Author Archives: Scott Lasher

Resurrected

Posted on by under Easter, Family, Father, Jesus

“I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.” – Luke 15:7

I was looking back at some pictures of when my son, Judah was first born this morning.

I have this picture where I am holding him in my hands literally minutes after he was born. It was so heartwarming to look and see his little hands and tiny eyes. I also noticed his hairy back & shoulders. I will always remember how incredibly hairy he was!

I remember that first moment when they put him on Kelsey’s chest. To see this little human and this beautiful, amazing woman and know that the Creator of the universe has entrusted them to you as an earthly protector and provider for them, the penny drops and these crazy emotions overwhelm you.

More than ever, now as a father, I think I more clearly understand what that scripture from Luke 15 really means. I understand how precious one child is, and that his worth is immeasurable in the eyes of Jesus. We know this thanks to the cross he willfully bore on our behalf. But the idea that one life is a symbol of a new beginning, innocence and a clean canvas that has all the potential in the world is something that stuck me again as I looked through those pictures.

The craziest part about all this to me is, the pure joy and the unadulterated celebration of life I felt in that moment when I held Judah in my hands pales in comparison to what God feels when one of His children are born again and are given a new beginning. Every part of Heaven joins in with God the celebration of that re-born life, that clean slate that has all the potential in the world ahead of them.

And it is that innocence, that freedom, that freshness and newness, was made possible only because Jesus did not stay dead. He rose to new life.

This new life in Christ is what caused the Apostle Paul to write in Corinthians “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”

When Jesus was crucified, the Creator took the fall for the created. The Innocent One bore the punishment for the convicted. The Saviour of all mankind spread open His arms in love for you and I, when he died on that cross – lifting the heavy weight of our sins onto himself.

But the story doesn’t end there. Three days later, Jesus was re-born into eternal life and from that day on, the opportunity for those who place their faith in him to experience the same is real. And that power, that raised him from the grave, lives in us.

So today as I hunt for eggs and eat chocolate bunny’s with my precious Judah, my passion to see more people being born into a new life in my Heavenly Father’s family is strengthened and deepened.

Because of our resurrected Jesus, someone raised to new life in him is just as precious as a newborn baby, with all the potential in the world.

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Crucified

Posted on by under Uncategorized

From noon until three in the afternoon darkness came over all the land. About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lemasabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”) – Matt 27:45-46

I never quite understood why it is called Good Friday.

It seems there are much better words to describe what occurred. Words like brutal seem to fit better. Hateful. Disgusting. Bad.

Calling the crucifixion of Jesus “good” seems to me like a way to paint it more comfortably. It makes what happened easier for us to process. It is easier to put “Good Friday” in songs and in sermons. It seems to fit better with the bunny’s and pretty colors that Hallmark has made Easter about.

But there was nothing pretty about Good Friday for Jesus.

As people who claim to follow Jesus, it can be hard to come to the place where we actually process what happened. But today, of all days of the year, should be a day where we try.

After they had pulled the beard from is face. After they had whipped his back to a bloody pulp. And after they heaped insult after insult upon the only one who never did a single thing to deserve them, Jesus cried out “my God, my God why have you forsaken me!”

See, the greatest pain that Jesus endured on the cross had nothing to do with whips and insults, as awful as all of that was. The most awful aspect of the cross for Jesus was the fact he had to face absolute separation from his father. His own father had to turn his face away in shame.

And it is because Jesus subjected himself to that pain and that loneliness in those brutal moments that you and I can rest assured in every moment that we never have to be separated from our Heavenly father, our God, for one single moment of our life.

We never have to be alone. We never have to be condemned. No matter what trials we face or sin we might have committed.

That is good news. But getting to that place of freedom requires we die, too. It requires we go to the cross where Jesus hung and bled, and we have to put ourselves to death there too. Our selfish ambitions. Our false humility. Our whole self. As Paul said in Galatians, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

Only when we can go to that place will we fully realize the goodness of what happened to Jesus today.

Comforted

Posted on by under Children, Family, God, Jesus

Something broke my heart the other day.

My son Judah is 17 months old. His personality is growing by the day, and we are finding he is a very happy, smiley, and generally good natured little dude. He runs around the house as much as his little legs will let him run and he plays with the dog, throws balls, and bounces on the couch.

He also loves to watch movies. He loves watching Brave and Bolt. He has watched each of those movies at least 100 times, and surprisingly, these movies hold his attention more than almost anything else.

The part that breaks my heart is what happens every time my wife or I forget to skip the previews on Bolt.

