Stimulus Package

Hopeless?

How much is 789 billion dollars? Our government just spent that much on a stimulus package intended to energize our economy. The number is mind boggling. For perspective consider that one billion seconds ago Jesus was walking the earth on His way to Calvary. If dollars were seconds, our national stimulus package would amount to enough seconds to fill more than one million six hundred years! It is staggering how much our nation is spending on “recovery”, but that is nothing compared to how much our nation owes and how much we continue to spend digging a deeper hole. That brings me back to Jesus’ trip to the cross. Jesus was and is God’s stimulus package for mankind. The sin-debt each of us owes God makes our national debt look like pocket change.

Over a billion seconds ago Jesus told His disciples a parable explaining how much we owe God for our sins and what has to happen to pay off our debt. In Matthew 18:21-35 Jesus describes a man who owes his king ten thousand talents. The parable was intended to describe the futility of human effort. Ten thousand talents represents 200,000 years’ wages…an impossible debt to pay. Understanding this the king orders that the man and his family be sold into slavery. This won’t satisfy the debt, but it as close to justice as the king will get. The man falls on his knees and begs the king for mercy, promising the impossible…that he will pay every cent he owes. The king is no fool. He knows the man can never pay the debt, but his response shows us God’s heart. Matthew 18:27 reads, “And out of pity for him, the master released him and forgave his debt.”

The king never intended to be paid back. He forgave the debt and took the loss in order to show mercy. Similarly, each of us owes God a debt we couldn’t pay off if we worked at it for 3,000 lifetimes. Many try to pay down their debt to God, but it is futile effort. Go to church, give to the poor, fast for 40-days, light a candle, live an ascetic existence, work, work, work. If we use these things as penance then they are useless, like spitting into the ocean. Even if we were to live sinless lives from this day forward we could never erase the sins of yesterday or today. For every season of Lent, there is Mardi Gras. For every act of penance there is a handful of sinful thoughts and actions, which build our debt. The King is no fool. He knows we cannot pay what we owe. That is why Jesus came.

When we place our faith in Jesus His atoning sacrifice on the cross pays our debt in-full. We no longer work at gaining forgiveness because Christ purchased it for us. When God looks at us and sees Christ’s blood He forgives our debt and releases us from any sin obligation. Not only that, Christ’s blood also insures against future debt. He pays it all, past, present, and future. When we accept God’s stimulus package our former acts of fearful penance either become absolete or turn into joyful acts of worship. Perfect love casts our all fear and Jesus’ love allows those who trust in Him to have a relationship with God free from the fear of judgment.

Jesus stimulates joy, life and light were there had been only darkenss, fear and death.

“Do-gooder’s” Challenge

Clean and vulnerable…

Today’s challenge comes from Matthew 12:43-45

I’m a “fixer,” as are most of the men I know. If somebody communicates to me that they are having a problem or if I identify a problem in my life, then I set about to find the cause and to fix whatever is wrong. This can be frustrating to those who just want to “vent” or “share,” but I know that venting is a fail-safe often built into systems in order to temporarily relieve pressure until the problem can be solved. Venting is a poor long-term coping mechanism, but can be both tremendously cathartic and beneficial in the short-term. 

 Both “fixing” and “venting,” however, can cause us to ignore what is truly important. We can put-out-fires and let-off-steam our entire lives without ever addressing the core issues. Similarly, religion for religion’s sake can immerse us in patterns of avoidance and superficiality if we aren’t careful or if we don’t have a solid foundation in the first place. Jesus addresses this in Matthew 12:43-45.

Jesus taught that when an unclean spirit goes out of a person it wanders about the wilderness, can’t find a place to rest, and ultimately decides to return “home.” If it finds the house empty, swept, and set in order it brings with it many other evil spirits and the house is worse off now than it was before. The key word here is “empty.”

Why did the evil spirit leave? It left because the person started putting the house in order. We often decide to clean up our lives. We’ll work hard at ending destructive behaviors and starting healthy behaviors or ways of thinking. These are good things. We’ll go to church, give money, render service, and start “shaping up” and these things seem to work for a while. We feel better and think the hardship is over but God reminds us in Genesis 4:7 that sin is crouching at the door and its desire is for us. The attack comes out of nowhere. The Enemy comes home to roost and if all we have as a lock on our door is behavior modification, then he bursts in, brings his friends, and we’re worse off than before. We feel hopeless and defeated.

The truth is that all of our efforts are vanity. If Satan finds the house empty when he returns, then we are helpless. All we’ve done in our own strength is rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic. However, if the Enemy finds Jesus in our house when he returns it is a different story. Jesus is the key to victory. Matthew 12:29 reminds us that the Enemy cannot plunder a strong man’s house unless he first overcomes and binds the strong-man. If our house is empty, then there is no strong man, but if Jesus is our life, then Satan doesn’t stand a chance. Jesus hides our life in Himself and nothing can snatch us from His hands.

The challenge is to put Jesus at the center of all and put Him in charge of all. Trusting Christ is the only way to have victory. (See “salvation” page for how to put your life in Jesus’ hands).