GRACE BLOGS COLLECTION
Among the varied ways in which miracles are manifested, I must include the many records of miracles involving the healing of the physical body. Like other miracles, healing originates from within. "If [since] the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will… Read More
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We’ve all seen the Facebook posts and the pictures flooding social media: Black Lives Matter, Blue Lives Matter, All Lives Matter. All Lives Matter started after Black Lives Matter. It was, in my opinion, a way of saying that black lives do matter but not more so than any other life.
The question remains, though, do we really believe that all lives matter? We have a tendency to politize things, say things that we don’t mean and mean things that we don’t really say. Do ALL lives really matter?
Let’s think about this for a moment.
Do the lives of the homeless matter? If so, then why do we have so many? Why are they passed by and ignored? Why are they silently judged and condemned? Most of us would like to believe that they are homeless by choice. Some of them are. Some of them have chosen that life. However, there are many that have not. They need help but there is no help for them. I have been guilty of ignoring their plight. I have been guilty of not wanting to give money because I don’t know their full story (i.e. whether they are worthy of my money or not). The problem is: to ignore someone is to say that they don’t matter.
Do the lives of the elderly matter? If so, then why do so many of them languish in nursing homes without anyone coming to visit or check on them? So many have families that never visit or check on them. So they stay there alone, ignored, and despised, sometimes for simply not being able to take care of themselves. Some do not have family and just do not have anyone to care about them. Again, to ignore them is to say they don’t matter.
Do the lives of the unborn matter? If so, then why are they aborted? Oh, I know that many would argue they are not really a life because they have not entered the world yet. But here’s the hypocrisy of that argument: how is that a man can be charged with double homicide for killing a pregnant woman but a pregnant woman aborting her baby is exercising her choice? Doesn’t make much sense to me. If it’s not a living being then there is no double murder. If it is a living being then abortion is murder. I know this is a touchy, hotly debated issue but if we are going to say that all lives matter, then ALL lives have to matter.
Do the lives of convicts matter? If so, then why are they so harshly judged and condemned. “Well, they are getting what they deserve. Don’t commit a crime if you can’t do the time.” That’s the prevailing attitude. I am not saying that people who commit crimes should not be penalized. However, when does that penalty stop? I’ve seen too many men get out of prison after serving their time, paying their debt to society and still be treated like animals because they did something stupid. But, I guess their lives don’t matter as much as a non-criminal.
I still believe in the death penalty but I know of plenty of Christians that do not because of the argument that if you are going to be truly pro-life then you have to be pro-ALL-life including convicted murders. To these Christians, ALL life does matter.
Do the lives of the LGBT community matter? If so, then why are they so harshly judged by the Church? Why are they condemned and considered perverts and outcasts? Most would answer, “Well, the Bible says so!!!” Yes, the Bible does speak about homosexuality. It also addresses fornication, adultery, lying, gossip, hate, overeating and other sins that we like to ignore and overlook. Most likely because these are “our” sins that we don’t want to be convicted of. Just a thought.
Do the lives of Muslims matter? If so, why are so quick to judge all Muslims as terrorists? I know that there are terrorists that kill in the name of their god. I know that terrorism must be stopped. I am not certain that our quickness to kill can be considered Christ-like, especially when we consider the fact there have been thousands of innocent civilians killed in drone strikes. Oh well, they were just born in the wrong country, to the wrong family in the wrong religion. Their lives matters if they do what is right (according to me that is).
I hope that you get my point. I recognize that there will be valid arguments on each of these issues that need to be addressed. However, at the core of who I am as a Christian, I must love people like Jesus loved me. His death on the cross proved that my life matters. I believe that my life matters. I believe that the lives of those I love and care about matters. And, I must believe that those that are different from me, even my enemies that might want me dead, their lives matter too. They mattered to Jesus because He died for them as much as He died for me.
What I am saying is that unless we truly believe that ALL lives matter then we need top stop saying it. Personally, I contend that what we really believe is….all lives matter, just not equally.
The true test of whether we believe all lives matter is when we are faced with being offended or threatened. I can say that all lives matter, but if someone is trying to hurt my children then suddenly my children’s lives take precedence in that situation and their lives, to me, matter more. Most of us would agree with that. So, in that instance, all lives do not matter equally.
We must come face to face with our own hypocrisy, racism, and self-righteousness. We must learn to stop ignoring people that are different because to ignore them is to say they don’t matter. In my heart, I want to believe that ALL lives really do matter — equally. However, my actions, attitudes, and judgements don’t always reflect this.
