What are some of the most memorable church services you have ever experienced?  Matt Schurr, our worship pastor, asked all of us that question yesterday during our biweekly creative planning meeting for upcoming Sunday services.  It was an instructive question because in stirring up great memories it revealed essential ingredients that make for impacting church services.

As we paused silently to consider the question each of us began to search through our own respective archives of years of doing church.  For me it was like pulling out old family albums and paging through them looking for photos that sparked favorite memories from years gone by.  In a matter of minutes I came up with a list of over ten very vivid pictures in my mind of services that had a major impact upon me. 

These most memorable church services fell into one of four categories.  They were times when 1) God’s presence was sudden, unmistakable and so powerful that it overwhelmed everyone simultaneously; 2) I was so convicted by the speaker’s message that I was drawn uncontrollably forward to the altar area to do business with God; 3) A creative or spontaneous element in the service caught me off guard by its emotional and spiritual impact; 4) Something bizarre happened that was unexpected, unredemptive but unforgettable.

In retrospect, as I think about it now, the one common ingredient that made those church services so memorable was the element of surprise.  And in most of the cases the surprise was a function of what happened, being unplanned and spontaneous.  Not surprisingly, that is typically how God works.  When it comes to the way God does things the maxim “expect the unexpected” is more the rule than the exception.  This modus operandi is demonstrated repeatedly throughout both the Old and New Testaments in the way God’s initiated life changing encounters with people.  From Abraham to David to Mary to Paul we see God again and again surprising people through His divine intervention.

This was true even in the ministry of Jesus as evidenced by God’s power breaking out in His teaching meeting and healing people there who were sick. (Luke 5:17)  Just imagine how memorable it must have been for everyone in attendance, particularly the ones who were healed?

Since we cannot control God, the unplanned and spontaneous elements of a service are not something anyone can program.  It is God through the aegis of the Holy Spirit, the Lord of the gathering, who alone has the power to reveal His presence, bring conviction and effect life change.  

What we can do however, as His servants responsible for leading church services, is to seek to create an environment that is inviting and conducive to the Holy Spirit’s unplanned and spontaneous initiatives.  To be honest, that is often easier said than done.  Nurturing that atmosphere requires a commitment not only from church service leaders but also from those who faithfully attend as the body of Christ.

Here are three mutual commitments every member of the body can make for us to see a greater release of the Holy Spirit’s presence and power in our services.

1.  Pray for the Services – preparing our hearts well in advance of the service and praying for the Holy Spirit to have His way.  Most often the movement of the Holy Spirit is directly related to the frequency and earnestness with which people are praying.

2.  Worship Whole-Heartedly – engaging in worship by inviting the Holy Spirit’s Lordship into our lives and into our service.  God has promised to inhabit the praises of His people and our responsiveness to Him in worship has a direct correlation with the manifestation of His presence and power.

3.  Allow Space for God to Intervene - creating substantial time in the service for the free moving of the Holy Spirit and being responsive both to speak His word and act on His word.  This is possible when church leaders make this a priority and all the members of the body with spiritual gifts are available to step up and share them.  In this way God can move and everyone in attendance can be encouraged and edified.  (1 Corinthians 14:26)

Why not take a few minutes and think about your most memorable church services.  What do they have in common?  Can you see how the element of Holy Spirit surprise made them what they were?  Do you agree with me that there are things that we can do to see these type of services happen more frequently?

Your thoughts and comments are always welcome.

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One of the movie genres I enjoy are films about time travel.  The idea of being able to escape the bounds of time has always fascinated me.  Ah to be done with attempts at merely managing time.  Give me a time machine and I will be the master of time by rewinding it or fast forwarding it at will!  No doubt you, too, have dreamt of being free from the constraints and pressures of time and of being able to alter or redeem time.

Time, as we all know, marches on relentlessly and waits for no man.  Someone bemoaning the facts that time flies and it is just a matter of time before time runs out, penned a timely observation.  “Time is like a roll of toilet paper, the closer you get to the end the faster it goes.”  

The irony of most time travel movies is that the plight of the time traveler is no different than those of us without a time machine.  In classic time travel cinema like Back to the Future and its sequels, the time traveler, Marty McFly, finds himself repeatedly caught in a predicament with time running out.  You know the drill: as he races against time, it’s just a matter of time before he’ll be out of time, unless he is saved in the nick of time.  Where is the time machine when a guy really needs it?

