Spring Fling 2010

So tonight I spoke at an event at Sunnybrook called Spring Fling. The theme was “Beauty From the Inside Out,” and it was for 5th-12th grade girls and their moms. It was an amazing event with sooo much good information for the girls about purity, modesty, and how to be an overall good Christian girl. I think I might have learned just as much as the girls did 🙂

Anyway, I was asked to give my testimony. We had 2 practices before the actual event.. I could barely talk during one of them because I was crying so hard, and I didn’t cry at all at the other one so I was a little nervous. I think it ended up going pretty well.. mainly because I didn’t cry. Helping with this event really allowed me see how the bad choices I made in my life before becoming a Christian can help other people, especially young girls. Of course there will be girls who will have to make poor choices for themselves to appreciate their relationship with God, but if I can help even 1 girl by telling my story, it’s completely worth all the pain I went through and mistakes I made. It’s amazing to be able to look back on my life and see how every mistake, every heartbreak, and every choice has led me up to where I am now. I’m so grateful that God has changed me, and I can’t wait to see what He has in store 🙂

..and by His wounds, we are healed.

Easter is tomorrow!! It’s amazing how much more Easter means to me this year. I went to the Good Friday service last night and watched The Passion of the Christ. It was so much more meaningful than it was the first time I watched it (7th grade.. about 10 years ago). I understood so much more, and seeing it all played out on screen made me grasp the events in the story of Jesus a lot better. It also made me much more aware and humbled of what Jesus did. I am so grateful. Our head pastor, Jim, read an excerpt from a book that really drove the message home for me. It also takes some issues of the present day into account. I’ve posted it below. For anyone who is a follower, I hope this will touch your heart and renew your faith. For anyone who is not a believer or who is unsure, I hope that this will also touch your heart, but even more than that, I hope that your heart will be changed. You have already been given the ultimate form of grace. Jesus placed the weight of all of the sin in the world–including yours–on Himself. He willingly received the punishment that all of mankind deserves. I know of no greater love. You need only to accept it. God bless everyone & HAPPY EASTER!!

From When God Weeps by Joni Eareckson Tada…

“The Savior was now thrown to men quite different from the eleven. The face that Moses had begged to see—was forbidden to see—was slapped bloody (Exodus 33:19-20). The thorns that God had sent to curse the earth’s rebellion now twisted around his own brow…

“On your back with you!” One raises a mallet to sink in the spike. But the soldier’s heart must continue pumping as he readies the prisoner’s wrist. Someone must sustain the soldier’s life minute by minute, for no man has this power on his own. Who supplies breath to his lungs? Who gives energy to his cells? Who holds his molecules together? Only by the Son do “all things hold together” (Colossians 1:17). The victim wills that the solider live on—he grants the warriors continued existence. The man swings.

As the man swings, the Son recalls how he and the Father first designed the medial nerve of the human forearm—the sensations it would be capable of. The design proves flawless—the nerves perform exquisitely. “Up you go!” They lift the cross. God is on display in his underwear and can scarcely breathe.

But these pains are a mere warm-up to his other and growing dread. He begins to feel a foreign sensation. Somewhere during this day an unearthly foul odor began to waft, not around his nose, but his heart. He feels dirty. Human wickedness starts to crawl upon his spotless being—the living excrement from our souls. The apple of his Father’s eye turns brown with rot.

His Father! He must face his Father like this!

From heaven the Father now rouses himself like a lion disturbed, shakes his mane, and roars against the shriveling remnant of a man hanging on a cross. Never has the Son seen the Father look at him so, never felt even the least of his hot breath. But the roar shakes the unseen world and darkens the visible sky. The Son does not recognize these eyes.

“Son of Man! Why have you behaved so? You have cheated, lusted, stolen, gossiped—murdered, envied, hated, lied. You have cursed, robbed overspent, overeaten—fornicated, disobeyed, embezzled, and blasphemed. Oh, the duties you have shirked, the children you have abandoned! Who has ever so ignored the poor, so played the coward, so belittled my name? Have you ever held your razor tongue? What a self-righteous, pitiful drunk—you, who molest young boys, peddle killer drugs, travel in cliques, and mock your parents. Who gave you the boldness to rig elections, foment revolutions, torture animals, and worship demons? Does the list never end! Splitting families, raping virgins, acting smugly, playing the pimp—buying politicians, practicing exhortation, filming pornography, accepting bribes. You have burned down buildings, perfected terrorist tactics, founded false religions, traded in slaves—relishing each morsel and bragging about it all. I hate, loathe these things in you! Disgust for everything about you consumes me! Can you not feel my wrath?”

Of course, the Son is innocent. He is blamelessness itself. The Father knows this. But the divine pair have an agreement, and the unthinkable must now take place. Jesus will be treated as if personally responsible for every sin ever committed.

The Father watches as his heart’s treasure, the mirror-image of himself, sinks drowning into raw, liquid sin. Jehovah’s stored rage against humankind from every century explodes in a single direction.

“Father! Father! Why have you forsaken me?!” (Mark 15:34)

But heaven stops its ears. The Son stares up at the One who cannot, who will not, reach down or reply.

The Trinity had planned it. The Son endured it. The Spirit enabled him. The Father rejected the Son whom he loved. Jesus, the God-man from Nazareth, perished. The Father accepted his sacrifice for sin and was satisfied. The Rescue was accomplished.”