Sunday, March 31, 2013

He is Risen!

Our pastor read this quote by John Stott in his sermon this morning, and I thought it was so beautiful. I'm incredibly thankful for a Savior who endured such agony and suffering for me. He is so worthy of praise.

"I could never myself believe in God, if it were not for the cross.  The only God I believe in is the One Nietzsche ridiculed as “God on the cross.”  In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it?  I have entered many Buddhist temples in different Asian countries and stood respectfully before the statue of the Buddha, his legs crossed, arms folded, eyes closed, the ghost of a smile playing round his mouth, a remote look on his face, detached from the agonies of the world.  But each time after a while I have had to turn away.  And in imagination I have turned instead to that lonely, twisted, tortured figure on the cross, nails through hands and feet, back lacerated, limbs wrenched, brow bleeding from thorn-pricks, mouth dry and intolerably thirsty, plunged in Godforsaken darkness.  That is the God for me!  He laid aside his immunity to pain.  He entered our world of flesh and blood, tears and death.  He suffered for us.  Our sufferings become more manageable in the light of his.  There is still a question mark against human suffering, but over it we boldly stamp another mark, the cross that symbolizes divine suffering.  "The cross of Christ . . . is God’s only self-justification in such a world" as ours. . . . "The other gods were strong; but thou wast weak; they rode, but thou didst stumble to a throne; But to our wounds only God’s wounds can speak, And not a god has wounds, but thou alone." --John Stott, The Cross of Christ

We also sang "Joy to the Heart" this morning in church. This is probably my favorite Easter song. I just always feel so overwhelmed with thankfulness and adoration for Jesus while singing it.

"Look there! The Christ, our Brother, comes resplendent from the gallows tree and what He brings in His hurt hands is life on life for you and me.
Joy! Joy! Joy to the heart all in this good day's dawning!

Good Jesus Christ inside His pain, looked down Golgotha's stony slope and let the blood flow from His flesh to fill the springs of living hope.
Joy! Joy! Joy to the heart all in this good day's dawning!

Good Jesus Christ, our Brother, died in darkest hurt upon the tree to offer us the worlds of light that live inside the Trinity.
Joy! Joy! Joy to the heart all in this good day's dawning!

Look there! The Christ, our Brother comes resplendent from the gallows tree and what He brings in His hurt hands is life on life for you and me.
Joy! Joy! Joy to the heart all in this good day's dawning!"

Praise God, we serve a RISEN Lord! Happy Easter, friends!

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