Trust Him

Trust Him

 

Dear Champions,

The short excerpt is by Tim Keller, and the scripture is 2 Peter 3:8-9 . . . With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

 

In the book of Genesis God takes Abraham aside and makes a promise to him.  He says, "Through you all the nations of the earth will be blessed.  Through one of your descendants I will save and bless the world."  And when Mary was told that she would give birth to the Messiah, God had fulfilled His promise to His servant, Abraham, but it took centuries.  God always fulfills His promises but never at the time and way you expect.

 

The Israelites had all expected a Messiah, but a lot of them had given up.  It had been four hundred years since there was even a prophet in Israel, let alone a Messiah.   Most that were still expecting a Messiah did not expect their king to be born in a feed trough.  Even though God seemed to be absolutely away without leave, He was working.  In a sense, God is saying that even though I do not come through with My promises at the time or the way you expect, I always come through.  You can trust me. 

 

You don't have to take matters into your own hands.    God comes to Abraham and says, "Abraham, I'm going to give you a son through Sarah."  But you know what, God doesn't seem to be coming through, so what does Abraham do?  He says, I guess I'll just have to take matters into my own hands.  He sleeps with Hagar.  God promises  to take care of you, to love you, to work all things out for your good in your life, but it never seems to happen in the time or in the way you want.  Trust His promises and try not to step into the role of God.

 

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

Collisioins Help Us To See

Collisions Help Us To See

The short excerpt is by Ron Hutchcraft, and the scripture is in the excerpt.

One day a person went to the mall to get in shape by walking, and he actually made the national news.  He must have looked away for a moment, because he walked full-speed into a metal pole in the middle of the mall. The man had not had any sight in his left eye for years. Suddenly, after running into that pole, he sees light in that eye. That collision turned out to be one of the best things that ever happened to him! It suddenly helped him see.

Job's name is associated with human suffering. He symbolizes suffering probably more than anybody else in all the literature in the world. He really had some painful collisions in his life. He lost his wealth, health, and children.

Job 42:5; his final conclusion on the really hard things he had run into. He says this to God, 'My ears had heard of You, but now my eyes have seen You.' Job says, 'I can now see God as I never saw him before because of the pain I've been through.' Before he ran into those awful losses he knew a lot about God. Because of running into those ordeals, he says now he really knows God.

Actually, that's been the experience of so many hurting people over the years. They ran into something hard, but the collision was what helped them to be able to see things they had missed before like that man at the mall.  When we run into something we can't fix or control, we begin to consider 'Who can I turn to? I am not enough.' At that moment God uses that to open our eyes to a man named Jesus, whose love was proven by His death for your sin on the cross. And He's ready to walk into your life today.

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

Grace

Grace

Dear Champions,

 

The short excerpt this week is by Tim Keller, and the Scripture verse is Romans 3:23-24 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 

 

Grace is an undeserved favor or gift.  It is the undeserved forgiveness, kindness and mercy that God gives us.  Redemption is the act of being bought back.

 

It's alright for Christians to be persecuted, but Christians should never be persecutors.   When you become a persecutor or condemn people because they're not believing, that is the moment you have stopped understanding that you're saved by grace.   The person that you're talking to with the gospel could easily be a better and more moral person with better character than you.  Your salvation has nothing to do with how good a person you are.  Jesus Christ says, " It doesn't matter your performance.  I don't rejoice in what you've done.  I rejoice in who you are in Me.  You're absolutely secure and accepted."

 

Religion says, "I give God a record of righteousness, and then God owes me blessing."  But the gospel says, "God through Jesus Christ has given me a perfect record of righteousness which I receive by faith, and now I live for him." 

 

Have a great week!-David Vining

 

It Was All About Compassion

It Was All About Compassion

Dear Champions,

The short excerpt is by Andy Stanley, and the scripture is John 8:3-5,7,9-11 The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group  and said to Jesus, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery.  In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?"  When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, "Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her. At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there.  Jesus straightened up and asked her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?" "No one, sir," she said.  "Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin."

Jesus' tone was not condemning.  It was all about compassion.  He urged her to leave her life of sin because Jesus knew that every sin comes prepackaged with a penalty.  Every time you sin something dies. 

 

Sin kills things.  Over time it will kill your conscious.  There are things that don't even bother you that used to bother you, and there is something in you that says that it should bother you.  Sin will ultimately kill your mind, your body, your self-respect and your relationships.  Sin for some of you has killed a family, a marriage, a relationship between you and your father or between you and one of your children.  Sin has the power to kill an entire culture, so Jesus urges her to sin not and to leave her life of sin.  I don't need to punish or condemn you.  Your sin has already punished and hurt you and destroyed your reputation in the community.  The consequences of sin is the reason Jesus urges her to leave her life of sin.  The message of Jesus is that when you sin you break God's heart because God knows that sin will eventually break you. 

