“Our backsliding is great; we have sinned against you” (Jeremiah 14:7, NIV).

There’s nothing more miserable than a backslidden believer. Once you have been close to God, loved Him, and walked with Him, experiencing a new and exciting life and insights, allowing sin to pull you away and darken your heart puts you in a miserable state.

Throughout Scripture, backsliding is serious. God likens it to committing adultery and portrays Himself as the heartbroken husband while His wife prostitutes herself to false lovers.

He withholds His blessings of grain, wine, silver, gold, wool, and linen, which represent abundant care, provision, and love.

“She did not know,” He says. She did not stop to think of where all these riches came from, who provided them, who protected, fed, and clothed her, until it all stopped, and she found herself naked and alone in the world.

Backsliding is not only sinning. We all sin and can repent and be forgiven when our hearts are sensitive to the Holy Spirit’s conviction.

Backsliding is a coldness of heart, a loss of love. A state where sin takes precedence over your relationship with the Lord, and you lose the joy of your salvation, and find yourself like the adulterous wife in Hosea, alone and naked. Or, like the prodigal son of the New Testament, living in a pig sty. Backsliding has consequences. But the good news is that God will pursue us like a relentless lover, longing to bless us once again.

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Have you ever been wounded so deeply that you feel like you’ll never recover, and indeed, you’d like to avoid being in that difficult place ever again? The very place in which we are wounded, the site of the deepest pain,

It can also be where the most precious and life-changing lessons are learned; where God gets our attention and draws us into intimate fellowship.

Hosea’s words remind me of a time out, the kind we dole out to kids when they misbehave and need to be temporarily separated from everyone else. Even if the child cries, “You don’t love me!” the parent knows that love is not the issue. Obedience is. A disobedient child can be in danger and needs to be removed from the situation for a while.

That’s what God did with the children of Israel. He removed them, saying, “You are not My people.”

You cannot be My people and behave this way. You cannot continue to run from Me, hurt one another, and allow evil into your lives, and be My people.

In the very next breath, in the same place where He rebuked them, He also assured them, “You are the children of the living God.”

You will always be My children, whom I love, and in whom I will build a future nation.

The Lord is saying to each of us, Come now, let’s settle this. No matter how deep the stain of your sins, I can remove it. I can make you as clean as freshly fallen snow. Even if you are stained as red as crimson, I can make you as white as wool (Isaiah 1:18). We might be separated for a time from Him and His people. But He never stops loving us and giving us a chance to start anew.

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There is really nothing so glorious about suffering.

Nothing good about the indignities of growing old, being sick, or having your heart broken. As a pastor, I’ve watched hundreds of people suffer. I’ve listened to families weep over a child’s death. I’ve watched beloved friends, young and old, die of cancer. I’ve seen broken families and broken hearts. I’ve felt my own heartache through the loss of an infant son, a beloved brother, and other dear friends who have gone before us.

There are days when I shake my head and close my eyes tight to stop the tears and wonder what can ever be so “glorious” that it will make all this seem so insignificant.

Did the apostle Paul know what he was talking about? Did he really understand pain and suffering?

Or is this just a nice, religious platitude thrown as a bone to the spiritually and intellectually weak? And how does suffering translate to glory?

When a close friend suffered through cancer, it was painful and faith-challenging. Her suffering changed her, stripping her of her usual good humor and upbeat attitude. She was forced to consider her faith and her perceptions of God.

And she did. She clung to Jesus through the ordeal and, in the end, died with grace and dignity and words of love on her lips for her friends and family. When all was stripped away, she was reduced to her passion for the Lord, her family, and her friends. I thought, that’s how I want to be.

God’s Word promises us that through the path of suffering there is gold, but it is a gold not easily mined and purified. When God’s Word is hidden in our hearts, when it cleanses our souls, renews our minds, and inspires our lives, we can overcome anything. We can suffer and yet know joy. We can understand what my friend and countless others who have gone before us now know for sure: “In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:37-39).

