What did Jesus come to do?

John reveals some very important things in his letters to the church about WHY Jesus Christ came to earth. In 1John 3 he tells us:

You know that He (Christ) appeared in order to take away sins, & in Him there is no sin…the reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. 1John 3:5 & 8b

Think about it: Jesus came to take away sin (& the result of sin, death,) & to destroy the works of the devil. So, what are the works of the devil?

From Genesis 3, we see that the devil works to twist God’s words, lie & deceive humanity, & offer a self-indulgent, ego-centric, & ultimately totally destructive alternative to God’s purposes for humanity. 1Chronicles 21 reveals the devil as a agent whose intent is to stir up human pride in order that we would defy God. Zechariah 3 shows the devil as our accuser, the one who would stand to condemn us. Matthew 4 & Luke 4 show the devil tempting Christ to live & act autonomously, in direct opposition to the humble, submitted reliance upon God the Father. John 8 reveals satan to be a lying murderer, & John 10 condenses the thief’s mission as being dedicated to stealing, killing, & destroying. 1Peter 5 describes the devil as a roaring lion, looking to devour the unwary. Finally, Revelation 12 sums up the work of the devil, labeling him as the deceiver of the whole world.

We often talk about Christ’s work of atonement, how He paid for humanities sins through His death on the cross. And about His victory over death, when He rose from the dead 3 days after His crucifixion. And about the new life & relationship with God that He offers to all who believe in & trust Him. What jumps out to me from 1John 3 is that Christ came to destroy the enemies work. The areas in which the devil has been wreaking havoc, perverting, twisting, lying, & killing.

This gives me great hope & encouragement – to know that the areas where the enemy has been active, our God specifically came to destroy those works, & in doing so, to bring RESTORATION, making things the way He intended them to be.

Grace, peace, & God’s blessings to you today –

Don’t love the world…?

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. 1John 2:15-17

At first glance, John’s instruction that we should NOT love the world might seem strange… especially when he had previously gone to great lengths to remind his readers of the defining characteristic of a Christ-follower: Love for God & love for each other. Digging deeper, however, we see he is challenging us to not align with or entrust ourselves to this world’s system – its values, practices, & ways of living. The prince of this world, the devil, draws humanity towards a life of self-indulgence, a life that runs counter to the life Christ calls us to follow. Think about it: the desires of the flesh tell us we should be able to indulge without restraint in whatever sensual craving that strikes us, without consequence for who it affects. The desires of the eyes lead us to believe we need more – more toys, more stuff, more everything… with greed, discontent, & covetousness as a result. The pride of life rejoices in a life of self-importance, tempting us to revel in our accomplishments, focusing on all we have & have done, causing us to measure ourselves against one another & missing the self-less example Christ set for us when He laid down His life that we would live.

Bottom line, John reminds us that to “walk in light & walk in love,” we have to live according to the values, priorities, & traits of the Kingdom of God, not the kingdom of this world. And God says that if we love Him, we’ll His commands.

Grace, peace, & God’s blessings to you today –

Love one another… a new commandment?

On the night He was betrayed, Jesus sat around the table with 11 of His disciples, the aftermath of the Passover meal in their bellies. And He talked with them – treasured conversations, some of Christ’s last words to them before He was taken & crucified.

Something He said caught their attention: “A new commandment I give to you…” New? That HAD to be significant… & I can imagine each of the disciples sitting up a little bit, leaning in closer to make sure not to miss a word. And Jesus said:

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, just as I have loved you, you are also to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”  John 13:34,35 English Standard Version

Love one another… using Christ’s own example as the blueprint on what REAL love looked like. Loving others was so significant that Christ identified it would be LOVE that would identify people as His disciples. Not their words. Or charisma. Or how much they knew. Love. Lived out, in the real world, with real people.

