The Invitation - Part 1

First I want to say that the thoughts and message contained in this post are in partnership with LifeHouse East, Hedgesville's parent church.  As a Network of LifeHouse Churches, we look to share resources and ideas because God blesses us through our unity. 

Ever get caught in the hustle and bustle of life that you sometimes miss the magnificent things happening right in front of your eyes?  I know I do.  I get involved so much with what needs to be done – caring for kids, keeping up the home, attending meetings, writing sermons, etc. – that I sometimes think I don’t have time to stop and rest.  So because I don’t stop, I miss the sunrises and sunsets of life.  I miss the time watching my kids and playing with them.   I miss the opportunities to go into the woods and explore God’s creation.  You get the picture, I miss too much.

But, do you think the busyness of life, the busyness of routine, which you and I experience in 2011, is any different than the culture of Jesus’ day?  Actually no!  Not much has changed in 2000 years.

But you say they didn’t have the distractions that we have today – technology, cars, television, sports and extracurricular activities, etc.?  You’re right, they didn’t have these things.  But what they did have caused them to miss out on the greatest thing mankind has ever seen. 

How do I know?  The Gospel of John, chapter 1 verses 4-5 and 10-11 provides that in that moment of time, Christmas was completely missed by the very people the baby Jesus came to save.  Think about it.  There was the busyness of life, though we can’t say exactly what that looked like.  There was the confusion of what the Messiah would truly look like since a King would not come from such humble beginnings.  There were the religious practices of following rules and laws that took their attention away from what truly pleases God.

They were busy doing what they thought God desired rather than asking and understanding what God really wanted.

Does that sound like today?  Does that sound like you?  I know it sounds like me - so busy doing and not taking the time to really see what God wants me to see. 

Two thousand years ago, it was literally “God in the flesh” – it was Jesus giving up His position in Heaven to become a babe in an unsterilized manger, born of a lowly teenage virgin, whose father is really not His own, who would one day be moved by his parents to a town known as “the God-forsaken town of Nazareth”, where He would follow in the footsteps of His earthly father’s occupation of carpenter.

Yet because of the circumstances I outlined, the people of His day, busy in their own right studying and taking from the scriptures what they desired to see, had to determine what they were going to do with this invitation from God.  And as the New Testament scripture told us, they could not see Jesus for who He really was.  Their thinking, “There is no way this could be the Promised One, the Messiah.  How is this babe - eventually man - the one to be our King who will drive out all our enemies?” 

So just like our counterparts, what do we do with this God among men, Emmanuel, who interrupts our busy schedule and challenges us that there is more to life than the busyness of our dull routine?

Well God’s Big Idea is this:  Receive His Invitation.

As it says in John 1:12-14, “Yet to all who received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God – children not born of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.  The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us.  We have seen His glory, the glory of the One and Only who came from the Father, full of grace and truth,” we have a response to make to this invitation.

God has shown Himself to mankind in many ways over the years – through parting the Red Sea and Jordan River, through prophecy, through lightning from Heaven, through carving a rock with 10 commandments, through providing a cloud by day and pillar of fire by night.  And that’s just to name a few.  Yet in all the magnificent and spectacular ways God has shown Himself over time, the most magnificent one was when “He just showed up,” removing His royal robes, and becoming one of us.

And so our response is demanded and awaited?  Do we believe Jesus really is the Son of God?   And honestly, if we choose to reject the invitation to believe in Emmanuel, it’s like being at the Grand Canyon and ignoring that it really is magnificent because we don’t thoroughly understand how it was created.

Let’s not reduce knowing God to mere religious service and learning – that we have to understand it all before we accept it.  Instead, sometimes we need to just look at the splendor and say “There’s God.”  You don’t have to understand how the Grand Canyon came into being to be amazed and believe in it.

Jesus came to offer an invitation for us to know Him.  Think about it:  Someone gives you an invitation to their wedding.  You have a choice.  You can either accept the invitation to attend the wedding or decline.  And in order for us to know Him, we have to accept Him.

The same is true of the invitation God gives us for belief in His Son.  It’s the most beautiful invitation ever given, yet each and every person who’s invited can RSVP with a yes or a no.  And because the invitation is given to each individual, no one can come to the wedding through the response of someone else.  It must be your decision.

