Category Archives: Meditations

Happiness at 33, Maybe. Made Joyful by a 33 Year Old, Definitely!

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According to a recent survey done by Friends Reunited the age of optimum happiness is age 33.  They polled people over 40 and found that 70 percent of respondents over the age of 40 said they did not find true happiness until they were 33 years old.  I’m 31 so this finding makes me happy (not optimally happy mind you, but in a forward looking type of way).  I’ll be 33 in 21 months.  I’m looking forward to optimal happiness.  The study made me think though.  The study made me meditate about that age and what happened to a special 33 year old more than 2000 years ago this week.

Christians are in the middle of what is known as the Passion Week.  I know that word sounds weird today linked with Jesus.  The word passion has a distorted meaning today.  It’s original english meaning was suffering.  This Friday we celebrate Good Friday.  Christians call it good because it’s the day that we celebrate Christ’s death on a cross and the salvation that it purchases for us.  This week Christians all over the globe look to this week for sober reflection, careful meditation, and excessive joy.

According to Friends Reunited 33 is the age when people attain happiness.  I don’t know about any of that, but I know that I have received excessive joy from a 33 year old who hung on a tree.  I know that I am blessed immeasurably because of what a 33 year old did for me on a cross.

I don’t think you find happiness at an age.  I think you find happiness in a person.  I humbly submit to you that person is Jesus.  May you find peace in Christ.

Christ is all,
Jason

Here are some Scriptures that I’ve been meditating on this week.  Maybe you’ll find them beneficial.

Hebrews 12:1-2
[12:1] Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, [2] looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

2 Corinthians 5:17-21
[17] Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. [18] All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; [19] that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. [20] Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. [21] For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Galatians 6:14
[14] But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.


The Source of Humility that Leads to Unity

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A couple of weeks ago my wife was out of town and I was watching our boys.  We have a 4 year old and an 11month old. They are awesome.  They laugh like crazy, check out this video:

Awesome, huh? While I was watching them I looked down for a second and looked back up and Blaise (the youngest) was crying. Just a second earlier he was fine and laughing.  Drew was nearby but he didn’t seem like he was doing anything.  So I went and picked him up.  I checked to see if he hurt himself.  I looked around to see if he had fallen on anything (he’s walking), nothing.  I checked his temperature,no problem.  He had just eaten and had his bottle and bed time was about an hour away.  Smelled the diaper, no problem there.  What could be the problem?

Then I noticed something.  I had missed it earlier.  I felt down around his legs and there was some weird bulge there.  I unzipped up his pajamas and there was a small toy that Drew had been playing with earlier.  Apparently, Drew thought that Blaise wanted the toy and so he decided the best way for Blaise to have it was to put it down his pajamas…This is the story I got from Drew anyway.

The point is there was a source to the upset baby.  There is a source for humility.  The last two days we’ve talked about humility as the key to unity.  Day 1 was about changing your mental attitude to think of others as higher than yourself.    Day 2 was about helping others through issues in their lives.  Both build unity due to humility.  Today I want to reflect briefly on the Source of Unity.

Philippians 2.5 (ESV)

[5] Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 

The Source of Humility

Verse 5 says that humility is great, but that in order to understand what REAL humility is we have to understand Jesus.  We have to know Jesus.  In order for us to not just do things that look humble, but actually be humble and walk in unity we have to know Jesus.  He’s the ultimate example of humility.

Today’s Key: Reflect on the humility of Jesus

Philippians 2.6-8 (ESV)

Read these three verses a few times (seriously, a few times, let them sink in)

[6] who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, [7] but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. [8] And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 

Think about how each phrase shows another level of humility that Jesus walked into.  Unbelievable, huh?  Whenever you are:

  • tempted to be prideful about something think through these verses.
  • thinking you are getting the slighted at work think on these verses.
  • feeling like you don’t get enough credit, think on these verses.

It changes things.  

Christ is all,
Jason

Gospel Lens – Viewing Your Circumstances

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I have AWFUL eyesight. Without my glasses or contacts I am basically blind. When I wake up in the morning my first reach is for my glasses , just so I can see my alarm clock. My eyesight is horrible. One time I couldn’t find my glasses or my contacts case. I was so frustrated, but the moment I found my glasses behind the nightstand and put them on everything was clear. I could see clearly what was around me. I think that’s what Philippians 1.12-14 is all about.

The Scripture (Philippians 1.12-14 ESV)

[12] I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, [13] so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. [14] And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.