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Albert Camus once wrote, “Truth, like light, blinds. Falsehood, on the contrary, is a beautiful twilight that enhances every object.”

The early apostles warned believers about persuasive opponents who twist the truth with “twilight” delusions. These opponents have been trying to undermine the faith of believers since the earliest days of the church with a deadly mix of false doctrines, philosophies, and religious legalism.

Every generation of believers faces new assaults on their faith and wrestles with their own questions, doubts, and discoveries.

But to those who are well-founded in the Word and growing spiritually, this is not threatening; it is a healthy part of growth!

Ultimately, an honest seeker of the truth will discover what the apostle Paul said in today’s verse: we are complete in Jesus, and He is the head of all the powers, philosophies, and ideas floating around out there. He is the ultimate fulfillment of our search for the truth.

The false answers that attract people are not based on a realistic understanding of human sin, human brokenness, or human weakness. Therefore, they never really address the real problem that plagues human beings, and they offer no real hope of forgiveness or redemption.

Those who fill themselves only with themselves will always remain full of themselves—but will lack the opportunity to grow, to give, to find meaning and purpose in life.

Redemption is the great gift of God to us through Jesus.

Our lives, with all our mistakes, foolish choices, and sin, can start over, with purpose and meaning…complete.“Christ was a complete man.” —Augustine of Hippo

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Not a pleasant subject, the wrath of God.

I would rather focus on grace and love. I don’t like to think of an angry heavenly Father.

The passage in Romans 1:18-32 is the only place in the New Testament where God’s wrath is discussed at length. Three times in that passage, the phrase “He gave them over” is repeated. He gave them over to sinful desires, shameful lusts, and depraved minds. When people deliberately walk away from God, determined to pursue their own harmful ways, He gives them over to themselves so the consequences can teach the lesson.

A shallow concept of sin leads to a misunderstanding of its nature.

Sin is not just something that makes God mad for arbitrary reasons.

Sin violates His holiness, separates us from Him, and its evil causes human suffering. Sin is like a cancer that, left untreated, has horrible consequences. A perversion of our relationship with God becomes a perversion of our relationship with others, and in the end, we become less human, and everyone suffers.

God expresses His love by continuing to give us the freedom to choose for or against Him.

The consequences of our sins can be redemptive, as in the story of the Prodigal Son. When the son wanted to leave, the father did not put him under lock and key nor prevent him from ruining his life in a far country. He gave him his freedom, even if it led to a pig sty! He gave him over to his own sinful way, and it was that pig sty that snapped him back to his senses and brought him running back into the arms of a loving father who accepted him without hesitation (Luke 15).

God’s wrath is to be respected, even feared, with a healthy, smart fear. But His love is even greater, always keeping the door open for a wayward child to find a way home.

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A few days after my mother went to heaven, I found my bereaved dad plunking notes on the keyboard she used to play. She had a great love for the piano and taught me to play. He missed her and her music.

“I don’t want to just poke around with one finger,” he said to me. “Can you teach me to play?”

So I began to explain octaves and showed him how to place his hands. Octaves are seven unique notes plus the eighth, which is a repeat of the first, only higher or lower in tone.

We went on to discuss the marvelous design of music. Biblically, seven is the number of perfection, and eight is new beginnings. A single note C is followed by a second note C at the top of the octave. Playing the two ends together is called a “single and a double.” The seventh note completes the scale; the eighth starts a new one.

This pattern represents God’s harmony in our world!

Entranced by this concept, St. Augustine wrote, “The harmony between the single and the double…has been naturally so implanted in us (by whom indeed, if not by Him who created us?) that not even the illiterate can remain unaware of it.”

Since the beginning, God has expressed His work through the number seven: Seven days of creation, seven Holy Feasts of the Lord, seven days of the week, seven times marching around the walls of Jericho, seven churches in the book of Revelation…and the list goes on.

