Laudable Linkage

Posted on April 8, 2023 by Barbara Harper

I don’t observe Lent in a formal way. But I do like to spend some time in the weeks leading up to Easter by reading either the gospel accounts of Jesus’ death and resurrection or a book on the subject.

I had just read the gospel of John recently, so I didn’t want to go through it again so soon.

A couple of my favorite books for this time of year are The Women of Easter by Liz Curtis Higgs and Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross compiled by Nancy Guthrie. But I wasn’t inclined to pick up one of those again, and I didn’t have any new material I wanted to read. I’m in a number of books already and didn’t want to start something lengthy.

Then I saw that Revive Our Hearts recently posted about the seven last sayings of Christ on the cross. That series just fit my needs this year. If you have some time today and tomorrow, you might want to look at a few of them to prepare your heart for Easter:

“Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.”
“Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
“Woman, behold your son.”
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
“I am thirsty.“
“It is finished.”
“Father, into Your hands I entrust my spirit.”

Here are some of the other good reads I found this week:

You Know What’s Crazy? HT to Challies. “I had 13 hours to sit and think about the drama we’d just been involved in. I thought, ‘It’s crazy that this guy still thought he was all right to fly. He was totally irrational. Any normal person could see that he was in a bad way. But he couldn’t see it. He thought he was fine.’ The thought occurred to me that this is a lot like the irrationality of sin and sinners.”

Intentional Gardening–and an Intentional Life–in Partnership with God. “Standing or stooping in my garden, I portray the work that’s required for spiritual cultivation, for I believe God is pleased when I come to spiritual disciplines with the same fervor I bring to the elimination of ragweed between my tomato plants.”

The Shadow Is a Small and Passing Thing, HT to Challies. “One evening, while Frodo slept and Sam watched, Sam looked up at a single star in the sky above Mordor. Thinking on that star, Tolkien wrote, ‘the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.'”

The Unexpected Beauty of Babel, HT to Challies. “It seems as if, as he so often does, God has chosen to bring beauty through judgment, a greater grace and glory than would have existed had the judgment never taken place. After all, this is the logic of the cross and salvation history. Yes, judgment falls. Yet amazingly God’s grace shines even brighter for it. Should we be surprised that God delights to also do this with the arc of language history?”

Overcome Your Enemies by Dying. “What do you do when people turn against you? When those who reject the Lord Jesus Christ come after you for daring to follow him? When nitpicking and backstabbing are the standard operating procedure in the workplace? When family members use guilt and pressure to manipulate you into doing what they want?”

Protect Teens from Sextortion, HT to Challies. “Last month, international law enforcement agencies released a warning: ‘In 2022, the FBI received thousands of reports related to the financial sextortion of minors, primarily boys, representing an exponential increase from previous years. Unfortunately, the FBI is also aware of more than a dozen suicides following these incidents.”

Lamb of God

Posted on April 14, 2022 by Barbara Harper

But he was pierced for our transgressions;
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
    and with his wounds we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
    we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
    the iniquity of us all.
Isaiah 53:5-6

Years ago I heard a story about a guest preacher who was just getting ready to board his train after speaking at a church. A man hurried to him, saying he had been in the meeting and was anxious about his spiritual state. Could the preacher take time to talk to him?

The preacher’s train was the last of the night, and it was about to leave. All he had time to tell the man was to read Isaiah 53:6, and then to go in and the first “all” and come out at the last “all.”

The man was puzzled, but when he went home. he looked up Isaiah 53:6: “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” As the man read the passage several times, understanding dawned. He was a sheep gone astray, stubbornly following his own way. But Jesus took his iniquity. If he trusted in Jesus, he would be saved and forgiven.

I don’t know if this is a true story, but the point it makes is true.

For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous,
that he might bring us to God (1 Peter 3:18).

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son,
that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16).

Stricken, smitten, and afflicted,
see him dying on the tree!
‘Tis the Christ, by man rejected;
yes, my soul, ’tis he, ’tis he.
‘Tis the long-expected Prophet,
David’s Son, yet David’s Lord;
proofs I see sufficient of it:
’tis the true and faithful Word.

Tell me, as you hear him groaning,
was there ever grief like his,
friends through fear his cause disowning,
foes insulting his distress?
Many hands were raised to wound him,
none would intervene to save;
but the deepest stroke that pierced him
was the stroke that justice gave.

If you think of sin but lightly
nor suppose the evil great,
here you see its nature rightly,
here its guilt may estimate.
Mark the sacrifice appointed,
see who bears the awful load;
’tis the Word, the Lord’s anointed,
Son of Man and Son of God.

Here we have a firm foundation,
here the refuge of the lost:
Christ, the Rock of our salvation,
is the name of which we boast;
Lamb of God, for sinners wounded,
sacrifice to cancel guilt!
None shall ever be confounded
who on him their hope have built.

Thomas Kelly, 1804

(I often link up with some of these bloggers.)

Face the Cross

Posted on March 29, 2013 by Barbara Harper

Upon the cross of Jesus my eye at times can see
The very dying form of One who suffered there for me.

Face the cross, He hangs there in your place.
See the Lamb upon the killing tree.
Stand and look into the Savior’s face
As on the cross, He dies for you and me.

Face the cross and see the dying Son.
See the Lamb upon the killing tree.
See His anguish and His tears of love.
Face the cross, He dies to set us free.

Turn not away, turn not away.
His nail-pierced hands are reaching out to you, to you.

Look upon the One without a sin,.
Spotless Lamb upon the killing tree.
Feel His pain and love from deep within,
So great a price, yet paid so willingly.

Turn not away, turn not away,
Face the cross, face the cross.

Face the One who suffers in your place,
See the Lamb, upon the killing tree.
Light of the world, now clothed in darkness grim
As on the cross, He hangs in agony.

Face the cross and turn not away, turn not away.
His nail-pierced hands are reaching out to you.

Turn not away, behold His wounded side.
Turn not away, behold the crucified.
Face the cross, He hangs there in your place.
Face the cross, and see the King of Grace.
Face the cross, face the cross.

– Words by Herb Fromach, music by David Lantz