The third saying on the Cross

                                                     Third saying on the cross

John19 : 26, 27 - When Jesus saw His mother there , and the desciple whom he loved standing near by, he said to his mother, "Dear woman, here is your son" and to the disciple , "Here is your mother."

    Jesus is all about Love . Everything he said and did in his life was purely out of love and for love.Because , 'God is Love' says the Bible.Even when in excruciating pain , Jesus wanted to make sure his mother was taken care of , in his physical absence. 


    This tells us , that because he was the son of man, he understood a human heart. He understood a mother's heart and her needs and he did not want her to be alone. He perfectly understood that after he'd be gone , she would need someone there.  Jesus was the son of God and he could maybe send angels from heaven to take care of his mother on earth , but he chose to fulfill her need this way . What does this tell us ? I think it means that God perfectly knows and understands how we feel. He knows what we need when we're here on this earth. And He does not just expect us to live a solitary life , without people we love , and without family. He knows it's not good for us to be alone , and hence , He has provided us with beautiful families, friends and church fellowship.


    It's really painful to hear when people blame Him for so many orphans and widows. It's not His wish for people to suffer and live in pain. The Bible says, He will provide if we ask. And it will be given if we believe, by the measure of our faith. Let us then have faith , even as little as a mustard seed , and see what miracles happen. When in need , let us ask of Him , who will surely provide more than we deserve.

The second saying on the Cross

                                                   Second saying on the Cross

Luke 23:43 - Jesus answered him, "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise"

    This is the context .Jesus was crucified along with two thieves.One of them insulted Jesus and mocked at him, and questioned his authority. The other thief , on the other hand ,  feared God . He knew he was guilty and also knew that Jesus wasn't guilty. So he rebuked the other thief ,  he repented , and asked  Jesus to only 'remember ' him . 


    Whereas Jesus, immediately answered saying that , he would be in paradise. 
This is a classic example of  'how much' God gives us ,  when we ask for little because we know we don't deserve so much. The thief only asked to be remembered , but Jesus promised him paradise ! 


    There's one more thing we can learn about God's nature through this paragraph. Jesus instantly forgave the criminal. He did not even take a moment before He promised paradise to the criminal. This is exactly how He forgives people even today . He does not require a big formal apology letter , or a bucket full of tears of repentance. All He needs is a broken heart and a contrite spirit that finds rest only in Him.He only requires a heart that has faith in Him as little as a mustard seed.


    The one thing that can be implemented and practiced by us is , when we 're in pain  , do good to others. We will be healed as we try to heal them. And also , we must be quick to not only forgive , but also to do good to others . Our reward in heaven waits !

The first saying on the cross.

                                                   First saying on the cross

Luke 23:34 -Jesus said ,"Father forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing"

    This was the first saying on the cross of calvary , after Jesus was crucified, for absolutely no crime He committed.This saying has a profound meaning.


    The first thing Jesus did after being crucified was, fulfill the purpose that God had sent Him for, and that is , forgiveness of the sins of the whole humanity through His own blood . He asked God to forgive those people , who had nearly bruised Him to death, all those people who mocked Him, all those people who refused to believe that He is the son of God, all those people who nailed Him on that cross. That is one dimension of it.Because , in reality, it's not  just those people who crucified Him.. and all the bystanders who mocked at Him the other day . It's all of us .. all of us humans who hurt Him.. all of us who disobey.. all of us  who still  do not believe He is the son of God.


    The word 'them' ,stands for  every single human who ever was , is, and is to come .
And  the rest of the statement is in present-continuous tense.. and not in past tense. So, it implies to us today as well. The sin we commit today , has already been asked forgiveness for on the cross.


    When in even the slightest of pain , we grumble and we're cranky cause it hurts. We  only wanna be pampered an taken care of.  And forget about forgiving the one who hurt us , we don't wanna see their faces ever again.  We make sure they realize how much pain they've caused.. and after the pain is long gone , we want to  flaunt those scars around , reminding them that they hurt us once. Sometimes , we even wanna give it back to them , by doing something even worse . Well, the only justification for all that we do would be 'we are human' but sadly , that 's no justification at all . Jesus was very much  a human when he was nailed on that cross. He was very much in excruciating pain. He was exhausted. He had every right to keep defending himself because He hadn't done anything wrong. But he chose to ask forgiveness for us instead. He forgave us first , and then asked his heavenly Father to forgive us too.


    And so , the pain and agony of Jesus doesn't end here. As we sin now , we nail Him back to that cross once again. And once again He reminds us that He said, "Father forgive them , for they do not know what they are doing"

God's will.

    I always struggled to understand this one thing  when i was a young Christian.. when we say 'Lord let your will be done' ,how do we know that it will be ? Because we  do not know what His will for us is..and plus we have this  free will, almost on a run all the time!  Then how do we know that whatever happens after that moment is according to His will and not ours? What if we use our free will and say that  it's God's will? If we do not know what God's will is , then how is it gonna be executed?
    I kept asking this queston to many leaders.. and I would get many vague answers .One of them was, that we shouldn't bother to know what His will is, we only need to carry it out..! The other was,  when we surrender, then only His will takes place no mater what we do.. and so on. There was never a satisfactory answer.I never understood how..until a few days ago, when God himself showed me the answer as I was reading my Bible.

Romans 8:26 : In the same way,the Spirit helps us in our weakness,We do not know what we ought to pray for,but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.27:And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will.

    Most of the time, we're not in a good position to make a decision , because our will differs from God's will.We're weak. And that's when the Spirit intercedes. With our free will, when we say ,' Lord let your will be done', this is what happens. The Holy Spirit takes charge and prays with groans that words cannot express. And because the Holy Spirit is the part of the Trinity, it knows what  God's will is and hence, what to pray for.The Holy Spirit prays on our behalf and God the father listens and executes His will in our life.
    All we need to do is to submit our free will by asking for God's will to be done.Such a beautiful arrangement God has made!..it doesn't cease to amaze me! And in every weakness of ours , when we do not know what to pray for, this little miracle happens . So, I can now rightly say, 'when I am weak , then I am strong!'

I live by Your Grace

                                                         I live by Your Grace

I surrender all to You
Because I know You care
You lighten all my burdens Lord
And all that is there


I give my everything
Into Your mighty hands
Because I know you love me 
Lord, I know you're there


You know all my thoughts Lord
You know all my fears
And all my anxieties through
All of these years


You have seen everything
You've stored up all my tears
You know my heart Lord
And so you brought me here


I don't deserve it Lord
Nothing I deserve
After all the love you gave me
I'm not even worthy to serve


So I humble myself
And sing of your praise
Of your glory and honor
I live by your grace 
I live by your grace