Good Friday and Easter Sunday

THIS WEEK has been one that I will remember for the rest of my life. Good Friday and Easter have to be among my favorite holidays, and this year was more memorable and special than ever before.
A few weeks ago I blogged to you about how I talked to Jenny White about the nature of water baptism, and how she explained that it is a public demonstration of a believer's faith in Christ. I told you that the day after I talked to her about it, there was an event posted in Southpoint's slide show that said water baptisms were to happen on April 2, 2010, right after the Good Friday service. Well I signed up for that a week or two after I first saw the slide, and this week I have been water baptized.
Before the Good Friday Service maybe thirty or forty people sat in the mandatory class meant to remind us of what water baptism is for: it demonstrates our commitment to live a resurrected life, since, having been saved by grace, we are alive in the Spirit and dead to sin. Having been freed from sin, we are enslaved to righteousness. Mr. Eric reminded us all about this and then led us outside to the baptism pool to show us where it would be happening. I tested the water with my hand. It was very comfortably warm. The whole sky was smooth and blue, and perfect winds were brushing by us. God gave us the perfect evening to be baptized: not too cold, and not too hot either. We turned around and reentered the church building, and soon the service started.
The first song we sang before the service is one I have known for a little longer than I have been saved. I think it has been about five years. It was "Here I am to Worship," and I knew practically all of the words. It is very appropriate for Good Friday, as well as any day: "Lord of the earth, You stepped down into darkness. Opened my eyes let me see. Beauty that made this heart adore You, hope of a life spent with You..." I love it. We sang and sang. They were really wonderful songs. There was also "Above All," which I did not know before. "Crucified, laid behind a stone. You lived to die rejected and alone. And like a rose trampled on the ground You took the fall and thought of me above all." It's important to remember that we cannot for the life of us save our own lives, and we cannot fill the hole in our hearts with anything besides God. He made us to want Him, and He made it so that we can get to Him. That was no easy thing. But, as Pastor Russ often says, God was never so in control, so strong, so powerful, so glorious and so victorious, as when He Himself, Jesus Christ, God-in-Man, was dying for us. He never had to, and you know He could have told the angels to come wipe everybody out and rescue Him, but He didn't. He died, because He knew that it was what He was supposed to do. God did what God wanted Him to do. All to get us back, all to get me back, all to get you back, because He loves us. That's how we know we can never be good enough by ourselves: He went to such great lengths to unify us with Him by such means as we could never produce on our own part, no matter what we do.
When we were done singing, Pastor Russ came and discussed the concept of mourning. He explained that believers mourn where Jesus is missing. When we see that He is not inside of somebody we know, we mourn for the person. When the disciples saw that He was dead, they mourned for the missing Jesus, although of course He came back in three days! And we mourn when we see that there is a place in our lives where we have not given Him control. He doesn't want just part of my heart, but all of it. I have been praying to have a heart that desires Him, and nobody else, so fervently that if there is an area in my life where I am trying to run things, and not letting it be His, that I would mourn and let it go. I pray that every day of my life I could work toward loving my God with ALL my heart, soul, and mind, so that I will be willing to let go anything that's getting in the way and holding me back. Youth Pastor Ryan compares those things to treadmills, where you work and fight but do not go forward. This is a race we're running; we need to go somewhere.
I had to leave the sermon early with the others so that I could go change into my dark clothes. When I had changed and gone outside, I marched barefoot in the cool of the settling day toward the baptism area, speaking out loud "You and me, Jesus, You and me, You and me, You and me." I used to be afraid to get baptized. I used to be scared I would drown, or hurt my back being pulled backwards. Also it was just frightening to think of being up high in front of so many people, as I'd seen it done at First Baptist Church. Here I was not going to be up high, but either way I was not as scared as I would have been even a year ago.
