“For our sake He (God) made Him (Jesus) to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we
might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)

There are certain iconic moments in history that timestamp our lives—things like 9/11, the tragic
death of Kobe Bryant, or the O.J. verdict. These moments seem to be “screenshots” taken by
our consciousness that stay with us forever. We remember where we were and what we were
doing.

March 6, 1999—do you remember where you were and what you were doing? You should. This
was the unforgettable moment in our nation’s history when all-star NHL defenseman Adam Burt
(me) was traded from the Carolina Hurricanes to the Philadelphia Flyers for forward Andrei
Kovalenko. There was an exchange—one player in exchange for another player. (By the way,
none of that All-Star stuff was true—but it’s my blog, so get off me!)

Some 2,000 years ago, there was another trade. Theologians call it “The Great Exchange.” One
man, Jesus, was given over in exchange for the sins of the world. God would pour out His wrath
for our sins—past, present, and future—onto Jesus. We, in turn, would be given the perfect
righteousness of Christ in exchange. It is “the Gospel.” The word gospel literally means “good
news.” I believe it’s the best news possible!

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone
who believes…” (Romans 1:16)

SALVATION AND THE PROBLEM OF SIN
Do you think a car can have a demon? Theologically, I don’t believe it’s possible. But if it were,
my 2010 Acura MDX definitely had one! I was hit in that car five times. If it wasn’t a demon, it
was some kind of cosmic curse or something. I had been to the local body shop so many times
they knew me by name.

The fourth time I was hit, I was T-boned by a young girl just learning to drive. I felt bad for her,
but c’mon, man! My car limped back to the body shop. I was cordially greeted by the appraiser:
“Welcome back, Mr. Burt,” as if I were returning to my favorite local restaurant or drinking
establishment. After a few weeks, the car was repaired, and I was back on the road again.

I had to pick up a few pastors from LaGuardia Airport and drop them off in Manhattan. I picked
them up in my newly repaired ride and made my way back into the city. Trying to maneuver in
Manhattan can be treacherous—cabs, cars, bikes, and buses are coming at you from all
directions. I arrived safely at the first pastor’s street corner and stopped. He thanked me for the
ride and then proceeded to open the rear door… into oncoming traffic! A cab hit the rear door
and literally wrapped it around to the front of my car!

Have you ever been so angry that you can’t even fake being polite? I was just like, “Bro, get out
of my car and go home!”

I managed to bend the door back into place so I could drive home. The following morning, I
made my way back to the body shop. “Welcome back, Mr. Burt.” Five grand was the estimate to
repair the damage!

Several days later, I met up with the pastor responsible. He apologized again and again and
finally asked, “What can I do to make it right?”

“What can you do to make it right? You can give me five grand!”

“I don’t have five grand,” he replied.

“Well then, I guess there is nothing you can do to make it right.”

You see, somebody has to pay to fix it—and that is the problem with sin. Someone has to pay to
fix it.

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

I’ll often hear people ask, “Why can’t God just forgive sin? Why the gruesome brutality of the
Cross?” God does forgive sin, but He can’t just forgive sin. Sin must be paid for, or else God
would be unjust. We want a God of justice sitting on the throne of the universe. An unjust judge
would be untenable.

Imagine the outrage if Larry Nassar, the convicted pedophile who sexually assaulted some 265
young girls, were just randomly set free by a judge who flippantly declared, “I forgive you.” We
would burn that courtroom to the ground. Why? Because it’s unjust.

We love justice—I don’t think it’s even debatable. The last time I checked, there were roughly 70
courtroom TV shows: Divorce Court, The People’s Court, Judge Judy, Judge Wapner, Judge
Brown. Not to mention legal dramas like Law & Order, L.A. Law, Matlock… the list goes on and
on.

We can’t get enough of it—justice. It’s been hardwired into our DNA. I’ll prove it to you even
further. Have you ever been watching a movie where the villain is wicked—I mean really awful?

At the end of the movie, that guy has to die badly, doesn’t he? And if he doesn’t, don’t you feel a
bit unsatisfied? Unfulfilled? That’s your inner sense of justice at work.

But herein lies the problem: when we are sinned against, we want justice. When we sin against
others, you know what we want? Mercy and forgiveness.

