Sunday’s Blessing – 05/03/2026 – 5th Sunday of Easter: Preparation for Ministry – Focusing on the Church as the Body of Christ in the World

Sunday’s Blessing – 05/03/2026 – 5th Sunday of Easter: Preparation for Ministry – Focusing on the Church as the Body of Christ in the World

I heard a story about one of the first attempts at creating artificial intelligence (AI). A group of British computer experts of their day (mid-1900s) developed a computer which could “learn”. They provided the entire Bible as input to its knowledge base, then the time came to ask it the first question: “Why did Jesus come to earth?” The computer searched its data to come up with an answer. The conclusion was then printed on a piece of paper (its only form of communication). With a little fear and trepidation, the scientists picked up the paper and read the brief statement returned by the computer. It said: “To establish His Kingdom on the earth.”

The gospel is so simple that a child can understand, but also simple enough for those with great intelligence (real or artificial) can comprehend. Why do we make it so difficult? On this 5th Sunday of Easter (according to the liturgical calendar) we focus on the church (the called-out ones) as the body of Christ in the world. Paul used the term “ambassador” in one of his letters to the church at Corinth. An ambassador is one sent with a message from another, in our current vernacular, that of political representation in another country. The Christian is no longer a citizen of earth but instead has become a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven. And like the political ambassador, the Christian has a message for the earth to hear: that God is reconciling the world to Himself, not counting sins against them, through Jesus.

If we could only keep things that simple. Perhaps we can lose some of the rhetoric and keep the message clear: God love you and has a wonderful plan for your life. (1st of the Four Spiritual Laws). On this Resurrection Sunday (every Sunday is Resurrection Sunday) let us do our job and represent the Kingdom of Heaven to those around us here on the earth. Let us speak well of our Lord (which means tell the truth about His nature and character) so that others will want to know more about our homeland; perhaps even enough to want to change their citizenship.

Today’s Blessing:

From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 2 Corinthians 5:16-21 (ESV)

Sunday’s Blessing – 04/26/2026 – 4th Sunday of Easter: Good Shepherd Sunday

Sunday’s Blessing – 04/26/2026 – 4th Sunday of Easter: Good Shepherd Sunday

Today’s focus is on hearing the voice of Jesus and trusting Him. One of the most loved images of Jesus is that of a shepherd. Psalm 23 describes the role of God as Shepherd over His people, Israel. The New Testament reality is seeing those same attributes, written by David so many years before the Messiah came, applied to Jesus and His care for the Church.

One of the essential elements in the relationship between the sheep and their shepherd is that of knowing his voice and then trusting the message you hear from the shepherd. One exercise I find helpful is studying all the various names attributed to all three of the Godhead: the Father, the Son (or Word as John calls Him), and the Holy Spirit. There are hundreds of titles, both formal and implied, for all three of the Trinity. Knowing these and the context in which they appear can help you develop a strong relationship with God. You learn about His character, His nature, and get familiar with His voice.

There’s a song by Babbie Mason called “Trust His Heart” which speaks to this very thing. The chorus of the song says:

God is too wise to be mistaken

God is too good to be unkind

So when you don't understand

When don't see His plan

When you can't trace His hand

Trust His Heart

When you find yourself in those moments of not knowing, you need to be able to recognize the voice of the Shepherd when He speaks. It can literally mean the difference between life and death. If you do not know God’s heart for yourself you can be easily swayed to follow the voice of another which can lead you into a dangerous place, or at the very least, into a place outside of where God wants you to be.

Today’s blessing:

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

He makes me lie down in green pastures.

He leads me beside still waters.

He restores my soul.

