Lightening The Load

Life's hard . . . when you try to do it alone.

I like to do things myself. I'd rather struggle through, wear myself down to the bone, and even fail before asking for help. I'm independent. I'm a problem solver. I can do it. Or die trying.

And many of us will. Die trying, that is.

The truth is, I can't do it alone--it being this life. Not well, at least. I will never accomplish all that I want to do, all that I need to do, if I try to do it alone.

There's simply too much to bear on my own.

My load grows heavier each day.

Between work, family, writing, serving in the church, kids activities, marriage, keeping up the yard, the house, the vehicles, friends, hobbies, and all the other stuff--there are not enough hours in the day or energy in my tank to get it all done. Leave something undone today, and it gets added to tomorrow, next week, next month.

Life starts to pile up. That load gets heavier and heavier.

Eventually, I'm going to drop it unless something gives.

Thankfully, I have Christ.

I am a Christian. I believe the Bible, not because someone told me it is true, but rather because I have seen it work in my own life. This is one of those lessons I have learned, and am still learning, the hard way.

I can't do it alone. I don't have to.

I have Christ.

Being a Christian isn't about taking on the extra burdens of going to church, giving money away, not having any fun, and in all ways being a drag. Being a Christian is about depending on Christ not only for what comes after this life, but what I am going through today.

You see, Christ didn't only take my sins on the cross; He takes my burdens every day.

I don't really know how it works.

As an elder in the church, having taught adult classes for years, I feel like I should be able to explain how this works, but I can't. All I know is that when I depend on Christ, life gets easier. When I depend on myself, it gets harder.

I cannot say that I have ever seen Christ do my work for me, but I have certainly experienced the evidence of His hand in my life. Take the subject of money--one of my heavy burdens. I have learned (the hard way, of course!) that when I give to God what He has put on my heart to give, I have more money. When I don't, I have less. How? I don't know. Honestly, I don't have a clue. It just works that way.

My marriage, my kids, my job--it's all the same. When I try to do it on my own, everything's harder. When I ask God to help me, He does. I don't know what He does, but it works. That's good enough for me.

Christ will give you rest.

All you have to do is ask. Life is hard, but He is there.

Ask for His help, and just see if He doesn't lighten your load.

Moving Mountains

Jesus' disciples knew hard times.

Our story for the day comes from Matthew 17:14-21. In this passage of Scripture the disciples find themselves in a bit of a pickle. They had been healing the sick and casting out demons, and were probably feeling pretty good about themselves. Life was going along pretty well, until all of the sudden they came up against a problem they couldn't handle.

A boy.

Not unlike others they had seen, and healed, this boy was afflicted by a demon. Try as they might, however, they could not cast the demon out. Imagine their consternation as everyone looked on as they tried, and failed, to do what they had done before, and no doubt promised they could do again.

Can you imagine the sweaty palms, nervous glances at each other, and clearing of throats as they tried and tried again?

"Come out of him!" 

No response.

"I say again, 'Come out of him . . .' "

Nothing. No healing, no screaming demon launched into the "arid places," no applause, no thanks, no converting to faith in Jesus Christ.

Just silence, and failure.

An immovable mountainous problem.

They didn't have enough faith.

That's what Jesus told them when He arrived on the scene. He cast out the demon, and when His disciples asked why they couldn't do it, He replied, "Because you have so little faith." 

Ouch!

Jesus' own disciples, the men who walked and talked and ate and laughed and cried with Him didn't have enough faith to do what He had enabled them to do. Was it because it was impossible? Not at all. In fact, this is the rest of what Jesus said to them:

"I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.

If you just have faith.


I can't help but think that the disciples learned something that day, that their faith was made stronger because of the struggle they experienced. All they needed was faith, and Jesus told them they didn't have it in sufficient quantity. That would make you stop and examine your life for a minute, don't you think?

As the Bible works, this is not only the story of a group of guys who on one day failed to do what they should have been able to do.

This is the story of us.

Those mountains out there--those obstacles, those problems, those gigantic looming cliffs of terror that surround you--they're not insurmountable. They are not immovable.

You--yes you--can move whatever mountain stands in your way if only you have a little faith.


 

Struggles Make Us Stronger

I'll say it again . . . 

Life is hard.

Our jobs, our education, our families, our marriages, our friendships--at one time or another all of them are hard. This is to say nothing about financial struggles, failures, disappointments, enemies, and the like.

Everything can be, and at one time or another, is hard.

Life is a struggle.

Rejoice!

Really? Rejoice, as in show joy? Be glad?

