Isaiah 53:3-9

Posted on by Kristin Peck

He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.  Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.  But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.  He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.  By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people?  And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.

A Kiss from Judas

Posted on by Kristin Peck

Luke 22:47-48

While He was still speaking, behold, a crowd came, and the one called Judas, one of the twelve, was preceding them; and he approached Jesus to kiss Him. But Jesus said to him, “Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?”

Judas – the despised disciple – the hated one – the betrayer

When the name Judas is mentioned with regards to the betrayal of Jesus, it is said with a sense of immediate disgust and blame. Yet while Judas may have been the one to physically hand Jesus over to the guards that drug him away, it was truly each one of us that played Judas’s role that night. The fingers point back to us.

To put it simply, every commandment that we break each and every day of our lives is a kiss from Judas. Our transgressions are the betrayal that put Jesus on the cross. Therefore, every one of us has placed a death sentencing kiss upon Jesus’s cheek. Each lash that split into Jesus’s back was an act of sin being washed away from our dirty records. Even though we were not the guards that day, each one of us is carrying a whip in our hands.

The nails that were driven into Jesus’s hands and feet were driven by our own hands, by our own actions, with our own hammers. The execution of a man so pure and so holy was carried out by those born into sin even generations after the event actually occurred. To say that it was all Judas, is to say a drop of water is an ocean. We all are equally at fault, no matter how minor a weight we may think our sins carry – we all make up that ocean of betrayal.

Here is what we need to remember:

At the end, when Judas took his own life, he still had the option to cry out to God for forgiveness. The reason we are still alive is because Jesus did not call down his angels to rescue him that day. He willingly sacrificed his life to save ours and now we live in a period of grace where, while we strive to do our best and improve day by day, God is forgiving and gives us another chance. Yet no day is promised, and now is the time to reach out to Him.

Psalm 103:13-17 “Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust. As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more. But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children’s children.”

Picture retrieved from: Thebibledude.net

Be Careful Little Ears

Posted on by Kristin Peck

Picture a three year old little boy playing with a toy truck. That truck falls to the floor, and instead of the usual, “Oh man!” he spouts, “D*** truck!” After the initial jaw drop reaction, you are quick to tell him that is a bad word, and he should choose another to express his displeasure in the truck that so obviously let him down. He nods in pretend understanding, and goes back to his imaginary world where trucks apparently have personalities of a harsher nature.

Accusatory mode starts downloading …

The blame was going on the neighbor who talks a bit loud, or perhaps the family member that did not watch his mouth the other day. Agitation is almost immediate because all of those surrounding your child are at fault. You simply do not talk that way.  Children are like sponges and everyone else should know that they need to respect your wishes, and not speak vulgarities around your son. Nodding and feeling indignant at the world and its lack of understanding, you sit back down to continue your Law and Order marathon.

Solving the murder on this particular episode is very engaging, and it takes a moment for you to notice the silence in the other room. Glancing over, you realize that your son is sitting next to you and trying to figure out what it is that has your undivided attention. You become very aware of what is being played on the screen – the blood, the yelling … the cursing, and he has stopped blinking as he absorbs every little detail.

Pause the DVR!

Shooing him off to play, you watch him pick his truck back up again, but this time the truck is dying because he was shot by a bad guy.

Accusatory mode download complete …

The blame goes to you.

Clicking off the television, you sit down with your son and pick up another truck to race across the coffee table and down a ramp made from old books. You make noises of pretend exasperation as he beats you, and revert him back to the, “Oh man!” language he was using before. The reality of what he has been listening to really hits, and while you thought he was not paying attention, he was silently pulling in everything that his parent thought it was okay to watch. You are his primary example, and while he may pull things from others surrounding him, it is ultimately you that he will follow.

2 Timothy 3:14-17 (NIV)

But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from which you have learned it, and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.