I had to post this powerful quote that my cousin, Melissa, put up on her Facebook page today:
"Everything before the Cross points forward to it. Everything since the Cross points back to it. Everything that will last was purchased on it, and everything that matters hinges on it." - Randy Alcorn
Last night I was doing some bible reading (something I don't do nearly enough of) and I read this passage (pointing forward to the cross) in the Old Testament, foretelling the coming of Christ and the suffering He would endure for us:
Isaiah 53
1 Who has believed our message
and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.
Like one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
4 Surely he took up our infirmities
and carried our sorrows,
yet we considered him stricken by God,
smitten by him, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed and afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before her shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.
8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away.
And who can speak of his descendants?
For he was cut off from the land of the living;
for the transgression of my people he was stricken.
9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
and with the rich in his death,
though he had done no violence,
nor was any deceit in his mouth.
10 Yet it was the LORD's will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
and though the LORD makes his life a guilt offering,
he will see his offspring and prolong his days,
and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand.
11 After the suffering of his soul,
he will see the light of life and be satisfied;
by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many,
and he will bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,
and he will divide the spoils with the strong,
because he poured out his life unto death,
and was numbered with the transgressors.
For he bore the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors.
It's easy to lose sight of the real reason we celebrate Good Friday and Easter. I love peanut butter eggs and baby chicks just as much as the next girl. I have fun memories of discovering the Easter Bunny's footprints when I was a kid. (I'm still not sure how my parents made them - powdered sugar, I think.)
I struggle with balancing the "fun" stuff, like Easter egg hunts and coloring eggs, with something so serious and critical to our eternal destiny: Christ's death on the cross, resurrection and deciding whether or not we will believe and follow Him in our lives. Can you balance the two? I don't know. Somehow the "fun" stuff just don't seem very important in comparison.
"I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. - John 11:25-26
