The Greatest 3 Word Phrase

What do you think the greatest three word phrase in history is? Well any ideas? Perhaps it is something funny a friend said or a phrase that your mother or father has instilled on you. The first thing that came to mind for me is the phrase “I love you.” I thought this is a valid phrase and a rather important one at that point . . . until I found one that has become even more important to me. You may be thinking, what on Earth could be greater than “I love you?” How about I give you a hint:

“I know that My Redeemer lives!

What comfort this sweet sentence gives!

He lives, he lives, who once was dead;

He lives, my ever living head!”

Well, did that help any? To me the phrase “Christ has Risen!” is a much more important phrase. Beginning to elaborate look at a few more phrases in the song “I Know that My Redeemer Lives.” Verse two says “He lives triumphant from the grave, He lives eternally to save.” Without Christ’s birth death and resurrection we would have no need for love on this Earth because we would all have nothing to live for. Because of his death we have victory over sin, death and the devil. Because of his death we too can love one another just as He loves us.

As I continue to think about it the two go hand in hand. Look at John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but will have everlasting life.” Because God so loved the world, that is us! He loved us so much that He gave his only begotten Son, to live on this earth and to die for each and every one of us, so that we who have trust and faith in Him can spend eternity in heaven. Showing again Christ’s great love for us through His death it is stated in 1 Timothy 1:15 that “Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners, of whom I am the worst.” Even more so look at Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates His love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” We continually fall into the fate of sin, and yet when each and every one of us were still sinners (especially since none of us will ever be perfect) Christ died for us. We are as far from perfect as possible and Christ was still there to die for our sins, to give us eternal life. What great love that is!

So now that I have talked my way through circles I seem to think that one without the other is worthless, but for some reason, “He is Risen” still hits more to home for me. Maybe it is because Christ came to serve, not to be served. Again another statement of love, He knew that His purpose on this Earth was eventually to suffer and die on the cross for us. It is continually stated how Christ gave his life as a ransom for many. Such an important task, even when Jesus knew his father’s will. What can we do to show our gratitude? This is where it all gets tied together, with the greatest commandments, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.” These are the two greatest commandments and are a great way in which we can show our thanks for Christ dying on the cross for us.

1 Corinthians 13:13 “Now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” I don’t know if I am even on the right track saying that “He is Risen” is more important than “I love you.” Perhaps it just hits me more. But what I do know is that I don’t remember either often enough. This Easter season I have made it my goal to recognize the resurrection and the love that Christ has for me every day and I pray that you also work to this goal. I leave you with the lyrics from a Casting Crowns song titled “Who am I?” which really show how lucky we are to have the love of Christ!

Who am I?
That the Lord of all the earth,
Would care to know my name,
Would care to feel my hurt.
Who am I?
That the bright and morning star,
Would choose to light the way,
For my ever wandering heart.

Bridge:
Not because of who I am,
But because of what you've done.
Not because of what I've done,
But because of who you are.

Chorus:
I am a flower quickly fading,
Here today and gone tomorrow,
A wave tossed in the ocean,
A vapor in the wind.
Still you hear me when I'm calling,
Lord, you catch me when I'm falling,
And you've told me who I am.
I am yours.
I am yours.

Who am I?
That the eyes that see my sin
Would look on me with love
And watch me rise again.
Who am I?
That the voice that calmed the sea,
Would call out through the rain,
And calm the storm in me.

Whom shall I fear
Whom shall I fear
I am yours..
I am yours..

Easter Triumph! Easter Joy!

Luke 24:5-7 The angels standing in the tomb said to them, " 'Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: 'The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again."

The Son of Man was supposed to suffer and die. The Son of Man was supposed to take our place on the cross. And he did all of that and more. The Son of Man was also supposed to be raised back to life on the third day, and he did. All that he was supposed to do, the Son of Man, Christ Jesus, fulfilled. By this act he saved all who believe in him, and gives us life through Him, because He too was raised!

1 Corinthians15:17-22; 55-56"And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men. But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man...Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

So we see that the resurrection of Christ is the culmination of all our faith! He suffered for us, for our sins, but all that would have been for naught had Christ not been raised. Our joy is complete though because we know he was raised! By raising Christ, God accepts his sacrifice and atonement for our sins and gives us life. Death is no more! We as Christians are victorious! As Paul says in Romans, "we are more than victorious!" Ours is the joy that is beyond any other joy. We are triumphant! When I hear the Easter hymns, and Alleluias it moves me inside, Christ has won, he has triumphed over the grave, over the devil, and over sin. No more is man separated from God, but we are now connected with Him in Christ! Praise be to Christ! The triumph is ours! The joy is ours!

