Article by Dr. Les Hollon, Pastor, Trinity Baptist Church

Holy Week is holy because it was set apart by Christ to culminate His earthly ministry through dying on the cross and being resurrected from the grave.  Not since creation of the world has a period of time been so important.  In this week, salvation was made uniquely possible for each person.  Christ’s work to the cross, on the cross and from the cross required suffering at a level unknown to any other person.  Passio in Latin means suffer - so these days have been called Passion Week.  Christ’s passion invites us to be passionate.

Entering Jerusalem on Palm Sunday meant there was no turning back.  He had been warned.  Established leaders were using their political & religious positions to scare Jesus away or kill him.  Jesus decided that forward was the only direction to go.  Knowing the decision would cost him His life, He went anyway.  Why?  Because His death would validate His life.  

Through His death, believers could know at-one-ment with God. This ultimate act of sacrifice by laying down His life meant that our sins were known, dealt with, and forgiven by God.

The day before His entrance, Jesus talked to a friend in crisis.  To Martha He explained that death, in God’s hands, becomes life - “I am the resurrection and the life.  He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives & believes in me will never die.  Do you believe this?”

Jesus’ promise ends with an invitation.  Either you do or do not believe (John 11:25-26).  To this question there is no middle ground.  To believe is to experience God.  To not believe is to miss out. The decision is ours to make, just as it was for those on the first Palm Sunday.  This promise becomes known by personally trusting in Christ.  This week, may we prepare ourselves to experience afresh the promise and power of Easter.

Pastor Les Hollon

“The Lord is my light, and my salvation; whom shall I fear?”
-Bible, Psalm 27: 1

This article was written by Les Hollon, Pastor of Trinity Baptist Church.  For more information about how God works in your life, or to contact Dr. Hollon, click over to Trinity Baptist Church.

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Article by Dr. Les Hollon, Pastor, Trinity Baptist Church

While strutting down New York City’s Broadway in his typical garb of a white three-piece suit, Mark Twain said, “Clothes make the man.”  The range of today’s fashion conversation is conveyed by these typical American comments: Dress for success.  Dress to express yourself.  Dress codes.  No Dress codes.  Casual Dress.  Formal Dress.  Semi-Casual Dress.  Wear whatever you want.  This is what I am wearing.  I don’t care what you wear.

“Wear your Sunday best” is another common expression which at its best means to wear what will best enable you to worship God, engage spiritually with people, study the Scriptures, pray, serve, laugh & sing the faith.  Sunday is not a fashion show to impress or not impress people by what we do or do not wear.  Sunday is a fashion event to see more clearly how God is dressing us to live throughout the week.

The Apostle Paul explains how this works through a scene he saw everyday while being under house arrest in Rome.  Persecuted as a businessman (Paul was a tentmaker) for his calling of good works to share the gospel with Gentiles, Paul was arrested unjustly.  A soldier stood guard over him while he awaited his trial in the Empire’s capitol.

The guard’s armor did not intimidate Paul or trick him into envy.  Instead, the physical sight of the soldier’s armor revealed to Paul the armor with which God equips every believer.  This inside-out way of living is:

Salvation as the helmet which signifies the mind of Christ at work in us; Righteousness as the breastplate of Christlike character; Truth as the belt which keeps us balanced in our unbalanced world; The Spirit of God’s Word as the sword which gives us the insights & language to speak with our lives live against evil; Gospel of Peace as the peaceful warrior’s footwear to travel in a world at war to deliver the Prince of Peace’s terms of peace.  This is the Sunday best we are to wear every day.

God dresses and equips us to win.  After changing us from the inside out, God provides us with what we need to live successfully.  Success defined by God’s terms - faithfully being who He creates us to be and faithfully doing what He calls us to do.  “We are saved by grace . . . We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works …”

The same gracious love by which seekers become believers empowers us to do the good works He has prepared for us to do in His strength.

Pastor Les Hollon

“No man is excluded from calling upon God, the gate of salvation is set open unto all men: neither is there any other thing which keepeth us back from entering in, save only our own unbelief.”
-John Calvin

This article was written by Les Hollon, Pastor of Trinity Baptist Church.  For more information about how God works in your life, or to contact Dr. Hollon, click over to Trinity Baptist Church.

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Article by Make The Days Count Contributor Blake Cothron

“Invite not the future

Prolong not the past

Alter not your innate wakefulness

Don’t fear appearances.

There is nothing more than that.”

