Why I Don't Fear Death

This is a song that really gets to me for some reason right now. Jesus has defeated death thru His death on the Cross. Those of us who are in Christ don't have to fear death or what happens to us in eternity. We have HOPE that those without having Jesus as their Savior don't have. We have no reason to fear death!

Can I get an AMEN!?!

I don't fear it because I know WHERE I'm going.

Do you?

As 1 Corinthians 15:55 and this song ask..."O, death, where is your sting? O, hell, where is your victory?"

There is none any more. Not for one who has been washed clean, pure, whiter than snow by the Blood of Jesus and whose eternal security is in heaven. The grave cannot hold us. We are ONE with Him...Christ has risen and lives for eternity and we will too!

ALL of us will live for eternity...the only question is where YOU will spend yours.

Do you know?

"Let no one caught in sin remain
Inside the lie of inward shame
We fix our eyes upon the cross
And run to Him who showed great love
And bled for us

Freely You bled, for us

Christ is risen from the dead
Trampling over death by death
Come awake, come awake!
Come and rise up from the grave!
Christ is risen from the dead
We are one with Him again
Come awake, come awake!
Come and rise up from the grave!

Beneath the weight of all our sin
You bow to none but heaven's will
No scheme of hell, no scoffer's crown
No burden great can hold You down
In strength You reign
Forever let Your church proclaim

Christ is risen from the dead
Trampling over death by death
Come awake, come awake!
Come and rise up from the grave
Christ is risen from the dead
We are one with Him again
Come awake, come awake!
Come and rise up from the grave

Oh death! Where is your sting?
Oh hell! Where is your victory?
Oh Church! Come stand in the light!
The glory of God has defeated the night!

Oh death! Where is your sting?
Oh hell! Where is your victory?
Oh Church! Come stand in the light!
Our God is not dead, He's alive! He's alive!

Christ is risen from the dead
Trampling over death by death
Come awake, come awake!
Come and rise up from the grave
Christ is risen from the dead
We are one with Him again
Come awake, come awake!
Come and rise up from the grave

Rise up from the grave..."

Final Thoughts on Resurrection Day 2013

On these final thoughts for Resurrection Day, I want to share my favorite rendition of this song from the original Ernie Haase and Signature Sound group! I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!



This week Christians everywhere acknowledge a pivotal point in history that literally affects EVERYONE! That event is the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

"He is not here, but He is risen" (verse 6) are words that matter eternally. If they are a lie, humanity has no hope after this life. If they are the truth, rejecting the Risen Lord Jesus Christ has eternal consequences. "He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life" (I John 5:12).

Paul said (I Corinthians 15:14) "and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain."

Many things we believe and do daily matter little. But the Resurrection is eternally important.

The bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is the crowning proof of Christianity. Everything else that was said or done by Christ and the Apostles, no matter how great or marvelous, is secondary to the Resurrection in importance. If the Resurrection did not take place, then Christianity is a false religion. If it did take place, then Christ is God and the Christian faith is absolute truth.

Death is man’s greatest enemy, and it has conquered all men but Christ. No matter how brilliant or rich or strong he may be, no man is wise enough to outwit death or wealthy enough to purchase freedom from death or strong enough to vanquish death. The grave always wins the victory, and man sooner or later returns to the dust.

In fact, the inexorable triumph of death applies not only to man, but to all things. Animals die and plants die, and even whole species atrophy and become extinct. Cities and nations, like people, are born and grow for a season, and then fade away. Homes and automobiles and clothes wear out and must eventually go back to the dust, just as do their owners. Even the universe itself is running down and heading toward an ultimate “heat death.”

This universal reign of decay and death is called in the Bible the “bondage to decay” (Romans 8:21). In science it has come to be recognized as the Second Law of Thermodynamics. Also known as the Law of Increasing Entropy, this Second Law is now recognized as a universal law in science, with no known exception ever observed. It says, quite simply, that every system tends to become disordered, to run down and eventually die. Its entropy, which is a measure of disorder, always tends to increase.

The universality of the reign of decay and death is the measure of the absolute uniqueness of the resurrection of Christ. All other men, even the greatest men and the holiest men, have died. Buddha, Mohammed, Zoroaster, Confucius, Caesar, Marx—men who made a profound impact on the world in one way or another—are all dead.

But Jesus Christ is alive!

It is true that He died and was buried, in common with all other men, but unlike other men He returned from Hades, resurrected His own dead body, made it henceforth immortal, and emerged from the tomb, alive forevermore! This was the greatest of all miracles, and could have been accomplished only if Jesus indeed is God, as He had claimed to be.

If all this is somehow a delusion and if Jesus of Nazareth did not really rise from the dead, then He is no different from other great men who are also dead. He is worse than they, in fact, because He is thereby branded as either a charlatan or a madman, since He staked all His claims to absolute deity on His promise to return from the dead.

On the other hand, if the Resurrection is really a demonstrable fact of history, then not only are His claims vindicated, but so are His promises. Death is not, after all, the great victor but is a defeated foe. He has “caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3). “But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, … so also in Christ shall all be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:20, 22), as the “firstborn of the dead . . . and behold, I am alive forevermore” (Revelation 1:5, 18).*

Dead in our sins, we have only one hope for new life: by trusting in Jesus Christ and relying on His death and resurrection for our salvation. No other spiritual leader has ever conquered death; Jesus is the unique Son of God. He is “the way, and the truth, and the life” (John 14:6), and “whoever believes in [Him], though he die, yet shall he live” (John 11:25).

What difference does the Resurrection make in your life today?

Happy Resurrection Day!

So, what happened on Saturday?

There is so much talk of Good Friday and Resurrection (Easter) Sunday, but very few people actually talk about Saturday and what happened in between the two. I wonder why that is? Saturday is the pivot point. The day before the single greatest event in history. The day before death and hell were conquered! It’s the day of uncertainty and worry and sorrow.

Put yourself in the Apostle’s shoes for a moment.

You have just seen all your hopes and dreams shattered by the Roman executioners. Not only that, but you aren't that proud of yourself, either. For three years, you followed the Master. You personally witnessed His miracles, from walking on water to feeding multiplied thousands with a young boy's lunch to healing the sick and raising the dead.

You heard His wisdom; you felt His Power, witnessed His Transfiguration . . . and when the chips were down and it was time to take a stand, you folded up like a Wal Mart lawn chair.

You ran and hid like a coward, not daring to show your face for fear you'd share His fate.

(And you once had the nerve to ask Him if you could sit at His right Hand!)

He faced His enemies alone, without a friend to speak up for Him -- including you, who promised NEVER to forsake Him.

On Good Friday, 1980 years ago, the last thing on any of their minds was writing a detailed record of their own failures. They just wanted to put the entire sordid experience behind them and move on.

He had forsaken everything to teach and prepare them, and when the time came, they not only betrayed Him by deserting Him, they never had a chance to beg His forgiveness afterwards.

How would you be feeling at this point if you were them? Ashamed? Afraid? Numb with grief? Confused? Here you expected Jesus to rule over all as King. Instead He has been tortured in a way that the Bible says no man has ever suffered more and then was crucified and now lay in a sealed and guarded tomb. Your hope is gone. What do you have to look forward to now?