Time is an enigma.  It is both a friend and a foe; a blessing and a curse.  Time is our most precious possession and yet we seldom treat it that way.  What we do with it will determine our destiny and yet we seldom think about it that way.  We can redeem time or waste time, buy time or spend time, keep time or do time, bide time or two time, save time or kill time, stretch time or squeeze time, make time or mark time, borrow time or take time.

The passage of time affects everyone differently.  Time is slower for the class than for the teacher, and slower for the congregation than the preacher.  Time goes faster for those on vacation than for those at work, but slower for the customer than the clerk.  It’s also faster for those taking a test than the proctor, but slower for the patient than the doctor.

There is a big difference between telling time and knowing the time.  When we tell time, we are simply reciting the position of the hands on the clock.  That is chronological or from the Greek, chronos time.  But when we know the time, we are recognizing the significance of the time to which the hands point.  That is kairos (Gk) time.  Kairos time might best be described as a purposeful time in our lives, filtered through the loving hands of God, in which He promises to empower us.

Probably one of the most poignant passages ever written about time, specifically kairos time, comes from the book of Ecclesiastes 3:1-11.  There we learn that the secret to making the most of our time, to redeeming the time, is to know the time and season in which we are living.  “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven.” (3:1)

Only when we recognize and accept the time and season we are in, not unlike a farmer planting and watering his seed in the spring, can we invest ourselves in making the most of that time, and thereby garner the greatest long term satisfaction and fruitfulness. 

But what happens when one day our chronos time is up and our kairos time becomes “a time to die”? (3:2)  What then?  We know that God, as the creator of both space and time lives outside the confines of those constructs.  He lives in the realm of eternity where time travel is no longer just a dream but a reality and where “a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.” (2 Peter 3:8)  

For all those who are believers in His son Jesus Christ, we are counting on His resurrection power to transport us like a time machine into that realm where time really is on our side.  It is the ultimate in time travel where we will get to traverse the ages by meeting everyone from the past, and project ourselves into a preferred future that will have no end.  There will be no more regrets for time lost or fear of hard times to come.  And that my friends will be heaven, the epitome of every time traveler’s dream.

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I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation.  Philippians 4:11

Have you ever been more in love with the idea of something more than its reality?  You probably have.  It’s just a different spin on the old familiar “the grass is always greener” theme.  You buy that dream item only to suffer from buyer’s remorse and find yourself now dreaming of how wonderful it would be if you didn’t have it.

It is well illustrated by the boat owner’s confession.  “The happiest day of my life was when I bought a boat and an even happier day was when I sold it.”  I’ve known people like that and I’ve been there myself.  One glorious dream I had was to have a backyard swimming pool.  After my kids grew up that dream morphed into a nightmare when I finally realized that no one but the birds were using it and it was costing me tons of my time, energy and money to keep it running.   

Why is that such a familiar story?  An ideal becomes an ordeal and we find ourselves looking for a new deal.  The Apostle Paul knew all about the battle for contentment.  The chronicle of the unsettling circumstances of his life with its imprisonments, beatings, shipwrecks and survival from all manner of dangers is material for a doctoral thesis on contentment. (2 Corinthians 11:23-28)  What better person to give us critical insight into dealing with discontent? 

Writing more on contentment than any other New Testament writer, Paul reveals three things that can help us be triumphant when our ideal becomes an ordeal.

1.  Contentment is something you can learn.  “I have learned” Paul writes “to be content in whatever circumstances I am.  I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty.”  (Philippians 4:11)  The learning process is not always an easy one, but it is possible and promises to be rewarding.  Just ask anyone who has gone back to school after a long hiatus or the person who married the mate they loved only to find they had to learn to love the mate they married.

2.  The secret to attaining contentment is drawing on Christ’s strength.  Paul tells us “I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.  I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”  Philippians 4:11b-12) 

There are two things we need Christ’s strength for in becoming content when we face difficult circumstances.  At the outset we need His strength to endure it.  That is usually our threshold cry when faced with a tough situation that we cannot change.  “Lord, help me grin and bear it!” 

