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It’s All The President’s Fault

Take Responsibility for Your Own Life

SYNOPSIS: Shifting blame for problems is humanity’s national pastime, going all the way back to  Eden when Adam blamed Eve, then Eve blamed the serpent, and the serpent didn’t have a leg to stand on. But Proverbs 19:3 reminds us, “Some people ruin themselves by their own stupid actions and then blame the Lord.” Listen up my friend, raging against God or blaming anybody other than yourself is risky business! It’s counter-productive to your personal growth. It reduces you to perpetual victimhood. It keeps you from exercising the one ability that makes you the highest order of God’s creation: personal responsibility. Instead, take ownership of your own flaws and failures and do something about them (cf. Gen 4:7). Whenever you do that, it’s a good thing.

Blaming is risky business.

Moments With God // Proverbs 19:3

A man’s own folly ruins his life, yet his heart rages against the Lord.

I knew that title would get your attention, depending on which political party you subscribe to!

Now, just relax—I’m not making a political statement. If you were about to get all right wing—chill! If you’re a lefty—same to ya! My point is, whether you’re a conservative or liberal, you probably like to blame. If you’re a part of the human race, you’ve just got that blame gene coiled tight and ready to spring. It’s our national pastime as human beings, going all the way back to the Garden of Eden when Adam blamed Eve and Eve blamed the serpent and the serpent didn’t have a leg to stand on.

I like the way the Message translates Proverbs 19:3—it doesn’t get much plainer than this:

People ruin their lives by their own stupidity, so why does God always get blamed?

Have you ever known anyone to blame God when the mess they were in was the result of their own foolishness? No exaggeration—I meet people on a weekly basis who do that. Perhaps you would have to admit that even you have been guilty of pointing the finger at God?

  • Have you ever overspent, or exercised poor financial management, or purchased something you couldn’t afford then blamed God for a bank account that won’t pay the bills?
  • Have you neglected the spiritual disciplines—Bible reading, prayer, worship, regular church attendance—then wondered why God doesn’t seem to speak to you in times of distress?
  • Have you withheld your tithe and then blamed God for the loss of a job, or unhappiness in your vocation, or a rotten work environment?
  • Have you been undisciplined in eating, sleeping, and exercising, then been upset when God didn’t give you a physical healing?
  • Have you ever allowed a negative personality trait to go unchecked and then wondered why God doesn’t give you close friends or help you sustain a dating relationship or find a mate?

My guess is that some of you reading this right now are getting mad at me. But raging against me, or God, or blaming anybody other than yourself is risky business! It’s counter-productive to your personal growth. It reduces you to perpetual victimhood. It keeps you from exercising the one ability that makes you the highest order of God’s creation: personal responsibility.

You will notice two key words in that verse. The first one is the word “ruin.” In Hebrew, it’s salap, which means to distort, twist, or pervert. It means to twist the facts or distort reality, and it leads to clouding one’s ability to think clearly. If you are in the habit of casting blame against God, you will end up with twisted thinking and lose touch with what is truly going on.

The second one is the word “rages.” In the Hebrew, it is the word za’ep, which means to fume or to storm. It was used to describe breathing hard or blowing, like a storm blowing in and raging. If you are a blamer, your twisted thinking will cause you to rage unreasonably against the wrong object.

If that is the case with you, quit raging against God, or others, and get mad enough at your own foolish behavior that it leads you to take ownership of it and do something about it. That is taking personal responsibility.

And whenever you do that, it’s a good thing.

Notice how God says this very thing to Cain in the famous line from Genesis 4:7,

If you do what is right, will you will be smiling (TEV). But if you don’t do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.

So seriously consider what God says in terms of your own life. Then, go do the right thing!

Take A Moment: Do you have a trusted and honest friend? I hope so. Ask them if you have any character deficits for which you are not taking personal responsibility. And here is a rule of thumb for this kind of activity: Whatever they say—believe them.

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Holy Heartburn, Batman!

When You Find Your Heart Burning Within You

SYNOPSIS: The two disciples who were walking the road from Jerusalem to Emmaus after the crucifixion were in a deep funk—their hopes crushed, their dreams dashed—until the resurrected Jesus showed up and gave them a case of holy heartburn: “Didn’t our hearts burn within us as he spoke to us?” they said to one another in retrospect. Maybe you are in that kind of funk today. Perhaps your hopes have been dashed, your dreams have died, your circumstances are not what you had expected, and the life you imagined life has not turned out as you had hoped. Let Jesus give you a little heartburn today. Take heart my friend, when the Great Resurrector resurrects your hope, you will catch a case of holy heartburn and you will never be the same.

