Distracted

 Tell everyone to sit down, Jesus said. So they all sat down on the grassy slopes. (The men alone numbered about 5,000.) Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks to God, and distributed them to the people. Afterward he did the same with the fish. And they all ate as much as they wanted. After everyone was full, Jesus told his disciples, Now gather the leftovers, so that nothing is wasted. So they picked up the pieces and filled twelve baskets with scraps left by the people who had eaten from the five barley loaves.

When the people saw him do this miraculous sign, they exclaimed, Surely, he is the Prophet we have been expecting! When Jesus saw that they were ready to force him to be their king, he slipped away into the hills by himself.

John 6:10-15 NLT

Jesus has never been distracted. Our text for today is just one more example of that. You see, Jesus is - and has always been - the King of kings. As Christians, we know that. Yet when faced with the prospect of the people forcing Him into kingship, Jesus slipped away. Why? Because the motives were wrong and their hearts were, too. Jesus didn't come as the prospect - He came because we the people were/are His purpose. His assignment on Earth, from the very beginning, was always about the Cross, not about the crown. And He never lost sight of that.

I, on the other hand, am easily distracted. I take notes. I take them at work and I take them at church and I write them at home because I am so easily distracted and it helps me on two levels. It forces me to be fully in the moment and also helps me to remember even when I see, Oh, shiny!!  But they only work if I know where they are and keep them in front of my face. 

If we are to live like Jesus, we must stay focused. We must live a life of love and sacrifice for others. In looking over some notes tonight, I found these gems.

The effectiveness of life comes through the Cross.

The Cross is neither convenient nor conventional.

Sacrifice is intentional and often, painful. If we schedule sacrifices for our convenience, it's not a sacrifice.

We have to stay on track. If an opportunity comes our way, but it does not fit into the objective or purpose of our lives, it's not of God.

Recognize those areas where you are easily deceived or distracted.

Know your weaknesses, but even more than that - know HIS strength!

Stay focused through His Word.

Prayer:

Father,

          According to Your Word, Your grace is all we need. Your power works best in weakness. So now we are glad to boast about our weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through us. Father, work in us to accomplish Your will for our lives. In Jesus' Name we pray. Amen

Timing is Everything

On the day of Pentecost all the believers were meeting together in one place. Suddenly, there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm, and it filled the house where they were sitting. Then, what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them. And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages, as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability.

Acts 2:1-4 NLT

You may remember that the first Day of Pentecost was not Israel's finest hour. It was fifty days after sacrificing the first Passover Lamb - the Israelites left Egypt on Passover and 40 days later arrived at Sinai. Then Moses went up on Mount Sinai to see God. Ten days later Moses came down with the Torah to find that the Israelites had broken the covenant and 3000 people died as a result. 

Jesus died on Passover and then, 40 days later He went up on a mountain to see God (Mount of Olives). Then 10 days after Jesus ascended into Heaven, the Holy Spirit came down and 3000 people were saved! Did you make the connection that it was 1200 years later to the day? A new and living covenant!

It's no coincidence. God's love is borne out in the details. Ephesians 4:4-7, tells us, Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son. He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins.

Prayer:

Father,

          Thank You for the details! Holy Spirit, help us to not get lost in the details of this world, but to be fully immersed in every detailed evidence of God's love for us. In Jesus' Name we pray. Amen

How Much

So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him.
Matthew 7:11 NLT

I hear it several times a day... I'm sure you do, too. I can't do much more... How much more will it take? I can't take much more... How much more am I supposed to take before I....? I do so much more than...

The real question for us as followers of Christ is, How much more would Jesus do, take, give...? How much more? WAAAAAYYYYYY more... 

Would you leave everything good and perfect and come down to an imperfect world and heal the hurts and illnesses, raise people from the dead, and teach wisdom and success to people who would beat you and ultimately, kill you?

Have you given your life's blood to redeem mankind's transgressions? Hebrews 9:14-15 NKJV tells us ...how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.

How much more?

Oh... WAAAAAYYYYYY more...

Prayer:

Father,
            Let us not look to the limits of our flesh, but rather to the Author and Finisher of our faith. Help us to walk before You with clean hands and a pure heart. Change our heart's attitude from 'How much more can I take?' to 'How much more can I give...?' In Jesus' Name we pray. Amen

Faith and Social Media

  For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
  For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.
  Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator...
Romans 1:20-25b NIV

I don't know anyone who likes to be told they're behind the times and/or out of touch with the real world. I thought I was doing well to be able to text and keep up with whatever the latest version of Microsoft Word has thrown my way. However, my 'tweener' granddaughter is still shocked that I didn't have a cell phone when I was her age and that I was around before the Internet.

I like technology because it allows me to stay in touch with family and friends who are hundreds and even thousands of miles away. These are people with whom I have interfaced on a personal level. We had 'face time' before it was an app. But now, I don't have to wait for a letter - I can get the updates quick, fast and in a hurry. However, what I've noticed (and may have said before) is that social media has too quickly become the defining factor of modern-day, so-called relationships. It certainly promotes an I-frenzy and has nothing to do with "Come, let US break bread together."

When speaking to someone who is or has been a real friend, I thoroughly detest hearing this reply, "Well, I posted it on Facebook. It's just easier that way." We post what we like, what and who we don't like, what we want, when we want it, and how we want it, and somehow think that is cultivating relationships. There's no working through differences of any kind, no response required or the other extreme - a lot of vitriolic spewing. And as disconcerting as that is to me, what troubles me more is seeing this definition of so-called relationship translate into our walk with God.

