Good Friday

. Jesus' entire body would at last be an unrecognizable mass of torn tissue matted with blood and serum... Throwing His own raiment over His half-swooning body, the Roman Soldiers next forced Him to shoulder the crossbeam to which He should be nailed. The flesh was so weakened by now through emotional exhaustion and loss of blood that the dear Lord Jesus staggered under the load. The crossbeam (sometimes weighing over 100 pounds) was too much, so they pressed a stranger from Cyrene into service...

Once at the site of the crucifixion our Lord would have been froced to lie flat on the ground with His arms stretched apart above His head. Taking a rough, square spike, the centurion on duty would have driven it through His wrist into the crossbeam. The second crude nail would follow into the other wrist...

Fixed firmly in place by the cruel nails, the limp form of Jesus would be hauled by the crossbeam up the pole... Again the searching thumb of the centurion would feel for the indentation between bones, the long spike would be hammered through His feet into the wood beneath.

The excruciating agony of the spike burning though the nerves between the metatarsal bones of the feet jerk the body of the Saviour erect, only to have the leg muscles convulse and drive His body downward. This places body weight on the wrist nails so that the flamming pain explodes in the brain of the Victim as the median nerves shriek their signal of torment. Then, as the muscles of the arms and legs show fatigue, an awful series of spasms cramp Him in positions which make the drawing of breath more difficult. Suffocation drives desperate muscles into action as the gibbeted One strives for oxygen. Then, in the midst of the muscle-tearing convulsions and the sucking in of air which cannot be exhaled until the build-up of carbon dioxide in the lungs and the blood stream relieve the cramps, the glorious Son of God speaks to those about Him!

Then, after having endured hours and hours of unbelievable torture, the final agonies prophetically described in the 22nd Psalm begin to set in. The compressed heart pumps the sluggish, thickening blood into the tissues, becoming like wax melting down into the midst of the bowels. The awful shock to the heart by the locking-cramps, and its constriction by the fluid in the pericardium, blends the watery fluid of the heart sac and the heavy blood from its interior. Having given up His pure Spirit to the Father, at His own will, the Lord Jesus dies. His work on behalf of sinners is finished.

-Duane Spencer

That is what Jesus did for YOU. Remember It

genuine

If you looked into the northwest sky tonight at around 7:40 you would have seen one of the most beautiful sights in the world. The sun wasn't setting, it was just sitting up in the sky behind some rainclouds. The suns rays pierced through the clouds, which were all fluffed up and big like cotton candy.

Then later on, around 8 o'clock, just as it was getting dark, more clouds rolled in and I began to think to myself, weird how something you see every day, like the sky, can always suprise you with it's beauty.
It made me think that the things that are real in this life are the most beautiful. If you've ever seen one of those fake computer-generated pictures of a sunset you know what I mean. Artificial beauty can never stand up against genuine beauty.
I stopped blogging about a month ago because I felt like I wasn't being real. I was writing posts, but not really doing anything. I would talk about things like forgiveness and trusting God and then fail to do those things myself. So I stopped writing. And it was really hard because writing is something I love to do. For the last month I have stopped writing on my blog, in my journal, stopped writing my story, stopped writing pretty much everything except for e-mails (i even took a break from msn for 2 weeks). And where did all this non writing get me? Well instead of writing about things, or just thinking about them I actually started acting on them.

God wants you for real. He doesn't want your words or your promises or even your good intentions. He wants YOU. And personally, i think that way that you act often defines you. So this time I'll say it, and then I'll be real with you- I'm not always genuine. I don't always do the right thing or act the right way or say the right words. When people do thing sto hurt me and I can't figure out why, it takes me a while to forgive them. I'm pretty patient with things and with people, but when I'm driving behind someone slow and I'm late for work I get fustrated. I eat a lot of junk food and well I'm not as humble as I want to be. Some days I just downright feel like a fake. But that's my motivation. That's what gets me thinking that something needs to change and then God goes, okay so this is where you go- this is what you do. Another thing- part of being genuine is giving God credit. He's the one who made the sky, the sky isn't beautiful like that all by itself. He's the one who keeps the sun and clouds in place... He puts thing where they are, He makes all the good things happen. If your life is totally beautiful and amazing that's becasue God made it that way, not becasue of you.

So yea. I've been learning about being genuine lately. And I'm writing because I think it's something everyone struggles with from time-to-time, and at least right now I know that I'm trying to do it myself.

God only wants you if you're real. Really Real. Nobody likes a fake.

<3