Jesus is the Word.

In this blog-series on “words,” I probably should have started here. Perhaps there is no other energy more vital to the words that matter, than this reality. Jesus is the Word. Jesus matters. Words matter.  John, one of Jesus’ closest disciples wrote these words recorded in his gospel.

So the Word became human and lived here on earth among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness.  And we have seen his glory, the glory of the only Son of the Father. John 1:14

It is not enough to study the example of Jesus we need to devote our hearts and our minds upon the glories of Jesus.  And it is not enough to say, “Christ is full of glory” and then leave that general statement hanging in the air as though it is self-explanatory.  We need to get specific.

We must ponder the wisdom of Christ…   We must ponder his authority… We must ponder his providence… We must ponder his word that upholds the universe — the word — that when heaven and earth pass away will stand like a rock…  We must ponder his power…  We must talk about his purity… We must think and ponder about his trustworthiness, he has never broken his promise.  We must ponder his justice.  The heartbeat of redemption is justice. When Jesus died he did justice to God.  We need to talk about his patience… We need to talk about his endurance….  We must ponder his grace that justifies us and overwhelms us with blessings that we do not, could not deserve.  We must talk about his love… which was shown as deeply in the act of washing feet as it was while hanging on a cross.

If words matter, really matter than we can not speak all day long of things that matter less than the Word.  We cannot spend all day long talking about everything but Jesus.

Henry Scougal was a chld prodigy. He attended the University of Aberdeen in Scotland at the age of 15. At 19 he was appointed instructor of philosophy at the University. After 4 years of teaching, he left the university for a 1 year pastorate. After that he was called back to the University to teach in their divinty school. But what attracts me to him was not his achievements so much as it was the fact that it was said of him, that his whole soul seemed to be swallowed up in the contemplation of Jesus Christ.

I want to be like that because the Word matters.

I was a freshman in college when I first started dating my wife Lynn. It was the end of our freshman year and we started dating just before the end of school. All of a sudden, she was all the way out to Stroudsburg, PA — about 1200 miles from MN. So of course during the summer I decided that I needed to drive out and see her, two hour phone conversations just weren’t quite enough. So I took my first visit to PA. And it also ended up being my first visit to the Vanity Fair outlet malls in Reading.

Cheap jeans. But not just cheap jeans, even cheaper than cheap jeans. I was introduced to jeans that were even cheaper than cheap outlet jeans. I remember the very first time I found the “as-is” room.

Do you know what I’m talking about? The “as-is” room — sometimes referred to as the “slightly irregular” room. Which for those of you over 50 has absolutely nothing to do with bathrooms. The “as-is” room was the place where slightly ir-regular jeans went to be sold. This was the place to find cheap (college-priced) jeans.

As long as you understood that the jeans in this room were less than perfect, damaged goods, not normal. That’s why they come “as-is.” The store is issuing you a general warning that nothing in this room is guaranteed to be flaw-free. There might be a stain that won’t come out, or a zipper that won’t zip, or a button that won’t click, or a stitch that zigs when it should’ve zagged.

They never told you where or what the flaw was. You had to look for it. They were just letting you know that sooner or later if you look, you will find. This garment is not flaw-free. It comes as-is, no returns, no refunds.

Now if you are in a public space, take a moment and look around. Go ahead, I’ll stop writing for a moment so that you don’t miss anything. …. Okay please hear me say this with the utmost of grace and kindness. If this was the outlet mall in Reading, when you walked in you would’ve seen a great big sign across the door, labeling this the “as-is” room of life. Every person here comes with the warning “slightly ir-regular.” There is not a single person in those room who comes flaw-free. If you look you will find it; .

That’s right.

• – You will find a person who can’t wait to cut down her friends, because it makes her forget for a moment all the stuff she hates about herself.
• – You will find the guy who has an out-of-control temper.
• – You will find a sarcastic tongue that makes some people laugh and some people feel bad.
• – You will find streaks of dcptn, & hearts lacking integrity.
• – You will find laziness, grumpiness, obsessive-compulsiveness, the stains of sins past, broken hopes and dreams.

