Celebrate Easter Big -- Lent: Day 27

Scripture:  Isaiah 53:

This is such an incredible prophetic picture of JESUS crucified and raised from the dead hundreds of years before it happened.  He is “pierced” and “crushed” representing His crucifixion, making Himself an offering for sin.  “Prolonging His days” is a reference to His resurrection to eternal life after death.  “My Servant, will justify the many as He will bear their iniquities” means that the fruit of His suffering will be that many people will be saved from sin and death.

 

GOD, being holy and just, cannot act as though sin, which belittles His glory, does not matter.  JESUS died because GOD wanted to show us mercy because He loves us so much.  He created us in His own image and He created us for Himself.  His desire is to forgive and heal and save and rejoice over us with loud singing (Zechariah 3:17).

We see in verse 10 that GOD was “pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief.”  That’s an amazing statement.  How could the Father be “pleased?”  Because that’s an expression of the Father who loves us so much that He would sacrifice His own Son in order to achieve the redemption of all who would believe.

The LORD desires intimacy in relationship with us.  He created us in His image for that purpose.  He expresses His radical love for us and His desire is that we embrace His love and love Him in return with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our mind (Matthew 22:36-40).

This is the deepest longing of our hearts.  It exists because this is the way GOD created us.  The purpose of this longing was intended to be for Him.  As we live our lives we will learn, sometimes through hard lessons, that there is nothing and there is no one that can satisfy that longing other than the One who made us in His image.  Easter makes that a possibility!

JESUS is Risen . . . !

Richard Holloman

Celebrate Easter Big -- Lent: Day 26

Scripture:  Mark 8:31-38:

This morning a few minutes before our worship service I noticed two of our preschool children running around and each were pulling behind them long chains. They were not big heavy chains but they were chains nonetheless.  I immediately thought of how so many of us are pulling behind us or we are in bondage to things in this world that weigh us down and keep up enslaved. 

Our sin had, as it were, kidnapped up and put us in a prison of our own making, far from GOD, in the chains of iniquity, under GOD’s holy wrath, and powerless to free ourselves.  One of the images the Bible uses for our liberation is ransom.

Read Psalm 49:7-8:  “Truly no man can ransom another, or give to GOD the price of his life, for the ransom of their life is costly and can never suffice.”  But GOD goes on in verse 5 and says, “But GOD will ransom my soul from the power of Sheol.”   Man can’t but GOD can and GOD will!

This is what is happening as JESUS plots His death on the way to Jerusalem.  The Son of Man came to give His life as a ransom for many.  This is all GOD’s idea.  It’s not JESUS against GOD.  It’s GOD through JESUS.    GOD wants us to see through His redemptive plan His great love for us. (v. 32-33). 

In v. 34 JESUS is trying to explain, treasure Me more than your own comfort and your own safety.  The opposite of self-denial is the idol of self-gratification, and the opposite of cross-bearing is the idol of self-preservation.  You will have your life forever if you treasure Me enough to lose it for My sake (v. 35).

If you gain the whole world by valuing it above JESUS—by being more proud of it than of Him—it won’t be able to save you in the end.  There is nothing you can pay for your soul when you have scorned what JESUS has accomplished.  Gaining the whole world will be of no use to you (V. 36).  In v. 37 JESUS says, there’s nothing you can give in return for your soul.

Do you hear JESUS’ cry for us to get it, “if you’re not proud of Me and you don’t cherish Me and what I did for you—if you want to put yourself with the goats that value their reputation in the goat herd more than they value me—then that’s the way I will view you when I come.  You will perish with the people who consider Me an embarrassment.

JESUS paid it all . . . all to Him I owe . . .

JESUS is Risen . . . !

Richard Holloman

Celebrate Easter Big -- Lent: Day 25

Scripture:  John 12:20-26

In this passage we see what is required to be an authentic follower of JESUS.  It may be very different from what many Christians think.  Often we have watered down the GOSPEL OF JESUS in our efforts to grow churches and to pack the pews.  We have minimized the GOSPEL OF JESUS as we reduce it to a simple, “sinner’s prayer.”

