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Tag: witness

  • You are my Son

    You are my Son

    Acts 13:

    “‘You are my Son,
        today I have begotten you.’

    34 And as for the fact that he raised him from the dead, no more to return to corruption, he has spoken in this way,

    “‘I will give you the holy and sure blessings of David.’

    35 Therefore he says also in another psalm,

    “‘You will not let your Holy One see corruption.’

    What do you think: When you run to the place where the body should be, do you have faith in the resurrection?

    The dramatic events and turn of expectations at that last celebration of the Passover in Jerusalem must have been traumatic for the Apostles, dear friends and followers of Jesus of Nazareth. The turn of the triumphal entrance with crowds of believers and followers digressing into the stealth of an arrest in the night, trial away from the crowds and manipulative sentence of cruel punishment and humiliation of bloody death on a cross must have terrorized the hearts of all who believed that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the King promised by scripture.

    What had happened? (No disciple could have imagined that it would have turned out like this.) He said so many things during those three years, but it is inconceivable to even the faithful mind that the Son of God would not now win back the Kingdom promised by God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. What happened?

    “You will surely die,” says scripture.

    Yes. We will all surely die and so did Jesus! Even Lazarus, who Jesus raised from the dead and the young daughter of Jairus and son of the widow at Nain – those Christ raised from death – even they will die once again. The disciples of Jesus all knew this; yet in considering the resurrection they never considered the consequence of death which precedes. Eternal life! (What will it be like?) Yet first, death – even death on a Cross.

    The women had seen His tomb empty. The Apostles had raced to the empty tomb only to find the wrappings of death left in the darkness, as if removed like a change of clothes. Then Jesus appeared, alive, in many forms and at many times! He IS risen and the Lord sends us to witness to the world this great love of God our Father. The Kingdom has come.

    Turkey 1st c Roman provencesEven a once skeptical unbelieving leading teacher of Scripture met Jesus on a road to Damascus. In fact, Saul of Tarsus not only teaches Jews of the dispersion throughout the Roman Empire some thought Jesus would overthrow; Paul (his new God-given name) is an Apostle to the gentiles.

    Paul, who travels at great risk even of his own death if caught by those who pursue him, comes to city after city preaching the gospel of the love of Christ Jesus for Jew, Greek and Roman. Paul, confirmed by the Apostles and Barnabas in Pisidia, the town of Antioch, later preached what the Apostles did not understand until after the risen Christ opened up the scriptures for them.

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     Acts 13

    And on the Sabbath day they went into the synagogue and sat down. 15 After the reading from the Law and the Prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent a message to them, saying, “Brothers, if you have any word of encouragement for the people, say it.” 16 So Paul stood up, and motioning with his hand said:

    “Men of Israel and you who fear God, listen. 17 The God of this people Israel chose our fathers and made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt, and with uplifted arm he led them out of it. 18 And for about forty years he put up with them in the wilderness. 19 And after destroying seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave them their land as an inheritance. 20 All this took about 450 years. And after that he gave them judges until Samuel the prophet.

    21 Then they asked for a king, and God gave them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years. 22 And when he had removed him, he raised up David to be their king, of whom he testified and said, ‘I have found in David the son of Jesse a man after my heart, who will do all my will.’ 23 Of this man’s offspring God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus, as he promised.

    24 Before his coming, John had proclaimed a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel. 25 And as John was finishing his course, he said, ‘What do you suppose that I am? I am not he. No, but behold, after me one is coming, the sandals of whose feet I am not worthy to untie.’

    26 “Brothers, sons of the family of Abraham, and those among you who fear God, to us has been sent the message of this salvation. 27 For those who live in Jerusalem and their rulers, because they did not recognize him nor understand the utterances of the prophets, which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled them by condemning him. 28 And though they found in him no guilt worthy of death,they asked Pilate to have him executed. 29 And when they had carried out all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb.

    30 But God raised him from the dead, 31 and for many days he appeared to those who had come up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are now his witnesses to the people.

