We’re headed to Israel Monday morning and arriving early evening Tuesday making our way straight to Jerusalem!

Once arriving we’ll walk to the old city and behold the Temple Mt.

I’ve been preparing for this trip for sometime because one of the objectives is to do some filming on sight in Israel and bring back some blessings to the church.

I’m particularly looking forward to visiting the excavations south of the Temple Mt. at the pool of Siloam. Do you remember what took place at the pool?

It’s recorded in John 9 when Jesus took mud and put it in the eyes of a blind man instructing him to wash in the pool of Siloam.

To be physically handicapped in the ancient world was a particular hardship and challenge. In effect your life was relegated to begging and dependency upon others. This was a man who had been blind since birth, having never seen the light of the day, the brilliance of a flower, not even his mother’s face!

What made the difference?

Obviously he could not see — BUT, he could HEAR and RESPOND to the WORD of Jesus! When you add God’s truth to be, heard, and God’s truth, to be responded to, the sky is the limit!

You might be in a place where you are unable to “see” or understand what’s taking place — but you can HEAR the truth of God’s Word and respond! Jesus said, “if you continue in my word you will be my disciples and you will know the truth and the truth shall set you free!”

 “Faith” is like a “lens” thru which we see reality more accurately. Do you know everything? No. Can you see everything? No. The lens of faith provides “illumination” to what we can’t see with our eyes and grasp with our minds.

Did Noah see something through the “lens of faith?” Yes! A need for a big boat!

Did Abraham see something through the lens of faith?” Yes! A son, a nation, and a future Kingdom! 

Did Moses see something through the lens of faith? Moses saw the greatest reality, the reality of God, an “invisible God!” He also saw that God would cover his sin with the application of “Lamb’s blood!”

What does God want you to “see” today?”

For the man born blind, Jesus opened his eyes demonstrating that the MOST IMPORTANT reality is that we see the truth of God: the Lord Jesus!

Blessings! 🙂

Many years ago a young man ran for the legislature in a large state and was badly defeated. 

He next entered business, failed, and spent 17 years of his life paying the debts of a worthless partner.

He was in love with a beautiful woman to whom he became engaged, but she died.

Reentering politics, he ran for Congress but was badly defeated. He then tried to get an appointment to the United States Land Office but failed. He became a candidate for the United States Senate and was badly defeated. Two years later he was again defeated.

It was one failure after another and many setbacks! But he refused to give up and eventually became President of the United States, perhaps our greatest.

His name was Abraham Lincoln.

Christian, “Don’t Give Up!”

James tells the church “we count them blessed who endure!”

This Sunday in our study in the book of James we’ll learn:

#1 The importance of identifying the “Triggers” that lead to a sense of vulnerability and weakness.

#2 The powerful examples that have gone before who have not given up who encourage our lives and tell us that we’re not alone.

#3 The resources that God has provided for us  to finish well!

Let’s be in prayer that the Lord by His Spirit explodes these realities in our hearts like never before.

“Tell A Friend” and “Invite A Friend” this Sunday!

See you at church worshipping the KING and experiencing the power of His resurrection!

Pastor Greg

We had a GREAT prayer meeting with the men in our church and a wonderful turnout this morning!

We’re calling our Men’s Prayer Breakfast “Stand In The Gap With Us!”

Focused in prayer in 5 areas:

#1 The Whole Family “Joined And Knit Together” Causing Growth (Eph 4:16)

#2 Jesus Known In This Generation (Matt 9:37)

#3 For “Prodigal’s” (sons and daughters and loved ones healed by the Father’s   love and grace in Christ!) (Luke 15:1-32)

#4 Godly Leadership In The Home (Duet 6:4-7)

#5 Spiritual Revival (Isaiah 44:3)

I am looking forward to our next time together!

To understand the resurrection of Jesus, we must examine it through a first century Jewish lens. 

The resurrection of Jesus is Jewish history!

