God gives us the freedom to accept or reject what he says is true. But with that freedom also comes a responsibility to recognize the consequences of the choice we make - either to believe what he has spoken to us through his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, or to ignore, reject, and chose our own way apart from God. Our choices will either lead us on the path of abundant life and union with God, or the path that leads to spiritual death and separation from God. Love the Lord, cling to him, and you will have life God issued a choice and a challenge to the people of the Old Covenant: "See I have set before you this day life and good, death and evil. ...I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse; therefore choose life, that you may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice, and cleaving to him" (Deuteronomy 30:15-20). And God issues the same challenge to the people of the New Covenant today. Do you weigh the consequences of your choices? Do the choices you make lead you towards life or death - blessing or cursing? If you choose to obey God's voice and to do his will, then you will know and experience that abundant life which comes from God himself. If you choose to follow your own way apart from God and his will, then you choose for death – a spiritual death which poisons and kills the heart and soul until there is nothing left but an empty person devoid of love, truth, goodness, purity, peace, and joy. Do your choices lead you towards God or away from God?

Prayer

"Lord Jesus Christ, let your Holy Spirit fill me and transform my heart and mind that I may choose life - the abundant life you offer to those who trust in you. Give me courage to always choose what is good, true, and just and to reject whatever is false, foolish, and contrary to your holy will."

God gives us the freedom to accept or reject what he says is true. But with that freedom also comes a responsibility to recognize the consequences of the choice we make - either to believe what he has spoken to us through his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, or to ignore, reject, and chose our own way apart from God. Our choices will either lead us on the path of abundant life and union with God, or the path that leads to spiritual death and separation from God. Love the Lord, cling to him, and you will have life God issued a choice and a challenge to the people of the Old Covenant: "See I have set before you this day life and good, death and evil. ...I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse; therefore choose life, that you may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice, and cleaving to him" (Deuteronomy 30:15-20). And God issues the same challenge to the people of the New Covenant today. Do you weigh the consequences of your choices? Do the choices you make lead you towards life or death - blessing or cursing? If you choose to obey God's voice and to do his will, then you will know and experience that abundant life which comes from God himself. If you choose to follow your own way apart from God and his will, then you choose for death – a spiritual death which poisons and kills the heart and soul until there is nothing left but an empty person devoid of love, truth, goodness, purity, peace, and joy. Do your choices lead you towards God or away from God?

Prayer

"Lord Jesus Christ, let your Holy Spirit fill me and transform my heart and mind that I may choose life - the abundant life you offer to those who trust in you. Give me courage to always choose what is good, true, and just and to reject whatever is false, foolish, and contrary to your holy will."

God gives us the freedom 

to choose whom and what we will love.

Jesus shows us the paradox of love and judgment. 

We can love the darkness of sin and unbelief 

or we can love the light of God's truth, goodness, and beauty. 

If our love is guided by what is true, and good, and beautiful 

then we will choose for God and love him above all else. 

What we love shows what we prefer and value most. 

Do you love God above all else? 

Does he take first place in your life, 

in your thoughts, affections, and actions

God gives us the freedom 

to choose whom and what we will love.

Jesus shows us the paradox of love and judgment. 

We can love the darkness of sin and unbelief 

or we can love the light of God's truth, goodness, and beauty. 

If our love is guided by what is true, and good, and beautiful 

then we will choose for God and love him above all else. 

What we love shows what we prefer and value most. 

Do you love God above all else? 

Does he take first place in your life, 

in your thoughts, affections, and actions

And this is the verdict, that the light came into the world, but people preferred darkness to light, because their works were evil. John 3:19

What a strange thing to be so true.  God the Father sent the Son into the world to be Light for us all.  He is the Light that dispels all darkness.  But, according to the Gospel above, “people preferred darkness to light.”  They preferred their own sins to freedom from sin.  Why is that?

As an example of this reality, all we have to do is watch the news or read the newspaper.  It seems that 90% of what is reported in the news media is a sensationalistic presentation of darkness.  We hear of one murder after another or one scandal after another.  Why does the media focus upon this so much?  Because it’s what sells.  And why does it sell?  Because we too often are drawn to darkness more than we are to light.

Certainly that is not the case for everyone.  So many are quite disinterested in the darkness of the world and the sensationalistic sins all around us.  But the fact that the darkness of evil is so front and center all the time should offer us a certain warning about our fallen human nature.  We tend to be drawn into mud and too often are all too happy there.