Paul is writing to a great church. He’s writing to a church that he loves AND he’s writing from…PRISON. Paul is saying in verse 12 that him being in prison is actually a good thing. He’s telling this church not to pity him, but to see that prison is a good thing. Prison isn’t bad in Paul’s estimation because he’s viewing prison through lenses that see life differently. He’s viewing life and his circumstances through Gospel Lenses and that clarifies EVERYTHING that he goes through…even prison.

Paul has taken the chance to tell every guard that he’s had and every jailer who’s come by and all the prisoners that are around him about Jesus. He views his prison as a place where people don’t know Jesus and need to. He sees it as a place that is dark and need of light and he gets to bring the light there. I doubt that this is the natural inclination of people going to prison especially when you don’t deserve to be there. Paul didn’t fight, he didn’t complain, he just advanced the Gospel within the prison walls

One More Thing

He didn’t just advance the Gospel on his own. His imprisonment made others more bold. Why? Not because he was in prison, but because of his VIEW of his imprisonment. He viewed it not as a sad circumstance and something to be depressed about, but as the next mission field that he was supposed to be on. This made others more bold to share the Gospel in their places of business, home, and life. Paul’s gospel-centered view made others more gospel-centered. Had he seen life through a self-centered lens he would definitely be down and depressed, I wouldn’t blame him, but he wouldn’t have inspired others to walk a gospel-centered path. Others wouldn’t have become more bold…

Some Questions

  • What crazy circumstance are you dealing with right now?
  • Have you reflected on how it can advance the Gospel? Is there someone who needs to hear about Jesus in this circumstance? Is there someone who needs to understand Jesus better as a result of this circumstance?
  • Have you thought through how your attitude in this circumstance could encourage or discourage others? What are you going to do with it?

Pray about it. I firmly believe EVERY circumstance and trial exists for the Gospel to advance. Find the way and advance it.

Christ is all,
Jason

And The Oscar Goes To…Are You Acting or Authentic?

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And the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress goes to: Octavia Spencer (The Help)
And the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor goes to: Christopher Plummer (Beginners)
And the Oscar for Best Actor goes to: Jean Dujardin (The Artist)
And the Oscar for Best Actress goes to: Meryl Streep (The Iron Lady)

The Oscars are awards for the best in the motion picture industry.  Every year actors and actresses clamor for nominations and then hope for the coveted Academy Award.  Earning the award gives instant superstar power to that actor or actress.  What does the Oscar actually mean though?

Two Words: Best Pretender.

Demián Bichir, George Clooney, Jean Dujardin, Gary Oldman, and Brad Pitt are good pretenders.  They don’t actually do the things depicted in their movies.  They don’t actually accomplish what their characters accomplish.  Actors pretend to be something that they are not.  Pretending is entertaining, effective, and necessary in their industry, but pretending as a way of life is damnable.

[25] “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. [26] You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean. [27] “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. [28] So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
(Matthew 23:25-28 ESV)

The word “hypocrite” has its roots in the Greek word for actor (literally, “pretender”).  Jesus is calling the Pharisees pretenders.  Jesus uses two outlandish metaphors to describe the Pharisees.

First, Jesus says that they are like people who wash the outside of a cup and plate, but not the inside of that cup and plate.  That’s ridiculous, right?  Where does the food or drink go?  What is the most important part of the cup or plate?  Not the outside…the most important part is the inside.

Second, Jesus compares them to tombs that have beautiful exteriors.  Essentially, Jesus is saying that these Pharisees are like graves with nice headstones, but the grave is still full of decomposed human remains.

The Pharisees worked hard to look good on the outside.  They did all the right things. Jesus didn’t condemn them for this, but it just wasn’t enough.  They obeyed every law and then every extra law that their leaders made up.  They worked hard at being religious.  They tithed on everything–even their spices.  They were extremely careful in all they did, but Jesus says all they did was polish the outside; they didn’t deal with the inside.  To paraphrase, Jesus says, “You are pretenders; you deserve an award for how well you pretend. You are not real; you are not genuine; you care most about how you appear.”

Simple question: Do you?  Do you care more about the way you appear than who you really are in Jesus?  Are you genuinely following or are you ingeniously pretending?

Following Jesus means knowing what you really are and confessing that as sin; it isn’t about pretending to be good.  Following Jesus is knowing one thing: He is good and I am not.  It’s not acting, it’s living authentically.

Christ is all,
Jason

Heaven’s Party (Monday Meditations)

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[8] “Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it? [9] And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’ [10] Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

(Luke 15:8-10 ESV)

Have you ever lost something?  Keys? Wallet? Purse? Phone? Kids?  I have.  It’s frustrating.  It’s inconvenient.  It’s worrisome and sometimes scary.

