Behold the Lamb of God

“The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said,
Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”

John 1:29 NIV

On this Easter morning I am thinking about all of the “perfectly spotless little lambs” that have ever been slaughtered as sacrifices for sin down through the ages.

It makes me sad to think about the innocence of those unsuspecting animals. Yet, every Israelite family was required by God to sacrifice a lamb for the past year’s sin. The cut was quickly made, the blood was spilled, and the price was paid for the family’s sin as the Passover lamb was obediently sacrificed.

It is now occurring to me that there never has been an unsuspecting Passover lamb that suffered the way that Jesus suffered. No lamb ever dreaded the event of the sacrifice. None of the sacrificial lambs ever sweat drops of blood or prayed to God for another way to appease sin. No other lamb was beaten with a “cat of nine tails” until its back was shredded flesh. No other lamb was mocked, made sport of, and spit upon. No other lamb felt the rejection of mankind, the desertion of friends, the way the Lamb of God did. No other sacrificial lamb willingly laid down its life or was nailed to a cross. No other lamb ever experienced the slow excruciating painful death of crucifixion. No other lamb felt forsaken by God. No other lamb ever descended into hell. No other lamb was ever able to pay the all inclusive, one time only price for my sin and yours!

What kind of lamb bows in humble submission to the will of his Father and opens not his mouth in his own defense? What kind of lamb expresses no anger, or refuses to call down fire on his offenders. What kind of lamb refuses to call ten thousand angles to come to his rescue, even though he had the power to do so? It is a Lamb, the Son of God, who loves to do the will of his Father more than his own will. It is a Savior who loves each one of us more than he loves his own life.

There is nothing recorded in God’s Word that gives us any indication of a pity party, a plea bargain, or a devious plan of escape. Instead, all that we see from our Lord and Savior was surrender. Jesus Christ was both human and divine. In his humanity he suffered, it was part of the plan. Suffering and death was required in order to appease the sin of mankind. Jesus chose to let the love he had for his Father and for you and me overshadow his pain and suffering. He did not focus on himself but rather on his Father’s will.

Through his suffering the love of Jesus is spoken loud and clear. He expressed love and concern for his mother, his offenders, the thief dying on the cross next to him, and for all of humanity. Never forget that in all of history there has never been a sacrificial lamb like this Lamb!

“Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches,

and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing.”

Revelation 5:12 KJV

"On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them, "Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen!"

Luke 24: 1-3, 5b - 6a NIV

Questions:

How does the price that Jesus paid for your sin and my sin make you feel?

Do you see that Jesus Christ has earned the right to be worshiped and adored by all of heaven and earth?

Do you rejoice in the truth that Jesus Christ is our risen Lord?

How can you share that truth with someone else?

Prayer:

Dear Jesus,

I humbly bow before you, the perfect Lamb of God. Thank you for not only taking away the sin of the world but for making it so very personal. I am so blessed to be forgiven. I pray that today my heart will be full of gratitude, love, and joy for the ultimate gift that you have so sacrificially given to me. Yes Lord, you alone are worthy to receive honor, power and glory! Thank you Jesus.

In Your Name I pray. Amen.

Joy and Emotion of the Soul

“I have told you this so that my joy may be in you

and that your joy may be complete.”

John 15:11 NIV

I believe it is possible to be happy in life. I am quite sure that it is possible to even be ecstatic about our circumstances or the pleasures that we experience. But without Jesus in our life I do not believe it is possible to experience joy.

At times in my life I have mistaken happiness for joy, but as a Christian I have now come to understand that joy cannot be attained through tangible things. Joy is not going to come to us from our physical emotions. Joy is as elusive as peace because joy is an emotion of the soul. Joy, true peace, and unselfish love come only from Jesus.

I experienced joy

for the first time when Jesus Christ came into my life and now...

I experience joy

...when I hear new spiritual truth.

I experience joy

...when another person comes to know Jesus as their personal Savior.

I experience joy

...when God shows up in my life and gives me an incredible blessing.

I experience joy

...when I worship God through the beauty of his creation.

I experience joy

...when I realize how faithful God is to me.

I experience joy

...when I read God’s Word and there is clarity and understanding.

I experience joy

...in answered prayer.

I experience joy

...when I worship God.

I experience joy

...when I feel God’s love, comfort, peace, and emotional healing.

I experience joy

...when I understand how privileged I am to be redeemed by Jesus.

