Death is for sure
Sin is the cause
Christ is the cure
Happy Good Friday!
Jesus died praying. His last words were words of prayer.
The habit of life was strong in death. It may seem far off; but this event will
come to us also. What will our last words be? Who can tell? But would it not be
beautiful if our spirit were so steeped in the habit of prayer that the
language of prayer came naturally to us at the last? || James Stalker
Mark 14:36 He said,"Abba, Father, for you all things
are possible; remove this cup from me; yet, not what I want, but what you
want."
Gethsemane is where He died; the cross is only the
evidence || Leonard Ravenhill
And in the article of death, as He saw the last fold of
the grand design unrolled, He passed out of the world with the cry on His lips,
"It is finished!" He uttered this cry as a soldier might do on the
battlefield, who perceives, with the last effort of consciousness, that the
struggle in which he has sacrificed his life has been a splendid victory. But
the triumph and the reward of His work never come to an end; for still, as the
results of what He did unfold themselves age after age, as His words sink
deeper into the minds of men, as His influence changes the face of the world,
and as heaven fills with those whom He has redeemed, "He shall see of the travail
of His soul, and shall be satisfied" || James Stalker
No pain, no palm; no thorns, no throne; no gall, no
glory; no cross, no crown || William Penn
Thankfulness = Fruitfulness
Thanklessness = Fruitlessness
Thanksgiving expands your capacity to receive more from
God.
Happy Good Friday!
Good Friday is the mirror held up by Jesus so that we can
see ourselves in all our stark reality, and then it turns us to that cross and
to his eyes and we hear these words, "Father forgive them for they know
not what they do." That'sus! And so we know beyond a shadow of a doubt
that if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. We see in that cross a
love so amazing so divine that it loves us even when we turn away from it, or
spurn it, or crucify it. There is no faith in Jesus without understanding that
on the cross we see into the heart of God and find it filled with mercy for the
sinner whoever he or she may be || Robert G. Trache
Does God really love us? I say look to the crucified
Jesus. Look to the old rugged cross. By every thorn that punctured His brow. By
every mark of the back lacerating scourge. By every hair of his beard plucked
from his cheeks by cruel fingers. By every bruise which heavy fists made upon
His head. God said, "I love you!" By all the spit that landed on his
face. By every drop of sinless blood that fell to the ground. By every breath
of pain which Jesus drew upon the cross. By every beat of His loving heart. God
said, I love you || Billy Lobbs
To get what you deserve is called fair.
Not to get what you deserve is called injustice.
But to get what you don’t deserve is called grace.
Christ died He left a will in which He gave His soul to
His Father, His body to Joseph of Arimathea, His clothes to the soldiers, and
His mother to John. But to His disciples, who had left all to follow Him, He
left not silver or gold, but something far better - His PEACE! || Matthew Henry
God led Jesus to a cross, not a crown, and yet that cross
ultimately proved to be the gateway to freedom and forgiveness for every sinner
in the world. God also asks us as Jesus' followers to carry a cross.
Paradoxically, in carrying that cross, we find liberty and joy and fulfillment
|| Bill Hybels
We take our stand at the cross and consent to be nailed
to it, voluntarily, actually; to submit to the pain whereby the flesh dies; the
hands are pierced that carnal work may no longer be done in the energy of the
flesh; the feet are pierced that no longer we may walk according to the flesh;
the brow is pierced with the thorn crown that our head may not any longer be
held up for human diadems and fading laurel wreaths; the side is pierced that
the heart may relinquish its fleshly energy and preference, and be occupied
with God || Arthur Tappan (A. T.) Pierson
Our old history ends with the cross; our new history
begins with the resurrection || Watchman Nee
PAIN + JESUS = HEALING
LONELINESS + JESUS = FELLOWSHIP
DEATH + JESUS = LIFE
TEARS + JESUS = SMILE
FAILURE + JESUS = VICTORY
NOTHING + JESUS = EVERYTHING
Christ is the Son of God. He died to atone for men's sin,
and after three days rose again. This is the most important fact in the
universe. I die believing in Christ. - Note found under his pillow, in prison,
at his death || Watchman Nee
As out of Jesus' affliction came a new sense of God's
love and a new basis for love between men, so out of our affliction we may
grasp the splendor of God's love and how to love one another. Thus the
consummation of the two commandments was on Golgotha; and the Cross is, at
once, their image and their fulfillment || Malcolm Muggeridge
The Christian community is a community of the cross, for
it has been brought into being by the cross, and the focus of its worship is
the Lamb once slain, now glorified. So the community of the cross is a
community of celebration, a eucharistic community, ceaselessly offering to God
through Christ the sacrifice of our praise and thanksgiving. The Christian life
is an unending festival. And the festival we keep, now that our Passover Lamb
has been sacrificed for us, is a joyful celebration of his sacrifice, together
with a spiritual feasting upon it || John R. W. Stott
This Word played life against death and death against
life in tournament on the wood of the most holy cross, so that by his death he
destroyed our death, and to give us life he spent his own bodily life. With
love, then, he has so drawn us and with his kindness so conquered our malice
that every heart should be won over || Catherine of Siena
Sometimes I want God to be so comfortable in my heart
that He could sit back in a lounge chair,
when all the while He is looking for a throne.
Happy Good Friday!
Some of us think at times that we could cry, "My
God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?" There are seasons when the
brightness of our Father's smile is eclipsed by clouds and darkness; but let us
remember that God never does really forsake us. It is only a seeming forsaking
with us, but in Christ's case it was a real forsaking. We grieve at a little
withdrawal of our Father's love; but the real turning away of God's face from
His Son, who shall calculate how deep the agony which it caused Him? In our
case, our cry is often dictated by unbelief: in His case, it was the utterance
of a dreadful fact, for God had really turned away from Him for a season. O thou
poor, distressed soul, who once lived in the sunshine of God's face, but art
now in darkness, remember that He has not really forsaken thee. God in the
clouds is as much our God as when He shines forth in all the lustre of His
grace; but since even the thought that He has forsaken us gives us agony, what
must the woe of the Saviour have been when He exclaimed, "My God, my God,
why hast Thou forsaken me?" || Charles Haddon Spurgeon
Jesus defeated satan in Gethsemane on the cross, not by
directly confronting the devil, but by fulfilling the destiny to which He had
been called. The greatest battle that was ever won was accomplished by the
apparent death of the victor, without even a word of rebuke to His adversary!
|| Francis Frangipane
The God on whom we rely knows what suffering is all
about, not merely in the way that God knows everything, but by experience. In
the darkest night of the soul Christians have something to hold onto that Job
never knew. We know Christ crucified. Christians have learned that when there
seems to be no other evidence of God's love, they cannot escape the cross.
"He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all – how will
he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?"(Rom. 8:32) …
When we suffer, there will sometimes be mystery. Will there also be faith? Yes,
if our attention is focused more on the cross, and on the God of the cross,
than on the suffering itself || D. A. Carson
i love em all!
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