Do I Pray With God On My Side?

Have I really realized that God is on my side? Honestly, strangely, too often, no.

I became aware of this during my small group discussion tonight. We started in Zechariah 6, began discussing God’s sovereignty, and ended up engaging in prayer and discussion about hard things we were praying through. Someone made the astute comment that God was angry alongside my brother in Christ, angry at the same thing. Someone else astutely commented that God is interested in character, not comfort, holiness not happiness…but also that He seeks to bless us in the here and now, “in the land of the living.”

Psalm 27:13 – “I would have lost heart, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.”

Psalm 27:13 has been a special verse to me since I discovered it during the darkest time of my life. I was literally dying of an incurable disease, dealing with a recently broken relationship, and I was in physical and emotional pain on a daily, hourly, minutely basis. The physical pain gripped me and I could not escape it…even in periods of relief, I was gripped with dread of the next minute when it would strike again. In the middle of all this, I could see the fruit of the Holy Spirit being revived in me, for I had accepted Christ at a young age but had since not chosen Him as first in my life. I could see 2 Cor 4:16 coming to life:

2 Cor 4:16 - “Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day.”

This was me. The outward man was dying and would soon be dead. And in fact, I beckoned that day. I found myself crying to God as Job did, asking for His mercy in the form of death, so that I could come to Heaven where there is "no more crying or pain" (Rev 21:4).

Even still, as God refused to honor my short sighted, yet sincere request, knowing what was even better for me and His Kingdom, I did not yet know how to go on. And so, when God revealed Psalm 27:13 to me it was encouragement beyond description because I was faced with a life of pain and could not foresee any relief, and He would not let me die. To realize that I can have the same hope as David the psalmist that I would see the goodness of the Lord and His blessing as I live on earth. It and a new, real relationship with Jesus Christ sustained me throughout my trial, and I am excited to report that He has continued to heal and restore me from that day forward. I have no more pain and the disease is well controlled (auto-immune), as he has brought healing to my body, mind, heart, and soul. Praise God!

And so throughout the conversation with my brothers tonight, I was hit with a sound conviction: I often forget that God is actually on my side, He is for me, and “if God is for us, who can be against us?” (Rom 8:31) I realized that when praying hard for a loved one, whether it be salvation for a friend, restoration for a family member, or healing for myself, I often feel the burden of convincing God. I almost chuckle at my immaturity, for what man can convince God of anything? God made that man and knows his thoughts before he thinks them! And if I could “convince” God of anything—meaning that He was then inclined to act in a different manner than he would otherwise—I would be doing a terrible thing…for God is perfect without me and tells us that “My ways are higher” and “My ways are not your ways” (Isaiah 55:8-9). Going further, I realize that the root of much of my attitude of combating or convincing God comes from a life of rebellion. I have spent much of my life rebelling against Him, desiring the minimal legalistic belief in God, asking for things that were against His will in my own foolishness, and in a state of confusion for what is good in God’s sight…and as a reborn soul, I have forgotten that He replaces those old desires with the Holy Spirit. That although we once prayed very much against God, He has been patient, and once restored to Him, we can ask in confidence in single mindedness with our God and fellow believers.

And even with this knowledge, I find myself praying with a burden to turn God’s ear when praying for very pure things that are obviously part of His will (any prayer for salvation is in line with His will, for starters). But what resistance am I feeling? It is not God’s resistance. My epiphany is that God is absolutely for you and me in much of our prayers, once we have been sealed with the Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ. If you believe in Christ for your salvation, you have the Holy Spirit, and many of your prayers and desires are the same as God’s! (As a side note, always submit to His will and do not be so arrogant as to think that any and all of your desires are His…but realize that some of your desires as a regenerated soul, and truthfully, more and more of your desires as you are sanctified by Him will be His very will.)

What a comfort that God is looking down and saying “Yes! Yes, I am angry with injustice. Yes, I am jealous for my church. Yes, I am pursuing that lost, loved soul. Yes, I will heal you for my glory. Yes, I will never let go of you and will bring you closer every day.” At this moment, I lose the disposition of praying in a position facing God, sitting opposed to Him. Instead, I pray with Him, alongside Him, looking at the same things and desiring the same righteousness for His glory. He has his arm around you and me as we pray…He needs no convincing…He is for us, so who can be against us?

