“But God raised him from death to life and destroyed the pains of death, because death had no power to hold him.” Acts 2:24

Many of you have been following April the giraffe and the birth of her calf just yesterday. I was able to watch some of it on the internet, especially the first steps. The newborn giraffe wobbled a bit, then came to its feet for a little while only to fall back to the ground. It was a happy occasion that could have turned tragic if the calf wouldn’t have gotten back up, but thankfully it came to its feet again and was caressed gently against its mother. The first steps were important, but the calf rising again from a fall was even more important.

Since it is Easter, we are reminded today more than most times of the year that Jesus was crucified and died for our sins. It was horrible for all who looked upon the face of the Jesus hanging there on the cross. It is where we get our word ‘excruciating.’ Many people at that time thought that it was the end of their hope of salvation, but Jesus rose again just a few days later. What started as a miracle birth could have been reduced to just campfire stories had Jesus not risen again after his fall.

That is what made all the difference. Jesus rose again after his death. This life that we know will pass away soon enough, but when we accept Jesus as our Savior and put our trust in Him, we are promised that we shall be raised again with Him. We no longer need to fear death, because our Lord has complete power over death and not the other way around. Over the years, there’s been many people that have said their way was the answer to life, but they all died; all but one, Jesus. Jesus backed up every claim He made through fulfillment of scripture prophecies as well as the miracles He did.  The biggest miracle of all was the empty tomb on Sunday, because in dying He destroyed our death, and in rising He restored our life.

I don’t need a dead savior. I can die on my own just fine, thanks. What I need is the risen savior. I need Jesus Christ.

You and I will fall to our sins, but the real tragedy would be if we didn’t rise again from it. Only one thing separates us from God and keeps us out of heaven and that is our sin. That is why our greatest need is to have our sins forgiven. Only then can we be reconciled to God and have the opportunity to be with Him for all eternity.  The Bible says in Acts 4:12, “There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.”  Jesus is the ONLY way.

Happy Easter, my friends. It is not just the resurrection day of our Lord Jesus Christ, but it is the day of our resurrection as well.  As He was raised, so shall we be raised with Him forever.

God’s blessings to you.

DH

“The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.” – Genesis 3:21

In the beginning, Adam and Eve walked with God. They enjoyed all of the Lord’s great bounty and they were satisfied.  Then, along came the old serpent, the devil, and he tempted Eve into having her and Adam eat of the forbidden fruit. They sinned and disobeyed God’s one rule. The Bible says that their eyes were opened and they realized that they were naked.  They first tried to hide their nakedness with leaves, but that didn’t work, so God made clothes for them out of animal skins.

The importance of that exchange can’t be stressed enough. Adam and Eve sinned, so they hid from God. When that didn’t work, they tried to cover up their own faults by themselves. That didn’t work either. It was only God that could cover their shame. Incidentally, for those of you who didn’t pick up on it, this was the first recorded animal sacrifice in the Bible. Since then, God had required a payment for all sins, and He still does.

We all fall short of the Glory of God. We all sin. We may try to do whatever good that we can, but as the Apostle Paul said, our good works are like dirty rags to God. That’s not saying that He doesn’t want us to do good things whenever we can, it’s just that we will never be good enough or do enough good things to earn the Kingdom of God. We still sin now and then and we expect those sins to go unnoticed to everyone because of our supposed good works. We may try to hide things and we might actually get away with it for a little while, but nothing stays hidden forever.

Only God can blot out our sins and wrongdoings. There was an animal that lost its life to clothe Adam and Eve, and there was another animal who lost its life for you and me. The Bible calls that animal “a lamb without blemish.” It was Jesus Christ. Only God in a man would ever be enough to take away the sins of the whole world, past, present, and future. It was a once and for all payment for our sins, and through the blood of the Holy Lamb, we are now clothed in righteousness. Before our garments were red as crimson, but when we accept Jesus, they are made white as snow.

