Charisa Stories

Category: Uncategorized

  • Don’t Blink

    (From theFish.com)

    Yesterday was a convergence of reality and the random iPod shuffle. As I contemplated the thirty-third birthday (yikes) of my first born a song fired up from Kenny Chesney. In the lyric an interviewer asks a man celebrating his one hundred and second birthday about his secret to life. His response?

    Don’t blink

    The lyrics go on to describe just how quickly this earthly journey goes by.

    Just like that you’re six years old and you take a nap and you
    Wake up and you’re twenty-five and your high school sweetheart becomes your wife
    Don’t blink
    You just might miss your babies growing like mine did
    Turning into moms and dads next thing you know your “better half”
    Of fifty years is there in bed.

    Wow. I am right there. I’m still a ways from the century mark though my shoulder feels that old this morning. It seems like just yesterday that I was playing sandlot baseball as a kid. Moments ago I was in high school being Attention Deficit before ADD was cool. Just yesterday I met the stunning Joni Banks and somehow conned her into dating me. Couldn’t have been too long ago that I donned the hideous baby blue tux to wed my beloved. Wasn’t it just weeks ago that three adorable baby boys came into our lives? How is it possible that I am now directing the baseball exploits of athletes that were not close to being born when I started this gig?

    Don’t blink.

    The best line on parenting I have heard is that the days are long but the years are short. Amen. I now am the father of a 33 year old, a 30 year old, and a 25 year old. When did that happen? Married 35 years. Are you kidding me?

    I have had, if I may borrow the franchise of Frank Capra, a wonderful life. Not devoid of tragedy and trouble to be sure. I have lost a very dear nephew to leukemia, a daughter to terminal birth defects, my father and mother and many other family members and friends. My bride has battled breast cancer but, thankfully, is doing well. Through it all we feel blessed beyond comprehension. I believe that is because we have found our reason for being here. Pastor and author Rick Warren summed it up nicely in a recent interview.

    People ask me, What is the purpose of life? And I respond, In a nutshell, life is preparation for eternity. We were made to last forever, and God wants us to be with Him in Heaven. One day my heart is going to stop, and that will be the end of my body – but not the end of me. I may live 60 to 100 years on earth, but I am going to spend trillion of years in eternity. This is the warm-up act, the dress rehearsal. God wants us to practice on earth what we will do forever in eternity. We were made by God and for God, and until you figure that out, life isn’t going to make sense.

    Life is a series of problems: Either you are in one now, you’re just coming out of one or you’re getting ready to go into another one. The reason for this is that God is more interested in your character than your comfort. God is more interested in making your life holy than He is in making your life happy. We can be reasonably happy here on earth, but that’s not the goal of life: The goal is to grow in character, In Christ-likeness.

    If this is the warm-up act for my eternity gig on the main stage then all of this is merely preparation. Football players hate the two-a-day practices in the brutal heat. But they love the exhilaration of victory that the difficult preparation allows for later in the season. Sometimes the two-a-days of life seem cruel and without purpose. But my understanding of the God who made me and His purpose for me allows me to believe there is purpose and design. I don’t always see it. I love being happy and carefree. But if my purpose is preparation for my real gig then I had better be a little more interested in living out of my new identity and trusting God for maturing me in Christ-likeness. Paul wrote this in the book of Colossians.

    Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits at God’s right hand in the place of honor and power. Let heaven fill your thoughts. Do not think only about things down here on earth. For you died when Christ died, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God. And when Christ, who is your real life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all his glory. (Col 3, NLT)

    The song continues…

    I was glued to my TV when it looked like he looked at me and said
    “Best start putting first things first.”
    Cause when your hourglass runs out of sand
    You can’t flip it over and start again
    Take every breath God gives you for what it’s worth

    The songwriter is correct. We have a pre-determined number of grains in the hourglass so I choose today to live in the moment in grace and freedom. Every breath is a gift even on the tough days. Enjoy today. Yesterday is gone and tomorrow is not promised.

