The Gospel of Cleaning

I want to tell you two stories.
I want to tell you two miracles.

The first happened 2,000 years ago the second 2 mins (probably long now) ago.

Story One: Dead Man lives!

The first story is the recorded in John's Gospel Chapter 11.
It is the story with the shortest Bible verse, "Jesus wept"

But why was Jesus crying? Was he prophesying the pain I would have as a pirates fan? No! Though, I believe He feels my pain.

His tears were a result of his friend dying. His name was Lazarus.

Jesus is greeted in the town of Bethany by Lazarus' two sisters: Mary and Martha. They individually tell him of the death and individually blame Jesus for not showing up in time.

"If you would have been here my brother would not have died!"

Jesus then tells them how 'He is the Resurrection and the life."

You see, this death thing is only temporary. It does not have the final say.

He walks over to the grave of his dear friend and declares, "Lazarus, come out."

This man was dead for 4 days! Yet when Jesus called he returned to life.

Story Two: Garage is cleaned!  (mostly)

We have a garage where we park Jasmine's car.

It was last cleaned (probably) in late 2013. We bought the house in April of 2018. Since buying the house we made this outdoor garage dirtier.

Im talking leaves, grass (which is now hay, is that how that works?), pizza boxes, dirt, dirt, and more dirt. Oh yea, rat turds.

I hate cleaning but when Jasmine told me she and Neil were going over to a friend's tonight I decided to tackle it. Hours later it is much better.

But I couldn't help but think of the story of Lazarus.  And I couldn't help but think about Jesus.

Because when I look at my life I see dirt. 

I mean you don't see it (or maybe you are polite and overlook my shortcomings) but we all have rat crap in our hearts. 

Yet Jesus loves us. And He wants to save us.

And when I say "save us" I don't mean "say a prayer" and I don't mean "send us to heaven."

I literally mean "save us"

He wants to change us and restore us. But why?

I mean if I'm a better person what difference does it make? If my character is developed and I act like Jesus and love those around me does it matter?

I mean in 100 years no one will remember me. I mean probably not.

But Jesus still wants to restore

So Jesus is kinda acting interesting.

Did Jesus know he was going to raise Lazarus from the grave? Yes.

So why did he cry?

Did Jesus know Lazarus would die years later? Yes

So why bother raising him from the grave if he would die years later?

Wrap it up!

The Gospel is Good News. The Gospel is restorative.

And more than that its a preview of Heaven.

The more hope I release to those around me the more I am living in heaven now!
The more joy I release to those around me the more I am living in heaven now!
The more forgiveness/love/kindness I release the more I am living in heaven now!


So why care? Because I believe ever act makes a difference.

So let Jesus clean the Rat Crap of your heart daily so you can in turn love others!

Confidence

Does Faith= belief?

or maybe Faith= trust?

Hebrews 11:1 (in the NIV) says, "Now Faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see."

I like this definition but I must wrestle with this word "Confidence"   

When I was younger I knew a lot more than I know now. Or maybe I didn't know what I didn't know. Life happens and you realize you don't have all the answers. But at the same time we can understand that we don't need to have all the answers. 

I don't like a Christianity that has all the answers. It's too weak. It's too problematic. It's too watered down. 

What do you mean you don't believe in credo-baptism? "It is clearly the argument we receive in the Bible." 

While others can argue from the other side.... "infant baptism is the way to go..."

So who's right? 

Does it matter?

Maybe.

What does this have to do with faith?

I think we can have our faith wrapped up in the wrong things. We can have our faith wrapped up in how the world works (ie our belief system) and totally miss God. 

I think the cool thing about Christianity is Jesus rocked the boat of the religious folk of the day. 

They loved being "confident" in their belief system yet they did not know God. 

We can do the same thing. We can be so confident this is how "God works" That we miss what he is trying to teach us. 

Instead of faith being in our belief system (because if you have been wrong before how do you know you will not be wrong in the future?) we should have our faith in God revealed to us in Jesus. 

I believe God is good. Now my understanding of God's goodness may be different than yours. (And that's okay!!!!) There is still room for both of us at the table! Hooray!

"You fathers--- if your children asks for a fish do you give them a snake? Or if they ask for an egg, do you give them a scorpion?"

Can you hear the sarcastic voice of Jesus? 

He continues, "OF COURSE NOT!!!!!"

"So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him."\

God is good. He created you. He sent his son Jesus to die for you. And He sent His Holy Spirit to live in you. 

So be confident. Not in yourself. Not in your belief system. Or whatever else. But in God. 

He is the One we can confide. He is the Father that gives good gifts to us. 

So, Anyhow I pray you will know you are loved by God and can have confidence in His love toward you. 

Like Dad

Kids are like their parents. We refuse to admit this! We deny this! We refuse to accept this as reality when we are in our teen years.... But it's true.

It's funny how you can look at a child and see some combination of their mother and father in them. I have seen this play out in my own life and in those around me....

So I was wondering.... Who is Jesus like?

You see we can pit The Father against the Son. Right?

We can believe that God is the bad guy. We can believe He is angry and the only reason why He doesn't.... is Jesus. Jesus shields us from the angry of God.

But this is silly and you know it!!!!

St Paul reminds us that "Jesus is the image of the invisible God."

He is God's "Selfie."

God looks like Jesus... Of course He does. Sons look like their father's!!!!

If you see God "do" something in the Old Testament that is confusion.... it's because you don't have your "Jesus glasses" on. We have Jesus so we can view everything through those lenses.

God is not mad at you. He doesn't tolerate you. He loves you. And He likes you.

He wants to me around you! He calls you up and wants you to hang out with him in his presence.

You matter to him!

How do I know this????

I know this to be true because of how inclusive Jesus was! He welcomed sinners, tax collectors, women that slept around.... the rejected.... He welcomed them all...freely!

Jesus is like his Father. And because we know a lot about Jesus through the written revealed word we can know a lot of our eternal Father.

Now... the question we must ask is.... are we becoming more like our Heavenly father?

If we are children of God we can't help but become more like our Father. We become more like our father....

or to word it a different way.... You become what or who you worship!

This is a no shame game.. Maybe you feel a million miles from God right now. He still loves you. And He is so happy to have you back. He is not mad. He is the father in the parable of the prodigal son that welcomes his rebel of a son back in 1 second! And throws a party! Hey come back to God and He parties with you! Pretty cool, huh!

Jesus is like his Dad!
We can become like our eternal Father!

Have a great day!