Brian Castelli – With His Heart

I think God is always lining up events to teach us lessons or remind us of things we’re neglecting. Most of the time, I miss them. I’m too blind or preoccupied to notice them. But every so often, my eyes are open just long enough to see the confluence of two or three things in my life that add up to a lesson or a reminder. This is what happened to me on Sunday.

I have been reading a book by John Piper. In it, he sites Romans 3:25. The Holman Christian Standard Bible states the verse this way:

God presented Him as a propitiation through faith in His blood, to
demonstrate His righteousness, because in His restraint God passed over the
sins previously committed.

Propitiation means to substitute as an atonement for or to accept wrath in one’s place. It’s all about the way Jesus took our sins upon himself and paid the price for them. In the book, Piper states that until a person comes to the point at which he or she understands their sinfulness, their need for God, Christ has nothing to offer them. This was stream #1.

Stream #2 was named April. As the service drew to a close at church on Sunday, April came forward at the invitation time to present herself for membership in the church. April stood there at the front, and the pastor talked about how April had gotten saved just a few days before. He talked about how she had finally come to realize her need, that there was an empty place in her heart that needed to be filled, and that Jesus was the one who could fill it for her. As the pastor talked, April nodded and cried tears of joy. It was a touching moment.

So the confluence of these two streams: I remember a day 20+ years ago when I cried, too. Like April, I had come to the point at which I recognized my need and invited Jesus to fill it. My life hasn’t been the same since. The gentle tug, the reminder this brought to me, is that I’ve taken Jesus for granted. I’ve been a Christian for so long that it’s easy for me to gloss over Jesus’ death and resurrection. Been there. Done that. Next subject. But God is telling we to wait a minute. Stop, rest, think. Maybe I need to be more like April. Maybe this is God’s way of gently reminding me that I need to appreciate Jesus again, that I need to take my praise of him up a notch.

Jesus died as my substitute. He died as your substitute, too. Amen.

As we headed to MFUGE the summer of 2007, I had Lou (Not his real name) in my sights. Although Lou, a 9th grader, put on a “good” show for us at church, I had it from a reliable source that his behavior in school was horrible. He’d sit in the back of the class and mouth off to the teacher. He’d yell at her to shut up. He’d regularly get sent out of the room where he’d stand and bang on the door to get back in. My plan was to try to get Lou one-on-one to have a discussion about his dual personality.

God got there first.

Lou was deeply affected by the Colored Marker sermon (see next post). That night, Lou spoke to our youth pastor and committed his life to Jesus Christ. We started to see changes in Lou that very night. He ended the week at camp by sharing a story of how he led a little boy to make the same commitment to Jesus that he had made.

Lou followed up his camp experience by coming forward at invitation time at our church last Sunday. He came forward to make his commitment public and to ask the church to hold him accountable.

I spoke to Lou on my way out of church on Sunday. I reminded him that he is a new creation – in every part of his life. He is now going to behave differently at home, school, and around his friends. He agreed with me.

Isn’t it just like God to already be working in an area that I thought needed him?