Inspirations from the Funny Farm

Romans 12:1-2 And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

Yesterday, we had a guest pastor at our morning worship service. Bro. Lonnie O’quin brought the message from Romans 12:1-2. Bro. Lonnie is well known in our town. He is a retired pastor who shepherded the flock at a local church for almost forty years. Though retired, Bro. Lonnie is still a great man of God, and he is still on fire for the gospel. He spoke about the problem with many Christians choosing to compartmentalize Christ. It is a hard pill to swallow at first, but I have to admit that I have been guilty of this myself in the past. To compartmentalize means to divide into sections. Many are guilty of doing this in their faith walk. We put our Christianity in a nice, tidy little compartment, and we store it away and only pull it out once a week or when it is really needed. Unfortunately, the drawer pulls on that compartment are sometimes shinier than all of the other compartments of our lives. Peeps, that isn’t how God intended us to live.

This is a mindset of primarily a Sunday morning worshipper. Many times, Christians feel that they must go to church on Sunday. It could be due to a feeling of obligation, or hopefully, it is the calling of the Holy Spirit, but sometimes after that Sunday morning worship is over, it becomes business as usual. We think we need to act or live a certain way on Sunday because, well, Sunday is God’s day, right? So we give Him that day. He is safely tucked away in that compartment, and we pull Him out on Sundays. We serve Him for one day of the week. Then comes Monday. On Monday, we get back into the routine of serving ourselves. We work long hours. We take care of business. We do what needs to be done, but we forget to include the Lord. We forget to talk to Him and read his Word everyday. We forget to share the pits and the praises of the day with our heavenly Father. We live the way we want to live. We do what we want to do. We do all of this without a thought of our salvation. But then comes Sunday, and we give that day to the Lord again, because, well, Sunday is God’s day. We open that compartment up, but we only open it for the day.

I’m not pointing fingers at anyone. If I did, I would have four fingers pointing right back at me. I too have been guilty of compartmentalizing my Christianity in the past. The problem with this is that Jesus didn’t call us to be Christians part of the time. No, my friends, He called us to follow Him ALL the time. We can’t fill up our tanks with the Word of God on Sunday mornings and expect that tank to stay full all week. Our tanks will run on empty within just a day or two. Scripture tells us that followers of Christ will be recognized by our love for the Lord, our love for others, and the fruit that we are bearing. If we spend six out of seven days ignoring the Lord, I can guarantee you that we won’t be producing any fruits of the Spirit. And we sure won’t be showing love to or for the Lord in doing so.

Paul shares with us in the book of Romans that we are to offer ourselves as living sacrifices to the Lord…the kind that He will find acceptable. I’m pretty sure playing church on Sunday and living outside of His will the rest of the week is not what He would find acceptable. We can’t live like the rest of the world lives. We can’t follow the current cultural trends. We must stay true to our Savior. We must stay true to the Word of God. The only way that we can do this is to stay in the Word of God. We must have a true around the clock, real life, heart to heart relationship with the Savior. He’s not a genie in a bottle that we can call out when we need Him. Our Lord wants to be part of our daily lives. He loves us completely. He loves the good, the bad, and the ugly. He took our sins on that day on that cross. He loves us so very much. He does not belong in a compartment!

This week I challenge you to live out loud for Christ. Don’t store Him away in a compartment until next Sunday. Keep His Word close. Meditate scripture. Pray. Talk to our Lord daily, maybe even hourly. Live out loud for Christ! You won’t regret it for a moment.

Matthew 27:22 Pilate responded, “Then what should I do with Jesus who is called the Messiah?”

Although this Easter has come and gone, I can not help but continue to dwell on thoughts of my Savior and that life changing event that changed everything for all of us. I can not help but remember the scripture, consider the events, and recognize the awful tragedy that turned out to be the most magnificent, life changing event of all time. Our Savior was betrayed. He was beaten. He was crucified. Life left His human body, but we can not forget that our Savior was one of a kind. He was fully human, yes, but He was also fully God. Death and burial could not keep Him. He arose on the third day just as it had been prophesied.

This morning, let us ponder the words of Pilate. Pilate was in charge of keeping peace, and He searched Jesus and reviewed the claims against Him, but Pilate could not find cause to crucify Him. However, the religious leaders of the day wanted to have Jesus crucified for their claim of blasphemy. Still, Pilate found Jesus guilty of no crime. He wanted to wash his hands of this situation, and he asked a question that we should still be asking today. Pilate responded, “Then what should I do with Jesus who is called the Messiah?” What should we do with Jesus who is called the Messiah? Well, the people responded to Pilate that Jesus should be crucified. They shouted it. They chanted it. They called for the release of Barabbas. They wanted Jesus to take the place of this criminal. They chose to crucify our Savior.