"Christ is risen!" isn't just for Easter Sunday!

Moments With God // Luke 24:31-32

By this time the two disciples were nearing Emmaus and the end of their journey. Jesus acted as if he were going on, but they begged him, “Stay the night with us, since it is getting late.” So he went home with them. As they sat down to eat, he took the bread and blessed it. Then he broke it and gave it to them. Suddenly, their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And at that moment he disappeared! They said to each other, “Didn’t our hearts burn within us as he talked with us on the road and explained the Scriptures to us?”

Heartburn isn’t usually a good thing, but when God shows up and gives you heartburn, it’s a good thing.

Two disciples, perhaps a man and his wife, were walking the seven-mile journey from Jerusalem to Emmaus, discussing the devastating news of the past few hours. It was the very first Easter Sunday, but they didn’t know yet that Jesus had risen from the tomb. As far as they were concerned, he was dead and gone—and so were their hopes.

Then Jesus showed up, although his identity was hidden from them, and gave them an incurable case of holy heartburn. It was the heartburn of hope, and it was just the cure their broken hearts needed in those post-crucifixion moments.

That’s the beauty of the resurrection. No matter what you are going through, the empty tomb stands as a constant and certain reminder that there is always reason for hopefulness. That’s why the psalmist, David, said, “Why are you hopeless? Why are you in turmoil? Put your hope in God!” (Psalm 42:5) Resurrection hope is not just wishful thinking or a pie-in-the-sky kind of attitude that says, “Oh well, things will turn out okay someday.” It’s not the breezy kind of optimism that Mary Martin sang about in South Pacific when she said “I’m stuck like a dope with a thing called hope.”

The kind of hope Jesus will burn into your heart is first of all, a reliable hope. Marx said that hope is the opiate of the people, but Christian hope is built on the foundation of the Bible and supported by the reality of the empty tomb. Verse 27 says, “Then Jesus took them through the writings of Moses and all the prophets, explaining from all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.”

Second, resurrection hope is a relational hope. The resurrection is not just a story from the pages of history. “Christ is risen” isn’t just a theological incantation that clerics pull out of their bag of tricks every Easter. It is hope that arises from an experience with Jesus himself, not just a dream or a fantasy or a phantom. Verse 29 says, “So he went home with them.” Jesus walked with these two disciples. He ate with them. He listened to them, inviting them to pour out their hearts. And he revealed himself to them. Resurrection hope is a real person—an intimate relationship with the living Lord.

And third, the kind of hope Jesus wants to give you is a radical hope. When you encounter the risen Lord and put your complete trust in him, it will be nothing short of life changing. Verse 31 says that after they had spent time with Jesus, “suddenly, their eyes were opened, and they recognized him.” These two disciples were headed back to Emmaus to pick up the pieces of their shattered dreams, if that were even possible. Instead, they encountered Jesus, and their plans were radically altered. Actually, it was their lives that were radically altered from that moment on.

Maybe you are in the kind of funk these two disciples were on that first Easter Sunday. Perhaps your dreams have been dashed, your circumstances are not what you had hoped for, and your life has not turned out as you expected. Get ready! If you start to get a little heartburn, it could be that the risen Lord is resurrecting your hopes.

By the way, when Jesus resurrects your hope, you will never be disappointed! (Romans 5:5, NLT)

Take A Moment: Surrendering to God’s total control means giving him your dashed hopes and broken dreams. Have you done that? If you have, perhaps you’ve taken them back out of his hands and are clinging in bitter disappointment to things that have not turned out as you had hoped. Surrender—or re-surrender—them to the One who specializes in resurrecting dead things!

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The Tragedy of a Vandalized Life

Offer All of Your Life To God—All of It!

SYNOPSIS: In light of all that Jesus did to pull your no-good carcass out of the HOV lane to eternal hell, it is only right and fitting that your 24/7 existence should be offered in such a way that it is a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. Obviously, this is the only appropriate, logical, and pleasing way to worship him. So, use it in such a way that God will receive your life as an offering of worship placed before his glorious throne.

The Tragedy of a Vandalized Life

Moments With God // Proverbs 18:19

Slack habits and sloppy work are as bad as vandalism (The Message)

When you made the decision to follow Christ, you entered a binding contract with God Almighty that all of your life would be lived for his glory alone. All of your life! Not just some of it; not just your time in church; not just your early morning devotional time—you committed every split second of it to him! Soli Deo Gloria!

