Tag: crucifixion

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The scripture for today, February 20, is Galatians 2:20 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

CHANGES IN WORSHIP-COVER-KINDLE“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.”

The apostle Paul wrote this. He had been an angry, spiteful, and hateful, man in his younger days. He had been a terrorist and had even declared holy jihad against Christians. He had gone around the country rounding up Christians and sending them either to prison or to their death. He hated Christians.

But once Jesus got his attention and he realized he was persecuting those who could tell him the true way to heaven, he switched sides. Jesus had to do it himself because all the Christians were afraid of him. Then he, so to speak, crucified his old self, and let Jesus and his words live in him instead. All his tremendous energy that he used to use for hate was now used for love, and he turned his part of the world upside down for Christ.

Is there someone in your life or that you know of who is angry, spiteful, and hateful? Dare to talk to that person and tell them how much God loves him/her. S/he will argue with you and maybe even be meaner to you than ever. But when things calm down, try saying something else, perhaps about what Jesus did or said once in his life. It may take you months or years. S/he will be curious why you keep coming back when s/he is being so mean to you. And eventually, this same person who uses all his enormous energy in a negative way, just might turn that same enormous energy around and use it for Jesus in a great way.

Give it a try. If you are crucified with Christ, then nothing anyone says can hurt you because your ego is dead. Keep trying to reach this enemy of Jesus. Keep trying to help this person become a close friend of Jesus. You may be the only one in his or her world with the courage to do it. Keep trying, and keep trying, and keep trying. Who knows?

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The scripture for today, November 23 (11/23), is 1st Corinthians 11:23ff as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

Crucifixion“For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, ‘This is my body, which is for you; do this in emembrance of me.’ In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.’ “

How the hearts of Jesus and his closest friends must have been breaking that night. How the apostles must have struggled to hold back the tears. They all knew the religious leaders in Jerusalem were plotting to execute Jesus. They knew he was taking his life in his hands to be in the city ~ their lives too. How could they part with the one they now knew was the Son of God but also the Son of Mankind ~ their dearest friend?

When we take the communion every Sunday, where are our thoughts? What we’re going to do after church? What someone sitting near us is wearing? How the person in front of us is blocking our view?

How many of us during the communion weep as Jesus’ apostles must have wept ~ and perhaps even as Jesus himself wept? Oh, Jesus, it was my sins that caused you to go through that horrible death! My punishment! I fall at your feet. I am so sorry.

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The scripture for today, November 13 (11/13), is Zechariah 11:13 as found in the Old Testament of the Bible:

Crucifixion“And the Lord said to me, ‘Throw it to the potter’ ~ the handsome price at which they paid me! So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the Lord to the potter.”

The book of Zechariah is full of prophecies about Jesus, especially circumstances surrounding his death. Compare the above scripture with this:

“Then one of the Twelve ~ the one called Judas Iscariot ~ went to the chief priests and asked, ‘What are you willing to give me if I hand him [Jesus] over to you?’ So they counted out for him thirty silver coins” (Matthew 26:15).

and….

“When Judas, who had betrayed him, saw that Jesus was condemned, he was seized with remorse and returned the thirty silver coins to the chief priests….So Judas threw the money into the temple and left. Then he went away and hanged himself….So they [chief priests] decided to use the money to buy the potter’s field as a burial place for foreigners” (Matthew 27:3, 6-7).

The prophet Zechariah wrote this prophecy some five centuries before Jesus. The prophet had been long dead before it was fulfilled. This could not possibly have been contrived to fit such a distant future ~ the exact sum Judas was paid, the money being thrown into the temple and then given to the potters.

This is only one of many proofs. The Bible is the only religious book in the world with built-in proofs it is of divine origin.

The scripture for today, May 21 (5/21), is 2nd Corinthians 5:21 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:  “God made him [Jesus] who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

“God made him [Jesus] who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

A lot of people do not understand what Jesus’ death has to do with going to heaven.  The key is in Romans 3:23 that says “The wages of sin is death.”  When Adam and Eve sinned, immediately their souls died, and the bodies gradually died.  It’s been happening to everyone since then.  But, during Old Testament times, God allowed people to make a perfect animal take their penalty, shed its blood and die in their place when they sinned.  

This was only a temporary fix, however.  Hebrews says the blood of animals cannot truly take away (take the substitute punishment for) sins; they are remembered again every year.(Hebrews 10:3-4).

Finally, John the Baptist announced Jesus was “the Lamb of God” (John 1:29).  In order to forever stop all the sacrificial substitute dying, God prepared his own perfect Lamb ~ Jesus, who never sinned.  For 33 years, God’s Word took human form in Jesus and became one of us.  Then he had to shed his blood and die in our place.  In so doing, he took the sin penalty forever.

Jesus did two things impossible for us to do:  Live a perfect life without sin, and come back to life after he died ~ both physically and spiritually.  Why?  So we could do another thing that is impossible for us to do on our own: Enter heaven, the home of the perfect.

God invites us to his heaven if we will just follow Jesus.  We don’t even have to be perfect ~ just forgiven.  Jesus was perfect for us. What amazing love.

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