What does Hope look like?

What is hope? Hope can be defined as the general feeling that some desire will be fulfilled; a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen.  Hope is what can get us through the day, through the times of hardship when things looks bleakest.  The Bible gives us several examples of hope.  John 3:16- For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.  This is a great example of hope.  Hope looks like eternal life through Jesus Christ.  In Exodus the Jews are being held in captivity as slaves.  Things are bleak, things are at their lowest point so far for the people of Israel.  Then God sends Moses and Aaron and they demand that Pharaoh let their people go.  At first it seems like things are still bleak but the people have hope that Moses and Aaron through the will of God can convince Pharaoh to release them from captivity.  Then after several plagues the people of Israel were led out of slavery in Egypt.  Hope looks like deliverance.  Noah was approached by God and told to build an ark, and to take into that ark two of every type of animal on the earth along with his family because God was going to "blot out from the land the people I have created--people along with animals and creeping things and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them."-Genesis 6:7. But God saved Noah, and He saved two of every creature on the earth.  After forty days and forty nights of rain and then several more months for the waters to subside Noah opened the ark and let everyone and everything out to the dry ground.  Hope looks like redemption in God.

There can also current instances of hope.  When my wife and I first tried to get pregnant we spent two years being unsuccessful.  We went to some of the best doctors in the country who all told us that barring a miracle or using fertility drugs we would not get pregnant.  We took it to God, through prayer and left it in His hands.  Now we are expecting our first child in just a few weeks.  For me Hope looks like new life.  Peace and God Bless.

I sucked my thumb in public and 5 other reasons I am a Freak

Okay so the last time I sucked my thumb in public was probably when I was like 4.  And no that does not make me a freak, because I am not talking about your typical freak but the world of freaks like me, Jesus Freaks. I, hopefully like most of you reading, am a freak for Jesus and here's why:

5. Jesus showed us the way to live and the way to love.  Jesus lived with the poorest of the poor.  Why? Because He chose them.  He could have lived like a King but He lived like a slave and like the least among us.  In Matthew 22:36 Jesus is asked what the greatest commandment in the law is and He replies "Love your God with all your heart, all your mind and all your soul.  This is the first and greatest commandment. And a second is like it, Love your neighbor as yourself."  This is awesome.  It is summed up that the way to live is love and the way to love is to love God with every part of your being and to love your neighbor the same way!!

4. Jesus walked on water.  Yeah, he did it.  Matthew 14:25-27: And early in the morning He came walking toward them on the sea.  But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified saying "It is a ghost!" And they cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them and said "Take heart it is I; do not be afraid!"  This is one of the many signs that are written about that let you know that Jesus is Lord.  He is the power forever and ever.  Plus you have to admit, walking on water is pretty cool, and "freaky.

3. Jesus turned water into wine.  No this isn't Chris Angel, this was real.  In John 2:1-10 Jesus is in Cana of Galilee and is attending a wedding when the wedding runs out of wine.  Jesus instructs that six stone water jars are filled with water and he turns it into wine.  And not just any wine but the good wine.  The chief steward doesn't know where it came from but says that usually they serve the good wine first and the bad wine later but that this wine, the wine Jesus turned from water, is the good wine.  This was the first sign that Jesus gave to His disciples that He was the Son of God.  Today we can see some really neat "tricks" or "magic" but this was real.  This was "freak"y.

2. Jesus raised someone from the dead.  I am a fan of zombie movies, but this is not what Jesus created.  He literally took a dead man, Lazarus, and brought him back to life. Lazarus had grown ill.  Jesus and his disciples were travelling when they got word of Lazarus being ill.  Lazarus died and Jesus went to see Martha and Mary, who were Lazarus' sisters.  Jesus asked them if they believed in Him and if they thought that Lazarus would rise again.  They said yes that when the last days came that Lazarus would rise again.  Jesus asked them to take Him to where Lazarus had been placed.  Now remember he had been dead for four days.  Jesus told them to move the stone away from the entrance to the tomb.  Then Jesus thanks God for hearing him and says in a loud voice Lazarus come out!  And out came Lazarus.  Alive...pretty awesome and probably a little "freak"y.

