Standing in front of these women, we were just white strangers. But something pulled at my heart for them; for them to know the redemption I've known. We sang to them of God's love:
Kacie spoke, she shared how the song had impacted her life, what the verses meant. She spoke of her broken past and how God had romanced her and, like the gentleman that He is,invited her into a relationship with Him.
I always start the same way, I lay out who God is.
He created us to literally walk beside Him. God would walk through the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve at His side. He loved them and loved being with them and loved that they loved Him. But then something happened, we were told a great lie; we were told that God was holding back something from us. He was not giving us all that He had and because of this we disobeyed, we committed the first sin.
God was brokenhearted; He could no longer walk with us because we were covered in Sin and Perfection cannot be near Sin. He made Adam and Eve leave His garden and sent them into the wilderness. Then He decided to offer us a way to remove our sin. He gave us "The Law", all those long, boring books of the Old Testament that talk about sacrifices and offerings. God covered all the small details so that no matter what we did that was sinful, we could be forgiven, we could be made clean and He could once again be near us. He knew that sin leads us to death; it leads us to evil and the death of who we are. Therefore, He required a life for our lives, a death for the death we would have. But we began to abuse this law, we did as we pleased and then brought our offerings to keep God from being angry. This only hurt Him more, made Him angrier, this opportunity He gave us to walk with Him we were using to make ourselves FEEL guilt- free even though the guilt remained. There was no repentance in the offerings and sacrifices, it was not enough.
God then took on flesh and came to earth to show us how to live. He stepped down from His kingdom to come to us and teach us what perfection looks like.
Jesus was tempted in ALL the ways that we were, but He overcame them, showing us that it IS possible! But the most beautiful thing that He showed us was LOVE, not just for ourselves, but for others. The creator of the universe came to earth and washed the filthy feet of His disciples; He served us! He loves us so much that He came to earth and served us, He wants a relationship with us! Then we took Him captive, He stayed in jail and was beaten and abused. Then with all the flesh ripped off His back, He was forced to carry His own wooden cross, nailed to it and murdered.
The women are silent as they relate to this God of ours. He went to prison just like them, He was abused just like them and He died just like they will one day… but I wasn't finished and neither was He.
Jesus rose from the dead. He defeated death! He sits in heaven even now and when we believe in Him, He sends a part of Himself to live in us. He doesn't look on us and see us anymore; instead He sees the perfection of Himself in each of us.
Story over, this is who God is, this is who Jesus is. I was done…but Jesus wasn't. He told me to tell them of the His grace. To tell them my story, my most embarrassing story that I still get panicked telling because I don't know what people will think of me. He's told me for over a year now to tell everyone around me because it's His story, but I've been so afraid. So here is my story…
