Promises Kept

Psalm 145

  

When my granddaughter was about 3 years old, she took a swimming class. The highlight of the class was at the end when the water slide was opened up. One Saturday, my daughter asked me to come to the class and go into the water with my granddaughter. I was more than happy to oblige.

 

During the class, my granddaughter told me several times how much fun the water slide was, but she made me promise that I absolutely wouldn’t let her head go under water at the bottom of the slide. I vowed that I would never let that happen.

 

As we began our descent from the top of the slide, I had both arms wrapped tightly around her. But as we continued our downward spiral, I began to lose my grip. The slide was tossing me from side to side. Instinctively, I let go with one hand and then the

Although we are both there, all you can see are my feet.

other to regain my balance. Suddenly, without warning, we were at the bottom and into the water with both of our heads going under.

 

When we got out, my granddaughter looked very, very distressed. When asked if she wanted to go down the slide again, her response was a very clipped, “No. I want to go home. I want my Daddy.” Grandpa had failed to keep his promise.

 

Promises, and how we respond to them, reveal our character. Ultimately, it reveals who we are by how we treat others. David wrote in Psalm 145 about the character of God. God’s character can be seen by how He works in our lives. In fact, seven times in this Psalm David mentions “your works”.

 

For me, it is easier to see God’s works with twenty-twenty hind sight than it is during the daily grind of life. Afterwards, I can look back and see how He brought certain people or experiences or even books or a movie into my life to shape my thinking. God has been constantly at work in my life because He loves me.

 

My granddaughter didn’t think much of my character on that Saturday morning in question. All she knew was that her grandpa had not kept his promise, whether it was intended or not.

 

We never have to worry about that with our Lord. He always keeps His promises. He shows His love to us by His faithfulness, and as His followers, we are to show His love to others by our faithfulness. Therefore, let us love one another with Christ’s love through promises kept.

 

 

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

1 John 1:8-9; Psalm 103:8-12

 

A picture is worth a thousand words. Jesus often used stories to paint a picture to teach an important lesson. One of the most important lessons for us to learn is that if we repent, that is admit that we have sinned and turn from our sin, then He will forgive us. It’s as if we had never sinned.

 

This is a hard lesson to learn. Guilt and shame can attach themselves to your soul, like a cancer, and destroy you from the inside out. Here, coupled with several scriptures, are some of my own personal stories that have helped me to paint a picture to learn this invaluable lesson.

 

For years, after we moved to Columbus from Michigan, people would make some kind of

derogatory comment about Michigan until they found out I was a Michigan State fan. Apparently, that made me tolerable. However, the point had been driven home that nothing could be further apart from a Buckeye than a Wolverine.

 

Psalm 103

¹² …as far as the east is from the west,
    so far has he removed our transgressions from us.  NIV

 

My Dad had an ink blotter on his desk when I was growing up. I can still remember him

blotting out the extra ink that was left after writing with his fountain pen. The blotter cleaned up many of his letters. The messiness would never be visible.

 

Isaiah 43

²⁵ “I, even I, am he who blots out
    your transgressions, for my own sake,
    and remembers your sins no more.     NIV

 

When I was a young boy, we took a vacation out west. One day on a mountainous road we pulled off to look at the scenery. There was a very deep ravine that you couldn’t see

the bottom, although you could hear a river below. Being a young boy, I threw a stone over the guardrail and waited to hear it hit the water. Imagine my surprise when a couple of angry men yelled to quit throwing those stones. Oops.

 

Micah 7

¹⁹ Once again you will have compassion on us. You will tread our sins beneath your feet; you will throw them into the depths of the ocean!       TLB

 

Recently, by brother and sister-in-law were visiting us. On Saturday night, as we were

getting ready to go out for dinner, my brother caught his pant leg on the toenail of his big toe and tore it off. There was a huge blood stain on the carpet. After using several different brands of carpet cleaner with much elbow grease, the stain was finally gone.

 

Isaiah 1

¹⁸ Come, let’s talk this over, says the Lord; no matter how deep the stain of your sins, I can take it out and make you as clean as freshly fallen snow. Even if you are stained as red as crimson, I can make you white as wool! TLB

 

Sometimes I like to tease my granddaughter when I have a small gift for her by hiding it behind my back and ask her to choose which hand it’s in. Of course, which ever one

she chooses I quickly switch the gift to my other hand. Eventually though, she gets the gift; but in the meantime it’s great fun… at least for me.

 

Isaiah 38

¹⁷ Surely it was for my benefit
    that I suffered such anguish.
In your love you kept me
    from the pit of destruction;
you have put all my sins behind your back.     NIV

 

A picture is worth a thousand words. No doubt, you have your own stories that could paint a picture of how God has removed your sins; blotted them out; thrown them away; cleaned them; hidden them or… you fill in the blank.

 

The bottom line is that our guilt and shame have been nailed to the cross with Jesus, so that we might live free from sin. Can you picture that?

 

 

 

Struggles and Doubt

Jude 17-25

  

Have you ever experienced a time in your life when you struggled and were filled with doubts? Maybe it was a broken relationship; or your job was downsized; or a family member died suddenly or was diagnosed with a terminal illness. Life has a way of bringing struggles and doubts to all of us.

 

Mark tells the story of the man who asked Jesus to heal his son because his disciples weren’t able to. Both the disciples and the father doubted Jesus.

