Label Lies

I came across an ad campaign, called "Labels Lie," that does a heart wrenchingly amazing job of showing how devastating the lies we believe about ourselves can be and how they can destroy our lives. Some of the images brought tears to my eyes as I felt the pain they evoked. I'm not sure which hurt more, realizing that I have believed some of these things about myself and wielded the Sword of Lies against myself, or realizing that, knowing how hurtful and destructive the cuts from that sword can be, I have turned that blade on others.

The images in the ad campaign are easily the types of visions we'd have if stopped long enough to truly picture a physical manifestation of what happens spiritually and emotionally when we tear someone down with our words.  One of my mother's favorite verses on the subject of how we speak to and of others is Ephesians 4:29, "Don't use foul or abusive language, let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them." (NLT) Mom would use this verse as a scalpel to slice away the teen tendency to even jokingly use cut downs in our church youth group meetings. Someone would say something not so nice about another and before another heartbeat passed her words would ring out, "4:29, that's not acceptable." It mattered to her how we talked because my Mom understands that words matter and knows the damage that labels can do. It something that Jesus understands as well, and we all need to. 

These images reveal our deepest wounds, our failures, our fears, our brokenness. They are heartbreaking, and because they contradict what God says about who we are they are also lies. Jesus was described repeatedly as having compassion. God loves us as we are, and not as we should be. Jesus loves us broken and wounded and full of fear and failure and doubt. He doesn't see out mistakes and call us trash. He see our mess and promises to wash it away, all the while declaring that we are not the mistakes we've made. Those are events. Who we are is something different. We are His children, His beloved. He precious treasure that inspired Him to give all that He had in order to attain.

  The good news of the gospel is that God knows all the things about ourselves that we try to hide and wish we could change about ourselves and, as outrageous as it may seem, loves us anyway. If we want to change the way we feel about ourselves, we need to be honest about two things. First, we need to truthfully acknowledge how we see and define ourselves. Then we need to hear and believe what God says about us. These labels are lies about who we are. God sees us, all of us, as beautiful and loved. Not because He can't see the real me and the real you. Not because we can ever hide those dark and shameful things from Him, but because He sees deeper. God is love, and love sees the truth that we are who He created us to be, regardless of the corruption that followed that creation.

 My wife and I love to ride the motorcycle down little farm to market roads and look at the houses. Quite often we'll see an old house in disrepair falling apart. One of us will comment about how it's a shame the house is in the shape it is in. We can see the ghost of beauty it once had, but now it is ugly and would be dangerous to live in. It simply needs to be condemned. But a carpenter could look at that house and see exactly what needs to be done to restore it and improve it. 

We're like those old houses. The winds of time and lack of care have let us broken, leaky and falling apart. But the Master Carpenter doesn't see that as the end of who we are. He doesn't condemn us. He has the knowledge, skill and power to fully and completely restore us to what we were created to be. We are not the peeling paint, leaky roofs and dry rot.

We are His workmanship, His masterpieces. And no matter how much mold has grown up and become a part of our make up, no matter how many termites have eaten away at who we are, He can restore us. He declares us His beautiful masterpieces and to believe any other label is to believe a lie. Any labels that contradict how God describes us, wound us and destroy a part of us. That's why we must be careful with the words we use, both in reference to ourselves and to others. We have to be honest, and if we don't see our own peeling paint we can't seek a new paint job from the Creator. But while we need to admit our need and allow God to come in to those broken and damaged areas of our lives, we shouldn't allow ourselves to be defined by these hurtful images and lies. And we shouldn't define others by them.

