Wholly Holy

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again:  I think that one of the most amazing, stunning, jaw-dropping, brain-blowing, mind-melting, conscience-crinkling commands in the entire Bible is the one found in 1 Peter 1:15

  • “but LIKE the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in ALL your behavior” (emphasis added)

(… and its “other side of the same coin” similar-sounding sister verse Titus 1:15 … yep, and they’re BOTH “Chapter 1, Verse 15” with only the book of the Bible itself being different… we’ll call them “the two 1:15’s” on holiness…)

  • “To the pure, ALL things are pure…” (emphasis added)

We are called, no, commanded  not just to be holy, as massive as that would be all by itself, but to be holy LIKE God Himself is.

Wow!  Wow!  I am speechless!

But wait, there’s more!  We are commanded not only to be holy and not only to be holy like He is but to do so, to be so, in ALL our behavior, in ALL our conduct, in ALL of our words and actions (including reactions), i.e., to be WHOLLY holy … wow wow wow, what a command!

But praise the Lord that the Bible is crystal clear that this is indeed possible but only by His doing, only through the inner working of His Spirit and Word.

Which is why it’s so crucial to spend as much time and meditation as possible in the latter, since it is what fully and maximally unleashes the former in us.

Hence holiness in humans, like wisdom, cannot be bought or brought about by self-effort, only through Spirit-working and Word-saturation.

May we redouble our focus on the crucial importance of personal, God-produced holiness in our daily living.

Pour it out upon and within us, Father, for we are willing and want to be obedient to the Bible and thus possess and practice personal holiness, to “be holy [our]selves also in all [our] behavior” even as You Yourself are holy, holy, holy.

 

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“You Raise Me Up”

I might or might not know a great deal… but I know a great deal when I see one.

I think I inherited that ability from my paternal grandmother; as noted on this website’s Why page, she once was one of the biggest independent antique dealers certainly east of the Mississippi and probably the entire country at the time, and I can remember as though it were yesterday the time that, for my major-milestone 13th birthday, she, my parents, and I visited the Williamsburg (Va.) Pottery Factory (it’s big now but was way more massive then).  It’s the first time I fully, fervently comprehended the meaning of the phrases “a fish in water” and “kid (or in this case, grandmother) in a candy store”.  She was something to behold, wheeling and dealing to an extent even the best writers in Hollywood couldn’t come close to conveying.  I don’t think the rows of steel shelves were literally a mile long but they certainly seemed like it, and when she saw some silver bells selling for cents on the dollar, she politely but promptly prodded the salesperson to pack up the entire row and proceeded to the checkout cash register and celebrated ceaselessly her financial feat for the entire four-hour trip back home.

Like her – no doubt because of  her – I know a great deal when I see one.  Like when I bought my very first property for a fantastic price, so much so that in less than a single decade it quadrupled  in value.  Or the time that my mind made a massive “buy signal” when, post-IPO, the stocks of Facebook dropped down into the teens and Tesla to around $30.  Bargain bonanza!

But the greatest deal by far that I’ve ever come across is when I read in the Bible that the only person in human history to have ever known no sin willingly offered to become  sin so that sinful, sinning sinners like me might manifest and indeed become  the very righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21) and that if we only humbly believe Him, He will raise us up out of our present pit of pride and sin and set and keep  us on the path of righteousness (James 4:10; 1 Peter 5:6; Psalm 40:2; 1 John 5:18).  I could barely believe it… but I’m so glad I did!   I took Him at His word and haven’t looked back.  Biggest bargain ever.  We simply give the Lord our pride and selfishness and He gives us eternal life to be enjoyed in Heaven with Him forever and ever.  We simply give Him our sin and He gives us His righteousness.  We give up a future in Hell and He gives us a future in Heaven.  We “die daily” to self and sin and repugnant pride, and He raises us up to walk in newness of life.

Like I said… Best. Bargain. Best. Offer. Best. Deal. EVER!

