On Sunday, October 25, 2015, I had the once-in-a-lifetime honor of being in the baptismal pool to assist in the baptism of my oldest son Caleb. From outside the water, it may appear that this is simply just the natural progression for a pastor’s kid. But as you can imagine from just merely considering your own faith journey or the spiritual development of your child(ren), the road is filled with ups and downs, highs and lows, and everything in between. So as I continue to reflect on what took place on Sunday, here is what my head and heart are mulling over:

1. I am a Christian father first. My boys are not particularly enthralled by my Masters of Divinity Degree or that people refer to me as pastor or reverend. To them I am just their dad. And like other dads, I battle my own desires of selfishness and laziness. So daily I must pick up my cross and follow Jesus by putting the best interest of my children ahead of my wants. This is not simply about time spent but about influencing my boys for Jesus. Should my life end tomorrow, what would my sons remember about their dad? While I like throwing the football with them, I LOVE pointing them in the direction of Jesus. This must be my main objective every day.

2. Being a Christian father is the most important responsibility of my life.  One day, someone else will be the pastor of this church but no one will ever get to play the role of father to my sons. So while leadership in this body of believers has its place, it does not come at the expense of my wife and sons. Therefore, having the right energy, focus and devotion to leading my family in the Lord is a non-negotiable. I need to be as prepared to love and lead them everyday as I am prepared on Sunday mornings to teach.

3. Being involved in spiritual/church activities with him is essential to both his spiritual development and mine. I have coached Caleb’s basketball team the last two years. We serve together at Lower Lights, take care of various projects together here at Mountview, and we read his Bible together and talk about God at work in our lives. Caleb needs to learn what a Christian man believes and how He honors God from hearing and seeing God at work in me. This is BEST and ONLY done together. He learns and I learn. He grows and I grow. He is stretched and I am stretched. And by the grace of God we mature together in the love and likeness of Jesus.

And so together we stood in the baptismal on October 25. As he went down into the water, God took me with him both physically and spiritually.

~ Physically my hands held him as he powerfully symbolized the death to his old life and his being raised again to the newness of life in Jesus.

~ Spiritually God was again inviting me to rededicate myself to His desires for my life as expressed above for His glory and our good.

God brought us to that moment, not because I am a pastor or because I am the best dad in the world but rather because by His grace, we are walking this road together. I pray this will resonate in your heart and in your life and you will join me in making our families the most important mission field God will ever allow us to go into on His behalf.                                                     (PASTOR KEVIN SNYDER)

Have you ever heard someone say: “Words are cheap”? In a way, that’s true, especially when it comes to love. Because all love worth receiving is love worth demonstrating. Unexpressed love isn’t love at all.

God certainly thinks so. That’s why He demonstrated His love for us through the cross. He didn’t just tell us; He showed us His love.

In the same way, while true worship always begins with the motivation in our hearts, it never stays there. Our love must be expressed in order to be considered worship. And since 55% of all communication is body language, our actions actually do speak louder than our words.

So how do you demonstrate your adoration for God? How do you demonstrate worship? My pastor, Robert Morris, defines worship as “love expressed.” That’s true, but since we tend to be great at finding loopholes, allow me to expand on that definition—worship is love expressed God’s way.

In his book, The Five Love Languages, Gary Chapman states that we all tend to express and receive love in one of five different ways. These “love languages” are words of affirmation (saying nice things), quality time, receiving and giving gifts, acts of service and physical touch.

The point is, we often go amiss when we try to speak our own love language to express love to someone else. We have to learn to speak their love language.

Did you know there actually are some ways you may think you’re expressing love to God but He doesn’t see it as love. For instance, God doesn’t feel loved just because we sing Him a song that says we love Him. I know I wouldn’t feel loved if my wife picked up a Hallmark card, wrote her name on it and handed it to me in passing. I need more than empty Hallmark cards from my wife. So does God.

Fortunately, God speaks all five love languages. Words of affirmation? We Christians call that praise. Quality time? We call that quiet time—prayer, soaking in the Word and private worship. Receiving gifts? That’s tithes and offerings. And “acts of service” speaks for itself. And finally, there’s physical touch. We have a God who still wants to touch, comfort, heal and be near His people. He wants us to experience Him now—in our physical bodies—not just in some sweet by and by, airy-fairy, glorified future.

