Jesus Paid It All

.

"For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect." (1 Peter 1:18-19)

When I think that Jesus wrote a big check to purchase my unworthy self from the penalty of my own sin, I shudder. Don't you? I got into trouble. It was bad enough that my race was fallen from the first man, Adam. But to be guilty of my OWN sin, too? Double shame. Bad enough that I broke the laws of God even before I knew what those laws said. Even worse, I broke those same laws with full knowledge of their content! Double shame.

But Jesus paid it all. All to Him I owe.

Just recently I have been reminded of the price of sin through transgressions of my own -- not necessarily transgression against God but against my local government. Yep, I got cited for traffic violations. Not speeding or making an illegal turn, but my expired car registration and inspection stickers stood as badges of my guilt. For three months I had tried to avoid the keepers of the law -- those black and white fiberglass horses with eyes flashing blue and red. Like any transgressor, when I saw one of them I held my breath and tried to act nonchalant. I was a sinner and I knew that I was a sinner. And I knew that I deserved to be punished for my sin. But my time ran out. I was caught. And two traffic citations later, I was forced to face the penalty of my sin.

So John paid it all. All to Flower Mound I owe.

The problem with my other sin-- the spiritual kind -- is that I could not pay the penalty that God demanded. There was no checkbook deep enough but His to cover the cost. There was no "silver or gold," as Saint Peter put it, to bail me out of my emptiness and spiritual bankruptcy. I needed another monetary source, one that I did not possess. I could not renew my spiritual registration with a check or inspect my soul with a turn of the key. Nope. God's price wasn't a couple hundred dollars. It was a couple of trillion dollars, a sum that must be paid all at once and not through an installment plan.

So here stepped Jesus with His royal, holy checkbook -- two blood-stained hands and a heart of mercy. He offered his hands and heart to the Judge and the Judge accepted. I was set free. No more citation. All square with the house. Set free to live a life of gratitude to Him who looked with mercy upon a wretch like me.

Jesus paid it all.
All to Him I owe.
Sin had left a crimson stain.
He washed it white as snow.

Be God's!

.

Can You Hear Me??

.

It seems that several truths about communication have become lost in our world of immediacy these days. Whether it is at work or in the home, the loss of these truths have frustrated and embittered many employees and partners. Here are two that I have experienced just today:

• Truth #1 -- You cannot be held responsible for knowledge you have not heard. If you fail to tell somebody something (even if it is a detail about something) then they cannot be held responsible for what they do not know! Too often there will be a meeting going on here at the church among a select group of individuals but the decisions made in that meeting will never be told to the staff they affect. And, as you might imagine, eventually problems start arising when the result of those decisions is made known, usually weeks after the decision was made! Sound confusing? It is!
  
• Truth #2 -- You cannot expect anyone to remember everything you have told them. This one affects relationships more than workplace situations. "I once heard that you had an Aunt Susie," I would say, "but where she lives and how old her kids are...? No idea." Women, by nature, tend to remember more details than men but where communication fails is when they expect men to remember more details, too! As I've told my beloved, "I have this little cup up in my brain. And every bit of information is like a drop of water. Eventually, my little cup gets full and information just spills over the edge! I can't retain it all. I need some grace."

Do you have any communication truths that often get ignored other than the ones I've mentioned?

Be God's!

.

Another Favorite Verse

.My place of rest. At least, I want it to be!

Here's another of my unusual favorite Bible verses. See if you can relate to the emotion of wishes of King David, who penned these words in the midst of great personal stress.

Fear and trembling have beset me; horror has overwhelmed me.
I said, “Oh, that I had the wings of a dove! I would fly away and be at rest — I would flee far away and stay in the desert;
I would hurry to my place of shelter, far from the tempest and storm.” (Psa 55:5-8)

Don't you just want to run away from it all? Yet, don't you know that running won't make a problem disappear? But we desire to run anyway. Some to shelters of family, friends or church. Others to addictions. A few find vacations as a shelter. The odd person or two actually does run away!

What do YOU do when stress gets to be too much to bear?

Be God's!

.

In Praise of Sleep

.

"31:23This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: “When I bring them back from captivity, the people in the land of Judah and in its towns will once again use these words: ‘The LORD bless you, O righteous dwelling, O sacred mountain.’ 24 People will live together in Judah and all its towns — farmers and those who move about with their flocks. 25 I will refresh the weary and satisfy the faint.”

26 "At this I awoke and looked around. My sleep had been pleasant to me."

I like to sleep. How about you? When I read in Revelation 21 that in the new heaven there is no more night, I get kind of mixed feelings. I like nighttime! I like, no, I love to sleep! Sleep is, as the prophet Jeremiah muses in his book, very "pleasant to me."

One of my favorite verses is Jeremiah 31:26. I like to pick favorites that are off the beaten track. In this section of Jeremiah's prophecy, the Lord is describing the exile of Judah and the following restoration. Bad things are coming, He says, but I will restore my people and refresh the faint. Sounds like Isaiah 40, doesn't it? At this sentence, the prophet wakes up and realizes he had been dreaming. But what a dream! Not only that, he realizes that the Lord has refreshed him! He found his sleep to be just what the doctor ordered for his weary heart.

Sometimes sleep can do that to a person. It can be our "reset" button for our emotions. It can be a calm in our stressful storm. It can refresh and energize unlike any tonic or potion we have invented.

I write this as I sit at my desk wide awake. It's 1:30 in the morning. I cannot sleep. Did I mention that I love sleep? Thought so.

.

Hit the Panic Button!

.
I never cease to be amazed at how quickly and easily Christians panic. I tend to do it, too, at times. Yesterday an e-mail came to my home account from a well-known evangelical ministry telling its followers to, well, panic over a piece of legislation in the Texas Congress. The bill up for debate was a hate crimes law that broadened the definition of a "hate crime" and could make it easier to arrest people for harassing a person of color, race, gender, or sexual orientation. The fear of this evangelical ministry is that the passage of this bill would make it easy for pastors and evangelism-minded believers to be arrested for sharing their faith. That a pastor who spoke out against homosexuality, for example, could be arrested for preaching hate and could be arrested and charged with a hate crime is a homosexual happened to be in church that Sunday and was offended.

The whole "hate crimes" agenda has spiraled out of control, in my opinion. But the panic among evangelicals has also spiraled out of control. We fear EVERYTHING. And we panic at the first sign of potential persecution. This, I do not understand. It amazes me. After all, the God we serve calls us to trust, not fear. Jesus called us to follow Him even to death, if He wills. But we want to pick up our couch and not our cross. We preach trust in our pulpits and practice panic in our homes.

The bill up for debate easily passed the Texas Senate yesterday and will now move to the House. I don't know if the governor, a conservative, will veto it if it passes the House. But this panic is uncalled for, in my opinion. Believers can voice our view of issues. But to fear and panic? That does not honor the sovereign God we proclaim.

Be God's!

.