Lord, in Psalm 41:10, Your servant David says, “You… raise me up.”  I frequently fall far from the superb, supreme, supernatural example and demonstration of true humility You modeled so perfectly when You were walking in our shoes, on this very same sod.  Yes, I frequently fail and flail and fall down on the ground… and yet You raise me up, Lord.  All the way.  Every day.  You raise me up.

 

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False Start

In a previously-published post I pointed out the fact that the Washington Redskins (they’ll always be the Redskins to me 🙂 ) have held a special place in my heart since I was a child and especially after I attended the same super-tiny, super-close-knit high school as the deeply-loved son of one of their former coaches (who, in my humble view, is one of the great and genuine and sincere and outspoken in-a-real-life-way Christian as just about anyone I’ve ever come across in my entire life) (once you hear my full life story, you’ll realize the volumes that statement speaks since throughout my entire childhood, the most godly and Bible-knowledgeable and frankly famous theologians, preachers, and practitioners of the faith spent the night or an entire week  in my home, in the bedroom right next to mine, true “giants of the faith” like James Dobson, Merrill Unger, Andrew “Andy” Telford, and too many others to list here including semi- or not-at-all-famous-but-every-bit-as-godly-and-inspiring missionaries from all around the globe… much more about all of this in the future).

While I enjoy “speed-watching” NFL games most Monday evenings (condensed versions, all ads removed) I’m not otherwise emotionally invested in any one team but because of what I just noted above, it was a tad askew…

… or rather, for the past thirty years, right ON CUE (it’s true, boohoo) but a bit bothering nonetheless when the Redskins (!) were trailing by three points with around seven minutes to go in the game and, having just driven the ball down the field to a “1st & Goal” situation, they immediately proceeded to pull off not one, not two, but THREE false start penalties, which contributed to their having to settle for a field goal and mere tie.

They went on to stop the Giants’ ensuing drive and then to march back down the field and kick yet another field goal (their one-short-of-an-all-time-record seventh of the game, by a kicker they just signed less than one week prior) but the point is that those silly, unnecessary false start penalties could well have cost them the game.

But I couldn’t be mad at them even for a split-second – not because they pulled out a win in the end but rather because I’m so very aware of how many “false starts” I and every Christian have committed before finally “gaining full, lasting traction” in one’s walk with the Lord.

But I am  very concerned about the others, people who “come close” to salvation, to victory in the most important aspect of life, but whose “false starts” do indeed end up “costing them the game”, costing them their very souls and eternal destination.

  • “For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God, and put Him to open shame.  For ground that drinks the rain which often falls upon it and brings forth vegetation useful to those for whose sake it is also tilled, receives a blessing from God; but if it yields thorns and thistles, it is worthless and close to being cursed, and it ends up being burned. … For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain terrifying expectation of judgment, and THE FURY OF A FIRE WHICH WILL CONSUME THE ADVERSARIES.” (Hebrews 6:4-8; 10:26-27)
  • “Behold, the sower went out to sow; and as he sowed, some seeds fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate them up.  And others fell on the rocky places, where they did not have much soil; and immediately they sprang up, because they had no depth of soil.  But when the sun had risen, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away.  And others fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked them out.  And others fell on the good soil and were yielding a crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty. … When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is the one on whom seed was sown beside the road.  And the one on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, this is the man who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet he has no root in himself, but is only temporary, and when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he falls away.  And the one on whom seed was sown among the thorns, this is the one who hears the word, and the worry of the world and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.  And the one on whom seed was sown on the good soil, this is the man who hears the word and understands it; who indeed bears fruit and brings forth, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty.” (Matthew 13:3b-8,19-23)

While we watch football games throughout this burgeoning new season, may we wisely look to help others AVOID “false starts” by living godly, pure, personally holy, humble, Bible-loving, Bible-living  lives which will, without a doubt, attract them to us and especially the hope we have and hold within which can’t help but to burst to our outsides, too.

