Friday, April 22, 2011

"It's Friday, but Sunday is coming!"

True love. Every person longs for it, maybe in different ways. But deep down, haven’t you always desired and wanted that someone to share your thoughts, hopes, and dreams with. I don’t really know how guys desire true love, but I can tell you how girls just long for that true love. Sometimes it even becomes a passion of ours to find that true love. Now that can be a whole other topic, but I want to talk about our True Love.
Today is Good Friday. Easter Sunday is so quickly approaching. Have you ever taken time to just stop, meditated, and realized what actually happened today about 2,000 years ago? It is really hard for me to put all of this words (which is very rare!) Here is how I think about it: Jesus had been living among the people (including Jews) not causing political turmoil but just living a perfect life sharing truths with people and performing miracles. He did gain many followers during his life. However, the Jews wanted their Messiah to be a mighty man who would overthrow the Roman government and bring peace for them. God had different plans. Jesus didn’t come to earth to live a perfect life, perform miracles, and cause the Roman government to fall. No, He came to live this holy and blameless life, show us how to live, and then die so we don’t have too. He rose from the grave and is now sitting beside our God in Heaven.
Read in the gospel of Mark, chapters 14 through 16.
Mark describes the end of Jesus’ life so beautifully. His words are cut and dry and I love his writing style. Think about our Savior. He stood being tried and then convicted of nothing but sentenced to death. He was whipped, beaten, belittled and wore thorns around His head, taking on all my sins. For me. He carried a heavy cross through town after being put through the most torture the government allowed without physically killing the person. Carrying the cross on His back, the wood that would support His perfect and blameless life He lived, but then dying on it taking on the sins of all humanity.
Before the Jewish leaders came to the garden to arrest Jesus, He was praying. I hadn’t ever analyzed or really looked at that prayer until recently. He cries out “Abba, Father.” Abba is the most dearest thing to call your father; like calling out for your daddy. Mark describes what happens so beautifully! Jesus calls out for His daddy saying, “ everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.” This time of Jesus praying Mark uses to show us that He is distressed. Jesus isn’t necessarily worried about the physical death. He prays that this “cup” would pass. Cup meaning hour, that this hour would pass. Now, a brief little history lesson. In Isaiah, Jeremiah, and other prophets in the Old Testament use the word cup. When they did, cup represented the wrath of God. Jesus isn’t scared of dying, but rather taking on our ransom, the ransom for all humanity, for all ages. Think about that. Jesus said in chapter 10 of Mark that He is that ransom. That ransom in dying for us separated Him from His father. He had never been separated from His daddy before. He had to die. This terrified Him. But He did it. He knew He had too. It was what He was sent to do. So you could have a relationship with Him. So you wouldn’t die (because Paul tells us in Romans that we deserve death).
This is True Love. I don’t know about you, but when I think about this, no other true love could do this. He did though. For me. He can be your True Love too. He wants to be.
Let Him be your True Love.
“It’s Friday, but Sunday is coming!”- Ben Stuart, Breakaway
Humbly yours,
His Servant

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Fabulous Princesses

Right now I am sitting at a Starbucks in College Station right across from campus; I’m listening to my favorite music, drinking a refreshing Passion Fruit Tea, and the weather is just fabulous. It’s one of those days where everything is just perfect! On days like this I know that my life is just fabulous and I feel like a princess!
Fabulous is one of my favorite words. Fabulous. There are so many different ways to say it: you can see it long and drawn out when being a princess or say it in British accent when being well again a princess. Princess. Many people tell girls this when they are being over dramatic or high maintenance. And yes, my family and friends do tend to tell me this on a regular basis. But I don’t care; I love it!
So yes, I might act like a princess at times, but why not? Why not expect the best? Growing up, my parents encouraged me to be a princess. If I wanted to play dress up and act like a princess all day that was just fine. For me, a pair of red cowgirl boots normally accompanied my dress. I read the book Captivating not long ago. If you haven’t read that, I strongly encourage you to read it. Anyway, in the book there is an entire chapter set aside for girls who were raised as princesses. This is not a bad thing, contrary to popular belief!
Being raised as princess means that a little girl was able to express her femininity while growing up. For some girls, showing this femininity doesn’t guarantee acceptance from your family, particularly from a little girl’s father. I was so incredibly bless to have a father who I knew would accept me; he told me I was a princess. Some girls grew up in homes where their father might have abused them in different ways, shunned their femininity, or just ignored them all together. My heart breaks when I think of this. Being a princess is impossible in a home like that. For a little girl, all she wants is to be cherished, loved, captivated, and known by her father. Every little girls desires for her father to tell her that she is fabulous, that she is a princess.
I have a heart for these girls who are now grown, but still carry around these wounds. These wounds run so deep.
But the joyous and most precious story is for every girl, those told that they are princesses or those who have never been told that before. Our earthly father might have failed us. Our Heavenly Father will not! He is our Father, our Daddy. Numerous times throughout the New Testament the phrase “Abba, Father” is used. Best translation: Daddy. So sweet. He desires us. He cherishes us. He loves us. We are His princesses. We are fabulous to Him.
Romans 8:31 and 32 are some of my favorite verses and put this whole idea into the perfect words. It says, “If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all- how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” This not only shows God’s beautiful and unconditional love that he gave His son over to death for us, but it shows that He desires to give us the best. He desires the best for us! I just can’t quit saying that. It is so amazing once you actually realize it.
We are His princesses. We are fabulous. Live knowing that you are loved by a Father, unconditional, who desires you and wants you to be a princess and fabulous. Have a fabulous day filled with delights of a princess!
Humbly yours,
His servant