Easter weekend!!! How exciting to be at this landmark of the church year - the year period!! When death became life - when our doomed condition was blown apart and new hope was born!! When hopelessness was infused with hope!! When our fears were shown to be hollow and the life we have in Christ can be seen as richer than anything we could have imagined.
But first...the beatings, the wrongful charges and death sentence. Without the grim side to Easter, the resurrection loses its significance. Without weighing the cost, our salvation can be cheapened, taken for granted, and we live impoverished.
First, the purity is made filthy...Jesus never did anything one, single thing wrong. Never had one single impure, filthy or sinful thought. imagine that! And yet our collective filth was piled on that pure head...into that sinless heart. And he experienced utter separation from his Abba (Daddy) Father ---but with good reason - an everlastingly good reason! so we would never have to be separated from our Abba God again!
without the pain, Easter loses its lustre.
But without the resurrection, Jesus' death was just an unfortunate miscarriage of justice!!
So dig in this weekend. Live it all. or rather, relive it all. Dig deeply into the roots of our faith...and thereby grow in gratitude for our Father who loved us so passionately that he could not bear eternity with our being separated from Him!! Bask in that love - as you reflect on all it cost the Trinity.
Beloved.
yes, you!
Live in the glory of the entire Easter story.
and be changed.
Hosanna! Hallelujah!
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Monday, April 11, 2011
who knew?
Did you ever stop to think that life is so much harder than we thought it would be as kids. ANd yet....so much of my life is richer, sweeter and more unbelievable than i ever thought possible too. Somehow in the midst of the storms, i find GOd's sweet presence sustaining me, yes, even in the tears, and i am amazed. My heart is strengthened and i go on...one moment at a time.
Would an easier life rob me of this richness?
no thanks.
I'll take the sweetness with the pain - all the while knowing that greater sweetness and richness are my inheritance with my Father!
peace...
Would an easier life rob me of this richness?
no thanks.
I'll take the sweetness with the pain - all the while knowing that greater sweetness and richness are my inheritance with my Father!
peace...
Saturday, April 2, 2011
the raw truth about life as a believer....
1 Corinthians 2:2 "For i resolved to know nothing while i was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified"
Paul had arrived in a really metropolitan city to try and support the fledgling church there - to give them a refresher on how to live as God's people. They needed a reminder, as i do, that life as a believer isn't about throwing our weight around, gaining positions of influence, of making progress or of having 'success' as the world sees it, anyway. He boiled it down to that one simple statement that rocks me to my core! (verse above..)
nothing else. Not clever jokes or witty conversation. Nothing but the wonder of Christ. What does that even look like?
From reading more of this section, it appears that Paul wanted their hearts and minds so enraptured (awe-struck) by Christ on a continual basis that nothing else would even come close to amazing them. That sounds all but impossible to us with our greater tendency to be awed by a sport's teams progress, by a new technological breakthrough- or perhaps a medical one. Have we become such cynics that nothing but physical items can amaze us? (and yet those shows about ghosts, mediums etc exist and tell us that something deeper is calling us- some hunger we've almost forgotten about for 'someone' to be out there beyond our taste-see-touch- and-hear world) but i digress....
For me, i've noticed that God seems more real, solid and powerful when i MAKE time to read his Word. When i read about his pushing back a huge lake so a million people could walk through...now that's power! Or when Elijah stands on the mount Carmel having "showdown day" with the prophets of Baal! God showed up in a truly remarkable way! those are historical facts. He is a historical, real God. Invest the time in learning about him and getting to know Him so he can become more real in your heart and mind. Let the HOly Spirit bring your imagination to life as you read!!
THen, when distractions come- troubles which inevitably come - you have 'built your house upon the Rock" and will be able to weather the storm in HIS power.
"Above all else, guard you rheart, for it is the wellspring of life" PRov 4:23
Paul had arrived in a really metropolitan city to try and support the fledgling church there - to give them a refresher on how to live as God's people. They needed a reminder, as i do, that life as a believer isn't about throwing our weight around, gaining positions of influence, of making progress or of having 'success' as the world sees it, anyway. He boiled it down to that one simple statement that rocks me to my core! (verse above..)
nothing else. Not clever jokes or witty conversation. Nothing but the wonder of Christ. What does that even look like?
From reading more of this section, it appears that Paul wanted their hearts and minds so enraptured (awe-struck) by Christ on a continual basis that nothing else would even come close to amazing them. That sounds all but impossible to us with our greater tendency to be awed by a sport's teams progress, by a new technological breakthrough- or perhaps a medical one. Have we become such cynics that nothing but physical items can amaze us? (and yet those shows about ghosts, mediums etc exist and tell us that something deeper is calling us- some hunger we've almost forgotten about for 'someone' to be out there beyond our taste-see-touch- and-hear world) but i digress....
For me, i've noticed that God seems more real, solid and powerful when i MAKE time to read his Word. When i read about his pushing back a huge lake so a million people could walk through...now that's power! Or when Elijah stands on the mount Carmel having "showdown day" with the prophets of Baal! God showed up in a truly remarkable way! those are historical facts. He is a historical, real God. Invest the time in learning about him and getting to know Him so he can become more real in your heart and mind. Let the HOly Spirit bring your imagination to life as you read!!
THen, when distractions come- troubles which inevitably come - you have 'built your house upon the Rock" and will be able to weather the storm in HIS power.
"Above all else, guard you rheart, for it is the wellspring of life" PRov 4:23
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