Yep.  That's what Paul says in the verses above. And James in Chapter 1, verses 2-4. And Jesus in Matthew 5:11-12. And . . .

Rejoice and be glad, because struggle makes us stronger.

Does anyone like pain?

OK, sure, there are probably some people out there with various disorders who enjoy pain. The majority of us, however, don't. We'll do whatever we can, and whatever we have to, to avoid it. Pain isn't pleasant.

The thing is, without pain, there is rarely growth. Take an athlete. Can she become better, faster, stronger without some degree of pain? Or a student--can he master his studies without enduring hours of work? Does an artist produce a masterpiece without failure, or a parent an obedient child without discipline?

No.

We might not like pain, but we need it. To grow.

Look beyond the hardships.

I think that's the real lesson for us here. The point Paul, and James, and Jesus are making isn't that we should enjoy the pain, but rather look forward to what it produces. We are to rejoice not so much in the struggles of life, but the fruits they produce.

Think of marriage. Is every day easy? Mine isn't. But is the resulting growth of love, intimacy, and strength of bond worth the effort of endurance? Absolutely. As are the difficulties of parenting. The trials of friendship. The testings of faith.

The rejoicing comes on the other side.

Challenges are opportunities for growth.

That's one of those lines from countless self-help, team-building, and you-can-do-it seminars. It is also God's truth found in His Word. Suffering produces perseverance. Perseverance produces character. Character produces hope.

Hope makes us stronger.

Life is hard, yes.

Rejoice, because we are the stronger for it!

Why Is Life So Hard?

It all started in the Garden.

As I alluded in yesterday's post, we face the inescapable truth that life is hard. Why? Because we messed up. We went against God's will. In short, we sinned.

The result was what we refer to as The Fall. We fell from the perfect state of unity with God, innocence, and obedience to a state of sin, guilt, and rebellion. The consequence is known as The Curse, which can be found in Genesis 4:13-19.

The long and short of it is this: Life was perfect until we sinned. Now life is full of struggle, pain, and turmoil. Life was easy, until we messed it all up.

We didn't leave sin behind.

You would have thought, being the intelligent creatures we are, that we would have figured this out. Life was good, then we sinned, and life got hard. The obvious answer is . . . don't sin. Right?

Theologically you could argue that even if we didn't sin (which we do), life would still be hard because we inherited the sin of Adam (Romans 5:14). However, the Bible tells us that our sins, apart from the sins of Adam, make our lives harder than they have to be. Let me show you.

John 8:34 Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin." 

Isaiah 59:2 But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.

Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

And on and on . . .

Sin made our lives hard. Yet, we keep right on sinning. And in case you don't think the Bible is a good enough source of truth, let's just look at some life examples.

If you murder someone, you go to jail.

If you commit adultery, your life falls apart.

If you lie, it's hard to regain trust.

If you . . . then . . .

Sin has consequences. 

Why is life hard? Because of sin. And while it is true that we cannot go back and undo the sins of Adam, we can certainly stop adding to them.

God has an answer.

I don't want to leave anyone without hope, and hope there is. It is found in the last verse I mentioned above, Romans 6:23. Yes, the wages of sin is death, but God has offered to us the gift of life. That gift is His Son, Jesus Christ. Through Him, and only through Him, can we have eternal life.

And let me tell you something: The Bible says that next life won't be hard at all. There will be no sin, so there will be no struggle, no turmoil, no pain.

That is hope.

Do you have it?

Life's Hard Enough. Don't Be Stupid.

Doesn't matter who said it, there's truth there.

The above little gem of wisdom has long been attributed to the straight-shooting, no-bull Duke. Unfortunately, no one can find a documented instance of him saying those particular words. For our purposes, though, it doesn't matter who first came up with that catchy, easy to remember one-liner.

What matters is that it's true. Life is hard. And yes, it's harder when you do stupid things.

Don't be stupid!

That's the lesson here, and it's simple enough. Just to be clear, by stupid I don't mean unintelligent or mentally challenged. I mean foolish, careless, and senseless. We can't change our intelligence, but we can certainly change how we use it.

We get to choose whether to be stupid or not, as we are using the word today. Every decision we make gets ran though our stupid filter, or at least it should. For example, when faced with flashing red lights in our rear view mirror, we have the choice of pulling over (smart choice), or trying to outrun the police (stupid).  Or when faced with the question, "Does this outfit make me look fat?" . . . well, you get the point.

Getting a ticket is hard. Going to jail is harder. Correctly answering, "Does this make me look fat?" isn't always easy, but a foolish answer will likely make your life more difficult in more ways than one!

