Keep Cooking

Good Morning, You've Made It, It's Wednesday,....And It's All Downhill Now!! Our test will become our testimony. Had I not gone through the things that I've gone through,....would I still be the person I am now? Probably not. Had I not been hurt or not have hurt so many others, I might not recognize someone in pain, and be able to relate. Had I not been such a liar, I might not know the damage lies can cause. Had I not tried so many wrong ways to find happiness, would I now be able to show you a more excellent way?

Grain for bread is crushed, Indeed, he does not continue to thresh it forever.—Isaiah 28:28a (NASV)

The Bible is full of characters beaten and ground into bread that would feed the spiritual needs of God's people,...why should we be any exception. In your life there is something that has caused great pain,....a burden that seemed too heavy to bear. Isaiah is saying that our burdens can be, and often are, instruments that equip us to be a blessing.

" Because God is good, you can rest in the knowledge that He is working for good in every situation,...no matter what the circumstances are."

 (From Dream to Destiny, Robert Morris, p. 189)

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The vulnerability caused by our issues and injuries, help us to relate better to others going through similar situations.

" God is not only able to heal our hurts,...but the hurts we've caused."

Getting Real

Good Morning!! Just before the Last Supper, the night before His death, Jesus needed to make a point to His disciples: You need to be sacrificial servants. So He took out the cloth and the wash basin and washed the grimy feet of His followers. It was power and symbolic. A real attention getter: the "hay-maker" that made His lecture a knock out. Washing feet? Yes, it was the perfect conclusion  to the message that He was communicating to His often slow disciples.

Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one anothers' feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.—John 13:14-17 (NIV)
Sometimes that Christian "faith" seems too theoretical, and not nearly enough actual. Practical Christianity, has been put in a symbolic box,...particularly the things that require sacrifice and suffering. But again, Christ's suffering and our suffering are a shared experience. His sacrificial service to us, cost Him His life. Our sacrificial service to each other and the world, is also costly. But it's the real deal! And suffering as servants brings about a freedom because it's actually an extension of who we really are,...in Jesus.

Christ's actions weren’t just symbolic,...the foot washing was authentic, an extension of who Jesus really is

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O' Lord, we don't want to live in the theoretical. Jesus, we believe that we are in You, and that You are in us. Live through us today as sacrificial servants, in a practical way. May this be another experience that we can share together that will add unity to our relationship as we love the world together. Amen.

" God is not only able to heal our hurts,...but the hurts we've caused."

He Suffered, For Us

Good Morning!! The images in the movie "The Passion of Christ" stunned us all,...it show us in graphic detail, that the crucifixion was all too real,...that day in Jerusalem: real whips, real nails, scarlet blood, steaming sweat, bitter tears,...real suffering happened. After decades of dissecting the meaning of the Cross, some of us have become desensitized to the fact that the Son of God was tortured and murdered by men.

Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.—Isaiah 53:4-5 (NIV)
The writers of the Gospels don't go into the gory details of the Cross. They described His mode of torture and execution as quite a matter of fact. (Historians and Hollywood have willingly filled in the graphic descriptions.) Prior to the Cross, there is little to no indication, that Jesus knew the normal demands and limitations of the human body. We don’t have any indication that He got sick, but He may have. We do see Him being physically tired, but little hunger or thirst. After the Cross, we know that Jesus definitely understands physical suffering. Because of the suffering that He endured through His death on the Cross, we can know a peace that surpasses all comprehension, a joy in spite of our circumstances, and an intimacy with Him through that shared experience.

The important thing is that Jesus is here and Jesus cares,...but more importantly, He did something about it. 

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Lord Jesus, Isaiah predicted that You would carry our sorrows and take up our infirmities. So we leave them with You now. Thank You for the peace that was bought through Your punishment,...and the healing that we can know through Your wounds. We claim that now through faith in You. Amen.

" God is not only able to heal our hurts,...but the hurts we've caused."

Living In Light Of The Eternal

Good Morning!! God’s Word makes it pretty clear, that our bodies are only temporary. If you believe the prognosis given to you by the Great Physician, it will not only change your perspective on physical death and the fact that it is unavoidable,...it will change your life now. There is a very tangible sense of peace that comes with aligning your beliefs with what is true about the death and resurrection of your body. Stress and worry evaporate, in the presence of this type of true belief. There is a freedom, in this truth. There's no sense in denying it, or attempting to avoiding it: Our bodies will die. So why not live fearlessly? Why not live with focus? Why not live with fervor?

Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.—Psalm 23:4 (NIV)
If we only have one earthly life to live, why not push the envelope of our comfort zones, and allow Christ to live through us and lead us into worthwhile and demanding new endeavors? We can be sure that God will be with us and support us.

