Charisa Stories

Tag: Jesus

  • Eternal Hope Blooms Each Spring

    Texas seasons can be brutal for plants and trees. Last summer the heat and lack of rain impacted a new tree Joni and I had planted that spring. A deep winter freeze added to the struggle. As spring began we were not sure if our tree had survived.

    Day after day the limbs were barren. Then one glorious day tiny buds began to appear on the branches. These green buds sprouted in defiance of summer and 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 invigorating 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 guarantees one day we will bloom for eternity.

  • The Worst Day of Peter’s Life

    There is much written about Good Friday. The sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the Cross is incomprehensible to my puny human intellect. There is much written about Easter Sunday. Christians around the world rejoice and proclaim that “He is risen!”. But there is not nearly as much written about one of the saddest and most confusing days in history. The Saturday between the Friday horror of Jesus on the Cross and the Sunday mystery of the resurrection. Some churches do observe Holy Saturday but it was never a tradition in my faith upbringing.

    I have been thinking about what that day must have been like for those who dropped everything to follow Jesus. How crushing those events had to be. I imagine the fear they felt that they would also be killed. And for what? On Saturday they feared they had given their careers and their very souls for a false hope.

    I think in particular of Peter. I identify so much with him. Like him I throw down bold statements of loyalty to the Lord and then let Him down. Like Peter I am a generally sincere but desperately needy follower of Jesus.

    You know the story about Peter before the arrest and mock trial of Jesus. Jesus tells Peter that he will deny him three times before the rooster crows at dawn. For many years I breezed by the setup to that prediction.

    “Simon (Peter), Satan has asked to sift each of you like wheat. But I have pleaded in prayer for you, Simon, that your faith should not fail. So when you have repented and turned to me again, strengthen your brothers.” (Luke 22, NLT)

    Jesus had already prayerfully pleaded for Peter to be used in a powerful and redemptive way before the failure, shame and repentance that Jesus knew was about to happen. Our sin does not take Jesus by surprise. Why does His grace and forgiveness surprise us?

    Like me, Peter did not hear the tender words of encouragement from the Lord. Nope. He blustered.

    “Lord, I am ready to go to prison with you, and even to die with you.”

    After the arrest of Jesus a suddenly less bold Peter followed the crowd. He denied to a servant girl that he knew Jesus. He denied his alliance to another bystander. The crushing sorrow and shame of what happened next is hard to fathom.

    About an hour later someone else insisted, “This must be one of them, because he is a Galilean, too.”

    But Peter said, “Man, I don’t know what you are talking about.” And immediately, while he was still speaking, the rooster crowed.

    At that moment the Lord turned and looked at Peter. Suddenly, the Lord’s words flashed through Peter’s mind: “Before the rooster crows tomorrow morning, you will deny three times that you even know me.” And Peter left the courtyard, weeping bitterly.

    I imagined what the expression might have been on the face of Jesus when He turned and looked. I suspect it was a look of sadness, compassion and longing to comfort His friend. But what Peter probably saw was only disappointment and failure. Peter’s tears likely flowed until they could no longer flow. I suspect it was hard to even breathe. His heart literally ached within his chest. His mind could not imagine any future hope. I wonder if he thought about running away or even ending it all. I wonder if he could think at all.

    That Saturday was one of the worst days in history and Peter may have felt the pain of that awful day more intensely than anyone. He did not know what would happen the next day. Peter did not yet understand what Jesus had been telling him.

    When Luke recounts that Jesus appeared to the Disciples the only one mentioned by name is Peter. What gives me hope this Easter season is the tender story of Jesus affirming and reinstating Peter to be a leader who would “feed His sheep”. That is the grace that changes a heart.

    I can betray Jesus. Ignore Him. Live selfishly. At some point I once again recognize my desperate need for Jesus to rescue me. For the thousandth time I turn to Him. And what happens? He lifts my shame bowed head and looks deeply into my eyes. He tells me how much He loves me. That is grace. That is real. That is love. Maybe I won’t have a day quite as bad as Peter on that horrible dark Saturday but his story of redemption encourages me this Easter season.