To the early followers of Jesus like Peter, James, John, Mary and Joanna (all first century Jews), the resurrection was a reality that was undeniable. They believed it happened.  The only reasonable explanation for a group of Jews to follow Jesus as the Messiah was that there was overwhelming evidence that He had bodily risen from the dead.  Their belief in the resurrection needed to be more than the kind of belief Plato described as an “in-between knowing and not knowing state.” Jesus had been executed by Roman authorities and in order for people to worship Jesus as Messiah King, it had to be based on a reality that excluded any possibility of “hallucinations”, or “visions” of Jesus being alive after His execution.  The first Jewish Christians in Jerusalem knew Jesus conquered the grave.  How?  Because there was an empty tomb and Jesus met with them numerous times and was even seen by five hundred at once, revealing that He was alive!  Without the bodily resurrection of Jesus, there would be no Christianity. 

I’d like to make a few distinctions.

We live in an age of science and it has brought incredible advancement and helped us to see the genius of God. But science is unable to answer why we’re here, and what the purpose of life is, and who God is!  In addition, life’s experiences are beyond science. Even a committed scientist experiences the delight of listening to music, watching a football game or falling in love – these are all experienced and enjoyed outside the scientific discipline. As committed as a scientist is to scientific knowledge, the belief that she has that her husband loves her or that Mozart’s music is beautiful, is beyond scientific knowing.

All of this to say, the resurrection of Jesus is not a matter of science but a matter of history! Science studies the repeatable. Historians study the unrepeatable. While science overwhelmingly says that people who die do not resurrect, this does not mean that it did not happen once. And why would a historian have a problem with a reality of history taking place only once? After all, there was, and could be, only one first landing on the moon.

What Jesus demonstrated was unparalleled. What He did, He did once. Just like the prophet Zechariah foretold. Jesus humbly rode into Jerusalem on a donkey at the beginning of Passover week, not to conquer Jerusalem with a swift right hand and demand worship, but to conquer sin and death the greatest enemy we all face. The Son of God, God incarnate, came humbly to win your heart by giving His life in death and resurrection, paying the debt of sin on the cross and through His resurrection providing the power over sin — all because He loves you. Incredible!

You know what all of this means?

In short, God wants to give you His love. Himself. Forgiveness. Hope beyond the grave. He came to make all things new! But He won’t force Himself on you. He gives you a choice. Open your heart to Jesus Christ through repentance and faith. You won’t regret it!

Any skeptics out there?

If, so, you’re in good company!

When the apostles had witnessed the risen Lord, Thomas was absent. He had missed out and remarked, “Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.” Was he disbelieving? No. Was he skeptical? Yes!

“It is no longer sufficient to hold beliefs just because you inherited them” New York Times best selling author Timothy Keller said. The apostle Thomas was not about to simply “inherit” the faith of the other apostles. He wanted to know for himself. And, Jesus obliged! Eight days passed and Jesus appeared to the disciples again but this time Thomas was present. Witnessing the risen Lord Thomas remarked, “My Lord and my God!”

This is a very special weekend. Easter IS for skeptics! Tell a friend. Bring a friend! We will be gathering for three special services, worshipping the risen Lord, and learning why faith in Christ is as sold as a rock!

6:00am Sunrise Service Placer High Stadium.

8:30am Calvary Auburn

10:30am Calvary Auburn

See you Sunday!
Greg Denham

 More Than An Empty Tomb!

How else could Christianity have been launched from Jerusalem and go on to impact the entire planet unless a bodily resurrection had been confirmed by the first followers of Jesus in Jerusalem?

An empty tomb would not have been enough to convince of resurrection.

It wasn’t for the disciples!

Initially they did not believe that Jesus had risen from the dead. More evidence was needed — and they got it! Over and over again during a forty day period Jesus made Himself known to the disciples and to countless eye witnesses. No reasonable explanation exists for the existence of Christianity other than the bodily resurrection of Christ.

But what does the resurrection mean?

In short, Jesus came to make all things new! And He wants to bring His regenerative resurrection power of the Holy Spirit into your life!

Do you need forgiveness? Do you feel stuck in your circumstances? Are you disillusioned by life?

The resurrection proclaims that there is a God and that we were made to experience a relationship with Him. It tells us that He loves us enough not to leave us the way we are. It tells us that everything is moving toward the King of the coming KINGdom! The Gospel is good news! The Gospel is that there is a Father who sent His only begotten Son to make all things new. But He won’t force Himself on you. You will need to open the door of your heart by repentance and faith and you can do that today!   

