The Door Is Open To Everyone

For those that lie. For those that kill. For those that bully. For those that steal. For the fatherless. For the gossip. For the sexually immoral. For the spiritually dry. For the cheater. For the abuser. For the people pleaser. For the broken-hearted.

Jesus opened the door for us all to enter.

Since yesterday the Lord was putting this scene from The Bible movie in my heart, where Jesus tells Peter that "the door is open to everyone.". I went back to the book of Acts this morning to study this because I could tell it was on God's heart for me. But before that, I found myself looking at the cost of being a disciple in the book of Luke and I was amazed by how the Holy Spirit revealed the passage to my heart. I've read it so many times before, but it completely ties in to the Acts verses that I'm going to share.

(Luke 14:26-27) If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple. And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. 

Jesus was being fallowed by a huge crowd and he stops to explain to them the true meaning of being His disciple the cost of following Him. He didn't deceive them. Before He let them continue walking beside Him He made sure to let them know that this wasn't some kind of magic show...it was a lifestyle. He plainly told them that following Him would look bad to those they loved here on this earth and that they had to get to the point of passionately disliking everything in the world in comparison to Him. We are born into a temporary family here on earth but let us not forget that our eternal home is not here. Jesus told them that there could be no comparison between God and this world. This is hard for our minds to wrap around but we're not being asked to abandon "our lives" for an imperfect human or possession...we are being invited to lose our way of doing life for Him who gave us life, a mission, and unfailing love. Just like a police-man has the obligation to report a case even if it's his own family member, Jesus was trying to explain that following meant choosing Him at all times. He explained that the true weight of carrying ones cross was not a couple of wooden pounds...it's the weight of denying yourself. And that is why He said that if you're building something first you measure it's cost and if there is war ahead of you, chose to wave your white flag if you see you can't handle it. Basically Jesus was telling us to choose and to choose wisely if He and His example to be lived out was truly what we were willing to do. Are we willing to lose our lives for His sake? If He said study this because I need you to go reach those that would never step foot inside a church for counseling, would you do it even though you wanted to be a professional singer? What if tomorrow He told you to move to Mexico to rescue teens off the streets and teach them about the God that loves them and you had a wife and kids? Did it just get a little uncomfortable? It's suppose to. I'll be the first to say that this kind of thinking scared me a couple years back. But it's Jesus and it's truth. Of course it's going to freak us out because we're use to this earth and what it's taught us. The moment we fill ourselves with God's Word and His truth though, our mind is renewed and heaven thinking becomes natural, the way it's suppose to be. It feels like home because it's our true identity. I love the book that I'm currently reading right now by Francis and Lisa Chan because he states that the picture of Jesus and all that He did is beautiful to us, but when it comes to living it out it stops being so attractive. Forgiving our offender. Praying for the backstabber. Truly and sincerely loving people. Oh I know it's hard but if Jesus said it then it's legit. If my blameless Savior managed to show love and mercy after He was mocked and spit in the face then I know that I can do it. He became fully human and oh my gosh, we're fully human. He showed us that with the Holy Spirit's power it is possible to be set apart. We can try to make up all the excuses we want to in our earthly wisdom to get around it but the truth is painted in red. What Jesus did can not be erased or altered. He lived and modeled God's ideal love for us so that we could act on it. Trust me when I say that when we do not show mercy it will not be shown to us. But what I'm tired of always being the one to do this and no one returns the love or the patience. Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. Always keep Him in mind and continue. If you are always the one to apologize or forgive then continue to do it. The Word says to not grow weary of doing good because in due time you will reap what you've sown. Our mind set has got to change and the only way to do it is to spend time with the one who conquered this earth. Spend time with Jesus. It is our God-given assignment to forgive, to love, and to be merciful. After reading this I then hopped a few pages over to the book of Acts.

(Acts 10:15) The voice spoke to him a second time, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.”

I love reading this. This was the moment that Jesus made it clear that He made a way for every single human-being, Jewish or not, to boldly enter. He called us clean even before we repented to show us that His love was first and that the rest was up to us. It's p to us to invite Him into our hearts and into the life we live so that He can have His way. Trust, His way is so much sweeter. He cleansed us with His blood and made us white as snow. Jesus fulfilled the law and paid our ransom with His very life so that no one could deny us entrance into God's presence. I've been saved for six years now and that deep deep fact will never cease to break and tear my heart. I melt at the thought of my Savior Jesus being hurt to the point of not appearing human anymore. I cry because that should have been me. I deserved that torcher, but He quieted me and took the beating for me. I can picture Him looking at me and saying, "do you believe I love you now?" I marvel at His goodness and kind nature. His surrender and sacrifice astound me. But I don't just want my mind to explode...I want my heart and body to act on it. That is the calling. The mission for why you and I were sent here.

(Acts 10:28) He said to them: “You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with or visit a Gentile. But God has shown me that I should not call anyone impure or unclean.

