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Good Monday Mornin'
Hey everybody,
Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5:21. . .
"God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him
we might
become the righteousness of God."
In a book that John Piper wrote called, "When I don't Desire
God" he said,
"One of the key aspects of desiring God is to constantly preach to
yourself
the Gospel". So today I want to talk about just what it is that Jesus
did on
the cross for you and I. Because I believe that if we are reminded of what
He did then we are appreciative of what He did. It becomes so easy to take
for granted the sacrifice Jesus made for you and me.
I have been reading a book on raising cattle, something that I desire to
do
on a small scale so I am learning all I can about it. And I came across
something that the book said that caught my eye. A cow can eat almost
anything. They can eat forage and wild berries in the forests that are
poison to you and I, and they can eat these things and survive on them.
But
even though they eat them, digest them and grow from them you and I can in
turn consume the cow even though they consumed something that would bring
us
certain death. In other words a cow can take something into them that
would
kill us, but then we consume the cow and it brings us life! Quite amazing
if
you think about it long enough.
Now the picture that I want you to see is, this is the Gospel. Jesus isn't
a
cow, I don't mean to imply that or even degrade His Majesty. However,
Jesus
took into Himself something that would kill you and I, sin. You see sin is
a
poison to us if we have it in our lives we will be eternally damned to
hell.
You and I cannot process sin, you and I cannot get rid of sin and you and
I
cannot live with sin in us, we will die.
But, Jesus was pure, He was without sin. He had never sinned before in His
life. Therefore He was able to "consume" sin for you and I. He
was able to
take into Him those things that would kill you and I. The lying, the
cheating, the addictions, the adultery, the idolatry all of them not a
single one was left out past present and future! Jesus consumed all sin
into
Himself and did away with it.
Now He did this so that you and I can "consume" Him and
not be harmed. You
see you and I can take Jesus into ourselves and live. It is amazing,
perplexing and incomprehensible how this works, but it does. And how do I
know it works? Because I know the darkness of my soul, and I know that if
it
is left up to me to get to God on my own I will not make it. But Jesus has
made a way for you and for me.
Now I know that probably all of you who get this email have accepted
Jesus
Christ as your Lord and Savior, but I just wanted to remind you today of
what an awesome thing He did for you and me. As you go throughout this
week
and you think about Jesus, think about all He had to consume just for you
and thank Him that because He lives, you can live!
I love you guys!
Pastor Jason Lyle
The Open Range Church of Henry County
Many are the plans in a man's
heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails.
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