Walking With Jesus

Understanding the Soul of a Conflict Requires Having One

*This timely message from the Colson Center is just too helpful not to share. Please read it carefully and prayerfully. Blessings, Ed 😊

Today on Breakpoint, apologist Abdu Murray, author of the new book Fake ID, describes how the war in Iran has exposed two blind spots—one diplomatic, one technological—that share a common root. Here’s Abdu Murray:

On February 28, 2026—the first day of U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran—a Tomahawk cruise missile hit the Shajareh Tayyebeh girls’ elementary school in Minab, killing at least 165 people. Most of them were girls between the ages of 7 and 12.

Ironically, women and girls spearheaded Iran’s most significant recent uprisings—and the regime killed thousands in response. Now, in the effort to strike that regime, it was girls in a classroom who paid the price—not deliberately, but tragically. The regime denies its women dignity. The fog of war, made foggier by automation, did the same.

As a former Shi’ite Muslim, I understand the weight these deaths carry in the souls of Tehran’s hardliners. I fear our leaders’ ignorance of that weight fosters a critical misunderstanding of how and when this conflict might end.

In AD 680, Hussein—Muhammad’s grandson and the third Shi’ite Imam—chose death for himself and his family over submission to the unjust Umayyad caliph Yazid at the Battle of Karbala. For Shi’ites, this isn’t ancient history. It’s a living moral code. Suffering at the hands of a vastly superior force doesn’t signal defeat; it confirms righteousness.

This is why some Shi’ite Muslims self-flagellate during Ashura, drawing blood in visceral identification with Hussein’s sacrifice. The practice is controversial, with notable clerics condemning it. But the theology of willing, redemptive suffering remains etched in Shi’ite Islam, coloring the hardliners’ approach to this conflict. Not every Shi’ite leader reads Karbala the way Tehran does. Yet the hardliners and their allied militias see this war as “the new Battle of Karbala” where even catastrophic losses can be endured.

For example, after Iran’s Supreme Leader Khamenei was killed in the opening strikes, the Axis of Resistance didn’t collapse. They declared “victory or martyrdom” as equally desirable outcomes. Khamenei himself had framed the coming conflict as “confrontation through the lens of Karbala.” His son Mojtaba, now Supreme Leader, represents an even more radical, apocalyptic wing—one that views all casualties as sacred martyrdom.

This creates a paradox that neither practical negotiations nor “shock and awe” can resolve. The regime will grieve the children of Minab. But like the zealous Muslims who draw their own blood to identify with Hussein’s suffering, the hardliners will frame those deaths as blood spilled to galvanize resistance. Overwhelming force doesn’t quench this ideology. It stokes it.

Western nations resolve conflicts through the cost-benefit analysis of casualty thresholds, economic pressure, negotiated surrender. The hardliners calculate through religious ideology, even if it means letting the nation burn in the process. Ayatollah Khomeini called the ceasefire ending the Iran-Iraq war worse than “drinking from a poisoned chalice.” That mindset diverges widely from that of despots like Muammar Gaddafi or Saddam Hussein whose motivations were mere power and self-interest. Viewing the Axis of Resistance through purely secular lenses will leave us perpetually misreading their moves. All of us, Americans and Iranians alike, will live with the consequences.

That the Minab school strike resulted from over-reliance on soulless AI punctuates the point. Preliminary investigations suggest the Defense Intelligence Agency still classified the school as part of an adjacent military compound—a classification not updated since the school was walled off and repurposed around 2016. The Pentagon’s AI-assisted Maven Smart System processed those outdated coordinates at machine speed. The U.S. struck over 1,000 targets in the first 24 hours.

If humans struggle to grasp the spiritual realities driving this conflict, a machine has no chance. It has no understanding of the soul of the enemy—because it has no soul of its own. It processed stale intelligence at a speed that outpaced moral discernment. Speed without understanding is not efficiency. It’s recklessness.

The hardliners’ ideology is not shared by most Iranians. The protests—led by women, fueled by a hunger for dignity—prove that. The Iranian people deserve better than a regime that would leverage their suffering for its theology. And the decisions about who lives and who dies should never be outsourced to a machine that cannot tell the difference between a military base and a classroom.

That the conflict has begun is immutable. What can be changed is our understanding of our adversary and how that informs our leaders’ decisions going forward.

