What's your Label?

Labels. They are on everything. 

Labels will tell you how you should wash a piece of clothing. 

Labels will tell you how much of the cheesecake you should consume. (I’ll save you the trouble of reading the label. eat the he entire amount.)

Labels will tell you when you take your medication; they will tell you how to bake a cake, they will even tell you how to apply shampoo to your hair. 

No matter where you go, you will always find a label. 

People have labels too, don’t they?

You mean you've never heard of Jack the smoker? Jane the glutton? Jimmy the Janitor? (this one isn't made up Jimmy the Janitor isn't really a janitor but a “comedian”)

You get the idea. People come with labels. If they don’t come with them, we tend to give them labels. 

Don’t cross him; he’s __________

Don’t tell her about the sale at the mall, she’ll run right out, because she a shopaholic. 

Even Judas had a label. “Judas Iscariot (who later betrayed him)” (Luke 6:16, nlt2)

Just about every time Judas is mentioned in the Bible, he is identified by his label.

Forever Judas is known by this label. It’s not one that I would want to have, but, I must admit, I have had more than one label in my life. Most, if not all of them, hurt me to no end. 

You’ve probably had a label you did not like either. Maybe you still do. maybe you’re wondering if you're ever going to shed this label. 

Well, the Good News for you today, is Yes, you can! 

Take a look at a very of these preselected verses just for you and me:

“See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” (1 John 3:1a, NIV)

The take away label from this verse is: You are a child of God. You are a LOVED child of God. 

How about this one, spoken by Jesus himself: “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” (John 8:38, NIV)

The take away label from this: You are forgiven! How about walking around with that label? 

Just a few more: “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” (Eph. 2:10, NLT)

The take away label from this: We are Gods Picasso! He has created us for Good works because of Jesus. 

One more: “Once we, too, were foolish and disobedient. We were misled and became slaves to many lusts and pleasures. Our lives were full of evil and envy, and we hated each other. 4 But—

When God our Savior revealed his kindness and love, 5 he saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He washed away our sins, giving us a new birth and new life through the Holy Spirit. 6 He generously poured out the Spirit upon us through Jesus Christ our Savior.” (Titus 3:2-6, nlt2)

There are many labels that you can take away from this passage, here’s just a couple: Loved. Forgiven. Given New life. 

I wonder how we would live our lives if we focused on the label God gave us, instead of the label we give ourselves?

Today, tomorrow, and next week, lets focus on our real labels of Loved. Forgiven. Child of God. His Masterpiece. 

Let God of the labels you've been "given" by the world. They don't matter. The only thing that matters is what God has to say about us, and if we've placed our trust in Jesus, then we have the best label of all: Forgiven! Live in this label. 

And go ahead and eat that cheesecake. (if you’re reading this and live close to me, I’m home for you to drop one off)

A few thoughts from Genesis 3

This Morning I was reading in Genesis Chapter 3, and a few things caught my attention. Here is the passage, and let me unpack what stuck out to me:

3 The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the Lord God had made. One day he asked the woman, “Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?”

2 “Of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,” the woman replied. 3 “It’s only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God said, ‘You must not eat it or even touch it; if you do, you will die.’”

4 “You won’t die!” the serpent replied to the woman. 5 “God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.”

6 The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too. 7 At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves.

The first thing I noticed, is that the serpent- the devil- has been lying right from the beginning of time. Look closer at verse 3: “Did God really say…“

Satan has been trying forever to twist what God has said, to make us second guess God’s word and making us think that we know better than God does… He tells just enough of a truth to get us thinking and then when we act on it, we've fallen prey to his tricks. 

The second thing I noticed from this passage was the finger pointing that takes place. Read on: 8When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking about in the garden. So they hid from the Lord God among the trees. 9 Then the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”10 He replied, “I heard you walking in the garden, so I hid. I was afraid because I was naked.”11 “Who told you that you were naked?” the Lord God asked. “Have you eaten from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat?”12 The man replied, “It was the woman you gave me who gave me the fruit, and I ate it.”13 Then the Lord God asked the woman, “What have you done?” “The serpent deceived me,” she replied. “That’s why I ate it.” (NLT2)

God asked Adam what was going, why where they hiding, and when Adam told God the reason, Adam shifted blame to his wife. 

When God questioned Eve, she shifted the blame to the serpent.. and we’ve been shifting blame ever since. 

