Charisa Stories

Tag: Jesus

  • Division Impacts The Power Of The Gospel

    My head explodes when I allow myself to wade into the political discourse between followers of Jesus Christ on Facebook, X, and other social media. There are important cultural issues that Christians need to prayerfully and gracefully seek God’s wisdom to address. What I read is rarely graceful and that makes me wonder how prayerful the messengers have been before hitting the send button. What gives you the right to judge the faith status of another believer because you disagree with them? I was wrong about many political things in my life but I did believe in Jesus (in spite of what some critics thought) and God patiently changed my heart.

    Because of the nature of social media a topic that should be thoughtfully debated instead becomes an us versus them. I can assure you that no one’s mind is changed by a name calling rant. If fact, that person is more likely to dig in even deeper to what may be incorrect opinions because of your unkind comments.

    These judgements of motives and personal attacks are so damaging to the message of grace that I hold so dear. Sometimes I try to imagine myself as a skeptical seeker looking to explore this Christianity thing. I am pretty sure if I stumbled on some of these mean-spirited threads I would run straight for the secular hills.

    The irony of this need to “win” the argument at the expense of Christian charity and love may be one more profoundly effective tactic of the enemy. The moment the Church is divided by culture instead of united in Christ is the moment our light for the message of the Gospel dims. Paul noted that God’s sovereignty can take any proclamation of the Gospel and use it for His glory.

    “It’s true that some are preaching out of jealousy and rivalry. But others preach about Christ with pure motives. 16 They preach because they love me, for they know I have been appointed to defend the Good News. 17 Those others do not have pure motives as they preach about Christ. They preach with selfish ambition, not sincerely, intending to make my chains more painful to me. 18 But that doesn’t matter. Whether their motives are false or genuine, the message about Christ is being preached either way, so I rejoice. And I will continue to rejoice.” (Phillipians 1:15-18)

    I hope that most followers of Jesus wish to communicate the incredibly liberating forgiveness of the Gospel. I hope that most of us wish to be accurate in that communication. But I also hope that most of us wish to be gracious, kind, loving, and thoughtful toward all in the body who desire to celebrate Jesus. 

    When asked what the most important commandment was Jesus replied without hesitation.

    “And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.”

    And he added a second part…”Be accurate and angrily make sure others are accurate at all costs.”

    Hardly.

    His convicting command is well known.

    “The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. No other commandment is greater than these.” 

    Don’t hijack my point. Accuracy is important but you cannot love your neighbor as yourself by condescension, assigning of bad motives, and smug righteousness. 

    I wish followers of Jesus would proclaim what we are FOR more passionately than what we are against. What if we decided to spend all of our energy proclaiming that the Son of God came to earth as a human, lived a sinless life, was crucified as a sacrifice for my sin and yours and then was resurrected to show the ultimate victory over sin and death?

    What if we decided to be a little kinder, give a little more, serve a little more often, and commit to unity in our ranks?

    My concern is that the lack of unity is the single biggest problem in the universal church and, of course, in our individual fellowships. There is no more powerful community than a group of believers who live in unity. Nothing levels the playing field like genuinely following Jesus. 

    Famous preacher D.L. Moody had this warning. “I have never yet known the Spirit of God to work where the Lord’s people were divided.”

    The One that unites us is so much more important than the things that divide us. Can we commit to encountering others in grace based on our unity in Jesus Christ? 
    The choice is ours.

  • What Can Be The Most Damaging Word For Christians?

    Hypocrite. There is no more damaging name to lay on a church goer than the dreaded title of hypocrite. Sometimes it is used unfairly. Often it is a smokescreen used by folks who want an excuse not to examine faith in their own lives. You have heard the line I’m sure.

    “I used to go to church but it is full of hypocrites.” 

    The temptation is always to remind them there is room for one more hypocrite in the building. The more mature response as followers of Christ is to examine that charge seriously in our own lives. The word hypocrite comes from a Greek word that means actor. How appropriate. People are watching. And we too often give Oscar caliber performances on Sunday morning. They see that on Sunday you’re a saint and on Monday you ain’t. And that does damage. It is time to look in the spiritual mirror and drop the masquerades. If we are following Jesus it will make a difference in our lives. I am not talking perfection or even close to it. But there should be ongoing changes and growth in your journey with Christ. Look up synonyms for hypocrite and you will find words like fraud, phony, deceiver, fake, impostor, pretender, and sham. Not pretty words. But if you think those are rough how about the words of Jesus on this topic?

