Mexico Missions- The Cross

"For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures."
-1 Corinthians 15:3
      Throughout the missions trip I read a book (and the bible) named "The Cross of Christ," which I mentioned in a previous post. The book and the bible stress the importance of the cross. As a matter of fact, the cross is central to whatever we do. 1 Corinthians 15:3 says that Christ dying for us is of most importance. Nothing else is as important as the cross. Why is that? The cross is where God really showed His love to us by demonstrating it through His son. "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8)". During missions we often get caught up in all the different things we are doing, like VBS, praying for healing, distractions, or other things. While not all these things are bad at all, they can take our focus off of what really matters most; the cross. I really like what our leader said to us, that the VBS that matters most is the one about God's love. The cross is where God showed His love for us and therefore should be preached.
      As I mentioned in the previous post we encountered many difficulties on the trip. It was easy to doubt God's love for us in that time, but Paul says that "I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:38-39)". To summarize, nothing is able or will be able to change the love that God has for us. Although many things seemed to be against us, God still loved us. Sometimes it's hard to see the love of God, which is why we have to look at the cross. If God would send His son to die an excruciating death on the cross out of love, what wouldn't He do for us?
      A parable I came across in Mexico while reading my bible was the story of the prodigal son (Luke 15). In the story, a father has two sons. One son goes away and spends all of his inheritance, but then realizes he has to go back to his father because he is more secure being in the father's house. The father then has a party for his son out of his love. "But we had to celebrate and rejoice, for this brother of yours was dead and has begun to live, and was lost and has been found (Luke 15:32)". All we have to do to receive God's love is to go back to Him. He wants us to go back to Him. We are more secure being in God's love than anywhere else. While the story may make it seem that the father freely accepts us, that is not the case. A price had to be paid for the us to be accepted. In the parable, the father humiliates himself by running after the son that was returning. In those times, it was a disgrace for a man to run, but the father was willing to run after his son to receive the son. Nothing would stop the father from loving his son, not even humiliation. In the case of God and us, the price was the cross. God was willing to come down as the Son and die for us just to love us. 
      The last thing I want to talk about is what we are supposed to do with this love. God wants us not only to accept His love but to give it to others. "This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers (1 John 3:16)". We are supposed to show the love of God to other people, by loving them. Love is not only a word, but love should be demonstrated with action. In Mexico, the main way we wanted to show love is by playing with the kids. It may sound simple, but we wanted to do anything that we could do to show our love to the village. We also got them many gifts and donated money to the village. That wasn't it however; the village also showed love to us as well. They gave us a home to live in for the week we were there and welcomed us. At the end of the trip they held a church service for us and gave us hugs to show their appreciation and love. Love can show itself in many forms, so we are to love others in any way that we can. 
-Smart    

Mexico Missions- Faith

This year in missions I really learned a lot from the time there. I believe God really showed me a lot of things that I want to remember. Today I want to talk about faith. On the way to Mexico we experienced a lot of difficulties. First of all our flight got delayed which caused our group to arrive in Mexico on three different days. There was even a point when a person said that we might not even be able to go on the trip. I was a little disappointed but I was determined not to let myself feel defeated. Then I remembered my VBS key verse; "Now, therefore, it was not you who sent me here, but God; and He has made me a father to Pharaoh and lord of all his household and ruler over all the land of Egypt (Genesis 45:8)". I was reminded of the theme of my message, God's hope for you. God doesn't have small plans for our lives, He has big plans that He wants us to fulfill. We can't do that on our own so we need faith. The bible says that "and without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him (Hebrews 11:6)". God wants us to have faith so that we can carry out the plans He has for us despite the obstacles we face. Joseph had many problems in his life but he never let them stop him from having faith in God and His goodness. In Mexico we also broke some musical equipment that actually caught on fire. We decided to pray that it would still work. That seemed impossible because the thing was smoking and on fire, but "with people it is impossible, but not with God; for all things are possible with God (Mark 10:27)". We can have faith in God because He can do all things. We also broke a water heater in Mexico, and some of us were afraid we would have to buy a new one. "But when Jesus heard this, He answered him, 'do not be afraid any longer; only believe...' (Luke 8:50)". We did end up buying them a new one, but I still believe that having faith drives out fear, just as love does. At the end of the missions trip, we got a lot of hugs from the people in the village. I wondered why they would appreciate us so much even though it seemed we only did so little, but I was reminded of a verse given me before the trip. John 6:8-9 says "One of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to Him, 'there is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are these for so many people?'" Andrew only brought a little bit to Jesus, but Jesus was able to multiply what he gave. Sometimes it seems we only give a little but God can multiply what we give if we believe He can. Just give to God what you have in faith. Matthew 17:20 reads "For truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you." A similar verse says "have faith in God. Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'be taken up and cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it will be granted him (Mark 11:22-23)". All we need is a little faith and we can move mountains. After reading these verses I was really encouraged because I know that God is able to remove anything that stands in my way no matter how big it is. I just need to have faith in God and He will move mountains. I believe God is waiting for those people who will have faith. I think God is excited and wants to move mountains. Sometimes it may seem like the mountains are too big. We shouldn't be telling God how big the mountains are, we should be telling the mountains how big God is. All we need is faith in God and amazing things will happen.
-Smart  

