Thoughts On Easter

It is Holy Week so I thought it would be good to write a message that was back to more spiritual things.
Before we had Thrive Church tonight I was flipping through my Bible. I usually do this at this time because I have nothing else to do. I found myself at Isaiah 58. The section was titled "True Fasting." A couple interns have fasted recently so I was intrigued. I had no memory of this section before.

Basically it goes over a scene of people who want to be closer to God and say "look at the fasting and things we have done, why haven't you responded?"
God replies essentially saying "Away with you!" "You may have fasted but you were still harsh to your neighbor, you have only thought of yourself during the entire time."

God then describes the fast he desires in verses 6-10. Basically he says when you fast don't think of yourself but think of others.


Here is my point. In much of Christendom today we have uplifted personal piety over simple obedience to God.

We do many prayers, and we attend many church events and we buy many Christian books all in the hope of feeling closer to God. We try to be holy at all times and we end up judging harshly the people who do not meet the standard we have set for ourselves.

The problems with this are myriad but can be summed up concisely: they are all me-centered, not God centered.

Christianity is the one religion where God through his infinite mercy and grace has brought himself close to us. He paid the price, he died on the cross, he defeated sin and he gave us the Holy Spirit. Why are we trying to do so much to be close to a God who is already right next to us?

It is also striking how much we uplift ourselves over others. Many Christians, including myself, often act as little more then self-righteous pharisees. We pray loudly and repeatedly, we surround ourselves with only Christian people and we dismiss with a scoff the many people who are literally dying to get some of the truth that has been so generously bestowed upon us. Again we see our faith as only about ourselves, not about God.

God does not want our prayers, our sacrifices, our church attendance. He wants our hearts. He wants us to be completely sold out for him and he wants us to lift his name above every other. I am not saying that doing religious things are bad, they are essential; but to do them with the wrong heart makes them worthless.

This Easter I pray that we look beyond ourselves. I pray that our attitudes will be the same as Christ Jesus (Philippians 2:5) I pray that we see others as better than ourselves. And I pray that we will recognize that while we are completely unworthy of any blessing we have received from God he gives them to us anyway. He made the ultimate sacrifice, he doesn't need anymore.

Let us follow God with all of our heart, soul, and mind this Easter and through that let us change the World, not for our glory, but for His.

God Bless.