And what about Mary, the mother of Jesus? Being the mother of a precious little boy, myself, I can’t imagine what she went through. Seeing Jesus beaten, tortured, ridiculed, spat upon and crucified like a common criminal – knowing He was innocent. Did she replay in her mind as Jesus stumbled under the weight of the cross, the other times He stumbled in His childhood…and, yet, knowing that this time she was unable to pick Him up and hold Him in her arms, kiss the boo-boo and assure Him that everything was going to be ok?

Being a mother, that, to me, is the most difficult position to try and put myself in. I can’t. Honestly, I don’t want to. It hurts my heart too much to even try to imagine being in her place.

BUT…

What we know now, and what the disciples and Mary didn’t know then, was that Sunday was coming…

Just one day away…

And that would be the day when EVERYTHING changed!

AMEN!

Some Debates Aren't Worth Winning

Earlier this evening I had admired a lovely friend's repost of a quote by Francis Chan. It contained a scripture  verse that she had not put in, but that used the NIV translation of the Bible. 

"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..." ~Matthew 28:19

Someone chimed in and state that the scripture was wrong and that wasn't how it went. They were talking about how it wasn't the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible and to use any other translation of the Bible was wrong and that basically by using another translation of the Bible aside from the KJV earned you a place right out of heaven, according to Revelation 22:9.

That statement starts to smell like "onlyism"...that the KJV is the ONLY acceptable version, which in turn is almost akin to Bible idolatry  I posted last week about where you should place your faith so that you don't lose it. Faith is not to be placed in a particular translation of the Bible, but rather in the Author of the Bible.

Here's the thing though...and I'm going to give you a brief history of the "translation" of the KJV Bible...

The Old Testament was written almost entirely in classical Hebrew in the dialect scholars believed flourished around the 6th century BC during the Babylonian Exile.  Almost entirely. 

By the time the Babylonian Captivity had ended seventy years later, the first language of most of the Babylonian captives and their descendants had become the language of their captors, Aramaic. 

The Books of Daniel and Ezra were originally inspired and composed in Aramaic. Alexander the Great outlawed the languages of the peoples he conquered and compelled them to learn and use Greek in all their dealings. But by then, Hebrew was largely extinct as spoken language, replaced by Aramaic and later by Greek. 

The New Testament was inspired and composed in both Aramaic and Greek. Jesus spoke Aramaic, not Greek. 

His words were translated from Aramaic into Greek, with certain Aramaic words being specifically identified as translations. Interestingly, those parts of the Old Testament not inspired and composed in Hebrew were inspired and composed in Greek. 

And the Septuagint is the Hebrew Old Testament as translated by the rabbis into Koine Greek in the 3rd century BC. 

So by the time the Apostles were writing the New Testament Epistles, much the Old Testament was already a translation of a translation.  

By the middle of the second century, the major writings of the canon of Scripture were accepted by almost all Christian authorities. St Jerome translated them all into Latin in the 3rd century. 

So by the fourth century, the Old Testament was a translation of a translation of a translation and the New Testament was merely a translation of a translation. 

Twelve hundred years later, Wycliffe, Hus, Linacre, Colet and Erasmus were all busily engaged in translating the various translations of translations into their own translations of English. 

One hundred years after John Hus was burned at the stake kindled with pages from Wycliffe’s Bible translation, King James of England ordered his translators to come up with a new English translation using the existing Greek and Hebrew translations, themselves recopied translations of Aramaic and Latin and classical Hebrew. 

The oldest existing Textus Receptus manuscript used by the translators of the King James 1611 Bible dated to the 12th century.  In the book of Revelation, a missing page had to be translated from the Latin Vulgate back into Greek so it could be translated back into English.

To be blunt here, nobody is saved according to which version of the Bible they study from.  Nobody is saved by a Bible.  They are saved by the Gospel message, a message so simple it can be conveyed without a Bible being present.

A child can lead another child to Christ on a playground. A drunk can lead another drunk to Christ on a barstool.  

I do not know much about the actual translators of the KJV. Or much about the translation process.  I can’t read the original languages. And if I could, I don’t have the original manuscripts used by the translators.  

And if I did, I wouldn’t know if they were 1st century Greek or if they were later Greek translations of the Latin translations of the Greek translations of the original Aramaic. 

Would you?

The quickest way I can think of to shake somebody’s confidence in their salvation is to attack their preferred Bible version.  The Bible that leads you to Christ takes on a very special, personal meaning.  If you came to Christ via the NIV, then the NIV is the Word of God whereby you were saved. The same applies to all the other versions, including the KJV.

Ever wonder why there are so many Christians that don’t go to church?  It is because there are two kinds of Christianity in this world.  There is the theoretical kind and there is the living kind. 

In the theoretical kind, everybody is the same at church as they are at home when nobody is looking.  Saved people always act saved and always looked saved.  Saved people never have doubts – that would be faithlessness.  And when somebody falls, it is because they probably were never really saved in the first place.

In the living kind, people are different at church than they are at home when nobody is looking.   Saved people don’t always act like it.  Some don’t ever go to church.  Everybody has doubts. And it is only when others fall that we question if they were really saved. 

When a person is young in the Lord, he is somewhere between the theoretical and reality – all he has is his Bible.  And along comes some grizzled old veteran Christian who, preaching theoretical Christianity convinces the new Christian that he can’t trust his Bible.

No matter which position you take on the Bible translations issue, what happens if you prevail in the debate? Assuming your opponent is already saved, he can't get more saved by agreeing with you.

If you have won the debate, then he has lost. Now let’s return to the topic under discussion.  “Can you trust your Bible?”  And his answer is “no.”

Some debates aren’t worth winning.

Do we have the Word of God?  Of course we do.  What about when there are conflicts between versions? God only wrote ONE Bible – but He didn’t write it in English.

He wrote it in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek.  

So how do you know that the version that you use, whether KJV, NIV, NASB, etc, is really the Word of God?  Did you get saved from it?  Is that an enemy action?  

How do you know that is the one God wants you to use?  I don’t know.   But you do. It is because that is the version God speaks to you from.

Or you would be looking for the version that does.

The Logic of the Cross

Keeping up with Holy Week, here is an EXCELLENT piece on the LOGIC of the Cross. This is logic that it is really quite hard to argue with. Again, my thanks to my very dear and recently departed friend, Jack Kinsella, for providing this, and the other in-depth pieces on the Cross and Resurrection this week. This is just one of many reasons why I miss my friend, because he had the incredible ability to explain perfectly what he was wanting to convey...on any topic. But I do not grieve for him for he will be celebrating the Resurrection this year with the ONE who was Resurrected! AMEN!

The Logic of the Cross

Roughly one thousand, nine hundred and eighty years ago, a Jewish itinerant preacher was tried, convicted and executed by Roman decree, on charges of sedition against the state.

When He was arrested by the Roman authorities, His friends, fearing arrest themselves, left Him to face the music alone. One of His closest and most loyal friends denied knowing Him on three separate occasions. Once followed by thronging crowds, only His mother and a couple of friends stood by Him to the end.

And thus ends the story of Jesus of Nazareth, just another victim of Roman 'justice' like the thousands of other unnamed and forgotten Jewish rebels that shared a similar fate.

Or, at least, that is where is SHOULD have ended.

Historically speaking, at the time of His Death, Jesus Christ was just another rebel in a land teeming with rebels. When He preached of the Kingdom of Heaven, his followers didn't understand the term the way that we do.

