Why did Jesus have to die? Part 2

I don't do this much here but ... woohoo! Bible Study time. Don't worry, I will give the elevator version.

This is a great question. The answer is found in Romans Chapter 3.

Verses 20 and 21 state:

20Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin. Righteousness Through Faith 21But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify.

Righteousness is "Right-standing" before a holy God ... right. This is the goal of nearly every religion around the world. In almost every religion it is also obtained by doing "good" works and sometimes physcially paying for the wrongs they have done. In these two verses Paul is saying to them that everything that they thought was true about getting right before God was wrong. He is saying that it is impossible to be righteous ... Impossible. It can only be granted by God completely apart from anything that we could do to earn it or push it away.

So how does Righteousness come then? verse 22 says "This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference," This says it all, then the next verse goes on to say ... 23"for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God," What does this mean. In essense ... say there was a archery match and you must get 5 bulleyes in a row to progress to the next round of the competition. Let's say you miss the first bullseye by a smidge ... well you are out anyway. It doesn't matter if you shoot 15 more perfect bulleyes in a row! You still missed the first one and can't progress. In the same way, we have all sinned at least once (in my case, too many to count) and from that point on, it makes no difference how much good we do, we can never be good enough to make it to heaven on our own. There is no price we could ever pay to re-gain right standing before a perfect and Holy God.

It then says: "24and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— 26he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus."

Here is where the answer then lies ... Jesus had to die, because God is Just ... perfectly Just ... it is against his nature to be anything but Just! Someone must pay for the injustice commited, there is absolutely no way around it, He can't break or change the rules or change the rules! ... that would be injust. Even if no one else ever knew or found out? Yeah ... He is perfectly Just and not capable of being Injust. This is so encouraging ... in a world where there are no "absolutes" and no pure justice, it is refreshing to know that we serve a God that is purely Just.

These are very heavy and complicated scriptures, but if we are to simplify it. All it is saying is:
1. Mercy - the thing that delayed God from exacting justice for as long as it could. At some point, the sin must be paid for!
2. Justice - Eventually all sin must be completely paid for, completely ... no way around it.
3. Grace - God brought perfect justice out on his sinless son ... the only one that could actually pay the price.

Jesus had to die. It is the only way.

See part 3 for the final thought...

Why did Jesus have to die??

We are having another "Connect Group" tomorrow night. I haven't really written any notes down for the discussion as I have barely enough time to sleep right now. I did however manage to watch American Idol as I was working though ... more of the same, but still interesting. Anyway, The subject is "Why did Jesus have to die?". Really ... If He is God and can do anything right, why would he choose to kill his son, instead of just declaring everyone forgiven. He could just do that right? I mean I have forgiven quite a few people of fairly cruel things and I didn't have to sacrifice our cat (which isn't that bad of an idea ... haha) or kill their first born son to do it to make that forgiveness happen, right. I just forgave them. It is done ... not really going to think about it again, except for right now when i am actually trying to remember these things. God is better and higher than I right? And He can't just forgive? How does that make sense.

Here is another one for you. If Jesus took my place so that I wouldn't have to burn in hellish torment for the rest of eternity, what could I have done to deserve that. Think about it ... but not too long, it gets wierd. Hell, eternal burning flames, constantly decaying, screaming in isolation with no one to hear me, complete separation from a God who created me and wanted to spend forever with me, but who now can't, on and on and on and on. I didn't even do anything to deserve a natural night in prison, let alone the death penalty. Did my little lying, drinking, swearing kind of sins really warrant an eternal death that I must pay for without end? Seriously?!

I will give my answer in a couple of days ... After the Connect Group has met. It is these types of questions that can't just go left undone. We need to wrestle with them, they always make faith stronger.

I am not dead!

So wow ... December hit like a tsunami and I have ignored the blog-o-sphere since. Since then I am now back to more than full time at faithHighway and the intership at my phenomenal Church, Celebration, seems to be in a more of a demanding stage and Venue stuff and transitional elements are in full swing. So what is 80 - 90 hours a week, a family of five and sleep really have to do with ignoring the blog anyway ... just a trite excuse. I know ... I am lame, right?! Anyway, I am back and hopefully have regained my sanity.

All that said, life is great! The kids are an amazing and so much fun! Life could not function without my incredible love - Faith! And I am an incredibly blessed man in more ways that I can count. This year is going to be an exciting one.

Vision for the City

It is said that Cleveland was the largest poor city in America before the hurricains that hit Louisianna with a vengeance. Besides our other goals for the church, we have a big heart for the poor of Cleveland. We want to start 5 church plants around the perimeter of Cleveland proper in the suburbs. Not at once, but as healthily as possible. The goal is to build a big enough financial base to be able to support work in the heart of the city. I have heard of several successful works where the finances from the dennomination or organization were pulled. The finances were cut off because the works just weren't self sufficient or the ROI wasn't great enough. This just breaks my heart! There are certain works that we can do where there doesn't have to be a financial return ... right? I mean aren't there things worth an eternal reward. If you take the light out of the darkness what is left? Certainly, no hope! We don't know exactly what this would look like yet. We do know that we want to have inner city missions trips as a part of this. People raise money all the time to go over seas and spend a week or two and learn how to reach people of a different culture for christ ... to make a difference in the lives of those who don't know Christ and don't have hope. Why can't we evaluate the needs in our back yard and take those same resources and make a difference in the lives of those in our own city or region. The idea is not to simply give to needs, but to help change the quality of life. To train, love and give hope ... to combat the darkness in society so that people can see, on a consistant basis, that Jesus is still alive and that no matter what they have done or how they are living there is a savior who isn't ashamed of them, but instead who very much wants to be a part of their lives. That anyone in America is free to dream as big you want to, and the only barriers we have are in our own minds.

