God is our merciful Father and the source of all consolation. ...We consider you should know, pricey brothers and sisters, concerning the crisis we went through within the province of Asia. We have been crushed and overwhelmed beyond our capacity to endure, and we concept we might certainly not live through it. in fact, we anticipated to die. however because of this, we stopped counting on ourselves and realized to depend simplest on God, who raises the useless. —2 Corinthians 1:3, eight–9 (NLT)
throughout Holy Week, we're in particular reminded of the horror and sweetness of the cross of Christ. The ask yourself of the cross is that God himself, God the Son, stooped down to enter our darkness. With all His power, glory and authority, He had the correct to demand that we serve and worship him. He had the correct to decide us for our satisfaction and self-centeredness. as an alternative, He received His arms soiled for us. even more, He received His body bloody. He entered our darkness … your darkness. He entered your adventure to empathize with you to share to your pain, and He went additional. He entered the darkness of loss, depression, concern, hopelessness, isolation, rejection, loss of life. He took our darkness onto himself. On the move, He faced demise for us, and never just loss of life of the physique. He took all our sin and the entire evil of the world so that He might develop into the focal factor of God's justice. Jesus succumbed to the highest quality da rkness of hell, eternal death, for you and for me. however in His demise turned into the loss of life of demise. we all comprehend what happened three days later. The God who raises the lifeless entered our darkness, even dying itself, and overcame it for you and for me.
I have counseled many individuals with these sweet truths, and the Holy Spirit knew it changed into time for me to individually journey them. God was no longer simply easy to my darkness, He changed into with me within the darkness. like the apostle Paul, I felt the sentence of demise via hopelessness and helplessness. i was stripped from all my capacity to store myself and my household. i noticed in that moment that i was trying to depend on myself and looking out for a method out of the darkness. i wanted a transformation in my situations — "throw me a rope or a ladder to get out of my darkness, Lord." My coronary heart was moved to shift my gaze to search for God in my darkness. My prayer modified to, "Jesus let me be aware of you in my darkness … let me be aware of the darkness of your move." Puzzle items started coming together in my heart. If i will be able to understand Jesus in His resurrection energy and all its glory, I must know Jesus in His dying and darkne ss. There is not any resurrection devoid of crucifixion. We can't fully know God, Father, Son, and Spirit, in all His glory and goodness devoid of realizing Him in struggling. I discovered the hand of Jesus achieving out to me to walk with me in in the ache and concern and discouragement. I discovered myself being held whereas i was falling aside. I discovered a energy upholding me past feeling, beyond my manage. I discovered no count how deep I descended, He and His love met me there. In my pit, in my darkness I encountered God who raises the lifeless.
this is no longer simply a private experience, however the fact of God figuring out His salvation for anyone in this damaged sinful world. In knowing the Crucified Son, we will meet the Resurrected Lord.
Scott Barber is senior pastor at Worthington's Grace community Church.
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