Right now, I’m engaged in a Blitz through the Bible campaign. Basically, I’ve challenged myself to read the whole Bible in 2 months. I do this occasionally because it helps me to see the bigger picture of the Bible. When I do this, I’m always amazed how I can read something in the Old Testament in the morning and then read something later that night in the New Testament that gives reference to what I read earlier.

The books of Romans and Hebrews really come to life when read soon after reading the first few books of the Old Testament. It becomes quickly apparent that the two testaments are truly one story. God’s story. It becomes apparent that God’s story is not about us. It’s about God and what He did for us. Now, in His story, there are heroes and villains throughout; but those individual stories are diminished when taken apart from God’s bigger story. All of those stories, when seen as a single story, allow us to see a God who would stop at nothing to save His people. All of those stories point to a single act of sacrifice where one God-Man, Jesus, gave up His life as a ransom for many (Mark 10:45).

There are many people who deny God’s story. There are many others who claim that eternal life can be found in other stories. There are a lot of road signs out there that say “This Way to Eternal Life.” Many make the claim that all of these roads lead to the same destination…

Jesus made it clear that that was not the case.

One day Jesus was trying to tell His friends that He would soon be killed yet He was trying to comfort them:

“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.” 

Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. John 14:1-6

Many object to this statement. Many who claim that there are many ways to God (or whatever their version of God is) say that this isn’t fair. It’s exclusive. It’s narrow minded. It’s mean-spirited. I’d say to them, consider this:

1. Jesus created it all, He gets to make the rules (John 1:3 and Colossians 1:16 assert that Jesus created everything).
2. Jesus didn’t keep it a secret. He put it out there for everyone to know. There is a way to God. I am that way.

Finally I would tell them this:

Jesus was under no obligation to make a way at all. There didn’t have to be any path to God. The fact that there is a way to God at all testifies to the love, mercy, and grace of God.

Jesus did make a way. He, Himself was and is that way.  What the Bible does for us is show us that way. Now you might say, “I’ve read the Bible, I know the way.” I’d say to you, “Not as well as if you were to read it again.” So… go for it. Find a Bible reading plan that works for you. There are many great ones out there. Just do it. There are no other words that lead to eternal life and no other source that can tell you authoritatively how to live a life pleasing to God.

P.S. If you really want to have a good time, have a go at reading it in 2 or 3 months. The YouVersion Bible app has a Read the Bible in 90 Days Plan and a Read the New Testament in 30 Days plan. I’m working both at the same time. So… go for it.

I’m going to get straight to it for once… I would never put this on my church sign:

One pastor did, though and, if you can believe the reports, the church members staged a walkout the following Sunday because of it. Yes, this was in response to the political battle waging between the President and the four congresswomen known as “the Squad.” The political back and forth has been very divisive and none of the participants are clean on this one.

So, why would a pastor invite such division into his church? Pastor E. W. Lucas was quoted as saying:

“Preachers, by and large, today, are afraid they’re gonna hurt somebody’s feelings, and when I get in the pulpit, I’m afraid I won’t hurt somebody’s feelings.” Pastor E. W. Lucas

That’s a terrible sentiment. I hope what the pastor was trying to say was that the message of the gospel is offensive and he would stay true to that message regardless of whether or not people didn’t like it. The Bible tells us with certainty that the message of the cross is and always will be a stumbling block (1 Corinthians 1:23). It’s one thing if a pastor is preaching the truth of the gospel and people are offended; it’s another thing if the pastor is preaching anything else and people are offended. If a pastor delights in hurting somebody’s feelings, then it’s not the message of the gospel that is offensive, it’s the messenger that’s offensive, and that’s wrong. 

Jesus, Himself, had many people leave Him because of His message. At one point, His followers were leaving in such vast numbers that He looked at His disciples and sadly asked them if they were going to leave Him, too:

After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” John 6:66-68

The church walking out on the pastor wasn’t the problem. It was the why that was the problem. If a pastor is going to divide his congregation, he better make sure it is because his Gospel message is offensive to them, not because his America message (or any other message) is offensive to them. He’ll be held accountable by God for that.

Now, I don’t know this man and I don’t know his heart and anyone can take one statement and make it mean something it might not fully mean in a larger context. I want to be careful to comment only on the sign and the one quote that I’ve seen. The sign seems unwise and unnecessary. The quote seems poorly thought out at best and offensive and divisive at worse. Neither was worth losing the congregation of the church. 

