Easter Thoughts and Wishes

Good Friday

Isaiah 53 – He was  beaten,  abused, bruised, crushed, despised, betrayed, rejected, punished, forsaken …

by men, but worst of all by His Father!  Even though He was completely innocent! 

Why? 

For those of us who see our rebellion, our indifference to our Creator, our lack of love to our neighbours, our inability to honour God as we ought as His creatures. 

And who see that we deserve punishment, 

And who see our need for a Go-between, a Mediator, a Saviour

– because we can’t bear the just penalty of our sin and we can’t live the required life of perfection. 

 Only Christ, the God-Man could and did – if we will simply believe and cry for mercy and accept His gift of New Life. 

Colossians 2:13  “And you, who were dead in your trespasses (failures)…God made alive together with Christ having forgiven all our trespasses by cancelling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands...by nailing them to the cross.”

Contemplating Christ’s sufferings on earth also helps take the edge off our sufferings. If Christ went thru such agony of physical pain and emotional & mental anguish for us, can’t we, thru His grace endure our lighter afflictions for Him?

“Stille Zaterdag”   

Thinking of the sadness and emptiness Jesus’ followers must have felt after witnessing His death and burial – all their hopes and expectations killed and buried with Him! 

Yet how much worse the feeling of lost-ness and purposelessness – the “what now?!”  that those who say that God is dead must feel when they are really honest with themselves. Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (who greatly influenced the “three devils of the twentieth century: Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini) was honest enough to follow atheism to its logical outworking:  madness, despair and suicide, bloodshed.  “He wanted to look life squarely in the eye, with no God to obstruct his vision and the picture he saw was agonizing to his mind… the storm clouds were even more devastating and violent than any of God’s undertakers had imagined…”  His parable called The Madman portrays the terrifying results of denying God and became somewhat prophetic as he himself went insane in the last decade of his life. (See: The Real Face of Atheism, Ravi Zacharias)

But, thanks be to God, all is NOT hopeless, God is NOT dead!  Good Friday and the death of the God the Son was not the end of the story!

Yes, God did send His Son to take our place, pay the penalty of death – and He also raised Him again in a glorified body!  and He credits our account with His righteousness (right life) and His Eternal Life!  (John 3:16) 

Easter gives us every reason to rejoice, find purpose to life and hope for the life here-after!

May each one of you reading this, know the Risen Saviour!

Happy Easter!  Goede Pasen!

 

(Sorry the blog's been so dead, trying to resurrect it :) Hopefully some photos will be posted again soon!)