- Why is the brutal death of the Son of God a cause to celebrate, or to be referred to as “good” Friday? Despite its brutality, the work of the cross canceled Satan’s claim on the human race, offered a bridge to humanity that leads back to God, and it struck a death blow to sin and its very existence. This perfect plan countered the fall of the first Adam, who chose to live outside the will of God, according to his own will. Christ served as the new Adam, who fully submitted to the will of God, even unto death. Starting with the thief on the cross next to Him, Christ’s death brought new life and true hope to all of humanity.

- He is risen! With these three words, the entire picture of our humanity is changed. In fact, everything that happened between the crucifixion and the resurrection makes for the most fantastic story ever told. Far from simply laying in the tomb for three days, waiting to be resurrected, Christ actually waged war on death and hell, taking the keys of death from Satan and releasing all of the souls that were waiting for the day of atonement to come. Pastor Doug takes us step-by-step through these dramatic events and gives us perspective about what this means for us and for the future as well.

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In the final installment of the series, Pastor Doug encourages us that God in charge of everything, including our healing. We need to keep our faith and our focus on Him. The practical, daily tool that we are to use to align ourselves with God’s purposes and which unleashes spiritual power in our lives is prayer. Prayer changes us and energizes us, and prepares us to see the hand of God at work in the world around us. Sometimes when we feel like we have gone all in and nothing seems to have come from it, we can be discouraged. We simply need to remember that no commitment to what God wants us to do is ever wasted, even if it takes a long time for us to see any results.

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- Long Obedience

God’s commitment to His relationship with us is long-term; in fact, His plan for our relationship began before He even created the earth and long before you and I were ever born. On our part, we also need to be thinking long-term in our relationship with God. There is no substitute for being committed to Him and what He wants us to do in this life. We may sometimes feel like we have done all we can and have not seen any results. In times like these, we might consider the story of Noah, who obeyed God’s instruction and worked on the ark for 120 years before 1 drop of rain fell from the sky.

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The Hebrew educational system had 3 levels: the first level was to read and write, using the first 5 books of the Bible, memorizing much - if not all - of the text; the 2nd level involved debating and digesting what they had read, striving to truly understand what they had learned; the 3rd and highest level was the discipleship phase, where the very best students gained the privilege of picking a rabbi that they would follow, to discover how to live out what they had learned and become like their rabbi. Christ reversed the traditional pattern by choosing the disciples He wanted to follow Him - in fact, He has chosen you as well.

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