Savage About Sobriety April 7, 2023

Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; - Colossians 2:14 (KJV)

Good Friday! The day Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God, the Messiah & Christ, the Lamb w/o blemish laid down His life for our sins by dying on the cross at Calvary. His time on Earth was spent healing the sick, blind, & crippled. He taught us to love our enemies, pray for those who have wronged us in the past, and to forgive endlessly. Yet, He died a sinner's death so that we could have eternal life through our belief in Him. We don't deserve it, we can never repay it. He is worthy to be praised!! The pain and suffering He went through is unbelievable, and to think, He could have called 10,000 angels to put an end to the pain and suffering and destroyed the world with one simple prayer. After all, He had already calmed storms and raised the dead just by speaking.

Can you imagine what His disciples had to be feeling and thinking? They had watched Jesus do countless miracles. I love how Peter described his time with Jesus in 2 Peter 1:16 - "For we did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty." (NIV). But on Good Friday, they watched all their hopes and dreams get beaten down by the world and killed. I can't count the number of times I've felt that the world has beaten down and killed my hopes and dreams. Whether it was a life off of drugs, a better job, or getting healed from a disease or sickness, we all have those tragic moments in our life that leave us feeling like we can't go on. The Apostles and all of the disciples had to have felt hopeless after watching Christ get crucified. Maybe they were too sad to feel anything but sadness, but I'm sure at some point on Friday and Saturday they had to have been close to giving up all hope. But they didn't.

When the sun came up on Sunday morning the grave was empty! Jesus' disciples had a new hope and it was better than anything they could have imagined. Not only did they get to see Jesus again, but He had conquered death and restored their faith that everything He said He would do was going to happen. They also got the Holy Spirit as a result of Jesus' death. As Max Lucado says in his book, He Chose The Nails, "Fridays Tragedy became Sunday's Triumph." The point I'm trying to make here is don't give up while it's still dark, wait until the sun comes. Too many times we give up in the middle of our trials and tribulations and we miss the breakthrough that was just on the horizon. Remember, don't let the devil convince you that you can't go on or defeat whatever you're going through. Hang in there, you're breakthrough is coming and it will be better than you could have imagined.