God's Holy Love

"For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life."
-John 3:16
This post combines the last three posts together. How? Well, the title is called God's Holy Love, so you might think that it only deals with the post on God's holiness and His love, but consistency plays a role in God's holy love as well. God is a consistent being. He never fails to be who He is and is faithful to Himself. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever; He never changes. What does this have to do with His holiness or love? Everything. God is holy; therefore He cannot stand to be in sin; He is sinless. He is consistently holy, so He can never sin or be in the presence of sin or sinners. God cannot ever change His holiness so therefore He can never be in the presence of sin. Next, God is love. He loves us without us doing anything for Him. He loves the people that He created, and pursues after them. His love actively chases us and God wants to be with us. This is the problem- "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23)". We are all sinners, and God is holy. Because of that God cannot be near us, because we are sinful beings. However, God is love also, and He wants to be with us. More specifically, God in His love cannot bear to leave us in the state we are; He cannot bear to be away from us. He has to stay consistent to both His love and holiness. So how can He be with us? The answer lies at the most amazing moment in history- the cross. God sent His son to die for our sins so that He could both love us and remain holy. This is able to happen because Jesus took the sins that we have committed and suffered the punishment that we deserved for it. He has taken our place in God's wrath; we have taken His place in righteousness. God is able to remain holy because He punishes sin, and is able to love us because we are considered righteous. The cross has saved us from our sin and has allowed God to love us and still be a holy God. Now this isn't the only reason that Jesus died on the cross, but I can't get into other reasons right now. How do we receive this love? Believe that Jesus has died for your sins and saved us from death, and the bible promises you will have eternal life.
-Smart  

God's Love

"This is love; not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins."
-1 John 4:10
Sorry this post is overdue but I was on a missions trip to Mexico recently which was a really great experience (recap post coming soon). A couple weeks ago I talked about God's holiness. Today I want to talk about the flip side of that, which is God's love. This is a very difficult topic to talk about because the love of God has so many aspects to it. I can't even begin to cover all of the love of God because it is so vast and deep. God's love is like no other love that exists on this earth. How? God's love is unconditional. What does that mean? This means that there are no requirements to receiving His love. Anyone can receive the love of God, it's given to all. Most love that we experience is conditional, meaning there are things we have to do to get love. For example, when a guy "loves" a girl, he usually has a couple conditions for continuing that love for her. For many guys it is that she is attractive, and if she loses that, the guy will no longer love her. God's love isn't like that. He loves us regardless of our condition. Another aspect of God's love is that it pursues after us. It's not a kind of love that is only received by us, but it is given to us by Him. What I mean is that we don't have to go to Him to receive His love, He goes to us and gives it to us. There are many instances in the Bible where people ran away from God but He chased after them. A great example is Jonah. There was a nation that had fallen in sin so much, but God wanted to redeem those people. God sent Jonah to be the prophet that would go to that nation and preach to them. However, Jonah refused, and ran away from God. Jonah went away from Nineveh to Tarshish. A storm arose on the ship, and Jonah realized that he had to get off the ship because he was the one causing the storm. After he was thrown off, a fish swallowed him up, and spat him up in 3 days. Jonah finally went to Nineveh and spoke the word of God to the people there. What can we learn from this? God showed His love to Jonah. Even when Jonah literally ran away from God, God still saved His life and allowed Jonah a second chance. God's love pursued after Jonah. But that isn't all. God also saved the people of Nineveh who sinned greatly against God. God didn't let Jonah's disobedience stop Him from loving the people of Nineveh or from loving Jonah. God's love is truly unconditional. "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:38-39)
-Smart