Christ is Risen
Dr. John Trent in Christian Parenting Today tells about a wedding video he once saw. The video was shot from the back of the church looking up the aisle toward the bride and groom. Because of the camera angle, you could see several members of the congregation.
Suddenly, during the vows, a man jumped up from his pew and yelled, “Yes, Yes, Yes!” as he pumped his fist.
Then he froze and slid down into his seat–and sheepishly took off his headphones. It turned out he had been listening to the Auburn-Alabama football game, and his favorite team had just scored.
Easter is a day for Christians to pump their fists in the air and say, “Yes, Yes, Yes.” Yes is what Easter is about.
God’s yes to Jesus and all Jesus taught us about the meaning of life. God’s yes to the victory of life over death, love over hate, faith over fear, hope over despair. Everything about Easter says, “Yes, Yes, Yes.”
If you’re into genealogy you know that visits to cemeteries are quite frequent. One day a six-year-old boy named David was taking a walk with his grandmother.
They decided to detour through the local cemetery.
As they walked past the gravestones, they would stop every once in a while to read the engravings on the stones.
Grandma explained that the first date on the tombstones was the day the person was born and the second date was the day the person died.
“Why do some tombstones only have one date?” little David asked.
“Because those people haven’t died yet,” his grandmother explained.
David was obviously stunned by his grandmother’s explanation because, that night, he couldn’t stop talking about the excursion.
“Mom,” he said with wide eyes, “some of the people buried there in the cemetery aren’t even dead yet!”
Leave it to a six-year-old to put a different twist on things.
One day some women came to the cemetery, not to read dates on a gravestone, but to anoint the body of Jesus. Their hearts were disillusioned with broken hearts and dashed dreams.
When they arrived at the gravesite, they found the tomb had been opened and they began to weep.
Two angels saw their plight and asked them why they were weeping. The women responded by saying, “What have you done with my Lord.”
The news was earth shattering. “The One whom you seek is not here. He is risen, just as he said.”
At Christmas, God became flesh and walked among us; at Calvary our sin was dealt with; at the Resurrection, death, the last enemy, was conquered.
A young Christian in the early church stood before a Roman magistrate, who said, “I sentence you to death for your faith in Jesus Christ, the Nazarene!” The man staunchly replied, “Sir! Death is dead! So you cannot frighten me!”
Without Easter this is a dark, dark world. With Easter, hope bursts forward with every blossom of springtime. Easter is a time to pump our fists in the air and say, “Yes!”
Christ is risen! Christ is risen, indeed!
Dennis.
Coming to the Rescue
Back in the days when Paul authored those words, the Greeks were sports mad. In fact, things haven’t changed much. Even as I write this, millions of avid sports fans are anticipating the upcoming Super Bowl where the Patriots and Falcons are gearing up for a Super Bowl ring.
In March, millions will be tuning into the NCAA basketball tournament and then the baseball season begins. Each team will once again vie for a trophy, a ring that will be placed around their finger.
And then others will be looking towards getting out on the water and throwing a hook in the water. We call it fishing.
Fishing is actually a biblical sport, isn’t’ it? 7 out of the 12 disciples were fishermen; Jesus talked a lot about fishing. And there are those whom we know who make a living at it.
Ed Young writes, “I was fishing in Florida in a small boat in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. When I say “a small boat,” I’m talking about a 16-foot skiff. We had a wonderful day fishing, the sun was melting into the horizon and we were cruising back to the marina. It’s a perfect day.
He says that while cruising back to the marina he happened to see out of the corner of his eye a boat on the horizon and behind the boat was a guy who was swimming. He thought to himself, “Why is that guy swimming?” Earlier they had seen some rather huge sharks in the water. I mean, “You don’t swim at dusk.”
He turned to his friend and said, “Let’s go check this out,” and as they got closer, they realized this man was in the middle of drowning. He was a rather large gentleman, but they reached overboard and begin to pull him into their boat, all the while taking on water themselves.
They managed to get him on board, and this man, coughing up salt water began to cry saying, “You guys rescued me, man! You guys saved my life! I was going under the last time!”
They asked him what happened, and he said that while fishing he had lost his balance and had gone overboard. By the time he got his bearings the boat was drifting away from him.
