YOU ARE SEEN!

You are seen!! Feeling like an outcast? Depressed? No one cares? Lonely? Disrespected? Remember: “Beer Lahai Roi”. It’s a well named by an Egyptian slave woman. You may remember the story in the Old Testament where Abraham’s wife, Sarah, gave her slave girl, Hagar, to her husband for her to bear children as Sarah was barren. However, after Hagar gave birth, the wife, Sarah, mistreated Hagar and despised her. So, Hagar fled from the house and into the desert. She sat down at a spring in the desert and an angel of the Lord appeared and told her to return and submit to her mistress. The angel promised Hagar that she would give birth to a son and name him, Ishmael, and his descendants would be too numerous to count. So at the well Hagar named it, Beer Lahai Roi - “the living one that sees me”! Read her story in Genesis 16. So friends, take the cue from Hagar; no matter what you are going thru, no matter what desert you are in, remember there is ONE, the God of all creation, who SEES YOU!

After Easter now what?

AFTER EASTER NOW WHAT?? The Easter clothes, baskets and colored eggs have been put away for now. Easter Sunday is over and most of us are back to the routine. Some to work, some to school and some to another day or two of relaxation. But, what really has Resurrection Day i.e., Easter, done to us or more specifically IN us? After Jesus rose from the dead He told his disciples to meet Him in Galilee. In Galilee Jesus gave them His last discourse of instructions. These instructions took several years to play out but eventually these disciples took the directive to heart and moved out from Jerusalem to Samaria to the utter most part of the world. However, the campaign wasn’t mass revival meetings in large arena’s nor super crowds in large convention centers. It was a simple instruction…”as you go, make disciples”. It was mainly a one on one, house to house campaign to touch others with the message of hope…the gospel. The message that the Messiah had come, lived, died and rose again. It was the message of hope…because of the resurrection we could have life after death thru this same Messiah, Jesus the Christ. So, has Easter made a difference in our lives? Has the celebration of Resurrection Sunday awakened us to the message of the resurrection Lord Jesus Christ? Or as Paul says, “arise O sleeper”. Has the excitement of Easter and the message of the resurrection turned into a massive surge of God’s children hitting the streets, taking to our neighborhoods to do exactly what the Messiah, said…GO!!!!!!!! Strike up a conversation at work, at school, in the marketplace, in our circle of influence about the meaning of Resurrection Sunday. It is the meaning of heaven or hell. It is the meaning of life or death. One to one. Person to person. Going forth to tell others what Jesus the Christ has done for us. Has He made a transformation in our lives and if so, what? It will probably take more than a few meetings with deep conversation for us to covey what this Jesus, this Resurrection Day, this Easter has done for us. If the meaning of Easter has touched US and transformed us…then the message is very clear…”as you go, make disciples”! So, who will be the first person you touch? Come on! You can do it. As you go, who will be the first person you need to tell them this Resurrection story. One on one. Person to person. Who needs to hear; Jesus loves them, came for them, died for them, wants to give them resurrection life and will one day come for them? The one person is _______________! You fill in the blank…then GO!!!!! I am praying for you and for your family

WHY of Holy Week

WOW! HOLY WEEK and what a week it was. From the excited adulations of the the multitudes when Jesus arrived in Jerusalem on a donkey to the crowd shouting ‘crucify him, crucify him’. Gethsemane to the cross to the empty tomb…wow what a week. However, this was a week planned and scripted before the foundations of the world were ever laid. (Isaiah 40:21) also see I Peter 1:20)This was God’s plan; “for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” John 3:16 When Jesus stated in Matthew 20:18, “behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the son of man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn him to death”, He knew what was coming. A week of final instructions, ridicule, scorn, beatings, trials, then death on a cruel cross – a crucifixion. All this planned, prepared and purposed from the foundation of the world. WHY?? All we like sheep have gone astray and sinned. There is none righteous NO NOT ONE. So we are covered, saved “not by something that ruins like gold or silver, but by the precious blood of Christ, who was like a pure and perfect lamb selected to redeem us by His precious blood. HOLY! “Set apart”. That’s what makes this week “holy”. A week “set apart” from the beginning time for God but back our freedom from the slavery of sin and wickedness. So, do rejoice in this Holy Week BUT don’t ever forget the WHY of this Holy Week. JESUS THE LAMB OF GOD THAT TAKES AWAY THE SINS OF THE WORLD. YOURS AND MINE! Praise to the one who redeems. I John 2:12, “I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for His name sake.”