THE WOUNDED LOVER OF OUR SOUL
BREAD
3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 4 Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten 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 upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. 6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Isaiah 53:3-6 (NIV)
16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. 19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.” John 3:16-21 (NIV)
25 He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification. Romans 4:25 (NIV)
3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. 6 After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, 8 and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born. 1 Corinthians 15:3-8 (NIV)
16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 2 Corinthians 5:16-21 (NIV)
12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. John 15:12-14 (NIV)
3 The LORD appeared to us in the past, saying: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness.” Jeremiah 31:3 (NIV)
BUTTER
“The cross, intersection of His love and my need, beam that supports the whole of a real life.” Ann Voskamp
“The more we meditate on the Cross, the deeper our companionship and knowledge gets of Christ the Lord.” Pishoy Kamel
“And if you don’t lie prostrate on the ground before that cross, you have never seen it: if you are not humbled in the presence of Jesus, you don’t know Him. You were so lost that nothing could save you but the sacrifice of God’s only begotten. Think of that, and as Jesus lowered Himself for you, bow yourself in lowliness at His feet. A sense of Christ’s amazing love to us has a greater tendency to humble us than even the conscious awareness of our own guilt……Pride cannot live beneath the cross.” Charles H. Spurgeon
“When Jesus started to cry out [on the cross], he didn’t say, ‘My friends, my friends’ ‘My head, my head!’ ‘My hands, my hands!’ He said, ‘My God, my God.’ On the cross, Jesus was forsaken by God. He said, ‘My God’. That’s the language of intimacy… Jesus the Maker of the world was being unmade. Why? Jesus was experiencing our judgment day. ‘My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?’ It wasn’t a rhetorical question. And the answer is: For you, for me, for us. Jesus was forsaken by God the Father so that we would never have to be. The judgment that should have fallen on us fell instead on Jesus.” Dr. Tim Keller, King’s Cross
“Consider Christ. He was of a meek and quiet spirit, and of a most long-suffering behavior…He was very much the object of bitter contempt and reproach, and slights and despised as of but little account. Though he as the Lord of glory, yet he was set at naught, and rejected…He was the object of the spit and malice and bitter reviling of the very ones he came to save…He was called a deceiver of people, and oftentimes he was said to be mad, and possessed with the devil…He was charged with being a wicked blasphemer, and one that deserved death on that account. They hated him with morbid hatred, and wished he was dead, and from time to time tried to murder him…His life was an annoyance to them, and they hated him so they could not bear that he should live… Yet Christ meekly bored all these injuries without resentment or one word of reproach, and with heavenly quietness of spirit pass through them all…On the contrary, he prayed for his murderers, that they might be forgiven, even when they were nailing him to the cross; and not only prayed for them, but pleaded in their behalf with His Father, that they knew not what they were doing.” Jonathan Edwards
“Jesus has many lovers of His heavenly kingdom, but few bearers of His cross.” Thomas a Kempis
“When Jesus as a babe lay in the manger, He was the One through whom that manger came to be, and who even then sustained its very existence! Indeed, as our Savior hung on that cross to make atonement for sin, He was sustaining the very nails that held Him there.” Sten-Erik Armitage
“Living for Jesus, a life that is true. Striving to please Him in all that I do. Yielding allegiance, glad hearted and free. This is the pathway of blessing for me. Living for Jesus Who died in my place, bearing on Calvary, my sin and disgrace. Such love constrains me, to answer His call, follow His leading and give Him my all. Living for Jesus, wherever I am. Doing each duty in His holy name. Willing to suffer affliction or loss. Deeming each trial a part of my cross. Living for Jesus, through earth’s little while, my dearest treasure, the light of His smile. Seeking the lost ones, He died to redeem. Bringing the weary to find rest in Him.” Thomas O. Chisholm
“Your cross is prepared and appointed for you by divine love, and you are to accept it cheerfully; you are to carry the cross as your chosen badge and burden, and not to stand judging it too severely….Jesus bids you to submit your shoulder to His easy yoke. Don’t kick at it in petulance, or trample on it in vain conceit, or fall under it in despair, or run away from it in fear, but take it up like a true follower of Jesus. Jesus was a cross bearer; He leads the way in the path of sorrow. Surely you could not desire a better guide! And if He carried a cross, what nobler burden would you desire? The Via Crucis is the way of safety; don’t be afraid to tread its thorny paths…..Carry your cross, and by the power of the Spirit of God you will soon be so in love with it, that like Moses, you would not exchange the reproach of Christ for all the treasures of Egypt. Remember that Jesus carried it, and it will smell sweetly; remember that it will soon be followed by the crown, and the thought of the coming weight of glory will greatly lighten the present heaviness of trouble.” Charles H. Spurgeon
“Many people have difficulty believing God is a God of love….If you really want to know the reality of God’s love, look at the Cross….It was love that restrained Him when He was falsely accused of blasphemy and led to Golgotha to die with common thieves. He raised not a hand against His enemies. It was love that kept Him from calling legions of angels to come to His defense. It was love that made Him, in a moment of agonizing pain, pause and give hope to a repentant sinner who cried, ‘Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom’ (Luke 23:42)….Does God love us? Yes….and the proof is the Cross.” Billy Graham
“Live near the cross and your peace shall be continual.” C. H. Spurgeon
“Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to thy Cross I cling.” Augustus
HEART SAVOR
• Jesus was wounded, suffered and died for my soul. He, as Paul states in Philippians, humbled Himself and became obedient to death – even death on a cross: 6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7 but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death– even death on a cross! Philippians 2:6-8 (NIV)
• Like Jesus, I am not to kick against my cross either. Hebrews tells us: 2 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. Hebrews 12:2-3 (NIV)
• We all have crosses to bear up under – for the love of the one Who gave all for us – so how are we doing with it?
Beth Yoe's Sharing Bread 