Grace-period

Light. It peeks thru the curtains. Stirs us from our slumbers. Illuminates the path. Shows us the cobwebs. Allows us to recognize darkness. Before Christ, we knew only darkness and stumbling. Our spirits were asleep for we had nothing to awaken us. We were stagnant, unmoving, because we had no where to go. We had no sense of clean and not because we did not know where the filth gathered. We were blind, though we were not aware of our blindness. Now, not only have we seen the Light, the Light resides within us. How our countenance is changed. Our faces now radiate Love! "To whom shall we go," is no longer a whimper of fear and despair, but a joyous cry. Father, what would you like me to do today? How can I bring you glory today? With whom would you like me to share this Light?

Today , again in the place of the tomb, we wait. Our dear Jesus, bruised, broken, and bloodied, has been laid in a tomb. What else could we do? He is dead! The man/God who preached about eternal life...has fallen? Does that mean we imagined everything? Was he just a man? But how? Our spirits are alive when they had hung like dead limbs for so long. We can see now with our hearts where our selfishness blinded us before Him. We have little money, but know we are rich. God heard us! God loved us! What does all that mean, confronted with the tomb? We wait, huddled together for warmth in the dank darkness that has overtaken us. Our broken hearts cry, "To whom shall we go, Lord?!?" But there is no response. We wait, grieving. God has surpised us at so many turns, maybe....but no, we want to be rational...maybe He has forgotten us again...and we shake off the doubts and accusations of the Prince of Darkness as we wait. We will wait. If our flesh rots and our burns turn to dust whi...

We have an awesome God. Yeah, you already know that, but do you ever take a minute to think how wonderful it is to be a member of the Body of Christ? I had the honor of professing my faith through baptism in January with 4 close friends. Looking over pictures from that service is like looking through a family album. I look at us, nervously sharing our testimony or each of us emerging from the water dripping with Christ or even the wider pictures of our family praying with us. I cannot help but smile and thank God for all His grace. ********* Marianne, beautiful inside and out, had struggled with “looking for love in all the wrong places.” Searching for fulfillment in a bottle, a man or a shopping spree only ended in hopeless emptiness for her. I know she was nervous that night, but she was determined to humble herself for her Lord. Watching her grow has been incredible. She is devouring the Word and connecting with others. Even more, she is always watchful for ways to give God glory. T...

The Cross...often it seems that we just bring it out at Easter, and then only Jesus lays down His life there. Yes, we wear them around our necks as our "brand." Rancho Christos. We sometimes make the Sign of the Cross, invisibly drawing the Triune God over our heads and chests, but this has little to do with death, that gruesome death our Savior suffered. And yet, not just our Lord was crucified. The Romans liked this brand of death sentence in the way some of America likes the lethal injection. Two criminals died beside Jesus that very day. Other people were crucified before Jesus, and still others after. The cross is not just for Him. Of course, the big difference with the brutal slaying of Jesus was that He did it willingly, freely, to call His people back to Himself. Oh, and He came back from the dead 3 days later. We like the Resurrection. We sing about it, we celebrate it, we participate in it through baptism. How do we so easily forget about our participation in the c...