We might believe that all lives matter, just not all lives matter equally.
I do know that to God all lives really do matter equally. He died to prove that.
In light of all the recent shootings that have taken place in Minnesota, Louisiana, and Dallas, Texas, our country is in an uproar. And, rightly so. My heart aches for my country and specifically for all those involved in these situations. Facebook is full of opposing commentary of these events.
Blue Lives Matter!
Black Lives Matter!
All Lives Matter!
We need more gun control.
We need more armed citizens.
They were thugs.
They were good men.
The police are corrupt and racist.
The police are heroes.
It just doesn’t stop.
We live in an “us vs. them” society. This attitude hasn’t ever and will never work. The problems in our nation will not be solved with an us vs. them mentality. It is going to take all of us to fix the mess that we are in. It’s going to take all of us working together to make things better for our children and our grandchildren. Otherwise, nothing will change.
When we begin to look to others to fix the problems (because we see them as the problem) we end up believing that the problem isn’t ours. Worse, when we begin to blame others for the problems we end up excusing ourselves as if we are not the part of the problem.
To some degree, we are all part of the problem.
How can I say that? Because we don’t stop to actually put ourselves in someone else’s shoes. We all carry judgments and presupposed ideas, even if it’s the slightest of judgements. Don’t believe me? Think about this.
Have you ever met someone and decided that you didn’t like them? As time went on, you discovered their story and found out that they were not as bad as you thought. You may have even become friends. Has this ever happened to you? I am sure that it has. Which means you judged someone before you knew all the facts. All of us do this to some degree or another.
We are doing it now. Some of us blame the police. Some of us blame the victims. The problem is that we don’t have all the facts. Even if we did, if it went against our presupposed ideas, we probably wouldn’t believe the facts anyway, because it is always someone else’s fault. It seems that we always need a scapegoat, someone else to blame.
But the scapegoat is us, all of us. We are all capable of violence, being judgmental, being racist, and just plain being evil. We’ve all done things against someone else that we regret. It might not as bad as murder, but Jesus said that when you hate someone you might as well have murdered them.
You see, if we don’t learn to love then we will hate. More importantly, if we don’t learn to love, then we will fear. I believe that the opposite of love isn’t hate but fear.
There is so much fear in racism or most types of “isms” for that matter. When we fear someone we try to keep them “in their place.” But love believes all things, hopes all things, trust all things. Love looks for and believes in the good in people. Love looks at people through the eyes of God, and not the judgmental, log filled eyes of a fallen humanity.
I don’t have the ability to judge someone else properly and neither do you. I don’t have the ability to judge videos either because I can’t see everything.
Only God sits that high.
He knows the hearts, the backstories, the hurts and the reasons why people do what they do. Does that justify their actions? Absolutely not. It doesn’t give them the right to hurt others or treat others inhumanely. What it does do is make them somewhat understandable. Granted, they could be a sick, perverted, deeply broken, and even an evil person. However, they are still a person made in the image and likeness of God. They are being passionately pursued by a loving Creator who desperately wants a Father-child relationship with them.
I am not here to judge whether the police were justifiable in shooting these alleged victims. I have my opinions but they do not really matter. What matters is my response. My primary response needs to be love. Love for the police officers, love for those that were shot, love for the families of each.
My first response is to love those that are different than I am. I am to love those that disagree with me, that see things differently than I do. Jesus went so far as to even command us to love our enemies, to show them love by serving them. That’s a very radical, but doable, idea.
I do not, and cannot even pretend, to know what it’s like to grow up black, or to grow up in “the hood”, or to be racially profiled. I don’t know what it’s like to watch my friends die in the street or be pressured to join a gang. I went to a great school with beautiful pieces of artwork and statues everywhere. I don’t know what it’s like to go to an impoverished school with graffiti everywhere.
But I can empathize with those that have or do.
On the other hand, I do not know what it’s like to put on a uniform to protect people that hate me or want to kill me. I don’t know what it’s like to think that I may not come home to my family at the end of my shift. My dad was a cop when I was about 12 or 13. I never worried about that because we lived in a small town where nothing seemed to ever happen. The whole idea of mass shootings, riots, and cop killings was very foreign to me growing up in the early to mid-80’s.
But I can emphasize with those that have or do.
