P: Luke 24:1-12 “But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. 2 And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3 but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4 While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel.
5 And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? 6 He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, 7 that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.”
8 And they remembered his words, 9 and returning from the tomb they told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. 10 Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles, 11 but these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. 12 But Peter rose and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; and he went home marveling at what had happened.” 

HE IS RISEN, HE IS RISEN INDEED!!!! This such a wonderful piece of scripture for Resurrection Sunday. I hope you all read and ponder it, in it’s entirety. But for this blog, as the last blog of our Lenten season I am only going to focus on one verse. Verse 11.

O: We at times can pull our hair out reading through the Bible at what seems so crazy and so easy to understand. The Israelites marching through the dessert. They saw their God deliver them from Pharaoh and in such a short time they were back to their old ways and worshipping other Gods. Or like this passage, who else besides the disciples saw more first hand accounts of what Jesus did and heard what He said? And still they thought this to be an idle tale, and they did not believe. I cannot be the only one to think “What do you mean you don’t believe!!! WHAAAAT!” They saw for years all that Jesus can do, and still they doubted. How can that happen?  For if I saw Jesus’ actions first hand I of course would believe! But haven’t we all seen Jesus actions first hand over and over and yet we will still find ourselves in moments of disbelief? We see Him help us overcome the seemingly impossible, or we see love so pure and unconditional that its source could be from no other than God? I could go on and on about the miracles we all have seen throughout our lives, and yet we find ourselves in the same boat as these disciples.. as these fishers of men. Jesus has died and now He is resurrected! He will task these men, and all believers to carry out His work in advancing the kingdom. So why do we struggle with this so much? We have one job, just one! We struggle for the same reasons the disciples did; we are flesh, and this flesh is in constant struggle with the spirit God has bestowed upon us. There is a spiritual war going on inside of us, and we cannot win on our own. Our constant failure and doubts are a great reminder of how much we truly need to rely on God, and on Him alone! 

A: I feel like this is the application of all applications. If we can ever get this in our hearts, the rest will fall into place. We have God’s Word, which is God. John 1:1 "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." We are not simply reading a collection of idea tales, or good moral based stories. We are reading the unfiltered truths of who God is, and how He wants His people to operate. This is not just words on paper, but this is the living truth, the living God! If we cannot grasp the fullness of what we have, we will never truly believe without doubts, and God knows this. That is why he is so quick to forgive. That is who He is! When we are faced with doubt or trial we may go back to His Word, and find strength, find hope, and find peace. He has all we need, and He tells us this repeatedly, over and over. We are just like the frustratingly sinful characters of the Bible that make us want to pull our hair out! Their weakness and ours in the same. We need to believe and through our belief may we reach out to others in trouble and give them aide, just as has been done for us!

P: Heavenly Father, I pray today that you remind us we have died. Died to sin, died to our own flesh, died to temptation, died in your blood. But through your blood we die, we also join you in resurrection of life. Help us to remember this. Help us stay strong and help us to continue to believe in what you have already done, and continue to do. We are not alone, for you reside in each one of us. Help us to not forget your truths, and to not be persuaded by the evil one to doubt the promises you give to us. I pray today that we do not just celebrate our resurrection through your resurrection on this day alone, but everyday you give us that we remember the gift of life you have given us. Help us to remember what this new life should look like and forgive us when we do fall short of this goal. We pray your spirit floods into new areas of this world that are still living in the ignorance like the gentiles, so their eyes too may be open. We thank you entirely for what you have done, and will continue to do, and thank you for choosing us, in this time, on this day, in this place. We are not where we are by accident. Help us to realize what you have planned for us right where we are! Thank you Lord, Thank you! For You are risen, Risen indeed! Amen!!!

Jeffrey Thompson

S: Ephesians 4: 17-24 “17 Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. 18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. 19 They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. 20 But that is not the way you learned Christ!— 21 assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, 22 to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” 

O: On this day we remember the death and burial of Jesus. But for what reason did He die? That is the big question we must all ask ourselves as we mourn the death. What was it all for? That answer is life. Jesus came down and died so that we (who are undeserving and could/cannot keep the law) may join in life as he continues to fight our battles. This death was not in vain and was not for us to continue to live “like the gentiles”. He has a purpose for us, and that needs to be our goal and purpose for the rest of our lives. Now that our eyes have been open and we have been exposed to the truth of who God is and what he expects out of our life, we must be changed so the lost may see a beacon of change and come to find answers many of us have previously sought. Then we must be willing to be patient, give them these answers, or help them find these answers. This is great news, our old selves have been put off and our mind renewed. This means with effort and time we can break old habits and form new ones!