The sages understood the time of the Judges, when Israel was ruled by Heaven through God's appointed judges, as the Kingdom of Heaven He promised to restore.

Even His disciples didn't understand what He was talking about until after they received the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.

"When they therefore were come together, they asked of Him, saying, Lord, wilt Thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?" (Acts 1:6)

They, like the rest, expected an earthly Jewish kingdom ruled by Jews, restored to the glory it had at its peak under King David.

When their dreams of a restored Kingdom of Israel died on a Roman cross, the event was too insignificant to merit the attention of the historians of the time. Only a few, like Tertius or Flavius Josephus mention it, and then, only in passing.

Crucifixion was common enough, but it was a grisly business, difficult to discuss without repulsing the reader. Although Imperial Rome imposed it on hundreds of thousands during its reign, historians recorded few details of the process itself.

By either chance or design, death by crucifixion served to erase the condemned from memory. It wasn't talked about, so neither were its victims.

On Good Friday, 1980 years ago, it looked like Jesus Christ was on the fast track to historical irrelevance, just another voice of one crying out from the wilderness.


A voice seemingly silenced forever -- by a death too gruesome to discuss in polite company.

Assessment:

Now, imagine you are one of His chosen disciples. You have just seen all your hopes and dreams shattered by the Roman executioners. Not only that, but you aren't that proud of yourself, either.

For three years, you followed the Master. You personally witnessed His miracles, from walking on water to feeding multiplied thousands with a young boy's lunch to healing the sick and raising the dead.

You heard His wisdom; you felt His Power, witnessed His Transfiguration . . . and when the chips were down and it was time to take a stand, you folded up like a Wal Mart lawn chair.

You ran and hid like a coward, not daring to show your face for fear you'd share His fate.

(And you once had the nerve to ask Him if you could sit at His right Hand!)

He faced His enemies alone, without a friend to speak up for Him -- including you, who promised NEVER to forsake Him.

On Good Friday, 1980 years ago, the last thing on any of their minds was writing a detailed record of their own failures. They just wanted to put the entire sordid experience behind them and move on.

He had forsaken everything to teach and prepare them, and when the time came, they not only betrayed Him by deserting Him, they never had a chance to beg His forgiveness afterwards.

To those who loved Him best, Good Friday, 1980 years ago, was anything BUT 'good'.

And it was the LAST story in the world they wanted to spread throughout the land.

"He made big promises, we made big promises, then He died and we all ran away and hid."

If you were hiding somewhere in Jerusalem on Good Friday, 1980 years ago, that was your story. Not a very inspiring story, if that was where it ended.

Every Easter, we are bombarded by secular apologists telling us that is where the story really DID end.

Jesus was dead; His followers were all in hiding, but while they were in hiding for their lives (and after seeing what happened to Jesus,) instead of fading quietly into the countryside, they entered into a conspiracy to perpetuate the same 'myth' that put Jesus on the Cross in the first place.

They made up the whole Resurrection story to keep the movement alive, and then legend took over, the argument goes.

If the story really DID end at Golgotha, would YOU want to face the same risk that you had just abandoned your best Friend to His Death in order to avoid? Well, would you?

Would anybody?

IF it ended at Golgotha, then what changed every single one of the cowards who fled Jesus on that day to later face death unflinchingly rather than deny Him a second time?

Moreover, what made these guys, who were so self-centered they used to argue over who would sit at His right Hand in some misty, undefined future kingdom, choose to disclose the details of their greatest moment of personal failure, weaving those unflattering self-revelatory details into the fabric of what they already KNEW a monstrous lie?

Since most of it was a lie anyway, why be so brutally hard on themselves?

The Archbishop of Canterbury is on record as doubting the Resurrection as an actual historical event. This defies logic. If the Resurrection wasn't an historical event, then it ended at Golgotha -- and the Apostles knew it.

Every single event from the Cross forward was a lie, and the New Testament record of their zeal to propagate that lie is equally unreliable. THIS is the argument put forth every Easter by the secularists as the epitome of 'rational thought.'

No logical alternative explanation for why the Apostles chose death over denial of what they KNEW, by definition, was a myth. To plug THAT hole, critics say the story was 'harmonized' later as the Bible was being assembled by the Nicean Council.

But nobody ever goes back to Good Friday, 1980 years ago, where they claim it all ended, to explain with any degree of credibility, why it didn't. Because if Jesus was not raised on the first day of the week, where He subsequently appeared to more than five hundred witnesses (1st Corinthians 15:6) then it SHOULD have.

Christianity SHOULD have died with Jesus, and on Good Friday 1980 years ago, to all intents and purposes, it did.

And it would have STAYED dead, but Christianity was raised with Jesus Christ on the third day, and today, it is real enough to have the secularists jumping through logical hoops every Easter season trying to prove its all a myth.

For those who demand empirical evidence of the Resurrection, the existence of the question is all the evidence logic demands.

Had it really ended on Good Friday, 1980 years ago at the Cross, nobody would be asking the question in the first place.

When Jesus appeared to John on the Island of Patmos, He identified himself as the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning AND the end.

The logic of Christianity is that it began where it ended -- without the Cross, there could be no Resurrection. And without the Resurrection, there is no reason to remember the Cross.

To the secularist, this is an unacceptable conundrum, despite the fact his best alternative explanation leaves him with no reason for Christianity to exist for him to question.

It is a logical circle from which he can't escape, because he can't see he's inside the circle.

"But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." (1st Corinthians 2:14)

As foolish as his argument is, he can't see it for the foolishness of his own wisdom.

"For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness." (1st Corinthians 3:19)

So every year, the annual bombardment of articles questioning the 'truth' of the Resurrection continues without their ever seeing the answer is contained inside the very question they are so focused on.

It is as baffling to the natural mind as is the reason we Christians call this upcoming Friday, "Good Friday".

"For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God." (1st Corinthians 1:18)

Washed In the Blood

I thought, this being Holy Week, that it would be appropriate to give some insight about Passover from my very dear and recently departed friend, who was a father figure and spiritual mentor to me. He wrote this in 2009, when Passover and the dates were exactly the same as this year (Passover began last night at sundown). I hope you find your understanding of Passover and the sacrificial lamb to be a bit greater after having read this post. Thank you, Jack, for your wisdom and for writing as God lead you over the past 11 years and for your friendship and guildance over the past 10 1/2. You are missed daily more than you know...

Washed In the Blood

Today begins the Passover season which runs for seven days, ending this year on April 2nd.

Technically, Passover actually began yesterday. The Jewish calendar begins at sundown, rather than sunrise, meaning that Thursday begins Wednesday night. So Passover starts twenty-four times around the world as each time zone views its sunset.

The Passover story is well known to Christians, primarily as a Jewish holiday. But the Jewish Passover is an integral part of the Christian story. Without Passover, there could be no salvation for the Gentiles.

At Passover, Jews are asked to see the story as if each of them had been there that night in Egypt. Traditional foods are prepared in advance according to the Haggadah or story of the Exodus.

With the Haggadah as a guide, Passover has been and is celebrated in pretty much the same manner down through the ages and in every land and every nation.

Seder customs include drinking of four cups of wine, eating matza (unleavened bread) and partaking of symbolic foods placed on the Passover Seder Plate.

The four cups of wine are obligatory; representing four expressions of God's will: "I will bring out"; "I will deliver"; "I will take"; and, "I will Redeem".

