So first off, thank you all in advance for the words you are
all about to write in the coming weeks as well as thank you to those who have
already shared their hearts. Your words have and I know will continue to have a
profound and deep impact on my heart as well as the hearts of others, and
praise God for that.
Like many of you I
sometimes feel like what I am saying isn’t “relevant” or “insightful”, but
something God has really put on my heart is to return to the basics, “do I love
Jesus the Christ and am I pursuing Him with my entire being?” I find comfort in
the fact that for as long as my heart cries “YES”, then God will use my 5th
grade sentence structure for His glory, so if any of you are struggling to
start writing, I encourage you to take a step back and worship God and just
rejoice in His presence, words will come.
These blogs are not simply what “we” write, but rather they
are thoughts, prayers, challenges and in general the story of our relationship
with our Creator. These blogs as I have heard some say, are testimonies, and
testimonies of God’s glory have always and will always be a way which God
teaches us and glorifies HIS NAME. So much easier said then done to write these
blogs, so God give us the strength to be open, honest and sincere, being wholly
fixed on glorifying who you are and what you have done and will continue to do.
That being said, HOLY WEEK! I love what Blake said “Shouldn't
we just call it Holy Year?”, so much truth, maybe “Holy Eternity”?. Anyways,
the first thing that struck me was that one of the first things that jumped out
at me was that whoever was responsible for this devotional chose to put as one of the first sentences “
Every year they killed a lamb and ate it. The lamb died instead of us they
would say,” (11). Every year, not every so often, not occasionally, but EVERY
YEAR, for thousands of years. After the Fall, God made it clear, that for the
sins of men there must be justice, and with justice sacrifice. It blows my mind
to remember that for centuries before Jesus came as the ultimate sacrifice, every
single year animal sacrifices were made. What amazes me is that God could have chosen
to let the cycle continue.
He could have, but that was not God’s plan.
Why would God, all powerful, chose to allow Jesus to come
and suffer such great pains to replace these sacrifices? As Jesus waited in the
garden, I can hardly fathom what Jesus must have been feeling, “Is there any
other way to get your children back? To heal their hearts? To get rid of the
poison?,’ But Jesus knew-there was no other way. All the poison of sin was
going to have to go into his own heart…He was going to pour into Jesus’ body
all the sickness in people’s bodies.” (12) Jesus was more than crucified, many
have endured material pain, but the spiritual suffering Jesus suffered on the
cross transcends anything we could ever imagine. I can’t help but remember
times in my life where I was in so much spiritual pain that I literally would
be rendered helpless, pains that resonated in my entire body and made me so
weak I could hardly move, now multiply this by the sins of not just a town, or
a country or a continent. But all people, past present and future. Pain like no
other ever could comprehend. Pain that only Jesus could handle.
So why? Why come and suffer? Because this was God’s plan.
Jesus came as the ultimate servant, and on the night he
served the first communion he proclaimed, “This is my body, which is for you;
do this in remembrance of me.” 25 In the same way,
after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my
blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” (1 Cor 11:24-25).
God knows us, from the hairs on our heads to every action
and every thought and he knows what plan for our lives will bring us the only
true completeness. His plan for our lives is to live fully in love and devoted
to Him, and only through Jesus is this possible and through his work on the
cross. In the words of Jesus “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one
comes to the Father except through me,” (Jn 14:6) And you know what else, God
does not simply desire a relationship, He longs for a deep intimate
relationship with us, a relationship where we can THRIVE and live as life was
intended to live before the fall. Jesus
came and showed us how to find that relationship. He washed feet, so must we.
He loved the weak and unpopular, so must we. He prayed spent time daily with The
Father, so must we. He gave up his life for The Father’s glory because it is what the Father desired,
SO MUST WE.
Something Emily and Jonathan wrote stuck out to me, “Jesus
can make the greatest impact and change possible in every camper's life. Yahweh
receives the glory and people are brought into restoration”. During this Holy
week Jesus did everything necessary to bring God glory and to bring people into
restoration, a restoration where we can live and THRIVE in a way that is unlike
anything else we could pursue. So lets THRIVE, and not just while we’re working
on the delta or shasta but now, cause God isn’t seasonal and he demands all of
us through all seasons. And think about it, if we don’t STRIVE TO THRIVE in our
relationship with God now, as witnesses to the tens of thousands of people we
are to encounter before the summer, how will we live a THRIVING relationship with
Christ on the water? So as we go back to
school or the workplace or wherever you all may be, man I pray that God gives
us the grace and wisdom to be able to honestly pursue a THRIVING relationship
with him.
A little long, sorry bout that.
<3
“I wanna thrive not just survive”
-Switchfoot
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