Ed Young says as they got back to the marina there was a million dollar boat docked right in front of the Marina. A guy and his girlfriend were standing on the boat. The guy and girl both waved to them, and Ed couldn’t help but think if they had looked close enough they would have seen what happened.
And then the Holy Spirit whispered to him, “That’s the problem. So many Christians have a marina mentality. We’re tied to the dock just chilling, smiling and waving while people are drowning within earshot and eyesight without Jesus.
Paul was all about the “ring.” Not the kind we put on a finger to celebrate a championship, but the kind which is thrown into the water to help rescue drowning swimmers. Even more so, he wasn’t against jumping in and bringing them to shore.
It’s a simple reminder that everything we do should be about the rescue.
One of the goals that we at Christ Church have set for 2017 is for an intentional rescue, whether it be inviting someone to church to worship, a small group, or a dinner entry event, we want people to know Jesus. There’s an old phrase which says, “Make a friend, be a friend, bring a friend to Christ.” People need the Lord.
Personal Experience
That First Christmas
That first Christmas was quite messy.
A young girl becomes pregnant before the marriage is consummated. Before the birth is approaching they are forced by an authority way beyond her control to travel to another town to register for a census and taxes. Their trip takes them 80 miles on the back of a donkey.
When they finally arrive, probably late at night, Mary already is in labor and they cannot find a place to stay except someone’s stable.
Can you hear her crying out into the night? Can you hear her crying while all around her is the bustle of the town which is teeming with life and energy? Does she feel alone and isolated, abandoned and forgotten?
The baby is finally born. Can you hear him crying out into the night, and she wraps him in bands of cloth and then lays him in a manger.
Can you picture it? Can you hear their cries? Can you feel the mud? Can you smell the manure? And then, out in the fields, the shepherds are watching their flocks in darkness, but then the darkness is shattered and they are blinded by a bright light, and surely they yelled out in terror, and the angel Gabriel says “Do not be afraid; for see – I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you” to you, to you and to me “is born this day in the city of David a savior who is the messiah, the Lord.”
We live in a world that’s messy and broken, and yet into this world a child was born, a child which caused the angels to sing and rejoice. Jesus. God. Emmanuel.
What Christmas reminds us is that our God is not a God who is distant from us, who is out there somewhere. This is a God who knows our name, who cares what we are doing, who wants to be in relation with us, and who loves us so much that he gave us Christ, who was born like us, who lived like us, who died like us and who was raised from the dead so that we too might have eternal life.
That is the Christ child we accept into our lives on Christmas, that is the savior we are worshipping lying in the manger, and the Lord to whom we make our prayers.
Thanksgiving
What? It’s almost Thanksgiving?! Well, everyday ought to be a day of Thanksgiving, but yes, the DAY of Thanksgiving is a few weeks away. It’ll be a time for families, for gathering, for eating, and for TURKEY.
And just think … if you burn your turkey there is still cause for thanksgiving. According to Craig Boldman and Pete Matthews, authors of Every Excuse in the Book: 714 Ways to Say “It’s Not My Fault”, even if you burn the Thanksgiving turkey, there are several reasons to be thankful:
- No one will overeat.
- Uninvited guests will think twice next year.
- Your cheese-broccoli-lima-bean casserole will gain newly found appreciation.
- Pets won’t pester you for scraps.
- The smoke alarm was due for a test.
- Carving the bird will provide a good cardiovascular workout.
- After dinner, the guys can take the bird to the yard and play football.
- The less turkey Uncle George eats, the less likely he will be to walk around with his pants unbuttoned.
- You’ll get to the desserts quicker.
- You won’t have to face three weeks of turkey sandwiches.
I was raised in a family that was fairly simple. We never celebrated Thanksgiving with a big meal. Yes.. we had our pumpkin or mincemeat pies, and we had our mashed potatoes and dressing. We even had a turkey once in a while but for the most part our meals were anything elaborate.
I do remember the football games we played as kids outdoors. The Colts were in Baltimore and the Bengals didn’t exist so we pretended we were Bart Star and the Green Bay Packers. And I can remember as a child taking a paper sack and making a Pilgrim or an Indian outfit at school and celebrating a reenactment of that first Thanksgiving.