Surprisingly, the Shi’ite conviction that willing suffering for a righteous cause has cosmic significance echoes something deep in the Christian story—creating an unexpected bridge for genuine conversations with our Shi’ite Muslim friends and neighbors.

Christ’s redemptive suffering runs deeper. At Calvary, Jesus suffered to defeat sin and death—enemies no earthly regime can resist and no algorithm can target. The Cross’s victory is not over political adversaries but over the very condition that makes us adversaries in the first place. The risen Christ did not leverage anyone else’s death for his cause. He offered his own.

Amid this conflict, we need more than threat assessments, better firepower, and smarter yet soulless machines. We need the wisdom to understand the soul of a conflict. And that requires having one.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Registration includes:

1-day conference admission
Breakfast & lunch on Thursday
$200 travel voucher provided at conference check-in
One night’s complimentary hotel stay for Wednesday night only

This summit precedes the Colson Center National Conference (May 29–31, 2026). For full event details and registration, learn more by tapping this link.

Is Church Attendance Really Necessary?

“Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep His promise. Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of His return is drawing near.” (Hebrews 10:23-25 NLT)

The above verses were written approximately 2,000 years ago. Would it be safe to assume the Lord’s coming is closer now than when those words were originally written? Similarly, why would we believe it’s any less important now to meet together than then? And yes, I understand we have the internet and FACETIME and group chats and all of the other electronic means we have to “gather,” but NONE will accomplish what face to face presence will.

God’s intention in giving us the command to meet together, for worship, for fellowship, for discipling, and to build friendships, wasn’t so we could check a box, it was to build community in much the same way as families grow as they spend time together. Some of the highlights of my family memories are times spent with extended family, playing together, eating together, worshipping together on special occasions.

Imagine having someone who wants to spend time with you, to build a friendship, but they say, “I really like you and would love to be your friend, but I hate your family. Your husband smells and your kids are out of control. Even your dog makes me feel like I need a bath when I’ve been around it.” How quickly would you be to jump into a friendship like that?

And even if you would, God wouldn’t! He allowed His only, perfect, sinless, Son to die for the sins of mankind for the express purpose of building a Family, the Family of God, the Church universal comprised of every blood-washed one who has yielded their life and allegiance to Jesus. And of His “Family” He says in Ephesians 5:25-27: “For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up His life for her to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s Word. He did this to present her to Himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault.”

We’re so prone to simply believe Christ died for each of us as individual sinners, and, in a sense, He did. But God’s thoughts are far above our thoughts, as we tend to be very selfish, self-focused, and self-absorbed to the point we seldom consider He didn’t die for us to walk in newness of life alone. In some ways that’s like bringing a new lamb into the world and leaving it to make it on its own. How do you spell “wolf bait”?

The church isn’t a religious organization, it’s a family in which “newborns” are nourished, cared for, nurtured, and trained to be active and productive contributors of the family. There’s a sense in which our life in Christ isn’t about ourselves, it’s about our part in the Body. As an arm wouldn’t function if separated from the human body, we can’t function properly, as God desires, apart from our function within our spiritual Body.

We want to treat attendance at church like AA meetings, helpful, but not mandatory, when, in fact, it’s like coming to family dinner when we’re starving. It’s not an obligation to be kept, it’s a privilege to be honored. There’s no such thing in Scripture as a “Lone Ranger” believer. We’re a part of the Body or we’re an outcast. Yes, of course, people stray from the fold, but it’s our God-given responsibility to bring them back as best we can. It’s not unlike following after a literal child or family member who is estranged. We do whatever we can to bring them back, but in the meantime, we stay faithful to our loved ones who haven’t strayed.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

What Are You Waiting For?

“May the Lord lead your hearts into a full understanding and expression of the love of God and the patient endurance that comes from Christ.” (2 Thessalonians 3:5 NLT)

Waiting, in and of itself, is neither good nor bad. I may have to stop for a traffic light, but my sense is there’s no inherent blessing in waiting for that light to change; however, if I get angry, frustrated and out of sorts because of something designed to help me, it can become a tool in the devil’s capable hands to turn my heart and mind from Christ, thus becoming something very negative.

The sad truth is, every second we waste allowing the enemy of our soul to redirect our thoughts is a second we could be listening to the Lord, contemplating how to more effectively carry out what we already know to be His will, or just spending time speaking or singing to Him, and worshipping His Holy Name.

