The Deli Meat Special

One afternoon earlier this week, I had another experience with directions. I was in line behind several people waiting to have meat and cheese cut at the deli. Somehow, the lady in front of me realized that she could get a full pound of meat and a 1/2 pound of cheese for $9.00 This was an especially good deal, because the roast beef she had ordered was $9.98/lb. For less than she was paying for the meat, she could get the meat plus cheese.

It seemed like a crazy kind of deal. 

There was a catch, of course.

You only got the deal if you told the lady cutting the meat that you wanted it.

She wanted it. 

I listened to the last part of the exchange. It was clear something interesting had happened. The lady turned to me and said, "Did you hear that? I'm getting a pound of meat and a half-pound of cheese for less than I was about to pay for my roast beef. You might want this deal, too." 

She was right. When it was my turn, I requested the meat-cheese deal.

While I waited, I told the two ladies who had just arrived behind me. They wanted the deal, too.

"I'll have what you're having," one lady told me. "I'm glad you told me, but how were we supposed to know about this deal?"

I pointed to the sign on the counter. In bold letters, it declared, "Any one pound of meat plus 1/2 pound of cheese for $9.00."

She looked back at me. "Well, duh."

Exactly.

I read the sign again and had church, right there at the deli while the lady behind the counter sliced my Cajun turkey.

Just as those of us in line obtained the "deal" only by asking the lady for it, so we attain the righteousness of God by accepting the "deal" He offers through Jesus Christ. It is by His blood that we are made clean, but only when we accept His sacrifice for us. 

We learn of this great "offer" in one of two ways. Someone who's accepted Christ tells us, or we read about it in God's Word. 

I had to step a little closer to read the sign, so I would have missed the deli offer if the lady in front of me hadn't told me about it. The ladies in line behind me, would have missed it if I had kept silent. 

As I stood there, watching the slicing, I pondered how quickly we shared the $9 special. None of us hesitated to share it with the people around us.

If we are that excited about a deli special, shouldn't we also be excited and eager to share the "Calvary special" of forgiveness and eternal life for the price of repentance and humility?

Today, let's share our redemption in Jesus with all the enthusiasm we usually reserve for a two-for-one sale.

Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ is coming again. 

The price for our sins has already been paid, but only if we ask. It's good news. Let's share it with enthusiasm.

"for whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved. 

How then shall they call upon Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him whom they have not heard? and shall shall they hear without a preacher? 

And how shall they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, 'How beautiful are the feet of those who bring glad tidings of good things!'" 

Romans 10:13-15 nasb

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In case you missed yesterday's post, here's the link: The Importance of Understanding the Directions
#delispecial #Jesus #goodnews 

Finding Christmas: The Mission Statement

It was Chicago, October, 2003. I was attending a conference for Christian healthcare workers. One of the speakers used Isaiah 61 as the basis for his talk, and it changed how I saw Jesus and my obedience to Him. 

In a subtle way, I had begun to think of Jesus as mostly a healer of physical ills. He healed everywhere He went. He's the Great Physician. I saw the miraculous healings and, in a subtle way, mistakenly thought they were the "main thing", but they were not. Jesus made that clear from the start.

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,

Because the Lord has anointed me

To bring good news to the afflicted;

He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,

To proclaim liberty to aptives,

And freedom to prisoners;

To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord...

                                     Isaiah 51:1-2 nasb

You probably remember this passage. It's Jesus' "mission statement." Hundreds of years after it was written, Jesus stood in the synagogue in Nazareth and read Isaiah 61:1-2. "Today, this is fulfilled in your presence," He told those listening. 

It didn't go well. Before he was through talking, the men there that day tried to throw him off a cliff. 

They wanted Jesus' miraculous healings. They wanted His water-into-wine trick. They didn't want to hear His good news or His proclamation of liberty.

He came to spread the good news of freedom in Christ. 

Christ did not come to tout a set of rules or beat us into submission.

He came to set us free. 

He did not come to heal all our sickness or remove all our sorrow.

He came to proclaim liberty to those bound by sin and its consequences.

As we celebrate the birth of Jesus this year, let's also celebrate the work He came to do... proclaiming, declaring, offering freedom, providing balm and binding hurt.

If we are to follow Him, we, too, must embrace the work He came to do. We, too, must make bringing the good news of Christ to a dark and perishing world our highest priority. Every other action must be made with the proclamation of truth as its objective.

My pastor said something yesterday that pretty much sums this up. "God was so excited about His plan to send Jesus that He couldn't wait to tell it. He announced it seven hundred years before He did it. If God was that excited about the coming of Christ, shouldn't we also be excited to tell the world?" 

We have good news and it's worth sharing. This Christmas, let's be sure to proclaim the best news of all. 

Christ has come. Christ has risen. Christ is coming again. Hallelujah.

