spot the lie: FRIENDS edition‏

So Paige and I were watching FRIENDS the other night when this gem was dropped:

Chandler: I can’t believe I did this! What an idiot!
Monica: Oh, stop beating yourself up! People make mistakes! These things happen! There aren’t any messages you’ve forgotten to give me are there? (Chandler has a disgusted look on his face.) Apparently you’re not very good at it! I…
Chandler: Do you think he’ll ever forgive me?
Rachel: Of course he will! But Chandler the most important thing is you forgive yourself!Chandler: Y’know what? I-I kinda have.
Rachel: Already? That’s pretty bad what you did.

Did you spot the lie?

I know, I know. Which one, right?

Chandler is worried that the one he has wronged may not forgive him.

Rachel reassures Chandler that Joey will forgive him, but encourages Chandler to forgive himself. Because after all, that’s “the most important thing,” right?

FALSE!

It isn’t.

It’s not even possible.

Additionally, Rachel proposes that the One wronged is somehow less important in the equation than your own processing of the wrong you have committed.

Nothing could be more religious than making my sin against someone else about my disappointment with myself in making the situation about me and my struggle to live with what I’ve done.

Acts 2:22-23

²² “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know—²³ this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.

Acts 3:14-15

¹⁴ But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, ¹⁵ and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses.

Acts 5:30

The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree.

Peter simply slays people for their sins. It is rightly said that our sins nailed Jesus to the cross. They did. Peter’s audience, however, may have included men who literally had the hammers in the hands in addition to those who had cheered, “Crucify Him!” only months earlier. These people killed Jesus. Literally. So what is Peter’s response?

“God will surely forgive you for this. The most important thing is that you forgive yourselves.”

NOPE!

Acts 2:37-38

³⁷ Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”³⁸ And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

You do not have the authority or jurisdiction to forgive yourself.

friday funny

Next time a golden plate falls from the heavens, go ahead and put it in your spam file. Let's not base your entire life on a religion that's old enough for my dad to be like "Oh yea, that's not true... uh, that didn't happen."

~ Daniel Tosh

Have a great weekend and don't believe the hype.

It's not like Paul didn't specifically warn us against stuff like this when he wrote,

Galatians 1:6-9

 

⁶ I am amazed that you are so quickly turning away from Him who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— ⁷ not that there is another gospel, but there are some who are troubling you and want to change the good news about the Messiah. ⁸ But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel other than what we have preached to you, a curse be on him! ⁹ As we have said before, I now say again: If anyone preaches to you a gospel contrary to what you received, a curse be on him!

"better to have loved and lost...

…than to never have loved at all.” (J)

“Try it.” (K)

~ Men In Black

Paige and I watched “Shadowlands” last night.

In the movie, C.S. Lewis states,

“Why love, if losing hurts so much? I have no answers anymore: only the life I have lived. Twice in that life I've been given the choice: as a boy and as a man. The boy chose safety, the man chooses suffering. The pain now is part of the happiness then. That's the deal.”

J may have been correct in pointing K to the proverbial sentiments attached to giving yourself in love, but K was right to point out that “better” is far from “easier.”

I believe whole-heartedly that God is for my good and His glory.

And I do pray for comfort and ease, but I pray more for faith to grow and believe when I’m uncomfortable and uneasy because my “better," my good and His glory at times may require my pain.

going through the motions

“In prison, they swab your arm with an alcohol pad before they lethally inject you.” — George Carlin

Understand how silly that is.

It is easy to get so caught up in the motions of things that we fail to think through why we do much of anything. 

We do what we do because it's what we do, don't you?

How could a person who is about to be dead in less than 10-15 minutes develop an infection from the injection that is about to kill them?

sharp pain prod‏

Chambers mined this out from God’s repository this morning.

The Word of God inflicts hurt on us more than sin ever could, because sin dulls our senses.

This hurt is heavier than that which comes in concert with sin, but it is more capable of producing godly repentance and faithfulness through its penetrating blow.

Sharp pains produces more violent and necessary activity than dull aches. God’s Word works to cut you to the quick. Sin seeks to erode your soul like sediment: slowly and surely.

Paige and I have a few shrubs that we have mown over time and time again. We merely address the surface problem. It is effective at making a nice-looking lawn, but it does nothing for the actual health and long-term beauty of the yard.

It is more work and more violent to dig deep and pull up roots, but it is more effective at resolving the actual problem: both the surface level aesthetic and the long-term logistic.

Get into the Word.

But do so primarily to get the Word into you.

James 1:25

But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.

franks n' beans

Could this can of poke and beans be any bigger?

This is the size of beans necessary to feed Candeo Church as of July 7, 2013.

As big as this can is, we are praying that God adds to our numbers enough that an absurdly-sized, AndyWarhol-ridiculous can of beans would need to be opened to sustain our congregation.

I seriously had a difficult time one-handing this bad boy.

Some would say this post doesn't amount to a hill of beans.

How 'bout I open a can on you and we find out?

jack bauer, billy bad apple-tastic!!!

John 10:18

“No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”

Jesus just said, “No one can kill Me without My permission.”

That not only is the single toughest thing I have ever heard anyone say, it is made even more so by the fact that He could cash that check. It wasn’t just a tough thing to say: it was a tough thing to do.

No one can choose without caveat the time and place and circumstances of their demise.

But if one could, they would not.

If you controlled that much, you would choose not to die.

 

Jesus DID control that much.

And He died.

On purpose.
With purpose.

In our place.

For our sin.
 

In our place.

For our lives.