What is a trigger or a pet peeve in your life? It may not alway present itself in a full blown public temper tantrum. Sometimes it can be more of a passive-aggressive internal seething. Or perhaps holding a deep seated grudge. However wrath may present itself in your life, it can breed bitterness. Are you willing to examine your heart in regard to wrath and bitterness and unforgiveness?
This week begins our series called "Reboot." It will be a great series to begin a new year, allowing God to move and work on you and on me from the inside out. We all know that outward changes don't typically last. But internal changes initiated by God can be transformative and life altering. Are you ready?
Today's teaching was all about the word and concept of "savior." What does "savior" mean and why does Christianity teach the need for a savior? Do we really need a savior? And if so, why? Al Hassler taught this week on the Christian doctrine of Jesus being our Savior and why his atoning sacrifice was necessary in order for us to be "saved".
Doctrine is important. It helps you know and understand what you believe and why. It is key to how you live each day, your life and your ultimate destiny. Knowing and understanding doctrine helps you "stay the course" during attacks from the culture around you. It can be key in helping you understand and combat the untruths that come at all of us from time to time. Jesus as Savior is a core doctrine of the Christian faith.
God is righteous, just and loving. He is ALL those things at the same time. This is clear throughout scripture. We are built in the image of God. Thus, within each of us is a sense of accounting for our actions. A reckoning for our actions. In addition, we all have a deep longing that justice be done when someone has violated the law or wronged is in some way.
INVITATION: Dive in this week as we look at our need for a Savior and the reasons for that. Why do you need a Savior? To be SAVED from the wrath of God. This is not a popular topic these days in some churches, yet it is deeply woven throughout all of scripture. Are you ready to find out the "why" behind this doctrine? Are you willing to consider the full "counsel" of God's word? How do you feel about God and wrath?
MONDAY: Isaiah 53:3-6: This entire chapter is a prophecy about our coming Savior. But these verses in particular refer to Jesus bearing our sins and infirmities on the cross in order to be our Savior, i.e. to save you and to save me from the wrath of God we deserve because of our sin. Jesus was pierced and crushed and punished for you and for me. By HIS wounds are we healed. God's righteousness and justice is built into the universe. Because of sin there is a need for wrath and judgment in payment for wrongs committed by you and by me. How do you feel about the need for someone to pay for your wrongs?
TUESDAY: Luke 2:10-11: Jesus was announced as the Savior of the world at the time of his birth. Israel had been waiting for this Savior for many centuries. They knew they needed a Savior and were anxious for his coming. Why do you think in our day and time we deny the need for someone to save us?
WEDNESDAY: Today's reflection is on the CS Lewis quote Al used in his teaching. Reflect on this in your prayer time today:
“The greatest barrier I have met is the almost total absence from the minds of my audience of any sense of sin... The early Christian preachers could assume in their hearers, whether Jews, Metuentes, or Pagans, a sense of guilt. (That this was common among Pagans is shown by the fact that both Epicureanism and the mystery religions both claimed, though in different ways, to assuage it.) Thus the Christian message was in those days unmistakably the Evangelium, the Good News. It promised healing to those who knew they were sick. We have to convince our hearers of the unwelcome diagnosis before we can expect them to welcome the news of the remedy.The ancient man approached God (or even the gods) as the accused person approaches his judge. For the modern man, the roles are quite reversed. He is the judge: God is in the dock [i.e. the seat in which the accused is placed in a British courtroom].
He is quite a kindly judge; if God should have a reasonable defense for being the god who permits war, poverty, and disease, he is ready to listen to it. The trial may even end in God’s acquittal. But the important thing is that man is on the bench and God is in the dock.”
― C.S. Lewis, God in the Dock: Essays on Theology and Ethics
What about you? Are you willing to own your "sickness" and bring it to the foot of the cross? How do you feel about needing a Savior?
THURSDAY: Romans 5:9: We are saved from God's wrath through the atoning death of Jesus Christ on the cross. This is the gospel. Gospel means good news. Do you feel like this is good news in your life? Have you accepted the free gift that God is offering to you? You do not have to be "good enough" or get cleaned up. Because of Jesus, you can approach the throne room of the God of the universe without shame and just as you are.
FRIDAY: Jeremiah 9:23-24: God delights in kindness, but He is also full of justice and righteousness. We are built in the image of God so this is built into us as well. We all tend to realize there is evil in the world. However, the next step is sometimes denied or buried, and often no longer taught as a fundamental foundation of the Christian faith: You are bad and deserve God's wrath and so do I. Jesus came as the SAVIOR of the world in order that we can be saved from that wrath. That, my friends, is good news! How can you focus and relish that good news today and in 2021?
It seems fitting that the last message in our series covers what many of us might consider the most important meal of all. The description of this meal by Luke recounts the events of the evening when Jesus went to the upper room during the celebration of the Passover feast to recline and eat the Passover Seder with his disciples. Many of us know this as the communion table. Some call it the Lord's Supper. Others often use the term Eucharist.
