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My Two Cents
by Rev Chuck Behrens
March, 2013
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Past Articles |
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I've got to tell you, I was
really moved by Lincoln's story. He actually is a respected
African-American pastor that I've had the privilege to get to know. One
day he told me a little of his personal history, and it's like the
histories of so many African-Americans. His father was a sharecropper, his
grandfather was a slave.
And at the age of 11, Lincoln's grandfather had been taken from his mother
and sold on the auction block, never to see his mother again. Amazingly,
his grandfather seemed to carry no bitterness, no anger as he told his
grandson about his childhood as a slave. But he did show his grandson his
scars; the ones inflicted on him by his slave master. And my friend has
never forgotten what Grandpa said about those scars, "Every scar has a
story." I'm sure it did.
When God's Son left heaven and came here to earth, He was beaten, too. He
had scars from his beatings, and every scar tells a story. You and I are
that story. It's about how very, very much He loves you.
God talks about it in our word for today from the Word of God in Isaiah
53:3. It's a description of what Jesus Christ went through for you and me.
It says, "He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and
familiar with suffering...He took up our infirmities and carried our
sorrows. He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our
iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him." Now,
remember who this is. This is the sinless Son of God, the one the Bible
calls the "Prince of glory" (1 Corinthians 2:8). And He's pierced,
punished, and crushed. Not for anything He did, but for all things you and
I did. Because He had come to absorb the punishment for every wrong thing
we've ever done.
There's only one thing Jesus took back to heaven from earth - the scars.
The nail prints in His hands and feet; the ones that are there because of
how very much He loves you. Every scar has a story. The wounds of Jesus
tell us, Your sins require an awful death penalty, and I've paid that
price so you can be forgiven. I don't want to lose you."
I guess you can see why God will never forget what you do with His Son,
and why it is fatal to depend on anything other than Jesus to get right
with God and go to heaven. Maybe you've been counting on your Christian
knowledge, or your Christian background, or your Christian connections, or
some Christian ritual. Maybe you're hoping to make it because of how
religious you are or how good you've been.
But if any of those things could have gotten you to heaven, there's no way
Jesus would have gone through what He did for you. His death is your only
hope of heaven, your only hope of being forgiven. And, He's been waiting
for you to respond to His love for maybe a long time, and He's willing to
wait even longer. His Love Knows all things, Believes all things, Endures
all Things...His Love never fails and better still, His Love Never Ends.
It Never waits for our response before giving its best for us, in spite of
us.
See, the scars of Jesus tell the story of how very much He loves you.
There's an old hymn that says it pretty well, "I shall know Him, I shall
know Him, as redeemed by His side I shall stand. I shall know my Redeemer
when I reach the other side by the print of the nails in His hands."
See You in Church This Lenten Season,
Rev. Chuck
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