It’s like we’re giving our best selves, our best thinking, best energy, best money, best time to everything else BUT the things of God. Yes, of course, we attend our meetings regularly and may spend some time each day in reading the Bible and praying, but if we’re honest, where’s our heart? Our family, work, play? Where have we carved out quality time to invest in God’s eternal Kingdom? How are we demonstrating with the use of our time our commitment to the Lord’s Kingdom?

What is the Lord asking you to do that you keep putting off? To whom is He prompting you to reach out, to invite to church or for a cup of coffee or a snack to have some quality time with them? What makes us think there will be a better time? I love the song by King and Country a line of which says: “Why are we wasting all the time like someone’s making more?”

The reality is, this moment is the only one we have to do anything. We must be about our Father’s business and invest our time wisely doing the things that really matter. Things like growing our own life in Christ through extended time with Him in prayer, study of His Word, volunteering, or sharing with others how they can know Him. What can possibly be more important, more urgent than seeing someone yield their life and allegiance to Jesus? And the best place to begin our outreach to them is in conversation with our Savior.

We may profess that our true “home” is in heaven, but we sure pour a lot of time, money, and effort into the one we have here. Erwin McManus challenges us when he writes: “How many of us are saving our best for the next life when all we have is this life?” There will be no lost loved ones or friends in heaven unless we reach them while they’re here on earth. Once they pass from this life to the next, if they don’t know Jesus, it will be eternally too late. There are no second chances once our life is over here on earth.

Our ministry for the Lord, whatever that looks like for you, must be our top priority. And, yes, loving our family well and serving their needs is at the top of our “ministry” list. Unless we’re modeling Jesus well in our homes with our spouse and children, it doesn’t really matter what anyone else thinks. You may think I’m the greatest thing since sliced bread, but if my wife thinks I’m a bum, I’m a bum.

Waiting is for weenies! We must be about our Father’s business NOW!

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

When We Lose Our Way

“Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid, for You are close beside me. Your rod and Your staff protect and comfort me.” (Psalm 23:4 NLT)

Security on our journey with the Lord Jesus grows out of trust in the One who is leading us. To waver in our trust or become distracted by the lights and glamor of this world can cause us to lose our way. Or when sin becomes a greater attraction than being faithful or when sorrows or hardship drain us of hope it’s easy to lose our way. Unfortunately, it’s not uncommon for a child of God to stumble and fall. The issue isn’t whether we struggle, the only issue is, how will we respond?

What I’m learning on my long journey with the Lord is to never stop getting up. It’s not the falling that kills our faith, it’s the staying down. It’s not losing our way but losing touch with the One who can light our path.

“Journey” “Used by permission, © Ray Majoran, GlimpseOfInfinity.com”

Ron Hutchcraft tells an interesting story to our point. “Allison and her daughter and two friends were out for a trail ride in a remote area. They were to rendezvous later, actually, in the afternoon with other family members at their overnight campsite. When it came time to head back, they were somewhere on the side of a mountain, picking their way through very rocky ground. No matter which way they went, they couldn’t find the main trail that would take them back down the mountain. They could see where they needed to be, but the terrain was too rugged to get down any other way.

The hours wore on, dark began to fall, and Allison’s two friends finally made an attempt to get to a cabin they could see. Well after dark, Allison and her daughter finally saw flashlights moving up the mountain. Her friends returned with the man from that cabin. He helped them pick their way to a point where they could actually get right back on the trail. Much to their surprise, while they had been lost, they had been very close to the trail all along!”

Have you lost your way? Perhaps you’re much closer to the right path than you think, but you’ve lost sight of the “light” of Jesus and/or those with whom you were traveling on your spiritual journey. Sometimes a misunderstanding, angry words, or a thoughtless comment can send us off our path and cause us to lose our way. Rather than continue to stumble in the “dark,” ask the Lord to give you the courage to make the call to your estranged fellow traveler and both of you get back on the right path.

One encouraging thought that always helps and guides me is knowing the Lord ALWAYS knows where we are and where we need to be. He’s perfectly capable in every circumstance to give us the guidance we need to find our way back to Him and to the path He’s designed for us to follow.