The reality of an RSVP to an invitation is nothing more than, as I have said before, a yes or a no.  The invitation didn’t come because you worked for it, earned it, or paid for it.  In fact, in the case of God’s invitation, you and I don’t even deserve it.  All we can simply do is open arms wide, accept it, and say “Thanks.”

The RSVP is nothing more than receiving the invitation, and then accepting to attend.  Now keep in mind, accepting the invitation, saying “yes” on the RSVP card, means we acknowledge we don’t deserve it, but are willing to accept it by repenting of the sins that keep us out of relationship with God. 

But you know how sometimes we receive gifts that we have no use for and we set them on a shelf somewhere to either collect dust or be regifted?  Well, that can’t be the case with God’s gift.

In verse 10 of John 1 it said, “His own did not recognize him."  What does that mean?  It doesn’t mean that they didn’t know who Jesus of Nazareth was as a person.  It does mean that they didn’t know Him personally – that they didn’t have an active understanding of this man and what He was about.

In verse 12  of John 1 it said, “To those who received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God.”  What’s the difference?  These people accepted the invitation, meaning they knew God and welcomed him into every aspect of their lives.

By accepting the invitation, we’re only beginning the journey.  And the journey is not an annoying disruption to the good life, a pot-hole in the road that we fill leads us to success and fame, or a Christmas gift that can be returned after we’ve tried it out.  Instead the journey is extremely valuable because on it we find that Jesus is the meaning of life and that through Him our lives are changed for the better and we become the person God intended us to be.

So, imagine if we lived like this.  Imagine that we truly understood that God’s invitation is His meticulous care at intersecting with our lives in every way possible so that we can fully know and follow Him.

"After the Fall" Series - Appreciate the Little Things

There are times in life where I get so busy with the tasks at hand – caring for the home, my children, being a husband, the jobs that go along with being a pastor, etc.  And in that busyness, it’s very difficult to stop and see the little things that really do mean something.  I mean, how often do I miss the small little kiss that Jayden wants to give, or the good grade that Gabe worked so hard to get, or the little dance that Blake does while watching his favorite show, or the play that Drew made on the basketball court, or the delicious meal that Caroline just made?

And so I’m reminded during the Thanksgiving Season, that once again, I get it right sometimes and other times I miss the mark completely.  I only hope that by next Thanksgiving I will be standing before you saying that I’m getting it right more than wrong.

Craig’s testimony has been a God-send to me – reminding me what’s most important in life.  And his accident was his God-send – reminding him where his priorities should be.  It’s clear to see that Craig’s accident has had a profound impact on the way he, and others, now view life.  Coming so close to death made him “start to appreciate what an amazing gift life is.”  Craig now sees the joys of life’s often-overlooked blessings and the folly of pursuing material possessions.  Even his friend Steve adds that what happened to Craig has made him slow down and “identify what’s important in my own life.”

What about you?  How often do you stop to consider what an “amazing gift” life is – that right now you are drawing into your lungs breaths of life?  

How do you think it would feel to receive a second chance at life?   Craig received a second chance, but this is important to hear.  It’s not like his life was totally messed up before the fall.  He had a good job, a loving wife, two wonderful children, friends, and a church home.  Yet now he realizes how much in life he was missing.  In his first life he only saw the BIG things.  But after the accident, he was given a second chance at life where he now sees EVERYTHING as a blessing from God.

After hearing his testimony I find myself wondering why it is so easy for me to take life and its many blessings for granted.   And honestly, I don’t have an answer, other than I’m selfish and need to change.

Craig made it clear to us to “See the Little Things.”  So what are some of those little things in your life you are overlooking that are a blessing from God?  After Craig’s accident even Honey Nut Cheerios came alive to him.

What are they for you?  Are they some vegetables and fruit you eat out of your garden?  Are they the giggles of your children when they find something amusing?   Are they run-down vehicles that get you to and fro?   Are they the days you spend shopping by yourself, with friends, or with family?  Are they the times you spend learning music?  Are they the times you spend quietly in prayer and meditation?  Are they the times when you look upon your children as they sleep?  Are they the times when you have a good bowl of ice cream?  Or, are they the days you spend a field hunting or fishing, even though you will most likely come back with nothing but stories?