Jesus didn't come calling us losers and worthless. He came to tattoo the label of loved on us. Jesus' love for us came with radical acceptance and unconditional love. He embraced us, the wounded and the broken. Sure, as He heals, restores and saves us, declaring us forgiven and clean, He gently calls us to follow Him and sin no more. But when He tells us to leave our life of sin He is not doing it as a condition of His love, or as if He is having second thoughts about the work He did in us. He's not saying don't take this gift for granted or I'll take it back. It's not even a command for us to get our act together and shape up. It's a declaration that it is now possible for us to live differently than we have in the past! He's giving us the permission and promising the power to be different than we were because of our encounter with Him! No one wants to live a life of brokenness and emptiness when they've just encountered the very wholeness and fullness of love. Jesus is saying, it's OK, I see who you are, what you've done, and all the mistakes you've made. I know the truth of how you feel about yourself in the deepest depths, when the lights are out and the distractions have faded away. And I love you anyway. I love you so much that I will give you Myself so that those things that you have always been powerless to change can be changed. Today, because of Me, you don't have to hate yourself, and you don't have to fall short. You don't have to stay broken and a mess. "Go and sin no more," isn't a phrase Jesus wielded to make sure we get beat up when we fall short of the ideal, for His mercies are new every morning and His grace is sufficient. It is an invitation to leave our hurt and broken identity behind and to see ourselves as God does.

Repentance and new life in Christ isn't pretending we don't have wounds and that we aren't broken. It isn't about deciding from here on out to do the right thing. If we determine to live right, it won't be long until failure will heap all that condemnation right back on the walls of hearts that Christ washed clean. It's about making the choice to let the truth about who God says we are and what God says about us define us, determine our value and control how we think, feel and react. It's about seeing with our Father the masterpiece project in progress rather than the condemned wreckage we've been looking at, declaring the restored work is the truth about the person in question, not the thoughts and feelings associated with needing that restoration. We are loved unconditionally, and realizing that we are loved like that changes everything. As we begin to see that truth and understand what it means, we will find ourselves living differently, not because we have to but because we can, and we can have the courage to show that same radical grace to those around us too.

This is the dangerous truth of Christ, the beautiful good news of the gospel.  that as messy as we are, God loves us. We don't have to get cleaned up or straighten up first. He loves us. We don't have to change. He loves us. And when we catch a glimpse of ourselves through His eyes and see how beautiful He sees us as, and want to be who He says we are, we can accept that love and let Him come into us and do the restoration work. He can change those things that we never could before and never will be able to in the future. He can relabel each and every one of us. When we recognize and come to trust the truth of God's love for us and everyone else, it becomes impossible not to be changed and not to change the lives of those around us.

You are loved. Right now. No matter where you are at. No matter how far away you feel. No matter what you have done. You are loved. Don't ever forget that. What you choose to do with that love and how you respond to that love is up to you. But if you accept it, it can destroy those labels that feel so permanent and make you new.

Checking ID

“He has identified us as his own by placing the Holy Spirit in our hearts.” 

(2 Corinthians 1:22a NLT)

Allowing ourselves to be beaten up by and over our past as a way of life defeats the purpose of God in our lives. It replaces the victory that we are called to in Christ with defeat. To live under the control and bondage of the past weakens our faith and causes us to doubt God's amazing love for us. Living this way allows the enemy, the world, and our brokenness to define us and determine or value and worth, and allowing that denies the truth of God.

Galations 2 makes it clear that our faith will grow stronger as we focus on our identity in Christ. This means that if we want to defeat fear and doubt and weakness in our life by strengthening our faith, we need to be learning and taking upon ourselves what the Word of God says about us and not anyone or anything else. It doesn't matter what we've done in the past or what's been done to us. It doesn't matter that we've been broken.

Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Never mind that my past says I'm a selfish, lying, cheating, thief. The label on my past may indeed say drunk, junkie, felon. But those things are not who I am. They are who I was outside of relationship with God. Your labels may not be as bad as mine. They may be worse. But it doesn't matter, because it is not our mistakes or our personality defects that determine our worth. If you have entered into relationship with your Heavenly Father through faith in Jesus, then you, like me, are defined by that relationship and that relationship only. Hello my name is child of the Most High God, and so is yours. No other label is valid after we have accepted Christ.

