Ever wonder why more than one?

Ever wonder why more than one?

I mean think of it when God created the heavens, the Earth, Krispy Kream, tater tots, and man (one) why didn’t He stop there? Think about it, what problems he could have avoided! There would be no traffic jams, in-law troubles, no blame games, no toilet-seat disputes, no told-you-so’s or any other multiple human stuff. In one undone act, God could have very well done away with court systems, prisons, and even the IRS. Why didn’t He?

Think about all the trouble it would have saved God. No long nights with no sleep staying up listening to prayers of people asking for help in their relationships. No intervention in the soon to be broken marriages. No pain and disappointment associated by people hating people. And the pinnacle would be no cross. That’s right, no cross. If it were just Adam, Jesus could have come in the form of a UFC fighter and whooped the bad right out of one guy, right? God could have daily kept up with Adam and made him do that which is right. But God didn’t just leave this earth with one human inhabitant.

What did God see that made Him know that there could never be just one? God saw us. He saw you and me. Ever heard of love at first sight? Well, God has penned the idea of love before sight. He told the Prophet Jeremiah that he knew him before he was in his mothers womb and he loved him. BEFORE he was, God loved Jeremiah. BEFORE we were, God loved us. God loved us enough that He is willing to endure the pain and hardship to be near us. He is willing to endure the cross so we can cross over to Him. God’s love was way to large too be limited to just one. God so loved us….that He gave.

So what does God want us to do with each other? Love like Him. Love each other like God. How can we do that you ask? Know the love God has for you. That is where it starts. It starts with us understanding God’s love for us. When we do that, we are then able to love others. The old Apostle John told us like this: We love BECAUSE He first loved us. (1 John 4:19). It seems that the reservoir of God’s love for us feeds the streams of our love for others. You ARE loved so you CAN love.

So why more than one? Well one reason is that there is no love where there is only one. Only in relationship and community can we be loved and love in return. Limit the number to one and limit the potential for love. The Bible tells us for certain God is Love. How could a God that is love not want to share that love and watch it multiply.

The foundation of all friendships is Love. This weekend we will begin looking at the love it will take to help your life be filled with friends. See you this weekend!

The cost of loving just went up...

It has been said that love doesn’t come cheap. That is a true statement! Love isn’t free, or cheap. The Bible tells us that God demonstrated His great love for us in that while we were sinners Christ died for us (see Romans 5:8). Love is demonstrated, active, expensive. With love there is risk. The greater the risk the greater the love’s potential. Risk, loss and cost are all three associated with great love. Jesus told us that no greater love can any man demonstrate than his willingness to lay down His life for His friends. The casual reader would say “that’s true!” and not even realize that there has only been one person who was able to fulfill that statement. I know some will say that about the person who charged into the fire to save another, or the soldier who dove on the hand grenade. All of these are acts of love true enough but only Jesus was able to “lay down” His life. Jesus didn’t have to die, He was without sin, perfect, and could live forever as a man. The firefighter, and the soldier died EARLY. Jesus died willingly.
Jesus demonstrated great, expensive, extravagant love. Why demonstrate? So we could see how it is done. What do you have to give that no one else can give? You might say “nothing”, that isn’t true. If you are a dad, you are the only biological dad your child has, only you can give your child the gift of a loving father that God intended your child to have. If you’re a coworker, you are the only worker at your business that is like you, your presence there is exclusive and individual, how can you be a presence at work that will demonstrate the love God has for your coworkers? Who are you best friends with? You are the only best friend with that person that is exactly like you. How are you demonstrating God’s love to your best friend? Do you see? You hold exclusive rights to being YOU. Give yourself as Christ demonstrated- so the world might know the love God has for them.

"Jesus is trying to KILL me!"

Crazy idea huh? But true. God has designed a life for us that can only be entered into by our death. This death isn’t physical so much as it is actual. God desires a presence in us that is surrendered and completely His. Our future in Jesus is traveled into through the passage of death and burial. It is no coincidence that the very picture of Baptism is a picture of death for the most part. Think of it, Baptism represents three distinct aspects; death, burial, and resurrection. Call us optimistic but we tend to focus on the last more than all the others. We want resurrection, and new life, but God lets us know that the passage is marked by our own death. Two thirds of Baptism focus on topics that we tend to run from. Could it be that we have in our haste jumped the “little detail” of death in an attempt to take hold of something that is out of reach for the living? Could it be that many of us are not living in the fullness of God’s grace because we haven’t truly “taken hold of that which took hold of us?” Could it be that we are living in ourselves with the God “additive”? God will not accept squatter’s rights on that which He alone owns. Paul said it this way “Do you not know that you do not belong to yourselves but you belong to another who paid a very high price for you?” Jesus let us know that to follow Him we will have to take up our execution chamber (our cross) and die then and only then will be useful. “If any man come after me must take up his cross daily and follow me.” (Jesus) It is kind of funny and kind of sad that we tend to think of the things we aren’t doing like Bible study, prayer, or sinless living as “our cross”. But in reality Jesus intended for us to understand that the journey with Him begins with our death to self. Jesus doesn’t want to “reform” your soul He desires to resurrect you. God doesn’t come to take part, but to take over. “If any man clings to his life he will lose it, but if he will loose his life for my sake he will gain it.”

