GREENE STREET LETTERS: Which Do You Want? The Tomb Or The Risen Lord?

Monday, March 28, 2016

Which Do You Want? The Tomb Or The Risen Lord?

Mark 24:5
The women were terrified and bowed with their faces to the ground. Then the men asked, "Why are you looking among the dead for someone who is alive?

Happy Day After Easter!
Jesus is alive....
Shouldn't every day be a celebration of Easter? I would say yes.
Shouldn't every gathering of believers be celebrated as evidence of Easter?
Again, I say yes!
In fact the entire church body of Jesus Christ is held together by this simple truth. He ain't dead.
No body to look for to disprove this so called resurrection.
Oh, the History channel would pay great money to find His body. They'd do it up right. It would be the event of epic proportions to tell the world that Christianity is predicated upon a myth.
Don't worry, He isn't there.
He rules and reigns forever more.

Sometimes I think we live life like the women who went to the tomb to finish preparing Jesus' body for burial.
We spend our money...
We give our time....
We expend our very life on searching among dead things trying to find life.
When all along the life has been right in front of us, offering a way out of the graveyard.

To me religion is a lot like the efforts of the women who went to Jesus' tomb.
They have purpose (or so the thought)...
They are dedicated to the task at hand.
But their aim was a bit lower than it should have been.
Why did these women go to the tomb?
Because they had forgotten the WORD that Jesus had spoken to them.
The angels explained to the women that Jesus had risen from the dead.
Verse 8 tells us..."Then they remembered that He (Jesus) had said this (that He would rise on the third day).
Religion is a dry, dead effort to show others that we are different.
Trouble is that religion falls short of relationship.
Religion busy's us into a form of godliness, but there isn't any power found in it.

I don't want a dead Jesus.
I want the risen glorified Savior....
Not the bruised, battered carpenter of Nazareth.
I want the Jesus that said He was coming back for us.
I want the Jesus that has overcome the evil one and his kingdom.
I want the real Jesus.
I want life, real life.
Sin busting....
Addiction breaking....
Hell shaking.....
Jesus life.
How about you?

God on you...
mbb

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Looking At The World Through Cracked Lens

As ol' Paul wrote in his Corinthian letters.."We see in part and we know in part." Now what piece of this bit of wisdom do we not get? I wish to not run around acting and trying to be some sort of Biblical G00-Ru (I meant to spell it wrong). Or a sage of sages.

I simply want to be able to communicate some of what God has given to me. Why? Do I think what I get is better than what you may have received from Him? Nope. But I do think encouragement comes when we share our daily story of struggle and victory in an effort to encourage each other.

Thanks for letting me share.

Time to soldier on..

mbb

Our Statement of Faith

We believe that God is the eternal king. He is an infinite, unchangeable Spirit, perfect in holiness, wisdom, goodness, justice, power and love. From all eternity He exists as the One Living and True God in three persons of one substance, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit equal in power and glory. we believe that God created mankind in His image, male and female, for relationship with Himself and to govern the earth. Under the temptation of Satan, our original parents fell from grace, bringing sin, sickness and God's judgment of death to the earth. Through the fall, Satan and his demonic hosts gained access to God's good creation. Creation now experiences the consequences and effects of Adam's original sin. Human beings are born into sin, subject to God's judgment of death and captive to Satan's kingdom of darkness. We believe that Jesus, God's Son, was sent to this world, conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of a virgin, Mary, fully God and fully man in one person. He is humanity as God intended us to be. Jesus was anointed as God's Messiah and empowered by the Holy Spirit, ushering in God's kingdom reign on earth, overpowering the reign of Satan by resisting temptation, preaching the good news of salvation, healing the sick, casting out demons and raising the dead. Jesus' atoning death on the cross took God's judgment for sin which we deserved as law-breakers. Jesus' resurrection and ascent back to heaven opened the door for those who received salvation to begin a relationship with God.

Little Nets Into Deep Waters

Fishing nets were designed for one purpose only. To catch fish. Nets are no good if they stay on the boat. Nets serve no purpose if they are never used. I think maybe God sees us this way. We are all created for a purpose (by the way, the creator gets to define what our purpose is). Any other use besides the one we were created for does us no good. But when the creator places His hands upon us, casting us out into those scary, dark places with deep waters, it is then we can see the reality of our purpose. He knew there would be a catch waiting for us. I think I will be the net God has called me to be.

The Twelve Steps

As a community of people in recovery, we affirm that our higher power is Jesus Christ. He did for us what we could not do for ourselves. Just as God told the children of Israel He was going to give them a promised land, He has revealed to us that He desires to give us a "Promised Life." When Israel got to the promised land, God instructed them to go and in a possess it, fight for it and claim it. In recovery, the 12 Steps are the directions given to us on how to fight, possess and claim this promised life.

Monday, March 28, 2016

Which Do You Want? The Tomb Or The Risen Lord?

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THE REALITY OF THE NAME OF GOD