When asked what to do with Jesus, the crowd crucified Him. They thought that the story would end in His death. Oh how wrong they were! The centurion who witnessed the death of Jesus, the ripping of the temple curtain from top to bottom, the darkness over the whole earth, the earthquake, the splitting of rocks, and tombs opening with saints rising and walking again, recognized the glory of Jesus and who He was. He declared, “This man truly was the Son of God!” Matthew 27:54 The women who came to the tomb to prepare the body with spices were shocked to learn that the Messiah had risen, but they believed. Over 500 people saw Jesus after the resurrection before He ascended to heaven, and when He ascended, He did not leave us alone. He left a Comforter, the Holy Spirit, who is with us wherever we go.

Jesus took the place of Barabbas on that cross, but it wasn’t merely Barabbas that He took the place of. No, my friends, Jesus didn’t take the place of Barabbas on that cross. He assumed that place for you and for me. He suffered and died on that cross so that you and I could be redeemed. He took on our sins that day. A sinless Christ took on the sins of each of us so that we may be made right with the Father…so that we may have eternal life in our heavenly home.

So I ask you today, “What are you going to do with Jesus?” Are you going to think of Him as a religious leader who died long ago? Are you going to consider Him a main character in the oldest, most read book of all time? Or are you going to recognize that Jesus is who He said He is…realize that He is the Son of God? Will you understand that He came to earth as man to feel our emotions, feel our pain, and show us what unconditional love truly is? Do you know that He truly is the Messiah, our Salvation, Immanuel, God with us? His death on the cross was not the end of the story. It was only the beginning. Accepting Him as your Savior is not the end of the story. It is only the beginning. When we accept Him as our Lord and Savior, it is the beginning of new life. So what do we do with Him now? We live our life for Him. We stay in His Word. We worship Him. We sing His praises. We commune with Him. We can go to Him anytime day or night. He is always there, ready, willing, and able to take you call. We can get dressed and go to church this morning to hear His word and fellowship with our brothers and sisters in Christ. We share Him with this lost and dying world. There is so much that we can do with this Jesus. The reality is that everything we do should be done with Jesus in mind. Ponder this question today, and I assure you that it will help bring you closer to this Jesus!

James 4:13-16 Look here, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit.” How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone. What you ought to say is, “If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that.” Otherwise you are boasting about your own pretentious plans, and all such boasting is evil.

There is an old saying around our neck of the woods: “If the good Lord’s willing and the creek don’t rise.” We say this when we have made plans with intention of carrying those plans out. For example, I am going out of town tomorrow with a friend if the good Lord’s willing and the creek don’t rise. I’m going to start a new job tomorrow if the good Lord’s willing and the creek don’t rise. Or perhaps, I’m going to start a new diet and exercise plan tomorrow if the good Lord’s willing and the creek don’t rise. You get the picture. I know that this isn’t correct grammar, and I am a grammar Nazi, but still it as an old familiar saying, and I have said these very words many times myself.

Last night our creek rose. We live on eighty acres, and a little creek called Whitesand Creek runs through our property. Our back deck overlooks the creek. Most of the time, it is shallow enough to actually walk across. Oh, you would get wet if you did, but you wouldn’t drown. The water flows gently by with a comforting sound that I have enjoyed so much through the years. However, if it rains a lot and the rain comes down fast, the creek swells. Our house is up high, and praise God, our home has never flooded. It would take a monsoon for the water to reach our home, but our driveway, well that is another story. Our driveway is about a half a mile long, and there are two different culverts along the drive in which natural branches of water from the creek flow through. When we get a lot of rain in a short period of time, the driveway floods. This morning, we are flooded in. The creek has risen. The driveway is flooded. My husband ventured out to check the water company that he operates only to call me back and tell me not to leave the house. He said the water nearly came over his hood of his truck as he drove down the driveway. Yes, the creek has risen, and I’m going to stay put for a while. I actually don’t mind that one bit! I am off today for the first day this week, and I’m going to enjoy the little bit of time while the creek has risen!