    I found sixteen times that Jesus used the word hypocrite in the New International Version of the Bible. Jesus did not pull any punches in his disgust for the “religious” types who were Sabbath saints only. We tend to read the words of Jesus that are directed at the Pharisees almost like we watch the boss chew out a co-worker. “Whew,” we exclaim, “I’m sure glad that is them and not me.” But the warnings of Jesus to the phony Pharisees are also directed at me…and you. 

    “Be careful not to do your ‘acts of righteousness’ before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. 
     “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” 
     “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.”  

    I am learning that God is not impressed by my showy words or works. He is glorified when I take care of the hurting and helpless without calling attention to myself. He blesses me when I give without expecting return. God does not want my eloquence in prayer, He wants my heart in prayer. He honors me when I serve without expectation. 

    But there is more. This passage knocks me to my knees.

    “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.  “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.” 

    That is what scares me so much. I can clean up the outside real purty. But God knows what lies beneath. It is scary and painful and ugly to allow the Holy Spirit to start cleaning out the dirt, the dead bones, and everything unclean. But we will never experience God the way He desires to relate to us unless we are willing to do just that. Frankly I don’t see the point of being a Sunday Christian. If this is real we need to pursue it seven days a week. The hardest truth I have had to admit as a husband, father, follower of Jesus is that I make time for those things that are a priority to me. There can be short time diversions for work or circumstance. But over the weeks and months where I invest my time reveals my heart. That is a hard truth. 

    Recently I ran a scan on my computer to detect any damaging effects of spyware and viruses. I would suggest that all of us get in the habit of running a “Scripture Scan” to see if the hypocrite virus has infected our heart drive. The reality is that we need to run that scan every single day. Satan is even more malicious and sneaky than the internet hackers. But the damage that the hypocrisy virus wreaks is eternal. 

    I have to confess that today’s scan found some problems in the heart drive. I think I was able to delete and quaranteen the threat for today. But only by daily scanning my heart with the grace of Jesus, the truth of God’s Word, and the illumination of the Holy Spirit can I hope to contain the hypocrisy virus. Have you run a scan recently?

  • How Focused Time With God Enhances Spiritual Growth

    Every day I am gifted with 86,400 seconds of precious time. I cannot possibly use all of it wisely. But I can invest more of that daily gift into my relationships with God and others. I can’t draw interest on unused time to be used later.

    Time is far more valuable than the money we so doggedly pursue. I can lose all my money and make more later. But if I lose my time, it is gone forever. Solomon actually beat me to this message by about three thousand years, give or take. He decided that, all things considered, the best way to live is to enjoy the moment.

    “Even so, I have noticed one thing, at least, that is good. It is good for people to eat, drink, and enjoy their work under the sun during the short life God has given them, and to accept their lot in life.” (Ecclesiastes‬ ‭5‬:‭18‬ ‭NLT‬‬)


    Not to be maudlin, but that is the reality of this earthly existence. We don’t know if we have tomorrow or even the rest of today. Certainly we must be wise to plan and prepare for a long future. But we must also invest in now, in case that is all we are given. 

    Maybe the message that resonates the most for me is that we cannot receive postdated grace. We cannot order grace for the future. We receive grace in the now. Grace is God’s greatest gift of my being present with Him. When we are disconnected or distracted, we miss that blessing of real-time grace.

    If I had to write a one-sentence summary of what I learned on this odyssey, it would be very simple. Spend focused time with those you love and with your God. Speaker-writer Zig Ziglar wrote about spending time with loved ones. 

    “One of these days you will say either, ‘I wish I had,’ or ‘I’m glad I did.’”

    How heartbreaking would it be to find yourself at the end of this pilgrimage with the regret of “I wish I had” roiling in your soul? My heart’s desire is that I will gratefully say, “I’m glad I did.” If you want to give the very best present to your spouse, kids, friends, and God, the grace challenge is simple. 

    Be present.

    If a friend is suffering, you can show no greater love than to simply be there for him or her. Not offering great theological insight or stories of your own or other’s suffering. Just be present.

    When you talk to a friend, be present. Not looking around as if your friend is merely a temporary diversion before someone more compelling comes along. That is the best thing we can give to others. Nothing makes a person feel more valued than being fully present.

    And being fully present is the best worship we can give to God. We can sing and raise hands in worship to God, and that is good. We can talk about His love and forgiveness, and that is good. But nothing communicates our adoration for God more than being fully present with Him.

