Easter thoughts

Thougths before Easter...

After playing soccer in the park I went home, rested a little, and then had Grupo de Vida.  Felipe, a good friend and a faithful brother, made dinner for us.  We did not sure eat together, but we shared life.  Laughing, joking, and enjoying one another.  Afterwards we took turns sharing things that we are thankful for, things that we adore about God.  I sat SILENT.  I sat thinking about all my sin and all my failures.  I sat thinking about my frustrations with relationships and how I all to often maintain attitudes, which may be best described as ugly.  In those moments that I sat silents, as others shared about people coming to Christ, about how their family problems draw them closer to God, and about how God continues to provide for each one of them, an image came to my mind.  I remembered the time I came crying to my brother asking if I could wash his feet.  I remembered crying with my parents over my sins and failures, when light was shred upon them.  I remembered the cross, which my Lord DIED upon.  

I am an ugly boy.  I refuse to use the word man, because I do not see myself as a man.  I see myself as a wandering boy, confused and lost.  He does not know how to handle the emotions he feels, nor does he understand how to fight the battles in front of him.  So he sits scared.  He sits idol and scared in a corner hoping someone will see him.  Hoping someone will rescue him.  

The lesson that God continues to try and teach me, but my hard head does not seem to want to learn it, is the fact that I have great power.  I have the power to say no to sin, because I have died to it.  I have the power to transform lives, because God uses me daily.  I have the power to live, and live life to the fullest!  All too often I neglect the power that exists within me.  The Spirit, that raised Christ from the dead, lives in ME!  I can live without longing for something I do not have, because I have EVERYTHING I need for this life and the next.  A lesson I still have not yet fully learned.  I have not learned to tap into the power that already exists in me on a daily basis.  

I once believed that as humans it is impossible to live a holy life here on this Earth.  My opinion has begun to change.  I believe that we can be holy on this Earth.  (And, yes.  I am taking aobut before the return of Christ.)  “Be HOLY as I AM HOLY!”  We are commanded to be holy.  Living daily and completely in the power of the Spirit we can find holiness.  It is a grand challenge, but it is my challenge.  As a believer it is my goal!