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“And we know that God causes everything to work together for good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.” 

Today is Good Friday. The day in which we recognize the sacrifice that our Lord Jesus Christ willingly did for all. One phrase that has been probing my mind this week is a phrase that Jesus said often in his earthly ministry:

 “I laid my life down willingly”

Today is Maundy Thursday, also called “Holy Thursday,” and it also the day the Lord emphasizes his command, his mandate, to us:

Love each other as I have loved you.

Some of Jesus’ most important mandates or commands are simply put, but not simply done. This would one of those commands that is easy to say but not so easy to live out. It is such an important one to live by though. Several years ago David Kinnamen wrote a book called, “UnChristian” and in this book he noted that people that are not a part of the faith thought Christians were, “hypocritical, insensitive, and judgmental.” He goes on to say that Christians are viewed to be “UnChristian,” or the opposite of the Lord Jesus that we say we are disciples of.

When you live out the word of God and follow all the law that is listed in the bible, but do not sow and show love to all in your life then all those things that you do “successfully” mean nothing. This always goes back to many controversial issues in the church, like homosexuality, but I would argue that the issue makes no matter.

As a disciple of Jesus Christ I have but one job. Jesus calls it the “Greatest Commandment.”

“Jesus replied, ‘The most important one is Israel, listen! Our God is the one Lord, and you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your being, with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this, You will love your neighbor as yourself.” (Mark 12:30-31) 

Does this passage not imply that if you truly love the Lord your God with all that you are then YOU WILL love your neighbor as yourself. That in loving God we truly understand that we are called to LOVE ALL as well?

This is what happens when we don’t? We are hypocritical, judgmental, and the opposite of Christ. Period.

It doesn’t matter what your neighbor is doing, YOU LOVE ALL THE TIME.

May God’s people be blessed by the reading and hearing of God’s word. Thanks be to God.

So, the fall of man happened in a garden, with Adam and Eve eating fruit from a tree. Then years later Jesus gives himself up to die for all the worlds sin and brokenness on a…..tree.

Then in the gospel of John we find that Mary Magdalene meets the resurrected Jesus in a garden. 

Amazing. 

God be praised for this revelation today! 

A missional imagination alters the power dynamics of the church. Translating the gospel for young people amounts to entrusting them with matches, for it gives them access to holy fire, which puts the church at risk: what if young people ignite the church? Then where would we be? Indeed. 

-Kenda Creasy Dean, from the book “Almost Christian”

In Acts 15 there is a council that is held. At this council there is a debate on what should be required of Gentiles to accept Jesus. The idea was that the gentiles must be circumcised and required to keep the law of Moses. To which the Apostle Peter responds:

“Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe. God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us. He did not discriminate between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith. Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of Gentiles a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors have been able to bear? No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.” 

When things are translated from one generation to the next sometimes things are not translated in the way that they were before. As a youth worker I have seen us, the church, tell the younger generations what we should be doing and really not asking what do you think. It is kinda scary to pass on the faith to the youth because as Kenda rightly points out what will happen if the youth ignite the church?

After reading that I had to laugh.

What would happen if the youth ignited the church?

Well, what is going to happen if they don’t?

Where will the church be if we don’t pass along the faith that we know and believe and help the youth and children ignite the faith within themselves and then ignite the church?

So in response to these questions I pose another question.

What would happen if the youth ignited your church?

So this last weekend I went to YS Palooza. A youth ministry networking conference in Irving and I was really excited because I went last year and got some amazing networking, reconnection, and amazing encouragement from the Lord. This year I expected just the same, but I was mistaken.

It was so much more.

I had a feeling that God was up to something after the first worship gathering where Shane and Shane led us in worship and if you haven’t ever experienced that, then you probably should. Like now! Actually wait until after read this post then go! It was nothing short of amazing! Great worship, but it was nothing compared to the worship that I experienced that Friday night.

After a day of great training given to us by Doug Fields, Walt Mueller, and Brian Berry we had another chance to worship the Lord again. Shane and Shane led in worship singing, “It is Well” and it was ridiculously awesome. During the verse where it says that our sins have been nailed to the cross and that they are no more (mind you I am paraphrasing) something amazing happened.

You ever had a worship experience where you felt the presence of God so in your heart and soul that afterwards you couldn’t explain even a word of what that experience was like?

Yeah that is what happened.

In fact its taken days to even try to explain this moment to you, and I am fairly sure that you will still not get a true picture of what that moment was like, and maybe that’s the point. Maybe I don’t need to explain what that moment was like but what I learned from this experience. I don’t remember a lot from that moment, but what I do remember is that the presence of God was so present and so alive that I could stay there forever because it was pure and uninhibited joy. Then I heard something in my heart.

“Brad, your sins are gone. You can stop apologizing.”

Hearing the spirit say to me, “Stop Apologizing” was quite weird, but the next day it made perfect sense.

We sin all the time. All the time.

One second we can be praising God and the next cursing him by our actions. It’s a part of being human. We naturally do things that go against being holy, but that doesn’t mean we should stop trying. I love the phrase that John Wesley once said, “We are going on to perfection.” Notice he doesn’t say that we will be perfect, in fact we never will but that we should journey towards it.

One of the mysteries of our faith is one of the most amazing things about God. That while we weren’t perfect and would never be perfect Christ died for us.

I am not saying that we since we aren’t perfect and will never be that we just give up and admit,

“Well I am a sinner, and that’s that.”

No.

Christ died to save us from that. When we accept him into our heart our former identity of sin, sin, sin died with Christ on that cross.

I pray that you will be blessed with my words, but also know that these are not my words but the words that I believe God has placed on my heart today, so I hope you hear what I heard. In all things worship and give praise to God. At all times!