Jesus Pooped

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Fully divine. Fully human.
That’s how we describe Jesus.

It’s been the popular way of understanding our Savior for over 1,900 years, and for good reason: it fits. Jesus was both God AND man.

For most of that time, we humans have been struggling to understand what this statement about Jesus really means. Battles over orthodoxy and heresy were fought on this point, and the challenge remains today.

The difficulty is not in the first half. Jesus IS God. He could have turned stones to bread, overthrown the Romans, or called angels to take Him down from the cross. We know that he had this power. We call on Jesus to rescue us from our sins, from our temptations, and even death because we know that He has the power to overcome all of these things. He did it once, and He promised to do it for us. Jesus has the entirety of the divine power of God in Him.

But Jesus was also fully human. It is this half of the statement that gives us trouble. To say that Jesus was fully human means that Jesus had weaknesses. Even thinking something like this feels like we are cheating Jesus out of His divinity – it feels almost blasphemous!

Yet, Jesus DID take on the weaknesses of the human condition. Throughout His ministry Jesus experienced intense cravings, powerful emotions, and all of the weaknesses of the human body – all so that He could fully redeem us.

He grew tired and needed rest.
He felt happiness, grief, and anger.
He became hungry and thirsty.

And if Jesus ate food, then Jesus pooped.

These two facts have many implications: Jesus got indigestion, stomachaches, headaches, muscle cramps, and all of the “minor” pains we experience, purely out of love for us.

Jesus DID come to take our sins and redeem us on the cross, but He also came to experience what we experience so that He could feel our pains, and through that feeling redeem us as well.

It is for THAT reason why we are able to offer ALL of our troubles to God – because through Jesus, God has experienced them first hand. God sees and comforts us when our hearts are breaking and our faith is weak. When our world comes crashing down, He wants us to turn to Him and allow Him to heal us.

He also cares about our little problems. When your stomach hurts, God wants to send healing. When your body aches from a workout that was too intense, God wants to send comfort. If your teeth hurt because you ate too much candy, God wants to ease the pain. We just never seem to offer it to Him. But He DOES want to help.

So, next time your stomach hurts, just remember: Jesus knows what you’re going through. Jesus pooped.

Read it yourself: John 4:6, John 19:28, Matthew 4:2, Luke 23:26, John 11:33-35, Galatians 3:13

Small Dot. Massive Impact.

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Katie Rose was a member of our Czech 2013 Mission Team. Below she shares how the trip with Ignite impacted her life. You can read more about the trip here.

When making the decision to go over to the Czech Republic, I knew God was going to rock the world. But as months grew closer, my relationship with God was more on the rocks than seeing Him rock lives. I still had faith that God was going to move and change, but I don’t think I realized how much it was going to change me.

Once arriving in Czech, you see, taste, and smell so many different things at once. You are experiencing a whole new culture, a new way of living, and you are thrown into it. I still had no clue what was coming for me. I felt lost and confused and questioned my purpose in even being there.

Upon settling in, starting to build relationships and experience the lives of each person we came into contact with, I was so blessed to speak and pray into students lives through the weeks. I got a glimpse into who they are, and who God has made them to be. I saw how God was working through them to do great and powerful things. I was just sent as an encouragement, as someone to come along side of them for just a short time, and speak into their lives. While even though at times I felt like I was just a small dot on this great scale of wondrous acts of God, I knew I was a key influential piece to our group. Every team needs a short person to be the butt of all the jokes, clearly that is why I was there.

Looking back on why I went – aas it worth me going? Did I made the right decision in being a part of this trip? The answer is so simple: YES. I built relationships with a group of people that have affected my life forever. They spoke into me. They became more than just people I met over seas, they became my friends. I went into surgery a couple weeks after returning to the States. While I did not have many visitors in the hospital, or friends from home sending me messages, what I did have was messages from the people in the Czech Republic. They had heard that I was in the hospital, and wanted to send me messages of encouragement and let me know that they were praying for me. What?! I had people across the world who cared enough to stop and pray for me, when I did not even have people in my home town.

This trip impacted me more than words can ever express. I am so blessed and thankful that I was able to go, and be a part of the community and the lives of people whom I met. I saw God change and mold my heart. He made it start beating for him, louder and stronger.

The Faith of Joshua

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What is faith? Before my trip to Czech, I had never found a satisfying answer. I had asked around – I knew what my friends and elders said faith was. Faith was, “believing in what is unseen” or, “knowing despite all evidence something was true.” Sure, these definitions worked, but they always seemed to leave something out. I never could figure out what that something was, though.

