Choosing to Trust Rather Than Please

week 3:5
Let Hope In

CHOICE 3: CHOOSING TO TRUST RATHER THAN PLEASE

Once we get to this place, there are two distinct paths that we can take in the so-called “Christian” life.

PATH ONE: PLEASING GOD – WORKING ON MY SIN to achieve an intimate relationship with God. This sounds, very, well, “Christian”. Sell out, fire up, shape up. But over time this path will make you cynical and tired. This path is characterized by self-effort and the goal, the focus, in sinning less.

One of the tendencies we have in Christianity today is that we focus on sin management—in essence, behavioral modification. While there are several problems with this path, the biggest I see is that the Gospels make it clear that Jesus doesn’t want to edit behaviors; rather, he wants to change hearts.

PATH TWO: TRUSTING GOD – TRUSTING GOD WITH MY SIN. This is simply LIVING OUT WHO GOD SAYS I AM. So there’s this path of trusting God but we initially don’t want to take this path because it seems far less heroic.

Hebrews 11:6 "And Without faith it is impossible to please God..."

Did you see the two paths in this verse? Did you notice that trusting God pleases God? If our primary motive is pleasing God, we never please him enough and we never learn trust. That’s because life on this road is all about

my striving,

my effort,

my ability to make something happen.

But if our primary motive is trusting God, we find out that he is incredibly pleased with us. So pleasing God is actually a by-product of trusting God.

While choosing path two seems like a no-brainer, in my experience, most of us choose to spend our time here on this earth exploring the guilt-ridden, failure-producing traps of path one. Path two doesn’t seem as spiritual or as heroic. And beyond that, the real reason we’re drawn to path one is because of our past. We’re hardwired for attention, acceptance, appreciation and affection and these things are usually attained through our effort.

And we’re not the first to feel this pull toward path one. In fact, the apostle Paul goes to great lengths to help the early Christians from making the same mistake. Their past—living the religious life of a Jew—set them up to go running down path one.

The early New Testament church really wrestled with this in the same way we do today. In fact, much of Paul’s writing in the New Testament is an attempt to address this issue. Let’s look at Galatians 2.

Quick background: Gentiles were being forced to live like Jews in order to be acceptable to Jews. Behind this social crisis, however, a more fundamental theological issue was at stake: Is the truth of the gospel or is the law the basis for determining fellowship between Jewish and Gentile Christians?

Early Jewish Christians had created a sort of equation that still exists today...

MORE RIGHT BEHAVIOR + LESS WRONG BEHAVIOR = GODLINESS

This theology comes with a significant problem: It sets us up to fail and to live in hypocrisy. Our determination to please God traps us in a formula that will leave us living exhausted and fake and even if we do experience some success than we’ll become prideful and judgmental.

Galatians 2:15-18 

We Jews know that we have no advantage of birth over "non-Jewish sinners." We know very well that we are not set right with God but rule-keeping but only through personal faith in Jesus Christ. How do we know? We tried it - and we had the best system of rules the world has ever seen! Convinced that no human being can please God by self-improvement, we believe in Jesus as the Messiah so that we might be set right before God by trusting in the Messiah, not by trying to be good. 

Have some of you noticed that we are not yet perfect? (No great surprise, right?) And you are ready to make the accusation that since people like me, who go through Christ in order to get things right with God, aren't perfectly virtuous, Christ must therefore be an accessory to sing? The accusation is frivolous. If I was "trying to be good," I would be rebuilding the same old barn that I tore down. I would be acting as a charlatan.

For some of you your entire Christian life has been about “rebuilding old barns”; you’ve placed all of your efforts in “trying to be good.”

Pleasing God is a great longing, but it cannot be our primary motivation or it will imprison our hearts. When our motive is trusting God, our focus is then living out who God says I am. As a follower of Christ you have received a new heart. You have a new identity. You’ve already been changed and now you get to mature into who you already are.