    Don’t blink.

    In no time at all on the eternity clock I will be reunited with my daughter in heaven and other loved ones. I will be with my Lord and Savior. I will be home. For my fellow sojourners I pray that you will trust that truth. You may face storms and deep valleys along the way. My secret to life is to trust a God who is trustworthy. And one more thing.

    Don’t blink.

  • United We Stand?

    (From theFish.com)

    Occasionally a song pops up in the iPod shuffle rotation that reminds me of my failed career as a disc jockey in the ‘70’s. The song is called “United We Stand” and it was recorded by a British group called the Brotherhood of Man. The message was simple.

    For united we stand
    Divided we fall
    And if our backs should ever be against the wall
    We’ll be together, together, you and I

    The songwriter was talking about a love relationship but the sentiment to stand united should permeate family relationships, team relationships and especially church relationships. But we know in the latter case that is too often not true.

    I have written a lot about how people in the church do considerable damage with actions and words that do not reflect Jesus. I have been frustrated by Christians who receive grace willingly and deny it to others. I see division in the body of Christ where we should see unity. It occurred to me that the church does not understand a few key principles that winning baseball teams understand. The first thing that winning teams understand is that every teammate brings strengths and weaknesses to the team. A great team celebrates the strengths of each player and works together to offset the weaknesses. I pondered this as I read about the career of Joe Gordon. In 1942 Gordon led the American League in strikeouts. He made more errors that year than any other second baseman. He hit into more double plays than anyone in the league. By dwelling on those stats we could surmise that the New York Yankees were looking for a new second baseman for the following year. But there was one mitigating factor.

    Gordon won the American League Most Valuable Player for that season!

    In spite of the flaws mentioned above Joe Gordon had a great season. He batted .322, fourth in the AL, with 18 homers and 103 runs batted in. Gordon teamed with Phil Rizzuto to lead the league in double plays turned defensively. In 1942 Joe Gordon was deemed to be the MVP of the league despite some obvious weaknesses in his game. Great managers and good teammates know that every player has strengths and every player has weaknesses.

    And that is the lesson I was thinking about for the church. Too often we dwell on the weakness and not the gifts that God has given others. Or we acknowledge the gifts but make sure to note the weaknesses. All of us are a mix of gifts and flaws. Paul mentions spiritual gifts in his letter to the Roman church.

    I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong— that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith.

    Commentators note that the translation here might be a bit confusing. The text might sound as if Paul’s giving away spiritual gifts to the first ten callers. A better translation might be that Paul wants to use his spiritual gifts to strengthen and encourage others. I believe that every single Christian is given spiritual gifts. We are given those gifts for many reasons but two of the primary ones are to glorify God and strengthen one another. But I wonder if we sometimes look at our spiritual gifts as something that we have the right to exercise for our personal fulfillment and glory? I am sure Joe Gordon often struck out when his team needed a hit. I suspect he sometimes made an error when the pitcher threw a good pitch and should have gotten an out. But his teammates (and the rest of the league) saw his gifts. Base runners batted in and key home runs hit. A vital double play turned and great range at his position. That is what made him valuable to a winning team. His strengths were vital to the team winning. His flaws were compensated by the team working in unity toward the goal of the World Series.

    Do we do that in the church? Or do we choose to focus on the flaws of others? The World Series is a wonderful goal but it pales in comparison to the goal that Jesus challenged us to pursue.  Do we understand what it means to be unified for the common goal expressed so succinctly in the Gospel of Matthew?

    Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

    That is the game plan. Each of us has been given gifts to contribute. Each of us has flaws. Can we pray that we will be mature enough to focus on Who unites us instead of what divides us? Even the MVP of the American League had shortcomings. So will the pastor, elder, committee member, and volunteer chairman as we pursue the Great Commission of Christ. Another thing that winning teams understand. You don’t have to be best friends with everyone on the team but you do have to be united for the common goal of the team. My prayer is simple.

