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.

Here’s a simple, but significant, lens through which life looks radically different than we often see it… will this matter 100 years from now? How we think, feel, speak, act, and react would be wonderfully different if we saw things in light of eternity, and remember that this short life is not all that there is.  Our lives would create an everlasting ripple if we could look a century into our future to see the impact of our today.  As we live by grace, in dependence upon the presence and power of Jesus, let us give less priority to the things that really don’t matter and more priority to the things that do.

When we try to make others pay for their sin, we have forgotten that Jesus paid for our sin. As recipients of grace, we are to release our instinct for revenge when others wrong us to let God judge, punish and make all things right in His timing and in His way.  Our role is to model His grace, not His judgment. Even when we must seek appropriate justice, it should be motivated by love, not hatred. So, let us overcome evil with good and leave it to God to do the work He means to do.  We who have received grace should be quickest to extend it, praying that others will turn to Jesus as we ourselves have done.

Our joy will always be at risk if it is dependent upon things that we look to instead of Jesus because we are always at risk of losing them.  The thrill fades away.  The moment is over.  The thing breaks.  The experience disappoints. The person leaves. But Jesus has promised to give us a joy that doesn’t burn out, fade out, check out or sell out so we don’t have to miss out on real and lasting happiness that is only found in Him.  Though every other form of happiness will inevitably leave or forsake us, He never will.  In Jesus, we are offered a joy that can never be taken from us no matter what else is.

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.

Bad circumstances, bad people and bad news make me want it. The more I survey the landscape of the sinfulness and brokenness we are all a part of, I look forward to our eternal heavenly home that Jesus is preparing for us so we can be with Him forever.  A place where there will be no more sorrow, suffering or sin.  A place where bad things will be eliminated, good things will be perfected and the best things will be unveiled.  Our citizenship is in heaven, and God has put a longing in us for our homeland.  When it’s hard here, let’s take heart and remember:  He is preparing a place for us, and preparing us for a place.

Imperfect words.  Imperfect actions.  Imperfect thoughts.  Imperfect attitudes.  Imperfect motives.  Even though we are not who we used to be, we are also not yet who we will become.  We are imperfect people.  That doesn’t mean we should be indifferent to our sin-produced flaws or complacent in our grace-driven effort to overcome them.   We should work hard to act like Jesus on the outside while God works to make us more like Jesus on the inside.  But we do this secure in His love, safe in His mercy and strengthened by His power.  Today, let us strive for holy living while relying on and resting in His grace.

Someone once said that God doesn’t care how many Bible verses we memorize as long as we love others.  But the Bible is where we find our definition for what love is and our demonstration of what love does.  Knowing what God has to say about love keeps us from forming our own opinions about what is right and wrong about how we feel and treat other people.  It also reminds us of His steadfast love for us despite our faults, flaws and failures.  This helps us be loving towards others who, like us, are in need of grace. God cares that we know the Bible because that’s how He prepares us to care for others.

Birds fly.  Flowers bloom. Honey sweetens. Water dampens. Light illuminates.  It’s automatic and appropriate that they do these things because that’s how they were made.  This is their nature and design, and it is right to expect them to act in a certain way just as it is right to expect saving faith in Jesus to work itself out in love.  It is normal.  It is natural.  When God’s grace remakes us into people of faith, the new love we have for God will burst forth in acts of love for others.  We can’t help but love.  We can’t stop loving.  We will live this out imperfectly, but this is for sure:  A faith that saves is a faith that loves.

One of the enemy’s biggest lies is convincing us to live as if this life is all there is.  He wants us to prioritize and pursue things that won’t matter for long over things that will matter forever. But everything looks different when you look past the temporary to eternity.   This place isn’t our home; we’re heading home.  This life won’t last forever; the next life will.  This treasure trove will fade away; the ones laid up in heaven have an everlasting shine.  Yes, let us enjoy our time on earth and the things of earth as God means for us to do.  But, even more, let us think, feel, speak and act as people who have set their sights on eternity.

God has not blessed us with time just so we can use it binge-watching Netflix.  He has not blessed us with money just so we can spend it on more comforts.  He has not blessed us with abilities and skills just so we can serve our own interests and passions.  The generosity of God has been extended to us with blessings of time, talent and treasure that we might both enjoy them ourselves and extend them to bless others. Those of us who are trusting in Jesus have been entrusted with showing the world His heart for them by being His hands and feet and mouth to them.  You have been blessed; now go be a blessing.

The paths will divide.  The objectives will conflict.  The plans will differ.  The desires will compete.  The advice will disagree.  We will often find ourselves having to choose sides for who we will listen to, go with and live to the satisfaction of … God or people.  We simply cannot be and do what will make Him happy and others happy at the same time, all the time.  Rather than compromising to satisfy the crowd, let us show others the better path, the better objective, the better plan, the better desire and the better advice found in the good news of Jesus.  Today, by grace, let us prioritize pleasing God over pleasing people.

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.