The Way

To unbelievers, The Way of Christianity is often seen as fanatical, and that may not be a bad term.

“Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.”  Colossians 3:16 (NASB)

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Let this be a time of worship to God.  Pray each prayer and add your own personal message to God.  Read each scripture as though reading it for the first time – listen carefully for the voice of God.  Listen to each song paying close attention to the lyrics provided.  These songs were carefully chosen.  Even if the music is not your favorite style of music, know that the musicians performing are sincerely making music to the Lord.  Try to feel the passion in their words and their musical expression.  Give thought to the message presented and confirm the truth therein by opening your Bible and taking some time to do your own personal study.  May you be greatly blessed.

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Let’s Pray Together

Almighty Creator of the universe, watching over us all, we praise your holy name.  Guide us toward your approaching kingdom as loyal followers of your every desire.  Thank you for all that you provide in our lives.  Bless us Father with your goodness and mercy, as we stumble our way through this life, and provide us with the ability to bless others in the same manner.  Keep our minds ever vigilant to the disruptive powers of the evil one.  Guide us on a path that avoids destruction.  You alone are our protector and deliverer.  We ask these things in the Holy name of Jesus.  Amen.

The Way

Christianity caused quite a commotion in its early days after Jesus ascended back into heaven.  When the apostle Paul was preaching the gospel in Ephesus, it caused a riot – demonstrating the dramatic impact of what was then known as “The Way.”

“About that time there occurred no small disturbance concerning The Way.”  Acts 19:23 (NASB)

The extraordinary story of the death and resurrection of Jesus was being told by eye witnesses as well as the astonishing stories of the miracles he performed – healing the blind, casting out demons, and bringing the dead back to life.  At that same time, the apostles were performing similar miracles of their own.  The power of God was on clear display; however, many skeptics continued to challenge The Way as nothing more than a crazy sect.

“This I admit to you, that according to The Way which they call a sect I do serve the God of our fathers, believing everything that is in accordance with the Law and that is written in the Prophets.”  Acts 24:14 (NASB)

Even today there are many who label Christians as crazy or at least delusional for their absurd belief in a God who promises eternal life as the result of someone who was crucified on a cross over two thousand years ago.  Of course, the truth is that the mere continued existence of the Christian church for over two thousand years tends to demonstrate the miraculous is clearly at play.  Followers of Jesus are obviously convinced that he is in fact, The Way.

“Jesus said to him, “I am The Way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”  John 14:6 (NASB)

Jesus Christ is the King of King and the Lord of Lords.  There is no other. He sits at the right hand of God the Father and will one day return to build his kingdom here on earth.  There’s nobody like our God.

Let this song lift your spirit.

Nobody Like Our God – Myron Butler

Our Lord

He Reigns

Nobody Like Our God

Our Lord

He Reigns

Nobody Like Our God

Our Lord

He Reigns

Nobody Like Our God

Our Lord

He Reigns

Nobody Like Our God

Who Is Strong And Mighty

Our God

Seated On the Throne

Our God

High Above the Heavens

Our God

He Is God Alone, Ohh

Our Lord

He Reigns

Nobody Like Our God

Our Lord

He Reigns

Nobody Like Our God

Who came down from glory

Gave his life for me

World with all power

To save and set us free

Our Lord

He Reigns

Nobody Like Our God

Our Lord

He Reigns

Nobody Like Our God

The Whole earth is filled with his glory

The heavens declare he’s mighty

All honor be known to our God

Righteous in every way

The Lord God ancient of days

There’s nobody, nobody like our God

There’s nobody like our God

He is Lord

Nobody like our God

He is Lord

Love is The Way

Our God is righteous, and he is faithful.  Our God is all powerful.  Our God is sovereign and just.  Our God is compassionate and gracious.  Our God is good.  Our God is holy.  Our God is forgiving and merciful.  Our God is our refuge and help.  But above all, our God is love.

“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”  1 John 4:7-8 (NASB)

The love of God is all encompassing, it’s not a directionless emotion; God’s love is a moral direction pointed toward the kingdom of heaven.  God’s love is about looking outside of yourself and caring deeply for others.  God’s love is a source of spiritual energy.  God’s love is an uncompromising sense of joy that fills your heart even in the darkest of times.

“Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor; not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer, contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality.”  Romans 12:9-13 (NASB)

When we act out of love, we step into the same spiritual space as our God.  It is our expression of godly love that fuels our eternal existence guaranteed by our salvation.  Through loving fellowship with God and by lovingly following the teachings of Jesus, we deliberately work our way towards the kingdom of God.  Staying within the boundaries of God’s love in this hostile world is not an easy exercise; it requires diligence, self-discipline, and perseverance.

