Following worship we will have a picnic on the grounds.  Carry in your favorite dish and drink, the church will provide the main course or you can grill what you bring.  We will have games for the children.

For more information see Traci Derkas or Pastor Bill Ashe.

Of course Jesus doesn’t need Peter to make it up to him, the whole purpose of the Cross was to pay a price we could not pay.

With the reverberations of the three denials in his head Jesus asks him three times, do you love me. The Greek words employed by Peter and Jesus say a lot more about where they are coming from than just “love”.  Roughly the “love” Jesus and Peter are talking about in the Greek is Agape and Phileo.  While I am not a scholar I would translate it roughly like this:

Peter do you love me with the full love of God, more than all others?  

            Jesus I love you like a brother.

Peter do you love me with the full love of God?  

            Jesus I love you like a brother.

Peter do you love me like a brother?  

            Jesus I love you like a brother.

Peter’s mouth wrote a lot of checks his body could not cash over his three years with Jesus.  The most glaring for this context is when he said recorded Matthew 26 and Mark 14 that he would never fall away, even if everyone else did.

In the early morning hours as Jesus was interrogated, beaten and imprisoned the world came calling for that statement and Peter’s account was sadly empty.  Is this what he was thinking as he swam to shore, as he answered Jesus’ questions with a newly found humility.  Maybe he was done making bold claims? Well he was done making bold claims about himself but when the Holy Spirit descended he gave some of the boldest and courageous testimony the world has ever known to the greatness of his Savior.

While we are on the subject of comparison, let’s look at what Paul has to say on the subject as well:

2 Corinthians 10:12-18

¹² We do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves. When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise. ¹³ We, however, will not boast beyond proper limits, but will confine our boasting to the sphere of service God himself has assigned to us, a sphere that also includes you. ¹⁴ We are not going too far in our boasting, as would be the case if we had not come to you, for we did get as far as you with the gospel of Christ. ¹⁵ Neither do we go beyond our limits by boasting of work done by others. Our hope is that, as your faith continues to grow, our sphere of activity among you will greatly expand, ¹⁶ so that we can preach the gospel in the regions beyond you. For we do not want to boast about work already done in someone else’s territory. ¹⁷ But, “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.” ¹⁸ For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends.

Here are some practical take-aways for us to employ in our Christian walk:

1. Stop comparing yourself to others.  Do you when driving down the road have the strange compulsion when you see a car to follow them to wherever they are going? Do you walk through a neighborhood and walk into other people’s homes at dinner time? No that would be crazy right? (OK I admit to doing the dinner thing through my mid-20′s)

Why do we feel the need to compare ourselves to others who are going down a different road, to a different destination.  If you were to follow them all you would succeed in doing, at best, would be to miss what you were supposed to be doing.  At worst you might get into some deep trouble!

2. Test your actions and desires in light of your walk with Jesus, your walk!  There was a time when I was consumed with scoreboards and grade books, wrapped my whole existence up in what they said about where I was in comparison to all of the others.  Now I understand God is more concerned with personal best… how can I follow God in such a way that I give God my best and in return can receive the best God has for me?

3. Be Grateful for what you have.  You will always have less than some and will always have more than some when it comes to every commodity the world has ever know.  Being thankful for whatever you have, for the daily bread is God’s way of helping us remove our eyes from the plates and storehouses of others.

4. Pleasing Jesus is all that matters.  If I serve Christ the wrong people are going to hate me and the right people are going to love me.  If I serve myself or I serve others I will please the wrong people and alienate the people God has sent to journey with me.

You will climb an avalanche but the Bible will help you ascend a rock that withstands the ages.

5 The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. 6 He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. 7 Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’ Now I have told you.”

In the middle of this exciting and world changing proclamation we find four common words with a very uncommon meaning: Come… See… Go… Tell…

Over the past two thousand years valiant efforts have been made to evangelize and share the Easter message.  However I find that the simplest ways are often the best ways and the angelic visitor has given us a very healthy pattern for sharing the good news we have found upon realizing the tomb is empty.

Invite people to come.  Come to a Bible Study, come to church, come to a missions project, come on a missions trip, come over for dinner…  A simple invitation.  I am sure you can see how this mirrors Jesus’ pattern of invitation.  It does not need to be spectacular but it needs to be authentic.   If your church or Bible study or whatever you are doing is not an authentic representation of Christ, that is of course your first order of business.  But God can help with that!

See what God is doing.  Let people experience the message.  We have a grand opportunity to be holy tour guides, just don’t be so pushy that the tourist sees only what you want to see and how you need to see it.  Let the beauty of the gospel speak for itself.  Most often it needs no commentary… funny statement for a preacher huh?

