Josh Samarco

When I was around the age of 7, my friends and I, along with my older brother decided we were going to race on our bikes from my house to the park. The park was about a half of a block down the road from my house. On this particular day, just like any other day, racing on our bikes seemed to be a great idea! With great anticipation and excitement bursting inside of me to race, I was ready to petal hard and burn some road. On the count of three we would all take off streaming down the road. Little did I know, what I would experience next would be my first encounter with a lot of blood.

“One, two, three, go!!”

And we were off! As we got to the dirt road that led to the park, my bike did something that never happened before. When I went to turn, my front wheel ran over a big rock. Let me just say this: My bike was really cheap. My tire was made of hard rubber so when I hit the rock, my bike some how managed to go under me. As the bike went under me, I fell off the bike and slid face first into the gravel. That’s not the worst part. After I fell off, several of my friends ran me over with their bike. Tragic right?

There I was with a mouth full of blood and rocks. There happened to be a house right next to where I was lying on the ground in shock. With blood pouring out of my mouth, a man came out of his house, picked me up and carried me to his porch. I can remember crying and asking him, “Am I going to die?” Why did I think I was going to die? I was bleeding…

John Henry Jowett coined the phrase, “we must bleed to bless.”  I cannot help but to think this phrase has something to do with Jesus. To bleed means to lose something internally, to then, begin to leak externally. What Jowett is trying to help you and I understand is when our hearts are full of love, peace, compassion, joy and faith; when others come into contact with us, they should take notice and experience what we are full of. On the flip side, if our hearts are full of anger, hatred, jealously and envy, when people come into contact with us they should notice a negative aura. In other words, what’s inside of a person will make it’s way to the outside.

We can sum up Jesus life with this statement: “He bled and He blessed all!” Jesus understood, in order for sinners to be saved from sin, He had to bleed. Jesus bleeding was so much more than a physical bleeding. His bleeding represented Him standing in the gap; a gap that was so big, that it separated us from God. Jesus pouring out His life allows sinners like you and I to become one with God. Jesus bleeding, brings us into right relationship with Him! Hallelujah!

“God has united you with Christ Jesus. For our benefit God made him to be wisdom itself. Christ made us right with God; he made us pure and holy, and he freed us from sin.“

– 1 Corinthians 1:30

Moments before Jesus went to the cross, we find Him with His disciples at the Last Passover teaching them to remember Him and honor Him forever. He tells the disciples, the wine represents His blood that was going to be shed and the bread represents His body that would be broken. This act of love from Jesus creates the covering you and I need for our sins. 1 Peter 4:8 says, “Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other, for love covers a multitude of sins.” Because of Jesus deep love for us we get to one day spend eternity with Him!

Two questions I want to leave you with: Who will you bleed for and how will you allow your life to bleed so that others can be blessed?

God’s gifts that He placed inside of you, your purpose and your calling in life has nothing to do with you and it has everything to do with others. God doesn’t just bless us so that we can say we are blessed. No, God blesses us so we can go and be a blessing to this world. We are blessed to be a blessing! We must pour out our lives to those around us. You and I have the greatest example to follow after and model: Jesus! And Jesus teaches us how to bleed.

Bleed to bless, brothers and sisters, bleed to bless!

Share this blog with a friend: http://atomic-temporary-70658616.wpcomstaging.com/2015/02/01/we-must-bleed-to-bless/