April 26, 2011

Now What?

This past weekend believers all around the world reflected on the death and celebrated the resurrection of our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ. What an amazing time this is every year as we remember in vivid and fresh ways what Jesus did for us on the Cross and rejoice in Jesus’ victory over death.

But now what? How should the reality of Easter affect us every day?

Here’s some very good news. Jesus rose from the dead to give us new life! When He conquered death, He made available to us His power — the power to overcome the things that rob us of the fulness of life, love, peace and joy. His victory made victory possible for us!

Take a look at what the Bible promises to believers in Jesus Christ:

The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you. – Romans 8:11 (NLT)

Have you been discouraged recently? Have certain sins been haunting you? Have bad habits been defeating you? Have you had a hard time getting traction in your spiritual journey? Are you wondering how can you get a fresh start — how you can begin to win your spiritual battles?

Remember, what Jesus did that first Easter was for you and me. He conquered death so that, through His power, we conquer too. Start every day welcoming His power into your life. Lean hard on His grace. Make Him your first priority. Get into His Word. Connect with His people. Share His love. Serve Him and the cause of His Church and Kingdom. Be a grateful, committed and passionate worshiper of Jesus!

When we make Jesus our life, His life gives us strength and power. His life makes our life the best it can be! Let every day be Easter day for you!

Pastor Dale

April 25, 2011

DAILY WORKPLACE INSPIRATION BY OS HILLMAN

A New Kind of Army

April 25

"Proclaim this among the nations: Prepare for war! Rouse the warriors! Let all the fighting men draw near and attack. Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears" (Joel 3:9-10).

God is raising up a new kind of army in these last days. It is the remnant in the Body of Christ that has the greatest potential for societal transformation of any segment of society - men and women in the workplace. It is a remnant that has been largely silent.

Plowshares and pruning hooks are agricultural instruments that farmers use in their work. The prophet Joel says these very instruments will be used in the last days as weapons of war. However, it won't be a war against man and an enemy, but against the Kingdom of darkness.

As we enter the last days, men and women will begin to see their vocations as instruments to defeat the forces of evil and usher in the Kingdom of God. You will see Christ glorified in the marketplace like never before. You will see hundreds and thousands become part of a new harvest of souls in the "9 to 5 window", where many have yet to experience the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

What has to happen for your plowshare or pruning hook to be transformed into a weapon of love, designed to cut through the strongholds of unbelief and corruption in your workplace? You are a spiritual warrior in a worker's uniform.

God has called you to transform your view of yourself and your work. He desires to use you and your work life to impact your workplace, city and nation. Are you ready to beat your plowshare into a sword and your pruning hook into a spear?

April 22, 2011

Magdalene Ran by Melissa Moskowitz
March 1, 1991

Hurry Mary,
go tell Peter and John
Tell them what you saw
Tell them he's not here
Tell them.
The Messiah is risen!
Go tell them.

She had known the Lord,
and as she walked
thoughts of him went
tumbling through her mind.
Everywhere he had walked
he healed, revived
breathed hope and peace.
He had said a word, and one's sins were forgiven.
He once had looked into her eyes and his hands— she remembered his hands—they had laid softly on her shoulders.
And the weight, the confusion, the torment of seven demons had fled from her soul.
Oh! How she loved him!
And the assurance of his love
and his forgiveness
were eternally implanted on her soul.

But they had killed him.
They had put the Messiah of Israel
up on a tree
and she had
watched them take away
the very life, the only life
that could save them from their sins
that could save them from themselves.
He had brought them light,
but their darkness had snuffed it out.

Bewilderment had pursued her
with relentless passion.
He who had held the power
He who had raised the dead,
healed the blind,
freed the captives
He who had held the power
Allowed himself to be rendered powerless.
She did not understand;
she wept as she watched him die.
It was finished.
They laid him in a grave.

And so she came that morning with the other women to anoint him.
She, the young Mary Magdalene,
so soon acquainted with grief.
She approached his tomb.
But a radiance—like lightning,
or blinding snow—stopped her.
An angel, perhaps?
It spoke to her,
"Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified.
He is not here;
He is risen.
Come see the place where he lay."

Dare she believe what her eyes beheld?
The tomb was empty.
Had they taken his body to another place?
Had robbers plundered his grave?
And then it came—his words like
tumbling waters
washed through her soul
as she remembered what he had once said.
"After three days I will rise again."
So this is what he meant.
Understanding enfolded her like
a peaceful cloak, and in her fear and in her joy Magdalene ran.

Hurry Mary,
go tell Peter and John
Tell them what you saw
Tell them he's not here
Tell them.
The Messiah is risen!
Go tell them.

April 21, 2011

A boy's view of 'Heaven': Is it real?

By Craig Wilson, USA TODAY

NEW YORK — Colton Burpo is having a late lunch at a T.G.I. Friday's in Manhattan. He orders a Mountain Dew, then shares some baby back ribs with his dad, munching on the french fries, passing on the cole slaw.

But before the ribs are gone, he puts his hand in the air. "Miss! Oh, Miss!" he says, flagging down a passing waitress. "I'd like some dessert."

He orders something called Oreo Madness. When it arrives, it is devoured in less than a minute.

Heaven for any 11-year-old boy. Well, almost heaven. Colton knows the difference. He says he has already been to the real one.

Colton is famous for being the boy who had a near-death experience when he was 4 years old during emergency surgery for a burst appendix. Doctors offered little hope he would survive.

Not only did he live, he says he went to heaven during the operation, met Jesus, John the Baptist, his great-grandfather and a sister he didn't even know he had (she was miscarried before he was born), then came back to tell his folks about the trip.

A book about Colton's journey —Heaven Is for Real: A Little Boy's Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back (Thomas Nelson, $16.99) — is such a phenomenon that its Nashville publisher says it has broken all sales records for the company. For the past three weeks, it has been No. 1 on USA TODAY's Best-Selling Books list. Today it drops to No. 2, behind Water for Elephants.

"So far, the book shows no signs of slowing down. It's a true phenomenon," says Matt Baugher, vice president and publisher of Thomas Nelson, which specializes in Christian books and Bibles.

"We now have 3.4 million books in print, and that doesn't include the popular e-book version. This little book of hope and comfort is being bought in bulk by people all over the world."

Heaven, released in November as a paperback original with a first printing of 40,000 copies, was written by Colton's father, the Rev. Todd Burpo, who has a small evangelical congregation in Imperial, Neb. It was co-written by Lynn Vincent, who collaborated with Sarah Palin on the best seller Going Rogue.

Jane Love, buyer of books in the religion category for Barnes & Noble, calls the mega best seller a "crossover," meaning the book isn't being bought by just evangelical Christians.

"I don't know what percentage of the readers are Christian vs. the merely curious, but it has crossed over enough that it's No. 1, so there are lots of people buying it," she says.