Well, I took Gabe and Drew fishing about four or five summers ago at a neighbor’s pond.  Drew at that time was getting very frustrated with fishing because his little brother was usually catching more fish.  So before we walked up to the pond, I asked God, under my breath, to let Drew catch the biggest fish.  Drew had his line in the water first. Before I could get Gabe’s line wet I had to unhook a couple of nice bluegills that Drew had caught.  Finally, I get Gabe’s line in the water, and Drew yells to me that he’s got another fish on his line.  So I begin coaching him to keep the tip of his pole up when I realize that this “ain’t” no bluegill.  It was something BIG and at first I thought it was a largemouth bass (I had caught some 4-5 pounders out of there the previous summer.)  The poor boy could barely hold onto his pole when the fish would decide to make a run and make the drag squeal.  So I thought I’d better help him out or that pole is going to end up in the middle of the pond.  Finally, I got a glimpse of the fish and knew it was no bass.  When we landed it, Drew had caught a large catfish (that we didn’t even know were in the pond.)  How large was it?  Since we had no stringer or bucket, and I did not want to kill the fish, we took some old fashioned measurements.  It was at least 3 of Drew’s shoe lengths and was quite heavy when I tried to pick it up.  What does that mean?  It was at least 30 inches long and its weight was 7 pounds or greater.  Needless to say that boy of mine was quite proud the rest of the day, and so was his dad.  And as we walked back home, I told the boys that God had answered my prayer.

Little things are just as important as the big things.  Sometimes they are more valuable because the only way we get to see them is by slowing down and looking for them.  A lot of times they bring us more joy because they’re happening every day.

In Deuteronomy 8: 10-18, Moses spoke prophetically to the Israelites, and even to us today.    Moses was speaking to a group that had been wandering in the desert as Nomad Shepherds.   They did not know fertility.   They knew dry and barren.  In fact, it was God who supplied them with fresh water, manna (bread) that they were to gather each morning, quail when they began to grow weary of eating manna all the time, a cloud of smoke by day to protect them from the sun’s scorching heat, and a pillar of fire by night to guide them and give them light when they traveled in the dark.  They knew how to live in tents and how to move when the conditions of the land worsened.   They didn’t know crops.  They didn’t know wealth.  And they especially didn’t know stability.

He forewarned them that their life was about to change once they entered the land, the land of milk and honey (a fertile land), that was promised to their father Abraham.  He reminded them that it would be very easy to forget the God who had taken care of them for 40 years as Nomads in the desert.   Because once they were there, they would see the fertility of the land, their hands would work the soil, and they would produce bountiful crops.  He told them that when they had eaten and were satisfied, they should praise the Lord their God because He was the one who had provided it for them.   He told them to appreciate the little things and to give thanks, where thanks are due.  He said otherwise, when you are blessed with plenty of food on your table, you’re living in beautiful houses and staying in one place, and you grow wealthy, your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God.  He said you may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.”  But he said never forget it is the Lord your God who gives you the ability to produce wealth.

So the Big Idea God wants us to see in this passage is:  Appreciate and give thanks for the little things of life.

Why is this important?  It’s so important because we very easily become proud when we fail to focus on the little blessings of life and give thanks for them.   If we start taking for granted the little blessings of life, we eventually begin to believe that we are responsible for all the good in our lives.  The pride comes in when I begin to say and believe, “I did this.”

I really believe that if I forget to give credit where credit is due for the little blessings, I’ll definitely forget to give credit for the big ones.

You know, it’s the little things like following God’s word and stopping long enough to smell the roses God has created that bring blessing to one’s life.  That’s what Craig was missing.  His life was too fast and this catastrophe helped him to realize that he was missing out on the little things – the little blessings – the Honey Nut Cheerios – that could only come from God.  

So during the Thanksgiving Season and beyond, never forget to stop and pray giving thanks to God for all He does in your life – especially the little things.

"After the Fall" Series - You Have My Undivided Attention

Do you remember times where your children wanted your undivided attention?  How did they get it?  I know mine have kept saying my name over, and over, and over again until they knew they had my eyes and my total attention.