Today, of course, revisionist historians have attempted to reinterpret those events as politically incorrect. In light of that, one past president reminded us, “We’ve got to teach history based not on what’s in fashion but what’s important: Why the Pilgrims came here, who Jimmy Doolittle was, and what those thirty seconds over Tokyo meant.”
In our world when we live life so rushed, we tend to not reflect on the ordinary everyday blessings from God.
A hug from your kids going out the door to school.
A car that starts most of the time.
A bed to sleep in every night.
A furnace to warm us this time of the year.
A cup of water any time we want it.
For some of you, a cup of coffee and a newspaper.
For freedom to gather in worship.
Why not take a few moments right now and read Psalm 16.
Psalm 16 is a prayer of thanksgiving. Notice the words David uses like “good,” “secure,” “pleasant,” “delightful,” and “glad.” He speaks of fullness of joy and unending pleasures. He relishes his present life, and he expects an even better future. And what’s the key to it all? His trust and delight in his God.
David sees God as the Giver of every good thing, and he overflows with a thankful and grateful heart.
Psalm 73 is the prayer of Asaph. After a terrible inner struggle, he almost slipped into thinking he’d be better off without God but just when he was on the verge of giving up his faith, he went to the place of worship.
There the Lord straightened out his mind and refreshed his spirit. He confessed his struggle and bitterness, and then he prayed, “You hold me by my right hand … and afterward you will take me into glory. Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever… it is good to be near God” (Psalm 73:23-26).
The Lord’s presence brings not only delight but a sense of direction and of security.
In Psalm 16:7 David rejoices that God counsels and instructs him day and night. “Because he is at my right hand,” David declares in verse 8, “I will not be shaken.”
Nothing
As we approach Thanksgiving, may God rest your heart and mind, may He bless and keep you and your family, and may He continue to extend His blessings upon our nation. May He grant us courage and wisdom to match the tests of our age. May He impress upon us the spirit of our forefathers, their soul-deep craving for freedom, expressed with acknowledgement of their debts to God, as we strive to meet the challenges of our day.
As our forebears remembered with every prayerful word of gratitude, even self-reliance is, at its root, reliance on Him. May we all say, “O give thanks to the LORD, for He is good.”
What is Core: Love
Becoming like God in His most known virtue!
And these remain, faith, hope, and love. And the greatest of these is love! (1 Corinthians 13:13 NIV).
We are on a journey to highlight, emphasize, make central, and live by What is Core. Yet this is not a quest to find something new… or novel… or faddish. There are plenty of those things out there.
We are NOT asking the question, “What is Core?” We are NOT hunting around for some secret hiding place where God, or previous church leaders, have hidden What is Core. It is not like this is something that has been hidden or hard to find in the Scriptures.
It’s just that we can get so busy with our lives, so busy with our ways of doing things, and so busy with our church stuff that we misplace What is Core and we begin to live life without what is most important, without what is the source of everything else important.
We begin to live on spiritual junk food — the latest book, the latest song, the latest idea, the latest video, the latest tweet, the latest forward; and all of these may be quite good, just not core. Before long, however, we are overweight with cool ideas that will quickly become passé and we find ourselves becoming spiritually sick because we have forgotten to eat what makes us strong, whole, and gives us life… real life.
So we come back today and remind ourselves that LOVE is CORE!
And these remain, faith, hope, and love. And the greatest of these is love! (1 Corinthians 13:13).
Ooo! Wow! Cool! Amazing! Shocking!
NOT!
I mean, come on, everyone knows love is CORE, right? God is love! Love makes the world go ’round. Love is a many splendored things. Love is the bomb. Love is the real deal. Make love and not war. Love. Love. Love. Who can quarrel about love being important, being core?
The problem is, we’ve said the word “love” so much, that saying it is important doesn’t really mean much because love is a sloppy word, at least as we use it.
- I love Dr. Pepper.
- I love my wife.
- I love Mexican food.
- I love my grandkids.
- I love being outdoors.
- I love God.
- I love the Dallas Cowboys… oops, uh, scratch that one! I love the Texas Rangers.
- I love my parents.
- I love Duck Dynasty.
What a sloppy word, this word love is. At least as we use it.
So why is love CORE? And if love is What is Core, how do we understand what love means… I mean surely, it has to mean more than loving refried beans or chocolate pie?
