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Lessons From the Cross

4/14/2017

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 We wear tiny crosses around our necks not because Jesus died on one, but because He triumphed over one. That instrument of torture and execution, the roman cross, is now a symbol of love. Designed to humiliate and punish,  that cross showed the sovereignty of Jesus as He reigned there.

First, He demonstrated sovereign grace. The first thing Jesus did when He got to the cross was to seek forgiveness for those who had placed Him on it. He interceded for pardon for His enemies.

Then, He showed sovereign power. “Today you shall be with me in Paradise.” This part of the Crucifixion story is like a flower of rare beauty planted among dreary crags of agony and blood. Christ poured an overflowing reward upon the dying thief who recognized His sovereignty.

Next we heard His sovereign love. “Woman, behold your son. Behold your mother.” He had already made precious gifts. To His murderers He bequeathed forgiveness. To His companion in crucifixion, He gave the pleasure of paradise. Now to His mother and beloved disciple, John, He bequeaths one to another.

Through it all, He gave a sovereign sacrifice. “My God, My God, why have You forsaken me?” Around, there was dense darkness, for the Light of the World was being extinguished. In such a dark moment He felt the terribleness of the load of human sin. But, blessed be His name, He stayed on that cross. He endured that God-forsaken experience that we might be forever saved.

 Finally, He suffered sovereign humiliation. For twenty hours this Royal Sufferer had tasted nothing. For six hours His lovely battered form had hung upon the cross. Vinegar was offered Him but He would not touch it. He could easily have refreshed Himself and numbed the pain with the opiates of man, but He who made all the wells and rivers was smitten by a bitter raging thirst. “I thirst!” Truly He was never as kingly as when in His cry for water He revealed His humanity and humbled himself.

 Truly, every attitude I need to learn in order to live, I can learn from my Savior as He died.

​Praise God this is not the end. Praise God this execution ends with redemption!

         
Luke 23:38 “Now there was also an inscription above Him, “THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.”

John 18:36 “Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews; but as it is, My kingdom is not of this realm.”


           Lord God, may I learn from Christ at His most anguished moments how to live in love. Thank you for the amazing sacrifice that bought my soul. In the name of my only King, Jesus, Amen.


For HIS Glory,
Cara and Patti
Classic Christianity

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A New Commandment...

4/13/2017

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Maundy Thursday – also known as Holy Thursday – is the day we look back at the Last Supper and commemorate the last meal Jesus shared with his disciples. This was the establishment of the Lord’s Supper and the tipping point in the final days of Christ on earth. What a meal that was!

It was at the last supper that Christ announced he would be betrayed by one of his closest associates, to the shock of all the rest. It was at this last supper that Christ broke bread and shared the cup around the table, giving us the sober reminder of his sacrifice that is repeated in churches and Christian gatherings throughout the world, until he comes again.

Yet Maundy Thursday refers to the Latin word mandatum, which means commandment. It recalls the moment when Jesus is washing his disciples feet, in John 13:34-35, “A new command I give you; Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

So along with the celebration of communion, many traditions have foot-washing ceremonies on Holy Thursday. It is so humbling to participate, to allow someone to wash our feet is unsettling, and brings to mind how uncomfortable it must have been for the disciples to allow Jesus to kneel in servitude to cleanse their dusty feet.

As we commemorate Maundy Thursday today, we need to remember the sacrifice represented by the bread and the wine. Jesus is the sacrificial lamb who gave himself for our sake, taking the punishment of our sins. But we also should remember the humble heart of this servant-king who died for us, and remember that we are called to walk in his footsteps. We are commanded to love one another as he loved us.

So, consider today how he loved us. He loved humbly; serving those he came to save. He loved without concern for status; as he dined with sinners, with tax-gatherers. He loved with patience; as he continued patiently explaining and teaching the disciples despite their apparent dullness at times. He loved with truth; he loved the Samaritan woman enough to confront her. He loved generously; as everywhere he walked, people reached out to touch him, to speak with him, to have a moment of his time.

Today is a good day to consider those words. Imagine the power of loving as Jesus loved!

John 13:34-35, “A new command I give you; Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

Blessings,

Cara and Patti


Classic Christianity

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In the Midst...Silence

4/11/2017

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Holy Week. Passion Week. Paschal Week.

Chances are, you have heard the week between Palm Sunday and Easter referred to in at least one of these ways.

Holy – because the Holy Son of God entered Jerusalem hailed as a king, left it bearing a cross, and conquered it through death.

​ Passion – not for the passionate, pure love He held, not for the outburst of emotion that carried him into the city amidst waving palm branches, not for the angry mob’s passionate demand to “Crucify Him” – but, like Paschal, derived from the Greek verb 
pascho, to suffer.

This is a Holy week of suffering in the life of Christ. The timeline in the gospels lays out the week with greater detail than any other period of time in His earthly life. We know that Sunday was the triumphal entry, but that the people hailed him as what they wanted to see, not what He came to be. We know that Monday brought the cleansing of the temple, the cursing of the fig tree, and our Savior’s weeping over Jerusalem.

We know from the gospels as well that Tuesday he had verbal sparring with the Pharisees, as they tried to entrap the Holy Son of God in a trap made by man. We know he talked with his disciples about future events at the Mount of Olives, on his way back to Bethany. Jesus was already preparing them for the time beyond his crucifixion. Facing His greatest suffering, He thought of His beloved friends, He thought of the future church, He thought of us.

And today, on what is sometimes called Holy Wednesday, or Great Wednesday, or the Day of Silence, the gospels are silent. No record appears of exactly what Jesus was doing or saying on this day. Obviously it was a day of preparation. The Last Supper will be the next day. Jesus must have been making arrangements. Likewise, another one – Judas – was probably making arrangements with the Sanhedrin to negotiate Christ’s arrest.

Does it strike you that here in the very midst of the busiest week in the gospels, there is silence? Does it move your soul that preparations were being made for ultimate good, and for ultimate evil? That in the silent gospel record as Jesus moved to achieve our ultimate salvation, there is preparation via the schemes of man to try to take down the ministry of Christ, to stop it for once and for all?

This is a good day to stop and be silent. To be still and know that HE is God. To prepare our hearts and souls to celebrate the next four days.  Join us, won’t you, as we meditate on the happenings in the life of Christ in the three days so far in Holy Week, and pray for God to speak to our hearts as we commemorate – yes, even  celebrate – the coming days of suffering through which eternal triumph emerges:

“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” Zechariah 9:9

“And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold, saying to them, “it is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a den of robbers.”” Luke 19:45-46

“…the chief priests and the scribes with the elders came up and said to him,”Tell us by what authority…or who it is that gave you this authority.”…”The scribes and the chief priests sought to lay hands on him at that very hour…” “So they watched him and sent spies, who pretended to be sincere, that they might catch him in something he said…” (Luke Chapter 20. Just read the whole chapter!)


Blessings as you seek Him!
Cara and Patti
Classic Christianity
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