The Light

 A house built on sand isn’t going to last. Especially when it gets buffeted by a storm.

The bedrock upon which we build our solid foundation;

upon which we build our “house”, i.e.

our relationship with God,

Jesus,

the Holy Spirit,

the Kingdom of God,

other believers,

and unbelievers;

upon which we put our trust and faith,

is the Gospel – the Good News.

If it isn’t Good news, it’s sand.

If it isn’t Good news, it won’t last.

If it isn’t Good news, it won’t sustain,
bolster,
weather,
shelter,
comfort,
abide.

How can anyone put their trust in a house built on such a foundation?

No wonder there is

uncertainty,

fragility,

frustration,

in your walk.

Sure you can buck up, dust off, muster up conviction, push down the doubt, the hurt and the frustration and renew your relationship – recommit yourself – and pile everything back up onto the sand and make another go of it.

Rebuild, so to speak.

It works ok for a while.

Until the next storm.

Since the Gospel is the bedrock for a solid foundation and you need a solid foundation in order to have confidence in your house – your walk;

in order to weather any storm;

banish any doubt;

sooth any hurt;

relieve any frustration;

you need to…

WARNING! DANGER! LOADED WORD ALERT!
PROCEED WITH CAUTION!
(btw: not these lights)

…repent.

Change your mind.

Make a full 180.

Do an about face.

Concerning your perception
and misconception
of God.

King David wrote a song to God that included these words (according to which translation you choose):

“Your love...

“Your unfailing love...

“Your steadfast love...

“Your loving-kindness...

“Your mercy...

...is better than life.”

Jeremiah in his writings titled Lamentations wrote:

“The steadfast love of God never ceases,

His mercies never come to an end;

they are new every morning;

great is His faithfulness.”

God is loving, kind, merciful. His love, kindness and mercy is unfailing, steadfast, never ending, renewed daily, faithful.

This is God the way you need to get to know Him.

He's not this way just with Believers.

He's this way with Unbelievers too.

And more.

The disciple John wrote about God loving His creation – all of it – to such an extent that He sent Jesus to redeem all of it back to Himself.

All includes you.

Paul wrote about Jesus’ death and said He died to Sin once, for all.

All includes you.

Paul continues with this: “In the same way, count yourself dead to Sin.”

God sees you as dead to Sin, so

see yourself as dead to Sin in Christ.

Once and done.

End of story.

Freed from Sin.

Eternally.

It’s God’s gift – God’s Grace – to you.

No charge.

Nothing expected in return.

Nothing means nothing.

Free.

Before Jesus, God punished sins and required blood sacrifice for sins.

It was insufficient for the removal of sins.

It only covered sins.

The prophet Hosea quoted God as saying He desires mercy, not sacrifice.

Matthew quoted Jesus as telling a group of Pharisees to learn what this means.

Later Matthew quotes Jesus as saying,

“If you had known what these words mean,

'I desire mercy, not sacrifice,'

you would not have condemned the innocent.”

Brothers and sisters, we are fortunate.

We live after the perfect sacrifice was made.

We are the innocent.

Redeemed.

Sanctified.

Blessed
Bought with blood.

Jesus was the final perfect sacrifice for Sin opening the floodgate of God’s unfailing, steadfast, never ending, new-every-morning mercy upon all creation.

All mankind.

Everyone.

That means you.

This is solid bedrock to be built upon in confidence.

The light is on.

When the light is on, all darkness flees.

Need sunglasses?

The Burden

You heard the Gospel.
You accepted Christ.
You did all the things expected of you and what you believed was right.

And still, there it was.

Doubt

Hurt

Frustration

How do others do it? How do they live the Christian life?

With the doubts?

With the hurting?

With the frustration?

Without feeling guilty for having doubts, hurts and frustrations?

It’s a heavy load. A burden. It’s taxing. This Christian life wears you out.

You gave up and left.

Or gave in and stayed. Kept your head down. Punched the clock. Played the role. Persevered.

Staying the course builds character you say to yourself… or have been told.

(Stay with me, there’s light ahead)

Imagine this:

You get the perfect job offer, a “hand in glove” fit. The company is respected and well known in its industry. Everyone wants to work there. Its business is sky-rocketing with no end in sight. Unstoppable growth. No foreseeable limits in the future. Twice the pay anyone else in the industry is offering. Stock options and guaranteed bonuses. Benefits out the wazoo. Huge signing bonus. However...

The man who will be your boss is a known tyrant. He demands nothing less than perfect performance. He demands respect and admiration. He rarely speaks to his “underlings” and will expect you to read the employee manual and follow it to the letter without question. Not to worry though, you will be provided with other employees who will help you interpret what’s in the manual, or simply tell you what it says.

Your boss won’t tell you directly what your job is either. You’ll have to figure it out by what’s in the employee manual too. But… there’s good news.

When you mess up – and you will mess up – the HR guy who recruited you will take all the blame and all the punishment for your shortcomings, no matter how severe the punishment. Even the things that you don’t realize you are doing wrong get put on the HR guy, for which he is also punished. This happens even if you realize your mess up and confess it to your boss (via email) and beg his forgiveness and promise to never do it again – which you will do again anyway, of course. And this HR guy not only takes the hit for you, but for all of his other recruits as well.

You’ll never hear that you are doing a great job but always hear when there’s a problem. Your co-workers are in the same predicament as you, so when they tell you that you are OK and doing a good job, how do they know?

You'll really like the HR guy so you know you'll feel awful when he takes the full force of the boss’s scorn for all your missteps and mistakes so you’ll need to try very hard not to add to his punishments. After all, his punishment will be your punishment.

Doubts

Hurts

Frustration

You know all this up front including what the corporate culture is.

Do you take the job,

or pass?

If you take it,

how long do you think you will last?

What if before you were born you were presented with a similar scenario but about your father rather than your boss and the HR guy was your brother and the company was your home life.

Thank you,

or no thank you?

You know this imagined scenario is a crude representation of the Gospel as it is typically presented. It may be a bit harsh but all the elements are there.

Even in this crude format, you can see that this “Gospel,” or “Good News” doesn’t sound so “good.” It actually sounds terrible and in some ways terrifying and cruel.

One more imagining. (I promise to shine the light soon)

Imagine the Gospel as a rock.

A big rock.

Bigger than you can carry.

Big enough that you need a harness to drag it along behind you.

Maybe in your mind yours is not too big.

Maybe you see it as huge – taller than yourself.

Maybe it’s taller than yourself but in a wagon and you are hitched to the wagon it’s in.

You drag this rock around by the harness.

How is this yolk easy?

How is this burden light?

In Matthew’s Gospel it is recounted that Jesus said to a crowd,

“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden,

and I will give you rest.

Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me,

for I am gentle and humble in heart,

and you will find rest for your souls.

For My yoke is easy

and My burden is light.” (NASB)

If the Gospel – if the Good News – does not give rest to the weary and heavy-laden

it is not the real Good News.

If the Gospel – if the Good News – does not give rest to your soul

it is not the real Good News.

If the Gospel – if the Good News – is not easy and its burden is not light

it is not the real Good News.

The real, honest to goodness Good News is energizing, gives peace and rest, is not at all difficult, and does not weigh you down.
Here is the Light.

Next we’ll turn it on.