What is God to do? He is holy and must do justice, but He is also loving and wants to forgive.
What’s the answer? The Cross of Christ. It’s at the Cross that justice and mercy meet. Jesus
absorbs the righteous wrath of God for us on the cross (justice). He dies so that you and I may
live (forgiveness).

“…but God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Since, therefore, we have now been justified by His blood, much more shall we be saved
by Him from the wrath of God.” (Romans 5:8–9)

September 29, 2006—Ramadi, Iraq. SEAL Team 3 was deployed to help train Iraqi soldiers.
Delta Platoon was stationed atop a local building to ward off insurgents and keep an eye out for
any rebel activity. The mood was businesslike and quiet as each SEAL Team member went
about his duties.

The quiet was broken by the sound of a loud cry: “GRENADE!” Without hesitation, SEAL Team
3’s Michael Monsoor jumped on top of the live grenade moments before it detonated. The
deadly blast was absorbed by the brave soldier. He died so that the entire team could be saved.
One of the SEAL Team survivors later said, “Mikey looked death in the face and said, ‘You
cannot take my brothers. I will go in their stead.’”

Michael’s remains were returned stateside to be laid to rest. What came next was incredibly
powerful. As the wooden casket made its way to the burial site, SEAL Team members dressed
in full uniform were arrayed on either side. As the casket passed by, each member removed his
gold trident pin and placed it on top. One SEAL after another laid down his prized trident as a
sign of unity—a declaration: “What Michael stands for, we stand for.”

When the coffin arrived at its final resting place, it was completely covered in gold.

Michael absorbed death on behalf of his brothers so that they might live. Jesus did the same for
us. In dying, Jesus absorbed death on our behalf, and in rising from the dead, He declared the
“death of death.”

Don’t misunderstand what Jesus is saying—He’s not saying that we won’t ever die. He’s saying
we are safe in death. Because He rose from the dead, we can be confident that we too will one
day rise. Now death is simply a doorway to resurrection and eternal life.

The post CAN A CAR HAVE A DEMON (excerpt from the book ‘The Longest Game’ appeared first on Every Nation Church, New Jersey.

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall
love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.
This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your
neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the
Prophets.” (Matthew 22:36-40 ESV)

Basically, Jesus boils down the entire Bible to ONE thing, love. It’s our ONE thing. Loving God
and loving people is the Christian’s superpower that we can use to win in life. The Apostle Paul
loved the church in Philippi. He “birthed” it through much pain and suffering and desperately
wanted to see this church thrive. Look at how Paul prays:

“And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more.” (Philippians 1:9 ESV)

Isn’t that interesting? He doesn’t pray that their theology would abound more and more. He
doesn’t pray that their Bible reading or prayer time would abound more and more. He prays that
their love would abound more and more. Paul knew, if you get the love part right, everything
else will fall into place. If you get the love part right, then Bible reading, prayer, obedience will
result from the overflow of that love. It’s the ONE thing that impacts EVERYTHING.

“Love God and do whatever you please: for the soul trained in love to God will do nothing to
offend the One who is Beloved.” —St. Augustine

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I’ve heard it said, “The worst kind of failure is succeeding at the wrong thing.” I think Olympic rifleman Matt Emmons would agree. During the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, Emmons held a commanding lead and was cruising towards gold in the 50-meter three-position event. Facing the final target, he eyed the mark and took a deep breath. He exhaled and pulled the trigger. BULLSEYE! The crowd’s reaction, however, didn’t quite fit the moment. Rather than hearing cheers there was a gasp! He hit the target dead center, but it wasn’t his target. It was his competitor’s. Emmons plummeted to eighth place and lost the gold medal. This story does have a silver lining. Later that evening, Matt went out to a local pub in the Olympic Village to drown his sorrows. As he ordered a pint, another Olympian sat down at the bar beside him and offered a few words of consolation. HER name was Katarina Kurkova from the Czech National sharpshooting team. The two hit it off, and a few short years later they were married. He lost the gold, but got the girl!