Galatians 6:12-15

Those who are trying to force you to be circumcised want to look good to others (optional medical procedure, for the Jews it was the mark of belonging to the covenant people of God) They don't want to be persecuted for teaching that the cross of Christ alone can save. And even those who advocate circumcision don't keep the whole law themselves. They only want you to be circumcised so they can boast about it and claim you as their disciples. 

As for me, may I never boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of the cross, my interest in this world has been crucified and the world's interest in me has also died. It doesn't matter whether we have been circumcised or not. What counts is whether we have been transformed into a new creation. 

Paul is saying can you see the central issue? It’s not about a list of rules. You can’t achieve Godliness through striving. You’re no match against sin. It’s not work a little harder. Do a little more. The central issue is what God is doing. What counts is the inward transformation that He alone can do in our hearts.

Here’s the temptation for me. I often start to think that I’m only about 3 issues away from really being used by God to do something big. So I’ll list my 3 issues.

And then I go to trying to solve those issues. But the reality is I will never solve all my “issues”. 

Why?

Intention not to sin is not the same as the power not to sin.

In fact, I kind of hope you don’t solve your issues because then you would become self- sufficient. The goal of spiritual maturity is not for you to get all of your stuff “solved”. You never will. The goal is to learn to depend on – to trust- what God says is true about you, so that together you can begin dealing with stuff. You will not know God’s power until you give up on your power, which is actually no power at all.

Let’s think about it this way.

In this life, those of us who have trusted Christ will have sin issues, and we will always have the identity God gave us. They are constants. Unchanging realities.

Pleasing God: Working on my sin issues _________________________________> 

Trusting God: Trusting who God days I am ______________________________>

It’s key to ask yourself which of these two constants defines my life focus? Which offers me the hope of experiencing the other? If you opt for the top line you will never experience the bottom line. But, if we focus on the bottom line, we will experiences unparalleled transformation regarding our sin issues.

Do you see why trusting God is so important? To resolve our sin issues we must begin by trusting who God says we are. God did not design us to conquer sin on our own.

One of the biggest problems in Christianity today is that so many Christians see their sin as an gigantic cavern that is creating distance from God.

One of the biggest misconceptions in Christianity: WE BELIEVE GOD LOVES US, BUT WE ALSO BELIEVE HE’S PRETTY DISSAPOINTED IN US. That our imperfections, that our sin is causing this growing gap in our relationship with Christ.

Illus. > There’s an illustration that has been used for decades and decades to help people understand our need for Christ. I’ve used it and I guarantee you’ve heard it. People will say your standing on a cliff and on the other side of the cliff is someone you want to see (God). There’s no way for you to get to the other side. Sin separates us from God. You can yell back and forth but it’s a deeply unsatisfying relationship.

This abyss represents sin. SO the question is how do you get to him. The answer is you don’t. Not unless you can find some way to remove the sin from your life. But the problem is last time I checked you guys were all human so not only can you not do anything about the sin that you’ve already committed but your actually contributing to this gap on a daily basis.

This is an accurate picture of someone who doesn’t have life in Christ but the illustration makes no sense if you’re a Christian and yet this is how so many Christians are living...as if there is a cavern of sin that separates them from God and they feel distant from Him as if there salvation never took place.

You now have Christ in you!! It’s not God on one side and you on the other both of you staring at this gap of sin saying now what are we going to do. What if we stood in front of our sin taking full responsibility, but realizing we have Christ in us who we are trusting his provision for the very sin we’ve just committed.

What if we truly believed we were without condemnation? 

What if grace really was that strong?

What if God through Jesus really took away any element of fear or condemnation, judgment or rejection?

What if He did really put his love and power inside of them?

What if we’re not supposed to put on masks...that it’s ok to be who they are in the moment, with all of our mess?

What if God really will run to the ends of the earth and do the most horrible, unthinkable things, that when they come back, I’d receive them with tears and a huge party?

Grace is believing that against all odds and past history, we are loved and chosen, and we do not have to get it all together. It’s not the absence of trouble but the presence of God. It’s making contact with something unseen, way bigger than we could ever imagine in our wildest dreams. It’s realizing the abyss of our past is no longer holding us back from God.

