Daily Devotional - Easter
After five years of suffering, Yolanda sat across a table from the source of her pain, the road-raging young man who caused the death of her sons. It was his chance to ask forgiveness, but he didn't.
"Away with this man!" were the very words so vehemently shouted by the assembly as they stood before Pontius Pilot on that day… the day we have all come to know as Good Friday.
Lent begins a time when many Christians prepare to celebrate Christ's victory over sin and death, by reflecting on our own sins which pierced Him. We have been the thorns in His crown.
In his best effort to protect his Messiah, Peter pulled his sword and severed an ear from the head of a soldier. Then Jesus made a highly unpredictable move. He touched and healed the man's ear!
As Roman soldiers were about to nail Jesus to the cross, the soldiers offered Him a drink of wine laced with myrrh, a painkiller. Christ on the cross refused the draft that would have numbed His sensibilities and lessened His pain. He refused to escape from reality.
When tragedy strikes, we often forget the suffering Jesus endured for our sakes. We get angry when life is painful and forget that nothing we will ever endure could even begin to compare to His suffering on the cross of Calvary.
We watched man kill the Son of God, we the Host of Heaven with tears in our eyes, and our swords drawn, stood there and watched man kill the Son of God. We would have attacked and destroyed them all, at His voice command, we would have, but He said, forgive them, and then He died.
Easter Sunday. To many it means the Easter bunny, a day of food and celebration. For some it is an obligatory church-attending holiday, after which life goes on as usual. How sad that we have so quickly forgotten the true meaning of Easter. Our God reigns!
Did you realize that Christ’s resurrection is also our resurrection? Did you also realize that Christ’s death on the cross was also our death on the cross? Surprisingly, many people have never associated themselves quite that personally with the Easter story.
Our God is very capable of raising the dead and bringing complete restoration in our lives; just as He raised Lazarus from the dead. He had to 'Come Out From The Tomb.'
Christ feels every heart break, is moved with compassion with every tear. His heart is grieved with every act of abuse because he feels what we feel. He knew when he died for all mankind that when he rose he was for all time bringing himself into a vital connection with us.
Why would He choose to leave heaven's splendor to die in our place when it was us who were sinful and not Him? We cannot understand this, but the fact remains that He chose to lay aside his crown and royalty to take on the form of humanity for you and me.
I’ve been asking God frequently for a revelation of the cross of Christ. I keep expecting to have a dynamite, soul-shaking experience, but instead I’m finding that it comes little by little in a hundred different ways.
These precious women of God, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, Salome, Joanna, and others were given the first commission to share the gospel!
I realize now that the Easter celebration I grew up with was all about me: my appearance, my stash of goodies, my fun day. I’m not one to condemn any tradition that results in family togetherness and forming sweet memories, but perhaps there’s a better way.
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