Christian Screensaver: Jordan Joy

Baptism of the Lord

4 Minute Devotions: A Gift of God's Kindness

Infant baptism is a beautiful way of encountering God’s holiness in church. Babies not only have a right to life, they also have a right to be sanctified.

Podcast version here

Romans 2:4 Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God's kindness leads you toward repentance?

One of the greatest gifts that God gives to Presbyterian pastors is the joy of baptizing a child. I absolutely love cradling babies in my arms, sprinkling them with water, and declaring them to be in God’s Kingdom. It’s a beautiful ceremony and a wonderful blessing to the baby.

I have been privileged to have baptized hundreds of babies. When I was a parish minister in Scotland, I baptized many babies whose parents had hardly any connection to the church. My attitude was, and still is, that the baby is completely innocent and should welcomed by the community of faith, no matter who their parents are or what they are like. Once that wee innocent baby is baptized, no one can ever take that blessing from him or her. It’s with them throughout their lives and I firmly believe some good, at a later stage, will come from the baptism.

It’s the work of the Holy Spirit that seals the baptism. Nothing I do or say makes the ceremony sacred. The outward signs of water and word are religiously performed; the Holy Spirit is invoked to bless the water and the child – only when that happens, outwardly and inwardly does a true baptism take place. Heaven and earth meet when the innocence of the child encounters the holiness of God. It’s a wonderful moment and a sanctified time.

The riches of God’s kindness are bestowed upon the baby and parents. It is not a time of judgment, but a memorable moment of God’s love. It’s a modern equivalent of Christ saying, “Let the little ones come to me.”

I wish that more babies in our community were baptized and that the grace of God was bestowed upon them in this remarkable and miraculous way. These precious little ones not only have the right to life, they also have the right to be sanctified. I will do my utmost to baptize as many as I possibly can before I am called to glory.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank You for the sacrament of baptism and for the many babies and children who receive this blessing in our churches. Help us to reach out to other families in our community and offer them this precious gift. In Your Holy Name, we pray. Amen.

Pentecost Screensaver

Based upon a vision experience that I had for our church...

Christian Screensaver: Time to Retreat

I'm going on a three day retreat tomorrow in the Cherokee forest...



This is my visualization of my prayer time.

Sunday Sermon: A Holy Helper - John 14;15-21

Yesterday, we held an elders’ retreat here at the church. We’re working on a few important ideas about how to strengthen our church’s commitment to Christ, His Kingdom, and His ministry in this part of Knoxville. It was an important start to a series of quarterly meetings which will help us seek God’s path for our congregation in the years to come.

It’s crucial that all our elders work together by discovering what God’s will is for our wee church. We have to keep focused on what God wants us to do for Him. Too many churches these days are being swayed by the culture around them. They want to fit in with society and use marketing ploys to bring people into their organization, but not necessarily the Kingdom of God.

At the moment there’s a controversy stirring in West Knoxville because an independent church has sent out fliers stating that they will give all their new visitors a $20 gas coupon for coming to their church. I don’t know what their true intent is with this gimmick, but they’re desperately trying to get people to walk through their doors using greed as their marketing tool. In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me if the church was called The Cas Walker Memorial Church.

15 "If you love me, you will obey what I command.

This is why it is important for our church elders to work on the direction that God is leading our church. If we don’t prayerfully look for God’s guidance, we’ll end up following market trends, which will lead us away from God and stop us from obeying Christ. We have to put Jesus at the center of everything we do. We don’t exist to please ourselves; Christ allows us to exist because we try to please Him.

When Jesus was speaking to His disciples in this passage from John’s Gospel, He was doing it just before He was arrested. He was trying to cram in as many lessons and as much advice as possible before He was taken, tortured and crucified. He knew that it was important to use the intensity of the situation to drive home some very important points that would become the hallmarks of the Early Christian Church. And, in this instance He said to them: if you love me, you will obey what I command.

Now, that’s normally what a mother says to an impatient child, “if you love me, you will do as I say.” Or perhaps a loving spouse may say it this way, “if you trust me, you will support me.” It’s laying down a special condition for the relationship to flourish. It’s not an ultimatum, it’s an invitation. It’s not about control, it’s about co-operation.


