Passionately Christian
Originally posted at MikeShaw.tv
Yesterday I wrote a little bit of why I am a “Passionate Conservative.” I could have gone on, but I don’t have hours to write and you don’t have hours to read. Bottom line is I believe that Conservative Principles when applied in a Representative Republic give individuals the best chance to be the best they can be. As individuals prosper, the entire society is lifted up. Indeed the results have been dramatic for the entire planet!
This morning I want to talk a little bit about why I am passionately Christian. Bottom line is Jesus gave up Heaven so God could have a friendship with me and you! In other words, God died so that when you die you don’t have to really die! You can live with Him forever!
The only requirement to qualify for Heaven? Believe in your heart that Christ died in your place and paid for your sins and on the third day rose from the dead. Believe that in your heart and confess it with your mouth. That’s it! Romans 10:9 & 10. You then exchange your earthly sin for His absolute righteousness.
Now as simple as that sounds, we all resist. Well, most of us. I do know a couple of wonderful people who have been Christians as long as they remember, but for most of us we decided that “having fun” in our youth was more important then being called “Jesus Freaks.” Of course the fun lead to heartache and sometimes disease. While we might be “good people” we are all pretty selfish by nature. Of course God was still drawing us to Him and eventually we responded and accepted His wonderful gift of salvation. If you haven’t and are alive enough to read this then there is still time.
For me it started in Sunday School at the First Conservative Baptist Church of Canby. I was maybe 8 or 9 and our Sunday School Teacher was showing me in the Bible that God talked about springs in the bottom of the ocean. Springs that scientists were just barely discovering thousands of years later. That was enough for me to accept Jesus into my heart. I still remember the joy I felt as I prayed and in my minds eye I saw light bursting from my heart! It was pretty cool.
But. I eventually stopped going to church and eventually started living more and more for my own desires. That included increasing drug and alcohol use as a teenager and young adult. I even shared a drug needle to inject some cocaine into my arm. I only tried it 2 or 3 times in a one week period when I was about 20 years old, but I ended up paying a high price for the temporary rush the cocaine gave me.
I found out much later that I had Hepatitis C. The worse kind too. It was also about that time that God drew me back to him. I started going to church, got baptized and started reading my Bible. During worship at church I would cry out to God and also actually cry as He was healing my heart. The folks around me at church probably thought I was a troubled man, but I didn’t care. God was working while I was in His presence.
It was during one of those times that I heard God say in my heart about my Hepatitis C, “I’m going to take this from you.” It was a word I clung to during the difficult one year of combination drug therapy. I lost a lot of weight and some hair. Food lost it’s flavor and I had suicidal thoughts. All side effects of the drugs, but I hung on because I had God’s promise!
Sure enough, after a year of treatments I was Hepatitis C free! And still am today. That was 10 years ago. Since then I have left my TV career and have served in a few ministries. Mission Odessa, Family Life Radio and Teen Challenge of Arizona along with some churches along the way. I don’t know if I will stay working in ministries as a job the rest of my life, but I do plan on ministering the rest of my life! God has shown me a lot in His Word and through experiences with Him that I have to share. It’s too important. I don’t always live as I should and God doesn’t just give me what I want, but I know that He is always with me and He always gets me through.
If you want more evidence that God is who He says He is, check out this blog entry from a couple of years ago. Stars really do sing, just like God said they do thousands of years ago!
If you don’t know Jesus and you are still alive, it’s not too late. To say that it is awesome to know the God who created the Universe as a personal friend and Father is an understatement!
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!
Today’s Proverb for 11/25/09
Proverbs 25:18
18 Telling lies about others
is as harmful as hitting them with an ax,
wounding them with a sword,
or shooting them with a sharp arrow. (NLT)
I have a friend who walks the streets of NW Tucson. I don’t know too much about her, but we have visited a couple of times. I have even given her rides and bought her some groceries. You may have seen her too. She carries a parasol and is often walking on Oracle Road.
I always wondered what her story was. When I met her I discovered she is a Christian. As she walks, she looks for work cleaning or other work to help pay her rent. As we talked I discovered that people make fun of her and it’s hurtful to her. Although she doesn’t lead a “normal” life as most people understand it, she is a real person with real feelings. I imagine 99% of the folks who talk bad about her have never met her and have no idea what her life is like.
Today’s Proverb is a great reminder to me not to run people down. If I can’t say it to their face in love then it’s just not worth saying.
