What is GOOD about Good Friday?

What is GOOD about Good Friday?  Our God is GOOD!  Mark 10:18 says " No one is GOOD except God." To  help us to understand how GOOD God really is, we have to go back to the beginning of time.

The Lamb of God was slain before the foundation of the earth. Jesus was willing to lay down His life to take the consequences of sin that would have brought about the death of mankind.  God knew that the heart of Adam and Eve was disobedient. He made provision before the Fall to rescue mankind from the peril of His punishment.

Adam's rebellion and disobedience challenged God's authority.  It demanded God's eternal punishment: separation from God. Jesus' obedience to God's authority, cleansed the Heavens of Adam's sin and made a way for you and I to come back to our creator through the precious blood of Jesus.   Repentance is a gift from our good God and available to all who will turn and call on the name of the Lord. The Lord will forgive us and we will be born again.   IT IS FINISHED...GOD IS GOOD. HIS GOODNESS BRINGS US TO REPENTANCE.  Romans 2:4.

Hebrews 12:1:2 says,"Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God." 

Jesus not only died for my sin, but He died as if He were me!  I died in Him, was buried in Him and was united with Him in His resurrection.  "In HIM" IS THE KEY.  Now that is good news, Romans 6:3-14.

A Nation within a Nation

 I would like you to ponder and search the scriptures for yourself about what I am going to share. It all started while reading 1 Peter  2:9 ;  "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, A HOLY NATION, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of  Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light." 

 It was the expression of A HOLY NATION that caught my attention. As a believer, I began to realize that I am an ambassador of Christ of this HOLY NATION to proclaim the good news of reconciliation to a dying world. The more I grow in Christ, my politics have changed to a more eternal perspective. I am learning more and more that I can bring change in America on my knees rather then with my mouth .  God doesn't need my mouth to express my opinions and to get into aggressive arguments to get His work done.  The body of Christ, is a NATION WITHIN A NATION that  rules through prayer. Isaiah 9: 6 says " the government is upon His shoulders" and this is the government that I am submitted to for eternity: 

 Jesus Christ is the sovereign  ruler over all Nations. I am to pray for America, and her leaders, etc. but not to get emotionally involved anymore. With another election around the corner, I am expecting that it will be a real test  to see how much I believe and understand what I just wrote, namely that the church, (the body of Christ) is a HOLY NATION, WITHIN A NATION. "Lord Jesus keep me on my knees!" I pray. (2Chronicles 7-14)

A CHANGE OF HEART

                                                                         

 "Lord Jesus, how can the Holy Spirit come and live in a heart, that the Word of God says is ' deceitful, above of things, and desperately sick.?" ( Jeremiah 17:9)

For years this questions troubled me.  I wanted an answer. Then one day the Lord whispered in my ear, "Why are you trying so hard to clean a heart of sin? I took your heart of sin and nailed it to the cross. (Colossians 2:6-17). You need a new heart, a heart transplant."

Days later while  I was reading in Ezekiel 36:25-27, my eyes were  opened to the miracle that happened when I was born again,. "I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleanliness, and from all your idols, I will cleanse you.  And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give a NEW heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules" 

The light went on!  The Lord Himself had created a new heart in me.  No wonder I felt condemned and discouraged trying to change myself. It was impossible. 


  I am so grateful for the power of the cross and how it has liberated me from the power of sin. May the Name of the Lord be praised forever and ever.