The number eight consistently represents new beginnings. After the flood of Noah’s time, eight people survived (Noah and his wife, Shem, Ham, Japheth and their three wives) to begin anew (Genesis 8:16). Boys were circumcised on the eighth day (Leviticus 12:3), Jesus appears to the disciples after eight days (John 20:26), just to name a few examples.

As my dad and I played around on the piano, remembering my sweet mom and her love for music, I listened to the chords and the notes with new appreciation for the beautiful music she would hear.

“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,” Paul said of what is waiting for us in heaven (1 Corinthians 2:9).

How glorious is God’s creation that He would give us music as an art, a skill, a poetic outlet that reflects His glory and is imbued with His perfect harmony! The music we make today, created to give us expressions of worship, love, joy, and sorrow, is but a faint melody compared to the glorious symphony that awaits us.

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If we only grasped who is praying for us!

Simon Peter was quick to act and speak, and easily influenced by fear and intimidation.

Jesus knew that. He knew Peter would betray him before the crucifixion. He even warned him: “Will you really lay down your life for me? I tell you the truth, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times!” (John 13:38, NIV).

Jesus promised to pray for Peter, that in the end, Peter’s faith would not fail him, that he would turn back, rise again in God’s Spirit, and give strength and encouragement to his brothers.

Jesus prayed for Peter. Jesus prays for you and me!

“I pray also for those who will believe,” He said (John 17:20-26).

I find it encouraging and comforting that the greatest prayer warrior in the universe is praying for me, for my faith, for my future. I read this line somewhere: “Satan preys…Jesus prays.”

Jesus knew that Satan was out to get Simon Peter. He even told him,

“Satan has asked for you that he may sift you as wheat” (Luke 22:31).

Spiritual warfare waged over Peter’s soul.

Jesus knew the heartache and shocking revelation Peter would experience when he realized he had indeed betrayed his Lord. But Jesus also knew that He had a plan for Peter’s life—one that would defeat Satan and secure Peter’s place in the Kingdom forever. Jesus knew what awaited His beloved disciple.

So, He prayed.

When you feel “sifted” by Satan, discouraged, defeated, and afraid, remember that “since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess” (Hebrews 4:14, NIV). “If I could hear Christ praying for me in the next room, I would not fear a million enemies. Yet distance makes no difference. He is praying for me.” ~Robert M. McCheyne (1813-1843), Scottish preacher

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Good Friday is a somber, reflective day when we contemplate what Jesus did for us. Good Friday represents those days in our lives when circumstances are complex and sorrowful. Imagine how the disciples felt as they fled in fear and sorrow after witnessing the crucifixion.

S.M. Lockridge (1913-2000) was a prominent African-American preacher who delivered a powerful message titled “It’s Friday but Sunday is Coming.” One passage reads:

It’s Friday. Jesus is buried. A soldier stands guard. And a rock is rolled into place.

But it’s Friday. It is only Friday. Sunday is a comin’! And that’s why the Easter story deeply moves people. The story didn’t end on Friday. The hope of the Resurrection after Good Friday propels people to the Lord.

The hope of redemption and restoration is what the Easter story is about.

I still recall with joy a recent Easter weekend when, beginning with Good Friday, we saw hundreds of people come to the Lord. I wish you could have stood with me at the front of the church after each service, looking into the faces of those who were coming into the Kingdom of God. The tears, the weeping, the humility, and tender hearts, it is a supernatural experience to behold.

One of the most precious sights was the little girl, ten years old, who waited a while after the service to talk to me. When it was her turn, she came up with tears streaming down her little face, saying, “Pastor Ray, I felt so moved today, and I just wanted the Father to be proud of me for standing up for Jesus.” I reached down, hugged her, and said, “You just made my Easter.”

Many parents came down the aisle with children, and sometimes you didn’t know who was bringing whom! All ages were represented, and I thank God for all of them.

