Everlasting Life

On Good Friday, I decided to go on a walk with a good friend. We didn't decide where to, we just walked.

When we approached a bench tucked in the corner of a neighborhood, I gasped as the scene was all too familiar.

Just one year ago, I began Good Friday with a run off campus, listening to a Good Friday service on a podcast. I didn’t decided where to, I just ran. I approached a bench tucked in a corner of a neighborhood, and I sat down with God. I knew I was in a nearby neighborhood, but I didn't make it back there since.
And, I don’t think I could have ended up there again if I tried.

We read the statement carved into the bench:

“May Your Garden Be Full of Life Everlasting.”

After I felt as though I was "led" back to a spot I hadn't been in precisely a year, I was certain that this statement would have some kind of rich meaning that would resound in the depths of my heart.

I got nothing.

Sure, the phrase sounded nice, but I had to face it-
that string of words had absolutely no meaning to me.

On the walk back, I wondered aloud to that good friend,
that good friend who was always willing to listen to whatever random wondering that was wandering n my mind.
“I don’t get it… was that God, just wanting to make me smile? 

Why was I brought back there? Why did I read that now, today?”

So I just smiled, and I let it go.

---

This is what I heard this morning,
this Easter Sunday of 2012.

Pastor Nick Ostermann
The Rooted Church

“Turn to John Chapter 20, verse 11

“…but Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, 

she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, 

seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.

They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?” 

“they have taken my Lord away,” she said, 

“and I don’t know where they have put him.” 

At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, 

but she did not realize that it was Jesus.

“Woman,” he said, “why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”

Thinking he was the gardener, she said, 

“Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”

Jesus said to her, “Mary.”” 

John 20: 10-16

Was Mary mistaking Jesus for a gardener? Only slighty.

Jesus is Our Gardener.

In the beginning, God created for us a perfect garden. 

God walked with Adam every afternoon. In this garden, there was life.

However, Adam and Eve stopped listening to the voice of God 

and started listening to the voice of Satan. 

Then, everything went from beautiful, to ugly. 

They could not walk with God, anymore.

This garden turned into a wilderness. All was undone, unwoven, broken. 

But, the great reversal was on it’s way…

Immediately after Jesus was baptized he was put into the wilderness. 

He was tempted by Satan, just as Adam and Eve were. 

He started, where Adam ended. 

But what was the difference?

Adam failed.

Jesus was faithful.

Jesus was faithful in the wilderness.

This made everyone furious. Thus, he was condemned. 

The one who never sinned, died like a filthy, wicked sinner.

He was faithful until the end. 

Because in the garden, He said “Not my will but Yours be done.” 

Instead of Adam’s “Not Your will but Mine be done.”

You and I are invited freely into the garden today,

and forever with our Everlasting Gardener, Jesus Christ.”

Happy Easter,

& May Your Garden Be Full of Life Everlasting.

“Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. 

No one comes to the Father except through me. 

If you really knew me, you would now my Father as well. 

From now on, you do know him and have seen him.” John 14:6-7

“Because I live, you also live,” John 14:19

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, 

that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16

Dear Lord,

You amaze me.

I am stunned by Your love lavished on me in the midst of my favorite holiday, the celebration of Your power, love and life. 

Your creativity is perfect, and You truly know how to make me fall more in love with You in every day that You give me the gift of living in Your presence. 

Please Lord, remind me of just that. That every single day I wake up and take a breath that I am given the gift of walking in Your presence in every minute. Thank You for going the greatest length, to become man and die on the cross so that I may have this life next to You. 

Please Lord, be my strength so I may be faithful to You in the wilderness of my life. I know that these trials are ultimately for Your glory in that you make all things work together for good. Jesus was faithful by clinging to Your Word. Bind myself to the infallibility, strength and power of Your Word.

Thank You for desiring to make my garden full, when without You, it would be nothing but weeds and constant drought.

Thank You, again, for being faithful. Help me to be more faithful to You with every single day I live in Your garden.

I love you!

In Your Beautiful Name,

Amen. 



PS: Find the full sermon by following this link. Indubitably a wise use of time- I promise. :)
http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/easter-2012-resurrected-gardener/id305591618?i=112892728

You Missed a Spot

As weird as this may sound…

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about His blood.

But I'll come back to that.
---

A lot of my life I spent working, serving, giving.

Until I realized how absolutely foolish that was.

Well, let me clarify.

Did I even realize what I was doing?

Did I realize that when I was working, serving, giving, 

spending myself every minute of every day, 

I was ignoring the cornerstone of my faith- the cross?

