LifeLift

Jesus not only died in our place, He also lived in our place…

That is, He gives you His death and He gives you His life… and more— that’s actually just the tip of the iceberg.

Let me explain…

500 years ago, Martin Luther taught that Jesus walked among us and lived as a man from birth all the way to age 33 in order to capture the essence of being a truly alive human, one who lives fully to the glory of God. He lived a lifetime of obedience that neither you or I have.

Then, at the Cross, He doesn’t just give us His death, sacrificing His blood for ours. No, He gives us His life, too— the resurrected life.

Further, He doesn’t only gift us that resurrected life, He offers us full credit for all of His obedience, thereby taking all of our sin on Himself in the process.

This, Luther concluded, is what Paul meant when he penned, “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21 NKJV).

Luther called it "The Glorious Exchange.”

Or, as some translators term it, "The Wonderful Trade.”.

And, once you understand it, it TOTALLY changes how you see your identity, who you are...

Paul says that— in light of the bigger reality of Jesus’ work on our behalf, everything we’ve been included in— we should no longer “regard” anyone according to the flesh (2 Corinthians 5:16 ESV)…

From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer.

That is, we shouldn’t value people based on what they look like in their mortal bodies-- the surface appearance.

(That's what everyone looks at-- the "outer shell"-- but there's so much more, so Paul tells us to look deeper, go internal and look eternal.).

How could we— There’s obviously so much more that’s true that we can’t see?

Jesus continues calling us to look at the things that are eternal, to the places in each of us where He’s already done that greatest work. He intends to infuse all of our lives, every bit of reality, with that…

You see, our physical bodies are simply our containers, the temples that carry around the Spirit-beings we truly are, the more-real-than-real versions of ourselves that transcended time and participated in everything Jesus did.

It's kinda mind-blowing, but we'll make it super-simple and pleasantly practical in this talk...

Jesus not only reveals what the Father is like; He also provides us with a mirror-image of who we’re designed to be.

We live in an era in which the time and space between the Kingdom of God and planet earth has disappeared. Though often unseen, the Kingdom is now present.

The true measure of revival isn’t what happens in a moment, it’s what happens over time. The supernatural is a lifestyle.

Kintsukuroi.

Google it.

It’s a Japanese art form in which broken pottery is repaired. Rather than restoring the piece to look as if it’s never been damaged (which is, really, impossible), the artisan injects gold into all of the cracks as the pottery is being put back together. The flaws are accentuated, celebrated. In other words, not only are they not hidden, they’re actually highlighted.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

No. The scars don’t determine the shape or design of the vessel… they don’t control it’s purpose, but they’re there. And they’re there to see.

The “new” version of the pottery looks like the old, but better. It’s simultaneously more raw and more beautiful than the original, “untainted” version.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Can’t miss Paul’s analogy that we’re earthen vessels, pottery with some sort of majesty inside, waiting to come forth (see 2 Corinthians 4:7f.).

And the way it comes forth? By facing- and working through- the hard things (2 Corinthians 4:8f.).

Maybe that’s why Paul delights in weaknesses- because that’s where strength shines (2 Corinthians 12:10). That’s where grace shines brightest.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Grace + healing + wholeness… is the gold. It means our imperfections now serve a greater purpose than the pain and shame originally created.

But… the hitch…

In pottery, the gold can only be placed where there are cracks to be filled.

❌ No crack, no space.

❌ No space, no gold to fill the void.

✅ Brokenness is THE thing to which grace almost exclusively bonds.

Sometimes, Jesus heals instantly. Other times, He teaches people how to be well. Sometimes, Jesus touches us and we are dramatically changed in that moment. Other times, He imparts His wisdom to us so that we can “walk out” the freedom.

Now, think about what this really means, practically. Let’s move it from theory to real life:

👉 Jesus can heal lung cancer, but He can also teach us about the ills of smoking.

👉 He can cure diabetes. He also shows us how to eat better.

👉 He can heal sexually transmitted diseases. He also provides us with directions on how to live whole and healthy lives, as well as experience the joy of true intimacy with one person.

👉 He can heal us of the dozens of physical nuisances that we’ve grown to tolerate. Or, we can take His directions and experience what it really means to be alive!

As far as it relates to emotional wholeness…

It’s possible— and even highly probable— you’ll find healing through the process of walking it out. Too many people wait to get struck by lightning, that is, for a supernatural event to occur that suddenly becomes their breakthrough.

_What if that doesn’t happen? _

_Is all hope vanquished? _

Of course not. We can still therapeuo our way there. We can claim our freedom and begin the process of sorting life and fighting for wholeness.

The Declaration of Independence was signed on July 4, 1776. We celebrate that day every year with fireworks, swimming, long days at the beach, and more. That is the day our Founding Fathers claimed our freedom.

But we weren’t yet free.

They claimed freedom before anyone saw the finality of it. You see, the military campaigns of the Revolutionary War lasted from 1775 until 1783. It took years of walking in a freedom that didn’t yet exist in order to truly be free.

