Charisa Stories

Tag: grace

  • Monday Musing – Live Like You Are Loved

    Monday Musing – Live Like You Are Loved

    Regular readers of the humble ramblings (you both know who you are) know that I often confess how my brain was not wired to factory specs. There is no other explanation for the dizzying turns my mind makes. For example, this weekend I heard a song from my ’70’s disc jockey days. The song was Tin Man from America and the normal brain would have heard the song, registered a like it or don’t like it vote and moved on. Not my brain. I fixated on a piece of the lyric and spent time linking it to a spiritual epiphany in my life.

    You may recognize the lyric that started this Monday Musing.

    But Oz never did give nothing to the Tin Man
    That he didn’t, didn’t already have

    Wizard of Oz

    The lyricist double negatived his way to an important truth. The Tin Man from the Wizard of Oz went on a long journey to try and find a real heart. But all the Wizard did was affirm what he already possessed. Sadly that confused search is what so many of us imitate as followers of Jesus. We go on a journey thinking if we can only find the right training or Bible study or church or friends or pastor that we will become more righteous and effective for God.

    But if we could have followed the yellow stone road to meet Paul he would have told us we were wasting our time trying to find the perfect things to change our walk with Jesus. Paul would have (and did) simply affirm who we already are.

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

    Because of Christ you have a new identity. You are righteous because of Him and not because of trying to do more right “stuff”. You are 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’ our identity in Christ. I am afraid we make it all too easy because we find it difficult to really trust that we are changed.

    You are righteous because of Christ. Period. When you trust that and believe that all of the guilt and shame and sin that used to define you is no longer true. That old life is gone. New life has begun. All of those accusations that Satan (and others who are quite happy to help) hurl your way are no longer true about you.

    My life was changed forty-five years ago (ouch) when I decided to trust Jesus as my Lord and Savior. It has just been in the past few years that I have begun to fully understand who I am in Christ and that I live my life daily desperately dependent on grace. I have often quoted from my friends at Truefaced. This statement rocked my world.

    If you are a Christian God is not interested in changing you. That has already happened. You were changed when you trusted Christ. You were imputed with His righteousness. Your very spiritual DNA was rewritten and you became a new person. So the change happened right away. God is now interested in maturing you into what is already true about you.

    We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are. For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God freely and graciously declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins.  (Romans 3:22-23, NLT)

    Remind yourself daily who you are. That you are a new person. Righteous because of Christ. A new life has begun. Live it joyfully and without condemnation. I am deeply loved by God today. I pray I will live like it.

  • Weekend Wildcard : Where Does Healing Begin?

    Weekend Wildcard : Where Does Healing Begin?

    I interact with a lot of wounded people. My books and a big hunk of my writing have been directed toward those who are beaten up by life, religion and too often by other people in the church. There is a better way. A song titled “Where The Healing Begins” by one of my favorite groups, Tenth Avenue North, describes that way.

    So you thought you had to keep this up
    All the work that you do
    So we think that you’re good
    And you can’t believe it’s not enough
    All the walls you built up
    Are just glass on the outside

    All of those years of working hard (and then harder) to be Godly and I found out to my great sadness that it wasn’t enough.  Not only was self-effort not enough it was counterproductive to my desire to experience God’s presence and love. The walls so carefully constructed were, in fact, see-through to those who really knew me well. I picture that in my sadness and tiredness God smiled. He didn’t smile because I was suffering or sad. He smiled because I was finally ready for grace. At the point of brokenness I was ready for the healing to begin.

    So let ’em fall down
    There’s freedom waiting in the sound
    When you let your walls fall to the ground
    We’re here now

    This is where the healing starts
    When you come to where you’re broken within
    The light meets the dark

    Coming to the point where I was broken and realizing my own inability to walk this journey of faith is where the healing began for me. Letting the walls down and trusting God and others with who I really am is where the healing continued. Understanding and trusting that I am completely forgiven and my past is completely forgotten is where the healing became real. Knowing that Jesus loves me desperately on my worst day is where the healing began to translate to the daily walk.

    Afraid to let your secrets out
    Everything that you hide
    Can come crashing through the door now
    But too scared to face all your fear
    So you hide but you find
    That the shame won’t disappear

    For too many years I danced that awkward and ugly dance of hiddenness and shame.  For so many anguished years I thought that if I was a better Christian this wouldn’t, this couldn’t, be happening. If I prayed/studied/fasted/read/attended more church events I would be more Godly. I was depending on the wrong source.