My point is that we have to stop blaming everyone else and look inside to see how each of us individually contribute to the problem. I don’t consider myself to be a racist but would I feel safe on a dark street with a black man in a hoodie approaching me? I have to seriously ask myself questions like these.
I know that we must start talking to each other and listening to each other. Love always wins, but love cannot even begin to win if we don’t start giving love a chance. It’s the only way. Stop blaming the other side and realize that it’s not us versus them, it’s just simply us. We are all humans. We are all creations of God. We are all in this thing together.
And yes, we are our brother’s keeper!
For further reading:
Don’t Be the Devil’s Star Witness
Thank God I am not like you! (blog)
Thank God I am not like you! (podcast)
Jonathan Martin does just that in his newest book, How to Survive a Shipwreck. With the musings of a poet, the heart of a pastor and the insights of a prophet, Martin masterfully shares the story of his own shipwreck, his struggles to survive and the lessons learned about a loving God that never left his side.Full Disclosure: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I read a book last year, recommended by a friend, entitled Love Does, by Bob Goff. It made a huge impact on me because the author lives his life with love being his primary response. Whenever someone is mean to him or treats him poorly he tries to imagine the best scenario as to why they are acting that way. In this manner of living, love has become his primary response.
That has become my prayer ever since I read that book. My prayer is, “Lord, let love be my primary response.” I wish I could say that God has totally answered this prayer above and beyond my wildest imagination. I would be lying if I said it was true. The reason is that this is a partnership prayer. What I mean by that is this: I can pray the prayer, God can do His part in helping me but there is a part that I must play.
I have to want to be loving.
I have to want to change.
I have to let go of every preconceived idea, pre-judgment and critical notion that I have of every person that I come in contact with.
I have to BE loving.
I have to SEE people as being worth the value that God places on them.
I have to BELIEVE that they are worth loving, that they were born to be loved.
I have to HOPE for the best in them.
And that, for me, has not always been easy. I tend to be a critical person. Ouch, that hurt just writing that sentence. But, it’s true and I cannot let love be my primary response if I am not first willing to come face to face with my own critical, judgmental, self-righteous self.
The good news is…..I am willing to come face to face with myself, deal with my junk and allow God to do in me what I cannot do in myself so that love is my primary response.
Jesus gave us a new command as He was preparing to die in our place. His command was that we were to love others as He loves us. His primary response to me has always been love. Therefore, I cannot withhold love from others, as my primary response, because of the grace that has been shown to me.
What would the world look like if we allowed love to be our primary response?
We would not allow road rage to be a part of our lives.
We would not speak unkind words.
We would not abuse or take advantage of anyone.
There would be a harmonious beauty in the world because love is beauty.
There would be unity within the church.
There would not be a needy one among us.
There would be no divorce, no absent parents, no dysfunctional families.
There would be true tolerance as we sought to live together in peace.
I can hear some of your thoughts now. There’s no way that this could happen because we live in a fallen world. If this can’t happen then Jesus came for nothing. If this can’t happen then love fails and sin always wins.
No, my friends, I dare say let’s bring the future into the now. We know that in the future God is going to restore all things, do away with sin and death, and love will reign supreme. Many of us are anxiously awaiting that day. But what about the now? What about today?
Jesus taught us to pray, “Your Kingdom come, Your will be done.” Well, if that is to be our prayer, then I believe God wants to answer it. His kingdom is love. So, when I allow love to be my primary response to everyone I meet, then I am bringing His kingdom into the earth.
When you decide to let love be your primary response then you are bringing His kingdom into the earth.
When the Church decides to let love be our primary response then she is bringing His kingdom into the earth.
When God’s children allow love to be their primary response, we will change the world. To borrow Rob Bell’s title, LOVE WINS! Love is what changes people. Love is what melts cold hearts and tears down walls. Why? Because we were born to be loved!
So, will you begin to pray this prayer with me?
“Lord, let love be my PRIMARY response.” I don’t want hatred, anger, a judgemental attitude, criticalness or bitterness to be my primary response. Even on the days that I am having my biggest struggles, I want love to be my primary response.
When you allow love to be your primary response, I promise you will see the world, you will see people, and you will see yourself in a whole different light.
Let love be your primary response.
For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace. (Romans 6:14)
This is such a freeing verse. Many Christians today believe that they will never get above sin. They believe that they are still sinners who are just saved by grace. But this is not the truth. We are not still sinners because sinners have sin as their master. Every born again person is the righteousness of God in Christ (2 Cor. 5:21). Sin is no longer our master. Jesus is our Lord and Master.
