As I write this my wife and I are seeking a new local church with whom to fellowship. The most troublesome trend I’ve noticed as we are going through this process is that there seems to be a common thread running through many churches that emphasizes their social programs rather than the process of becoming fully committed followers of Jesus. The announcements that flash on a screen or are spoken from the stage all point to the various programming available to the attendees. As A.W. Tozer noted over fifty years ago, “Christian expectation in the average church follows the program, not the promises.” (“Faith without Expectation Is Dead”)
Love
Legacy
I believe it the responsibility and duty of each follower of Jesus to leave a legacy worthy of their calling. We have been given a finite number of days between birth and death to honor our Creator and to further His mission on earth. Too many of us proclaim Jesus to be the Lord of our lives and then live in a manner that makes no impact for the Kingdom. If Jesus is your Lord, then you will live each day with the intention of being obedient to Him and walking in His footsteps. That’s what it means to surrender your life to Him. You can’t claim He is Lord and then live a life that looks no different from that of those around you.
Easter
At the time this article is being published, it is the day after Easter. Easter is my favorite day of the year, and arguably should be so for all followers of Jesus. Certainly Christmas is important. If Christ had never been born, He could never have died, and therefore never have risen again to defeat death and save us all. But the last part – rising again and defeating death – is the entire reason we follow Him. Plenty of important and influential men have been born throughout history. Some have even died standing up for that which they believed. But only one ever rose from the dead.
Is Your Living Worth His Dying?
Good Friday is the most solemn day of the year. It is the day we remember the crucifixion of Jesus. While the event was necessary to prove the power of Christ over death and ultimately resulted in His resurrection, there is still no more ominous moment in history. Never before, never since, and never again will such a tragedy occur. We remember this day because the very creation of God, acting in the freewill given to them by their Creator, nailed His Son to a cross and watched Him die. Jesus willingly allowed them to take His life from Him so that He might be the salvation of us all.
God is Always Near
In the trials of life it often seems that God is far away. We wonder where He is in the midst of our pain, as if He wandered away and left us to fend for ourselves. The truth is that God never leaves us. Because He indwells us, it is impossible for Him to leave those who have believed in Him and committed their lives to Him. We are one, and nothing can separate us from the love of God (Romans 8:38-39). The Bible states that God knows the number of hairs on our head (Matthew 10:30). As Steven Furtick points out in his book, Crash the Chatterbox, “You can’t count someone’s hairs, one by one, from a distance.” God is always close, no matter your circumstances.