You have to abandon any image or label of yourself that is not from God. Stop accepting what others have said about you, how others have labeled you, and how others have defined you. Stop letting the failures and mistakes of the past speak to you about whether or not you deserve to be in relationship with God (you don't, and neither do I, so just let that earning mentality go nd accept the grace that's been given). Don't let your past dictate what you can or can't do for God or whether you can accept and fulfill the calling from God on your life.

Start believing what God says about you, that He is pleased with how He created you, and that God loves you.  Our selfishness and rebellion marred us like graffiti on a wall, but the blood of Christ has cleaned us, and we are forgiven. "You are altogether beautiful, my darling, And there is no blemish in you. (Song of Songs 4:7) That's what God says about you. You are beautiful to Him and there is nothing about you that is ugly or stained by your mistakes, by heritage or from the wounds caused by others.

You’re not defined by your feelings. You’re not defined by the opinions of others or by your circumstances. You’re not defined by your successes or failures. You’re not defined by the job you have or don't have, the car you drive or the shoes you walk in, the money you make or the cup you panhandle with, or the house you live in or the bridge you sleep under.

You are defined by God and God alone. He identifies you as his own (2 Corinthians 1:22).
The thing is, if we don’t know who we are, then we’re vulnerable to other people telling us who we are and how we have to live and what we can and can't accomplish for God. But the simple truth is that we are who God says we are, and no one else has a say in the matter, not even our own minds. What we believe doesn't change that truth, but what we believe effects how that truth manifests in our lives, in our minds and in our hearts.

Knowing and believing our true identity is an important aspect of walking with God. Those who understand who they are in Christ are the ones who have been able to run their race with endurance, who have fought the fight without giving up, who having done all to stand against the enemy continued to stand...they kept going with God. And that's what we can do when we remember who we are in Jesus. When we know that we matter to God none of that other stuff matters, and we have confidence to do what God has called us to do.

If you have accepted Jesus as your Lord, you are now identified with Christ and have the power of the Holy Spirit within you. You are God’s precious child, and He created you in a way that pleases him. You are no longer defined by anything but His love and acceptance. If you have not entered into relationship Jesus and are tired of being beat up by and over your past mistakes, then I encourage you to surrender you heart, your will and your life to the One who loves you and is calling you to Himself. When God calls you beloved, it no longer matter what anyone else calls you.

We Don't Have To Do It Alone

"So then, since we have a great High Priest who has entered heaven,

Jesus the Son of God,

let us hold firmly to what we believe.

This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses,

for He faced all of the same testings we do,

yet He did not sin.

So let us come boldly

to the throne of our gracious God.

There we will receive His mercy,

and we will find grace to help us when we need it most."

~ Hebrews 4:14-16

Jesus faced all the same testings that we face, but He didn't sin. When we're facing difficulty we can go to Jesus. We don't pray to someone who doesn't understand. He's not looking down on us asking why we're struggling. He doesn't wonder why we're struggling. It's the exact opposite. Jesus understands our weaknesses!

We can go to Jesus for help because He knows what we're going through and how to overcome it. He's the ultimate overcomer. He did it without ever failing or falling short. Because of that, He can help us to overcome as well. 

Jesus said that it was better that He go away, because  He would then send the Holy Spirit in His place. The Holy Spirit is our comforter, our helper, our counselor, and our teacher. The Holy Spirit gives us power. We can come boldly to the throne of God where we will find two things.

First, we find mercy at the throne of God, because of Jesus. We all need mercy. If we start feeling like we don't need mercy we're just fooling ourselves. It's so refreshing to remember that regardless of our  past and how we have failed the first thing we find when we run to our Father is mercy.

But these verses show that we find more than mercy to cover our shortcomings. It says we'll find mercy and we'll also find grace to help us when we need it most, in our time of need. Grace is often defined as unmerited favor, but this grace mentioned in Hebrews 4 is an active and empowering grace. This is grace that will help us when we need it most. 

