I recently wrote an article titled Trust Issues that gives the backdrop to what follows. If you haven’t yet read that one, it would help to make sense of what follows. You may find some benefit either way or you may not find any good at all! Nevertheless, there is more to the story and I do not believe it to be my own.

We often speak of how good God is and we love to sing “Amazing Grace.” I have been challenged recently, however, to ‘put my money where my mouth is’ on this and practice this kind of faith when dark clouds dim the light of his face.

While we celebrate the resurrection particularly on one Sunday a year, Christians also celebrate the resurrection every Sunday. Indeed, we celebrate every Sunday. Often, however, it is easy for us to move back into our sermon series and extra curriculars, and move away from the beauty and power of the fact that this Jesus did rise from the grave.

The nature of the atonement is central to Christian life and theology. Questions concerning the person and work of Christ, the relationship between God and man, the resolution to the problem of sin and the overarching story of redemptive history are all bound up in this discussion. At the heart of this conversation, the nature of the atonement concerns what Christ came to accomplish, what he actually accomplished, and why the atonement is necessary. If we get the atonement wrong, we cannot get the gospel right because the cross is at the center of this good news. Misunderstanding the cross leads to a false doctrine of God, man, sin, salvation, and the overarching message of the Bible.

These days have been hard on the church. They have been specifically hard on the little church that I serve. We have lost loved ones—brothers, husbands, uncles, mothers, and friends. We have seen various families touched by tragedy. It has also been difficult for my own family.

Do you remember the feeling of freedom we had as children? Our imaginations ran wild and flowed unimpeded by the dams of the daily grind! Do you remember the fun of playing ball or hide and seek? How about pretending that you were a caped crusader or some other hero or heroine?

Despite our desire for unfettered freedom, even we knew there had to be structure, there had to be rules. Every game we played had some set of laws and many times, the rules were defined by the one who owned the ball and the bat. My ball. My rules! This dictatorial rule of decree was often argued but seldom overturned. Sometimes there was a cry from one of the older, wiser kids: “Guys, can’t we all just get along?”