Mother's Day

Mother’s Day. As those words are read there are probably as many different emotions that go along with it as there are people reading it.

This is the day, we send cards, buy gifts, have special dinners, and more to celebrate and honor this person whom we call, mother, mom, mommy or “Maaaaaaaaaa”.

I realize today that for some of you, that word, that title, mother, mom, mommy, brings with it, not a celebratory feeling, but rather a sad and possibly angry sense that you’d rather not deal with.

You might be asking what talking about Mother’s Day has to do with worship. Although many of us have wonderful memories of our mother’s and remember from an early age the special times and hold on to the precious heritage that our mother’s have provided for us, there are some of you that the only thing your mother ever gave you was life. For some, you see the pain and heartache that she gave you and it’s hard for you to even allow the though of her to cross your mind.

Whatever your particular situation, here is how I believe that we all can worship God and give Him the praise for our mother’s, no matter what our experience with or without her may be.

The one common gift each of our mother’s gave to all of us is the gift of life. With that gift of life comes one other common opportunity. That is the opportunity to have a relationship with the Living God. Without that gift of life, you would not be here today. If you were not here today, you would not have the opportunity to know Jesus Christ as Savior and be a child of God Almighty.

Scripture tells us that God formed us in our mother’s womb. He knew us by name even before we were born. It also tells us that God knew everything about us, even where we would live! The joy in the pain, the sunshine in the rain, the good in the bad of whatever your situation may be, is that God has ordered your steps right to this moment. He is here today and wants to meet with you and wants to walk the rest of your life from this moment on hand in hand with you; loving you and letting you get to know Him better and deeper each and every day. The person who God used to get you here was in large part, your mother. That is something to thank and praise God for and no matter what your history, to honor your mother for.

Pressed on Every Side, But Not Crushed

We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed,

but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned;

struck down, but not destroyed.

We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus,

so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.

2 Corinthians 4:8-10 (NIV)

Today’s headline: “Scores Die in Epic Tornado Outbreak”. Throughout the day and evening yesterday violent storms bulldozed countless homes in 5 states, forced a nuclear plant offline and left over 200 people dead and more missing.

It seems today that those kind of headlines are almost becoming common place. We don’t know what tomorrow will bring and one almost wants to sleep with one eye open.

My friend, today Father woke you up one more time for you to know that you are not defeated, that you are not alone. That doesn’t mean that you’ve never experienced loss, or that you’ve never failed, but it does mean that it’s not over and that today is a new day, a day for you to, in the midst of your circumstances realize that reality goes beyond what you can see and that as you begin to look at things from His perspective that it puts a new light on everything that you’re going through.

Scripture is a great example of seeing things from God’s perspective. We have the privilege of reading things after the fact, when in reality that is how God saw them all the time. God is not confined to time and space so everything is here and now in His eyes. Abraham could have felt defeated as he raised the knife, but God saw the ram. Job could have felt defeated as he scraped the boils off, but God saw the double portion of blessing in chapter 42. Mary could have felt defeated and crushed at the foot of the cross but God was already at the resurrection. Daniel could have felt defeated as the lions approached, but God was already telling the lions that a better meal was coming a bit later.

Whatever your present circumstances, my friend, whatever situation you find yourself in, the Holy Spirit wants to remind you as He did as He opened eyes of Elisha’s servant in 2 Kings 6:16-18, to remember that "Those who are with us are more than those who are with them."

Let’s praise Him together today and thank Him that He has already won for us and if God is for us, who or what can be against us? (Romans 8:31) And remember to pray for those who are going through the “storms of life” right now.

MJ

"No Pain, No Gain!"

Those were the words that greeted us everyday that we walked into the field house for football practice. My coach believed those words and he showed them to be true through his teams that had a winning record for years.

At that time in my spiritual journey I didn't realize that that statement was not original with Coach Fortunato. That statement is actually a biblical truth.

Throughout scripture we see men and women of God go through many types of trials and tribulations before entering into their final resting place where there is no more suffering and no more pain and where each have gained their eternal reward in the presence of Almighty God.