On this day, in the same year that our church was founded, way back in 1877, President Rutherford Hayes withdrew Federal troops from Louisiana. It was the last act of Reconstruction after the end of the Civil War. For more than twelve years after the war, the troops were in place to forcefully quell any rebellions, and to make sure that the Union did not fragment again. It took twelve years to maintain that peace and because the majority of Southerners all over the Confederate States laid down their arms, the Union remained intact.

It may not have been a perfect peace – the old prejudices wouldn’t really be removed for another 100 years, but it was a start of American people from all over the States beginning to love the Union and Constitution of the United States. The people proved that they loved America, as we still do today, by upholding the laws of this dear and precious land.

And so it was the same for Christ’s disciples, to prove that they truly loved Him, they had to keep His commands. And the same applies to our church today, which is why our elders came together to seek God’s Will and to follow Christ wherever He wants us to go.

16 And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Counselor to be with you forever-

During our conversations yesterday, our elders were asked the question: why do we want to bring people to Erin? It’s a good question because it makes us focus on what our intent, what our purpose is. Their answers were excellent: we’re here to bring people to salvation, to help them to learn more about Jesus, so that they can go out into the community and bring even more people to salvation.

Other purposes were attached to that answer: to help one another in times of trouble; to show kindness and love to each other; and to follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit. That last point raised a whole new question: what is the Holy Spirit and how do we seek its guidance?

When Jesus was talking to the disciples, He told them that God was going to give them a special Counselor, one who would be with them forever. The main role of the Holy Spirit was to give directions to the disciples throughout the rest of their lives as they went out into the entire world to preach the Gospel and teach Christ’s truth. The purpose of the Holy Spirit was to coach them day by day, situation by situation, and mission by mission so that Christ’s influence and teaching would grow in the world. And they successfully followed their coach because what started two thousand years ago with 11 disciples and dozens of others has now become a world wide church of 2 billion people.

That’s why it is very important for our church to seek the Holy Spirit’s guidance in all that we set out to do. It’s very easy to let go of God and embrace the world. It’s much harder to follow Christ and allow the Holy Spirit to set the course of where we are headed. But if we want to remain true to the Gospel and loyal to Christ, then we must be open to the presence and power of the Holy Spirit in our midst. To do other wise, is to follow a false gospel; to seek our own way is to walk away from Christ.

It’s like the baptism vows that we all took this morning. If we want to see them fulfilled in young Aaron’s life, then Steve and Tracy are going to have to keep coming to church and allowing Aaron to eventually go to Sunday School or Enrichment. But it doesn’t just depend upon them; we’ve got to do our share by maintaining this church, recruiting teachers of faith, supplying our classes, giving our resources, sharing our time and investing parts of our lives with young Aaron. If we do not do this, then how will Aaron grow up to be a Christian, a servant of the Lord, and a loyal subject in God’s Kingdom?

So we seek the counsel of the Holy Spirit in session and throughout the entire congregation to ensure that Aaron, and all other children in our midst will grow in faith and one day, perhaps as a teenager, he will confirm the promises that his parents have made here today. If we allow the Holy Spirit to coach, direct, and lead us, then these beautiful promises will be fulfilled.

17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept Him, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you know Him, for He lives with you and will be in you.

Finally, after asking the disciples to show their love by following His commands and telling them that they will be gifted with the Holy Spirit, Jesus warns them that the world will not accept this experience. The world will be blind to the presence of the Spirit and will not accept the Spirit’s existence.

This is Christ’s way of telling the disciples that even with the Holy Spirit as their special Counselor, things will not be easy. Just because the Holy Sprit is with them does not mean that trouble will not come their way. In fact, in many cases in the Early Church because Christians were filled with the Spirit, they were harassed and hunted down, persecuted and imprisoned, arrested and executed.

And this should serve as a warning to our wee church. When we seek the Spirit’s counsel and do Christ’s bidding, obstacles and stumbling blocks are going to come our way. Things will not be easy if we seek to accept Christ’s truth, preach the Gospel, and share His message with the surrounding community. It will be hard to do so, because many hearts are hardened against Christ and the world does not want to be challenged by our faith.

April 27th is a date that has seen events which has led to people standing up for their rights and fighting the world.

In 1773, the British parliament passed the Tea Act, which led to the Boston Tea party later that year, which in turn led to the War of Independence.

