What the resurrection means to me.

Lamentations 3:21-33

21 Yet this I call to mind
    and therefore I have hope:
22 Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,
    for his compassions never fail.
23 They are new every morning;
    great is your faithfulness.
24 I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion;
    therefore I will wait for him.”
25 The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him,
    to the one who seeks him;
26 it is good to wait quietly
    for the salvation of the Lord.
27 It is good for a man to bear the yoke
    while he is young.
28 Let him sit alone in silence,
    for the Lord has laid it on him.
29 Let him bury his face in the dust—
    there may yet be hope.
30 Let him offer his cheek to one who would strike him,
    and let him be filled with disgrace.
31 For no one is cast off
    by the Lord forever.
32 Though he brings grief, he will show compassion,
    so great is his unfailing love.
33 For he does not willingly bring affliction
    or grief to anyone.


This week, my pastor asked me to share what the resurrection means to me.  He shared this at our church's Sunday morning service.

So, what does the resurrection mean to me?  The resurrection changed everything; there is no going back.    However, I can not think about the resurrection without connecting it to salvation.

The resurrection happened because of God's great love.  It is an all-consuming process. The resurrection completely transformed the world and salvation should completely change your world.  Jesus did not die for a select group of people, he died for everyone.  When we accept the gift of salvation it too must affect every part of our hearts and our person.

The resurrection is what God did for the world. Salvation is our opportunity to partake in the resurrection and enter back into a pure relationship with our Father.  As sinners, part of salvation requires we acknowledge our personal sin.   We have to experience the depth of our depravity before we can fully experience the gift we gave been given through his compassion and his lovingkindness.  Therefore, just as God allowed Jesus to suffer and die, we too must go through this purification fire in order to die to our sinful selves.

Part of the resurrection was that Jesus had to bear alone and in silence the weight of the world.  God promises us no one is cast off by the Lord forever.  Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love.

So just as Jesus placed his faith that God would not abandon him forever and willingly surrendered his death, we too must recognize in the middle of our trials that we will not be cast off forever.  Experiencing this regeneration of the soul is how we enter into the most intimate relationship with our Father.

For me, knowing how undeserved of this gift I am - and yet God still bestowed his lovingkindness on me - has transformed everything from the inside out. Now my only aim is to please God with every fiber of my body. I can willingly sacrifice comforts and pleasures, dreams, and my life - knowing that every moment I get that to honor God has eternal value.

I am compelled to share this with any one I get a chance. I am no longer worried about others' impressions or my failure, but rather I am focused on fulfilling my purpose.

The resurrection was the ultimate expression of God's love. If we accept it through salvation, we must love God and those around us as He has modeled for us.

Happy Easter!

This weekend has been great so far! We have been jam packing it with activities, which helps tremendously in getting our minds off of cancer... that is such a good thing.

Yesterday we went to two malls, not just one. Once we shopped all of Gurnee Mills, we headed for the Wisconsin border and shopped at Pleasant Prairie, kind of like Birch Run but half the size. They are run by the same company, so PP was very similar. Quote of the day from Ryan: "I think you need to buy more shoes."  Uh, okay!  Done!

This morning we went to Gurnee Community Church and enjoyed great worship. I missed our home church this morning so much... felt very homesick. After church, we headed downtown to the Field Museum. We looked at the Horse and Ancient Egypt exhibits and finally Colton had ENOUGH. He never napped yesterday on our grand shopping excursion, so needless to say, he was done at three thirty today. He is sacked out in his car seat next to me as I type this on my phone. :)

Tomorrow we will resume the appointments. We anticipate that we will have the BIG meeting on Tuesday, and chemotherapy will probably be on Wednesday.  We won't be home until late this week.

Please start to pray for Ryan's body and his tolerance of the chemo. It will be difficult, no doubt. Please pray for lessened side effects, and please pray for the caretakers too. I am getting nervous - I DO NOT want to watch him go through this. But this is what we need to do.

I'm attaching some pictures of us on Easter Sunday, including one of the effects of two busy days on our son. Happy Easter everyone... He is risen, indeed!

Weekend time!

So looking forward to the weekend... we are going to have a lot of fun. Last night, we got to hang out with Amy. Today we are going to go to Gurnee Mills Mall, and tomorrow after Easter service (still to be determined where we will be celebrating Christ's resurrection) we are going to visit the Field Museum and see their exhibit called "Horse" (can you guess who wants to see that?).