Friday, April 22, 2011

The Ultimate Sacrifice

The Easter Season has arrived and for many that involves Easter egg hunts and baskets, cooking the perfect meal for family, photos with the Easter bunny, or somehow managing to get each member of your family impeccably dressed and keeping them that way long enough for church or other activities. Easter can be a fun season, but we need to stop and remember what Easter is really about.

Today is Good Friday. For many years, Good Friday didn't mean much of anything to me. I knew what it was about, but to me it was just some story in some ancient book that had no relevance to my life today. Thankfully, Jesus is ever patient and He never stopped calling me, even when I chose to ignore Him and live my life the way I pleased. He led me to the church I'm currently at even when in the beginning I had every intent of just going to make new friends. Around the time we first started going, our Pastor had a 21 day Bible reading challenge. I thought I would give this a shot, I mean it couldn't hurt right?

Let me tell you that my life was changed in those 21 days. I found myself looking forward to reading and learning more about the things Jesus had done for me and others. Jesus took my small step of reading a chapter or two a night and turned it into a need for Him, a desire to put Him first, and ultimately my choice in giving my life to Him for His purpose whatever that may be. I am so incredibly grateful that God is patient and kind and loves me so much.

So this year as I reflect on Good Friday, I think about the sacrifice that He made for me. God gave his only Son to take my place and die for me on a cross. He did this for me, before I was even a thought. He did this knowing that I would reject Him and everything He stood for. He died for me when I didn't love Him. This is what I call Great Love.

As parents, could you imagine giving away your only child to be beaten, tortured and murdered to save someone else? I know I could not do that. But that is what God did for us. There are no words to even begin to thank God for what He has done for us. All I can do is keep drawing to Him, keep reading His Word and learning to be obedient to Him, and sharing His love with others.

Please know that if you are reading this, it is never to late. No matter what you may have done or where you are in your life right now, He is waiting for you. He has great love for you, love that is far deeper than any other love you will ever know. Take time to reflect on the ultimate sacrifice He made for us. I challenge anyone who reads this and doesn't have a relationship with Jesus to make one small step towards Him today. I promise you, He WILL meet you where you are in your life. It can be committing to reading a chapter a night, going to church, even just saying a prayer to Him. In 1st John 1:9 it says,"But if we confess our sins to God, he can always be trusted to forgive us and take our sins away."

1st Peter 2:24 "Christ carried the burden of our sins. He was nailed to a cross, so that we would stop sinning and start living right. By his cuts and bruises you are healed."

Remember that Jesus promises will never fail and if you take that step toward Him, you will never regret it. If you have any questions, please feel free to get in touch with me. I'd be more that happy to help answer anything I can, and if I don't know the answer, I'll find out or put you in touch with someone that does.

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