In 1940, the Nazi leader Himmler ordered the establishment of Auschwitz Concentration camp, which led to the Polish uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto, and the Allied Nations fighting against the fascists, which in turn led to the establishment of Israel for holocaust survivors and displaced Jews around the world.

And in 1989, almost twenty years ago, and how soon we forget, the brave students of Beijing took over Tiananmen Square in China, fearlessly walking in front of military tanks, in a noble effort to bring democracy to their nation. To this date, those same students are imprisoned in terrible conditions, which is one of the reasons that I will refuse to watch this year’s Olympic Games. How can we have an international sports gala and joyfully cheer on our athletes in a land where people of different political persuasions and religions are still being oppressed, subdued, and killed?

So, what have we learned today?

If we truly love Jesus, then we will honestly obey His commands.

When we need guidance for our lives and especially the church, we need to seek the Holy Spirit’s counsel.

And when we obey Jesus and follow the Holy Spirit, we should not expect the world to welcome us with open arms. Instead we should be prepared to stand up for what we believe in and not surrender our faith to the wiles of the world.

For as Christ says: Whoever loves me will be loved by My Father, and I also will love them and show Myself to them. And after all is said and done: is that not why we want to bring people here – to be saved from the world and loved by God? Amen.

Prayer

Daily Devotions: Comforter

What do we mean when we comfort one another as Christians? Why do we call the Holy Spirit "Comforter?" And how did the Holy Spirit "comfort" the New Life Church in Colorado Springs?

Podcast version here

2 Corinthians 1:3,4 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.

It’s funny how different words mean different things in Britain and America. Take, for instance, the word “Comforter.” Over here, it means a heavy blanket or quilt; back in Britain a ‘comforter’ is a heavy woolen scarf. When I first came over here and I heard people talking about buying comforters for their beds, I pictured a long plaid scarf being wrapped around the bed several times. I guess people over here thought I was just as funny when I talked about putting my comforter around my neck during wintry days!

The word “Comforter” in the Bible is also used to describe the Holy Spirit, but this does not refer to keeping warm in winter; the word actually means “Advocate.” The Holy Spirit defends us when we are attacked and intercedes for us when we are being persecuted. The recent shooting in the Colorado Church emphasized this. The security guard who shot and stopped the killer said that she asked the Holy Spirit to help her. I never thought of the Holy Spirit working that way, but I guess that in this situation the Spirit advocated powerfully on behalf of God’s people.

When Paul mentions the word “comfort” to the Corinthians, he’s not talking about tea and sympathy. Paul is telling those young Christians that whenever Christ’s followers suffer, there is an outpouring of strength to the community of faith. And that’s exactly what comfort means – “with fortitude.” So when we are called to comfort our loved ones, our church friends, and our neighbors, we do so with the strength of the Lord inside of us.

Today, you may find yourself in a position to support and help someone else who is going through trying circumstances. Be there for them and allow God’s strength to come through you. Your presence and compassionate support may enable those people to endure and overcome their heartbreak and troubles.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, You know how tough life can be and You also endured much pain, suffering, and injustice. We pray that we may become the vessels of Your comfort to those around us who need help, support, and love. In Your Holy Name, we pray. Amen.

Drive By Devotions

Seeking guidance from the Spirit of God can affect the outcome of our plans and goals. Sometimes we have daft notions that go nowhere because we don't put God first.

Podcast version here

Zechariah 4:6 So he said to me, "This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: 'Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,' says the LORD Almighty.

I love this verse. It reminds me that when I’ve used up all of my own strength, energy, and patience, I need to come to the Lord for renewal. Far too often, I try to do things my way and end up becoming frustrated when I cannot produce the results that I want. Instead of submitting to the Lord and giving myself over to be influenced by the Spirit, I wish that the Lord would do what I desire.

For example, many years ago when I was pastor in Dunure, Scotland, I dreamed up the idea of opening the church at 7.00am on a Monday morning, so that commuters could stop and pray before they went to work. The church was on the main road and scores of drivers passed by at that time in the morning.

I envisioned that many drivers would stop and take time to be in the Lord’s House. I got to the church real early, put the lights on and had a tape playing devotional hymns and choruses quietly in the background. I sat in one of the choir seats, read my Bible and prayed for the church. It was quiet and peaceful, and every now and then, I would hear a car passing by.

