YBC

Faith in Action Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel......whose weakness was turned to strength. Hebrews 11Faith in Action Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel......whose weakness was turned to strength. Hebrews 11

James 2:26 As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.James 2:26 As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.

Scripture: For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. So when the woman saw that the tr...ee was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate (Genesis 3:5-6a) How many times have you said or heard phrases like I’m only human or I’m just a human being as an attempt to excuse mistakes or in a half-hearted apology for something hurtful that was done. I say half-hearted because to issue such a statement is an attempt to shed some of the responsibility for one’s actions by passing it onto their status as a human being as opposed to (I guess)...a perfect being like God. In an incredibly ironic twist I have found every time someone says, I’m only human they are making an excuse for an act that was an attempt to NOT be human at all. Let me unpack this. This goes back to the garden of Eden and the story of the original sin of Adam and Eve. The tree of knowledge of good and evil had been positioned in the garden from the beginning with instructions to Adam and Eve not to eat of its fruit. Adam and Eve could see the fruit and knew before Satan came along that the fruit looked appealing and was good for food. What was it that put them over the top and made them partake of the forbidden fruit? It wasn’t until the final words of the serpent...that doing so will cause you to BE LIKE GOD that they took it and ate it. You see, original sin was a product of the first humans desiring to NO LONGER BE HUMAN. Their sin was in their desire to BE LIKE GOD and take control away from HIM. While our words may not utter the phrase, I’m trying to be God, our actions are often saying otherwise. I want to propose to you that there is a better way to understand our humanity and if we live into our humanity the way we were designed to live, then we will stop confusing our roles...namely, that God is God and I AM NOT. What if in our weakness and failures we acknowledged the truth about what we were doing in those moments. Instead of saying, I’m human..I make mistakes, we said, There I go trying to take control away from God again! Call it what it is. Sin is a lust for control...for fulfilling our own needs rather than letting God do that for us. One final illustration really drives this home for me. It comes from Philippians 2 and describes Jesus...the perfect human. As Paul describes what Jesus did in taking on human form, he makes a very precise statement saying that Jesus (though He was God)...did not consider EQUALITY with God something to be GRASPED. What image does Paul’s language conjure up for you? Is it not Eve in the gardengrasping for equality with God when she partook of the fruit? Jesus is our example. He teaches us how to truly be human in the best possible fashion. Though He was equal to God even in the flesh...He chose not to grasp after that as a human. He made the choice that Adam and Eve (and too often you and I) could not make. He accepted His humanity and taught us in the flesh how to let God truly be God in our lives. What an example! I am praying for myself and for you that we will learn from the Creator of humans how to be a better human being today...who better to teach us than the One who designed us. Grace and peace to you.

"God’s love is the most awesome thing about Him. It is not His justice, nor His majesty, nor even His blazing holiness, but the fact that He has made and keeps a covenant of personal commitment and love to His people." Sinclair Ferguson

To have God say this about you... All these people were still living by faith when they died. Hebrews 11:13aTo have God say this about you... All these people were still living by faith when they died. Hebrews 11:13a

Mike Myers, considered a pioneer in youth ministry, dies after battling pneumonia and COVID-19.

ANNOUNCING: Free Covid-19 resources to help church leaders guide their communities toward living in a place of peace. https://boonecenter.pepperdine.edu/resourc...es/ Includes a 5-part webinar series and 100%-discounted quick reference guides on topics like addiction, anxiety, marriage, parenting, sexual intimacy, and singleness. . Join us for the webinars, download the guides, and help us get the word out to other church leaders!

The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that fi...eld. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it. (Matthew 13:44-46) I’d like to take a second to go just a little bit deeper with this passage than we have perhaps allowed it to go before. There is no doubting the meaning of this passage in terms of the great value of heaven...it is truly worth all that we have. I do not challenge that meaning in any way, but I think we need to have a chat about HOW that meaning is applied. My fear with these parables is that we look at the one-time acts of the man and the merchant and we boil this down to a one-time act for ourselves...typically the moment we give our life to Christ and accept His grace and forgiveness. That is essential, of course, but when we talk about what the kingdom of heaven is like (as both of these parables refer to)...aren’t we talking about something that goes beyond a one-time act? Aren’t we looking at something we exist inside and live into? The kingdom of heaven is the place that God rules and that we long to see flourish on the earth. If that is so, maybe have been unintentionally limiting the power of these parables’ hold on our lives. I don’t want to belabor this point. Some may think I am splitting hairs. I’m probably just speaking into a tendency in my own walk to read this passage with a finite lens rather than an infinite one. The challenge for me here is to wake up every morning with a renewed sense of the value of the kingdom of heaven...to consciously make the decision to give up myself and my possessions and conduct myself in a way that illustrates to others just how valuable the kingdom of heaven is to me. They may call me crazy if I live this way...but the ones who don’t think it is crazy may just find Jesus in the process...and that would make it all worth it!

Before and after

Ron Nickell, one of the elders at Westside, shares some thoughts from 1 Corinthians 13 and John 13 on the kind of love God calls us to show to our friends, family, and community. We hope you are blessed by this time in God's Word!

As we prepare our hearts for Easter Sunday, you may appreciate Randy Harris' sessions "The Gospel in Three Days" from Harbor 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89OBQCPtBTg

The Easter story teaches us that we can be filled with joy in the midst of the chaos by turning our eyes to Jesus. We invite you to listen to this brief message of hope from our Lead Minister Bryan Fojtasek .

Here is a camp fire favorite remixed....