But true contentment is not simply grinning and bearing it.   The Greek word for contentment which Paul uses means “self satisfaction” or “independence.”  That conveys a state of mind way beyond gritty endurance. 

The strength we need to move to that satisfaction level of contentment is found in resisting the temptation to want something different and letting go of all the escape options.  That is hard to do.  It is hard because it requires reckoning with the death of a dream or our idea of a preferred outcome.  It is hard because it requires a funeral and burial for the things we wanted or hoped would one day bring us contentment.  Ultimately letting go of the options is only possible by turning to Jesus and asking for His strength.  Freedom in Christ comes through letting go.  “Unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.”  (John 12:24)  The comforting factor is that Jesus holds the key to resurrection power and life.  He can resurrect our dreams if He so chooses, but it is our responsibility to first bury them.

3.  Contentment is profitable both in terms of money and time.  “But godliness with contentment is great gain.” (1 Timothy 6:6)  The context of this verse is dealing with money and contentment.  The principle Paul is conveying is that you can save a lot of money and hardship, by being content with what you have.  We all know this is true living in a culture that continually bombards us with the latest and greatest must-have purchases.  Contentment empowers us to say “no” to the voice of temptation always whispering “More, more, more, you want it, you need it, you gotta have it, more, more!”

But contentment is also a time redeemer as well!  Discontent robs us of time.  It keeps us from enjoying the present moment and lures us into wanting to fast forward time, effectively shortening our lives.  Contentment on the other hand allows us to gain time by savoring every moment as a gift and making the most of each tick of the clock. 

When are you really going to start to live?  Don’t keep putting it off until sometime in the future waiting for your circumstances to be just right.  Learn to enjoy the moment you are in rather than looking for a moment to enjoy.  Contentment is the pathway to enjoying the now.  It is possible through Christ’s strength to release your ideal and turn an ordeal into His new deal.

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No one is immune to crisis.  It is triggered by accidents, health issues, relationship conflicts, financial shortfalls, poor judgment and sin . . . and on and on.  It sneaks up on us no matter where we are:  at home, at work, at leisure and yes, even at church. 

Early on in my pastoral ministry, when I was still somewhat naive about the perils that lurk under the pews, in God’s providence, I was the recipient of some crucial crisis management advice.  It came in the form of a teaching on that topic given at a pastor’s conference.  It was presented by a man named Charles Simpson whom I greatly admired both for his skill as a Bible teacher and also for his wisdom as a seasoned pastor.  The conference was hosted at his church for the national network of churches to which our church belonged and of which he was the prime leader. 

The approach he took in preparing us for crises was somewhat unusual in that his focus was on things we must believe rather than things we must do.  I did not fully grasp it at the time, but my experience has confirmed it in the ensuing years, in times of crisis the issue of right belief is as important as right action.  In fact, right belief is often the prerequisite for discovering and taking right action. 

Right belief in a Christian context is faith in God.  The priority of seeking first to maintain an attitude of faith in the midst of crisis is a basic Bible presupposition.  Consider these words of the Apostle John.  “This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.”  (1 John 5:4)  The key to victory in crisis, is faith.

Reverend Simpson, using illustrations from the Israelite’s forty year wanderings in the wilderness, distilled his principles for crisis management down to four carefully crafted statements.  I was so impacted by his message that I wrote the four principles in the back of my Bible.  Little did I know that I would need to refer to them frequently and that they would prove to be my sustaining grace in times of crisis over the next three decades of ministry in two pastorates.

To God’s glory, here is an abbreviated litany of crisis perils from which God delivered us: the threat of division over doctrinal issues, being saddled for seven long years with an unusable, unfinished building, the shock at the fall of key leaders through moral failures, being bilked out of thousands of dollars in a “Christian” ponzi scheme and the pain at seeing our first church plant self destruct. 

In addition, crisis faith carried us through mourning the loss of dear people who died untimely deaths, who left the church over irreconcilable differences or simply with no explanation or who returned to a life of sin.

In all these crises God’s faithfulness not only sustained us, but also minimized the fallout, gave us wisdom as to how to proceed, build our faith in His faithfulness and unified us in His purposes as never before.