JESUS declares, “My pathway to glory is through death.”  He is saying, “If you want to see me, be prepared to become like Me . . . prepare to follow Me on the road I am going.  I will be glorified as a grain of wheat falling into the ground and dying.”  Then He makes this truth about Him a truth about us.  Are we willing to hate our lives in this world?  Are we willing to follow Him on the path to Calvary?  Are we willing to serve the Son in this way?  Are we willing to identify with the One we are so eager to see?  Follow Me. Die with Me. Hate your life in this world with Me. Serve Me.

This is hard and it is glorious.  It is difficult to die to this life, to hate our lives in this world, to follow JESUS on the Calvary road, and to walk in humility and become servants

Jesus knew it would be hard. That's why he said in Matthew 7:14, "The gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few."

But it is glorious because through this death and dying HOLY SPIRIT bears the fruit of JESUS in us, we enter into our eternal life, we join JESUS in His glory, and we experience joy, peace, abundant life, meaning, purpose, and complete fulfillment.

So, we wildly celebrate Easter because JESUS’ death, burial, and resurrection brings us ultimate life . . . and everything for which we are yearning and longing.

JESUS is Risen . . . !

Richard Holloman 

Celebrate Easter Big -- Lent: Day 24

Scripture:  1 Corinthians 6:6-11

The scripture today declare so clearly another reason why we are called to celebrate Easter in a big way.  These versus have become much quoted scriptures because of the good news they carry.

Paul is describing that as long as a person is “unrighteous” he cannot enter into the kingdom of GOD.  There is a critically important distinction to make here.  Paul is not talking about righteous or unrighteous behavior.  Clearly Paul is speaking about an unrighteous identity that a person is defined by if they have not experienced the redemptive work of GOD through the atoning work of JESUS CHRIST.

The list of wicked and immoral behavior listed in the following versus (9-10) is not meant to be an exhaustive list.  Paul is listing examples of unrighteous behavior conducted by people who have not experienced redemption.  It is interesting to note Paul doesn’t merely list the sins many Christians often like to mention when making judgmental statements toward others . . . fornicators, adulterers, effeminate, or homosexuals.  But he also mentions some of the more acceptable ones as well . . . idolaters, greediness, drunkenness, foul-mouth language, lying, and extortioners.

But the really important point that needs to be made is that Paul is making a distinction between behavior and one’s identity.  The list refers to those who are still living in their old nature . . . the Adamic nature that every person was born into. But in verse 11 Paul is declaring one’s nature has been changed through what JESUS accomplished through His death, burial, and resurrection once we have embraced the GOSPEL OF JESUS and have believed that JESUS is “the Christ, the Son of the Living GOD”(Matthew 16:13-19).

Here is the Good News of redemption – Through JESUS death, burial, and resurrection those of us who believe have been “washed, sanctified, justified in the name of the LORD JESUS CHRIST and in the Spirit of our GOD” (verse 11)!  Our identity has been changed!  We are no longer "in Adam" we are now "in Christ Jesus."  We are no longer descendants of Adam, we are descendants of JESUS . . . that means we are now children of GOD in Christ.  Let me use myself as an example:  Though I may continue to have some level of sexual attractions to other men that is no longer my identity.  Replace my temptations when any other temptations or even behavioral acts . . . if you are IN CHRIST those behaviors or temptations no longer define you!

So we cannot help but CELEBRATE EASTER BIG!

JESUS is Risen . . . !

Richard Holloman

Celebrate Easter Big -- Lent: Day 23

Scripture:  Matthew 16:13-19

These Lenten devotionals are to encourage us to prepare ourselves for the most exciting celebration of the greatest event the world has ever seen . . . the resurrection of JESUS CHRIST.  It isn’t merely about a man who was killed coming back to life.  It’s about the culmination of GOD’s redemptive plan which was preordained from the foundations of the world. The work has been done.  It is finished.  There is nothing left for us to do, even if there were something else we could do, except to believe (John 6:28-29).  And therein lies the problem . . . we don’t believe . . . though we think we do.

