“Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me!” the old adage goes. Sometimes, just sometimes, people get the old adage wrong and they add, “fool me thrice, and shame on us.” To get even a second chance at life, or in it, is a big deal; however, to get a third try is an incredible opportunity and immensely huge blessing. Just think about how many do-overs you got in school growing up or at work before it was game over! Now, think about how many times you messed up in life in different areas, and with different people, in different situations– I’m talking about morally, character-wise, emotionally, physically, mentally, etc. Juxtapose that with the God who witnessed all of your hot messes and still said, “I love you, you’re precious to me.” It changes your perspective of you, doesn’t it? Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him, and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.” – Luke 17:3-4 Life would be so much easier if Jesus told us to act as if the transgressors were dead to us. Unfortunately, he tells us to do something so godly that it turns our societal and instinctual habits and norms on its head– forgive knowing that it happened multiple times before and knowing that it’ll keep happening after this one. It’s as if Jesus wants us to be so forgiving that the act of forgiving becomes second nature. But you see the key to what Jesus says is not the act of forgiving for the sake of forgiving. Rather, it lays in the act of being attentive of one’s self. Forgiving is impossible without “paying attention to yourselves.” Allow me to translate that from Jesus speak: you can really only forgive somebody else if you find yourself forgivable. So the exact opposite must be true if you can’t forgive somebody else– you are as unforgivable as the person you can’t forgive. Forgiving is more of an act of knowing you are repeatedly forgiven for all the things you failed doing and getting a second, third, fourth and fifth shot, etc from God through the blood of Jesus. Jesus says to keep forgiving and accepting for as long as you have to come back and ask God for forgiveness. But we can’t do it in our 21st century selves because we simply don’t pay attention to ourselves and we’re hypersensitive about everybody else. If you’re sitting in a position of unforgiveness, you need to pay attention to yourself and patiently forgive as you are being patiently forgiven. That’s the beautiful paradigm God has given us, it’s about time we live in that paradigm in our lives.

One of the most obvious reasons for disliking professional evangelical Christians is their ridiculous insistence on abstaining from being seen or associating with people who don’t go to church and act holier than Jesus himself. You know what I’m talking about. There are those people who think, if you, as a Christian, are seen with and/or conversing with non-Christians or “formerly Christians” we are defiling ourselves. Unfortunately the only thing you are defiling by associating with said non-believers, heathen, or “sinners” is the the narrow minded, egotistical worldview that people hold, to elevate themselves higher than the rest of us. Let’s read Luke 15:1-2. Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.” – Luke 15:1-2 Jesus constantly rubbed religious people the wrong way by associating with those people who couldn’t be reconciled with the religious. Look at how Luke describes the people that were coming to Jesus– they were tax collectors (essentially traitors in the first century Roman Empire) and “sinners.” But this is not “sinners” as everybody in the world is a “sinner” before God, type of “sinner.” This is the type of “sinner” whereby you were caught “sinning” by not just one person to make it only hearsay, but by a group of people, thereby having witnesses against you, type of sinners. The religious people hated it. But Jesus embraced it– the people who are thrown to the wayward curb. These people were not just notorious for their lack of so called morals (their only true crime was not being able to cover it up as well as other people); rather, these people were just abandoned to live out their lives in relative loneliness because people who should have known better decided not to be better and do what their God dictates them to do in His name. For way too long, we at church, have decided not to associate with people outside of our so-called group and it is a shame. I don’t care how you define your “group”– whether it be by race, morals, education, occupation, social preference, etc. People are standing on the outside looking in because they want to be invited, and you’re staring back at them? Why aren’t we out the door, welcoming them in? Jesus says to the Pharisees and scribes: “Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.” And allow me to paraphrase here but he says, “let’s have a welcoming party.” If judgment from other people are keeping you from being friends and socializing with people that you know want to join you; then you better get it together and stop that silliness. Maybe you should dump those judgmental group members. (Just as a note, this is not me telling you to go join a gang or play with sexual predators). This is me telling you that God has charged all of us to be little shepherds, and there are sheep out there, who are waiting to be found by us. The company we keep (the people who are supposedly are lost) will be found by God, and when they are, heaven will celebrate. Judge the real company you should be keeping.

