Apr
23
2011
Jesus made the greatest payment so you can have life – He gave his life.
You and I can be whole if we receive all that Jesus died to give us. Strength, power, grace, forgiveness, love, patience, self control and so much more are available to us. The question is, will we open our spirits, minds and hearts to receive what Jesus desires us to have?
During these very significant and special days of the year, as you remember that Jesus died … and was raised again … so that you can have life, be encouraged and then be recommitted to living the full life that he offers you. John 10:10
Have a blessed Easter…. and live a full life…. so you can give it away to others… for the glory of God.
Read my Easter blog post of three years ago which best captures how and why Jesus Died for Your Life.
Listen to Jim Nabors sing The Old Rugged Cross on YouTube.
Apr
03
2010
God loves you so much that His son, Jesus, died so you can be whole and have life now and eternally.
I took a look at another post I made last Easter weekend and don’t think I can say it any better this year.
Read the post that addresses how we can have healing and wholeness because of what Jesus did for us.
Mar
29
2010
Holy Week
This week you’re likely to see a purple draped cross displayed outside many churches and often in the sanctuary. Frequently seen during Lent and the weeks preceding Easter Sunday, the purple drape has significance.
The Color Purple
Along with blue, scarlet, and crimson, the color purple is used to describe hangings and fine materials. Long ago, the dye needed for this color was extracted from a particularly scarce family of shellfish which made it quite valuable. Purple, then, became a symbol of royalty and riches due to the scarcity of its dye.
The Carpenter’s Cloth
During Jesus’ time there was one way a carpenter let the contractor know a job was finished. A signature, so to speak.
Imagine a hot afternoon in Galilee. Jesus has completed the final pieces of a job he has worked on for several days. The hair of his strong forearms is matted with sawdust and sweat. His face is shiny with heat. He takes a final – and welcome – drink of cool water from a leather bag.
Then, standing to the side of his work, he pours water over his face and chest, splashing it over his arms to clean himself before his journey home. With a nearby towel, he pats his face and arms dry.
Finally, Jesus folds the towel neatly in half, and then folds it in half again. He sets it on the finished work and walks away. Later, whoever arrives to inspect the work will see the towel and understand its simple message. The work is finished.
Christ’s disciples, of course, knew this carpenter’s tradition. On a Sunday of sorrow, three years after Jesus had set aside his carpenter tools, Peter will crouch to look into an empty tomb and see only the linens that the risen Lord has left behind.
A smile will cross Peter’s face as his sorrow is replaced by hope, for he will see the wrap that had covered Jesus’ face. It has been folded in half, then folded in half again and left neatly on the floor of the tomb. Peter understands. The carpenter has left behind a simple message with this cloth. It is finished. (This section is an excerpt from the book, The Carpenter’s Cloth, Sigmund Brouwer.)
As you reflect on your faith this week and what Jesus did over 2000 years ago, be reminded that the reason you can be free of the chains of sin is because Jesus finished what he came to earth to do on the cross.
Related Scriptures
“After this, Jesus, knowing that all things had already been accomplished, to fulfill the Scripture, said, “I am thirsty.” A jar full of sour wine was standing there; so they put a sponge full of the sour wine upon a branch of hyssop and brought it up to His mouth. Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.” John 19:28-20
“It was Preparation Day (that is, the day before the Sabbath). So as evening approached, Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent member of the Council, who was himself waiting for the kingdom of God, went boldly to Pilate and asked for Jesus’ body. Pilate was surprised to hear that he was already dead. Summoning the centurion, he asked him if Jesus had already died. When he learned from the centurion that it was so, he gave the body to Joseph. So Joseph bought some linen cloth, took down the body, wrapped it in the linen, and placed it in a tomb cut out of rock. Then he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb. Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of Joseph, saw where he was laid.“ Mark 15:42-47
“Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!” So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus’ head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen. Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed.“ John 20:1-8
Other Resources
Color Symbolism in the Bible
Other Posts Related to Easter and Holy Week
Apr
13
2009
Thankful for What Jesus Did on the Cross for Me
I hope that you enjoyed a wonderful Easter weekend and day!
I often read Oswald Chambers’ My Utmost for His Highest devotional. His material is very thought provoking and usually causes me to think deeply about the spiritual implications to what he’s writing about. Today I reviewed some of his daily devotionals for April in which he covered aspects of Jesus’ death and resurrection.
