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    • Did you hear that? Someone’s knocking…

      Posted at 7:00 am by sneuhofer, on April 17, 2018

      Psalm 16:5 (NCV) “the Lord is all I need. He takes care of me.”

      A few years back I spent a great deal of time thinking about needs vs. wants. What is it I really need? When I identified something, I’d ask, “do I need this or is it just a want?” Have you ever found yourself wrestling with a question like this? As I pondered the difference, I found myself stopping dead in my tracks after reading Psalm 16, verse 5. My mind went back to the first time I visited the church I currently attend. As a child, I was raised in a Christian home and was in church every time the doors were opened…which usually meant Sunday mornings and evenings, and Wednesday nights. By the time I had reached my teens I stopped going to church on a regular basis and became a “C & E” Christian, attending church on Christmas and Easter ONLY.

      I can remember the day I visited the church as an adult as if it were yesterday. The night before, my Dad called to invite me to the service. I’m not sure how many times they asked me to come and check it out but this time, I felt I just had to be there. At this time in my life I hadn’t been in or near a church since I had gotten married some years earlier. The relationship that I enjoyed with Christ when I was younger had become very distant. Throughout my childhood and into my early teens, I was very diligent about my relationship with Jesus. Reading my Bible and setting aside time to pray was a normal part of my everyday routine. In fact, it was a family thing. My parents, my sister and I would sit around the kitchen table reading and discussing the Bible. I fell out of the routine through my teens, twenties and into my thirties. The influences of the world caught my attention and led me on a path far away from the closeness I felt with Christ.

      By the time I hit my thirties there was a huge God-shaped void in my life. I had tried to fill it with almost EVERYTHING this world had to offer. But I still felt empty, unsatisfied, restless. I knew something was missing. Little did I know it was the gentle knock of Christ calling me to come back to Him. He is what I needed to fill the empty places in my life and make me whole again. That Sunday morning as the worship team sang, I felt a warmth that I hadn’t felt in so long. It was Christ wrapping me in His sweet embrace letting me know He was there and that He loved me even though I had ran so far away from Him. Tears began to flow uncontrollably as I continued to listen to the words of the song coming from the praise band. Breaking down a piece of the wall I had built, I allowed those words to wash over me.

      “How deeply I need you my Lord…Like the morning needs the sun, I need you. Like the desert needs the rain, I need you. Like the ocean needs the streams, I need you.”

      I need Christ PERIOD. He is my friend and confidant. He is the giver of everything good in my life. When I feel I can’t make it another second, He sustains me. When I feel unloved, He loves me with an everlasting love and will not leave me or forsake me.

      My relationship with Christ continues to grow to this day. Each day I meet Him in the early morning hours. During that time, he fill the “holes” in my life with His love, mercy and grace.

      Do you feel like something is missing in your life? Christ is knocking at the door to your heart. Will you let Him in?

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      Posted in Christ's love, grace, mercy | 0 Comments
    • What does intimacy with Jesus look like?

      Posted at 7:00 am by sneuhofer, on April 3, 2018

      John 15: 9 – 15 (MSG) “I’ve loved you the way my Father has loved me. Make yourselves at home in my love. If you keep my commands, you’ll remain intimately at home in my love. That’s what I’ve done—kept my Father’s commands and made myself at home in his love. I’ve told you these things for a purpose: that my joy might be your joy, and your joy wholly mature.

      Just before Easter last year, I used my morning quiet time to reflect on Jesus and the last few days he spent with his disciples before he went to Calvary. One particular morning, my focus was specifically devoted to the fifteenth chapter of John. Reading through, I closed my eyes and imagined myself at the scene, trying to focus in on the tiniest detail. Entering the room, I envisioned the room’s décor. Inhaling, I wondered what smells would be lingering from within as my ears strained to hear side conversations.
      Opening my eyes, I tried to visualize what was happening until my eyes met Jesus in verse nine. Suddenly I went from the upper room with the disciples and Jesus to my kitchen table. With compassion in his voice Jesus spoke.

      “Sheri, I have loved you the way my Father has loved me. Make yourself at home in my love.”

      “Um… wait… woah…” I was speechless and a wave of peace washed over me.

      Jesus continued, “If you keep my commands, you’ll remain intimately at home in my love.”

      I must admit that “intimately at home” sounded so comforting especially that morning. I allowed the truth to wash over me feeling the warmth of His arms wrap around me like a comfortable blanket on a cold winter morning.
      Picking up my dictionary, I thumbed through until I found the word intimate.
      IN’TIMATE, n. A familiar friend or associate; one to whom the thoughts of another are entrusted without reserve.

      He wants me to remain “intimately at home in his love” because he has remained intimately at home in the Father’s love by keeping his commands. He tells me “these things” (v.11) so that I (actually all of us) may have joy.

      Joy

      Think about that. This doesn’t sound to me like he wants to bully me (or all of us) into keeping a bunch of rules that are out dated or are no longer relevant in today’s society. He wants to protect me from the pain and scars of this broken world. God sent Jesus into the world so that through him I (we) “can have real and eternal life, better than I (we) can ever dream of.” (The Message John 10:10)

      I can see myself being “at home” with Christ. In this picture I feel loved, safe, at peace, and I can talk freely without reservation. After conversations with people I all too often try to analyze (over-analyze actually) everything by interviewing myself with questions like: “Did I say that the right way?” “Did I sound stupid?” “Is he/she going to look at me differently because of what just came out of my mouth?”

