Easter thoughts from Haiti

We are enjoying our Easter in Haiti. As we reflect, we are reminded of how much God loves us.

Easter is the day Jesus died on the cross for us. Many people take this for granted or chalk it up to tradition or religion, but let's think about it for a minute. This man named Jesus that people all over the world are still talking about over 2 THOUSAND years later claimed to be the living God; "God on earth";  God's son. The bible claims that God loves each one of us (not just Christian's but everyone (yes even murderers, adulterers, alcoholics etc)) so much that he sent a living part of Himself (His son) to this Earth to die for us. What does this mean really?

Well, let's think about it. Our teacher Diana related a story similar to this to our kids in school on Friday and it really puts things into perspective. It is a story of a dad who has a choice to save a train full of hundreds of people that is barrelling down the track to sure destruction; or to save his son. He has a desperate choice to make, 1) either pull the switch and save the train thereby directing it onto his son that is stuck on the other track, or 2) save his son and let the train crash on the track it is currently on. He chooses to sacrifice the life of his son to save multitudes of others. How many of us would do this? I know that I could not. Whether you agree with his decision or not, this is what God does. He sacrifices his son and saves the train. Now picture yourself on the train. That is where you are...... on the train. God has the power to save you or let you continue to sure destruction. What would you want Him to do? What would you expect Him to do?

Most of us would want Him to save us but most of us would expect a dad to save his own son not us. How could you expect a father to sacrifice his own son to save you? This is the point. You should not expect it. It is a free gift that you do not deserve. It is a love that runs so deep that the God of the universe should love you so much that He was willing to sacrifice His own son; he was willing to let His own son die for you.

Many people do not understand why they need this saving. What are they being saved from? The bible teaches that heaven is living in peace with God for ever and ever and it is perfect. It is eternal and it is more awesome that anyone can imagine. The creator of everything lives in perfection. Nothing that is imperfect can enter this space. Nothing. The world that we live in is not perfect. It is anything but. We are not perfect. Man made the decision a long time ago to break from God in order to make his own decisions. Man was deceived by Satan and decided to go his own way. By following this imperfect way that we are all thrust into, we are heading to spend eternity with Satan....in hell.

So where does this leave us? We are not perfect, the world we live in is no longer perfect yet heaven is perfect. Therefore, we can never enter heaven. Even those of us that try to live our best and do good things are not perfect. Every time a judgemental thought enters our brain, every time we think we know better than someone else, every time we complain, every time we think badly of someone, every time we depend on our prideful selves, every time we do not let others go before us, every time we buy things we do not need. All of these things are not perfect.

This brings us back to the brutal reality that we can not enter heaven. I remember the first time I had this realization. Up till then I always thought that good people go to heaven. This is not what the bible says. No one who is not perfect can go to heaven. Yikes. I remember staring down the hell barrel thinking, "that is really where I am headed; where all of us are headed?"

Well, here is the good news. This is what Jesus (God's son) died for. The penalty for sin (doing things short of perfect) is death. Hell. Not being allowed into a perfect heaven.  Jesus claims in the bible to be the living God, the son of God, and He claims to die for our sins. He claimed that He came to live among us to take all of our sins, all of our imperfections and take our resulting death (hell punishment) upon Himself. He died to absorb all of it for us. He thrust it upon Himself, God sacrificed His son, so we could live. God poured all of the judgement we deserve as imperfect beings on His son, therefore saving us.

Why you may say, does the world have to be so imperfect? Why does God not just fix it all? You have to know that it is not God's will that the world is like this. It is because He loves us that God has given people free will to choose how they want to live. He does not want us to live like robots under His spell. Because of the fact that Satan (a fallen angel) deceived the world and man to make choices outside God's plan, the world is not as it should be. The bible promises that bad things will happen. It promises that because of this, there will be bad people, bad situations, sickness, earthquakes and trauma etc, but it is not God causing it. God is the one that loves you so much it hurts. God is the one that pulled the switch on the train because it hurts His heart so bad to see you barrelling towards destruction. God is the one that is with you every step of the way even when you have turned your back on Him.

How, you may say do I know that this self proclaimed Jesus is the living God, God's son? Well, Jesus made many bold claims about being God in His time. He radically claimed to save the world and die for people's sins. He claimed that it was God's plan that He die for all sins. But the key is that He claimed that he would rise (come back to life) on the 3rd day. This people call the resurrection. It would be one thing to claim you are God and you are going to rise on the 3rd day (to prove you were actually God) and not do it. It would also be one thing to claim that you will take everyone's sins and then never rise again. But is is a whole different story when you claim to be God, you claim to die for everyone's sins so that they can live with God forever and then actually rise on the 3rd day to prove it. Without this resurrection, Jesus is just another false Messiah, false profit or cult member. But with this resurrection, one must think that maybe Jesus is the living God. Maybe God really does love me this much. Maybe God really does want to restore the world to a perfect heaven with me in it. Maybe, just maybe everything he said and did was the truth. Jesus tells us that upon believing that He is the living God, and upon accepting that He died for you and that by deciding to live your life out of eternal gratitude to Him, you will enter heaven, perfectly. There is not other way in. None.

Christianity (Jesus followers) is not a religion (a set of rules and regulations to follow). It is a faith that what God talks about in the bible is the truth. It is a life of gratitude for what Jesus has done for us and a way of following Him as a compassionate loving father.

Now what? Where do we go from here? Is it worth looking into? Is it worth learning about this guy Jesus? Is it worth thinking about Easter as more than just Easter bunnies? You may say. No. It is not for me and that is your choice.

But what if Jesus' claims were actually true, what if he really did rise again, what if He really is God, what if He really does love you that much. What if God does not want you to spend eternity in hell? What if God really did pull the switch and let His son die to save you?  Are you willing to ignore Him?