If you’ve ever tried to read through the entire Bible, you know the going gets rough in Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. I struggle through the lists of laws, rules, and regulations. The precise directions for animal sacrifices that had to be offered for a multitude of offenses is mind boggling. When I’m tempted to skip ahead, I force myself to read on because nothing has given me more of an appreciation for living as a part of the New Testament church than reading the Old Testament.

The old pointed toward the new. The old system was a temporary fix. The new system is permanent. The old system used the blood of blemish-free animals and required many sacrifices. The new system required the blood of one perfect, sinless God in flesh-the man Jesus Christ. The old system allowed only the high priests the authority to approach God. The new system allows any believer, Hebrew or Gentile, to boldly come before the throne of God. Hebrews 4:16Hebrews 4:16
English: Contemporary English Version (1999) - CEV
16 So whenever we are in need, we should come bravely before the throne of our merciful God. There we will be treated with undeserved kindness, and we will find help.

WP-Bible plugin puts it this way, “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” What freedom! We can approach God for forgiveness of sins and ask for His power in our lives any time!

This brings us to Ephesians, Paul’s letter to the Gentiles in the church at Ephesus. Unlike many of Paul’s letters to various churches, this one was not written to confront problems in the church but rather to encourage believers and strengthen them. Early manuscripts of this letter do not include the words “in Ephesus” so this was probably a circular letter-first sent to Ephesus but then circulated to other local churches. This is a letter of unity, reminding early Christians that we are one in Christ with all other believers.

In chapter 3, Paul prays for the early believers. “I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner beings so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge….”

The Life Application Study Bible explains it this way. “God’s love is total. It reaches ever corner of our experience. It is wide-it covers the breadth of our experiences, and it reaches the whole world. God’s love is long-it continues the length of our lives. It is high-it reaches to the heights of our celebration and elation. His love is deep-it reaches to the depths of discouragement, despair, and even death.”

The love of God is a constant reminder of His presence in our hearts any time we feel shut out or isolated in this world. And if God is for us, even Satan can’t stand against us. What power! What love!

I brought a rock back  from the cold waters of Loch Ness, Scotland. It reminds me of my childhood fascination with the legendary monster. I brought a rock back  from Nairobi, Kenya. It came from a desolate, dusty lot where my new friend’s church was being constructed. It reminds me to pray for this young church with very limited resources as they try to complete their building.

Rocks have always served as reminders or memorials. They span the ages of time. Ancient petroglyphs, cairns, Stonehenge and Mt. Rushmore all bore significance to their creators. Some meanings have been lost while others are still honored.

While in Savannah, Georgia I made it a point to visit one of the oldest cemeteries. It houses a very large number of Jewish graves. I am fascinated by the Jewish custom of leaving a small stone on the grave of a loved one. Jews do not typically place flowers at grave sites. Instead, they often place little stones on the grave or headstone. The origin of the custom is uncertain but is usually explained as a symbolic act that indicates someone has come to visit and the deceased has not been forgotten. I think it may have deeper roots however.

In ancient times a pile of stones was used as a marker. Two times in particular would be very familiar to Jewish people who know their own history.

In the book of Joshua we read about the Israelites preparation to cross the Jordan river into the Promised Land. Moses had died and Joshua was the new leader. God commanded them to march toward the Jordan River behind the priests who were carrying the ark of the covenant. As soon as the priests’ feet touched the water’s edge, the water from upstream stopped flowing and piled up in a heap a great distance away. The Jordan was at flood stage by the way which just adds all the more to the miracle. And one last thing, the riverbed was bone dry as they crossed, not even the least bit muddy. What a God!

God commanded Joshua to choose 12 men, one from each tribe, to take up 12 stones from the middle of the Jordan. They carried these stones to their camp and set them down. Joshua then set them up as a memorial and reminder of God’s miracle and faithfulness.

In the distant future, the children and the children’s children would pass this heap of stones and inquire about them. They would be told the story and learn of God’s faithfulness and provision for His people.

In the near future the Israelites would think about the power of this mighty God as they would face a multitude of enemies. The crossing of the Jordan on dry land was above all a sign that the living God was among them and would drive out all other nations from the land promised ages ago to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Many years later, when God rescued the Israelites from the Philistines, Samuel set a stone up as a memorial once again to God’s help and deliverance.

I’m thinking that this isn’t such a bad idea for us today. We can draw much strength for out present struggles if we take time to remember God’s presence and help during past crises. Why not take time to set up a memorial of some type that will serve as a reminder of past victories through Christ? This will in turn spur us on by giving us the confidence and strength to press on. Not to mention the stories you can pass down to your children when they ask the meaning behind this memorial.

People pray many prayers concerning themselves. Lord help me…lose weight, quit smoking, quit drinking, get a job, know You better, be kinder to others, lead others to You, be a good witness, and so on. Petitions come easily enough but should never be the end of our actions. A friend of mine loves the saying, “God feeds the birds of the air but He doesn’t drop the worm into their nests”. Our God is a God of action and He expects the same from us.

Even in the stories of God’s miracles in the Old Testament He expected to see some action from the people He was acting on behalf. God spared Noah and his family but first they had to build the ark. God parted the Red Sea but the people had to cross on their own two feet. God provided manna from heaven but the Israelites had to go out every morning and gather it. The walls of Jericho tumbled down but only after the Israelites marched around them. Naaman was healed of leprosy but only after he agreed to wash in the muddy Jordan River. God spared the Jews from annihilation but Esther first had to risk her life going before the king.