Living for acceptance and love is slavery; living from acceptance and love is freedom.

So which path will you journey down? Will you seek to trust or please?

Sin does not make you second-class. When he looks at you, he doesn’t see a prodigal, a servant, or a screw-up. Instead, he sees his son, his daughter.

He doesn’t see your past, but you—whole, forgiven, restored, completely. I wish we could give you a brand-new beginning but that’s impossible. Your past can’t be totally erased. However, your past can be restored. Even if you can’t have a brand-new beginning, you can have a brand-new ending. God’s grace is a surprising reversal of the way things work in this world and reminds us that our God is no normal God.

There is none like him.

Unconditionally sung by Katy Perry sums this post up very well!! (Maybe her thought were intentional :) ) 

Choosing to Be OK with Not Being OK

Week 2 of 5

Last week we started a new series entitled “Let Hope In” where we talked about how all of us want this year to be different. To be better.

But we said there’s one thing often standing in the way of this desirable future and that’s your seemingly unforgettable past.

This series is about the 4 choices we can make that will “Let Hope In” regardless of what might be going on in your life. And the first choice we looked at last week was:

Ever wondered why you make all of these resolutions every year but nothing seems to ever really change?

Ever wondered why you keep repeating the same mistakes over and over?

Ever wondered why you have such a difficult time maintaining healthy relationships?

And if you haven’t dealt with the hurt from your past it will continue to impact everything you touch.

YOUR PAST ISN’T YOUR PAST IF IT’S STILL IMPACTING YOUR PRESENT.

And today we want to talk about the second choice:

Choice 2: CHOOSING TO BE OK WITH NOT BEING OK.

Awareness of our past doesn’t always come easy. What does come easy is denial. We are quick to intentionally bury emotions that make us feel ashamed or uncomfortable.

To complicate matters further, there tends to be a pervasive attitude in some circles of the church that communicate that once you give your life to Christ, once you’ve become a Christian, you at least need to act like you’ve got it all together.

Read your Bible. Wear your mask. Put your best foot forward. Look happy. But whatever you do:

We are...

Hurting,

Lonely, 

Confused, 

Frightened. 

So we hop from book to book, seminar to seminar, church to church looking for that new technique promising to help us change.

One of my favorite tasks around the house is sweeping the floor, but whenever you sweep the floor, as much as you can try to collect all the dirt in one place, when you sweep it into the dust pan, you always end up with that little line of dirt right there at the edge of the pan. You know what I'm talking about?

You sweep and you sweep and you sweep. You try a different broom, you come at it from a new angle, but it doesn't matter. That little line of dirt is always still there, just laughing at you. Now I just learned recently, there's actually a word for that little line of dirt. It's actually called "frust." Seriously, you can look this up. It's a combination of the words frustration and dust, and it leads to weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Sin in our lives and the way we deal with it is often like frust. We try all sorts of ways to sweep it up, clear it out, even if it means we just resort to sweeping it under the rug, hoping no one will ever find out. But it's always there.

Here's the good news though. This is what you need to know going into a new year that you desperately want to be different: From the very moment humanity fell into sin, God's plan, God's passion has been to redeem us and restore us to the life for which we are made.

This act of grace, this act of forgiveness, this act of restoration God wants to give, it cannot be forced on you. It cannot be forced. Like anything from God, it has to be received like a gift— freely, willfully, and intentionally. So how do we do this? How do we receive this gift of grace God wants to give?

That’s what I want to focus on today.

If you know the life of David, you know David had accomplished great things. His resume included great success, but his resume also included great failure, devastating mistakes. He committed adultery, and murder to cover it up. In the process of covering it up, David was found out, but when he was found out, David discovered the power and the purpose and the process of this thing called confession.

He wrote about this journey from confession to forgiveness in Psalm 32.