I can’t tell you what it is or where you will find… I just want to make sure you know that it’s there.  Some of us just hide it better than others. We wear our flaws on the inside, behind the closed doors of a bricked up heart; some of us pretend that we are normal. But Jesus; set the standard of normal in God’s economy and right now, “as-is” is all we got. And in our heart of hearts, most of us know that, don’t we?

But here is the Good News — If you are a follower of Jesus, when God looks at you, He doesn’t see you “as-is.”  He sees you “as-will be.”

33 miners.  69 days underground.  Bad News.  Their world has been filled with darkness, murky air, cramped space, little beauty, and the constant awareness that there is something more to life than what they have been experiencing.  But then a rescuer arrives, he comes from a place where life is so much more than what they have been experiencing.  A life filled with light, relationships, fresh air, life awaits them.

The rescuer describes the route to life, what to expect from the journey, how long it might take.  Then the first miner steps inside the rescue capsule.  It’s small.  No room to move your arms during your half mile journey into life.  As I’m watching the first miner come out, I’m reminded just a bit of birth…it’s like they are being born again.  The capsule comes up out of the ground the crowd — family, friends, those who have worked for the rescue — give out a cheer.   The miner steps out, the hugging ensues, reuniting with family.  His father welcomes him home.  Good News.

It made me think of the gospel — rescue attempts, born again journey, the cheer of a family welcoming you to life.  Gospel.  Good News.

It also made me think of heaven.  Which I guess is something like being born again — again.  Imagine if the cave 1/2 mile below ground was all you knew.  It was the extent of your life.  You would make the best of it, and perhaps at times you might even have moments of thinking… “This is as good as it gets.” There are rumors of another world, rumors of something more up above, moments of hope but lots of darkness.  But then the rescuer comes from the world above and provides a way of rescue, as long as you are willing to make the long journey through darkness into the light.

I love good questions, ones that make you think. Jon Ortberg asks one in his book, Everybody’s Normal Till You Get to Know Them. He asks, “What were the most exciting five minutes of your life?” What were they for you?

– The last part of a marathon race that you won.
– When your daughter graduated from college.
– Those five minutes surrounding the words… I do.
– Maybe it’s a Christmas memory… or the birth of one of your kids…

Ortberg suggests that if we could remember them, there’s a good chance that our most exciting five minutes would’ve been our first five minutes. Imagine after 9 months of isolation, darkness, muted sounds, and subdued sensations…you burst into this world of light, color, sounds, tastes, and people…this unknown, strangely familar world, a whole new experience previously beyond your wildest dreams.

But think about this…if the first five minutes of your life were the most exciting to this point…perhaps the most amazing five minutes you will ever experience will be the first five minutes after you die. Imagine that.

For centuries, minds have pondered, books have been written, movies have been produced, all trying to peer beyond the veil…five minutes after you die, you will know…what we have tried to imagine. You will begin to experience a life that goes beyond this world. You will take the first bites of your forever destiny.  Jon Ortberg writes,

Those five minutes are really coming. Whatever lies beyond them, they are inevitable. They will happen for every one of us. Thisis reality. Think about the sights you will see, the voices you will hear, the experiences you will have. The writers of scripture say that for every human being those five minutes will indicate an eternal destiny of either indescribable joy or unspeakable loss.

To find indescribable joy, we simply need to be rescued.  We need to have someone make a way, and show us the way.  And can I tell you, when you need someone to make a way, and show you the way, it helps if He is the Way.  That’s what Jesus claimed to be.  If you feel the need to be rescued, ask Jesus.  What lies ahead is simply indescribably — Good News.

We need to understand something about Jesus. Jesus was a first century Jewish Rabbi. He was a great Rabbi. Rabbi’s of those days would usually have their own interpretation of Old Testament law, their own philosophies of how to best live life. Those Rabbi’s would then promote their ways of life and understanding… usually trying to recruit followers; people through whom they could pass down their heart, mind and way of life. People would come and say, “I want to follow you.”

