Sunday, April 8, 2012

Happy Resurrection Day!

Jesus, who always was even before the foundation of the world, came to earth to save you & me. People did not believe in Him, they didn't even really want Him around. He left His splendor & glory in Heaven to come to this world to bear our grief, sorrow, sin & shame. He never committed any sin nor did He ever live an unrighteous life, yet God loves us so much that He sent His ONLY son to die for our unrighteousness.
He was spit on, scourged, beaten beyond all recognition, not even resembling a human being, yet, like a lamb, he didn't open His mouth. He was led to the cross, without so much as a whimper. While being nailed to the cross, people laughed at Him, mocked Him, ridiculed Him, but He still prayed that God forgive them for their evil deeds. Hanging on the cross between two sinners, He still died to save them, you & me! Taking in His last breath, He muttered, "It is finished"; all the sin, shame & disgust that we would ever have to go through in life, was now nailed to the cross, abolished through His pain & suffering, allowing you & me the opportunity to live a victorious life!


Isaiah 53


John 19:28, 17:11

"The servant grew up before God—a scrawny seedling, a scrubby plant in a parched field. There was nothing attractive about him, nothing to cause us to take a second look. He was looked down on and passed over, a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand. One look at him and people turned away. We looked down on him, thought he was scum. But the fact is, it was our pains he carried—our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us. We thought he brought it on himself, that God was punishing him for his own failures. But it was our sins that did that to him, that ripped and tore and crushed him—our sins! He took the punishment, and that made us whole. Through his bruises we get healed. We're all like sheep who've wandered off and gotten lost. We've all done our own thing, gone our own way. And God has piled all our sins, everything we've done wrong, on him, on him. He was beaten, he was tortured, but he didn't say a word. Like a lamb taken to be slaughtered and like a sheep being sheared, he took it all in silence. Justice miscarried, and he was led off—and did anyone really know what was happening? He died without a thought for his own welfare, beaten bloody for the sins of my people.They buried him with the wicked, threw him in a grave with a rich man, even though he'd never hurt a soul or said one word that wasn't true. Still, it's what God had in mind all along, to crush him with pain. The plan was that he give himself as an offering for sin so that he'd see life come from it—life, life, and more life... Jesus, seeing that everything had been completed so that the Scripture record might also be complete, then said, 'I'm thirsty.' A jug of sour wine was standing by. Someone put a sponge soaked with the wine on a javelin and lifted it to his mouth. After he took the wine, Jesus said, 'It's done . . . complete.' Bowing his head, he offered up his spirit."