God Meant It For Good: Celebrating My Spiritual Birthday

As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. (Genesis 50:20)

Today, June 18, I turn 15 years old in Christ. And looking back over my life, though it hasn't all been pleasant, God has been in it, working for my good and his glory. So I thought it would be fitting today to share some of God's working in my life. I pray that you would be encouraged by my story and that you would celebrate God's gift of salvation with me on this important day.

Genesis 50:20 is a verse that has taken me years to understand. In fact, I still don't grasp it in all of its fullness. But God has graciously shown me that I am where I am today in spite of the evil done to me because of his good intentions amidst the evil.

You Meant Evil Against Me
This is probably one of the hardest blog posts to write. In fact, I have been struggling with writing it for months. But I feel my story needs to be told for two reasons. First, so that others who may be in the same place may be able to see God's grace in the midst of it. And second, because it's a reminder to me how God has been faithful despite everything that has happened. What I'm writing here is something that few who know me actually know. I will not recount my whole life story, but rather focus on one thing: a great evil done to me.

From the ages of 11-16, I was sexually abused. I will not name my perpetrator here, nor will I give much detail. It took me years to understand that what was happening was indeed abuse. And I didn't tell anyone until several years later.

The time of being abused was very difficult for me. I felt ashamed. Guilty. Like I had done something wrong. I was confused. Devasted. It left me without a sense of who I was, and I came to doubt that God cared for me or could even love me. I became bitter and depressed, lashing out in anger often. When I was 13, I was near suicidal, contemplating whether or not I should continue to try in life. I hated everything. I had reached the end of myself, but had nowhere to turn.

But God Meant It For Good
God had great mercy on me during this time. He set it up so that I would go to church camp the week of June 17-21, 1996. That Tuesday night, June 18, I realized that I needed God's forgiveness and that Christ died so that I could be saved. I also realized that my life was a mess and that Jesus looked better to me than the ways I had been managing. I asked Jesus into my life, and for the first time I realized that God did in fact love me.

There was a dramatic change in my life. I was lashing out less and less in anger. I started doing well in school. While depression remained, I didn't see suicide as an option. Instead, I saw more and more that God was walking with me through the pain and confusion I was dealing with. He was leading me to where he wanted me to be.

The abuse still continued for a few more years, as did the guilt, the shame, and the silence. I am having to learn what forgiveness is and how to go about it. I still struggle with identity and my sense of self. Some of the painful effects remain to this day. But I no longer face it alone. I may not know who I am, but I know whose I am, and that makes all the difference. I am a child of God. And the truth that he speaks over me is more important than the lies of a thousand evils done against me. I am learning to trust my heavenly Father as he leads me into all the good that he planned from the start.

I may be 28 years old, but today, I am 15 in Christ. He saved me, gave me new life, and made me his own child by the blood of his Son Jesus, who loved me and gave himself for me. Praise God for his good work in me!

The Beauty and Necessity of Missions

This is post #3 about missions. View my first post and my second post.

Romans 10 contains one of the greatest promises in all of Scripture. Without such a promise, we would all be lost, doomed to a Christless eternity under God's wrath, paying the penalty for our failure to honor and worship God (2 Thessalonians 1:9; Romans 1:18-23). But God was not content to send all of us to hell as we deserve. He gave his own Son to die for our sins so that we could live with him (John 3:16, Romans 3:21-26, Romans 5:8). And he gives us the greatest promise in the world:

For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Romans 10:13)

Who is it for? Everyone. No matter where your from, no matter what you've done. If you are a living, breathing human being (and if you are reading this, you are), then this promise is for you.

What's the offer? To be saved. Given eternal life with God rather than eternal punishment as we deserve. To be given new life and set free from the sin that has cut us off from God. To have the God of the universe look at you and, rather than see your imperfection, to call you righteous.

What do you have to do to "cash in"? Call on him. Acknowledge that he is and will be the Lord and Master of your life. That he is your King. Confess Jesus Christ as risen Lord (see Romans 10:9-10).

There is salvation no other way. Only through Jesus do we find salvation and have access to God (Acts 4:12; John 14:6). So by acknowledging Christ as our Lord, we receive salvation. To not call on him, to not make him Lord and King of your heart is to remain condemned.