Ray Majoran’s beautiful prayers always inspire and enlighten. Listen to His words from a recent prayer entitled “Journey,” the last few lines of which say: “In all our ways, help us acknowledge You — in decisions, in waiting, in progress, and in uncertainty. Keep us mindful of Your presence as we walk, so that every step is shaped by knowing You. And as we follow the path You have set before us, make it straight according to Your design. Though it may curve and climb, let it always lead where You intend. Strengthen us to walk faithfully, trusting that the One who directs our path never loses His way (Psalm 37:23).”

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Reflecting On the Worth of Christ

“Above all, you must live as citizens of heaven, conducting yourselves in a manner worthy of the Good News about Christ. Then, whether I come and see you again or only hear about you, I will know that you are standing together with one spirit and one purpose, fighting together for the faith, which is the Good News.” (Philippians 1:27 NLT)

It has never been more critical for us to stand together as one in the Body of Christ than it is right now. Conducting ourselves “in a manner worthy of the Good News about Christ” means so much more than living a holy life unto the Lord as an individual believer in Jesus. As vitally important as individual holiness of life is, of itself it won’t make that much difference to those around us.

For nearly five years, I’ve been sending notes and passing out invitations to Easter and Christmas activities in my neighborhood, but of the hundreds of people who live in my neighborhood I can count on one hand the people that even seem to care. My impact seems minimal on the lives of my neighbors in terms of their need of a growing relationship with Jesus. But a few weeks ago, about 10 of us from my Men’s Group went to serve our city at a local outreach our church supports, and I sensed a greater impact of our corporate efforts in one day than I’ve felt in my individual efforts in five years.

Why is that? I believe there’s power in numbers when it comes to our devotion to Jesus. It’s so easy to get discouraged when we’re standing alone, but when even one other brother or sister is standing with us in the battle, our resolve is strengthened and our courage increases. Jesus speaks to this in Matthew 18:20 when He said: “For where two or three gather together as My followers, I am there among them.”

It saddens me to realize how vitally important it was to Jesus for Peter, James, and John to stand with Him in prayer in the Garden, but they couldn’t stay awake. In those hours of desperation when His soul was wrestling with Satan over the fate of mankind, He was utterly alone. Reflecting the worth of Christ should cement us together, especially in difficult times.

How many of our friends, loved ones, neighbors, co-workers, classmates, and others we know, and love are standing alone in their fight for survival and we’re not even aware? Holy Spirit awaken us from our slumber and give us sensitivity to those who are fighting for their life a few feet away from us. Open our minds and hearts to think their thoughts and feel their pain that we might come along side of them, strengthening their resolve to fight on for the glory of our Savior.

As I was struggling recently, unsure of how long I could go on, I received a call from a dear brother who just wanted to lift me to the Lord in prayer. No judgment, no lectures, no “words of wisdom,” just speaking to the Lord on my behalf words of Scripture I knew, but of which I needed to be reminded, words of friendship and love that were so refreshing to my soul. I couldn’t hold back the tears as my heart released some of the anguish and pain I was holding in.

How grateful I am for loving, caring, wise, comforting, strengthening brothers and sisters in Christ who know how to reflect the worth of Christ in their love for others, especially those who are hurting.

I’m strengthened by my brother Ray Majoran’s powerful words as he prays: “God of all grace, You have called us into a life that reflects the worth of Christ, shaping not only what we believe but how we walk each day before You. You have brought us into one body and set our feet on a path of purpose and truth. We praise You for the unity You create among Your people, binding us together in a shared hope that is anchored in Christ alone (Ephesians 4:3-4).”

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

God’s Guarantee

“Jesus told her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in Me will live, even after dying. Everyone who lives in Me and believes in Me will never ever die. Do you believe this, Martha?” (John 11:25-26 NLT)

Death is a promise God made to Adam and Eve in the Garden and hasn’t changed to this day. Every human being who has lived or ever will live, except those specifically chosen by God to avoid death, will die a physical death. However, because of the Cross of the Lord Jesus Christ and the payment made there on our behalf, when we place our faith and trust in Jesus and receive His Holy Spirit into our lives, we are then given the promise of eternal life. Does that mean we’ll never die? Yes, and no. Yes, it means our spirits will never die, but no, our physical bodies will die unless the Lord returns before that happens.

That’s all well and good, but what does it mean? In practical terms what difference should that make in my life? That news should be transformational! It should literally change everything about us – how we think, live, love, work, play, pray, worship, and every other avenue of our lives.

