Easter Weekend

John 15:13
Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.

This glorious Resurrection Weekend, let the heaviness of the cross bring you to tears, and the wonder of the empty tomb fill you joy. Let our Savior captivate you with His great love and saturate you with the purity of His sacrifice.

Be blessed my friends, as you let the story pierce your soul once again. Soak in each word, and let the imagery fill your mind, as we remember what our Lord did for you and for me.

Luke 22-24:12
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%2022-24:12;&version=31;

The Yoke of Christ

Matthew 11:28-30
Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.


Weary and burdened could just about describe our entire society. Go, go, go – it seems that’s what life is about these days. If you want to have dinner with a friend, it has to be planned weeks in advance in order to work around all the schedules that will be converging for those few hours. Rest is definitely a prescription we could all use. So Christ bids us "come."

Then He tells us that we must take His yoke upon us, as though we are His farmyard animals being sent out into the field to pull the plow. Doesn’t sound very restful to me, how about you? A yoke is so often associated with work, and hard labor. This, however, is a different yoke. It is the yoke of His Lordship, Jesus Christ. It seems so illogical that we would need His yoke on us in order that we would be rested, doesn’t it?

However, it really comes down to this – we have two choices: the yoke of the world, or the yoke of Christ. Seems a simple choice, and yet we so often choose to carry the weight of the world upon our shoulders, as though we can really make a difference that way, not realizing that instead of affecting the world, it is, in fact, affecting us.

A yoke is actually designed not for work, necessarily, but for direction – to tell us to go left or right, to stop or go, all the while completing the work of the one who is directing us. So, again, we have two choices: do we want to be directed by the world, going where it would have us go, non-stop, grinding us into the ground; or do we want Christ at the helm, directing us, guiding us, giving us strength when we need it, and granting us rest when we are weary? Do we want to do the work the world would have us complete, full of folly and wickedness, with no real reward; or do we want to complete the work the Lord has planned for us, gaining wisdom, blessing, and love along the way? Seems the obvious choice, doesn’t it?

So, why do we continue to pick up the yoke the world wants to place on us? Why can’t we turn from the world, and carry the yoke of Christ? I think the answer lies in the fact that we spend far more time with the world than we do with Christ, or so it seems. I’m not talking about running away and joining a convent. I am simply suggesting that we need to make a more concerted effort to make Christ a part of our every activity – large or small, at home or work, no matter where we are, or what we are doing, we must learn to remain conscious of His presence, His direction, His love. It will take time. It will take practice. We cannot beat ourselves up every time we let Him slip from our minds. We must simply re-focus and continue on our way.

Let’s ask God to help us keep Him at the front of our thoughts, starting today. I can’t wait to see the change in each of us, as we throw off the yoke of the world, and slip into the soft, comforting yoke of Christ Jesus, our Lord.

RIghteousness Through Christ

Philippians 3:8-9
I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ--the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.


Ah, the second part of this fascinating passage. I find it interesting that many times a new verse will start in the middle of a sentence. Of course, with Paul at the pen, it has to happen sometimes – I don’t think he ever would have used a period, if God hadn’t told him to. So yesterday, we talked about considering every thing rubbish, that we would gain Christ and a knowledge of Him. Today we tack on the next part, regarding the desire to be found in Him. Why? So that we would have a righteousness that is not our own, but that comes to us through faith in Christ.

That gives me such encouragement and joy, to know that no amount of doing the "right thing" or following God’s "to-do list" will make me any more righteous than I became the moment Christ’s atoning blood poured over me. I am found righteous through Christ alone, and there is nothing I can do to change that – praise and glory be! That is why Paul was able to count all his "trophies" of religious-living rubbish and dung – they were meaningless, and meant nothing in the sight of God. All our righteous acts are like filthy rags (I won’t even go into the meaning of that verse right now). Again, there is nothing we can do that will make us more or less righteous than we are right this very moment.

Can you feel the release? The pressure is off – we no longer have to perform. We can simply live – in faith. We can go forward today, seeking the face of God, and do what we must do, not to impress Him, but to get to know Him, to bring Him pleasure and joy to celebrate our righteousness in Him, to worship the One who draws us to Him with each breath, each waking moment. It is not righteousness we seek, for that we already have. It is the deepening of the relationship that this righteousness has offered us – a relationship with the Most High God, perfect and holy – with Whom we can now converse and live freely because of the sacrifice of the Lover of our souls, our Lord Jesus Christ.

To Know Christ

Philippians 3:8
I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ.


The surpassing greatness of knowing Christ – what exactly does Paul mean by that statement? To consider everything a loss compared to knowing Christ, to consider all things that this world has to offer as rubbish (or dung, as the King James Version so aptly puts it), well, that’s just how awesome Christ is.