I pray in agreement with God Himself through Jesus Christ that you would feel how awesome, how powerful, how deep, how wide is the love of God for you, and that you will begin to pray with confidence, assurance, and peace alongside your Savior and Father God, for the building up of His church and for the glory of His name. Amen.

Relationship with God - Church in the Park Message

I had the pure joy and privilege of speaking the message at Church in the Park in Houston, TX this weekend. This ministry seeks to bring Christ to the homeless in downtown Houston, providing worship music, a Bible-based message, and breakfast for all who attend. It is held outdoors in a park right off of downtown.

The experience was amazing. Of course, being given the honor of speaking a sermon was very exciting, but the one-on-one conversations and prayers were most enjoyable. You can listen to the 20-min message by watching the video below. The topic is Relationship with God, with a focus on being children, servants, and friends with God. The Prodigal Son is studied as an example of this relationship. I hope the Lord uses it for good in your life this very day:

(Follow-up post about an amazing story of God working behind the scenes and through Church in the Park that morning: "My Work" vs. the Holy Spirit)

Life Is Good

Life is good. My life is good. But I really mean that life itself is good.

Is your life good? It can be. Today.

Over the past several weeks, it seems like I have come to greater realization of the abundance of blessings in my life. Some were new ones that I am so thankful for, and some have been there all along but I’m just now starting to recognize and appreciate them. Truly, I thank God for these many blessings.

Adding to my thanksgiving is knowing where I’ve come from. If you know me or have read some of my blog posts, you’ll know that I went through a very difficult period in my life just 2 short years ago. In this struggle that was both emotional and physical, I nearly died. That is not an exaggeration—my body nearly failed me as I lost 40 pounds from a 170 pound frame that had only about 5 pounds to give. If you know me or have read my blog posts, you’ll also know that in the height of this trial and both the emotional and physical pain that coursed through my body on a daily, hourly, even on a continuous basis…in the worst moment, I prayed a very sincere prayer and asked if God would let me die and join Him in Heaven right then. He did not…He made me stay here. And through that I realized that He had purpose left for me, and that it was actually better for me and His kingdom for me to remain here for at least a little while longer. Additionally, I realized that He is my Father in Heaven and I am His son, and that if a son asks his father who loves him to come home, one of two things will happen: either the father will say yes and the son will come home, or the father will say no and come to where his son is. For me, it was the latter. I knew in the months that followed that my Father in Heaven had come to me in my cry to come to Him, that He was already there, and that He remains with me forever, on earth or in Heaven.

Life is good. In the land of the living.

I would have lost heart, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. - Psalm 27:13

God has faithfully restored my body to health in the months and years since the days described above. I feel healthier now than possibly ever before. He has reached into the pit and rescued me. I pray that many will see and fear the Lord and praise His name (Psalm 40:1-3). I pray that many will seek not just His restoring hand, but His face…intimate relationship with a true Friend, Savior, Father, Master, and Creator.

Through the trial, my spiritual restoration is eternal. And although I was physically restored, today I got some bad news from my doctor. It appears that my body has received irreconcilable damage from the disease that riddled my body 2 years ago, a non-communicable disease that is now under control, but that it appears I will never fully recover from. I don’t have to tell you that this was very hard to accept. But I can also tell you that even if the worst comes to me, life is good because of my Savior. In fact, the terrible news has inspired me to write to you today.

Life is good. Everlasting life is even better.

Adding to my thanksgiving is knowing where I’m going. Heaven. A place with no more crying, no pain (Rev 21:4). A place of absolute oneness with our fellow man, and absolute oneness with our Savior Jesus and Father God (see John 17). A oneness well beyond our imaginations of physical splendor with gold streets and perpetual sunshine and everything we love on this earth.

Life is good. Life with my Savior Jesus Christ is good.

It’s easy to see at this point that there is one common reason why life is good in the dichotomy of circumstances described above: Jesus Christ and a relationship with Him. Not merely knowledge of Him. Certainly salvation. But it doesn’t stop there—it is knowing Him and being with Him that makes life good. Knowing Him and being with Him makes us rejoice in great trials (James 1:2-5). Knowing Him and being with Him makes us rejoice in thanksgiving and praise in times of great blessing. Knowing Him and being with Him is the essence of anything and everything good in my life, in your life, and in our lives to come.

Life is good. In all circumstances, in all things.