    32 And we bring you the good news that what God promised to the fathers, 33 this he has fulfilled to us their children by raising Jesus, as also it is written in the second Psalm,

    “‘You are my Son,
        today I have begotten you.’

    34 And as for the fact that he raised him from the dead, no more to return to corruption, he has spoken in this way,

    “‘I will give you the holy and sure blessings of David.’

    35 Therefore he says also in another psalm,

    “‘You will not let your Holy One see corruption.’

    36 For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep and was laid with his fathers and saw corruption, 37 but he whom God raised up did not see corruption.

    38 Let it be known to you therefore, brothers,that through this man forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, 39 and by him everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses. 40 Beware, therefore, lest what is said in the Prophets should come about:

    41 “‘Look, you scoffers,
        be astounded and perish;
    for I am doing a work in your days,
        a work that you will not believe, even if one tells it to you.’”

    42 As they went out, the people begged that these things might be told them the next Sabbath.

    43 And after the meeting of the synagogue broke up, many Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who, as they spoke with them, urged them to continue in the grace of God.

    44 The next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord. 45 But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and began to contradict what was spoken by Paul, reviling him. 46 And Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying, “It was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you. Since you thrust it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles. 47 For so the Lord has commanded us, saying,

    “‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles,
        that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.’”

    48 And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.49 And the word of the Lord was spreading throughout the whole region. 50 But the Jews incited the devout women of high standing and the leading men of the city, stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and drove them out of their district. 51 But they shook off the dust from their feet against them and went to Iconium. 52 And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.

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    It’s all there in the Bible. The disciples of Jesus knew these scriptures. Yet like us, they wanted to understand God’s word applied in their lives in a way less painful and more victorious.

    “Son of David,” they shouted. Surely God would establish a Kingdom even more glorious than that of David and Solomon. And imagine: a Son of God who would rule forever – a Son of Man like us. (Could He die?) God the Father will put the Son in charge. All will be resurrected to the Kingdom of the Son of God! He will be judge of all souls and rule with the righteousness of the Father.

    We will surely die. Even the Apostles died. Paul died. All died. Your loved ones and your ancestors have died. You will die. I will die. Yet, finally we see a light from the darkness of death – a resurrection of the soul and a redemption for our sin.

    This is the gospel of Jesus Christ, that all who believe in him will be forgiven our sins. By grace we are given life eternal, which we do not deserve. Yet because of God’s love for us, the victory of the Cross changes everything.

    Has your faith in the Son changed your life, knowing your hope after death?

    John 14:6  Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

    The risen Christ; Jesus, their crucified friend, had to explain scripture and the victory of His resurrection over sin and death to His beloved and amazed Apostles. (It’s all there in the Bible for you to read even to this day.)

    Do you believe it? While it is yet today, why not live for Christ? For to die is gain.

  • I AM the Resurrection and the Life

    I AM the Resurrection and the Life

    “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

    John 11:

    The Word Became Flesh

    John 1 (ESV)

    1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

    Genesis 1:

    In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

    26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.

    Genesis 2: 7 then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.

    9b The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

    16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

    Genesis 3:

    22 Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” 23 therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken.

    Genesis 5:5  Thus all the days that Adam lived were 930 years, and he died.

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    If there is one time in our mind we really would like to question the indisputable inerrancy of the Bible it is probably a quote of the devil’s question in the garden:

    He said to the woman, “Did God actually say…?” – Genesis 3:1b

    Follow Satan’s deceiving question with whatever evil your mind may conceive, but the premise is false answer of Satan.

    4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die… 

    Walk up to Eve or Adam and ask either of them if what Satan has assured them as enticement to sin is true?

    Yes, every one of us knows that we will surely die! Therefore, what is our hope? (And I remind us now that the Bible is God’s guaranteed word.)

    God IS, the LORD exists before time and measurement of creation; God IS, the LORD remains after the time of creation can no longer be measured. This is unfathomable to our limited created mind (which now has the knowledge of good and evil). This is why we must believe by faith.

    Have you ever considered how different our world would be without sin? Have you ever dared to think what it would be like to NEVER die, while living in a Paradise of God’s love?

