Bonus Question

A young person wrote: 'Today, on a test there was a bonus question on the last page asking "How many roads must a man walk down before you can call him a man?" I was considering writing "the answer is blowing in the wind" but then decided to write "You have already called him a man therefore he doesn't need to walk down any roads". I was the only one in class to get the bonus points.'

Good job! You and I feel good when we also 'get it,' when we don't rely solely on the routine answer, and when we grasp the neat and straightforward. Our spirituality, our faith in God, has been made neat and straightforward by the son of man, Jesus Christ. His answers to our most complex and searching questions about God are clear, concise, and complete.

So, if we would be tested, our test is if He is solidly our Lord and Savior, for we are tested often.
And here is your bonus question: How can we name a Love that awakens heart and mind, indwelling all we know or think or do or seek or find?

The Greatest Person Ever Born

The greatest person ever born was birthed in humble circumstances to parents who loved Him as God's miraculous gift not only to them but to all of us. He was born to grow up in a life as common as yours and mine and yet for each moment of His life He lived out what it means to be holy good, thoroughly truthful, and genuinely loving. When He spoke it was God speaking and the light of God that was in His soul shone a beaconed path toward a new simple way to commune one-to-one with God, who formerly spoke through Prophets.
For those who watched John the Baptist baptize Him, God spoke and said that He was God's only Son. Later on He said that He was God's Son. From His first to His last breath He spoke as God's Son. His words, teachings, and life reflected that He was the greatest person ever born. There has not been a man or a woman born to equal or surpass His greatness. God gave this great man to us for one purpose and for one purpose only- so that we can know the redeeming greatness of God's love.
For, it is in His new way of loving and living Jesus Christ showed us that all things are possible with God, that within His realm believers are changed to be better than they have to be, and that right does win out in the end. Because He was the greatest person ever born the world has been forever changed. Each and every generation that lifts Him up in their families, their communities, and in their nations know the rich blessings of the greatest person ever born. Without a doubt, He was the greatest.
He is the greatest.

Delight In Jesus

Where is the delight in your life? But hold on there! Before you analyze yourself, look with me at Jesus' life and see how He lives among us with delight. Delight is revealed in the Good News found in His parables, stories, promises, and words of assurance. Jesus truly delights in loving us and He goes out of His way to show us that He loves us.
Jesus delights in picking us up when we make mistakes. He delights in making us feel accepted and he welcomes us each and every time we talk with Him. Jesus delights when we we make choices that are good and wholesome, and even when we don't know what choice to make and have stalled-out He delights that we come to Him befuddled.
Jesus takes delight when we turn to Him when life socks us in the stomach with bad news because He can heal sore stomachs and he can work miracles in tough situations. His blanket of love is so big it reaches delightfully around the world. You and I and the others at Alpha Church have taken hold of His blanket of love and are sharing it- and this gives delight. So where is delight in your life and mine too? Delight is in Jesus' love.


... and they were continually in the temple blessing God. Luke 24:53

Faith To Use

But when the disciples saw Jesus walking on the sea, they were terrified saying, "It is a ghost!" And they cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them and said, "Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid." reading from Matthew 14:23-36

There is one picture that has been painted of Peter walking out to Jesus on the stormy salty sea- painted by Philipp Otto Runge. Some frightened and concerned disciples stare over the boat railing as Peter's leg hangs into the sea yet Jesus securely grasps Peter's arm. The Lord, with His glorious robe and holy power, is painted shielding Peter from life's torrent. This best picture images our life in faith.
Peter's faith looks faulty. At first we might think that Matthew hasn't a care for Peter's reputation by telling this story of how Peter's lack of faith sinks him into the sea. Yet Matthew is really telling us that it is better to have a friend who will act faith first and think afterward then to have a friend who thinks long and hard all to miss opportunity's timing.
The other disciples stay in the boat. Painter Runge invites all women and men who love the Lord to put ourselves in the boat with the other disciples, to join with their mixed emotions- struggling with the oars and wind pushing stronger than our combined efforts can combat, we find out that we are still without power to do many things.
Someone wrote: We have invented wonderful machines for making war but nobody yet has found one that will make peace. We can put a man on the moon but we can't put food into hungry stomachs. We can listen to the songs the whales sing on the ocean floor but we can't hear the crying of human souls in the next street.
May we not fear to step into these, and other, salty stormy seas of need as Christ says, "Come."