    Saturday was terrible. But Sunday was coming with the wonderful news that He is risen! He is risen for me! Jesus is pleading for me that my faith will not fail. What a joyous hope for all of us this Easter.

  • Worrying Might Be Worthless Way More Than You Think

    I see a lot of worried people around me. Worried about the political season. Worried about the national division. Worried about international tensions. Worried about all kinds of things. But this old proverb rings true today.

    “Worry is like a rocking chair. It gives you something to do but it doesn’t get you anywhere.”

    As I get older I experience more and more how practical Scripture is for daily living. In the teaching of my youth the Bible was a book of lofty and seemingly impossible demands to behave in a way that would please God. Now I see that the Bible is a love story where Jesus met those impossible demands on my behalf. I see now that my simple faith and trust pleases God. And I see a practical book that shows me how to find joy during this temporary journey on earth. Our Designer knew when we left the factory that worry is destructive. Listen to what Jesus said a couple of millenia ago.

    “That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing? Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are? Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?” (Matthew 6:25-27, NLT)

    Jesus continues in the same message.

    “So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.” (Matthew, 6:31-34)

    God knew something else. Most of what we consume ourselves with never happens or is not worth getting anxious about. Modern research verifies ancient wisdom.

    A research study examined how many times an imagined calamity actually came to pass. In this study, subjects were asked to write down their worries over an extended period of time and then identify which of their imagined misfortunes did not actually happen.

    The remarkable results came back that 85 percent of what subjects worried about never happened! Slow down and digest that. Eighty-five percent of what we work ourselves into varied states of frenzy about never even happens. And here is the even more remarkable finding. For the 15 percent of the worry agenda that did happen, nearly 80 percent of the respondents reported they were able to deal with the concern better than expected or they learned a valuable lesson from the event. So 97 percent of what the majority of this study group worried about was not worth wasting the energy, faith and time.

    Worry is exactly where the Enemy wants to keep the children of God. Living in fear of the future cheats you out of today. A precious moment tugs on your heart like a child at your sleeve. Too often you miss that moment concerning yourself with something that likely won’t happen or will happen in a way that your worry can not change.

    For those of you who struggle with worry maybe it helps to remember that your Heavenly Father is always on the job. Worry is not an attribute of our God. I suspect that it grieves His heart that we are paralyzed with worry when our Father is calling us to know Him, trust Him and rest in Him.

    Trusting Jesus for tomorrow, next week, next year and forever frees us to see what this moment holds. No amount of worry will change the fact that we will face death, adversity and sadness.

    As a young believer one of my favorite artists was Andrae Crouch. His lyrics powerfully showed how God uses trials to help us mature in our faith.

    I’ve had many tears and sorrows
    I’ve had questions for tomorrow
    There’s been times I didn’t know right from wrong
    But in every situation
    God gave me blessed consolation
    That my trials come to only make me strong

    Through it all
    Through it all
    I’ve learned to trust in Jesus
    I’ve learned to trust in God

    Through it all
    Through it all
    I’ve learned to depend upon His Word

    I pray that all of us learn to trust in Jesus and depend upon His Word in this difficult season.

  • Teeing Up Spiritual Truth from Spring Training

    An annual highlight of my sports directing career was visiting Spring Training for Texas Ranger telecasts. I started in Port Charlotte, Florida and then shifted to Surprise, Arizona. I loved the relaxed atmosphere and the opportunity to watch players at all levels work on their skills.

    I was blessed to cover the careers of some amazing players and one of those was Michael Young. In 2005 he won the American League Batting Title with a .331 average while collecting a league best 221 hits.

    What stunned me in the spring of 2006 was watching Michael Young during batting drills. The AL batting champ was hitting off of a batting tee! I remember coaching young kids who balked at hitting off a tee because they felt too “grown up” to revert to T-Ball. I wish I could have shown them how an All-Star batting champ never felt too advanced to focus on fundamental skills.

    That lesson of a star athlete focusing on the most basic fundamentals daily led to application of a familiar Scripture passage.
    When I first came to faith, I was so excited to learn the basic skills of faith. How do I study the Bible? How do I pray? How do I grow in my faith? But something seemed to happen as I accumulated some seasons under my belt.