    Consider the resurrection by faith: that the LORD who created all things, the LORD who created each particle of your flesh and bones, your brain and body, your heart and soul; that the LORD who made you can make you eternal!

    We can be raised from the dead to a life God intended! Praise our Lord Jesus Christ!

    Evidence of Christ’s resurrection is well-documented, yet still not believed by those not saved from death by their own sin and disobedience. They do not want to believe God. By their own will many will not bow down to any, even God the LORD!

    Evidence of the resurrection, which some of the Jews did not believe, is presented in scripture even before the Cross of Christ Jesus.  Some always refuse to obey God in spite of the evidence of scripture.

    Is faith by evidence of scripture so far beyond the evidence seen only by your eyes which can deceive?

    By Faith

    Hebrews 11 English Standard Version (ESV)

    Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

    By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him.

    By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.

    By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.

    Do you believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ by faith, when you know ‘you will surly die’?

    1 Kings 17:

    18 And she said to Elijah, “What have you against me, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my sin to remembrance and to cause the death of my son!”

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    Is that what you think of Easter? Is that what you think of all the hope of the empty tomb of Jesus? Where is your faith?

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    20 And he cried to the Lord, “O Lord my God, have you brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by killing her son?”

    21 Then he stretched himself upon the child three times and cried to the Lord, “O Lord my God, let this child’s life come into him again.” 22 And the Lord listened to the voice of Elijah. And the life of the child came into him again, and he revived.

    23 And Elijah took the child and brought him down from the upper chamber into the house and delivered him to his mother. And Elijah said, “See, your son lives.”

    Indeed, the Son lives! He IS resurrected from the dead.

    Ezekiel 37:

    tomb and crosses
    He is risen!

    The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of the valley; it was full of bones.2 And he led me around among them, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley, and behold, they were very dry. 3 And he said to me,“Son of man, can these bones live?”

    What do you think: When you run to the place where the body should be, do you have faith in the resurrection?

    5 Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath [It is the same word as in the beginning, Gen. 1:2] to enter you, and you shall live.

    6 And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord.”

    7 So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I prophesied, there was a sound, and behold, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone.8 And I looked, and behold, there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them. But there was no breath in them.

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    Is that what you say of the body that has died?

    “There is no breath in them. They are dry bones forever.”

    The Prophet Ezekiel is witnessing creation of a man by the Spirit of God! – resurrection from the bones of men who have died!

    It was a battle for Jerusalem where faithful men died defending the Holy City of the LORD.  Faithful fallen followers of God, who wept over Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it!

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    Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.”

    10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.

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    Resurrection at the command of the Living GOD! Men dead, given life from the dust of our bones!

    Do you hearken to the upward call of the Voice of the Living One?

    Resurrection! Do you believe this?

    This is 600 years before Christ Jesus. This is the same time even Jews persecuted their own Prophets. This is the time of Jeremiah who they threw into a pit to die. This is a time when Daniel would interpret handwriting on the walls for Kings who had destroyed Jerusalem in 607 BC; a time when the faithful were led as captives into Babylon, as before Moses had led Israel from the slavery Egypt.

    It is the LORD who brings floods on all of the earth. It is the LORD who parts the sea before the Hebrews to pass over. It is the LORD who commands spirit into the lifeless body, which lies in the tomb of hopelessness.

     Jesus Raises a Widow’s Son

    Luke 7:

    11 Soon afterward he went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a great crowd went with him. 12 As he drew near to the gate of the town, behold, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow, and a considerable crowd from the town was with her.

    13 And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, “Do not weep.” 14 Then he came up and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And he said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.”

    15 And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother.

    16 Fear seized them all, and they glorified God, saying, “A great prophet has arisen among us!” and“God has visited his people!” 17 And this report about him spread through the whole of Judea and all the surrounding country.

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    I have sat through memorials for my mother and for my wife…

    They lay in the grave without sinew to embrace me in the flesh; lifeless rest, without spirit to have compassion on me… Is there hope for these?

