Today, when that temptation is offered, that relationship blows up, that meeting goes wrong, that diagnosis is grim, that pleasure is available, that problem shows up, that plan falls through, and that thing happens … you will believe something to be true.  Instead of believing sin’s promises that you have been abandoned by God, or you should accept a substitute for God, believe the promises of God.  Place your full weight on God’s Word, for it is the only solid ground in a world full of cleverly-disguised sinking sand.  If He says it, you can believe it.  And if you can believe it, you can experience its life-giving assurances.

There is an infinite difference between…  Who we were and who we are.  What we were and what we are. We were sinners who were infinitely separated from God with no hope of avoiding the coming judgment and wrath for our sin.  But God demonstrated His infinite love for us by sending Jesus to shower infinite grace upon us through His perfect life, sacrificial death and victorious resurrection.  By faith, we are now infinitely forgiven through Him, infinitely connected to Him, infinitely secure in Him, and infinitely blessed by Him!  So… Let us use our lips and our lives to give Him what He deserves:  infinite praise.

One thing most of us struggle with is disobedience by delay.  That is, we wait to do what God has called and equipped us to do. We wait until a more convenient time, thinking we have plenty of time, but more often than not, we will run out of time.    For most of us, God doesn’t mean for us to wait until some future day to serve Him by going out in a million-dollar blaze of glory, but rather He wants us to give ourselves to Him in daily nickels and dimes of service.  By grace, lay up treasures in heaven with how you use your time today. It’s not what you leave behind that matters most.  It’s what you forward ahead.

God will bring you through 100% of your dark days until He brings you home.  He will not forget you a single moment.  He will not forsake you a single time.  He will not fail you a single day. Will it always be easy? No. Will it always be comfortable? No.  Will it always be the way you want it? No. But it will always be under the careful, calculated and compassionate rule of a Father Who loves you and has a purpose for you.   Don’t give up!  Keep going! You are alive and breathing today because God made it so; God made it so because you were made to be a light in this dark world.  And you are not done shining yet.

For those who are trusting in Jesus, God is always doing much more in us, for us, around us, and through us than we are aware of.  All we see is the show, but He is working behind the scenes.  All we see is the ship, but He is working beneath the surface.  He is precise.  He is punctual.  He is providential.  We don’t have to make sense out of everything that is going on or that we are going through, but we do need to trust that God is tirelessly at work in ways that would make sense if we knew all that He knows.  And when we can’t see it with our eyes, let us believe it in our hearts.  That’s what faith is for.

This is the model, means, and motivation for every expression of our love toward the people God has put into our lives…  Jesus loves us.  Jesus loves us.  Jesus loves us.   For who better to love imperfect people than those who were at their own worst when Jesus loved them anyway?  He loved us then.  He loves us now.  He will keep loving us forever. Listen:  It’s not about trying harder to love better; it’s about rejoicing in the love that God has shown us in Jesus and then responding by loving Him back and sharing His love with other people.  There is grace for us when we get this wrong and grace to help us get it right.

Jesus did it all.  Jesus paid it all.  Jesus conquered it all. We couldn’t live up to God’s standards, so Jesus lived perfectly for us.  We couldn’t break free from sin, so He set us free.  We couldn’t atone for our transgressions, so Jesus died in our place.  We couldn’t defeat death, so He conquered the grave so we too will rise. We couldn’t earn an eternal retirement, so He paid for our inheritance.  We have become rich in salvation, forgiveness, joy, peace, glory, kindness, favor, righteousness, love and hope because of what He accomplished on our behalf.   Every good thing that is ours displays the good news of Jesus.

Do you believe that Jesus is alive?  Then don’t live as if He’s still dead.  Don’t live as if you are left to your own wisdom, strength and resources to navigate through life.  Don’t live as if this world and its stuff is all there is, and you can’t be happy unless you have more of it.   Don’t live as if your life has no real meaning and purpose, and how you spend your time doesn’t really matter.   Don’t live as if you are a victim of temptation and sin, powerless to stand up to it and resist it and defeat it.  Don’t live as if life is out of control, and you have just cause to worry and fear and dread.  If you believe He’s alive, live like He’s alive!

He Is Risen! We can rejoice and worship for the empty tomb changes everything.  Because the Lamb of God was slain, rose again and the tomb is now empty, we can be forgiven and free forever. If you are trusting Him, you are a new person with a new eternity in your future, and new potential, new purpose, new power, new pleasure in Him for everyday life even now. All because He lives! This is our hope:  Jesus has overcome the world, is with us as we live in the world, provides all that we need in this world, and promises to come back to deliver us from this world. Rejoice! Our lives are full because the tomb is empty.

Wait it out.  Wait and see.  Wait upon the Lord.  Things will break our hearts and leave us in stunned silence. But our God is sovereign, and though the sinfulness of people, the brokenness of this world and the maliciousness of Satan all rise up to seemingly stop God’s work, He makes them bow down and serve His purposes.  Struggles, suffering, sin and Satan will be defeated! Every foe we will ever face will be overturned, overthrown and overcome because Jesus is putting and will put every enemy under His foot in final and forever victory.  Until then, we wait.  But we wait in real hope of better things.

