Sunrise and Sunset

I am thinking about the night before Christ rose from the dead and the Resurrection Day. I wonder if the sunset of that evening prior to His resurrection is clipped in a scrapbook by God. What did the sky look like that evening? Was there a glorious mixture of purples for royalty, reds for the shed blood and sleek white clouds to show the upcoming pure cleansing which would then prevail from that day forward? Were the birds quiet that evening and the olive trees still against the sky? What did the sea of Galilee look like that evening? Were the tides low and the waves quiet ripples or were the seas crashing against the shore line in eager anticipation to feel Christs feet on their shores again?

And what of the sunrise on that glorious morning? The women had gone down to the tomb very early in the morning. ( Luke 24 ) I wonder if the sun had even come over the horizon yet. What time of the day did Christ rise from the dead? Was He out of the tomb as soon as the days had changed from one to the next or did He wait for a glimpse of daylight and the symphony of renewal that the Creation would pulse with upon His resurrection? How brightly did the sun shine that morning than it ever did before? The birds must have been singing, the insects and butterflies flitting around, the squirrels chittering, the fish leaping and the trees waving. No one must have noticed the change in nature that day as they tried to understand that Christ had done just what He had said He was going to do....Risen from the dead!

Review the story again with a new outlook. Put yourself in the shoes of the believers of that time and consider what you may have thought. This is a story that needs consideration every day of our Christian walks. Reminding us that He is the reason we have hope and joy!

Thank you Jesus for the new life you have given me and the day to celebrate each year your Resurrection!!

This Little Light

I heard this let of verses read the other night and when I actually thought about the way the words were presented, the literal meaning changed from the preconceived translation I had always had. The verses I am referring to are Luke 11:33-36. We have heard that “the eyes are the windows of the soul” but why is that true? This will prove that there is Scriptural foundation for that quote. Luke is quoting Jesus here, who is saying; “No one lights a lamp and puts it in a place where it will be hidden, or under a bowl. Instead he puts it on its stand so that those who come in may see the light. Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are good, your whole body also is full of light. But when they are bad, your body also is full of darkness. See to it, then, that the light within you is not darkness. Therefore, if your whole body is full of light, and no part of it dark, it will be completely lighted, as when the light of a lamp shines on you.”

Have you ever been some place where the darkness is practically palpable? Standing on a country road in the middle of the night with no streetlights, or on a farm that is a good distance from anywhere else? What happens when you turn on a light or you have only one light one, like the dusk to dawn light on the side of the barn? The light reaches far out into the darkness. It’s fingers touching further than you realize and chasing away the shadows. The light Jesus is referring to in this verse is His light that is inside of us when we believe on Him. Christians are distinctive because they have a glow about them and there is no way to cover that light.

Secondly, Jesus says that the eyes are the lamp of the body. The eyes are a channel into the soul. Not a mirror of what the soul is, but a funnel that will determine what your soul is. So if you spend time watching violence, giving dirty looks, looking at questionable magazines, surfing wrongful sights in the internet or watching TV shows that would make your mother blush, all these things are things that feed your soul. Luke continues to write that if what you observe with your eyes is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if what you observe is bad, than you will feed the darkness. Think about what you do that interrupts your communication with God. How much quiet time to do spend with Him? I don’t mean that the kids are an interruption, either. I mean things that you voluntarily put in your own way. TV, computer, I-pod, whatever it may be. It is extremely crucial that we protect ourselves from what come in through our channels; our eyes and our ears.

Develop your light and let others see it shine. You’ll be surprised at how well received the joyous light of Jesus is received and how many moths you may draw to your flame.

In Like a Lion

February is the shortest month of the year but it seems to last forever!! Then, as we emerge on the other side, March awaits us in all its raging glory! The winds blow, the snow falls, the mud swallows up anything brave enough to cross its threshold, the icicles hang sideways and the birds sing mightily. Crazy!

As I venture out for my morning walk on this mild March morning, I am reminded of what Paul said about “putting off the old man” (Ephesians 4:22-24) and also how he himself struggled with doing what he didn’t want to do (Romans 7:14-25).

