Sacrifice

Today is a day filled with mixed emotions. Today is the day when Jesus was sacrificed for our sins. I always found the name "Good Friday" a bit contradictory. Yes, it is good that God sent his son to be sacrificed for our sins...but it is also a sad day as well. Jesus was beaten, spit on, forced to carry his own cross, and ultimately died on that same cross for ALL of our sins. He could have come down off that cross and said...You know what, you all aren't worth my sacrifice. But he didn't. He stayed there and died a slow, brutal death. It seems like anything but a "Good Friday" for Jesus.

But "Good Friday" is good for us all. Jesus is offering us everlasting life if we just believe. John 14:6 and 7 promise that...."I am the way and the truth and the life"....and I love that verse. Jesus wants us to love him. He wants us to communicate to him thru prayer. He wants us to obey what he commands. He just wants us...sin and all. He died and took all that burden of our sins away. We just have to turn and give it all to him.

We had a tradition in our family where we would bury Jesus in a make shift tomb in our backyard on Good Friday. We would place him in the tomb, roll the stone in front of it, and put up a couple of army men to guard him. On Easter Sunday, we would wake up and go out to the tomb to see that Jesus was no longer in it! He had risen!! It was something that I always loved as a child and I am going to start that tradition with Abbie this year as well. I want to help grow her love for Jesus just like my parents did for me.

So today, when you are going thru your normal routine...just remember that this is the day that the ULTIMATE sacrifice was made. Jesus LOVES us so much that he died for our sins, past...present...and future.

"For God so loved the world, as to give his only begotten Son; that whosoever believeth in him, may not perish, but may have life everlasting." John 3:16