Jesus, the Lamb of God

The innocence of a lamb is hard to match. God choose innocence as the sacrificial exchange for guilt--your guilt and mine. Guilt is not a favorite topic for discussion in our culture today. We are quick to shift the blame even as Adam did in the Genesis record. Some are even proposing that the guilt we feel is self-induced or taught to us by our society; in other words, guilt is not a genuine spiritual reality. But, we know guilt is a genuine reality. Paul wrote to the Romans, "For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of god." (3:23) We feel guilt because we are guilty!

As far back as we can read or remember, sacrificial offerings were required by God's law because of the spiritual reality of guilt. Hebrews 9:22 tells us "without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness." Forgiveness is the byproduct of the great exchange which the innocence of Jesus makes with our guilt. all we have to do is receive the forgiveness offered to us.

Too often, we overlook God's over of forgiveness and seek out our own path to dealing with, hiding from, ignoring, or covering over our guilt. All God requires is that we acknowledge the sacrifice of Christ and run to His protection and forgiveness of our sin. It really is that simple! I want to encourage you this week to run to the cross and embrace Jesus as the Lamb of God.

Join us this week at New Life as we continue the series The Beauty of Jesus and look at Jesus as the Lamb of God. See you at the ARC at 10:15 AM on Sunday morning.

Blessings, Pastor Tom

The Beauty of Jesus in an Ugly world

Sunday, we had a great gathering focusing on the beauty of Jesus in an ugly world. If you weren't there you really missed out. You don't have to look far to uncover the ugliness of our world. Child abuse, sexual slavery, and other injustices remind us that evil is real and present in all of our lives.

Just this last week two stories caught my attention in the daily news. The first was the story of Jaycee Duggard, a young girl abducted, raped, and kept prisoner for 18 years by a husband and wife. How could a couple do this do a young girl and another family? And worse, the guy who perpetrated the heinous crime was defending himself. Also in the news was the story of a couple who basically beat their two-year-old to death. Unbelievable?! What kind of home allows such behavior? We all like to ignore it or avoid it, but the truth is -- we live in an ugly world full or hate, evil, and moral ugliness.

That's why we need the beauty of Jesus in our lives. We all like beauty. We are attracted to beauty and like to surround ourselves with beautiful people or visit beautiful places. The real beauty we seek is the moral and spiritual beauty that can only be found in a relationship with God through Christ.

The apostle John had seen this beauty in Christ Jesus. In his gospel he used the word "glory" to describe the beauty of Jesus. He wrote in John 1:14, The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only,who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. The glory of Jesus is what each of us needs to make our lives more beautiful.

For many, Jesus is beautiful because he was a great teacher. For others, he is beautiful because of influence on human history. Why is Jesus beautiful to you? I hope you will decide this week to invite the beauty of Jesus into your life. John's gospel reminds us that Jesus is beautiful because he is the savior of the world and the very image of God.

See you next week for more of the beauty of Jesus! Pastor Tom