Tip of the Day 4/6/12

As we remember the death of Jesus today on Good Friday this is a good time to take a look at the sacrifices we are willing to make for others. Make a list of those things you would like to do for others and never seem to have the time for. This is a great day to make a commitment to those good things. Jesus gave up everything for you and there are so many people in our lives that need the touch of a kind word or deed. Who can you touch?

Word for Today, Comfort-Zone: Throughout our lives we all encounter situations that ask/require us to step out of our personal comfort-zone. Over the years I have taken what were for me risks and can look back and know I did those things by the grace of God. Adopting our 4 daughters, homeschooling, becoming a Pastor's wife and teaching Bible Studies, singing on the worship team and playing the flute, moving to Africa and running a guest house, starting my own company and doing public speaking, writing a version of an advice column, friending people on FB that I went to school with, all of these are out of my comfort-zone and are only a few of the things in my life that fit that category. But what I experience within myself each time I take what I see as a major step is NOTHING compared to the step Jesus took when he made the choice to not just come to earth, but in the Garden of Gethsemane submitted to His Father's will to die on the cross for you and me. He stepped out of His comfort-zone of the very throne room of heaven and the reality that His Father would not be able to even look at Him as our sins were placed on Him. Only by His choice having first been made on my behalf am I able to be who I am today. Without His death I am nothing. I am strong, I am brave, I am confident in who I am today because of Who He is and what He did for me. He paid a debt He didn't owe; beaten, scorned, rejected, and deserted, but risen again and now seated at the right hand of the Father standing up for me. How can you say "no" to this man? "I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that day. It is Christ who died...through Him we access to the Father." Today is indeed Good Friday.