Tag Archives: faith

This Is Going To Hurt

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - This Is Going To Hurt

I’m going to be real.

I have oriented my life around avoiding pain.

It’s evident even in the little things.

I cling to the sheets of my bed a little longer waiting for the chill of the morning to subside.

But there is nothing that hinders growth more than avoiding pain.

When I look to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, He was literally in paradise.

But, unlike me with my bed covers, He didn’t think paradise was anything to hold on to (Philippians 2:5-8).

Rather, He considered the will of His Father to be greater.

“He became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross,” Philippians 2:8 says.

Doing that demonstrates a love that’s greater than His comfort.

It also demonstrates an unwavering trust of His Father.

I imagine Jesus, my Elder Brother, loving the Father and knowing His will to be perfect, steps forward without flinching, completely willing to take on the challenge.

God the Father asks, “Who will go for us?”

Jesus, God the Son, says, “I’ll go.”

As He goes, I can imagine Him thinking,
“This is going to hurt, but this is going to be good.”

I repent.

I aspire be like Him, to love God more than my comfort, to trust His plan, to go –to cast aside comfort and take on the day, fully embracing the challenges, pain and suffering before me to grow, and to be made like Christ, fit to rule.

I go. I attack the day out of love for my Father, trusting and executing His plan, thinking,

“This is going to hurt, but this is going to be good.”

The Thief On The Cross And What It Really Means To Be Saved

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - The Thief On The Cross And What It Really Means To Be Saved

I am so thankful for the cross because religious people try to complicate salvation and create hoops for people to jump through, but the cross demonstrates the simplicity of Christ.

At the cross we find astonishingly simple clarity.

Namely, the salvation of the thief on the cross, where Jesus saves a convicted sinner in his dying moments.

There is no time for religion, no perfectly worded expression of faith, no baptism, no works, no apparent fruit in that moment.

Yet, the thief was saved.

All of our theology has to square with this fact.

I draw many things from it but the one that’s heaviest on my heart right now is grace.

What’s displayed gloriously in the interaction between Jesus and the dying thief is grace.

Not grace in the sense of leniency or merely benevolence, but grace in the sense of the sovereign, unmerited, unassisted work of God.

God does it all.

The thief was mocking Jesus along with the crowd that was crucifying Jesus and him! But, at some point something changed.

I believe what Jesus described to Nicodemus in John 3:8 happened here,
“The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

I believe the Holy Spirit gave the thief ears to hear and eyes to see and at that moment he was allowed to see Who was hanging next to him.

Above Jesus’s head was written, “King of the Jews” (John 19:21) but the thief was allowed to see that He was not just an earthly king, He was the King of a Kingdom not of this world –a kingdom where the thief wanted to be.

“Then he said to Jesus, ‘Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.'” -Luke 23:42

And Jesus responds,
“Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.”
-Luke 23:43

God does it all.

We like the thief are dying.

Sin is the disease that’s killing us.

We were without hope until Hope was revealed –hope established before the world was.

God had the Cure.
He promised the Cure.
He showed us the formula of the Cure (but even with that we could not grasp it).
He gave us the ability to receive (perceive) the Cure.
He gave us the Cure.
He is the Cure.
He heals us through the Cure.
The Cure is Jesus Christ.

Grace.

All the thief did was not reject it.

I feel led to take a moment and ask why would he [reject it]? At this point he has nothing to lose.

God had to bring me to such a point –of utter brokenness and despair where I had nothing else to lose. Very often it’s comfort, wealth or even just sufficiency -life being “good enough”, that’s deceiving us, holding us back and that causes us to fail to see our desperate need for Jesus.

I implore you, don’t be proud like I was, I would spare you that pain!

Humble yourself and seek the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God has come in the person of Jesus Christ. Seek the Lord while He may be found!

With a humble heart, petition the Holy Spirit to give you eyes to see and ears to hear as He’s done for the thief on the cross.

Look upon Jesus, hear Him through the Word, believe and be saved.

Grace.

God does it all.

All the thief did was not reject it.

The clarifying message of the salvation of the thief on the cross was that God does it all. Salvation is a gift that we simply receive –a gift that is imparted when we accept Jesus as He really is, just as the thief on the cross saw Him.

Dear brother, formerly called the thief on the cross, what did you see?

“I am a sinner, justly condemned (Luke 23:40-41), but this man is what is spoken of Him even though I may not know what that fully means: the Christ, King of The Jews (Luke 23:35-39), a King of a Kingdom that is not of this world –a kingdom where I want to be, He is One who will live again and who can make me live again (Luke 23:42).”

