Tag: Jesus

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God Wants a Relationship with You

I have always loved science fiction. I have always wondered about what life could exist in the vast expanse of the universe.

Within the past decade, scientists have taken a step forward in their quest to answer that question. Amazingly, they have been able to “see” planets orbiting around other stars in our galaxy. In fact, astronomers have discovered over 4,000 of them. This is astonishing in light of the fact that there are two large planets in our own solar system that you cannot see with the naked eye (Uranus and Neptune), and these new plants are thousands of times further away.

Among those 4,000, a few of them seem to be similar to earth in size and are located in the habitable zone of their solar system. Astronomers have focused their radio telescopes on these planets “listening” for patterns of communication that would be an indicator of intelligent life there.

And what are they looking for? They are looking for patterns that would be improbable in nature. For example, if you find two sticks in the woods that are shaped in a V, you will probably not conclude that they were there by intelligent design. However, if you find sticks arranged in the form of the word BIOLOGY or even a series of 40 V’s in a row, then you probably cannot not conclude that they are there by intelligent design. That’s the sort of pattern astronomers are looking for.

But I think they have forgotten one very important question. Is there intelligent life . . . on earth?

A friend of mine recently described his laughter at seeing that question as a title of an article, but it brings up an important point. Is there evidence of intelligent life besides our own on earth?

I think there is all sorts of evidence of it, but one of the most astonishing is the language that exists inside your body: DNA. DNA is almost like a computer language. It contains information that is the basis of the construction of our bodies. The information contained in even one cell is so extensive that it could fill several libraries. It includes code that makes it able to reproduce itself over and over again.

If we found that sort of code in space, we would easily make the induction that there is intelligent life elsewhere in the universe. So why not with the code in our own bodies? I believe that this code demonstrates that there is intelligent life other than humans. That intelligent life created us (for a more detailed case, see Stephen Meyer’s book Signature in the Cell).

So, who is this Creator? There was a man who lived 2,000 years ago who actually claimed to be the Creator of all things. His name is Jesus.

Normally, when someone claims to be God, you should start to worry. Better yet, run!

But Jesus is not the sort of person from whom we would run. He’s such a compelling person that even his enemies admit the power of his teaching. So, how could a person whom people would normally think is a liar or a lunatic be one of the most eloquent teachers of all time? The only conceivable answer is that he is who he said he was. In this person, our Creator has actually come down to live with us. As C.S. Lewis, the atheist turned Christian, said, he is either liar, lunatic, or lord.

If that is true, I think there are certain things that follow:

  1. God is very interested in connecting with us.
  2. Our lack of interest in him and refusal to connect with Him is very serious. This is often called sin. How do we know it is serious? Because Jesus had to die for our sins. He didn’t come just to teach but to do something: to live, die, and rise again.
  3. However serious sin may be, it is dealt with because Jesus was raised from the dead. This is not just a metaphor. It actually happened.

And this is the good news: God wants a relationship with us that is by grace and not by works. It’s a free gift to us that we simply say, “yes” to. God has done everything necessary to clear the way to a restored relationship of love with us.

I did a wedding earlier this summer. One woman was talking with another woman and said, “I’m not going to put up with this s—.” Then, she saw me and said, “OMG, I’m sorry!” presumably because she knew I was a minister.

Well, she didn’t understand the God of grace. God doesn’t run from us or smash us in our sin. He comes near to us in our sin. He is a God of grace, and his ministers should be ministers of grace.

Jesus shows us this. He comes right into the middle of a world that is totally messed up and distorted by evil and the effects of evil, real wrongs that real people have done to real people. He comes right into people’s lives and loves them where they are.

Now, here is where people get really nervous. They start to think, then that means people can do whatever they want. Well, honestly, if people never ask that, you probably aren’t preaching the God of the Bible, the glorious Father of Jesus, and the God who made our DNA.

But there is an answer to that. God comes near to us in our sin, but He doesn’t leave us there. He restores us to what we are supposed to be. That’s part of His grace. Eph. 2:10 says that God’s grace saved us so we are His “handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepare in advance for us to do.”

