Happy Easter!
Today is a day of great celebration. Easter Sunday is a day when we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Today is a day of hope and joy in the world of Christendom. However, I often wonder what we are really celebration. There can be no doubt that Easter conjures feelings of spirituality. That is evident in the number of people that we see in our churches on Easter Sunday. These are the people that you probably see twice a year...Christmas Eve and Easter morning.
There is nothing wrong with that, well yes there is but we can deal with that topic in another blog entry! The point, or rather the question, that I have is...Why do those people feel drawn to the church on Easter morning? Could it be that simple tradition draws them in? Is it the fact that society mandates us to be Easter worshippers? Or could it be that, for one day in the year, God's creation seeks the Creator?
As a pastor I have often wondered what it is that draws men and women to church each Sunday. I like to think that it is the uncontrollable urge to hear my sermons! However, logic dictates that I scrap that idea. I don't have any real answers to the questions that I pose this morning. Yet, I truly do believe that Easter is a day when people begin to think spiritually. It may last only as long as the worship service but I believe it is there. I believe that people do have a hole inside of them that was created by God so that His creation would yearn to fill that hole with the love and grace of Jesus Christ.
I think God uses Easter Sunday to deliver His message. Obviously, He uses other days and other people for the other 364 days of the year. Easter, however, is a special day for Him. This is the day that His creation begins to take a brief glimpse of the passion story. Easter Sunday is that rare day when God's people begin to open their minds and begin to embrace the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.
Does it happen to everyone? Sadly, the answer is no. Yet, it does happen to some people and some is better than none. Easter is one of those rare moments when the gospel story is welcomed. Today is a day when it is okay to share your faith with others. It is almost expected! Easter Sunday is our free pass to evangelism and we must take it and make the most of it.
I want to encourage you this day to challenge yourself to sharing or showing the power of the resurrected Lord in your life. Seek out those who are hurting and in need of a savior. Recall friends and family whom you believe to be crying out for help in their lives. Use Easter Sunday for the very purpose God willed it to be. Share the story of a savior who died for our sins and then was resurrected so those sins would not have power over our lives. Jesus Christ is risen and because he is we have hope, we have life, we have victory over death, and we have a savior!
May this Easter be a time of renewal and hope for you!
Amen,
Derek
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Monday, March 29, 2010
The Affairs of Man
Greetings,
Today I want to share with you some of my thoughts and feelings about our country. I usually refrain from mixing politics, policies, or government with this blog but I feel like I need to say something. This blog is not meant to be a platform for one candidate or the other or one political party or another. This blog is about opinion...my opinion! That means that my opinion is not always going to match with your opinion. That is why they are called opinions. People disagree, it's ok. As much as I believe my opinions to be correct so should you. If you don't think that your opinion is true then you should change it. I have said all that to say this...I have an opinion about our country and I am going to share it with you today.
I worry about our country. I worry about it because I am a firm believer that God pays attention to the affairs of man. Let me say that again, God pays attention to the affairs of man. People's belief of what or who God is usually falls into three categories: (1) Grandpa God- This God is the grandpa of his creation. He took his time creating the world and now he has slipped into a comfy rocking chair on the porch of heaven and watches what happens to his creation. He doesn't mettle into its affairs, he doesn't try and fix problems, he just sits there watching and worrying. (2) Dictator God- This God refuses to let his creation ruin his creation. He sits upon his mighty throne refusing his creation any choice or free thought. His creation is too valuable to leave it up to mere mortals. (3) Parent God- This God parents his children. He protects them, loves them, and lets them make their own mistakes. He intervenes when necessary but always gives his children the opportunity to achieve and fail on their own.
I am a "Parent God" person. I believe that God has given us free will so that we have the opportunity to decide what is right and what is wrong. He watches us closely to see if His creation is drawing closer to Him. However, He is also a God who punishes His children when they need it. What good parent wouldn't? Yes, I believe that God is the best parent there is and that His parenting decisions are always right. That brings me to my next opinion and the reason for this blog.
I believe that God is watching our country and I believe that He is saddened by what He sees. I am not going to debate the details in this writing but I would be happy to do it any other time because I believe what I am saying. Our country is close to being disciplined by God. As I said before I believe that God pays attention to the affairs of man. I believe that He watches his creation and disciplines those who turn away from Him. I believe that our country, as a whole, is turning away from their creator. I am not talking about any one individual. To do so I would have to put myself on the top of the list. I am referring to the direction our country has taken.
