Today is known as Good Friday. To call it good is a bit ambiguous as, on one side, we are commemorating one of the most horrible events in human history, the torture, humiliation, and execution of an innocent man. However on the other side it is the start of the greatest event in human history, in which God as man took on our sin and paid the price so that we would no longer need to.
For Catholics and Orthodox Christians this is still a very important day of remembrance but somehow Protestants have a tendency to bypass it going directly to Easter. Easter is the culmination of everything, the beginning of true life and victory, but without Good Friday we could never have Easter. Without the sacrifice we could never have the victory, and without death we could never have life.
I encourage you today to read the following words and remember that Jesus Christ took on everything for you! He died for you! He became sin so that you could become free from sin! If you have never accepted the sacrifice that Jesus did for you then please find someone to pray with today. If you can't find someone then send me a message and I will pray with you over the internet. It is the most important decision you will ever make!
Who has believed our report?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant,
And as a root out of dry ground.
He has no form or comeliness;
And when we see Him,
There is no beauty that we should desire Him.
He is despised and rejected by men,
A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him;
He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
Surely He has borne our griefs
And carried our sorrows;
Yet we esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten by God, and afflicted.
But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
We have turned, every one, to his own way;
And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed and He was afflicted,
Yet He opened not His mouth;
He was led as a lamb to the slaughter,
And as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
So He opened not His mouth. (Isaiah 53:1-7 NKJV)
Well said!!
ReplyDelete"Without the sacrifice we could never have the victory, and without death we could never have life."