I love a commentary by Pastor Alistair Begg on the matter: “The thief enters heaven and he is asked about how he got there and what he knows about this doctrine or that and the thief replies, ‘All I know is that the Man on the middle cross said I could come.'”

Hallelujah!

The thief did everything that is necessary to be saved: He did not reject the grace God made available through Jesus Christ.

Right now, Jesus Christ, the grace and salvation of God, is being presented to you.

All you have to do is not reject it.

Accept it. Believe Jesus. Be saved.

I conclude with a caution: the thief did all that was necessary to be saved and enter life, yet their is so much more to be had. He was like a baby that was born but who’s earthly body was immediately aborted.

Yes, by all means, enter life BUT DON’T STOP THERE.

There is more life to be had.

Let us who live also continue on to maturity, enjoying and exercising the grace of God to His glory for all of our days.

Don’t live a minimal life.

Enter by grace.
Continue in grace.
Grow in grace.

Amazing Grace.

#grace #resurrection #ressurectionsunday

Believe Jesus All The Way

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - Believe Jesus All The Way

It was good to fellowship this past Resurrection Sunday with the beautiful people of Sand Creek Chapel Church.

Their Pastor Abdural Lee preached on a powerful interaction from John 11:25-26 where Martha says to Jesus,

“If You had been here, my brother would not have died.”

And Jesus responds,

“I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.”

“Do you believe this?”

Pastor Lee shared an illustration of him being a barber.

People have seen Pastor Lee cut hair, so they come to him trusting that he can cut their hair.

But, they don’t trust him to fix their car because they’ve never seen him do that type of work.

Pastor Lee uses this to illustrate how Martha trusted Jesus to heal her brother because she’s known Him to heal. “But,” as Pastor Lee says, “she’s never seen Jesus raise anyone from the dead.”

At this point Pastor Lee asserts what Jesus asserts that He “is the resurrection and the life” and then poses the same question that Jesus poses to Martha from verse 26,

“Do you believe this?” [that Jesus is the resurrection and the life]

From there Pastor Lee prompted us to assess to what extent we trust Jesus and then challenged us to “trust Jesus all the way”.

There are things Jesus has said He will do even beyond the resurrection that we’ve never seen and may not see in our lifetime.

We cannot receive what Jesus offers unless we trust Jesus all the way.

I’ve written before that salvation requires pinhole accuracy. Only Jesus can do it. Only Jesus can get you there. Jesus alone is The Way.

The world offers many paths, many doors, many versions of Jesus even, but Jesus is THE Door. And, there is a very specific Jesus we must go through.

It’s the Door that you only find by believing Jesus all the way, only by the full embrace of believing the most unbelievable event in human history –the resurrection: that Jesus was the only begotten Son of God given by God to die for our sins and He was raised from the dead “with all power” (Matthew 28:18).

Only by believing Jesus all the way can we receive what He offers: salvation, fellowship with God and resurrection.

Believe Jesus. All the way.

Thank you Pastor Abdural Lee.

#resurrection #ressurectionsunday

One More

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - One More

Something that struck me today as we were reflecting on the last utterances of Jesus from the cross…

There’s no indication that the Man had eaten.

He’s likely dizzy from the blood loss of the scourging alone. ¹

He struggles to carry the implement of His torture, weighing upwards of 175 lbs (79kg), for more than 650 yards (600m). ²

When He finally gets to the hill, He’s rewarded with nails driven through His flesh to fix Him to the cross. ³

He’s struggling to breath from the asphyxiation the cross was designed to produce.

He’s being humiliated, openly mocked even by both of the thieves He’s being crucified between. ⁴

But somewhere along the way, one thief has a change of heart. ⁵

Bloodied, beaten and dying, what does our Lord think?

One more.

Hallelujah.

In His state, Jesus makes the time for a thief, a “convicted felon” as someone put it today, to accept his repentance and to assure his salvation because the condemned man simply believed Jesus was a King not of this world. (Luke 23:39)

Jesus makes time for him in the midst of all He was going through to minister to him and say, “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.” ⁶

To His dying breath, Jesus used every ounce of strength He had to do His Father’s will.

This illuminates John 13:1,
“[…] Jesus knew that His hour had come that He should depart from this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.” -John 13:1

He loved them to end with everything that He had -love that reconciled them to the Father.

That’s the standard.

This is a Perfect Picture of what it looks like to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. ⁷

My Lord and My God.

