"It Is Finished...He Is Risen...He Is Risen Indeed!"

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Below is a devotion that is powerful, describing the events that are the most important and life changing of all of human history - past, present, and future! And they are the events that we remember and celebrate this week...Holy Week and what we call Easter. Blessings of Love to you and yours,
Robin

"He is Risen
April 22 – April 24
“That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and may share in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death.” -Apostle Paul
His story…
THE Passion. “And being in an agony He prayed more earnestly.” (Luke 22:44 ESV) The Garden. A place where Jesus had come many times before to pray. But this time was different. This time He was in an agony. What’s interesting is that this is the only time this phrase is used in all of scripture. It was not just agony. It was an agony. A battle… a fight… a struggle in deep anguish. “Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me…” Lying on His face, prostrate before His Father. Crying out in such deep distress that the capillaries under his skin burst and “His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.” (vs. 44). Typically this kind of agony can cause brain damage, or even death. But Jesus lived on… to die…
THE Punishment. “But He was wounded for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities.” (Isaiah 53:5 ESV) Being hung on a cross to die was common in those days. But this was different. Before the actual crucifixion, Jesus was brutally beaten. Burly Roman soldiers used their clenched fists and pounded His face over and over again “we esteemed Him stricken” (vs. 4). Handfuls of His beard were yanked out. Onlookers walked up to him, cleared their throats, and spit in His face. A crown of thorns was placed on His head, and then driven deep into His skull with wooden reeds “He was afflicted” (vs. 7). Stripped naked, He was scourged with a cat of nine tails — so named because there were nine strands, and on the end of those nine strands were pieces of metal or bone, designed to dig into the skin and rip it open. Normally a man was whipped with 39 lashes. 39 lashes with 9 strands. Do the math. When they were done Jesus’ lacerated flesh hung from His body in long strips, exposing muscle, sinew and even bone — “with His stripes we are healed” (vs. 5) After all of that, He was then made to carry His own cross “Surely He has born our griefs and carried our sorrows” (vs. 4). Nailed to the cross, the One who knew no sin, became sin for us “and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (vs. 6).
THE Proclamation. Hours of wretched suffering. One last time Jesus pushed up against the nail in His feet to take the pressure off of His diaphragm so He could take His final breath. Burning lungs filled with air, and then from a parched throat, through swollen, broken bleeding lips, the very Son of God cried out, “It — Is — Finished!” Every Jew within earshot knew those words. They were the words the high priest used every year to proclaim that their sins had once again been atoned for, by the sacrificing of a spotless, unblemished lamb. But this was different. The Lamb of God — the perfect Passover Lamb — who came to take away the sin of the world, (John 1:29) was proclaiming for all to hear, that once and for all, the final sacrifice had been made. “He entered once for all into the holy places, not by the means of the blood of goats and calves, but by the means of His own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.” (Hebrews 9:12 ESV) Then He bowed His head, and gave up His spirit…
THE Promise. A few days before, Jesus had told His disciples that He was about to die. Sensing the fear and anxiety that they were experiencing, He gave them this promise, “I will come again, and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.” (John 14:3 NASV) A dead god could never keep that promise. Surely He couldn’t mean that He would actually die. But then, albeit from distant hiding places, they watched Him do just that — die. Now what? Hopes, dreams and promises dashed upon the stone placed and sealed at the entrance of His borrowed tomb. Hear these words. In them you will find the hope of His promise — “Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James… came to the tomb… and looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled away… they saw a young man sitting at the right, wearing a white robe; and they were amazed. And he said to them, ‘Do not be amazed; you are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who has been crucified. He has risen; He is not here!!‘” (Mark 16:1-6 NASV) Up from the grave He arose… with a mighty triumph o’er His foes! We do not believe in a God who was once alive and now He is dead. We follow after a God who once was dead and now He is alive. Life is no longer a hopeless end… it is an endless hope.
The death, burial and resurrection of Christ were a moment in time – no, it was THE moment in time — that changed the course of humanity. A perfect offering presented. That which had been spoken of by the prophets in Scripture, fulfilled. God’s gift of love, freely given to all who will receive.
In the great “Resurrection Chapter”, Paul presents the gospel — “…Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures… and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is in vain…” (1 Corinthians 15 ESV). These words are not a defense of the resurrection. They are in effect a declaration of the most important words in Christianity… He is risen! Words that turned the world around.
Our response? He is risen indeed! Our opportunity? To “know Him… and the power of His resurrection…” (Philippians 3:10 ESV)
Happy Easter!" (AACC.net devotional)