I didn’t really have anything away from the home planned today so I’m actually okay with my current situation. Yet I started thinking about that old familiar saying: if the good Lord’s willing and the creek don’t rise, and I started thinking “if the good Lord is willing it doesn’t matter if the creek rises or not.” We are in the habit of making plans. I don’t know about you, but I am a planner. I am a researcher. I like to know all of the details of the events that I am going to attend. I begin researching and planning out a family vacation months in advance. I like to have a plan. My husband on the other hand is a fly by the seat of your pants kind of guy. I plan, and he just goes with it. Planning gives me comfort. However, I’ve learned over and over again that it doesn’t matter how well I plan things out, if it isn’t God’s plan, it isn’t going to happen, and if it is God’s plan, it WILL happen. It doesn’t really have anything to do with the level of the creek or the amount of detail in the planning. If it is God’s will, you can’t stop it, and if it isn’t God’s will, you can’t make it happen.

I don’t think that making plans is a bad thing. Plans are actually good, but rather than saying if the good Lord’s willing and the creek don’t rise, perhaps we should only say if the good Lord’s willing because if it is His will, it shall be. James explains this clearly. We can make all of the plans that we want, but those plans must include the Lord. We must pray for His will in our lives, and then the plans that we make will be within His will. Let His plans become our plans. Let us make plans according to the will of our Father. What you ought to say is, “If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that.” Otherwise you are boasting about your own pretentious plans, and all such boasting is evil. James 4:16

Don’t worry about the creek rising up to foil your plans, but rather invite the Lord into your planning process and let Him lead you.

2 Corinthians 5:17-20 This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!”

Colossians 3:10 Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: I LOVE SPRING! Spring has to be my absolute favorite time of the year. It is the newness of life that I love most about spring. After suffering through cold, gray winter days, new life begins to appear. The trees blossom out with bright new green leaves. The grass slowly changes from brown to green. The birds start singing before daybreak, and they continue to sing their songs of praise all day long. Yesterday, I worked the morning hours in the clinic, but came home and truly enjoyed an afternoon off with my sweet husband. He took me to lunch, and then he treated me to a well past due pedicure. Afterwards, we rode over to feed the calves on the side by side. The grassy fields are beautifully green, and the grass is so thick. We do indeed have some very happy cows here at Hodge Lodge. After feeding and checking in on the cattle, we came back home, made coffee, and went out the the back deck to relax. I laid in the hammock and looked around and just soaked in the beauty all around me. Everything is so pretty right now. The temperature was perfect in the high 70s. The creek below the deck was trickling gently, and the birds were singing their little hearts out. I’ve been to some beautiful places in my life, and I’ve seen some beautiful country, but nothing on this side of heaven feels as good as my own personal little vacation spot on the back deck of our home. All of the worries of the world are gently washed away with the trickling flow of our little Whitesand Creek.

Yes, my friends, spring is the best season for me. It’s not too cold, and it hasn’t gotten too hot just yet. I almost wish it could stay this temperature all year long. I do wish we could enjoy spring all year, but as I think about that wish, I realize that we actually can. With God, every single day we walk on this earth, we can enjoy spring. We can enjoy the newness of life with our Savior. The old gray worries of yesterday can be washed away by the love and grace of our Father. It’s true, y’all. Every day we can enjoy spring when we begin to celebrate our salvation on a daily basis. We should be singing His praises louder than those birds. We should wake up each morning and rejoice in the new day recognizing that our sovereign Lord has given us one more day in this old body to share the Good News. Every day we wake up and are given the opportunity to celebrate the newness of life of one more day. We must not dread the tasks of the day, but rather enjoy the new opportunities that our Lord will present us with each day.

Winter will come again, but we must not dread the cold, gray days. When we have a relationship with the Creator, we can celebrate spring every single day! Do you know the Creator and giver of life? If you don’t, let today be the day that you get to know Him personally. Join in the celebration! Spring is here, and with Christ, every day is spring!

Hebrews 6:18-19 God has given both his promise and his oath. These two things are unchangeable because it is impossible for God to lie. Therefore, we who have fled to him for refuge can have great confidence as we hold to the hope that lies before us. This hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls. It leads us through the curtain into God’s inner sanctuary.