This is the grace gives power to the addict to put away what he is powerless to walk away from. This is grace that gives us strength in our time of weakness. This is the grace that shows us a way to escape the fear and the doubt that threatens to overwhelm us when the situations in our life become more pressing than we can bear. This grace gives us the power to do what we could not do on our own.

That's one of the most wonderful aspects of the good news of Jesus Christ. He doesn't just leave us on our own. He doesn't  just save us and then say, "OK, now do good. Stop messing up." Through relationship with Him we also have relationship with the Holy Spirit dwelling in us to help us and give us grace in our moments of weakness. So when we face a difficult or dangerous situation, He is there to whisper to our soul. "Watch out, there is something there that wants to steal you away from me." "Be careful, that's not a good idea." "Hey, here's how to escape this." :I know you're walking through a mine field. Listen to me, and I'll tell  you were it's safe to put your foot down. I've walked through this field before, and I know where the bombs are buried,"

"Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us." Romans 8:37 In the midst of everything going on in our lives, in every area that we are powerless on our own, we have power to overcome and conquer through Jesus, Philippians 4:13 is a promise that we can do all things, overcome and face anything that comes against us and find our way through any situation we find ourselves in through Christ who strengthens us. We don't have to rely on our own strength, which is good because we are powerless to break the bondage of self on our own. But when and where we are weak, He is strong.

We aren't supposed to face temptation or struggle with the troubles of life on our own. We have relationship with a God who  wants to walk with us. We are not alone. We can go to Him, boldly and in the assurance that we have the right to without fear of rejection and find His mercy and His grace for every need in our life. He loves us and gives us His strength to use in every area of our life that we are weak. That is the beauty of the gospel. Relationship with Jesus is about a lot more than just heaven or hell. It's about victory in our lives at this moment as well.

Breaking The Bondage Of The Past

This week's message is entitled "Breaking The Bondage Of The Past" and is about 23 minutes in length. The wreckage and wounds of our past can be a hindrance to our walk with God and a source of misery and defeat in our lives, or they can be a source of joy in greater understanding of God's love for us and healing power and  a tool help others. I pray that this message blesses all who listen, and if you are blessed by what you hear, please share this message with others. God bless you.

Called To Do Not To Don't

"For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them."

~ Ephesians 2:8-10

We don't come into relationship with God whole. Christians, like everyone else on the planet, are a broken and wounded people, at least at the start. That's why we need God. Before being exposed to the healing and restoration that comes from being in relationship with the Master Healer we're a mess. For many it takes realizing that we have to find an answer to the hurt and destruction in our lives now or die that causes us to seek God with the desperation of the drowning.

The first two of the three verses above make it clear that salvation, relationship with God and His favor are gifts of His grace. They're not rewards for anything we've done or based on any goodness that we have. None of us came to God by filling out an application, having Him look at how we lived our lives and getting hired for the work of the kingdom based on being good enough or qualified in any way to do that work. We have never been good enough to please God, and on our own, never can be. We can't earn it. We'll never deserve what we have received. Period. The end.

But it's not the end. Because while we can't do good works to get relationship with God, He, by grace, made that relationship possible anyway, And the reason that He created us anew in Christ, as His masterpieces (New Living Translation) was so that we could do the good things that He planned for us long ago.

God planned for us to do good things! He remade us into His workmanship or masterpiece so that we could do good, not so that we could repay Him for His gift. It wasn't so that we could then be good enough to continue to receive His blessings and favor or have a right to be in the relationship. Rather so that we could help Him do for others what He has done for us, usually through someone else. 

We look at our lives and our past and see our shortcomings and defects. We see all the ways we messed up. And it's easy to feel like we'll be OK if we can stop living the way we used to or the way secular society does. It's easy to see why the world so often sees Christianity in a negative light. We present our faith in a negative, do nothing way. How often do we say things like "I'm a Christian. I don't do that." How often do we attempt to show to others and ourselves that we are walking with God by what we don't do? I'm a Christian; I don't wear clothes like that. I'm a Christian; I don't listen to or watch..... I'm a Christian; I don't say things like that, etc.