Now as serious as your responsibilities in that deal are, what you get out of it is still unbelievably grace-weighted in your favor, times infinity! You see, in light of all that Jesus did to pull your no-good carcass out of the HOV lane to eternal hell, it is only right and fitting that your 24/7 existence should be offered in such a way that it is a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. Obviously, this is the only appropriate, logical, and pleasing way to worship him.

Now in case you haven’t picked up on it yet, I’m simply quoting what Paul said in Romans 12:1—just paraphrasing a little, since Paul didn’t know what an HOV lane was.

Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for ( (Rom 12:1, The Message)

God created you, and through his death and resurrection, Jesus recreated you, so that you could take your everyday, ordinary, sleeping, eating, going-to-work, walking around life—that about covers it—and use it in such a way that God will receive it as an offering of worship placed before his glorious throne.

That is why even seemingly innocuous stuff like the private thoughts you entertain and the personal habits you tolerate and the unheard words you speak are extremely important—because God knows, God sees, and God hears. (If you think I am overstating it, go back and read Psalm 139.)

The simple fact is that God Almighty wants even your unguarded life to reflect his glory and grace. The Apostle Paul said it well in Colossians 3:23-24,

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.

Since, as Isaiah 49:16 says, our “walls are ever before him”, let’s keep off the graffiti. What a tragedy it is to offer him a vandalized life—either in our 24/7 life or on the day we stand before him. He deserves better—and we can do better!

Take A Moment: Read the entirety of Colossians 3 at some point today, and reflect on how well you are offering the various dimensions of your life “as unto the Lord.”

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Jesus is Risen—Nothing Else Matters

Hope Is Alive

SYNOPSIS: Jesus died on Good Friday, but rose again on Easter Sunday, so that you and I can live with hope on Monday—and every other day of the week, month after month, year after year, throughout the rest of life and for all eternity. That is what the Bible calls living hope. When you fully embrace this living hope, you will quit living like Jesus is still dead! That is our problem: We embrace Good Friday and rejoice in Resurrection Sunday but go back to work or school on Monday and live as if the Lord’s body is still in the tomb. He is not there, he is risen indeed!

Easter Monday

Moments With God // Matthew 27:50, 1 Peter 1:3

Then Jesus shouted out again, and he released his spirit…. Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

Jesus died on Good Friday, but rose again on Easter Sunday, so that you and I can live with hope on Monday—and every other day of the week, month after month, year after year, throughout the rest of life and for all eternity. That is what Peter calls living hope:

Let us give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! Because of his great mercy, he gave us new life by raising Jesus Christ from death. This fills us with a living hope. (1 Peter 1:3)

When you fully embrace this living hope, you will quit living like Jesus is still dead! That is our problem, I think: We embrace Good Friday and rejoice in Resurrection Sunday but go back to work or school on Monday and live as if the Lord’s body is still in the tomb.

The story is told of Martin Luther, who once spent three days in a deep depression over something that had gone wrong. On the third day his wife, Katie, came downstairs dressed in mourning clothes. Luther asked, “Who’s dead?” She replied, “God!” Luther was offended, “What do you mean, God is dead? God cannot die.” Kate replied, “Well, the way you’ve been acting I was sure He had!”

Peter calls to us today, to snap out of perpetual post-Easter funk, because Jesus lives! We have a living hope that really matters beyond Easter!” I love how historian Jaroslav Pelikan said it, “If Christ is risen—nothing else matters. And if Christ is not risen—nothing else matters.”

What difference does an Easter resurrection make on a back-to-work Monday?

  1. Christ’s death and resurrection are the foundation of your faith. The fact is, without the resurrection, your faith (and life) is meaningless. I Corinthians 15:14 says, “If Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty.”
  2. Christ’s death and resurrection are the basis of your hope. 1 Corinthians 15:19-20 says, “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than anyone else in the world. But Christ has been raised to life! And this makes us certain that we will also be raised to life.” Hebrews 6:19 says, “We have this hope as an anchor of the soul, firm and secure.” Romans 5:5 say this “hope does not disappoint us!
  3. Christ’s death and resurrection are the guarantee of your resurrection. Jesus said in John 11:25-26, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” If you do—believe, that is—the cross and the empty tomb become God’s signature on the Divine contract with you assuring you of eternal life after you die.