A: This is where things can get hard; or God can seem demanding; or where this can look like a works based religion. But do not be easily discouraged or misled. We are saved by one thing, and that is the Faith that Jesus did indeed come and die for our sins, and through that death payed a price we could have never paid. And rose, so we may rise again, to join the Father and intercede for us until our arrival to Heaven.  That is the “golden ticket” to our acceptance into Heaven so to speak. Faith is all that is required. No amount of good works, or nice words, or money given can get us into Heaven.  Just the pure belief of what has happened and what is to come. That said, God still asks for action from us. This action is not to solidify our position in His kingdom but it is to help others to see the truth our eyes have been open to. When talking with our youth, I like to give this example: Why do you listen to your parents when they ask you to do something? Is it so you will get dinner tonight, or so you can sleep inside the house, or even so they will love you? NO! No matter what you do, you will still get food, still get shelter, and you will still get love. But you listen BECAUSE they love you. It is the same with God, we do not obey so we may receive something in return. Everything God offers is free of charge and ready for you. Because of that endless and unconditional love, we WANT to follow Him, and we want to obey his commands. The Law was abolished through the death and resurrection of Jesus. We are no longer held down by our own actions, but we may be resurrected through Christ so we may live the life He has called us to live. We are not like the Gentiles, our eyes are open to the truth. We may no longer act in ignorance once we have seen the truth so we must make a decision. Is this what we truly believe or are we going to turn our backs and go back to our old lives willingly?

P: Oh Heavenly Father, forgive us, for we struggle to believe, we struggle to obey, and we struggle to give over our lives fully to you. We have been exposed to your Truth, and we may not go back to our ignorance. We have been exposed so help us as we make our decision. We pray you strengthen our hearts and our minds to endure the storms this world will plague us with. It may look like we are surrounded, but remind us that we are surrounded by YOU!  We pray you soften our hearts as well, as they are hard and calloused over. We pray you work in each and every one of us to play our part in advancing your kingdom! You have tasked us with living a life that will not only get our own hearts closer to you, but that we might be a lighthouse to the lost and help guide them to your truths as well! We are so thankful that you choose us. You have given us opportunity special to us, so that we may penetrate the darkness and death of the evil one, not only for ourselves but for the lost sheep roaming around out there. Give us strength as we weather the storm and let us find rest in your resurrection! You have everything we need, and let us trust in that. As Mark said I believe; help my unbelief. Help us grown closer and stronger in our faith, so we might do the same to those around us! In your name we always pray, Amen!

Jeffrey Thompson

Good Friday

S: Philippians 3:8-11 “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— 10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.” 

O: On this somber day we are reminded the price of our sin. It is Death, a death that has been paid for; not by our own means, but despite our constant shortcomings. This makes me think back to my baptism. Through the death of Christ, we are baptized into that death as well. We need to constantly be reminded of how we have died, and how we need to continue to die…. Die to our fleshly desires; die to our cultures and worldly request to conform to their patterns; to die to our selfish hearts. It is like how we need to “live” in our baptism everyday, we must also die everyday to these things as well. New sins find us, as well as old temptations linger around. We are reminded that it is a struggle, and not something that can not be done without intention. In verse 11 “by any means possible”. This seems very mindful and full of sacrifice. How quick we are to make excuses or find even a good reason to why we need to focus on this earth, and this body. What would it look like to live a life of “by any means possible”? What if that was our attitude of God, and our everlasting eternity? How would that start to shape and mold our lives?

A: This seems a bit harsh, but we need to think what this is all about. This is about our eternity in Heaven. This is about making a choice; do we follow what Christ has asked of us, or do we fall into the temptations of the devil and follow his guide. I can get so caught up in the world, and even doing some good things in this world, but at what cost? I always remember these words from PT “there is only one letter difference between a good idea and a God idea, but there is a huge difference in the outcome”. This is how we need to live our lives, not settling for something good, but for seeking something Godly in everything we do. We each are presented with unique experiences and circumstances special to us. God has placed us in these situations so that we might advance His kingdom. I know I can get so caught up in trying to run programs or set up services for people that I miss out on just talking with the people involved and getting to know them, and getting them to know my God. I need to slow down and really give a “by any means possible” attitude when I am out and about during my day. I need to remember why we do what we do, and for who we do it for!