    The enemy will remind you over and over of all that needs to be done. He will remind you of past wounds and failures. It would be wise to remember something incredibly encouraging. Jesus has experienced exactly what you are going through right now. He was tempted in the desert by Satan. He was tired, hungry, and lonely. Jesus experienced the lies of the enemy and He conquered them with a simple strategy. Jesus focused on the Father and rebuked Satan with what? A powerful argument?

    Nope.

    Just

    Quoting Scripture was all that Jesus did to defeat the enemy. Satan has power, but it is limited. God has the authority, and Jesus used that power.

    My desire is to serve the Lord with single-heartedness. I cannot multitask and hope to be fully present with God. 

    Spiritual cynics might call quiet moments of presence with God and others unproductive time. I am learning that there is no more productive way we can spend our time. Everything that truly matters grows from that enriched soil of quiet presence in the Spirit.

    My heavenly Father is always present. I just need to show up for Him. That is the essence of spiritual growth for me. Just showing up in humility every day, seeking His presence.

    I will stumble in this journey to be present. I probably will need a refresher course often. But I am confident beyond confident of one truth that Paul wrote to the church at Philippi, which is true for you and me today.

    I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns. (Philippians 1:6, NLT)

    One day I will wake up glorified in His eternal presence. I believe the epithet written on Ruth Graham’s tombstone will also describe my journey: “End of construction—thank you for your patience.”

  • Spring Demonstrates The Hope Of Life

    Texas seasons can be brutal for plants and trees. This January an ice storm left mounds of rock solid ice in our yard. Several of the plants in our landscaping were completely buried in ice. Not snow.

    Ice.

    We expected they would not survive.

    The ice very slowly melted and many of the bushes were buried for a week. The plants looked barren as they gradually reappeared. Day after day it seemed likely replacements would be coming.

    Then one glorious day tiny buds began to appear on the branches. Green buds sprouted in defiance of winters brutal assault. I stopped and meditated on the miracle of life emerging out of barrenness. 

    I thought of the words of philosopher Bernard Williams. “The day the Lord created hope was probably the same day he created Spring.”

    I love that. 

    Is there anything more hopeful than watching the beauty of budding leaves and blooming flowers turning the melancholy of winter into a wondrous palette of colors? Every spring is a reminder that God will bring beauty from darkness and life from death. 

    The world can seem to be in a state of perpetual winter. But for followers of Jesus we see signs of life even in the darkness. Like that bit of green emerging from a lifeless branch we have a hope this spring. 

    The resurrection.

    Jesus has conquered death. 

    Martin Luther poetically wrote this. “Our Lord has written the promise of resurrection, not in books alone, but in every leaf in springtime.”

    Followers of Jesus have a hope that our lives are eternal and valuable in Him. We have a hope that death is not final.

    Then, when our dying bodies have been transformed into bodies that will never die, this Scripture will be fulfilled:

    “Death is swallowed up in victory.
    O death, where is your victory?
        O death, where is your sting?    ”

    For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power.  But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ.  So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable. Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless. (1 Corinthians 15:54-58, NLT)

    Nothing we do for the Lord is ever useless. Nothing! And even as we face the reality of a dangerous world we know we have the twin promise of victory over sin and death through Jesus. So as spring continues I choose to marvel at the renewing of life and the hope that holds for all of us. Paul wrote about this miracle.

    “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” 
    (2 Corinthians 5:17, ESV)

    We have become new creations now and forever in Jesus. Doesn’t that hope feel especially good this spring? On many days we may feel the struggle but Jesus guaranteed one day we will bloom for eternity. Guaranteed!

  • How Can Broad-Brushing Create Division and Prevent Healthy Debates?

    The Oxford English Dictionary defines a “broad-brush” approach as a general, sweeping overview that lacks specific details, nuance, or individual differences. It is often used in professional or political contexts. Broad-brushing describes a simplified and sometimes unfairly generalized perspective. 

    Yep. I struggle in our current cultural climate with broad-brushing by all sides. What do I mean by that?

    If you disagree with someone’s beliefs you can automatically assign to them the worst values linked in any way to that belief. Without knowing a single thing about the person’s story, their heart, or their background we can easily throw down the gauntlet of judgment. 

    A lot of faithful Christians have been unfairly broad-brushed recently. I agree that some claiming the title of Christian absolutely deserve to be called to accountability. I have never had a problem with being honest about how I and many other followers of Jesus often fall short of representing the grace and love of Jesus. 

    That is just a fact. That doesn’t change who Jesus is.

    One heartbreaking result is that the entire Christian faith can be dismissed and denigrated by people with social media influence. 