Or what about when you were a student and the teacher wanted to make sure she had everyone’s attention?   Well, I remember those times of being called on to answer a question, or worse yet; a pop quiz was given to the entire class.

Or what about times where God has tried to get your attention?  What were these times like?  For me, it was turmoil in my soul over the guilt of my sin; I remember feeling like I was running from Him as I wrestled with what He was calling me to do.

But even then, these scenarios are nothing in comparison to how God got Craig’s attention.

Craig DeMartino discovered in a devotional from the day of his accident the topic, “How far does God have to go to get your attention to make sure He’s number one in your life?”  He joked that a burning bush would have been preferable to a catastrophic fall but believes that God, in His divine providence, deemed this course of events necessary.  God had gotten Craig’s undivided attention, and Craig prayed, “Whatever you want me to do, reveal it to me.”

Now, think back to that time, which could actually be now, when God has tried to speak to you.  Were you prone to listen and act instantly, or were you so inattentive to God that He had to speak louder and louder each time until He got your attention?  And, how did your life change as a result of hearing His voice?

It took Craig falling from a cliff, but as he said, “he would rather have seen a burning bush, just like the one Moses saw in the desert.”

So looking at Moses' testimony in EXODUS 3: 1-14, you see how a burning bush became the voice of God to get Moses to do something he really didn't feel like doing.

Can you imagine coming across a bush that is on fire, yet it’s not being burned?  Would it peak your curiosity like it did Moses?  Or, would you pooh-pooh it as some figment of your imagination?  Personally, I’m a curious person so I’d go check it out.  It’s pretty neat stuff.

Now once the Lord saw He had gotten Moses’ attention, He spoke.  I really feel that if God speaks before Moses’ curiosity gets the best of him, Moses probably runs away with his sheep in another direction.  But, picture it:  Can you see Moses looking at this bush like a dog trying to figure out a strange noise?  And it’s in this stillness and attentiveness that God speaks.  

The same is true for us today.  God will use things to get our undivided attention.  In fact, He knows we won’t do what He asks us to do if our focus is somewhere else.   Let me ask this:  Do you think people who are caught up in satisfying themselves are going to recognize the voice of God?  No way, dude!  That’s why God has to often use crisis and fearful circumstances.  He will first try to get people’s attention in a civil way, with a still small voice.  But if that doesn’t work, He increases the volume and tactics to get their undivided attention.  And sad to say, even then, some still don’t listen.

My brother-in-law Jimmy is an example of how God will go to extreme measures to get someone’s attention.  Jimmy is lucky, and please excuse the word lucky, to be alive today.  He's been in accidents due to being under the influence and very fortunate that he never ended up in a fatal accident from his drag racing.  Putting it frankly, he was a reckloose.  Even while on the job in a steel mill, he had the end of three fingers cut off.  Yet none of the catastrophic events in his life got his undivided attention.

What did get his attention was, about 6 years ago there was a real possibility that he might lose his job in the Mill along with his pension and retirement; and his wife of 27 years at the time was tired of his sinful activity and threatened him to shape-up or ship-out.  So on December 23, 2005, Jimmy came to me, after God had gotten his undivided attention, and asked me what he needed to do to be saved.  That night after lengthy discussion, he made a profession before me that he wanted Jesus’ forgiveness, and repented of his sins.  He later made this profession in front of his brothers and sisters at the funeral of their father.

So if there is a Big Idea that we could take so far, it is this:  Let God have your undivided attention.

Why?  Because if God wants your attention, He’s going to get it one way or another.   And I don’t know about you, but I don’t feel like I want to fall from a cliff or have the ends of fingers cut off to finally say, “OK God!  I hear you.”

Now, getting back to the scripture in verses 5-14, you could almost hear Moses saying in his mind, “Yea Lord, this all sounds good!  It’s great that you hear the cries of your people and want to rescue them from the hands of the Egyptians.  I tried once before, but they kicked me out of town.  So how are you going to do it this time?  Who are you going to send?  And God says, “You!”  “But, but, but, but, but …… I can’t do it!" says Moses.  "Who am I?  I’m just a lowly shepherd that Pharaoh won’t take seriously.  Send somebody else that has some clout!”  And God said, "I will be with you."