 

We do not truly believe the GOSPEL OF JESUS is “the power of GOD unto salvation to all who believe” (Romans 1:16).  We do not truly believe JESUS is “The Christ, the Son of the living GOD” (Matthew 16:16).  We do not truly believe that this confession is the “ROCK upon which JESUS is building His Church and the very gates of hades will not overpower it” (Matthew 16:18).

Why do I think so much of the Church does not truly believe?  Because so much of the Church substitutes the GOSPEL OF JESUS with the following weak ineffective cheap imitations:  fighting cultural wars--using human logic and reasoning-- practicing religious activities--using man-made tools to attract people and manipulate people to come to church--continuously speaking judgment and condemnation--developing long “to do” lists--an incredible library of “how to” books—lack of discipleship, mentoring, investing in the lives of broken people—a rising objection to JESUS’ call to love GOD and to love our neighbor—an unwillingness to develop authentic relationships with the unchurched and with the outcasts of our religious environments.  And I could go on and on.

It seems to me, if we truly believed the GOSPEL OF JESUS . . . if we truly believed in the significance of the absolutely astounding, glorious, unbelievable, amazing, overwhelming resurrection of JESUS CHIRST the world would not be as it is and the church would not be as irrelevant and out of touch as it has become. 

I believe this because I believe all people of the earth have been created by GOD and have been created in the image of GOD and are primarily spiritual beings.  And for this reason the very things they are searching for, longing, and yearning for are fulfilled ultimately and completely in and through the GOSPEL OF JESUS!  All other arguments are ineffective and irrelevant because the ultimate meaning of life is spiritually discerned and therefore JESUS is the answer!

JESUS is Risen . . . !

Richard Holloman   

Celebrate Easter Big -- Lent: Day 22

Scripture:  Hebrews 2:9

Why would we “celebrate Easter big?”  Because the ticket for heaven which JESUS obtained for us by His blood is the wiping out of all our sins, covering them, bearing them in His own body, so that they can NEVER bring us to ruin—can NEVER be brought up against me again—NEVER!  That’s what happened when He died for us.  Hebrews 10:14 says, “For by One offering He has perfected FOR ALL TIME those who are sanctified.”  Perfected before GOD for all time, by the offering of His life!  That’s what it means that He died for us.  Hebrews 9:28 says, “So Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many . . . .”  He bore our sins.  He really bore them (Isaiah 53:4-6).  He really suffered for them.  They cannot and they will not fall on our heads in judgment.

All of this was accomplished once and for all through the redemptive work of GOD in Christ JESUS at His death, burial, and resurrection!  So I say, yes, Christian, celebrate Easter big!  Celebrate that your sins really were covered when JESUS tasted death for you.  Celebrate that your guilt really was removed when JESUS tasted death for you.  Celebrate that the curse of the law really was lifted and that the wrath of GOD really was removed, and that the precious faith that unites us to all this treasure in Christ was a gift purchased by the blood of JESUS.

JESUS is Risen . . . !

Richard Holloman

Celebrate Easter Big -- Lent: Day 21

Scripture:  Luke 15:11-32:

One of my favorite pieces of art is The Return of the Prodigal Son as depicted by Rembrandt.  I have a large framed print of it in my living room and have spent hours of worship as I have gazed upon it.

                                        

It reminds me of how the Father through His marvelous grace rescued me from the life of a prodigal son and how, later, he delivered me from the life of an elder brother that I had begun to embrace through my legalism.

It is truly a powerful picture of GOD’s grace, forgiveness, and redemption.  It is a picture of Easter.  JESUS, sent by the Father, came into the world for this purpose . . . to forgive sinners and to redeem us from an existence of law bearing.

Our salvation is something to celebrate as the father in this story did when his prodigal son returned home.  As we fully embrace His grace we are protected from the elder son syndrome.

