Philippians 3:8 “More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ,”

I have boxes in my room. Some are full and some are not. I have clothes, papers, and books strewn across everything and everywhere. I need to get all of this packed up, boxed up, arranged, labeled, and removed from this room.

This room has been my home for the past few years and is full of memories. It was in this room that I first dyed my hair. It was this room that I played computer games and wrote term papers. This was the room where I started talking in chatrooms, where I learned to do my homework on my bed because my desk was full of clutter. This is the room in which I had my first couch, my first mini-fridge, my first overflow of school books. This is the room where I used to have friends over and we would watch movies and play games and sometimes even have study sessions. This is the room that is not too cluttered to do anything in.

This is just a room.

And what is the value of the stuff in my room? My stereo? My computer? My couch? My books? My coffee machines and coffee hoard? My tea set? My school books? My calculator? What is the value of all this?

Everything I have learned, everything I have done, everything I have accumulated is worthless. Now do not misunderstand me, there is intrinsic commemorative value in these things, but the worth of them is merely physical and material.

What is the worth of a soul? What is the price of a life? What is the value of knowing God? Everything I have, all my memories, all my stuff is rubbish and worthless because it does not gain me Christ.

My education, my knowledge, my learning – all this is good! These are wonderful physical and material pursuits, yet Christ is so much more worthy to pursue! The pursuit of Christ requires a loss of everything else. Compared to the glory and brightness of Him, everything we consider valuable is merely dross

Things are just things, but Christ is eternal. I shall miss this room. I shall feel a sense of loss when I give away my couch; yet still I have Christ, yet still God is Lord of All. My tattered and broken couch is just refuse compared to the loving and comfortable arms of God. I leave this place, but with me goes something so much better, so much more!

With me goes Christ my Savior and my God, and everything I have learned about Him.

All to Jesus I surrender;
humbly at his feet I bow,
worldly pleasures all forsaken;
take me, Jesus, take me now.

Mark 10:16 “And He took them in His arms and began blessing them, laying His hands on them.”

Jesus blesséd son of God loved children. Frequently they were an object lesson of His, often He would play with them, He would weep for them, He would heal them.

Christ our savior asks us to come as children before Him. 1 Thessalonians 5:5a “for you are all sons of light and sons of day” We are the children of God and He enfolds us in His mighty arms daily. He guides and leads us with those resilient arms. He wipes away all tears and embraces us in His tender arms. His strong arms carry us in the toughest of times, as His feet take the rocks and thorns that would otherwise pierce ours.

Christ takes his hands and blesses us. He gives us gifts and He chastises us. He holds our hands, and His hands form and mold the clay of our lives. His Hands give healing and his hands mend our broken and contrite souls. At the same time his hands break us of everything that holds us to the earth. His terrifying hands strip us of all that we hold dear, but make us unworthy. His hands judge and His hands dispense mercy (Hebrews 10:31).

All this He does for our sake, even though we are unworthy. God’s arms are always there, even when we do not notice them. Christ’s compassionate hands are always upholding us even when we do not ask for them. His vastness is used to aid us. All we need do is seek Him.

Christ the Savior of all, God the Creator of all loves us, His children. He plays with us, He weeps with us, He heals us, He punishes us, He tends us, He carries us. We are gently cradled in the arms of our loving God.

Children of the heavenly Father
Safely in His bossom gather;
Nestling bird nor star in heaven
Such a refuge e'er was given.

God His own doth tend and nourish,
In His holy love they flourish;
From all evil things He spares them,
In His mighty arms He bears them.

Jeremiah 10:23 “I know, O LORD, that a man's way is not in himself, Nor is it in a man who walks to direct his steps.”

The smooth stone moves ponderously down the ice. In front of this massive beast, a team of broomsmen sweep the ice in an effort to maintain the momentum of the rock. This is a northern sport known as “curling” and it is practiced even in the winter Olympics.

Daily life is replete with examples of God and how He works; sports is merely one example. People will often look at God and see the sport of curling. We are a thrown rock and God is there to sweep aside the snow and ice to help make our way the best it can be. This, however, is wrong.

God wants control of our lives and God desires our fellowship. As long as we try and be in control of our own life, follow our own plans, and make our own way (with the assistance of God) God will let us do so! However God has a better plan. He knows everything and knows the best way for us.

In the sports analogy, life with God is closer to a pinball. God is the player and we are the ball. He uses his paddles to change our course of travel to attain the highest score, the highest glory to Himself possible. We have to let God have complete control of our life. When we do so, our plans will unravel. No longer will we have everything under control. No longer will we seem to have a grasp on events, rather we ride the tide and have to trust that God knows what He is doing.

We as Christians so often think that God will be there to get us out of problems or to help us make sense of our world when rather the opposite is true! Now I do not say that God puts us into problems, rather He must straighten us out and remove the knots in our lives, much like one knitting a sweater when a kitten has gotten into the yarn basket - and we are the yarn.

When God is in control, we no longer have access to the course map that is our guide. He has control of where we go and how we go. Like the little pinball, we can only see so much of our path, so much of our surroundings. God is the player who sees the entire board!

Our God has promised that He will take us where we need to go and will guide us to the very end! (Psalm 48:14 )

Is God in control? Really? Do we try and have some sort of directional control of our lives? Are our plans changeable should they not be the same as God’s? Do we try and stick to our plans when those plans of God contradict ours?

