SACRIFICE - Good Friday Meditation

1 John 4:10 declares that God - because of His love for us - sent Jesus to be the "atoning sacrifice" or "propitiation" for our sins. It's incredibly humbling to realize once again that Jesus' purpose in coming to earth was to die for you and me.

Philippians 2:8 says that Jesus Christ became obedient to death when He went to the cross for us. I believe this means that by acting in obedience to the will of His Father, He was compelled to die on the cross. He knew that this was the only way to reconcile sinful man to God, and though - in His humanity - He didn't want the torture and pain, He submitted Himself to the suffering for our sake.

Surely He has borne our griefs a

nd carried our sorrows;

Yet we esteemed Him stricken, s

mitten by God, and afflicted.

⁵ 

But He was wounded for our transgressions,

He was bruised for our iniquities;

The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,

A

nd by His stripes we are healed.

 

All we like sheep have gone astray;

We have turned, every one, to his own way;

And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief.

When You make His soul an offering for sin,

He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days,

And the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand.

¹¹ 

He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied.

By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many,

For He shall bear their iniquities.

~ Isaiah 53:4-6, 10-11 ~

2 Corinthians 5:21 says that "God made Him [Jesus] who had no sin to be sin for us, that in Him we might become the righteousness of God."

It is sobering and saddening to remember on this day that it was because of my sin that Jesus had to go to the cross. But this is GOOD Friday, and there is reason to rejoice. Why? Because of Jesus' perfect sacrifice, we have forgiveness and reconciliation with God, despite our sinful choices - marvelous grace!

Thank You, Jesus, for taking the punishment for my sin, for bearing the suffering and pain that I deserved. Thank You for being willing to be my sacrifice and for reminding me again of Your great love for me.

Once again I look upon the cross where You died;

I'm humbled by Your mercy and I'm broken inside;

Once again I thank You, once again I pour out my life.

(Because You poured Yours out for me.)

LOVE - Holy Week Meditation

Yesterday and today I have been reading about the love of God, which is the only reason that I have anything to write about and rejoice in.

How often do we contemplate our reason for saying "I love you" to someone? Or what we mean when we ask someone, "Do you love me?" What my brother, Andrew Shaver, wrote in his blog post the other day was really profound to me:  The biblical gospel is clear.  God chooses to save people, not because they are special or good, or have potential, but simply because God chooses to set his love on people. Thank God for this!

 “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me - just as the Father knows me and I know the Father - and I lay down my life for the sheep.

The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life - only to take it up again.

No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.” ~ John 10:14, 17-18

To be honest, I don't know that I have words adequate enough to express what I am thinking and feeling as I meditate on the significance of Jesus' love for me and the action of freely laying down His life for me.

I just watched the Jesus film and was brought to tears in the scene where Peter denies Jesus and then weeps bitterly outside...although, unlike Peter, I have never seen or walked with Jesus, I know the heart-wrenching pain of knowing that I have consciously sinned and grieved Him who loves me so deeply. That reality makes it all the more amazing that Jesus freely chose to love me and die for me.

Romans 5:8 declares that God's love is demonstrated by His willingness to die for sinners in order to reconcile them to Himself.

I can't think of any better motivation to obey and follow Jesus than to express my gratitude to Him - which is exactly what He told His disciples in John 14:15 -- "If you love Me, keep My commands."

Love for God starts with God and comes from Him -- 1 John 4:10, 19 declare that God loved us first and sent His Son to die for our sins, and that is why we love Him. And Ephesians 5 tells us to love in the same way that Christ loved us, by giving up His life for us.

Lord Jesus, may I never lose sight of Your love for me. On my own I cannot love the way You love, so I ask that You keep me humble in order that Your love can flow through me. I thank you today - and every day - for your amazing love. I do not understand it, but I am grateful for it, and I thank You that You are changing my heart and helping me learn to love like You. Thank You for dying for this unworthy sinner, and for choosing to set Your love upon me that I might declare Your love to the world. Amen.

HOSANNA - Palm Sunday Meditation

This picture is my creative expression of what we celebrate on Palm Sunday, and the meaning of the word "Hosanna."

Today is Palm Sunday. Here in Ukraine, the Protestant churches will celebrate a month later, but I have decided to take time this week to meditate on the events we celebrate at Easter - which are the foundation of my Christian faith.

The word "Hosanna" originally was a cry for help, for salvation -- "Save us!"
In the context of the New Testament, it is generally used as an expression of praise and exultation - "Salvation has come," which is probably the intended meaning of Matthew 21:9 when the crowd shouts, "Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!"