But if we fall victim to this legalistic horror there is still the possibility of forgiveness and redemption as we see in this story.  The father went out to find him (v. 28).  He didn’t holler from a distance and command his son to come into the house.  He goes out to his son.  And the father began “imploring” him, which means he was wooing, appealing, and pleading with him.

In verse 31 the father called him “my child” which in the original language was an intimate and tender term.  He told his son “you have always been with me every day and every night; everything I have is already yours.”  There are so many in the Church do not have hearts for the father.   He is not their treasure but they are just as worldly as the prodigal.

Easter is the Father’s invitation to come in from the foreign country of misery and to come in from the front porch of hard-earned merit.  Both are deadly.

JESUS is Risen . . . !

Richard Holloman

Celebrate Easter Big -- Lent: Day 20

Scripture:  John 12:20-36

We are now in the third week of the Lenten season.  Are you beginning to see it?  Are you beginning to sense what is coming?

In verse 31 we read that the coming death of JESUS will become the decisive dividing line between the condemned and the vindicated.  If you trust JESUS, you are united to Him and His death is your death (Galatians 2:20), and His condemnation is your condemnation (Romans 8:3).  If you never trust JESUS, you then stand condemned both by your sin, and by your rejection of the Messiah.

Also, in verse 31 we read that the ruler of this world will be cast out.  Satan was making a final move against JESUS in the hope that he could possibly make his final hours so bad as to destroy his faith and obedience, and thus undermine the whole work of salvation.

He failed!  And in failing, he himself was judged and decisively defeated.  Satan experienced his decisive defeat at the cross—not the final defeat, but the one that secures and guarantees the final defeat. 

JESUS bore our sin.  He stripped Satan of the one weapon that he had that could damn us:  namely, the valid accusation of our unforgiven sin.  In JESUS we have no unforgiven sin!   The blood of JESUS covers our sin—all of it.  Therefore the cross was the decisive defeat of Satan.  He cannot succeed.  The victory is ours through faith in Christ.  This is what John was saying in Revelation 12:11:  “They have conquered [Satan] by the blood of the Lamb.”  The blood of the Lamb strips Satan of his one condemning weapon, our unforgiven sin.

In verse 32 we read, “And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself.”   In other words, when JESUS died—when He was lifted up on the cross—He actually secured and guaranteed the home-coming of His sheep, the ingathering of his children.

And finally, in verse 36 we read, “While you have the Light, believe in the Light, so that you may become sons of Light.”  If you believe, you don’t just see the Light, you become children of the Light.  This means you share His bright and holy nature.  You shine forth that very Light because the resurrected living LORD is now “life-ing out” His life in you and through you.

JESUS is Risen . . . !

Richard Holloman

Celebrating Easter Big -- Lent: Day 18

Scripture:  Luke 15:

We read in verse 2 that Jesus "receives sinners and eats with them."   Luke uses this word "receive" six other times in his writings and every time it means "eagerly await or expect and look for."  Jesus is not just receiving sinners; he is looking for them and eagerly awaiting their coming.

He is saying: I welcome sinners because I am the incarnation of God's love pursuing the lost. I am the shepherd seeking the sheep. I am the woman seeking her coin.  I am the father who finds a lost son and celebrates with all his house. 

Every month in Chicago 20 to 30 unclaimed people are buried.  People who have nobody that knows or cares.  They just die.  Someone finds them on the street or in a park or in an alley or in a lonely tenement.  The officials search for relatives.  The Medical Examiner’s Office waits and holds the bodies.  No one comes forward to claim the body.  A hundred-eighty-foot long trench is dug at the cemetery and the wooden boxes are lined up next to each other and buried.  No stone.  And no marker.

This is a picture of lostness.  Not a single person seems to know or care when they die.  But ultimate lostness is when one is cut off from GOD.

Easter is about the love of GOD coming into the cities and suburbs of our world to find lost sons and daughters.  It’s about the identity of JESUS and the meaning of His mission in the world. 

This is what JESUS’ birth, death, burial, and resurrection is about!

JESUS is Risen . . . !