“God designed the human machine to run on Himself. He Himself is the fuel that our heart was designed to burn, or the food our heart was designed to feed on. There is no other. That is why it is just no good asking God to make us Happy IN OUR OWN WAY without Him. God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.” (Oxford professor and author C.S. Lewis)

I want to encourage you to reach out to your friends this good Friday as we celebrate the incredible demonstration of sacrificial love on the cross for us and Sunday as we celebrate the risen Christ. Tell a friend and bring a friend! Let’s see what the Lord will do in impacting our lives.

TWO services FRIDAY 12:00 noon and 6:00 p.m.

THREE services SUNDAY

Sunrise Service 6:00 a.m. at Placer High Stadium

8:30am

10:30am

See you there!

Greg

Did you hear the uproar when Israel announced a new building project in east Jerusalem while V.P. Biden was in the Holy Land on a diplomatic mission? Our Vice President and Secretary State with the full backing of President Obama, strongly rebuked the Israeli’s for failing to show more good faith in the peace process!

mmmm…

Do you really think that the problem is a “land issue” or that “Jew’s are in the land (or even in the Middle East at all for that matter)”?

Palestinian leader’s (whoever they really are) want pre-1967 border’s, right?  But Israel was attacked in 1967, why? Was the issue land? Or that Jew’s were in the land? What about 1948?

Will building more residential sights in east Jerusalem derail a “peace process” that is ideologically driven by Islamic’s who hate Jews and want to drive them in the sea? Aahh pull back the curtain and there is Iran intoxicated by its false gods and hatred nursing Hamas and Hezbollah and now working closely with Al Qaieda.

Ironically, the day after V.P. Biden’s press conference and rebuke to Israel, the Palestinian Authority went ahead with plans to name a large public square in Ramallah after Dalal Mughrabi, who carried out the 1978 Coastal Road Massacre that killed more than three dozen Israelis, including 12 children.

How nations respond to Israel is more telling than one might imagine. It reveals their spiritual and moral temperature. When a country, even ours, puts pressure on Israel, it is generally the result of succumbing to Racism, Islamic Terrorism and willful Ignorance. In this way, the peace process is an attempt to negotiate with the “devil!”

“I will make Jerusalem and Judah like an intoxicating drink to all the nearby nations that send their armies to besiege Jerusalem. ³On that day I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone, a burden for the world. None of the nations who try to lift it will escape unscathed.” (Zech 12:2-3)

THE MADNESS FOR MORE

We’re living in a time of “madness!” Yes, there is Islamic Jihad but I’m talking the MADNESS FOR MORE!

The Bible says, “Watch out for all kinds of greed!” Greed is an obsession for more than one needs and an excessive anxiety over money and materialism.

This is a particular challenge in our generation where it seems everyone is trying to sell you something. There is a subtle message that accompanies the ads, it is that one’s well being / even identity and value – is based on “things” — “things” that we don’t really need, but are really just “greeds!”

When I think of what happened 2,000 years ago in Jerusalem that led to the unjust crucifixion of the Lord– the main reason that I see was simply greed! There were power-brokers in Jerusalem who were making a killing off of the worship in the Temple. Jesus had spotlighted the mismanagement saying that the Temple had become a “den of thieves …” I believe those “thieves” intoxicated by “greed’s” were threatened and did their best to stamp out the Light of the world.

The MADNESS FOR MORE. Greed. Materialism. They are NO friend’s of the Family. They are no friend’s of Marriage. They are no friend’s of the ministry of the Gospel, and the church. Greed has a consuming/ intoxicating influence, that get’s your focus on the temporal rather then the eternal and it is consuming. It consumes days, and weeks and years. The Bible calls it the “pride of life!” It trying to derive one’s value and significance and identity based on “things” and it is an endless pit that never delivers.

When the rich lost man Zacchaeus, the chief tax-collector of Jericho, welcomed Jesus into his home it wasn’t long before the issue of greed and materialism and the madness for more came to the surface. Zacchaeus promised to give ½ of his money to the poor and repay any injustice. When Jesus came into his home and came into his life — the idol of greed and materialism was broken and replaced with Jesus!