Early this morning around 2:30 am, a storm blew in. It was not a mere rain shower. No, it was a real gully washer, thunder booming storm. I lay quietly in bed listening to the clashes of thunder and watching the lightning as it lit up the sky. It felt like the whole house was shaking with each boom of thunder. I was waiting for my big Bouvier des Flandres dogs, Sophie and Bear, to jump into bed with me because although they are big brave dogs, they are scared of thunder. They refrained from jumping in the bed, but stayed closely nestled on the floor next to the bed. My sweet husband was lying beside me sleeping quietly through the entire storm. It lasted for at least thirty minutes. God was displaying His power in vibrant strikes of lightning, sheets of heavy rain, and raging winds.

As I lay there listening to the storm around me, I thought about the storms that we have endured over the past year. I’m not talking about the wind, rain, thunder, and lightning storms. No, I am referring to the different storms of life that we have endured since the beginning of 2020. COVID-19 came in like a lion, and we thought it would quickly leave like a lamb. To our great dismay, COVID-19 decided to linger a while longer. We had a presidential election debacle and concern of election fraud. Many have been ill with this crazy virus, and friends and family members have succumbed to it. Jobs have been lost. Businesses have been closed. We are still wearing masks in public. Everything within my medical practice has changed. It has been a stormy year indeed. I venture to say that this has been the most difficult year I’ve practiced in all of my many years as a family nurse practitioner. But even though it has been a most trying year, and I occasionally get overwhelmed, I can still lie down and close my eyes at night and sleep just as peacefully as my husband did last night while that storm was raging. Why? Because I know who controls the storms. Whether it be a vicious thunderstorm or a battle with an unseen virus, my God is in control, and because I know that He is in control, I can rest easy.

God is our anchor in the storm. He is our hope. He is our shield. He is our protection. I know you are probably going through some kind of storm right now too. Storms come and go, but no matter how loud the thunder booms or how strong the wind blows, we have an anchor that will keep us grounded throughout it all. We who have fled to him for refuge can have great confidence as we hold to the hope that lies before us. This hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls. Grab hold to the hope that is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls. The storms may rage, but we don’t have to face them alone. Place your hope in the Anchor!

2 Corinthians 2:17-18 For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.

Four days ago was the 17 year anniversary of my mother’s death. I don’t celebrate that with sadness. I know she is in heaven, and I rejoice in that. But I do miss her for sure! This time of year always make me reflect a little more on life and death. I’m not sure why my mama had to leave at such a young age of 59, but God does. People tell me frequently that I’m one of the toughest people they know. No matter how tough I am or how strong I get, I’ll never be tough enough! Farming is the hardest job I’ll ever have! I’m up at 5:00 am and to bed by 10:00 most days while working around here and at the clinic in between, but I wouldn’t trade it for the world. A few years ago in April, we were rejoicing in new life as Merida, my sweet Scottish Highland cow, gave birth to our first long awaited little Scottish Highland calf. I had been talking to that mama for months, rubbing her belly, and I was all up in the middle of her Koolaid when that baby was being born. She delivered a beautiful deep auburn colored heifer calf, one of the prettiest calves I had ever seen. It truly could not have been a prettier baby. The next morning, I awoke with great anticipation. I couldn’t wait to get out to the field to check on her and get acquainted. But to my great dismay, when I arrived at her side, I found a very sick calf. Her breathing was raspy. She had fluid in her lungs. She had apparently aspirated during the delivery, and she didn’t make it. I was heart broken to say the least. I don’t know why I had to lose that beautiful little calf that I had been anxiously awaiting for over nine months, but God does. God also knew I needed a twenty minute drive to work so that I could cry some cleansing tears all the way to work that day, and then He must’ve thought I needed to keep my mind busy too because he sent nearly sixty patients for me to see that day. Yes, my God takes care of every detail.

I hear of accidents occurring daily. I hear of many who are sick, loved ones who have passed away, suicides, tragedies, and I still can’t help but wonder why? Although I wonder, I find that the answer is always the same. I don’t know why, but God does. His plans are bigger than our plans, and His ways are greater than our ways. When things don’t seem to go our way, we need not fear and fret. It is in those times that our loving Father wants us to cling to Him even more tightly. Don’t you just love those God hugs? Whenever I lose a critter here on the farm or when I have had an especially tough day at the clinic, I can’t wait to see my husband. I fall into him, and he wraps those big strong arms around me and gives me a great big hug. All the worries of the day just melt away. God hugs are just like that. We may not physically feel those arms around us, but when we take our troubles to the foot of the cross, He wraps us up with all of His strength, grace, and mercy, and our hearts and minds feel an overwhelming sense of peace. All the worries of the day just melt away. That is a God hug, y’all!

