New Year's Resolutions Centered on Christ!

 The New Year is quickly approaching, and like most of you I'm thinking about a New Year's Resolution. Maybe I'll get back in shape (the round shape I have taken on is no longer to my liking). Maybe I should lose 5-20lbs. I would like to make more money, or spend more time with my family. All of those are great resolutions, not very original, but good none the less.

  As I think about those though, I realize they are all about me and I have no resolutions that center on Christ.

 We look at the New Year as a clean slate, a new beginning, a chance to right wrongs, and a chance to hit the ground running, but hasn't Jesus Christ already done that?

2 Corinthians 5:17-21 (ESV)

¹⁷ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.  The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. ¹⁸ All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; ¹⁹ 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. ²⁰ Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. ²¹ For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

  Did you get that!? It's not the New Year we should be looking at, it's the New Life that God has given us we should be rejoicing in. God has given us a new heart and our old life has passed away. What if I look at those resolutions through the Cross and then carry them out with the new heart that God has given me?

  I will spend more time investing in my family, loving, encouraging, shepherding, and praying for and with them to the glory of God. Not because of me, but because that is what Jesus did, and does for me.

  I will use the talents that God has given me to provide for my family. Not because I need or want anything more, but because God has given me talents to bless my family so we can bless others.

  I will take care of the body that God has given me. Not because my jeans are getting tighter and I want an appearance acceptable to anyone, but because God now sees me with the righteousness of Jesus Christ, and I want to be that strong warrior for God that can run the race He has set before me.

  God hasn't just given us a new heart, it has been filled with the power of God (Holy Spirit) and sealed. The same power that enabled Christ to resurrect from the dead. Jesus has taken from us the sin that weights us down and keeps us slaves (how's that for weight loss).

 So this New Years I pray that when you make your resolutions, you center them on Christ and what he has done and does for you. If we can do that we can't fail, because God is perfect.

Live for the Glory of God and have a Happy (and safe) New Year!

Jason  

"God is the gift, that keeps on giving"

  This picture was posted on Face book by my wife about a week ago, and I'm not going to lie, it broke my heart and made me angry. Not because my Face book now had an image of starving African kids, or even the image of the women with their carts full of toys. It was because we live in a country of entitlement.

 Sure the past few years have been hard for a lot of us, but I still have a place to call home, food to eat, cars, entertainment, my family and my God. To some in this world they have none of that. The kids in the picture, go days, maybe weeks without food. They sleep in huts with dirt floors the size of a single car garage. They walk for miles to get water, water we wouldn't dare drink (Enjoy that bottled water you have in your hands). Some of them have been abandoned by their parents, or worse yet their parents are dead. Through all of this, they're some that haven't even heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ and have no hope and nothing to hold on to. Can you imagine living a life like that, with zero hope for a better world?

 But still we complain about our jobs, and the fact that we can't get the new XBOX. We are teaching our kids the wrong meaning of Christmas. I believe that it is time to step up and break this chain of entitlement and suffering.

 The fact is that we celebrate Christmas because God gave us a gift. He gave us His Son as a Savior, and then keeps on giving. We celebrate Christmas because little 8lb 7oz ( weight is approximate because I have no way of knowing) baby Jesus was born in a cattle stall to save us.

God gave us His Son.

God sent His Son to live the perfect life, that we are incapable of living.

God gave us the perfect sacrifice of Jesus to pay the enormous debt that we owed.

God then gave us Jesus' righteousness to replace our brokenness.

God gives us life, where before there was only death.

God gives us the gift of the Holy Spirit and salvation, now sealed within our hearts, never to be taken away. (God is no Indian giver)

God gives us strength, wisdom and power, that before we could have only imagined.

God gives us a promise that He will come back one day to right all wrongs, destroy all evil, take away all sorrow, hunger, addictions, afflictions and to make the world as it ought to be, PERFECT.

GOD HAS GIVEN US A KING!

How's that for a Christmas gift? Makes the XBOX pale in comparison doesn't it?

 So this Christmas share the real Christmas story with your children, hug them, praise God for the blessings that He has given you and keeps on giving you. Give away some of those blessings to help the ones that have none. Above all share with someone the hope and power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.

Jason    

Noah's Ark, Tragedy or Love Story?

 From an early age we are all taught about the story of Noah's Ark. It doesn't matter if you have faith in Christ or not, it is an inescapable story that children love. As a young child we had toys, books and cartoons to tell that story. I mean who doesn't like the thought of all of those animals in one place? It's the best zoo ever right?

 A friend of mine told me that she never understood why it is a story that children were taught, and loved so much. She says it's a story of God's wrath where all life is destroyed on earth except for Noah, his family and the animals. It's a story full of death and destruction, but in my eyes it's one of great beauty that parallels the Gospel story so closely, specifically the early church, the second coming and the part we play.