Pilot Does Not Eject

A pastor was leading a beach mission with a group of children on the sands of Scarborough, North Yorkshire. A Royal Air Force Lightening Jet flew overhead then skimmed the surface of the sea before it turned and flew inland. A few minutes later it returned and went into a steep climb over Scarborough Castle. The beach group thought that the plane was doing a stunt.
Suddenly, in a matter of mere seconds, the plane flipped and dropped into the sea. It crashed less than two hundred yards away from the beach goers. The pilot was killed. The next day the newspaper headline read, "Pilot Gives Life to Save Crowds." The story reported how the plane began to fail and the pilot had just two choices- to eject himself and risk having the plane crash into the beach visitors or to steer the plane away into the sea.
In that instant the pilot choose to give his life to save the lives of others. His role model was our Savior. When the Son of God left heaven He came to intentionally give His life so that we might live in Him, receiving the fullness of His love that takes us into His presence. The selfless love that Jesus Christ has shown is our pattern for daily living because to us, believers in Him, living is Christ and dying is gain. Philippians 1:21

God engineers delays

Is anything too wonderful for the Lord? Genesis 18:14

God sometimes strategically engineers delays. During the delay things may seem more and more improbable, unsolvable, and you may be tempted to take matters into your own hands. Rather, choose to wait on the Lord and put your full trust in the Lord--both are best.
Bring into your mind the experiences of Sarah and Abraham. God had promised them children. Both of them aged gracefully but they got old. Doubts tried to dispel confidence- doubts that lowered their faith. They were stuck in a delay until the right time, the time in which God had right.
God had to remind them that wonderful can happen because God’s promises are always kept, although there may be a delay. If a delay is occurring for you it may be that God is setting the stage for a special time in your life. Trust the Lord while you wait and expect God's wonderful.

How To Finish It

Being confident of this very thing, that God which has begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. Philippians 1:6

There are times when it is challenging to finish what we start- perhaps the final exam is before you and you've tired of studying, or you have a group that you belong to and your energy to participate is waning, or you have that business task that you have been putting off. You just cannot get motived.
A large community of people felt just as you feel right now. God had brought the nation of Israel out of Egypt, delivered them from slavery and persecution, and God desired to bring them to freedom in the promised land. Many times through their journey the people felt like they didn't want to go on anymore, didn't want to finish, and they tired of the hardships and struggles. But even when their motivations sunk to the lowest God's didn't, and God finished through them what had begun.
God did this because God visualizes those He loves as a finished product. God cherishes you, understands, and doesn't give up halfway. He sees you as a finished product. With patient desire God wants you to allow Jesus to help you. Ask Jesus and you will receive His help- understanding and motivation to finish what you have started.

Captian

Jesus said to His disciples, "Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?" Mark 4:40

Soon Jesus would ask His disciples the all important question, "Who do you say I am?" (8:29), and to help prepare them for this question He demonstrates His unlimited power over the natural world. Here, Jesus and His disciples push off from the western shore of the Sea of Galilee. They didn't know yet that they would need Him but He knew.
They encounter an unexpectedly heavy storm. This storm is extremely dangerous and the seafaring disciples understand this about their predicament. They are confident until the full effect of the storm hits and then the violent waves threaten to sink their boat and take their lives.
Yet Jesus is not merely a passenger, He is Captain. The disciples claim Him as Captain of their lives as He says, "Quiet! Be still!!" to the storm, and suddenly there is complete calm. The Captain was showing them then... and us now, that whatever happens, have faith in Him. Faith without fear. He is Captain of the living and the dead.

About Face

"What shall I do, Lord?" I asked. (Saul) Acts 22:10

"About Face!" We hear that then we turn around and march in the opposite direction. Jesus may give any one of us an "about face,' At a time soon after Jesus blessed believers with the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, Saul was going the wrong direction in his life. He was persecuting and killing Christians because he honestly thought it was the right thing to do. The dramatic story surrounding our Scripture tells of an antagonist who about-faced into discipleship.
After the about face he loved Christians, loved them so much he was constantly interpreting the Good News of Christ into their lives and inspiring them with his sure faith. With Jesus' help he spoke to Christians about their diversity, bold living, and encouraged them to see themselves as the people of the Lord's way, not the world's defining way. From the moment the Lord entered his heart he then encountered his greatest problems, persecution, and pains.
Someone must have wondered how he felt about these because he said that he counted these his greatest blessings in consideration of all that the Lord had done for him, and us, giving His life on the cross for us. Jesus' suffering, death, Resurrection, and then the gift of His presence with us by the Holy Spirit have 'about faced' untold numbers of people. Jesus changed Saul's name to Paul, marking his changed life and new purpose. When the Lord speaks, "About Face," the remarkable happens.