Photo by Kaybee Photography on Pexels.com

When we’re born again of the Spirit of God, we become a new creation in Christ Jesus, subject to His authority, and obedient to His directives. On some levels that may sound hard and oppressive, almost like the military, but in fact it is liberating and joy filled. Why? Because every breath is a gift from the Lord and when the weight of what Jesus has done for us in freeing us from an eternity of separation from our heavenly Father finally hits us, there’s literally nothing He could ask of us that would compare to what He’s already done for us.

As God’s child my attitude is He owns me, I’m His, and He can do with and for me anything He chooses. On many levels, as hard as it is to think of it in these terms, we’re the Lord’s “slaves.” But when you factor in what that means we gain insight into why anyone and everyone should want to be the Lord’s “slave.” The fact is, we’re His favored child. God the Father views each of us as He does His own Son.

We’re cherished as an invaluable treasure. We’re adopted as God’s own child subject to the same royal inheritance as Christ Jesus Himself – an eternal home in heaven! We were “purchased” by the priceless blood of our Savior, redeemed from hopelessness, lostness, and an eternity of aloneness to be included as a valued member of the Family of God, the Church universal comprised of every born-again child of God.

How do I know these things? Because I know Jesus and Jesus guaranteed them in His Holy Word, the Bible. His words are true, infallible, and guaranteed by His own blood shed on the Cross and His resurrected body that walked out of His grave on the third day. Let’s close with Ray Majoran’s powerful prayer:

“Root our lives deeply in the resurrection of Jesus so that our hope rests firmly in what You have already accomplished through Him. Shape our thoughts, our words, and our actions so they reflect the new life You have given us in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17). And as we look toward the day when You will raise Your people to new life, remind us of Your promises, knowing that the Spirit within us is the guarantee of the life to come (Romans 8:23).”

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

An Easter Message

*Please allow this powerful Easter message from my friend Ray Majoran to speak to you and bless your life as it has mine. Blessings, Ed 😊

“And we are witnesses of all that He did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They put Him to death by hanging Him on a tree, but God raised Him on the third day and made Him to appear, not to all the people but to us who had been chosen by God as witnesses, who ate and drank with Him after He rose from the dead. He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that He is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead. To Him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins through His name. (Acts 10:39-43ESV)

This Easter Sunday, we celebrate the resurrection of our Savior, Jesus Christ. He is the Son of God, the promised Messiah, the hope of the world. After suffering a brutal death on the cross, God raised Him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for Him to be held by it (Acts 2:24).

For Christians, this is a day of great celebration. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

“Easter” “Used by permission, © Ray Majoran, GlimpseOfInfinity.com”

For many, though, today is just another day on the calendar, one that is sometimes celebrated with Easter bunnies and chocolate eggs. Our public schools teach that the Bible is just a book written by a bunch of men who, for whatever reason, sought to gain some sort of power through myths and fairytales. Others believe that Jesus was real but only view Him as a good man or some sort of prophet.

While several people have debated the legitimacy of God and Jesus, secular historians can at least generally agree on the period when each of the 66 books of the Bible were written. The Old Testament was written between ~1500 BC and ~400 BC, while the New Testament was written between ~30 AD and ~100 AD.

If you’re a person who doesn’t believe in the God of the Bible, or if you’re a person who thinks that Jesus was just another man, or perhaps you’re a person who’s never really taken time to think about eternity — then on this Easter Sunday, I invite you to consider three things:

1) The Good News: The Bible lays out the narrative that we are all sinful human beings. Because God is holy and we are sin-filled creatures, we cannot enter into His presence. God and sin cannot exist together. To remedy our helpless state, He sent His one and only Son into the world who lived a sinless life and died as a sacrifice for our sins. As John 3:16 notes, you can enter the Father’s presence by putting your faith in Jesus. We are saved by no works of our own (Ephesians 2:9); instead, it’s by faith in Jesus Christ.

The Gospel message is really that simple: The Father made a way for you through Jesus Christ so you can live forever in eternity. Your sin is atoned for through Jesus. In heaven, God will wipe away every tear from our eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain, for the former things will have passed away (Revelation 21:4).