As my pastor said in his sermon, "He is risen! He is risen indeed, alleluia! Through his resurrection though, we can also say, 'We are risen!' Praise be to Christ for this!

Passing Over

The tenth and final plague, the plague on the firstborn male of all humans and animals. No one was exempt from this. However, there is a meal still served today that commemorates the one way around this terrible fate. This meal is called Passover, because the Angel of Death passed over the houses of the Israelites that followed the instructions of the Lord. The instructions were to put the blood of a lamb - a perfect lamb without any defect or blemish - on the door frame of each house. When the Angel of Death saw the blood it would pass over that house. The book of Exodus chapter 12 verse 13 tells us, "the blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you."

On the night in which he was betrayed, Jesus gave us a new set of instructions for the passover. He told us that he is the new Passover Lamb. He is the lamb without defect or blemish, and it is his blood that is now placed on our hearts. Ephesians 1:7 says, "In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace." Our wretched sinful souls are passed over from certain eternal damnation because of the blood of the Paschal Lamb.

Really this is but an extension from the previous post, "Bondage," and represents again the connection of Christ to the Old Testament, specifically the Passover and exodus from Egypt, and seems especially pertinent in this season of the Passover and Easter. Praise be to God for providing us yet again with the lamb of sacrifice.

Bondage

Hundreds of years before a certain Jewish baby would be born in a small town in Israel, and hundreds of years before that baby would die on a tree and be raised again to life, the chosen people of God were in bondage, enslaved by the Egyptians.

The ancient Israelites were forced into hard labor and were terribly oppressed. The book of Exodus chapter one, verses 12, 13, and 14 tell us that "...the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites and worked them ruthlessly. They made their lives bitter with hard labor in brick and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields; in all their hard labor the Egyptians used them ruthlessly." In all ways, the Israelites were completely helpless and without hope. They had been enslaved for hundreds of years, they had no hope of rescue, they had no hope of winning their freedom on their own. Their situation was bleak, they were in complete and total bondage.

Into this scene comes Moses. I certainly will not try to tell his whole entire story here, though I know of a good book that contains it if his story interests you, its called the Bible. Instead I would like to focus on Moses' purpose for coming into this rather dark and depressing scene. God had called Moses from the desert and told him to go back to Egypt. Through Moses, God displayed his power to the world and to the Egyptians. God rescued the Israelites from their plight. God broke the chains of their oppressor and defeated the Egyptians. The Israelites had no part in this what so ever except to watch and be amazed and the wonders they were beholding. They did not take part in the fight in any way, rather they were carried out of Egypt from their beaten down state by the very Hand of God. God had saved them from their state of bondage.

Hundreds of years after this event, the world is in a state of turmoil. Once again, the people of the world are in bondage, to the Romans. However, this time - as had been the case since Adam and Eve ate the fruit in the garden - the people were in a different type of bondage, a bondage to sin. They were once again helpless in their fight against their oppressor, being sin, death, and the devil. In no way did they ever have hope of defeating their oppressor. As Paul puts it in Romans 7 verse 14, they had been "sold as a slave to sin," much in the same way that the Israelites had been enslaved to the Egyptians.

Into this scene comes Jesus the Christ, the living Son of God, the Redeemer and breaker of the bonds of sin! Christ came into the world and through his perfect life that he lived, through his innocent suffering and death on the cross, and through his being raised to life and ascending to heaven, he defeated sin, death, and the devil! He brought hope to the hopeless and carried the people of the world out of bondage and into the grace of God. Romans 6 illustrates this better than I ever could.

Almost two thousand years later, the world is still tormented by sin and will continue to be until the final day when Christ shall come again. We know that we are freed from sin and from death and from the devil. We still know that sin lives in the world, and that we will one day die, and that the devil is still on the prowl. We also know that through the grace of God we are forgiven of our sins through Christ Jesus, and that although we shall indeed die, we shall also be raised from death when Christ comes again, and that although Satan still prowls, his is not the victory, rather Christ's is the victory!

How then shall we go on living this life as both sinner and saint, dead to sin yet made alive in Christ? Through Christ we know that we are empowered to fight sin our oppressor. What sin is oppressing us right now? What sorrow eats away at us? What darkness do we hide within ourselves? To what are you in bondage? Do you believe that Christ frees you from it? I pray that you and that I believe that Christ does, so that we may turn from our sin and follow the path of righteousness freed from bondage, until that day when He shall come again when we shall live with him forever and ever! Amen.

