A Little More Than Chocolate Bunnies and Marshmallow Peeps.

Typically, I LOVE holidays. The Holidays, for me, span between Thanksgiving and New Years. The music, the food, the spirit in the air - I love it all!

Well, as it happens, we're coming up on yet another nationally recognized holiday - Easter. When I think Easter, I think bunnies, chocolate, candy, marshmallow peeps, etc (thanks to our society for yet another commercialized holiday!)

In truth, Easter has been my least favorite holiday. This year, it's different. And I know why.

Has someone ever done something profound for you, maybe taking care of a situation where you screwed up, taking the ramifications on themselves? If so, have you thanked them knowing full well it was your fault and you deserved the blame? How about if you kept repeating the same mistake? Would you feel some kind of remorse and shame if you did and they kept accpeting the fall for it? I can most definitely answer yes to some if not all of those questions. It's funny how when we turn a blind eye to our sins and transgressions, we lose sight of significance of Christ's sacrifice. I suppose that's why I never regarded Easter with much more than the typical holiday cheer. Easter has never stirred any emotions in me. Sure, I understood the true meaning of Easter, God sent his Son at Christmas, Jesus died on the Cross at Easter, yaddah yaddah. But in the last six months, I've truly begun to understand the real significance of what the cross and the events that transpired truly mean to Christians.

So, I take the questions I asked in the beginning and reverse them. Have you ever done something profound for someone else, taking the blame when it was their fault? Have they thanked you, knowing it was their fault and they deserved the blame? Did they keep repeating the same mistake?

When I answer the second set of questions, my responses are pretty much "No"...and that saddens me. I'm filled with remorse because He died to set me free, taking all the blame that should have been mine. That I live a life where I don't need to do anything to earn forgiveness because the price has already been paid. That my sins are nailed to the cross and I bear them no more. I don't know what it's like to accept responsibility and blame because of someone else's mistake. In our human nature, it's our natural reaction to pass the torch so to speak. We don't want to be held responsible if it means getting in trouble. How opposite that is from Christ's actions. He meekly took our place, God's wrath and shame upon himself.

I was thinking about that last night...I remember my blog posts about how I was craving forgiveness and how wretched I felt...and the complete transformation of my life simply by picking up my cross and following him. It hasn't been easy but it has been by far the most rewarding thing I've ever done in my life.

So, my challenge, for myself and anyone reading this: take a minute (or more) to ponder the significance of the cross and what it means. Thank Him for sending His Son so that we might be free. Thank Christ for bearing the burden and shame that should have been ours.

One of my favorite illustrations of this is the one from Pilgrim's Progress. My parents bought us a book based off of Pilgrim's Progress called Dangerous Journey and it had AWESOME illustrations. The scene at the cross sticks out in my memory the most. Christian is on his way to the Celestial City. On the way he has dealt with many ordeals - all with this terrible burden on his back. The artist does and amazing job of rendering that burden. It look heavys, it looks uncomfortable - not my idea of a great backpacking trip! When Christian come upon the cross, something amazing happens. His burden falls off and he is set free. Not only that but the burden rolls into a tomb and he never sees it again. The angels that appear to him give him a scroll that assures his entrance into the Celestial City. If that isn't an accurate representation of what it means to become a Christian than I don't know what is. Our burdens are forever in the tomb, sealed with Jesus when He was buried. His sacrifice gave us the free gift of eternal life - our assurance of entrance into His eternal Kingdom. That's the reason for Easter - celebration of His Life, His death, His Resurrection - without it, we would be living in a meaningless existence, with no hope of salvation.

Wrestling with the Almighty

I heard an AWESOME radio program about Jacob the other day.. I found this other article today and it really struck home some points. 


**Have you been struggling? Looking for success? Longing to find that someone special in your life? Searching for that elusive something that will fill the emptiness of your soul? With what have you been struggling? Who is your opponent? Is it a person? Or a situation? Or something about yourself? Whatever you have thought it to be, that is not the object of your true struggle. Your true struggle is with Him. It is with the same One with whom Jacob struggled. It is with the One who comes...
- in the dead of the night.
- in the life of loneliness.
- in the doubt of despair.
He comes and He confronts you and before you realize it, you are wrestling with him in a titanic struggle.
What kind of struggle is it? It is a struggle for that which God has for you. "Lord, why don’t you just hand it to me?" He answers, "Because you won’t hold to it if I do." What God wants for you is to hunger and thirst for that which He has for you. He wants you to want... What? What is the goal of this struggle? What is the prize for which Jacob has been toiling his entire life?
It is the realization of the promise of God. Jacob wanted what God had for him. And God wants you to want that, too. What is it? What does God want you to want? What is the prize? What is the goal? It is God Himself.
13 Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:13-14).

