The Vine Message Board

People like to think of themselves and others as either belonging to the ‘good guys’ or ‘bad guys’. This is evident, not only in the way people talk about those holding public office, but also, in how people talk about friends and family members, those that they agree with and those they disagree with. We like to put people in categories according to what we see. Jesus points out in Luke’s gospel that there is only one good - God. Wow, the ‘good guys club’ just shrunk, or did it?. When all goes well, we like to think (mistakenly) that we are good and as a result God shows His favor on us and blesses us. Equally false, we may see ourselves as having made too many mistakes for God to care about us, love us and listen to us. These thoughts, however false, certainly stack up with what we learn in our performance based society (hopefully not in church). We are constantly bombarded with ideas that seem to make sense but are not true, because they clash with God’s revelation in Christ. The Bible speaks of ‘righteousness by faith’ where the ‘bad guys’ become (and remain) righteous simply by believing in Jesus. We get the credit for Jesus performance, because he took the blame for our sins and paid for them with His own life. In fact, He became sin so that we might become the righteousness of God in Christ. So we are members of the good guys club after all, just not on our own merit.  We can not be good enough to be acceptable to God in ourself any more than we can be too bad for Him not to accept us in Christ. He already has, and is not changing His mind according to His Word.

‘Lord, help us to see ourselves and others the way you do, through Christ’  Amen

Representatives from all over the world have recently travelled to Beijing, China for the Summer Olympics. Every athlete will work hard to represent their country well and try their best to win.
I thought about how highly we think of our own team USA, which is made up of about 550 or so athletes.
My thoughts drifted to something that is written in Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians, 5:17-21;

“Therefore if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation; old things have passed away, and look, new things have come. Now everything is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed the message of reconciliation to us. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ; certain that God is appealing through us, we plead on Christ’s behalf, “Be reconciled to God.” He made the One who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

God thinks quite highly of us, who have heard and believed the good news about Jesus.
He calls us ambassadors for Christ. Paul wrote that God is actually making His appeal through His representatives! He has actually chosen us to bring His message to the world around us.
That is a high calling! Wherever we go, we represent Christ. We speak and act on behalf of God!

The church has not always been the best representative of Christ. It is easy to forget that there is a new creation in Christ and start to focus on the old that has passed away. We can try all we want, but the old is not going to measure up, no matter how hard we work it. We, who are called to represent Christ, who reconciled us the God, need to remember that the power source is the proclamation of the good news in Christ; That God made Jesus to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

There has been some talk in recent months about whether we should boycott the games in Beijing because of the human rights abuses in China. The church has at times taken that course, and tried to boycott the world around us and what it stands for. Let’s not forget that God has called us to be His messangers to all people. Let’s focus on the new creation and represent Christ in our homes, at work, at play and everywhere. When we do, we are tapping in to the power source for life.

Dear Lord, reveal more of yourself to us that we may truly be your ambassadors!

In the last couple of weeks, I have been reminded of how important it is to have goals. In every category of life, simply having a goal makes a trememdous difference; in dealing with relationships, in finances, in relationship to exercise and most certainly spiritually! Listen to this passage from Philippians:

Philippians 3:10-14 (HCSB)
10 [My goal] is to know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, 11 assuming that I will somehow reach the resurrection from among the dead.
12 Not that I have already reached [the goal] or am already fully mature, but I make every effort to take hold of it because I also have been taken hold of by Christ Jesus. 13 Brothers, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, 14 I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus.

During the week of 4th of July, my wife and I had the opportunity to ride our tandem bicycle from Greer to Charleston. I was shocked how easy the long rides were for my wife, who had only taken a handfull of short, one-hour rides all year, which made her tired. She was able to ride over a hundred miles two days in a row!! The difference was the goal.

We have recently completed the first phase of a new kitchen/dining room facility high in the mountains in Guatemala. It all started with a goal in March of this year. Since then, three different groups have traveled to this remote village and had amazing success. The Lord blessed our efforts and allowed us to do even more than our original goal.

Paul, the apostle, made it his goal to know Christ,….. and to pursue the prize promised by God’s heavenly calling. If you study Paul’s life, you will find that many things that would shake us didn’t face him. He did not sweat the small things.
If we learn to reflect off the goal of God’s heavenly calling, the goal of our faith, we too will learn not sweat the small things. We will also learn that most things are insignificant.

it is great to have goals in every facet of life. They help us to reach forward, keep us productive and maybe even out of trouble. However all goals are secondary to the one of pursuing God’s heavenly call in Christ.

I hope this is your goal. If you seek, you will find, the Bible says. Believe it!

These words are found in Paul’s letter to the Philippians, chapter 4.
Paul says: “….I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know both how to have a little, and I know how to have a lot. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret [of being content]—whether well-fed or hungry, whether in abundance or in need. I am able to do all things through Him who strengthens me.”
Have you learned to be content?
All too often Jesus gets excluded as we face different circumstances! We tend to forget that He is with us, do we not? We give Him His own compartment and forget to include Him in all things! We have a compartment for work, for play, for relationships, for finances, for church, and yes, even for the Lord. Jesus points out, in John 15, that we can’t do anything without His help. He does not want just a little compartment in our lives, but all of it. When we charge ahead and try to deal with life with our own strength, it can get quite frustrating, to say the least. We will not be able to be content at all without the realization that Jesus has what we need in order to cope with life, and is more than willing to give us strength in all circumstances, even at a time of loss. Paul had learned to include Jesus in all situations, good and bad, when he had plenty and when he didn’t. He had found contentment, and it was not connected to anything tangeable. He was content, because he had learned that he was able to do everything through Christ, who gave him strength. Yes, absolutely everything. I, together with my family learned more of this truth in the last 20 months after we lost our 10 year old daughter Moriah in a car accident. We learned that Jesus even enables us to grieve. He gives us strength in every situation. We are at peace in the knowledge that our lives are in His hands, in this life and the one to come. Praise Him!!!

