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Since It Is True…

5×5×5 Bible Plan

Read: Romans 1
Meditation: Romans 1:4

“Jesus was shown to be the Son of God when he was raised from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit. He is Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Shift Your Focus… The late Jaroslav Pelikan, one of the world’s leading scholars in the history of Christianity and medieval intellectual history, wrote, “If Christ is risen, nothing else matters. And if Christ is not risen—nothing else matters.”

The resurrection is the fulcrum of our Christian faith and indeed, the pivotal point in all of human history.  As C.S. Lewis said, “If the thing happened, it was the central event in the history of the earth.” If Jesus rose from the dead, then he is Lord of all.  If he didn’t rise from the dead, then our faith is useless and, as Paul says in I Corinthians 15:12-19, Christians are hopeless and to be pitied above all people.

But we believe Jesus rose from the dead.  We have staked our faith, our lives, and our eternities on the scriptural and historical evidence that Jesus broke the chains of death that bound him in that garden tomb and rose again to life, thus defeating death, hell and the grave.

Since that is true, nothing else matters—Jesus is the Son of God and Lord of all!

Since that is true, we can place our trust in Jesus Christ to save us from our sins and deliver us to eternal life.

Since that is true, we can have confidence in Jesus Christ to be with us every step of the way in our earthly journey, knowing that he will never leave us nor forsake us.

Since that is true, we can experience the same resurrection power that coursed through the body of Jesus Christ coursing through our mortal bodies, enabling us to live the abundant life that he came to give us—God’s favor in the physical, emotional, relational and spiritual dimensions of living.

Since that is true, we can experience the same overcoming life that Jesus Christ lived, living above sin and in holiness to God.

Since that is true, we can boldly share the Good News with lost people of how Jesus Christ has made a difference in our lives.  We do not need to be ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes (Romans 1:16).  We do not have to be timid about our faith—in fact, if he is truly risen, to be timid would simply not be an option.  If Jesus is risen, then he is either Lord of all, or not Lord of all.

Since that is true, we can place our lives squarely in God’s sovereign care, get busy fulfilling his purposes through our lives, and commit all of our energies, efforts and resources to glorifying him in everything we say and do.

He is risen!  He is risen indeed!  And nothing else matters.

“Our old history ends with the cross; our new history begins with the resurrection.” ~Watchman Nee

Prayer… Lord, you are risen; you are risen indeed—and nothing else matters.  Remind me throughout this day that I can live in the reality of your resurrection.  Enable me today to live as if nothing else matters, because nothing else matters.  

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This Is What Disciples Do

5×5×5 Bible Plan

Read: Matthew 28
Meditation: Matthew 28:19-20

“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Shift Your Focus… What do real disciples do? Two things actually: They reflect, and they replicate.

To begin with, authentic disciples become like the Master. They fully devote themselves to his life and fully obey his teachings. They become like the Jesus in thought, word and deed to the point where his very being is reflected in the essential quality of their being. The Master becomes the sum and substance of their lives.

Only by the kind of transformation where the Master is fundamentally reflected, from the center to the circumference, in the lives of his disciples can they in turn “go and make [other] disciples.” Only then can they teach others to “observe all that [the Master] has commanded.”

That is what it means to be truly Christian. Being truly Christian means being an authentic disciple. One cannot happen without the other—Christianity means discipleship; discipleship means Christianity. Being either is not just in name, it is in the reflection of the Master in the life of the disciple. Calling oneself a disciple is simply wishful thinking without doing the things of discipleship and being in essence the reflection of the Master. Call it what you will, anything less is nothing more than inauthentic discipleship, non-Christianity, and false religion.

Then, authentic disciples replicate the life of the Master through their lives in the lives of others. In other words, they reproduce. Barren discipleship is non-discipleship. True disciples go with the message, bearing the life of the One they reflect, and persuade others to follow Jesus.

Disciples don’t just win coverts to Christianity, they make other disciples in the way of the Master. To convert a soul to Jesus simply begins the process of discipleship. Conversion is the first step; discipleship is the journey. True conversion that begins the journey of authentic discipleship requires the same full devotion to the Master’s life and the same full obedience to his teaching that took place in the proto-disciple. The Master’s life is replicated in the disciple, who in turn replicates the Master’s life in the convert, who then, in turn, replicates the Master’s life in still others.