Ever get the feeling that you’re life is a boat on water and you’re treading a leak? You know, that feeling you get when everything you do seems to be so counterproductive. That feeling when nothing is going your way; when everything that can go wrong has gone wrong. Yes, that reality which we call our everyday despite how much we pray, plead and barter with the God who supposedly can change all of that and will change all of that because of His love for us. Yes, it’s the wonderful feeling we get– like being stabbed in our abdomen; and you ask yourself “why?” em>Now, therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways. You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes. (Haggai 1:5-6 ESV) Israel thought they were making a come back. Things were starting to go right. They were doing everything their religion told them to do. On the face of it, all was gravy. But it is fairly evident, that God didn’t think the same. The prophet says, “if you think you are doing everything the way you are supposed to– that is morally, and with wisdom, then you need to stop and reconsider what you are really doing.” This applies to us today! We just can’t seem to figure out why, even though we read all the books, heard all the lectures, and implemented all the good practices in our lives, why our lives are not fulfilling or why life feels so much like vanity. Haggai answers that too– “Because of my house that lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house.” (v 9) Did you miss that? He says we’re living in vain and in failure and moving backward every time we’re supposed to move forward because our focus is all out of whack. The goal of our lives shouldn’t be ourselves. The Bible says this because if we lived longer than a week, we realize that people have so little control over their own lives that it’s futile. More than that, the small parts we even have a sliver of control over can never be enough to yield results in the entirety of our lives. More importantly, for the Christ follower, there should never be a point where we are selfishly building something up for ourselves because we don’t actually need it. Our focus should be on sacrificing our ego in submission to the will of God in our lives and reaping the benefits for the glory of God. Let’s backtrack for a moment because I know all of this sounds abruptly radical and deliriously irrational. This is actually two simple principles Haggai is teaching us: first, when we stop focusing on ourselves, we will have enough in our lives; secondly our priorities become better focused in our sacrifice. If we are living life wondering why nothing is going right, we have to ask ourselves why. It’s time to reconsider whether or not our priorities are set properly or if we’re too self-absorbed to see life for what it truly is. Let’s all take the time to reconsider how we operate in life and seek God’s glory for us.

Who is like the Lord our God, who is seated on high, who looks far down on the heavens and the earth? He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap, to make them sit with princes, with the princes of his people. He gives the barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children. Praise the Lord! (Psalm 113:5-9 ESV)

Who is like “our God”? I want to answer this question both philosophically and pragmatically. I think to answer this question, I need to describe what “our God” is like first. So in a nutshell as describe by the Psalmist in this passage, our God is: bigger than this world and our lives (literally an figuratively); as a result of His vastness, our God is able; in his ability, God is caring; He is deliberate and He gives generously. I am basically reiterating the Psalmist by saying that God is so awesome, He can take care of people who are ignored and overlooked and in the same breathe bring them to commune with the rich and well-to do. But God does more than that– He gives people who are alienated a place, that is a community, they can call “home.” With all that said, “who is like ‘our God’?” The answer should be, “we, His people.” But philosophically and pragmatically it’s more and more apparent that God’s people are unlike Him. We are not like God in our hearts, nor in our actions. We are preoccupied with ourselves, and so we can’t take care of those who are neglected by us [and the rest of the world]. Our hearts are not with them; how could they be when they are so busy dealing with our own self-image issues? We are philosophically at complete odds with God because of this. Here’s an example of what I mean: I ignored a tourist who was just asking for directions because I was running five minutes behind for my workout this morning! I wasn’t even running late for work or for an appointment. It was for the gym! (Mind you, I walk and move incredibly slow at the gym.) I sidestepped the person, didn’t even take off my headphones and said, “sorry, I don’t know” before he even asked his question. While at the gym, I began to think about the times we are even aware of the plight of another living being, not related to us by blood or friendship, is when we are really bored or we are waiting to go somewhere, and we only really notice after the stranger (the needy person) paced back and forth three or four times in front of us, distracting us from our preoccupations. If our philosophy (our heart) is unlike God’s own, it’s evident that our actions are even further from God. I am saying that we can’t act like God if we don’t feel like God. That is the sad thing about today’s society. How can Christians, the very people of God, care less about the needy and the poor and the afflicted than people who don’t even believe God exists? Not only that, how can the people of God, myself included, claim to want holiness when our worship is relegated to Sunday morning and not through the heart and actions we take the other six days of the week? Going to church services once a week on Sunday afternoons is not worship, nor is it the heart and work of God alone. We need to take our Sunday afternoons with God and make it every moment of our day feeling the way God’s heart feels for this world and working the way God works with our hands and feet. I want to say two things in conclusion. First, I want to apologize to everybody I ignored that needed me or found themselves poor. If I were more like God, then my heart would have been with you. But my heart wasn’t like God’s and I’m sorry. However, I think now, you and I both can have a heart like God and help each other meet the need we have through His love. Second, since we are needy and poor and don’t even know it, we need to ask God to rescue us and sit us with His princes. It is in God’s heart and body of work to give us a place called home, like a childless mother having a home with her children. This is our God. We need to embody the heart and work of our God now.

