Posts from April 2022

Matthew 28:6 (NLT)  He isn’t here!  He is risen from the dead, just as He said would happen.  Come see where His body was lying. The tomb was empty.  This is the greatest reason to believe in the resurrection.  All the Jews and Romans needed to do to put an end to the spread of the resurrection story was to produce Jesus’  dead body.  But He had risen, so there was no body.  We are not believing some conjured up…

John 20:25-29 (NIV – Focus verse 29)  Then Jesus said to him (Thomas), “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”  Secular historical writers have confirmed the resurrection of Jesus Christ as an historic event.  Josephus, a Jewish non-Christian writer (The Complete Works of Flavius Josephus), and Thomas Arnold (The History of Rome), and Frank Morrison (Who Moved the Stone?) all agree that after careful investigation of the facts,…

I Corinthians 15:6 (NIV)  After that, He appeared to more than 500 of His followers at one time…  We believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ because of the many first-century people who witnessed His post-resurrection appearances.  Were they hallucinating?  Five hundred people don’t hallucinate at one time.  When Paul wrote to the people in Corinth many eyewitnesses were still alive in Jerusalem and Galilee and could be interviewed one-on-one for their stories of where and when they saw the…

II Corinthians 11:22-27 (NIV – Focus verse 25)  Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked.  I spent a night and a day in the open sea.  This is the Apostle Paul’s testimony, but many other first-century Christians were tortured for their faith.  Church historians tell us that Peter was crucified upside down.  Why would they risk their lives to preach the message of a resurrected Jesus if it was untrue?  The…

Matthew 27:62-66 (NIV – Focus verse 64a)   So give the order for the tomb to be made secure. Even today, skeptics question the validity of Christ’s resurrection.  But consider the precautions that the Romans took to make sure that Jesus’  body was secure in the tomb.  First, they put a huge stone across the entrance that was so big (some say 2 tons) that nobody was getting in or out of that tomb.  Second, they put a seal across…

I Corinthians 15:3-8a (NLT)   What I received I passed on to you as of first importance:  that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas (Peter) and then to the Twelve.  After that, He appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time… Then He appeared to James, then to…

II Peter 1:4 (NIV)  Through these He has given us His very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.  Resurrection power is not a one-time deal that happened those many years ago.  It reaches 2000 years down through history to you and me to offer us a connection to God that not only brings us personal spiritual transformation but also gives…

Ephesians 2:6 (NIV)  And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the Heavenly realms in Christ Jesus… Our salvation story is just the beginning.  Resurrection power enables us to overcome our personal limitations and go on to do amazing things with God.  We can experience spiritual growth, connect to a divine calling, and become a change agent in this world.  We get to reflect the vision of the final Kingdom that the Old Testament prophets…

Romans 8:11 (NIV)  And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit, who lives in you…  We live in a world filled with death and disease.  Despite having the best medical knowledge in the history of mankind, only Jesus has power over death.  One day, Christ will return and reset the world system that went…

Hebrews 9: 27 (The Message)  Everyone has to die once, then face the consequences (after that comes judgment – NLT).  The Resurrection validates Christ’s Message. It means that all of Jesus’  “You-have-heard-but-I-tell you”  sermons were, indeed, true (Matt. 5).  Without it we have no redeemer, just another prophet.  Without it we have no definitive truth, just another philosophy, just another point of view.  The Resurrection unmasks false beliefs.  It warns you NOT to risk your eternity on them.  It proves that life…

I Corinthians 15:13-22 (NIV) (focus v. 20)  But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead…  The Resurrection validates Christ’s identity.  It was God’s giant exclamation point to the whole world that Jesus was, indeed, the Son of God.  Jesus does have power to take away sins.  Every aspect of our faith in Jesus is rooted, connected, catalyzed, and proved through the events we remember during Easter.  The Resurrection proves that there is life after death and that Jesus was, in…

Acts 3:15 (NLT)  You killed the author of life, but God raised Him from the dead.  And we are witnesses of this fact!  The Resurrection was the game-changer.  It was not a tag-on.  No, it gave meaning to the crucifixion.  It brought resolution to it.  It turned grief into celebration.  It was the  “rest of the story.”  Without the resurrection, the story of Jesus ends in tragic death; but salvation does not end at the cross, the place of death. …

John 19:38-42  (NIV) We call it SILENT SATURDAY, a space in which we wait and hope.  Of course, we know that Sunday is coming; but the disciples didn’t know that.  All they knew was that Jesus was dead, and so were their hopes and dreams.  But faith is what you cling to when understanding is dead.  We don’t believe after we understand—no, we believe in order to understand.  SILENT SATURDAY is the time to engage faith, not disengage it.  It…