The Rabbi’s interpretation and way of life was called his ‘yoke’. If you were a follower, you would go under the yoke of that Rabbi. Which meant that not only would you try to learn all his knowledge, you would try to be like him in every aspect of life. That’s why Jesus says to a crowd and beckons them to follow by saying in Matthew 11:28-30:

“Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

As people would come to the Rabbi… the Rabbi would screen potential followers. What was he looking for? People who would take his yoke. Learn from him and become like him. So the driving question the Rabbi, always had to ask was, “Can this person become… Does this person have what it takes to become like me?

There was a Jewish saying repeated often — a type of blessing — “May you be covered in the dust of your Rabbi.” In other words, may you follow so closely to your Rabbi that you get covered in his dust. Or may all that the Rabbi is rub off on you.

So now go to this vignette of Peter and John in Acts 4.  (This is post-resurrection.) They are standing in front of the Jewish High Council, the Sanhedrin, part of the group which had rejected Christ all the way to a cross. This group of powerful people are telling Peter and John to stop doing acts of kindness…to stop healing people in Jesus name. They are telling Peter to quit telling people about Jesus.  So what does Peter do. Starts preaching to these men…here’s what happened….

Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus. Acts 4:13 (ESV)

When these leaders saw the boldness, the willingness to sacrifice, the passion and commitment of Peter and John and realized that they were common uneducated men — they recognized that they had been with Jesus.  I love that. Do you understand what a compliment that was for Peter and John. These men were saying…I see Jesus in you.  The Rabbi’s dust has settled on you. I love it because it tells me that – It’s okay to be ordinary, uneducated, or untrained as long as I’ve been with Jesus. I love it because it tells me that if I hang out  with Jesus…I’m going to leave a mark.

When people look at us, do they realize that we have been with Jesus?  Has Jesus left His mark on us?

So a few days ago, I was having a conversation with a friend of mine — Ben — and we started talking about words, the importance of and power of words.  So I’m asking the question, do words matter?  I’m a follower of one who is called “The Word” so words matter to me.  I’m a preacher by passion and calling so words matter to me.  My formative church years were spent with groups of people who labeled themselves, “people of the Word” so words matter to me.  But before we say more…here is some of what The Word says about words.

The tongue the brings healing is a tree of life, but a deceitful tongue crushes the spirit. Proverbs 15:4  (NIV)

Words satisfy the mind as much as fruit does the stomach; good talk is as gratifying as a good harvest.  Words kill, words give life; they’re either poison or fruit — you choose. Proverbs 18:20-21 (MSG)

Thoughtless words can wound as deeply as any sword, but wisely spoken words can heal. Proverbs 12:18 (TEV)

But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. Matthew 12:36 (NIV)

Dear brothers and sisters, not many of you should become teachers in the church, for we who teach will be judged more strictly. Indeed, we all make many mistakes. For if we could control our tongues, we would be perfect and could also control ourselves in every other way.  We can make a large horse go wherever we want by means of a small bit in its mouth. And a small rudder makes a huge ship turn wherever the pilot chooses to go, even though the winds are strong. In the same way, the tongue is a small thing that makes grand speeches. But a tiny spark can set a great forest on fire. And the tongue is a flame of fire. It is a whole world of wickedness, corrupting your entire body. It can set your whole life on fire, for it is set on fire by hell itself. People can tame all kinds of animals, birds, reptiles, and fish, but no one can tame the tongue. It is restless and evil, full of deadly poison. Sometimes it praises our Lord and Father, and sometimes it curses those who have been made in the image of God. And so blessing and cursing come pouring out of the same mouth. Surely, my brothers and sisters, this is not right! Does a spring of water bubble out with both fresh water and bitter water? Does a fig tree produce olives, or a grapevine produce figs? No, and you can’t draw fresh water from a salty spring. James 3:1-12  (NLT)

A tree is identified by its fruit. If a tree is good, its fruit will be good. If a tree is bad, its fruit will be bad…  For whatever is in your heart determines what you say. A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. Matthew 12:33‑35 (NLT)

It seems like words matter.  Good words matter.  Bad words matter.  What kind of words do you major in?

