John 19:26,27
When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, “Woman, here is your son,” and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.
This is just one example of Jesus loving from His cross, and not just with His words but also in the actions it took to even speak these words. He was dying; each breath He took cost Him immensely. He would have had to push Himself up using the nails in His body just to breathe, and yet He does this not just to breathe, not to scream curses down upon those crucifying Him, not to beg for mercy, but to love and bless those who are His. What a God we serve! Out of all the things He could have done with those breaths, He loved! Could we say the same?
We are called to carry our crosses and follow Him, but do we carry and endure our cross the way He did? I believe the way we carry our cross is just as important as carrying it. What good is it to pick up our cross like Christ, but carry it like Satan and the world? We must not only follow Him but follow in His footsteps along the way. We are called to be a holy people, set apart for the glory of God! Not holding too fast to our lives but willing to lay them down at His feet in reverent worship.
We must respond, reflect and react like Christ if we want those around us to see Christ in us. The world is desperately searching for something different, and the only thing different from this world is the One who created, died for it, and rose again with its victory in His hands! Will we carry and endure our cross like Christ today?
1 Peter 2:6-9- As the Scriptures say, “I am placing a cornerstone in Jerusalem, chosen for great honor, and anyone who trusts in Him will never be disgraced.” Yes, you who trust Him recognize the honor God has given Him. But for those who reject Him, “The stone that the builders rejected has now become the cornerstone.” And, “He is the stone that makes people stumble, the rock that makes them fall.” They stumble because they do not obey God’s word, and so they meet the fate that was planned for them. But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for He called you out of the darkness into His wonderful light.
God bless! I love you all, but Jesus loves from His cross; will we? Glory, honor, and praise now and forever to Papa God, Jesus Christ our King, and the Holy Spirit!
John 19:41
At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid.
How beautiful and fitting it is that Christ is laid in a garden after He atones for the sin that originated in the garden. To me, this is God bringing it all full circle. Pointing back to the original sin and at the same time pointing us toward the King who paid for it! Our God, who made the promise in the garden that He would send a Savior now points us back to that promise as Christ is laid in the garden tomb.
We couldn’t stay in the garden because of our sin; Christ couldn’t stay in the garden because of His righteousness. We are not the same, and yet He welcomes us with open arms! He took our tomb in the garden and turned it into a place of praise and rejoicing; a place that should have signified the end brought about a new beginning. Darkness couldn’t hold Him, the grave coiled around Him, and yet not even death could contain Him or stop Him from living again!
This is the God we serve, not some passive or weak Being but the all-powerful, all-knowing, all-encompassing God of all creation who bled and died (by choice) for you and me! For He is our source; He is the outlet, not the plug. We must be the plug that draws from the outlet, not the other way around. Will we plug into Him today?
Let us celebrate how our God brings things full circle and redeems those things thought lost forever. Christ laid in the tomb in the garden, but He didn’t stay there!
Mark 16:6,7- “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid Him. But go, tell His disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see Him, just as he told you.’”
God bless! I love you all, but His love spans from garden to garden and beyond! Glory, honor, and praise now and forever to Papa God, Jesus Christ our King, and the Holy Spirit!
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