It is Finished
Often during the music worship time at church I am taken back to that moment in history where Jesus Christ hung on a cross and was punished for the sins of the world. In my mind's eye I see the entire universe, all of creation, and all of time, pivoting on that moment.
The Old Testament Saints were looking forward to the cross in faith and the New Testament Saints look back. That remarkable moment that affected future and past. Where God righted our wrong once and for all and for all time, past, present and future.
Several years ago I wrote how God showed me that it was the joy of my salvation (and yours) that gave Jesus strength as He went to the cross. It's a similar message that Musicianaries "Take No Glory" share in their song, "He Didn't Die in Vain."
Check out all of their music. They give it away for free!
John 19:30
“Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.”
The story doesn’t end there. Jesus rose from the dead on the 3rd day! He appeared to His disciples and many others over a period of 40 days and then He ascended into Heaven where He sits at the right hand of the Father making intercession for the saints.
We are born with a sin nature thanx to the original sin committed by Adam, but God fixed it. Only He could. Sin (falling short of God’s perfection) demands a payment. Death. Jesus paid that price so God could be both Righteous and Love.
Righteous because God can’t say that sin brings death and then lie by not punishing sin. Because of God’s Love He sentenced His Son to our death so we could live with Him forever! It was the only way. That’s why Jesus said that the only way to the Father is through Him. And so it is. Finished. All you have to do is believe.
America, Our Promised Land
This is part one in a series that Pastor Duane Sheriff preached in November of 2010. Listen and be blessed as Pastor Duane reminds us of America's history and God's Will for, "America, Our Promised Land." (runs 56 minutes)
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Joel Rosenberg on Revival in the Middle East
This is from the interview I did with Joel Rosenberg on March 13, 2009 when I was the News Director for Family Life Radio. Even though that was just over two years ago, the points Rosenberg made then still apply today. I posted the entire interview yesterday, but I wanted to edit out a couple of bite sized and powerful points. There is good news and there is bad news. First the bad news.
The leaders of Iran and other Shia Muslim's believe that the 12th Imam is coming soon. To help speed his return they believe that Israel and the United States must be dealt with. Here's Joel:
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Now the good news and it is the best news possible. Rosenberg chronicles in his book, "Inside the Revolution" that revival is breaking out across the Middle East and Northern Africa. Jesus is revealing Himself to Muslim's in dreams and visions. Joel calls it the biggest story never told:
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Old Joel Rosenberg Interview
I was going through some stuff and stumbled on this. It's an interview I did with Joel Rosenberg when I was still News Director at Family Life Radio. It's the entire, unedited .mp3. It's a little long and even though it's a couple of years old, most of it applies today. If you have 13 1/2 minutes with nothing better to do, sit back and listen. If you only have 5, fast forward to the last 5 minutes or so.
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Jeremiah Elders. Running His Race
He is a student at the Phoenix Men’s Center of Teen Challenge or Arizona. Jeremiah Elders was alienated from his friends and family, running the streets, addicted to drugs and alcohol and a pack or two a day smoker. Now a year later he is free of drugs and praising God for the ability to run in a half marathon!
I had the great privilege to cover his story as part of my part time job with Teen Challenge of Arizona. It’s amazing to see God work in the lives of men and women to get them back on track of His best!
Thanx to theBCast for playing Jeremiah’s story and sharing it on their blog!
Also DailyRushbo.com
It’s Good News for a Reason!
If you have faith in what Jesus Christ did for you on the cross, then God is not holding your sins against you! Let me repeat that. God does not hold your sins against you if you are a child of God!
Your righteousness won’t get you any closer to God than the next fellow. Only God makes you righteous by your faith in His Son. Religion will tell you that you need to clean up your act in order for God to love you, bless you or approve of you. It’s just not true.
Sin IS deadly and will surely bring consequences in this life, but I repeat, if you have Jesus as your Savior God is not holding your sins against you. He is FOR YOU NOT AGAINST YOU!
This may be the best hour you invest all week and highly recommended for current and future Christians. It’s called the good news for a reason! Here is Pastor Duane Sheriff from November 28, 2010. Please listen:
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You can listen to and download all of Pastor Duane’s messages here, or just subscribe to the podcast on iTunes. You’ll be glad you did.
Love God, Love People, Continued
Just to elaborate a little more on my last post. Here is a 5 minute sample from a sermon that Pastor Duane Sheriff gave yesterday about the simple and powerful Biblical concept of Loving God and Loving People:
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You can hear the rest of Pastor Duane’s sermon and sermons here. You can also do what I do and that is subscribe to his podcast on iTunes.
Pastor Duane’s teachings have been a huge blessing in my life. I have been listening to him for 11 years and counting. I have visited his church in Durant, Oklahoma numerous times as well.
Pastor Duane’s teaching combined with my prayer time, reading my Bible and sitting under great preaching by my home pastors, I have been able to grow in God’s Word and Love. I haven’t arrived, but at least I’ve left the station, hallelujah. :-)
Overcoming Mayhem Like Me with God’s Love
At the beginning of the year I blogged about Mayhem Like Me. The human condition we find ourselves in thanx to original sin and living in a fallen world. It’s true. We sin. Sometimes we out and out disobey God, aka transgress. But that is not the end of the story! We can be encouraged by the Love of God and as a result cause less mayhem in our lives and in the lives of the people around us. Before I elaborate, let’s watch another one of those clever Allstate commercials that crack me up so much:
As I pointed out at the first of the year, you are in Good Hands when you are in God’s Hands. That is the answer to Mayhem like me.
1 Corinthians 10:13
No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.