What great news! We have a God who receives love in all the same ways we do! Take some time today and consider all of the ways God has expressed His love for you. Then respond by expressing your love back to Him. I think you’ll discover your Father is waiting to share a rich, ever-deepening worship           (ZACH NEESE)

Two thousand years ago there were a lot of people who had difficulty with the resurrection of Jesus. It wasn’t just the philosophers in Athens who laughed at the very idea,  even
some of the disciples who had been with Jesus in Jerusalem during the last week of His life and who may well have seen Him nailed to a tree had major problems with it. Execution and death are hard to argue with. So why is it that one billion Christians around the world still gather to mark this event?

Maybe they are all deluded idealists, wishful thinkers who can’t face reality or… maybe not.
Maybe in fact they are people who, one way or another, are in touch with a living and vibrant tradition of faith in the risen Christ that simply won’t go away.

Maybe they are people who in their own lives have been nailed to the cross or been forced to stand by it and who have come through that experience, not broken and embittered, but aware in a very profound and life giving way that God’s love never ends.

Jesus did not simply come on earth to die.
He came on earth to show us how to live and He was murdered for that.

He was murdered for showing that there is always a place for the prodigal at home,
for forgiving people who did not deserve to be forgiven,
for exposing religious bigotry and intolerance,
for rejecting the use of force and the abuse of power.

He was put to death for making a simple connection between our faith and the way we live, for asking us to believe that God’s love is always given and never earned.

In all of these ways and especially in His death and resurrection He was witnessing to the triumph of love over hatred and of hope over despair.

Easter matters because it is God’s yes to the world. In the risen Jesus God affirms all that is good in us and asks us to follow in the steps of His Son by working together to build up the Kingdom that Jesus proclaimed, trusting that the Spirit of Jesus is within us empowering us in ways that go beyond what we can imagine.                                                          (LE CHÉILE SCHOOLS TRUST)

We must not assume that Jesus was so deluded by His Palm Sunday acclaim that the condemnation of Good Friday surprised Him. Never did Jesus look around, stunned, as if to say “Father, I’m sure surprised at how fast My celebration turned into crucifixion.” Jesus knew the treacherous nature of humankind. In our fallen world, it is possible to be a hero on Sunday and crucified the following Friday.

Christ managed to achieve something we find so difficult to master in our own lives — trusting others enough to freely serve them, yet not committing ourselves to their unstable sense of allegiance. For example, Jesus loved Judas as much as He loved the other disciples, but He was not shattered when Judas betrayed Him. Because He understood the treachery of human nature, He loved Judas anyway.

He does the same with us. How often we have disappointed Christ, yet He is never destroyed by our momentary betrayals. Betrayal is human, but then humanity was His business.

Palm Sunday is evidence that we are to serve our friends and even to receive their accolades. We must always remember, however, that only God is perfect. Friends can disappoint us. But if we love like Christ, we must keep on loving them even as they disappoint us.

Lord, knowing how fickle I am in loving You, help me not to be debilitated when my own friends begin to betray me. Loving the unlovely has always been Your kind of love. Help me to remember that such love is really grace simply wearing an earthier garment.  Amen                         (CALVIN MILLER)

Being a Christian is not just a matter of getting something; it’s a matter of being someone. A Christian is not simply a person who gets forgiveness, who gets to go to heaven, who gets the Holy Spirit, who gets a new nature. A Christian, in terms of our deepest identity, is a saint, a spiritually born child of God, a divine masterpiece, a child of light, a citizen of heaven. Being born again transformed you into someone who didn’t exist before. What you receive as a Christian isn’t the point; it’s who you are that determines what you do. (2 Corinthians 5:17; Ephesians 2:10; 1 Peter 2:9,10; 1 John 3:1,2).

Understanding your identity in Christ is absolutely essential to your success at living the Christian life. No person can consistently behave in a way that’s inconsistent with the way he perceives himself. If you think you’re a no-good bum, you’ll probably life a no-good bum. But if you see yourself as a child of God who is spiritually alive in Christ, you’ll begin to live in victory and freedom as He lived. Next to a knowledge of God, a knowledge of who you are is by far the most important truth you can possess.

After years of working with people who are in deep spiritual conflict, I found one common denominator: none of them knew who they were in Christ. None knew of their spiritual heritage. All questioned their salvation and the love of God. Are you aware that there is someone alive and active in the world today who is dead set against you seeing yourself as spiritually alive and complete in Christ? Satan can do nothing to damage your position in Christ. But if he can deceive you into believing his lie – that you are not acceptable to God and that you’ll never amount to anything as a Christian – then you will live as if you have no position or identity in Christ.

