Good Friday

My thoughts today have been focused on Christ and the sacrifice He made for all on the cross many years ago.

I am humbled by the persecution, temptation and suffering that Jesus Christ endured in bodily form while on this earth. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says "God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the Righteousness of God." It hurts me to think of the pain Christ went through for me. He took on my sin so that God could look upon me and see righteousness, and not sin. WOW! This leaves me in awe of God.

And yet, I do not serve a dead God. Job 19:25 says "I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end, He will stand upon the earth."

I take great comfort in the following passage from 1 Peter 1 and I am pondering these things this Easter weekend as I remember Christ's crucifixion, death, resurrection and ascension into heaven.

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!

In His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade kept in heaven for you - who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.

In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.

Though you have not seen Him, you love Him; and even though you do not see Him now, you believe in Him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls."

Amen!