1) As Michelle reflected on Christ’s sacrifice on the cross for her own sin, she was bold enough to share some personal examples from her own recent life. There is nothing that brings the sacrifice of Jesus into sharper perspective than spending time in prayer, asking the Spirit to show us our own sin. It’s for these sins, these offenses against a holy God, that Christ was crucified, scorned, and rejected both by the ones He came to save and the Father who sent Him to the cross. There is no greater loss. When was the last time your prayer life reflected confession of your very specific sins? When did you last feel gut-reaching sorrow for your sin because you knew the weight of how it mocked the God who came to rescue you? As you go into this weekend, be mindful of the cross and the Savior who was slain there. Ponder your sin and ask the Lord to show you kindness in bringing you to repentance. Perhaps you’ll even follow Michelle’s example and confess some sins to a friend as well.

2) We don’t normally include Jesus’ story of a tax collector and a Pharisee praying in our reflections on Easter, but the idea of Christ “flipping tables” on our world view perfectly marries with absolutely everything about Easter. The eternal God of the Universe dying on a manmade cross of wood? The infinite Creator submitting to the constraints of human flesh for the purpose of dying in place of sinful man? The only perfectly righteous, all-powerful Being choosing to die a gruesome death instead of the ones who slaughtered and mocked Him? The righteous for the unrighteous. The eternal for the finite. The sovereign for the impotent. The holy for the wretched. Still, we foolishly think we can somehow attain a good enough status before this God! How quickly we minimize the Almighty! How much easier might it be to choose to surrender in the small things of our everyday lives, as well as the big things, if we remember to glimpse even a sliver of the majestic vastness of the God who chose to sacrifice Himself in our place! Accepting this reality, taking it into our souls, brings true, humble worship from contrite hearts.

3) We might read the narrative of Noah’s ark, see the mass destruction of land, animals, and especially humanity, and naturally ask how God could be so cruel. Obliterate humanity? Decimate the land? Drown land animals? How do these statements reconcile with the Bible’s authoritative declaration that God is good and gracious? Shifting the lens, where can you ask similar questions about your life? Loss of income, illness, death, broken relationships, children gone astray, abusive past, mental or emotional instability, divorce, and pain of all types assault the premise that God is good. Oh, how our perspective is narrow! How the “God” in our mind is so small and confined! Mankind was so horribly sinful that God sent the flood as an act of mercy to halt the onslaught of evil. I don’t pretend to know the answers to the deep pains we experience, but still, we can each either choose to cling to the truth of Scripture and God’s view point, or we can stubbornly insist our perspective is accurate and complete. In my pain, I’ve found that God becomes all the more precious and beautiful as I study His word and hold out my hands to accept His mercy, even if it doesn’t look as I expect. Ask the Lord to open your eyes to His mercies this weekend and choose to worship the God of all Goodness!