I submit to you that life is good in and of itself, as it is the breath of God breathed on you and me. We live with His blessing of life everyday and don’t even realize it. Do you know that by being born and made alive by His hand, you now have the opportunity of eternal life in perfect love and oneness with an almighty God? That by being made alive, regardless of your choices thus far in life, you have the opportunity to choose Him right now and have an everlasting relationship with Him? That by being made alive, simply being born onto planet earth, you can now be a son of God? Life is good. In the worst circumstance, life is good. If you have a Savior.

There are 4 types of people:
- those without a relationship with a Savior who have terrible circumstances
- those without a relationship with a Savior who have great circumstances
- those with a relationship with a Savior who have terrible circumstances,
- those with a relationship with a Savior who have great circumstances.

For the latter two, life is certainly good. I have been in both situations and can attest that life with my Savior is good.

Now for the arguments about two different types of people. First, those who have no relationship with the Savior, but their circumstances are great. You might say, “Life is good for them. You just said their circumstances are great.” Indeed. So you are measuring the goodness in life by circumstances alone? Think about a man who is traveling down a river in a boat with those he most loves. It’s a beautiful day, perfect temperature, they have every type of food and drink they would like, and the mood is fun. But what this man doesn’t realize is that there is a waterfall a half-mile downstream, and if he doesn’t start rowing to shore right in this moment, he will never be able to overcome its current before reaching the falls. Would you say that life is good for this man? His immediate circumstances are certainly good. But in being so caught up in the immediate good things, he has failed to take care of himself or his family by looking ahead and mapping out the river…and he is leading all of them to their death. Now imagine that this man had been told of the falls by others and was even offered a map…maybe he even took it…but he never read it. Maybe he even flipped the map open once or twice, but never really studied it at all such that he could see the dangers ahead of him. We might call this man irresponsible. But the fact of the matter is that we are this man for most of our lives. We have been told of Heaven and Hell, we’ve been offered a Bible. Have we ever opened it to read it…have we studied it? Or are we so content with our “good lives” that nothing else seems to matter so much?

For the man who rejects God’s Word and Jesus Christ, life is not good. Life led to the eternal death of Hell. And once there, he would trade every good thing he ever had in this otherwise “good life” in order to avoid that final outcome. He would curse his life as being worthless and the cause of every eternal torment.

Now for the second argument: “What about those who have the worst circumstances, even if they have this “Savior” you claim to know? What about those who are utterly beaten, broken, raped, or any other worst thing you can imagine, but are still living through it. Is life good for them?” Indeed, their circumstances are far from anything good. My heart feels anger and it breaks for those in situations like that. This one is tougher. I’ll let you know that my heart has recently been stirred for those in just that situation, especially those who do not yet know my Savior. There are literally millions of children as young as 7 years old around the world who are slaves to sex-trafficking. These girls are taken captive and initiated through daily beatings, starvation, and daily raping by multiple men. Once their will to fight is broken, if they do not kill themselves first, they are placed into life-long sex-slavery, receiving multiple gruesome abortions per year until they are rendered barren or ultimately die of an AIDS related disease before reaching middle-aged adulthood. This is one of the worst circumstances I can think of. For them, life turned bad. But what if they come to know a Savior who gives everlasting life in Heaven, and beyond that, He brings His presence to them right where they are in this moment? What about the children of these women who escaped abortion and have been rescued out to live abundant lives with this Savior? When these women see their daughters rescued, and even moreso when they themselves come to know a real Savior, in Jesus Christ, I tell you wholeheartedly: life is good again.

You may still argue with my paragraph above. But I want you to know that I have worked with an organization called As Our Own that rescues the daughters of such enslaved women. We have seen great transformation in the lives of these precious little girls who have been rescued from the same plight of their mothers into a loving family and into the body of Christ. I cannot convey to you what that looks and feels like…I am not capable of describing to you the joy of seeing it with your own eyes. And these women still enslaved have light in their eyes again, if only a glimmer at the start. I have seen the eyes of many enslaved women—as part of our work, I have been to the brothels! I can tell you that death looked back at me as I made eye contact with the vast majority of these women. But in the eyes of a woman with a little girl being cared for by As Our Own, there was the only light I could see in that terribly dark place.

