Rebuilding the Wall in the Shadow of the Cross

Nehemiah 4 is such an awesome and metaphorical chapter of the Bible. At this point in Nehemiah, he and the people of Jerusalem are attempting to rebuild the city wall which had been broken down and burned. Back in that time period, the condition of a city's walls was seen as an indication of the strength of the people's gods. However, in the first chapter of Nehemiah, he equated the state of Jerusalem's wall with the state of the people's obedience to the Lord. Nehemiah was grieved for God's reputation and vowed to rebuild the wall. So in a sense, rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem also held a deeper meaning in that the people were restoring themselves with God.

When their enemies learned of their plans to rebuild, they scoffed and threw insults at the Jews saying, "What are those feeble Jews doing? Will they restore their wall? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they finish in a day? Can they bring the stones back to life from those heaps of rubble--burned as they are?" When Nehemiah hears of this, he immediately begins praying to God for safety, deliverance, and ultimate success in his mission. At this point, the people of Jerusalem had finished rebuilding half of the wall back. When they hear of the insults of their enemies, they are immediately disturbed, full of fear, and full of unbelief that they can finish what they have started.

When Nehemiah sees the people downcast and distraught, he stands up, and says, "Don't be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your families, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes." This is the epic hero speech moment. This is the moment that Keanu Reeves gives inspiring words in the football huddle to inspire his team to win the game in The Replacements, and the moment that Mel Gibson rides in with the American flag and ignites a fire under his warriors on their way to battle in The Patriot. This is the moment where fear is squashed by a faith in a God who has no limits, no boundaries, and no end to what he will do for the people that love and seek him.

From that moment on, half the men in Jerusalem worked on rebuilding the wall and the other half of the men were equipped with spears, shields, bows, and armor. Even the men who were working on the wall "did their work with one hand and held a weapon in the other." How awesome would this scene have been to see? An army of people fully fueled by faith, resurrecting a wall--a relationship with God--from the rubble and the ashes, ready to strike down anyone who would get in their way.

Sadly, I have been on both sides of Jerusalem's wall...haven't we all? Haven't we all played the role of the enemy? The one who scoffs with disbelief in the faces of prostitutes, adulterers, and people with addictions who are attempting to rebuild their life piece by piece, rock by rock as the people of Jerusalem were rebuilding their wall? Haven't we all played the role of the people of Jerusalem? The one who stands there in the midst of the rubble and the ash, wondering how on earth we got there and wondering how on earth we will ever get back?

In the spirit of Good Friday, when Jesus takes his place on the cross that made it all possible, let's vow to pick up a stone today. Instead of throwing that stone at a brother or sister, let's help them rebuild the wall that was once there, all the way encouraging them the way Nehemiah did to the people of Jerusalem. Because today is the day we remember the cross. And the path back to God is made up of a road lined with the same wood and the same blood stains as the cross held on that Good Friday so many years ago. With God, there is always hope. And with the cross, there is always a way back.

Jesus: The Original Fabio?

Jesus: the man with the long flowing chocolate brown hair, muscled body, and starched white robe...right? Not exactly.

Scripture tells us in Isaiah 53:2 that Jesus, "had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him." WOW. Really? I'm not sure I would go so far as to say that the tall, dark, and handsome man we see on Sunday School handouts and Google searches isn't the real Jesus, but I think it's safe to say that he has been given a makeover, so to speak. 

Take the recent tv series The Bible, for example. While I commend the show for being as Biblically accurate as possible, I did notice that Jesus looked like he was rocking some straight veneers! He could have starred in a commercial for Crest Whitestrips while simultaneously dying on the cross for our sins. 

I know this post might come off as sacrilegious, but hear me out. This man changed the entire world. He performed countless miracles, died on a cross for our sins, and even conquered death, yet we feel we have to make this man more attractive. Why is that? What does that say about the culture in which we live?

If we were to focus on Jesus' teachings and miracles instead of his appearance, it might actually help us see others in the same light. Check out 1 Samuel 16:7 for example: "But the LORD said to Samuel, 'Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart." I love this verse because it promises me that even on the days I look "ratchet," I am still worthy of His love! How many times have we judged someone by their height or appearance? What if God wants to tell us the same thing that he told Samuel?

Jesus looks at the heart. We look at appearances. Since Jesus is our model, what if we were to try and become blind, in a sense? During his time here on Earth, Jesus never once judged someone by their outward appearance, but always by their hearts. I challenge you to start looking beyond the flesh of others. Look to the heart. Maybe, if we become "blind," we will see something that we've been missing all along. 

No Prison Too Big

In Acts 12, King Herod is persecuting Christians. After killing James, he arrests Peter. Peter is put in prison, where he is guarded by "four squads of four soldiers each" (v. 4). Verse 6 actually tells us that Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound by chains, and was surrounded by guards at every exit. In the midst of all this, an angel of the Lord appears and shone a light in the cell (v. 7). The angel wakes Peter up and immediately the chains fell off of him. The angel instructs Peter to put on his clothes and sandals and to follow him. Before Peter could realize what was actually happening, the angel of the Lord had led him all the way out of the city gates, past multiple guards and iron fences. 

