Resurrection Sunday

I loved this Easter for several reasons.

1. As my faith grows, my understanding of the importance of this day magnifies.
2. Church service was amazing.
3. I got to spend a wonderful day with my family.

More and more each day I recognize that The Spirit lives in me, I feel it more and more each day.  The calm, the peace, the love, the joy, all of it.  It's amazing.   I keep feeling how important it is to tell people about it.  I feel like so many people say they believe in God, they believe in Jesus but I wonder why it doesn't compel them to get excited.  To do more than buy a new dress and host an Easter egg hunt.  I'm by no means perfect and sometimes I find myself not practicing what I preach, we're all hypocrites to some extent, but I promise you I work on it every single day. 

If we celebrate Easter as a Christian then we know that Jesus told us before He left to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them and teaching them.  He told us to love God with all our heart, soul and mind.  He told us to love our neighbor as ourselves.  If we celebrate Easter and eternal life then why done we at least try to embody these things?  I don't think that means that we have to all sell all our possessions and travel to a different corner of the Earth, I think it means we should all have our own ministry, we should all each day, be trying to love everyone around us and show them Jesus' love and mercy.  People should be able to look at us as Christians and wonder what is so different about us, where do we get our overwhelming hope and joy?  Jesus says in the bible that he does not come to judge (John 12:47), so what makes us think that we can?  I pray that Jesus would come back one day and His church isn't divided because people focused more on their interpretation of the word than the Great Commission; instead of the two greatest commandments that we can all agree came from our Savior.  None of us are made perfect overnight, but are we striving everyday to be a better person, more like Jesus, more patient, kind and humble?

 

This was the setting for church this morning, so beautiful, such a wonderful message.

 

Then it was off to my mom's house for family fun time!  Tula dog is one of the sweetest doggies ever.

 

Heated game of dominoes in the back yard.   I had such a fun time with my siblings playing games and hanging out in the sun.

Timothy Keller Sermon- Justified by Faith

Timothy Keller- Justified Faith

"Justification is not merely an abstract theological concept. It is the sense of approval and belonging that every person desires. Justification is more than having our sins forgiven. It means that in God’s eyes, we are given Jesus’ perfect record. We are treated as if we had lived the perfect life that Jesus lived. We are given the love that Jesus deserved. We have the same access to the Father that Jesus has. The good news is that all of this comes, not from us doing anything, but simply by faith." -From the sermon page.

Romans 3:21-28 : 21 But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22 This righteousness is given through faith in[a] Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25 God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement,[b] through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— 26 he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.
27 Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. Because of what law? The law that requires works? No, because of the law that requires faith. 28 For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.

I wanted to find a Timothy Keller sermon on Galatians to listen to today because I have been going through his book with my small group.  I found this sermon which was somewhat similar to the word of Galatians and I loved it.  It talks about the freedom that comes with the gospel.  That no works that we can do will ever get us right with God.  Jesus has already done that for us.  That if we do works of service to get closer to God we're only doing them for ourselves.  They are selfish in nature.  They must come from a place of gratitude toward Jesus because of what he has done for us.  I love these messages because I think that it is something I need to work on, something I need to get through my head.  It's a learning process that I can certainly see growth in over the last 6 months.  It's great to be able to look back and see the changes God has made in my heart. 

Who will do that work?

This is the video they showed at church on Sunday about what the additional money given to our church is doing in India.  This is the mission trip I am working toward being a part of. 

Future Family: All the Fixins

Click here for the message.

This is a great message for people who have strife in their family.  Whether it be with a parent, sibling, aunt, uncle, cousin, anyone whom is considered family.  How we reach out to them no matter what because that's what Jesus has done for us.  We clear all paths for them to get to us so that day when they decide they want to reconcile with us the door is open. 

Made me think about my dad.  Sometimes I wonder where he was in his faith when he passed away.  I remember him wanting so bad to reconcile with one of his family members.  How it broke his heart that he didn't feel he was able to do that but he felt he had done what he could to open the door.  It made me think about how much God may have been opening his heart.  How much maybe his faith in God was driving his actions in the end.  It gave me some peace about that.

Starting Point: Sea of Glass

Click here to hear the message

I decided not to summarize these anymore because that makes me miss half the message.  I loved this sermon.  What if, like Abraham, all we have to do is trust God to be righteous in His eyes?

Genesis 15:6  Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.

Future Family: Ideally Speaking

Future Family: Ideally Speaking Click here for the message

When the ideal is hard to attain, it's tempting to just lower the bar and redefine the ideal. This can be especially true when it comes to Jesus' teachings about family, which many of us have already fallen short of. In this message, Andy Stanley explains why aiming for God's ideal is still worth it, even when our reality makes reaching it impossible.

For messages and discussion questions go to: www.futurefamily.org

Stanley explores the difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament in terms of marriage and family. In the Old Testament there aren’t a lot of great examples of how a family unit should behave. Some examples:
• Adam chose Eve over God. John Eldridge http://ransomedheart.com/ put it like this, in the Garden of Eden man chose woman over God and it has been happening like that ever since.
• First ever homicide was a brother killing brother.
• The first civil war was David and his son.

