Friend of God

I have to mention the MasterLife Bible study again. Every week there is something that really resonates with me. In the week about fellowship with other believers, it talks about friendship.

"'As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.'" John 15:9, 12-13

The Bible study says, "At the heart of friendship is the willingness to lay down one's life if necessary...Jesus laid down His life for others, and later, some of His disciples did, too."

The song I Am A Friend Of God came to mind. You know, "I am a friend of God. I am a friend of God. I am a friend of God. He calls me friend." I thought if we dare to call ourselves friends of God we must be willing to lay our life down for Him as He did for us and as His disciples did for Him. 

Then on April 6, I read in the devotional My Utmost for His Highest the following: "The heart of salvation is the Cross of Christ. The reason salvation is so easy to obtain is that is cost God so much."

I love when God works everything together to really drive home a message. Between those two things and the passage of Scripture I've been memorizing, Isaiah 52:13-53:12, I am reminded of and have become increasingly grateful for the sacrifice Christ made. He took my sin and died in my place so that I may know Him and have a relationship with Him and the promise of eternity with Him. 

See, my servant will act wisely,
he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted.
Just as there were many who were appalled at him-
his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man

and his form marred beyond human likeness-
so will he sprinkle many nations,
and kings will shut their mouths because of him.
For what they were not told, they will see,
and what they have not heard, they will understand.

Who has believed out message
and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.
Like one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Surely he took up our infirmities
and carried our sorrows,
yet we considered him stricken by God,
smitten by him, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
We all, like sheep have gone astray,
each of us has turned to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed and afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before her shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.
By oppression and judgement he was taken away.
And who can speak of his descendants?
For he was cut off from the land of the living;
for the transgression of my people he was stricken.
He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
and with the rich in his death,
though he had done no violence,
nor was any deceit in his mouth.

Yet it was the Lord's will to crush him
and cause him to suffer,
and though the Lord makes his life a guilt offering,
he will see his offspring and prolong his days,
and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.
After the suffering of his soul,
he will see the light of life and be satisfied;
by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many,
and he will bear their iniquities.
Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,
and he will divide the spoils with the strong,
because he poured out his life unto death,
and was numbered with the transgressors.
For he bore the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors.

Isaiah 52:13- 53:12

A Season of Loss

The past few months have been a season of loss. Not all the losses have been death. There have been losses, or almost losses would be a more accurate description, that did not have the finality that death has.

First, there was what I thought was the loss of some friendships. Never having had real problems with friendships before I didn't know to handle this. All I knew was there were some friendships that were simply becoming exhausting. I thought I would be kind of lost without these friendships but didn't know if they were worth the toil. I'm thankful I didn't completely give up.  There was prayer. I know I prayed about whether to keep working at the friendship or let it go. Things were talked out. In the end, there were no friendships lost, and I think because of everything they have been made even better. They might occasionally take a little more work, but I think that helps to keep them open and honest.

Then there have been the deaths. There was the loss at Pediatria. Then there was the loss, March 19, of a long time classmate (2nd-12th grade), Anthony. I was in class on Wednesday afternoon (March 20) and decided to take a peek at Facebook. Mistake. That's when I saw someone posted that he had passed, taken his own life. Shock. Not that there are necessarily people I would expect that from, but he is someone nobody would have expected that from. He was always a cheerful guy. In my mind he'll always be the chubby, bashful, humble guy that I knew him as for so many years. Our senior year of high school though he came back from the summer looking like a totally different guy! He didn't just lose weight but was in shape. It was incredible and hard to believe it was still him. It didn't change who he really was though. He was still the same nice guy who was voted Most Courteous (just as he was in 8th grade!).

As I wondered what good could come from Anthony's death, I began to look through my old yearbooks. Sure enough God answered my wondering. Way back in elementary school, in his yearbook photo, he was rocking a WWJD tshirt. And on his senior page he quotes Mark 9:23, "All things are possible, to him that believes." He also gives the Lord credit for taking part in who he is today, "developing my spirit in holiness, preparing for a purpose chosen by God...Loving God above all else"

When I originally began this post a few weeks ago it was because I had a strange dream. I dreamt I was talking with Anthony, and he was upset about something. Someone asked a question or made a comment, and he said his friend killed himself. I don't know how to take a dream like that. I don't read into dreams having meanings or anything but still I just don't about that one.

Death is a hard thing to deal with. While I may not have been super close to either of these people their losses still affected me. Having friends who have lost parents, I don't know how they have handled it. I can't even imagine it and pray I won't have to experience losing someone so close anytime soon. I've had enough deaths for now. Death doesn't care though and "death has no age."



I take comfort in the fact that death is not my end. Something greater awaits me, eternity with my Savior, my Holy Savior. "Holy is the cry that is even now ringing in the heavens to describe Him...He's the God whose holiness is chanted about from the Seraphim even as we speak." I'll never forget reading that in the Bible study Holy Vocabulary by Michael Kelley. As an unsung verse of my favorite hymn, It Is Well With My Soul, says, "The sky, not the grave, is our goal." If you know Christ, how can you not rejoice in that!? I know faith is about way more than warm, fuzzy feelings but I inwardly swell with joy and comfort at that fact, "the sky, not the grave, is our goal." I pray my life can echo Paul's when he said in Philippians 1:21 "For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain."

One final note, as I previously began this post I just made brief notes in it. One was that Judy, an elephant from the zoo also died recently. It's like the zoo is not complete without her. And now Bozie doesn't have her friend. Yes, I know the elephants by name. Another note I made simply said, "basketball." If anyone has any clue why I made a note of basketball in this post, please let me know.