It is also symbolic of the four world ages: this present world, the Messianic Age, the world at the resurrection, and the world to come. (See 2nd Peter 3:10-12)

The four expressions of God's will find an equal place within Christianity. "I will bring out" (Romans 8:29) "I will deliver" (Galatians 1:4) "I will take" (Romans 11:27) and, "I will Redeem" (Galatians 3:13)

Christians also know of four 'worlds' this one which we are 'in' but not 'of' the Messianic (Kingdom) Age, the general resurrection of the dead at the Great White Throne and the new heavens and the new earth.

At the Passover Seder, the youngest present asks the question: "Why is this night different from all other nights?" This is so important that if no children are present, the responsibility falls to the wife or other participants. If a man is alone at Seder, he is obligated to ask the question of himself.

The Passover involves the retelling of the ten plagues God sent upon Pharoh, including the last and most terrible, the sending of the Angel of Death.

God told the Jews to smear the blood of a lamb above the doorposts of their homes, which would cause the Angel of Death to 'pass over' those homes which were under Divine protection.

For centuries, the Jewish Passover concluded with the words, "Next year, in Jerusalem!" symbolizing the Jewish love for the City of God and their longing for the restoration of Temple sacrifice.

Washed In the Blood of the Lamb?

There is a traditional Christian hymn whose chorus goes like this:

"Are you washed in the blood, / In the soul cleansing blood of the Lamb? / Are your garments spotless? / Are they white as snow? / Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?"

We've not discussed what that really means in some time now, and there is no better time to discuss it than at Passover. Everything about our understanding of our salvation has its roots in the Jewish sacrificial lamb.

During the days of Temple worship, a family would offer a Passover lamb for sacrifice at the Temple as covering for the sins of that family. That ritual teaches us much about the love of our Heavenly Father and what the sacrifice of the Lamb of God really means.

Some weeks before Passover, the head of the household would cull out the most perfect lamb in his flock. To be acceptable, the lamb could not be purchased. It had to be raised by the family.

The lamb would be brought into the household as a pet. The kids would play with it, wash and groom it, grow attached to it, and even name it, making it a part of the family. It was a necessary element of the sacrifice that the family had to grow to love that particular lamb.

At the Temple, the head of the household would certify the lamb met all the conditions before accepting it as a sacrifice. The lamb would have a placard put around its neck identifying the sinner for whom it was about to die.

Here's where this gets hard. The head of the household, (to whom the lamb was a beloved pet) didn't get to just leave the lamb there and go home, like a person dropping off a sick pet at the vets to be euthanized. (Or even one who comforts the pet while the vet does it.)

It's YOUR sin. It's YOUR sacrifice. So YOU do it.

The priest would carefully instruct you in the most humane way to conduct the sacrifice, but you had to do it. You would be taught how to gently squeeze off the lamb's jugular with thumb and forefinger until the lamb would pass out.

Open your mind! See this picture!

The lamb falls asleep against the sinner's breast like the beloved pet that it has become. Once the lamb was unconscious, the penitent, still holding the lamb's throat, would be instructed on how to insert the knife, nick the jugular and hold the lamb over the laver to catch its blood for the sacrifice.

As the blood flowed, it would flow OVER the penitent's hands and arms, staining him with the sacrificial blood.

The lamb's innocent little heart would continue to pump out the blood, which would continue to stain the head of the household until it had pumped its last and the little lamb was dead.

The priest would hold up the now-dead lamb before the Lord, read the name of the family as it appeared on the placard around its neck, and declare the lamb's 'sins' before the Lord.

“This lamb was sacrificed for the sins of the Kinsella family,” the priest might intone.

The family's beloved pet lamb was dead, its blood was sprinkled over the mercy seat of the Ark, and the sins of the family were covered for another year.

The lamb bore the placard naming the family of sinners. The sinners bore the stains of the blood of the lamb.

The Lamb of God

"I am crucified with Christ: neverthless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain." (Galatians 2:20-21)

In Judea in AD 33, Latin was the language of business, as English is today. But most people grew up speaking Greek, which was the lingua franca, or the common language of the empire, a holdover from the days of Alexander the Great.

The Septuagint, the Greek version of the Torah, was so translated because more Jews spoke Greek than Hebrew.

So there was Latin and Greek, and finally, the language of the Jews at the time, which was Aramaic.

It wasn't the Jews who drove the nails. It was the Romans. While the people cheered in Aramaic and Greek.

All present had to participate. Had they not, then there could have been no Crucifixion, no Resurrection, no redemption. It was for the SINS of all mankind -- all mankind was represented there.

"Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." (Luke 23:34)

Assessment:

Above the Cross, Pilate order the following inscription in ALL THREE languages:

"This is Jesus. King of the Jews."

Jesus bore the name of the 'family' for which His blood was shed -- it was the Family of Man.

"For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek." (Romans 1:16)

God identified His Lamb Whom He loved, and inscribed the sin for which He died, as a substitutionary sacrifice for all mankind.

Remember, it couldn't be just any Lamb, but it had to be God's Lamb.

"Thou art My beloved Son, in Whom I am well-pleased." (Mark 1:11)

This was no humane kosher sacrifice, but a bloody, vicious, violent, painful, tortured and shameful execution at the hands of the very family the Lamb loved so deeply and Who asks only our trust in return.

When Caiphas objected, asking the inscription be changed to say, “This is Jesus, who CLAIMED to be King of the Jews,” Pilate rebuffed him, saying, “What I have written, I have written."

For that was the charge against Him for which He was crucified. For the sins of the Jews as their King. For the sins of the Romans as their occupier. And for the sins of mankind as they stood by as spectators. And for you. And for me.

Jesus is their King, and ours. And God's Lamb.

Are your garments spotless? Are they white as snow?

Are YOU washed in the Blood of the Lamb?
Why is this day different than all other days?

Because it is the day that we learn just how much God loves us. How much He loves YOU.

At the Passover, God set in motion the sequence of events that would culminate twelve centuries later with the sacrifice of the Pascal Lamb for all mankind.

And for you. As if you were the only sinner who ever lived, the Lord Jesus Christ was sacrificed for YOUR sins.

That is the God Whom we serve. And that is the weight of our sin before Him.

"But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8)

Amazing love! How can it be? That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me!

Maranatha!

Who are you calling donkey?

There was once a donkey for hire.  He was chosen out of the rest of the donkeys to be the one hired out for a day.  At the end of the day, the rest of the donkeys asked him how his day went.

The donkey was thrilled.  "It was amazing," he said.  "There were crowds lining both sides of the street.  They were throwing palm fronds before my feet and shouting 'Hosanna!' as I passed by."

"You know," said the donkey, "I think they're gonna crown me King."

The point is obvious. Nobody remembers the donkey.  It is the Message he carries that people pay attention to - the donkey is only part of the background. Your life should be about presenting the message that the Lord is preparing to return, not about the donkey carrying that message. The donkey only carried the Message, and so should we all.

Strive to be the carrier of the message and show by example in our lives how that Message has transformed us, instead of braying like a donkey to bring attention to ourselves. The message we carry is far more important! It's eternal...

You lost your faith? Where did you put it?

Faith...One loses one's faith when one forgets where he put it.

