This Is What Love Does

I don’t know what flashes through the minds of most men as they lay dying. But I do know that one man clung to an image of me as he slipped from this earthly life into the next.

His love for me is what got Him killed in the first place. And I didn’t even care. I figuratively stood there at his feet, scoffing, mocking, even cheering.

But now I know better. Now I know that he took the shredding of the skin on his back, the gulps of bitter blood flooding his mouth, and the excruciating gasps for breath as he suffocated on the cross because He loved me too much to see me go through it myself.

He’s gone now. Preparing a place for me to join him in heaven. My sinfulness drove nails through his skin and scarred his hands and now he is preparing a special place just for me. He always goes above and beyond, for there is none like Jesus-He is the definition of love.

What kind of man gives up his own rights and glory for his enemies?

Isaiah 53

Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? ² He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. ³ He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.

⁴ Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. ⁵ But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. ⁶ We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

⁷ He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. ⁸ By oppression and judgment he was taken away. Yet who of his generation protested? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was punished. ⁹ He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.

¹⁰ Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand. ¹¹ After he has suffered, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities. ¹² Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

Dare we question if He sees us today? Are we really worrying about whether or not that circumstance is going to work out? Did you accept forgiveness but now choose to hold a grudge toward someone else? Are you angry because you doubt that the plan God chose for you is not as good as the one you think you should have?

Look into His face as you stand in the dust beneath the cross where His cleansing blood has pooled on the ground. Stare into your reflection in the murky coagulation of grace poured out for you. Oh, how He loves me! Oh, how much He loves you!

John 3:16

For this is the way God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

Romans 10:9

If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

YOUR TURN!! Have you believed and confessed that Jesus is Lord of your life? Share your story of salvation! Have you forgotten how much God loves you; how can you keep the right perspective about His total love for you? Leave a line of praise here, and let us worship Him together! If this post blessed you, please SHARE it with others! I love to hear from you!!

This post is linked up at Word Filled Wednesdays-check it out!

Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory. Psalm 115:1

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