Easter Invite

Spread the Joy Around

Malachi 4:2

Have you ever actually watched a cavorting calf? You’d probably think you were witnessing the worst possible case of bovine ADD. Human children act similarly. Position yourself outside an elementary school just before the day’s final bell. Whether a child has to traverse ten feet to queue up for a bus or ten blocks to burst into her door, you can’t fail to miss a common behavior: They run.

When was the last time you leaped? Don’t count the day you were in range of an automatic sprinkler system just chugging into action. When did you dance like Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof or like King David upon the return of the ark of the covenant to Jerusalem (see 2Sa 6:14–15)?

In Psalm 28:7 David asserts: “My heart leaps for joy and with my song I praise [God].” That inner jubilation works well for some of us, but we can’t all see ourselves physically leaping. Our hearts, though, alive in Christ and inspired by joy, can bound and jump.

Preacher and writer Oswald Chambers (1874–1917) knew the joy of being right with God:

No language can express the ineffable blessedness of the supreme reward that awaits the soul that has taken its supreme climb, proved its supreme love, and entered on its supreme reward. What an imperturbable certainty there is about the man who is in contact with the real God! Thank God, the life of the Father of the Faithful is but a specimen of the life of every humble believer who obediently follows the discipline of the life of faith. What a depth of transparent rightness there must be about the man who walks before God, and the meaning of the Atonement is to place us there in perfect adjustment to God. “[Walk before me and be blameless (see Ge 17:1)],” not faultless, but blameless, undeserving of censure in the eyes of God.

Chambers concedes that no language can adequately describe such euphoria, but he doesn’t suggest that we hold back in expressing ourselves in whatever way is appropriate. Are you the “let it all hang out” type, immune to easy embarrassment? Do you gravitate like a moth toward the limelight, or are you continuously aware in a public setting of the impression you’re making—or not making, if your goal is anonymity?

The fact is that it doesn't matter. As Christians, we revere God’s name. And we’ve been healed and forgiven. When God looks at each of us, washed in the cleansing blood of Christ, he sees something incredible—absolute perfection! We've been “released.” How can any of us consider keeping such news to ourselves?

Think About It

• When you think about what God has done for you, what is the first emotion you feel?

• How does your rightness before God allow you to experience joy?

• Who needs to hear about this joy of yours?

Act on It

Someone out there needs the kind of joy that you as a Christian experience. Share that joy with someone.

Personal Development: Dependence on God

READ JOHN 11:1–44

No leader can model faith in God until he or she has developed a consistent dependence on God. Once that faith is established, opportunities will arise when others can’t help but see it. For instance, before Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead he prayed, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me” (John 11:42).

Jesus’ faith in his Father was exercised in a way that demonstrated the power of God in a seemingly hopeless situation. This was faith in the midst of illness, death and deep despair. As leaders we want to cultivate the kind of dependence on God that others can see in real-life situations. Such a faith is not cultivated during a crisis, but before a crisis. It’s developed during routine days. And the leader who cultivates such a faith will provide a role model of steadfast dependence on God that no follower will forget.

Is your faith in God such that others see him working through you on routine and non-routine days? What one thing could you do each day to cultivate your dependence on God and demonstrate that dependence so others will see an example they could follow? Jesus knew that faith in God was the basis for strength and hope in the midst of despair. That same hope is available to you, through the Spirit, today in whatever situation you may face.

Dependence on God and Who God Is 

Jeremiah’s dependence upon God got him in plenty of hot water with the leadership of Israel. He stuck to his prophecy, however, trusting God to bring about what he had promised. Israel’s top advisors, however, were rewarded for telling their benefactors what they wanted to hear. Jeremiah knew better than to please earthly leaders and ignore the One true Leader. Read a portion of his story in Jeremiah 23:16–22.

Dependence on God and Who I Am

How can anyone who clearly understands reality think he can make better decisions than God? Good question, but the Bible is full of accounts of people who thought just that. Read Genesis 2:4—3:24 and meet a man who clearly understood reality but still depended on personal choice over God’s will. As you do, consider times when you have done the same thing. Has the outcome been positive or negative?

Dependence on God and How It Works

How could anyone trust his or her own instincts when those instincts violate God’s instructions? Let’s take a closer look at the deceiver and his tactics before we start feeling morally superior to Eve. You and I will be lured away from depending on God just as surely as Adam and Eve were lured away. But we have an advantage over them—they couldn't learn from their mistake until they made it. We can. Let’s turn to Genesis 3:1–6 and do just that.

Dependence on God and What I Do

There is nothing like a good, clear, crisp statement to clarify things. God gives us just that kind of statement about depending on him. Proverbs 3:5–6 deserves the leader’s closest examination. You owe it to yourself, and to those who depend on your leadership, to decide upon whom you depend.

Passage to memorize this week:

NAHUM 1:7 The LORD is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in him.

Love Me For Me?

"Who will love me for me? 
Not for what I have done or what I will become

Who will love me for me?

'Cause nobody has shown me what love, what love really means" 

(Love Me- JJ Heller)

Isn't the world asking this exact question? Our world is one where everyone wants something in exchange. Something to buy their love and devotion, and yet they always end up even more emptier, in the end than they were in the beginning, to start with. "Who will love me for me?", they cry, in the end of their fruitless pursuits.

Our Father said to be His hands and His feet, here on earth. God has the love. He gave it to us. Now our desire should be to pass it on. To share this love. "How?", you could ask. Many do. Am I right?


Well, here is an example: A man is looking for God. He is desperate and lost. He has the idea to look on the phone book and see which church is closest to him. (After all, church is where God is found, right?) He picks up the phone and call the church to find out what time is someone available to talk to him and what time the service starts. No one is there and so he leaves a message. My suggestion, in this case, return the phone call! 


Don't let another day go by! For that man needs to hear the word of God. Sometimes, all one person really needs is to know that someone else cares to them. To hear them out, to be sad with them, to lift them up with a corny joke. To be their friend. By being that, we are being the "hands and the feet" of God here, on earth. We are turning "Printed Words" into "Living Words"! 

Maybe, you haven't spoken to a friend in a long time. Don't wait until he/she calls you in their time of need. Pick up the phone & call them. Maybe, just maybe, that is exactly the moment that they need you the most & you can be used for God's glory. And, through you, He can say: 

" I will love you for you

Not for what you have done or what you will become

I will love you for you

I will give you the love 

The love that you never knew"

  Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.

1 John 4:7

 Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses.

Proverbs 10:12