Hosanna Restoration Church

The answer to life is life in Christ Jesus. I thought of calling this “Same Song, verse 2000!”, because in the forty years that I have known God I have written nearly that many of these and preached and shared many more times about the same wonderful person! Jesus is the answer for all time.

We are born looking for the author and finisher of our faith. We are drawn to the answer to our problems. We are desperate for more! I wonder how many times He showed up and I passed Him by, or simply let Him pass! I can name a few very specific times, but I am certain there were many more. Thankfully, I finally saw the light. I was saved by grace. Love lifted me. Oh, the joy of sins forgiven! Bless the Lord; He is good. How great is our God? You are perfect Lord!

These simple sentences and ten thousand more make my heart rejoice, but for the first 30 years of my life they meant nothing. I remember all the advent services and the candles being lit, but it had no effect on my life that I recognized. My heart may have been looking for something, but I guess I wasn’t.

In the bible we see that Israel was always looking for some future promise, but then the promise came and was rejected. He was not what they were looking for! We know He was exactly what they were looking for, just like He is exactly what we are looking for. I repeat; He is exactly what you are looking for today. He is the answer to your problems. He is the reason you have anything at all! He really is.

Something happens when we pause and simply say His name. JESUS. There is just something about that name. I have no idea how many times in my life I said that name with no consideration at all. I know I am forgiven, but I wonder how I could have been so stupid! Still, He saved a wretch like me! Thank you, Jesus!

So, I am not an advent expert, but I do get that it is about looking forward. I used to love the song, Onward Christian Soldiers. I obviously did not love it for the meaning, but for the beat. It was always a step out of the normal hymn mode. It spoke of going forward into battle. We always played war on the playground!

Forward is the direction that the Lord leads us. We often tend to get bogged down in where we are. We look at our problems and that is what we think about and talk about and worry about. Jesus walked up to the man by the pool and asked if he wanted to be healed. He wanted to talk about why he could not. On the other hand, the blind man wanted to see. He did not talk about being tired of being blind. The lepers wanted to be cleansed, they did not talk about how bad it was being a leper. The lame came so they could walk, and the mute came so they could talk. They came to Jesus because they heard He was able to change their lives. I left many church services the same way I walked in because I was not looking and certainly, I was not receiving. What a wonderful change Jesus makes in our lives. I keep looking forward to more. How about you?