Fast forward about 60 years, & the now ancient disciple/apostle John wrote to a new generation of disciples, sharing with them what Christ had shared with him so many years ago – in a nutshell, “God is light. God is love. As His disciples, we show we belong to Him by living in light. And living in love.”  John is ‘discipling’ his readers – he is passing on what Christ said & did in his life. Sharing the areas that the Holy Spirit had written on his heart. Speaking plainly about some of the most important things that Christians can BE & DO. Without the LIGHT & LOVE evident in our lives, we’re lost. John wrote:

“My dear friends, I’m not writing anything new here. This is the oldest commandment in the book, and you’ve known it from day one. It’s always been implicit in the Message you’ve heard. On the other hand, perhaps it is new, freshly minted as it is in both Christ and you—the darkness on its way out and the True Light already blazing!Anyone who claims to live in God’s light and hates a brother or sister is still in the dark. It’s the person who loves brother and sister who dwells in God’s light and doesn’t block the light from others. But whoever hates is still in the dark, stumbles around in the dark, doesn’t know which end is up, blinded by the darkness.” 1John 2:7-11, THE MESSAGE

It’s the same for us – we are called to BE disciples & MAKE disciples. We make disciples by example, by living a Christ-following life & by our words/actions, where we intentionally share with others that which Christ has worked in us.

It’s beautiful.

Walking in the light…

WALKING IN THE LIGHT
As I was preparing for our next series, Letters From John…” I was struck by the vivid imagery of LIGHT & DARK that John uses when describing our life with God:

  • God is light, pure light; there’s not a trace of darkness in Him. If we claim that we experience a shared life with Him & continue to stumble around in the dark, we’re obviously lying through our teeth—we’re not living what we claim. But if we walk in the light, God Himself being the light, we also experience a shared life with one another, as the sacrificed blood of Jesus, God’s Son, purges all our sin. 1John 1:5-7 THE MESSAGE BIBLE

Think about that for a second: When John says God is light (an Old/First Testament reference to God’s purity, holiness, wisdom, & knowledge,) he’s saying God is our source, & walking in the light means living in & through Him – His purity, holiness, wisdom, & knowledge… Conversely, if we are stumbling through life in the dark, we’re walking without Him, counting on our own resources to navigate through the veritable minefield of life. OUCH! That can hurt.

The thing that jumps out the most to me is that by walking in the light, living in relationship with & dependence upon God, it also binds us together with others who are doing the same thing – people who have experienced the forgiveness of sin through Jesus Christ.  I’m praying for the Holy Spirit to illuminate any dark patches of our lives… & for the wisdom & perseverance to stay out of the shadows & walk where He’s walking.

Grace, peace, & God’s blessings to you today –

New Year’s REVOLUTIONS…

You know those AT&T commercials where a guy sits at a table with 4 or 5 little kids & asks them questions, then helps guide them on entertaining rambles? Those are among my favorites. New Years’ week, one came out with a kid going on & on about “New Year’s Revolutions…” I laughed. :) (You can watch it HERE.)

Later, I was thinking about “New Year’s Revolutions” – in the context of the “Holy Night” series we just finished. Everyone expected the Messiah, the Christ to bring a revolution – to deliver Israel (using military means) from the tyrannical oppression of the Roman Empire, to reclaim the throne of His ancestor, King David, & to dispense God’s judgment on the enemies of God’s people. Here’s something John the Baptist declared about the mission of the Christ:

“I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in His hand, & He will clear His threshing floor and gather His wheat into the barn, but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire.” Matthew 3:11,12

Whew! Fire? Threshing? Judgment? Unquenchable fire? That  sounds revolutionary.

And yet as we look through the Gospels at Christ’s actions, we see a very different picture of ‘revolution’ – Jesus, a humble, submitted servant of God, launching into public ministry with His own water baptism, & visible infilling of the Holy Spirit. He then promptly was led by the Holy Spirit into the desert for 40 days of fasting… & temptation at the hands of humanity’s ancient enemy, the devil. Christ resisted each & every temptation with the empowerment of the Holy Spirit & the proper application of God’s Word, the Scriptures.