And even for those who have not come to know our Savior, life in and of itself in the beginning was good. For they were born into the opportunity to have eternal life in Heaven, regardless of circumstances here on earth. Even for the man in the spiritual boat who rejected and refused to listen to God’s word—the map—whose life turned into a road to Hell…even for this man, life was not the bad thing. His life was originally good…not because of circumstances, but because of his opportunity to choose to be with God forever. So we see that circumstances do not change the goodness of life. The goodness of life is found only in our Savior Jesus Christ. While we were innocent children, life was good, the opportunity still in front of us to choose Him. Once we have chosen, life then becomes supremely good or life becomes our curse to Hell. However, so long as we are still alive, we have that choice! We can choose for life to be good, and for our lives to be good, this very day. Even the man who was trapped in the current and only feet from the falls could cry out to a Savior. Not a common savior or simply a good Samaritan—no, he could not be helped in the physical world at that point. His salvation would require a supernatural event…the river would need to stop flowing or he would need to be plucked out of the boat by some supernatural force. The blood and resurrection of Christ, the Son of God, has this supernatural power that we need in order to be saved by grace into oneness with a perfectly holy God. There is no natural antidote to our sin. There is no logical path. We require something supernatural, something beyond ourselves to be able to be one with our holy God and Savior. The fact is this: all of those other people who tried to hand this man a map and tell him of the waterfall—they only know because they themselves were in that same boat. They know because they themselves had to cry out to a Savior with hope of rescue, supernatural rescue. Not one of them were in a situation in which by their own strength they could overcome the current of sin. No, each one of us has come to the point of the waterfall, gripped in sin, hopeless of rowing our way to Heaven’s safe haven. Once there, those who called on the name of Jesus have been saved, and in reply we now seek to tell those who have not yet come to know the fierceness of the current of sin, the depth of the fall to Hell, or the glorious relationship with our Savior when we do call upon Him.

This is your opportunity. This is your future. This is your present. You have the choice. I pray that you choose the good life right here and now, and the good life that is everlasting. I pray that you come to know the life that is good with Jesus our Savior. Amen.

As Our Own & Salvation - Popcorn Christian Church - Feb '11

I had the pleasure of speaking with Popcorn Christian Church in Springville, IN yesterday. They are the church in which I grew up, and they supported me on my recent mission trip to India with As Our Own. The "video" below is of the message I gave to convey my newfound appreciation for my personal salvation through Christ...a greater appreciation as a result of teaming up with As Our Own. I hope that you might gain a renewed love of Jesus and those He seeks to rescue, as well.

"To Live is Christ" - Personal Death that Brings Abundant Life

From a young age, as a Christian I have always known about being “born again.” And I have always known that Christ lives through us. And I have always known that the Spirit indwells us (maybe not always known, but for long enough). But I have never quite thought of it as O.C. puts it in the 2nd paragraph of the "My Utmost" at the bottom of this post, that we are analogous to Bethlehem as Jesus is actually born into us. If we will yield and let Him enter into us, just as Mary was obedient and thereby yielded and let Jesus into the world through her, then He is born into our lives permanently from that day forward just as His impact on this world is permanent from the first Christmas onward. The day of our salvation is our very own personal Christmas day. Then I think we spend our lifetimes progressing to the Cross. We are to partake in His sufferings upon His birth within us. We may each have different paces to Calvary, carrying our crosses, but we must each be headed there every single day.

Luke 9:23-26 – “Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. 25 What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self? 26 Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.”

Rom 8:17-18 – “Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.”

It’s a fresh realization of the life of Christ within me. As O.C. puts it, “Immediately Christ is formed in me, His nature begins to work through me.” I long for more of Christ to come naturally through me. Do you ever struggle with that? I do, as I battle the “old self” of sin that I have been (Rom 6:6, included below). I believe the more identified we are with Christ’s death, lived out by our death to sinful nature, the more purely His life is worked out within us, as Paul wrote in Phil 2:12: “Continue to work out your salvation.” I believe this is what he means: Not that we’re earning it, but that we’re learning to die for Christ more every day—we have to work that out by intentional submission and fixing our eyes upon Jesus (Heb 12:2), forsaking personal selfish and sinful desires of old. Therefore, instead of striving to do more good, especially when we see the bad we’ve done—hasn’t this been our strategy, trying to make ourselves do more good and less sin?—instead, we need to seek to identify with Christ in the cross…we need to seek to die to self each day.