Michael

Why he is still on my mind almost two years after his death, I am not sure. But I still cannot think about him without feeling sad in a way. My friend Michael was taken from this earth as a result of a tragic motorcycle accident. I found out at my cousin’s wedding rehearsal dinner. The weeks and even month that followed were extremely emotional times. I was never best friends with Michael but there was a time in High School when we were close. After graduation, we rarely, if ever, communicated. Why do I bring this up? Death has been on my mind recently. Not that I’m contemplating my own or anything of that nature, but recently I have witnessed several friends deal with death. There’s always that question of “Why do bad things happen to good people?” or “Why did this person have to die so young?” or even “Why didn’t they even have a chance?”.. The truth of the matter is, we don’t know why. We’ll never know why. Of course, if that question was ever to be answered, it still wouldn’t be enough to soothe the ache of loss in our hearts. As humans, we struggle to comprehend and adjust to loss – it takes time to grieve and time to heal. This is understandably a morbid topic for a Friday, but I promise, I have a point. This morning’s Jesus Calling directed me to a verse in John 11 - specifically the one that says that “he who lives in ME (Jesus) will live, even if He dies.” Contextually, the story is that of Lazarus. We’ve all read the story – as a kid, I was infatuated with John 11:35 because it is the shortest verse in the Bible. That verse was a super easy gummy bear as an award for Bible Memory on Sundays. Here’s the story, I know it’s long but it’s a great read:

John 11: 1-47 (NASB)

John 11

The Death and Resurrection of Lazarus

 ¹ Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. ² It was the Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. ³ So the sisters sent word to Him, saying, “Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick.” ⁴ But when Jesus heard this, He said, “This sickness is not to end in death, but for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified by it.” ⁵ Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. ⁶ So when He heard that he was sick, He then stayed two days longer in the place where He was. ⁷ Then after this He *said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.” ⁸ The disciples *said to Him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone You, and are You going there again?” ⁹ Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. ¹⁰ But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.” ¹¹ This He said, and after that He *said to them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I go, so that I may awaken him out of sleep.” ¹² The disciples then said to Him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will ^[a]recover.” ¹³ Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that He was speaking of ^[b]literal sleep. ¹⁴ So Jesus then said to them plainly, “Lazarus is dead, ¹⁵ and I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, so that you may believe; but let us go to him.” ¹⁶ Therefore Thomas, who is called ^[c]Didymus, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, so that we may die with Him.”

 ¹⁷ So when Jesus came, He found that he had already been in the tomb four days. ¹⁸ Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, about ^[d]two miles off; ¹⁹ and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary, to console them concerning their brother. ²⁰ Martha therefore, when she heard that Jesus was coming, went to meet Him, but Mary ^[e]stayed at the house. ²¹ Martha then said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. ²² Even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You.” ²³ Jesus *said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” ²⁴ Martha *said to Him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” ²⁵ Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, ²⁶ and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?” ²⁷ She *said to Him, “Yes, Lord; I have believed that You are ^[f]the Christ, the Son of God, even ^[g]He who comes into the world.”

 ²⁸ When she had said this, she went away and called Mary her sister, saying secretly, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” ²⁹ And when she heard it, she *got up quickly and was coming to Him.

 ³⁰ Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha met Him. ³¹ Then the Jews who were with her in the house, and consoling her, when they saw that Mary got up quickly and went out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there. ³² Therefore, when Mary came where Jesus was, she saw Him, and fell at His feet, saying to Him, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.” ³³ When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, He was deeply moved in spirit and ^[h]was troubled, ³⁴ and said, “Where have you laid him?” They *said to Him, “Lord, come and see.” ³⁵ Jesus wept. ³⁶ So the Jews were saying, “See how He loved him!” ³⁷ But some of them said, “Could not this man, who opened the eyes of the blind man, ^[i]have kept this man also from dying?”

 ³⁸ So Jesus, again being deeply moved within, *came to the tomb. Now it was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. ³⁹ Jesus *said, “Remove the stone.” Martha, the sister of the deceased, *said to Him, “Lord, by this time ^[j]there will be a stench, for he has been dead four days.” ⁴⁰ Jesus *said to her, “Did I not say to you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?” ⁴¹ So they removed the stone. Then Jesus raised His eyes, and said, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. ⁴² I knew that You always hear Me; but because of the ^[k]people standing around I said it, so that they may believe that You sent Me.” ⁴³ When He had said these things, He cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth.” ⁴⁴ The man who had died came forth, bound hand and foot with wrappings, and his face was wrapped around with a cloth. Jesus *said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”

 ⁴⁵ Therefore many of the Jews who came to Mary, and saw what He had done, believed in Him. ⁴⁶ But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them the things which Jesus had done.

