Four great  Biblical truths comprise the cornerstones of our faith and hope:

God is good.  The Bible says everything God made came out of His goodness (Genesis 1).  Most Christians agree but many differ in the specifics of what God’s goodness looks like.  Scripture affirms God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him (John 3:17).  God is for us.  He chose to redeem us from the penalty of our sin so we can be free to choose to follow Jesus and share in God’s goodness according to the measure of our faith. Faith is the substance and confidence in the good things God has promised us for which we hope based on the word of God (Hebrews 11:1).

Jesus paid for everything on the Cross.  At Calvary Jesus won absolute victory!  He drove out Satan, the prince of this world (John 12:31-33). The devil’s power was broken (Heb. 2:14).  At the cross, Jesus disarmed powers and authorities (Colossians 2:15).  After the Cross, Jesus was raised far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and God placed all things under His feet (Ephesians 1:21, 22).  We are forgiven and freed from the enemy’s power of sin, sickness, lies, and torment.  Now we live in Christ’s righteousness, truth, joy and peace!  We are empowered to live our lives from a place of victory in Him.

Every believer is significant in the eyes of God.  The Father paid the highest price, death of His Son on the Cross, for everyone willing to receive Him as their Redeemer. God sees us as His children alive in Christ.  Every believer represents an aspect of God’s good nature that no other person in existence represents.  In the entire company of humanity, you are uniquely fashioned and called.   Your significance is beyond imagination (Ephesians 3:20).  As we each become who we are born again to be in Christ, the whole Body of Christ grows and builds itself up in love (Ephesians 4:16). 

What do you hope for when you wake up in the morning? 

Hope is “the feeling that what is wanted can be had or that events will turn out for the best” (Dictionary.com).  To hope for something is to desire it expectantly.  The English word “hope” was originally based on the Biblical use of the word, specifically on “God or Christ as the basis for hope.” (Online Etymological Dictionary)  In other words, hope was what we have when we believe Jesus.  Old timers seemed to understand there is no other reliable feeling events will turn out best without Him.

I just read a blog about a high school senior who recently committed suicide just six days after he graduated.  One of his teachers wrote that he really liked the student, who was very engaged in his class.  The teacher had seen no visible signs that the young man was being overcome by depression and hopelessness.

In our culture today hopelessness prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.  It crouches at the door of many hearts, and its desire is for anyone whose hope is not secure in Jesus. Last year two people who visited Reach Out committed suicide and we buried a neighbor’s son at the end of the year whose life had become engulfed in hopelessness.

Today I want to encourage you to establish your faith in Jesus stronger every day so you have hope enough for those who don’t.  Our faith is meant to make us overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.  Let’s press in to Jesus until we chase away the prowling lion of darkness, depression and hopelessness and bring glistening hope to everyone we encounter.

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing

that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.  Romans 15:13

What does it take to turn a dead end into a runway to take flight as God intends for us?  For God has made us more than conquerors through Him who love us!  Romans 8:37

In the Bible, Joseph went from being his father’s favorite to being sold into slavery, accused of rape and thrown into prison.  Yet he held to his faith and the dreams God gave him. God launched him so high Joseph spared Egypt from famine, saved his whole family, and passed on a covenant blessing to the next generation!

Moses was an adopted child with an anger problem who became a murderer.  After forty years in exile he saw a flaming bush in the desert and God made him into the great prophet and leader of Israel.  Through Moses we received the Commandments and the Tabernacle that foreshadow the coming of Messiah.

Ruth was widowed with nothing left in the land of Moab, but she chose to stay with her mother-in-law and accepted Naomi’s God as her God.  After returning to Israel with Naomi, Ruth married Boaz, a wealthy man, with whom she had Jesse, King David’s father.  Her decision to follow God made her part of Jesus’ earthly lineage.

