You can be perfect

Recently on two separate occasions involving two separate people, I have heard the following:
"I know I am going to Heaven, I'm a good person".

You might be reading this right now and thinking to yourself…..me too!!

So here is a story:

There were two brothers in a small town who were known as the town trouble makers.
One day one of the brothers died and the other brother began his search for a pastor who would do the funeral.
Knowing what kind of delinquent the dead brother was, it was hard to find a pastor in the small town who was willing to conduct the funeral. Finally, the brother approached a pastor that accepted.
The brother said to the pastor, "I have a favor to ask of you as well".
"What is the favor?", the pastor replied.
The brother said, "There are going to be quite a few important people in attendance, and I would like you for you to call my brother a Saint at some point during the funeral".
Knowing what kind of mischief the boy raised during his time on earth, the pastor hesitated.
The brother said, "I will pay you $1,000.00"
The pastor thought for a little while longer, and then finally agreed to the request.
At the funeral, the pastor began to speak about the deceased brother.
"Here lies a young man who was an atrocious citizen, he was a thief, a bully, a trouble maker in his community, a drunkard, and basically wretched in every way"
The brother sat stunned, staring at the pastor in disbelief.
The pastor continued, "…….but compared to his brother……..he was a saint!"

Here is the point: You might be a good person……but compared to who?

When compared to your neighbor or friends you might be a good person, but compared to the perfection of Jesus Christ, we are farther from "good" than the East is from the West.

Perfection is the only way we get into the pearly gates and in the presence of God and we cannot attain that perfection on our own. We are in need of something or someone perfect to pay our way in. That would be Jesus.

Does he dwell inside of you?
Do you know Him?
Do you walk with Him?
Does He guide you?

He is the only way to perfection. There is no other option.
And you can be perfect.

From the Whirlwind

Then the Lord answered Job from the whirlwind -Job 38:1

When I first read this I asked myself, "What the freakin' heck is a whirlwind"?


The dictionary says that a whirlwind is basically a tornado, or a wild storm over land or water. So, God answers Job from a tornado……...Interesting.

Why does God answer Job from the middle of a whirlwind? Let's back up….
Job was a man of God. In the very first verse of the very first chapter of Job, the Bible says that he was a man that was blameless and upright. Wouldn't you love to have that said about you? I know I would.

So to make a long story short, Job's life begins falling down all around him. Some of his livestock was burnt to a crisp, and some were stolen. All of his children were crushed to death when the house they were in collapsed. His body developed boils and scabs all over it and they itched so badly that Job used a piece of broken pottery to scrape his skin. His own wife told him to "curse God and die".

Job had some friends that came by to check on him in his time of distress. Through several exchanges with his friends Job breaks down and starts wondering why all of this bad stuff is happening to him. So he asks why me? And who could blame him, the Bible even says he was blameless and upright.

Now picture in your mind the footage you remember seeing from hurricane Katrina. It was a disaster. The wind and water. Roofs ripped clean off houses. Boats flying hundreds of yards through the air and being deposited into homes. There was pain, suffering, chaos and mass confusion to the tenth power.

Now think about Job's situation. Everything he had was taken from him within about 10 minutes. Think about losing a child. He lost 10 at the same time!!!
Job was in the middle of pain, suffering, chaos and mass confusion to the tenth power.
A tornado……...

A whirlwind.

"Then the Lord answered Job from the whirlwind"

Perhaps you are experiencing pain, suffering, chaos and mass confusion to the tenth power in your life today. I need to tell you something……
God loves you just as much as He loved Job. He took the same care to create you as He did Job.
God has not forgotten you or forsaken you.

God is in the whirlwind.

Be thankful for the whirlwind………...God is near.

Something free

I received a letter in the mail this week from the manufacturer of my car.
Dead serious, this is what the letter said......
You need to bring your car in so that we can fix this little problem that people have been experiencing on the same make and model and year as your car. The metal inflator inside of your airbag can potentially become too pressurized, causing your airbag to inflate with so much pressure that it will explode the metal inflator, SENDING SHARDS OF METAL THROUGH YOUR FACE!!!!!!

I have had more comforting letters arrive in my mailbox.

I would think that urgent news like this would not be trusted to standard mail delivery, but I digress.

After giving it some thought as I sit here in the waiting room for the car to be fixed, I realized that I am thankful for a couple of things.

