An Easter Gift for You

This Easter weekend is so tricky, isn't it?

To live "in the story". To pay attention.

Like today for example: Silent Saturday. It's a sacred day. We would do well to rest, as God and Jesus did, as the disciples, the women, all the Jewish folk observed Sabbath rest. Be still, be quiet, wait, watch. Trust. Don't worry or fret. No mindless chatter or activity.

Yet here I am, doing laundry, changing over winter curtains to spring/summer, running over to church to set up for tomorrow's Resurrection breakfast, hanging wreaths, prepping coffee pots. Next, I'll run to the store to make sure we have all the fixins for Scott to make his "famous" lemon pie (aka Joanna Gaines' famous lemon pie), his new empty nest hobby.

I was still this morning for a few hours early. I finished my Lent devotional. I prayed. I thanked God for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I thanked Jesus for dying on the cross for my sins. I marveled that He raised Himself from the dead and lives today. I cried a little when I thanked Him for being my Savior and inviting me to join His family. For my secure position in it.

I have a few cards on which I've typed a series of statements that I review and state aloud in prayer a few times a week. A practice of "preaching the Gospel to myself". I've often heard messages encouraging this but wasn't sure how to go about it - so didn't for a long time - but often wondered if I was missing something important.

At the end of every year, I become the most annoying member of our family, like clockwork. I virtually chase everyone around inviting (alright, alright, insisting) each grownup consider taking on something new, or letting go of something unnecessary or unprofitable, or perhaps adding a spiritual discipline (birthday gift for Jesus, maybe?) in hopes of placing themself in a position for spiritual growth for the next twelve months. (Notice I never call it a new year's resolution or goal - nobody digs that.)

What made this past New Year's different, was that my grown kids were home in my house. 24/7 access. Can you picture it and feel their excitement? This time I had an extra request of them. I asked for their input into one of my NY endeavors. I asked my three and their spouses, "What book(s) have you read that really marked your faith? You know, helped you grow and consequently respond in such a huge, line-in-the-sand kind of way that you recommend them to others or refer back to them again and again?" I want to read what they are reading. 

One title was given by all three of my kids. Turns out it was required reading when they attended Word of Life Bible Institute. It's a small, ancient little thing - A Gospel Primer for Christians by Milton Vincent. 

I found a copy in a basket of devotionals next to my morning chair, dusted it off and began in January. Part 1 is 31 readings called Reasons to Rehearse the Gospel Daily and Part 2 puts them in a brief list form which this Type A listmaker is most grateful for.

I was hooked right away and I tell you I understand the Gospel on a much deeper level now though I've been walking with Jesus and studying the Bible for 39 years. AND I get what preaching the Gospel to myself means practically and have a list in which to do it! Finally!

This list has enhanced my prayer time in many ways; what I talk to God about, what I ask Him for, what I don't need to ask Him for, and simply my level of gratitude and understanding. So good! 

As if all this wasn't thrilling enough, as I was making these discoveries, I said to my husband, "I wish I had a laminator so I could print these out, laminate and keep in my Bible." 

You're not going to believe what he said.

"The church has a laminator." 

My whole life changed in that moment. 

So did his.

Obviously, I can't print and laminate all of you a copy, but if you're interested in this game changing practice of preaching the Gospel to yourself every day, I'm just going to leave this list here for you. 

Read it regularly. Read it slowly. Maybe only a few lines a day. Really let it sink in. Change the pronouns so that it becomes prayer. 

I guarantee it will get you out of any funk you find yourself in, bring you encouragement on your worst day, change your complaints or entitlement to gratitude, take your eyes off self and put them on Jesus and others, give you a clear understanding of who God is, how He feels about you and what your purpose is, and just overall fill you with the fullness of joy Jesus died to give you. 

That is what we're celebrating this weekend, isn't it?

Happy Easter, dear friends. He is Risen!

Preaching the Gospel To Myself Everyday

My God is immense beyond imagination. He measured the entire universe with merely the span of His hand.

He is unimaginably awesome in all of His perfections, absolutely righteous, holy, and just in all of His ways.

He has also been unbelievably good and merciful to me as the Creator and Sustainer of my life.

Every breath, every heartbeat, every function of every organ in my body is a gift from Him.

Every legitimate pleasure I experience is a gift from His loving hand to me.

All that I am and all that I have I owe to Him and to His goodness.

My life in every way is, and will continue to be, utterly dependent upon Him in whom I live and move and have my being.

This wonderful God is the most supremely worthy Object of admiration, honor and delight in all of the universe.

He has created me with the intention that I might glorify Him by finding my soul’s delight in Him and by living in joyful obedience to Him in all of my ways.

Yet I could not have failed this great God more miserably than I have.

Instead of giving thanks to Him and humbly submitting to His rule over my life, I have rebelled against Him and have actually sought to exalt myself above Him.

Going my own way and living according to my own wisdom, I have broken countless times either the letter or the spirit of every one of God’s Ten Commandments.

Thinking myself to be wise, I have shown myself to be a fool; and because of my arrogance, God has every right to damn me to the everlasting experience of His terrifying wrath in the lake of fire.

So as for myself, apart from Christ I am bound by the guilt of my sins and also bound by the power of sin, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures.

Apart from Christ, I am so utterly deserving of and destined for eternal punishment in the lake of fire, completely unable to save myself or even to make one iota of a contribution to my own salvation.

