Week of Video Devotions

Last week, Curt and I gave the church some things to further explore in the book of Acts via a daily devotional.  Watch them all here.

Ray Monday Devotional from Bayside Church on Vimeo.

Christmas at Bayside

I’m thankful for all the amazing people that come together to help us put on Christmas at Bayside each year.  It’s turning out to be a pretty historic one for us and we thank God for it. This year we are excited to have America’s Got Talent finalists The Silhouettes with us for all of our services!  Here is the Christmas trailer that is currently playing in the theaters.

God offers grace to us

Grace. God has offered grace to each one of us. But God offering us grace doesnʼt complete the salvation process. Itʼs completed in us when we actually receive the gift of grace, the promise of eternal life in heaven. Heaven is a gift that must be received. And this gift was offered to the world in the form of Jesus, who came not to condemn us- but to save us. Thatʼs the good news! Eternal life is a gift, but it must be received.

Perhaps this story will help. Two baseball teams were deadlocked in a championship game. It was the bottom of the ninth inning, two outs. The batter hit a shot that ricocheted off the center-field wall. He sped around first base, second, and third- then he raced for home plate. With the crowd screaming and the relay throw coming, he slid across home plate just before the catcher could make the tag. The crowd went nuts, and the batterʼs team sprinted onto the field to celebrate. But, to everyoneʼs shock, the umpire shouted, “Youʼre out!” Pandemonium ensued. The crowd began booing. The manager went berserk. When the umpire finally got a word in edgewise, he announced, “Heʼs not out because he got tagged at home. Heʼs out because he missed first base!”

I can attend church, serve on dozens of committees, own the biggest Bible on the block, and memorize the Ten Commandments- but establishing a relationship with God is like touching first base. Without a relationship with Christ, someday I will be called out at home. This isnʼt about religion, itʼs about relationship. God wants you to know his Son, Jesus Christ. Thatʼs first base. Receiving Godʼs grace. Why not accept his grace, receive his invitation into heaven right now? Just pray these words from your heart:

Dear God, thank you for sending your Son, Jesus Christ, to earth. Jesus, I believe that you are who you said you are and that you proved it by rising from the dead. I want to get to know you personally. Thank you, Jesus, for dying for me and forgiving all my sins. Please forgive me for all my sins and come into my life. I receive you as my Lord and Savior. Holy Spirit, change me into the new creation you want me to be. Thank you for your free gift of eternal life. Amen.

Developing a Confident Faith

In my book “This Changes Everything” I begin Chapter One with a story of the country minister and the hearse. Check it out in the book- it creates quite a funny word picture! The “punch line” is, when people see life where theyʼre expecting death, there is a reaction! Exhibit A: Thomas. Exhibit A-1: me. Exhibit A-2: perhaps you?

Thomas has gotten a bad rap in the church. We call him “Doubting Thomas” and mock his lack of faith. But I, having grown up in a “show-me- the-evidence” family, respect Thomas for his honesty. Letʼs give the guy a break… he wasnʼt with the other disciples when Jesus first appeared to them in Easter. So when he said “Unless I see the nail marks in His hands… I will not believe.”, he was really saying, “I saw Him die. And I WANT to believe Heʼs alive, but I canʼt settle for a secondhand faith. I need to see Jesus alive to confirm my faith!” Thomas was saying he would follow Jesus if, and only if, he was convinced Jesus was alive.

For Thomas, and those of us like him, proof of the resurrection is essential. After all, who needs a dead Savior? Of course, John 20:27 confirms that Thomas did in fact see the risen Jesus. Thomas then knew that his faith in Christ was not in vain. That “Proof Faith” is what motivated all the disciples to travel the world, testifying that Jesus had risen from the grave.

However, a “different route to the same destination” is the story of the famed playwright George Bernard Shaw. In his play “Too True To Be Good”, one characterʼs lines parroted what many believe to be Shawʼs own view: “The science I pinned my faith to is bankrupt… and I who believed in it as no religious fanatic has ever believed in his superstition! For its sake I helped to destroy the faith of millions of (God) worshippers… And now look at me and behold the supreme tragedy of the atheist who has lost his faith in atheism, for which more martyrs have perished than for all the creeds put together.”

Shaw came to the same conclusion that Thomas did- the proof of the resurrection was too consistent, to compelling, too complete, to doubt any more. Stop doubting and believe.

This Changes Everything

When I was 21 years old, a group of Christians challenged me to discredit the claims of Christianity. Having discounted them all my life, growing up in a family of skeptics, I figured this would be easy. I decided the fastest way to do away with the claims of the Christian faith would be to discount the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

However, the more I studied, the more I uncovered overwhelming historical evidence for the existence of Christ and for His resurrection. I found, much to my surprise, that the historical evidence of Jesusʼ resurrection was too consistent, too compelling for me to doubt. I completely lost my “lack of faith”. This historical evidence led me to make a decision to trust Jesus as my Savior. Even more to my surprise, I discovered that I wasnʼt just making an intellectual decision. I was also unleashing in my life the kind of transforming power weʼre all striving to find. Through reading these blogs (and my book), I hope that you too will find the evidence so compelling, that youʼll experience the same power Iʼve discovered.

In my book, “This Changes Everything”, I begin every chapter with the statement, “Because of Jesus and His resurrection, you can…”

This has been my spiritual and personal motivation for everything that defines who I am. If you know anything about my past, you know I wasnʼt always someone who said “I can”. But despite my upbringing, despite my effort to find inconsistencies, and despite my own inner self to tell me “Ray canʼt”, Iʼve discovered that because of Jesus and His resurrection, I can be the person God wants me to be, the husband God wants me to be, the father, the pastor, the friend…

As you read these blog posts, I pray that youʼll experience the same power Iʼve discovered, that because of Jesus and His resurrection, YOU CAN!