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He walked slowly up the stairs. He didn’t really want to go into that room. He didn’t want to face them. But he had nowhere else to go. It was dark, cold and the Jews may be out for more blood. What a difference a few hours had made. It seemed like just minutes ago that he’d left this upper room with his buddies and the Teacher. He could still smell the aroma of the roasted Lamb, he could still see the Teacher’s shadow in the distance as he prayed. How could he have fallen asleep? If only he’d known.
He tried to open the door quietly, but the rusty hinges gave him away. The others in the room looked up when he entered. Not one said a word. The air had been filled with celebration earlier, but now it was heavy, full of grief and sadness.
He found a corner and slid down the wall. He buried his face in his hands. He began to cry again. This time, there were few tears left. He sensed a shape near him and heard John’s voice.
“Did you hear about Judas?” John’s face was full of grief and fear when he looked up.
“They got Judas too?”
“No,” there was a heavy pause, “he hung himself.”
Peter placed his face back in his hands “When will it end?”
He may have slept a bit. If so, it would be the first sleep he’d had in two days. But his rest was shattered by a rattling gate. Instantly everyone was up. They were here. At any moment soldiers could break through.
John looked carefully through the drawn window. “It’s only Mary. Let her in.”
Mary bust through the door. She was breathless from running and could barely speak.
“He’s not there. The tomb. He’s gone. They took his body!”
Peter broke through the crowd. “What are you talking about?” He demanded.
“I went to the tomb to mourn. The stone was rolled away. The tomb was empty Peter!”
Peter hesitated to try to understand. Then he bolted from the room and ran down the steps. He hurried through the streets. ‘It couldn’t be,’ He told himself. When he and John got to the tomb it was just as Mary had told them. The grave clothes lay in a neat pile. The small room smelled of fresh burial spices. But there was no one there.
Peter’s mind was racing. He was angry at the Jews for taking his body. But what if they hadn’t taken it? “What if….NO! I saw him die.” He got back to the room before the others returned. He didn’t know what to make of things. So many questions. What was it he said? The Son of Man must be lifted up? What did he mean? Where was his body?
A thousand other questions went through his mind when suddenly the cool, dark room was warm and full of light. He looked up to see the Teacher. Peter fell to his knees and hung his head. A hand reached down and pulled him to his feet. The Teacher gently lifted Peter’s head so that he could see his eyes.
Peter didn’t understand completely, but looking into Jesus’ eyes he knew everything would be okay.
I am publishing this excerpt from my Built with Grace topic, ‘The Day Peter Learned Love’, to remind all of us on this Resurrection Weekend that it doesn’t matter what you have done. There is nothing in your past, present or future that can keep you from experiencing the life-changing love and forgiveness of Jesus Christ. Find a house of worship this weekend and make or renew a decision to follow Him completely.
Any of us involved in ministry and/or public speaking are well aware that no matter how well prepared we are for ‘ministry’, God can have other plans. Sometimes those plans remind us that it really isn’t about us, or our material. It’s about people and relationships.
I had the privilege of ministering at LIFE 24/7 again on Saturday night. Shortly into the service I became aware that the real ministry that night was not going to be the material prepared by Mike Fisk. The real ministry was going to be done by the Holy Spirit of God working through a bunch of ex-cons trying to make a new start in life.
LIFE 24/7, formerly Discipleship House, is a recovery home for men who are overcoming a variety of addictions and either just coming out of prison or landed at LIFE 24/7 instead of going to prison. Either way, these are guys who know the rough side of life and are all about second chances.
I recently listened to the testimonies of a few of these guys and was amazed at the stories of broken relationships, violence and dysfunctional families these guys had come from. These are guys that are living proof that Jesus Christ changes lives and that second chances are a normal part of his working in men.
Tonight’s service was led by Dillon. Dillon has a passion for Jesus and a desire to learn everything he can about the Bible, the Christian faith and how to help others change their lives. He has a passion for God and compassion for people. This was his first time leading the service. He was the fledgling Pastor Randy chose to be pushed out of his comfort zone and into the limelight. He handled it well and I now refer to him as ‘Pastor Dillon’. While he isn’t real comfortable in the position, he has something every minister needs to have in order to be effective. Dillon has passion, and passion beats technique every time.
After our time of Praise and Worship, and before I was to speak on how each of us can live ‘Grace-fully in God’s Silence’, Dillon asked Adah to come forward. He’d told me this was going to happen earlier, so I was expecting it. Adah was going to leave her position of ‘house mom’ at LIFE 24/7. What Dillon didn’t tell me (and he couldn’t know) was how emotional the ‘good byes’ would be.
One by one, each of the eleven guys thanked Adah for being the inspiration all of them needed to believe in themselves. For one man, Adah was the ‘mom I never had’. Another shared that his grandmother had died recently, and Adah was his ‘adopted’ grandma. Still another said thank you to Adah for ‘saving his nephew’s life’. I watched these guys say thank you one by one and there wasn’t a one of them that had a dry eye.
It was a stirring reminder that the real change in lives comes from the people in the background, doing the mundane things in life. We speakers/teachers/ pastors get the ‘upfront’ attention, but life change comes after the curtain falls.
