Jesus

Invitations to Thanks Giving

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All good things can be traced back to Christ.  The ultimate source of everything for which we should give thanks is God’s grace rooted in Christ.  Undeserved gifts from God.

But just how much grace is yours?  Well, if you are a child of God, the dimensions of God’s grace lavished on you is staggering!  Ephesians 2:7 indicates one of heaven’s never-ending activities will be to examine the incomparable riches of God’s grace that Christ purchased for you!  While this insight should open the door to countless newly discovered blessings and a myriad of invitations to thank God, we can unpack God’s grace even further when we consider it’s chronological dimensions.

God’s grace poured out on you has PAST, PRESENT, and FUTURE expressions to it!  Isaiah 53 touches on elements of God’s PAST grace given to you thousands of years ago!  2 Corinthians 12:7-10, Philippians 4:13 and 1 Peter 5:7 touch on a few aspects of God’s PRESENT grace that is available to you today!  Finally, 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 and Revelation 21-22 hint at the incredible FUTURE grace that awaits Christ-followers!

Our lives have been, are, and will be soaked with God’s incomparable grace!  I’m hoping we all have a “Thank you Jesus” Thanksgiving this year!

The Holiest of Holidays

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All holidays have purpose and value.  But not all holidays are created equal.  Some are not only holidays, some are holy-days.  Easter and Christmas are certainly two significant holy-days.  But the holiest of holy-days is rarely esteemed—Good Friday.

Our culture pays little attention to this holy-day.  And if we take our cues and our values from it, Good Friday will most likely come and go with little or no fanfare.  But let’s not overlook the mystery and wonder of this holiest of days this year!

I don’t believe it would be an overstatement to propose that the overarching message of the Bible is more profoundly illustrated on Good Friday than on any other day in human history!  This is not to take away from Christmas or Easter, but rather to see how these holy-days find their ultimate explanation in Good Friday.

I would also suggest that there is no topic known to us more poignant nor profound than Soteriology—the study of God’s gracious gift of salvation from our sin, and how Jesus Christ purchased it for us.  The Bible teaches this gracious gift will be the incomparable, inexplicable, and inexhaustible focal point of every man, woman, boy and girl who will spend the coming ages in the heavenly realms with Christ Jesus!

Accordingly, the mystery of the Son of God’s death on a cross, should be the most fascinating and compelling topic for our consideration in our earthly realm as well!  After all, there is only one Person in history who was so significant that our ancestors devised our calendar around His brief earthly pilgrimage.  And there is no other event in history so disturbing—and yet so encouraging, as Christ’s untimely and unjust death on a cross.

But don’t be mistaken.  Jesus didn’t die because Judas betrayed Him.  Jesus wasn’t condemned because the Jewish leaders lied about Him.  Jesus wasn’t sentenced to death because Pilate was a coward.  Jesus wasn’t killed by Roman soldiers.  Jesus didn’t die because He was powerless to save Himself.PassionOfTheChrist_2004_02

It was our sin—and God’s justice, that put Jesus on that cross to die…

The Bible makes it clear that there is no one righteous before God, for all of us have sinned and fallen short of our Creator’s expectation for us.  God’s Word also makes it plain: the wages of our sin is death.  Physical death, yes.  But far worse, spiritual death as well.  We understand that physical death occurs when our spirit is separated from our bodies.  Spiritual death, the second death, is when our spirit is separated from its Creator—forever. The consequence of our sin against our Creator is both physical and spiritual death.

Because God is just, someone had to pay the consequences of our sin.  Even though Jesus had never committed any sin (thoughts, words or deeds) He bore our sins, and He took our punishment for them.  He died because of us.  He died for us.  He died in place of us.  But there’s much more.

It was our sin—and God’s love, that put Jesus on that cross to die…

The Bible makes it equally clear that God the Father so loved us, that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever would believe on Him would not have to die, but would have eternal life instead.  God’s Word also tells us that His Son Jesus so loved us, that He willingly laid down His life for us.

So on Good Friday, two thousand years ago, God’s grace was gloriously provided by Jesus’ death on a cross!  He who was rich became poor so that we through His poverty might become rich!  He who had no experience with sin became sin for us so that through Him we might gain the sinlessness of God!

God’s justice was perfectly satisfied on Good Friday.  God’s love was perfectly demonstrated on Good Friday.  God’s grace is freely offered to you because of Good Friday!  That is the Good News of Good Friday!  And because Jesus conquered death on Resurrection Day, if you will have faith in God’s grace, you too will be resurrected one day to marvel at the magnitude of His grace forever!  No wonder the holiest of holy-days has come to be known as Good Friday!

Cheer Up!

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Jesus-Passion-of-the-Christ-Jim-Caveziel-Smile-1024x768

The day started out like every other day he could remember.  As soon as he felt the warm rays of the sun strike his face, he pulled himself up from his makeshift bed on the side of the road.  Thankfully, it hadn’t rained during the night and the temperatures were still manageable this time of the year.  Of course, this good fortune would change all too soon.

He shook the dust off his motley robe, took his cup and placed his last two coins in it.  “Alms for the poor?” he constantly pleaded, as he rattled the coins in his cup.

Thankfully, an occasional passerby would reward his begging with another small coin.  Maybe he would have enough by day’s end to buy some stale bread to temporarily appease the constant gnawing in his stomach.

He couldn’t help that he was poor, as no one would hire him to work.  After all, what kind of work could a blind man do?  It appeared painfully obvious to him and everyone else that his life’s work would amount to nothing but begging.

