Greetings to you all in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ. I have exciting news but it still makes me a little nervous too. I told you how I did my worship demonstration for class. Well now that it is over, my pastor decided it was time for me to start leading liturgy in church. So this Sunday, for the very first time ever in front of an actual congregation I will be leading Divine Service Setting Three. I am super excited to be doing it; however, I am also nervous. I am mostly nervous because we used Setting One for the demonstration, and I am using Setting Three in church. I am working through it every night this week and will go to the chapel here on campus to run through it for extra practice too. Please keep me in your prayers that I may serve my Lord well with my leading abilities.
Sunday was a great day. Church went well and I read the Old Testament and Epistle readings. Then for Sunday school I sat in the adult Bible Study. I imagine next year when James, the second year at our field work church, goes on vicarage, the adult Bible Study will be passed on to me. So while sitting in the class I did think of a few things I would like to add to try to improve both attendance and accomplishments of the class. I think James has those same things in mind, but he just isn't stepping up to do them for some reason. So maybe if I put them in as soon I start leading the class hopefully they will help. Then Sunday afternoon, after a short nap, Chris and I went and played basketball which was a blast. Then I did homework and went to bed.
Monday, I had my one class of Hermeneutics in the morning. Then I went back to bed until lunch when I had to work. I know I could have gotten some more reading done, but the bed just looked so comfortable that I couldn't pass it up. Then after work, I did some more homework until Chris came and got me to play basketball. I beat him twice one on one, but to his defense he is about four inches shorter than me and rebounds normally go my way. Then two other guys challenged us to two on two. They beat us the first game, but we came back and beat them the next two. The competitiveness of Grandpa Abbott lives on. It was fun but I was super tired after five games. Then I went and started drinking water because there was a blood drive on campus. It had been a while since I have had time to give blood, so I decided to give. I felt great and drank lots of extra water.
Last night, after playing so much basketball and giving blood, I was extra tired. So I went to bed around nine thirty which is extremely early for me. I slept right through a giant storm last night I guess. Everyone this morning was talking about how it woke them up and was rattling the windows. I never heard any of it. One other thing about the weather, sadly enough all the snow is gone again. It was warm and sunny both Sunday and Monday, so it all melted. Today it is chilly again, but not as chilly as in Iowa or Nebraska by the sounds of it.
My thought for the day comes from the blood drive yesterday. I had a really nice guy from the blood drive who took me through the whole process. He picked out the vein he wanted to hit, and then stuck the needle in and as easy as that my blood was flowing from my body into the plastic bag. I told him he must be a pro because most of the time they have trouble finding my veins, let alone hitting them with the needle. I have had several experiences where it takes two or three sticks before they get a successful one. He laughed and said, “Well good I can open my eyes now.” That is just one example of the awesome sense of humor he had. However, my friend Stein who was on the bed beside me and I were timing ourselves to see who could fill their pint bag the fastest. This is a contest I have never lost, and I beat him by almost a minute yesterday. It took me just barely over six minutes to pump out a pint of blood. My record time is four and a half minutes. The number one slogan all blood banks use is that a pint of blood can save up to three lives. So I started thinking about this. Three people could possibly have their lives saved because I sat in a chair for six minutes donating a pint of my blood. It seems like a very small sacrifice to make to save even one life. Then it got me thinking about the blood of Christ and the sacrifice He made. My pint of blood has the possibility of saving one to three earthly lives. The blood of Christ has the possibility of saving EVERY life eternally. When you think about it that way, Christ’s sacrifice seems pretty small. One man died once, and is now able to save EVERY life eternally. Now the reason I keep saying EVERY life is not because I am an universalist, but because Christ died for the sins of every human being, both believers and non-believers, for all times. But stop and really think about it, one death to save billions or even trillions of lives. However, when you stop and think about the sacrifice from Christ’s point of view, it is a huge sacrifice. He was in Heaven living where everything is perfect and reigning as King. Then He had to leave Heaven, take on human flesh and be born of a human. Live a life on this sinful earth, being tempted by the Devil, constantly avoiding those who wanted to kill Him, and try to teach the disciples and other “stupid sheep.” He had a hard life, a frustrating life, and had to live the entire thing without ever sinning. Then after he accomplishes this lifetime of temptations and frustrations without ever once sinning, instead of being rewarded, He is punished by a terrible, painful death. He had done exactly what no human being could ever do, He lived the perfect life here on earth, and for it He got to be the perfect sacrifice. He knew he would be beaten, spit on, mocked, and hung on a cross to die. And yet He went through with all of it because He knew it was the only way to restore the relationship between us humans and His Father. When you stop and think about it from Christ’s view it was certainly more than just one man’s death. It was a huge sacrifice and yet He did it for us. Then if you look at it from the Father’s view, it is even an even bigger sacrifice. God the Father, who knew it was our fault that our relationship with Him was ruined, sent His Son to earth, with the command that He must be the perfect sacrifice. He knew the pain His Son would suffer; He knew the same people He was trying to save would kill His Son. And yet He still sent His one and ONLY Son, the same Son who at His baptism directly said, “You are my Son, with You I am well pleased.” He loved His Son, and yet knew it was the only price that could ever restore the relationship with His creation. Then as Jesus hung on the cross with every sin of every human being of every time, that immeasurable amount of pure sin filling Christ as He was nailed to that cross, the Father who cannot stand sin, could not even bare to look at His Son. The death of His Son was His plan of salvation, His command, and yet when His Son, His beloved Son, was obedient and obeyed His command to the point of death, our Father could not bear the sight of His Son defeating sin, death, and the Devil once and for all. That one death seems anything but a small sacrifice when you look at it from either one or both of those points of view. So I will continue to donate six minutes of my time and one pint of my blood when I can to help my neighbor who needs blood, but I will also continue to tell others about my God and my Lord who made the largest sacrifice ever known to us, for our sake, and all because He loves us. All Praise be to Him who loves us enough to pay the ultimate price for us, in order to still have a relationship with us.
Dear Heavenly Father,
You are the one who should have condemned us to Hell when we fell as a race. We, Your sinful disobedient creatures, deserve nothing more than Your wrath and punishment. However, by Your grace and mercy alone, You commanded Your one and only Son to die. You commanded Your Son to be the Savior that would and did restore our relationship with You. We thank You for this. We thank You for Your grace and mercy. We also pray that You allow us to always be a witness to that same love You showed us and continue to show us, so that all may know You. We pray this in the same name of our Savior who was obedient to Your command, even obedient to the point of His death, Jesus Christ. Amen.
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