As a lowly shepherd, David fought lions and bears while tending sheep until  Samuel prophesied he was a king.  Then he fought Goliath and formed an army of outcasts that forged the nation of Israel.  King Saul rejected David, but in the end David reigned, wrote most of the psalms and prophesied more details about Jesus’ life than anyone else.  God said King David’s line will last forever. 

Esther was an orphan who ended up the wife of a king.  God offered her the opportunity to step up and save her people from destruction.  She risked her life to answer God’s call and fulfilled not only her personal destiny but the destiny of all Israel!

Every dead end is a runway in disguise when we live in faith in God.  So what happens when we fly?

Jesus paid the price for our wings because His Father made us to fly!   What gave you traction in the last season will keep you down in this one.  Just let the breath of God lift you up, up, up on wings like eagles!

The power of Pentecost comes to us by grace—it is a pure gift of God.  But to continue in that power calls for enthusiastic discipline that comes naturally to us over time through the love of the Father. Like two pedals on a bicycle that both must be pressed to balance a bike in motion, we need to rely both on God’s grace and His discipline to make our way through the ups and downs of life in balance and with confidence.  Let me explain.

“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9.

Probably every born again Christian today has heard this famous verse.  The next verse says: “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”  When we’re born again, we know God has a better plan for our lives and He has some good work for us to step into. But after that first flush of new life in Christ, the world often seems to press in on us again and the destiny we so long for can begin to seem very elusive.

The missing element in many people’s walk with Christ is often discipline.  Unless you’ve played sports, studied to get good grades, kept a clean house, built a successful business, or pursued a hobby with passion, you may not grasp the importance of discipline to fulfill your dreams. Discipline is what it takes to be good at something.  Discipline is pleasurable when we keep our eyes on the goal set before us.  In fact the idea of discipline as punishment only came later in the history of the word.  From the beginning, discipline basically meant doing what it takes to learn something.  A disciple is first and foremost a willing learner. 

When Peter and John were arrested for teaching boldly about Jesus in the Temple, the elders and rulers noted that the uneducated apostles were ordinary people who “had been with Jesus.”  They connected their boldness with their having been with Jesus.  This is still true for us today.  Your boldness and your success in living out your faith will in the end depend on how disciplined you allow yourself to become about being with Jesus.

Being with Jesus can be as basic as making your way to church to join others in worship and hear a sermon.  Anyone with little children knows what an effort this seemingly simple discipline can take.  That’s a form of discipline.  But in the end there’s no substitute for the discipline of reading God’s word for yourself, and praying more.  If you keep your eyes on the prize of doing the good works God has prepared for you to do—such as raising your kids successfully, providing for your family, and caring for others—you’ll find the daily discipline of “being with Jesus” is the most satisfying thing you can do in life.

We are always dependent on God’s grace, but discipline is the other pedal that keeps us moving forward to grasp the riches of His grace stored up for us right here and now.

This coming Sunday is Pentecost Sunday, which commemorates the very beginning of the church. On this day 2000 years ago, as recorded in Acts 2, the Holy Spirit descended on the disciples gathered in an upper room in Jerusalem, and they were filled with boldness and power. Spilling into the streets, they declared the praises of God in different languages so that Jews gathered there from many different nations could all understand in their native tongues what the disciples were saying. Peter addressed the crowd to explain both the extraordinary event that was happening and the meaning of Jesus’ recent death and resurrection that had taken place 50 days before. His talk was so compelling the crowd was “cut to the heart” and cried out: “What must we do?” (Acts 2:37)

“Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins,” was Peter’s reply. Acts 2:41 says 3,000 were added to their number that day. Thus, the Church of Jesus Christ was born.

The reason the disciples had gathered on that day was to celebrate the traditional feast of Pentecost, which dated back some 1200 years before to the time of Moses. To Jews then and now, Pentecost celebrates the giving of the Ten Commandments at Mt. Sinai, when according to Jewish tradition the nation of Israel was established because all the Jews who were gathered at the foot of the mountain agreed to do what God told them. (See Exodus 19:8 and Exodus 24:3.) The name “Pentecost” means “fiftieth” and refers to the fact that this feast day  comes 50 days after the first Passover, when Israel fled Egypt as the Angel of Death passed over them.