He leads me in paths of righteousness

for his name’s sake.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil,

for you are with me;

your rod and your staff,

they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me

in the presence of my enemies;

you anoint my head with oil;

my cup overflows.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me

all the days of my life,

and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord

forever. Psalm 23 (ESV)

Sunday’s Blessing – 04/19/2026 – 3rd Sunday of Easter - Continued celebration of the Resurrection and Its Impact on the Early Church

Sunday’s Blessing – 04/19/2026 – 3rd Sunday of Easter - Continued celebration of the Resurrection and Its Impact on the Early Church

Every Sunday in the liturgical calendar is Resurrection Sunday. On this particular day, the 3rd Sunday of Easter, the focus is on the Continued celebration of the Resurrection and Its Impact on the Early Church. After Jesus came out of the tomb, He was seen by many people. Some say as many as 515 people saw Jesus in the flesh, alive, after He was crucified, buried, and then was raised from the dead. That’s a lot of people! It’s not easy to get even a few people to concoct a false narrative about most anything. But 515 people? That would be nearly impossible.

There had already been a precedent for someone coming back from the dead. Lazarus, the friend of Jesus, brother of Martha and Mary, came out of the tomb at Jesus’ command. He had been dead for several days to the point that the sisters discouraged the men from rolling away the cover of the entrance to the tomb, saying, “He’s already stinking.” Jesus gave the command, “Lazarus, come forth.” When Lazarus stepped out of the tomb it caused quite a stir.

But now Jesus, who had prophesied His own resurrection, comparing it to rebuilding the temple after it was demolished, stood in their presence alive, bearing in His body the scars of the nails and the spear, the crown of thorns and the scourging, speaking words which now carried a new weight saying, “Come, place your finger in the holes. They are real.”

When word began to spread that Jesus was, indeed, alive it ignited faith in what had been spoken by this one called Jesus, and they believed He was the Messiah sent by God to redeem mankind back to their Creator. Like the two who walked with Jesus on the road to Emmaus, just His words caused their hearts to “burn within us”.

In just a few more weeks after the resurrection, Jesus ascended to heaven right before the eyes of many of these people. They heard His final words of hope when the Promised One, the Holy Spirit, would be sent to abide IN them, not just ON them as He had up until this time. That would be the confidence they would have of a new heart and a new life.

Today’s Blessing:

Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!”  Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. John 20:26-30 (ESV)

Sunday’s Blessing – 04/12/2026 – 2nd Sunday of Easter – Divine Mercy

Sunday’s Blessing – 04/12/2026 – 2nd Sunday of Easter – Divine Mercy

I’m still learning about the liturgical calendar. I never knew the Easter theme continued for seven weeks until Pentecost Sunday. This year, the seven themes for the Sundays of Easter cover the full scope of the relationship between the Believer and the Creator.

Since this series started last week (and I missed it) let’s look at this year’s theme for Easter Sunday was the Focus of Hope, Victory Over Death, and New Beginnings. Jesus promised His disciples that He would rise from the dead on the third day. He wanted to give them something to hope for, something to believe in, something to replace the black hole the crucifixion of Jesus would create in their soul.

Through the victory over Death, Hell, and the Grave, He restored their belief that Jesus was, in fact, the Messiah. Life as they knew it would never be the same. It truly was a time of new beginnings.

This week, the 2nd Sunday of Easter, calls us to look at Divine Mercy. As humans, we have the ability to show a level of mercy to others. Things like compassion, pity, and empathy can lead us to things for others, but when you look back at all Christ endured in the week leading up to the crucifixion, you see something beyond human caring. You see Divine Mercy in action. Jesus, laying down every aspect of His human life to become the Supreme Sacrifice needed to save mankind, gave Himself up as the Passover Lamb without spot or blemish, providing the blood needed for the propitiation (see earlier post explaining this) to redeem all people, past, present, and future.

When Jesus presented Himself to the disciples and others in the days following His crucifixion, He restored hope in the promise of the Father to send the Second Adam, the Son of God, to once-for-all remove the penalty of sin brought on by the First Adam. Jesus fulfilled the promise made by the Creator in the Garden of Eden when He proclaimed, “The seed of Eve would crush the head of the serpent (satan).” This was accomplished by the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. Divine Mercy had intervened into human existence to make salvation possible. This was the purpose of Easter.