We may never understand the why…why we lose the ones we love, why we suffer, or why life doesn’t go as planned, but God does. We do not have to be strong enough to handle all of the troubles that come our way. We must only be strong enough to place our trust in Him. It only takes a little faith. Scripture tells us that we only need faith the size of a mustard seed, and that’s a good thing, because mustard seed sized faith is sometimes all I have, but that little seed of faith grows bigger and stronger with every single day spent with my Savior. We must remember our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever. Fix your eyes not on your troubles but rather on the Savior today!

Matthew 28:6 He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead, just as he said would happen. Come, see where his body was lying. 

Mark 16:6 but the angel said, “Don’t be alarmed. You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead! Look, this is where they laid his body.

Romans 6:5-6 Since we have been united with him in his death, we will also be raised to life as he was. We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin.

I know that Easter Sunday has come and gone for this year, but we should never stop celebrating the resurrection of our Lord and Savior. This past Sunday, we went to early morning sunrise service. We gathered outside of the church in a vacant field which is the planned area where our new church addition will be built. It was cold…so cold! The temperature was in the forties, but that is nothing unusual for Easter Sunday here. The older people call it the Easter snap. We usually get one last little burst of cold air just before spring really gets sprung into action. We sat out there shivering, but we were gently warmed up by singing praise songs about our resurrected Savior. The sun began peaking through the pine trees in front of us, and our pastor shared the focus scripture of Matthew 28:6. We enjoyed a hot breakfast in the fellowship with our faith family, and then rushed home to prepare lunch. After completing our preparations for lunch, we loaded back into the car to return for morning worship. By that time, the sun was up, and the warmth of the sun could be felt. It wasn’t cold anymore. It was warm. The Son had risen.

I told my husband on the way to church that the temperature change reminded me of how those women, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, must have felt on that glorious resurrection day. They went down to the tomb of their dead and buried Messiah to prepare His body with spices. Their Savior had died. He was gone, but they loved Him greatly and wanted to prepare and preserve the body with the typical burial spices and perfumes of the day. It must have felt very cold to them that morning. I bet they even shivered at the thought of their great loss. Their Savior had died, and with Him, perhaps their faith. For the first time since they met and fell in love with Jesus, I imagine that the felt that all hope was lost. Yes, I bet they were cold. I think that their hearts were cold. Their faith was cold. Jesus was dead. But God! Oh, but God! The women made it to the tomb to do their duties of caring for the dead body only to discover that their Savior was no longer there. He had risen from the grave! That cold, dead feeling was no more. Their faith had been restored. Their hope was resurrected. That morning that started out so cold was now full of life because the Son had risen!

One thing that I must point out is that we too have that same opportunity to grasp the love of Christ, hold on to that hope, and keep the faith. Jesus died on that cross for each and every one of us. He could have stepped right down. He could have said no. He could have done a lot of things, but He didn’t. That one extraordinary simple act changed everything! He suffered death on the cross because He knew that His death would bring life to you and to me. Our sins died with Him that day. He was the final sacrificial lamb, and His gracious, loving act of obedience even to death gives each and every one of us unfathomable hope for the future. We are all dead in sin, but we do not have to stay there. We too can be resurrected. We only have to invite the Savior into our hearts, acknowledge that He is Lord, believe that He died for our sins, and confess that He is our salvation.

One fine day, Jesus will return to gather us all home! What a glorious day that will be. Friday wasn’t good. It was a devastating day of death, but just as our Lord promised, He would rise again on Sunday! He did! He is alive! Don’t lose faith and hope, my friends. Hang on! Sunday is coming! The Son is coming again!

Psalm 139:13-16 You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.

1 John 3:2 Dear friends, we are already God’s children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is.

This past Friday, my aunt asked us to come to her home, the home of my late grandparents, to go through some of my grandmother’s things. She had a variety of personal belongings that had belonged to my grandmother, and she wanted to share these things with her grandchildren. There was nothing of great monetary value, but oh what priceless items she shared! She gave each of us an old quilt that had been hand sewn by my grandmother. These quilts were not show quilts that one would hang on the wall. No, these quilts were hand sewn together with great love and hard work by my daddy’s mother many years ago. As a matter of fact, they hadn’t only been sewn by my grandmother, they had also been well used over the years. The quilt I received is a beautiful patchwork of colorful fabric woven together so that each piece fits perfectly together to form a quilt. One of the edges is worn and raveling, but I still think it is a work of art because I know that it was created by the hands of my loving grandmother. And though the edges are unraveling, parts of the quilt are completely intact and secure: the quilting stitches. They may be the smallest stitches in the whole quilt, but they are also the strongest, and those simple hand sewn quilting stitches keep the quilt from falling apart.

