the True Power of the Cross

Jesus Christ is the Resurrection and the Eternal Life. He has the power to give eternal life to all who believe in him, because of his miraculous work on the cross. He is the only Way, the only Truth, and the only Life that leads to a relationship with God. On the third day Christ rose from the dead with a glorified body and ascended into heaven and is now exalted at the right hand of God, awaiting his second coming.

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John 11:25-26, 1John 1:2-3

John 14:6

Jesus Christ is the True Power of the Cross. Without his resurrection on this day, Easter Sunday, the cross would be meaningless. Praise God for the empty tomb!

He is risen! He is risen indeed!

Jesus is the Sacrificial Lamb

I believe that Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God. He is the perfect, pure and innocent lamb who was sent as a sacrifice to die in our place. He was betrayed, scourged, beaten, spit on, insulted and finally crucified under Pontius Pilate. He died a criminal’s death on a cross, and yet three days later he rose from the dead to vindicate the saving work of his life and death and to take his place as the majestic, everlasting Lord of Lords on the throne of God. Christ, though completely righteous, willingly submitted himself to the Father by sacrificially laying down his life, absorbing the punishment and wrath of God that was against humanity.

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John 1:29, Eph 5:2

Matt 15

Rom 8:32, Eph 2:3-6, 1 Thess 1:10

what are we living for? (Part 1)

Today, I went to a funeral. A friend of mine's mother-in-law went to be home with the Lord and today was the memorial service. I had never met this woman before, but after the service I felt as though I did. And what a wonderful woman of God she was.

A friend of hers' was a man that I greatly respect, David, who spoke during the service. He was a professor of mine at Bible College and he is a wise man and has a deep love of God. There was something he said about this woman that spoke volumes to me. He said the reason she was such a cheerful person was that she "knew she was deeply loved by Jesus." That is what gave her great joy. She experienced the unending and abounding love poured down from above on her. This caused her to return that love back to her Savior and to all those around her.

This is such a simple, yet profound thing.

As I am preparing for this weekend's services, this celebration of a life well lived brings me to think about the Love of Christ. And to John 3:16:

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life."

And to Isaiah 53:5:

"But he was wounded for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his stripes we are healed.

This causes me to raise a question: What is it about Christ's love (agape) as opposed to the other types of love, namely brotherly love (phileo) or romantic love (eros), that can save the whole world and bring peace to a lost soul?

I saw a couple movies recently. One of my favorites is The Fifth Element (Sci-Fi). In it, the antagonist is literally "pure evil". It consumes everything in its path and it threatens to consume Earth. The protagonist is another alien in the form of a beautiful woman. She is the key to stopping evil from winning. In the process of the movie, Bruce Willis' character falls in love with the perfect woman. Long story short (it's still a great movie), Love, the love between two people, is enough to stop the evil force and even to completely destroy it.

So, can romantic love (eros) save the world from evil and bring peace to all? Hmmm...

God is Everywhere

How great, how deep and how wide is the Lord our God, the living creator and sustainer of all life, matter, and reality that is and is to come. We humbly praise the one, the divine, the wondrous, the infinite, and the incomprehensible; He who is beyond reason, beyond measure, beyond description, and above every finite word, thought, and dream. How great is the Lord our God whose mercy allows us to scarcely attribute to him the glory, fame, and credit he deserves.

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Rom 11:33-36

God's Grandeur

THE WORLD is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;	5
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.
And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;	10
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs—
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.
By Gerald Manley Hopkins

To Meet With God

True worship is the acknowledgment and realization of the presence of the glory of God. We are like mirrors reflecting, to God and to others, His glory. Expanding on John 4:24, worship encompasses both spirit and truth. It is both a subjective experience and an objective activity, meaning it involves not only our intellect, but also our emotions. Jesus says in that passage, "we must worship in spirit and in truth." John Piper said in his book, Desiring God, "Worship must be vital and real in the heart, and worship must rest on a true perception of God. There must be spirit and there must be truth." This is a non-negotiable.

Worship is for God. We come before him to give him all the praise and all the glory he deserves. Let's not forget that we are to enjoy him in worship too. We worship God because it glorifies him and because he demands it of us. We also worship him because it transforms us as we focus on him.

Worshiping God is for us. Corporate worship is an active response to the presence of God, involving not just the internal, but especially the external. When we meet together to worship, we are meeting with God.

It is my desire not only to worship my God, but to lead others in worship. I desire to lead others into the very throne room of God, so that they can meet with God, so they can be healed, changed, transformed, and renewed.