Calling on Christ as Lord implies belief. Romans 10:14 makes it clear: "How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed?" Belief comes from the heart (Romans 10:9-10) and implies not only mental assent to certain facts, but a commitment to and trust in the one being believed. So to believe in Christ and call on him in a saving way, we must trust him, rely on him, cling to him, and obey him. But he is not a hard Master. In fact he even promises that he is gentle and that his burden is easy and his yoke is light (Matthew 11:29-30).

It's no wonder why we call this message "good news!"

Not Great News

This is not good news to everyone though. "But wait just a minute," you say. "You just said that this promise is for EVERYONE. Therefore it's good news for EVERYONE, right?" Yes. And no.

This good news is for every person on earth. But not every person on earth knows it. So what good is the news if you don't even know about it? Is a miracle cure for cancer good news to the person who hasn't heard of it? Likewise with the gospel. The rest of Romans 10:14 asks, "? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard?" You can't trust someone you haven't heard of.

Hearing the Good News

We've seen that it's necessary for people to believe and call upon the Lord to be saved. But how do they hear the message? In fact, as Romans 10:14 closes out: "And how are they to hear without someone preaching?"

So here we see the necessity of doing missions. Unless someone goes and takes the gosepl to those who have never heard, they will never believe in Christ. And if they don't believe, they'll never call to him for salvation. There can be no other way for the nations to believe unless people go to them and tell them the good news. Missionaries must go, learn a new language and culture, meet people, preach the gospel, and possibly suffer and die for Christ to take the gospel to the nations.

We are all to be involved in missions in one of two ways: go or send. Goers, as the name implies, go where the gospel is not and take the gospel to people who do not have it. And there are senders - those who pray for and give to and support missionaries. Romans 10:15 makes this relationship clear: "And how are they [goers] to preach unless they are sent [by senders]?"

A Beautiful Calling

Being a missionary is a hard calling. It demands daily dying. It means loss and often suffering on many levels.

Being a missionary is also a necessary calling. Without missionaries, the gospel cannot reach those who do not have it. Without missionaries, the gospel won't spread tot he nations, and the end won't come.

But being a missionary is also (and most importantly) a beautiful calling. Romans 10:15 closes with this exhortation: "As it is written, 'How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!'" We should all pray to have this beautiful calling and seek possible ways to enter in to it. But if God sees it fit not to call you to go, then rejoice and pray and give as a faithful sender!

What's So Good About Good Friday?

A few years ago I gave a message to a youth group in Turkey with this title. The point: what is it about the horrible torture and brutal murder of Christ that leads us to refer to today as Good Friday? It seems kind of odd that his pain, suffering, and tragedy could ever be considered good. So I would like to take up the question again: What is so "good" about Good Friday?
I've heard people say that the cross was the victory of Satan. But this, according to the Bible, is wrong. Satan did not win at the cross. In fact, he actually destroyed himself. We give him too much credit if we even say that it was his idea. The cross was God's idea. It was God's doing. Don't believe me? Good. Check out what the Bible says:

"Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief" (Isaiah 53:10)

"Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men" (Acts 2:23)

"for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, 28 to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place" (Acts 4:27-28)

Even though other people carried it out, the cross was God's idea and God's doing. And it was for our good. Consider with me three truths from Colossians 2:13-14:

And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. 15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.

We Were Dead, But By the Cross We Can Be Made Alive
Because we do not trust God, we are dead in sin (see Ephesians 2:1). But now, because of the cross, God makes us alive. Those who trust in Christ have been brought from death to life.

We Were Debtors, But by the Cross Our Debt is Cancelled
The debt record against us was huge. "The wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23). We could not pay this back, no matter how hard we tried. Our fate with this debt is eternal separation from God. We are doomed to Hell if not for help. And now we can be forgiven. How? By the cross. God nails our sin to the cross and we bear it no more.

Satan and His Forces Are Now Disarmed and Defeated
Satan is our accuser (Revelation 12:10). He seeks to condemn us because of our sin against God. But, as we just saw, God took our sin and nailed it to the cross. So what does Satan have to say now? His mouth has been shut. He can't bring up our sin anymore. He has nothing to hold against us before God. And so he is shamed for trying to do so.

What's So Good About Good Friday?
So now we end where we began. I now ask the same question to you: what do you think makes good Friday good? Is it a day off from work? Is it the signaling of Spring Break? Maybe travel with family or something of the likes? Or is it the most precious day when God took away your sins, nailed them to the cross, shut up your accuser, and gave you new life? Is Christ the reason for your Good Friday? I pray that he is. If he's not, turn to him now. Trust him and follow him.