The Apostle Paul was one of those guys. He was excelling at all the wrong things. Aiming his life at the wrong target. He was religiously checking all the boxes. As he says in his own words, he was:

“Circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.”
(Philippians 3:5-6 ESV)

Winning at the wrong things left him empty, self-righteous and hard hearted. He admits:

“I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a violent man.”
(1 Timothy 1:13 BSB)

But something happened on a Damascus road. He had an encounter with Jesus Christ, and his life would never be the same. It was a miraculous course correction. Setting his sights on a new target. Paul says:

“I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”
(Philippians 3:14 ESV)

And with a refocusing of his life, Paul would absolutely change the world. Stop for a moment on your own road and ask this question: Are you aiming at the right mark?

I’m a huge fan of the game show Family Feud. You’ve probably seen it, so you know host Steve Harvey is hilarious and tells it like it is. One particular episode stands out to me. Harvey begins with his usual, “Top five answers on the board,” and then he poses the question, “Name something that begins with the word ‘pork’.” The contestant immediately chimes in, “Cupine, Steve!” Harvey looks a bit confused, “What?” Undeterred, the contestant confidently repeats, “Cupine, Steve!” Harvey is like, “What is a ‘Cupine’?” The contestant puffs out his chest and replies like he is Albert Einstein, “Cupine, Steve… ‘Pork-Cupine’…..you know, like a ‘porcupine.’” Harvey’s bewildered look is priceless. And then, right on cue, the contestant’s team responds the way they always do . . . THEY LIE! “Good answer! Good answer!” No, it’s not! It’s a dumb answer and everyone knows it. Steve can’t help himself and says as much: “You’re the only one that thinks that’s a good answer.” The team then doubles down on the dumb answer and says, “It’s up there, Steve! It’s gonna be up there!” Surprisingly, he agrees, “It’s gonna be up there all right . . . on YouTube because it’s so dumb!” If you were wondering? No, it wasn’t on the board. It was a dumb answer.

Is it just me, or are there some really dumb answers being thrown around today? Some of life’s most difficult questions are getting “Cupine!” answers. They’re dumb, but for some reason we feel all this pressure to agree and applaud, “Good Answer, Good Answer.” I truly believe there is only one “Good Answer” to life’s biggest questions and that answer is Jesus. I’m not saying every other answer is completely wrong. But if you’re “kinda wrong” or completely wrong, does it really matter? Either way, you are wrong.

C. S. Lewis highlights my point: “If you are a Christian you do not have to believe that all the other religions are simply wrong all through. If you are an atheist you do have to believe that the main point in all the religions of the whole world is simply one huge mistake. If you are a Christian, you are free to think that all these religions, even the queerest ones, contain at least some hint of the truth. When I was an atheist I had to try to persuade myself that most of the human race have always been wrong about the question that mattered to them most; when I became a Christian I was able to take a more liberal view. But, of course, being a Christian does mean thinking that where Christianity differs from other religions, Christianity is right and they are wrong. As in arithmetic—there is only one right answer to a sum, and all other answers are wrong: but some of the wrong answers are much nearer being right than others.”

Christianity hits the bullseye of life.

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“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.”

(John 15:18–19, ESV)

Every athlete learns from an early age that sometimes they have to ignore crowd noise. While the cheers from fans can be inspiring and exhilarating, when the crowd turns against you, the effect can be devastating.

Former NFL quarterback Mark Brunell knows all about crowd noise. Mark is both a friend and a follower of Christ. He once shared with me and a group of friends about the nightmarish 2004 season. He laughs about it now, but it was far from being funny back then.

In 2004, Mark was traded from the Jacksonville Jaguars to the Washington Redskins. Expectations were high for the upcoming campaign, but things got off to a real bumpy start. The team went 3–5 through the midway point of the season. Brunell wasn’t playing well, and pressure was mounting from the restless fan base.

It was week eight of regular season play, and the Cincinnati Bengals were in town to take on the struggling Redskins. Mark’s confidence was at an all-time low. Prior to taking the field, one of Mark’s coaches pulled him aside and bluntly stated, “We need you to play well today.” Thanks, Captain Obvious!

The game started strong for Mark and the Skins. He drove the team right down the field on the opening series. The fans were into it. The stadium was electric. Deep in Cincinnati territory, Mark breaks the huddle and steps under center. As he barks out the play, the fans anxiously wait.

Mark drops back to pass, locks onto his receiver, and delivers the ball… to the other team!

The Bengals’ defender ran the interception all the way back for a touchdown. The stunned crowd was momentarily silent as the shock set in. Then the silence was broken by disgruntled chants of “Ram-sey, Ram-sey.”

