As I look forward to celebrating Easter one more time, I can’t help but think about the following Sunday. For some strange reason that’s where a pastor’s mind goes automatically. And we all know what we all know: whereas Easter Sunday morning it looks like all traffic on I-205 has been diverted to our sanctuary, the following Sunday it’s more like a bomb went off. Well, maybe that’s a bit of hyperbole. Still, you understand what I mean. While on Easter the CEO’s (Christmas and Easter Only) show up, they apparently need to rest up until Christmas. What they fail to understand is all that they are missing.

Maybe it's because I read so many books that I run across a number of things that really hit me in the heart. One of those gems is found in Reggie Joiner's book Think Orange. He writes: "Regardless of how you view the church, it is a critical part of God's divine strategy to demonstrate His redemptive story to the world. The really good news is that we are the church-you and I together are the church. It's amazing when you think about it. If people looking in from the outside really knew your story or my story, they'd probably question how we got this role. And if you knew me the way I know me, or if I knew you the way you know you, I suspect we would disqualify each other. Even so, God has chosen us in spite of our messiness or maybe even because of it. All along He has planned this thing called the church so we could send a collective message to a generation that needs to know Him. Life is messy, but even with all our faults and failures you and I are still given a chance to demonstrate the message of His love. We are in this together only because God put us together to show how much He cares for our broken world. Somehow God is going to use you and me collectively to be the church. That's His plan, and only God could have thought of it."

In reading through Deuteronomy recently, I ran across a statement I have thought about many times: "You shall not sacrifice to the Lord your God a bull or sheep which has any blemish or defect, for that is an abomination to the Lord your God." (Deuteronomy 17:1) Whenever I read this verse and many others which echo the same theme, I'm reminded that God is not impressed when I offer him "whatever."

They come in all forms. Perhaps it's a one of those horrendous buzzes that wakes you out of a sound sleep that you scramble to find and shut off. Or maybe its the light ringing of chimes that alert you to a appointment in half an hour. Then there's the sticky notes reminding you of everything imaginable. What am I talking about? Reminders. They come in all sizes and shapes, and play a significant role in our lives. Indeed, we'd be lost without them. So what kind of reminders do you have built into your life to help you deal with the challenges you face in your faith in Jesus?

When Moses was leading the children of Israel into the Promised Land, God gave him a most intriguing command in this regard: "Speak to the children of Israel: Tell them to make tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and to put a blue thread in the tassels of the corners. And you shall have the tassel, that you may look upon it and remember all the commandments of the Lord and do them, and that you may not follow the harlotry to which your own heart and your own eyes are inclined., and that you may remember and do all my commandments, and be holy for your God." (Numbers 15:38-40)