I chose John 1:29 as the focal point of my Palm Sunday poster, because I believe this is the reason to shout and sing "Hosanna!" Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God, the Savior of the world, and when we cry "Hosanna," we are acknowledging that He is who He said He is.

I wonder if the people in Jerusalem really understood the significance of what they shouted as they waved their palm branches and rejoiced at Jesus' triumphal entrance. Perhaps some of them did, but not all believed that Jesus was the Messiah, the One sent from God to be the salvation of Israel.

Jesus' entrance into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday was a fulfillment of prophecy and an act of voluntary and complete obedience to His Father's will and it was also a demonstration of His love. It was the annunciation of Jesus' purpose on earth ... to be the Lamb of God, the Savior who takes away the sins of the world.

This Palm Sunday I witnessed a miracle -- following the pastor's sermon on John 3 and Jesus' declaration that a person must be born again to see the kingdom of God, one of the men in the congregation prayed to receive salvation and was spiritually born again, praise God!

HOSANNA in the highest, salvation has come! HOSANNA, to the Son of David, the Messiah, our Savior! BLESSED IS HE who comes IN THE NAME OF THE LORD!

Light In Darkness

March 22, 2013
I was born in Canada, a country of freedom and privilege, and have never personally experienced the reality of war, famine, or the mass extermination of people. I do not take this lightly, but in view of what I saw today, I believe that sometimes we must open our eyes and our hearts to the brokenness of the world we live in, so that we can better understand the heart of the God who created us and cares for each one of us with a love far beyond our comprehension.

Today I visited the Memorial to the Victims of Holodomor in Ukraine , not knowing what I to expect. The word "Holodomor" means "death by starvation," and this memorial remembers the millions of Ukrainians who died in the great famine of 1932-33 under the authority of Stalin.

• This is one of the grieving angels at the memorial entrance, guarding the souls of those who died.

          

• This statue represents the people who were imprisoned and killed for having 6 ears of grain. 

         

• This is the Candle of Memory, which stands above the underground memorial hall. On the front of the monument is a depiction of revival coming out of the darkness of tragedy - a bronze crane emerging from bars of bondage.

         

• This was one of the first things we saw as we entered - it is a sheaf of grain wrapped in barbed wire, which symbolizes that it was inaccessible to the people, also demonstrated by the reaching hands.

         

• These are some of the exhibits, reminders of peasant life in Ukraine.

       

        

•  Encircling the room are books, listing the names of the millions of people who died.

        

• This is the Memorial Bell, located out the back exit of the memorial. The sides of the hillside beyond are lined with plates listing the names of villages that were completely obliterated by the famine.

        

• This is the center of the memorial hall inside the Candle of Memory, where anyone can light a candle in memory. The grains of wheat in the center represent the millions of people who died. The symbolism of a candle - a shining light - in the midst of this black and tragic memorial is significant. 

        

I have to tell you, that even as I write this, I have tears in my eyes. When I looked at the books and thought about the millions of names, too many to count, and the intrinsic value of each one, I grieved. The sheer enormity of loss and suffering that was endured by those who lived in the Stalinist regime is overwhelming and I cannot comprehend the darkness of soul that could so devalue human life.

BUT... there is a light of hope in this darkness, and it is not just the little candles that people light in memory of those who suffered and died, and it is this:

God sees and He cares. I have not lived in a time of such unimaginable horror and pain, and so I cannot truly empathize with those who have, but I do know my God and am so convinced of His love that not even a sad memorial such as this can cause me to despair. There is not one thought or emotion or deed that goes unnoticed by our Sovereign Almighty God, the One who holds the entire universe in the palm of His hand and who knows every one of us more intimately than we know ourselves. The renewed realization of this wonderful truth is the ONLY thing that made this little excursion more than an exercise in history. 

Yes, my heart aches and I wish that there was no such evil in the world...but this is reality for now. I have to keep my eyes fixed on the coming day when Jesus Christ will return. Not only will He judge the world in righteousness, but all those who trust in Him will be taken to live with Him for eternity - and there will be NO MORE pain, suffering, grief, loss, evil, sin or death!

This is the light in the darkness - the candle of hope in a dying world.

Like The Wind

When God speaks to my heart, I often need to write down my thoughts -- and this blog has become a good channel for me to do that.

The devotional today from Joni & Friends really gave me some food for thought on the theme of wind.

Wind is not one of my favourite weather features. When I'm outside in the wind, it often makes my face feel cold and it messes up my hair, and when it's blowing really strong the sound of howling wind often causes me to feel cold.

