What do you do with your sin and guilt? How do you cope with your conscience and the consequences of all you have done wrong?

God has set us free from all our misdeeds by taking them all on himself. Jesus received all we deserved upon himself when he died for us.

God spoke through the Prophet Isaiah about his son Jesus’ sacrifice, saying, “But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:5, ESV).

How do you regularly serve God and others with your life? What can you do every day to serve God and other people?

Our lives are a gift to be given. We have been given abilities, skills, and resources to be used to worship and to serve God, and to serve others.

Jesus gave us everything and serves us, and requested that we serve him by serving one another in selfless humility.

At the last Passover supper with his disciples, before going to the cross, Jesus washed his disciples feet and gave this mandate, saying, “If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.” (John 13:14, ESV).

What do the hard times and difficulties in your life accomplish? What kinds of fruitfulness do trials inadvertently produce in your life?

As difficult as certain times and circumstances can be in our lives, trials and the testing of our faith can produce the fruit of endurance, patience, and steadfastness in our life.

James, the half brother of Jesus, talked about how we are to view our trials in his letter, when he wrote, “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.” (James 1: 2-3, ESV).

Who are you most likely to call on in your deepest need? Are you completely free to call on them? Are you confident they will respond favorably and helpfully and meet your need?

Anyone can call on God at any time to receive help and salvation. We are free to call on God anytime and for any reason. God is perfectly able to respond to and meet our deepest need.

The Apostle Paul reminded the Roman church that “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Romans 10:13, ESV).

What do you do with all the guilt you have? When you come up short, how do you move forward? If all your shortcomings could be done away with, what would your life look like?

We have all fallen short of our best and we have fallen short of God’s ideal. What makes us right again is God’s free gift of grace. All redemption is in Jesus. Our guilt can be redeemed in God’s good gift of grace.

In his letter to the church in Rome, the Apostle Paul wrote, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 3:23-24, ESV).

What bad news does the resurrection of Jesus undo? What does the resurrection of Jesus accomplish in our lives and in this world?

Jesus’ resurrection changes all things. There is everything pre-resurrection, and then there is everything after the resurrection. After the resurrection, everything is changed. Because Jesus lives, we can live and experience his resurrection life.

In Matthew’s gospel account of Jesus’ resurrection, the angel spoke to the women at the tomb, saying, “He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay.” (Matthew 28:6, ESV).

What is the most shame filled and humiliating experience you have ever had? What is the most shameful and humiliating experience anyone could ever have?

Exposed guilt creates shame deep within us. We are guilty because of our sinfulness and brokenness. Our condition of sin and guilt and the sin that has been committed against us can bring about deep shame. We can experience feelings of fear and shame, humiliation, abandonment, and rejection.

In the days of Moses and the law, God spoke to the Israelites about punishment that was deserving of death. God told Moses the body of the condemned who was hung upon a tree as a sign “shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for a hanged man is cursed by God. You shall not defile your land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance.” (Deuteronomy 21:23, ESV).

Why is Good Friday good? Why did Jesus have to die on a cross? What did Jesus’ death on a cross accomplish?

Jesus died the death that we experience daily in this broken world. Jesus died the death that we deserve in our sin and brokenness.

Good Friday is good because Jesus accomplished his purpose of suffering and death in our place and on our behalf. Jesus died so that he would intercept our consequences, so that we could be forgiven and restored. Jesus died so that this broken and sin-filled world would not feel the brunt of the judgement it deserves.

The Prophet Isaiah wrote of Jesus, sacrifice on the cross when he prophesied, “Yet it was our pain that he bore, our sufferings he endured. We thought of him as stricken, struck down by God and afflicted, But he was pierced for our sins, crushed for our iniquity. He bore the punishment that makes us whole, by his wounds we were healed. We had all gone astray like sheep, all following our own way; But the LORD laid upon him the guilt of us all.” (Isaiah 53:4-6, NASB).

Have you ever been so downtrodden that you felt like you were dying? Have you ever experienced sorrow so crushing that you felt death? Have you felt like death?

In the Garden of Gethsemane, in the face of his betrayal and the road to the cross, Jesus said to his disciples, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.” (Matthew 26:38, ESV).

Facing the agony of death on a cross, Jesus experienced all the feelings of death, and then he experienced the agony of death. Jesus knows what our sin and death feels like, because he experienced it and shouldered it on the cross.

How well are you suffering? Are you suffering for all the right reasons?

We can suffer for the wrong reasons and we can suffer for all the right reasons. We can suffer because of our circumstances. Others can cause us suffering. We can bring suffering upon ourselves.

