My Jesus, Lord and Saviour thank You for all You have done for me. I love You with all my heart, my soul, my mind and my strength - all my understanding!
Christians all around the world celebrate what Jesus has done for them - for us His children. Jesus died for our sins and rose again, sitting at the right hand of our Father and He intercedes for us daily. Jesus left us with His amazing Holy Spirit who guides us and just makes us fall deeper in love with Him daily.
During Easter time, God's grace is a tremendous reality. It is such a big deal. I pray that the Holy Spirit will make God's grace such a reality during the Easter period.
It is just by the grace of God that I can even write this blog today, it is by the grace of God that He taught me not to judge but to love. It is by the grace of God that I realised no matter what my past He - The ETERNAL Saviour Lord Jesus Christ loves me just as I am. Thank You Jesus as we remember what You have done for us out of LOVE. You stretched out Your arms and said it is finished and YOU chose me .. us!
This period Jesus we celebrate YOU as our Saviour. We remember what You had to endure for us to have eternal life in heaven. We also thank You for what You are doing for us daily interceding with the Father and making sure God is glorified in all.
Easter ...... I am not worried about specific dates and specifics like the scholars would argue around the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus... To me it is more about "The Man Jesus" what He did for me and off course the Grace He has given us. We know that even through the Old Testament God promised His Son Jesus to us through the linear and there is a connection from His birth to His death through His resurrection and leaving us with His Holy Spirit....up to today where He wants us to give our lives to Him and to be His hands and feet in a hurting world through love as we give all the glory to our Father God. Everything was so intended by God for a reason! What would the reason be? You and I. God's love for us. God knew that if He did not send His Son Jesus as our sacrifice we would be lost forever.
But He loved us so much as we can read in John 3:16-18 - (from the Message) - "This is how much God loved the world: He gave His Son, His one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in Him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn't go to all the trouble of sending His Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in Him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust Him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person's failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to Him".
Oh I just absolutely love that passage in the Bible. Holy Spirit thank You for showing it to us in that way.
Can we even fathom God's love for us. To sacrifice your only Son for someone else. For us! God provided and His Son paid in full!
Looking at the period that lead to the crucifixion in Matthew 27 we see that Jesus was falsely accused and yet He was so humble and just kept quiet - silence, as He knew the bigger picture of God and He does not argue with the wicked. Such a principle for us to learn from.
Jesus went through so much for us physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. Jesus said in Matthew 26:38 "My soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death". Jesus was stripped and whipped (with pieces of iron & bone on the whip), betrayed by the one He thought loved Him Judas, He was judged and they spat in His face. He had a crown of thorns on His head (I read an article how your body gives in and how you suffer when the membranes in your brain are pierced and what excruciating pain you would have in your head) and so the blood ran from His head. Why am I mentioning all these things.. just so again we can realise how much Jesus loves us, what He endured for us. Looking at what Jesus did for us; is the life we live today worth the pain He had gone through for us. Does it measure up. Do we say thank you to Him with the lives that we are living. Something to think about.
The suffering that Jesus suffered for us was beyond our imagination and the grief that He suffered in His soul was a spiritual agony beyond our comprehension - denial, desertion, extreme loneliness, disappointment and the most severe emotional and physical pain imaginable.
Jesus said in John 18:37 " Because I am King, I was born and entered the world so that I could witness to the truth. Everyone who cares for truth, who has any feeling for the truth, recognizes My voice". Even before Jesus died He prayed to God and said "Father forgive them for they do not know what they are doing". (Luke 23:24) Wow, what a principle Jesus is teaching us.. to not condemn but to pray for our enemies.
No bone is Jesus' body was broken. One of the soldiers stabbed Him in the side with a spear and blood and water gushed out. Joseph came and took the dead body of Jesus. It was then wrapped in linen with a mixture of myrrh and aloes spices and His body was placed in the tomb.
When Mary Magdalene came to the tomb she saw the stone was moved away. Simon Peter arrived and just saw the linen lying there. As Mary wept by the tomb she saw two angels sitting there dressed in white one at the head and one at the foot where Jesus' body had been laid. After Mary said to them they took her Master away she saw Jesus standing there, but did not recognise Him. Jesus then said to her, as she realised it was Him "Don't cling to me for I have not yet ascended to the Father" (John 20:17). Jesus then told her to go to His brothers and tell them "I ascend to my Father and Your Father, My God and Your God".
Jesus then later stood among the disciples and said: "Peace to you" and showed them His hands and side. They were so happy. Jesus took a deep breath and breathed into them saying :"Receive the Holy Spirit" - John 20:22
The very exciting news for us as Christians would be that Jesus rose from death and He said He is not leaving us without a Comforter. Jesus said : "the godless world would not be able to see this Comforter because they do not know what to look for. But those that believe will know Him as He (The Holy Spirit) will live in them and He will dwell with us" (John 14:17).
So, awesome news is that Jesus will never leave us. The blood of Jesus and so His grace for us made sure we will be eternally in heaven if we accept Him as our Saviour. We therefore must love and accept Him and have a real and true relationship with Him.
Imagine for a second .... God could have sent anyone to rescue Jesus in order for Him not to die for us, but with a broken heart God turned His face away and gave you and I hope and grace. All because of His love for us.
In ending I say Jesus my Comforter thank You that You died for my sins. You went through agonising pain for me, was buried rose again and the 3rd day You ascended to heaven and now left us with the Holy Spirit to guide us and teach us. Jesus I am in awe of YOUR love for me. Thank You that through Your grace I will forever be alive. I thank Your for leaving us with Your Holy Spirit within us to give us wisdom and a new understanding of just how much You loved us. Teach us about Your grace. Thank You that You said to the criminal next to You on the cross that He will be in paradise with You - You showed us that You love and love and love.. endlessly. The one commandment You want us to follow is the New Commandment as You said in John 13:34 & John 15:12 :"That we have to love one another just as You have loved us". 1 John 3:23: "That we must believe in the Name of God's Son Jesus Christ".
Holy Spirit thank You for the revelations through Your GRACE alone ... all for the Glory of God.
Have a wonderful, graceful Easter.
