Southern Phrases That Don't Make Sense

Growing up in Alabama we have a lot of interesting phrases.  One of those phrases is one people use
when they've been looking for something for a while and then finally find it.  When they find it they usually happily declare "It was in the last place I looked!"  Of course it was!  Why would you keep looking for it after you've already found it!?!  It's always in the last place you looked.

Matthew 7:7-8 Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you for everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and the one who knows it will be opened.

Many times we seek answers to issues in our lives.  We need guidance for our sins, our struggles, and all the things we need to overcome.  Many times we know that God's way for the situation will bring the best result, just like the rest of the passage reads, but in our pride we keep trying to find our own way out of a situation.  God's will has good things for us if we'll only acknowledge it and stop there instead of continuing to look for another way.

We also know that many people are trying to find the meaning of life.  People are looking who have never been to church or maybe only tried Jesus but have never truly experienced Him.  The meaning of life is Jesus.  Once you've found Him you can stop looking.  Jesus himself said "I am the way, the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me" John 14:6.

Jesus made a way because of what He did on the cross when He willingly laid down His life and took the sin of the entire world on His shoulders.   During this week remember what Jesus did for my sin and your sin.  He paid the price and penalty we were due.  When we find Jesus we know we can can stop looking and there's no other place we need to look.

Jesus, Pop-Tarts, and foolishness

During the summer between my freshman and sophomore year of college I interned at a church down in Louisiana.  I stayed there with the music minister and his family.  They had 5 kids total.  As you can imagine a family that size was always running out the door in the mornings.  Many mornings the kids would be grabbing their breakfast while running out the door.

Here's a little tidbit of info about me, my favorite pop tarts are the strawberry with no frosting.   Onemorning I had bought some and I popped them into the toaster.  Their oldest looked at me with a look of disgust and bewilderment while exclaiming, "What are you doing?!?"  "Getting my pop tart out of the toaster", I said.  To which he replied "That's the dumbest thing I've ever see in my entire life!"

When I really started to think about it he had never had a pop-tart from the toaster.  He was always getting his while running out the door.   Why would he take time to heat it up when pop-tarts when their purpose is to be eaten while running out the door.

1st Corinthians 1:18 The message of the cross is foolish to those who are headed for destruction!  But we who are being saved know it is the very power of God.

To those who don't follow Jesus Christ our faith seems foolish.  We're to forgive others when we have every right to get revenge or hold a drudge.  When people are in need we rally to help them even if it's at the expense of our own comfort.  We count others as more significant than ourselves while we're in a culture where the messaged is it's all about me.

After I explained to him why I loved my pop-tarts from the toaster he decided to give it a try the next morning.  Interestingly enough my dumbest idea ever won him over and he put his pop-tarts in the toaster from then on.  Just like how that pop-tart wasn't complete without a toaster the world needs to discover that their lives are not complete without Jesus.  As believers we know that for a fact because we have experienced it.

Now, Jesus is eternally more significant than pop-tarts.  His message far more life changing than putting a pastry in a toaster.  Let's remember that today.  Let's remember the death that makes life complete.  Let's remember the One who willingly laid his life down on the cross for our sins to reconcile us to God.  Take some time to pause and reflect on the life changing gospel of Jesus Christ

About Football Rivalry and Jesus

Football season is officially underway.  I see a lot of you celebrating the fact that football season is
here all over your social media walls.

As many of you know I'm from Alabama and in Alabama there's football season and then the boring stuff in-between football season.

In Alabama is, what I think to be, the greatest rivalry in college football.  The rivalry is between Alabama and Auburn.  Being in Alabama you get to pick one or the other, I think they put it on your voter registration card.  The teams and fan base love to hate each other.

I grew up and still am an Alabama fan.  I inherited that from my Dad.  When I was little my dad was the kind of guy who prepared to watch football.  He was dressed in Alabama gear, had his snacks ready, and passionately coached the team from the comfort of his living room.  If the Alabama and Auburn game were on he would be especially passionate about it.  I come by it honestly

There is also a great rivalry between life and death in our world.  Sin offers condemnation and death while Jesus Christ offers forgiveness and life.   Just like we inherit the love of certain teams from our parents we also inherit our sin-nature from our parents.  The people who come before us are fallen and therefore we are fallen.  We are sinful.

The world is passionate about sin, surrounding us with it and calling it good.  Sin leads to death.  But God is passionate too, He longs to be the One who surrounds us and He alone leads to life.

John 3:16-17  16 “For God so loved the world,[i] that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

God is so passionate about you He made a way through Jesus because God wants you by His side.  He did that through the payment of death for sin when Jesus Christ willingly gave his life for payment of our sins.  Jesus defeated death, sin, and the grave!  The rivalry is over for those who follow Christ.

