Does life have a backstory?

There are seven billion people in the world. Seven billion stories. And yet there are themes in our stories that are universal: betrayal, love, romance, redemption, sacrifice.

The question—and it’s a really big question—is if there’s a larger story or narrative to which all our stories relate, one that makes sense of our shared experience—a common Back Story. It’s a question you need to answer for yourself. But before coming to a conclusion, consider this story and how it intersects with your own.

“But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’ Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.” (Galatians 4:4-7)

The big picture of Christmas does not start in Bethlehem, or in the manger, or with angels announcing the Savior’s birth. The big picture of Christmas begins all the way back in the Garden of Eden, though God knew well before that exactly what would happen. Adam and Eve disobeyed the Lord and thereby poisoned the entire human race with sin. Every single person from then on has sinned against God.

Long before that time, God was already preparing the ultimate sacrifice to erase the sins of everyone who would receive His offer. God referred to the coming Messiah by saying Satan would bruise His heel. (Genesis 3:15) Christ’s ultimate victory over the devil is forecast in the same verse: “He will bruise your head.” Then God killed an animal to create coverings for Adam and Eve, an indication that blood had to be shed on a person’s behalf for him or her to be forgiven of sin.

Scripture and human history books reveal the Father’s continuous preparation for Messiah’s arrival. God promised to bless all nations through Abraham, and Jesus is of Abraham’s lineage through the patriarch’s great-grandson Judah. And God used Alexander the Great?sinner though he was?to spread the easily understood Greek language throughout the world. In that way, there was already a common language when the disciples began to travel and share the Good News.

Christmas did not begin in a Bethlehem stable or end on Calvary’s cross. God’s plan is eternal, and He prepared it all for you.
The Christmas story starts in Bethlehem but Christmas brings with it many gifts. Take our study on the Gifts of Christmas.

“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.”  (Galatians 5:1)

This week, as we remember the fallen soldiers who have given their lives for our freedom, we can’t help but also remember the great sacrifice that bought the freedom of our souls!

“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.”  (Galatians 5:1)

Jesus Christ willing gave His life to purchase freedom for you and me; freedom from the darkness that draws us into behaviors, habits and life style choices that enslave us and take us far from the plan of grace and goodness that He holds for each of us. The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the most important event that planet Earth has ever seen. Have you experienced the freedom for your soul that His sacrifice bought?

“For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.” (1 Cor. 15:3 & 4)

I’m sure God knew how easy it would be for us to forget this great sacrifice as we hurry through our busy days. He actually provides a regular reminder for us. He calls us to take part in Communion and with good reason. It helps us remember.

“Do this in remembrance of me. For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.” (1 Corinthians 11: 26)

In the business of “doing life” we often forget just what is actually proclaimed by Jesus’ death and His resurrection. It can so easily slip to the background of life and we can find ourselves living in dryness of soul, with divided hearts and sometimes with powerless, defeated lives that become burdened by the things that can enslave our souls.

Jesus knows us better than we know ourselves. That’s why He calls us to regularly remember Him; to keep proclaiming, in our individual lives, the truth of what His death on the cross means to us each day. Proclaim it out loud, right now:

• I proclaim I am forgiven (Thank you Lord! You alone know how I need You.)
• I proclaim I am loved (Thank you Lord that Your love is unconditional!)
• I proclaim I am cleansed (Thank you Lord that my past is now behind me!)
• I proclaim that by His grace I have all that I need (Thank you Lord for your undeserved grace and mercy to help me in my time of need!)

Do you believe it? The very same power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead is the same power that will be at work in your life as you believe and proclaim these truths.

Welcome His forgiveness and love.
Welcome His freedom.
Welcome the celebration at the Communion table.

Have your heart refreshed with forgiveness and wholeness as you remember the great sacrifice Jesus made for your freedom.