    I no longer prioritized the fundamentals. I started looking for the ­latest trend in faith. Which trendy Christian leader should I emulate next? I too often defined myself by movements, instead of by Jesus, the Cross, and His finished work. For me, Spring Training was another reminder that I desperately need the indispensable basics of faith.

    Fundamentals are best taught by those who have the gift of teaching and complete knowledge of the skills required. You hope you can find an expert to teach you. That is exactly why the disciples came to Jesus and asked for His help on how to pray. They had watched Him pray. They knew how important prayer was to Jesus. Now they asked Him to teach them. Here is Luke’s “pray-by-pray” of that moment.

    One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.”

    He said to them, “When you pray, say:

    ‘Father,
    hallowed be your name,
    your kingdom come.

    Give us each day our daily bread.
    Forgive us our sins,
    for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.
    And lead us not into temptation.’”
    (Luke 11:1-4, NIV)

    Over much of my ADD-challenged Christian journey, I would skip straight to the “give us our daily bread and forgive us our sins” parts of that prayer. I managed to miss the most important foundational aspect of this insightful prayer. The first fundamental is contained in the opening word.

    Father.

    I get to relate to God as my Father! That privilege comes only from my relationship with Jesus. Noted preacher Haddon Robinson stated that in the entire Old Testament, God is called Father only seven times, and it is always in respect to the nation of Israel. There is never a recorded instance where any individual dared to address the Sovereign God as Father.

    Now Jesus comes on the scene, and Robinson writes about the amazing contrast:

    “Yet in the New Testament, at least 275 times, that is how we are instructed to speak to God. Because of Jesus’s death and resurrection, when we come to the sovereign majesty of the universe the word that should fall readily from our lips is Father.”

    That is a game changer! I can come to the God of the universe, who knows my sin, my weakness, and my failure, and call Him Father! Are you kidding me?

    I also tended to zoom by the next essential teaching.

    Hallowed be your name.

    Prayer starts not with a shopping list of what I want God to do, but instead with worship and recognition of who God is. We are coached by Jesus to remember how great God is and to recognize that His ways are not our ways. We are taught to remember that His holiness is perfect, and His grace is our hope. Hallowed be Your name.

    When I learn those fundamentals, the rest of my prayer time falls into place. He is my Father who loves me and wants the best for me. He hears me, and He responds. If the answer is no, that is an answer. That may mean my request will be answered later. It may be answered differently. It may not be answered at all. But through all of those responses, I trust that He is holy, powerful, and present.

    Here are two more fundamentals to “tee” up your time in prayer.

    Always be joyful. Never stop praying. Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus. (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)

    Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. (Philippians 4:6)

    I have come a long way in my growth as a follower of Jesus. I have a long way to go but I have grasped one important truth. I need to remember the fundamentals of my faith on a daily basis. I can’t think of a better prayer coach than Jesus. But I need to review His instruction on a regular basis.

    Martin Luther said that we need to be preaching the gospel to ourselves every day because we forget the gospel every day. That is so true especially in this disoriented culture we live in. Focus on the fundamentals. On God the Father. On who God is. On the finished work of Jesus. I can tell you that your spiritual strikeouts will be reduced.

  • What Kind of Christian Do I See in the Mirror?

    For years I would look into the mirror and wonder where I was on my faith journey. Was I going to Heaven? Was I a good, bad, or indifferent Christian? Was I loved by God? Was I significant? The question of where I was as a follower of Christ and who I was as a person consumed and confused me.

    The always present Enemy answered the questions above on a regular basis. Probably not going to Heaven. Definitely a bad Christian. Not really being obedient to God or bad things wouldn’t happen to you. Totally insignificant.

    For too many years I believed the accusations, without considering the question that Philip Yancey asks.

    “Sociologists have a theory of the looking-glass self: you become what the most important person in your life (wife, father, boss, etc.) thinks you are. How would my life change if I truly believed the Bible’s astounding words about God’s love for me, if I looked in the mirror and saw what God sees?”

