You are special to God! You are chosen. He loves you. Never forget that. Ephesians 1:5 says "His unchangeable plan has always been to adopt us into his own family by sending Jesus Christ to die for us. And he did this because he wanted to."
Jesus went to the cross and died in our place. He arose from the dead and lives forever. Jesus was crucified on this day and rose again on Easter Sunday. "Greater love hath no man than a man lay down his life for his friends."(John 15:13).
The Lord's Supper is a way Christ's death is remembered. The bread and wine or juice are symbolic of his body and blood. 1 Corinthians 11:23-29 says "For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself."
Romans 5:8 says "but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." 1 Peter 3:18 says "For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit."
We are all familiar with John 3:16 which says "For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whosoever believes in me should not perish but have everlasting life." It is a verse almost everyone memorizes and if they can quote no other Bible verse know that one.
Isaiah 53:4-9 from the Message version of the Bible says "The servant grew up before God—a scrawny seedling, a scrubby plant in a parched field.There was nothing attractive about him, nothing to cause us to take a second look.He was looked down on and passed over, a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand.One look at him and people turned away. We looked down on him, thought he was scum.But the fact is, it was our pains he carried— our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us. We thought he brought it on himself, that God was punishing him for his own failures.But it was our sins that did that to him, that ripped and tore and crushed him—our sins! He took the punishment, and that made us whole.Through his bruises we get healed. We're all like sheep who've wandered off and gotten lost. We've all done our own thing, gone our own way. And God has piled all our sins, everything we've done wrong, on him, on him. He was beaten, he was tortured,but he didn't say a word.Like a lamb taken to be slaughtered and like a sheep being sheared, he took it all in silence.Justice miscarried, and he was led off— and did anyone really know what was happening?
He died without a thought for his own welfare, beaten bloody for the sins of my people.They buried him with the wicked, threw him in a grave with a rich man,Even though he'd never hurt a soul or said one word that wasn't true."
This version really tells how bad it was what Jesus did for us. Beaten, tortured, spat upon. This was the Lord of Lords and King of Kings.Yet he said "Father forgive them for they know not what they do." (Luke 23:34). How many of us could do the same when we were mistreated? His was the ultimate mistreatment.
On Easter we think about this great love. He endured the cross so we might live.
PRAYER: Father thank you for your great love for me. I thank you for forgiving my sins. Help me Lord to bring your love to a hurting world. In Jesus Name, Amen.
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