There is no other name but Jesus whereby we must be saved. Welcome to my blog: In Him Only. I hope you will be encouraged by what you read.

Thursday, December 31, 2020

To His Last Breath

 When Nancy had her hemorrhagic stroke, we impatiently waited for the ambulance to arrive. While we waited, she said to me: “I love you.” 

She later told me she knew she was dying, and those were the last words she wanted me to hear from her. 

 

Today is the last day of 2020. During my time with the Lord this morning, I got to thinking of ‘last words,’ and my thoughts turned to Calvary. 


As the Lord Jesus hung bloodied, bruised, and dying on that cross, He uttered what theologians call His Seven Last Words, the last of which was this: “It is finished.” And John 3:16 became a palpable reality extending through the millennia, even to this last day of 2020. 


“It is finished.” 


I can’t explain what happened next, but as I focused on those last words, the Holy Spirit interpreted them for me through the language translator of heaven. And this is what the dying Jesus wanted me to hear with His last breath: “Richard, I love you.” 

 

It swept across my mind. It pulsated through my mind: “Richard, I love you.” 

 

And now, please, if you have read this far, please be assured on this last day of 2020, whatever is your name, the Lord Jesus also says to YOU with His last breath: “I love you.” 

 

He wants you to know, with His last breath, “I love you.” 


Tuesday, December 29, 2020

Child or Tool?

The longer I live, the more I experience, the more the truths God has shown me in the past come around again and again. This Christmas season, as I think about family and friends, I remember once more how we become either a child of God -- or a tool of God.  We have no other options available. None. We will be one or the other.

I have seen this happen countless times over the years. 
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Child or Tool?


I am God, and there is no one like Me . . . My purpose will be established, and I will accomplish all My good pleasure (Isaiah 46:9-10).


I can't help but think about Joe and Charles when I read passages like this one from Isaiah.

Fifty years ago, Joe and I were best of friends. Although he was married, the father of two daughters, and six years my senior, we were almost inseparable. We worked the same shift at a local taxi company and shared the same interests: drugs, parties, and women. After working all day, Joe and I often spent hours cruising the bar districts while his wife and children waited for him to come home.

However, what I remember most about Joe is what I thought of him in my rare reflective moments. His life was a disaster waiting to happen -- and more to the point, I realized unless I changed direction, my life would mirror his.

That realization eventually led me to the navy recruiter’s office. I thought if I learned a job skill in the military, I would avoid the life Joe modeled for me. But during my tour overseas I found something much more valuable in the navy than a job skill.

I found Christ.


When I left Japan three and a half years later, I enrolled in a Bible college. It was there I met Charles, a former missionary and pastor. He taught several of my classes at the college and made the Scriptures come alive for me. But what I remember most about him is not his gift of teaching, but his humility. Nearly five decades later I can still see him in my memory weeping at a church altar, pleading with God for wisdom to serve Him more fruitfully.

Charles never knew it, but he modeled for me a heart passionate to serve Christ.

I do not know if God used me Joe’s life during those years of our friendship, but God surely used him in mine. As I watched him manipulate and abuse even those closest to him, God gave me a glimpse of my own future if I persisted on that same path.

Nor do I know if God used me in Charles’ life. But God surely used him in mine. If not for my former teacher, my understanding of what it means to truly seek after God might be quite different today. And I might not have learned this important lesson:

 

We have a choice how the almighty and omnipotent God will use each of us for His own purposes – as His tool or as His child, as a Joe or as a Charles.

I know how I want Him to use me.

 

Sunday, December 27, 2020

The Cradle and the Cross

I preached this on Sunday, December 27, two days after Christmas 2020. 

My text for today comes from Matthew 1:20-21 “But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. 21 She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”

 

As we embrace this Christmas season of 2020, I ask God again to remind us Christmas is not about the parties and the presents and the meals – and COVID has certainly put a damper on all those things hasn’t it?

