Hope, It's Ours to Claim

I have had so many things on my mind eager to write about, all that as strange as it may seem have been backed up by passages of the Bible that I happened to flip to, have on Youversion, etc. . Overcoming temptation, preparing forministry, reflecting on this fast...

But today I cannot get out of my mind the immense HOPE that I have today and how amazingly different it is for us than it was for the original followers of Jesus. For them Saturday was painful, hurtful, they were fearful. But not us, we get the privilege of turning a few pages ahead and reading about the triumphant resurrection. Jesus, Son of God, lives. This feeling of hope, it's
real, it is welling up in my chest and I so desperately want the same for those I love and even those I don't know. It is for everyone.

The final chapters and verses of John represent to me a break in the path. The road that we may have been traveling on as we kind of check out this "Christianity thing" force us to make a decision right now, yes? Up until now we've learned about an amazing man who claimed to be the Son of God and this man did some really miraculous things, he healed the blind, he made
paralyzed men walk, he told people their sins were forgiven. And he died a murderer's death.

But now - now we claim that he lives, because the Bible tells us so. Because the eyewitness accounts of so many have been recorded as seeing him appear behind locked doors (twice in John - John 20:19, John 20:26), he helped his disciples catch fish and then cooked them breakfast, he walked with them and broke bread with them, at times he appeared to crowds of over 500 (I Cor 15:6). John ends his book (21:25) with this claim, "Jesus also did many other
things. If they were all written down, I suppose the whole world could not contain the books that would be written."

"Impossible!" you say. Yes, precisely the point. Impossible, if you are not God. Impossible if you are not The Messiah. So, are we crazy? Or have we caught on to the most glorious truth there is? Is He Lord? Or a Liar?

For me, He's my King. Simple as that. Will He be yours?

Watch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzqTFNfeDnE

- Tiffany Adams

Good Friday

Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. John 19:30

Today’s the day it was finished…

The day when the need for sacrifices ended.
The day when the ransom for our sin was paid in full.
The day when Jesus, perfect Jesus, became the payment for our mistakes, for all time.
The day when Jesus died for us.

Today I feel like I’m supposed to remind you of this…

“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.” Galatians 5:1
[Repeat to yourself five times…until it sinks in. J]
It is finished. I’ve sinned….you’ve sinned…but, it’s finished! Jesus already paid the price for that sin. All we have to do is ask His forgiveness.

Goodbye guilt. Goodbye condemnation. The price for our mistakes has been paid in full.

Imagine living in a tiny prison cell, knowing you’ve been sentenced for life, when a guard comes followed by an innocent man. The guard opens your cell, hands you your belongings and tells you
you’re free to go because this man will serve your sentence for you.

You leave the dark prison knowing that man took your place so you could live. You see sunlight, breath fresh air and go home to hug your loved ones because you’re free. Free. We are FREE. We are FREE from sin and death. They are finished.

Let’s live like we’re free!

Let’s give Jesus everything…our families, our fears, our finances, our futures, our past, our desires, our everything…and live with the freedom of knowing we are spotless before God.

Let’s LIVE life, be crazy with joy, jump up and down, give generously in every way…because we deserved to die and go to hell, but instead we’ve been set free.

It is finished.

- Jen Riddle

I'm getting excited ya'll.

Pulled out the Resurrection Eggs today, have supplies for these Resurrection Rolls on the grocery list (as well as a few other things I've been missing :), and can't wait for Good Friday service tomorrow night, Easter Eggstravaganza on Saturday, and of course, Easter day.

Easter Day. It's that day that makes our faith, our trust, our lives in Christ stand apart from everyone else's faith in all that other stuff. It's what drives the legitimacy of Christianity home and what should give us reason to celebrate no matter what we're carrying around that's heavy. He IS risen, Dear Ones, He is risen indeed.

And if the story had ended that Friday night...

we'd have no faith, no One to trust in, no One to hold on to, no One to celebrate. We'd not be hunting eggs, or cooking hams, or donning our super Sunday best, or eating chocolate bunnies or opening baskets. There'd be no special occasion lilies or powerful hymns, no invite cards or yard signs, or peeps. There'd be no One preparing a place for us, no faithful Shepherd, no Light of the World, no Way and Truth and Light, there'd be no Living Water, no Emmanuel, no Gate, no praise, no palm branches worth swinging, no songs worth singing, no peace, no joy, no rest, no love, no hope.

There'd be no reason. For anything.

But the story did not end that Friday night.

So I pull out Resurrection Eggs, and get the kids' clothes ready, and make plans with family, and invite friends to the greatest celebration on earth. He is risen!