1.) At least they told me that things could end badly for me. Someone took the time to send me that letter warning me of the danger that lay ahead of me.
2.) The service manager came in and explained that the work to repair the airbag was being done free of charge. The manufacturer was paying the price so that I did not have to be concerned about the danger of metal frags launching through my skull.

If you are reading this and you are a seeker or a skeptic, I want to share 2 things with you.

1.) Things are going to end badly for you. There is danger ahead. But………….

2.) The manufacturer of your soul has sent you a letter, it's called the Bible. He is telling you that the danger that's ahead of you is real, but He can remove the danger for you free of charge. It costs you nothing.

Simply by asking Jesus to come into your heart and giving Him the leadership of your life, He can remove the danger. The choice is yours to make but let me ask you this question....

When was the last time you said no to something free?

The balancing act

I am a freak when it comes to books. I only read non-fiction books though. If I am going to spend time reading, I want to be learning something. At any given time I am most likely reading between 3-5 books. I keep one in my car, one on the nightstand, one in the living room, and anywhere else I can squeeze in a couple of minutes to devour a couple of pages.

At the end of 2010 though, I made a decision. I will only read 2 books this year. The Bible and one other. Nothing else until the year is over.
This is why…..

John 1:35-42 "The next day John was back at his post with two disciples, who were watching. He looked up, saw Jesus walking nearby, and said, "Here he is, God's Passover Lamb." The two disciples heard him and went after Jesus. Jesus looked over his shoulder and said to them, "What are you after?" They said, "Rabbi" (which means "Teacher"), "where are you staying?" He replied, "Come along and see for yourself." They came, saw where he was living, and ended up staying with him for the day. It was late afternoon when this happened. Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, was one of the two who heard John's witness and followed Jesus. The first thing he did after finding where Jesus lived was find his own brother, Simon, telling him, "We've found the Messiah" (that is, "Christ"). He immediately led him to Jesus…."

There was a time when Andrew was face to face with Jesus and he learned from Him, and then there came a time when Andrew left Jesus to go tell another about Him.

The goal of our life cannot be to soak up as much information as we can without applying what we have learned. Equally true is that our goal cannot be to spend all of our time trying to introduce people to Jesus without sitting under teaching to help us grow in our own knowledge of Jesus.

There is a time for teaching and a time for reaching and time must be allotted for both.

In the end, both sitting under teaching and reaching out to people are key in pointing people to Jesus and that is what we as Christians have been called to.

In Luke, Jesus called John the Baptist the greatest man who ever lived.
Do you know why?
Because the only thing John cared about was pointing people to Jesus.

I want to be like John the Baptist.
I want to point people toward Jesus…..but I can't do that if all I am doing is spending my time soaking in knowledge and I don’t get to the place where I step away from the teaching and go and apply what I have learned.

So maybe you need to spend more time under the teaching of someone, maybe you need to spend more time reaching out to people in your community. Wherever you are in the balancing act, I hope you find the center.....and I hope it helps you point people to Jesus.

White knuckle Christians

"Rudy" has to be one of the best sports movies of all time. Even if you don't enjoy sports, you can't help but love a true story about someone overcoming huge obstacles to realize a dream. One of the most memorable scenes for me is when one of the football players pulls Rudy close to him to give him some useful advice. He tells Rudy that you can tell if a lineman is planning on charging in hard by looking at their hand that's planted on the ground. He says that if the lineman's fingers are flesh tone, then he is relaxed and not planning on blitzing, however if the knuckles on the hand have turned white, there is pressure on the hand and then you know he will be charging hard.

I think many churches are failing to reach the seekers and skeptics in their respective communities because we are in short supply of the white knuckle Christian.

That's why I love Isaiah.

Isaiah 6:8 says, "Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: "Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?" Then I said, "Here am I! Send me"

I love how he didn't say, "well let me think and pray about it" or "what's the game plan?"

Isaiah had some serious white knuckles. He was a man of action. "Send me!"

As soon as Isaiah says he will go, God gives him instructions.

So many times we as Christians want to pray about stuff, which is a good thing...we should pray constantly. The problem arises when we use prayer as a substitute for action on our part.

We pray that God will do something, or we pray that God will send someone else to do something, but when was the last time you said, "Here am I! Send me".

Give me a white knuckler over a flesh toner in my foxhole anytime.

That's who I try to surround myself with.....white knucklers. That is who I strive to be.

Send Me.

D.L. Moody was once quoted as saying: "The world has yet to see what God can do with and for and through the man who is fully and wholly devoted to Him."

What color are your knuckles?