Yes, Christ is risen, and nothing else matters!

Take A Moment: When you wake up tomorrow, try singing, “Christ the Lord is Risen Today.” It just may fill you with hope, and that can’t hurt.

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Spitting In God’s Face

Contempt for the Creator

Synopsis: When we look without compassion at people trapped in a cycle of economic despair or act as if they deserve what they are getting due to their own poor financial management, we come dangerously close to spitting in God’s face: “Those who mock the poor show contempt for their maker.” (Prov 17:5) Scripture repeatedly warns that those attitudes have no place in Christ’s community. Rather, when we lift the downtrodden, bear each other’s burdens, strengthen the weak, and love the unlovely we’re literally doing it to Jesus. (Matt 25:40) Jesus himself said that the defining mark of his followers would be that they have a full-throttled love for 1) God, 2) one another, and 3) a hurting world. And guess what? Two out of three won’t cut it! Let’s help the hurting. Do it for Jesus … do it to Jesus!

Spitting in God's Face

Moments With God // Proverbs 17:5

He who mocks the poor shows contempt for their maker; whoever gloats over disaster will not go unpunished.

Contempt for the Creator—really?

Yep! That’s what Creator says in the Operator’s Manual he’s provided for us—the Bible. It says that when we look without compassion at those who are trapped in a cycle of economic despair or who have suddenly fallen into financial ruin, or act as if they deserve what they are getting due to their own poor financial management, we come dangerously close to spitting in the face of God.

In fact, there are an astounding number of places in the Bible warning us that those kinds of attitudes have no place in the community of Christ. Rather, we have been called to lift up the downtrodden, we are to bear one another’s burdens, and we are to strengthen the weak and love the unlovely. Not only that, but Jesus himself said that the defining mark of his followers would be that they have a full-throttled love, one, for God, two, for one another, and three, for a hurting world. And guess what? Two out of three doesn’t cut it here!

It is not that we have ignored the hurting, the fallen, or the poor entirely. We do a pretty good job of giving to disaster relief, sending our unused clothing to thrift stores, and donating canned goods to shelters. That’s not the problem; it’s the attitude with which we do it. You see, we engage the hurting but we don’t empathize with them very well. We open our wallets, just not our hearts. Yet the Bible tells us that God is on the side of the poor and the downcast. In fact, to ignore their needs or to judge them is to show contempt for God himself:

You insult your Maker when you exploit the powerless; when you’re kind to the poor, you honor God. (Prov 14:31)

It’s criminal to ignore a neighbor in need, but compassion for the poor—what a blessing! (Prov 14:21)

Mercy to the needy is a loan to God, and God pays back those loans in full. (Prov 19:17)

Jesus said it this way in Matthew 25:40, “I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.”

So the bottom line is this: We had better guard our hearts and watch our attitudes very carefully when it comes to the poor and hurting. We, as individual believers and corporately as churches, need to develop a sensitive heart and a willing response. Compassion is the rightful domain of Christ’s community and we need to seriously up our game when it comes to care and involvement with the less fortunate.

Why is this such a big deal to God? Five reasons.

  1. God is on the side of the poor.
  2. Not to take their side too is inviting the judgment of God.
  3. Taking care of what God cares about invites God to take care of what you care about.
  4. Care and involvement with the poor will nourish your spirit and transform your own character
  5. Expressing God’s heart for those trapped in misfortune will exert the awesome, life-changing power to lift a person out of their despair—something that may never occur without your helping hand.

So, my friend, do you have God’s heart for the poor?

Take A Moment: In the Incarnation, Christ left his glory to enter into our poverty. We have been called to the same kind of incarnational living. So here’s the $64,000 question: What about your attitude, your schedule, and your activities need to change to fully, personally, and practically exude the Incarnation in your world?

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Your Judas

God’s Deeper Work Sometimes Comes Through A Betrayer

SYNOPSIS: In living out the law of agape love, we become like God—something that truly honors and pleases the heart of our Father. That’s what Jesus said: “You will truly be acting as children of the Most High, for he is kind to those who are unthankful and wicked.” (Luke 6:35, NLT) That’s a pretty compelling reason for choosing to express unconquerable, benevolent, kind, invincible, reconciling agape love—especially toward people who least deserve it. It is who God is, it is what God does, it is when we are most like God, and it is what his Son asked us to do.

Moments With God // Matthew 26:16

From that time on, Judas began looking for an opportunity to betray Jesus.