When you lose something you look everywhere.  All over creation. You look in normal places. You look in strange places. You turn things over.  You dump things out.  You call people. You panic.  You pray.  You lose your mind.

The moment when that something is found is like no other moment.  The number of emotions you feel is directly proportionate to the number of places you looked. Happiness. Relief. Peace. Gratitude. Silliness (that is, if you found your keys in the refrigerator).  Everything negative that had run through your mind has evaporated.  You are relaxed.  If it’s something important then maybe you want to call somebody and tell them.  If it’s something really important then maybe you want to tell several people.  If it’s something that is precious then it’s time to get everyone you know in the same room and celebrate!

That’s just what God does…

God searches diligently for His people.  He hunts high and low and and always finds just what He’s looking for.  I love thinking about God’s sovereignty…and about how he found me.  That isn’t what this blog is about though.  This blog is about who is rejoicing in Heaven when the finding is completed…

A quick reading of these 3 verses would lead you to believe that it is angels.  Read verse 10 again. It says:

[10] Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.

“Before” is a preposition. That means its trying to tell you where something is in relationship to something else. An actor performs “before” an audience. If you wanted, you could substitute the phrase “in front of,” right?

Think about positions in Heaven. Where is God? Where are the angels? Who do the angels watch?

Do they watch each other? No…

Who then do they watch? God!

So who is rejoicing before the angels?  God!

Who is rejoicing at Heaven’s party?  God!

God is continually showing off His glory in front of the angels, but when he finds a repentant sinner, they get to see him celebrate! That means each time:

  • Someone comes to trust His Son, Jesus
  • A believer recognizes sin in his or her life and repents

God is not a cosmic killjoy.  God rejoices.  God parties.  God is joyful over us!

He wants us trusting His Son, walking humbly, quick to repent and make things right with Him.  God is the life of the party, let’s give Him something to party about!

Questions to Consider:

  • Do you know Jesus?  Is He your Lord and Savior?
  • If He is then are you walking in some sin?  What is it?  Confess it, Show Contrition, and Change.

Christ is all,
Jason

Spiritual Alzheimer’s Disease (Monday Meditations)

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Mental illness hurts people to the core of their being.  It affects them in deep ways.  It also affects their loved ones.  The pain of watching someone you love and care for deteriorate can sometimes be too much to bear.  The most painful disease that I can imagine, though, in this realm is Alzheimer’s Disease.  Alzheimer’s breaks down the brain and causes the victim to forget those whom they love and who love them.

God understands this and undergoes the same hurt…

[2] Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for the LORD has spoken: “Children have I reared and brought up, but they have rebelled against me. [3] The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master’s crib, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand.” [4] Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly! They have forsaken the LORD, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they are utterly estranged. [5] Why will you still be struck down? Why will you continue to rebel? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. [6] From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but bruises and sores and raw wounds; they are not pressed out or bound up or softened with oil.
(Isaiah 1:2-6 ESV)

Look at those verses again.  Go back and read them again.

Breaking It Down

Now, ask yourself a simple question: Do you have Spiritual Alzheimer’s Disease?

Maybe you trusted Christ and followed after Him, but now you find yourself rebelling against Him.  You wandered and did your own thing.  Maybe this is blatant and obvious like the youngest son in the Prodigal story.  Or, maybe it’s quiet…silent…internal.  Either way, in the process, you forgot His voice.  These verses say that you forsook* God. You walked away from Him.  They also say something else: that if you are His child and you’ve forgotten Him then you will be struck down.  Translation: you will be disciplined.  God will do things in order to cause you to repent, and this is for your good.  He will do things so that you remember who He is.  This isn’t mean-spirited.  This is loving.

The cure for Spiritual Alzheimer’s is much easier to find than its mental counterpart.  All you must do is repent.  All you have to do is confess your sin, have true heartfelt contrition, and then change (i.e. don’t go back to the same manner of life as before).

  • Our Father wants His children to remember Him.
  • Our Father wants His children to trust Him.
  • Our Father wants His children to return to Him.
  • Our Father wants His family back.

Christ is all,
Jason

*Yes, “forsook” is a word. It is the simple past-tense of “forsake.” Allie, my wife and editor, made me put this in here.