PSALM 32:1-7 

1 Oh, what joy for those whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sin is put out of sight! 

2 Yes, what joy for those whose record the LORD has cleared of guilt, whose lives are lived in complete honesty! 

3 When I refused to confess my sin, my body wasted away, and I groaned all day long. 

4 Day and night your hand of discipline was heavy on me. My strength evaporated like water in the summer heat. 

Interlude

5 Finally, I confess all my sins to you and stopped trying to hide my guilt. I said to myself, " I will confess my rebellion to the LORD." And you forgave me! All my guilt is gone

Interlude

6 Therefore, let all the godly pray to you while there is still time, that they may not drown in the floodwaters of judgement.

7 For you are my hiding place; you protect me from trouble. You surround me with songs of victory. 

Why do we need to confess sin in the first place? David begins by saying confession is for our sake. Sometimes I think we think confession is sort of for God's sake, like our sins sort of annoy Him and some act of confession will appease Him. But David says, "No, no, no! Confession is for you."

Look back at verse 1: Oh, what joy for those whose disobedience is forgiven.There's a blessing in this for you. There's something God wants to give to you. This is about your life.

Notice all the other blessings David just sort of skips over. He doesn't talk about the blessing of wealth, or of power, or of reputation, all the things we would pursue. David is saying, "No, no, no! Those things can't heal you." We chase after them like they could, but they can't heal you. David is saying, "The way to find blessing is by being forgiven." Because David understands our most fundamental problem is a spiritual one.

Confession isn’t doing something about our sin; rather, it means admitting that we can’t do anything about our sin.

Look at verse 3. David writes, "When I refused to confess my sin, my body wasted away, and I groaned all day long."In other words, "When I kept silent, when I was hiding, when I wasn't talking about it, when I was keeping it secret, I felt like I was dying inside."

I imagine most of us can relate to this feeling in some way or another, because there a lot of things in our lives we keep very silent about. Things we feel ashamed of: family problems, compulsive habits, sexual addiction. And while silence in the moment seems like the best, the safest way to handle it, silence always leads to more pain and guilt festering inside. It always corrodes away our soul. It corrodes away our spirit, and it always, always, always begins to affect other parts of our lives.

Now I want to pause because when we think of “confession” we tend to think of just confessing wrong we’ve committed. But I also think there’s an aspect to confession where maybe you need to admit there have been wrongs committed against you.

Somewhere along the way I think as Christians we picked up this idea that somehow Christian adults should be “beyond” or “above” being hurt. We think, “If I were a stronger Christian, I wouldn’t hurt so much.”

Some of you have been hurt in deep, very real ways and you try to pretend like your scars don’t exist. You’ll say things like, “Well, the past is the past.”

Your past isn’t really your past if it’s still affecting the present.

You start to lie to people, people you trust, who you love. You start to withdraw from people, people who know you well. You start to get easily frustrated and angry and judgmental at other people.

All the while you keep telling yourself this same thing over and over, that nothing is really wrong with you. Nothing is really wrong with me. Until the time comes we actually believe that.

First we deceive ourselves, and then we convince ourselves that we are not deceiving ourselves. Deception typically flows in two directions. It flows inward as we try to convince ourselves and then outward as we try to convince others.

See sin thrives on self-deception, and self-deception thrives on silence, which is why we have to start by confessing to God that we’re not OK. I’m not fine. My past hurts are causing me to act out in a way that is not only not pleasing to God but is destroying the person he created me to be.

Have you ever been to an AA group or something similar? One of the first things you’ll notice will be people standing up and introducing themselves like, “My name is John. I’m an alcoholic. I’m an addict. I’m a drunk.” It’s a huge moment and everyone in the circle recognizes this is a huge step in a spiritual battle.

There are all kinds of forces of darkness trying to keep that person from coming into the light and making that statement. Everybody knows they fight the same battle. So when that confession gets made in that little twelve-step group in that basement, or health club or church or wherever it is, everybody celebrates the confession.

Unfortunately in the church today, this kind of honesty, confession, and community has become totally optional. It’s unfortunate, because I think Jesus made it clear that in his community such things wouldn’t be optional. There’s no other way to find healing from our past.

