The entry that prompted it all...

So here is an excerpt of a journal entry I wrote back in March 6 of this year...It actually came suddenly while I journaled about other things... The image of Jesus hanging on the cross popped into my head and it prompted me to write this:

"Jesus,  you outstretched your arms... you died naked and vulnerable and beaten... but there was more than you dying in this way... You loved outstretched, loved vulnerably and naked... bleeding your love and pouring it out... is this not the kind of love you have called us to pour out onto one another and to the world..."

"Yet Jesus you turned the other cheek... how could I not be moved... how could your bride not rise up?  Awaken oh sleeping bride... it is your time to take your place next to your groom"

We always talk about how much Jesus loved us... How the cross was God's demonstration of His love for us... There is even a cheesy "joke" about it... "How much does Jesus love you?" "This much" (with arms outstretched)

But I don't ever recall hearing the cross as an example of how we are to love one another and the world...  And that just blew my mind that day... To love as Jesus did... yes we all know this... but to love as demonstrated on the cross?  That just seems to take it to another level.  I mean who can really love like that?  To be that exposed?  That's foolishness in this world's eyes...

Yet Jesus said, "A new command I give you: Love one another.  As I have loved you, so you must love one another.  By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." ~John 13:34-35

When you ponder on what Jesus did on the cross... Doesn't it make you want to just live it out?  To imagine the one who deserved it the least carrying the sin and shame of the world...all those that were there and yet to be... How could it not prompt the heart of those that love Jesus to do the same... There is something very passionate, intimate, and speaks to the depths of our souls...

Man that's just crazy awesome... we have the privilege and the honor... Jesus trusts us with that kind of responsibility (not without help of course. :)

Amazing...

How it all came to be...

encourage | in courage

A few months back I wrote an email to a friend sharing part of my devotional time and something I felt the Lord had revealed...  after replying back she strongly urged me to start writing devotionals or at least to put my stuff out there...

I'm not a writer by any means even though I have a strange affinity for words... (although secretly I've always wanted to write a book since I was young... no earthly clue what I would actually write about other than thinking it would be cool to be an author. :)

So here we go... and thus begins the journey... :)