Bleed Between The Lines

Months ago I wrote in a blog the words “I hope” and some one commented that hope was the wrong word, but that’s the word the bible uses. I’m going to try my best to explain the blessed hope. In the bible there have been many prophesied “events” The growth of Israel, The coming of a messiah, the resurrection and the next event according to scripture is the coming of Christ in the air to reveal himself as king and bring his followers home. This is Described in a number of places

1 Thessalonians 4:13-17 “Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. According to the Lord’s own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.”

Titus 2:11-14 “For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.”

This “hope” is a hope because none of us know when it will happen so we just wait in anticipation as the generations before have. You shouldn’t debate words based on your own understanding of scripture, instead use scripture to make a point. You’ll find you’re far better off when your starting point is God’s word.

Society today seems to have an impossible standard for beauty; impossibly thin, impossibly perfect skin and they fill our lives with these impossible expectations on ourselves and others. God however doesn’t focus on the outward but want’s us to attract people with our actions.
1 Samuel 16:7 “The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”
Proverbs 31:30 “Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting: but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.”
Magazines and TV have glorified beauty above all else and made millions of women feel invalid. It’s important to know that even the perfect aren’t perfect. As a graphic designer I know what “perfection” really looks like. It takes a lot of work to fix the skin defects of a model. Watch this video and see what goes into creating perfection even after, makeup, lighting and camera angles have been applied.

Suicide is a bit of an anomaly in the human condition. We are built with a desire to survive, reproduce and create happy feelings inside of ourselves and yet we have a spiritual and chemical breaking point. When pain becomes too much we begin to feel the desire to stop the pain at all costs. This can cause us to become angry, abusive, violent and if we repress our anger we can even start to contemplate ending our lives.
I know the feeling of wanting to kill myself, and I’ve dealt with it more than my fair share of times but one thing that always helped me was to realize that my feeling of hopelessness came from a problem. I would have a feeling of being alone, or being hopeless that was derived from my situation and it became to stressful to cope with. When I couldn’t find an end to my situation, I looked to suicide. But I knew that suicide, much like pitying myself, wasn’t going to fix the problem. I knew that God had a way to fix my problem, my condition and just me in general. Looking to a way out gave me hope and hope lessened my pain. We all have a hope in Christ and that is something to live for.
If you are feeling thoughts of suicide just know that most people who consider suicide find the strength to go on. You are not alone and if you feel like you are you can call 1-800-SUICIDE in the US and if you’re reading this from another country you can always check your local listings for a crisis hotline. God is the great physician and he can heal you and you’re not alone.

When I was younger I developed a lot of pride in my walk with Christ and God has spent the last 8 years striping me down to be a humble person. Well I hope I’m getting close because I get work off and on, my wife is the bread winner and we’re now on food stamps, but in all of this I’m thankful. I’m thankful for my wonderful family, for the friends that lift me up and even for those that don’t. I’m thankful that me and my family have food even if we need the government to get it. I’m thankful that God is in control and he has plans to prosper me and not to harm me.

In Psalm 143, David shows many beautiful characteristics of a man of God. He starts by asking for help in his time of need. In verses 3-6 he explains to God what he’s upset about and then in Verses 7-10 He asks to be saved from his trials. All of this we understand as humans but in verse 11 David does something we as people are not accustomed to doing. David states that the reason he wants to be delivered is for the name of God to be glorified. It’s easy for me to look at my tiny apartment and think I wish I had more room for my children and it would be easy to say I wish I had money to pay the bills so that my wife could stop worrying. But that shows a heart that doesn’t understand that God is in control. My kids are taken care of and my wife and I will be fine, we’re in God’s hands and there’s no place I’d rather be. We’re not going to be poor forever and when God delivers us we’re going to tell everyone we know that God heard our prayers. What ever you’re going through know that God will save you when you can’t save yourself, bringing glory to his name. So remember Love God, love each other, DIVORCE THE WORLD!

I’ve heard many-a sermon on Job and his suffering and most of the time it’s a message on suffering which is sad if you think about it. Jobs suffering was used by God to silence the devil and bring God closer to himself. We use the book of Job to plan for and or get through suffering. It’s almost silly because if that’s not how God used the events then why do we use them that way?

God gave me a very special message out of Job that I want to share with you. Job was at a very focused state in his suffering because he had lost everything and his misery was all he had left. He was begging for comfort and yet his acquaintances gave him only grief and accusations. As Job was replying to Bildad, his second accuser; he spoke a few very wise words that should humble us all.
32 “He is not a man like me that I might answer him, (referring to God)
that we might confront each other in court.

