So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. (Romans 12:1 MSG)

I know what enthusiasm they have for God, but it is misdirected zeal. For they don’t understand God’s way of making people right with himself. Refusing to accept God’s way, they cling to their own way of getting right with God by trying to keep the law. (Romans 10:2, 3 NLT)

he calls people, but not according to their good or bad works.) She was told, “Your older son will serve your younger son.” In the words of the Scriptures, “I loved Jacob, but I rejected Esau.”
What does all this mean? Even though the Gentiles were not trying to follow God’s standards, they were made right with God. And it was by faith that this took place. But the people of Israel, who tried so hard to get right with God by keeping the law, never succeeded. Why not? Because they were trying to get right with God by keeping the law instead of by trusting in him. They stumbled over the great rock in their path. God warned them of this in the Scriptures when he said,
“I am placing a stone in Jerusalem that makes people stumble,
a rock that makes them fall.
But anyone who trusts in him
will never be disgraced.” (Romans 9:12, 13, 30-33 NLT)

Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory.
We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love. (Romans 5:2-5 NLT)

Stay sheltered

Yet I still belong to you;
you hold my right hand. You guide me with your counsel,
leading me to a glorious destiny. Whom have I in heaven but you?
I desire you more than anything on earth. My health may fail, and my spirit may grow weak,
but God remains the strength of my heart;
he is mine forever. But as for me, how good it is to be near God!
I have made the Sovereign LORD my shelter,
and I will tell everyone about the wonderful things you do. (Psalm 73:23-26, 28 NLT)

Believe!

Abraham never wavered in believing God’s promise. In fact, his faith grew stronger, and in this he brought glory to God. He was fully convinced that God is able to do whatever he promises. And because of Abraham’s faith, God counted him as righteous. And when God counted him as righteous, it wasn’t just for Abraham’s benefit. It was recorded for our benefit, too, assuring us that God will also count us as righteous if we believe in him, the one who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. (Romans 4:20-24 NLT)

Rebel, Revolutionary-No, Righteous, Risen One

For the time has come for this prophecy about me to be fulfilled: ‘He was counted among the rebels.’ Yes, everything written about me by the prophets will come true.”
Then Jesus spoke to the leading priests, the captains of the Temple guard, and the elders who had come for him. “Am I some dangerous revolutionary,” he asked, “that you come with swords and clubs to arrest me? Why didn’t you arrest me in the Temple? I was there every day. But this is your moment, the time when the power of darkness reigns.” (Luke 22:37, 52, 53 NLT)
Then a mighty roar rose from the crowd, and with one voice they shouted, “Kill him, and release Barabbas to us!” (Barabbas was in prison for taking part in an insurrection in Jerusalem against the government, and for murder.) So Pilate sentenced Jesus to die as they demanded. When they came to a place called The Skull, they nailed him to the cross. And the criminals were also crucified—one on his right and one on his left.
One of the criminals hanging beside him scoffed, “So you’re the Messiah, are you? Prove it by saving yourself—and us, too, while you’re at it!”
But the other criminal protested, “Don’t you fear God even when you have been sentenced to die? We deserve to die for our crimes, but this man hasn’t done anything wrong.” Then Jesus shouted, “Father, I entrust my spirit into your hands!” And with those words he breathed his last.
When the Roman officer overseeing the execution saw what had happened, he worshiped God and said, “Surely this man was innocent.” (Luke 23:18, 19, 24, 33, 39-41, 46, 47 NLT)
But very early on Sunday morning the women went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. They found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance. He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead! Remember what he told you back in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be betrayed into the hands of sinful men and be crucified, and that he would rise again on the third day.” (Luke 24:1, 2, 6, 7 NLT)

God in a grave?!

He died a criminal's death, hanging on a creep's cross from 9-12 noon. On his death, darkness knifed the noonday sky as if to celebrate the death of Christ; thunder clapped in anticlimax as if baffled by the paradox of Jesus now dead. I'm overtaken here at 6 pm that at this time years before-Good Friday-Christ was either already buried or about to be buried. The Son of God was God enough to endure death for a few days. Jesus, very God, willingly confined Himself to the grave, dismissing His Spirit. The silence in heaven must have been deafening, the forgetful panic among his close ones-frightening, the riot in hell none short of troubling. Jesus' dare to endure a sinner's death was a living statement of total confidence that His Father had His back. Not even the grip of the grave could usurp His untethered rule over death's sting-Hell, itself could not hold Him. He would drink the cup of God's fury so that we could drink the living water He died to secure us. His drink was judgment: ours-forgiveness, redemption, and restoration. If Jesus were willing to know the TKO of death; we need ask ourselves how much are we willing to take. His burial stood in stark contrast to the victory He donned in death. His death was the ultimate Judo victory over Satan and His minions, for in dying He brought life. Yet after such a stellar conquest, He'd be wrapped thick and thrown in a hollow tomb? Was it all worth it? Was this the way of the King? Yes, even Jesus-God-would know life in its disquieting diversity-flying high He was laid low, He gave life only to lose His own. And the lesson is telling though disturbing. We must be willing to embrace life in its cheers and strain, its victory and pain. Life's diversity is key to our attaining to the individuals God birthed us to be. Our mountaintops are meant to sustain us through life's valleys; our lows somehow help us better enjoy life's highs. God was sealed off-dead in a grave? Yes, our lives will be interwoven with threads dark and bright, alike; but we must never lose our confidence of Who we are. As children of the King, we have the quiet trust that Sunday's always coming. Satan's swag will soon be replaced by the hangover Sunday tends to bring Him.

What a Savior

He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross. (Colossians 2:14, 15 NLT)
He was despised and rejected—
a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief.
We turned our backs on him and looked the other way.
He was despised, and we did not care. Yet it was our weaknesses he carried;
it was our sorrows that weighed him down.
And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God,
a punishment for his own sins! But he was pierced for our rebellion,
crushed for our sins.
He was beaten so we could be whole.
He was whipped so we could be healed. All of us, like sheep, have strayed away.
We have left God’s paths to follow our own.
Yet the LORD laid on him
the sins of us all. He was oppressed and treated harshly,
yet he never said a word.
He was led like a lamb to the slaughter.
And as a sheep is silent before the shearers,
he did not open his mouth. Unjustly condemned,
he was led away.
No one cared that he died without descendants,
that his life was cut short in midstream.
But he was struck down
for the rebellion of my people. He had done no wrong
and had never deceived anyone.
But he was buried like a criminal;
he was put in a rich man’s grave. But it was the LORD’s good plan to crush him
and cause him grief.
Yet when his life is made an offering for sin,
he will have many descendants.
He will enjoy a long life,
and the LORD’s good plan will prosper in his hands. When he sees all that is accomplished by his anguish,
he will be satisfied.
And because of his experience,
my righteous servant will make it possible
for many to be counted righteous,
for he will bear all their sins. I will give him the honors of a victorious soldier,
because he exposed himself to death.
He was counted among the rebels.
He bore the sins of many and interceded for rebels. (Isaiah 53:3-12 NLT)