There are many reasons to regularly gather with other followers of Jesus, but each of them points to the ultimate reason for getting together. Christian community serves as a reminder that we are not the center of it all. It’s an interruption of our thinking that it’s our duty to carry out our plans in our ways with our wisdom by our strength to accomplish our goals so we can be happy with ourselves and our lives. Attending a “church service” reorients us and refreshes us so we get our minds and hearts back where they belong, on Jesus. This is how He gets the honor He deserves and we get the happiness we desire.
Praise And Pleasure
What you’ll discover about life with Jesus is this… The better you know Him, the longer you follow Him, and the greater you enjoy Him, the deeper you will experience all the blessings and benefits of grace. He will be honored in you and you will be happy in Him. And that’s what grace is all about. God and sinner reconciled so that… God receives the full and lasting worship He’s always deserved, and you receive the full and lasting happiness you’ve always desired. It starts now, grows over time, and will extend into eternity where it will explode into unhindered, unbridled, uninterrupted pleasure forevermore.
An Infinite Difference
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.
It’s All About
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.
Our Lives Are Full Because The Tomb Is Empty
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.
The Gruesomeness And Graciousness Of The Cross
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.
Honor The Blesser For Your Blessings
God is worthy to be praised for Who He is, what He has already done for us, and what we are trusting Him to do for us in Christ. Every good thing that we have in our lives past, present and future is a gift of His grace. Even the things we think we worked hard to gain for ourselves are made possible by Him, for every ability and opportunity are given to us from Him. Therefore, let us celebrate Him before others and commend Him to others for all that He does for us, and that He delights to do so. Today… Honor Him for His blessings. Honor Him by enjoying His blessings as He intends. Honor Him for being a Blesser.
He Doesn’t Need Advice
He doesn’t need advice. He doesn’t need instructions. He doesn’t need guidance. God rules and reigns over every location and situation in the universe with absolute certainty. You will not find Him getting confused, getting caught off guard or getting into a place where He second guesses Himself. He always knows what to do, how to do it, and when to do it in order to accomplish the goal of His purpose and the good of His people. This is the One we turn to and trust in! When we struggle to make sense of our lives, let us remember: Even if we don’t know what it is, God always knows exactly what He’s doing.
He Didn’t Need A Blueprint
He didn’t need a blueprint. He didn’t need inspiration. He didn’t need assistance. God created all of the universe without anyone’s ideas, input, ingenuity, innovation or imagination. He just designed it all and made it all out of nothing. When you consider the amazing diversity and creativity and majesty displayed in every corner of the created world that we can see, hear, smell, taste and feel, God’s handiwork is just absolutely stunning. He created angles and dimensions, shapes and textures, colors and flavors, scents and elements, and, well, everything known and unknown to us. Praise Him for He has done great things!
God’s Honor, Our Happiness
The ultimate goal of our lives is for God to be honored in us and us to be happy in Him. There isn’t anything higher to aspire to than the duality of God’s honor and our happiness. When we thank Him, trust Him, and treasure Him, these two things are achieved. Thanking Him means our hearts are glad because of something He gets glory for doing. Trusting Him means we delight to do what God has decided because we believe that He is good. Treasuring Him means we find enjoyment in His companionship because He is infinitely worth knowing. To seek His honor is to seek our happiness.
It Is Always Appropriate To Applaud God
Who He is deserves it. What He does deserves it. Our great God accomplishes great things and is worthy of our heartfelt praise. Let us stand still, stand back and stand in awe of the One Who is perfect in every act, every decision, every purpose, every trait and every way. He creates from nothing. He rules over everything. He can do anything. And all that He is, says and does is good. We cannot improve upon a single thing in the universe that bears His handiwork or bears His likeness. Today, let us worship Him with glad and grateful and glory-giving hearts, remembering this: It is always appropriate to applaud God.
Privileges And Responsibilities
Being in a loving relationship with Jesus brings both gracious privileges and glorious responsibilities. On one hand, we are given endless blessings that will carry on throughout eternity. On the other hand, we are given important assignments to be carried out until completion. While it may seem like the privileges are more desirable than the responsibilities, this should not be so. Our assigned tasks are opportunities to proclaim, serve, please, model and glorify the One Who saves us by His grace. When we do the good things that Jesus has planned for us, we do them unto Him. That, in itself, is a privilege.