That is when discipleship comes full circle; when discipleship is proven authentic.

Here is the real question in all of this: Are you a true disciple? The answer is easy: If you are reflecting and replicating the life of the Master, you’re in pretty good shape.

If you aren’t, you need to go back and have a serious conversation — should I say, “conversion” — with the Master.

“Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity without Christ.” ~Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Prayer… Jesus, you said we cannot truly call you Lord unless we do the things you said we should do. With all of my heart, I want to be authentic when I call you Lord. Help me to give you my full devotion and complete obedience. Make me a true disciple.

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Curtains

5×5×5 Bible Plan

Read: Matthew 27
Meditation: Matthew 27:51

“Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.”

Shift Your Focus… There is a high likelihood that you will pass by this curtain-tearing incident too quickly in light of all of the other amazing details of the crucifixion.  If you do, you will miss one of the most significant events in the history of God’s dealing with mankind.

A little background information on the curtain may help.  Kimberly Southwall writes,

The temple had two important rooms in it. One was called the Holy Place, and the other was called the Most Holy Place. A curtain separated the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place. (Exodus 26:31-33.) The Most Holy Place represented the presence of God Himself. Because of that, the Most Holy Place was so special that God only allowed a priest to enter into it one time each year. No one else was ever allowed inside that room. The priest entered the Most Holy Place once a year to take the blood from a sacrificed animal to sprinkle inside to atone or try to make up for the peoples’ sins during that past year. For many years, this was the only way God’s people could hope to atone for their sins. But even this way wasn’t really good enough. That’s why God sent His only Son, Jesus, to die and atone for everyone’s sins, once and for all.

Keep in mind that this curtain was not like the ones in your home.  To begin with, only the High Priest could get near it; and then only once a year.  Not only that, it would have been impossibly tall to rip from the top to the bottom without a ladder.  Moreover, it was so thick that, ladder or not, no human hand could ever have torn it in two.

So what is going on here?  At the moment Jesus died to atone for our sins, it is as if God reached down from the unseen realm where he dwells, grabbed the curtain with both hands, ripping it with a vengeance, and thus opening up a new way for you and me into his very presence.

How awesome is that!  No longer do we need to come to God through an ineffective system of religious laws, procedural sacrifices, or by a high priest.  We can now boldly, confidently, and regularly come right into the very presence of God himself to obtain what we need. The writer of Hebrews describes it this way,

“Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.” (Hebrews 10:19-23)

The writer puts it similarly in Hebrews 4:16, “Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

Now, aren’t you glad God ripped the curtain?  I sure am.  Next time you read Matthew 27, pause at verse 51 for a little while.

And while you’re at it, be a little bold before God in your prayers!

“This is the mystery of the riches of divine grace for sinners, for by a wonderful exchange our sins are now not ours but Christ’s, and Christ’s righteousness is not Christ’s, but ours.”  ~Martin Luther

Prayer… Lord God, thank you for this “new and living way” you have opened up from me into your presence.  By Christ’s sacrifice, you have given me the right and the privilege to come right before your throne to obtain mercy and find grace.  So I ask you Lord, in light of that, by your mercy, cleanse me from my unrighteousness, and by your grace, pour out all of heaven’s blessings upon me this day.  In Jesus’ name I pray.

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The Center of God’s Will

5×5×5 Bible Plan

Read: Matthew 26
Meditation: Matthew 26:39

Jesus went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.”

Shift Your Focus… Where is the greatest place in the world to be? In the very center of God’s will, that’s where!

And when we can learn to not only pray, but earnestly desire God’s will for our lives—unpleasant and undesired circumstances notwithstanding—then we will have discovered what Jesus knew all along when he prayed that prayer: The Divine “eye” of the Satanic storm.

Jesus desired his Father’s will more than anything else—even life itself. He knew his purpose in life was to fulfill God’s will, which was to redeem a lost world by his sacrificial death. He entrusted his own personal preferences to the One who not only works out all things for His own glory, but for the good of His children as well. (Romans 8:28)

That’s why Jesus, “the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Jesus knew that the path to the crown was by way of the cross.

So what about you? Have you come to that place where you can subjugate your own preferences to the will of God? When you can so entrust your life to the Father’s perfect plan, no matter what that means, you will have discovered, as Jesus did, the best place in the world to be. Hebrews 12:1-3 reminds us,

“Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses [Jesus and others who heroically fulfilled God’s will], let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls.”