Many claim Christ, but misplace their faith in a religious system, or a particular preacher, or even a particular translation of the Bible. People tend to put the faith in a man of God, and not in the God of man, and when something tragic happens, or that misplaced faith is trampled on because the PERSON that faith was placed in was found to be fallible and a mere human who falls into sin just like everyone else, then faith can be damaged and even bring the believer to the point of loss of faith. That is why we cannot misplace our faith in humans or a thing created by mere, mortal man.

My faith is NOT in a particular version of the Bible, but in its Author, and that is why, when the going gets tough, when things seem to be weighing on me, when the stresses of the day and of life start to beat and batter me down, I remember that God is always faithful to me, has proven Himself in that faithfulness over and over and over again, and I know that He is always with me, always watching out for me and my children, always there to provide, to teach, to guide, to show me how greatly He loves me.

You can have FAITH or you can have fear. The choice is yours. It's what you allow to take the foremost thought in your mind. Faith or fear...which will it be? Faith is of the Lord and fear is of the enemy and the enemy is a liar. God has not created us for or given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but He has given us a spirit of boldness and power and love. To paraphrase parts of Deuteronomy 31:6-8,

“Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you....Be strong and courageous...The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.”

Be strong.
Be courageous.
Do not be afraid.
God is with you.
He will never leave or forsake you.

Hello? Is this getting through to anyone? Place your faith in the hands of the One who will never let you down and who is not the creator of fear, but instead is the One in whose presence fear flees.

Faith or fear? The choice is yours.

Put the paper down

"For I know the plans I have for you,” says the LORD. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope."- Jeremiah 29:11 ...

We may not know what tomorrow holds but we know who holds tomorrow. The purpose of a horoscope is to gain insight into a person's character and foretell the future. The basic belief of astrology is that planets and stars exert an influence upon our lives. Those with special knowledge, "astrologers", can predict events in a person's life.

It is distressing that most major newspapers have a horoscope column, and even more distressing that many Christians read their horoscopes. I've been guilty of this. Seriously guilty of it. But God has done such a profound change in my life, the thought of bringing the occult into my life anymore, and yes, horoscopes are of the occult, brings cold chills to the back of my neck. When you dabble with the occult, you open doorways by which demons can creep into your life.

The Bible expressly forbids divination, sorcery, and hidden arts (Deuteronomy 18:10-14). God's people are to heed God only (Deuteronomy 18:15). Any other source of guidance, information, or revelation is to be rejected outright. (See also Acts 16:16-18.) The Bible points to Jesus Christ as the only proper focus of faith (Acts 4:12; Hebrews 12:2). Our trust is in God alone, and we know that He will direct our paths (Proverbs 3:5-6).

Faith in anything besides God is misplaced.

Astrology, then, opposes biblical teaching in at least two ways: it advocates faith in something other than God, and it is a form of divination. We cannot determine God's will for our lives through horoscopes. As Christians, we are to read the Bible and pray to God in order to gain wisdom and guidance. Consulting a horoscope is a violation of God's means of communicating with His children. As a Christian, I strongly believe that horoscopes should be rejected by Christians.

A life of transformation

God has really started a big work in me. The first weekend in January I went to a www.Oneand2.com conference in Dallas. What happened to me was nothing less than mind blowing. Suffice it to say, that weekend was one of the most significantly impactful, intense and transformative weekends of my life. I'm not sure exactly what my expectations for this weekend were...I will just say that they were shattered. This is one of THOSE moments in life where you know that everything you knew or thought you knew and everything that you had been about and lived for is forever changed. So many will never understand. It's ok. It's about living out the change in all areas of your life. It's about being different b/c you have become different. For those who it has happened to it is one of the most profound moments of your life. Everything's changed. Thank God... :-D Romans 12:1-2

39 years on this earth...35 of them in Christ...and this is the first time I feel truly TRANSFORMED and FREE! It was a heavy, heavy weekend with much discussion on generational curses, “soul ties” with others you have been sexually involved with etc. and breaking those. And my experience in the breaking of them in my life that Saturday evening was profound, absolutely chilling at one point and in the next freeing beyond anything I have ever known or felt! And there was a point in that experience where I had to fight from crying that ugly donkey cry in front of 200+ people. You know the one...you don't want to open your mouth for fear that your sobs will sound like a donkey braying. LOL!

My encounter with God that weekend was unlike anything I have ever experienced. Even Emily said when I got home, "Who are you and what have you done with my mom? You're different. Like really different. You're happy. Kind of giddy happy, but happy happy. You're just different." I feel lighter, but heavier at the same time. The heavier is more like a deep profound feeling and weight of increased awareness, but I feel the absence of the weight inside of the very center of my chest, that I didn’t even realize it was there until it was gone, and filled with the most buoyant, light, carefree feeling I’ve ever experienced. My mom said that it was the Holy Spirit truly dwelling in me and being given free reign instead of always fighting with Him and myself with my worldly desires and selfishness of what *I* wanted.

She said that this is the breakthrough that she’s been praying for for me for years and years. There is such a difference in the way that I am processing things, that I am responding and reacting to things and how I am treating others. I SEE them differently. I SEE my responsibilities differently. Was I saved before? Absolutely no doubt that I was...but I never had that OH MY WOW experience that others have talked about having until that weekend.

During that weekend I was told by 3 completely different people, only one of those who even knew me, that they saw me going into ministry of some kind and helping others. My mom has been saying the same thing to me over the past years.

How God works and His timing is incredible to me. Why not before now? I don’t know. I guess it just became where I got to the point that I had to willingly give up my own fight and truly lay myself down on the alter at His feet and just say, “I truly surrender all. I’m done. I don’t want to do this with only part of You. Not my will but Yours...and not just ‘Your will for my life’ but ‘Your will...period. End of sentence.’”. It’s incredible what happens when you stop trying to fit God into the box of your life. Even a couple of months later I still feel like crying over the profoundness of it all...but the good kind of cry. LOL!

So much on my mind

So, I have a lot to pray about and think about and work toward. As some of y'all know, my work is getting so stressful to the point where I dread getting out of bed every morning. But, I am thankful to have a job, in this economy, and I am thankful to have benefits and great co-workers...it's just other factors in it that are stressing me to the max and the fact that I am not able to be there for my kids as I would like. But...again...I am so incredibly thankful to have a job right now when there are so many who I know that are struggling to find one, and my prayers are with them that God will provide richly for them.

I love my secondary job with AdvoCare that I do from home right now and hope to turn that into full time within the next year or so. This past weekend they had "Success School" that I was unable to attend this time but they had over 13,000 people attend. On Sunday there was an optional church service in the Ft. Worth convention center. You might think that only a handful would show up. No, I was told that it was completely filled to capacity and I saw the pictures, and it was. Many of the key leaders in this company are very strong and committed Christians, several are pastors or involved in their church in some pivotal way. My team in Texas is extremely involved in their respective churches. I love that! They have tickets for 20,000 for the next Success School in February...less than 500 are left. Tickets just went on sale Sunday.

Additionally, when I went "home" to Iowa and Minnesota this past week for a family reunion – first one in 19 years that didn't involve a funeral – not only did Emily and Nate love it, I also started to feel the tug of maybe that's where we belong. Emily loved the small towns and wants to live in the country where life is slower paced, people know each other and everyone is more "God oriented" – this coming from a 10 year old who's lived in the big city all her life...shocking, right?! She loved it so much so, and the chance to be around family on the farms and in the small towns, that she started getting stomach issues (she has a nervous stomach) when we started heading back to Texas. She wanted to stay there. In fact, she wants to live in Dave's parent's farm house and on their farm. LOL!