Father God,
Amaze my heart today with the truth of these proclamations. Thank you for the hope that Your death and resurrection revives in my heart! Fill me with Your Spirit and let Your resurrection power flow in new ways in my life. Help me to remember the power, through You, that is mine every day. Help me to grow into all You have planned for me to be and to do.
In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.

 Question: How can you proclaim Jesus’ death and His resurrection today?

This week, as we remember the fallen soldiers who have given their lives for our freedom, we can’t help but also remember the great sacrifice that bought the freedom of our souls!

“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.”  Galatians 5:1

Jesus Christ willing gave His life to purchase freedom for you and me; freedom from the darkness that draws us into behaviors, habits and life style choices that enslave us and take us far from the plan of grace and goodness that He holds for each of us.

The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the most important event that planet Earth has ever seen. Have you experienced the freedom for your soul that His sacrifice bought?

“For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures…” 1 Cor. 15:3 & 4

I’m sure God knew how easy it would be for us to forget this great sacrifice as we hurry through our busy days. He actually provides a regular reminder for us. He calls us to take part in Communion and with good reason. It helps us remember.

“Do this in remembrance of me. For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.” 1 Corinthians 11: 26

In the business of “doing life” we often forget just what is actually proclaimed by Jesus’ death and His resurrection. It can so easily slip to the background of life and we can find ourselves living in dryness of soul, with divided hearts and sometimes with powerless, defeated lives that become burdened by the things that can enslave our souls.

Jesus knows us better than we know ourselves. That’s why He calls us to regularly remember Him; to keep proclaiming, in our individual lives, the truth of what His death on the cross means to us each day. Proclaim it out loud…right now…

• · I proclaim I am forgiven (Thank you Lord! You alone know how I need You.)
• · I proclaim I am loved (Thank you Lord that Your love is unconditional!)
• · I proclaim I am cleansed (Thank you Lord that my past is now behind me!)
• · I proclaim that by His grace I have all that I need (Thank you Lord for your undeserved grace and mercy to help me in my time of need!)

Do you believe it? The very same power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead is the same power that will be at work in your life as you believe and proclaim these truths.
Welcome His forgiveness and love.
Welcome His freedom.
Welcome the celebration at the Communion table.
Have your heart refreshed with forgiveness and wholeness as you remember the great sacrifice Jesus made for your freedom.

Father God,
Amaze my heart today with the truth of these proclamations. Thank you for the hope that Your death and resurrection revives in my heart! Fill me with Your Spirit and let Your resurrection power flow in new ways in my life. Help me to remember the power, through You, that is mine every day. Help me to grow into all You have planned for me to be and to do.
In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.

“Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen nor let them slip from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them.” (Deuteronomy 4:9)

This week I walked into a restaurant and came face to face with a wall of white hearts, each bearing a name of a soldier recently lost in the battle for freedom. Today is a special day of remembering those heroes and heroines who have courageously stood, and have bravely fallen, in order to keep freedom alive for those who come behind them. To each we are eternally grateful!

Today there are many who share a painful memory of a loved one gone in this brave fight for freedom. For some it is a faded photograph from years ago. For others, it is an empty chair at the dinner table tonight. We must remember! We dare not forget! Freedom is precious! The freedom to speak, to pray, to write, the freedom to vote, the freedom of religion, the freedom of expression are just some of the freedoms for which precious blood was spilt.

Today, let us pause and remember. Let us pause and give thanks for those brave ones who have brought us this far. Let us pause and determine to hold these freedoms high and dear and to defend them now as they have been defended in the past.

The ancient call to God’s people, the Israelites, to remember the path the Lord had led them on in their journey to freedom is a call that is well worth repeating today. It’s found in the historical record of their journey in Deuteronomy 4:9:

“Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen nor let them slip from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them.”

Father God, 
Today I pause to say “thank you” for the freedoms I enjoy; freedoms that were gained at great cost and freedoms that I do not want to take for granted. Comfort those hearts today that ache with the void of a loved one lost in this great battle. Please grant wisdom to the leaders who carry on the high cause of freedom.  Fill our hearts with Your great love and may we each do our part to bring peace today, right where we are, as we celebrate the freedoms we enjoy.  We pray this in the name of Jesus, amen.

