The Innocent Man Premium

DEVOTIONAL FOR 4/23/11

“If I’d only known this morning that he might have been innocent, I’d have charged him ‘The Innocent Man Premium’.” That’s straight from the lawyer’s mouth in the book, now movie, Lincoln Lawyer. He, the lawyer, is referring to a practice of charging more for an innocent man who has been falsely accused. Why? Well, because there’s no easy way out. For a guilty man, the defense can bargain for a lesser charge and sentence, but an innocent man requires a lot more work to defend. Shocking, isn’t it? Well, maybe not…after all, lawyers have a reputation to uphold.

The concept brings to my mind another innocent man who paid a premium, the only man who ever was completely innocent. The price He paid was not for His own defense, for He was given the verdict of our guilt, but He paid the price for our innocence.

Who’d have thought that their 3 year high would’ve ended so horrifically? At first they all scattered in fear at the sight of Roman soldiers making the arrest. Those military men were very good at their job. Their intimidation and follow through, their ruthless tactics, their creative ways of torture made them seem as if they had no conscience at all. Then, in spite of fear, the curiosity of the disciples placed them in the crowd of onlookers to witness a type of death well known in the region and probably observed from time to time with little empathy because, after all, the victims were criminals.

Never before had they thought so carefully about the details of a crucifixion, and when it was over, they found no rest. They suffered a replay over and over and over again of every cry, gasp, wrenched expression, stumble, quivering muscles…the list of details of what their eyes beheld go on and on. No matter how hard they tried that Saturday, they could not stop the traumatizing recap of the torture and death of their beloved Jesus the night before.

Is that what that whole scenario was…an “Innocent Man Premium”? But that’s the charge to defend an innocent man, and Jesus was not defended. He was silent as he was falsely accused. There was no arguing, no bargaining…He was led to the slaughter like a lamb.

On the other hand, His death is our defense isn’t it? For all those in Christ, our criminal charges are considered false in the eyes of God when Satan stands before Him accusing us. When…and only when…we accept the forgiveness Jesus Christ offers us, every finger pointed at us by our adversary is given the verdict of “Innocent”. Our defender is our Lord Jesus Himself. He did the work of our defense and He paid the premium for us. We never had to pay it. But, oh what a high price it was.

It’s understood that crucifixion was and is the most painful form of execution. Was Jesus’ more painful than anyone else’s? That’s quite possible. I’ve read about the details of what Jesus suffered through. I’ve asked myself about the chances of any other person suffering through each one of those details. I believe it’s likely that many have suffered through several of them, but even if some experienced them all, there’s one more aspect that might put Jesus’ suffering over the top. It’s a detail that is often missed, overlooked or disregarded as having anything to do with the horror of His crucifixion. It happened in the garden.

The intensity of the battle going on in our Lord’s spirit while He prayed had a physical effect. Sweating drops of blood is not just a poetic use of words to dramatize His anxiety. It’s a medical condition called hematidrosis. It’s a breakdown of the capillaries in the sweat glands causing blood to seep into the sweat. The after effect is understood to be an increase in the sensitivity of the skin. The pain He experienced the next day was very likely intensified due to this occurrence.

I have for years wondered why His death had to be so horrific. I understood that death was necessary. God says that death is the consequence of sin. The death of a sinless man was enough to cover every sin and consequences of those sins for all those who believe and ask for His forgiveness. Sure that makes sense, but I never understood the reason behind the torture.

Wouldn’t you know it? My pastor had that same question, and a couple of weeks ago, he offered an explanation. Scripture gives us insight to this question. It was the high price that had to be paid. Death is the bottom line price for sin. However, Satan was like a prosecuting attorney at a sentence hearing demanding a higher penalty or price. He demanded one high enough that he thought maybe, just maybe, Jesus wouldn’t go through with it. If we were bought with a price, just who do you think we were bought from?

I can just see it. As my Lord battled in His spirit, alone in that garden, while His closest friends drifted off to sleep, Satan was standing before the Father upping the price more and more. Jesus begged the Father to find a way out, but still said, “Your will be done….” It was God’s will for His Son to pay whatever had to be paid. The deal was made, signed and sealed with sweat tinged with blood. He got up, left the garden, and paid the price. He paid the “Innocent Man Premium” so that we would be set free and declared innocent.

The gavel did not hit the moment that Jesus breathed His last breath that Friday. It remained raised in the air hour after hour the next day while the disciples were remembering every detail. The clock was ticking waiting for that gavel to finish the job, and it did not make the final slam until the entire price was paid…midnight…Sunday morning…the gavel came down…it was enough to move the stone and raise the Son.