Are you struggling with God’s will? Does it seem a little too much to handle? Consider Jesus! Endure your cross now; afterwards comes the crown!

Before he was martyred by the Naizis, German pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote in a letter from prison, “Much that worries us beforehand can afterwards, quite unexpectedly, have a happy and simple solution… Things really are in a better hand than ours.”

That’s why you can pray, “Father, not my will, but Yours be done!” Your life—unpleasant and undesired circumstances notwithstanding—is in better hands than yours.

And after your cross, if you endure by doing the will of the Father, comes the crown.

“God knows our situation; He will not judge us as if we had no difficulties to overcome. What matters is the sincerity and perseverance of our will to overcome them.” ~C.S. Lewis

Prayer… Father, not my will, but yours be done!

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The Thrill of the Risk

5×5×5 Bible Plan

Read: Matthew 25
Meditation: Matthew 25:15,18

“The kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country, who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them.  To one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability; and immediately he went on a journey … But he who had received one went and dug in the ground, and hid his lord’s money.”

Shift Your Focus… You probably know this Parable of the Talents well. Each of the servants was given talents (a sum of money) according to his ability, with the expectation that they would use the endowment to produce something of benefit for the master.

The first two did—and were rewarded handsomely; the third didn’t—and was rebuked harshly. In fact, the talent was taken from the latter and given to the first servant, since he had proven to the master that he could increase exponentially whatever was placed in his care.

Now I have no way to prove this theologically, but I have a strong suspicion about this third servant. I don’t think he would have experienced the master’s rebuke had trying at least preceded his failure. I think it was because he didn’t try that the master’s anger was unleashed on him. He played it safe. He feared failure, so he didn’t risk anything. This one-talent servant simply took what he had been given, protected it, and turned it back over to the master in the same condition in which he had received it. And the master blew a gasket!

This gracious but just master had entrusted something special to the servant and the servant did nothing to expand it. Now here is a crucial part of this story: The master had given his servant the talent according to his ability (verse 15). In other words, the master knew, even though it was small, there was production potential in this servant. But the servant wasted it! He let a golden opportunity slip by, and paid a heavy price for it. He didn’t damage the talent; he didn’t lose it; he preserved it—thinking he was doing the master a favor. However, the master found that kind of fear-based, lazy-hearted stewardship odious.

You, too, have been given a talent—probably more: talents in the literal sense of the word, and talents in the sense of kingdom potential and kingdom opportunity. You have been given them according to your ability—not anyone else’s. You won’t be judged against either another’s potential or their production. Your only benchmark is your own faithfulness. As Charles Robinson pointed out, “The reward of being ‘faithful over a few things’ is just the same as being ‘faithful over many things’; for the emphasis falls upon the same word; it is the ‘faithful’ who will enter ‘into the joy of their Lord.’”

It matters not if you have five, three or one talent potential.  What matters is what you do with what you have been given.  You have been given your talents with the expectation that you will leverage your abilities to increase those talents and enlarge the kingdom for the real Master—for Jesus’ sake.

The whole point of the story is this: Don’t waste your opportunities. Don’t let the possibility of failure paralyze you; don’t let inaction define you. If there is any regret at the end of your faith journey, may it be that you tried and failed, not that you didn’t try.

Risk a little. Even if you fall flat on your face, the fact that your heart was pure and your motive was to increase your Master’s kingdom will bring you to the joyful place of hearing him say to you on that glorious day,

“Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.”  (Matthew 25:23)

Let me say it again: Risk a little!

“Do you seek any further reward beyond that of having pleased God? In truth, you know not how great a good it is to please Him.”  ~John Chrysostom

Prayer… Father, thank you for entrusting me with kingdom potential. I will do my best to expand your kingdom and bring greater glory to your name.

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Prophetic Alertness

5×5×5 Bible Plan

Read: Matthew 24
Meditation: Matthew 24:42

“Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming.”

Shift Your Focus… Forty years ago, singer-songwriter Barry McGuire sang a song called, “Eve of Destruction.” Today, a lot of people think McGuire was dead on—that we are on the eve of destruction! Given conditions around the world, can Planet Earth as we know it continue much longer? Can the human race survive? Are we living in the end times?

