Finding Joy in the Past, Present and Future

Looking to the past to find hope for the future

This past week was the beginning of our second month of the “Shelter in Place” for our us. I began to look at creating some playlists on my phone of my favorite songs from the 1990s and early 2000s. While looking up one of my favorites, the late Rich Mullins (died 1997), I found that there was a “Ragamuffin Archive” Channel on YouTube that was keeping his memory alive with postings of old concerts of his and video & audio interviews with him. His words were encouraging, his simple devotion to following Jesus was very encouraging as opposed to what he called “Churchianity” which can add extra rules and norms that distract us from the pure devotion to the love of God. His commitment to the love of God and caring for the Poor directed his life, he even moved to an Navajo reservation and taught music to children in the last few years of his life before his tragic car accident in 1997. Listening to is words from the past really helped me get a fresh perspective on what the future could look like – turning the focus away from ourselves and onto others during and after this crisis. I decided that I’d get back to focusing on the words of Jesus to get to know Him better by studying His words in the Gospels, I created a 6-day devotional that I plan on uploading weekly or fortnightly. Feel free to share with family, friends or anyone who wants to study the words of Jesus. Words of Jesus Bible Study

Easter 2020 – The First Virtual Easter

Never in our lifetimes could we have imagined that we’d have only a Virtual Easter

My whole life Easter has been a yearly tradition with Church, egg hunts, candy, and having a large meal with extended family. And here we are staring at the same 4 walls, and thankful that the grocery delivery that we ordered 5 days ago arrived in time with the baskets and lunch meat ham. Our Easter celebration this year won’t include extended family because we are all sheltered in place like most of our country. But sometimes all the traditions and, candy, eggs, pictures and large meal can croud out the true profound meaning of Easter. This Easter I plan on focusing on what Christ did for us and being thankful for the life He gave me, not just my physical life, but my spiritual one as well.

“But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.” Ephesians 2:4-9 (NIV)

And that is what we have to be thankful for not just this Easter 2020, but every Easter.