"I believe you're my healer. I believe you are all I need."

"I believe you're my healer. I believe you are all I need." -'Healer' by Justis Kao

Through all the trials we've faced we can always ask God for forgiveness. There's only one way to Heaven and that's through Christ. This weekend wasn't just a regular long weekend. The purpose for this weekend was for us to remember Jesus and what he had done for us. He was put through many trials and temptations. He was beaten and whipped then crucified. The shedding of his blood symbolizes the cleansing of our sins. He's the healer of our sins. Our only way to Heaven. He is all we need.

After his crucifixion he was brought into a tomb and 3 days later he Resurrection. He now sits at the right hand of God, looking down at us. When we repent our sins are forgiven. He doesn't judge us for the wrong doings in our lives.

Road to Calvary (VII)

He has risen! Hallelujah! Christ has risen and has defeated the grave! All praise and glory to God now and forevermore!

Today during the sermon, the speaker started with clips from the movie Passion of The Christ. She reminded us that it isn't just a movie, but reality. I started watching, but within the first minute, I had to look away. It was just too much, and i couldn't take it. The blood. The pain. The scars. The beating. The whipping. All for me. All for you. Seeing the nine-tail whip lash onto his flesh and rip it away when taken back. Watching the nails being pounded into his wrist and his feet. Seeing how rough they were, even trying to think of how severe that pain was is unbearable. It took that clip for me to really and fully realize the degree of pain Christ went through for us. How much he took on, the sin of MANKIND on his shoulders, dying for all of us. That's true love. We can't and should not sugar coat it anymore.

But, although he was crucified and had died, his promise reigned, and he rose from the grave three days later.

¹ Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. ² So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”

³ So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. ⁴Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. ⁵ He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. ⁶ Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, ⁷as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. ⁸ Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. ⁹ (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) ¹⁰ Then the disciples went back to where they were staying.

John 20:1-10

The third day, Mary and Simon Peter went to visit the tomb, and to their surprise, Jesus wasn't there. There's isn't much to say about this passage. Its all facts. But knowing that Christ has risen brings us true and eternal hope.

Christ has risen, he has conquered death. Something us humans have been trying to do for centuries. He has overcome the greatest thing. From temptations, to death, he is victorious! And because of this, we should be so thankful knowing that someone so powerful and perfect is right next to us. If he can overcome something as great as death, with God by our side, we can be victorious over whatever sin we are dealing with.

We sang a newer song at service today. Christ is Risen by Matt Maher. The lyrics are so powerful, especially in the bridge, and singing it today, i can really sing it, not with the words but with my heart. It was like singing and saying to the devil that we are victorious, you cannot win, we cannot lose, and that God is greater than anything in this world.

"O death, where is your sting? O hell, where is your victory? O church, come stand in the light! Our God is not dead, He's Alive, He's Alive!"

What powerful lyrics. But that wasn't the only song that impacted me today.

During the baptism today, we sang the song Because He Lives. The past while i've just been down in the dumps, wanting to give up, to give in, and just to stop. It wasn't worth it, but the lyrics again here pushed me forward.

"Because he lives, I can face tomorrow,

Because he lives, All fear is gone.

Because I know, He holds the future,

And life is worth the living, just because He lives."

It is because of God's love, Christ's resurrection that I live. That I continue to fight each and every day. He is protecting me in his loving arms, there is nothing to fear because he has a perfect plan for me. The part that struck me most was "and life is worth the living, JUST because He lives". JUST because. He's the reason why life is worth living, JUST GOD. JUST CHRIST. Nothing else.

Praise God.

He works in such magical, mysterious ways.

I cannot do anything by exalt his almighty name.

²⁰ I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Galatians 2:20

Road to Calvary (V)

Today is Good Friday. It was today, many many years ago that our Saviour was put on a cross, shed his blood for our sins. He gave up his life for us. A sinless, guiltless perfect man died for you and me.

So the soldiers took charge of Jesus. ¹⁷ Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha). ¹⁸ There they crucified him, and with him two others—one on each side and Jesus in the middle.

¹⁹ Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to the cross. It read: JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS. ²⁰Many of the Jews read this sign, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the sign was written in Aramaic, Latin and Greek. ²¹ The chief priests of the Jews protested to Pilate, “Do not write ‘The King of the Jews,’ but that this man claimed to be king of the Jews.”

²² Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written.”

²³ When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes, dividing them into four shares, one for each of them, with the undergarment remaining. This garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom.

²⁴ “Let’s not tear it,” they said to one another. “Let’s decide by lot who will get it.”

This happened that the scripture might be fulfilled that said,

“They divided my clothes among them
and cast lots for my garment.”

So this is what the soldiers did.

²⁵ Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. ²⁶When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, “Woman, here is your son,” ²⁷ and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.”From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.

John 19:17-27

Christ was crucified for us. If you looked into it, you were see exactly how extreme and how painful it really was, from the whipping, to carrying the cross, to being nailed, hung, and pierced. He went though a lot of pain for us.

We get to see a last glimpse of Pilate's character here, and like the speaker described in the sermon today, that some people respond to the cross by just touching it, not embracing it. Pilate recognized that God was guiltless, but he still gave into peer pressure in the previous post. Pilate wrote "The King of The Jews" as a statement, whereas the others wanted it to say that "he CLAIMED to be the King of The Jews". But Pilate stayed true and kept it how he wrote it, hinting at the truth and what he believed and saw. A sinless, guiltless person, taking the blame and the consequence for something he didn't deserve.

The next part, with the casting lots, it said that it was done to fulfill scripture as it was said in Psalm 22:18. I personally do not see and understand the significance yet besides fulfilling scripture. For instance, why did they cast lots for it? What was the point of that?

The last few verses, i feel like it shows the detail of God's plan. That when Mary saw her son up there on the cross, he had already planned for her to be taken care of, by his disciple. It shows how detailed our God thinks, how exact and precise, and to the tee. That all things are perfect in his hands.

²⁸ Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” ²⁹ A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips. ³⁰ When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

³¹ Now it was the day of Preparation, and the next day was to be a special Sabbath. Because the Jewish leaders did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down. ³² The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other. ³³ But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs.³⁴ Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. ³⁵ The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies so that you also may believe. ³⁶ These things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken,” ³⁷ and, as another scripture says, “They will look on the one they have pierced.”

John 19:28-37

"It is finished". Jesus' final words before he died on the cross. You can really see his true dedication to his Father and to the plan. He carried out every single bit of God's plan from beginning to end, not wavering or straying away.

Again, like the garment and the lots, scripture was to be fulfilled when Jesus was pierced. That no bones will be broken, only pierced, as referred to in Exodus 12:46, Numbers 9:12, as well as Psalm 34:20. Its amazing to see that even after Jesus' death that scripture is being fulfilled and God's plan is always in motion.

Jesus' body was then buried in a tomb, and he lay there the next three days, and while the world mourned, God above knew that something greater was coming.

Resurrection Sunday.

¹⁹ Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”

John 2:19