Well here is our Bible passage that reminds us that love is CORE. It claims it. It defines it.
“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
Jesus replied, ” ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments” (Matthew 22:36-40).
This is the GREATEST commandment … or really greatest two commandments. Found again & again in both the Old Testament and in the New Testament. We are to love God and love our neighbor. This is What is Core!
And these remain, faith, hope, and love. And the greatest of these is love! (1 Corinthians 13:13).
Great. Yeah. I get it. Love is CORE! But again, what do we mean when we say the word “love”? We’ve already said that love is a sloppy word, so what does the word “love” mean?
If you know Victor Hugo’s story, “Les Miserables”, then you know the story begins with a man, Jean Valjean who has served 19 hard, brutal, oppressive, dehumanizing years in a French prison doing the hardest manual labor imaginable. He was sent there for stealing a little food to help his sister feed her starving children.
Upon his parole release, no one will house him or give him food, until he knocks on the door of a church and The Bishop, much to the surprise of everyone else in the house and also to Valjean, offers to not only feed him, but also give him a place to stay. During the night, wrestling with nightmares, bitterness, and self-condemnation, Valjean gets up and steals all the silver silverware. Yet in the middle of his heist, The Bishop comes in to check on the noise and catches Valjean in his thievery. Valjean hits him and knocks The Bishop to the ground, then runs off with the silver.
The next day, French soldiers search his knapsack because they recognize Valjean’s clothing and haircut as that of a convict. When they find the silver in his knapsack, they return him and the silver to The Bishop. While expecting The Bishop to press charges, he instead asks Valjean why he did not take the silver candlesticks which are worth so much more than the silverware, since he had “given” Valjean everything. He orders that the candlesticks be given to Valjean and that he be released because he has wasted so much time.
When the soldiers leave, Valjean is stumped… dumbfounded… and speechless at first. Then he asked, “Why?” Why would The Bishop forgive his thievery and his violence? Why would he even offer him more to begin his new life out of prison? And The Bishop, clearly living out the character of Christ — love your neighbor, love those who persecute you, love your enemies, and even turn the other cheek to those who abuse you — says in essence, “I have bought your pardon and your soul with this silver. You have a new life. Now go and do the same for others.”
The rest of Valjean’s life, he lives as a new man — he lives by the principles he learned from The Bishop and his forgiving, risking, all-encompassing love.
And these remain, faith, hope, and love. And the greatest of these is love! (1 Corinthians 13:13).
You see, love turns the other cheek. Love pays the price for others sins. Love bears injustice so that justice can be served and grace be given. Love risks forgiving when forgiveness isn’t deserved. Love makes us new people!
The Bible says it this way.
You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. … For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! (Romans 5:6-10).
Notice the power of love. This is what we were: powerless, ungodly, sinners, and enemies of God. Not a great resumé for heaven! We were a bunch of Jean Valjeans. Dangerous criminals with nothing but a yellow passport defining us as dangerous, unchangeable, and hopelessly flawed.
Then Jesus died for our sins… was buried because of our sins… raised to life to defeat the power of our sins and give us new life… because he LOVES us!
And now, we are sons and daughters of God. We are brothers and sisters of one another. We are princes and princesses of the King of glory!
That is the power of love! That is why love is CORE!
And these remain, faith, hope, and love. And the greatest of these is love! (1 Corinthians 13:13).
But we must notice two things about this kind of love.
First, this kind of love is so much more than just a feeling… a fleeting infatuation… a surging lustful passion. Yes, it is as powerful as those things, and sometimes feels like those things… but it is much more tenacious, forgiving, and enduring.
This kind of love is ALWAYS demonstrated! Let me give you an example.
For over twenty years, I have challenged people to find me a passage that just says God loves us… that he has feelings of love for us. And every time someone says, “I found it, we have looked around and seen how God demonstrated that love… how with God love is always a verb and never just a noun! The most famous example is, ‘For God so loved the world… ‘! See, I found it!”.
Yes, it does say God loves the world… that he loves us. But look more closely at what it says: “For God so loved the world, that he GAVE…” (John 3:16). God always defines his love by his actions!
Love is what we do with
our passion and compassion.
