“My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”
Jesus
               
Those are probably the most powerful words spoken by Jesus from the cross. They are also some of the words we might be able to most relate to. I know Job felt it, David felt it, and I know there are times I have felt it – abandoned or forsaken by God. But, how can that be? How can we feel that way when Jesus came to die on the cross for us? It just shouldn’t be!

We typically feel that way when we experience or witness innocent suffering, when we or someone we know is the victim. It is in those painful moments we want to know why. Why did God allow that happen? Even if He didn’t cause it, He certainly could have stopped it? It is that inaction that often leaves us saying the same thing Jesus said – why have you forsaken me?

I can understand our anger and frustration over the pain we often suffer as an innocent human, but to hear Jesus express those words is mind blowing to me. Then I realize Jesus, while divine, was also human. He had experienced the comforting presence of angels and the encouraging moments with His Father. He knew, better than we do, what His Father is capable of. Yet, His Father didn’t act. The Father didn’t spare Him the pain or the death of the cross. In that very hard reality we don’t have answers for our suffering but we have a God who suffers with us, who has joined us in our “victimization.” God isn’t watching from a distance, He is with us and angry right along with us. He too says, this isn’t how it is supposed to be!

What we have to remember is the while the Cross is where we see the innocent One suffer and die while the Father doesn’t stop it, it is also the place where God the Father is making it right. It is a place for us to leave our anger and frustration, a place for us to let our pain die, and the place where we can see God is with us. Then when we are ready to let go and move with Jesus to the resurrection we can find new life and a new future.

So, are you feeling like Jesus – forsaken and abandoned by God? Let’s God know about it. He can take our complaints. He will listen to our laments. But, don’t get mad and walk away, realize that He is with you in it. He is at working making all things new, making all things right. He did it with Jesus and He will do it with us. Hope is alive.
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Trusting in Jesus,
Pastor Matt

Standing near the cross were Jesus’ mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary (the wife of Clopas), and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother standing there beside the disciple he loved, he said to her, “Dear woman, here is your son.” And he said to this disciple, “Here is your mother.” And from then on this disciple took her into his home. 
John 19:25-27
 
When I was a freshman in high school I was back stage at an event just hanging out, one of the only freshmen there. I watched as an upperclassman started to harass another boy who was just standing there reading a book. He knocked the book out of his hands and continued to taunt him. The boy never said a word and then suddenly got punched in the face for no reason. His response was to just pick up his book. It was terrible. I know there are many today who feel like life has been just like that – a punch in the face for no reason.

Many have experienced a tremendous amount of pain and trauma in life, not because of anything they have done, but because of what has been done to them. There are a lot of victims in our world. A lot of people who have been sinned-against. I want you to know – God sees you and knows you. I also want you to know you don't have to stay the victim!

We often stand at the foot of the cross of Jesus and shout, “Jesus, save me, the sinner!” But, we forget that right next to us is Mary who is shouting, “Jesus, save yourself and me – the victims!” You see the cross of Jesus isn’t just about the sinner but also about the sinned-against. It is there the victim (Jesus who was innocent Himself) dies. It is there Jesus makes sure the victim (Mary) is cared for. It is also there Jesus forgives the one killing Him.

Too many of us stay at the cross though – we stay the victim. We let that define us and dictate our life and our decisions. But, Mary doesn't stay the victim and neither does Jesus. Because a few days later we have the resurrection. The victim has become the victory. The one who died has become the survivor!

The cross is where Jesus entered into our suffering and we entered into His. The cross is where we unite with Him in death and the tomb is where we unite with Him in resurrection. The cross is a place for victims and the resurrection the hope of victory. “This is the hope of the gospel. There is hope beyond victimization, and the woundedness that it causes. There is real hope of genuine healing. And in this, the saving message of the cross becomes just as powerful for the sinned-against as it is for the sinner. New birth is offered to all. The resurrection does not undo the death of Jesus, just as it does not undo spiritual, psychological, and emotional “deaths” of the sinned-against. But the resurrection does offer new life and redemption as the declarative Word over sin, pain, violence, and abuse.” (The Backside Of The Cross – Diane Leclerc and Brent Peterson)
 
I pray you find hope and healing from the pain caused by others in your life and that you realize Jesus died and rose again for the sinner as well as the sinned-against.
 