Remember His body that was broken for you, His blood that was spilled for you, and His death that paid the cost for our sin

About That New Music

I want to start out with two letters written to the church regarding music.

"I am no music scholar, but I feel I know appropriate church music when I hear it.  Last Sunday's new music - if you can call it that - sounded like a sentimental love ballad one would expect to hear crooned in a public house.  If you insist on exposing us to rubbish like this - in God's house! - don't be surprised if many of the faithful look for a new place to worship.  The music we grew up with is all we need"

Here's another one:

"What is wrong with the inspiring music with which we grew up?  When I go to church, it is to worship God, not to be distracted with learning one of these new hymns.  Last Sunday's was particularly unnerving.  The tune was un-singable and the new harmonies were quite distorting.  Myself and the faithful few who remain will look for a different congregation if this debauchery of music continues in God's house"

Thee letters sound like something people could write today but they are in fact not from people in our current culture.  The first letter was written because they disagreed with the introduction of hymns in their church in 1764.  The second letter was written in 1890 as a response to the introduction of What a Friend We Have In Jesus.

While in college I took a course on the History of Christian Worship.  As I worked my way through the class I was floored at the division caused in churches every few generations over preferences in how to worship God.  This isn't just a modern phenomenon with our modern "worship wars".  In fact, if you were to take a journey all the way back to the first and second century you would witness major disagreement and division between Jewish and Greek Christians regarding worship.

Phillipians 2:1-11 So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, 2 complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,[a] 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant,[b] being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Every few generations a major shift happens in the church culture.  There is major change.  Churches who do not understand or refuse to understand the shift and change to be relevant to culture ultimately decline and die.  No one understood this more than the apostle Paul who wrote the passage we just read from.  In all his travels we see the method he approached different cultures with changed dramatically as he travelled around the roman empire.  Our church needs to learn from his example.  Our church needs to consider others before ourselves and do what it takes!

But there is one thing he never changed.  The message and truth of the gospel.  We can never change that either.  We need to understand and value the past while also moving forward and investing in the future.

We do need to realize there are thousands of people at home on Sunday mornings who don't have the saving knowledge of Jesus christ.  Thousands of people within just a few miles of our church who's eternal destination isn't with God.  We need to be relevant to them.  We need to not sit back and focus on the glory days or what we used to be.  What we used to be no long works within our culture.  We need new ways to reach the lost without compromising the message of hope offered by Jesus Christ.

We need to remember that Jesus Christ brought radical change to our world.  Change that many didn't agree with, change that brought out hostility, hate, and the worst in people.  God reconciled the world to Himself by the sacrifice of Jesus.  Jesus willingly laid down his life to change our connection with God forever.  Only through Jesus' death are we able to boldly and humbly come personally before the Father and offer up our worship, no matter the style.  Let's remember that this week.

Soggy House-shoes

It was winter in Alabama.  And I remember it because we had a sleet storm that year so it was all wet and sloshy with ice outside.  That night I, the big 9 year old geek that I was, was wearing my Superman P.J.s with the cape that velcroed to the back and a pair of really fuzzy gorilla horseshoes where I inserted each foot into the mouth of the beast.

During the night in question I was staying with my grandma because my dad was out of town.  Now something happened that night which was not to my liking, I can't remember what happened, so I announced I was leaving, I was moving out.  As soon as I finished saying those words my grandma leaped from her green corduroy lazy-boy, grabbed my little suitcase, and proceeded to pack my bag. I what seemed like less than 30 seconds I was strolling down the street in my superman p.j.s and my Gorilla house-shoes with a hastily packed suitcase in tow.

So much for my dramatic exit.  As the cold and slush quickly overtook those cheesy house-shoes I remember thinking I've made a terrible decision.  I had only walked to the end of the block where my aunt Mildred lived but my grandma had already called ahead and told her not to let me in.

My rebel spirit was broken.  So I turned and headed back to grandma's house.  I wondered things like did she already rent out my room, has she already gotten rid of my nintendo, will she call my dad.

Sure enough, my grandmas was standing at the front porch, smiling.  It's like she knew I would come back.  And then she came down to meet me and wrapped her arms around me, and helped me up the stairs into the house.  Where were my gorilla house-shoes?  She had to pick my up out of them because they were so heavy with the ice and slosh.  My grandma was glad this 5 minute rebel had come home.

In Hebrews 13:5 we read that God will never leave us nor forsake us.  In fact we find that phrase all throughout scripture.