Today’s Blessing:

Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Hebrews 4:16 (ESV)

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. Lamentations 3:22-23 (ESV)

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, Ephesians 2:4-6 (ESV)

Sunday’s Blessing- 04/05/2026 - Easter Sunday

Sunday’s Blessing- 04/05/2026 - Easter Sunday

He is risen indeed!

Sunday’s Blessing – 03/29/2026 – Palm Sunday – What Does God Do with His Spare Time?

Sunday’s Blessing – 03/29/2026 – Palm Sunday – What Does God Do with His Spare Time?

Have you ever wondered if God gets too busy to take care of His creation? Some of the characteristics attributed to Him in scripture are “all knowing”, “present everywhere”, and “all powerful”. With the current population of earth being around 8.3 billion people, some wonder how can God possibly be able to keep up with all of us? My question is a little more simple. What does God do in His spare time?

Do you think God is at least as capable as the best invention of man? Since God created man I would have to believe that He has capabilities which exceed man’s knowledge or ability to create. With that in mind, let me get a little technical here to explain what I’m trying to say. The current “fastest super computer” is called El Capitan whose speed is 2.88 exaFLOPs per second. Computer speed is measured by the number of FLOPs it can perform per second. A FLOP is a floating point instruction. In other words, a FLOP is the computer performing the problem of 3.569 * .9459. Most humans could do this computation, but it would take longer than 1 second. El Capitan can do this computation in 1 second, along with 2,880,000,000,000,000,000 more. That represents what is know as exaFLOPS. That is 10 to the 18th power, which is basically a billion billion per second. 

I would contend that God is at least that capable. So, with 8.3 billion people, God could think about every single person on earth every second and still have 999,999,992 billion “thoughts” to spare. The question is not, “How can God keep up with everyone?” Instead, the question should be, “What does God do with all of His spare time?”

One of God’s attributes is that of Creator. He didn’t just create the universe in six days and then stop creating. No. He rested for one day (the Sabbath – not Saturday or Sunday, but a period of ceasing from His labor) then resumed His creating. Each human born on earth is “formed in its mother’s womb” by God. (Jeremiah 1:5) God is working in each human’s life to bring about His plan for them by “giving them a future and a hope.” (Jeremiah 29:11) One New Testament promise we have from one of Paul’s books to Corinth is, “But, as it is written, ‘What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him’— these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.” (1 Corinthians 2:9-10) ESV

So, not only can God keep up with each human’s current goings on, He has time to plan a future for us that will be a blessing for us and for others with whom we have contact. “For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him.” 1 Chronicles 16:9a (ESV) As we keep our hearts and minds focused on God, He is busy working out a way for us to succeed in living for Him. A song came to mind as I was thinking on these things. It’s from my favorite group of all time, Roger Breland’s TRUTH. From their Get It from the Source album, the song Never Too Busy sums up what I’m trying to say. Look at these lyrics.

Ah, He is never too busy

Never in a hurry

Never gonna pass you by

Always gonna take the time

To see about you

Oh, never too busy

Never in a hurry

Never gonna pass you by

Always gonna take the time

To see about you

The very moment

The very second that you need Him

He's gonna be there

All you ever have to do is call

He'll bring you through

Every price that's in your life

He's got everything that you need

Don't it make you happy to now

That He is never too busy

Never, never in a hurry

Never gonna pass you by

Always gonna take the time

To see about you

Oh, never too busy

Never in a hurry

Never gonna pass you by

Always gonna take the time

To see about you

Never too busy

Never too busy

There are times in your life

When you really need someone

You got a problem

But your friends just can't be found

Why do you wait, why do you wait

Why do you hesitate

When you know that Jesus

Is the answer

And He's never, never too late

Oh, never too busy

Never, never in a hurry

Never gonna pass you by

Always gonna take the time

To see about you

Oh, never too busy

Never in a hurry

Never gonna pass you by

Always gonna take the time

To see about you

Do not consider God “out there somewhere, not interested in my life”. He is ever present to meet you where you are, in exactly the place you need Him. Simply speak to Him, because He is listening. He’s never in a hurry.