I experience joy

...when I think about Jesus' return and my hope of heaven.

It is NOT me + what I want = Joy

It is NOT me + what I think will make me happy = Joy

It IS God + me = Joy

Joy will never be experience by me or by you without God being acknowledged in the equation. When we walk in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ we will experience real joy. Joy is something that non believers cannot understand. Lots of people think that they know what it is to be happy but they are still clueless about how joy surpasses all happiness. Happiness is produced totally through selfish effort, but joy is an emotion of the soul.

Joy is not something we seek, it the end result of what we experience when we have Jesus Christ in our life. Joy is to be found in the garden of your heart even in times of trouble. Joy is not found in our circumstances, it is found in the attributes of God himself. We can be joyful because our all knowing, all present, all powerful, all loving God chooses to use all of his attributes in our behalf. God hears us when we pray. God is always faithful to those who love and serve him. He is a very present help in trouble and he desires to be in daily fellowship with us. Jesus is our personal friend. He smiles, he laughs, and he loves. He is our joy!

Questions:

Have you ever experienced joy?

Can you see how that experience of joy surpassed happiness?


Prayer:

Dear Jesus,

I thank you for the gift of happiness that I experience in my family, my relationships, my friends, my job, my activities, and in my church. But most of all I thank you for indescribable, glorious gift of joy that you have permeated into my heart, I pray that you will continue to pour into my heart your joy. I admit I’m a little greedy here; I want to soak up as much joy as you will allow me to have. Jesus, your joy is sweet!

In Your Name I pray. Amen.

Why Should God Love Me?

“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this:

While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Romans 5:8 NIV

Today I am pondering why is God so good to me. Why it is that God would choose to rescue any of us from sin. The fact is that humanity has always treated God poorly. A more sobering fact is that many in our world today still ignore God and treat him as if he is nonexistent!

I’m thinking that the reason for this is that people really don’t get it! They don’t understand the love that God has for each of them. Because we live in a selfish world, the selfless love modeled by Jesus is completely foreign to our way of thinking. People are clueless regarding the atrocity of the events that preceded the crucifixion and the actual act of crucifixion. People can’t see God’s provision for them because in their own egotistical controlling mind they don’t believe that they need to be provided for. But the greatest thing that people do not seem to get is the incredible blessing of Jesus’ sacrifice for them and what it will mean to them in eternity. For those who accept Jesus Christ, they are guaranteed a life in heaven with God the Father for all eternity.

So the question still begs to be answered. Why should God love me? I’m afraid I really don’t know. All I know is that he does. I too, am amazed by it all. God created us and he loves his creation. Sin kidnapped us and God wants us back! If I really “got it” and could understand the great cost of the ransom that God paid for me, perhaps I would be more obedient and trusting, and perhaps I would find more time to thank him for his blessings. Perhaps I would want to share the wonderful truth of this precious gift of salvation with more people. Perhaps I would pray more. Perhaps I would be more willing to love my neighbor and to forgive as I have been forgiven. Perhaps I would worship and praise him more. I believe that in heaven our gratitude will flow in non-stoppable praise and worship because we finally get it!

Questions:

Are you ever amazed that God loves you?

Have you accepted his love and forgiveness in you life?

Do you relate to the thought that we really don’t fully “get it?”

What are some ways that you might gain greater understanding of God’s love?


Prayer:

Dear Jesus,

I confess in the whole scheme of things I am pretty clueless regarding your selfless love! I pray today that I will continue to seek to understand your love and sacrifice for me more and more. Thank you for the understanding that I do have and I thank you for the understanding that is yet to come. Yes Jesus, I am totally amazed that you would love me. It is understandable that you would love me if I was perfect and good. But I can hardly wrap my mind around the fact that while I was still a sinner separated from you, you still loved me. I am comforted to know that even though everyday I continue to sin in word, thought and deed, yet your love and forgiveness is offered fresh and new every morning. I thank you Jesus for your amazing love. Please help me to “get it!”

In Your Name I pray. Amen.

An Understanding Heart

“…turning your ear to wisdom

and applying your heart to understanding,”

Proverbs 2:2 NIV

When my husband and I were raising our children there were a few things that we wanted them to recognize as constants in our home. We also wanted them to adopt the priorities that we were trying to instill in them. We desired that they would come to value the same things that we valued. When talking to them we would sometimes start the conversation by saying, “Now listen, this is important!” We wanted our children to develop an understanding heart for what we considered to be important.