  • “but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence” (1 Peter 3:15)

And please always remember that it’s not how one starts his or her spiritual walk, it’s how one finishes!

Just like the Redskins (ahem) yesterday:  three false starts… but they ended up FINISHING STRONG and reaping the reward of a wonderful win!  Just like each and every one of us who continues in the faith, who perseveres, who endures until the end!

  • “yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach – if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven…” (Colossians 1:22-23b)
  • “But the one who endures to the end, he shall be saved.” (Matthew 24:13)

It is (literally) a miracle and only by God’s good grace and working that anyone avoids hell, that anyone is granted entry into heaven for all eternity in the life to come.

Thank You, Lord.  Thank You, thank You, thank You!

 

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Friday the 13th

It has been almost an entire year since the 13th day of a month fell on a Friday – a chronological chasm that’s so rare since it can only occur with the help of a Leap Year.

The leery, weary, wary, worried world writ large views this day as scary or ominous or given to superstitions of all types; but when one walks with the Lord, this day is downright “lucky” like any and every other.

  • “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” (2 Timothy 1:7, NKJV)
  • “so that we confidently say, ‘THE LORD IS MY HELPER, I WILL NOT BE AFRAID.  WHAT SHALL MAN DO TO ME?'” (Hebrews 13:6)

For folks of faith, there truly is no fear.


 


 

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Dynamic Duos & the Perfect Pair

In a hat tip to the recently wrapped-up pro basketball season, as fun and (usually) exciting as the Playoffs were to watch, one thought that hit me was that the games and sport couldn’t and can’t hold a candle to the 1990’s when (and because) Michael Jordan hit his whole stride, his pinnacle, winning SIX STRAIGHT Championships on an individual basis and six out of eight with two “threepeats” for his team (the Chicago Bulls… as you probably know, he retired for the two seasons in between to try his hand at pro baseball, probably in part due to his dad’s death while resting in his car on the side of a highway) but he didn’t do it on his own.  No, there were two different “dynamic duos” in that situation:  Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen on-court, and MJ and his cool-as-a-cucumber head coach Phil Jackson off-court.

Similarly, in a hat tip to the looming pro football  season, the next decade (2000’s) brought the world a “dynamic duo” in a different sport when the New England Patriots properly paired Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski on the field and also “TD” TB with his  head coach Bill Belichick on the sidelines.

Dynamic indeed.

Of course, most people would probably deem the best-known “dynamic duo” to be Batman and Robin but there’s one with which NONE of these can compare:  the PERFECT Pair of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, the Second and Third Persons of the Godhead, the Holy Trinity.

While I feel and give infinite praise and glory and gratitude to our Heavenly Father, He Himself has designed it so the other two deal most directly with us humanly speaking, in that those are the two Persons of the Godhead who actually and literally and personally  DWELL INSIDE of each and every person who puts his or her faith sincerely and exclusively in God’s plan of salvation, the Gospel, i.e., that the only way for post-fall-of-humanity sinners could reunite, could get back into fellowship with a perfect God is to put one’s full faith in the fact, the truth, that He sent His only begotten Son, Jesus, into the world, who was ABLE and QUALIFIED to take our sins off of us and onto Himself because He DIDN’T have any sin, because He was conceived in Mary’s womb not by Joseph, not by man at all, but by the Holy Spirit, thus NOT inheriting the “sin nature” which has befallen every single person ever conceived by a male, by a human father.

Ergo, Jesus was not just a “good man” or even just a “great man” or “prophet” but a PERFECT person in every way.  Deity.  ”Immanuel”:  God [is] with us… God literally walked among mankind!  And walked and walked and walked and walked among humanity, rubbing shoulders with people just like you and me, especially during the roughly three years of His public ministry.