I realized something important as I waited and was assigned a seat, as I watched a long white bird sail above the little lake behind the church, as I sat and watched a few stars come peak through the darkening sky, and as the torches were lit for good lighting, and as the people came out of the church to watch. Good Friday celebrates the day that God told us very clearly "I LOVE YOU!" by giving the most precious gift it is possible to give so that we can be with Him again. And to go through with water baptism is to exclaim "I LOVE YOU, TOO! AND I ALWAYS WILL!" It is a public confession of faith, a testifying to the fact that God has saved me, and it is an opportunity to make a public promise that I will never hide that fact, and that Jesus has made me His follower. I encourage all believers to be baptized in water. I encourage all people to believe in Jesus Christ.
On Good Friday He died, and in no easy way. In one of my favorite books, "The Case for Christ" by Lee Strobel, one of the interviewed professors explained the medical details involved in the particularly terrible way in which Jesus was killed. From the four Gospels we know what happens to Him. He is betrayed, interrogated, slapped, spit upon, humiliated, mocked, whipped, whipped, and whipped. He is forced to carry His cross as far as He can, bleeding and buised and His heart aching so that you can almost hear Him gasp and scream when you read His words "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do!" They put nails, like 5 inches long, through His wrists, where the central, most sensitive nerve of the hand is located. His feet, too. And the put the crown of thorns on His sweet head, and yelled at Him and hurt Him in every way they could. All His friends were gone, and He was dying in all kinds of pain, and He had never done anything wrong.
Many people don't know exactly what kills a person who is being crucified. With His arms pulled back, He was having a terrible time trying to breath. He had to keep pushing Himself upward on His nailed-through feet to make room for air in His lungs. With all this blood loss and strain, eventually He was no longer physically able to do that anymore, and His heart rate began to be uneven. So He died, after so much suffering, from cardiac arrest. Some of His last words were "My God, My God, Why have You forsaken Me?" These words usually confuse alot of people, and they confused me too... until I found them in the Old Testament! I just love it when I find stuff about Jesus written in there, from way before he was in the world. It's just awesome. Psalm 22 begins with the exact same phrase, and it goes on to describe the state of the Sufferer: He is being mocked, He is thirsty and disjointed, His hands and feet are pierced, His clothing has been divided among those who are hurting Him. These are all things that are happening to the Lord Jesus! Here in a Psalm, hundreds of years old before the event even occurred. I just love God. The Psalm ends with the suffering Person finding peace and declaring that He will continually praise God for the fact that He has answered Him. So I don't think those words mean "I give up," or "What's the deal?" I think they are a reference to the fact that God is victorious and faithful, even when all hope seems to have evaporated. Jesus didn't have a Bible open in front of Him as He was breathing His last breaths. He gave us this reference to help us figure this out. God knows about pain, see? He has had the pain of torture, and He has had the pain of seeing His children run away and not come back, though He dies to bring them home. So many do not come back. He knows pain, and despite the pain He is and will always be victorious, despite His suffering, and despite yours.
I have that page marked in the Bible. Right next door to my favorite Psalm, number 19. You should go find Psalm 22, and then go read Mark 14-16 all the way through.
So on Good Friday, April 2, 2010, upon my confession of faith I was baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. I go down into the water, and I come up out of the water, and find Jenny and hug her, sopping wet, very excited.

Today is Easter, and guess who isn't dead anymore? Jesus Christ, that's who! Now take a fork and eat that, devil! Who's the boss? "It is finished." You know that's right. So Jesus wins! I love this.
This Easter has been wonderful. I got to attend Southpoint's Easter sermon, and my family brought Jake, Isabelle's boyfriend. And later my whole gorgeous family got to meet at a park and eat abundant food and blow bubbles and celebrate three different birthdays. Happy birhday to Grandpa, to Aunt Jody, and to baby Molly, all recently a year older. I have been given a remarkably beautiful family, and I am grateful to God for their safety and health and that we can all share a flawless blue Easter day, possibly the warmest day thus far in the year.
Happy Easter, everybody. Go tell your family you love them, and go tell God 'Thank You!' There is no greater love than this, and nobody is so worthy of thanks and praise as our God.