    When you come to where you’re broken within
    The light meets the dark
    Sparks will fly as grace collides
    With the dark inside of us
    So please don’t fight
    This coming light
    Let this blood come cover us
    His blood can cover us

    This is where the healing begins

    healing

    I love the image of grace invading the darkness and sparks of healing flying as the truth about me was set free. I am a child of God who is deeply loved. For decades I lived with a God who I suspected had a contractual obligation to love me because of Jesus but who was generally disgusted with me. I fought grace because it seemed too easy. Not spiritual. Not enough sacrifice. Not enough obedience. Not enough…me. Paul wrote this to the Church at Ephesus.

    God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God.   Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. (Ephesians 2, NLT)

    My fear of punishment led to strained and inconsistent compliance with a law I couldn’t possibly keep. Grace and forgiveness have led to joyful obedience nourished by gratitude and love. That is the product of the healing power of grace and I second my brother from Taursus. I can take NO credit for this.

  • Hump Day Hope : Come on. Say it! Say it!

    Hump Day Hope : Come on. Say it! Say it!

    The use of Hump Day to describe the midweek turning point has been around for awhile. It became a bigger part of the national lexicon thanks to a commercial and a camel.

    camel2

     

    I wish I was mature enough to say I was only mildly amused by the Geico commercial featuring the overbearing camel wandering through an office. I can’t. I stopped whatever I was doing every time it came on.

    The hope of this humble rambling each Wednesday is to provide a little hope to get you to the weekend. This is how hope is defined as a verb by dictionary.com.

    …to feel that something desired may happen.
    Example: I hope that the Cleveland Browns will play in a Super Bowl before I die. It is interesting that the next meaning of the verb hope is noted as archaic.
    …Archaic. to place trust; rely (usually followed by in)
    Call me archaic (my sons and workmates often do) but that definition is what I need this Hump Day. In a world gone crazy I need some place to put my trust that is trustworthy.
    Billy Graham summarized it beautifully.
    “God’s mercy and grace give me hope – for myself, and for our world.“
    Well played. I believe that ultimately God’s sovereign plan will be completed in this world. What I need on Hump Day is hope for myself to be able to deal with the cards that life is dealing. Pastor/writer Rick Warren has a helpful reminder.
    “What gives me the most hope every day is God’s grace; knowing that his grace is going to give me the strength for whatever I face, knowing that nothing is a surprise to God.”
    So instead of trying to figure out why I am going through a trial with something or someone I should turn to the One who offers hope that I can persevere. Paul talks about hope in his amazing letter to the church at Rome.
    For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope, because who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with endurance. (Romans 8:24-25, NET)
    And what is that hope?
    For we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and your love for all of God’s people, which come from your confident hope of what God has reserved for you in heaven. You have had this expectation ever since you first heard the truth of the Good News. (Colossians 1:4-5, NLT)
    I have wasted a lot of time trying to figure out why. That is a waste of precious time. My hope and my trust is in Jesus. Together we have this. Or as Paul more eloquently wrote.
    Rejoice in our confident hope. Be patient in trouble, and keep on praying. (Romans 12:12, NLT)
    It is okay to be archaic. You can be old school if that makes you feel better. But remember where your hope is today. I give the last word to my friend the camel. “Awww, come on! I know you can hear me!”
  • Monday Musings – Looks Can Be Deceiving

    Monday Musings – Looks Can Be Deceiving

    We had the privilege of hosting our dear friend Deb Johnson this weekend. Since she and hubby Brad moved to Nebraska those opportunities are too few. She told us that they dodged disaster when a massive tree limb crashed into their back yard and somehow managed to miss everything. Thankfully no one or no thing was damaged. Pictures showed the enormity of the fallen limb.

    An arborist estimated this magnificent Oak was a century old. Deb told us his observation about that towering tree. “No one could have known this tree was sick or weakened just by looking at it”. The arborist pointed out evidence of diseased wood on the fallen branch. Even though the tree itself still looked healthy and vibrant it was dying from the inside out. The bark and leaves looked fine but the core was dying. Soon another great branch would be weakened enough to crash down.

    Deb told me how that tree seemed to parallel our spiritual lives. “We can look great on the outside and be dying inside,” she noted. “Do you think that is a good spiritual analogy?”

    No Deb, I don’t. I think that is a great spiritual analogy! That is exactly what Jesus was talking about when He excoriated the Pharisees. They looked fantastic. They dressed in beautiful garments. They had the best education and they could articulate the Scriptures. They could embarrass the average person with their extraordinary knowledge about details of the law and what it took to be holy. They were the cultural creme de la creme when it came to righteousness.

