Lessons Not Just for Easter

I’ve been reading Jesus: 90 days with the One and Only since Aug 2010. I think the 90 days kind of stretched out to 300 days so far, and I just finished Day 73. I could say I’m taking my time absorbing all the lessons I’ve learned from it, but I’d be lying. I’ve not been consistent AT ALL, but still God waited patiently, and also prepared me for what He was going to lead me through beforehand. It just made my sporadic pace look purposeful. Purposeful on God’s end, not so much on mine...

This last lesson, I’ve read before over and over again, especially on Easter, yet He made it more personal through this book so I'll understand just how much He loved me, and understand how purposeful His death was to Him and for me. I just want to share a part of my journal about what I saw and wrote:

Lord, how did I not see this? I’ve read it many times and celebrated this on Easter that you died during Passover, when the Jews celebrate and remember their Salvation from Egypt. The Hebrews took a lamb, killed it, took some of the blood and put it on the doorposts and above the door to protect them from God as He came by killing all the firstborn. (Ex12:3,6-7,12,13) You were OUR lamb to save us from Eternal Death. Our Lamb died, and like the people that wiped blood on their doorpost to protect themselves from Death that breezed through Egypt, You washed us with Your blood to redeem us and protect us from eternal Death.

After going through this book (though slowly), I’ve seen You more personally, and You’ve shown me how much You know me, and love me enough to teach me, comfort me, and even reprimand me when I need it, and especially at the right moment. Thank you. Now, I have to read of your journey to your death, but seeing how purposeful You were, with your eye on me, saying ”this is for you. I’m dying in your place for you.” Oh, Jesus. I didn’t deserve it then, and I don’t deserve it now, but Your eye is still on me, and I can hear you saying, “I did it for you. I died in your place for you.”

Just imagining someone that loved you so much, and shared so much with you, died in your place of a death YOU deserved. He died for you to live. Can you look at your significant other and say they’d be willing to die that kind of death Jesus did for you, and you won’t feel pain yourself knowing that was supposed to be you? I can’t. And, this is something I need to remember not just during Easter, but every day. I am Alive because of Him.

Next Birthday Destination?...

A few weeks back, a friend of mine and I were talking about birthdays and how we celebrated them in the past, and then it dawned on me....ever since I left San Diego I never celebrated my birthday in the same place twice. I’ve celebrated my birthdays in different states, and recently in another country. Even over the Atlantic Ocean!! I left San Diego for Christ to be a Travel Nurse, and God blessed me by sending me to Seattle, St Louis, Austin, North Africa for my birthdays, and now????.....Haiti!!

I’m finally going to Haiti! I have been trying to go to Haiti for over a year now since the earthquake, and now when I least expected it, God finally opens the door to let me go! The crazy part is that I’m leading a group this time. Not 5 or 10, but 20 PEEPS are coming with me, and only one of them is a nurse (me). In San Diego, that wouldn’t have been me. I was happy following in a Mission Trip, not leading one. I don’t know what God has in stored for this Trip or this Team, but I am totally excited. A couple years back when I was getting ready for North Africa I’ve heard and learned about: “Don’t be flexible, be like liquid,” and “we’re going ‘sailing’, and see where the Spirit leads us.” This trip isn’t any different in that sense. Different people, different cultures, and different needs, but the same God is leading it, and the same God is working. Please pray for us as we get ready for this trip, and raise the money to go. If you’d like to help us out, you can email me your address, and I’ll send a support letter to you.

The best part of this trip for me, AND for my blog readers, is that I can share more about this Haiti trip than I was able to during my N Africa trips. Maybe you’ll actually see more posts from me than my usual annual posting saying “hey! I’m still alive.”