"You Deserve It"

But what exactly do you deserve?

There’s a phrase that gets used every day and we don’t really pay that much attention to it because it’s so common.  We tell each other “You should get that new purse/iphone/gaming system.  You deserve it.”  We tell ourselves “Eat that dessert” or “Take that vacation” because you deserve it.  I get it.  We work hard, we make sacrifices in our lives, and sometimes we just want to play or splurge or let loose.  We deserve it.  We’ve earned it.

Or we go in the other direction and say things like “Quit that job/Leave that relationship because you don’t deserve that.”  We know our worth and we draw the line at how we’ll be treated.  We won’t tolerate anymore because we deserve better.

Deserve is defined as “being worthy of, or have a right to something.”  We see it as a positive word.  Especially as having a right to something.  Our Declaration of Independence rings in our ears of the right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”  We have rights as citizens of our country.  We have rights as tenants or homeowners.  We have rights as employees.  We love our rights and we love getting what we deserve with those rights.

But I get stuck on that word deserve.  I roll it around in my mouth and my mind and my heart and I don’t like how it tastes and feels.  The Spirit in me took me to passage after passage about what God thinks of what we deserve.

“The Lord looks down from heaven on all mankind to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God. All have turned away, all have become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one.”  Psalm 14:2-3

“As it is written: ‘There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.” Romans 3:10-12

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”  Romans 3:23

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  Romans 6:23

“He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities.”  Psalm 103:10

“You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.  Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:6-8

“If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Romans 10:9

“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.”  Ephesians 2:8

These verse show time and time again that humanity as a whole and humans as individuals have no desire toward God. That our sin nature is in conflict with God’s design and holiness.  That the wages – the earned payment for our actions, what we deserve because of our sin – is death.

And yet! God has such love for each of us that He “does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities.”  He created a way through Jesus’ death on the cross to freely gift us reconciliation with Him.

Grace – the method by which God loves us to give us what we do not deserve

Mercy – the method by which God loves us to not give us what we do deserve

There are many, many things I deserve…and none of them are good. 

I deserve to be judged.                                2 Corinthians 5:10

I deserve to be forsaken.                           Hebrews 13:5

I deserve to be punished.                          1 John 4:17-18

I deserve to be put to death.                      Romans 6:23

I deserve to be eternally separated from God. Revelation 21:27

I witnessed a father getting to the bottom of his two children arguing.  The little boy had hit his sister.  The father asked the daughter what she had done to make her brother hit her.  She said that she was telling him something several times because he wasn’t paying attention to her.  The brother got tired of hearing her and hit her.  And the father said…to the daughter…“you got what you deserved.”

I was upset for weeks over that conversation.  It was wrong in so many ways.  The father taught the son he could hit his sister (and women in general).  The daughter learned her voice got her hit.  And the father taught both of his children that they deserve different things:  the son deserves to be left alone and the daughter deserves to be silenced and abused.

Do you see the damage being done by thinking we deserve things??? As believers, we must make peace with the grace bestowed upon us through Jesus’ and His forgiveness and stop using biblical punishment language to describe worldly rewards.  Of course we want to partake in some fun and frivolous activities and choices after hard work or hard sacrifices.  But the words matter. We deserve none of it. Glory to the Father, He has spared us from what we deserve and has lavished his mercy and grace upon us so that we can live better, speak better, and teach better. 

So let’s do better.

The Heart of Repentance

What is the motivation?

There are many people who answered an altar call out of fear of eternal damnation. Instead of being motivated by: - the weight of their sin - their need of a savior - their love of God Relationships aren’t built on fear; they’re damaged and ended by fear. Emotionally charged altar calls are the same way. Fear of hell as the priority creates a fear of God rather than a love for Him. It’s hard to cultivate a relationship in that environment. Eventually any faith planted in that soil will start to erode. It’s easy to walk away from a faith that roped you in with damnation.