April 2  – Mark 15:21-47 – focus verse 34 (NIV) Have you ever spoken these words: God, my God, why have you abandoned me?  Maybe you didn’t say them out loud but you spoke them in your heart and mind.  At times, we go through periods of deep and profound need, but God doesn’t seem to be showing up for us.  There is only silence.  Yet, the truth is that God’s goodness is most manifest in those moments.  We can’t…

Mark 14:61-63; Mark 15:1-20 (NIV) Throughout the second half of Jesus’  earthly ministry, He alerted the disciples that they would face opposition just as He would.  Their spiritual development would depend on how well they could cope with that reality.  The stakes were high as Jesus faced the high priest, and later Pilate.  His life hung in the balance; but He did not fight back or reflect fear.  He trusted His Father.  Pilate was amazed by this (Mark 15:5).  Jesus…

John 16  Focus verse: 16:33; John 18:1-11 (NIV) As Jesus walked with His disciples from the place of the Last Supper toward the Garden of Gethsemane, He continued to press into their hearts important truths to sustain them in the coming dark hours.  He knew they would be shocked and overwhelmed by the imminent disaster.  He wanted them to remember His words when the crisis hit.  He wanted them to be able to find peace in spite of outward turmoil. …

John 12:1-9 (NLT) Mary and Martha’s dinner honored Jesus as a way to express deep appreciation for resurrecting their brother, Lazarus.  But while everyone celebrated, did Mary pick up on a melancholy tone in Jesus, something the others missed?  Was her shocking public display of affection (pouring her expensive perfume on His feet) a Spirit-led, prophetic act of worship?  As the fragrance filled the room, did the men’s chatter become quiet?  Did her grateful tears and her act of washing of…

John 11:46-53 (NLT) Raising Lazarus from the dead was the prelude to Holy Week.  It threw the religious leaders into a dilemma as they worried over how the news would spread throughout Jerusalem, just a few miles away.  Some scholars write that somewhere between 200,000 and 1 million people were in Jerusalem for Passover that year.  The religious leaders fretted over how the word about Jesus, with His healing and resurrection powers, might spread throughout the population.  Would riots break…

Proverbs 1:28-30 (The Message) You’ll need me then.  You’ll call for me, but don’t expect an answer.  No matter how hard you look, you won’t find me.  Because you hated knowledge and had nothing to do with the fear of God, because you wouldn’t take my advice and brushed aside all my offers to train you. This is a very solemn word from scripture.  “Refusal to respond to God in times of opportunity may bring a consequent silence of God…

Proverbs 1:23 (NLT)  Come and listen to my counsel.  I’ll share my heart with you and make you wise.  “Seeking God involves a response in deed as a necessary consequence of a response in heart.”  Do we take time to listen for His counsel?  Do we jump to conclusions or let Him share His heart with us?  Do we respond to His rebuke (vs. 23 NIV) or pay no attention (vs. 24 NLT)?  Do we ignore His advice and reject…

James 4:8 (NIV) Come near to God and He will come near to you… The promise is firm.  If you draw near to the Lord with a sincere heart, God will draw near to you.  Through Jesus we can  “draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and our bodies washed with pure water” (Heb. 10:22).  Times of opportunity to seek God come, but…

Psalm 9:10b (NIV)  …You, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you. Here are God’s promises to those who seek Him.  He will not forsake them (Ps 9:10).  He will manifest His goodness to them (Lam. 3:25).  He will preserve them (Zeph. 2:3).  He will help them (II Chron 20:4; 20:20-25).  He will give rest from the oppression of the enemy (II Chron 14:7; II Chron 15:3-15; Isa. 59:19).  He will give deliverance from all fears of every kind (Psa.…

John 6:44a (NIV)   (Jesus said)  “no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him…” “Fallen humanity is by nature without any desire for God and has no ability to come to God without divine aid.”  But when we start an intentional move toward knowing Him (and stick with it), we can be sure that He intends to let Himself be found (Jer. 29:13- You will seek me and find me when you seek me…

Psalm 53:2 (NIV)   God looks down from heaven on the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God.  God scans the earth looking for people who seek Him.  Does anyone seek Him and give evidence of that by living righteously?  God waits for people to acknowledge their offenses and turn toward Him in repentance and to receive healing (Hosea 5:15).  He invites humanity to seek for Him and emphasizes His omnipotence (all-powerful…

Luke 5:12-16 (NIV) (Focus verse 16) But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed. “There is a time for withdrawing oneself from activity and the crowd for the purpose of prayer.”  If it was important for Jesus, it is important for us.  How often do you get away from your busy daily life to a place of quiet solitude and spend time in contemplative prayer?  Where do you go—the beach, the mountains, a favorite park bench?  Do you allow…