Saturday, March 22, 2008

Jesus paid it all

Wow, God is showing me so much.
I felt like God was telling me that He wanted me to focus on Jesus this Friday (yesterday - Good Friday) and really focus on what Jesus did for me on the cross. So that is what I did. All day I spent reading about Jesus, looking up verses about Jesus, and praying about Jesus.
*REWIND*
A couple of weeks ago I felt like God was revealed to me that I was not focusing on Jesus enough. I prayed to God and I was listening to the Holy Spirit but I wasn't being mindful of Christ. God showed me that He is my true source of salvation. Then I felt like He asked me to say Jesus' Name 1000 times. Yes, in case your wondering, it took a long time! But I think He wanted me to get more comfortable saying His name. He wanted to equip me better. Then I felt like He wanted me to confess my sins.
*
By His wounds we are healed.
God is showing me His heart so much lately. He loves me so much. I am still marveling about the last blog I wrote and how He showed me He loves me. I was talking to my sister and realized a more tangible analogy. It's sort of like when Jeremy tell me he loves me. I'm like "oh Honey that's sweet, love you to" the end. OR - He DOES something for me to SHOW me he loves me. It means so much to me that he would do that and I know by what he did that he must love me A LOT! (my husband is amazing by the way). It's like God revealed to me all the ways in which He cares for me, reaches out to me, blesses me, and speaks to me BECAUSE he loves me so much. Well guess what - He also sent His son to die for me. I was reading the passage below and had to dissect it in order to understand what was really being said. It's MEATY!

Peace and Joy 1 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. 6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him! 10 For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! 11 Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

First, He's saying that God wanted us when we were His enemies. Because God is the true source of Justification and Righteousness we were separated from Him by our sins. He loved us so much He sent His one and only Son to die for us. It's one thing to die for a righteous man but sinful men who deserve death? The punishment for sin is death so something had to be sacrificed in order to be reconciled with God. Christ died for all so that we may be reconciled. I see this as if I owed someone a million -billion dollars and there is no way I could ever pay it back. Jesus came and was like "I got it" but at the ultimate price. I was thinking about this and God revealed to me that Christ did not only just die for me - Like someone who saved you from being run over by a car but then they died trying to save you. He died so I wouldn't have to die and no longer fear death because I will have eternal life in heaven - He died so that we may live forever.

Now we are perfect and blame less in the eyes of the Lord. He removes our sins as far as the east is from the west and He remembers them no more - still trying to figure that one out!

Psalm 103:11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; 12 as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.13 As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him;

Heb 10:16 I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds. 17 Then he adds:Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.


How much more will we be saved from God's wrath if we are perfect and blameless before Him? NOT ONLY THAT, THEN He sent His Holy Spirit to us as a gift! We now have freedom in Christ - basically a life made clean where we are no longer bound by our sins or by the punishment we deserve and no longer fear death. Then He blesses me with all of the things I wrote about in my last post. ON TOP OF THAT we get ETERNAL LIFE in heaven! What?? Why did He do that? Wow He must really love me. No wonder He wanted me to remember what Jesus did for me.
God has shown me that He deeply desires communion with me. That He treasures my heart and I am precious and perfect in His eyes. Jesus paid it all.

I have so much more - but God is teaching me to be focused in my thoughts when I share. So much more good stuff to come. I guess I never really went so deep as to understand Jesus this much. I knocked in my prayers and the Lord answered me.

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