“I do all things for the sake of the gospel, so that I may become a fellow partaker of it.  Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win.”  1 Corinthians 9:23-24 (NASB)

Victory is ours when we stop fighting and start spreading God’s love.

Allow this song to lift your spirit.

Let Love Win – Carrollton

Lord Your love builds bridges that cannot be burned

It speaks truth that cannot be learned

It’s a treasure we can never earn

Oh, it goes places we’re afraid of going

It’s not a fist it’s a hand wide open

Reaching out to the down to the low and broken

We believe Your love is the strongest way

You’re tearing down walls and You break our chains

Even in this darkness hope will rise again

When we lay down our weapons we will let love win

Lord we lay down our weapons and we let love win

Lord Your love is a friend to its enemies

It takes a hit then turns a cheek

You laid down Your life for peace

Oh, love won’t cast a single stone

It’s never proven by words alone

You come alive in our flesh and bones and in our souls

We believe Your love is the strongest way

You’re tearing down walls and You break our chains

Even in this darkness hope will rise again

When we lay down our weapons we will let love win

Lord we lay down our weapons and we let love win

What if fighting for our beliefs

Looks more like surrendering

Though that’s the hardest thing

And what if standing up for what’s right

Means laying down our pride

Even laying down our lives

We believe Your love is the strongest way

You’re tearing down walls and You break our chains

Even in this darkness hope will rise again

When we lay down our weapons we will let love win

We believe Your love is the strongest way

You’re tearing down walls and You break our chains

Even in this darkness hope will rise again

When we lay down our weapons we will let love win

Lord we lay down our weapons and we let love win

Some Say Christians are Crazy

To unbelievers, The Way of Christianity is often seen as fanatical, and that may not be a bad term.  In fact, radical and fanatical is precisely the path followers of Jesus need to follow in a world that is largely going in the opposite direction.  When believers are born-again, their old life in this world has gone away and their new radical, fanatical self comes alive.

“Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.”  Romans 6:3-4(NASB)

Christians are in fact, different.  Frightened, insecure people often label different as crazy.  Followers of Jesus present their whole being into fellowship with God so as to shine the bright light of truth on a fallen world.  Followers of Jesus avoid the faithless pattern of living found in this world and focus on the spirit of God through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

“Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”  Romans 12:1-2 (NASB)

Those of us who are followers of Jesus have a profoundly different position in life than those who have turned their back on God.  Believers look different, act different, and respond differently to those around them because believers are, in fact, different.  Believers are awesome eternal spiritual beings spreading God’s love.

“Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.”  Romans 6:8-11 (NASB)

When you live for God rather than the pleasures of this world, some will call you crazy.  When you follow The Way of Jesus Christ rather than the way of the world, some will see you as fanatical.  Praise God that your light is shining in such a way that you are clearly seen as different.  True followers of Jesus live and love to be different.

Allow this song to lift your spirit.

Crazy – Newsboys

You turned the world on its head with Your words

Said, “the first will be last and the last will be first”

You loved the traitor, those who spat in Your face

And You gave up a throne for a cross and a grave

Oh, I wanna be that radical

Oh, fearless and fanatical

Crazy!

I don’t care if the whole world calls me

Crazy!

I don’t care if it looks like I’ve lost my mind, I’m alive

To live a reckless, righteous, foolish life

Maybe

I was born to be crazy

I was born to be crazy

You said the meek would inherit the earth

And the wise of the world came to call You absurd

You spoke of kingdoms that no eye has seen

And proclaimed You’re the way to eternity

Oh, I wanna be that radical

Oh, fearless and fanatical

Crazy!

I don’t care if the whole world calls me

Crazy!

I don’t care if it looks like I’ve lost my mind, I’m alive

To live a reckless, righteous, foolish life

Maybe

I was born to be crazy

I was born to be crazy

Some say strange

Some say odd

I say child of the living God

Some say mad

Some say wrong

I say child of the living God

Crazy!

I don’t care if the whole world calls me

Crazy!

I don’t care if it looks like I’ve lost my mind, I’m alive

To live a reckless, righteous, foolish life

Maybe

I was born to be crazy

I was born to be crazy

I was born to be crazy

I was born to be crazy

Thank you for spending this time worshiping God.

His door is now open to you.  You are in God’s presence.  Don’t leave without Him.  Keep Him with you throughout your day.

Go in peace.

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The Book of Acts