Whether you believe that our country was founded on Godly principles or not we have called ourselves to be "one nation under God". At some point in time our country decided that which God already knew...we are God's creation! We were created by Him, called into a covenantal relationship with Him, and given the desire to be called back to Him. This country, all countries, finds themselves under the Lordship of Christ. Whether that country decides to obey that Lordship is something entirely different.
I watch the news each day. I read the newspaper each day. I am the weird guy that you find turning the channels so I can get to C-Span as quick as possible. In my ministry I see the effects of abuse and poverty. In short, I look at our country and I can't find God. That doesn't mean that God isn't represented in our nation, He is. What I mean is that the choices that are being made by our country, the course we have decided to follow the manner in which we have decided to present ourselves to each other and to the world has reached a critical mass. We have traded the sovereignty of God for ungodly practices and have called it acceptance and tolerance. We have turned our backs on the very things that God calls a nation to be and do and we call it progress and open-mindedness. We have taken the love of God and returned it void of what true love means. We hate and kill, abandon and abort, and lust for power and for each other. We have replaced the Almighty God with the almighty dollar and a day is coming when we will answer for the choices we have made.
Scripture tells us in 2 Chronicles 7:14 "if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land." God wants us to turn back to Him. He gives us the very scripture to do so. Many people would say that those are words for Israel in Old Testament times. I believe those people are wrong. Scripture is given for all people at all times. That which was written in Old Testament times speaks to us with the same clarity today.
There has been a battle raging in the courts for years regarding the removal of the words "one nation under God". Many believe that, since government is not allowed to intervene in the beliefs and faiths of its people that those words should be taken out of our pledge of allegiance. I totally agree! I don't think that government should be allowed to interfere in my religion but that is not why I think those words should removed. I think they should be removed because we don't mean those words anymore. Our country is not one nation under God. Our nation has propped itself up and claimed that we are God!
CAUTION: HERE IS WHERE I GET TO MY PULPIT!
Brothers and sisters, if I have learned anything on my journey home it is this; we must find our way back to God! To do anything different is to be in direct disobedience to the Word He gave to us. I do not like what we have become! Yet, hope remains! We need to be a nation that gets down on its knees and prays for forgiveness. I am not that person who says that we need to return to the day before microwaves and cell phones, computers or electricity. I like those things and they are not what is causing our country to turn its back on God. We have turned our back on God and we made the choice to do it. Let's put the blame where the blame exists. We chose the world over God, we chose to worship other things besides Him, we made the mess and the mess can be cleaned up. However, the one who holds all the cleaning supplies sits on the throne of grace. "One nation under God", we use to mean it and we can again!
Blessings,
Derek
Today I want to share with you some of my thoughts and feelings about our country. I usually refrain from mixing politics, policies, or government with this blog but I feel like I need to say something. This blog is not meant to be a platform for one candidate or the other or one political party or another. This blog is about opinion...my opinion! That means that my opinion is not always going to match with your opinion. That is why they are called opinions. People disagree, it's ok. As much as I believe my opinions to be correct so should you. If you don't think that your opinion is true then you should change it. I have said all that to say this...I have an opinion about our country and I am going to share it with you today.
I worry about our country. I worry about it because I am a firm believer that God pays attention to the affairs of man. Let me say that again, God pays attention to the affairs of man. People's belief of what or who God is usually falls into three categories: (1) Grandpa God- This God is the grandpa of his creation. He took his time creating the world and now he has slipped into a comfy rocking chair on the porch of heaven and watches what happens to his creation. He doesn't mettle into its affairs, he doesn't try and fix problems, he just sits there watching and worrying. (2) Dictator God- This God refuses to let his creation ruin his creation. He sits upon his mighty throne refusing his creation any choice or free thought. His creation is too valuable to leave it up to mere mortals. (3) Parent God- This God parents his children. He protects them, loves them, and lets them make their own mistakes. He intervenes when necessary but always gives his children the opportunity to achieve and fail on their own.
I am a "Parent God" person. I believe that God has given us free will so that we have the opportunity to decide what is right and what is wrong. He watches us closely to see if His creation is drawing closer to Him. However, He is also a God who punishes His children when they need it. What good parent wouldn't? Yes, I believe that God is the best parent there is and that His parenting decisions are always right. That brings me to my next opinion and the reason for this blog.
