Devotional Song: ... Go to this link … Please take the time to take in a video of the group Hillsong singing the poignant song and pertinent for Good Friday … Lead Me To The Cross, declaring the desire of all Christians to be led from the cross into Paradise forever
Highlight Passage 2nd Corinthians 5: 6-8 [NKJV] …
6 So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. 7 For we walk by faith, not by sight. 8 We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.
… Comparing the pain the Disciples would experience from the death of Christ with labor pains
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Highlight Context - 2nd Corinthians 5: 1-8, 21 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK …
… Paul’s teaching on the reality of our being resurrected to be with Christ forever
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Reference Passage #1 - Luke 23: 44-46 [NKJV] …
44 Now it was about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour. 45 Then the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was torn in two. 46 And when Jesus had cried out with a loud voice, He said, “Father, ‘into Your hands I commit My spirit.’” Having said this, He breathed His last.
… Jesus breathes His last on the cross and all my sin was covered by His blood.
My Journal for Today: Today’s Our Daily Bread devotional entry, authored by Julie Ackerman Link, related a personal story about her mother who was close to death. She wrote: The heaviness of life kept increasing until she [Julie Link’s mother] no longer had the strength to breathe. She was then released from her pain and broke free into the “weightlessness” of heaven. I like to think of her laughing when she took her first breath in Jesus’ presence.
And that story took me back to being in the hospital room when my mother, dying from heart disease, awoke from a coma, and told me so clearly, “I’m so tired, … I just want to be with Jesus.” She passed back into the coma died shortly thereafter; and I couldn’t help but thanking God for giving me my mother’s last words, announcing she was going to be with her Lord.
Annually the Friday before Easter is called “GOOD” Friday; but, other than what Jesus declared from the cross as He was brutally crucified and died, it’s hard to find the “GOOD” in that time, isn’t it? But thanks to witnesses and Christ’s last words in Scripture, we do have those words from Christ as He was dying, forgiving those who nailed him to the cross (and one was ME!), preaching to the thief about his salvation, and lovingly turning his mother’s care over to the Apostle John. And then there was Jesus declaring, “It is finished!” And then our Lord’s last words that He was giving over His Spirit to be with His Father.
And then, knowing what Jesus was pointing toward; and knowing “THE REST OF THE STORY” about the resurrection, we can - through the horror of the cross - declare this day in Holy Week to be “GOOD” Friday. He took all my sin [and yours] to that cross and shed His blood for ME [and you]. And on this day of remembrance, in gratitude for His death, I pray you can join me to declare - HALLELUJAH!!!
My Prayer Today: HALLELUJAH, … yes, Lord, HALLELUJAH!! … Amen
Blogger Note: Everyday during this year, my daily devotional blogs are influenced by the reading and study of the online devotional blog entitled Our Daily Bread, distributed online via email by RBC Ministries. If you GO TO THIS LINK on the date of my blog, you can read/study the ODB blogs; or you can subscribe to the blog via email at that site.
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