While hope was normally a thought that rarely crossed his mind, he had recently heard some amazing stories of sick people being healed, cripples walking, deaf hearing, and yes, even blind people seeing!  Not surprisingly, hope was not only crossing his mind these days, hope was blazing a major pathway through it!  Could this be the day he received infinitely more than a few coins; his sight, his life?

His dreams were interrupted when he heard a large crowd coming his way.  His curiosity piqued, he stopped begging for alms, and started begging for information.  Thankfully, a passerby had  mercy on him and responded, “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.”  Could it be true that Hope was within reach?  But how could he speak to Him since He was surrounded by such a large crowd?

He had no recourse but to shout above the noise of the crowd, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”  Unfortunately, some within the crowd heard him and rebuked him for his outburst and demanded he be quiet.  But they didn’t understand that this, no He, was his only hope for sight; for life!  So he shouted even louder, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”

Hope heard and Hope stopped!  Those who had just chided him for his annoying shouts, now encouraged him, “Cheer up!  He’s calling you!”  Bartimaeus threw off his cloak, jumped to his feet and felt his way to Hope.

He sensed His presence even before he heard His question, “What do you want me to do for you?”  They were unfamiliar words to him, yet more exhilarating than anyone could possibly imagine!  Trembling, knowing the audacity it took for a beggar to ask such a thing of a King, the words spilled out anyway, “I want to see.”

“Go,” He simply said, “your faith has healed you.”  Immediately, he saw Hope, and his life reborn!

Afraid, But Not Enough

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A few years ago we built an enclosed storage area near our house.  Not long afterward I was moving things around looking for something when this unpleasant thought crossed my mind: “Snakes would probably like to nest in this space!”  While I had never seen a snake, or any evidence of one in this area, just the possibility of it would quicken my heart rate, and my rummaging speed, every time I opened the door!blackratsnake040924-1479gate10z

It wasn’t too long before I decided I should do something to minimize the potential of encountering a slithering reptile in my storage area!  So after doing some research on the various methods and products available for repelling these repulsive creatures, I purchased a granular snake repellent at a local hardware store.

Now all I had to do was to spread the repellent around the walls of the storage space.  It was guaranteed that snakes would not cross it.  I immediately thought of two concerns: First, I would have to move all the items in storage away from the walls so that I could pour out the repellent as directed.  But what if I already had snakes hiding in the stuff I would be moving?  I wasn’t too excited about the idea of moving things around and raising the ire of any snakes that may have already made my storage area their home!

Secondly, what if I had snakes living in the center of the storage area?  I might not disturb them while moving the stuff around the perimeter, but what if the repellent ended up keeping them from escaping my building?  Worse, what if the repellent infuriated them to the point that my hypothetical snakes became more aggressive than normal?

A few days ago I noticed my snake repellent container sitting in a corner of my storage area.  I had never opened it!  I had feared snakes enough to buy the repellent, and to store it in my storage area, but I didn’t fear the slithering reptiles enough to use the repellent as directed!  Bottom line: Unless snakes can read what it says on the container, I might as well set out a liter of Dr. Pepper!

Before you take me to task on my vacillation, let me suggest this is a fairly common trait among us humans!  If not so much in buying snake repellents, I see it often in “buying fire insurance.”  It’s a term some folks use to describe doing religious practices intended to appease God and avoid hell.  Token activities like merely going to church, coming down to the altar, repeating a rote prayer, or even being baptized will not “buy” anyone anything!

If we really want to repel snakes, we are going to have to go all-in and follow the directions wholeheartedly having faith it will work!  Accordingly, if we want to appease God and avoid hell, we are going to have to go all-in and follow Jesus wholeheartedly having faith He will work!

 

Where Are You Going?

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flight planning on chart           You will never get lost if you always know where you are and where you are going!  I used that statement often when I taught flying.  After all, present position is a simple extension of where one has been in the past, combined with the direction and speed one has traveled since the last known position.

For instance, pilots always know the airport they are departing from.  And as long as they kept track of their time in flight and the direction and speed they were heading, then they would always know their approximate position, even if they couldn’t always pinpoint it on a map.

Then each time they could positively identify their present position on the map, the navigating process would start all over again.  They were always a given number of minutes away from their last known position, and they had been flying a given direction and speed.  So even when they were in between positive identifications of their location on a map, they still had an approximate idea of where they were, and where they were going.

Unfortunately my students didn’t always know how the winds aloft would affect their direction and speed, and because they often wandered from their desired heading, they would get off course.  But once they determined how much they were off course, I would teach them how to make course corrections to get them back on course to ensure they would reach their ultimate destination; before running out of fuel.  Obviously, everything they were doing before the flight and during the flight, should be a means to getting them safely to their destination airport!

Have you ever been lost?  Do you know where you came from?  Do you know where you are?  Do you know where you are going?  Can you get where you want to go on the direction you are presently traveling?  If you want to go to the Atlantic Ocean, you must proceed on an easterly course.  If you are heading on a westerly course, you will never make it!

Some people tell me they want to go to heaven, yet they want to get there maintaining a  misguided course.  Sadly, if their present course is not heading in heaven’s direction, they will never make it!  They must make a course correction before they run out of fuel, or miss heaven forever.  Since heaven is God’s home, He alone has the prerogative to advise us on the required course to get there.

The only course that will take you to heaven is to aim for Jesus Christ!  He said that He was the only way to the Father, and the only way to the Father’s eternal home in heaven.  Reaching heaven will only be by God’s grace, through your faith in God’s Son alone.  Are you heading the wrong direction, or just off course?  Since your fuel is limited, get on course today by turning from anyone or anything, to Jesus alone!