Brown's Daily Word 4-1-09

Good Morning,
We enter the mid-point of the week, grateful for God's sustaining hand and providence, and looking forward to another weekend. This weekend is Palm Sunday, when we remember Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem at the beginning of His last week before the Crucifixion. Only He knew the extent of the powerful drama that would unfold over the course of a few days, that would change the course of human history forever.
As we journey with Jesus to Jerusalem, we continue to focus on the Cross and the suffering servant. Christ’s death allows us to Experience Pure Love; Complete Forgiveness; Ultimate Wholeness and Everlasting Life. Hundreds of years before Jesus came to earth prophets predicted the events of His life. His birth, ministry, death, and resurrection were set forth by these inspired men in great detail. Even His return in glory was predicted long before His first coming. These prophecies, called “messianic” prophecies were intended to prepare the world for the coming of the Messiah. Of all the messianic prophecies in the Bible, Isaiah 53 is arguably the clearest and most beautiful of all. It has helped the prophet Isaiah to earn the title “Gospel Prophet.” In the chapters 52 and 53 of Isaiah the story is told of the cross of Christ and the suffering that went along with His atonement for sin. No passage of the Bible, except the Gospel accounts, gives a more vivid picture of the suffering of our Savior at the Cross. Isaiah pictured the Messiah as a suffering servant of Jehovah. According to Acts 8:26-40, when Philip explained this passage to the Ethiopian official as he read this passage hundreds of years later his life was changed. He came to realize that this suffering Servant had indeed suffered for him.
We need to reflect on this story of the suffering of Jesus, as the fact that He died for us has a profound bearing upon our lives. It is because of His death we need never fear death. When the Ethiopian learned the meaning of this passage He immediately obeyed Christ. We also need this kind of obedience in our lives.
In Christ,
Brown


"When I survey the wondrous cross on which the Prince of Glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss, and pour contempt on all my pride.

Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast, save in the death of Christ, my God;
All the vain things that charm me most, I sacrifice them to his blood.

See, from his head, his hands, his feet, sorrow and love flow mingled down.
Did e'er such love and sorrow meet, or thorns compose so rich a crown?

Were the whole realm of nature mine, that were an offering far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CP4JSVMBdZg