THE SUN BURNS DOWN UPON US OUT OF A BRILLIANT SKY, and there is no sign of rain right now!. All around us the greenery is drying up, shrivelling, and turning to dust, and our grass already vanished from all sight. Yesterday we were told we are on the threshold of a prolonged drought that might continue till October. WELL, we look to Jesus. We know it may be true, and already to the North of us the Desert conditions continue and in Turkana people also continue to die. BUT even so, in the midst of such encroaching threat to life and and well being, we find ourselves in the Remembrance of the Cross, and the Victory Christ obtained for us and all mankind as he gave up His life for ours. YESTERDAY we held our Good Friday Service. It was an especially blessed one - not long in duration, but filled with the Presence of Jesus. All the children and staff of the Homes plus some local friends attended, and there was such a sense of JOY and Victory, even as we were again reminded in Word and Song, of the suffering and pain it took to purchase our Salvation. AND YES... JOY TO THE WORLD ! To and for everyone who will BELIEVE and ACCEPT God's Love for them. HE will walk with us, and hold on to us, and bring us through whatever life may bring to us on Earth. He IS our Saviour.
Love covers ALL sin
In Matthew 27 in the Bible it is written
'His Blood (the blood/life) of Jesus be upon us and on our children'
WHO said this?
The Jews in Jerusalem at the Judgement Seat of Pilate the Governor.
They were saying ' Crucify him, Crucify him - and we will be held accountable for it;
you can BLAME us for it.' AND a good many people HAVE blamed them ever since.
BUT JESUS FORGAVE them, even as he hung suffering on the Cross! He cried out to God
'Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing'
THE MAJORI.TY
of those people in the crowd in front of Pilate, and even ALL those who watched Jesus crucified,
did not KNOW why they wanted Jesus dead. They just followed the CROWD.
Jesus forgave them all.
NONE OF THEM WERE DIRECTLY RESPONSIBLE FOR JESUS BEING CRUCIFIED.
Jesus Himself came from Heaven to Die;
to Die instead of each one of us, taking OUR punishment for OUR sin
upon Himself.
He was not murdered or assassinated.
He voluntarily laid down his life in place of ours.
He could have called ten thousand angels to set him free.
NO, He came knowing that if He did not take our place no one else ever would or could.
ON Friday we Remembered how he died. We remember how they laid him in the tomb, and how his friends all felt the loss of him among them. They were lost without him; lonely, afraid, and sad.
TODAY, SATURDAY, all is quiet, and we remember the awful despair that had taken hold of all the disciples, as they waited for the passing of the Passover and the Sabbath. They would have entered
into the services in the Temple no doubt, and spent time in prayer. But Jesus lay dead in the tomb; the stone blocking the way to even seeing his body. That day for them passed slowly and mournfully. They must have felt life had ceased, even for them. For us life goes on pretty much as usual, although this year we are more than cheered within our own family to have David from Huddersfield with us, and also Steven our son from England. And of course Helen and Abby are still with us, and Manu will be dropping in, so we shall not be allowed to feel as alone as the disciples may have felt.
Tomorrow, SUNDAY is usually celebrated as Resurrection Day here, and in many other places. Monday has become of holiday (even less than a HOLY Day) and many take advantage of it purely as a holiday - a family day - or just another day. HERE it is a normal Sunday, and we shall have our usual Service, but with the difference at Easter, that it is another reminder of how desolate the followers of Jesus all were as they continued to miss him. Our Service will be low key - no Worship, no Breaking of Bread......... A kind of dull day...? Life with Jesus ALIVE by our side is never dull.
I could not finish in time yesterday, so Sunday has come, and the Message below preached - though this is only a note rather than the full text.
Proverbs 10v12
Adam and Eve were the first to sin. They disregarded and disobeyed God.
And instead of listening to him they believed the serpent through whom the Devil spoke.
They HID from God ashamed and afraid, but God covered up their sin
Genesis 3v21
THE BIBLE says 'The soul that sins shall die' Ezekiel 18v4. But God says that He has no pleasure in the soul that dies. He asks 'Why will ye die? Turn yourselves and live - Ezekiel 18v31-32.
THUS in Genesis 3v21 we find God finding SKINS to cover the nakedness, the obvious sin, of Adam and Eve. He did not want then to DIE!
BUT God's Word tells us that -
'....without the shedding of blood there is neither remission or release from sin and its guilt, nor the remission of the due and merited punishment for sin' Hebrews 9v22
And SO God had to kill an innocent animal, shedding its blood (taking its life) in order to clothe (blot out / hide) the sin in Adam and Eve - temporarily.
THIS is the Beginning of Easter - A life for a life / a lamb for Man - It is ALL about LIFE
In Genesis 4 we find Abel, Adam and Eve's son bringing a lamb from his flock to sacrifice in his place, in order that he might be forgiven his sin and escape punishment. He saw and understood his need to have a life that was clean and sin free. He knew that he himself had sinned. He offered the sinless, innocent life of a new and prime lamb from his flock, instead of himself. The lamb was his substitute. And God accepted Abel.
Abel's own brother was of another mind - HE ended up cursed.
Thus the idea of offering a sacrifice to God for our sins grew into regular practice. Annually the people took their sacrifices to the High Priest for presentation to God, hoping to secure forgiveness and remission for their sin for the year ahead.
AND AARON the first High Priest, had to wear a gold plaque fastened to his turban which declared to all those who saw it and read it -
HOLINESS TO THE LORD\
As a reminder and Warning to all the people of what they were all
individually expected to be in front of God.
BUT MORE THAN THIS
It was to remind the people of their need of ONE to stand between them and God,
Exodus 28v36-39
All this was understood by Moses in his day.
And in Leviticus 16v21-22 we hear about a goat. There were two in fact but I only want to mention one. THIS goat had been brought to the Temple for a special purpose. After all the sacrifices had been offered and the necessary prayers offered up, this Goat was brought ALIVE to Aaron the Priest in front of all the people.
He laid his hands upon the Goat's head.
THEN he committed all the sins of the people, 'en mass', upon the head of the goat, and sent it off into the Wilderness, thus taking all the sins AWAY. Here once more is a picture of sins being actually TAKEN AWAY from us by another party of a pure and innocent nature. This Goat was called the Scapegoat' - one bearing the guilt and sins of, and instead of, another.
ALL THIS TIME between Adam and even today THOUSANDS of innocent animals have been made to shed their blood as a temporary atonement for the sin of Man. Was it SO impossible to find another way? GOD looked, and found not one. Isaiah 63v5 AND He was surprised, and He said 'Therefore my own arm brought salvation to me; it upheld me.' The WORD of God, He who was to be born into the World as JESUS (for He shall save His people from their sin). Answered God's call and said ' LO, I come to do thy will oh God' whom John the Baptist was to point out in John 1v29 saying 'LOOK! There is the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world.'
IT IS THIS JESUS of whom the Prophet Isaiah spoke in his book chapter 53v1 onwards. - A man without sin or deceit. A man who bore our sins and transgression, taking them upon Himself, being punished for them instead of ourselves......
THIS MAN SHED His blood for us. Blood more precious than that of any animal - ONCE only was enough. - He ransomed us with is own Blood; with His own Life, whilst His Father in Heaven watched. And it was all because God Loved us so much. Psalm 49v15 / 19v25. I know this to be the TRUTH.
TOMORROW - MONDAY will be the Day for us all to Rejoice.
REJOICE with US
with our Love always in HIM
John. Esther and Daryl, Green
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