The Gospel: so much more than Good Friday

Today, I reflect on Christ's death, on His sacrifice, on His great love displayed on the cross. The Gospel (His death and resurrection to pay for my sins) has become so much more than a thought on Good Friday to me these past 2 years. I meditate on it every day. I try to teach it and talk about it to my kids every day. I remind myself of it when I see my sin every day! Its transformed the way I live. I used to think that the Gospel was for salvation and I rarely thought about it much. I would  try really hard OF MYSELF to live a good life, obey the rules (which I failed miserably at although people couldn't always tell from the outside)  and the focus really was on ME and what I could DO to look good to God and others. I always felt defeated and discouraged because I couldn't conquer sin- again the focus was on me! Focusing on the Gospel- on His sacrifice, on His great love shown to me on the cross, on His selflessness, on His resurrection- has shown me that the power for the Christian life doesn't come from ME but from what Christ did for me on the cross. When all my focus is on that sacrifice, my life is changed! I realize the GREAT love that Christ has shown me and I love my children, my family, my friends, my neighbors with such a different focus- I want them to see THE GOSPEL thru me and my love. I see the GREAT selflessness that Christ displayed with his death and in focusing on that, God stirs within me a desire to be selfless toward my husband, children, friends, family and serve them! I still struggle daily with sin and my mind needs to be transformed- how? by renewing my mind with the Gospel! By running to Jesus, asking forgiveness and realizing that He HAS forgiven every sin because of the Gospel!!! Oh such amazing, life changing truth!

Oh, to see the dawn
Of the darkest day:
Christ on the road to Calvary.
Tried by sinful men,
Torn and beaten, then
Nailed to a cross of wood.

This, the pow'r of the cross:
Christ became sin for us;
Took the blame, bore the wrath—
We stand forgiven at the cross.

Oh, to see the pain
Written on Your face,
Bearing the awesome weight of sin.
Ev'ry bitter thought,
Ev'ry evil deed
Crowning Your bloodstained brow. 

Now the daylight flees;
Now the ground beneath
Quakes as its Maker bows His head.
Curtain torn in two,
Dead are raised to life;
"Finished!" the vict'ry cry. 

Oh, to see my name
Written in the wounds,
For through Your suffering I am free.
Death is crushed to death;
Life is mine to live,
Won through Your selfless love.

This, the pow'r of the cross:
Son of God—slain for us.
What a love! What a cost! 
We stand forgiven at the cross.

He is all I need

I have recently been reading Tim Kellers book Counterfeit Gods. I'm only on Chapter 5 but I thought I would give it a shout out seeing as it is phenomenal!  Each chapter looks at a Biblical character and shows the idol that managed to hold captive that persons life till they saw their greatest need- CHRIST! It has rocked my world and caused me to examine my heart and root out those idols that are holding it captive.

"We tend to think that idols are bad things, but that is almost never the case. The greater the good, the more likely we are to expect that it can satisfy our deepest needs and hopes."


How true this is! God daily loads me with blessings and I can take those blessings and think that those things or people are making me happy, rather than realizing the only true fulfillment I can gain is from Christ!
I love how Abrahams story is unfolded. We all remember how he longed for a son in his old age. We see how God blessed him with a good and long awaited gift, Isaac! I have met several women who have LONGED for a child and have not been able to conceive. I see the pain in their eyes when they hold a friend's baby. I hear the sadness in their voices when they talk about how very much they want a little baby to hold and love. I have seen that longing and I can only imagine the joy and gratitude and excitement when the angel told Abraham that he would finally have a child! What a good gift! And then we see the ultimate test of faith when God tells Abraham to take his only son, the one for which he had longed for for years and sacrifice him. Seems so cruel and harsh.

"God was not trying to find out if Abraham loved him (God) . The All-Seeing God knows the state of every heart. Rather, God was putting Abraham through the furnace , so his love for God could finally 'come forth as pure gold'. It is not hard to see why God was using Isaac as a means for this. If God had not intervened, Abraham would have certainly come to love his son more than anything in the world, if he did not do so already. That would have been idolatry and all idolatry is destructive. From this perspective we see that God's extremely rough treatment of Abraham was actually merciful." 


And then I love how this story takes the emphasis off the man and points to Christ, the perfect sacrifice!
"Now I know that you love me, because you did not withhold your only son from me. God was not only saying this to Abraham but also to the world! Because years later another Father would walk another "mount" called Calvary with his firstborn and offer Him there for us all."


I looked at the story of Abraham with new eyes. How God knows that I will often place my hopes, happiness, fulfillment and joy in my family. They are good gifts from a loving Father but they are not what satisfies. Christ is! If they were all taken away, Christ is still all I need! Hard words to write.
The last few weeks I have heard  tragic stories of loss and illness. A missionary family experiencing the loss of their little 3 year old  girl who was killed in a car accident a few days ago. A husband whose wife has a deadly brain tumor and is preparing to die and say goodbye to her 2 toddler sons. So many people we know struggling with cancer. Heart-wrenching stories and stories that pepper my heart with fear and questions about how I would respond if it happened to me. My 7 year old asked me this week, "Mom, does God give cancer. Why does he do that?" I answered with tears in my eyes that He is good and "He gives and takes away- Blessed be the name of the Lord!" He is enough. He needs to be enough because those good gifts could be snatched away any moment and my faith put to the test.  I have personally never walked through those dark, deep trials but I know some day I will. And I pray today for strength in the future to say "Blessed be the name of the Lord". I am encouraged as I see believers walking right now through death and illness saying, "Blessed be the name of the Lord." What a reminder to me that- Christ is all I need!

Ephesians= WOW!

Last Sunday we were challenged with Sola Scriptura- the importance of Scripture to our church and individual lives. Its SO easy to say we highly value Scripture but boy was I convicted by my lack of desire to read it and truly desire it above all else.

‎"Let us then consider it certain and conclusively established that the soul can do without all things except the Word of God."

 ~Martin Luther

We were challenged to read the book of Ephesians for 5 days this week. I am on day 3 and its SUCH a good book- I think what has hit me most is the contrast of the life we had before Christ and the life we enjoy after we have accepted the good news of the gospel as our sole means of salvation-listen to these verses and get ready to be blown away! 

Ephesians 2:1-10

  And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, ² in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. ³ Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh,indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. ⁴ But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, ⁵ even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), ⁶ and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, ⁷ so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. ⁸ For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; ⁹ not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. ¹⁰ For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

WOW- what grace! What unmerited favor God showed to me- a rebel to His cause!

The whole book is filled with passages like this- showing the sinfulness of man and the greatness of God- and how God reached across that great chasm and filled it with the His Son- CHRIST- on the cross. Brings me to tears. 

What a mystery!  What love! What grace! What a glorious Gospel! 

I pray as I gaze on this great truth that my soul would desire 

more and more of this GREAT God and His GREAT Word!