Valerie Rae Hanneman
Isaiah 53:5 (NIV) “But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.”
I had an event trigger a memory today. It wasn’t a pleasant memory. When my son, Steven, was around 5-6 years old his father got him briefly involved in the Indian Guides. The Indian Guides are similar to the Boy Scouts, but there are some differences. For example, instead of earning badges, in Indian Guides you earned beads. Big Steve called me one evening because Stevie had a chance to earn a bead but something had come up and he couldn’t take Stevie - would I take him? I was immediately angry. Indian guides was a father/son organization and as a woman I was out of place in their little pow-wow’s. I didn’t want to take him. Big Steve persisted and finally I agreed - for the sake of my son. Then Big Steve told me that it was a bead for stained glass windows and they were meeting at a church just down the street from him. I went berserk. I told him that I flat out wasn’t going into any (explicative) (explicative) (really bad explicative) church. I didn’t believe in God and if by some chance He did exist - then I hated Him just as much as He hated me. When I continued to refuse, Big Steve put Stevie on the phone, and Stevie pleaded with me. I offered to take him to the movies, or for a banana split, or anything - just not into a church! But I couldn’t dissuade him and I ended up agreeing to take him. I got dressed, then took a massive hit of drugs so that I wouldn’t feel anything when I was in the church. When Stevie and I got over to the church, I snuck another hit of the drugs - just to make sure. By the time the program started, I was about as high as I could get. Only instead of them drowning my anger at God, the drugs made it easier for me to be just as nasty and rude to the poor young minister as I could be. I made him the target of my rage, my bitterness and my despair - I cursed him and I cursed God before I left.
Jesus lived the life I was created to life. He lived a life of perfect harmony and relationship with God. Sin never marred Him. That was the life Adam and Eve were created to live, it is the life I was created to live and it is the life you were created to live. But all of us chose a different path. We chose the path of a life of sin. Some say that Adam and Eve’s sin was the original sin and we were all tainted by it. That may be true - but so what? I have committed enough of my own sin (see above) to make it irrelevant that I am tainted by the original sin. In my lifetime I have gorged deeply on my own forbidden fruit, each bite driving a wedge further and further between God and I, until a grand canyon of sin separated us. Sin separates all of us from God. The Bible puts it clearly - we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God. The Bible also says that the wages of sin is death. Eternal death is what we have earned for ourselves when we chose the path of sin and separation from God. No matter how hard we try to “be good” we cannot be good enough to build a bridge strong enough to bridge the canyon between us and God.
But Jesus, the Son of God, built the bridge. He built it out of His life and His blood. Jesus lived a perfect life - He was without sin and so He never earned the death penalty of sin.
He didn’t earn sin’s death penalty, but He chose it. He left the glory of Heaven to come to earth, live among His creation, and then die in our place. Jesus chose death on the cross so that we would not have to pay the penalty of eternal death and separation from God. Instead we have eternal life through Him. I haven’t earned eternal life - I can’t be good enough to earn it - and neither can you. The Bible says that God so loved the world (that’s us) that He gave His only Son (Jesus) so that whoever believes in Him (Jesus) will not perish (eternal death) but have everlasting life.
We cannot earn eternal life, but Jesus gives it to us freely. All we have to do is to ask Him to forgive us of our sins and to come into our hearts. All we have to do is believe in Him as the Son of God, believe that He paid our sin-wages and that he has the power to forgive us and restore us into the relationship with God that we were meant to have. Jesus built the bridge that spans the gulf between God and us - and that bridge is shaped like a cross.
Are you wondering what the event was that triggered that shameful memory? Today is Good Friday. Today I went to the combined Good Friday services at Westminster Presbyterian Church. Today, with great joy, I attended this special service that commemorates the day that Jesus died on the cross for my sins. Today, tears of gratitude ran down my face as I remembered that every nasty thought, every heartless action, every time I took drugs, every time I purposely hurt another, every one of my sins were placed upon Him and that He loves me enough to die for me. Today, this joy-filled, forgiven daughter of God sang His praises in the same church that I cursed Him in thirteen years ago. I cannot even tell you what it felt like to be in that church again and to remember who I was back then and to celebrate the changes that Jesus has made in my life. Rage has turned to love, bitterness to joy, despair to hope. death to eternal life, And it all began with a cross.
Has Jesus been the bridge to God in your life? Have you asked Him to forgive your sins and to restore your relationship with God? He is waiting to give you a new life - an eternal life. He died to give life to you. Just ask Him.
Jesus, to stand in that church today, the day that we remember Your death for us, to remember who I was and to rejoice in who You have made me was incredible. Today I was reminded of how much You love me, how much you have healed me and how much peace You have given me. Thank You so much for yet another gift of love.
Contact Valerie or sign up for the e-Ministry of Fresno First Baptist at valerie@fresnofirst.org