Dave's family very much wants me/us/the kids up there, as well as my cousins...the ones who live in the area...and there are MANY. I think that all of us would seriously thrive up there, but it's scary as all get out thinking about it, especially when I've never moved from Austin and have lived there all my life. Then there's my church that I so greatly love... Plus, Dave just moved down to Texas, yadda, yadda, etc. While he and I are no longer dating, we are each other's absolute best friends, we do everything together, and yes, we still love each other with all of our hearts, it's just that the timing isn't right...but I'm pretty sure that if I moved somewhere else, he would follow. 

It seems that the older I get, the more mature I become, both spiritually and in life, and the less I find I have in common with my group of friends and I've been drifting from them for a while now. I don't love them any less, I just have much less in common with them than I did a few years ago. There's less tying me to Austin than there's ever been. The only negative is that my mom probably wouldn't move with us up there. She says she loves to visit, but she doesn't want to always have to "be on someone else's schedule".

I just have so much to bring before God in prayer...so much. And I have to make sure that I truly LISTEN to what He tells me. Who knows, maybe we'll be gone *in the blink of an eye* before then, but right now, I know that I have to do something to work on being able to be a work from home mom. The kids need me and I need to be there for them. Maybe that is here in Austin for the long(er) haul.

I posted the following on FB yesterday. I wanted to post it here too. It seems, to me that the more I talk about it, the more accountability I have, the more I am determined to make it a reality.

I have dreams...BIG dreams...that I've been thinking a lot about on this last week's family vacation and I have some hard work and dedication up ahead to turn those dreams into reality, but it WILL happen...make no mistake. I have my VISION, my GOALS, my DETERMINATION and most importantly my WHY. The only thing standing in my way is me. Change my mindset and I change my path. I change my path and I change my destiny. I change my destiny and I change my legacy and that of my family. Challenge myself, my mind, my body. Challenge myself to change my life.

I want that destiny and legacy for myself and my family to be a Godly one full of promise, and I feel maybe I'm being called from Austin to elsewhere in order to accomplish that in full. I just don't know where, but it might be back "home" to Iowa, specifically. At least that's where I feel a tug but God will guide me, I just need to listen, and listen with an open mind and an open heart, which is the hardest for me to do, when I'm so "self sufficient" because I've had to be in order to take care of myself and my kids. I have the utmost trust and faith in God that He will provide for us, but it's hard for me to step out on that faith because I can't see where it leads. 

A great analogy from a phone call that I was on last night at 9:00 with the national team put it this way. There is a difference between a front flip on a trampoline and a back flip on a trampoline. The front flip is so much more difficult, but that's the one that most people do because they can see where they're going. It's stable and predictable...but incredibly hard to do. The back flip is exponentially easier to do, but so few try it because they can't see where they're going.

It's the same way in life. So many people do the same thing, day in, day out because it's stable and that's all they know and they can see where the stable, predictable life will lead, even though it is harder to trudge through a job they hate, or a life that is lacking...life. They do it anyway. If they stepped out on faith, with God's help, even though it is scarier because they can't see where they're headed, it actually is easier to do the unknown and put that hard work into it in order to reap the rewards that will come.

Even when I was in gymnastics and did springboard diving, I always went for the back flips. So I guess I already have that ingrained in me. LOL! One thing I do know...If you don't focus on building YOUR OWN dreams for you and your kids and family, you will always be hired to build someone else's dreams. 

Just have to step out and do it if it is where God leads me. There are a lot of obstacles in the way to get there, but if it's where God is leading, then He WILL provide the way. 

Legacies

In a Christian forum that I belong to, there has been some discussion about evangelism and what it means. Not all of us are called to evangelize like Billy Graham or Ray Comfort, in fact, very few of us have that amazing gift. Be we all can reach someone. Often times more than one person, without ever even knowing it.

I never thought I had an impact on anyone before, but last year a former boyfriend contacted me out of the blue. He was so involved in church when we were together. He participated in choir, and I think he was even a Sunday school teacher, Bible study leader, etc. I thought he was a very spiritual person and definitely a Christian. He grew up in the church, but it turns out all of his participation was just a front. He had never personally accepted Christ as his Savior.

When he emailed me, he let me know that by my example back then and my introducing him to the Left Behind series and talking about the Tribulation and the Rapture, etc. that he started really looking into things and studying the Word, not just skimming it, and realized that he was just paying lip service to Christianity and had no true heart service to it. It wasn't that he didn't believe - he definitely did...but he wasn't a Believer. And therein lies the crucial difference. It says in the Bible that even the demons believe...but obviously they are not Believers. He said that it was because of me and my love for God and passion for "the things to come" that led him to fully commit to God and finally become a Christian in deed and not just "name".

That probably is one of the most meaningful things I have ever been told because I know that I have not always lived a Godly life or set a Godly example, I still struggle daily, and I definitely didn't really think back then that I was any example to show anyone...but to him I guess I was. And I have to remember that I will always have someone watching my example and I pray to be worthy of living in accordance to the example God has required of me.

So, he is married now with 4 kids in 5 years (#4 is due in less than a month) and his legacy is leading a Godly life for his family and I can't think of a better one to leave them with. His wife and kids are blessed indeed because of that.

Sometimes we will never know until we reach heaven, but sometimes we will be able to know beforehand, and it doesn't have to be because we evangelize verbally, but it's in the way we live our lives daily. Often we may be the only example of Jesus that others see.

Legacy: leg·a·cy

n. Something handed down from an ancestor or a predecessor or from the past; practices that are handed down from the past by tradition; "a heritage of freedom"; heritage, inheritance, legacy, tradition

What will your legacy be? His is to show through his example to his children that a Godly life...a TRUE Christian life...is the only way to live so that, in the end, God willing they will choose the same.

What do you want to pass down to your children and to others? What do you want to be remembered for?

What will YOUR legacy be?

><>*><>*><>*><>*><>*><>*><>***<><*<><*<><*<><*<><*<><*<><

I can't embed this right now, but here is the link to Nichole Nordemann's great song, "Legacy". I will try to embed it later:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KEe-dA3a4M

I don't mind if you've got something nice to say about me

And I enjoy an accolade like the rest

And you can take my picture and hang it in a gallery

Of all the "who's who's" and so-and-so's

That used to be the best at such and such

It wouldn't matter much

I won't lie, it feels alright to see your name in lights

We all need an "atta boy" or "atta girl"

But in the end I'd like to hang my hat on more besides

The temporary trappings of this world

I want to leave a legacy

How will they remember me?

Did I choose to love?

Did I point to You enough

To make a mark on things

I want to leave an offering

A child of mercy and grace

Who blessed Your name unapologetically

And leave that kind of legacy

I don't have to look too far or too long awhile

To make a lengthy list of all that I enjoy

It's an accumulating trinket and a treasure pile

Where moth and rust, thieves and such will soon

enough destroy

I want to leave a legacy

How will they remember me?

Did I choose to love?

Did I point to You enough

To make a mark on things

I want to leave an offering

A child of mercy and grace

Who blessed Your name unapologetically

And leave that kind of legacy

Not well-traveled, not well-read

Not well-to-do, or well-bred

I just want to hear instead

Well done, good and faithful one

I want to leave a legacy

How will they remember me?