Jesus, God in flesh, often performed miracles with only a touch or word, but would at other times require action. He turned water into wine only after the servants filled the jars with water. He healed the 10 lepers only after they obediently started their walk away from Jesus and toward the temple to show themselves to the priest. He fed the multitudes but first asked the disciples to bring the loaves and fishes they had found in the crowd. The paralytic was healed as he was commanded to stand up and carry his bed. Jesus produced money to pay the temple taxes but first Peter had to go catch a fish and pull the money from  its mouth. The exhausted disciples who had fished all night, but caught nothing, were blessed with a boatload of fish only after they cast their nets one last time on the side of the boat Jesus commanded.

The writer Philip Yancey put it this way. “Although we may ask God to intervene directly, it should not surprise us if He responds in a more hidden way in cooperation with our own choices. An alcoholic prays, “Lord, keep me from drink today”. The answer to that prayer will likely come from the inside-from a stiffening resolve or a cry for help to a loyal friend-rather than from some marvel like the magical disappearance of liquor bottles from a cabinet.

Whether God supernaturally intervenes or is giving us the power to obey Him, we trust His character. we see a true partnership, intimate and intertwined. “

So never cease  praying and seeking God’s will. At the same time, be ready to spring into action in the direction He leads. He is faithful who has promised us.

Every year on Maundy Thursday (the day before Good Friday) I like to watch The Passion of the Christ. My favorite scene is the opening scene of Christ praying in the Garden of Gethsemane. The actor did a superb job of portraying the emotional turmoil Christ experienced in the garden just a few hours before facing death.

The Bible tells us that as Christ prayed his sweat became as great drops of blood falling to the ground. He pleaded time and again with his disciples to stay awake and pray. He said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.” He pleaded with His Father. “If it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” Later He prayed again. “If it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may Your will be done.”

The events of this night were no surprise to Christ. He had repeatedly told His disciples that He was sent into the world for this very purpose.

Just a few days earlier He had entered Jerusalem, the city where He was a wanted man by the religious leaders, to purposely begin the trip that would lead directly to the cross. On the Thursday night after entering Jerusalem on Sunday, Christ shared His last Passover meal with His disciples while here on earth. This meal would become the basis for our observance of the Lord’s Supper, or Communion.

It is no accident that Christ’s death would come during the Passover celebration. The first Passover observed by the Israelites the night they would flee from Egypt was explained to them by Moses who had heard directly from God. It involved the sacrifice of a pure lamb whose blood was sprinkled on the sides and tops of the door frames. It gives me chills every time I think of this blood staining the wood of the doorposts in the same locations that it would stain the wood of the cross centuries later. Just as the lamb had to be killed in order for the blood to be taken as protection from the death angel passing through the streets of Egypt, Christ would have to die for His blood to protect us from an eternity in hell.

Christ knew from the beginning of time that His life would someday be given as a ransom for ours.

So here Christ stands in the garden ready for the final agony that would bring us salvation.

We know from scripture that in the final hours of crucifixion God turned away from looking at His beloved Son who had taken on the sins of the entire world; past, present, and future. God is holy and perfect and will not stand before sin. But many scholars believe that as Christ prayed in the garden, God was already distancing Himself from His Son. Christ’s agony was not only from the dread of physical torment, but in the full knowledge that the sins of the world would soon separate Him from His Father. This would have been an unprecedented event. Yet Christ was willing to experience this agonizing separation so that we would not have to experience an eternal separation from God.

Never believe that Christ was a political victim or simply an innocent man framed by religious leaders. He completed what He originally set out to do as a baby in Bethlehem. He was born to die and given a million opportunities to back out, He wouldn’t.

Our human minds fail to understand a love that deep and total. How I look forward to the day I stand before Him face to face and finally fully comprehend a love so great!

Man has come a long way in his acquisition of  knowledge and power. From the horse and buggy to the space shuttle and from the flintlock rifle to the atomic bomb, we’ve made progress. There is always a cost attached to man’s progress however. The cost seems to always be in damage to the environment or through death itself.

The strongest power that has ever been experienced on earth is not through mankind’s doing however, but  through the resurrection of Christ. Unlike man’s power, Christ’s power does not result in destruction, but rather in victory over death and in eternal life. Far more powerful than a nuclear reaction, Christ had the power to raise His own bloody, unrecognizable, lifeless body from the grave in perfect form. Now that is power!

That power is like the working of His mighty strength, which He exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms.

Ephesians 1:19Ephesians 1:19
English: Contemporary English Version (1999) - CEV
19 I want you to know about the great and mighty power that God has for us followers. It is the same wonderful power he used

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Because Jesus said “I and my Father are One” we can know that the God who raised Christ through the power of the Spirit are all the same person. That in itself staggers the mind, so brace yourself for this next part.

The same power that rose Christ from the dead is within us if we have accepted Him as our Savior!

There is no more beautiful example of this than the one we see exemplified through believer’s baptism. The plunge underneath the water represents our burial with Christ and death of our old life. The resurrection of Christ is represented as we emerge from the water to a new life of service for Him.

If we truly understood that the power that raised Christ from the dead is residing within us, there would be nothing we would ever need fear. This same power not only empowers us for daily living but will some day raise us from physical death into eternal life with Him. Grasping that, we can join Paul in saying,

I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in His suffering, becoming like Him in death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

Philippians 3:10-11Philippians 3:10-11
English: Contemporary English Version (1999) - CEV
10 All I want is to know Christ and the power that raised him to life. I want to suffer and die as he did, ¹¹ so that somehow I also may be raised to life.

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