God is very much the same way. He wants me to develop an understanding for the important things that I need to know. God says, listen, and turn your ears to hear my wisdom. God’s wisdom is the exact opposite of what the world teaches and there is absolutely no godly wisdom to be found in the value system of the world. God reminds me that when I hear his wisdom I must apply that wisdom to my heart and then it will become understanding.

Today I am thinking about some of the things that I believe God wants me to understand.

Paula, Life is not about you – it is about me.
You were created to bring me joy.
I love you and I want you to love me in return.
I want you to share my love with others.
Paula, your brief time spent here on earth is simply preparing you for eternity.
The refinement of your character is what prepares you for heaven and brings glory to me.
It is through your brokenness that you will be changed.
I will be your helper and it is possible for you to overcome every difficulty.
I will never leave you or forsake you because you belong to me.
Paula, when you choose to overcome this life you will receive eternal rewards.
Be joyful because Jesus is coming again!
Learn my truths and apply them to your heart.

I have been noticing that the longer I have been a Christian the more I love knowing God’s ways. I also find that at times I do understand some of the things that God wants me to understand. I have to admit that there are some things on the above list that bother me. One of those things is the part about my life needing to be totally about God instead of me. I really do want my life to be about God, but frequently in times of stress, fear, and anger, I fall back into the habit of my life being all about me. However, those selfish thoughts do not need to be the end of the story. I always have the choice of rethinking the situation and asking the Holy Spirit to help me redirect my thoughts and my attitudes.

Questions:

Do you understand the things that God thinks are important?

Where are you lacking understanding in your relationship with God?

Have you asked God for understanding?


Prayer:

Dear God,

Please forgive me for the sin of self centeredness. God I don’t think I will ever be able to love you as much as you love me. Thank you for reminding me how important it is to share my faith with others. God I do not desire to experience brokenness, but when it comes I pray for your help as I move toward the necessary submission that is needed for me to accept your will above my own desire. Thank you God for your faithful promise, that you will never leave me or forsake me.

In Jesus’ Name I pray. Amen.

Questions and More Questions

"Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see."

Hebrews 11:1 NIV

My grandchildren, Abigail and Joshua, can ask more questions! Sometimes I try to answer them all and other times I don’t know the answers. Sometimes their very young minds cannot comprehend the truth of the answer and so I put them off.

There are some really hard questions in life that beg an answer. We ask God for those answers. Sometimes he tells us, other times he says you cannot understand now but it will be revealed to you later. But one thing I am sure of, God knows all of the answers!

I have come to realize that I really don’t have to have all of the answers. Sometimes God chooses not to provide me with all of the answers so that I can learn to exercise my faith. There have been times in the past that it just seemed too hard to trust God. I needed to know the outcome before I could trust him. A lack of faith has sometimes kept me from trusting God with my life, the lives of those I love, or in some cases it has prohibited me from taking a risk. Other times it has affected my obedience to God because I didn’t feel qualified to do something that God was asking me to do.

Sometimes when I am faced with a project, a new venture, or a life changing decision I become paralyzed with fear because I do not have all of the answers. It is at this point that I reflect on how faithful God has been to me in the past and that allows me to launch out and trust him now because I know that God has been faithful to me in the past, he is faithful in the present, therefore he will be faithful in the future.

It would be my guess that people who do not know the Lord allow the “big questions” to keep them away from God completely. Satan insists on us seeing things with our own eyes and knowing all the answers. Satan encourages us to reject faith. Yet that is exactly what faith is. It is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we cannot see.

Do not be surprised if when you are alone with Jesus in the garden of your heart that all of a sudden Satan comes slithering into your mind whispering lies, raisings doubt, and demanding answers to hard questions like: Why do bad things happen to good people? If God is all powerful, why doesn’t he just fix it? Satan also plants thoughts in your mind that causes you to fear looking foolish and failing.

Trusting God comes by a leap of faith that says, “I don’t know what the future will bring, but I know the One who does know the future and can be trusted,” even if things end badly. God has promised us that he will somewhere down the line use the loss that we experience for our good. God is a god of love and will never leave us or abandon us.

This morning before the birds began to sing I spent time alone with Jesus. As I stepped out onto the deck there was not a bird in sight, I hoped to hear their song of praise to their creator and sure enough, six o’clock on the button the birds began to sing. I couldn’t see the sun as yet but I was certain that it would come up, just as it had everyday of my life. I hoped for the sun, and low and behold, up it came!

