03/23/2008

A Man has risen!!

Jesus Christ is the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. As the Son he was a man. Yes, a man like you and like me. As a man he could be tempted, feel sorrow and feel pain. When they placed a crown of thorns upon Him and the blood ran down his face-it hurt. When they scourged Him and the blood ran down His back-it hurt. When Peter denied Him three times-it hurt.

We are born as sinners and as sinners we have no way -nay no right to EVER be in the presence of God. We are doomed to eternal Hell. God in His mercy gave us a way to transcend this but it all depended on a man. One man-Jesus Christ. As a man, with free will He indeed had the possibility to tell us to shove it- that we aren`t worth a minor hang nail pain much less terrible affliction and ultimately death. Would you or I face derision, torture,death for a bunch of people who scorned us to the point of spitting in our face!!( Matthew 26:67)? What if He had acted like most men? Can we imagine a world without Christian ethics,guidance and love? A life of no hope after death? We can actually better understand God in the sense that He has the power to make everything okay merely by thought but to understand the way Christ the man had to do it by terrible terrible sacrifice??Jesus the man had to have faith just as you or I, to do what he did; to suffer and die. And for us, for you, for me-He did.

Then he arose. He had taken the risk. He had suffered pain. He had suffered humiliation. He had suffered a terrible death. A typical martyr like so many others now dead-but wait; it was different!!! He arose. He came back from death. It wasn`t possible!! -It happened.

Thru the centuries billions of people have accepted this fact; from the rich and powerful to the meek and poor.We get it. The reason we get it is because He was a man and we can understand His pain, His agony, His wish that it could be some other way but He went through it-for you, for me. His suffering-our eternal life.

As we venture forth from this Easter will we continue to spit in the face of a man who died for us? Will we just say "thanks guy" and move on. This "guy" suffered grevious pain, suffered grevious indiginity, DIED for you. We owe Him, oh brother do we owe Him!! All He asks is that we follow His teachings and accept Him for who He is. God, give me the courage to in this small way pay back the MAN who gave it all. Amen

Y`all have a happy Easter. Jesus Christ arose from the dead. He lives.