Question: How do you and your family remember those who have fought to bring you freedom? Let’s today remember Christ, who made the ultimate sacrifice for our eternal freedom.

“Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning. This old command is the message you have heard. Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in Him and you, because the darkness is passing and the true Light is already shining.” (1 John 2:7-8)

Early in Israel’s history they were given a commandment that encompassed all other commands:

“Hear, O Israel: the LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” (Deuteronomy 6:4-5)

Followers of the one true God had heard it for thousands of years.

Jesus called it the first and greatest commandment. (Matthew 22:38) The person of Jesus Christ, God became man, changed this old command to love into a new command to love.

You see, through Jesus’ sacrifice and the reality of the Holy Spirit who lives inside us, we now have power to obey God’s word. Prior to Jesus, our human nature limited our ability to love God. Since Jesus, His transformation of our lives empowers us to love like He loves.

John says the truth of this new command is seen in Jesus. The darkness is passing – the old pattern of human effort, the darkness of trying to become acceptable to God through obeying rules. The true Light is already shining – Jesus, the true Light, provided a new way – the only way – for us to be made acceptable to God.

In one way the old command remains the same; love God with all your heart and soul and strength. In another way the command transforms into something completely new; love God through the power He gives when we believe Jesus reconciles us to God.

Holy God, thank you for sacrificing Jesus so that I could know You. Show me how to live the new command to love. Amen.

Questions: How do you understand the new command John talks about? How has Jesus shone light into your darkness?

“Never will I leave you;
never will I forsake you.” So we say with confidence,
“The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.
What can man do to me?”" (Hebrews 13:5-6)

There are all sorts of ads on television and on radio. Frequently, when it gets down to the fine print, the announcer speaks so fast that you can’t keep up with him. Why does he speak quickly? He’s reading the part the company would rather you didn’t hear. The important message: Buy it now.

Satan makes the same presentation: Don’t worry about the future; you can have immediate fulfillment now! The strength of Satan’s temptations is that worldly things are available immediately. You can have them – for a price – and they will provide temporary gratification.

The Enemy doesn’t bring up tomorrow. He invites us to forfeit our future by demanding immediate fulfillment of our desires. There is nothing you or I “must have” now that is worth stepping out of God’s will or losing the privileges and opportunities He has prepared for us. God has a plan for our lives, and there is absolutely nothing that can compare with His will, His purpose, and His goals.

Our relationship with God is the most important aspect of our existence. No experience at any time in our lives compares in the slightest with knowing Him. Yet every day, because we must “have it now,” we’re tempted to choose what Satan has to offer.

We sacrifice our future when we make irrevocable decisions during times of emotional weakness. Jesus Christ can help us face any temptation or trial Satan can throw our way. The Lord is there for us, and He will never leave us or forsake us.

Question: How does the enemy tempt you? How can you see the enemy using your weaknesses against you, and how does knowing this is occurring help you to prepare for his attacks?

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” (Matthew 16:24)

What does it mean to deny myself?

The primary thing that springs to mind is the idea of doing without things desired – a picture of a monk leading a strict and harsh life, far from luxury.

Although the concept of doing without is found in the dictionary under “deny”, the first definition under “deny” is “to declare untrue”. Of course the dictionary was referring to denying a statement, but I began to wonder if it might apply to denying oneself.

If I declared myself as being untrue, I would point to someone or something outside myself as the ultimate source of truth – it could not be found in me.

If I declared myself as being untrue, I wouldn’t trust my feelings or my interpretation of the facts.

If I declared myself as being untrue, I would admit that I am not right, that my ways are not right, that I indeed have a sinful nature that desires what is contrary to what God desires.

Is that not what Jesus is asking us to do? We must acknowledge Him as the only true one. God’s ways are always right.