What excuse do I possibly have for not loving to the very end, especially since I “have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin”?! (Hebrews 12:4)

The calling is indeed high. So, “I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:12)

When I am tired, hard-pressed, perplexed, persecuted, and beat down ⁸, by His grace I aim to be like my Savior and think, “One more.”

¹ Matthew 27:26, John 19:1
² Matthew 27:29
³ John 20:25
⁴ Matthew 27:44
⁵ Luke 23:38-42
⁶ Luke 23:43
⁷ Deuteronomy 6:5, Mark 12:29-31
⁸ 2 Corinthians 4:7

Perfect Our Love Triangle

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - Perfect Our Love Triangle

A weapon is not any good if you don’t know how to use it.

I’ve previously shared what I refer to as the Perfect Our Love Triangle.

It emphasizes the Father’s love for us and Jesus’s love for the Father which results in Jesus’ love for us.

“As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love.” -John 15:9

The aim is to be conformed to Jesus’ image and reflect His example by focusing on God’s love for us that allows us to love God with all our heart, mind and soul, which results in us loving others -who God loves in the way that He loves.

“In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” -1 John 4:10-11

How did God love us?

He spared no expense, to the extent of willingly suffering, being humiliated and allowing us to kill Him, for the purposes of saving us from what’s hurting us, to remove everything that’s separating us (which is the same as what’s hurting us -sin)and reconcile us to Himself that we may be together and have life abundantly and safely in Him.

I heard a great quote last night from Dr. Andy Brown, Pastor of First Baptist Church in Starkville,

“Jesus loved lavishly in so many ways. The cross is the greatest, most unimaginable expression of love we’ve ever seen. But, He would have gone farther.”

And, God does.

“He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” -Romans 8:32

So, how am I to love others?

To focus on God’s love for me, to stand firmly in the love of God by loving Him with everything I am and have, and to spare no expense to draw others into that love, seeking to destroy everything that is between me and them, that we may be together and have life abundantly and safely in Him.

“Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.” -Ephesians 5:1–2

When do I use this?

The Sunday School answer is “always” and that is correct but what does that look like practically in real life.

I take instruction from a recent fight with my wife. A useful cue is anger.

Whenever, I feel anger or an unpleasant emotion toward someone, it should trigger remembrance of this triangle.

First, remebering God’s love for me in that Jesus has paid for all sin -not for mine only but for the whole world (1 John 2:2).

I don’t (and shouldn’t) have to make them pay (Matthew 18:21-25).

That switches my approach from debt collection to compassion, and instead of dealing with someone on the basis of what I believe I’m owed, I can deal with them on the basis of what I can give which is admonishment and edification about how we can more effectively walk together in a way that does not cause offense and that produces more love.

“And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.” -Ephesians 4:32.

I honestly didn’t mean it to be -God’s timing, but as we celebrate the Passion of Christ on this Good Friday, this is the message of the cross, God’s unsearchable love for us, Jesus’ perfect demonstration of that love and the high calling for us who believe to take up our cross and follow Him.

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” -John 3:16.

“As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love.” -John 15:9

“Then He said to them all, ‘If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.'” -Luke 9:23.

#perfectourlove

You First

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - You First

Husbands, if you want to see your wife submit, you first.

Show her how it’s done through your submission to Christ.

“To guide on a way especially by going in advance” is the definition of leadership.

Consider Jesus.

#marriage #leadership #submission #youfirst

“So when He had washed their feet, taken His garments, and sat down again, He said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you?

You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am.

If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.

For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you.

Most assuredly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him.

If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.”

John 13:12-17

Use It All

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - Use It All

One of the greatest gifts given to me was from the Proverbs 31 Woman. It is the removal of the distinction between secular and spiritual -the notion that there are normal things we do (chores, business, etc.) versus things we do for God (church, ministry etc.).

The Proverbs 31 Woman demonstrates that it is the aim (the heart seen in verse Proverbs 31:11-12) that makes something spiritual and therefore it’s all spiritual. We, like she, can use everything we do to serve our Lord.

Why we do it and how we do it can all be used in His service.

It’s all spiritual. Everything can be done as a contribution to the Kingdom.

Use it all.

Biblical Women Who Lead And I Gladly Follow

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - Biblical Women Who Lead And I Gladly Follow

Of the people from the Bible who have influenced my life the most, two are women.

The way I aspire to live daily is inspired by the Proverbs 31 Woman who uses everything she has and does to diligently and faithfully serve her Lord’s house.

The way I preach is inspired by the Woman At The Well. “Come meet a Man who told me all things [who I have personally encountered]… Could this be the Christ?”

