June 19
1Give thanks to the Lord for He is good.” (Psalm 139:1, The Jesus Bible)
Happy Juneteenth Y’all! This morning I played the “Open the Bible to a Random page and pull a random verse” to share with you. Psalm 139 opens with the timeless statement above: Give thanks to the Lord for He is good.
Mrs. Z and I are thanking God for an incredible Father’s Day weekend. We were able to spend the weekend with my parents, visit lifelong friends, see more family than we have been able to fit into a weekend in a very long time, and finish the weekend spending some amazing fellowship with a Champion in Christ. We simply relish these moments when our littlest, SGZ3, gets to crawl around her grandparents house and light up their lives, as she does to ours every single day. God has been good to our families, He has blessed us, He continues to bless us every, single day.
At times I feel guilty for the many blessings I have when there are so many that are still suffering. Coming back to bountiful, beautiful Bradenton is a strong reminder of the disparities around this country. I am not sure what the magic formula is, but Bradenton is booming. New houses continue to sprout up in every open field. And these homes are back to pre-housing market bust numbers (starting in the 400ks), but unlike in 2008, these houses are actually selling. Selling so fast that any piece of land is a gold mine. Most of the farmers in the area of East Manatee county have cashed in on this highly lucrative time. But one farm, sitting in the heart of new development has held out, and they have used their land to spread the Gospel.
Sitting atop a man-made hill are three wooden crosses. The Musgrave farm has had that hill and crosses up for over two decades, but now they have started putting banners up with different Bible verses. And Mrs. Z and I discovered, they have launched their own blog: Cows and Crosses. You can find this fun, beautiful work by clicking here.
So, I began this weekend asking you to think of how we can prevent such evils like the one that I shared at the start of this trip. Well, to me, the formula is simple: Bring Jesus back to the center of it all. But it has to be the accurate representation of Jesus. The-love-God-and-love-all-people-above-everything-Jesus. The-love-creation-and-preserve-nature-Jesus. The-help-the-widow-and-the-poor-Jesus. The-offer-the-other-cheek-when-struck-in-the-face-Jesus. The-radical, anti-culture Jesus. The flip-the-tables-at-religious-institutions-that-do-nothing-to-grow-the-Kingdom Jesus. We need to raise up Apostles ready to do the work to ESTABLISH the Kingdom. We’ve had enough time to learn the truth, to spread the truth. If we don’t start working at putting that truth into practice, then nothing is going to change. Let’s be the change and make Jesus King of our lives, our country, our precious world. There’s no other name we need to lift up but the name of Jesus. Time’s up. Let’s do the work.
Common Sense Reborn 