Not What I Have Done

Three instances in the past twenty four hours have served to reinforce a theme in my mind and heart. Firstly, I had a brief, unexpected conversation last night with a new friend who is a member of the Latter Day Saints (Mormon) church. He explained to me that God does not expect us to be perfect but to, essentially, do our best, and Jesus will take care of the rest. We discussed this more, but not as much as I wish we could have. What I take away from this conversation is the fact that what I believe about Jesus is radical. It is contrary to what we as humans want to believe, for whatever reason. We want to earn everything. My Mormon friend wants to earn everything. I want to earn everything. I want to say that I played some part in earning God's favor. I "merited" it. I get a merit badge. That, however, is not what God says is true.

"You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect."
Matthew 5:48

"None is righteous, no not one. No one understands, no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless. No one does good, not even one."
Romans 3:10-12

"To the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift, but as his due. But, to the one who does not work, but trusts Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness."
Romans 4:4-5


(from pe.com)

Secondly, I had the privilege this morning of telling the story of Jesus' birth to the elementary students at my church and explaining why it is such good news. I told them that even Jesus' name means something! His name is translated from Hebrew and means "God saves." When I embrace a "works mindset," believing I somehow receive blessings from God because I have done enough good things, God no longer saves. God gives me my wage, my earnings, my merit badge. That doesn't even fit with his name! I don't know how to say "God pins badge" in Hebrew, but it's not "Jesus."


(from melrosetroop68.org)

Thirdly, during the praise music at church this morning, we read the following verse out loud together:

"Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: 'The LORD is our righteousness.'"
Jeremiah 23:5-6

This is a prophecy about Jesus, and it tells us of another well-suited name for my Savior, a name which I very seldom hear mentioned. "The LORD is our righteousness." This is the essence of the gospel, the good news of Jesus. Because of my utter failure to conform to God's perfect law, Jesus did it for me and offers me his record.

The point is this: In thinking about my standing before God, I often want to subtly mix in one teaspoon of trust in my own efforts and achievements. Instead, I will, and I must continuously decide to accept Jesus' offer, his penalty paid in my place, and his perfect record substituted for mine. From this kind of trust flows all my freedom to love God and run in the path of his commands. When I realize how much I've been rescued from, I am grateful to God and want to love others in the same way. When I deceive myself into believing that I earned what I have, I swell up with pride, wait for others to pat me on the back, and I sit on my pompous butt.

(from frealfitness.com)

Denver, Baby

This week I finally made my final decision. I am going to Denver for two years! Six months ago I decided to move here to North Carolina, live with my brother, Andy, and learn more about the church plant he is helping to lead in Denver. Soma Church(which means body, as in the body of Christ)is going to be in Denver metro, and the vision of the church is to love God, love each other, and love the community. Doesn't that sound great? Well, the tricky thing is this... all kinds of churches have vision statements just like that. The way I have learned what Soma is really all about has been by living here with the team, praying with them, confessing sin with them, studying the Bible together, hanging out, and "doing life" together. They are all sinners! They know that and are quick and open to tell you that. However, they are genuine people whom I now trust, and I am happy, excited, and, let's be honest, a bit nervous to be heading out there with them in about a month.

Doing life together has been great, but it has not been roses and peaches the whole time.


(Picture from carolchambers.biz)

I have been learning about my idols, learning how to take responsibility for myself in a lot of new ways, learning to embrace confrontations, and learning how to cut grass! Yes, I have had the privilege of being on a landscaping crew with a few really cool guys who have patiently trained me in the art of lawn care. While it is a fun and rewarding job, I hope to be able to use my civil engineering degree eventually, and I have been putting out applications like crazy in Denver. Here is a small example of a confrontation I've faced: at one point, about three months ago, I literally said out-lout to God, "I don't want to go to Denver with Andy, I don't even like him!" We had just had an argument about me "stealing" his peanut butter, and I was pretty mad at the way he treated me. (Isn't that ridiculous?) However, and this is what I want to mark everything in my life, we applied the gospel, the good news of Jesus. God covers up all my offenses, yes, all of them, and he gives me the perfect record of Jesus the Messiah, instead. How in the world should I not forgive my brother? We admitted our selfishness, we followed Jesus in forgiving each other, and we agreed on a good peanut butter system to avoid confusion in the cupboard. That is a dumb story, I know. However, I pray that God will teach us, Soma Church, to apply the gospel to everything we do in Denver Colorado, specifically, in loving God, loving each other, and loving the city. Actually that is the vision statement of the church sending us, The Summit. Our vision is the same but we say Gospel, Community, Mission. (I guess we love the idea but want to appear original.) I want to see a gospel movement, because Jesus is worthy!