I had a great conversation with a friend this week — about words.  Words matter.  I’ve been thinking about this a lot the last few days. Last night while I was google-chatting with one of our partners in Myanmar, I was thinking that words matter. Especially when you don’t understand the language.

Sometimes we are tempted to think that words are just words. Right?  We live in a world filled with words — word overload.  We can google a word and in .08 seconds find 4.5 million times where it was used on the internet. Billions of text messages flow through cyber space every day… filled with significant, meaningful words like watcha doing. Just words.

Is there really such a thing as just words? There are times when you’ve been so impacted by words, that in your heart of hearts you know what Solomon meant when he wrote, The tongue the brings healing is a tree of life, but a lie crushes the spirit. (Proverbs 15:4)

Words can hurt. I still remember the first time, some kids said that I was fat.  Almost four decades ago, those words were said, but they still carry weight.  Maybe there was a word that was said — or left unsaid in your life that hurt.

Words can also bring life. When Jake was about three years old, he spoke some life-giving words.  It was one of those naughty-as-can-be-days, Lynn and I were dating that night, but because of her rough day with Jake, she was late getting ready.  We were going somewhere nice — not outrageously fancy, but nice — so she was dressed up a bit.  As she was coming done the stairs, Jake was standing at the bottom of the steps, he looked up, his mouth dropped and he said, “Mom, you look just like a princess.”

Those words reshaped a whole day. And those are just little boy-words…Think about the potential power of God-Words…to give life.

In Psalm 33:6, the psalmist writes, “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and all their host by the breath of his mouth.”  In Genesis there is no world until God starts talking. His words create a whole new world.  Do you think he might be able to create something new in your heart, new in your life with just a word?

Jesus knew the power of words to give life…that was one thing that made him attractive to so many people — the power of his words. One time Jesus and his friends were going through a tough time and many people were leaving Jesus.  So Jesus asked his friends, (John 6:68) “Do you also want to leave?” “Peter replied, “Master, to whom would we go?  You have the words of real life.

Don’t underestimate the power of words.  In our media rich culture sometimes we forget the power of words, but words matter.  Think about the words you have been speaking… and the words you have been hearing.  What’s coming in?  What’s going out?  Words matter.

A couple of weeks ago, the whole Calvary family gathered together at Eisenhower for a worship gathering.  We invited our friends and a couple of thousand people were there to ponder the prodigal love of God. (If you didn’t get a chance to join us click Prodigal God to watch.)  It was a great day.  God showed up and touched a bunch of hearts.  So in three blog posts I shared some of my thoughts about what God did.  So one last blog post related to Calvary on Campus…not so much what God did, but what God is doing. Leaving the past tense to ponder future tense.

The day after Calvary on Campus, someone sent me these words in an e-mail…

I just wanted to add confirmation to your your inspired call to “the broken” on Sunday. I believe it was not only a call to the crowd gathered but to the campus community and that the Lord will honor the call and it will bear fruit in the coming months of this academic year. There will be testimonies that will build faith in the body of Christ in the Valley.

In other words he was saying, “Dan it’s not done.”  That really resonated with my heart.  In the 21 days leading up to Calvary on Campus…many of us were on the campus prayer-walking.  For those who walked and prayed it simply seemed like God was stirring up something in our hearts.  But when Calvary on Campus was done…it felt like the stirring…was still stirring.

The day after Calvary on Campus — my day off — Lynn and I were driving and talking.  We spent a good part of our time together talking about Calvary on Campus and the 21 Days of Prayer.  What I had sensed in my heart, God had already put on her heart.  Calvary on Campus was not a culmination.  It was not just an event.  It is supposed to be the beginning, of the beginning.