Wars, rumors of war, global warming, the real possibility of pandemic, drug-resistant disease, hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes, the inexorable march toward a one-world government, the increase of evil, the rising tide of Islam, instability and unpredictability in the Middle East, escalating hostility toward Israel, increasing intolerance against Christianity, and the alarming surge of rage and violence that is being directed at believers!

Sounds like a page right out of the Bible, doesn’t it? The fact is, 2,000 years ago Jesus predicted these very things here in Matthew 24 when he said, “So you also, when you see all these things, know that it is near—at the doors!” (v. 33)

For very good reason, interest in the end times is at an all-time high! Just look at the unbelievable success of the wildly popular “Left Behind” series—100 million copies sold. People want to know the future! And that’s not bad since we’re going to spend a long time there!

History is hurtling toward a conclusion—one that God has already ordained and foretold in the Bible. It could be soon—it could be today, or tonight, or this week, or it could be another thousand years from now. But no matter when, as the Bible says, God is not slow in fulfilling his Word—Jesus is coming back!

So what are you to do in response to that? Jesus twice said, “Watch and be ready for my coming.” (Verses 42,44) Jesus didn’t talk about the future just to get a crowd or to fill his disciples’ brains with prophetic minutiae. His purpose wasn’t to get them so hyped and overly focused on the second coming that they dropped everything to wait for his return. It wasn’t to make them so heavenly minded they were no earthly good.

Here’s the deal: Jesus’ prophetic sermon wasn’t meant just to clue us in, but to clean us up! He said these things to provoke us to purity! The Apostle John, who knew a fair amount about the end times—he wrote Revelations after all—spoke of our hope in Christ’s return this way:

“This hope makes us keep ourselves holy, just as Christ is holy.” (I John 3:3, CEV)

So the question of when and the details of how that so many people are focused on, though interesting, are not nearly important as this one overriding issue:  Are you watching, and are you ready?

“It is vain to be always looking toward the future and never acting toward it.”  ~John Frederick Boyes

Prayer… Father, as I await the return of your Son, give me a pure heart and an active faith.

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Divine Indictment

5×5×5 Bible Plan

Read: Matthew 23
Meditation: Matthew 23:2

“Therefore whatever [the Pharisees and scribes] tell you to observe, that observe and do, but do not do according to their works; for they say, and do not do.”

Shift Your Focus… Let’s be perfectly clear about this: Sin is sin, and no matter what level of sin it is, it is always offensive to a holy God.  Sin corrupts; it corrodes the soul; it prevents the blessings of God and if not dealt with, will cause the gift of eternal life to be forfeited.

Having said that, have you noticed how Jesus seems to rail against one particular sin more than others?  Jesus doesn’t beat up on prostitutes and thieves and regular run of the mill sinners like he does religious hypocrites.  Just read through this chapter and you will see what I mean.

Hypocrisy is intolerable to God; religious hypocrisy is especially repugnant.  It is the worst indictment the Divine could lay against you.  To say one thing and to do another; to believe one way and live a different way; to teach people one thing and to personally practice another in the name of Christ will arouse God’s disdain like no other.

Why?  Hypocrisy is the height of deceitfulness.  It layers the heart act by act with calluses that will eventually prevent the Holy Spirit from doing his work: Convicting us of sin.  It lures gullible followers into the same destructive pattern of incongruent beliefs.  And perhaps worst of all, it hardens those who are turned off by the religious hypocrisy they witness among God’s so-called people from ever wanting to have anything to do with Jesus Christ.

How many times have you heard an angry, hardened unbeliever say, “If that’s what Christianity is all about, I want nothing to do with it!”?  How sad!  It may be that the hypocrisy they’re reacting to will close the door of their heart for all eternity to God’s offer of salvation.

The challenge with hypocrisy is that it is so hard to spot in your own life.  Again, it is so effectively evil because of its power of deception and the hardening of the heart that it wreaks.  However, if you are willing to lie very still on the Master Surgeon’s operating table, allowing the Holy Spirit to apply his scalpel to your heart, I’m confident that he will expose and excise any hypocrisy that has taken up residence.

Are you courageous enough to allow him to do some spiritual surgery on you today?

“Hypocrisy desires to seem good rather than to be so; honesty desires to be good rather than seem so.” ~Arthur Warwick

Prayer… Holy Spirit, I open my heart to you.  Please expose any hidden and unknown sin.  Remove anything in me that could destroy my relationship with the God I love.