I hung the quilt over my balcony railing. Though tattered and worn, it represents much more to me than an old bed covering. When I look at that quilt, I see a resemblance to each of our lives. We are like that old patchwork quilt. Our loving Father has crafted us. Yes, He knit us together in our mother’s womb, and He didn’t forget one single, perfect stitch. Just as every quilt that my grandmother made was unique, our Father created us uniquely different. He provided each of us with the perfect shade of color, and He gave each of us a distinct beauty of our own. There is not another quilt exactly like the one my grandma made in this whole world, and there is not another person exactly like you or exactly like me either. We are all fearfully and wonderfully made by our Father.

But that’s not all of the story. Our Father made us wonderfully, but He isn’t finished with us yet. He designed each and every one of us with a special plan in mind. My grandmother had to take a multitude of fabric pieces and place them together, fit the side by side, lay out a design, and carefully stitch the pieces in place to form the beauty of a quilt. Our Lord and Savior created each one of us with a very personal and specific plan for our lives. He gave each of us special talents and abilities to carry out that specific plan. Our Father adds and removes people from our lives that help shape us into the person that He desires for us to be. He may completely rearrange our lives when necessary to shape us for His use and His glory. However, through all of the changes, the shaping, and possibly a nip here or a tuck there, our Father gently puts all of the pieces together to form a beautiful patchwork quilt tapestry of life that glorifies Him.

Yes, my friends, we are all like an old patchwork quilt. We may feel tattered and worn from time to time, but we have to remember that we are gently sewn together by the Master. He gently sews each quilting stitch in place. He holds us together in the palm of His hands, and though we may feel like we are going to fall apart, we only need remember that the Master formed us fearfully and wonderfully, and He will hold us together just like those hand sewn quilting stitches. If you are feeling like all of the pieces of your life are falling apart, go to the Master quilter. He will gently but surely put all the pieces back together again for your good and His glory.

Matthew 28:1-10 Early on Sunday morning, as the new day was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went out to visit the tomb. Suddenly there was a great earthquake! For an angel of the Lord came down from heaven, rolled aside the stone, and sat on it. His face shone like lightning, and his clothing was as white as snow. The guards shook with fear when they saw him, and they fell into a dead faint.  Then the angel spoke to the women. “Don’t be afraid!” he said. “I know you are lookig for Jesus, who was crucified. He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead, just as he said would happen. Come, see where his body was lying. And now, go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and he is going ahead of you to Galilee. You will see him there. Remember what I have told you.” The women ran quickly from the tomb. They were very frightened but also filled with great joy, and they rushed to give the disciples the angel’s message. And as they went, Jesus met them and greeted them. And they ran to him, grasped his feet, and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, “Don’t be afraid! Go tell my brothers to leave for Galilee, and they will see me there.”

Happy Easter, Peeps! Today we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord and Savior. Good Friday was a terrible day for our Savior when He hung on that cross. He was tortured and crucified for our sins. He could have stopped the men from crucifying Him. He could have stopped them with a look or even one word, but He didn’t. He could have avoided the beatings, the crown of thorns, the piercings, and oh, the suffering. He could have stopped them dead in their tracks. But He didn’t! He didn’t stop them. It was prophesied long before that dreadful day that Jesus would be the propitiation for our sins. It was foretold that this Messiah would be the Holy Lamb of God. Yes, our Lord and Savior went through pure agony, extreme suffering, awful pain, and even death. He did this for you, and He did this for me. I tear up when I think of the anguish that my Savior endured so that all of my sins could be forgiven. I hang my head in shame when I think about all of the many times I have failed Him. This Savior died on that old rugged cross for my sins. The shear thought of such an act of immeasurable love shakes me to my core.

But we must remember that the tomb is empty. Death could not hold Him. The stone was rolled away. The linen cloth was folded. His body was not there. Just as it was prophesied, Christ arose on that third day. The angel shared this fact at the empty tomb, but we don’t have only the word of the angel. Over 500 people saw the risen Savior after that faithful day. Can you imagine the surprise of the women who went to prepare the body with perfumes and oils? Can you imagine the shock? They believed that He was the Messiah, but their faith had possibly died with their Savior. They thought that He was gone forever, and they wanted to prepare His body for eternity in that tomb. But He was not there. Just imagine how they must have felt! The resurrection of Jesus changed the course of history forever.

