Zombies, an immovable object, and crazy naked people.  What do they have in common?  They’re images from Revelation 3 and the messages to the three churches mentioned there.

These images are packed with insight for us to grab onto.

1.  Sardis, verse 1:  “You have a reputation for being alive, but you are dead”

It’s possible to have the appearance of being alive and still be completely dead.  Are we spiritual zombies?

We have a tendency to live out of a truth that is based on comparison and reputation.   The problem is that we can fool other people.  We can act alive when we really have no pulse at all.

We need God to breathe his life into us, to have his blood wash over us, to have his heart beating in our chest.

2.  Philadelphia, verse 7: “What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open.”

What an incredible perspective changer.  Doors are made to open and shut.  They’re made to move easily.  Unless, of course, they’re locked and bolted shut.

God makes a way where there was none before.  He can open doors that seem like they’ll never be open.  And once he opens them, no one can shut them.

So, what door has God placed before you that no one can shut?  Is it time to move forward?

Even if you only have a little bit of strength, he has opened the door and is inviting you through it.

3.  Laodicea, verse 17: “You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.”

Money deludes us.  It makes us crazy.  But a misplaced trust in our stuff is nothing new.  Humans have a long history of chasing and being blinded by things, focusing only on the here and now –  to the neglect of our own soul.

It’s difficult to convince someone who’s delusional that they are…..well, delusional.

But God is telling us that it’s possible to think that we’ve got it made all the while we’re wretched and pitiful – sitting in the corner naked, poor, and blind.

At the very least, this should make us pause and examine our own soul and ask some hard questions.

The beautiful thing is that God is holding what we need.  He is offering us his gold, his clothes, and his healing for our blind eyes.   All we have to do is ask?

A zombie.

An immovable object.

Crazy naked people.

Which one is speaking to you?

Revelation 2

There’s a popular t- shirt and website that champion the words “Jesus is my homeboy”.  Many in the Christian community have reacted negatively to the shirts.

Interestingly, I don’t think the same people would have as negative reaction to a shirt that said, “Jesus is my best friend”.  Which, is the same thing.

Who cares?  More importantly, what does any of this have to do with Revelation 2?

What occurred to me today while reading the Scriptures is the incredible descriptions of Jesus that we’re given in this passage.

Check out verses 1, 8, 12, and 18.  Wow!  From these descriptions, Jesus is mysterious and mystical, eternal, powerful, strong, and consuming.

Sometimes I think we forget who it is that has saved us.  Who it is that we’re praying too.  Who it is that is our “best friend” or “homeboy”.

When you stop and think about the awesomeness of God as the Scriptures describe him, he is terrifying.

Which makes his love and grace all that much sweeter.

It makes that fact that he calls me “friend” stunning and remarkable and improbable and beautiful.

As you read and pray today, I encourage you to reflect on the descriptions of Jesus.

And reflect on the fact that he calls you friend.

He is strong enough to take on whatever your facing.

If you have ears to hear – listen!  Let it sink in.

Now, talk to the God who is your friend….

1 John 5:3 – “this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome”

John gives a simple equation for us:  love for God = keeping his commands.  Love = obedience.  This is simple enough to comprehend, but I think it’s easy for us to get hung up on the language.  At least it is for me.

After all, what role does obedience have to play in a loving relationship?   On top of that, have you read the Bible?  God has given A LOT of commands.  How can we keep them all?

But, if we come back to what Jesus stated was the greatest commandment, it starts becoming clearer:  love God with all you heart, soul, and strength and love others like you love yourself.

To be sure – loving God heart, soul, and strength affects how we live in every area of our lives.

It affects how we work.

It affects how we treat our spouse, children, boss, strangers, friends…

It affects what we do with our money.

It affects everything.

Loving God by being obedient to him literally changes the way we live.

Notice what John tags on to the end of this thought – “and his commands are not burdensome”.

Here’s why we can’t hung up on the language.  Because loving God and obeying his commands leads to greater freedom and life for us.

That is completely counterintuitive to how we think.

