What we do in life echoes in eternity

i have shared before about my love for storms, especially lightning storms, but tonight as i am watching the storm i cannot help but simply be awestruck by the awesome power and complexity of God.  Lightning is easily one of the most incredible and fascinating things you will ever see in nature.  There is no way that it could be anything but a creation of God, to reveal some of his insurmountable and unimaginable power.  Thank you Lord for creating lightning to reveal yourself to people!

There is a worship song by Casting Crowns called Praise You in this Storm, that is definitely one of my favorites.  As i sit here and listen to the wind howl, the rain beat against the windows and the lightning fill the sky with brilliant sparks of purple and blue i cannot help but think of that song, as well as Job.  Job is such an incredible story in the Bible!  It is so powerful and moving, and carries one of the best messages that you will find.  The message goes something like this,  even if absolutely everything is taken from you, no matter how "good" you are, will God be sufficient? [thank you Devon and your love of devotionals and desire to know God deeper daily for helping bring this point to light! :)]   Job's answer despite the repeated times that Satan tries to convince him otherwise is a resounding and steadfast YES, GOD IS SUFFICIENT!  Incredible. Remarkable. Inspiring.  To think that even when it seems as though one thing that i only half heartedly enjoy is taken from me, i tend to throw a fit, one that would most certainly shame a spoiled two year-old. We all ask Why me God?  Why do i deserve this? Let me tell you these are the wrong questions.  Jesus took on the most excruciating suffering ever imaginable.  He was crucified [one of the most painful forms of death], and while this happened he became the full embodiment of all sin, from Adam and Eve to the most current sin in your life or any ones life.  That's right all of it, even for those who are not believers, he took on that sin and destroyed it[through his resurrection], which means if you want to you can feel the redemptive power of trusting in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.  As a result of taking on sin, what happened to Jesus?  Well, God was forced to separate himself for Jesus, for God is perfectly Holy, meaning he can have no part of sin.  No one ever has or ever will suffer more than Jesus.

So what Does that mean for you and me?  How are we supposed to respond to suffering?  Well not in the way that you would think.  Paul explains to us how we need to respond to suffering.  First in Romans 5:3-5, where we are told that we must rejoice in our sufferings.  Sorry, what?  You read that correctly rejoice in our sufferings.  Along with the list of things that are the result of suffering as mentioned in the passage we can also see what importance this has in Philippians 3:10, when Paul tells us that in our sufferings we will find fellowship with Jesus.  That's right our sufferings is where we find fellowship!

For all of you out there who want to know Jesus on a deeper more intimate level, it's time to embrace suffering, tribulation and trials when they come.  This doesn't mean to go out and find them, but what this does mean is that when they come, and they will come that you need to embrace them and know that through this time God is not only shaping your character for things He wants you to accomplish in His time, and that you are developing a deeper love relationship with our Savior.  WOW!  How incredible is that?  More incredible than a lightning storm after a hot summer day!  So that is why no matter the storm that i am weathering in my life i will always worship and serve God, because i know that through it i will be a more complete version of the man he created me to be, for the role he created me to fulfill.  There is nothing more incredible than that!!

Thank you God for storms, both literally and metaphorically.  You work in truly amazing ways.  i cannot help but be brought to my knees in contrition at the mere thought of who you are, for that is worship, and that is surrendering to you.

"Christ has not only spoken to us by his life but has also spoken for us by his death."
-Soren Kierkegaard


To most of America tomorrow represents another day to get presents, to buy candy, and to have a feast.  A chance to partake in that age old tradition of searching for the eggs that had been died sometime earlier in the week, search for eggs hidden by the "Easter Bunny".  But what do these symbols really signify?  It represents a chance for corporate head honcho's to benefit from age old traditions that they started.  It represents pagan rituals that worshipped fertility gods and goddesses in the spring so as to bring good fortune, good crops, and good living.  In reality what most of America celebrates today is not actually Easter... what it celebrates is capitalism and paganism.  That is sad.


Now I am not necessarily saying that all the traditions that we have associated with Easter are wrong, for we should celebrate this day, this event, this miracle!  What we are celebrating is the most important and miraculous and amazing event in history!  Nothing surpasses the Cross, nothing compares, nothing!  Easter and for that matter Good Friday, which is indeed very good, are not about death, they are about life about LOVE!  Easter is a celebration of the most loving and gracious act that has ever been committed and for that matter it deserves to be CELEBRATED!  And celebrated well, with joy and with love, lots and lots of love.  Not so much with candy and eggs, and annual sales that coincide with this holiday.


Easter, especially to those who call themselves a follower of Christ, those who are fully enveloped in a deep, personal, intimate, knowing love relationship with our Lord and Savior, must cease to be a holiday and become once again a Holy Day, a day where we focus solely on the saving power of the cross, and the love not the nails that held Jesus in place.  For this is the very foundation of our belief in Jesus as Lord and Savior.  Without the cross it means nothing.  With out the greatest type of love, that is "laying down one's life for one's friends" (John 15:13).  Jesus tells us this, and then guess what?! He does it, in the most brutal, ruthless, painful, and humiliating way that man has ever created.  He took it all, all sin (past present and future) and paid the only sufficing penalty, a sacrificial death, the ultimate sacrifice.  In that moment the Lion of Judah, became the humble lamb, and for this reason yes indeed we should celebrate, but a Holy Day, not a holiday.  We must celebrate the love, the sacrifice, the gift, the redemption, the salvation, not the traditions, the sales, and the pagan rituals that have weaseled their way back into popular culture.


God gave up His Son so that we could have life. Who are we to mock him with whimsical traditions and practices, with placing Jesus on the back burner?  Who are we to decide what it is that is worth celebrating?  Who are we to forget God and focus on the material, the flesh?  We must remember what is important, what it is all about, Jesus' death and more importantly His resurrection.  His irreplaceable sacrifice and unrequited, unconditional love.  The Greatest expression of love the world will ever know. "This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers." - 1 John 3:16


"To a Christian, Easter Sunday means everything, when we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ."-- Bernhard Langer