It reminds me of the familiar scene in the garden of Eden when Adam & Eve disobeyed God when they gave in to the same devil’s temptation to eat a fruit God had forbidden. Where Adam & Eve’s actions led to humanity’s fall into sin & separation from God, Christ’s example in resisting temptation through Scripture lit a fuse that led to Him declaring the day of God’s favor & the restoration of relationship with God, as sons & daughters, for all who would receive Him.

Jesus did start a revolution… & it is still going on today.

O Holy Night #4 – Making Wrongs, Right…

Over the last few weeks of our “O Holy Night” series, I have really been enjoying spending time reviewing the revelation of God’s goodness & faithfulness to His people. First, in the accounts of the time between the book of Malachi & the Gospels – seeing God’s working in & through the ‘silent times.’ I have been encouraged with the promises of new hope given to Joseph, Mary, Zechariah, & Elizabeth – which signaled the advent of God’s plan. I have been challenged in the stories of the “waiting time,” aka, the time between God’s promise being MADE & God’s promise being FULFILLED. In preparation for this week’s theme, I have been thinking about a couple of Scriptures that declare a couple of the main purposes Jesus Christ came to earth.

These Scriptures are:

John 10:10 The thief (our enemy, the devil,) has come only to steal, kill, & destroy. I came that they may have life & have it abundantly.
&
1 John 3:8b …The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.

Think about that – Christ came to give us life & life abundantly – & also to destroy the works of the devil. This enemy has been humanity’s adversary since God created people in His image – & the enemy has been working to steal, kill, destroy. As we look around our world, it is easy to find evidences that this satan has been busy.

I love that Christ is actively at work as well – destroying that which the enemy has meant for our harm & damage. That Christ can undo, correct, heal, renovate, restore, & transform those things & make them something beautiful.

This Sunday, the message is called, “O Holy Night #4 – Making Wrongs, Right.” We will have our friend, Mike Mercer from Compassion First (CF) with us to talk about a couple of ways that we can participate in the mission of God to destroy the works of the enemy, make some wrongs, right, & also help some precious people begin to walk into & live out the abundant life God intends for us. Hillside will be receiving a special offering at the end of the service to help support the “Holy Night” initiative – an outreach to the cemetery prostitutes (& their families) of Surabaya, Indonesia. Please consider participating in this offering, & in praying for the work of CF as they continue to work to make wrongs, right, in the Name of Jesus.

O Holy Night #3 – Waiting…

It’s easy to forget that the great men & women of faith whose stories are recounted in Scripture were people just like us. It helps me to keep that in the forefront of my mind when I read about people like Joseph & Mary…  they were people going about their routine, normal, lives… looking to love, honor, & obey God to the best of their abilities. And then something miraculous happened.

God’s plan to reconcile ALL who would believe in Him through the Christ was revealed through the simple, humble obedience of this couple, Joseph & Mary, who probably didn’t fully grasp or understand the enormous impact on eternity which stemmed from their lived out faith responses to what God revealed to them.

They didn’t have to understand it fully. They didn’t ask “WHY?” They didn’t argue with Him, or look to disqualify themselves as being insignificant Instead, they chose, individually & as a couple, to trust the One who was asking them to believe what He said. Their faith response was the means by which God forever changed the world & remade, transformed, & restored humanity’s destiny.

That we, far from God, lost in our sins & wrongs, could be brought close to God through Christ, our Immanu’El, “God with us.” That our sins could be forgiven. And we could live life in all of its fullness.  This Christmas season, I am asking God to increase our faith… so that when He speaks to us, our response will be to BELIEVE. To TRUST. To put our HOPE in him. Not to argue. Attempt to disqualify ourselves, or try to figure out “WHY?” Our faith response will have an affect on our lives… & will also have a great impact on people downstream from us!

