Jesus Wins!

 I always look forward to our annual ECR; English Church Retreat. It's always uplifting, reviving, and also a lot of fun. This year's speaker was Elizabeth Talbot from Jesus 101. She was awesome. She just had this way about making everything easy to understand, fascinating, sometimes funny, yet always profound. I enjoyed it so much, I would like to share with all of you some of the things she talked about that I found interesting.

During the first meeting, Elizabeth Talbot talked about Revelation 1:8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End..."
Okay, so most of us know this short, simple verse. If you dig a little deeper, you'll realize something beautiful. God says He's the Alpha and Omega. What does that really mean? Well, it's the first and last letters in the Greek alphabet. So, in other words Jesus is our A to Z. This is the cool part! We all have problems, right? I can guarantee you that your problem starts with a letter between A-Z. That's what's awesome!  He will always be there and He can help you overcome any problem you are having.
The verse also says He is the Beginning and the End. Meaning, God has been with and knows your past, He is here now, and He will continue to be with you in the future. We don't need to worry and ponder too much on the past because Jesus is the past! We don't need to worry about now because Jesus is the present. And we don't have to worry about what will happen in the future, because that's what Jesus is. It's amazing how powerful and beautiful this simple verse is. 

She also talked about how Jesus is our Goel. It's a Hebrew word which means 'kinsman redeemer.' The translation of this word is used many times in the Bible. For example, Boaz was Ruth and Naomi's goel. He was their nearest kinsman or kinsman redeemer.  In Bible times, the goel of the family had four roles: 
1.) Redeem a relative who had sold himself into slavery
2.) Redeem property that was given up by a poor relative.
3.) To avenge the blood of a murdered relative.
4.) To appear in a lawsuit as a helper for a relative to make sure that justice was down. 
We have someone who has done all that for us; Jesus. We are slaves to sin, but Jesus died on the cross that we might be redeemed. He has a place in Heaven ready for us because he avenged His own blood for us. I love this image of Jesus and am so glad He is our Goel! 

Something else the speaker said was very applicable to my life. We were all born with a purpose which means God has a plan for each and every one of our lives. Elizabeth Talbot is a pastor and she told us a story about how even when she was young, she loved to line up her dolls and preach to them. As soon as she said that, I remembered that I used to do something very similar! I would line up all my dolls (and Emily, my sister. Haha!) and teach them. I always loved to play teacher and read to my little sister. Since I was two years old, I told everyone I wanted to be a teacher.  I realized how many teaching opportunities God has provided for me in the last few years. I've taught in Tanzania, Summer school here in Taiwan, I help at Outdoor School with the upper grades and Adventures Club with the lower grades currently, and I’ve taught kids in lots of other small ways. When I heard her say that, it was like the Holy Spirit nudged me and said, "See? I have a plan for you too, Enjoli." 

I want to mention one other thing before I close. She talked about the Woman at the Well and the differences between her water and Jesus' water. I love how the Bible describes what she did when she ran to tell the town that she had met Jesus. John 4:28, "The woman then left her water pot, and went her way into the city..." This is also a symbol. She finally accepted Jesus' living water, left the past behind, and then shared Him with others. You know, the gospel is like a gift exchange. We bring death and exchange it for Jesus' gift which is eternal life. Jesus dies, and we walk away with the Water of Life (like the woman at the well). It costs us nothing, yet it costed Him everything. What an awesome God we serve! Satan has lost and Jesus wins!