Friday, March 6, 2009

Afterdark


Many times the activities that occur after dark are pretty sketchy, especially those on a college campus. However, the event I attended on Monday night was not. It was actually uplifting to the student who came out. That's right, Afterdark came to Purdue.

Afterdark is a religious convocation that goes around to different universities in the country. After a concert by Dave Barnes, Joe White came out to tell us a story. This story was about a Roman cross maker from 2,000 years ago. He was instructed to build a cross for a man who called himself the Son of God. This man was even going to come back to life after He had died this painful death. The cross maker could not believe it, but he was just doing his job. He would wait and see what happened.

This cross that Joe White built was symbolic of the one Christ was crucified on so many years ago. He told us how our debt of sin had been paid on this cross. He even had a sheet of some of his sins that he had committed. He took it and nailed it to the cross for all to see. Then we were given the chance to do the same. People wrote their thoughts and feelings on index cards and brought them up to the stage. There were guys up there with hammers and nails to nail these cards up. The cross was packed. It was amazing to see all these things that were standing between the students and God be handed over to Him.

As I think about this, a verse from the hymn It Is Well with My Soul by Horatio Spafford and Philip Bliss comes to my mind.

My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

That is just what we did that night. Our sins were nailed to the cross, and Jesus had died to take these sins from us. The sins of the whole world were put on Jesus that day that He died. He knew it was coming, but He still chose to endure this punishment. Why? Because He loves us and cares so much about us. I know that there is no way for me to ever come close to repaying Him for this. All I can do is live completely for Him, and that is what I strive to do with my life.

1 comments:

swim guy said...

I would just like to start by saying that I am impressed. You've taken the oppurtunity to use a class assignment in order to open up and share some of your faith with others. That is a very dificult thing to do, and you did it very eloquently.

I believe you were able to get your point across without forcing it. You also were able to stay unbiased and present the events of the night. Well done.