We are called to choose His way rather than our own, to surrender our will to Him and to follow Him where ever He leads.

Help wanted: We need more mentors! Questions keep pouring in to the site and we need more mentors to help answer them.  Isn’t that a wonderful problem to have? Every day we get emails from people with prayer requests and questions about all aspects of life.  At the moment we have a particular need for help with relationship questions.  You don’t have to be an expert, you just need to be available for God to use.  Your experience is just what someone else needs to hear.  Learn more and apply to be a mentor today.

Question: What does the idea of “declaring yourself untrue” mean to you and your approach to God?

I have done a good deal of thinking and writing about Pharisees (probably because I understand them so well) and one comment that Jesus made about them stands out to me: “Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:20)

Such a statement would have come as a shock to the general Jewish populace who considered the Pharisees as perched atop the religious hierarchy. It certainly would have come as a shock to the Pharisees themselves, who took pride in looking down from there. These people spent all their time being righteous. They were scrupulous about this, and in so doing, they set the bar for everyone else. They were the righteous professionals. To disqualify them and everyone under them, as Jesus did, put righteousness out of everyone’s reach.

Which, of course, was the whole idea. This was not a statement to make people try harder to be holy. It was a statement to persuade people to give up trying. If Jesus was rejecting the best that the best could do, then who could possibly stand a chance of being good enough to get into heaven? No one. And isn’t that the point Jesus was trying to make? Only sinners get saved; only the lost can be found. The Pharisees were too good for heaven, too good for grace, too good for the gift of salvation.

True righteousness is something that can only come from Christ, and it comes through the admission of our own unrighteousness and a total dependence upon God to make us clean. What He wants is way beyond us and we cannot begin any real growth without realizing this. Our goodness comes through faith in what Christ has done for us on the cross in forgiving our sins and in giving us His Spirit. It is that Spirit that begins to work on our insides, changing us from the inside out, and the good that comes from this is so clearly outside our ability to manufacture it as to leave us as surprised as anyone.

I’ve often heard the objection to becoming a Christian on the grounds of Christianity being a crutch. I always laugh when I hear that because if that’s all faith is, I wouldn’t be a Christian either. Did Jesus endure a brutal death on a cross just so he could hand us a crutch to help us along? I don’t think so. We weren’t just stumbling along without Jesus; we were dead. Christianity isn’t a crutch; it’s an iron lung. It’s a cure for cancer. It’s a heart transplant.

Question: Have you ever heard someone derisively refer to faith as “just a crutch”? How did you (or how can you) respond to such an accusation?

The Resurrection: Reason to rejoice

“For we also have had the gospel preached to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard did not combine it with faith” (Hebrews 4:2).

It is sadly true that the good news of Jesus’ death and resurrection is meaningless to many who hear it. The message has no value to those who don’t believe it. Some don’t believe Jesus really died. Or they don’t believe He rose from the dead. They don’t believe He was completely sinless. They don’t believe He is God.

Maybe they don’t even believe they are sinners in need of a savior. Or maybe it is simply they don’t believe God cares about them personally. Whatever the reason, it all boils down to one thing. If you don’t believe the truth, the truth will not change you. It is worthless to you.

This is the point the writer of Hebrews is making. Many people in the past had heard that God would provide a way for them to enter His rest. But they didn’t combine the message they heard with faith.

And in this present time, many have heard of Jesus’ love, of His sacrifice on the cross, and of His promise of abundant life for both now and the future…but they don’t combine the message they hear with faith.

We must believe the truth about Jesus. We must act on what we have heard. We must combine it with faith.

Later in the same book we are told, “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him” (Hebrews 11:6).

Holy God, I come to You now, believing that You exist. You created the heavens and the earth and all that is in them. I thank You and praise You that You have made a way for me to know You. Help me to seek You with all my heart. Amen.

Questions: Is there something you have heard about Jesus but haven’t yet combined with faith? How have you experienced reward from God for earnestly seeking Him?