    Yes! I say. In Christ they live. By their faith, their bones will hearken to the upward call of Jesus, when at last He will return once more on the clouds of Heaven… and then the Judgment.

    Even with evidence of the Prophets and witness of Jesus, the Son of Man raising a boy from the coffin and giving him back to his mother: many refused to believe. Yet the work of the resurrection is never finished until Jesus says, “It is finished.”

     John 11 (ESV)

    The Death of Lazarus

    Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha… 5 Now Jesus loved [agapaō] Martha and her sister and Lazarus…

    8 The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone you, and are you going there again?” …

    14 Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus has died, 15 and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” 16 So Thomas, called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”

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    Not a lot of faith here from a disciple who knew Jesus raised the boy at Nain from the dead. Fear and doubt: how easily we forget our faith in the Lord when our flesh is at stake. We are just like him though; for we would want to put our hands in the wounds of the nails.

    We pray for Jesus to heal the inevitable sickness leading to death of a loved one, when their true sickness is the sin of our souls.

    17 Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. 18 Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off, 19 and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother…

    21 Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.”

    23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”

    24 Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.”

    25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

    27 She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God,who is coming into the world.”

    … 32 Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

    … 38 Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. 39 Jesus said, “Take away the stone.”

    … “Lazarus, come out.”

    44 The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth.

    Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”

    The Plot to Kill Jesus

    45 Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what he did, believed in him, 46 but some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.

    47 So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council and said, “What are we to do? For this man performs many signs. 48 If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.”

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    Jesus Christ is not the only one to ride into Jerusalem in triumph. The Table of Sacrifice for the Temple is prepared. The proof of the resurrection, even in the person of Lazarus, is evidence!

    “Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the LORD,” shout some.

    Then when it is time for the Sacrifice, many flee. Many betray the Lord to hold onto their comfortable sins. They shout, “Crucify Him! Crucify Him.“

    Like a Lamb he is led to the slaughter, scourged for the punishment of our sins, and nailed to a tree with the curse of our unrighteousness.

    “Crucify Him! Crucify Him,” we witness by the fruit of our quick run from the Cross after we worship most Sundays. Yet He loves us so much.

    Christ died for our sins.

    For the Tomb will be empty…

    And so will be yours…

    The Savior returns.

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    Do you believe this?

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  • Jesus Is Nailed to the Cross

    Jesus Is Nailed to the Cross

    Roger is born again in the Holy Spirit!

    I owned a business just across the parking lot and cemetery next to the church where we worshiped each Sunday. It is the church where our daughter was baptized and where I read scripture and ministered communion to shut-ins.

    I made the short pilgrimage down the sidewalk to the Good Friday Stations of the Cross service at noon. We are well familiar with the scriptures read each Holy Week in most every church. I chose to worship during my regular lunchtime.

    I’m not certain if today’s text is the same or just similar. (I have linked it to its source above & only offer it here in part.) May I recommend your prayerful consideration of the entire text.

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    As part of their acts of devotion, early Christian pilgrims to Jerusalem retraced the route of Jesus as he carried his cross to his death. Early pilgrimages varied considerably with different starting places and different routes. As the practice developed in the medieval period, the starting point for this journey through the streets of Jerusalem began in the ruins of the Fortress of Antonia that originally housed Pilate’s Judgment Hall, now incorporated into the Ecce Homo Convent. It concluded at the ancient Church of the Holy Sepulcher that marks the traditional site of Golgotha and the tomb of Jesus. By the sixteenth century, the route this pilgrimage took through Jerusalem came to be called the Via Dolorosa, the Way of Sorrow. Along the Way, certain points on the journey (stations) were associated with specific events recounted (or implied) in the Gospel accounts.

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    1. Christ condemned to death;
    2. the cross is laid upon him;
    3. His first fall;
    4. He meets His Blessed Mother;
    5. Simon of Cyrene is made to bear the cross;
    6. Christ’s face is wiped by Veronica;
    7. His second fall;
    8. He meets the women of Jerusalem;
    9. His third fall;
    10. He is stripped of His garments;
    11. His crucifixion;
    12. His death on the cross;
    13. His body is taken down from the cross; and
    14. He is laid in the tomb.

