Love and Sacrifice

It is Easter time and I can feel the presence and power of God around me and with me. It was especially strong in church today and I felt so happy and so alive. This is the time that we are all reminded of God's great love for us and His manifestation of that love in the form of The Great Sacrifice. While, as usual, my feelings don't strictly follow traditional Christian doctrine, I do believe that Jesus is the Son of God and that His special mission here on Earth as one of us was to challenge our perceptions about God, religion and the nature of our lives in general.

One of our (my) perceptions throughout the old testament of the Bible was of a punishing, vengeful, jealous God who had a lot of hoops to jump through in order to gain His acceptance and very few found themselves worthy. Jesus came and shook all that up and told us that God is love, and since God is everything, love is everything. The most important thing in the world is to love the Lord God with all your heart and second only to that is to love your neighbors as yourself. Jesus, as God's Son, let us all know that God loves us THAT MUCH, that he would sacrifice His child to show us how much He loves us.

I believe that Jesus showed us that it is possible to have a personal relationship with God. Not an Almighty Creator of the Universe Bow At Your Feet relationship, but a friend to friend, brother to brother, father to son, mother to daughter kind of everyday living relationship. Jesus taught us that God has put everything we want and need at our disposal if we simply have faith in Him and His true love for us. Jesus says if a son asks his father for an egg would the father give him a snake instead? Of course not! God wants us to live in abundance and has made all things possible through Him if we only believe, believe with the innocent faith of a little child.

Jesus also taught us that, while it may sound paradoxical, true abundance and riches and fulfilment come from sacrifice and service. When we give truly and completely of ourselves in an attitude of servitude, all that we could possibly want or need comes pouring into our lives. Often we find that it is ALL in the giving that provides our joy and receiving "things" is not such a big deal anymore. So, while on the one hand, the pain and suffering that Jesus underwent on the cross for us was immeasurable and incomprehensible to us, for Jesus it was probably also one of the most joyous events in His life here as He was blessed with the opportunity to give fully of Himself as very few ever have or ever will.

It's not always easy to have faith that doing the hard stuff will ultimately bring us the most joy and fulfilment, and it is this lack of faith which is the only thing that separates us from God. This, Romans 14:23 says, is what we call sin; anything that does not come from faith. Jesus showed us the ultimate in faith and in this He was perfect. He showed us that He had total faith in God's ability to defy death and showed us that, like Him, we can all defy death through faith in God, by becoming a daily living sacrifice to the service and love of others, and live eternally in God's perfect love.