By Becky Schlofner and Fr. Drew Mabee
I recently had the opportunity to participate in a Rescue Project at Church of the Holy Family, my church, in Novi, Michigan, which is published by Fr. John Ricardo of Acts XXIX. The Rescue Project really opened my eyes, and I would like to share with you the fruits.
The Rescue Project revealed to me that the Gospel is not just a set of rules; rather the Gospel is the story of God’s saving love for the whole human race that we are all individually caught up into. The Gospel gives us a new pair of lenses through which we see everything. These lenses bring clarity to the life experiences that we all have, especially why everything is so messed up.
In the Rescue Project is summed up in four words: created, captured, rescued, and respond. God made each and every one of us from love for love, yet when we look around the world and even our lives, we begin to see that something went terribly wrong. Why do we experience things like addiction, betrayal, loneliness, fear, cancer, divorce, depression, etc.?
We were made from love by God for God, yet the devil, who himself is a fallen angel, deceived our first parents’ way back in the Garden. This ultimately ended up in the Fall, and them selling us all into the slavery of sin and death.
We experience these realities every day, we all do things that we know we should not do, that we really don’t want to do. This is the power of sin and the grip that it has on all our lives. In addition, we all know that death is coming for all of us, and we can’t do anything to stop it. In all of this, we have been captured. By the devil and the power of sin and death that we cannot contend with, indeed we have been captured.
Easter is not a celebration, rather it is a proclamation of an event that changes literally everything. God so loved the world that He has come to do something to liberate us. The something is the cross, death and resurrection of His only begotten Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. On the Cross, Jesus is revealing to us how much the Father loves us, He is also coming to make atonement for all our sins, perhaps many of us know this. What I did not know is that Jesus was doing a third thing. On the cross Jesus came to go to war against the devil, by taking on flesh and going to the cross He entered combat with the devil and the powers of sin and death and definitively conquered them. Jesus destroyed the power of the devil and rendered the power of sin impotent.
What does this mean for you and me? It means that you and I do not have to live as slaves to sin and death. It means that sin and death, addiction, darkness, despair, etc. do not get the final word because Jesus has rescued us! He has come to snatch us and liberate us from the kingdom of darkness, from being enslaved to the power of sin and the sting of death and bring us into the Kingdom of God and the freedom of the sons and daughters of God.
New life, healing, restoration, identity, and so much more have been given to us in His resurrection. Wherever you are stuck right now you do not need to be stuck any longer, because Jesus has come to liberate and set free. This brings me to respond… will you and I let Jesus deeply into our lives, He who has destroyed sin, death, hell and overthrown the devil comes to lead us into, bring us into, the abundant and eternal life of God, not just some day but right now. Will you let Him do that for you right now, this Easter? How will you respond? This is just not for you and me but for every single person on the face of the Earth, as you and I are drawn into the resurrection power of Jesus, in the new life that He brings, and the freedom that He’s won for us; will you allow Jesus to liberate and set free others that you know or bump into you?
I highly, highly, highly recommend watching and taking part in The Rescue Project. All the sessions are free, and you can do it on your own. I was blown away. You can be too.
Visit https://watch.actsxxix.org/therescueproject.