    With just a bit of internet searching I can find example after example of failed followers of Jesus. What is more challenging to find are stories about the millions who serve selflessly every day and without being noticed. Why do so many people sacrifice willingly to help those who give them very little or even nothing in return? 

    It is hard to read some of the comments that strangers have made about my faith in God. It is harder still to read and hear them from people I know. But that is the reality of the spiritual battle that all followers of Jesus face. 

    If it is true that there is an enemy who tries to destroy the claims of Christ then it makes total sense that the narrative he would push forward is entirely negative. The Enemy does not want the millions of stories of people making a difference capturing the limelight. That would illuminate the darkness of this fallen world with the light and hope of Jesus.

    So what should be our response to these attacks? Jesus made our response pretty clear.

    43 “You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy. 44 But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! 45 In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike. 46 If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. 47 If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even unbelievers do that.” (Matthew 5:43-47, NLT)

    When you have the opportunity to talk to someone who opposes your faith you should ask to hear their story. Why do they have such strong feelings against God? Did something or someone cause that reaction? 

    It is amazing how hearing someone’s story can often soften your heart toward them. You have a much better understanding of why they react the way they do. And listening (really listening) can open a door to dialogue about your own journey and story. You will be acting as a true child of God.

    Own your failures. We all fall short. I am careful not to communicate that my desire is for an unbeliever to stop living in a particular way or to quit a sin I abhor so I can accept them. My message is to really get to know Jesus. In the movie the Jesus Revolution a church welcomed in young men and women who were doing drugs and living a life that many in the congregation deemed decadent. If the message had been clean up your life and then you can be part of our community the revival would have stopped cold. Instead the message was come to know Jesus and let Him show you how to change how you live. That happened millions of times during that remarkable revival. 

    It can still happen today. But I fear that God cannot use me if I am busy broad-brushing everyone I disagree with. I want to share His story without judging theirs. If we wish to demonstrate the power of the Gospel we should throw away the broad-brush. Will you join me?

  • Time To Release The Eve of Destruction Record Again?

    I remember how my parents viewed the state of our country in the ‘60’s. They thought the end might be near and I felt their concern. The song Eve of Destruction was released in the summer of 1965. The country was divided by the Vietnam war, the draft, civil rights, fear of nuclear war, violence, and general mistrust of the government. Sound slightly familiar? Recorded by Barry McGuire, the song became the official theme of the protest movement. But that was not the intent of nineteen-year-old Jewish songwriter P.F. Sloan. He wrote this on his website.

    “I wrote it as a prayer to God for an answer. I have felt it was a love song and written as a prayer because, to cure an ill, you need to know what is sick. In my youthful zeal I hadn’t realized that this would be taken as an attack on The System! 

    He went on about the division created by the song itself.

    “Any positive press on me or Barry was considered unpatriotic. I told the press it was a love song. A love song to and for humanity, that’s all. It ruined Barry’s career as an artist and in a year I would be driven out of the music business too.”

    So both P.F. Sloan and Barry McGuire got canceled before it was a thing. 

    Once again, sound familiar?

    The song tapped into the division in the country but McGuire did not consider it to be a protest song either.

    “They called it a protest song but I never thought of it as a protest song. The media always has to label everything.” 

    Uhhhh…sound familiar?

    As we reach the 61st anniversary of this song the lyrics feel like it was written yesterday.

    When human respect is disintegratin’
    This whole crazy world is just too frustratin’

    I was young then but I remember clearly how unsettled our nation felt and how this chorus felt eerily prophetic.

    And tell me over and over and over and over again, my friend
    You don’t believe we’re on the eve of destruction

    The push back to the song and to Barry McGuire by association led to a downward spiral of his career. His life also took a dark turn into severe drug usage and depression. Barry remembered that as a child his grandmother had spoken these words to him.

    “Barry, when you grow up, you’re going to know the truth, and the truth is going to set you free.”

    He left New York to try and find himself in California. McGuire shared the moment when the truth found him.

    “I got hold of a little paperback book called Good News for Modern Man, and I didn’t know what it was, I picked it up and on the first page it says, ‘the New Testament in modern English.’” 

    He felt tricked.

    “Oh man, this is those Jesus Freaks, they’re disguising the Bible! Who wants that? And I threw it on the floor.” 

    Eventually he picked it back up and focused on the teachings of Jesus instead of the flawed church people he had rejected.

    “Just through my own life experiences, everything Jesus said was true. I thought, this is the answer I’ve been looking for all these years. This is the answer to all our political problems, all our racial problems, everything that’s wrong with society. I finally came down to a decision that I had to make. What am I going to do with this piece of truth? Am I really a truth seeker or a self-seeker?”