Suffering for Christ's Sake

Leviticus 5
Acts 9

Food for Life:

Leviticus 5
Sin offering - Sometimes we think that being silent about something does not implicate us, or is not lying if we don't speak up. "If a person sins because he does not speak up when he hears a public charge to testify regarding something he has seen or learned about, he will be held responsible" (5:1). Often folks will just "mind their own business" or not want to get otherwise involved. And yet we are already involved if we see, hear, or are otherwise aware. I pray that we take responsibility and prayerfully respond to situations in which we can be used as a force for good, allowing the Lord to 'have our back' as we step out in good faith to impart honesty and integrity into a situation which is harming others and offending God. "Lord guide and direct us as we walk through this world and yet not being part of it...the world, the flesh, and the devil - all around us Your enemies swirl, help us to not join the swirl but to stand firm in You Lord and in the strength of Your might. Thank You Lord." (Ephesians 6)

Acts 9
"Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord's disciples....so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem" (9:1,2). This was right after Saul was cheering for the stoning of Stephen. He continued on his mission to persecute those who were following Jesus. And then he was ' thrown off his horse and blinded by the light'....Jesus intended for Saul to be His "chosen instrument to carry My name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer for My name" (9:15,16). The very man who was bent on the murdering of Christians was chosen by God to reveal Jesus to non-Jews and Jews alike! To promote and speak for the very One He was adamantly against! AND Jesus was going to show him in the process how much he would SUFFER for Christ's sake!
Did you "sign up" to suffer when you believed on the Lord Jesus Christ and was saved? Do we hear a lot of teaching and preaching about how we must suffer for Christ's sake? No, we don't. And when we suffer, do we often wonder why? We are saved, filled with the Holy Spirit, seeking to be obedient...and we are suffering?? Somehow we think that we are to be excluded from the suffering of the world and from be persecuted for standing up in Jesus. And yet, it is hard to miss the reality of suffering as a believer when we read Scripture....Most of us in America really don't know what it is like to 'suffer for Christ's sake.' Many around the world do know this suffering.
Yes, we suffer some of the things of this world brought about by sin. Sometimes our own sin (which is not suffering for Christ's sake....) but mostly for the sinful world we live in, brought about by the fall (Genesis 3). This isn't heaven. And we do live IN the world while prayerfully not living OF the world - not partaking in the things of the world, the flesh, and the devil.
BUT, Saul was going to suffer, according to the will of God, for Christ's sake. As we read the book of Acts, we will read of just some of the suffering Paul experienced as he went about the mission for which Jesus saved him. I trust each of us will have a new understanding to what it means to suffer for Christ's sake. And we perhaps will see how our own 'momentary and light afflictions are not worth being compared to the glory we will experience when we see Him face to face"(2 Corinthians 4:17,18) ...

"...Jesus...has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit"(9:17) Ananias was given the mission of laying hands on Saul, causing the scales to be removed so that Saul could see and be filled with the Holy Spirit...he now was Paul! A new creature in Christ, the old being gone and the new having come! It is only as one filled with the Holy Spirit that Paul could possibly endure the sufferings for Christ's sake to which he was now going to embark.
It is the same for you and I. We must have the scales removed from our eyes, being brought out of the power of darkness into the power of His marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9). We must be filled with the Holy Spirit, and be continually filled.
Are you filled today?