O Holy Night #2 – A New Hope…

One of my favorite parts of the Christmas story is the account of the birth of John the Baptist. His parents, Zechariah & Elizabeth, were childless; they’d been unable to have kids their entire married life together, & now they both were way, way beyond childbearing years (Luke 1:7). At this point in their lives, the dream of having a child, an heir, had moved off of their collective radar, & now most likely just existed as one of life’s greatest disappointments & unfulfilled dreams. And then God intervenes, declaring a new hope, not only for their lives, but for the whole world.

God sent Gabriel the angel to proclaim to Zechariah that he & Elizabeth would conceive, & she would give birth to a son. And the best part was that he wouldn’t just be a ‘miracle’ child… no, their son John was to be the one promised by the Scriptures who would “prepare the way” for the Messiah, the Christ, God’s promised Anointed One. (Isaiah 40:3; Malachi 3:1; Matthew 3:3).

You’d think such a jubilant angelic declaration would be received with shouts of joy… but instead, Zechariah’s response was one of skepticism, negativity, & doubt. This is one of the reasons I love this story – not because I like Zechariah’s displayed lack of faith, but rather because I GET it. After years of hoping for a child, years of disappointment, & years of attempting to comfort his wife in the midst of her/their grief, the message of HOPE hit Zechariah’s ears (& heart) in such a way that revealed that he was “done,” & couldn’t grasp, let alone believe that God was on the verge of a miracle in their lives.

I love the angel’s response to Zechariah’s unbelief: “I am Gabriel, & I stand in the presence of God, & I was sent to speak to you & to bring you this good news. Now, you will be silent & unable to speak until the day these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which WILL BE fulfilled in their time.” (Luke 1:19,20 ESV). He basically tells him – “C’mon, man! This is good news! What I told you came direct from the throne of God – so because of your lack of belief, I’m going to shut you up so you can’t spread the doubt to your wife & others.”


Every time I revisit this story, I feel the Holy Spirit doing a heart-check on me – & I find myself examining where I am… am I open to God’s new hope for my life? Am I open to it even if it is in an area I have given up on? Do I really believe all things are possible for God, if I believe?

During this Christmas season, I’m praying that my heart will be prepped for God’s miraculous new hope for me & those my life connects with.

O Holy Night #1 – Where is God in the silence…?

In preparation for our Christmas series, “O Holy Night,” I’ve been studying the Inter-Testamental period (a.k.a. the 400 years of time between the book of Malachi & the Gospels) leading up to the birth of Jesus Christ. Part of the reason I’m wrestling through this is that I love exploring the history & context of Scripture; another reason is that this time period is often referred to as “God’s Silence.” That grabbed me. WHY is it called that?

Well, there was no prophetic literature added to the Scriptures during this time; no insights, visions, or directions recorded from God to His people. Israel had been scattered from the Promised Land in 583 B.C. (see 2Chronicles 36 for the story,) & had experienced oppression & persecution from Babylon, the Medo-Persians, various Greek empires, & finally, Rome. Throughout the 400+ years, Israel suffered, attempted to rebel to gain their freedom, were put under occupation & dominion over & over, & at no time is there a record of God addressing His peoples’ plight, let alone stepping into the situation to bring deliverance & redemption.

Was God really silent during these years? Was He just letting Israel twist in the wind as a payback for their hundreds of years of disobedience, unbelief, grumbling, & serving idols & other gods?

I say, “No.” Here’s why.