Stories about people going to heaven and reporting on the trip are surprisingly common —Ninety-Minutes in Heaven, The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven, The Five People You Meet in Heaven — but Love believes the Burpo book is different.

"This one is very specific, in a voice people can relate to, from a child's point of view. From the mouth of babes, as they say," she says. "People buy it, believe it, and talk to their children about it."


Too many coincidences?


Three things convinced the Burpos their son had gone to heaven: his knowledge of where they were when he was being operated on, his claim that he met a sister he never knew even existed, and his declaration that he met his great-grandfather, a man he never knew but could readily identify later from photographs of the man at a young age. (The good news, Colton says, is that people are younger in heaven; and his miscarried sister was a little girl with a striking family resemblance who introduced herself.) His total time in heaven: three minutes.

Blogs, not surprisingly, are alive with doubting Thomases.

But Colton is very specific about what he saw and heard, right down to what the angels sang to him. "Well, they sang Jesus Loves Me and Joshua Fought the Battle of Jericho," he told his parents. Heaven also was filled with bright colors and lots of rainbows.

He knew exactly where he was, too. "I was sitting on Jesus' lap," he said, looking his father right in the eye when he shared that piece of information.

In Nebraska, Todd Burpo also runs a garage door company and is a wrestling coach and a volunteer fireman. The Burpos have two other children, Cassie, 14, and Colby, 6. They are a Midwestern family to the core.

"We're parents like any other parents. We have the same issues every parent deals with. We question God, too. We run into the same storms as anyone," Burpo says, referring to Colton's fight for his life when he was 4.

But how do you handle a kid who says he has been to heaven, a kid who is now yawning through this discussion while waiting for dessert?

His mother says her son hasn't changed all that much since the otherworldly trip he says he took seven years ago. She says it also helps that "we know him."

Colton is a wrestler and is active in his school's music program. He sings, plays the trumpet and, for his recent piano recital, played two numbers, The Star- Spangled Banner to open and the theme from The Pink Panther to end. He wants to be a musician when he grows up.


Suddenly, a busy boy


"We try to keep his life as normal as possible," says his mother, an office manager — though he has missed 10 days of school lately promoting the book, to which he quickly replies, "Ah, that's OK." He'll be a seventh-grader in the fall, and recess is still his favorite period.

His friends now take his heavenly journey in stride, as do the townsfolk who have heard the tale for years now. He also has book signing down to a science. After the title Heaven Is for Real (which is what he told his dad upon his return), Colton writes "... and you're going to like it!"

"Some (people) ask if I'm going again, can you bring them back something," he says with a laugh. He says his memory is fading a bit, that he can't remember the names of all the kids he met in heaven, for instance.

Colton's fame is growing. He is scheduled to be on NBC's Dateline on May 1 and has already done a round of TV including Fox & Friends and the Today show. There is even talk of a movie deal, but no decision has been made.

Todd Burpo had his son read Heaven Is for Real before

he sent it off to the publishers. Colton's response? "It didn't put me to sleep."

"My relationship with Colton matters to me," his father says. "What he says is important to me." Burpo likes that Colton says what's in the book is "all true."


Doubts emerge


But Susan Jacoby, who bills herself "The Spirited Atheist" on the blog she writes for On Faith in The Washington Post, cuts to the chase. "Only in America could a book like this be classified as non-fiction."

She ends her scathing review with this: "What is truly disturbing about (the) book's huge commercial success is that it attests to the prevalence of unreason among vast numbers of Americans. ... At age 4, the inability to distinguish between fantasy and reality is charming. Among American adults, widespread identification with the mind of a preschooler is scary."

C. Michael Patton of Credo House, an evangelical theological center in Edmond, Okla., reviewed the book in a more measured and academic style, although even he concedes much of the contents "leave me scratching my head." How did a 4-year-old know about the Holy Trinity, for instance?

But in the end, he recommends Heaven Is for Real "for its ability to cause you to think, wonder and process. ... The truth is that we do believe in an afterlife. Perhaps Colton did catch a glimpse of heaven just as Paul did."

Todd Burpo is used to all the debate by now. He says he understands.

"I questioned my son, too," he says after saying a prayer before Monday's lunch in New York. "We were completely unprepared to have this discussion, but when he told me where I was when he was being operated on, that got my attention because no one knew where I was, including his mother." (He was in a hospital room both praying to and lashing out at God.)

"If he was making it up, he would have gotten something wrong," Burpo says. "But he got nothing wrong. He got it all right. That's what started our journey."

Colton's mother, Sonja, initially called her son's revelations "shock and awe" as they started coming out shortly after his surgery. When the stories first began, Todd Burpo says he didn't want to hear them.

"It scared me," he admits.

After Todd Burpo began preaching about his son's story, a pastor friend offered to make some introductions in the publishing world, and Thomas Nelson bought the rights.

Despite the book's huge success, the Burpos have no plans to leave Nebraska.

"It's home. He's normal there," Sonja Burpo says of her son. "His friends just think, 'Big deal!' And we think that's healthy for him."

As for the money they'll make from the book, much of it will go to others, the family says. Colton's mother says the family already supports four orphans in Kenya.

"Now we're fortunate enough that we're looking into doing much more. We've never had a chance to be generous."

And now that they do, one suspects Colton would like another dessert.

April 20, 2011

Finding a New Wing of the House, at Pesach March 11, 2011

by David Friedlander

"David, David, wake up!" I was hearing a voice, calling me from a great distance. Suddenly, I felt a hand on my shoulder shaking me and bringing me back to this reality from a deep sleep. At eight years old, I last remembered drinking two cups of wine with my family at our seder meal and, shortly thereafter, heading off to bed. Now, my brother had been sent to awaken me so I could tell the family, who were waiting at the seder table, where I had stashed the afikomen. Before heading upstairs to bed, I had surreptitiously "acquired" it from under the pillow of my father's chair at the seder table…. The wine certainly had had its effect on me…. But, I was duly informed I had to produce the afikomen so the family's seder could continue. NO afikomen, no conclusion to the seder story!

So, I awoke, best I could, and retrieved the afikomen from where I had hidden it, giving it to my father. Pieces of the afikomen were then passed to my mother, brother, two sisters and me, and all was well once again. I knew that, after Pesach, my father would reward me with the usual "fee" of gold-foil-wrapped chocolate coins, for the "feat" of stealing the afikomen. I didn't understand all this, actually, nor many other customs and practices of the seder, but who was I to argue with chocolate coins?

It would take me another 25 years to begin to unravel the answers to the questions raised in my mind by the traditional Jewish seder celebration, especially my questions relating to the afikomen. As the youngest member of an Orthodox Jewish family in New York City, I found that questioning my elders on the purpose and meaning of age-old Jewish traditions was not well received. Even as a child, I had questions like: Why kill an innocent little lamb? What's all this about leaven, anyway? Why do we break the middle matzah? And what's the reason for putting it under the pillow? Many symbols, many questions, but so few satisfying answers. But, as an eight-year-old, my job was just to sit and listen to the Exodus story each year and to learn and accept the age-old traditions of my ancestors.