As I'm writing this, I am thinking about how often I display a negative attitude because I'm focused on the negative (or less-than-positive) aspects and this reminds me of a story I read in my childhood...

...about a little acorn sprout that wanted to grow into a big strong oak tree. But this little acorn sprout complained about and "hated" every trial that came its way -- the squirrel, the wind, the rain -- and every time, someone else came along and told him that God allowed the trial for a purpose and that he needed to be thankful for it. And one day, when he was a big strong oak tree, he realized this truth.

I usually try not to complain about weather, and instead to find something positive to comment on, but in reading this devotional today I realized that I rarely ever look for the positives of wind.

However, God's Word often compares wind to the working of the Holy Spirit in our lives and looking at it from that perspective changes the focus.

I want to share just a brief excerpt with you:

Little wonder Jesus likened the wind to the Spirit. Wind moves. So does the Spirit. It - or I should say, He - never stays still. He is always moving and making His presence known. And if this Holy One lives at the center of our lives, we will see, feel, and at times, almost smell and hear the effects. The Spirit is constantly doing something in us. Just as we can see the effects of the wind in the trees (although we cannot see it), others will observe and appreciate the effects of the Spirit in our lives.

As I was meditating on this today, I thought about changes that come with wind - the transitions between fall and winter, winter and spring, and the havoc that is caused by a windstorm. There's something within me that doesn't always welcome change and challenge and difficulty, and I can become so focused on myself and what I think I need that I miss the blessings and the working of God in those changes.

It's good to live in the moment, but sometimes we need to be looking forward to what may not be visible to us right now -- because just like the wind, we can't always see what God is doing but knowing that His Spirit is working in us is always something to be thankful for, and there will be blessed evidences of His touch in our lives.

I want to share Joni's final thoughts in closing:

Step outside on a breezy March morning and notice that the wind marks its movement by what it touches. In its wake it leaves freshness and cleansing. As you allow the Spirit to touch your life, others will mark His presence and breathe deeply of His fragrance. They will give thanks to God... and thanks to you.

I sense your stirrings in my life, Lord. Move powerfully in me. Blow a fresh breeze through my soul and sweep away anything that displeases You. May I be different for it, and may others see and notice Your touch.

In Pain and In Rest

“We can ignore even pleasure. But pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”  -- C.S. Lewis

A couple of weeks ago, I was taking the bus to school and there were no spots to sit down. So I was standing and holding onto the pole, and the bus driver made some very sharp, hard turns that wrenched my ankle as I was bracing myself. Consequently, a muscle in my ankle was strained. And this caused me quite a little bit of pain. I actually missed a day of classes, and spent the better part of 2 days resting, icing my ankle and taking ibuprofen. For about a week I used a tensor wrap for support when walking and standing so that the muscle wouldn't continue to be strained and could start to heal.

The resting process was a bit of a challenge, I will admit. I felt that I should be up and about -- there were things that needed to be done, and I felt really lazy -- but at the same time, I didn't want to make the pain worse. It wasn't unbearable, but I don't have the greatest tolerance for pain. But I quickly realized, especially through the advice of my parents, that strained muscles take time and rest to heal, and that this was going to mean I would be a little less active than usual.

God has blessed me with the ability to look at most circumstances and see the positive side, the blessings. So   when I knew that I would be taking some required "rest" time, one of the first things I did was to spend some extended time in worship, prayer and Bible reading. This is something that I do regularly, but not usually 2 hours at a time because there are so many other things to do.

So in this time of pain and required "rest", I realized how easily I forget what a great blessing it is to be able to walk and stand without pain. I also rediscovered how rejuvenating it is - not only physically, but emotionally and spiritually - to take time to really rest. To set aside the pressure of having to do things now and just to sit and "be still" in God's presence, and to think on the blessings we so often miss when we're rushing around.

God is sovereign over every aspect of my life, so I firmly believe that He allowed me to sustain this minor injury at that particular time because He knew that I needed to take a step back and have some "rest" in the midst of a somewhat painful circumstance.  I also realized that I tend to be a little impatient when something happens that hinders the "stuff" I think I have to be doing. God has been teaching me how to be patient in the healing process, and I am very grateful to Him for that.

I have to agree with C.S. Lewis -- God was shouting to me during this time of pain and I heard Him very clearly because I was stilled and allowing Him to speak to me. That's important too - He always speaks to us, but so often we are too busy to really listen and hear what He has to say. Hopefully I have learned from this so that I don't have to wait for the next painful or difficult situation in order to take some time to be still, to "sit at the feet of Jesus" and learn from Him.