Dressing Our Mess

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I read her post several times. And as I commented to her, I loved it anew with every new next time that I read it. I love the statement that she opens her post with, "Every time we get dressed we tell the story of the Fall of humanity"...

Hmmm... EVERY TIME(!!!) we get dressed!!!

EVERY TIME that we get dressed(!!!).. we tell the story of the Fall of humanity! 

How true that is, I told her! How perfectly "fitting" to sum up our dressing! I've realized for years that we do a whole lot of dress-ups, but Carole Chaput put a whole new spin on my mind's thinking of it. Click here: Dressing Our Mess if you'd like to be as blessed as I was! I'm sure you'll find (as I did) that the picture she paints is a profound one! Enjoy! Profoundly said, Carole, thanks so much for sharing! I'd say more... but I don't need to. Why? Because she did. :)
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That's what they did to my Savior

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Betrayed. Denied. Falsely accused. Tried. Condemned. Convicted. Rejected. Ridiculed. Persecuted. Mocked. Beaten. Bruised. Scourged. Flogged. Whipped. Ripped. Split open. Spit upon. Slapped. Hit. Shamed. Nailed. Hung. Yelled at. Scorned. Despised. Shunned. Scoffed at. Pierced. Plotted against....


That's what they did to my Savior! 


While He... was lead to His death, He was as silent as a lamb before them. And while hanging in agony upon the tree that held Him, He pleaded with His Father, "Father, forgive them, they know not what they do"........ 


WHO, but a Savior, does that?!


"They" weren't the only ones that did this. WE did it too! I did! And He died anyway... knowing we would!


I remember a long ago Sunday morning. I was by myself. Driving old winding country roads to the old country church that I grew up in where my parents still attended. I was living a lie, I was ensnared by the enemy, caught in an evil trap, doing things that I knew better to do because a Christian is taught not to do them... And yet, I was doing it anyway, but hiding it. All the while, still wearing the fake facade, the masquerade, still pretending to be what I wasn't, being a full-fledged hypocrite and hating myself for it. On that morning driving toward that church I heard this song below play on my radio... and the agony of the reality while I listened and tears streamed is what started the change in me. I couldn't bear the thought of hurting (again) the Savior Who died to set me free! 

Does He Still Feel the Nails

by Ray Botlz

They tell me Jesus died

For my transgressions

That He paid that price a long, long time ago

When He gave His life for me

On a hill called Calvary

But there's something else I want to know

(Chorus)

Does He still feel the nails

Every time I fail

Can He hear the crowd cry "Crucify" again

Am I causing Him pain

Then I know I've got to change

I just can't bear the thought of hurting Him.

It seems that I'm so good at breaking promises

And I treat His precious grace so carelessly

But each time He forgives

What if He re-lives

The agony He felt on that tree

(Chorus)

Does He still feel the nails

Every time I fail

Can He hear the crowd cry "Crucify" again

Am I causing Him pain

Then I know I've got to change

I just can't bear the thought of hurting Him.

Holy Holy

Holy is the Lord

Holy Holy

Holy is the Lord

Do You still feel the nails

Every time I fail

Have I crucified You, Jesus, with my sins

I really want to change

I never want to hurt you again


Holy Holy
Holy is the Lord
Holy Holy
Holy is the Lord

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What was it like?

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What was it like for Jesus? What was it like for Him on the week before His crucifixion? What was it like on the days leading up to it? What was it like on Sunday... on Monday... on Tuesday, and Wednesday, and then the morning of Thursday?


What did His mind think? What did His heart feel? What did His prayers pray? I can't imagine... though I wonder.... what was it like?


Often a horror can happen in our life. Something the likes that we've not thought of or prepared ourselves for. Something that devastates, robs, hurts, beats, bleeds, persecutes, excruciates, steals, kills, destroys, and leaves us raw and writhing and desperate. And yet, when that kind of thing happens to us rarely do we know it ahead of time... Rarely do we anticipate it with troubled throbbed heartbeats of fear, or I don't want it to, or I wish it wouldn't, so that we might pray against it ahead of time. What was it like for Jesus... to know in advance? To know what those days were leading Him toward and taking Him to? Each tick and each tock clicked Him closer..... What was it like for Him to feel that?


I know it's what He came for. I know He knew that that was what He came for. Yet even He prayed that if it didn't have to, for it not to happen. What was it like as He sweated those great drops of blood bowing before His Father in pained begging anguish? Splayed in the garden, laid out before Him, telling His Father that He didn't want it, but that He'd do it still if His Father wanted it for Him? What was it like for His Father to hear Him? To see Him? To watch Him? To feel Him? To know Him? To hurt with Him?


And yet.............they Both did it anyway! For me! And for you! Because we would be lost and doomed to Hell without it.


What was it like? The suffering? The anguish? Who did it, did what He both did and didn't want to do..... He did it "'for the joy set before Him"... the joy that was me, and was you, and was all those that He fights for everyday to save in order to one day take to His Kingdom!


What was it like? 


Wow... at the price He paid for me! Knowing my sin. Knowing my wrong. Knowing my rebellion. Knowing I'd hurt Him. He did it anyway.


What was it like? What did He think? It's something that cannot be fathomed. And yet, His focus was on my face, on your face, on the face of your loved ones, on the face of your enemies (who He still seeks to save!)... and the joy of the knowing that He was one day closer to bringing those who love Him Home!
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