I believe that God is watching our country and I believe that He is saddened by what He sees. I am not going to debate the details in this writing but I would be happy to do it any other time because I believe what I am saying. Our country is close to being disciplined by God. As I said before I believe that God pays attention to the affairs of man. I believe that He watches his creation and disciplines those who turn away from Him. I believe that our country, as a whole, is turning away from their creator. I am not talking about any one individual. To do so I would have to put myself on the top of the list. I am referring to the direction our country has taken.
Whether you believe that our country was founded on Godly principles or not we have called ourselves to be "one nation under God". At some point in time our country decided that which God already knew...we are God's creation! We were created by Him, called into a covenantal relationship with Him, and given the desire to be called back to Him. This country, all countries, finds themselves under the Lordship of Christ. Whether that country decides to obey that Lordship is something entirely different.
I watch the news each day. I read the newspaper each day. I am the weird guy that you find turning the channels so I can get to C-Span as quick as possible. In my ministry I see the effects of abuse and poverty. In short, I look at our country and I can't find God. That doesn't mean that God isn't represented in our nation, He is. What I mean is that the choices that are being made by our country, the course we have decided to follow the manner in which we have decided to present ourselves to each other and to the world has reached a critical mass. We have traded the sovereignty of God for ungodly practices and have called it acceptance and tolerance. We have turned our backs on the very things that God calls a nation to be and do and we call it progress and open-mindedness. We have taken the love of God and returned it void of what true love means. We hate and kill, abandon and abort, and lust for power and for each other. We have replaced the Almighty God with the almighty dollar and a day is coming when we will answer for the choices we have made.
Scripture tells us in 2 Chronicles 7:14 "if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land." God wants us to turn back to Him. He gives us the very scripture to do so. Many people would say that those are words for Israel in Old Testament times. I believe those people are wrong. Scripture is given for all people at all times. That which was written in Old Testament times speaks to us with the same clarity today.
There has been a battle raging in the courts for years regarding the removal of the words "one nation under God". Many believe that, since government is not allowed to intervene in the beliefs and faiths of its people that those words should be taken out of our pledge of allegiance. I totally agree! I don't think that government should be allowed to interfere in my religion but that is not why I think those words should removed. I think they should be removed because we don't mean those words anymore. Our country is not one nation under God. Our nation has propped itself up and claimed that we are God!
CAUTION: HERE IS WHERE I GET TO MY PULPIT!
Brothers and sisters, if I have learned anything on my journey home it is this; we must find our way back to God! To do anything different is to be in direct disobedience to the Word He gave to us. I do not like what we have become! Yet, hope remains! We need to be a nation that gets down on its knees and prays for forgiveness. I am not that person who says that we need to return to the day before microwaves and cell phones, computers or electricity. I like those things and they are not what is causing our country to turn its back on God. We have turned our back on God and we made the choice to do it. Let's put the blame where the blame exists. We chose the world over God, we chose to worship other things besides Him, we made the mess and the mess can be cleaned up. However, the one who holds all the cleaning supplies sits on the throne of grace. "One nation under God", we use to mean it and we can again!
Blessings,
Derek
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Holy Week
Greetings,
I want to talk about Holy Week. Some of you might be thinking of something different than what I am referring to. There are different holy weeks to different people. To some, Holy week might be the week leading up to the Super Bowl. To others it might be that one precious week you get for summer vacation. And to others it might be that one week during the year when your kids go to summer camp. I could see how that could be considered a very holy week. While all of those might fit into the broad definition of a holy week I want to write about the Holy week.
Holy week is the week that begins with Palm Sunday and ends with Easter Sunday. It is a week when Christ was heralded into Jerusalem by the very same people that would scream cries of "Crucify Him!" only days later. Holy Week is special to me. Along my journey home I have found it helpful to me to notice the mile posts along the way. Anytime you go through a traumatic event and survive it you have a tendency to notice things that had, beforehand, gone unnoticed. Holy week is one of my mileposts.
I think it special to me because I get to see the human side of Christ. During this week we see him sweating blood in the garden as he prayed, praying to his father to "take this cup from me", and, finally, we see him carrying his cross up the Via Delarosa towards the hill at Golgotha. I'm not sure why it helps to see the human side. I suppose I spend so much time studying the divine I forget that there is another side to him. Our creeds tell us that Christ was begotten by the father and that he was fully human and fully divine. That takes allot of thinking to grasp that the chestnut!
For me, I think the one thing that makes Holy week something important in my life is the fact that Christ could of given up on but he didn't. Think about it, Christ had, just a short time ago, asked his father to take the cup from him. He didn't want to go through the pain and suffering. In this we see a normal reaction of a human being. Who would want to go through that torment? Yet, he was so in tune with the father that he continued the statement, "if not, then your will be done"! What a statement!
