Christ died for us - Romans 5:8

Romans 5:8  “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (NIV).

   Imagine if someone had died for you.  How would you feel knowing someone had saved you, and that he or she was now gone?
   When I was in the sixth grade I was the Captain of Safety Patrols at Columbia Elementary School.  Though thirty-seven years ago, I still feel honored to have been the safety patrol leader.  I took my job seriously.  I was dedicated to my work ensuring students at Columbia were safe in traveling to and from our school.  I wore the orange belt with pride, never leaving the house without it, and even folding it every afternoon according to standard safety patrol procedure.  I aimed to be myself with students, yet I committed to bringing a halt to any action which could bring injury or which was against school rules.  Then near the end of the year, I gained a huge distinction.  It was announced at my school I had earned an award from Fairfax County for being the second best safety patrol in the county for that school year.  Then I learned who received the award for the best patrol in our county: a sixth grade girl at another elementary school who had saved a boy’s life.  The young boy had walked out in the road in front of an approaching school bus.  The safety patrol darted in the road, pushed the boy away from the path of the bus, and lunged herself away so no one was hit by the bus.  Had the girl not pushed the boy out of the way, the bus may have swerved to miss the boy.  Or the bus may have hit him and he may have suffered certain injuries.  However the most likely scenario was that boy would have been killed.  That elementary school safety patrol likely saved that boy’s life.  And that girl could have died saving the boy.  She could have pushed him out of the way just in time but then have been unable to lunge herself out of the way.  She could have died.  She was willing to risk her life to save a boy.
   I do not know her motivation for saving the boy.  Maybe she did it out of a sense of duty as a patrol.  Or maybe she was simply a loving person who cared for the safety of a kid at the risk of her own life. That young boy must be in his forties now.  I wonder if he sometimes thinks of that girl saving him back in 1979?
   Christians often state, “Jesus died for you,” or “Jesus died for us.”  Yet why would anyone need someone who was crucified on a cross about two thousand years ago?  The answer is people need God to be sustained eternally, yet people have been separated from God and done wrong stuff ever since.  The separation was due to sin, and the continued straying is sinful, sin being that which is contrary to God’s holy will.  The sad reality is that people, even the most moral of people, even the nicest of people, even the most gifted of human beings, even the smartest of human beings, and, I must admit, even sixth graders who are Captain of the Safety Patrols, sin.  The result of any sin is spiritual death.  Romans 6:23 states, “For the wages of sin is death…”  Thus all of us need a Savior.
   The radical revelation in the Scripture is that a Person has died for all of us, the sole Person with the capability to save people from the wages of sin.  Jesus, God the Son, died a death on behalf of people.  He who was without sin took the punishment we deserved.  He suffered the consequences we should have suffered.  “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”  And why did He do it?  Looking at the entire verse, we learn the reason: “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8 NIV).
   Yet what Jesus has done is a gift you must receive.  Being not just a temporary salvation, this salvation involves a new way of life for eternity, and you get to make the choice as to whether you will be saved, changed, and alive with Jesus for forever.  Every person has the opportunity to make that choice.  If you believe in Jesus, He will be your Savior, and you will be saved from spiritual death in hell, and you will have everlasting life with the LORD God Almighty.  Jesus died for us.
Hunter

Where is God?

Psalm 42:2   My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.  When can I go and meet with God? (NIV)
   For two years previous to this past summer I was on a huge ministry adventure.  Back in the spring of 2013, my intention was to gain long term employment, get married, and settle down.  Instead God put me on a ministry trip which involved living in two other states in two years.  First I was in a rural area in Appalachia teaching Bible.  I enjoy teaching, I loved the students, and I liked Kentucky, yet I struggled with discipline issues at the school, it was a poor place to be single and looking for a wife, and I always felt a bit of an outcast there in that rural area.
   Once during a hard time for me as I was in a transition before moving from Appalachia, I went for a hike in the mountains behind the school.  I lived on the school grounds in the teacher dorm, and a hike was common for me, since when I was a teacher I hiked up a little mountain behind the school after school almost every day to get refreshed.  It was a needed opportunity for me.
   On that warm day I took a side path to a place where I was in the midst of thick woods.  At one point I stood on a tree stump which was on the edge of a steep hill.  I prayed, expressing a need to know the presence of God.  Then not saying anything, I stood there for a long time, but I did not feel God.  I heard the leaves of trees blowing in the wind both near and far.  Yet I did not sense the presence of God.  Yet the unusual thing was I had peace.  In reflecting back on that event, and some similar events during that two year ministry adventure, I realize that during some extremely difficult times during that challenging ministry trip I was unable to detect the direct presence of God in the woods or by a river even though being in those environments made me feel closer to Him normally.  Yet even in those difficult times I could know God in my heart, for He was with me.  Jesus revealed that God is spirit (John 4:24) and all people have a spiritual core, since people are made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27).  For any person who believes in Jesus, he or she is baptized with the Holy Spirit (John 1:33), and the Holy Spirit dwells in her or his heart (1 Corinthians 6:19).  The reality of the Holy Spirit may not be physically detected by us, yet He is someone we can know in our spiritual heart, the One who brings joy and peace to the heart of His child, even when circumstances are crummy.
   I miss walks in the woods of Kentucky.  I miss walks on the C&O Canal by the Potomac River from when I was in Maryland for a few weeks before coming home.  Yet there were some hard days for me during that ministry trip; and there was one period where God seemed to have deserted me.  Yet God was present with me daily, and He remains with me, wherever I happen to be.  I say “Thank You Jesus for being with me.”
   If you have never believed in Jesus, may you know Jesus died on a cross for the forgiveness of sins of anyone.  He was the substitute for the consequence of wrongdoings, which is spiritual death.  If you believe in Jesus, you will be saved from spiritual death, and God will be with you forever.
Hunter