∞

[Rescue.]

You see, there is a paradox at the heart of what it means to be a human. We are essentially crappy people by nature; foolish, inconsiderate, prone to sin and mistakes…

There is another part to us that gives us the capacity for love. It is something divine and beautiful and it flows through our veins and it is in our very breath. If we recognize and understand what this divine mystery is that makes us worth more than what we essentially are, sinful by nature, then we will learn that we were made to come alive, and that the divine mystery flowing through us can overwhelm our entire being and radically change us into people of True Love, and people of Healing, and people of Light.

Genesis 2:7

Then the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person.

We are made from dirt. Spit and gravel. We are souls with bodies and minds that are dirty and unclear. We are fractions of what we could be. We are not whole. We are shells and bits and pieces. But through our nostrils the Creator of everything, someone beyond anything we could ever fathom, breathed through our nostrils that made us come alive. Through Him we can be completely full, and completely whole.

All do to Jesus Christ’s sacrifice.

You see, the God of the universe, Creator of all things, including us, loved us very much. Most of us have heard of this simple, yet powerful truth…

John 3:16-17

For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.

Most of us haven’t heard the second half of this verse, and I believe it’s especially important because it states the fact that He didn’t come to condemn us, but to save us and love us. I wanted to clear that up so you don’t feel discouraged or anything of that nature.

God loves us unconditionally. He sent His Son to die for us and to rescue us from eternal separation from Him. He’s been trying to tell us for lifetimes:

Hebrews 1:1

In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways,

God has spent all of time trying to get our attention, trying to tell you and me, “Hey, you need a rescue!” He’s been trying to communicate to us, “If you keep living the way you are living, and if you keep ignoring the way that you’ve been ignoring me, if you keep living the way that people who don’t know God live, you’ll miss me, and you’ll miss eternity. He’s been trying to speak and trying to get our attention. [I being God] I’ve had prophets who’ve preached, I had pillars on fire. I made donkeys talk! I’ve done nearly everything I needed to get your attention. And when all of that failed… I sent a rescuer.

Hebrews 1:2

but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.

This is the rescue. Jesus is our rescue. He sits in Heaven, and sees you and me, and says to Himself, “If they keep going the way they’re going, if they keep coming up with the same answers they are coming up with, they will die. They will die empty, they’ll die without God, and they’ll die without eternity.” And Jesus said, “Someone has got to do something.”

So God comes in the flesh, God becomes a person. The Creator of the Universe, in diapers. And He comes to speak Human to us, and live in Human form so that we may actually come to listen to Him… which is something so radical and insane! If we really thought about it, we’d realize how ridiculous sounding that is!

Imagine, you’re sitting at home, in your kitchen, eating breakfast; and you see a little stream of ants walking across the counter. You call to your mom or dad or spouse and say, “Hey! Did you realize we had an ant problem?”

And he/she says “Yes, I noticed yesterday and I already called the exterminators. They’re coming tomorrow.”

“Woah, wait, the exterminators are coming tomorrow? We can’t let that happen, they might kill the ants.”

“Well, that’s the point!”

“No! No, we can’t let them kill the ants; we have to rescue the ants!” So you call into work or school and say, “Hey! I can’t come in today; I’ve got an ant problem… I have to save the ants!” *Click.* How many bosses will take that for an answer? You’re not working; you’re at home saving the ants.

You realize that the ants aren’t listening, they aren’t cooperating, so you think to yourself, here is the only way I can save the ants… I’ve got to become an ant. So you change yourself into an ant so you can go and speak “Antese” to the ants. So you can look like an ant so they won’t be afraid of you, and they won’t be confused; and you say to the ants, “The Exterminator is coming tomorrow, follow me to safety!”

You might be thinking, “Bryan, that is probably the stupidest story I have ever heard!” It probably is…

But you realize the gap; the gap between us and God is bigger than the gap between us and an ant. Angels shook their heads and asked, “Why the heck are you going down there to be a human?”

You see this story, is the story of a rescue… of us needing a Savior. He spent 30 years on this earth speaking human so we could understand, and thirty years in human form so we wouldn’t be afraid or confused; and he said to us, “The exterminator is coming… and if you keep doing what you’re doing, if you keep living the way you’re living, if you keep ignoring God and doing your own thing… you’ll die.” And then He says “Follow Me.”

Do you wanna know something incredible? We didn’t like the story. We said “Who are you? How dare you tell us this. And the truth is, you told us things that bothered us and we’d rather live our lives our way so get out of our way.” So we decided to kill the rescuer.

