Next Door Savior

“Jesus was not a godlike man, nor a manlike God. He was God-man.

Midwifed by a carpenter.

Bathed by a peasant girl.

The maker of the world with a bellybutton.

The author of the Torah being taught the Torah.

Heaven’s human. And because he was, we are left with scratch-your-head, double-blink, what’s-wrong-with-this-picture? moments like these:

Bordeaux instead of H2O.

A cripple sponsoring the town dance.

A sack lunch satisfying five thousand tummies.

And, most of all, a grave: guarded by soldiers, sealed by a rock, yet vacated by a three-days-dead man.

What do we do such moments?

What do we do with such a person? We applaud men for doing good things. We enshrine God for doing great things. But when a man does God things?

One thing is certain, we can’t ignore him.

Why would we want to? If these moments are factual, if the claim of Christ is actual, then he was, at once, man and God.

… Don’t we need a God-man Savior? A just-God Jesus could make us but not understand us. A just-man Jesus could love us but never save us. But a God-man Jesus? Near enough to touch. Strong enough to trust. A next door Savior.

A Savior found by millions to be irresistible. Nothing compares to ‘the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord’ (Phil. 3:8 RSV). The reward of Christianity is Christ.”

Next Door Savior- Max Lucado

Untangle Me

I have a large mess of yarn. It’s terribly tangled and I’ve been struggling for days to restore the yarn to its previous perfectly rolled state. The more I pulled on the end, however, and weaved it around other parts of the yarn, the more tangled it became.

As I was working on this last night, I had a thought. What about the mess of yarn we sometimes call life?

Things can get so chaotic and tangled up that we often are just left helpless and exasperated. Sometimes we don’t even know how we got into this mess in the first place. It starts with an initial unraveling of the end of the yarn and then somehow it just worsens so bad we don’t know which way is up anymore.

The worst part is that the more we struggle against the tangle we are in, the easier it is for us to get even more tangled up. We think we can figure it out but we usually just find ourselves in an even bigger mess, needing even more repair.

But we can find peace.

When we give up our messes to God, He can untangle all of it for us. Some parts He may need to snip and sometimes the repair takes longer than we’d like because of the magnitude of what we’ve done, but it is possible for Him to undo the damage, bit by bit. We can be thankful that we have a loving Creator who cares for us so much that He not only takes the time to untangle our messes, but He also wants to use the end result for something great- something for His glory. Untangled yarn is not without use. And neither are we. Despite all the loops and twists and knots we’ve found ourselves in once before, God renews us and can use us, something that would not be able to happen if we decided to try to keep untangling our messes ourselves.

Whatever mess you’re in today, give it up to God. He’ll untangle it.

“Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls.’”   (Matthew 11:28-29)

In Plenty Or In Need

“I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength.” Philippians 4:12-13

These two verses spoke to me this morning as I contemplated all the things that I choose to grumble and complain about on a daily basis. Oh, woe is me, my life is so hard, and I can’t ever make it through. In the grand scheme of things, these problems I face are just… life.

Yet God never meant for us to simply “get by” and accept the hardships as they knock us down again and again. 

Paul knew this full well. Beaten, imprisoned, persecuted, and forced to bear conditions worse than we will probably ever bear in our lifetime, he knew it wasn’t about simply putting on a smile and trudging through it.

This life is about contentment given by God’s strength.

Contentment, defined, is an ease of mind. That’s what God wants from us. He wants us to dismiss those worries, that stress, and the little things that hammer away at our happiness and peace of mind. He wants us to give it all up to him and in turn, He provides us with greater contentment than we could ever find ourselves. The contentment He gives us isn’t just an ease of mind; it’s a reminder that He is the only refuge our mind needs. So even when those little things that bother us so dearly poke their heads back into our lives, we can seek His peace. If we would only trust in Him, we would see how He works in our life each and every day, through both the highs and the lows.

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” John 14:27