As I began to draw on the crisis management principles in my ministry and share them with our leaders I discovered that the four phrases from the often quoted Proverbs 3:5-6 passage aligned perfectly with Simpson’s four principles. 

So here they are – the four “right belief” principles of crisis management with those scriptures.

1.  Beyond the crisis God has a sovereign plan.  Even though you can’t see it, God is in control and He is writing the script.  Cultivate a long term perspective.  The last word of the scene you are in has not yet been written so trust God to compose a good outcome.  “Trust in the Lord with all your heart.”  (Proverbs 3:5a)

2. Our trust and confidence is not in knowing how but that God will deliver us.  Do not get bogged down in trying to figure it all out or how God is going to get you through the crisis.  Faith does not need to know how problems will get resolved, just that God will resolve them.  “Lean not to your own understanding.”  (Proverbs 3:5b)

3.  Keeping the right attitude will keep you moving in the right direction.  Don’t let unbelief, discouragement or a complaining spirit get the best of you.  Stay hopeful and fight to keep a positive attitude.  Gratitude determines attitude.  “In all your ways acknowledge Him.”  (Proverbs 3:6a)

4.  Our job is not to get out of the crisis but to be the kind of people God can lead out.  Crises are opportunities to grow in our reliance upon God.  The qualities God is looking for in those He can readily lead are dependence, humility and a teachable, responsive heart.  To all those, the promise is: “And he shall direct your paths.” (Proverbs 3:6b)

Do you have any crisis management faith stories?  Please share them.

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It is difficult to understand why God is sometimes silent.  Our routine of daily prayer and bible reading, our weekly attendance at church, our desire to live our lives for His glory all continue unabated and yet God is silent.  Why?  It seems so contrary to His nature and His love for us as revealed in His Son.  Yes the heavens daily declare His glory and the earth shows forth His handiwork, we hear sermons and we read devotionals, all the while listening intently for His still small voice, but in the reverberation of it all, only silence.  Why?

One of the most beautiful metaphors in all of scripture, describing how God speaks, is found in the writings of Isaiah the prophet.  There God’s thoughts and words, proceeding from His mouth in heaven are likened to rain and snow that fall upon the earth.  (Isaiah 55:9-11) The earth, representing the soil of our hearts, immediately receives the rain and absorbs its nourishment.  We rejoice in hearing God’s words and anticipate with thankfulness the fruit that it will bear in our lives.

But what then when the seasons change?  A growing darkness encroaches upon our days, chilly winds blow in from the north and our cold hearts begin to long for the warm spring and summer rains.  But alas it is snow that starts to fall and as it blankets the soil of our hearts, it muffles the still small voice.  As a season of dormancy sets in, the snow with its life giving moisture is frozen in time and space.  God is silent.  It is as if God’s very thoughts and words are sealed in a myriad of intricately beautiful, quiescent crystals.

This picture of God’s voice coming to us in the form of snow affords us a glimpse into the mystery of His silence.  Contrary to our understanding of the human silent treatment, God’s silence has nothing to do with a cessation of His presence nor the suspension of His care.  The blanketing presence of His crystalline words, like an unopened love letter held next to ones heart, is an exquisite expression of the kind intention of His will.  His thoughts of us and words addressed to us, though yet unheard or uncomprehended are nonetheless already silently embracing us. 

The barrenness of winter in the soul makes it difficult to grasp that fact and we grope to believe that it is true.  Acknowledging that God is near and that He still cares, can help.  God’s silence enables us to listen to the whispers of our own heart, grow in faith and cultivate the virtue of waiting patiently upon the Lord.  But there is something more and it has to do with feeling His embrace. 

If you turn your face toward heaven and close your eyes, you can imagine purposely designed flakes of snow falling gently all around you.  These are His thoughts and His words sent from heaven just for you.  We can take comfort in knowing that in due season the spring sun and gentle breezes will once again warm the earth.  And the snow that has been silently embracing us will finally turn to rivulets of water, rushing to deliver its moisture and His message to the softening soil of our thirsty hearts. 

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What is the best advice you have ever been given?  Recently I heard an interview where that question was asked of a nationally known leader.  It caught him off guard and gave him serious pause.  After a long silence he said, “Gosh, that is a tough question…ah…I can…I can put maybe in the top five…in terms of something someone once told me that was like wow…ah…”  Then he proceeded to mention the name of a person and tell a story about the outstanding advice he had been given.

