Initial Thoughts for Easter 2011.

As we are still a couple of weeks away from Easter of 2011, I have been thinking of a couple of thoughts that could serve to be themes, not only for our Maundy Thursday service and/or our Easter Services at Markham Street.

The themes that come to mind most during this time of year are death and hope.

For those who have been truly redeemed and rescued by the hound of heaven, may we live lives as people who have been rescued from death and actually do have a future that is secured in the hope of Jesus Christ. May we live as aliens on this earth and may be effort to bring others into the kingdom as the Lord moves among us...

May we have hearts that are concerned for the lost, but also, may we have hearts that yearn for revival and renewal of our churches and our people...We cannot offer the hope of the gospel to anyone if it is not a natural by-product of the hope being produced in our own lives...

As Matt Maher sings: "Chris is risen from the dead, Trampling over death by death...Come Awake....Our God's not dead, He's alive, He Alive !!"

HE is Risen, He is Risen Indeed !!!

Reminiscing about relationships...

Over the last couple of weeks, I have noticed that my 5 year old son has been reminiscing with me about some of the things we have done or watched together...His point to each story is that he loved that he was there with me and that I was with him...

For the last few days, his last memory story has left me wondering.......when was the last time I shared my reminiscing stories with my Heavenly Father about time spent with Him...

What a question!!!...Begs some pretty tough thinking and some heartbreaking answers...Truth be told, I have fewer stories to tell the Lord than my son has to tell me...Maybe my lack of stories is really telling me that my love of spending time with my Lord is lacking...

My prayer is that I will effort and pursue some authentic times with the Lord....

May we pursue times with the Lord that will create memories that we can use to reminicise with the Lord...

Setting Apart Christ as Lord - Sounds Hard !

I awoke about a week ago early in the morning with 1 Peter 3:15 on the forefront of my mind. I have spent the last week pondering and debating with God the 2 main thoughts Peter wrote about in this verse and in the context of Chapter 3 of 1 Peter.

What I have come away with is this: The sufferings of this world are best responded to by us when we can "set apart" or "honor" Christ as Lord and our response to the world is an answer of hope.

We are to be such hopeful people that it literally flows out of us. According to this verse, hope is to be such a part of who we are that it is very recognizable by the world around us. What about you ? You got the hope of Christ flowing out of you ?

It is the gospel of Jesus Christ that gives us our initial foundation of hope, He is the root; it is our growth toward maturity and into the likeness of Christ as we "set" Him apart that gives bloom and blossom to the hope that is rooted in Him alone.

Another thought on this verse, if we as a people could get to the place where the honor and glory of Christ really did come first, would we still argue and complain about the things we argue and complain over today ??

It is simple to do but not easy to live out. But it is commanded of us and is therefore possible.