Friday, April 14, 2017

What Easter means to me

Why did He do it? Why was he born? Why did He live on this earth a short 33 years only to be brutally beaten, humiliated. and spit at, Matthew 26:67 says "They spit in his face and struck him with their fists. Others slapped him and said, "Prophesy to us, Christ. Who hit you?" They made fun of him and He died a brutal death nailed to a cross. But Why? Why would He endure all this?

He did it for us. He did it for you and for me. Jesus Christ, son of God the Father Almighty, was born into this world of the virgin Mary for one purpose and one purpose alone. He was born to die. He was born to be a sacrifice for our sins. It was prophesied many times in the bible. Isaiah 53:7 told us "He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter…” 

He came because He fulfilled God's Holy Word  John 3:16 tells us this holy truth: "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."
                                     


Easter is the holiest day in the Christian calendar. It's what our faith is all about. We have hope because Jesus came, He lived and He died according to His Father's holy plan. He fulfilled the Scripture for us. 

Jesus was fully God and fully human. He knew and felt all the same emotions that you and I feel. 

He knew exactly what was going to happen to him. He knew he was going to be sacrificed for our sins but He obeyed His Father and did things according to His plan.

He could have said no. He could have turned His back and run in the other direction. But he didn't. He fulfilled the Holy Scripture and endured the horror of it all for us .Matthew 25:35 "And they crucified him, and parted his garments, casting lots: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, They parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture did they cast lots."

So what does all this mean to us? It means Hope. It means New Life. It means all things broken and torn down can become new again. 

Spring is a wonderful, blessed time of the year. Everything is new, everything is fresh and everything that has been dead all winter comes back to life. To me, it's not coincidental that Easter happens in Spring time.

Jesus, who suffered greatly, who endured the most horrific kind of death, was buried and on Easter Sunday He rose again from the dead. He rose to show us that we too, can have new life if we believe in Him. 

That is what gives me Hope. As I endure these increasingly difficult days living with the relentless disease of multiple sclerosis that is ravaging my body, I find my only true hope comes from the One who knows what suffering is all about.

In my MS prayer group, a Facebook friend of mine posted that she was discouraged by her advancing MS. She understandingly felt bitter about what MS had stolen from her and as her disease advanced she was certain that it was only going to get much worse and she would be a bitter old woman. I surely can relate. If I stop and look at how my life has changed over the course of these last almost 20 years since my MS diagnosis, I could go absolutely mad thinking about about how my life has declined from what it used to be. 

But those changes are in the comparison of what the world may expect from me. They have nothing at all to do with the Lord expects from me. He can use me in anyway, at anytime as long as I have breath in my body. I have to slap myself sometimes to remind myself of what is really important. 

To encourage my sweet friend, I told her that as believers we have Easter and Easter is about Hope. We may be suffering now, but one day our suffering will end and we will have brand new, undamaged bodies that we can walk with, and dance with and enjoy everything we are missing now. I reminded her that Satan wants her to feel defeated and will throw lies and anything he else he can think of to make her feel that way. Don't let him win I said!!!!

We have this Amazing Hope of Easter because Jesus came and died for us. He endured a horrible death and things that are surely unimaginable to us, so that we could have the promise of Hope, and the promise of New Life. 


If you are facing things in your life to seem insurmountable to you, stop. Stop and think about what Jesus faced. Turn your troubles over to Him and you too can have a New Life in Christ.Your troubles may not go away, but you will have the Creator of the Universe by your side to help you every step of the way and that makes all the difference in the world.


My verses for today are above in red.

My prayer for today:

Dear Lord:

Thank you for your son. Thank you for what he did for us on that cross. Thank you for sending Him to save us from our sins. I'm so grateful that He fulfilled your plan of salvation and endured horrible pain so that we may have new life. 

Help me to live each day for you. Help me to be a beacon on a hill that others may look to to see your glory. Help me to never complain because Lord I know I am surely blessed in spite of this nasty disease. Thank you for your Amazing Grace that gets me through each day.

In Jesus name I pray,
Amen