1. The number one reason I am a Jesus Freak is because He died on the cross so that He could save me.  That is the most awesome sing of love in the world.  Nothing will ever compare to the suffering that He endured because He was a freak for me, you and the whole world.  If for no other reason you should be a Jesus Freak for this.  Jesus died for me and I would die for Him.

I am a Jesus Freak.  Will you be one with me? Peace and God Bless.

A Disciple For Jesus

I heard something again this morning and I wanted to share it with all of you.  I know that many of you may have heard this before but this morning for some reason it is very powerful for me.  I would like to thank @PastorPaul (twitter) for sharing the link that helped me hear this:

I'm a part of the fellowship of the unashamed.  The die has been cast. I have stepped over the line.  The decision has been made. I'm a disciple of His and I won't look back, let up, slow down, back away or be still.  My past is redeemed.  My present makes sense. My future is secure. I'm done and finished with low living, sight walking, small planning, smooth knees, colorless dreams, tamed visions, mundane talking, cheap living and dwarfed goals. I no longer need preeminence, prosperity, position, promotions, plaudits or popularity. I don't have to be right, or first, or tops, or recognized, or praised or rewarded.  I live by faith, lean of His presence, walk by patience, lift by prayer and labor by Holy Spirit power.  My face is set. My gait is fast. My goal is Heaven. My road is narrow, my way rough and my companions few but my guide is reliable and my mission is clear.  I will not be bought, compromised, detoured, lured away, turned back deluded or delayed. I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice or hesitate in the presence of the adversary. I will not negotiate at the table of the enemy, ponder at the pool of popularity or meander in the maze of mediocrity.  I won't give up, shut up or let up until I have stayed up, stored up, prayed up, paid up and preached up for the cause of Christ.  I AM a disciple of Jesus. I must give until I drop, preach until all know, and work until He comes. And when He does come for His own, He won't have any problems recognizing me because my colors are clear! I AM A DISCIPLE OF JESUS!!

Take Up Your Cross

Jesus tells us in four passages in the Gospels to take up your cross and follow Him.  Matthew 10:38 and 16:24, Mark 8:34 and Luke 9:23- Then He said to them all "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me."  The verse in Luke is particularly powerful as it includes the word daily.  Jesus tells us that to follow Him we must deny ourselves.  How do we do that?  First we accept Christ as our Lord and Savior and then we let Christ live through us, we live for Christ instead of for ourselves.  This is a hard thing to do when the world around us is filled with things to worship, whether its money or respect or celebrity, whatever, there are many distractions in this world that make it hard to live for Christ.  Next Jesus tells us that to follow Him we must take up our cross daily.  How do we do that?  Again we live for Christ, we love for Christ and as Christ loved us, we share our faith and wear Jesus on our sleeve as we go through each day.  This again is a hard thing to do, with work or school and trying to fit in or not buck the status quo.  But remember Jesus didn't fit in, He ate with prostitutes and outsiders, He overturned the merchants in the temple, He questioned the status quo.  So, how do we know if we are ready to follow Christ, to take up our cross?  Ask yourself some questions:

Are you willing to follow Jesus if it means possibly losing some of your closest friends?
Are you willing to follow Jesus if it means possible alienation from your family?
Are you willing to follow Jesus if it means you could lose your job?
Are you willing to follow Jesus if it means you could lose your life?

If you can answer those questions with a resounding Yes, then you are ready to take up your cross and follow Him. Peace and God Bless