Now some folks want to define love by the Greek words — agape, philia, eros, storge. The winner, of course, is always agape — the kind of love and the word you often find in the New Testament. Interestingly, however, when the New Testament was written, agape was used pretty much like our word for love is used — very sloppy, and used for everything from loving the first century equivalent of Dr. Pepper and fried chicken to loving one’s children and spouse! Then something happened to the definition of agape. It was tied to what God did through Jesus by those who wrote about Jesus. Suddenly, agape meant a whole lot more.
You see, God defines love by what he did and what he does! And when he makes love our CORE, he calls us to do the same:
This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. …This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another (1 John 3:16 & 1 John 4:9-11).
What would have happened to Jean Valjean if The Bishop had said, “I love you man!” but never offered him a place to stay, food to eat, then turned the other cheek and forgave his violence and thievery to defend his innocence to set him free? Love is what we do with our passion and compassion!
So love, and its actions, are costly and messy because it’s so much more than a feeling… it’s real, gut level, hands on, action to redeem and bless another at our cost!
And these remain, faith, hope, and love. And the greatest of these is love! (1 Corinthians 13:13).
Second, our love doesn’t come first. Love doesn’t begin with us. Love is far more than mere obedience to love God and love others. Jesus died for our sins…
Say that out loud: Jesus died for our sins…
Our love is always our response to God, who demonstrated love to us, first.
Our love is rooted in Jesus, and his sacrificial love for us when we were unworthy and unlovable.
We love, because God first loved us! (1 John 4:19).
We were loved overwhelmingly, sacrificially, undeservedly when we were powerless, ungodly, sinners and enemies!
So when we love God with all that we are, and when we love our neighbor as ourselves, our impact on others brings about new people… a new Jean ValJean… to new life!
And it brings us the reminder of who we are and what we are about and why we are here and What is Core: Jesus and loving God and loving others like Jesus!
Which brings me back to the questions of last week:
- Do I believe this?
- Do I let this change who I am?
- Do I let this guide me to what is important in life, in fellowship, in worship, and in doctrine?
How can I not, when I’ve been loved so graciously by God?
What is Core: Jesus
Our world is broken, shattered in a place that feels unfixable. We don’t always notice or realize this truth, but our world’s wounds feel incurable.
When something unspeakable happens with precious children — like Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut — all our illusions are shattered once again. We have to look at our world as it is — deeply broken and in need of something beyond us. Oh sure, some will buy a gun to protect themselves and their families while others will try to have all guns banned (depending on our politics and convictions). Yet both of those solutions are merely Band-Aids placed on gaping wounds. We all know this in that deep place of our souls where brutal honesty resides.
Something is wrong here… very very wrong.
Yes, our world is often a very good place to live, but there is a brokenness we cannot escape when we hear of the brutality in Syria; the suicide bombings in Iraq; the rapes, murders and abuse in our own community; and the genocides in Rwanda, Bosnia, Congo, Liberia… and the list go on and on.
Something is wrong here… very very wrong.
We feel our planet lurch and weep and moan with every earthquake, volcanic eruption, outbreak of tornadoes, and the devastation a hurricane or tsunami brings. We feel our world shudder in fear as we anticipate the newest pandemic or the threat of weapons of mass destruction using biological warfare or nuclear warheads. We feel the people of our world wince with broken hearts as we look for ways to battle cancer or feel the loss of someone who succumbs to the abuse they’ve heaped on themselves through bad diets, poor exercise, and unhealthy addictions.
Something is wrong here… very very wrong.
The Bible says our world is “subjected to frustration” because it is “in bondage to decay” and that“We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time” (Romans 8:19-22).
We sense this is true. We cry out with our creation in agony when we see the searing pain in the face of a parent whose child has been murdered, or a spouse who has lost a soulmate to an incurable disease, or a family who has lost everything in a storm, fire, or flood — including family members, pets, home, and pictures that preserve the memories of what is now lost and gone. Yes, we share our creation’s cry. We feel our world’s ache and we moan over what is broken.
And what is this cry? What is this desperate moan of our world and its human inhabitants?
We want a fixer. We need help. We yearn for a redeemer. We long for Savior. We cry out with an agonizing moan, “God, if you are there, please help us, for we cannot fix what is most broken about us and our world!”
