Easter is Coming!

                What better timing than today for Easter to be on the horizon. Easter comes after the first full moon following the vernal equinox. So, Sunday is Easter. Our hearts are broken for the families of victims of the terror attacks in Brussels and the Dutch as they deal with a very real threat to their health and safety in their country. It brings to the forefront the darkness of man and this sin infected world we live in. In the midst of that Easter is a bright and shining light.

                The looming anger of voters tired of the way things have been for a million different reasons all clamoring to be heard at the expense of other voices contributes to our uncertainty. Uncertainty is the bane of our existence anyway. When any event happens we wonder what it means and how it will affect us. The talking heads all theorize what will happen and how good/bad it will be. Of course, they don’t know what’s going to happen nor are they held accountable for the failed predictions. They are just running their mouths filling air time. The sad thing is we believe them especially the loud ones. In fact, no one really knows. Easter is the bright and shining light in the midst of that uncertainty.

Peter and John upon seeing the empty tomb and carefully folded shroud must have thought “what’s it mean?” In just a few days their world had been turned upside down and sideways even from the upside down of the ministry life they had been living for the past 3 ½ years. This “kingdom” they had expected to be revealed was but a dream from the night now that Jesus had been crucified. He brought the dead back to life. He made the lame to walk, the blind to see, the deaf to hear and brought the outcast into the inner circle of life. Now he was dead and his body was missing. “What’s it mean,” was the understatement of time. It led to a flood of questions and a tidal wave of confusion and uncertainty. Easter is clarity.

Easter means death is defeated, sin is crucified and the grave has been overcome. Could it be that all the other things he said are true? Easter says YES. He is alive and well and overcoming sin and the effects of sin on this world. It means terrorism is useless. How can terror and fear rule when Jesus is alive just as he said?

Easter means grace wins. God’s forgiveness overcomes your past which led to death. In fact, grace makes your past irrelevant. It also makes the past of others unimportant. The playing field of life has been leveled for you and the whole world by grace. Easter means a fresh start, a new adventure. Light and life abounding in the face of darkness and death. It means there is hope for the hopeless and help for the helpless. It means there will be life following death. Death is no end just a turning of the page. It means we are not condemned or condoned for our sin but forgiven. Ah forgiven, that’s what Easter means. I hope you have a marvelous Easter celebrating life and living.

Easter is here! That’s what it means.

        

In HIS service and yours,                                                           

BroG

Someone is Crazy about You!

                 Now I don’t mean Bates Motel Crazy or Criminal Minds crazy but the good kind of Crazy. The kind of crazy that puts your picture on the fridge. The kind of crazy that sends you flowers in and out of season. The kind that paints a picture so that you might smile. The kind that listens to your nonsense anytime with undivided attention.

                The kind of crazy that gives gifts that delight us. This past Christmas my wife bought me a new guitar. Now guitar players know that that is a personal gift/purchase. She done good. Since I was a teenager I have wanted a Gibson Les Paul. I just have and when I was a teen I should have bought one because I had no other bills and some money. I didn’t. But I have always wanted one and they are more money now than I would spend unless it was some amazing deal. Well, she bought me a 2002 Les Paul Goldtop Reissue of a ’57. Seen to the right. Oh my goodness how it plays and sounds. It sustains for days and days just like it should. The first Sunday I played it at church it was delightful and in the midst of playing I looked up to see Barbara smiling. She was delighted because I was delighted. That’s the kind of crazy about you I’m talking about. You have someone just as crazy about you!

                Wednesday evening I was thinking about the gift of music. Some may not understand and I will make a feeble attempt to explain. Music is such a gift. It combines the head in that it is mathematical and technical. It combines the body as it is physical in playing and singing and it combines the heart as it is an artistic expression wrapped up in emotion and feeling. It covers all the bases for some of us. Sometimes when I am playing/singing nothing else matters in the world. All that I know is right then and there in that moment. It can be the best escape. What a crazy gift to have and be given. It is all that much better when we can use such a gift in gratitude to the one who has given it. I think God is delighted when we delight in the gifts he gives. I think there is a smile on his face and maybe a giggle of delight as we revel in his gifts.  

                The best part of gifts is giving them. Now that is a more mature position that is increasingly missed by mature adults not just kids. It is way more fun to select and choose a gift that the one you are crazy about will enjoy and delight in and enjoy than getting one. What makes it the absolute best is to be there and see them enjoy the gift, to revel in it. Now that is fun. When Elizabeth and Carolyn were little and got a new dress they would parade in front of me and spin. Together we would evaluate the twirl factor. If the dress spun out well it got the approval and their eyes would light up.  In case you missed it, God is crazy about you. You are his twirl factor. His crowning jewel of creation. Sure, “He saves you to bring Him glory, to appease his justice, to demonstrate his sovereignty.” (Max Lucado A Gentle Thunder) The best reason he saves us is he is CRAZY about you. He likes having you around, seeing you do what you do and be who he is making you to be.

           

In HIS service and yours,                                                          

BroG

Spring is Coming!

                I noticed it in earnest Wednesday as I was on the road. In front of me was a Red Bud tree in bloom. In my mind that is THE sign of Spring in the south Georgia. I had seen some of the early azaleas in bloom here and there but that Red Bud tree confirmed what the azaleas were whispering. What do you use for confirmation? How do you confirm a hunch or suspicion? How do you double check a word from God? Let’s consider the story of Gideon.

                Israel had gone back to their path of sin and so were no under oppression. Some have painted a picture of their situation using the movie Ants. Israel is represented by the ants and the Midianites are the grasshoppers. Israel would plant and work the ground and Midian would come in and take what they wanted. Under this extreme existence Gideon is found threshing wheat in a wine press to hide from the Midianites.

¹² Then the Angel of the Lord appeared to him and said: “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.” Judges 6:12 HCSB

He looks very brave indeed! Gideon asks for a sign that he is God and the LORD gives it striking fear in Gideon’s heart as he had seen God.

                The enemies of Israel amass in the Valley of Jezreel ready for war. Gideon is not sure if he can do it. He is not mighty and his family is the smallest and the leastest and the ….. you know how that goes. So he asks God for a sign. Not looking to the heavens or nature or facebook or you know again. No, He asks God for confirmation. Is that what you would do? How about first?    

³⁶ Then Gideon said to God, “If You will deliver Israel by my hand, as You said, ³⁷ I will put a fleece of wool here on the threshing floor. If dew is only on the fleece, and all the ground is dry, I will know that You will deliver Israel by my strength, as You said.” ³⁸ And that is what happened. When he got up early in the morning, he squeezed the fleece and wrung dew out of it, filling a bowl with water. Judges 6:36-38 HCSB

Not being sure Gideon asks again. Really, again the next night. This guy is a mighty warrior indeed, NOT. He is more like you and I…Isn’t he? We struggle taking God at his word. We look to all kinds of sources and people for what to do and when and never or at least only in the end ask God for direction. We pray “God go with us” or “God be with us” when he never leaves us. He is ALWAYS there. What we need to pray for is our eyes, ears and hearts to be open to see, hear and experience his presence. We need to pray for him to reveal his next direction as we follow.

While we are at it let’s be sure to check our sources of confirmation. In prayer God directs, in Scripture God will confirm, in life He will reconfirm, in THAT order. He is a GREAT leader and used Gideon who apart from God was not a warrior to defeat the enemies of Israel when they cried out to the Lord. Read chapter 7 and see how the Lord did it. It’s amazing.        

In HIS service and Yours,                                                           

BroG