I CRIED TODAY
Food for Thought
An all-creatures.org Guide to Kingdom Living

“He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.”
~Isaiah 53:3–6 King James Version

This morning I watched a very moving and very sad family program on television. The parents had to make a very difficult decision concerning their child. Finally the mother said “We have to do what is best for our child”. When I heard her say that my eyes filled with tears because it felt like someone had plunged a knife in my heart. I realized that God did not do what was best for His child when He gave Him to become our Saviour; He did what was best for us. What kind of love is this, that a Father would willingly give His Son to die for us? This is a pure love. It is the unconditional, amazing Agape love that God and Jesus have for us.

I have been thinking all afternoon about the words to some of the songs that we sing and sad to say, we don’t even think about the words we are singing. It’s just like the passage of scripture in this devotional. A lot of us can quote this passage and it has become so familiar to us that we don’t even think about it any more or grasp the pain and heartache in these verses.

We sing the song “All to Jesus I surrender” but have we really surrendered everything or are we holding something back from Him? “Praise God from whom all blessings flow” but are we praising Him? Are we praising Him all the time or only when He does something for us? “Jesus is the sweetest name I know” so why do we treat Him like we do? Why do we keep hurting Him by our cruel words and actions to others? “At the cross, at the cross where I first saw the light and the burdens of my heart rolled away” yet we walk around with frowns instead of smiles. “He leadeth me, O blessed thought” but are we following Him? A lot of times we don’t even include Him in our daily activities so how can He be leading us?

It is time that we become broken hearted over the way that Jesus was treated when He was here on earth, and is still being treated today. Every thorn in that crown on His precious head and every thorn in His heart was for us. He endured the shame, agony and torture because He loves us so much. He not only shed tears for us; He shed His blood for us so that we may have a way to be saved and assured of a home in Heaven with Him for all eternity. May God forgive us for taking His love for granted!

Joanne Lowe
March 6, 2007

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lamb-rightThe purpose of this series is to encourage people to live as loving, compassionate, and peacemaking children of God: Jesus tells us to pray, "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." (Matthew 6:10) God tells us through Micah (6:8), "He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God." And we know from Revelation 21:4 that there will be no more mourning, or crying, or pain, or death. Thus, Christian living requires us to set the standards of these conditions here on earth for our fellow human beings, and for the other animals, as a witness to the rest of the world. To do otherwise is not Christian.