Easter is a time to examine what it is you are drawn to.  Do you let yourself be drawn into the Light?  Are you attracted by those things that brighten your day?  Are you drawn to the many ways that God is present and active in the world all around you?  Hopefully you are.  But there is most likely some degree of pull toward disorder, sin and darkness.  There can be an interior conflict that everyone experiences.  It’s good to be aware of this, to identify it as part of our fallen human tendency, and to seek to shed all interest in the chaos and evil all around us.

As a follower of Christ, we are called to keep our eyes on Him and on Him alone.  We are called to penetrate the darkness with our faith and to let our whole being be attracted to and drawn toward Christ Jesus.  Perfection means that even our passions and desires are ultimately drawn to Christ as the Light of our life.

Reflect, today, upon that which you are drawn toward the most.  Commit yourself to the Light this Easter Season.  Move your eyes from the temptation to become drawn in and fascinated by the evil around us, to the joyful vision of our Resurrected Lord alive and at work all around us.  Let this Light guide your daily life.

Lord, help me to live in the light.  Help me to keep my eyes firmly focused upon the glory of Your Resurrection.  May the joy of that gaze keep me from the countless distractions of evil all around me.  Jesus, I trust in You.

And this is the verdict, that the light came into the world, but people preferred darkness to light, because their works were evil. John 3:19

What a strange thing to be so true.  God the Father sent the Son into the world to be Light for us all.  He is the Light that dispels all darkness.  But, according to the Gospel above, “people preferred darkness to light.”  They preferred their own sins to freedom from sin.  Why is that?

As an example of this reality, all we have to do is watch the news or read the newspaper.  It seems that 90% of what is reported in the news media is a sensationalistic presentation of darkness.  We hear of one murder after another or one scandal after another.  Why does the media focus upon this so much?  Because it’s what sells.  And why does it sell?  Because we too often are drawn to darkness more than we are to light.

Certainly that is not the case for everyone.  So many are quite disinterested in the darkness of the world and the sensationalistic sins all around us.  But the fact that the darkness of evil is so front and center all the time should offer us a certain warning about our fallen human nature.  We tend to be drawn into mud and too often are all too happy there.

Easter is a time to examine what it is you are drawn to.  Do you let yourself be drawn into the Light?  Are you attracted by those things that brighten your day?  Are you drawn to the many ways that God is present and active in the world all around you?  Hopefully you are.  But there is most likely some degree of pull toward disorder, sin and darkness.  There can be an interior conflict that everyone experiences.  It’s good to be aware of this, to identify it as part of our fallen human tendency, and to seek to shed all interest in the chaos and evil all around us.

As a follower of Christ, we are called to keep our eyes on Him and on Him alone.  We are called to penetrate the darkness with our faith and to let our whole being be attracted to and drawn toward Christ Jesus.  Perfection means that even our passions and desires are ultimately drawn to Christ as the Light of our life.

Reflect, today, upon that which you are drawn toward the most.  Commit yourself to the Light this Easter Season.  Move your eyes from the temptation to become drawn in and fascinated by the evil around us, to the joyful vision of our Resurrected Lord alive and at work all around us.  Let this Light guide your daily life.

Lord, help me to live in the light.  Help me to keep my eyes firmly focused upon the glory of Your Resurrection.  May the joy of that gaze keep me from the countless distractions of evil all around me.  Jesus, I trust in You.

The world is not divided into sinners and saints, 

but repentant and unrepentant sinners. 

The prerequisite for joining the family of God 

isn’t to clean yourself up, 

but to allow Jesus to clean you up. 

That means turning from sins, 

not clinging to them.

Jesus Himself told the Pharisees

He’d come to call sinners, 

not the righteous, to repentance. 

He wasn’t saying the Pharisees were righteous, 

but that only those who knew they were sinners 

could receive the gift of repentance and forgiveness.

Those who won’t repent, refuse the gift. 

To simply try to love people into the Kingdom 

without truth isn’t love at all, 

it’s sentimentality. 

The truth remains that sinful acts are sinful. 

They twist God’s created design. 

All who come to Christ for cleansing 

must be willing to repent. 

And all who repent are embraced by Christ, 

and then ought to be embraced by the church, 

including at His table 

and in His sacraments. 

But only after repentance, not before.