True repentance that changes a person is rooted in the overwhelming love of the Father. He loves you so much that He pursues you, calling you out of the world and unto Himself. He reveals the burden of your sin and the freedom He offers through His son, Jesus. And that great love is what should motivate us to love Him in return and give Him our lives. To live in obedience to His word as a testimony of His Spirit in us. Not to avoid hell. To gain an eternity with Him. “God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.“ 2 Timothy 1:7 “You will know them by their fruits.” Matthew 7:16

Hell…

 ...it's a real place.

My daughter and I were talking about fears we have. I said the fear of not being able to escape - if you don’t, you’ll die. Then I said “Or the fear that you get out, but there’s still someone else trapped.”

And instantly I had an analogy. 

Because this is the world we live in. Some of us have escaped circumstances while others remain. Some of us are no longer trapped by abuses or financial lack while others still struggle.

But that’s not the analogy that hit me. What I instantly thought of is hell.

There are those of us who heard, read, and understand our need for a savior because of our sins. And while we have escaped eternal suffering, we are surrounded by countless others who are still headed for disaster. 

We who were once trapped have escaped. But there are still people trapped. Why doesn’t that bother us more? Why doesn’t that motivate us more. 

If a house is burning with people inside, shouldn’t every effort be made to save them? Even if we risk other human life to save theirs? This is exactly the picture we should have in mind. 

Hell is a real place. There will be no escape. Those who have been shown the way out need to be showing others the way out. No one should be left to burn.

The Poop in the Brownies Part 2

The Holy Nature of God

There's a story I've told my kids for years about the poop in the brownies that has given them a great visual for how our choices, our sins, can affect ourselves and others.  Our sins separate us from God in the same way that our minds (and stomachs!) tell us that we want nothing to do with those poopy brownies.  It is only through Christ's sinless life given on the cross can we be cleansed from our sins.  Without that, we are still like the brownies:  filled with something unclean, unpleasant, and utterly undesirable.

But what about that?  How does a God who is supposed to love us more than anything decide that if we don't accept His Son, Jesus Christ, as the One Who cleanses us from our, sin then He isn't going to let us into heaven?  Here's another analogy I've used with my kids to explain the perspective of God.

Imagine we live on a farm.  There's a huge yard and a large barn.  There are horses and chickens and cows and sheep and pigs.  You are a little boy (or maybe a tomboy little girl) who loves to play outside.  You also love to play with the animals.  Especially the pigs.  They run and squeal and you chase them all over the pen.  You're having a great time.  Then it's time for dinner, and Dad is standing on the porch calling you to come inside.  You come running across the yard, ready to hurry to your seat.  And that's when Dad says, "STOP! You can't come inside!"

You freeze.  He's called your name and he's waiting on you, but now he won't let you in.  You're confused.

Dad says, "You are filthy.  You are covered in mud and muck and pig mess.  There's no way I'm letting you in here."  You look down and realize you are covered in everything he just said (and then some).  You were having so much fun playing and goofing off that you didn't realize the mess you were in.  And now you can't go inside looking (and smelling!) that way. You need cleaned from head to toe.

Now imagine that instead of playing with the pigs, you've only been jumping in mud puddles all day.  Rain has left your yard full of wonderful places to splash in and you've had a great day of fun.  Now it's time for dinner.  Again you run for the house.  But again Dad says, "You're not coming in here like that."  You look down and, although you aren't covered head to toe in muck, you are still pretty dirty from the waist down.  Mud and water and grass is matted in your jeans, all over your shoes, your socks are soaking wet.  All the fun you were having making a smaller mess still left you dirty.


Does your Dad not love you?  He won't let you in his house.
Does he not care about you?  He won't even come near you.

The truth is no parent wants all that mess in their house.  The spots on the floor, the tracks in the carpet, the ring around the tub, the smell of the laundry....there's no way you're coming in my house!

Just like the poop in the brownies, what if the mud and muck is sin?  It doesn't matter if you're covered head to toe in the most awful mess or only matted with some smaller mess - you are still dirty.

