What are you doing with the resources that God has given to you?  Are you investing it in expanding the Kingdom of Heaven or are you squandering it on temporary things?

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Does your life celebrate Palm Sunday?  Would you like to have a new life to celebrate?  Turn to Jesus, who came to save you and the King who will be your Judge.

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Don’t let being part of a minority or not being popular hold you back from doing what is right!

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We had a GREAT time at Vacation Bible School this week!  We sang songs and played games and watched Jack and Jill talk about God’s Word and lots of other stuff.  It was wonderful to spend the week with so many friends–new and old–and to learn more about the Bible.  Here are the slide shows from each night.

Just click on a picture to start that show.  If you have a slower internet connection, it might take a couple seconds to load the pictures.  If you want to watch a slide show more than once, you can reload the page (f5 key).  Otherwise hit your browser’s back button when you’re done so you can watch the next slide show.

Enjoy!

Day 1

Let's Go!

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Day 2

God's Word is Comforting

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Day 3

I Spy...God!

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Day 4

Your Life Will Change

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Day 5

God's Word is True!

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Read God’s Word every day!  It really will change your life.  And share it with your friends.  God wants to share his love with the whole world!

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Here’s a question to get you thinking: Why should God forgive you for anything?

Think about it.  When God created the universe and world it was good.  He looked at everything and was pleased with his creation.  There was no death, no pain, no suffering.  But Adam and Eve messed that all up.  They had a relationship with God, but they threw it all away out of their selfishness.  And ever since then people have been turning their backs on God.  The world is full of people who have chosen to lie and cheat and steal and murder and hate and abuse one another and live immoral and sexually perverted lives.  People ignore God’s commands all the time and choose instead to gossip and let their lusts control them.  And it has destroyed our world.  What used to be a perfect place of peace and blessings is now a world of death and pain.  We can still see semblances of beauty behind the mess we’ve made, but it’s often a reminder of how much human beings have destroyed.  So why should God bother with such wicked and evil people who have been so destructive and hateful towards him?

The obvious answer is love.  But here’s another question to think about: If God is willing to save you because of his great love–if the love of Jesus was enough to hold him to the cross instead of damning every person who has ever sinned directly to Hell’s fires–if he was willing to go through such pain to be a sacrifice for us, how are you going to respond to that love.  Because a relationship only works if the love goes both ways.  If you are unwilling to obey God, it proves you don’t love him.  Jesus said “Those who love me obey my commandments.”

Here’s my answer to the first question: God forgives us so that we can love him.  He wipes our sins away to give us the opportunity to return his love.  He cleans up our lives so that we can live clean lives.  To many people think God forgives them so that they can have a free ticket to Heaven and be just as self  centered as they have always been.  So they might say they love Jesus, but their lives show otherwise, because they continue with the destructive sin that proves a lack of love for God.  But God saves people so that they can e brand new and live for him instead of themselves.  God wants the very best for us, and selfishness and sin are not the best for us.  Living in harmony with God and following his commandments is what’s best for everybody.  Salvation is not about getting into Heaven.  It’s about becoming God’s children and living as family and experiencing his love without measure and sharing that love with the world.  But it means cutting the sin out.  It means trading our old evil life for a new pure life.  And God promises to help us live right every step of the way.

So who do you love?

Here are the verses that you can’t hear in the message:

Romans 5:15-21 (somebody read) And what a difference between our sin and God’s generous gift of forgiveness. For this one man, Adam, brought death to many through his sin. But this other man, Jesus Christ, brought forgiveness to many through God’s bountiful gift.  And the result of God’s gracious gift is very different from the result of that one man’s sin. For Adam’s sin led to condemnation, but we have the free gift of being accepted by God, even though we are guilty of many sins.  The sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over us, but all who receive God’s wonderful, gracious gift of righteousness will live in triumph over sin and death through this one man, Jesus Christ.

Yes, Adam’s one sin brought condemnation upon everyone, but Christ’s one act of righteousness makes all people right in God’s sight and gives them life.  Because one person disobeyed God, many people became sinners. But because one other person obeyed God, many people will be made right in God’s sight.