In Christ's struggle I see what I strive to be. I want to be the person of faith that says , "I really want to do this but, God, if you don't want me to then I won't". Or, even, the opposite that says "God, I really don't want to do that thing that you are calling me to do but, if you really want me to, I will"! I see the obedience that Christ had to his father!
For me, Holy week is about choices. Christ could have chosen to give in and give up but he chose not to. Jesus didn't have to walk that lonely path towards the cross of Calvary but he chose to. He chose to be our sacrifice, he chose to be the savior of the world. It was hard but he chose it anyway. His human side must have agonized over the "fully divine".
Max Lucado wrote a great book entitled He Chose the Nails. In his book Lucado builds the idea of Christ choosing Calvary for each of us. Choices, that is what Holy week means to me. Choices that make differences in the world, choices that make positive impacts on my future and the future of those around me, that's what Holy week teaches us. Christ chose the nails for me and I choose to honor that. My salvation means something more to me because of his choice. Because he chose those nails I can choose to share his story with others. Because he walked that lonely road to death I now have power over death itself. Choices, that's what life is about!
I challenge you this next week to make good choices. Each choice that we make affects more people than we can ever imagine. Some pretty big choices were made during the week we will be celebrating. Let's pray that the choices we make will honor the sacrifice that was made for us. Amen.
Blessings,
Derek
I want to talk about Holy Week. Some of you might be thinking of something different than what I am referring to. There are different holy weeks to different people. To some, Holy week might be the week leading up to the Super Bowl. To others it might be that one precious week you get for summer vacation. And to others it might be that one week during the year when your kids go to summer camp. I could see how that could be considered a very holy week. While all of those might fit into the broad definition of a holy week I want to write about the Holy week.
Holy week is the week that begins with Palm Sunday and ends with Easter Sunday. It is a week when Christ was heralded into Jerusalem by the very same people that would scream cries of "Crucify Him!" only days later. Holy Week is special to me. Along my journey home I have found it helpful to me to notice the mile posts along the way. Anytime you go through a traumatic event and survive it you have a tendency to notice things that had, beforehand, gone unnoticed. Holy week is one of my mileposts.
I think it special to me because I get to see the human side of Christ. During this week we see him sweating blood in the garden as he prayed, praying to his father to "take this cup from me", and, finally, we see him carrying his cross up the Via Delarosa towards the hill at Golgotha. I'm not sure why it helps to see the human side. I suppose I spend so much time studying the divine I forget that there is another side to him. Our creeds tell us that Christ was begotten by the father and that he was fully human and fully divine. That takes allot of thinking to grasp that the chestnut!
For me, I think the one thing that makes Holy week something important in my life is the fact that Christ could of given up on but he didn't. Think about it, Christ had, just a short time ago, asked his father to take the cup from him. He didn't want to go through the pain and suffering. In this we see a normal reaction of a human being. Who would want to go through that torment? Yet, he was so in tune with the father that he continued the statement, "if not, then your will be done"! What a statement!
In Christ's struggle I see what I strive to be. I want to be the person of faith that says , "I really want to do this but, God, if you don't want me to then I won't". Or, even, the opposite that says "God, I really don't want to do that thing that you are calling me to do but, if you really want me to, I will"! I see the obedience that Christ had to his father!
For me, Holy week is about choices. Christ could have chosen to give in and give up but he chose not to. Jesus didn't have to walk that lonely path towards the cross of Calvary but he chose to. He chose to be our sacrifice, he chose to be the savior of the world. It was hard but he chose it anyway. His human side must have agonized over the "fully divine".
Max Lucado wrote a great book entitled He Chose the Nails. In his book Lucado builds the idea of Christ choosing Calvary for each of us. Choices, that is what Holy week means to me. Choices that make differences in the world, choices that make positive impacts on my future and the future of those around me, that's what Holy week teaches us. Christ chose the nails for me and I choose to honor that. My salvation means something more to me because of his choice. Because he chose those nails I can choose to share his story with others. Because he walked that lonely road to death I now have power over death itself. Choices, that's what life is about!
I challenge you this next week to make good choices. Each choice that we make affects more people than we can ever imagine. Some pretty big choices were made during the week we will be celebrating. Let's pray that the choices we make will honor the sacrifice that was made for us. Amen.
Blessings,
Derek
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