Richard Holloman

Celebrating Easter Big -- Lent: Day 17

Scripture:  Matthew 21: 33-43, 45-46

Years ago Charles Colson was in India.  The crowds he spoke to wanted to hear the testimony of this Watergate criminal turned prison evangelist.  Here’s the way he described his experience:

I had many opportunities to tell what Christ has done in my life.  The thousands of faces in those predominantly Hindu crowds would not and smile as I shared my experience.  Hindus believe all roads lead to GOD—if JESUS was my guru that was fine.  They all had their gurus too.

But when I spoke of the reason for my faith, the resurrection of Christ, the nods would stop.  People’s expressions changed and they listened intently.  The fact of the resurrection demands a choice, one that reduces all other religions to mere philosophies.

Christianity socks you between the eyes because it is a religion that says:  The really marvelous things in life are not the feelings of the heart but the facts of history.  There is a world of difference between a subjective religious disposition and an objective resurrection from the dead (John Piper).

The message of the GOSPEL OF JESUS is different from any other religion on earth!  “Because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead” (Acts 17:31).

The faith we embrace is not acceptable in a polite, respectful dialogue about religious experience.  Discussions about the relative value of religious experience and declarations about someone’s resurrection from the dead are just not in the same category.  That’s why the Indus stopped nodding at Charles Colson.  That’s why the Athenians mocked Peter.  That’s why Christianity is offensively unique in a pluralistic age.  For us everything hangs on a marvelous fact in history, not a marvelous feeling in our hearts.

JESUS is Risen . . . !

Richard Holloman

Celebrate Easter Big -- Lent: Day 15

Scripture:  Mark 10:35-45:

James & John had no idea what JESUS meant about “drinking the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized” (v. 38).

The cup was the death He was about to endure.  If you want to rule with JESUS in His glory then you must die with Him—you must drink the same cup.  The baptism JESUS was referring to was that His death was not only as a bitter cup to drink but an immersion—a baptism—in suffering.  JESUS was saying, My pathway to glory & to kingship is through suffering & death.  If you want to share in His honor & glory, you must follow Him in His suffering & death.

In verse 45 JESUS gives an example of what He means, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, & to give His life a ransom for many.”  This is JESUS’ radical call to discipleship.  If you desire to follow JESUS, be prepared to suffer & die (Matt. 7:14; Mark 8:34).

Here’s the shocking surprise:  This is not a call to serve JESUS, but a call to be served BY JESUS as we serve others & to be ransomed by Him from death.  This is the Son of Man serving me!  Ransoming me from my sin & my death!  JESUS is refusing to be served by me.  Insisting on being the Servant & the Savior in my life!

He is saying: Yes, drink my cup. Yes, share my baptism. Yes, serve others. Yes, be the slave of all. This is what it means to be my disciple. But don't serve me! I have not come to be served. I will not be served like this. I will be the servant. I have not come to be served, but to serve. In your relationship with me, I will be the servant. I will serve you. I will work for you.

Do you think you can drink this cup without my help and service? Do you think you can endure the suffering of my baptism without my serving you & helping you? Do you think you can become the kind of person that renounces fame & human status to serve all other people without my serving you—day & night all the days of your life? No you can't.

JESUS demands your life; all of it. He demands that you take on a life that sacrifices everything for the sake of serving others (Luke 14:33). This is hard. In fact, it is impossible.  That is what verse 45 is all about. The great UNLESS . . . Unless the Son of Man is serving you day & night.

Celebrate Easter Big -- Lent: Day 11

Read Matthew 5:43-48

Love your enemies and so prove yourself to be what you are—a child of God. That is, show you are a child of God by acting the way your Father acts. If you are his, then his character is in you, and you will be inclined to do what he does. God loves his enemies—the evil and the unrighteous—in sending rain and sunshine on them instead of instant judgment. Love your enemies and so show that God is your Father. 