Every last penny was paid, and the verdict? Well, that’s up to you. What’s your verdict? Are you guilty or innocent? We’re all guilty until we accept the defense that’s already been paid at a premium cost. If you don’t accept it, you’ll have to pay for it yourself. What are you waiting for?

Amie Spruiell 4/18/2011

I knoq your touch, Lord!

Devotional for 4/22/11

“For You did form my inward parts;

You did knit me together in my mother’s womb”

Psalm 139:13

Amplified bible

If you are anything like me, there have been times in which you have thought about all of the things that have been allowed to “touch” your life. I am talking about the things that you would never have chosen, had you been given a choice. I am talking about the things that you could never have been prepared for, even if you had been aware of their coming.

Because we live in a fallen world, there are things all around us that “touch” us. Sin touches our lives, both our own sins and the sins of others. Sometimes the sins of others touch us before we are old enough to understand. Sometimes those sins touch us when we are older, but we still don’t understand why. At times those sins can leave us in a constant battle, always trying to overcome the ways in which they have affected us and our lives.

What I love about the above verse is that before anything else had ever been allowed to “touch” us, the Bible says that it was God Who touched us first. It says that He “formed us in our mother’s womb”. When I think about the word “form”, I think about a piece of clay which is being held in someone’s hands. I think about that piece of clay being carefully “molded” into shape.

It causes me to think that the one who is molding has a desired shape in mind, and is carefully working with the clay in order to form that shape. I imagine that he would have “formed” the clay into this shape in his mind first, and that he would then have had to approve of it. After that he would have set about the task of pouring himself wholeheartedly into the making of his creation. I know that he would do this lovingly, for that is what creators do. This is what our Creator did with each one of us.

How wonderful to think about God creating us in this way. It amazes me to think that He actually purposed us to be exactly the way that we are. There are so many thoughts that we could choose to examine here, but the one that I would like to stay with is this. Before anyone, or anything, else ever touched our lives, it was God Who touched us first.

This has to mean that we are acquainted with Him. Whether we like it or not, there is nothing that comes close enough to touch us that we do not become deeply acquainted with. Often times with this thought, we remember those things that have “touched” us in an undesirable way. There’s any number of things that could be named here. Death, abandonment, abuse… perhaps you would name other things, so I will let you fill in the blanks. But then, here it is clearly stated, that before anything else in our lives, we had first been touched by God. That thought is completely comforting and beautiful to me.

So often I have found myself going through life with a feeling of “searching” for something. I have come to understand that it was the touch of God in my life that I was searching for. No matter what else it was that I could find it had always left me empty inside. There was nothing that could ever truly satisfy that “empty” place inside of me. Sure, there were things that at the time, felt as if they could, but they never lasted. In fact, they inevitably caused a place of deeper emptiness for me to fill than the one with which I had started with.

I believe that God does everything with a purpose. I believe that He purposes to touch our lives first, before anything else does, because He desires for us to know what it is that is true. He knows that we will be born into this fallen world, and that there will be a vast amount of deception here. He wants us to know the difference between what is true and what is counterfeit. He actually gives us the “advantage”, if you will, by touching us first with truth, the truth of His love for us.

I  believe that it has always been God’s desire for us to choose to come back to Him. How is it that we could “come back” to someone whom we had never known to begin with? A lot of us have grown up thinking that we have never known God. I believe that the exact opposite is true. I believe that the truth is this. The truth is that we have always known Him, and He has always known us… long before we were ever born.

Written by Beverley A. Napier

on April 20, 2011

We Are Not Alone

Devotional for 4/20/11

The economy, tsunami’s, earthquakes, poverty, fear, divorce, sickness, anger, hurt, rejection: a short list of things that can overwhelm my mind, filling my thoughts to the brim of my cup and overflowing into every area. I look around at the chaos and wonder, “What then should I do?” I hear a still small voice say, “Come to Me.”

He loves us - He’s been calling you and me to Him
since the day He knit us together in our mother’s wombs
(Psalm 139:13).

John 3:18 (The Message)
"This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn't go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person's failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him.”

Think you’ve messed up too much for God to have any interest in you? Welcome to the club, we have all sinned and are unable to reach God by our own goodness. (Romans 3:23). Good news! If you believe in, trust in, and cling to God then the following scripture is true for you.