      Believe me, all of these questions have run through my head. But in this picture with Christ, I can see myself bringing him the broken pieces of my life and trusting him for restoration. I am without reserve because I am “intimately at home in his love” and it is the best feeling in the world.

      Can you picture yourself intimately at home in the love of Christ?

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      Posted in Christ's love | 0 Comments
    • A Crack and a Thwack

      Posted at 7:00 am by sneuhofer, on March 30, 2018

      One day as I was making salad for my family to enjoy for lunch I accidentally “sliced” off the tip of my index finger. I knew I’d cut it pretty deep because I immediately felt throbbing pain traveling through my finger. Then I saw blood – EVERYWHERE. I dropped everything, ran to the sink, turned on the water and quickly poked my finger tip into the running flow. This I can tell you was not the right thing to do. The sudden sting of the water hitting the open wound was worse than the pain of the cut itself. As the minutes past the throbbing in my figure increased in intensity, I did everything I knew to stop the bleeding….nothing helped. The cut, although very small, produced incredible discomfort. Weeks later I could still feel the pain whenever the area near the cut was touched.

      The cut on my finger reminded me of what happened that Good Friday all those years ago. I can’t even begin imagine the excruciating pain (both emotionally and physically) Jesus must have felt that day. The pain would all start when two of his disciples, who had spent 3 years of their lives following him, unleashed the first emotional blow. Judas would betray him for personal gain (Matthew 26:14 – 16). Then Peter, who just hours earlier boldly professed he would die for Jesus, denied him…not just once but 3 times (Matthew 26:69-75). Can I just tell you if my close friends did this to me, I would have been a puddle of muck….but not Jesus. He saw the bigger picture and carried on. His Father’s plan had to be accomplished.

      That night Jesus faced an unfair trial at the hands of the Jewish and Roman authorities. Emotional pain would turn to physical pain soon after Pilate ordered Jesus to be flogged.

      Crack!

      The prongs at the end of the whip sank deep in his beard ripping out bits and pieces as it was quickly drawn back for another pulverizing blow. Flesh covered arms and legs, that crossed racial, social, and religious boundaries, were torn to shreds with each contemptuous lash. Forty times the whip’s fury left stripe after stripe across Jesus’s back.

      I sometimes wonder if Jesus knew that each stripe producing whack he endured would, one day, provide hope and healing for followers to come (Isaiah 53:5 and 1 Peter 2:24).

      The suffering doesn’t stop with flogging. The face that looked down over the dark expanse of the universe and said “Let there be light” was slapped bloody by mocking guards. A crown of thorns pressed firmly through his hair and into the scalp produced blood droplets that rolled down the face and over the lips of the one who spoke words of life and peace.

      He then picked up the cross he would soon be nailed to and began the journey to Calvary’s hill. Can you even begin to imagine what he was feeling? He had just been thrashed 40 times with a spike-tipped whip which produced gaping wounds of raw flesh. Yet with each step Jesus fulfilled a purpose.

      Horizontal he laid, stretching out one arm and then the next…can you feel the tip of the spike?

      Thwack!

      Mallet head meets spike top and thrusts its tip through one wrist.

      Thwack!

      Then the other. A soldier holds one foot down and moves the other into place over the first.

      Thwack!

      The final spike is set.

      Now, nailed to a cross, the beam is shoved upward and comes to its vertical resting place. There, the creator of heaven and earth in human form hangs suspended between his two creations. Outstretched arms that once held the world are now the greatest symbol of love for the creation he breathed life into and formed in his own image. If that wasn’t enough…the spotless and clean became the filthiest of filth…sin.

      And why? Why did Jesus do this?

      Because he understood the price of sin and wanted to cancel the debt for all people. The price of sin? Death. (Romans 6:23) Eternal separation from a holy God.

      Why would Jesus want to pay for our sin? The answer is simple. He loves us and wants us to be with him for eternity. Jesus died a horrendous death so through him (our sin offering) we can be spared sin’s death grip.

      John 3:16 – 18 (MSG) “This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person’s failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him.

      Romans 5:6 – 8 (MSG) “Christ arrives right on time to make this happen. He didn’t, and doesn’t, wait for us to get ready. He presented himself for this sacrificial death when we were far too weak and rebellious to do anything to get ourselves ready. And even if we hadn’t been so weak, we wouldn’t have known what to do anyway. We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice. But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him.”

      Do you know Jesus? Have you accepted Him as your savior? He died so that you could be forgiven and have eternal life. He doesn’t care where you’ve been or what you’ve done…all He cares about is where you are headed from this point forward.

      Ask him into your heart today… will you pray with me?

      Jesus, I know I am a sinner and have fallen so, so short. Please come into my heart today and forgive me of my sin. I know that you died for me so that I could spend eternity with you. Place people in my life who will encourage me as I walk with you. Amen

      If you have just prayed this prayer… Welcome to the kingdom of God!!! The Bible says you are now a new creation in Christ…the old has gone and the new has come.  It’s as if you’ve never sinned (2 Corinthians 5:17).

      So what do you do now?

      • Don’t keep this good news to yourself! Tell a fellow Christian!
      • Get into God’s word and begin to grow in your faith.

      To help you get into God’s word, check out a few related posts:

      • Trying vs. Training
      • Have you gotten lazy?
      • Hide His word away

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      Posted in Christ's love, Good Friday, salvation | 0 Comments
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