2) Jesus is the Only Way: Jesus himself declared that He is the only way to ever come to the Father and enter heaven (John 14:6). Whoever believes in Him has eternal life; whoever does not obey Jesus shall not see life, but the wrath of the Father remains on him (John 3:36). Therefore, it is impossible to say, “I believe in Jesus” and then in your next breath say, “but I think there are many ways for someone to get to heaven.” To do so would be to claim Jesus as a liar.

There is no other way, no other religion, no other reality. Buddhism won’t save you, Islam won’t save you, Hinduism won’t save you, Baha’i won’t save you, Judaism won’t save you, Wicca won’t save you, being a monk won’t save you, Sikhism won’t save you, sitting on your butt and ignoring reality won’t save you, and not even “calling yourself a Christian” will save you. Only a true, honest faith in Jesus Christ will save you. That and only that will allow you to go home and live with your Heavenly Father for eternity.

3) Some Simple Math: The Old Testament contains over 400 prophecies about the coming Messiah. When Jesus came into the world, He perfectly fulfilled every one of them. Do you know what the odds of that happening are? Think about it: one single man fulfilling every prediction about the coming Messiah, the Savior of the world. A professor named Peter Stoner worked with 600 students to figure out what the probability would be of just eight (of the over 400) prophecies being fulfilled in any one person who had lived up to the present time. The result: 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000. Would you bet your life on those odds?

Lee Strobel, an atheist-turned-Christian, performed some calculations to try to figure out what this would look like in real life. Lee notes:

“I imagined the entire world being covered with white tile that was one-and-a-half inches square—every bit of dry land on the planet—with the bottom of just one tile painted red. Then, I pictured a person being allowed to wander for a lifetime around all seven continents. He would be permitted to bend down only one time and pick up a piece of tile. What are the odds it would be the one tile whose reverse side was painted red? The odds would be the same as just eight of the Old Testament prophecies coming true in any one person throughout history!”

Listen, if one is bent on refuting God and Jesus, nothing you’re going to read here is likely to change your mind (including these crazy mathematical odds). You can argue until you’re red in the face. You can be a skeptic and declare, “There’s no way 400 of those prophecies are about Jesus.” But the fact of the matter remains: they are real. Even if you can argue away half of them, the other half will still taunt you. He’s created too much evidence for you to just ignore it. As Lee Strobel puts it, even if Jesus only fulfilled eight prophecies, you would still be walking across the earth hoping to flip over that one red tile.

God is real, and Jesus is the Son of God, Messiah, and King. Today, we rejoice in the fact that Jesus is alive, and one day, we will meet Him face to face.

If you’re reading this today and have never given your life to Christ, I encourage you to do it. Tomorrow is not promised.

PRAYER FOR TODAY

Heavenly Father, I humbly acknowledge that there is no one righteous, not even one (Romans 3:10). I am a sinner in need of Your mercy and forgiveness (Titus 3:5-7), for without it, I will be separated from You forever. Your wrath will be revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth (Romans 1:18).

Father, I desire to be made right in Your eyes. Thank You for sending Your Son Jesus, who died on the cross in my place, taking the punishment I deserve (Romans 5:8). Please forgive me for my sins, as I put my trust in Jesus Christ as my Savior. I believe that Jesus’ death and resurrection have provided forgiveness for my sins, and I put my trust in Him alone as my personal Lord and Savior. Thank You for forgiving me and saving me.

*If you prayed this simple prayer, please let Ray know by tapping on his name or tap this link to let Ron Hutchcraft walk you through a simple process that you can follow after you invite Jesus to be Lord of your life.

When Good Friday Gets Personal

*Obviously Good Friday has passed, but when I read this message by Ron Hutchcraft yesterday, it was just too good not to share. Hope it’s as meaningful to you as it was to me. Blessings, Ed 😊

Twenty-three marks on the wall of his four-by-four prison cell told the story. It had just been three weeks since the soldiers captured him – the number one name on the Most Wanted List – at a local bar and they hauled him into this cell. The charges were robbery, treason, and murder. Day 23 was going to be just another day there, or so he thought until he heard the growing sounds of that angry mob outside the window above him. He managed to grab the bars on the window and pull himself up high enough to hear what the crowd was screaming. It was a combination of shock and fear that swept over him when he heard they were shouting his name! “Give us Ba-rabbas! Give us Ba-rabbas!”