    Barry McGuire trusted Jesus as His savior and was baptized in 1971. The verse his grandmother shared from John 8:32 showed him what he had been seeking for so long.

    “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.” 

    Finding freedom was the goal of the sixties hippie movement and he realized he had found it. “What is the ultimate freedom? The closer I get to the fullness of truth, the freer I’m gonna be.”

    Barry became a big part of the revival the movie The Jesus Revolution brought back into the light. He was a pioneer in Contemporary Christian Music. So his life went from singing about the imminent destruction of the culture to a historical revival that shared hope and joy in Jesus. By the way, he also wrote the Bullfrogs and Butterflies album that we played for our boys every night for years.

    “I read the words of Jesus in this little modern translation of His story and the thing that caught my attention was when He said to love God with all your heart, soul and mind and love your neighbor as yourself. And I thought, man, if there’s an answer to the ‘Eve of Destruction,’ then that’s it.”

    So here we are a half-century plus later. Are we on the eve of destruction? Maybe. But how should we react to the chaotic world around us? Our reaction is often to circle the wagons with those we feel comfortable with and hope that Jesus returns soon. But our command is to not to wait silently until the trumpet sounds. 

    So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. (John 13:34, NLT)

    It is possible we are on the eve of destruction. But if we could unite in Christ could we be on the eve of revival? Our role is to follow the words of Jesus and live out His commandments. God’s sovereignty controls the results.

  • How Can Grace Change Our Faith Stat Sheet Completely?

    I lived for decades in the performance driven world of sports. We too often measured value not by character but by statistics like how many tackles for loss, field goal shooting percentage, or batting average. Character was a nice bonus but performance was king.

    I remembered a comment from former Northwestern University football coach Pat Fitzgerald about the impact of negative stats on a football player’s performance. Coaches often talk about the need to reduce “missed” tackles and they keep track of each miscue. Coach Fitzgerald had a different philosophy. His staff did not keep track of missed tackles at all. The staff evaluated each player by their effort even if it did not produce perfect results. His next comment stuck with me. “I don’t like to put negative results in their minds because you become what you think about.”

    It immediately hit me how profound that comment is for followers of Jesus. We tend to keep spiritual stats on failure. We beat ourselves up over “missed” opportunities. We fixate on what we have done instead of what Jesus has already done for us. We write our game plan to do better on the board.

    Don’t sin.
    Do better.
    Pray more.
    Study more Scripture.
    Be more forgiving.
    Less angry.
    More loving.

    And we try really, really hard to do all of those things. But the bad stats overwhelm and discourage us. We do sin. We don’t always forgive. We get angry. We don’t study or pray as much as we think we probably should. The net result is frustration and spiritual fatigue.

    I wrestled with idea of how we can deal with sin in my book Stay: Lessons My Dogs Taught Me about Life, Loss, and Grace. 

    In Hebrews the text tells us to “strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.”

    Even though it sounds like a daunting and even impossible task, the author of Hebrews sums up how to do that in one powerful sentence: “We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith” (Hebrews 12:1-2, NLT).

    That is it.

    There is no other way to consistently live that life apart from keeping our eyes on Jesus.
    The same is true for me. When I keep my eyes on Jesus, I have the strength to be bold and the ability to produce fruit that is pleasing to God. When our rambunctious Labrador Maggie could not settle down, I told her to sit so she could focus on calming down and doing the right thing. When she stayed and regrouped, things went well for her. When my thought life and actions cannot settle down, I need the Holy Spirit to firmly but lovingly tell me to sit . . .stay . . . abide.

    Only then do I realize that I have turned my eyes away from Jesus. When I stay, I can focus on His peace, love, forgiveness, and grace, and have the ability to resist sin. If I am anxious, fearful, have doubts, or am sad, I need to sit, stay, and abide, looking at the One who initiates and perfects my faith.

    What a difference between that approach and what too many of us experience. We tend to address the sin first. Stop that! Quit! Do better! And by the way, Jesus loves you. Or worse, He will love you when you do better. Paul always took the grace exit instead. Remember who you are! You are saints! Beloved! Adopted! Redeemed! Those same truths are ours to claim as we keep our eyes on Jesus. When we quit fighting to get better and do that one simple thing, something amazing happens. We get better.

    We do become what we think about. It is always a pretty good game plan to think about Jesus. And His gift of grace eliminates our spiritual shortcoming stats. Thank you Lord!