Psalm 46:10 – Be still, and know that I am God;

When I was young my mother used to tell me I had “Ants in my Pants” because I wouldn’t sit still much as I was always into something. Sadly, we have become an “Ants in your Pants” society because most of us hate being still. How many people constantly stay on their phone nowadays? We are a culture of little busy-bodies! Over time this kind of approach to life is exhausting to our body and draining to our spirit.

In this little verse, God is calling us to be still, but why? The answer is to know that He is God and not ourselves, or some circumstance or interruption in life. The reason many of us struggle with hearing from God is because our lives are too loud, too busy with our own self-will that we cannot hear as Elijah did ‘the still, small voice of God’ (1 Kings 19:11-13). Sitting in silence, allowing our minds to declutter and detox from the junk of the world is a necessary practice for spiritual sanity. Biblical meditation is refocusing the mind on God unlike the Eastern practice where one attempts to empty their mind which is actually logically impossible. We must learn to recapture the silence and the stillness of life and let the beauty of God rekindle the fire within our hearts. There is a time to be busy, but the joy you get out of the busyness of life will be determined in how connected you are with God in those still moments we create every day. 

The word “blessed” can be translated as the word “happy.” Scripture states that happiness can be found in the company we keep or that we don’t keep. Many people are unhappy because they are taking advice from those who are not qualified to give it. It is like one alcoholic asking another alcoholic, who is active in his addiction, how to stop drinking. Who do you seek advice from in your life?

Peer pressure is a real thing to deal with not just as a student in school, but in the entirety of our lives. What company do you keep? Are you victim of peer pressure? Are you hanging around people that will make you better or worse? Will they make you grow as a person or help you to become more stagnate in your life? Scripture clearly states, “Bad company corrupts good character.” 1 Corinthians 15:33

            There is something else to remember that happiness is not only found in the company you keep or don’t keep, but also in taking delight in God and His Word. God is a good God who wants to be understood by you. The more we understand our Creator the more we can enjoy and find happiness in the life He has given us. Life itself is a gift from God. The more we understand the God who gave us life, the more “blessed” or “happy” we shall be.

Psalm 1:1-2

Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of

sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.

So let’s begin with a few questions…What or who is guiding your life today in this very moment? Who are you taking advice from? Are they qualified to give advice? Who should we turn to for help?

As a person going through life there are many things that compete to guide our lives. The problem is that only One Person is qualified and that is not even ourselves. It is the Holy Spirit of God. God knows our lives from beginning to end and only He is qualified to be the captain of the  ship of life. When I lived in Nashville and was pursuing music, the drive for my career in music and what pleased me was the guide of my life. I was the “god” of my life, yet so very unqualified. I often found myself shipwrecked with despair and discouragement feeding desires that I had often said I would stay away from. We go to a mechanic to ask advice for our car, a doctor for our body, an attorney for legal matters, so why do we turn to ourselves for the greater questions regarding life? This makes absolutely no sense, but we are all guilty of it. Let God, who is life, guide your life so that you can miss some of the bumps in the road that maybe awaiting you up ahead.  

Galatians 5:16- So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves.

This Sunday is Mother’s Day, and I wanted to take just a moment to celebrate the role mothers have with their children. I know my mother has played an instrumental role in who I am today. I think of three things when I think of my mother. First, she delivered me. She delivered me into this world physically, but also lead me to the Lord so she was a part of my spiritual delivery in my coming to know Jesus. Second, she has been there to show devotion to my life to raise me in a Christian home with integrity and a sense of principles to live by. She was at my ballgames, school events and when I started playing music she came to everything I did. She was devoted to supporting me, and there was no greater support she could give than by praying for me as she did. Third, she disciplined me. Now this third one wasn’t so fun for me, but I’ve come to learn it wasn’t that fun for her either. But she loved me enough to discipline to help shape my character. I remember her telling me that she loved me enough to not let me get away with things, and now I appreciate it. What I see so much today are children parenting the parents rather than the parents parenting their children. Discipline is not a cruel thing, but to not discipline is a cruel thing.       

