Ashes to Fire (A) – Wednesday-Easter-Week1

Thank you for joining us on a spiritual journey from “Ashes to Fire,” from Ash Wednesday to Pentecost Sunday. We would love to have you join us for worship this week! Click here to discover our location & service times!

Our Scripture readings for the Wednesday of Easter Week 1, can be read here. Please take some time to read these passages and then meditate on the following questions. Then talk to God about what the Bible is teaching you.

“The heavens proclaim his righteousness; and all the peoples behold his glory.” – Psalm 97:6

sildenafil 50mg tablets Let us move further to know more in this regard, talk to your doctor. The absolute measure to enhance your durability depends upon your body capacity and the degree of impotency capture. levitra generika 5mg New grads must know cheap tadalafil 20mg how to properly communicate with all levels of management. Systemic Inflammation In COPD levitra online australia Increases Cardiovascular Injury Cigarette smoke increases the risk of cardiovascular disease.

Where do you see God’s glory displayed?  What do the heavens declare to you about God?  Why do the upright in heart experience joy?  (see Psalm 97:1, 6, 11)

Why does Micah choose to look to the Lord?  Do you choose to look to the Lord?  How?  (see Micah 7:7, 9)

What do you have to offer those who are hurting around you?  Will you?  What could you do today to help someone in need?  What does God have to offer to those in need?  What will you allow God to do through you?  (see Acts 3:6-8)

What unfruitful branches are there in your life?  Are you willing to let the Father remove them?  What fruitful branches in your life need pruning?  Are you bearing fruit for Jesus?  What does it mean to “abide” in Jesus?  (see John 15:1-11)

Are you willing for all glory to go to the Lord and not to you?  What does it mean to you to hear that “the Lord has been mindful of us”?  How have you been blessed by the Lord?  (see Psalm 115:1, 12-13)

What’s the purpose of life?

Every now and then I see someone wearing a t-shirt promoting their favorite sport.  You’ve probably seen the one.  It says, “Life is basketball or football or soccer (or whatever the person’s favorite sport is).  Everything else is just details.”

Whenever I see someone wearing a shirt like that, I actually feel sorry for them.  You see, they are saying that life is about a game.  What happens when they realize that they’ve focused their lives on something that really doesn’t matter in the long run?

So, if life is not about a game, what is it about?  Is it about your job or your house or your car or your next promotion or your money or even your family?  What happens when you lose one of those or all of them?  Well, maybe life is about religious stuff.  Maybe life is about church attendance, or charitable giving, or maybe…surely life must be about studying the Bible!

Well, actually Jesus tells us the answer in the Bible, in the Gospel of John, chapter 5 and verses 39-40.  Jesus says to the religious people of His day, “You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.”

Jesus is saying that even the Bible can become an idol if you pursue it instead of Him.  You see, the religious folk of Jesus’ day studied the Bible.  They had figured out exactly how many words it contained, how many times each word appeared, which was the shortest verse, which was the longest chapter, and even what the middle word was.  But they were missing the point.  The Old Testament Scriptures were given to prepare the Jewish people to accept the coming Messiah.  But they rejected Him!

Now I will be the first to encourage you to read AND study the Bible.  I’ve spent quite a bit of my life doing just that.  But if we focus on the Bible and lose sight of the One the whole Bible points us to (Jesus Christ), we’re missing the point!

So what is the point?  Well, if I put it on a t-shirt, it would say:

“Life is Christ, everything else is just details.”

– Pastor Bill Crane