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. – Ephesians 2:13 Recently, I’ve been approached by several people whom have asked how they could find their identities and their being in the comfort of their own skins. If you spent any time in your teens and twenties, you’d know that finding yourself is a long and arduous process which often leads to dead ends and disappointments which are often followed by more bad decisions and miscues. Then, one day, someday, everything clicks and on that day you reach into the deep recesses of your soul and find exactly who you are, realizing that who you were existed in the very part of you that was missing. It’s quite a task. If you found yourself, congratulations; if you haven’t, well, feel free in finding yourself with the only words you need to read or hear to find yourself: you are fully you when you come close to Christ! Paul writes to the Ephesians exactly what our mission statement is for Redemption: to reach those of us who are far away from Christ into an authentic relationship with him. Here’s what that does in terms of “finding ourselves”: Christ’s blood allows us to access the identity God gave to us in our creation. That is to say that we are free to find ourselves as children of God. If you still don’t understand what I’m saying then let me give you an example of what this looks like. It looks like having a billion dollars in the world (having no financial or social constraints) and then doing what you always dreamed of doing sans retiring into death. Yeah, so if you’re feeling stuck where you are because you know you’re only doing it just because, as opposed to doing what you’re doing because you love doing what you do or at least are going to the place of doing what you love to do; then you need to come closer to Jesus’ cross. That’s where we need to be mentally. I don’t know what is stopping you from pursuing the dreams God gave to you; but I could imagine those obstacles stopping you. But to give you some reassurances on your fears of being exposed for confessing your weaknesses, mistakes, and shortcomings to Jesus at His Cross, I will tell you that there is no risk in coming close to Jesus’ cross. He is not going to be surprised by what you confess. He is not going to strip you from having the power of coming near. If you want to live a life free from the burden of being somebody you’re not, you need to take hold of the power offered by Christ to come near to God and be everything you knew you were created for. Our sins and our past do not disqualify us. Nor are they a stumbling block if we are ready to say “yes” to it. The power is here for you. Take it.

“And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time.” – Luke 1:20 Zechariah, a priest and the father of John the Baptist, was confronted by the angel, Gabriel, and told to, quite literally, “Shut up!” I always find this passage interesting. First off, Zechariah sees the angel and is scared out of his mind. It takes Gabriel to say, “stop being afraid, I’m not here to kill you,” before Zechariah calms down enough so that they could have a conversation. Secondly, and much more importantly, why wouldn’t a professional religious person believe an angel’s testimony? Third, what is the implication of shutting Zechariah up until his wife, Elizabeth, gives birth? Today, we will unpack all three observations. First, I want to remind all of us that angels are not cute little things that wear diapers and play tiny little harps while blowing hershey kisses to the world. In most instances, when they appear in the Bible, angels are these brolic beings that not only scare, but can destroy, you. Check out any passage in the Bible where somebody meets an angel, and take note of their reaction. It’s almost always, “Woe is me.” I tell you this because in our own religiousness, our disbelief is pretty incredible. You don’t have to be a professed agnostic or atheist to be skeptical, either. The disbelief that we Christians have in our own faith, puts atheists to shame. Zechariah didn’t believe Gabriel, although he knew that the angel could kill him and that he should be afraid. But he didn’t believe the God who commands this angel that is immensely fear worthy could do something out of the ordinary. It’s easy to understand why– he lived a long and hard life and at the end of the day was resigned to a hopeless life situation that he had accepted as normal. Tell me this isn’t the reason for most of our disbelief and skepticism. The angel knew that if Zechariah kept speaking, he would talk himself out of the blessing God was about to bestow upon his family; so, he shut his mouth up to seal the deal. I want you to understand this principle lesson. For Zechariah, being shut up was for his benefit: to teach him a lesson on who’s really boss. For us, when we shut up our disbelief toward God’s vision for our lives, we cease to sabotage ourselves; and, more importantly, we begin to see that we are not the center of our own lives. It is the easiest thing to be the focal point of our own lives, but it is the wrong thing. When we see ourselves as the center, we speak and act in ways that discredit the power of God and contradict in our self-proclaimed belief in Him. Even here, Gabriel tells Zechariah that having a baby is neither for his or his wife’s sake– that is to say, that having progeny, as important as it is in first century Judiasm, is not point. The baby that is to be born miraculously serves a purpose much greater than what Zechariah could understand. Likewise, the visions that God gives to us, no matter how fantastic, serve a greater purpose than we realize and should not be disbelieved or discredited by our words. Today is the day we all begin to shut our disbelief up, and open ourselves to experience the true purposes of God’s plan for us.

