God's Love

⁷It[Love] always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

-1 Corinthians 13:7

God's Love. So powerful, so moving, it would make someone (like me) believe in something so ridiculous, so contra-human, so unbelievable as the idea of a man (Jesus) dying on a cross and rising from the dead all because he loved me.

Is that so hard to believe? What exactly is faith?

¹Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.

-Hebrews 11:1

Of course, I didn't see Jesus die on the cross. I didn't see him rise from the dead. I didn't see his miracles and what not. But guess what. I have faith that he did all these things. I believe in my heart, in the sincerest of all things, that Jesus, in fact, 2000 years ago, was crucified, dead, and buried. 3 days later, he rose again from the dead. This resurrection wasn't just for kicks, or for fun, but it was the fulfillment of God's promise to us.

³ He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.
Like one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

⁴ Surely he took up our infirmities
and carried our sorrows,
yet we considered him stricken by God,
smitten by him, and afflicted.

⁵ But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
and by his wounds we are healed.

⁶ We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.

⁷ He was oppressed and afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before her shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.

⁸ By oppression and judgment he was taken away.
And who can speak of his descendants?
For he was cut off from the land of the living;
for the transgression of my people he was stricken.

⁹ He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
and with the rich in his death,
though he had done no violence,
nor was any deceit in his mouth.

¹⁰ Yet it was the LORD's will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
and though the LORD makes his life a guilt offering,
he will see his offspring and prolong his days,
and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand.

¹¹ After the suffering of his soul,
he will see the light of life and be satisfied;
by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many,
and he will bear their iniquities.

¹² Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,
and he will divide the spoils with the strong,
because he poured out his life unto death,
and was numbered with the transgressors.
For he bore the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors.

-Isaiah 53:3-12

I'm sorry that's a long passage (please read it all), but it shows how the prophecy was fulfilled. A prophecy that was made hundreds of years before Jesus walked this earth. It was a prophecy that God made before the creation of the world. God planned this all before it happened.

Something happened today that reminded me of all this. I've been in Europe for 2 months now. It's been hard spiritually. I'm not reminded of God everyday like I would be in school. I don't have the same accountability that I have at school, and it was really tough. But God doesn't disappoint. All he wants is for me to turn to him in the times that he sets before me.

Today, on our way back to my friend's home from central London, God provided me an opportunity to talk to him about what I've learned about Jesus' sacrifice and mercy on the cross. I got to share with him what the meaning behind the gospel is, the power of grace, and the faith we need to believe it. I told him that I feel so lucky, so blessed, that not by my own actions or heart, but by God's will, that I had come to know the love of Christ. He grew up the church, but over time, he realized that even Muslims, like us, believe so whole-heartedly of Mohammed, of the Qu'ran, that what seems right to them is right, and what seems right to Christian, must be right too. It's just "Christians", or those who profess to be Christians, that are being judgmental and saying these other religions are wrong, when there's no way of knowing what is right.

After about 20 minutes of talking back and forth on the train, this man right next to us was listening, and he decided to give us his two cents. He told us about love, and what it does to a person. If you love a person, you're blind to what they do, he said. Even if they disappoint you, even if they do something to hurt you, if you truly love them, it doesn't matter and all you want is them to love you back. God is the same. He knows you will sin, he knows you will break his heart in so many ways, he knows that your sin will kill his son Jesus, however, all he wants is for you to turn to him.

My time in Europe is about to end. I came in with a certain mindset of trying to fit this Christian mold. I wanted to make sure that the people I met, and the people I hung out with, to know that I was Christian. This was wrong, I realized, and I learned to simply do what was glorifying to God. It's not about what I do, but why I do it. Did I immerse myself into the world simply to play and have fun, or was it to build any sort of relationship and to point them to the cross?

Haha, I never update, even though I said I would. If you read this far, bless you :)

As far as I'm concerned with Europe, my 2 months in Europe was really eye-opening, and one of the best summers ever, but it has MOST definitely made me more proud to be American. GO USA!

Mark