 

JESUS said in Matthew 5:16, “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”

Notice two things: one is that Jesus speaks to his disciples and calls God their Father. He does not say, "He may become your Father." He says, "He is your Father." Second, notice that when people see the good works of the disciples (like loving their enemies); they give glory to our Father. Why? Because our Father is in us helping us and enabling us to do the good works. If we did the good works on our own so that we could then become children of our Father, the world should see our good works and give us the glory. So Jesus not only says that God is already the Father of the disciples, but this is the very reason that they can do the loving works they do. The light that they let shine IS the light of their Father's love within them.

JESUS shared the parable of the prodigal son. And the point was: I don't eat with sinners because I like sin. I eat with sinners because I am the love of God welcoming home poor, helpless, diseased sinners—forgiving them, cleansing them, making them new, and sending them out to love in the power of God.

 

During this Lenten season we wildly celebrate the resurrection of JESUS because we were the helpless, diseased sinners GOD welcomed home as He forgave us, cleansed us and made us new.  And we can celebrate because He calls us out to share that same Good News with others like us.

JESUS is Risen . . . !

Richard Holloman

Celebrating Easter Big -- Lent: Day 10

Read  Psalm 130:1-8 and Matthew 5:20-26

A huge part of celebrating the season of Lent focuses on the redemptive work of GOD through the death, burial, and resurrection of JESUS.  A huge part of JESUS’ redemptive work in us is the part about dying to our self . . . our flesh, and yielding to HOLY SPIRIT within us who is “life-ing” out the life of JESUS in us and through us.  This is what Paul speaks of in Galatians 5:22-23 . . . the fruit of the Spirit.

Self-righteousness, self-focus, and self-centeredness have no part with the fruit of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and self-control make up the fruit of the Spirit.  Anything we express outside of this crop of nine qualities produced by the Spirit is of our flesh . . . not of GOD, and shows us something is amiss in our relationship with GOD.

Matthew 5:20-26 is a difficult teaching of JESUS and vv. 23-24 are especially challenging.  But HOLY SPIRIT “life-ing” out JESUS in us and through us takes the load off of us as we die to our flesh and yield to Him.

Our Lord forgives us all our sins and nothing can separate us from the love of God.  And we are called to forgive others with the same compassion, mercy, patience, and love given to us.

In this season of Lent we can experience the renewing love of God and we are preparing ourselves to celebrate wildly JESUS’ resurrection.  It also helps us to celebrate the mystery of our death to self and rebirth in the new life Jesus won for us. 

During this Lenten Season if you remember that someone has something against you because you have wronged them, then as much as it depends on you (Romans 12:18), try to be reconciled.  Humble yourself.  Reach out.  If it does not happen then you must live with the pain.  We are not responsible to make reconciliation happen. 

JESUS is Risen . . .!

Richard Holloman

Celebrating Easter Big -- Lent: Day 9

Read Matthew 7:7-12:

During Lent we remember that the death of Jesus is the foundation for all the promises of God and all the answers to prayer that we ever get. This is why we say “in Jesus’ name” at the end of our prayers. Everything depends on him.

In this scripture we hear with freshness how sincerely Jesus invites us to: ask and receive seek and find knock and find the door opened.

Dependence is not a virtue we ordinarily admire. Today we grow in our sense that we need God's grace very much - even to know what is right - but certainly to fan our desires into a flame.

When we pause to remember that GOD is infinitely strong and can do all that He pleases, and that He is infinitely righteous so He only does what is right, and that He is infinitely good so that everything He does is perfectly good, and that He is infinitely wise so that He always knows perfectly what is right and good, and that He is infinitely loving so that in all His strength and righteousness and goodness and wisdom He brings the greatest joy and peace to those He loves that is possible—when you remember these things about GOD, this incredible invitation of GOD to ask Him for good things, with the promise that He will give them, is absolutely mind boggling!  

Sometimes Our Father gives exactly what we ask and just when we ask it.  He sometimes gives us exactly what we desire.  But at other times Our Father gives us something better, or at a time He knows is better, or in a way He knows is best.

Rest in Him . . . trust Him . . . believe!  Our Father loves you above all things.  He demonstrated this supreme love for you through the sacrifice of JESUS . . . His Only begotten Son!

JESUS is Risen . . . !

