Who Will Roll Away the Stone?

Mark 16:1-4 (NASB)

When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, bought spices, so that they might come and anoint Him.  Very early on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb when the sun had risen.  They were saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?”  Looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled away, although it was extremely large.

Easter is upon us, the season when we take time to look and explore our own salvation in relation to the death and resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Our scripture today is based on a part of that story.

In the book of Mark chapter 16, we enter the text with followers of Jesus coming to the tomb where He lay, to correct the abuse to Jesus’ physical body. With the rising of the sun and the beginning of a new day, we find they have arrived at the dark cave to clean up what is left, to love and to care and to try and make a sad situation in some way a little better. It is in this setting they ask each other a very telling question, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?”

How many times in our lives have we all, when faced with a difficult situation, desired to clean everything up and searched for God while in the darkest of places? How many times have we asked the same question, “How do we get to Him”?

And how many times in our lives have we all found our way there, worried and anxious, looking for God, and discovered His messenger pointing us right to Him, right to where we needed to go?

This Resurrection Sunday, as we live in a world that has too many dark places, and at this start of a new day, I challenge you to go to those places within yourself, and look for God in them.

Our king, through His death and resurrection, has brought about for us the possibility of something different. He has rolled away the stone and left the Holy Spirit to point us in a new direction. And all we have to do is to go on that journey and ask.

Are you looking for God today? He is still with us. Search for Him more. He is not dead.

He is Risen Indeed!

Food for the Ears…Click here to listen to Our Living Hope performed by Phil Wickham

Look Ever Toward the Lord!

Psalm 25:15 (NIV)

My eyes are ever on the LORD,
for only he will release my feet from the snare.

Have you ever tried to walk in a perfectly straight line for any distance at all? It’s really not the easiest thing to do. The reality is, most of us pull to one side or to the other depending upon which foot is dominant. And so what happens, if we are not attentive as to how we are walking, is we simply end up going nowhere but in a complete circle. We in the end come back to where we once began.

Now when we try to accomplish this same task looking down at our own feet it is even more difficult. When we put our eyes, not up and to what is in front of us, but only down upon ourselves and where we have been, we guarantee failure: we lose perspective as to what is behind us, to what is around us and to where we are going; and we tend to base each step of the journey off of the point of our previous step. The only successful method to find our way on the physical journey is to look up and to see what is to come. We must take our eyes off of ourselves and instead see what is in our path.

The same is true of all of us as well, while on our own individual spiritual journeys. If we focus on ourselves and only where we have been or where we are at present, we will ultimately fail and never reach God’s goal for our lives. However, if we keep our eyes up and look always ahead to God and what is to come, we shall attain what it is for which we are really looking.

I challenge you today to keep your feet out of the snares of life, off of yourself and your past, and instead to keep your eyes ever upon the Lord. It is He that will give you all that you need and take you all the way down His path – to where you belong for eternity.

Keep your eyes ever toward the Lord!

Food for the Ears….Click here to listen to Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus performed by Selah

Hope Eternal!

Isaiah 40:31 (NIV)

But those who hope in the LORD
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.

Hope is such a great word! In fact, my wife and I like it so much that we even gifted one of our youngest children with it for a middle name. It’s tangible while at the same time conceptive and biblically it always seems to be out in the forefront of situations, touching on perspectives and expectations. However, it’s not a word limited to just beginnings. Hope is also the key word in respect to tomorrows and so many of the resulting outcomes of life.

Hope is God, and God is Hope, and really there is no separation of the two. With God there is an optimistic anticipation to what can and will be, but without Him only despair. It is a sad fact that so many in the world today live without hope, without the one true God. But why is that?

How many in society today do you suppose have forgotten God and how many have rejected Him? These are the choices that bring about so many problems for us all. As Christians, we must take every opportunity to rise above the world and always be prepared to be beacons of hope for those around us. Really, it’s an easy task to accomplish in that we know the end of the story, don’t we? God and hope win out in the end!

Regardless of your finances, regardless of your health, regardless of your family, I challenge you this very day to go with God and have hope in your life. Find Him and find life forever.

With God, there is always hope eternal!

Food for the Ears…click here to listen to Living Hope performed by Phil Wickham

The Humility of Christ

Philippians 2:5-8 (NIV)

In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!

Our Christ is amazing, isn’t he? As our God in human form, he demonstrates for us through word and deed the will of our heavenly father for all of time. He was a son who did not consider himself equal to his father yet at the same time was the very nature of the Father, a lover of creation and of all his people, and a humble servant who knew his own power – but held it back so that his father’s desire was completed. Powerful yet humble, obedient yet creative, selfless and disciplined, Jesus was God and at the same time man, the son of God dedicated to a purpose that he did not create.

God asks us to be and to do the same in our relationships; to put others’ needs above our own, to sacrifice all that we have for the less fortunate, and to remember to whom we belong. God asks us to lower ourselves and to become equal with those whom we believe are beneath us – to bring about less us and more them, less us and more Him.

But all of this is difficult, isn’t it? Trying to be as humble as Christ? I mean, he is God in the flesh and we are flawed human beings prone to sin. But aren’t we are still to make an effort? Will you attempt with me this week to be powerful yet humble, obedient yet creative, selfless and disciplined? I know we can, so let us now begin, and in all ways, let us be humble like Christ!

Click here to listen to To Be Like You performed by Hillsong

Like a Contented Child

Psalm 131:1-2 (NIV)

My heart is not proud, Lord,
    my eyes are not haughty;
I do not concern myself with great matters
    or things too wonderful for me.
But I have calmed and quieted myself,
    I am like a weaned child with its mother;
    like a weaned child I am content.

When was the last time you were calm and quiet like a contented child?