From that time on, Judas began looking for an opportunity to betray Jesus.

Sorry to be the one to break the news to you, but everybody gets a Judas in life. At one point or another, you will bear the pain of someone you trusted thrusting a knife in your back. It is simply, and sadly, the awful reality of living in a broken world alongside fallen human beings.

Among the sixty conspirators who assassinated the Roman leader on March 15, 44 BC was Marcus Junius Brutus. Caesar not only trusted Brutus, he favored him as a son. According to Roman historians, Caesar first resisted his assassins, but when he saw Brutus among them with his dagger drawn, he gave up. He pulled the top part of his robe over his face, and uttered those heartrending words immortalized by Shakespeare, “Et tu Brutus” … “You, too, my child?”

Julius Caesar was not the only one to know such treachery. The passionate Scottish patriot William Wallace experienced it when Earl Robert de Bruce betrayed him. Not even the brightest theological mind who ever lived—the Apostle Paul—or the most perfect human being ever—Jesus Christ—was spared. No one gets a pass on betrayal.

So here’s the thing: Are you willing to consider the possibility that God has a far deeper work to do in you that can only come through the betrayer’s knife? Charles Spurgeon said,

I bear willing witness that I owe more to the fire, the hammer and the file than to anything else in the Lord’s workshop. I sometimes question whether I have ever learned anything except through the rod. When my schoolroom is darkened, I see the most.

The truth is, the fire, the hammer and the file of a betrayal may result in some of God’s finest craftsmanship—if you keep your heart soft and your eye on him. If you are going through the pain of a betrayer’s wound right now, remember, you are walking where great people have walked before. Their greatness came because they didn’t allow betrayal to ruin them; they learned how to turn their pain into greater usefulness for the Lord.

Jesus responded to Judas’ money-making treachery with obedient submission to God—and transformed the world. Perhaps God wants to use your pain to form you, and to transform your world.

To what enemy do you need to extend unconquerable, benevolent, invincible, reconciling kindness? Go do it! It’s what your Father would do—and you’ve got his DNA.

Take A Moment: If you are going through the pain of betrayal, memorize and pray this psalm of David, who knew a little about betrayal: “But I call to God, and the LORD saves me. Evening, morning and noon I cry out in distress, and he hears my voice…Cast your cares on the LORD and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous fall.” (Psalm 55:16-17, 22)

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The Simple Recipe For True Success

Follow It And You Will Achieve It

SYNOPSIS: Success! A lot of books have been written about the secrets of success. Thousands of people attend expensive seminars on how to be successful. A mindboggling amount of brainpower is exerted every second of the day on Planet Earth to achieve success. And to be sure, much of what has been written, offered, and exerted is quite good. But there really is no secret to being successful. It’s quite easy, actually. It’s not hidden but is open to everyone. It’s more of a recipe, if you will, that anyone can follow to achieve it. It’s simply this: find out what God wants—then do it.

Moments With God // Proverbs 16:3

Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.

A lot of books have been written about the secrets of success. Thousands of people attend expensive seminars on how to be successful. A mindboggling amount of brainpower is exerted every second of the day on Planet Earth to achieve success. And to be sure, much of what has been written, offered, and exerted is quite good. But there really is no secret to being successful. It is quite easy, actually. It is not hidden but is open to everyone. It is more of a recipe, if you will, that anyone can follow to achieve it. It is simply this:

Find out what God wants—then do it.

That is what Solomon is saying: “Put God in charge of your work, then what you’ve planned will take place.” (The Message) Many other Bible figures have said the same. Consider the following:

Moses: “I am about to go the way of all the earth, so be strong, show yourself a man, and observe what the LORD your God requires: Walk in his ways, and keep his decrees and commands, his laws and requirements, as written in the Law of Moses, so that you may prosper in all you do and wherever you go.” (I Kings 2:2-3)

Joshua: “Study this Book of Instruction continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do. This is my command—be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” (Joshua 1:8-9, NLT)

King David: “Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun.” (Psalm 37:4-6)

Jesus Christ: “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” (Matthew 6:33)

So what is the recipe for success? Quite plainly, here it is: Take care of the things that God cares about, he will take care of the things you care about.

That is his promise, not mine.

Take A Moment: Take time today to run each of the things in which you are striving to be successful through the filter of the verses mentioned above. Are they aligned with God’s truth? Are they what God wants? Are they kingdom-focused? If not, I think you know what to do.