The Phil Files

In my Heartlight.org post today, “No Hidden Mystery,” I share the story of desperate housewife who goes to church looking for answers and really gets neglected because she doesn’t know the unwritten rules of church. She’s battled cancer, survived a tornado, and has a challenging family situation with friends who are a mess because of their bad and immoral choices. And I ask this question:

And what would Jesus have done with our desperate Housewife? I want to challenge you to go back to the gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John in the New Testament) and take a closer look at how Jesus responded to folks — then share an answer or two with all of us based on What Jesus Did!

Oh, and I’ll share some of my response with you a couple of days from now on my blog if you will share yours!

I have always been moved by 2 Corinthians 3:1-18, as the apostle of grace is emphatic: a written code cannot save us, redeem us, change us, or make us like God. Clearly, Paul believes that the Law is good in that it shows us the holiness God expects of us, but he is emphatic (Galatians brings it home powerfully) that the Law — or any law for that matter — can only convict us of our failures.

Jesus is clearly the answer for our shortfall and sinfulness, but with Jesus comes more than just forgiveness and cleansing. With Jesus comes the freedom and power to be what we could not be trying to fulfill law’s demands to be right with God (Romans 8:1-4; 2 Corinthians 3:17-18). This power is not some impersonal force, but is God’s presence in us, the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). This glorious freedom the Spirit brings us, to be what the written code could never make us, means that all of our goodness is the reflected goodness that comes from our glorious God who provided Jesus as our sacrifice and Jesus who sent the Holy Spirit to us to complete God’s perfection in us. I have tried often to capture this concept visually, never to my satisfaction. However, the old image below with the text of 2 Corinthians 3:18 is a helpful reminder that any glory in us and on us and from us, is always the reflected glory of Jesus and the work of the Holy Spirit to make that reflected glory genuine in our lives.

We are reflections of His glory, but through the Spirit, that reflection grows brighter each day as we know Jesus more!

This image is available in 1024 x 768 size in several options on Heartlight.org and can be used for any non-commercial use by churches, non-profits and individuals as longs as it is unaltered:

1. Text Version — Like Above Image
2. Title Version — “Reflected Grace”
3. Plain Version — Ideal for PPT Backgrounds

For a list of hundreds of images check out Heartlight.org Backgrounds Page and use the search window on the right.

Who is Jesus to you?

Yeah, I know someone is wanting to nail me and say, “It doesn’t matter who Jesus is to you, it’s who Jesus truly is that matters!” And yes, that is correct in the general theological machinations of the universe.

HOWEVER, it is of utmost — shall we say, eternal — significance for you in how you answer this one question:

Who is Jesus to you?

In my Heartlight article this week, “Big Reversal,” I talk about how Saul of Tarsus (whom we know as the apostle Paul) completely changed his view of Jesus. He did the “big reversal.” So I’m going to ask my question again:

Who is Jesus to you?

How has your personal understanding of Jesus changed over the years?

Was there something that led you to change your views?

Have you made a big reversal in regard to who Jesus is in your life?

I’d sure love to hear from you on this, so I’d appreciate you leaving your comments below!

Much of the world is caught up with Olympic fever right now. From the breathtaking beauty of the opening ceremonies to the tragic murder of Todd Bachman, many of us have been engrossed with the happenings in China. (Concern for our brothers and sisters in faith will be shared in a later post.) Two events at the pool caught my eye: MIchael Phelps gold medal and Park Tae-hwan’s victory in the men’s 400 freestyle.

While most of the world knows about Michael Phelps, Park’s win is especially touching when you realize that at the last Olympics, he had a false-start and was disqualified before he got to swim in his event. What a great recovery from such embarrassment and frustration four years earlier. He didn’t quit on his dream, but instead used his disappointments to lead him to world championships and an Olympic gold.

Park’s story reminds me of three great Olympic stories about finishing. These three stories have captured the hearts of many folks over the year because they each focus on on an athlete that finished his event, even though there was no chance of winning. One was bruised and battered from a bad fall, another completely exhausted and had to be helped across the line, and the third was a young man whose dad came out of the stands and helped his son finish after a severe hamstring injury. For more on each of these stories, check out the link to a Heartlight article and a Wikipedia entry:

John Stephen Akhwari — Heartlight — Wikipedia

Dorando Pietri — Heartlight — Wikipedia

Derek Redmond — Heartlight — Wikipedia

While each of these stories — along with Park Tae-hwan’s story — is compelling, there is another story of finishing that makes these others seem almost trite. It’s the story of God’s Son enduring the Cross. Jesus’ words, “It is finished!” are not only a declaration of having done what the Father sent him to do (John 4:34 NLT), they are also a kind of victory cry (John 12:31-32 NLT).

I talk about some of this in my Heartlight article this week, but I’d also like to hear from you about how you will know when you’ve done what the Lord has put you on earth to do.

Do you believe you were put on earth by God with a specific purpose and specific things you were supposed to do?

How do you know what those are?

Do you think You can know when you have “finished” what God put you on earth to do?

What do you think Jesus means when he crys, “It is finished”?

I’d really love to hear from you on this in the response section below!

In my Heartlight.org article this week, I continue a look at the 7 sayings of Jesus. This week, we focus on Jesus anguished cry, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Jesus clearly felt he was abandoned by everyone, including God. But a closer look suggests something a bit different. Here are a couple of questions that go with this article. I’d love to get your response!

We often hear that God turned his back on his Son because Jesus was carrying the guilt of our sin. How do you reconcile that withJohn 16:32? Where do you find a Scripture supporting this concept?

How is it a blessing to us to know that Jesus felt abandoned, but in faith, trusted that God would not abandon him and would be faithful to his promises?

As I was reading from Colossians, recently, I ran across two words that jumped off the page and into my heart. I was actually using our Search God’s Word online Greek/English Bible and the Greek words used convicted me. The three words are areskia — “pleasing” (Colossians 1:10 NRS), eudokeow — “good pleasure” (Colossians 1:19 NRS) and hikanoow — “to qualify someone” (Colossians 1:12 NAS).

I remember old souls praying in times of worship many years ago asking that God would find our “worship pleasing in His sight.” Now, however, I hear so much more about whether or not worship pleases the worshipers — “I’m not sure I got a lot out of that?”

This latter point of view assumes that we are quaified — qualified not only to worship, but also to render an opinion on the “pleasing” worth of the experience. It’s almost like we’ve shared the fruit that Eve and Adam ate in the garden rather than body and blood of the Lord’s Supper. Instead of remembering the grace given us by Jesus at such a high cost, we assume we have the knowledge that makes us little gods that know all and that need to be pleased. If we aren’t pleased, in our opinion, worship isn’t a blessing … to us, to others, or to God. Rather than recognizing the amazing grace of being invited into the presence of God, we assume that we deserve to be in this moment of Holy Presence.

For me, it is incredibly convicting and sad that the first thoughts of many — oftentimes my first thoughts as well — are not, “How blessed I am to be with these people, in this moment, accepted and loved by our incredible God!” Instead, we often resort to the thinly veiled criticism, “I’m not sure I got very much out of that today.”

What difference would it make for us to approach our worship times as an awesome gift, an invitation into the presence of God, with people redeemed by the blood of Christ?

How do we more deeply appreciate being “qualified” to be a part of God’s family and being found as “pleasing” to God?

On the opposite extreme, how do we hear God’s words of acceptance and grace and not the doubts and self-criticism that the evil one would love to have us hear?