Romans 8:31-39 (NLT)

Nothing Can Separate Us from God’s Love 31 What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? 32 Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else? 33 Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? No one—for God himself has given us right standing with himself. 34 Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us. 35 Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? 36 (As the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.”) 37 No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us. 38 And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. 39 No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Here are two beautiful songs that remind us that we are not the only ones who need to come out of hiding, to let go of anything we are holding onto, and that He is waiting for us with open arms.

Rest by Nevertheless from their album In the Making (2008)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mx0VFitH1WY&feature=related

Something Classic - “Just As I Am” lyrics by Charlotte Elliott (1835)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gGBMv42dJY&feature=related

God has not abandoned us nor left us
(2 Corinthians 4:8-10).
If we cry out to Him in our despair, He will rescue us
(Psalm 142).

Written by Mary M. Wilkins

Looking Onto Jesus

Discouragement is never a fun thing to experience, especially if it's you or me walking through it. I recently was feeling very discouraged and distraught. I started telling God all what I was feeling (as if He didn't know), and on and on, and began to really get myself in a "spirtual slump." I ranted and raved at God of the unfairness and let the Lord know I was ready to go home to be with Him. In other words I was not willing to face my trials and heaven was a way out for me. The more I mulled over my mind the situation, the deeper I went into a "spiritual slump." The solution at that moment was go to bed and deal with it the next day.

That next day happened to be a Sunday. I don't know about you, but sometimes the last place I want to be when I am discouraged is church. When I walked through those church doors that morning, I realized I was in the right place. I needed to be surrounded at that time with a body of believers who loved God and loved me and were genuine about their faith.

As I walked through those doors that Sunday morning, worship had already begun and I was determined to worship my King regardless how I felt or how big my problem was. I chose to worship Him with abandonment. The most wonderful thing happened that Sunday morning. God's love began to pour out over me and I began to experience His peace, joy and presence and freedom in Him. He truly inhabits the praises of His people!

It is truly amazing how the situation so changed when I chose to get my eyes off of myself and onto Jesus. I begin to lay aside all the weights that were holding me down, and the sin that was ensnaring me. In other words, I threw "my stuff" at the feet of Jesus. I chose to fix my eyes on Jesus.
It is then when I experienced great joy and great encouragement!!


Hebrews 12:1-2 Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.


Blessings,
Written by Sandy

Self Denial

Devotional for 4/19/11

Then said Jesus unto his disciples,

If any man will come after me, let him deny himself,

and take up his cross, and follow me.

For whosoever will save his life shall lose it:

and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.

Matthew 16:24-25

========================================================

Like the Messiah, we must deny ourselves.

Put Satan into this picture. What is he going to do to us? Through disinformation and affecting our attitudes, he will lead us toward self-satisfaction, not self-denial, because self-satisfaction is the essence of sin. When we sin, we bring upon ourselves the death penalty.

To teach the right lesson, Jesus immediately taught—to counteract what Satan was subtly teaching through Peter—that the way to the Kingdom of God is through self-denial, not self-satisfaction. Satan will try to persuade us not to deny ourselves but to fulfill ourselves at the expense of others.

Another thing this can teach us is that great temptations can come through well-meaning friends. Peter meant well. It must have shocked him right out of his sandals when Jesus turned and said, "Get behind Me, Satan!" right in Peter's face. Jesus was probably not angry, just urgent, so that Peter would grasp what had happened.

Surely, God would not want us to face this kind of a trial, would He? Yes, it could happen if the temptation comes through well-meaning people. We are particularly vulnerable when we can be led to believe that we are not being treated as we deserve.

Satan used this major ploy against Adam and Eve: "Oh, has God said so? He's withholding from you." Such was his implication. "Why, if you do things the way you want, you can have much more. You can be god." We always want more; it is part of human nature.

Unfortunately, mankind keeps making things worse by making the same general mistakes over and over again in each generation. It will not end until each individual decides he will not do it regardless of the cost to himself. This is denying oneself. Some things in life are beyond our control, and we must leave them to God to solve.

submitted by : Annie

THE LORD OUR WAYMAKER

The daffodil has always been one of my "top picks" for spring flowers. It is such a brilliant and cheerful blossom, golden in color and trumpet like in shape. For some time I have attempted to grow these pretty posies from bulbs, but with very little success. Each season I would purchase a package of bulbs, plant them in the ground, and wait with patience and grand expectations for the emerging flowers in the spring. Year after year I would be disappointed as only one or two flowers would appear as a result of the myriad of bulbs which had been planted. I finally discovered that most of the bulbs had either been dug up by industrious resident squirrels or had rotted as a result of soggy winter soil. Then one April day I came across some cut daffodil blooms at a local grocery chain. They were not quite open and were for sale at a very low price. I purchased a small bouquet, brought them home, placed them on my kitchen counter and thoroughly enjoyed their "smiling faces" every time I cooked our meals and washed the dishes. I found that I could bring these delightful flowers home about four times each season. For a low price, probably less than I had spent on bulbs, I could experience the joy of daffodils without the struggle which I had undergone by attempting to grow them myself.