He walked and walked and walked – all the way to the Cross of Calvary on which He willingly and lovingly and beyond-bravely consummated a Self-sacrifice in taking all of our sins – past, present, and future – onto Himself, onto His literal body which was killed, crucified, then buried in a sealed-up grave with great guards ensuring that nobody could enter it (they feared His followers would seek to steal His body) but then those armed guards fled in fear when Jesus, the Son of God and God Himself (Second Person as noted above) rose again from the dead after having taken the greatest, the most phenomenal and consequential “victory lap” of all time when He flew through Hell so you and I and anyone who puts their full faith and trust in Him won’t have to!

After He rose from the dead – which to this very day  has been celebrated the world over, each Spring, on Resurrection Sunday or as the world calls it, Easter – He then appeared on that very same day to two men who were walking on the road from Jerusalem to Emmaus and also to Peter then all twelve of the Disciples then to over FIVE HUNDRED at one time, all of whom became literal, historical and definitely historic  eyewitnesses to testify to the truth, the veracity, the fact that God’s plan for the salvation of man was indeed “finished” just like Jesus stated on that Cross just before His human death, so they could (and did!) tell others, who told others, who told others, and so on, for the past two thousand years, just you and I are hopefully doing today!

But after Jesus spent some time among people post-Resurrection, He ascended into Heaven but not before promising to send us a Helper, who was the Holy Spirit and He’s still here, still helping us, each and every day we let Him, each and every minute we don’t “grieve” or “thwart” His full ministry in and to us via the times we sin/slip/stumble in our walk with God but even then, as mentioned two posts ago, our day-to-day fellowship and walk is restored when we simply confess and repent of said sins.

Therefore, the GREATEST (and most famous) “dynamic duo” BY FAR is the perfect Pair of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, working hand-in-hand in and with and through us.  Praise the Lord.

[You’ll probably want to stick around for this next song… (the whole thing but especially the last minute]

[… and this one, too, to take us out on a high note… (literally 🙂 )]

 

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Biggest, Best Blocker

Another football season is rapidly approaching, and (not wrongly) most of the attention will go to the Quarterbacks and Running Backs and Receivers but I’ve always had a special place of respect and appreciation in my heart for a very different position, which is perennially at the other end of the fan-attention spectrum and that’s the Offensive Line.

While this certainly makes perfect sense intellectually – how could passers and receivers succeed but for the OL’s (brilliant) blocking which gives both of them the time needed to drop back or run their routes, or what runner could make it down the field but for the OL’s blocking to open up the “holes” and “lanes” amid all of the defenders?  (Okay, okay, Barry Sanders succeeded with little to no help but the exceptions are few and very far between) – the other reason is that I’ve had very close connections with a certain NFL team who had THE GREATEST offensive line in the history of the league, pretty much indisputably even for fans of other teams [including personally knowing very well and at times working with many of their players and front office big-wigs, attending the same (super-small) school as the son of the team’s now-Hall-of-Fame Head Coach, etc.] … monumental memories, but the main point for the purposes of this particular post is that the concept of phenomenal blocking has been embedded in my brain since I was a child.

It was enforced in a very different way just two days ago.

Friday was as hot and humid and oppressive outside as I can recall in my entire life.  Indeed, this area has set new all-time high temperatures these past two weeks with Friday taking the proverbial cake – more about that dramatic day in a future post, for now let’s talk about Saturday.  The weather was still super-hot and I had occasion to be in downtown DC, the country’s crystal-clean capital (NOT!) (aesthetically or ethically, unfortunately) and I felt those smoldering sunbeams every step I took, every inch of the way as I made my way walking from the U.S. Capitol to the Golden Triangle to Foggy Bottom (i.e., GWU) but once I reached 10th or 11th Street NW it became much cooler and more comfortable ergo enjoyable… why?  Because that’s where the downtown practically begins, with its huge office buildings providing much-needed and appreciated shade.