    That is until Jesus came along. Can you imagine the looks on their smug faces when Jesus looked deep into their hearts and saw the disease of sin growing under the prayer boxes and tassled robes.

     “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are filthy—full of greed and self-indulgence! You blind Pharisee! First wash the inside of the cup and the dish, and then the outside will become clean, too.

     “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs—beautiful on the outside but filled on the inside with dead people’s bones and all sorts of impurity. Outwardly you look like righteous people, but inwardly your hearts are filled with hypocrisy and lawlessness. (Matthew 23:25-28, NLT)

    We are no different. We like to look good to other people. We like to act like all is well and we are doing fine. We don’t want to admit that we are failing or that we need help. But inside we are slowly dying. No one can see it but sin is rotting away our strength. How many times has a respected person crashed into significant sin as unexpectedly as that giant branch crashed into our friend’s yard. The response is usually the same. “I had no idea they could ever do that. I never saw that coming.”

    That is how sin works when we try to manage it or cover it with activity and self-striving. I know me. I know that I must seek the illuminating light of the Holy Spirit to help me see the filth and greed and self-indulgence that lies within or I could fall with a sickening thud as well. There have been times when I read those verses and felt smugly superior to those uptight spiritual leaders. Forgive me for my arrogance. As I get older I have learned a sad truth.  I am just like the Pharisees.

    I need to lean daily on grace and my identity in Jesus. Knowing who I am in Christ gives me the freedom to look into my heart without risk of condemnation. And that identity also gives me the freedom to let trusted others know that I am not always healthy and clean and vibrant. I am often dry and wounded and filthy. I need Jesus and I need you. But I have to be honest with both Jesus and my community to stay healthy. And the crazy thing is that when I am honest with others about my desperate need for grace the power of the Gospel becomes real. It truly is Good News!

    But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. (John 1:12, NLT)

    I hope your week is full of blessings and grace.

  • Weekend Wildcard – Vanishing Grace?

    Weekend Wildcard – Vanishing Grace?

    Philip Yancey always challenges me with his writing. He is the writer I want to be when I grow up. I have recently started his newest book Vanishing Grace : Whatever Happened to the Good News?. As usual, Yancey does not disappoint.

    I learned about the book from an interview in Christianity Today. Philip Yancey has written over a dozen best selling books and one of those is What’s So Amazing about Grace? I found the first question of the interview fascinating.

    Why did you choose to revisit the subject of grace?

    I know why the interviewer made the inquiry. You want “new” material from an author. Why plow the same ground? But I think that question is a mirror to one of the big problems in the Christian community. We never get past our daily need to revisit grace and the Good News of the Gospel. Martin Luther said that “you should preach the Gospel to yourself daily.” Why? Because you and I forget the depth and the power of grace everyday.

    Yancey’s response was thought provoking.

    Sociologist and researcher Amy Sherman has said that Christians tend to have three models for interacting with society: fortification, accommodation, and domination. To put that in layman’s terms: We hunker down amongst ourselves, water down our witness, or beat down our opponents. For many reasons, those aren’t New Testament models.

    So what should we be? We need to create pioneer settlements that show the world a different, grace-based way of living.

    That is brilliant both in diagnosis and prescriptive cure. Can you imaging the power of truly grace-based living in this wounded and desperately thirsty culture?

    His next observation parallels the message that I have awkwardly been trying to communicate in my decade plus of writing.

    We hear nowadays about Christian groups losing university recognition or public prayers and Christmas displays being banned. We feel on the defensive and that we’re the outliers. But much of Christian history has been lived this way, like it was during the Roman Empire, when a small number of Christians modeled another way to live. In a culture like ours, we need to demonstrate first how faith in Christ makes a difference in how we live.

    Simply put, when we encounter people resistant to our message we must show them grace and the source of that grace, Jesus. I wrote about how this ragamuffin band of Jesus followers went from cultural curiosity to world changing movement in my book When Bad Christians Happen to Good People. One key component was selfless service.

    Remember that the early Christians lived in a pagan culture that featured infanticide and gladiator combat. The early church’s revolutionary view of the value of life was sacrificially demonstrated during the two great plagues that devastated the Empire in the second and third centuries. While pagans avoided any contact with the sick and even cast them into the streets while still alive, Christians nursed and cared for the sick even though it cost some their lives. The selfless service of the early church won many converts to the fold.