Patrick Ramsey was the backup quarterback for the Redskins. The fans were finished with Mark and demanded the backup be put in. The chants intensified: “Ram-sey, Ram-sey.” Louder and louder the crowd roared in unison, “Ram-sey, Ram-sey!” The chorus rippled upward from the lower seating straight to the luxury boxes: “Ram-sey, Ram-sey!” It was infectious.

In fact, Mark’s own sons joined in.

Seated up in the luxury boxes, his three boys were too young to really understand what was happening and got caught up in the moment. They joined in at the top of their lungs, “Ram-sey! Ram-sey!” His own kids were inadvertently cheering for his demise. The whole world seemed to be against him.

Mark Brunell was benched for the remainder of the season.

Jesus knows a thing or two about crowd noise. He knows what it feels like to have the world turn against you. In Matthew 21, we read the story of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem for Passover week. Massive crowds chanted and cheered, “Hosanna!” which means, “Come, Lord, save!”

The chants and praise grew louder and louder: “Hosanna to the King!” The scene was euphoric, almost chaotic. Jewish officials feared the Roman authorities would feel threatened by shouts for a “King” and demanded that Jesus quiet the people. His response was simple: “If they stop, the rocks will cry out.”

The crowd was for Him… until they weren’t.

In just a few short days, that same crowd would cry out, “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!”

What do you do when it feels like the world is against you?

Jesus knew the answer. He looked up. He lived His life not for the approval of men, but for the approval of His heavenly Father. He was playing the game of life for an audience of One. The chants of “Crucify Him!” were drowned out by the thunder of His Father’s “Well done!”

“Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, ‘Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!’ And having said this he breathed his last.”

(Luke 23:46, ESV)

Jesus lived for His Father and not His fans. He chose the applause of heaven over the approval of men. His performance was over, but Jesus wasn’t finished. On the third day He rose from the dead, triumphant and victorious. The heavens now declare Him “King of Kings” and “Lord of Lords.”

What a comeback story!

Speaking of a comeback story, Mark Brunell had one as well. Mark decided to look up and play for an audience of One. He didn’t need to please his fans—only his heavenly Father. On the third day he rose again! OK, it wasn’t the third day; it was the following season. Mark got up, dusted himself off, and led the Redskins to their first playoff berth in years and was nominated for “Comeback Player of the Year.”

How will you handle crowd noise? Who will you listen to? Who will you live for—the fans or the Father?

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I recently heard of a fascinating discovery made by a team of zoologists. They discovered a type of Gazelle found in the deserts of Saudi Arabia has the ability to shrink its vital organs during seasons of drought. Is that crazy? They can shrink their liver and even their heart, so their body will demand less oxygen and water. Shrinking your heart is necessary if you are a Gazelle in the desert, but it’s terrifying if you’re a man or woman designed by God to LOVE God and people. 

We have all had seasons of drought in our life. Moments when God feels distant, none of our relationships refresh. In John 4, we read of a Samaritan woman who has been drinking from the wrong wells. We learn she has made a series of poor decisions, looking for satisfaction in the arms of men, leaving her thirsty and unsatisfied at every turn. She has had 5 different husbands and is so filled with shame she is forced to draw water in the scorching middle eastern heat at midday. She chooses to shrink her heart rather than risk the pain of hope unfulfilled. All that was about to change. Jesus approaches her and asks for a drink. This is an extremely unexpected request as she is a Samaritan, and He is a Jew. He is a rabbi, and she is a woman. Little did she know, Jesus would give her a drink. A drink from a well that will never run dry and always satisfies. A drink from the life giving, soul quenching Holy Spirit. Life in the Spirit remains available to us today. Rather than shrinking our heart, let’s run to the well.

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Rejoice not over me, O my enemy; when I fall, I shall rise; when I sit in darkness, the LORD will be a light to me.
Micah 7:8

There are moments in all of our lives when life knocks us down, or we just want to quit and give up or give in. The scriptures encourage us to be a “Get Up” people. I’m convinced that winning in the Christian life has much to do with getting back up again. Getting back into the fight, back into the faith. Jesus got up on the third day, and the world has never been the same. Saul got up after meeting Jesus on the road to Damascus and became Paul, the greatest missionary our faith has ever known. The Apostle Peter was great at getting back up! Whether sinking in the Sea of Galilee or denying Jesus 3 times, Peter’s super power was getting up again.

