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Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Christmas to the Cross

Dear Friends and Family,

This was sent to me by a dear friend. It is the story of the crucifixion in a nutshell. I learned the “real horribleness of the crucifixion” years ago, thanks to Kay Arthur of Precept Ministries International. So many times in society, it is “prettied up and sanitized”. But it wasn’t pretty and it wasn’t sanitized. The gift that started on Christmas and ended on the cross cost Christ everything. He suffered in ways that we can’t even imagine. I’m glad that our church always includes the crucifixion in the Christmas Pageant because without the crucifixion, the manger scene would have been in vain.

Oh, the pain that it took to buy back just one human soul. And the love that was required is unfathomable to me. I don’t think I’ve even grasped it still yet. As we go through this season, please take the sixty seconds that it takes to read the description below. Not only will it educate some of you who didn’t realize the severity of it, but it will also bring greater meaning to the gift that was STARTED with the manger, was paid for with the CRUCIFIXION and only made permanent and valid with the RESURRECTION.

So Christmas is just the start of a season of remembrance which only comes to an end at Easter. For those of us who have Jesus living in us, the celebration never ends. As this world moves more and more away from our Lord, we, the true followers of Him, the Church, His bride, need to be bold witnesses of what God did for us through His Son Jesus Christ all the time but especially from Christmas through Easter. Let’s see if we can live out loud for Jesus, as a friend reminded me so effectively a few days ago. (Thanks, Beth!) If we the church would be the church outside the church walls, how this world would change!

I’ll be praying that you will aspire to this. Would you please pray for my family that we will do the same?

Have a blessed Christmas and don’t feel let down when the celebration is over, because EASTER IS COMING AND THAT MEANS THE RESURRECTION WHICH SEALED OUR ETERNITY.

Spread the word. The hour is later than you think!!!! And as cold as I am when I sit here composing this, I am reminded that hell is hotter than I can ever imagine. So let’s have a huge awareness and continued celebration throughout this season from Christmas to Easter. We could change the world if we would!!

Love from my family to all of you during the season to come. If you are receiving this, know that you are deeply loved. My computer crashed so many of my friends are still not on my mailing list. Feel free to duplicate this and send it on. The message is vital!

Merry Christmas and Happy Easter! Maranatha..even so come Lord Jesus!!!

Karen, Bill and Bryan

SCROLL DOWN PLEASE….READ, WORSHIP, AND SEND IT ON!!!


Subject: JESUS DEATH_60 SECOND

For
the next 60 seconds, set aside whatever
you're doing and take this opportunity!
Let's see if Satan can stop this...

THE (SCIENTIFIC) DEATH OF JESUS





At the age of 33,
Jesus was condemned to the death penalty.






At the time crucifixion was the "worst" death. Only the worst criminals condemned to be crucified. Yet it was
even more dreadful for Jesus, for unlike other criminals condemned to death by crucifixion Jesus was nailed to the cross by His hands and feet, rather than tied...


Each nail
was 6 to 8 inches long.





The nails
were driven into His wrist. Not
into His palms as is commonly
portrayed. There's a tendon in the wrist that
extends to the shoulder. The Roman guards knew
that when the nails were being hammered into the
Wrist, that tendon would tear and
break, forcing Jesus to use His back
muscles to support himself, so that He could breathe.




Both of His feet
were nailed together. Thus He was forced to
support Himself on the single nail that
impaled His feet to the cross. Jesus could
not support himself with His legs for long because of the pain, so He was forced to alternate between arching His
back and using his legs just to continue to
breath. Imagine the struggle, the pain, the
suffering, the courage.


Jesus endured this
reality for over 3 hours.



Yes,
over 3 hours! Can you imagine this kind of
suffering? A few minutes before He died,
Jesus stopped bleeding. He was simply pouring water
from his wounds.


cid:001d01cacc4b$52efef30$0a01a8c0@DHZFGD61

From common images we see wounds to His hands and feet and even the spear wound to His side...
But do we remember the many wounds
made to his body. A hammer
driving large nails through the wrists, the feet overlapped
and a nail hammered through the arches, then a
Roman guard piercing His side with a spear. And...
before the nails and the spear, Jesus was whipped and
beaten. The whipping was so severe that it tore the
flesh from His body. The beating so horrific that His
face was torn and his beard ripped from His face. The
crown of thorns (two to three inch thorns) cut deeply into His scalp. Most men
would not have survived this torture.

"

He had no more blood
to bleed out, only water poured from His
wounds.
The
human adult body contains about 5 liters
(just over a gallon) of blood.




Jesus poured all 5 liters of his blood;
He had three nails hammered into His
body; a crown of thorns on His head and, beyond
that, a Roman soldier who stabbed a spear into His
chest..








All these without
mentioning the humiliation He passed after carrying His own
cross for almost 2 kilometers, while the crowd spat in his
face and threw stones (the cross beam was almost 30 kg of weight, to which His hands were nailed).




Jesus had to endure this experience,
so that you may have free access to God.




So that your sins can be "washed" away.
All of them, with no exception!
Don't ignore this.

JESUS
CHRIST DIED...FOR YOU!

For you, who now read this e-mail.
Do not believe that He only died for others
(those who go to church or for pastors, bishops, etc).




He died for you!
It is easy to e-mail jokes or silly photos,
but when it comes to God,
sometimes we feel ashamed to forward a message about Him on
to others.
We are worried of what they “may think.”



Accept the reality, the truth, that
JESUS IS THE ONLY SALVATION FOR THE WORLD.


God has special plans for YOU!
Share this with all your friends...
about what
Jesus went through to save you.
Really think about it!

May God bless you!




For the next 60 seconds,
set aside what you're doing and take
this opportunity! Let's see if Satan can stop this.







Without Him, I am nothing,
but with Him "I can do all things through Him
who strengthens me". Philippians 4:13.

LET’S SEND THIS ROUND THE WORLD FOR SOME HAVE NEVER HEARD.

My thanks to my lifetime sister, Paula Pender!

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