I think this is why Jesus clearly desires for us to do community in a different way. In the gospel of Matthew, a very concerned Jesus spoke to the human tendency to hide, pretend, and posture: 

MATTHEW 23:27-28: 

What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs - beautiful on the outside but filled on the inside with dead people's bones and all sorts of impurity. Outwardly you look like righteous people but inwardly your hearts are filled with hypocrisy and lawlessness. 

Jesus says, in this community, called the church, we’re going to do things differently: we will honor the costly humiliating confession of brokenness and sin more than the appearance of invulnerability and impressiveness.

There is something intrinsically broken and sinful in every human being. Merely human efforts (education, environment, therapy) cannot cure the sin problem. My brokenness, like yours, is very complex. Jesus comes as the Great Physician. He comes for sick people who wrestle with sin, not for people who pretend they’re healthy.

If we want to be healed, we need to be honest with God and ourselves and each other. Some of you are carrying around secrets that are killing you. Maybe it’s about your past, sexuality, impulses, bitterness, anger, finances, marriage, work. But if you keep playing the game and keep silent about your secrets, you can’t heal and move forward. As David said in the Psalms, until he dealt with the problem of guilt and sin in his life, all this other stuff he was doing including being the king of Israel—was really quite pointless. He was going about his life, and he was going about his duties, but his bones were wasting away. He was groaning all day long. He felt like God’s hand was heavy upon him, that his strength was sapped. He needed to come clean.

We dare not miss the fact that David ends this prayer of confession, not with despair, not with discouragement, not with depression, not with self-doubt. He ends with joy. Vs. 7 For you are my hiding place; you protect me from trouble. You surround me with songs of victory. 

Why? Why songs of victory?

Because you've been forgiven. You have been set free. Your lying schemes: forgiven.

Your lustful acts: forgiven. 

Your self-seeking manipulation: forgiven.

Your religious hypocrisy: forgiven.

All the guilt, all the shame, all the stuff you've been carrying maybe for years and years and years...you can be set free.

You know throughout the Bible there’s a very common association between forgiveness of sins with the healing of bodies.

The idea of this connection is there is a good God who cares about brokenness: spiritual brokenness, physical brokenness, emotional brokenness. He wants to heal. That's why when Jesus came, healing was central to his mission. Now healing is not just something Jesus did to attract big crowds; it was a sign that in Jesus, God's work to heal human brokenness has begun.

So we see all kinds of stories. This week I was looking at Matthew 8 and 9. They have one story after another of healings: lepers, paralytics, demon possessed, blind, mute, sick woman, dead girl, centurion's servant. Jesus went preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. Then right in the middle of all these stories about healing diseases is the story of the calling of Matthew.

Now this story of the calling of Matthew is actually in this section of healing stories for a deliberate reason. Most likely what Matthew was saying here is, "I got healed, not so much for me in my body, but my conscience was weighed down with guilt. My heart was kind of sick. My soul was empty. Jesus changed that. I'm one of the guys Jesus healed."

God has come in the person of Jesus to set you free. How can He do this? Through the cross. On the cross, the Son of God was stripped naked, and His arms were stretched out, publicly humiliating Him and exposing Him literally, unbearably, for the world to see. He was exposed to all of our sin. Why? So our sins could be covered. The cross is the greatest cover-up scheme in the history of humanity, and it can be your story. This freedom can be your freedom right now.

Some of us come into this year with a sort of doom hanging over us. We limped into church today wanting a second chance but knowing we don’t really deserve it. There is no story in the world like the story of redemption, and it can be your story.

Let the story of you be a story of REDEMPTION.

Transform or Transfer

Let Hope In

Week 1 of 5: 

Transform or Transfer! 

The beginning of the New Year is always one of my favorite times of the year. I love the anticipation that comes along with the idea of starting with a clean slate.

I think most of us are pretty hopeful about the future. We carry our dreams around believing that one day we’ll give birth to them. We generally believe that tomorrow is going to be better than today. That this new year will be more promising than the last. We like to think that our career will head in the right direction, our relationships will become even richer, and that the sense of purpose we’re chasing after will finally be fulfilled.