In my teens, I attended yeshiva in New York and studied Jewish law, Mishnah and Talmud. After college, I moved to Colorado in search of my life's adventure. A year later, I met the woman who would later become my wife and, in 1975, we were married in a traditional Jewish wedding. Two years later, our first son was born.

In the spring of 1979, a new neighbor woman struck-up a friendship with my wife, Patti. This friendship included the woman telling my wife about Jesus and, before long, my wife "became a Christian!" How could she DO that? She then joined the neighbor woman in attending church, taking our infant son along! "But wait, we're Jewish! You can't do that! Come back!" My life was being turned upside down!

In the days that followed, during the spring of 1979, Patti would follow me wherever I went, reading to me from the New Testament. What chutzpah! "We're Jewish," I told her. "Jews don't read or need the New Testament!" But the words she had read to me had sparked a curiosity deep within me. Something profound had been stirred up. I determined that when the wife wasn't around, I would find opportunities to read one of the Gospels from the Bible my wife had "just so happened" to leave lying around. I started in Matthew. At that time, the six-hour, made-for-TV movie, Jesus of Nazareth, was having its television debut. It was to be shown in four parts, ending on Easter Sunday 1979. So, without my wife's knowledge, I secretly began reading the Gospel of Matthew and determined to read seven chapters a day, to keep pace with the showing of the movie, which I would then watch on each of the four evenings.

This two-pronged approach had results for me that were like being hit with a hammer! Matthew is the only Gospel to say "This happened that what was written by the prophets might be fulfilled." "Fulfilled?" I asked myself. How could that be? Was there more to the story that I had grown up learning at the yeshiva? I looked up the cross-references to the prophecy to which Matthew was referring, each of the nine times he used that phrase. It was like someone was showing me an entirely new wing of a house I had lived in all my life. It was astonishing! The more I read, the more I felt my eyes opening. Easter Sunday arrived, which meant nothing to me as a Jew, but I had now read the last seven chapters of Matthew and I was shell-shocked: Matthew related how the man claiming to be the Messiah of Israel was crucified and rejected by the leaders of his own people, my ancestors. How could this be?

As my wife left to attend church that evening, I turned on the TV to watch the concluding portion of the movie. Two hours later, the Messiah was crucified. The actor portraying Y'shua looked straight out from my TV screen. I "knew" he was looking right at me! His eyes pierced my heart. As he was crucified, I fell on my knees, prayed and wept. I wept for a long time, right there in front of the TV, in a pool of tears. I accepted Y'shua into my heart as my Messiah! A new wing of the house had opened its doors to me.

In my spirit, I then saw two hands coming down and, as it were, plugging together power to long strings of lights, each light representing a prior generation. I had been connected, with power, across the many generations of my Jewish ancestors, to the source of all power. I had come home! But I now had a thousand new questions, each vying for attention.

In the amazing weeks that followed, my wife became aware of my acceptance of the Messiah as she saw changes in me, and I was full of many questions. I had developed a tremendous hunger to understand, and I read the Bible like a starving man. The Easter season that year was right in the middle of Pesach. Patti met another Jewish believer in Jesus whom she invited to our house to help me understand and answer as many questions as he could. He even presented me with a Messianic Haggadah. The story of Pesach took on an entirely new dimension.

In the thirty-plus years since that day of decision, I have come to more fully understand and appreciate the Pesach seder. I see the afikomen which splits the middle matzah as representing the breaking of the body of Messiah as a sacrifice once, for all people, for all time. I also now see the wrapping of that piece of matzah in a white linen napkin and its placement under the pillow as symbolic of his death and burial. Even the buying back of the afikomen by the father for a small reward speaks to me of the Roman guards who were paid off by the Jewish priests to tell anyone who asked that the body had been stolen, as related in Matthew 28:11-15.

That afikomen is taken from its hiding place and pieces of it are shared among all seder participants at the third cup of wine which, not coincidentally, is called the Cup of Redemption, the same cup which Jesus drank at the Passover seder which we now know as the Last Supper. Most of my people do not make this connection between the Passover lamb and the Lamb of God, Y'shua. That little boy, so soundly asleep so many years ago, heard a voice awakening him from physical sleep to retrieve the afikomen. Many years later, he heard another Voice calling him to awaken him from a sleep of a deeper, spiritual dimension and, since then, nothing has ever been the same!! Dayenu!

"...for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Messiah is it taken away.... But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away." 2 Corinthians 3:14,16

April 19, 2011

A NOTE FROM DAVID BRICKNER No Pain, No Gain:
A Passover-Passion Meditation by David Brickner
April 15, 2011

This coming week is filled with celebration for those who believe in the God of Israel. It is the week of Passover and it is the week of the Messiah's Passion. Christian and Jewish communities will gather to remember and to celebrate—yet the foundation of both observances is rooted and grounded in great sorrow and suffering. This has always been true whenever God delivers His people. No pain, no gain.

The backdrop to the story of Passover is Moses' encounter with God "on the back side of the desert." The most dramatic aspects of this amazing story may be the burning bush or the mysterious announcement of the ineffable name of God, "I Am that I Am." But for me, what stands out and is twice repeated is God's statement: "I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians" (Exodus 3:7). This encounter is the beginning of the deliverance we now celebrate as Passover.

I have seen, I have heard, and I know—so I have come down. What an amazing testimony to the grace and the power of God! He knows our sorrows. Aren't you glad about that?

It is because God knows, sees and hears that He does indeed "come down" to deliver His people. God meets us at our greatest point of need. When we fail to realize our need, we find it easy to ignore God. Thankfully He doesn't ignore us. He knows our sorrows even when we do not. He reaches out to us until we are forced by the circumstances of our lives to acknowledge our need, and, in our time of grief and pain, God comes down. As C.S. Lewis wrote, "God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world."

Complacency can make us oblivious to our own perilous plight, but when we hear God's voice calling to us in the midst of our pain, it opens the door to great gain—to deliverance and freedom.

One Jewish commentator wrote, "It is strange that the Bible would use the expression, ‘I have come down,' which presupposes that the Godhead needs to descend to earth to act thereon." Yet God made a point of announcing His intention to "come down," to get involved, to get His hands dirty so to speak—and once again, He does so because He sees, He hears and He knows. It was God Himself who brought the plagues on the Egyptians. God Himself passed over the homes of the Israelites who placed the blood of the Lamb on the doorposts of their homes. God Himself brought us through the Red Sea on dry ground. God had to come down because that is His nature. He is a saving God.

And all of this foreshadowed an even greater deliverance. Isaiah predicted that ultimately God's saving arm would bring salvation to His people through one revealed to be "a Man of sorrows" (Isaiah 53:1-3). Once again God proves that He has seen and He has heard. He knows our sorrows and has come down, as a man of sorrows, to deliver us. This is the wonder of the Passover and the Passion taken together. God knows our pain and He has taken it all upon Himself in the person of Y'shua haMashiach, Jesus the Messiah.

