“The only answer in these modern times, as in all other times, is the blood of Christ. When our conscience rises up and condemns us, where will we turn? We turn to Christ. We turn to the suffering and death of Christ—the blood of Christ. This is the only cleansing agent in the universe that can give the conscience relief in life and peace in death.” 
― John Piper

There is no more beautiful and powerful story in the entire world than that of Almighty God choosing to humble Himself, come to the earth in the form of a man – a man who worked with hands, loved children, enjoyed real friendships, experienced the sting of betrayal by one who was in His inner circle, and then gave Himself up to suffer, bleed, and die for the sins of the people in this world.

This is one story, one message, one life worth meditating on for….forever.

My daughters and I have been reading Ann Voskamp’s devotional during this Lent season.  From Genesis onward, the story of God’s love and redemption of mankind is woven throughout Scripture, culminating here at the Cross of Christ.

Taking the time to pause and consider what Christ has endured for us has filled our hearts with thanksgiving and awe. Instead of rushing through the readings and saying a quick prayer, we have just been going slowly through this devotional.

Instead of being impatient with the girls when they interrupt me to ask questions while I read, I have been letting them interrupt as much as they want (saying “Excuse me, Mom?” is my only prerequisite 😉 It ended up taking us one solid hour to get through our two page devotional yesterday 🙂

It was AWESOME. And I really mean that. They wanted to know things like, “Momma, why would Judas do that?!” “Did the soldiers know who they were killing?!” “Did God the Father raise Jesus from the dead or did Jesus raise Himself? How would He do that?”

A friend of mine told me that studies have shown that out of all children,  4 year old girls have the most questions. I have a 3 and 5 year old girl, so you do the math. My main role right now is “Question Answerer.”

They have heard the story of the Cross hundreds of times (probably because it is always Chesed’s choice to read from our Storytime Bible at night). But this time I read them straight from Matthew’s account, which includes awesome facts like the curtain of the temple tearing in two from top to bottom, an earthquake and rocks splitting open, and (my personal favorite) tombs bursting open and many bodies of saints who had been dead were raised, appearing to many in the holy city after his resurrection.

We stopped at each point and thought and talked about it all and they found it all quite fascinating. But one thing really troubled them: When I read them that Christ cried out on the cross “My God, My God, Why have you forsaken me?”

Why, Grace wanted to know, would God the Father turn away from Jesus at His moment of greatest suffering?

I explained that at that moment Christ was taking upon Himself the sins of mankind – our sins – He became sin: “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

It was for our sake that Christ endured rejection, persecution, torture, death, becoming sin (when He himself lived a perfect and blameless life) and worst – abandonment from His Father.

For our sake. People in this world may all define love in different ways. But there has never been love like this – ever.  His deep, enduring passion was to do His Father’s will and reconcile mankind to His Father.

He endured all of this that we may have a relationship with God. That we would be unbound from the shackles of sin and death, reborn as new creations in Christ Jesus. That we would confess our sins, receive His great grace, forsake the shame of our past, and step into the joy of His love – never to be forsaken or abandoned.

This is the beautiful message of the Passion of Christ – worth meditating on this Easter season and all year long.

Phot Credit: Claudio

She was a seed of hope, planted in faith,

She enlarged my heart, opened me up to more of love,

She birthed new life in me.

Her cry birthed my compassion

her smile, my delight.

My baby taught me that to be fed and clothed and loved

was all that was truly needed in this world.

And to be loved…oh, to be loved!

She needed my arms around her

and her soft hand in my own taught me

the beauty of depending on another.

My baby taught me that water and light and stars

 and flowers and animals and people

are absolutely fascinating, incredible creations

worth reveling in for hours.

My baby taught me that its therapeutic to color outside the lines

and to hug stuffed animals.

My baby taught me that she doesn’t really need toys to be happy.

She taught me that 4 a.m. wake up calls

can be made sweet

by the softness of her hair against my face,

her lingering scent on my clothes.

My baby taught me that I can be wholly responsible

for another human being

without losing myself in the process.

My baby taught me that it’s okay to cry

but its better to laugh!

Most of all, my baby taught me

that by giving of myself, I will find myself

that with sacrifice comes joy

and that love really is the greatest thing of all.

My children and I are reading devotionals every morning for the season of Lent. One of our most recent readings was the story of Jesus being tempted by Satan in the wilderness.

The girls were intrigued at how Jesus responded to Satan every time, resisting him with the Word of God. We’ve been having lots of great theological conversations and arguments lately and Grace brought up the question, “Why would God the Father allow Satan to be able to tempt Jesus in the desert like that?”

I have learned to often answer their questions with “Well, why do you think?,” which is exactly what I said. After some deliberation, Grace decided that God the Father knew that Jesus would do the right thing – that He could handle being tempted.

I affirmed her thoughts and shared with them how because Jesus embodied the Word and knew His Father’s will, He was able to resist Satan. He was also able to go 40 days without eating, stating to Satan that “Man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”

We all know that we need food and water to survive, but Jesus tells us here that there is something we need even more. The Word of God. The Bible.

Job said basically the same thing as Jesus did, “I have not departed from the commandment of his lips; I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my portion of food.“(Job 23:12).

The longest Psalm in the Bible, Psalm 119, is all about loving the law of The Lord – and that did not include the New Testament, mind you. The author was talking about books like Leviticus 🙂

There are places in this world where the Bible is outlawed. It’s dangerous because when people read it, believe it, and apply it, they are transformed and societies begin to change.

Some of these precious believers may only have one Bible for an entire community to share and they treat it as their most precious possession. I have more than a dozen Bibles in my home of different translations that I can read or study at any time, without any worry or fear that they will be confiscated or that anything will happen to me or my family because of our choice to read them.

When I consider all of this, it leads me to ask myself some questions: Do I treasure God’s Word more than my daily food? Do I view God’s Word as my one real “necessity” even above my material needs for food and clothing?

My pastor, Stuart McAlpine, did a series on the Psalms in 2013. He spent a considerable amount of time in Psalm 1 which reads:

He challenged our congregation by asking us to consider this question:  If your physical health was determined by how much you feasted on God’s Word (or didn’t) how healthy would you be? Would you be thriving? Barely surviving? Emaciated?

Reading the Bible isn’t always soothing. I’m often comforted by the Bible but I am also often challenged and convicted. It’s not a “quick and easy read.” Because it’s a sword that cuts, revealing to us who we really are. And sometimes that’s not pretty. But this is precisely why we need it.

This Lent, I am asking God to give me a greater hunger for His Word. Because without it, I am powerless and spiritually emaciated. Without it, I am empty and dry. Without it, I can remain blind to my sins. Without it, I cannot grow and thrive spiritually.

I pray that you, too, would grow in your hunger for that Book which will truly fill your soul and spirit with truth, goodness, mercy, and love…that only Book which contains the words of eternal life.

Photo of Bible by Melissa J