Before leaving the deck I begin to think about the beautiful daffodils that bloomed last spring. Now, the daffodils were nothing more than a memory. As I was walking into the house I realized that I do not know the answers to all of the mysteries in life, but just as I am confident that even though the winter snow covers all of the bulbs and the ground freezes, I am certain that I will again see the daffodils of spring. Because of God’s faithfulness in nature I know that I can trust God with all of the other things that I do not see or understand. I have become less dependant upon answers to my many questions but totally dependant upon God and his faithfulness. As always, it was good to be in the garden with Jesus. When I am in the garden I feel God’s peace and amazing love in my life.

Questions:

Have you experienced Satan in your garden?

Do you have a question that keeps tripping you up?

What do you need to trust God for that you cannot see or understand?

Prayer:

Dear God,

Help me by faith to give my unanswered questions to you. Give me your peace so that I will not stumble over unanswered questions but rather bask in the truth that I have come to understand. Help me today to take the necessary leap of faith regarding trusting you. Please take away my doubts and unbelief. Today I also pray that those who are currently experiencing the pain and suffering of an unexplainable event in their life. I pray that they will look to you God, so that they might find strength and courage during this difficult time. I pray that you would also grant them your perfect peace.

In Your Son’s Name I pray. Amen.

Will Heaven Be Worth It?

“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived
what God has prepared for those who love him.”
I Corinthians 2:9 NIV

If you are like me, you may have at some point thought that heaven would be boring. I don’t know about you but I have no desire to ride around on clouds and play a harp. If that is what you and I think about heaven, then our minds are full of misconceptions! However, heaven will be being with God forever. It is the prize, the reward at the end of life’s race. It will be having the privilege to go back into God’s garden of perfection. The Bible tells us that, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.” Because of that scripture I know that heaven will be a wonderful place where I will get to lay aside all of my earthly problems.

The truth is that in heaven our non-productive, un-appreciated work will be over. There will be no one in heaven that will ever misunderstand us again. We will get to stop maintaining our 401-K’s, and our stock portfolios. We will no longer pay bills or taxes. There will not be any concern regarding the possibility of losing our jobs, or how we are going to make ends meet. We will not have to worry about the high cost of living, or how we are going to be able to afford college for our children. We will no longer care about the price of food and gas or if the economy will bounce back.

In heaven, we will get to stop maintaining our diets and our aging bodies. We will not live inside a body that confines us and keeps us from doing the things that we were once able to do. There will be no more handicaps or mental illness. There will be no more physical, mental or sexual abuse. Failed marriages and personal rejection from others will be over. Worrying about our inadequacies, our failures, and our self-esteem will be a thing of the past.

Imagine this – the air we breathe will actually be fresh and clean. The food we eat will be better than organic. Recycling will be over, global warnings and thinking “green” will be obsolete. We will not have to deal with the heartache of war. All of the racism, prejudices, and intolerances of our world will be gone. Death, illness, pain, suffering, and poverty will all be over. We will never again have to elect a president or any other public official. Terrorists and dictators will be gone forever. Sin and the result of sin will be abolished! Satan will be cast into hell for all eternity and we will never have to listen to his lies or be attacked by him again.

Heaven will indeed be an amazing place! In heaven there will be productive work to do which will bring us great enjoyment and satisfaction. But best of all, in heaven we will get to see Jesus face to face. I cannot comprehend or image what meeting Jesus will be like, but I am sure it will be exceedingly wonderful! I really cannot wrap my mind around being in the presence of God, but I do believe that there will be both great and indescribable joy attached to the experience. When Jesus was on earth his followers adored him! Why would our experience be any different? Yes, in heaven we will adore Jesus! Will it be worth it? Absolutely!

Questions:

What is your view of heaven?

How do you feel about leaving all of the problems in life behind?

How does it make you feel to realize that no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him?

Do you know for sure that you will go to heaven when you die?

If you are unsure, pray and ask God to forgive your sins and give you that assurance.

Prayer:

Dear Heavenly Father,

You have given me much in this life that I enjoy, and people that I love. In my humanness it makes me sad to think of leaving those I love behind. Help me to enjoy all of those you have given me and my many blessings every single day. In addition, please give me spiritual eyes so that I might also anticipate the joy of your heaven and meeting you face to face. Help me to make time for you in this life so that I will indeed be comfortable with you in heaven.

In Your Name I pray. Amen.