The Secret

One of my friends recently read and blogged about a book called The Secret. It's been a bestseller for quite some time. The author tells readers that there is a secret to life that we get what we think about. Focus your mind on good things, and you will get them. Think about bad things and you'll get stuck with them. OK, I know that's an oversimplification, but that's the premise of the book. This isn't a new idea. I remember when I was working in a Christian bookstore during college, it carried several books by authors claiming the Christian faith who made the same kinds of assertions.

The funny thing about faith in Jesus is that there are no more secrets. This morning, as I was reading in Romans, I ran across these verses:

Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that had been kept secret for long ages, but now is disclosed, and through the prophetic scriptures has been made known to all the nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith – to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, be glory forever! Amen.
Romans 16:25-27 NET

These are the wrap-up verses of the entire book of Romans. Romans is a letter that was written by the Apostle Paul to the believers in living in Rome during the First Century. In this letter Paul tells us THE secret. He clearly spells out for us the reality of our condition and our hope. Then, here at the end of his letter he tells us that the secret is a secret no more. The secret became the revelation when Christ became human and completely revealed God to us. Then, after clearly revealing God, he died because we needed someone to step in and take the wrath of God, so our sins can be forgiven.

What a tragedy it would be if the Good News about God would have remained a secret. If you've not spent a few minutes with God yet today, take a minute or two and pray thanking him for revealing the secret. Thank him for sending his Son not only to reveal him to us but to die, so our sins can be forgiven. Thank him for the gift of faith he gives us, so we can believe in Jesus' saving work.


www.crossroadsfortoworth.org

Upcoming Events

Contact Us

CLICK HERE to receive an email every time a new blog is posted.

Don't tase me, Bro!

You've probably seen the video from the University of Florida of the student who was tased during a John Kerry lecture. As I was reading in Romans this morning, I was reading about the Law and the freedom we have in Jesus. I am continually amazed by how we teach about our salvation. We teach people that our salvation is free. There's nothing we can do to earn it. It's not about what we do but what Jesus has done for us. Then, once they have trusted in Jesus, we do the very thing Jesus condemned the religious leaders for doing. We lay heavy burdens of laws on their shoulders. Why? Because our whole lives people have laid those burdens on us.

I think about how often I've had coffee with people who have come to our church, and their hearts have said to me, "Don't tase me, Bro." Many people who come to CrossRoads have blown it. They have made some decisions that they regret. They find themselves in a place they never thought they would be because their family, job or their whole life has fallen apart around them. Their friends and family have judged them, and what's worse is that they know it's their own fault. As I talk with hurting people, I'm always reminded of Isaiah's description of Jesus:

A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out
Matthew 12:20 NIV

Because we have the Law of God written on our hearts, we know when we sin. Sometimes we do our best to ignore it, but we know. In the Law we come face to face with God's righteousness, and we are condemned. When someone comes to us broken by their own sin, what they need to hear is the Gospel. This week I talked with our teenagers about what the Gospel is. I told them that the Gospel is the reality that Jesus died to make us right with God when we had no desire to be made right with Him. This is what we need to remind each other. When we trust in Jesus, we are never again condemned by God. All of God's punishment for every believer was poured out on Jesus 2,000 years ago as he died on the cross. When the punishment had been atoned for, he cried out from the cross, "It is finished!" And it was.

So, today, be encouraged. If you have trusted in Jesus, you are forgiven. If you have never trusted in Jesus but think there might be something to this, God is waiting for you to trust in him and become part of his family--his family of freedom, forgiveness and hope for life's journey. And, when you hear someone this week saying, "Don't tase me, Bro." Tell them about God's favor and offer them the same break God has offered to all of us who believe.

www.crossroadsfortoworth.org

Upcoming Events

Contact Us

CLICK HERE to receive an email every time a new blog is posted.

5 Days and Counting...

Are you as excited as I am? We are just 5 days out from our Grand Opening in our new facility! I've got several people to invite today. Let's pray together as we reach out to people around us who are looking for the incredible grace of God. As you work to invite your friends, neighbors, coworkers and family, pray for everyone involved in our Worship Gatherings--our Welcome Team, Children's Team, Tech Team, band and me--that we would share the truth of the Gospel in an exciting way this Sunday. Thanks for your prayers and all your work getting us into our new home. Thanks for helping make sure God's house is full this Sunday!