God hears our excuses for why we can’t do what He is asking us to do.  (And thank God He doesn’t condemn us for our excuses or we’d all be in trouble.)  But even though He hears them, He won’t let us use them.   Never!  He will never let us rest until we do what He has asked us to do.  

I've heard it said, and I say this jokingly for fear I’ll get it from my wife when I get home, that women sometimes nag their husbands:)  In fact there is no woman on the face of this earth, and never will be, who is as relentless as God in getting people to do things He’s asked them to do.  He’s like the Energizer Bunny who just keeps “Going, and going, and going” until we finally say, “Yes Lord!”  He says of our excuses, “Okay, I heard you.  Now go!  Have faith that I will be with you.”  And if we continue to choose to run from His direction and calling, He might just use a fish to swallow us and vomit us out where He needed us to go in the first place.

Does God have your undivided attention?  Is He #1 in your life?  Are you listening?  Is Christ speaking to your heart that you need to confess your sin and follow Him?

You know, after what we discovered today, don’t wait to say “yes” to His voice.  In fact, don’t be afraid to pray as Craig prayed, “Whatever you want me to do, reveal it to me.”  For it’s in this prayer you know exactly where your attention lies.

"After the Fall" Series - A Lot of It's His Outlook

Craig DeMartino falls over 100 feet at a speed of 120 mph at impact, and is miraculously alive.  Now is the time for recovery.  Any Cyndy, Craig’s wife, says he has “broken all the rules as far as recovery.”  His doctors credit that amazing recovery to his outlook, saying he did better than average.  Instead of feeling sorry for himself, Craig rejoices in his second chance at life.  He’s focused on one day at a time and  has kept his sense of humor.

When you think of what Craig has been through, does his attitude surprise you?  Does it impress you?  Could you have had the same attitude?

And a person's attitude is contagious.  Think about it.  What happens to your attitude when you’re around others who have a positive attitude?  A negative attitude?

These are some questions God would have us look at today to see how a person’s attitude affects him/her as well as the others around them.

Now, when I watch Craig's testimony on DVD, I find myself wondering how Craig continued to keep his positive attitude when he had to do treatments and therapy five days a week for months upon months.  Obviously, a testimony on DVD doesn’t show us if he had bad days, nor the pain and agony he certainly dealt with on a daily basis.  But, I’m pretty sure the experience was not a bed of roses, and that reality is important for us to see.

I know of no one who stays positive all the time.  Can you imagine someone saying when he gets the results from his doctor that he has a brain tumor, “Thank you Jesus for letting me have a brain tumor,” or someone else saying, “I’m so glad I was in that accident that totaled my car!" 

What we need to understand is that a positive outlook does not have to occur 100% of the time in order for you and me to be called positive.  Having a positive outlook is not how we feel immediately when a crisis occurs, but how we perceive the overall experience.  In other words, do we view things negatively all the time, or do we take things in stride and find the positive in them?

So what helped Craig to achieve his positive outlook on his crisis?  He kept a sense of humor, and He learned to live each day for that day - He quit looking into the future and began living in the present.

Hum?  Doesn’t that sound familiar?  Sounds like some sound advice that Jesus gave His disciples, which we are if we are followers of Him.  Matthew 6: 34 states, “Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.  Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

So God's Big Idea is this:  Live fully in the present to achieve the positive outlook He desires for your future.

Don’t try to figure out the future.  Be wise in the day you’re in and make the most of it. 

Jesus gave us Matthew 6:34 for a couple reasons:  1) for us to really ponder on whether we trust the God we call god to take care of us, and 2) for us to understand that worry won’t add hours to our lives.

In fact, medicine today shows us that worry has the opposite affect – it shortens life.  And to put it bluntly, worry does not equate to a positive attitude.  Worry tends to reflect on what we can do for ourselves, and thus when we begin to realize our shortcomings, we begin to worry even more about the situation or circumstance we are facing.  Hope on the other hand tends to rely upon the promises that God has given to His children – those who have asked Jesus to come into their heart.  The focus is on God, which allows us to place our yoke upon His strong shoulders making our burden light.