Recently someone who spent a good deal of time prayer-walking wrote me these words…

As I prayed over the 21 days, sometimes on a prayer-walk, sometimes not, I kept asking God to show me what’s on his heart for Penn State students and to let us see students as He does…  There are hundreds, maybe thousands of young people out there who have been so wounded… my heart is wrenched over the hurt these young people have felt/carry and I can’t help but think, how the Lord must weep over knowing and seeing it all.  I keep saying to Him, “Show me what to do with this opportunity that is literally at my doorstep and don’t let me miss what YOU are up to, God!”  …I think I’m getting it… as a result of prayer-walking on campus and of Calvary on Campus what seems to be on God’s heart is the broken, lonely students and He longs for His people to do something more intentional about it.

So at the moment, we believe God is calling us to continue our prayer-walking on campus.  As Lynn and I have talked about how to make this happen…we decided to survey the staff to see who might be willing to continue the prayer.  Almost everyone said yes.  So know I want to give you an opportunity to let us know if you would like to continue.  

The easiest way for us to do that is through a zoomerang survey.  So would you please click this link PRAYER ON CAMPUS, and take the survey.  It’s 6 questions, won’t take you more than a few minutes.

Thanks!  I’m excited to see what God wants to keep doing!

Psychologist Jonathon Haidt suggests a hypothetical exercise. Imagine that you have a child, and for five minutes you’re given a script of what will be that child’s life. You get an eraser and permission to edit the life — erase whatever you want.

You read that your child will have a learning disability in grade school. Reading, which comes easily for some kids, will be a discouraging chore for yours. In high school, your kids will make a great circle of friends; then one of them will die of cancer. After high school your child will get into a good college, but during college, will be in a car crash and lose a leg, and then go into a season of difficult depression. A few years later, your child will get a great job — then lose it in an economic downturn. Your child will get married, have children, but then lose a child, and then get divorced.

You get this script for your child’s life and have five minutes to edit it. What would you erase? Wouldn’t you want to take out all the stuff that would cause them pain? I know I would. But if we could erase every failure, every setback, every suffering and pain — are we really sure it would be a good idea?

Would it cause our child to grow up to be a better, stronger, more generous person? What if the adversity and setbacks were necessary for your child to become a man or woman of integrity? What if the pain actually expanded the capacity of their hearts to love? What if taking away the trauma took away an opportunity to show someone the grace of God at work in your life? What if that opportunity changed their life? What if it is perseverance through hardship that transforms us into people of hope?

If so, and God erased what we would erase…would He still be a good God? Somewhere along the line we got the idea that if God really loved us, He would make life comfortable, but the reality is that suffering is within the scope of God’s loving design.

It isn’t always the case that those who go through difficult times — grow through difficult times. Sometimes — for at least a season — the hard times may seem to break us. But if in the midst of the mess we draw closer to God, we will, in time see the beauty in the mess. I think that’s what James — the brother of Jesus — meant when he said, “Consider it joy when you go through the mess…”

For those of you in the mess…if you want to think a bit more about hope, that’s what we talked about last weekend at Calvary. Just click

I know a guy — don’t you love stories that start with that phrase, I’m always wondering if I’m that guy — who struggles as a leader.  He doesn’t struggle thinking he’s a leader.  He struggles being one.  His followers quit following.

 His employees quit working.  His volunteers quit volunteering.  Typically he thinks it’s their fault — bad followers. I’m spending some time this weekend with Jorn Junod and Discovery Road’s leadership, so I’ve got my mind saturated in leadership stuff today — thinking about followers and leaders.

Steve May tells a story that reminds me of some of the dynamics of leadership.  A while back, he was putting gas in his car and a truck driver pulled over and approaced him. With a think accent, the truck driver said, “Excuse me. I don’t speak English. How to find Interstate 40?”

Steve turned to the man and said as loudly as he could (funny how we believe volume makes English more comprehensible, maybe that explains why when we are misunderstood we start to yell…), “Well, if you need to get to I-40 you’ll have to turn around and go up the other way. The best way is to cut across the road here, and then go west about a half a mile till you get to 45 bypass. Take that south for about 12 miles and then you’ll come to an overpass….”

