Easy??

Whatif someone told you that it is as easy to get healed (by Jesus) as it is to get saved (by Jesus)? Would you buy it?

I’d like to just leave that question out there and see what you say, but, I haven’t had many people commenting on my site. I have a surprising number of people say they’re reading it, but not that many that comment, so I’d hang it out there, but….

Whatif someone told you that it is as easy to have the ‘yoke is easy, burden is light’ as it is to get saved? Would you buy that?

Whatif someone told you that it is as easy to have ‘victory over sin’ as it is to get saved?

Whatif someone told you that ALL your sins were forgiven, past, present, and future??

Whatif someone told you GOD is FOR REAL??

Whatif someone said that I should “forget not all His benefits, who forgave ALL my sins, who healed ALL my diseases, who redeemed my life from the pit and crowned me with love and compassion?” Did he know what he was talking about? Can you put all those things in the same sentence, in the same context, no ands, ifs, or buts?

Whatif someone said “by his stripes we are healed?” Would I believe him?

Whatif I believed that the same as I believe my sins are forgiven, the same as I believe in everlasting life? What would happen?

Question is: Is it easy to get “saved’ by Jesus? The answer is obvious. Of course, it’s easy…just believe! But for me….’just believing’ is not at all easy. There is this enormous battlefield in my mind that kicks into high gear absolutely every time what is TRUE encroaches on my sense of reality. It kicks into gear every time a niggly little doubt about the TRUTH steps onto the field. Do we remember that battle of Faith that took place before we accepted the free gift of salvation?? Do we remember the battle that took place before we accepted the ‘saved by grace’, the ‘yoke is easy’, the ‘are you there God, are you for real’? Do we remember how people who ‘got it’ tried to explain and explain and explain and finally it was like a light bulb went off in the deepest recesses of the heart and it was suddenly all so clear? How after that the TRUTH was everywhere in the Bible, we wondered if it had been rewritten? How could we possibly have missed this?? Do we remember this??

Whatif healing is just like that? Whatif it’s just another facet of the so-many-sided, beautiful diamond that is our God, His Son, and His Spirit. Just as real, just as beautiful, just as powerful, just as easy?

An update...

I’m sure that all my faithful blog readers will be happy to know that I did find myself something suitable for a mother of the grad. I found it at Old Navy. Generally I'm not a fan of Old Navy, but hey, they bailed me out this time. And shoes at Payless. Sad to say that, even at "bargain" stores, I spent more on MY outfit than my graduate did on hers. Although, she is getting her hair done...maybe it'll come out even..., and, I'll wear mine again and again (probably at every formal event for the next ten years or so).

Also you'll be glad to know that I dropped my tax info stuff at the accountant on Tuesday, a full twenty days BEFORE the deadline!

Also, Fake and Bake is starting to pay off. I'm starting to get a bit brown, not like "Oh my gosh, have you been to Mexico???" brown, but not pasty white either. And the heat is a good thing too.

Just thought you'd like to know.

an Easter re-write

ISAIAH 53

1Who believes what we've heard and seen? Who would have thought GOD's saving power would look like this?

The servant grew up before God--a scrawny seedling, a scrubby plant in a parched field (she wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger). There was nothing attractive about him, nothing to cause us to take a second look. 3He was looked down on and passed over, a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand. (For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God,… Hebrews 2:17). One look at him and people turned away.

We looked down on him, thought he was scum. (Some said, “He is a good man.” But others replied, “No, he deceives the people.” John 7:12) 4But the fact is, it was our pains he carried-- our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us (Surely he has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows) (“My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death). We thought he brought it on himself, that God was punishing him for his own failures. (He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth. 1Peter 2.22) 5But it was our sins that did that to him, that ripped and tore and crushed him--our sins! (He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, 1Peter2.24) He took the punishment, and that made us whole. Through his bruises we get healed. (Many followed him, and he healed all their sick…Matt.12.15), (Great crowds came to him, bringing the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute and many others, and laid them at his feet; and he healed them. The people were amazed…Matt.15.30) (When evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to him, and he drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick. This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah…. Matthew 8:17) ,(…by his wounds you have been healed 1Peter2.34)

6We're all like sheep who've wandered off and gotten lost. (When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Matthew 9:36) We've all done our own thing, gone our own way. And GOD has piled all our sins, everything we've done wrong, on him, on him. (God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God 2Cor.5.21) 7He was beaten, (They spit on him, and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again,) he was tortured (he had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified.) but he didn't say a word. Like a lamb taken to be slaughtered and like a sheep being sheared, he took it all in silence. (When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats.1Peter2.23) 8Justice miscarried, (Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.) and he was led off-- and did anyone really know what was happening? He died without a thought for his own welfare, (…he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death--and the worst kind of death at that: a crucifixion Phil 2.10 .) beaten bloody for the sins of my people.

9They buried him with the wicked, threw him in a grave with a rich man, even though he'd never hurt a soul (a bruised reed he will not break, a smoldering wick he will not snuff out… Matt.12.20) or said one word that wasn't true.

10Still, it's what GOD had in mind all along, to crush him with pain. The plan was that he give himself as an offering for sin so that he'd see life come from it--life, life, and more life (I have come that you might have life, and have it abundantly! John 10.10). And GOD's plan will deeply prosper through him (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. John3.16). 11Out of that terrible travail of soul, he'll see that it's worth it and be glad he did it. (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. Hebrews 12.2). Through what he experienced, my righteous one, my servant, will make many "righteous ones," (For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. Romans 8:29) as he himself carries the burden of their sins. 12Therefore I'll reward him extravagantly-- the best of everything, the highest honors— (Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father Phil2.9-11) Because he looked death in the face and didn't flinch, because he embraced the company of the lowest. (…a friend of tax collectors and "sinners." Matt.11.19) He took on his own shoulders the sin of the many, (For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God 1Peter3.18.) he took up the cause of all the black sheep.