To seek the fruit before the plant is mature is backwards and irrational. When we seek good works and pureness of heart without first abandoning all for the sake of Christ, experiencing a full death of the “old self,” we have the same irrational expectation. The seed must be planted, it must be watered, it must soak in the sunlight, and its roots must run deep. In the Parable of the Sower (Matt 13:1-9, 18-23), the sun and the rainstorms killed the plants in shallow soil, but they serve to grow those with fertile soil. So we see that to grow we must embrace the rainstorm of trial and difficult circumstances, driving our roots deep into the Word and prayer and truly personal relationship with Christ. We must endure the sun that seems harsh as we are “in the light as He is in the light” (1 John 1:7), exposing our every sinful desire. We must see God as sovereign and holy, as well as loving, to endure the sunlight. And if we do, we will then grow. And if we grow, we will see much fruit. This growth comes by death first, then trial (or really, an intention of death followed by actually death, one piece of me at a time)—both are identification with Christ. So if our goal is to be like Christ, not just superficially, but inside our very hearts every private or public moment of the day, we must realize that the only way is sharing in His sufferings. We will not experience Him without that, but we will experience the infinite amazement of His presence within us if we do. When once we get a taste of His presence, just a little fuller than we did the day before, we will realize there is no circumstance in this world worth trading for, and our present sufferings grieve us less, giving us more joy, as we “consider it pure joy… when you encounter trials of various kinds” (James 1:2) because we know that we are being grown even closer to the purest and abundantly fruitful love of Christ. Moreover, when we are concentrating on the following: "I must do good, I must not do evil," our focus is on self. When we acknowledge, embrace, and enjoy the Lord growing within us, our focus is rightly on Him.

Gal 2:20 – “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

Rom 6:3-11 – “Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— 7because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.
8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10 The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.
11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.”
(See also Rom 8:9-11, Gal 5:24, Gal 6:14)

Finally, have you ever wondered exactly what Paul meant by “to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Phil 1:21)? Dying is easily seen as gain with Heaven in mind, but what about “to live is Christ?” I used to think that this meant to live as Christ by Him living through me, doing good things and acting in a proper manner. However, I have a new perspective: to live is Christ because to live as one born again is to be crucified with Him daily. The essence of life becomes sacrifice, just as Jesus sacrificed all. The essence of life becomes submission to the Father, just as Jesus submitted, as seen in His prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, saying in effect three times, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will” (Matt 26:39, 42, 44). The essence of life becomes service, just as Jesus served our sentence of death in our place. The essence of life becomes love, just as Jesus loved us literally to death. The essence of life then and only then becomes pure joy, as Jesus' joy was made complete by His resurrection and the redemption of our willing souls who accept Him. Therefore to die is gain, but to live as a true believer is certainly Christ. Amen.

"My Utmost For His Highest," Dec 25:

HIS BIRTH AND OUR NEW BIRTH

"Behold, a virgin shall bring forth a son, and they shall call His name Emanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us."Isaiah 7:14 (R.V.)

His Birth in History. "Therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God." (Luke 1:35.) Jesus Christ was born into this world, not from it. He did not evolve out of history; He came into history from the outside. Jesus Christ is not the best human being, He is a Being Who cannot be accounted for by the human race at all. He is not man becoming God, but God Incarnate, God coming into human flesh, coming into it from outside. His life is the Highest and the Holiest entering in at the Lowliest door. Our Lord's birth was an advent.

His Birth in Me. "Of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you." (Gal. 4:19.) Just as Our Lord came into human history from outside, so He must come into me from outside. Have I allowed my personal human life to become a "Bethlehem" for the Son of God? I cannot enter into the realm of the Kingdom of God unless I am born from above by a birth totally unlike natural birth. "Ye must be born again." This is not a command, it is a foundation fact. The characteristic of the new birth is that I yield myself so completely to God that Christ is formed in me. Immediately Christ is formed in me, His nature begins to work through me.

God manifest in the flesh - that is what is made profoundly possible for you and me by the Redemption.

The Cure

Loved Ones,

I have not always had a relatable answer to those who might ask me why I witness. And that has led to timidity. But there is a good answer that I think most people will relate to, even those who are not yet saved:

“Why do you witness? Why do you feel compelled to share your faith?”