 

But what COVD cannot do is overcome the reason for the season, and that is about Christ Himself.

 

December 25 is the time many Christians celebrate Holy Communion – or as some call it – the Eucharistic Mass. The word Eucharist means ‘Thanksgiving’. We do this because of what Jesus said to His disciples during their Last Supper together. Here is how Luke records it:

 

Luke 22:19-20 “And when He had taken some bread and given thanks, He broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” And in the same way He took the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood.”

 

Over the centuries, the celebration of the Mass of Christ became abbreviated to Christ’s Mass. Now, it is simply ‘Christmas.’  But as happens so often when we abbreviate truth, the meaning of Christ’s Mass has devolved into what Christmas is today in many places: Santa Clause and reindeer, and so forth. And because of the misplaced focus, so many of us – even churched folk – have lost the meaning of the birth of the one we celebrate.

 

And that then is one of the reasons I have chosen to do something a little different for this Christmas message two days after the Holy Day.

 

I want to focus attention on that manger in Bethlehem – and then fast forward to Good Friday. Why Good Friday? Because Good Friday IS THE REASON Jesus was laid in that manger in the first place. As that text in Matthew declares to us, Jesus was born to die so He could save His people from the punishment our sins deserve.

 

Many of you are familiar with the prophecy about Messiah Jesus found in the 53rd chapter of Isaiah. That Jewish prophet penned the prophecy 700 years before Jesus was laid in the Bethlehem manger. For the sake of time, I read only a portion of the chapter and make a few comments relevant to the reason for Christmas.

 

The context of chapter 53 begins in the last section of chapter 52:

Behold, My Servant shall deal prudently; He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high. 14 Just as many were astonished at you, so His appearance was marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men; 15 So shall He sprinkle many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths at Him; For what had not been told them they shall see, and what they had not heard they shall consider.”

 

And then Isaiah writes: Who has believed our report?”

 

Now, we should ask ourselves, “Why did the Holy Spirit move upon Isaiah to ask that question?” It was because sin-sickened and corrupted men and women will typically and as a majority, CHOOSE to NOT believe what God says about sin, righteousness, judgment. It’s been a problem endemic to humanity since God warned Adam about eating the forbidden fruit. I won’t turn there now, but you might later look at what St. Paul wrote to Timothy about humanity’s typical choices in 2 Timothy chapter 4.

 

Isaiah continues: Surely [Messiah] has borne our griefs [pains that sin brings us in mind and body, in relationships, in spirit, in death for eternity] and carried our sorrows; Yet we considered Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted “(In other words, many thought then, as there are those who think the same thing today, Jesus got what He deserved).

 

Ahh, but how wrong they were, and how wrong are so many today. Isaiah goes on:

 

But He was wounded [Hebrew: pierced, to wound fatally) for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The punishment for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, everyone, to his own way; And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all . . . Yet it pleased the Lord to crush Him; He has put Him to grief . . . 11 [And] by His knowledge [e.g by our knowing Him. See Jn 17:3, Phil 3:10) My righteous Servant shall justify many [e.g. make them guiltless, righteous in God’s eyes] for He shall bear their iniquities.

 

Christmas is when Immanuel – ‘God with us’, as Isaiah told us – Christmas is the time when God Almighty laid aside His glory and took the form of a slave to save all who WANT to be saved from eternal agony in the Lake of Fire.

 

The phrase, ‘who want to be saved’ is the crucial part of the incarnation we celebrate at Christmas. Not everyone is willing to do what absolutely must be done to be saved from that Lake of Fire; And that is to trust in Jesus’ death alone that saves them from the punishment for their sins; And obedience to Christ gives evidence of the faith that saves us.

 

Scripture tells us Jesus became the substitutionary sacrifice for us and, thereby and utterly satisfied God’s justice – His unbreakable rule – that sin must be punished.

 

Listen! Sin doesn’t just separate us from friendship with God! I don’t know why some people – even pastors and theologians – why would they ignore the abundantly clear evidence of God’s word to say all sin does is to separate us from God’s friendship.

