Works In Progress

This happens to me all the time, and I’ll bet it does to you, too. What do you do next time someone asks you to, “Pass it on…”? My wise friend Tanya gives us some guidance.

Knee Mail

I received one of those email forwards the other day. It was a prayer that I’m sure has been passed around for years; a prayer asking God to bless the recipient’s health and finances. The email instructed me to forward it on to four people I wanted to bless including the person who sent it to me. It concluded with a warning for breaking the chain and a claim that it would work because prayer is a powerful thing.

In the past, I have read such messages and sent them on as instructed without really praying the words. This time, I closed my inbox without forwarding the message. Instead, I began to wonder if this sort of email prayer chain brought glory to God or grieved His heart.

I realized that a forwarded email did not a prayer make. It was then that my heart began to break.

When did I stop going to God with fear and trembling? I used to be in awe of His majesty and speechless in His presence. I forgot that He holds all things together by the word of His power; a power that comes from Him alone and not my feeble words. I was treating God like a vending machine and going to him with a “to do” list and walking away without a syllable of praise or adoration.

I had to be honest with myself and with God. Those prayers didn’t bring Him glory and they didn’t bring me closer to Him; they just provided a temporary “warm and fuzzy” feeling. A self-deceiving feeling where I believed that I boldly approached the throne of grace when in reality I only clogged an email server.

Those prayers grieved His heart because with them I expected God to serve me when I am to serve Him. He is the potter; I am the clay. He is the creator; I am the created. He is the King; I am His bond-servant. He is the Father; and I am the child.

The next time you receive an email chain prayer, a prayer you didn’t write, abounding in requests and lacking in praise, close your email and get on your knees. Humble yourself before the One who redeemed you from sin and gave you life eternal through the shed blood of His only begotten Son. Spend more time thanking Him for what He’s already done and less time asking Him for more.

God might not bless your health or your finances that day…He might bless you with something more precious – a grateful heart.

“Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe…” – Hebrews 12:28

A funny, timely, and apt reminder on why we want to be “kosher.”

Happy as a dead pig in the sunshine
by Sally Genter

Cajun folk seem to be full of sayings that contradict mainstream thinking. One of my favorites, “Happy as a dead pig in the sunshine,” struck me as odd, but it still warrants a chuckle. Embarrassingly, it took me years to fester on its meaning. Only recently did I see it for its full implications.

What brings more delight to a pig than to bloat to its fullest capacity? “Nothing,” we’re prompted to answer. Everyone knows there is no happier state for the swine than to be fat. Never mind the fact that the animal in our quip is dead and has no knowledge of its depraved condition. The fat that pigs glory in comes from gorging on food, not from heat swelling their rotting flesh.

That paradox is exactly where I’d like to camp out for a moment. It is a clever way of presenting a glossed over picture of a life gone bad.

It is not enough to appear to have all you set out to accomplish. While piglets are deemed by some to be pink, cute and cuddly, they grow into enormous swine, complete with swine behaviors. They wallow in the mud, eat slop and grunt loudly through their snouts. In short: they are disgusting creatures. But it’s not the animal’s fault. Their nature makes them what they are — pigs.

People have an inborn nature as well. We are all sinners, and quite frankly, sinners sin. Romans 1:29-32 lists a host of traits we exhibit: greed, hate, envy, murder, fighting, deception, malicious behavior, gossip, backstabbing, hatred of God, insolent behavior, pride, boasting, inventing new ways of sinning, disobedience to parents, refusing to understand, breaking our promises, heartlessness, unforgiving attitudes, and encouraging others to sin.

Blah! There is nothing happy about that picture. A life of sin is tragic. In reality, people living sinful lifestyles are no better off than the deceased, cleft-footed mud-slosher. On the outside they appear to be happy, possessing everything they desire. But the fulfillment is in appearance only. Inside, they’re dead. Give them time and exposure to the sun and their state will begin to reek.

The good news is that Christ made it possible for us to escape our old nature. It says in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”

Making the transformation is easy — the key is being in Christ. We simply ask Christ to save us from our sin and give us a new life. He will. Instead of having the similitude of happiness, like a dead pig in the sunshine, he will give us a new nature that truly experiences happiness in the Son. Or as another Cajun saying goes, “We’ll be sainted.”

May we each be aware that we need to receive the Kingdom of God like a child…

Smiling Jesus

My daughter Abi drew a masterpiece when she was 5 ½ years old. Her work in red and brown Crayola marker was the product of a Vacation Bible School “home challenge”: Draw a picture about something you learned today. The picture is simple: a stick-figure Jesus with no arms or body (only a head and two legs) hangs on a fat cross with what looks like a tarantula on top of His head.  It’s one of those from-the-mind-of-a-five-year-old drawings that warms your heart and makes you chuckle at the same time.

But there is one stroke of the red marker that stunned me, and still does. Abi plastered a great big grin on the face of the crucified Jesus. She titled her illustration “Jesus Suffered On The Cross” –but she put a smile on Jesus’ face.  I was tempted at first to dismiss the contrast of suffering and smiling as the innocent ignorance of a child’s imagination. But as it turns out, deep truth can be drawn from Abi’s simple sketch. Just before I was about to correct the budding artist with “Oops, Jesus is smiling. Shouldn’t He have tears on His face,” the words for the joy set before Him came to mind. Yes, this is right. Abi gets it.

The author of Hebrews reminds us that in the midst of keeping pace in our painful pursuit of our kingdom calling we can look to Jesus “who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross.” We’re encouraged to “consider Him who endured from sinners such hostility against Himself, so that [we] may not grow weary or fainthearted” Hebrews 12:2-3

There is a sense in which a smiling Jesus suffering on the cross is exactly right. In the midst of His excruciating passion for His Father and compassion for us, Jesus had joy. He knew both the inexplicable hurt and the infinite happiness of the cross shaped life of loving God and loving others Matthew 22:36-40 This cruciform life is what He created us to pursue, a suffering-but-smiling life of pouring oneself out for the glory of God and the good of others John 17 , Philippians 2:5-11 .

Father, may it please you to make my life a Spirit-scrawled sketch that in some way resembles the suffering-but-smiling life of Jesus; by Your grace, for Your glory, and for the good of my neighbors, the nations, and the next generation. Amen.

Jimmy Davis loves being married to Christine, with whom he shares the adventure of raising Abi, Micah, Anna, and Luther, their mini-dachshund. Jimmy has served as a youth pastor, high school and college Bible teacher, and church planter. He is the Associate Editor and a writer for BreakPoint’s Worldview Church eReport and maintains The Cruciform Life Blog