Life Lessons According to "It's a Wonderful Life"

In the movie, "It's a Wonderful Life," the main character George Bailey is on the verge of committing suicide. He has given up hope. He feels lost and alone and as if he has failed at each of his endeavors. How often do we feel the same way?

In the movie, George is given the gift of seeing how life would be without him. He gets to see the profound impact he has on the people in his community and on the people he loves. There stands a very good chance that God will not give us the chance to have the same experience, and yet how many of us have felt as lost and abandoned as George? To feel so awful and terrible inside to just want to give up is something I wouldn't wish on anyone. And yet so many people in this world do feel that way. Where is there relief? When do they get to look on how much worse this world would be without them? Your answer is as good as mine. I do however know the one that comforts and who gives meaning, and who "wipes away every tear from our eyes," and that is Christ the Lord. It is truly better to know Christ and His mercy than to receive one thousand visions about how things would be, because in the end that can only do so much for you. In the end, knowing the impact you have truly isn't enough. Knowing you are loved by God, the Maker of Heaven and Earth, that is the true comfort. That is grace.

God is with each and every one of us. Even when we don't think or more importantly feel it. He is always there, in us from our baptism, until the day we leave this earth. Also importantly, he gives us other humans. God created Eve so that Adam would not be alone, and on the flipside of that, since Adam was there, Eve was not alone either. Humankind is meant to be here for each other comforting each other at all times. Just as George Bailey's community came together to support him, so too should all of us come together to support each other. We don't always see what is going on inside of other people, ones who seem to be fine may be truly hurting. Don't be afraid to tell other people that you love them! Don't be afraid to say what they mean to you. And don't give up, don't ever give up. Its the American spirit, its what dying coach Jim Valvano spoke about, its what Josh Groban sings about, its what we are supposed to do all our lives: Don't give up. God will get us through it all, and he will put us where we need to be in life and surround us with those we need to be surrounded by. Praise God for this.

"Lucky Man"

“What a man desires is unfailing love; better to be poor than a liar. The fear of the LORD leads to life; then one rests content, untouched by trouble.” Proverbs 19:22-23

“But I know I'm a lucky man
God's given me a pretty fair hand . . .
And even my bad days ain't that badYeah, I'm a lucky manI'm a lucky lucky man” –Montgomery Gentry

How many days do you wake up saying that you are a lucky person? You should wake up every day saying that you are a lucky person. Why you ask? The answer is simple, because you are a child of Christ. That Montgomery Gentry song talks about things that put him in a bad mood, when his Bengals lose, when he curses the rain, and complain again when the suns too hot, then looks at what everyone else has got. But then realizes that the Lord has made him a lucky man. He goes on to tell us that God has given him (and all of us also) a pretty fair hand. Sure we may not have everything that we want. Our neighbor may have that fancy car, or the huge wardrobe, or big house or whatever it may be. Gentry goes on to say he has a few dollars in a coffee can, and his truck is still running good and his ticker is ticking like they say it should. You are still breathing right? Isn’t that the most important part of our life, breathing. As long as we breath and have faith in our Father we are lucky.

“Even my bad days ain’t that bad.” As the date of college graduation comes around the corner, fear seems to be setting in. Not a fear of bad grades or failure but a fear of what will happen the days following graduation. There are days when I have 5 exams at once, and days when I wake up not feeling well and yet still have to go to multiple classes, and days that I just don’t want to talk to anyone because of any given event. Yet none of those “bad” days matter, because every one of those days I am still trusting in Christ, which is where my faith is at. “Yeah, I’m a lucky man.”

Proverbs says a man deserves unfailing love. Go ahead and check that one off. Christ has unfailing love for us, and we give that love right back to him. The passage goes on to say better poor than a liar. When we lie we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. This is a portion of our confession and absolution, lying gets us nowhere. And if we didn’t have God we would be poorer than dirt. To me everything in that statement God has taken care of for us. We are not poor because we have him, and we are truly lucky. Therefore since we have fear in the Lord we are able to have life a very good life.

So let’s take it one step further, how often do we do something that we do not want to do? In Romans 7 Paul talks about how we do all these things that we do not want to do and are unable to do the things that we want to do. In the Lord’s Prayer we pray that God “lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” So as many of us are in college, it isn’t necessarily a bad thing that we don’t know where we are going. It is a bad thing that we don’t keep our faith and trust in Christ. Too often than not we think that we can make our own decisions and that our decisions are better than God’s.