 

On the contrary, sin makes us enemies of God. Scripture says it so often, I don’t know why some people miss it.  For example, James 4:4   You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

 

Romans 5:6-10 For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.

 

That’s why the manger is much more than what many relegate to children’s picture books. It’s much more than the silent night, the holy night when shepherd’s quaked at the sight.

 

The message of the manger and that First Advent is about me. And it’s about you. It’s the message of God’s personal intervention into history to rescue all of us from eternal torment in the Lake of Fire because of our sins. The Christmas manger is about Golgotha’s cross looming above the manger where the little Lord Jesus lay asleep on the hay.

 

The cross.

 

I hope you still love that old cross, where the dearest and best, for a world of lost sinners, was slain.

 

Many people don’t often think about it this way, but Christianity is a bloody, gruesome religion.  But it had to be bloody, for only blood – in this case, the blood of the Innocent Son of God – only blood could atone for, or wash away, the sins of the guilty.

 

Jews of Jesus’ day fully understood ‘Blood Atonement.’ The ritual dates back to the books of Moses. For example, Leviticus 17:11  11 For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood by reason of the life that makes atonement.’

 

That’s also why we read in Hebrews 9:22 “Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness [of sins].”

          
And that is why the Lord Jesus, during that Last Supper, took a cup and said to His disciples, Drink from it, all of you; for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins. (Matthew 26:27, 28)

 

Yes, Christianity is a bloody faith. And Christ’s cross was as ugly as it was gruesome. Before hammering spikes into His flesh, Roman soldiers tied Him the whipping post and stripped off His clothes. Then they swung rock-embedded whips against Jesus’ back, buttocks and legs. Again, and again, until strips of skin hung from His body. Small capillaries and arteries oozed and spurted blood with each beat of His heart. The warm fluid tracked down His back, His thighs, His legs until the pavement at His feet was moist with dirt and clotted blood.

 

Yes, it was a hideous scene. But it was a God-ordained and utterly necessary scene. Without the shed blood of Jesus, there could be no forgiveness of sins to the penitent. Not my sins. Not your sins. Not anyone’s sins. As the Holy Spirit told us through that passage in Isaiah: All humanity has gone astray. We have each turned to our own way. But God, being rich in mercy, laid all those on Jesus (see Isaiah 53:6).

 

Our sins did not at all break our friendship with an utterly holy God. Our sins placed us under the wrath of God. Turn later to john 3:36; Romans 1:18, 2:5, 5:9, Ephesians 2:3, 5:6, and dozens of other texts demonstrating our sin would have brought down on our heads God’s eternal wrath – were it not for the sacrificial and bloody death of Jesus the Savior.

 
If the Christmas Baby in that manger had not grown into the Man whose bloody death would be our atonement for our own sins, there would be no hope for God’s forgiveness.

 

Did you catch that? Without the Cradle and also the Cross and the subsequent empty tomb, there would be no hope for God’s forgiveness. No hope for eternal life, but instead only an inescapable judgment and eternal damnation facing us after the grave.

Which is why St. Paul wrote: In [Christ] we have redemption by his blood, the forgiveness of transgressions, in accord with the riches of his grace (Ephesians 1:7). 

 

God paid an enormous price to save us. He paid all He could pay. His gift to you and me as described in John 3:16 began on Christmas day, but payment occurred on Good Friday.

 

Christian, listen! Be reminded! We’ve been bought with a precious price. And so, what are we going to do with His unspeakably expensive and precious gift?

 

The apostle Paul wrote these words to the Christians at Corinth (1 Corinthians 13:11) When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things.

 

Unless and until we mature from the manger to the cross, we will never become the men and women of God that He designed us to be, because the manger and the old rugged cross is the true message of Christmas.