Who were the people who were most frustrated, who had the least place for the savior? Church people. Pastors, Preachers were the ones that put Him on the cross. Religious leaders of the day. So we took the rescue, and we killed him, because He had the audacity to intrude… He had the audacity not to behave the way we thought the rescuer should behave. He was bold enough not to let us stay where we were, so we killed Him.

And what we didn’t get in that moment is the very thing we thought we were doing to silence the rescue, to send Him back to wherever He came from, was Jesus’ crowning moment. Because on that cross an exchange happened, a trade took place, and the Rescue took every single one of our mistakes, took every lie, every hurtful thing we’d ever said or done, every wound we ever inflicted, every time we had shaken our fist and said “I don’t care what you say, I’m going to do it my way…” and He traded His life for our life. He rescued us.

And just so you and I would know 2000 years later that the exchange was real and that He was and is better than anyone and anything that came before or anyone or anything that would come after for us, He rose from the dead as if to say, “You understand, I am different. I am better than any sort of redemption you’ll ever come across.”

He rescues us from us; He is the Saviour of our soul.

We cannot live full, abundant lives without Christ because we aren’t whole without Christ. We are shattered and broken and separated souls and our spirit is dead. And there is No other way to save us from Hell.

John 14:6

I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

No other idols or gods or religions can ever get you into Heaven or save you from missing out on Eternity. They all end up in the same place, and it’s a place that no one should be excited about. Hell is an awful place, but I don’t want to scare you into this, because this is meant to be celebrated about and to get excited about… the fact that the person who created you and I has amazing plans for you is indescribable and remarkable. And I hope you can get excited for that. And if you are, I’m so excited for you.

Some of you might be saying after reading this that you get it. “I get it. I understand that this guy died for us and I think I believe it. But what next? How do I get into Heaven? What do I do?”

Romans 10:9

If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved

It’s as simple as a prayer, and I think it might be something like this:

“God, I get it. I believe that you sent Jesus to die for us… and I want you in my life. I understand that even when we were broken souls, You saw something beautiful in us and even after all of our sin and recklessness, You forgave us and by your sacrifice you’ve made us of worth, and you’ve made way for Eternity. I owe You my life, and I want to give it back to You.”

Now that you’ve prayed the prayer and made this decision, keep reading in on these posts and pages. There is so much to learn about who God is, and I’m excited for your decision. For the next several posts I’ll be diving into what it means to be a true, authentic Disciple of Christ… so you don’t feel like I’m just leaving you with just this.

Some of you want this, but you still have questions, you still have doubts. You still need to know more about this, which is totally fine. If you still need answers, I want you to stay tuned for this blog, because I’ll be diving in more and more each post on who God is, and what it truly means to be a follower of Christ. And you can always contact me if you have any questions. I’m more than willing to converse with you.

Some of you already know this and you’ve done this before, and you are just waiting for more answers. This may have had NO effect on you whatsoever, which is totally cool. Hopefully in due time I’ll post what you’ve been needing to hear, I just want to invite you not only to keep reading as I continue to post, but also to do so with an open heart and mind. Some things won’t be easy to accept.

There are other places where we may stand, whether we’ve done it and we’re fully living this out, or we’ve done it but we’re fake, or whatever…I hope you STILL accept this and replay it in your minds, because hearing this story for some of us has become redundant… please don’t let the dust of familiarity cloud this simple truth, that Jesus Loves Us. He always has, and always will, and that truth, at one point or another, has shaken the depths of your heart and core of your soul.

I apologize if this post was boring. It was kinda informative, and it’s difficult to understand at times maybe. I can’t promise the other blogs will be shorter than this or that they’ll be more exciting because I’m not sure where God will take me when I write them. But please keep reading. Please do so openly, because if you stay close minded you won’t get anything out of this, or life itself. You won’t learn anything. I hope and pray that we one day grasp this, that this Jesus guy is indescribable, and that we learn to appreciate and understand who He is and what He’s done for us to the best of our ability. We were won’t get it all perfectly and fully, but hopefully enough to change the way we are living for the better.

May we come to see that not only are we broken souls with dirty, unclear minds and hearts, but that we also have something divine flowing through us that has the power to overwhelm or entire being. May we discover that God loves us unconditionally, and by sacrificing His Son and bringing Him back to life, we may enter a relationship with Him; and making whatever is flowing through us, overflow and make us whole.

Thank you for reading.