Many times, we are like children playing outside, carefree and without thought to the choices we are making, so long as we are having fun.  We tell ourselves, and each other, that as long as we aren't hurting anyone what we are doing is ok. So we play and we get a little mud on our shoes.  And we play some more and get some mud on our jeans.  And then we think, since I'm already a little dirty, what's the big deal if I go ahead and do that 'more fun' thing...and suddenly we are covered head to toe in muck.  We don't realize that the fun of chasing after the pigs puts us right in the center of the pig pen. We don't even notice right away that we are eventually eating slop, the whole while there is a meal waiting for us inside the house.  We forget that pigs love to be dirty, and by putting ourselves in their environment, we only go deeper into the mud and get more dirty and more filthy.

And what if the Dad is God the Father?  In His holiness, He cannot allow the filth of sin to come into His home (heaven).  He sees your mess, He sees your sins, and He loves you anyway - just as an earthly father does. But like an earthly father, God wants you to be cleansed.  He wants to wash away the muck and the mess and the sin. Through His Son, Jesus Christ, God has given each of us a way to be washed clean.

Upon the cross, Christ died as the final sacrifice for all sin - past, present, and future.  He took upon Himself every sin of every person who had or would ever live.  In this way, He paid the price for sin.  Although He Himself was sinless, He voluntarily chose to take the place of every sinner so that they could become clean and enter the kingdom of God.  1 John 1:7 says that "The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin."  

It is only through being spiritually clean that we are able to come into the Father's house.  Although He loves us, enough to send Jesus in our place, He cannot let us into His home without being cleansed.  It is not because He is mean or unkind or lacking compassion.  It is not because we are worthless to Him or unimportant.  It is because He loves us so much that He doesn't want to leave us in the muck that we have covered ourselves with.  It is His greatest desire to see us come into His home and sit at His table and fellowship with us.  But we cannot cross into that threshold without being clean.

If you find yourself wanting to answer the call of the Father to His table, I encourage you to begin here.

*Acknowledge that you are covered in muck - a little or a lot, it doesn't matter.  I am a sinner in need of a Savior - this is to repent or turn away from sin

*Believe in your heart that God sent His perfect Son, Jesus, to die in your place and raised Him from the dead - this is to trust that Jesus paid the full penalty for each individual sin

*Confess Jesus as your Lord and your God - this is to surrender control of your life to Jesus, every facet, every aspect

*Receive Jesus as your Savior forever - this is to accept that God has done for me and in me what He promised     Article found here




For another analogy like this, see Why Won't Everyone Go to Heaven.

 There is a place for you at His table.

Holding Court

Without representation

Recently, someone very close to me was required to appear in court.  She knew it was coming; in fact, she had petitioned for the hearing herself.  She spent many hours preparing her statements, compiling her documents, ensuring that she had everything in order to present her side of the situation.  The goal - to walk out with the judge ruling on her behalf.  And it was clear that he would.  She had all the evidence she needed to support her case.  There was nothing missing, there were no loose ends, no surprises.  The biggest hassle was that she must fly 1300 miles to appear in person.

She arrived to court that morning feeling good.  Confident.  At peace.  She had prayed and was ready to do her part in the task at hand.

And then the judge walked in and everything changed.

He said she'd filed the wrong paperwork.  He said she couldn't argue particular points.  He didn't want to look at her evidence or documents.  He believed the other side when they said they had no idea why the hearing had been called.  He spent time telling her that due to her "innocent" mistakes and her actions that took her outside the law, she could be facing contempt charges and possible jail time.  He berated her for not coming into his court with an attorney.  In an act of mercy, he ordered a continuance for two weeks later.

She left - an emotional wreck, just thankful to have finally been allowed to leave his presence.

Fast forward.  It's three weeks later.  She has hired an attorney who was able to push the hearing back an extra week.  She has provided all of her previous statements and documentation to this attorney and he agrees with her that she has a sold case.  He assures her that this hearing will go smoothly and will end favorably for her.  She is nervous, but she trusts him.  In an unexpected turn of events, the judge granted her the ability to appear by telephone instead of flying to town again.  With caution, she was feeling optimistic again.

