How is Your Heart?
Do you have a hardend heart?
Do you have a heavy heart?
Do you have a happy heart?
~ Source John Charping
Hastening
How do we hasten the coming of the Lord?
2 Peter 3:12
There is a wedding to prepare for!
Bride has to get cleaned up
People need to be invited
Dances with Wolves
In the movie Dances with Wolves the young calvary soldier played by Kevin Costner is assigned to a post way out on extremes of the western frontier. He finds the fort dirty and broken down. This accurately portrays the work of the modern day pastor. His job is to “set things in order.”
Gene Wilkes says the church is a “kingdom outpost.” The priority is not on the church but on the kingdom. The church’s role is to advance the dominion of the King. The church is not the end, it is the means to the end. The church though unlike any other human agency is God’s chosen instrument for redemptive advancement. Put bluntly God works primarily through churches not orphanages, soup kitchens or places of higher learning. The church is God’s tool and as such we are all to be church champions. The church is called the body of Christ. for through it the Spirit of God lives and works.
Band of Brothers
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remember’d;
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother;
~ Shakespeare
Yes, lick 'em tomorrow though
The first day of the Battle of Shiloh was an absolute debacle for Ulysses S. Grant’s Army of the Tennessee. On April 6, 1862, the five federal divisions at Pittsburgh Landing were surprised by attacking southern regiments. Grant’s men, with their backs to the Tennessee River, barely held on, prevented from being driven into the Tennessee only by tough, desperate fighting and by nightfall.
Late that evening, William Tecumseh Sherman found General Grant chewing a cigar under a tree. “Well, Grant,” Sherman asked him, “we’ve had the devil’s own day, haven’t we?”
“Yes,” Grant replied. “Lick ’em tomorrow, though.”
7 Tragedies if there is No Resurrection
1 Corinthians 15:12-19 declares 7 realities if there is no resurrection. They are as follows:
Our preaching is vain
Our faith is vain
We are liars
Christ is not risen
You are still in your sins
Departed believers are not risen
We are most pitiable.
The 4 E's of Easter
Execution by crucifixion
Early morning accounts
Empty tomb, bodily resurrection
Eye witnesses
Faithfulness
“Inspiration is for amateurs. The rest of us just show up and get to work.”
~ Chuck Close
The Hour is Late
And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. 12 The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. (Ro 13:11–12).
WAKE UP
CAST OFF
PUT ON