P: Heavenly Father, I pray to you today that you open our eyes. We want to see you in everything we do, and everywhere we go. You have tasked us with advancing the kingdom, so I pray that you penetrate the hearts of all believers to really believe in this task, but also to take a call to arms and actually get out and do some advancing. We are so thankful for the opportunities you have given us. Even in times of seemingly chaos all around, we still hold true that you are our rock, and through you we can weather any storm. We thank you eternally for sending us your son to die for us, so that we too might join the Heavens in basking in your glory. Be with us all as we step out into our daily lives so that we might shine a light onto those around us, we want the people of this world to see you through us as you have given us Immanuel. We know today is not the end of the story but it is just the beginning of the next chapter. We trust that you have a plan and you are in control. Help us to remember the death of Christ, but a death so we, who are unworthy, may be given life! Amen. 

Jeffrey Thompson

Maundy Thursday

“Crucified”

S: Galatians 6:14 “ But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” 

O: On “Maundy Thursday”, we often focus on Communion or on service or foot washing or all of those themes.  But there was MORE going on than just the acts presented in the Gospels.  These were “examples” for us to consider for reshaping and reorienting our lives and lifestyles around the Kingdom Jesus brought to us!  Throughout Lent, we’ve talked a lot about temptations, spiritual warfare, and what Jesus did about those!  Maundy Thursday is one of those amazing gifts Jesus gave to us to help us and to bless us!  

The word “Maundy” is an old English word that means “mandate” or “commandment” and it comes from John 13:34-35 “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. ³⁵ By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” 

So the “maundy” of “Maundy Thursday” is….LOVE!  And we demonstrate the love of Jesus by serving and through humility.  It’s a beautiful thing Jesus has commanded us to do!  

But what often stops us from this beautiful and better “maundy”?

Well, there are many things that get in the way of God’s love being demonstrated in our life!  Pride, selfishness, weakness, hatred, injustice, the evil one’s temptations, the fallen world, and on and on….

But how that manifests itself in us is unique to each one of us!  What is an obstacle for you may not be for me, but I have my own!  And in each instance, St. Paul reminds us of the solution Jesus demonstrated for us! The solution is….”crucifixion”.  Now, he’s not talking about physical crucifixion!  So please don’t go literal on me.  But, he IS talking about recognizing the sin.  Confessing it before God and to others (James 5:16) and resisting it in all it’s forms.  So, there ARE tangible steps we can and are invited to take as we follow Jesus!

When Jesus said to the disciples: “Follow Me”, there was an exchange that took place.  In order to receive the exchange they dropped their nets, or left their tax booth, or got up off their sick mat, or rose up from the tomb or left their water jug.  In every encounter with Jesus that ended up in transformation, there was this decision to “let go and let God”.  In short there was a surrender to Him.  This is what Paul is talking about when he says “the world is crucified to me”.  On that road to Damascus, Paul became blinded to the world and his eyes were fixated on Jesus.  He surrenders ALL his plans, his hatred and jealousy, his zeal, his past, present and future.  He surrendered ALL for something….better! Listen to how he describes this crucifixion:

 “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” - Philippians 3:8 

So in Paul’s mind, crucifying the world in him, wasn’t a “loss”, but a GAIN!  It wasn’t “less” but MORE!  And in every case, where lives have been transformed by Jesus, it’s always the same!  MORE!  More peace, joy, love, purpose, blessing, abundance, power and victory!  This is the “power of the cross”!  This is the “Good News” of forgiveness and grace!  This is what God desires for ALL!  But what keeps us from it?  Simply, “the world”.  

So as you think about “the world”, what things of this “world” have found a place in you?  Is it in your thinking?  Your spending?  Your relationships?  Your habits?  Your attitudes?  Your past?  Your behaviors?  If we’re honest, there probably are a lot of places the world still has “place” in us.  So, the question then becomes….

A: How can I “crucify” those things in me?

P:  Lord Jesus, thank You for overcoming the world!  Please send Your Holy Spirit that I might walk and live and think and have my very being in the power of the Holy Spirit and the “mind of Christ”.  Help me stand on Your grace and forgiveness and help me to walk in Your ways, victoriously over the world in me….so that the world outside of me may know, YOU are Lord of All!  In Jesus Name I pray, Amen!

Pastor Tim

“The Way of Escape”

S: 1 Corinthians 10:13 “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.”

