Inspection of the Lamb

March 29, 2010- This morning, a tremendous revelation was illuminated for me and I have to share it here...
God instructed the children of Israel concerning the purity of the lamb which would be sacrificed at Passover: “Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year; ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats” (Exodus 12:5).

There could be no spot or blemish. Nothing!

The inspection process, from the very first Passover, was extremely thorough to guarantee a lamb that met the strictest of standards set by God.

The Lamb of God, without question, fulfilled every criteria. The Lamb of God is perfect. He is without blemish. He is holy, righteous, and just: “For as much as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” (1 Peter 1:18-19).

In fact, if you look closely through the Scriptures, you will see that before He cried, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34), Christ Jesus actually went through seven distinct inspections:

Pilate inspected Jesus, and in John 19:4 we read, “Pilate therefore went forth again and saith unto them, Behold, I bring him forth to you, that ye may know that I find no fault in him.” No fault!

King Herod inspected the Savior. Jesus, by King Herod’s own admission of Christ’s blamelessness, did nothing worth of death (Luke 23:13-15).

Annas, father-in-law of the high priest, inspected Jesus. Annas obviously found no fault, for he passed Him along to his son-in-law (John 18:12-14, 24).

Caiaphas, the high priest, inspected Jesus, as reflected in John 18. Again, no blame could be placed on the spotless Lamb of God.

The centurion inspected the Master. The commander of the Roman soldiers, when it was finished, gave the awe-filled result of his crucifixion scrutiny: “Now when the centurion, and they that were with him, watching Jesus, saw the earthquake, and those things that were done, they feared greatly, saying, Truly this was the Son of God” (Matthew 27:54).

The thief hanging beside Jesus inspected the Lamb of God closely during Christ’s final hours on the cross, and this common criminal made a powerful confession that propelled him into an eternity with the Savior: “But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou are in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward for our deeds; but this man hath done nothing amiss. And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.” (Luke 23:40-42).

Seven inspections came and went. Seven confessions pointed to the irrefutable fact that no one could find fault in Him. As proclaimed truthfully by the thief, the fault is in each of us. We are to blame.
But check this out. When a person would bring the lamb in to the priest, the priest would inspect the lamb for flaws, not the person. Now that my friend, will preach.

The Snares of...

March 26, 1010- You would think everyone would want to take a walk with God. Many are already walking with Him and are enjoying the journey.If you are one of these people I have a word for you today. In our walk with the Lord we experience His bountiful peace, grace, and serenity. That's a beautiful thing. The problem is, on this journey there is an enemy that wants to knock you off course, break your legs, or even take us out. Here are a couple of things I see that can cause us to get out of step with God and if we don't get them under control, it could end bad. The worst thing about it is that religion can become a snare as quick as anything else. Here's an example...
1) Religious Activities- We can become so engulfed with our everyday activities that we miss the reason we do them. Our ministry becomes our focus, when it is people for whom the ministry was created, that get neglected. We can never be so busy with the work of God, that we miss the God of the work.
2) Religious perspective- Christians are known more for what they are against, than what they are for. That in itself is a huge problem. When God is taking us to new, higher levels, we tend to look down on others and tell them the way to go up is don't do's. You can't do this, you can't do that. People can get so over whelmed by the don't do's that they freeze up and no forward motion happens. So please remember the best way to stay in step with God is to avoid the snares of religion.

The Promised Land

MArch 22, 2010- The past few weeks have been pretty crazy. We are moving on 4 church plants over the next few months and a few of the staff members are on the trek of reading the bible in 90 days, so I haven't taken the time to post any blogs. However, the Lord really has rocked my world with a passage of scripture that I can't get away from no matter what I do. So I thought I'd post some thoughts on it before I preach it this weekend. We are all at a crossroads. And at that point, we have to make a decision. Will I stay where I am, or will I take the next step. The problem is this. We all need to take the next step, but if we are not careful, we will be paralyzed by the church. Here's the problem. The church has become so concerned with what not to do, that we forget that the focus should not be on that but on what we should be doing. When our concern is on what not to do, we become afraid to move therefore we just stand still. That is not where God called us to be. He called us to be mobile. Not necessarily geographically but internally. In Genesis 12 God called Abram to leave his people and his land and go to a place God had prepared for him. The problem is this. God didn't tell him where the place was. He didn't give a detailed spread sheet of what it would look like. He just said GO. Many of us are in the same boat. We get frustrated without all the details and just give up. But check this out. Later in scripture God comes through with the promise of a son in Abraham's old age(yeah He changed his name) He provided a ram in the bush for Abraham on the mountain. God was with Abraham in all his steps. But after the miracle on the mountain, Sarah(Abraham's wife dies). When Abraham goes and buys a tomb to bury his wife, he buries her in Canaan. In the steps to bury what is priceless to Abraham, he doesn't even realize he has already entered the Promised Land. The question is this... Where are you today?

B90X cont.

MArch 8, 2010- Sorry about last week. It has really been hectic trying to do my job and keep up with this B90X reading plan(blogging has fallen back). I really think anyone in ministry should try this plan. It really helps to put things in perspective! Anyway, I know I'm yet to even explain what this plan is. Here's the deal. The way I found it is through lifechurch.tv and youversion(the online bible they made available). So for more info, just click the hyper-links above and you can join the movement. It's totally worth the journey.

B90X

March 3, 2010- Well, it has begun. Today is day 3 of B90X. Come join us..