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In case you missed any of the past week's posts, here are the links: Finding Christmas: Sustenance for the Weary, Finding Christmas: Remembering the Stripes,  Finding Christmas: Look to the Rock, Finding Christmas: The Rear Guard, Finding Christmas: Prosperity and Success,  Finding Christmas: Prophecy Fulfilled, Finding Christmas: The Good Husband, Finding Christmas: The Sin Fast.

The most read post of the last week: Finding Christmas: The Good Husband.

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#GoodNews #Advent #keepChristinChristmas #MerryChristmas #JesusChrist #disciple,#Wordbecameflesh #

How to Recognize Good News

I was tossing about for a topic to write about this morning and coming up empty. Last night, I had a plan. This morning, it's gone straight out of my head. I should write about some good news, I thought, and Google'd "good news". 

Much to my surprise, the first hit was "Joe Biden Bid for White House Would Begin in a $60 Million Hole." Really? That certainly isn't good news for Joe Biden or his fellow Democrats. Only Republicans could call that good news. 

The next hit was "Mexican Drug Lord Injured in Recent Evasion of Capture." It's not good news for Mexico that the man is a drug dealer, nor that he recently evaded capture. I'm certain his injury was not good news to him, either, so what is good about this news?

The third hit was equally discouraging. "More die as violence and finger pointing plagues Israelis and Palestinians." As one who regularly prays for the peace of Jerusalem, that supposed good news was another disappointment.

Clearly, we have lost the ability to recognize Good News and Bad News, so I've decided to enlighten us on the difference.

This is Bad News: We are all sinners and we deserve nothing except death and hell. (Romans 3:23)

This is Good News: God sent Jesus to pay for our sin and  give us eternal life for free.

Here are some more examples of Good News:
God has a plan for each one of us and it's for our own good, not for a calamity, to give us a future and a hope. (Jer. 29:11)

Jesus binds up the brokenhearted, comforts those who mourn, and turns their ashes into beauty, their mourning into gladness, their fainting into praise. (Isaiah 61:3)

If you put your trust in Him, God will help you deal with whatever trouble comes your way. (Matt. 6:34)

Jesus is in Heaven and preparing a place for us. He's coming back for those who belong to Him and we will spend eternity with Him in Heaven. (John 14:2-3)

The news is full of stories about wrongdoing, but we don't have to listen to the news to find out about the sinfulness of man. Scripture tells us clearly that we are all sinners. Evil is rampant in the world, and has been from the beginning. One day, God will deal with all the evil but, because of His great mercy, He has delayed.

For now, we need to know that there is evil, some of it will be directed against those who love Christ, and some of that evil will be terrible. In the end, Jesus will return, gather His own, and settle the score. 

As disciples of Christ, our job is not to fear evil. Our job is to BE salt and light in a dark and tasteless, perishing world and to love the most unlovely among us.

The news that matters most is that Christ has risen and is coming again. That is truly good news.
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Here are links to similar posts about good news: A Little Good News and The Good News Mail.

In case you missed any of this week's posts, here are the links: Still a Sinner, How to Have a Flood of God-Love, The Wonder Girls Close the Park, Soft drinks, snacks, and airplane takeoff, Yeast in the Flour, and The Problem With Phone Calls. 

The most-read post of the past week: Death is Not the End. 

#GoodNews #Jesusiscomingagain #secondcoming #disciple #JesusChrist

photo courtesy of freeimages.com

A Demon Comes to Church part ten

And the report about Him was spreading into every locality in the surrounding district. (Luke 4:37 NASB)

The people in the synagogue the day Jesus cast out the demon with a single sentence were absolutely astounded by how Jesus had accomplished the miracle and with such authority. The now-sane man was in their midst as proof. They could not stop thinking about what they had seen, and, according to this verse, they could not stop talking about it either. They told everyone they saw. The story of the synagogue soon became the talk of the town, and, as news does, spread to the neighboring villages as well. Even the people who did not accept Him as Messiah were talking about Him.  Everyone in the district was hearing about Jesus, His power, His authority, His miracles.  

Word of mouth is a tremendous way of spreading information, and in that time before cell phones and internet, it was a fast way to communicate news quickly. News of Jesus was everywhere and spreading. 

The thing about word of mouth is that it still spreads information today, and quite effectively. There is one requirement for effective transmission of news, however.  Those who know must tell it. Those of us who know Christ personally and have experienced His mercy and grace must share the good news if we want that news to spread. To whom have you spoken about what Christ has done for you recently?  

Today, pray for opportunities to share the news of Christ with those you encounter. Pray, too, that the believers our loved ones encounter will not hesitate to share what Christ has done for them, and that they will share it with unassailable clarity and complete confidence. Pray that, in the hearing, our loved ones cannot help but believe what they are told because of the evidence of Christ in those who share. 