She sat on hold waiting for the hearing to begin for 40 minutes.  The hearing itself was over in five.  Her attorney presented everything she'd provided - everything the judge hadn't wanted to hear the last time - and the judge agreed with her side of things.  He agreed that she was, in fact, within the law.  There was no mention of contempt or jail.  An agreement was reached, a verdict rendered, the case closed.  Having representation changed everything.

It was finished.

Throughout this entire episode (weeks of preparation, weeks of praying, days of analyzing after the first hearing, tears and frustrations, more prayers, more planning, and the end results), I couldn't help but find the fascinating parallels my loved one went through compared to another day before a Judge that each of us will face.

One day in the near future, we will be required to take our turn and stand before God, the ultimate Authority over each of us.  Some of us will be surprised to be there, not having believed in Him.  Others will think they are ready, having prepared their statements and evidence.  They will feel confident and justified, not realizing their inadequacy and true lack of preparation.  Instead, they will not be able to stand before a Holy God and every attempt they make to defend themselves will fail. For these cases, The judge will not want to hear arguments or see evidence.  He will listen to the other side present their case of everything they have against the person - and He will believe them.  He will tell them how they have acted outside the law and are guilty.  He will tell them they should have come before Him with a Mediator who could speak on their behalf.  But there will be no continuance.  There will only be a final judgment.  Those found without representation will be eternally separated from God and His kingdom.

Then there will be those who will be able to stand before God, truly prepared because they take with them the only Mediator who can defend them against their guilt.  Because, the truth is, we are all guilty before this Holy God.  The Mediator will speak for that person and defend him or her against all the evidence the other side has.  He will explain how all the evidence is true and ugly and against the law of God.  And then He will explain how none of that matters because that person asked Him to be more than their Mediator - they asked Him to be their Savior.  Jesus will show God the Father the scars in His hands and feet, and God the Judge will see that the penalty for that person's guilt has already been paid.  The hearing will be ended.  For it is finished.

I have also found myself before a judge many times before.  There is a trepidation that comes with appearing before someone with such authority.  Despite having a good outcome each time, the nervousness and desire to be heard never changes.  Now apply this to the moment you will stand before a Holy God.  There are only two choices:  anxiety or peace.  There is no answer for those who go before His throne without the Mediator.  There is nothing they can say or do to save themselves, although they all will try.  The only peace that will come in that moment is having the Prince of Peace Himself serve as your voice and your Defender.  Taking Him as your Representation changes everything.

If you are in Christ, your judgement day will be a day of peace.  Although you cannot defend yourself against your sin, Christ has paid your penalty.  You sealed your day of judgment when you made Jesus Lord of your life.

If you are without Christ, or are unsure of the outcome of your judgment day, I implore you to accept Him.  There is no exchange of money or any bartering you can do to hire Him.  You can only accept Him through His free gift of His sacrifice on the cross.  The Bible says, "The wages (what one earns) of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord" Romans 6:23. That means that every time we choose to go against God's Word, we are earning our death, we are earning our punishment.  But "God made this sinless man [Jesus] be a sin offering on our behalf" so that we would have an opportunity to avoid paying the price of our sins ourselves. Remember that we earn death through our sins; but because Jesus became sin in our place, His death pays the penalty for our sins.

That's it, two choices:  1. guilty in your sins before God because you are without Jesus
                                    2. found not guilty by God because Jesus already paid for your 
                                        sins with His death

If you would like more information on how you can know that Jesus will not only be your Mediator before a Holy God, but also walk with you each day between now and then, here is one place to start:

*I acknowledge I am a sinner in need of a Savior - this is to repent or turn away from sin
*I believe in my heart that God raised Jesus from the dead - this is to trust that Jesus paid the full penalty for my sins
*I confess Jesus as my Lord and my God - this is to surrender control of my life to Jesus
*I receive Jesus as my Savior forever - this is to accept that God has done for me and in me what He promised                    Article found here.