Yes, I watched American Idol with the family tonight so now I’m up late getting other stuff done.  The older I get the more I choose family over other things. It took me too long to learn this life lesson.  I invested too much time in less important things.  Leading Life Church is an honor, but it is not nearly as important as my family and my personal relationship with Christ. I encourage you to not miss the times that so quickly pass and invest in things that will matter years from now.

This has been a great week, many of you have communicated how you have been facing your monsters by exposing them to the light of God’s truth. Each week in our series, It Came from Within we’re exploring a different type of monster hiding within us and learning how to defeat it before it controls our lives and hurts others.

This Sunday, Jay Kennedy will continue our series talking about anger.  Jay is uniquely qualified in this area, not only as a longtime pastor, but also because he is tested every day in his job working with teens who have behavioral problems. I look forward to hearing Jay address this topic this Sunday at 9 & 11AM.

Saturday, is our Coupons for a Cause seminar from 1:30-3:30PM.  The cost is $ 5 per person and you will receive materials that will not only help you save money at home, but also help us reach out to our neighbors by buying quantities of items and distributing them to families in need.

Speaking of families in need, this week we have a family that is new to Life Church whose basement flooded.  They lost clothing, beds, household goods and food.  They have got the water out but now need help with replacing these items. They can use dressers, a crib, toddler bed, 2 full or queen size beds, bedding, and clothing for a 5 month old and 3 yr old boys. They can also use food and personal hygiene products. You can bring them items to church on Sunday and we will get them to the family.

Instead, He stayed on the cross and died to save us.

When focus in on the height of Jesus anguish in the Garden we see how He responded to His greatest challenge and we gain some insights into how to face our own difficulties and tough situations.

1.  Friends

He took Peter, James and John along with him, and he began to be deeply distressed and troubled. 34“My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death,” he said to them. “Stay here and keep watch.”  Mark 14:33-34

“Abba,  Father,” he said, “everything is possible for you…  Mark 14:36

…Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will”.  Mark 14:36

Every generation since that time has believed they were the last generation and paralleled the events of their day with the events Jesus described. Each one came to the conclusion that they were the generation or time period in history when Jesus would return.

We need to live our lives in the shadow of eternity, fulfilling our mission to love God and love people rather than focusing on when Jesus is returning.  William Holman Hunt’s painting from the 1800′s shows how Jesus in his early days in the carpenter’s shop before His public ministry, lived in the Shadow of the Cross.

Look at the details and all the prophetic indicators of His life and mission.

In actuality Jesus was addressing every time period.  His message was not to focus on when he would return (which has seemed to be the main focus of many people’s study), but he was more concerned about how we lived in light of his return.

Be always on watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man.

We watch in the sense that we stay sensitive to God’s inner leading and promptings.  We pray out of thanksgiving for His closeness and faithfulness and we offer ourselves to His mission and fulfill our destiny in loving God and loving people into relationship with Him.

The good new and bad news is that this the last generation for you and I.  Lets live with god in the shadow of the cross and in the light of eternity.

I’m a little early on this week’s email because I wanted to touch on a few things sooner in the week.

Tomorrow’s Red Cross Training, Wed., Mar. 31st from 6-9PM at the Wayne Township Fire Headquarters building at 700 N. High School Rd.  This class, Mass Casualty Care, will cover how we respond to disasters affecting large groups of people. Anyone can attend this class, there is no cost.

This Sunday is Easter. We will have two services at Indy West at 9 and 11AM and 1 service at Plainfield at 10AM.  Please make note of times.  We will be launching a new teaching series called “Storms” in which we will examine how to effectively survive and even thrive in the midst of the storms of life.

I encourage you to join us in reading through the scriptures of the Passion Week.  We just had some discussion and prayer on some of the insights people in our group gained as they read.  If you haven’t done it thus far just start tomorrow with the readings below.  By reading the passages each day you will be able to follow along with the events leading up to Easter and Jesus resurrection.

Don’t forget our new service times starting the week after Easter, on April 11th.  We will have one service at Indy West at 9:30AM and one service at Plainfield at 11:00AM.  We are thinking some who normally attend Indy West will choose the later service at Plainfield and it will allow to do just services for the summer.

On April 11th we will have two guests with us.  Pat Bradley will give a brief update on ICA’s work in Ethiopia, Haiti, and other parts of the world.  Also joining us will be Steve and Terry Stopanovich.  Terry works with ICA and you may remember Steve as a former player for the Pacers.

Have an awesome week as you enter the life changing story of Christ’s victory for YOU!

In Matt. 22, Jesus tells the parable of the wedding banquet.  Verse 11 stuck out to me,

But when the King came in to see the guests, He noticed a man who was there not wearing wedding clothes. Friend, he asked, “How did you get in here without wedding clothes?” The man was speechless.

The man was thrown out and missed out on an eternity in God’s presence.

The second passage was was in Luke 20 where Jesus is answering a challenge about the resurrection and marriage.  He makes this statement in verse 35,

But those who are considered worthy of taking part in that age in in the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage.

I was reminded as I read both these passages about how I used to cringe in fear at the thought that I’m not worthy.  I would read about the wedding clothes and think how dirty I was and I certainly did nothing that made me “worthy”.  That was the mindset I lived with for years until I realized Jesus accomplished everything on the cross to make me worthy.

This morning as I read I stopped and thanked my God that it He who has chosen me.  It is His garments of righteousness in which I am clothed and He has made me worthy.  All I did was respond to an invitation of grace.

I still feel unworthy of God’s gift of salvation.  I tend to focus on my emphasize my failures and downplay any good things in me, but God sees the completed work.

I certainly don’t deserve all of His love and the blessings I experience but it sure makes me grateful.

Next week I embark on a 250 mile bike ride across Missouri’s Katy Trail.  It will be a great adventure and we are hoping for good weather and a smooth ride. Adam Moore and I have been riding together for a few months.  Each day we will post photos and update readers on our progress. Should be a blast.