We’ve come into a season of KINGDOM ADVANCE! Acceleration is taking place, and this requires greater precision in our pursuit or we can more rapidly deviate from God’s intended pathway for our lives and for our legacy. Foundational truths matter more than we may realize to hold us on course. So, we return to the five foundational truths we know God has given us as a church family to focus on and to grow in together.
Jesus came bringing God’s Kingdom into the world where many kingdoms exist, and this means war!
It’s a wonderful week to celebrate Jesus! Merry Christmas! One couple shared a not so merry Christmas story that somehow speaks of joy!
Futility speaks of exhaustion that results from chronic dissatisfaction of worldly pursuits apart from God. A frustrated existence lacking purpose doesn’t come from being weary of pain. It comes from being weary of pleasure. Futility is exhausting your every dream, and still feeling barren and empty.
If I were Jesus—and let’s all be thankful I’m not—the first thing I would do after rising from the dead is make an early morning trip to Pilate’s house. I would walk through the walls of his bedchamber, sneak to the side of his bed, shake him awake, and say, “Hi! You just thought you could wash your hands of me.” Then, I would visit each Pharisee that contributed to my death. But, I am not Jesus.
Mary and the others went to cover Jesus with spices. They did not have a command from the Lord to do it, they simply wanted to. However, a large and seemingly immovable stone stood between their intentions and desires to honor Him and His physical body. Sound familiar? Have you ever desired to know Jesus more deeply, but there seemed to be a hinderance. Perhaps a personal failure, wound, or disappointment?
In a cool, dark room lies a corpse wrapped in linen cloth. His spirit has gone into Hades and brought back the keys of death and hell, freeing many who had trusted God in the Old Covenant. Only Jesus can go through hell victorious. Now it is time to display the greatness and unconquerable spirit of Jesus.
To understand the impact the resurrection of Jesus had and still has, we must try to understand it initially from a first century disciple’s perspective. The disciples had been following Jesus for about three years. They were astounded and perplexed by Him. He was their hope of a life beyond their existence as fishermen and tax collectors. They believed that Jesus was going to restore the kingdom back to Israel.
How can anything good come out of this situation? It seems that God’s typical mode is to bring good things out of bad situations exchanging beauty for ashes. “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” God seems to always bring life out of things that just don’t seem to be very life-giving and that, in and of itself, is part of the beauty of the Gospel.
This peace we read about here, in Isaiah 26, is actually the Shalom peace of God. Shalom speaks of the fullness of God’s blessing in the earth which is more than just a basic idea of peace. We read how the word “shalom” also translates prosperity, healthy, rest, wellness, welfare, happy and friendly in other portions of scripture.
Fear is a fundamental human experience in a fallen world and a fallen world is the only world we are born into. As Christians, we don’t have to live in denial of fear for that only gives fear more power. Nor do we have to succumb to it. Fear has a way of effecting and redirecting our worship for it tethers us to something that begins to determine our lives. -A.T. Hargrave
This peace we read about here in Isaiah 26 is actually the Shalom peace of God. Shalom speaks of the fullness of God’s blessing in the earth, which is more than just a basic idea of peace. We read how the word “shalom” also translates prosperity, healthy, rest, wellness, welfare, happy and friendly in other portions of scripture.
Words are meant for more than mere communication. God uses words to create. He created the fabric and existence of the entire universe with his words. Jesus came to open the dialogue between each of us and our God. It was as if the Father said, “I’d like a word with you” so He sent His Word, Jesus to come and initiate a conversation at his table. When we are engaged in conversation with God our lives and the world around us is transformed.
