This season our youngest is playing for a new, club baseball team.  He’s excited, especially since he gets to go back for a week-long summer tournament in Cooperstown.  All of our “once-in-a-lifetime” sales pitches that we espoused during our fundraising efforts last year turns out to be a bit of an unintentional fallacy.  Oops!  The truth is, having a summer birthday enables him to play again with kids in his grade this year.  He gets a second chance to go back.  Unfortunately, things don’t always turn out like that for us.  Usually, the once-in-a-lifetime family vacations or job opportunities are just that.  You can’t let them go by, because rarely do you get a second chance to go or do it again.
 
Thankfully, this recipe for regret is not evident in our dealings with God.  The Bible is full of people who got a second chance. God is the God of second chances—and hundredth and thousandth chances!  Abraham, who is called the father of faith, pretended his wife was his sister because he didn’t have faith that God would protect him. Moses murdered someone. Jonah ran from his assignment. Rahab worked as a prostitute. David committed adultery and had the woman’s husband put to death. And yet every one of these people are in God’s “hall of fame” in Hebrews 11.
 
If you had to be perfect to receive God’s grace, no one would stand a chance!  Job got some of the best advice for recovering what has been lost in your life and returning to God’s original plan for you: “Put your heart right, Job. Reach out to God. Put away evil and wrong from your home. Then face the world again, firm and courageous. Then all your troubles will fade from your memory, like floods that are past and remembered no more. Your life will be brighter than sunshine at noon, and life’s darkest hours will shine like the dawn. You will live secure and full of hope; God will protect you and give you rest” (Job 11:13-18 GNT).
 
What an amazing promise! When we repent of our mistakes, God always offers another chance.  Of course, we hear that most weeks in our liturgy:  “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9) This is a testimony to how patient, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love our God is.  God NEVER gives up on you!  Jesus is God’s lifeline of grace, redemption and hope. In Christ and because of Him, our God loves to give second chances. He is indeed the God of a second chance. We are each so incredibly loved by our Heavenly Father.  


h/t to inspiration provided in devotional by Rick Warren, somewhere out on the web.

Yesterday, I was sitting in a NJ District meeting for pastors, talking about being “above reproach.”  This word in Greek carries a meaning of being blameless or above criticism in the sense of not being able to be accused of any wrongdoing by anyone. To simplify it... it means we miss the mark, failure to achieve the desired goal or outcome.  Perhaps the translation that captures best the etymology of the word is “unassailable,” with means “not capable of being seized successfully.”  This word is used in the Bible (cf. 1 Timothy 3) to teach that the life and behaviors of church leaders [pastors] are to have strong expectations.  As preachers, we are to be held to a higher moral standard. Integrity of life and behavior are, of course, critical for all Christians. But this is especially necessary of those in the pastoral office.  Every aspect of our lives is to model the doctrine we proclaim. We must walk the talk. Practice what we preach. Lead by example. Live what we believe. Pastors—in what we preach/teach and in how we live—cannot become a stumbling block to those inside or outside the church. 

No pressure.
Yikes!  
 
Of course, no pastor is perfect. Not even me. I know it’s hard to believe. You’re undoubtedly shocked by this.  But alas, it is true. Even I have more than my share of warts and flaws. The Apostle Paul may have already coined the moniker of being the “chief of sinners,” but I am certainly not too far behind.  That’s the reality of humankind. And it is the reality of every person who serves as pastor or leader in the church.  Not one of us is perfect. No matter the façade we front or the persona we polish, we are each deeply flawed. No amount of sugar-coating or cover-up can hind that reality. Scripture is painfully clear on this. Most bluntly in Romans 3:23:  “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Deep down, and with a quick glance in the mirror, we know this to be true. We have our shortcomings. We cave to our temptations. We have hurt others, intentionally or not. Sinners.  Each and every one of us. No exceptions. We have our many sins—in thought, word, and deeds.
 
This is why we continue to celebrate the long-anticipated, quickly-gone holiday of Christmas. We need Jesus. We need His forgiveness. We are desperate for grace. The festive decorations may be coming down, but the profound truth of this message still echoes—“She will bear a son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” (Matt. 1:21)  No matter how far removed we are from December 25th, we rejoice in the timeless Christmas Gospel.  That the God of the universe, the Creator of the world, humbled Himself to step down from the heavens and redeem all those entrapped in sin and overwhelmed by evil.  Flawed though we are, our God continues to dwell with us, live within us, and transforms our hearts and minds (cf. Rom. 12:2).  The gift of Jesus saves us from our sins. We are only “above approach” when we stand behind our Savior, when we allow Him to cleanse us from our sins (cf. 1 John 1:7).
 
Happy New Year!  
 

• “The most important resolution you can make as another year approaches is this: to open your heart and life to Jesus Christ, and commit your life to Him. Don’t waste your time on resolutions that don’t ultimately matter; resolve instead to live for Christ.” (Billy Graham)

 

• “I wish, my brothers and sisters, that during this new year you may live nearer to Christ than you have ever done before. Depend upon it, it is when we think much of Christ that we think little of ourselves, little of our troubles, and little of the doubts and fears that surround us.” (Charles Spurgeon)

 

• “Of all persons the Christian should be best prepared for whatever the New Year brings. He has dealt with life at its source. In Christ he has disposed of a thousand enemies that other men must face alone and unprepared. He can face his tomorrow cheerful and unafraid because yesterday he turned his feet into the ways of peace and today, he lives in God. The man who has made God his dwelling place will always have a safe habitation.” (A.W. Tozer)