Doing Good
Our motive. Our mission. We need to communicate these two things to others when we show them love through the way we treat them. First, we need to let them know that the good we do for them comes from appreciation for what God has done for us and anticipation of what God will do for us. It is from the overflow of what we get from Him that we give to others. Second, we need to let them know that we do good works because a good God has commissioned us to go in His Name to share His love with others. Let us credit Him by telling people this… God has done good to me. God has sent me to do good to you.
Wonderful Gifts, Wonderful Gift-Giver
It is right to enjoy the good gifts of God in the way that He designed them to be enjoyed because that’s why He gives them to us. The sights, sounds, smells, tastes and touches of the created world are supposed to be enjoyed because God made them to send and made us to receive … pleasure. But rather than enjoying them too little (ingratitude) or too much (idolatry), let us enjoy them as they were intended, as a catalyst for treasuring the Gift-Giver far beyond what He might give to us. The gifts that God sends us are wonderful; but they are nowhere near as wonderful as Him.
Salty And Shiny
You were made to influence the world for good in such a way that God gets the credit. God calls you. God prepares you. God sends you. God empowers you. God uses you. God rewards you. He gives you a platform to shine light into the surrounding darkness. He gives you a platform to salt the surrounding flavorlessness. Why? So others come into the light. So others taste the flavor. Christians are salty and shiny when they make God and His kingdom taste and look good through the things we say and do, so that others find their way to happiness in Him and He is honored in them.
God Is Good All The Time
It’s easy, common and right to feel and say how good God is when the trouble was avoided, the trial has ended or the treasure is received. Oh, how good He is to us! But when we don’t get what we want, or when we get what we don’t want, God is still good, and God is still good to us. His goodness doesn’t disappear when hard things appear; it shines ever so brightly as He works for us to provide all the help we need to endure life’s disappointments, detours and disasters until we get to the other side to something better. Truly… God is good all the time. And all the time God is good.
Not To Us, But To God Be The Glory
Christians should talk more about what God has done than about what we have done. Even when we speak of what we do, it should be as a platform to talk about the enabling power, provision and presence of God in our lives. We don’t have it all together. We won’t get it all together. We can’t keep it all together. None of us wear capes as if we are super Christians; we wear the righteousness of Jesus. None of us have magical powers that enable us to do things; we have the power of the Holy Spirit. None of us belong on the throne of worship; we belong to a Heavenly Father Who does. Not to us, but to God be the glory!
Living Fully
Living fully is not about having the most fun, experiencing the greatest pleasure, and doing the biggest good in this world as if this place is all there is. Instead, it’s about the eternal ripple that your life can make when you use it for Jesus. That doesn’t mean you leave happiness and helpfulness behind; it means you find it in a more meaningful way. We are to be faithful witnesses for God in the everyday things of life that we’re already doing on earth (from cookouts to workouts to hangouts) in such a way that we’ll be glad we did when we get to heaven. Enjoy blessings. Do good. Glorify God. Live this life in light of the one to come.
God Is After His Honor And Our Happiness
God wants us to be happy. When He tells us in the Bible to do, say, correct, believe, feel, think or share something, it is not to take away our happiness, but rather it is to take away the things that are in the way of our full and lasting happiness. We must trust that God is after our happiness, that He knows best how to bring about our happiness, and that what He tells us in the Bible is designed to lead us into happiness. Doing what God tells us is not always easy, popular or instantly gratifying. But it is always for good, always better in the end than sin, and always the best option for making us truly, ultimately, and eternally happy. When God speaks… He does not want our begrudging submission; He wants our joyful adoration.
I Can Do All Things … Through Christ Who Giv …
Self-help. Personal achievement. Human ingenuity. Man-made creations. We often think too highly of ourselves, talk too much about ourselves, and turn too much to ourselves as if God is not there and as if we do not need Him even if He is. But the truth is… The only reason we turn to self-help is because we’ve made a mess that we’re trying to fix. We achieve only what God has given us capabilities to do. The discoveries we’ve made are just that, things that God has known all along. Man-made lakes are filled with God-made water on God-made land. Let us remember: There is a big difference between “I can do all things” and “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.”