However, what I could not do, God did – and in doing it, He did it all, sending His own Son into the world to die on the cross for my sins, thereby showing me unfathomable love.

God loved me so much that He was willing to suffer the loss of His Son, and even more amazingly, He was willing to allow His Son to suffer the loss of Him at the cross.

Jesus loved me so much that He was willing to lay down His life for me. No one could ever love me more or better than Jesus.

On the third day after Jesus’ death, God raised Him from the dead, thereby announcing that His death was completely sufficient to atone for every sin that I have or will commit throughout my lifetime.

God then exalted Christ to His own right hand, where Christ now reigns from on high, granting salvation and forgiveness to all who call on Him by faith.

Now when my time came and I placed my faith in Jesus, God instantly granted me a great salvation.

He forgave me of all my sins, past, present, and future.

He made me His child, adopting me into His family.

He gave me the gift of the Holy Spirit, who gives me God’s power, who pours out God’s love within my heart, and who tenderly communicates to my spirit that I am a child of God and an heir of eternal glory in heaven.

In saving me, God also freed me from slavery to any and all sins.

I no longer have to sin again, for sins’s mastery over me has been broken!

In saving me, God also justified me, and being justified through Christ, I have a peace with God that will endure forever.

In justifying me, God declared me innocent of my sins and pronounced me righteous with the very righteousness of Jesus.

God also made complete peace with His future and present wrath against me by Jesus, who bore it upon Himself while on the cross.

Consequently, God now has only love, compassion, and deepest affection for me, and this love is without any mingling of wrath whatsoever.

God always looks upon me and treats me with gracious favor, always working all things together for my ultimate and eternal good.

God’s grace abounds to me even through trials.

Because I am a justified one, He takes mastery over every trial and forces it to do good unto me.

When I sin, God’s grace abounds to me all the more as He graciously maintains my justified status as described above.

When I sin, God feels no wrath in His heart against me.

His heart is filled with nothing but love for me, and He longs for me to repent and confess my sins to Him, so that He might show me the gracious and forgiving love that has been in His heart all along.

God does not require my confession before He desires to forgive me.

In His heart He has already forgiven me; and when I come to Him to confess my sins to Him, He runs to me (as it were) and is repeatedly embracing and kissing me even before I get the words of my confession out of my mouth!

God does see my sins, and He is grieved by my sins. His grief comes partly from the fact that in my moments of sin, I am not receiving the fullness of His love for me.

He even sends chastisement into my life; but He does so because He is for me, and He loves me; and He disciplines me for my ultimate good.

I don’t deserve any of this, even on my best day; but this is my salvation, and in it I stand.

Thank you, Jesus.

Live in The Story

Today is Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week. Some of you know this because you've already been engaged in this sacred season through fasting, praying and giving to the poor these past six weeks.

But this week things are ramping up. Can you feel it? Today, we remembered Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem on an appointed donkey. He sat on the lowly animal and rode into the busy city while the crowd erupted into 'messianic joy' as one author put it. Men, women and children waved palm branches and laid their cloaks down for the donkey to trample over, a king's welcome. That's something. It would seem they knew who He was and what He could do for them. The Old Testament prophets said it would happen this way.

I walked that downhill road four years ago when I had the tremendous privilege of visiting the Holy Land. It's a narrow path, not like American parade routes two car lanes wide. No, anyone on the street could probably have reached out and touched Jesus if they wanted to. I want to.

What especially struck me this morning as I listened to my favorite Preacher read the familiar Bible verses was that Jesus received all the praise and affection and joy from the multitude knowing that every single person waving their branch, shouting their cheers would turn on Him - some violently - in the next few days. All of them.

Still, He loved them. Loves them. Loves you. Loves me. 

He willingly died for all sins - past, present and future. 

Jesus factored in all of my sins before He ever offered salvation to me, and I said yes. Ah, this is why we need sacred holidays and times of remembrance. 

My husband invited our people to live in The Story this coming week leading up to The Big Day, Easter Sunday. Something significant happened each day in Jesus' life this Holy Week so long ago. He overturned tables in the Temple, He washed His disciples' feet, He spoke last words, He prayed, and so much more. 

Now, I'm inviting you too. Enter the narrative every day. It's not hard to do. Read the Gospels. Stop at the end of each day. Pick it up the next. Consider where you would have stood. Participant. Spectator. Worshiper. Scoffer. Believer. Doubter. Feel the emotions. 

We can all do it. We should. Feel the weight of Jesus' suffering - and His willingness to take it upon Himself because of love for you. Remember the cost. Believe the love. Consider your response.

Go to church services. Especially Good Friday and obviously, Resurrection Sunday. There's no more important place to be, I promise.

There's a lot to think about between now and then. If we're going to give it the weight it deserves and an appropriate response, it's going to take some time. I hope you will join me in clearing out needed space and turning down distracting noise and unnecessary activity to live in The Story this week and ask God to show you the wonder in something new or something familiar.

 I'd even love to chat with you about your findings.

P.S. The songs! Listen to the songs. For those of you my age and older, dust off those Sandy Patti cd's. Play them loud and proud. Sing with gusto. Was it a morning like this? Who will call Him King of Kings? Unshakeable Kingdom, anyone? How about I've just seen Jesus? All of them!

If you're really hip, you can just ask Alexa to play them. She'll do it. Ask me how I know.