Here's a prime example of living in the shadow of death; " What's the worst that can happen to you?...You die,...What's the best that can happen to you?...You do something meaningful, before you die!”

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Father God, we want to use the short time we have to do what You plan for us! As we start to look outward for ways for You to live through us, give us Your eyes so we may see where we're meant to be. When we start crawling to fulfill Your plan, pick us up into a walk, and eventually a run,...that turns into a marathon towards Your glory. Overcome our fear and author our stories in radical ways. Amen.

" The Lord loves a cheerful giver,...until he brags about it."

Knowing God, Is Not Enough

Good Morning!! We often make a distinction between people who believe in God and those who do not. If someone knows about God, we think that is better than them not knowing about God. But that is not the distinction the Bible makes. The Bible says that people either believe in the true God, or they believe in idols.  Knowledge of God doesn’t change the state of your heart, and it’s the heart that matters the most. It’s in the heart where idols are created. We can touch and see and feel them. We imagine them filling our thirsty souls. They continually lure our faith, and passions away from the true Almighty God.

"Is there any God besides me? No, there is no other Rock; I know not one." All who make idols are nothing, and the things they treasure are worthless. Those who would speak up for them are blind; they are ignorant, to their own shame. Who shapes a god and casts an idol, which can profit nothing?—Isaiah 44:8-10 (NIV)
God, and God alone is Almighty. There is not a single idol on the face of the earth that we can fully depend on to meet our needs. They simply aren’t able to deliver,...so they eventually leave our hearts empty, our expectations broken, and our dreams shattered. Even the idols that appear to be able to sustain us will ultimately crumble at the moment of death,...because they are completely unable to help us beyond the grave.

Idols can be metal or they can be mental,...but there is a constant temptation to put trust in them rather than in God.

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Father God, I say that You are all I need in this life. But, in all honesty, I don’t fully believe it. Speak to me now. Reveal the idols that I cling to. Show me what I am relying on to fulfill my needs and enable me to choose You for fulfillment instead.Amen.

" The Lord loves a cheerful giver,...until he brags about it."

The Bigger Picture

Good Morning!! Without the big picture view of human history, we can lose perspective on some of the most important elements of the Great Story. If you've ever walked into the middle of a movie, you know what I mean. It can be so hard to make sense of the middle and end of the story, if you don't know how it began. It's like that with our Christian faith too. If we don't understand what life was like before Christ and before the cross, we don't get the full picture of God's character and don't get an appreciation of who we are in Christ.

"Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty."—Isaiah 6:5 (NIV)
The problem is, that we don't view sin the way God does. In fact, some of us, if we were really honest, would say, " I'm not even sure that God is a 'wrathful' God. I think He is a God of love, I think He will be nice to everyone in the end." Many of us don’t really believe in God’s righteous wrath,...and only see Him as our " buddy pal." But the Old Testament prophets knew better. The prophet Isaiah was blown away when he was given a vision of the glory of God.

A biblical view of depravity, gives us a much greater appreciation for the love of God,...and the cleansing forgiveness that we have in Christ.

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Father God, apart from what You did through Your Son on the cross, we would still be a person of unclean lips, ruined, living among unclean people. Thank You, thank You that we are now in Christ,...forgiven, cleansed by His blood, accepted by You as an heirs and children! What can we do except raise our voices in praise to You for what You have done for us? Amen! Amen!

" The Lord loves a cheerful giver,...until he brags about it."

A Wall Of Sin

Good Morning!! the Bible starts out pretty darn sweet. In a flash, God creates everything from nothing. It's so good that He calls it, well, "good." After He creates a man and a woman to live in it, He actually calls it "very good." In short, there was God, His perfect world, and a man and woman walking together with Him in perfect unity. This was Eden. It lasted for a good three pages. When the man and woman chose to doubt what God said and chose instead to believe the deception of the serpent, this perfect world was thrown into complete crisis. Adam and Eve were cast out of the garden. One of their sons murdered their other son. Insurance rates went way up. The stock market crashed. The consequences were all over the place,...and all of these consequences emerged from one central, fundamental problem:

Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear. For your hands are stained with blood, your fingers with guilt. Your lips have spoken lies, and your tongue mutters wicked things.—Isaiah 59:1-3 (NIV)
A perfect and holy Creator is separated from the creatures He loves, because of their choice to live independently of Him,...because of the barrier of sin between them. Yes, we built the wall, but Jesus tore it down.

No one sinning ever really considered the full consequences of their sins,...or how they separate us from our Holy God.

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Father God, by the power of Your Spirit and the description of Your Holy Word, allow us to imagine the great gulf that existed between You and Your children, before our redemption. Give us a glimpse of Your staggering holiness. Give us this bigger picture so that we can more fully celebrate the incredible things that Your Son accomplished on the cross. Amen!

" The Lord loves a cheerful giver,...until he brags about it."