Good Friday:
This has been a Holy Week I will not soon forget. My time with the Lord has been rich and beautiful. I have experienced a lot of pain in my personal life, and it has only served to bring me that much closer to the Lord. I have seen God’s love for me, the true meaning of the Gospel of loving sinners, through my own love for others. And I’ve seen the price of forgiveness through experiencing the pain of forgiving others and asking the Lord to forgive them. Jesus said “Father forgive them…they know not what they do…” But we so often want to pray God will bring intense justice upon others. The Lord has humbled me, and I feel more than I ever have in my life identified with the death of Christ.
Jesus calls disciples to be identified with His life and His resurrection. Not every Christian accepts the call to be a disciple…but it is a beautiful call. Obedience is hard…but it is right and produces such joy that only comes from Christ. Identified with Jesus death…let’s think about that today on good Friday. How does God want us to die to ourselves? He calls us to do that…die to the life of our will and accept His yoke- He will withhold NO GOOD THING…but what we see as good is not always good. Trust the Lord. He calls for absolute trust…and to be His worker we must die like Him…then only can we live like Him. And I want to live like Christ…and recently He has created in me a spirit that also wants to die like Him.
Is there any other way? We ask this question so often…Lord is there any other way? We feel God calling us to obedience in something but we really really don’t want to do it. It hurts too much. It doesn’t make sense…we say. God’s way, however, is THE BEST WAY. Our way is not the best way unless it is coinciding with God’s…and that only happens when the Spirit of Christ is so born in us that we are in perfect communion with Him. The way God brought redemption to the earth did not seem like the best way to the disciples. Jesus had to die. That was really upsetting for them. Even the soldiers and guards said to Jesus while He was on the cross…”If you are the Son of God like you say, bring yourself down! You can save others but not yourself?” Jesus could have saved Himself. He could have jumped off the cross and said “See I am the Son of God- Worship me!” If I had been there, I would have thought that the best way for God to glorify Himself. But God knew better. He knew that His son must die…and suffer…and then rise again.
Why? Well we can’t really know the mind of God…but just think of a few things:
1. If Jesus had come down off the cross, the people there would have believed maybe…but what about the rest of the generations to come. What is so different about Christianity is that we serve a RISEN SAVIOR. His body rose and was never found. No one hid it…I could write a whole other post about that if you desire…
2. The death of Christ shows us JUST HOW MUCH SIN MEANS….It deserves death. That is how serious it is!!! God’s justice must be met.
3. The death and life of Jesus coincides with the human experience. Following God will not always be easy and happy and peachy because we are human and we don’t understand what is best. The death and resurrection of Christ shows us that!
4. The resurrection only comes after a death…and can we not say that the resurrection is so depictive of God’s power to change lives…to raise people from terrible circumstances and lives. It displays God’s power!
I am so greatful to my God. And I want to die for Him whether literally or metaphorically. I will die to anything that He desires and in any way so that I may live with Him…and maybe I will not be delivered into that “life” even here on earth…but I will be after my physical death. I love my Lord. I love Him so dearly. I never knew a relationship like this could be possible between me and God. I grew up knowing of Him and hearing of Him and got “saved” at 7 years old….oh but it is so real to me now. It is so real! The realness has come out of much pain and suffering and death…in these things I have seen God. I have felt the utmost rejection and I have felt God ask me to give Him the very things that I love most in the world. It has been so hard…but I know that I am only human. And God is working for HIS glory and for my good. His glory and my good are achieved by ways that I don’t always understand…by ways that sometimes cause me momentary or lasting pain. But I would have life no other way than this…I love you my Lord. I praise you for Good Friday! I praise you for Your death. I offer my entire being to You. Take my life Lord and let it be consecrated Lord to thee…
Peace of Christ to you brothers and sisters! May you know the joy that comes through the DEATH and the LIFE of Christ- amen
meginlea 
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