If you see sin as your master then you will always see yourself as a slave to obey sin. It will always be your focus. You will never truly live free. You are not under law. The Mosaic Law is no longer valid for a New Testament Christian. We are under grace. We do not live by a long set of “thou shalt nots”. We get to live under freedom which is relationship based, not rule based.
I know that many people still struggle with “sins”. They might be addicted to pornography, have anger issues, or gossip. They may live with incredible insecurities which cause them to do things to find security, rather than find their security in Christ. Does this make them a sinner? I don’t believe so. If any man is in Christ, he is a new creation. Therefore, he can’t be a sinner if he is a new creation.
The issue here is how we see ourselves. Perspective is everything. Now, I am not saying that one can do whatever they want. Just because we live under grace doesn’t mean we can do whatever we want. May it never be!
What is does mean is that when we understand our standing in Jesus, that we are sons and daughters of the Most High God, we will not want to sin because sin is beneath us. It is not who we are anymore. We may struggle with it at times, but it is not our master!
Don’t allow the thought that you can’t conquer your vices, addictions, sins, bondages, etc. hold you back any more. You are under grace. God’s grace is sufficient. Will you mess up? Most likely, but you are not counted out because you messed up. Under grace, you are not guilty because you messed up. You are declared righteous because of your Lord and Savior. That is amazingly great news.
Don’t allow sin to have one more day as master over you. Begin to declare grace over every imperfection, weakness, addiction, and bondage you might be experiencing. You are free in Christ.
Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal any area where you have allowed sin to master you. Then submit that area to the Lordship and the grace of Jesus. Declare you are free and live as a free person. The way you see yourself is the way that you will live!
What about you? How do you see yourself? Does it affect how you live?
The above blog was taken as part of a daily devotional page from my FREE 30 day devotional, Going Deeper in Grace! It’s yours free if you sign up to receive updates from this blog. Just fill out the form on the sidebar near the top on the right.
We just celebrated the apex of Christian beliefs – the resurrection of Jesus (Easter Sunday). On Good Friday, Jesus cried out from the cross, “It is finished.” From his perspective, everything that he came to do was now finished. He came to be sacrificed for the sins of the world and after unbelievable torture and crucifixion, his journey was now complete. He had accomplished what he came to do.
For the disciples and those that followed Jesus, his death was not just a death of a friend but a death of their hopes, dreams and aspirations. They had believed in Jesus, that he was going to set up a new kingdom and bring freedom to Israel. But his death struck a huge blow to those plans. All of Friday evening, and all day Saturday the disciples most likely replayed his words in their minds. They rehashed the events of the last three years. Broken hearts, broken dreams and unfinished business.
I believe that we have all been in places that felt like everything was finished, but not in a good way. When Jesus cried out, “it is finished,” it was one of the best things for humanity. Sometimes life happens to tell us the same thing, only from a different perspective.
Sometimes a spouse says, “it is finished,” and a marriage ends.
Sometimes a boss says, “it is finished,” and someone loses a job.
Sometimes a child says, “It is finished,” and they walk away from their parents to live a wild lifestyle.
Sometimes a doctor says, “It is finished,” and you are given a cancer death sentence.
It can be anything that destroys hopes and dreams. It can be a person, circumstance or an attitude.
The issue is that when life declares to you, “it is finished,” hope dies. When hope dies, a person dies inside. People cannot live without hope.
People without hope believe that the last word has been spoken over their situation. The disciples must have felt like that. If I were one of them, I would have taken Jesus’ statement, “It is finished” as his last word and the last word to all that we had believed for the last three years.
I have been in and am currently going through, a season where it feels, at times, that all hope is gone. Sometimes it feels like the light at the end of the tunnel is only a train coming full speed at me.
Have you ever been there?
Have you ever seen that train coming for you?
One of the best definitions of hope that I have heard comes from Anthony Chapman, a pastor from York, England. His definition is this: hope is the confident expectation that the final word has not yet been spoken. This is a powerful declaration.
When our dreams, goals, plans and even our lives have been given a death sentence, we can take comfort in the fact that God has the final word. He had the last word in Jesus’ life. The death of Jesus looked like the final word had been spoken but Resurrection Day was coming.
It is the same in our lives. Many times we are given a death sentence. Our hopes, dreams, and aspirations are lying in a tomb and we, like the disciples, are licking our wounds wondering what has happened. It’s a tough pill to swallow.
