1st read these powerful words of reflection on the cross of Christ and the proper response of love for a Savior who would sacrificially face the cross for us...
I walked one day along a country road (Song Book #357 Alfred Ackley)
1. I walked one day along a country road, and there a stranger journeyed too; bent low beneath the burden of his load; It was a cross, a cross I knew.
Chorus: Take up thy cross and follow me, I hear the blessed Savior call; How can I make a lesser sacrifice when Jesus gave his all?
2. I cried: Lord Jesus! and he spoke my name; I saw his hands all bruised and torn; I stooped to kiss away the marks of shame, The shame for me that he had borne.
3. O let me bear thy cross dear Lord, I cried, and lo, a cross for me appeared; the one, forgotten, I had cast aside, The one so long that I had feared.
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2nd take time to read this...
A medical doctor provides a physical description of "and they crucified Him":
The cross is placed on the ground and the exhausted man is quickly thrown backwards with his shoulders against the wood. The legionnaire feels for the depression at the front of the wrist. He drives a heavy, square wrought iron nail through the wrist deep into the wood. Quickly, he moves to the other side and repeats the action, being careful not to pull the arms too tightly, but to allow some flex and movement. The cross is then lifted into place. The left foot is pressed backward against the right foot, and with both feet extended, toes down, a nail is driven through the arch of each, leaving the knees flexed.
The victim is now crucified. As he slowly sags down with more weight on the nails in the wrists, excruciating fiery pain shoots along the fingers and up the arms to explode in the brain - the nails in the wrists are putting pressure on the median nerves. As he pushes himself upward to avoid this stretching torment, he places the full weight on the nail through his feet. Again he feels the searing agony of the nail tearing through the nerves between the bones of his feet. As the arms fatigue, cramps sweep through his muscles, knotting them deep relentless, throbbing pain.
With these cramps comes the inability to push himself upward to breathe. Air can be drawn into the lungs but not exhaled. He fights to raise himself in order to get even one small breath. Finally, carbon dioxide builds up in the lungs and in the blood stream, and the cramps partially subsided. Spasmodically, he is able to push himself upward to exhale and bring in life-giving oxygen.
Hours of limitless pain, cycles of twisting, joint wrenching cramps, intermittent partial asphyxiation, searing pain as tissue is torn from his lacerated back as he moves up and down against rough timber.
Then another agony begins: a deep, crushing pain deep in the chest asthepericardium slowly fills with serum and begins to compress the heart. It is now almost over. The loss of tissue fluids has reached a critical level-the compressed heart is struggling to pump heavy, thick, sluggish blood into the tissues and the tortured lungs are making frantic effort to gasp in Small gulps of air. He can feel the chill of death creeping through his tissues...Finally, he can allow his body to die...
All of this the Bible records with the simple words, "and they crucified Him," (Mark 15:24).
What wondrous love is this? Many people don't know that pain and suffering our Lord, Jesus Christ went through for us...because of the brutality; crucifixion was given as sentence to only its worst offenders of the law.
Thieves, murderers, and rapists would be the types of creeps who got crucified. Yet, here Jesus is being crucified between two hardened criminals...What did Jesus do? Did he murder anyone? Did he steal anything? The answer as we all know is NO!! Jesus did nothing to deserve this type of death, yet he went willing to die, in between 2 thieves, so that we might be saved. And there, in between the sinners, was our slain savior for our sins.
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Today you can find a relationship with God the Father by accepting by faith (trust in Jesus alone) what Jesus did on the cross for you. Jesus paid the fine and penalty for your sins, so that God's justice could be served, yet you could be set free.
If you repent of your sins (feel remorse for what they cost Jesus, confess them, and turn away from them to now live for God) you can claim a new relationship as a child of God.
If you ever want more information on what it is to have a relationship with God through Jesus, don't hesitate to contact me at The Salvation Army in Homer Alaska, or your local Salvation Army.
My email is Mark.Thielenhaus@usw.salvationarmy.org
Live holy, preach Jesus!
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