Richard Holloman

Celebrating Easter Big -- Lent: Day 8

Read:  Jonah 3:1-10; Psalm 51:3-4, 12-13, 18-19; Luke 11:29-32

Psalm 51 is one of the best examples of the heart GOD desires for us all.  This is a picture of how to be crushed with guilt well.  During this season of Lent may HOLY SPIRIT make it so in our hearts.   

What makes a person a Christian is not that he doesn’t get discouraged, and it’s not that he doesn’t sin and feel miserable about it. What makes a person a Christian is the connection that he has with Jesus Christ that shapes how he thinks and feels about his discouragement and his sin and guilt.

The heading of Psalm 51 goes like this: “To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet went to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.” What happened with Bathsheba is well known:

“It happened, late one afternoon, when David arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king’s house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful. And David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, “Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?” So David sent messengers and took her, and she came to him, and he lay with her. . . . Then she returned to her house. And the woman conceived, and she sent and told David, ‘I am pregnant.’”

He tried to cover his sin by bringing her husband Uriah home from battle so Uriah could lie with her and think it was his baby. Uriah was too noble to go in to his wife while his comrades were in battle. So David arranged to have him killed so that he could quickly marry Bathsheba and cover the sin that way.

Here is what Paul said in Romans 3:25–26:  “God put [Christ] forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins [that’s exactly what 2 Samuel 12:13 says God did—he passed over David’s sin]. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”

Being a Christian means being broken and contrite. Don’t make the mistake of thinking you get beyond this in this life. It marks the life of God’s happy children till they die. We are broken and contrite all the way home—unless sin gets the proud upper hand. Being broken and contrite is not against joy and praise and witness. It’s the flavor of Christian joy and praise and witness.

“All gracious affections [feelings, emotions] that are a sweet [aroma] to Christ . . . are brokenhearted affections. A truly Christian love, either to God or men, is a humble brokenhearted love. The desires of the saints, however earnest, are humble desires: their hope is a humble hope; and their joy, even when it is unspeakable, and full of glory, is a humble brokenhearted joy. . . .” –Jonathan Edwards

JESUS is Risen . . . !

Richard Holloman

Celebrating Easter Big -- Lent: Day 7

Read Isaiah 58 and Matthew 9: 14-15

A big part of Lent involves fasting.  It is vitally important that our fasting comes from a pure heart.  This is an incredible statement on fasting:  “Fasting is, as much as lies in us, an imitation of the angels, a contemning of things present, a school of prayer, a nourishment of the soul, a bridle of the mouth, an abatement of concupiscence: it mollifies rage, it appeases anger, it calms the tempests of nature, it excites reason, it clears the mind, it disburdens the flesh, it chases away night-pollutions, it frees from head-ache. By fasting, a man gets composed behavior, free utterance of his tongue, right apprehensions of his mind.” --John Chrysostom

So here in Isaiah 58 is a fasting that is not pleasing the Lord. Here is worship that is not pleasing the Lord.  And yet what is wrong with seeking God, and delighting to know his ways, and asking him for just decisions, and delighting in his nearness, and fasting and humbling ourselves before him? This sounds very religious and what we need to do. Are you ever deeply afraid or do you ever tremble that GOD may find you as a poser? Doesn't that make you want to get so authentic and intimate with God, you could never be surprised by the Lord in this way—that your most zealous religious practices and even desires are exposed as empty and hypocritical!

The ethical, practical, and relational accompaniments of fasting—or worship in general—are the real test of the authenticity of the fasting and the worship. Monday is the proof of Sunday. God lists the religious forms of their fasting: humbling or afflicting oneself (no food), bowing the head like a reed, spreading out our sackcloth and ashes (cf. Psalm 35:13). Then he lists the ethical accompaniments of this fasting: you go after your own pleasure (in some other way besides eating), you drive hard all your workers and become irritable or contentious and stir up strife and even go so far as to get into fights. And God asks, "Is this the fast that I choose?" The answer is No.