This is the most glorious news there could ever be. All of what we owe for our sin was paid in full on the cross, but we must accept the payment that Christ has put forth or else it is made of no effect on our eternal lives. I hear people say, “Why would any loving God send someone to hell?” The truth is that God never sent anyone to hell, they sent themselves. If you are at a restaurant and someone wants to pay for your meal, you have the right to either accept that payment or turn it away. If you chose not to accept their payment, then it’s you who will have to pay for it. Either way, someone has to pay. The same thing goes for your sins. You can accept God’s grace or you can reject it. Just know that there are consequences for your choices one way or another.

If you have accepted Jesus into your life, wonderful. However, if you or a loved one do not know Jesus Christ, then I encourage you, in fact beg you, to please take a moment and make Jesus your Lord and Savior. Accept Him into your heart today and know that you never have to be ashamed anymore for what sin has done to you. You may feel dirty from the evils of this world, but you are now a member of the royal family of God. Through the precious blood of Jesus, you have a new change of clothes that will never be dirty again.

God’s blessings to you.

DH

“Jesus sent him away at once and warned him, “Don’t tell anyone about this. Instead, show yourself to the priest. Then offer the sacrifices which Moses commanded as proof to people that you are clean.”” – Mark 1:43-44

In the Gospels, we see Jesus heal a man with leprosy. It says that Christ told the man not to tell anyone, but to go to the church and offer a sacrifice as was the tradition. That confused me, because if I was healed of a life threatening disease, I would shout it from the rooftops. But Jesus in His infinite wisdom didn’t want the people getting focused on the leper, but instead, Christ wanted everyone to focus on God’s grace that actually allowed the healing. That’s much like a child’s baseball game. When you see a child hit a home run, you don’t praise the ball for flying so far away. You instead praise the child for being a good baseball player. Jesus didn’t want people hung up on the body that was healed, but rather see the gift of God that made the healing possible.

Also, think about the leper himself. He was not used to people paying attention to him. People would run from a leper. It was a dreaded disease that claimed many lives in a horrible fashion. They would never get touched, but now that the man with leprosy was clean, people would be touching him just to make sure the miracle was real. The surprise attention would easily go anyone’s head. Christ knew this and that is why the book of Mark says that Jesus “straightaway warned the leper.” It was a warning for the man who once had leprosy to keep his focus on God who cleansed him rather than the cleansing itself. He was once a beggar, but now a celebrity. The leprosy corrupted the man’s body, but pride would corrupt the man’s soul.

There was so much more to the man than his leprosy. That’s something important to remember when we meet people, whether it be in good or bad circumstances. That leper may have had a brilliant mind or a well-articulated speaking voice, but no one would have known that because the average person wouldn’t have tried to know the person behind the disease. Now cleansed of his leprosy, the man had a new lease on life, so to speak. But it would be too easy for the man to take what God had given him and used it for the wrong reasons. He was free of the disease, but could have been susceptible to falling for pleasures of the same flesh that failed him in other ways just days before. The man could have easily let the anger of being previously disliked take control and lead him into vengeance. That is why Jesus told the man not to say anything. It wasn’t because Jesus was trying to keep it a secret. It was because the body had been healed, but the man was more than just flesh and bone. The man believed in Jesus as the Messiah, but all too easy would it have been for the man to start putting more faith into his new found body instead of keeping his faith in God.

Like Jesus says in Mark 8:36, “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, yet lose his soul?” The man’s outside was not falling apart anymore, but who he was inside needed to stay intact. He needed to keep his mind and his actions focused on God so that he could lead others to healing in Christ as well. The man and his disease was what people clued in on before, but now that the leprosy was no longer a roadblock, people could see a physical reminder of God’s mercy and love. The man was crippled before, but now was a walking and talking billboard of grace. Had his entire life been good and easy, maybe the man would have gone down the wrong path. But instead, the man’s life was plagued with sickness and disease.  He had nothing, and it is in those times of extreme need that we find ourselves crawling to the Savior. He couldn’t heal himself, otherwise he would have done it already. This leper believed in Jesus and Him alone. A muscle becomes stronger when it is worked out and faith becomes stronger when it is tested. It was his faith in Jesus Christ that allowed him to be cleansed from corruption. Now healed, the man could begin to live out his faith and possibly lead others to Christ.