By continuing to try to add to our faith with our daily strains and efforts to be “more Christian,” we are forgetting that nothing we could ever do could possibly be enough for the holiness of our God.

No “good deed of the day,” or “brownie point,” could ever amount to the sacrifice of the Son of God. 

Does this mean we stop working, serving, giving because Christ has done it all for us?

Absolutely not.

But we do stop doing is slaving, earning and striving to be good enough for God. 

Instead, we receive Christ.
We receive the highest price He paid for us, and with His Spirit inside of us,
we are made capable to live like He did- in love.

---

A lot of my life I spent in shaming, condemning and judging.

Until I realized how absolutely foolish that was.

Well, let me clarify.

I would be embarrassed of my sin, on a daily basis.

So, I held on tight, I gripped close to me every little thing that I did that was displeasing to God.

Did I even realize what I was doing?

Did I realize that when I was hiding, holding, clenching my sin 

I was ignoring the cornerstone of my faith- the cross?

By continuing to take hold of our sin on a daily basis, 

we are forgetting that He has covered it all, that He has forgiven every piece of it.

Does this mean that we go on sinning? Or that we can forget about sinning because He died for our sins?

Absolutely not.

But we do stop shaming ourselves, condemning ourselves and judging ourselves, 

because God is now fully pleased with us, because of His Son.

---

Cassie, I thought you said you were thinking about His blood?

I have been.

If we continue to work, on top of the work He has done,

If we continue to take hold of our sin, after He has paid the price in full,

we are essentially,

whether we realize it or not,

claiming that the cross just wasn’t quite enough to save us.

Thus, we have to do a little more.

Because the blood He shed just didn’t cover it.

Really,

with every good deed that we do in attempt to add to the cross to gain God’s approval of us,

with every time we beat ourselves up, to pay for our sins,

we are really saying

“Hey Jesus, You missed a spot.”

God doesn’t miss spots. Not one.

He didn’t send his perfect Son, to shed His perfect blood, to do an imperfect job.

Rest under the finished work of the Cross of Jesus and the entire payment of our sins.

And trust that when He died for us,

And when he said “It is finished,”

He got it covered.

“I’ve done all the work, but you keep on working” 
The Well- Casting Crowns
"So you thought that you could keep this up, 
all the work that you do, so you think that you're good 
and you can't believe it's not enough. 
All the walls you built up  are just glass on the outside. 
So let them fall down, there's freedom waiting in the sound."
Healing Begins- Tenth Avenue North
"...all our righteous acts are like filthy rags..." Isaiah 64:6

“For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold 
that you were redeemed from the empty was of life handed down to you from your foreathers, 
but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.” 1 Peter 1:18-19

Dear Lord,

Thank you for not only having the power to cover every inch of my sin, but having the loving heart to do so. Please, teach me to continue to look to Your cross as the finished work of Your love for us. There is nothing I could ever do to earn it. You did not miss one spot when You came to earth to save us, and I praise You for Your perfection.

Thank you for allowing me to serve and love you in a freedom that will never mean “measuring up.”

I could never thank you enough.

But that won’t keep me from thanking you, serving you, and loving you all of my life.

I love you!

In Your Perfect Name,

Amen. 

Resting in Waves

This spring break I learned how to surf.

And a lot more.

I waited for him.

    The man looking somewhere in his forties hung half outside his wetsuit, standing at the pool counter, writing my name on various sheets of paperwork. I approached the counter with a smile- my feeble attempt to break the ice of surfing with a stranger- but he was all business.
He was all about teaching me.

But here, the lesson was more than just surfing.

First, I came with nothing, and he provided me with everything.

The wet suit I would be taught in, the board I would ride on, and himself.

“Take nothing for the journey-“ Luke 9:2

Then, he was concerned about my safety. 

It seemed as if once he wrote my name on his paperwork, 

and we began our one-on-one relationship, 

he had to express to me a deeper concern for me.

It was as if he was a father, caring for every inch of his child.

Even the bottoms of my feet. 

He advised me with urgency to glide my feet along to bottom of the sea floor so, 

in the case that there were any sea shells sticking upward, 

I wouldn’t scrape my feet.

He carried all of the tools to teach me. 

And, most importantly, he was ready for me. 

When we made our way out to the beach shore, 

I found the surf board I would use laying out in the sand, 

waiting for me.

Maybe I wasn’t waiting for him. 

Maybe he was waiting for me.

He began to teach me.
Simply.

1. Pull your arms back

2. Bring your knees forward 

3. Bring one foot up, and trust that your back foot will glide in line.

4. Rest. Look up. Don’t flail your arms- be still.

5. Don’t try so hard.

I knew I would have a problem with 4 and 5; but, I think he knew that more than I.