    God give us the grace to be unified as a team for your glory. Teach us to use our gifts to strengthen one another and glorify you. Give us the strength to be a good teammate and the humility to believe that it cannot be about me for the team to succeed. Give me the desire to be a good teammate in the body of Christ. Teach me to see and exalt the gifts of my brothers and sisters even if they compete with my own talents. And especially teach me to be graceful with the flaws of others. We are all gifted and we are all flawed. A team understands that truth. Help us to do the same for the sake of the body of Christ.

    (Joe Gordon story excerpted from When Bad Christians Happen to Good People)

  • Give Me Your Eyes

    (From theFish.com)

    A song by Brandon Heath is the inspiration for this iPod Devotional. The song is titled “Give Me Your Eyes” and the lyrics are thought provoking. Heath talks about seeing so many people in his daily journey and wondering why he doesn’t care. He writes this chorus of longing.

    Give me your eyes for just one second
    Give me your eyes so I can see
    Everything that I keep missing
    Give me your love for humanity

    Give me your arms for the broken hearted
    The ones that are far beyond my reach
    Give me you heart for the ones forgotten
    Give me your eyes so I can see

    Brandon Heath’s songs are full of gritty honesty. His admission is real and relevant. It is a topic all followers of Jesus must address.

    God did not create me to live in a “believers only” cocoon of safety. Living that kind of Christian life is so easy in America. There is a safe path of least resistance to live out our faith in this country. No resistance just might mean you aren’t doing anything that threatens Satan. In basketball you don’t guard the players that aren’t doing anything. They pose no threat to your goal of winning the game. Sometimes I suspect I am unguarded by Satan’s defense for a reason. I choose the bench of comfort instead of the arena of serving.

    Comfy Christianity is epidemic in America. We encounter a store that won’t say Merry Christmas and we think we are persecuted. God help us. We send checks instead of serving. But according to most giving research we don’t even do that very well.

    God has called me (and you) to give and to serve. In the Civil War the wealthy paid poor men to go “serve” for them. I remember having such disdain when I read that bit of history. But don’t I do the same thing in my Christian journey? I feel really good if I pay a missionary to go reach the world with the message of Jesus. I feel like I am godly if I give to the church so the “professionals” can do ministry. But God is asking me to do both. Give and serve. Maybe not to be a missionary but certainly to reach out to my neighbor and my community. I was not created to live in a safe bunker of climate controlled Christianity. Jesus is not safe. Following Him will take you out of the comfort zone and into the messy world of ministry. How did the early church explode against all odds? Author Ken Curtis makes these points in an excellent article on the early church history.

    After the Apostle Paul, we do not run across many “big names” as missionaries in the first few hundred years of Christian history. Instead the faith spread through a multitude of humble, ordinary believers whose names have been long forgotten. Early Christianity was primarily an urban faith, establishing itself in the city centers of the Roman Empire. Most of the people lived close together in crowded tenements. There were few secrets in such a setting. The faith spread as neighbors saw the lives of the believers close-up, on a daily basis.

    It is too often a tragic occurrence that careful observation of modern Christians on a close-up, daily basis is a reason to turn away from faith, not toward it. The article goes on…

    And what kind of lives did they lead? Justin Martyr, a noted early Christian theologian, wrote to Emperor Antoninus Pius and described the believers: “We formerly rejoiced in uncleanness of life, but now love only chastity; before we used the magic arts, but now dedicate ourselves to the true and unbegotten God; before we loved money and possessions more than anything, but now we share what we have and to everyone who is in need; before we hated one another and killed one another and would not eat with those of another race, but now since the manifestation of Christ, we have come to a common life and pray for our enemies and try to win over those who hate us without just cause.” In another place Justin points out how those opposed to Christianity were sometimes won over as they saw the consistency in the lives of believers, noting their extraordinary forbearance when cheated and their honesty in business dealings.

    Perhaps the main reason the early church exploded is contained in the lyric of a simple song we used to sing while we were on staff with the organization formerly known as Campus Crusade for Christ.

