How Do You Measure a Year?

 

John 15:1-17

 

“How do you measure a year?

In daylights, in sunsets, in midnights, in cups of coffee.

In inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife.

In 525,600 minutes -

how do you measure a year in the life?

How about love?”

 

These are the opening lyrics from the song, “Season of Love” from the play Rent. Ultimately, this song is asking how we use our time; our talents; our treasure. How do we find purpose and meaning in our life?

 

In some ways, these lyrics parallel Jesus’ words in today’s passage. “I am the vine; you

are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit.”  Jesus is calling us to bear fruit. He is calling us to invest our lives in those around us. And he is asking us how we will measure our fruit.

 

But life can be long and difficult at times. It is hard to invest in others all the time. People are so frustrating. Jesus gives us a hint of how to be consistent in bearing fruit. “Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.”

 

To use another metaphor, bearing fruit is not an individual sport. It’s a team sport. A player on a team needs to listen to the coach, do what they say; not just to get playing time, but to be a better player, to help the team win. To produce fruit we must remain in the vine.

 

To bear fruit doesn’t require you to be a pastor or a missionary. As my pastor says each week, “We are all ministers”. We are ministers not just when we do church activities, but at work, at home, driving in the car, talking to the neighbor or even going through the drive through at McDonalds.

 

“525,600 minutes!

525,000 journeys to plan.

525,600 minutes.

How can you measure the life of a woman or man?”

 

That’s a lot of minutes to do something with. What will you do with your minutes this year, or today for that matter? How do you measure a year in your life?

 

What Would You Do with $500 Million?

Ephesians 1:3-14

 

 

Have you ever thought about; dreamed about; or fantasized about; what you would do if you won the lottery? What would you do with $500 million? When I first started working at the office I’m at now, there was an employee who had recently inherited $10 million. He retired and went into full time mission work.

 

Ephesus was one of the largest cities in the Roman Empire. It was a commercial, political and religious center for all of Asia Minor. For these reasons, it was a strategic city, and quite possibly that may account for why Paul spent almost three years there during his third missionary trip.

 

He may have reasoned that by reaching the people of Ephesus, he could reach the world. Being such a strategic city, Paul must have believed it was important for the Ephesian believers to understand what was included in their spiritual blessings, or inheritance, in Christ.

 

With that as a backdrop, most of today’s passage was devoted to the spiritual blessings in Christ available to all believers. Paul started by writing that believers have been blessed with “every spiritual blessing in Christ”. He specifically mentions the following blessings of our inheritance:

 

• We are holy and blameless in his sight v.4
• We are adopted as a son or daughter through Jesus v.5
• Grace is freely given to us v.6; and lavished on us v.8
• We have redemption through his blood v.7
• We are forgiven of our sins v.7
• We are a part of God’s plan who works out everything v.11
• We have been marked with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit v.13
• This guarantees our inheritance v.14

 

These verses give us our identity in Christ. They define who we are! Not our career; not our family; not our church; not our wealth; not our good deeds; not our sins; but our faith in Jesus Christ! We are sons and daughters of the King, and He has given us a seal with the Holy Spirit.

 

“The Holy Spirit was given to us as a promise that we will receive everything God has for us. God’s Spirit will be with us until God finishes His work of making us complete. God does this to show His shining-greatness.”                   New Life Version

 

The question is, what will you do with your inheritance? The pastor emeritus of my church recently shared a story about his granddaughter. For her fifth birthday she received some monetary gifts. Instead of buying new toys for herself, she decided to give those gifts to help others in need in Africa and Nicaragua.

 

What would you do with $500 million? What would you do with a $10 million inheritance? What would you do with the birthday gifts of a five year old? What will you do with the inheritance that God has already given you?

 

 

 

 

9/11

Matthew 15:1-9

 

 

Do you remember where you were when the news broke about 9/11? I do. I was in a meeting. At first nobody realized the magnitude of what was happening, but as details were released it became clear. The United States had been attacked by Islamic terrorists resulting in over 3000 deaths. Unbelievable!

 

How could people rationalize or justify such evil behavior? In reality though, the human condition has rationalized behavior since the beginning of time, and then blamed someone else. Adam blamed Eve and Eve blamed the snake; but both justified their rebellious actions. Not much has changed since then.

 

Consider then, the Pharisees and teachers of the Law in today’s passage. “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders?” (Have you ever noticed how a why question is actually an accusation?)

 

According to my NIV study Bible, the “tradition of the elders” was developed “after the Babylonian exile, when the Jewish rabbis began to make meticulous rules and regulations governing the daily life of the people. These were interpretations and applications of the law of Moses, handed down from generation to generation.”