Did I choose to love?

Did I point to You enough

To make a mark on things?

I want to leave an offering

A child of mercy and grace

Who blessed Your name unapologetically

And leave that kind of legacy

I don't mind if you've got something nice to say about me

I got chills

I want to go to this Museum of Biblical Art in Dallas to see this. I got chills and teary eyed when I watched this. The mural is SOOOO cool!

Trust...so easy to say...so hard to do

Have you ever just had "one of those times" where it seems that everything you want is within reach and then it starts to crumble? I've been going through a REALLY tough time since early, early Wednesday morning. It's personal. It's taking a toll on me. It really sucks. It's nothing life threatening, just emotionally painful. It's a struggle to make it through the days with such limited sleep. About 5 ½ hours since I finally got in bed around 6 a.m. yesterday morning. I feel like a zombie. And it's especially difficult to be dealing with this on my own, so to speak, with no buffer between myself and the kids. My mom is out of town for a few days so I am putting up a brave front for them but it gets tiring. But, as always, I have to be the strong one.

But God has my back. He's told me so in no uncertain terms. I'm a firm believer that if God says something twice, He's really trying to tell me something – just as my pastor says – if God says something in the Bible more than once, He's trying to get our attention on that subject.

And I agree 100% on that...HOWEVER...if God tells me something SEVEN times...I'd better be listening, understanding and obeying.

All of the below posts are from around 7 or 8 last night through around 11 this morning. All of them from friends who know nothing about what is going on in my life. But POOF, there they were at different times. SCREAMING at me to LOOK and PAY ATTENTION.

As I said...SEVEN posts on the same theme...I'm being given a "God Smack" right upside my head.

3/28 FB Post: Picture: "My child, you worry too much, I've got this, remember? Love, God"

3/28 FB Post: So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will take care of itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Matthew 6:34

3/28 FB Post: "Doubt less, more Faith "

3/29 FB Post:
Don’t Be Troubled
TODAY’S VERSE
“Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you.”
I Corinthians 15:58
“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. ”
John 14:1
TODAY’S THOUGHT
In life we will have trials. We will have struggles. To grow is to stretch ourselves. With this come risks. So we step out in faith; and even then, we can have times of fear, doubt and anxiety. Many times we avoid conflict, hide from our struggles or simply try to escape pain through various ways. We can try and ignore our pressures but sooner or later avoidance won’t work anymore. We have to face the situation we find ourselves in. The good news is that God is faithful. He knows our struggles, He knows our limitations. Paul the Apostle encourages us, because of the love and power of God, to stand firm and let nothing move us. Jesus encourages us not to let our hearts be troubled by believing in God who is almighty and all loving. God is for us. He loves us. He is our strength. So today, stand firm, put all your trust in God. Exercise your faith and give all your struggles, trials and temptations to Him.
TODAY’S PRAYER
Father, You know all about my situation. You know my worries, fears and anxious thoughts. Help me stand firm. Help my heart not to be troubled. I do believe in You, dear God. I come now and trust You with all my life.
AMEN
TODAY’S MEDITATION & AFFIRMATION
I will trust in God
Feel yourself being weighed down by trials and tribulation. You burden is so heavy. You are at the end of your rope when you remember to call out to Jesus. You cry out to Him and decide to stand firm letting nothing move you from your resolve to trust God. You feel you burden become lighter. You sense that God is giving you strength to live for Him. You affirm, “I will trust in God!”

3/29 Tweet: "And once again I say... NO MAN can open a door God has already SHUT nor can they SHUT a door that God has already OPENED #DEPENDENTonHIM"

3/29 Retweet: "If anyone has had a rough day: 1 Peter 5:7 - Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you ". (This actually goes with what a dear friend told me yesterday that God was telling her to tell me to read, which was all of 1 and 2 Peter. This retweet is by someone who also doesn't know my other friend who told me that. How's that for a READ THIS NOW!?)

3/29 Tweet: Tough times? The reason why GOD gave the assignment to you and not to someone else, maybe because HE TRUSTS YOU with the task!

All of these random, posts, all with a central theme all for me. DON'T WORRY...so easy to say...so hard to do, but I'm trying. It's hard but I'm really trying. I'm a worrier by nature. I constantly feel like I HAVE to be in control of my life b/c it's so hard to give over that control to anyone else. On this earthly realm I've never really been able to depend on anyone but my mom and myself and my best friend, MC. Everyone else has let me down in some form or fashion.

God has proven time and again that He is nothing but FAITHFUL to the very end...but my human nature and propensity for worrying is so strong that God really does have to "hit me upside the head" a la "Gibbs" style with these messages. (Those of you who watch NCIS, will get the reference there)

So, God, I'm trying to give that control over to You. It's painful for me to do, so please be patient, as You have already been. But please know that I'm trying. I'm listening and I'm trying.

I love You... ♥♥

I'm only human

I finally was able to get around to reading a dear friend's outstanding briefing from Saturday, February 11, and I can't help but feel a little guilty. The gist of the article is the generational discussion regarding what Jesus said in that "THIS GENERATION shall not pass until all of this has been fulfilled" (Luke 21:32). It was a very thought provoking article and really stellar...I completely enjoyed it. However, it brought up some thoughts that are weighing heavy-ish on my mind and heart...

While, yes, I do long to be up in Heaven...experience the Rapture first hand...and be with my Lord and Savior, I still also long to have more time with my precious kids, my mom, the wonderful man and friends in my life as it is NOW in terms of those relationships.

I know I will have an eternity with them and I can't even begin, with my impossibly mortal little mind, to fathom what that will be like. But I cherish hearing the giggles and whispered "mommy"'s and "I love you"'s and "you're the best mommy ever"'s and getting the snuggles and cuddles from my children and I love the amazing hugs I get from my man and the time that we spend together. I love being able to share scripture with him and prayers and know that God is working on us and drawing us ever closer to Him and to each other.

In light of that, with my frail little human self and mind, I can't help but wish that we had just a few more years yet here. And I know it's b/c I absolutely lack the capacity to and cannot begin to comprehend just how awesome it will be when we're up there in Glory. Through a glass darkly, right? And I know when I get to heaven I will wonder how foolish and ignorant I was to ever want to stay away from heaven for any length of time.

But here, on earth, in my frail human vessle of my body, my heart and soul longs for both sides of the coin, if that makes any sense at all. SIGH...

And I wonder...am I the only one who feels this way?

How can I KNOW?

One of my dear friends is struggling hard right now with the issue of Salvation. He's been a Christian for years, but lately he is struggling with the thought of the fact that he brings nothing to his own Salvation, that God ALONE is the One who brings us to Him. He questions "if I am saved, why did I do that"? "Why did I act that way"? "I thought by now, "I would have changed more"? How do I know for sure "The Holy Spirit lives in me"? I told my prayer partner last week as we wrestled through this question "If I am not saved, I can't be saved". I have begged The Lord to save me a thousand times. My wise prayer partner told me it would be like asking my wife to marry me a thousand times.

I, in my limited human understanding, tried to answer his questions as much as possible and I thought that this might be helpful to others out there struggling with the same thoughts...
===================================================================================

Oh, my lovely friend. I've wrestled with the same question from time to time, but after how God has so thoroughly provided for me, time and again, and proven Himself faithful to me, insignificant, mere mortal, completely daily sinner ME, I have no more doubts b/c He always looks after His own and provides for whose who are His, in Him.

