Direct Access

I was in Washington, D.C. this past week at Health Datapalooza the growing healthcare data show. One of the keynote speakers was Vice President Joe Biden. As I entered into the hotel lobby the morning of the conference, I saw a large line going up the stairs. I quickly deduced that normal conference protocol was out the window. Everyone was required to go through a scanner and hand searches of bags, backpacks etc. When Biden spoke (he was very good), it was pretty obvious that anything out of the ordinary would prompt the numerous plainclothes secret service men to move closer. I was about 50 feet away, but I probably might as well have been two miles away. And this was the Vice President. I can only imagine how far away from President Obama I might be.

Yet every day I have direct access to not just a president, or a king, but the creator God. I look up at heaven and I feel so small yet in God's eyes I am infinitely valuable. In essence, God has given me His cell phone and said "call me anytime day or night" and often I do. God never says He is busy running the universe or handling bigger problems that day. But I think it even goes beyond that - God isn't bothered by me or my trifling human issues but loves for me to call Him up and talk to Him.

Prior to Jesus death and resurrection, I would have needed more than security clearance to get to a holy and righteous God. But something strange happened when Jesus died on the cross. The curtain across the Holy of Holies split in two. This curtain was used to prevent the commoner from approaching God. It was may more than a security scanner. The historian Josephus says that it took multiple horses to pull it apart. Yet, at the point Jesus finished bearing our shame, this curtain was completely torn apart. What does that mean? The scanners were done away with. I have that unfettered access to a holy and righteous God.

I love the Psalms - they reveal this intimacy in such graphic ways. Just these verses in the first 10 chapters.

3:4 - I was crying to the Lord with my voice and He answered me from His holy mountain.
4:8 - In peace I will both lie down and sleep, for You alone, O Lord make me to dwell in safety
5:3 - In the morning, O Lord you will hear my voice. In the morning I will order my prayer to You and eagerly watch.
6:9 - The Lord has heard my supplication, the Lord receives my prayer.
8:3-4 - When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars which You have ordained, what is man that you take thought of him, and the son of man that you care for him?
 

What if My Thoughts Were Mic'd Up

Lebron James was mic'd up during the recent round of the NBA playoffs. While there are moments where he may be kind of playing up to the mic (the pregnant woman comment for instance), I do think we see Lebron's leadership front and center. Very happy he is back in Cleveland (where he belongs).

Which leads me to think - "what if my thoughts were mic'd up". I heard Pastor Joe say this weekend that God knows our thoughts and if others would see it on the screen of life, we would be so rapidly disqualified from just about everything. Probably just in the past 24 hours my thoughts would reveal the following:

• Calling someone (under my breath) a "f---- ass----" who almost cut me off on the trail.
• Lusting over the scantily clad girl in Panera
• Getting impatient over a slow driver in front of me
• Feeling I am not getting recognized for something I should
• Being covetous over some recognition someone else got
• Mind wandering in church while we are singing hymns (thinking about the Cavaliers interestingly enough)
• ..... and that is in the past 24 hours or so

It is not surprising that when Jesus talks to the Pharisees he brings things always back to the seat of the mind. Permit me to paraphrase Jesus.  "You say do not commit adultery, but I say you have already committed adultery in your mind". "You say do not commit murder, but I say whoever curses or calls someone fool is guilty of fiery hell".

No way you would be my friend if you knew what I thought. There is a very fine line separating me from the worst person we can imagine. That is what is so amazing about grace. Grace is God seeing me and knowing me at my absolute worst and loving me, pursuing me, caring for me, sacrificing for me. God, the creator taking my absolute worst upon himself in judgment and freeing me from the tyranny of my own thoughts.

I get heaven - God judicially paying the penalty for my worst. That is grace. But I also get life here. Seeing good in people, loving people, caring for people. Not perfectly - that will never happen this side of eternity. But imperfectly through my own carnal flesh. Lord, as you mic up my thoughts, thank you for accepting me at my worst and transforming me into your image.