The idea of obeying someone else doesn’t conjure images and feelings of freedom for us, but instead lead to feelings of being held back and restricted.

But God’s commands are not burdensome.  Jesus said so in Matthew 11:28-29.

Today is a choice.  A choice to love God.  And we love him by the choices we make and the life we live in obedience to what he’s telling us.

Will you choose to love God and live a life of freedom?

1 John 4

There’s a lot to love, digest, and grow from in today’s reading!  Here’s kind of a shotgun spray of things that hit me:

1.  vs. 1 – 3 – Great reminder to cultivate a discerning heart.  It’s easy to be swayed by spiritual fads and changes.  Bottom line, if it’s not all about Jesus – stay away.

2.  vs. 4 – even though there are those who are deceptive and we have a real enemy of our soul, there is nothing to fear.  He is greater in us.  In fact, the author uses the word “overcome” – past tense.  We’ve already won.

3.  vs. 7-8 – I think it’s easy to lose how profound and significant these statements are because of their simplicity and familiarity (for many of us).

4.  vs. 9 – John continues with his “this is how…” theme of explaining things.  He must’ve been from Missouri, the “show me” state.  Also, love always has a tangible demonstration of sacrifice.  Without it all you have is empty words and theories.

5.  vs. 9 – this verse is so good, I’m writing about it twice!  I love the reason John gives for why God sent his Son into the world – that we might live through Him.  Sounds an awful lot like the same stuff he wrote in the Gospel of John chapter 3.

6.  vs. 10 – God’s love is the true definition of love

7.  vs. 11 – God’s love is the motivation for us to love

8.  vs. 12 – Our love is the evidence of the invisible God AND proof that He lives in us AND is necessary for God’s love to reach it’s completion in us (in other words, God’s love is incomplete until it has so transformed our souls that we give it away).

9.  vs. 13 – Our giving God’s love away is proof to others that God lives in us, but He graciously gives us his Spirit to provide the confirmation in our own hearts.

10.  vs. 16a – I need to know and rely on the love of God in a greater way this year.

11.   vs. 17 – another “this is how…” statement.  The conversation is coming full circle.  He sums up all that he’s been saying by telling us that the goal of God’s love is to make us like Jesus and to be like Jesus means we love like God.

12.  Love = No Fear.  Love > Fear.  Fear is punishment based.  Love and fear cannot coexist.  When we fear, love is in jeopardy.  This presents incredible challenges, questions, and opportunities to grow in many areas (parenting for example).

See you tomorrow!

1 John 3:19-20 – “This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence:  If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.”

For most of us, life has painful moments of regret and condemnation.  And while there are sometimes other people around us pointing fingers and piling on the guilt and condemnation when we fail, many times our worst critic is much closer to home….ourselves.

Our conscience and heart can conspire against us – reminding us how we’re not worthy, we’re not good enough, we can’t do it, we don’t deserve it (whatever “it” is).

As if that’s not bad enough, they don’t stop there.  They will lie to us about God.  They tell us that he’s done with us.  That he doesn’t love us.  That even he can’t change us.  That somehow our brokenness is greater than his grace.  That, in spite of his immeasurable love and mercy, we stand condemned.

It’s.  Just.   Not.  True.

The truth is that God is greater than our hearts.  His love is greater.  His grace is bigger.  His mercy is more powerful.  His truth is louder.

Wanna know how you belong to truth?  Want your heart to be at rest in his presence and not terrified or paranoid?  Embrace the reality that no matter what your heart says, God is greater.  Live into the truth that regardless of what your conscience screams at you, God is greater.

I love that John tags on one final piece of earth shattering truth.  God knows everything!

He knows everything about you.  He knows your darkest secret.  He knows the dirtiest part of you.  He knows what you don’t want anyone to know.  He knows those things about you that even you can’t know and can’t explain.  He knows.

But he doesn’t just know everything about you.  He knows everything about himself too.

He knows that what Jesus did on the cross is so much bigger than we can grasp.  He knows that his love is deeper, and wider, and fuller than we can imagine and that nothing can separate you from that love.

