Keep your eyes on Jesus

Do you have to understand God, or understand much of anything in order to worship Him?

Do the events of life have to make sense in order to follow Him?

Did He reveal His love to you at one point, knowing that in the future you would come across a seeming contradiction and turn away?

Did He know you'd encounter someone whose doubts would become your own?

Are the times of aloneness when you don't "feel" God's love signs that He doesn't love you anymore?

These types of questions seem to be the struggles and battleground of faith.

It is much easier to believe when things are going our way.

What if God knows fully and loves fully?  He says He does.  Can I believe that when going through struggles?

The spiritual journey can be like learning to ride a bike.  We like the training wheels of security.  We like to think God is holding on to the back of the bike all the way down the street.  In reality He takes off the training wheels, gives us a push and off we go.  It is exhilarating at first until the bike starts to wobble, or we fall down.

Yes, the analogy breaks down because God is with us even when it may feel like He isn't.

But this is where faith comes in.  Trusting when you can't see.  Holding on in the dark to what you believed in the light.

I've been talking with quite a few people who are being shaken (myself included).  Aurora Theater Shootings, Boston Marathon Bombings, Texas Plant Explosion, Hurricane Sandy, Oklahoma Tornadoes, Death of loved ones, etc.

I don't have a lot of answers.  

I do know that every time we ask Him to hear us He does.  

I do know every time we invite Him to be with us in suffering He brings comfort.  

I do know peace fills our minds when we give up our right to understand everything.

I do know when His kingdom comes, wrongs are set right.

And I'm learning the contradictions and paradoxes are part of the fog of this life, the smoke rising from skirmishes between good and evil.

My dad would have reminded me "Sure its tough.  But in terms of what you're going through-- a little smoke never hurt anybody.  Keep your eyes on Jesus."

Ever-present help...

God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.  Psalm 46:1

Bombings, terrorism, violent crime, shooting rampages, natural disasters, civil war, innocent victims...

The mantra of "We're gonna get back up!" can begin to sound hollow and empty. 

The answer isn't resignation, but surely there must be a greater source of strength than "the indomitable American spirit?"  

It can seem like we're walking through the valley of the shadow of death and trying to cheer ourselves (and others) back to the mountaintop.  The resilience and potential resolve of the human spirit is amazing.  We all need encouragement.  

But sometimes you don't need a cheerleader but "one called alongside to help."  
That is one of the meanings of the Holy Spirit's name.  He actually gives help, peace, strength, hope...

It is in the place of desperation where we can "fear no evil" not because we are super-positive, but because "God is with us."

An ever-present help in trouble.

The Psalms can become our songs.  We can learn to sing in every situation.  Sometimes lamenting.  Sometimes celebrating.  Just reading them, singing them, it puts words and expression to our struggle.  It opens the door for God's presence to comfort and strengthen.

One guy shared about being shaken up by the economy and the stress of it all. He wondered about how to provide for his family.  He plunged deeper into despair and self-destructive behavior.  He was asking "WHY GOD?  Why did you let me get into this mess?"

Reaching the end of his rope something changed.  Perspective changes when you can't pull yourself up and don't have the strength to hold on.

He found the ever-present help in trouble.

Learning to quit searching for more resolve, more internal strength, more happy thoughts.  How exhausting when everything around us is being shaken.

"Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe..."  Hebrews 12:28

An ever-present help in trouble.

The Passion Week Timeline [Infographic]

How can we make Good Friday and Easter something special? 

Depth of gratitude flows from connecting with an experience and its meaning… 

One mom I know makes birthdays special by reminding her kids of how excited she was on the day of their birth (leaving out certain painful parts).

Connecting with the suffering of Jesus only sweetens the celebration of His resurrection!

A powerful way of connecting is to IMAGINE WHERE THE PERSON WAS AND WHAT THEY WERE DOING.  And because most of us tend to process in terms of a schedule or calendar, imagine what it would be like to set reminders on your phone at each important hour.

GOOD FRIDAY

12:00-6:00 AM --Arrest, taken several places, condemned and mistreated by religious leaders

6:00-8:30 AM — Pilate, Herod, Pilate again, beating and scourging

8:30 AM — Final sentencing by Pilate

9:00 AM — Crucifixion

11:30 AM — Thief on the cross

12:00 PM — 3 hours to go

3:00 PM — Final words of Jesus and His death

Example of more in-depth reflection…

8:30-9:00 AM-- I remember at this time You were being led to Golgotha

Remembering...

• It must have been a cool, crisp morning, sun shining brightly, birds singing...
• You had been beaten and scourged to the point of death (remember “the Passion”), your body was so torn up and beaten beyond recognition
• You were alone carrying the cross, your closest friends had denied and abandoned you
• The procession was led by one who proclaimed the nature of the crime (which was written on a white, wooden board) "hail King of the Jews" which would have angered many of the people
• A group of people were following you, mourning and lamenting.  Jesus, you turned and said “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and your children…” (Luke 22:27-29)
• They enlisted the help of a foreigner, Simon of Cyrene to carry the cross the rest of the way, probably because you had collapsed under its weight.  I can only imagine you looking in his eyes with gratitude, marking him forever as your friend
• Some of the people who had shouted “Hosanna to the Son of David” a week before had just shouted “Crucify Him!"  Some were looking on with disgust, some with hate, some with confusion, some were weeping
• As you neared the place you would be crucified, you were probably remembering the verses about the Passover Lamb, how you were carrying the sin of the world and bearing our punishment

Prayer & Worship

I can only imagine the painful, nearly ½ mile walk, to the place you were crucified…

Thank you Jesus for your sacrifice, for enduring the rejection, the physical and verbal assaults, the spiritual weight of our sin...

And I can only imagine what it was like to see faces of people who worshipped you who had turned on you and rejected your love...

Isaiah 53:7-8 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 its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.  By oppression and judgment he was taken away. Yet who of his generation protested?  For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was punished.

And finally, here is a great resource by Josh Byers. View it larger or print it out as a reference here: http://joshbyers.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/The-Passion-Week-Poster.jpg