What that means to me is something like this. We may not be in a relationship with God, but He wants to be in a mutually loving relationship with us. We may think we’re worthless, but God has significant things for us to do. Our relationships may be a mess, but God wants to make us a center of healing. We may be depressed and struggling, but God wants us to be able to enjoy Him and His creation.

That’s the healing power of grace. That’s how the God of grace comes near to us and restores us to what we were meant to be. That’s the relationship God wants to have with you–a relationship by grace and not by works.

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What’s Wrong with the Family?

The family can be one of life’s greatest blessings.

One of my favorite family memories was when over 100 descendants of my Great-Grandparents Clarence and Roberta Keith gathered together for a family reunion in 2014. It was a time of love, encouragement, faith, and fun. I went away refreshed and renewed.

But we don’t always leave family gatherings that way. Family can also inflict some of the deepest wounds.

So many families seem stuck in patterns that are harmful and hurtful rather than helpful and encouraging.

Is there any way out of these family problems?

In order to understand the way out, I think we first need to understand what creates, freezes, and intensifies family problems.

My basic thesis is this. Problems always exist, but blaming others freezes or intensifies family problems. Taking responsibility for one’s own functioning promotes family healing.

Think about it. If we blame other people, there’s very little we can do about it. Our options are limited because our ability to change others is rather limited. On the other side, though it’s not easy to change ourselves, it can be done. If we are to change the way the family relates, then taking responsibility for our own functioning is our best option.

I believe that this is illustrated in the first book of the Bible, Genesis. Genesis shows us that blaming others freezes or intensifies family problems and that when one member takes responsibility for his or her own functioning, there is opportunity for family healing.

Take our first father Adam as an example. The occasion of the family problem was that he did exactly what God told him not to. At that point, he could have taken responsibility. He could have confessed his own sin and apologized to God and his family.

Instead, he blamed his wife. “The woman You gave me . . .” He introduced division into the relationship with his wife by placing the responsibility for the wrong squarely on her shoulders. Remember that Eve did have a role in this, but what Adam ignored was his own role. This brought alienation and shame into the family.

The seriousness of this pattern can be clearly seen in the next generation. God accepted the sacrifice of Abel, Adam and Eve’s son, but not the sacrifice of their other son Cain. The problem was between God and Cain, but what did Cain do? He blamed Abel. The end result was that Cain killed Abel and refused to take responsibility for the murder, even when confronted by God. In this case, blaming intensified the family problem.

One more example of blaming. God promised to Abraham and Sarah that they would have a son, but it took a long time. Women often feel and at that time certainly felt that childlessness was a threat to their identity, and so no doubt Sarah felt very anxious about it. Then, she had to wait many childless years for God’s promise of a child to be fulfilled. No doubt this increased her anxiety. In the midst of this, she came up with a solution that was common in the day but contrary to God’s design (see my article on God’s design for the family ): for Abraham to have a child with her servant Hagar.

The results were predictable. Hagar got pregnant. She begin to see herself as “above” Sarah. Sarah got upset. She blamed Abraham: “You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering” (Gen. 16:5). Let’s be clear: Abraham was responsible. He did wrong, but Sarah also did wrong. Blaming only made the situation worse, and it continued to be an issue in the family passing over into the next generation in the relationship between Isaac (Sarah’s son) and Ishmael (Hagar’s son).

When we blame others for the family problems, we freeze them in place or make them worse.

Is there any hope for better?

The answer is, “yes.” Even though the curse introduced family enmity, God had promised something better for Abraham. He would bless him and in his seed “all the families of the earth will be blessed.” God was going to change the family situation.

And how does God bless the families of the earth? Through individuals. By His grace, He enables one person or more persons to act differently and take responsibility for their own functioning. This can begin to shift the family dynamics and bring hope for healing and change. I will flesh this out in my article next week.