The Zen Buddhist tradition is based largely on wakefulness in the reality we are experiencing in this very moment.  This powerful Zen Buddhist sutra is a call for us to be awake and mindful in daily life.  When we are awake and conscious of the moment we are in, we can deal with what is actually at hand.  Let’s dive in deeper and see what happens…

Invite not the future.  This is a call to BE HERE NOW as Ram Dass explored years ago in his book of the same title.  We “invite” the future through day-dreaming, worrying, speculation, planning and scheming; all those things we do in an attempt to guarantee we get what we want in some imagined future moment. Read More »

Article by Dr. Les Hollon, Pastor, Trinity Baptist Church

The smiles. The children smiled as they ran to meet us at their mud structure church building. The women & men smiled while we visited with them as they farmed their fields with hoes and planted seeds by hand. The village chief and I smiled as he presented me with a live chicken as a sign of gratitude for what we were doing together. These smiles showed something good was happening. This goodness is a precious gift for “All Creatures of Our God and King” to be celebrated and care “For the Beauty of the Earth.”

When you were given life, “God saw to it that it you were good.”  When God gave you talent, God saw that it is your way to make a good difference in the world. When God gave you hope, God saw to it that it is a vision for your good future. When God gave you laughter & tears, God saw to it that it is your way to care enough to feel goodness. God gave you flesh & blood, and saw to it that your eternal life had time enough to live on earth to determine your destiny. Whether to live a good life or a missed life is our decision to make.

After each day of creation, Genesis records, “and God saw that it was good.” God built goodness into all His creation. Genesis means Aorigin, the beginning; “A” referring to where people and/or things come from—our point of origin. To know “This Is My Father’s World” is to open ourselves to the wonderful nature of God and how we are to enjoy life by being good stewards of His creation. To study creation is also to open ourselves to the horror of sin and the damnable results of evil.

Genesis confronts us with choices we must make. These are not optional choices made from the luxury box seats of spectators. We are all players and our decisions are between good and evil, salvation and destruction. People were created to relate with God, nature, each other, and one’s self. People were given the responsibility to care for God’s creation. God gives us the power to join in creative acts and be accountable for our work.

We are to make a good life through God’s goodness.

Pastor Les Hollon

“Just as a prism of glass miters light and casts a colored braid, a garden sings sweet incantations the human heart strains to hear. Hiding in every flower, in every leaf, in every twig and bough, are reflections of the God who once walked with us in Eden.”

-Tonia Triebwasser, The Color of Grace

This article was written by Les Hollon, Pastor of Trinity Baptist Church.  For more information about God and your place in His world, contact Dr. Hollon, click over to Trinity Baptist Church.

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Article by Dr. Les Hollon, Pastor, Trinity Baptist Church

The eighth Beatitude, “Blessed are the persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” is a tough promise to trust.  

How can we live this Beatitude?  By trusting the One who made the promise.  Christ’s faithfulness makes us faithful. As we experience the power of His presence with the earlier Beatitudes, we are prepared to trust Him all the way.  Then when opposition comes, we are well positioned to endure and overcome.

Jesus’ pathway is called righteousness.  Standing for right is always the right place for us to stand.  Being with Jesus is the right place to be in all circumstances.  Commit to Christ and you will know the peace of Christ during life’s tender and tough moments.  The Christian lifestyle is the style which is always in fashion for every season.

John Oxenham was the poet, novelist, and hymnist who composed one of our most cherished hymns – “In Christ There is No East or West.”  One day Oxenham wrote – “We live as those who are on a journey home: a home we know that will have the lights on and the door open and our father waiting for us when we arrive.” That means in all adversity our worship of God is joyful, our life is hopeful, our future is secure.  There is nothing we can lose on earth that can rob us of the treasures God has given us and will give us.

Through faith, seasoned by experience, we know that no force can defeat God.  No force can keep us from getting to our eternal home.  No force can turn out the home lights God has turned on for us nor bar the door God has opened for us.

God forms the Beatitudes within us as we live in companionship with Him.  Weekly we have seen how through each attitude God offers us happiness, work, and a reward.  Each one is a promise to claim, a purpose to live, and a reward to receive.  The reward is not more of something but more of Someone. Being a companion with Christ is the adventure of all time.

Pastor Les Hollon

“It’s one thing to affirm that God is free to do as God wills in this world.  The real crunch comes in allowing God the freedom and trust to act in one’s own life.”
-John Indermark

This article was written by Les Hollon, Pastor of Trinity Baptist Church.  For more information about trusting God, Trinity Baptist Church, or to contact Dr. Hollon, click over to Trinity Baptist Church.

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