    I am learning to look into the mirror and see someone that I accept by faith and not by my feelings. I see a saint. That’s right. Many (maybe most) of Satan’s accusations are at least partially true. But what I now see is a man who is a saint. I found forty references to saints in Paul’s writings in the English Standard Version. From his additional descriptions, I am pretty sure that the recipients of his letters were not always behaving like saints. They were saints because of Christ, and not by meticulously following the law.

    God sees those who trust Jesus as righteous, no matter how many accusations are thrown at them. Amazing.

    All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ.

    (Ephesians 1:3-5, NLT)

    That is my (and your) identity as a follower of Jesus. Holy and without fault in His eyes. I will be accused again, probably sooner than later. But I am learning to simply say this to myself: “That is not who I am anymore. I am holy because of Christ.”

    When I forget that truth, I allow doubt, confusion, shame, and sadness to creep in. Not leaning on the finished work of Jesus as my strength and identity sets me up for a frustrating masquerade of faith.

    There may be no element more important to living fully in the moment with God than accepting that I am loved by Him right now just as I am. That is so counterintuitive to how “love” so often works in my experience. I have talked with too many men who justify their extramarital relationships by saying they deserve more than their current marriage provides. It always hurts my heart because those they hurt deeply do not deserve to be wounded by betrayal. I try to never forget what I said on that July day more than forty-five years ago to my bride. I made vows to Joni Lynn Banks before God. I did not sign a contract with escape clauses based on my happiness at any given point in time.

    The world speaks a different love language. “I will love you while you are attractive.” “I will love you when you make me happy.” “I will love you when you do what I ask you to do.” Human love almost always includes conditional elements. That is not God’s love.

    The Lord your God is in your midst; he is a warrior who can deliver.
    He takes great delight in you; he renews you by his love; he shouts for joy over you.
    (Zephaniah 3:17, NET)

    The attributes of God’s love are mind boggling. It is personal. You and I can relate to God the Creator of the universe as our Father. Think about that. I mean really think about that. I am conditioned to believe that if something seems too good to be true, then I am being deceived. That is what Satan would have me believe. But the stunning radicality of grace is that what seems to be too good to be true is more true than I can imagine.

    So where am I today? No matter what my physical location might be I have both feet firmly planted on the foundation of my identity in Christ. I am putting my full weight on His Grace. No matter where I am that is who I am! And it is a really peaceful place to be after all these years.

  • Don’t Let the Old Man In

    Toby Keith wrote a song called “Don’t Let the Old Man in” that was inspired by Clint Eastwood. The song has incredibly helpful applications in my life as I grow older and as I grow as a Christian. Let me explain.

    Keith wrote the song after a conversation with Eastwood while they were playing golf. Clint was about to celebrate his 88th birthday by going to film a new movie. Toby Keith was blown away and asked him “how do you do it, man?” Eastwood answered, “I just get up every morning and go out. And I don’t let the old man in.”

    That stuck in Toby Keith’s mind and he penned the song that was featured in the movie “The Mule”. The lyrics are inspiring for me in this season of life.

    Don’t let the old man in
    I wanna leave this alone
    Can’t leave it up to him
    He’s knocking on my door

    And I knew all of my life
    That someday it would end
    Get up and go outside
    Don’t let the old man in

    I love that. As the mileage piles up on the life odometer the aches and pains make it easy to slow down and quit pushing yourself. Challenging yourself to get out and live life as fully as you can for as long as you can is enormously fulfilling.

    Many moons I have lived
    My body’s weathered and worn
    Ask yourself how would you be
    If you didn’t know the day you were born

    I have a few moons to catch up to Clint Eastwood but I need to follow his example. I am still young at heart and my goal is to live out of that feeling for as long as I can. Don’t let the old man in to convince me my time to live life joyfully and fully is diminished. Eventually that will happen. But I want to leave it all on the life playing field until I no longer can.

    There is another area of life that I must concentrate on not letting the old man in. This is actually way more valuable in how I live my life than simply trying to age well. In the Bible Paul talks about how all of us are born with the “old man” or sin nature of Adam. When we decide to follow Jesus we become a new creation and a “new man” now resides in me. Simply put the old man is who I was before I knew Jesus. The new man is who I am now that I am a follower of Christ.