Our parents are our first “God template”. Everything we ultimately look for in God such as love, nurture, safety, correction, protection etc. we first look for in our parents. This is why many have a distorted view of God because they have no point of reference in their life for what some of the characteristics of God look like outside of a theory. If a parent abandoned you, then it is hard to imagine God, who you haven’t seen, not abandoning you. Not everyone has been as fortunate to have a solid, stable mother in their life as many have, and for that I am sorry. For those that have then this Sunday tell them how much they have meant to you because a mother’s presence and love truly can shape future generations even after they are gone.

            The Church, according to the Scripture, is a family of faith where forgiven sinners rejoice in the grace given them in Jesus, and who seek to follow Christ authentically in their daily lives. Now are all Christians living that way? No! But that is what the Church is designed to be. For those who maybe skeptics, as I have been, make sure you don’t confuse Christians for Christ. Christians may do you wrong because we are still a work in progress, but Christ is the One to seek because He can fill your hearts to overflowing.

            Jesus, before returning to Heaven, gave a very famous statement regarding what His church was to be about in the future. It is called the Great Commission. It is called The Great Commission because 1) It is given to us by Jesus 2) It is an invitation to work with Jesus not just for Jesus. Jesus is at work through the lives of obedient believers who are surrendered to Him. He wants us to be partners in His work. We are to be about telling others the Good News that is in Jesus such that in Jesus forgiveness of any and all sins can be obtained, that a new beginning for life can be received, and an eternal hope and future given by placing faith in the Risen Lord. Also, we are to be teaching, applying and implementing Christ’s teachings in our daily lives and decisions. We are to be lights of hope in a dark world, and messengers of grace so that as we await His return may His will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.

Matthew 28:18-20

“All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

            When Jesus came back to life He was different than He was before. Now, at first thought, we may say that is obvious because He had now experienced death and come back to life who could be the same after that? Even in the ancient world they knew dead people didn’t come back to life. But Jesus was different in modality. He was no longer a human in the Fallen world where He could be subject to death and decay, but now He was alive in the Final World of New Creation. The resurrected Jesus is the first member, or as the Bible calls it, the Firstborn over Creation. Why do I say this?

            Jesus, in His resurrected body, was not only an earthly man but also a heavenly man as well. He could eat fish like the rest of His disciples, but now He could transcend locked doors, disappear from sight, and was not always recognized as before. There was a mystery to Him. In Jesus the two dimensions, both Heaven and Earth, of God’s creation meet in Him. This is what He was referring to when He referred to Himself as the Temple. John 2:14 – “Destroy this sanctuary, and I will raise it up in three days.” Christ is now the Temple where humanity and God can meet together in peace, forgiveness and salvation.

            In His resurrected body, Jesus was flesh and blood but His resurrected body was no longer under the curse, the Fallen World of decay and death as we still are. If the Roman soldiers wanted to kill Him they could not because He was no longer capable of dying the way He had three days before. And we must remember, the way Jesus is in His resurrection, we shall be at our resurrection. No longer under the curse, but rather a citizen of New Creation.

Romans 8:10-11

Now if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, then He who raised Christ from the dead will also bring your mortal bodies to life through His Spirit who lives in you.

            This week for Christians is like our Super Bowl. Everything that is foundational to the Christian faith comes together in this one week in light of Christ’s death on the Cross and His Resurrection. These two significant events have changed the course of history and impacted the lives of millions.

            The Cross of Jesus has turned a symbol of shame, guilt and death made famous by the Roman Empire into a symbol of grace, love and forgiveness made famous in Jesus. The Judge took the punishment for the sins of humanity and offers forgiveness to all who will come and ask for it. Without the cross there is no salvation from sin. Christ has become our Passover Lamb. Jesus did what the rest of us can’t do and could never do!

            The Resurrection of Jesus is the only hope for humanity. When you consider that Jesus has defeated death then we have to ask ourselves what could give humanity greater hope? Jesus is the only “religious” leader that has defeated mankind’s greatest foe and fear and then came back to talk about it. Logically it makes sense that if the Resurrection of Jesus is true then what He offers no one else can come close to offering. The cornerstone of the Christian faith is the fact and reality that Jesus came back to life, and in doing this has inaugurated a new beginning for New Creation.