A few nights ago, I was walking around in my house, in the dead of night, without the lights on, to get a cup of water from the refrigerator and I could have walked from my room to the kitchen at least a million times and on my motor memory alone. But that night I hit an obstacle with my knee. I hit the side of a wall with such force, that my left knee bruised. As I exuded profanities from the sting and shock of hitting my knee, I realized what an idiot I had been! If only I had turned on the lights, then perhaps I wouldn’t have hit my knee on the wall! I had a better thought, I need a night light! Trying to return back to my slumber, after my thirst was painfully quenched, I thought about how this would never happen in the end days. Let’s look at today’s quiet time passage. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever. – Revelation 22:5 We can look at this verse alone both figuratively or literally, depending on what you do or do not believe. Personally, I think there is a very literal meaning to this passage by which the author quite literally means there will be no night; and at the same time, a figurative meaning laying behind the literal meaning, reaching at saying that the things (in particular, the bad things) that happen at night (the dark times of your life) will be no more. It’s a very simple view on life itself and the coming end of the world as we know it. In fact, it’s a great hypothesis but we cant test its validity until the second coming, thereby rendering our understanding of this passage merely as naive hopefulness. So we beg the important question: how does that affect me now where my life has “night”? Whether or not you understand this passage in Revelations as figurative or literal does not matter because the implication for all us city dwellers is the same: if God is our light, then even our own darkness is affected by how much we want God to light our way. That is to say that even in the darknesses where most of us spend our time, all we really need to do is trust in God to be everything we need to navigate and be who we are called to be. Unfortunately, most of us who proclaim to be followers of Christ rely on things other than God Himself to allow us to be who God wants us to be. I’m guilty of this too. This is bad faith. It is having no faith and we need to stop. If you want the night to stop, then we all need to allow God to be the light of our lives.

I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him… (Ephesians 1:16, 17) It’s an unbelievable thing to have, that thing we call “hope.” But most people don’t have it and very few people even bother looking for it. Even Christians who have “hope” in Jesus Christ’s life, death and resurrection, don’t really understand nor realize a lack of hope in their lives. Here’s what I mean by that, a lot of us are too busy complaining about what we don’t have, that we don’t realize what we do have. It’s like when a rich person living in a mansion gets on TV and complains about how sad they are. Yeah, that’s reality TV and it reflects our lives. The title of today’s quiet time is “Wisdom Equals Hope” and that’s because having “hope” in life is a matter of simple formula we need to remember in life. That formula is more of a mindset than it is a tangible product that can be manipulated by our hands; and therefore it is available to all of us who seek to have an unfailing hope through a “spirit of wisdom.” I may have gotten a little ethereal with my last statement but let’s look at this passage from Ephesians 1 again. The Apostle Paul writes that he prays for the people of Ephesus so that they can receive a “spirit of wisdom and revelation.” This passage concludes with him saying that the reason he is praying the church receives a “spirit of wisdom and revelation” is because it points to understanding why God loves us to the extent of sacrificing His one and only begotten Son for our sins and our failures, and our shortcomings. By the Apostle Paul’s understanding of having a “spirit of wisdom and of revelation,” it is clear that we need that same spirit if we are to have any true and lasting hope in our lives. The mindset is having a spirit of wisdom and revelation, that is the ability and willingness to be open to new things and hidden things of God, that He is unfolding in our lives. We need to want to break out of the patterns we are living in and be moved to open ourselves into living into the pattern of receiving God as He moves our lives. When we are able to do that, then and only then do we have true hope dwelling within us like God created for us to have. We have to pray and ask God for a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in our own lives. Hope is waiting for you, inherit that spirit of wisdom and revelation that only God, our Heavenly Father can give and gives to us uniquely.

