Easter is my favorite "unsung" holiday. It comes without the hoopla of Christmas and without the warm fuzzies of Thanksgiving. Easter is the relief that comes after the gruesome sights, sounds, and smells of the cross on Good Friday. But you know....without Good Friday; without death and pain...there would be no victory over death and my heart full of wicked, horrible sin, would be where I would be stuck and where I would die. Without hope. Without victory. Without ever seeing the loving face of my Father...His back would be turned and judgement would rain down on me from His throne.
Last night I was in horrible pain. And even though it was Saturday, Good Friday was still heavy on my mind. The following is something I wrote last night.
"Pounding the Nails"
Y’shua, last night I heard the nails being hammered
into your beaten body...and I was unmoved.
My heart was cold. Today,
however, you are shrieking into that megaphone, awakening my dead soul with the
torment that splits me wide open. With
every step I take, I feel the nails. I
feel them ripping and tearing into the bones of my feet. I feel the swelling throbbing me, the
percussion of your agony. It tears into
me, dispelling insolent dispassion, awakening my cry—echoing yours—“MY GOD! MY
GOD! Why have you forsaken me?” This
pain feels like a betrayal. It is the poisonous kiss of an asp named “Friend.”
Father? Did the Father hold the nail while the
soldier pounded? Or was it I who did
that?
...................
Pain does breed some unholy rumination.
Today is Easter. This morning after...after the deluge of pain dripped down my windows. The morning the Son shone bright as the sun. I woke with the normal pain...not the fist shaker like last night. I got showered and dressed and made it to the early service at church. I went (with dad) to a local diner and had our Easter meal. The Lord blessed me with manageable pain all through that.
Now though. Now is a different story. I'm not parked at Good Friday because Easter has already dawned. But I am still stuck in this mortal body until the last resurrection occurs. And then never to have pain again! I can't wait.
But the first resurrection does do something for me. Something that benefits me both now and later. It destroyed my sin. The horrible teeth-grinding guilt I once bore--now buried in the deepest sea where it will never be seen or heard about again. My compulsions and the helpless obedience I once had to my sin nature...now BROKEN!!! Sin is no longer my master. Satan will NOT have the last word! I am covered by the blood of the cross, shed by the Lord Jesus--for me. For you. Not only are the habits of sin broken in the here and now but at the final Judgement? There I have a mediator and he steps up to the throne and will say, "This child is mine and I have paid the price for her sin. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." (Romans 8:1)
and Romans 5:9--
And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation.
Do I still sin? yep. Do I still hurt? Yep. But I have the hope and the promise that one day both sin and pain will be a far and distant memory. Jesus' pain and blood and resurrection guarantee that.
HE IS RISEN!!!!
..............................He is risen indeed.
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