In Christ,
Pastor Matt

For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven….God has made everything beautiful for its own time.
Ecclesiastes 3:1-12
 
King Solomon was very wise and picked up on some things that we are still trying to figure out today. In Ecclesiastes 3 he writes about the struggle of the good and bad in life. It seems like there is a time for everything and we cannot escape it. He says, there is a time for life and a time for death. A time for pain and a time for healing. A time to mourn and a time to celebrate. He covers a lot. Plainly put – life isn’t easy. It is full of beautiful and it is full of ugly. The trick – paying more attention to the beautiful than to the ugly.

One thing that strikes me in Solomon’s struggle is the way he just lumps everything together. There is no clear timeline, not clear delineation between the good things he lists and the bad things. It just all seems to be jumbled up together. When life gets messy like that it gets really hard to see the beauty in it. The tragic and painful always seem to overshadow the good. So, while we are in the tragic, we often find ourselves looking off into the future for the good to come. Its easy to get frustrated and stuck when we do that. Just sitting in the mess, waiting. Maybe even convinced better isn’t coming.

Solomon, however, is quick to point something out. He says, “God has made everything beautiful for its own time.” The way I understand that is in the midst of every season we can find beauty. Even if we are in the season of pain, death, lose, or mourning. Even in those times there is beauty – a beauty that God is there, present, and at work. God makes everything beautiful – even the most tragic and ugly. 

God has been at work since Genesis 1 bringing beauty out of darkness. At creation God took nothing and made it into something. It wasn’t just something – it was good. It was perfect. God took darkness and void and made it beautiful. If we pay close attention we are still able to see that beauty even though evil, sin, as made a mess of it. We see it, because God hasn’t given up on us. He is at work making things good again, making things beautiful.  That is what He does.

Jesus proves it. The cross reminds us of it. God sent Jesus to enter into our ugliness and save us. God sent Him here to make us beautiful again. We have this hope that better is coming because Jesus has come, because God entered into the darkness of our world to breath life back into our deadness.  He sealed that decision with the cross of Jesus.

God took the most ugly, painful, and feared method of torture and execution of the time and made it into a beautiful symbol of love and forgiveness. The cross today stands as a reminder that God can, and does, bring beauty, from our pain and suffering. God is with you today in whatever you are facing. Trust in Jesus to bring the beauty back. There is a time to be loved, redeemed, and forgiven – thanks to Jesus.

​Pastor Matt

Jesus said to the people who believed in him, “You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings. And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”   
John 8:31
 
What would you say are the scariest things facing humanity right now? The war in Ukraine? Nuclear war? Are these the things we should fear the most? What would you say is destroying our lives? I am sure we all could come up with a pretty lengthy list of things that are destructive and problems for the world. We would probably agree on almost all of them. Drugs, violence, politics, gas prices, and on and on we could go. But, what if we dig deeper into those things? I think we would find a common thread that runs through them all.

Drugs destroy – but people do them because it takes away pain and gives some momentary comfort. Violence brings about a feeling of vindication or even of protection and safety. We can come up with reasons these things exist – but the terrifying fact about them all, that common thread, is they are all built on lies. Drugs can’t provide true comfort or really bring about any kind of solution to our struggles. Violence doesn’t really do anything but bring about more violence. But, every day millions of people live into these lies and countless others. The biggest and scariest things facing society today is lies.

This battle isn’t new, in fact it is very old. It started in the Garden of Eden and it led to death. Human kind allowed evil into the world when it fell into a lie told by Satan – the father of all lies. Our real enemy, isn’t against people, it is against that serpent of old. His main objective is to destroy us and he knows the best way to go about that is to get us to not just believe lies, but to actually live them.

We all know the best way to counter a lie is with the truth, right? But, how do we find truth and who do we trust to give us the truth? Ultimately, there can only be one truth and His name is Jesus. Jesus came to combat the lies of the enemy with the truth. The amazing thing is he didn’t just come to tell the truth, He came to embody truth. Jesus came and made truth personal. He made it possible for us to live in truth by living in relationship with Him.

In John 8 Jesus has a very upfront conversation with some Jews (some believing and some not believing). To the ones that were not believing He told them they were of their father, the devil. They had no room in their hearts for His truth because they were too caught up in living the lies the devil had told them. If they ever really wanted to live free and know truth, they would have to become a part of God’s family.

Today, the same is true for us. If we want to live in freedom and not live in bondage to the life destroying lies of the enemy then we need to come to know and surrender our lives to Jesus. We need to ask God to clean our heart of the lies so He can fill it with His truth.  Living that truth is much better than living any lie!

