KING OF KINGS

The summer of 2010 will forever stand alone in the world of sports as the time the world stood still to anticipate the free agency future of maybe the NBA's greatest player, LeBron James. Never before in all of history had a single person sold the rights to a TV interview for 2.5 million dollars and captivated the attention of such a large audience (just shy of 10 million to be exact). This freak athlete calls himself "The King" and the ESPN TV special covering his highly anticipated next contract move was entitled "The Decision". As if that were not enough, Nike's latest marketing campaign with LeBron as its centerpiece calls all people to "bear witness" to his greatness.

I have to admit that I too have been a bit sucked in by all the recent hype around LeBron and his decision, but a picture I came across the other day snapped me back to reality and really got me thinking. Seeing the huge, outstretched arms of "The King" in the picture, I couldn't help but think of another great King who also stretched out his arms, and how different the two are. One extends his arms to showcase greatness and garner the applause and cheers of thousands while the other extends his to be pieced, mocked and beaten, not for his own gain, but for you and me. One king is the epitome of pride, swagger and self confidence while the other demonstrates humility, service and love, all in their purest form. One king wants us to bear witness to his greatness while the other asks us to be his witnesses to the ends of the earth. My conclusion in all this comparison was that, at the end of it all, as the book or Revelation says, Jesus really is and will be the "King of Kings" (Rev 19:16). Nothing else can compare. No sports figure, no matter how great, no sporting event, no car or material possession, no bit of knowledge, and no talent or skill can even come close to his unparalleled greatness and love.

When Jesus said in Mark 12:30 that we are to "love the Lord God with all our heart," we need to do just that. The reality though is that most of us give Jesus only a portion of our heart and it's attention so that the rest can be spent idolizing sports figures, stuff and the like. The truth is he deserves it all. You might think he has all of your heart, but what about your attention? How much time each day do you "waste" on eternally insignificant things? If you devoted only a fraction of that to the one true king and his kingdom think of the difference it would make. God's love for us in giving us life each day and offering forgiveness for all our wickedness is far superior and exceedingly greater than anything else in this world. Yet most of us degrade and disregard both his gift and his greatness. We hold out on giving him our entire life so that we can continue to prostitute our hearts, attention, and affection to other things and other "kings".

One disclaimer before I end. There is absolutely nothing wrong with rooting for your team and from what I know, LeBron James is a fantastic player and a nice guy. This is in no way an attack on him as a person, only a reminder and a heart check to make sure that all the wonderful things God created for our enjoyment haven't taken priority in our live above The Creator.

Who or what is the King of your heart today?

Will you live your life accordingly?

FILTHY RAGS

"Everyone of us is unclean, even our most righteous acts are like filthy rags to God." Isaiah 64:6

It seems like almost daily I find myself doing things I regret and regretting things I didn't do. Sometimes my mistakes are so bad and embarrassing that the thing I want most in the world is to do something right away that will cover everything up and make it all okay. Usually doesn't work that way though does it?

We act the same way towards God. Often we run from him when we've done something bad, instead of running to him, and we don't feel like we can return until we have ourselves cleaned up and fixed up again. The sad thing about living this way is that we will never be good enough for God. No matter how hard we try to clean up our act and wash our dirty rags, they will never be completely clean. In Mark 2:17, Jesus talked about how God feels about our mistakes when he said, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but to rescue sinners." The problem we all have with being bad is the very reason Jesus came. He came to forgive us of our failures and teach us through his spirit how to live a holy life. Each and every one of us needs his help.

I don't think there's a person alive who's opposed to becoming a better person. In fact, many people claim to believe in Jesus because they think that he can magically make them good. The truth however, is that becoming more like Jesus is a two way street involving not only God's changing work within us but our complete willingness to obey and be changed. In Colossians chapter 3 Paul is writing to people who already believe in Jesus and he tells them to "put to death bad behaviors in their life such as lust, greed, idolatry and sexual immorality". A few verses later he tells the same crowd to "rid their lives of anger, lying, and bad language amongst other things". If the process of being made righteous was instantaneous upon believing in Jesus, Paul wouldn't be saying these things and if claiming Jesus' name magically stopped people from being bad, we'd have alot more Christ-like people walking around.

I think the reason you and I struggle so badly with our sin and the junk in our lives is because we like it too much. We like our pride because it's a way to feel good about ourselves when we're doubting our significance. We like cursing and being angry because it's a way to stand out, get noticed and express a point. We like our idols because they're an excuse for us to get what we want instead of what we need. We like our lust and our sexually sin because they're a way for us to feel satisfied and valued at a moments notice. Do you see what I mean? So many of us want to live a holy life but we're completely unwilling to leave our previous one behind. Many of us are living in two different worlds, stuck with a foot in each and a gigantic life of fake Christianity to show for it.

I like to think of sinful habits like weeds in a front yard. Most people like to mow over weeds for a quick fix instead of pulling them up by their roots and removing them forever. Pulling weeds is hard work you know. Any yard looks good after a fresh mow, even a weed filled one, until the weeds come back at least. But weeds are usually worse the second time and after a while, untended weeds in a yard spread and crowd out anything good until there's only bad stuff left. Sinful habits that are mowed over or dismissed and not dealt with are no different. They will take over a life and spread until all that is left is a bitter, hard, and evil heart. No wonder so many of us "Christians" find ourselves surprisingly deep in sin and despair.There is absolutely no way to train or manage sin without it getting the best of us in the end. You might think you have it under control right now, but it's only a matter of time.

The only way to live a holy life is to leave your sin and junk behind for good. Don't use them as a crutch to fall back on because you'll never be able to walk by faith if you do. Will you choose to leave behind all the things that hold you back from really following Christ today? If you're gonna do this you'll need God's help. Don't try to clean yourself up before coming to back to God. It's no use. Stop wasting time trying to clean up your dirty rags. Start by coming to Christ with your filthy ones and he'll give you a fresh start.