Let God’s SON Shine

Easter is about a dark Friday that took the life of God’s Son, the life of a loving innocent man, Mary’s son, the friend and leader of many. Mary felt the darkness. His friends and followers felt the darkness. They were filled with despair and helplessness. What was going to happen next? What were they to do now? Who can they turn to in their fear?

Easter Morning started out dark just as all days and then as the Sun began to rise, the slightest glimpse of light began to reveal itself. Some women (Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, Salome, Joanna and possibly more) probably filled with despair and uncertainty began to walk to the tomb where Jesus’ body was buried. They did not know of the resurrection yet. They thought they were going to be in a sad, fearful place where they were probably going to be uncomfortable in their surroundings as well as their ministry. As they walked, they realized they had a problem. They were beginning to feel helpless in the realization that they had a big stone that would hinder their purpose for going to the tomb. They continued to walk. The light of the sunrise grew in brightness until the shadows and darkness were no more. As the women approached the tomb, they realized the stone had already been rolled away. The problem the women thought they had did not even exist. It had already been taken care of.

How many times do we feel called to do something uncomfortable? Even if we start out, what do we do when we begin to see an obstacle? Do we use it as an excuse to turn back and not put an effort into what we set out to do or do we keep walking?

God continues today to roll stones away, He continues to shed light in our darkness. He continues to help us overcome our fear, our despair, our helplessness. We just need to continue walking where God leads us. Whatever obstacle that we come upon, He will help us overcome it, move it before we get to it, or give us the strength to live with it. No matter what you feel God calling you to do, don’t let the stones keep you from walking toward the calling.

Stones can be exterior such as finances, housing, transportation, etc. They can be interior such as depression, lack of confidence, uncertainty, anger, frustration, resentment, pain, stubbornness, bad memories, etc. No matter what the stones are God can help you deal with them. Sometimes He may choose to break the stones up instead of removing them. It can be painful as He reveals the broken pieces, but He will give you strength to overcome.

Sometimes we may even be looking for stones in our path. What do you hear yourself saying? “I can’t”, “I’m too young”, “I’m too old”, “Someone else can do a better job”, “I may fail”. Let’s do what God calls us to do. If He didn’t think you were the best for the job, He wouldn’t be asking you to do it.

Let this Easter be the time to shed light on the darkness in your life. Let God remove the stones that are blocking the light. Let God fill your heart with love, patience, peace, etc. Let the SON shine in your life.

Multiplied or Wasted?

If your life was $1000 bill and you gave it to God, what if He multiplied it and gave it back to you as several thousand $1 bills? Each day you would be asked to give Him $1 to represent your daily commitment to Him. The giving of the $1000 would represent you giving your life to Him for His gift of salvation. In no way does this imply that salvation can be bought with money because it cannot be purchased or earned. God giving you several thousand $1 bills in return represents how much more you will have when you give your life to him and the free will that He gives you to choose everyday whether you want to live that day for Him or not. Each $1 will represent a day of your life. We only have so many. We will have the choice to give it to him to multiply it and use it or to keep it and waste it. How many days have you already wasted? Do you wake each morning and take up your cross to follow Jesus? How will you spend your remaining days/dollars?

If you have a $20 bill to represent your day, $1 for each hour, how much of it will be given to Jesus? How well are you spending your time?

Do We Do Things To Be Accepted Into A Group?

Some of us do things we wouldn’t normally do just to be accepted by the group we are “hanging out” with. If we have to do something against our convictions, it is not worth being accepted by that group. They are not true friends. We should work on making friends that line up with our convictions or above so that we have enough good friends that it won’t matter if we get rejected.

Jesus was rejected but He knew who He was and didn’t need anyone to confirm who He was. We can have that ultimate friend and as long as we have our identity in Christ, the rejections of this world won’t matter and we will be able to stand on our convictions. Those rejections will no longer make such an impact and we will actually be able to like ourselves.

It is easier to like ourselves if we are doing our best and living up to our convictions. When we start liking ourselves and know that God loves us even when we fail, it won’t matter so much if others like us. We will have many friends and we will have the ultimate friend, Jesus. That will be all that matters.