Last night was amazing. What was expected to be a brief discussion about the crucifixion, turned out to be a time of openness, a time of fleeing comfort zones. I could really see the Holy Spirit through the statements of those around me. Earlier yesterday, I prayed for our team to get out of their comfort zones and to acknowledge the presence of God. God definitely answered my prayer. He empowered the Holy Spirit to speak through our group. One leader shared her response to me about the discussion. She said something like, "God can teach me through anybody and anything. Tonight, I learned from students that I didn't expect to say anything."  I love hearing about the unexpected things in life. It is neat to see God working through students like us to further his kingdom.

One thing that stood out to me about our discussion last night was the fact that Jesus died. Sounds obvious, right? But I realized last night that Jesus death was probably the most important part of his ministry. It doesn't matter how He died on the cross, but that He died on the cross to save us from our sins so that we may live eternally in His presence.

Another amazing thing that I took from our discussion last night was that Jesus' body was unable to handle the pain and the distress in the Garden of Gethsemane. But Jesus said, "not my will, but yours be done"(Luke 22:42). Jesus didn't want to go through all the pain and the suffering, but He wanted the will of his father to be done, even if that meant dying on the cross.

So this morning, on this Easter Sunday, let us rejoice that Christ the Lord is risen!

~Chad Westenbroek