Never Forget, Never Forgotten

Today is the day before the ten year anniversary of one of the worst tragedies that ever happened on American soil.  It is a moment that has defined my generation.  The question of my parents generation was "Where were you when JFK was shot?"  My generation is "Where were you on 9/11?"  I was at work, the phone rang and I was told that a plane had hit the World Trade Center.  My first thought was wow a small plane hit the World Trade Center, that's terrible.  I walked back to the break room, closed the door and turned on the tv.  As the screen came on I watched in horror as the second plane hit the World Trade Center.  I was dumbfounded.  I didn't know what to say or what to do.  This was no small plane, this was a jet, a jet like those I had flown on before.  Before the day was over, I had seen the towers fall, the Pentagon get hit by a jet and heard that a jet had crashed when the passengers decided to take the situation into their own hands and foil the plans of the hijackers.  It is one of the hardest things to comprehend, that a tragedy of this nature could happen in America, in New York City or Washington, DC.  In the days that followed Americans were stunned, heroes were born and heroes died.  The response of America was one of great unity.  It was amazing to see all the American flags flying from cars or on houses.  But within that unity came a great anger, an anger that made some Muslims in America fearful to leave their homes to go to the grocery store or to work or just to get gas, for fear that there would be retribution.  Some Americans judged all Muslims by the work of a few radicals.  There have been many radicals in Christianity as well, take for instance the Crusades, where Christians killed people in the name of God.  There are radical Christians in America right now, take Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas and Fred Phelps (his website and that of the church is godhatesfags.com which I think says it all).  I am not judging these radical Christians, or radical Muslims, or radical Jews or radical Atheists...What I am saying is that we should remember what Paul wrote in Romans 13 "Love your neighbor as yourself."  This may be the hardest thing to comprehend.  God wants us to love everyone.  God loved Osama bin-Laden, God loves Fred Phelps, God loves me and God loves you.  God loved the hijackers, the victims, the heroes.  God will judge them all, as God will judge us all when we see Him.  I know it's hard to understand because we are human and no matter how hard we try we will always judge people and we won't, no matter how hard we try be able to always love our neighbors as we do ourselves.  So as we move from today into tomorrow I think we should pray for the victims, their families, the heroes.  We should also pray for the families of the hijackers and al-Qaeda, pray for them to Love their neighbors as they do themselves.  Never forget what happened, never forgotten are the ones who lost their lives.  Peace and God Bless

A Prayer for today

Dear Heavenly Father,

Thank you for sending Your Son Jesus to us so that we could be saved and have eternal life with You. Thank you for giving us the blessings of life and love, the ability to love others and show others Your love for them. Thank you for being You. Peace and God Bless

Are You Someone Worth Dying For?

Am I more than flesh and bone
Am I really something beautiful
Yeah, I wanna believe, I wanna believe that
I'm not just some wandering soul
That you don't see and you don't know
Yeah, I wanna believe, Jesus help me believe that I
Am someone worth dying for...

These lyrics are from the song "Someone Worth Dying For" by Mikeschair.  If you haven't heard the song you should really listen to it, what a powerful message.  The question that many of us have asked in our own lives, are we worth dying for?  The answer is Yes!! Jesus died for all of us, everyone in the whole world, that includes everyone, the poor, the homeless, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Atheists, everyone.  Jesus loves us all and died so that we could all have eternal life and join Him in paradise.  In Luke 23 we see Jesus on the cross, with two criminals being crucified next to him, one on the right and one on the left.  "One of the criminals who were hanged there kept deriding him and saying 'Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and save us!' But the other rebuked him saying, 'Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.' Then he said, 'Jesus, remember me when you enter your kingdom.' He replied, 'Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.' Luke 23:39-43.  Jesus died for the criminal that asked Jesus to remember Him when He entered into his kingdom...and He died for the criminal that mocked him.  Jesus died for us all so yes We are all someone worth dying for.  Peace and God Bless.

Rules and Love

This week I have been preparing a Sunday School lesson for 7th, 8th, and 9th grade youth at my church.  The lesson is on Romans 13:8-14, where Paul lays out the "rules" of the Ten Commandments and sums them up with "Love your neighbor as yourself."  It got me to thinking about rules that my parents made for me when I was younger.  At the time I thought my parents were mean or that they were controlling or sometimes they were just downright wrong.  Most of the rules centered about what I was not to do, "Don't stay out past 10pm, Don't drive downtown its dangerous, Do your homework," etc, etc.  All of us can relate to these rules from when we were younger and hopefully most of us now understand that those rules weren't a list of don'ts but really were created to keep us safe and were created out of love.  Now that I'm a parent I see that many, okay to be honest probably all, of the rules my parents created were out of love and concern.  As a parent I feel like I still give my kids a list of don'ts, and sometimes I get that look of "well, is there anything I can do?!" I stop to reassure my kids that really this is out of love and concern.  When I tell them don't go out in the road or don't swing that stick at your sister, it's because I love them.  Maybe my parents were right after all...yes Mom and Dad I think you might have been right after all.  Peace and God Bless.