Don’t miss the parallel. You might have to stake a claim and begin your freedom march before there’s evidence, as well.

And, even if the miracle happens, you want to walk the lifestyle anyway, right?

What if grace is something that we impart on behalf of God— not just something God imparts?

— for the past few years or so I’ve studied PTSD + Moral Injury (guilt + shame). A lot of people we think are struggling with the first actual carry the second.

Here’s what’s odd— sacred and secular practicioners all agree the 2nd group needs to hear the words “You’re forgiven. You’re accepted. It’s the past.”

And others even need the words “I love you.”

Who has such authority to gift these words?

It depends on the person who needs it. It might be:

A pastor, a priest, or a rabbi
A former coach
An officer or soldier someone served with- or even people who served that they don’t know personally
Someone else they perceive as an authority
It must be someone they believe, sense, or feel has the authority to impart forgiveness. It is at this point the healing process often begins.

If you come from a faith tradition like me, you might have just winced a bit when I suggested that coaches and soldiers and teachers and anyone else can dispense forgiveness. I know, that sounds strange.

But… during Jesus’ ministry, the Pharisees regularly scolded Him for forgiving people. In their mind, only God could do that.

In response, at the end of His time on earth, Jesus did something incredibly interesting. We find it in John 20.

After they discovered the empty tomb, the disciples hid in the Upper Room- afraid they might be killed, too. **Jesus appeared to them behind the locked doors, showing that our emotional duress (i.e., even fear itself) doesn’t hinder Him from finding us. **

John tells us He breathed the Holy Spirit upon them.

Then, He declared, “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld” (John 20:23 ESV).

Clearly, He expanded the power of imparting forgiveness farther and wider than the religious elite of the day dreamed possible. Not only could God in Heaven forgive sins, but His Son certainly could (Mark 2:10-11). And not only could that Son forgive sins, but all the King’s sons and daughters could.

Perhaps this is why Jesus said that “all men will know you are My disciples… by the way you love one another” (see John 13:34-35).

Love communicates something nothing else can. Love is the greatest revelation possible to an unbelieving or desperately-wanting-to-believe world. Love creates sacred space where much-needed healing happens.

(And, remember, sacred and secular professionals alike agree that freedom is found in forgiveness.)

Moral Injury occurs when our conscience (which tells us the distinction between right and wrong) becomes broken…

It happens in MANY ways—

👉 when soldiers are commanded to (or must) do something which violates “rules” they’ve been told in the past (i.e., “Thou shalt not kill,” but then you must fire on someone to protect + save the lives of others)

👉 survivor’s guilt— when someone makes it through something that caused someone else to become seriously injured or die (especially if “we should have been there”)

👉 even witnessing tragedy, causing us to question the “rightness” of anything in the universe…

It’s complex.

And it’s real.

It results in overwhelming feelings of guilt + shame…

In music, the rests are as important as the notes you play. Life is the same way. There’s a definite beat to Creation that works well for us when we embrace it.

Here are the main ideas:

✅ The created order is built on a rhythm of “off” and “on.” We’re designed for bursts of work and pauses for rests.

(Part of living a life of balance means there are definite times of Sabbath and rest, those moments of complete OFF.)

✅ Five signs highlight when we *might be living out of rhythm.

Sign #1 of 5 = You can’t get quiet, don’t want to be alone, etc.

Sign #2 of 5 = You feel sickish or sluggish for no reason.

Sign #3 of 5 = You’re “short” or snippy.

Sign #4 of 5 = You feel depressed or down, and you can’t figure out why.

Sign #5 of 5 = You’ve recently endured trauma or “hard things.”

When I used to play sports, I learned quickly that we somehow “revered” and honored the injured. A few times a year, at wrestling tournaments, for instance, someone would “get the wind” knocked out of them.

Either they fell to the mat too hard, or got pinned in a whimsical way…

When this happened, everything in the entire gym- even on multiple mats- stopped.

* People took a knee.

* They were silent.

* They created sacred time + space for the man to catch his breath.

And this happened throughout the entire gym. People who were chattering would get a friendly tap to invite them into the sacredness of that moment.

* Even if they were rivals.

* Even if they didn’t know the man that was injured.

* Even if they were in the middle of a conversation or busy doing something else important.

Everything stopped.

The fact is that we’ve all gotten the wind knocked out of us in some way. But, because we can still physically breathe, we continue pushing forward. We go "back to the mats," even though we're wounded.

Or we encourage others to do so, even unintentionally...

During this talk, I’ll explore what it means to create space to deal with emotional hurts in the same way that we deal with physical wounds…

You see, emotional hurts and pains… well, we tend to avoid stopping for them. In fact, we’re encouraged to “man up” and push forward. We’re told not to talk about them, not to appear to be weak, not to slow things down.

Sometimes, the most sacred thing we can do is to just his the pause button.

More in the talk here >>>