Price Paid

John 19:1-6

New International Version (NIV)

Jesus Sentenced to Be Crucified

19 Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. ² The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head. They clothed him in a purple robe ³ and went up to him again and again, saying, “Hail, king of the Jews!” And they slapped him in the face.

⁴ Once more Pilate came out and said to the Jews gathered there, “Look, I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no basis for a charge against him.” ⁵ When Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, “Here is the man!”

⁶ As soon as the chief priests and their officials saw him, they shouted, “Crucify! Crucify!”

But Pilate answered, “You take him and crucify him. As for me, I find no basis for a charge against him.”

Tonight my women’s bible study group watched “The Passion of The Christ”, this was the first time that I was able to watch it from beginning to end because when the movie first came out in the theaters my mom and I went to go see it and ended up leaving a few minutes into the wiping scene because it was ‘too graphic’ at the time.

Now after seeing the film in its entirety and without any problem with watching every part of it, I realized that it was the enemy that prevented me and my mom from watching it the first time. Satan knew that if I especially, had watched it I would have given my life to Christ right after and push the darkness out of my life! It finally makes sense, I had been feeling like I had been missing a small piece of my faith and this movie filled it.

The Lord knows I am a visual person and therefore tend to rely on what I see and not what I’m told. Seeing the most realistic depiction of the last 12 hours of Jesus’ life, all the way through the crucifixion has given me the ability to really understand what the blood of Jesus represents and how he bore ALL of our sins so that we could be cleansed. 

Quiet Suffering

There has been an influx of those who are quietly suffering from depression and a feeling of having to be perfect or having to keep everything in for fear that people would judge them.  I believe there are more people with this issue than those that don’t.

The youth today have more against them than those of their parents. With smart phones, internet and social media, the youth have to be on guard for the possible threat of being photographed looking a certain way or have rumors started about them because someone doesn’t like them. As a young adult I have had issues and seen my peers have to deal with the same, the only difference from myself at the age of 23 and those who are in high school and middle school today is that they have more popular social networks and a lack of celebrity “role models”. During my school years we only had myspace and the short-lived xanga and live journal, as well as the emergence of youtube but hadn’t reached its popularity quite yet. These social networks have created an outlet for some and a personal hell for others.

Other issues are based solely on past experiences that have caused them to become introverted or to withhold feelings that need to be released.

These are all things that contribute to a person’s silent suffering and can be one of the hardest  things to detect in others.

Christians can be sufferers from this too, this is why we have to fellowship with each other and edify each other. When we all create a safe and supportive space walls that have been built up will crumble and let God’s love come in. From there the healing process can begin and that spirit of depression can be defeated. Not everything is instant but  it will be defeated. 

Ephesians 3:20

Ephesians 3:20

New International Version (NIV)

²⁰ Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us,

We have all access through Christ.

Sometimes I forget that I have the ultimate hook up when it comes to….well… ANYTHING!

I believe that many people forget the same, we all have access to anything we want through Christ. Of course there may be seasons when the Lord does not give you what you want when you want it because He knows that you are not ready for it.

We all need a reminder of just how magnificent our God is; we serve a God that can literally move mountains! We all start out with a fire in our hearts to be the “best Christian” as possible only to burn out or simply have that fire dim and we get use to our routines and daily lives, the natural ups and downs that everyone else deals with forgetting that we aren’t like everybody else. We are not meant to be living mediocre lives, we are supposed to have fulfilling blessed lives.

The world tries to conform God to what we think He can do and who He is. When anyone thinks of God as they do man they immediately cut off the flow of abundance, because now they limited their scope of what good can come to them. For example, you can’t receive a opportunity that would take you where you have always wanted to go, if you are expecting a small pay increase at your job…

Expect the unexpected! Expect to be blessed and not limited! Know that you have an all access pass to the one and only who can take you or give you the things you couldn’t even imagine!