So worry causes a negative outlook on things, whereas hope causes a positive one.

Read this testimony about Brenda.  She too was rock climbing when this happened to her.  And some of you are thinking, “There’s no way I’m going rock climbing.  There are too many stories of bad things happening.  God can get my attention some other way.”

Brenda was almost halfway to the top of the tremendous granite cliff.  She was standing on the ledge where she was taking a breather during this, her first rock climb.  As she rested there, the safety rope snapped against her eye and knocked out her contact lens.  "Great", she thought.  "Here I am on a rock ledge, hundreds of feet from the bottom and hundreds of feet to the top of this cliff, and now my sight is blurry."  She looked and looked, hoping that somehow it had landed on the ledge.  But it just wasn't there.

She felt the panic rising in her, so she began praying.  She prayed for calm, and she prayed that she may find her contact lens.  When she got to the top, a friend examined her eye and her clothing for the lens, but it was not to be found.  Although she was calm now that she was at the top, she was saddened because she could not clearly see across the range of mountains.  She thought of the Bible verse "The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth."  She thought, "Lord, You can see all these mountains.  You know every stone and leaf, and You know exactly where my contact lens is.  Please help me."

Later, when they had hiked down the trail to the bottom of the cliff they met another party of climbers just starting up the face of the cliff.  One of them shouted out, "Hey, you guys!  Anybody lose a contact lens?"

Well, that would be startling enough, but you know why the climber saw it?  An ant was moving slowly across a twig on the face of the rock, carrying it!

Brenda almost let panic and worry set in when she lost her contact lens.  If she doesn’t pray, what happens to her rock climbing experience that day?  Can’t you see her on the ledge grumbling because she can’t find her lens?  Saying things like, “I can’t believe this!  Now I won’t get to see what I came here to see,“ or “Man, that was my last pair of lenses.  Now I have to go back to the doctor and get another prescription, and I don’t have the money.”

These sound like comments I would make, but thank God she doesn’t stay there.  She senses the panic setting in.  So she prays – she places the burden on God’s shoulders.  And what happens to her attitude?  It becomes positive, allowing her to enjoy the rest of the day.  Yes, she was disappointed that she could not see clearly the mountain ranges she had so wanted to see,  but she knew God was in control and could find her contact lens.

I have told my boys many times that God’s word says that we reap what we sow.  Basically, if you do good things, your life will be good.  And if you do bad things, your life will be bad.  But let me warn you that this is not a guaranteed equation to a life of prosperity, happiness, joy, and peace as some teach.  We’re guaranteed that at times in our lives, no matter how good we are that we’re going to face struggle and pain.  After all the Jesus we call Savior did everything good, yet his life experienced great catastrophe.

“We reap what we sow” also applies to our attitude and outlook.  If we have a negative one, should we expect anything good to come out of it?

So Brenda caught herself being negative and changed direction.  We too need to listen to ourselves as the Holy Spirit speaks to our hearts.  We don’t have to be negative.  It’s a choice we make; and because Brenda was able to look at this positively, God was able to miraculously answer her prayer by sending an ant to recover the lens.

When I taught at Grace Academy in Hagerstown, I had an 8^th grade homeroom.

My first group of 8^th grader’s did nothing but moan and complain about their parents, about the school, about everything.  I knew that this class was not a cooperative one coming to me, but just like God, I tried to give them a clean slate – to give them the benefit of the doubt.  They complained so much that it really started to weigh on me.  Yea, they respected me.  They liked me.  They did what I asked.  But, they always complained about something.

One day, God gave me some wisdom on how to deal with their negativity.  He said, “Have them write a one page paper of their gripes and complaints about the school.”  When I told them this, they were very excited.  It was the first positive expression that I had seen out of them the whole year:)

But, I had to stop them, because God put a BUT on the end of the statement.  I had to tell them that God also said, “You can gripe and complain about the school in your paper, but you must back it with scripture.”  And their faces went from smiles to frowns, and some of them began to say, “Mr. Cardwell, how are we going to do that?”

And that was the point.  They all still had to write the paper and they tried to make scripture take on the context of their complaints.  But it didn’t happen.