As followers of Jesus, we are called to suffer well and to suffer for the cause of Christ.

The Apostle Peter wrote this about suffering well: “Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name.” (1 Peter 4:16, ESV).

What does love look like when it is perfectly expressed? How are we to love one another well? How has Jesus loved us?

Love is a choice. Love looks outside of itself to the needs of others. Love is sacrificial. Love gives and pours itself out.

In John’s Gospel account, Jesus said, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” (John 13:34, ESV).

The love of Jesus is perfect. The love Jesus expresses is a sacrificial love. Jesus gave his life so that we can live and love as he loves us.

What does true sacrificial humility look like? When humility is expressed, what does it look like for those who experience it?

Humility is expressed in self-sacrifice for the benefit of others. True humility causes someone to lay down their lives for the benefit and well-being of others.

The Apostle Paul wrote of Jesus’ humility saying he “emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” (Philippians 2:7-8, ESV).

How bad is your brokenness and error? Do you feel like you are beyond the grace and forgiveness of God? What is the extent of your need to be forgiven?

No one is outside of the scope of God’s grace, mercy, and forgiveness. No matter what you have done, no matter who you are, no matter what you said, and no matter what you have done, God is ready to give you his forgiveness.

The Apostle Paul wrote the church in Rome with this encouragement, saying, “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8, ESV).

Who or what is Lord over your life? Is it evident by the way you speak, act, and live that you have a Divine Ruler of your life, other than yourself? Is God your one true King, or is there another lord over you? 

It has been said that you can tell who or what rules over someone by looking at their calendar and their bank statements. Where we spend our time and resources often reveals our allegiances. 

In an idolatrous world and culture, we can wrestle with many “gods” or idols which fight for sovereignty over our lives. However, there is only one Lord and King over our lives. 

How well are you sleeping at night? Do you feel safe and secure and at peace when you rest?

In this fallen and broken world, we have plenty of worry and concern to keep us up at night tossing and turning. However, God desires us to trust him as he gives us peace and rest and allows us to live in safety.

The wise, content, and peace-filled Psalmist writes, “In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety.” (Psalm 4:8, ESV).

Have you ever experienced being out of your mind? What is the experience of feeling like you are not of sound mind?

In times of torment, pressure, hardship, trail and difficulties, we can be cloudy headed and feel like we are not of sound mind. Our circumstances can bewilder and clutter our minds. The enemy would love to consume our minds with muddled futility, unrest, and a spirit of confusion and discord. We can experience living in a haze and can feel disoriented and at a loss.

In Mark chapter five, Jesus cast out demons from a man in the country of the Gerasenes. After Jesus delivered the man from his afflictions, Mark’s Gospel tells us, “And they came to Jesus and saw the demon-possessed man, the one who had had the legion, sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid.” (Mark 5:15, ESV).

If you needed someone to rescue you, where would you find your salvation? Who will save you in your time of need?

Most of us who have lived long enough have been rescued at some point in our lives. Most of us will need rescue at some point in our future. The need for salvation is real, in this life and for eternity. We need salvation.

In the Book of Acts, the Apostle Peter proclaimed salvation for the people, saying, “And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12, ESV).

What is the purpose of our fruitfulness? What does God do with the unfruitful and with the fruitful?

The kingdom of God is for those who produce kingdom fruit for God. Those who do not generate fruitfulness for God do not get the opportunity and the blessing to enjoy God’s fruitful kingdom.

When we produce kingdom fruit, we enjoy a fruitful relationship with God and inherit his fruit-filled kingdom.

In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus spoke this truth to the unfaithful people, saying, “Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits.” (Matthew 21:43, ESV).

Can you produce fruit without a connection to Jesus? What does the fruit you produce communicate about who you are and what is important to you? What do you do with the fruit you produce and what does that communicate?

In the fifteenth chapter of the Gospel of John, Jesus said, “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5, ESV).

We are called to produce fruit in our lives. However, without abiding in Jesus—without staying connected with him—we cannot produce fruit in our lives.

Where have you been? Where are you now? Where are you headed? How sure is your footing as you journey through this life?

All of us have a story of where we have been. We are all somewhere in life. We are all headed somewhere. We are not where we once were, and we are on our way. God is at work in our lives. God has been with us, is with us, and will be with us, caring for us and guiding us along the way.

King David shared his story of encountering God in the journey of life in Psalm 40, when he wrote, “I waited patiently for the LORD; he inclined to me and heard my cry. He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure.” (Psalm 40:1-2, ESV).