We desire to have what God can give us - we want Him to please us, but we don't want to really know Him. We don't want to take the time to know Him for who He IS. There is no prayer closet. No one-on-one. No interfacing on a personal level. No on-our-face time. No relationship.

God the Father did not send Jesus Christ, His Son, to die a horrible death to pay for our sin to propagate religion. Christ's blood was shed as an atonement for our sin so that we could be restored into right relationship with God - to know Him in His fullness.

Prayer:

Father,
         You are the same, yesterday, today, and forever. The same God who desires that we seek Your face. That we wait for You and obey Your voice. Forgive us, Father. Cleanse our hearts of worldly desires and renew a loyal spirit within us, O God. In Jesus' Name we pray. Amen

Again

Again the Israelites did evil in the Lord’s sight. They served the images of Baal and Ashtoreth, and the gods of Aram, Sidon, Moab, Ammon, and Philistia. They abandoned the Lord and no longer served him at all.

Judges 10:6 NLT

The behavior of the Israelites is so repetitive and predictable; that is, until I finally realized it's the story of mankind from the beginning of time to this day...

We sin and get into trouble. We pray and repent and beg God to rescue us. He does in a mighty way, and we toe the line for a while and everything is good. Then in the good times, we tend to forget that God forgave us and rescued us and before you know it, we're back in it again! Sound familiar? It is chronicled in the Book of Judges. Over and over. Again and again.

The practical application of it all is that disobedience always brings judgment, but it's also about God's faithfulness in spite of ourselves! And THAT is also chronicled throughout God's Word!

Colossians 1:19-22 NLT assures us, For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ, and through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross. This includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions. Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.

To think that God loves us enough to reconcile us to Himself through the Cross at Calvary so that we can stand holy and blameless... When was the last time you thought about that? Well... let's think about it again.

Prayer:

Father,
            As we are reminded yet again of Your faithfulness and goodness and mercy and grace to forgive us and save us, we ask also that You prepare the hearts and minds of those who will attend church this Easter weekend around the world. Let them hear and embrace Your love story for us all and may it change their lives, too. In Jesus' Name we pray. Amen

Holy Week favorites - Cause for Celebration

Christ redeemed us from that self-defeating, cursed life by absorbing it completely into himself. Do you remember the Scripture that says, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”? That is what happened when Jesus was nailed to the cross: He became a curse, and at the same time dissolved the curse. And now, because of that, the air is cleared and we can see that Abraham’s blessing is present and available for non-Jews, too. We are all able to receive God’s life, his Spirit, in and with us by believing—just the way Abraham received it.
Galatians 3:13-14 The Message

This weekend, we celebrate the Death and Resurrection of Christ. 

Have you ever set out to actually celebrate the Crucifixion? The Cross? We don't like to think about the suffering of Christ during Passion Week. We definitely don't like to watch the event either, now that "The Passion of the Christ" has brought it to life in all its horrible detail.

How many of us truly realize that it was because of the beatings, the whipped stripes on His back, the crown of thorns, the nails that pierced His flesh, the spear that ripped open His side that we even have a cause for celebration?!? It is His SHED blood that pays the debt of our sins. It was the stripes that bought and paid for our healing. Isaiah 53:5-6 NLT reads, ...he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed. All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all.

The work that was accomplished and finished on the Cross - Christ's blood spilled out - was the only power to wash away our sin stains. Without His death on the Cross, there would be no Resurrection. The Cross and the love that held Jesus on it are the true causes for celebration. Hallelujah!

Prayer:

Father,
           In and of ourselves, we haven't the words to express our gratitude. Reveal Your Word to us and give us grateful hearts to celebrate what Your Son has done for us. In Jesus' Name we pray. Amen

Holy Week Favorites - Maundy Thursday

While they were eating, Jesus took some bread, and after a blessing, He broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.” And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He gave it to them, saying,“Drink from it, all of you; for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins. But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom.”

Matthew 26:26-29 NASB

When I lived in St. Louis, I was privileged to sit under the teaching of a Rabbi, as part of the training for the staff where I worked. His lessons of Jewish culture brought a whole new understanding to several passages of Scripture. Because of it, this is now one of my favorite passages.

The significance of verse 29 when Jesus said He would not drink of the wine again until He would drink it new with us is this. Christ had already declared Himself the bridegroom back in Matthew, chapter 9. To be married in the Jewish faith requires two ceremonies; the kiddushin and the nisuin. Today, they do both in the same day. However, in biblical times, these were totally separate ceremonies, performed as much as a year apart. The kiddushin was the engagement - but far more binding than today's version. The kiddushin made the bride a legal wife, but without the mutual obligations being made complete. It was sealed with wine. They did not live together as man and wife until the bridegroom came the second time to gather his bride for the second ceremony, the nisuin.

During the time of the kiddushin, the husband would leave the bride to go build (or prepare) a place for his wife and future family to live. They would not be together until the house was finished and the bridegroom would come to fetch his bride. Then the nisuin would be performed and it, too, would be sealed with wine.

In John 14:2-3 NASB, Jesus declares, In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also. Read again Matthew 26:29, "But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom.”

It's Thursday of Holy Week - if we throwback to the original Thursday of Holy Week, we find Jesus proclaiming the kiddushin - providing the promise to His bride, "If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again..."

The question is - Are you ready for the nisuin? Revelation 22:17a-b, Both the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” Anyone who hears should say, “Come!”

Prayer:

Father,
Open our eyes to see You. Open our minds to know You. Open our hearts to say, "Come, Lord Jesus, come!" Create in us the heart of the bride awaiting her groom. Let us work to fulfill our duties during this time away from each other and let us watch for Your returning with joyful expectation! In Jesus' Name we pray. Amen