On Thursday April 23rd at 7:00 pm, New Life Community Church's Oak Forest location will be hosting a free simulcast event called Town Hall for Hope. This event will connect families across the nation for a truly radical perspective regarding our current economic times: HOPE.

Tired of hearing the fear, doom and gloom that’s filling the airwaves? Join Dave Ramsey personal money-management expert, popular national radio personality and best-selling author of The Total Money Makeover, for a live nationwide town hall meeting and discover what’s happening with today’s economy, how we got here, and where we’re going. Plus, Dave will answer your questions throughout live simulcast!

Ramsey knows first-hand what financial peace means in his own life, living a true rags-to-riches-to-rags-to-riches story. By age twenty-six he had established a four-million-dollar real estate portfolio, only to lose it by age thirty. He has since rebuilt his financial life and now devotes himself full-time to helping ordinary people understand the forces behind their financial distress and how to set things right-financially, emotionally and spiritually.

The event starts broadcasting at 7pm, so show up a little early.  Send questions to newlife.oakforest@gmail.com

New Life Oak Forest is at 5333 151st St, Oak Forest, IL 60452

One of my favorite books of the Bible is Leviticus. The following two paragraphs are from Leviticus 16 which is is about the Day of Atonement:

7 Then he must take the two male goats and present them to the Lord at the entrance of the Tabernacle. 8 He is to cast sacred lots to determine which goat will be reserved as an offering to the Lord and which will carry the sins of the people to the wilderness of Azazel. 9 Aaron will then present as a sin offering the goat chosen by lot for the Lord. 10 The other goat, the scapegoat chosen by lot to be sent away, will be kept alive, standing before the Lord. When it is sent away to Azazel in the wilderness, the people will be purified and made right with the Lord.

20 “When Aaron has finished purifying the Most Holy Place and the Tabernacle and the altar, he must present the live goat. 21 He will lay both of his hands on the goat’s head and confess over it all the wickedness, rebellion, and sins of the people of Israel. In this way, he will transfer the people’s sins to the head of the goat. Then a man specially chosen for the task will drive the goat into the wilderness. 22 As the goat goes into the wilderness, it will carry all the people’s sins upon itself into a desolate land.

The Day of Atonement was the day when the sins of God's people would be forgiven for the next year. A goat was chosen by chance to be the carrier of all of those sins - taking them away from the people into the land of nothing, the desert.

Today is Good Friday.
Today is a remembrance of the final necessary Day of Atonement.
Today is the day when Jesus became my scapegoat.

It wasn't by the roll of the dice, He wasn't chosen by a lottery in heaven. It wasn't a choice between Jesus and one of the angels. The Father chose to provide His Son. And Jesus willingly became the goat.

My goat.

That's the deep thing for me. It would be one thing if I had already committed all of my sins. You know, I was in the courtroom, the evidence was proven that I had done something, a verdict was given, and Jesus says - "I'll take the fall." But when He died on the cross - I hadn't even done anything yet!

"You know Jesus, there's millions upon millions of people who haven't even been born yet - and you'll be dying for all their mess ups too. You'll be their scapegoat too."

And He did it. He WILLINGLY did it.

Back in the Old Testament times when the Day of Atonement was happening, it was probably a quiet, somber moment as that goat walked into the desert. A mixed moment of regret as they were seeing themselves represented in that goat, but also joy as it walked away into the desert - carrying their evils away with it. It's walking away with their junk made it possible for them to stand before God in peace.

Today is should be just like that as well.

I think of what Jesus did. And all of my mess - the details which define my mess, the things people can point to and things I'm glad people don't know, the things which in essence show me to be an evil, selfish person - all of that He put on himself. He willingly, lovingly put all of that on Himself!

And He carried it all away from me into the desert.

Like a scapegoat.

I sit here in peace before God today because Jesus became a scapegoat for me. I really can't begin to put that reality into words. I just know that it makes be feel stupid when I think of the fact I still mess up. I mean...what do you do with that?

He knew I'd still act like an idiot and He still died for me!

As the people of God looked at that goat walking into the desert, I'm sure pondering the meaning and reality of what it was doing - take time to look into history and see our scapegoat...walking into the desert for us.

Let that sink in.

Scapegoat Friday.

Thank you Jesus.

When I was in youth group we had two awesome youth volunteers, Phil & Molly Stewart. Their daughter Melissa was around my sisters age and was starting in youth group when I was in college at Moody doing an internship with our youth pastor Mike. Melissa and I have recently reconnected via Facebook. Today she shared an amazing story about her life's journey that I want to share with whomever will read it. It is amazing and would be well worth your time! Here is Melissa's story, which she entitles, 'The Pursuit of Happiness":

We live in country whose constitution acknowledges a pursuit of happiness. The constitution guarantees our rights of life and liberty, but only a pursuit of happiness; not a guarantee of happiness, but a right to pursue it. My story will recount how I spent the past 24 years pursuing happiness.