Peter, who was in a seemingly impossible situation, was rescued in the simplest way--he walked right out the front door of the prison. Most of us will never find ourselves on the inside of prison walls, but there are many metaphorical prisons that may take us captive each and every day. What does your prison look like? I think that it's easy as humans to focus on the prison, instead of on the Lord. Instead of believing the promises of the Gospel ("For nothing is impossible with God" Luke 1:37), we tend to focus on the chains, the prison guards, and the iron gates that surround us. 

After Peter realized what had happened, he quickly went to tell others about this amazing miracle that the Lord had just performed. But, it was not as easy as you might think. Peter had to be persistent in knocking on doors. No one believed that Peter was not in prison anymore--it was too impossible. But what did Peter do? "But Peter kept on knocking, and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished" (v.16). Peter never gave up trying to tell people about the God that saved him from one of the most impossible situations imaginable. In the same way, we need to be persistent in telling others about the prisons from which God has rescued us! As much as our selfish hearts would like to believe otherwise, God doesn't just rescue us for our benefit--He does it for His glory. 

But we haven't even gotten to the end of the story yet (which is the best part, in my opinion!). King Herod, the same man that was persecuting Christians, is dealt with by God in a way that is nothing less than poetic justice. One day, Herod, wearing his royal robes and sitting upon his royal throne, is met by people exclaiming that he is a god, not a man. Herod, instead of correcting them, goes along with what they are saying. In that instance, verse 23 tells us that Herod is struck down by an angel of the Lord because he did not "give praise to God." What happened to his body? Oh, you know, it was eaten by worms until he died. 'nough said! God 1 Herod 0. 

Exodus 14:14, one of my favorites in the whole Bible, says, "The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still." This story is clearly one of a mighty God fighting for His child. 

The epilogue of the story? "But the word of God continued to spread and flourish" (v. 24). Hmm, so Herod, the "almighty" king, got death-by-worms, and Peter, the lowly prisoner, was set free to spread the Gospel another day! Moral of the story: don't mess with my God! 

Body Talk

I love food. Who doesn't? Fried chicken, chocolate cake, french fries...the list goes on and on! Attending a college surrounded by fast food restaurants is seriously a struggle. But I've always thought that my diet was no big deal. I can eat what I want to eat, it's my body after all, right?

“Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore, honor God with your body.” (1 Corinthians 6:19 NIV)

My body...a temple of the Holy Spirit? No way. This has to be a mistake. It's not my physical body that God wants, it's my heart! Maybe I just didn't want to see the blatant message that the Holy Spirit was trying to tell me, but after reading that verse, I simply couldn't deny it any longer:

"How can you give your heart to God but keep your body for yourself?"

Talk about a spiritual slap in the face! Here I was with a heart for God, but a body for myself. But realizing our bodies are vessels of the Holy Spirit is about much more than just eating healthy. 

I'm a girl. Girls are self-conscious about their bodies. It's a fact. Not a scientifically proven one, but let's be honest. I'm going to go out on a limb here and claim that every girl, no matter what her physical appearance is, has something about her body that makes her unhappy. Curvy girls want to be skinny, skinny girls want to have curves. The cycle is never-ending, and frankly, quite exhausting.

Swimsuit season is coming up soon...shoot me now. Here comes the time of year where women prance around sunny beaches wearing nothing more than publicly acceptable underwear. Even though to some, I may look tall and skinny under my numerous cardigans and mom jeans, I hate wearing a swimsuit. There are few things more torturous than baring it all for the world to see. Recently, I went shopping for a new swimsuit, hoping to get a nice modest one before they all got picked over. I tried on swimsuit after swimsuit, my frustration increasing with each failed attempt to find the magical material and cut that was going to make me look like a Victoria Secret model. 

Then it hit me. Instead of focusing on my cellulite, I should be focusing on the fact that while I may not look exactly the way I want to look, I am healthy, I am loved, and I am still pursued by the Creator of the universe, cellulite and all. 

Comparison is the thief of joy, my friends. Stop looking at the girls on the magazines. Yes, they might have a smaller waist size, but do they have God? Are they aware of the relentless love of Jesus Christ? 

God wants all of us. ALL. Including our bodies. Whether that body is full of soft curves or bony elbows, He wants it. Psalm 45:11 says to, "Let the King be enthralled by your beauty; honor Him, for He is your Lord." Christ is enthralled by the beauty of His daughters. But we are also called to honor Him, and this includes with our bodies. So stop with the extremes. Getting healthy is not the same thing as getting skinny. Don't constantly feed your body trash, but feed your body nonetheless. Don't let your body image become an idol that separates you from intimacy with the Savior.   

No matter what the world says about you, God loves you, desires you, and is ENTHRALLED by you. 
Rest in that promise. Be secure in that promise. Stop striving and start living! 

Chreasters

A Chreaster is someone that attends church only on the major holidays of Christmas and Easter. It's that person that, two times a year, grudgingly gets out of bed early, throws on a suit and tie or some panty hose, and makes an effort to seem as if they have it all together. 

