Sunday, April 19, 2020

It Is Finished

Only one person in history has ever finished everything God gave Him to do.

John 19:30
“When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.”

Unfinished business is a way of life for most of us.

What we must come to realize is that unfinished business is finished business. It's time to stop dwelling on projects that have aged to such a degree that to try to finish it will further deteriorate it.

It is finished.

The best you can hope for, if you really want to try to build on an old project, is to renew the project. Remodel it. Rebuild it. Start over. Make it new. Make it into something that suits your present purposes -- because the old needs and wants you had no longer exist.

It is finished.

Each night, before you go to sleep, you pray to God -- and you say, Amen. It is finished. The day is done. All your needs have been met for the day. All your hopes have been voiced and laid at God's Feet.

It is finished.

You cannot move forward until you accept that what was is done -- over with -- finished. Now it is time to make room for new -- fresh -- and innovative.

It is finished.

What we have left undone, God nurtures in His own time and proportion. We can give God a broken heart, and He can nurture it into a lesson learned -- a new dream -- a great friendship -- a different and better future. We can give Him a disappointed day and He can nurture it into the food for the soul that we need for a better tomorrow.

But, we must move past the past works of unfinished business in order to build something more useful and worthy of our time.

Jesus finished His business on earth. Every year we acknowledge the resurrection of the soul and the newness of life after accepting His sacrifice.

Now it is time to accept the finished business of your own past in order to bring about needed change for the abundant life ahead that He has in store!


Wednesday, April 15, 2020

Dr. Dobson Shares An Easter Message of Great Hope


By Dr. James Dobson

We are living in surreal times—it is a moment in history when America and nations around the world have been shut down. Families are under restrictions to stay home, and many workplaces have closed their doors. People are frightened and concerned about what might happen next. Yet for Christians, there is great hope!

Over 2,000 years ago, God the Father sent His one and only Son to bear the sins of all mankind on the cruel cross of Calvary. The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ transcends life's circumstances and represents a historical marker that lies at the center of everything we believe. During His earthly ministry, Jesus walked the roads of Galilee teaching a message of repentance and performing miracles. People were desperate just to touch the hem of His robe. They gathered in small and large groups to hear His words, and with open arms, Jesus received young children, tax collectors, the infirmed, the curious, and the criminal.

As Jesus' time to be tried and crucified approached, the disciples were fearful and confused. Was this really the purpose for which the Messiah had come? The future looked bleak and frightening.

Many of us are experiencing our own concerns today. We are facing a pandemic like nothing we have ever seen. While recent news reports are revealing a potential light at the end of the proverbial tunnel, there are still many questions about this disease that remain unanswered. Will we see family members or friends afflicted by the coronavirus? When will a sense of normalcy return to our lives?

While Jesus' mother and the disciples witnessed His brutal suffering on the cross, I can only imagine that they also experienced waves of fear and uncertainty. Yet beyond the darkness that veiled their skies, God was carrying out His plan of redemption. And three days later, light overcame darkness and hope conquered fear as Jesus rose from the dead! Fast forward to today, and God is still on His throne weaving His redemptive threads through our lives. He loves you and has a plan for you.

This is the magnificence of Easter—the same hands that were pierced by our rebellion now reach out to us in compassion and forgiveness. God sent His Son to become one of us to do for us what we could not do for ourselves. Truly, we can say with the prophet Isaiah, "But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed" (Isaiah 53:5).

To those of you who are overwhelmed by the cares of life right now and are burdened by the weight of the world during this season of uncertainty, I urge you to look to the risen Christ. He is our eternal hope! May His grace and peace surround you and your loved ones, not only on Easter Sunday but every day of the year.