It is a GOOD friday :)

I praise God for my precious Lord and Savior! I praise God for my King, my Rock, my Salvation, my friend...Good Friday has always been a special part of Christian history and celebration. And it has always held a special place in my heart, not only because I am a Christ-follower, but because it was Good Friday when the Lord began tugging at my young heart, drawing me closer into a relationship with Him. To this day, it amazes me how much the Holy Spirit was working in my young heart and mind to reveal truth to me.

One of the traditions in my family growing up was to go to Good Friday service with my grandmother. They had a passion play that we would go to every year, so I knew the story of the cross. I knew that this man Jesus was sentenced to death on a cross. The acting was powerful, the music made the whole thing dramatic...and after we would clap for the actors and sing a song. But I remember one particular passion play. It was the same one they played the year before and the year after. But that was the year that God was speaking to my 8 year old heart. That year I truly listened to what was going on and began to understand that this wasn't just a play, this was real. Jesus really came to die on the cross. I remember feeling so overwhelmed because I couldn't understand why the people hated Him so much, why they wanted Him dead, why they beat, bruised, humiliated, tortured, murdered Him. All I could do was sit and cry for what was happening to Jesus. I remember that my dad had to take me outside after the play to calm me down because I was so overwhelmed with sadness. I kept saying over and over, "but he didn't do anything wrong!!!"

From that point on, God began drawing me to His heart, helping me to understand that the sinless Savior, the loving man who "did nothing wrong" came to endure all of those horrible things for me. I will never forget that Good Friday, and I hope that I never lose sight of the sacrifice that was made on my behalf. I can't even put into words what that actually means for my life. The "good" part of Good Friday is that (as a friend put it) it was the great exchange: the sin of man for the life of Jesus. My sin is why He endured the beating, the bruises, the humiliation, the torture, the death. Even writing about it now, my heart is overwhelmed by the love of my Savior. But the story didn't end there, and as believers we can rejoice in a risen Savior! We can rejoice in the fact that Christ died for us, then rose again on the third day as He conquered death and made a way for me to have life.

This is one of my favorite videos and pretty much sums up all that I can say about my King...do YOU know Him??



And I thought this was just beautiful. I will never be the same since I gave my life to Christ...

Discover the Meaning of Easter

I hope you have a wonderful and blessed Easter weekend!