What About Tiger Woods?

Tiger Woods told the world he was sorry today.  His infidelity has turned his life upside down.  His family has been torn apart.  He has lost millions of dollars in endorsement deals.  He has left the game that he loves so much and that God has gifted him so well to play.

Reaction to Tiger’s apology are generally favorable, although there are still many taking shots at him.  So what is God’s perspective on all of this?

First of all I think it’s pretty evident to all that sin has consequences and those consequences can be painful.  The Bible is clear, ALL fall short of God’s standards.  NO ONE seeks Him, not even one.  In other words.  We are ALL guilty.  We can’t help it.  We were born that way.  All of us suffering the consequences of the fall of man in the Garden of Eden.

Our sin nature is evident.  We lie, cheat, steal, sleep around.  This is the nature of man left to his own devices.  Sin is wrong.  Transgressions are wrong.  We pay a price for the mistakes we make.  The bigger the mistake, the more damage to ourselves and those around us.

What’s worse, even the slightest mistake makes us unworthy of living in God’s presence forever.  Want to go to Heaven?  Live a perfect life.  Good luck with that.  It can’t be done by mere men and women.

Of course the good news is we don’t have to live a perfect life!  Jesus did that for us.  Since He is God, He was able to pay the price of sin for us.  Death.  Jesus died so we could live.  God cannot lie.  He promised that the penalty for sin is death.  God also promised that He loves us.  This apparent contradiction is resolved at the cross.  The price for sin is paid for by His son.  God’s love is now available to those who can’t live a perfect life.

There is only one catch.  You can’t receive an awesome gift unless you, you know, receive it.  In other words, the Bible says that we have to believe that Jesus is God, that He died for us, and rose from the dead.  If we do that then we are saved.  Romans 10:9 and 10.

Tiger made a huge mistake and he is paying a huge price for it.  I think it is right for Christians to extend love and forgiveness to a hurting person who is suffering as a result of his mistakes.  God gives us second and third  (and fourth and fifth and sixth…) chances.  We should do the same for Tiger.  Even as we hate the sin we can show love to the man.  All of us are just as guilty (maybe not of exactly the same thing, but we all have our issues).  The difference is we are now forgiven and that allows us to share God’s love with others.

The ultimate show of love is to share the good news of God’s gift available to Tiger and to anyone else who will accept it.  That’s what Brit Hume did awhile back.  It created quite a reaction, but to Brit’s credit he stuck by his words because they were true and they were spoken in love.

What about Tiger’s marriage?  Should Tiger’s wife divorce him?  The Bible is clear that infidelity is grounds for divorce.  She is well within her rights to leave Tiger if she chooses.  Forgiveness and trust are not the same thing.  Forgiveness is given, trust is earned.  Tiger is right when he says that his right actions over time are the only way that he has a chance to regain the trust of his wife.  I pray that that happens.

I, for one, will still be a Tiger Woods fan.  I hope that he has a successful life and a successful career.  Of course the ultimate success is measured by our relationship with God.  That relationship starts by accepting His free gift.  I pray that someday Tiger embraces grace.

He Didn’t Die in Vain

Take No Glory. A band of Musicianaries who give away their music and the gospel message contained therein. Since their music is free, people are free to make their own videos from the music. Like this one I found on YouTube with the song, “He Didn’t Die in Vain”

You are Holy!

or you can be if you’re not.  Holiness is for everyone, but it’s not something you fight for or strive for.  Holiness is something you receive!

When Jesus died on the cross and said, “It is finished” and then rose from the dead on the third day, it really was finished.  Jesus completed the greatest exchange in history for those who will accept it.

Let me back up just a few steps.  Joel Engle was in Tucson this past weekend for the Kingdom Men 2010 Conference, “Always Better Together.”  There were nearly 2,000 men in attendance to hear messages like the one Joel gave.  Joel is a Christian music artist and also the founding pastor of “The Exchange” located in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area.

I’m going to take just this one point that Joel made and expound on it a little bit.  I want to share it with you and drive it a little deeper into this thick head of mine so I can get it into my heart.  I believe that if God’s church can really believe how much we are forgiven, and how much God loves us we will have much more joy in our lives and we will be able to share that with others.

So Joel is on stage Saturday and asks, “How many here think they are Holy?”  A lot of hands went up, but most were hesitant, and a lot of hands didn’t go up.  I was thinking, “I think I’ve been taught that I am, but I’m really not sure.  I know I don’t always act like it.”  And that’s when Joel put this verse on the screen:  Hebrews 10:10 “…we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”

We ARE Holy!  Not because of anything we do.  We ARE Holy because of what Christ did.  It’s the exchange, as Joel says.  Jesus took our mess and exchanged it for His Holiness.  We were separated from God, but He made a way back to Him.  Jesus took our sins and unrighteousness and exchanged it for His righteousness!

If you have Christ as your Lord and Savior then you are on the winning end of the exchange.  You definitely got the better deal.  Through no effort of your own, you have been made righteous and Holy in the sight of God.  You have been adopted into God’s family as a son or daughter as a co-heir with Christ and all the benefits of sonship or daughtership.  God Loves you as much as He loves Jesus!  Even though you still sin, you are no longer a sinner.  God is for you and not against you.  It really is good news.  The best news actually.  The God who created the entire Universe wants to be your best friend.  That is amazing if you really think about it.

Many of us fall into the trap of trying to earn God’s favor.  We waste a lot of time and energy feeling condemned because we mess up.  Should we mess up?  Of course not.  There are consequences for making mistakes, and big mistakes can bring a lot of pain.  But know this.  If you have taken advantage of God’s incredible offer and believe that Jesus is who He claims to be, then God is not mad at you.  If you run into His loving arms in good times and in bad, even when the bad times are your fault, He will fix it!  It may take time, but when we trust Him and follow Him, blessings follow.  God delights when we rely on Him.  When we trust in Him and His goodness.

I really believe that if we as Christ’s body can accept this then we can be so much more effective in ministry.  We will quit wasting time striving for God’s favor and instead we can unite in the joy of what God has done and tell others.  God is good!  He LOVES you!

³⁸ For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,

³⁹ nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8:38-39

If you haven’t accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior and taken advantage of the exchange, what are you waiting for?!  A life of adventure awaits!  Just do what Paul said to do in Romans 10:9-10:

⁹ that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;

¹⁰ for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.

You don’t even need a sinners prayer.  If you believe that Jesus is who He says He is, the only Son of God, and if you believe that He lived a sinless life and died for you on the cross and rose again on the third day and you confess it with your mouth you have just completed the exchange!    Now it’s time to get in a good church, start reading the Bible and practice living this new life that has been placed inside of you.

I love this line… you are no longer a liar, so stop lying.  Because you have exchanged your sin for His Holiness your nature has changed.  You are no longer a sinner even though you still sin.  This is what the world has a tough time with, and so do we.  If we are made Holy how come we don’t act like it many times?  It’s called our flesh and we will war with it until the day we die.  In the meantime we are to die to it daily and walk in the Spirit so we won’t walk in the flesh and mess up.  But when we do we should run to God.  He always treats us with love.

Never forget and constantly remind yourself.  God is for you, not against you.  He’s not mad at you.  Trust Him.  He sees you as Holy and Righteous and He Loves YOU!