“So you, son of man, I have made a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me.” – Ezekiel 33:7 I was on a rush hour train in the morning yesterday and heard the collapse of a commuter while the train was stalled in between stations through my not-noise-canceling white apple headphones. Here was the biggest problem with all that– nobody did anything about this lady collapsing. Nobody got up, nobody stirred, nobody hailed the conductor. They all just stood there dumb faced with mouths gaping. After a while, because time seems to freeze when the pressure mounts, I decided it would have to be me to do anything helpful. I’m no hero, but I’m not going to heartless allow this woman, who now was in my purview just lie on the subway car floor with no medical attention. I used the emergency telecom and buzzed the conductor. Yes, I caused the train delays yesterday. But not for long, I had walked the person onto the platform and handed her off to a few police officers. I did this because I am a watchman. You too are a watchman (or watch-woman). I didn’t do this because I have some godforsaken savior complex. I did this because it was my duty, being called to do something when time came for a response. You probably would have done the same thing given the circumstances. I mean, anybody with half a blacken soul would have done the same; it is the humane thing to do. Sure, we act when we are called upon to respond to a physical emergency, but what about a spiritual one? Are we watchmen when it comes to the souls and spirits of those around us? Do we speak into the lives of others as God would have ordained us to, or do we idly stand by, watching them? When was the last time we spoke with the conviction that shows that we are integrally part of another person’s life for a reason and purpose beyond our own self-interest and ends? It’s something God tells the prophet Ezekiel about. In fact, God says that we are accountable to speak into the lives of the people around whether or not they want to hear it. You do want to do it tactfully, but you also want to be loud enough to be heard over the noise in their lives. If you had no other purpose or nothing more to add to a friendship or any relationship for that matter, this is it. Your unique insight, your vision, your morality, faith and way of life are the tools you have in speaking to others about their lives. We are watching over them, as others have been placed to watch over us. God is speaking loudly and clearly into our hearts and we need to respond, others need to know. You are called to be a watchman in your relationships, so go watch for God moving and share with people who you are given to watch over. What do you see coming?

Days off are a great thing aren’t they? They give you a chance to catch up on things you missed out on; and/or an opportunity to recover from the drain of living life. Yet, we take that for granted. We whine, “there isn’t enough time.” Perhaps you are right.

There is never enough time. But one thing is for certain– a lot of forgot what it means to take a day off and take a Sabbath (myself included).

Moreover, I gave them my Sabbaths, as a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord who sanctifies them. – Ezekiel 20:12

Let me define the word “Sabbath” for you because I know the word is as ancient and religious as your grandmother and the meaning of the word has lost its meaning and effect on us.

A “Sabbath,” as understood here in this passage and all other passages in the Bible, was created so that we would take a day from toiling toward our own interests and our own ends and to dedicate it for worship.

Worship, is not simply religious activity or ritual, although it could be, moreover, “worship” is an act of positive self-sacrifice.

That is to say that, on a “Sabbath” day we worship God by serving others interests and relaxing by looking at the work of God in our lives and gratefully appreciating the promise God embodies in our lives every single day.

In effect, a “Sabbath” is a day whenever you get a chance to breathe and take a step back from your life, remember to thank God for the opportunity you have for being able to wind down and reflect and to give back.

God gives us a Sabbath as a “sign” for us to remember that it was and is always God who helps us walk our paths and makes our lives full. It is a “sign” for us to think about what God’s plans are for us and why and how He intends those plans to be fulfilled in our lives.

It is a gift for us in our toil to take a break and just look toward our maker and say, “thank you.” God tells Ezekiel, the prophet, that the Israelites are coming to inquire from God, but they forget the greatest sign and the most important day of the week when God gives them an opportunity to inquire, think and ponder.

Here in the 21st century, we are no different. We set out to inquire of God about our lives and we virtually ignore the “Sabbath” He gives us as a sign between Him and us to prove He is faithful and that He always delivers on His promises.

Take a Sabbath and worship God, you will indefinitely understand how God shapes your life. It is a gift of understanding and peace of mind. Let’s celebrate that together.