When confronted with our sin, we tend do the same thing don’t we?

“I was tired!” ‘It was because my wife wasn't meeting my needs” “Jimmy made me do it”

If we want victory over sin, we need to accept the fact that we are sinners, that we did the deed and we need to accept it, ask for forgiveness and move on. 

I also noticed in this passage the fact that God came looking for Adam and Eve. Go back again to verse 8. God came out looking for Adam and Eve… even though they were in Hiding, He still wanted to be with them. 

The same is true today. Even though we may be in hiding, God Still wants to be with us. He still wants to find us. So much so that He sent Jesus to this earth to find us, to search us out, to bring us back to God again. 

You’ve heard the saying, “you can run, but you can’t hide.” When applied to God, its the truth. We might be able to run, but we are not able to Hide from Him. He is all knowing, All-powerful- and All seeing, and He knows where you are, knows what you are doing, and he knows that you need Him. He has come to find you. Will you turn to Him?

The last thing I noticed in this chapter is the consequences. read on:

14 Then the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all animals, domestic and wild. You will crawl on your belly, groveling in the dust as long as you live.

15 And I will cause hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.” 16 Then he said to the woman,

“I will sharpen the pain of your pregnancy, and in pain you will give birth. And you will desire to control your husband, but he will rule over you.”

17 And to the man he said, “Since you listened to your wife and ate from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat, the ground is cursed because of you. All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it.18 It will grow thorns and thistles for you, though you will eat of its grains.

19 By the sweat of your brow will you have food to eat until you return to the ground from which you were made. For you were made from dust, and to dust you will return.”

23 So the Lord God banished them from the Garden of Eden, and he sent Adam out to cultivate the ground from which he had been made. 24 After sending them out, the Lord God stationed mighty cherubim to the east of the Garden of Eden. And he placed a flaming sword that flashed back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.” ( 14-19, 23-24)

Because of their disobedience, Adam and Eve were left to deal with the consequences of their actions. They were kicked out of the Garden, But God was still with them. He had not taken His presence from them. Don’t miss that point.

While there may be consequences for our actions as well, we must never think that God has abandoned us. He has promised never to do that. Ever. 

So, what’s the lesson from this post today? 

Don’t listen to the devil! In order to do that, you must know what God’s Word actually says. That way, when the devil comes knocking at your door, you're able to kick him to the curb.

God's Choice!

Ever had one of those days? 

You know, one of those days where nothing you did was turning out right?

One of those days where now matter what you said, it turned out to be wrong?

One of those days that you wanted to feel good, but due to your health condition, you just couldn't muster up the strength to get out of bed?

Or, for those of you who remember: Do you remember the commercial from way back, where we had two sides picking teams, and as most of the players were being selected, it came down to one last player, and no one really wanted to chose this kid, so one team said to the other team: “Ah, you can have him..”

Whatever your situation is, I’m almost certain we've all had one of those days. 

What do you do when you have one of those days?

What do you do when you feel left out?

Do you complain? Do you raise your voice? Do you take a nap? Do you eat? Do you pray?

Everyone of us reacts to one of those days differently, and, while I could offer my advice as to what to do on one of those days, I would like to offer a reminder, something that we can cling to when we are having one of those days. 

It comes from the Book of John, and it was spoken by Jesus Himself. 

It comes towards the end of an incredible chapter in John 15. Jesus is talking about being pruned by His Father— a post for another time—- and we read these words in verse 16: “You didn’t choose me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using my name.”(NLT2)

Its the first part of the verse that we need to hang on to when we are having one of those days: “You didn't choose me. I chose you.” (NLT2)

When we are having a terrible, no good, rotten day, we need to remember these 7 words: “You didn't choose me. I chose you.” 

The God of the universe chose us! We matter so much to Him that He selected each one of us, and has “…appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit….” (NLT2)

This is true on our good days, and it’s especially true on our not so good days. 

When we feel like the world is coming in around us, when we feel at the end of our rope, God is still with us, He has not abandoned us, and He Chose us to work for Him, and He uses all things in our lives to make us more like Him. 

So where am I going with all of this? 

Well, when you're having a bad day— or the best day of your life— I want you to remember these 7 words tucked away in John’s Gospel— “You didn't chose me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit….” (NLT)

God’s ways are so much higher than our ways, and His plans are Higher than our plans. He knows what He is doing at all times, and He has chosen us for a particular purpose, and we must trust in Him. 