 Scripture tells us that Jesus came to earth in the form of a man to live perfectly, and to die the death we deserve in our place. He then resurrected three days later, conquering death so we may have a new life in Him. Jesus spent another forty days on earth with the apostles, speaking with them of the Kingdom of God. Jesus made a promise that he would come back one day to destroy evil once for all and make all things as they ought to be.

 As I read through the story of Noah I couldn't help to see the similarities between the Ark, the early church and the second coming.

 In the story of Noah, God saw that the evil of man was the intention of our hearts continually. God told Noah He was going to wipe evil off the face off the earth. But God chose to save Noah, his family and two of every kind of animal that He had created. "Build an Ark and fill it", was God's command and Noah obeyed. After flooding the earth, cleansing it with water, the water subsided and all things were new again.

 So the way I see it we are Noah, people Chosen to be saved. Not because we deserved it, but because God desired it. The animals are the lost and church. As saints we are to gather them up and bring them to the body of Christ. The Storm is the second coming when Jesus comes back to destroy evil once and for all. The Ark is the body of Christ. This to me is the most beautiful metaphor of the whole story. Noah (us) and the animals (the chosen) enter into the Ark (the body of Christ) and it safely carries them through the storm. Last but not least, the earth after the water subsides is the New Earth, cleansed with water, made as it ought to be.

 I think that if you look at The story of Noah's Ark as I do, beauty is all you can see. Jesus is the only way to the Father, so enter the Ark and live!

Jason

It is the power of Christ that compels me!

As I read through Psalms 30 this morning, it hit me like a loving brick in the face!

Psalms 30

¹I will extol you, O LORD, for you have drawn me up
and have not let my foes rejoice over me.
²O LORD my God, I cried to you for help,
and you have healed me.
³O LORD, you have brought up my soul from Sheol;
you restored me to life from among those who go down to the pit.^[a]

⁴Sing praises to the LORD, O you his saints,
and give thanks to his holy name.^[b]
5 For his anger is but for a moment,
and his favor is for a lifetime.^[c]
Weeping may tarry for the night,
but joy comes with the morning.

⁶As for me, I said in my prosperity,
"I shall never be moved."
⁷By your favor, O LORD,
you made my mountain stand strong;
you hid your face;
I was dismayed.

⁸To you, O LORD, I cry,
and to the Lord I plead for mercy:
⁹"What profit is there in my death,^[d]
if I go down to the pit?^[e]
Will the dust praise you?
Will it tell of your faithfulness?
¹⁰ Hear, O LORD, and be merciful to me!
O LORD, be my helper!"

¹¹You have turned for me my mourning into dancing;
you have loosed my sackcloth
and clothed me with gladness,
¹²that my glory may sing your praise and not be silent.
O LORD my God, I will give thanks to you forever!

 We so often get caught up in our everyday lives, and forget what God has done for us. We stress over finances, and forget that our God is the ultimate provider. We grumble over our jobs and struggles, and we forget that Jesus was brutally beaten, mocked, spit on and then murdered, for our sake.

 We are called to look ahead at the fact that we now have eternal life, and find joy in that. Jesus lived perfectly for us and then gave us his righteousness while taking our sin and making us a new creation. Our ransom has been paid and we are free from death.

 So I ask you, What is it in your life that you haven't given up to God? What truth about God do you not believe, or have forgotten about?

 Read through this Psalm and rejoice in the fact that God has redeemed us back to himself. He has adopted us as sons and daughters. It wasn't because we are awesome and we did anything to deserved it. It was because He desired it.

 So stop your whining and start reminding!

 I think that verse 11 and 12 sum it up well. God has turned my mourning into dancing, and I will give thanks to you forever!   

Jason 

Why I decided to start a blog.

 Hello all. Embark with me if you will on a new adventure.

  I have decided to start a blog for two reasons.

 For about 6 months I have been working as a Graphic Designer/Web Developer for a small marketing company here in Reno. There is a lot more to advertising and marketing then I ever could have imagined. Most of the time I create graphics to be placed into websites or into printed materials, but Social Media is the new frontier and I need to get on that bus or it's going to leave me standing at the curb. I have learned how to use Face book, Twitter, YouTube for the purpose of marketing, but blogging has been a road, until now I dared not venture down.

 That is about to change. I learn but doing so what better way to learn about the blogging universe then starting one of my own.

 Also as I walk with Christ in my Christian life, God revels new things to me. There are many times that he flicks that switch in my brain and my eyes are opened to new truths. Every time He does that I get excited and want to share those with the world. I started but thinking that I'll Tweet it, or put it as my Face book status. Unfortunately my brain always works in more than 140 or 320 characters, so I just started to write them down.

  I will make those truths reveled to me as subjects of my blog.

 So get in, sit down and fasten your seat belt, my brain is often unpredictable and unfiltered, it's going to be a wild ride.

 Jason