    Paul talks about the finished work of Jesus on the Cross that gives the new man in me the power to change my frustrating responses when the old man ruled my life. Jesus conquered the old man and gave me a new man within.

    ”We know that our old man was crucified with him so that the body of sin would no longer dominate us, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.
    ‭‭(Romans‬ ‭6‬:‭6,‬ ‭NET)

    ‬‬The old man was crucified. That means the old man is dead. I am a new creation and that new man living in my heart gives me the power to live more like Jesus as I recognize that is who I am. Will I live a sinless life? No way. But as I grow in this truth sin should no longer control me. I have the power within me to deal with sin in a way that will encourage spiritual growth in Christ. Recognizing that the new man lives and the old man is dead in God’s eyes is a powerful reminder of where my strength is derived.

    “But now, put off all such things as anger, rage, malice, slander, abusive language from your mouth. Do not lie to one another since you have put off the old man with its practices and have been clothed with the new man that is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of the one who created it.“
    ‭‭(Colossians‬ ‭3‬:‭8‬-‭10‬, ‭NET‬‬)

    So the song by Toby Keith takes on a wonderful new spiritual meaning. I don’t want the “old man” to dominate me in my journey with Jesus. When I battle the fleshly responses that create shame and guilt I need to remember that the old man is dead. I have the ability to set aside those old man impulses. I have the new man living in me through the Holy Spirit and that gives me the freedom to respond differently. The new man lives in my heart and I need to focus daily on that truth. When I struggle with those impulses I can remember the powerful words of this song. Don’t let the old man in.


  • The Anticipated Joy of Heavenly Reunions Excites my Heart

    Wayman Tisdale & Toby Keith

    I heard the news today that county music singer Toby Keith succumbed to stomach cancer at the too young age of 62. Toby Keith was a talented and imperfect man that had a huge heart for helping others. That is just about the best resume any of us could hope for. I wrote a blog about the things the church could learn from his song, “I Love This Bar”.

    But my favorite song from Toby Keith was written when his dear friend Wayman Tisdale passed away in May of 2009. Tisdale was one of the all-time great basketball players at Oklahoma University and had a distinguished NBA career. But his first loves were Jesus and music so he retired to pursue those. Toby Keith and Wayman became best friends along the way.

    Toby talked about his friend in an interview with newson6 in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

    “Having a successful career, you meet a thousand celebrities and most of them don’t come as advertised. They kind of break your heart a lot,” Keith said. “Wayman didn’t know he was celebrity. He was one of the most special individuals that I ever met in my life. He changed the way that I view life.”

    Keith spent two days reeling from the death of his friend. And then he sat down and penned this amazing tribute titled “Cryin’ for Me (Wayman’s Song}”. I often play this song when someone dear to me dies and goes to be with Jesus. Toby’s lyrics are a perfect summary of how I feel when a Christian friend or family member goes home.

    So play it sweet in heaven
    Cause that’s right where you want to be
    I’m not cryin’ cause I feel so sorry for you
    I am cryin’ for me

    If we truly believe (and I do) that followers of Jesus are welcomed to heaven then the reality is we are crying for ourselves. We miss the person who has left us but we realize they are in a better place. Toby Keith recognized the impact of Wayman Tisdale went far beyond a great basketball and musical career.

    You showed me how I am supposed to live
    Now you showed me how to die

    When Wayman Tisdale was welcomed to heaven that was why he was no doubt greeted with the cherished words “well done, good and faithful servant”. His basketball and musical skills were amazing but his eternal impact was defined in the song lyrics above.

    The first thing I thought of this morning was the heavenly reunion of Toby Keith and Wayman Tisdale.

    So play your upsidedown, left handed
    Backward bass guitar
    I’ll see you on the other side superstar

    That just happened. Two incredible talents who realized music or sports was not their identity. Their identity and hope was in Jesus and the realization that we are temporary citizens on this earth.

    But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, (Philippians 3:20, ESV)

    I have so many friends and family I look forward to seeing again someday. What an amazing hope that is to get us through the sorrow of earthly loss. “See you later” is the greatest comfort I can imagine.