But like those big buildings blocked my body from being burned by the SUN, the Bible blocks us from being burned by the SIN which is so prevalent and pervasive and perpetually present around us in modern-day society.

  • “Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against Thee.” (Psalm 119:11, KJV)
  • “This book of the law [i.e., the Bible] shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success.” (Joshua 1:8)
  • “like newborn babes, long for the pure milk of the word, that by it you may grow in respect to salvation” (1 Peter 2:2)

Similarly, during this time of the year in particular, many people apply to their body suntan lotion with a high Sun Protection Factor (SPF) when they go to the beach or take a long walk in the summer; I wonder how many of them (even think to) apply to their heart, to their mind, to their brain  the balm of the Bible, bubbling with blessing and benevolence every time a person puts it on their inside, on their interior via several ways I’ll note below.

As we go through life, may we not (foolishly) try to “complete passes” or “run routes” or “rush down the field” WITHOUT the biggest, best BLOCKER in the universe, the Bible, the literal and living Word of God!  (If we simply ingest it, it’ll block better than a billion-SPF lotion, and even better than “the Hogs” did for Doug Williams and Mark Rypien and John Riggins and Art Monk and “the Smurfs” when I was a kid.)

Desire it.

Read it.

Study it.

And I’m going to help you (and/or your family, friends, fellow congregation members, etc.) even memorize it.  In massive amounts.  And, despite what you might think or feel right now, you/they will actually find it to be a lot of FUN so stay tuned!

 

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Falling Down

P.S.  Per the past two posts, while this year’s NBA Playoffs were wonderful to watch, what was wacky was how often many of the players – grown men, mind you, and among the most athletic  in the world to boot – would fake being fouled!  And they’d take the act to the max by arguing vehemently to the refs, who were (almost always) onto their antics and would just stare at them, literally looking right through them.

I haven’t seen so much flopping since the last time I went fishing!

I found the PERFECT theme song for them…

… and for me and all of us who feel that we frequently find ourselves falling down from time to time, be that physically and phonily on a basketball court or spiritually on the battlefield of life.

Praise the Lord for always being able, willing, ready and eager  to pick us right back up when we stumble or slip in our walk with Him, if we simply ask.

  • “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” [i.e., to pick us back up!] (1 John 1:9)

 

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Role Players

[Picking up from the previous post as promised…]

The second sort of player that has impressed me these playoffs in particular has been some phenomenal role players.

For those not familiar with basketball, most teams’ “starting five” is comprised of at least three and often four role players, not “stars”.  In other words, most starting squads only have one or at most two true “stars”, phenoms, basketball beasts.  The only exception I can recall of three or more superstars on the same team would be the Boston Celtics and L.A. Lakers of yesteryear, especially the 1980’s:  Robert Parrish and Dennis Johnson (combined)?  Check.  Kevin McHale?  Check.  Larry Bird?  Ten  check-marks.  James Worthy?  Yep.  Kareem?  Definitely.  Magic Johnson?  Ten check-marks, like Larry.  But teams usually have just one or, if they’re blessed beyond belief, two.  Like Jordan and Pippen (then just throw ANY other three players for the starting squad and any half-dozen for the bench like the Chicago Bulls of the 1990’s did  and you’re sure to bag not one but two “threepeats” – and it no doubt would’ve been “eight straight” had MJ not retired for the two seasons in between).  Or Shaq and Penny (Orlando) or Shaq and Kobe (Los Angeles).  Or, most recently of course, Tatum and Brown for the storied Celtics.

Yes, it’s nice to have TWO superstars… but even then  a team won’t be able to pull off a string of superlative seasons if they don’t surround them (or him,  in the case of Nikola Jokic when the Denver Nuggets won it all last year [since Jamal Murray was out with an injury that season] or Dirk Nowitzki when the Dallas Mavericks won it all in 2011) with great ROLE players!

These are the players who aren’t nearly so celebrated and famous (and well-paid) as the superstars, but are absolutely imperative  to team triumph.