Just as the seasons battle year after year, so we battle constantly over the sin nature. Our sin nature, or old self, is powerful, terrifying and sometimes immense. Sounds like it’s hopeless, doesn’t it? Our “new man”, the person we are with the help and saving grace of God is radiant, steadfast and enduring. We should hold godly characteristics like kindness, gentleness and humility. II Corinthians 5:21 says “God made Him (Christ) who had no sin, to be sin for us so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.” To be sin…Christ had never had a mean thought, never talked back to His parents, never stole anything, never kicked the dog, never was vengeful to anyone, been jealous or envious or anything! Then He became all that sin is. It’s ugly, full of guilt, hateful, angry, dirty and lost. Think about what your core self feels like when you knowingly have done something wrong. Now multilply that not only by all the things you have done in your own life, but what about all the people you know and all the people who have lived and died since Christ was on the earth.

It is incomprehensible what that must have been like for Christ and yet we take this gift of salvation and eternal life for granted.

Take some time this month of March to evaluate your growth and your battle. Is the Lamb of God winning that battle over the “old man”? Have you surrendered the battle to Christ to let Him fight for you?

Kingly restraint

I enjoy good stories! Whether the transference is real or imagined, a good storyteller captivates me. My father was an excellent storyteller. He had the right balance of detail and pleasure that you could almost see, hear and smell what was occurring. The Bible is full of so many wonderful stories and the Old Testament really built you up for the climax of Christ in the New Testament. The authors predict, recount and track many facts. Some stories are joyous; some exceed suffering and anguish, while others have a surprise ending.

One such story is the story of David. In a segment of his life, before he was king but after the incident with Goliath, Saul was out hunting David down. I think Saul may have been manic or something because he had such opposites. He would love David one minute and hate him the next. Saul’s son was David’s best friend, Jonathan and Saul’s daughter was David’s wife!

In I Samuel 23 the story begins with Saul pursuing David. It’s really a little humorous to me that David is out there running from place to place with about 600 men and yet Saul can’t find him. Paul can’t find him because God didn’t want Saul to find him. The details of this story are interesting as David goes to the city of Keilah to fight off the Philistines and save the people of Keilah. This was a walled city and when Saul found out that David and his men were there, he headed right out to try and find him. Well, God told David that Saul was coming after him so he fled to the mountains and when Saul found out that he was in the mountains, he took 3000 of his men and went after him there! (Here comes the humorous end of this story!!) Saul and David chased each other around the mountain until David and his men finally hid in a large cave. While they were hiding in the back of this deep cave, Saul walked in the cave and decided to relieve himself. What would you have done? David had 600 hundred men and they were all in that cave! Saul was in a compromising position and they could have eliminated him without any trouble at all. Did they? No they did not! David snuck up behind him and cut a piece off of Saul’s robe and then waited until Saul walked out of the cave and was a distance away before he showed himself and proved that he could have eliminated him without any trouble but chose not to. After all this time of Saul threatening David and the steady chase and David’s life being constantly challenged, it must have taken quite a large amount of restraint NOT to have killed him. But David was eager to follow the leading of God in his life. David did not always follow the right path but he was striving at this point to do just that. What do you struggle to restrain a reaction to? Is it an act of passion? Is it an act of anger? Is it a quick word or sharp look? Perhaps it is even a vengeful plan rather than waiting for God to perform His own vengeance.

David knew that he was continuing to please God in Psalm 41:11 “The Lord is pleased with me because my enemies do not triumph.”

Staying Power of Salvation!

An interesting debate rears its ugly head sporadically in our congregation and it disturbs me on many levels. We have debated that there is a possibility that one could loose their salvation. Now, don’t run from the room with your arms above your head in a panic!!

I believe, right up front, that you cannot loose your salvation. If you have made a true confession of sin and asked for forgiveness and asked Christ to live in your heart, you are saved! I don’t see anywhere in the Scriptures where it states that Jesus died on the cross for us but….

In John 3:16, “God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son that whoever believes on Him will not die but have eternal life.” No stipulations there.

John 6:40 “For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life.”

John 6:47 “I tell you the truth, he who believes has eternal life.”

John 8:12 “…I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

John 8:34-36 “Jesus replied ‘I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.’” Meaning that if you believe that Jesus can make you feel free and have hope about life and your future, you will be a member of the family of God and a member of the family is always a member of the family. No matter what you say or do, you are always a member of your earthly family. We get one mother and one father and they are ours for life.

John 10:28 “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.”