But there’s one thing often standing in the way of this desirable future we all hope and long for: our seemingly unforgettable past. Reality is that the best predictor of our future is, in fact, our past. What we have done in the past is probably what we will do in the future, unless there have been some big changes, some monumental transformation. And I want to start this new series in this new year with a question.

Do you like who you’re becoming?

As a student, an athlete, a parent, a friend, a sister/brother, a person

A heartrending thing about us humans is that we seem to be hardwired to replay the past— especially when our past includes pain and disappointment. We all have a natural inclination and, at times, a compulsion to allow our past to deeply impact our present.

Your past is not your past, if it’s still impacting your present.

Ever wondered why we make a handful of New Year’s resolutions every year but rarely keep them? And if we do, we almost never see a lasting change?

Ever wondered why we keep repeating the same mistakes over and over? Ever wondered why we have such a difficult time maintaining healthy relationships?

Is it because we’re not disciplined enough? Is it because we don’t want it bad enough? While the answer to either of those questions could obviously be yes, I think it’s much deeper than that.

When we keep struggling with the gnawing question of “Why am I not getting what I want in life?” one of the questions behind it may be “What am I still carrying with me from my past?”

Whether our pain is close to the surface or hidden deep within our heart, what happened in our past, if not properly dealt with, is more than likely crippling us from becoming who we were created to become.

But the good news of the Gospel is: who we were yesterday doesn’t have to limit who we can be today!

For the next few weeks we’re going to talk about 4 choices that could change your life forever.

Four choices that could help 2014 be a year you will never forget. Because this could be the year that you begin to live the life you were designed to live.

So let’s dive in with the first choice we’re going to talk about today.

Choice One: If you don’t learn to transform the pain, you’ll just transfer it.

I’m learning that everyone needs healing. Everyone has been hurt. Some of us have been hurt worse than others, but no one escapes this life without some emotional bruising along the way. And if we haven’t dealt with the hurt from our past, it will continue to impact everything we touch.

-Your secret sin nobody knows about. 

-The broken marriage you went through. 

-The sexual abuse you suffered. 

-The surprise divorce your parents got. 

-The miscarriage you experienced.

-The bully who made your freshman year miserable. 

-Your overbearing, critical parent.

Any or all of these things can and most usually will have a tremendous impact on our lives. If we don’t find ways to learn from our past, we will almost always be doomed to repeat it.

Joseph

One of my favorite stories in the Bible is the account of Joseph. Talk about a tumultuous past. Joseph was the youngest of twelve boys. It’s tough being the youngest isn’t it? I can remember, way back when, when my younger brother, Blake, would do anything in his power to again acceptance from my sister and I. He would watch everything that we would do and follow us from activity to activity. Whether it was outside jumping on the trampoline or playing horses in the bedroom, Blake had to be in the middle of it. And nothing, I mean nothing, brought a bigger smile to his face then when my sister and I invited him into our world. 

Genesis 37 -Joseph was favored by his father, which put him at obvious odds with the rest of his brothers. They were filled with incredible jealousy toward him. They beat him up, threw him into a pit, sold him into slavery, and pretended he was dead.

That would be a devastating series of events for any young person, but imagine all of that happening by the hand of your own brothers from whom you crave love and acceptance. Can you imagine how devastating that moment must have been as he looked up from the pit, broken and bruised, only to see the face of his brothers laughing at him?

It’s funny how when someone says they love you, you can’t really feel it, but when someone says or shows they “don’t love you any- more,” you feel every ounce of it draining out of your entire being.

But the rejection of his brothers would just be the beginning for Joseph.

Genesis 39- Joseph is sold into slavery. He’s purchased by one of Pharoah’s officials named Potiphar.

 Now Joseph is framed and sentenced to prison for the exact thing that he had the self-control not to do. Is this not when you want to throw up your hands and say why am I a Christian? Why do I pray? Why do I try to do what is right?

Then, forgotten about in prison he’s left to wonder day after day where things went wrong, wondering why his brothers hated him. Why had his past been so full of injustice? Why was I a slave, falsely accused of rape?

