"But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed."
Isaiah 53: 5
God symbolically showed me this truth yesterday, all because of a blunder I made. You see, I had volunteered to gather the Tenebrae candle items for the first Sunday of Lent. At home I had carefully whittled the base of each of the "ordinary" candles as they were too large to adequately fit the candleholders. I had also purchased seven white tapers to serve as Christ candles for each of the services to be held between now and Good Friday. On Sunday morning I packed everything up and we headed out the door to church.
Once at church, I began setting up the grapevine wreath, the plate to catch wax drippings, the candle holders, the carefully fitted ordinary can..... Panic set in as I searched frantically for them. They weren't in the car, they weren't in any of the bags I brought. They simply weren't at church. The unflappable pastor helped me quickly make due. We had no choice but to use all of the Christ candles in place of the ordinary candles.
Once I sat down and my heartbeat returned to normal, God showed me His lesson. I watched as the white Christ candles burned in place of the ordinary candles. The air currents blew on them, quite heavily at times, but the candles steadfastly kept burning. Then the scripture was read, and the first of the ordinary candles was to be snuffed out. But, in place of the ordinary candle, a Christ candle was being snuffed out. The white candle that so gallantly weathered the air currents, was snuffed out in another's place.
Thank you, Pastor Smith, for being so calm. Thank you, God, for reminding me of your truth. And thank you, Jesus, for weathering many trials and then being snuffed out in my place.
8 comments:
His Life for ours. It is hard for us to imagine.
But, sooner or later in our imitation of Christ, He asks us to give up our life for another - someone who is clueless, indifferent, even cruel. Then we enter into Christ's sufferings and we know what we cost Him.
He must spend our entire lives slowly revealing to us what it cost Him. And yet we'll never fully understand until we stand before Him, will we?
I once read that a candle lights anothers path as it is consumed itself, Christ gave us His light and Life for each of us.... Scott
It is the night before Easter as I watch my yearly viewing of "the passion of the christ" to remind me of the suffering that our Lord was put through that all of us might have forgiveness. Tonight my daughter, who is 21 and still unsaved, asked that I, an ordained minister and not a worthy one at that, pray for her friend, she is 9 weeks pregnant and bleeding and in the hospital. I sent a msg to my daughter that his will is done, that it is not the life that is important, but the soul and where it ends up. I hope to reach her someday soon...
But the great thing about His candle is that once we blow it out, it comes back as a new candle that never goes out!!
I'll be praying for your daughter and her friend. Having unsaved loved ones is most difficult.
Dear Deb,
just found your blog and wanted to say hi!
Bitte,
Thanks for stopping by and saying hello!
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