Y'shua, the consummate Passover Lamb, shed His own blood so that those of us who apply that blood to the doorposts of our hearts can pass over from death to life eternal. Y'shua's deep pain brought us great gain. In Messiah, God finally did come down, just as He promised prior to that very first Passover deliverance. We who believe and receive what He did are redeemed.

But our redemption is not a ticket out of this world, nor will it deliver us from all pain and sorrow. If God was willing to come down, to participate in our sorrows, then it stands to reason that we who follow Him will not be exempt from suffering and sorrow. We, too, must be willing to see, to hear, to know and to come down to take part in the lives of those God loves. Just as Jesus carried His cross in the work of redemption, so He tells us, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me" (Matthew 16:24). No pain, no gain.

We cannot divorce ourselves from the suffering of this world, but even as God did, we must enter in, get our hands dirty, so to speak, and become men and women of sorrows. Dietrich Bonhoeffer said it this way, "God wants us to be human beings, not ghosts who shun the world. In the whole world of history there is always only one really significant hour. If you want to find eternity you must serve the times."

This is our time. God calls us to serve Him today, to grasp that hour of significance this very week and to dedicate whatever He calls us to do in that hour as a sacrifice to Him and for His glory. Because we follow the Man of Sorrows, we too can see and hear and know and come down. It may be with great pain, but it will always be for great gain.

Man of Sorrows! what a Name
For the Son of God who came
Ruined sinners to reclaim
Hallelujah! What a Savior.

Bearing shame and scoffing rude
In my place condemned He stood
Sealed my pardon with His blood
Hallelujah! What a Savior.

Guilty, vile and helpless we
Spotless Lamb of God was He
Full atonement! can it be?
Hallelujah! What a Savior

Lifted up was He to die
"It is finished!" was His cry
Now in heaven exalted high
Hallelujah! What a Savior.

April 18, 2011

The Meaning of Passover

Jesus the Messiah celebrated the Seder with His disciples. Join us as we take a quick tour through a traditional Passover seder and highlight those points that are especially meaningful to believers in Jesus.

The removal of leaven

Before the beginning of the Passover, all leaven, which is a symbol of sin (1 Cor. 5:6-8), must be removed from the Jewish home. The house is cleaned from top to bottom and anything containing leaven is removed. Then, the evening before the Passover, the father of the house takes the traditional cleaning implements: a feather, a wooden spoon, and a bag, and searches the house for any specks of leaven which might have been missed (my mother used to leave it on top of the refrigerator so my father shouldn't spend all night hunting!).

Washing the hands
Once the leaven is removed, the family sits around the table and ceremonially washes their hands with a special laver and towel. Jesus also took part in this tradition, but rather than wash his hands, he got up from the table and washed the feet of his disciples, giving us an unparalleled lesson in humility (John 13:2-17).

Lighting the candles
Once the house and the participants are ceremonially clean, the Passover seder can begin. The woman of the house says a blessing and lights the Passover candles. It is appropriate that the woman brings light into the home, because it was through the woman that the light of the world, Messiah Jesus, came into the world (Gen. 3:15)

Haggadah
Haggadah means "the telling" - the telling of the story of Passover. The story is told in response to four questions asked by the children: why is this night different from all other nights? The father proceeds to tell the story of the Exodus from Egypt, reading from a book called "The Haggadah" and using symbols and object lessons in order to keep the attention of the little ones.

The first cup of wine
The seder begins with a blessing recited over the first of four cups of wine: "Blessed art thou, Lord our God, King of the Universe, who hast created the fruit of the vine." Jesus himself blessed the first cup in Luke 22:17-18.

The second cup of wine
The second cup is to remind us of the Ten Plagues and the suffering of the Egyptians when they hardened their heart to the Lord. In order not to rejoice over the suffering of our enemies (Prov. 24:17), we spill a drop of wine (which is a symbol of joy) as we recite each of the Ten Plagues, thus remembering that our joy is diminished at the suffering of others.

Afikomen
A very curious tradition now takes place. At the table is a bag with three compartments and three pieces of motza. The middle piece of motza is taken out, broken, and half is put back into the bag. The other half is wrapped in a linen napkin and hidden, to be taken out later, after the meal.

The seder plate
The rabbis have devised a series of object lessons to keep the attention of the little ones during the Passover seder. These items are tasted by each person, as each is instructed to feel as if they themselves had taken part in the flight from Egypt.

Karpas - greens
The first item taken is the karpas, or greens (usually parsley), which is a symbol of life. The parsley is dipped in salt water, a symbol of tears, and eaten, to remind us that life for our ancestors was immersed in tears.

Beitzah - egg
A roasted egg is on the seder plate to bring to mind the roasted daily temple sacrifice that no longer can be offered because the temple no longer stands. In the very midst of the Passover Seder, the Jewish people are reminded that they have no sacrifice to make them righteous before God.

Maror - bitter herb
This is usually ground horseradish, and enough is eaten (with Motza) to bring a tear to the eyes. We cannot appreciate the sweetness of redemption unless we first experience for ourselves the bitterness of slavery.

Charoset
Charoset is a sweet mixture of chopped apples, chopped nuts, honey, cinnamon, and a little Manischewitz grape wine (kosher for Passover) just for color! This sweet, pasty, brown mixture is symbolic of the mortar that our ancestors used to build bricks in the land of Egypt. Why do we remember an experience so bitter with something so sweet? The rabbis have a good insight: even the bitterest of labor can we sweet when our redemption draws nigh. This is especially true for believers in the Messiah. We can find sweetness even in the bitterest of experiences because we know our Lord's coming is near.

Shankbone of the Lamb
In every Jewish home, on every seder plate, is a bare shankbone of a lamb. In the book of Exodus, Jewish firstborns were spared from the Angel of Death by applying the blood of a spotless, innocent lamb applied to the doorpost of their homes as God brought the people from slavery into freedom. Today, we believe Jesus is that perfect Passover Lamb, and when we apply His blood to the doorposts of our heart, we too go from death into life, from slavery to sin into the freedom of being a redeemed child of God. As John the Baptist said when he saw Jesus coming towards him, "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!" (John 1:29)

The Meal
Ah, even through the wonders of modern technology, we still cannot bring you the most memorable part of the Passover... the meal, just like grandma used to make! Just picture it: steaming hot chicken soup with huge, fluffy motza balls; some motza; slices of pungent, home-made gefilte fish with just-ground make-you-cry horseradish; more motza; chopped liver (with lots of schmaltz and crunchy fried onions) on a bed of lettuce; more motza; enough delectable green salad to feed a colony of hungry rabbits; more motza; more crispy fried onions on the side; more motza... and that's just the appetizer!
Next comes the meal... can you smell it? Tender, sweet brisket with cabbage; more motza; home made flanken; stewed chicken, roasted chicken, broiled chicken, boiled chicken, sautéed chicken, baked chicken; more motza; a whole roasted turkey; more motza; fresh-cut green beans with onions; more motza; carrot and prune tzimmes; more motza; sweet potato and raisin tzimmes; more motza; home-made mashed potatoes swimming in butter; more motza... and we haven't even gotten through the appetizer!