Then the chant gradually began to change. Now they were shouting with this bloodthirsty anger, “Cru-ci-fy him! Cru-ci-fy him!” Barabbas slumped to the floor. He couldn’t believe it. He’d been their hero, but now they were calling for his execution by the most brutal means of execution ever devised – death on a cross. Within minutes, five soldiers were dragging him, kicking and screaming down the corridor, up the stone steps, and to another door. They flung the door open, pushed him through it, and slammed the door behind him.

It took a little while for him to realize where he was. He was out on the cobblestone street of Jerusalem. He was free! Before reality could fully dawn on Barabbas, the door behind him opened again. He literally had to roll out of the way to keep from being trampled by this angry crowd pushing their way through with a bare-backed, bleeding man in the middle of them. As Barabbas plastered himself against the wall of that narrow street, he could see that man’s back had been so brutally beaten it was like one gaping wound, exposing tissue and bone everywhere. Barabbas’ first instinct was to run while he could, but he didn’t. He followed that crowd all the way up to that skull-shaped hill just outside the city, where from a distance, he heard the hammer and the spikes that the heartless executioners of Rome were driving into that man’s hands and feet.

It turned dark as night in the middle of the day and the skies opened up with a deluge of rain. Curious spectators just began to drift away. Finally, Barabbas felt safe enough to walk slowly to the top of Skull Hill, with his head covered. It was as if there was a magnet pulling him toward the man hanging on that middle cross between two other dying criminals. Barabbas had heard the man say from that cross, “Father, forgive them.” He’d heard many things at crucifixions. He’d heard cursing, and screaming, and threatening, but never “forgive.”

He now could recognize the face that was beaten almost beyond recognition. It was Jesus – the man who had done no wrong, whose only crime was to love those that no one else cared about. And in that moment Barabbas found himself looking up into the eyes of that man on the middle cross and saying aloud, “Jesus, you don’t deserve to be there, I do. But because You’re dying there, I don’t have to die.” I could walk up to the cross where Jesus died and say that, and so could you.

I’m Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You on this Good Friday about “When Good Friday Gets Personal.”

I don’t know if Barabbas ever really made it to the cross, but I do know that getting to that cross to have your sins forgiven is your only hope of heaven. Our word for today from the Word of God is in Galatians 2:20, and it simply says, “The Son of God…loved me and gave Himself for me.”

If you’ve never been to Jesus’ cross and said those words, “For me. You’re dying for me,” this could be your personal Jesus-day. When you tell Him you are His, when every wrong thing you’ve ever done will be erased from God’s book, because the blood shed on that cross was shed to pay for it. And when you trade hell for heaven this very day, would you tell Him, “Jesus, you’re dying for what I’ve done. And today I am yours.”

And then, would you make a trip to our website? It’s ANewStory.com. I want to help you today be sure you’ve crossed over from death to life.

Good Friday – Jesus died for your sin today so you don’t have to.

Friendship With God

“You adulterers! Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God. I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God.” (James 4:4 NLT)

While Cristiano Ronaldo, has the most Facebook friends (177+ million), there are many across our world who rise or fall on their Facebook and other social media popularity, but why? Can it be our understanding of friendship is so shallow? Or is it our lack of self-esteem that drives us to depend so strongly on such superficial affirmation?

Where do you look for friendship? Personally, my best friend is Jesus, but He has led me to wonderful friends from across the world, some of whom I won’t meet until we get to heaven. Then how do I know they’re my friends? Because our kinship with Jesus automatically makes us friends.

There is something I heard many years ago that says: “If you want someone to love you, love what they love.” That’s never truer than when someone loves Jesus. I’ve never met another person who loves Jesus that I haven’t loved. I may not have liked being around them all that much, but I loved them. Why would I say that? Because there are a lot of people we love, family members, relatives, and others in our spheres of influence we know well, but with whom we’d rather not have to spend a lot of time.

Personalities clash, points of view on critical issues differ, lifestyle choices and many other factors come to bear on why we choose those with whom we’ll be close and those whom we’ll keep at arm’s length. But when it comes to our friendship with God the rules change a bit. The ONLY basis upon which anyone can ever have a friendship with God is by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. How do I know that?

Because Jesus said in John 14:6-7: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through Me. If you had really known Me, you would know who My Father is.” Our friendship with Jesus opens the way to know His Father and having kinship with the Father gives each of us as God’s redeemed children kinship with one another. Acts 2:42 makes this clear: “All the believers (in Jesus) devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper, and to prayer.)”