    They will know we are Christians by our love, by our love.
    They will know we are Christians by our love.

    Will they? Those exposed to the early church knew the people called Christians were different. Very different. And good different. The article continues.

    Christians became known as those who cared for the sick. Many were known for the healings that resulted from their prayers. Christians also started the first “Meals on Wheels.” By the year 250, they were feeding more than 1500 of the hungry and destitute in Rome every day.

    When Emperor Julian (“the Apostate”) wanted to revive pagan religion in the mid-300s, he gave a most helpful insight into how the church spread. This opponent of the faith said that Christianity “has been specially advanced through the loving service rendered to strangers and through their care of the burial of the dead. It is a scandal that there is not a single Jew who is a beggar and that the [Christians] care not only for their own poor but for ours as well; while those who belong to us look in vain for the help we should render them.”

    Oh that we could adopt a “scandalous” faith that would not overlook a beggar or turn away from those who need care. Those who labor in love serving the AID’s victims in Africa are following that tradition. Is it a surprise that Christianity is growing so rapidly in Africa? God bless you. The brave followers of Jesus who carry the gospel to countries where persecution is real are following the example of the early church. God protect you.

    For the rest of us the questions are uncomfortable. Are we willing to leave the climate controlled Christianity that is so comfy and go outside where it is risky and dangerous? Scripture makes our calling pretty clear.

    Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. (1 John 3:18 ESV)

    So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, …
    (Philippians 2:1-4:23 ESV)

    Followers of Jesus are called to be servants. Do we dare trust Him enough to take the chance? Give me Your eyes to see Your grace, Your love and Your heart for this world. And the courage and faith to act as I lean fully on Your grace.

  • My Generation

    (From theFish.com)

    A classic rock anthem from my youth was part of the iPod rotation today. “My Generation” was our defiant statement that we wanted nothing to do with the older folks who we believed to be clueless. The song reminded me of an interesting piece in the Wall Street Journal detailing how the younger generation places less value on the advice of their elders. That cultural trend has carried over into business, politics and the church. Serves us baby boomers right since we were the generation of don’t trust anyone over thirty. We rocked with The Who and sang these lyrics about how stupid my parent’s generation had been.

    Things they do look awful cold (Talkin’ ’bout my generation)
    I hope I die before I get old (Talkin’ ’bout my generation)

    Sadly, like every generation since the Garden we did, in fact, get old. Writer Jeffrey Zaslow believes the advice gap between current generations is even wider today.

    Older people have always offered advice to younger people, with words of wisdom culled from their memories of youth. And, of course, in every era, young people have found advice from elders to be outdated and ineffectual. These days, however, given how fast the world is changing, there’s been a clear widening of the advice gap.

    It’s rooted in a devaluation of accumulated wisdom, a leveling of the relationships between old and young. On many fronts, people from Generation Y—now ages 16 to 32—assume their peers know best. They doubt those of us who are older can truly understand their needs and concerns.

    Zaslow reminds us geezers and geezerettes not to get our feelings hurt.

    “As for those of us who are older, we should resist feeling offended if young people shrug off our advice.”

    I am not offended at all if you youngins think advice from my generation is outdated and ineffectual. We were right there with you just a few decades back.

    Why don’t you all fade away (Talkin’ ’bout my generation)
    And don’t try to dig what we all say (Talkin’ ’bout my generation)

    I’m not trying to cause a big sensation (Talkin’ ’bout my generation)
    I’m just talkin’ ’bout my generation (Talkin’ ’bout my generation)

    I have read Ecclesiastes so I know there really is nothing new under the sun. Technology and culture change but human nature remains sadly consistent. So I don’t care if you don’t seek my advice on clothes, cars and jobs. In fact, I encourage you not to. No worries if you could care less what I believe about politics or investments. Paul had some words to Titus about how we older folks could and actually should influence younger men and women. By living grace filled lives dependent on Christ.