This is the moan, the cry, you hear in thousands upon thousands of stories told over the centuries — stories of sacrificial love, unjust suffering, and doing right to bless others no matter the cost. Every culture has these stories. Movies, books, theatrical productions, and even musicals tell these stories.
These redemption stories move us. They reach past our barriers, they overwhelm the dams we’ve put in place to stop our emotions and hold back our tears. They speak to something in our soul and move us in ways that are beyond our abilities to describe. Go see something like Les Miserables and you know what I mean. These stories touch something primal inside us — something placed in our DNA by our Creator to prepare us for the ultimate redemption story.
These stories acknowledge the brokenness of our world, our relationships, and our systems. Yet somehow, through some power beyond normal human strength, a hero arises, faces all the brokenness, and bears intense pain in order to ransom others out of darkness.
These redemption stories are really Christ stories told in anticipation of Jesus or as echoes to his coming. These stories prepare our hearts for the one true hope our broken world has to be healed at its core.
These are Christ stories. Stories that speak about the one who made it all and then came to redeem it back from the brokenness caused by our rebellion.
These are Christ stories, because everything ultimately flows back to this one reality: Jesus is the CORE truth of everything good and right and full of hope.
Listen to how the Bible talks about Jesus as this CORE truth:
All God’s promises find their “yes” in Jesus (2 Corinthians 1:18-20).
He is the ultimate Message of God, and is God, and nothing that has been made in our universe came to be without his fingerprints all over it (John 1:1-3).
While God has spoken in many ways in the past, his fullest and most complete message came to us when God sent his Son, who was himself God with us (Hebrews 1:1-3).
The Son existed before all created things. The Son created everything and everything holds together in him. Without him, there is nothing (Colossians 1:15-17).
The Son, the Message of God, came to us — the very people and things he created — and we rejected him. Yet the ones of us who didn’t reject him, the ones who believe in him, we were given power to become God’s children (John 1:10-14).
and bring light to our darkness?
That’s why the Father sent the Son — because he loves us and wants to save us from the brokenness of our world and give us new life (John 3:16-17).
But this salvation, this bringing us back to God, was costly: it cost Jesus his life in a blood sacrifice in a real human body, to save us from the mess of our world (Colossians 1:19-22).
God loved us so much that he took our sin and placed it upon his Son so that we could be made clean and begin life as a new person in a new world (2 Corinthians 5:17; 2 Corinthians 5:21).
We are on a journey to rediscover What is Core* about our Christian faith and what it means for us as we seek to live as followers of Jesus. But at the center of What is Core* is Jesus — who he is, what he has done, and what it means for us.
As we focus on What is Core*, we are reminded that nothing — no religion, no beauty, no created power, no philosophy, no song, no person, not even the Scriptures themselves — can speak to the ache in our soul and the cry of our hearts… nothing and no one, except Jesus.
Jesus is our CORE. And at the center of this CORE, there is something we must believe or everything else fades into emptiness:
For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures… (1 Corinthians 15:3-4).
Each phrase sizzles with importance. Each thought shimmers with the profound simplicity of God’s grace expressed for us in the willing self-sacrifice of the Son and his victory over what holds us in fear, sorrow, and brokenness (Hebrews 2:14-15; 1 Corinthians 15:54-58).
This is What is Core*! This is of first importance. So the questions — whether for each of us as individuals or for all of us together as God’s family — are really quite simple:
- Do I believe this?
- Do I let this change who I am?
- Do I let this guide me to what is important in life, in fellowship, in worship, and in doctrine?
Because ultimately, if we cannot answer, “Yes!” to all three, then we have really said, “No!” to what can reach into our brokenness and bring light to our darkness.
* When referring to What is Core, I am referring to two particular passages in the New Testament that claim to give us the most important truths in Scripture.
- The first passage is 1 Corinthians 15:1-7, where Paul makes clear that Christ dying for our sins according to the Scriptures, being buried, and being raised on the third day according to the Scriptures is the truth of “first importance”! It is the truth, or message, that Paul preached, the Corinthians believed, the truth on which they built their lives, the message passed on by authoritative teachers and that he also passed on with authority.
- The second passage is Matthew 22:37-40, where Jesus indicates what the most important command from God is, to love God over and above all things and all beings, and then Jesus puts another command along with it, loving our neighbor as we love ourselves.
