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. . . our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin —Romans 6:6 I feel like I need a bumper sticker or, at least, a postcard to put on my refrigerator that reads, “Sin is not my friend.” I know that it sounds silly; but sin is like a persistent “friend” that I can’t seem to get rid of. It seems to have my best interest at heart. It tells me that I can’t have any real fun without it. It shows up when I’m down and says, “Forget it. Let’s have a good time.” It tells me that I’m the most important thing in the world. It assures me that everyone else is wrong and foolish. It tells me how good-looking I am (But I know it’s kidding when it pulls that one.) I tell it to go away; but it assures me that it wouldn’t be a real friend if it left me in my time of need. Most importantly it knows me. It seems to know things about me that no one else does. It knows things that […]

OC is again on the theme of knowing God. God does a faith dance with us. He can not reveal Himself completely to any man. Such a revelation would over power our free will. He wants us to know and love Him, but He must reveal Himself in small layers. As we take steps of faith, he reveals a bit more, we respond with more faith and move closer. OC asks an intriquing question today: “Have you seen Jesus?” My initial reaction is that I have. I have seen Him as He operates through other believers. I have never seen a “vision” of Jesus. I believe this is part of the unveiling process. I have shown the small amount of faith necessary for Him to show Himself acting through His people. As I move closer with more faith, He will show me more.  Part of OC’s discussion today turned a light on for me.”Being saved and seeing Jesus are not the same thing. Many people who have never seen Jesus have received and share in God’s grace. But once you have seen Him, you can never be the same. Other things will not have the appeal they did before.” […]

Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory? —Luke 24:26 This is the best I could come up with in looking for our Pastor with a pained expression on his face. I cropped it from a photo taken in Israel. It’s hard to find a photo of Pastor T doing anything but working or smiling. I wanted something showing close to pain, because he’s had a little of that this week. He had a knee replacement on Monday and the first few days are tough. He’s doing better today and is looking to go home. During this time of discomfort he was not focused on the pain but the destination: a pain-free knee. As usual he serves as an example.  “Our Lord’s Cross is the gateway into His life. His resurrection means that He has the power to convey His life to me. When I was born again, I received the very life of the risen Lord from Jesus Himself. Christ’s resurrection destiny— His foreordained purpose— was to bring “many sons to glory” (Hebrews 2:10 ).” How did He get through the agony of the cross? He focused on His destiny. When we […]

Here is my grandson, Nicky, sporting his new glasses. I think they make him look pretty smart. He and I watched the 10 Commandments last week and we decided that except for God and Moses everyone in the movie was a dummy. But on more careful reflection I realize that the foolishness of the Egyptians and the Israelites was not really the result of a lack of intelligence but a lack of God.    After all in the movie, God was no fool because He’s God and Moses, well he had begun to experience God.   It’s like Paul. Read any of his letters and you have to admit Paul is smart. Yet although he had  studied God his entire life,  he was a dummy for years as he persecuted the new church. It was only after Jesus threw Him off his horse, that he understood. Man did he understand. After years of studying God, he had experienced God and with experience came real understanding.   And so it is with us. We can study and strain all we want to try to understand the things of God and we can fail. To understand the things of God we […]

I overslept this morning, too much NCAA Basketball Championship and Words with Friends with my brother in California. Woke up to an email from Jessie needing me for something and from there the morning got away from me. I have to admit I was not disappointed as I have little to add to OC’s meditation today. He’s still focused on the cross and I’m ready to move on. Maybe that’s the point. I’m always to ready to move on, to turn my gaze away from Jesus Crucified. It was after all the reason He came: to die. “The Cross was not something that happened to Jesus— He came to die; the Cross was His purpose in coming. He is “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” ( Revelation 13:8 ). The incarnation of Christ would have no meaning without the Cross.”  These words of OC did strike me: “The reason salvation is so easy to obtain is that it cost God so much.” There is no doubt that the easy obtaining of salvation is a problem for us. We can’t understand that the gift is free so we add to it; “Jesus plus _____” We fill in that blank […]

After going through the remembrance that is Easter, we should be renewed in our understanding and enthusiasm for the Fearless and Extraordinary lives we should be living as redeemed children of God. If that’s not where we find ourselves this morning, we need to review the process to see where we might have missed out. We know that He has not missed out. He accomplished his assignment perfectly. If things are not as they should be, we missed it somewhere. Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to the disciples . . . . ’Stay here and watch with Me’ —Matthew 26:36, 38. His call to his disciples to stay and watch with Him is His call to us. We need to see and understand, to the full extent we are capable; what He saw and understood that night. As God and as man, He saw and understood the enormity of sin. It was a personalization of what He was called to do. We must personalize as well. We like to say that if we were the only person on earth; He would have died for just us. That’s a wonderful truth. But what we […]

Morning Like This Was it an extraordinary morning when Jesus Rose? It was a morning that changed everything. It was the culmination of the most incredible week in human history. A week before He enter the City triumphant. On Thursday He established an everlasting memorial. On Friday, He suffered and died. On Sunday, He arose, death and the grave conquered. But it was all for Monday. It was all for the rest of time. It was all for his chosen so that they might live extraordinary lives guided no long by Fear but by Faith. And is that the way it is? I was in the Family Book Store yesterday and noticed that Fearless is the number one Christian Living bestseller. In fact, it’s the book of the year. There must still be fear out there among His people after 2000 years. And it’s only going to get worse. Our freedom to practice what He preached is in danger. His return seems more imminent than ever. Our world seems more lost, not less. “Indeed the hour is coming . . . that you will be scattered . . “. —John 16:32. Indeed, instead of being on the triumphant march, […]

One of the best known former residents of Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola is Freddie Fender. Best known for his hit song Wasted Days and Wasted Nights, Freddie was a man who knew about missed opportunities. He recorded the song which would later be a hit then spent three years at Angola after a drug arrest in Baton Rouge. He rereleased the song after Jimmie Davis got him out of prison. It had new meaning then. OC talks about missed opportunities today; how Jesus cried over Jerusalem. If you had known . . . in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes —Luke 19:42. “What might have been” is a refrain we can all sing. We miss opportunties. God’s perfect plans for us are foiled not just once but again and again. Yet, like a GPS, each day he “recalculates” a route to Him. Satan would have us waste more time lamenting over what might have been, but Our Lord forgives, forgets and recalculates. He provides new plans for a joyous life of service after each stumble we make. Tomorrow is Easter and it should be a celebration […]