Did you save room for dessert? Well, you will have to wait, because now it's time go on with the seder!

The Search for the Afikomen
After the meal is finished, the leader of the seder lets the children loose to hunt for the Afikomen, which was wrapped in a napkin and hidden before the meal. The house is in a ruckus as everyone rushes around to be the first to find the Afikomen and claim the prize as grandpa redeems it from the lucky locator. The going rate is $5.00! Once the leader has retrieved the Afikomen, he breaks it up into pieces and distributes a small piece to everyone seated around the table. Jewish people don't really understand this tradition, but traditions don't need to be understood - just followed! However, it is widely believed that these pieces of Afikomen bring a good, long life to those who eat them.

The tradition perhaps dates back to the time of Jesus. If this is the case, then Luke 22:19 takes on a greater meaning: "And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, 'This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.'" For Jesus the Messiah would have taken the middle one of the three pieces of motza, the piece that stood for the priest or mediator between God and the people, broken it as His body would be broken, wrapped half in a linen napkin as he would be wrapped in linen for burial, hidden it as he would be buried, brought it back as he would be resurrected, and distributed it to everyone seated with him, as He would distribute His life to all who believe. As He did this, he was conscious that this middle piece of motza represented His own, spotless body given for the redemption of His people. As the motza is striped and pierced, His own body would be striped and pierced, and it is by those wounds that we are healed (Isaiah 53:5). This middle piece of motza, or the Afikomen, is our communion bread.

Third Cup
The third cup of wine is taken after the meal. It is the cup of redemption, which reminds us of the shed blood of the innocent Lamb which brought our redemption from Egypt. We see that Jesus took the third cup in Luke 22:20 and 1 Corinthians 11:25, "In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.'" This was not just any cup, it was the cup of redemption from slavery into freedom. This is our communion cup.

Fourth Cup
The fourth cup is the Cup of Hallel. Hallel in Hebrew means "praise," and we see in the beautiful High Priestly Prayer of John 17, that Jesus took time to praise and thank the Lord at the end of the Passover Seder, his last supper. The spotless Passover Lamb had praise on his lips as he went to his death.

Elijah's Cup
A place setting remains empty for Elijah the prophet, the honored guest at every Passover table. The Jewish people expect Elijah to come at Passover and announce the coming of the Messiah (Malachi 4:5). So a place is set, a cup is filled with wine, and hearts are expectant for Elijah to come and announce the Good News. At the end of the seder meal, a child is sent to the door to open it and see if Elijah is there. Every year, the child returns, disappointed, and the wine is poured out without being touched. My people wait and hope for Messiah - they do not realize that Messiah has already come. But those of us who believe in Yeshua know that He is the one the prophets spoke of. He is the spotless, unblemished Passover Lamb, whose body was broken for us, whose blood was shed, and who now lives to distribute His life to all of us who apply His blood to the doorpost of our hearts and have passed from death into His eternal life.

April 14, 2011

WORLD CHALLENGE, INC.

Dearly Beloved:

THIS IS A MESSAGE FOR OVERWHELMED BELIEVERS.

I speak now to all Christians who are overwhelmed by accumulating afflictions. David the Psalmist spoke of being overwhelmed by unbearable troubles: "My heart is sore pained within me: and the terrors of death are fallen upon me.
Fearfulness and trembling are come upon me, and horror hath overwhelmed me" (Psalm 55:4-5).

Search the Scriptures and you will find that no one spoke of trusting God more than David did. No one preached more on seeking the Lord for strength in a time of need. It was David who testified that though he walked through the valley of death he feared no evil because he knew the Lord was with him.

Yet there fell on David a series of deep, painful distresses that shook his faith. At one low point, when everything seemed hopeless, he cried, "All men are liars!" (Psalm 116:11). He was speaking out of his overwhelming pain and sorrow. David said, in essence, "All the words of comfort and hope I've heard haven't come to pass. It all seems like a lie."

David was enduring an all-out attack on his faith. He wasn't accusing God of lying. He was referring to the many human voices coming at him from every side. David was simply in a place of despair. He looked for an escape: "That I had the wings like a dove, I would fly away from all this despairing and find a place of rest" (Psalm 55:6).

When I talk about being overwhelmed, I know of what I speak.
My daughter, Debi, has just been operated on for cancer. My 29-year-old grandson, Brandon, is undergoing chemotherapy for stage 4 cancer. David was right: "Fearfulness and trembling fall upon us."

What does a believing child of God do in these overwhelming hours? We do as David did. "As for me, I will call upon God; and the Lord shall save me. Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud: and he shall hear my voiceŠ[and deliver] my soul in peace from the battle that was against me: for there were many with me" (Psalm 55:16-18).

Go to prayer. Steal away and get into the Lord's presence.
Even if you do it quietly, cry out your pain and ask for his peace to come upon you. We must do more than trust. We must stay in God's Word and pray his promises back to him.

My family and I are walking in faith and relying on God's faithfulness to his Word. God is good!

Thank you for remembering our ministry worldwide to the poor and needy, the widowed and the fatherless. For information on these efforts and others, go to:
www.worldchallenge.org/missions.

In Christ,
DAVID WILKERSON

April 15, 2011

WORLD CHALLENGE, INC.

Dearly Beloved:

GOD'S EYE IS ON YOU!

In one way or another, we are all hurting. Every person on earth carries his own burden of pain. When you are deeply hurt, no person on earth can shut down your inner fears and deepest agonies. Not even the best of friends can understand the battle you are going through or the wounds inflicted on you.

Is there a balm for a broken heart? Is there healing for those deep, inner hurts? Can the pieces be put back together and the heart be made even stronger? Yes! Absolutely, yes!

And if not, then God's Word would be a hoax and God himself would be a liar. That cannot be!

God didn't promise you a painless way of life. He promised you "a way of escape." He promised to help you bear your pain. He promised strength to put you back on your feet when weakness makes you stagger.

Our loving Father said, "There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that you may be able to bear it" (1 Corinthians 10:13).

Your heavenly Father watches over you with an unwavering eye. Every move is monitored. Every tear is bottled. He identifies with your every pain. He feels every hurt. He will never allow you to drown in your tears. He will not permit your hurt to deteriorate your mind. He promises to come right on time to wipe away your tears and give you joy for mourning.

You have the ability to make your heart rejoice and be glad in the Lord. He commands us to rise up and shake off all those fears which cause us to doubt. His eye is on you!