Your life shouldn’t be a show and tell about your abilities, but of God’s grace. So please, give the credit where the credit is due and remember that actions speak louder than words. Don’t just tell people how holy you are, but instead, show people how holy your Savior is.

God’s blessings to you.

DH

“It was not because of his sins or his parents’ sins,” Jesus answered. “This happened so the power of God could be seen in him.” – John 9:3

In the Gospel of John, Jesus and His disciples come across a man who was blind since birth. Jesus spat on the ground, made some clay, and placed it on the blind man’s eyes. Jesus then told the man to go and wash the clay off in the nearby pool of Siloam. When the man did this, he immediately began to see.

That confused me when I was young. Jesus could have snapped His fingers or even just spoke a single word and the man would have gained his sight. So why did Christ go to the trouble of making mud and having the man go and wash himself off?

The reason is that even though the man did not cause his blindness, he needed to be a part of the solution. All of us have our sins and problems in this world. God does occasionally remove a problem from our path without our intervention, but just as any good Father, He wants us to be obedient children. If we continue to get something for nothing, we will begin to be too familiar with just having everything go well. We would become indignant if the slightest thing didn’t go perfectly the way we’d want it to.

There are many times in the Bible that God shows He wants our obedience before He blesses us. His blessings are coming our way; He’s promised health and favor to His people. That being said, He also wants us to appreciate what we get and we do that through fostering a relationship with God first, giving Him our “first fruits”.

“But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” Mathew 6:33.

“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God…” Romans 8:28

God has plentiful blessings waiting for His children, but we need to first show Him that we are ready for them.  If we show our love for God through obedience, He will in turn fill our cups abundantly.  We can’t earn God’s blessings, but we do show that we appreciate Him by trying to follow His lead. We won’t always get it right, but the point is to try.

Think of it as an investment. You won’t see a return unless you first invest something. The blind man followed Jesus’s instructions as a faith investment. It paid off for him when he gained his sight. Imagine how much your investment will pay off when you invest in your relationship with the Almighty.

So please, don’t just sit there hoping for change. Foster your relationship with our Savior and watch His mighty works be made visible through your life as well.

God’s blessings to you.

DH

“Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts.” – Psalm 139:23

I was talking with a guy the other day, trying to share the Gospel with him, and he made an interesting statement. He said, “What do I need to be saved from?  My life is going just fine.”  Unfortunately, that is a statement that I’ve not only heard a few times, but I’ve even said it in my earlier life.

Overall, people seems to have a short memory. When things are good, we think that they will always be good. We forget about the bad times and what God has done to bring us out of them.  It’s like we beg and plead to Him to save us from our problems, then when He does, we forget to give Him the praise for it. We say, “Help God, help!” then when the problem gets fixed we say, “Never mind God, I took care of it.”

You may look over your life right now and like what you see. Don’t get me wrong, it’s good to like who you are. However, if you think you are perfect, then think again. There’s only one perfect person and His name is Jesus. All the rest of us sin, and some more than others. That becomes a real problem when you don’t even recognize that there’s sin in your life. You may think you have sin beat all by yourself, but you aren’t looking at the whole picture. You may have conquered your lusts, but are you still an angry person or prone to constantly greedy for money? Then you have sin in your life.

You may not even recognize that you have that sin within you. It’s too easy in this world to become desensitized to the wrongs that you commit. You may try to justify them or think to yourself that your sins aren’t that bad when compared to a murderer or a thief. Even loved ones may eventually turn their heads and fail to recognize your sinful ways. I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard someone say, “My husband doesn’t believe in Christ, but he’s still a good man.” Being good doesn’t get you into Heaven, only accepting Jesus and His finished work on the cross will do it. You can’t be good enough. There is always some sin in you that you won’t be able to beat by yourself, but for God nothing is impossible.

No matter how our lives are going at the time, we all need to put Christ first place. If you hang out with hooligans, you will become a hooligan yourself. Conversely, the more time you spend with Jesus, the more you will recognize that you need Him in your life. I’ve tried running my own life and it has always led to disastrous results. I didn’t even realize that I was harboring such bad things inside of myself until they would come out, and usually at the worst possible time. It’s when I surrendered to Jesus, that’s when I truly started living. I am not perfected quite yet, but I’m on the way. God’s path is honestly better than anything I could have come up with.