Today's blessing:

Be still and known that He is God!

Sunday’s Blessing – 03/22/2026 – 5th Sunday of Lent – Propitiation

Sunday’s Blessing – 03/22/2026 – 5th Sunday of Lent – Propitiation

I love words. I worked with a guy years ago who also loved words. We used to compete with each other to try and find the smallest word which we had never heard before. That’s where I learned words like vet and din. Others were not so small, but still unknown to me at the time, like confluence and cacophony. Whenever I encounter words I either have never heard before or don’t really know the meaning, I look them up. That’s where today’s topic originated.

There are words used by ministers and hymn writers which most who hear them gloss over because they do not understand them. In the original version of “Come Thou Found of Every Blessing,” the author included this line: “Here I raise mine Ebenezer, hither by Thy help I’m come.” What in the world is an Ebenezer? Ebenezer, meaning "stone of help" (Hebrew: Eben-haezer), is a memorial stone set up by the prophet Samuel in 1 Samuel 7:12 to commemorate God’s help in defeating the Philistines. It’s a reminder of God’s faithfulness.

One such word I came across was propitiation. When I first heard it, I threw it in the bone pile with other terms like justification, sanctification, Hittites, Jebusites, and all the other “ites”. Later, while studying a passage in Hebrews, I came across propitiation and decided to find out what it really meant. I was mesmerized. I could not believe the powerful truth contained in this word.

When Moses led Israel out of Egypt, one their first stops was Mt. Sinai. It is here that God revealed to Moses His plan for the Chosen People. Explicit instructions were given on how they were to worship the Lord. God started with the Ark (the place of His presence) and then described how the entire Tabernacle was to be built. Once completed, the priests were to go in once a year to offer blood from the sacrificial lamb by placing on the Mercy Seat located on top of the Ark, underneath the outstretched wings of the two angels which covered it. This blood-sacrifice was later called the Propitiation.

The writer of Hebrews then tells us that all of what God revealed to Moses regarding the Ark and the Tabernacle were based on the REAL ones in Heaven. Man would use the copies, or replicas, in their worship to God on earth. Then, when Jesus was crucified as The Perfect Sacrifice for the Sin of the World on Calvary, carried His own blood to Heaven and placed it on the REAL Ark in Heaven, which paid the ransom for all people, providing a way for restoration back to God.

Jesus became our Propitiation, which is how we can now be saved. The blood of Jesus paid the price for all sin, past, present, and future, so that we, by faith, can now be placed in right standing with God, completely forgiven as the righteousness of God in Christ. I know those are a lot of words. It’s difficult to fully explain in brief articles like this. I’ll leave some scripture references below if you want to study it further. The bottom line from all of this is Jesus became our Propitiation, the one thing in all of existence, which could save us from our sin and allow us to once again know the Father through intimate fellowship. The cross was where the sacrifice was made. The time in the tomb was when Jesus regained the Keys of Death, Hell, and the Grave. The resurrection defeated all principalities, powers, and dominion, but the Propitiation on the Ark in Heaven is where the price was actually paid.

That is what the whole season of Lent, Easter, and Ascension all celebrate. Every part became our path back to God.

Today’s blessing:

Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. Hebrews 2:17 (ESV)

Now the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, a minister in the holy places, in the true tent that the Lord set up, not man. For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices; thus it is necessary for this priest also to have something to offer. Now if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, since there are priests who offer gifts according to the law. They serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things. For when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God, saying, “See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain.” But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second. Hebrews 8:1-7 (ESV)

He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. 1 John 2:2 (ESV)

For further study:

Hebrews 2:17

Hebrews 8:1-7

Exodus 25:10

1 John 2:2

1 John 4:10

Romans 3:25