“They will look on the one they have pierced” (John 19:37b).

One of my favorite bible stories as a child was the story of Peter walking on the water. Besides Jesus no one other than Peter knows what it’s like to walk on water. As you all know, Peter was walking on the water but as soon as he took his focus off of Jesus and on the waves and the storm around him he began to sink. Jesus needed to rescue him.

I love that story. Because that’s how life sometimes feels. Everything is going well and then a phone call, an email, a note, an encounter and all hell breaks loose. And we begin sinking.

That’s the way faith works. When our focus becomes anything other than Jesus, we begin sinking.

Jesus is our only and our absolute hope. The great reformer Martin Luther said, “When I look at myself, I don’t see how I can be saved. But when I look at Christ, I don’t see how I can be lost.”

I love that.

“They will look on the one they have pierced.”

Life is hard? Look at Christ.
Life is difficult? Look at Christ.
Life is confusing? Look at Christ.
Life is painful? Look at Christ.

The One hanging on the cross is none other than the Son of God who is there on your behalf. There is nothing under heaven which Christ would not do to ensure your place in God’s kingdom.

Look at Christ.

“All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17).

No one likes to be rebuked. No one likes to be proven wrong. No one likes to be corrected.

Yet, if we want to grow and we want to mature in the faith, that is exactly what we need. Here’s the reason why – because we are all imperfect. We are all sinful and selfish. The only person who doesn’t need rebuking or correction is a perfect person. And since no perfect persons exist, it follows that every one of us needs regularly to be rebuked and corrected.

That’s what God’s word tells us. God’s word is God-breathed and is profitable for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness.

So, if you go to a church where you are never rebuked or corrected – something is wrong. If you go to a church where all you get is rebuking and correcting – that would be depressing. But, if they are preaching the word of God, the word of God is teaching, rebuking, correcting selfish sinners to be more like Christ.

So, if your church sometimes says things that you don’t like and you disagree with, thank God for that. If it is from scripture, we are the ones who need adjusting.

Let us all aspire to be trained in God’s word so that we may be thoroughly equipped for every good work!

“I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you” (Psalm 119:11).

It was all the rage back a few decades to ask, “What Would Jesus Do?”

While this was a good sentiment and had disciples consider Jesus in life situations, this is the wrong question for disciples to be asking.

The fundamental problem with asking “What Would Jesus do?” is that it still puts the onus of determining what Jesus would or would not do on the one asking the question.

And that would be fine, if I were fine, if you were fine. But the problem is that we are all selfish, repeat sinners.

When we are asking, “What Would Jesus Do?” we’re assuming that selfish, repeat sinners would know and choose what a holy and perfect God would do. When we are asking this question, we are assuming that our selfishness and sinfulness would not interfere.

That’s the problem.

So, then, what is the solution? God has already told us. It’s all in his word. The question we ought to be asking is, “What has Jesus Said?” or “What has God Already Declared?”

Take the guessing game out. Take the selfish sinner out of the equation. Go to the source – God himself and do what he says.