Go.  It is natural once our eyes are opened to want to just sit with Jesus and live in a holy hermetically sealed environment.  Peter wanted that on the Mount of Transfiguration.  In the days leading up to the crucifixion I believe this was the number one problem the disciples had understanding and accepting what Jesus was telling them – they did not want to let him go.  I get it, believe me I get it.  But the message compels us to go into the world led by our cherished relationship with Christ.  The adventure is out there, beyond the walls.

Tell.  If we live authentic Christian lives people will want to know what is different about us.  Tell them.  Look for opportunities to tell others.  That does not have to mean jumping all over people with statements but asking questions, finding out what they think about the world, how we got here, what is the meaning of life.  After a while they will get around to asking you your thoughts, but most people first want to know and trust you enough that you value what they have to say on such important issues.

Evangelism is the lifeblood of who we are, it is a command and a privilege presented to us by the reality of an empty tomb.  If we live in such a way that Christ is the center of who we are then it flows naturally out of who we are in Christ.  Don’t sweat it, just allow Christ to live through you and remember what the angel said to the first ones to discover the stone rolled away.

How you treat a gift says a lot about how you feel about the giver.  Every time I think about this principle my warped mind thinks back to a scene from Wayne’s World where Wayn’e stalker ex-girlfriend gave him a gun rack for his birthday.  Mike Myers facial expressions are comedic genius and tell you all you need to know about his feeling for Stacy the stalker ex.

Life itself is a gift and how we treat the life we have been given says a lot about our view of God.  In Matthew 25:14-30 Jesus illustrated how different people view God in how they handle the gifts they have been given and lays out some key life principles:

• What we have is not ours, it is a gift for a season.
• We are given what we can handle
• We are given gifts to invest them
• A day of account is coming
• Life is a use it or lose gift
• How we use our God given talents determines or trajectory on earth and destination in eternity.

Matthew 25: The Parable of the Talents

¹⁴ “Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them. ¹⁵ To one he gave five bags of gold, to another two bags, and to another one bag,each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. ¹⁶ The man who had received five bags of gold went at once and put his money to work and gained five bags more. ¹⁷ So also, the one with two bags of gold gained two more. ¹⁸But the man who had received one bag went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.

¹⁹ “After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. ²⁰ The man who had received five bags of gold brought the other five. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with five bags of gold. See, I have gained five more.’

²¹ “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’

²² “The man with two bags of gold also came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with two bags of gold; see, I have gained two more.’

²³ “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’

²⁴ “Then the man who had received one bag of gold came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. ²⁵ So I was afraid and went out and hid your gold in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.’

²⁶ “His master replied, ‘You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? ²⁷ Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.

²⁸ “‘So take the bag of gold from him and give it to the one who has ten bags. ²⁹ For whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. ³⁰ And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

So this year I am going to try to cut myself loose from that flywheel of disappointment by switching things up a little bit.  Instead of focusing so much on my abundantly obvious failings I am going to spend more time on examining the beauty of God and who I am in the Creator’s eyes.

First I know I am created in God’s image.  I know I was designed to reflect the glory of God to the world.  I am aware that I have fallen short of that in more ways that I could count or can remember.  I know the penalty for that is separation from God here and in eternity because a holy God cannot be intimate with a sinful being (for some it will come as a surprise there is more to the word intimate than sexual, there is a much fuller meaning here for us to understand and explore but a fallen mindset robs us of this beauty all too often).

I get all of that and frankly it paints a very bleak picture, one I don’t want to think about all that much.  However there is a wonderful blessing to those who are willing to face these realities full force.  This is not the end of the story.

The God who created us is also a patient, persevering God who would stop at nothing to have the relationship with us, like a good father or mother whose heart breaks when their children are far from them.

God had a plan that while we were and are in our broken, fallen condition Jesus would come to make a way for us to come home to the Father.  From this foundation we begin to see who we are and what our true value is in the eyes of the Creator.  A God who would go to such lengths to rebuild a relationship does so for a reason, to lift us beyond our fallen state and return us to what he created us to be.

“For I know the plans I have for you” says the Lord, “they are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.”

Jeremiah 29:11

My plans to do or not to do things to improve myself often fail, but God’s plan if I am willing to submit to it will not fail here or in eternity.  The stark reality is there is a lot in this fallen world which has a plan for our disaster, it is all around us and hard to miss.  God however, who is the ultimate authority, has a plan for good, a future and a hope, not a hope in what I can do, but in what God has already done, is doing and will do.  I need only relinquish my plans to his control and authority to know the benefit.

“Friends, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead.”

