Dear Fellow Children of God,
In the 1990’s a window of opportunity opened for our
congregation and others to do mission work in Russia, across from Nome. Primarily we worked in the small coastal city
of Provideniya. We found that the people
of Russia had not only endured years of religious repression, but their
technology had also not kept pace with those in the west, at least not in Far
East Russia, “the ends of the earth.” During
the time period that we were traveling and working in Provideniya the mayor of
that city tragically lost a child who died from pneumonia. We were later told that there was no penicillin
available in the city, nor any other modern drug, that could be used to fight
the disease in this young person. How
valuable might such medicine have been for the mayor, and for the other
citizens facing the rigors of arctic living!
We got a glimpse of how the mayor’s heart was changed later. We had started bringing in medical equipment
and supplies when we traveled because of the need. Local medical personnel in the Mat-Su and
Anchorage had made many donations. So, on
one trip we were entering Provideniya through the airport and were carrying
medical supplies to donate. However,
getting through customs in Russia was always an adventure. This time we were being held up in the
airport because the customs guards were demanding that we pay a tax for the
value of the medical supplies we were donating. We were flabbergasted! We wanted to donate valuable supplies, but we
were being asked to pay for the privilege of giving these life giving goods
away.
Our leaders contacted the mayor, and we then quickly made
it through customs. He had ordered the
officials to let us through, with the supplies.
He knew the value of those supplies to his people far surpassed any tax
that might be collected. These supplies
meant life.
I tell this story for a number of reasons. First, there is only one cure for the ravage
of sin in our lives and in the world.
God is holy and requires holy lives from all people. And, there is a price to pay for sin. The debt we owe for sinful, rebellious,
disobedient lives is judgment and death.
But, our judgment does not give us life.
It only brings death.
So, guess who paid the price so we could be holy in God’s
eyes. God paid in His Son, Jesus!
When our St. John volunteers were working to bring life giving supplies
into Russia, we ultimately did not have to pay in order to bring in the
medicines that would take away illness and save lives. But God did pay the price to take away our
sin! Jesus Himself lived a holy life of
obedience and love. Jesus Himself took
our sins on Himself and satisfied the demands of God’s law. Jesus died a painful, torturous death on a
cross so our sin might be taken away and we might live in this amazing love of
God. Consider these selected verses from
2 Corinthians 5.
15 And
he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but
for him who died for them and was raised again. . . . 17 Therefore, if anyone
is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! . . .
21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become
the righteousness of God.
In a world where people primarily focus on acquiring and getting
and taking for themselves, this sacrificial, giving love of God does not seem
to make sense. As Paul says in 1
Corinthians 1:18, “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are
being saved it is the power of God.” But
the cross of Jesus, the death of the Son of God to pay for sins that we cannot
pay for, this is the only way to receive the forgiveness and eternal love that
God wants to give us in heaven. And, the
cross of Jesus is the only way to receive the forgiveness and eternal love that
God wants to give us that God wants to give us in this life.
This coming week is Holy Week, beginning with Palm Sunday
this Sunday, March 20, extending through the celebrations of Jesus’ last Supper
on Thursday, the observance of Jesus’ sin-forgiving death on Friday, and ending
with the Easter celebration of Jesus’ rising on Sunday on March 27. The center of this history changing week is the
incomprehensible love of God shown in the death of Jesus on the cross!
In my devotions this week I read a short piece from Charles
Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892), in his “Lectures to My Students”. Spurgeon wrote, “More and more I am jealous lest any view upon prophecy, church government,
politics, or even systematic theology should withdraw one of us from glorifying
in the cross of Christ.”
Or, maybe Paul said it even better in Galatians 6: 14, “May I
never boast except in the cross
of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and
I to the world.”
Indeed, may the power and love of God shown through the
cross of Jesus bless you with love and forgiveness, and life!
A Child of God, Finding the Meaning of Life in the Cross
of Jesus,
Pastor Jonathan
P.S. Please look at the announcements below and
consider all the opportunities for growth and service in the coming weeks.
P.P.S. Here are
some pictures from fishing on Monday with Sven Maakestad, Rod and Aaron
Christiansen, and Leif Neslund. We will
go to this lake on Sunday, March 20, for our Shane Woods Ice Fishing outing.
and another
and another
One more
The final picture from March 14
****
ABOUT ‘THOUGHTS FROM THE
PASTOR’ - I am sending these e-mail messages, hopefully weekly, to
all St. John members and friends whose e-mails I have. (I am regularly
adding new names of friends and members – in case you are just receiving this
e-mail for the first time.) However, if you don’t want to receive this
e-mail, please let me know, and I’ll gladly leave your name off my list for
this message.
****
No comments:
Post a Comment