Fear One Way, Faith the Other…

Look both ways before you cross the road.

That’s what my mother taught me. Now days, I often see fear one way and faith the other.

When I have a big decision, I often have the feeling I am about to step out into traffic on a busy interstate. I’m just waiting for the proverbial bus that is going to mow me down. Failure! BAM! That is fear.

I also have the choice of faith. Believing for the best. I have free will to choose where to place my heart. Faith is trusting in the Lord. Fear and faith cannot occupy the same space in my heart at the same time. The following scripture encourages me to choose faith, to realize that I am blessed no matter what happens.

And blessed is he who trusts in the Lord. Proverbs 16:20

I must believe I am going to be blessed simply by the fact that I am trusting in the Lord, and not because of the quality of my decision making. I do believe you can influence the outcome through faith. But I must let events play out over time to make the ultimate assessment of whether I was blessed or not. I can say that after 25+ years trusting the Lord, I have never come up short. But the paths I have ended up walking have been very different and very rough at times. But the rough spots always bring about the character transformation that is foundational to receiving the blessings mentioned in Proverbs 16:20. It is the transformed character that brings about true happiness we all seek. That is the true blessing.

Scared Funny

Practical jokers.

Everybody loves to dish it out. haha…

Think Different, Be Happy

We all have an inner voice in our head. Talk, talk, talk. As soon as I woke up this morning mine started with… Feeling down. Hmmm. What kind of dreams did I have? So what! move on! Okay, it’s Sunday. Church, then brunch. Then what? Take it easy for once. Isn’t this supposed to be a day of rest? Read something. Got three books, which one? Family time, a movie? Blog? No! Catch up on the script writing, get a good start on the week ahead. This, and more in the first 30 seconds. Blah, blah, blah.

But then I thought different.

Out the window, I saw green buds on the trees! Everywhere. New words came flooding in… It’s springtime! School will be out soon and I have a whole three months of summer ahead to ride bikes, build forts and play army! Neato’.

Well, I’m not ten years old anymore. But that memory is real. The original emotion is wired to those green buds, and I let the warm emotions of a carefree life flow through me, letting them silencing the incessant voices shouting performance, worry, fear, uncertainty and doubt.

Man, that’s a good vibe. Let’s do some more of that!

I started thanking God for the abundance God has provided; the things money cannot buy. I started with my wonderful wife, our four beautiful girls, life in America, our health. My freedom to write and create. On and on they go. I really felt different. Happy! All because I was thinking different. It took less than a minute. The bible addresses this well…

Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.
Philippians 4:8-9

Think good thoughts. The chatter slows. Be happy.

PS – I took these photos of my buddy John Ellis when we were kids back in the early 1960s. We had some great summers together. He was crazy.

Is God an Angry Soprano?

That’s what I thought for most of my life, including many years as a Christian.

Easter weekend is upon us, a day when Christians remember the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It occurred about 2000 years ago. We believe Jesus is the Son of God, and also the physical manifestation of God. Yet Jesus was also a person like you and me, only He was perfect and sinless. He had a father, too, namely God, who gave him all authority to do anything he wanted here on planet earth. With one word, he could have called legions of warrior angels to smite the earth.

But something very unexpected happened in Jesus’ life, something that changed the world forever. At age 33, this all-powerful man allowed himself to be captured. He knew that a horrific crucifixion waited for him at the hands of the Romans. He was beaten, his hands and feet were nailed to wooden posts in the shape of a cross, then he slowly bled out over hours in the hot sun. He did so as an innocent, having done nothing wrong.

Any God that would do this seems pretty angry. A first thought it does imply God is an angry Tony Soprano. But there is another, surprising perspective.

God wants us back.

We’ve got to understand this from God’s perspective. Like Tony, he makes the rules. And, like Tony, somebody has to pay. But unlike Tony, it’s not us.

The path back has always been through the combination of two things: the shedding of innocent blood and our desire to leave the rebellion and come back his way. About 4000 years ago, God made a covenant with the Jewish people through Moses. He had them sacrifice a spotless, innocent lamb in their temple once a year, and sprinkle its blood on the altar. A few thousand years later he made a second covenant, this time with all people. Jesus came to earth to be the sacrifice, once and for all. That’s why, in the bible, Jesus is also called the lamb of God. All we have to do is desire to turn from our rebellion, and take by faith, Jesus’ blood as the atonement for our sins.

But with one covenant already in place, why did Jesus want to do a second? Why did he give up a perfectly good life to go through a horrible death? He had it all. Well, not really. He didn’t have us.

And frankly, God wants us back.

So, Jesus went to the cross, because he loves us. Right? Well, yes and no. He does love us, he did go in our place. But I can’t find that in the bible as his reason (if you can, let me know in the comments).

So the father God must be behind this. Does he really love us? I never thought so.

For years, I thought God was angry and would just as soon smite me as look at me. God seemed like an angry Tony Soprano, the fictional mob boss. I think a lot of people see Him this way. Whenever something bad happens to us, we ask, “Why doesn’t God love me?” Whenever there is a big natural disaster, it is called an act of God.

So I came into Christianity with this notion that God was after me, and thankfully, Jesus, as Tony’s son, was always trying to protect me. He even took a bullet in my place. God fired it at me and it hit Jesus instead. This was all wrong. The reality is that because of God’s love, He ordered Jesus to catch the bullet. And it was actually a bullet fired by me, because of my rebellion. How do I know God was behind the crucifixion? Because Jesus told Nicodemus, the high priest…

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. John 3:16

Wait! God loves the world!? That means God loves me! I fit in that group.

How can someone as bad as Tony Soprano love me? Tony would never give up his own son, certainly not for me. The answer is, he can’t. God is definitely not Tony. They’re not the same at all.

Not surprisingly, Jesus wasn’t too keen on the crucifixion. In the Garden of Gethsemane, with the horror just days away, Jesus prayed…

My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will. Matthew 26:39

Jesus went out of obedience, not (just) love. In fact, it was the father’s love that planned it…

…the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Revelations 13:8

So, what does all this mean for me, Andrew?

When I realized it is God’s love that sent Jesus to the cross, it changed my perspective. God is not a Tony Soprano trying to get me. I did not have to be afraid. He’s my loving father, too!

And those terrible acts of God? They are not God’s acts at all. God and his angels are in a war with a fallen Archangel who led a rebellion against God in heaven. The Archangel was called Lucifer before the Rebellion. Now, he’s called Satan, Beelzebub, the Devil, etc. Satan despises God and His people, especially if they become part of God’s family. Satan is the real Tony Soprano.

By the way, check out the movie The Passion for everything you wanted to know about the crucifixion but were afraid to ask.