Sometimes our heavenly Father will release us to our rebellion, too.  Knowing that our rebel heart will never be content until it i broken--He lets us walk away.  But even as we leave, He's waiting for our return.  And in the moment He sees us, He runs to greet us and welcomes us home.

He then invites us to share a meal at this table.  A little bit of bread, a tiny sip of juice, but it's God's forever remember to everyone who wanders--there is still a place for you.  To share in a holy meal with your brothers and sisters

So kick off those soggy house-shoes and upback that bag filled with reget and come take your place.  Because in the moment you take the first step toward Him, the Father will come running to meet you there

Batting a thousand

This past Thursday I went to a Cincinnati Reds game.  Every time a player would come up to bat their picture would come up on the board and display some stats about the player.  One such stat was batting average.   Bring from Alabama I didn't grow up caring too much about baseball so I wasn't sure how batting average was calculated.  Basically I learned it was the average of how successful a player was when he got up to bat.

The best batter on the Reds is a guy named Joey Votto and his batting average is 309.  The actual way it's written for the batting average is actually .309.  .309 equals 31percent.  So, what that tells me is when Joey Votto bats, the Reds best batter, he is only successful 31% of the time.  No wonder the Reds have a losing record!

Because it was baseball I decided to look up on my phone who the best batter in history was.  The all time world record batting average belongs to a guy named Ty Cobb.  I wasn't expecting perfection but I was expecting at least a .750 or something close.  But Ty Cobbs batting average is .367 which means the best batter in history was only successful 37% of the time!  That also means Ty Cobb failed 63% of the times he came up to bat.  Perfection in baseball is unobtainable.

It's the same way with our own righteousness, we can't be perfect.  We're called to try, just like every base ball player who steps up to the plate, but we won't come close.  Here's something to reflect on:

James 2:10 (ESV) For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it.

So we could try out best, give it our best shot, reach a .999 but if we fail at the .001 mark it's like the .999 doesn't even count.  In fact the best batting average we can have when it comes to life is 0.  We have no hope in ourselves, we can't even come close.  But here is the good news:

2nd Corinthians 5:21 (ESV) For our sake he made him (Jesus) to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

There's only one person in history who has batted a thousand or 1.000 is Jesus Christ.  Every time Jesus stepped up to the plate he got it right.  He lived a perfect life.  When Christ went to the cross he bore all of our horrible batting averages on himself.  He then replaced ours with his.  When God the Father looks at us he sees a thousand.  It's only by the death of Jesus Christ that it is made possible.  If you are a follower of Jesus Christ his righteousness is now our righteousness.  Let's remember and celebrate that fact this week.

Tax collectors, prostitutes, thieves, and murders..oh, my

Mark 2:13-17 (ESV) He went out again beside the sea, and all the crowd was coming to him, and he was teaching them.  And as he passed by, he saw Levi the son of Aphaeus sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, "Follow Me."  And he rose and followed him.  And as he reclined at the table at his house, many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and his disciples,, for there were many who followed him.  And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, "Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?"  And when jesus heard it, he said tot hem, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.  I came not to call the righteous, but sinners"

Why was it such a scandal for Jesus to call a tax collector to follow Him and then have dinner at his house?  Well, the Jews of the day accused tax collectors of selling out to the Romans.  The tax collectors were seen as thieves, dishonest, and a traitorous group of people.  Jesus also sat at the same table as sinners.  He reclined and ate with thieves, murders, and prostitutes.  Why would Jesus eat with such scandalous people?

Jesus' answer is profound.  He didn't come for the people who have it all together!  If anyone was worthy of religious attention it was the pious Pharisees but it was the "sinners" Jesus was spending all His time with.  Here's some truth; Jesus didn't start His church with the pious religious, no, He started his church with sellouts, thieves, murders, prostitutes, and all manner of rejects.

He filled His Church full of people who wore some of the most scandalous people of society.  If you have never worn one of these labels mentioned I'm sure you have had other scandalous labels placed on you and if you don't believe you've ever had a label you may just be wearing the label of Pharisee. We all have labels.

Here's the good news though, here's the gospel.  When Jesus died and He paid the price of death for us He ripped those labels from our lives and replaced them.  We no longer have to carry the labels of society like addict, thief, liar, prostitute, loser, deadbeat, or any number of labels.  Jesus replaces those labels with loved, forgiven, accepted, cherished, and Mine.  Every follower of Christ gets these new labels.  We get these new labels no matter who we are or what we've done, yes, even us Pharisees who don't like those scandalous people in our churches.

Let's remember through communion and all during this week through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, our Lord, our King, and our God, we no longer labeled by this world but labeled by His great mercy and grace!