Category: Calvary

Blessed or Blissed?

The blessing of the LORD, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it. Proverbs 10:22

It is a gross misconception when we equate God’s blessings with God’s sanctioning. Even Jesus decried this delusion when he said, “For he (God) maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matt. 5:45).

False teachers presume to preach a gospel of prosperity and mislead millions into believing if you’re blessed you must be pleasing to God and conversely, if you’re not blessed, you must not have enough faith. This is a miscarriage of the Gospel that Jesus taught…Blessed are the poor, the mournful, the meek, the merciful, and the persecuted! (Matthew 5)

This list reads like a “who’s who” of mistreated, brokenhearted, and the socially outcast of our day. What the world views as weakness, God sees as a trust in His Strength that is made perfect in weakness. What the world sees as poverty, God sees as being an heir to the Kingdom of Heaven.

Paul warned Timothy, “all that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.” Again, quite contrary to what’s being preached by counterfeit Christians. Jesus even warned we’d be hated by men for His name’s sake. So much for that popularity contest!

Don’t be sold a bill of goods that touts if things are rosy in your life you’re on easy street with the Lord. The very things Satan used to tempt Christ were the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life. Had Christ taken those invitations to mean there was a “cushy” alternative to Calvary, He never would have been crucified, resurrected, and given us salvation and eternal life.

God does indeed bless His people in so many ways, but if we’re so infatuated with the blessings rather than the “Source” from whom all blessings flow, we’re in extreme peril of being “blissed” rather than “blessed!”

The Answer is Still Hope

Daily we’re bombarded in the media with disturbing headlines…

  • Gradually, the freedoms of our nation are being chiseled away in the name of security.
  • Our unemployment rate is at an all-time high, while the value of our dollar is at an all-time low.
  • Consumer confidence is at an all-time low, while prices for things are at an all-time high.
  • The divorce rate is at an all-time high.
  • The murders, shootings, and stabbings, litter the front page of every morning paper.
  • Abortion continues to be legal.
  • Political corruption is rampant in our government officials.
  • The Muslims have declared war on the western world
  • The US has declared war on terrorist countries
  • Iran wants to bomb Israel off the map
  • There’s genocide being committed in the Dar Fur region
  • Every day we hear about famines and droughts taking lives
  • Natural disasters, rather than bringing out the best in people, have brought out the worst, with looting, pillaging, price gouging, and hidden political agendas.
  • Every day another drug deal goes bad
  • Every day another child dies in a drive-by shooting
  • Every day another school or place of business gets shot-up
  • Every day another terrorist threat is discovered
  • The children and the elderly in our country continue to get the short end of the stick
  • Justice seems to favor the criminal
  • Our prisons are over-crowded
  • People are losing their homes
  • Banks are going out of business

Yet, everyday people get up and do their dead-level best to keep their chin up. The odds never seem to be in their favor. What on earth (or in Heaven) could ever breath hope back into people’s lives? What if anything could remedy the pain of feeling of being violated?

The Apostle Paul wrote, “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.” I Co. 15:19.

  • This world doesn’t need a powerful political figure…
  • This world doesn’t need a powerful political system…
  • This world doesn’t need more money, more programs, or more tax breaks…
  • This world doesn’t need more change, just for the sake of change, what this world needs is HOPE!

Peter said in his first epistle (3:15) – “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:”

The answer is hope! Let’s point people to the real hope that spans beyond this world – it’s the hope that drew Christ to the Cross at Calvary…YOU!

As long as there are “YOU’s” in this world, there is hope…

  • People whose lives have been forever changed
  • People who have been given a reason to carry on
  • People who have drank from the freely from the well and now have living water flowing from their own souls
  • People who have everlasting joy and peace
  • People who have hope

While hope is one of the greatest of all commodities on the planet it’s futile if it’s not shared with others. People everywhere are waiting, knowingly or unknowingly, to hear a message of hope.

If you’re born again of the water and of the Spirit, you contain the hope that humanity needs in earthen vessels. Let’s not withhold this hope from mankind.

Jesus read a passage in Isaiah 61:1-3, “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; 2To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; 3To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.”

Jesus was the fulfillment of this Old Testament prophecy, but today, the Spirit of the Lord is not just “upon” us…He’s in us; reaching out to a lost and hurting world through us! It’s up to us to complete the mission Jesus started, until the day of His return!

Lame Game of Shame

And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden. Genesis 3:8

Adam and Eve Meet Guilt and Shame

Prior to this portion of scripture, Adam and Eve wouldn’t have dreamed of trying to hide from God. Hearing the voice of God meant an opportunity to visit with the Creator. I’m sure it would seem each encounter with God brought with Him another blessing; a new tree from which to eat, a new flower upon which to gaze, a new creation for which to praise Him. Today was different. God’s presence brought dread!

Why was this day different? Guilt, shame, and fear had reared their ugly heads and now knowing they had disobeyed God, Adam and Eve were going to face punishment. Nothing had ever died before, but they knew death was the punishment for disobedience. Like children, they ran and hid only prolonging the inevitable.

Effects of Guilt and Shame

We learn that the wages of sin are death (Rom. 6:23). Sin destroys and leaves death in its wake. One of the weapons it uses is guilt. Guilt can destroy us from within. It can interfere with our ability to gain closure, healing, and overcoming power over the effects of sin. God knew that sin would cause separation. The moment sin came on the scene, our human instinct was to hide. Hide from what? Or, hide from whom? God himself! The very one that could provide healing, forgiveness, redemption. To God’s dismay, blood had to be shed. Calvary’s price must be paid. The Lamb must be slain.

Deer in the Headlights

For us, we’ve spent the better part of our existence fighting our nature to give in to self, sin, and even Satan. We know down deep these are wedges between ourselves and a benevolent, yet righteous God. Guilt leaves us feeling unworthy of a relationship with our Creator. Guilt, a close cousin to fear, immobilizes us. Like the proverbial deer in the headlights, we tense up and freeze. “What’s my next move?”

“Do I try to cover it up with fig leaves?”

“Or, do I run to the arms of my Heavenly Father and say, I have sinned and perverted that which was right, and it profited me nothing.”

We learn that perfect love casts out fear (I John 4:18). We also know, that once we’ve come to Christ, those immobilizing effects of guilt, shame, and fear should no longer rule our response to sin. Romans 8:1 says, “no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” The caveat here is, we must walk in the Spirit (capital “S”) God’s Spirit, and not after the flesh. I John 1:9 reminds us, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

He Called Us Friends

II Corinthians 5:19 states, “To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.” God is all about reconciling with humanity. He wants to once again have the close companionship and relationship with His creation. Jesus, God in the flesh, said it like this, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.  Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.” (John 15:13-15). Does that sound like a God who is willing for anyone to perish?

In Closing

Jesus’ parable of the prodigal son paints a beautiful picture of God’s willingness to restore us back into His good graces. The son could have wallowed in the muck of pig slop, but even he realized, his daddy’s servants lived better than that. We went from hiding among the trees, and wallowing in the slop, to outstretched arms of grace and mercy. Guilt will keep you hiding and wallowing in the mud. Love will get you seated back at the Master’s table.

The remedy that worked at Calvary, still works – the sinless blood of Jesus Christ. It’s by the Lord’s mercies we’re not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning. Great is HIS faithfulness. God is all in favor of you returning back into His good graces. Don’t turn a deaf ear to the overtures of Grace. Don’t spurn the love of your Heavenly Father. Don’t cower beneath His outstretch hand. A life time of being callous to God’s tender wooing will lead to the outcome we will dread – eternal separation from the very one who died to save us!