God turned His back...

And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

Mar 15:34 

Did God forsake Jesus?  Did He turn His back on His son…our savior?  Yes He did.  Why would God do that?  This was the ninth hour for Jesus at the time He needed God the most and God did that?  Why?

The answer is simpler than you think.  God can not look upon sin.  At this point our sinless Christ hung on the cross and now became sinful.  What?  This is the point in which the sins of all humanity landed on Jesus.  This is the point that he took on the punishment for you and I.  It was here that He died just moments after.

As Christians we come together and celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, but why do we only do this once per year?  Some churches perform the Lord’s Supper at least a couple of times per year.  This is the reason we are Christians.  Without the death and resurrection of Jesus we are nothing but gentiles…outcasts or foreigners of Israel.  We can not worship Yahweh.  We can not commune with the one true God.  I praise God that He gave us His son to be a sacrifice for humanity in order that we could find peace and know the love of God.

This next year I challenge you to not only understand the sacrifice, but to live the sacrifice!  If you were to win the Lotto…how many people would you tell?  How excited would you be?  Jesus is the ultimate Lotto my friend with the odds of winning at infinity to one!  Tell others!  Live like you believe it!  Live because you Love!

The Day I was Crucified

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This book by Gene Edwards presents the crucifixion through the eyes of Jesus.  If you are seeking to understand the sacrifice that was made then I highly recommend this book.  The current price is 22% off the recommended retail price of $13.99

The Holy Trinity made simple

As Christians we have spent a lot of time learning and understanding who Jesus is. We also believe that God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit are one in the same.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

The same was in the beginning with God.

All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

John 1:1-3

It would be easy to spend hours writing a book on the Holy Trinity and what it means to Christians, but that has been done.  Examples of a couple:

         

              Click Here                                           Click Here

                 $19.50                                                 $16.37

What I would like to discuss is the basics for now not an in depth theology of the subject.  I would highly recommend the two books above in you are looking to study in depth.

The Son:

Jesus is the son of God. We already know that as Christians. We have built our faith on that. We probably know Jesus the most out of the three concepts, but I want you to look at Him in this perspective. Jesus represents the love of God.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

John 3:16

After reading John 1:1 we discover that Jesus and God are one in the same. This is how God the Father demonstrated His love for us.  We were and are and will always be sinners; however, the price for our sin was paid with the crucifixion of Jesus!  THE SON IS GOD’S LOVE FULLFILLED!!

The Holy Spirit:

Outside the gifts of the spirit we don’t talk about the Holy Spirit much; however, because of the New Testament we understand a little more about the Holy Spirit than we do the Father.  But let’s break down the Spirit into it’s simplest form.

But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

Acts 1:8

After you accept Christ into your heart you are then baptized my the Holy Ghost. Jesus promised before he ascended up into Heaven that he would be with us always!  We can then look at the Holy Spirit as the ever presence of God in our lives.  He moves through us and if we are sensitive enough and have grown enough then we can feel and know that God is there guiding us through His Holy Spirit.  THE HOLY SPIRIT IS GOD’S PRESENCE!!

God the Father:

Unfortunately because we have focused so much attention on the love of God we don’t have as great a concept of the Father.  Since the New Testament focuses heavily on the love and presence of God (Jesus and Holy Spirit) we have not looked back at the Old Testament much.  This is where you will find more about God the Father.

The LORD answered, "I will make all my splendor pass before you and in your presence I will pronounce my sacred name. I am the LORD, and I show compassion and pity on those I choose.

Exodus 33:19

Then I will proclaim your righteousness, and I will praise you all day long.

Psalms 35:28

God the Father is a righteous God!  Wow…what does that mean?  God is perfect, almighty, ever present, all knowing!  Looking at the interaction of Moses with God in Exodus we are such sinful creatures that just the mere sight of God would be more than we could handle.  See why we focus more attention on the love and presence of God?  It’s easier to understand and comprehend; however, we need to live our daily lives striving to be more like God.  We need to strive to be righteous.  We can ONLY do that by accepting Jesus as His love and through the Holy Spirit’s presence then and only then we can commune with God the Father.  GOD THE FATHER IS RIGHTEOUSNESS INCARNATE!