God is using the good days— and bad days in our lives to transform us into the People He desires us to be. 

I’m glad that He chose me, because somedays I wouldn't even chose me. 

Follow the Leader

Many of us would agree that there are certain ways to do certain things. For, example: Fredericton’s Traffic Circle. 

Its a two lane traffic circle, and it seems that all the rules of the road are abandoned when people come to this traffic circle. But, there is a right way and a wrong way to drive in this city, and if you want to survive and not die in the traffic circle, you will follow the rules and wait your turn. 

There is a certain way to bake a cake. If you leave one ingredient out, or include too much of an ingredient, then the cake will not taste as it should. 

The same with following Jesus. 

Sort of. 

You see, my journey with Jesus will look completely different than your journey with Jesus. What is wrong for me, might not be wrong for you, and vice versa. Jesus is the One we are to be following; which bring me to today’s scripture.

It’s taken from Matthew 16, and Jesus had just told His disciples that He would be making His way to the cross where he would give His life as a ransom for all, and then Peter told Him not to talk like that; Jesus rebuked Peter, and then went on to say the following:

“Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. 25If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. 26 And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul?” (24-26)

The verse that caught my attention this morning is the second half of verse 24: “you must give up your own way,”

If we are going to make our journey with Jesus a success, we must be willing to give up our own way. 

We must give up our own way to be right. 

We must give up our “well, I have always done it that way before.”

If we want to be a follower of Jesus— and be a close follower of Jesus— we must give up our own way of doing life and follow Him and let Him be our guide. 

Let Jesus tell is us if our behaviour is wrong. 

Let Jesus tell us if our decision isn't the best decision.

Now, hear me out: sometimes, Jesus speaks through Pastors and teachers and neighbours, and other Godly People. He has, and will continue to do so. 

But if we have a regular routine of having a daily quiet time with Him, if we open our hearts and minds as we open the Bible, He is going to speak to us, He is going to go into the deepest part of our heart and ask us to surrender that part of our life over to Him. He just will. 

He will, because if we want to be a follower of Jesus, “you must give up your own way.” 

We must give up our own way; because our own way got us in trouble in the first place! (See Romans, 3:23 & Romans 6:23)

Life is not like a traffic circle; its way stupider. But if we daily surrender our lives over to Jesus, it will be better, because Jesus will doing life with us. 

So, how can you take a few moments today and work on your journey with Jesus? Is there something that He might be asking you to give up? Is your own way getting in the way of His way? Take a few moments and pray to God and ask Him to not only go there in your life, but actually remove any unforgiven sin in your life, and then continue on in your journey with Jesus day by day. 

Some Good News

Today, I think we can all use a little bit of good news. 

Let’s face it, the news of the day doesn't seem to be all that enlightening. It could be down right depressing. Sometimes it is. Sometimes I have to change the channel just to find something that doesn't make me feel so depressed. 

Some of those times, I actually turn off my TV, put my iPad down and open up my Bible. 

I then read passages like this one, taken from Psalm 100:

Shout with joy to the Lord, all the earth!

2 Worship the Lord with gladness. Come before him, singing with joy.

3 Acknowledge that the Lord is God! He made us, and we are his. We are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

4  Enter his gates with thanksgiving; go into his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and praise his name.

5  For the Lord is good. His unfailing love continues forever, and his faithfulness continues to each generation.” (NLT2)

Think about a few things:

God made us! We are His craftsmanship, His handiwork. We are not left alone on this big cosmic dot we like to call Earth, we actually have a Heavenly Father, and His name is God; He looks after us, We are His people, the sheep of HIs pasture. He cares for us, and He invites us to come into His presence and talk with us and praise His Name. He Loves us with an unconditional love, and He invites us to come to Him at anytime at any place and worship Him. 

He wants us to understand that in a world gone bad, He is, and always will be, good. His goodness doesn’t change. Ever. 

Nor does His love for us. It always is the same. There is nothing that we could ever do that would make Him love us any less, nor is there anything that we could do that would make Him love us more than He does right now. God loves us with an everlasting love, because He is love.  

Maybe you can take some time this weekend and let the words of Psalm 100 fill your heart and remind you that you are not alone; that God is good; and God loves you and invites you to come to Him and praise His Name.