It was such a great question that it got me thinking immediately about how I might answer it.  In fact it was so intriguing that I grabbed a pad and pen, sat downn in my favorite chair and began to write my own top five list of the best advice I have ever been given.  Over the course of the next quarter of an hour I ended up noodling an ever growing draft of thirteen items.  It was a very rewarding and revealing exercise.  You might be similarly rewarded in seeing what would make your list.

Several things struck me about the process.  It forced me to go to the file cabinet of my life and chronologically from childhood on, thumb through all the file folders labeled with names of people who have greatly influenced me. 

1.  The best advice in our lives does not all come from sources we readily imagine.  While some people’s folders were much thicker than others because of the years I’ve known them and the sheer volume of our interactions I was surprised to find that not all of them were people with whom I had a close relationship.  Some were people I did not even know personally.  In fact I discovered that more than half of the great advice I was coming up with came from books I have read or messages I have heard, in person or by recording, from people I didn’t really know or had never met.  Most of their file folders were very thin, but in terms of impact, the few things I had filed in each of them warranted a red file and they were worn from being pulled so frequently.

2.  Some life changing advice is more caught than taught.  It was curious to me that most of the great advice drawn from people with the really thick folders did not come through their words so much as from the example of their lives.  That was the most impacting thing I learned in the process of coming up with the best advice I’ve ever been given.  Initially it befuddled me a bit in not being able to think of specific “advice” encounters where they had dispensed some memorable wisdom.  But then I realized there were wise choices I have made and critical courses of action I have taken in life based on their faithful example over the years rather than their words spoken in a moment.  It certainly underscores that some of the best advice we receive in life from those closest to us comes more through their modeling wisdom than speaking it.  

3.  Memorable advice is often as much about timing as it is about content. What I noticed through the process of identifying great advice was that it came at formative and critical times in my life.  We are much more open to receiving advice and valuing it when we are most aware of our need to have it.  And when it comes from people we respect and trust we are much more likely to put it into practice.  The mark of great advice is that it comes when we are most teachable and works when it is acted upon.  A great tip for parents by the way - look for teachable moments.

4.  The last thing I discovered about my list of the best advice I’ve ever been given is that I could not help but acknowledge that God was ultimately the source of all of it.  In a few select cases, the advice I recalled came from my time alone with God when He spoke personally to me without the agency of another human being.  And remarkably all the other files I ended up pulling came from the same file drawer.  And that drawer was labeled “Wisdom from God.”  All the people who I found had dispensed such great wisdom into my life at its critical junctures were simply God’s instruments of blessing.  For those gifts I found myself giving Him praise.  It is amazing how the Holy Spirit, known as the Comforter and Counselor, can use so many different means to speak into and direct our lives.

What is the best advice you have ever been given?  What people are in your advice givers hall of fame? Why not ask the Holy Spirit to help you and take some time to go through your life’s file drawer of great advice?  You’ll be surprised what you find and it will provide a chronology of God’s gracious intervention in shaping your life.

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When was the last time you were ambushed by joy?  Perhaps you were engaged in a heart to heart conversation or driving home from work at sunset or out for a walk on a spring day with the warm sun shining on you.  Maybe it was this morning as you sat at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee gazing out the window.  Whenever or wherever, think about a time when you were suddenly overwhelmed with a deep abiding sense that just for that moment, all was right in your world.  An overriding joy bubbled up from within your soul, your problems and concerns simply evaporated and you realized that nothing else mattered.  That moment you were experiencing was a gift from God, just for you and something to be treasured and enjoyed.  And all you could do was marvel at it and revel in it and thank God for it. 

One of the wonders of such joy is a compelling desire to preserve that moment with its accompanying peace and rest, in order to relive it and if possible share it with those we love.  Joy has an amazing capacity to produce a generosity of spirit.  But alas such joy so often is too ephemeral to can or bottle.  Like a stunning, yet fleeting sunset it defies capture and transcends words.

Deep abiding joy does not originate with us.  Its source is hidden in the mysterious wonder of God’s working.  Like water seeping up through the hardened ground of trying circumstances it saturates to the point of turning even bitter things sweet.  Joy emerges even when we are sick and bowed with pain or when we are in the midst of depression . . . even when we are grieving at the bedside of a dying loved one.  

