The Central Moment

So many of us are longing for a Jesus-centered spiritual renewal in the nation. With God’s Spirit upon us, let’s not give up or give out until it happens!

Jesus is our Savior, healer and soon coming King, but he is also our Baptizer in the Holy Spirit. Jesus is the active agent of this baptism and the Holy Spirit is the medium into which we are immersed. Lord, baptize us in your Spirit!

There is no age, gender or racial discrimination when it comes to being filled with the Spirit -- young and old, male and female, and people of every ethnicity and language. This is the inclusive gospel!

Speaking in tongues as evidence of the Pentecostal experience reminds us that we are all on a mission. That verbal sign means that God has made us his mouthpiece to proclaim the gospel to our neighbors and the nations!

Why push a car with an empty fuel tank uphill when you could fill it up with gas and drive it? And why try to serve God in our own strength when Jesus can fill us with his power! That is the potential of Pentecost.

Jesus sent his followers out to minister two-by-two. When he  made a team out of his closest ministry partners he chose twelve of them. This is the power of “with” -- with God’s power and with each other.

Sometimes we ask the wrong questions. When will Jesus return? What about the latest conspiracy theories? Which of the latest trends should I be following? But Jesus’ agenda is strikingly different.

Along with the assignment that Jesus gave us came the promise of being ‘clothed’ with his power. In other words, “don’t do this alone!” Our obligation follows his enablement, not the other way around.

The gospel of Jesus Christ is more than a proposition -- it is God’s power to both deliver and restore. It is no wonder that the New Testament preaching of the gospel was accompanied by supernatural acts of healing and freedom.

Jesus left us with a job to do. He wanted to link his authority with our obedience. May Christ’s “Great Commission” not become the church’s great omission!

Rumors? Wishful thinking? Hysterics? While their gathering was buzzing about it all, Jesus, Himself, doused the doubting, and ended the confusion: While they were saying all this, Jesus appeared to them and said, “Peace be with you.”

Pastor Jim has encouraged us to doubt our doubts. While everyone around him struggled to believe the reports of an empty tomb, Peter, the 3-time denier of Jesus, made a decision to resist the doubting and see for himself. It paid off!

In 1980, country music singer, Johnny Lee, had a # 1 hit song for weeks. Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places was about a fruitless search for true love, finally satisfied, as expressed in his lyrics "...You came knockin' on my heart's door, you're everything I've been looking for..." Lee’s lyrics don’t come close to the poignant question of Heavenly messengers in...

Sunday morning, a group of faithful, but devastated women, arrived very early in the morning at the burial site of Jesus. Adding insult to injury, after the devastating experience on Golgotha, the tomb was open and empty. Evidently, they missed His earlier message...

Tough weekend for you? Can’t wait ‘til it’s over? A destiny-changing weekend took place some 2,000 years ago, starting on Friday in deep sorrow, and ending with a spectacular Sunday discovery of recovery. Wait for it! It’s amazing, and the foundation of all our hope for eternity!

Between Christ’s death and resurrection was his burial. Is that important? Could it be for us the dividing line between the old and the new, life as we have known it and life as it could be -- and life that protects us now?

Jesus did for us what we couldn’t do for ourselves. All through Biblical history God has been seeking for a people where he could sanctuary his presence. People kept failing God but when Jesus died the way to God’s presence was finally and forever opened up.

It was our sin that put Jesus on the cross. But Jesus said to not weep for him but to weep for ourselves. We are lost without him. Tears of repentance are a powerful pathway to life.

We may be full of good intentions, but there is a spiritual battle against us. Satan wants to take us apart, but Jesus can restore us and recommission us.

The bottom line in any of our lives is whether we will go God’s way or our way. We can’t have it both ways. Jesus drew the line -- at the cost of great personal pain he gave himself to God’s will, and the world changed.

Are you being made fun of for being a Christian? Have you lost friends, or even a job, because you became a follower of Jesus? Take heart -- you are on the right track. Jesus has overcome!

There is a stress-inducing belief that we can operate under our own power, manage in our own strength and serve out of our own resources. But Jesus’ radically different way of living invites us to his strength and fruitfulness.

We all need advocates in our lives -- people who will be with us, stand up for us and not abandon us. This is the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Jesus promised it and we can experience it!

Are there mansions in heaven? Or is Jesus preparing something much greater for those who follow him? He is the way, the truth and the life!

In the words of Dr. Darrell Johnson: “The greatest power in the universe is the weakness of sacrificial love.” That kind of love not only captures the highest of human aspirations but it embodies Jesus' way with us.