    Against all odds and with no cultural advantage the early followers of Christ made a difference. Yancey concluded his interview with this thought.

    We’re tempted to rely on passing laws and winning arguments, but in the end, they’re not the greatest powers. The greatest power is what Jesus did. He died and rose again. That’s where it all started. The more we act like Jesus, not beating people down but showing a better way to live, the more outsiders will look back and say, “Those Christians are different.”

    There is a better way to live. Lord Jesus, give us the grace to show it.

  • Monday Musings – Forbidden Topics

    Monday Musings – Forbidden Topics

    Nothing like starting out the week by discussing two of the three forbidden topics: politics and Jesus. I used to be a rabid political guy. I once believed that with the right political leaders we could change the culture. I was right about the dream but wrong about the method. Getting certain political leaders in place might help with some issues that matter to me. But even if I get my “dream team” elected we will still have a problem in our culture.

    Sin.

    Politics and law don’t change that inconvenient truth (apologies to Al Gore) that we have an inherent human problem that I believe can only be addressed by one solution.

    The Gospel.

    Jesus gave us a perfect example of what it looks like to be a good citizen while recognizing what really changes the heart of man. The religious legalists (the Pharisees) were trying to trick Jesus and get Him in trouble with the Roman government. Nice try.

    “Teacher,” they said, “we know how honest you are. You are impartial and don’t play favorites. You teach the way of God truthfully. Now tell us—is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not? Should we pay them, or shouldn’t we?”

    Jesus saw through their hypocrisy and said, “Why are you trying to trap me? Show me a Roman coin,[c] and I’ll tell you.” When they handed it to him, he asked, “Whose picture and title are stamped on it?”

    “Caesar’s,” they replied.

    “Well, then,” Jesus said, “give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and give to God what belongs to God.”

    His reply completely amazed them.

    So I am no longer rabid political guy. I am a concerned citizen who studies issues and candidates and always votes. I love this country and believe in this country but revival will not come from Washington D.C. It will come from heart changes in every nook and cranny of this land from people who understand their deep need for grace, forgiveness and redemption.

    Christians should certainly understand that lawmakers can only restrain a culture at best. Only “Grace-makers” can change a culture.

    Tim Keller brilliantly identifies what happens when we make politics an ultimate thing.

    If you center your life and identity on a “noble cause,” you will divide the world into “good” and “bad” and demonize your opponents. Ironically, you will be controlled by your enemies. Without them, you have no purpose.

    Both sides of the aisle believe they have a noble cause. And we have seen the devastation to our political system when we demonize our opponents. We must not fall into that trap as representatives of Jesus.

    I will believe what Paul wrote to a church in Rome that certainly had to deal with some political issues

    Everyone must submit to governing authorities. For all authority comes from God, and those in positions of authority have been placed there by God.  (Romans 13:1, NLT)

    That is a hard one for believers on both sides of the aisle to stomach but I didn’t write those words in Scripture.  The real power to change our broken world comes from the finished work of Jesus and the transformational power of the Gospel.

  • Hump Day Hope – Religion vs Relationship

    The Hump Day Hope comes from two of my favorite grace rabble-rousers. My friend Ed Underwood wrote an excellent piece about our innate mistrust of grace. The title alone was enough to generate deep thought.

    Before You Decide that Grace is Too Radical: Who Thought of Grace?

    Religion is about control and performance. Jesus changed the dynamic completely and made it about relationship. Ed’s writes that the idea of grace does not come from the heart or mind of man.

    If you leave human beings to themselves and ask them, “If there’s a God, what do you think He’d demand from people if they wanted to have a relationship with Him?” the answer is always the same, “Be good enough for Him to accept you!”

    Performance

    Grace says you can’t be good enough to earn it. Grace says you can’t be too bad to receive it. Grace gives up the need to control. Grace gives up the requirement to perform for acceptance. Grace is radical. After reading Ed’s piece I listened to a podcast from another grace instigator. Pastor/writer Tullian Tchividjian was talking about our need to find value and identity in our work. He outlined how that is counter-intuitively upset by God’s grace.

    We now work not for acceptance but from it. We now work not for love but from it. We now work from a position of security and not for it.

    Think about that. Because of Christ we are accepted, loved and secure and we don’t have to earn or, more to the point, keep earning that status. Ed Underwood sums that up beautifully in his article linked above.

    The gospel doesn’t divide humanity into performers and non-performers. The gospel only values one Performance: the work of Christ on the cross.

    The message is simple. Relax. Jesus has this. Trust Him. Remember who you are. That should get through the week!