Matthew 5:20

"For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven." - Matthew 5:20

Jesus is a pretty straight forward guy isn't He? On first glance, it would appear that the bar has been raised higher than we can reach. That would be correct. Jesus knows just what He said, and He wants to get the crowd (and you) thinking. Righteousness, for many, is obtained from following the rules and living as closely to the Law as possible. The Pharisees in particular, based their entire lives on being perfect in obedience to the law. Their hope was this: if I obey everything in the Scriptures, God will count me righteousness enough to enter Heaven.

Pharisees (both today and 2000 years ago), Jesus has news for you. You can't do it. Christ intentionally made a point that the righteousness you had was not enough to gain entrance to the Kingdom. You could waste your entire life trying to earn, but trust Jesus when He says that it's beyond your reach. Paul echoes this in Romans 3:10-11 as he writes "None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God."

That realization must be reached to move forward. The painful truth is that many of us are still caught up in trying to earn holiness. We struggle with laziness - so we ask Jesus to take it away as we lay on the couch watching tv. We have can't seem to stop spending our money on wasteful things, and we promise that we will stop - after we purchase this one last item. But we buy and buy and buy. We know God sees how ugly we are, so we try and clean ourselves up before we come to him.

The mind then begins to wonder, declaring, "There must be another way." That's what Jesus was hinting at.  Christ took the religious system of the day and flipped it on its head. He does the same today. The church, quite often is left open-mouthed and confused. No longer can institutions created by man facilitate the growth of righteousness. Instead mankind is left with nothing to make itself worthy.

That's what makes grace scandalous. You see, everything about the word grace is unfair. We receive the righteousness for free without earning it. Jesus faces death so that we can obtain the gift of Heaven that is beyond our reach. You see Jesus not only raised the bar. He also lifts those who seek Him up to it.

This is not a call to rejoice in our worthiness. This is a time to marvel in our worthlessness. Open your eyes. Look at God through the lenses of grace. "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God"


For the Righteous One,
-matt

Freshman Year

I'm getting some goosebumps as I write this. I'm excited, and I don't know what to say. I'm not even sure what I think about this year yet. Its been good, and its been long, and its been worth it - praise the Lord. 


This is by no means a holistic account of everything that has happened, but merely a brief overview of the change that the Lord has been doing in my life. I could tell testimonies for days and days, and feel free to ask to hear them! But for now, I give you a general account of the adventure that was my freshman year.


Entering into college I had been told that it would be a challenge to keep my faith. If that's the statistic, then I sure wasn't part of that norm. The first week in College Station God led me to my church home at Antioch and I immediately started plugging in. 


The first semester was a whirlwind thanks to the fire of the Holy Spirit. When I got baptized in the Holy Spirit at the begging of the Fall semester Jesus started to do crazy things with me. As Zach Rodriguez would say, God was hitting the "Increase Button" as more and more blessings and giftings were poured out on me. With all of this change there wasn't ever really time for me to take a breath and adjust to actual college life. My faith always had me living on the edge, and I kind of miss that at times.


Winter break came and then the spring semester started. The slow down was just enough to make me stop and review all that had happened. As I compared my desires to where I actually was I began to slowly grow discontented. There was so much that I hadn't asked for from God that He had given me, and there was so much that I wanted God to give that simply wasn't there. That would be the theme of this semester, and would create a season of intense honesty with God. I wasn't happy with how everything was going, so I took every opportunity to be real with Him and let Him know. I've learned how blessed we are to have a Father who loves us with God-love. There is nothing better.


Just as I start to settle in with what God is doing, the time to leave for the summer is upon me. I sure haven't gotten a full grasp on God's timing yet. This has been a year of intense spiritual molding. I have constantly felt like clay in the hands of the Potter.


This year has been a year of transformation and revelation. I guess my year can best be summed up with this refrain:

 "I want to feel Your heartbeat inside of my chest. I want to know Your truth. I want to know Your love."

That's what my desires are. I want to experience God and know him on a deeper level. I want to live a life with such reckless abandon that I am obedient to the Truth. I want to be a disciple that bears fruit. I want to live out the Word. I want walk in the fullness. I want to live Matthew 10:8, healing the sick, raising the dead, cleansing lepers, casting out demons and freely giving all that I have received.


And it's all about love. 1 Corinthians 13:1-2.
"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing."


I'm not there yet, but I'm on my way.


in love,
-matt

Obedience

After a rather intense week I've finally settled down enough to share input from my experiences.
God has began to challenge me to walk in obedience. God wants to use us, if our hearts are willing. Have you considered that He doesn't ask us to understand everything? Rather, He asks that we simply follow His instruction faithfully. Jesus himself led a life of obedience to the Father. That doesn't mean that He never asked God questions (will you take this cup from my hand?), but regardless of His desires, He wanted to do the will of God.

Who's authority means the most in your life? Are you obedient to your own desires? Or are you obedient to Christ's all-encompassing authority?
-matt