    Your job is to speak out on the things that make for solid doctrine. Guide older men into lives of temperance, dignity, and wisdom, into healthy faith, love, and endurance. Guide older women into lives of reverence so they end up as neither gossips nor drunks, but models of goodness. By looking at them, the younger women will know how to love their husbands and children, be virtuous and pure, keep a good house, be good wives. We don’t want anyone looking down on God’s Message because of their behavior. Also, guide the young men to live disciplined lives.

    But mostly, show them all this by doing it yourself, incorruptible in your teaching, your words solid and sane. Then anyone who is dead set against us, when he finds nothing weird or misguided, might eventually come around. (Titus 2, The Message)

    So if we follow Paul’s advice the onus falls on us (and me) to demonstrate and model the truths of God’s Word. If we demonstrate dignity, wisdom, healthy faith, love and endurance then the young men and women might be inclined to listen now and then.

    And if they happen to ask my advice would be pretty simple.

    • Your identity is not your job. Your job is the way you pay bills. Your identity is in Christ. You are a saint because you have been declared righteous as a gift of grace. Remind yourself of that every day.
    • Living out of faith pleases God. Your actions don’t gain any favor with Him apart from faith.
    • Love your spouse. There is no better testimony in this culture.
    • Love your family and show it by making time for them. I have to confess that this advice comes out of some regret.
    • Treasure your friends. They are the ones who provide community to live out this journey and that is how God designed it to work.
    • Live in the moment. Satan loves to have us regretting the past or fearing the future. God desires to be with us in the moment.
    • Model grace and truth. That balance will gain an audience with all ages.

    So I am resigned to not being the guru for Generation Y. My advice may not be in great demand. But if my teaching is incorruptible and my words solid and sane (tall order) then God can use even an old fossil like me. I am trusting Him for the strength and grace to live out these truths knowing that God will do the rest. I am confident that living out these truths in grace is never outdated and never ineffectual.

  • Don’t Know Much About….

    Some of the theologians I encountered did not seem like anyone I would actually want to be around on purpose. I made the crack that some theologians were to joy in Christ what nutritionists were to enjoying cheesecake. They both took something full of delight and made you feel mostly bad about it.

    Yet something is changing in my life. I am really seeing the need for a solid theological basis for what I believe.

    All of this came to mind when Sam Cooke’s classic Wonderful World popped up on the iPod. You know the one where Sam builds a strong case for academic slacking actually being a strength.

    Don’t know much about history
    Don’t know much biology
    Don’t know much about a science book
    Don’t know much about the french I took

    But I do know that I love you
    And I know that if you love me too
    What a wonderful world this would be

    I wrote an ode (cross off “Bucket List” Item Number 87 –  Write Ode) using that classic tune to describe our lack of theological depth. This classic appears in the new version of When Bad Christians Happen to Good People.

    For the music director. A psalm of parody sung to Sam Cooke’s Wonderful World. All rise.

    Don’t know much about theology,
    Don’t know much Christology.
    Don’t know much about Leviticus,
    Don’t know why they had the Exodus.
    But I do know that God loves you,
    And I’m trying hard to be good too.
    What a wonderful faith this would be.

    Well, I don’t claim to be a good Christian,
    But I’m trying to be.
    For maybe by bein’ a good person, brother,
    I can gain eternity.

    (Everyone now…)

    Don’t know much about the Pharisees,
    Can’t explain the Trinity.
    Don’t know much ecclesiology
    Don’t know what a good tithe should be.
    But I think that God forgives my quirks,
    And I figure if I do good works,
    What a wonderful faith this would be.

    Humorous? I hope so. But the problem is not so funny. What do we believe? And why? I think one of the fundamental problems in many churches is that we do not effectively connect the theological dots. That is why the book Truefaced and the Truefaced Romans CD series has had such a profound impact in my life. The authors (and speakers) connect the dots of justification, imputed righteousness, propitiation, identity in Christ, sanctification and other assorted church words. Remember the connect the dots books you had as a kid? When you connect the theological dots the picture revealed is Jesus.