For now, it’s worth considering? Where is my family stuck? Where am I subtly or not so subtly blaming the family for the situation and freezing it in place or making it worse? Could I do something to change the dynamics of the family?
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Jesus & Our Struggles

Jesus walking on the water captivates our imagination. It captivated me as a young boy. When I was 4 or 5, my Dad took me to see Superman 2. The three criminals from Krypton land in the water, levitate, and start walking on the water. I shouted out in the theater in amazement, “Dad! They’re walking on the water like Jesus!”

As an adult, it still captures my imagination.

In Mark 6, there are two aspects of this account that get my interest. The first is that Jesus is on land and sees the disciples straining at the oars.

This reminds me that even when I’m struggling, Jesus sees me. He doesn’t immediately relieve my difficulties. He allows me to struggle. There will be struggles in this life, and Jesus will allow me to go through them.

The second thing is that when He walks on the water, the text tells us that “He was about to pass by them . . .” He wasn’t going to fix their situation. He wasn’t going to relieve their difficulty. He was going to make His presence known to them and then pass by.

They responded with utter terror like the narrator in the Credence Clearwater Revival song.

Jesus responded simply: “It is I! Don’t be afraid.”

And He still does that for us. What if in the midst of my anxieties and fears, I could feel Jesus’ presence and hear Him saying, “It is I. Don’t be afraid”?

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Will Someone Take Care of Me?

Mosaic of Fish and Loaves at the Church of Multiplication in Tabgha, Israel
Jesus’ miracle in multiplying the loaves and the fish is one of the most well-known in the Bible. There is so much fruit for reflection in this event.

The accounts of Jesus’ multiplication of the loaves and fish bring us face to face with the most basic question of our existence: how will we be provided for? In spite of all our advances in technology, we still fear interruption of our provision for our lives and well-being.

Even if we are not afraid of having bread and fish, we worry that we will not have jobs, good family relationships, safety, security from foreign enemies, continued freedom, freedom from discrimination, and a good place to live.

On a daily basis, we worry about retirement funds, having enough money to get the things for our children that we need, besides being able to provide for ourselves good things to enjoy like vacations, entertainment, and so on.

There are three different perspectives from which we can view these issues.

The Disciples and Jesus
The first is Jesus and the disciples. The disciples have just returned from a preaching and ministry tour of Israel. When they get back, things are as busy as ever, and they don’t even have time to eat.

At this point, Jesus says, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest” (v. 31). I love this passage because I imagine Jesus saying this to me at times, and I take comfort in the fact that He cares about that.

When they actually go to rest, the crowds find Jesus and ministry work immediately begins again. How do you react when God interrupts your day, especially a day you planned for rest? If you’re like me, probably not that well.

Do I ever get a break? We might think.

Notice the end of the story, though. Jesus gives them rest: there were 12 baskets left over. Jesus still cares about our rest, even when He interrupts it.

The Disciples and the Crowd
The second perspective is the disciples and the crowd.

At the end of the day, the disciples start to worry. “This is a remote place . . . and it’s already very late. Send the people away so that they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat” (35–36).

They seek to solve the problem for Jesus because of their own worry. Do you ever seek to solve the problems of someone else, even Jesus, when you worry?

Since they want to take the problem, Jesus gives it over to them. He says something very interesting, “You give them something to eat.”

Why does He say that? Does he actually want them to perform a miracle? Does He want them to see their own inability? Is he being playful to calm their anxiety? Difficult to say.

At any rate, as they contemplate the magnitude of the problem, they will have to look to Jesus.

That’s what we’ll often find in life. Our resources are totally incapable of accomplishing what they need to.

What do they need to do in such circumstances? Follow Jesus’ instructions, and something amazing will happen.

Jesus and the Crowd
The problem with Jesus is that He is so perfect that we might wonder if we can even go to Him. We all have shame that makes us want to hide. We all have things that make us unworthy.

The crowd approaches Jesus in the midst of His time with His disciples. What will He do? Mark says that He has compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. Luke says, “He welcomed them.”

And He will welcome us, whoever we are, wherever we’ve been, whatever we’ve done.

And through this miracles where He provides for the crowd by multiplying five loaves and two fish to feed five thousand, He shows that He will provide for us.