We know that this won't happen imediately through the Venue Church, and that it is quite a task to take on, but it is one of the driving factors of why we feel we are going.

The First Miracle

Does anyone remember (if you were the oldest) when your mother, grandma, or uncle or neighbor would turn to you and say: "Your the oldest, so your in charge until we get back" then they would turn to the others and say something like: "Do whatever he tells you to do". Haha! That is a lot of power for a kid and way to much temptation. Now, I wasn't so bad, but my Dad had a long hallway in the house and I have a younger brother and sister that are 10 and 12 years younger than I am. I figured that it was quite fun to have them run from one end to the other to see if they could make it before I was able to launch a stuffed animal and either lodge it between their fast moving little legs and watch 'em go down ... or hit 'em in the right place in the head and have them go down face first. If I did it right, I could nail my little brother, who was a little slower and younger and then watch him bounce off the wall and into my sisters legs and watchher go down too, and all with one stuffed bunny rabbit. Then load them back up to the starting line and start it all again. Hours of fun I tell you ... I am still smiling, even now, at the thought ... and my younger siblings didn't really have to go through all that much therapy, which is always a plus. The electro-shock portion (and don't let them tell you any different) knocked years off the overall length of the therapy.

The first miracle recorded in the bible took place at a Wedding at Cana. Mary, the mother of Jesus, realizing that the wedding feast had run out of wine, turned to Jesus and then to some of the servants and said: "Do whatever He tells you to do!" Sound familiar? That sometimes can sounds like ... you gotta be kidding me! Do whatever He tells me to do? Just listen to some control mongering megalomanical Deity ... just like that. Well, in this case, He told then to take some waterpots filled with sink water, up to the master of ceremonies and have him drink from it. They did exactly like He said and when the master of ceremonies did drink from the ordinary sink water, it not only tasted like wine, but fine and extraordinary wine.

We have to ask the question. What if ... just ... what if? What if He really does want the best for us? What if he wants to take our ordinary, sink water lives and turn them into something extraordinary? What if the instructions in His word allows us to take our ordinary marriages and transform them into something extraordinary? Our ordinary money into something extraordinary? Our love into something remarkable? What if obediance to doing exactly or whatever He tells us to do, is not for Him, but to allow us to actually have the freedom to reach our greatest potential. What if He actaully does love us more than we could ever imagine.

Connect Group - Creation

We had Connect Group again. We had a discussion around Genesis Chapter 1.

This is God's grand story and we get to be a part of it. God created all that we see while man was sleeping and when he a woke late on the sixth day, he awoke to a completed world. Then God put him back to sleep and created his mate Eve. We had no input into all that we see ... it was all done without our help. Everything was not created for us, but for God Himself ... and we were able to enjoy it and keep it and watch after it and manage it for Him.

It all came down to the question that they had to answer. Do you want to have a little supporting role in the grand story of God or do you want the starring role in the story of you. They chose to be "like" God and be the stars in their own story and forfeited a part in his grand story. The thing is, even if you build a big story, get people to gather around you and cheer for you, when the last hand clap fades what is left? A small little story that will have an ending and most likely be forgotten way sooner than you would expect. This is the same question that each of us has to ask at some point as well. When do we realize that all fall short of the glory of God? That it would be much better to have the smallest role ... any role in the eternal story of God? That everything else is in vain.

You might say: "Hey man, my story is working out … I had a couple twist and turns … but I fired those people and got new ones. Why would I want to trade the starring role in the story of me … for a supporting role or just any role in the story of God?

There are 3 things I would say.
1. You are already in the story, you might as well surrender and join the story. We at point realize that we can't escape God. That no matter how much we try to have our own story apart from Him, our story is really already a part of His. This is where we realize that everything we do is to shed light on the central character of the story, Jesus. Instead of asking the Lord to make much of me, we say, Lord, help me make much of you.
2. When we do. It brings meaning to everything else in our lives. It doesn’t matter if you are a mother at home with little kids or in a cubicle, then traffic, then a cubicle, traffic, cubicle, traffic, cubicle… Everything starts to actually mean something and have purpose no matter how mundane or important our lives seem to be.
3. It replaces control with rest. If you are starring in your own role, that means that you are directing, writing the script, worried about the plot line, worried about the outcome, trying to hold it all together, you are starring and directing and it is wearing you down. This is what control does to you ... It is just too much. There is something great in giving everything over to God, When we trade our control for rest. We realize: I can’t control the plot, the script, I can’t even control what actors are in the scene, I am just available to Him to be used by Him.

God is in the business of restoring Eden and us back to the way it was meant to be. And that is really it, right. All of everything summed up right in the beginning.

The Venue's MySpace is now up.

Well we finally got a my space account up. It needs some attention, but at least it has started. Have had some good conversations already. You can find it at www.myspace.com/thevenuechurch