Let’s just add one more thing to this, let’s add the fact that without Christ we are completely worthless. He doesn’t need us, but rather we need him. Jesus has the ability to bring more people into His kingdom; we are just helping in the process. On the flip side though, without Jesus dying on the cross for our sins we would have no chance of ever getting into the kingdom of heaven. So thanks be to God, our Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father and Prince of Peace for leading us in the right direction.

Let us pray: Heavenly Father, we thank you for allowing us to wake up every morning and being able to say that we are lucky men and women. We ask that you help us to do those things that we want to do and refrain from the things that we don’t want to. We are all a light of yours and ask that you help each and every one of us to show our light at every chance that we get. Finally Lord, we ask that you help us to not worry about what direction you are leading us but rather allow us to put our full trust and faith in you. In Christ’s Name. Amen.

Exodus 14

So the whole chapter is interesting. It is about how God leads the people of Israel out of Egypt. I want to look at a few verses (4 to be exact) and how they compare to our everyday lives. The first verse I wish to look at is verse 3. It reads, “The Israelites are wandering around the land in confusion.” At this point in time in the story God has Moses tell the people to go back to a place to camp so that Pharaoh can seem them wandering around so that he can go after them to bring them back to Egypt. Wandering in a state of confusion . . . wow I did that yesterday and the day before and even the day before that. Being thousands of miles away from home in a country where English doesn’t come first it can be rather difficult to find your way around. I find myself walking in circles all the time, and often wondering where I am at. But that is only one side of it. That is the physical sense of wandering around. I want to look at the mental aspect. Think for me, when is the last time that you knew exactly the direction your life as heading? When is the last time you knew exactly how a day was going to turn out? When is the last time that you knew that you were going to wake up the next day? I can’t answer any one of those questions for myself. To me, that is like running around in a state of confusion. A lack of clarity as to what exactly is going to happen in your life, not knowing how a situation is going to turn out, not knowing, if you will wake up tomorrow, and yet we still have hope. Let me explain. Just as the Israelites were wandering around in the desert, “waiting to die” as they put it we do the same thing everyday. We fail to put our full faith and trust in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We fear death. We fear rejection. We fear failure. We fear _________ you fill in the blank. And yet we need not worry. Let me get a little deeper here by adding in the next verse.

Verse 13 says, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the LORD will bring you today.” That was Moses talking to the people of Israel and yet it is God talking to each and every one of us also. Take everything that you fear, and think about how you can fix it on your own. You will think for hours and days on and end really not come up with a good reliable answer until you come to this one . . . Stand firm in your faith, and trust in the LORD! He is the way to make all these things better. He is the way to keep you from fearing what you fear. He is the ay to help you with that difficult situation that you don’t understand. He, simply put, is the answer. And yet just as the Israelites did, we do the same today and we still doubt Him and we have to see something to know that he is still helping us. Moses cried out to the Lord for help as the Egyptians were following the people, and what did God do, he helped. The Lord told Moses to hold his staff out over the sea, and over night, the sea parts, so that the people can get from one side to the other without problem. It doesn’t always happen overnight, but when you put your burdens on the shoulders of God, he will always show you an outcome. It may take a few minutes, days, weeks, or even years, but when you put those things on God’s shoulders, you can’t go wrong. Then, as the Egyptians entered the dry land in the sea, what did God do, but he (vs. 24) “threw them into confusion.” He got rid of the problem. That is what our loving God does. He takes the problems that we have and gets rid of them or fixes them. So is it worth it to worry about tomorrow? I think not, I think that Matthew 6:34 says it best, “Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.” That is what we have to do. We have to realize that sure our life has these paths that take us every which direction and sure it can be hard and frustrating and we can have that feeling of wandering around in confusion, and yet, we have no reason to.

Exodus 14:31 reads, “The people feared the Lord and put their TRUST in him.” How great is that? If we trust in the Lord and look to him always we wont have that state of confusion. Sure we will think that we have it, but He has a plan for us and confusion is not a part of it. I found this picture and hope that the artist doesn’t mind my using it, but I think it really sums this whole situation up. It’s like this broad spectrum, things going every which direction, just this utter state of confusion, and yet, it you look past everything that is “confusing” you can still see the reason we are living. That reason is the cross. Take a look at the picture:

Lord, today I pray for guidance. We all have these paths in our life and yet known of us know where they are leading. I pray that you help us to get out of our busy and confusing nature and trust in you. You died for us all so that we won’t have these “confusions.” I ask that you help us to always look for you for help rather than trying to figure things out ourselves, and I ask that you help us to put our full faith, trust and love in you, because without that, we have nothing. Help us to look though everything and see the one thing that matters . . . YOU. Amen