Think before you act.

The picture I used today warns of a dangerous cliff edge. What should you do--see how close you can get before you fall off, or keep a little distance? Is the view worth the danger?

Sin is like that cliff. Most of the time, we know what sin is. A lot of sin even comes with warning labels, like the Danger sign above. If a website has the warning of graphic nudity, you probably shouldn't go there. When your friends tell you that person who's been flirting with you is going to be at a party, don't leave your spouse at home and go.

When the flashing red lights appear, stop! The farther you go, the deeper you get, and the worse the consequences. We know this; sometimes we simply shut off our stupid filters.

Not a good idea.

Life is hard. 

That's an inescapable truth that goes way back to a stupid decision made in a once perfect world, and our topic for the week.

Our first lesson is this: Adding more stupidity to the equation won't make things any easier.

Life is hard. It's even harder if you're stupid.

Well said. Whoever said it.

The Greatest Gift

You can earn your way to hell, but not heaven.

That's one of the fundamental beliefs of Christianity. If we could earn our way to heaven, we wouldn't need a Savior. No longer would God's grace and mercy matter. If we could earn salvation, Christ would be unnecessary.

We cannot. He is not.

The only eternal reward we can earn is everlasting damnation and punishment, weeping and gnashing of teeth, as says the Bible.

Think you can earn God's forgiveness, or outweigh your sins by doing good deeds?

Think again.

Two verses pretty much tell it all.

Romans 3:23 says, "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."

Our verse of the day, Romans 6:23 reads, "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."

From the first we learn that everyone has sinned. From the second we learn that the wages (payment, reward) for that sin is death (spiritual death, everlasting torment, hell).

Paul does not follow that up to say that the wages of good deeds is forgiveness, or that through working hard we can cancel out our debt and earn our keep.

Nope. Hard work isn't the answer. Doing more good than bad doesn't tip the scales in your favor. One slip up, one sin, and you're done. You can't wipe that out. Ever. The wages for your sin is death.

Except for one thing.

The greatest gift.

The wages of sin is death, but . . . 

As a preacher I heard one day put it, "Hallelujah for the but!"

But the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. God's gift to us is the cancellation of our sin, the replacement of our earned reward of death with the gift of eternal life through Christ Jesus.

The greatest gift ever. Period. 

Rules For Holy Living

Words to live by.

That could be the title for Colossians Chapter 3. NIV uses Rules for Holy Living. I guess that will do just as well. This is a chapter where Paul tells us how to live as Christians, and there are some pretty heavy-hitting thoughts in this one page chapter.

Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things (3:2). Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature . . . (3:5). Do not lie to each other (3:9). Bear with each other and forgive . . . (3:13). And over all these virtues, put on love . . . (3:14)

Then comes verse 15. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body your were called to peace. And be thankful.

Be thankful for what?

The simple answer is . . . everything! The Bible says this over and over. In James we are told to consider it pure joy (be thankful) when we face hard times. In the Book of Psalms, David gives thanks to the Lord over and over, in good times and in bad. Jesus thanked God for hearing Him (John 11:41). The list goes on and on.

The message is we are to be thankful at all times.

What does it mean to be thankful?

One definition of thankfulness is feeling or showing gratitude. This brings us to our topic at hand.

Gifts.

Yesterday we learned that Jesus said, It is more blessed to give than to receive (Acts 20:35). Nowhere in there does it say that receiving is not a blessing. Nowhere in there does it say we are not to be thankful when we receive a gift.

Nowhere.

If you can't receive a gift with thankfulness, you can't receive Christ.

In fact, in Mark 10:15 Jesus says, "I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it." 

Have you ever seen a child receive a gift? Their eyes light up, their smile swallows their face, and everything else disappears for that moment in time. That gift, no matter how simple, is received with true thankfulness.

We could learn a lot from a child.

Learn to receive.

Now that we're all grown up (or so we say), we sometimes allow our grown-up emotions to ruin the joy of receiving. We let the false ideas of guilt, obligation, or quid pro quo (literally, "something for something") get in the way. We take the idea that there's no such thing as a free lunch too far.

We've forgotten to be thankful. We've forgotten how to receive. As a child. With thankfulness.

Give thanks.

Going back to Colossians 3, verse 17 says this: "And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him."

Whatever you do. Whether in word or deed.

Be thankful. Life is a gift. Salvation through Jesus is a gift.

If you can't accept the smallest gift from man, how will you ever truly receive the greatest gift from God?