When we observe Good Friday, remember the suffering and sacrifice of Jesus. Surrender your heart; let it be tender and grateful.

But remember, Sunday is coming, and like that little ten-year-old girl, we can stand up for Jesus and let the Father be proud. And celebrate! Sunday is coming! He Is Risen!

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There is an interesting character in the Easter story that we never hear about again: Malchus.

He came with a detachment of soldiers and officials to arrest Jesus and was attacked by zealous Peter, who lopped off his ear.

“No more of this!” Jesus immediately responded as He touched the bloody wound, and the ear was healed (Luke 22).

Malchus, the victim of Simon Peter’s impetuous bravado, had an encounter with Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. Probably not his first encounter, since he was a servant of the high priest, Caiaphas. Those who plotted to arrest and kill Jesus reported to Caiaphas, so it’s likely that the priest used his servants as spies to follow Jesus around and find out exactly where He would be that night. Malchus may have known a great deal about Jesus; what He taught, who He claimed to be. He probably believed what Caiaphas and the others said— that Jesus was a blasphemer and deserved to die.

How did this encounter change Malchus? Was he still eager to see Jesus betrayed? Did he regret his part in Jesus’ brutal torture and crucifixion? Did he ever come to know the truth about Jesus? Did he ever believe the words he may have even heard Jesus say? “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, but by Me.”

Amid this painful betrayal, Jesus helped one of His enemies.

“No more of this,” He said. No more resisting. He had made peace with His impending death when He prayed to His Father, “Not My will, but Yours be done.”

Even as He faced suffering, He stopped to heal an undeserving stranger, then told everyone present exactly what was happening.

“This is your hour and the power of darkness,” He said to the priests and soldiers, including Malchus (Luke 22:53).

Jesus went to the cross for all those who believe, and those who betrayed Him.

Imagine how that touch of His hand astonished Malchus and left him with a memory that either haunted or blessed him for the rest of his life. “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” —Romans 5:8

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“Come now; let us leave,” Jesus beckoned His disciples, leading them from the upper room where they shared their last supper. It was the day before the Cross. He knew what was coming. He washed their feet, shared communion, taught them, reassured them, then stood up and led them down to the Garden of Gethsemane.

As they walked past acres of vineyards in the light of the Passover moon, I saw Jesus stop to lift a length of vine as He began to reveal the mysteries of spiritual gardening.

“I am the vine,” He began. It starts with Him. The Gardener is God the Father, and believers are the branches of the vine. There are only two kinds of branches: fruitless and fruitful. Which means there are two kinds of believers: fruitless and fruitful.

One of the great principles of gardening is pruning. Vine keepers cut off the sucker shoots, the cane-like branches that produce beautiful leaves, but bear no fruit. If they remain, they will sap the life of the vine and reduce the amount of water and nutrients that reach the fruit. Everything suffers.

Pruning directs as much water and nutrients as possible to the branches bearing fruit, increasing the quantity and the quality of the harvest.

Jesus needed them to know that pruning is necessary. Sometimes it is painful. Sometimes it is a relief! God will remove things from our lives that we don’t have the courage or strength to remove ourselves.

Even fruitless branches can bear deceptively beautiful foliage. Just because things look good and sound good doesn’t mean they are part of the heavenly Gardener’s plan for your life.

God may be pruning something out of your life. Let it go. Trust Him. Don’t fight it. Welcome it, for His pruning will ultimately enrich your life.

Jesus said that He came that we may have life, and have it “more abundantly” (John 10:10). He came to give us rich, full, productive lives that are not distracted, weighed down, diluted, or hindered by activities, relationships, or unnecessary obligations. He waters, nourishes, weeds, and carefully prunes our lives to allow our gifts and talents to flourish so that we can be a blessing to others and glorify God.

He was about to face Gethsemane, but knew it was essential to leave His beloved disciples with these life-giving lessons.

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