Matthew 14:31

Unfortunately I doubt Jesus way to often. We all have these paths in our life, God has placed each and every one of us on our own path, and those paths have ups and downs, highs and lows, and goods and bads. So how come when we are on those highs and goods we praise God, and on the other end we doubt Him? How often does your mind wander as to if you would have done something differently? How often do you think about trying to change your life, or even better, trying to plan out every detail in your life? Do you doubt God that much? Do you doubt that He doesn’t have the best plan drawn out for you already, and as much as you try to change it yourself, it won’t work to your advantage?

Let me explain with an example of my own. I am a workaholic. I love to work; it doesn’t matter how many hours, how many days out of the week or even what job it is. I simply love to work. So when I got my first job I thought, you know what, I can just work my way to the top, I don’t need school I don’t need friends I don’t need anything else, as long as I have a job I will be happy. I’ve had that job five years now, and you would not believe how much my opinion has changed on that. I went from being greedy and wanting to work my way up within that business to wanting to own my own business. That’s when my life seemed to be turned upside down. I had had the idea of going to the Seminary in there as well. And that is when I began to notice that the path that I had chosen was so wrong. But realized it even more as I have gone through a rough situation, and dealing with my priority list. I have always told people that I want to be alone forever, that I don’t need a family, that I don’t need pictures to remember what I have done in my life, and that I don’t need anything but a job, because it will keep me busy. Man o man have I been hiding behind way to much stuff. All of this was because my trust and faith in God was not at its fullest potential.

Take Matthew 14:22-34 for example. This is the story of Jesus walking on water. In verse 31 He says, “You of little faith, why did YOU doubt?” Peter first began to lose trust when he asked “if it is you Lord, tell me to come to you on the water.” To me that is like when we decide to make our own decisions and we decide what we want to do with our lives, rather than letting our trust remain in Him. It’s like we have “pushed” God out of our life to the point where we don’t even recognize him, even when he is right in front of us. It continues though. Peter steps out on the water; he has increased his trust and faith in the Lord, until it turns around again. Peter begins to sink. “Lord, save me!” Peter says. When you begin to sink, it’s like that rollercoaster ride, on the ups and downs of life. We begin to sink as we fall further away from Jesus. Jesus had his hand stretched out for Peter though. He has His hand stretched out to catch us. Not only in times of trouble, distress, grief, confusion, but in everything, in times of prosperity and in thanksgiving. Do you trust God all the time, or are you trying to make your own path?
I’m sure most of you have heard the footprints poem. You know which one I’m talking about, how you and Jesus are walking along the beach and portions of your life are flashing in front of you and you look and see one set of footsteps at certain points and two at others. And you wonder to yourself, “Lord I thought that you were with me all the time.” Then finally you realize he is with you ALL the time, because in the times of trouble, you aren’t doing any of the walking, because HE is carrying you. He always has a hand stretched out for you. He always has an ear open to listen to you. He will always be there for you. All Peter had to do on the water was stretch his hand out to the Lord’s and that is all that we have to do here on earth because His hand is always outstretched.

So back to that first example that I had, I have realized so much now that I am not in control of my life. Do I still wish that I could own my own business, sure. But I realize that I am using all of this to hide behind. I hide behind work because right now for me it is unchanging, and yet it is the wrong hiding place. There is no hiding place from God, so take your fears, and concerns, and doubts to him. He can help. He has helped me to see that being alone forever would be boring, stressful, and well, not for me. He has helped me see that pictures aren’t bad, sure I may not like them, but they will help with my memory (since I already seem to be losing it). He has helped me to see that money isn’t everything, sure a great job would be nice, making lots of money, but that isn’t the important thing. He wants us to be happy, so let Him make you happy. He has showed me that the only thing important in life is faith and hope and love in Him. I am going to try real hard now, when things get difficult to go to God for help, rather than to just let myself keep sinking and fall away from a trust and faith that is so strong that it can never be broken.

So think about it. Do you go to God with your problems? Do you try to set your own paths? Do you have your life all planned out already? Sure you may think that you do, but God may have something different in mind, and my hope is, that when He shows you that path, that you are willing to take it.

-Lord, we all go through ups and downs in life, and too often than not we hide behind something. I pray today and always that you help each one of us to come to you with our problems, so that we can seek your guidance for direction, because you know what is best for us. Lord, help us to reach out to your hand that is always stretched out for us. Amen