I started attending church when I was three years old. I was very lucky and blessed to be raised in a Christian home with Christian parents who raised me with Christian ideals from infancy. I was saved when I was 8 years old, and baptized when I was 12. As a young child, I was active in the Awana program. I memorized bible verses, witnessed to other children on playgrounds, sang worships songs while riding arond town running errands with my mom. As I grew older, I became active in the church youth group. I attended Christian bible camps in the summer, I participated in events such as the 30 hour famine, and enjoyed fellowshipping with other Christians on youth group retreats. During this time as a child, I pursued happiness while pursing God, and I was greatly rewarded.

If I were to pinpoint a certain time in my life when that pursuit of happiness took a drastic turn for the worse, it would be the very first weekend of my freshman year of high school. I got drunk for the first time. This opened a whole new area of opportunities for me to pursue happiness. I spent most of my high school days trying to figure out how to become more popular. I was consumed by vanity and self-fulfillment. My pursuit of happiness during these four years led to me being arrested at 16 for minor consumption, experimentation with eating disorders in a desperate attempt to stay thin and pretty, and a broken and battered heart from boys that used me because I allowed myself to be promiscuous. Needless to say I failed miserably at pursuing happiness at this time.

But I moved on. I enrolled in college. The first year I was enrolled at Indiana University we were voted "the number one party school in the country." It's true, I had a t-shirt stating that fact, and I wore it proudly. It was at IU, that I continued to practice the art of binge drinking, pushing myself to dangerous and near-deadly limits. I started smoking weed and cigarrettes. I thought promiscuity equaled popularity, and I desperately wanted to be popular and well-liked. In my search of popularity, I joined a sorority. I surrounded myself with girls who told me that I was nothing but the designers that I wore. Soon, I began resenting my parents for not being rich enough to provide me with the desinger jeans and handbags I needed to really "fit in" with my surroundings. Since I couldn't fit in with my "sisters" I escaped it. I discovered the joy of roadtripping: packing our bags, and packing a car, full of eager girls, in search of the next great adventure, usually a concert. As if this literal esacpe from reality weren't enough, while on these roadtrips, I would drink heavily, smoke heavily, and try to prove that I was someone. I thought that the more famous people I met, I would somehow become famous by default. Sadly, this is not the case. During my years of pursuing happiness at IU, I was rescued from being blacked out drunk in the middle of the street by some guy I barely knew. Just a few weeks later, I woke up in an emergency room in Cleveland, Ohio after nearly dying from alcohol poisoning. I failed so miserably trying to pursue happiness during these years that I thought my life was no longer worth living. I was found on the bathroom floor of my sorority trying to end it all. I didn't succeed in ending my life, but I succeeding in ending my time 'studying' at Indiana University.

I transfered schools to Indiana University Northwest so that I could move back in with my family, and get my life back on track. The one thing that was missing from the equation was God. I left his side some years ago, and strayed so far away, I wasn't sure how to get back. I thought that when I moved home, I'd start attending church again regularly, and somehow all would be right again. This isn't exactly how it happened. While I was going to school full time, and working full time in a retail job, I also got a side job working in a bar on the weekends. This bar was the reason I continued to binge drink, and smoke, and flirt with guys while flirting with disaster. I was usually too hungover to attend church with my parents on Sundays. Sometime during my senior year of college, my mom was diagnosed with cancer. adenoid cystic carcinoma. a-d-e-n-o-i-d-c-y-s-t-i-c-c-a-r-c-i-n-o-m-a. I can spell it because I used to type it into google every single day of my life, and read all of these web pages about this very rare form of cancer. This is what I translated: "your mom is most likely going to die. Your mom is probably going to die. Your mom is definetely going to die." You see my mom, wasn't just the woman who gave birth to me. She was my best friend, sometimes my only friend, she was my lifeline, my rock, my support group, she is the reason I'm even around to have a story to tell today. My mom couldn't die. No way. I could not survive without her. So I started bargaining with God. I made every promise to him under the sun. I prayed so hard, all day, every day, and made him promises I knew I'd never fulfill. He knew that too. Because as soon as I got done praying, I'd go right back to the bar, and start taking shots to get nice and drunk, so I no longer remembered my mom was even sick. Somehow, through all of this, by the grace of God, I graduated college. Shortly thereafter, my mom's cancer went into remission. She's been cancer free for two years now. Praise the Lord.