Now I'm not suggesting that we aren't called to holiness. We are. But we are to be known by what we do, not by what we don't do. Jesus said that you can tell what kind of tree you're looking at by the fruit it bears, not by the fruit that it doesn't bear. They are supposed to know that we are Christians, that we have found relationship with God, by our love for each other and for them.

If we dress a certain way, only listen to Christian music or watch "family" appropriate shows or however else we make out the outside of the cup for others to see, we may get the attention of the lost and the hurting. And it is good to be modest, to fill our eyes and ears with Godly material, to guard our tongue from cursing and gossip, etc. It keeps us from hurting our relationship, and it may be the first thing someone sees about us that sets us apart. But if that is all they see, they will only see religion. A suit and tie or long skirt and high neckline may set you apart from the world, but the love of God in your eyes and the smile of Christ on your face is what will show the possibility of hope and healing to the broken and hurting. 

We were created by God to have relationship with Him. And those who have entered into that relationship have been remade so that we can love those who naturally we would not. We are called to be the good Samaritan. The I don't do that attitude of religion is what kept the Pharisee and the priest on the other side of the road and separated from the dying man. But the Samaritan showed love and cared for the wounded. By doing so He fulfilled the work of God.

Yes, we are called to separate ourselves holy unto God. If we're walking with God it should be apparent that the way we live our lives is different from the way those who aren't walking with Him are living. But we are called into relationship to do good, not to stop doing bad. What should scream different to the world is what we do, how we love, and how the compassion of Christ flows through us to them. They need to see that a lot more than they need to see all the things they do that we don't. 

We Have A Home

"The disease of self runs through my blood

It's a cancer fatal to my soul

Every attempt on my behalf has failed

To bring this sickness under control"

~ "I Wanna Be In The Light" DC Talk

Gautama Buddha said, “Every morning we are born again. What we do today is what matters most.” There are some ideas that grow out of this statement that I agree with, and some that I don't. But I do know that God's mercies are new every morning. I also know that I need that truth, because every day my old man tries to resurrect itself. My self will does not like to be dead. I know that I am not alone in this.

The scriptures make it clear that Christ died once for all and for all time. That sacrifice and His victory over the grave was sufficient to cover all our failures and selfishness for all time. When God forgave us, He only did it once. When we are adopted as His children, it is a one time deal. We are His children. Once we belong to Him, we never belong to ourselves, or this world or Satan ever again. He is faithful to complete the work that He has begun, and Jesus thanked the Father that no one could take us from His hands, not even us. We are a new creation in Christ.

But while that work is complete and eternal for those who have been adopted by the Father through faith in the Son and His death and resurrection,  the manifestation of that truth in this realm is still a work in process. Jesus told us to take up our cross daily and follow Him. Paul wrote about dying daily. We are adopted children of God and that doesn't change, but do we act like it? Do we go through our day with the assurance and power that comes with being children of the most powerful being there is? Or do we slink through our day in fear that our "true" nature as orphans may come to light,  running the streets as though we were still parentless and lie, cheat, steal and fight to get what we need, or think we need, when the table of plenty waits for us to take what we need, for free and without price or struggle.

Until we see Him and are made perfect as He is perfect, our self will attempt to live anew. Our old nature, refusing to realize it is dead, will try to take back control of our lives. When self rises up and we begin to live like those who have never experienced grace, doing things we know aren't right, slipping into old behavior, as living like we're spiritually dead is sometimes referred to, we need to recognize it. It is a time and an indicator that we are not totally surrendered to God at the moment.

It doesn't mean we aren't His children. It doesn't mean we have failed Him and will be cast aside, orphaned once more. It simply means that we forgot who we are for a minute and still need Him. An orphan who is blessed by being adopted takes time to adjust to the idea that he or she is no longer homeless and alone. It takes time to trust that it isn't going to change and doesn't depend on their performance and whether they behave well enough. We too sometimes forget that we are His children and start feeling, thinking and living like the orphans we no longer are. We still need our savior.

