How Great the Father's Love For Us

Happy Easter!

There is SO much that comes with this day, I don't even know where to start or if I can say exactly what I want. I'll start with the verse that stood out to me most in the sermon this morning. My dear, sweet husband gave me a new Bible for Christmas. Its one of those that has both the NIV and the Message translations. And for a girl who loves to read, I sure do appreciate having a second translation there to give a little more insight. Today, I was blown away at how much the Message translation of this verse touched me. It is in such plain english and is so blunt and I love it.

Romans 5:6-8
...we can't round up enough containers to hold everything God generously pours into our lives through the Holy Spirit. Christ arrives right on time to make this happen. He didn't, and doesn't, wait for us to get ready. He presented himself for this sacrificial death when we were far too weak and rebellious to do anything to get ourselves ready. And even if we hadn't been so weak, we wouldn't have know what to do anyway. We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice. But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatsoever to him.

There is no way, in this earthly life, that I will ever do anything to deserve the sacrifice that He gave or the love that He lavishes on me. And the fact that He gave his Son anyways and he continues to love me, sins and all, is incredibly humbling. Today I'm reminded that no matter what, my God loves me so much that he gave his most prized possession to save me and to have the opportunity to have a relationship with me. How lucky I am - how lucky we ALL are!!

Happy Easter, everyone! Be encouraged today that the Lord is good and Jesus is alive!

P.S. The 6.9 magnitude earthquake in Baja hit while I was writing this. I'm up in LA at the Miles house and we felt it big time. Hopefully our apartment is still standing down in SD. Craaazy!