March 31

March is going out like a lion, stormy, windy, rainy... and April is waiting with its showers.
The seasons move on and we all move toward that date with destiny and the ending of our own lives.  What do you live for?  What are your goals and dreams?  How do you live each day?


If you have Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior, then you have it all... really.  But think of the price He paid for your sins..



March 31


Morning
“With his stripes we are healed.”  - Isa_53:5


Pilate delivered our Lord to the lictors to be scourged. The Roman scourge was a most dreadful instrument of torture. 
It was made of the sinews of oxen, and sharp bones were inter-twisted every here and there among the sinews; so that every time the lash came down these pieces of bone inflicted fearful laceration, and tore off the flesh from the bone. The Saviour was, no doubt, bound to the column, and thus beaten. He had been beaten before; but this of the Roman lictors was probably the most severe of his flagellations. 


My soul, stand here and weep over his poor stricken body.


Believer in Jesus, can you gaze upon him without tears, as he stands before you the mirror of agonizing love? He is at once fair as the lily for innocence, and red as the rose with the crimson of his own blood. As we feel the sure and blessed healing which his stripes have wrought in us, does not our heart melt at once with love and grief? If ever we have loved our Lord Jesus, surely we must feel that affection glowing now within our bosoms.


“See how the patient Jesus stands,
Insulted in his lowest case!
Sinners have bound the Almighty’s hands,
And spit in their Creator’s face.
With thorns his temples gor’d and gash’d
Send streams of blood from every part;
His back’s with knotted scourges lash’d.
But sharper scourges tear his heart.”


We would fain go to our chambers and weep; but since our business calls us away, we will first pray our Beloved to print the image of his bleeding self upon the tablets of our hearts all the day, and at nightfall we will return to commune with him, and sorrow that our sin should have cost him so dear.


Jesus Christ, the Son of God and the son of man, God incarnate came and suffered for your sins.  Just let Him wash away your sins, give you a new life... why?  Because He loves you.


Have a blessed day in Christ.