The claims of these two passages remind us that some truth is more important because it is more central, it more core, to the truth and will of God. These truths help inform, order, and make important other truths in Scripture and we are saying these passages are What is Core!
Our Children
Bob Stamps is a United Methodist minister. It seems that one day, Bob’s wife comes home and much to her horror she discovers that their oldest daughter has given their youngest son a unique haircut.Not only has she cut the hair as short as she could on her youngest brother–she has begun the process of shaving his head.
Mrs. Stamps cries out to her daughter, “What in the world are you trying to do?” The daughter realizing the tone in her mother’s voice was one of disappointment, she cried out, “I only wanted him to look like daddy.”
As we celebrate Mother’s Day, and parenthood in general, what would our children look like spiritually if they were to look and reflect their mother or father?
Paul once wrote to Timothy in his second epistle: “For I am mindful of the sincere faith within you, which first dwelt in you grandmother, Lois, and your mother, Eunice, and I am sure that it is in you as well.” (II Timothy 1:5)
Timothy’s father was a pagan — not very helpful in his spiritual development. However, there was something so beautiful in his grandmother, Lois–and his mother, Eunice–that he wanted these qualities–an inner beauty reflected in his Christian walk and witness.
Our own founder and spiritual mentor, John Wesley, was deeply influenced by the godly character of his mother, Suzanna.
Of course, we don’t need to be mothers or fathers to pass on a godly legacy. All of us do need to be spiritual mothers and fathers or disciple-makers.
Jesus was a master disciple He didn’t just preach the gospel—he mediated it. As he taught and modeled the gospel of grace, it was mediated through his flesh and blood relationships.
He always came down the mountain, right into the mess of everyday sinners. Jesus was attached to disciples who were attached to one another. He lived with them, taught them, lived for them.
His intent was to continue the legacy… to pass on “things” essential to the gospel.
Paul, too, who was discipled by Christ was a master teacher. Writing to the church, Paul says: “For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. I urge you, then, be imitators of me” (1 Cor. 4:14-15). Notice that word “imitate.”
That’s what it’s about . We’ve all seen it. Our children will mimic or imitate what we do as parents. But Paul clarified it when he also said, “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ” (1 Cor. 11:1).
He understood his frailties. He understood his faults and weaknesses. So, Paul was saying, “While you may model me, make sure you follow and model Christ’s life most of all.”
So….what is our vision? It’s making disciples for the transformation of the world. It’s simply, passing on what we have learned about Christ, sharing the “good news”, instilling in our children and our grandchildren and in the lives of those we interact on a daily basis– the love of and love for God. It’s about passing on a godly legacy. It’s never easy. Just like motherhood, its messy, tiring, consuming, and often frustrating, but it’s well worth it. Then, comes the joy of being a grandparent ….
Your Journey
Summer is America’s favorite season–homemade ice cream, a tan, sandals, cooking out, the beach, summer camp, long days, short nights, and the kid’s welcome NO SCHOOL!
From August to June, the average family’s life revolves around the children’s school activities. So summer has become a breathing space for needed “R&R&R&R&R” –Rest, Relaxation, Recreation, Reflection, and Refurbishment–vacations, yard work, house repair, family time, winding down from a frenetic pace.
For many, some of our best memories are of childhood summers, when the days seemed endlessly free to roam, explore and play.
There are the treasured memories: The family road trip vacation, with luggage on the car, roadside attractions, and postcards sent home. Maybe it’s setting up a lemonade stand, visiting the book mobile, making a clubhouse… or visiting the largest buffalo in the world, and even the largest ball of twine in the world.
But like the Griswalds, not all trips are fun. There are challenges, obstacles, detours and annoyances, but they did make it to Wally World.
I wonder, what would have happened to the Griswalds, if they had just stopped their journey when they lost their credit cards, or when the car broke down, or they lost their luggage.
Sometimes life gets tough. John the Baptist was a man of God. He was faithful to share the message God had placed on his heart. He introduced Jesus to the crowds as “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” And yet when he ended up in a prison cell, he had questions. “Are you really the Coming One? Or should we look for another.”
The people of Israel were tempted to turn back. Turn back to Egypt. Turn back to the old life. Turn back to misery.