Through a remarkable series of events, Joseph was not only released from prison but he eventually rose to second in command over all of Egypt.

While Joseph was helping lead Egypt, the country endured a vicious drought that forced his brothers (the ones responsible for so much of the pain he experienced in life) to travel to him seeking food for their families. It’s a long story, but eventually Joseph was not only reunited with his brothers, but he also forgave them. In a powerful moment, he looked them in the eyes and said,

Genesis 50:20 "You Meant evil against me, but God meant it for good"

Another way of putting it is, you meant harm, but God had a different plan. Joseph didn’t try to deny the past. He didn’t pretend that his brothers had never hurt him deeply. But he has the grace to grieve it rather than transfer it.

I love the phrase “but God” that we see in Genesis 50. I believe a case could be made that it’s one of the most important phrases in the entire Bible. This phrase is used throughout scripture as a turning point, a line of demarcation between peril and rescue, chaos and control, fall and redemption, hurt and healing.

But God! Every time I read a verse that says “but God” it is fantastically good news. There are literally hundreds of verses that have “but God” in both the Old and New Testaments:

The psalmist in Psalm 73: "My health may fail, and my spirit may grow weak, but God remains the strength of my heart; he is mine forever."

Jesus in Matthew 19: "Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But with God everything is possible."

The apostle Luke in Acts 13: "When they had done all that the prophecies said about him, they took him down from the cross and placed him in a tomb. But God raised him from the dead!" 

Once we were dead in sin, BUT GOD made us alive! Once we were captive to our past, BUT GOD made us free! Once we were unworthy, BUT GOD has promised to spend eternity unwrapping the riches of his grace in kindness toward us!

There’s no way around the past. No matter how hard you try you can’t erase it. The goal of this series, the goal of this book is not to become a person who doesn’t have a history—that’s impossible and useless. The goal is to find a new way of working with the past so it does not continue to impact our future. The goal is to fight the inner urge we all have to return to the past.

I’m relentlessly committed to the idea that “anything’s possible.” And I think you may be too. Perhaps it’s why you decided to come to church today. You know that transformation in your life is possible. You know that healing is possible. There’s something inside of you that says there’s more to this existence here on this earth. You long to become the man or woman God created you to be when he thought you into existence.

We love to cheer for the underdog and believe in our core that every life makes a difference. And we are right. There is no one God can’t use and no one whose brokenness is too broken for God.

This is what you need to know going into a year that you desperately hope will be different: from the very moment humanity fell into sin, God’s plan, God’s passion, has been to redeem us and restore us to the life for which we are made.

God is bigger than your history and more concerned with your destiny.

This act of grace, this act of forgiveness, this act of restoration God wants to give. It cannot be forced. Like anything from God, it has to be received like a gift, freely, willfully, and intentionally.

I hope you’ll continue to join us the next few weeks. This series is about how we receive this gift God so willingly desires to give to us. This series is about dreaming again. This series is about learning to transform the pain so we no longer transfer it. I can’t wait to see what God’s going to do in your life!

I encourage you today to let God be the process of healing and reconciliation in us. LET HOPE IN. 

Let Hope In

HOPE changes everything. It can disarm guilt, shatter shame, and put your past in its place. All you have to do is make the choice to let it in. It won’t be easy. It won’t be quick. But it is possible and we serve a God who promises over and over again that anything is possible.

Pete Wilson, a pastor at Cross Point Church in Nashville, Tennessee and the author of Let Hope In, presents a new look at the power of healing through hope, revealing 4 unique choices that have the potential to change your life forever.

           

With Wilson’s telltale cadence and candor, Let Hope In explores accounts of seemingly hopeless moments in the Bible; illustrating God’s ultimate plan for healing by letting hope fill the dark places of your past.

Discover how pain that is not transformed, becomes transferred. Embrace the freedom of being okay with not being okay. Learn that a life of trusting in far more magnificent than a life of pleasing. Because hurt people, hurt people, but free people have the power to free people.