I’m reminded of the story of “Big Boy”. Big Boy was my daughter’s horse. He somehow managed to get trapped in a ravine and buried up to his chest in mud. Firefighters came along with emergency equipment, and yet no one could get him out of the muck and mire. Nobody, until an 18yr old farmhand girl, jumped down in the muck and grabbed the horse by the face, and sternly called out, “GET UP!” Nothing. Again she forcefully grabbed the horse and cried out, “I SAID, GET UP!” Suddenly, like some scripted Disney film, the horse broke free: one leg and then another until it broke free from the muck to safety.

For those of you stuck, tired, and wanting to quit, consider this my appeal to you…..”GET UP!” God has a great plan for your life and by faith, you will overcome and you will rise! I’ll end with a small poem from one of the first heavyweight boxing champions ever, Jim Corbett. Corbett once fought for 61 rounds!! For the record, a boxing match today is only 12 rounds, and he fought 61!! In order to ultimately win the heavyweight championship, he’d need to go 21 rounds before eventually knocking out his opponent. How did he endure?

“Fight one more round. When your feet are so tired that you have to shuffle back to the centre of the ring, fight one more round. When your arms are so tired that you can hardly lift your hands to come on guard, fight one more round. When your nose is bleeding and your eyes are black and you are so tired you wish your opponent would crack you one on the jaw and put you to sleep, fight one more round – remembering that the man who always fights one more round is never whipped.”
James Corbett

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In the fall of 2002, my wife Susan and I sensed a calling from God to help Pastor Ron Lewis plant the church in NYC. We sold everything we had and moved to Manhattan. I can’t begin to tell you how often I wrestled with voices in my head questioning, “what are you doing?” “Are You crazy?” Looking back now, I can see the hand of God was with us all along. I recall early in our adventure, an evangelist rolled through one of our church services. Pastor Ron had him pray over the pastoral team. The man stopped his prayer over me and declared, “you will reach 1000s of athletes for Christ”. Honestly, I was unimpressed and just forgot about it. A week later, one of the NY Jets randomly showed up at our Every Nation service. He approached me afterward and said, you should be our team chaplain. I thought he was joking…..apparently not! I’ve been the team’s chaplain now for 14yrs and God has used it to literally impact thousands of athletes.

Looking back, I marvel at how many broken people Jesus, the great physician put back together again. I’ve had my share of injuries on the ice: 500 stitches, roughly 50 screws and 20 plates implanted, a knee reconstruction, and 5 back surgeries that eventually ended my career. Hockey can take its toll on a body. Living in a broken world can take its toll on a life.

I watched as Jesus took a successful opera singer at the NY MET, who on the outside seemingly had it all, yet inside she was searching for answers to life’s biggest questions and struggling in her marriage. On the verge of divorce, her quest for answers led her to Every Nation. As she listened to the gospel each week the pieces began to fall into place. Jesus began restoring the broken places of her heart. She’d find other believers to help her navigate issues in her marriage. I still remember the day she excitedly pulled me aside and displayed the wedding ring she’d begun wearing again. The great physician repairing lives.

I watched Jesus transform an outlaw biker-gang leader. On the wrong side of a knife fight, this guy was quickly bleeding out as he made his way to the hospital. After hours of surgery and near death, he began to take inventory of his life. As God would have it, he’d meet a woman at our church. She invited him to service. He was simply hoping for a date, instead, he had an encounter with the Lord! At that moment he knew he needed to fully surrender his life to Jesus or his current way of life would soon kill him. Jesus became real to him that day and the Bible became his new way of life. The man who once dealt in violence, sex, and drugs, is now leading people to Christ.

John Parks was a man with a serious heart condition and who’d tragically lost his wife. His daughter Nicole began attending our church through a mutual teen friend. John would faithfully take his daughter to church but would wait in the car, not wanting any part of Jesus or the church. Eventually, John would come inside because he heard there was fresh coffee. Enjoying his coffee in the lobby area, he heard people singing and worshipping God. He didn’t know why but was drawn to it. He snuck in and sat on the back row for a few weeks. The gospel began to penetrate his heart. He couldn’t explain it, but Jesus made him feel whole again. He gave his life over to Christ and received a ‘new heart’ spiritually. I watched as Jesus put his life back together. A few months later, he received an actual heart transplant! The great physician did it again.

