Month: April 2020

We are all guilty of sin in our lives.  We are all born in sin.  We can’t escape it.  We can’t cover our sin.  We can’t erase it or undo it.

This week, Jews and Christians worldwide celebrate Passover and Easter. Passover deals with the Israelites shutting themselves in, eating a specific meal while dressed, and ready to go.  God instructed them through Moses to prepare a lamb, apply its blood on the doorposts and lintels of their home.  The roasted lamb was to be eaten in haste.  God’s Angel of Death would be passing by at midnight to strike dead all the first-born (human and beasts) of the Egyptians.  When the Angel saw the blood on the Israelite’s home on the two side posts and the top beam, he passed over it.

Christians believe Jesus to be the Sacrificed Lamb of God which was slaughtered for all mankind.  It happened on Passover.  At the time of the evening sacrifice, Jesus died outside the city just like the Jews had to do with the lamb taken out of the camp.  While the first lamb was a representation of forgiveness, the second was actual.  While the first one was to be repeated yearly, the second was eternal (Hebrews 10:12-But this man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God). He took our sins once and for all time. While the first sacrifice brings remembrance of sins, the second erases all memory of them (Hebrews 10:17-And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more) for Christ deposited them in the sea of forgetfulness.  And separated them as far as the east is from the west signifying perpetually because east and west never meet. (Psalm 103:12).

While it’s so true that the Jews arrested Jesus, also a Jew, illegally and tried Him likewise, breaking a multitude of laws, had they not done so, we wouldn’t be here today.  The world, as well as Christians, many times forget that because of the Jews rejection of Jesus, we were grafted in.  An opening or a pause in history was created by God so that we, the gentiles, might have a chance to enter in to God’s presence and reap benefits otherwise unavailable to us.

This Good Friday is more than just the suffering of a good man or of ‘the suffering servant’ as He is known to the Jews.  It is more than just the shame and unfair treatment he received.  There was a battle raging for centuries for your soul and mine.  Satan and his demonic host haven’t wanted us to know God one-on-One.  He hasn’t wanted for us to be rescued, redeemed by God for God.  Good Friday is a victorious day!  Passover shows us what was to come and Good Friday reminds us that the suffering was necessary for an Easter to be fulfilled.  Jesus needed to die in order to be raised from the dead.  No one group really took His life.  He laid it of His own volition and took it back.  While mankind and Satan thought they had Him cornered and defeated, they were actually helping Him fulfill His destiny: God’s plan for mankind for the ages.

Your suffering, however great, is a small snapshot of Christ’s sufferings, deaths, and resurrection to give you eternal life with no more pain, sickness, death or sorrow, but perpetual joy in the hereafter.  *In the original scriptures, it reads; ‘In His deaths, indicating he didn’t only die His death but several deaths; the deaths of others; your death and mine.  He died for all your sins and for all of mine. He’s declared us: “NOT GUILTY!” But, you have to claim His sacrifice! You have to believe He died for you and that He wants you to live for Him.

Tomorrow will remind us Jesus rose from the dead once and for all! He’ll never die again and He’ll never be raised again!  He conquered the grave, He defeated darkness.  Believe on Him, accept His sacrifice for you and you too will live forevermore!  Happy Passover and Happy Easter!

Our hearts go out to everyone who has lost a loved one during these past several months due to the Coronavirus infection.  We know it’s been unfair, unreal, eerie, devastating, and unfathomable.  Hundreds of people have been unable to say their last goodbyes to loved ones.  Many expected a better ending than the way things turned out. From the wife who left her husband in front of a hospital to seek parking and returned never to see him again, to multiple siblings dying within days of each other, it has been devastating, to say the least.

As hard as these realities are, God knows your hurt.  He knows your sorrows.  He understands your pain and suffering. He knows and understands your heart.  He knew it before you did.  He foresaw it eons ago and made a way for you, for us all.  He too was unable to say his goodbyes to His Son, Jesus when He was dying.  God and all of heaven’s angelic host saw the suffering and punishment inflicted upon His son.  Jesus was entirely righteous.  He had no sin.  He was the personification (reflection, expressed image) of God in the flesh.  He and the Father, as well as the Holy Spirit have always existed. They had been ‘One’ infinitely.  Now for the first time they were being separated.  Interestingly, Corona means crown in Spanish.  Jesus wore a crown of thorns for us.  He shed blood before the cross. He took the virus as well as all plagues and illnesses upon Him on that dreadful but necessary day.