The "Good News" Mail

Most of the time, if it looks like junk mail, I toss it without looking at it. This afternoon, I received a piece of mail that looked a lot like junk mail, but I wasn't sure, so I opened it. This proclamation caught my eye:

It was scam mail, but we all had a good laugh when I said, "Oh, it's good news! I've been accepted!" What kind of accepted wasn't quite clear. "I can do something with this!" I laughed. Indeed, I've been thinking ever since about being accepted. 

I've been the new girl in school who didn't quite fit in. Being accepted, when it finally came, was a wonderful thing, but I still remember how not being accepted feels. Relationships and daily interactions are full of opportunities for us to accept or reject others. I'd like to think I'm always accepting of those who are different from me, but I'd just be fooling myself. Maybe you have a little trouble with that, too. 

In the spirit of "faith lived out loud", I did a search to see what the Bible says about "accepted". I found lots of verses, but one really hit home. "Therefore, accept one another, just as Christ also accepted us to the glory of God." (Romans 15:7 NASB) That verse just stepped all over my toes!  Christ glorified God when He accepted us (in all our sinful badness) and we are to do the same for others. I had never considered that accepting those who are different, just like Christ accepted me, would glorify God, but it does.  We make God look good when we are kind and open-hearted to people who are different from us, whether because of skin color, socioeconomic class, or lifestyle choices.  We make Him look bad when we are not. 

Put that way, this whole accepting/rejecting business looks a little different, doesn't it? Who wants to make God look bad? Certainly not me. I'm pretty sure He's not happy with that!  It's a lot to consider, but I don't see any way around this fact: Jesus Christ died for while I was still a sinner, He accepted me at my worst, and He expects me to do the same for others. 

The next time we meet someone who is "different" let's remember "Good news! You've been accepted!" And so have they!

A Little Good News

As the news of the shooting in the Capital scrolled across the screen, we all began to express our dismay.  "Oh, no.  Not more shooting."  The tragedy of pointless death was heartbreaking.  As we watched, someone said, "Well, that might have been just an average person...  There's nothing but bad news on all the time. It's more than I can take, so it's no wonder they lost it." 

This complaint of no good news seemed about right to me.  I watched the headlines off and on all afternoon, and never once did I see a piece of "good news".  Taxes, Obamacare, Government shut down... on and on.  Maybe she was right.  There is no good news.

I began to think "That can not be right", so I Google'd "good news".  This was totally shocking to me, but there is a TON of good news being reported, by the major media, on websites dedicated to good news.  Apparently this "good news"doesn't qualify for their primary websites, but there are alternate sites where good news is still available.

According to ABC's website (the good news one - www.abcnews.go.com), Zach Hodskin is a 17 year old high school student in Georgia who loves basketball, hits 60% of his shots, and has been offered a position on the Florida Gator's team for next year.  What makes this remarkable is that Zach has only one hand.  He was born missing the lower half of his left arm.  Zach is a remarkable young man.  Just as remarkable is that, in a town in Georgia, a coach saw a boy with one hand and gave him a chance.  I never played basketball, but I'm not sure most coaches would be excited about a one-handed player.  Someone in Georgia was, though, and it payed off in an amazing way.  Perhaps more important, is that the boys who grew up playing basketball with Zach see a team member and not a handicap.  One coach, giving one boy a chance, has made a difference for more than Zach.  He has likely changed his world for years to come.  That sounds like good news to me!

NBC news has a site (http://www.today.com/id/41743465/) entitled Today Good News.  Their site tells the story of two Girl Scout troops who were selling cookies and received an order for 6,000 boxes of cookies. The girls were thrilled and, of course, began to think about everything they would do with the money that they would earn.  Not only would it help with sending girls to camp, but money was also earmarked to help a Portland homeless shelter.  Little girls who wanted to make a difference had their hearts broken by the cruelty of someone who called the order a "joke".  When the Girl Scouts opened the office doors to start selling cookies, the townspeople had lined up into the parking lot, waiting for their chance to help.  Those sweet people in that town bought 4,000 boxes of those cookies by day's end. One day sales - 4000 boxes of cookies!  Can you imagine what that did for those little girls?  Will they ever get over people they did not know standing in line on an early Saturday morning to help them?  I expect not.  For years to come, those girls will remember that even strangers helped them, and when it comes their time to help, they will.  Their gifts to the homeless shelter will be all the more precious because of the miracle it took to provide them.  A little piece of their world was changed by the generosity of strangers.  That also sounds like good news to me!

When you Google, you are sure to find an entry for Wikipedia.  I thought you might be interested in what I found on Wikipedia when I Google'd "good news".  This is a direct quote:
"In Christianity, the gospel, also known as the Good News, is the message of Jesus, the Christ or Messiah - God's ruler promised by the Scriptures."  How very true!  I can't think of any better news than this:

"But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8)

Isn't that good news?  God didn't wait for us to clean ourselves up and get ourselves straightened out.  Jesus died for us to pay the penalty for our sin and set us free from its hold on our lives.  Now that is really good news. In fact, it's the best news of all!