Answering the call of God to move to New York was probably the most terrifying decision I’ve made in my life and also the most satisfying. Last hockey story I promise: during the 2000 NHL playoffs I was playing for the Philadelphia Flyers as we battled our in-state rivals the Pittsburgh Penguins. Little did I know the game would prove to be the longest hockey game of all time. It was epic. It began at 7pm and finally finished at 3:30am. We played 8 ½ periods. That is almost 3 complete games. Finally, in the wee hours of the morning, we scored to win the game and eventually the series. Sitting there in my sweat-soaked equipment, exhausted and spent, I felt this deep soul satisfaction inside. Looking into the eyes of my teammates knowing we’d given our all for one another and won was deeply gratifying. Looking back over my time in NYC I have that same feeling, a deep soul satisfaction pouring out your life with others to watch Jesus save people. We won.

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1 Corinthians 6:12

The Apostle Paul, in writing to the Church at Corinth, was trying to correct a false teaching around the gospel of God’s grace. Several of the church members wrongly believed, ‘because I’m saved by grace, I can do whatever I want, and God will have to be OK with it. Grace doesn’t make sin safe. God’s laws aren’t prison bars, they are guardrails to protect us from the destruction of sin.

Theologian and philosopher GK Chesterton famously said, ‘Before you tear down a fence, it’s best to ask why it was there in the first place’ (paraphrase). Before we go tearing down all laws and boundaries, it’s best to ask: why did God put them there in the first place? The moral law doesn’t save us, faith in Jesus does, but it is still good and God’s design to lead to human flourishing. 

“All things are lawful…but not all things are helpful”

Sometimes, boundaries and restrictions are very, very good. While attending an NHL hockey game in one of the ‘sky boxes,’ my young daughter fell down the stairs. Thankfully, there were guardrails keeping her from falling to the arena floor. You see, boundaries and barriers can be a very good thing. 

If you’ve ever driven in a third world country with no laws, no lanes, and no limits, it can be quite terrifying. Boundaries can be very good. God gives His commands not to flex but to give us the guardrails that lead to life. 

“All things are lawful, but I will not be dominated by anything”

There are good things that, when used wrongly, quickly become dangerous things. Medicine is good if you follow the instructions on how to use it. 2 Tylenol can relieve pain, but an entire bottle can inflict it. There are certain good gifts from God that, if not used correctly, can become very dangerous. Food is a good gift from God. All the flavors and colors. Praise God for it. But, if not used properly can lead to gluttony, obesity, and even death. Money is a good gift from God. If used properly, it can help people and bless you. But Paul warns us not to love it! It’s the root of all kinds of evil. Certain good gifts are so good they can easily turn into ‘mastery’ and ‘idolatry’. Paul calls it “to be dominated” by something. Probably the most obvious of these good gifts from God is sex. This may surprise some of you, but sex is God’s idea! He created it out of His goodness for His creation. What a great God! Sex is much like fire. It can warm your home or burn it to the ground. For that reason, we put fire in a fireplace, and God puts sex in the context of marriage between a man and a woman. The 1960s gave us the “Sexual Revolution,” and we decided to take sex out of the fireplace. It promised to liberate men and women and bring about utopia. Instead, it has burdened and objectified women and obliterated the family. We continue to feel its effects to this day. Let’s put the fire back into the fireplace and put Jesus in His rightful place….on the throne of our lives.

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Don’t get me wrong, I’m not hating on the celebration at all! I just don’t want us to miss the point. I’m all for the McDonalds Shamrock shake and dying the Chicago River green. But let’s not miss remembering the life of a man who impacted a nation with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Patrick’s journey has much meaning for us today. He was born to a fairly well-off family in Roman-controlled Britain around the middle of the 5th century. At 16 years old he was kidnapped by Irish pirates and sold as a slave in Ireland. For 6 years he worked as a slave, suffered greatly, but his suffering wouldn’t crush him, rather it would shape him:

“But it was here … that God first opened my heart…. God used the time to shape and mold me into something better. He made me into what I am now—someone very different from what I once was, someone who can care about others and work to help them. Before I was a slave, I didn’t even care about myself.” (1)

It’s amazing to me how God takes horrible situations and can turn them for good if we’ll allow Him. Most of the wisest, deepest souls I know have a story of pain and difficulty in their past. They would never want to walk through it again, but would also never trade all it’s produced in their life. Patrick allowed his difficult season to drive him deep into the arms of God. He allowed suffering to produce an empathy and love for people.

