Maybe you have thought of “religion” as trying hard to live up to the Bible’s teachings, and it has left you stuck and frustrated. You wish you were a better person. But you still lose control and make mistakes you're ashamed of. The good news of Jesus brings us joy, because Jesus, our King, lived the life we should have lived, died the death we should have died, and took our penalty for us so we can be part of God’s everlasting, unshakeable kingdom. With Jesus as our King! So let’s worship Him! Not to get on his good side. But to thank Him for giving us the perfect life!

Life is a race. We have to run it. And like any race, it has its difficulties and agonizing moments. How do we get through them? In a race, you keep your eyes on the finish line. In the race of life, we keep our eyes on Jesus. The sufferings God allows along the way will make us stronger. Our Heavenly Father wants what is best for us, and wants us to finish the race even more than we do! Jesus is the way! Jesus is our finish line! He finished everything for us by running his race to the cross for us. He made it possible for us to experience that joy with Him! Let’s fix our eyes on Jesus!

As the saying goes, there are only two things you can count on in life: death and taxes. No matter how well your life goes or how awful it goes, death is something we all face as human beings. Escape from pain in this life is only temporary. We need something better to look forward to. God is better than anything life gives us or death can take away from us. We have the one thing that can give us what we need: the resurrection of Jesus! Because He lives, we will live! Christianity gives us something more than a story! It gives us an actual person raised from the dead. And He, Jesus, gives us the certainty of resurrection! He is our resurrection!