I have been living through my own “It is finished” season for a while now. 
At times, it seems overwhelming but I keep hanging onto my friend’s definition that hope is the confident expectation that the final word has not been spoken. Now, that’s not to say that I don’t have my moments of doubt, struggle and wonderings. I am very much like the disciples in that I often times want to hide and lick my wounds. I often retreat inside my own personal, emotional cave where I shut down and keep everyone at arm’s length.
What about you? Have you ever experienced an “It is finished” moment in your life? Have you ever had a “death sentence” given to you in an area of your life? If so, I just want to encourage you that God knows! He sees and He understands! He hasn’t spoken the final word in your life because you are still alive. You are still breathing. You are still here!
Your final word has not been spoken!
Stretch marks are unsightly. They occur on people who have either gained weight or on women during pregnancy because the body is gaining weight rapidly and the skin cannot keep up with the changes. They happen because the skin gets stretched due to growth. I don’t know anyone that likes them or even desires them.
Stretch marks represent growth. A body grows causing the skin to stretch and tug resulting in stretch marks. While it happens every day in the natural, it should be happening to us spiritually as well. If natural stretch marks represent growth, then spiritual stretch marks represent growth as well.
But in order to grow, we must be stretched. And that’s not always easy nor pleasant. But stretching is necessary if we are going to grow. I deeply believe that God is more interested in our growth of character than he is our comfort. And our growth of character is almost always painful. But it is necessary.
I want spiritual stretch marks. I want to have signs that I am being stretched and growing. Paul talked about the marks that he bore in his body because of the Gospel.
Galatians 6:17 “From now on, let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus.”
I know that he is not talking about spiritual stretch marks. He is talking about being physically beaten and stoned. While I doubt that I will ever be persecuted for my faith to the extent that I am physically beaten, I can bear on my body the marks of Jesus in becoming more like him.
We should always be growing. But, there are seasons in our life where the growth is difficult. We fight the changes that God wants to bring into our life. We resist change. We don’t want to give up things that He is asking us to give up. We don’t want to deal with character issues or sins that we may not want to be getting rid of. We fight His dealings with us over holding unforgiveness and bitterness towards another person. As we go through these struggles our “spiritual skin” is stretched resulting in spiritual stretch marks.
While they are certainly unsightly in the natural, for me my spiritual stretch marks represent all the areas I have grown in. They are a reminder of how hard change was, how I was stretched uncomfortably and how that I did manage to grow through the difficulty.
I wish that change was easy. I admire bodybuilders that have worked with weights and exercise to form their bodies where their muscles are ripped and bulging. That will never be me because I don’t want to put in the work and effort required to do that. I want six pack abs but don’t have the desire, nor the motivation, to bring mine out of hiding. But even body builders get stretch marks. It’s because their muscles are growing faster than their skin. It’s a sign of growth.
So, my point is try to not struggle with the growth that God wants to bring into your life. The past couple of years has been a major season of growing for me. It’s been a period of lots of stretching, tugging, challenging growth. Some days I fought it, falling into the muck and mire of self-pity. Other days I was embracing the change and the growth. I am glad that God has me where I am right now. There is no way that I would want to go through everything that I have been through, but I wouldn’t trade my stretch marks for anything.
The good news is that stretch marks can go away. Naturally, you can use creams and lotions. I believe that in the spiritual the Lord also helps us to get rid of spiritual stretch marks by rubbing in His healing balm. They are simply a short term reminder of our growth.
I know that the Bible doesn’t talk about spiritual stretch marks. I have taken some dramatic license here to illustrate my point. For me, the season that I have been in has resulted in some serious spiritual growth and I feel the marks. In the natural, people tend to hide their stretch marks. I think we do the same spiritually. Sometimes when we are going through tests, trials and circumstances that God uses for our growth, we can feel shame and embarrassment because we don’t have it all together. We feel “less than” because we are struggling with doubts and fears. So, we tend to hide, isolating ourselves from others.
But we need each other. We are called to bear one another’s burdens. The spiritually strong are called to support the spiritually weak, without judgment or condemnation. We all need someone to help us through our growth season. We all need someone to be an encourager and a support. The stretching time in our life is usually hard and we need the support of others.
What about you? Has God been stretching you in your character, thinking, gifting or spiritual maturity? Do you have any “spiritual stretch marks” to show?