Monday Morning Musings ...

Easter Sunday is always good and yesterday was a good day. I love preaching on Easter, I mean how can you mess that up? We had many people gone, our spring break began on Friday, so many were elsewhere, but many others came and we had a lot of great visitors.

My wife filled in for one of those absentees and led worship. She always does a good job and leads with a great spirit. One of our youth sang a special song and really ministered as she sang. I love when our youth or children get up front.

My message answered the question "Who Cares?" I tied into the series on lies we believe and used the Easter story to answer the question. Used a hilarious video (that not many people laughed at) to intro the message. It showed a couple inviting an unchurched neighbor to join them in worship for Easter. We looked hard at the fact that many in our culture believe the lie that "No one cares" about them. The facts of Easter say just the opposite, Jesus endured a horrific beating and humiliation and then death on a cross just for us. He didn't deserve any of that, but our sins needed to be accounted for, so Jesus took our place. That is a loud and clear statement of love and care. The empty cross and tomb shout that he cares.

When we believe the lie that no one cares it leads to really poor choices in our lives. We make poor choices in relationships and jump toward anyone who claims they care, or will accept us. Even though we learn that many of them are just using us, we still stay in the relationship. We are willing to compromise our beliefs in hopes that some will care about us if care about their cause. We isolate ourselves trying to limit our hurts and lob criticism at nearly everyone from a distance because we believe they don't care. Of course these decision make it difficult for people to show us they care.

The truth is we are loved, we are forgiven and Jesus is alive! The message of Easter screams that we are cared for, no matter what we believe. I used a great video that declares some common thoughts when we believe the lie and then literally reverses the statements to show that we are loved and cared for. There were at least 2 who made decisions to accept Christ as their Savior! That is what it is all about, and made for a great day.

My wife and I were invited to a lunch with a fairly new family in our church. It was a great time of fellowship and great food. The rest of the afternoon was spent napping. That was a wonderful change of pace for me.

He is risen, He is risen indeed!

P.S. My fantasy baseball season began last night, that was the topping on the day.