By Pastor Pat

Our lives are a series of testimonies.  Each circumstance and situation we encounter is a testimony in progress.  As we allow God access to our hearts and experiences and we yield to the work He began in us, He will shape our testimony through the process. 

Philippians 1:6 TPT

…the One who began this glorious work in you will faithfully continue the process of maturing you and will put his finishing touches to it until the unveiling of our Lord Jesus Christ!

Jesus’ T.I.P.

A Coronation, A Cross and A Stone

Jesus rode into Jerusalem as a king. He entered unlike other kings… kings rode horses as a show of power.  Jesus rode a donkey as a sign of humility and peace. The people were compelled to celebrate his “Triumphal Entry”.  They threw down their cloaks and placed branches on the path to prepare the way for him. 

Jesus’ coronation culminated on the cross.  After being beaten, stripped to his undergarments, spat on and mocked, the guards placed a red cape on his shoulders and crowned him with a crown of thorns, and hung him on a cross.

He was sinless….. righteous before God. He did not deserve that moment in history, but he understood the testimony unfolding before mankind was God’s plan.

By choice he took on all sin, for all people, for all time.

He “became sin”.

He did this that his testimony might be fulfilled.

21 For God made the only one who did not know sin to become sin for us, so that we who did not know righteousness might become the righteousness of God through our union with him.       2 Cor. 5:21  TPT

The testimony of the coronation and the cross is powerful, but the story was not complete without the stone.

After three days, Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary, mother or Jesus went to Jesus’ tomb. As they arrived they found the stone that sealed his tomb rolled away.  The tomb was empty.  The women were confused, perplexed and stunned by what they found.  Suddenly angels appeared before them and said:

“Why would you look for the Living One in a tomb?  He is not here, for he has risen!”       Luke 24:5 – 7 TPT

At that moment the revelation of the fulfillment of Jesus’ testimony broke upon the women.They shared this with the disciples who could not comprehend the Truth.  The surrounding circumstances spoke louder to them and clouded the testimony in progress.

The Truth:

He was resurrected…… He had died but was alive again!

Death and sin did not have the victory!

The very thing He said would happen, Happened!

But the disciples could not see this Truth, yet.

They were so caught up in the circumstantial evidence that when they encountered him on the road to Emmaus they did not recognize him.  Even when Jesus stood with them they couldn’t “see” him until he did something familiar.  Something they had seen him do many times before.  Suddenly their eyes and hearts opened and they saw Him.   They had been looking for the familiar when God was doing something NEW.

They saw the TRUTH of His testimony playing out in front of them.

At that point the power of  the coronation, the cross and the stone exploded into Life!

All the things Jesus had taught them….. 

All the life He shared with them, pushed all the negative “facts” of the circumstances out of the way……. 

Their personal stones, which blocked true belief and faith, were finally rolled away.

Hope broke open and faith for what God would do in them, around them and through them exploded in their hearts, minds and spirits.

An atmosphere of Truth and Life were released.  The bar of belief, hope, faith and truth was raised.

The impossible was revealed and realized as possible.

In our personal lives,  the circumstances we face in life are T.I.P.s  or Testimonies in Progress.

We may be weighed down or distracted by the negative “facts” of those circumstances.  There may be a haze or fog that attempts to settle in on us, to keep us from seeing God in the midst of our experience. Things may have turned out contrary to what we had hope or faith for.

As we live these “testimonies in progress”, it is our job and our challenge to rise above the circumstances and situations,  the negative “facts” and long waiting periods.  To look up to Him and see from His perspective. It is also our job and challenge to choose Life and not death, hope and not doubt, love and not fear.

We get to choose to:

May God bless each of us to hold on to Him in the process and to have the grace to live out His testimony in our lives.