So there I was all ready to speak about how God can seem silent and far away. But before I could get up to share that message, we’d all heard our Heavenly Father loud and clear, and through the life of his faithful servant, Adah, we’d seen His face.
Thanks to the guys of LIFE 24/7 and Adah for your ministry to me on Saturday night. I can’t wait to join with you once again!
A woman contemplates suicide. She’s a hooker, a mom, and addict. She has stooped so low as to sell not only her body, but the body of her three year old daughter to support her habit. At the end of her options, with no where to turn, she seeks out a counselor. He suggests church and she is shocked. “Why,” She asks angrily, “Would I go to church. I already feel bad enough about me. Why would I want to go someplace where I’d only be made to feel worse about myself?
A soldier sinks low in his foxhole. Bullets and rockets fly overhead. He’s been gone from home for two years fighting this war. He opens a bent and crumpled envelope. It’s from his home church. Anticipation rises within him. Expectantly he opens the letter, only to find that he has been dropped from the membership because he has fallen behind in his annual giving. When he returns home he never again darkens the door of a church.
They ‘did all the right things’ as parents. They had family devotions. They were involved in their local church. They took an active part in the social, educational and spiritual lives of their four wonderful children. They were good, Godly, caring parents. Then, within a span of two years, three of their children are taken in tragic, separate accidents. Three young lives taken before they really had a chance to bloom. Mom and Dad were never the same. The lone, remaining child struggled with drugs as he dealt with the tragic turn of his life. Throughout this tragic turn of events in this devastated family, the church remained strangely quiet.
What has happened in 2000 years that has made those who used to cling to the feet of Jesus, run from him in anger and shame? When did the church place the importance of money before the giving of one’s life for his country? How did we lose the compassion of the church in Acts to overlook the pain of our brothers and sisters?
The United States of America has more freedom, and opportunities to show the love of Christ than any country in the world. Yet churches close every week because there are no longer enough people attending to fill the pews. We are a nation of ‘empty pew people’. People who for a variety of reasons have turned their backs on the one person that can give them the fulfillment they seek.
In the book of Galatians, the Apostle Paul writes to a group of people that have fallen into the trap of legalistic thinking. They had become more intent on rules and regulations, and less concerned about living relationally. In Chapter 5, verse one he earnestly pleads with them to remember that we were born to be free.
The body of Christ needs to return to being a living organism of faith and mercy and love. Each of us has the responsibility to show the Grace of our Lord Jesus to those who might make us uneasy, or take us out of our comfort zone. Our Heavenly Father can’t do His work when we confine Him within the walls of ‘church-ianity.’
(From “When Grace Isn’t Enough: Amazingly Graceless”)
When you think about it, Grace really isn’t fair. Here we are, a bunch of stubborn, rebellious humans intent on our own way and demanding that the Creator God of the universe meet our every need.
We are His finest creation, the masterpiece of all that is. We were originally created in His image so that we could be in relationship with him. There are two things that strong loving relationships are defined by. First of all, strong, loving relationships offer both parties complete and total freedom. I Corinthians 13 is often referred to as the love chapter. Here, love is described as trusting, patient, enduring, selfless. THAT is freedom. Freedom to be everything we were created to be.
A second defining characteristic of a strong loving relationship is that both parties benefit from the situation. If there is not mutual benefit with the parties involved, then, in reality, relationship does not exist. Rather, such a situation is better referred to as an arrangement. One party is the beneficiary of warm fuzzies, the other is simply a provider of warm fuzziness.
A common acrostic to define Grace is God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense. Theologically, this is very true. Grace is God’s unlimited gift to all who will accept it. He holds nothing back regardless of what anyone has done.
While this definition is certainly true, I’m not sure it tells the whole story from God’s point of view. Every day I’m thankful for the fact that God has extended his grace towards me. Like Paul I find myself failing to obey on a daily basis. The Apostle’s frustration as expressed in Romans 7 is a testimony to my own existence. I find myself at war with my old self. I don’t do what I know I should and do what I know I shouldn’t. I fight a losing battle.
While I am more than willing to accept God’s grace towards me, it’s not always easy for me to extend that grace towards others. In fact, to be honest, there are some people that I just flat out don’t want to extend grace to, and to be brutally honest, I don’t want God to extend grace to either. Before you crucify me for that, take a close look at yourself. Remember that guy that cut you off last week? How about the incompetent server at the last restaurant you were at? How many times MUST you forgive the son/daughter that refuses to clean their room, do their homework, mow the lawn, etc. etc.
It was during one of these ‘grace-less’ moments that I came up with my own definition of Grace. For me, Grace is defined as, “It is an emotional decision made by a rational being to grant undeserved and unlimited rewards to someone who has no ability to repay.”
Grace, is an emotional decision. God loves me. That is emotion. His decision was well thought out. He knows I’ll fail He knows I’ll rebel and go my own way. Having thought all this out, He made the decision, not only to love me, but to give me all the blessings in his arsenal, knowing full-well that I could not return the favor.
While this definition may not be inspired, it’s helped me to gain a new appreciation for the love my Heavenly Father has for me.