O: One of the major themes of Lent has been temptation!  This makes total sense when you consider a 40+ day focus, new disciplines (especially fasting or “giving up something for Lent”) and the nature and plan of our enemy.  When you think about Lent on a spiritual level, Lent is really absolute warfare!  It is a storming the beach of the strongholds of the evil one in our thinking, in our sinful flesh, in our condition as fallen and corrupted people!  It is our D-Day!  One of the MAJOR tactics of the evil one to thwart Jesus’ reign over us is temptation.  He leverages our weakness and our desire and uses it against the purposes of Jesus in our life!  He keeps us distracted.  He keeps us un-focused.  He keeps us scattered.  He keeps us stirred up in our flesh.  He lies to us.  He scares us.  He accuses us.  He rages against us.  Why?  He hates us and wants to “steal, kill and destroy” (John 10:10).  The devil is NO joke!  And God’s children would do well to have the wisdom of God’s Word about him, his nature, his tactics and his plan against us.  In short, we need “intel” on the enemy!  The reason we need this is so we recognize it when it’s happening in our life and in the lives of others.  We also need to understand how to resist and escape his tactics!  This is especially true in the case of “temptation”.  

As our text reminds us, temptation is “common to man”.  In other words, it’s something that impacts us ALL!  No-one is immune and no-one escapes from the attack!  BUT, as our text reminds us there IS a way “out”!  There is an “escape”!  There IS VICTORY over the temptation of the evil one!  So what is that?  Well, one thing we would do well to study, is how Jesus dealt with temptation!  In both Matthew 4 and Luke 4, the Gospel writers record what we know as “the temptation of Jesus”.  In them you will notice many dynamics going on IN temptation (like physical hunger, fatigue, an apparent lack because of the environment, isolation, etc.).  You’ll also notice “how” the devil progresses in his temptation (physical, relational, spiritual).  You’ll also notice the devils persistence (three times) AND, you’ll notice his inability to force Jesus to DO anything!  The  devil DOESN’T “make you do it” as the old excuse goes!  In sin, we cooperate with the plans and schemes of the evil one’s temptations.  So while, yes, we can blame the devil for tempting us, we must also blame ourselves for falling for it!  And this is why Jesus teaches us to pray against it (“lead us NOT into temptation but deliver us from evil” - Matthew 6:13).  But this is also why Jesus entered into temptations just like ours, so that when we are tempted, we can know we have someone in the foxhole with us!  We have someone in the “valley of the shadow of death” with us!  We have Jesus!  And HE was victorious over ALL the schemes, the plans, the tactics, the onslaught, the “fiery darts” of the evil one, AND was and still IS…VICTORIOUS!  So, when we are feeling tempted, we can go to HIM through prayer.  We can sit at His feet through His Word and learn how the evil one is operating against us.  We can enter into the disciplines of “prayer and fasting” to over come an break through the strongholds and we can eliminate the weak points in our defenses by forgiving those who have wronged us.  We can also learn about the “Armor of God” from Ephesians 6:10-20 and learn to “put on the whole armor of God” (v.13) and learn to FIGHT against the host of darkness!  Look, here’s the deal about spiritual war.  We are IN it….NOW!  It’s happening all around us!   And when you have “eyes to see” and “ears to hear”, you realize a completely different plane on which you understand “why” the world is the way it is, AND what your role in it is!  So this Holy Week, why not wage war on the enemy of your soul?  Why not wage an offensive push on the kingdom of darkness that is seeking to win the eternal victory over your family?  Why not take back the ground the evil one has taken and is occupying?  How? By putting on the Armor!  By fighting on your knees in prayer!  By fasting of the earthly things you love so you can spend time on the heavenly strategy of spiritual warfare?  

A: How will you “escape” the temptations of the evil one in your life?  AND, how will you fight the battle before you?

P: Lord Jesus, You have been victorious over the devil, over death, over the darkness of the kingdom of darkness AND over my sinfulness.  Lord, teach me to “fight” the evil one’s schemes.  Teach me to “resist” and to see him defeated in my life.  Reveal to me every area of stronghold he has in my thinking, my doing and in my situation around me and help me to fight my battle with faith in YOUR victory!  In Jesus Name.  Amen!

Pastor Tim

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 5:6-8, “Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.  Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”

For more than 5,000 years, humans have mixed flour and water; waited for the mixture to ferment, and used it as leavening to make dough rise. They found that by saving a bit of unused dough they could propagate their leavening to the next batch. No one knew then that within the leaven were living microorganisms. It was Louis Pasteur in the mid-nineteenth century who showed that fermentation was caused by microbes. Leavening occurs when yeast and bacteria consume carbohydrates in the flour releasing carbon dioxide gas bubbles, which cause dough to rise.

Bread in Bible times was made very simply from wheat flour, water, olive oil and salt. The leaven would have been saved from a previous batch of dough; kept aside and fed to cause

subsequent batches of dough to rise. However, even without the addition of leaven to speed the process, fermentation will occur due to the presence of naturally occurring bacteria and yeasts in the dough. In fact, if you check out the recipe for unleavened bread on www.hebrewliving.com, you will find that true unleavened bread dough must be placed in an oven within 18 minutes of the flour being moistened or it is not considered unleavened. At Passover, Jews were required to “cleanse” their homes of leaven.