Be The Fourth

"This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down His life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for others ... Let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth" 1 John 3:16,18

Someone has said that the reason for the crucifixion of the Son of God is that three out of every four people will hurt you if given an opportunity. Only one in four is genuinely kind and willing to help. So then, we have the privilege of being the fourth persons in each set, to act without fear of the closeness of loving compassion exemplified by Christ.
To move in close to one another calls for us to let down our shields that we pull up tight to cover our hearts like the Roman guards that confined Jesus. These shields may be memories of past hurts or anticipation that someone is going to wrong you. Raising your shield up may join you with the three in the set. Be the fourth. Lay them down.
The people who sentenced Jesus to die presumed Him guilty without proven innocence. They sought to hurt Him but missed Him by a mile. He was genuinely kind and was willing to help us know God's heart by laying down His life so that you know what love is, it is Jesus Christ.

Got Your Back

The Lord will go before you, the God of Israel will be your rear guard. Isaiah 52:12

As Jesus was deep in prayer in Gethsemane He was counting on the disciples to 'watch and pray.' They were to guard His back but they fell asleep. Even though not one of the disciples was watching out for His safety He was watched over by God- God had His back.
As you draw near to God in prayer Jesus has your back. He understands. Go forward with God's goodness in confidence. You can depend on Him.

Humor (sent in by AlphaChurch.org member)

J. Paul Getty - "The meek shall inherit the Earth, but not its mineral rights."

In Case of Accident or Anxiety

Jesus said: As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. John 15:9

Paul Harvey told a story about a man named Carl who was driving to work one morning when he bumped fenders with another motorist. Both cars stopped, and the woman driving the other car got out to survey the damage. She was distraught. It was her fault, she admitted, and hers was a new car less than two days old from the showroom floor.

She was dreading facing her husband. Carl was sympathetic but felt he had to pursue the exchange of license and registration data. She reached into her glove compartment to retrieve the documents which were in an envelope. On the first paper, written in her husband's distinctive handwriting were these words: In case of accident remember, honey, it's you I love, not the car.

In the midst of anxiety we too can forget about love. You do your best to get the task before you accomplished as well as possible and you work hard while knowing that you're going to be so glad when it is complete. When something goes wrong along the way it can feel like everything is wrecked, yet only a portion of the whole needs your focused attention to mend it and make it right again. It is at a time like this that there in the glove compartment of John's gospel, chapter 15, waiting for you are words spoken from the heart of Jesus: kid, it's you I love, always.

Advent on the Horizon

On Sunday, December 2nd, the first Sunday in Advent will meet up with us. String the lights on your house and turn them on, put up the Christmas tree, set the nativity scene in a prominent place, and invite friends over for Advent cheer. The 'cheer' of Advent is in the anticipation of the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ.

The word 'Advent' is taken from the Latin word avenio which means the coming of Christ our Savior.

Sunday is the day to begin reading one chapter a day of the Gospel of Luke-- it has 24 chapters and I think that you'll find Luke the Physician's stories of Jesus nothing short of remarkable and awesome!

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Our First Job Today

C.S. Lewis, in his book Joy in His Presence, writes: "The real problem of the Christian life comes where people do not usually look for it. It comes the very moment you wake up each morning. All your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. And the first job each morning consists simply in shoving them all back; in listening to that Other voice, taking that Other point of view, letting that Other larger, stronger, quieter Life come flowing in. And so on, all day."

Our first job in the morning, throughout the day and into the night is letting quieter Life flow into our thoughts. Christ is quiet Life. This sensitivity to Him, my friend, will allow a different view, His holy view, into all that approaches or confronts you.

Commit your way to the Lord, trust in Him, and He will act. Psalm 37:5