redemption

Legacy

If I asked if you’d considered your legacy, you could be forgiven for launching into a discussion about your Subaru Legacy if that happens to be what you drive. However, this post isn’t about a Japanese sedan, so stop being so shallow! No, instead of the four-wheel variety, we’re going to talk about the legacy you leave on earth when you’re gone. Yes, you’re right, you can leave someone your car, but for the last time, that’s not our topic, okay? Moving on. And we’re walking, and we’re walking…

The kind of legacy you leave your loved ones can be something of monetary value, like your estate, but it can also be something difficult to put a price on, like how you lived your life. What kind of relationships did you cultivate with people? What kind of values did you emulate? Most importantly, what kind of relationship did you have with your creator? Did you give Jesus the right place in your life? Remember, Jesus said in John 14:6 that He is “the way, the truth, and the life,” not “a” way “a” truth, and “a” life. Jesus did not mince words, equivocate, or at any point present himself as only a good man or important prophet. He was and remains the Son of God, with all the authority that entails, so our relationship with Him is integral to the legacy we must leave.

Therefore I intend always to remind you of these qualities, though you know them and are established in the truth that you have. I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to stir you up by way of reminder, since I know that the putting off of my body will be soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me. And I will make every effort so that after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things.
2 Peter 1:11-15 ESV

Many times in life we’re presented with a crossroads, where the direction we choose ultimately has great import on the legacy we leave. It’s important to remember God is in the business of redemption though. So even if you’ve wandered from the path He would have you take at a given time in your life, it’s never too late to put Jesus front and center, where He belongs.

I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.
3 John 1:4 ESV

Every heartbeat you give
me is loaned
to be returned with interest
when I go home.
There’s nothing of more value
I can leave behind
than the road to Heaven
and eternal life.

©Joel Tipple 12/28/2019

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Jesus and Jerry Maguire

In 1996 Tom Cruise (Jerry Maguire), Renee Zellweger (Dorothy Boyd), and Cuba Gooding Jr. (Rod Tidwell) starred in “Jerry Maguire,” a movie about a sports agent desperate, after being fired, to stay in the game by taking his best client with him. Zellweger’s character is a single mother who falls in love with Maguire after leaving the same company to work with him. After 23 years some of the movie’s quotes still resonate, and I found myself seeing parallels to the Christian life in a few of them.

“Show me the money!”
Gooding Jr., who won Best Supporting Actor for his role as Rod Tidwell, Maguire’s sole client, reminds his agent to keep his eye on the ball by getting the best deal possible. “Show me the money, Jerry!” Christians need to remember that money isn’t the root of all evil, but the love of money is.  For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.
1st Timothy 6:10 ESV

“Did you know dogs and bees can smell fear?”
“Did you know the human head weighs eight pounds?”
Jonathan Lipnicki, (Ray Boyd) who played Zellweger’s young, trivia-master son, probably had more memorable quotes than any cast member. Christians can get bogged down in theological debates over trivial issues that may not mean all that much. But, because we’re human, we’ll find ways to fight over almost anything. Case in point, something like 200 protestant denominations. Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels.  And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil,…
2 Timothy 2:23-24 ESV

“You make me want to be a better man.”
“You Complete me.”
Maguire’s expressions of love say his life is missing something critical if he’s only about his business. A Christian’s love for God is greater, and more “complete,” than romantic love. Our desire to get closer to God and see others as He sees them becomes the theme for our lives as we become more mature sons and daughters of God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 1 John 4:16 ESV

“You had me at hello.”
As Maguire winds up his speech, explaining how any success he achieves is incomplete without Boyd in his life, Boyd cuts him off, saying, “You had me at hello.” God understands what we want to say to Him, even before we say it. Do not be like them, for your father knows what you need before you ask him. Matthew 6:8 ESV

Father, let me live in the assurance of the love and devotion you displayed, when the world was forever changed by the sacrifice you made.

© Joel Tipple 8/17/2019





Releasing Life

There’s a seed in a forest,
and it’s waiting for a fire,
to release the life within
and tell a story.

A renewal story.

There’s a man in a city.
There’s a child in the hills.
There’s a woman in the suburbs,
all challenged by the ills
of the world.

Each one has a story.

Now fire can take
and it can destroy
cities, towns, and people.
It can take it all
when destruction’s not expected.
But there’s a fire that God can send into your life
that somehow mends it.

So if you’re the seed that’s left under the ashes
after the fire has swept through,
let God nourish the life that’s now awakened.
The world will watch what Jesus does for you…
after the fire.

© Joel Tipple 10/14/2018

Redeemed

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For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
John 3:16 ESV

Have you ever heard of a pardon refused
by the person to whom it was offered?
But just so is redemption rejected
by those who pass without the Lord.

The free gift of eternal life
and redemption from eternal separation
is not dependent upon wealth, privilege,
or station.

But we must know our need,
and knowing, ask to be freed,
then by faith, accept the guarantee
of eternal life in God’s kingdom.

For He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
Colossians 1:13-14 NIV

© Joel Tipple
#6/14

Perfect

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I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.
Psalm 139:14 ESV (English Standard Version)

Perfect in your imperfection,
drawn by an unseen hand,
such a body of work as you are
is a challenge to understand.
Are you accidental?
Cosmic dust from space?
Do you suppose all the bits of you
just self-arranged in place?
I believe you’re wonderful,
not an accident at all,
God’s placed unique purpose within
the vehicle that holds it all.
The spark of redemption
from the artist of the universe
will always renew and bring to life
God’s intention built in from the first.

© Joel Tipple