He knows that when you reach out to him in the most meager of faith that he brings life from death; freedom, pardon, release, and approval where there was only condemnation.

The question becomes, what will do do with this today?  Which one will you listen too and lean in too…your heart, or God?

The choice is yours.

John 2 is a great way to start the work week!  It is jam packed with great stuff.

What I wanted to do today is encourage you to pay attention to a few things.

1.  Remember, chapters and verses were not a part of the original writing.  They were added later for readability.  Why does that matter?  Because, John is referring back to what he just said in chapter 1 in the first sentence of verse 1 of this chapter.

2.  When you read, pay attention to the word “because” or the phrase “so that”.  There is a ton packed into his reasoning for why he is writing and why he isn’t.

3.  Any time we read a phrase like this one found in verse 5, we should give a lot of attention to what comes after – “This is how we know we are in him:”. It makes it of paramount importance that we know who Jesus was and how he lived.

Side note – Jesus has both dealt with our sin (vs. 2) and is the way for us to live above it.  He is the example of how we should live and is the one who gives us the power to do it (vs. 5)

4.  Notice how impossible it is to separate faith from the life we live (vs. 4, vs. 9, v. 15, 29).  Beliefs are a dime a dozen.  Everyone believes in something.  What is powerful is a life lived in relationship to God.

5.  Find the words “remain” or “continue” and pay attention to the instructions that come with them.  The frequency with which he repeats himself should tell us that remaining and continuing aren’t as easy as we pretend they are sometimes.

6.  Although John is laying out some pretty strong things here, the context is relationship and love.  Notice how often he says “dear children” or “dear friends”.   Maybe we shouldn’t use the Scriptures to correct or instruct anyone who we couldn’t honestly and with credibility address in a loving, relational way.

Maybe the best way to close today is with verse 28.  When I stand before God I want to be confident and unashamed.  Living a life in Jesus is the only way to do that.

Let’s go for it!

You know I love sharing little tidbits and videos and stuff with you.  Love this song.  Appropriate on a day when we read the Psalms because it has that kind of vibe to it.  Enjoy…

I don’t know about you but that is just beautiful and nourishing to my soul.

Ok, on to today’s reading:

Psalm 139:23-24 – “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.  See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”

This has long been a favorite prayer of mine.  As I’ve reflected on new directions, practices, and habits for my life this year, I love the idea of incorporating this request regularly into my spiritual routine.

It’s difficult to add anything to what David pens here.  What if we invited God to search us and know our heart every day?  The strange thing is that us making that invitation is more for us than it is for him because he already knows our heart.

I’m not sure how many times I’ve invited God to test me in my life.  Most of us view a God testing us as something to persevere and endure and not something we would seek out.  I think David was on to something here though.

How would your life be different in this new year if you surrendered your anxious thoughts to God?

I love how the NLT phrases verse 24.  It reads, “Point out anything in me that offends you…”

Wow.  Do I have the courage to ask God for this?  Am I willing to hear what he has to say?  Am I willing to change and grow?

He ends with “Lead me in the way everlasting.”  That’s what I want this year.  To walk in those things that bring life; to me, to my family, to my friends, to everyone around me.

Let’s live into that!

Have a great weekend…

John 21:25 – “Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.”

The narrative in Jesus’ life told through Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John (known as The Gospels) is spectacular, beautiful, and life changing.  But it doesn’t even begin to tell the whole story.

I love this final verse in John because it’s a reminder that there’s more to the story.

That there’s more that God has done and is doing.

That the world isn’t big enough to even hold the books that could be written about what he has done, much less big enough to contain Him.

He is uncontainable.

As a follower of Jesus, it’s easy to boil down the story of the work of God in us and in our lives to what we deem to be the highlights; the big moments.

But the truth is that God has done so much for you and in you that if you recorded it all, you wouldn’t have the room to contain all the books.  The highlights just can’t contain him.

He is uncontainable in your life and in mine.