33 If only there were someone to arbitrate between us,
to lay his hand upon us both,

34 someone to remove God’s rod from me,
so that his terror would frighten me no more.

35 Then I would speak up without fear of him,
but as it now stands with me, I cannot.

Job in his weak state cried out for a savior, a Christ figure that would stand for him before God. We we’re given this in Jesus and still many times we look to God with a desire to be validated of our own accord. How many times to we work for a wage not given or grind through an investment that doesn’t yield a revenue. People can be found looking to God crying, “It’s not fair!” but who are we to even bring our case to God, who knows our deepest and foulest sins. The lies that we keep secret, God brings to the light. You can’t hide anything from God any better than you could outrun him. Little man is so determined to prove his worth and yet none of us are grand enough to see past our own blink. We need to really spend every day meditating one how blessed we are to have someone who is willing and able to take our case before a sovereign God.

Redemption is simply when someone else who can afford it, pays the price for someone who owes a debt. Redemption in the bible is the idea of redeeming property lost by a family member. In the law, this was God’s way of keeping the economy fair. The need for redemption came when a person was too poor and had to sell themselves into slavery or when someone died it evolved the redemption of all of their property including any wives or land.
There were 4 requirements of a kinsman redeemer:
He must be a close relative
He must be able to redeem
He must be willing to redeem
The price must be completely paid.
This shows us why God was the only one who could have saved us and it shows the necessity of the cross. As sinners we owe the debt that incurred by sinning which is death. Now if you owe a debt to someone and I owe the same dept I can’t redeem you because I need to be redeemed. In order for our debt to be paid, it had to be paid by someone who didn’t owe the debt. This is why God the redeemer of Abraham and Jacob came to earth and was nailed to a tree, because he could afford to pay our debt and he loved us enough to do it.

Have you seen the surveys that say what percent Angel are you and what percent Devil are you? They are really popular with almost everyone. So what’s the apeal? Why is everyone so proud to be bad. I’m not talking about people who feel that their life style is OK. I’m talking about people who feel like partying is wrong and immoral but like to do it to be wild. I think that there’s a simple answer to why people act out and church is to blame. Sorry church, you know I support group worship but we’re failing in one major issue. Judgment is not the problem, no drinker, drug addict, or sinner of any sort left church because they felt judged or at least not most. Most people go to church to find moral guidance and so they expect a certain level of judging, they leave because church people pretend to be perfect.

If you ask someone outside of the church, where do people in church fall short, they might say “they’re fake, they gossip, they tip poorly, they get angry really easy” but if you ask the same question to a christian, Where do they fall short? you get a cop out answer like “I don’t read my bible enough, or I don’t give enough to the poor” We make mistakes too and if we don’t start admitting openly how wretched we are then we’re going to loose the world and some of our own to Hell.

So the next questions are important to solve the problem. What makes something Holy? Who is a Saint? Who’s a sinner? To understand all of this I need to go a lot deeper. When God created everything in the beginning he called all of it good. It all was designed to co-exist with God and exist forever. When man sinned in the garden of Eden (the story about the snake and the apple in the beginning of the bible), man did something that had a lot of repercussions. See God is perfect, before there were physics or time or matter or anything that makes up our world God was everything and so God is love. What we know as love is what looks like God. God is good so everything that exists with God is good, everything apart from God is bad. When Adam and Eve “sinned” they separated them selves from God and we know that anything not with God is bad. Now this world is apart from God and so it’s bad. This is how a person who gives everything they have to the poor and is nice to everyone can go to Hell. That person looks good because of the things they do but their heart isn’t good because it isn’t connected to God. God knows our hearts and so even if the persons actions seem to justify them that’s not the issue. The issue involves people sinning and separating themselves from God. Now we have to go to 1 Samuel chapter eight; in this chapter Gods people ask Samuel for an earthly king, now God tells Samuel that they’ve rejected him, not Samuel so God gets mad. (note to self don’t reject God, he doesn’t like it!) God knew the heart of man from the beginning of time and so the answer from the beginning was Jesus. So people separate themselves from God, then they demand an earthly king. God then sends them one, (many years later) Himself in human form! God was the answer all along. If you’re not connected to God then you die, people took there faith away from God and put it in worldly things and so God the father sent Jesus (God the son) to pay the penalty for our sins so we could be united with God and be good again. So if our sin separated us from God and Jesus died to reconnect us then how do I know if I’m a saint or a sinner? Have you been reconnected to God through the blood of Jesus? If you have then you’re connected to God and made Holy in God’s sight.