Our Lord Jesus set the perfect example for us to see what His followers should expect. On The first Palm Sunday, many thought their Messiah was going to come in to town with "guns blazing!" But Jesus showed them and us that before glory, suffering must take place. (Luke 24:26)

A.W. Tozar once wrote, "It is doubtful that God can use a man greatly until He hurts him deeply."

Where did we come up with the notion that causes us to ask the question, "How can a loving God allow suffering?" We have the answer to that throughout the pages of Scripture. Our loving God told us that we WILL suffer, but He also told us: “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you” (Heb. 13:5). And Paul encourages us with this: "We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body" (2Cor. 4:8-10).

Suffering is a prelude to Glory for those who know the Lord. Jesus was not only an example for us to worship and adore, but being conformed into His image includes realizing that our lives will look like His-the suffering and the glory. Don't be surprised or shun suffering. Expect it, embrace it and through your tears and pain keep your eyes on Jesus..."The pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."

Suffering before Glory – No pain, no gain! That's part of God's design.

“The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.” Colossians 1:15-20 (NIV)

Pray with me:

Father, as we celebrate this day that we call, “Palm Sunday”, we pause to reflect upon Your goodness. We give You glory, and we give You praise. Thank You for Your initiative that sent Jesus to live among us. Sending the Creator to live among the created knowing that He would be mistreated, misunderstood and eventually murdered and yet You still sent Him. But that was Your plan. You desired to have relationship with us and You were willing to sacrifice Your one and only Son in order to do so. Thank you.

Thank You that through Christ’s blood on the cross we can stand before You, not guilty. Thank You, that just like Christ rose from the grave, so we will rise from death to life eternal with You. Thank You, that although we are not worthy in and of ourselves that through Jesus You have brought us into Your Kingdom. Thank You, that we don’t have to wait until heaven to enjoy Your presence.

Thank You, Father for loving us just as we are, but loving us so much that You are not willing to leave us there. Thank You for the cross, thank You for the blood, thank You for looking beyond our faults and seeing our need, thank You for your grace that is greater than all our sin.

We join our hearts together today and shout out, “To You be the glory, great things You have done! And for that we cry out, Thank You!”

“Amen! Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks
and honor and power and strength be
to our God forever and ever. Amen!” Revelation 7:12

He Breaks The Power Of Cancelled Sin

One of the most difficult verses that I’ve studied during my journey with the Lord is 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”

As a young man, this would always bother me, especially as I read it in the King James Version, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold all things are become new.” I grew up during an era of the “sensational testimony”. By that I mean, that it seemed that the only people that gave their salvation story were those who had been saved from lives of drugs, sex, rock and roll, jail, gangs and the like. I was almost embarrassed to give my testimony. It was not that “sensational” to tell people that I asked Christ to come into my heart by the bath tub at home when I was six years old. I wanted to see that big change that everyone talked about. I lived so long with guilt and misunderstanding and wondering if my “salvation prayer” really took, because in reality, most of my sinning took place after I became a Christian!

It was not until years later that I was encouraged and reminded by someone that it took just as much of the blood of Jesus to save me as it did the person who had the most terrible testimony of all, and that I should not be ashamed that I didn’t have a testimony like that, rather, I should be grateful to God that He, by His grace protected me from going down that road.

But what about the sin issue. Okay, I’m saved, but why did I keep on sinning? Well, here’s where praise can help us to be victorious over sin. As we look at what Christ did for us we see that:Sin is cancelled, but it is not dead! Sin is cancelled, but it is not gone! Sin is cancelled, but it is very much alive!

Jesus Christ did not die and take our ability to sin away; rather, He died to give us the ability to not sin. As Wesley wrote, “He breaks the power of cancelled sin!” I cannot tell you how many years I lived frustrated asking God to take away the struggles that I had, to free me from all the things that seemed to enslave me. The change came as I began to understand that I was praying the wrong prayer. I was praying for something that had already been accomplished. I needed to ask God to help me to live in the freedom that I already had. Let’s live in that freedom today and Let our worship reflect our thankfulness for that truth.