    IF you have never truly considered the pathos and suffering which led up to Christ Jesus’ final crucifixion for our sins, Good Friday is a most appropriate time to consider your sin and repent in all thankfulness and grace.

     Station 1:  Pilate Condemns Jesus to Die

    (Matt 27:11-14, 24, 26b)

    Speaker: Jesus, I wish you would speak!  I wish you would proclaim who you are.  I wish you would confront the disbelief of the crowds and the arrogant cowardice of the powers that be. Surely someone will speak up for you!  Where are the lepers who were healed?  Where are the blind who can now see?  Where are all the people who ate the bread and fish on the hillside?  Where are those who followed you so easily when they thought you would become King of the Jews? Yet no one speaks.  No voice in the crowd comes to your defense. You stand alone…

    I have been alone.  I have been falsely accused, and no one has spoken for me.  I have been treated unfairly by those who could have used their power for better purposes. I can understand some of your feelings as you stand silently before Pilate and watch him proclaim his own innocence as he condemns an innocent man…

    Station 2:  Jesus Accepts His Cross

    (Matthew 27:27-31)

    Carrying the cross by himself, he went out to what is called The Place of the Skull, which in Hebrew is called Golgotha. (John 19:17)

    Speaker: Jesus, I cringe at the pain of the thorns. But I am wounded far more deeply at the humiliation and degradation you suffer, that the very thing you came to offer us as a gift becomes a source of ridicule.  The crowds thought of a King in terms of power.  But you came to be the kind of King who shepherds his people, who takes responsibility for their well being, whose principles are faithfulness, justice, and righteousness. And yet, the people are not ready for that kind of King.

    I would like to think that I am ready to follow you who offer a Kingdom of peace and love for one another.  But am I?  Am I willing to yield my ideas of what the Kingdom should look like for the role of a servant?  Am I really so willing to give up my human preoccupation with power and control and accept a different kind of crown than I was expecting? …

     Station 3:  Simon Helps Carry the Cross

    They compelled a passer-by, who was coming in from the country, to carry his cross; it was Simon of Cyrene, the father of Alexander and Rufus. (Mark 15:21)

    Jesus, I can only imagine the awful weight of that cross you carry. It is not just the weight of beams of wood that presses down on you. It is also the weight of the burden you carry for those whom you have loved.  You came to offer them life, and yet they return only death.

    So I see you fall from the crushing weight of pain and grief.  I don’t know how many times you have fallen.  But I know that your physical strength is failing.  The soldiers must recognize this as well, because they force a man from the crowd to help you carry the cross the rest of the way to the place where you will be crucified.  Perhaps they are afraid that you will die before you make it to the top of the hill. The man of Cyrene was just a bystander passing through on his way into town from the countryside.  And yet he bears the weight of the cross to save your strength.

    I would like to think that if I had been there I would have rushed from the crowd and volunteered to carry that cross for you.  But would I have had the courage to face the Roman soldiers and risk being forced to join you on a cross?  Would I have really been so eager to share your cross if it meant that I might have to die on one as well?  Would I have been willing to risk everything to ease your suffering for a few moments by letting you know that you were not alone?

    Besides, I have my own crosses already.  I have as much as I can bear without taking on the added burdens of others. And what would people think of me if I were seen consorting with criminals and enemies of Rome in such a public spectacle?  So instead of offering to help, I tried to become invisible in the crowd…

    Station 4:  Jesus Speaks to the Women

     (Luke 23:27-31)

    Jesus, as you struggle along the road toward that awful place of death, you see a group of women among the crowd following you, already grieving at your impending death.  You have heard this wailing many times before at funerals and tragic events.  But now, they mourn for you.

    You have always shown equal compassion to women you have encountered across the years.  You have always seemed to understand the unique burdens that women bear in a world and a culture that pushes them to the margins of society. So here, as you bear the most unimaginable pain of body and heart, you stop to speak to them. You are about to die, and yet you are more concerned with others than with your own suffering and death.

