IllustrationFriday.com Challenge: Puzzled

The challenge this week is the word “Puzzled” and it drew to mind probably my favorite video to date. Entirely created on a puzzle, each piece becomes an individual face all interlocked and interconnected, much like our lives. When we find ourselves interconnected with so many different people with different dreams and visions and values, it can make life, well puzzling and leave us with a lot of questions. This video addresses them. Please take a few minutes to watch it. I think you’ll be blessed and if you are blessed, spread it around.

The world can be a puzzle and you’re a piece of it. The puzzling nature of this world gives us a lot of questions. As this piece of art (set to the music of Kutless) comes together, hopefully you’ll begin to see where you fit

A Modern Day Parable

There once was a young man driving down the road of life, going too fast and in the wrong direction. People tried to warn him that the bridge ahead was weak and wouldn’t sustain him, but what did they know? They hadn’t been down this road, and even if they had, it was long ago.

Finally one day, he came to the bridge. It looked fine and he charged ahead. The bridge failed under the weight of his speeding car and he plunged into the pit below, falling to the bottom with a mighty crash. When he regained consciousness, a mysterious stranger was helping him out of his car and then helped him to climb out of the pit.

Hurting and broken but wiser, the young man made a decision. He would be the bridge’s last victim. He would honor the man who helped him by keeping people out of the pit. Day after day he positioned himself just up the road from the bridge trying to get people to turn around. He would wave his arms and yell and do what he could to get them to stop. “The Bridge is Out!” He cried. Some looked at him as if he was crazy. Some gave him the finger. One stopped and said, “Who are you to tell me what to do? Who gave you the authority? Who are you to tell me to turn around?” Everyone who passed him felt totally justified as they plummeted off the cliff.

Most of the time it felt like thankless work, but the residual pain of his own injuries and the memory of the mysterious stranger compelled him to continue. Occasionally someone turned around and that made it all worthwhile.

How do I know this? I am that man.

What God REALLY Prefers

Ephesians 2:1 says, “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins…” This shows the horror of the human condition. Do you get that? Our lives without Christ are like a bad zombie movie. We’re walking around dead and too dumb to fall over. Or at least I was….my sin was killing me and I didn’t care. I set up this fake, arbitrary standard of goodness where as long as I could find someone I was better than, I was okay. Know anyone like that? This is what we fail to understand.

There was a picture of a church sign going around Facebook this week that said God prefers kind atheists to hateful Christians. The moral of the story according to the person who posted it was you don’t need religion to be a good moral person. I think the poster was missing the point and I think the church that posted it was way off. Should Christians be kind and loving? We should be the kindest most loving people on the planet… should be… and sometimes we’re not, but…

When I first read the sign and the subtitle, I wanted to laugh. Now don’t get me wrong I really don’t like religion either. I’d much rather have a relationship with the God of the universe than a bunch of lifeless rules, but I’m still kind of wondering where all these good moral people are, because, and I’m sorry to say this, but I’ve never met one. I mean come on, let’s just be real. Have you ever met anyone who could… forget God’s law for a second… have you ever met anyone who could even live up to their own moral code? I haven’t and that includes me. I know some wonderful people, people I really like, people I really love, people I’d do anything for and people who would do anything for me, (and incidentally they’re not all believers…yet) but I’ve still never met anyone but Jesus who hasn’t blatantly done something they know is wrong, on purpose. We don’t need religion to be good moral people, we need something much stronger than that. We need the living God. We need Jesus and we need grace.

God prefers kind atheists over hateful Christians? No, God loves kind atheists and hateful Christians and they both break His heart. Neither the atheist nor the hateful Christian can see his need for grace. One rejects His existence and the other rejects His love, both are sinners. God wants people who will turn from all of that and follow His son. Everyone needs grace.

If God prefers anyone, I think God prefers people who will love Him enough to really love Him and others and love them enough that they show through their words AND their actions, the God that can make even atheists change their minds.

From this Sunday’s message “What’s So Amazing About Grace?” NewCreationMuhlenberg.com