My sharing from this Easter

I am writing this first to my friends in email, but I thought of sharing it with whoever happens to stop by here :)

Dear friends,

I had conviction this Easter weekend, I am changed, and I am.. excited :)
God urged me to share my thoughts with you - all of you, so here it is. I want to share some truths that have set me free and once again assure my faith. Feel free not to read if you don't want to. This is just my sharing, and only when God knocks on your heart, shall it reveal something to you. But as Jesus' death has changed history and the lives of so many people, it can change you, too. So of course I encourage you to read on :)

I never learned before this past weekend, how important Easter is, at least for me. Christmas is always a big thing. Just like celebrating the birthday of our loved ones, or of a famous person, Christmas is celebrating the birthday of Jesus, both a loved one and a famous person. But who celebrates the death of someone?

This Easter I learned a lot about Jesus' death, well not only the death but the whole process that He went through.

Here is history..
In His last days, one of His students betrayed Him and arranged His capture by the chief priests and elders. They wanted to capture Jesus because:
- Jesus made a statement that He can rebuilt God's temple in 3 days
- Jesus made a statement that He is the Messiah (the promised savior), and son of God
- They thought Jesus did a blasphemy to God, because Jesus showed He could do things that only God could, such as those items above plus raised people from death and fed thousands of people with very little food
- Jesus got popular and they were afraid people will be wrongly led to believe in Him
- This is interesting.. Jesus' capture and death was indeed supposed to happen, prophesied hundreds of years before His birth:
"But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed."
-- Isaiah 53:5

So they brought Jesus to the Romans, the ruler at that time. They interrogated Him, but Jesus did not argue. They decided to give Jesus death penalty on the cross. Not yet.. they started with beating Him, spitting on Him, putting thorny crown on His head, and all kinds of cruel things. With so much pain and loss of blood, Jesus had to carry the cross (on which He'd be crucified) to a mountain. It was around noon where He arrived on the mountain. Nails were pierced through His left hand, right hand, and both feet. After three hours He gave up His spirit.

Here are [scientific] truths about what Jesus went through that day:
Before the execution
Jesus was in great fear (He knew His death was near). Not sleeping all night, sweating profusely, that "tiny blood vessels were rupturing in his sweat glands and emitting as great red drops that fell to the ground". This symptom of severe stress is called hematohidrosis.
Torture by beatings
First by the Jews, then by the Romans. The beatings administered by Roman soldiers are well known to be very bloody, leaving lacerations all over the body. Romans designed their whips to cut the flesh from their victim's bodies. These beatings were designed to be painful to the extreme. It would also cause a fluid build up around his lungs. A crown of thorns was forced into his scalp which was capable of severely irritating major nerves in his head.
Crucifixion
According to science, piercing of the median nerve of the hands with a nail can cause pain so incredible that even morphine won't help, "severe, excruciating, burning pain, like lightning bolts traversing the arm into the spinal cord". For someone with Jesus condition, it would have been extremely hard just to breathe once. He'd have to lift the whole body up to take a breath. And Jesus was on the cross.

The pain that comes with crucifixion is said to "include all that pain and death can have of horrible and ghastly—dizziness, cramp, thirst, starvation, sleeplessness, traumatic fever, tetanus, shame, publicity of shame, long continuance of torment, horror of anticipation, mortification of untended wounds". So indescribable this agony, that people had to invent a new word to describe the pain --> excruciating (pain from crucifixion).

If Jesus is son of God, why did He go through this?
"Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels? But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?"
-- Matthew 26:53-54
"I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."
-- John 14:6

Aah it's all sad things, Jesus died. If it had been other people, the story will end there, and I will end up being sad, forever. But it was Jesus. He rose on the third day! God's promise has been fulfilled. Before Christ, perfect lamb has to be sacrificed to God, for forgiveness of sins. With Jesus, He became the perfect 'lamb', sacrificed to God for forgiveness of all people. God so loves us, you and me, that He gave His only son so that whoever believes in Jesus as Savior, he/she is saved. Believing in Jesus is enough, for everyone, all the time.

It took me sometime to realize.. that Jesus is alive! He conquered death. He is the God who lives. He was, He is, and He will be. He is in the past, present, and future. He is alpha (beginning) and omega (end). I can now really put down everything I know that is not living: all things I used to pray to, mostly good people who did good deeds on earth. They did not claim they were God, but Jesus did, and He proved it. Jesus was not simply a good man, He is a savior and God.

As I am writing this, I feel sorrowful for Him having to go through so painful a death. I am reminded how much He loves me, that He would die for me. I was thinking.. will I die for a friend who is really good to me? maybe. But will I die for a friend who did bad things to me? not sure, most probably not.
"But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
-- Romans 5:8

Since I believed in Him three years ago, there has never been a time when He disappointed me. Events and people around me disappoint me, but even before I come to Him, He'd call me and welcome me home. He is a true living God, always loving, faithful, merciful. Sometimes I forget Him, but He's there, eagerly waiting for me. He changes me, and my life is worth living because of knowing Him.

I am hopeful that this sharing will enlighten you :)
Certainly what I said can be agreeable, or arguable. But go find what is true. Either you will have more faith in what you believe in now, or you learn that your faith has been on the wrong place all this time. You'll be more glad either way.
I might have not been in touch with you for sometime, too, which is.. bad of me. But again, I disappoint you, while Jesus won't. This email only comes because He calls you. This is one proof. My internet kept getting disconnected earlier that I couldn't do other work. So I decided it's time to write down this sharing since I'm first told days ago. And when I need to look up online and send the email, internet is back :p

ThoughtWorks follow-up

Oh! I guess I passed the first phone interview (just this afternoon!), which is not hard anyway. It was just talking to the HR, and finding common grounds between me and the position (and company).

Now they give me 3 problems.. I have to choose one and write the program, in 3 days. Today is Friday, so it's due next Tuesday. Ah, tomorrow is Easter weekend. I'll have no time until Monday to work on this, but I'll try my best. Excited!! I want to pass this one, too!!

Job search

It's a week since I first applied a job. Got an email from ThoughtWorks, that they have openings for entry-level application developer. Sounds good, and I've known the company since I was in college. Guess what, they will have 6-week training in India for all the new consultants! Ah, what an opportunity! I immediately replied, and saying almost yes to all their questions, such as ability to travel 80%, ability to go to India, etc.
Let's see what happens.