HE AROSE!!!!

IF you are a Christian you should be celebrating today. NO WAIT! YOU MUST! YOU MUST CELEBRATE TODAY. Today is the day the greatest promise in the history of time itself was realized. Jesus the Christ shared with his disciples and everyone he met that one day he must suffer, be put to death and after three days in the tomb rise from the dead.

Today is Easter, the day each year Christians can rejoice in the promise Christ made during his brief time on earth. He told his disciples this and explained it multiple times, but yet they had not the ability to comprehend. Sure, it sounded pretty fantastic. I am sure no one else they ever knew claimed this to be their future or actually realized the feat.

The tradition at our church is to place a purple cloth on the middle of three crosses that fronts our church on Good Friday. Purple has a royal connection so it relates to the kingship of Christ. The Roman soldiers nocked this possibility, even creating a sign to hang above Christ on the cross that named him King of the Jews. They thought they were humiliating Him even more than stripping him naked, lashing him across his body and driving steel spikes through his hands and feet.

On Sunday the purple cloth is replaced by one that is white. The white represents purity and the victory of resurrection. There is also the connection to the white linen clothes that were found neatly folded in the tomb when Mary and Mary Magdalene came to the tomb on third day to Check on Jesus’ body.

Today people will celebrate the most important day in the life of a Christ follower. Without the truth of today nothing else in Christianity matters. Christ voluntarily chose to sacrifice His life for our sins. If we do not choose to sacrifice one day to acknowledge and rejoice we are a sad lot.

Let this day be the greatest chance to connect with the truth of Christ’s Love. Who would you willingly give your life for? Your spouse, child, parent, a good friend? What about a complete stranger? A thief. A murderer? Jesus gave his life for ALL. To balance sins not even committed yet. For all sins from the beginning of time. Jesus covers it all.

If you have never given your life to Jesus I have many posts on this blog about the process and I would love to lead you through it. Congratulations to all of you today, you are blessed beyond your wildest dreams if you have met Christ!

 

 

Denial – the easy response when you see sin in your life

I know anyone who has ever been alive longer than a couple of years has heard about sin. It is the product of many of this mortal life’s good and bad experiences. Sin comes in many forms. There is purposeful sin, accidental sin, ignorant sin and more. But in the end it is all against God’s instructions for how to live a Christian life. Do you think God hides any of this information? He doesn’t. He puts it out front and center for our consumption. If we do not know its because we don’t care to look for it or ask about it.

What is the first human reaction when we are faced with the thought we may have committed a sin? I think it is denial. We think “oh no, not me!” “I didn’t sin. If so I didn’t mean to.” But if we are honest with ourselves many times we do indeed sin. I have been a Christian for more than thirty years and I still sin way too often. Thankfully my knowledge of the difference between sinful acts and those that aren’t sinful has increased, but the sin nature is still present.

I used to try the denial route. It is easy to deny and try to blame your actions on the situation, the weather, the stock market or anything else. But all this does is prolong your feeling of conviction that comes from wanting to please God with your actions. The best thing you can do when you realize you are sinning is to remove yourself from the situation and confess your sin.

Accept that you are mortal, that sin will always be a challenge and try to learn how to head it off before it gets tis claws in you. Isn’t it better to not have to dive into the denial pool? God loves you, will accept you wherever you are and will change your life, including how you deal with sin, if you will just follow his lead.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/denial/

Why do we crave acceptance? – DP – 03/22/17

As humans we are hard-wired to compare ourselves with others I think. Am I taller, shorter, richer, poorer, better-looking, smarter or the like. No matter the characteristic, even if we feel inferior or superior when it all is tabulated we want to be accepted for what we are. Yes, acceptance is a basic human need. Some people have had to fight for it, like the African Americans forced into slavery over two hundred years ago during the building of this great nation. Even now in some places their acceptance is still a work in progress.

Can I tell you about total acceptance no matter your station in life? It is something offered by the creator of this world, all worlds really. God gave us a pathway to all encompassing acceptance if we are just willing to submit to Him. We can find the instructions for this wonderful promise in John Chapter 14 and verse 6.

 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. John 14:6 KJV

Jesus came to earth two thousand years ago, lived among men and taught about this very path. All who accept Him and make him lord of their life not only find acceptance but gain an eternal home with Him in heaven. Acceptance for all no matter where you are from, what your bank account balance may be, the color of your skin or any other human marker that can be a source of discrimination.

In fact discrimination is nothing God ever engages in. He sees our heart. Now of course if you reject Him he will leave you alone to consider your mistake. But the acceptance everyone craves is always there for the taking. We just have to get over our stubborn nature and resistance to humility.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/acceptance/

Nervous – DP – 03/08/17

Do you worry? So much that it accumulates in making you nervous? Truthfully everyone worries about something I suppose, but we receive instruction in the beginning book of the New testament about how we can handle this all too human tendency.

Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. Matthew 6:34 KJV

With the overload of information these days we see way more bad in real time on our devices than ever before. Subsequently our minds are filled with the thoughts of all the potential things that could affect our life on a daily if not moment by moment basis. This is really just another tool of the Enemy, albeit a twenty-first century one.

Satan is a master at playing to our weaknesses. He will figure them out quickly and use them to undermine our best effort to serve him. So the above verse can serve us well as a reminder to not pull on extra burdens unnecessarily. Do what you can do the best you can within the guidelines of the god book and begin afresh when the sun rises again.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/nervous/