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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
So 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.
It’s easy to let the things of this world start to make us change our outlook on life. People change and let us down. Those who seemed closed to us at one point start drifting toward other people. Our successes soon become things of the past. Our talents eventually fade. Our mistakes mount up. Those who respected us at one time, now look down on us or are simply ambivalent toward us. It’s easy to let these things changes negatively impact our view of life.
This week we started a new sermon series titled God Questions. The idea behind the series is that there are a series of questions that just about everyone asks at one point in time or another. These are what we consider the top three questions people have about God. Before we get into the series and the first message, let’s talk about the graphic for this series.
The past four weeks have been spent emptying us of our selfish desires so that we might be more filled with the things of Jesus. If you’re not a Jesus follower, then I understand this sounds a little corny but give me a few minutes and maybe something here will make a little sense.
The last couple of weeks have been pretty packed and I haven’t had a chance to write. Writing can be a bit healing for me. Today we’re going to pause for a minute and realize just how amazing God is. In a world that’s filled with pain, hurt, heartache, let downs, depression, sadness, death and so many other negative things swirling around us.
