August 1st: A new life

Team Praha 2011.Krkonose hike.testimony ---------8/1/11

The Czech countryside is beautiful, you guys have been great to hang with and talk with this week, and the hiking was excellent. But none of these things are why I and the rest of the Americans (and the Brit!) are here this week. Each of us worked for and spent tens of thousands of crowns to come here--to spread life-changing good news. We are here in the Czech Republic because we love you guys, and to lead you all to the only path to heaven (for Jesus is the Way), to speak the truth in love (for Jesus is the Truth), and to show you new lives, transformed by Jesus, who is Life.

So I'd like to share a little bit about myself, and how Jesus saved me.

As is the case, purely statistically, for many of you, I grew up with only one parent--a broken home. Because of this, even now I find it difficult to love and honor my father: a man I scarcely know. I always knew something was wrong, though, and I'm sure all of you can relate--it is almost built into our minds to know when something is wrong in a relationship. Someone was missing. Little did I know that I needed God, our heavenly Father, more than I needed a physical father. I'd like to read (printed below) a few Bible verses that brought me to this conclusion of my need for a Savior.

Isaiah 53:3-8
"He was despised and rejected of 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.

From arrest and judgment he was taken away.

Yet who of his generation considered
that he was cut off from the land of the living
for the transgression of my people,
for whom the blow was due?"

Psalm 51 (NIV1984)

I John 1:8-9
"If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness."

Romans 5:8
"But God demonstrates His love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

John 3:16-18
"For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but he who does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son."

Psalm 103:8-13
"The LORD is compassionate and gracious,
slow to anger, abounding in love.
He will not always accuse,
nor will He harbor His anger forever;
He does not treat us as our sins deserve
or repay us according to our iniquities.
For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is His love for those who fear Him;
as far as the east is from the west,
so far has He removed our transgressions from us.
As a father has compassion on His children,
so the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him.

All these passages from the Bible might not mean much, but they're all pretty important. The Bible reveals to us how desperately sinful we are, and how relentlessly loving God is. I have one more verse that's come to be the theme of my life, and addresses what we heard last night from Pastor Mueller on Jesus giving us new lives.

Galatians 2:20
"I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me."

So God can use even my lack of a father to show me how sweet it is to call Him "Dad." I'm just going to leave you with a simple question (and it's an American idiom, so you can impress your friends!)--

"Who's your daddy?"