 

How then ought we live, knowing the cost God paid to redeem us back to Himself? Reverently, yes. Obedient to His Word. Of course. And many would also add, “By falling more deeply in love with Jesus.”

 

I’ve quoted this before, and it is good to quote it again in closing. It was written by Fr. Pedro Arrupe, a former Superior General of the Society of Jesus, wrote:

Nothing is more practical than finding God, that  is, falling in love [with Him] in a quite absolute, final way. What you are in love with seizes your imagination; it will affect everything. It will decide what gets you out of bed in the morning, what you will do in the evenings, how you spend your weekends, what you read, what you know, what breaks your heart, and what amazes you with joy and gratitude. Fall in love [with God], stay in love, and it will decide everything."
           
Falling deeper in love with Jesus is NOT something we are able to do of our own will, strength, desire, talent, or wishful thinking. It is something possible ONLY by the supernatural work and favor of our supernatural God.

 

We are now only 48 hours beyond Christmas day 2020. Let us implore the Holy Spirit to help us grow deeper in love with God – and that He (the Holy Spirit) will train our hearts to reverence and obedience.

Friday, December 25, 2020

How Long has it Been?

 Another note on Christmas to my fellow Catholics (and Protestants can benefit, too).

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Christmas 1972. Forty-eight years ago, today. I remember the day as if it happened only a few weeks ago.

I still see myself kneeling at the side of my bunk in Barracks M, above the chow hall on the Yokosuka Naval Base in Japan. I’d recently finished Hal Lindsay’s, The Late Great Planet Earth. His references to Jesus the Messiah in my Jewish Bible amazed me. No, that is not the correct word. His references astounded me.

In all my life – I was 22 at the time – I had never opened a Bible, and certainly had never heard of the many prophecies in the Jewish Bible that referred to Messiah Jesus. Isaiah 7, Isaiah 53, Daniel 7, Zechariah 12, Psalm 22, Psalm 16, Jeremiah 31, Micah 5, Deuteronomy 18 are just a few that come immediately to mind. But there they were, pulsating on the pages as I read his book.

Still skeptical, I walked the two blocks to the base chapel and asked the Jewish chaplain if I could borrow a Bible. I took it back to my room to verify the texts Lindsay quoted were really in there.

They were.

Forty-eight years ago I could not have known the twists and turns my life would take, and how each twist and turn would lead me ultimately to where I am today on December 25, 2020. But it all began as I knelt by my bunk in Barracks M. The Holy Spirit, having shown me through my Jewish Bible the truth about sin and judgment, but also about mercy and forgiveness, I stared at the clouds beyond my window and said to God, “I believe Jesus is the Messiah.”

Six words. But unspoken in those six words, yet resolute in my heart as I spoke them, was my promise to God of my commitment to Him. I didn’t know the prayer of St. Ignatius of Loyola at the time – but I meant every syllable:

"Take, O Lord, and receive my entire liberty, my memory, my understanding and my whole will. All that I am and all that I possess You have given me: I surrender it all to You to be disposed of according to Your will. Give me only Your love and Your grace; with these I will be rich enough, and will desire nothing more. Amen."

Have I failed Him in those 48 years? Many times. Has God forgiven me, reconciled me, redirected me? Every time I confessed and repented of my sin. Every time.

Forty-eight years. Over and over and again and again I have fallen to my knees and re-committed myself to my God and Savior.

But the point of this story is NOT about me. It’s about you.

You were brought into the Church as a baby through your baptism. But as an adult, how long has it been since you said to God something like St. Ignatius’ prayer: "Take, O Lord, and receive my entire liberty, my memory, my understanding and my whole will. All that I am and all that I possess You have given me: I surrender it all to You to be disposed of according to Your will. Give me only Your love and Your grace; with these I will be rich enough and will desire nothing more. Amen"?

Today is Christmas. If you’ve never prayed a prayer like that, why not do it now? If you’ve done it many times, why not do it again? What better gift this Christmas could you give to yourself, your family, your community . . .

And to God?