God’s law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were. But as people sinned more and more, God’s wonderful kindness became more abundant.  So just as sin ruled over all people and brought them to death, now God’s wonderful kindness rules instead, giving us right standing with God and resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Romans 6:1-11 Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more kindness and forgiveness?  Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it?  Or have you forgotten that when we became Christians and were baptized to become one with Christ Jesus, we died with him?  For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives.

Since we have been united with him in his death, we will also be raised as he was.  Our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin.  For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin.  And since we died with Christ, we know we will also share his new life.  We are sure of this because Christ rose from the dead, and he will never die again. Death no longer has any power over him.  He died once to defeat sin, and now he lives for the glory of God.  So you should consider yourselves dead to sin and able to live for the glory of God through Christ Jesus.

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Are you making opportunities to obey the Spirit and teach the world about who God is?  It’s kind of a big deal if you think about it.  If you’ve been saved by God, that means you were rescued from death–plucked from the fiery pit of Hell and turned from a wicked and sinful monster into a saint.  But Jesus didn’t sacrifice himself to turn you into a decoration (like the statues you see of dead people).  He gave his life so that you could have life, and then he said it’s your turn now!  Go into all the world and save some people!  Don’t waste the precious gift you’ve been given…spread it around.  There’s more than enough to go around.  God doesn’t want anybody to die without him.  If you’ve found God’s grace don’t hide it, divide it!

If you haven’t been saved, that means you’re still dead in your sins.  And you probably already know exactly what I’m talking about.  Your own conscience is probably telling you exactly what it is that is keeping you apart from a relationship with your Creator.  Today is the day of salvation.  Make the choice to leave your sins in the past and to start living for God, and you will find a life more amazing than anything you’ve ever known.  It’s not always easy.  In fact, Jesus guarantees that you’ll face persecution if you live life his way.  But it is so worth it!  To actually live in relationship to God and know his presence in your life outweighs all the troubles you could ever face.  And we haven’t even gotten to Heaven yet.  That’s the icing on the cake of a real relationship with Jesus!  Make the decision to find forgiveness and turn your life around and live by the awesome power of the Holy Spirit.  You won’t be disappointed!

PS. Thank you to NASA for a great title. 🙂

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I just gotta say how excited I am about our little baby girl who is almost here.  Those of you who know about the difficult journey my wife and I had getting to this point know what a big deal this is.  If you don’t know about it, you can read the story HERE.  Anyway, we are so excited about this fantastic blessing from God.  I’ve had so many people ask me if I’m ready to be a dad.  And I always give them a confident “Yes!”  I am 100% ready and looking forward to holding and raising our child.  In fact, I’m already hoping for more.  I’m sure there will be lots of learning and easy times and tough times, but I also know that this will be such a joyful addition to our lives.  Praise the Lord for making us parents!

Happy expectant parents!

By the way, thank you to all of you who have been praying for us!  God has heard your prayers and our cup is overflowing!  Keep ’em coming.

Christians are supposed to be the salt of the Earth.  We’re supposed to add flavor and and have the curing properties of salt and act as spiritual disinfectants in the world.  If you’re not doing that kind of stuff, you’re like salt that has lost its flavor.  And what good is salt without flavor?

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There’s a song that goes:

My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
but wholly leaned on Jesus’ name.

Refrain
On Christ the solid rock I stand;
all other ground is sinking sand,
all other ground is sinking sand.

I think some people live that out.  Their hope is truly in Jesus and not in the world.  And because of that they take the mission Jesus gave us, of making disciples, seriously.  But there are plenty of others who might say they stand on Jesus when they really just stand on their own opinion of Jesus.  And many of the people like to keep their religion indoors and just have a country club kind of church where only people who fit in already are welcomed.  And there are tons of individual churches who keep themselves safely hidden behind their closed doors and cut off from everybody else and there isn’t even a chance for unity in our mission to save the world.

Any church that is an island to itself is missing the point:

Ephesians 4:11-16 [Jesus] is the one who gave these gifts to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers.  Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ, until we come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature and full grown in the Lord, measuring up to the full stature of Christ.