So too is true for us.  We are not going to find anything in the scripture that reinforces our negativity.  So why try?  God knows that a positive outlook far outweighs a negative one.  He knows that a positive outlook brings life and a negative one, despair.

Proverbs 17:22 states, “A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.”

Looking at the first part of that verse, “A cheerful heart is good medicine” we know this to be true because the burden we have is now on the shoulders of God.  Having a positive outlook will allow your body to function and heal, just like it did Craig’s.  But if you want to hold onto the burdens – to have a negative outlook – you get the latter part of the verse “a crushed spirit dries up the bones.”  And what that means is this:  over time, your body will be stressed and begin to wear down.

Having a positive outlook on the crisis you may be facing now or in the future will bring you peace and a will to make the most out of the circumstances you are in.  It will help you to heal spiritually and physically, when in those situations.  It will help you to stay healthier now.

A positive outlook will also benefit those who are around you.  It will encourage them to remain positive themselves.  And it just might be the seed, through your example, that God plants in their hearts to use the next time they face a crisis.

Craig could have felt sorry for himself.  But he didn’t, and the proof to his healing is in the testimony.

Feeling sorry for ourselves won’t change one thing for the good, but will most likely change things for the worse.  So the choice is yours to make:  Will your outlook on life be positive or will it be negative?  But remember Proverbs 17:22 when making your decision:  “A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.”

"After the Fall" Series - I'm Not Mad at You

The events, falling over 100 feet at 120 mph from the face of a cliff, on July 21, 2002 took a big emotional toll on Craig and Steve.  Both have relived the fall in their minds countless times.  Steve still chokes up when admitting that the accident has been “trying on a bunch of different levels.”  He has had to deal with his own feelings of guilt, as well as the pain of watching a good friend suffer.  But instead of blaming Steve, Craig credits him for saving his life.

Now, place yourself in Craig’s situation.  Do you think you’d harbor any anger or resentment at your climbing partner?  After all, you trusted him to belay you, but he let you fall.  If he had just kept the rope attached, or made sure he heard what you said, you wouldn’t be lying here in this hospital bed scared of what the future has in store for you.

But you see, that’s how Satan would have you think.  That’s how our society would have you think because Satan is ruler of this world.

How many times have you heard in the media this question, “This person really hurt you so how do you feel about him/her?  What do you want to see happen to him/her?”  And if the interviewee doesn’t respond with the anger and revenge desired, the media questions his motives and tries with other forms of questions to get him to express some form of hate and revenge.

Satan wants nothing more than for you and me to focus on all the pain, the grief, and the struggles.  He points a finger to the one who has caused all this heartache for you and your family.  He wants this person to be in the spotlight – like a close-up shot on a video camera.  He wants you to become angry.  He wants you to blame this person for all your struggles.  He wants you to believe that anger and revenge will bring contentment and peace to your soul.

But that’s totally wrong.  If you want a soul that has peace, that is completely satisfied, then don’t blame someone else for all your problems.

So what about Steve?  What must it have been like for Steve to hear from his buddy that the fall was an accident and that his buddy was not mad at him?  After all, Steve had extreme guilt for the pain he had caused his friend.

Let’s be real, unless our hearts are as cold as ice, we would feel the same way.  We would have a hard time, an extremely difficult time, forgiving ourselves.  We’d always be wondering how we could ever make this wrong – right again.

So what impact do you think Craig’s forgiving attitude has had on Steve?  On Steve’s relationship with other people?  On Steve’s relationship with God?  I really believe that if Craig doesn’t forgive Steve, the guilt would eat away at Steve until he could no longer function as a respectable, descent human being. Steve still is emotionally attached to the event – the tears and choked up voice we saw in his testimony.  There’s no question:  the guilt would wear him out physically, and he would never find peace of heart and mind.  This catastrophe would haunt him the rest of his life.

But that’s the beauty of forgiveness.  It not only released Craig from anger and hatred that would have kept him from mental, physical, and spiritual healing.  It also released Steve from the pain and torment that goes along with the guilt of hurting someone else – the guilt that comes when you and I sin toward God.

So always keep in mind that:  Forgiveness brings healing to both parties involved.

King David shares a testimony with us in Psalm 32.  It took him a while, but he realized what failing to acknowledge and confess sins in his life were doing to him.  Allow me to paraphrase verses 3 through 5.