In today’s scripture passage and its surrounding context, Paul is speaking to the church at Corinth about sexual immorality. Specifically, he is addressing open sexual immorality within the church rather than in the surrounding society (see 1 Corinthians 5:9-13). Not only were the offender and his supporters unrepentant, they were arrogant (5:2) and boastful (5:6) in their open sinfulness. In response, Paul commands the Corinthian church “to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.” The openly unrepentant member was to be removed from fellowship with the church.

The only alternative to fellowship with Christ and his church is fellowship with Satan and his minions. Paul commanded this man be excommunicated by the church at Corinth not so they could look down their noses at the sinner removed from fellowship, but so this man’s “spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.” The purpose was to bring the offender to repentance and restore him to fellowship. Sometimes love must be tough.

We all sin daily and are in continual need of God’s forgiveness (“all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” Romans 3:23). So why did Paul respond so strongly to this reported sinfulness? We get a clue from the analogy he used. Open, unrepentant sin in the church spreads like leaven in warm, moist dough. The distinction here is that the sin in the Corinthian church was open; unrepentant; even arrogant.

So how do we apply today’s scripture to our lives? Let’s look at some key phrases:

·      “Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump” (v. 7)

·      “You really are unleavened, for Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed” (v. 7)

·      “Therefore, celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth” (v. 8)

1) During this Lenten season, remember Christ’s sacrifice for us; once for all; the righteous for the unrighteous.

“For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit.” 1 Peter 3:18

2) Repent and ask God to cleanse our hearts of the “old leaven” of malice and evil.

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9

3) Celebrate God’s grace and faithfulness by walking before him in sincerity and truth.

He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? Micah 6:8

Let’s pray:

Dear Father in Heaven, thank you for sending your dear son, Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, to suffer and die in our place that we might walk in right standing with you. We repent of our sins. Cleanse the “old leaven” of malice and evil from our hearts and help us to walk before you in sincerity and truth. In this Lenten season as we remember Jesus suffering and death for us, give us grateful hearts as we celebrate Christ’s resurrection victory. In His Name we pray. Amen.

Clif Baumer

Scripture: Romans 6:15-18, “What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.”

Our verse for today speaks of slaves and slavery. When we think of slavery, images come to mind. We see people confined against their will; we see brutality; we see poverty; we see suffering. We tend to think of slaves as either having been taken captive or having been born into captivity. In contrast, today’s scripture is speaking of voluntary slavery.

According to the Bible, we don’t really have the ability to opt out of slavery. We will either be slaves to sin which leads to death or slaves to obedience which leads to righteousness (right standing with God). There is no middle ground.

Just as the path of a ship or aircraft is guided by a compass heading, our choices determine the direction of our lives. Every choice to be slaves of sin, puts us on a heading leading

further away from God. Every choice to be obedient, puts us closer to the course that leads to God and eternal life. Scripture describes this refining process as sanctification (Greek: HAGIOSMOS ἁγιασμός) or being set apart. God is at work in us to lead us in paths of righteousness. Disobedience leads to destruction.

“But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day. The way of the wicked is like deep darkness; they do not know over what they stumble.” Proverbs 4:11

Author C.S. Lewis accurately described these two paths:

“When a man is getting better, he understands more and more clearly the evil that is still left in him. When a man is getting worse, he understands his own badness less and less. A moderately bad man knows he is not very good; a thoroughly bad man thinks he is all right. This is common sense, really. You understand sleep when you are awake, not while you are sleeping. You can see mistakes in arithmetic when your mind is working properly; while you are making them you cannot see them. You can understand the nature of drunkenness when you are sober; not when you are drunk. Good people know about both good and evil; bad people do not know about either.”

C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, 1952

So how do we make choices in obedience to God that lead to righteousness? It is a matter of the heart. Today’s scripture calls us to become “obedient from the heart.” Only God can change hearts, but he is eager to change our hearts if we ask him. King David poured his heart out to God after Nathan the prophet went to him regarding his adultery with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband:

“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you.” Psalm 51:10-13

As we seek God in his Word and in prayer, he changes our hearts. As we grow in him, he replaces sin and selfishness with love and faithfulness.

Heavenly Father, we pray as Chris Tomlin wrote,

Give us clean hands, oh God

Give us pure hearts

Let us not lift our souls to another

Oh God let this be

A generation that seeks

Who seeks Your face, Oh God of Jacob

Lord, let us be obedient from the heart. We pray in Jesus Name. Amen.

Clif Baumer