Priceless, but Costly

My parents raised me with a pretty strong work ethic. I have pretty much always tried to earn what I could through hard work and determination. We tell our kids the same thing - to keep trying and keep striving and good things would happen. So it is still somewhat shocking when my heavenly father tells me to give it up. He says to stop trying. What is He talking about?

No man can by any means redeem his brother,
Or give to God a ransom for him—
For the redemption of his soul is costly,
And he should cease trying forever—
Psalm 49:7-8

That brought me to the difference between priceless and costly. Priceless is something that carries such extremely high value that it is not purchasable with the currency we have. The price of a soul is beyond our ability to purchase. I could walk into the most expensive store out there and still something in me tells me I could afford it if...  Maybe if I save up more, maybe if I win the lottery, maybe if I am successful in business. But priceless indicates to me there is no chance I could purchase it. So God says forget it. Can we accept it? So much of us still want to strive for something that is beyond our means.

Costly on the other hand sets a very high price tag, one again almost unimaginable. It can be purchased but only under extreme circumstances. The purchaser must have certain qualifications. I remember buying my first car on credit. I qualified to purchase the car - they researched my record and found me credit worthy. God is the only one credit worthy of redemption. But O the cost. I am trying to wrap my head around the incarnation - God becoming a baby. Can't get there. I am trying to wrap my head around redemption - Jesus bearing the brunt of my sins. Can't truly get there. I am trying to wrap my head around resurrection - the payment being accepted. Still not there. Costly may be attainable by God, but not cheap. I believe it fully and I accept it. But can I truly understand it's cost?

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich. 2 Cor. 8-9

I have found that those truly touched by grace have a hard time not being humble. Why? Because they recognize that which was priceless to them was purchased at great cost by the only one who could redeem their soul.

Grace is Costly, Yet Free

Listening to Tony Evans describe the grace of God.  Grace cost God everything, demands a response from us, and puts no blame on God if we reject it.

Are you prepared to accept the "Coke" that Tony refers to?

 

Portrait of Grace–Mephibosheth

In reading through the Old Testament, it is easy to get hung up and miss the forest for the trees.  There are so many pictures, so many lessons that are easy to miss.  I am making my way through 1st Chronicles and in the list after list, it is easy to miss for example that “God had indeed blessed Peullethai” (25:5) or that Zechariah was a “counselor with insight” (25:14).  There are so many portraits of grace hidden in the midst of strife, sin, and war.  You have to be attuned to these portraits.  Mephibosheth is one of them (my spell checker seems to really dislike that name).  I am going to call him Fib for short because I am getting tired of typing his name.

We are introduced to Fib in 2 Samuel 4 when we learn that he is King Saul’s son Jonathan’s son and he was crippled in both feet in a tragic accident while his nurse was trying to flee the threat of war.  Five chapters later in 2 Samuel 9, now King David learns of Fib when asking about King Saul’s family.  Now Fib would have every reason to expect a death warrant.  It was the norm that the new king would execute any remaining relatives of the predecessor king’s family.  So when Fib was summoned, his mind probably was resigned to his fate of death.  Further, Fib had absolutely nothing to offer the king.  As a servant, he had minimal value to David.  The very name Mephibosheth means “a shameful thing,” and he had lived for a number of years in Lo-debar, which means “the barren land” (lit., “no pasture”).  He prostrated himself before the king totally dependent on the king’s favor. 

The king amazingly not only let’s Fib live, but grants him the favor of eating at the king’s table and restoring to him all of the land of his grandfather Saul.  Fib’s reaction is one of being stunned; “What is your servant that you would regard a dead dog like me”.  It is nothing but grace.  It is grace and grace alone.  David brought this outcast to dine at his table as his own son and graciously granted him a magnificent inheritance to which he was no longer legally entitled.  God adopted us as His children giving us a right standing that we don’t deserve by birthright (Rom 8:15).

You know God doesn’t get much out of me without His favor.  Without the presence of Christ, I am as lame as Fib.  I have nothing, nothing to offer Him.  He elevates me to family solely based on His favor.  My motivation – out of complete love and gratitude for him, I desire to serve Him.  

There is more to this story than what we see here.  There is the sequel for the next post.