Good Friday!

Good Friday morning! The one day of the year that my greeting has a deeper meaning. Yes, today is Good Friday. The day that to the unbeliever makes no sense at all. The Lord, our Christ, was executed today by the Romans at the demand of the Jewish leaders of the day. How can this day be 'good' when the hero or central figure of our religion received capital punishment on this day? What did he do to deserve his death? Why do some of us choose to celebrate such a thing? Of course something rather profound is missing when the Cross is viewed in that way. Jesus died on the cross as a payment for our sins. A payment demanded by God's justice. We can have a personal relationship with God because of the atoning death of Christ. Anyone who believes in Jesus has peace with God because of this capital punishment. This day we make special note of the death of our savior on that cross so long ago, but this is not the only day we celebrate.

Every day, we celebrate the death of Christ by getting up and living. The worst insult to Christ is to ignore His sacrifice. All that pain, effort, sweat, humiliation, and all that love poured out for you and for me. To ignore the sacrifice is to refuse life. We must rise up and spread the good news that Christ died for our sins. No one must descend into Hell to pay for sins on this earth, for to go there is to stay there. Instead we have life in Christ Jesus, and that life begins right here in this place where our witness is most needed.

Through the cross of Jesus we gain the grace we do not deserve because Christ died to pay for the sin He did not commit. The one perfect sacrifice to atone for all sin came on this day at Golgotha almost 2,000 years ago. No one stopped it, for to do so would have doomed us all. Jesus did it at the Father's command though it grieved him terribly. The suffering of the cross was beyond compare, but the victory Jesus gained at the cross is paramount. The miracle of the virgin birth arrived on this earth so that a special child could grow up to die a criminal's death. The reason it pleased God to smite His own Son came in what that sentence accomplished. We live because He died. We live eternally because He rose again... but that's for the Easter message.

Enjoy the weekend. Take some time for prayer.
Bucky