REDEMPTION brings CONNECTION

My fast started off with a word... CONNECTION. When Jesus died on the cross for our sins He did a lot of things... I wanted to know more about these things. And so He has been teaching me.

As I embarked on this 40 day pilgrimage into the full understanding of just what Jesus wrote into my life when He blotted out my transgressions, I agreed that I would allow God to take me wherever He chose... and guide me in any way.

So why was connection the word for my first week? What did it have to do with me? (the rock)

The word connection, for starters, has many implications. It implies things that are joined... in life many things have connections... and the further I go through it, I struggle to find anything that doesn't have some kind of connection. Thoughts, ideas, lives, people, nature, God. All connected somehow.

So what was the connection that I had through the cross?

God showed me all week that I was connected to Him! I was part of His Kingdom... His family!! I am a part of Christ because of His sacrifice. It is because I am connected to Him that I can do anything!

"I am the vine; you are the branches (connected). If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart (disconnected) from me you can do nothing. (Check this out!) If anyone does NOT remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples." John 15:5-8 [My additions for emphasis in parentheses or caps.]

Can I just say "!!!!!!!!!!!!!".

Ok so... connected is not just a gift but a REQUIREMENT! He binds us so closely to Himself in His sacrifice that would bring us redemption, that we actually must remain connected to Him. And if we do... "[you] will bear much fruit," and you may, "ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you."

We have all known those unanswered prayers in our lives. Why does Christ say this then? Because when we are that connected, so in tune with our Savior and our Maker, the Holy Spirit will direct us what to ask! When we are completely connected with Jesus, we want what He wants for our lives... we desire His desires. This week I felt most connected to my God and Savior when I was trusting Him and asking and believing in Him to supply the Sun and the Water and the Miracle Grow that would make my branch able to bear the fruit I would offer Him up that day.

Then Jesus reveals something else that will come of His death and through the power of His resurrection in His prayer on the Gethsemane. "My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one; I in them and You in Me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me." John17:20-23 [Italics added for emphasis.]

So not only are we a part of God and a branch from the vine of Jesus, but Christ also unites us all to each other! That we would all be ONE! With Him and the Father! And for what purpose? Why does He connect us all to each other, to Himself, to the Father? "...to let the world know that you sent me and have LOVED them, even as you have LOVED ME!"

"The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ." 1 Corinthians 12:12

"...God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it." 1 Corinthians 12:24-26 [Italics added for emphasis.]

All believers are connected in one body! And totally undivided! No break in the connection. All parts of that body are equally as valuable and necessary to the whole.

I had a recurring thought this week that brought me much peace and thankfulness. When I am walking through something, because God has made us all one body that cares for each other and feels what each other feels, God has given us the ability to reach out to one another and pray for one another. So many times this week, and throughout the last month of my life, and the last couple years of my life for that matter, I have been blessed with the realization that the connected body of Christ rejoices with me when I rejoice and hurts with me when I hurt and lifts me up to the Great Healer, Jesus Christ. And I too am blessed with the same connection to their lives. Through Christ I am blessed with a whole new family... brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers that show me the fullness of those relationships through Jesus Himself.

But there is a connection beyond just believers. The connection described when Jesus says that He wants the whole world to know that they are loved by the Father!

As I was processing connection with Julie one night. I was trying desperately to describe this feeling I kept getting when I was walking fully in the confidence that comes from trusting God. "It's like everybody is instant family. There are no formalities. You see people differently... not so scary. You see yourself differently with them. I can't explain it." She thought of something from a TV show about a group of people on a plane that hardly interact with each other or talk or care about one another. Then, the unthinkable occurs, a disaster of some sort, and suddenly this group of people is banding together, worrying for strangers, caring for one another. It took some sort of crisis to get these people to come together.

And it hit me! That is the feeling that comes over me. The realization that there is something more important than possible rejection or hurt from a wounded world of people... we are all in the midst of the same crisis! We are self destructive! And we are ALL in need of a Savior! Without Christ we are doomed. Like the vine that isn't connected will be cast aside and burned! That suddenly becomes clear to me when I am trusting in God. His heart is more important than mine. Mine worries about me. His worries about being separated from His children.

We are all connected by God's heart, that beats wildly with unexplainable LOVE and COMPASSION for every single person.