Friendship and fellowship in the Body of Christ, the Church, should be as normal as wanting apple butter with bread. So, for someone who loves Jesus to shun, disrespect or disregard another believer because they aren’t a part of the same “brand” of Christianity is to slap our Savior in the face. His priceless blood was shed for EVERY born again, repentant sinner. The ground is level at the foot of the Cross where we’ll all equal in His sight.

Corrie Ten Boom had it right when she said: “When a Christian shuns fellowship with other Christians, the devil smiles.” When the world is falling apart, nothing should cement us together more strongly with our Christ-following brothers and sisters than our mutual love for our Savior. There’s a sense in which to deny love for a brother and sister in Christ is to deny our love for Jesus Himself.

Please, brothers and sisters in Christ, let’s grow up and lead the way for our lost loved ones and friends to come to Jesus as they witness our strong love for those in the Body of Christ who may believe differently than we do on some minor issues. One day, when we stand before the Lord we’re going to see as we’ve been seen and we’ll finally understand the miniscule things we viewed differently weren’t really all that important after all.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Anger

“And ‘don’t sin by letting anger control you.’ Don’t let the sun go down while you are still angry, for anger gives a foothold to the devil.” (Ephesians 4:26-27 NLT)

What makes you angry? And yes, we All get angry, and so we should, because we’d sin by NEVER getting angry. Notice Paul isn’t telling us not to get angry, but not to sin WHILE we are angry. Anger at the right time and in the right way is perfectly right and normal for a believer.

Perhaps a reasonable question would be, was Jesus ever angry and if so, what was the cause? Injustice caused Jesus to get angry. When we put a higher priority on religious or political “rightness,” than on the needs of people, it upsets the Lord. Consider the man with the deformed hand in Mark 3:4 when the religious leaders were indignant because Jesus wanted to heal someone on the Sabbath. Jesus asked them a question: “Does the law permit good deeds on the Sabbath, or is it a day for doing evil? Is this a day to save life or to destroy it?” Jesus WROTE the law, He above all others knew its intent. Then, in His holy and righteous anger, He healed the man’s hand, even though He knew it would lead His accusers to plot His murder.

Again, in chapter 10 Mark records a time when the Lord’s anger was aroused. When parents brought their children to Him to touch and bless them the disciples scolded the parents for bothering Him, but the Lord discerned what was happening and the Bible says: “When Jesus saw what was happening, He was angry with His disciples.” He loves children, as we should, but more to the point, we should embrace and invite them, not push them away from us or the Lord.

A small child in his parents’ arms was very fidgety and distracting this morning in church. They were sitting right behind me and, admittedly, at first, I was annoyed. But as the service continued the Lord checked my spirit and reminded me of Jesus’ words in the above context when He told His disciples: “Let the children come to Me. Don’t stop them! (even if they’re noising and distracting 😊) For the Kingdom of God belongs to those who are like these children.”

Another instance, perhaps the most notable for it’s mentioned in all four Gospel accounts, is when He became angry upon seeing the merchants profiting from those who came to worship. The biggest issue wasn’t their providing needed resources for the coming worshippers, even though their prices were no doubt exorbitant, it was that they set up shop in the space that should have been reserved for the worshippers themselves.

Some Pastors and “profiteers” perform a similar disservice when they so focus on someone’s giving, they overshadow the very purpose of that giving – to worship and honor God, not the “servant” who uses millions of the people’s giving for their own profit and the building of their own “kingdom.” Which relates to the last major issue that ruffled our Savior’s “feathers,” sickness and death.

In Mark 1 a man with leprosy comes to Jesus, kneels in front of Him and asks to be healed. Then the Bible says in most translations some form of “Moved with compassion”, but some manuscripts use the word “anger”, but why? Why was Jesus angry? Could it be the human condition? The fact that something as horrible as leprosy has to even exist? Or worse, sin, which is often compared with leprosy? Perhaps Jesus’ frustration with the human condition arose from His knowledge of what His original intent was in allowing humans to be created in the first place. How far we’ve strayed, leading to such a tremendous cost to God the Father in allowing His only Son to be sacrificed as the only remedy to our sin and disobedience.

The realization that our sin put Him on the Cross should be enough to make any Jesus lover angry – angry enough at Satan to love everyone to Jesus that we possibly can.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