God knows us through and through, whereas we only see just the surface sometimes. We all need to have God’s magnifying glass look over our lives. I want the best for my life and the lives of those I love, so please, search me, O God, and help me to become the better person you want me to be.

God’s blessings to you.

DH

“My sheep listen to My voice; I know them, and they follow Me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them out of My hand.” – John 10:27-28

Many times in the scriptures we read about the Lord speaking to someone. The problem is that nowadays, we don’t much physically hear God speak to us. That’s concerning for some people. There are those people who say that until they physically hear God speaking to them, they won’t believe. Unfortunately, those type of people probably still wouldn’t believe even if God himself showed up in person and smacked them in the face. Then there are other people that wish they could physically hear their Lord’s voice, but don’t. They long for that tangible interaction with their Savior, but they may never find it until they meet Him in Heaven.

I personally have never physically heard my Lord out loud in this big, booming “Moses” burining bush voice. I do, however, talk with Him often and He answers me plainly.

Occasionally, I hear a still, quiet voice inside of myself and it leads me in a certain direction. Many times, I would not have entertained that particular direction in and of myself. That’s the beauty of the Lord. If you truly leave yourself open to Him and His ways, you could end up accomplishing things you’d never thought possible.

Still, other times there are answers to my prayers and petitions that come in the form of solutions to circumstances that were out of human control or comprehension. The perfect example of this is our own twin daughters having an inescapable pre-natal problem that was resolved miraculously. I did not truly know what fervent prayer was until those weeks of angush and suffering. Our hope rested in Jesus and Him alone, because we didn’t have anything else to go off of. I am overjoyed to say that Christ showed His stuff and we have beautiful children to stand as living embodiments of His grace and love. You may call it luck or coincidence, but I know when I heard my God plain as day.

The point I’m trying to make is that the more time you spend with our Lord, the closer you will be to Him. and the better you will distingush His answers to your questions. When you love someone, you try to know all you can about that person. You don’t just hear them, you listen to them. That’s a big measure of a Christian. You may not physically hear God’s voice, but you don’t have to. The more you spend time in His word and the more you pray, the easier it is to see and hear what He has to say. You will know when God is pulling you in a certain direction.

I hear people say, “How do I know that’s what God wants for my life?” You will know when God is answering your prayers or telling you to move in a certain direction with your life because of two things:

1. The direction will never go against God’s commandments.

2. The direction will be for the benefit of God’s people and not only yourself.

If you are confused about your life or not sure if God is speaking to you or not, spend time getting to know Him better. If you can’t find it in yourself to pray, then ask God to help you pray. It sounds simple, but it’s true. Next thing is to spend time connecting to God through His word. If you start your day with a “holy hour” with even 15-20 minutes set aside for Jesus with no distractions, you will be better equipped to answer His voice when He calls. And trust me, His plan for your life is better than anything you or I could come up with.

You can’t give a response to the Lord’s voice if you don’t know He’s talking to you.
 
God’s blessings to you 

DH

“Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralyzed man, “My child, your sins are forgiven.” – Mark 2:5

In Mark chapter two, we see Jesus preaching in a house with a huge crowd gathered around Him. Then came a paralyzed man carried by his friends. The crowd that had gathered was now so large that the friends could not get the paralyzed man to Jesus to be healed. They tried doors and windows and found them all to be blocked by the crowd. However, the friends cared so much that they tore a hole in the roof, then lowered the paralyzed man down through the hole to where Jesus was standing. Jesus saw their faith and healed the man of his paralysis.

There are a few things to keep in mind when reading this. First, the paralyzed man was so loved by his friends that they didn’t stop when they met some resistance. They carried the paralyzed man, which was hard enough, but then they went further. They kept trying normal ways to get him through the crowd to Jesus, but then they realized they still had more to do to get their friend saved. You don’t just decide to destroy the roof of a house, it had to come after quite a bit of pushing and shoving through the crowd to no avail. Those friends were willing to do whatever it took to save this man. They could have tried and stopped after a little while, still showing some love towards the paralyzed man, but that wasn’t enough. The friends didn’t quit. They showed the man the fullness of love; the kind of love that is straight from God Himself.