Unsung heroes.

Helpers who show up game after game after game and fulfill one or more purposes for the team.  Perhaps passing for a point guard, or defense and rebounding and blocking for a big man, or a wing who can shoot the lights out from three-point range.  (Or ALL OF THE ABOVE in the case of the Celtic’s Derrick White… or, except for the 3’s, Jrue Holiday, a born-again brother in Christ I’m pretty sure.)

And this year’s Playoffs in particular pressed upon my mind how crucial, how vital it is for us as the Church, the Christian community, to have great ROLE PLAYERS!  Yes, the “superstars” named MacArthur or Graham or Jeffress or Swindoll or Solomon or several others in the past half-century, or Spurgeon or Calvin or Luther, Edwards, Wesley or Whitfield before that, it’s definitely fantastic to have them on the team, great “floor generals” on the spiritual “playing field” for sure.  But where would they be and far more importantly, where would the Church be without the countless – and mostly nameless – “role players” of the past two thousand years, since God used Paul and Peter and James and John to start then expand the body of Christ on earth, the Church?

When you go to church each week or as you’re representing Christ to unsaved co-workers or neighbors each day, please never forget or DISCOUNT the utter importance of role players, plentiful in pews across the country and globe, perhaps deprived of “glory” but it’s even exponentially better to get that in the life to come, in eternity, in heaven, rather than here on earth.

  • “Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them [i.e., motive]; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven. [I.e., God] … And when you pray, you are not to be as the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners, in order to be seen by men.  Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.  But when you pray, go into your inner room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will repay you. … And whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do, for they neglect their appearance in order to be seen fasting by men.  Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.  But you, when you fast, anoint your head, and wash your face so that you may not be seen fasting by men, but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will repay you.” (Just a few of the verses from Matthew 6:1-21, a potently powerful passage)

And ending by bringing us back to the previous (“Part One”) post, while memorizing the entire Bible for the first time in human history might thrust me into the ranks of a “superstar” in the minds of many, I have and will continue to view myself as a ROLE player… and one who comes off the BENCH at that!  But that truth of the matter is this:

I’m overjoyed and thrilled and honored and humbled just to be on the team.  The team who’s currently being led by MacArthur and company just quoted, and whose Coach is Christ.

The ultimate Substitute per the prior post, and the ultimate Superstar of all time and every aspect of life, even when He was setting aside the voluntary use of His inherent Diety and living as a human like you and me, minus the sin.

What a Substitute.

What a Superstar.

What a Savior.

 

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Bench Players

The 2024 NBA (pro basketball) Championship Series (“Finals”) has just begun, and one of the most impressive things I’ve seen in this year’s playoffs has been how crucially so-called “bench players” have contributed to the winning team’s success in each series so far.

For those who don’t play or watch basketball, NBA bench players are the handful of fellows who free up the first-string “starters” for foul-trouble or breath-catching breaks throughout a game, which is why they’re also commonly called “substitutes” or “subs” or “substitute players”.

And as I’ve watched them do their thing for these past four or five weeks of the season-finishing playoffs, my mind keeps coming back to how Jesus – the very essence of holiness and perfection – became a substitute for US by willingly and lovingly volunteering to vault over that humanly-unclearable bar (sinless perfection) so one day we will join Him in heaven for all eternity, thus escaping humanity’s truly due and deserved destiny of hell.

  • “He [i.e., God the Father] made Him [i.e., God the Son, Jesus] who knew no sin to be sin on OUR behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21, emphasis added)
  • “… while we were yet sinners, Christ died for US.” (Romans 5:8b)

Jesus Christ is the ULTIMATE Substitute…

  • “… we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He Himself IS the PROPITIATION [i.e., substitute!] for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.” (1 John 2:1c-2)

… who offered and freely gave His own human life and body and blood in our stead

  • “… having made peace through the blood of His cross… He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach” (Colossians 1:20b,22)
  • “For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who GAVE HIMSELF as a RANSOM [i.e., substitute!] for all…” (1 Timothy 2:5-6a)

… so our souls could be saved and spared the certain “wages” (result) of sin, which is death – physical and spiritual.