This joy is not something we can conjure up or earn through self will or planning, ingenuity or hard work.  It is a gift from God, banded as it were with a ribbon of eternal bliss.  When unwrapped it gives us an unmerited glimpse into the wonder of His creation, the mystery of His will and the knowledge of His sovereignty.  The only fitting reaction is to pause, take a deep breath to savor the moment and breathe out praise.

Of course the source of joy of which I am speaking is God Himself, if we are humble enough to acknowledge it.  That is why Jesus called it “my joy.”  That quality and depth of joy, so independent of our effort or circumstances, is a gift of joy from Jesus that is meant to permeate our very being – to be “in” us and to “fill” us

It is noteworthy, that more often than not, such joy, His joy, fills us in non religious settings.  It is not necessarily a joy associated with a church service, religious tradition or practice.  On the contrary it surprises us most commonly when we are simply doing life.  That is because a joy that is “in” us goes where we go so that it can overflow when we need it most.  I think that was Jesus plan all along.  He said the things He did because He wanted His joy to be our sustaining strength no matter what our circumstances.   

And why joy?  Why did He not choose to say “that my righteousness may be in you”?  Or why not “that my grace may be in you”?  Both of these qualities are attributed elsewhere in the scriptures as being gifts of God that are “in” or “with” us.  I think Jesus chose “joy” over every other possible virtue because it is the evidence of all the others.  Joy is the rock, paper, scissors to everything.  When we have His joy, truly have His joy abiding in us, it is the proof and by product of His righteousness, grace, mercy, loving kindness, compassion, forgiveness, even His salvation abiding in us. 

May His joy be in you and may your joy be full!

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A legacy is a gift each of us has the opportunity to leave behind.  It is typically thought of as anything of value that is handed down from one predecessor or ancestor to those who remain.  There are many dimensions to a legacy both spiritual and natural. 

The theme of legacy is interwoven throughout the Bible.  The patriarchs were very conscious of the legacy that they would leave behind and sought to pass on the gift of God’s promises to their succeeding generations.  Both Isaac and Jacob gathered their offspring to their side and prayed God’s blessing upon them, gave prophetic predictions and granted them their respective inheritances.

Jesus entire life and ministry was focused on leaving the greatest legacy ever granted, the gift of eternal life.  The last supper, when He gathered His disciples the night before He died, is unquestionably the most poignant and powerful gifting of legacy every recorded.

Since legacy is meant to be something of enduring value, a spiritual legacy, which has the potential to be a blessing for all eternity, is of course the most valuable legacy anyone can leave behind.  For followers of Jesus Christ, our spiritual legacy is salvation and resurrection life which we receive from Him, secured through His sinless life and death for all human kind. 

Such a spiritual legacy is a very unique gift because it promises the continuation of our relationship with those we love beyond this life into eternity.  It guarantees the blessed reunion in heaven with Christ one day of all who share that same life of faith in Him.  What greater gift can anyone give than the assurance that they will be in heaven waiting for those they love?  That their goodbye is not “goodbye forever” but simply a “goodbye until we meet again.”

It is important therefore when we think about our legacy to first and foremost consider the spiritual legacy we want to leave behind.  William James had this in mind when he wrote “The greatest use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it.”  The only guarantee any of us have of something of value outlasting us and positively impacting succeeding generations is a life of faith in Christ.  The highest and greatest use of our lives therefore is to spend it living for and serving Him. 

Charles Thomas (CT) Studd, born into a wealthy English family in the latter part of the 19^th century, educated at Cambridge and celebrated as one of that nation’s best cricket players, upon conversion left it all behind to become a missionary first to China and later to India and Africa.  When his father died, CT gave his entire earthly inheritance away and his famous quote rings with the same clarion call as it did when he penned it well over one hundred years ago.  “Only one life, ‘twill soon be past.  Only what’s done for Christ will last.”