Guide us Lord into your truth. Take our lives and move them where you desire.

The Lord is my driver,

I shall not be lost

He takes me on the dusty backroads

He directs my gaze to the sights

He restores my soul.

He has the map and the directions

For our route he directs.

1 Corinthians 15:14-15 “and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain. Moreover we are even found to be false witnesses of God, because we testified against God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise, if in fact the dead are not raised.”

An English explorer, Wilkinson was excavating a mummy pit in Egypt when he discovered a tightly sealed vase. Inside he discovered a few old, wrinkled, hard peas. Carefully, these peas were planted under a glass and were tended. 30 days later, the peas had sprouted! These peas had slept in this dust-ridden tomb for nearly 3,000 years and still they lived. This is quite an example of our lives. Our mortal body, sin-ridden and sundered from God can be and has been revived into new spiritual life. “Because He lives, we too shall live.”

Christ’s resurrection is the central tenant of our relationship with God. If Christ had never lived, everything we believe is false. If Christ lived and died as a normal man, everything we believe is false. If Christ lived, the son of God, but died and was not resurrected under His own (and God’s) power then everything we believe is false.

Fortunately Christ rose from the dead, and this has been recorded for us by the apostles and believers of the time who witnessed His resurrected body! There is no body and there are no bones in the sepulcher which held Him for those interminable three days.

The story is told of a missionary preaching in a bazaar in a village in Northern India. While he was closing, an elderly Muslim gentleman approached him and said, “You must admit we have one thing you have not, and it is better than anything you have."

The missionary merely smiled and responded "I should be pleased to hear what it is."

To which the Muslim replied, "You know when we go to Mecca we at least find a coffin. But when you Christians go to Jerusalem, which is your Mecca, you find nothing but an empty grave."

Again, the missionary merely smiled and then said, "That is just the difference. Mohammed is dead; Mohammed is in the coffin. And false systems of religion and philosophy are in their coffins, but Jesus Christ, whose kingdom is to include all nations and kindreds and tribes, is not here; He is risen. And all power in heaven and on earth is given unto Him. That is our hope."

All power in Heaven and on Earth is Christ’s and He uses it to help us! He has cleansed us of all unrighteousness and purified us no matter our faults, our sins, our problems. He loved us, died for us, and rose again for us!

Because He lives, we too shall live!

May we bless the Lord with everything and in everything that we do. May we show His love and compassion to everyone we meet. May we do our utmost to live as Christ desires us too – not because we must but rather because we want too!.

Because He lives.

John 11:51-52 “Now he did not say this on his own initiative, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but in order that He might also gather together into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.”

There is a prophecy that people never hear much about. Oh certainly the prophecies from Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, and Ezekiel about the coming savior are known and taught about, but what about the prophecy by the very man who condemned Christ? No, not Pontius Pilot (who was warned by his wife, but that is another topic) rather I mean Caiaphas, the High Priest.

Caiaphas prophesied that Jesus (whom he prophesied about by name) of Nazareth would die to prevent Israel from perishing (literally “apollumi” used in this case metaphorically to devote or give over to eternal misery in hell). Israel, as well as the whole world’s death would occur if Jesus of Nazareth was not killed. Jesus would bring about the salvation of Israel! Caiaphas prophesied this! However he and the rest of the priests did not understand the prophecy fully. They understood that Jesus physical death would prevent the Romans from destroying the remaining tribes of Israel, yet they did not understand that this was more than physical, this was also spiritual. Jesus death would unite the entire world under God! They did not match up this prophecy to those by Isaiah about the Emmanuel. They did not think in spiritual terms because they were too entrenched in the physical, materialistic world!

These highly trained theologians did not understand fully the interlinking of the physical world to the spiritual realm, we can not fault them for this since we too do not completely understand this. The fullness of the dealings between angels and demons, God and Lucifer effect the dealings of man directly, and yet the actions of we humans also effect the spiritual realm!. Proof of this is Job, God and Satan made a bet, Satan did what he could to turn Job, and Job’s faith in God made Satan have to rethink his entire dealings and change the terms!.

The Priests and holy leaders of Christ’s time say God as reactive to man, not proactive! We too often times see Christ as reacting to us and our needs rather than being proactive and already having a plan, already having decided the course that needs to be traveled to best assist us in his inimitable and unlimited knowledge. Yet all we see are the results of His pre-planning, and thus we invariably star to think of God as a reactive force.

Christ Died so that we may have life eternal, all we need is faith. Christ paid the cost that He had knew that He would have to pay at the formation of the world!

How do we change our view of God? Simply through prayer and faith. Hans Urs von Balthasar wrote "Faith is a movement of the entire person away from himself, through the gift of grace; thereby he lays hold of the mercy of God given to him in Christ--in the form of the forgiveness of sins, justification, and sanctification.” Let us therefore claim this great gift that God has offered us. Let us respond to God and in doing so we are gathered together in His name and that of His son, Christ Jesus!

Now thank we all our God with hearts and hands and voices,
Who wondrous things hath done, in whom His world rejoices;
Who from our mothers' arms hath blessed us on our way
With countless gifts of love, and still is ours today.