A Beautiful Discovery

 The resurrection of Jesus takes us many places, one of them being into the inner arena of our personal life, where nobody lives but us, and where nobody knows what goes on except God and each one of us personally.  Rather than scare us to death, this ought to ignite energy and enthusiasm in us.  In Jesus' life we are empowered to confront just who we are and to find that we are not trapped in hopelessness but set free to be what we never dreamed, in the wildest stretches of our imagination, we could be.  

           

Perhaps the greatest awakening in the human heart, made possible because Jesus lives, is that we do not have to give ourselves to the self-destructive ways of sin.  Sin is not our friend; it is a destroyer of everything good in us and in our world.  In Christ we are under no obligation to weigh ourselves down by that which, in the end, seeks our demise and not our benefit. 

           

I John 3:1 says that God's love, which is "great," lifts those who receive His love into the status of being "Children of God."  We human beings don't have to be children of sin.  We don't have to call evil our father, and conclude that what has been must always be.  Jesus can set us free from that sort of nonsensical thinking.  We don't have to practice things that lead us to be less that whom God has created and called us to be.  We are created in the image of God.  His likeness is in us, and when we truly connect with His likeness it is a beautiful discovery. 

           

Jesus has come to destroy the works of the evil one (I John 3:8), works that deny the amazing grace of God.  Now we are on the journey toward a day of great revelation.  Soon, "when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is" (I John 3:2).  Today we look forward in hope because we know God is at work in Jesus. 

           

Let's put our hands in to Jesus' hands and live up to the grace given us, live like "Children of God" (I John. 3:1).

Ain't gonna study war no more

I have no idea when Christ is going to come back for His Church.  What I do know, however, is that we are living in the last days and have been living in them since the birth of Jesus' Church recorded in Acts chapter two.  What I know, too, based on the words of an Old Testament prophet, is that in these ongoing last days God has been at work in His world through His Messiah. 

There are many religions in the world, many gods, but Micah 4:5 speaks for the people of Yahweh, "Though all the peoples walk each in the name of his god, as for us, we will walk in the name of the LORD our God forever and ever." And, just who is "our God?"  He is the God who brings people to the place of peace.  In His community people "hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks."  When God is worshiped as the Living God "Nation will not lift up sword against nation, and never again will they train for war" (Micah 4:3). 

When people are calling for war and retaliation and retribution one can count on the fact that in that people Jesus isn't Lord.  They may call Him Lord but their actions don't rise up to their words.  His people continually live before God and they are always saying, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob, that He may teach us about His ways and that we may walk in His paths"  (Micah 4:2).

This old world has been beat up on for too long.  She is bleeding and hurting, gasping for breath.  When will we put away our swords and let God be God?  Please, somebody, tell me, when.  Whatever the answer might be, let it start in the Church of Jesus.

HOLY AND AWESOME

When the Psalmist spoke of God he said, ‘Holy and awesome in His name” (Ps. 111:9).  It’s true, isn’t it?  God is holy and He is awesome.  How could we reach any other conclusion.  He is the God of grace and love and mercy, working so as to draw people into Himself.

                       

When the prophet, Isaiah, spoke of God he said, “Trust in the Lord forever, for in God the Lord, we have an everlasting Rock” (Is. 26:4).  What a great word for a world like ours, so needy and hurtful, so angry and bitter, so selfish and self-serving. 

                       

Things don’t have to be the way they are.  Things can change.  People can change.  God can enter into stories and redirect the storyline.  In fact, that is exactly what God did and is doing, in the life of Jesus the Messiah.

                       

The weak and powerless have an advocate, the afflicted and helpless have a voice.  The unassailable city (Is. 26:5), the fortress that keeps the weak, weak, and the powerless, powerless, has met an adversary and that adversary is God.  The powers that afflict, are now afflicted by the standard of their own measure.  God’s “Upright One” (Is. 26:7), is on the move and grace is on the horizon.  The future can be different than the past.  A new way of being is afoot, and those who trust in God will be kept in peace (Is. 26:3).

                       

God is going to take down falsehood and raise up truth.  God is going to bring a reversal of fortune.  The last shall be first, and the first shall be last.  In Jesus Christ, God redefines the meaning of things, and He will “establish peace” (Is. 26:12).  The thing this world most needs is found in God’s Upright One.  In Him the life we all seek is here. In Christ we study war no more and we “learn righteousness” (Is. 26:9).  We come to the place of peace and discover we are home.

Let the Living Begin

Here they go again, those crazy Christians, proclaiming that the one they saw die on a cross on a certain Friday afternoon outside Jerusalem is, in fact, alive.  The rumors were wild and almost silly, to think that a dead man could come back from the grave, and take up where He left off a few days earlier, only take up with greater power and authority than before.

           

Those first Christians were really naïve, or something really had taken place that staggered their world view and changed them.  It is a great challenge to undermine the scope and quality of their witness and to call their integrity or sanity into question. 

           

How do you stop a movement based on a teaching that says her Lord and Leader was crucified, died, and was buried, but on the third day rose up again?  How do you stop a movement so rooted and founded on this truth that persecution and death could not stop them from sharing their story?  I don’t think you can stop that kind of movement, that kind of people.

           

Today, we are privileged to be named among “those crazy Christians.” Once our lives were broken and wounded, and held no hope. Then Jesus revealed Himself to us to be alive, and the revelation so profoundly struck a nerve in our very souls, we made a decision that, come what may, we have decided to follow Jesus and that, for us, there will be no turning back.

           

To some people the whole idea of Jesus is either a stumbling block or simply utter foolishness.  If you know someone like this, don’t be too hard on them.  It is quite a thing we ask of people.  Instead, just pray for them.  Love them.  Show them what a life based on the resurrection looks like.  People are hungry for God, for truth, for some sense of destiny.  We believe Jesus is God’s response to the deepest needs  in the human heart.  He has risen, so we say.  Now, let’s live in light of a resurrected Lord and Savior.  

Welcome Home to God

I'm still thinking about last Sunday.  We call it Palm Sunday.

 

The parade went on as planned but it failed to capture the real meaning of the Christ event.  The folks sang and danced and celebrated and, all in all, had a great time.  At Sundown, they reflected on the great day they had had; He reflected upon the upcoming week where He would be pierced through for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities, and chastened for our well-being (Is. 53:5).  What a day.

    

Getting the biggest picture possible is always a great idea.  Snapshots can fall short in communicating the whole story of an event. Truth be known, Jesus did not come to town this day to be the grand Marshall at a parade.  He came to town because His destiny went through Jerusalem and on to a hill called, "Calvary."

    

Redemption is not accomplished through a parade.  Redemption is accomplished when one qualified to do so, has placed on Him the iniquity of everybody else and is scourged so that the guilty are healed and the prodigals can return to God. 

           

So it was that the parade became the introit to a crushing process that put Jesus to grief and ultimately death.  It was not pretty.  It was very ugly.  Yet, in the upside down world of God the ugly was very beautiful.  Out of suffering, dying and death came one who bore or griefs, carried our sorrows, and was pierced through for our transgressions. 

"Ho! Every one who thirsts come to the waters;

and you who have no money come, buy and eat.

Come, by wine and milk without money and without cost"

-- Isaiah 55:1