I want to be clear on one thing: I love America. I enjoy American celebrations such as parades and picnics and fireworks and John Philip Sousa. Those things are great!

But I also want to be clear on another thing: America didn’t die for my sins. I enjoy the occasional patriotic service so long as the service is God centered rather than America centered. When it comes to what happens in a worship service, there should be only one message: Christ, and Him Crucified.

I used to love reading a comic book called What If? This comic book would take something that happened in one of the Marvel comics stories and present a new story answering questions such as:

• What If Spider-Man Joined the Fantastic Four?
• What If the Hulk had the Brain of Bruce Banner?
• What If Jane Foster had Found the Hammer of Thor?

One question I used to ask my youth group was What If Jesus came off the cross when He was challenged to do so?

BACKGROUND
Jesus had been arrested, beaten, falsely accused, beaten, humiliated, mocked, nailed to a cross, and mocked again…

And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads and saying, “You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” So also the chief priests, with the scribes and elders, mocked him, saying, “He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him. For he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” And the robbers who were crucified with him also reviled him in the same way.
Matthew 27:39-44 (ESV)

There are several instances where Jesus was tempted in the Bible (Matthew 4:5-11 documents three of these). Satan knew that if he could get Jesus to sin, God’s plan would fail. It’s reasonable to believe that Satan didn’t know what God’s plan was, he just wanted God to fail (after all, if Satan knew that God’s plan was for Jesus to die, he wouldn’t have moved evil men to have Jesus killed). But there were also other instances where Jesus was likely tempted. I can easily see this moment when Jesus was on the cross as being one of those.

Now if it were me, the story would have ended entirely differently. If I were on the cross and it was my mission to save the world by dying and I had the power of God at my disposal… the instant some mocking, loud-mouthed so and so said “If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross!” it would’ve been <POOF> <ZAP> GAME ON!

I would’ve popped off the cross, hovered in the air, summoned my angel army and there would’ve been lightning and earthquakes. It would’ve looked like a Michael Bay movie with Peter Jackson embellishments.

And in so doing, my mission would fail.

If Jesus had responded to that challenge by coming of the cross, everything would be different. There would’ve been no means left by which mankind could be reconciled to God. Afterward, if Jesus didn’t simply destroy everything outright and let the world continue to be, every person born would live their miserable lives, die their miserable deaths, and live miserably forever with Satan without any hope for rescue.

What a terrible story that would’ve been. Fortunately for us, the real story goes like this:

For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God. 1 Peter 3:18

That’s a much better story!

I’ve done it. You’ve probably done it, too. Odds are good that neither of us likely would have done it except for that one thing that pretty much guaranteed that we would do it…

The Do Not Touch sign.

That one sign almost begs that something gets touched. For instance, when I go to the Corvette museum and I stand next to a vintage 1963 split-window model, it’s all I can do not to touch it. And yes… there’s a sign. Conversely, when I’m at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, there is a sign that actually encourages people to touch a moon rock. As cool as that is, I almost don’t want to. Again, because of the sign.

We all tend to want to do those things that aren’t allowed and we all seem to yawn at doing the things that everyone is permitted to do.

In the Bible, there is a tragic story of a man who died because he ignored the instructions of God and touched the Ark of the Covenant. There were rules dictating how to handle the Ark and the rule maker was God and He was serious.

Consider this… Whenever the Israelites were directed by God to go into battle, the Ark would go before their army and the Israelites would be victorious. However, the Israelites eventually came to believe that it was the Ark of the Covenant that gave them victory in battle rather than the God of the Ark of the Covenant that gave them the victory. So there were times when they took it into battle and they lost the battle because God was not with them. On one particular occasion, God allowed Israel to be beaten so badly that the Ark ended up in the hands of the enemy.  Why?

Because God takes holiness seriously. God brought judgment on His people because they treated that which was most holy as something that was simply common.

A long time ago, while at a Petra concert, I saw a quote on the back of a T-Shirt that said: The righteousness He requires is the righteousness His righteousness requires Him to require. That’s what’s going on here.

Eventually the Ark was sent back to Israel but Israel still did not treat it in the manner that was required by God. The Ark was placed on a cart and pulled by an Ox. This was not the way God had dictated that the Ark be transported. Not even close. The driver of the cart was a man named Uzzah. At one point, the ox stumbled and Uzzah reached out to steady the Ark and…

Uzzah was killed.

