We Can't Sneak Anything Past God

It is amazing how God uses different sources to confirm a message He wants us to get. Yesterday, (Tuesday, March 16) the scripture for The Upper Room devotional came from Psalm 139. The Psalm begins, “O Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away.” (Psalm 139:1-2; NRSV) In other words, God not only knows all our actions, God knows what we are thinking.

After reading The Upper Room devotional, I opened the Purpose Driven devotional. The title was “We can’t sneak anything past God.” It too was based on a Psalm; “My sins, O God, are not hidden from you; you know how foolish I have been.” (Psalm 69:5; Good News) In the devotional Rick Warren makes the statement: “Everything you think, everything you see, everything you do, everything you feel -- God knows all about it. He already knows all you've done wrong and He still loves you!”

There are probably some things in our lives that we wish God did not see. There are times when we’d just as soon God was not with us. But the truth is, our God is so big that he sees everything. “We can’t sneak anything past God.”

It’s because we cannot sneak anything past God that Jesus went to the cross. God does not simply overlook our sin. God does not close His eyes and pretend our sin is not there. God loves us so much that He died on the cross to deliver us from our sin. On the cross, Jesus did for us what we could have never done for ourselves. He died for our sins. That is how much God loves you and me. Knowing everything about us, God still loves us so much that He provided the way of salvation through Jesus Christ.

The worship experiences of Holy Week help us celebrate this great love of God that knows all about us and still loves us. The scriptures tell us that before Jesus entered Jerusalem in what we call the Palm Sunday Parade, He wept over the city. He loved the people so much and He knew that most of them did not return His love. He entered to the shouts of “Hosanna” knowing that the cross was before Him. Jesus must have known the mixture of heart that the crowd had. They wanted to believe He was the Messiah. But they were not ready to stake their life on Him. Still, Jesus entered Jerusalem in order to be the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

Palm Sunday is March 28. In addition to our three morning worship services, we will join with the Church Revived to offer a Community Easter Egg Hunt and Worship Without Walls. Help spread the word about these special opportunities that will be held at the Gardendale Civic Center Amphitheater.

Before Jesus went to the cross on what we call Good Friday, Jesus gathered to celebrate the Jewish Passover. It was during the celebration of the Passover Seder Meal that Jesus broke with some of the Jewish traditions to establish what we call Holy Communion. The Passover celebrated the deliverance God brought His people through the Passover Lambs. How appropriate for the Lamb of God who came to take away the sins of the world who take some of the symbols of that first Passover, the bread and the wine, and refocus them on Him.

We have the unique opportunity this year to have a Messianic Jewish Rabbi come to teach us about the Passover Seder. This will take the place of our Wednesday meal and classes on March 31. You will need to purchase a ticket for this experience, for the meal is part of the worship experience that night. NOTE the time for the Seder Meal on March 31st is 6:00 PM.

On Saturday of Holy Week we will have a Saturday evening Easter Celebration. Last year, we filled the gym for the 9:45 Easter Service. To make more room for guests on Easter morning, we are offering this additional Easter Celebration on Saturday, April 3, 6:30 PM. We hope some of our 8:30 Sunday School classes will decide to come to worship on Saturday night to make room both in the 9:45 service and the parking lot for guests on Easter morning. We do need some to come back on Sunday morning to serve as Parking Ushers, Greeters and Nursery Servants. Isn’t this a great situation to have?

This Sunday, we conclude our message series, “START Becoming the Good Samaritan.” We’ll look at the parable one more time to learn about how Jesus intends for us to live when he said, “Go and do likewise.” (Luke 10:37b; NRSV) The real question is; are you more aware of the needs of those around you and are you acting with compassion?



As always, your responses to these Reflections are welcome. You can email me at rguess@gmvumc.org.