The Walk: He is risen...just as He said....

Sunday, April 16, 2006

He is risen...just as He said....

The angel up on the tombstone

Said He has risen, just as He said

Quickly now, go tell his disciples

That Jesus Christ is no longer dead
Joy to the world, He has risen, hallelujah

He’s risen, hallelujah

`Easter Song...2nd Chapter of Acts`

I'm thinking about suffering today and I'm thinking about joy in the morning.

I was thinking about how I look at suffering...like you know, make it stop...

I think I am rethinking this suffering deal...

I was thinking about Jesus...I was thinking back on the sequence of scenes, in The Passion of The Christ, where Jesus is walking with that cross. He bleeds from the flogging He has just survived and He's walking...He is in pain..He's walking...He's tired....He walks...

He asks me to (Luke 9:23) deny myself and carry His cross daily...

Carrying a cross is suffering..isn't it?

Mother Teresa said that everything is a blessing...hmm...that would mean that this suffering will be followed by joy in the morning...this suffering could be surgery which I need...

Hebrews 5

7While he lived on earth, anticipating death, Jesus cried out in pain and wept in sorrow as he offered up priestly prayers to God. Because he honored God, God answered him. 8Though he was God's Son, he learned trusting-obedience by what he suffered, just as we do. 9Then, having arrived at the full stature of his maturity and having been announced by God as high priest in the order of Melchizedek, 10he became the source of eternal salvation to all who believingly obey him.

So, my goal is to honor God in whatever I go through and the contentment which Paul speaks of falls down on my heart...

4 comment(s):

Hallelujah

By Clint, at 8:34 AM

i believe you're getting it. thanks for sharing that piece of the mystery.

By Candy, at 11:15 AM

Happy Easter Bev!! I read The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrick Bonhoeffer not too long ago. In Chapter 4, "Disciplehsip and the Cross," he brings up some great thoughts on suffering. And, he did suffer. He was a German theologian killed in a concentration camp in Nazi Germany. These are a couple of things he wrote that I highlighted:

"Suffering, then, is the badge of true discipleship. The disciple is not above his master."

"Jesus prays to his Father that the cup may pass from him, and his Father hears his prayer; for the cup of suffering will indeed pass from him - but only by his drinking it."

I don't know if these help, but they stood out to me when I read them. I hope you have a great Easter!

By Jeans, at 2:33 PM

It is amazing that Jesus did not just go ahead and succumb to that mindless, painful, unconscionable beating. While that was happening to him, he had to endure the taunting and jeering of others who had no real idea or understanding who he was. And to those who knew him, he could not feel any help from them -- they were paralysed in their ability to give him aid.

When I have gone through suffering – be it through the agony of loved ones dying, through bitter disappointment at my inability to succeed, as others would want me to, or through depression – the sheer feeling of the ‘aloneness’ of those moments has been the most gruelling to endure. The hope of the Cross has been the only thing to cling to, and the mist in the joy of the morning has been the balm to heal any open wounds.

It is then that I know without a doubt that God has not left me, and that he will continue to be by my side until he brings me home. To honour him is to continue the journey with him.

Thanks, Bev, for such an intimate reflection. Peace.

By Deb, at 12:50 AM