Jehovah Jireh

I made it back to NYC! This time, I'm here as student staff, so my role is partially the same, but also different. I'll be leading a Bible study this year and I'm discipling two girls. I'm really looking forward to seeing how God is going to move in the City, in my team, and in myself as well!

The road to New York City hasn't been a nicely paved one. There have been many obstacles, but God has taught me a lot about His provision through the whole process. I had been looking for a job for over a year, but there wasn't really anything that fit in my schedule. I decided to move off campus for the upcoming school year and really needed to start working to save up for bills in the future, so being jobless was no longer be an option. Miraculously, God provided the perfect job. It gives me money to pay future bills, gets me experience in my field of study, provides a place to co-op, and also gets me more in contact with non-believers. Also, getting the job really solidified my plans of going to New York. I would have had to have worked during the summer, but OfficeMax let me take off for 4 weeks. Praise God!

Raising support for the trip was another issue for me for a long time. I had to raise around $4,000 and it just wasn't really coming in. So, here I am, one week before I leave, still needing about half, and not knowing what I'm going to do. That day, I realize that I hadn't really been using the best resource I can get my hands on: prayer. I prayed with full assurance that God knew what He was doing and that He would provide for me what I needed. Within the next couple days I received almost the full amount of what I needed and by the time I left for Project, I had the whole amount. It was insane.

Last year during one of our meetings here in New York, we did a study on different names of God--one being Jehovah Jireh, which means the Lord will provide. It really caught my attention for whatever reason and has just stuck with me since then. Over the past year, I've really seen His sovereign hand at work providing for me and others around me. It's truly amazing.

So, I say all that to say this: I canNOT wait to see how God provides for us while we're here in the City. I know He's up to something and I'm looking forward to finding out what that is.

This is My Story, This is My Song

"But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love that He had for us, made us alive with the Messiah even though we were dead in trespasses. By grace you are saved!"
 -Ephesians 2:4-5

From Death to Life on a Good Friday

For the past two years, God has really captivated me on Good Friday and I just can’t seem to get the scenes from the Passion of the Christ out of my head. Some would consider that a terrible thing, but I along with many others, know it’s a great thing.

To you, that may be a sickening thought. There’s nothing pretty about a man being beaten and forced to carry a heavy cross through a town and up a hill just to have people drive nails through his hands and feet. You’re completely right. There’s nothing pretty about it; it’s beautiful.

Perhaps that evoked another nauseous feeling. It’s only beautiful when you think of who Jesus was (and is) and who we are. Jesus is God (see the entire Bible for references). That’s a seemingly simple sentence, but it’s packed with more meaning than I can describe. Jesus is perfect. He is worthy. True love.  He is the Way. The Truth. The Life. The Creator. Without blemish. He is the Good Shepherd—He will lay down His life for His sheep (us), even when wolves come, and He will leave 99 sheep to go find 1. He was dead… but He is alive.

We are sinful. Another small sentence packed with meaning. We not only turned our backs on God when He created us and gave us life and fellowship with Himself, but we ran as far as we could. We are in constant rebellion against God. We choose to be disobedient towards God—the One that wants the best for us, that gives us hope, and a future. We are shackled and enslaved to our sin. We are separated from God by a chasm that we could never jump or build a bridge over because of all of these things. We are in need of a Redeemer, a Savior.  We are dead.

Here’s why Jesus’ beating and crucifixion was (and still is) beautiful: despite our nasty shortcomings, God still loved us enough to send His Son from Heaven to live on Earth in human form—100% man and 100% God—among people that despised and persecuted Him. He lived the perfect life and we crucified Him, but that was God’s plan all along. The cross is the only thing that can bridge the chasm that our sin created between us and God.

God’s entire cup of wrath—righteously meant for us—was completely poured on Jesus at the cross, without a drop spared. Because of this, our fellowship with God is restored. He gives us life. He looks on us and sees us covered in Jesus’ blood and has adopted us into His family. Nothing will ever separate us from His family either. Not death, not life, angels nor rulers, things present nor things to come, powers, height, depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us. He gives us His Spirit to live inside us and continually make us more like Christ. That’s great news!

More great news: it's open to everyone. Not just people that look like they have their life together. Not just people that are nice and "live good lives." Not just the rich, not just the middle class, and not just the poor. Everyone. We have to respond to this, though. We must choose to either continue in our rebellious ways or admit that we are in need of a Savior to redeem us from our sins against God and believe that Christ’s grace and mercy is more than enough to cover all of our iniquities.

If you have admitted and believed this in your life, I would encourage you to not let yourself become desensitized to this message. You need it every day, every hour, every minute, every second.

If you have never admitted and believed this message, I would love to talk to you more about it! Please email me at:

Stephanie_Scrivne1@mymail.eku.edu

Happy Good Friday!