If you’d like to understand more in detail about what I blogged on during this past Holy Week, I encourage you to read what Chambers has to say in the following four devotionals: What Jesus’ Resurrection Means to Us; Our Old Self Was Crucified with Him; The Spirit of Jesus in Us or Co-Crucifixion and Eternal Life: Today and Forever or Co-Eternal Life.
Reflecting on this past week and it’s meaning has renewed my desire to share the Good News about Jesus. … and that’s a really good thing!
Hope you have a terrific day.
Apr
07
2009
Because of what Jesus did for us on the cross, we can enjoy health, healing and salvation.
Long before it happened, the prophet Isaiah wrote that Jesus would be beaten and whipped so that we may be healed. (Isaiah 53:5)
In Matthew 27:26 we read that at the end of the trial that Jesus had with Pilate, Jesus was ordered to be flogged, or scourged, by the Roman soldiers. This verse in the New Living Translation says that the flogging occurred with a lead-tipped whip.
Yes, Jesus experienced horrific pain and suffering so that you and I can be healed. It is only by the stripes that He received during this terrible beating that we are able to experience any degree of true inner healing and, on occasion, physical healing.
This is one major way that God demonstrates His deep love for each of us. He knew that His Son would have to experience this type of death so that we could experience the resulting life of health and healing.
Thank you so much Jesus, for experiencing the death that you did so that I might have true life.
Read more about the crucifixion of Jesus.
Read more about God’s love.
Read one of my short articles – ” God Wants You Whole.“
Apr
06
2009
As I was sitting in church yesterday, Palm Sunday, and read the words of songs on the screen that were being sung by the choir, I was reminded of who I am and how I am living because of what God and Jesus have done. I made a decision to blog on this daily during this Holy Week before Easter.
Jesus was obedient to God in that He allowed others to crucify Him on a cross on Calvary. In the day or two preceding His death, Jesus was emotionally distraught. On the Mount of Olives, Jesus knelt and prayed to God, “Please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet, I want your will not mine.” (Luke 22:42) Jesus knew the suffering He would endure as he carried His own cross to the hilltop on which He would be crucified. He knew the agony and pain His body would experience. He knew that for a moment as He would take all of our sins upon Himself that He would be separated from His Father and that this would be horribly painful in a spiritual sense.
The Bible tells us that soldiers mocked Him and beat Him on the head with a stick before He made the trip to Calvary to be killed. (Matthew 27:30) Most of us have seen the accounts of how He must have been beaten and whipped by the Roman soldiers in keeping with the tradition of that time. Clearly, Jesus suffered in an excruciating way. More about His crucifixion.
He suffered because He was obedient to the will of God, His father. God’s plan was that Jesus would be crucified so that we could have a full and eternal life. (John 3:16, John 10:10)
You and I can experience true and long-lasting joy because of Jesus’ suffering and death. Jesus tells us the type of joy and blessings we can experience in His Sermon on the Mount – Matthew 5:3-12
One of Jesus’ disciples, Paul, writes about the life circumstances and joy he was able to experience in the book of Philippians. He writes about his joy in times of suffering, serving, believing and in giving. Paul encourages all believers to be joyful amongst the various experiences of our lives.
I know that I have experienced and continue to experience deep inner joy in my life because of the suffering and sorrow that Jesus experienced.
Do you experience joy because you know Jesus personally? I hope so.
If you have not accepted God’s deep love by believing in His son Jesus but are ready to have His peace and joy you can do that now. Follow this link.
Have a terrific day!
Mar
19
2008
God loves you so much that He sent His son, Jesus, as a man, to die so you can be whole and have life now and eternally. Read about how much God loves you in this Message translation of the Bible.
Who believes what we’ve heard and seen? Who would have thought God’s saving power would look like this?
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.
And God’s plan will deeply prosper through him.
Out of that terrible travail of soul,
he’ll see that it’s worth it and be glad he did it.
Through what he experienced, my righteous one, my servant,
will make many “righteous ones,”
as he himself carries the burden of their sins.
Therefore I’ll reward him extravagantly—
the best of everything, the highest honors—
Because he looked death in the face and didn’t flinch,
because he embraced the company of the lowest.
He took on his own shoulders the sin of the many,
he took up the cause of all the black sheep.
Give thanks this Easter for the life He has given you. You can be completely whole in spirit, mind and body because Jesus died for you.
Let’s Connect!