Their contributions, as with many women in the Bible, demand a respect, value and high view of women –a view which Scripture suggests Jesus held.

Move: The Master Makes A Perfect Piece With Our Imperfect Lines

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - Move: The Master Makes A Perfect Piece With Imperfect Lines

Even when I say I’m “seeking God’s will” it can be a cop out.

I suffer from inaction sometimes and don’t move because in my flesh, my highest priority is to be safe –to avoid pain, suffering and death. I often stay put because the place I’m in seems safe enough.

Sometimes, when I say I want to know God’s (exact) will for my life, I’m often saying that what I want is a path without failure or pain.

But that is contrary to God’s will for my life.

We are conformed to the image of His Son and learn obedience through the things that we suffer. (Hebrews 5:8)

A perfect path without trial and error, is like only ever coloring by numbers when instead the Master desires to teach you to create the way He creates.

That requires my trusting the Master’s ability to teach me (heart) and my being willing to attempt to do what I currently cannot (action).

That involves striving, failure and the pain and suffering that results in.

Without the Master, we’d just make a mess.

But when we trust the Master, He redeems our foibles and failures and uses them to teach us how to make a masterpiece.

But what’s more, in His incomprehensible genius, the masterpiece He helped us create, in spite of our imperfections, is a perfect piece that He had always predestined to be part of a vastly greater and perfect design.

When we behold it, we can only help but praise, “How great thou art!”

And then, the lesson starts again.

God is not only bringing us through, He’s making us into something glorious!

“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” – Romans 8:18

I have suffered from inaction and didn’t move because my highest priority was to be safe –to avoid pain, suffering and death.

But, no more.

I repent.

My highest priority is to be with God.

If we have the Father’s heart or are even seeking His heart, we are exactly where we’re supposed to be.

If we are doing what is pleasing to Him or are even moving in an attempt to be obedient to what He has revealed that is pleasing to Him (through His Word), we are doing exactly what we’re supposed to do.

The primary thing is not a specific physical place (this city or that, this job or that, this opportunity or that) nor is the primary thing a certain activity (doing this thing or that) but a heart for God put into motion.

We need only to move in any direction with a heart to please Him and He will use it to get us exactly where He wants us to be.

Father, give me a heart like Jesus that is consumed with You and the fortitude like His to put it into action. In Jesus’s name. Amen.

So, I’m lifting my eyes to the Lord, and moving based on what I know of God revealed through the life of Jesus Christ, praying that the Holy Spirit will help me know Him more accurately as I consume the Word, trusting Him to take me where I’m supposed to go, to make me into who He would have me be and to use my life for His glory as part of His masterpiece.

I’m putting a heart for God in motion, however imperfect, and trusting Him with the rest.

Faith and Works

#thriveday

Salvation Requires Pinhole Accuracy

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - Salvation Requires Pinhole Accuracy
Photo Courtesy of Ronnie Dankelman – Flickr

Salvation requires pinhole accuracy. Get it wrong and we die.

Jesus is the Good Shepherd who is leading us to a place that requires unimaginable skill as a shepherd and leader to get us to.

He alone can lead us to this place: ¹

the only place where there is good pasture and life, ²

the place that if we don’t get to, we will perish. ³

It is through a Door that requires pinhole accuracy to navigate to.

That Door is Jesus, Himself. ²

The Door is not broad through which anything and everything can fit. ⁴

Rather the Door is very narrow. ⁴

There is an incredibly specific Jesus we must go through.

It’s not the Jesus of how we think He would be, or the one that we want Him to be, or the one of our politics, but it is the real Jesus that came in the flesh, who died for our sin, who was raised from the dead and now lives before God forevermore. ⁵

Finding that Door, let alone getting through it is impossible, it’s like getting a camel through the eye of a needle. ⁶

But, “The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.” – Luke 18:27

The kingdom of God is at hand. Humble yourself. Repent and plead to God to help you. Expose yourself to His Word.

If He grants you ears to hear, the Chief Shepherd will appear.

Follow Him, alone. ⁷

He will get you there. ⁸

As a pastor, I am merely an under-shepherd and my one job is to keep your eyes on the Good Shepherd and direct you in His path. ⁹

Follow Jesus, alone. ⁷

He, alone, will get you there. ⁸

#perfectourlove

¹ John 10:7-8, Acts 4:12
² John 10:9
³ John 3:16-19
⁴ Matthew 7:14, Luke 14:13
⁵ Revelation 1:18
⁶ Luke 18:25, Matthew 16:17
⁷ Matthew 23:10
⁸ John 10:27-30
⁹ 1 Corinthians 11:1