Why We Do What We Do

Recently a friend said, "Tom, you've been doing this for more than 43 years. When are you going to hang it up and enjoy life?" The occasion was my 66th birthday. Don't get me wrong, it isn't that I haven't thought about it. But will Mary Ann and I ever 'hang it up?' Never.

Here's why. One thousand years from now, the GracePointe Church facilities will be no more. But GracePointe will live on...in heaven. The people we've won to Christ, baptized and discipled will be there along with all of the others from previous churches Mary Ann and I have served.

So why not rest with the knowledge of that in our hearts? Because God has planned for more to cross our paths and He intends to use us for their salvation experiences.

Get weary? Maybe. Faint? I think not.

Our God is Good

At this time of year, we tend put a lot of emphasis on Christmas. That is because merchants are pushing us in that direction, wanting us to believe that Christmas is all about trimming the tree, buying presents, and so on. In the process of all this, we can very easily forget the beautiful holiday called Thanksgiving.

Originally established as a holiday by President George Washington in 1789, Thanksgiving was initially a religious holiday and, more to the point, a Christian holiday. The first Thanksgiving was different than ours today. It lasted three days, during which the pilgrims feasted with their Indian guests.

Of course, our Thanksgiving is also about gathering with friends and family and having a feast. But sometimes at this particular time of year, we can forget about how thankful we ought to be. We need to never forget that God has blessed us to live in the United States of America, which is, in my opinion, the greatest country on the face of this earth. We have so many privileges here.

We have a lot to give thanks for, and certainly the Bible urges us to give thanks to the Lord. We are told in Psalm 106:1, "Praise the Lord! Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever."

Sometimes worship and thanksgiving can be a sacrifice, because we are down or depressed or things aren't going all that well for us. Maybe hardship or tragedy has hit our lives in some way and we don't want to thank God. But the Bible doesn't say, "Give thanks to the Lord, because you feel good." It says, "Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good!"

Some Thoughts About Easter

Easter is for everyone, but it is not about bunnies or brightly colored eggs. It is about Jesus, and it is specifically about Jesus crucified and risen again from the dead. And, it was...

A hard day for the disciples
There was no question about it. Christ had died. If the crucifixion hadn’t killed him, certainly the spear of the Roman soldier would have. The disciples thought it was over. They thought death had finished it.


If they would have thought back, they would have remembered this was the same Lord who had raised people from the dead. He raised the daughter of Jairus. He raised Lazarus after he already was in the process of decomposition.


And, if they would have thought back, they would have remembered that on the day that Lazarus was raised, Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live” (John 11:25 NKJV).


But it is hard to see through eyes that have been blinded by tears. So the disciples were shocked to find an angel waiting for them with the good news: “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He is risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid Him” (Mark 16:6 NKJV).


They thought He was dead. But He was alive again

Hope for us
Because Jesus has died and has risen again, it means that we as believers do not have to be afraid of death. As 1 Corinthians 15:20 tells us, “But the fact is that Christ has been raised from the dead. He has become the first of a great harvest of those who will be raised to life again” (NLT). Jesus has gone to the other side, He has returned, and He has the keys to death and hell (see Revelation 1:18).

It’s hard for us to accept that our bodies are wearing out. Yet the Bible says we will have new bodies one day: “We, too, wait anxiously for that day when God will give us our full rights as his children, including the new bodies he has promised us” (Romans 8:23 NLT).


You see, my body is not the real me. The real me is my soul, my spirit. This body will die. But my soul will live on.


One day, you may open up the newspaper and read that Tom Holland has died. But don’t you believe a word of it, because at the moment you read that I have died, I will be more alive than I have ever been before–in the presence of God. And the same can be said for every believer.
He is the resurrection and the life, and if we believe in Him, though we were dead, yet shall we live.