Sent on April 13th, 2017

Dear all,
 
We are about to celebrate what Christians around the world refer to as Good Friday.  What this day represents is an amazing feat that brought hope to a hopeless world.
 
When it comes to mankind having a relationship with God, Good Friday is like pushing a reset button. Mankind is given a second chance to have a true father son/daughter relationship with the One who created us. 
 
When Jesus went to the cross He defeated every enemy that held mankind in bondage. 
 
Today the only thing that keeps people in bondage is their own unwillingness to except what Jesus did for them.  Some may think that His invitation is just too easy therefore they shy away.  Others may have started out and decided that it is too difficult and are now spiritual drifters.  Whether easy or difficult start, we must. 
 
In my Christian experience, I started over many times.  Not that I fell away from following Jesus but when there were things revealed to me that I wanted to change in my life I would often start with great enthusiasm but would fall short of the shift I wanted to make. 
 
Once when my wife and I were going through a difficult situation she said to me “this was a test”. I said “yes but we failed the test!”
 
When this happened I had two choices.  I could give up, resign myself to a life of just the way it is or I could start over.  Because there were so many issues in my life that needed changing I decided to learn to be real good at starting over. 
 
Over the years there are things that I no longer need to start over because of the victory I gained through starting again when I would fail.  While there are still some things that I need to start over there is tremendous victory to be gained by never giving up.
 
When your efforts look like failure, the trick is not to allow the sense of defeat to cause you to destroy your hope of victory.  As long as you are willing to start over you can never be defeated.  
 
Ask God what areas of your life He wants you to start over.  When you start over you start with a clean slate. 
 
Good Friday reminds us of the clean slate we have to begin whatever change we want to pursue. 
 
God desires to take you from glory to glory and He gives you a clean starting point heading towards victory.
 
Love to all… pb

 
P.S. Here’s a new article on the Faithworks blog that gives a simple explanation of what Easter means and why it’s so important: Why We Celebrate Easter
Share it with someone to remind them of the reason for the season!