I think the question must be posed – do we consider everything rubbish? Every advantage life has to offer; every good thing we have done or accomplished; every thing that gives us joy and puts a smile on our face beyond that of Christ; every person that God has blessed us with – are we ready to call it all rubbish in comparison to knowing Christ? I think perhaps that depends on what "knowing Christ" really means.

I find it interesting that in verse 10 of this same passage Paul, again, says that he wants to "know Christ." The transliteration of "know" in this verse is ginosko and is defined as "to learn to know, come to know, get a knowledge of, perceive, feel." It is also a "Jewish idiom for sexual intercourse between a man and a woman." (Strong’s Concordance) Strange, isn’t it? Yet really, if we think about it, sexual intercourse is truly the most intimate knowledge of another person that we can experience. Why wouldn’t we want to come to know Christ that well?

Now, I am not suggesting that we would engage in "sexual intercourse" with Christ – that is just absurd. I am suggesting that our relationship can be as intimate, if not more intimate than any and every relationship we have ever had here on earth. We must "learn to know" Him, "come to know" Him, it is a process, like every other relationship. Yet, once we experience His tenderness, love, passion, and intimacy, there is nothing that we wouldn’t give in this life to live and grow in that relationship on a daily basis. Everything we have will pale in comparison to such a beautiful and precious relationship. That is what I want, don’t you?

So, let’s seek Christ today. Let’s seek to know Him, and allow Him to reveal Himself to us in a way that, once experienced, our lives will never be the same. Let’s allow Him to take us to a place that is beyond any and every earthly desire, giving us eyes for Christ alone and His great love and glory.

Contentment and Money

1 Timothy 6:6-10
But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.


If I could get rid of money altogether, I would. Sit back for a moment and consider how many of your worries, fears, troubles, etc. boil down to money. Furthermore, consider how many worries, problems, concerns and what-not come down to our own covetousness and desire for more, which translates into needing more money.

Why is money such a big deal? How has it become such a dominant theme in each of our lives? Even when we try to walk away from the temptations, and desires, it seems they come hunting us down. So how do we attain this "godliness with contentment"? How do we get to that place where we are perfectly content with food for the moment and clothes on our back?

Boy, that’s a tough one. Perhaps the answer is unique to each of us, yet I believe that our paths all begin at the same place. We must ask God to place that desire in our hearts. I wonder how many of us don’t want to be content. It’s so easy to think "I’ll be content when ____________." The problem is the blank stays a blank and we continue to fill it in with our latest and greatest desires.

We must seek God, and ask Him to give us the desire for contentment. Then, we can begin seeking Him regarding what we must do. Will it be a daily struggle? Probably. I can almost guarantee that it will be for me! But there is so much in me that wants to know what it is like to be perfectly happy in any and all situations. How about you? So let’s all hit our knees together, right now – God is waiting.

Know Nothing Except Christ

1 Corinthians 2:2
For I resolved to know nothing ...except Jesus Christ and him crucified.


Anytime my husband and I have any sort of spiritual discussion either with or around our daughter, she always starts to contend (rather loudly, I might add), "No, Jesus died on the cross! And He had blood, and He had ou-ies!" Sometimes she’ll even throw in a "He needs a band-aid." Chris and I get a kick out of it because once she gets started neither of us can get a word in edge-wise - she just gets louder and louder. One day I commented, "It all goes back to Jesus on the cross doesn’t it?" I was joking, but in a completely serious tone, he turned to me and said, "Well, yeah, it does." We were quiet the rest of the drive home.

I suppose that’s why God told us we need to become like children. They have such a simple, beautiful and uncomplicated understanding of it all. Regann, for example doesn’t try to figure out why, or how it all works - she doesn’t brain through all the theology or worry about all the minor details. She simply knows that Jesus died on the cross for her, and that He then came back to life, all so we could be His best friend, and He could be ours. Oh, that we could take this thing we tend to make so complicated, and just make it simple and beautiful again. Regann gets upset every time she sees a picture of Jesus marred, and bloody. She cries out "Oh, they’re hurting Him! I just want my Jesus!!" She feels the pain, and accepts the sacrifice.

Now, I do not believe that she has given her life to Him in salvation, but I don’t think that’s a necessary step, right now. I pray that she’ll answer when He comes knocking. For now, I just try to look at it all through her eyes, and allow God to continue to teach me through this tender 3-year-old.

Through all of this, I have begun to simply "know Jesus Christ, and Him crucified." To allow it to fall fresh, and new on me each day. To accept it in faith, not trying to understand it, because I really don’t think we fully can - the Bible has told us as much (check out Romans 11:33-36). I have learned that it all comes back to the cross. If I allow the glory of the cross to shine on any and every situation, I will see them differently than I do in the everyday light I tend to use when examining my life. With the cross in my constant vision, all things take on a different hue, and color. Really, life becomes so much more beautiful.