Instead of beating yourself up and allowing condemnation to set in when you begin to take your will and life back from a place of surrender to God,  remember that what you really want is to be like your new Father. Then quickly be thankful that your behavior doesn't effect your adoption, so you don't have to make up for your mistakes. You just have to remember who you are in Christ and go back inside to get off the streets. There is no need to clean up first. There's a nice big bath tub in the house. Run into the arms of your Father like you belong there, and by doing so acknowledge and remind yourself of your new identity and die once more to self.

Unfailing Love

"Just a face in the city

Just a tear on a crowded street

But you are one in a million

And you belong to Me

And I want you to know

That I'm not letting go

Even when you come undone"

~ Matthew West

We were created for relationship, and because of this we all, even the most devoted loners, have an innate need to be wanted. It is all too easy to determine our value and worth based on how we perceive we are wanted and cherished by others. It is easy to see the destruction in the lives of adults who have felt unwanted and unloved during childhood. How many of us feel better about ourselves because we are in a romantic relationship or have been blessed enough to find a marriage partner? How easy is it to find our self-esteem crash when our partner is critical or does something to make us feel unloved or unwanted? 

And no matter how old we get we often still feel like children around our parents. It's like there's a natural part of us that still wants to please them and make them proud of us because deep inside we need that validation. These feelings can extend to bosses and other authority figures in our lives. For some, especially those that feel wanted and valued by those important to them, this need may not seem to affect their lives much. For others who have had little or no approval from others, or who have experienced the devastation of losing that approval because of mistakes and hurts, it can be devastating. 

That need for approval and to be wanted can be a driving force in our lives to the point where we choose spouses, careers and possessions based not on what God wants for us or even on what we want but instead on what we think others want from us. It's a dangerous road to travel, and it often leads to failure, emptiness and terminal loneliness. The places that people go and the things that they do to erase the pain of failing to gain approval from others can lead to addictions of all kinds and a miserable existence.

But the answer for all of us, whether we feel the approval of others or not, is in the acceptance that never fails, the acceptance that isn't based on performance. We have to find that place where the love from parents, or spouses or siblings or children or anyone else no longer defines how we see ourselves, either from having that love or not having it. We have to realize that the approval of bosses, teachers, pastors or any other authority figure is not the measure of our worth. 

And the way to do that is to come to an understanding of the awesome, unearned love and acceptance found in God. That's the relationship we were created for. The others are just a bonus. So, whether we have love from people or don't, we are not built upon shaky soil to crumble when people fail or left adrift on an ocean of loneliness because approval never was there. The truth is that approval and acceptance has always been there for all of us. And it always will be. We just have to receive it.

The theme of the Scriptures is God's love and pursuit of relationship with us. God, wanting to win our hearts and have us as a part of His life, gave everything to make that possible. He didn't wait for us to be good or religious or healthy or anything else. He saw us as we were when He formed us and as we were at each moment of our lives since, in all our wounded, needy brokenness and said "You are beautiful to Me and I love you. I want you. I desire to walk with you and spend your life with you." And unlike the love of parents, spouses and others, His love never fails because God never falls short of loving us the way that we need to be loved. The way we were created to be loved.

The freedom from the bondage of being slaves to the approval we have or haven't had comes from accepting God's awesome love for us. We may have the blessing of love from others. We may not. But either way, we can be well and content, because His love is big enough to be enough. He loved us at our worst as much as He does at our best. He doesn't change toward us based on how we perform or respond to His love.

But just as a person who is totally and completely loved by another can not feel the joy and benefits of that love if they keep the lover at a distance, we can not experience all that comes with being loved by God unless we allow Him into our lives to love us. If we let Him, He will show us His love in a way that will change our lives for the better and even change how we feel about ourselves. His love can free us from all other needs and remedies for the emptiness we feel without it. That love is there, whether we choose it or not. But life is only worth living when we do choose it. When the need to feel loved arises in us, let us turn to the source of all love and accept the only love that never fails.