MOURN AND GRIEVE
Today’s Reading: Zechariah 11-12
Click scripture link to read online or HERE to listen online (then click the symbol of the audio speaker above the scripture portion).
The Altar area inside Saint Anne’s Church, next to the ruins of the Pool of Bethesda, Jerusalem. The message is that God’s altar is the Cross of Christ. Jesus said, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:14,15).
GOOGLE MAPS – To see where the photo was taken, click HERE.
Key Verse: Zechariah 12:10
And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn.
God is speaking through Zechariah. The words, “I WILL” make it clear that God is committed to the time when the people of Jerusalem will look on Him (GOD) “whom they have pierced.” This was written 500 years before Jesus was crucified, and while the people looked on Him as He hung on the Cross, it refers to a yet future time when Jesus will come again. They will see Jesus in His resurrected Body, in which the wounds of His crucifixion are visible. Other prophets wrote of the One Who was “wounded for our transgressions” (Isaiah 53:5-6), and “They pierced My hands and feet” (only in crucifixion, and written centuries before any historical record of this method of execution). Read King David’s prophecy found in Psalm 22:16-18. To read one of the records of the crucifixion of Jesus, read John 19:34-37 and then read John 20:26-31 (prophesied in Zechariah 12:10 and 13:6). Make no mistake about it! Nobody other than Jesus fulfills these prophesies. Dr. Mark Hitchcock, a former attorney and now a professor at Dallas Theological Seminary, appeared on the 100 Huntley Street telecast with a message called, “The Shadow of the Cross.” He documents the impossibility of the words of the prophets, including Zechariah, coming to pass as they did by accident (click here for Dr. Hitchcock).
PRAYER FOR TODAY:
Lord God, my heart is so very sad as I think of how You must have grieved “as One mourns for His only Son.” As Jesus is there, one with You at Your throne, You can see the marks on His hands, His feet, and His side. You gave Your “only begotten Son, that whosoever [me included] believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). I pray that the scenes of Your Cross would continuously be before me. I believe “In Him” because You have shown me the One Who is “The Way, the Truth, and the Life” (John 14:6a) through the words of the prophets, the Apostles, and Your Holy Spirit’s revelation to me. Thank You! Thank You! Thank You, Jesus!!! Amen!!!
100 PERSONAL WORDS:
I first saw the gruesome picture (below) when Dr. Paul Maier was my guest on the 100 Huntley Street telecast. Dr. Maier has a Ph.D. in semitic languages from Harvard and is professor of Ancient History at Western Michigan University. The photo shows a nail which was embedded in the ankle bone of a crucified man, according to the archeologists. There must have been a knot in the wood into which it was driven that bent the point of the nail. Of course, the Romans crucified others, including the two thieves who died on the crosses on either side of Jesus. Dr. Maier’s book, Skeleton in God’s Closet, is based on the facts of Jesus’ crucifixion, and then a fictional story evolves when it is claimed that the bones of Jesus have been discovered. This book, in my opinion, is most captivating, stimulating, and well researched. I guarantee that readers will find it very difficult to put it down having begun to read (click here to purchase Skeleton in God’s Closet).
Yours to focus on the most important event in human history, prophesied by the Prophets in the Hebrew Bible and fulfilled by Jesus only!!! (read with me 1 Peter 1:18-25),
David
In the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, this heel bone with a nail pierced through it is on display, giving evidence for the ancient Roman practice of execution on a cross. Oh Jesus, how I grieve over my sins. You suffered crucifixion so that I, and all who believe in You, could be forgiven, saved from eternal death, and given as a free gift, eternal life. The Cross of Jesus was God’s altar where His sacrificial Lamb was sacrificed in human time, but in reality was “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8).
Oh precious Jesus–the suffering You endured so that we may be set free of our sins and iniquity! Our hearts break looking at the nail in the ankle bone and imagining Your unbearable pain. But we rejoice forevermore in the strength You give us from the victory of the cross. “All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers, and its flower falls away, but the word of the Lord endures forever.” Blessings dearest saints, in the Lord.
“I will love thee, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer.” Psalm 18:1-2a
Resurrecting, Acoustic Version, Elevation Worship
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqV7SLu9ccs&nohtml5=False
Amen! David and Beverlee. Thought the same thing, what suffering Jesus endured for us that we might go free. Thinking of the song, “Such Love.”
Lord God Almighty thank You for Your PRECIOUS Gift of Life.
WHAT LOVE!!
Yes, Amen David and Beverlee. and Ger..WHAT SUFFERING JESUS ENDURED FOR US!!!!
Amen!! Irene Ochotta.
I just couldn’t resist posting this, now:
“Faith is not working up by will power a sort of certainty that something is coming to pass, but it is seeing as an actual fact that God has said that this thing shall come to pass, and that it is true, and then rejoicing to know that it is true, and just resting because God has said it.
“Faith turns the promise into a prophecy. While it is merely a promise it is contingent upon our cooperation. But when faith claims it, it becomes a prophecy, and we go forth feeling that it is something that must be done because God cannot lie.” –Days of Heaven upon Earth
“I hear men praying everywhere for more faith, but when I listen to them carefully, and get at the real heart of their prayer, very often it is not more faith at all that they are wanting, but a change from faith to sight.
“Faith says not, “I see that it is good for me, so God must have sent it,” but, “God sent it, and so it must be good for me.”
“Faith, walking in the dark with God, only prays Him to clasp its hand more closely.” –Phillips Brooks
“The Shepherd does not ask of thee
Faith in thy faith, but only faith in Him;
And this He meant in saying, ‘Come to me.’
In light or darkness seek to do His will,
And leave the. work of faith to Jesus still.”
From Streams in the Desert, May 1st
L. B. Cowman
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Sorry saints, I copied the whole page and failed to delete the rest after the poems on faith.
Thanks Beverlee, for posting Have thine own why Lord. The pictures were lovely as well.