The second thing to think about here is that not only did they love their friend, but these people had such faith in Christ that they knew this was the right thing to do to help the paralyzed man. They knew only one could save their friend and Jesus was The One. The Scripture says because of their faith the man was healed. It didn’t say anything about the paralyzed man’s faith, it talked about the faith of his friends. Jesus forgave the man of his sins, then told him to arise and walk. It took the faith of his friends to bring the man there, but the man’s own faith was cultivated enough to listen and obey the Savior. That faith was first demonstrated by the friends, then acted out by the paralyzed man. They set the example for him to follow.

This story holds deep meaning for every one of us who has a friend, colleague, or family member that has been overtaken by sin in their life. Sin can absolutely paralyze people and that is exactly what the devil wants. Satan doesn’t want you to do good works for the Kingdom of God, he wants you to fall into the same sins that you normally fall into. It’s honestly tough to break free of habits by yourself; you just can’t do it alone. You need to surround yourself with good people that will pray for you and help lift you up when the going gets tough. You need friends and family to love you enough to pray and keep praying for you, no matter what. I stand here today as a perfect example of that. I went down some wrong paths in my life, but by the God’s grace I’m alive and able to now help others. I didn’t pull myself out, I had some good people lifting me up in prayer. Without them, who knows where I would be right now.

You, too, have some people on your side. Even if you don’t have a friend in the world, you have people praying for you. If you are hearing this sermon or reading it right now, I’m personally praying for your salvation and prosperity. You have people in generations that have long since passed that have prayed for you and others in your same circumstance that you don’t even know about. It’s hard to believe, but it’s true. The best thing of all is that the Lord and Savior has been praying for you. The Bible says He had you in mind before the creation of the world and that He wants you to be with Him in glory. Read John 17:20-27.  The Savior prayed for you! Now it is your turn to also pray for those who find it hard to pray.  It’s your turn to lift up people who can’t or won’t lift themselves up to Jesus. We see our Lord as the example, then it is our time to be the example for others.

There’s a Beatles song that says we get by with a little help from our friends. There is no bigger or better friend than Jesus. Please know that you are not alone in your struggles and that you don’t have to be paralyzed by sin any longer. Look to the cross of Jesus, then arise and walk. Your sins have been forgiven.  You are healed.  You are loved.

God’s blessings to you.

DH

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart; and lean not unto your own understanding.” – Proverbs 3:5

The Apostle Paul wrote much of the New Testament of the Bible. Many of those were letters to churches that he wrote while in prison, locked away because he was a Christian. He didn’t want to be in prison and he didn’t do anything to really earn a jail cell other than worship God, but there he was anyway.  He had two choices, either give up on Jesus or trust that Jesus would take care of him. Paul chose to trust Jesus and the rest, as they say, is history.

We may struggle with our current situations, thinking that God must not care that we are having such troubles. The reality of it all is that nothing that happens, good or bad, escapes God’s sight. Whether it was a flat tire on the way to work or a even a bad medical report, realize that none of that came as a surprise to God. He created it all and has it all in His hands. He knows about the good times and bad times in your life, but like the Bible says in Romans 8:28, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”

No matter what your situation or circumstance, know that God loves you and has a purpose for those good and bad times. It’s all for your good and the good of all of His children. It may not seem like it at the time, but our view of life is narrow at best.  Prison for Paul wasn’t then ideal situation, but it was needed for what God wanted to accomplish in the bigger, more God-sized view of it all. Paul had no idea of the amount of people that his preaching would touch for Jesus, even 2000 years later. All he knew was that the Holy Spirit was working in and through him. Honestly, if Paul had not spent time in prison, he may not have had the ability to sit calmly and truly listen to God’s words. What was meant for Paul’s destruction was one of the greatest blessings that he could have been given. And it wasn’t just Paul who got blessed out of that situation, it was all of us. 

So next time you think that God has abandoned you in your troubles, think again. You have no idea of the blessings that God is setting up for you this very minute. Praise Him in the best of times and the worst of times, for He is making the path for you to Heaven right now.

God’s blessings to you. 

DH