"I'm coming for you."
This phrase. I haven't been able to stop thinking about it since Easter Sunday. I was sitting in church and we were singing a song about grace and freedom and power... all things that I believe we receive through Jesus; all things I have experienced first hand. Easter Sunday is a day to celebrate Jesus raising from the dead and conquering the grave. Power? Are you kidding? He redefined power. He was beaten so badly he barely resembled a human. The soldiers were so proud of themselves... like "yeah, we really delivered on that guy." They wrap him up, put him in a tomb, roll a giant stone in front of it and wash their hands. It's finished. So they think.
Three days later, the tomb is empty. No sign of the once broken body. Then all at once his friends are inside having a meeting and Jesus appears... fully human. They were there when he was beaten to death... they saw him hanging on that cross. They saw him be wrapped up and placed in that tomb. There was no possible way he could be standing in front of them, but he was. Thomas wasn't there, but he quickly caught wind of the meeting. He couldn't believe it, literally. He said, "I won't believe it until I see him with my own eyes; until I touch the scars in his hands and on his side."
Here's the plot twist. Jesus could have said, "you have little faith." It was not required of Jesus to meet Thomas and grant him his request. Regardless of if Thomas had ever seen Jesus again in real life, the truth would have remained the same. Jesus still was raised from the dead and walking among his people. But He did it anyway. He knew that Thomas needed to see him, and Thomas was that important to him. If Thomas needed to touch his scars, then Jesus was going to find him and show him his scars....
As hopeful as that story is, my heart was broken and heavy. I stood in a room with hundreds of other people, all free to go to church and worship our living God... all people who had heard the name of Jesus and were never persecuted for uttering his name. My mind flashes to the women in Thailand. To the girls in Cambodia, Guatemala, Los Angeles, Oklahoma City. We celebrate Easter as a day that we became More than Conquerors in Christ Jesus. We celebrate a day when we became victorious. But these women have no idea... they are held captive day in and day out and their bodies and psyches are beaten down until they submit to their captors. I began to pray for them... really pray for them... that jail cells would fly open the same way they did for Paul and Silas; that their captors would fall asleep so they could escape; that their governments would rise up on their behalf; that they would have supernatural strength and boldness to run; that they would find a safe haven, a place of protection; that their location would be hidden from their predators but revealed to their rescuers. I asked God, "why do I get to celebrate your victory, your redemption... as they live through hell?" and then I heard that phrase....
"I'm coming for them."
Thailand. Why am I going? I'm going to be the rescuer. I'm going because Jesus is coming for them, and I am the one that will physically be there for Him. My friend Jamie says, "We often ask God to show up. We pray prayers of rescue. Perhaps God would ask us to be that rescue, to be his body, to move for things that matter." I believe that. We must be the rescuers... to go into the places where no one else will go, because those girls were created and brought for a price and their waiting for Jesus to show up to show them the scars he took for each of them.
Chances are you aren't being held captive in cave, or a jail cell or a brothel. But you might be held captive by an addiction, or a fear, or a job title, or a broken heart, or a divorce, or a death or a disease. You can't escape the circumstance and you have no idea how to get out... You've given up hope because it feels like you're running backwards or sinking in quick sand. I've been where you are. You're not alone in that, and you won't be there forever.
We often hear the words, "come to me, and I will give your rest." or "draw near to God, and he will draw near to you." but the good news is that in our weakness, when we don't have the strength to even draw near to him... when we don't know how to... He comes looking for us.
It's a furious pursuit. He won't stop until he gets us, and once He does He will turn us into the rescuers.
He's coming for you.
This phrase. I haven't been able to stop thinking about it since Easter Sunday. I was sitting in church and we were singing a song about grace and freedom and power... all things that I believe we receive through Jesus; all things I have experienced first hand. Easter Sunday is a day to celebrate Jesus raising from the dead and conquering the grave. Power? Are you kidding? He redefined power. He was beaten so badly he barely resembled a human. The soldiers were so proud of themselves... like "yeah, we really delivered on that guy." They wrap him up, put him in a tomb, roll a giant stone in front of it and wash their hands. It's finished. So they think.
Three days later, the tomb is empty. No sign of the once broken body. Then all at once his friends are inside having a meeting and Jesus appears... fully human. They were there when he was beaten to death... they saw him hanging on that cross. They saw him be wrapped up and placed in that tomb. There was no possible way he could be standing in front of them, but he was. Thomas wasn't there, but he quickly caught wind of the meeting. He couldn't believe it, literally. He said, "I won't believe it until I see him with my own eyes; until I touch the scars in his hands and on his side."
Here's the plot twist. Jesus could have said, "you have little faith." It was not required of Jesus to meet Thomas and grant him his request. Regardless of if Thomas had ever seen Jesus again in real life, the truth would have remained the same. Jesus still was raised from the dead and walking among his people. But He did it anyway. He knew that Thomas needed to see him, and Thomas was that important to him. If Thomas needed to touch his scars, then Jesus was going to find him and show him his scars....
As hopeful as that story is, my heart was broken and heavy. I stood in a room with hundreds of other people, all free to go to church and worship our living God... all people who had heard the name of Jesus and were never persecuted for uttering his name. My mind flashes to the women in Thailand. To the girls in Cambodia, Guatemala, Los Angeles, Oklahoma City. We celebrate Easter as a day that we became More than Conquerors in Christ Jesus. We celebrate a day when we became victorious. But these women have no idea... they are held captive day in and day out and their bodies and psyches are beaten down until they submit to their captors. I began to pray for them... really pray for them... that jail cells would fly open the same way they did for Paul and Silas; that their captors would fall asleep so they could escape; that their governments would rise up on their behalf; that they would have supernatural strength and boldness to run; that they would find a safe haven, a place of protection; that their location would be hidden from their predators but revealed to their rescuers. I asked God, "why do I get to celebrate your victory, your redemption... as they live through hell?" and then I heard that phrase....
"I'm coming for them."
Thailand. Why am I going? I'm going to be the rescuer. I'm going because Jesus is coming for them, and I am the one that will physically be there for Him. My friend Jamie says, "We often ask God to show up. We pray prayers of rescue. Perhaps God would ask us to be that rescue, to be his body, to move for things that matter." I believe that. We must be the rescuers... to go into the places where no one else will go, because those girls were created and brought for a price and their waiting for Jesus to show up to show them the scars he took for each of them.
Chances are you aren't being held captive in cave, or a jail cell or a brothel. But you might be held captive by an addiction, or a fear, or a job title, or a broken heart, or a divorce, or a death or a disease. You can't escape the circumstance and you have no idea how to get out... You've given up hope because it feels like you're running backwards or sinking in quick sand. I've been where you are. You're not alone in that, and you won't be there forever.
We often hear the words, "come to me, and I will give your rest." or "draw near to God, and he will draw near to you." but the good news is that in our weakness, when we don't have the strength to even draw near to him... when we don't know how to... He comes looking for us.
It's a furious pursuit. He won't stop until he gets us, and once He does He will turn us into the rescuers.
He's coming for you.
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