Then we will no longer be like children, forever changing our minds about what we believe because someone has told us something different or because someone has cleverly lied to us and made the lie sound like the truth.  Instead, we will hold to the truth in love, becoming more and more in every way like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church.  Under his direction, the whole body is fitted together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.

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John 15:18-21 “When the world hates you, remember it hated me before it hated you.  The world would love you if you belonged to it, but you don’t. I chose you to come out of the world, and so it hates you.  Do you remember what I told you? ‘A servant is not greater than the master.’ Since they persecuted me, naturally they will persecute you. And if they had listened to me, they would listen to you!  The people of the world will hate you because you belong to me, for they don’t know God who sent me.

Are you living any differently than the rest of the world?  Could an unbeliever look at your life and recognize that you belong to Jesus?  I’m not talking about having a Christian T-shirt or a Jesus fish on your car?  I’m talking about living a life that the world recognizes as standing up for and speaking out for God.  Jesus preached to everybody.  Do you preach to anybody?  Does the world even care about the kind of life you’re living?  Or are you living a life of exclaiming Christ to the world so that they have no choice but to respond to you?

THIS MESSAGE IS CUT OFF.  I don’t know what happened, but it leaves you hanging a bit.  So go listen to it and then come back and read the following, and it should all make sense together:

It says they brought the blood of animals into the temple, but dumped their carcasses outside the gate.  And that’s just how they treated Jesus…like a piece of garbage.  “Let’s take him outside the gates where we throw the trash.”  So this verse is saying, if that’s the way they’re going to treat Jesus, we’re not going to stick around either.  We’re not going to be friends with the people who hate and reject our Lord.  We’re going to go out where he was crucified to stand with Jesus.  If you’re going to consider him scum you can consider me just like him.  I’ll go with him and face the same rejection.  I don’t need to be popular with the world.  I don’t need to be friends with the world.  I need one thing, and he’s the one hanging on that cross outside the gates.  That’s where you’ll find me too.

James 5:10-11 For examples of patience in suffering, dear brothers and sisters, look at the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.  We give great honor to those who endure under suffering. Job is an example of a man who endured patiently. From his experience we see how the Lord’s plan finally ended in good, for he is full of tenderness and mercy.

Remember how they treated Ezekiel and Daniel and Jeremiah—any of those prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord?  Life wasn’t fun for them.  But we consider them blessed.  Why?  Because who had the last laugh?  How do you think Jeremiah is doing right about now?  How does Ezekiel feel now?  I think those guys are doing pretty good.  Right about now they are more than fine about what they had to endure.  Check out Job.  Do you think he is still upset about what he had to go through?  Or do you think he understands, even more now, about how compassionate and merciful God really is.  I think all these guys would tell you right now, that the suffering is worth it.

1 Peter 2:19-21 For God is pleased with you when, for the sake of your conscience, you patiently endure unfair treatment.  Of course, you get no credit for being patient if you are beaten for doing wrong. But if you suffer for doing right and are patient beneath the blows, God is pleased with you.

This suffering is all part of what God has called you to. Christ, who suffered for you, is your example. Follow in his steps.

Do you want to follow Christ?  Here’s the example he left for you: he was beaten and killed.  Still feel like following in his footsteps?  This is what God has called you to.

4:12 Dear friends, don’t be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through, as if something strange were happening to you.

This isn’t strange, it’s what you were called for.  Why are you surprised?  This isn’t odd.  You know what’s strange is when no one is persecuting you for your faith.  That’s strange.  We’ve twisted things all around to where we think someone is strange when people hate him.  We see the guy on the corner preaching the gospel and people are yelling at him, and we think ‘That’s weird!’  No, what’s weird is when we set our lives up to avoid persecution, so much so that you can’t name a single person who hates you because you love Jesus Christ.

2 Peter 2:2 Many will follow their evil teaching and shameful immorality. And because of them, Christ and his true way will be slandered.

Are you slandered for teaching the truth?

