Jehova Jireh

Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! Luke 12:24

I am continually amazed at how faithful God is to provide. As much as I doubt what he's capable of, he continually shows me how powerful and able he is. At this point I've received $3800 towards my trip to Australia (63%). God has been using people that I never expected, and some that I've never met to send me. It's absolutely amazing what he's doing. This week I've also had some very generous verbal commitments that will help in a huge way, always pushing me closer to where I need to be. It is to God's glory that this is even possible. I ran out of people that I knew to send out letters to a long time ago. I've been pulling people out of the woodwork trying to get information about my needs out there as much as possible, and God is truly blessing it in a miraculous way.

On a much smaller note, God is also teaching me about his faithfulness to meet my daily needs. This week has been rough at school. Since getting back from San Diego, I've been playing catch up from being gone over the break. This afternoon I was planning to write a paper that I honestly haven't had a chance to do. I'm guilty of procrastination many times, but this wasn't one of them. The time just hasn't been there! So I was on my way home from church with my parents thinking about it. I was thinking about how much I had to do, and how badly I needed some down time. I prayed that God would come through and give me time and energy to get done what I needed to. I got home, looked at the course calendar, and it was actually due NEXT Monday. I know this sounds small, but it really was a huge blessing for me to have the afternoon to do absolutely nothing. Instead of writing a paper and doing schoolwork like I have all week, I was able to sit down, chill out, and watch the Yankees/Red Sox game. God knows what I need. He knows how much I can handle, and when I need to take a break. It's crazy how he uses little things like a mistake on my calendar to bring us so much joy in our relationship with him.

CCP support, and school work are things that I need God to work in and through. I desperately need him to sustain me, and increase my life's capacity; however, God is not only the provider of earthly things. His full power is much greater than what we see played out here on earth, or could even comprehend for that matter.

And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, "Drink it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins." Matthew 26:27-28

On good Friday, I attended a passover meal at Redeemer as part of the Easter celebrations. So many times we hear Easter and Christmas stories, and we allow them to become monotonous. We forget the deep meanings and symbolism present as Jesus fulfilled prophecies that were spoken 1,000's of years earlier. Taking part in the passover showed me once again how the Old Testament is not a retired manual of Jewish ritual. It is so much more than that. The OT points towards Christ just as much as the NT reveals his character. The passover festivities commemorated the "passing over" of the death angel in the plagues while the Israelites were in Egyptian captivity. It celebrates the freedom from captivity given by God, and reminds them of God's redemption. It was not by chance that the oldest son was chosen by God to bear the sin burden for entire family. In Counterfeit Gods, Tim Keller elaborates on this concept and I would encourage you to check it out. In short, the oldest son was held accountable for the sins of the entire family. We can see this played out in Genesis 22 when God calls Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. He was not randomly telling Abraham to kill his only son, God was in essence calling in a bad sin debt, and seeing if Abraham was willing to give up his son to be right with God. The same took place in the passover. There had to be a payment for sin. The father of the house had to use a lamb's blood to avoid having to sacrifice his oldest son for the sins of the family. Outside of God's grace, we are in debt. The payment for our debt is hell and the accompanying separation from God because we have sinned against him:

BUT GOD, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ-by grace you have been saved-and raised us up with him and seated us with him in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. Ephesians 2:4-7

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

Jesus took the place as our older brother. He bore the burden of sin that he did not commit and satisfied God's wrath. By Jesus' sacrifice on the cross, we have a new covenant with him. This new covenant did not replace the covenant he made with Moses, but FULFILLED it. The promise God made, he kept. He freed us not from worldly captivity under worldly kings, but from our own sin! That is the true freedom brought by Christ. We can now enter into the holiest of holies and meet with our heavenly father. We can openly cry out to him in our time of need and he will answer us. We are no longer slaves, in debt because of our sin. Our ransom has been paid by our true elder brother Jesus, the perfect first-born of our heavenly father. Now, our sins are "passed over" because Christ's blood covers them. By his grace alone, we are saved and secured a place in eternity with Christ. There's your liberation gospel. Happy Easter