    But your words are strange and seem out of place on this road of sorrow. They have a prophetic ring to them as if you were still trying to tell people something important that they cannot quite grasp, or that perhaps they do not really want to hear.  You speak of even darker days, of far worse things to come upon the people.  Yet, how can things get worse? …

    Station 5:  Jesus Is Stripped of His Garments

    (John 19:23-25a)

    Jesus, I want to follow you on this journey. But I cannot watch this. I must turn away as you are humiliated.

    You came into this world amid celebration and anticipation…

    They wanted to make you king! Just a few days ago the crowds followed you in the streets of Jerusalem singing praises to God: “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! ”

    Yet now, you are forced to suffer the worst of human indignity. You stand alone as the soldiers strip from you the last thing that you possess, and play games to see who will claim it…

    Are you still trying to teach us something about what it means to serve others?  Is your surrender to such degradation a model for how we are to live in the world as your followers?

    I don’t like such an idea. I would rather walk with you into Jerusalem with the praise of the people ringing in my ears than to risk such humiliation. I want to follow you!  But is this really what it means to be a follower, that I must lay aside everything and risk this kind of degradation?

    And yet, that is exactly what you are doing…

    Station 6:  Jesus Is Nailed to the Cross

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    Our small group of worshipers had now stood at each of the stations along the right side of our small church. We had prayed and considered each as the group slowly processed to Station 6 near the front of the sanctuary. At the words of the following scripture the Holy Spirit pressed me to my knees. I could no longer stand.cross and light

    Now I am not a weak man or prone to fainting; yet in this moment of weakness beneath the Cross of Christ, I would have fallen to the floor had I not grabbed hold of the pew beside me and then sunk into the humility of worship.

    I could not walk further after this station, either, until near the end of the worship. I testify as God is my witness of a powerful moving of the Holy Spirit through our church in weeks to come which slayed many in the Spirit and also attracted false worshipers before the Spirit moved on to other believers in places known only to the Lord.

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    And they offered him wine mixed with myrrh; but he did not take it. And they crucified him, and divided his clothes among them, casting lots to decide what each should take. It was nine o’clock in the morning when they crucified him. The inscription of the charge against him read, “The King of the Jews.”

    And with him they crucified two bandits, one on his right and one on his left. Those who passed by derided him, shaking their heads and saying, “Aha! You who would destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself, and come down from the cross!”  In the same way the chief priests, along with the scribes, were also mocking him among themselves and saying, “He saved others; he cannot save himself. Let the Messiah, the King of Israel, come down from the cross now, so that we may see and believe.” Those who were crucified with him also taunted him. (Mark 15:23-32)

    Jesus, I do not want to see this.  Yet I force myself to watch.nailed to the cross

    I hear the sharp crack of hammer against nail and shudder.

    It sounds so final. Is it over?  Did all those wonderful lessons you taught by the seaside mean anything? You spoke of being a light to the world, but it seems that darkness is winning…

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    From my knees in a pew behind those standing I wept for Jesus and for my sins.

    Lord forgive us. 

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    Station 7:  Jesus Cares for His Mother

    (John 19:25b-27)

    Station 8:  Jesus Dies on the Cross

    (Mark 15:33-39)

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    Link to original complete post: http://www.crivoice.org/stations.html#top

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    Jesus once asked a man,

    “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.” – Mark 10:18 & Luke 18:19

    I had never understood this. I thought I had always been a pretty good Christian.

    Beloved friend, that is NOT good enough. You and I can never be anything but sinners!

    Only then, humbled by the cross, did I lose my burden of sin by the love and grace of the sacrifice of the Body and Blood of Christ our Lord on the Cross of our Redemption. Only in that moment was I born not only in the water of baptism, but also born again in the Spirit of the Holy and Living God!

    Praise to our Lord Jesus Christ!

    O beloved, will you not consider how great the Sacrifice for your daily sin?

    Dear friend, will you humble your soul He does love (as do I) in the great hope of the resurrection we have only in Christ Jesus?

    For Jesus Christ was also nailed to the Cross for you.

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