Not all that Hard....

Ever had to do something that you thought was impossible? 

Ever seen something and said to yourself: “There is no way I could ever do that!”?

Something like this is going on in my house right now as I type this. 

One of my daughters, is trying to do something but to no avail. Its just not working, and she is getting frustrated and wants to walk away from it all. (Full Disclosure, we have asked her to walk away from it for a while too.)

Sometimes we have a habit of biting off more than we can chew. We see that big project and tell ourselves that we can do it, when in reality, we have no hope of ever getting it done. It's nothing personal, its just the fact that it’s just over our heads. 

Don’t ask me to put steel roofing on a house, I wont be able to do it. Don’t ask me to run a marathon, I can barely make it out of my driveway.  But ask me to write a sermon and preach it, then I’m your man, it is something that we can do 

There are some things in life that are hard, difficult, or down right impossible for us to do. 

Salvation isn't one of them. 

Before, you pick up that stone, read these words from Paul as found in Romans 3:

“20 For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are.

21 But now God has shown us a way to be made right with him without keeping the requirements of the law, as was promised in the writings of Moses and the prophets long ago. 22 We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are.

23 For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. 24 Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. 25 For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood.” (NLT2)

Coming to faith in Jesus is hard, but its not difficult. It’s as simple— and as difficult- as placing our hope, trust— entire life— in the hands of Jesus.

God has done the impossible for us; He made the way to Him through His Son, Jesus Christ. 

Just as all roads do not lead to Rome, there are not several ways to get to God. There is only way. Jesus. 

The difficult part is when we make it difficult. We think we have to do A, then B and then C, and then divide D by B and then multiply that by F and then we’re good… 

That is simply not true. Jesus has done everything in His power to get us to God. The Only thing He hasn't done, and will never do, is break into our hearts and make the decision for us. That is something we have to do on our own. 

Its difficult, yes, but not impossible. 

Its difficult because we have to come to the end of ourselves, we have to admit that we are sinners, and that left on our own, we will never ever get to — or see God. 

But thanks to Jesus, we can be made right with God through faith in Jesus.

So, while your job today might be hard, or almost impossible, I want you to know that coming to Jesus isn't one of those things. And that is good news. 

The Text Message...

A few weeks ago, I received a text message from a friend of mine. The text was short and sweet. 

“I need to talk to you after service.”

After I responded back with “ok.” my mind went in overdrive. 

What could he possibly want to talk to me about? “What did I even do?” No word of a lie here, my mind flashed back to events that took place a LONG time ago, when he two of us had worked together. 

Then I showed the text to my wife, and told her that I hated getting short messages like that. 

She replied back: “You haven’t done anything bad, so what are you worried about?”

I stewed on that message for the rest of the night, right up until the time I could meet with the person who sent me the text message. 

You know what? The conversation wasn't about me doing something wrong! Imagine!? It was an incredibly positive conversation, one that actually benefited me, not harmed me. 

Why is it that we almost always think negative thoughts when someone wants to talk to/with us? 

I’m not sure if I have an complete answer on this one, but it could be because:

 a) we have done something wrong

 b) We’d rather think negative thoughts about ourselves than positive thoughts 

(What we sometimes forget, is that some people are legitimately concerned about us, and they just want to talk to us just because. No other reason. They just want to know how we are.) 

The sad part, however, is that most of the time, I tend to think negative things when someone wants to “talk with me.”

This was certainly the case this time, but then I quickly remembered a verse I had read a long time ago found in the Book of Romans. 

“For the authorities do not strike fear in people who are doing right, but in those who are doing wrong. Would you like to live without fear of the authorities? Do what is right, and they will honor you. 4 The authorities are God’s servants, sent for your good. But if you are doing wrong, of course you should be afraid, for they have the power to punish you. They are God’s servants, sent for the very purpose of punishing those who do what is wrong. 5 So you must submit to them, not only to avoid punishment, but also to keep a clear conscience.” (Romans 13:3-5)

If, I had done nothing wrong, then I had nothing to be afraid of. 

However, If i had done something wrong, then I had every right to be scared, because I was being called out.

The Life lesson is, two fold: 

If you text me and want to talk, give me a heads up on what you want to talk about to save me from a heart attack, and secondly— and seriously— life live as Jesus wants, obey the authorities, and you won’t have to be scared when someone does text you and wants to talk.