I, like Jack, and everyone else here is a sinner. I freely admit to smoking from time to time, to drinking a little too much sometimes, to having the absolute WORST mouth when it comes to traffic...unless my kids are in the truck with me, to conforming a little too much to the world much more often than I should (which is to be never) and not spending enough time in the Word, among many, many other things. But do I love God with all my heart? Does He work on me daily? Does the thought of being without Him in my life bring me to tears and despair? Yes, yes, yes.

Satan likes to make us question our salvation. Does it mean we're not saved? As Paul said, "God forbid!" But Satan is the master of mind games. Satan has no control except the power of deceit. He seeks to lead us away from God; he tempts us to lose our focus. Like the experience of Peter, walking on the water in front of our Lord, Satan seeks to have us sink into our own raging sea of doubt and fear (Matthew 14:30-31). Satan is at work in our minds and hearts as we contemplate this. He is saying to us that not only is the Christian commitment difficult, it is unattainable. Satan's attack upon us as Christians is to try and deceive us into giving up the Christian struggle. And, it is a struggle, sometimes more than others, as we seek to not conform to this world that surrounds us 24/7. As Christians we are encouraged to believe that the improbable walk up the steep path of our Christian journey is not by our own power, but by the presence and power of God (Matthew 19:26). Satan deceives by telling us that we must rely upon ourselves, and therefore Christianity is futile.

Satan plays out his deception according to the faith and life of those that he is tempting. For those who are close to God, Satan must work hard to deceive – for these he will even attempt to copy the very power and glory of God himself (Angel of "Light" anyone?) – but sometimes it is as easy as planting seeds to doubt their salvation. Especially when there are already struggles going on in their lives.

The greatest deceit, the great victory of Satan is not that he is leading a willing world to destruction, it is that he is, sadly, often able to deceive and lead astray the Christian person who is struggling to be transformed more and more into the image of Christ (Rom 12:2). Satan deceives the Christian by convincing him to take his attention off Christ. To become doubting of the power and promises of God.

How do we resist this deceit? What is the response of the Christian person to the tricks and deceit and charms of the Devil? The answer for the Christian is to continually seek God and His Kingdom; to fight the deceits of the Devil, despite the pain and suffering he can cause, with a faith founded upon the All-powerful and All-loving God.

Satan can only deceive, he CANNOT pluck us out of the hand of God, he CANNOT send us unwillingly from the kingdom of God. If God no longer becomes the focus of our vision and life, it is not He who has moved, it is that we have taken our gaze from him. God doesn't move, He doesn't change. He is the same tomorrow as He is today and was yesterday. We are the ones who move closer or further from Him.

One of my very most favorite verses is this: For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38-39.

Did you read that? Truly read each and every word? It is in the Word of God, the infallible, inerrant Word of our Creator, therefore it is true. God cannot lie. Nothing...NOTHING can separate us from His love...once we are His, WE ARE HIS. We can question and doubt all we want. We have times in our lives where we go through the valley, such as what you are going through, my dear Sarge, but God allows us to go through those valleys so that we know we have free will to choose, to question, to try and work things out in our minds. He allows us to go through them so that when we realize that God has saved us because He called US to Him; because He LOVES us with a love that is eternal, He CHOSE US from the beginning of time and there is nothing we can do to remove ourselves from His hand, from His love, from His grace or mercy; then we will fully GET IT. God allows us to go through these valleys so that we can better appreciate the view from the peaks once we stop trying to work out our salvation in our own mind and accept that it just IS...with absolutely no help from us.

One of my tattoos, yes, I have tats, has a beautiful cross with wings and a banner above and around the cross and up top it says one of the five solas...Solus Christus...meaning Christ Alone. In Christ ALONE I am saved. Christ ALONE. The rest of the banner says "Grace", "Forgiveness", and "Mercy" with "Love" being at the bottom of the Cross. These are all attributes of God that I cling to on a daily basis, attributes without which I would be totally lost.

I love that I KNOW that my God is BIGGER than any problems that I'm facing. Trust, placing absolute and completely trust in Him has, admittedly, been hard for my human nature to do. But God has been gracious and merciful with my stubbornness and pride and has led me, sometimes gently, sometimes with a THUMP upside my head, to that place where, no matter what happens to me, I KNOW I am His. I KNOW He is in control of it all. I KNOW that all outcomes have His approval, even though I don't understand at the time – I know I will understand in God's time. But it was not always so and that struggle happens for most of us at different times. How I envy those who have always had that complete and utter faith and trust in the Lord and have never questioned. But I also know that in my struggles in my own mind, life and heart, I have reached a level of complete understanding that they possibly might never know.

I pray that you find that understanding very soon...and as Christine so succinctly put it...GET THE DEVIL OUT OF YOUR HEAD! He doesn't belong there, but he's trying to weasel his way in. Call out to Jesus...resist the devil and he will flee from you.

My love and prayers go out for you, my friend. I'm including the lyrics to two of my very favorite Christian contemporary songs. It's appropriately titled, "Cry Out to Jesus" by Third Day (my favorite line is "He'll meet you wherever you are") and "Untitled Hymn" by Chris Rice...this one I always cry on, I can't even read the lyrics without tearing up.

Cry Out To Jesus

To everyone who's lost someone they love
Long before it was their time
You feel like the days you had were not enough
when you said goodbye

And to all of the people with burdens and pains
Keeping you back from your life
You believe that there's nothing and there is no one
Who can make it right

There is hope for the helpless
Rest for the weary
Love for the broken heart
There is grace and forgiveness
Mercy and healing
He'll meet you wherever you are
Cry out to Jesus, Cry out to Jesus

For the marriage that's struggling just to hang on
They lost all of their faith in love
They've done all they can to make it right again
Still it's not enough

For the ones who can't break the addictions and chains
You try to give up but you come back again
Just remember that you're not alone in your shame
And your suffering

When you're lonely
And it feels like the whole world is falling on you
You just reach out, you just cry out to Jesus
Cry to Jesus

To the widow who suffers from being alone
Wiping the tears from her eyes
For the children around the world without a home
Say a prayer tonight

There is hope for the helpless
Rest for the weary
Love for the broken heart
There is grace and forgiveness
Mercy and healing
He'll meet you wherever you are
Cry out to Jesus, Cry out to Jesus

Untitled Hymn

Weak and wounded sinner
Lost and left to die
O, raise your head, for love is passing by
Come to Jesus
Come to Jesus
Come to Jesus and live!

Now your burden's lifted
And carried far away
And precious blood has washed away the stain, so
Sing to Jesus
Sing to Jesus
Sing to Jesus and live!

And like a newborn baby
Don't be afraid to crawl
And remember when you walk
Sometimes we fall...so
Fall on Jesus
Fall on Jesus
Fall on Jesus and live!

Sometimes the way is lonely
And steep and filled with pain
So if your sky is dark and pours the rain, then
Cry to Jesus
Cry to Jesus
Cry to Jesus and live!

O, and when the love spills over
And music fills the night
And when you can't contain your joy inside, then
Dance for Jesus
Dance for Jesus
Dance for Jesus and live!

And with your final heartbeat
Kiss the world goodbye
Then go in peace, and laugh on Glory's side, and
Fly to Jesus
Fly to Jesus
Fly to Jesus and live!