Over the years I have had the privilege of officiating at a number of funerals, mostly for people I have known and occasionally for those whom I never met.  In both cases one of the curious things I have noticed during the times given for sharing reminiscences about the deceased is the nature of the often humorous anecdotal stories about their idiosyncrasies.  What has struck me is that of all the things that could be shared, particularly related to some positive legacy, spiritual or natural, for which that the person would have undoubtedly wanted to be remembered, instead many people shared a memorable slice of trivia from that persons’ life.  While such sharing is endearing to those who knew and loved the deceased, it probably does not adequately represent the cherished and enduring legacy that person labored to leave. 

There are many aspects to a person’s natural legacy that can be both admired and emulated.  Beyond tangible property and/or money, there are the cherished memories and imitable qualities of a person’s unique gifts, traits, habits, abilities, likes, dislikes, traditions and accomplishments. When treasured and sought after by those who survive, these constitute a natural legacy that has the potential to be imparted by God to the desired recipients. 

An illustration of this spiritual principle is the story the passing of Elijah’s legacy to his disciple Elisha.  When Elisha specifically asked for the legacy of a double portion anointing from his mentor Elijah, God graciously granted it.  Elijah’s mantle, a symbol of that legacy, fell to Elisha as Elijah was swept up into heaven in a fiery chariot.  With alacrity, Elisha picked it up and the rest is history.  The record of his miracles reveal a literal doubling of the number of Elijah’s.

Whether we are laboring to leave a Godly legacy, or seeking one from a precious relative or friend whom God is calling home, we need to be conscientious and proactive in faith about it.  Legacies are like footprints in the sands of time.  Their value is in the fact that they went in the right direction and created a path others want to follow.  “You can’t leave a footprint that lasts if you’re always walking on tiptoe.”  (Marion Blakey)  

A Godly legacy demands a no holds barred commitment to follow Christ and walking that out by living an exemplary Christian life.  If you were to die right now, today, what aspects of your legacy would you want others to value and inherit?  What would they say about your legacy and what would they do with it?

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The biggest deterrent to sin in the life of the believer is the love of God.  Everyone sins – that is a fact of life. (1 John 1:8 & Romans 3:10-12, 23)  And everyone has access to the forgiving grace of God through Jesus Christ His Son. (1 John 1:9)  Unfortunately however, at times some who receive God’s forgiveness find it difficult to break free from sin’s grip upon their lives.  Forced to continually go to God for mercy because of a besetting sin has them trapped in a seemingly endless cycle of guilt and shame.  Having been caught in that downward spiral myself I can testify with so many others that only the love of God, His love for me and my love for Him, was powerful enough to break me free from the vortex of sin and keep me free from being pulled back in.

God’s merciful love for us is imbued with a transforming power to elicit from us a liberating love in return. There is a spiritual principle that the greater the debt of sin for which a person is forgiven the greater the potential to love God in return.  Those who have been forgiven much, which really includes all of us, are like the grateful woman who crashed a dinner party to wash the feet of Jesus with her tears.  Such gratitude for God’s love unleashes a reciprocal love for Him that triumphs over sin.  (Luke 7:36-50) 

John, often referred to as the apostle of love, wrote:  “This is love not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” (1 John 4:10 NIV) This verse reveals that it is the intention of God’s love to free us from sin.  God is the creator and initiator of love.  That is why John states emphatically that we can love God only because He first loved us.  He goes on to say that our resultant love for Him is meant to naturally lead to us to saying no to sin because we want to please Him. 

Obeying His commands and resisting sin is an indication that God’s love has truly found its place and been perfected within us. (1 John 2:3-5)   That is why we are admonished elsewhere in the scriptures to “keep [ourselves] in the love of God.”  (Jude 1:21)  Doing so will also keep us from the deceitfulness of sin.

When an expert in Jewish law came to Jesus and asked Him “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law?”  Jesus replied “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  This is the first and greatest commandment.”  (Matthew 22:35-38 NIV)  Jesus was quoting here a well known Old Testament Scripture spoken by Moses to Israel. (Deuteronomy 6:4-5)  And He was also underscoring the preeminence of the very first of the Ten Commandments:  “I am the Lord your God . . . you shall have no other gods before Me.”  (Deuteronomy 5:6-7)

True freedom from sin is ultimately rooted in wholeheartedly loving and worshipping the one true God.  All sin and its bondage are ultimately rooted in forsaking the love and worship of the one true God in favor of loving and worshipping other gods.  Those “other gods” typically are created things rather than the Creator.  The other gods are essentially our self and our ideas, but also include other creatures and their ideas and every inanimate object on earth and in the heavens. 