If the power of salvation were so feeble, it would not be strong enough to sanctify (or set apart) an unsaved spouse and make children of a Christian parent ‘holy’ by association. I Corinthians 7:14

Romans 10:9-14 Confess and believe and you are saved. Simple and yet so very powerful!

I could go on but I think I’ve made my point. Many of us have continued to make mistakes after we became Christians and some of our mistakes (sins) are big. Sometimes it can be hard to stay where we want to be and doing what we want to be doing because Satan has always been really good at convincing us otherwise. Paul talked about this and it is a comfort to me that even Paul had trouble with this. It doesn’t give us license to do wrong, but we have to be real about it and know that being saved doesn’t make us perfect or set us up on a pedestal where nothing can get to us. We just have the power within us to quantify our earthly life and guarantee our eternal destination. We have been given the Holy Spirit to guide us, as Christians, and to help us and even to pray for us when we cannot pray ourselves. (Romans 8:26-27)

So I encourage you to dwell on the joy and peace inside your heart that is a wonderful treasure and seek out ways to share it with those around you rather than dwelling on the legalities that humans tend to cloud a picture with. You have a strength inside you that parted the Red Sea, if you have believed in Jesus! What more power could you ask for and how much stronger a staying power could we ask for.

Faith of Babes

I enjoy reading Matthew, Mark, Luke and John because they are written by 4 different men and are a description of many of the same events along the same time line. Even so, there are just slight changes or additions in detail. John spends time recounting the highest number of miracles that Jesus performed in his effort to define the character of Jesus while Luke has a much more personal rendition of Jesus’ life.

We are celebrating Easter, or Resurrection Day as my mother accurately calls it, early this year. As I watch the children prepare and the parents groom them for the upcoming festivities, I think about when Jesus was blessing the children on His way to Jerusalem. There are 3 renditions 0f this event and each one is just slightly different. They are found in Matthew 19:13-15, Mark 10:13-16, and Luke 18:15-17.

All three say that the people were bringing the very small children to Jesus so He could pray for them and the disciples rebuked them. Jesus said, “ let the little children come to me for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth anyone who will not accept the kingdom of God like a little child will not enter it.”

How does a child accept something new and exciting that they can’t see? They listen with rapt attention and sense of intrigue. They trust the deliverer of this explanation intrinsically! Think about when a child is told about the Easter Bunny or Santa Claus for the first time and the wide-eyed amazement that accompanies the excitement, anticipation and vision of this unknown new marvel! Children trust us to be telling them the honest truth and they have no reason to doubt us. So rather than give us excuses or rational about why they don’t think they should believe us, they gobble up the details and it becomes, then, a thread in their lives. At what point does skepticism overtake our innocent acceptance this clouding our clarity of thought? It is so simple a story and so simple a request for us to believe and be grateful for the precious gift of salvation. What a sermon it would be if we went as children, to sit at the feet of the teacher and learn what new and exciting things he had to share!

Can you tap into your child-like faith?!

Defying Devastation

We all have inconsequential, insignificant events that are threaded to our emotional core. We are to have Godly characteristics. I don’t recall that Christ was depressed, anxious or fearful. He was sad but not depressed – two very different things. He was never devastated – a great buzz word today. The innumerable situations that He navigated couldn’t parallel our daily experiences. He lived life as a human and experienced human events so that we would acknowledge, in our humanity, that He could relate to our conditions and situations. The level of tranquility that He lived 30+ years with as well as the joy, peace and serenity that He conveyed without a word; these are the things that pay tribute to His character.

So why is it that we react with repugnant behavior to these life situations when, dwelling within us, is the very same stalwart character that propelled Christ through to His eternal home? I believe we have a choice and we make the choice several times through the day. We are encompassed and indwelled by both Satan and the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit battles to protect us from the inside out against the prevailing evil that marauds us.

Christ never allowed Satan to derail Him. Think how intense the evil power of Satan must have been when he was permitted to tempt Christ in the wilderness. Talk about a stressful situation!! Christ used the enduring words of His Father to ward off Satan. How well do we do that?
Just declaring protection from Satan by virtue of the very name of Jesus Christ, will provide you an awesome level of power. When things start to get to me, I try to remember a favorite quote. “In light of eternity, how important is it?” Not that it always works, but I try. So I challenge you to choose your team daily, even hourly if need be, and draw strength from the sustaining and benevolent Captain who guards your heart!