Tuesday, March 22, 2005

so much to think about this week...

i really, realllllly enjoyed CIA on sunday night...it seemed like God just kept revealing things to me, which hasn't happened quite that rapidly in awhile. i'll try to list a few before i have to go finish studying (i just HAD to take a break):

1) i never really thought of it this way, but while nick was praying, i realized something about evangelism and sharing Christ with other people. it's not only our job, but when we don't do it, we are being totally selfish. i had really never thought of it that way before, and maybe i'm the only one who just got it, but the most selfish thing i could do in life is not take every chance i'm given to share Jesus with other people. geez, i can't believe i just realized that.

2) i was also thinking during the lesson about the stark contrast presented between Jesus and satan in the Bible. it says in isaiah that "He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him, nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him." In 2 corinthians, it talks about how satan "masquerades" himself as an angel of light. i just thought it was pretty interesting that Jesus is always described as completely unnattractive to man, not something that anyone would be naturally drawn to. then there's satan, who can really take any appearance he wants to, and all of the things associated with him are so attractive to us. much easier for satan to win people, i would think, especially in Jesus' time on earth. however, people still followed Jesus when they got to know who He was, a lesson in itself.

3) we also discussed pilate, the governor who sentenced Jesus to death, and his role in the cruxifiction. it's very interesting to read back over the whole story and see that pilate really did everything he could to let Jesus "off the hook" to me. i honestly think sometimes that pilate knew Jesus was innocent, and sometimes wonder if after they went to crucify Him, pilate wept in his room. his wife even tried to convince him to let Jesus go, so he offered a choice between Jesus and barabas, the serial killer who was then let back out into the people at their own choice. also, something that i had never read before about the sign above Jesus' head:

"Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to the cross. It read: JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS. Many of the Jews read this sign, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the sign was written in Aramaic, Latin and Greek. The chief priests of the Jews protested to Pilate, 'Do not write ‘The King of the Jews,’ but that this man claimed to be king of the Jews.'
Pilate answered, What I have written, I have written.' "

funny, since it says that people walked by and read from all three language backgrounds, even though they had no idea it was simply a "claim" in the peoples' eyes. so i would say pilate even tried through Jesus' death to do the smallest thing he could do and witness to those passing by in their own languages. i think that's awesome.

so, that's what i've been thinking about this week between palm sunday and Easter. and i'm pretty thrilled to have learned all that, because it is so very interesting to me.



"He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.
Like one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Surely he took up our infirmities
and carried our sorrows,
yet we considered him stricken by God,
smitten by him, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
and by his wounds we are healed." - isaiah 53:1b-5

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