living for eternity today
I took a drive the other day just to escape the isolation for a bit. It was eery just how quiet things were just about everywhere I went. The store lights were all off. Signs saying temporarily closed were on doors of countless stores. There was an eery quiet in the air that was disturbing. So why is the quiet so hard? Why is this forced downtime so challening?
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We use our dishwasher a lot. With a house of five and the speed of our schedules it’s just easier to throw the dishes in the dishwasher and let technology help us out a bit. Sometimes automating a task is super helpful. But there’s a small problem. Every once in a while we overfill the dishwasher and stack one bowl on top of another of block the arm of the dishwasher from spinning. When this happens the dishes don’t get cleaned all the way. Often the outside of the bowl will be clean but the inside remains dirty.
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Well it’s only a matter of time before we all are consumed by the onslaught of the dreaded Coronavirus that’s sweeping the world. But the greatest danger of the virus isn’t the illness it brings, it’s not the feeling of sickness or the cough or even the potential for death. The greatest danger of this virus, from what I’m reading is that is forcing us to react instead of respond.
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In this week’s message we spent time looking again at the final word of Jesus from the cross. Through Lent we often pick around at the seven last words of Jesus, but this year we look at just one word. The word in Greek is tetelestai, which means it is finished. The amazing part of this word is that when we really break it down, this word has 6 different meanings for us today. Each week in this series we’ll look at a different meaning of this simple yet profound word.
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Another week begins and with that comes another Music Monday. As I dug through the top hits in Christian music this morning I found this song. I had never heard it before, so I decided to give it a listen. Imagine a life where we’re bound and tied. Shackled to every bad decision, poor choice and evil thought that ever came from us. That’s the image I have in my mind when I hear this song.
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Throughout the season of Lent, those 40 days leading up to Easter, we gather on Wednesday nights for an extra time of worship and contemplation. Generally we take a theme of sorts and weave these weeks together. At the church I serve, we are journeying through the moments of Jesus’ life and looking at significant events through different eyes. This week we see things through eyes of betrayal.
It’s not a fun idea, I know! No one wants to be known for betraying anyone, much less betraying God. This week we take a look at a man named Judas. He is best known as the one who handed Jesus over to be arrested and killed. Judas traded Jesus for a friendly kiss on the cheek. How awful is that!
What would cause a man who followed Jesus so closely for a little over three years to turn on this man so quickly and for seemingly so little pay? What would make him do this? And how would Jesus react when it happened?
These are the questions we address in our Eyes on Jesus series focusing on Betraying Eyes. Take a few minutes and listen as we unpack the night when Jesus was betrayed and see just how Jesus will respond to this horrific moment.
As a parent I’ve heard this phrase probably more times than I can count. It’s one of the most annoying phrases we can hear. Right up there with are we there yet! When my children tell me they don’t want to do something, it generally begins a nice conversation about who’s in charge and sometimes you have to do things you don’t want to do in life. Then they will begrudgingly shuffle off to do the thing they don’t want to do but really don’t have a choice but to do. It’s called obedience. We don’t have to like it but we all have to obey someone at some point in life.
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The weeks leading up to Easter are known by church people as the season of Lent. This time of year consists of the 40 days, not including Sundays, that go from Ash Wednesday up to Easter morning. The purpose of this time of year is to provide time for reflection and mediation and a re-centering of our lives around what’s most important.
Let’s admit it. By now the diligent work you started back in January with those New Year’s resolutions is for many of you a thing of the past. It’s great to have a quick check in time here in the first few months of the year to get us back on track again. Lent could very well be that time to help you refocus on the things that are most important.
Through these weeks of Lent at Living Word Galena, where I serve as pastor, we’re focusing on what Greek word. It was a word that Jesus spoke while on the cross. As a matter of fact, it was the final word that Jesus spoke from the cross. That word is tetelestai. It’s a funny sounding word but it simply means it is finished. But more than just it is finished there are six different angles we can take when evaluating this word. Each week through the season of Lent, we’ll look at another one of these perspectives of it is finished and see what that means for us today.
This week our focus was on the idea of accomplished. What did Jesus accomplish for us? Why did he need to accomplish it? What does it mean for our lives today that Jesus did what he did? The short version of this message is that back in the Garden of Eden when Adam ate that forbidden fruit, he really jacked up life for all of us. He sinned and his sin made me a sinner. I know it sounds crazy but check out the message to hear more. But more than Adam making me a sinner is the reminder from our message:
What Adam did in the fall, Jesus undid on the cross. Share on XSo there you have it. Jesus accomplished something far better than Adam ruined. Give the message a listen and join us each week as we look at another aspect of what it means that Jesus finished it on the cross.
Have you ever been so enthralled in Jesus that you just wanted to sit at his feet and never leave? If you’ve ever experienced this you know just how peaceful it is to be completely in Jesus’ presence. So often in life we face the constant demands of each new day and we are so easily distracted. Even at church I often find my mind wandering instead of sitting in the midst of my Savior.
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This week we wrapped up a sermon series titled God Questions. It was a series all about questions we have for and about God. We’ve talked about Who is God and Is following God worth the trouble. This week we come face to face with a question of purpose. What does God have in store for me? Or a more general question of does God have anything in store for me? The short answer is yes, He does. But there’s so much more to it than just that.
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