The New Testament shows us something different. During a time when women and children were about as important to men as livestock (if not less important.) Jesus came and set a new standard.

Jesus died for ALL people, not just men. Women and children were citizens of heaven just as men were. With the cross Jesus brings freedom to women and children. I love the point Stanley makes about our new world culture where marriage is less valued women and children are the ones who suffer the most. 2000 years ago Jesus gave us freedom and as we get further and further away from the values of Jesus we suffer again. Eye opening.
The New Testaments new rules are:
1. Husbands, love your wives and be considerate
2. Wives, submit to your husbands.
3. Children, obey your parents
4. Fathers, don’t irritate your children

Ephesians 6:1-2 - Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2 “Honor your father and mother”—which is the first commandment with a promise—

Colossians 3:18-19- 18 Wives, submit yourselves to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. (I know I struggle with this one too. But in the context of another couple verses, it doesn’t seem that hard.)

19 Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them.

Colossians 3:21- 21 Fathers,[a] do not embitter your children, or they will become discouraged.
Embitter is when you say something to your kids to encourage them but it may come across as more of putting pressure on them or throwing a weight on their shoulders. This is address to fathers because we can all identify how much more weighty a father’s words are than a mother’s.

1 Peter 3:7 – 7 Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers. This is telling a husband to take into consideration how your wife is feeling. Heirs- when Jesus died on the cross he died for BOTH of husband and wife, husbands are not to elevate their needs above their wives’. Makes it a little bit easier to swallow that submissive pill.

Jesus always taught toward an ideal, he pointed toward it and raised the current standard, but didn’t condemn those who fell short. As the standard got higher, the grace of God got deeper.

Are we able to embrace and ideal that may never come a reality or will we abandon it all together so we never have to feel bad about not living up to it. We can feel better about our situation if we make the rules, instead of following the standard Jesus set for us as Christians.

Matthew 19:3-8 3 Some Pharisees came to him to test him. They asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?”
4 “Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’[a] 5 and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’[b]? 6 So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”
7 “Why then,” they asked, “did Moses command that a man give his wife a certificate of divorce and send her away?”
8 Jesus replied, “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning.

The Pharisees at this point wondered “What are you going to do about all those people who got divorced, what are you going to do to them “ Jesus instead of condemning them gave his life for them.

There is tension between what’s real (biblical standard) and what’s actually happening… Will we embrace the standard that we fall short of or will we redefine it to feel better about ourselves. Even though I might not obtain it I’m still going to keep my eye on it. As followers of Jesus we don’t get to dismiss the standard. We must always strive to achieve it and remain in God’s grace.

Bridging the Gap

I've found myself in a funk recently.  Just feeling very tired and lethargic.  I made too many plans, ran myself too thin.  So at work I decided to pop in my headphones and listen to sermons all day.  I think it's needed to stay focused.  So I've already listened to 4 today this one is my 5th and I thought I'd share them on here and share a couple of my thoughts, what it helped me with to maybe revisit one day or to share with others.  This sermon is from North Point Community Church in Alpharetta, Georgia where one of my favorite pastors, Andy Stanley, preaches.  He has a way of putting the bible into very simple terms and finds ways to really apply it to your life in a way that is easy to relate to.

Click here to get to the video message.

This is more of encouragement to people to get into a small group.  It explores how important it is to be in community to be able to follow through with what we learn in church.

Matthew 7: 24 ²⁴ “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 

If you just sit in a church and hear words and gain knowledge and don't do anything with it even if you believe it and feel convicted it does no good if you don't put it into practice.  No real improvements are made just by listening or having these grand feelings of God in church, they are only made, God's faithfulness is only truly given when you are following through with what you hear.

James 1:22-25 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.

If you look in the mirror in the morning after getting out of bed, most of the time you will not leave the house unless you've done something to improve your physical appearance.  Why do we spend so much time everyday fixing what we look like out the outside but we don't do the same to fix what is going on inside. 

Stop sitting in rows and get in a circle, in community, life change happens within the context of relationships. 

healing

There is no song that heals my soul more, or makes me feel closer to Him.

Let me see your grill...

This is what I wake up to most morning.  Lucky me.

I love when Kitty's Coffee has my favorite coffee Highlander Grogg!

I should probably be marketing for the cupcake makers of Abby Girl Sweets Cupcakery.  They make such amazing cupcakes and I tell everyone about them.  My dear friend Ney'Shawne wanted to surprise her boyfriend with some strawberry cupcakes so I picked them up for her so she could share them with him!  It was hard to resist biting into one!

Downtown Skywalk Walnut St.

Seriously how did I cook my food before I had a grill? Yum...

Quite time to do my bible study called Dwell.  Excited about small group tomorrow.  I had been having a rough time working through a few issues and this quite time helped me work through it.  Feeling so much better.  Remembering this is the right path...