I love how this story cuts right to the chase. It says that a man was sick and he happened to be the brother of Mary (whom we met in Luke and the same woman who anointed Jesus’ feet with oil and wiped them with her hair). When Jesus heard that Lazarus was sick, this was his response:  “This sickness is not to end in death, but for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified by it.” WOW. This jumped out at me this morning for a couple of reasons. When skimming through this chapter one might take it at its literal meaning… ‘Oh yeah, it’s all good, God’s got this, Lazarus will be fine”. However, I believe that if we delve deeper, we’ll find a more figurative meaning. A couple verses down, and the writer even explains, Jesus says: “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I go, so that I may awaken him out of sleep.” ¹² The disciples then said to Him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will ^[a]recover.” ¹³ Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that He was speaking of ^[b]literal sleep. In the previous verse, when Jesus says this sickness will not end in death and I believe he is speaking about the resurrection. That while the physical body might die, the spirit will not. I believe that the glory he is talking about comes from the Lazarus’ physical life and the way he lived it. Putting it into today’s application: even after death, I believe people still have a way to glorify God through their example in their physical life and through their legacy even after they’ve passed on.

            Then Jesus breaks the news to his followers: “Lazarus is dead, ¹⁵ and I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, so that you may believe; but let us go to him.” BAM. Nothing like a blunt wake-up call. Even When Jesus decided to go to Lazarus (and he delayed for a reason) his disciples fought his decision thinking that there was really nothing to be done now that Lazarus had died…that there had only been hope while he was still living. It was a dangerous time as there were people who wanted to kill Jesus. And I LOVE Thomas’ response! While I admire his faithfulness to Jesus, his disparity is hilarious! Pretty much says,”Ok guys, let’s go with Jesus….get ready to die…”. REALLY? You’re with the SON OF GOD, WHO HEALS THE BLIND AND MAKES THE LAME WALK. If I were physically in the presence of Jesus, I’d be afraid of NOTHING! (Excellent reminder that indeed, we are in His presence ALL THE TIME…therefore, we should fear nothing!)

            The next scene is so moving. Jesus arrives in Bethany. Martha comes running to him, crying and saying that if he had been here Lazarus would not have died. He tells her Lazarus will rise again and she acknowledges that she knows and believes he will rise again at the resurrection. Then comes this verse: “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, ²⁶ and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?” Her answer: Yes. What an amazing transformation from the frustrated woman who chided her sister Mary for sitting at the Lord’s feet while he was teaching. Martha tells her sister Mary that “the Teacher” is here. (Interesting side note from my Bible: Rabbis in those days did not teach women. But Jesus taught Mary and Martha multiple times). When Mary approaches Jesus she is crying. It says His spirit was deeply moved. He asked to be taken to the tomb. And then these two words – two words which I believe most powerfully describe Jesus at the height of his humanity: Jesus wept.  How many times in the past week, month have you cried? How many times have you fallen at the feet of the Savior weeping and pouring your heart out? I think it’s very possible that He has been so moved that He has wept with you. As we see the end of the story, Jesus prays to God asking that the people witnessing this scene would believe that Jesus was sent here by God. He calls forth Lazarus and Lazarus rises from the dead and comes out of the tomb.

So it brings us back to the question of why. Why did Jesus not rush back to Lazarus’ bedside? Why did He not save him? It even says that Jesus loved Martha, Mary and Lazarus. There are two recorded instances with Jesus and this family. I believe they were extremely special to Jesus and this sickness and consequently death probably affected Him greatly. The younger the person the harder the death is to accept. I believe God allows things like death to happen for a purpose. I believe the primary purpose is for His Glory. He is glorified through our reactions and attitudes when death happens. Instead of being bitter and angry, we can be joyful and prayerful. He allows these trials to test our fortitude, character and ultimately, our faith in Him. When we come through on the other side, and we’re still in one piece, our faith is that much stronger. Going back to Michael. I didn’t understand why God took him. I didn’t understand why God would take someone who fervently lived his life for Christ. Why, why, why?

About a year ago, I came across some writings or sayings that Michael had written to a friend. I posted about them actually in my other blog. They were never meant for me – but the reaction I had was one that pulled at my heart strings. I wanted to be a person who had that kind of legacy, I wanted to be a person living for Christ. One problem: I was so wrapped up in my sin. I didn’t feel like I could even begin to approach the Cross because of how dirty I felt. Throughout last summer, God used Michael’s words mightily. I read them frequently, pondering how I could feel clean again. I know God was speaking to me this entire time..but I couldn’t hear it. I was so wrapped up in what I had to DO to feel clean. God took me all the way to Germany for a reason. He took me out of my comfort zone, He took me away from work, from school, from family and friends….so he could speak to me. I did a lot of listening in that week in Germany. He reminded me that HE is God, to Be Still, That HE has a plan for me and it will come about in HIS time. He also reminded me that I don’t have to do ANYTHING to be clean – except acknowledge Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior and give my life to Him. That’s it. It wasn’t an overnight realization – it was more like a tiny seed that He planted in my soul and as I studied scripture and fed on the Word of Life, the bible, that seed started to grow. Sometimes we ask why – maybe we should ask that God’s will be done instead. Perhaps we should strive to make a difference here in life and also in death as well. Maybe our greatest impact comes not from our human life, but our life in Jesus that knows no death and was truly resurrected the moment we gave our whole hearts to Him.