The rain falls

 It has been raining here in Michigan.  It has been raining a lot.  In my area there has been less rain than other parts of Michigan, but for me and many others, it means that there is water in my basement.  As I was thinking about this and cleaning up what I can (while anticipating more rain falling), I was thinking about the reality that God says the rain falls on the sinners and righteous alike.  

From our perspective, we would love to have just the right amount of rain fall on the righteous and the wicked deal with the absence of or abundance of moisture.  This would be a point of view that values the fact that works matter.  If our works contributed to our reward, we would get the precise amount of rain that we needed.  But that is not the way that rain works.  Sometimes we need rain and we don't get it and sometimes we don't want any more and it still comes.  

Rain is a reminder of both grace and judgment.  It provides growth and it destroys.  And it does this indiscriminately.  It falls in a location without respect to who lives there.  And it is reminder that this world in which we live still has the consequences of sin.  And yet God is gracious.  He gives not just what we deserve, but can use the tool that can bring judgment and pain to create life and growth.  And ultimately, he will finish this work.  One day we will live in a world where we do not get the judgment we deserve because Jesus paid it all for us.  One day the wicked will receive the penalty for their sin because they rejected the payment Christ made and will have nothing left by which they can be saved.  And in that glorious day we will receive the full showers of the blessings of God with none of the judgment.  

Lord God, let it rain!

Do This in Remembrance of Me

 "And when He had taken some bread and given thanks, He broke it and give it to them, saying, "This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me."  

Luke 22:19 (NASB)

It is Easter Monday.  The day after the celebration of the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Yesterday was a great day.  We were able to celebrate together as a church and had an attendance that was 20 percent or more higher than most of the other Sundays of the year.  We praise God for that.  And yet we are a people who are quick to forget.  

I find it fascinating that we have a harder time celebrating and remembering the resurrection and its impact on our daily lives for the other 364 days of the year.  Even at Christmas we are not really thinking about Jesus' death and resurrection.  We simply think of the nativity.  And yet this moment - the moment Christ was raised from the dead is the point where the proverbial rubber meets the road.  If not for the resurrection, Paul says our faith is useless.  vain.  pointless.  

This is why it is so nice that days before Jesus was resurrected he left his followers a perpetual reminder - we are to celebrate communion in remembrance.  Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 11 we are to do this remembrance until Christ returns.  So between point A (Christ death, burial and resurrection) and point B (the return of Christ) we are to remember.  

So don't forget that what we celebrated yesterday has implications that go on for all eternity!  Remember.

Good Friday

 This week is always a busy week.  I am excited because we celebrate the resurrection of our Savior on this coming Sunday.  And that means that two days earlier we celebrate good Friday.  Every year it is a reminder that we call something good that no one would seemingly call good.  

In life, death is never truly good.  Even in cases where death is a occasion filled with the joy of knowing that our loved one has gone on to an eternity with God there is still sorrow.  While we might try to make death seem more palatable, it is never good.  I know this because it is not a part of the creation that God called good.  And I know this because it will not be a part of our lives of eternal and unending joy (when we have placed our trust in Jesus.)  Death is in the Bible called an enemy.  It is not good.  And so to call the day on which we celebrate the death of someone is an odd thing.  How can death be not good, but the death of Jesus be commemorated as good Friday.  

It is because of what His life and death accomplish for us.  It is good because the work that He finished is transferable to us by the mercy of God.  All those who are covered by His blood and have responded in faith can be in a right relationship with God.  Because of Jesus.  And that is a very good thing.  We hope you will celebrate Good Friday - perhaps with our church - see you at 6 PM on Good Friday!

Resurrection

 We are coming up in a few weeks on the Christian celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  I say it this way because we often think about Easter for all of the wrong reasons.  We think of the eggs and the candy and the bunny and we forget that this holiday was and remains a distinctively Christian holiday.  We celebrate the resurrection of our Lord and Savior - Jesus Christ.  We do this because without the resurrection Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 15 that our faith is in vain.  If Jesus is not alive by the power of the resurrection we have no point in gathering and worshiping.  

This means that this coming holiday is arguably the most critical for us to maintain as distinctively Christian.  Our church still has an Egg Hunt as an outreach, but even we should reconsider this as we should reconsider what it says to our community about the importance of what we celebrate.  If we believe that the resurrection of Jesus Christ IS the most crucial part of our faith, why would we surrender it's celebration to a love of reproduction, nature, spring or worse.  We should hold these days as critically as they are important to us.  

May God help us to demonstrate in what we say and do that the living Christ is the most important part of these next few weeks.

2 months gone

 It is March, 2026.  As I get older I seem to notice the passing of time more and more.  2 months would not have been something I noticed a short while ago.  When I use that word "short", each of us have a different idea in mind.  For me it goes back less than 2 years - before I had been diagnosed with my second round of cancer.  Before I spent nearly 3 weeks in the hospital.  It seems that each day, each week and each month and year since then has been measured differently. 

It is interesting that Psalm 90:12 says, "Teach us to number our days, that we may present to You a heart of wisdom."  (NASB)  What intrigues me is that we have to be taught, by God, to number our days.  You would think that counting days is fairly simple, and yet it requires God's help - to be taught to number them.  We would tend to count them wrongly without His help.  And we want to number them rightly because that is part of us presenting to God our wise hearts.  Wisdom is found in numbering our days correctly.

Do you count your time properly?  Are your days and minutes and hours and weeks and months and years monitored according to how wisely you are spending them?  What does God have to teach you about how to use your time?  Perhaps we have more to learn than we think!

The Lord Your God

Reading through the books of the Pentateuch as I start the year and I have noticed that there is a repetitive way of God referring to Himself in the law.  He often calls Himself, "The Lord Your God."  I find this nomenclature both informative and instructive.  Think of the fact that God is repeatedly reminding them that He is the only God.  And yet meeting them where they are and encouraging them to avoid the gods of the other nations (who are not really gods) He does not use the definite article to refer to His deity.  Instead He uses a personal pronoun - He tells them He is "Your God."  But the definite article rests on the idea of His Lordship.  God is THE Lord YOUR God.  There is only one of Him, and He is Personal to His people, but He in calling himself this He is continually reminding them that He alone is in charge.  He is THE LORD.  The One who is.  The One who was.  The One who is to come.  He is and therefore He is to be obeyed.  

Perhaps you need this reminder this morning.  God is the Lord and He is Lord alone.  Worship and Obey Him and be blessed or ignore Him to your own peril. 

How quickly we forget

 I find it interesting that one of the most repeated commands in the book of Deuteronomy is the command to remember.  Some variation of the word occurs over 1,200 times in the whole Bible.  It is interesting because we are so very prone to forget.  In Exodus 32, the people have just heard the voice of God speak the commands to them - one of those was to not fashion a graven image.  And after Moses had been gone up the mountain for a while they decided they needed an image to worship.  They forgot.

Then they crossed the red sea and escaped Egypt.  But they forgot the great signs God did and complained.  So God provided food (bread and meat) and water and yet they complained again.  God made promises like they could win battles if they trusted him and they lost because they forgot to remember.

I wonder what promises God has made in His Word that you have forgotten today.  Do you take the time to read the Bible or have your forgotten just how important it is.  How many characteristics of God could you list from the Bible, or have you forgotten about God too and who He really is.

We tend to forget - so let us be reminded together to remember.