I think that I did this for about four months. In all of that time, only two people stopped by. Nobody really wanted to take or make the time to be there. I guess they could say their prayers from the comfort of their own cars as the drove by the church. I wanted it to be successful, but God was teaching me a lesson. No matter how hard I wanted it to happen, without His Spirit, it would never work. Instead of relying upon God’s Spirit, I was trying to make God support my ministry. It made me realize that it wasn’t my ministry at all. It belonged to God – what I had to do was to discover where His Spirit was leading.

I still have some daft notions at times, but I usually petition the Spirit first for direction. This ministry belongs to God – I am merely a servant of His Kingdom. The power and the glory, success and honor all belong to God. My role is to submit to the Spirit and seek God’s will.

Perhaps like me, you’re wrestling with God and want Him to make something successful for You. There’s no harm in asking, but ascertain whether it is something for Your sake or the Spirit’s. Knowing that will make all the difference in the world as to whether or not it will be accomplished. As the old preacher once said, “Sometimes we have to let go, in order to let God.”

Prayer: Holy Spirit, we all want to make a difference in the world and do something special with our lives. Grant us patience and endurance, discernment and understanding of what You want us to do with our lives. Open our heart and minds, souls and spirits to Your holy bidding. In Jesus’ Name, we pray. Amen.

By the Spirit

Today, we will all experience situations that will cause us to react badly or respond spiritually, The choice is ours. Paul gives us guidance for those frustrating moments in his letter to a young church.

Galatians 5:26 Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.

Do you ever get the feeling that the first group of Christians must have been a bunch of really hard-to-please people? In my head, I’ve got this nostalgic notion that the New Testament Christians were holy saints, who peacefully, nobly, and humbly went to their deaths in the Coliseum. I’ve thought about them as being incredible saints and holy people, whose perfection is the ideal that we lowly 21st century Christians must attain.

However, when I read some of Paul’s letters, I get the impression that their churches were full of ordinary people, whose personalities and characteristics often caused conflicts or dysfunction in the family of faith. Why on earth would Paul have to implore the church at Galatia not to be conceited, aggressive, and envious, if it wasn’t already there in the life and work of that church?

Initially, it makes me feel better because I realize that Christianity is always going to be imperfect and that conflict is inevitable in any faith community. Envy, pride, and belligerence are human traits that we try to master and control, but we cannot do it on our own. That’s why Paul urges the Galatians to live by the Spirit, and not by human weaknesses. I may feel better because I am no better than the first Christians, and vice versa, but both they and I have a need to try to be better Christians. And the only way that is going to happen is by surrendering our pride, envy and antagonism to the Spirit, in order for those weaknesses to be replaced with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

As far as applying this is concerned, there are going to be moments today where we will either react humanly to a situation or respond spiritually. The choice is ours. Hopefully, we will all decide to surrender ourselves to the Spirit’s bidding.

Prayer: Holy Spirit, You bring us great comfort and strength, wonderful guidance and godly counsel. Restrain our pride and capacity for wanting to get mad and even with those who displease or dislike us. Grant us patience and self-control in those frustrating circumstances that we may face today. In Jesus’ Name, we pray. Amen.

Tertullian Revisited: Chapter 8 - We are Faith Finders, not Spiritual Seekers

Some people believe that the purpose of life is to seek the truth. Christians and heretics abide by this concept, but differ in regard to the outcome. True believers find the truth and stick with it. Heretics find the journey more appealing and continue the process of seeking. Instead of affirming the faith, they seek to confirm their own love of the journey by continually seeking new questions, ideas, and opinions that lead them down a narcissistic blind alley.

Christ invites us from the scriptures to both seek and find. Christians and heretics alike begin their journey here.

Jesus asked this of His disciples and contemporaries, who were searching for the Messiah. He was pointing them to Himself, to show them that the centuries old search for the Anointed One was complete.

Some did not know that the Messiah was amongst them; therefore Jesus was asking them to make their search during His lifetime. He was showing them that the journey would lead to Him alone.

God revealed His presence to the Jews over several centuries. In Christ, God gave the last revelation that personal faith journeys would require. The Jewish search for the Messiah was over. The plan of salvation was made complete in Christ.

Christ referred His people to the Holy Scriptures. The sacred clues were there, in both the law and the prophets. Moses and Elijah testified to Christ’s coming into the world. Thus, when Christ asks His people to ‘seek and find” He is telling them to study the scriptures, read God’s word, and figure out that Jesus is the Anointed One.

