loneliness, the Name of God is rising up. Rising out of the mess. KEEP PRAYING!

So remember this promise, this prayer: You are with me. In my loneliness, You are with me. In the mess, You are with me. And may Your Name rise up!

Follow the Leader

"By day the Lord went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night. Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people." - Exodus 13:21-22

May we not get ahead of God. May we only follow and keep Him right in front of us.

Get out of the bathroom!

Kelly called me this morning and said that Silas had locked himself in the bathroom. I could hear him in the background and the singing and laughing assured me he was having a good time in there. But a 2 year-old locked in a bathroom with a tub and access to faucets and a medicine cabinet and lots of toilet paper is cause of concern. Thankfully, while I was on the phone with Kelly, she made entry and rescued the little guy!

The thing is, Silas had no idea he needed to be rescued. To him, everything seemed great. He didn't realize he was locked up, confined, and in need of deliverance.

We've been called to freedom, but far too often, we live locked up. Locked up in sin; locked up in legalism; locked up in the ways of this world. And many times, we don't even realize it.

Paul writes in Galatians 5:1 - "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery."

We've been set free! We've been delivered!! So lets not 'lock ourselves in the bathroom' anymore, but instead stand firm on His promises!