No worship—no preaching, no singing, no playing of instruments, no praying, no fasting, however intense or beautiful—that leaves us harsh with our workers on Monday, or contentious with our spouses at home, or self-indulgent in other areas of our lives, or angry enough to hit somebody—no worship or fasting that leaves us like that is true, God-pleasing worship.

May this season of Lent be a time for us to submit all our religious exercises to HOLY SPIRIT’s discerning wisdom and cleansing power.

JESUS is Risen . . . !

Richard Holloman

Celebrating Easter Big: Lent: Day 6

Read Matthew 25:31-46:  

A big part of the season of Lent is that we take focus off self and come back to GOD.  One of the most important and most impactful scriptures in my life has been Matthew 22:36-40 which is often called the Great Commandment.  Basically, it can be summed up . . . to love GOD with all your heart and to love your neighbor as yourself.

There is real tension in our faith experience about our love for GOD and expressing that love in tangible ways.  The same can be said about loving our neighbor.  It seems there is much talk but not so much tangible love expressed.  I see that scripture has a problem with that.

This is another of many scriptures that speak of the call of GOD on our lives to love Him and to love our neighbors with more than our talk but with real tangible expressions in our world.

 
The Matthew 25 passage is a scene of the last judgment that JESUS paints for us. We will be judged on whether we: fed the hungry, welcomed the stranger, clothed the naked, comforted the sick, and visited the imprisoned. It is powerful to re-learn this wisdom - 
Jesus identifies with each of these “least” cared for.

My pastor, Aarron Schwartz, once spoke of how loudly generosity speaks to a lost and dying world.  Paul stated a truth describing the power and authority of the kindness of the LORD:  “Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of GOD leads you to repentance” (Romans 2:4)?  It seems many in the Church believe speaking judgment and expression condemnation leads people to repentance.  I think I want to side with Paul . . . and with GOD’s . . . word on this one!

It seems the message of Easter and the message of this season we call Lent is that through the death, burial, and resurrection of JESUS people everywhere experience Good News!  Let’s celebrate it wildly!

JESUS is Risen . . . !

Richard Holloman

Celebrating Easter Big -- Lent: Day 2

Luke 9:20-25: [20] "But who do you say that I Am?"  And Peter answered and said, "The Christ of GOD."  [21]But He warned them & instructed them not to tell this to anyone, [22] saying, “The Son of Man must suffer many things & be rejected by the elders & chief priests & scribes, & be killed & be raised up on the third day.” [23]And He was saying to them all, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, & take up his cross daily & follow Me. [24]For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it. [25]For what is a man profited if he gains the whole world & loses or forfeits himself?

Preparing for JESUS death, burial, & resurrection will involve a public declaration that JESUS is the Christ . . . the Messiah.  This is true not merely during the Lent season but every moment of every day.

In this fallen & broken world in which we live, to make such a public declaration will result in persecution & suffering.  Followers of JESUS around the world are experiencing imprisonment & even death because of their love for JESUS.  If we are not experiencing some level of persecution perhaps we should look within our hearts & souls & question the depths of our love for JESUS.  JESUS is clear, to truly follow Him requires denial of self even to the point of death.

This season of Lent may be an opportunity for such heart & soul searching.  How could we possibly ever understand the significance of the Cross and how could we possibly ever wildly celebrate His glorious resurrection!

JESUS is Risen . . . !

Richard Holloman

Celebrating Easter 2014 Large - Ash Wednesday: The Beginning of Lent

As followers of JESUS let us enter into the season of Lent with an earnest desire to call ourselves and other believers to prepare for an incredible celebration of the death, burial, and resurrection of Messiah JESUS.  From this day forward, through Holy Saturday, let us prepare.  And after spending these days of preparation my we celebrate the Resurrection of JESUS like we've never celebrated before.  Each day we will build our expectation.  We will suffer together, sacrifice together, walk through sadness together until that Day of ultimate victory . . . Resurrection Sunday . . . Easter 2014 (April 20)!  And we will celebrate with the angels announcing JESUS' victory over sin and death . . . HE IS NOT HERE . . . HE IS RISEN!