Even though there wasn’t any prophetic messages added to the Bible during this time, & even though Israel endured terrible persecution & unmentionable ordeals at the hands of their enemies, the LORD God’s “mighty hand” & “outstretched arm” were very clearly & powerfully at work:

  • Throughout centuries of bloody & terrible war between ruthless rival empires, wars over possessions, resources, & strategic territories, God protected His people, keeping them from repeated attempts to annihilate them (read the book of Esther for one such account.)
  • God used the evil of Alexander the Great’s greed & quest for world domination for good as Alexander brought the known world together, from the East to the West, under a common culture, Hellenism, & a common language, Greek.
  • This common culture & language, coupled with a dictator’s desire to create the greatest library with the best books on the planet led to the translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek (called the Septuagint) at Alexandria, thereby making God’s Word readable & accessible to all Greek speakers/readers on the planet. The Septuagint Greek Scriptures were what was used when the Old/First Testament was quoted in the New Testament by the apostles & disciples.
  • God used Augustus Caesar, the murderous & tyrannical self-proclaimed “Prince of peace” to bring about the “Pax Romana” a period of relative peace (enforced by soldiers & the Roman war machine) which helped create the relatively stable time period into which Christ was born.
  • And there’s much, much more.

I hope you can begin to see where God is at work, behind the scenes, between the lines, in the activities of the pagan nations, in the middle of the oppression of His people, in order to bring ultimate deliverance to humanity: relationship with God, forgiveness of sins, reconciliation with God & man through Christ Jesus our Lord.

During this coming Christmas season, especially in the areas of difficulty & throughout the  times of silence, be on the lookout for God at work in, through, & around our lives. Because He’s always at work.

Even in the silence.

Can I handle the truth?

There’s a scene in the movie, “A Few Good Men” where Tom Cruise’s character is questioning Jack Nicholson’s character in a courtroom. Cruise’s character pushes at Nicholson’s, demanding the truth until Nicholson finally snaps & yells, “You can’t handle the truth!”  I’ve been thinking a lot about that in the context of God’s truth & insight into my own life.


I’m on ‘Day 2’ at the Center for Spiritual Renewal in Christiansburg, Virginia. (You can find out more about it HERE if you’re interested.) So far, my time here has mostly consisted of grocery shopping, eating A LOT of BBQ, reading, pondering life, & a whole lot of quiet & alone time. But the highlight of each of the last 2 days for me has been when I get to sit with Chuck, my mentor/counselor/friend, & wrestle through “that which plagues my heart, mind, & life.” Chuck serves as one of my “healing relationships.” (You can find out more about what a healing relationship is HERE.) When we talk, he doesn’t just sit there like a bump on a log & ask inane questions, like, “How does that make you feel?” or go Dr. Leo Marvin on me. Instead, Chuck listens. Asks pointed questions. He draws stuff out of me that I hadn’t even consciously thought about, let alone verbalized. And then he speaks God’s truth to me.

Granted, it’s not always easy to hear the truth; & the Holy Spirit is always good about confirming what he’s said or whispering to me that I really need to pay attention to what was just said – that God was using Chuck to speak life, health, wholeness, & growth to me. That if I could handle the truth & respond to it with appropriate actions, I would continue to see God’s purposes for me & my life continue to grow & develop.

There have been times where Chuck said something & the Holy Spirit nudged me & STILL I was tempted to gloss over what I’d heard. To deny it. Justify or make excuses about WHY I am the way I am. To point fingers at others. To ignore it. To feel sorry for myself. To come face to face with truth & want to turn & run from it to avoid having to do something difficult.

The truth, spoken in love, challenges me to examine & be open to change/be transformed in my thought patterns, behaviors, &/or ways I see myself & my role at home, work, with friends, & others. God’s truth invites me to grow up into being like Christ in my relationships & interactions with others. To leave my childish sin & flesh-encrusted ways behind in order to  intentionally  embrace Christ-likeness, without regard for how (or if) others might act or respond.

The truth isn’t always easy to hear – but when it is spoken in love, with God’s heart for redemption, restoration, & transformation fully evident, it is a lot easier to handle. And the alternative is stagnation. Becoming set in my ways. A gradual(?) deterioration into the results of me living for me. The loss of the ability to hear the still, small voice of the Lord calling me to come to Him to be being made new.

My 2 cents: Find someone who will speak God’s truth to you, in love. Then, handle the truth by responding to God’s instruction. It’s worth it.