For those to whom this was not clear, Christ asked them to knock on the door of faith and understanding, which would be opened to them. For those who were unclear about Christ’s divinity, He was again pointing them in His direction.

The Jewish people experienced a sacred privilege – that of being chosen as the Covenanted People of God – but when they rejected Christ as their Messiah, they were no longer blessed as the Only Chosen Ones.

God then extended His grace to those who lay outside of His Holy Covenant. He permitted the Gentile nations to receive the good news of Christ and be part of the Gospel promises that Jesus obtained through His sacrificial death on the Cross.

The Gentile nations knew nothing of Christ until Jewish disciples walked beyond their borders to broadcast the Gospel throughout the earth. Just as the Jews themselves had been scattered across the Mediterranean, so was the New Testament of God carried, expressed, and shared to the Diaspora.

To those who sought to find the truth and know Him better, Christ invited them to ask of Him. Since the truth was to be found in Him, He would personally answer their questions. For true believers this is acceptable; but for heretics, this is too simple.

Christ spoke first of all to Israel. He was called to be Messiah of His people, and then Savior of the world. He was sent to bring back those who had fallen away from God and return them to the faithful flock.

So, this invitation to “seek and find” is initially to be understood as a call to the Jews to look no further than Jesus to find the Christ. His ministry was to reach out to His own Chosen people; it was only later that the bread from the Master’s table would be fed to the Gentiles.

Only at the last, before His Ascension, did Christ tell His disciples to go out into the world, to teach and baptize people of other nations. And with the presence of the Holy Spirit, they were to engage in evangelism for the same purpose as His Ministry to the Jews: to enable those who were seeking the truth to find it in Christ Jesus.

The apostles were ordained by God, sent out by Christ, and anointed with the Holy Spirit to tell the world that they had found the Truth. True believers joyously welcome this and accept that the message of the apostles is one that we should readily accept. Heretics, however, do not accept this Christ given authority and question the reliability of the apostles. In effect, heretics question the work of the Holy Spirit, which is an unpardonable sin.

The Lord has not left us to work out our own salvation. His words are meant to bring us to Him. Originally, they were addressed to His own people, but throughout the centuries and across the nations, His words of invitation are meant to bring closure to our spiritual seeking and make us finders of the One, True and Everlasting faith – that Jesus Christ is the Anointed Lord of the Universe, and He is the Only Savior of humankind.

Tertullian Revisited: Chapter 6: Heresy is sinfully chosen over the will of Christ.

To reject a heretic is to disarm him of any credibility. The task of the Church is not only to neutralize the ideas and opinions of heretics, but also to enhance and edify orthodox beliefs. The unity of the Church across the centuries depends upon its ability to confront heresy and maintain the authority of Christ’s message at the same time. Too harsh a condemnation will result in people rooting for the underdog and taking up with heresy. Too much indifference and heresy will grow like a theological tumor on the body of Christ.

A person chooses to be heretical and accepts false teachings because of the power, esteem and assurance it gives him. The teachings of Christ are diminished and His sovereignty is questioned. A typical heretic will not be able to give Christ the proper respect and authority that He has. Christ’s sovereignty is denigrated by the heretic through not being able to express Christ’s absolute power of salvation. The heretic chooses to not believe that Christ is the Only Savior of the world, despite what the Bible reveals to us. Rather than accept the traditions of scripture and the historical authority of the Church, the heretic chooses to accept the false utterances of his teachers, or his own voice.

Heretics are therefore self-condemned because they individually choose to defy God’s Word and accept their own understanding. They allow the secular culture to mold their views and will not accept the unchangeable truths of the Gospel values. Heretics contend with the church and advocate on behalf of the world. They have forgotten once again that the Church is not empowered by their wishes, beliefs or ideas. The Church is established and rooted in the total word of God.

Our example comes from the words of the first disciples and apostles of the Church. They chose to simply accept Christ’s words and ways. Their devotion to Him after the resurrection was absolute. Their words are witnesses to who Christ was and what He still is today. Heretics put themselves above the witness of the disciples. They believe that their own life experiences are more relevant to their beliefs today. They refuse to accept the simple truth – that the first apostles expressed an absolute confidence in the message of the Gospel and pledged their total allegiance to Jesus Christ.

