This is Holy Week, commemorating the last week that Jesus
walk on this earth as a man before His cruel and undeserved death on the cross.
How will you spend it in your home? I am guessing that we will all do our share
in the purchasing of the estimated 120 million pounds of candy and then there
will be the new clothes and gifts and all that total a whopping 16+ billion
that statistics predict.
And we wonder why this nation is wandering for God. We blame
the media or the government or the Jones’ with whom we must compete. But who is
actually putting those things in your cart? Who is it that talks up the Easter
bunny and stands in line forever for a picture with that over-sized ball of fur?
I am not judging. I have been there. I just spent the morning cutting out Easter
bunny cookies for the grandkids. It isn’t such a problem to live in this
culture. The problem arises when the culture lives in you and begins to dictate
your actions, your spending habits, and the way you share truth with your kids.
Make sure that this week doesn’t pass without time spent in
reflection about the sacrifice Jesus made so that we could be with him forever.
Make sure that they know that you love them and would die for them if it would
save them…. But it won’t. It is only the death and resurrection of Jesus that
guarantees us the promised of the abundant life He promises. The only man
without sin actually took on all the sin of humankind so that we don’t have to
carry that burden of sin and separation from God. We can have victory in this
life because of what happened that first Easter.
Reflect and enjoy the week with Jesus life and death in
every dinner conversation. Let them ask hard questions and do you best to
answer and it really is okay to tell them that it is sometimes hard for you to
understand, too. Learning and grasping God’s gift is a life-long lesson. Learn
it with them!
“He included everyone in his death so that
everyone could also be included in his life, a resurrection life, a far better
life than people ever lived on their own. Because of this decision we don't
evaluate people by what they have or how they look. We looked at the Messiah
that way once and got it all wrong, as you know. We certainly don't look at him
that way anymore. Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united
with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a
new life burgeons! Look at it!
All this comes from the God who settled
the relationship between us and him, and then called us to settle our
relationships with each other. God put the world square with himself through
the Messiah, giving the world a fresh start by offering forgiveness of sins.
God has given us the task of telling everyone what he is doing. We're Christ's
representatives. God uses us to persuade men and women to drop their
differences and enter into God's work of making things right between them.
We're speaking for Christ himself now: Become friends with God; he's already a
friend with you. How? you say. In Christ. God put the wrong on him who never
did anything wrong, so we could be put right with God.”
2 Corinthians 5:15-21
No comments:
Post a Comment