Don’t let baggage regarding keeping the Sabbath keep you from enjoying this most wonderful of spiritual disciplines/gifts that we have the privilege of enjoying. Do the things that you don’t have time todo during the rest of the week. Slow down, rest, enjoy, play, live and love. It’s a gift from this amazing God who is and always has been crazy about His kids.

If you’ve been struggling with your spiritual life. If you’ve wondered if perhaps you aren’t passionate enough in your spirituality. Start now ... celebrate joy! I know, I know, not everything is going to be happy and stress free and naturally full of joy filled moments. But that’s why it is so important ... to celebrate joy! Practice joy! Live with joy!J oin us as we discover God’s wish for all of His kids to experience and celebrate joy.

Jesus came to this earth to confront us with a choice. Are we going to commit to following him, or are we going to drift along? The good news He says, is that it is possible to follow him, to be transformed. Again, this is not about how to be saved, this is about how to live our lives in such a way that people see Jesus through us. On our own we don’t naturally drift into that kind of life. When Jesus lived that kind of life it was a shock to the world. But the good news is, this God who is crazy about us, He haspromised to help us live this amazing life for which we were born to live. That is the secret to trainingsmarter and not harder.

Christianity has lost much of its power because we really don’t expect anyone to change as a result of being a Christian. At least we don’t expect them to be more loving and more tolerant and more positive. We aren’t surprised if a person becomes a Christian and they get grumpy. But that’s not what God has called us to do.

What happened on the cross was not some legal transaction to satisfy a blood thirsty god who needed for somebody to die before He could let us live. It is so much more than that ... but what is that more and how does it change everything?

It is a sacred moment to be there when somebody breathes their last breath, and their heartstops beating. It is also a sacred time to be there when people are facing the end, and they know it. Frequently they share what is on their hearts, their hopes, their disappointments, their frustrations andtheir fears. Jesus’ last words to his followers before he died and left this earth carry that same weight andimportance. There is so much to learn from last words.

We have talked a lot about God and how he can be trusted. We have looked at the life of Christ and how it affirms the loving, trusting, compassionate nature of God. The question today is, “Will you actually trust him with your life?” Maybe you are like me, and you still don’t have it all figured out. Maybe there are some parts of the Bible that still seem squirrely. Maybe you still have unanswered questions, but you’ve seen enough to begin ...

In our 21st century minds we are obsessed with making sure we believe the right things. This focus on believing the right things is not new. It really started to build momentum during the Renaissance period, Age of enlightenment or reason. It was an important development in our history, but as with most things ... the pendulum often swings well passed center before it returns.

When we turn our eyes on Jesus and see how he loved, then we understand the OT better. You see, The Eyes Have it. What are we focused on? If we keep our eyes focused on God as a God of love, if we keep our eyes on Jesus living that example of love, then when we see weird things in the Bible and it looks like God is mean or unfair, or just crazy ... if we keep our eyes on this God of love, then we know that somehow there is more to the story. If it looks unloving, then we’ve got it wrong, because God is love. If it looks crazy and unbelievable then we are missing something, because God is anything but crazy ... except ... it’s true God is crazy in this one thing. He’s crazy about you.

We all agree that sin is bad, but we are often more sympathetic toward sin than we are towards God. What I mean by that is this. If sin ends up killing somebody, we understand that. It makes us sad, but we expect it. After all, Paul tells us in Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, ...But if we perceive that God has killed somebody for sinning, we get really upset about it. How can God do that? Sin can kill, and it’s understandable. But God? ... that makes us angry.