So his master said, "Go out into the country lanes and behind the hedges and urge anyone you find to come, so that the house will be full."
Luke 14:23 NLT

www.crossroadsfortoworth.org

Upcoming Events

Contact Us

CLICK HERE to receive an email every time a new blog is posted.

The Blessed Life...

Have I ever shared one of my pet peeves with you? It makes me crazy when people tell me to "Have a blessed day." Actually, just about any use of the world "blessed" rubs me the wrong way. "Blessed" has become some kind of weird buzzword in the Christian subculture. It seems like its use is closer to the the way fraternities use a secret handshake than the biblical use of the word. When I hear somebody use it, I feel like they might as well be saying, "Don't worry. Be happy."

This makes me crazy because in the Bible the word "bless" has a very specific meaning. God's blessing is his grace. It's his undeserved favor in our lives. "Blessed" doesn't mean happy or nice or fun. "Blessed" means someone is saved by grace through faith in the work of Jesus--his life, death and resurrection.

So, I guess it's OK to say, "Have a blessed day," if by that you are encouraging someone to live in the grace of God. The problem is that the blessing of God is a heavy thing--heavy in the Back to the Future sense. Blessing is not something I can flippantly offer as someone leaves my house or my place of business. God's favor is something I desperately cry out to God the Father to dispense in someone's life as he causes his Spirit to draw them to Jesus. Look at the way Paul quotes Psalm 32 to describe God's blessing:

Romans 4:7-8 NET
Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered;
blessed is the one against whom the Lord will never count sin.

Blessing is not a state of mind we wish someone. Blessing is the new life we find in Christ.

May we be careful with words of grace that they may not be cheapened by over use but powerful words describing the favor we have found by faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. May we remember our own blessing as our words and lives proclaim with the hymn writer:

My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

www.crossroadsfortoworth.org

Upcoming Events

Contact Us

CLICK HERE to receive an email every time a new blog is posted.

Hypocrisy or Misunderstanding?

This morning I was reading one of my favorite books of the New Testament: Romans. I probably read it a couple times a month. It's a beautiful book about God's grace. In Romans Paul reflects on the deep way sin has broken us and calls us to give up on religious rituals to trust in God's grace. Maybe one of the Bible's most refreshing statements comes in Romans 5:

Romans 5:8 NET
But God demonstrates his own love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Back in the first chapter of Romans Paul describes why we have no excuse. He writes that we have all seen the glory of God in creation but have chosen to worship the creation we can see rather than the Creator we cannot see. He ends the passage with the statement:

Romans 1:29-31 NET
They are filled with every kind of unrighteousness, wickedness, covetousness, malice. They are rife with envy, murder, strife, deceit, hostility. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, contrivers of all sorts of evil, disobedient to parents, senseless, covenant-breakers, heartless, ruthless.

Here Paul is describing what sin has done to humanity. Because we have rebelled against God, he has turned us over to our evil desires, and we have become all these things--every one of us. As a matter of fact, Paul goes on in the next chapter to write that we are without excuse when we judge people. To judge someone else is to condemn ourselves because we act the very same way everyone else does. Paul has not yet gotten to the Good News. The Good News is that even though every one of us rebels against God, all who will trust in Jesus are forgiven. Jesus came to earth, lived over 30 years without every rebelling against God and died on a cross to accept God's wrath in our place. Since God's wrath has been satisfied in Jesus, anyone who chooses to trust in Jesus as their only way to pleasing God is completely forgiven.

My heart is saddened every time I hear someone say how they have been judged by a Christian. In those times I wonder if we Christians really are hypocrites. Have we forgotten that we have not done one single thing to make ourselves worthy of God's grace? Have we lost sight of the cross by thinking that we have done something to deserve God's favor? Or are we misunderstood? Do our friends and neighbors see our attempts to help them live better by encouraging them to avoid certain sins come across like judgment?

I think it's too easy to forget the reality of the Gospel. It's too easy for us to begin believing that we are somebody--that we have gotten something right. The reality is that there is only One who got something right, and not one of us is him. May we never give our friends who do not yet believe in Jesus a reason for misunderstanding. May we admit our flaws so the grace of God may be magnified in the eyes of those around us.

www.crossroadsfortoworth.org

Upcoming Events

Contact Us