 

^21-22 “Jesus asked the boy’s father, “How long has this been going on?” “Ever since he was a little boy. Many times it pitches him into the fire or the river to do away with him. If you can do anything, do it. Have a heart and help us!” ²³ Jesus said, “If? There are no ‘ifs’ among believers. Anything can happen.” ²⁴ No sooner were the words out of his mouth than the father cried, “Then I believe. Help me with my doubts!”       MSG

 

We live in a culture that is filled with values and beliefs that are not Christian – pride,

materialism and lust to name a few. God has called us to live in this culture; not to conform to it, but to transform it. If we are not careful, we can adopt those same values and beliefs of the world around us.

 

In his letter, Jude is writing to Christians who are struggling and doubting because of some false teaching about grace and sin. 

 

^22 “Try to help those who argue against you. Be merciful to those who doubt. ²³ Save some by snatching them as from the very flames of hell itself. And as for others, help them to find the Lord by being kind to them, but be careful that you yourselves aren’t pulled along into their sins. Hate every trace of their sin while being merciful to them as sinners.”        TLB

 

Whatever struggles you face in life; whatever doubts you may have; God is always with you. God is always at work in your life to draw you closer to Him. God has given you grace so that you may share His grace and love with others.

 

 

 

^16 “Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”         NIV

 

 

 

Here are some other pictures on this topic that you may enjoy.

 
 

A Faith that Fails

Matthew 17:14-21

 

 

Babe Ruth was known as

The Great Bambino and the Sultan of Swat. But did you know that he had almost twice as many strike outs as home runs? 1330 to 714 to be exact! Based on these statistics, you could easily categorize him as a failure.

 

Speaking of which, here’s what Jesus had to say to his disciples when they couldn’t heal the boy suffering from seizures: ^17 “What a generation! No sense of God! No focus to your lives! How many times do I have to go over these things? How much longer do I have to put up with this? Bring the boy here.”                       MSG

 

The passage today is about the failure of Jesus’ closest followers. After three years, their faith was not big enough to heal the demon possessed boy. Jesus had just returned from a mountain top retreat; The Transfiguration. Knowing that the cross was waiting for him in Jerusalem, he confronted his disciples. They had failed miserably! What would they do once he was gone?

 

When was the last time you failed? For me, it is every day! Jesus explains that all we need is a very tiny amount of faith, and “nothing will be impossible for you”. When was

the last time you moved a mountain or healed a demon possessed boy? I don’t believe however, that we need to do miracles to use our “mustard seed faith”.

 

Hebrews 11 describes the faith of many from the Old Testament, none of which moved mountains. By faith, Abraham went to an unknown foreign country; Moses led the Israelites; Rahab mislead the spies. These were not miraculous acts, but the actions of ordinary people done by faith.

 

They had failures in their lives too. Abraham lied about his wife to save himself. Moses was a murderer. Rahab was a prostitute. Indeed, they had failures, but each one had faith the size of a mustard seed that moved mountains.

 

Following the list of faithful men and women in Hebrews 11 is this statement in chapter 12: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, ² fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.”       NIV

 

Despite having failures, God has called you and called me to “throw off the sin… run

with perseverance… and fix our eyes on Jesus”. He doesn’t call us to miraculous acts; only to obedience based on faith.

Faith the size of a mustard seed. Faith in a God who is always faithful, always with us, always loves us and always forgives us. He forgives our faith that so often fails.

 

 

 

 

 Here are some other images that you might enjoy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

An Elvis Sighting

1 Corinthians 15:3-8

 

 

I saw Elvis Pressley… alive! Really! Of course it was 1962 at the Seattle World’s Fair, and he was in a golf cart with a crowd of people surrounding him. But I did see him.

 

However, as we know, Elvis died on August 16, 1977. Since then, thousands of people have claimed to see him alive. There is even an Elvis Sighting Society. No doubt many fans wished that Elvis had never died; but wishful thinking doesn’t make it true.

 

If you get a chance to see the movie Risen, you should go. It is the story of a tribune who is assigned by Pilate to find the body of Jesus so that his

followers can’t claim that he has risen from the dead. The tribune approaches his task much like a modern day CSI TV detective, analyzing and evaluating all the evidence. As a result, his life is changed forever.

 

^3 “I passed on to you what I received, which is of the greatest importance: that Christ died for our sins, as written in the Scriptures; ⁴ that he was buried and that he was raised to life three days later, as written in the Scriptures; ⁵ that he appeared to Peter and then to all twelve apostles. ⁶ Then he appeared to more than five hundred of his followers at once, most of whom are still alive, although some have died. ⁷ Then he appeared to James, and afterward to all the apostles. ⁸ Last of all he appeared also to me—even though I am like someone whose birth was abnormal”.                GNT

 

Like the fictitious tribune in Risen, hundreds of people saw the resurrected Jesus shortly after his crucifixion. As a result, not only were their lives changed, but the world was changed forever.

 

Elvis was known as the King, but Jesus is known as the King of Kings. Unlike Elvis, the King of Kings continues to appear to people today through the lives of believers. This is not like an Elvis sighting based on wishful thinking. It is the movement and the presence of the Living God. Nothing else can explain it.

 

 

He is risen…

…He is risen indeed.