Confusion.  Shock.  Fear.  Uncertainty.  Heartbreak.  Silence.   When they laid the breathless, lifeless body of Jesus in the tomb, it must have seemed like their own breath and life had been drained from them.   Jesus. Was. Dead. And when the stone was rolled into place, it must have looked like their hopes and fate were sealed inside with the One they had pinned their hopes on and trusted their fate to.  They didn’t see it coming and wished they hadn’t seen it at all.  They laid Jesus there.  But He would not lie there for long.  They thought it was the end.  But it was just the beginning.  It was finished.  But it was not over.

The gruesomeness of what Jesus went through should grip us.  This was going to be an ugly, horrific scene that should rightly furrow our brows, sicken our stomachs, and stab our hearts because it was our sin that caused this sacrifice to be needed.  The graciousness of what Jesus went through should also grip us.  This was going to be a beautiful, wonderful act of love that should make our eyes dance, make our faces smile, and make our hearts leap with joy because He was willing to do this for us. Hallelujah! No one goes to heaven except through Him.  And no one would go through Him unless He went to the cross.

Jesus knew what awaited in Jerusalem.  Unimaginable torment.  Unthinkable anguish.  Unspeakable evil.  Unwarranted brutality. Unprecedented suffering.  No one would ever face anything like what Jesus set His face to go to.  He would absorb the wrath of God for our sins to secure the grace of God for our salvation so we could become the people of God for all eternity. He knew the horror of what was coming, but He lovingly and unflinchingly set his face towards it, locked eyeballs with it, and did not back away, back off or back down from it.  The spotless Lamb of God headed for the place of His slaughter for us.

Jesus lived a perfect life, died a sacrificial death, and rose victoriously from the grave.  He did not live, die and rise so we could remain stuck in our sin and struggles as if He did nothing at all.  He came to forgive us and free us from: bitterness, selfishness, laziness, unkindness, purposelessness, sadness, fearfulness and all ungodliness so we might walk in newness of life.  Sin-defeating, life-enabling, heart-transforming, joy-securing resurrection power is ours!  May we have a confidence in and dependance on the power and presence of Jesus today.  We aren’t who we used to be, and we don’t have to live like we are.

The gospel is not a self-help plan; it is a rescue plan.  God does not ask us to fix ourselves in five simple steps, but rather to trust in the one stunning step He took in sending Jesus to fix all that is broken in us. His generosity is breathtaking, His goodness is jaw-dropping and His grace is amazing, for He treated His Son like a sinner on the cross so sinners like you and me could be treated like a son.  The more we are aware of the depths of our sin, the more we will appreciate the depths of His salvation. So… let us marvel at and rejoice in this today: Jesus paid a debt He did not owe because we owed a debt we could not pay.

I wish I could say that my batteries are always charged, my tank is always full, and my engine is always revved up so I can handle well anything that comes my way.  But I cannot.  I often find myself depleted and run down on the inside.  And so do you. When we wonder how we can continue, we don’t need to look to our own inner strength, or our own resources, or our own usual escape.  Instead, we need to look to Jesus and lean on Jesus, because He will recharge our batteries, refill our tanks, and rev up our engines.  Remember… God doesn’t help those who help themselves.  He helps those who cannot help themselves.

Let’s be honest… Loving others isn’t as easy as it sounds.  Some of the people where we live, work and play are know-it-alls, gossips, selfish, cry-babies, back-stabbers, unforgivers, lazy, troublemakers, judgmental, self-righteous, unkind, power-hungry, cheaters, entitled, drama queens, hypocrites, snobs, braggarts, and downright unlikeable.  Who would love people like them?  Jesus.  Jesus would love people like them.  Jesus loves people like you and me, who are just like them.  We may sin differently than others we know, but we are sinners just the same.  And Jesus loves us anyway.  So we love others in His way.

Every person in your life is there for this reason: for you to love on them. God put you where you are, and brought people into your life where you are, so you could demonstrate His love for them, to them. These aren’t just neighbors, co-workers, and teammates; they are intended recipients of God’s affection to be administered through you. Every meeting, conversation and encounter is a wonderful occasion to bless and brighten someone else’s life to the glory of God.   Remember today…The intersections where your life meets someone else’s life hold a beautiful, God-given opportunity and responsibility to love like Jesus.

It’s easy to be mistaken about this, assume this, believe this, want this and live like this: that your life is all about you. But the Bible teaches that your life is all about Jesus.  Let us daily be reminded that you and I are to exalt, proclaim, model, know, serve, praise, believe, seek, adore, please, magnify, worship, defend, treasure, follow, trust, enjoy, obey and love Jesus. We do so to bring glory to the One who was slain for us, conquered sin and death for us, offers forgiveness and life to us, and has become a treasure and joy to us! Because here’s the thing… A life that is full of personal honor for Jesus is also full of personal happiness.

The world often portrays being blessed as the measure of how good we are or how good we have it.  We are blessed because of what we do, what we get to do and what we get from our doing.  But being blessed in the Kingdom of God is more than that. It doesn’t necessarily mean that all is well on the outside, but that all is well on the inside.  It doesn’t necessarily mean that all is well in the everyday matters of life, but that all is well in what matters most. It doesn’t necessarily mean that all is well now, but that all will be well forever.  Know this: Real blessing comes in things that can never be taken from us.