April 2 2015

April 2 2015 Greetings My Friend For the first time since moving to SW VA we are able to enter into Holy week services. Our church is joining with other churches for Holy week and we will attend these services. For me they open my mind and heart to to gift and the awfulness of the cross. Maundy Thursday service uses Scripture and goes through Jesus’ last hours of life. As each passage is read I find myself walking alongside of Jesus and meeting the priceless gift we’ve been given. I am deeply saddened as I see what He endured. Through the years I’ve learned that scourging was more than a whip with one lash on it. I’ve learned that Jesus was tied to a post as the whip with several lashes and attached to the lashes were objects that when flung onto Jesus’ body tore His skin possibly by then end to the bone. I see blood, pain and I ask God “why does He go through even more before being nailed to the cross” The mocking isn’t just putting a rob on His back that is so tender it also finds Jesus with a crown of thorns placed brutally on His head and His face beaten to the point of total disfigurement. At this point Jesus makes the trek to the hill of His crucifixion. Nails are pounded into His flesh and I want to scream and cry for our Savior. Good Friday enters and we sit for three hours growing in our understanding of the events the meaning behind much of the horror. We leave with sadness on our hearts and for me I tend to reflect a lot on Saturday. It happens each year for me and I am amazed as Easter Sunday rises the great joy I feel. This is the day we discover again that Jesus overcame the grave. For the next 40 days we see Jesus meeting with the disciples, eating, talking and touching them. As He walks along the Ameas road with the disciples He opens their hearts to all that God has said about Jesus. As Jesus ascends into heaven He teaches us “Go into all the world making disciples of all nations.” I take this passage to heart again and ask God to show me His will. Through the years I have learned we each have a job to do. Some jobs are upfront and center and other jobs are behind the scenes but all jobs are equal in God’s eyes. I no longer am a youth advisor, a Sunday school teacher but God has opened my heart to writing and He places people in my path that He wants me to touch. Often these people are not the people that are accepted and liked in our lives. I hear the message over and over of Jesus at the well with the Samaritan woman. He reaches the lost the lonely and the hurting. He teaches us that His message is for those that are sick and don’t know Him. The ones that don’t need a doctor. I understand from this that the ones who are in the Lord are working with/for the Lord because God wants all of us to make a choice. That choice is His Son Jesus. God is a gentleman and won’t force us to make that choice, it has to be our decision. How can those that don’t know Him know Him. I learn it is through those of us that do know Him to bring Him into the world. He is our hope our salvation. May God bless you and keep you make His face shine on you. Love Janet