That empty tomb is something that we can hold onto. The empty tomb declares that our lives are not merely on a one way trip to the cemetery. No, the resurrection of our Savior and that empty tomb declare that there is hope. We don’t have to fear death. We don’t have to fear the tomb. No, my friends, if we are in Christ, death on earth is just the beginning. We too will be resurrected to live in eternity with our Father. I can only imagine how wonderful that day will be. I pray that you know without a shadow of a doubt that you too will be spending eternity with our Savior. If you do not know this, today is the absolute best day to invite Jesus into your heart! It is resurrection day. Let your dead heart be resurrected today. He will make you new!

The tomb is empty! Let us celebrate the risen Savior!

John 12:1-2 Six days before the Passover celebration began, Jesus arrived in Bethany, the home of Lazarus—the man he had raised from the dead. A dinner was prepared in Jesus’ honor. Martha served, and Lazarus was among those who ate with him.

Last week in our ladies’ Bible study, we look at John chapter 11, but rather than focusing our attention on Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead, we paid particular attention to the four day waiting period that occurred from the time of Lazarus’ death until the time that Jesus arrived at Bethany. We also considered the response of both Martha and Mary, the sisters of Lazarus and the weight of the wait. The wait for Jesus must have been almost too much for the sisters. They knew Jesus. He was a personal friend to them, and they knew in their hearts that if He had been there, Lazarus would not have died. They even sent word to Jesus regarding Lazarus’ illness, but Jesus tarried. He delayed His return to Bethany on purpose so that the glory of God would be made known. There was a belief of some during that time period that up to three days after death, there was some mystical way that breath could be restored to a dead person. Jesus didn’t return on day one, two, or three. No, He showed up on day four. It was too late for Lazarus in the eyes of those in Bethany, but it wasn’t too late for Jesus. Perhaps everyone had given up hope. The sisters who had faith that Jesus was the Messiah had even lost faith. Their hope was dead. But Jesus…Jesus arrived right on time raised up Lazarus from the dead, and at the same time, He raised up both Mary and Martha from a dead place in their hearts. His actions brought their dead faith back to life. Yes, He raised them up too.

When we read chapter 12, we see that Lazarus, the man that was raised up from the dead, is sitting at a table and eating with Jesus. This is a pretty cool thing to consider. Literally, a man who was dead is now dining at the table with the Jesus. That is powerful. This is a reflection of what God still does for His people today. Lazarus was dead, but Jesus raised him from the dead and seated him right beside him at the table. Jesus does the same thing for you and I. Until we come to know Christ as our Lord and Savior, we are dead. We are spiritually as dead as Lazarus was in that tomb, but we don’t have to stay dead. When we accept Jesus as our Savior and invite Him into our hearts, He gives us a newness of life. For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives. Romans 6:4 Yes, He raises us up, and that is not all. He then seats us in a seat of honor and glory with Him. That even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!) For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus. Ephesians 2:5-6

Before Christ, we are lifeless. With Christ, we become full of life, but that is not all. He doesn’t just give us life everlasting, He invites us to sit at the table with Him. He invites us in. He invites us into a close fellowship with Him, a loving relationship, and true communion with Christ. If that doesn’t rock your world, you better check your pulse! So many times in this life, we worry and fret because we didn’t receive and invitation to someone else’s table. We may feel we were not good enough. We may think that the other person doesn’t like us. We may feel that we have done something to offend them. None of that matters to God! He knows who we are to the very center of our beings. He knows us. He knows the good, the bad, and the ugly, and yet He wants to raise us up from the death of sin, and He wants to bring us right to His table. He wants to forgive us of our sins and trespasses, and He wants to wash us whiter than snow. And just like Lazarus, He wants to seat us in a place of honor and glory.

Isn’t Jesus just absolutely, totally amazing, y’all? The love and grace that He has for mankind is absolutely mind boggling. We are such broken people, but He takes the broken and makes us new. He raises us up from spiritual death and revives us. He can take any part of our life that is dead and resuscitate it. If you are feeling a bit lifeless today, call on Jesus. He will raise you up today! He is inviting you to His table. That is an invitation that you really need to accept!