This verse is often misapplied to mean that God won’t give you more in this life than you can handle. I believe what Paul is saying here is that when you are tempted, God provides a way out and the temptation is not so intense that you can’t escape it.
What is the best way to escape temptation? Apply a heavy dose of God’s Love. God has often spoken to me to, “never forget how much I love you.” For me (and I’m guessing for you too) when I start to think that God has forgotten me, and my patience in doing good is wearing thin, that’s when I get discouraged and start entertaining mayhem. Stuff that might be fun for a season, but ultimately can bring pain into my life and others around me.
How do you stay encouraged in God’s Love? Stay plugged into the vine. Spend time with Him and in His Word. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. As you listen to how much He loves you, and as you are reminded of all the wonderful things He has done for you, you can’t help but want to love Him back.
How do you love God back? Jesus explained more than once. It’s Love. Love God, Love People. When I teach Sunday School I tell the kids that if they forget everything else I tell them to remember one thing (which is two things). Love God. Love People. Jesus said in Matthew 22:35-40:
35 One of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him,
36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”
37 And He said to him, ” ‘YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.’
38 “This is the great and foremost commandment.
39 “The second is like it, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’
40 “On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”
Jesus also said to His disciples in John 14, “if you love Me you will keep my commandments.”
That is impossible to do perfectly. If we could keep God’s commandments by ourselves, we wouldn’t need Jesus to save us in the first place. Thankfully, God DID send Jesus to rescue us from mayhem.
So the practice of keeping mayhem out of our lives is a simple one, yet a daily struggle to walk out. First we have to accept the sacrifice that Jesus made for us on the cross. Once we do that we receive God’s Spirit to dwell inside of us. God’s Spirit leads us into all truth which boils down to Love God, Love People. If we Love God we will keep His commands. If we love people we won’t steal from them, murder them, talk bad about them behind their backs and sleep with them outside of marriage. When we have moments of weakness and give in to temptation we can run to a loving God who will forgive us because He has already paid for our sins on the cross. As we apply God’s Love in our own hearts daily, we will be better able to resist when temptation comes knocking. I love the saying, “when the devil comes knocking, send Jesus to answer the door.” It’s with His strength that we fight the good fight.
Mayhem like me? Unfortunately yes at times. But thanx to God that He gives me the power to say no to mayhem and yes to His love! When someone else gives in to mayhem and it affects me, thanx to God’s love I can forgive and even help restore the damage done.
Mayhem may be with us until Jesus comes back, but if we will practice His love in our lives, and share it with others, there will be less mayhem and more of God’s Love. That’s how God’s Kingdom is come to Earth as it is in Heaven.
I Have a Dream
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had a dream. A dream that is clearly a Biblical principle. That men would be judged by the content of their character and not the color of their skin. On this Martin Luther King, Jr. Day I think it’s appropriate to listen again to that amazing speech given in August of 1963.
There are some that complain that the Bible condones slavery. Dr. King, being a preacher of God’s Word, knew that that couldn’t be further from the truth. Unfortunately slave traders and slave owners of the 18th and 19th Centuries did what they could to cloud the issue and attempt to justify their sin. They pointed to passages in the Bible that seem to approve of slavery, but left out some very important facts.
The most important is that the slavery that was allowed in Biblical times was indentured servitude. Back then if you went into debt and couldn’t repay, you became a slave to pay off the debt. Once the debt was paid, or at Jubilee, a slave was to be set free and debt free. Many servants liked the way their masters took care of them and chose to stay as Bond Servants. (just as God’s people are called to be His Bond Servants)
Meanwhile, Man Stealing was explicitly forbidden in the Law and was punishable by death:
Exodus 21:16
16 “Anyone who kidnaps someone is to be put to death, whether the victim has been sold or is still in the kidnapper’s possession.
Any slave trader who tried to justify kidnapping people to sell them into slavery by using the Bible was adding to their list of sins.
Indeed it was a Christian that fought to end the slave trade in England. They made a movie about the life of William Wilberforce, “Amazing Grace.” The famous hymn of the same name was written by a former slave trader who later became a member of the clergy. The song conveys the amazing grace of God who can rescue even a slave trader from his horrible sins thanx to the sacrifice made on the cross by God’s only Son Jesus!
If you want to know God’s heart when it comes to prejudice you can look at Moses and his sister Miriam. In Numbers Chapter 12 we learn that Miriam and Aaron were upset at Moses because he had married an Ethiopian. God got upset and gave Miriam a taste of Leprosy:
Number 12:9-11
9 So the anger of the LORD was aroused against them, and He departed. 10 And when the cloud departed from above the tabernacle, suddenly Miriam became leprous, as white as snow. Then Aaron turned toward Miriam, and there she was, a leper. 11 So Aaron said to Moses, “Oh, my lord! Please do not lay this sin on us, in which we have done foolishly and in which we have sinned.
Moses cried out to God to heal his sister and God answered, but only after Miriam stayed outside of camp for seven days. God says that man judges the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart.. One of many great points that Martin Luther King, Jr. made in his speech was that man should see his fellow man as God sees him.
I have a dream that echos the dreams of Dr. King. That this nation will turn to Biblical principles. That God’s Word and Spirit would guide our individual words and actions. That lawmakers and those appointed in authority would look to God for guidance as they lead. And yes, that God would continue to bless America and that He would use His people to be salt and light always.
Arizona Governor Brewer’s State of the State Address Two Days after the Tucson Shooting
The Governor put aside her planned remarks and delivered a heartfelt message honoring heroes from Saturday. While we are in pain from the senseless violence from this past weekend we will not lose sight of what makes our country and our state great. Thank You Governor. May God be with you and all of us.