  • “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23)

Christ made this ultimate substitution – the Blameless for the blameworthy, the Sinless for the sinners, He “who knew no sin” for those who knew nothing BUT  sin – on the Cross, atop a haltingly haunting-turned-thrill-inducing hill called Calvary.

[If that song seemed “sleepy”, this one will wake you up…]

[…and please don’t miss the big blessing of THIS third and final song, I think it just might melt or mend your heart… (it definitely melted mine!)]

Like I said, the ultimate Substitute!

Our all-in-all, our Everything,
Jesus is our God and King.
For Him – and Him alone – we sing,
Because He crushed death’s pow’r and sting;
To Him our hearts we humbly bring –
Yes, Jesus is our God and King.

And bringing this post full circle by ending where we began (basketball), there’s a similar-but-distinct second  sort of player who has impressed me throughout these Playoffs, which I’ll write about in the next post so stay tuned (as they say in the TV biz 🙂 ) …

 

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The (Mind-Popping, Pervasive, Palpable, Pitfall-Prone) Power of the Tongue

Now more than ever in my lifetime, plenty of people presume that talking more  is okay, that it’s good, that it’s better – but the Bible has a blistering boatload of bad news for them; you see, not only is talking more  NOT better, NOT good, and not even just OKAY… it’s WORSE!  Much, much worse…

because it’s G-U-A-R-A-N-T-E-E-D to lead to SIN!

  • “When there are many words, transgression (!!!) is U-N-A-V-O-I-D-A-B-L-E.” (Proverbs 10:19a, emphasis added)

But wait, there’s more!

  • “And about these also Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied, saying, ‘Behold, the Lord came with many thousands of His holy ones, to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.'” (Jude 14-15)

And the Lord Jesus Himself went even further, broadening it to not just words spoken against Him  but “every careless word” a person speaks!

  • “And I say to you, that every careless word that men shall speak, they shall render account for it in the day of judgment.  For by your words you shall be justified, and by your words you shall be condemned.” (Matthew 12:36-37)

But the Bible goes EVEN FURTHER to say something so stark and significant that it’s super-startling:

  • “Even a fool, when he keeps silent, is considered wise; when he closes his lips, he is counted prudent.” (Proverbs 17:28)

Even with just a cursory scan through Proverbs, one will quickly come to a crystal clear conclusion:  nothing in life is so dire and dooming and destructive and deadly as folly.  Yet this verse provides the antidote!  This verse says that there’s something which can trump and topple even folly:  the tongue.  Specifically, NOT USING IT!

And that those who DO are DOOMED to suffer the horrific consequences.

  • Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” (Proverbs 18:21)

Not only in the life to come (as we saw in the passage above, from Matthew) but also in this  life.

I think that the utterly dangerous, destructive, disastrous, and downright deadly  potential of the tongue is probably most poignantly put forth in these verses (fittingly, from another earthly brother of Jesus, like just-quoted Jude):

  • “Now if we put the bits into the horses’ mouths so that they may obey us, we direct their entire body as well.  Behold, the ships also, though they are so great and are driven by strong winds, are still directed by a very small rudder, wherever the inclination of the pilot desires.  So also the tongue is a small part of the body, and yet it boasts of great things.  Behold, how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire!  And the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity; the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell.  For every species of beasts and birds, of reptiles and creatures of the sea, is tamed, and has been tamed by the human race.  But no one can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison.” (James 3:3-8, emphasis added)

Yikes!  Clearly, we would be wise to heed the pure and powerful words of warning in a certain Sunday school song from yesteryear and “be careful little tongues what you say.”

 

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