So make today the day that you get unstuck. The day you fill your past with the light of hope, the day you say good-bye to regret and shame. The day you choose to change your future and embrace who God created you to be, simply by making the choice to let hope in.

Over the next 5 weeks, I will be ministering through the book Let Hope In written by Pete Wilson. Each week I will cover a new topic that will remind you that God can redeem and transform any situation, and how that change really is possible. In this process we will tackle our old hurts head-on, showing us a biblical, practical process of letting go of old wounds and moving forward into a new future. These choices will set you free from living as a prisoner. Let the power of Christ into your heart. Let this choice stir your heart and LET HOPE IN.  Please join me in this 5-week journey of seeking hope.

As you progress through this transformation, your names, progress results, or other personal information is not necessary! I will not ask you and you do not have to tell me; however, don’t hesitate to contact me if you have questions, concerns, want to talk about topics, or anything else that is on your mind! I will listen, answer, and would love to keep in touch with those who do.

-Bobbi LeAnn

s our old hurts head-on, showing us a biblical, practical process for letting go of old wounds and moving forward into a new future.”

Make a Change

Make a Change

Where Vertical Meets Horizontal! 

A New Year A New Beginning!

A New Year A New Beginning

In 2013 God was full of consistent hope. It’s crazy to think that much has changed in a year. From heartbreaks, to the new friendships…I can honestly say 2013 was a year of learning. I have learned to be thankful for every moment you have because you never know when it will be gone. I have learned to appreciate people, especially those that I don’t understand. I have learned to complain less, because it’s honestly not as bad as it seems. I learned that some days were better than other and with good friends you can make it through anything. In 2013, I went through a spiritual growth spurt! This year as I press on, there is no guarantee to what God has planned, but there is a promise that He will always keep and that’s to be with us.

            I kicked off the morning by opening my Bible and reading Paul's story. In Ephesians, Paul presents a two-fold pattern, first explaining the new identity believers have in Christ’s and then bringing out the implications for their new way of life. God has brought everything together under the rule of the Messiah, exalting Jesus above all things. Paul echoes a phrase from Psalm 8 – God placed all things under his feet – to show that Jesus is the truly human one. Jesus fulfills the original human calling to rule over the creation properly. Jews and Gentiles have been brought together into one body, with Jesus at the head. God is now creating one new humanity from all over the world through the reconciling work of the Messiah.

            This means Jesus-followers must give up their former way of life and practice purity in daily living and integrity in their relationships. The reciprocal responsibilities of those in and under authority are used as key examples of the new kinds of relationships God is expecting. Paul cautions his readers that they are entering a spiritual battle. They must arm themselves with all the resources God has provided, until the Messiah brings unity to all things in heaven and on earth.

            Although I was spiritually moved by all of Paul’s words, the readings of Ephesians 5:1-14 really touched me.

“Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave him up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

            But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper from God’s holy people. Nor shall there be obscenity, follish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but ration thanksgiving. For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person – such a person is an idolater – has any inheritance in the kingdome of Christ and of God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient. Therefore do not be partners with them.

            For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather exxpose them. It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible and everything that is illuminated becomes a light. This is why it is said:

            “Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” “

Today we often find that people the butt of some jokes, that sexual comments are spoken, that alcohol is used to alter one’s state of mind on a daily occasion, that harmful acts are used against others, or other non-Christ like actions are made. And in a society like this, peer pressure takes over and all personal strength is lost.  I have been in many situations where I have seen one or more of these actions are made. I must admit that in circumstances like this it’s easy for a person to become weak and not stand up for him or herself or another.

Today marks a new beginning. My new beginning of standing up for what is right! In 2014 I plan to share God’s teachings to those who are lost and need the comfort of Christ. I also plan to become closer to those who are followers of Christ!

This year has many things in store, and I cannot wait to share with you! Please keep following my blog post, twitter, and facebook accounts!! If you have comments, questions, or want to talk about anything please do not hesitate to email me at bobbileann@live.com

Have a Great NEW YEAR and God bless you!!

Bobbi LeAnn