“Jesus Hears My Noise”

           Why is it necessary that he make so much noise?  Why must he always be front and center?  Is it necessary that he act out his feelings?  It is to get attention and recognition.

            Noise captivates attention.  Acting out indicates pain.  It may be necessary because no one is listening.  Having ears that hear requires me to get the focus off myself, interrupt my train of thought, and open myself to the noise maker.

            There is a world around us crying “HELP!”  It costs us to pay attention.  It requires us to hear and see the distress.  This is a price we may not be willing to pay.  Self centeredness drowns out the plea for help.  “I need to take care of me first.”

            God knows our plight.  He has heard our pleas for help.  Sin has caused the pain.  His love and mercy extends out to us to heal the broken and satisfy the hunger, -- the need to be recognized and heard.

            God worked it out.  He didn’t cause the problem He gives the solution.  He knows what I need.  He hears my cry of “Help” I didn’t have to clamor.  A prayer may be quite quiet.

            Jesus Christ, God’s Son has arranged the process.  The Holy Spirit works it out for us.  At our invitation the Holy Spirit recognizes our need and cancels our need to do silly things to get attention.

            Jesus Christ gives us all the attention we need for ever.  He gives us value and eternal recognition.  He knows my name.  He hears my noise.

“Put Up or Shut Up”

            As you revulsed from by empty, meaningless talk?  There is so much blowing of smoke, “sound and fury signifying nothing;” words, words, words.  The preacher wrote on the edge of his sermon notes, “Weak point, shout loud.”  The slick talker; the lair, the one who speaks easily and seldom follows through.. The one who promises and never keeps his word.  The world is fraudulent as we seek our own adulation.

            In the beginning was the word.  He is truth.  God can be counted on.  When truth is spoken God is present.  The Bible is the written Word.

            In a world where talk is fragile and cheap there is so much noise and babble we stop paying attention.  It is a relief to have something or someone you can trust, count on.

            If you are one of the few who have parents whose words you can trust, you are highly blessed – be grateful.

            So many have no one they can rely on to tell them truth.  Perceptions are so distorted by false talk and misleading instruction.  It is difficult to know what is right.

            To cut through all the haze, come to Jesus Christ – The Truth – and define your outlook on life to get a straight perspective.  We need the straight story.      

            Consult the Scripture.  Check with someone who lives the redeemed life.  Find the Center.  Disregard the distorted noise and babble.  Cut through the meaningless.  Find the TRUTH – He will set you free.

Keep Looking Up

    

When Jesus' ministry on this earth was finished, He was assumed into Heaven.  That was His home.  He had been there before.  He was going back.  Those who had been with Him on the Earth stood on Mount Olivet and "were gazing into the heavens as He went."  That is a good place to be, i.e., gazing into heaven -- "looking up".

     Gazing animals find their security in looking down.  Their sustenance is downward looking.  Human beings find their sustenance in "looking up."  We instinctively know that what is basic is looking up.

     When we are depressed, someone says, "Keep looking up".  When you look up, you are looking over and beyond the pain and distress of the world.  When you look up, you are looking to the Source of all that is good, loving, and kind:  you are breaking loose from that which holds you back and often defeats you.

     "Looking up" is always good advice.  It is what Jesus told us to do.  Look up, scan, be alert.  He is coming again.  He will come from Heaven "in the same way as you saw Him go into Heaven".  Jesus has promised He will return.  When He comes, evil, pain, sorrow, and hurt will be over.  All things will be righted.

     When you are down--look up.  That direction is the hope of all mankind.

Open Tomb Gives A Promise of Life

          I died this morning.  All the other mornings of my life I awakened to demands and deadlines.  There was always something.  Many times it was the demands of another.  Frequently it was the distress of a hurting world; hunger, poverty, sorrow, pain.  Previous days were promises.  Anticipation of the next day that would be better.  Days that were full of joy and delight but just didn’t fully make it.  Some days were grim.  But each grim day had the potential to bloom and become.

The most promising day was a Sunday when a tomb was opened and the Son of God came forth in a new eternal life.  That day opened up all the other days to great possibilities and the victories over each succeeding day.  He came out of the tomb and the tomb of my own consequence was opened so that each of my days were set free from what was and had the potential of what could be.        That one spectacular promising day made all the days of my life speak of what could be and gave me a taste of what would be.  That promising day arranged that all my days would be victorious days.