In Christ,
DAVID WILKERSON

April 13, 2011

Holiness is a Community Project
Michael McKinley
Pastor, Writer

Once I had the pleasure of speaking at a missions conference in the United Kingdom. I flew into Heathrow Airport where I was met by a taxi driver who had been sent to pick me up. He was old (older than my dad) and round and kept calling me "sir," even though I was less than half his age and he was dressed twice as nicely as me. I asked him to call me "Mike" and explained to him that as an American, formality made me uncomfortable. He explained that as a Brit, familiarity made him uncomfortable. We agreed that since I was the customer, he would call me by my name. His name, I found out, was Roy.

We weren't on the road more than five minutes before Roy the cabbie told me about the way that Jesus had changed his life (he didn't know that I was a Christian). For the next forty-five minutes Roy related his testimony with unrelenting vigor and evangelistic zeal. But right before he got to the point where he challenged me to put my trust in Jesus, he took a breath. Seeing that he had made a tactical error, I pounced, "Roy, I am already a Christian!"

We shared enjoyable fellowship for the remainder of the ride. When we got near our destination (a lovely city called Luton--think of Detroit without all of the charm), I innocently asked Roy what church he attended. His face became red and his grip on the wheel became tight, "I have church right here in my car. I've got preachers on the radio and congregants in the passenger seat."

Roy hadn't stepped foot into a church in years, even as he tried daily to grow in his walk with Christ.

Well, there are a lot of things wrong with Roy's thinking about church, not the least of which being the fact that it is disobedient to a clear command in Scripture (Hebrews 10:25). But one thing that this incident particularly highlights is how badly we've misunderstood the role of the Christian community in God's plan for our growth in holiness.

The fact is, you can't be the kind of Christian you're meant to be without other people. You can't be the kind of Christian you're meant to be without real relationships in a local church.

Much of our growth in holiness comes in the context of relationships. So in Galatians chapter five believers are told to reject a whole host of "works of the flesh," including enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, and envy. These are all sins that emerge when we are engaged in a community.

Isolated individuals don't usually have to worry about jealousy and enmity and strife because they are by themselves! It's easy for us to get along with ourselves; to quote Terrell Owens, "I love me some me!".

We're big fans of ourselves. But we don't learn how to shun many of the works of the flesh when we are alone. As we grow in Christ we will learn to say "No" to ungodliness in the context of community. We will learn to put away jealousy when we see others succeed. We will learn to be patient with the struggles of others and to forgive them quickly.

On the positive side, in Ephesians chapter four Paul instructs the members of the church to "walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." Did you catch that? Paul tells us that walking in a manner worthy of our calling (that is to say, holy living) happens in relationships. God isn't interested in your growing in patience and gentleness towards yourself! He wants to grow in you a love for others that helps you bear with them. He wants you to love yourself less and love others more.

There are a whole range of sins you can't shun and graces you can't employ in Roy's car. Roy may have been kind and patient with me during our car ride, but he didn't have to spend much time with me. He didn't have to deal with me when I'm not at my best. He didn't have to love me when I sinned against him. He didn't have to be patient with me when I was being unkind and irritable. Those things are meant to happen in the context of genuine relationships in local churches.

God's plan for your life is far bigger than your individual salvation. He has saved you into a people that are his own, people who are eager to do good (Titus 2:14). He has made you a living stone in a spiritual house (1 Peter 2:5). He has given each believer gifts of grace for the edification of the church body (1 Corinthians 12). He has called you to love your enemies and embrace those who are different from you (Ephesians 2:11-22). None of that can happen solely in your car, your office, or your family.

God has given us the gift of other brothers and sisters in the local church who can spur us on toward love and good deeds (Hebrews 10:24). In turn, we have an obligation to do the same for them. We weren't meant to simply pursue holiness alone in our room (or in Roy's case, our car). We were meant to grow in holiness together as the body of Christ.

April 12, 2011

The Right Friends

Who are your friends?

Friends are an important part of life for many different reasons. Because of their power, they must be carefully chosen. Your friends will be one of the most significant influences in determining where you end up in life. Our friends greatly shape our destiny. Wise choices in friends bring blessing. Foolish choices at best limit us and at worst can destroy us.

In the book of Psalms we find some guidance when it comes to our choices in friends. Take a look at the decision David made about who would and who would not be counted as one of his friends:

I will have nothing to do with a perverse person; I will not permit evil. I will destroy anyone who slanders his neighbor in secret. I will not tolerate anyone who has a cocky demeanor and an arrogant attitude. I will favor the honest people of the land, and allow them to live with me. Those who walk in the way of integrity will attend me. Deceitful people will not live in my palace. Liars will not be welcome in my presence. — Psalm 101:4-7 (NET)

David understood the impact of people. He set boundaries around his choice of friends and associates. He was very conscientious, careful and deliberate about those he allowed into his life. He understood the potential of being spiritually and morally polluted by hanging around with the wrong folks.

The Apostle Paul reminded us of this life principle as well:

Do not be misled; “Bad company corrupts good character.” — 1 Corinthians 15:33 (NIV)

What about you? Have you been led astray by the bad influence of others? Are you suffering spiritually and morally because of the people you have allowed into your life?

Choose the right friends. In many ways they are shaping your destiny!

Pastor Dale

April 11, 2011

Who Cares?

Who’s taking care of you? How committed are they to you?

Everybody needs care, and care requires commitment. Caring can’t happen without a conscious concern for the well-being of someone, a consistent awareness of their condition and needs, a willingness to adequately and abundantly meet these needs, and an ability or capacity to do so.

At the core of caring for someone is a bedrock, unchanging commitment to them. This is real love!

The Bible teaches us that God is love. It describes God’s love as personal and individual. God doesn’t just love “people” in a broad, sweeping way — faceless, generic “people.” No, God actually cares for individuals. He knows the names, addresses, needs, pains, problems, hopes and dreams of individual people — including you and me!

I can’t wrap my mind around this reality. My head hurts just thinking about how God could individually know and truly care for every single person. But it’s true!

Listen to what Jesus said:

“So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and He will give you everything you need.” – Matthew 6:31-33 (NLT)

“What is the price of five sparrows — two copper coins? Yet God does not forget a single one of them. And the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are more valuable to God than a whole flock of sparrows.” – Luke 12:6, 7 (NLT)

In these passages, Jesus reminded and promised us that God really cares for His children. He is committed to you and me in a very personal and intimate way. He has plenty of anything and everything we need, and He is willing to make His resources available to us. Our main task is to avoid worry and fear, putting our full trust in His commitment to care for us.

Most of us don’t have a problem believing that God has adequate and abundant resources. After all, He is God. And being God means that resources are a part of His very being.

The Bible teaches us that God doesn’t just have resources, He is the Resource. He is the Fountainhead, the Spring, the Supplier of everything we could ever need.

To have a relationship with God is to have a relationship with the One who is all that we will ever need. It is the difference between a well, and a bucket full of water that sits beside the well. To know God is to have access to the well, not just access to an occasional bucket or glass of water from the well!