There is a preview for the new Monsters University movie coming out on there. In the preview, the scene is in what seems to be a little boys room at night. The camera zooms in on a closet door that creaks open and something swoops out over towards a bed with what looks like a little boy. The monster stands up and reveals dark red, pretty scary looking eyes, but we soon see that the monster is Scully and Mike is in the bed, and Scully has glued his eye shut, and Scully starts laughing. It is actually pretty funny.

Judah is terrified of this.

Happy-go-lucky Judah, who is always smiling and laughing with that cute baby belly laugh, is afraid of Monsters in his closet. At 17 months!

He is so terrified that he screams at the top of his lungs and cries his eyes out at even the slightest glance of that closet door at the beginning of the preview. Its no fun if we forget to skip the previews.

It takes a while to console him if he sees that closet door. We have to hold him tight and rock him back and forth and repeatedly whisper “It’s ok buddy, Dada and Mama are here” in his ear. He eventually calms down and we tell him we love him and he is ready to watch Bolt.

Judah’s sheer terror of this scene breaks my heart. It ticks me off a little bit actually. It ticks me off because, the fallen world we live in that is teeming with fear and sin, is what my sweet, innocent Judah was born into.

It makes me want to rescue him from it. It makes me want to do whatever it takes to save Judah from ever having to be afraid.

I bring all this up because it’s a perfect picture of how I think God feels about us. I think he feels ticked off that his people that he loves are born into a world apart from him.

The awesome part about God is, he did exactly what it took to save us, his children.

He sent us Jesus.

Jesus is the opposite of fear. Jesus is love. Jesus does not force us to face our fears, nor does he ridicule us because our fears are unfounded. Instead, he is simply with us. He sits by us. He comforts us. He provides for us. He loves us.

Does God take away fear? No. Otherwise he wouldn’t tell us repeatedly in the Bible not to fear, he’d just take the fear away.

No, God does not take fear away. Otherwise I wouldn’t fear people will not like me. I wouldn’t fear failure. I wouldn’t fear isolation and rejection. I wouldn’t fear the future and I wouldn’t fear for my security.

What God does instead is not unlike what Kelsey and I do with Judah. He holds us close. He loves us. He speaks gently to us for a while, letting us know everything is going to be okay. He comforts us.

It is in our times of greatest fear that the true measure of our faith is tested.

And the best part is, that faith can be placed in a Jesus who tells us he will never leave us or forsake us, that he is always with us. That faith can be placed in a Jesus who sends us truth, encouragement, provision and protection. That faith can be placed in a Jesus who is holding us, rocking with us, reminding us we don’t need to fear.

Freed

Posted on by under God, Mercy, Movies

I recently saw the movie Les Miserables. I have not been the same since.

This is a story that brings new meaning to the gospel and how we frame the terms “mercy” and “grace.” I cannot listen to a worship song or read the Bible without somehow thinking about Jean Valjean. Les Miserables is a story that has mercy and grace dripping all over it.

In the story, Jean Valjean is a lifelong criminal who is finally out on parole after nineteen years in a French prison. He is denied entrance at several places he tries to set up shop because his passport identifies him as a former convict. He is finally taken in by a church leader, Bishop Bienvenu. Valjean pays back his host by stealing the Bishops silver. When the police catch up to him, Valjean lies and claims that the Bishop had given him the silver as a gift. Bienvenu, who could have easily turned Valjean in, tells the officers who corralled Valjean that he is telling the truth. He even tells Valjean he should have “accepted” the silver candlesticks.

Valjean is dumbfounded. Valjean has been nothing but a thief, a prisoner, a sinner his whole life. Now he has been shown mercy. But it is more than mercy. Mercy would involve simply dropping the charges, but the bishop goes further—he actually rewards Valjean for his sin. He treats Valjean recklessly, overruling what the law – with the police literally standing in the room – demands. His love has everything to do with the sacrifice of the one doing the loving rather than the merit of the one being loved.

The bishop sets Valjean free. He sets Valjean free into a life that is changed forever.

From this moment on, his life is fueled more by gratitude than greed, giving than receiving, love than fear. This one moment of mercy changes him in a way that a lifetime of punishment never could.

What an incredibly emotional and beautiful approximation of what Jesus does for those who put their faith in him.

With Les Mis ringing in my ears, I sat in Starbucks and watched people. I watched as they came and went, sat down and had conversations. I watched people sitting alone with their latte and their computer. I watched people laugh. I watched them sit silently. I watched them work feverishly.

As I watched all this, I wondered what people would say if I were to walk over and ask them “What do you think Jesus would say to you if he were sitting across from you today?”

I pondered what people would say for a while. Most people, I think, would say something like, “Well, I think if Jesus were here, he would tell me to stop sinning.”

“He would tell me to clean up my act.”

“He would shake his finger at me and tell me to knock it off.”

“He would tell me to step it up and start being a better dad.”

