The Pastor’s Pen                                 March 2010

 

Greetings in the Name of the One Who Sacrificed Himself for us all,

 

             How could He do it? How could He love me so?  This is a mystery of great proportion. God’s love, forgiveness, and grace are so great that God chose to have His Own Son pay the price for our sin. God wants you and I to look in the mirror and see a gift so precious that God was willing to allow His Own Son to suffer and die that we might forever walk in fellowship with the One who created us.

 

             In Charles Dickens’ The Tale of Two Cities, one of the main characters is mistaken for another man who had been sentenced to die. As the first man reflected upon the second, a man who had found love and was striving to go in a new direction in his life, the first man decided not to contest the mix-up . Instead he chose to go to his own death in order to give the other man a chance at life itself.

 

             That story gives a small insight into God’s love for each one of us. Jesus chose to die in order to give you and me a new chance at life with God. Why would someone be willing to do such a thing?

 

             “For God so live the world....”, For God so loves YOU....That’s why God did what God did! God has chosen to love you so much God would not and did not withhold the greatest Gift God ever gave to you and the world. You, each one of you are precious to God that God wants you to know that He chose to suffer on behalf of your sins and your shortcomings to redeem YOU and to claim YOU as God’s own.

 

             In the Prophet Isaiah, we find the Suffering Servant passage (Isaiah 52:13 - 53:12). As we continue this journey to the tomb and to the resurrection, I would recommend that we all read and reflect upon this passage from Isaiah. Let some of the words of this passage penetrate your heart and you soul. The prophet tells that Jesus ‘despised’ and ‘rejected’; He endured suffering and pain that should have been ours. He went to his cross “Like a lamb about to be slaughtered, a sheep about to be sheared...He never said a word.”

 

             Jesus didn’t have to do what He did. He didn’t have to leave heaven and come here to endure and suffer so much. But He did! And He did so because God loves each one of us. “He willingly gave his life and shared the fate of evil men. He took the place of many sinners and prayed that they might be forgiven.”

 

             As we move closer to Good Friday and the suffering and death of our Savior, let us be mindful of why Jesus chose to do what He did: Christ did it for YOU! Christ did it because God LOVES YOU!

 

             Let us, this Lenten season, allow ourselves to be filled with that LOVE.

Pastor’s Page

On this page is Pastor Bob Wallace’s monthly message.  Also  Pastor Bob will often answer some of the most common questions he has been asked over the years. We are looking forward to hearing from him on a regular basis in the coming weeks. If you have a question that you would like to have answered, please email him at cumcyork@verizon.net.

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