Therefore…

Yesterday my Facebook feed was filled with “He is Risen.” We celebrated with church family, food, and Easter Egg hunts. It was beautiful! But if today, I return to normal without a sense of awe of the implications that He has risen, yesterday becomes simply a religious ritual. If you have a saving knowledge of Christ, let’s continue the celebration of Easter every day because of the following truths: He...

The Ultimate Demonstration of Love

When I was growing up in the Black Baptist Church, Thursday and Friday before Easter, we would have a church service called “The Last Seven Words.” Seven prominent Black Pastors would gather and each would preach on one of the last seven sayings of Christ. That is a fond childhood memory. As I read those last seven sayings today, I see the perfect love of God demonstrated. “Forgive them.” Love...

The Sacrifice

“Then the priest will burn the entire sacrifice on the altar as a burnt offering. It is a special gift, a pleasing aroma to the Lord.” ‭‭Leviticus‬ ‭1:9‬ ‭NLT‬‬ This offering…this bloody, messy, smelly, gory offering was a sweet aroma to God. Because this offering temporarily made a person acceptable to God, purified them, and made them right with God. It wasn’t the offering that pleased God, it was its...

The Perfect Sacrifice

What lies do the enemy tell you when you are in the middle of a storm? I’m being punished for a sin. I’m not forgiven. I’m not loved by God. I am destined to fail. I’m not a good mother, Christian, employee, person. I’m not a good steward of my finances. Notice all of those statements start with I. The enemy always causes us to look at our insufficiencies; our...

The Ultimate Sacrifice

Guilt. Condemnation. Begging God to forgive you. Trying to earn His approval. All negate the power and the beauty of the cross. In the Old Testament, sacrifices were made yearly as an atonement for sin. But those yearly sacrifices did not remove the guilt of sin. As a matter of fact, it only heighten the awareness of sin. But Jesus. But the cross. Jesus was the once and for all,...

A Life Wasted Becomes a Life Redeemed!

He was a malefactor, a criminal, an evil doer, a death row inmate. His life was marked with fast living, perhaps thievery, maybe even murder. We don’t know what he did, we just know that it led him to this moment, facing a horrible, painful, shameful death. But this man who had lived a life wasted, on his deathbed, so to speak, had a revelation – Jesus is Lord. He...

Accepted

Rejection. We have all experienced it. It hurts. It causes us to build defenses around our heart, not want to take risks, question who we are, walk in regret. Rejection coupled with betrayal from a spouse, from a friend, from someone you love can be even worse. None of us would willingly walk through a time of rejection. None of us would voluntarily submit ourselves to the humiliation of rejection....