Now as followers of Christ we’re still human and still sin but most of us won’t admit it. Now please don’t use salvation as an excuse to sin, but if you’re connected to God you’re 100% saint because you’re connected to God and remember, God is the standard for good. I firmly believe that if we as a body of believers stand up and admit when we lie, cheat and steal then more people would be willing to walk in the doors and ask for forgiveness knowing that they’re with people who need help just like them. They could also give their shortcomings to God and they wouldn’t feel the need to justify them.

In our lives we see people getting cancer, dying in car accidents, moving to new cities, having chance encounters in stores and we say that it’s all part of Gods plan, This plan involves pain ad yet God has plans “not to harm”, this plan involves complex human decisions and yet we supposedly have freedom of choice. These apparent contradictions come not from an inconsistency with God but in our lack of understanding in how God plans. When we plan, it’s based on an assumed list of events and our assumed ability to affect the outcome. When God plans it’s on the basis that he exists outside of the boundaries of time or reason. When we make decisions they are based on physics and pattern. God is the author of physics and pattern. God weaves his plan around us and one of my favorite examples of this is Jesus and his mother at the wedding. Mary tells Jesus that their out of wine and Jesus says, “dear woman, it is not my time” and then guess what she does, she tell some servant girls to do whatever he says. She didn’t care that he said no! She knew what Jesus would do if she just asked him. While this principal can be taken the wrong way many times we need to understand that this biblical example exists.
I want to take this idea to the end times. In regards to the day of the Lord, Paul writes “Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for (that day will not come) until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God.”
It is God’s plan that the end times will come and the Earth will become evil and rebellious. This plan isn’t because God will cause us to be rebellious, it’s because we will choose to be rebellious. Therefore we can also choose to be righteous. I don’t see the end times coming in the near future because I plan to get on my knees and I’m going to pray for revival. As God’s people we need to see that it is the desire of God that all would come to Christ. We should pray that his grace will spread and that all will come to know Jesus Christ. Their are so many doomsayers in the Church that it is hard to see revival as an option sometimes but we the hopeful have God on our side. We are soldiers and Christ’s cause is our cause. Take a moment today to pray for revival and maybe the world will repent and we can see God’s visible reign again.

One of the thing we can do to choke our relationship with Jesus is put a limit on what he’s worth. See Jesus was a blameless and perfect. His death was a sacrifice good enough to cover all the sins of all mankind. Like Peter sinking in the lake we diminish Christs connection with us when we don’t have faith in his worth.

There are many ways that we start to degrade Jesus. The first is by saying that Jesus isn’t necessary to get to Heaven. This is important because there are Christians who say “I believe that Jesus died for me but I don’t think he’s the ONLY way to heaven.” If Jesus’s blood isn’t the only thing that can get you into heaven then Jesus’s blood wasn’t necessary. Why would God send his Son to be insulted and beaten, to the point of death if it wasn’t necessary. Jesus’s blood is precious and God wouldn’t send him unless there was no other way.

The second thing we do is place boundaries on the sin Jesus’s blood can cover. We decide that if some one doesn’t look or act Christian then they can’t be saved. Or for more reasonable Christians, we can tend to believe that Jesus’s blood isn’t enough to cover murder or rape, or the idea that Hitler couldn’t be saved because he was TOO evil. We’re all wretched and deserving of death it is by the grace of God that we have any chance of redemption. By picking and choosing who we think can be saved we’re not highlighting the sins of the evil, we’re discounting the price of Jesus’s blood.

The third and most personally devastating thing we can do is decide that we don’t deserve forgiveness. Sometimes when we struggle with an issue (i.e. Anger, greed, lust, lies,…) We stumble after making a commitment and decide I’m not good enough to ask for forgiveness, I don’t even know if I really mean it. And then while we know we should ask for forgiveness, we sit by and deny God the ability to decide if we deserve forgiveness or not. This like earlier lowers the value of Jesus’s blood by us saying, I’ve sinned to much and I’m not sorry enough for Jesus’s blood to cover me. You’re a dumb human destined to mess up, Let God be God and he can decide if you’re forgiven. Jesus’s blood is enough to cover all sins from all people.

In the long run let God be God and you just do what you know is right. When we put limits on the power of Jesus’s blood we’re doing nothing more then playing god ourselves.