Any gospel which is contrary to the true Gospel is heresy. Religious Universalism, prosperity gospel, divine entitlement and pluralistic salvation are common heresies in the Church today. And remember, heresy exists in the Church, not outside of it!

The purpose of the Holy Spirit is to reveal to us the truth of Christ’s Gospel. When we spurn the Living Words of Christ and denigrate His sovereignty, we oppose the work of the Holy Spirit. Thus heresy is a direct confrontation with God. The Bride of Christ needs to appear before Christ as worthy and unblemished. The rooting out of heresy has to come from within the Church.

Rag and Bone Man

Scottish Audio version here

Ezekiel 37: 14 I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the LORD have spoken, and I have done it, declares the LORD.'"

When I was a boy, the rag and bone man used to visit our street every summer. He came with his old chestnut-colored horse and a cart filled with castaway clothes. He usually wore a cloth cap, checkered shirt and leather waistcoat, along with some faded corduroy trousers and steel toe capped boots. He came ambling into our street, tooted his bugle, and hollered “Rag and Bohs! Rag and Bohs!” This let all the street urchins know that he had arrived.

Immediately, there was a hive of activity as kids scampered into their homes begging their moms to give them some old clothes to barter with the rag and bone man. From all over the street, like bees to a honey pot, children joyfully carried bundles of rags and brought them to the cart.

We waited reverently and expectantly as the rag and bone man examined our wares. Eventually, he would open up a large tan suitcase, which was full of cheap plastic toys and hand them out to all the kids with rags. Shrieks of delight resonated throughout the street as child after child received a gift. It was like Christmas in July and our spirits soared as we played with water pistols, plastic sunglasses and toy cameras. Then we would hear him give a gruff command to his old horse, followed by the clopping of hooves and squeaking of wheels. We would watch him go down the street until he turned the corner. Faintly, we could hear the bugle toot and the echoes of his call “Rag and bohs! Rag and Bohs!”

Before he arrived, our street was dead. After he was gone, something sacred occurred; we were all given new life. I learned all that I need to know about incarnational theology through a nameless rag and bone man.

Presence is everything.

Christ breathes His Spirit into our hearts and minds, our homes and churches. What once was dead can experience new life. All that we need to do is bring our bundles of burdens and cast them before Him. He takes them from us and in return He gives us the riches of His grace, the blessings of His eternal summer.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, enter into our lives so that we may know the power and blessing of Your sacred presence. Allow us to be touched by Your Spirit and to be changed by Your love. In Your Holy Name we pray. Amen.

Feeder of Fire

Weekend screensaver project

Pentecostal picture

Holy Spirit

Audio Version here

John 16:8 When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment:

Some people think that the work of the Holy Spirit is just to infuse everyone with dynamic energy so that worship services, ministries and missions can be made more effective, positive and amazing. Far too often, we have this idea that the Holy Spirit is the fizz in our spiritual lives that makes us feel better as Christians. But from this passage today, Jesus reveals to us that the prime purposes of the Holy Spirit are to convict us of our sin and disbelief; to show us what righteousness is; and to judge the world for its failures to accept Christ.

If we think about it deeply, we begin to realize that this is what Easter expresses to us. On Maundy Thursday, the night in which Jesus was betrayed, we all feel guilty because we recognize that any one of us could have been Judas. We say that we love and worship Jesus, but how many times each day do we cast aside His counsel and throw away His words?

On Good Friday, we are shown what righteousness is when we see Christ crucified on the Cross. We see our Savior dying for the world and we realize that it’s only His goodness that prevents God from destroying the world again.

And then on Easter morning, we experience the almighty power of God and Christ’s authority over the world, flesh, and the devil. They tried to keep Christ dead forever, but His righteousness prevailed so that this world and its Satanic prince are judged for all of eternity.

And how do we know that these things are true? Through the work of the Holy Spirit, because He takes away the veil that covers our hearts and minds. He opens the doors of understanding; He brings us to that sacred moment of recognition, revelation, and realization because He confronts, convicts and afflicts us with these eternal truths.

Prayer: Holy Spirit, You are more than we can understand and wilder than anything we can control. You enter our hearts and minds, penetrating our thoughts and ideas. We are afraid of You because of the truths about ourselves that You reveal. Come into our lives and help us to accept Your holiness, knowing that it will challenge and change all of us. In Christ’s Sacred Name, we pray. Amen.