He isn’t limited in any way.  And neither is what he is doing in you.

I think this is one reason it’s good to journal or keep a record from time to time.  Because our memories are short and we forget.

We forget when he spoke to us.  We forget when he comforted us.  We forget when he saw us through our darkest moment.  We forget how he healed us.  We forget…

This year, I want to make myself more aware of just how uncontainable he really is.  I want to do a better job of keeping track of my journey with him.

Let’s start today.  What are some things God has done in your life that have just been pushed to the side because they weren’t “the big moments”?

2 phrases reached out and grabbed me out of John 20 as I read it.

The first appears in verse one and says, “…while it was still dark…”. John writes this as a description of the time of day.  But nothing in the Scriptures is incidental and I want to draw a simple application.

Jesus was dead.  His friends and followers had watched him be brutally beaten and killed.  Their dreams and futures suffering the same fate right along with Him.  Consequently, their worlds were shattered and extremely unstable.

It’s the middle of the night, leading to day 3 since Jesus died.  The disciples were all at home, hiding and grieving and scared.

It was night in more ways than one; their world was dark.

Little did they know that although it was still dark, God was working and Jesus was alive.  Light was breaking through the darkness.

It’s truly is no different with us.  Regardless of how dark it is in your life right now, or how dark it may become in the future – God will be working in ways that you cannot see and could not possibly imagine.

The second phrase appears at the beginning of verse 11.  It reads, “Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying.”

Isn’t the juxtaposition of this scene interesting?  Mary is standing and sobbing at the empty tomb of the Son of God who has been raised from the dead and is standing behind her while she is talking to two angels!!

Say what!?!?

Of course, we know she’s crying because she doesn’t understand what has happened.

Again, this isn’t too much different than experiences I’ve had in my life with God.  I’ve stood right smack in the middle of the incredible work of God in my life and in the world terrified, broken, and crying – not being able to fully understand or see what God was doing.

What’s the point of all of this?

The point is that, at our very best and most faith filled moments, we are looking through a dim and skewed glass simply trying to make out what God is doing.  We cannot possibly know or fathom.

As you read today, check out 1 Corinthians 2:9 and hold on to the reality that God is at work in your life and in your darkest situations.

You don’t know what He is doing.  But you don’t have to.   You can trust that He is busy loving you and working on your behalf to bless you and make you into the image of Jesus.

Have a wonderful day!

John 19:24b – “This happened that the scripture might be fulfilled…”

Happy New Year!  It’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve blogged.  It’s good to be back.  Just had a couple of thoughts (one specific, and one more general) I wanted to share with you about today’s reading.

First, the specific.  The believability of the Scriptures struck me in a completely fresh way again today.

The events that occurred and the writers who recorded and wrote about them were all pointing to something.

And they were all validated by things that had been written thousands of years before.

I love how God is careful to spell it all out for us as well.  Why?  Because context matters, right?

It would be a small nuance that gives the story depth that the soldiers didn’t tear his clothes and gambled for them.  However, when it is the fulfillment of an ancient prophetic uttering, it becomes paramount.

Over and over and over again in the story of Jesus we are given this incredible historical, prophetic, Scriptural, and all important refrain, “This happened that the Scriptures might be fulfilled.”

Secondly (and more generally), I think this same idea lends context to our lives as well.  Particularly the difficult and painful moments.

Yes, the events of Jesus’ life were fulfilling some very exact Scriptural texts and would ultimately be a part of the mountain of evidence that he was the Messiah.

But in a general sense, the events of Jesus’ life happened as the plan of God unfolded for Him.

The same is true for us.

We have a tendency to ask ‘why’ when life is painful.  The Scriptures tell us that, as believers, God is busy using life to shape us in the image of Jesus; working all things for our good.

They also tell us that he cannot give us anything except good gifts.

So, what is happening to you right now is happening so that the Scriptures might be fulfilled in your life.

I’ve resolved to lean into that this year.  I want the Scriptures to be fulfilled in my life.  I want to be more like Him.

How about you?