First.

First.

They say there is a first time for everything and this year is the first time that I have given up something for Lent. My sacrifice has been varied as my goal was to blog each day during Lent. So, for the past 40+ days I have somehow found time to write. My sacrifices include time, sleep, time with my wife, and entertainment.

Thankfully I made it the entire time without missing a single day. There have been a few close calls and some very late night posts. Some of these posts have been done while sitting in a car, at work, at dinner and even in bed.

Here are a few things I have learned during this time:

1) Don't make a commitment unless you are going to see it through until the end.

2) Sacrifices aren't convenient or easy. This sounded easy but was more difficult than it seems.

3) You never know who might be reading.

4) it's hard to think of something to write each day.

5) sometimes you can have a positive impact on others without even realizing it.

6) typing out long blogs on my iPhone isn't fun.

7) I miss blogging and will purpose in my heart to do it more frequently than in the past.

It's been fun to write each day and i look forward to writing again sometime soon, but it'll be nice to take a couple of days off.

I hope you have a great Easter holiday. Take time to thank Christ for his sacrifice

God Bless.




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Define.

Define.

As we approach Easter, I was wondering, what does Easter mean to you? We all know that it is the celebration of the death, burial and resurrection of Christ, but what does that
mean to you?

Does it mean salvation? Does it mean healing? Does it mean eternal life? Does it give you hope? What does it mean to you?


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What?

What?

There is a movement that is saying that May 21st, 2011 will be the final judgment day. I think it is ridiculous and opposite of what the Bible teaches when it clearly states that "...no man knows the day...". Regardless, their hypocrisy isn't the subject of my thoughts.

Our Pastor brought up this question tonight: If it was true that the world would end on 5-21-11 (it isn't), then what in your life would you change? What would you do different? Would you change anything at all?

Would you witness to others about Christ? Would you give everything away? Would you spend more time in prayer? Would you spend more time with your family, telling them how much you loved them? Would you work less?

What changes would you make if you knew you wouldn't be around much longer?

Relented.

Relented.

Today I finally relented and went to the doctor over something that was long overdue. For some reason, my months of home remedies and self surgery just didn't get the job done and it finally reached the point where it needed to get looked at by a professional.

How many times in our lives do we refuse the help that is available to us, especially in our spiritual lives? Whether it is sin, sickness, depression, hurt, confusion, a decision, etc... we wait and hope that things will get better but often times, things get worse because we haven't sought out the help we desperately need. The doctor I needed to see was only five minutes away, but I refused the help and technology that was available to me. We have immediate access to Christ (and no co-pays) yet many times we never even think about seeking Him for help. Rather than get the healing we need, we settle for a band-aid and hope the problem goes away.

The Bible says that God cannot lie, so, I cannot help but to believe that the following scripture is true (emphasis in red text)

1 Peter 5:5-11
⁵ Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for
“ God resists the proud,
But gives grace to the humble.”^[b]
6 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, ⁷ casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.⁸ Be sober, be vigilant; because^[c] your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. ⁹ Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world. ¹⁰ But may^[d] the God of all grace, who called us^[e] to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you. ¹¹ To Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.

Beautiful.

Beautiful.

A few years ago, I started singing the chorus to the Joe Cocker song "You Are So Beautiful" as a worship song. After some time, I decided to add a couple of verses to it and make a full song out of it, yet keep the original chorus. Below, I've embedded a very raw YouTube video of me singing it. The video quality is bad, as is the sound, however, as humbling as the performance is (its not good), the message remains.

What Christ did for us was beautiful. He was beaten beyond human recognition, yet He was beautiful. Have you ever seen a mangled animal lying on the side of the road? He probably looked worse than that, yet He was beautiful. He knew what was going to happen to Him, yet He did it anyway. During this Easter season, don't lose sight of His beauty. Lyrics are provided below the video.



Verse 1:
A face no one thought pretty
With nails in your hands
A crown of thorns sat on your head
As your blood dripped to the ground

Verse 2:
Everyone rejected Him
Said "He's not what we need"
"We'll trade Him for the murderer"
"Send Him to the tree"

Pre-Chorus:
How can I describe it?
What He means to me!
A portrait of the innocent!
Dying on the cross for me!

Chorus:
You are so beautiful to me
You are so beautiful to me
You're everything I've hoped for
You're everything I need
You are so beautiful to me!

Sacrifice.

Sacrifice.

The man I am proud to call my Pastor, David Cowger, spoke from the below passage this morning. He spoke from the perspective that Christ has called us to lay down and submit our lives to Him, that according to Christ, to gain LIFE, we must submit our lives.

This means that we must be willing to lay down anything that God requires of us in our pursuit of Him. The attached picture was taken after virtually everyone in the room nailed something to the cross. Each of us wrote something down that we felt God was telling us to lay down. It could be addictions, lusts, money, pride, hurt, anger, disappointment, geographical location, work, ministry goals, opinions, attitudes or something else.

My question is: What are you holding back? What are you holding on to that you need to nail to the cross? Is it your plans? Your beliefs? Your traditions? Your job? Your wallet? Your dreams? Your prideful pursuit of riches? Your hurt? Your anger? Your lusts? What do you need to nail to the cross?

Listen to this after you read the below passage: No Sacrifice, by Jason Upton

Luke 14:26-33 (Amplified)
²⁶If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his [own] father and mother [^[g]in the sense of indifference to or relative disregard for them in comparison with his attitude toward God] and [likewise] his wife and children and brothers and sisters--[yes] and even his own life also--he cannot be My disciple.

²⁷Whoever does not persevere and carry his own cross and come after (follow) Me cannot be My disciple.

²⁸For which of you, wishing to build a ^[h]farm building, does not first sit down and calculate the cost [to see] whether he has sufficient means to finish it?

²⁹Otherwise, when he has laid the foundation and is unable to complete [the building], all who see it will begin to mock and jeer at him,

³⁰Saying, This man began to build and was not able (^[i]worth enough) to finish.

³¹Or what king, going out to engage in conflict with another king, will not first sit down and consider and take counsel whether he is able with ten thousand [men] to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand?

³²And if he cannot [do so], when the other king is still a great way off, he sends an envoy and asks the terms of peace.

³³So then, any of you who does not forsake (renounce, surrender claim to, give up, ^[j]say good-bye to) all that he has cannot be My disciple.

Tortured.

Tortured.

My new favorite TV show is "24". I've been watching the episodes in order on Netflix for the past few months. In the last episode I watched, the main character, Jack Bauer, was being interrogated and tortured.

I admit, even though it was acting, it was difficult to watch. It wasn't near as difficult to watch as the beatings Christ endured in Mel Gibsons "The Passion of The Christ".

Neither of those compare to what Christ really endured. Scriptures say that He was disfigured beyond recognition and didn't even look human.

Imagine someone taking your punishment and then getting flogged until they no longer looked alive. Imagine them willfully agreeing to your punishment knowing the price they would pay is more than the human body can endure.

Keep this in mind as we celebrate Palm Sunday this weekend and Easter next weekend.


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