Money, Stuff, and God (Monday is for Meditation)

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[5] Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
(Hebrews 13:5 ESV)

Three Words From Hebrews 13.5

Money – Money isn’t bad, loving money is bad.  Earning money isn’t wrong, loving the money that you earn is wrong.  Receiving cash isn’t sin, loving the cash you receive is sin.  God’s desire for people is that our life not be about the Benjamins.  Our lives are not supposed to be focused on the allure of cash and stuff or houses or cars. Instead we are supposed to be…

Content – Is there anything harder to be in this world than content?  Personally, I don’t think so. American’s struggle with this in overt ways.  We see something and we want it, so we go into debt to get it because we love stuff and what it represents.  But then the stuff doesn’t satisfy or worse it doesn’t satisfy AND you can’t afford it.  Then the stuff gets old or worn out (or what we call worn out) and we have to go buy something new to replace it.  The human spirit is unquenchable like this.  We want what we can’t have.  We don’t want what we do have.  We always want more.  More of what?  More of whatever our appetite is for at the time: money, sex, houses, position, power, etc.  God’s word is clear here though, “be content with what you have”.  How does that happen?

God – The key to being content is to understand what it is that you actually have.  ”and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”  What do we as believers in Jesus actually have?  What lasts?  Definitely not cash.  Definitely not stuff.  What do believers have that lasts?  All we really have is the object of our belief: GOD (in the face of Jesus).  Don’t believe me?  Think back 4 years to 2008 when the market lost $1.2 trillion in ONE DAY.  Where’d that money go?  It’s a very real representation of the temporal nature of money.  Here today, gone tomorrow.  What endures isn’t the money or the the stuff that you buy with the money, but the God who is a TRULY priceless treasure (Matthew 13.44-46).

My prayer for myself is that I find my contentment not in position or bank statement; not in big house or apartment; not in a new car or an old Schwinn.  My prayer is that I find my contentment in God whom I know through Jesus.  He’s the only one who can quench the unquenchable…

It’s also my prayer for whoever reads this…

Christ is all,
Jason

 

Monday Is For Meditation

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[18] But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. [19] You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder! [20] Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? [21] Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? [22] You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; [23] and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God.
(James 2:18-23 ESV)

A Story That Explains

A few weeks ago my oldest son Drew (4 years old) brought home a ping pong ball from church.  He’d picked it up and put it in his pocket.  This wasn’t stealing, I believe someone gave it to him.  Anyway, he had it out and was playing with it.  He left it out and my youngest son Blaise (10 months old today) was crawling around and found it.  Blaise looked at it, picked it up, and then tried to put it in his mouth.

I started talking about why it wasn’t a good idea that he do that.  I prayed deeply about why it wouldn’t be good for a 10 month old to put a ping pong ball in his mouth.  I shared the reasons with Blaise as to why.  I posted on Facebook and Twitter that infants shouldn’t put things in their mouths like ping pong balls.  I memorized reasons why it wasn’t a good idea and then I wrote about it in my journal…

I didn’t do any of that…

When I saw him putting it to his mouth I acted on my belief that this wasn’t a good idea and took it from him, much to his great protest.  I believed that Blaise putting that ball in his mouth was a bad thing.  I believed something could happen and I acted. That means that my belief was active along with my action and my belief was completed by my action.

Putting It Together

We believe a lot of things about God…so do demons (they shudder, remember?).  The difference is that believers in Jesus are supposed to take what they hear and ACT.  Faith is much more than what you “believe”…it is also what you do with what you believe.

Reflect

  • What do you believe about God that you aren’t acting on presently?
  • How can you start acting on what you believe?
  • DO IT!

Christ is all,
Jason

Monday Is For Meditation

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[12] Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand
and marked off the heavens with a span,
enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure
and weighed the mountains in scales
and the hills in a balance?
[13] Who has measured the Spirit of the LORD,
or what man shows him his counsel?
[14] Whom did he consult,
and who made him understand?
Who taught him the path of justice,
and taught him knowledge,
and showed him the way of understanding?
(Isaiah 40:12-14 ESV)

Answer: No one.

He is great and worthy of praise.

He is amazing and in complete control.

Everything is His and in His hand.

Frequently, I find myself needing reminders like this.  Maybe you do too.

Christ is all,
Jason

Why Do You Obey God?

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Last night I had a conversation with my son about a question I ask him before bed?  The question is: “Should we obey God?”  The answer is “Yes”.  Drew is in that stage where he loves to ask “why” about everything.  I thought this would be a good jumping off point for another blog series.  So please answer the poll question below.  Don’t worry all answers are private.  It’s completely confidential.

Thanks for answering!

Christ is all,

Jason