You know those days when you just run and gun, getting as much stuff done as possible? When you start working after breakfast, you work straight through lunch, and keep working until after supper? Then, when you do have time to stop and stare, you just eat some fast food to tide you over, because you either need to go to bed or get back to work. Have you had those days?
Luckily, things haven't been that bad. But things have been a little busy these past couple weeks. I meant to do an update this past monday, and I wrote down some stuff, but never posted it. Now it is Thursday, and I still haven't gotten to it, nor will I post an in-depth update right now. Maybe I will this weekend. We are headed to a retreat for missionaries in this part of Europe. It should be pretty good. I know everyone could use a break from english camp preparations. Mostly we have been hard at work doing that, but we have found time to keep up with most of the activities the team here does throughout the week- church, teaching english, frisbee with the teens, English Evenings, etc. It has been busy, but fun, and I will try my best to get you a more in-depth view of what we do here.
But for now, I will leave you with a little bit of food...
Sunday I got to do the Communion thoughts/ lesson for
church. I want to share with you the
condensed version, to leave you to contemplate for the week.
Romans 6:15-18
“What
then? Shall we sin because we are not
under law but under grace? By no
means! Don’t you know that when you
offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one
whom you obey- whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to
obedience, which leads to righteousness?
But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you
wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. You have been set free from sin and have
become slaves to righteousness.”
I Corinthians 6:19-20
“Do you not
know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you
have received from God? You are not your
own; you were bought at a price.
Therefore honor God with your body.”
Genesis 3:14-15
“So the
LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, ‘Cursed are you
above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat
dust all the days of your life. And I
will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers;
he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.’””
Matthew 27:50
“And when
Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit.”
Spiritually speaking, we are slaves
to either sin or obedience. We have a
choice- we can either obey God or we can sin.
We cannot get away from that.
Unfortunately, the first time we sinned we became slaves to sin. But that is not what God created us to
be. He created us to be with Him, to
have a relationship with Him, to serve Him.
He loves us! So He bought us,
each and every one. He paid the price so
that we were not forced to be slaves to sin, we could willingly become slaves
to obedience.
And this
has always been the plan. Look at
Genesis- right after Adam and Eve sin, God talks to them and the serpent. Right after the very first sin, God tells the
serpent, Satan, that the offspring of Eve, Jesus, would crush his head. Jesus would conquer Satan. We would be freed from our bondage. From then on, from Genesis 3:16 to Matthew
27:49, God is building up to Matthew 27:50- Jesus dying. Jesus died, paying the price so that we may
become, not just slaves to obedience, but sons of God, children of God.
I think
that our worth as people, as spiritual commodities, is based on how much God or
Satan is willing to pay for us. God
thinks we are worth His own life. He is
so sure that we are worth His life, that He gave His life. No matter what happens in this life, no
matter how many times we are beaten down by others, no matter how many times we
are rejected, unsuccessful, or unloved by our peers, we are still worth the
life of God. Nothing can take that away
from us, and nothing ever will.
Jesus died so that we could be free from sin, so we might
spend eternity with Him and our Father in heaven. This week, I would encourage you to remember
how much you mean to God, and what that means for the way you live your life.
God bless,
John Coffey
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