Rebellion Reversed!

Emboldened Warriors of the Way, the Truth and the Life!
Redeemed Rebels Now in the Lord’s Army!

Then Paul answered, Why are you weeping and breaking my heart? I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. Acts 20: 13

I have been thinking about how to preach to my colleagues.
Lately when I go on my walks, I argue out the Old Testament in my head, trying to make the most powerful argument to them, that they would finally believe.
I have written many, many, many documents on this, to make the arguments, believing that If I did this in faith, that God would loose these truths to them.

You see many are Jewish, though some are Muslim and others atheists.

So each day on my walk, I pray and sing to Jesus and start making these arguments over and over and over again, proving the Messiah through the Tanakh, hoping, praying and looking for opportunities to share this wisdom.

While thinking about Jesus and how He fulfilled the foreshadowed temple sacrifice by Aaron (see Messiah Revealed: Fruit of Faith training) on a walk this week, God just opened my heart and mind about the man that Jesus replaced, died instead of.

The exchange was with a man who had murdered someone.
But more so…
He was a rebel.
He had rebelled against the government.

And it hit me.
Jesus died in replace of us, for our rebellion.

I have always thought about Jesus died to save me from Adam Eve’s sin.
Because they did give us this sin condition, this diseased heart.
I have always thought about how He needed to die to reconnect me to God again.
I have always thought about how He needed to die to save all mankind.
And as I have gotten older, I have seen the sinfulness in me, that Jesus had to die to pay for, to save me from.

But I never thought about the fact this man that Jesus was literally was replacing, was a rebel.
That we could be or are or were seen by God as rebels, against Him.
For I was told once I’m freakishly obedient.
But that’s man’s standard.

satan, who was leading this world by his ways, turned this world upside down, the exact opposite of what God wanted and planned for us.

Sometimes I think about this in simple terms.
How we read left to right on this side of the world.
Where those of Jesus’s time, and location, read right to left.
Simple upside down, subtle but opposite of what God had planned for people.
That satan really did everything he could to turn us away from God’s beautiful life-giving ways.

So rebellion was a state we lived in, not intentionally so.
But by our birth.

That each action we did was in rebellion against our Father.
And like me, those who have known God all our lives, and even did willful conscious rebellion at times, against Him, that this was indeed paid for.

That I am constantly amazed the more I really see myself, the more gratitude I find for Jesus, for all that He knew I would do, and still paid for it, for me, still made a way for me, still loved me, wanted me, literally came down to die for me.

And I think that is what Paul gets above.
That as we know, really, really, really know, what Jesus did for us, we become as fervent and as bold, saying even if I die, I’m going to obey Him and tell every last person about Him and much as frequently as I am able.

May we know that we know that we know our rebellion was paid for on the cross.

May we know that we know that we know Jesus offers this freedom, this redemption to anyone and everyone.

May we know that we know that we know once we receive this already paid for gift, we are now covered with His obedience.

May knowing that we know that we know this, empower us to walk as boldly as Paul declares, as boldly as all the apostles did, and as boldly as Jesus did, that everyone around us here and believe.

love kathlynn