Have you ever received a very, very expensive gift? I am talking about maybe thousands of dollars. I am sure that some have but not me, at least from a human. But I have received a very, very expensive gift from my Father in heaven when He sent Jesus to pay for my sins. I cannot imagine the cost, and I believe it will take all eternity to learn the real value of that gift.
Can you imagine yourself giving your very own child to pay for someone's sin, small or great? And then on top of all that, watching them be tormented and tortured and spit on and nailed eventually to a cross? I read somewhere that when one was beaten with thirty nine stripes, any more than that could be lethal and Jesus was beaten twice with 39 stripes. In those days the whip they used had metal strips on the end of the cords and tore the flesh open. Can you imagine what He went through for you and me? That is a hard one to comprehend, isn't it? I am pretty sure that none of us could watch our child suffer like that without fainting, which is exactly what His mother did. But His heavenly Father watched it all and I am pretty sure that He suffered extreme agony watching His Son treated in such a hideous manner.
He paid the price for your sins and mine and every murderer, every rapist, every thief, everyone's sins that day on the cross and what do we do in return for such an expensive gift to us, some turn their backs on Him and deny Him, some pretend to be Christians and deny Him or bring reproach on His name and others choose to follow Him and serve Him and glorify Him with their lives, words and deeds. What would your choice be?
Read John 18 and 19 and then from what I have described to you answer the question I just asked. I do hope your answer is that you will glorify Him in your life, I want to and I really can't imagine anyone not wanting to, but I am sure there are some. May God help us to have the desire to be one of His followers.
Grandma Joan
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