Heavenly Father, I take my stand as a child of God in Christ. Thank You for giving me this gracious and unwarranted position.
(DAILY IN CHRIST – NEIL T. ANDERSON)

We live in a world that can be increasingly described as uncommitted.  Divorce rates, abortion rates, and drop out rates all make this clear.  This characteristic of the fallen world is also seen in God’s church.  People show a lack of commitment in numerous ways.

When we think about true commitment it must consist of three clear aspects.  First, commitment must be complete.  When Jesus answered the Pharisee’s question as to what was the greatest command, He stated, “love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and soul.”  He was saying that what God wants is your all.  God desires your complete allegiance.  Every ounce of our being should be committed to God.  This is the beginning of true commitment.  True commitment is an attitude of complete dedication.

Second, true commitment is concrete.  Sometimes we desire to keep commitment to God in the theoretical.  We want to talk about being sold-out for Jesus, but are not willing to keep His commands.  Jesus states that committed love is seen in “keeping His commandments.” If we are going to be truly committed, then it must be seen in concrete obedience. Concrete obedience would mean using our words to God’s glory.  It would be using our words to build up, not tear down.  Using them to glorify God, not to curse men.  Using them to spread truth, not lies. Ultimately, those who are completely committed seek to “do the will of the Father” in all things.

Third, true commitment must be consistent.  In Matthew 23 Jesus has a scathing rebuke for the religious leaders.  His harsh words were directed at their hypocrisy.  He called them “white washed tombs.”  Their true nature was different than how they appeared.   Whenever we are inconsistent in our commitment we are the same as the Pharisees.  Commitment goes hand-in-hand with persistence.  Committed people see the task through until the end.  When it comes to our walk with God it means consistently living the Christian life until the Day of our Lord.

The church needs to be committed to the Christ.  We need to live for Him heart, mind, and soul.  The great blessing of being committed to Christ is that He will be committed to us on that last day!               (WESLEY WALKER)

When God declared His covenant with His people,
He was reminding them of His everlasting hesed—
His covenant love,  His mercy and kindness.   It is the Old Testament equivalent of grace.

We have a covenant relationship with God, a relationship not contingent upon our conduct, because that’s what He decided. He is the covenant-making-and-keeping God. He is not a contract God, and the difference has eternal significance. If God was a contract God, when you act incorrectly or live sinfully the contract would be broken. But a covenant is a relationship that’s not dependent on performance. In this case, all the responsibility lies with the one participant who can keep the covenant—God Himself.

A covenant is not a contract. When the Bible reveals God as a covenant God, it means He has entered into a relationship that cannot be changed by your behavior.

If you’re saved by faith in His Son Jesus, God says in essence, I’m making a covenant commitment to you. I’m entering into a relationship with you that you can’t mess up in any way. And through the prophet Isaiah, He tells us what that looks like: “I will make an everlasting covenant with you, according to the faithful mercies shown to David.” (ISAIAH 55:3)

Remember King David? His whole life was a testimony to God’s mercy—spared as a shepherd boy from being devoured by a lion, mauled by a bear, taken apart by a giant. As the successor to Israel’s throne, crazy King Saul chased David across the country trying to kill him. Again and again, God protected David’s life in fulfillment of the covenant He had made (1 Samuel 24).David is the poster boy for a covenant relationship with God. Not even adultery and murder could put God’s covenant love to an end (Psalm 51). Get this: while failures may hurt fellowship, they don’t destroy covenant relationship.

God has declared His unchanging partnership with you, His child, through a covenant. You are in relationship with One who is like no other, anywhere, anytime! Because of His covenant love—which Lamentations 3:23 promises is new every morning—God will forgive you in His mercy and satisfy you with His kindness. He lives in you and brings an absolute delight that you will never find apart from Him.

Even though you may stumble in many ways (James 3:2), “Fear not.” Our God is the ultimate covenant keeper.

•    When was the last time you let your performance dictate the closeness of your relationship with the Lord?
•    Do you believe God loves you no more on your good days and no less on your bad days? How can you strengthen your faith in His covenant-keeping character?                                              (JAMES MACDONALD)