As a result, I came to understand faith in God as, “I believe that God exists, so I have faith in God.” Faith went no farther than a belief in God’s existence – it had no effect on my actions except as a constant caution not to disobey. Faith rested solely on my shoulders…and it left my definition of faith dead.

The Czech Republic changed how I understood faith completely. When I was in Czech, my group and I were stuck in the middle of Cesky Tesin with about 20 minutes until dinner and outreaches in the local neighborhood started. It was pouring rain, and we were huddled in a tunnel waiting for it to stop. It did not look like it was going to subside. Naturally, Joshua asking God to stop the sun came to mind. After mulling it over, which involved plenty of questioning if I had enough faith, I asked God to stop the rain so that we could get back to the Church for His glory…and then I stepped out into the rain. A few seconds later, there was not a drop falling. My faith was redefined.

In an instant God had showed me that faith was not all about me. Faith is a team effort. It started with me, of course. I had to believe in something, such as God’s ability to stop the rain, but then I had to take that belief a step further and trust that God would step into the rain with me. THAT was faith – a belief that if God chose, He could do the impossible, then ACTING as if He already had.

This was the recurring theme for me the rest of the trip. The Ignite Cesky Tesin group from the church there constantly set up events without a spoken doubt that people would come. No matter how many came, they were convinced that glory would still be given to God. The administrators of Kristfest, the national youth camp, allowed Americans they did not know to preach to a crowd of 300, trusting that God would use them. A two hour car ride to Prague became a test to see how far our trust was willing to go. Time after time God reminded me that faith was no longer just a belief – it was a relational trust.

Yet through all of this, one warning stayed strong in my mind – this new faith was not a tool to justify any action or desire. God would only act in the way that would bring Him the most glory. That day in Czech, stopping the rain brought Him glory, but not every storm is opposed to our God. Only if God sees it fit to act will He act. We just need to be prepared for the outcome, whether it is what we wanted or not.

How has God expanded your idea of faith lately?

Image of a Lion

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One blog post can’t convey all God did during our time at Kristfest.

I had the privilege of speaking the first night of the camp about how revival is a commitment, not a church service, feeling, or a moment full of the Holy Spirit goosebumps. I challenged young people from around the country to make a commitment to see God move long after the week was over. About 3/4 of the youth in attendance stood up to make that commitment.

I was able to lead two two-day sessions on prayer and the prophetic – training young people how to hear from God and speak encouragement over each other. I was told at the end of the week that many young people heard God for the first time in those workshops.

I also headed up two one-hour sessions titled The Effect of the Father, where I talked about how our relationships with our earthly fathers affects how we relate to our Heavenly Father. The first time I did that session, roughly 125 young people (about half the camp) attended – even though they had three other sessions to choose from at the same time. I discovered later that many young people in Czech grow up in broken homes.

I prayed for people, spoke into their lives, spent time drinking tea with them, and encouraged them that God wanted to move in and through their lives.

It was a powerful week.

But what stood out to me the most wasn’t the prayer and prophetic workshops. It wasn’t seeing multiple young people stand up and make a commitment to see revival in their country. It wasn’t speaking into the hurts endured from earthly fathers.

The most powerful moment for me came at the end of the week.

Minutes before my team was about to leave the camp and head to Prague, the national youth leader gave me a gift as a way to thank us for our work that week.

It was a glass vase with a lion’s head in the center and dirt inside.
You can see it in the picture above.

The gift didn’t mean much until he explained why he chose that gift.

This man, who has been the national youth leader for that denomination for years, said he saw me as a lion – I seem tame on the outside, but when it comes to the things of God, and to speaking into the lives of young people, I am a lion. I don’t back down. I don’t quit. I believe firmly that God can and will bring revival to the Czech Republic, even if it is right now the most atheistic country in the world.

And he said that with Jesus, the real Lion, I am helping to bring revival to his country.

The dirt in the vase is actual dirt from Czech – so I could bring home a piece of the country I love and am committed to so much.

His gift made me cry.

My desire over the last nine trips I’ve taken to Czech has been to see a generation raised up who would bring true revival to their country.

And I’m slowly starting to see it.

Kristfest was an amazing time of ministry.
But it was also a confirmation that God has been using my faithfulness in that country to bring real change.

Thank you all for your prayers for our Czech trip. God did some amazing things in the lives of the people we encountered…and in those of us who went. Your faithfulness to pray and support us financially opened the door for God to move so powerfully.