There are some very practical things we can do to unleash the love of God in our hearts that can enkindle our wholehearted love and worship of Him and break the bondages of sin in our lives.  It begins by acknowledging that every sin we commit is idol worship and a breaking of the first and greatest commandment.  Coming to grips with that reality, that every sin is an adulterous love affair with something or someone other than God, is both sobering and sorrowful.  It is heartbreaking to realize that we have been spurning God’s gracious love by faithlessly lavishing our love on other gods.  Asking God’s help in seeing it and then confessing our sin for what it really is, idol worship, enables us to cut off sin’s power over us at its root. 

Here is a prayer you can use to transfer your affections from sinful idols to God.  “Lord show me how I have put other things and people before you. . . how I have loved and worshiped creation rather than you the Creator.  I confess that I have chosen sinful behavior and created things to worship rather than You. . . that I have bowed my heart, my eyes, my hands, my body, my mind and my very soul in worship of other gods.  Please forgive me and turn my full attention and love toward the worship of You.  Thank you for your amazing love and tender mercies.  I choose to worship you as my Lord and have no other gods before me.”

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Who was Barabbas?  All we know about him, with any historical accuracy, is the corroboration of all four Gospels in documenting his eleventh hour release from death row on the day Jesus was crucified.  In piecing together the accounts we learn that Barabbas was a well known “notorious prisoner” who had been jailed for leading an insurrection against the Roman state and committing murder.  That fateful day, while three crosses were being prepared as instruments of execution, he was sweating it out on death row with two other prisoners who happened to be condemned to death for thievery.

During the night, while Barabbas and the two thieves were tossing and turning, another prisoner had been arrested and in a rush to judgment was on trial in the early morning hours.  No doubt, the commotion of a boisterous, gathering crowd, outside the prison, had already roused them from their fitful attempts at sleep and had become the focus of conjecture and rumor ridden conversation.

Who can imagine what went through Barabbas’s mind when he was shocked to hear the crowd begin shouting his name, “give us Barabbas.” (John 18:40)  And then moments later a ground swell of “crucify him, crucify him” was being chanted by the angry mob for the mystery prisoner.  And just that quickly, Barabbas’ sentence was commuted by Governor Pilate, Jesus Christ was sentenced to death, and the cross prepared for Barabbas, became the cross of Christ. 

In order to fully understand, Jesus’ crucifixion for the sins of the world, we must come to grips with the fact that the cross upon which he died was really meant for another.  It was a cross prepared for a person who had been lawfully tried and found guilty of deeds deserving death. 

Barabbas happened to be that man.  But in reality, every human being is no different than Barabbas and figuratively the cross prepared for him was also prepared for us.  Barabbas’ cross was also our cross, but in God’s mercy He commuted our sentence and His son Jesus, the innocent lamb of God, took our place upon it.

Barabbas name means “son of the father.”  His name seems to indicate that his birth was greatly anticipated and celebrated by a proud papa.  No doubt, as most favored children, he was viewed as a child of promise with a stellar future.  He was not unlike each of us, hopefully loved and nurtured by earthly parents but most certainly destined for such by the heavenly Father.

Sadly, he like all of us, forsook his Father’s love and plans for his life and went astray, turning to his own way. (Isaiah 53:6)  He fell into sin and with the wrong crowd.  He, like us, gave into his rebellious ways and ended up making bad choices that eventually caught up with him.  Burdened with regret of a senseless waste of life and the guilt of the degradation of sin, Barabbas, like each of us faced a hopeless future.  But thanks be to God “when we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners.” (Romans 5:6 NLT)

Ancient legend has it that on the day Barabbas was released he followed Christ to Golgotha and watched Him die on the cross.  We do not know the impact all those events had upon him.  But we can seal the impact all that is meant to have upon us.

Who is Barabbas?  You and I are Barabbas!  And like Barabbas, Christ’s death on our cross, in our place, has opened our prison doors.  Accepting by faith His death on the cross prepared for us, frees us from the regret of the past and the power of sin in our lives.  Our death row sentence has been commuted and we can walk out into the sunshine of His love and into a brand new life.

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