Live in the truth of Jesus today and experience freedom! 
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Pastor Matt

Then Jesus went over to the Pharisees’ synagogue and they asked Him, “Does the law permit a person to work by healing on the Sabbath….Jesus said, “Yes, the law permits a person to do good on the Sabbath.”
Matthew 12:9-14 (Paraphrased)
 
We face decisions every day – we spend a lot of time trying to figure out which is the right and which is the wrong one. Some of those decisions are obvious. Murder is wrong. Stealing is wrong. Those big ticket items we don’t have to think too hard about. But, what about those grey areas? “Most of us feel as if we are fighting our way through a jungle of endless bad choices looking for the one good choice we are supposed to make. When we talk of doing God’s will, we speak as if his will is elusive, and perhaps even unattainable. We work from the assumption that every choice we make outside the one choice that is God’s will for our life is a wrong choice. No wonder so many of us feel paralyzed, terrified to act. The likelihood our choices will be wrong—or even sinful—is too high to risk. We’ve come to believe that God’s will is like walking on a high wire. Any misstep, and we’ll go plummeting to our death.” (Erwin McManus, “The Genius of Jesus”)

This is the kind of life the Pharisees lived – paralyzed by fear of doing the wrong – of breaking a law. It blinded them to what God had for them – to who was standing right in front of them. It is not the life we were meant to live.

Jesus told them, yes, you can do good on the Sabbath. Jesus took their question about right or wrong and made it about good. Good is what God wants. He doesn’t need us to be right (or to not be wrong). What we often forget is that we can’t be right enough. We could keep every law, never be wrong, and still never be right and never do good. In other words we could keep the Sabbath holy but never heal the withered hand. In doing that we have failed at the greatest commandment – to love God and love people.

We don’t need to be right. Jesus is right. It is His rightness (righteousness) we need to be saved. We cannot save ourselves by avoiding wrong. We can only be saved by choosing Jesus. He then picks up our slack and accomplishes for us what we can’t. In His righteousness we are free to live – not however we want – but in goodness.

Paul says, “Christ has truly set us free. … For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. But don’t use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love. For the whole law can be summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

You are free from the burden of avoiding wrong and free to the life of good. Jesus Christ died on the cross and rose from the grave to make you right. All we have to do now is live in that freedom and allow that love to flow through us to others – do good and you won't be wrong.   
 
Pastor Matt

​You have heard the law that says the punishment must match the injury: ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say, do not resist an evil person! If someone slaps you on the right cheek, offer the other cheek also. If you are sued in court and your shirt is taken from you, give your coat, too. If a soldier demands that you carry his gear for a mile, carry it two miles. Give to those who ask, and don’t turn away from those who want to borrow.
Matthew 5:38-42
 
What do you think of when you think of power? Who do you view as the most powerful person ever – and I don’t mean your favorite super hero (we all know superman is the best anyway!). Typically power is defined by might, strength (militarily or financially), control, and maybe even influence (even if that influence is due to fear or force). The biggest issue with that kind of power is that it is often oppressive and enslaving. Yet, when we try to find freedom from that power we end up using the same kind of power against it. Then, we just get stuck in this cycle of enslavement and oppression – the only change is who holds the power.

This is the cycle Jesus was born into. Alexander the Great had set the standard for power and dominance expanding the Greek empire and influence through his military power. Then along came the Roman empire that was exercising their power over the Jewish people during the life of Christ. Everyone wanted to be on the top, everyone wanted to control the power! So, when Jesus showed up the people were thinking it was finally their turn, now the Jews could have the power. 

But, Jesus, the most powerful person to ever walk the face of this earth. The Son of God, the Creator, who could heal the sick, forgive sin, walk on water, calm storms, and raise the dead was here. Surely He was going to kick butt! But, instead He came with a different idea of power and freedom. He came and showed the people that no matter who thought they had the power, no one could ever really take it from them if they didn’t let them. They were always free. In fact, it was in this power of servanthood that Jesus drastically changed the world.

Erwin McManus says, “Never allow anyone else’s actions to lead you to be less. Their use of power reveals who they are, and your response to power will reveal who you are. Whatever power you may feel your oppressors have over you, they are powerless when it comes to your character. Only you can choose who you are and who you will become. You can step into a freedom they are incapable of understanding, and stand in your power in such a way that they are powerless to stop you.” That’s the power Jesus displayed all the way to the cross. That’s the power that truly changed the world. Live in that power.
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Pastor Matt