After 6 years of slavery, he received a word from the Lord that he would soon be set free. Several days later the Lord spoke again, ‘your ship has come in’. Patrick walked away from his captors, untouched and journeyed 200 miles to a Port city where he boarded a ship and sailed home to safety! If you’re going through the dark night of the soul in this season, I pray you are encouraged as you faithfully await the promises of God. I pray that like Patrick, your ship will come in!

Patrick arrives home and lives happily ever after………WRONG! You see Patrick was made for a purpose and a mission and so were you! God would give him a vision. A messenger that presented him with a letter entitled “The Voice of the Irish”. As he opened the letter he heard the people of Ireland crying out.”We appeal to you, come and walk among us again”. Patrick received this as his calling and mission from God. To bring the gospel to the very people that had enslaved him. He would indeed return and Ireland would never be the same. Patrick walked in his calling and mission from God and we feel his impact even today. What’s your calling? What’s your mission? How will your life impact the world around you?

This St. Patrick’s Day, I pray you have a blast and maybe even a green beer, but more than that, you’d begin to consider how God is shaping YOU and will use YOU to do great things to make a difference in your world! Cheers!!!

(1)”Embracing Grace” by Scot McKnight- pg 8

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Let’s start by distinguishing between ‘worldly hope’ and ‘Biblical hope’. Worldly hope is a ‘cross your fingers’, ‘roll the dice’, “I HOPE this all works out” type of mindset, whereas, a biblical view of HOPE is “A CONFIDENT EXPECTATION OF GOOD”.

To illustrate, I played for 2 different NHL hockey teams: the Philadelphia Flyers and the Hartford Whalers. Both “hoped” to win every game, but those hopes were worlds apart. Philly was a great team and expected to win, while Hartford thought there was a chance we could win. Two very different mindsets, outlooks and results. God wants you confident in your future expectation for good, your hope

The Apostle Paul gives us great insight how to keep our hope up in 2018: “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope”  (Romans 15:13)

1) HOPE IS ROOTED IN GOD:

Have you ever taken in large doses of daily news and found you were getting depressed or falling into despair? Or have you ever seen one of those commercials with starving children, or abused animals (cue the Sarah McLachlan music) and you caught yourself instinctively flipping the channel because you didn’t want to see that stuff.

We can flip the channel, but God can’t. He sees all the brokenness and evil that occurs daily! How does God Himself not grow depressed or fall into despair? Besides the fact that He’s omniscient, omnipotent and omnibenevolent (that subject is for another blog). He’s the God of Hope. God knows and expects that in the end He’ll bring good, He’ll redeem, He’ll wipe every tear from our eyes and all sad things will become untrue.

At the center of our faith is a bloody cross and the Son of God dies. The gospel of Luke records the sky turning black at noon; Matthew records the earth shaking; Mark quotes the Roman centurion declaring “we killed the Son of God”; and John records Mary, the Mother of Jesus watching her firstborn son die a horrific death. It doesn’t get any darker, and yet, we know Sunday is coming. In God Hope springs eternal.

2) GOD WILL FILL YOU WITH JOY AND PEACE – YOU MAINTAIN IT

Joy and peace are the fuel for our hope! God provides both joy, which is our strength (Nehemiah 9:10) and peace which passes understanding (Philippians 4:7) as we abide in Him (John 15:4). Providing joy and peace is God’s job, but maintaining joy and peace is your job! So many of the commands in God’s word are an appeal to sustain what God has provided:

• “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth” Colossians 3:2

• “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me-practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.” Philippians 4:8-9

• “casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.” 1 Peter 5:7

3) HOPE WILL ABOUND

The promise from God is a hope that abounds. The word implies more than enough, enough to share, a hope that spills over onto others. This is why we believe so strongly in Christian community, church attendance, and Small groups.

As you come before the God of Hope and do life with the people of Hope, the hope of God becomes contagious and infectious! Hope will spring forth in your life. So get your Hopes up in 2018!

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