Monday, February 20, 2012

Remember Who You Are


In a pivotal scene from The Lion King, the late king Mufasa appears in a vision before his son, Simba.  Simba is living in exile and in denial of his place as King of his pride.



            Mufasa starts by saying, “Simba, you have forgotten me.”
            “No, how could I?” Simba responds, hurt by the accusation.
            And Mufasa throws it down.
            “You have forgotten who you are, and so forgotten me.  Look inside yourself, Simba.  You are more than what you have become.”

            After more dialogue between them, Mufasa says this:
            “Remember who you are.”

As a Christ follower, I must always remember who I am.  It’s easy to remember who I was.  That’s easy for all of us.  Our regrets, wasted time, selfishness, mistakes, failure, recklessness, whatever.  That stuff, that life, doesn’t leave our memory when we make a decision to serve God and serve others.  We remember all of it.

We may never forget who we were, but we must NEVER forget who we are!

2 Corinthians 5:17 says this:

Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.
(NASB)

Anyone!  If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature!  Not only that, but the old things have died. 

We’re not who we were.

We are – according to the Bible I’m reading – children of the Creator King, heirs of the glory of Christ, sinners saved by an amazing grace, servants of a world in need, holders of limitless power, citizens of heaven, lovers of people, workers of miracles, agents of love, worshippers of God, eternal beings, important ambassadors, and the list goes on and on and on.

That’s who we are.  That’s what we’re dealing with when we take on the identity of Christ.  We are new.

Peter and John (In Acts 3) were hanging out one day, heading to a church service, and they came upon a beggar who had been crippled since birth.  The lame man asked for money, and Peter says this:

"Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk."
(NIV)

Whoa!  Peter clearly wasn’t having identity issues on this particular day.  He knew exactly who he was, or rather, who Christ is… the Christ that dwells within us.

The beggar asked for earthly provision, but Peter didn’t have any.  No money.  No silver or gold.

No problem.

“What I do have I’ll give you,” he says.  The rest of the scene is amazing.  I’m sure for those there that day, it was incredible.  The beggar rises to his feet and enters the temple singing and dancing and leaping and praising God.

People were amazed and they rushed to Peter and John.  Peter says:

“what is so surprising about this? And why stare at us as though we had made this man walk by our own power or godliness?”

He goes on to tell the crowd exactly what had happened.

“Through faith in the name of Jesus, this man was healed—and you know how crippled he was before. Faith in Jesus’ name has healed him before your very eyes.”

Peter continues preaching about Jesus, the Messiah.  He wraps up his short sermon telling the crowd to repent of their sins and turn to God and he will forgive.

I dare say most of us would be absolutely dumbfounded if we saw that miracle occur before our eyes.  A man crippled from birth just got up and started dancing!

But Peter was not surprised. 

Peter knew exactly who Jesus was, and thus, he knew himself.  He made no mistake about his identity, an identity aligned with the savior of the world.

You may never be able to forget who you were.

Don’t ever forget who you are.

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Fresh Water

A few months ago my wife and I were sitting together watching a show when I made a comment about someone we saw on the screen.  I wish I could remember what I said because Manda's response is something that stuck with me.  She said (and I'm paraphrasing), "Wow, you're really harsh!  When did you become so judgmental?"

I was rocked back by her response because I have always thought of myself as someone who loves equally and reserves judgement.  Now, here I was, being accused - rightly so - of judging someone I didn't even know.

And we do it all the time, don't we?  It's human nature to judge others.  Those who look different, act different, or believe different.  It's also human nature to want to be right.  Therefore, those who aren't like us must be wrong... and so we judge.

Last May, Mike Tyson tweeted this:  


Wow.

The reason I still remember this tweet is because I was struck with a thought when I first saw it.  Here's a guy who's been judged a lot in his life.  He's a public figure who has messed up more than once in front of the whole world.  He's been the punchline of so many jokes and a symbol for the type of person you don't ever want to become.  But here he is reminding himself that others have feelings.  My guess is he's probably a very nice guy.  My guess is he has experienced so many public scenarios where his feelings were hurt that he wants to remember to treat others with respect.

James 3:7-12 says this:

7 People can tame all kinds of animals, birds, reptiles, and fish, 
8 but no one can tame the tongue. It is restless and evil, full of deadly poison.
9 Sometimes it praises our Lord and Father, 
and sometimes it curses those who have been made in the image of God. 
10 And so blessing and cursing come pouring out of the same mouth. 
Surely, my brothers and sisters, this is not right! 
11 Does a spring of water bubble out with both fresh water and bitter water? 
12 Does a fig tree produce olives, or a grapevine produce figs? 
No, and you can’t draw fresh water from a salty spring.

Verse 9 hit me like a ton of bricks this morning.  The tongue sometimes praises God and sometimes curses those made in the image of God.  We are all made in the image of God (Gen. 1), so when I judge someone or curse someone, I am judging or cursing God!

Let me run a quick list of people who are made in the image of God.


You, me, your friends and family, people who are no longer your friends, the homeless person you pass when you leave the store, the person that cut you off on the highway just after that, your favorite politician, your least favorite politician, that person you haven't forgiven, the person who hasn't forgiven you, Tiger Woods, the Kardashians, Michael Vick, Charlie Sheen, the lead singer of Nickelback, Kanye West and Taylor Swift, Bush and Obama, Palin and Pelosi, Tebow and Roethlisberger, and yes, Mike Tyson.


All of us.


When it comes to the words that come out of my mouth, I don't want to curse one of God's unique creations.  Absolutely not.  And not just because my wife is holding me accountable.  And not just because I don't want people to judge me.


Verse 12 ends with a sobering statement.  You can't draw fresh water from a salty spring.


I want to have something good -something pure - to say when I open my mouth.