These are questions that I have heard asked of those who actively share Christ with those around them. And often the question is not good-hearted…often it is asked with a tone of annoyance or even resentment. Why many of the world assume this attitude is a good topic for conversation, but right now I am more focused on our response to the question.

Consider Tim Tebow. It’s funny that at the mention of his name, if you know about him and who he is, you probably just had a reaction inside. If you don’t like the Florida Gators, that’s one thing (I am not a UF fan by any stretch of the imagination). But most have a reaction because he openly professes Christianity and seeks to share it with so many. He and other collegiate football players can be seen on TV on Saturdays with scriptural references on their eye-black strips below their eyes. I think that is awesome. I have heard that on Saturday, the number one Googled Bible scripture is the one on Tim Tebow’s face. If that’s true, it is absolutely awesome. Whatever the impact, people are seeking God’s Word through open and public witnesses such as these.

But many have a great disdain for Tim Tebow. I have heard many say almost these exact words: “He is a great college football player, I’ll give him that, but I can’t stand him because he pushes his faith on other people. If there’s a place for that, it’s not on the football field.” First of all, what is “pushing your faith” on someone? I believe Tim and others share their faith and the pushing that the individual feels as a result is the Holy Spirit!

I wish I was personally asked the question, “Why do you feel like you need to witness to me?” Even if the attitude is combative—because that would mean that I was actively witnessing. But nevertheless, I have considered the question. Why do I feel like I need to witness? The truth is this:

Consider the following situation: you and your entire family have cancer, for which there is no known cure. You are all dying together. One day you happen upon the cure. You did not create the cure, and likely someone else shared it with you, but you have happened upon the cure and you are cured—cancer removed! What do you do next? Certainly, you will share it immediately with everyone you know, especially your family who is dying of the cancer! How can you keep that to yourself? You can’t, and you share it with them because you love them and want them to have life.

The truth is that every single one of us on earth does have a cancer. This cancer is sin—separation from God that results in death to our souls. We are doomed without a cure. But one day, someone shared the Cure with me and I am free of it! God is the Good Doctor who discovered/created the Cure…but we have to go to see the Doctor to receive the Cure. He is there with it, beckoning us just to come to Him to receive it. But how will we go to the Doctor if we don’t first realize that we need to? We must first realize that we have the disease, then we must realize that there is a Cure, and we must recognize Who holds that Cure. Finally, we must go to the Doctor to receive the Cure—and then it’s all over—we’re cured. The Doctor Himself even comes right to us, but we must still allow Him to administer the shot that will cure us—He has done all the work and we simply have to accept Him and His Cure.

The example above contains 4 steps. Recognize your sin, recognize that you can be saved from sin, recognize that God through Jesus Christ is your salvation, and finally accept Him and go right to Him for forgiveness. The Cure is Jesus Christ, His willing and sacrificial death for us on the cross, and His resurrection and defiance of death as we know it. This is possible through His unending, boundless, perfect love for us, His creation.

If you have not experienced that yet, I encourage you to do it right away and accept the wonderful cure available to you. If you have experienced Him, you know just how amazing it is. How can we keep that to ourselves? How can we not share with everyone we meet? We are all part of the same family, after all. Let's help bring our family to God for the cure of salvation.

Amendment (4/23/10) - Great verse that sums up our approach: 1 Peter 3:15 - "But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect..."

Easter

1. God is perfect. We are not. Heaven is a place for perfect things--it is the essence of being with God. No trace of sin can enter Heaven, and we have forfeited our entry upon sinning even once.
2. God loves us and seeks to bring us to Heaven with Him. He created us to exist with Him perfectly and gave us the power of mutual love by allowing us to choose Him.
3. Jesus, fully God, took on a human body and walked a perfect life. He then volunteered his life for us--a perfect sacrifice, a perfect man, a perfect God, brutally tortured and finally killed with a clear purpose: to save us.
4. In Jesus' death, he proclaimed that he has taken on our sin, our guilt, and bore the punishment for it in our place. God the Father has sent Him for this purpose and approves of this perfect sacrifice once and for all men and all sins. Jesus says, "I will pay the price for you, so that you may come to Heaven with Us." (paraphrase)
5. Our choice now is simply to believe in Jesus and admit that we've strayed. When we confess Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we are accepted and our slate of sin wiped clean.
6. We can now live with a perfect God in a perfect Heaven forever. Given the alternative, the choice seems clear.