I once asked a good friend what he considered most vital in his marriage of 25 plus years. Without hesitation, he answered: “forgiveness”. How true! The longer we live together, the more we need it. Without forgiveness, mistakes and hurts will just pile up and drive a wedge between us, whatever the relationship.

When reading the Scriptures, we realize that God is quite serious about forgiving.

In Matthew 6:14-15, Jesus says: “For if you forgive people their wrongdoing, your heavenly Father will forgive you as well. But if you don’t forgive people, your Father will not forgive your wrongdoing.” (HCSB)
Whatever situations, persons, regrets, mistakes, sins or hurts came to mind as you pondered these words, let go and leave them at the cross, where Jesus died for all of us, that you may be forgiven!

When you hold on to something that someone did or said, you are not punishing anyone but yourself. The culprit may not even be aware of it. You are the one suffering!
With Jesus help, we not only let go of the past, we never even grab a hold of it, because we live in this new reality of forgiveness! It’s like the automatic eraser! Impossible, you say! By yourself, yes, but with Christ it’s not only possible, it’s a reality!

In Ephesians 4:32, Paul, the apostle writes: “And be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving one another, just as God also forgave you in Christ.” (HCSB)
“Just as God also forgave you in Christ”!! How was that?
God forgave us before we even knew we needed it! Now there is a formula for living peacefully in any relationship. When those around us blow it, we do not wait until they feel sorry or make it right, we just forgive! Today is the day. Whoever the person or whatever the situation, let go, forgive and truly live!
Lord, help us to forgive as you have and do!

A student named Steve Winger from Lubbock, TX was taking a challenging class in Logic. The course and teacher were known for exacting and demanding exams. The final exam was looming, and the professor mercifully told the class that each student would be permitted to bring in a single 8 x 11 ½ inch sheet with as much information as they could put on that one sheet for help during the test. On exam day, each student came to class clutching their precious pieces of paper with as much information as possible. Some students had crammed lines and lines of font so tiny and so numerous onto that single sheet that you had to wonder how they could read it. But Steve walked in with a single blank sheet and a friend who was a senior student and who had an ‘A’ in logic. Steve bent down and placed that single, blank sheet of paper on the floor next to his desk. His expert friend stood on the paper.

The professor noticed the extra body in the room and asked what he was doing. Steve piped up, “You said we could bring in what ever we could fit on a single piece of paper for help on this test, well, this is my help and he can fit on the paper!” He had followed the instructions to the letter and was the only student in that class to score an ‘A’ since he had his expert friend standing along side him. The Holy Spirit is like that friend, standing along side us, supporting us, and guiding us.

Jesus, speaking of the Holy Spirit in John 15:26, says; “When the Counselor comes, the One I will send to you from the Father - the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father - He will tetify about me”. He, the Holy Spirit, is indeed an expert counselor and friend who is always there along side. When He speaks, He does not speak on His own, but whatever He hears, Jesus says in John 16:13.

As you struggle with life, you may feel alone at times, even with people all around! Remember, you are not alone. Jesus is with you, every step of the way, by the Holy Spirit. He encouraged His disciples, before He ascended to be with the Father, to remember that He was going to be with them always, to the very end of the age!

In case you forgot, you are one of His disciples if you have heard the good news of life and peace in Jesus Name and believe it!

When faced with this question, we usually respond with our name, title, occupation, or perhaps kinship to certain individuals; parents, children or spouses.
It is easy to forget that we have an identity that supersedes all of the above; that we are God’s children by faith in Christ. John reminds us about this in his first letter; “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him”. 1 John 3:1 (HCSB)

Paul also talks about this in his letter to the Romans; “The Spirit Himself testifies together with our spirit that we are God’s children, and if children, also heirs —heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ—seeing that we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him”. Romans 8:16, 17 (HCSB)

A certain rabbi many years ago in Russia, somewhat disillusioned, went for a walk and got lost in his thoughts and wandered into restricted territory. He was startled when a soldier, who was on guard, demanded; “Who are you?” The rabbi didn’t reply, but asked instead how much the soldier was getting paid. The soldier pointed out that it was none of his business and demanded an answer to his identity and reason for being there, but the rabbi gently stated that he would gladly pay the salary of the soldier if he would ask him the same questions every day. He had been brought back to reality. We, too, need to be brought back to reality and be reminded about who we are and what we are doing here, that we have become children of God and have been saved from our old identity, which causes us so much distress.

As you struggle with who you are, the task at hand, the things you have not accomplished or the relationships around you, remember who you are! Sure, you will remain connected to others and your job, but God has made you his own child. You have been bought with the life of His Son, our Lord and your identity is now in Him.

Listen to what the apostle Paul writes about this: “From now on, then, we do not know anyone in a purely human way. Even if we have known Christ in a purely human way, yet now we no longer know Him like that. Therefore if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation; old things have passed away, and look, new things have come”. 2 Corinthians 5: 16, 17 (HCSB)

Don’t forget who you are; it has tremendous implications on your life!