Because He is risen, I have reason to rise. I have reason to love and to hope and to endure and to praise and to sing and to worship and to bow down. To give thanks, to give pause, to give back, to give my all.

He is risen! Dear Ones, He is risen indeed!

Truth is Truth is Truth

Truth. I like it. I like it a lot. I like it because it is unwavering, constant. In the face of any circumstances, storms or sunshine, politics, people and things of this world - truth is truth. It doesn't change.

So let's talk about some truth, the ultimate truth. The truth that is so simple to say, so simple to write but so hard to really, truly, 100% grasp at it's fullest.

God loves me.

Yes, we've all heard it. Growing up in the church I heard it more than anything I think. Starting with that first all important Bible verse, "For God so loved the world..." But in the past few years I have really been able to start to understand this and to live it. Here are a few reminders of truth, truth that we can state and say OUT LOUD as a defense, as an offense, as a reminder, as just a way to acknowledge and say, "Thank you Lord."

John 13:1 "It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end."

Peter denying Jesus - Luke 23:60-62 : "Peter replied, 'Man, I don't know what you're talking about!' Just as he was speaking, the rooster crowed. The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word the Lord has spoken to him: 'Before the rooster crows
today, you will disown me three times.' And he went outside and wept bitterly."

If you are like me, for years I never read these verses as a testimony of love. No, in my mind it was a testimony of condemnation. I know now that is not the God we serve. That look was a look of love and of understanding. Can you imagine?

John 15:9 - "I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love."

John 16:27 - "for the Father himself loves you dearly because you love me and believe that I came from God."

John 11:32-36 - When Mary arrived and saw Jesus, she fell at his feet and said, "Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died." When Jesus saw her weeping and saw the other people wailing with her, a deep anger welled up within him, and he was deeply troubled. "Where have you put him?" he asked them. They told him, "Lord, come and see." Then Jesus wept. The people who were standing nearby said, "See how much he loved him!"

I love Ann Voskamp's writing and the pictures that she can draw with her words, powerful reminders of just how much God loves us in her book One Thousand Gifts, "I feel Him hold me- a flailing child tired in Father's arms. And I can hear Him soothe soft, "Are your ways My ways,
child? Can you eat My manna, sustain on My mystery? Can you believe that I tenderly, tirelessly work all for the best good of the whole world - because My flame of love for you can never, ever be quenched?"

Another one of Ann Voskamp's paragraphs I have highlighted when I start to question this truth of love - "To read His message in moments, I'll need to read His passion on the page; wear the lens of the Word, to read His writing in the world. Only the Word is the answer to rightly reading
the world, because The Word has nail-scarred hands that cup our face, wipe away the tears running down, has eyes that look deep into our brimming ache, and whisper, "I know. I know." The passion on the page is a Person, and the lens I wear of the Word is not an abstract idea but the eyes of the God-Man who came and knows the pain."

He did it because he loves us. Not just words on the page and skip right by b/c we've read the story whatever Bible "story" one hundred times. No!! It's TRUTH. A very real love.

He loves you. Nothing will change that. He loves you. Did you hear that? HE LOVES YOU. Truth.

- Tiffany Adams

Easter at Christ's Place

This week is the point in the fast where I get SO EXCITED about what God will do. It’s the point in the game where we invite people to our Easter services, pray like crazy and wait in anticipation for God to draw people to himself.

“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.” 1 John 3:16

Jesus gave up His life on earth for us…in a brutal death…so we could have life. Let’s lay down our lives (our fear, pride, desire for approval) for our brothers and sisters and share the Lord with them.

If you haven’t done it already, post the info for our Easter services on your facebook page (you can “share” it from Pastor Rick’s page or the Christ’s Place page) and spread the word. Invite someone you know…or someone you don’t know. Lay down your life for your brother in hopes that it might result in something ETERNAL.

I’m praying for Easter at Christ’s Place. I hope you are too.
- for the hard work being done to prepare
- for hearts ready to say “yes” to an invitation to church
- for people starting a relationship with Jesus on Easter weekend
- for overwhelming joy for those of us who know He is risen!
- for the power that raised Jesus from the dead to be poured out in our church
- for hearts of compassion that spread love from our church into our neighborhoods, city and world

- Jen Riddle

When You are Weary

I sat down to write and realized I had nothing. I've been weary, friends. I've been carrying a lot on my shoulders, teetering between discouraged and trying to hang on to encouragement, arguing with the Enemy and sometimes shouting the Word at him and myself. Hanging on to Jesus' promises. Holding tight to His truth.

