Guest Blog written by: Charley Goode

The story of the tax collector and Jesus will always be one of my favorite stories. Jesus befriended Levi and asked Levi to follow him. Right then he left everything and followed Jesus. This is such an awesome accomplishment, everyone should be praising God for the change in Levi’s life. Right? I mean this guy was a sinner and now he is covered in the blood of Christ. However, the whole dynamic changes once we realize that he is a tax collector. The disciples called out to Jesus saying “why do you eat with tax collectors and sinners”– how ironic is it that these people are asking Him why he eats with sinners when they are sinners themselves. Jesus then says that it is not the healthy who need a doctor. It’s the sick. He has not come to change the righteous but the ones caught in wicked ways. In my life, I can automatically be so quick to judge someone and wonder why my Christian friends are hanging out with people who are not following Jesus and then I realize that ministry and my life isn’t revolved around me. It’s revolved around Jesus. Jesus wants us to reach those who seem unreachable. I find myself thanking God often for the people who brought me to Christ. If Jesus didn’t love sinners, none of us would know Him. There is no sinner who is worse than another. So in my life, I’m going to try to remember that someone had to tell me and talk to me and you could always be that person for someone else. 

Guest Blog written by: Colin Raynor

Mark 14:32-42

No verses in the Bible seem to describe me and I assume a lot of Christians, like these verses in Mark 14.  Praying is a spiritual discipline and there are days where I just don’t pray.  It’s not that I don’t believe in it, or I don’t think it’s important.  I just fail in that aspect… A lot.  Jesus at one of the more critical moments in His life brings his best friends to the garden with him as he prepares himself for what’s to come.  He tells his disciples to wait at this spot and pray while he goes by himself and prays.  Three times Jesus prayed and when he came back his friends were sleeping instead of praying.  Can I look at this and say it’s okay for me not to pray because his disciples didn’t?  No!  But I do find comfort in the fact that I and his disciples (at least at this moment) lacked that spiritual discipline and I’m not alone.  So, as I go throughout my days I need to take this verse, Jesus says “Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”  And remember that praying to God is a necessity.  And will help me in my walk with him.

Today’s reading covers the end of the Gospel of Matthew and half of the Gospel of Mark.  There is so much to soak up  between those pages.  But the thing that I was struck by the most in today’s reading came early on.  In Matthew 27 we read about the final hours of Jesus’ crucifixion as he hung bleeding on the cross.  In those moments the human part of him was in excruciating pain and anguish.  Before he breathed his last, “Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” -which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46)  A few verses later scripture says that Jesus cried out once more and then he gave up his spirit.  He died.  Notice it didn’t say he was killed.  It says he gave up …which implies he willingly gave it up.  But where was God?  Did the Father forsake the Son?  No.  He was there.  In fact, the next sentence says that in that moment the curtain in the temple was torn, the earth shook, and dead men in graves rose up and walked out of their tombs.  Even in that moment of darkness life sprung up.  In those moments people who were watching including the guards put their faith in Jesus and said, “Surely He was the Son of God.” (Matthew 27:54)

Where was God during all of this?  He was in the same place he is when bad things happen to you and me.  He was there just like he is here with us today.  He is sovereign…He is with us…He is never failing…He is always loving…He is Lord.  He was in control just as he always is…and He won the victory on that day.

A common phrase that people throw around these days for political gain is, “LOVE WINS.”  Let me tell you…that first Easter weekend 2000+ years ago…was when LOVE WON.  Love won not because of an earthy victory or political agenda.  Love won 2000 years ago because God is Love (1 Corinthians 13).  We only know love because of God (1 John 4:19).  And on that day, God won…Love won.  Death was swallowed up in victory.  Jesus gave himself up…he gave up his spirit and died.  He died that we might live.  He rose again on the third day that we might have new, abundant and free lives to give him glory and live with Him forever.

May we all, like the people who witnessed it first hand say, “Surely He was the Son of God!”