In Jesus, we have everything we need, and He will welcome us. “I am the bread of life,” He says. “Whoever comes to Me will never hunger, and whoever believes in Me will never thirst” (John 6:35). In Jesus, we have someone who will satisfy all the deepest longings of our soul.

Conclusion
Jesus has compassion on us, but He also challenges us. He may call us to work when we’re ready to rest. He may not enter into our worry. He may put us in impossible situations.

But that doesn’t mean He doesn’t care. He cares, and He will provide. He will provide for us what we need and do amazing things that we thought could never be done.

There is someone who will take care of us, and He challenges us to trust Him when we don’t know where our provision will come from.

That’s the comfort and challenge of Jesus.

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The Comfort and Challenge of Jesus

“Comfort! Comfort!” These are the words announcing Christmas, the coming of the long-promised Messiah in Isaiah 40.

Isaiah declares immediately after that every mountain needs to be leveled and every valley filled in. The coming of God brings comfort, but it also presents a challenge. Our lives will have to adjust to fit the new reign of God.

It’s not surprising, then, that when we meet Jesus in the Gospels that we find a person who brings amazing comfort but who also presents significant challenges.

He is His own person, has His own goals, is willing to challenge people at almost any time, and is unwilling to get caught up in the torrent of our emotions. But He also stays connected; welcomes everybody; and provides help, blessing, and comfort beyond our wildest expectation.

The account of Jesus calming the storm in Mark 4 is an illustration of the comfort and challenge of Jesus.

After a long day of teaching, Jesus is tired and enters a boat with His disciples to go to the other side of the Sea of Galilee.

Mark reports, “A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped” (v. 37). This was no small or imagined problem. Their lives were in mortal danger.

And what was Jesus doing? “Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion” (v. 38). As followers of Jesus, we will often feel like we are in mortal danger, and we will wonder, why isn’t Jesus more concerned about this?

When we feel anxious about a situation, we generally want others to feel the same way. It’s not easy to tolerate a calm presence when we are filled with anxiety. So, what do we do? We’ll try to pull people in, and we’ve got a lot of ways of doing this.

One way we try to bring people into our anxiety is through accusatory questions. The disciples seek to pull Jesus into this situation by waking and asking Him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”

This is just the sort of question that is designed to awaken our anxieties as parents, pastors, bosses, and leaders. Our response is generally to defend ourselves, to reassure, or to argue.

But that’s not what Jesus does. He actually doesn’t address that issue at all. In essence, He says, “I’m not going to get into that with you, but here’s what I’d like to talk about: why are you so afraid, and where is your faith?”

This is the sort of question that would probably deeply disturb and annoy us. Here we are, we might say, in serious trouble, and you want to challenge our emotions and our faith!

It’s frustrating! Here’s a serious issue, and Jesus is telling us that we should not be afraid and have faith. A real challenge!

The fact is, though, that Jesus does care about them and us, and He is willing to help them. He stands up and responds to the storm, “Quiet! Be still!” –

Remember that at this point the disciples are just beginning to understand who Jesus is. So, they are terrified. The Greek adjective is mega. They are terrified with a mega-fear. They are in total disbelief at what has just happend.

Who is this? They ask. And that’s a great question for us to consider this Christmas. Who is this man? What kind of person is He?

In calming the storm, He not only solves their problems but gives them the key to controlling their anxiety and fear in every situation. Instead of seeing the storm, they need to see Jesus who is Lord above all storms. If they can understand that, then they will have a foundation for faith that can give them peace in the midst of every storm.

That’s why the question that Jesus asks is so crucial. Jesus has compassion on us but doesn’t enter into our anxious responses. He challenges us to have a faith that is the antidote to every anxious response.

So, where are you feeling anxiety this week? What are you anxious about? If you could see Jesus as for you and Lord over the totality of those events that you are worried about, wouldn’t that make a big difference? Wouldn’t that calm our anxious nerves?

But it’s hard to let go. It’s a real act of faith to say that we’ll let go of our own anxious responses and trust Jesus and His solutions.

That’s the comfort and the challenge of Jesus.

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