And today I was reminded that my Lord has known weariness, too. My Lord has known sorrow and pain and grief. He's felt tears rolling down His face. He's felt earthly pain. And He invited me. He invited me to lay my weariness on His shoulders. Those same shoulders that took the lashes for me. Those same shoulders that carried that beam to the hill. Those same shoulders that rose and fell on a cross in love and in pain and in mercy and in grace. He invited me. There's joy in Easter, but I know, too, the Lord knows, too, the pain that led up to it. I know there is sadness and there is confusion, and there is wonder and there is pain. So if you are weary, today, heavy laden, burdened and discouraged, you aren't without a God Who can't sympathize. You aren't without a Savior Who doesn't extend His arms and offer His shoulders.

Leave it with Him, today, Dear Ones. Snuggle up, like I intend to, with your blanket and your Bible, and maybe some worship music, and lay it all down for Him, today. He invited you. He invites you now. There is joy on Easter morning, oh but the pain that Friday night. God knows them both well- joy and pain. He joys in you, in desires joy for you, but when its pain you feel, Dear Ones, He runs to you and begs, "Lay it on My shoulders".

"Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Matthew 11:28

Don't Be So Quick To Judge

I've been a little bit rocked the past few days. I kept looking at the calendar and seeing Sunday, Palm Sunday. My mind went back to the Bible stories learned so long ago. As a kid we would all get palm branches and at the beginning of church we'd get to come in through the doors, walking down the aisles and shouting, "Hosanna!". It was a celebration! This week though I kept my eye on today almost with a bit of dread and so many questions, "How can they love Him so one day and crucify him seven later? I don't understand."

I turned to John 12 to start looking for answers and got a bit of conviction and opened eyes as well. Funny how God does that, no? Surely that day truly was a celebration, the Jewish people thought finally their Savior had come to establish his kingdom. After all of the years of bondage, freedom would be theirs.

John 12:28 - God speaks. Can you imagine? Here comes who you believe is your Savior and he is praying how his soul is deeply troubled. What questions this must have raised. But then, God speaks. Verbally. Out loud. With Moses or the prophets/leaders of old no where around. Don't we sometimes think God has gone silent in this day and age? It was my first reminder, don't put God in a box. He SPOKE and Jesus confirms it wasn't for his benefit, but for those standing there, for us. It's kind of great to imagine based on the description, a bit like thunder. I believe that thunderstorms will no longer be the same, I'll be listening.

John 12:34 - The questions start to be verbalized. Jesus had just predicted his own death and now they start coming, "We understood from Scripture that the Messiah would live forever. How can you say the Son of Man will die? Just who is this Son of Man anyway?" Ouch. For us it's easy, b/c we know the end of the story. But should I be so quick to judge? They were thinking about Scripture, God breathed Scripture. It was not with ill intent for this crowd to question. True, they hadn't put all of the prophecies together - but do we always put the pieces of God's plan together? Do we question? Do we see our little slice of reality and think, "I have the facts here and I don't like them." And we start to question? I do. Maybe I need to withhold judgement on this crowd, the crowd I really if I'm being honest with myself kind of want to go after and start fighting - they killed my Savior you know. I was holding my son in the middle of the night last night and began thinking of Mary who's son was murdered before her eyes in the cruelest of ways. I was angry. I can't imagine the horror, being a Mama and seeing your son murdered before your own eyes. And yet, I play a part. I have played a part for so long, because I was not physically there does not let me off the hook.

John 12:42 - "Many people did believe in him, however, including some of the Jewish leaders. But they wouldn't admit it for fear that the Pharisees would expel them from the synagogue." Ouch. We're being honest here right? I have done this. God has set up conversations for me before where I know there is an opening as wide as a doorway to share my faith, at least a little bit of it. To give Jesus some credit. To just say SOMETHING. And I haven't. Oh I have the excuses, surely. "I work with him/her, it would make things weird at work!" "We're in front of other people, this is a more private conversation." "What will they think of me?" Oh. Wait. That nugget of truth wasn't supposed to come to light. Right? No no no, we have VALID reasons yes? Or not. Not when the truth slips out. Maybe that's just me...

I was completely convicted. Forgive me, Lord.

John 12:46 - "I have come as a light to shine in this dark world, so that all who put their trust in me will no longer remain in the dark." My prayer is that God continue to shine as a light into the dark places in my own life, in my own heart, in my own mind. Do I have the dramatic salvation story from drugs, drinking, etc? No. Worse, I get in my own way and others' way, judging others actions, and out of fear of what someone may think about me I hold on to the greatest truth like it's my greatest secret. Praise God that He did come and allow Himself to be killed, His love covered all and continues not only to cover but to shed light on areas that need exposed. What an amazing God we have with the most awesome love that allows us to grow. He doesn't judge, He merely shines His light and allows us to choose what we'll do with what we see.

We serve an amazing God.
- Tiffany Adams