I think, it felt like, he may have known me.

In the sand, before our wet suits even touched the water, he had me lay down on the board,

and respond to his “1! 2! 3!”

I would follow.

“Again.”

I would follow.

“Again.”

I would follow.

“Alright, let’s go girl.”

He carried my board, and we entered the water. Him right by my side.

Freezing. But there was no turning back now.

I had said yes. I had signed up.

I followed his lead, until I could feel him slow us down.

“Alright girl hop up on there.”

I did, though I didn’t quite feel ready.

My first instinct was to begin trying, trying to prepare for the wave creeping up behind me.

Breaking this thought, before I could make a move, 

behind me I heard him say,

“Cassie, don’t paddle. Just listen to my voice.”

I didn’t look back, I began to trust him.

I began to trust that in the perfect timing of his guidance,

I would hear his upbeat instructions, a soft yell of “1! 2! 3!”

Just loud enough for me to hear.

“My sheep listen to my voice, I know them, and they follow me,” John 10:27

---

Whenever I fell off,

even if it was due to my restlessness,

I would pull my hair back behind my ears,

look backwards to see him

standing out in the middle of the ocean with his hands in the air,

yelling “Nice ride! Nice ride!”

I always turned around to encouragement, grace, and a thumbs up.

After every time I ploughed through the water to meet him, 

he would have distinct critique, specific to my every movement. 

He was watching me, my every moment. 

Not to condemn me, but to gracefully help me to my feet, 

so I would look more like him.

Sound familiar?

I thought so too…

God is not watching our every move for us to come back to His bitter criticism, 

“for it is God’s kindness that leads us to repentance.” Romans 2:4

 He's watching with kindness. 

Instead, he would say…

“I need you to look up. Don’t look down and fret over what’s below you. Look up.

It will come naturally. Once you get up there- relax, stay calm.

Don’t be tense, just enjoy the ride.”

“He replied ‘You of little faith, why are you so afraid?’

Then he got up and rebuked the winds

and the waves, and it was

Completely

Calm.”

Matthew 8:26

“Ohhhh alrighty Cass, here’s a ginormous wave! But you got it!

This one’s a little weird but we can do it,

I’m going to help you.”

“When I am afraid,

I will trust in you.”

Psalm 56:3

“When I said, ‘My foot is slipping,”

Your love, O Lord, supported me.

When anxiety was great within me,

Your consolation brought joy to my soul.”

Psalm 94:18-19

“Cassie, push your shoulders back, and down. Ride.”

“Great peace have they who love the law,

And nothing can make them stumble.”

Pslam 119:165

“Chin up, chin up, keep looking up. And don’t move those arms! Rest.”

“Look to the Lord and His strength,

Seek His face always.”

Psalm 105:4

And always, repeatedly…  

“Are you having fun!?”

“Are you having fun!?”

“Are you having fun!?”

If only I could reply, 

“Your promises have been thoroughly tested,

And your servant loves them.”

Pslam 119:140

 ---

“We’re gunna do the same thing over and over and over until you got it,

until you can get up faster.

Then, once you’re comfortable,

I will take you out farther.”

I couldn’t help but think that God is a little like this dad, like this coach.

He’s about business, and he’s about making you quicker, stronger,

so He can take you father out into the ocean of His grace.

For, there is nothing to fear.

If you want to go farther out into the ocean of His mission for you,

or the sanctification of you in His love,

you have to listen,

and you have to be at rest,

so you can.

With time, you aren’t thinking about 1, 2, 3 anymore.

It is fluid, and they all become one.

They become you.

You become more like the one teaching you.

You become more like Him.

When I was with Him, I felt like I could conquer the ocean.

I was not afraid.

Not, not at all.

Why should I?

"Risk the ocean, there’s only grace."

Sometimes- David Crowder Band

Holy God, 
There is no teacher like You. Who can take me on a journey like knowing how to be more like You? Teach me how to rest, how to rest on the waves of this walk with You. I know that this is Your will, and I know that this is how You work inside of me. If I keep moving, if I keep flailing my arms, I can't learn from you. Thank you for Your perfect patience in my restlessness. Thank you for Your constant encouragement, that sustains me. 

Teach me, my God, to listen to your voice, identifying it in the middle of the ocean, to rest in the confidence that you know me, better than anyone else who try to teach me lies, and to follow you, with firm trust and abounding joy.
Thank You.
I love you! 

In Your Perfect Name, 

Amen.