“He would tell me I should be ashamed for stealing.”

“He wouldn’t even look at me.”

This is what Valjean probably expected from the Bishop.

This is what I think most people expect from Jesus.

I pondered what Jesus might say to these people for a while, too. Jesus, I think, would say much different things.

I think he would tell all those people, “Don’t be ashamed.”

“You are my friend.”

“My heart breaks for you.”

“I would like to hear more about that.”

“I am here for you.”

“I love you.”

So many of those people sitting in Starbucks, have not been introduced to that Jesus.

Maybe some of you reading this have not either.

I believe Jesus would say to you today, Don’t be ashamed. You are my friend. My heart breaks for what you are going through. I would like to help you. I am here for you. I love you.

We all desire to be treated as Valjean was by that bishop. This is why that scene from Les Mis tugs at our heartstrings the way it does.

That is the beauty of Jesus. He is our bishop. And we are all Valjean.

Allow Jesus to be your bishop today. Be freed into a life that changes forever.

Saturday Morning Music

Posted on by under God, Music, Worship

I got the new Hillsong album this week. This is probably my favorite song, because of the words:

Love is War

And I know Your love has won it all
You took the fall
To embrace my sorrows
I know You took the fight
You came and died but the grave was borrowed
I know You stood again
So I can stand with a life to follow
In the light of Your name

Jesus loved you enough to fight for you. He fought so hard he died. But his grave was only borrowed.

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Unburdened

Posted on by under God, Grace

As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:16-17)

My love language is “Words of Encouragement.”

Kelsey and I read the “Five Love Languages” shortly after we were married.

“The Five Love Languages” might as well have read me, because “Words of Encouragement” describes how I feel most loved to a “t.”

I like when someone compliments me, or praises me for a job well done. I like getting high-fived and I like when I am recognized for hard work. I live for kudos. In fact, part of what makes me want to do anything is the thought there may be an outside chance I get recognized for accomplishing whatever it is.

Whether it is the predominant way we feel loved, or if it is not quite the thing that drives us, doing something to somehow earn us the praise of our peers and loved ones is a part of all of us. I think each of us is driven by two things: to know, and to be known. We want to understand the way the world works, and we want to be recognized by the world we work in.

Whether you agree with me on that idea or not, our culture is performance-driven. From the time we step foot into 1st grade until our most recent annual review, our performance determines how far we get, how much influence we have, how much money we make.

The problem with this is, for people like me, we sometimes let our performance and our achievements dictate our value and our worth. The money we earn, the car we drive, isn’t just reflective of the job we do, it is reflective of us, period. How we look, how we dress, what college we went to, and what people think of us are more than just characteristics, it becomes synonymous with our worth.

This is not to say that accomplishments are somehow bad, or even that they aren’t incredibly important. It is to say that there is a difference between taking pride in what we do and worshipping it. When we spend our lives frantically propping up our image or reputation, trying to do it all, and do it all well, we start to let what we do consume us.

Life becomes an endless cycle of earning and proving and management and controlling that leads us to where we can’t even see past our our own nose. This culture of performance based living can cause us to live in a constant state of anxiety, fear, jealousy and resentment, until we end up trusting no one and our only comfort is the hollow whispers of our own ego.

And this is probably why grace is so hard for our culture to understand. Grace does not have to be earned. It does not have to be bought. It does not care about status or money or how many bedrooms your house has. It is pure. It is unadulterated. It is 200-proof, and it is intoxicating. It does not care if you cussed this morning or cheated on your spouse twenty years ago. It does not give credence to your age or your occupation.

Grace is easy. It is light. This is the way Jesus described his burden.

But our culture, even the church, has a way of making grace so heavy.

Our life becomes about more. Pray more, care more about unbelievers, read the Bible more, get involved in church more, and love my wife and kids more. The more things we are told we need to do more the thinner we become.

So many of us operate out of this thin place. This place is heavy. It is hard.

But Jesus didn’t die so you would have to do more. He didn’t die to make you feel guilty when you don’t do enough. He died because he is enough for whoever you are and whatever you have done. He died because he loves you.

Which is where the scripture found in Matthew 3:16-17 comes in.

These are words God spoke about his son after Jesus was baptized. Before he had done a thing in his earthly ministry.

If Jesus.

Who had infinite power and potential. Who carried the most important calling and mission in history. Who did so much in His lifetime that John would later say that the world could not contain the books describing it.

If he had his Father’s acceptance before he did a single thing in His earthly life to obtain it, what makes you think you have to turn your life around before you can come back to God? What makes you think you have to impress God with your prayers or your spirituality before He will impart His grace to you?

What makes you think you have to do things to get God to like you, much less love you?

You may have spent a lifetime trying to achieve something that Jesus already achieved for you.