You see, long journeys are not always fun. Life can become a grind. It can be grueling.
Long journeys can be frustrating, because we are not always in the comfortable space of where we were, and we are not yet where we want to be; we are somewhere in-between.
But take heart. God is between you and your circumstances. He’s not only between you and your circumstances but over and present in your circumstances.
He was there to open the Red Sea for the Israelites. He dried up the ground, overthrew the enemy and led them over to the other side.
Sometimes God’s story takes us to places we wouldn’t choose to go on our own, but they are the very routes that develop maturity, integrity and perseverance.
Winston Churchill declared in his famous speech at the Harrow School in October 1941, at the time the Nazis appeared invincible, “Never give in, never give in, never, never, never— in nothing, great or small, large or petty— never give in!”
Consider St. Paul, who was imprisoned many times, beaten with rods, shipwrecked, and left for dead, yet he refused to give up. I love the way he viewed adversity and suffering: “We also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us” (Romans 5: 3-5).
John the Baptist who inquired, “Are You really the One,” seemed to have his doubts, but in the end, he discovered, that it was not his strength or faith that was great, but rather that His Savior was great and that He was kinder than we deserved.
Jesus even bragged on John.
Author Robert Fulghum was the graduation speaker at Syracuse University a few years ago. It was said of his commencement address that Fulghum did everything but lead the students, faculty and tuition-poor parents in a rousing rendition of “The Itsy-Bitsy-Spider.” Here’s a quote from his address:
I don’t’ know how many of you have ever looked up a waterspout, but it’s very dark and very dangerous-looking up there. It’s scary, but there is light that shines through. And the song says that while the tiny spider was climbing the spout, disaster struck – “down came the rain and washed the spider out”.
But the song doesn’t say “and the spider said ‘ah the heck with it’, and did something else.” No, the song says, “out came the sun and dried up all the rain, and the itsy-bitsy spider went up the spout again.” “And this my friends,” said Fulghum, “is the fight song of the human race.”
Where does our focus go during the dog days of summer?
When we are experiencing sickness, financial pressure, rocky relationships, and other anxieties, do we focus on God? Do we make our journey “looking unto Jesus/?”
He knows the burden I bear; He knows the stress that weighs me down. He knows the adversity I face. And He knows when to bring me out, how to bring me through.
Claiming God’s strength for the journey… Dennis
Easter is only the Beginning
Easter is over. The eggs have been found. The songs have been sung. The obligation has been fulfilled. The Sunday following Easter is often called “Low Sunday” because the attendance returns to “normal.” Yes, Easter is over. Life continues. Or does it?!
Paul begins his book of Romans with these words: “Paul, a bond-servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God which He promised before through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures, concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.”
On Palm Sunday, Jesus rode into Jerusalem with cries of “Hosanna” and palm branches being thrown under his feet. He was king.
On Friday he was mocked, spit upon, and crucified. What kind of king hangs on a cross? The disciples fled in fear, dejected over his apparent failure and shameful death.
On Sunday, an empty tomb confronted them. The body of Jesus was no longer there. Easter happened. The disciples suddenly became bold proclaimers of the Gospel, ready and willing to stake their lives on the truth of what they knew and believed and witnessed.
Very simply, Easter is good news.
Paul puts it this way.
If Jesus didn’t rise from the grave, overcoming sin and death then Christians should be pitied because…
- We have all wasted our lives chasing a lie.
- Our time worshiping Jesus has been a sham.
- Our hope was misplaced.
- Our lives have pursued fairy tales.
BUT Paul says, if it is true that Jesus really has risen from the dead then…
His claim to be God is true and our lives should be lived for Him. He is Lord! A fresh start is possible. Heaven is real. Grace is available.
You see, what I am trying to say is simply this: We shouldn’t allow the celebration and the reality of the resurrection to be forgotten when Easter is over. Easter is only the beginning.
The work of Jesus is supposed to be something that changes every part of our lives, everyday of our lives.If we only take time to consider the work of Christ one weekend a year then we are missing the point.
May each of us, continue to ponder the event of Easter. May we try to take time each day to thank God for Jesus’ sacrifice and His awesome gift of salvation.
I mean… Easter Changes everything and I pray that it changes everything for you and me everyday.