·        Verse 3 - When I held onto my sin (which we can only guess what it was) my body began wasting away because of the burden and guilt of my unconfessed sin.

·        Verse 4 - Day and night, God kept reminding me of my sin and it began to wear me down to the point of exhaustion.

·        Verse 5 - Finally, when I acknowledged my sin before God and tried to hide it no longer, He forgave the guilt of my sin.

Many say God’s word isn’t relevant today so therefore we can’t use it as an absolute in telling us how to live. I wish they would read it. They’d find out differently. It matches so closely with our society that you would think it was written for today.

Listen to what Christ said about an unmerciful servant in the Gospel of Matthew.  He said, there was a servant whom was brought before the King to settle his account.  He owed the king millions of dollars.  The servant didn’t have this kind of money so the king declared he would take the servant’s wife, children, and possessions and sell them to repay the debt.  (I know some of you men right now might be thinking that sounds pretty good, but STOP!  You’re going to miss the point.)  The servant fell to his knees begging and pleading that the king would give him more time to pay off the debt.  The king took pity on the servant and cancelled all of his debt.  (Man wouldn’t that be nice if our Mortgage Companies forgave us our loans?)

But here’s the point Christ want us to see.  The same servant left the King’s throne and went head hunting.  He found his buddy who owed him a few dollars.  He grabbed his buddy by the throat and began choking him, demanding that he pay back the few bucks.  His buddy finally frees himself from the choke hold and falls to the floor gasping for air.  When he finally gets his composure, he begs the servant to give him more time to pay off the debt.

Well, what did the servant do at this point?  Was it:  A)  Did he remember what the king had generously done for him and likewise do the same for his buddy?  Or B)  Did he continue in his fit of rage and have his buddy thrown into prison until the debt could be paid?  If you answered B, you are correct and the prize is:  the satisfaction of knowing your Bible.

But the story doesn’t end here.   There were some tattletales, other servants, who went and told the king all they had seen.  The king was distressed by the news and called the servant back to his throne.  The king scolded the servant, reminding him of all his debt that had been canceled because of his begging and pleading.   He asked the servant, “Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your buddy just as I had on you?”  

The king didn’t wait for an answer.  He quickly had the servant thrown into prison where he would be tortured until he could pay back the millions of dollars he owed (which in reality meant never and scripturally meant the judgment of hell).

Christ concludes the story with these words, “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.”  (Matthew 18:35)

He also tells us these words in Matthew 6:14-15, right after he taught His disciples the Lord’s Prayer:  “For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you.  But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.”

Those aren’t my words.  Those are Christ’s.  And I think He knows something about God that a lot of people don’t want to admit or accept – God will not accept us failing to forgive the person who hurts us, even in the most criminal way.

God says to you and me in my words, “I put up with your misfortunes and sins against me all the time.  I grant you grace and mercy constantly.  I forgive you.  But, I will not accept you failing to do the same for those who sin against you.  I want you to show the same grace and mercy to others as I have shown to you.”

Wow!  Those are tough words, but they’re the truth as given to us in the Bible.

So if Craig does what Satan would want him to do – to blame Steve and never forgive him – Craig will not find peace, his own sins won’t be forgiven, and his body probably won’t heal because of all the resentment he would be harboring for Steve.  His focus would be on Steve and not on what he would need to do to help his body heal.

But if we go back to David's testimony in Psalm 32, we see what happens when sin is no longer covered up and hidden from God.  (Yea, be real - like we can ever hide our sin from God!) 

Listen to David’s joy that resounds in his words because he has been released from this burden of guilt that surrounded him while he tried to hold onto his sin.

"Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered.   Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord does not count against him, and in whose spirit is no deceit."  (Psalm 32:1-2)

Forgiveness is not solely for the benefit of the other person, though it sure did help Steve to know that Craig had forgiven him.  Instead, forgiveness also benefits you and me.  Forgiveness brings about healing.  Forgiveness releases us from the guilt of our mistakes.  Forgiveness brings us peace of heart, mind, and soul, and allows us to function as God intended.  

And the best thing about forgiveness is that it gives back to us the life we want.