    Now I find myself neck deep in theology. Trying to learn more to be able to make a defense of the Gospel of Jesus. I want to understand church history and doctrine. I want to understand grace and more importantly I want to live it. I have a long, long, long way to go but someday I hope that the scouting report on me will reflect the summary of Jesus written in the first chapter of the Gospel of John. Jesus was beautifully described as being “full of grace and truth”. That would be a dramatic shift from what I have been described as being full of at other points in my journey.  I am excited about continuing to refine my theological base but I want to always be mindful that truth preached without grace is not received nearly as well as the reverse approach. Connect the dots. The picture is beautiful.

  • Amazing!

    Those who are honest about this journey know that you are in trouble anytime you announce that you are determined to be more: (choose from the following partial list – patient, loving, obedient, forgiving, prayerful, serving). God smiles and arranges a test. I hate the spiritual pop quizzes as much as I did the academic ones. But they are just as revealing about how I am doing. A recent pop quiz consisted of some personal situations that frustrated me and other people conspiring (I thought) to divert my focus and steal my joy. How did I do? I failed the test miserably. I was grumpy. I was discouraged. My joy meter barely moved. I bombed the test.

    Later I regrouped and had a personal conference with the Teacher (He is really good about that). That is when I remembered again what grace means to me. Yes, I failed miserably. Yes, I was disappointed in myself. Yes, I was a little embarrassed that I have written and spoken so boldly and flopped so easily. But here is what poured over my soul from the Holy Spirit.

    You are my child.
    I love you.

    Grace always takes me by surprise. I am not conditioned by this world to expect love and acceptance when I have failed. I am conditioned to expect condemnation, shame, and rejection. But there was the Father God patiently and lovingly dealing with me. Mark McMinn, a professor at Wheaton College,  wrote these words in an article in Christianity Today.

    “Seeing our sin occurs over a lifetime of pursuing God. Our vision is seldom restored in a single burst of light but with countless rays streaming into our darkened eyes over many years—and always in the midst of amazing grace.”

    That is the power of grace in my life. In His infinite mercy God does not reveal the ugliness of my heart in one gigantic and loveless revelation that would destroy me. He chooses instead to gently chip away at the rough edges of pride, selfishness, and disobedience. The famous artist Michelangelo would often select a block of marble that others thought unsalvageable and then go to work on that ugly hunk of rock.  He once remarked, “I saw the angel in the marble and I carved until I set him free.” That is what God’s grace means to me. He sees the beauty in the piece of rock that is me. And He sees the beauty that no one else sees. He lovingly and gently carves away the ugliness until a little beauty begins to come through. But He never gets angry and gives up if another strata of ugly crops up.

    That is what grace means to me. Even on the days that I fail miserably I know that I am loved. I am accepted. There  is nothing that I can do to make God love me more and nothing I can do to make Him love me less. This is one place where the spiritual hall monitors are apt to jump in and complain about “cheap grace” in the church. Cheap grace means one thing. You don’t understand grace. Because grace understood would never translate to making such an amazing act of unmerited mercy trivial or unappreciated.

    Paul and Barnabas proclaimed to the assembly that,  “We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved.” A common acronym for grace is God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense. Recently I have experienced a new acronym for grace.

    God’s
    Radical
    And
    Complete
    Embrace

    Most of us know the story of slave trader John Newton who repented of his sin and wrote a popular little tune called Amazing Grace. When he said wretch he knew what he was talking about. At the end of his life Newton said to his friends, “My memory is nearly gone; but I remember two things: That I am a great sinner, and that Christ is a great Savior.”

    He is indeed.

    Amazing Grace. How sweet the sound. That saves and oh so patiently perfects a wretch like me. Amazing.