But God wants our faith to go to another level. He wants us to rest in the fact that He will make His resources available to us. This is where the “rubber meets the road.” It’s not just believing that God can provide for us, but it’s also believing that He will. It’s confidently believing that He will care for us adequately and abundantly!

Who’s taking caring of you? God is! Trust Him!

Pastor Dale

April 8, 2011

Never Forget!

Some things are forgettable. They’re not worth remembering. Their impact on our lives is so insignificant that they easily slip from memory.
Other things in life are important to forget. The memory of them is destructive, restrictive, debilitating, burdensome and painful. Nothing beneficial comes from thinking about them. These things are best left behind, and actually must be left behind if we’re going to go forward in life.
There are other things that must never be forgotten — eternal, important, inspirational truths, insights, and lessons learned that make us wiser and better. They’re some things we must never let go of, if we’re going to have blessed and joyous lives.
As believers in Jesus, we must never forget:

The great and amazing love God has for us — we’re totally loved and accepted by Him.
The joy of having our sins forgiven — no more guilt and shame.
The presence of the Holy Spirit living in us — we have the God-given gift of strength on the inside.
The promise of life forever with God — no fear of death.
The supernatural, life-changing power of God’s Word — we have all the resources we need.
The confidence and assurance that nothing is too hard or impossible with God — we have a reason for hope and faith.
That we’re never alone — Jesus is always with us.
That God created us for a purpose and has put us in a place to make a difference — we’re important to God’s plan in the world!

Believer, there are some things you must never forget!

Pastor Dale

April 7, 2011

Extraordinary In The Ordinary

It’s been said that one of the challenging things about life is that it’s so daily! Indeed it is. Life’s not always exciting, thrilling, full of emotional highs and great feelings. Most of the time life’s very ordinary. We get up, get ready, go to work, do our job, come home, go to bed and then do the same things all over again the next day. We go through the routines of daily living. Nothing seems too special. It’s just life — daily life!

One thing that often happens in the flow of daily life is the loss of expectation and anticipation of the special moments. We fall into the rut of the ordinary and fail to look for the extraordinary in our ordinary lives. Because of this, we miss many of the special moments and unique opportunities God brings our way. The ordinary anesthetizes us to the extraordinary. Let me explain.

There’re many stories in the Bible of God showing up in unique and special ways in the lives of ordinary people doing very ordinary things. One example is found in Acts 8. It’s the story of a man named Philip. Philip was a servant in the early church who loved to share his faith with others. One day, Philip was walking on the road that led from Jerusalem to Gaza. While he’s walking, God’s talking to him.

As Philip strolled along, he saw a chariot heading down the same road. The chariot happened to be transporting a very important official from Ethiopia. The Holy Spirit spoke to Philip and told him to go and walk alongside this carriage. Philip obeyed. When Philip approached the chariot, he heard this man reading from the scroll of Isaiah the prophet. Philip saw an opportunity. It was an extraordinary moment in an ordinary day.

Philip asked the official if he understood what he was reading. The man said that he needed some help, and Philip offered his assistance, jumped in the carriage with him and began telling the man about Jesus. Take a look at Philip’s response to this amazing moment:

“So beginning with this same Scripture, Philip told him the Good News about Jesus.” – Acts 8:35 (NIV)

This man accepted Christ that day, was baptized and went home a new man!

A great moment in Philip’s life, a moment that resulted in him sharing his faith in Jesus with someone else, happened because Philip looked for extraordinary, special moments in the midst of an ordinary day and an ordinary activity. What started out as an ordinary walk turned into an extraordinary opportunity for Philip to be used by God.

Yes, life’s very daily and very ordinary. But remember, God has extraordinary, special moments and opportunities for you in the midst of your ordinary life and activities. Keep your spiritual eyes open to see them and your spiritual ears tuned to hear God’s Spirit guiding you to embrace the unique, divine appointments in the mundane of your daily life!

Pastor Dale

April 6, 2011

When Your Sails No Longer Have Wind
by Os Hillman

He stilled the storm to a whisper; the waves of the sea were hushed. They were glad when it grew calm, and he guided them to their desired haven (Ps 107:29-30).

Imagine for a moment you began an exciting sailing adventure. You've been trained to navigate and sail on the ocean and be ready should trouble arise. You are confident you can handle the challenge. However, midway in the journey your resources have dried up. It almost seems God has intentionally destroyed all the skills you have to deal with the weather and the obstacles and your sails are now damaged. Even your engine has broken down. And to make matters even worse, your oars were lost overboard. You are stuck in the middle of the ocean and there is no wind to propel your boat. You are, as they say, "up the creek without a paddle."

All of this leads you to the end of yourself and you say, "Lord, I don't know why you brought me out here only to die." The silence is deafening.

Finally, the Lord speaks, "Yes, you are right. I did bring you out here. I did destroy your sails. I did break your engine. And yes, I do want you dead. Not in a physical sense, mind you, but in a spiritual sense. In order that you may LIVE."

"You see my child, you are nothing without Me. You cannot do anything without my grace and power in your life." The sailor quietly yields. Suddenly, a gentle wave lifts the front of the boat. An easterly wind blows through the broken sail moving the boat in the right direction. You realize God is moving your boat! Your role now is to steer it.

Do your sails no longer have wind to move you? Is your engine broken? Does it feel like God has propelled you into the open sea only to stop midway with no options? Perhaps He is saying it is time to die in order that He might live through you. Give the Lord total control today and you will see His wind moving through your tattered sails.

April 5, 2011

The Right View of You

How is your self-image? Self-image is the way we view ourselves. It’s important because it affects our relationships with others, and even impacts our relationship with God. It determines, in significant ways, the course of our lives.

Two dangerous extremes exist when it comes to self-image. The first is an over-inflated ego — what we commonly call pride. The pride-filled person expects the world to revolve around their needs and wants. They tend to be overly-demanding, self-focused, stingy, and easily-irritated by the “lesser” creatures around them. Their unspoken motto and mindset is “It’s all about me!” They go through life with a kind of swagger in their style and arrogance in their spirit. You feel the “air” when you’re around them.

But pride usually afflicts people in more subtle ways. Pride can lure folks into fanciful thinking about themselves and their abilities. It can cause a person to be deceived by unrealistic desires, dreams and expectations. It can blind people to the reality of their failures, weaknesses, and needed areas of growth. It can fuel a lot of unhealthy thinking and habit patterns. It can lead to unwise choices and decisions.

The other dangerous trap of self-image is a haunting sense of inferiority. Many folks live under an internal taskmaster’s whip of negative thinking, self-hatred and shame. They trudge through life with very little confidence. Fear and insecurity rob them of peace and productivity. While they may work hard to perform perfectly, and actually present themselves to others in a secure and confident way, underneath it all they’re plagued with anxiety, expecting the inevitable exposure of their inabilities and incompetence.

