Friday Foto Friends, It's Good Friday...(Revisited)

Note to my readers: I have posted this same post twice today...one was the repeat of the old, and the other was a new copy w/o the old comments. Sorry if that is confusing to you...I wanted a 'fresh copy' to post on my church's facebook page. Anyway, I hope you'll forgive me for posting it twice in one day! Thank you for understanding. I should have done the new one first, but as usual, I'm slow to think these things out.  Have a blessed an prayerful "Good Friday" my friends.

This is another repeat of a previous year's Good Friday post.  As I re-read it just now, I was so touched by the message that God gave me here in 2018, that I wanted to share it with you again. Many of you may have already commented on it in previous years, but I hope you will appreciate the wonder of this day with me once again as we reflect on God's great sacrifice for our sins today.

Original Message 3/30/2018:

Dear Friday Foto Friends...Please bear with me as I share these pictures with you and tie them into Good Friday...a very sacred and Holy Day...The day our Lord was crucified for our sins...so that we might live forever with Him in heaven one day! What an amazing day this is...

Sunday morning as we went forward to take communion, I knelt before the altar to pray, and I was struck by the emblems displayed there on the communion table...the whole of Holy Week was right there before my eyes...The palms for Palm Sunday,  The Bread and the Cup for the Last Supper, and the cross with the crown of thorns that Jesus wore...

 and upon a closer look, I was shocked to see the nails that pierced His hands and feet, and the whip of cords that struck His back and body over and over again, and the money bag with the thirty pieces of silver that Judas received for betraying our Lord...

These items took my breath away...I wasn't expecting to see them there...and it brought me face to face with the agony that our Lord endured that week on my behalf...and as I ate the bread and drank the cup, I prayed that God would forgive my sins and make me worthy of His shed blood...I am only worthy because of His shed blood...His sacrifice that made me whole and declared me to be holy...what a humbling and beautiful experience...such joy in knowing Christ died for me...because He loved me! And He died for YOU, too, because He loves YOU.  I hope you know this to be true in your own life...

Earlier last week during one of our walks I noticed this thistle plant growing alongside the road...look at those thorns...can you imagine the pain of bumping into this plant?  Now imagine having a crown of thorns forced upon  your head...and nails hammered into your hands and feet...No, I can't imagine how painful that must have been...

"Who has believed our report?

And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant,

and as a root out of dry ground.

He has no form or comeliness;

and when we see Him,

there is no beauty that we should desire Him.

He is despised and rejected by men,

a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him.

He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.

Isaiah 53:1-3

Surely He has borne our griefs

and carried our sorrows;

Yet we esteemed Him stricken,

Smitten by God, and afflicted.

But He was wounded for our transgressions,

He was bruised for our iniquities;

the chastisement for our peace was upon Him,

And by His stripes we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray;

We have turned, every one, to his own way;

And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all."

Isaiah 53:4-6

A few days later we passed by this same thistle plant, and look!!! Out of something so wicked and evil as these thorny thistles came a thing of great beauty...All of these beautiful butterflies were drawn to this prickly plant to find food and sustenance for their lives!  There were so many they had to fight each other for a place on the flowers to sip its nourishing nectar and live...

Who would have thought that out of something so full of "sorrow" as this thistle would come such life giving food?

Isaiah 53:10-12

"Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him;

He has put Him to grief.

When You make His soul and offering for sin,

He shall see His seed,

He shall prolong His days,

and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper  in His hand.

He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied.

By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many,

for He shall bear their iniquities.

Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great,

and He shall divide the spoil with the strong,

Because He poured out His soul unto death,

and He was numbered with the transgressors,

and He bore the sin of many,

and made intercession for the transgressors."

Thank You, Lord, for Your sacrifice for my sins. Out of Your suffering and great sorrow came new life and extreme joy.  Thank You for the beautiful gift of Your grace and salvation...and food for our souls so that we might live, and that more abundantly.   Amen.

Have a Blessed and Glorious Easter, my friends!