What do we want to be known for?

We could be known for lots of reasons, but what should Mercy's Cross Church be known for? What activities or attributes should define us? Who, what, or how, are all words we could use to question how we present ourselves to people. How about generous, caring, or compassionate. What would we most like to be known for?

Murder, Violence, Destruction...

How far will we fall? We have killings on our campuses, we have shootings in our high schools, and we even have kids killing kids on our play grounds. The debate is raging on how to provide more security, gun control, and even arming other kids to protect them. I want to ask one question…What has changed? In our society, in our communities, and in our homes what has changed? These violent acts did not happen in a vacuum. What was the catalyst? It isn’t that guns are more readily available, we have always had guns. It isn’t that we now have violent movies, we have always had violent movies. It isn’t that our kids no longer have great homes, there have always been cruddy families, and awful homes. So what is the difference? Journey with me to another time and another place and lets see what the real issues are…

Mankind without God will always follow a predictable path. Every society since the beginning has had the same plight and flight plan. God gives us the account in the book of Genesis where the first flight from God took off…

5 The LORD saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. 6 The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. NIV Genesis 6:5-6


It all begins with the heart issue. It always does. Our hearts are deceptive, wicked, and desire to do exactly what they want which is usually the opposite of what God wants. “every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil.” Our thoughts reveal our heart. Our heart dictates our world view. Our world view dictates our behavior. Early man had a heart disease that is known in the Bible as sin. Sin if allowed will weave its tentacles around our lives until a firm grip is had then it will squeeze and press all hopes of life from its victim.


11 Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight and was full of violence. Genesis 6:11 NIV

The story has progressed. Man has now devolved from thoughts to actions. His heart has dictated his life. What he thought of in verse 5 now he is living in verse 11. Violence is always the result of a corrupt heart. Wayward thoughts if left unchecked will result in wayword actions.

So what does that have to do with us? In Genesis it begins with corrupt thoughts, corrupt hearts, minds far from God. Later those corrupt thoughts lead to corrupt deeds, volence against humanity. Then what you ask?

Genesis 7:23
23 Every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out; men and animals and the creatures that move along the ground and the birds of the air were wiped from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those with him in the ark. NIV

The results of the path of sin was destruction. Everything was lost. Today if you were to track the demise of every empire, every kingdom, and every nation of our past you will find the same pattern. The gauntlet begins with God being left out of our economy, and our thoughts shifting from the things above to the things below, then our corrupt thoughts give birth to corrupt behavior, and in due course destruction comes. This is exactly what God said:

14 Temptation comes from the lure of our own evil desires. 15 These evil desires lead to evil actions, and evil actions lead to death. James 1:14-16 NLT

So what does this have to do with the killings recently? Everything.

We are in the very throws of the demise of our community as we know it. Evil desires and thoughts have given way to evil actions and violence in our community. These are the death rattles of a society. Don’t kid yourself apart from the God our end is in sight.


What can we do?
Pray…Prayer evokes the attention and focus of the only One who can do anything about the hearts of man, Jesus.

Take Responsibility…The issue isn’t going to be fixed because of gun control, security, or even metal detectors. The problem is that we as God’s representatives have not done a good job of selling the world on Jesus. This problem is squarely on the door step of the Church. Don’t just stand there, do something! Tell them about HIM! LIVE IT! GET INVOLVED!

Commit…Commit to the life changing work of Jesus through His favorite tool the Church. Changed lives, is the answer. Lives change here at MCC. Bring them in!

Take a second and read what Jesus had to say about the end…

Luke 17:26-27
26 "When the Son of Man returns, the world will be like the people were in Noah's day. 27 In those days before the flood, the people enjoyed banquets and parties and weddings right up to the time Noah entered his boat and the flood came to destroy them all. NLT

Mom for a day...

I don’t know what I was thinking! I guess I got caught up in the moment planning our new message series (Trading Spaces) and lost my mind. It seemed like a good idea to take Stacey’s place for a day (my wife), but now I am having second thoughts. She gets up so early and stays up late and never stops! My usual agenda is watching the latest Dirty Jobs or Myth busters. What even makes it worse is that it is going to be filmed! We will air the video on Mother’s Day (that should be a real embarrassment) . Holy cow I am not ready to be a mom! Pray for me.

Hippity, Hoppity...well its over now.

I must admit as I type with a Christian hangover from four Easter services, I am both tired and happy! Easter was more successful than we could have ever imagined. Let me give you a snap shot of our Easter…It began Thursday night at Celebrate Recovery with 142 people gathering to find answers to life’s difficult problems. Then 0n Friday night the Children’s Center played host to an outreach that was led by the Children themselves, they were challenged to bring their friends and they did! 175 children and adults packed the Children’s Center to worship, and learn about the Easter story. Saturday morning found 74 kids and adults in the preschool center hunting Easter eggs and discussing the resurrection. Then Saturday night, twice Sunday morning, and Monday night Mercy’s Cross Church campus was filled with people coming to hear about Jesus, 991 total for our Easter services. So if you look at the numbers I would say that Easter was a success! 1382 people.