Today’s world values “busyness.” We pride ourselves on how many meetings we have, how many social engagements we attend, where we have been, and what we have done. In the world today we are defined more by what we have and what we do than by who we are and what kind of character we have.

Essentially the scripture says- I haven’t been prideful or thought more of myself than I should; I am not driven by other’s worldly dreams; no, instead, I have cultivated a quiet heart.

What blessings we could receive by calmly turning our lives over to God and letting go of pride, haughtiness, and worry about things over which we have no control. God loves us and takes care of us if we can simply learn to be like a contented child.

Food for the Ears…click here to listen to Give Me Jesus performed by Sounds Like Reign

Live in Peace!

Hebrews 12:14-16 (NIV)

Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many. See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son.

In our biblical text today, the unknown author of Hebrews encourages us to live in peace with all persons, to be holy and graceful and to stand against sexual immorality and godlessness. But what are we to do when peace and holiness and grace seem incompatible with immorality and godlessness? Are we really to be at peace with others whose evil is so great that they murder and rape and prey upon the helpless? And what are we to do when living in peace with someone and standing up to their perversions and godlessness seem to be at a point of impasse?

The bible says, we are to make every effort to live in peace, to be holy, and to help the lost to know God. It goes on to tell us that we are to extend a hand to all who fall short. And believe it or not, we are to forgive forever, if we are able. However, sometimes it just isn’t going to be; sometimes there are some who will only choose evil over good. When we find that we face the godless and we have made every effort to help save them from themselves we may have to also “stand in the gap,” and fight or “shake the dust off of our sandals” and move on.

Have you done all that you can for the lost today? Have you lived in peace and holiness? Have you stood up for the weak or ostracized the godless? At times we must freeze and be peaceful, at times we must fight and stand up for the weak, and at times we must gather our belongings and flee from those that choose the evil over the good.

What is God calling you to do today?

Food for the Ears….click here to listen to Lord, Help Us Live in Peace performed by the Covenant Chorale

Forgive and Forgive and Forgive Again!

Matthew 6:14-15; 18:21-22 (NIV)

For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.  But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?” Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.

It could be the most difficult command given us by God, “Forgive.” I mean how are we supposed to forgive someone who has lied about us or hurt us or our families? How do we overlook the sins of others that have changed our lives? It is interesting that God does not really answer those questions; but instead, He shares with us the reality of life. If we forgive those who have sinned against us, then He will forgive us; but, if we do not forgive those who have sinned against us, then He will not forgive us either.

God, has called us to forgive and forgive and forgive again, all who have sinned against us. But how many times do we have to forgive them? Jesus says ad infinitum! We have to forgive internally until we are feeling on the inside the forgiveness that we are showing on the outside.

Now, I know for me this is tough; but it is God’s desire. And since He calls for it, I would like to take this moment and ask you to do the same.

Just take a minute and picture that person who has sinned against you, who has hurt you, and who you struggle to forgive. And now forgive him or her, and forgive them again, and forgive them again!

Now, you are forgiven too!

Food for the Ears….click here to listen to Forgiveness performed by Matthew West.

Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff!

Philippians 2:12-16 KJV

12 Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
14 Do all things without murmurings and disputings:
15 That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world;
16 Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not
run in vain, neither laboured in vain.

Obedience is such a difficult concept for so many. It may entail us not doing what we
think we should or what the world tells us to do. Instead, it may mean that we have to
submit our will to another authority, giving up control and accepting its decisions. It can be challenging.

In Paul’s letter today to the Philippians, he calls for a commitment to a life of obedience to God, the one who should direct our paths. He goes on to add to that call – we should be obedient to God and be happy about it, with no complaining or arguing or questioning.

We are supposed to go, innocent and uncorrupted, causing no harm, as a breath of fresh air into our polluted society, and give others a glimpse of good living, the living God!

That means that as Christians, we shouldn’t do such things as withhold our tithes until we get our way. It means that we shouldn’t threaten to leave the church to make our point either. Instead, it means that we should obediently, with other brothers and sisters in Christ, focus on the essentials and let God sort out the non-essentials.

These things are hard but God doesn’t want us to sweat the small stuff. Just be obedient
to Him and make Him our first priority and all will fall into place.

Can we carry out the instructions of Paul, and be obedient to our God, so that we do not run or labor in vain? The Bible gives us the answer…with God, all things are possible!

Food for the Ears….click here to listen to In Christ Alone sung by Celtic Worship

You can bury the workman, but the work will go on!

Acts 13:29 (NKJV)

Now when they had fulfilled all that was written concerning Him, they took Him down from the tree and laid Him in a tomb.

It was a great day for those who were against Him! They thought they had finally won. The leader of those Christians was dead and they said, “Maybe now his name and voice will fade.”

But Acts 8 tells us of Stephen and Peter and foretold of those in the Roman Coliseum.

The stones and crosses and lions, they kept felling the workers, but there always seemed to be more. How could it be?

It seemed they could bury the workmen, but the work just went on;

Yes, they could silence the voices, but they couldn’t stop the song.

And, fortunately they never will be able to do so. You see, Christianity is bigger than any one of us alone, and the combination of our voices is greater than any solo performance we might offer.

Today, I challenge you to find someone and join in song with them praising Jesus. Share the Good news and begin the work of Christ. The work will go on and the song will not stop. Isn’t it a song in which you want to take part and sing?

Now let’s get to work and let our voices be heard!

Food for the Ears…..click here to listen to Bury the Workman performed by Unspoken

Welcome

“If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

— Jesus (John 8:31-32)

Welcome to Truth Conquers All, a new ministry endeavor where the Word is made real. Practical questions will be asked in order to help us all either establish or develop a deeper relationship with God.

Read, contemplate, muse and it is my hope that in so doing you will come to more understand that the Truth that will set you free.

God bless you always!