How much of that do you think the english-challenged driver could understand?

The truck driver looked at him helplessly. Steve realized his words weren’t getting through. Then an idea occurred to him. He stopped and spoke two words the truck driver understood: “Follow me.” Relieved, he hopped in his truck, waiting for Steve to pull out on the road. 15 minutes later, as they approached the interstate Steve waved him on. He beeped his horn in appreciation.

There are some obvious leadership applications.

1) The lessons I’ve learned best in life are not the ones that have been shouted at me. They’re the ones that have been demonstrated by people with the capacity to lead by example.
2) Sometimes I’m more open to being led when I admit that I don’t know where I’m going. But to admit I don’t know where I’m going, I either have to be desperate or trusting.
3) When I choose who I’m going to follow, it would be wise to make sure that person knows the way.
4) Shouting doesn’t help those who don’t understand.
5) It’s easy to tell others how to do something, but sometimes it’s more effective to show them.
6) When I’m in need I’m willing to follow almost anyone who will stop and help. It shows me they care. As GenX preacher David Edwards says, “It’s not enough to be right, we have to be real.

The greatest leader who ever lived, died and lived again — Jesus — once said, (John 14) “>I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me. He didn’t say, I’ll tell you the way He said, I am the way. That means we the best thing we can do is follow Him! During the last few months in our sermon series we have been exploring what it looks like to live like Jesus and leave a mark like Jesus.  It involves following…

To the Corinthians, Paul said…”I urge you to imitate me…Follow my example as I follow the example of Christ.” (1 Corinthians 4:16; 11:1) Can we, like Paul, say that we are following close enough in the footsteps of Jesus that we are comfortable saying to others, Follow me, because I’m following Jesus?

Here’s the deal — ponder this one — Jesus isn’t looking for fans…or facebook friends.  He’s looking for followers.  There’s a difference.

I love this truth — the work of God is the work of God. Sometimes we forget that and we think the work of God is the work of us.  Now I know there is a tension there, because God calls us to partner with Him and God has not only created us, He has planned good works for us to do. Here is how we express that tension — between God’s work and our works — at Calvary. We say, “We give God our best, because He deserves it, not because He needs it!”

One of the many — very good — reminders that God gave us through the 21 Days of Prayer leading up to Calvary on campus is that when we pray…God works. Here is an email I received from a young man whom God is working in…and through…

Pastor Dan,

Calvary on campus hit me in an unexpected way this week. I was sitting close to the stage, so I didn’t see how many people were there until I decided to turn around and look in the middle of one of the songs. For some reason, in that moment, my entire Penn State career came together. This is my senior year and I hadn’t reflected on my time here as a whole until Sunday. Penn State has been my college and my employer, and Calvary has been my church for as long as I have been a college student. Gathering in Eisenhower brought together everything I have experienced here. Everything was represented on Sunday: school, work, church, friends, and a whole lot of life learning.

The question at the beginning of your sermon “Do you know how much you are loved?” literally brought a tear to my eye. I realized, possibly for the first real time, that I had survived and learned a lifetime of lessons in the past three years of my life now I am able to see God in every piece of it. Through each academic challenge, relationship issue, hard day at work, and especially in my many mistakes, I have seen God’s love. I didn’t see it or call it that at the time, but now I recognize his protection over me and his forgiveness for my stupidities.

I will be student teaching this spring, which means that I had to get many background checks and clearances to enter the school. I only say that to preface the fact that I have made several mistakes that could have kept me out of the classroom forever, but God patiently carried me through some very difficult lessons. Before I ever even imagined that I would be a teacher, God protected my career.

Standing, singing, surrounded by a few thousand people I felt God’s love as a real, tangible gift for the first time in my life. Thank you for helping to guide me to this.

Now really, don’t you just love to watch what God does so that we can talk about what God did?  If God did something in you at Calvary on Campus… we would love to hear about it.  Comment here or shoot me an email.