 The Father witnessed all the abuse and unjust punishment inflicted upon His Son when scourged. At the cross Jesus took upon Himself the sins of the world, and God, who is righteous and knows no sin turned His face for a moment from His Son (Matthew 27:46).  God cannot look upon sin.

If someone did not deserve death, it was Jesus.  But He was making a way-a way of healing, a way of salvation, a way of eternal life for you.  Eons ago, God knew what you would be going through today just as he has known whether or not you will embrace His sacrifice for you.  He knows if you will grow closer to Him for healing, for His embrace, for His comfort.  Take His hand and allow Him to walk you through this hurt on to the other side of pain and loss. He knows the way. May He comfort your heart today and in the days to come.

Sam & Viv

Several weeks ago I read a great story. It so happens that a highschooler upon completing his test, attached a note to his teacher asking him to please assign his bonus points to whatever student earned the lowest grade in class. The teacher was very touched and impressed by the request. He knew each student wanted to get the best possible grade and here this student was freely giving up extra points to another without caring about the gender, race, or other factors involved or the recipient. The request so touched the teacher that he posted it on his site for others to read.

I’m sure the morning of the test some student walked out of that room thinking, “I really messed up today.” To the student’s surprise, someone had paid a price allowing him/her to achieve the impossible: pass the class. As might be expected, besides the well-wishers, there were the naysayers. The ones who believed that it would have been more helpful to assist the failing student with academic help; or that helping that person wasn’t fair because now someone passed without really knowing or having learned the material. The teacher, however, dismissed the negatives and focused on the genuineness and kindness of the giver and how one great act could positively impact another student.

In life, as in Jesus’ time, there will always be the praisers as well as the naysayers. In His day, the religious leaders protested about everything He did. They complained because it wasn’t the ‘right’ day to perform healings (And they watched him, whether he would heal him on the sabbath day, that they might accuse him. Mark 3:2). They saw themselves as the ‘elite’, the ones that had all the answers, the ones with God’s blessings all over them (read Matthew chapter 23.. In fact, they probably felt they were born with halos. They decreed every law. They were the law and even above it. They didn’t care about the ones ‘failing’ their class. They never rejoiced when Jesus helped them (the sick, the cripple, the blind, etc.) or made them whole. As far as they saw fit, the masses should remain as they were (too bad they weren’t born into royalty), and at best, why should their lives be changed by a lunatic, a fake, an imposter, a blasphemer (Luke 5:21)? After all, He was only getting their hopes up just to let them down again. But they, the ‘elite’, were different: They had royalty, they had the law, they learned it since infants. They learned the Pentateuch by age five, they were smiled upon by God-even if they didn’t uphold the law, even if they abused it by making exceptions to it. Even if they looked down upon the common people ( …Jesus answered them…Did not Moses give you the law, yet none of you keep it? John 7:19a). Jesus warned the people about the religious leaders’ falsehood: Then in the audience of all the people he said to his disciples, Beware of the scribes, which desire to walk in long robes, and love greetings in the markets, and the highest seats in the synagogues, and the chief rooms at feasts; which devour widows’ houses, and for a show make long prayers: the same shall receive greater damnation. Luke 20:45-47.

Well, like the high schooler who donated bonus points to an unknown, regardless of, Jesus, a law student, and God’s appointed voice, paid ‘bonus points’ for you, for us all. His sacrifice covers everyone on earth regardless of origin, beliefs, status, etc. Whether you’re ‘failing’ life or are at the very top of the world in all you do, Christ already passed the points of eternal life and forgiveness of sin to you. He took the tests (and passed) so we wouldn’t have to. He gave up His royalty and became poor so we, who are poor due to sin, might become rich in His royalty, in His kingdom. Get the points?