Similarly, when the Lord has his rightful place in our life money goes back to just being that, money. We’re no longer driven by greed’s. Money now becomes a tool for doing good and serving people. We learn that we have enough to meet our needs!

I know there are  few out there enjoying the book “The Reason for God” by Timothy Keller that we’ve been recommending in the church for a few months now. I’ve decided to switch gears a bit and jump ahead with a few excerpts from various chapters in the book. If you are new to the blog I encourage you to take the time to read all of the exerpts I have posted from  Keller’s book. I think you’ll enjoy all of them and of course feel free to comment!

Enjoy:)

Greg

Epilogue—Where Do We Go From Here?

 One of the most recent people to note this logic in Bono, the lead singer of U2, in a conversation with Michka Assayas:

Assays: Christ has his rank among the world’s great thinkers.But Son of God, isn’t that for-fetched?

Bono: No, it’s not far-fetch to to me. Look, the secular response to the Christ story always goes like this: He was a great prophet, obviously a very interesting guy, had a lot to say along the lines of other great prophets, be they Elijah, Muhammad, Buddha, or Confucius. But actually Christ doesn’t allow you that. He doesn’t let you off that hook. Christ says, No. I’m not saying I’m a teacher, don’t call me teacher. I’m not saying I’m a prophet. I’m saying: “I’m the Messiah.” I’m saying: “I am God incarnate.” And people say: No, no, please, just be a prophet. A prophet we can take. You’re a bit eccentric. We’ve had John the Baptist eating locusts and wild honey, we can handle that. But don’t mention the “M” word! Because, you know, we’re gonna have to crucify you. And he goes: No, no, I know you’re expecting me to come back with an army and set you free from these creeps, but actually I am the Messiah. At this point, everyone starts staring at their shoes, and says: Oh, my God, he’s gonna keep saying this. So what you’re left with is either Christ was who He said He was—the Messiah—or a complete nutcase. I mean, we’re talking on the level of Charles Manson…. I’m not joking here. The idea that the entire course of civilization for over half of the globe could have its fate changed and turned upside-down by a nutcase, for me that’s far-fetched…

The faith that changes the life and connects to God is best conveyed by the word “trust.” Imagine you are on a high cliff and you lose your footing and begin to fall. Just beside you as you fall is a branch sticking out of the very edge of the cliff. It is your only hope and it is more than strong enough to support your weight. How can it save you? If your mind is filled with intellectual certainly that the branch can support you, but you don’t actually reach out and grab it, you are lost. If your mind is instead filled with doubts and uncertainty that the branch can hold you, but you reach out a grab it anyway, you will be saved. Why? It is not the strength of your faith but the object of your faith that actually saves you. Strong faith in a weak branch is fatally inferior to weak faith in a strong branch.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN –The Reality Of The Resurrection

N.T. Wright does an extensive survey of the non-Jewish thought of the first-century Mediterranean world, both east and west, and reveals that the universal view of the people of that time was that a bodily resurrection was impossible. Why? In Greco-Roman thinking, the soul or spirit was good and the physical and material world was weak, corrupt, and defiling. To them the physical, by definition, was always falling apart and therefore salvation was conceived as liberation from the body. In this worldview resurrection was not only impossible, but totally undesirable. No soul, having gotten free from its body, would ever want it back. Even those who believed in reincarnation understood that the return to embodied life meant that the soul was not yet out of its prison. The goal was to get free of the body forever. Once your soul is free of its body, a return to re-embodied life was outlandish, unthinkable, and impossible.

In the first century there were many other messianic movements whose would-be messiahs were executed. However,

In not one single case do we hear the slightest mention of the disappointed followers claiming that their hero had been raised from the dead. They knew better. Resurrection was not a private event. Jewish revolutionaries whose leader had been executed by the authorities, and who managed to escape arrest themselves, had two options: give up the revolution, or find another leader. Claiming that the original leader was alive again was simply not an option. Unless, of course, he was.

There were doens of other messianic pretenders who lives and careers ended the same way Jesus’ did. Why would the disciples of Jesus have come to the conclusion that that his crucifixion had not been a defeat but a triumph—unless they had seen him risen from the dead?