An Animal Dies

I would feel really bad if because of my wrongdoing a cute little lamb had to have his throat cut instead of mine.

I know, I know...even the reading of the above sentence is repulsive to most folks - including me! However, if we lived in Old Testament times this is the picture we would see time after time after time. An animal being killed so that I can live...God accepting me because of the death of a lamb.

Enter on the stage of humanity: Jesus! He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. When our mind's eye casts a gaze to that bloody, vile scene on Calvary's hill we see a figure of humanity that is grotesque, vile, repulsive! Then we hear in his voice the tender plea to his Father, "Forgive them, for they know not what they do."

We discover that this horrid scene is on display as a reminder of God's infinite love for his people. Instead of annihilating us because of our sin, the Father destroyed Christ on the cross. Jesus took our guilt, our shame, our punishment, our horror. In this way we know we are loved.

I Peter 1:17-21 uses the great love of God as shown through the sacrifice of the Lamb Jesus as a motivation to live a holy life unto God. Because we are loved by such a great sacrifice we can live holy and joyful lives of obedience.

Come out this Sunday to the Single Focus class at 9:15 a.m. in the Chapel for our discussion of this topic. Bagels and Bible study...can't beat it!

Through My Son's Eyes

Recently our family had the privilege of going on an archaeological dig in southern Jordan. I had been to Jordan before in 2006 with Ali - but this time our son was with us. It was refreshing to see things through his eyes as he experienced things for the first time. We got to go through Petra, camped out on the side of a mountain in a tent for 2 weeks with the vision of Crusader Castle (Showbak Castle) looming on the mountianside just beyond ours.

Gage experienced some very wonderful things. It was good to have him with us and to see things through his eyes. The other day we sat on a boulder overlooking multiple mountain ranges as we talked about what he could see. About 12 camels were grazing behind us and the valley sprawled out beneath us. Bedouin shepherds were playing soccer with some of the younger in our group just up on the plateau. One night Gage enjoyed his first traditional Bedouin meal called a mansaf. We were in a Bedouin open air tent with goats in the foreground just outside as we sat in a circle around a big platter of rice and chicken cooked Bedouin style and eaten with our fingers.

Gage made friends with Bedouin children as well as some older men such as Abu Ali and Abu Saif.

I praise God for the experiences and the memories.