The Day of Sacrifice 4-14-06

Good morning, Lord Jesus. On this Good Friday, the day of Your suffering and sacrifice of love for me, I thank You and I worship You. You are my Passover Lamb -- the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, the Lamb of God who has taken away my sins (John 1:29). ... The prophet Isaiah saw the glory of Your birth and life and death eight hundred years before You came in the flesh. He prophesied of Your willing sacrifice of amazing love for each of us to be restored and reconciled in relationship with You (John 12:41; Matthew 12:17): "Who has believed what we have heard? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by others; a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity; as one from whom others hid their faces he was despised, and we held him of no account." "Surely he has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases; yet we accounted him stricken, struck down by God and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have all turned our own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all." "He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. By a perversion of justice he was taken away. Who could have imagined his future? For he was cut off from the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people. They made his grave with the wicked and his tomb with the rich, though he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth." "Yet it was the will of God to crush him with pain. When you make his life an offering for sin, he shall see his offspring, and shall prolong his days; through him the will of God shall prosper. Out of his anguish he shall see light; he shall find satisfaction through his knowledge: The righteous one, My servant, shall make many righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will allot his portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he poured out himself to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors" (Isaiah 53:1-12). Thank You, Lord Jesus, for pouring out Yourself to death for me, for making intercession for me. For I am a transgressor, but in You and through Your sacrifice, You have made me righteous. Though I can't image the depth of this love or this sacrifice, I find joy in knowing You "find satisfaction" in seeing the will of God prosper through Your eternal act of unfailing love. Like all those who now know the love and peace of God because of Your sacrifice of love, I am "looking to Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of God" (Hebrews 12:2). Only in the knowledge of Your joy can I find peace in the sadness and anguish of this day of Your sacrifice. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen. Be encouraged this day! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays Friends, if you can please come join us at Church of the Savior on Brannon Road in Lexington at 7:00 pm on Saturday night. Rob Poindexter will lead in worship and I will lead in ministry we move from repentance and sorrow to peace and joy at the close of this Holy Week. To subscribe/unsubscribe, or to order my teaching and prayer dvd's for spiritual transformation through inner healing and deliverance, please send a note to me at Messiah Ministries MessiahMin@aol.com -- "Preparing the Way of the Lord." Address: 2800 Tates Creek Rd; Lexington, Kentucky 40502.On the Web: http://www.messiah-ministries.orgCome to The Fountain the 3rd Friday night of every month at 7 pm for our citywide gathering for prayer and worship in the chapel. Daily archives: http://morningbymorning.injesus.com