This experience reminds me of the concept that God is an incredibly creative Deity. He has innovative solutions for all of our dilemmas. There are times when we just cannot see how we are going to navigate our way through a certain challenge. However, as we seek the Lord in prayer He will reveal to us a solution which we would never have thought of on our own. This can be especially comforting and encouraging as we confront troublesome relationships. The Lord can speak to us in many different ways in response to our petitions. He might use a conversation with a friend or a magazine, book, or internet article. We may receive an impression from the Holy Spirit or even hear the audible voice of God. A church sermon or the pure Word of the Lord from the Bible can lead us to the answer we are searching for. Two scriptures which offer us hope in this regard are: "Keep on asking, and you will be given what you ask for. Keep on looking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened. For everyone who asks receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And the door is opened to everyone who asks." Matthew 7:7-8 (NLT) "Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank Him for all He has done." Philippians 4:6 (NLT)


Written by CF

TAXES, RESPECT AND HONOR

Give to everyone what you owe them: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor. Romans 13:7 NIV


Tax Day in the US is usually on April 15th, unless that date is on a weekend, in which case it falls on the next business day... or if the 15th or the next business day after a weekend 15th is an observed holiday, like this year. Emancipation Day is celebrated in Washington, D.C. on April 16th, but since that was a Saturday this year, it was observed by the government on Friday, the 15th. That therefore moved tax day this year to the 18th, tomorrow.


So, what is Emancipation Day? It is a day to celebrate President Lincoln's signing in 1862 of the Compensated Emancipation Act which freed about 3100 slaves in the District of Columbia. This occurred 9 months before Lincoln's famous Emancipation Proclamation. Emancipation Day, April 16th, was not declared an official public holiday until 2005. This may explain why many people had no idea why Tax Day was moved to the 18th this year, including me.


For some people Tax Day is dreaded, perhaps due to all of the paperwork involved, or due to the debt that is owed. For other people Tax Day brings up feelings of resentment that the government takes so much of what is earned by the people and spends it on things they don't necessarily support. The way the government handles this money may be seen as irresponsible and wasteful at times, leading some to feel hopeless or frustrated. But in spite of this, we are told in the verse above that we are to pay what we owe to all, including taxes, revenue, respect and honor. This is commanded even if we disagree with those in charge, because the governing authorities are established by God, even if they are not Christian or are not doing what we believe is right. God can still work through corrupt governments, just as he continues to work through us, his sinful human beings. And we owe the authorities revenue, respect and honor, just as we owe them to God, the greatest Authority. He emancipated us from our bondage to sin, death and the devil by sending his son, Jesus, to die in our place and rise again in order that we would be saved. We could never have paid the debt we owed to God on our own, so He paid it for us. And out of thanks for what he has done, we are motivated to give him our time, talents, treasures and testimony, honoring his sacrifice for us.

We are celebrating Palm Sunday today. As Jesus entered Jerusalem on a young donkey, God's people shouted "Hosanna" and waved palm branches and spread them on the road. However, they were expecting an earthly authority and ruler, or king. Many of those same people who were honoring Jesus that day turned against him just a few days later. We often do that too, one moment being grateful and praising God, and not much later forgetting all his wonderful work in our lives, turning away from him, or even denying him. And still our Lord forgives us. What a blessing! Our God is such an awesome God, how can we not give him all our adoration and praise?


We pray that God will give us the clarity and ability to give what we owe to all, especially those in authority, including taxes, revenue, respect and honor. May He continually remind us of all he has done for us, especially in his son, Jesus, whose triumphal entry into Jerusalem we celebrate today. And later this week as we remember his last supper with the disciples and his crucifixion on the cross, as well as his resurrection which we celebrate on Easter, may we give him thanks and praise for freeing us from slavery to sin. May we see that we owe him our entire life for all our debt being paid, and may we forever give all reverence and exaltation to the ultimate authority in our life, God himself.


With all glory, laud and honor to God, by Jan Andersen