I knew there should be more.  I know there would be more.  I lived each day knowing that whatever I experienced there was better to come.  All was incomplete.  The complete was a future day.

That one spectacular promising day arranged it.  Nothing could hinder, nothing could curtail the promised coming victory.

I died this morning, I knew it was forthcoming.  I lived through all the travail of sin and shame knowing it was ahead and because of that promised open tomb day I am totally free to be who I was designed to be – to live as I am designed to live – no pain, no sorrow, no agony – all the Lord has planned for me.  I have it as I knew I would because my Savior came forth, conquering all that the world’s days demanded.  The tomb has lost.  I have won.  I live.  I died this morning to my sinful self.  (Colossians 3:3-4)

Created by God to be With Him

The tomb was found empty.  A lot of history has testified that the tomb was empty.  The people who were there gave their lives because the tomb was empty.  Jesus had died.  The Roman government made sure of that.  They sealed the tomb.  The world’s great power put a guard to make sure the tomb was secure.  No power on earth could open that tomb.  Jesus came out of that tomb and secured eternal life for all who believe.  Death was conquered.  Earthly life could now translate into eternal life, “O death where is thy sting.  O grave where is thy victory.”  There need not be any death.  Time and its restraints are given over to eternal life and its freedom.  The tomb was empty and eternal life filled its place.  We need not lose.  God has arranged it in Christ Jesus.  Because He lives, I can move from earthly sorrow to eternal bliss.  I was created by God to be with Him.  I can gain the advantage of that purpose because the tomb was empty.  Death was overcome.  Life was given.  Hallelujah! The tomb was empty.

The Relevance of the Tomb

“The tomb is empty”

“How could that be?  Wait a minute! Didn’t he say that in three days he would arise?  Is His resurrection what He was referring to when He said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’  He was referring to himself, wasn’t he?  We disregarded what did not seem relevant to us but was of cardinal importance to him.”

The indifference shown by those of the Lord’s time of his reference to his death and resurrection is disappointing but not surprising.  How frequently we miss the really important things of life when we are trapped by the irrelevant.  Easter gets lost in candy and eggs.  The most important event in history is drowned out by the noise of the holiday.  How can this happen?

Because a tomb was empty some 2000 years ago seems so irrelevant.  We bring it to mind once a year and then set it aside for “more relevant” things.  The miraculous and eternally significant event fade into the mundane because it has often been heard.  We are used to it.

The singular event of the empty tomb and the resurrection shatters our complacency when we face our sins and the life beyond death.  “Because he lives I can face tomorrow.  Because he lives all cares are gone.”  The empty tomb has impact when we think of our mortality.

Could it be that the full consideration of the empty tomb is disallowed by us because the consideration of our death is unpleasant?  It is because of the empty tomb and in Christ Jesus that we may be comfortable with time passing.

The empty tomb is the only reconciliation between limited time and eternity.

“The tomb is empty.  He is risen as He said.”

God's Purpose For You

          Do you know who you are?  Most people don’t.  We have ideas – some grandiose -- many under estimating – but we seldom are very accurate.  We have concluded about ourselves because a sinful world has distorted what we hear and accept.  We have measured ourselves with false, perverted measures.  The likelihood is that who we think we are is pretty far from the truth.  God knows who we are.  He has created and designed us.  He knows each of us separately.  He has a purpose and plan for each of us.  Only that plan will afford us full and rich lives.  So to start with we must walk close enough with the Lord Jesus Christ and be familiar enough with the Scriptures to discover who we are to be and how we are to live our lives.  As we walk close with God we will discover who He is and be more sensitive to how He would have us be.

            Life begins to take on meaning and purpose when I discover who I am, who God is and how we mesh in Jesus Christ..

            God has a direction for me.  It would be best for me if I learned it and planned my life around that direction.  Anything else will be foolish and destructive.  By drawing close to God I will find out who I am and what life is about.

            Wouldn’t it be tragic if I lived my life and discovered I missed my purpose and all I could have been?  Real tragedy is trying to be someone I am not and suffering needlessly because I missed the mark God has set for me.  Life in Christ Jesus is the eternal mark.  Knowing who God would have me be and accepting His grace to fulfill that design is my salvation.