God saw our hearts. He looked at the goodness that he planted that we let the world corrupt. His Son was not sparred, He was given up. The ultimate injustice on our behalf, but the ultimate justice on God's behalf. In our earthly thinking it's unjust to feel pain or to sacrifice but notice that while we think that we don't think about the injustice of the Son of God doing that for us. Mind-renew-check. So that we would never think that God was unjust He gave up Himself. Creator in exchange for His creation that He loved. We cry and become bitter when the things of this world are taken from us yet we don't think about the pain of an innocent Savior bleeding from the weight of his body on a cross suspended by a couple of nails. Gravity pushing Him down, His beautiful heart had to take His Father turning away from Him because He was drenched in our sin. That is why Jesus can look straight at us because only He could understand. Only He could stare sin right in the face because He overcame it. He took on all of our sins, every single one. And that is why Jesus told Peter to look past who we were and preach Jesus because Jesus tore the vail that separated us from God and humiliated the enemy. He went to hell and bought our souls with His blood and never did He regret it. Whether or not some of those souls would chose to say yes to Him, He gave us that much worth. Even the thought of the pain wasn't enough to turn our sweet Savior away. It is finished and now we have to carry His legacy until the end of our days.

(1 Peter 2:23-24) When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.”

(1 Peter 4:1) Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because whoever suffers in the body is done with sin. As a result, they do not live the rest of their earthly lives for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God.

Worship Smells So Sweet

Worship is the act of responding to God's love with love by offering one's very life as a living and breathing sacrifice.Worship humbles our flesh to honor God in spirit and in truth. What we want, need, or yearn for decreases, while what God wants and desires for us increases. As we pick flowers in the garden we tend to pick the most beautiful to the eye, the most fragrant, or the most vibrant. The beauty in worship is that the Lord takes the ugly, the stinky, and the dullest offering to our naked eye, if it is all we have within us to give, and turns it into the most fragrant pleasing sacrifice. (Psalm 51:16-17) "You do not desire a sacrifice, or I would offer one.You do not want a burnt offering. The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit.You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God." In ancient times the Lord received animal organs, oil, grain, and so on, and once it was placed in the fire this sacrifice produced a sweet smell.  The reason why all of these things formed an enticing fragrance was because those who gave it, offered it as a form of surrender. Whether they had done something bad or whether they were just doing as God had told them, the Lord loved the smell of what they brought because it was the best of them. It was all they had. If all they had was one calf and they gave it then to God that counted more than giving 5,000 out of 5,001. The world's perception of the worst in us is differently perceived by God because His love covers over a multitude of sins and His redeeming power takes "the worst" and transforms it for His glory. In a garden, we will honestly pick the most beautiful and sweet-smelling flowers because it is in our nature to want the best. God wants "the best". And God's best is not defined like our definition of best. He wants the best in our hearts. He wants all of us. That to Him is the best because it is all. While we might pick a rose or a daisy, God picks Myrrh. This plant is a "shrubby desert tree" whose name in Arabic means "bitter." The myrrh resin has a "bitter, pungent taste and a sweet, pleasing aroma." Why would this plant be so sought after in the bible and why did God love it so much? Because God does not see things the way we do: we see what is in the moment but God sees ahead. Before the tasting comes the smell and before smell comes sight. If it smells good then it most likely tastes good. If we were to have Myrrh and roses growing in our gardens, but we didn't know either plant, I have a feeling that we'd pick the roses. Just looking at the color would win us over. God isn't like that. He sees our hearts not the skin we choose to wear on the outside. When we worship God we've got to give Him all we are because He does not see what we see. He takes a dry bush and turns it into a fragrant perfume. He takes our insecurities and turns them into confidence, our sadness to joy, and our stress into relief. (Psalm 16:11) "You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand."

There are many ways to express our worship toward God, but in my case I take my offering to Him through song. I come before Him as I am, surrendered, knowing that I am about to experience His holy purificating fire. Like the song goes, "You provide the fire, I provide the sacrifice, You provide the spirit, and I will open up inside...Fill me up God, fill me up God, fill me up." What I mean by all of these little snippets of information is that the beauty of worship is not in how intense the song is or how on cue the guitar is but in the brokenness of our souls willing to come before the Lord. Before we can focus on perfecting the way we introduce and express our worship, first we must focus on how our lives serve and reflect God. God cares way more about if we come to praise Him with joy verses coming and thinking about the broken string and the soft piano. It's about giving Him the best that we have right now at the moment, every moment. David himself said: (Psalm 103: 1) "Let all that I am praise the LORD; with my whole heart, I will praise his holy name." All that we are and all that we have is His. That's at least one reason to worship Him, isn't it? There are so many more reasons. Too many to count.

The fact that we are eager to please Him and bring Him what he asks of us makes it a pleasing sacrifice. If he says rearrange the song list, burst into a new song, or walk through the isles of the congregation declaring my promises then we will worship Him in spirit and in truth by obeying and being willing to let God take control of our every move. Let us pick not only the most beautiful flowers nor the simplest in our heart's garden...let us pick the ones that He most desires, all of them if we must. Give your all back to The Lord in the same way that He gives His all to you. If He asks for sacrifice then sacrifice it is. If he asks for sadness to turn into joy then let it be so. Whatever it may be, let us bring it before Him and worship wholeheartedly, with the knowledge that His all consuming fire will come down and take up what we have offered Him. (2 Corinthians 3:18) "So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image." The next time you worship the Lord think about what he's done for you...what he's doing for you...the things in your life that need to change, and then...hand them over to the Lord. It might not smell very nice at first but Worship transforms the driest things into the most lively, sweet-smelling.