Now… maybe it’s just me but… this seems harsh. After all, it appears as if he were simply trying to protect the Ark when the Ox stumbled. It might have even been a reflex action – no different than a mom who throws her arm in front of her kids when she has to hit the brakes hard (my mom did this a lot – which, in retrospect, might say something about her driving).

Nonetheless, what Uzzah did was just the final wrong performed in a long sequence of wrongs.

There’s a lot we don’t know about Uzzah. In all the time he lived with the Ark (about 20 years), how often did he admire it? How often did he have to suppress the urge to reach out and touch it?  Just one time. Just for a quick second.

I would have been tempted to do the same thing.

So, when Uzzah was chosen to drive the cart, it may be that when the cart started to roll, Uzzah just carried through on what he already had in his heart to do. He touched the Ark. In his mind, he was just trying to save it. But that wasn’t his job and God had to re-teach a lesson that his people had forgotten in regards to dealing with the Holy things of God. In this particular lesson, a man died.

As you might imagine, sudden, dramatic death certainly tends to get one’s attention. It certainly got the attention of King David. And that’s where we will pick up next time because this is already much longer than when I first started preaching about it in my mind…

When you think of Paul, it’s easy to believe he had this Christianity thing down. Perhaps not so much early on when he was trying to arrest and kill Christians. I’m talking about after he came face to face with the living Jesus and became perhaps the greatest voice for Jesus the world has ever known.

So, did Paul have this Christianity thing down? We know a lot about Paul. If we were to put together a top ten list of the greatest Christians to have ever lived, Paul would probably be near the top of the list. The book of Acts tells of many of Paul’s deeds. However, it’s through his letters that we truly get insight into the heart of Paul. In his letter to the Romans, we see that this man who did so much to shape the Christian church and the Christian life was quick to admit that he wasn’t perfect. Not at all. For instance, here are his own words:

Romans 7:15-20 (ESV) – I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

Now, it would be easy for the Christian to look at these words and take comfort in them. After all, if Paul had all of this sin in his life, then he really wasn’t too different from us, right?

It would be easy for us to assign our worst sin to Paul and convince ourselves that Paul struggled with that exact same sin as us. We could convince ourselves that our sin can’t be that bad because Paul struggled with it, as well.

Now, we don’t know what sins Paul struggled with. We don’t even know if Paul struggled with “sin” or if he struggled with “SIN” (because we have a tendency to believe that some sins are bad and some sins are really bad). What we do know is this… we can’t take comfort in knowing that Paul sinned and therefore believe that it must be OK that we do to. We can’t say that “if Paul sinned, then I’m in really good company.” The problem with such thinking is that when we measure ourselves against another person, it’s easy to believe that we’re not so bad – especially if we see that person as “pretty good.”

Instead, we must measure ourselves against the only person we should weigh ourselves against – Jesus. When we do that, our shortcomings become readily apparent. When we do that, we don’t take hope in Paul’s confession. Instead, we despair along with him as we realize and confess that we are wicked and in desperate need of the change that only Jesus can give.

However, Paul does give us something in which we can place our hope:

Romans 7:24-25 (ESV) – Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! 

And that one statement by Paul is a pretty good summary of his letter to the Romans. We are indeed a wretched people, but we have hope in Jesus Christ our Lord.

It used to be that I could be outside at night and I could hear the Pope high school drum line as they practiced. I’ve noticed over the past couple of years that I can’t hear them anymore, even though I know they are out there practicing. I came to the conclusion that they just must not be as good as they used to be and that they have fallen off of their game.

A couple of nights ago I was out in the yard and all of the sudden I could hear the drum line. I was so surprised by it that my head literally snapped up toward the school. I remember wondering where they had been all of this time and was glad to see that they were finally on their way back. Then it dawned on me – maybe the problem was with me. I wondered “when was the last time I actually spent any amount of time working in my yard with anything other than a lawn mower?” I realized that the drum line was probably there the whole time, I just had to shut out all of the noise that was preventing me from hearing the drum line.

Then it hit me harder. Maybe the reason I don’t hear God as often as I would like is because I have too much noise in my life and I haven’t put myself in a postion to hear Him.

Yeah… the problem was definitely with me.