Have your ever wondered if you’re “good enough”? Good enough to go to heaven? Have you ever woken up in the early morning hours and wondered? If so, maybe you can take comfort in  knowing that the Protestant Reformer Martin Luther had the same worry. As a German monk he prayed to St. Anne to make him “righteous enough”. He fasted, confessed, did pentitance, and practiced all of the spiritual disciplines of the Church but he flet that he was “good enough” or that he had “done enough”. And then one night, as he read Romans 1: 17, Paul’s words jumped out at him, “We are made righteous through faith”. Being good enough, being righteous enough, is not about what we do; it is about about something called “Faith”. And Faith is a gift from God.

In Ephesians 2 we read,  for by faith you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God–not the result of works, lest anyone should boast. (vss. 8&9)

Faith is a gift not a work. You don’t have to earn enough points to hit the magic “heavenly score.” As a matter of fact, even if you did, you couldn’t no matter how hard your tried. Why? Because “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23)  Nor can you go to a spiritual gymnasium and lift “faith weights” because such a gym does not exist.

Faith is like the manna God provided the Israelites during their 40 year wilderness journey. They were told that they could not be saved for a rainy day. God would provide, and they would have to learn to trust God to provide their “daily bread.”  

When Corrie ten Boom was a young girl she frequently worried about whether or not she had enough faith to die as a martyr for Jesus. One night she shared this concern with her father, a wise man. Kneeling beside her bed he asked her, “When you are going to visit family when do I give you your train ticket? A week before? A day before your journey?” “No”. she replied, “you give it to me as I get on the train.” “That’s how it is with Faith,” her father continued. “God gives you the faith you need when you need it and not a moment before.” That night stuck with her as she and her family entered a concentration camp. It stayed with her as she saw her sister die. It carried her throughout throughout the rest of her life as she “tramped for the Lord”.

Not too long ago I saw a billboard that simply said, “He first loved us”. That billboard says it all. When I teach confirmation classes I tell them we are not good to earn “brownie points” or get “stars in the crown”. Nor do are we trying to earn our way into “heaven” or “win”  “God’s love”. Our baptism reminds us of the truth contained in I John 4, namely, “we love God because God first loved us.” We do not baptize the worthy or the loveable but the loved. Our salvation is a done deal. It was signed, sealed and delivered 2000 years ago “on a hill far away”.  It is not about us but about God.

The good works we do and the lives that we live are our “thank you notes” to God for what God has done for us in Jesus Christ.  Our lives–the decisions that we make, the things that we do and do not do–are not for our edification but God’s glorification. God created us in Christ Jesus, the writer of Ephesians said, so that we can do the good works that God prepared for us to do before we were even born.

Lord God, let my life be my thank you to You for your Saving Love. Amen,

Daily Lenten Devotion for 11th Day of Lent

Reading: Mark 2:23-36

Text: the sabbath was made for people, not people for the sabbath. (v. 27)

This has always been one of my favorite teachings of Jesus. It is foundational in helping us avoid legalism.

Jesus was criticized by the “legalisms” for plucking and eating grain from a field on the sabbath. Immediately following this He asked his critics if it was allowed to heal a man on the sabbath. They didn’t respond thus showing their hardness of heart. He healed the man right there in the Temple “in front of God and everyone”! There is never a wrong time to do the right thing.

I am not one who believes in precedence because there are never two situations that are exactly alike. I’ve often thought that “precedence” was the work of lazy minds that did not want to make hard decisions. Circumstances change by the minute and the hour. Some needs have to be met now. Others do not. It takes work to distinguish between the two. Opportunities are fleeting. And discipleship is hard. That is why we need to pray constantly and think deeply.

Lord God, give a sound mind that that think critically and act quickly when it Cannes to sowing the mustard seeds of Your Kingdom in my daily life.

Lenten Daily Devotion Day 10. Reading Mark 2:13-22.

Text: As Jesus was walking along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed him.

The thing that always struck me about Jesus is not the teachings, nor His examples nor even the miracles. Rather, it is the immediacy of the response to His invitation to follow Him in discipleship.

Discipleship is not about knowledge, though that is needed to a certain extent. Rather it is about apprenticeship in following Jesus. We must learn as we go. As apprentice we learn how to care, share and to love unconditionally within a community of faith.

If you do not have a faith community of faith to guide you in your Jesus’ journey of discipleship, I challenge you Look for one in this season of Lent. Don’t do it tomorrow, or later or when you get settled, but now.  Your first try will probably not be successful, but start. Find one that is disciplined without being judgmental and loving but not permissive.

Lord, I hear Your call to follow. Lead me to a faith community that can teach me. Amen.