God’s acceptance isn’t based on your performance.

I believe God wanted to tell you today, Stop striving for what is already yours. Start receiving what is already done. And simply be unburdened.

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Called

Posted on by under Calling, Family, God

But you, Lord , are a shield around me, my glory, the One who lifts my head high. I call out to the Lord , and he answers me from his holy mountain. I lie down and sleep; I wake again, because the Lord sustains me. (Psalm 3:3-5 NIV)

It was just over a year ago, that I felt called by God to plant a church one day.

Being called by God to do something, whether that is planting a church, or starting a company, or donating a lot of money, or simply to get your butt out of bed and go to church on Sunday, is pretty heavy stuff, no doubt.

It’s heavy because, being called by God doesn’t mean your life gets easier.

I look at David in the Bible, after he was called and anointed by God to be king over Israel. His tenure gets off to a pretty bumpy start. He is caught sleeping with another man’s wife and as a result, it is prophesied over him that “the sword will not depart from his house.” This happy little prediction comes true in David’s life as he goes on to see much violence and struggle amongst and with his children.

His own son Amnon, ends up raping his half-sister Tamar. David’s third oldest son Absalom and Tamar’s brother hears about this and he is furious. He knows David isn’t going to do anything about it – David at this point has become a very passive father.

Perhaps being a king was more important than being a dad to him.

So Absalom, seeing his dad’s unwillingness to take action decides he is going to do something about it himself. He kills Amnon, and he declares to all of Israel that he clearly could do the job of being king better than his dad could. Absalom, then forces David out of his throne and David is on the run from the armies of his own son.

Whew. Pretty heavy stuff.

And it was at this point that David penned those verses from Psalms 3.

How can someone in such a dire situation still find it in him to trust the Lord? He should have been at the end of his rope, cursing God, not praising him. Right?

No, I think what David must have learned through this whole experience is his calling was not about him. It was about God.

I think David had allowed his calling and “doing something for God” become what defined him and this blinded him to what was most important. And it is here in Psalms 3 that he is resetting his focus.

See, I think David’s calling was not about even being a king.

Being called by God sometimes leads us to be consumed by the title, or the things we think we have to do to fulfill that calling. Even if you don’t call it a “calling” – is there something you do that you have allowed to define you?

Sure we can feel our calling from God is to plant a church or be a boss or be a mom; in David’s case, be a king. These things are overt and very visible, and necessary.

But being called by God, it seems, is about doing small things, small things no one else really sees.

When we choose to follow God, we cannot let the following him get in the way. The things that we think we have to do or get done that bring us the praise of men will not bring us God’s favor. He doesn’t care how much money we have, how witty we are or how much praise people are willing to give us for what we do in the name of our calling. I think he cares more about the position of our heart. I think he cares more about how many people we love along the way.

David missed that. What if David stopped for a minute and took Amnon to lunch one day and just asked him how he was doing?

So instead of staying late at work today, hurry home to your wife. Instead of sending one more email, spend 3 more minutes with your kids. Call your mom. Look up from your phone and get the door for someone. Buy someones lunch behind you in the drive thru. Call your friend you have not called in a while and ask them how they are doing. Stop and love people.

It is when each of us wake up in the morning and love other people more than we love what we do that we will finally step into our calling.
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These words among others…

Posted on by under Beginnings, Learning

The funny thing about what I have chosen to title this blog, is that I came up with it in 9th grade.

It was was supposed to be the title of one of three books I knew I was going to write one day. One of the others was “Scott Lasher’s Rules for Walking Across the United States.” I thought I was going to walk across the United States one day. I was going to start somewhere in Virginia and walk all the way to Los Angeles. The book was going to be about my experiences along the way. My 9th-grade self was stoked.

The other book was “Perhaps Maybe” and it was going to be something of a self help book, with me dispensing whatever great wisdom for living my 9th-grade self somehow thought I would attain by this time in my life.

Obviously the other two titles wouldn’t have worked for this blog. I have a wife and son and a dog and a mortgage now, so walking across the US is not really in the cards. And let’s just say 26 sounds a lot older and wiser when you are 15 than it really is.

The other book title though, was going to be “These Words Among Others.” I liked that title the most of all the books my 9th-grade self was going to write. It was going to be a collection of thoughts, ideas, things I had learned that I kept track of over the years. Each chapter was going to be different, no real story arc or anything like that. Just some random musings of some random guy, a bunch of words among many words out there.

That is what this blog will be. Each post will have some words about something you may or may not care about. What is great is my 9th-grade self has grown up a bit, and a guy named Jesus has captivated my life, and I am learning a lot. This will be as much for me as I hope it will become for someone.

What follows are just some words among others.