Good Friday always leaves me in awe. I’m in awe of God’s patient love. And how far he was willing to go in order to save us, to unite us with him. The crucifixion did not form a pretty picture for sure. Yet it is the most beautiful picture of sacrificial love. For us. For free. It does not make sense to us to get such an amazing gift – salvation and eternal life – for free yet that’s how…
Lent has lasted now for six weeks. Have you learned anything new? I’ve come to understand more deeply it’s all about God. My contribution to my salvation is my need to be saved. God has provided everything else. It’s God’s grace from start to finish. We all need God and his grace. There has not been, is not, and will not be a human being who does not Jesus to save him. Just think about Peter who had a fundamental…
Good Friday is here. It reminds me of how blessed we are to have a God who did not spare expenses to reach us, to make us right with him. If you want to get a good grasp of the message of Good Friday, start by reading chapter 53 in Isaiah. It’s a long one but so worth it to read it. Read it slowly and marvel the fact that this was written hundreds of years before Jesus was born….
Do you (sometimes) feel inadequate? Do you wish you could have managed things differently? Do you struggle with your shortcomings? Do you start your sentences with “if only…if only…if only”? We desire to be but we are not perfect. We fail. We are weak. Most often we can somehow deal with our inadequacies and shortcomings when they don’t affect our loved ones. But when we feel that we have failed as parents or spouses or children it is incredibly hard….
I love Easter for so many reasons. My husband and I were engaged on Easter and our first-born son was baptized on Easter. I also love ending the Lenten season and celebrating Life. And who wouldn’t love chocolate eggs? They’re not only delicious but beautifully symbolize the new life we’ve been given. These reasons are all very nice – even blessed – but there are even far better reasons. They were saying to each other, “The Lord really has risen!…
It’s Good Friday, the day we commemorate the crucifixion of Jesus. Why did Jesus have to die on the cross? What’s the meaning of Good Friday anyway? Here it is in a nutshell: Just as one person did it wrong and got us in all this trouble with sin and death, another person did it right and got us out of it. But more than just getting us out of trouble, he got us into life! One man said no…
Black Friday is the craziest shopping day in the U.S.A. But no matter how many hours people spend shopping, the best deal ever can’t be bought. Because it is free yet so precious. It was shed and given on Good Friday almost 2000 years ago. It is valid every day until the end of the world. By dying on the cross for our sake Jesus gave us the best deal ever: we are saved by grace through faith in Jesus….
What do you do when you doubt? What do you do when you are overwhelmed? What do you do when a disaster strikes? What do you do when the future is unclear? What do you do when God feels distant? Your response is critical for your spiritual well-being. Your response defines your future. How come? You let the distress bring you to God, not drive you from him. The result was all gain, no loss. Distress that drives us to God…
The sad truth is that we can’t get ourselves pre-qualified for God. We sure are a bunch of sinners and we can’t save ourselves. But the happy news is Christ has already gotten all of us pre-approved on the cross! God’s righteousness comes through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ for all who have faith in him. There’s no distinction. All have sinned and fall short of God’s glory, but all are treated as righteous freely by his grace because of…
Don’t worry if you can’t understand the suffering of Jesus. You can still embrace Jesus. Don’t worry if you can’t figure out the mystery of faith. You can still enter the mystery of faith. Don’t worry if you can’t analyze the happenings of Good Friday. You can still trust that Jesus carried your sins on the cross. Carrying his cross by himself, he went out to a place called Skull Place (in Aramaic, Golgotha). That’s where they crucified him—and two…