Good Friday is a somber moment remembering the suffering the Lord did for us, but hope has come in the dawning of a new age in the Resurrection of Jesus. Just like in the Wizard of Oz when the Wicked Witch of the West died there was a celebration, that should be our attitude on Easter. Death has been defeated and a new life has been offered in Christ.

John 14:19

Because I live, you will live too.

Do you ever think you get in the way of God’s work? Well, whether we think it or not, the answer is yes for all of us at times. We all get in the way of God and what His purposes are for our lives and the work He is doing around us.

            Sunday, April 14^th, is what is known as Palm Sunday. It is when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey at the beginning of Passover week, and everyone came out to see the Lord Jesus and placed palm leaves and cloaks on the road as He rode by. They were crying “Hosanna” and singing His praises. After He rode into town, He went straight to the Temple complex, and it is then that the famous event of running folks out of the Temple came to be. Jesus saw the wickedness of the religious leaders as they distorted the mission of the Temple for their own personal game. Jesus infamously said after making a whip and running the people out, “My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you have made it into a den of thieves.” What was happening was the religious leaders had placed their agendas over God’s agenda. They were making it about personal gain, and the Temple was a house of prayer, in other words a place of personal fellowship with God.

            So the question for us today is when we gather as God’s community, do we gather for personal fellowship with God among His people, or do we gather, with ourselves in mind, looking for what we can get verses what we can give? This is an important question we all must answer, otherwise, we are like the religious leaders of Jesus day getting in the way of what God wants to with His people.

Arrogant people are hard to deal with and especially to get along with. It takes a lot of patient endurance to deal with someone who thinks more highly of themselves than they should. The truth is we are all arrogant at some level over something. If we are honest within ourselves we all struggle with thinking too much of ourselves or our self-importance. Let me first begin with a few questions for us to ask ourselves:

Am I an open person?

Do I get defensive easily?

Can I take constructive correction?

Are I willing to listen to advice?

Do I ever seek out advice from a trusted friend?

Am I a “know it all” person?  

These are only a few questions, but important questions that may help us become introspective enough to see our own arrogance. Arrogance is a sinful spiritual disease where we try to take over the role of God in our lives. Humility is the crown of honor and no matter how high we are in the eyes of man, we still find ourselves below the nature of God.

For many of us the reason our lives stay in such constant turmoil with others around us is reflective of the pride we may struggle with deep within. We all have to admit that sometime we are simply the problem and the quickest fix to that is seeking humility and apologizing. Owning our own prideful ways and asking God and others that we have impacted by our arrogance to forgive us, and then seek to be under the control of wisdom which is only found in the Lord Himself.

Proverbs 13:10

Arrogance leads to nothing but strife, but wisdom is gained by those who take advice.

This past Sunday we discussed the exclusivity of truth, and the claim that Jesus is the only way to God. Now many in our culture don’t like the term exclusive because we are often as a culture guilty of thinking with our feelings and not with our minds. People love the word tolerance, but then again who wants to be tolerated? On a side note, we must learn to disagree with civility and learn the art of debate again in our society.

 Pause for a second in regards to religion and consider any claim regarding truth. We believe that 2 + 2 = 4 is a true statement for evidential reasons, and any other statement that contradicts this statement is false. For instance, any other sum regarding that equation would be false such as the statement that 2 + 2 = 5. The nature of truth is true not only in every other subject of life, but also when it comes to religion as well. World religions do not say the same thing, and to those who believe they do, they are only exposing their ignorance of world religions. They can’t all be true because of the nature of truth. When two subjects make claims that contradict each other, they can’t both be true.

Truth by nature is exclusive regardless of the subject, otherwise, we could never take a true/false test. Truth excludes any statement that is false, and that which is false excludes any statement that is true. So when Jesus makes the statement that ‘no one comes to the Father except through Me”, one, He is making Christianity exclusive, not Christians, and two, He is only being logical to the nature of truth. If the claims of Jesus are true, in other words they correlate with reality regarding the evidence of His claims, then any claim contradicting His claim would be by definition false.

John 14:6 – I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.