How do we avoid the dangerous traps of self-image? Deliverance from pride and healing from inferiority both come from a right relationship with God. These happen when we get to know more of who He is, and who we are in Him, through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and the heart-focused study of His Word.

A healthy self-image also requires a willingness, with God’s help, to honestly assess ourselves — to allow God to give us a reality check on our gifts, strengths, character and capacities. It involves inviting the Lord to show us needed areas of growth in all parts of our lives. It comes as we open our lives to God’s loving affirmations, as well as His loving discipline. The Lord wants to paint a realistic portrait in our hearts of His perception of us. His perception brings us security and confidence, while tenderly challenging us with needed changes in our thinking, attitudes and actions.

A healthy self-image happens when we realize that God loves us just the wash we are, but He loves us too much to leave us the way we are!

Pastor Dale

April 4, 2011

My Take: Snap out of spiritual slump with Lent

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2011/04/03/my-take-why-i-observe-lent

Editor's Note: Mark Batterson is lead pastor at the National Community Church in Washington, D.C. He is the author of “In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day,” “Wild Goose Chase” and “Primal: A Quest for the Lost Soul of Christianity.”

By Mark Batterson, Special to CNN

When I was a seminary student, my wife and I went to downtown Chicago for a taping of “The Oprah Winfrey Show.” When the producer came out to prep us for the show, I was embarrassed for him because he had dirt on his forehead. Didn’t he look in the mirror that morning? Why didn’t someone tell him? My embarrassment for him turned into embarrassment for myself when I discovered it was Ash Wednesday and the dirt on his forehead was actually ashes that symbolized the day of repentance that begins Lent.

I grew up going to a wide variety of Protestant churches, but none of them practiced or even mentioned Lent. It wasn’t until a few years ago, well into my tenure as lead pastor of National Community Church, that I discovered the value of Lent. It has since become a meaningful season in the cycle of my spiritual life. During the last few Lenten seasons, I’ve incorporated a fast into my routine. One year I gave up television. Another year I gave up soda. I’ve also done a variety of food fasts for Lent.

In my experience, giving something up for Lent has made the Easter celebration far more meaningful and even helped me develop the spiritual discipline of fasting. Fasting during Lent has helped me identify with the sacrifices Christ has made for me, and it’s also helped me focus on the reason for the season. The celebration of the resurrection of Christ has become far more meaningful since I started observing Lent.

The church I pastor is a rather non-traditional Protestant church. We are absolutely orthodox in theology but a little unorthodox in practice. We meet in five different theaters around the metro D.C. area. We own and operate a coffeehouse on Capitol Hill that gives all of its net profits to local community projects and humanitarian causes in other countries.
Along with new innovations, however, we’ve also rediscovered the value the ancient traditions. While we may not practice Lent the same way the Catholic church does, we are reinventing it in a way that is meaningful to us. We put our unique fingerprint on those traditions, and that keeps them from being empty rituals.

I’m afraid that many Protestant churches have a very short-term memory. For them, church history only goes back to the Protestant Reformation and Martin Luther. While we may have our theological differences, we share a long history, and I believe there are things that Protestant and Catholic churches can learn from each other in ways that don’t compromise their core beliefs.

I for one am thankful for the Lenten tradition that has been cultivated, celebrated and cherished within the Catholic church. I think more Protestant churches will re-adopt some of those traditions that are part of our common church history from before the Protestant Reformation.

I think of Lent as a spiritual pre-season of sorts. The six Sundays leading up to Easter are considered mini-Easters. Like pre-season games, they prepare us for the ultimate celebration in Christendom: the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And one of the benefits, not unlike the Advent celebration surrounding Christmas, is that the celebration is extended to a longer period of time.

A few years ago I came up with a formula for spiritual growth: change of pace + change of place = change of perspective.
Let me explain what it means.

The key to spiritual growth is developing healthy and holy routines. They are called spiritual disciplines. But once the routine becomes routine, you need to disrupt the routine via a change of pace or change of place. Why? Because sacred routines can become empty rituals if you forget why you started doing them in the first place.

I’m certainly not suggesting that routines are bad. Most of us practice a morning ritual that includes showering, brushing our teeth and putting on deodorant. On behalf of your family and friends, continue practicing those routines.
But here’s the spiritual catch-22: good routines can become bad routines if we don’t change the routine. When you start going through the motions spiritually, it’s time to mix up the routine. And Lent is a great opportunity for a natural change of pace.

Lent disrupts the status quo. It can get us out of an old routine and into a new routine.
In physical exercise, routines eventually become counterproductive. If you exercise your muscles the same way every time you work out, your muscles start adapting and stop growing. You need to disorient your muscles by changing your routine. And the same is true spiritually.

When I’m in a spiritual slump, I often snap out of it by a change of pace or a change of place. And it was Jesus who modeled this practice. He would often walk the beach or climb a mountain. I think those changes in geography are not disconnected from the practice of spirituality. It is a simple change of place that precipitates many of the epiphanies that happen in Scripture.

To snap out of a slump, sometimes all it takes is a small change in routine. Volunteer at a local homeless shelter or nursing home. Start keeping a gratitude journal. Get plugged into a small group or Bible study. Take a day off and do a personal retreat. Or just get up a little earlier in the morning and spend a little extra time with God.

One of the small changes in routine that has helped me rejuvenate me is picking up a new translation of Scripture. New words help me think new thoughts. And while you can institute those changes at any time, Lent is a perfect excuse to mix up your spiritual routine.

Why not leverage Lent by mixing up your routine? If you do, you’ll celebrate Easter like you never have before.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Mark Batterson

April 1, 2011

IDOLS

By Pat Morley

(excerpted from Pastoring Men, Moody Publishers)

I used to race a vintage Porsche and have used racing as a platform to build relationships with men and to share my faith. One day a man who never misses a chance to race asked me quite seriously, "When does my passion for racing become an idol?" Good question.

All idolatry is rooted in unbelief. This unbelief can take many forms, but at its root, it is the powerful lie, "Jesus Christ alone is not enough to make me happy. I need something else."

An idol is something we worship. The issue is looking to anything except Jesus Christ for identity, meaning, and ultimate purpose. An idol is anything that becomes the object of inordinate affection. An idol is anything of which we say, "I must have this to be happy."

John Calvin said that men are "idol factories." Perhaps nothing interferes with a man's faith more than the root problem of making idols--it's the "next step" after believing a lie (topic 37 will cover "lies").

The average American Christian male has made an idol of something that competes with his full surrender to Christ. Men are addicted to everything from money to secret thought lives to comfortable little secluded environments they spend all their waking hours to create. Men can make idols of almost anything, but common examples today include homes, cars, boats, motorcycles, titles and positions, their intelligence, and their bodies. All these affections are horizontal and worldly. All such friendship with the world is spiritual adultery (James 4:4).

C. S. Lewis lamented how men are so easily satisfied with lesser things. Idols make promises they cannot keep, which is why a man can be on a winning streak and still feel empty.