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First Friday Prayers: Good Friday

April 7, 2023 by Lauren 6 Comments

Happy Good Friday!  I pray this day affords you some time to meditate on the sacrifices Jesus made for you and me.  And the huge significance of the cross.

 

“For I handed down to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,  and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,” 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 NASB

 

If Good Friday commemorates the day Jesus died, why do we call it good?

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It’s because of the last part of our scripture passage for today.  “…that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.”  We celebrate the day Christ died because he didn’t stay in the grave.  He rose again.

 

So why is this significant?  Because God loves us.  He is holy and cannot have any part of sin, which is a problem because we are all sinners.  The penalty for sin is death.  And not just a death in this body, but an eternity spent separated from God and all that is good.  So God sent a substitute, who had never sinned, to die in place of us all.

 

Last week I heard a great analogy.  When we decide to trust in Jesus and his sacrifice to save us from eternal death, God sees us through rose colored glasses.  He sees us as righteous because he sees us through the blood of Jesus.  Forgiven.  Made right.  Eternally secure.  That’s why the day Jesus died was a good day.  Will you join me thanking the Father by praying these scriptures?

 

And now for this week’s featured post from the link up!

A read through of 10 Bible Verses for Healing a Broken Heart from Lisa Blair was just what I needed this week.  Maybe you would be encouraged by this too!

The Link Up

1. Share 1 or 2 of your most recent CHRISTIAN LIVING posts. (No DIY, crafts, recipes, or inappropriate articles.) All links are randomly sorted.

2. Comment on 1 or 2 other links. Grace & Truth linkup encourages community.

3. Every host features one entry from the previous week. To be featured, include this button or link back here on your post (mandatory to be featured, but not to participate).

Grace and Truth_Meet Hosts

We encourage you to follow our hosts on their blogs or social media.

MAREE DEE – Embracing the Unexpected
Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest

LAUREN SPARKS
Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest

LISA BURGESS – Lisa notes
Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest

TAMMY KENNINGTON – Restoring hope. Pursuing peace.
Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest

 Now Let’s Link Up!

 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

If you liked this post, do me the huge honor of using the buttons below to share it to your favorite social media accounts. And if you want to get these essays emailed to you once a week, subscribe!  Lastly, my posts may contain affiliate links and I earn from qualifying purchases. If you buy anything from one of these links, I will receive a few pennies to help offset the cost of this website at no additional charge to you. Thank you in advance for your help.

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Grace Upon Grace

March 10, 2023 by Lauren 10 Comments

“For your name’s sake, O Lord, pardon my iniquity, for it is great.”  Psalm 25:11 NASB

 

Have you ever felt like your sin was so huge and hideous that God could not easily forget it?  King David did.  He’s one of my favorite personalities in the Bible.  So full of fervor and triumph and failures and foibles.  Just like me.  In Psalm 25, he praises God and asks for His forgiveness in the same breath.  David says that his sin is “great” and feels the guilt and remorse of his actions.  Yet, in the very next chapter, David prays, “Vindicate me, O Lord, for I have led a blameless life; I have trusted in the Lord without wavering.”  He asks God to test him and says, “I walk continually in your truth.” and “I wash my hands in innocence.”

 

Has David forgotten his “great” sin?  No.  David is not claiming perfection, but rather that he has sincerity of purpose and single-hearted devotion.  He had a good understanding of God’s nature and the grace and forgiveness he affords His children.  Because of that forgiveness, we can go boldly and confidently before the Lord (no matter what we’ve done), just as David did – who was an adulterer and murderer by the way.

 

Upon Grace

 

In the book Why Do Mullets Jump?:  And Other Puzzles and Possibilities of God’s Creation, Gene Zimmerman describes this attribute of God.  “…most of us are poorly equipped for perfection.  We come closer to understanding ourselves when we can see and accept some of our human limitations.  This isn’t an invitation to pass off every failure by claiming imperfection or to avoid trying; but rather it is advice that we need to accept some imperfection and acknowledge that we can’t do it all right all the time.  The encouraging thing about this reality is that God loves us and meets us at these places of imperfection with grace and strength.”

 

There is a difference between accepting that we will sin and choosing to pitch our tent in the middle of sin and live there. “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?  Far from it! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?” Romans 6:1-2  NASB 

The good news?  Grace doesn’t just cover our past mistakes.  It also keeps us from stepping into new ones, if we let it. 

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“For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all people, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously, and in a godly manner in the present age,”  Titus 2:11-12 NASB   I don’t think good news describes this appropriately.  This is great news! (John 1:16)

 

And now for this week’s featured post from the link up!

 

As I am observing lent myself, Thoughts on Lent from instaencouragements.com was so informative and beneficial to me.  Thank you, Elisabeth!

 

The Link Up

1. Share 1 or 2 of your most recent CHRISTIAN LIVING posts. (No DIY, crafts, recipes, or inappropriate articles.) All links are randomly sorted.

2. Comment on 1 or 2 other links. Grace & Truth linkup encourages community.

3. Every host features one entry from the previous week. To be featured, include this button or link back here on your post (mandatory to be featured, but not to participate).

Grace and Truth_Meet Hosts

We encourage you to follow our hosts on their blogs or social media.

MAREE DEE – Embracing the Unexpected
Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest

LAUREN SPARKS
Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest

LISA BURGESS – Lisa notes
Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest

TAMMY KENNINGTON – Restoring hope. Pursuing peace.
Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest

 Now Let’s Link Up!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

If you liked this post, do me the huge honor of using the buttons below to share it to your favorite social media accounts. And if you want to get these essays emailed to you once a week, subscribe!  Lastly, my posts may contain affiliate links and I earn from qualifying purchases. If you buy anything from one of these links, I will receive a few pennies to help offset the cost of this website at no additional charge to you. Thank you in advance for your help.

Share this:

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  • Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) Pinterest
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window) LinkedIn
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email
  • Click to print (Opens in new window) Print
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About Me

I love Jesus, my husband and caffeine. The order of these can change depending on how tired I am. When my two daughters, stepson, and 4 grandchildren get to be too much, I practice yoga. God graciously allows me to share our adventures, victories and flub-ups from my laptop. May He be glorified here.
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