 

It seems then, that in the beginning there may have been good intentions in the “tradition of the elders”. Ultimately though, it became a tool to rationalize and justify sinful behavior.

 

Here is Jesus’ response to their question above. “And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition?” Jesus was good with why questions too. He didn’t pull any punches.

 

If we are honest with ourselves, we recognize that we justify and rationalize our behavior. Granted, we may not fly a jet into a building killing thousands; we may not rebel against God’s causing humanity to fall into sin; but we justify and rationalize our sinful behavior every day.

 

Jesus condemned the Pharisees. Are we any better? No. However, I am reminded of Paul’s words to the Romans: “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord... Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

 

9/11 was the epitome of the pain and damage that rationalization and justification can do. In light of our sinful nature and what it is capable of, Paul’s words bring us great hope. They are words filled with life not death; words to help us turn from our sinful nature to become a new creation in Christ. Thanks be to God.

 

 

Tom Izzo is Mr. March

Revelation 20:1-15

 

If you don’t know it by now, I’m a huge Michigan State sports fan. Not surprisingly, I believe that Tom Izzo is one of the best college basketball coaches active today. What is his secret to success? Accountability.

 

At the beginning of every school year he has all of his players write down their goals – individual, team, academic and off court. He then collects those goals and during the year if he sees that a player isn’t working towards his goals, Izzo will pull him aside and talk to him about it.

 

Consider Revelation 20. God keeps us all accountable. First, the angel bound Satan for a thousand years. Then after being released for a little while, Satan is thrown into the lake of fire. Finally, anyone whose name isn’t found in the book of life is thrown into the lake of fire.

 

Some of the images in this chapter could come right out of a Stephen King novel. But let’s think about this, not in a literal sense, but as a piece of the big picture of the Bible. If we don’t get bogged down in the details of it, what can we learn about our Heavenly Father? I would suggest these three things.

 

First, He is just; and He is true to His character. His yes is yes and His no is no. What this means is that He must judge evil. He must judge the unrighteous. He must judge us. He must keep us accountable. I don’t particular care for this lesson, but it’s there, and it’s true. However, there is Good News to go with this.

 

Because He is just, our sins have to be paid for. He did this by using the sacrificial system as a metaphor to show the Israelites in a tangible way the need for a sacrifice; the need for atonement; the need for redemption. The only way to pay for our sins was with a pure lamb, a spotless lamb – His son Jesus.

 

Therefore, the second lesson from this chapter is that God loves us so much that he sacrificed His one and only son so that we might know Him; so that we might not be thrown into the lake of fire; so that we might spend eternity with Him.

 

The final lesson is that God wins! He wins over Satan; over evil; over death. He wins in the end! Why is that important for us? Consider what John wrote in his first letter: “Greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world”. Ultimately, there is victory for us. Jesus will return.

 

Tom Izzo is known as Mr. March because of his record during March Madness. He knows how to win when it counts. He builds his team on accountability to help them be better; to help them win when it counts. God does the same thing for us. He keeps us accountable and paid the price for our sins. Because He wins, we win too.

 

So, who’s keeping you accountable?

 

 

 

 

Lessons from a 4 ½ Year Old

Revelation 20:7-21:8

 

This is My Granddaughter, Everely. She’s four years old – 4 ½ according to her. This past Sunday at church when Everly walked into the building she spotted me at the end of the hallway, and she ran the length of the hall giving me a huge bear hug. That brought unbelievable joy to my heart and purpose to my life. What brings joy and purpose to your life?

 

In Revelation, John wrote about his vision. Like the title of the 1966 Clint Eastwood movie, “The Good, The Bad and the Ugly”, it included all of those elements. John begins with the defeat of Satan; moves onto the final judgement; and finishes with the vision of a new heaven and a new earth.

 

Both good and evil exist in our world today. In fact, if we are honest with ourselves, both good and evil exist in us. In a world conflicted by this, John’s vision brings us great hope, joy and purpose.

 

“Look! God now makes his home with the people. He will live with them. They will be

his people. And God himself will be with them and be their God.  ‘He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death.’ And there will be no more sadness. There will be no more crying or pain. Things are no longer the way they used to be.”

 

Today’s passage tells us that in the midst of judgement, evil, temptation, pain and suffering, injustice, hate and anger, immorality… there is hope. Not only the hope of the next life of a new earth and a new heaven; but hope for here and now. Hope for how we live today; hope for the struggles of life. There is hope with joy and purpose.

 

It’s kind of amazing how much joy and purpose my 4 ½ year old granddaughter brought into my life in that one single moment without even trying. How much more joy and purpose does our Heavenly Father, the God of creation, the Living God, give us with the promises of His Word. Now that is amazing!