Philippians 3:13

So 2011 through your eyes may have been a good year or a bad one, or more than likely, both.  Let it go, watch the year in review stuff, spend some time alone remembering as you put away decorations and know you have as much ability to change the past as you would if you left your decorations up all year-long and tried to get the whole world to celebrate Christmas on the 25th of every month.  Can’t do it.

God has a lot ahead of you that is worth reaching for.  It is not to be found in your resolutions but in your resignations.  Freely resigning from the illusion of control over your life and returning that to its rightful place in the hands of the Creator God.  From there you will find a new year worth celebrating.  Still doubtful? I understand completely, but admit you have placed your faith in a lot of crazier things, why not give God the same opportunity you gave the “ab lounger”, the “snuggie”, the “miracle Amish electric heater”, the “eat only (insert here) diet” and the “four-hour work week”.  Now when you think about putting your trust in God does it feel so silly?

On New Year’s Eve we read Proverbs 3.  I would point you to this scripture passage as a great place to start your New Year.  May it be your best year ever.

Pastor Jim

The fact is they didn’t have to love me.  They very easily could have sent me packing not long after I got there.  Or the time I was arrested for illegally spotlighting deer with two guys from church.  Or when they found out I was moonlighting on my vacation working security for boxing matches in Atlantic City.  I was not like any southern Ohio preacher they had ever known and I was too ignorant to play that part if I had wanted to do so.  But for reasons God only knows they for the most part accepted me and tried to help me become the man God wanted me to be.  It was a beautiful three years that I will always cherish and the sweet spot was there because people prayed for me and loved me anyway.

That is a different love than I hear described often in society, on relationship shows, in counseling and just observing the ebb and flow of everyday life.

I love you… I need you… These words make up the heart of about half of the rock love ballads out there but is this a picture of true love? I don’t think it is.  If we only love people because we need them, because they can do something for us then instead of love aren’t we describing a selfish utilitarian attitude?

Contrast that with the fact that God IS love.  God does not love, God didn’t fall in love, it is who God is – God is love.  One step beyond that we come to realize that God loved us while we were sinners.  Sinners who have no cache, nothing to offer the eternal God, no chips to play, no favors to ask – destitute – God loves them. When we had nothing to offer.  When God had no need, nothing unfulfilled, no itch that needed scratched by humanity God loved us.

Why is this important? This is a window onto the essence of true love and how it contrasts with the way one might view love based on what we hear from others today.  Love is not based on what the object or the “loved” can do for the “lover”.  If the “loved” had nothing at all to offer, the true “lover” still loves them.  I have seen this demonstrated by people caring for people fighting addiction, battling terminal disease and through a myriad of other issues.  Conversely I have seen people walk away at the slightest sign of inconvenience.  C’est la vie? Not the way God planned it.

Be careful of those who tell you they love you because they need you.  Cautiously consider those who profess their undying love in the context of describing the things that you can do or some physical element of your being.  True love has nothing to do with that, it looks beyond score sheets, paychecks and mirrors to something that can only come from God, the realization that if I believed that this person had nothing to offer me (no matter how false that premise may be) I would still love them.  That is love.  God is love and gives us the capacity to love like that.

Prayer: Lord, teach me to love others the way you love me.  Check my spirit today and show me where I think I am loving but in reality I am using others for my own purposes.  Please show me and give me the strength to change.  Thank you for putting examples in my life of unconditional, true love and please make me into that person in the lives of others so I can reflect your true love here on earth.  Amen.

The picture for those who are interested is of a bridge about 5 miles south of where I lived in Decatur Ohio.  Just downstream was the swimming hole and on a stormy night in March of 1997 I watched with some of the other Byrd Township volunteer firemen as this 100 year old covered bridge began to yield to flood waters lapping over its sides.

This includes the praise band and also for sound and video people.

If you feel led to play in the band, or learn how to run sound or video, we can use you.

Check out the calendar or email Bill Ashe for more information.

Music, games snacks and sharing times happen every week @ Crossroads.

Check out the church announcements or email us to find out where we are meeting this week and what events are coming up on the calendar.

Plenty of events every month that offer fun and opportunities to serve others!

It is a natural part of life to strive for that which we don’t have.  The first scene of humanity is all about wanting something you can’t have.  If you need more evidence listen to the lyrics of popular music… today, the 1980′s… the 1840′s!

In Matthew 14 Jesus points the disciples toward what they do have and how what they do have can meet the need.

This week as we prepare for worship on Sunday perhaps we should focus on the phrase from the Lord’s Prayer, “give us this day our daily bread…”  We believe God will give us what we need to meet the challenges and demands of the day, prayerfully we ask God to open our eyes to where and how those needs will be met in our lives.