Scanning the Twitter feed throughout the day today, I've seen the phrase, "He is Risen!" proclaimed time and time again by people that I wasn't quite sure even knew the meaning of what they were saying. Jesus rose. FROM THE DEAD.

This. Is. Awesome. News. We should be doing some hardcore Tebowing right now! 

BUT Easter isn't solely about the resurrection of Jesus. I mean, it is, but the implications for His resurrection are so much greater than a 140 character shout-out to Jesus on social media. The main point people are missing is that because He has overcome death to sin, we can too!

"We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his." - Romans 6:4-5

These verses say it all! Through the symbolism of baptism, we are dying to our sinful selves and proclaiming to live a new life through the "glory of the Father." It's crucial that's God's glory is the only meaning, the only goal, and the only mission of our new, resurrected lives. This is only accomplished through the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus! So this leaves me with a question...Are we just going to focus on the surface of this Easter holiday, or are we going to rise with Our Savior and live a life worthy and full of God's precious glory? 

Boldness in Christ

I'm an introvert. A soft-spoken, confrontation-avoiding introvert. Bold is generally not a word I would ever use to describe myself, much less a quality I would ever desire to have. As embarrassing as it is to admit, I tend to strive to be the peace-keeping, people-pleasing Christ "follower." But I realized something recently...can you truly be a follower of Christ if you are solely focused on doing it in a way that is pleasing to everyone? 

While reading through Acts 4 today, I saw how fervently Peter and John prayed for great boldness when preaching the name of Jesus and I started to desire that same boldness. I mean, these guys were praying this prayer the morning after they had been released from jail. FROM JAIL.

You see, Peter and John had stirred up quite a scene back in Acts 3. The two men were walking to the temple for their afternoon prayer time when they encountered a man, who had been lame since birth, begging at the temple gates. When this man asked the disciples for money, Peter turned to the beggar and said, "Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk" (Acts 3:6). The man then gets up, walks, and starts to praise God. In verse 8, it says that he was literally "walking and jumping, and praising God!"

I took a couple of things from that passage:

1. Peter did not spend hours praying some elaborate and fancy prayer over this man for all the onlookers to see. He did it in a way that glorified God, and not himself.
2. There are many problems in the world that could be fixed with silver or gold. Oh how many times I have wished to have the savings account of Bill Gates! If only I were wealthy, then I could fix world hunger. Just write a check and feed all the starving little African children. If only...but look at the gift Peter gives this beggar. He gives him no money at all, but instead gives him the power to WALK! And this gift was only possible in the name of Jesus. How often do we beat ourselves up because we feel we don't have what it takes to heal others? Jesus, people, JESUS! To me, this passage says that JESUS is the ultimate solution to every problem, every pain, and every chain that we will ever encounter!
3. The man that was healed immediately started to praise God. Now I don't know too many people, or any for that matter, that have been physically healed in the way that this man was healed. BUT, I know of several people, myself included, who have been healed in other ways by Jesus. How come we aren't all jumping around and praising God for all the world to hear? Why is it that it seems we ask for a miracle, but yet when the miracle comes about, we are content to thank God privately and record the event in our journal, never to been seen by the eyes of others? 

After Peter had healed the man, people were shocked! They were running up to the disciples, trying their best to get some answers and make sense of what they had seen. Peter says to them in verse 12, "Fellow Israelites, why does this surprise you? Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk?" It's crucial that we don't miss the effort Peter is making to give all the glory to God. In verse 16, he tells the people that it is by faith in the name of Jesus that this man was healed.

Now let's fast forward a little to Acts 4...

Peter and John were preaching the resurrection of Jesus to the same people who had just witnessed this beggar get up and walk for the first time in his life. The combination of hearing about the miracles of Jesus and seeing one firsthand brought 5,000 people to Christ that day. WOW! One man healed = 5,000 new believers. I'm sure that after this day, the man who was healed probably continued to praise God for this miracle of being able to walk...thus bringing even more people to Jesus. 

Because of the scene that was made that day, Peter and John were arrested and thrown into jail that very night. It says in Acts 4, that the jailers told the two men to never speak or teach in the name of Jesus again. So you know what Peter and John did? They said (directly to the jailers, I might add), that they were not going to stop. MAN! Talk about courage! Peter and John looked these people in the eye, these people who had the power to keep them in a dank and dirty jail, and said that they were never going to stop talking about Jesus. Instead of trying to please the jailers, these two men proclaimed that they were never going to stop spreading the Gospel! As if that wasn't a bold enough move, the moment the two disciples got out of jail, they prayed to God that they would have great boldness in which to preach the Word! 

So this leaves me with a few questions. WHAT IF...we never stopped praising God for healing us? WHAT IF...we refused to shut up when it came to making the name of Jesus known? WHAT IF...we prayed for great boldness in which to bring people to Christ instead of being quiet peace-keeping, people-pleasers?

The book of Acts is workin' on me, y'all! So today I'm proclaiming that I am no longer the introverted girl that strives to put people's sensitive feelings above the Gospel. I'm just a daughter of the King that is powerfully praying for the same boldness that was given to Peter and John. The power to never shut up, never give up, and to never stop telling the world about Jesus!