  • Remind Me Who I Am

    Remind Me Who I Am

    (From this week’s iPod Devotional at theFish.com)

    When I fired up the iPod today the first song I heard made me chuckle. Not because of the content but because of the appropriateness of the song for this week. The artist is Jason Gray and his song is called “Remind Me Who I Am”.

    Last weekend I had the privilege of speaking to the wonderful community of believers at Waterbrook Bible Fellowship in Wylie, Texas. Jason Gray’s song IS my message from last Sunday except it is more succinct and has a much better beat. Jason Gray could have rolled in, done his song and I could have let the crowd go to IHOP. Here are some of the lyrics.

    When I lose my way
    When I forget my name

    Remind me who I am

    In the mirror all I see
    is who I don’t wanna be

    Remind me who I am

    That was main takeaway point of my Sunday message is that to be effective in this journey you have to remember who you are in Christ.

    My text was from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. Paul had spent a little over two years teaching and discipling the new believers in Ephesus. Just a few short years after he left Paul received reports that those new hearts had reverted to old habits. Things were a bit of a mess and the word came back that the old behaviors of rage, immorality, lying, stealing and gossip were resurfacing. Paul wrote a letter to address this sad turn of events. Yet the amazing thing to me is that the first three chapters never address their sin. Paul even calls them as saints for crying out loud! If I was writing that letter it would have had an entirely different tone. Something more along these lines. “What are you thinking? I am so disappointed in you. What is wrong with you? Do you know how much I sacrificed for you?” But Paul doesn’t do that. Rather, in the first three chapters, he talks about identity. He reminds them who they are. That is what Jason Gray is asking God to do in his song.

    In the loneliest places
    When I can’t remember what grace is

    Tell me once again who I am to You
    Who I am to You
    Tell me
    Lest I forget who I am to You
    I belong to You

    I had a really difficult time trusting my identity. But your actions tend to reflect who you believe you are. You default to your identity. I had read this verse from Paul’s second letter to the church at Corinth dozens of times:

    “This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!” (2 Corinthians 5:17)

    Because of Christ I have a new identity. I am righteous because of Him and not because of trying to do more right “stuff.” I am a saint and there is no condemnation in Christ Jesus. It is a liberating and joyous message. But there is a problem. Satan hates that message of hope and change. And so he goes about trying to “steal’ my identity in Christ. I spend money and time and put lots of effort into protecting my financial and personal identity. And that is important. But I would suggest that our spiritual identity is far more important and I am afraid we make it all too easy for the enemy to steal away from us.

    Remind me who I am
    When I can’t receive Your love
    Afraid I’ll never be enough
    Remind me who I am

    If I’m Your beloved
    Can You help me believe it

    We find it difficult to believe that we are changed because many times when we fail the old tapes are instantly cue up and start playing loudly:

    You will never change.
    You always do that.
    I can’t believe you did that again.
    What is wrong with you?

    All of those accusations that Satan (and others who are quite happy to help) hurls your way are no longer true about you. All of the guilt and shame and sin that used to define you are no longer true. That old life is gone. You are a new creation. New life has begun.

    Even though the Ephesians had messed up royally in how they were living out their faith Paul did not condemn them as he began his letter. He had to be heartbroken. But he showed his love by not lecturing but by reminding them who they were….adopted, redeemed, and sealed. Saints. He NEVER wrote a word about changing their behavior until chapter four!

    I have spent too many years being an Ephesians 4 to 6 Christian. I looked at behavior and judged that…often sinfully. I am becoming an Ephesians 1 to 3 Christian. Remembering and reminding myself and others who we are. Out of those truths behavior changes.

    Jason Gray sings in the chorus to “Tell me once again who I am to You”. When you are a follower of Christ here a just things that are true of you.

    Adopted. Redeemed. Sealed. Loved. A saint. Righteous. Accepted. Forgiven. A new creation. A child of God.

    No matter what difficulty or trial you might encounter this week I pray that you will take a moment and remember who you are. A saint. Adopted. Redeemed. Sealed. And live out of those amazing truths. Consider yourself reminded.