How’s this for a bumper sticker:

1 John 3:13 So don’t be surprised, dear brothers and sisters, if the world hates you.

1 John 3:16-18 We know what real love is because Christ gave up his life for us. And so we also ought to give up our lives for our Christian brothers and sisters.  But if anyone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need and refuses to help—how can God’s love be in that person?

Dear children, let us stop just saying we love each other; let us really show it by our actions.

What are you doing for the church?  We have brothers and sisters in need all over the place.  Are you doing anything for them?  What good are you if all you do is talk?  What good am I if just stand up here and preach?  I want to be with the people who are doing something to advance the Kingdom.  Who are you giving up your life for?

Rev. 2:10 Don’t be afraid of what you are about to suffer. The Devil will throw some of you into prison and put you to the test. You will be persecuted for ‘ten days.’ Remain faithful even when facing death, and I will give you the crown of life.

Jesus says life is going to be pretty bad for awhile.  Some of you will go to prison and be tortured.  It’s ok.  Hang in there.  Be faithful, endure the suffering.  That crown of life is worth it in the end.  But you’re going to have to be tough to get to it.

You know why we don’t see this around here—why we don’t have martyr stories?  Because we avoid persecution in America.  If Jesus lived here, you can bet he’d be persecuted.  You know why?  Because he didn’t know how to keep his mouth shut.  He spoke up.  He would’ve been beaten down in Rockford for the things he said.

The disciples too—they could have escaped persecution.  Remember the leaders said, “Just stop preaching about Jesus.” and Peter said (Acts 4:19) “Who should I obey, you or God?  Sorry, but we can’t stop.”  Paul could’ve lived a lot longer, if he didn’t go against the flow so much.  He could’ve taught, ‘Just stay safe in your homes and have fellowship with your Christian friends.  Let a few Christians in, lock the door, go to church on Sunday mornings, and then right back home.’

Paul could’ve lived a long time.  But he said “I know it’s dangerous there, but God’s telling me to go, so I’m going to go.  As part of it, I’m just going to suffer for the sake of Christ.”

The reason we don’t get persecuted is because we avoid it.  We’ve grown up with a gospel that doesn’t have any suffering.  We’ve just skipped over those parts and try not to stir up any trouble.

And this isn’t about suffering for being a jerk.  There are some people that say “Everyone hates me because I’m a Christian.”  No they just hate you because you’re annoying.  I’m talking about when you tell people they are dying because you love them.  When you tell people what the word of God says for their benefit.

So am I wrong about all this?  Do I have a different Bible than you?  Or are we doing our best to avoid pain and suffering?  Are you fighting for Jesus or just for what you want?  Are you fighting for anything?  Are you only paying attention to the verses that justify the way you’re living?  Being a follower of Jesus Christ, taking up your cross and following him, means this life is going to be hard.  Jesus doesn’t say “Just do whatever you feel like doing.”  His message is, come die with me.  It’s going to be painful, but it’s worth it.

Are you willing to suffer with him…to die with him?  I don’t like pain.  But if that’s what it takes to be with Jesus, I’m willing.  I want to be faithful even to death…even if everyone hates me.  Whatever it takes.

Maybe you’ve never really decided to follow Jesus.  I’m not going to tell you that Jesus just wants to be your friend and that you can say a prayer and everything will be fine.  But I will tell you that you need Jesus.  Your sin dooms you to Hell.  And you cannot save yourself.  You will suffer for all eternity for the crimes you have committed against God.  And if you want out of that, it’s going to mean giving up your old way of life.  Jesus said deny yourself.  Die to the old you, give up your wants, be united in death with Christ for the sake of saving people from Hell, and one day you will rise just like him, and live forever and ever with your Savior.

Is Jesus worth that to you?  Or is he just a name you throw around to impress your church friends?  Maybe it’s time to count the cost and make plans to actually build your faith or stop pretending—to put up or shut up.

I don’t want to drive anybody away from the church or from Christianity, but I would much rather convince 5 people to commit their lives 100% to living for God than to convince 5000 to pray some meaningless prayer, but never change anything about their lives.  How about you?

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