 

A little while later Jesus would die for her adultery, and He would die for your adultery.  He would die for all of her sin, and He would die for all of your sin.  The reason that we know that his tone is one of urging and compassion rather than condemning is this.  When someone is willing to die for you, you never have to question where you stand with them.

 

Leave your life of sin not because God will get you, but because sin will get you.  Jesus died for you because He loves you.  The consequences of sin is the reason why Jesus urges you to leave your life of sin.

 

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

 

I Am a God of Grace

I Am a God of Grace

Dear Champions,

 

The short excerpt is by Tim Keller of New York City, and the scripture is 2 Corinthians 5:14-15  For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.

 

God had come to Abraham and said, "I'm going to save the world through one of your descendants." That means that in every generation, one person will bear the messianic seed.  "My salvation will come into the world through one member of everyone in your generation."  But look at how God does it. 

 

Here's Abram, and look at the women by his side.  Here's Sarai who is old and barren, and here is Hagar who is beautiful and fertile.  God blesses the world through Sarai.  Go to the next generation.  Here's Essau who is ruddy, handsome, big, macho, athletic, charismatic, dynamic, and a leader, but instead God saves through Jacob.  Then go down a little further.  Here's Rachael, and here's Leah.  Rachael is beautiful and the apple of Jacob's eye.  Leah is homely, marginal, rejected, and unwanted, and God comes to Leah and gives her Judah, the ancestor of Jesus.  Leah becomes the mother of Jesus.  Are you getting this?  The Leah's, the marginal, the outsider, the weak, the failure, is always the mother of Jesus.  Let's keep going.  Look at all of the nations of the world that God could choose to bring in salvation and truth.  What does He do?  He chooses Israel.  Why?  It has no economic clout, no natural resources, and no military power.

 

Why does God do it that way?  Why does He always choose the poor, the marginal, the outsider, never the religious, never the insider, and never the upstanding?  Why?  Because He is a God of grace, and the world doesn't believe that.  He has to over and over again hit the world over the head.  "I am a God of grace, and salvation comes not by you but by me.

 

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

 

He Submitted First

He Submitted First

 Dear Champions,

The short excerpt is by Tim Keller, and the scripture is Matthew 1:20-21 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.  She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins."

Jesus is the first person ever born who is older than His parents.   One of the most interesting things about the birth of Jesus is that the parents are not allowed to name the child.  Parents are always allowed to give their baby its name because they are older, and they are in charge.  What the angel is trying to say is that you don't manage Him, He manages you.  

I know all kinds of people who say, "I'd like to become a Christian, but does that mean that I have to drop my girlfriend because she is not real big on faith?  Does this mean that I'm going to have to spend less money on myself because I really like this and that sort of activity?  I'd like to become a Christian, but do I have to do this and this and this?" 

 

Here's what they are saying.  "I'd like to give God the Lordship of my life as long as I can stay in control."  Ultimately, at some point you're going to have to say, "I don't even know what it's going to bring into my life, but I give up the Lordship and control of my life.  I am no longer the Lord of my own life, I am the servant." 

 

Don't say to me, "Well I've tried, and I can't believe," when ultimately you're not willing to do that.  The only thing that leads you to do that is when you see that He gave Himself away for you first.  I don't know of what other kind of God that you could submit to.  You have a God who has already submitted to you.  No other religion gives you a god like that. 

 

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

 

Nothing in My Hands I Bring

Nothing in My Hands I Bring

Dear Champions,

 

The short excerpt is by Tim Keller, and the scripture is Matthew 5:3 Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

 

Blessed are the poor in Spirit means that the gospel will come to you only if you get rid of your middle class Spirit and become poor in Spirit.  Religion is middle class.  It appeals to the people who say, "I can do it if I work hard enough."  But the gospel only comes into the lives of those who are poor in Spirit and say, "I have absolutely nothing of value to give you.   I need to rely completely on the grace of Jesus Christ."

If you are middle class in Spirit, you'll love religion.   Religion says, Try hard, live nobly, be good, be tolerant, and give money to the poor.  The religious person says, "I can do it!  I can summons up all of my strength.  I'm going to turn over a new leaf, and I'm going to start living like this."  The gospel, however, is not religion.  The gospel says that no one is good, not one (Romans 3:10).  There is nothing in your heart that is good.  Even your good deeds have been done to feel superior to other people and to try and get control and leverage over God to get Him to owe you.   Even your best deeds are as filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6).  You're filled with self-righteousness, and you are no better than the person who has lived an immoral life.  There is no love of God in your heart, and there is only one hope. 

The hope-Jesus Christ, the rich one, became poor.  Jesus Christ, the king, became a poor man.  Here is a man who is rejected and who dies naked.  He is buried in a borrowed grave.  Only because He died for you and your sins and then rose from the grave do you have any hope.  You have no merits (works) to offer Him.  When you come to God you must come and say, "Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to the cross I cling."  You must not come saying, "I have lived a pretty good life, and you owe me."  Instead, you have to say, "You have every right to send me to Hell, but I want your mercy because of what Jesus Christ did."

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining